Coffee Break: Ankle Strap Flats

93 Comments

1. I am the same. I can’t walk in a regular pair of flats without them coming off my feet. I either have to have straps or a very high vamp.

2. SIL is going on a cruise to Central America after Xmas and I want to get her something fun for the trip. I was thinking a vacation tote bag in a bright color, but open to other ideas. Budget is $65

   1. Tote is a great idea. I think the cruise ship will probably provide towels so a beach towel is out.

      I’d put some really great sunscreens in the tote as part of the gift! But I’m an SPF fanatic. I think you could get her a little assortment from somewhere like Supergoop & include their new tinted SPF lip balm.

      I personally like an asian sunscreen for every day, but that would be a bit more complicated….

   2. Can you get her shipboard credit? That can normally be put towards excursions, upgraded food/drink or the spa, and that’s what I’d most want.

   3. When I was on a cruise I wished I’d brought a small crossbody bag that would just fit my phone and key card. Something fun and very small. I also wished for a waterproof phone pouch on a lanyard for the waterslide and pool.

   4. so i’m kind of picky about my tote bags and would not want that/already have totes i like and to me this would just be more stuff im stuck with. unless you already know she doesn’t have one. but i do like a good waterproof pouch to hold my phone etc. when i go to the pool or beach. and while i’m sure the cruise has towels, if she is doing excursions, i was introduced to microfiber beach towels through this page and they are lifesavers bc they take up no space at all. is this what you want to get her as a holiday gift?

      1. For packable beach towels, I much prefer cotton Turkish towels to microfiber towels. But I wouldn’t bring a towel on a cruise.

         1. +1. Same and I also wouldn’t bring a towel on a cruise. The ship will have plenty you can use.

   5. What about a cute monogrammed makeup case?

   6. Here are some suggestions: A cute sun hat; a book or two related to locations on the route; a small white noise machine; a bunch of bandannas; a cute pair of flip flops; and (depending on whether this will be seen as crass or not) a bunch of $1 and $5 bills for tips to tour guides, drivers, room service waiters, and porters.

      1. I don’t think most people travel with white noise machines, especially not on a cruise ship where the ocean creates its own white noise. That seems like a very odd gift to me.

         1. Depends on whether the cabin is by the elevators, or if it’s a rowdy party ship. Anyway, just some ideas, take them or leave them!

   7. Most people want to pack essentials so they are picky with what they bring. I wouldn’t want a tote unless it was one I chose. Same with sunscreen. I don’t even know what bandannas would be for. What about something more related to the destination to get excited—like a cookbook and treats from one of the areas or dinner at a local restaurant with that type of cuisine? Although even gifts from the locale can be tough too since they’ll be buying souvenirs.

3. For those of you who use a Tinkle razor or similar for chin hairs, how often do you have to do it? It seems like the speed of regrowth (and with darker hairs) is increasing and I was always told it’s a myth that “it will grow back worse than before,” but I’m starting to wonder…

   1. It doesn’t grow back worse, it just grows back all at once, which isn’t really the normal state of affairs sans shaving. I use it before something like an in-person work meeting or going out. Not more than once a month usually, but I would do once a week if the occasions arose.

      I also tweeze a bit in between – the hairs that are still colorless but have a sharper texture. They just bother me. I feel them on my face and want them gone.

   2. Once or twice a week. Regrowth and darker hairs is a product of getting older, unfortunately.

   3. I use it a couple times a week and I use a tweezer on the darker ones or the ones that I can feel when I touch my face. I have a lot of peach fuzz that I also take off with the tinkle razor. The regrowth doesn’t grow back “worse” but the end of the hairs are blunter after being cut and grow back more noticeably. Also, I think age and hormone levels can cause hair to start to growing darker/thicker. 20 something me did not have the chin hair that 40 something me has and I really think it is just a consequence of age and hormones.

   4. I use the Schick dermaplane razor 1x per week on my whole face, but tweeze dark or long hairs on my chin as often as needed. I turned 40 this year and feel like the chin hair has multiplied significantly.

   5. Shaving makes the ends blunt so the hair appears thicker even though it isn’t.
      I shave the dark hairs on my face once or twice a week, or whenever they become really noticable.

4. Israel has just bombed a hospital in Gaza. At least 800 people have died. I don’t understand all this horror.

   1. I don’t think any of the reporting out of that area is reliable for days. I am not saying this did not happen, the hospital was struck for sure, which is awful. I just am saying it may not have happened this way. And we’ve already seen massively inflated death tolls and fabrications of the manner of deaths come out of this conflict. The Israeli army is saying they don’t if it was them. I also see reports that cities in the southern part of Gaza have been targets of Israel even though they told all of the people in the northern portion to head south. It is all horrific but I really don’t trust any initial reporting from there now.

