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You are here: Home / Open Threads / World Series Open Thread

World Series Open Thread

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Some group named Lady Antebellum is singing the anthem, and, as usual, I have never heard of them. It did remind me of something I was thinking about earlier, though. My boiling vessel/electric teapot/whatever it is called died this morning, so I had no coffee until I got on the road, and I briefly thought that “Electric Kettle” would make a really cool name for a band.

Also, there was a horrifying accident on the highway today, so I had to slow down to a stop for basically a half hour before I could pass. I always feel guilty when that happens, because my first reaction is always anger. Considering that is usually my first reaction to any change or inconvenience, small or large, that is pretty typical. But then, immediately, I think to myself- “What the hell is wrong with you? Someone might be dead up there and you’re a little pissy about a delay.”

Back to the point. As we were slowly crawling along, I observed that there is a great deal of stuff in the ditches on the highway that we fortunately miss at 70 mph. Lots of dead things. Those of you who live around here know what I am talking about when I say that some of the road kill around here is just horrifying. In some places, the road just looks like a smear or a Jackson Pollack painting, if his preferred materials had been blood, sinew, and fur. But what you really miss is the carnage in the ditches. There is honest to goodness a dead deer every ten yards, in some contorted, awkward, bloated position. It is seriously like the Guernica for deer.

I’m reasonably sure I’m going to have bad dreams tonight.

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  1. 1.

    Tom

    I observed that there is a great deal of stuff in the ditches on the highway that we fortunately miss at 70 mph. Lots of dead things

    Early this year I was in bumper-to-bumper stop-and-go traffic on the highway and had the pleasure to stop next to a freshly-hit racoon lying on the shoulder — still twitching. Fun stuff.

    And go Giants. In the year of partisanship, it’s fitting that it’s a Texas/SF World Series.

  2. 2.

    Mike in NC

    There is honest to goodness a dead deer every ten yards, in some contorted, awkward, bloated position. It is seriously like the Guernica for deer.

    I heard it was mating season and that’s why there are dead deer all over the place. What a mess.

  4. 4.

    Dreggas

    I’m a bad person then because my first reaction to gridlock is “there better be fatalities”.

    Of course if there were I felt bad, but seriously, 2 mph and not even an accident to rubberneck?

  5. 5.

    John Dillinger

    I did GOTV stuff in eastern OH across from Wheeling in 2004, and I never remember seeing so many dead deer in all my life that first week in November. Its like they have a mass suicide in advance of deer season.

  7. 7.

    kdaug

    I’ll cheer you up:

    Ohio’s likely to elect Rich Iott. Genuine, bona-fide Nazi wannabe. Plays dress-up and everything.

    FTW, he’s carrying a Bible and wrapped in the flag.

  8. 8.

    Tom Hilton

    Also, there was a horrifying accident on the highway today, so I had to slow down to a stop for basically a half hour before I could pass. I always feel guilty when that happens, because my first reaction is always anger.

    You think you’re bad? Whenever I’m in a bad slowdown, I hope it’s an accident rather than just insanely heavy traffic the whole way.

    Yeah, I’m going to hell.

  9. 9.

    protected static

    Gah. I hear you on the road kill. Worst I’ve ever seen was when I lived in DC – the intersection of a deer and semi where the Beltway feeds into 270. There was most of a rear haunch at Cabin John, a tattered head-neck combo on 270 by Rockville, and a bright red smear the whole way in between. No skid marks or debris from the truck at all.

  11. 11.

    Tom

    I hope it’s an accident rather than just insanely heavy traffic the whole way.

    Yeah, there’s nothing better than passing a horrific wreck then speeding off into three open lanes.

    Let’s be sure to have lunch in hell.

  12. 12.

    General Stuck

    Though it wasn’t a serious accident, yesterday I was backing out my parking space at Wally World and the guy next to me was backing out first, so he backs into a car behind us with a very minor fender bender, if that. Since the car he backed into was also partly behind me, I was trapped. I gave them a few minutes that I figured they would exchange phone numbers, and finally got out and learned the lady that got backed into insisted on calling the police, and wouldn’t move her car until they arrived. I said fuck it and backed on out anyways, as there was at least half an inch to spare on both sides, but I made it.

    I am kind of missing the Yankees in the WS this year, to get really worked up hating them, but will have to just have to do with Texas playing that role, if the series makes it before we all get blowed up from planet killing farts.

  13. 13.

    stuckinred

    @John Dillinger: God, I went to Oglebay Park in Wheeling in February for 5 years. We flew to Pittsburgh and took the “Wheeling Limo”. What a fucking nightmare. Wheeling downs was sort of fun though.

  14. 14.

    BGinCHI

    Cole, don’t worry about the medians.

    Once the GOP has gotten back into power, citizens will be cleaning them up so they’ll have something to eat.

