Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

No one could have predicted…

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Let me file that under fuck it.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

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

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Readership Capture / Balloon Juice meet up success!

Reader Interactions

57Comments

  4. 4.

    geg6

    You know, I’m kinda right in between you and Cole, DougJ. Geographical location-wise, that is.

    And Tim F. is minutes away.

    Pittsburgh would be a good place for a meetup, ya know. ;-D

  6. 6.

    gogol's wife

    I don’t know, I think my head would explode if I walked into a bar full of BJ-ers. What if m_c were there? It would be weird.

  12. 12.

    cleek

    if i was to attend a meatspace BJ, would i have to bring a bunch of pie tins to put over the faces of people i didn’t want to listen to?

  15. 15.

    handsmile

    [I’m re-posting this from last night (“See you in a bit” thread), because appreciation is always worth repeating.]

    First of all, many thanks to Doug for proposing this gathering during his visit to New York City. It was a welcome initiative. I do suspect, however, that a career as a stunt double for Patrick Kennedy will not be as rewarding or successful for him as the one he now practices.

    Second of all, what an impressive group of characters! It was a delight to be among the corporeal presences (rather than the virtual) of such thoughtful and engaging people.

    I am sorry only that due to the large number of attendees and the ever-lengthening table necessary to accommodate us all, I did not get a chance to converse with more of you. I very much enjoyed wide-ranging discussions with: celiadexter, chopper, davenyc, jgabriel, johannes, nicole, purplegirl, sfinny, and will. A true pleasure to have met each of you.

    I’d surely recommend, if at all possible, that clusters of Balloon Juicers in other areas arrange similar occasions. Good company, good conversation, good food and drink is a combination always to be savored.

  16. 16.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    I would have enjoyed it just to watch people poking at each other trying to find the “reply” button.

  17. 17.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Actually, some posters have mentioned the phenomenon of “Not Mitt Romney” moving from host to host on this very blog.

    Tom may have gotten the idea from here, but he’s illustrated it very, very well.

    The last panel however needs to be seen, however. Because it is beyond brilliant.

  18. 18.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yeah all that seemed a fairly widespread meme, it was really the twist in the last panel that I meant. Plus just the whole thing, great drawings with the lines and so on.

    PS: Regarding the “did he get it from here” idea, you know I used to wonder about things like that once in a while and then ideas have this uncanny way of springing up independently all over the place. If you ever read those collections of Slate cartoons (I never go near the place now but I used to sometimes) it was truly amazing how many cartoonists came up with exactly the same idea in the same week, a particular twist on things, and there’s no way they all consulted about it.

  20. 20.

    Julia Grey

    it was truly amazing how many cartoonists came up with exactly the same idea in the same week, a particular twist on things, and there’s no way they all consulted about it.

    Yeah, like they’d give away their ideas to each other!

  22. 22.

    Cuppa Cabana

    Please schedule the next Gotham meet-up so it does not conflict with a televised local sports competition. (Well, it’s okay if it conflicts with the Knicks, Mets, Nets, Islanders, Jets, Liberty, or Staten Island Yankees.)

    Thank you.

  23. 23.

    bodacious

    My suggestion would be a meet-up at a Dog Park that allows beer!!! Specifically, something near Portland OR. Unfortunately, they just cleared out Occupy Portland yesterday, so scratch that off the list.

  24. 24.

    PurpleGirl

    I posted a version of this in the earlier “See you in a bit” thread.

    It was nice to meet everyone. I enjoyed the afternoon/evening a lot.

    And we did keep adding tables as more people arrived. Eventually we had the back room to ourselves.

    We should do it again — but have a reservation under someone’s name, so the host/hostess can be forewarned.

  26. 26.

    PurpleGirl

    WordPress won’t let me edit my post, so:

    Next time we should try “musical chairs” and change seats every, say half-hour, so we get to talk to other people.

  28. 28.

    PurpleGirl

    @kindness: No. Actually it took a little time for everyone to form one group. There could have been a couple of different table groups.

    ETA: One nice thing about a place like Walker’s is that they have multiple rooms and can give a large group the back space and keep adding people to the group.

  29. 29.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @PurpleGirl:

    WP seems to have an issue with the editing of posts you own IF the numerical designation of the post changes due to a post held in moderation being released. It can’t handle the new numerical designation of the post, so says it doesn’t belong to you.

    It’s an annoying little bug, I doubt if the original coder saw it coming, but I wish they’d address it so that WP isn’t so obtuse about who owns what as far as posts are concerned.

  31. 31.

    scav

    loko, first work on convincing the pie-tins to take you seriously and then delude yourself about the vulnerability of the rest of us.

  37. 37.

    Will

    @handsmile:

    Seconded! It was a wonderful, fun time, and just a delight to meet everyone and have some of the best conversations in awhile. A really diverse, fascinating, highly intelligent and friendly group of people.

  43. 43.

    celiadexter

    Thanks to Doug for organizing this and to everyone who came — I don’t think I’ve ever been in a group that size without any idiots or assholes! Anyone interested in organizing a New Year’s party in NYC?

  44. 44.

    abo gato

    Josie is right, y’all ought to come to San Antonio to get away from your winter weather. We’re a party town and have lots of great food. Hell, if you’re going to come, I’ll cook you dinner.

  51. 51.

    handy

    @Will:

    I always picture him to be a long-haired DFH. Of course I used to always imagine John Cole sounded a bit like Walter Sobchak until that clip on Youtube revealed otherwise. Oh well. images shattered…

  53. 53.

    handy

    @Ron:

    There’s a clip (for the life of me I can’t find now) of him off-camera asking Rosie if she wants to go on a walk.

  57. 57.

    Samara Morgan

    @Jay in Oregon: i would stay away.
    glibertarian organic brain disease is highly communicable.
    it is spread via the vector of kumbayah cooties.
    Cole, mixie and the Mastertroll all became infested, as well many other juicers.
    It was a mini-epidemic.

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