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With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

How stupid are these people?

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

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

Let me file that under fuck it.

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

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The revolution will be supervised.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Day Three of the Robitussin/Mucinex High

Day Three of the Robitussin/Mucinex High

by John Cole|  September 16, 20121:34 am| 29 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Still feeling like death warmed over. I actually coughed up golf ball sized phlegm all day, and my neti pot is on suicide watch. The dumbest thing I may have done in the past five years was having a couple scotches last night while smacked up on robitussin. My logic at the time is I had felt like hell for several days, what could go wrong with a couple drinks and some time away from the vicks vaporizer? Major fail. It only took 3 drinks, and I was listening to Wall of Voodoo.

Just woke up a little bit ago because I have been sleeping all day and sucking down ricola like an addict. If I have any more diet ginger ale or cup of noodles, I may just end it all.

How is your night going?

BTW- Can you all stop by High Clearing and wish the always awesome and decent Jim Henley a quick recovery from his cancer? In a world full of douchebags (like me!) Jim is one of the most fundamentally decent people out there, so go cheer him on to a speedy recovery.

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Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    September 16, 2012 at 1:38 am

    No posts for four hours, then two in three minutes. Way to go, guys!

  2. 2.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    September 16, 2012 at 1:39 am

    I had felt like hell for several days, what could go wrong with a couple drinks …

    Yep. Took me way too many years to realize that it was a mistake. I mean, you read the ingredients of Nyquil and figure, hell, a couple of shots of bourbon and a Benadryl and it’s the same thing. Well, no, it isn’t.

    Hope you feel better soon.

  3. 3.

    aangus

    September 16, 2012 at 1:40 am

    Hopefully, the Troll will pick the other thread!

    : ))

  4. 4.

    Steeplejack

    September 16, 2012 at 1:42 am

    Oops, wrong thread. Never mind.

    Going downstairs for a minute.

  5. 5.

    aangus

    September 16, 2012 at 1:45 am

    Being a long time Science Fiction Convention goer, I understand what it’s like to come home sick as a dog. Especially after a five day World Con. Bless you, Sir, you will feel better soon.

  6. 6.

    JasonF

    September 16, 2012 at 1:48 am

    I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Jim, but we have some mutual friends and have had some online interactions. You are absolutely right — he’s one of the good ones. Even when he was a dyed-in-the-wool libertarian (as opposed to the libertarian/liberal I think he’s evolved into over the last few years), he was never an asshole about it. He was the one guy on the internet, more than anybody else, who I could read and think “OK, this guy disagrees with me, but he recognizes that we both want what’s best for everyone and he’d be willing to break bread with me and figure out what combination of his ideas, my ideas, and any other ideas would get what’s best for everyone.”

    Anyway, here’s hoping Jim has a successful surgery and a speedy recovery!

  7. 7.

    Steeplejack

    September 16, 2012 at 2:02 am

    @Cole:

    How is your night going?

    I feel really tired and should go to bed, but for some reason I am resisting it. Night-owl syndrome, but also I have been realizing lately how fucked-up my circadian rhythms are after six years of working retail all hours at Barnes & Noble, even though I left there last December. It has been really hard impossible to get back to anything approaching a “normal” schedule.

    In particular, after working so many closing shifts (home at 11:30 or midnight), I still get an artificial “second wind” around that time that, if I don’t nip it in the bud, can carry me on through until 4:00 a.m., which is seriously no good. No matter how late I go to bed, I always wake up around 6:00 or 7:00 a.m., so staying up really late leaves me dead and screws up the following day.

    I know, tl;dr, just a random cultural note. Thank God for the job creators who made it possible for me to have health insurance by working crap hours for crap wages.

  8. 8.

    karen marie

    September 16, 2012 at 2:06 am

    (Telegraph) An armada of US and British naval power is massing in the Persian Gulf in the belief that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s covert nuclear weapons programme.

    How reliable is the Telegraph?

  9. 9.

    dance around in your bones

    September 16, 2012 at 2:07 am

    I always preferred Tussionex, myself. (It’s got the codeine, heh).

    Not supposed to drink with that, either, though that never stopped me. So sue me.

  10. 10.

    Linkmeister

    September 16, 2012 at 2:28 am

    Having just had a similar surgery myself, I went over there to wish him at least as much success as I had. I seem to be completely clear of cancer cells without a need for chemo or radiation.

  11. 11.

    Steeplejack

    September 16, 2012 at 2:34 am

    @Linkmeister:

    Congratulations on that.

  12. 12.

    Anibundel

    September 16, 2012 at 2:40 am

    My night is one long anxiety attack, punctuated by fits of extraordinarily vivid dreams. I knew the last 30days were bad, I didn’t know processing them would be exhausting all over again.

