OOh! I’ll play. What’s everyone cooking for holiday treats? My kitchen is being torn apart and reassembled, so I don’t have the use of a stove right now. My daughter and I are jonesing for a marathon baking day. I’m hoping to live vicariously through the BJ commenteriat.
6.
lahke
Anyone here with experience to share on transitioning elderly parents to non-driving status? My nearly 92-year old father is past it (and my mother’s not much better). I’m about to turn him in to the DMV because they are in such denial about the situation, but then what? They’re stranded in suburbia and don’t want to move from the house (let alone the idea of selling in this market). Doesn’t help that I’m 3000 miles away, either.
I’m watching my son, the home-from-college architecture student, making graham-cracker houses for my wife’s homeroom holiday party.
To code. And after Le Corbusier.
The video will be up on YouTube shortly, under the title “Overkill…”
10.
Michael
History Channel’s actually doing history tonight.
That’s a pleasant change.
11.
mk3872
How do you like Sen McConnell coming out tonight, slamming the omnibus spending bill for including earmarks, when the bill includes over $1M+ in earmarks that he asked for himself!
12.
Comrade Jake
I just want to say: thank-God Cliff Lee is not going to sign with the mother-fucking Yankees!
As a Californian I think it’s important that graham-cracker houses be appropriately earthquake-safe.
14.
robertdsc-PowerBook
Today is my birthday. I turn 36.
15.
Suffern ACE
@Gina: Flying to Wisconsin tomorrow to make butterhorns, rosettes and lefse with my mom this weekend, then moving into sunbackels, gingerbread men, and if I have time, I’m going to try kiffles.
16.
Davis X. Machina
@Left Coast Tom: The first thing you do is take a sharp knife and cut them so that, instead of being square, the graham crackers conform to the Golden Ratio….
Apparently once you determine your modulus, it’s all downhill from there.
Kids making fudge and sugar cookies tomorrow for a decorating party. More cookies next week to give as gifts. Doing miniature cherry cheesecakes for Christmas eve, apple/hazelnut stollen for the morning, and pumpkin pie and a buche de noel for dinner.
Chocolate/raspberry cake with German buttercream for Boxing Day.
(There is still a quarter of a frozen sour cream and cranberry spice cake in the freezer from Thanksgiving.)
Yes, I bake too much.
18.
Jules
Jesus.
Progressive pundits on MSNBC make me want to throw things at my tv.
Pressure Republicans to do the morally right thing?
sheesh…..
@lahke: Oh I’ve got experience, but it’s not easy. This sounds cold, but you just have to switch roles and become the parent. It’s easier that way. Don’t condescend, just be an adult and emphasize the safety of your parent and the other drivers.
We had to take away the keys from my father in law and my dad had to take them from my mom. My husband bore the brunt of my FIL’s unhappiness, even after 2 accidents. It was really hard on him, but once he realized that he had to stop being the son and start being the “adult”, it helped.
The distance thing is hard to overcome. Is anyone close?
21.
maye
@lahke: can you afford a live-in caretaker? We had to take the keys away from both parents, but they moved into an assisted living place. If we had it to do again, I’d try to keep them in their house and find someone to live with them (for probably the same $).
22.
martha
@Suffern ACE: Lefse!!! Drove past Norske Nook in Osseo last Wednesday, before the blizzard. Didn’t stop for pie or lefse though.
23.
MikeBoyScout
With two joys of my intellectual life in the commode (politics & economics) I’ve turned to my other fantasy.
On my relatively new Kindle I’ve been reading well written books about the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As any expat Burgher will tell you, the tradition (and by that we mean 40 years of success) is something we are quite proud of and we carry it with us like Linus’ blanket.
“The mission of the Pittsburgh Steelers Football Club is to represent Pittsburgh in the National Football League, primarily by winning the Championship of Professional Football.”
JC, I never got nothing. And neither do you. :-)
24.
Tony P.
I’ve got something.
You all probably know, some of you possibly from personal experience, that if you have to withdraw money from your 401k or IRA to make ends meet, you not only have to pay income tax on it, but a 10% penalty as well.
If you’re self-employed (which makes you a “small business”, please note) you get no help from any extension of unemployment benefits. You might, possibly, get through the short term by drawing on your personal retirement savings. But you pay a 10% penalty when you do it.
You’d think somebody might have proposed a suspension of this early withdrawal penalty. A Democrat might have done so, out of compassion for struggling “small business” owners. A Republican might have proposed it, out of a congenital aversion to “penalties” in the tax code. But no. Not as far as I know, anyway.
–TP
25.
Buck
I got nothing.
Post your pic and let us be the judge of that.
(hehehe)
26.
SiubhanDuinne
@John: You could put up pictures of Tunch and the girls. That’d be something.
@robertdsc: Happy birthday! Celebrate lavishly and safely, if that’s not an oxymoron.
You saw that too, eh? Omg, the douche from boldprogressives.com could use a brick to the face. I actually shouted at my computer, “HOW?! How do you get to 60?! You’re nuts!”
@Gina: It was Tree Day. Positioning just so, lights, picking out which ornaments to use this year. Baking comes later when the guests are due. That plus the tree stuns ’em as they walk in, works every time.
32.
agrippa
I have not watched any TV for five years, except for sports.
I find that TV has been seinfelded. It is all meta.
So has politics; it has been seinfelded; I fear the wound is mortal.
@lahke:
Are there taxis or buses in the area?
Taxis have sprung up here like weeds because so many people don’t drive. Cars are expensive.
It’s a transportation issue. If there is a local or county office on aging or something like that, they may be able to give info.
There has to be a way that they can get around, stay in the house and not drive.
Here, we have a bus service that isn’t public transport.
Older people are on the bus all of the time. It is fun to ride with them and they like it because it is social.
You’ll get it worked out and your parents will be fine.
Thanks, Maye and Martha: it really is time, for their sake and anyone they may mow down.
My sister lives in town, but travels for work, and besides, the folks don’t want to “impose”. Paying someone whose job description is to be imposed upon is probably the way to go–it will make it easier for them to ask for help if they’re paying for a service rather than asking for favors. Not sure what the cost is, but assuming that the VA can help subsidize and my sister and I can chip in.
I was just filling out the informing form at the DMV site (where you can ask them to assess someone’s functionality if you have reason to doubt their ability to drive safely), and there’s a link there to a Senior Ombudsman whose function appears to be helping old folks transition from driving. Let’s hear it for the nanny state! I’m glad the California still has the funds to support someone with expertise who can help.
36.
Davis X. Machina
@Tony P.: Such a suspension, never mind repeal, would be a.) eminently sensible, and b.) immediately attacked as non-virtue-promoting.
Paul Krugman keeps saying ‘Economics is not a morality play’, but the Austerians are booted, spurred and in the saddle.
37.
jwb
@agrippa: I feel as if I’m trapped in some sort of meta-seinfelded loop.
38.
jwb
@Davis X. Machina: A twofer: both a bad melodrama and bad economic policy. Lucky us!
I guess it helps if regulatory bodies, y’know, actually regulate things.
40.
MTiffany
@lahke: If you have a younger family member that needs reduced rent in exchange for live-in taxi service, that’s an option. Barring that, if in your parents’ area there is an elder-care agency, (where I live it’s COSA – County Office of Services for the Aging http://www.co.delaware.pa.us/depts/cosa1.html) see if that agency offers transportation services. There’s a lot of help out there, it just takes some effort finding.
41.
Sentient Puddle
So did you decide to quit WoW a few hours before Cataclysm came out, or something?
But seriously, I don’t have to deal with it yet but I see it coming (My folks are 72 and 70). My mother still works (owns a real estate brokerage) and my father seems to have retired and taken up buying shit. So far 2 motor homes and 3 boats.
Honestly with him I worry more about the boat that does 70mph through stump infested waters.
Then again, what a way to go eh?
43.
Shinobi
@lahke: Both my Mom and my Grandmother are going through not being able to drive right now. (My Mom had a massive stroke at 55, my grandma just decided she couldn’t deal with the stress any more.)
They use cabs, call a ride, or whatever senior type bus service is available locally. My Mom tends to go to big shpping centers where she can run a bunch of errands at once. Though mobility is a problem too.
In some areas there are organizations that will have people stop by for a few hours a day/ a week and help out around the house. Visiting Angels is a national US organization that provides these kinds of contractors. I also know that some people do this as independant contractors (my Aunt does.) They wont do medical stuff but they can help out with errands and other stuff, and as your parents age they can help you keep an eye on them.
I was also reading an article a while ago about a move to household sensors that are monitored around the clock to make long distance caretaking of elderly easier. I think it was on CNN but I can’t find it.
@robertdsc-PowerBook: Well, then many happy returns. Seems like a good reason for another glass of wine. Sagittarians are good luck, d’ye know that?
45.
Suffern ACE
@Tony P.: I think I heard that discussed fleetingly on one of the economics blogs in 2009, but I don’t know if it was ever a policy proposal. I think it was in the context of using the draw down to pay off mortgage debt, but it is very vague. One issue might be maintaining the distinction between “retired” and “unemployed.” If there was no penalty, then those funds might as well be available for any difficult period, from illness, to paying off debts, to temporary unemployment, that plague us all. But then those would amount to tax-deferred rainy-day savings accounts.
I’m not opposed to the idea. I just don’t know how to keep it so that officialdom doesn’t start looking closely into the “reasons” one needs to tap into the funds and the reasons for that hardship. It isn’t too intrusive for the government to know how old you are and decide that, say, after 59 1/2 you can be legally considred retired and draw down those funds. (And at 58 1/2 you can’t be.).
@Tony P.: The house never wants you to pick up your coin and walk away. The house wants you to stay in and pay. If every casino in Vegas could charge you 10% of your stake to stop playing …
47.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Michael: That’s something I hate about this capitalism thing: You can’t just be good at what you do, you have to do something new because otherwise you’re not making more money than last year. The history channel starts doing non-history stuff, SciFi does not science fiction stuff (and therefore have to change their name), Cartoon network starts having non-cartoon stuff on. MTV shows virtually now music videos.
That zebras are letting Vick take illegal hits seems indisputable… (I) think there is a psychological factor, too. Vick is an African-American who has been to prison. Society devalues people of that description, and allows them to be treated in ways that others are not. This is subtly different from racism, but a factor nonetheless.
WTF is racism if it isn’t treating people differently (more harshly) because of their race? C’mon man! Call it like it is.
49.
Martha
@lahke: Paying someone is a great compromise if you can get the keys away from them in return. Show them the math, how much they’ll save on gas, insurance, repairs, etc. With their generation, the economic argument often works. The key is to have the public services and fee-based services lined up.
50.
Martha
@Shinobi: Oh I read or heard about that too. Hmmm. I think you’re right about CNN. Might check the AARP web site too.
51.
Suffern ACE
@Michael: You mean serious history, or “Maybe Nostradamus was right” history?
Oh, I can think of all sorts of reasons why the 10% early withdrawal penalty makes good sense as the DEFAULT policy, but of course I was only talking about a TEMPORARY suspension. These days, “retirement” and “unemployment” are not quite as distinct as they are in normal times.
Down and out in Somalia again, John? That’s damn careless of you, you know.
57.
agrippa
For what we are about to receive oh lord, let us be truly thankful.
58.
suzanne
38 weeks today. My hands started getting really puffy to the point where my doctor said that one more millimeter of swelling and they would have had to cut my wedding ring off. Most likely going to induce Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.
Mother-in-law coming on Sunday for three weeks. Pray for me.
Easterbrook is an ass. But if the refs are letting Vick take extra hits it may not be racism, it may be that they don’t feel that he can ever really pay for his acts of barbarity. I know a bunch of people who feel really strongly about him. Don’t see why refs wouldn’t be in that group.
And then there’s Princess, who is not amiable, and is only easygoing in the sense that the mad old lady who lives down the road and glares at you when you walk past her house is easygoing if you don’t disturb her.
Glad to hear you discovered the DMV ombudsman. It could be a big help.
In addition, California has many local programs to assist the disabled and elderly in getting around. In addition to Paratransit, many areas provide secure escorts and/or taxi vouchers to elders.
Try the local Area Agency on Aging for links and connections. They are quite experienced with this stuff.
Are you a maker, a knitter, painter, photographer, author, any and all of the above and would you like to sell what you in your copious creativity create?
@robertdsc-PowerBook: Hey happy birthday! 36 is good. I think that if I could choose an age to be forever, it would be mid-30s. Old enough to know a thing or two, about the world and myself, young enough to be taken seriously. And not be laughed at for liking the loud rock and roll.
I’m not opposed to the idea. I just don’t know how to keep it so that officialdom doesn’t start looking closely into the “reasons” one needs to tap into the funds and the reasons for that hardship. It isn’t too intrusive for the government to know how old you are and decide that, say, after 59 1/2 you can be legally considred retired and draw down those funds. (And at 58 1/2 you can’t be.).
I have not been in the financial planning business for a while, but there are ways to take an IRA and annuitize it so as to avoid paying penalties. This can work when someone is not too far from retirement age, and might as well start drawing income from their savings. It has to be irrevocable, though… I would recommend finding an elder law attorney who knows their taxes. Going to a financial planner first can result in being sold something inappropriate.
74.
NineJean
@lahke: I haven’t read through all of the comments yet, but here’s my take:
Step 1: Spend the time to understand that even bringing up the subject means that your parents are just going to hate you. For a very long time.
—
Step 2: Find the old friend/high school bud who is now a pro mechanic and is willing to make “house calls” and will agree to disable something-or-other that makes the car unusable. With appropriate excuses, of course [parts are in next Tuesday…] Note — if you’re living 3k miles away, this one is probably going to be tough. find somebody. Internet works.
—
Step 3: Commit to finding alternative transportation options. As many as you can find. Friends, family, neighbors, local churches, local transportation networks… whatever. Beat this one up until your parent has a transportation option that works.
—
Step 4: Sell the car. Keep in mind that your parent will hate you for a very long time. Do it anyway.
