Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Let there be snark.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

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

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The revolution will be supervised.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

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

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

You are here: Home / Just Crazy When You Think About It

Just Crazy When You Think About It

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I’m sitting here watching Rachel Ray make a quick Thanksgiving dinner that working moms and dads can easily whip up in no time, with gravy, and apple pie, and all sorts of things, and all I can think is “I can’t believe they tried to turn her into a symbol of pro-Jihadi anti-Americanism.”

It really was just crazy, and after reading @tcot on twitter today, and reading my usual wingnut blogs while also stopping on the Bill O’Reilly show while channel surfing and watching him interview Glenn Beck about buying gold, and I realize they have just gotten worse since the United Pastry Jihad.

John +1 (Black Box Shiraz FTW. What’s another torpedo in a sinking ship, I say…)

Reader Interactions

220Comments

  1. 1.

    Cataphract

    Nothin’ for nothin, but Rachel Ray is as American as apple pie. I’ve gotta give her that. And her recipes are simple and always work–Mrs. Cataphract will attest to the truthiness of that.

    But the referring to beer as “brewskies” in a smoker’s voice drives me fuckin’ nuts.

  3. 3.

    parksideq

    The day the right wingers went into an apoplectic fit over Rachael Ray’s scarf was the day I learned that they had neither common nor fashion sense.

  4. 4.

    beltane

    They may ultimately turn against the flag itself. It may be full of secret Masonic symbols having to do with the New World Order. And the red stripes are reminiscent of communism. The stars, too, are problematic. Why does Hawaii have a star, it is not part of real America. Has Glenn Beck ever addressed these issues?

  6. 6.

    Bubblegum Tate

    Well, in their defense, John, they hadn’t found anything else to throw a fit about that day. You go to crazytown with the paranoia you have, not the paranoia you wish to have.

  7. 7.

    different church-lady

    I’ve been trying to figure out why you’re so insistent on entering the Twittisphere — I knew you were going to be exasperated by what you found there, and was worried you were going to end up sounding just like them.

    And then the lightbulb went on: your whole raison detre is a compulsion to bear witness to what political idiots are emitting. And nothing can make a demagoge sound more stupid than (a) mobility (b) unlimited spontaneity and (c) a 140-character limit. It must be like stumbling into a gold mine. Or finding the world’s biggest catnip mouse.

    So, I say go for it, as long as you resist the urge to do your own tweeting.

  8. 8.

    Comrade Mary

    It’s not the “brewskie” that skeeves me. It’s the EVOO.

    Or maybe Rachel is the lost lovechild of Archie Bunker.

  9. 9.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    But… but… but… her jihadi scarf! Donuts! Terror!!

    The wifey loves her some RR and watches her regularly. The Dumkin Donuts jihadi scarf really made her laugh. I do have to say that some of her dishes taste like jihadi terror so there may be something to that. ;)

    The wife just got back from grocery shopping for TD (Turkey Day) and she is proud of her shopping prowess. She bought almost $230.00 of groceries and after coupons it came to just under $133.00. She is a hard core coupon clipper and loves to show off how much she saves each time. She plans what we need according to what is on sale and stocks up on things when the price is right.

    Our pantry is her armory, well stocked and ready to cook.

  13. 13.

    jl

    hmmmph! I ask you, did the evil Rachel Ray cook any string beans? Peas? Broccoli? Put out a dish of green olives? pickled green tomatoes?

    Those are green, the color of Islam.

    We are so far gone into dhimmitude that we do not even notice the obvious signs anymore.

    Did Cole notice? Obviously not. Sad.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    OK John, it’s time to step back from the wingnut abyss. That way madness lies.

    Don’t make us stage an intervention.

    -dms

  19. 19.

    Tx Expat

    Maybe the, hmmm what do I call them?, Palinista’s are aware of how popular RR is in the Middle East, thus justifying the jihadi title? When I lived in Cairo she was on the teevee ALL THE DAMN TIME. Would’ve never watched her here, but got to appreciate her while I was abroad. My neighbors went on and on about how wonderful she was.

    All of that was just to introduce a new topic , have y’all heard about the riots happening in Cairo over a football match w/Algeria? Here’s a WaPo story about it. For reference, I used to live one street over from where these riots are happening.

    And then I go to school today and here that the Klan is protesting at the LSU/Ole Miss game this weekend.

    Good grief people, sports, really??

  23. 23.

    eemom

    This is sorta on topic, b/c they’re saying that Rachel Ray is one of her protegees (and to think I didn’t even know that!).

    I don’t fucking CARE about fucking OPRAH. Never fucking have, never fucking will.

    But hey, I’ve still got a YEAR. Maybe I’ll change my fucking mind.

  27. 27.

    Mark S.

    This reminded me of a funny post by Roy about Malkin:

    What a small, strange world she lives in — one in which even simple breakfast choices are fraught with peril. What are her lunch and dinner choices like? When she goes to a restaurant, does she peer into the waiters’ station and wonder which servers are gays who wish to be married, peer into the kitchen and wonder which dishwashers are illegal aliens? When she makes her own meals, does she claw through the fridge and pantry like Harry Caul at the end of The Conversation, frantically searching the labels for signs of politically incorrect associations?

  30. 30.

    cleek

    I PASSED THE CALIFORNIA BAR!

    fuck. i was just there! you should’ve stopped in – we were doing flaming shots off this naked chick!

    congrats, anyway. :)

  32. 32.

    eemom

    @Turgidson:

    ooh, congrats!! California is one of the worst. Is it still 3 days?

    Anyhoo, in case you haven’t heard this yet: once you’ve passed the bar, you’ll never PASS a BAR again. Haw haw.

    Cheers!

  33. 33.

