Just a couple quick thoughts:
1.) I can not find my cellphone, my aol IM is on the fritz, and my email is sketchy. And for some reason, I am ok with that.
2.) I was in the grocery store in between doctor’s visits (eye doctor in a little bit), when I tried to purchase a bottle of win with my groceries. The lady asked me how oldI was, and I blanked. I had no idea. After a second, I did the math and told her “36.” At any rate, at what point did the rest of you realize you could no longer remember your age?
3.) Why do we have fingernails? What is the history, and was their really a purpose?
4.) Picked up some wild-caught scrod and don;t know whether I should use some creole seasoning and make black beans and rice or red beans and rice with it. Your call?
5.) Debate topic: “9/11 changed everything is the most tedious phrase ever.” 9/11 may have changed everything, but for me, Bush changed everything. The incompetence, the deceit, the disdain for the law, the pandering to the religious nuts, and the fact that Bush diehards continue to swallow everything these losers throw at them has had a far greater impact on my life and my politics than 9/11. Guess that makes me shrill. Or an America hater. Or both.
6.) Have a good weekend.
matt
haha, I’m glad I’m not the only one this has happened to who isn’t old, I worried that I was losing my mind.
Mary
I’ve been convinced for the last 6 months that I’m 46 while I’m still only 45 (well, for another couple of weeks, anyway.) My subconscious hates me.
TenguPhule
Where are those bottle located and could you ship some to the Democratic Party Headquarters?
ET
36/37 was about the age that happend to me. I guess it just amounted to the fact that I stopped caring, others generally stopped caring/asking, and/or it didn’t seem to matter so I sopped thinking about it and forgot.
zzyzx
9/11 COULD have changed everything. Part of the terror of that day is that we didn’t know if that was the end or the beginning. 5 1/2 years later with no additional attacks, it’s hard to muster the same fear.
The Commissar
fingernails come from claws, right? and claws must have been quite useful for our mammalian ancestors scurrying up and down trees. they don’t do us primates much harm, maybe help a little with manual dexterity.
Francis
red beans-and-rice with the scrod.
I lost track in the mid-30s, regained it for one year when I hit 40, and now i’m over 40. (yikes!)
9/11 did change everything for a lot of people — morons, cowards and Republican voters. The rest of us recognized that a nation as powerful as ours can survive a punch in the mouth without going batsh*t insane. That view, unfortunately, was in the minority for six years, during which the batsh*t insane people did, well, batsh*t insane things.
RoonieRoo
I had to turn to my best friend, who shares my birthday, when filling out an application for a race and ask him if we were turning 40 or 41. I think I had my first taste of not being able to remember my age without doing the math around 36 or so. Welcome to the club!
Jake
1. Yes! Cast away the electronic wires that bind you to the rest of the world!
2. After 21. Not so much can’t, it’s just that if my age doesn’t end in a five or a zero, I don’t care.
3. To scratch for vermin and lice of course!
4. Black beans. Unless you have a recipe for RB&R that isn’t sweet. Yech.
5. Yaaaaaawn. Sorry, what was the question?
6. Peace!
dreggas
You’re a guy and you have to ask these questions? To scratch our ass of course….oh and our balls.
red beans and rice, then again I am a big fan of red beans and rice. Should try the cajun skillet I make on a regular basis consisting of Andouille sausage, red beans, chicken broth, rice, cajun seasoning and onions. Absolutely fantastic cooked in a cast iron dutch oven.
dreggas
since when have RB&R been sweet? I always made em spicier.
docg
1. 9/11 changed how long it takes to get on a plane.
2. 9/11 changed the number of American military members killed each year.
3. 9/11 changed the federal surplus into a huge deficeit.
4. 9/11 changed the level of fear among Americans.
5. 9/11 got a President re-elected that would not have been otherwise.
That is the sum total of changes after 9/11. That is hardly “everything.”
SeesThroughIt
1) It is one of my great personal shames that I am a cell-phone sellout. I resisted getting a cell phone for a long time. I hated them and all the self-important bullshit they stood for. Then I got a job that pretty much required me to have one. Now, if I were to lose my phone, I’d be in a world of hurt. That sucks.
2) That happens to me on occasion. I distinctly remember one time a few years ago when I got asked my age, and I drew a total blank as though I had just been asked to explain multivariable calculus. It was very strange.
3) For scratchin’.
4) I vote creole seasoning with red beans and rice.
5) Don’t forget about “9/11 changed everything”‘s “very special” cousin, “pre-9/11 thinking.” I tried to convince my boss that his decision to not double my salary while halving my workload was evidence of his pre-9/11 thinking. He was unimpressed.
But seriously, I agree about Bush changing everything. I’ve always had a cynical streak about government, but I never expected my cynicism to be proven true–and then some. When you sit back and ponder just how much damage he has done to this country and in just how many ways…well, it can really ruin your day and perhaps drive you to acute recreational drug use.