—
Step 5: Pray. Hope it works. Then look for anything, everything, that will keep their lives okay…
—
Step 6: Now to to the DMV. This is the last resort.
In addition, California has many local programs to assist the disabled and elderly in getting around. In addition to Paratransit, many areas provide secure escorts and/or taxi vouchers to elders.
Did anybody else see that Cliff Lee signed with the Phillies? My first thought was “Holy shit, they have the toughest rotation of any team since the mid-90’s Braves before Steve Avery got hurt! For Christ’s sake, Cole Hamels is their fucking number four starter! And Hamels would be a legit number 1 for more than half the fucking league!” But nooooooo. It’s all about Lee’s temerity to not take a shit-ton of Yankee dollars. For one thing, there’s not a hell of a whole lot of difference between $100 million and $140 million. And second, maybe Lee wants to win more than he wants to cash in and have to shoulder the load with Sabathia fronting a shitty pitching staff. But it’s all about how sorry we should feel for the Fucking Yankees because they were unable (for once) to just go out and buy the best players. Cry me a fucking river. The only thing shittier than the national sporting press is our national political press.
Up next on ESPN: should an old man who can’t play anymore tough it out, or should we continue to ignore the fact that said old man is directly responsible for his team’s shitty record?
It’s only been a few hours since the news broke, but a popular storyline so far has been that Lee left a lot of money on the table to sign with a team for which he badly wanted to play. And that sounded great until the figures came out. Here are the details of the best contracts offered:
__
Phillies: Five years for $107.5m, with a $12.5m sixth-year buyout and a $27.5m sixth-year vesting option
__
Rangers: Six years for $138m, with a $23m seventh-year vesting option
__
Yankees: Six years for $132m, with a $16m seventh-year vesting option
__
All of those contracts promised Lee between $22-24m over the next several years, with vesting options at the end. Lee wound up taking the shortest, sacrificing one season, but in terms of average annual value lost, he didn’t lose much. Assuming all options vest, he’ll make a bit less than he would’ve with Texas, but well more than he would’ve with New York.
__
It’s fine to say that Lee made a sacrifice by choosing Philadelphia, because that one season isn’t negligible. But let’s not make him out to be some kind of saint, and let’s not make him out to be a guy who isn’t interested in the money. He’s going to make at least one hundred and twenty million dollars over the next five years. Lee’s getting his money. It’s been said that Lee followed his heart, but following one’s heart is only an achievement when one’s head raises an objection, and Philadelphia offered the best blend of money and odds of winning.
__
I know that Lee has openly discussed how much he enjoyed his three months in Philadelphia. I know there are reports out there that he’s the one who initiated the talks that led to this agreement. I do not think an agreement would have been reached if the Phillies didn’t offer what they did, and if they weren’t as good as they are.
Are we specifically praying re: your mother-in-law? :)
(Lucky me, my MIL hated me so much, she refused to speak to me throughout the whole pregnancy/delivery/recuperation.)
My mother-in-law is okay. She’s just… a very quiet, reticent, introspective country woman who doesn’t talk a whole lot, but when she does, it’s pretty much exclusively about Arkansas (where she’s from) and the cows on her dad’s farm. I have been out to Fayetteville twice with my husband to visit, and find it dull as fuck. And I have nothing whatsoever to say about cows. I don’t even eat them. So the prospect of having to make conversation for three weeks is daunting.
My former MIL, on the other hand, is a Grade A Number One Bitch from Hell. Awkward silence is much better than putting up with mindgames.
Your dash-fu is what screwed up the paragraph formatting. WordPress didn’t like them. Just stick with the numbers.
84.
Hunter Gathers
@gwangung: Didn’t see those numbers before. He’s going to end up with more cash than the Yankees would have given him anyway, from the looks of it. Christ on a crutch. But that won’t stop the sporting press from writing 12 billion articles on how sorry we should feel for the fucking Yankees. That’s going to be one hell of a starting rotation. Might have to get a subscription to MLB.tv this year. They may end up with the best rotation ever. And I do likes to watch me some good pitching. If only the Cubbies weren’t throwing away good money at Soriano, Zambrano and Ramirez.
Not totally, but the situation is much ameliorated, and I am grateful for the kind inquiry.
Still trying to figure out just why the Dolphins and Jets are struggling so mightily on offense. My suspicion is that both have poor OCs and young and possibly not franchise QBs.
Also too, questionable O-lines. Miami definitely needs a better Center from Santa.
86.
Karen
If it’s been discussed already I’m sorry but is anyone else very disturbed that Justice Scalia will be teaching one of Bachman’s Consitution Classes?
87.
Suffern ACE
@Karen: Not really. As bad of a justice as I think he is, it’s not as if he hasn’t actually studied the document and reads to mean “my reading of it solves every problem that makes me mad at the world right now”. Either he’ll pander or they’ll boot him off the stage.
@Karen: Actually, I find it pretty amusing. Nino tends to blow up when he has to reason with anyone he considers less brilliant than himself, and many of these freshman reps are dumb as stumps and filled with astonishingly stupid ideas about what is actually in the constitution. Sure it is a chance to brainwash some willing subjects, but Scalia will need to really confront the disaster that is Republican propaganda about the law in order to even minimally inform these people about the law and even orthodox conservative legal thinking. Serves him right.
I really liked the Dolphin’s gimmicky wildcat O. Do they still run that? I like any pro sports team that, as the Earth First!ers
used to say, subverts the dominant paradigm. Same for that Golden State team that was all guards.
I hope Santa has two O-lines in his sack. It’d be nice if Jay Cutler could keep his marbles at least through his contract.
She’s just . . . a very quiet, reticent, introspective country woman who doesn’t talk a whole lot, but when she does, it’s pretty much exclusively about Arkansas (where she’s from) and the cows on her dad’s farm.
My spidey sense is tingling from my former days as a working newspaper reporter. Your MIL no doubt has more of an inner life than this. Rather than thinking of her as a boring hick, consider the possibility that she feels intimidated, out of it or whatever and falls back (as we all do) on rote comments about safe subjects. As an experiment, why don’t you try “interviewing” her a little bit? Don’t think of her as your MIL. Think of her as some unknown woman that you are trying to get to know in at least some little way. If you can’t draw her out on some topic, then what does she like about Arkansas? Did she ever think about leaving there? Any dreams of travel, even as a young woman?
Worse comes to worst, you should be able to engage with her on the topic of pregnancy and childbirth. Swap war stories, etc.
@asiangrrlMN: Hey! Hello! Did I hear that you’re going to be doing some writing at ABL’s place?
95.
Jackie
@lahke: Do your folks have a doctor they trust? Sometimes hearing from the doctor that they need to stop driving works If it’s dementia I’ve had people just pull a vital part to starting.
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: Yep. I am so excited for you. I think you’ll be a fabulous addition. She asked me, too. I’m having performance anxiety. I find myself self-censoring.
@suzanne: Pics will suffice. Massive positive vibes that all will go swimmingly.
Yes, they do still run the Wildcat, generally just at the moment when it disrupts Henne’s rhythm most! Given how limited said rhythm has been of late, this does not go down well with Dolphins’ connoisseurs, as the enraged mob gathers with tar and feathers and mutterings of “Fire Henning now!”.
I misread the latter part of your comment first time around and had a brief vision of Santa procreating O-lines!
@asiangrrlMN: Wait what? She hasn’t really asked me! She tweeted me about you and said that I should “consider a cross post” and I tweeted to confirm that she was saying what I hoped she was saying…. So, hey! Maybe so! I would love it, if it is so.
Got in from work about an hour ago–blessedly early, considering the season–and have been trying to figure out how to enlist in the war on Christmas. Customers are crazy now, in a way that they don’t remotely approach any other time of the year. I had a woman go mental on me because I couldn’t produce a complete DVD boxed set of The Rat Patrol. I started to say, “Take it easy, lady, that show was crap 40 years ago, and it hasn’t gotten any better since then,” but I didn’t think it would help.
And get this: some woman came in with only the information that she had heard about some musician on NPR, she thought his first name was James, and she thought he died on December 9. I asked her some questions, did some Google-fu and Wiki-fu and determined that it was the jazz musician James Moody. I showed her what we had in the store and queued up his complete discography on the listen-to-snippets-in-the-store system. Result: she was pissed because she couldn’t find the exact song they had played on NPR. Absolutely no recognition of the miracle of even discovering that it was James Moody. I wanted to ask her, “Where the fuck do you shop that you think this is just par for the course? ‘Cause I’d like to start shopping there too.” Ugh.
End rant. But, yes, I’m doing fine, thanks for asking.
But yeah, his ideological stripes are showin’, that’s for sure.
103.
Suffern ACE
@Xenos: Added to the fact that as legislators, they might feel that their institution’s legislating is better than and superior to his institution’s judging.
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: I misread your comment. I thought she asked you? I want to see something by you on her site. Yes, she asked me. I am just kinda freaking out.
ETA: She’s killing me with the frozen Asian from MN. I might have to use that as my nym.
@Steeplejack: Oh my god. You poor thing. I think your first answer would have been perfect. And, man. You’re good. If I’ve ever shopping in NoVa, I want you to help me, OK? Glad you’re feeling no pain right now, though.
@Zuzu’s Petals: But did you get pissed when the store person couldn’t find exactly what you wanted? I’m thinking not.
I made a lot of holiday candy: 333 Ky bourbon balls, 145 pecan pie truffles, and 158 espresso truffles. I’ve mailed 24 package out so far (have a few more to do) and have delivered most of them at work. It took me over 5 hours to box, package, and label them (the worst part)! The pecan pie truffles are new this year and are my favorite, by far. Saw the recipe in the NYT right before Thanksgiving — they are vegan too.
108.
suzanne
@Steeplejack: No, I get what you’re saying. She’s not stupid by any means, and she did leave Arkansas for the S.F. Bay area for quite a few years, so it’s not like she’s provincial. She returned to Fayetteville because she honestly prefers the more pastoral lifestyle, which is understandable. I really don’t want to come off as elitist. She’s just not the most outgoing person in the world and she and I don’t have a great deal in common. I would have zero reservations about her coming if she was only going to be here for a week, but three weeks just seems like a long time to entertain. I’ve already asked her all about her childbirth and child-rearing experiences on a past visit, heh. Fortunately, she’s not one of those people who endlessly gives stupid advice. I realize that I’m sounding a bit uppity and judgmental and that really isn’t my intent. And both my husband and I intimidate her a bit; I know that already. So I’m trying hard to make her comfortable while she’s here.
Hey, I have no problem with those customers, and I’m happy to help, as long as they appear to have some vague appreciation of the difficulty of what they’re asking. But, as AsiangrrlMN said, the ones who come in with absolutely no useful information and then get mad because you can’t (immediately!) find the book “with the dancers on the cover” are awful.
Best wishes on the impending motherhood (I know you’re already a mom, but still). Though I should take the kid’s side preemptively and say damn you mom, for this combined Xmas plus Bday gift giving horsepucky!
I wasn’t blaming you or thinking you were uppity. I have just found in my own life that if I step back and think of the other (close) person as a stranger and approach them that way it sometimes helps. There was a period when it really helped me to think of my mother not as “Mom” but by her given name. It made her a person that I could deal with in a way that I could never deal with “Mom.”
Fueled largely by a booming Wall Street, the share of income going to the tiny sliver of New York’s wealthiest—the top 1% of households—soared to 44% in 2007 from 17.2% two decades earlier. The average income of the city’s super rich was $3.7 million, and the price of entry into this exclusive club of 34,625 members was $642,000.
While the city’s rich have gotten richer, everyone else is treading water at best, according to a report to be released Monday by the Fiscal Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. The income share of the bottom 90% of households here was 34.5% in 2007, compared with 59.1% in 1987. Even as the city’s economy grew at a rate of 2.9% annually from 1990 to 2007, the hourly median wage fell 8.6%, to $15.50; median household income fell 2.2%, to $45,000.
Work harder you fucking worthless proles…..I’m worried about how i’m going to get by on my 250K of income.!!
And of course, I blame you know who for this……
118.
Martin
@Zuzu’s Petals: I think it’s more shock-and-awe against those most likely to oppose raising revenues.
Hacking at education is easy for the teabaggers. Take away public services for those over 50 and maybe things will change.
@asiangrrlMN: Aaand in the meantime, she has tweeted just that! Coooool!
I’m too tired to be here though (I just typed “mantime” instead of “meantime” and wrote “coooool” with an X), so I’m going to bed nao. Have fun w/o me, and I’ll figure out the details my ABLC status when my brain is not a slab of typo-prone dead meat.
Rum and Coke? Ugh, that’s too sweet. It’s rum and tonic for me (Schweppes, of course), with a mandatory big (squeezed) wedge of lime. Nice sweet/sour balance, and I haven’t had malaria in years, thanks to the quinine in the tonic water.
125.
Cain
I wait for Cole to respond to my twitter following thingee. I demand his attention! er not really.. he looks like he follows more important people anyways and I’m not sure if he cares to listen to me tweet bout free software and linux and stuff.
I followed asiangrrl too!
cain
126.
MattR
@Suffern ACE: I thought it was the Jews. (EDIT: But it can’t be that since the only one of my friends who may not be in that bottom 90% is one of the few non-Jews in my crew – and yes, i did just say “my crew”)
Those numbers are actually all not that surprising and I think they would be a lot closer to the national averages if the survey includes the entire metropolitan area. As much as Wall Street salaries affect things, those numbers are more skewed by the fact that anyone who can afford to do so moves to the suburbs and only moves back into NYC if they can maintain a similar lifestyle (which requires being super rich)
127.
FlipYrWhig
@Steeplejack: Rum and tonic sounds nauseating. Then again, I really like rum and Diet Dr. Pepper, so my palate ain’t ‘zackly so-fisti-kated.
@Steeplejack: Rum and DIET Coke for me. And, did you ever have malaria before?
@FlipYrWhig: My taste is more in line with yours. I never claimed to be sophisticated, either.
