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Balloon Juice

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Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Night Open Thread

Saturday Night Open Thread

by John Cole|  April 11, 20098:27 pm| 118 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Not sure what I am going to do with myself. I did a solid clean of the living room today and got rid of most of the evidence of Tunch, so I might just go relax in there for a while.

We were talking about podcasts earlier, and one that I really enjoyed recently was a This American Life episode about the extent to which some people will go to be remembered, and it started with the story of this clown who did what he could to get into as many yearbook pictures as possible. For some reason that really tickled me.

It really is amazing the quality of free av entertainment/information out there these days- I bet family vacations are a piece of cake with kids. I remember when as a kid we got a Chevy Caprice Classic wagon with a diesel engine and a 4 speaker stereo with a cassette deck, and it was just amazing in 1982 or 83 or whenever we got it. We could listen to talking books and the trips from WV to Maine or WV to the beach went by much faster.

Oh, well. I think I am settling in for some channel surfing and reading.

Question: All my cd’s have been imported into Itunes on the Apple and synced with the Ipod. However, I would also like to have those on the PC for backup. Is there any way to upload from the Ipod to the PC Itunes?

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Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    Woodrowfan

    April 11, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    Well, since you left PJ media you have much more interesting, and attractive, ads along the side of the screen…

  2. 2.

    AhabTRuler

    April 11, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    We could listen to talking books and the trips from WV to Maine or WV to the beach went by much faster.

    A rip-roaring good time with the Cole family, eh?

    @Woodrowfan: Oh, I agree. I think that the picture of Annie in L-dub’s ad is quite fethcing.

  3. 3.

    John Cole

    April 11, 2009 at 8:33 pm

    @AhabTRuler: I detect sarcasm.

  4. 4.

    newtonsthird

    April 11, 2009 at 8:34 pm

    Portable dvd player is a life saver with a 3 and a 5 year old. Plug in their favorite video, and the miles go by. I recall going from Michigan to California several times in various vans, and being bored out of my mind. I was too young to appreciate the country, and just got into fights with my brother.

  5. 5.

    Laura W

    April 11, 2009 at 8:37 pm

    @AhabTRuler: Wait! Were you sarcastically mocking Annie in my ad? Because she could so totally TAKE your Momo, you know know.

  6. 6.

    AhabTRuler

    April 11, 2009 at 8:37 pm

    @John Cole: Just a touch. I can think of at least two road trips that I took with my father where the same tape was left in the player for more than a dozen iterations, but I got to know Graceland and CCR’s Greatest Hits real well.

    @Laura W: Yeah, that’s what Cole would like you to think.

    And Momo is a lover sleeper, not a fighter.

  7. 7.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 11, 2009 at 8:39 pm

    It really is amazing the quality of free av entertainment/information out there these days- I bet family vacations are a piece of cake with kids.

    Nah, they still pretty much suck. They still ask how close are we every 15 minutes and they still fight, usually over the one adaptor/charger/cigarette lighter socket.

    What beach did you go to?

  8. 8.

    valdivia

    April 11, 2009 at 8:41 pm

    I am shamefully watching The Sound of Music. Beats grading.

    Edit–I love This American life. I am truly addicted to their podcasts and have probably heard every show in their archives. They manage to do both excellent reporting and excellent story telling.

  9. 9.

    JL

    April 11, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    John, The Pittsburg trade of Jason Bay to Boston worked out well. He hit two homers today.

    When my sons were much younger, they could not travel a mile without fighting but plan a 1000 mile plus road trip and they were fine. They played lots of games, sang songs and read aloud. Of course, those were the days of waking up at four and driving to four or five in the afternoon.

  10. 10.

    gbear

    April 11, 2009 at 8:43 pm

    Not sure what I am going to do with myself.

    You and Dusty Springfield.

  11. 11.

    Fencedude

    April 11, 2009 at 8:43 pm

    I really hate how now that there’s all sorts of fun stuff you can do while in the car, I HAVE TO FUCKING DRIVE IT

    Where’s my self-driving cars!?

  12. 12.

    AhabTRuler

    April 11, 2009 at 8:43 pm

    I am shamefully watching The Sound of Music.

    Yeah, that’s a great porn.

    Wait…what!?

  13. 13.

    nehemiah

    April 11, 2009 at 8:45 pm

    ipod to computer –> floola

    http://www.floola.com/modules/wiwimod/

  14. 14.

    valdivia

    April 11, 2009 at 8:45 pm

    you can try cucusoft to download the music from the ipod into the pc. you have to buy their software it runs for about $10. this works when you lose your music in the computer as well.

  15. 15.

    valdivia

    April 11, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    @AhabTRuler:

    LOL. I am *sure* they have a porn version of that. I am watching the G version. And even singing along.

  16. 16.

    MS-4

    April 11, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    I believe MediaMonkey application can copy files from your IPod to your PC. Give it a try.

  17. 17.

    gbear

    April 11, 2009 at 8:51 pm

    Hmmm. My family’s road trips were always to the sound of WCCO-AM and "do I have to pull this car over?"