6) Back atcha. My favorite joke of the week? The one from The Onion that says that one of Nancy Pelosi’s big rule changes in the House is going to be the implementation of “casual-abortion Fridays.” Awesome.
Jackmormon
For the wild-caught scrod, I vote a simple sauce éa la meunière (brown butter and flour). It sounds too delicious a fish to smother.
Mr Furious
1. On the days I forget my phone, I don’t mind a bit. And over the holidays I spent entire days, a week even, without going online or blogging. I walked away unscathed.
2. I’d say that started happening to me in my mid-thirties. I am always doing the “quick math”… “uh, born in ’68, this is ’07…”
3. Fingrnails? What about toenails?
4. Even though I feel like a restaurant might go red, I always prefer black. Or, I alway bet on black? Or, once you go black…
5. Ditto. I coasted thru the 90s (my twenties) not too concerned aboput politics or world affairs. The election in 2000 a big deal to me. I had a bad feeling about Bush, but I never expected this. As crazy as it might sound to some people, 9/11 has hardly changed my life at all. And I do not think about it very much any more. When I do it is more of the 9/11 “brand” bandied about politically than the event itself.
Bush and the GOP have fundamentally changed the way I think about a lot of things. And while their policies haven’t dramatically impacted me (white, middle-class man) personally, they are NEVER far from my thoughts or my ire.
6. You too. Is this the weekend my second daughter is born? We’re getting down to the wire…
RSA
For some time now, fingernails have been thought to be an evolutionary vestigiality, like the appendix, but it turns out that now they’re essential for opening up those little plastic panels on most of our consumer electronics.
I stopped remembering my age a couple of years ago at 41, I think. Or was it 42? How old am I now (computing. . .)?
I can’t think of any fish or meat that I wouldn’t like with creole seasoning. Maybe squid.
Mr Furious
Too late. The Patriots came in and bought ’em all.
neil
John Cole is the shrillest blogger on the block.
srv
At least wait until you get back home to start drinking.
Bombadil
OK, “scrod” is a generic name for cod or haddock or some other white fish. As it’s an ocean fish, it is virtually always “wild caught”.
If it’s a thick piece (like a cod loin) rather than a fillet, try this:
Mix together 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of Mirin (sweetened sake vinegar; use 2 tablespoons of honey if you can’t find it), 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, two tablespoons of sesame oil, 1/4 cup water and about 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper.
Put a nonstick skillet that can be covered over high heat with 2 tablespoons of oil (peanut is best, olive oil will work too). Heat the oil for a minute, then add the fish and cover the pan. Cook for three minutes. Uncover, add the mixture all at once, and cover the pan again. Cook for another three minutes. Take it off the heat and let it sit for another minute. Serve on a bed of greens, and spoon on some of the sauce.
That’s it — a total of seven minutes cook time and it comes out perfect every time.
Pooh
9/11 should have changed everything. Publius (now at ObWi) covered the topic perfectly a while back:
Sorry for the long quotes, but the whole thing is so good, RTWT…
ThymeZone
1. Tech is not all it’s cracked up to be.
2. I have never forgotten my age, but I don’t know yours.
3. They are vestigial claws.
4. Red.
5. You are right, ignore the detractors.
6. Same to you.
Bombadil
By the way, that recipe is meant for about 12 ounces of fish, but I’ve made it (with the same amount of sauce) for more than that with no adverse effects.
tBone
1. I’m a total gadget-head and carry a truly embarassing number of electronic devices around with me on a daily basis. When the Borg come, sign me up.
2. In the last couple of years – first time it happened I was 33 (I think).
3. Did you let scs write this question?
4. No idea.
5. Yes, you’re a shrill America-hater.
6. Thus, I’m sure you’ll spend the entire weekend enabling terrorists and rooting for America to lose, you Leftist whackjob.
Don
1.) Neo-Luddites unite!
2.) Stopped thinking about it when asked for ID at 29.
3.) Makes scratching that itch a little easier…
4.) Because of a Geneva Convention based request I don’t cook, so I can’t comment.
5.) A close second (third?) we thankfully don’t hear anymore is “If you , the terrorists win.” Well, despite the Administration’s trying to change just about everything that used to be routine, the terrorists still haven’t won, but I don’t believe there’s a causal relationship.
6.) Ditto!
CaseyL
Bombadil, that recipe looks like it’d be good on almost any white fish. Yes?
Buck
Fingernails make it easier to corner that hard to reach booger.
Grrr
1) I subscribe to Captain Beefheart’s “plastic-horned devil” analogy. My last girlfriend spent $2000 in a three month period calling me every 30 minutes to tell me how much her life/job/family sucked. Haven’t had a cell phone since.
2) Early on, I used to have to duplicate my DL sig to buy beer. That went on for two years or so. The picture vs scrutiny thing continued for much longer. I am told this is a compliment.
3) To give you something to worry about while waiting for a job interview.
4) Red beans and rice. Fits the lower status of scrod. See below.