  13. 13.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    September 16, 2012 at 2:53 am

    I’m 50 years old and I haven’t been to a doctor for anything in 30 years. Last time was when I was 20 and had chest pain and they told me it was a strain to my diaphragm from lifting weights.

    So what’s wrong with the Balloon Juice crew? You folks seem kind of fragile.

    Is there a curse?

  14. 14.

    max

    September 16, 2012 at 3:11 am

    My logic at the time is I had felt like hell for several days, what could go wrong with a couple drinks and some time away from the vicks vaporizer? Major fail. It only took 3 drinks,

    Well, yeah. Robotussin becomes/is DXM which lots of people consider fun:

    Combining dextromethorphan with other substances can compound risks. CNS stimulants such as amphetamine and/or cocaine can cause a dangerous rise in blood pressure and heart rate. CNS depressants such as ethanol (drinking alcohol) will have a combined depressant effect, which can cause a decreased respiratory rate. Combining dextromethorphan with other CYP2D6 substrates can cause both drugs to build to dangerous levels in the bloodstream.

    Hallucinogens are not my bag so I never tried it. But I went digging for the DXM info because I remembered that the alt.suicide.holiday folks always recommended doing Robitussin and booze – and then taping a garbage bag around your head, for the easy route to death. (No, I was never going to try that either, thank you.)

    So it is disrecommended that you drink while slurping the sticky red stuff, unless you just *like* being in a coma.

    and I was listening to Wall of Voodoo.

    Wall of Voodoo is almost like getting high by itself.

    max
    [‘Just stick to that.’]

  15. 15.

    Origuy

    September 16, 2012 at 3:13 am

    @karen marie: It’s an article about an annual war games exercise.

    In preparation for any pre-emptive or retaliatory action by Iran, warships from more than 25 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, will today begin an annual 12-day exercise.

    The first four paragraphs make it sound like this is a response to Israel getting ready to bomb Iran. Very deceptive, but it’s the Torygraph.

  16. 16.

    YellowJournalism

    September 16, 2012 at 3:22 am

    @karen marie: Don’t worry, Patton Oswalt fell for that, too. Then he scared the shit out of those of us on his Twitter feed.

  17. 17.

    JGabriel

    September 16, 2012 at 4:13 am

    @karen marie:

    How reliable is the Telegraph?

    On Israel? Not particularly. When it comes to Israel, The Telegraph tends toward the neo-con, the alarmist, and the outlandish couched in a reasonable tone.

    .

  18. 18.

    Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (IrishGirl)

    September 16, 2012 at 4:15 am

    As a year round allergy sufferer who has had many, many sinus infections, let me enlighten you a little.

    Mucinex absolutely, positively should cause you to cough up golf balls size phlegm. This is a good thing. If you don’t cough up that stuff it ends up clogged in your sinuses and becomes infected, or in your bronchial tubes, or you swallow it and it sours your stomach–all of which is bad, bad, bad. I do not recommend taking benadryl with an expectorant because they have opposite effects and aren’t useful together. Also, too, the benadryl will dry you up and that isn’t always a good thing (and no matter how much water you consume you won’t feel hydrated–chemical dehydration versus real dehydration). So the rule of thumb is: If you have congestion (lung or head) and need to clear it out, take an expectorant like Mucinex and drink a lot of water. Yeah, you’ll be spitting it out but that’s better than bronchitis or pneumonia. If you are sneezing without too much congestion, have itchy eyes, benadryl is your best friend. So congestion = an expectorant or decongestant or both, sneezing and itchiness = antihistamine (but rarely do you need both, and together they don’t really work all that well).

    Netti Pots are not as good for you as they sound. There have been cases where some seriously bad bacteria have really harmed people using them. Furthermore, they have recently discovered that, like our guts and vajajays, there are good and bad bacteria in our noses. Netti Pots kill not only the bad bacteria but also the good ones, and they could be making your situation worse. So, if you have sinusitis like I do, odds are you already don’t have enough of the good bacteria. Your best option is to take the Mucinex (guaifenisen is the generic name), use a humidifier and drink lots and lots of clear fluid.

    And whatever you do, don’t drink alcohol at the same time. Now take a Motrin and don’t call me in the morning. Cheers!

  19. 19.

    Heather

    September 16, 2012 at 4:47 am

    Ohai John!

    Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well. After reading this, it occurred to me that, since you called me last night sometime after the Tussin+Scotch decision, you might not remember what you said, and I don’t want you sitting around worrying about it.

