Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

The willow is too close to the house.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

You are here: Home / Music / Open thread

Reader Interactions

189Comments

  10. 10.

    Violet

    @Southern Beale: Shocked, I tell you.

    Last line of the linked article:

    Of course, the state has little way of knowing if some registration forms were filled out and then discarded.

    True and it sucks.

  14. 14.

    Hill Dweller

    @Southern Beale: The MSM better pick this story up. I’m sure Maddow will cover it, but the other hacks in the Village need to cover it and note the connection to Willard.

  15. 15.

    Violet

    @Southern Beale: Yeah, that got some play over the last day or so, but not nearly enough, imho. But then, there are an abundance of gaffe riches with the Romney campaign. So hard to choose.

  16. 16.

    MikeJ

    Started the same song in itunes, hit genius. Next up:
    Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Blank Generation
    Vevets I’ll be Your Mirror
    PJ Harvey The Last Living Rose
    Best Coast When I’m With You
    The Smiths The Boy With a Thorn in His Side

    Looks like it kinda went off the rails. Still threw in some good songs though. #25 is Road runner by JR & the ML.

  22. 22.

    DougJ

    @MikeJ:

    Even though Luna annoys me, that “Hanging out in Chinatown” song fits here too.

    Also — Elton John’s Amoreena, though it has nothing to do with New York because it’s the opening of Dog Day Afternoon.

  23. 23.

    Culture of Truth

    In a video circulating widely on the Internet Friday, Todd Akin is seen discussing his involvement in an anti-abortion demonstration and says “you know, don’t tell anybody I’m a jail bird.” He also says in the video that “a bunch of us sat in front of these doors and the police gave us a ride to the free hotel for a while, and you know how it goes.”

    Akin said Friday that he had been arrested during an anti-abortion protest about two decades ago but didn’t provide details.

    Akin also defended his characterization of Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill as not being “ladylike” in a recent debate, saying he used the term “just as the English language uses those terms.”

  25. 25.

    gbear

    What’s everybody up to this weekend?

    I am going to take advantage of nice fall weather to ride my scooter hither and yon enjoying the fall colors in MN.

  26. 26.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    Amusing myself unfollowing ponyprog links to that Conor Friedersdorf mess on my Facebook feed. I’ve been proud of my online ghost buddies that very few of them are falling for that crap.

  27. 27.

    Comrade Mary

    @DougJ: I can’t remember if it was here or somewhere else that I argued that Tumbleweed Connection was an undervalued album, but yeah, Amoreena worked especially well in that context.

  28. 28.

    jharp

    I’m going to the Purdue football game.

    It’s to be a beautiful day, family weekend, and college football is the best sport going.

  30. 30.

    TK421

    What is everybody doing this weekend? Well, for many people, the answer to that is “huddling in terror”.

    Do you remember how it felt in America on 9/11?

    The humanitarian worker does. He was in New York City. “I remember people crying in the streets,” he says. “People were afraid about what might happen next. People didn’t know if there would be another attack. There was tension in the air. This is what it is like.” He’s describing life today where regular U.S. drone strikes happen. “It is a continuous tension, a feeling of continuous uneasiness. We are scared,” he laments. “You wake up with a start to every noise.”

    As a Western aid worker, he is far safer than most, and still he is frightened. It is much worse for the innocent Pakistani men, women and children in tribal areas. They are trapped. Terrified. Powerless.

    Remember how you felt on 9/11? Every day, U.S. foreign policy makes innocent people feel even worse.

    ‘Every Person Is Afraid of the Drones’: The Strikes’ Effect on Life in Pakistan

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    Um, is anybody reading JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy yet? I’m wondering if it’s worth breaking my rule of “wait for the paperback”. While I know better than to trust early reviews, they have been mixed. TIME’s Lev Grossman loved it, NYT’s Michiko Kakutani was all, meh. A few I’ve seen seem to be reviews as much of Rowling the Celebrity Author as of the book. I was particularly annoyed by the ones bringing up the Harry Potter series for s pointless comparison.

  38. 38.

    smintheus

    We’re going to a friend’s vineyard in PA to pick Riesling grapes and make wine. He sold as many of his grapes as he can this season, so the rest are free for the taking. Will be making at least 35 gallons of wine, maybe more.

  39. 39.

    gbear

    @Forum Transmitted Disease:

    A history of mental illness, the loss of a dear uncle, and a growing fear of Obama winning a second term in the White House took its toll on the mind of Mr Peterson, a wealthy defense contractor, the friend said.
    ‘He just did not want his kids inheriting this mess,

    He’s a freaking wealthy defense contractor and he kills his kids rather than make them live four years of their wealthy lives under Obama?? Sick Sick Sick. Wow.