129.
WarMunchkin
@WyldPirate: treading water really summarizes it. That’s what most of us non FT job types are doing now, and you can’t keep up treading water, eventually you just drown.
130.
SectarianSofa
@FlipYrWhig:
Wow — the diet dr pepper & rum sounds like something I would do (have done?), but honestly the tonic water sounds like it might be tastier.
@Suffern ACE: Heh. Obama is responsible for every bad act, regardless of spacetime realities.
I heard Obama personally demanded that the legacy seats at Yankee Stadium be priced at $2500.
“No! No!” Steinbrenner exclaimed, “As much as I would like to see my Goldman Sachs billionaire buddies sitting in those seats drinking $60 glasses of scotch, how can the hot dog vendor outside the Port Authority possibly afford to see America’s pastime at those prices?! Please! Please let me cut the cost to $1250 per game!”
“Fuck them!” Obama demanded, “And fuck you and your pals from the professional left! If you lower prices you’ll just end up with a bunch of gay dirty hippies from Vermont sitting in those seats! Now, excuse me, I need to go push the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 through the Senate.”
I assume that it’s the people in charge between 1987 and 2007.
No, actually it goes back a little earlier to 1981 and one of Ronnie Raygun’s first acts as Prez–crushing the Flight Controller’s Union. It’s been all down hill ever since for Joe Six-Pac.
There is an excellent graph floating around on the intertoobz–which I have lost track of–which shows how GDP and median wages rose on the same slope from post WWII until 1980-81. They tracked each other perfectly. This meant that gains in productivity “trickled down” to the median wage earners.
during Reagan’s administration, the slop of GDP continued upwards, but median wages adjusted for inflation has stayed flat. This is when a disproportionate share of income started going to the top 2%b or so and labor and the rest of the proles stagnated,
IT’s not Obama’s fault. OTOH, he hasn’t accomplished much to if anything to reverse the trend and seems to be supportive of it given his treatment of the banksters v the autoworkers.
134.
Ija
So I noticed ED Kain hasn’t posted for a while. He’s not still sulking about that Atlantic-style circle jerk thing, is he?
135.
SectarianSofa
@Cain:
Free software and linux stuff? Sounds like I should be a twit follower of yours…. I don’t actually read the twitter stuff much, but I keep thinking it might someday be good for something.
If you’re drinking crap rum, that could also be a factor. No Captain Morgan, no Ron anything. Mount Gay or Barbancourt, please, maybe Gosling’s Black Seal if you’re currently serving on a ship-o’-the-line eighty-eight under Captain Jack Aubrey.
It’s really sort of amazing the disproportionate power that seniors exercise over things. For example, compare the relative Medi-Cal allocations for pacemakers versus those for perinatal care…unless things have changed in recent years, it’s pretty, well, amazing.
And if you really want to see a boondoggle, check out the California Senior Legislature. The geezers (my age group, so I can talk) take over the state capitol for 3+ days every fall, hold hearings in the committee rooms and sessions in the two chambers. They come up with ten bills they want to see the Legislature introduce that year, and darned if they don’t get their way a surprising amount of the time.
Technically, CSL is supposed to be self-funded (notice that check-off on your state tax form?). But the reality is they have plenty of legislative staff tied up for the event…and the legislative attorneys have to draft their proposals for them and organize and attend all the hearings. All on the taxpayers’ dime.
Yes, I speak Spanish (poorly), not French, but my vocab is just large enough that I can grasp the whole foreign language section and it’s hilarious. Personally, I like Glorious and his take on the Iliad and vacuums.
The best paid job with the best benefits I ever had was three days out of high school. It took about 30 minutes to learn how to do and was mind-numbingly boring. Of course it no longer exists. But I made more at this job and had far better benefits than I ever did as an officer in the military or with my MS and PhD in the sciences. I share some of the blame on the latter for late starting and poor choices of mentors and postdocs but still….
Free software and linux stuff? Sounds like I should be a twit follower of yours…. I don’t actually read the twitter stuff much, but I keep thinking it might someday be good for something.
Well you’re welcome to follow “sramkrishna”. I’m not doing a lot of twittering and I’m really more of the social type, we dont really talk free software. But us Linux/Gnome desktop guys are a lot more fun say kernel guys.
My favorite is Mount Gay Eclipse. It’s about $17-18 for a fifth, $34-35 for 1.5L here in NoVa. (Of course I buy mine by the hogshead.) It’s widely available and very good. It’s darker than the “white” rums but not super dark. Give it a try.
As I said above, I also like Barbancourt (a Haitian rum–Mount Gay is from Barbados), which is slightly harder to find. Gosling’s Black Seal is more of an acquired taste. It is very dark and seems like it should have the consistency of motor oil, although it actually doesn’t.
That was kind of easy, I think I was following johngcole and of course you can add whoever he’s following or who is following him.. you and angryblacklady.. hehe
I’m not going to be doing much politics since that’s not an anonymous acct. I’m trying out for this job as a community manager so I probably can’t rock the boat too much with epic rants. That’s what this blog is for :-)
(oh that is if you choose to follow me.. I’m not expecting you to)
cain
Oh, it was always clear why she hated me. I’m not Catholic and refused to convert to a religion I didn’t believe in. She was devastated her oldest son had the temerity to impregnate a heathen. :)
We’ve been together for 15 years, so she’s mellowed some. The first six years, though, were LOADS of fun. I think I finally just quietly outlasted her outrage.
Hey, new washer and dryer being delivered tomorrow – happy solstice to me — and I may soon catch up on all my fun stuff as opposed to my not-fun-but-pays-the-bills stuff. Whee!
@freelancer: French was my second language in high school, so I love that bit. I own all his DVDs. My fave is Circle. This bit about Jesus and the dinosaurs is fuuuuuunny. Plus, he’s yum yum yum in this one.
@Cain: I was kidding because I’m pretty easy to spot. I don’t actually twit much, and if you’re doing Linux and such, I probably won’t follow you. But I may. We shall see.
@jacy: Glad that your appliances are arriving. And, yay for fun stuff! I’m all over that. Also cool that your MIL has mellowed out a bit. Happy solstice to you as well.
We’ve been together for 15 years, so she’s mellowed some. The first six years, though, were LOADS of fun. I think I finally just quietly outlasted her outrage.
Haha.. nice.. well let me tell you, one of my dad’s friends who is indian married a white midwest woman.. oh boy her parents were pissed. Didn’t speak to either of them for years. She kept sending them stuff letters and the like. It wasn’t until the grand kids were born that they slowly started coming around. But I think it was like a lost decade or something. Some people can hold that stuff in for a long time.
It must have also put her in a pickle that she couldn’t tell your husband to divorce you either. What about your father-in-law? (Sorry I’m probably being more nosy than I should be)
cain
153.
SectarianSofa
@Cain:
Groovy. As soon as I find/remember/recover my twitter password…. As here, I almost never write anything tech-related, I don’t think. [Vocationally, ] I’m a network person who does some linux server stuff. Gnome/Linux everywhere else. Some python coding for fun.
“What do we want?”
“We want the earth!”
“When do we want it?”
“Now, motherfucker!”
155.
SixStringFanatic
@Hunter Gathers: Sorry for responding to this a little late and hope you’re still around but I have to disagree with you on your last point. Not that I’m any big fan of “Ye Olde Gunslingre” but do you really think the season would have been any better with Tavaris Jackson as the QB? Really? That guy sucked two years ago which is why the Vikes were desperate to get Favre in the first place.
As for Minny’s shitty season, you can blame a) injuries, b) a running back who’s mouth ran more than his legs (2500 yards, huh? 400 more than anyone else ever gained? In a pass-happy league? “Don’t be silly, Adrian Peterson!”) c) a defensive line who’s best work is behind them d) a front office that decided to make a mid-season trade for a receiver the year after he fell off a cliff production-wise and e) a QB that came back for one year too many.
Honestly, I’m tired of hearing about and from the guy too. But the Vikings had more problems than just him.
@Cain: I was kidding because I’m pretty easy to spot. I don’t actually twit much, and if you’re doing Linux and such, I probably won’t follow you. But I may. We shall see.
Hah. Okay, no worries. We don’t always talk about tech stuff… although if I get this new job there will be a lot of that I reckon.
Though I should take the kid’s side preemptively and say damn you mom, for this combined Xmas plus Bday gift giving horsepucky!
Heh. The older kid turns seven on Thursday. (Holy shit, I am old.) So both of them will be pissed at me.
What can I say? I get horny in March.
159.
SectarianSofa
@asiangrrlMN:
Haven’t been able to drink bacardi since I was 18 or 19 and had an Incident involving much too much of it. I tend to go for darker rums — had a friend from islands who brought me some once or twice, sold me on the darker side.
If you’re drinking crap rum, that could also be a factor.
Factor? That’s a given. I’ve only ever had Bacardi and below. Rum-like Drink Product. I’m sure I’m too much of a philistine to differentiate between good and bad.
163.
Martin
@Zuzu’s Petals: Wow. I wasn’t aware of that. Half of those sessions were proposals for how to ensure that cap gains don’t get passed down on the sale of a home after death. Like we don’t already have a zillion jackpots along those lines.
I guess only new residents to the state are supposed to pay taxes.
164.
MattR
@jacy: I am sorry to hear about that. I am not sure if dealing with that is better or worse than if she completely ended contact with your husband. You probably wore her down quicker by being around her and being a good person. (FWIW – My grandfather did not speak to my mother for 25+ years after she married a non-Jew. Not even the birth of my sister or I changed that, though I do seem to remember he was happy to see us (the kids) when we would be in town for weddings, bar mitzvahs and the like. And the thing was that he liked my dad very much as a person too, just not as a husband for my mom. They were never close again but they did eventually reconcile to some degree before he died.)
@SectarianSofa: @asiangrrlMN: Sadly, even the smell of either kahlua or bailey’s still makes me gag.
Yeah, I think kids can be the thing that sometimes pulls people together. My husband’s dad was no happier about me than she was, but he’s the practical sort, and they love their grandchildren and I hear they think I’m a good mom.
(When I say they’re Catholic, they’re like way, way Catholic. They have their own family priest, who didn’t care for me either, and refused to marry us. Evil little Irish bastard.)
So all’s well that ends well. My best revenge was proving them all wrong and having the happiest relationship of anyone I know. (We tell people that if a devout Catholic Republican and a non-practicing Pagan Liberal can be happy, there’s hope for everyone). Funny enough, while they’re all hung up on religion, it’s their politics that makes me crazy.
Yep. The self-interest runs strong in that crowd (well okay, my crowd).
At any rate, the Legislature will often just write something up as a nonbinding resolution saying something like “wouldn’t it be great if this happened…or better yet, if the feds made it happen?” and everybody’s happy.
So all’s well that ends well. My best revenge was proving them all wrong and having the happiest relationship of anyone I know. (We tell people that if a devout Catholic Republican and a non-practicing Pagan Liberal can be happy, there’s hope for everyone). Funny enough, while they’re all hung up on religion, it’s their politics that makes me crazy.
That’s one hell of a relationship. Glad that the both of you are happy and living life to the fullest. Cheers. :)
I agree with you on the tequila. Haven’t had any since college. There was an incident that involved some shirtless table dancing and the eventual theft of a golf cart. After that it gets a little hazy.
@Cain:
Groovy. As soon as I find/remember/recover my twitter password…. As here, I almost never write anything tech-related, I don’t think. [Vocationally, ] I’m a network person who does some linux server stuff. Gnome/Linux everywhere else. Some python coding for fun.
Our community ‘Gnome’ is pretty diverse. My tweets are very rarely about technology. I’m usually snarking at someone or making observations. If I make political statements there are of the “double entendre” type. That way everybody is happy, hehe
Republicans and Democrats living together? No one would ever believe it. :)
Well, my work is finally done. I’m going to crawl over the mound of unwashed laundry and try to find my bed, where I will dream of the arrival of the appliance delivery man and his sack full of goodies.
Cheers, All!
182.
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: I don’t get it either. My mom survived it pretty well I think, not that she would have let me know otherwise. But I think it kinda helped that her brother is 14 years older than her and was as much of a father figure in her life. And I think I may have mentioned that my aunt renamed my mother when she brought her to school the first day. Luckily, my mom never lost the support of her siblings and I think my dad’s mom did what she could to pick up the slack. I do know that my grandfather ended up regretting that he never saw his youngest daughter walk down the aisle as well as not ever knowing my sister or I
@jacy: I don’t know if my Dad qualified as THAT Catholic. He was not from a very religious background but he also spent some time studying to be a priest. And I am pretty sure that he insisted on finding a priest who would marry them without demanding that she convert, which posed a bit of difficulty but not too much in NYC. But I think the only time he was in church for the last 20-25 years of his life was at his mother’s funeral (though he did ask to have a priest brought in to perform last rites)
183.
Martin
@Zuzu’s Petals: A number of years back I had to renew my drivers license and get a new picture. I though I’d be smart and drive south to the DMV that opened at 8AM, and get it done before work. I arrived early so I could be first and since traffic was less than expected arrived at 7:15. There were at least 30 people already in line. Not one under 65. I forgot that Leisure World was right next door.
I’d like to see the DMV hours change to Sunday morning from 9AM to 1PM and weekdays from 8PM to midnight unless a revenue hike is approved. Oh, and they should slash the Musak budget and only play tracks donated by Snoop while you wait.
Then please ignore me sawing this block of wood in the garage.
185.
goblue72
@SectarianSofa: Good and cheap are generally not two things that go well together in booze. Its like that old age about good, fast, and cheap – you can only pick two out of three. If your hooch costs less than a 6 pack of beer, then Houston, we have a problem.
Bacardi is gasoline in booze form. Its mass-produced industrial rum meant for being drowning in coke, artificial sour mix and other abominations, and served to fratheads and sorority sluts at South Padre Island.
For a light rum, I’d recommend Flor de Cana 4 Year. Its a Nicaraguan rum, aged 4 years, clear and quite dry. I’ve seen it at Bevmo for as low $11.99 for a standard 750ml bottle. Its the default white mixing rum at most better cocktail bars.