    Steph

    The scarf thing is crazy in a really, really, really, really, really depressing way. I have Fox news fans in my family, who probably identify with that Malkin person. Family holidays nearly drive me insane with nervous anticipation of what said people will come out with that will make me go apeshit. We are staying home for Thanksgiving, however.

    As for RR, she’s self-made, and seems humble (read where Martha Stewart dissed her and she responded graciously), so my hat is off to her.

    Oh, also, when some rag wrote that she’d had plastic surgery on her face, she laughed and said that if she was going to have anything worked on it would be her ass. Funny little jihadist!

  37. 37.

    Tx Expat

    @Turgidson:

    Congratulations! I’ll be doing that victory dance, Allah willing, in a year and a half. Finals in a week, just kill me now.

    Let me buy you a nice 20 year old Scotch (the quintessential lawyer drink). Cheers!

  40. 40.

    RedKitten

    @AhabTRuler: Yeah, she’s just way too fucking peppy for my liking. I don’t find her as annoying as Paula Deen, though. And Anne Burrell is bugfuck insane.

    Ina Garten, on the other hand? I’d move in with her and clean her house, if she’d only feed me.

  41. 41.

    soonergrunt

    @Turgidson:
    Congratulations! We have something in common. I turned 21 in California so that was the first place I went into a bar. And I walked past it!

    No really, congratulations. That’s great for you. You are now a colleague of Orly Taitz!

    Soonergrunt +3

  47. 47.

    joes527

    @Turgidson: You now have one more thing in common with Orly Taitz.

    (If you are +8 by the time you read this, then you can make that two things. There is no way in hell that that chick is sober.)

  50. 50.

    Chris

    I’m all about some R-uh R-uh….I dont enjoy her recipes in general…but man she rocks a pair o jeans…LOL

  52. 52.

    DougJ

    They may ultimately turn against the flag itself. It may be full of secret Masonic symbols having to do with the New World Order.

    So true.

  53. 53.

    Martin

    The protests at UCLA and Cal are nice and all, but they’re attacking the wrong group – they need to be camped outside the Governors mansion.

    Reinstatement of all 38 laid-off UC Berkeley custodians.

    Yeah, talk about missing the plot. I don’t know what the unions are trying to accomplish here. They’re helping the students protest the fee increases which are right now the only possible way to prevent more layoffs from union members.

    The scale of the problem is really being missed here. The UC system took a $1B budget cut. So did the CalState system. That’s a bigger budget cut than many states have had to take. If we laid off every single union represented staff person, we’d still be over budget. The state legislature and the governor forced this move. Nobody at UC wants this to happen.

  58. 58.

    The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

    @Chris:

    Hear, hear. I don’t know how anyone can not love Rachael Ray—in fact, she’s on my new, revised Freebie List™. It’s not laminated yet, though.

    The reason she wasn’t on there before is that I thought she and Janeane Garofalo were too similar a type—but then I figured: What the Hell. If you’ve got a type, go with it!

  59. 59.

    Just Bat$hit Crazy...

    I think they were just throwing out $hit and seeing what would stick = good thing our Rachel has a lot of teflon in her kitchen. :^)

    crazy is as crazy does. unfortunately crazy can do a lot of harm. It would be nice to think they’re harmless – but I think I want to make sure the door of their padded cell is locked good & tight.

  61. 61.

    Jager

    Paula Deen dropped a helluva line on her Thanksgiving show last night, (she was in a candy store getting nuts to put on a huge pie) she was sampling everything and said “if you want to make a fat girl smile, just take her to a candy store!”

    Anybody see Ina’s house in the Hamptons on the show last night…either her husband works at Goldman or the Food Network pays big bucks!

  64. 64.

    erlking

    William Gibson has a fairly interesting Twitter feed @GreatDismal.

    Not only Martha, but Tony Bourdain was mean to RR and she was extremely gracious to both. I’d like to think she was all, “fuck both of you” behind closed doors. But probably not.

    Nothing domestic beats Anchor Steam.

    erlking +7

  65. 65.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @AhabTRuler:

    Paula Deen: “Y’know what I like with my butter? Some butter, mayonnaise and cream cheese!”

    According to my wife: “Fixed”

  70. 70.

    asiangrrlMN

    @erlking: We’re losing. Christmas is fucking EVERYWHERE! We have a local station that started playing Xmas music 24/7…last week. Stores are filled with Xmas crap, and every other commercial is a ‘buy crap for Xmas’ ad.

    Oh, wait. I don’t think that’s what you meant by your question.

  71. 71.

    MysticalChick

    OT but enormously fun reading here.

    The question that started it off:
    Little known facts about men

    My boyfriend was shocked (shocked!) recently when I told him that many women’s bathrooms have couches or chairs in them. I was surprised no one had ever told him this before, or that he’d never been in a women’s bathroom. (I’ve had jobs where I’ve cleaned men’s bathrooms, so that world is no secret to me.)

    It got me wondering whether there are certain facts about men or common experiences they have that I’m totally unaware of as a woman. Guys, are there things you encounter pretty regularly that a women would know nothing about? Girls, have you ever learned something about men that’s both common and surprising?

    The answers are *hilarious* – this one, right at the beginning, set the tone:

    “When women aren’t looking, men pee in sinks. They will never admit this to your face, but it is true.”

    If you have a while to peruse, go read that thread. Eye-opening, yes, but funny as all get out.

  72. 72.

    RedKitten

    OT, but need some recommendations from you folks.

    My in-laws have advised us that they’re going to buy us a digital SLR for Xmas, but that we’re to pick it out. We don’t want to take advantage and get anything too outlandish, but also want something decent. I’m contemplating the Olympus Evolt E620 12.3MP. Does anybody have any experience with it, and would you recommend it? Otherwise, any other cameras under $750 that you think are worthwhile?

