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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

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Accountability, motherfuckers.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by $8 blue check mistermix|  December 8, 20133:03 pm| 133 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Long overdue thread for football and everything else.

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Previous Post: « People Try to Put Us Down
Next Post: Open Thread: The Most Important Thing Is Sincerity… »

Reader Interactions

133Comments

  1. 1.

    p.a.

    December 8, 2013 at 3:06 pm

    Looks like broken leg for Gronk. Just a guess from the replay.

  2. 2.

    Culture of Truth

    December 8, 2013 at 3:07 pm

    Sad that Nelson Mandela passed away, but at least he missed this Raiders – Jets game. (too soon?)

  3. 3.

    BruceFromOhio

    December 8, 2013 at 3:08 pm

    Browns up 12-0 over Pats at Gillette can only mean Cleveland will lose by 14 points instead of the usual 21. But what a great first half! *barking noises*

    ETA: No sharp objects around Brady for the rest of the day.

  4. 4.

    p.a.

    December 8, 2013 at 3:10 pm

    @BruceFromOhio: not today. Browns win unless they self destruct.

  5. 5.

    schrodinger's cat

    December 8, 2013 at 3:11 pm

    Submitted for purr review

  6. 6.

    geg6

    December 8, 2013 at 3:16 pm

    Fuck fuck fuck Stillers. Fuck.

  7. 7.

    trollhattan

    December 8, 2013 at 3:18 pm

    Countdown to Seattle-SF. Go, you made-up birds! I need my Monday morning office gloatfest.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    December 8, 2013 at 3:20 pm

    @p.a.: ugh The only game that we have is the Falcons/Green Bay.

  9. 9.

    Mike in NC

    December 8, 2013 at 3:21 pm

    @Culture of Truth: Hearing reports on some TV news outlets that in various places they are complaining about a directive to fly the flag at half staff since Mandela was not a Real American white Republican.

  10. 10.

    Zippity

    December 8, 2013 at 3:22 pm

    I’d really like KC to look as good in the 2nd half as they did in the first. It seems like they get a good lead, then just start playing to protect it.

  11. 11.

    MikeJ

    December 8, 2013 at 3:25 pm

    UCLA and FSU are playing for the national championship right now.

  12. 12.

    gene108

    December 8, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    Eagle’s special teams…gah…blowing this game for their team…

  13. 13.

    MikeJ

    December 8, 2013 at 3:31 pm

    @trollhattan: Made up birds? I think not. That’s an actual Seattle sea hawk I shot while standing on the deck of the Bonnie Dick in Elliot Bay. Ok, it’s a bad pic, but it’s not sasquatch bad.

  14. 14.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    December 8, 2013 at 3:32 pm

    @gene108:

    Heh. Jeremy Ross absolutely sucked when he was with the Packers.

  15. 15.

    BruceFromOhio

    December 8, 2013 at 3:33 pm

    @p.a.: Thank you, Mr Gordon! Wow, still not calling it done, lots of football left – Pats have done more with less.

    ETA: Case in point.

    ETAA: 19-11 after 3? Only in a Browns game! ;)

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    December 8, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    When we were up in Central California, we had dinner at the Firestone Brewery restaurant in Buellton (not the one in Paso Robles) and brought home a bottle of Wookey Jack. I’m going to try to make beef stew with it tonight even though most recipes say, Dear god, don’t use an IPA, it’ll be too bitter!  I found this homebrewer’s beef stew recipe that seems to account for the possible bitterness and adjust the flavorings accordingly, so we’ll see how it turns out.

  17. 17.

    tybee

    December 8, 2013 at 3:37 pm

    @trollhattan:

    seahawks are ospreys.

    ETA: i see MikeJ beat me to it.

  18. 18.

    Jewish Steel

    December 8, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    @MikeJ:

    sea hawk I shot

    Not cool, MikeJ Cheney. Not cool.

  19. 19.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 8, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    Watching the snowbowl between the Lions and Eagles, and they’re trading TD’s and slips and slides. They say there’s 8″ of snow on the field.

    And I can barely hear the play-by-play over the air conditioner running here in Miami…

    (No, I don’t give a rat’s patoot about the Dolphins.)

  20. 20.