    Does anyone have any non-depressing news about the upcoming election? And please don’t say “Jerry Brown.”

  16. 16.

    steviez314

    You still wake up sometimes, don’t you? You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambsdeer.

  19. 19.

    gnomedad

    Considering that is usually my first reaction to any change or inconvenience, small or large, that is pretty typical.

    I always have to take a deep breath and remind myself that all those orange drums and shit were not put there to annoy me personally.

  20. 20.

    Steeplejack

    @Mike in NC:

    I heard it was mating season and that’s why there are dead deer all over the place.

    So you’re saying there’s some sort of Basic Instinct thing going on?

  22. 22.

    BGinCHI

    @stuckinred: All politics are local, stuck. Thanks for that.

    Maybe we’ll get Rahm for mayor, then he can make sure it’s officially called the windy fucking city, retard.

  23. 23.

    MobiusKlein

    Even in a city like San Francisco, there is roadkill.
    Skunks, raccoons, dogs.

    Found out that many small bird species are killed more often by cars than anything else. And the other birds that come to peck at the carcass too.

    Highway 120 to Yosemite has lots of signs about not hitting bears, don’t speed.

  25. 25.

    Ailuridae

    @BGinCHI:
    Hrmm … Good News?
    Dan Seals is going to take over Mark Kirk’s seat in the tenth in IL instead of Bob Dold. Of course that’s a short lived victory because when the census data comes out and IL loses a seat the 10th will probably be chopped off instead of the third where the execrable Dan Lipinski still represents the Democrats.

  27. 27.

    General Stuck

    Dan Seals is going to take over Mark Kirk’s

    I loved Summerbreeze. But how’s he gonna run being dead and all? RIP

    edit = nevermind

  29. 29.

    Mnemosyne

    We once got caught in a traffic jam after an accident where it took us 90 minutes to go a single mile.

    As we drove past it at the end, we could see the wreck was a completely burned-out car with a baby seat in the back.

    Yeah, that gave me a few nightmares.

  31. 31.

    stuckinred

    Aite, there are a lot of ways to go and there may be some catharsis in sharing but, goddamn, talk about the fucking baseball game!

  33. 33.

    jwb

    @kdaug: Intimations in the local paper today that Doggett might be in trouble in his race. If there is any truth to that, Tuesday will be a blood bath.

  34. 34.

    JWL

    BGinCHI: Then look at it this way. Meg Whitman stands to have blown 100 million bucks in a losing effort. Talk about road kill (you know, bucks.. big deer.. never mind).

    Fact is, after the great FISA betrayal of June 2008, I vowed to turn my back on the democratic party forever. I’ve been good for it, too, until now. But I intend to vote for Brown, for no other reason than to help torpedo that woman. She is not simply vile, but she has her eye on the White House.

    I intend to vote for Boxer, too. I’ve got a streak of wuss a mile wide.

    Go Giants!

  38. 38.

    Zuzu's Petals

    Ever since reading one of Barry Lopez’s essays in which he describes his habit of moving dead animals off the road, I’ve tried to find a way to give each critter its dignity when possible. “When possible” being the operative term.

    It did make me more aware of the small creatures we share space with.

  40. 40.

    p.a.

    for the deer, usually the car gets wrecked, requiring a cop dispatch. Don’t they call the local rod-and-gun clubs to pick up the fresh roadkill for game dinners? They do here in new england.

    worst i’ve seen was in new jersey. Big deer on I278
    (or 287?)- smear marks half-mile long common, lots of venison burger thanks to big rigs.

  41. 41.

    Linda Featheringill

    @BGinCHI:

    The problem with quoting good news is that no matter what you hear, there are 5 polls and 15 commentators talking against it.

    Looks like Alaska Senate race is getting tighter as Miller is deflating like a balloon with tiny hole in it.

    Louisiana Senate race is getting tighter. I get the impression that Vitter has managed to . . irritate a number of people during the last 6 years.

    Pennsylvania is still close. And I really, really wouldn’t count Sestak out until it is really over.

    I think that the AA percentage of turnout is going to be more than some of the pollsters have assumed.

    We might lose Nevada.

    Don’t know about the house. Apparently, there are a number of races with numbers that are within the margin of error.

    Hang in there until Tuesday. [It is enough to drive you to drinking, isn’t it?]

  42. 42.

    Redshirt

    Want to see the best roadkill? I’d bet on the Outback, Central Australia. They don’t seem to pick up anything dead, ever. And due to the extreme heat/dryness, things tend to mummify. So I saw sooooo many dead cattle with their leather skins forming a tent over their rib cages; dead dingoes; dead kangaroos; and best of all, plenty of dead camels.

