The Onion

link: https://reductress.com/post/jealous-this-snow-is-getting-plowed/

TORONTO – Reacting to news of Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s plan to hike property taxes by more than 10%, the 9 or so people that collectively own all Toronto real estate expressed outrage, saying that Chow is making the city unaffordable.

“This city is expensive enough,” said the landlord who owns everything south of Front Street. “For the mayor to then turn around and raise property taxes knowing that I’m obviously going to immediately pass on that cost to my tenants is truly unconscionable.”

“Sure I can only raise the rent so much every year, but if tenants don’t play ball let’s just say I’ve got a cousin moving from overseas who’s going to need their place,” he added.

Members of the small handful of people that own most of Toronto’s houses, townhouses and condos expressed concern that the tax hikes would have a disruptive effect on their cash flow.

“For the odd person here and there who owns a property not owned by me, this is going to cost them another $300-$600 a year, or about $25-$50 a month,” explained a property manager for the consortium who own the west end. “For someone in our situation, this is going to cost us millions of dollars. How am I going to explain to my bosses that we’re going to make slightly less money this year?”

Others were more pointed in their criticism, calling the abrupt property tax hikes “reckless”, and poorly thought out.

“People are struggling to put food on the table, pay their car bills or, in my case, attain the exponential growth that investors have come to expect from REITs no matter what, and this property tax hike isn’t going to help any of us with our equally relatable problems,” said a private investment fund manager who controls Scarborough and most of Leaside.

“It’s almost like they don’t want massive private investment from outside Canada controlling the market of the country’s largest city?” he added.

At press time, Toronto area home improvement stores have already reported a marked uptick in the sale of cheap paint brushes, ladders, plastic tarps, wall mounted shelving, and other mainstays of performatively large renovations that result in the property looking the exact same.

link: https://www.thebeaverton.com/2024/01/the-9-people-that-own-all-of-torontos-real-estate-extremely-upset-about-property-tax-hike/

TAPETHOK, NEPAL—Beaming with delight as he was carried down the south face of the Kangchenjunga mountain in a torrent of snow, ice, and rocks, alpinist Herman Stelling reportedly noted Thursday that the first few seconds of being swept up in a cataclysmic avalanche was actually pretty fun. “Weeeeeeeee! Yay!” said the visibly overjoyed Stelling, stressing that he felt like a kid again as he was pulled downhill in the 200-mph rush of hardened, detached snowpack. “What a rush! Alright, it is actually starting to hurt, so I’m not loving this part. And I think one of my fingers was just torn off with all that ice. Shit, yeah, I definitely just lost my whole arm. Plus, I’m trapped under a few thousand pounds of snow now and it feels like my ribcage is going to cave in. Admittedly, this kind of sucks. For a second there, though, when I was doing flips and stuff down the slope and right before my mouth and throat were completely packed with snow and I started to suffocate—that kicked ass.” At press time, Stelling noted that he was actually having an awesome time again after hypothermia caused him to begin hallucinating.

link: https://www.theonion.com/first-seconds-of-being-swept-up-by-avalanche-pretty-fun-1851159885

In what has been described as a “faith-shaking” turn of events, Seattle resident Ryan Farrington has recently come to the realization that she’s in the awkward 47-year period of life where she’s still too young to write a memoir, and yet too old to play Webkinz.

The 27-year-old says she’s absolutely stumped about how to spend her current time.

“No one ever tells you about the period of torment you’ll experience from ages 12 to 59 where it’s no longer acceptable to log onto your five Webkinz accounts and spin the Wheel of Wow, but you haven’t yet lived enough life to warrant writing your memoir. What am I supposed to do?”

When reporters suggested she consider actually living the life she’s so keen on writing a memoir about, Ryan was visibly confused.

“My memoir will naturally flow out of me when I hit age 59,” she said. “I don’t need to ‘live my life’ in order for that to happen. Besides, the only life I care about living is the life of my Webkinz frog, Butter Knife. He has a way nicer house than me.”

