80 Comments

What if "What I am drinking" became "What I am enjoying?" Then you could cover books, TV, that spider living her best postmenopausal life between your kitchen windows--whatever is giving you delight. Also, I LOVE Delightenment and Dingularity so much!

Expand full comment

Also, I cannot quite quantify the seething rage I feel about the Dave Ramsey revelations. What an absolute turdpole. I hope the former employee wins a huge pile of his ill-gotten money.

Expand full comment

Toni this is an excellent idea!!!

Expand full comment

The purpose of the postmenopausal female is to remind all y'all motherfuckers that not everything is about you.

Expand full comment

hahaha. excellent, asha, love it!

Expand full comment

This is perfect!!! Love it! <3

Expand full comment

For me the purpose of the post menopausal female is to rush into the alien’s den by herself (because all the marines have had their asses kicked by said aliens) to save the girl child. I’m drinking vodka. Well not this moment, it’s kind of early. But I always only drink vodka with Coke Zero.

Expand full comment

Ha! I love the purpose of the post menopausal woman part. I am post menopausal with NO grandchildren so I'm not even sure why I'm alive right now.

RE: Ramsey. A few years ago I bought my adult children Ramsey's book. To their credit, neither of them bothered with it and I subsequently got rid of the one still in my house (the child, not the book, the child is still here). While I have followed the "snowball" affect, and it worked, it worked because we were no longer paying for the kid's college; thus, we had an extra $2000 a month to throw at that debt. Funny how more money makes that work. Ramsey might have some good advice but it comes in the form of the condescending and judgmental Dave Ramsey.

Expand full comment

Right? There are certainly bits of good, usable advice in there but you have to sift through so much self-righteousness to get to it.

Expand full comment

In that way it reminds me of “Love Languages” in that understanding what your partner likes is good. Understanding why some people feel the need to bring you back something from every trip while you are vaguely annoyed by more crap is good. Then it just gets off the rails.

Expand full comment

We did that program back in the early aughts, and the one thing that really worked for us was the IDEA of the envelope system. We still use that, but digitally, on our phones, because there was no way we were letting go of those sweet, sweet credit card cash back rewards.

Expand full comment

The purpose of the postmenopausal female is to defend her granddaughter's choice to have and learn how to ride a motorcycle to disapproving parents. "I used to have a motorcycle, too." (-my grandma)

Expand full comment

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Expand full comment

Yes, but to also wear a helmet.

Expand full comment

Thank you (and Caitlin, the Flyover Politics MVP) for the delightenment this week. An alternate definition of delightenment is that feeling I get when I see the URL joke in each Dingus of the Week newsletter.

Expand full comment

How did I not know this was a thing?!

Expand full comment

Oh man there have been some good ones. The first was "Big Dingus Energy" for when Andrew Tate was Dingus of the Week at the tail end of 2022 and most of the weekly Dingus newsletters since then have had a li'l joke in the URL slug. These are a few of my favorites:

Andrew Tate - https://lyz.substack.com/p/big-dingus-energy

The Pollen Count - https://lyz.substack.com/p/that-ho-pollen

Everyone pretending Kissinger was good - https://lyz.substack.com/p/rip-means-rest-in-poop

Expand full comment

I made these for Beau and they are now a MYAM inside joke. I am very proud of today's, dave-scamsey

Expand full comment

News to me, too. You are not alone lol

Expand full comment

"Beware the male financial gurus who build their empires on the backs of the uncompensated labor of women."

This line makes me think of the book "Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner."

Expand full comment

I love that book! I love it so deeply and extremely much, and I recommend the author Katrine Marcal's follow up, 'Mother of Invention'. They gave me both facts and feelings, in the same way as Lyz's 'This American Ex-Wife' did. They live next to each other on my bookshelf.

Expand full comment

I knew so many people in the homeschool community who followed his advice, including moms toting around cash their families couldn't afford to lose in envelopes, because the envelopes were supposed to help them magically stretch an inadequate family income to cover everything they were in charge of procuring. He's played so many people.

