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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Grubbing for Acorns in My Mountain Fastness

Grubbing for Acorns in My Mountain Fastness

by | 124 Comments

This post is in: ,

This seems like as good a time as any to drop off the grid for a bit.  It’s not as if our country is collapsing into the scrap heap of former empires or anything.

In an hour or two I’ll be heading up to a secure undisclosed location in which no landline exists, cell phone towers don’t reach — and neither does town electricity — which kind of renders the internet nonexistant.

Paradise in other words; paradise without a blog!

I’m pretty ready not to think about politics or our economic follies or just about anything other than when the sun crosses the yardarm or anything after about 1750 or so.  So this works.

But just to show some connection to the world from which  I’m temporarily checking out, here’s a cartoon of which I was reminded by DougJ’s latest BoBo snark (think exchange of genetic information):

(Via the invaluable xkcd.)

And to say farewell, temporarily, let me offer a song that captures what the last week or so has sounded like inside my brain:

<div align=”center”><iframe width=”560″ height=”349″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/RaQaa125EhI” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

Cheers all.  See you in a fortnight.

(Open thread, this, if you like).

Reader Interactions

124Comments

  2. 2.

    General Stuck

    In an hour or two I’ll be heading up to a secure undisclosed location in which no landline exists, cell phone towers don’t reach—and neither does town electricity—which kind of renders the internet nonexistant.

    When I get overloaded with digital info, I take my modem power pack and hike up a local mountain, and bury it in a tin can. Then the clock starts to whether my urges to get back on the grid, overtakes my natural inhibition of climbing mountains at age 58. Works to varying degrees depending on what happens in the world, one day up to a week max.

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Why pray tell is 1750 or so the period you won’t look past? New book in the offing? Big secret? Traumatized by Handel’s carriage accident? Inquiring minds want to know.

  5. 5.

    scav

    I just watched Hawking yesterday so I’m seeing Benedict fall out of a train and draw things in chalk on a railway platform. Excellent bookend to the strip.

  6. 6.

    Mark S.

    In an hour or two I’ll be heading up to a secure undisclosed location in which no landline exists,

    Oh baby

    cell phone towers don’t reach

    you’re speaking my language

    —and neither does town electricity—which kind of renders the internet nonexistant.

    You lost me there. I hate phones, but I do like electricity.

  7. 7.

    Lysana

    @Valdivia: XKCD is a source of marvelous laughs and lately, some very deep truths regarding cancer. The cartoonist’s lady love was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer at the tender age of 28. His drawing of survival odds as a freeway with mid-road exits was stark and perfect.

    And Tom, you enjoy that. Middle of this week, the husband and I are headed for his parents’ place in the heart of CA’s red zone. Ironically, we’ll be in better touch with the media since they have cable, but we’ll be needing to watch what we say when we venture out shopping. It’s getting away from our norm but a deeper reminder of why we’re left-wing.

  9. 9.

    Lysana

    FYWP for lying about my permissions to edit my own comment.

    And I forgot to mention I get to dog-sit for the in-laws while they’re off at a class reunion. For a week, I will know the joys of tending two chihuahua mixes and a clowder of ferals.

  13. 13.

    Yutsano

    If you make this cartoon come to pass, your name will become legend in the hallows of this blog. Which isn’t too far off from where you are now come to think of it.

  16. 16.

    BGinCHI

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred):

    Can’t stand Drew Westen, but there’s a strong argument to be made that the Dems can’t negotiate with people who are wrong about everything and have every incentive to screw the many for the benefit of the few.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Pretty funny. I totally read 1750 as 24-hour clock, ten minutes before 6:00 pm. Didn’t even think of it as a year until I saw your post.

    Tom, have fun, chill, stay safe, and come back refreshed.

  20. 20.

    PurpleGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: 1750 = 5:50 p.m.

    Tom — have a good trip and enjoy your time off the grid.

    ********

    Surfing some other sites I periodically read, I returned to an artist’s blog and discovered her new project. Robyn is making (with help) 1500 20-inch squares to be draped around trees lining the roadway to an art exhibit in Cheongju, Korea. I decided to join the group and now by September 1st I have to have some 20-inch squares done. I’ll crochet mine. I need to pick a stitch tonight and pick out some yarn from my stash. I worked with/for Robyn on a project a few years ago — the Water Tower Cozy. I feel good about this.

  28. 28.

    Dee Loralei

    Have a great break, Tom. I envy you. And that Green Day song may just become my new anthem, though I was leaning towards some Clash.

  30. 30.