  40. 40.

    Darkrose

    Every September, we have to work move-in weekend, helping the freshmen get their network access. This means that we work 12 days straight. Today is Day 12. If I can get through today without screaming “ARE YOU STUPID?!” or “LEARN TO READ, ASSHOLE!” at a user, my plans for the weekend involve not going anywhere near a telephone.

  42. 42.

    MikeJ

    @Southern Beale: What I find most interesting about it is that Lyme is very much a suburban disease. I despise deer, and you don’t get those white tailed rats wandering around dense urban areas.

    So Romney/Ryan care about healthcare, but only about the problems of the right sort of people.

  43. 43.

    jharp

    @raven:

    Sounds like a great day. Recently drove through Athens and what a nice town.

    And you can’t beat a fall football day on a college campus.

  45. 45.

    peach flavored shampoo

    So….Faux News broadcast live a suicide today, I’m hearing.

    Responsible journalism….how the fuck does it work?

  46. 46.

    Southern Beale

    @MikeJ:

    I thought Lyme disease was something hunters came into contact with. Anyone outdoors a lot — hunters, hikers, etc. But mostly hunters since they’re in deer country.

    Ryan is a hunter, right? So he’s concerned about hunting in VA and not getting sick. Nice.

  52. 52.

    Southern Beale

    @smintheus:

    You may be right. I think of “the harvest” and think of pod people in bad sci-fi movies, or maybe “Children Of The Corn.”

    I’ve always said Romney’s voice was the creepiest thing about him. He should never say things like “we harvest them” and “Don’t you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice?”

  53. 53.

    MikeJ

    @Southern Beale: I got it on a “hike” within two miles of my house in Fairfax county. I walked through a field where you could see the depressions where deer had been sleeping. A few days later I had a white count of 20k.

  55. 55.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    I’m going to the Tigers/Twins game tonight and the Gopher hockey game tomorrow afternoon.

    BTW, fuck MLB and the Twins. Back in June I bought tickets for both tonight’s and tomorrow’s game for my mother and I. Tomorrow was going to be great: baseball at noon and hockey at 4pm. Then Wednesday I got an email saying that the baseball game had been moved to a 3:05 start, thus negating the ability to do both games.

    So I called the Twins ticket office and asked for a refund. I’d have been happy to settle for a credit to buy some tickets next season. But, no. They have the right to change the game time whenever they like and it’s your problem if you can’t make the new time. If you don’t like it, go to StubHub and sell the tickets for less than half of what you paid for them. (On top of all that, I can’t get their link to StubHub to allow me to input my account number with the Twins, which I would need to do in order to sell the electronically delivered tickets.)

    The most insulting part was when the operator told me that there was nothing they could do because Fox made the decision to change the game time, not the team. I tried to point out that the only reason Fox has the power to do that is because the Twins and MLB sold them the right to do so. Of course, rather than choosing between having my money or having Fox’s, they just decided to take both. I hate to break it to them, but selling the right to do something doesn’t remove your responsibility to your customers when the buyer exercises that right.

    I’m trying to think of another industry that thinks it can get away with arbitrarily changing the schedule of an event you’ve paid for and telling you that you can lump it if that’s a problem for you. Even the airlines will work with you to find some solution.

  56. 56.

    Southern Beale

    @MikeJ:

    Yeah my sister got it hiking just outside of San Francisco. Deer, raccoons and other critters carry ticks and ticks are the vector so … basically anytime you’re around ticks you’re at risk.

  57. 57.

    Culture of Truth

    I’m hoping to be invited to a party where this is happening.

    “Parents looking for something more than a clown for their children’s birthday parties now need look no further than Barrett’s Alligator Attraction, which will bring an alligator straight to their backyard pool to swim with the children.”

  58. 58.

    Anoniminous

    Made the decision I’m no longer supporting nor will I vote for Obama.

    Saw a picture of him wearing a blue shirt with BROWN pants. (!) The man is obviously unqualified to be the President of the United States.

    ETA: English? How does it work?

  63. 63.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I’ve always imagined you as a hot child in the city, DougJ, running wild and looking pretty.

  71. 71.

    dance around in your bones

    @wasabi gasp:

    La Danse Du Chien – Black Painted Bones

    Ok, that was weird. Great names, though – both song and band.

    I had some friends whose last name was Lachien. We used to call dem de dogs.

    eta: How did I fuck up the blockquote? I have no idea how to fix it in this goofy edit place.

  77. 77.

    catclub

    @Southern Beale: Charlie Pierce has already glommed onto it.