    And Archie comic books.

  18. 18.

    paradox

    April 11, 2009 at 8:53 pm

    Road trips, none a you saps ever had to go through what my god damn Father pulled.

    Before the RV craze in 1970 he bought a California pickup camper and a Ford F-250. Then for four consecutive summers for 10 weeks he rented the house to temp workers at the The Lab, which was very glad to offer it to their people.

    Central Fucking America. Canada. New York. Mexcio, Canada, Northwest. Northwest, Plains, Mexico, Baja.

    Three kids, racks for beds, a car radio, books and magazines. Just incredible droning days in the back of that camper. I won’t put y’all through the rest, finally near the end we had a pathetic tape player and Hot Rocks, every song of which is still etched eternally into my soul.

    It’s a bummer I can’t blame them for fucking up my life like they did anymore, but they were different.

  19. 19.

    paradox

    April 11, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    I’m on my third day without a cigarette.

    I’ve never called anyone a sap in the screens before, sorry.

  20. 20.

    Tim (The Oher One)

    April 11, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    "Heck wit dat. YOU sacrifice! I need me some pizza!"

    http://www.redstate.com/

    Check out the delightful lingo being tossed around over at Red State. Somebody get on this while I cross post to Sadly No !

  21. 21.

    gbear

    April 11, 2009 at 9:00 pm

    @paradox:

    Good luck. Hope you succeed.

  22. 22.

    Tom

    April 11, 2009 at 9:01 pm

    Question: All my cd’s have been imported into Itunes on the Apple and synced with the Ipod. However, I would also like to have those on the PC for backup. Is there any way to upload from the Ipod to the PC Itunes?

    I think you can sync your iPod with only one computer. Your best bet is probably dropping $100 on a back-up hard drive and storing all your music on there. That’s what I do.

  23. 23.

    Halteclere

    April 11, 2009 at 9:02 pm

    This week I’ve had a B-17 Flying Fortress, a B-24 Liberator and a P-51 Mustang trainer (two person) flying over my house.

    They started selling rides last weekend and will finish up this weekend until next year.

  24. 24.

    JL

    April 11, 2009 at 9:02 pm

    @paradox: Wow. Congratulations! The multiple times that I quit, I actually found that the first few days were the worse.

  25. 25.

    SarahLoving

    April 11, 2009 at 9:03 pm

    @John Cole

    "Not sure what I am going to do with myself."

    Enjoying this won’t hurt:

    It made my night.

  26. 26.

    Halteclere

    April 11, 2009 at 9:04 pm

    Oh, and a storm is rolling in and I’m hoping to finish cooking my burgers on the grill without being struck by lightning.

  27. 27.

    Bill H

    April 11, 2009 at 9:06 pm

    @paradox:

    Good for you. Your lungs and your heart will thank you for it.
    I quit in 1982. Wish I’d done it about 1972, or even 1952, but…
    Glad I didn’t wait until 1992 or I wouldn’t have needed to bother.

  28. 28.

    paradox

    April 11, 2009 at 9:06 pm

    Thanks all, man, I’m a slut for the attention, anything to help.

    I…am…done, a cigarette is never an option again. Just get through this next month somehow, stay with your people, eat well and keep working out every day.

    This is god awful fucking terrible, ‘n my class has me on the patch, even, not cold turkey at all, but it’s the last time.

    I’m worth it, I’m worth it, I’m worth it, I’m worth it……

  29. 29.

    gbear

    April 11, 2009 at 9:08 pm

    @paradox:

    Just imagine that one of these is in your cigarette.

  30. 30.

    valdivia

    April 11, 2009 at 9:09 pm

    @paradox:

    yes the best of luck, good on you.

  31. 31.

    Svensker

    April 11, 2009 at 9:12 pm

    @Fencedude:

    Where’s my self-driving cars!?

    They’re called trains. America doesn’t have too many of them.

  32. 32.

    Polish the Guillotines

    April 11, 2009 at 9:12 pm

    @Halteclere:

    This week I’ve had a B-17 Flying Fortress, a B-24 Liberator and a P-51 Mustang trainer (two person) flying over my house.

    Sweet. I’m a war-bird junkie. I live next to an AF base and when the airshow rolls around every year, I get the T-Birds flying over my house — like, dead straight over it. It’s kinda cool to look down the street and say "Hey, that’s a stealth fighter!"

    Last year, they had a couple of B-25s in the vintage group. Loud. Very loud.

  33. 33.

    Svensker

    April 11, 2009 at 9:13 pm

    @paradox:

    I’m on my third day without a cigarette.

    Yay you!

    Pretty soon you’ll be on your third month and not even counting any more. It does get easier.

  34. 34.

    Svensker

    April 11, 2009 at 9:17 pm

    @Tim (The Oher One):

    "Heck wit dat. YOU sacrifice! I need me some pizza!"

    Sho nuff!

    Crikey.

    And what’s with the next one, "Eunuch in Chief"?

    I really do hate these people. Beam me up, please.

