I’ve got some serious Dr. Doolittle shit going down in the house right now. I have Seth’s rescue, Ellie, who he dropped off in a complete mess, stinking of hound and with matted hair, so much so that I want to stage an intervention. Instead, I washed her in the sink and she smells amazing now. Beyond that, I’ve got five animals in the house, and everywhere I go someone is eyeballing me.
Zsa Zsa apparently has figure out how to sneak out on me, because the dogs started barking at around 10 pm, and all three of them were at the front door. I opened it, and there was the little lady wanting in. And so I did.
Mom and dad are al freaked out that she got out, yelling at me for being careless, and I kind of feel like them. I mean, I understand the need to protect. When I had my first cat, Tunch, I would freak out if he went outside. But with this second one, knowing Tunch has always made his way back, I’m a touch more laid back about it. Don’t get me wrong, I wish Zsa Zsa would stay inside, but I just refuse to lose it if she makes it outside. That’s what cats do- what they want.
My parents were the same way with their kids, even if they won’t admit it. I broke them in for the other three kids- they all got licenses at 16, had access to cars, while my parents looked at me the eldest and said “You’ll just end up dead.”
So maybe Tunch and I have more in common than I realized.
*** Update ***
Checked the front porch and an amazon package was there, so I am watching what I think is one of the greatest documentaries ever, Dogtown and Z-Boyz. It’s that good.
Roger Moore
You mean apart from clumsiness and a need to lose a substantial portion of your body weight?
Rita R.
Totally OT from anything, but writing something and need to know — do people outside the NYC area generally know what a “bodega” is?
peej
@Rita R.: Yes, in areas with large Hispanic populations.
Narcissus
Maybe whoever took the mustard let her out
Suffern ACE
@Rita R.: I hate to ask, but what did that person think you meant?
Spaghetti Lee
Your late-night posts have been very window-to-the-soul lately.
Omnes Omnibus
@Rita R.: If they watched Law & Order or NYPD Blue.
Rita R.
@Rita R.:
(ETA: Oops. This was supposed to be in response to peej.)
Thanks — so in some places, but not all then. Wasn’t sure if it was strictly a NYC thing, since they’ve been called that here for decades and everyone knows what they are, Hispanic or not.
@Suffern ACE:
No one asked — writing something that for a national audience and din’t know if people would know what I meant.
NotMax
Zsa Zsa felt the urge to step outside and make sure that container of mustard was still safely squirreled away in the yard.
On a totally different track, this new ruling Guantánamo at doesn’t pass the smell test of either plausibility or necessity.
Rita R.
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sesame Street too. What’s Hooper’s Store if not a bodega.
Roger Moore
@peej:
I’m not sure if it’s all areas with large Spanish speaking populations. I live in the LA area, which certainly qualifies, and I’ve never heard a convenience store described that way.
Omnes Omnibus
@Rita R.:
I just don’t know if they called it that.
different-church-lady
It’s obvious Zsa Zsa is the smartest of the lot of you. Why don’t you let her front-page?
Suffern ACE
@Rita R.: a deli. I think of bodegas as serving Hispanics. Hoopers serves sandwiches and milk shakes.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Just decided that the next time I have to roll up a character for a RPG, he will be named Bo Degas.
Or maybe Val Policella (depends on the tenor of the game).
Comrade Mary
@Rita R.: That’s like a depanneur, right?
Soonergrunt
@Rita R.: I only know from years and years of “Law and Order.”
Rita R.
@Roger Moore:
That was one of my concerns. I thought it might be more of a Puerto Rican usage than a more broadly Hispanic one.
Omnes Omnibus
Fucking A right.
JoyceH
Dogtown and Z Boys – when I watched that, I got this sense of mourning — all that was going on when I was young enough to have gotten into it. AND NOBODY TOLD ME!
Joshua Norton
If she’s figured out where the front door is and how to get out and come back in, she’s pretty much already decided she’s going to be an indoor-outdoor kitty. Good luck trying to change her mind.
Rita R.
@Comrade Mary:
Now that one I don’t know. And I took French in high school.
@Suffern ACE:
Actually, bodega is used as just another term for a small corner store, not just serving Hispanics. But you’ve got me on the milk shakes and sandwiches angle.
