Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

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

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

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

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / True Blood Open Thread

True Blood Open Thread

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Looks like we all took the day off. I was up super late because I didn’t want to kick Steve off my lap, and then, when I woke up this morning at 8:30 or so because Lily stuck her nose in my armpit to let me know she had to potty, I noticed an unfamiliar lump next to and on top of me. Apparently Steve had come in during the night and settled himself down on my shoulder, and was sleeping with his paws on my chest, butt on my shoulder, and head and glamorous whiskers between his paws facing me. He was sound asleep and looked pretty happy.

So that was pretty awesome, but the best was what happened next. I told Steve to get up and he went and sat next to the gate to his bedroom to keep the dogs out, but on the “unsafe” side of the gate. Yelled “Who wants to go out,” and Lily and Rosie jumped down off the bed and raced towards the door and paid NO attention to the boss.

That made me feel good. I’m still in the stage where any time Steve is on my lap I try to make sure I get Rosie up there or pet her as she sits next to me, or if I leave for a while I close the door to Steve’s room, but I think we are making real progress.

At any rate, True Blood! Oh, and a big congrats to the US Men’s National team for bringing home the gold. It was a really stressful but awesome game because it was so close the whole game.

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  3. 3.

    Alison

    It was indeed a stressful game. I mean…we really should do better than 1-0 against Panama, but whatev, a win is a win, and it’s nice to have the Gold Cup trophy back home :)

  4. 4.

    maya

    People should not blog with an alcohol blood level of more than 2.0. I hope FLOTUS pushes that.

  6. 6.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Well, ask and ye shall receive, I guess. I asked for a new thread, but I didn’t expect it to be a Ture Blood thread.*

    * “NOBODY expects the Ture Blood….”

  11. 11.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @maya:
    Damn with those type of regulations I wouldn’t blog about butterflies ever again.

    ETA Ms. Flossie snuggles up on the bed every night while Skeeter being the total boy he is lies on his back with his legs in the air and displays his crown jewels to anyone who will look at them. He can do that until September 6, at which point his crown jewels are going to be medical waste. I feel bad, but it is for his own good.

  12. 12.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @efgoldman: if you’re going to use that as a yardstick, China should win every sports competition they enter.

  15. 15.

    gogol's wife

    It sounds as if Lily and Rosie are going to be fine with him. They coexisted with Tunch, so that’s a good start.

    Time for Endeavour!

  16. 16.

    Mike in NC

    Went to see “The Heat” with Sandra Bullock and Mellisa McCarthy; OK movie with good chemistry between two comedic actresses, though a bit too raunchy and bloody for a comedy.

    Best part was a scene trying to explain understanding Boston accents to outsiders, which was exactly what happened when my mom first met my fiancée.

  18. 18.

    maya

    @John Cole: ” And it is 8 pm on a Sunday night, Maya. I’m not even drinking. FFS. ”

    Well then, hadn’t you ought to ketchup?

  19. 19.

    MattR

    @gogol’s wife:

    It sounds as if Lily and Rosie are going to be fine with him. They coexisted with Tunch, so that’s a good start.

    Probably more accurate to say that Tunch properly trained them to know their place :)

    Gold Cup final was painful to watch. It was nice to have so much possession but they also weren’t able to do much to threaten the Panamanian defense. I know Beckerman does good defensive work but it felt like 9 of every 10 passes he made was backwards.

  22. 22.

    dmsilev

    Sunday evening. The perfect time for a piece of equipment to spring a leak. Joy.

    Hopefully the pump can stay ahead of the leak and prevent Bad Things from happening; if not, I’ll have to trek into work and safe the thing manually. Bleargh.

  32. 32.

    Alison

    @efgoldman: Sigh. Soccer jokes. Not stale at *all*.

    And the population size has nothing to do with it. Consider – in pretty much every other country, all of their best athletes play soccer. In the USA, the majority of our best athletes play other sports. Even now, as the sport has advanced a lot here, we are still often at something of a disadvantage in that regard. True, I would still rank us as better than many small Central American countries, but the margin of betterness isn’t proportional to the gap between the populations.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud: I heard him interviewed about this book two or three weeks ago on NPR. Fox is wa-a-a-aaay behind the times.