  35. 35.

    Janet Strange

    April 11, 2009 at 9:22 pm

    iPOD to computer:

    I bought PD + Rescue ($30) and I really like it. There are probably cheaper programs, but this one is super easy to use. Works with Mac and PC, detects duplicates and doesn’t transfer those, and it’s very fast.

  36. 36.

    AhabTRuler

    April 11, 2009 at 9:24 pm

    I would also like to have those on the PC for backup.

    Simply copy your iTunes music folder (or the individual folders therein) from one computer to the other.

  37. 37.

    Woodrowfan

    April 11, 2009 at 9:25 pm

    Oh, I agree. I think that the picture of Annie in L-dub’s ad is quite fethcing.

    I must be getting the good ads then. 8-)

  38. 38.

    Laura W Darling

    April 11, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    @SarahLoving: And it just made my night too. Thanks for posting that. So moving.

  39. 39.

    Jake

    April 11, 2009 at 9:29 pm

    Read this CNN.com piece by Howie Kurtz, and marvel at the stupidity.

    Kurtz asks whether or not the media should steer clear of the Palin-Johnston saga, and concludes that the real problem is that Johnston wasn’t asked tough enough questions. Of course, the only people Kurtz interviewed for the piece were folks in the media, so the conclusion is thoroughly unsurprising.

  40. 40.

    Fencedude

    April 11, 2009 at 9:34 pm

    @Jake:

    I put that question to Deborah Norville of "Inside Edition" and Washington Post gossip columnist Amy Argetsinger for a segment that will air Sunday morning at 10 ET on "Reliable."

    I…but…ARGH.

    Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy

  41. 41.

    khead

    April 11, 2009 at 9:37 pm

    You heathens should be watching Moses.

  42. 42.

    John Cole

    April 11, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    @SarahLoving: That was great, although she could be John Belushi’s stunt double.

  43. 43.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    April 11, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    @John Cole: Oh, come on, wax those eyebrows, get her a better hair style, some real clothes and a bit of makeup…oh who am I kidding*. What a beautiful voice. Simon is a complete tool – too good to stand for that woman.

    *yes I am going to hell.

  44. 44.

    Brick Oven Bill

    April 11, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    I did a road trip through Central America with a group of Mormon businessmen not all that long ago. In this part of Central America at least, they have pretty much given up on speed limit signs and instead construct “speed bumps of fractured axles” every so often.

    Well anyway, there was this stopped line of cars which was unusual because, other than the speed bumps, there were no traffic controls. I got out to ask what is up to other gringos who are standing around. There had been a very bad accident.

    One of those mini-Japanese pickups with mom and pop in the front and three kids in the truck bed had pulled in front of an oncoming semi. The semi was totaled and the little Japanese pickup no longer existed. The driver of the semi was sitting in his cab in a daze. There were multiple instant fatalities in the little pickup and some clinging to life. It was a very ugly scene that I will not soon forget.

    We offered to help but there was nothing to do.

    Later that evening, we discussed what we had witnessed with our host, and asked who would treat the injured. Our host told us that when there is a serious medical problem in this poor Central American country, the sick person travels to the US for treatment.

  45. 45.

    Bootlegger

    April 11, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    I’ve never been a shroomer, except for psilocybin, but heard on NPR the other day about morel mushrooms growing wild in my neck of the woods and that they are a culinary treat. I asked a neighbor about it and he told me they were everywhere. He brought over a bunch and today I looked around Scholar Holler and realized I’m loaded with ’em.

    Anyone have suggestions on how to cook and store these things?

    Also, got my Furminators this week. The cat damned near had an orgasm and the dog tolerated it. Both of ’em gave up enough hair to stuff a bean bag chair. These things rock!

  46. 46.

    Mike in NC

    April 11, 2009 at 9:56 pm

    I’ve had a B-17 Flying Fortress, a B-24 Liberator and a P-51 Mustang trainer (two person) flying over my house. They started selling rides last weekend and will finish up this weekend until next year.

    Got to experience FREE rides in a restored B-17 for the past two years courtesy of my wife’s financial advisor. Too cool, even though I’m a Navy puke. "Off we go, into the wild blue yonder…"

  47. 47.

    Douche Baggins

    April 11, 2009 at 10:02 pm

    JC: Question: All my cd’s have been imported into Itunes on the Apple and synced with the Ipod. However, I would also like to have those on the PC for backup. Is there any way to upload from the Ipod to the PC Itunes?

    I just did this ten hours ago, after a hard drive failure. I used CopyTrans, which, for $19.99, copied 7000 songs from my iPod and uploaded them to an empty copy of iTunes, maintaining all the personalized stuff (counts, playlists, podcast subscriptions, the whole shebangabang), automatically, in about 3 hours. If you’re even a little compulsive about your iTunes library, you’ll appreciate that the personalization is also saved, not just the songs — I’m not sure the other methods described in this thread do that.

    If you sync your iPod and your respective iTunes copies on your Mac and PC frequently enough, you’ll always have at least two fully current libraries, so that you can always restore a failed device.