Expand full comment

Charlotte Clymer wrote the perfect Anti-Vance: Are Childless Males Hurting America? https://substack.com/inbox/post/147743610

My niece had a low-paying, public health job (but I repeat myself!) after college and needed new tires so she got a 5 hr per week job with a local cleaning company. They did seem to support their employees, and they offered free Dave Ramsey seminars, which she took. And I will say this about my niece - she can squirrel away money! But I think she had that ability without Dave. And now I wonder if the cleaning company is "christian." Ugh.

Expand full comment

It might be “Christian,” but it might just have turned to Dave Ramsey because it’s the first thing most people think of when they think of financial education. I’ve heard from lots of companies and schools that hate a lot about him but use his programs anyway because it’s the easiest to find.

Expand full comment

The purpose of the post menopausal woman is to flout every social convention by being physically strong, vocally loud about what’s important, mentally and emotionally resilient, and giving zero fucks what the patriarchy thinks about it.

Expand full comment

amen!!!

Expand full comment

YES!!! <3

Expand full comment

I’ve developed a distaste for Isaacson as his lack of objectivity has become more apparent. I knew nothing about the Musk biography and avoided it, yet the fact that he never made direct contact with Vivian to get her comment on his work is beyond journalistic malpractice - real POS behavior.

Expand full comment

I am developing complicated feelings about Christianity. I come from a Catholic family background, and I consider myself an atheist, but open to the possibility that there is more to existence than our species is currently scientifically aware of.

I abhor what self-described Christians are doing in this country, especially to women, but it goes beyond that. Christian Nationalism is a form of fascism that is one of the greatest threats to this country, and therefore by extension to the rest of the world too.

More than that, organized religion always ends up upholding traditional power structures, benefiting those who have against those who do not. Faiths practiced by a minority in one environment, which can seem radical or progressive, end up oppressive in an environment in which they are dominant (e.g. compare Buddhism in America to Buddhism in Myanmar).

All that said, I remember enough of the teachings of Jesus to know that the two groups he criticized the most were the rich, and those who were ostentatious about being holy. What's happening now is exactly what he said would happen, and exactly what he said to look out for. The latter group in particular made him their enemy.

Viewed that way, everything is turned on its head. 2000 years of being co-opted by power might render Christianity irredeemable, but I can't help being reminded that a true Christian should be the most vigilant against all that is being done in the name of God and Christianity. I don't believe in God, but if I did, I would recognize that those now invoking the name of God the most are the true enemies of God. Somehow that feels like something worth remembering.

Expand full comment

Screw Dave Ramsey however you see fit.

I just wanted to say thank you for seeing your friends without kids. Because yeah. It takes a village. And I was the out-of-work single childless woman who helped my young-single-mom neighbor get some sleep at 3am when her baby would not sleep without someone holding him and had colic, and I spent a week doing this for her until she was human again. We can’t do it alone.

Expand full comment

You, madame, are an angel. Holding a squalling baby in the middle of the night feels like exhausted despair.

Expand full comment

Thank you. 🙏🏼

Expand full comment

The purpose of this postmenopausal female is to ... fuck, who cares! I do what I want. Vance is saying the quiet parts out loud, that's for sure. I'm sorry - I'm just reeling every day from the absolute bullshit that people think and say out loud, expecting to be affirmed and lifted. This postmenopausal female will certainly be connecting these dots for students in the coming years.

Expand full comment

My conservative dad refused to work for anyone else and ran two businesses into the ground and bankruptcy, while dumping all manner of misery and extra work on my mother. Eventually she got a job against his wishes as a cook in a major city school system and worked up to be a manager, retiring late in her life. My misogynistic smack-talking dad has gone pretty quiet these days as they survive on social security and my mom’s school district retirement and health benefits. Screw Ramsey.

Expand full comment

Bless your poor Mom, putting up with him.

Expand full comment

Yes, those friends without children! Several of them were at my older daughters wedding and several will be at my younger daughters wedding celebration in 3 weeks!

Expand full comment

Ahhhh Dave Ramsey. The philosopher king who says shit like 'don't go to a restaurant unless you're working in one.' He's just as bad as Suze Orman.

Expand full comment