If it’s the USA, then “iced tea” may actually mean “sweet tea” (an American South tradition), which is often prepared something like this:

• bring 1/2 gallon (1.9L) water to a boil
• place 8 large black tea bags in a 1 gallon (3.8L) pitcher
• pour boiling water over the tea bags in the pitcher
• steep 10-15 minutes, then remove tea bags from the pitcher
• add 1 dry cup (220g) granulated sugar
• stir the slurry until sugar is dissolved
• fill the pitcher to the top with ice cubes
• wait 20 minutes for ice to chill and dilute the tea, gently stir again
• serve

It may be a stronger tea, but so much sugar gets added (probably 3x what would be used to sweeten tea served hot) that you typically don’t notice any bitterness.

It’s like in Unpretty, that 90s song by TLC:

you can buy your hair if it won’t grow

you can fix your nose if you say so

you can buy all the iPhones that MAC can make

Original sin: AI edition

MechWarrior 2? Man, that takes me back…

Ah, sorry. It stands for “Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.”

In the U.S. the law doesn’t allow a manufacturer to require that retailers sell their product at a particular price, but they’re free to “suggest” one so that’s how we ended up with the MSRP.

It doesn’t carry any real weight, but it generally serves to anchor consumer expectations for a product’s value. (It also gives retailers an easy metric to compare sale prices against.)

The MSRP for Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges in the mid-80s, adjusted to today’s U.S. Dollar, would average around $150-200.

I don’t think games should cost that much, but we stuck with the $60 price point for literal decades so it’s not completely unreasonable for someone to talk about raising prices.

(I also write this while having only bought one game? two? In the past year.)

I’m guessing that if you have the right kind of Pal, you could figure out a way to Pay them to help you figure it out…