  48. 48.

    John Cole

    April 11, 2009 at 10:06 pm

    @Bootlegger: Eating mushrooms you pick is exceptionally dangerous because there are so many types of mushroom that may look like the safe one you are after but are actually quite poisonous. My advice would be to throw whatever you picked out and buy mushrooms from the market.

  49. 49.

    JL

    April 11, 2009 at 10:07 pm

    @SarahLoving: By the magic of google, I also found this story about her……..

  50. 50.

    James K. Polk, Esq.

    April 11, 2009 at 10:07 pm

    Fuck paying for a program. There are free ones to be had.

    Try xpod 1.3.6.

  51. 51.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    April 11, 2009 at 10:08 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    I served with 707 NAS in Yeovilton from 1980 to 1984, got to experience some fantastic flights during that period. However, one of my favorites ever was one of my pilots from 707 followed me over to Hong Kong and arranged for a private trip over Hong Kong by helicopter. It was absolutely and utterly spectacular, and Rick was a son of a bitch and kept doing all sorts of funky stuff that scared the shit out of me (and my boyfriend at the time a Naval Officer who had aspirations of becoming a pilot). The other best one was when my SP (Senior Pilot) allowed me to pilot a brand new (still with the plastic on the seats) SeaKing from the manufacturer (Westlands) in Yeovilton to RNAS Culdrose (where it would be converted to a troop carrier). I was absolutely shitting myself trying to figure out how long it would take me to pay the money back if I crashed the damn thing. Good times.

  52. 52.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    April 11, 2009 at 10:14 pm

    @JL:
    Da Linky Dink is broken

  53. 53.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    April 11, 2009 at 10:18 pm

    @John Cole:

    Ditto, I am all for living off the land and everything (did you know you can eat wild onions, wild garlic, and all sorts of dandlions) however I draw the line at Mushrooms, there are just too many variables in the mix, I mean it is like trying to differentiate between two types of skipper butterflies. One spot on the side of the cap you can eat, two spots will kill you deader than catholic joke at the vatican. I’ll stick with Fresh Market thanks.

  54. 54.

    Halteclere

    April 11, 2009 at 10:19 pm

    @John Cole: Bootlegger, I’d disregard Johns advice this time, at least when it comes to morel mushrooms.

    Morels are easy mushrooms to identify – they look like coral and not a typical ‘shroom. My family has never bothered to store them, but immediately threw them in salads or other fixings. As for mushrooms that aren’t morels – I will only touch those that I find in a grocery store.

    Scholar Holler

    Sounds like you live in the Ozarks, though I am not familiar with the Appalachian areas enough to know if morels grow there also and if the people use the terms "hollers" and "yells".

    Addition: A couple years ago my brother’s inlaws, who are from Slovokia, visited my parents and went on a mushroom picking outing in the woods. But they picked EVERYTHING! Needless to say we were very careful to secretly pick out anything questionable.

  55. 55.

    Dennis-SGMM

    April 11, 2009 at 10:21 pm

    I’ve had a B-17 Flying Fortress, a B-24 Liberator and a P-51 Mustang trainer (two person) flying over my house.

    They were probably the Collings Foundation aircraft. There are only three B-24’s still flying out of the over nineteen thousand that were built. The B-24 and the B-17 stopped at a small local field so I went out late on the last day of their visit, toured the aircraft and then waited until they departed. I just had to hear the song of those engines. After takeoff, the B-24 came around and made a low pass at full throttle. Damn! Those WWII thousand plane raids must have shook the earth.

  56. 56.

    OriGuy

    April 11, 2009 at 10:22 pm

    @John Cole: My folks used to pick morels all the time in Indiana. There’s really nothing that looks like them which is poisonous. They used to batter and deepfry them. This site has a lot of information, including pictures of False Morels (which don’t look much like real ones.) Other kinds of fungus, though, can be trickier to identify.

  57. 57.

    The Other Steve

    April 11, 2009 at 10:24 pm

    This week I’ve had a B-17 Flying Fortress, a B-24 Liberator and a P-51 Mustang trainer (two person) flying over my house.

    This is clearly part of the first wave of Zombie invaders.

    Did you all catch Woody Harrelson’s smack down of a zombie at the airport this last week? They’re coming, you can count on it! Obama is doing nothing to save us, the rat bastard.

  58. 58.

    Dennis-SGMM

    April 11, 2009 at 10:27 pm

    If Balloon Juice was a troop of mushrooms then BOB would be the fungus among us.

  59. 59.

    SarahLoving

    April 11, 2009 at 10:27 pm

    @JL:

    Thanks for the story, I was able to get it despite broken link! Here’s another go at posting it: link. It’s really worth the read.

  60. 60.

    Jim

    April 11, 2009 at 10:28 pm

    Buy a large Thumb Drive (16 Gig) and just copy the iTunes library over to it. (You have less than 16 Gig of music ?). Then don’t lose the thumb drive. But treat the drive right, i.e. no high radiation areas, no excessive temperatures and DON’T run it through the washing machine and it should be good for quite a number of years.