  74. 74.

    erlking

    @asiangrrlMN: Ha. Not entirely–Anchor Steam does a Christmas Ale every year, which veers from the angelic to the tastes-like-a-pine-tree-shit-in-my-beer-glass. And since AS is based in San Francisco, I was trying to make culture war joke, but CULTURE WAR JOKE FAIL.

  76. 76.

    asiangrrlMN

    @erlking: No, no, I got it. I was just being sarcastic (no, really?). Your joke was fine; I just hate Xmas and get extra-grumpy with all the rightwingnutters clutching their pearls over how Christmas and Christians are getting picked on by the mean librul media. Or something.

  77. 77.

    Triumph

    While I’m sure she’s not a pastry jihadist, there is something unsettling about the size of her mouth. I keep getting the feeling that she may, in fact, be some sort of weird human/python hybrid with the ability to unhinge her jaw to swallow her prey whole after killing them with her peppiness.

  78. 78.

    Morbo

    John +1 (Black Box Shiraz FTW. What’s another torpedo in a sinking ship, I say…)

    I’m so unmotivated tonight I am not even interested in a second glass of wine.

    See? It takes a lot of commitment to be Ann Althouse.

  79. 79.

    erlking

    @asiangrrlMN: I find it endlessly entertaining that they find a way to get bent out of shape over Christmas. The one day that a large slice of humanity is playing along with ancient semitic mythology and it’s not enough for the “true believers.”

  81. 81.

    jibeaux

    Ina Garten/Barefoot Contessa’s chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting are the most delicious, indulgent dessert in the universe. And her apple crostata, very nice.
    And I’ve got a couple of Rachael Ray cookbooks and they’re good workaday recipes, I think I recommended the 3 bean chili one not long ago. But I’ve got no cable and I have literally never heard either one of them talk. And being as how they’re cooks and all, it works well that way. I know the celebrity chef thing isn’t new, but it’s still a little weird to me.

  82. 82.

    Yutsano

    @Jager:

    Anybody see Ina’s house in the Hamptons on the show last night…either her husband works at Goldman or the Food Network pays big bucks!

    The latter is certainly true, although Ina has her own food empire to back that up. However her husband is a dean (I wanna say of the business school) at Yale, so no they’re not hurting financially.

  83. 83.

    asiangrrlMN

    @erlking: I know! I wish I could be amused; I just find it irritating. Last Christmas, my SIL was saying that Christmas was to celebrate the birth of Jeebuz, and I had to bite my tongue not to blurt out, “Jesus was born in the summer, autumn at the latest. Christmas is celebrated in the winter so it could be grafted onto an already existing pagan ritual so the locals would play along.”

    Ahem. Wolverines. Also.

  84. 84.

    jcricket

    cricket +1.5 (also black box shiraz, which i find kinda funny).

    I don’t do any cooking, or food prep (unless you count microwaving things that come in plastic packages) – that’s what the wifey is for (don’t worry, I do all the cleaning) – but Rachel Ray drives me abso-fucking-lutely nuts.

    I can’t stand that voice of hers.

    I’m a Giada man myself.

  87. 87.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Dear heart, explaining how Christmas is a total ripoff of the Roman Saturnalia plus a few other pagan winter festivals means boo to the true believers. I choose not to bother and instead lean more on my Jewish roots this time of year. Eight days of presents (even if seven are usually pretty cheap) still beats out one any day of the week.

  88. 88.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Turgidson

    I PASSED THE CALIFORNIA BAR!
    …
    that is all.
    …
    Turgidson +0 but soon to be +at least, say…8

    Awesome! My lawyer friends have said that that’s one of the harder bar exams to pass. Does this mean that you can now use your mighty legal powers to file ethics complaints against Orly Taitz or David Court?

  89. 89.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: My baby is all grown up and saving China! (okay Australia but it’s still on that side of the planet!) I just love that line and that movie.

    Any bets on how many + he is by this point? At my brother’s wedding there were a ton of drunk folks!

  90. 90.

    jcricket

    Awesome! My lawyer friends have said that that’s one of the harder bar exams to pass

    Oh c’mon, the CA bar exam is basically:

    1) Do you hate America?
    2) Marijuana rocks, no?
    3) George Bush is a War criminal. Do you prosecute him? Or really, really prosecute him.

    CA is the moonbeam state.

    Plus, the law is only for people who dither. Real Americans take the “law” into their own bare hands and smite the terrorists with the power of their jesus sticks.

  92. 92.

    jibeaux

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Bald guy? I do like that. Good stuff.
    I hardly ever watch music videos any more, but it doesn’t seem like I’ve missed much of an evolution.

  94. 94.

    jcricket

    @Martin: But let’s not talk about, you know, raising taxes. That’s crazy talk. There’s no way that would solve the problem.

    Let’s just keep passing the problem down to poor or middle class people, because they have unlimited money, right?

    Better yet, lets just cancel the whole “services” wing of the government. The only part that matters it the part where we take taxpayer dollars and give them to big corporations who rape the environment, deny people a livable wage and enrich the already rich.

  96. 96.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: I know. I really really know better. However, it still irks me. I mean, it’s common knowledge, just as Easter is grafted on the fertility ritual day. Come on! Bunnies? Duh!

    I like Hanukkah better, too. Chocolate coins! OK, I lie. I hate all holidays.
    @Yutsano:

    My baby is all grown up and saving China!

    What movie is that? They’re plastered. He admitted that was one of the main reasons for getting married–and prezzies.

    @jibeaux: Mah gawd. The more I listen, the more I want to strip him of his clothing and have my way with him–and I don’t think he’s cute!

