A Bonus Birthday Newsletter
Happy Birthday to me.
Welcome to Cheaper Than Therapy, a newsletter by Shani Silver.
Hello, it’s my birthday. I felt like sending an extra Cheaper Than Therapy in celebration. For the duration of 2025 I’ve been working on a book that honestly… I’m probably not going to publish. The whole self-publishing thing allows for a lot of freedom, but it’s expensive and not always realistic for me. It’s okay, your girl remains undeterred. ;) I thought you might like to read this fun chapter I’ve been working on, and if you’d like to read more from this project, let me know and I’m happy to share here. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 43 years, it’s that I can do whatever the fuck I want, and always will.
It’s Okay To Be Picky, Just Not About Food
You’re allowed to be a picky eater until you’re 12 years old, then you need to get your shit together. One thing I cannot stand is a grown adult with voluntary dietary requirements that become other people’s responsibilities. In your own home, by yourself, be as picky as you like. It’s certainly one of the great joys of eating alone for me, my preferences and avoidances bother no one but the ghosts who lived here before. When I’m with other people, you would never know I had a picky inclination anywhere in me, because I am a grown woman who is good company.
I’ve spent a lot of my singlehood career sparring with the word “picky.” In some capacities it’s weaponized against single women, to make us think we’re too ugly for anyone we’d voluntarily make out with to find us attractive in return. This is a lie, it’s just that the people you’re talking to don’t know any single men anyone would find attractive and sometimes they’re not even attracted to the person currently stealing their own covers, so you should have to suffer too. Picky is used to knock single women down a few pegs when really we should be driving pegs through people’s eyes any time they have the audacity to tell us we’re too picky. You’re not single because you’re picky, they’re out of touch with reality and human dignity because they still think “picky” is an acceptable adjective for single women. Next time it happens, try telling them that while you have zero desire to fuck their husband, that doesn’t mean you have to settle for someone they’d never fuck either.