    Mitt is now the International Harvester.

    I might suggest International Harvester Of Profits
    for those pancake fans in the crowd.

    ZEGS is Zombie Eyed Granny Starver – Paul Ryan

    GEH is Goggle Eyed Homunculus – Scott Walker

  78. 78.

    Randy P

    @Anoniminous: My mom taught me that was wrong, but my wife gave me the ok. Gotta side with the wife.

    As a matter of fact, that’s exactly the combination I’m wearing right now.

  79. 79.

    dance around in your bones

    @Amir Khalid: Well, excuse e moi, si vou plait. (That’s prolly wrong, too.)

    That’s just how they spelled their name! I’d chastise them, but they are all dead now.

  81. 81.

    lamh35

    High Expectations for Romney in Debate

    Michelle Cottle: “Romney may be a good debater. He may even be a great debater. But at this point his team has fumbled the expectations game to the point where the governor will need to perform at a level well above anything we’ve seen from him to date if he wants to pull off the “W.” Just holding his own against the president — often a challenger’s primary hurdle — won’t change the game, and, at this point, a game changer is what people are demanding.”

  82. 82.

    johnny driftless zone

    Lying down reading b-j and 538 with an ice pack up tight between my legs after a vasectomy this a.m.

    Feels just like getting kicked in the junk.

    However, it’s obviously no way near as bad as childbirth, so there’s that.

  83. 83.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    Weekend agenda: Unhealthy amounts of Korean BBQ, playing tennis, consuming libations and watching Boardwalk Empire.

  86. 86.

    opie jeanne

    Dad’s funeral was on Tuesday, took care of the lawyer on Wednesday, going through papers in case we missed something we’re supposed to do and finding stuff squirreled away in his sock drawer.

    I found a diary written by my great grandma that tells about her trip to the 1934 World’s Fair in Chicago. She travelled by train from Azusa, CA to Chicago by herself, and was entertained by some of her adult children when she got there. She went to a couple of baseball games at Comiskey, one may have been the first All Star Game (have to track down the date) and she REALLY liked ice cream.

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    This weekend is Carmageddon 2: The Carmageddoning, aka the closure of the 405 Freeway (the main artery between the Valley and West LA) for the entire weekend so they can finish demolishing/rebuilding a bridge. They did this in June of 2011 for the first half, so this is to finish the second half.

    Plan is to not have to drive anywhere near that mess, and any trips to the beach are right out. Other than that, laundry and continuing to declutter the apartment.

  89. 89.

    ? Martin

    @Randy P:

    My mom taught me that was wrong, but my wife gave me the ok. Gotta side with the wife.

    Just to point out: your mom teaches you what’s right and wrong in public, while your wife will extend that list to things in private. Not everything your wife okays should trump what your mom told you. That’s important to know.

  91. 91.

    jp7505a

    LATEST on vote fraud from the AP- ‘TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — What first appeared to be an isolated problem in one Florida county has now spread statewide, with election officials in at least seven counties informing prosecutors or state election officials about questionable voter registration forms filled out on behalf of the Republican Party of Florida’

    Oh wait that must be a misprint certainly could not be THE republican party of rick snyder and allen west. :-) :-)

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @opie jeanne:

    When we cleaned out my father-in-law’s apartment, we found something like $600 in singles that he’d squirreled away for my 19-year-old nephew.

    Oh, and there was also a screaming match between my brother-in-law and his sister because he went into the apartment immediately after my father-in-law passed away and disposed of all of the leftover Vicodin before she could get to it. Have I mentioned that my sister-in-law’s addiction to painkillers has advanced to the point that she has started drug-seeking at the local hospitals and several ERs have her on their naughty list? Good times, good times.

  94. 94.

    ? Martin

    @johnny driftless zone: Tip: when it seems like you’re ready to get up and move around, you aren’t. And after learning that lesson, when you’re then pretty sure you’re now ready to get up and move around, you still aren’t.

    Everything is cool when you don’t move. Embrace that for a couple of days. Baseball is on, the NFL refs are back, and today is national beer day. You don’t need to be anywhere else.

  95. 95.

    catclub

    @opie jeanne: Since she apparently made it back, you can read Devil and the White City. An earlier Chicago Worlds Fair.
    Possibly a first recorded serial killer for the US. Not nice.

  97. 97.

    WereBear

    @gbear: That picture of him made my blood run cold.

    And I’m sure those apocalyptic fund-raising emails howling “If Obama gets a second term we’ll have blood and pain!” have nothing to do with sending this guy over the edge. /sarcasm

  99. 99.

