Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

When we show up, we win.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

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57Comments

  1. 1.

    Rosie Outlook

    Can someone help me identify a mystery bug? I am afraid we may have roaches. In early December, I saw a brown bug ambling across the top of my TV . It was about an inch long and looked more like a brown cricket than anything else, except it didn’t have jumping back legs. All six legs were the little wiry bug legs. When I swatted at it I missed and it fell behind the TV cabinet and I couldn’t find it, so I swept back there and called it a day. I spent the next 6 weeks shining a flashlight under cabinets, behind the fridge and stove, turning on lights in the middle of the night. Never saw anything. Then last week, the same bug, or his identical twin, ambled across the sink, and this time I nailed him. Both times it was unseasonably warm, but since it is winter, I fear it was, or they were, non-roachy looking roaches. What do you think? Any southerners out there? (southerners know their bugs.)

    Normally if you even suspect roaches, the first step would be to get a cat, but if I’m caught with a cat my landlord will charge me a $250 “non-refundable deposit,” so it would actually be cheaper to put out poison–but poison has attractants and I certainly don’t want to attract roaches if they aren’t already here. Any ideas?

  3. 3.

    Violet

    @Rosie Outlook: Can you take a picture of the bug and link it? Maybe that would help someone identify it. Also, including what part of the country you live in might help.

  4. 4.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Reposting from downstairs go to

    http://www.digitaltheatre.com

    It is a brilliant site where you can buy and download west end productions of great plays. I just watched David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing. I am going to watch Jonathan Pryce in “King Lear” next. It is actually like being there.

  5. 5.

    Ash Can

    @Rosie Outlook: You can look up photos of roaches on the internet to confirm, but that does sound like a roach. Tell your landlord — it’s his building, and keeping it pest-free is his responsibility.

  6. 6.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Rosie Outlook:

    To be on the safe side (in case it is some kind of roach) get the Hot Shot gel. It is a clear gel that comes in a syringe which you dot about in places where you have seen the roaches. It is the most effective roach killer I have ever known.

  7. 7.

    General Stuck

    I been living in the same apartment for 9 years now, and never saw a roach until the past 6 months. Then one or two, then more. The new owners quit spraying cause like me, most tenants refuse to let them in their apartment .

    But there is a secret weapon that is natural and mostly safe to use, and that is Boric Acid. It is a weak acid that unless you eat it, is a natural pesticide and harmless. I made up some powder with water into a solution a couple of weeks ago for spraying, and nolo roaches since.

    There are ready made preparations that you can buy, but you can also do it yourself with a common bottle sprayer.

  8. 8.

    Rosie Outlook

    I’m in central Ohio. I will get the Hot Shot too. Unfortunately I did not think to take a picture.

    I would rather take care of the problem myself and get it done right than trust a landlord who doesn’t live here. We’ve been here 7 years and never had bugs. I guess the honeymoon is over.

  9. 9.

    Rosie Outlook

    @General Stuck: I also scattered borax around. That also kills ants.

    I didn’t know there were round roaches, so to speak. I thought they were all sort of flat.

  11. 11.

    General Stuck

    @Rosie Outlook:

    Their were two kinds I’ve seen here recently. One kind was obvious roach, and the other had a round body like you describe. I had not seen that kind before, and I lived on the gulf coast for years, where they have every kind about there is.

  12. 12.

    Rosie Outlook

    Well, I will assume it is a round roach (sounds like something you’d smoke) and proceed accordingly. Wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it snuck home from work with me. We lost our cafeteria when the contractor decided not to renew and within a week or two people were seeing bugs all over the building, although I myself did not see any unless you count the mystery bug.

  13. 13.

    Hungry Joe

    At least everybody’s spelling “hippie” correctly in this post/thread. “Hippy” is someone who’s a little wide across the beam.

  14. 14.

    greennotGreen

    Help! Comments have fallen into the mobile theme, and they can’t get up! What’s going on? Anybody else seeing this?

  16. 16.

    greennotGreen

    Never mind. After telling me it couldn’t publish my comment, it did, and meanwhile I did the shift + refresh thing, and it worked. BTW, I hate the mobile format.

  17. 17.

    Alex

    http://digbysblog.blogspot.com.br/2013/02/what-do-they-really-believe-who-knows.html

    An interesting (and fair) criticism by digby of the Obama Administration’s peculiar executive priorities in its first term. Record deportations (more in 4 years than the Bush Administration’s 8 years), low prosecution of gun crimes, heavy prosecution of medical marijuana — none of these actions make sense from either a political or institutional vantage point. Would be interested to hear what you all think of this.

  20. 20.

    Soonergrunt

    Rosie–take a picture of the bug in question, and submit the picture to Google. Believe it or not, you can often identify objects in photographs that way. You may get the species of the bug.

  21. 21.

    Sarah

    Since this is an open thread: can anyone tell me if there’s a way to not have the mobile app for BJ as the default on my iPhone? I much prefer the regular version, but that mobile version keeps popping up.

  22. 22.

    PurpleGirl

    I liked the Environments series by Syntonic Research for field recordings of natural sounds. The Pyschologically Ultimate Seashore was/is fantastic for sleeping. Also great was Dawn and Dusk at the Okefenokee Swamp (one side each for dawn and dusk). They had helicopter in the recording equipment.

    Unfortunately, the recordings are out of print now. I have a couple on vinyl, which I take very good care of.

  23. 23.