For a dark rum, Coruba from Jamaica. Its a mixer and better than Myers. I’ve seen 750ml bottles in the $16 range. If you can’t find that, Goslings Black Seal is good as well and same price.
For a medium mixing rum, Mt. Gay Eclipse (Barbados) or Appleton Estate V/X (Jamaica) – the later being on the spicier of the two. $17 range.
For a spiced rum, Kraken Black Spiced. $16 range. Next step up, is Old New Orleans Cajun Spiced Rum, $30 range.
After that, you are getting into a range of better mixers and into sipping rums – Pusser’s Navy Rum, El Dorado 12 & 15, Mt Gay XO, Zaya Gran Reserve 12, Ron Zacapa 23, Appleton 12, Cruzan Single Barrel, Rhum JM Agricole Vieux, Barbancourt 8 Year, Rhum Clemente VSOP…
186.
SectarianSofa
@Calouste:
Thanks — I’ll add those to my ‘to do if possible’ list.
Best vodka I’ve ever had was an Icelandic one, also problematic to get at the time. Apparently bad karma, too — somehow vodka purchases supported illegal Icelandic whaling.
@MattR: That’s so sad, but also pretty cool on the part of her siblings. No, you didn’t tell me about your aunt renaming your mom. What’s up with that?
@goblue72:
Thanks. My liver does not thank you, but it is outvoted. The angel on my right shoulder and devil on my left have both agreed that rum acquisition should proceed apace. (My brain insists that they are not angels or devils either, but perhaps only mental projections, or actual tiny people in interesting costumes.)
Never had a spiced rum that I’m aware of. Sounds like instant soup — isn’t that something one would normally concoct out of rum, and say, spices? Like mulled wine and such? I realize I have no idea what I’m talking about here, and throw myself at the mercy of the drinkers’ court.
192.
Martin
@jacy: I had such an incident in college with rum during my 2nd year. During a party I climbed out my 3rd story dorm room window and down a drainpipe. When one of my friends caught up with me, we somehow managed to get his roommates much beloved Barracuda started and drove it across the campus dell and parked it on the library patio. I woke up next to the lake which was clear across campus. Don’t remember a solid half of that evening. Didn’t drink rum for 15 years after that.
Gin became my regular drink. Nothing but fun and good memories with gin.
193.
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: My maternal grandparents were both Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who spoke little English. As a result nobody in the house ever referred to my mom by the English name on her birth certificate, but rather by her Yiddish name. My aunt is about 7 years older than my mom so when the first day of school came it was her responsibility to bring my mom and register her. My aunt hated my mom’s English name so she used the name of her best friend instead and that is how all the teachers and children addressed her from that point on. I don’t remember at what point my mother had it legally changed. Pretty sure it was well before she got married and changed the last name. And she doesn’t have an English middle name so none of the names on her original birth certificate belong to her anymore. (EDIT: My mom has another sister about 10 years older than her and their father ran a corner grocery store so my mom was largely raised by her mom and siblings with her siblings bearing the brunt when it came to preparing mom for the English speaking world, which in turn at least mitigated her father’s actions)
Note that with the Havana Club “problematic to get” means not for sale in the US and strictly speaking even illegal to buy abroad if you are an American.
@MattR: No. And now I’m afraid to ask. P.S. I love Bailey’s and Kahlua. Sucky for you!
198.
Jewish Steel
@Ija: my memory could be playing tricks on me but I thought I read a passing ref. Or maybe it’s that all libertarians come off as babes in the woods.
@asiangrrlMN:
@freelancer:
May I recommend you youtube “spicy pony head” and click on the first option? (It should be a little shetland pony running). If you like the pythonesque, I’ve been assured that I’m not crazy for finding this very funny.
199.
Ija
I just finished David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. One of the characters has this law of survival: the weak are meat for the strong to eat. Seems an appropriate sentiment with all this talk about class warfare. The rich don’t have the numbers on their side, but they sure have most of the power. The problem is, because we are an aspirational society, there are many non-rich people who support policies benefiting the rich because, hey, they could struck gold too, one day. Maybe we’d be better off if we are more pessimistic and less hopeful as a society. Maybe then more people would make a stink about tax cuts for millionaires.
200.
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: Bear asks the rabbit if he has trouble with shit sticking to his fur. The rabbit says no, so the bear picks him up and wipes his ass with him.
Interestingly, I can still drink the vodka that got me drunk before the kahlua finished me off. I later discovered that Bailey’s was close enough that the kahlua aversion carried over. Of all drinks to have to give up, why the tasty ones? I wouldn’t mind not being able to drink bourbon or tequilla. And this is how I knew there had to be no god.
@Ija: I grew up among the mega-wealthy myself. It is a special treat to explain to the aspirational middle class folks the ways in which the rich aren’t like you or me.
Is this also true for Cuban cigars? If so, then “oops”.
Yep. Although I don’t see how it is going to be enforced if you buy and consume it abroad. You might have some problems bringing it into the country though.
The four Republicans appointed to the commission investigating the root causes of the financial crisis plan to bypass the bipartisan panel and release their own report Wednesday, according to people familiar with the commission’s work.
__
The Republicans, led by the commission’s vice chairman, former congressman and chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Bill Thomas, will likely focus their report on the explosive growth of subprime mortgages and the heavy role played by the federal government in pushing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase and insure them. They’ll also likely focus on the Community Reinvestment Act, a 1977 law that encourages banks to lend to underserved communities, these people said.
There you go, folks.
We had a financial crisis because Jimmy Carter made banks give homes to the n******, and then Barney Franks stopped the Republicans from fixing Fannie Freddie.
207.
goblue72
@SectarianSofa: Its not so much mulled as infused. Take a medium bodied rum, insert various spices, soak for a while, strain and drink. The industrial version is Captain Morgan’s, the bottle with the prirate on it. Its foul. And since Kraken (or Sailor Jerry in a pinch) isn’t much more in price at all, there’s no reason to drink the Captain.
Spiced rum is good this time of year with some apple cider (the non-alcoholic kind) over ice – a sort of spiced rum version of a 200+ year old cocktail called the Stone Fence. (2 oz. brandy, whiskey or rum. Pour over ice in tall glass. Top with cider, hard or otherwise) Its like a rum & coke but for grown-ups. The Kraken is also nice in a highball with ice and ginger beer.
As for the sippers, I’d recommend just spending the money and buying one to start. If you like your rum sweet, then the El Dorado 15, Ron Zacapa 23 or the Zaya are all great. (and the El Dorado is a steal at the price it usually retails at – its a demerara rum, so it already started out like candy even before they stuck it in a barrel). If you like a little more spice or want something drier, go for the Mt Gay XO, Cruzan Single Barrel, or Rhum Clemente VSOP. For the price point its at, the Cruzan Single Barrel is an EXCELLENT starting sipping rum.
208.
Suffern ACE
Not that I’m looking forward to the coming Hooverism, but I’m assuming this will be the way the discussions will go.
@El Cid: And of course, the NY Times reports this all as just another “he said, she said” type of issue.
Because, ya know, its not the job of journalists to intermediate and separate out the loonies & nutjobs from the objective actors in our news.
210.
Jewish Steel
@asiangrrlMN: good! I’m glad you liked it. Kaspar Hauser made it. I also recommend their prank emails to Nigerian scammers. Oh, and “Mondo de Perros”.
It is pythonesque, specifically mining the vein of ‘crunchy frog’ or the cheese shop sketch. But best not to get me started or we’ll be on to The Goon Show and Spike Milligan and that’s very inside baseball.
@Yutsano: Aren’t tax cheats by default Republican?
215.
Yutsano
@NobodySpecial: I usually don’t inquire into political affiliation, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I don’t deal with the sharpest minds when it comes to finances.
216.
Batjuano
Homeland Security & Traveling on the Holidays
Why not relax–traveling in the “Winged Death Tube” is stressing enough! Breath in & out,
check out the other travelers–Who Are all these Japanese wearing the cowboy hats? Say hello to them. Shake their hands. Admire their boots! Que Paso?
Talk to the Troopers.
Give the Security Guys a Wink & Ask them to spend a little more time on your Neck & Shoulders!
I wear Special HS socks–I give ’em another ‘Wink & ask: “what kind of socks do Pirates wear?” I get “The Eyeball”–oh Christ–is this guy dangerous, or just a “Weirdo from Outer Space?””
Then I pull up my pant leg & say “Arrgghh-Ghillles! Gets a grin every time.
Rotten Job. Give ’em a break. Breath in, breath out.
Talk to the people next to you in line–get them to talk about their Life, their Passion, their Family…
Be in the here & now. Breath. You got somewhere else to be? Relax. Pay attention to the person next to you. Talk to them.
Maybe then more people would make a stink about tax cuts for millionaires.
Naw, they know the eye of the needle is all plugged up with camels, and the people that got skimmed and tricked all of their lives get drive-thru service.
What doesn’t smell right to me is when someone with a demon, an angel and a JRT in his house just says “I got nothing”.
218.
BGK
Just sittin’ here in the Ft. Myers airport waiting for a flight to Boston. Security theater here is relatively low key and mostly polite. The worst part is that this is a heavily tourist market, and most of my fellow passengers are in-frequent fliers not clear on carry-on size constraints. Plus my boss, who always plays it irritatingly close to the vest with our shared travel arrangements, is apparently going to dive through the aircraft door just before it closes, since we’re about to board and he’s not here yet…
My cats must’ve been able to tell I was going to be gone for a few days, as their affections this morning have left my black pants carpeted with cat hair.
Google is sponsoring free in-flight internet, so I might check in later, just ’cause I think it’s neat.
@asiangrrlMN: You make the dough and individually make the balls (about 1″ in diameter) with your gloved hands. You never really know how many balls you’re going to get. I make 4x the recipe for bourbon balls, 3x the recipe for espresso truffles, and 2x the recipe for pecan truffles. I keep all the numbers and notes in a spread sheet since 2007 but have been making the bourbon balls since 1983.
xephyr
I have no comment.
cathyx
@xephyr: yes you did.
General Stuck
Talk to my lawyer
freelancer
I’ve got another Sullivan paradox for you…
Gina
OOh! I’ll play. What’s everyone cooking for holiday treats? My kitchen is being torn apart and reassembled, so I don’t have the use of a stove right now. My daughter and I are jonesing for a marathon baking day. I’m hoping to live vicariously through the BJ commenteriat.
lahke
Anyone here with experience to share on transitioning elderly parents to non-driving status? My nearly 92-year old father is past it (and my mother’s not much better). I’m about to turn him in to the DMV because they are in such denial about the situation, but then what? They’re stranded in suburbia and don’t want to move from the house (let alone the idea of selling in this market). Doesn’t help that I’m 3000 miles away, either.
——
gee, you guys are fast. Thought I was first…..
ulee
I need to clean the fishtank.
General Stuck
@Gina:
cooking? what’s that?
Davis X. Machina
I’m watching my son, the home-from-college architecture student, making graham-cracker houses for my wife’s homeroom holiday party.
To code. And after Le Corbusier.
The video will be up on YouTube shortly, under the title “Overkill…”
Michael
History Channel’s actually doing history tonight.
That’s a pleasant change.
mk3872
How do you like Sen McConnell coming out tonight, slamming the omnibus spending bill for including earmarks, when the bill includes over $1M+ in earmarks that he asked for himself!
Comrade Jake
I just want to say: thank-God Cliff Lee is not going to sign with the mother-fucking Yankees!
Left Coast Tom
@Davis X. Machina:
As a Californian I think it’s important that graham-cracker houses be appropriately earthquake-safe.
robertdsc-PowerBook
Today is my birthday. I turn 36.
Suffern ACE
@Gina: Flying to Wisconsin tomorrow to make butterhorns, rosettes and lefse with my mom this weekend, then moving into sunbackels, gingerbread men, and if I have time, I’m going to try kiffles.
Davis X. Machina
@Left Coast Tom: The first thing you do is take a sharp knife and cut them so that, instead of being square, the graham crackers conform to the Golden Ratio….
Apparently once you determine your modulus, it’s all downhill from there.
jacy
@Gina:
Kids making fudge and sugar cookies tomorrow for a decorating party. More cookies next week to give as gifts. Doing miniature cherry cheesecakes for Christmas eve, apple/hazelnut stollen for the morning, and pumpkin pie and a buche de noel for dinner.
Chocolate/raspberry cake with German buttercream for Boxing Day.
(There is still a quarter of a frozen sour cream and cranberry spice cake in the freezer from Thanksgiving.)
Yes, I bake too much.
Jules
Jesus.
Progressive pundits on MSNBC make me want to throw things at my tv.
Pressure Republicans to do the morally right thing?
sheesh…..
jacy
@robertdsc-PowerBook:
Happy, happy, and many happy returns!
martha
@lahke: Oh I’ve got experience, but it’s not easy. This sounds cold, but you just have to switch roles and become the parent. It’s easier that way. Don’t condescend, just be an adult and emphasize the safety of your parent and the other drivers.
We had to take away the keys from my father in law and my dad had to take them from my mom. My husband bore the brunt of my FIL’s unhappiness, even after 2 accidents. It was really hard on him, but once he realized that he had to stop being the son and start being the “adult”, it helped.
The distance thing is hard to overcome. Is anyone close?
maye
@lahke: can you afford a live-in caretaker? We had to take the keys away from both parents, but they moved into an assisted living place. If we had it to do again, I’d try to keep them in their house and find someone to live with them (for probably the same $).
martha
@Suffern ACE: Lefse!!! Drove past Norske Nook in Osseo last Wednesday, before the blizzard. Didn’t stop for pie or lefse though.
MikeBoyScout
With two joys of my intellectual life in the commode (politics & economics) I’ve turned to my other fantasy.
On my relatively new Kindle I’ve been reading well written books about the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As any expat Burgher will tell you, the tradition (and by that we mean 40 years of success) is something we are quite proud of and we carry it with us like Linus’ blanket.