    Yutsano

    @TaMara (BHF): Shot you an answer back. And I got a funny story to continue the dialogue when it comes to that.

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): I’m hanging in there. I may start some pushback on the ortho due to my pain levels but that’s still a ways down the road. I just want titanium body parts, is that so wrong?

  32. 32.

    different church-lady

    It’s not as if our country is collapsing into the scrap heap of former empires or anything.

    What, again?

  35. 35.

    Tom Levenson

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    New book: working on the birth of the financial revolution (no present significance…no, no, none at all.)

    Really looking a little earlier than 1750 — but that’s a pretty good date for the point when the basic outline of the modern idea of money is firmly in place.

  37. 37.

    JPL

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Yes.. A lot of the opinion piece resonated but it failed to mention that Obama thought he could be President to all the people. He also wanted to change the tone and that gave the repubs the opportunity to polarize against him. He was NOT ready for the backlash.

  39. 39.

    Tom Levenson

    @Mark S.: We’ve got a generator, which we use for maybe an hour so of lights in the evening. But it’s amazing how little electricity one needs if you don’t bother with a lot of stuff. And propane ‘fridges work, as does the beer pool in the stream.

    There is a retired engineer not to far from us who has built a micro hydroelectric plant, just because he can. Cool — but not necessary. (And not even a little bit cheap._

  44. 44.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tom Levenson: Sounds interesting. Development of joint stock companies, stock exchanges, and the like? I am looking forward to reading it. Have a great vacation.

  46. 46.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @Yutsano: That’s what the harrington rods on my spine are made of and they’ve been swell for all these 35 years!

  49. 49.

    Yutsano

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Yeah, but my problems are A) I’m young, so they don’t really make replacement hips for people my age and B) I’m really flexible, so they really are concerned I’ll dislocate the joint too easily. They may just have to custom design a joint for my needs. Which will get expensive fast.

  53. 53.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @JPL: The brother should have known better. . .or at least someone in his crew should have,

  54. 54.

    Comrade Mary

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Harrington rods? Did you have spinal fusion for scoliosis? (I did — and yeah, it’s been 35 years for me.)

    Poor Yutsy. Physio will get you better than you are now, but it’s a long road.

  56. 56.

    JPL

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): You would think.. At least Rahm is now the mayor of Chicago so no longer involved. The reaction of the repubs after the inauguration caught me off guard. There was such a great time of hope and splat. McConnell knew if he couldn’t stop the movement, the repubs would not regain control for a decade or more. They adopted the splat theory. (screw the country)

    Edit.. Somehow I don’t think Tom will be writing about the splat theory.

  57. 57.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @Comrade Mary: No, compression fracture T-6 in a nasty van wreck. But yes spinal fusion with a bone graft from the hip. I was insanely lucky, sleeping in the back of the van when machine gun mike hit a fire plug and a telephone pole. Also very lucky to have been in Atlanta where the Emory orthopods hooked me up. I was in Grady for 2 months but got up and walked out of that puppy.

    eta, I’m glad yours worked out too!

  60. 60.

    lamh34

    Just saw Crazy, Stupid, Love!!!  it was soooo good!! I’ve never been much of a Ryan Gosling fan (never saw The Notebook), but I so have a new white boy crush…lol!  Oh & I would so have Steve Carrell’s babies…LOL

  64. 64.

    PurpleGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: It was supposed to be a giant pencil — the black was the carbon/lead, the cream was the wood, and the orange was the outer most surface color of a pencil. It was thought up by a Toronto ad agency for a pro bono campaign they were doing for a charity in England. Robyn Love was hired to design the cozy and find people to help her make it. We received small stipends from the Toronto agency.

  65. 65.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Comrade Mary:

    You know I often think that if the theory of dolphins leaving the ocean and then changing their minds and going back is true (like the Whales) then really they made the right decision. True they have their perils but when you think about it what do they have to do all day? Eat, sleep, play, make baby dolphins, play some more, eat some more, make more baby dolphins. When we naked apes crawled from the water and began this oddysey of building and managing the land, I wonder if we realized how difficult we would make it for us to actually survive on this sometimes barren planet. If reincarnation exists I wanna come back as a Dolphin.

  67. 67.

    Yutsano

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Yeah yeah yeah problems of the pups I’ve heard it all before. At least I can say I have something in common with Bo Jackson now.

    @Comrade Mary: I’m working with a physio now in fact. Well working is being mild. I’m getting tortured twice a week by an Amazon from Montana. I’m not kidding, she is NOT a small woman!

  69. 69.

    Amir Khalid

    A few threads down, I outed myself as an X-Files geek. I don’t know, man, maybe I shouldna done that.