  61. 61.

    Halteclere

    April 11, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    They were probably the Collings Foundation aircraft

    Yeppir, that’s a roger. I saw a third plane fly over a couple times – another B24 maybe? It’s twin tails were a little different than the Collins Foundation’s B24. It had four engines so it wasn’t a B25. I never saw it at the staging area at the airport so I don’t think it was giving rides.

    A couple summers ago my dad and I took a flight in the B-17. Sitting in the bombardier’s chair in the nose and looking through the bomb sights was way cool. Since then I call my dad each spring to say "They are baaack".

  62. 62.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    April 11, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    OT – no wait? I was out in the garden today, planting my containers, and emptying out all the old pots I had from last year into my potato tower. Damn if there wasn’t a fire ants nest in every single pot I picked up! Needless to say I got a fire ant in my slipper (yes I was out gardening in my slippers instead of sensible shoes so just shut up) and now my foot has blown up about three sizes and itches like hell. It is red, hot, tight, and irritating, I am sure someone will have an analogy for that!

  63. 63.

    Paddy

    April 11, 2009 at 10:44 pm

    SarahLoving@25

    Holy crap! Thanks so much for linking to that, I have my overnight vid. Funniest part is that all my UK relatives are Boyles and from that area, so there’s a good chance she’s related. Love when they surprise you like that.

  64. 64.

    Phaedrus

    April 11, 2009 at 10:55 pm

    Have to say, with two kids, that it was much easier to road trip when you could throw a bunch of blankets and pillows in the way back of the station wagon and let the kids rumple around back there.

    Probably safer now, but hard to drive more than five hours a day with kids strapped down.

  65. 65.

    Mike in NC

    April 11, 2009 at 10:58 pm

    Read this CNN.com piece by Howie Kurtz, and marvel at the stupidity.

    Shocked, just SHOCKED! that anything Kurtz would write was Teh Stupid…

  66. 66.

    Mike in NC

    April 11, 2009 at 11:02 pm

    @ B.O.B.

    I did a road trip through Central America with a group of Mormon businessmen not all that long ago.

    This movie was called "The Wages of Sin".

  67. 67.

    Stuart

    April 11, 2009 at 11:08 pm

    I second that Morels are easy to identify, and are easy to dry. My roommates in college used to have a big bag of dried Morels that they collected from elm groves down by the Twin Cities. Put them in a paper bag and they keep forever and you can rehydrate them and use them in anything. Other easy to identify species are Giant Puffballs, Golden Chantrelles, and Shaggymanes

  68. 68.

    Dennis-SGMM

    April 11, 2009 at 11:10 pm

    @Phaedrus:
    Thank you. You reminded me of a change-of-station (Dad was in the military) drive from northern Washington state to southern California in a ’57 Ford station wagon. Mom, Dad, brother, me and the dog. This in pre-Denny’s days when the roadside diners announced themselves by having the word "EAT" spelled out in 60 Watt light bulbs on a metal sign.

  69. 69.

    D-Chance.

    April 11, 2009 at 11:13 pm

    Looks like Jane ‘the Jilted Girlfriend’ Hamsher tried her hand at her own tea party… epic fail.

    Note the pic on the New Way Forward website. A sea of thousands, if not tens of thousands. All those sponsors listed. All those venues.

    Well… St Louis.

    DC, where TBegg’s partnerette and about 11 other outraged souls showed up to… run away from interviewers.

    And some more Hamsher whine with the Saturday cheese. Yes, it IS a wonder why responsible advertisers are not flooding to her and TBegg’s website with payola.

  70. 70.

    JL

    April 11, 2009 at 11:19 pm

    If you google Sarah Boyle there are several links. It appears that the British papers are quite proud of her.

  71. 71.

    bago

    April 11, 2009 at 11:26 pm

    The last two times I have had wild mushrooms I emptied my GI tract by any means available.

  72. 72.

    Brick Oven Bill

    April 11, 2009 at 11:27 pm

    OK, I’ll conform and go cake and circuses. It was actually a very fun trip, despite what we witnessed. Central America is a fun place, so long as you are not lower class. There were one female with us in her early 20s and another in her 30s. The one in her 30s was married to a guy in his 50s, who was not a part of the group. I do not feel bad talking about this anonymously on the Internet because she was talking about it all the time openly to her circle of friends and business partners. This was kind of strange to me.

    She was not ‘satisfied’, you might say. So we spent a large amount of off-time looking into Central American herbal remedies for certain conditions that you might see advertized on TV. There is a no-kidding plant called ‘man-vine’ down there that the Mayan medicine men say does the trick every time. From what we can tell, this would not need to be FDA approved.

    So if you see ‘Man Vine Juice’ or something to that effect, that will be me. The label will sport a smiling lady.

  73. 73.

    dr. luba

    April 11, 2009 at 11:35 pm

    Best bet is to keep a clone of your entire iTunes folder on another hard drive. If you are using Time Machine it should already be doing that. If not, a program like Super Duper will make a bootable copy of your entire hard drive for you and update it regularly.