5) 9/11 – Rice gets warned. Rice goes shopping.
6) You too
jg
If the alternative is unacceptable then you’ll go along with anything.
dreggas
I’d buy this if the alternative was really that bad…
Krista
1.) Ask someone you know to call your cellphone. If your ring is loud enough, and if you’re within a reasonable distance of it, bingo. My cell phone is pink — I’m so very, very ashamed.
2.) Pretty much as soon as I hit my 30’s. I turn 32 on Wednesday, but someone asked my age last week and I actually had to think about it for a second. I always forget how old my boyfriend is too — fortunately, he doesn’t take it personally.
3.) Yup, vestigal claws. Now kept short, filed and painted in OPI’s “I’m Not Really a Waitress.” Their sole purpose is now to look pretty, or as a useful scratching aid.
4.) I’m a fan of black beans, myself.
5.) You forgot to preface it with “Be it resolved that…” (I loooove parliamentary-style debate.) And yeah, you’re probably shrill, but you know what? That’s another phrase that the right over-uses to describe lefties who are justifiably pissed-off about how their country’s values have been sent down the crappier.
6.) You too. Buying myself a new pair of running shoes this weekend, and I can’t wait!
bonkydog
My hypothesis: Fingernails are adaptive for catching ectoparasites. Social grooming plays an crucial role in primate social structure. I wonder whether nail polish got popular around the time rich westerners stopped spending most of their lives crawling with lice…
brendan
1: lucky you! I don’t even bother to answer my cellphone anymore, and I uninstalled AIM a few months back. There’s something to be said for being a luddite: like “peace” and “quiet”.
2: remember my what now?
3: I think they started out as claws. Unlike the appendix, which was originally meant as a built-in bagpipe bladder.
4. What about baked, with some lemon butter? Scrod is best, IMO, when it’s prepared simply. I love scrod, but then again, I AM a rhode islander…
5: Personally, I think it’s “why do you hate America”. But “9/11…” is pretty high on the list of lame-o slogans.
6. Have a good one.
internet discussion board participant
Fuck you. Go Steelers!
ImJohnGalt
You and my wife, peas in a pod. Same brand, same variety.
For some reason, I pictured John as older and crotchetier.
Not exactly Wilford Brimley (that’s how I picture TZ), but at least one of John Rogers’ Republicans.
Grrr
As much as I hate to increase Restate’s site views, Erick is having a spectacular, kindergarten-style kick-and-scream on the floor meltdown.
It was only a matter of time really.
Krista
Age has nothing to do with one’s level of crotchetiness (is that even a word?) John can be plenty crotchety, even without the inducement of advanced years.
ImJohnGalt – I like your wife already.
Grrr
err…Redstate
Dave
Since this is somewhat of an open thread:
These are comments from Ace of Spade HQ:
I honestly do not understand this mentality. Someone care to explain? It’s an honest question.
Zifnab
Everyone who’s surprised, raise your hand. No? Nothing? Girl with pink cell-phone, not shocking? :-p You should see my sister’s Nokia cell-phone cover collection. She’s got an eyeburning bright color for every day of the month.
Grrr
And they just banned Adam Bonin…
I’m sorry, watching Redstate is like the time I watched a Volvo and a Corvette fight for air-space while we were at the Dairy Queen.
Zifnab
They’re ignorant. That’s really all it boils down to. The idea that the hippie movement broke out because people just hated the military is one instilled by years of right-wing propaganda. People were mad at the senseless bloodshed for political posturing and financial gain. At the worst, they were mad at the volunteer soldiers – even the drafted citizens who refused to dodge – for being complacent in the politico/corporate power play that was Vietnam. This was, in hindesight, a mistake on the part of the hippie movement that embraced it. But it the mistake was magnified and distorted by the same folks doing the original lying and stealing from the US trust. And some people bought the lie hook, line, and sinker.
And then there are the other sort of people. The type that are deliberately hypocritically tribal. “I’ll put my kid in harms way, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let any liberal open his yap to talk about it.” This guy doesn’t give a flying fuck about his kids, if he even has any. He just wants an excuse to stick his knee-highs into someone’s crotch. The fact that he’s saying it while talking about getting plastered on cheap booze makes me think he’s probably just another abusive, alcoholic, redneck. Unfortunately, abusive alcoholic rednecks have a special place in our society and somehow find themselves at the highest escalions of power. Not because they’re smart or skilled, but because they stick together like lemmings in the most irrational displaces of groupthink.
stickler
Re the fish: Simple and easy does the trick with a whitefish like that. Lightly breaded and fried in butter, or simply baked in butter and wine.
Re the age: I turned 39 for the first time, this year. All of a sudden I can remember my age. And since I think I’m going to refuse to turn 40, it’ll be simple to remember from here on out.
canuckistani
1) My phone is primitive – no games, no camera, no flip-out number pad. Just what I need for the 8 minutes a month I spend using it.