From Dan Rooney: My 75 Years with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the NFL:
“The mission of the Pittsburgh Steelers Football Club is to represent Pittsburgh in the National Football League, primarily by winning the Championship of Professional Football.”
JC, I never got nothing. And neither do you. :-)
Tony P.
I’ve got something.
You all probably know, some of you possibly from personal experience, that if you have to withdraw money from your 401k or IRA to make ends meet, you not only have to pay income tax on it, but a 10% penalty as well.
If you’re self-employed (which makes you a “small business”, please note) you get no help from any extension of unemployment benefits. You might, possibly, get through the short term by drawing on your personal retirement savings. But you pay a 10% penalty when you do it.
You’d think somebody might have proposed a suspension of this early withdrawal penalty. A Democrat might have done so, out of compassion for struggling “small business” owners. A Republican might have proposed it, out of a congenital aversion to “penalties” in the tax code. But no. Not as far as I know, anyway.
–TP
Buck
Post your pic and let us be the judge of that.
(hehehe)
SiubhanDuinne
@John: You could put up pictures of Tunch and the girls. That’d be something.
@robertdsc: Happy birthday! Celebrate lavishly and safely, if that’s not an oxymoron.
freelancer
@Jules:
You saw that too, eh? Omg, the douche from boldprogressives.com could use a brick to the face. I actually shouted at my computer, “HOW?! How do you get to 60?! You’re nuts!”
Greenhouse Guy
@robertdsc-PowerBook:
Dood, I turned 36 this last Friday! Happy Happy Joy Joy!!! I still feel like a dorky teenager sometimes, howsa about u?
BruceFromOhio
I got a decent buzz on for fracking Tuesday.
GFO +half a bottle of Apothic Red.
Morbo
@Davis X. Machina: I wil be sorely disappointed if it is not accompanied by the appropriate Motorhead song.
BruceFromOhio
@Gina: It was Tree Day. Positioning just so, lights, picking out which ornaments to use this year. Baking comes later when the guests are due. That plus the tree stuns ’em as they walk in, works every time.
agrippa
I have not watched any TV for five years, except for sports.
I find that TV has been seinfelded. It is all meta.
So has politics; it has been seinfelded; I fear the wound is mortal.
My post has been seinfelded as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A45xqLHccRo
“I ve got a little list”
Maude
@lahke:
Are there taxis or buses in the area?
Taxis have sprung up here like weeds because so many people don’t drive. Cars are expensive.
It’s a transportation issue. If there is a local or county office on aging or something like that, they may be able to give info.
There has to be a way that they can get around, stay in the house and not drive.
Here, we have a bus service that isn’t public transport.
Older people are on the bus all of the time. It is fun to ride with them and they like it because it is social.
You’ll get it worked out and your parents will be fine.
Jules
@freelancer:
My husband turned to me and said “what fantasy land does that guy live in?”…..I just smirked…..
lahke
@maye:
Thanks, Maye and Martha: it really is time, for their sake and anyone they may mow down.
My sister lives in town, but travels for work, and besides, the folks don’t want to “impose”. Paying someone whose job description is to be imposed upon is probably the way to go–it will make it easier for them to ask for help if they’re paying for a service rather than asking for favors. Not sure what the cost is, but assuming that the VA can help subsidize and my sister and I can chip in.
I was just filling out the informing form at the DMV site (where you can ask them to assess someone’s functionality if you have reason to doubt their ability to drive safely), and there’s a link there to a Senior Ombudsman whose function appears to be helping old folks transition from driving. Let’s hear it for the nanny state! I’m glad the California still has the funds to support someone with expertise who can help.
Davis X. Machina
@Tony P.: Such a suspension, never mind repeal, would be a.) eminently sensible, and b.) immediately attacked as non-virtue-promoting.
Paul Krugman keeps saying ‘Economics is not a morality play’, but the Austerians are booted, spurred and in the saddle.
jwb
@agrippa: I feel as if I’m trapped in some sort of meta-seinfelded loop.
jwb
@Davis X. Machina: A twofer: both a bad melodrama and bad economic policy. Lucky us!
Shinobi
He’res an article about the honeybee colony collapse issue possibly being linked to a pesticide that is still approved by the EPA?
I guess it helps if regulatory bodies, y’know, actually regulate things.
MTiffany
@lahke: If you have a younger family member that needs reduced rent in exchange for live-in taxi service, that’s an option. Barring that, if in your parents’ area there is an elder-care agency, (where I live it’s COSA – County Office of Services for the Aging http://www.co.delaware.pa.us/depts/cosa1.html) see if that agency offers transportation services. There’s a lot of help out there, it just takes some effort finding.
Sentient Puddle
So did you decide to quit WoW a few hours before Cataclysm came out, or something?
Davebo
lahke
Two words.
DEATH PANELS
But seriously, I don’t have to deal with it yet but I see it coming (My folks are 72 and 70). My mother still works (owns a real estate brokerage) and my father seems to have retired and taken up buying shit. So far 2 motor homes and 3 boats.
Honestly with him I worry more about the boat that does 70mph through stump infested waters.
Then again, what a way to go eh?
Shinobi
@lahke: Both my Mom and my Grandmother are going through not being able to drive right now. (My Mom had a massive stroke at 55, my grandma just decided she couldn’t deal with the stress any more.)
They use cabs, call a ride, or whatever senior type bus service is available locally. My Mom tends to go to big shpping centers where she can run a bunch of errands at once. Though mobility is a problem too.
In some areas there are organizations that will have people stop by for a few hours a day/ a week and help out around the house. Visiting Angels is a national US organization that provides these kinds of contractors. I also know that some people do this as independant contractors (my Aunt does.) They wont do medical stuff but they can help out with errands and other stuff, and as your parents age they can help you keep an eye on them.
I was also reading an article a while ago about a move to household sensors that are monitored around the clock to make long distance caretaking of elderly easier. I think it was on CNN but I can’t find it.
BruceFromOhio
@robertdsc-PowerBook: Well, then many happy returns. Seems like a good reason for another glass of wine. Sagittarians are good luck, d’ye know that?
Suffern ACE
@Tony P.: I think I heard that discussed fleetingly on one of the economics blogs in 2009, but I don’t know if it was ever a policy proposal. I think it was in the context of using the draw down to pay off mortgage debt, but it is very vague. One issue might be maintaining the distinction between “retired” and “unemployed.” If there was no penalty, then those funds might as well be available for any difficult period, from illness, to paying off debts, to temporary unemployment, that plague us all. But then those would amount to tax-deferred rainy-day savings accounts.
I’m not opposed to the idea. I just don’t know how to keep it so that officialdom doesn’t start looking closely into the “reasons” one needs to tap into the funds and the reasons for that hardship. It isn’t too intrusive for the government to know how old you are and decide that, say, after 59 1/2 you can be legally considred retired and draw down those funds. (And at 58 1/2 you can’t be.).
Not objections. Just thoughts.
BruceFromOhio
@Tony P.: The house never wants you to pick up your coin and walk away. The house wants you to stay in and pay. If every casino in Vegas could charge you 10% of your stake to stop playing …
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Michael: That’s something I hate about this capitalism thing: You can’t just be good at what you do, you have to do something new because otherwise you’re not making more money than last year. The history channel starts doing non-history stuff, SciFi does not science fiction stuff (and therefore have to change their name), Cartoon network starts having non-cartoon stuff on. MTV shows virtually now music videos.
And that’s just the things on TV.
danimal
The joys of Gregg Easterbrook.
WTF is racism if it isn’t treating people differently (more harshly) because of their race? C’mon man! Call it like it is.
Martha
@lahke: Paying someone is a great compromise if you can get the keys away from them in return. Show them the math, how much they’ll save on gas, insurance, repairs, etc. With their generation, the economic argument often works. The key is to have the public services and fee-based services lined up.
Martha
@Shinobi: Oh I read or heard about that too. Hmmm. I think you’re right about CNN. Might check the AARP web site too.
Suffern ACE
@Michael: You mean serious history, or “Maybe Nostradamus was right” history?
Tony P.
@Suffern ACE:
Oh, I can think of all sorts of reasons why the 10% early withdrawal penalty makes good sense as the DEFAULT policy, but of course I was only talking about a TEMPORARY suspension. These days, “retirement” and “unemployment” are not quite as distinct as they are in normal times.
–TP
MTiffany
@Davebo:
Death panel, indeed.
agrippa
@jwb:
yup.
Like the old vietnam ‘joke’:
“WTF”, over”
“Roger, out”.
Eric Lindholm
Happens to the best of us, buddy.
morzer
Down and out in Somalia again, John? That’s damn careless of you, you know.
agrippa
For what we are about to receive oh lord, let us be truly thankful.
suzanne
38 weeks today. My hands started getting really puffy to the point where my doctor said that one more millimeter of swelling and they would have had to cut my wedding ring off. Most likely going to induce Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.
Mother-in-law coming on Sunday for three weeks. Pray for me.
Svensker
@danimal:
Easterbrook is an ass. But if the refs are letting Vick take extra hits it may not be racism, it may be that they don’t feel that he can ever really pay for his acts of barbarity. I know a bunch of people who feel really strongly about him. Don’t see why refs wouldn’t be in that group.
Svensker
@suzanne:
Prayers coming. You’re giving yourself quite the Christmas present, eh?
Kristine
This reminded me of Ali Cat from downthread:
jacy
@suzanne:
Will think good thoughts. I was in the same spot once, and it’s scary.
Are we specifically praying re: your mother-in-law? :)
(Lucky me, my MIL hated me so much, she refused to speak to me throughout the whole pregnancy/delivery/recuperation.)
Zuzu's Petals
@lahke:
Glad to hear you discovered the DMV ombudsman. It could be a big help.
In addition, California has many local programs to assist the disabled and elderly in getting around. In addition to Paratransit, many areas provide secure escorts and/or taxi vouchers to elders.
Try the local Area Agency on Aging for links and connections. They are quite experienced with this stuff.
More links here:
California Dept of Aging
PanAmerican
The Bears Vikings MNF tilt will be moved to UM’s TCF Bank Stadium.
Martin
@robertdsc-PowerBook: I remember 36. Get off my fucking lawn, kid.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
Right, then, I’ll post it again here!
Are you a maker, a knitter, painter, photographer, author, any and all of the above and would you like to sell what you in your copious creativity create?
Come leave a link and a brief description in the comments of this freshly minted post! http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/holiday-marketplace/
Laura W. is already there, and you know if she’s there, it’s a classy joint!
Ash Can
@suzanne:
Hip-hip-hooray!
Zuzu's Petals
@lahke:
PS, meant to include this link:
National Center on Senior Transportation
Good luck!
Violet
@robertdsc-PowerBook:
Happy Birthday! Hope you are having a good one.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@suzanne: Good luck on all fronts!
pjcamp
“I got nothing.”
You got that tattoomathjap movie thing.
That was something.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@robertdsc-PowerBook: Hey happy birthday! 36 is good. I think that if I could choose an age to be forever, it would be mid-30s. Old enough to know a thing or two, about the world and myself, young enough to be taken seriously. And not be laughed at for liking the loud rock and roll.
Xenos
@Suffern ACE:
I have not been in the financial planning business for a while, but there are ways to take an IRA and annuitize it so as to avoid paying penalties. This can work when someone is not too far from retirement age, and might as well start drawing income from their savings. It has to be irrevocable, though… I would recommend finding an elder law attorney who knows their taxes. Going to a financial planner first can result in being sold something inappropriate.
NineJean
@lahke: I haven’t read through all of the comments yet, but here’s my take:
Step 1: Spend the time to understand that even bringing up the subject means that your parents are just going to hate you. For a very long time.
—
Step 2: Find the old friend/high school bud who is now a pro mechanic and is willing to make “house calls” and will agree to disable something-or-other that makes the car unusable. With appropriate excuses, of course [parts are in next Tuesday…] Note — if you’re living 3k miles away, this one is probably going to be tough. find somebody. Internet works.
—
Step 3: Commit to finding alternative transportation options. As many as you can find. Friends, family, neighbors, local churches, local transportation networks… whatever. Beat this one up until your parent has a transportation option that works.
—
Step 4: Sell the car. Keep in mind that your parent will hate you for a very long time. Do it anyway.
—
Step 5: Pray. Hope it works. Then look for anything, everything, that will keep their lives okay…
—
Step 6: Now to to the DMV. This is the last resort.
Martin
@Zuzu’s Petals:
And don’t dawdle. The budget hatchet is coming.
Steeplejack
@robertdsc-PowerBook:
Happy birthday! Whippersnapper.
ETA: FYWP. Eating comments again. Grr!
NineJean
@lahke: Just a follow up. — Comments suck. Can’t do paragraph breaks. Sorry ’bout that….
Hunter Gathers
@danimal: Speaking of ESPN ass-hattery..
Did anybody else see that Cliff Lee signed with the Phillies? My first thought was “Holy shit, they have the toughest rotation of any team since the mid-90’s Braves before Steve Avery got hurt! For Christ’s sake, Cole Hamels is their fucking number four starter! And Hamels would be a legit number 1 for more than half the fucking league!” But nooooooo. It’s all about Lee’s temerity to not take a shit-ton of Yankee dollars. For one thing, there’s not a hell of a whole lot of difference between $100 million and $140 million. And second, maybe Lee wants to win more than he wants to cash in and have to shoulder the load with Sabathia fronting a shitty pitching staff. But it’s all about how sorry we should feel for the Fucking Yankees because they were unable (for once) to just go out and buy the best players. Cry me a fucking river. The only thing shittier than the national sporting press is our national political press.
Up next on ESPN: should an old man who can’t play anymore tough it out, or should we continue to ignore the fact that said old man is directly responsible for his team’s shitty record?
Zuzu's Petals
@Martin:
Ah yes, the short-term budget fix resulting in long-term costs, ie institutionalization.
Jewish Steel
@morzer:
There you are!