    The updating is a bear, and it’s worth buying a program so you don’t have to do it manually.

  74. 74.

    dr. luba

    April 11, 2009 at 11:38 pm

    P.S. External drives are quite cheap now. I bought a 500 GB portable drive at Costco for $129 the other day. It is small enough (app. 4x6x.75 inches) to fit into the front pocket of my laptop case. USB, so only one small cord. I can carry around my entire photo library and work on it whenever I want from whichever machine I want.

  75. 75.

    Bootlegger

    April 11, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    @John Cole: They are morel’s John. I appreciate the advice but I’m not a moran.

  76. 76.

    Laura W Darling

    April 11, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    OK, I have NO idea who this young man hosting SNL is, but he sure is PURTY!
    What a gorgeous face. A face just meant to sell "Man Vine Juice".

  77. 77.

    Bootlegger

    April 11, 2009 at 11:44 pm

    @Halteclere: Appalachia, and it’s definitely "holler" here, though interestingly it actually does refer to a topography that resembles a "hollow" bowl. At least mine does. Several faculty from various colleges and universities (3 different ones) and some public intellectuals live up here. Except for my idiot neighbor who is sure he knows everything and all us "eggheads" are the morans.

    The mushrooms are definitely morels. I was very careful to look them up, compare them to pictures, and use other positive identifiers like the hollow body.

  78. 78.

    Bootlegger

    April 11, 2009 at 11:46 pm

    @Phaedrus: No shit! The only modern advantage is the DVD player. But I definitely remember sprawling out in the "way-back" or lying across the seat. Later we had a conversion van and you could sprawl on the floor. No mas.

  79. 79.

    Bootlegger

    April 11, 2009 at 11:49 pm

    @Laura W Darling: I thought he was selling man-vine juice. Wait, is that you on SNL BOB?

  80. 80.

    JL

    April 11, 2009 at 11:52 pm

    When John sends away BOB are we sure that he isn’t put on a CIA Rendition flight. Every time he returns he seems a tad more confused.

  81. 81.

    Comrade Nikolita

    April 12, 2009 at 12:04 am

    I have an ipod-related question for anyone who’s more tech-savvy than me…

    Last night when I tried to add videos to my ipod 30GB video, I got the error message "(-69)" when I tried to sync the material on. I googled the error and it seems to be that it’s due to a corrupted file or something not being where it should be. The solution seems to be to restore the ipod and put all the files back on, but while I can wipe the ipod, I don’t know how to delete my library (if that’s what I need to do). So after restoring my ipod, all the music is automatically re-added, which is what happened last night except the videos wouldn’t re-add because they’d been moved.

    A friend suggested I download 3rd party software (Songbird specifically) to see if the error is with itunes or with the ipod itself. Has this worked for anyone? Should I be doing something else?

    Any help anyone could give me would be much appreciated. :)

  82. 82.

    Brick Oven Bill

    April 12, 2009 at 12:05 am

    Well, I have turned off ‘Deadliest Catch’ and switched to SNL to view for myself the potential spokesman that Laura W refers, and cannot figure it out. After bringing up the subject, I have been thinking about it and believe that a superior potential spokesman would be the grandfather in that very funny movie, ‘Road Trip’. I have not watched SNL for a very long time, and my initial impression is that it now sucks.

  83. 83.

    Bootlegger

    April 12, 2009 at 12:09 am

    @Brick Oven Bill: How about Bill Murray or Jack Nicholson.

    Ever been to Bagram BOB?

  84. 84.

    Bootlegger

    April 12, 2009 at 12:12 am

    BOB, by far the funniest segment week in-week out is Weekend Update. Seth’s killin’ tonight.

  85. 85.

    Brick Oven Bill

    April 12, 2009 at 12:37 am

    I could not afford Jack Nicholson Bootlegger. But if you can bring in Coca-Cola to afford Jack Nicholson, then we will all share in the fruitful rewards of Man Vine Juice. That guy from Vitamin Water made out like a bandit. I have previously tried to use my Balloon Juice network to bring Murray Wiggle into the world of petroleum, without success, so my expectations here have been lowered.

    And I have given this new SNL show 30 minutes of my background noise time, and have found out that if it is some kind of comedy genius, I am not smart enough to understand it.

    So Captain Sig Hansen is back on. If I were to put together a team to fix America, it would include Sully Sullenberger, Richard Phillips, who we are all pulling for tonight, and Sig Hansen.

  86. 86.

    Bootlegger

    April 12, 2009 at 12:43 am

    @Brick Oven Bill: I wouldn’t say "genius" and some weeks are just lame. But Weekend Update brings the funny week in and week out.

    If Man Vine Juice does what the Mayan witch doctors claim it does, you’ll be able to afford Nicholson, Murray AND Glen Beck to pitch it for you (pun intended).