However, in spite of her initial hesitation to get out there and experience everything that life has to offer, Ryan has started making an effort to pass the time until she can finally write her memoir.

“I’ve been keeping busy,” said Ryan, who was obviously putting on a brave face for reporters. “Eating, sleeping, showering, breathing, things like that.”

When reporters told Ryan that those things were just basic life tasks, and didn’t really count as “living” her life, this sent her into a full-blown panic.

“I’m not even 30 yet!” she said. “How am I going to get through another two decades of this?”

Fortunately, sources close to Ryan had some words of advice.

“The transition from playing Webkinz to not playing Webkinz can be brutal,” Ryan’s 35-year-old sister, Beth, told reporters. “It took me until I was 30 to find a suitable replacement: starting to actually care about my career and begin climbing the corporate ladder. That, and getting unhealthily invested in my friends’ love lives.”

As of press time, Ryan had seriously considered taking her sister’s advice. Fortunately, she was involved in a once-in-a-lifetime accident where she skied into a tree while trying to recreate the Polar Plunge Webkinz arcade game, died, saw God, then ultimately came back to life – which all warranted an earlier start to writing her memoir.

“I’ll give you a sneak preview,” she told reporters, from the hospital room where she was still recovering. “Chapter One: Me and Butter Knife Go to the Curio Shop.”

link: https://reductress.com/post/woman-in-awkward-47-year-period-where-shes-too-young-to-write-memoir-and-too-old-to-play-webkinz/

STONINGTON, Conn. — Local man Eddie Walker was rushed to a hospital in critical condition after accidentally laying his head on a pillow with a decorative button, horrified sources confirmed.

“The last thing I remember was throwing my body onto the couch after a long day. I could never have imagined there would be something so hazardous waiting for me,” said Walker as he rubbed his head. “When I came to, they told me I suffered both a concussion and severe lacerations. I guess I suffered amnesia, too, because I couldn’t remember a thing for days. But they were able to treat that with an experimental procedure that involved hitting me in the head a second time with the same decorative button.”

Aubrey Skinner, Walker’s longtime partner, just thought the button would be cute.

“I just kept looking at our boring old couch pillows and thought they needed a little something new. That’s when I found the TikTok button tutorial video,” said Skinner. “The lady never warned that something like this could happen though! All I did was stitch a few large metal buttons in the middle of Eddie’s favorite pillow. I thought he’d notice how adorable it was, and maybe post a story on Instagram. I could have never imagined he’d violently smash his head into it without even admiring my craft first.”

Emery Ingram is an ER doctor who sees this on a shockingly regular basis.

“Most of my day is spent on these TikTok decorating trends and DIY projects gone wrong. Yesterday, I saved a man’s life after he nearly decapitated himself on a newly installed floating shelf. Then I treated a woman who almost lost a hand that was crushed under the weight of a poorly applied backsplash,” said Ingram. “Oh, and the worst was someone last week who was trapped in their home for days after building themselves into a custom closet system. They managed to survive by extracting nutrients from a dirty sock until a neighbor finally heard the screams.” At press time, Skinner was seen silencing a smoke alarm as she waited for a “toaster grilled cheese” to finish cooking, a welcome home meal for Walker.

link: https://thehardtimes.net/culture/man-rushed-to-hospital-after-accidentally-laying-on-pillow-with-decorative-button/

CHICAGO—With a demolition crew arriving outside the building just as the final Sputnik chandelier was installed, a new luxury condominium building was reportedly demolished minutes after its completion Wednesday in order to build even fancier condos. “Though we are sorry to say goodbye to this high-rise after its storied six-minute history, we are confident the new high-rise will better meet the needs of this rapidly gentrifying neighborhood,” said developer Jonathan Delano, confirming the newly constructed One Walton Place would be replaced by a future building known simply as The Bell, which he estimated would take approximately 10 years to complete. “Residents will enjoy world-class amenities such as a concierge upgraded to a doorman, a dog run upgraded to a communal dog terrace, and a lap pool upgraded to a rooftop Olympic-sized swimming pool. There will be no changes to the previous blueprints for an entertainment catering theater, whatever the hell we mean by that.” At press time, Delano added that one-bedroom, no-bathroom floor plans started at just $1 million.