Never realized Law and Order was so educational about NYC mores…
AxelFoley
Right now? When DON’T you have some Dr. Doolittle shit going on at your crib?
zombie rotten mcdonald
I’d be careful, though. OUr last cat, Toby, was an indoor/outdoor cat. Wouldn’t be kept inside for anything.
A couple of years ago, he went out for the night, and never came back. Cars, dogs, racoon maybe. We don’t know.
It was the not knowing that was the worst.
Omnes Omnibus
@AxelFoley: I want to know when we will see the pushmi-pullyu pics.
Redshirt
Anyone like the Bond movie “Skyfall”?
I thought it rather terrible.
askew
Totally random questions but does anyone know if Martin O’Malley speaks Spanish? One of his tweets was in Spanish today and it made me wonder if he actually spoke Spanish or if it was just a staffer. If no, does this make Rubio the only potential presidential candidate from either party who speaks Spanish?
AxelFoley
@Omnes Omnibus:
I admit I had to look that up. LOL
Roger Moore
@Rita R.:
Most of the small Mexican markets around here seem to be called carnicerias, I assume because meat is the most prestigious item you can sell. But those are really small groceries rather than 7-11 type convenience stores; most of those around my area seem to be run by Sikhs or Armenians.
aangus
@Comrade Mary:
Correct.
Arm The Homeless
Anyone who has ever seen Half Baked should be able to get the reference.
“Hey, Black ass! “
dance around in your bones
@Rita R.:
Well, I know it from living in NYC for some years, but in Mexico we usually called it a tienda.
Omnes Omnibus
@AxelFoley: Your childhood was different than mine. I had the pop-up book.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Rita R.: I feel like I first heard it in a Paul Simon song, but the lyric won’t come to me.
NotMax
@askew
Not by a long shot. Jebbie, for one.
Among Democrats, many.
scav
@Comrade Mary: whew, neighber to the north speak, I was off on car repairs — so be careful where you pull out that usage or you really will be eating John’s legenary tire rims.
Narcissus
I know about bodegas because of bodega cats
Which doesn’t exactly make me want to shop in one
Rita R.
@Roger Moore:
Funny thing is, lots are run here by other ethnicities too, including Middle Eastern and Korean. But they still kind of wind up getting called bodegas anyway.
Thanks again all. I learned some new words too: tienda, carniceria and depanneur. And, of course, the value of Law and Order.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: From Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes.
Poopyman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And she said honey take me dancing
But they ended up by sleeping
In a doorway
By the bodegas and the lights on
Upper Broadway
-Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes
Suffern ACE
@askew: Jen Bush speaks Spanish.
Mnemosyne
If you haven’t already, make sure you get Zsa Zsa microchipped in addition to her collar. That way, if she gets caught on something and loses the breakaway collar, the animal shelter can still scan her and track you down.
Rita R.
@Narcissus:
They are uniformly adorable, friendly and tempting to give pets and scritches — which leads to quickly whipping out the hand sanitizer after thinking about how many mice and rats they’ve killed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: @Poopyman: ah, thanks. Kind of the opposite of an earworm, when you can’t quite find a familiar lyric
askew
@NotMax:
Oh, I forgot about Jeb. As for the Dems, Biden, Clinton, and Schweitzer don’t speak Spanish. Patrick, Gillibrand, O’Malley and Cuomo I don’t know about. That’s pretty much the likely Dem candidates.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
Dogtown and the Z-Boys is just flat out amazing, this speaking as someone who feasted on the X-Games in its better years. The amazing thing is that the only thing that ever felt dated in any of it was the ‘Sidewalk Surfing’ commercial and Charlie’s Angels clip.
Mnemosyne
Because I’m getting old, I’m pretty sure I’ve started developing plantar fascitis in my feet, so I’ve been massaging my arches with a tennis ball as I sit in my chair and type.
Charlotte has now decided that the tennis ball with my foot stank all over it is her new BESTEST TOY EVAH! She’s been wrestling it all over the living room tonight.
Roger Moore
@Redshirt:
Yes, quite a bit.
Poopyman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: And now I’ve got OO’s reference playing in the background. First time in years. Brilliant.