    Yes, camels. Camels were imported from Afghanistan to help build the railroads, and apparently enough of them escaped/were set free that there is now a free roaming populations of camels in the Outback.

    I saw two Golden Eagles (I think) eating on a fresh baby kangaroo carcass, and they took off when they saw my car, but my FSM! They were so enormously, stupendously big I couldn’t shake the sensation of watching a giant plane taking off, thinking – there’s no way that thing’s gonna fly, is there?

    Yes.

  43. 43.

    JWL

    “Cain is able”. Brilliant.

    Then again, I’m fairly simply minded.

    I’ll tell you this about Cain. # 1, he just singled. #2, he’s a better natured, Don Drysdale type of pitcher. A work horse…

  44. 44.

    PanAmerican

    @Ailuridae:

    Bill Brady:

    Major Chicago TV stations including WGN, have pulled the Republican candidate’s commercial spots because he hasn’t paid for the ads.

    Apparently they were expecting national (RGA) cash for the buy. I’d bet the internals were/are going the wrong way and the “resources” got shifted elsewhere.

  45. 45.

    gbear

    A guy who was doing some computer tweaking in the cubilcle next to mine was hit by a car making a left turn after work yesterday. Happened right in front of the office so we were all watching out the window as the ambulance came, put his motionless body on a stretcher and took him away. I didn’t hear anything about how he’s doing today and I take that as a good sign.

    John, the grass must be incredibly green along WV’s highways. At least up here there’s enough public services left so that roadkill gets hauled away.

  46. 46.

    kdaug

    @jwb: Not my district (north Austin, 10), and the Statesman will print horseshit just for shit and giggles, but goddamn – if Doggett can’t hold central/south Austin it’s a sure damn sign of the Apocalypse.

  47. 47.

    stuckinred

    Now I sit down on the sofa and I watch the evening news:
    There’s a half a dozen tragedies from which to pick and choose.
    The baby that was missing was found in a ditch today.
    And there’s bombs a’flying and people dying not so far away.

    And I’ll take a beer from the ‘fridgerator,
    And go sit out in the yard and with a cold one in my hand,
    I’m gonna bite down and swallow hard.
    Because I’m older now: I’ve got no time to cry.

    I’ve got no time to look back, I’ve got no time to see,
    The pieces of my heart that have been ripped away from me.
    And if the feeling starts to coming, I’ve learned to stop ’em fast.
    `Cause I don’t know, if I let ’em go, they might not wanna pass.
    And there’s just so many people trying to get me on the phone.
    And there’s bills to pay, and songs to play,
    And a house to make a home.
    I guess I’m older now and I’ve got no time to cry.

    Iris DeMent

  50. 50.

    jeffreyw

    @Ailuridae: It’s so good! I’ve made the same thing several times now, getting some good use out of my new mortar/pestle grinding the peppercorns.

  52. 52.

    WereBear

    Up North, we have to worry about moose.

    And with a moose, nobody wins.

    Worst thing I saw recently was a woman whose van was weaving all over the road one morning, and could have easily avoided the chipmunk she ran over, if she’s been paying attention. I kept an eye on the car, ready to call the highway patrol, when I saw her making a turn and closing her phone; couldn’t report her, then.

    But I arrived at work really upset.

  53. 53.

    Davis X. Machina

    What you don‘t want to hit is a moose.

    The moose usually cops it, but most of the time he or she will take you with them. Back in the early 90’s the Maine state legislature was split 50-50 for a while pending a special election because one of its officers hit a moose returning to his home from Augusta and bang went the parliamentary majority.

    I tell people who have never seen one in the wild to imagine how big they think a moose is.

    It’s twice as big as that. No matter how big you think it was.

    All the signs on our interstate highways are set extra-high because a full-grown male moose’s shoulders are 7 feet off the ground, and they like to get under them and use them as back-scratchers. They’ll either pull the sign up poles and all, if they’re not concrete-set, or pull the signs off the poles.

    Not smart, either. One got himself shot in Deering Woods last spring next to the Catholic girls’ high school in Portland, off of Stevens Ave. Not quite downtown, but he may have come in on the #3 bus from Falmouth.

  54. 54.

    General Stuck

    @gbear:

    At least up here there’s enough public services left so that roadkill gets hauled away.

    What a waste. In WV, it’s called the Thursday Night Blue Plate special.

  55. 55.

    TrishB

    @freelancer: The one I bagged did $3200 worth of damage to a car that cost $2800. This is not my favorite time of year to drive in SW Ohio.

    There was a local news story last month that gave me nightmares. A deer felt trapped on an overpass and jumped down to I-71, and landed on a car. The driver was killed instantly.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    DVR Alert!