2) After my younger girl was born, I slid into a middle aged rut where one year is very much like another for me. That’s when I lost track.
3) Vestigal claws, probably adapted for picking up fine objects like nits and seeds.
4) Black beans are great
5) Nothing changed on 9/11, except that people suddenly noticed that the world can be dangerous, and the worst of us wet their pants with fear at the thought of terrorists at their local Walmart.
Which is not to say that you aren’t a shrill AmeriKKKa hater. Like me.
6) Every weekend is a good weekend.
moonbiter
I went my entire 29th year thinking I was 30. It wasn’t until my wonderful girlfriend at the time mentioned on my 30th birthday that I was the Big 3-0 that I realized this.
pharniel
in a reply to e^3&l on the other thread where i put this gem up, I realized something.#26
Essentially this is the classic nazi/kkk/white power/stalanist rabble rouser that exorts the audiance to take action against ‘the enemy’ before it’s ‘too late’.
I realized why it struck me as horribly offencive is because it’s almost verbatem in structure the same line that the nazi’s used to rally support against ‘the jews’.
It’s disgusting and quite frankly the fact that the administration has done a find replace on ‘liberals’ and ‘anyone not in our party’.
ThymeZone
They’re hillbillies. Even if they don’t live in the hills, even if they have “educations,” even if they are ordinary people-next-door, they’re still hillbillies.
Fuck ’em.
West Coast Libertarian
I forgot my age soon after I turned 40, and did not know it again until my kids took the opportunity a few years later to tell me that I was half a century. I forgot it again and it remained a mystery (within a year or two) untill last year when I turned 60. As I still feel 18 (except for the five trips to the john at night) my age is a constant cause of amazement to me right now.
ConservativelyLiberal
1) My cellphone is off most of the time, I do not use any IM program and most of the people who email me think I have an erectile problem and want me to buy the latest cure for cheap. That or emails about the latest stock tips on the hottest thing since burnt toast.
2) At least they asked you for your age. They quit asking me that years ago.
3) The fingernails are for chewing on while you watch your world being destroyed in the name of saving it.
4) Don’t ask me for cooking advice. My recommendation for the scrod would be preheat the oven to 500 degrees, nail the scrod to a board, place it in the oven and cook for three days, remove it, pull the scrod off the board and eat the board. Oops, those are the instructions for carp. See?
5) 9-11 changed the world for me by showing me that our fearful leader will do anything to enrichen his friends at all costs, including taking advantage of the gullible majority out there who are stupid enough to think that the terrorists are coming to their hometown just to kill them.
RSA
I’ve argued with hardcore conservatives in other forums. Here’s my take: They view Islam as a lethal threat to their (socially and politically conservative) Western values. They’ve gone as far as adopting Bush’s rhetorical style, opening their statements with, “Make no mistake. . .” and “Let me explain something. . .” They honestly believe, as far as I can tell, that in the end it’s us or them, good versus evil. (One has repeatedly used the line, “Nuke ’em till they glow.”) Given this world view, I think that any challenges to their opinions (e.g., most Muslims in their everyday lives don’t behave much differently from us, religious rituals aside, or maybe full-out war isn’t the best way of resolving disputes) are simply to be rejected. They view liberals as cowards who refuse to accept reality or moral bankrupts who embrace evil. It’s no surprise that they might express violent thoughts about liberals, I think.
ConservativelyLiberal
neil says:
Fixed.
pharniel
what I find really weird is the AoS constant calling of the State Department Weak or ‘no balls’ because the State Department doens’t…..what exactly?
Arn’t they supposed to be diplomats.
Isn’t diplomacy weak and ineffective?
IT’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t mentality that is childish and destined to cause failure.
Real life is more complex than any sermon or Bill O’Riely rant.
There are no good guys. There are no bad guys. There are just Guys.
Pooh
Even if one takes this as true, the attitude still doesn’t make sense. Most criticism (at least initially) was of the “you’re doing it wrong” variety.
RSA
You’re right. I’ve plumbed the depth of my understanding of the conservative mind. Obviously it’s not deep enough.
Pooh
Well RSA, I think you’re halfway there.
They think Jihadis are under the bed and they’re illogical, non-empirical douchebags.
Ben
There’s a very specific formula to determine if a fish is suitable for cajun cuisine. Is it at least this ugly?
dreggas
Or at least that freaking smelly. Honestly I have never had a more difficult time cleaning a fish than I did cleaning channel cats for just that reason, they stank to high heaven when being cleaned. However they did taste pretty darn good.
RSA
As much as I hate to think it, this does explain a lot.