  98. 98.

    The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

    Just to be clear: I love Rachael Ray, but the only cooking show I’ve ever recorded every episode of and use constantly is Good Eats. Alton Brown is God!

  99. 99.

    Mike in NC

    I’m sitting here watching Rachel Ray make a quick Thanksgiving dinner

    She must be financially secure enough to go and hire somebody to skull fuck Malkin now over that whole scarf business.

  100. 100.

    jibeaux

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Matt Berninger from the National, are we talking about now, or Alan Rickman? (I think we must have a thing for baritones either way.) Slow Show, Fake Empire — his voice just makes them for me.

  101. 101.

    asiangrrlMN

    @jibeaux: I don’t actually watch the videos–I just find it the easiest way to find songs since I don’t have an iPod or anything like that. But holy schmoly. That National guy is…yeah. Rrrowr.

  102. 102.

    mandarama

    @Comrade Mary:

    I would like to posit that the MOST painful RR slang is “sammies” for sandwiches. I find that so appalling that I won’t even turn to those pages in her cookbook DH bought me.

  106. 106.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN:

    What movie is that?

    It’s near the end of Mulan, specifically the Eddie Murphy character.

    They’re plastered. He admitted that was one of the main reasons for getting married—and prezzies.

    I’m still convinced this is the only reason my brother got married. Hell they’d been living together for almost three years beforehand.

  107. 107.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Ah. Saw that a long time ago. No wonder I don’t remember.

    Marriage: FH#1 also said that getting married garnered more presents than a ‘party to get drunk’ occasion would. It’s not legally marriage, but he hijacked the word again, for the sake of prezzies.

  108. 108.

    NutellaonToast

    @Martin: I was a chem PhD student there for four semesters and all of us, TA or no, were in the union. It may be only TAs and the GSR (grad student researchers) but it’s thousands of grad students, either way.

  111. 111.

    Yutsano

    @The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge: Rachael makes stuff any idiot off the street can make, and that’s her point. Alton will make stuff and I will watch him thinking he’s absolutely nuts (the weighing the ingredients thing before baking especially drives me nuts) but I can totally understand the WHY of what he does. I personally would kill to take a few culinary classes under him. I’d know even more now than I do about cooking, more than half of which can be directly attributed to him.

    BTW did you see the ten year anniversary special? AWESOME!

  112. 112.

    jibeaux

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Yeah, that’s a great one too. So glad you like! Ezra Klein used to do “what emusic should I get this month?” posts back at his old place, is where I found out about them.

  113. 113.

    Turgidson

    Thanks all. I’m still in disbelief, because I was utterly certain I would be taking the exam again in February. It’s starting to sink in now. Huzzah!

    I’m now +3 and just getting started. Gonna head out to meet some fellow esq.’s in a bit. Should be fun.

  114. 114.

    jibeaux

    @Turgidson:

    After my bar exam, the YLD literally had kegs set up right outside the door. I always thought that was a little odd from a potential liability standpoint, but I appreciated it.

  116. 116.

    Yutsano

    @jibeaux: Rawr. Y’all are gonna make do that damn LSAT thingie I can see it coming already. Okay y’all and the Dawg too so it’s not like there’s a huge amount of pressure from here. Sigh. Guess I’ll bite the bullet and do it then. Any good tips for prep books?

  117. 117.

    jibeaux

    @asiangrrlMN:
    You’re so funny. Slow Show, Fake Empire, Secret Meeting, Start a War, Karen, Mr. November (nice but does not highlight the baritone so nicely), I like all of those.

  119. 119.

    asiangrrlMN

    @jibeaux: Listening to Slow Show now. Nice. But, if I did him, I would have to turn out the lights. I love his voice, but I do not like watching him sing. Very strange. And, I can listen to a song over twenty times in a row.

  121. 121.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Does it make it any better that one of the law schools I’m seriously considering is the University of British Columbia? I could actually plan it out that I could live and work in the US but work my ass off up there. They even have a program that gets you out in 2 1/2 years. Now as far as AFFORDING it…

  122. 122.

    jibeaux

    @Yutsano:
    I won’t be much help on that, I just got one from the library, didn’t do a whole lot with it. Honestly I think that if you’re a logical thinker and you tend to do well on standardized tests, you’re probably going to do just fine. It’s a bit like trying to study for the SAT, you can probably bring your score up somewhat, be a little more prepared, but it’s hard to make it dramatic.
    Now, as for law school, given a choice I’d rather be graduating four or so years from now than now, but do consider carefully the job market when going into this. It’s brutal. If you have any other marketable inclinations, I’d rule those out first. Not to be discouraging, just fair warning. Private law schools have cropped up all over the place concerned more with collecting tuition than getting jobs for their graduates, and even if you don’t go to those schools you compete with their grads for a not-increasing pool of jobs. My line of work involves frequently evaluating people’s salaries, and I would have done better to go work in a Firestone factory. Or in the pit crew at NASCAR, holy cow.

  126. 126.

    The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

    @Yutsano:

    BTW did you see the ten year anniversary special? AWESOME!

    Yes, I did. It was great. I’m running through the Romancing the Bird episode and its follow-up again, getting ready for Thanksgiving. I’ve gotten his method of cooking a turkey down now, though. Drop that in front of a bunch of “low and slow is the way to go” people and be prepared to see the heads exploding!

    What I like about him is, he knows a lot of techniques, but he’s not doctrinaire about homemade being the best, no matter how hard it is, and if you don’t do it you’re a barbarian, like a lot of coking mavens. He’ll tell you to go out and buy things like puff pastry and won-ton skins: “They’re really hard to make, and yes, I know how, but it’s just not worth it.”