    I was pruning my DVR space and flipping through the Cox channel guide, and I see that Turner Classic Movies is bringing it with the thunder in advance of Halloween. All horror, thriller and suspense movies between now and Sunday night, many of them quite good. Lots of B-movie classics from the ’30s and ’40s, with some Hammer Films cheese tomorrow night and the occasional ’50s or ’60s outlier thrown in here and there.

    Some highlights (all times Eastern):

    The classic Ealing Studios omnibus Dead of Night (1945) just started at 8:00 p.m. Don’t bother flipping to it now, because you really should catch it from the beginning. But remember it for next time. It has one of the earliest and best ventriloquist/dummy stories ever.

    10:00 p.m. tonight: Rebecca (1940). Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine. “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Psychological thriller, Alfred Hitchcock directing. Great black-and-white photography.

    11:30 a.m. Friday: Isle of the Dead (1945). Boris Karloff. High-quality B-movie, produced by Val Lewton.

    3:30 p.m. Friday: White Zombie (1932). Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy.

    4:45 p.m. Friday: I Walked with a Zombie (1943). Hokey title, but actually a pretty good psychological thriller. Produced by Val Lewton and directed by Jacques Tourneur (who also directed Out of the Past, my all-time favorite film noir, but I digress).

    8:00 p.m. Saturday: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Hara. Old-school Hollywood epic. Cast of thousands, cost of millions, etc. Awesome cinematography.

    2:00 a.m. Sunday: Cat People (1942). Another atmospheric, low-budget gem from Val Lewton.

    3:30 a.m. Sunday: Profile of producer Val Lewton.

    6:15 a.m. Sunday: Freaks (1932). Circus freaks are freaky. (But so are “normal” people.) A really unsettling classic.

    10:30 a.m. Sunday: The Terror (1963). Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson. Wait, what? Jack Nicholson?!

    6:15 p.m. Sunday: House of Wax (1953). Vincent Price. This is why he got the Michael Jackson “Thriller” gig.

    9:30 p.m. Sunday: The Haunting (1963). Julie Harris, Claire Bloom. Extreme psychological thriller. This movie was discussed here just last night. A real classic.

    11:30 p.m. Sunday: Poltergeist (1982). Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams. Will be interesting to see how Spielberg’s movie holds up. I don’t think I’ve seen it all the way through since it first came out. Whatever happened to JoBeth Williams?

    1:25 a.m. Monday: The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Lon Chaney in the original silent classic. A little dated–it’s 85 years old, for chrissakes!–but worth seeing. Chaney was a master. Too bad they’re not showing his version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but they ran that a week or so ago.

    Sorry to blow on so long, but I thought someone might be interested.

  58. 58.

    Redshirt

    @gbear: They’re all by the side of the road too. It was a real Mad Max feel driving in the middle of the desert, so far out there’s no radio stations (seriously; 6 hour drive and for 4 of it I could not find a radio station on AM or FM), passing by the occasional burned out wreck or bleached camel bones.

  59. 59.

    gbear

    @General Stuck: Actually that happens here too. If you hit a deer you’re allowed to take it for the meat.

    The only time I’ve actually seen a deer get hit by a car was on Snelling Avenue in front of Macalaster College right in the middle of town. The deer was running down the street in full panic and ran straight into the front of a minivan.

  60. 60.

    Southern Beale

    Some group named Lady Antebellum is singing the anthem, and, as usual, I have never heard of them.

    Oh dude. They’re a really big deal. Country band. Nominated for Grammy Awards, etc. They’re actually pretty good, in that modern, pop-country sort of way.

    The lead singer is Hillary Scott, and she is the daughter of Linda Davis. That might not mean anything to you but when I first moved to Nashville in 1986 she was just becoming known as a solo artist, trying to get her career going. I don’t think she even had a kid then, or if she did she was really really young. So now her daughter is winning all sorts of awards and accolades.

    Makes me feel old.

    [/boring autobiographical pause]

  62. 62.

    WereBear

    @Steeplejack: Thanks, that’s really an awesome lineup.

    And if anyone has never seen Lon Chaney Sr., ya’ll gotta. The man is amazing. I used to have the old silent, X the Unknown, where Lon Chaney played a man who had no arms and did everything with his feet.

    And he did.

  63. 63.

    Tom Q

    Is everybody following what’s going on in FL? A poll out today shows (unsurprisingly) Meek has collapsed (to 15%) and Crist has moved to with in 7% of Rubio. Politico (I know, I know) is reporting that Bill Clinton tried to persuade Meek to drop out and endorse Crist, and that Meek sort of agreed twice but backed off. This was confirmed by CRIST on Olbermann tonight, who apparently has back channels to the Clinton camp. And now Meek has a 9:30 press conference scheduled tonight.

    Whatever Meek does, the signal is out for Dems who don’t want Rubio that Crist is the way to go. And my take on Crist tonight is that while he can’t overtly signal he’ll line up with the Dems — that could cost him a precious point or two — his talk about filibuster abuse and the importance of pro-choice tells me he’s much more likely to align with a party that might renominate him six years hence.