    Rosie Outlook

    @General Stuck: Hi General, I think spraying is also a good idea so I can do the walls. What proportions of borax and water did you use, and also, what region of the country are you in?

    I was born in 1959, the year of the pig (earth pig, if I remember right) and there was an article in the paper about how snake years bring bad luck for pig people. I guess the Chinese astrologer interviewed knew his stuff. Ironically, I like snakes and always have. They’re pretty and eat mice (and bugs!); what’s not to like?

    When it warms up, I may trot off to the pet store and buy a chameleon; the landlord does not count them as pets.

    If this problem continues, I guess we’ll be moving in December. Are there any Juicers in the Columbus, Ohio, area? If so, please tell me the good and bad aspects of your neighborhoods. (don’t worry, fellow pet lovers, we would take the chameleon along or find someone to adopt him.)

  26. 26.

    Rosie Outlook

    By the way, many people do not know that praying mantises are related to cockroaches–although if you bring it up, the mantises will glare at you and hastily change the subject.

  28. 28.

    mellowjohn

    for those old enough to remember:

    “next week we’ll show you what to do with those roaches.” –share a little tea with goldie (the smothers brothers show)

  29. 29.

    General Stuck

    @Maude:

    They are hunters and killers of anything a tad smaller that they are. The usual ones are also a bit fierce.

    Including the hapless male Mantis, about half the female’s size. She often dines on his liver after mating, with some fava beans and……..

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    @Rosie Outlook:

    We’ve been here 7 years and never had bugs.

    The problem with sharing your property with other tenants is that it they easily spread from one part of the building to another. You can do everything right, but one bad neighbor can feed enough roaches to infest the whole building. It’s kind of like Vietcong Taliban finding refuge in Cambodia Pakistan.

  38. 38.

    Joseph Nobles

    @Litlebritdifrnt: That’s the website with Into The Woods as well, right? I found that once on a low cash day and mentally filed it away for March (three paycheck month).

  39. 39.

    General Stuck

    @Mnemosyne:

    Interesting. I had several entomology courses in college, and we were always taught the accepted version. But that was a million years ago.

  40. 40.

    ET

    Anyone know why I am getting the mobile version on my computer. I logged on earlier and didn’t. Of course in an actual post the header and such is back.

  41. 41.

    Rosie Outlook

    @General Stuck: Thanks! I’ll get some powder and (Hot) Shot tomorrow. The Next to Last Samurai is going to war against the whatever-they-ares. I feel I should have an itty-bitty naginata, just for a touch of traditionalism. (The Next to Last Samurai is my other nom de Internet.)

    That reminds me. A person who lived in Tokyo said they had a terrible bug problem (the humidity?). Are there any ancient traditional bug killing secrets we missed in this topic?

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    @General Stuck:

    Well, it’s a cooler story than, “We screwed up and weren’t feeding the mantises enough.” They basically seem to have accidentally replicated the conditions under which it happens in the wild, which is when there are limited resources to support two adult mantises, so the male sacrifices himself to ensure his genes survive.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @General Stuck:
    That’s what’s cool about science; people are constantly learning new stuff that forces them to reevaluate their theories. We really don’t know everything, so some of the stuff they taught you in school is probably considered laughably outdated now. And, of course, the more advance the stuff you learned, the more likely it is to be outdated today, since it’s knowledge at the very edge of our understanding that’s most subject to radical change.

    In fairness, this is true to a lesser extent of all branches of honest scholarship. The humanities are also subject to changes as the result of newly acquired information, and that sometimes forces people to change their ideas just as radically as new knowledge in the sciences does.

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @Rosie Outlook:

    Are there any ancient traditional bug killing secrets we missed in this topic?

    I guess we covered various forms of biocontrol (e.g. lizards, mantises) which are the best alternative to poison for keeping the bugs under control. That and not leaving food out for them to gorge on, which isn’t completely under your control in a building shared with other people.

  47. 47.

    Rosie Outlook

    In case it gets to the point where I have to cough up for a cat, would a cat that ate a roach poisoned w/boric acid be poisoned itself?

  48. 48.

    sharl

    @Rosie Outlook: Is it possible that, rather than a cockroach, the brown marmorated stink bug has finally made it to your area? There are a bunch of photos at that Wikipedia page, if you want to compare with what you saw. Note that you won’t smell the stink unless you try to grab or crush them (if that’s what you have, that is).

    This invasive species is thought to have been imported from Asia in the 90s, first showing up near Allentown PA. We’ve been infested with them here in the mid-Atlantic for the past several years. They afflict produce farmers in the summer, then winter over in buildings that have heat, and a way for the little critters to get in.

  50. 50.

    lojasmo

    Ran two miles (and did some incline walking) for a total of 40 minutes, and did 50 minutes of yoga today, then had pizza and ale for breakfast at 1:30.

    Even saw the lights of the good year blimp.

    Today was a good day.

  51. 51.

    PIGL

    @TooManyJens: I would not regard this source as very authoritative. It claims centipedes are insects; which these two groups are about as closely related as we humans are to tunicate worms. Same phylum, but that’s all.

  52. 52.

    Splitting Image

    Watching Spaceballs immediately after Star Wars made me realize that Spaceballs actually has fewer laughs in it than the movie it was supposed to be spoofing.

    This leads to the remarkable conclusion that the best parody of Star Wars is probably Return of the Jedi.

  56. 56.

    Comrade Mary

    OMG OMG OMG! This is so fucking adorable that my special gland that responds to adorableness may just up and die from overuse.

    Now Attenborough gets all educational on our arses.

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