19 Comments
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Rudy Fischmann's avatar

All I know is that I’m going to start calling you “Mr. Poseur Potatohead”.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Ouch! Cutting straight to age 11 AND age 17. Oh man.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

This just goes to show the importance of not being a Jasonist and avoiding negative Jasonal stereotypes. Not all Jasons are the same. Some are very good people.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Plot twist: there are more than two Jasons in my life! You'll end up hearing about more Jasons.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

"I have nothing against Jasons. Some of my best friends are Jasons."

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Andrew Smith's avatar

I assume some Jasons are good people.

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Ken Barber's avatar

Huh. The Good Jason and the Evil Jason. Kinda reminds me of when a transporter accident split Captain Kirk into the Good Kirk and the Evil Kirk.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Ha! I feel like neither of these dudes was really good or evil, really, but more like victims of circumstance. I think I understand where they both came from really well.

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𝐂𝐁 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧's avatar

Tweens and teens are mean! (Adults can be too, course…) As a former Idahoan, I’ve also been called Ms. Potatohead on more than one occasion. Even better, when people find out that I also hail from Wisconsin, they might throw in a cheesehead reference.

I’ve dealt with crossover of my different “lives” in my small town—when I see someone out of context, the conversation usually includes “I recognize you from some where… do you have kids/grandkids? Do you workout? What nonprofits do you follow? Do you have any animals? Read the local paper? …” 😂 We eventually narrow it down. I should add, “Are you on Substack?” Soon, I can add “do you read dystopian novels?”

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𝐂𝐁 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧's avatar

I never knew it was called cheese curds until we moved west. It was 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 squeaky cheese to me!

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Andrew Smith's avatar

I always thought "cheese curds" sounded pretty gross. Why not just call them "fried cheese delights" or something? Also: "squeaky cheese" works way better too!

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Let me just say: I've been to Madison and Milwaukee at least twice apiece, and I have tremendous respect for cheese curds. This is really neither here nor there, but it's 100% true. I love the squeaky sound!

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Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

Can I just say I had a Mr Potatohead and it was one of my favorite toys? Sometimes my mom would let me use real potatoes and then she'd cook with them which felt a bit like being a cannibal

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Yes! I definitely played w/Mr Potato Head. I know the OG model was just a bunch of face parts and arms/legs, so you would need to provide an actual potato. Morbid!

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Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

I am the Original Gangsta

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Andrew Smith's avatar

#potatokilla #hashbrowndowntownman #hashbrownsandhashtags

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Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

#bakedbakedpotato

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Dale's avatar

Thanks for the memories. Middle and high school are farther back for me. But doing things to differentiate oneself from the norms of society is part of figuring out who to be. How much of the pain we experience is self inflected by our choices? Or is it because we become gatekeepers ourselves rather than live and let live?

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Dale, those are excellent takeaways. I was about to type something like: I wish I had known that back then, but the truth is that my ignorance of these things very much made me who I was. I'm not sure I would want to undo any of that.

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