    Randy P

    @Omnes Omnibus: Having someone listen to me sounds cool. Who am i bossing around and what are we clamping down on? i think i missed something.

    if it’s “no black socks with sandals”, sure. Sign me up for the blue-shirt/brown pants goon squad.

  100. 100.

    Dennis SGMM

    Reading When Things Fall Apart, by Pema Chödrön. Practical, applicable advice for the heart and mind – even if things haven’t fallen apart for you yet.

  102. 102.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Anoniminous: That’s a take-off from the Bob Somerby “War On Gore”/campaign about clothing, right? I hope? Because it seems to me the blue/brown match is pretty standard, in a range of tones.

  104. 104.

    Mnemosyne

    @Southern Beale:

    I’m assuming their “solution” is to loosen hunting regulations and let hunters kill as many deer as they can manage. Kill all the deer and, voila, problem solved!

  105. 105.

    22over7

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yikes. I feel for your BIL and for his sister. Last year, I had two root canals, one right after the other, and two bottles of the oxy later I understood the attraction. For me it was like a vacation in a pill.

    Had to talk myself out of going down her path. So right now I’m drinking coffee.

  107. 107.

    Mnemosyne

    @burnspbesq:

    I’m certain that this will mark me as a philistine in your eyes, but G and I did see Pat Matheny in concert once (at the Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown) but left at intermission. Every piece sounded the same to us.

  110. 110.

    IowaOldLady

    @Amir Khalid:

    Um, is anybody reading JK Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy yet? I’m wondering if it’s worth breaking my rule of “wait for the paperback”. While I know better than to trust early reviews, they have been mixed. TIME’s Lev Grossman loved it, NYT’s Michiko Kakutani was all, meh. A few I’ve seen seem to be reviews as much of Rowling the Celebrity Author as of the book. I was particularly annoyed by the ones bringing up the Harry Potter series for s pointless comparison.

    I’m reading it now on my kindle. It was slow getting into for me because there are multiple point of views and I had trouble keeping all these people straight. Kindle says I’m 15% into it, and it’s settling down some.

  113. 113.

    Anoniminous

    @Randy P: @catclub:

    Every time a man wears brown pants with a blue shirt – and I don’t care WHAT tint, shade, or hue of either of ’em – Baby Jesus© cries. Might as well wear white shoes before Memorial Day or after Labor Day and complete the Moral Collapse of A’murka.

  115. 115.

    Southern Beale

    @Mnemosyne:

    Kill all the deer and, voila, problem solved!

    Sadly this is in direct opposition to their other policy, which is harvest all the timber. When I worked in wildlife management, we were always told that we were cutting down the trees for “deer habitat” because “deer like edge.” So we had to cut the trees for the deer. At the same time we justified hunting the deer because lack of predators so we had to thin the deer herd. It was for the health of the overall deer population, don’tcha see.

    I once asked why we didn’t just stop chopping down the trees. They didn’t have an answer for that.

    I don’t harbor a lot of sympathy for the deer, I read somewhere that there are more deer walking the planet today than at any time in all of human history. They’re basically rats with hooves. But yeah, it’s a situation we’ve created.

  119. 119.

    Eclare

    @raven: I have the reissue. Come Down in Time isn’t too bad either….ten more minutes in the cubicle, then I can go home and crank it, have some wine, and chill with the dogs.

  123. 123.

    flying squirrel girl

    I just saw a boa constrictor almost as big around as my thigh! Last day of work too! Woot!!!

  124. 124.

    Eclare

    @raven: Oh wait! We’re enemies! Went to UT. Not looking forward to seeing us be humiliated at the 3:30 time slot on national TV. But I’ve been to games in Athens, hope you can find someone to go!

  125. 125.

    Mnemosyne

    @22over7:

    Luckily for me (I guess) I have a very bad reaction to all opiates — I’m one of the small percentage of people who start vomiting uncontrollably after a couple of days on them. As I’ve noted here before, this is not a fun thing to find out at 4:00 am when you’re still on crutches from your knee surgery. After my recent root canal I took, like, one Tylenol-3 that same night so I could sleep and then toughed it out with ibuprofen the rest of the time.

  128. 128.

    dance around in your bones

    @eemom:I like the song.

    Why do I get the feeling that Axl’s hat is covering up a big bald spot?

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

    Gotta be embarrassing for a kinda hair band, tho.

  129. 129.

    opie jeanne

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I would fault MLB rather than the Twins for that. Bunch of money-grubbers. We pay for MLBtv every season because we follow the Angels and we live in Seattle, but we have a cabin in the mountains in SoCal, more than 100 miles from the stadium, and the games are blacked out there. Bluejays fans have it worse, all of Canada is blacked out when the Jays are at home.

