Thursday's Most Active Threads

Yesterday was Thanksgiving which is traditionally one of the slowest days of the year on DCUM. Whether our mom-dominated userbase is tied up in the kitchen (likely) or everyone is simply enjoying the day with friends and relatives (hopefully), few users seem to have time for our website. This is reflected in the numbers of replies and views of the most active threads. Fittingly, the leader in number of replies yesterday was a Thanksgiving-themed thread in the "Food, Cooking, and Restaurants" forum titled, "If you saw a host leave a Turkey out of fridge for 3+ hrs before roasting it…" With only three pages of replies, a thread of this length would normally not be anywhere near the top of the most active threads. The original poster simply wants to know if others would eat a turkey that had sat out on the counter for more than three hours before being roasted. There is not a whole lot to say on this topic and most replies are just variations of saying "yes" as the vast majority of posters would not hesitate to eat the turkey. A couple of of posters who are gun-shy due to previous bouts with food poisoning would avoid it, but self-described food handling experts in the thread assured that as long as the turkey was properly cooked, it would be fine. Multiple posters weighed in to say that this was not an uncommon practice and was not an issue.

The thread with the highest number of views yesterday was titled, "Macy’s day parade….full of nepo-brats" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. This is a short, three-page thread in which the original poster is upset that several children of celebrities participated in the Macy's Day Parade. Described in the title as "nepo-brats", the original poster seems to believe that the children were chosen due to nepotistic practices rather than talent. Specifically, the original poster complains about the participants' lip-synching. Others argued that lip synching is a common practice that was even followed by the adult performers. Discussion of the children died out after a few posts and the thread turned to general criticism of the parade. Several posters were bothered by its Christmas theme which they considered inappropriate on Thanksgiving. Others pointed out that the parade is sponsored by a department store and aimed at kicking off the Christmas buying season. Generally, the parade had very few defenders, though a couple did speak up.

A thread in the "Off-Topic" forum was second in number of views and fourth in number of replies yesterday. Titled, "Embarrassed to go to a spa", the original poster explains that she and some friends have booked a spa day but she is concerned that due to her being a larger woman, the spa won't have a robe that will fit. Moreover, she suffers from psoriasis and is concerned that might be an issue during a massage. DCUM showed it's better side in this thread and I think every post was supportive in some way. Posters assured the original poster that it would be okay to telephone ahead and discuss these fears with the spa and several posters related being in similar situations and having a good experience. At least one poster described being not able to find a large enough robe during a spa visit so posters advised possibly bringing a robe. Alternatives to massage or specific types of massages were suggested that might work better due to the psoriasis. Ultimately, the original poster did phone the spa which confirmed that neither of these factors would be a problem. Posters then wished the original poster an enjoyable day at the spa.

As I have noted, none of the most active threads yesterday were very long and most didn't include very much discussion. Therefore, the last thread that I will discuss was actually started late Wednesday, so technically is not a thread that would normally be included in today's post. However, it was very active yesterday, more so than the threads above. Titled, "Ok DCUMs - which one of you was this?" and posted in the "Metropolitan DC Local Politics" forum, the original poster links to a tweet containing a video of a woman repeatedly calling a Black Uber driver the "N-word". The original poster, who gets the neighborhood in which the altercation took place wrong, seems intent in claiming that the women in the video is representative of DCUM users. Almost all who responded found the woman's behavior to be appalling with many hoping that her identity will exposed. A few of those who replied suggested that the Uber driver might have provoked the tirade of slurs and some pointed to non-existant threatening gestures they believe the driver made (he didn't). A significant amount of the discusion is devoted to the woman's accent which many believe is native to the northeast while some thought was southern. A second video taken by the driver was later posted and, because it showed a close-up view of the woman, led to discussion of her race. While the woman is shown proclaiming that she is white, her somewhat dark complexion and black hair caused some doubts among some posters. From the original poster's desire to identify the woman as a DCUMer, to attempts by others to place her regionally or racially, there seems to be a strong desire to categorize the woman. But, to what end? Ultimately, she is an individual. Let's say hypothetically that she turns out to be an upper middle class, well-educated, white woman with roots in the northeast who frequents DCUM, what does that say about other upper middle class, well-educated, white women with roots in the northeast who frequent DCUM? Nothing, other than they all have great taste in websites.