    MikeJ

    December 8, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    @Jewish Steel: Kinda scrawny, but good eatin’ on those birds. Not nearly as tough as a bald eagle.

  21. 21.

    tybee

    December 8, 2013 at 3:44 pm

    @MikeJ:

    and much better than spotted owl

  22. 22.

    tybee

    December 8, 2013 at 3:47 pm

    and the packers dine upon falcon.

  23. 23.

    Pogonip

    December 8, 2013 at 3:47 pm

    Asksistermarymartha.blogspot.com has a War on Christmas article that you will all love.

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2013 at 3:51 pm

    Interesting, this. Apparently, the von Trapps concur with the general lack of enthusiasm for Carrie Underwood’s portrayal of great-grandma Maria. They would have preferred Anne Hathaway; she can sing and act.

    (Vorsicht! Link to Huffington Post.)

  25. 25.

    MikeJ

    December 8, 2013 at 3:54 pm

    Dammit UCLA. Put the biscuit in the basket. Three shots and you come up with nothing.

  26. 26.

    Boudica

    December 8, 2013 at 3:55 pm

    @Pogonip: Points to pogonip as nym. I just learned the word last night as we were under a freezing fog warning.

  27. 27.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2013 at 4:03 pm

    Put down your drink before you click on this link.

  28. 28.

    trollhattan

    December 8, 2013 at 4:03 pm

    @MikeJ:

    Not an easy catch. Here’s mine, taken at Bodega Bay, literally a “wha?” swing & grab shot.

    http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1132/4603251012_0aa5000ce8_o.jpg

    Have heard them referenced as sea eagles, but that’s also been applied to bald eagles, so there’s that.

  29. 29.

    p.a.

    December 8, 2013 at 4:03 pm

    @BruceFromOhio: I could have gone today, my shingles is running its course, but didn’t really feel like dealing with cold and crowds. Almost every time I go it’s an ugly game; field goals, penalties. Saw the Browns here in I think Couch’s 1st year. 9-3, 9-6, something like that. Was there for the Miami game where the Pats were helpless against the Wildcat. Only Pats blowout I’ve seen was when they took apart the Broncos. Plummer was their qb I think.

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    December 8, 2013 at 4:05 pm

    @tybee:

    This after dining on the Redskins, if you listened to my play by play in thread below.

    EmilyLittellaBelle

    Eh, some team from the midwest that beat the Redskins. That’s most of them, right?

  31. 31.

    MikeJ

    December 8, 2013 at 4:06 pm

    @trollhattan: Here’s a different osprey I got the same day.

  32. 32.

    p.a.

    December 8, 2013 at 4:09 pm

    @trollhattan: sea eagle: erne on your basic crossword. Osprey is a fish hawk, freshwater. Can’t remember seeing them by the sea. Loved the original ‘hawks’ unis. The new colors are too muddy.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    December 8, 2013 at 4:09 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    He can try to be the Pixar of Faith, but Man on Dog is going to be his epitaph. You can’t pray that one away.

    I am surprised they have a million dollar promotion budget.

  34. 34.

    jeffreyw

    December 8, 2013 at 4:10 pm

    Thread needs moar puppeh!

  35. 35.

    Pogonip

    December 8, 2013 at 4:11 pm

    @Boudica: We get freezing fog a LOT where I live, that’s what gave me the idea. It’s not true that freezing fog will destroy your lungs–if it were, this area would long ago have been depopulated–but it is true that it tends to glue car windows shut.

  36. 36.

    trollhattan

    December 8, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    @tybee:

    And for all you (a-herm) late-adopters, the argument back when they held the name-that-team contest was, “there’s no such bird.” At this late date I don’t recall what the other finalists might have been (hopefully not Buccaneers). No doubt there were a few votes for 7-Football-7s. I’d have gone for Pilots II.

    We were pretty sports-starved.

  37. 37.

    beer time somewhere

    December 8, 2013 at 4:13 pm

    As I am going out to a friend’s for dinner and copious amounts of food and alcoholic beverages will be served, I want to get this in now —- Go ‘Aints.
    Might not be in any shape to actually watch the game.

