Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

I was promised a recession.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

This fight is for everything.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Republicans in disarray!

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

“Squeaker” McCarthy

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

71Comments

  5. 5.

    AhabTRuler

    And, yes, he snores.

    Well, anything that enjoys sleep that much must snore. It’s in the contract. Read the fine print, people!

  6. 6.

    Andre

    @donovong: Dogs snoring kind of creep me out.

    Mack is chronic for it (two month old French bulldog.) Every time he’s on his tummy he snores loud enough to wake us up. As soon as he turns on his side he’s fine though.

  7. 7.

    donovong

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    We also have a 7 pound female Pomeranian, who absolutely rules over the big guy. We’re talking total domination here.

    However, the pizza delivery guys are not aware of this defect, and would not believe it if they were.

  10. 10.

    gbear

    Open thread or pet thread?

    Contessa Brewer does kind of a nice verbal take-down that leaves a republican talking head sputtering on msnbc. All she had to say was "Perhaps it was the Republicans with the deaf ears on that front", and the whole conversation collapses. Fun to watch.

  14. 14.

    donovong

    @demkat620:

    I do still exercise some leverage over said beast. If you look closely, you will see that our furry friend is still what they call "intact." As in not neutered.

    He knows that could change.

  15. 15.

    EnderWiggin

    Stuck in a hotel room, so i am flipping channels, and i am shocked at how much i am enjoying watching Alexandra Pelosi’s "Right America: Feeling Wronged"

    Right now there is a guy pissed off that you can’t fly a confederate flag, and ranting about how you can’t go to a titty bar or hunt or blah blah blah. Followed by tears about how the foreigners get everything.

    His follow up happily admits that he doesn’t like black people and doesn’t think women should vote. Scary shit.

  16. 16.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @EnderWiggin: Since when can you not proudly display a confederate flag? I got one on my right truck bumper to balance out the Obama sticker on the left.

  18. 18.

    Laura W

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I made the full commitment to declaring my Obama love today by putting this on the back of the car I currently call my own. Looks cool.
    I was driving a different vehicle all last year that was not my own so only semi-committed by taping an Obama ’08 bumper sticker from moveon onto the inside of the back window.
    Today’s application was a big decision. Took me weeks to decide to do it, and then more weeks to decide where to place it. Decisions is hard.

  19. 19.

    Krista

    Awww…is that bottom one a Lhasa? It’s adorable. My friends came over tonight with their 8-week-old Boston Terrier puppy. I almost died from teh cute.

  23. 23.

    Polish the Guillotines

    Okay, just picked up some Angostura bitters and sweet Vermouth. Any good cocktail recipes?

    I just made a Manhattan. Not sure whether I like it or not.

    Also picked up some Russian Standard vodka. Only on account of the recipe was created by Dmitri Mendeleev, inventor of the Periodic Table of Elements. Must do my part for science.

  26. 26.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Actually I like vermouth (dry martini in good old Blighty) with lots of ice, soda water and a slice of lemon as a "light" drink (much as I like a spritzer, white wine and soda water) only problem is when you have drunk like 15 of them you might as well have drunk the martini or wine neat cause you are gonna get that headache in the morning.

    BTW) Since living in Talibaptist land with a former Mormon husband I am no longer able to imbibe in my absolute favorite drink, a long crackling icy cold gin and tonic with ice and a slice. My liquor consumption these days is down to an occasional Bloody Mary after dinner (and what the HELL is with Outback putting a F**king green bean in a Bloody Mary!) My favorite Bloody Mary ever was in a piano bar atop a hotel in Hong Kong, perfectly salted glass rim, perfect Bloody Mary, perfect celery stick, perfect view of Hong Kong out the windows, perfect guy in a tux tinkling on the ivories, perfect company. sigh.

    Oh and I have also had a Singapore Sling in The Writers Bar in Singapore.

    So everyone what is your favorite drink, cocktail, whatever, and where is the best place you ever drunk it? Booze thread!

  27. 27.

    David

    I read the post about the snippy snarky music man that hated Billy Joel and wrote an article about it. Then I read the article by the poor guy. Full of nasty bloviation, he didn’t make a single decent point about B.J. Then I came back here and read the many wonderful comments. Oh! Did I forget to mention that I watched a Billy Joel youtube clip someone linked to? Because I did. Kind of nice.
    It’s been weeks now. Every few days another Billy Joel song creeps softly through my brain and I notice it only when I start humming.
    I’m ready to saw open my skull and clean my brain with steel wool.
    Anyway. Long time lurker, first time poster. Nice site. Excuse me, I need to go ram my head against a wall repeatedly.

  28. 28.