link: https://www.theonion.com/luxury-condos-demolished-minutes-after-completion-to-bu-1851143295

WILMETTE, IL—Telling the child not to peek as they walked into the backyard, local wealthy man Kenneth Schweitz reportedly surprised his son Tuesday with a tree house that the young boy could Airbnb for passive income. “It’s time you got your own little space that can be rented out for short-term stays and used to produce a reliable revenue stream,” a visibly excited Schweitz said as he took his hands off his son’s eyes to reveal the fully appointed structure built into the tree’s branches, stressing to the boy that he would not have to do any real work for the lodging to generate substantial returns. “Your mom and I can help you decorate it, but then it’s all up to you to decide how much to charge per night and which cleaning service to hire, bud. After that, you can sit back and collect thousands of dollars a month. How cool is that? You and your little friends are going to have so much fun building your little real estate empire. Enjoy!” At press time, sources reported Schweitz’s son was enthusiastically climbing into the tree house to serve an eviction notice to the low-income family currently living there.

link: https://www.theonion.com/wealthy-dad-surprises-child-with-tree-house-he-can-airb-1851112919

Here’s the deal, folks. Liberals can blame me for Israel’s disastrous war in Gaza, and conservatives can blame me for the runaway inflation this country has been experiencing, and you can bring up my son Hunter’s sketchy dealings and all sorts of wild conspiracy theories about me and China and Ukraine and Obama and whatever the hell else. Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re wrong, but regardless, the fact of the matter is I never asked to be the President.

Did I put the country in a bad place? Perhaps. Is my age becoming a serious liability? Sure, whatever. But if you want to point the finger at someone for this mess, don’t point it at me, man. Point it at the American people. They’re the ones who voted for me! You think I voted for me? Heck no, man. I voted for Trump. Why would I vote for myself? What kind of narcissistic egomaniac would do that? Who runs around thinking, “I want to be the leader of an entire country. I am smart and competent enough to do that”? I’ll tell you who: Weirdos! Not me. I never asked for this. I’m just a regular guy. I’m here because of YOU. YOU knew how old I was when you voted for me. I didn’t. I still don’t.

You people made me President AGAINST MY WILL. I would never do that to you, and yet you did it to me. It hurts. And here’s perhaps the most effed up part of all of this: You elected me VICE President TWICE before this, so you knew damn well based on my reaction back then that I did NOT want anything to do with politics or the life in the White House!!! Even my dog doesn’t want to be there! That’s why he keeps biting people.

This is a job I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, so why did you wish it on me? Where on EARTH did you people get the idea that I wanted to be President? Some signs on someone’s lawn? A cheesy, generic ad that played before a YouTube video about how to put Christmas lights or something? You saw a cheap cardboard sign in someone’s front yard that said I wanted to be President and that’s all it took for you to believe I did? Seriously?

From what I hear, I’m polling pretty poorly for 2024, which makes a lot of sense being that I didn’t ask to be President this time around, either. Do they ever report on how Brad Pitt and Martha Stewart are polling in the Presidential elections? No! Because those people DON’T WANT TO BE PRESIDENT. They are popular, well-known people. But you don’t see them getting a bunch of votes for President like I did. What the hell is even going on? There needs to be some sort of investigation into this.

