Dear OP, the only odd thing about your drawer is that your garlic press in in there (unless this is your backup garlic press of course). In our household, we have it in the main cutlery drawer.
BTW, we have several such drawers spread out over our home: one in the kitchen, one in the living room, one in the home office and several in the garage.
My wife has custom ear plugs with swappable filters. One type of filter is meant for concerts, whereas another type filters out wind noise. She uses the latter type on her motorcycle trips. This kind of ear plugs can be bought at audicians back here in Yurp. I am not sure about other contintents.
One reason I have not read yet: scapegoating. In my country, back in the early 2000s it was the "terrorists" who made it possible to enforce a few unpopular and unconstitutional policies. Nowadays, it is the "immigrants" who take our jobs (we have a job shortage), housing (which was sold off to investors) and health care (which was sold off to investors). Point to a group that cannot defend itself and people will vote in your favor.
Spoken from a European perspective: within a few decades, the US will lose its status as a superpower as it slides into isolationism. You simply cannot be both isolationist and a military and economic superpower. Add to it that much tech is still in the US, but people are waking up to the inherent vulnerability in that. Think government data being on US servers.
These developments will hurt the entire world in the short term and new superpowers will rise. Russia has had its day, but China and India will be the top dogs. I am not discounting Brazil either as a local superpower is South-America. We do probably not want it, but they have the people and the production capacity.
The next four years will accelerate all that. I have already read the first questions about F-35 warplanes being a wise choice as the US could potentially disable them remotely. That would turn them into expensive paperweights at the whim of the US. If the US themselves are less than stable, that would be a very precarious situation.
One joke that both my kids loved at that age goes as follows:
There's this farmer who sits with his dog on a horse-drawn cart. Suddenly, the horse turns its head and says "Beautiful weather, boss!". Obviously, the farmer is stunned. Then the dog nudges him and says: "Huh that's funny. That horse just talked.".
A very old-fashioned Flemish name: Veerle. One of the few bad-ass girl names in the Dutch language. It is derived from medieval times, when 'Veerlen' were travelling warrior women. I do happen to know several men named Fons, some even younger than me. I even know a man named Wies (his full name is Aloysius).
Bring in the downvotes, but Spotify. I listen to music several hours a day, both old and new and it helps me discover lots of new music and even genres. For me personally, that's worth the money.
Always English. I live in a country where developers are hard to find. Chances are that I will get colleagues who do not speak my native language (yet).
I am not sure about 'ever' (I am old and have been reading for over 4 decades now), but a book I hate-read recently was Foucault's pendulum by Umberto Eco. It is meant to be a satire on conspiracy theories and as such it is still a relevant book after 35 years or so. However, the point of satire is to get to the point eventually, preferably within 500 pages. It was pompously written and sometimes felt like a showcase of 'look how much I know!'.
Mine is 'Sangs of a Lost World' by 'the Cure'. It may even be my favourite Cure album.