    Laura W

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I read your last sentence before the rest of your comment and immediately thought: Gin Bloody Marys on the ferry from San Francisco to Sausalito. Did a lot of that in my college years as the drive from Santa Barbara to SF was not so bad and it was my favorite playground.
    I haven’t had one in years, and they are by no means my favorite adult beverage, but that cocktail, in that place, under those circumstances and wind/water/view conditions…transcendent.

    Also, THAT ORANGE AND WHITE KITTY IS BREAKING MY HEART.
    Adorable.

  31. 31.

    MikeJ

    Sweet vermouth is nice in the summer served like a PImm’s Cup. I prefer a Pimm’s, but when in uncivilized lands where it’s difficult to get, Vya with soda on ice is a very nice cooler.

  32. 32.

    Laura W

    @John Cole: That was my grandfather’s booze of choice. And his only booze in my memory. He’d break out the pint from under the kitchen sink on Christmas and have one or two. Funny.
    All sorts of hysterical vomiting stories from my youth are running thru my mind now but rather than impress y’all, I’ll self-censor, for a change.

    Pee Ess: Last night’s Flight of the Conchords was the funniest all season! Jemaine sleeps with an Australian girl.
    Brett: Did you use protection?
    Jemaine: Yes, but only on my penis.
    Full of great laughs, it was.

  33. 33.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Laura W:

    It was my first year in Scotland, and we were celebrating New Year’s Eve in the Senior Rates Mess (Staff NCO’s bar?) it crept closer to midnight and they handed out a glass of single malt scotch (I think it was Glenmorangie) when the doors opened and a piper in full regalia walked in and played. I about died. I do not like Scotch, never have, but that moment, that time, listening to the piper, I kept thinking "this is why I came to Scotland" and gloried as the scotch warmed my mouth, my throat, and all the way down.

  34. 34.

    HRA

    The last picture who is being called an Ewok looks a lot like my shorkie, Tiki. The difference is Tiki has grey, white and silver hair. Yes, shorkies do have hair. They do not shed at all.
    I know I did promise a picture. I hope to send it ASAP. I just switched over to a high speed internet and am still learning my way around it.

    I love all the pet photos.

  35. 35.

    Brick Oven Bill

    If my government directs me to submit my medical history so that they can put it into some government database, I intend to say no. I intend to direct my doctor to not submit my medical information to the government.

    Someone please tell me, if it is a no-no to listen in on suspicious overseas phone calls, why it is acceptable for the government to have instant access to everyone’s personal medical information.

    I drink cheap beer, and enjoy drinking it in the basement, alone. But I was invited to a Royal Family event in Saudi Arabia once, where there were plenty of fancy things. I did not go, but lots of others did. The Saudi Royal family drinks Jack Daniels. Islam is used as a tool to control the population. This is one reason why I do not like that belief system.

  36. 36.

    Wonk

    When I was 16 my cousin invited me to her boyfriend’s 21st birthday party, and all of their friends thought it would be fun to get me drunk on tequila shots and Harvey Wallbangers (IIRC, that’s a screwdriver with Grenadine?). Then someone handed me a bong.

    I threw up on his shoes.

  37. 37.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I am on a roll here. DH (who was then Dear Fiance) had got back from the Gulf in April (thank the FSM) and in October was brought to Scotland on an exchange with the Royal Marine Band, my flatmate organized a breakfast party for him (seeing as he did not arrive until 9am) BUCKS FIZZ. We were all absolutely and utterly bombed by noon, in jammies and bathrobes. By 3pm we had ANOTHER party at the Royal Marine HQ. I don’t remember much of that one seeing as there is nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the day with a crashing hangover and having another party to go to.

  39. 39.

    Comrade Vida Loca

    I drink cheap beer, and enjoy drinking it in the basement, alone.

    Fuck, man. Live dangerously for once. Drink it on the damn roof.

    The Saudi Royal family drinks Jack Daniels. Islam is used as a tool to control the population. This is one reason why I do not like that belief system.

    Well, the Bush family drinks Jack Daniels too, and Christianity is used as a tool to control the population just as much and just as effectively as Islam is. So, how do you feel about that belief system?

  40. 40.

    Wonk

    Apologies if my comment (currently in moderation) sounds a little BoB-ish. If it had posted right after Cole’s nose-squirting comment as I’d intended, it wouldn’t sound quite as weird.

    I love the shepherd up top. PBS had a show last night called "Why We Love Cats & Dogs" – and one of the story lines was this couple who sold their business and took to the road when they found out their German Shepherd "Jerry" had bone cancer and only had about a year to live. The dog had one of his front legs amputated, but he could still run like a pro, and they had a harness with a handle on him so they could pick him up like a suitcase for getting in & out of their truck.

    Box o’ Kleenex time. Sniff, sniff.

  42. 42.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Wonk:

    If you don’t link to that you are going to be in a whole bunch of trouble round here. There is nothing us juicers like more that blowing snot into a tissue over a pet story. LINK NOW DAMMNIT! (Nice to see you girl!)