  38. 38.

    jeffreyw

    December 8, 2013 at 4:15 pm

    Thread needs moar chili cheese mac ‘n cheese.

  39. 39.

    MikeJ

    December 8, 2013 at 4:19 pm

    @trollhattan: The original working name was the Seattle Kings. It’s a lame name, but it would have been interesting to see what they did when King County changed its name from “King County” (named after William Rufus King) to “King County” (named after MLK).

  40. 40.

    JPL

    December 8, 2013 at 4:25 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Audra McDonaldl would have made a great Maria imo, but I also thought the Captain could have been played by Mandy Patikin so there is that. It would have made for a more interesting production.

  41. 41.

    geg6

    December 8, 2013 at 4:27 pm

    Wish I had some alcohol. Not that we don’t have any. Hell, we have a fully stocked bar. But no alcohol that I like. The only thing we’re missing is wine. All I have is cheap cooking Chardonnay, a sweet red dessert wine and a bottle of champagne, which does not suit my mood at all. Come to think of it, we have a couple of small bottles that we got as favors at a wedding last fall. Don’t have a clue what is is but it’s white and the bottle can’t be more than 8 oz. a couple of those may be what the football gods have ordered. Fucking Stillers.

  42. 42.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2013 at 4:28 pm

    @Elizabelle:
    I think The Christmas Candle might have been a better fit for TV than for theatres. It’s basically a soppy Christmas story, and its main attraction is Susan Boyle in a minor role,.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    December 8, 2013 at 4:31 pm

    @jeffreyw:

    They look beyond adoptable.

    And they’re not even in scarves.

    Sweet article re airlift of 400+ dogs from Van Nuys (LA area) airport to Montana and other points north. Private planes, mucho volunteers, and cute dogs in travel kennels.

    The flight joined a flotilla of wagging tails taking off from Van Nuys Aircraft on Friday for what might be the largest dog airlift in the West.

    The Wings of Rescue 3rd Annual Holiday Airlift whisked 500 shelter pooches aboard 14 flights to 11 cities up to the Pacific Northwest, saving each from near-certain euthanasia.

    Wings of Rescue has saved over 5,000 dogs from SoCal shelters since its founding in 2009.

    Worth it to click the extended slideshow.

  44. 44.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2013 at 4:33 pm

    @JPL:
    Patinkin’s a musical-theatre legend, but isn’t he a bit long in the tooth to play the Captain?

  45. 45.

    lamh36

    December 8, 2013 at 4:39 pm

    @Amir Khalid: but the captain is much older than Maria is supposed to be.

    As to that Carrie Underwood abomination, I refuse to watch it. Sound of Music is my FAVORITE musical and I’m a big Julie Andrews fan as well, so Carrie was already “shit out of luck” in my book.

    Love Audra MacDonald though.

  46. 46.

    JPL

    December 8, 2013 at 4:40 pm

    @Amir Khalid: With that cast , no one would be bitchin about the acting.

  47. 47.

    lamh36

    December 8, 2013 at 4:41 pm

    So I turned 37 this year and it got me to thinking that in 3 years I’ll be 40 years old. So I began to reflect on my life so far and I’ve come to realize that I’m not quite close to where I want be in my life once I reach 40 years. So if I want to meet my expectations I’ve got to come up with a 3 year plan to start after New Year’s. Is it too early for resolutions…lol?

  48. 48.

    BruceFromOhio

    December 8, 2013 at 4:43 pm

    @p.a.: And once again, Brady and Pats pull yet another rabbit out of the hat.

    NE gets some major credit for cardiac fortitude. Three times this season they have played to win after looking completely out of it. The fans must be aging in dog years at this point.

    Though its a loss, hats off to the Browns, I expected a blowout and they played competent hand egg. Way to go Cameron, Gordon, Campbell, and the ferocious D.

  49. 49.

    p.a.

    December 8, 2013 at 4:45 pm

    yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes! But now local Fox is showing Gints/Bolts. :(

  50. 50.

    p.a.

    December 8, 2013 at 4:48 pm

    @BruceFromOhio: I don’t think that was a head shot on Edelman’s TD. Replay showed shoulder pad Thai chest. Home cookin’. Pretty crappy ref. crew all around.

  51. 51.

    p.a.