  71. 71.

    Yutsano

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.

    -Douglas Adams

  74. 74.

    licensed to kill time

    @Valdivia:

    I loved the spoiler alert and the complaint about commenting system. So bloggy! :)

    eta: and the s.p.a.m.
    now we know why you couldn’t say s.h.o.e.s. on here for so long.

  75. 75.

    shortstop

    In case anyone is wondering about Anthony Weiner’s post-Congressional employment, he’s selling beer at Wrigley Field.

    I totally wish I’d gotten a photo of this doppelganger, but I forgot to juice my phone again. Maybe tomorrow night.

  76. 76.

    Violet

    @Tom Levenson:

    But it’s amazing how little electricity one needs if you don’t bother with a lot of stuff.

    Lived without it for years. You don’t really need electricity. Life’s a lot simpler without it.

    Have a great trip, Tom!

  80. 80.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @shortstop: When we went to Urbana for the 4th we had a 3 hr layover at Midway so we took the El up just to look at Wrigley from the platform!

  82. 82.

    shortstop

    @BGinCHI: No, but the Cubs did. Haw, I am hylarious.

    No, just made it home before da rain. And it was a decent game; they fought bravely and well, but there will be no eight-game winning streak.

  83. 83.

    Elie

    @BGinCHI:

    Well by definition, that is not a negotiation, is it? I think its fair to say that it is a challenge to any entity trying to work out an agreement without violence with people holding guns to innocent heads. Yeah, that is pretty hard unless you don’t mind brains on all the bystanders. Is that what you call a solution?

    I think that people familiar with hostage crises (an imperfect anology for what happened), try to wait out the hostage taker or eventually talk them out of the situation. The anology becomes imperfect when you consider that the last strategy is to “take out” the hostage taker. Clearly, that would not work in the situation we are in.

    Yes, it is difficult to manage this situation. I guess the question that I have is whether it makes sense to blame the people trying to free the hostage. No.. that doesnt help, does it.

    I also wish we weren’t here in our history and politics. However, we have been heading to this place incrementally for a long time — through watergate, the Clinton impeachment, Bush vs Gore and the excesses of 911. We couldn’t predict this exact situation, but the right has been escalating and testing the limits for a while. The question is what to do about it.

    I think that the answer lies in the body politic — the people who vote and either put these people and their policies in office or eventually see the light. It seems a long time to see that change and like other tipping points, you don’t always know when its going to happen.

    Americans have a lot to adjust to these days. Their fear and anxiety makes them short sighted and reactinary. Its a test for our representative democracy. It is not the first time and won’t be the last. There is no magic here. Patience, working hard and the discipline of strong values is what I believe in. If we are not certain about the right way to behave in a democracy, and that we must always try to protect the hostages – the weak and powerless, then that is the only way they win….

  86. 86.

    shortstop

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Was this four or five years ago? If so, the third baseman was there with some friends, and one of them had a bright-eyed little kid in full Cubs regalia. After the 2GS inning (which, IIRC, weren’t even the only Met runs in the inning), the kid started to cry and all the adults rushed to comfort him. But his own mother said, “No, no, he has to learn. Our lives are already ruined, but there’s still time for him.”

  87. 87.

    BGinCHI

    @Elie: Agreed. But it does make you want to kick a Tea Partier in the teeth.

    I can only hope the American electorate gets frustrated and angry in a smart way at the polls.

  88. 88.

    Elie

    @Amir Khalid:

    Heh heh heh… I am chuckling also…

    I’ve been trying to wean myself from those stupid reality show “Housewives” of wherever… I am just fascinated by these creatures and can’t tear my eyes away from their crazy delicious viciousness.

    My husband thinks I’m insane, and I know its just crazy, but its like watching the dumbest girls in the High School fight in the bathroom then cry over their broken fake nails while spraying Aquanet on their beehives.

  89. 89.

    BGinCHI

    Hey Texas, please take some of our rain. Obviously God loves us too much and your prayers are not working.

  90. 90.

    Elie

    @BGinCHI:

    yeah — know what you mean. I think that th Housewife shows give us a read into the heads…not too hopeful that it will be a short time to sanity

  92. 92.

    Hal

    God, I hate Democrats. Reading Drew Weston’s “What Happened to Obama” Obituaries in the NYT, and of course, it’s filled with the the obligatory “I voted for Hillary” “I warned my friends” ” Only I saw the truth” bullshit only Dems are capable of.