   2. Also for anonymous at 2:42 spreading Hamas propaganda. It is very well known and established beyond any doubt that Hamas honeycombs its fighters and means of war in and among civilian populations and buildings, including hospitals, schools, mosques, etc. It’s equally well known and established that Israel goes to great length (at risk to its own soldiers and citizens) to avoid civilian casualties. If the Palestinian reports are accurate (by the way, Hamas is alleging 200-300 deaths), any civilians deaths are 100% the fault of Hamas. For anyone who’s ever wondered how anyone could have supported the N*zis or parroted their propaganda… the same type are on this board this afternoon.

      1. I think it is unfair to accuse the posters of spreading Hamas propaganda, at least if you are suggesting it is intentional. Early reporting was/is confusing and I don’t think we have a definitive, reliable answer as to what happened yet. And I will note that posters here spread Israeli propaganda for a week or more.

         1. When the post was made, literally zero reports claimed 800 people were killed. And there had already been reports that the Israelis had verified it was not theirs. They have video and intercepted communications. OP made no mention of any info like that which was readily available at the time.

            Plus it was the Anglican Church funded hospital which makes even less sense as and Israeli target because that means direct funding ties to UK/ USA/Canada and therefore even less plausibility as an intentional target because why piss off your biggest allies of all the hospitals to hit.

   3. You don’t understand how Hamas uses the hospital as a headquarters and how Israel cannot allow babies and the elderly to be killed and taken hostage? What would you do if your grandmother, babies and disabled children were kidnapped and their families killed?

      1. I think it’s too early to comment on what actually happened or how, but I am okay with saying bombing a hospital with innocent people is never an outcome we should strive for or try to justify. It will sometimes happen in war no matter how carefully one tries to avoid it but it should never result in a “shrug, what do you want?” response. A baby for a baby and soon the world will run out of babies, to paraphrase an old saying.

         I don’t know if you meant for it to come across this way, but this response strikes me as no better than writing “free Palestine” over a poster showing someone who was taken hostage (both poster and message, all over NY). One does not excuse the other.

         1. Totally agree AIMS. You said it better than I could.

      2. I would definitely not bomb a hospital housing hundreds of civilians who had nothing to do with my relatives’ kidnapping.

         1. Good thing Israel didn’t.

      3. What would you do if your grandmother, babies, and disabled were killed in a hospital. I grieve for all of them, regardless of which side of the border they are on. And I hold both Israeli leadership and Hamas responsible for the situation and the deaths. Killing innocent people should be minimized regardless of provocation. It may be unavoidable, but it’s never something to just accept.

   4. I hope you had the same horror at the US bombing Afghanistan when we were fighting Al Qaeda.

      1. I did.

      2. Not OP but I did.

   5. CNN says the Palestinian Health Ministry says 200 to 300 people have died. Any civilian death is sad, but it’s important to be factually correct.

   6. I haven’t seen confirmation that it was Israel that did the bombing. It would be VERY like Hamas to blow it up to make Israel look bad. Regardless, the loss of innocent life is always tragic.

      1. Yes, Israel says “intelligence shows a “failed rocket launch” by Islamic Jihad was responsible, according to Reuters.”

      2. It doesn’t even make sense from an Israeli strategic perspective. They are clearly trying to get people to move south so they can take out the extensive Hamas tunnel network in the north. If they attack hospitals and schools where people are known to be sheltering, people will

         Hamas told people not to leave (and there is video of them using trucks to block roads to prevent people leaving), they benefit enormously if people think that hospitals and schools are not safe and stay put. Hamas is trying to use the Palestinians in northern Gaza as human shields for their tunnel network.

         1. Should say, ‘people will not leave’.

            The point being, even if you think the worst if Israel – it is clearly not in their own self interest to attack schools or hospitals purely from a strategic point.

   7. This is from the Guardian:

      Events are moving quickly following the earlier Gaza hospital attack. Israel now says intelligence shows a “failed rocket launch” by Islamic Jihad was responsible, according to Reuters.
      “An analysis of IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Al Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,” an IDF spokesperson said in a statement.
      “Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.”
      “We did not strike that hospital,” Jonathan Conricus, an international spokesperson for IDF, just told CNN.
      “We do not intentionally strike any sensitive facilities, and definitely not hospitals. We are very much aware of the presence of civilians.”

      1. I’m so confused because I thought they had asked the hospital to evacuate because they were planning to strike? I have no idea what is true or false in all this anymore, only that the deaths are real.