  64. 64.

    Steeplejack

    @stuckinred:

    Open thread is open.

    I don’t care who wins the World Series–my season ended when the Braves lost (that was bad) and the Yankees were excused from further competition (that was good). I would like to see good, close games, which I saw for half the game last night.

  67. 67.

    Redshirt

    @Davis X. Machina: I knew a Moose who attended McCauley. ;)

    One of my favorite Maine moose stories is the tale of the State Trooper who hit one and called in for help, and then the next arriving Trooper also hit – a different moose, I believe. Neither was hurt seriously, if I recall, so it’s all for a good laugh.

    I think there might have been a moose uprising a’foot that eve.

  69. 69.

    lamh32

    @Tom Q:

    I read about this over at Booman. Here is his take

    “Jesus, what a mess. I can’t remember seeing anyone getting thrown under the bus with such force. Kendrick Meek has tire-tracks running all across his back. This isn’t going to be too well-received in the black community. Meek should probably drop out of the race if it looks like it would pretty definitely throw the race to Crist, but leaking that he agreed to drop out and then changed his mind? That’s harsh…”

    “an on-the-record source from Bill Clinton’s operation. Clinton just got pissed and leaked the whole deal. And that’s after Meek endorsed Hillary and the former president went and campaigned for him.

    Will Meek’s support now collapse sufficiently to put Rubio’s win in doubt? With all the early voting in Florida, I kind of doubt it. This seems gratuitous….”

    I agree with Booman.

    this seems to be complete overkill on Clinton’s part.

    What part of this story is not meant to embarrass Kendrick Meek?

    I’m beggining to think this whole 2 weeks of leaks from Bill C’s “closest friends and confidante” is an concerted effort by Bill C to make certain that “they” are not to blame for the not quite certain “devastation” that will occur on Tuesday.

    It’s a perfect bookend to compliment the stories that Politico and the rest of the MSM has been putting out for the past at lest 2 weeks calling Bill Clinton the man that “saves the day” for Dems. Clinton and his camp don’t wanna be tarred with the feathers that the “Obama camp” might be on Tuesday.

    And I’m sorry, I understand that Meeks chances were sliding, but there was NO need for on the record embarrassment like this. It seems the whole purpose of this article at a time like this was to shame Meeks.

    This may free up the Dems in FL to vote for Rubio, but the Dems betta hope that enough AA have early voted cause a story like this is dry up the AA support, mark my worlds.

  70. 70.

    Calouste

    @gbear:

    What hits the wildlife in the Outback are roadtrains, a truck with 3-4 trailers that weighs 80-100 tons with a roobar (i.e. a cowbar for kangaroos) up front as think as railroad track. When these guys see a cow or a camel on the road they just swith on the windscreen wipers to get the blood off and drive on. Trying an emergency stop or swerving action with that kind of rig is fairly suicidal.

    Occassionally a car hits a cow or a camel because they are driving too fast in the dark. Those people are dead.

  71. 71.

    John O

    I’m going to hell, too.

    Hey, BGinChi, whereabouts are you? You new here?

    Go Giants! Or Rangers! I don’t care much, but I like World Series baseball. As a Cub fan, I like to think one day I’ll feel it up close and personal.

  72. 72.

    CA Doc

    @ Steeplejack
    You’re getting a good close game tonight (thus far)
    Being an A’s fan from childhood, I’m proud of Ron Washington. But my son is an intense Giants fan, so it’s Go Gigantes all the way for us.

  73. 73.

    lamh32

    @Tom Q:

    So Bill Clinton’s camp fed this story to Charlie Crist’s camp.

    Bill Clinton was perfectly happy during the campaign when Kendrick Meeks refrained from endorsing Barack Obama during the ’08 primaries out of deference to the Clintons and the history that Bill C had with Meeks and his mother I believe.

    What this shows, is that there is no loyalty when it comes to the Clintons. When Bill C was at his lowest during his Presidency, what community embraced him with the most support, AA.

    I think the Clintons can pretty much forget about having the deep support of the AA, and the AA in Florida won’t forget it.

    The Clintons are complete backstabbers. Any other Dem campaign going behind the back of the other Dems there would be an outrage, but expect to see the “it’s Meeks fault” brigade out in force

  74. 74.

    Calouste

    @Redshirt:

    I still have a picture from Australia with a sign that says “next service 320 km”. It’s good practice to fill up your car with fuel and water whenever you come across those.

  75. 75.

