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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by John Cole|  April 1, 20123:00 am| 36 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Couldn’t sleep, so I watched a bit of a Margaret Cho comedy special. Overall, it was actually kind of boring, but there was one mild quip- “There is no lesbian equivalent of grindr. The closest thing we have is Animal Rescue.”

I got a minor chuckle out of that.

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Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 1, 2012 at 3:15 am

    John, I just want to thank you for paying attention to your readers/commenters on site upgrade suggestions. I’m especially thinking of things like restoring the
    .

    blockquote

    .
    to an actual block that stands out from non-blockquoted text.
    .
    And for explaining why the “recent comments” roster is gone.
    .
    Site looks good, loads quickly, and remains my default favourite blog.
    .
    May we have a picture of Tunch, please?

  2. 2.

    RoonieRoo

    April 1, 2012 at 3:18 am

    I am Mrs insomnia tonight too. It is the darn dogs fault for being a pain for not eating his dinner tonight. That meant he wouldn’t settle since his stomach was growling loud enough to be annoying. Had to get up to feed him a late dinner and now I am wide awake.

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    April 1, 2012 at 3:30 am

    “I want my two dollars!”

  4. 4.

    Jay S

    April 1, 2012 at 3:34 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: You can get recent comments from the ‘Comments RSS’ feed under the Meta section on the left sidebar. You can use a feed reader such as Google Reader or the live bookmark function of Firefox and some other browsers.

  5. 5.

    Politically Lost

    April 1, 2012 at 3:36 am

    Day 23 of the 800 calorie diet. Access to plenty of water has caused extreme bladder urgency. Other than that, it’s the evenings that are the hardest. I’m so used to planning dinner with my wife and all of the mental triggers that go along with that planning it makes it difficult to divert myself away from thinking about food.

    I’ve watched more videos about cooking in the last two weeks than I have in my life. I’ve also become obsessed with the amount of calories in everything. I’ve been at the local stores for other things (like dietary fiber, a necessity…sadly) and I can’t help but look at the calorie content of everything I come across.

    About 25lbs so far. A quarter of my goal. So, it’s working.

  6. 6.

    freelancer

    April 1, 2012 at 3:39 am

    This week’s installment of the earwolf podcast “How Did This Get Made?!” by Paul Scheer (the League’s Andre), his wife June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas (the League’s Rafi and soon to be seen in the movie “The Dictator”) is the retardo-thriller “Abduction”, which people have billed The Bourne Identity for Twilight-loving dum-dums.

    Wish me luck.

    PS, for those who dig comedy, you are missing out if you haven’t listened to the latest Comedy Bang Bang with Paul F Thompkins as Andrew Lloyd Webber when they meet up with a street urchin with a predilection for knives named Fourvel (one less than Fievul).

    PPS. You also need to dig into the latest Nerdist podcast where Chris Hardwick invites voiceover artists Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulsen (aka Pinky and the Brain)and a thousand other roles. Gold, Jerry!

    Wish me luck on Abduction, though.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 1, 2012 at 3:40 am

    @Jay S:

    Oh, thanks. I actually rarely used the recent comments feature, but I was impressed that John took time earlier to explain that it was one of the things that seriously messed up the time it took for the site to load and that was why they had disabled it. I don’t think most people would have bothered. But I’m glad to know how to get to that information for those times i may want it.

    Cheers.

  8. 8.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2012 at 3:42 am

    @Politically Lost:
    Good luck man. That’s has to be a hard slog. If fact it is a hard slog. I’ve done it once, drove me just a little insane. Fortunately no one noticed.
    On the up side it seems to be working for you. Remember it is a long ride, don’t get off before the car comes to a complete stop.

  9. 9.

    Politically Lost

    April 1, 2012 at 3:52 am

    @Ruckus:

    Did you maintain the loss when you did it?

  10. 10.

    belle

    April 1, 2012 at 3:54 am

    I think it is the moon. it rose at midnight (1:00) EDST and is right now overhead.
    the insomnia, I mean. interesting observation about animal rescue, too. that explains a lot.