  37. 37.

    gbear

    @Baud: I only watched about 20 seconds of it and then realized – Fox News – and quit (I could see it ending with a Fox freak out but I just don’t care). As SiubhanDuinne says, he was interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air a couple weeks ago and that 40 minute interview is well worth a listen. You should give a copy of the book to any christianists who’s heads you would like to explode.

  39. 39.

    Calming Influence

    So I got a call out of the blue yesterday from a scientist I used to work with, who wanted to get together for a beer. We met today at a bar overlooking Liberty Bay (Puget Sound) in the beautiful Pacific Northwest summer sunshine, and downed a few. Turns out he’s got a great idea for a start-up, has already got some preliminary funding lined up, and is just finishing up a proposal for a Small Business Technology Transfer grant.

    He just heard I was available, and he really wants to have me on-board.

    I Am Stoked. The next round’s on me.

    (I was laid off a year ago, and I’m of an age where your level of education and experience can weigh heavily against you in the job market. This is as much a boost to my self-esteem as it is a great opportunity. Cheers, Juicers :)

  41. 41.

    Redshirt

    @efgoldman: As Class President, I am responsible for all official reunion events with my class – unless, I suppose, I was overthrown in some post-graduation coup.

    I don’t believe in 5 year Reunions. And thus my class will not get a 25 sponsored by me. Is that cruel? Am I being unusual, or does that seem logical – 10, 20, 30, etc. No need for an official 25. If folks want to get together and have a party, go for it! Just not under my imprimatur.

  42. 42.

    Violet

    @efgoldman:

    Limbaugh recently acknowledged difficulty selling ads, complaining ad buyers are “are young women fresh out of college, liberal feminists who hate conservatism“:

    That’s hilarious. He’s blaming the ad buyers themselves. Typical Republican. Blame everyone but himself. If a liberal show couldn’t find advertisers, I’m quite sure Limbaugh wouldn’t be blaming the ad buyers.

  44. 44.

    MattR

    @Violet:

    If a liberal show couldn’t find advertisers, I’m quite sure Limbaugh wouldn’t be blaming the ad buyers.

    Limbaugh would be mocking those liberals for trying to blame it on the ad buyers instead of accepting that the lack of advertisers was the market telling them that nobody wants to hear their ideas.

  46. 46.

    lamh36

    Been spending all weekend reading books and just doing absolutely nothing. Today my sister decided to come over and we watched movies for the majority of the afternoon/evening.

    Just found out that the morning DJ I listened to on my morning drive in DFW dies right here in NOLA yesterday of an apparent brain aneurysm??

    Damn: RIP Kidd Kraddick
    Kidd Kraddick dead at 53: How he changed radio in Dallas

  48. 48.

    Violet

    @MattR: Exactly. It would be the fault of the content not the ad buyers. That kind of finger-pointing is just lame, even from him. I know conservatives are a “blame everyone else” kind of crowd, but they aren’t always that sadly obvious. I think the sustained boycott and diminishing audience has gotten to him.

  49. 49.

    burnspbesq

    @Alison:

    Not to mention that Dely Valdes has done a fabulous job as manager of Panama. They are the most improved team in the region. They have a real shot at catching Honduras for fourth place in the Hex and getting into the home-and-home series with New Zealand for a spot in the World Cup.

  50. 50.

    Pogonip

    You wouldn’t move because you didn’t want to wake the cat? The last guy who felt like that ended up founding a religion. Maybe you can call yours “Stevism” or “Tunchianity.”

  51. 51.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    It’s quite horrid.

    An understatement. At the very end, when she thanks him for a “spirited debate” — actually, it was her slinging smear after smear at him — she best demonstrates what Conservatism has become.

  52. 52.

    Pogonip

    @MattR: Probably more accurate to say that Tunch looked them over, decided they ouldn’t taste that great, and thereafter ignored their existence as if they were a couple of pole toys.

  53. 53.

    burnspbesq

    Also too, and this may well be a minority opinion, but I am OK with Gus Johnson. Yes, he get’s a bit hysterical at times when compared to Martin Tyler, but that’s the American Way of Sportscasting. Heather Mitts is horrendous, however. How horrendous? Worse than Julie Foudy, that’s how horrendous.

  54. 54.

    MattR

    @Redshirt: @efgoldman: I wonder if Facebook is going to ruin reunions. Will people still have a desire to reunite when they never really lost touch? Or will the ability to keep in touch in between reunions make them a better party since you will feel more connected to your classmates and will be more excited to actually spend time with them in person?