JBP
Jon, totally with you on Dogtown and Z Boys. Stacey Peralta directed the thing, and Sean Penn narrated. It’s a great movie with some sad stories. (Jay should have been an absolute star.) They shouldn’t have tried to make it into a motion picture, which they did. Although Heath Ledger was good in it.
Mnemosyne
@Rita R.:
I only know what it is because of L&O, but as long as you put it into context (like “she stopped at the bodega for a quart of milk” or whatever), people will get what it is even if they haven’t heard that exact term used before.
Omnes Omnibus
@Redshirt: I liked it. Also too, Bérénice Marlohe is hawt.
Yutsano
I’m quite grateful I took half a day off work. I feel much less like dogshit.
@askew: How could you forget JEB! JEB! is the next Republican saviour! Brothers? What brothers?
MikeJ
@Redshirt: Me. Also too, the DB5 is hawt.
Linnaeus
Long day of being environmental and then tutoring, so I’m glad for the red wine, bread, and olive oil. Time to put on some Bowie.
Omnes Omnibus
@MikeJ: Oh, gawd, the DB5…
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
I’m with ya on Dogtown and Z-Boys. Lords of Dogtown, the “based on the true story” flick that came out a few years later is pretty good, too.
Spaghetti Lee
@Redshirt:
I thought it was noticeably similar to The Dark Knight, but you know what they say about stealing from the best.
amk
so cute. such chivalrous dogs.
kdaug
Ah-yup.
mclaren
So has this country all of a sudden regained its sanity in the last couple of months? Or what?
Without warning the Supreme Court strikes down invasive laptop/cellphone searches at the border, citing the fourth amendment… Then a federal appeals court strikes down the CIA drone secrecy insanity… And now Obama is actually acting like he’s got some spine, and refuses to fold and cave in to the Republican blackmail on the sequester… And Obama has even proposed spending 200 million to research ways of weaning this country off its oil addiction.
What the hell?
I thought I was Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes and now common sense is breaking out all over the place. What’s going on?
dance around in your bones
@mclaren:
I blame it on Obama’s 2nd term.
Omnes Omnibus
Shit, I was a good boy, and I did this. Especially the car thing… It was assumed that I would drive too fast and wreck the car. Oddly, I nearly rolled the Volvo the first time I took my brother for a ride 10 minutes after I got my license. We spent about ten minutes picking gravel out of the rims before we went home. The kid never dropped dime. Ever. Also, my mom never wanted me to give my brother a ride on my motorcycle; I think she had come to terms with the fact that I was going to kill myself, but she wasn’t ready for both of us to go at one time.
Suffern ACE
@mclaren: the new black panthers are about to make a comeback to the national stage. So it’ll feel like 2009 all over again.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@JoyceH:
I recall that, when I was a tween, those guys were national C-list celebs for a hot minute- I seem to recall competitions being syndicated for tv back in ’76 or so- and then it all sank back underground pretty quickly. It really started to take hold again and spread when kids my age started getting into hardcore punk rock in the early ’80s.
cay
Dogtown is my ‘hood. You can hang out here.
Randy P
@Redshirt: Yes. And I seem to be the only person I know who likes Daniel Craig’s version of Bond. Only thing I hated I can’t mention as it’s a serious spoiler. Has to do with Naomie Harris’ character.
NotMax
@askew
Julian Castro
Antonio Villaraigosa
Janet Napolitano may or may not be totally fluent (dunno), but as former governor of Arizona doubtless is comfortable with Spanish.
Same probably holds true for Mark Warner, based on the scope of his experience.
Deval Patrick? dunno.
Nemo_N
The shit-parade continues at Cyprus:
Banks will remain closed until Nicos Anastasiades, president of Cyprus, has enough votes to pass the heist.
Also, Krugman is being called unserious once again, for stating “It’s as if the Europeans are holding up a neon sign, written in Greek and Italian, saying “time to stage a run on your banks!”
Apparently he should be clapping harder to make the confidence fairy appear!
Nick
Sean Penn narrates DogTown, and he does the whole movie in one take. He just recites the whole film, so there are audible coughs, pauses and errors. He probably did this project as a favor, do he wasn’t putting in serious studio time.
Randy P
@Nemo_N: I have a friend from Cyprus. He was rather vocal today. He’s not personally affected but his elderly mother is.