    And thanks for the Morel links folks, I’m having them in an omelette tomorrow morning, and in a sauce for dinner. Can’t wait and if I end up shooting out both ends I will of course share the details.

  87. 87.

    asiangrrlMN

    April 12, 2009 at 12:47 am

    Zac Efron is tonight’s SNL host.

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1374980/

    Enjoy!

  88. 88.

    GSD

    April 12, 2009 at 12:52 am

    I’m starting to tell my conservative friends that Glenn Beck is a plant designed to lure the conservatives out into the public so that they can be identified and placed into a data base of potential anti-American agitators.

    Ratfucking the ratfuckers.

    -GSD

  89. 89.

    Bootlegger

    April 12, 2009 at 12:59 am

    @asiangrrlMN: The last skit has some, um, interesting toe jam.

  90. 90.

    Bootlegger

    April 12, 2009 at 1:00 am

    @GSD: "We feed the rats to the cats and the cats to the rats, and get the cat skins for nothing."

    Bob Mould, Husker Du

  91. 91.

    Ash

    April 12, 2009 at 1:00 am

    Tunch and Bo Obama should make sweet love together.

    http://i43.tinypic.com/fnql4.jpg (picture of the Obama’s and their new Portie)

  92. 92.

    BDeevDad

    April 12, 2009 at 1:02 am

    ZOMG

  93. 93.

    Punchy

    April 12, 2009 at 1:05 am

    why do dogs insist on finding the muddiest portion of the dogpark?

  94. 94.

    Zuzu's Petals

    April 12, 2009 at 1:13 am

    Speaking of free entertainment for road trips …

    I’ve discovered I can download all the books on tape I could ever want, for free from my local library. Straight onto the iPod/iPhone and I’m set for the trip.

    Neato library link

    I used to check out the CDs for when I was driving. It was the only way I could read two very long, but very interesting books: Vol. 2 of the Caro LBJ biography, and Paul Theroux’s book on traveling through China by train. Oh, also…Blue Highways.

  95. 95.

    wasabi gasp

    April 12, 2009 at 1:27 am

    why do dogs insist on finding the muddiest portion of the dogpark?

    best blog on the net

  96. 96.

    AhabTRuler

    April 12, 2009 at 1:29 am

    best political blog on the net

    Fixeteth.

  97. 97.

    Zuzu's Petals

    April 12, 2009 at 1:31 am

    @Tim (The Oher One):

    Wow, racist AND dishonest, all in one post !

  98. 98.

    Bootlegger

    April 12, 2009 at 1:43 am

    @Punchy: For the same reason they lick themselves, because they can.

  99. 99.

    Brachiator

    April 12, 2009 at 1:51 am

    @valdivia:

    I love This American life. I am truly addicted to their podcasts and have probably heard every show in their archives. They manage to do both excellent reporting and excellent story telling.

    I once got a This American Life CD as part of a public radio pledge drive bonus. One clip in particular, "Squirrel Cop," is funny, sad, outrageous, charming, and a little sexy.

    All my cd’s have been imported into Itunes on the Apple and synced with the Ipod. However, I would also like to have those on the PC for backup. Is there any way to upload from the Ipod to the PC Itunes?

    I would think that there would be some ilounge forum devoted to this.

  100. 100.

    Fred Fnord

    April 12, 2009 at 2:01 am

    Don’t bother uploading from the iPod. It’s possible, there’s software that does it, but it’s not worth the effort.

    Just share the iTunes music library from the Mac using the Mac’s file sharing (System Preferences->sharing, check file sharing, select it, click options, and you’ll see the PC sharing option.) Then just download it over the network to the PC.

    -fred

  101. 101.

    Bootlegger

    April 12, 2009 at 2:06 am

    @Tim (The Oher One): I don’t get it. Did the Obama’s order a pizza? Or is BO pretending to make a pizza? Or is he serving a Digorno and pretending its delivery? Or maybe they think pizzas can be grown like tobacco? If you have the stomach for it check out their thread on teabagging. Seems we are vulgar for making fun of the naive. So someone suggested they dump untaxed tobacco in bodies of water. Nope, you can’t make this shit up.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    April 12, 2009 at 2:20 am

    @SarahLoving:

    Enjoying this won’t hurt…

    I read a couple of news stories about Sarah Boyle before this clip became available. Wow.

    I previously mentioned a This American Life episode called "Squirrel Cop." Here’s a link.

  103. 103.

    gwangung

    April 12, 2009 at 2:22 am

    Well, I backed up my library to DVD, and that DVD restored itself on my other computer when I stuck the DVDs in…

  104. 104.

    DaveInOz

    April 12, 2009 at 2:38 am

    I’ve a couple of podcasts that I listen to every week.

    The Bugle Is 30 minutes for satire by John Oliver (of The Daily Show) and Andy Zaltzman. I use the word satire loosely, last week’s was almost entirely taken up with 60ft penises!

    My other must, to keep up with the UK soccer news, is Football Weekly with the excellent James Richardson. It always includes a full roundup of the main European soccer leagues and the corniest of jokes.