  55. 55.

    TheMightyTrowel

    In sports news that pretty much no one here will care about (but what the hell) we had a surprise upset this weekend as the ACT local Rugby union team beat the Bulls in their home ground in Pretoria to make it into the super rugby final next week. The Bulls were previously undefeated at home and are and always have been one of the top teams in Super Rugby and, while the Brumbies are definitely the best team in Australia this year, we’ve been all over the place internationally. I can’t wait for the final next week!

  57. 57.

    gbear

    I’ve been hooked on the Kinks lately and BJ has been very cat-centric, so here’s a sweet song about a Phenomenal Cat from the Kinks.

    Congrats Calming Influence!

  58. 58.

    Calming Influence

    @schrodinger’s cat: I knew there was something about that uncertainty principle experiment that didn’t make sense: the outcome was always uncertain, and yet the cat always came out alive!

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    Fox is a couple of centuries behind the times.

    What you meant, I think.

    @Violet: Yes, I found him interesting. Will likely read his book at some point, after I’ve plowed my way through some of the current TBR pile (or TBR queue, whatever the ebook equivalent of a bedside table is).

  60. 60.

    Alison

    @efgoldman: Well, it has gotten steadily more popular, although if you don’t care about it, of course it won’t seem that way. No one with any sense claims it’ll be as popular as baseball or gridiron football, but MLS games do draw higher average attendance/viewership than NHL and NBA games, so yeah…it’s more popular now than it was 20, 10, 5 years ago, and will be more so in another 5, 10, 20 years, especially with the younger Hispanic community growing all across the country.

  63. 63.

    ? Martin

    @MattR:

    I wonder if Facebook is going to ruin reunions. Will people still have a desire to reunite when they never really lost touch?

    Facebook convinced me that I really hate most of the people I went to HS with. That had started to fade and I was inclined to assume that they had grown up, but no, most of them are even bigger assholes now.

  65. 65.

    MattR

    @burnspbesq: I’m with you on Gus Johnson and on Panama. It would be nice for the US to get 4 points out of their next two qualifiers, which could clinch a spot in the World Cup depending on the results of the other games. But more important is to get at least two points so that a win over Jamaica will clinch that spot and we won’t have to sweat out that final game against Panama

  66. 66.

    lamh36

    This is from an interview in Esquire with James Baldwin in 1968, right after MLK was assassinated. With the Trayvon Martin murder in the news, his answer still fits

    Q. How can we get the black people to cool it?

    James Baldwin: It is not for us to cool it.

    Q. But aren’t you the ones who are getting hurt the most?

    James Baldwin: No, we are only the ones who are dying fastest.

    esquire.com/features/james-baldwin-cool-it

  68. 68.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Pogonip:

    Y

    You wouldn’t move because you didn’t want to wake the cat? The last guy who felt like that ended up founding a religion.

    I always heard that the cat was sleeping on Mohammad’s sleeve, and the Prophet, PBUH, simply cut off the sleeve so as not to disturb the cat.

    Given John’s history, and the tendency of his cats to sleep in his lap, however, I’m not sure I’d want to let him close to a sharp implement, new religion or no new religion.

  70. 70.

    dewzke

    I’m still thinking that “steve” is a horrible name. My old friend named his dog “bruce” awful.

  74. 74.

    jeffreyw

    @efgoldman: I hear ya. I set up an account a few weeks ago and FB seemed to be insisting that I list at least one friend. OK, OK, I list Mrs J. Then alla her pals are like will you be my friend too?
    So.. I unfriended my wife. We’re still cool, though. Mostly.

  76. 76.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @jeffreyw: the trick is never to use anything like your real name and to allow no photos of your face. Then no one will want to friend you because you’ll be a random freak on the internet.

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne

    @dewzke:

    I have cats named Keaton, Annie, and Charlotte, so I’m obviously on the “people names are okay for cats” side.

    Though I do think that Cole should have thought of a way to continue the botanical theme for his pets since he already had Lily and Rosie. Rowan, maybe?

  78. 78.

    Keith P.

    Jeez, True Blood was boring as shit tonight. Too many drawn out dramatic scenes…Jessica and pretty-boy actor #11 actually had me changing the channel for a bit. Joe Mangianello furrowing his brow in every scene he was in. Everyone having a sad over Terry.
    Need…more…action.