Omnes Omnibus
@Randy P: I like Craig’s Bond.
burnspbesq
@Nemo_N:
The Confidence Fairy is being held hostage by the Invisible Bond Vigilantes.
scav
@Nemo_N: She certainly wasn’t hearing enough applause early in the morning. What’s the classic line? “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
The uberlings are making shit decisions and doing it poorly. I’ve read Spain is also in the worrisome category and I think I read they’ve got stronger bank linkages that could prove problematic (from that level of institutional interaction) and with the natives getting restless in many countries. . . Russia throwing its weight around, anger being directed at Germany. Inchoate but filed under “Not good”.
Hill Dweller
@mclaren: Not so fast, my friend.
Wingnuts in the Senate are blocking Obama from putting his nominees on the courts.
The House is more right wing than at any time since…well…ever.
The SC is likely to strike down section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, a pillar of the civil rights movement.
At the state level, the wingnuts are running roughshod over women’s reproductive rights, voting rights, worker rights and environmental laws.
The Village still refuses to call the Republicans crazy.
In a lot of ways, especially at the state level, the country has taken a huge step backwards since the 2010 election.
I pray to FSM this is the death throes of that party, but I fear it’s wishful thinking.
Suffern ACE
@burnspbesq: I think the bond vigilantes are likely to show themselves. I’m not sure how Cyprus is going to make it. Maybe they should offer Putin the opportunity to put an air base on their island.
amk
@mclaren: Obama would be so relieved to know that you approve of him.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hill Dweller: I am going with mclaren on this. I think, and have said before, that the pendulum is starting to swing back our way. It will take a while, but I choose to be optimistic.
KRK
Love, love, love Dogtown and Z Boys. Was fortunate to see it on a big screen.
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but…no Balloon Juice NCAA tournament play this year?
Elizabelle
Did anyone else watch tonight’s “Top of the Lake” mystery miniseries on Sundance Channel?
It was quite good, and is rebroadcasting first two episodes right now.
Elizabeth Moss stars; set in New Zealand.
Johnny Coelacanth
I believe bodega is definitely regional to the north-East. I grew up in Texas, California and Nevada, and never encountered the word until the last decade or so. When I did, it was invariably set in the context of New York/New Jersey area type places.
YellowJournalism
Anyone watch Bates Motel tonight on A&E? I have it DVR’d but want to make sure it’s worth an hour of watching.
Hill Dweller
@Omnes Omnibus: I hope you’re right. I really do. But there are days when I scan the blogs/articles, and my teeth hurt from gritting them. It is infuriating watching journalists knowingly tell half-truths and/or explain away Republican bullshit.
On her show tonight, Maddow was talking about the all out assault on women’s reproductive rights since 2010. The ’12 election didn’t phase them one bit. But you’ll never hear the Village say it out loud.
The Village continues to blame Obama for wingnut intransigence. Their coverage of the sequester has been appalling; and continue to mindlessly parrot Republican talking points.
If the Village can’t accurately call the Republicans crazy now, despite all their insane behavior, when?
Hill Dweller
@Elizabelle: It was good. I like Elisabeth Moss.
SatanicPanic
Dogtown and Z Boys was really cool. I have a couple of uncles who grew up in LA and were surfing and skating in that era. One of them gave me my first skateboard and taught me how to ride it. It was pretty cool seeing that documentary and having that era kind of come to life in pictures, when most of what I knew was from stories.
Jay Adams is by all accounts still nuts.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus:
My (future) husband got a Shelby Corvette given to him before he was eligible to drive. He used to regularly outrun the police in that bad motherfucker.
When he got called for the draft and told to bring a kit with toothbrush and etc, he refused to get on the bus and just followed it in his Shelby.
Needless to say, he never got drafted. Just drove home in the Corvette. More to the story, but I have to save it for the book.
Yutsano
Goddammit. People need to try harder!
? Martin
@dance around in your bones: That’s not a Corvette. And Shelby never worked on Chevys.
That’s an AC Cobra, which is actually a british car. Shelby asked them if they’d make one that would take a V8, and they agreed and he worked with Ford to stuff a V8 in there – he wanted to put a Chevy V8 in it, but Chevy turned him down. He intending to turn it into a proper GT class race car – competing with the Corvette and over several years turned it into more and more of a monster eventually putting a 427 engine in there. The 427 S/C is worth millions as there’s only a few dozen made, and not many still in one piece.