  11. 11.

    msskwesq

    April 1, 2012 at 3:55 am

    I too cannot sleep tonight. I have a lot on my mind to worry about and all this craziness in the world is getting on my nerves. The discussions about the SCOTUS and HCR has me so depressed. The far right assault on civil rights and the SC’s right leanings has me running scared. And today a good friend went to the hospital with abdominal pain and ended up having surgery. Seems like the blood thinners he was given recently due to a blood clot has now caused him to bleed internally. My daughter is still freaked out about her recent layoff and is going to loose her apartment because the unemployment benefit amount doesn’t begin to cover her rent. I think she will be moving home before summer. Scary stuff.

  12. 12.

    msskwesq

    April 1, 2012 at 3:58 am

    Oh and Mr. Cole, thank you for the photo of the girls yesterday. I was glad to see Rosie. A better view of her would be nice. It’s been awhile since you included her in your photos. I love those pups! (and Tunch too)

  13. 13.

    ulee

    April 1, 2012 at 4:11 am

    Yes, I agree with Mss. I have a Jack Russell Terrorist of my own. Happy to see Rosie.

  14. 14.

    piratedan

    April 1, 2012 at 4:12 am

    hopin this will work…..

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=282340661834285&set=a.142078792527140.27491.141122149289471&type=1&theater

  15. 15.

    Jay S

    April 1, 2012 at 4:14 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: I don’t normally use them either, but it can tell you which posts are ‘live’. The feed isn’t updated in real time. The comments seem to show up in batches some time after they are posted. But they do show up within a few minutes.

    The main post rss feed does the same thing. It can be several minutes after a post is made before it shows up in the rss feed or it can pop up right away.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    April 1, 2012 at 4:18 am

    You should get as much rest as you can, John Cole. I know how grumpy I can get when I haven’t had enough rest, and I’m no sweetheart at the best of times. Even if you can’t get to sleep, lying in bed with the lights out might be better than keeping yous mind stimulated with TV or a book. (Said the Malaysian guy who stays up all night commenting on an American blog.)

  17. 17.

    slag

    April 1, 2012 at 4:28 am

    I have no idea what that quip means. Do I want to know what grindr is?

    Just got back from Back to the Future. First time seeing it on the big screen–it was better that way. I forgot how funny that movie was. Total nerdfest though. In a good way.

  18. 18.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2012 at 4:37 am

    @Politically Lost:
    I did for a long time. I did go pretty far and got my body fat down to about 6-8%, which was a bitch. Without a lot of work that is for me not maintainable. So I gained a little back and stabilized. But then after a few years life interfered and I fell off the wagon. OK maybe I jumped. But I’m slowly getting back into shape once again. The good part of having to do this again is that I know what’s involved and that I can do it.

  19. 19.

    slag

    April 1, 2012 at 4:41 am

    @slag: On the way, ran into some Canadians asking where to go for some good beer (not my forte). And after we told them what movie we were going to, they started spontaneously quoting it. 1.21 jigawatts! Great Scott! The flux capacitor! All of which served as an excellent reminder…that Canadians are awesome.

  20. 20.

    amk

    April 1, 2012 at 5:43 am

    cole, how about putting up the previous post/next post links at the bottom of the page also? Too.

    Thanks to PeakVT, wasabi gasp, Chuck Adams and MonkeyBoy, the site has become more readable now.

  21. 21.

    mai naem

    April 1, 2012 at 5:43 am

    I’m awake too. Was flipping channels and started watching Oliver Twist of all things. I guess I should familiarize myself with Dickensian England since the Reichtwingers want us to go there.

    It burns me up to no end that the right wingers on the USSC may strike down Obamacare, yet, all five of the pigs have been on the US taxpayer trough for thier own health insurance for literally decades and I am willing to bet at least four of them would never qualify for health insurance on the “free market” that they are so proud of. Fcukers.