I know a lot of people felt like choosing me over Trump was the lesser of two evils, but why was it only two evils? There are literally MILLIONS of evils you could have chosen from in this country, but for some bizarre reason you narrowed it down to just Trump and me? If I’m being frank, at least Trump clearly was actually asking to be President. So much so that he kept claiming that he won despite losing pretty badly. Personally, I was FINE with that. I was like, sure, sounds good, go for it, man. You won, if that’s what you really want.

So maybe this year, instead of voting for me, you can consider picking someone who is clearly interested in and excited about leading the United States. I don’t fit those criteria, but there’s gotta be somebody out there who does. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go sign some legislation that’s going to piss off a bunch of the people who voted for me. Sayonara, bitches.

link: https://clickhole.com/i-never-asked-to-be-president-by-joe-biden/

Awkward scenes as local ‘Pro-Bono’ lawyer Jerry Fakeman has been forced to clarify to a potential client that he just means that he is a massive fan of the band U2.

Mr Fakeman said that his love for the started a decade ago when he was the only person in the world thankful for the ‘gift’ of an album being forced onto their iPod. This obsession has since led him to brand his entire legal practice as the ‘Pro-Bono lawyer, helping you get the Edge.’

“I don’t get why everyone keeps thinking that my services would be free up front?” said Jerry. “Why would my love of the album The Joshua Tree have any affect on how I am as a lawyer?”

“Whenever this mix-up happens, they keep telling me that my advertising is apparently ‘confusing’ and ‘not how you run a business’. But I always say that I will continue running the firm how I like, with or without you.”

“Regrettably, every time they do end up just choosing the ‘without’ option. If things don’t turn around soon, I might have to start saying that all I want is you.”

link: https://chaser.com.au/general-news/pro-bono-lawyer-clarifies-he-just-meant-that-he-is-a-big-fan-of-u2/

link: https://reductress.com/post/how-to-satisfy-your-sweet-tooth-without-making-your-bitchy-tooth-jealous/

In an impressive display of malpractice, Shoshanna Feldman self-diagnoses the complete mental breakdown she has at the end of each weekend as the “Sunday scaries”.

“We all know how Sundays can be,” says Shoshanna, who on past Sundays has stayed in bed until 4p.m., decided to cut her own bangs, and called her super under the guise of complaining about her water pressure but really just to cry on the phone with someone.

“It’s just that back-to-the-work-week feeling,” Shoshanna adds, while looking at one-way flights to Oslo online. “You know, Sunday rolls around and you’re like, ‘Wow, I really wish every part of my life was different and I’m not sure how much longer I can take it.’ That’s why they made a name for it: Sunday scaries.”

But not everyone is convinced that Shoshanna’s meltdowns constitute relatable end-of-the-weekend dread.

“Last weekend Shosh FaceTimed me crying from inside a Panera,” says close friend Gabe Wright. “She was like, ‘I honestly only went to law school because I felt lost after undergrad and I got in. This is not the career I want. If I could do the last ten years over I would not make a single decision the same.’”

“I am impressed by her ability to compartmentalize her major breakdowns to just one day of the week,” Gabe adds. “But I think this is bigger than Sunday scaries.”

Shoshanna, however, is incredulous.

“On Sundays I definitely tend be overcome with dread at having to continue the life I’ve created for myself,” she says. “For instance, I don’t really think I’m in love with my partner anymore, I have some major questions about my gender identity, I regret naming my cat Shellfish.”

“But by the time Monday rolls around, I just get swept up with the flow of the week and barely think about those things at all,” Shoshanna adds. “Until it’s Sunday again, and then all those compressed feelings get compounded like a trash compactor creating an unmovable block of my many sorrows.”

“Them’s the Sunday scaries for ya!” It was suggested that Shoshanna try therapy to begin sorting through some of these negative emotions, but she was resistant.

“I just don’t really have the time,” she says. “Sunday is basically my only free day, and we already know that’s blocked off for a nine-hour panic attack!”

Fair enough!

link: https://reductress.com/post/complete-mental-breakdown-self-diagnosed-each-week-as-sunday-scaries/