  43. 43.

    Comrade Vida Loca

    But I was invited to a Royal Family event in Saudi Arabia once, where there were plenty of fancy things. I did not go, but lots of others did.

    So, Bill. Lemme get this straight. You’re sitting somewhere in Saudi, down in the basement drinking beer all by your lonesome, polishing your prejudices while everybody else is at the party that the royals are throwing. Am I getting this right? And you wonder why people here sometimes think you’re a little… unusual?

  44. 44.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Final booze story (promise) I went to Cheddar Gorge, with RN friends of mine, and we stopped at a pub, with tables outside, we ordered the Ploughman’s Lunch (obviously)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughman's_lunch

    with a cold shandy

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandy

    There is nothing better than eating Cheddar cheese matured in the caves of the gorge you are sitting in while drinking a shandy on the most glorious of sunny days. It simply cannot be beat. (I have a ton more of these stories but I will shut up now).

  47. 47.

    Brick Oven Bill

    No, I was not sitting in a basement in Saudi, I elected to stand a post that night. I drink beer alone in the basement these days, because I can only take so much Wiggles and PBS children’s television after 8pm. It is pretty bad. This is my special place. I have a plastic table.

    You are not allowed to consume alcohol openly in Saudi, because, it is banned for the proles over there. But our government has a small, non-descript concrete building, or at least used to, where they quietly bus you in. Then you get bombed. There is a pool table. Then they bus you back.

  48. 48.

    El Cid

    I refuse to let federal officials inspect body cavities for illegal aliens. I was once in a closet where I sniffed glue. The Indonesians don’t eat enough pork, given their religious constrictions, and I aim to keep myself free.

  50. 50.

    Nicole

    I am not normally a gin drinker, but a friend serves Aviation cocktails at his annual holiday party and they are frighteningly delicious. The same friend enjoys refilling your glass when you’re not looking so you’re sure you’re still on your first drink. And they’re a pretty lavender color.

    It’s now February and my husband is still doing dramatic reenactments of my coming home from said holiday party.

  51. 51.

    Krista

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Mmm…ploughman’s lunch and a shandy. That is a seriously good time.

    I don’t have any good cocktail stories, but there was this one perfect glass of wine. We were at Babbo for our wedding supper, and the cheese course was this incredible cheese that Mario Batali’s father-in-law makes solely for the restaurant, and was served with fennel honey. To accompany it, they served a glass of this slightly sweet, nutty, amber-tinted wine, and the flavour of it mingled with the creamy, slightly salty cheese, and the slight anise taste of the fennel honey, and just became something extraordinary.

  55. 55.

    SGEW

    I drink cheap beer, and enjoy drinking it in the basement, alone.

    This is my special place. I have a plastic table.

    I think that you might be pushing the character a little too far into cliched tropes there, Bill. Dial it back a notch, before you’re writing a full blown A Confederacy of Dunces parody. Otherwise, it’s gold.

  57. 57.

    Wonk

    @Farley: My sis lost her first dog, a Golden, to bone cancer in 2005. But she had 3 good years in between the first tumor and the final one, so the surgery they paid for was worth it.

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Thanks much for posting the link, my sister missed the show yesterday so you betcha I’m gonna email it right to her.

  58. 58.

    Brick Oven Bill

    The thing I remember most of Saudi Arabia is the smell of sewage in the streets. This was not an insignificant city, but the human waste made the whole place reek, as you walked around the cigarette and cell-phone sales stands. I have a story about Saudi plumbing in a relatively westernized mall, where the western women were still covered.

    Location: Bathroom in the mall. There are two enclosed stalls with ~6” holes in the ground and no toilet. Then there is a metal trough with a half-inch perforated pipe above it, perforations through which water is steadily dripping and going down the drain.

    Me: Drank water and need to relieve self.

    Think: Trough looks like the urinals from the upper Midwest.

    Action: Approach trough and let loose. Then a Saudi leaves one of the enclosed stalls with the 6” holes and begins to wash his hands, glaring (glaring) at me.

    Decision: Get back to base quickly, because I do not want to answer to this guy.

  59. 59.

    reality-based

    John, I hear you about the sloe gin – it was big during my North Dakota youth.

    19th birthday, college sophomore, drinking sloe gin and orange juice. Lovely fuschia color, scrumptious sweet fruity taste, amazing projectile vomiting. The most unladylike birthday of my life.

    Now, of course, being middle-aged, suave, and sophisticated – best drink is Jameson’s Irish whiskey and water.

    Well, the BEST drink is a 1989 bordeaux – preferably the St. Julien I drank in Paris in 1996, with duck, at the Tour d’Argent – but that’s another story.

  60. 60.