    December 8, 2013 at 4:51 pm

    Shoulder pad to chest. Autocorrect strikes again.

  52. 52.

    barbequebob

    December 8, 2013 at 4:51 pm

    @BruceFromOhio:

    with a big assist from the refs on that pass interference call that set up final NE TD.

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 8, 2013 at 4:52 pm

    @trollhattan: They are building Saabs in Trollhattan again. Cool, right?

  54. 54.

    gbear

    December 8, 2013 at 4:53 pm

    @lamh36: As a wee lad, I got to see Mary Martin play Maria in the traveling NY cast version of The Sound of Music when they came to St. Paul. It was the first time I’d ever been in a real theater and I was enthralled.

  55. 55.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 8, 2013 at 4:56 pm

    @tybee: A squeaker, but I’ll take the win and be happy.

  56. 56.

    BruceFromOhio

    December 8, 2013 at 4:58 pm

    @barbequebob: What p.a. said, the officiating could have been better.

    Still, exciting game, fun to watch, I know my Dawgs ain’t going nowhere, so they get to play spoiler for the Steelers if nothing else.

  57. 57.

    lamh36

    December 8, 2013 at 5:01 pm

    Christmas movie time: Watching The Preacher’s Wife on one of the HBO channels. Love me some Denzel W and RIP Whitney Houston.

    Preacher’s Wife – I Believe In You And Me

  58. 58.

    R-Jud

    December 8, 2013 at 5:09 pm

    @lamh36: I had a similar thing back at Halloween when I turned 34. I think when it comes to things like personal habits and doing the things you’ve been putting off doing, New Year starts when you say it does.

  59. 59.

    Cermet

    December 8, 2013 at 5:15 pm

    Insane finish to the Ravens-Viking’s game; five (yes, 5) scores in 2:05 (yes, just over two minutes.)
    Almost impossible to believe consider the score was 7-3 at half (and had little scoring even in the third quarter.)

    Shocked that the Steelers’ lost to dolphins in the snow and cold in the Steeler’s own stadium!! (OK, would be more surprised if they lost in the snow in Miami … .)

  60. 60.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    December 8, 2013 at 5:16 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Santorum should start by prodicing movies that don’t suck dead donkey dick.

  61. 61.

    Davis X. Machina

    December 8, 2013 at 5:17 pm

    @lamh36: My music prof in college used to call once a week for birthdays. We’d raise our hands, say how old we were, and he’d tell us what Mozart — sometimes Mendelsohn — had already written by that point.

    To be fair, he also used to say “When he was my age, Mozart had been dead for ten years’.

  62. 62.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    December 8, 2013 at 5:19 pm

    @Certified Mutant Enemy:

    Speaking of bad movies…

  63. 63.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 8, 2013 at 5:20 pm

    @Davis X. Machina: OTOH Grandma Moses didn’t start painting until her 70s.

  64. 64.

    Ruckus

    December 8, 2013 at 5:20 pm

    @Elizabelle:
    That’s the same org that flew Bud back to the rescue org when I couldn’t keep him last year. Good folks, really care about the animals.

  65. 65.

    Bob In Portland

    December 8, 2013 at 5:21 pm

    I hate Pete Carroll. And I really hate Golden Tate.

  66. 66.

    lamh36

    December 8, 2013 at 5:21 pm

    Ooooh. Welp, Rand Paul – plagarism…Chris Christie – RINO…now Ted Cruz…..

    @NowWithAlex: wow RT @ChadPergram: Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Max Baucus (D-MT) heading to South Africa for…

    Can someone say…primary….

  67. 67.

    Anne Laurie

    December 8, 2013 at 5:21 pm

    @JPL: If Audra McDonald is playing Maria, then Neil Patrick Harris plays the Captain. (Or Patrick Stewart, if he had the vocal stamina.) Either of them could persuasively play someone prepared to marry a penniless postulant of non-traditional casting.

    But then, I’m still hoping for an avatar future where the digitalized Whoopie Goldberg can play Hannah Jarvis to to Bill Murray’s Peacock/Nightgale in Stoppard’s Arcadia!

  68. 68.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    December 8, 2013 at 5:22 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:

    By the time T. E. Lawrence was my age, he’d already been dead for four years.