  133. 133.

    johnny driftless zone

    @? Martin: Thanks for the tip. I’ve got no plans this weekend except tylenol, ice packs and lie on my back and read murder mysteries and the internets, so I should be good.

    Heh, a friend who had this done advised, “Just lie there and surf the net but don’t even think of looking at pR0n.” Laughed my ass off. One, because no way in hell would I even think of doing that in this condition, two, cause my friend must have, and three he must think I look like a guy who would.

    I guess I shouldn’t find that last one amusing, but for some reason I do.

  134. 134.

    A moocher

    Apparently, Mick Jagger made some “get off my lawn” cracks about Patti Smith back in the day, including a fling about her not being attractive. Which a) look who’s talkin’ and b) what an asshole, and c) say what? she’s absolutely gorgeous. Feist got her looks from her. I think they must be related.

  135. 135.

    22over7

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yes, but sorry about the root canal. Some people just get nauseous and dizzy. Some people react, well, differently.

    You’d think that Big Pharma could come up with an effective pain killer that didn’t cause ulcers, liver failure, or addiction. We’re no better off than we were in the 19th century.

  136. 136.

    FlipYrWhig

    @A moocher: I saw Patti Smith in concert about 10 years ago. “Because the Night” brought down my personal house. And she mentioned Rachel Corrie, which I quite appreciated.

  137. 137.

    WereBear

    We just had a small local scandal; a moose took up residence in a place where he could be seen from the road and it was determined that he had injured rear legs and his condition had deteriorated while he was under observation.

    So they shot him.

    Now, I’m a serious animal lover, but to quote the spokesperson for our state wildlife bureau: “Even if we could have tranquilized him and craned him out of the river before he drowned, it’s not like we could take him to a moose hospital.”

    Well, there’s going to be a protest and get this: one of their contentions was that they should have “let him die naturally.”

    Oh, that’s kind. And I suppose people would have stood at the road railings and watched? Some people don’t think. At all. As a local official who agrees with me noted: You can’t fix stupid.

  138. 138.

    dance around in your bones

    @22over7:

    You’d think that Big Pharma could come up with an effective pain killer that didn’t cause ulcers, liver failure, or addiction. We’re no better off than we were in the 19th century.

    Well, if they’d leave out the Tylenol, we’d prolly all be better off.

    Well, except for the addiction.

  140. 140.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Eclare:

    Tumbleweed Connection is the only Elton John album I like.

    It’s fun to imagine how much it disturbs my neighbors as I walk the dog, earphones plugged into the Zune, singing along in a cracked falsetto:

    “I took myself a bluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuue canoe and I floated like a leaf…”

  142. 142.

    opie jeanne

    @Mnemosyne: Oh yeah, family is fun.

    This is still a ways from being resolved but at least my sister no longer thinks I’m going to kick her out of Dad’s house, she just has to cough up a small bit of her half of the cash, and there’s a lot of it.

    I swear, her friends fussed at MY kids at the funeral about how they hoped she could keep the house.

    Yesterday, the neighbor’s mother died and she is witnessing the reality of a really ugly family fight over inheritance. I hope she notices the difference.

  143. 143.

    dance around in your bones

    @A moocher:

    Apparently, Mick Jagger made some “get off my lawn” cracks about Patti Smith back in the day, including a fling about her not being attractive. Which a) look who’s talkin’

    Yeah, Mick ain’t no beauty queen. I saw him and the Stones back in the day several times, and he made me kinda…..confused.

    Also, I think youth is beauty, not an original observation.

  144. 144.

    Mnemosyne

    @22over7:

    Actually, the root canal itself wasn’t bad at all — the endodontist I saw is very serious about anesthesia and I was numb up to my eye for a procedure done on a lower tooth. It did hurt for about a week afterward, but the ibuprofen helped a lot.

    Then again, it was my fourth root canal, so I guess I’m an old hand at this point.

  145. 145.

    opie jeanne

    @catclub: Already read it and it gave me the willies. My grandfather was a “runner” at the White City. He was 11. The diary I read was by his mother-in-law.

  147. 147.

    Mnemosyne

    @opie jeanne:

    Luckily, there don’t seem to be any family fights over the inheritance or anything (not that there was much to inherit in the first place, but it was all very clearly laid out who got what). It’s more that a lot of stuff was suppressed during my FIL’s illness and it’s all coming back up to the surface.

    Can’t remember who it was, but one of the posters here (I think) said s/he got into a nasty battle with his/her half-siblings who tried to claim in court that s/he wasn’t really their father’s child and should be disinherited. Fortunately, they lost.