         1. Israel asked a whole region of Gaza to evacuate in preparation for war. I haven’t heard Israel say anything specific about a hospital, other than denying this bombing.

            1. I follow Doctors Without Borders on social media, and IIRC they were the ones who said they’d been asked to evacuate a hospital specifically. They were upset because they felt they didn’t have enough time to evacuate (and obviously not everyone in a hospital is in a condition to leave the hospital). I believe IDF even ended up giving them more time. I don’t really understand how what they’re saying is consistent with what Conricus is saying.

            2. @anon 5:16 – wasn’t that as part of the general northern area evacuation vs an intent re a specific building?

            3. I looked up the MSF twitter page, and it was a different hospital they mentioned evacuating. As the previous poster said, I think it was just a hospital that is in the general evacuation area. They’re doctors, so they’re naturally more focused on what is happening in hospitals than in schools, mosques, etc. Nothing in the MSF tweets suggests Israel was targeting hospitals.

         2. Where did you read that? I have not read anything about Israel telling specific hospitals to evacuate – they issued a general warning for the northern areas of Gaza a few days ago but even then, I’m not sure they expected that hospitals would be evacuated.

            1. Not posting a link to avoid mod, but yeah, there was a widely reported story about the director of a hospital (Kuwaiti Specialist Hospital)in Rafah (in the south) reporting he’d received a call to evacuate the hospital. They did not, and that hospital has not been struck. Google “Sohaib Al-hams” (the hospital’s director) and there’ll be a bunch of coverage; based on a statement he gave to Reuters initially.

   8. Per NPR, not Israel but a Hamas misfire.

      1. Not Hamas, Islamic Jihad.

   9. We’re in the fog of war now. I doubt we’ll get clarity any time soon on whether Hamas had facilities in this building, whether it was actually blown up by Islamic Jihad, or whether Israel f*d up massively. Whatever the cause, hundreds of people are dead and many or most of them were children or other civilians. And that is horrible and the horror will continue, and I am full of sorrow.

   10. Hamas (or Palestinian Authority – variation in news reports) says it was Israel.

       Israel says it was Islamic Jihad.

       It seems counter to Israel’s interests and behavior so far (leaflets telling people to leave, phone calls before hitting apartment buildings where Hamas members reside). It is however in the interests of Hamas/Islamic Jihad for Israel to look as bad as possible to distract from the hostage situation.

       Hamas has shown zero willingness to release hostages despite what the Palestinian people are going through. It would be nice if someone held them accountable.

       I don’t agree with everything Israel is doing but I don’t know WTF the other options are. There are multiple groups operating in Gaza not just Hamas. Islamic Jihad could well be annoyed at the attention Hamas is getting.

   11. Here is what the IDF is reporting:

       “ Breaking: IDF Spokesperson

       From the analysis of the operational systems of the IDF, an enemy rocket barrage was carried out towards Israel, which passed through the vicinity of the hospital when it was hit.

       According to intelligence information, from several sources we have, the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is responsible for the failed shooting that hit the hospital.”

   12. Some reports in the NY times are saying it is actually a rocket from Islamic Jihad that backfired.

5. Love this pick! Does anyone know where to get a wide width version?

   1. Try the Eileen fisher one linked below – I have wide feet and can wear some of those.

6. I’m sure someone can explain this to me…how can Israel be bombing hospitals? Is it accidental? Is it because they are linked to Hamas?

   1. My understanding is that Gaza can have a building with things like CNN on floor 5 and Hamas on floors 1-4 and then everyone acts surprised when it is bombed. I’m sure that Hamas is probably within feet of the hospital, possibly in tunnels underneath it. They seem to have no regard for their own people.

   2. From that great David French article someone posted last week about the rules of war. It’s in the New York Times:

      “There is a similar public ignorance problem with the concept of distinction, which “The Law of Land Warfare” defines as requiring combatants to distinguish “between combatants and military objectives on the one hand and civilians and civilian objects on the other in offense and defense.” Distinction requires soldiers to separate themselves from civilians by wearing uniforms, for example, or by fighting from marked military vehicles. It prohibits militaries from fighting from places like hospitals, schools and mosques.

      Hamas disregards the principle of distinction. Its fighters take aim from civilian buildings while wearing civilian clothes and using civilian vehicles. This presents an attacking military with serious targeting problems. It is easy to identify, say, an armored personnel carrier as a military vehicle. But what if there are four Toyota Tacomas in the street and only one is full of Hamas fighters?

      But here’s the key point: When Hamas abandons the principle of distinction, then Hamas is responsible for the civilian damage that results. If Hamas fights from a hospital — or stores munitions in a hospital — damage to that hospital is Hamas’s responsibility. If Hamas fighters shoot at Israel Defense Forces from a home that contains a Palestinian family, then Hamas is responsible for the civilian casualties if that family is harmed in the resulting exchange of fire.”