  69. 69.

    Ruckus

    December 8, 2013 at 5:24 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:
    The answers to that:
    We can’t all be geniuses or in my own time.

  70. 70.

    Bob In Portland

    December 8, 2013 at 5:24 pm

    “Desolation Of Smaug”. The original title was “A Weekend in Bejing”.

  71. 71.

    R-Jud

    December 8, 2013 at 5:26 pm

    @Davis X. Machina: One of our film professors had a poster of Orson Welles in Citizen Kane, with a caption to the effect that, “He was 23 when he wrote and directed this. What have you done lately?”

    I have to say, it made me feel inferior rather than inspired.

  72. 72.

    lamh36

    December 8, 2013 at 5:27 pm

    I’m only 37 and don’t consider myself particularly wise, but still I want to impart some wisdom on you young folk. If there is any advice I feel comfortable in giving is to take care of your credit while you’re young. I swear I’m still trying to make amends for things I did to my credit when I was in my early 20….hard lesson learned so you don’t have to.

  73. 73.

    Svensker

    December 8, 2013 at 5:33 pm

    @BruceFromOhio:

    Browns up 12-0 over Pats at Gillette can only mean Cleveland will lose by 14 points instead of the usual 21. But what a great first half! *barking noises*

    Frigging Pats.

  74. 74.

    Anne Laurie

    December 8, 2013 at 5:35 pm

    @Amir Khalid: I’m sure The Christmas Candle was produced as a ‘holiday perennial’ for TV, but there’s a weird “local” American custom of going to see a movie on Xmas Day with the extended family. Mostly, from my experience, in families where everybody feels the social need to Be Together for the Sacred Day, but nobody actually wants to spend that much time talking to each other for fear of arguments. Imagine the whole Ailes-subsidized Palin family going to see Christmas Candle together… just after Bristol’s little boy asks ‘What does it mean when Granma calls Mommy a star-chasing whore?’, and/or or Willow refers to Trigg as ‘the Tard’ on-camera, and/or Todd gets into his hidden stash (midwestern custom is to hide a bottle of alcohol in the garage/workshop in families where public drunkenness is officially frowned upon) and stumbles in cursing his fate & all his relatives… Two hours of nobody talking, the tipsy/angry get to regulate their hormone levels, and by then whoops-look-at-the-time-better-get-the-little-ones-home-love-you-all!

    Besides, theatrical release still has more cachet than made-for-TV, when it comes to selling Christmas Candle rights to the networks in future years.

  75. 75.

    Yatsuno

    December 8, 2013 at 5:36 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    Or Patrick Stewart, if he had the vocal stamina

    He’s got the vocal stamina. What he doesn’t have is the vocal training. Which he will be the first to admit.

    And the Seahacks are trying to kill me.

  76. 76.

    KG

    December 8, 2013 at 5:37 pm

    @R-Jud: I’ve seen something like that for Alexander the Great… At 19, he conquered the world, what have you done?

  77. 77.

    jenn

    December 8, 2013 at 5:38 pm

    Interesting – I never knew the Seahawk was supposed to be an osprey – that’s an eagle beak! I always thought it was an immature Bald Eagle. The things you learn.

    On a petty note, I HATE their current uniforms. My mental image of the ‘Hawks uniforms is that of the Zorn/Krieg years, and it’s always somehow a shock seeing the new ones. Grump, grump.

  78. 78.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 8, 2013 at 5:39 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Put down your drink before you click

    Thank you for the warning. I actually did have a glass of Pinot noir in one hand, and had I not heeded your advice, my new white sweater would have an embarrassing red stain down the front.

  79. 79.

    gene108

    December 8, 2013 at 5:39 pm

    @Certified Mutant Enemy:

    OMG! I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE PREMIER!

    I hope they take page out of the MechaGodzilla play book and have Mecha Shark built by aliens to take over the world!