  127. 127.

    Yutsano

    @MikeJ: A) REALLY bad Shop job.

    B) She will be the first to tell you that she is VERY accident-prone. In fact she almost cut herself open today on her show, plus if you look on her hands she has tons of little cooking nicks. It’s either part of the charm or part of the annoyance depending on your perspective.

  128. 128.

    Gus

    Nothing domestic beats Anchor Steam.

    I like Anchor Steam, but there are so many good beers being brewed these days that I can find a locally brewed beer I like better just about any place I am. I can name three or four beers I like better brewed in the Twin Cities. It’s a good time to be a beer snob.

  129. 129.

    jibeaux

    The NASCAR pit crew guys, not that anyone asked, are in the $150k range. And This American Life tonight featured a gambling limo owner/driver in Las Vegas, who if he just kept the money he earned driving would probably make a half million a year. So sometimes you just have to think, “I took the bar exam eight and a half months pregnant over two days for what now?” But it’s good, if I were on a pit crew — well, I’d be awful, for starters — or driving a car, I wouldn’t have much time to be here, right?

  132. 132.

    Turgidson

    oooh the National! I heart them. Hope they put out another album before too long. “Start a War”, when listened to at the right moment, is outrageously good (and chilling). Boxer and Alligator are both among my favorite albums of the decade.

    Turgidson +4. Going out for real, in a minute.

  134. 134.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Vancouver is fanfuckingtastic, almost impossible to drive in (the Olympics will be a nightmare to get around) but sooo gorgeous. Victoria is amazingly charming, they retain a lot of the old English charm and mystique plus the architecture is amazing. I absolutely love BC.

  138. 138.

    The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

    I love when a thread gets derailed by beer. There’s a little brewpub called The Bigtime Alehouse and Brewery here in Seattle, in the U District. They brew all their stuff on the premises—you walk past the vats on your way in—but they would only brew “The Bhagwan’s Own India Pale Ale™” a couple of times a year–fantastic! I hope they still do, anyway—I live in the South End now and haven’t been there for a couple of years.

  139. 139.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Largest population of Chinese outside of China proper is Vancouver. Plus a WONDERFUL Chinese noodle shop called Sun Sui Wah. Among the very very long list of foodie places that Vancouver is loaded with. I may just move up there just to make myself happy.

  140. 140.

    bedtimeforbonzo

    @eemom: Amen. Never was an Oprah fan. Found her annoying and cloying. She is supposed to be all about empowerment, and having seen so little of her show, I can’t say if that is so — I’m sure there is some truth to that. But it seems to me, like any host of a talk show like hers, Oprah engaged in exploitation, too.

    One thing that is undeniable is her prowess as a marketer. Could not believe, for instance, Anderson Cooper led off his 10 p.m. CNN news of her stepping down — in 2011, for Pete’s sake!

  141. 141.

    Yutsano

    @jibeaux:

    So sometimes you just have to think, “I took the bar exam eight and a half months pregnant over two days for what now?”

    Look at it this way: you didn’t go into labor in the middle of it. California is a two day affair no?

  143. 143.

    drillfork

    Uh, you should buy gold. You really should have bought it in ’03, but whatever. Hope your 401K is doing well…

  145. 145.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Oh man, you just reminded me of one of the several reasons I’m looking forward to my friend’s wedding in Phoenix in April. There is a FANTASTIC dim sum restaurant in the Chinese Cultural Center called the Golden Buddha. I went there a couple of years ago, enjoyed it so much I almost didn’t want to leave.

  146. 146.

    jibeaux

    @asiangrrlMN:

    The driver has all these weird connections with hotel doormen, strip clubs, even brothels, where he gets a kickback for bringing them customers, and then he gets some mad tips, etc. Still, I never would’ve thought you could make that kind of money driving people around, $2000 a night.

  147. 147.

    asiangrrlMN

    @JGabriel: Nice! Me likey. There’s a version in which Bowie sings with them. Will listen to that next.

    @Yutsano: Gr. I want it now. Crap. I can taste it. Don’t you have good dim sum in Seattle?

    By the way, Seahawks vs. Vikes on Sunday. Want to bet something?

  148. 148.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Glenn Beck urged his viewers to sell at DJIA 1400. Glenn was hawking gold at $650.

    Today, seeking employment in this Obama recovery, there was the diversity lady teaching the class. Northern European descent. She asked ‘why do we need this training?’

    The guy behind me, former military with a tattoo on his neck, raised his hand and was called upon.

    “Because people are too sensitive.”

    Muffled claps from the job-seekers. Then the video. I earned that money.

    +3

  149. 149.

    Ailuridae

    If the BJers want to get ahead of something on their front page it might be a good idea to look into the rapidly expanding gold bubble and that Fox is schilling gold as a safe investment on all of its opinion shows (but especially Beck) non-stop.

    Its not really legal for Glenn Beck to be giving investment advice and when this bubble bursts its going to be spectacular as gold’s actual uses are minimal (and would be next to nothing if people realized how insanely ugly gold jewelry is)

  150. 150.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Odd thing about Seattle: HUGE Japanese and Korean communities, but very little in the way of a Chinese one. They tended to go either north to Vancouver or south to Portland, I think it had something to do with the rail systems.

    Bet? Hmm…let me get my blood sugar up and I’ll get back to you.

  152. 152.

    Gus

    @asiangrrlMN:
    Surly Furious
    Surly Bitter Brewer
    Summit Scotch Ale (Limited Edition!)
    Summit Extra Pale Ale
    Lift Bridge Farm Girl Saison
    Flat Earth 115 Lager
    They all taste like sweet, sweet beer. Of course it’s all a matter of taste. Anchor Steam is great beer, and it was the first great craft beer to make it big time.