    Tom M

    I went from the ‘burgh to Cinci: I-70 then I-71; dead deer almost every mile; blood spatter heaven for deer investigators, if there were any.
    It seems to affect the women in our family. My wife got one (dog thought the front of the car was gooooooood!) my daughter hit one at 30mph-cost $4200; my sister has hit three although the last one we think went for her. It hit her car just in front of the driver’s door. Kamikaze deer!

  76. 76.

    Tom Q

    @lamh32: Just one element of clarification: by all reports, early voting has been exceedingly sluggish in FL because of the confusion in the Senate race — many apparently delaying voting because they saw a strong possibility the configuration of the race might be different by election day.

    The Booman take might be right, that the “party pros” have outsmarted themselves…or it may turn out they know how to play the game, and are giving Meek a nudge that was necessary to signal the larger electorate. I guess we’ll have a better answer to Tuesday.

    Oh, in deference to the thread: Giants all the way.

  77. 77.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steeplejack:

    1:25 a.m. Monday: The Phantom of the Opera (1925). Lon Chaney in the original silent classic. A little dated—it’s 85 years old, for chrissakes!—but worth seeing. Chaney was a master. Too bad they’re not showing his version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but they ran that a week or so ago.

    My wife and I went to a screening of a remastered print of this at the Ohio Theater in Columbus a couple of years ago. Live orchestra and soprano. Big ornate theater. Nice drinks. All in all, a great evening out.

  78. 78.

    freelancer

    @lamh32:

    The Clintons are complete backstabbers. Any other Dem campaign going behind the back of the other Dems there would be an outrage, but expect to see the “it’s Meeks fault” brigade out in force

    “So ehh, Meeks, you did good kid. Solid run, good campaign. But you’ve come a long way in just a little while. Coupla’ years back, you would have been getting us coffee, and now look at you. You’re the Democratic Candidate for United States Senate. Be proud of that. Time to hang it up, eh?”

  79. 79.

    MikeJ

    @MobiusKlein:

    Highway 120 to Yosemite has lots of signs about not hitting bears, don’t speed.

    I saw a griz in the middle of the highway between Cody and Yellowstone. I can only imagine hitting one with a car. It would come through the windscreen but I doubt that would kill it right away. So then you’ve got 800lbs of pissed off grizzly being forced to listen to Mara Liasson. That’s the stuff of nightmares.

  82. 82.

    lamh32

    @Tom Q:

    I get what your’re saying Tom, but I”m gonna be listening and following some of my AA blogs, and I’m telling you, the overkill is the bit that will sting.

    Not just the purpose of the on the record leak to Politico meant to shame or embarrass Meeks out of the race, but the fact that someone in the Clinton camp told the Crist camp, and Crist felt comfortable enough going on Olbermann to say that he got it from the Clinton camp, just sorta reeks of betrayal.

    And while you maybe right about the non-Black dems, this may just reek of betrayal by AA.

  83. 83.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Well fuuuuk. What happened to my comment?

    Here it is again (stay put this time, dammit!)

    I’m wondering. Was Halliburton ever, in any iteration of its corporate history, a halfway decent company with even a soupçon of ethical corporate responsibility? Did Dick “dick” Cheney preside over its descent into evilhood, or was it the pre-existing evility of the company that appealed to him in the first place? Which came first, evilitude or evildoernessdom?

  84. 84.

    JWL

    “Giants Baseball– TORTURE”!*

    This season’s apropos team motto, coined by their great play-by-play man (on the TV side), Duane Kuiper.

    If you can’t dig tonight’s game, thus far, you’re not a baseball fan.

    To quote Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorville: “Delicious excitement”.

  86. 86.

    Greenhouse Guy

    I remember on xmas eve 2002 driving south on I 35 between the Twin Cities and Rochester coming across a herd of deer crossing the road… about a dozen or so. I had just lit up and they came out of nowhere… it was around 9:00 p.m. It was slippery and I tried to pick a space between them. Brake a bit and choose… wham! I hit it squarely with an old Ford Explorer just evenly. I pulled over, the guy behind me pulled over, the deer had gotten up and trotted away. I still had my :smoke: in my hand as I got out to talk to him and check for damage. Just deer hair and a headlight poking up to the sky. He helped me adjust the light without breaking it, asked if I needed help calling the cops. “Um, no” I said… “I’m getting home.” He just smiled and wished me luck. My heart was racing the last hour and a half towards home.

  88. 88.

    Martin

    @lamh32: Politics is hardball.

    Meeks was going to lose. Crist was going to lose. Will Crist win? Who knows. But this will only help try. Does it suck for Meeks? Absofuckinglutely. National politics is the big league and you’ve got to get your feefees out of the way.

    Sorry, I know it sucks, but Democrats would do well to be as ruthless as the GOP is often willing to be.

  89. 89.

    John O

    @Darkrose:

    I want the White Sox to win the American League pennant every year, and my dream season is a 7 game Cubs-Sox series, with the Cubs winning game 7 like, 15-0. So I don’t have to sweat it after a few innings.