Are you recovered from your vehicular misadventure?
gwangung
@Hunter Gathers: And if you break down the numbers, it’s even more nauseating:
From Lookout Landing:
suzanne
@jacy:
My mother-in-law is okay. She’s just… a very quiet, reticent, introspective country woman who doesn’t talk a whole lot, but when she does, it’s pretty much exclusively about Arkansas (where she’s from) and the cows on her dad’s farm. I have been out to Fayetteville twice with my husband to visit, and find it dull as fuck. And I have nothing whatsoever to say about cows. I don’t even eat them. So the prospect of having to make conversation for three weeks is daunting.
My former MIL, on the other hand, is a Grade A Number One Bitch from Hell. Awkward silence is much better than putting up with mindgames.
Steeplejack
@NineJean:
Your dash-fu is what screwed up the paragraph formatting. WordPress didn’t like them. Just stick with the numbers.
Hunter Gathers
@gwangung: Didn’t see those numbers before. He’s going to end up with more cash than the Yankees would have given him anyway, from the looks of it. Christ on a crutch. But that won’t stop the sporting press from writing 12 billion articles on how sorry we should feel for the fucking Yankees. That’s going to be one hell of a starting rotation. Might have to get a subscription to MLB.tv this year. They may end up with the best rotation ever. And I do likes to watch me some good pitching. If only the Cubbies weren’t throwing away good money at Soriano, Zambrano and Ramirez.
morzer
@Jewish Steel:
Not totally, but the situation is much ameliorated, and I am grateful for the kind inquiry.
Still trying to figure out just why the Dolphins and Jets are struggling so mightily on offense. My suspicion is that both have poor OCs and young and possibly not franchise QBs.
Also too, questionable O-lines. Miami definitely needs a better Center from Santa.
Karen
If it’s been discussed already I’m sorry but is anyone else very disturbed that Justice Scalia will be teaching one of Bachman’s Consitution Classes?
Suffern ACE
@Karen: Not really. As bad of a justice as I think he is, it’s not as if he hasn’t actually studied the document and reads to mean “my reading of it solves every problem that makes me mad at the world right now”. Either he’ll pander or they’ll boot him off the stage.
jeffreyw
@Gina: sourdough breads
Xenos
@Karen: Actually, I find it pretty amusing. Nino tends to blow up when he has to reason with anyone he considers less brilliant than himself, and many of these freshman reps are dumb as stumps and filled with astonishingly stupid ideas about what is actually in the constitution. Sure it is a chance to brainwash some willing subjects, but Scalia will need to really confront the disaster that is Republican propaganda about the law in order to even minimally inform these people about the law and even orthodox conservative legal thinking. Serves him right.
asiangrrlMN
@morzer: Was wondering about you, too. Glad you’re better.
@Hunter Gathers: No. He should just go the fuck away (to your last point).
@suzanne: Live blogging, please! Good luck. Stilted convo is MUCH better than mind-fuckery.
Jewish Steel
@morzer:
Glad to hear you are on the mend.
I really liked the Dolphin’s gimmicky wildcat O. Do they still run that? I like any pro sports team that, as the Earth First!ers
used to say, subverts the dominant paradigm. Same for that Golden State team that was all guards.
I hope Santa has two O-lines in his sack. It’d be nice if Jay Cutler could keep his marbles at least through his contract.
asiangrrlMN
@jeffreyw: I read that as sourdough breasts and thought you had some interesting holiday traditions.
@Karen: Only because I loathe Bachmann and think anything she supports is automatically bad.
@Steeplejack: Hiya. How you be?
Steeplejack
@suzanne:
My spidey sense is tingling from my former days as a working newspaper reporter. Your MIL no doubt has more of an inner life than this. Rather than thinking of her as a boring hick, consider the possibility that she feels intimidated, out of it or whatever and falls back (as we all do) on rote comments about safe subjects. As an experiment, why don’t you try “interviewing” her a little bit? Don’t think of her as your MIL. Think of her as some unknown woman that you are trying to get to know in at least some little way. If you can’t draw her out on some topic, then what does she like about Arkansas? Did she ever think about leaving there? Any dreams of travel, even as a young woman?
Worse comes to worst, you should be able to engage with her on the topic of pregnancy and childbirth. Swap war stories, etc.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@asiangrrlMN: Hey! Hello! Did I hear that you’re going to be doing some writing at ABL’s place?
Jackie
@lahke: Do your folks have a doctor they trust? Sometimes hearing from the doctor that they need to stop driving works If it’s dementia I’ve had people just pull a vital part to starting.
suzanne
@asiangrrlMN:
I don’t think I’ll be up to live blogging—I’ve asked in advance for every narcotic in, like, the world. But I’ll definitely send some pics. :)
Thanks so much for your kindness, everyone. It’s getting really hard at this point. This preeclampsia scare this morning was not fun.
asiangrrlMN
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: Yep. I am so excited for you. I think you’ll be a fabulous addition. She asked me, too. I’m having performance anxiety. I find myself self-censoring.
@suzanne: Pics will suffice. Massive positive vibes that all will go swimmingly.
ETA: How about a live video stream?
GregB
Nothing here either.
morzer
@Jewish Steel:
Yes, they do still run the Wildcat, generally just at the moment when it disrupts Henne’s rhythm most! Given how limited said rhythm has been of late, this does not go down well with Dolphins’ connoisseurs, as the enraged mob gathers with tar and feathers and mutterings of “Fire Henning now!”.
I misread the latter part of your comment first time around and had a brief vision of Santa procreating O-lines!
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@asiangrrlMN: Wait what? She hasn’t really asked me! She tweeted me about you and said that I should “consider a cross post” and I tweeted to confirm that she was saying what I hoped she was saying…. So, hey! Maybe so! I would love it, if it is so.
And I’ll love to see you there!
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Got in from work about an hour ago–blessedly early, considering the season–and have been trying to figure out how to enlist in the war on Christmas. Customers are crazy now, in a way that they don’t remotely approach any other time of the year. I had a woman go mental on me because I couldn’t produce a complete DVD boxed set of The Rat Patrol. I started to say, “Take it easy, lady, that show was crap 40 years ago, and it hasn’t gotten any better since then,” but I didn’t think it would help.
And get this: some woman came in with only the information that she had heard about some musician on NPR, she thought his first name was James, and she thought he died on December 9. I asked her some questions, did some Google-fu and Wiki-fu and determined that it was the jazz musician James Moody. I showed her what we had in the store and queued up his complete discography on the listen-to-snippets-in-the-store system. Result: she was pissed because she couldn’t find the exact song they had played on NPR. Absolutely no recognition of the miracle of even discovering that it was James Moody. I wanted to ask her, “Where the fuck do you shop that you think this is just par for the course? ‘Cause I’d like to start shopping there too.” Ugh.
End rant. But, yes, I’m doing fine, thanks for asking.
Steep +2
Zuzu's Petals
@Karen:
I actually snorted when I read she plans on it being a one-hour class.
But yeah, his ideological stripes are showin’, that’s for sure.
Suffern ACE
@Xenos: Added to the fact that as legislators, they might feel that their institution’s legislating is better than and superior to his institution’s judging.
asiangrrlMN
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: I misread your comment. I thought she asked you? I want to see something by you on her site. Yes, she asked me. I am just kinda freaking out.
ETA: She’s killing me with the frozen Asian from MN. I might have to use that as my nym.
@Steeplejack: Oh my god. You poor thing. I think your first answer would have been perfect. And, man. You’re good. If I’ve ever shopping in NoVa, I want you to help me, OK? Glad you’re feeling no pain right now, though.
@Zuzu’s Petals: But did you get pissed when the store person couldn’t find exactly what you wanted? I’m thinking not.
Zuzu's Petals
@Steeplejack:
I’m afraid I have been that lady.
“Uhm, I just remember the book cover had dancers jumping up in the air. You know, with their arms and legs sticking out like this… .”
Jewish Steel
@morzer:
Well, Santa’s a big guy. I could see him or his progeny drawing a double team.
metalgirl
I made a lot of holiday candy: 333 Ky bourbon balls, 145 pecan pie truffles, and 158 espresso truffles. I’ve mailed 24 package out so far (have a few more to do) and have delivered most of them at work. It took me over 5 hours to box, package, and label them (the worst part)! The pecan pie truffles are new this year and are my favorite, by far. Saw the recipe in the NYT right before Thanksgiving — they are vegan too.
suzanne
@Steeplejack: No, I get what you’re saying. She’s not stupid by any means, and she did leave Arkansas for the S.F. Bay area for quite a few years, so it’s not like she’s provincial. She returned to Fayetteville because she honestly prefers the more pastoral lifestyle, which is understandable. I really don’t want to come off as elitist. She’s just not the most outgoing person in the world and she and I don’t have a great deal in common. I would have zero reservations about her coming if she was only going to be here for a week, but three weeks just seems like a long time to entertain. I’ve already asked her all about her childbirth and child-rearing experiences on a past visit, heh. Fortunately, she’s not one of those people who endlessly gives stupid advice. I realize that I’m sounding a bit uppity and judgmental and that really isn’t my intent. And both my husband and I intimidate her a bit; I know that already. So I’m trying hard to make her comfortable while she’s here.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
I’m still feeling the pain. Maybe at about +5 it will start to abate. And I gotta go back and do it again tomorrow. Herp-de-derp.
asiangrrlMN
@metalgirl: You’re making me drool. I gotta ask, though, 333? 158? Did you eat a few? I wouldn’t blame you if you had.
@Steeplejack: Champers? And, oh, joy. Back to crazy tomorrow.
@suzanne: Nope. No such fucking thing. Be sure to let Cole know when it’s happening. We paced the virtual floor waiting for the birth of SamKitten.
suzanne
@asiangrrlMN:
Don’t I swear enough in prose for you?! ;)
SectarianSofa
@Davis X. Machina:
Aww, that sounds kind of sweet. (In a, whatever, geeky sort of way.)
Steeplejack
@Zuzu’s Petals:
Hey, I have no problem with those customers, and I’m happy to help, as long as they appear to have some vague appreciation of the difficulty of what they’re asking. But, as AsiangrrlMN said, the ones who come in with absolutely no useful information and then get mad because you can’t (immediately!) find the book “with the dancers on the cover” are awful.
freelancer
@suzanne:
Best wishes on the impending motherhood (I know you’re already a mom, but still). Though I should take the kid’s side preemptively and say damn you mom, for this combined Xmas plus Bday gift giving horsepucky!
Steeplejack
@suzanne:
I wasn’t blaming you or thinking you were uppity. I have just found in my own life that if I step back and think of the other (close) person as a stranger and approach them that way it sometimes helps. There was a period when it really helped me to think of my mother not as “Mom” but by her given name. It made her a person that I could deal with in a way that I could never deal with “Mom.”
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
No champers. Just the basic rum and tonic. Maybe champers if I get through the week without killing anyone.
WyldPirate
Pretty good, but disturbing article on NYC’s growing income chasm:
Work harder you fucking worthless proles…..I’m worried about how i’m going to get by on my 250K of income.!!
And of course, I blame you know who for this……
Martin
@Zuzu’s Petals: I think it’s more shock-and-awe against those most likely to oppose raising revenues.
Hacking at education is easy for the teabaggers. Take away public services for those over 50 and maybe things will change.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@asiangrrlMN: Aaand in the meantime, she has tweeted just that! Coooool!
I’m too tired to be here though (I just typed “mantime” instead of “meantime” and wrote “coooool” with an X), so I’m going to bed nao. Have fun w/o me, and I’ll figure out the details my ABLC status when my brain is not a slab of typo-prone dead meat.
Suffern ACE
@WyldPirate:
I assume that it’s the people in charge between 1987 and 2007.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Rum and tonic? Rum and tonic? That should be rum and (diet) coke OR gin and tonic. Sheesh.
Eddie Izzard. I was trying to find his bit on champagne, but could not. Cake or Death instead.
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: “Mantime”? I could use some mantime. Night! P.S. I just twitted you and ABL!
FlipYrWhig
Is “Open Thread / I got nothing” still one of the staples of the Atrios repertory? I stopped reading him.
Cain
@suzanne:
Isn’t it traditional to have your mother stay with you?
cain
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Rum and Coke? Ugh, that’s too sweet. It’s rum and tonic for me (Schweppes, of course), with a mandatory big (squeezed) wedge of lime. Nice sweet/sour balance, and I haven’t had malaria in years, thanks to the quinine in the tonic water.
Cain
I wait for Cole to respond to my twitter following thingee. I demand his attention! er not really.. he looks like he follows more important people anyways and I’m not sure if he cares to listen to me tweet bout free software and linux and stuff.
I followed asiangrrl too!
cain
MattR
@Suffern ACE: I thought it was the Jews. (EDIT: But it can’t be that since the only one of my friends who may not be in that bottom 90% is one of the few non-Jews in my crew – and yes, i did just say “my crew”)
Those numbers are actually all not that surprising and I think they would be a lot closer to the national averages if the survey includes the entire metropolitan area. As much as Wall Street salaries affect things, those numbers are more skewed by the fact that anyone who can afford to do so moves to the suburbs and only moves back into NYC if they can maintain a similar lifestyle (which requires being super rich)
FlipYrWhig
@Steeplejack: Rum and tonic sounds nauseating. Then again, I really like rum and Diet Dr. Pepper, so my palate ain’t ‘zackly so-fisti-kated.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Rum and DIET Coke for me. And, did you ever have malaria before?
@FlipYrWhig: My taste is more in line with yours. I never claimed to be sophisticated, either.
WarMunchkin
@WyldPirate: treading water really summarizes it. That’s what most of us non FT job types are doing now, and you can’t keep up treading water, eventually you just drown.
SectarianSofa
@FlipYrWhig:
Wow — the diet dr pepper & rum sounds like something I would do (have done?), but honestly the tonic water sounds like it might be tastier.
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
You may thank me later.
You have fallen in a gutter, champagne!