Jess
Has anyone noticed John Solomon’s lastest bit of silliness in the WaPo?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/18/AR2007011802077.html
Like Don Q. attacking windmills, he’s making a desperate attempt to create a scandal out of the fact that the couple who bought some property from John Edwards, through real estate agents no less, are involved in a company being investigated by the SEC. It’s hilarious–check it out!
dreggas
Oh boy…even if it’s classified you know someone is gonna get spanked…
Conyers calls second hearing on NSA surveillance
Pooh
Remember the “reporter” who kept writing anti-Harry Reid stories, John Solomon? He’s back. And still crap:
So the “story” is that Edwards sold his house to a couple who are in litigation with unions. Therefore…a jackalope…
Jess
Fear and shame. Ashamed of being afraid, and terrified of being shamed. It’s the same basic ingredients in every mixed-grill of hate and violence, accompanied by the latest vintage of self-rightousness (to continue the cooking theme of this thread).
Jess
Wow, Pooh–are we in synch, or what?!? A bit eerie, no?
Goodboy
Cole, you need to tell us your thoughts more in the office. Too funny.
Pb
Pooh,
Now here’s a real story:
A union which endorsed Kerry-Edwards in 2004 is pro-free market? Alert the wingnuts, they don’t “believe capitalism is evil”! (/me casts “Dispel Jackalope VI”)
Pooh
They don’t care, as their strategy is to drain you of mana before the real battle.
Rome Again
Whoops, sorry for the strange blockquoting.
John, I don’t use a cellphone, or aol IM or any of that other stuff either. In fact, I try to live off the grid as much as possible. I don’t think I could take all the interruptions, personallly.
9/11 only changed everything for the Buy-Bull believers who seem to have had a “Revelations” signal activated in their brains due to their Sunday School programming. Notice how these believers elevated a man who said “God told me to strike…” to the position of savior of the world who can do no wrong. Previous to 9/11 saying “God told me…” would have been considered a mental condition, called Paranoid Schizophrenia.
ThymeZone
A very astute observation. I find most modern religious righties to be basically sociopaths. I find the whole rationale for the Iraq war to be sociopathic at this point.
At the rate Iraqis are fleeing their country, apparently they think so too.
As near as I can tell, both Israel and the US have policies grounded in the idea that the more people you can drive from their homes, the more successful you are.
Paddy O'Shea
Sometimes I think the reason great nations decline is because people become too bored to take their responsibilities seriously. Chaos and bullshit is just so much more exciting than the daily humdrum of things going well.
Perry Como
Then you can just use Dark Pact (with Karl Marx).
Pb
Regarding the topic of explaining wingnuts, I’ve been enjoying this book (as it is released piecemeal–waiting for Chapter II!):
The simulations are my favorite parts–suffice it to say that these people also make for lousy–nay, catastrophic–world leaders.
RSA
Thanks for the link; I haven’t read it yet, but the excerpt reminds me of Milgram’s famous “Obedience Experiments”. (I’ve seen the video about a dozen times, in the classroom.) There’s a nice match there as well, for the current debate over torture. That is, if an experimenter saying, “You must continue” is compelling to many people, imagine how much easier his job would be if he could say, “You must continue; the subject is a suspected terrorist.”
Dave
So in pondering responses to my question I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m never going to understand what makes these people tick. It’s not rational, and trying to figure out a rational reason for who they are is not possible. I suppose it’s a lot like religion to me, I don’t get organized religion and why people would willingly submit themselves to it’s world view when at times it so latently obvious that the world operates in a different manner (think creationism for the obvious example).
Thanks PB for the link, I’ll check that out.
Oh another note:
The Taiwan Parliament erupts into a UFC !a>
I find the show in the picture to be hysterical.
“>WaPo has more
James F. Elliott
Best. Blog alias. Ever.
Mike
They are NOT douchebags. Please stop saying this. Really, would you want them next to the vagina of someone you know and love? Rather, use the more correct terms. They are COLOSTOMY BAGS, filled to the brim.
dreggas
but they came out of vaginas at some point and many have spawned meaning they have indeed been near vaginas.
I would agree however that they are more along the lines of an anal probe, a colostomy bag, or an enema bag (take your pick).
Pooh
I would have gone with “cobag”, but I’m not so much “Sadly, No” overlap there is here at BJ…
TenguPhule
Only in Texas.
Presented without comment.
Digital Amish
Can’t remember when I lost track of my age. But being born in early 1950, it has always been easy to compute… after I ask someone what year it is.
Rome Again
TenguPhule,
My mother moved to (and later died in) Texas, not far from Dallas, when I became an adult (I never lived there myself). One day when she was trying to describe her life there to me, she told me “Honey, it’s a whole ‘nother country here”. I believe it.
Kimmitt
Fingernails are for dealing with critters.
demimondian
Works that way for me, too, except I was born in 1960.
It works particularly well for me since I finally get the current year fixed in my mind around my birthday most years.
My birthday is, of course, in October…
Jonathan
I was born in 1950 so keeping track of my age is pretty easy, as long as I can remember what year it is. My wife is hopelessly confused about her age.
No cellphone, no IM and I rarely answer my home phone, that’s what answering machines are for, screening out assholes who want to sell me something by abusing a phone line I pay for. No games at all, computer, console or otherwise, my wife plays computer solitare obsessively though.