      1. Agree with this, but it also now seems like Israel isn’t responsible for this bombing.

         1. I agree – the information is fluid, but I doubt Israel is responsible for the bombing. Even if it were, I find French’s argument that it would be Hamas’ responsibility compelling. Where is the condemnation of Hamas for regularly using civilian hospitals and school as military launch zones? How despicable.

            1. I fully agree, and this columnist put it well. It’s disappointing to see immediate rush to blame Israel, when it’s Hamas that’s using their people (including children) as human shields.

      2. I’m the former Army officer who posted some last week. My response to this is “Yes, but.” Yes, but there’s always a moral duty to choose the target that limits the loss of innocent life. If the reports are accurate and Israel did bomb both a hospital and a UN school, then Israel had better be prepared to explain to the world the concrete, unassailable intel it had that said Hamas targets in those locations outweighed the lives of hundreds of innocent people. Israel still pulled the trigger, not Hamas, no matter what mental gymnastics one wants to go through.

         1. This! There is a shocking lack of critical thinking here. Anyone question why the IDF would say it didn’t bomb the hospital, even if it did? Moreover, the important point that’s being overlooked is the widespread killing and displacement of Palestinians. It was some 700,000 in 1948 and clearly the Israeli government hopes to top that in 2023.

            1. Really? Your view is they are displacing Gazans to try and take what? More land? Like they are just using the attack by Hamas as an excuse?

               All of the actual military actions clearly line up with the expressly stated purpose of dismantling Hamas in response to a horrific attack on civilians and to try and recover hundreds of hostages.

      3. One civilians are being attacked, won’t the military be motivated to try to defend civilian targets? (Won’t civilians be motivated to go where they feel they have defenses?)

   3. It’s unclear who is responsible for this one but Hamas deliberately uses civilians for cover and have been telling people not to evacuate precisely to make it harder for Israel to go after them and to make Israel look bad for injuring/killing civilians when they do. It’s a tactic. To be clear, that doesn’t mean I think you shrug and say, “oh well, I guess innocent people are going to just have to die” but this is in large part how and why it happens.

      1. Yup. Whether or not Israel was involved this time, outrage at Israel’s response was Hamas’s end goal with the original terrorist attacks on Oct 7.

         1. This. Hamas will ramp things up now as they are likely unsatisfied with the lack of condemnation of the Israeli response. They want Israeli troops fighting in the streets to draw in Hezbollah etc. That’s why Israel has tried to avoid hospitals and schools. They are aware of the importance of avoiding civilian targets to the extent possible in order to maintain USA and EU support.

            Israel has no interest in the long term occupation of Gaza – that’s messy, difficult and expensive. It doesn’t meet Israel’s strategic goals of safety from Hamas. They need troops on the ground to destroy the Hamas tunnel network. The tunnel network is over 300 miles and is critical to Hamas operations. That’s why they used the leaflets to try and get people to leave and Hamas told people to stay. I suspect Israel will use ground troops to blow up the tunnel network and then withdraw. Hamas is suspected of holding the 250 hostages in the tunnels to prevent this.

            1. Not only do they drop leaflets, but they also place robocalls telling people to leave/where to go/which civilian corridor to take and they place individual 1:1 phone calls so that people can ask questions and get specific answers.

               This is in addition to telling the Gazans and the whole wide world where they will bomb (north half of the strip) and where they will not bomb (south half of the strip) and giving them time (days) to get clear. Please tell me any other country that takes these precautions to avoid civilian injury/death in the middle of a war.

               Right. Not a single one.

            2. to specify, because I think that is important to be precise as possible right now, I do not think Israel has said they will not bomb the south. Just that civilians should evacuate south, which I would interpret as meaning they intend to bomb the south less, or perhaps not move land troops right
               there – but they haven’t said they won’t bomb it (and they are bombing some targeted areas in the south)

            3. I agree that Israel will continue to strike at specific targets in the south. They have not said that they will stop that and there may be legitimate targets there as well.

               They are clearly trying to take out the tunnel network in the north and that is why they want civilians to go south. The whole war has no point unless they take out the tunnel network. the hostages are likely there and Hamas can still strike Israel if it has the tunnel network regardless of the state above ground. Hamas protects itself – they just leave civilians above ground.

   4. They didn’t. They generally don’t.

7. Just realized at 2:45pm that I never put on deodorant today. Happy Tuesday.

   1. This is the exact reason I always kept deodorant at the office.

      1. Yes — that way you can take corrective action.

      2. +1 have been there, have deodorant all the time in an office drawer.