Martin
@Suffern ACE: Heh. Obama is responsible for every bad act, regardless of spacetime realities.
I heard Obama personally demanded that the legacy seats at Yankee Stadium be priced at $2500.
“No! No!” Steinbrenner exclaimed, “As much as I would like to see my Goldman Sachs billionaire buddies sitting in those seats drinking $60 glasses of scotch, how can the hot dog vendor outside the Port Authority possibly afford to see America’s pastime at those prices?! Please! Please let me cut the cost to $1250 per game!”
“Fuck them!” Obama demanded, “And fuck you and your pals from the professional left! If you lower prices you’ll just end up with a bunch of gay dirty hippies from Vermont sitting in those seats! Now, excuse me, I need to go push the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 through the Senate.”
WyldPirate
@Suffern ACE:
No, actually it goes back a little earlier to 1981 and one of Ronnie Raygun’s first acts as Prez–crushing the Flight Controller’s Union. It’s been all down hill ever since for Joe Six-Pac.
There is an excellent graph floating around on the intertoobz–which I have lost track of–which shows how GDP and median wages rose on the same slope from post WWII until 1980-81. They tracked each other perfectly. This meant that gains in productivity “trickled down” to the median wage earners.
during Reagan’s administration, the slop of GDP continued upwards, but median wages adjusted for inflation has stayed flat. This is when a disproportionate share of income started going to the top 2%b or so and labor and the rest of the proles stagnated,
IT’s not Obama’s fault. OTOH, he hasn’t accomplished much to if anything to reverse the trend and seems to be supportive of it given his treatment of the banksters v the autoworkers.
Ija
So I noticed ED Kain hasn’t posted for a while. He’s not still sulking about that Atlantic-style circle jerk thing, is he?
SectarianSofa
@Cain:
Free software and linux stuff? Sounds like I should be a twit follower of yours…. I don’t actually read the twitter stuff much, but I keep thinking it might someday be good for something.
Cain
@jacy:
Did you ever figure out why she hated you?
cain
asiangrrlMN
@freelancer: I <3 U. Thanks! Love that bit. Then again, I love most everything he does.
@Cain: You did? How did you ever find me?
::goes to check her list::
ETA: Found you!
@Steeplejack: That’s what I thought.
Steeplejack
@FlipYrWhig:
If you’re drinking crap rum, that could also be a factor. No Captain Morgan, no Ron anything. Mount Gay or Barbancourt, please, maybe Gosling’s Black Seal if you’re currently serving on a ship-o’-the-line eighty-eight under Captain Jack Aubrey.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
No, I never had malaria. I make ze joke.
SectarianSofa
Speaking of rum, rum drinkers, what’s a good cheapish rum? (Or failing that, your favorite?)
Zuzu's Petals
@Martin:
It’s really sort of amazing the disproportionate power that seniors exercise over things. For example, compare the relative Medi-Cal allocations for pacemakers versus those for perinatal care…unless things have changed in recent years, it’s pretty, well, amazing.
And if you really want to see a boondoggle, check out the California Senior Legislature. The geezers (my age group, so I can talk) take over the state capitol for 3+ days every fall, hold hearings in the committee rooms and sessions in the two chambers. They come up with ten bills they want to see the Legislature introduce that year, and darned if they don’t get their way a surprising amount of the time.
Technically, CSL is supposed to be self-funded (notice that check-off on your state tax form?). But the reality is they have plenty of legislative staff tied up for the event…and the legislative attorneys have to draft their proposals for them and organize and attend all the hearings. All on the taxpayers’ dime.
But they do have a good time…whoopee!
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
Yes, I speak Spanish (poorly), not French, but my vocab is just large enough that I can grasp the whole foreign language section and it’s hilarious. Personally, I like Glorious and his take on the Iliad and vacuums.
WyldPirate
@WarMunchkin:
A-yup. Couldn’t agree more.
The best paid job with the best benefits I ever had was three days out of high school. It took about 30 minutes to learn how to do and was mind-numbingly boring. Of course it no longer exists. But I made more at this job and had far better benefits than I ever did as an officer in the military or with my MS and PhD in the sciences. I share some of the blame on the latter for late starting and poor choices of mentors and postdocs but still….
Cain
@SectarianSofa:
Well you’re welcome to follow “sramkrishna”. I’m not doing a lot of twittering and I’m really more of the social type, we dont really talk free software. But us Linux/Gnome desktop guys are a lot more fun say kernel guys.
cain
Steeplejack
@SectarianSofa:
My favorite is Mount Gay Eclipse. It’s about $17-18 for a fifth, $34-35 for 1.5L here in NoVa. (Of course I buy mine by the hogshead.) It’s widely available and very good. It’s darker than the “white” rums but not super dark. Give it a try.
As I said above, I also like Barbancourt (a Haitian rum–Mount Gay is from Barbados), which is slightly harder to find. Gosling’s Black Seal is more of an acquired taste. It is very dark and seems like it should have the consistency of motor oil, although it actually doesn’t.
And forget Meyer’s, too.
Cain
@asiangrrlMN:
That was kind of easy, I think I was following johngcole and of course you can add whoever he’s following or who is following him.. you and angryblacklady.. hehe
I’m not going to be doing much politics since that’s not an anonymous acct. I’m trying out for this job as a community manager so I probably can’t rock the boat too much with epic rants. That’s what this blog is for :-)
(oh that is if you choose to follow me.. I’m not expecting you to)
cain
jacy
@Cain:
Oh, it was always clear why she hated me. I’m not Catholic and refused to convert to a religion I didn’t believe in. She was devastated her oldest son had the temerity to impregnate a heathen. :)
We’ve been together for 15 years, so she’s mellowed some. The first six years, though, were LOADS of fun. I think I finally just quietly outlasted her outrage.
@asiangrrlMN:
Hey, new washer and dryer being delivered tomorrow – happy solstice to me — and I may soon catch up on all my fun stuff as opposed to my not-fun-but-pays-the-bills stuff. Whee!
Jewish Steel
@Ija: is he a student? Maybe he has finals.
asiangrrlMN
@SectarianSofa: Bacardi is good in a pinch.
@freelancer: French was my second language in high school, so I love that bit. I own all his DVDs. My fave is Circle. This bit about Jesus and the dinosaurs is fuuuuuunny. Plus, he’s yum yum yum in this one.
asiangrrlMN
@Cain: I was kidding because I’m pretty easy to spot. I don’t actually twit much, and if you’re doing Linux and such, I probably won’t follow you. But I may. We shall see.
@jacy: Glad that your appliances are arriving. And, yay for fun stuff! I’m all over that. Also cool that your MIL has mellowed out a bit. Happy solstice to you as well.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Bacardi is not good, in a pinch or otherwise.
Cain
@jacy:
Haha.. nice.. well let me tell you, one of my dad’s friends who is indian married a white midwest woman.. oh boy her parents were pissed. Didn’t speak to either of them for years. She kept sending them stuff letters and the like. It wasn’t until the grand kids were born that they slowly started coming around. But I think it was like a lost decade or something. Some people can hold that stuff in for a long time.
It must have also put her in a pickle that she couldn’t tell your husband to divorce you either. What about your father-in-law? (Sorry I’m probably being more nosy than I should be)
cain
SectarianSofa
@Cain:
Groovy. As soon as I find/remember/recover my twitter password…. As here, I almost never write anything tech-related, I don’t think. [Vocationally, ] I’m a network person who does some linux server stuff. Gnome/Linux everywhere else. Some python coding for fun.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Snob.
“What do we want?”
“We want the earth!”
“When do we want it?”
“Now, motherfucker!”
SixStringFanatic
@Hunter Gathers: Sorry for responding to this a little late and hope you’re still around but I have to disagree with you on your last point. Not that I’m any big fan of “Ye Olde Gunslingre” but do you really think the season would have been any better with Tavaris Jackson as the QB? Really? That guy sucked two years ago which is why the Vikes were desperate to get Favre in the first place.
As for Minny’s shitty season, you can blame a) injuries, b) a running back who’s mouth ran more than his legs (2500 yards, huh? 400 more than anyone else ever gained? In a pass-happy league? “Don’t be silly, Adrian Peterson!”) c) a defensive line who’s best work is behind them d) a front office that decided to make a mid-season trade for a receiver the year after he fell off a cliff production-wise and e) a QB that came back for one year too many.
Honestly, I’m tired of hearing about and from the guy too. But the Vikings had more problems than just him.
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
Oh, Circle has a really special place in my funny bone. If only for his reclaiming of “awesome” as a word that evokes awe and of course the Death Star Cantina. “This is not a game of ‘Who the fuck are you?'”.
Cain
@asiangrrlMN:
Hah. Okay, no worries. We don’t always talk about tech stuff… although if I get this new job there will be a lot of that I reckon.
cain
suzanne
@freelancer:
Heh. The older kid turns seven on Thursday. (Holy shit, I am old.) So both of them will be pissed at me.
What can I say? I get horny in March.
SectarianSofa
@asiangrrlMN:
Haven’t been able to drink bacardi since I was 18 or 19 and had an Incident involving much too much of it. I tend to go for darker rums — had a friend from islands who brought me some once or twice, sold me on the darker side.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Hmmph. Low-brow.
asiangrrlMN
@SectarianSofa: Darker rum is better. And, I have the same problem with tequila.
@Cain: Cool. I will add you.
@Steeplejack: I eat Dijon Mustard. Ergo, I am elitist, so ergo, I cannot be low-brow. Maker’s Mark for bourbon.
FlipYrWhig
@Steeplejack:
Factor? That’s a given. I’ve only ever had Bacardi and below. Rum-like Drink Product. I’m sure I’m too much of a philistine to differentiate between good and bad.
Martin
@Zuzu’s Petals: Wow. I wasn’t aware of that. Half of those sessions were proposals for how to ensure that cap gains don’t get passed down on the sale of a home after death. Like we don’t already have a zillion jackpots along those lines.
I guess only new residents to the state are supposed to pay taxes.
MattR
@jacy: I am sorry to hear about that. I am not sure if dealing with that is better or worse than if she completely ended contact with your husband. You probably wore her down quicker by being around her and being a good person. (FWIW – My grandfather did not speak to my mother for 25+ years after she married a non-Jew. Not even the birth of my sister or I changed that, though I do seem to remember he was happy to see us (the kids) when we would be in town for weddings, bar mitzvahs and the like. And the thing was that he liked my dad very much as a person too, just not as a husband for my mom. They were never close again but they did eventually reconcile to some degree before he died.)
@SectarianSofa: @asiangrrlMN: Sadly, even the smell of either kahlua or bailey’s still makes me gag.
asiangrrlMN
@freelancer: Awesome. Yes. That’s awesome! I have to say, this bit about computers is hilarious.
And, from Circle and apropos for this crowd, the stoned Olympics.
SectarianSofa
@asiangrrlMN:
I don’t get to the liquor store much — I usually buy any rum that looks vaguely nautical. (Kidding, I think.)
asiangrrlMN
@MattR: I’ve never understood this. How can you cut off all contact from your child like that? It makes me sad.
@SectarianSofa: Well, I don’t either. I’m pretty much talking out of my ass. I’ve had the same bottle of rum for the past two or three years.
@Cain: Now twit something interesting!
jacy
@Cain:
Yeah, I think kids can be the thing that sometimes pulls people together. My husband’s dad was no happier about me than she was, but he’s the practical sort, and they love their grandchildren and I hear they think I’m a good mom.
(When I say they’re Catholic, they’re like way, way Catholic. They have their own family priest, who didn’t care for me either, and refused to marry us. Evil little Irish bastard.)
So all’s well that ends well. My best revenge was proving them all wrong and having the happiest relationship of anyone I know. (We tell people that if a devout Catholic Republican and a non-practicing Pagan Liberal can be happy, there’s hope for everyone). Funny enough, while they’re all hung up on religion, it’s their politics that makes me crazy.
Cain
@asiangrrlMN:
I am honored. Thank you. :)
cain
Zuzu's Petals
@Martin:
Yep. The self-interest runs strong in that crowd (well okay, my crowd).
At any rate, the Legislature will often just write something up as a nonbinding resolution saying something like “wouldn’t it be great if this happened…or better yet, if the feds made it happen?” and everybody’s happy.
Cain
@jacy:
That’s one hell of a relationship. Glad that the both of you are happy and living life to the fullest. Cheers. :)
cain
jacy
@asiangrrlMN:
I agree with you on the tequila. Haven’t had any since college. There was an incident that involved some shirtless table dancing and the eventual theft of a golf cart. After that it gets a little hazy.
Vodka and rum? No such problem.
freelancer
@suzanne:
Once a year is kind of sad.
Jewish Steel
@asiangrrlMN:
@freelancer:
I have but one thing to say to you:
Buncha flowers!
asiangrrlMN
@jacy: Damn. I wish my story was that interesting, but it isn’t. I just had too many shots in too short of a time and couldn’t walk on my own.
ETA: Hm. I forgot about that time. So, three times I’ve been really drunk in my life.
And, you and your hubby sound like you could be the basis for a very funny sit-com.
@freelancer: Rim-shot!
@Jewish Steel: Love that bit, too! Now I’m giggling, and I have to go find it.
Cain
@SectarianSofa:
Our community ‘Gnome’ is pretty diverse. My tweets are very rarely about technology. I’m usually snarking at someone or making observations. If I make political statements there are of the “double entendre” type. That way everybody is happy, hehe
cain
freelancer
@Jewish Steel:
Did you work for the Secret Service?
Calouste
@SectarianSofa:
Not cheap and also rather problematic to get in the US is Havana Club. In the same category, Ron Pampero Aniversario from Venezuela.
asiangrrlMN
Have to post it.
Buncha flowers!
And, Eddie and, sigh, Alan Rickman doing the Four Yorkshiremen.
@jacy: Stranger than fiction! Luck with the appliances. Night!