The 427 S/C is a really popular car to kit. There’s several of them in my area, including one with what sounds like a properly uptuned 427. You can hear it from miles away. It sounds fantastic, like it swallowed several Harleys and is farting them out the back.
Elizabelle
@Yutsano:
That’s funny.
HuffPost headline: MSNBC is all opinion, with a picture of Rachel Maddow. Allegedly per the Pew Study.
Really? Because it would seem you get some well reported news on TRMS that Andrea Mitchell Greenspan is not as likely to bring you.
Haven’t read the Pew study yet, but is it a paean to the Village?
joel hanes
The only “bodega” I knew in the SF Bay Area was the late, lamented “The Bodega” in San Jose: a honkin’ 1980’s nightspot with back courtyard with high walls, where the clientele could and did smoke pretty much anything they had with them. Good place to see a band.
Little Mexican markets around here seem to be called “Mercado such and such” — I’m fond of the burritos and dried chiles and packaged spices from Mercado Del Torre, the Tower Market, in north Sunnyvale.
I tend to think of a bodega as a bar; most likely one with a big ramada or patio.
Yutsano
@Elizabelle: I thought Pew was found to be skewing rightward in the last election. Or something is funky with their funding source. Or something like that. Regardless Pew has been shit for awhile.
dance around in your bones
@? Martin:
Ok, maybe it was a Shelby Mustang. I wasn’t around when he had the damn thing, and I don’t know that much about cars. All I know is that he told me he had a Shelby something or other. But I swear he said it was a Corvette.
I bow to your superior knowledge :)
Elizabelle
@Yutsano:
Disappointing. I thought Pew used to be the good guys.
And I don’t even watch TRMS all that much. But appreciate her focus on a lot of news that does not get addressed well by lazier outlets and papers.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: Meh, polls like that are skewed just by the way they define “news” or “opinion”, and given that MSNBC is almost entirely devoted to politics, its going to be weighted toward opinion, including regular appearances by half a dozen people who work for Arianna Gaborington, hit troller extraordinaire.
TriassicSands
Careful. They don’t always make it home safely. Remember Inkblot, Kevin Drum’s recently departed cat. He met a very unpleasant end.
Keith G
@Elizabelle:
Depends on what you consider “reporting”. All reporters have bias. Some work at maintaining a traditional standard of limiting how that bias affects their work. Mitchell still considers herself a traditional reporter and she does a decent job using her contact list to get interesting first-hand reporting done.
Maddow is not a reporter. She uses the work of reporters to form and then support the premises of her show’s arguments. Where she is better than other “opinion journalists” is that she is willing to allow the influence of objective facts into her process. Even she admits that she is not a “reporter”.
Please consider continuing to feel that the Pew Research Center are the good guys until you see objective facts that show otherwise. I have seen nothing in the news that would lead me to think that they have departed from their nonpartisan mission statement.
Sometimes folks here get a bit of info that they don’t agree with and the first thing done is to attack the source.
Lee
It had nothing to do with breaking your parents in. Your parents knew you and could tell the difference between you and your siblings.
Tony Alva
DT Z Boyz…
Recall your post about your young self and lack of respect, throw in being the son of a career officer assigned to West Point when I turned 14, then add the whole Dogtown Z Boyz thing and you pretty much know what I’m built on. Even had TA’s hair. Certainly understand better my online moniker. Fantastic movie BTW. Watched it with my dad when it was first released on DVD. He completely got it.
g
All that happened just blocks from my office. And all traces of it are now gone.
? Martin
@dance around in your bones:
Shelby Mustang is much more likely. Quite a nice car still, and certainly one you tell stories about. :)
Redshirt
Hmm, I’m the only one who didn’t like Skyfall. Maybe I’m not as “hep” to the Bond genre as I should be. It felt terribly formulaic to me. For example, every sex scene (though they were all teases) felt incredibly shoehorned into the movie and did not do anything to advance the story.
And the beginning was just awkward I thought. Also, hated the main villain.
My Truth Hurts
Dogtown and Z Boys is my favorite doc ever and I have seen it at least 25 times.