  80. 80.

    geg6

    December 8, 2013 at 5:40 pm

    @lamh36:

    Couldn’t agree more and a lesson I try to impart to my students as often as possible. Sometimes they look at me like I have three heads and sometimes they get it and thank me for it. I had one call me a couple of weeks ago. She graduated about five years ago and I had encouraged her to pay the interest on her unsubsidized loans while she was in school. You can do that without penalty and save thousands of $$ and years of payments by keeping up with the interest and the payments are not in any way crippling if you have a part-time job. She wanted to let me know that she has paid down more than half the principal of the loan because when she entered into repayment, there was no interest that had capitalized with the principal and she will be student loan debt free in another three to four years, a year earlier than the original loan term. She wanted to thank me. It made my week.

  81. 81.

    lamh36

    December 8, 2013 at 5:40 pm

    @Anne Laurie: so true. One Christmas when all of my sisters and I were in the same city for once (DFW I think) we all went to the movies and saw Dreamgirls together after spending the day eating and laughing

  82. 82.

    Uncle Cosmo

    December 8, 2013 at 5:46 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:

    …he also used to say “When he was my age, Mozart had been dead for ten years’.

    No points for your prof unless that class was some time prior to 1960, as in all probability he stole that line from Tom Lehrer, who delivers it in live performance patter somewhere on An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer, recorded at Hahvahd in March 1959.

  83. 83.

    MomSense

    December 8, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    @Bob In Portland:

    Can you believe the photos of Beijing now? Also, too Shanghai. WTF China?? Do they really want to live like that.

    The other day I saw a photo of a brand new 15 story apartment building in Shanghai that toppled over. If I lived in one of the identical buildings around it, I would be awfully worried right now.

  84. 84.

    geg6

    December 8, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    I know families that do that. Can’t imagine it myself, but we have good family holidays with few arguments or fights. It helps a lot that of the ten of us that get together, nine are all on the same political page. And the one (one of my BILs) who isn’t keeps his mouth shut about politics, which is one of his best qualities and why I still like him.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    December 8, 2013 at 5:49 pm

    @MomSense:

    The English lived like that in the late 19th Century.

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 8, 2013 at 5:49 pm

    @lamh36:

    Did you see the photo making the rounds on FB the other night, a photo of sweetly smiling Julie Andrews captioned “Nice try, dear.”

    Perfect.

  87. 87.

    geg6

    December 8, 2013 at 5:49 pm

    @MomSense:

    I saw that! Cray cray! What I didn’t see was any evidence of a foundation under that thing.

  88. 88.

    Anne Laurie

    December 8, 2013 at 5:49 pm

    @lamh36: Lots of cultures use the winter solstice (Dec 21) for a “fresh start day” — that gives you enough time to make some plans, and then you can test out those Life Improvements during the season where your family & co-workers are too distracted and/or full of holiday spirits to ask the wrong questions or get on your case about stuff. By Jan 1, you’ll have a better idea which changes you need or want to make, without all the public pressure… and you’ll have a headstart on all those ‘lose x pounds by Valentines Day’ or ‘go to the gym five days a week’ or ‘read a good book instead of watching TV’ plans your friends will be talking about.

  89. 89.

    geg6

    December 8, 2013 at 5:52 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Hahahahahahahaha! Good one. I’m no fan of musicals in general or the Sound of Music in particular, but the idea that Carrie Underwood could begin to even think about filling Julie Andrews shoes is ridiculous. When I first heard about it, I seriously thought it was a joke. And then I saw one of the promos, saw it was going to be live to top it all off and knew it would be a shitshow of the first degee.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    December 8, 2013 at 5:53 pm

    @geg6:

    That’s what I noticed first also. Weird.

  91. 91.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2013 at 5:54 pm

    @lamh36:
    To play the captain, you need to be in the right age range to be the father of his eldest kid — forty to early fifties, say. Patinkin might pass for the high end of that age range, but it would be close; he’s just turned 61.

  92. 92.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 8, 2013 at 5:54 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Reminds me that John Lennon was taken from us 33 years ago today.

    What with Reagan’s election and Lennon’s murder, the last two months of 1980 were about as grim as it gets.

  93. 93.

    Yatsuno

    December 8, 2013 at 5:54 pm

    @efgoldman: Errant Noo Yahkers in Beantown?

  94. 94.

    MomSense

    December 8, 2013 at 5:55 pm

    @geg6:

    I guess it happened a few years ago and there was no foundation. It was built on slab with hollow pilings (no rebar even!) but that was it. Apparently the names of the developers and the names of some of the city officials were the same. hmmmm.