  159. 159.

    Martin

    @Ailuridae:

    Yep. The only reason gold has value is because of it’s scarcity, yet it’s currently priced similar to platinum which is far scarcer. If this wasn’t a bubble, there should be a broader and more consistent commodities trend, but it’s all piling up in one place. I’m sure Glenn will be there to hold everyone’s hand when the price plummets.

  161. 161.

    The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

    @Martin:

    Plus platinum (and iridium) have many more actual uses, at least as long as we’re stuck with spark-ignition engines and their catalytic converters. But platinum catalysts are heavily used in industry as well. Gold is nothing but a finacial scam—like diamonds, but for a lower income bracket.

  164. 164.

    Morbo

    Oh yeah, and this (via Attaturk) is hilarious. Damn that Brett Favre and his shenanigans!

    Morbo+1.x
    (7%er has to count for more than 1, no?)

  167. 167.

    The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

    @asiangrrlMN:

    If “less hoppy” is what you’re looking for (and I sympathize), I love Mexican beer in general, but Dos Equis light for example, is very hoppy. Superior is much less stringent, almost sweet, but it slides down really easily, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. It’s what mass-market beer is supposed to taste like—and did, before they started cheaping out on the fermentation time.

  170. 170.

    Yutsano

    @Yutsano: Okay, knowing my dear Seachickens are teh suck this year, I might as well go shopping now. Having said that, I wager two dozen/one batch, whichever is greater, of my rather famous chocolate chip cookies. I know, I know, it sounds pedestrian, but I have had moms who have cooked for decades get jealous over them. They will be shipped priority mail to your address should we figure out how to exchange addresses without splashing them all over BJ. Whatcha got back?

  171. 171.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    OMG, did you say apple pie?!

    At least 55 million tons of apples were grown worldwide in 2005, with a value of about $10 billion. China produced about 35% of this total.[4] The United States is the second leading producer, with more than 7.5% of the world production. Turkey, France, Italy, and Iran are also among the leading apple exporters.

    Call the militia!

  174. 174.

    gwangung

    @Yutsano: Actually, Chinese community is large around Seattle, but that’s only recent. Very odd situation in that the Asian community is pan-Asian with a lot more cooperation between the various groups, with the old time power structure split between the Chinese and Japanese, but the big populations were Japanese and Filipino.

    Nowadays, there’s been a big influx of Chinese, due to family and to Microsoft, and they (and everyone else) have surpassed the Japanese; Filipinos have the numbers, but not the economic power. Koreans have steadily grown in power and economics (smaller political offices and whatnot).

    And the Chinese food here still sucks; to get good dim sum, you have to go to BC.

  175. 175.

    JGabriel

    Dry Your Eyes, Mate.

    She brings her hands towards where my hands are rested. She wraps her fingers round mine with the softness she’s blessed with. She peels away my fingers, looks at me and then gestures by pushin’ my hand away to my chest. From hers …

    She pulls away, my arms are tightly clamped round her waist, gently pushes me back and she looks at me straight, turns around so she’s now got her back to my face, takes one step forward, looks back, and then walks away.

    .

  176. 176.

    Yutsano

    @gwangung: I’m still trying to figure out how the Mariners got a Japanese manager who coincidentally is semi-decent. I have to admit I did a double take when I first heard the name, but Wakamatsu has definitely proven himself, injury bug be damned. And yeah I should have mentioned that the Chinese community is not deep in Seattle, the Japanese have been here for well over 100 years.

  177. 177.

    Anne Laurie

    @John Cole:

    I think because I was a full-fledged wingnut, I am immune. I have been innoculated. I am sort of a DayWalker, if you ever watched Blade.

    Back when I was in college, acquaintances would ask how I could hang with both lesbian separatists and objectivists without becoming infatuated with either ideology. I told them that after twelve years of parochial school, I was cult-proof, because if you survive smallpox, you’ve got a lifelong immunity to cowpox.

  179. 179.

    asiangrrlMN

    @JGabriel: At first I thought you were showing me a Yankee video, and I would have had to hurt you. Instead, it’s a melancholy and haunting Wilco video. You will remain unscathed.

    @The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge: Thanks. I usually just drink hard liquor, but once in awhile, I try a beer to see if I’m missing anything.

    @Yutsano: Nothing you would want, my dear. And, you’re gonna lose, anyway. But it is a trap game for my Vikes. Hm. I don’t cook. Dunno. I will think and get back to you. I have my email addy over at my blog. So, you can email from there. Then, we can do snail mail addy exchanges.

  180. 180.

    JGabriel

    There’s blood in my mouth ’cause I’ve been biting my tongue all week — I keep talking trash but I never say anything. Baby, I’m bad news. ‘Cause we’ll all be Portions for Foxes.

    .

  181. 181.

    Anne Laurie

    @hal:

    Isn’t Thanksgiving dinner the one time a year when people expect to be cooking (slowly) all day?

    A lot of us from the Boomer and post-Boomer generations never learned to cook, because our moms were too busy working to teach us or too infatuated with “convenience” crap like frozen green-bean casseroles. Now those same moms (grans, aunts, etc) are getting past being able to whip up the Traditional Turkey Day feast, and there are a lot of stranded, desperate middle-aged ladies, and gentlemen, trying to replicate half-remembered dishes with the ‘help’ of cookbooks that assume everyone knows the meaning of terms like blanche and how to dissect giblets. For holidays like this, Rachel Ray is less about saving time cooking & more about speed-learning the stripped-down techniques of the day.

  182. 182.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Re: “Lesbian seperatists”

    Anne Laurie;

    Barack said he would be friends with ‘structural feminists’, even the white ones. But in my research there is no such thing as ‘structural feminists’. There are ‘post-structural feminists’ however.