  148. 148.

    MattR

    For anyone in the NYC area looking for something to do tomorrow afternoon, come to the Jason Krause “Kick” Cancer Fundraiser in Congers NY from 2 pm to 7pm and meet former MLB greats Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, Mickey Rivers and Graig Nettles. There are also raffles with prizes including tickets to every 2012 NY Yankees home playoff game or this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans (with VIP party passes and a hotel room included)

  149. 149.

    Anoniminous

    @WereBear:

    “Let’s leave the poor creature to starve until it collapses and drowns or its legs weaken until it collapses and drowns.”

    Wow.

    THAT’s humane!

  151. 151.

    opie jeanne

    @WereBear: Thanks. We are healing pretty quickly, I think. For a while there I was very worried about my sister’s health because she was so stressed out before he died. She’s doing a lot better now.

  152. 152.

    dance around in your bones

    @FlipYrWhig:

    @eemom: See, you and I are, like, parallel entities or something.

    Hey wait! I posted the Patti Smith thing first! Doesn’t that make us parallellilist buddies or something?

  156. 156.

    Cacti

    Hey you important front pager types. Considering early voting has started, what’s it going take to get an early voting thread w/ dates and states up in here?

    I’ll even help you start…

    Arizona

    Last day to register: Oct. 9, 2012

    Early voting starts: Oct. 11, 2012

  157. 157.

    Mnemosyne

    @WereBear:

    Well, there’s going to be a protest and get this: one of their contentions was that they should have “let him die naturally.”

    Seriously, WTF? Yes, let’s leave a suffering animal in pain for hours because it should “die naturally” rather than dying quickly from a well-placed gunshot.

    I’m guessing there’s a bit of a weird anti-hunting bias jumping out if the assumption is that it would be kinder to let the moose slowly drown than to shoot it.

  158. 158.

    MattR

    @opie jeanne:

    found a diary written by my great grandma that tells about her trip to the 1934 World’s Fair in Chicago. She travelled by train from Azusa, CA to Chicago by herself, and was entertained by some of her adult children when she got there. She went to a couple of baseball games at Comiskey, one may have been the first All Star Game (have to track down the date) and she REALLY liked ice cream.

    My condolences on your loss. The only good thing to come from my father’s passing was being forced to go through all the stuff he’d accumulated through the years. Among other things, we found an address book from his brother that included Dustin Hoffman’s phone number from when they all lived in NYC. We found correspondence between my grandmother and her senators when the federal government screwed up my grandfather’s pension, but we were not able to locate the pen used by LBJ when he signed something (either an EO or a congressional declaration or something. I used to know the details but have forgotten) to enable my grandmother to receive those benefits. It’s gotta be somewhere in the house and will probably surface when mom decides to sell the place. And mom had to figure out what to do with a hunting rifle that had not been fired in close to 40 years. Definitely not worth the trade off, but it was the first thing that made us smile thinking about him.

  160. 160.

    opie jeanne

    @Mnemosyne: Now that’s nasty.

    My grandmother took care of her parents in their old age. Her 7 siblings sent them money sometimes, but my grandpa built them a house. BUILT THEM A FREAKIN’ HOUSE! In Southgate, CA, in 1924, next door to the house he built for grandma and their kids.

    When her parents died there was about a thousand dollars left and Grandma was the executor, and she divvied it up evenly between the 8 siblings, one of which had died so she sent his share to his widow nd five children. Two of Grandma’s sisters started a writing campaign saying that their brother’s family shouldn’t get a dime because he was dead, and one of these cats implied that the youngest wasn’t their brother’s child. Grandma kept all of those letters that were sent to her by them as well as some choice ones that were sent to the other siblings who then forwarded them to her. I got to finally read them last year. $1000 divided by 8 is $125. This was in 1937 and that was a decent sum of money, but not enough for this kind of bitterness because the difference was only about $27 per person.

    My grandpa was disgusted and told them that if they didn’t stop it he’d tell his wife to keep the lot, and what they could do with themselves in not very nice terms.

  161. 161.

    Maude

    @22over7:
    I’ve been on a non opiate pain med for years and will be on it for the rest of my life. I am so lucky that it works and I am doing well on it. People I know don’t know I take it. Only a couple do know.
    No highs or anything like that.
    It took a year and a half to become used to it. It’s a major change in life.
    You are on temporary and that sucks big time, because you go through the adapt to it stage and the pain can still peek through.
    Be careful walking around. You may be a bit tipsy. Feel better.

  162. 162.