   2. Slap some hand sanitizer on your pits (unless you shaved this morning, it’s gonna sting)

8. I hemmed some too-long pants to ankle length. And then the temperatures dropped. Wearing with no-sock loafers today (inside day at work). Now I understand one upside of hemming pants previously for sky-high heels — it kept your whole foot warm (but OMG the pain if you had a day of standing or lots of walking).

9. I like the strap but these look cheap and insubstantial – no good for your feet.

   My family has organised a birthday party for my dad on a boat, which is inaccessible for me. I had asked a couple of times over the last year what they were planning so I could be involved and make sure it was something I could be there for. I feel really sad to be excluded because of their thoughtless (I hope it was thoughtless!).

   1. Inaccessible…because of a disability? Because why?

      1. Yes, disability.

         I have MS and now use a wheelchair when I go out.

         Competing noises and smells wear me out quickly and there’s nowhere quiet on the boat (invitation said ‘long boozy lunch’) or way to just attend for an hour then make a quiet exit.

         1. I meant to say in the middle, even if I could be lifted on to the boat…

            The doctor said the response to smells is mast cell activation which causes breathing problems, eyesight blurring and hives depending on what it is so it’s not just “I don’t like” which I could just deal with for an afternoon.

   2. I have motion sickness, so things that are fun to others (amusement parks, boats) are not fun for me. It’s a long-term known thing. But I also get that these things are fun for a lot of people and don’t want to limit their fun. I don’t want to be 100% left out of everything, but we try to balance over a window of time (vs every single event). Can you have a festive meal or cake before or after?

      Another family member with ASD can’t bear loud noises and is happy to sit out loud concerns and graduations but like to be at a cozy dinner or quiet jazz club (so we often “road test” things beforehand).

      I’m sorry — it feels rotten to be left out. I take it your family isn’t usually like this to you.

      1. Solidarity. I have horrible motion sickness too and regularly deal with a boats are fun family. It sucks. And no, Dramamine doesn’t do the trick, it makes you fall asleep (even the nondrowsy version) and has never worked for me on a boat.

   3. Take some Dramamine and go celebrate your Dad’s birthday with your family. You’ll be grateful for the memory one day.

      1. It could be something other than motion sickness.

      2. OP here. It’s not motion sickness.

      3. Even if were “just” motion sickness (which OP clarified that it’s not), I don’t think OP is wrong to be hurt. I love boats (my favorite vacation ever is chartering a sailboat), but have a husband who gets bad motion sickness and can’t enjoy a boat ride even with dramamine. I can’t imagine celebrating a big birthday on a boat, because I want my husband to be there and not be miserable. I don’t think it’s weird to want your close family members to include you in their celebrations!

   4. I’m sorry.

   5. Is it a small sailboat or like…a harbor cruise? The latter is fully ADA accessible, has places to recreate if over simulated, and barring choppy water wouldn’t be an issue for motion sickness.

      This is your dad- I’m assuming the people planing this want you to be there! Talk to them!

      1. Small charter, so not ADA.

         I don’t get sea sick, that’s not the issue.

         I mentioned in my comment that I’d asked my brother and dad a couple of times. The invitations were sent out in the post so it’s booked and paid for, now it’s unlikely they’ll change this for me.

         You are right, so many family members and old friends I’d love to see, that’s why I’m sad about it.

         1. As a parent, I would no way support or attend a party that excluded (by design or by “accident”) one of my children or (hypothetical) grandchildren or close family. If I got there and knew that someone was excluded, I’d be too mad to enjoy it. I’m so sorry that this is happening, OP.

            1. Oh, and happy Disability Awareness Month. Someone needs to clue in your brothers.

10. I understand he already is lying about what Judge Chutkan’s order says, so here it is verbatim (quote below) and in full (link below):

    https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24037494/trumporder.pdf

    “Accordingly, and pursuant to Local Criminal Rule 57.7(c), it is hereby ORDERED that:

    All interested parties in this matter, including the parties and their counsel, are prohibited from making any public statements, or directing others to make any public statements, that target (1) the Special Counsel prosecuting this case or his staff; (2) defense counsel or their staff; (3) any of this court’s staff or other supporting personnel; or (4) any reasonably foreseeable witness or the substance of their testimony.

    This Order shall not be construed to prohibit Defendant from making statements criticizing the government generally, including the current administration or the Department of Justice; statements asserting that Defendant is innocent of the charges against him, or that his prosecution is politically motivated; or statements criticizing the campaign platforms or policies of Defendant’s current political rivals, such as former Vice President Pence.“

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