    Is this confusion on my part, or Barack’s?

    Thank you in advance for your time.

    -Bill

  183. 183.

    JGabriel

    I left them motherless, fatherless, their souls hanging inside-out from their mouths. But it’s never enough. Carved your name across three counties, ground it in with bloody hides.

    Their broken necks will line the ditch ’til you stop it.

    This Tornado Loves You.

    .

  184. 184.

    Yutsano

    @Anne Laurie:

    For holidays like this, Rachel Ray is less about saving time cooking & more about speed-learning the stripped-down techniques of the day.

    This is exactly why I consider Rachael Ray (there are two A’s in her name just for the record) to be a fantastic resource for those who don’t have their cooking legs or the patience to spend hours on a dish. You could view her as Culinary 101. You will learn a TON of the basics from her, then you can go on to something a bit more advanced like what Anne Burrelle or Ina Garten pulls off. When you start watching Alton Brown you’re into getting some serious culinary knowledge in a very entertaining package. I’m not saying don’t watch Good Eats cause the show is hilarious and entertaining. He does, however, approach a subject assuming the basics are in your repetoire.

  186. 186.

    Mnemosyne

    Rachael Ray did an interview where they asked her what she thought about all of the haters, like the people who set up rachaelraysucks.com. She said, “What am I supposed to do, set up Nu-uhyousuck.com?”

    The main thing to know about Rachael Ray’s recipes is that her serving sizes are enormous. If she says “serves 4” I can always get 6 servings out of it, if not 8 or 10.

  190. 190.

    Yutsano

    @Mnemosyne:

    The main thing to know about Rachael Ray’s recipes is that her serving sizes are enormous. If she says “serves 4” I can always get 6 servings out of it, if not 8 or 10.

    She does happen to mention over and over that she and her family are big eaters. She’s pretty infamous for saying that something that should feed four will feed just her and her husband (and her gawjuss puppeh!) quite well, so the fact that doesn’t translate into traditional portion size isn’t surprising.

  191. 191.

    Anne Laurie

    With regard to Twitter: My dear friend KenJ had a rule never to read literary bestsellers until five years after they hit. He reasoned that if they were worth reading, copies would still be readily available, and if they weren’t, he’d avoided wasting time and money on a fad.

    Using Ken’s Law as my guide to adopting ‘new’ technology has saved me endless time and frustration over the past 30 years. (Cough, myspace, cough, facebook, cough… ) If y’all are still tweeting in 2014, let me know.

  193. 193.

    Martin

    There are two activities that people engage in – cooking and recipe selection/following. The only show that actually teaches you cooking is Alton. Everyone else is mostly just working to keep you from looking like an idiot in the kitchen.

  194. 194.

    gwangung

    @Yutsano: I like Wak. Some of the stat heads had doubts about him, and he has his weaknesses, but he keeps the players happy and uses the roster well (far fewer WTFs from the stat geeks, like hitting Vidro and Sexson 4th and 5th…).

    Somehow all the Chinese ended up with the land and power. The first Asian American elected to office was Wing Luke, Seattle City Councilman in the 1960s. And Ruby Chow was a long time presence on the Council (as well as being Bruce Lee’s mentor of a sorts). And there was Gary Locke, of course…And the Asian part of town was first called Chinatown, then called International DIstrict and then Chinatown International District.

    But like I said, lousy Chinese food.

  195. 195.

    AngusTheGodOfMeat

    “I can’t believe they tried to turn her into a symbol of pro-Jihadi anti-Americanism.”

    What’s amazing to me is that these are the laughable lunatics that we are told we should be afraid of. They might take over the country again, or something.

    I’m at the point where I would rather cower in fear of turrists blowing up our school buses full of kids being trucked off to the schools where they’ll be taught the Gay Agenda, than I would cower in fear of these righty lamebrains.

  196. 196.

    Martin

    @Anne Laurie:

    I have the same rule with new tech.

    We have a similar rule for spending money. It works out to $20/day. You want that $200 pair of shoes? Come back in 10 days and see if you still want them. It’s too easy to spend money today.

    There are exceptions to the rule, but not many.

  197. 197.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Re: Thank you in advance for your time.

    unperson – Person that has been erased from existence by the government for breaking the law in some way. A unperson is completely erased from history. All records of their existence is removed from record, and all party members are expected to removed them from memory. To mention their name is considered thoughtcrime. This eliminates any possibility of martyrdom.

    But I am still trying to figure out what a structural feminist is. Please enlighten. Thanks Anne.

    -Bill

  200. 200.

    Loneoak

    I realize I’m coming to this late, but I am actually a TA in the UC system. The Regents would love everyone to believe that the budget problems are all Sacramento’s fault. They’re half right, but they say this to distract from their terrible, immoral, ineffective governance. For instance, this budget analysis is shocking:

    http://www.cucfa.org/news/2009_oct11.php

    If you want to go down the rabbit hole, see more in the ‘News’ section.

    It boils down to the UC Regents promising indeterminate and permanent tuition raises in order to maintain a high bond rating on Wall St. While all the Ivies are shutting down building projects in order to maintain core educational commitments, the UC is raising tuition just to cover our bond rating. Our tuition has gone up 250% in 10 years. Yes, the state is culpable in this, especially considering the perfect mirroring of decreased educational budget and the increased prisons budget, but the Regents are bungling this terribly. They are calling our fundamental insolvency a ‘crisis’ to seize more power without addressing the rotten core of the UC.

    Meanwhile, my classes are bursting at the seams, students rarely get out in 5 years (especially double majors, which are practically obligatory now), all extra services are disappearing, our labs have trash piling up because janitors are cut, etc., etc. And the administration keeps getting Wall St. size raises.