    Mnemosyne

    @opie jeanne:

    Since I’m now having a mood swing back to positivity :-) I think it was our fellow poster grandpa john who opened up his mail a few months ago and discovered that his wife’s cousin had unexpectedly left them a couple hundred thousand dollars. IIRC, now his daughter and granddaughter are both going to be able to finish college and pay off their existing student loans with enough left over for some charitable donations and a few fun splurges.

  167. 167.

    ? Martin

    @opie jeanne: My dad ran into that with his siblings fighting over my grandmothers stuff after she passed. He had laid down some rules – something like they ask for x number of things by email in order of preference, he would work out who gets what based on preference/conflicts, negotiating individually. If anyone started any shit, or complained or anything, he’d exclude them from consideration for that item and he’d donate their share of the cash from the sale of the house (OC, nothing to sneeze at) to my grandmothers favorite charity. He repeated that until nobody wanted anything more and sold the rest and split it.

    One brother didn’t take the instructions seriously and a healthy five-figure donation was made in his name to the Missionaries of Charity in India. Not unsurprisingly, he was the one who most needed the money. As was noted above, can’t fix stupid.

    My dad wasn’t going to incur any additional stress over the matter. Everyone got seriously in line after that. So glad I have no siblings.

  168. 168.

    muddy

    I got an envelope today with an unsolicited absentee ballot request. It did not say any party, but by the language it was clearly Republican. I thought it might be a hoax, but they tell you to turn it in to the town clerk. They mention a couple of state Republicans and say to vote for them, because Democrats are in charge of the whole legislature and are bankrupting us.

    It finally states:”…we can stand up to these job-killing, anti-freedom policies and get some commonsense back in…”

    I think the unemployment rate here is 4.9%, FFS.

  169. 169.

    Mnemosyne

    @? Martin:

    My dad and his sisters basically put everything together on the dining room table and drew lots. He was very happy because what he really wanted for me was my grandmother’s engagement ring since I had just gotten engaged and he drew the second lot.

    The only other thing that could have been under dispute was my grandmother’s condo, but everyone was able to agree that it was okay for my Aunt S. to buy everyone else out so my cousin could live there. (My cousin is developmentally disabled (or, as we used to say, “retarded”) so it was a big deal for the whole family that she was going to be able to live on her own if she had grandma’s condo.)

  171. 171.

    muddy

    My mother used to hide valuables in the house, and then forget where they were, and insisting she had been robbed. You try to explain that they are not going to come in and take your 17th century goblet, which looks like it’s from Pier One, and leave behind the silver and the vcr. I had to look through 54 years of packrat very carefully as you never know when you’d find a wad of cash in a pocket or a book. Or, ugh now I just feel itchy.

    But this habit (which was not one formed in old age!) turned out well for my sisters and I. She had claimed a sapphire bracelet was stolen and pestered until she got a replacement. Then she did it *again*!! So we each got one and didn’t need to argue.

  172. 172.

    ? Martin

    @Cacti: These are pretty normal and innocent things to say with friends, but you can’t say them on the trail. You just get eaten alive over them, as Mitts dad discovered with the ‘brainwashing’ gaffe.

  173. 173.

    Steeplejack

    Weekend already off to a good start. Went to Pupatella at 5:00 to beat the crowd and had an excellent pizza–tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella and sausage–cooked in 60 seconds in their blazing-hot oven. Killian’s Red on the side.

    Then I went to Target to pick up a few odds and ends, including a heating pad for the housecat, which she is now test-driving on her fleece throw next to the computer. She seems to like it (heat level is set at 3 out of 4), and I’m hoping this will keep her off the laptop’s equally toasty keyboard. Ass-typing has been a problem, to the point that I had to put a password on my computer.

    Quiet evening at home tonight, and I haven’t planned ahead any farther than that. The weather here in NoVa is perfect.

  174. 174.

    dance around in your bones

    @FlipYrWhig:

    @dance around in your bones: Hey, I’ll take it, friend of friends! :D I just meant that eemom and I end up saying the same things pretty often around here, and it seems to extend to music, too.

    Being involved in the music thread upstairs, I didn’t see this ’til now. I wuz just gently ribbing you :)

    Patti Smith is muy fantastico, however.

  175. 175.

    A moocher

    @FlipYrWhig: well, maybe I just have a thing for skinny white 70s rocker babes, which may explain the prolonged dry spell.

    Dancer in the bones also pointed out that she had youth going for her, which is profoundly true. But also, I have always gone for “interesting” as opposed to “pretty”. So I am going to stick with gorgeous.

  176. 176.

    A moocher

    @FlipYrWhig: well, maybe I just have a thing for skinny white 70s rocker babes, which may explain the prolonged dry spell.