    I was thrilled when the Sox won in ’05. Ozzie is one of my all-time favorite goofballs who says what’s on his mind.

  91. 91.

    lamh32

    @Martin:

    My fees fees are not in anybody’s way, I’m just trying to tell ya that it is NOT going be a good look to many African Americans.

    That’s all. In the grand scheme of things I guess it doesn’t matter, but at some point African Americans will get sick of this type of treatment perceived or not. They won’t vote GOP, they will just not turn out.

    Que sera sera…

    BTW, Meeks says that there was not such deal with Bill Clinton.
    Meek says rumors of deal with Clinton ‘absolutely not true’
    By: CNN Contributor Roland Martin

    Like I said, this will get messy…but whatever.

  92. 92.

    JWL

    John O: You won your series a few years ago.

    My heart was crushed in ’62, and stomped twice afterwards.

    But it’s on now….

  93. 93.

    Martin

    @lamh32: Not your feefees, Meeks’.

    I agree that this is messy, but Meeks should have been forced out some time ago. I don’t say that based on who he is – I know very little about the FL race, but just looking at the polls, Meeks should have been pushed out in mid-August.

  94. 94.

    freelancer

    ugh. Army officer hip-hopping it up with God Bless America.

    This country can be so damned tasteless sometimes.

    /nightly bitching about 7th Inning Stretch GBA ritual.

  96. 96.

    joeyess

    You know that your nation is scraping the bottom of the conscience barrel when, at the 7th inning stretch of a World Series game it has a soldier from PsyOps singing “God Bless America”.

    As ABL would say: Jesus H. Beiber

  97. 97.

    lamh32

    @Martin:

    I hear ya, but if there is a pet peeve of mine, it’s double standards. This is exactly the type of thing Clinton did with Sestak. The difference is that “we” (Dems, libs, progressives, whatever) wanted Sestak in the race, in this case “they” want Meeks out. So they will excuse behaviors that otherwise they would abhor.

    So I’m sorry, but this type of behavior really pisses me off. Doesn’t matter who does it.

  99. 99.

    Tom Q

    And Meek’s announcement is “I’m still in the race”. Not quite “I’m not a witch”, but also not the proclamation you want to make five days out. As I said earlier, will see whether this whole incident works the way the party hopes (swinging potential Meek votes to Crist) without the downside of angering/depressing African American turnout.

    lamh32, I get what you’re saying. Politics is, as Martin says, a brute sport, and when you’re the one brute-d, you don’t shake it off so easily. But if the reality is, Crist is the best chance of a less-negative outcome for Dems, didn’t that message have to be driven home somehow?

  100. 100.

    JWL

    Freelancer: Right you are.

    That said, a handful of times during a season, the anthem and/or GBA is so wretchedly performed as to transcend it very wretchedness. Last year, during a Giants game, I was “treated” to a two-fer. The same saxophone player absolutely butchered each one. The performance was so very, very bad that it was sublime….

  107. 107.

    lamh32

    Tom Q & Martin,

    Listen, I know polticis is bean bag or whatever else, but what I am telling you is what I am hearing, but it’s obvious that it doesn’t matter.

    But be forewarned, I betting ya it will get ugly and people will get angry, so I hope Crist wins, but if he doesn’t, and it’s because the African American vote did not turn out as they thought then I already know the blame will be placed squarely at Kendrick Meeks feet. Not Bill Clinton on doing some dumb ass shit like this 4 days before an election (especially since African American have NOT forgotten about Bill’s behavior during the primaries), not cause Charlie Crist blatant refusal to at least hint that he would caucus with Dems, but because of Kendrick Meeks and his “loyal supporters”.

    I’m telling you, if there is one thing that African American voters value a lot in pol, it’s some semblance of loyalty. and things like this:
    Charlie Crist asked Clinton camp to suggest Meek drop out, source says

    does NOT look good in our eyes.

    But I’m gonna leave it alone now.

  109. 109.

    JWL

    Floridians deserve each other.

    Mind you, my State made a gift of Richard Nixon AND Ronald Reagan to the nation….

  111. 111.

    John O

    @JWL:

    LOL, JWL. It never even crossed my mind that you should apologize. Accepted!

    It would be crazy to get your feelings hurt on the toobz over baseball.

    I get to work from home tomorrow, I just took the dog for a great off-leash (no small trick where I live) run, and I’m about to go night-night. The sports is entertaining on the Great Tube of Knowledge, and I am +3. It would take a lot more than baseball to even get on my anger radar. :-)

  113. 113.

    freelancer

    Old Navy should really hire a homeless person to stab the ad guy that sold them on the whole Mannequin campaign.