    Finally, if you want to relive the 2006 World Cup through English eyes, David Baddiel and Frank Skinner‘s World Cup podcasts are very funny.

  105. 105.

    ghost poet

    April 12, 2009 at 2:40 am

    sharepod will pull your songs off your ipod touch on a pc, it’s free.

    http://www.getsharepod.com/download/

  106. 106.

    wasabi gasp

    April 12, 2009 at 2:48 am

    best political blog on the net

    best political, best gay (furminator? come on), best gourmet, best tech (minions help hookup John’s stereo system), just best.

  107. 107.

    PanAmerican

    April 12, 2009 at 3:31 am

    with a diesel engine

    Spent a week in the middle of nowhere on account of one of those hunks of shit. At the time GM had multiple divisions building diesel engines for the industrial and transportation markets. Instead of going to them to design a suitable motor for the car market, GM handed it to Olds. They did a hash of the 350 cid V8 that was a disaster.

  108. 108.

    imasmart

    April 12, 2009 at 3:54 am

    @Punchy:

    why do dogs insist on finding the muddiest portion of the dogpark?

    Same reason they lick their balls…

    …because they can.

  109. 109.

    dianne

    April 12, 2009 at 5:09 am

    I hope burning to disc works if my hard drive ever goes out. I have all my music on CDs. Plan to download to a new PC if I have to. Can’t stand earbuds so don’t use my Ipod at all. Just carry CDs between cars. When I got tired of one, shuffle and write another. LOVE Itunes. My new favorite mix is a combo of Calixico/Santana.

  110. 110.

    Alex

    April 12, 2009 at 5:16 am

    I’d use Pod to PC, it works perfectly.

  111. 111.

    bago

    April 12, 2009 at 5:19 am

    Just straight up rip and compress the 44 k stream. CD’s are incredibly primitive, have the bare minimum of metadata, and use a raw uncompressed stream for the audio. The Red Book format was finalized when I was one year old.

  112. 112.

    magisterludi

    April 12, 2009 at 6:48 am

    Here’s a wonderful way to start the day.

  113. 113.

    wilfred

    April 12, 2009 at 7:12 am

    Obama’s kids got a dog:

    The Washington Post reported in its online editions Saturday night that Obama’s daughters chose the name Bo for the pup because first lady Michelle Obama’s father was nicknamed Diddley. The name for the dog was an apparent reference to the singer ”Bo” Diddley

    "Squat" would have been more appropriate.

  114. 114.

    gex

    April 12, 2009 at 7:40 am

    @John Cole: I have a great story on this front.

    My parents have a cabin in the central part of MN. One weekend a few years ago my father picked what he was certain was this really delicious mushroom. He left it to dry on a paper towel when they left that Sunday.

    Upon returning the following Friday my parents saw two things. 1. A partially eaten mushroom and 2) a dead mouse near said mushroom.

    So like you said – get your mushrooms from the market.

  115. 115.

    J Bean

    April 12, 2009 at 10:35 am

    I think that Barrack is bowing to that dog! He’s admitting that Dog is greater than God.

    (Sasha looks a little hesitant)

  116. 116.

    datacine

    April 12, 2009 at 2:00 pm

    You can upload from iPod to windows with no software.
    You need to show hidden folders. Open any folder in windows>under the tools menu select folder options>select the view tab>select radio button show hidden files and folders>apply>OK.
    Now connect iPod and then open My Computer. You may close iTunes if it opens. Double click on the iPod drive in the My Computer window. You will see the (formerly) hidden music folder. Inside will be all of the files on the iPod. Copy & paste or drag and drop to iTunes

  117. 117.

    Wile E. Quixote

    April 12, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    @John Cole

    It really is amazing the quality of free av entertainment/information out there these days- I bet family vacations are a piece of cake with kids. I remember when as a kid we got a Chevy Caprice Classic wagon with a diesel engine and a 4 speaker stereo with a cassette deck, and it was just amazing in 1982 or 83 or whenever we got it. We could listen to talking books and the trips from WV to Maine or WV to the beach went by much faster.

    4 speaker stereo and talking books? Luxury. Sheer bloody luxury. We used to pile the five of us into a 4 door 1976 VW Rabbit with an AM radio and no air conditioning and drive from Port Orchard, Washington to San Jose, California in the summers. The only bloody entertainment we had was whatever we had to read and singing? Do you know how many times you can sing El Paso between Redding, California and Port Orchard, Washington? About 450 million times. Amazingly enough my parents, my sisters and I are all still speaking to each other. Now my two year old niece has her own iPod. Kids these days Get off my damned lawn!

  118. 118.

    geemoney

    April 13, 2009 at 6:23 am

    I would do what Datacine said. Unfortunately for me, my iPod does not hold all my music (only 40 Gig). However, if you open up the hidden folders, copy everything over, you can then use Media Monkey (this is free, and great if you haven’t used it) to tag everything and put it all in order, provided that the songs are already fully and correctly tagged. Otherwise, you get a bunch of mp3 files with strange letters as a name.

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