  201. 201.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @ailuridae

    @Martin

    Jules Verne wrote a novel called The Meteor Hunt where it is discovered that an asteroid made of gold is going to smash into the earth. The novel is concerned not with the damage that this will cause but because it will wreck the world’s economy. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if this happened? It wouldn’t have to be a large meteor, say one 100 meters in diameter with an ore content of 5 percent by volume would inject 1.5 million metric tons of gold into the world economy which would drop the price of gold to about nothing in nothing flat and wipe out the net worth of many Libertarians, Randroids and other hard currency fetishists.

  202. 202.

    The Very Reverend Battleaxe of Knowledge

    @Wile E. Quixote:

    Asteroid mining in general would destroy the economy of scarcity we’re so accustomed to. I have to wonder if there’s not a conspiracy to keep spaceflight so expensive that it’s not workable. Especially when these new startups dedicated to “new, innovative” methods are just redoing the work NASA did 50 years ago, and ineptly. (I mean, SpaceX’s third failed launch was due to recontact. Recontact! You can’t make this shit up! What is this, 1959?) And the best idea NASA can come up with is to reinvent the Apollo spacecraft.

  203. 203.

    Andy K

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Very nice. Great song. Video reminds me of Whit Stillman.

    Next time you need something to get you up (forgot about it the other night):

    Cab Calloway (featuring the hoofin’ of the Nicholas Brothers)

    Jumpin’ Jive

  207. 207.

    Yutsano

    @gwangung:

    I like Wak. Some of the stat heads had doubts about him, and he has his weaknesses, but he keeps the players happy and uses the roster well (far fewer WTFs from the stat geeks, like hitting Vidro and Sexson 4th and 5th…).

    My brother, who is a Sabermetrics follower in the extreme, happens to approve of most of the decisions Wak makes. He of course thinks he can do better (amazing what happens when your job doesn’t ride on those decisions but I digress) but for the most part he’s liking what Wak has done so far.

  210. 210.

    grumpy realist

    @Turgidson: congrats, congrats, congrats! I hope to be doing the same here in Illinois in a few years (am going v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y because of working full time as well.)

    To: whoever-it-was-who-wanted-LSAT-suggestions: The Logic Games Bible (or something like that.) Tons of training for the Logic questions on the LSAT.

    To those who are trying to remember how to cook:

    1. Don’t forget to purchase your frozen turkey well in advance so to provide sufficient defrosting time.
    2. If you forget about grocery shopping until Thanksgiving day, get multiple smaller birds (duck, chicken, whatever) and roast them in oven. Or simply one smaller bird if your crowd-to-feed is small.
    3. Make sure the cat/dog is locked up/outside during bird preparation. Amazing how an 12-lb cat can drag a 30-lb turkey off the counter.

    Happy eating!

  212. 212.

    Darkrose

    @Martin:

    The protests at UCLA and Cal are nice and all, but they’re attacking the wrong group – they need to be camped outside the Governors mansion.

    I dunno…I think they should camp outside Yudof’s house, and Katehi’s, and all the other overpaid administrators.

  213. 213.

    Darkrose

    @Loneoak:

    Meanwhile, my classes are bursting at the seams, students rarely get out in 5 years (especially double majors, which are practically obligatory now), all extra services are disappearing, our labs have trash piling up because janitors are cut, etc., etc. And the administration keeps getting Wall St. size raises.

    This. Yeah. The new chancellor at UC Not An Ag School is getting a 6-figure salary, far more than her predecessor. I have yet to see what she’s actually doing to justify that–meanwhile, they’re trying to get staff and faculty to teach freshman seminars for free.

  214. 214.

    Of Bugs and Books

    @AngusTheGodOfMeat:

    I hope BOB considers the possibility that a diversity training class can also be a screening test of future employees. Does he think the trainers are watching the video?

  215. 215.

    Trollhattan

    @ gwangung

    Somehow all the Chinese ended up with the land and power. The first Asian American elected to office was Wing Luke, Seattle City Councilman in the 1960s. And Ruby Chow was a long time presence on the Council (as well as being Bruce Lee’s mentor of a sorts). And there was Gary Locke, of course…And the Asian part of town was first called Chinatown, then called International DIstrict and then Chinatown International District.
    __
    But like I said, lousy Chinese food.

    I can’t opine on Seattle today but when I grew up there in the ’60s and ’70s and there was a large Chinese community and likewise a large Japanese community. From what I can recall the predominant Chinese dialect and food were Cantonese and most of my Chinese friends’ parents were from Hong Kong. Most of my Japanese friends’ parents were nisei who had been sent into internment, which ripped their community apart and forced them to re-form it after the war.

    FWIW there didn’t seem to be many defined predominantly Asian neighborhoods when I was growing up. Other than the “Chinatown” south of Jackson St. they lived all across south Seattle. I grew up in Mount Baker and always had quite a mix of kids in all my schools. Trivia: Gary Locke was in my sister’s high school class, a few years ahead of me.

    I miss Seattle. It was a great place to live.

  219. 219.

    Zuzu's Petals

    @Turgidson:

    Congrats, congrats! A real achievement indeed.

    I still have my state bar letter around someplace, some 20+ years after the fact. I still remember the feeling of elation, followed – for a long time – by a feeling that the next letter was going to tell me there’d been a mistake.

  220. 220.

    MNPundit

    @MysticalChick: I knew this before, but frankly almost all the women’s bathrooms I have been in (I was a student janitor) don’t have that.

    Why the fuck do they have them? It makes no sense. Women have to sit down to go to the bathroom, it’s not like they are lacking anywhere to sit without them.

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