I have a pretty eclectic history. First I was a two-years-ahead-of-my-class and much bullied uber geek, then I was a Marine, then I was a dirty fucking hippy, then I was a daddy and now I’m a grandpa.
Fingernails? They’re for scratching your partner’s back when in the throes of “the little death”.
Fish? My wife doesn’t eat fish so we never cook it, I have not a clue.
9/11? I figured we were headed for world wide religious war, what with OBL screaming “jihad” and GWB screaming “crusade”. Nothing I’ve seen since has changed my mind, in fact I’m more convinced than ever.
Behind Blue Eyes
Take a look at this photoessay, you’ll never think of the song the same way again.
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, because I’m the meanest motherfucker in the valley. — Marine Corps saying.
Actually I guess I’m a RedStater’s worst nightmare, a hippy that can pick you off at five hundred meters. :-)
Peace, love, drugs.
bago
I guess the food question depends upon your desired booty status.
To quote Sir Mix-A-Lot:
Gimme a Sister I can’t resist her,
Red beans and rice didn’t miss her.
Ballon-Juice got back?
Punchy
They came about around the time when automobiles showed up with doors. They were an adaption (evolution, Kansans!) brought about by the need to not completely squish one’s fingers flat when placed in said closed door.
AlanDownunder
That one has me scratching my head.
Chuck Butcher
9/11 ?
Nah, 6/28/69 everything changed. I was riding in the back driver’s side seat of my parent’s car @ 60+mph and a semi-tractor trailer @60+ jumped the center line and took us behind the left front wheel well. I got most of the hit, the bumper missed my face by a couple inches. I was 16 years and taking my driver’s test the next day. Well, no, I was out of commission for awhile. You don’t get to look at death that close and live, usually. It didn’t scare me, oddly, and since I was alive the next second, it still didn’t scare me. I haven’t been scared of anything since, I can see outcomes I’d rather not participate in, but not scared. I’ve lived a pretty edgy and dangerous life, 9/11 is one of those things that happened, afterwards, make it real dangerous to get involved trying it again, smash a country and then rearrange the rubble, that’s ok. Fake shit blows.
The little huffers over at redstate might want to be careful what “hippie” they pick to plant their fake boots on, I’ve been bustin’ ass on construction sites for 30 years, I wear 16″ WesCo loggers, I’m still fast, strong, and smarter than when I was a kid and could remember my age, without math. Oh, and I’m always sober and I ain’t skeert.
Ordinarily I’m a nice type of guy, but I’ve had my hind end on the line for the US before (USFS Hotshot), I never needed their kind of approval to love my country and what it’s supposed to stand for and I’ve never stood still for what they advocate. Wannabe badasses are boring
jurassicpork
Hey, thanks for the links, Jonathan.
JP, fellow recovering military dude and current hippie.
Jonathan
JP:
You should have put a link up to your post at Pottersville.
Here, I’ll do it for you.
George W Flashman
“It wouldn’t do Bush any harm to read Kipling,” he concluded before signing off.
How true.
Dave
Yeah I was born in ’70. Easy for me too. Here’s to being born in a year ending in zero!
Dave
Interesting Factoid…to quote Paul Harvey…For what it’s worth:
I’m watching a PBS documentary on the Free Masons:
“…it was not a good time for organized religion, out of the four million people living in America in 1790, less than 10% belonged to a congregation.”
Yeah…so um…America was born as a Christian state.
ConservativelyLiberal
Johnathan Says
Another hippy with good aim! Yo brother! Still got the hair? I have had mine long since 1969, and I have not looked back. Well, I did cut it (to my shoulders) once to show my boss I was tired of his crap, and that I was going to get a job elsewhere. He pulled his head out, and I got my raise above scale. Had him by the cojones though, I designed their electrical systems (small boats and yachts) for them, and they knew I would be a nightmare to replace without problems. Especially during prototype season, heh. I had most of the new designs in my head…lol! Job security.
My hair is still down to my waist, but much thinner at 47. I am a pretty damn good shot too, and I am a RedStaters worst nightmare (and proud of it).
People may like to stereotype hippies, but a real hippy never gives up. They will always be a hippy, or they never were. And while a hippy may say peace, you better not cross them. Some are pretty good at handling themselves (and others) when necessary. Some are good shots… ;)
Jonathan
CL:
Not that much hair anymore, I let it get to the point where it’s hard to take care of and then I shave it off. I alternate between semi hippy and skinhead. My grandkids think I’m nuts, but we have a great time.
Almost cut my hair
It happened just the other day
It was getting kind of long
I could have said it was in my way
But I didn’t and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
And I feel like I owe it to someone
Must be because I had the flu for Christmas
And I’m not feeling up to par
It increases my paranoia
Like looking into a mirror and seeing a police car
But I’m not giving in an inch to fear
Cos I promised myself this year
I feel like I owe it to someone
When I finally get myself together
I’m gonna get down in some of that sweet summer weather
I’m going to find a space inside to laugh
Separate the wheat from the chaff
Cos I feel like I owe it, yeah
Said I feel like I owe it, yeah
You know I feel—- like I owe it yeah to someone
The Farting Housecoat
Al Gore is the real cause of global warming. Why? because he refuses to shut his damned mouth!
jake
Which ones? Both Christo-loons at home and Islamo-loons abroad have shaped Bush’s “policies.”