Jewish Steel
@freelancer: no, but I am punching this baboon.
jacy
@asiangrrlMN:
Republicans and Democrats living together? No one would ever believe it. :)
Well, my work is finally done. I’m going to crawl over the mound of unwashed laundry and try to find my bed, where I will dream of the arrival of the appliance delivery man and his sack full of goodies.
Cheers, All!
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: I don’t get it either. My mom survived it pretty well I think, not that she would have let me know otherwise. But I think it kinda helped that her brother is 14 years older than her and was as much of a father figure in her life. And I think I may have mentioned that my aunt renamed my mother when she brought her to school the first day. Luckily, my mom never lost the support of her siblings and I think my dad’s mom did what she could to pick up the slack. I do know that my grandfather ended up regretting that he never saw his youngest daughter walk down the aisle as well as not ever knowing my sister or I
@jacy: I don’t know if my Dad qualified as THAT Catholic. He was not from a very religious background but he also spent some time studying to be a priest. And I am pretty sure that he insisted on finding a priest who would marry them without demanding that she convert, which posed a bit of difficulty but not too much in NYC. But I think the only time he was in church for the last 20-25 years of his life was at his mother’s funeral (though he did ask to have a priest brought in to perform last rites)
Martin
@Zuzu’s Petals: A number of years back I had to renew my drivers license and get a new picture. I though I’d be smart and drive south to the DMV that opened at 8AM, and get it done before work. I arrived early so I could be first and since traffic was less than expected arrived at 7:15. There were at least 30 people already in line. Not one under 65. I forgot that Leisure World was right next door.
I’d like to see the DMV hours change to Sunday morning from 9AM to 1PM and weekdays from 8PM to midnight unless a revenue hike is approved. Oh, and they should slash the Musak budget and only play tracks donated by Snoop while you wait.
freelancer
@Jewish Steel:
Then please ignore me sawing this block of wood in the garage.
goblue72
@SectarianSofa: Good and cheap are generally not two things that go well together in booze. Its like that old age about good, fast, and cheap – you can only pick two out of three. If your hooch costs less than a 6 pack of beer, then Houston, we have a problem.
Bacardi is gasoline in booze form. Its mass-produced industrial rum meant for being drowning in coke, artificial sour mix and other abominations, and served to fratheads and sorority sluts at South Padre Island.
For a light rum, I’d recommend Flor de Cana 4 Year. Its a Nicaraguan rum, aged 4 years, clear and quite dry. I’ve seen it at Bevmo for as low $11.99 for a standard 750ml bottle. Its the default white mixing rum at most better cocktail bars.
For a dark rum, Coruba from Jamaica. Its a mixer and better than Myers. I’ve seen 750ml bottles in the $16 range. If you can’t find that, Goslings Black Seal is good as well and same price.
For a medium mixing rum, Mt. Gay Eclipse (Barbados) or Appleton Estate V/X (Jamaica) – the later being on the spicier of the two. $17 range.
For a spiced rum, Kraken Black Spiced. $16 range. Next step up, is Old New Orleans Cajun Spiced Rum, $30 range.
After that, you are getting into a range of better mixers and into sipping rums – Pusser’s Navy Rum, El Dorado 12 & 15, Mt Gay XO, Zaya Gran Reserve 12, Ron Zacapa 23, Appleton 12, Cruzan Single Barrel, Rhum JM Agricole Vieux, Barbancourt 8 Year, Rhum Clemente VSOP…
SectarianSofa
@Calouste:
Thanks — I’ll add those to my ‘to do if possible’ list.
Best vodka I’ve ever had was an Icelandic one, also problematic to get at the time. Apparently bad karma, too — somehow vodka purchases supported illegal Icelandic whaling.
asiangrrlMN
@freelancer: Animals with long ears on the side!
@MattR: That’s so sad, but also pretty cool on the part of her siblings. No, you didn’t tell me about your aunt renaming your mom. What’s up with that?
Cain
@asiangrrlMN:
Uh oh, pressure is on!
I had no idea it was going to be stressful! hah
cain
Ija
@Jewish Steel:
He’s a student? Hah, that would explain a lot if it’s true. Maybe we shouldn’t be too hard on him.
freelancer
@asiangrrlMN:
I’m working on a speedboat at the moment.
SectarianSofa
@goblue72:
Thanks. My liver does not thank you, but it is outvoted. The angel on my right shoulder and devil on my left have both agreed that rum acquisition should proceed apace. (My brain insists that they are not angels or devils either, but perhaps only mental projections, or actual tiny people in interesting costumes.)
Never had a spiced rum that I’m aware of. Sounds like instant soup — isn’t that something one would normally concoct out of rum, and say, spices? Like mulled wine and such? I realize I have no idea what I’m talking about here, and throw myself at the mercy of the drinkers’ court.
Martin
@jacy: I had such an incident in college with rum during my 2nd year. During a party I climbed out my 3rd story dorm room window and down a drainpipe. When one of my friends caught up with me, we somehow managed to get his roommates much beloved Barracuda started and drove it across the campus dell and parked it on the library patio. I woke up next to the lake which was clear across campus. Don’t remember a solid half of that evening. Didn’t drink rum for 15 years after that.
Gin became my regular drink. Nothing but fun and good memories with gin.
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: My maternal grandparents were both Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who spoke little English. As a result nobody in the house ever referred to my mom by the English name on her birth certificate, but rather by her Yiddish name. My aunt is about 7 years older than my mom so when the first day of school came it was her responsibility to bring my mom and register her. My aunt hated my mom’s English name so she used the name of her best friend instead and that is how all the teachers and children addressed her from that point on. I don’t remember at what point my mother had it legally changed. Pretty sure it was well before she got married and changed the last name. And she doesn’t have an English middle name so none of the names on her original birth certificate belong to her anymore. (EDIT: My mom has another sister about 10 years older than her and their father ran a corner grocery store so my mom was largely raised by her mom and siblings with her siblings bearing the brunt when it came to preparing mom for the English speaking world, which in turn at least mitigated her father’s actions)
asiangrrlMN
@MattR: Wow. That’s an amazing story. Your mom has lived an interesting life.
@Cain: If it helps, I’m easily amused.
@freelancer: That’s one of my favorite bits!
MattR
@asiangrrlMN:
Do you know the one about the bear and rabbit taking a shit in the woods?
@Calouste:
Is this also true for Cuban cigars? If so, then “oops”.
Calouste
@SectarianSofa:
Note that with the Havana Club “problematic to get” means not for sale in the US and strictly speaking even illegal to buy abroad if you are an American.
asiangrrlMN
@MattR: No. And now I’m afraid to ask. P.S. I love Bailey’s and Kahlua. Sucky for you!
Jewish Steel
@Ija: my memory could be playing tricks on me but I thought I read a passing ref. Or maybe it’s that all libertarians come off as babes in the woods.
@asiangrrlMN:
@freelancer:
May I recommend you youtube “spicy pony head” and click on the first option? (It should be a little shetland pony running). If you like the pythonesque, I’ve been assured that I’m not crazy for finding this very funny.
Ija
I just finished David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. One of the characters has this law of survival: the weak are meat for the strong to eat. Seems an appropriate sentiment with all this talk about class warfare. The rich don’t have the numbers on their side, but they sure have most of the power. The problem is, because we are an aspirational society, there are many non-rich people who support policies benefiting the rich because, hey, they could struck gold too, one day. Maybe we’d be better off if we are more pessimistic and less hopeful as a society. Maybe then more people would make a stink about tax cuts for millionaires.
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: Bear asks the rabbit if he has trouble with shit sticking to his fur. The rabbit says no, so the bear picks him up and wipes his ass with him.
Interestingly, I can still drink the vodka that got me drunk before the kahlua finished me off. I later discovered that Bailey’s was close enough that the kahlua aversion carried over. Of all drinks to have to give up, why the tasty ones? I wouldn’t mind not being able to drink bourbon or tequilla. And this is how I knew there had to be no god.
asiangrrlMN
@Jewish Steel: I am not sure I want to check that out. Bad images are running through my mind. And, I don’t actually like Python–just Alan Rickman.
::ducks and flees::
@MattR: GROAN. And, bourbon is yummy.
Jewish Steel
@Ija: I grew up among the mega-wealthy myself. It is a special treat to explain to the aspirational middle class folks the ways in which the rich aren’t like you or me.
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: I don’t know how to describe what type of funny this clip is (or the autotune remix for that matter)
asiangrrlMN
@Jewish Steel: OK. I finally clicked on it. That was funny as hell, and not at all Python-esque (to me).
@MattR: Um. I’ll have what he’s having!
Calouste
@MattR:
__
Yep. Although I don’t see how it is going to be enforced if you buy and consume it abroad. You might have some problems bringing it into the country though.
El Cid
Republicans are to split from the bipartisan panel investigating the financial crisis and issue their own report blaming Jimmy Carter and ACORN.
No, really.
There you go, folks.
We had a financial crisis because Jimmy Carter made banks give homes to the n******, and then Barney Franks stopped the Republicans from fixing Fannie Freddie.
goblue72
@SectarianSofa: Its not so much mulled as infused. Take a medium bodied rum, insert various spices, soak for a while, strain and drink. The industrial version is Captain Morgan’s, the bottle with the prirate on it. Its foul. And since Kraken (or Sailor Jerry in a pinch) isn’t much more in price at all, there’s no reason to drink the Captain.
Spiced rum is good this time of year with some apple cider (the non-alcoholic kind) over ice – a sort of spiced rum version of a 200+ year old cocktail called the Stone Fence. (2 oz. brandy, whiskey or rum. Pour over ice in tall glass. Top with cider, hard or otherwise) Its like a rum & coke but for grown-ups. The Kraken is also nice in a highball with ice and ginger beer.
As for the sippers, I’d recommend just spending the money and buying one to start. If you like your rum sweet, then the El Dorado 15, Ron Zacapa 23 or the Zaya are all great. (and the El Dorado is a steal at the price it usually retails at – its a demerara rum, so it already started out like candy even before they stuck it in a barrel). If you like a little more spice or want something drier, go for the Mt Gay XO, Cruzan Single Barrel, or Rhum Clemente VSOP. For the price point its at, the Cruzan Single Barrel is an EXCELLENT starting sipping rum.
Suffern ACE
Not that I’m looking forward to the coming Hooverism, but I’m assuming this will be the way the discussions will go.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100067429/britain-needs-fewer-students-and-fewer-universities/
goblue72
@El Cid: And of course, the NY Times reports this all as just another “he said, she said” type of issue.
Because, ya know, its not the job of journalists to intermediate and separate out the loonies & nutjobs from the objective actors in our news.
Jewish Steel
@asiangrrlMN: good! I’m glad you liked it. Kaspar Hauser made it. I also recommend their prank emails to Nigerian scammers. Oh, and “Mondo de Perros”.
It is pythonesque, specifically mining the vein of ‘crunchy frog’ or the cheese shop sketch. But best not to get me started or we’ll be on to The Goon Show and Spike Milligan and that’s very inside baseball.
Cain
I learned something from Reddit… I learned about Dunning-Kruger effect
Which I think a most righties and some lefties suffer from. We have an entire nation that suffers from it!
cain
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: U no can haz booze. Mostly because I refuse to be responsible for the mess.
Hi hon. I’ve come to the conclusion tax cheats are almost as annoying as Republicans.
Martin
@Cain: Dunning-Kruger is pretty interesting. A nice casual piece on it.
NobodySpecial
@Yutsano: Aren’t tax cheats by default Republican?
Yutsano
@NobodySpecial: I usually don’t inquire into political affiliation, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I don’t deal with the sharpest minds when it comes to finances.
Batjuano
Homeland Security & Traveling on the Holidays
Why not relax–traveling in the “Winged Death Tube” is stressing enough! Breath in & out,
check out the other travelers–Who Are all these Japanese wearing the cowboy hats? Say hello to them. Shake their hands. Admire their boots! Que Paso?
Talk to the Troopers.
Give the Security Guys a Wink & Ask them to spend a little more time on your Neck & Shoulders!
I wear Special HS socks–I give ’em another ‘Wink & ask: “what kind of socks do Pirates wear?” I get “The Eyeball”–oh Christ–is this guy dangerous, or just a “Weirdo from Outer Space?””
Then I pull up my pant leg & say “Arrgghh-Ghillles! Gets a grin every time.
Rotten Job. Give ’em a break. Breath in, breath out.
Talk to the people next to you in line–get them to talk about their Life, their Passion, their Family…
Be in the here & now. Breath. You got somewhere else to be? Relax. Pay attention to the person next to you. Talk to them.
Enjoy, Juan
Platonicspoof
@Ija:
Naw, they know the eye of the needle is all plugged up with camels, and the people that got skimmed and tricked all of their lives get drive-thru service.
What doesn’t smell right to me is when someone with a demon, an angel and a JRT in his house just says “I got nothing”.
BGK
Just sittin’ here in the Ft. Myers airport waiting for a flight to Boston. Security theater here is relatively low key and mostly polite. The worst part is that this is a heavily tourist market, and most of my fellow passengers are in-frequent fliers not clear on carry-on size constraints. Plus my boss, who always plays it irritatingly close to the vest with our shared travel arrangements, is apparently going to dive through the aircraft door just before it closes, since we’re about to board and he’s not here yet…
My cats must’ve been able to tell I was going to be gone for a few days, as their affections this morning have left my black pants carpeted with cat hair.
Google is sponsoring free in-flight internet, so I might check in later, just ’cause I think it’s neat.
stuckinred
@BGK: Happy Trails!
amk
Hey, at least you got a blog.
metalgirl
@asiangrrlMN: You make the dough and individually make the balls (about 1″ in diameter) with your gloved hands. You never really know how many balls you’re going to get. I make 4x the recipe for bourbon balls, 3x the recipe for espresso truffles, and 2x the recipe for pecan truffles. I keep all the numbers and notes in a spread sheet since 2007 but have been making the bourbon balls since 1983.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: You’re no fun.
:pout:
@Jewish Steel: OK. I haven’t seen enough Python to make that call. This (to me) was much funnier than Python.
@metalgirl: All I can say is, YUM!