    Oh look, it’s Jesus H. Bieber.

  115. 115.

    suzanne

    I witnessed an accident a couple of years ago in which a dumb woman with kids in her car ran a red light while going 50 mph, and hit an ambulance so hard it became airborne and rolled over. The patient who was in the ambulance had fallen out of a palm tree, I learned later. I helped pull the EMTs out, and the patient was a bloody nightmare. I hoped never to see a wreck happen again, but I have shitty auto-accident-witnessing luck; I seem to witness one every few months. (Once I witnessed two wrecks at the same intersection on the same day, an hour apart.) This wreck was the only one for which I was subpoenaed to testify in court.

    I hate wrecks. Hate.

  116. 116.

    Darkrose

    I’m kind of freaked out. Some right-wing clown in *Wisconsin* has apparently subscribed me to a bunch of teabagger sites via AmericanCitizensMessenger.com. I found the guy’s address and phone number and tried texting him, but he’s blocking text messages. Any suggestions? I really don’t want to see mail from Michele Fucking Bachman in my inbox.

  118. 118.

    JWL

    Suzanne: “I hate wrecks. Hate”.

    Then you must have some really, really hard feelings about the Texas Rangers bullpen.

    (I know, I know.. that’s got a “famous last words” ring to it.. but I couldn’t resist).

    Go Giants!!

  119. 119.

    trollhattan

    Walking in two back-to-back runs in the World Series will look sooo good on the resume.

    Go Gints. Very Ginty tonight.

  121. 121.

    Tom Levenson

    WOOOOT. Giants!

    I earned my Croix du Candlestick back in the day (what you got if you lasted through a twi-night double header at the ‘stick back in the bad old days. Didn’t see anything like this, and I saw Mays, McCovey, Marichal, Cepeda and the rest.

  123. 123.

    Ash Can

    @Tom Levenson: Whoa, one of those “I came, I saw, I survived” deals? I’m impressed! I’ve always thought that was the coolest idea, to hand those things out. And IIRC, they’re in Latin to boot, aren’t they?

  126. 126.

    suzanne

    @JWL:

    Then you must have some really, really hard feelings about the Texas Rangers bullpen.
    (I know, I know.. that’s got a “famous last words” ring to it.. but I couldn’t resist).
    Go Giants!!

    I’m sorry. I don’t give a rat’s fart about the World Series this year.

  127. 127.

    JWL

    Suzanne: More’s the pity. You’re missing a great party… just keep in mind the door is always open..

    The Giants just won… but it’s only two.

    Go Giants!!!

  130. 130.

    suzanne

    @JWL: If the Mets aren’t playing, I don’t give a fuck. I only pretend to care when the Diamondbacks are winning to appease my comrades.

    Now… GO SUNS. :)

  132. 132.

    JWL

    Suzanne: A New Yorker appeasing Arizonians?

    You tread with danger, my sister….

    Vio Con Dios………….

  133. 133.

    MobiusKlein

    @MikeJ: Hitting a Black Bear even, let alone a Grizzly may just kill you from the impact, depending.

    Or send you careening off a cliff.

  134. 134.

    suzanne

    @JWL: I’m all transplanted out here ‘n’ shit. Lots of New Yorkers out here, actually. I run into my people all the time. I can usually tell them when they bitch about local politics or the lack of good delis.

  135. 135.

    andrea

    >nightly bitching about 7th Inning Stretch GBA ritual.

    I didn’t mind Tony Bennett’s version. But that may have been because I was +3 at a very crowded bar, and the entire bar was singing along.

  136. 136.

    morzer

    @lamh32:

    That’s preposterous. Kendrick Meek has gone exactly nowhere in the race for months, and it’s been abundantly clear that African Americans in Florida are perfectly happy with Crist as an alternative. Prominent local AA politicians have endorsed Crist FFS. When Clinton tried to get Meek to withdraw, he was doing the self-evidently right thing, and no amount of faking up a racist subtext or resentment changes that. Without Meek wasting space and bumbling around, Crist might have had a chance – and now that ship has sailed and Florida is going to get the teabagging thug Rubio instead. And your reaction is to bitch and whine about non-existent racism. Way to go!

  137. 137.

    Bill H

    I observed that there is a great deal of stuff in the ditches

    In California we clean that shit up, and we’re broke. Good God. What does it cost to be civilized?

  138. 138.

    grumpy realist

    Ah yes, the I-hit-the-damn-deer-thing. As we say in Upstate New York, it’s not the deer you see that you hit, it’s the deer that comes right after the one you slow down for.

    I’ve seen too many herbivores bolt madly into the paths of moving vehicles to have much sympathy for them. Deer are NOT intelligent critters.

    The goriest road I ever traveled on was whatever interstate it is from I-80 down to Pittsburg. Talk about roadkill…

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