  22. 22.

    LiberalTarian

    April 1, 2012 at 6:02 am

    Sigh. My neighbor snores. I never hear anything from their side of the wall usually, but tonight he (or she) is rattling the rafters.

  23. 23.

    HRA

    April 1, 2012 at 6:15 am

    @Politically Lost:

    I was once on a 900 calorie diet. It helped to save 80 calories for a small apple when the hunger pains hit later in the evening.

  24. 24.

    Narcissus

    April 1, 2012 at 6:21 am

    Grindr is a smartphone app that tells you where the closest submarine sandwich is.

  25. 25.

    Linda Featheringill

    April 1, 2012 at 7:02 am

    @Narcissus:

    Oh, you’re bad! [hee-hee]

  26. 26.

    Lojasmo

    April 1, 2012 at 7:39 am

    @Politically Lost:

    You’re going to have to start exercising very regularly when you move up to a higher calorie level (or stick to a strict 2200 kcal maintenance diet. Frankly, I would go with exercise, as I can’t stand counting macros.

  27. 27.

    dan

    April 1, 2012 at 8:05 am

    That’s cause Margaret Cho is horribly unfunny. She made her name doing a minstrel version of Korean accents.

  28. 28.

    WereBear

    April 1, 2012 at 8:25 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: And thank YOU for adding the explanation once you brought it up.

  29. 29.

    Shinobi

    April 1, 2012 at 10:58 am

    We watched Kathleen Madigan’s special on HBO the other day and were pleasantly surprised.

  30. 30.

    gil mann

    April 1, 2012 at 10:59 am

    She made her name doing a minstrel version of Korean accent

    Or more accurately, “an impression of her mother.”

    C’mon, people, she’s bad enough at stand-up, no need to target her on ideological grounds.

  31. 31.

    YellowJournalism

    April 1, 2012 at 11:17 am

    Cho was better back when she was making fun of the Asian and sexist stereotypes she was facing in the entertainment industry. I don’t remember what the special was called, but she did one a long time ago during the period where she just got her tv show. She talked a lot about how insane the development team was (they wanted to call her show “Wok on the Wild Side). The special was so hilarious that future hubby and I rented two the next weekend. The first was right after her show had tanked and it had it’s a moments (again, the best stuff was about the industry), but the next one was just her ranting rather than joking about herself and it bored the crap out of us.

    As far as the “minstrel” aspect of her comedy goes, I think that’s an unfair criticism. Eddie Murphey (back when he did stand-up), Bill Cosby, and many other comics play on their own cultures using variations of ethnic voices. Russell Peters is much like Cho in that his career is pretty much based on an “impression” of his father and other ethnicities he’s grown up with and encountered along the way. There’s a Filipino comic I saw recently that has an entire act built around his culture. It’s perfectly reasonable to find Cho unfunny. Just be fair about why. Or say her impressions just suck.

  32. 32.

    KXB

    April 1, 2012 at 11:33 am

    Margaret Cho? (shudder)

  33. 33.

    Ella in New Mexico

    April 1, 2012 at 11:42 am

    If it’s Sunday, it’s “15 Posts on Religion and Meaning Day” or “Commonweal Condensed”over at Andrew Sullivan’s place.

  34. 34.

    scandi

    April 1, 2012 at 1:34 pm

    Well, John, no one can accuse you of being gay. You have to suck cock to find Margaret Cho funny.

  35. 35.

    John M. Burt

    April 1, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    The problem with any sort of calorie restriction is that you are basically engaging in a slow-motion suicide attempt (eating less than you need to sustain your body, which if not halted will kill you), and this hurts.

    Of course, eating more than your body needs will also kill you.

    I see no way out of this dilemma. Am I missing something?

  36. 36.

    LanceThruster

    April 2, 2012 at 11:42 am

    @Shinobi:

    I also thought Madigan did quite well. Loved her “smoker in LA / Queen of California after an earthquake” joke.

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