Dobson says: Bash the gays!
Osama says: Out of Saudi Arabia!
Bush says: Mother may I…
Bob In Pacifica
After a certain point age doesn’t matter. If you are not getting alcohol or drinking, there’s a long period when your age has no importance. I crossed fifty-five a year back and I think I can get the senior specials at Dennys. Will have to see if they have scrod and red beans on the menu.
9/13 was when everything changed for me. That’s the day I was served divorce papers. I was in a kind of daze, seeing my twenty-year marriage was ending. The two days before I was served I remember waking up here on the West Coast and hearing about a plane crashing into the WTC. There was a TV on at the office when I got to work, but I mostly was shuffling trying to get through work. As shocking as 9/11 was I was going through my own life at the time and if Osama and twenty divisions had landed on Sandy Hook I still would have been more worried about my wife and daughter. I eventually noticed the importance of the attack. I guess my point is that there were a lot of little things more important to little people than the major events of the day. Life goes on at the side of the road.
Dreggas
I think Red Staters seem to have us confused with someone or something else. I myself am a damn good shot, proud to know how to survive on my own in the wilderness and was in the military albeit briefly because of a medical issue.
They can talk all they want about putting boots in peoples asses but they sure would be embarrassed to have to go to the hospital to have my boot removed from their ass.
ChristieS
I don’t own a cell phone. Hehe…where I live, if I want to use it I have to stand in the middle of the street. As said street is the highway, that becomes problematical. But mostly, it’s because I don’t need one.
I’ll be celebrating the 15th anniversary of my 29th birthday..I think…, in March. Let me ask my 9 yo daughter. I can’t keep track of my age, so she elected herself my memory.
Fingernails: So the nervous nellies in the world have something to chew on.
Scrod: Ewww, what swims in the ocean can stay in the ocean. But the Black Beans and Rice go well with fresh plantains.
9/11: Gave PNAC the perfect laboratory to research their theories. I can only imagine the case studies that will be published. Behaviorists will have a field day.
Enjoy your weekend, I have schoolwork that my psychotic psych professor handed out yesterday. Yes, he’s earned the appellage.
ConservativelyLiberal
jake Says:
Sounds more intelligent this way…
I was never in the military (would have liked to have joined the AF but a childhood knee injury ruined that for me), but I grew up around hunters, and I learned about guns and archery. I later went on to join the local rifle club and took a few courses. I have nothing but the highest respect for our military men and women (their brass can be another matter, but that gets into the politics of it) who go out and do the dirty work. Heck, one of my ‘liberal’ friends has quite the home brewed armory, and five acres in the county to play on. Yes Dorthy, liberals can shoot too. Heck, I bet there are one of two of us in the military, you think? ;)
Our son is 11, and he has been learning to shoot with his BB rifle I got him. He is learning proper handling and care, how to use a scope (and dial it in) and targeting. This summer he graduates to a .22 rifle. We have a great local shooting range in the wilderness area. It is very popular with us locals. I hope he stays with it like I did, it is a skill that is handy to know about.
I think they like to try to put everyone who they view as a liberal (or against them in any way) under one big tent. You know, black and white thought. No depth to their thought processes at all. It makes it easier for them to vilify us, but they are only pissing people like me off and encouraging us to speak out.
I grew up in the woods as a kid, and I learned to use a firearm responsibly (and very well I might add). You spend enough time with a weapon, and it just becomes a part of you. An extension of you. I don’t hunt anymore, but I will always support those who do. It is serious business, yet it is a very fun sport and puts food on the table too.
The only good gun control is a steady hand. That, from a ‘liberal’! Oh my. ;)
The world as they know it is ending…
The Farting Housecoat
There was a chance I might have had to serve in Viet Nam, but fortunately I realized that my potential for greatness lay elsewhere.
jake
All hippies are cowards. All liberals are cowards. Gosh. That sounds a lot like All gays are cowards which sounds exactly like All Jews are cowards.
Knuckle-dragging…[yawn]… small penised, sheet wearers…so. Fucking. Tedious. [Snore!]
Since we’re on the subject, my one face-to-face encounter with this type of creature involved: Me shouting down the ears of two large Klan wannabes and said specimens running for their fucking lives.
That’s it. No hitting, no physical contact at all (maybe a little spittle on the ear lobes). Just a loud voice asking what the fuck they were doing was all it took to make two bastards who could have squashed me flee like rats. And the friend I was out with dragged me away so I didn’t have to feel guilty for stomping people who expressed opinions contrary to my own. Bloody spoil sport. No! I mean, thank goodness for cooler heads!