    Weston, Krugman, Maddoew; et all, are Political Idealists,not Political strategists. It never amazes me how much Dems are willing to give up the farm in order to feels superior to everyone else. Fuck it. I give up and Politics, and wait for our Republican overlords.

  93. 93.

    Dee Loralei

    I was listening to “Weekend All Things Considered” on my way to the grocery store, and they had an interview with the editor of a new cooking magazine called “Lucky Peach.” Has anyone here read it? The first issue is all about Ramen noodles. Apparently it has some recipes and some chefs cussing each other and it sounded pretty cool. A years subscription is like $28, but I’m trying to cut back on my dead tree stuff, and their web site is only to sell subscriptions from what I can tell. And they are working on an App, so I don’t know if I should run to B&N and pick one up.

    Dilemma, dilemma. (Yes I would rather worry about something so trivial because tomorrow who knows what the markets will do. Apparently 2+ trillion dollars was lost in the last week. And the Nikkei opens in a few hours.)

    Tom may be really glad he was away from any news of the world ending, LOL.

  96. 96.

    Served

    Is anyone here familiar with InDesign CS5.5? I can’t get a simple “Go To Page” Button to work and I have no clue why.

  100. 100.

    Violet

    So I’m reading that Geithner is going to stay on as Treasury Secretary to avoid an “unsettling transition” or something.

  101. 101.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    First, Cliff Floyd homered with the bases loaded. Then, Carlos Beltran did the same. After David Wright added a two-run shot, New York had 11 runs—the most in a single inning in club history.

  103. 103.

    shortstop

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): I continue to be grateful that I had to be somewhere else that day. I don’t even remember where now, but I still remember my husband’s abject horror mixed with fake insouciance as he told me all about it.

  104. 104.

    licensed to kill time

    @Valdivia:

    Oh gawd, yes. I was reading it aloud to my SO who does not read blogs, and had to keep stopping and explaining why it was funny. What does that say about me.

  106. 106.

    lamh34

    @Violet: I saw that and I can see why that decision was made.

    Can you imagine Obama trying to get anyone appoited let alone nominated?

    The fuckin’ repubs won’t even have a complete recess so that which is why POTUS hasn’t been able to make any recess appointments.

    From all we’ve seen of this GOP so far, why would they be reasonable to let a fair and fairly Secretary of the Treasury nomination right?

  107. 107.

    Yutsano

    @lamh34: Of course if Geithner did resign I’d kill if Obama put up Elizabeth Warren as his replacement. Just for shits and giggles.

  109. 109.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Hal: To try to bring multiple strands of this conversation together, it’s like being a frustrated Cubs fan whose idea for how to fix the team is to draft and sign better players. Well, no shit. How do you do that? It’s not the same as complaining that the current team has problems, which is obviously true. It’s figuring out the repeatable practices by which those problems get, first, mitigated, then, second, worked out of the system.

  110. 110.

    licensed to kill time

    @Violet:

    I knew people here would get it. It made me think of John Cole as God, and his bitching minions, haha!

  111. 111.

    Josie

    @Elie: I strongly agree with what you have said here, and I always enjoy reading your comments. You are so reasoned and calm. We need more of that.

  117. 117.

    PurpleGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: There is an educational group in England involved with graphics and art education — D&AD. They have an annual award — the White Pencil Award. (I guess the “White” was added within the last two years.) A Toronto ad/pr agency (I don’t remember their name) was doing a pro bono campaign for them in 2009. Someone on their staff got the idea of a water town wrapped in a “cozy” that looked like a pencil. Robyn was hired to implement the idea and design the crocheted piece and find a water tower to wrap. The ad agency would create a 30-40 second video on the making of the pencil. (It was on the internet very briefly before it was removed.) The two videos that Robyn has on her site were created by Lion Brand Yarn, the company from whom she bought the yarn we used. (Lion Brand loved the idea.) It’s hard to tell that it’s a pencil. But that was the idea.

    It was fun to do.

  118. 118.

    Elie

    @Josie:

    Yeah, that is heartening, though I disagree with Milbank’s conclusion that Obama lost the debt ceiling decision, but that’s for another day…

  119. 119.

    Elie

    Tom:

    Have a great vacation and escape this weird place the nation is in right now. Come back refreshed and ready for more.. :-)

  123. 123.

    JCT

    Couldn’t agree more, Tom. Just submitted a grant and I’m going to treat myself to 2 weeks of camping in the Smokeys as a present. No phones, no electricity. Hell, only bringing my manual film cameras !

    Can’t wait.

  124. 124.

    RosiesDad

    Enjoy the time away, Tom. As you well know, it’ll all still be here when you return.

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