    FYI: the only regrettable thing you said to me was “The ending of Mass Effect 3 really sucks.” I’ll have you know that this knowledge temporarily robbed me of my ambition to finish Mass Effect 2. However, at the urging of friends, I forced myself to stay committed and I just found Professor Mordin, who is awesome, and also too I’m told that once I go to the Citadel, I will get to meet the voice of Saul Tigh. So I’m going to stick it out regardless, because insectoid Cylons. Also, I has a grenade launcher and a LASER GUN! AHAHAHAHAHA! PEW PEW!

    I’m FemShepping my way through many an awesome cutscene.

    So… on that note, all we talked about was vidya games, our dogs, and how nice it would be to visit again. You said nothing whatsoever about amphibious BDSM, or your pants. So, worry not.

    DO YOU HEAR ME BJers? There were NO PANTS involved.

    Wait. That came out wrong.

    Whatever.

    Anyhow, you may not remember this, but I would still like to WoW with you whenever the new version comes out, so don’t fucking dip out on me about that or I’ll use an emoticon to look at you in a really mean way. DON’T TEST MY RESOLVE ON THIS POINT, JOHN.

    So, that’s that. Hope you feel lots better soon — not just because I care, but also because I don’t want to read anymore about your… phlegm. That word is so vile that I think I subconsciously misspelled it the first two times I tried to type it just so that it would be underlined in red by my browser’s spell-checker plugin. Certain words are always underlined red in my brain. Like phlegm. Also, pickle.

    Ok, my work here is done. MOAR FEMSHEPPING NAO!

  20. 20.

    AntKat

    September 16, 2012 at 6:26 am

    Sorry to hear you’re not feeling ‘up to snuff’.

    Back in my traveling days, whenever I felt the kind of exhaustion you experienced after your trip to Charlotte, I would expect a full blown case of bronchitis that would knock me on my keister for a couple of weeks. Here’s wishing you a much more speedy recovery.

  21. 21.

    WereBear

    September 16, 2012 at 7:43 am

    Vitamin C! And you are pale… so Vitamin D and chelated magnesium.

    These are vital to your immune system. Which you just exposed to germs from all over the country!

    Feel better soon.

  22. 22.

    different-church-lady

    September 16, 2012 at 11:17 am

    OK, a drink, but… THREE scotches… with a cold… I’m going to keep this indictment of your judgment in mind next time you write about politics.

    ETA: right, on re-read I think you meant three sips from one scotch. Pfwew.

  23. 23.

    RedKitten

    September 16, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    At least be grateful that you CAN take something for your cold. Two new kids have started at SamKitten’s daycare, and I’m just waiting for the inevitable germ soup to start boiling over and for him to bring home some new and interesting disease for me to have to fight, sans medication.

  24. 24.

    Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God

    September 16, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    @max:
    Apparently (ie according to my doctor) I lack some enzyme so I’m extra sensitive to DXM and am supposed to avoid it.

    I remember a not-unpleasant sense of floaty well-being, sensitivity to light and occasional auditory hallucinations. (Oh, and a chance for permanent liver damage).

    A shame since I also remember that Robitussin was the only OTC cough med that ever worked for me.

  25. 25.

    Schlemizel

    September 16, 2012 at 12:33 pm

    I have not been reading High Clearing recently, sort of fell out of the habit. I did stop by as this month marks the 1 year anniversary of the end of my treatment for Stage II squamous cell carcinoma of the throat.

    He has a tough road ahead but the prognoses is very good for this type of cancer.
    I just had a bad thought – he is a college prof right? I was a decent public speaker before this but now my voice sucks & the dryness makes speaking for more than a couple of minutes at a time difficult. Crap I hope I’m wrong about this

    Thanks for letting us know John

  26. 26.

    Schlemizel

    September 16, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    @Ms. D. Ranged in AZ (IrishGirl):
    The CDC suggests using only boiled water or bottled distilled water in a neti pot. as you said, there is an organism that is harmless if drunk as stomach acid kills it but introduced into your nasal passages can eat your brain.

    While this would be good for producing libertarians it is bad for sentient beings

  27. 27.

    Linkmeister

    September 16, 2012 at 2:23 pm

    @Steeplejack: Thanks. One large bullet, dodged.

  28. 28.

    MoZeu

    September 16, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    Uh, John? When sick, no alcohol, OK? I mean, seriously . . . Water, chicken soup, clean (sterilized) neti, and sleep, sleep, sleep. Capeesh?

  29. 29.

    MoZeu

    September 16, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    Uh, John? When sick, no alcohol, OK? I mean, seriously . . . Water, chicken soup, clean (sterilized) neti, and sleep, sleep, sleep. Capeesh?

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