Now, thanks to the Intertubes, these shitheads can now beat their chests from the safety of mom’s basement. Thus is law and order maintained in our society.
capelza
36! The age you can legally date someone half your age.
Have been unplugged for a while now. My beloved friend of almost thirty years keeled over day before yesterday. He had been fighting cancer and his magnificent heart gave out. He literally died in the arms of his wife in his own home, just the two of them.
Aside from the grief, the rituals we adopt when this happens. The men remain stoic and the women cook and clean. Everyone gathers at the home, food and flower arrive..the stories get told again and again and the pictures are pulled out. There is quite a pile now. 54 years of life. But the only one that reduces me to tears is of a twelve year old boy on one of the rivers of the Oregon coast he grew up on. All smiles. He kept that grin all his life.
My friend was beloved by all that knew him. Never the most most successful fisherman, he was the most loved.
ConservativelyLiberal
I will take love over success any day. Besides that, any good fisherman will tell you that going is most of the fun. Success is secondary when you are having fun.
Sorry to hear of his wife, and your, loss. I know the routine after a death well, and it is a sad march but it is what keeps us going. My mother in law was one of the best people I have ever known. We were great friends and I miss her dearly. We have a 30″ x 40″ custom framed collage of her life on our wall, so she is right here at our side, every single day. My wife wears her Mom’s watch every day, and the band of it catches on my arm hair (giving it a nice tweak and removing a couple of strands) all of the time. Every single time it does, I warmly think of Betty.
It seems like something that she would get a laugh out of. My wife sure does.
Dave
It’s interesting, the old saw that you get more conservative as you get older. While my core political beliefs haven’t changed all that much, my stance on gun control has. I still don’t view the second amendment as giving people the right to keep and bear arms (there is that pesky “militia” word in there). I used to view guns as the ultimate evil, no one should own them. I have come to the conclusion though that if you take someones gun away, they’ll find some other creative way to kill people. So I’ve softened my stance to, if ya wanna own a gun, go for it, just don’t point it at me.
Newport 9
1) What is this “cell phone” you speak of?
2) I always know how old I am. It’s my wife who keeps forgetting.
3) Emergency screwdrivers.
4) Fish should only be eaten by other fish.
5) Welcome to the ranks of the dirty fucking hippies. You should be receiving your flower power stickers and “Keep On Truckin” poster in 6 to 8 weeks.
6) What is this “weekend” you speak of?
Bombadil
CaseyL — the recipe works for any thick piece of white fish. Stuff like flounder and other flatfish tend to fall apart, so you need something thick like cod or haddock.
Krista
I have an easier time understanding Republicans than I do people who hate fish. :)
ThymeZone
I’m with you. A prime piece of swordfish, properly prepared, is about as good as food can get.
I’ve had scallops that made me want to cry.
A piece of blackened catfish down in Baton Rouge is a religious experience.
Rome Again
Ummmm, care for some PRETZELS?
Nancy Irving
We have fingernails because without them, our fingertips would be a bloody mess; at least, those of us whose jobs involve more than tapping on a keyboard all day.
demimondian
Look at it this way, K. Can you imagine eating something invertebrate, which feeds on the excrement of other animals as it drifts to the bottom of the murky pool?
I don’t want to eat any creature like that, so that I can be sure I never eat Pat Robertson.
Bombadil
Good. More lobster for the rest of us.
demimondian
Just watch out for the Mark Foley Etoufee. It’s got a bad taint.
Krista
Yes, and quite happily.
(I live in a fishing village, demi. If you want to try to scare me off of seafood, you’ve got your work cut out for you.)
demimondian
And I live in a city which made most of its money on logging and berry farms. That doesn’t mean I’m going to chop down all the tree in my yard, or that I have to live on raspberries when they’re in season.
:P
Krista
demi – true, but nor would you be grossed out by the fact that raspberries are probably coated with bug poop. :)
Anyway, my point is that you can tell me all the creepy things about shellfish that you want, and it won’t make a difference to my love for a food that I’ve loved and eaten since I was a wee tyke in footie pajamas.
Bombadil
I live in a town famous for its soft-shell clams and is the home to the Greatest Fried Clams in the World Evah. (The next town over claims to be the place where they were invented, but they were perfected here.)
These delightful little gems live their lives buried in the muck between the high- and low-tide lines, happily slurping up sea water and taking from it whatever dissolved organic material they can find. They are delicious, deep fried or steamed and dipped in melted butter.
Every so often, when we get heavy rains, the clam flats are closed because the run-off from the land causes a red-tide algae bloom. Then, the clams can pick up toxins and are off limits. Once that clears, though, the diggers (or, as they’re known here, “the diggahs”) are back at work supplying us with little bundles of heaven.
And don’t get me started on oysters, the reason Guiness was invented.
You don’t like ’em? Fine — like I said earlier, more for us.
Krista
And I’m now hungry.