I think there’s some truth to the idea that the relative ranking depends on what context you’re talking about.

Pure population? Houston.

History and politics? DC to the top, Philadelphia and Boston in the mix.

Economically? The Bay Area has tech and Houston has oil and gas.

Domestic tourists and international tourists? Certainly a conversation to be had for DC, Las Vegas. Miami maybe?

What about cultural influence domestically, and abroad? Do Nashville, Atlanta, and Miami fit in somewhere?

San Francisco by itself, maybe not. But as an entire metro area that includes Oakland and San Jose and Silicon Valley? Yeah, it’s got influence.

If pizza quality is going to be a consideration for city tiers I’m not sure any of the other cities in this conversation are actually any better.

Does it have a distinct regional pizza style? Yes, two in fact.

Does it do other distinct regional pizza styles really well? Yes, it’s gonna be way better than most other American cities.

Sometimes in public forums my goal is to show the neutral third parties who might stumble upon that thread to see for themselves which view is more reasonable. Bad faith arguments that are common sometimes need to be knocked down whenever and wherever it persists.

You can claim all you want that the test results are normal; I’m not arguing that.

The symptoms you describe are not normal. Not for women in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, or past that.

These symptoms aren’t normal. Stop trying to project that on the literal billions of women who have also reached the age of 30. The overwhelming majority of them are not experiencing what you’re describing.

It’s not creepy to be aware of the sleep patterns of someone who sleeps next to you, especially 10 hours a day.

People like daylight time in the summers, because that gives them the opportunity to do things after work in sunlight. For places where they’re getting 16 hours of sunlight, they’d generally prefer sunrise at 5am and sunset at 9pm, rather than 4am to 8pm.

But daylight time is terrible in the winters. Sunlight from 8am to 4pm is probably better than 9am to 5pm.

That’s basically why we had daylight savings switching clocks to begin with. But the fundamental tradeoff in the higher latitudes was always summer versus winter.

I am loyal to certain cheese producers, from local small scale producers to national artisan producers that ship to me, to national larger scale cheese makers who have specific products I like. I’ll buy certain imported cheeses with place protections, like Italian DOP cheeses.

With chicken, I like a particular producer, because the chicken just tastes better to me when it’s air chilled and of a specific size (4 lbs/1.8 kg is the ideal size).

For flour, I use a combination of a local mill for whole wheat, and a reputable national producer for bread flour and all purpose white flour. I have a specific brand for 00 pizza flour. I know what to expect from those products, and that allows me to be precise.

For pasta, I have several brands and shapes to choose from, and can obviously do fine with whatever box, but I still have my preferences for specific shapes and brands and bronze-die lines. Some of them are imported and some are domestic.

Condiments and sauces? Yeah, I have a preferred ketchup brand, 3 specific soy sauces for different applications, 3 specific mustard brands for different applications, and a preferred mayonnaise. I keep about 5-10 hot sauces on hand, each for a different style of food.

As you mention, for wine and beer and liquor and liqueurs, I am fairly picky when it comes to brands and quality. Life is too short to drink bad alcohol.

But it also pretty much extends to non alcoholic beverages, too. I choose my coffee and go for specific roasts by specific roasters. I like a particular brand of soda. I even have a preferred brand of orange juice.

For chips and snacks, I very much prefer specific flavors of specific brands, including even the biggest of the industrialized brands for certain products.

With chocolate? Yeah, brand matters to me a lot. Most other candy, too.

I have a preferred butter brand. I can make do with others, but I prefer mine. There are only two bacon brands I like. I have a hot dog brand preference, too.

I’m pretty serious about food, and I love blind tasting things and forming preferences around new foods, revisiting old taste tests, etc. I couldn’t imagine not caring about the details on food, and that often means knowing the difference between brands (and knowing when a brand has changed its formula/recipe).

People out there are doing good work, making delicious food. Sometimes they put their name on it, and that means something.

I mean haven’t you seen the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid? It’s obviously a tribute to ancient Egypt.

When decisions are based on who pays the organization the most, it can sometimes improve outcomes for the organization.

When decisions are based on who pays the individual decisionmaker the most, it can often lead to the decisionmaker making decisions that help themselves personally but harm the organization as a whole. That’s bad for outcomes.

That’s why corruption at the individual level often leads to incompetence and inefficiency. Corrupt organizations and industries, though, can coordinate in a way that mitigates these weaknesses.