    Ed Marshall

    So you thought the guy was a barbarian for pissing in the hole in the ground toilet and so you pissed the sink and got mad that he took offense. Is that the story?

  61. 61.

    Incertus

    @John Cole: You should read Tim Gautreaux’s The Next Step In the Dance, if only for the scene in the Cajun bar involving Sloe Gin, pickled eggs, the front seat of a pickup truck, and a slightly scatalogical joke about the resemblance between a lifesaver and a sphincter.

  62. 62.

    Brick Oven Bill

    The story is that I unknowingly pissed in the sink and, knowing what they do to people who steal loaves of bread, was concerned.

    That and the fact that the Arab culture, with all the money and jumbo-jets for the top guys, does not choose to spend money on indoor plumbing for the population, even in the relatively fancy malls.

    The story was intended to assuage any liberal guilt you may feel on a personal level Ed. I am here to help.

  63. 63.

    Common Sense

    @bago:

    Tito’s, Quake, and Doom. The only good things to come from texas.

    Molly Ivins
    Barbara Jordan
    Texas Brisket
    the fajita
    Shiner Bock
    Willie Nelson
    Buddy Holly
    Wes Anderson

    try again

  64. 64.

    Clio

    @Krista:

    Close, he’s a shih-tzu. His name is Fitzie, he weighs in around 14 pounds and is 9 years old. Big dog in a little dog’s body, he is literally the most chilled out small dog ever. He has one of the best personalities I’ve ever seen on a dog. Total snuggler and best friends with my cat. They share a bowl, it’s pretty damn cute.

  65. 65.

    Clio

    @Cain:

    I’ve heard both. My friends have called him everything from "the little ewok", "Wicket", and the "dust mop" to the "little Mogwai".

  66. 66.

    R-Jud

    The best beer I ever had was a Guinness I had with my mother in a hole-in-the-wall pub in London when I was 19. She’d never had Guinness before and was bemused by it. We started to become friends over that beer.

    The single best glass of wine I had was red, while eating Thai food on my apartment balcony during a hot evening in Chicago. That’s all I remember about it, other than that this nice English gentleman brought the wine with him when he flew across the Atlantic for our first date. I’ll ask him if he remembers what wine it was when he gets home later.

    Li’lBrit, I agree: a shandy and a ploughman on a hot summer’s day is fantastic. An ale and a hot pie in front of a fire after a long country walk is its cold-weather counterpart. Bonus points if it happens in a creaky old pub under an abbey or someplace like that.

  67. 67.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    If my government directs me to submit my medical history so that they can put it into some government database, I intend to say no. I intend to direct my doctor to not submit my medical information to the government.

    In that case, be sure to take a pass on the whole Medicare thing.

    (PS to everybody else, the current proposals have to do with computerizing and standardizing information already shared between doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, pharmacies, and insurers.)

  68. 68.

    Gravenstone

    Drinking stories, eh? Not much for drinking anymore – maybe the occasional bourbon to savor slowly. In college, for my 21st my friends bought me a fifth of Everclear (this being barely 3 weeks into the fall term). Things went rapidly downhill from there as we experimented with the practical limits of EC as "octane booster". EC and Jack, EC and Bacardi, EC and various schnapps, EC and beer (well, his roomate tried that one). My buddy and I settled onto a couple of standards; shot each EC and Jack mixed with a can of Mt Dew or shot each of EC, 151 and Jack with two cans Pepsi. Many a college evening was spent waxing (pseudo)philosophical while deep in our cups. At our worst we averaged a fifth of liquor a week between the two of us. I’m surprised I survived.

  69. 69.

    wilfred

    That and the fact that the Arab culture, with all the money and jumbo-jets for the top guys, does not choose to spend money on indoor plumbing for the population, even in the relatively fancy malls.

    As usual on this site, anti-Arab bigotry is permissible.

    What could you possibly know about Arab culture, you ignorant slob. No toilets in shopping malls? They even have ablution rooms and mosques for people who wish to pray.

    Get your head out of the oven and shove it back your ass, where it belongs.

  70. 70.

    Gravenstone

    @wilfred:

    Get your head out of the oven and shove it back your ass, where it belongs.

    Actually, I think we’d prefer he keep it in said oven. Preferably while is was stoked good and hot. Save the rest of us much trouble addressing his diarrhea of the word processor.

  71. 71.

    Krista

    Close, he’s a shih-tzu. His name is Fitzie, he weighs in around 14 pounds and is 9 years old. Big dog in a little dog’s body, he is literally the most chilled out small dog ever. He has one of the best personalities I’ve ever seen on a dog. Total snuggler and best friends with my cat. They share a bowl, it’s pretty damn cute.

    He’s absolutely adorable, with that little Ewok face and those "J’accuse!" eyes. Please give him a scritch behind the ears for me.

Comments are closed.