  79. 79.

    MattR

    @? Martin: I had a pretty cool HS class. There were all the usual social groups, but even if some were cliquey, they were never nasty or bullying towards others. Most of my closest friends today are from HS. And at our 20th reunion I learned that was true of a bunch of other groups of friends as well. But I also know we are more the exception than the rule. I definitely noticed a difference between the 10 year (pre Facebook) and 20 year (post Facebook), but I can’t really say which was better. And I don’t know what it will be like for current graduates who will have used social media since before their freshman year.

    @efgoldman: I am a bit older than your kid and our HS class page on facebook has 233 members. We had a graduating class of about 400. A few of the members of the group are spouses, but we still have a bit more than half of our class in that group. I am guessing the class from your kid’s year has 75-80% of the classmates in their group.

  81. 81.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Alison: also, there’s this.. On several Saturdays this season, Fox could have shown a national-exclusive baseball game, but chose to show soccer instead.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @jeffreyw:

    G says that his relatives keep getting emails from Facebook begging them to find more friends for him. I am not on The Facebook, myself.

  87. 87.

    manyakitty

    @schrodinger’s cat: Yes. He’s the epitome of felinity. I also serve Heisenberg and Mme. Curie. Sorry about the multiple posts earlier-I kept getting an error message and instructions to try again.

  95. 95.

    Redshirt

    I can be Balloon Juice President too, you just need to vote for me. I run on the “If it feels good, do it” Plato – form.

  97. 97.

    Jax6655

    @MattR:

    He has no advertisers due to pressure from Color of Change & other activists who successfully convinced the majority of his advertisers of the financial consequences (i.e. boycotts) if they continued to support his daily hatefest.

  99. 99.

    Calming Influence

    @TheMightyTrowel: This is absolutely the way to go. I remember a friend extolling the virtues of FB on the day he signed up, and only a few days later telling me what a nightmare it was having all these strangers and marginal people from his past that he thought he had successfully left behind nipping at him like mini-sharks in freshly chummed waters.

    My real name stays off Facebook.

  101. 101.

    Anne Laurie

    Looks like we all took the day off. …

    MisterMix and I ask: What you mean ‘we’, white man?

  102. 102.

    Calming Influence

    @jeffreyw: The classic skunk eye.

    Toby looks a bit like our Ranger, but Ranger’s eyes are a lot more yellow. I think it initially freaked out our other two (green-eyed) cats. Of course it might also have been his continuous and raging (pre-surgery) testosterone buzz…

  105. 105.

    dance around in your bones

    Ah – I kinda tried to get into True Blood but I just couldn’t feel it, ya know? This makes me an outlier among the cognoscenti here, I guess, but I just – can’t get into the campy vampy thing.

    I do not apologize for this.

  108. 108.

    Steeplejack

    @dance around in your bones:

    Mini-alert just for you!

    If you’re up late and wanting to watch a movie, TCM is showing Ugetsu Monogatari (1953) at 11:00 PDT. Two 16th-century Japanese peasants leave home to seek their fortune and get caught up with samurai and ghosts. Pretty damn good.

    And followed by Portrait of Jennie (1948) at 12:45 a.m. PDT. Joseph Cotten and Jennifer Jones in an eerie love story. Also pretty good.

  109. 109.

    dance around in your bones

    @Mnemosyne: It’s got a great opening credits/song thingymajoo but I just could never get into the plot.

    Maybe Anne Rice spoiled me all those years ago with her books. At any rate, I appear to have grown out of my vampire phase.

    @Steeplejack: You are such a treasure! Thank you – set up to DVR as we speak. Thanks, Steep.

  110. 110.

    katie5

    @Calming Influence: The moment you connect with a few of your friends on fb then its data inferencing engine will start to work. fb’s whole biz model depends on knowing the true id of all the accounts. Therefore, your friends will start getting messages from fb like “is ProjectDynamo really John Smith II from Roanoake?”

    And congrats!

  111. 111.

    Older

    I watched a couple of minutes and that was enough. Clearly, she thinks that People-Like-Her can write about anything, but Others should stay in their own little ghetto of Otherness. And not write about anything outside of it, no matter how much it might affect their lives, or how much they might be An Expert on it. In fact, can Others even be experts?

  112. 112.

    Older

    Hmm. I believe I am on the wrong thread. Sorry. That’s how it is when you get old.

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