    Dancer in the bones also pointed out that she had youth going for her, which is profoundly true. But also, I have always gone for “interesting” as opposed to “pretty”. So I am going to stick with gorgeous.

  177. 177.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    @Mnemosyne: Great news. I assume he’s one of the ones that was in the news regularly here in Altadena recently. Good to see they’re working on finding him a home.

    Incidentally, we ran into a bear, while up in Mammoth on our honeymoon, walking back from the movies, at night. It was about 100 yards away (my wife swears it was MUCH closer) but it looked full-grown (I’m guessing 400+ lbs.) It was the first time I’ve ever saw an animal and thought “wow, that thing could kill us…easily.” Fortunately it scampered off across the road in search of food and didn’t see us. But…in order to get back to the condo we had to walk down a dark footpath in a park, which was precisely from where the bear had just emerged.

  180. 180.

    Darkrose

    @IowaOldLady: Some of the reviews on Amazon are hilarious. People are genuinely upset that she has characters using the word “fuck”. If I were her, after spending so much time writing for a YA audience, I’d drop an f-bomb at least once a page.

    ….oh, wait. I already do that, don’t I. Well, fuck

  181. 181.

    muddy

    I have both cats and a dog, I loved this book, Your Dog Is Your Mirror by Kevin Behan. It’s much the same as you have written. It’s a fantastic book, started out a bit slow but very worthwhile.

  182. 182.

    Mnemosyne

    @Darkrose:

    IIRC, in Britain “fuck” is a much less naughty word than it is here. FWIW, I remember the music rag New Music Express (NME) would put “fuck” in their headlines but said that Ian McCulloch called the stagehands “c—s” at a gig, so I’m pretty sure it’s true.

  183. 183.

    Steeplejack

    @WereBear:

    I have been considering whether Stella, the new housecat, is older than I thought. She was advertised as “11 to 13” when I got her, but she seems in the prime of life to me, which I arbitrarily define as “5.” She doesn’t really exhibit any old-cat behavior–slowness, excessive sleeping (23 hours per day vs. 20, hah!), Yoda-like lack of interest in what’s going on, etc. She is active, frisky and limber.

    But I was talking to an old friend and longtime cat wrangler the other day, and she reminded me that we’ve both had cats that seemed “young” right up until they went into their relatively rapid final decline at age 16 or 18.

    So maybe Stella is middle-aged and/or has a touch of arthritis. She really likes the heat of the laptop keyboard, and at night she likes to sleep right up against me (body heat). Or maybe it’s just that she’s small and doesn’t have much meat on her bones. (I can easily feel the bumps in her spine when I rub her back.)

    Anyway, she seems to have taken to the heating pad inserted in the middle of the folded throw, so maybe the problem is solved. I’m just trying to figure out how high she wants the heat. I think she got a little overheated at 3 (out of 4), so when she came back from eating dinner I dialed it back to 2, and she is laid out on it again. And she’s not coiled into a tight ball, so at least she’s not cold.

    Next project is finding something for her to play with in the hour in the morning and the hour in the early evening when she’s looking to mix it up. She hates the stuffed toys and balls I got her from PetSmart. The thing she plays with the most is a plastic cap that came on the power cord plug for the microwave I bought. Go figure.

  184. 184.

    dance around in your bones

    @Steeplejack: Bless you, Steeplejack, for the thought and care you are directing toward your adopted kitteh.

    My cats always loved crunched up tin foil balls and (oddly) hairbands as toys better than any ‘bought’ toy.

    Beer caps, too. Endless source of amusement. So of course we had to supply many, many beer caps :)

  185. 185.

    IowaOldLady

    @Darkrose: That’s hilarious.

    If you ever look at reviews of kids’ books, there’s a brand of what I call “Mom” reviewers who huff around about how the book didn’t have an actual curse word but it said the character “swore,” or a kid took a lipstick from her mother’s purse and used it to draw lines on her face and she was NEVER PUNISHED for stealing. I am not making those two examples up.

  186. 186.

    Steeplejack

    @dance around in your bones:

    My previous cat (of 20 years) loved chasing and playing with wadded-up paper balls. She would even grab them with the corner of her mouth and bring them back to be thrown again.

    This one is like: “Paper balls, meh.” She responds to the crinkling-up sound, then maybe will run it down and bat it once, but then she pointedly ignores it. But she loves the plastic dongle that came on the end of the microwave cord plug. WTF.

  189. 189.

    Bloix

    “And she shows you where to look among the garbage AND the flowers.”

    Leonard Cohen, “Suzanne”

    I don’t think I’ve thought of that song in 35 years.

Comments are closed.