    @Baud: We never learn I guess. The failure of China’s Great Wall hasn’t stopped us from thinking a “border fence” is going to magically prevent illegal immigration.

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 8, 2013 at 5:55 pm

    @Anne Laurie: I always thought that was a Jewish thing. Not their holiday, few other things open, a chance to avoid crowds. A friend from law school came back from the semester break saying that he had never felt more Jewish than he did watching Schindler’s List on Christmas Day in a theater at Water Tower Place in Chicago and then capping it off by getting Chinese food.

  96. 96.

    ? Martin

    December 8, 2013 at 5:59 pm

    @BruceFromOhio:

    The fans must be aging in dog years at this point.

    My mom is getting mad at Brady. “I’m getting too old for these last minute wins – it’s not good for my blood pressure!”

  97. 97.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2013 at 6:01 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    When I saw Schindler’s List, it made me feel a little Jewish myself.

  98. 98.

    MomSense

    December 8, 2013 at 6:01 pm

    @geg6:

    I watched a little of it this morning and had to turn it off. First, Carrie seems to just have two volumes–either you can barely hear her or she is scream-singing. I don’t think she can act at all–it was sooo strange.

    I thought the dad looked the same age as Liesl. Truly a bizarre thing.

  99. 99.

    ? Martin

    December 8, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    @MomSense: I always compare the border fence to the Maginot line. Accusing them of copying the French pre-WWII usually shuts them up very quickly.

  100. 100.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 8, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    @lamh36: I’m 71 and I agree. My early irresponsibility still bites me in the ass when I least expect it.

    LISTEN TO YOUR ELDERS, CHILDREN!!

  101. 101.

    gene108

    December 8, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I got Giants-Chargers too, but I live in the Philly area, so I’m not surprised we get the game of a division rival.

    I’m enjoying the game so far :-)

    Go Bolts!

    @lamh36:

    I’m not quite close to where I want be in my life once I reach 40 years.

    I’ll be 40 in a few months.

    I’m just working on letting go of the things I haven’t been able to do.

    I sometimes wish time moved in more than one direction.

  102. 102.

    Anne Laurie

    December 8, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: So did I, growing up on the East Coast, but by the mid-80s a lot of my Midwestern friends were referring to it as ‘a thing’ that their families were doing. May be related to either A Christmas Story or that National Lampoon/Chevy Chase horror? I remember Santa Clause and Elf being pitched for the Dec 25 market, anyways… not to mention all the jokes about the Die Hard and Mission Impossible movies opening 12/25.

  103. 103.

    jeffreyw

    December 8, 2013 at 6:06 pm

    Thread needs moar kitteh!

  104. 104.

    ? Martin

    December 8, 2013 at 6:07 pm

    @MomSense: As a general rule, remakes are pointless in my book. If the original was a shitty adaptation of a book or something, then ok, but remaking the Sound of Music? Really, what were you going to fix? There’s no place to go but down.

  105. 105.

    p.a.

    December 8, 2013 at 6:11 pm

    @efgoldman: this is Giant’s legal TV turf.

  106. 106.

    JPL

    December 8, 2013 at 6:18 pm

    @efgoldman: aha.. The Y.A. Tittle days, I presume.

  107. 107.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2013 at 6:18 pm

    @? Martin:
    This wasn’t a remake of the movie as such, which I agree would be pointless; but a live-broadcast production of the musical. And there’s always room for that. Just like there’s always room for another production of Hamlet, or of Les Misérables if you can pay what Cameron Mackintosh charges for the performing rights.

  108. 108.

    Josie

    December 8, 2013 at 6:26 pm

    @jeffreyw: Is that Ginger? He is gorgeous.

  109. 109.

    Pogonip

    December 8, 2013 at 6:26 pm

    @? Martin: How many of them know what the Maginot Line was? In my experience Americans tend to think “history” was sometime last month. I can’t tell you how many Americans I’ve known who thought Martin Luther and Martin Luther King were the same man.

  110. 110.

    lamh36

    December 8, 2013 at 6:28 pm

    Coughs…BULLSHHHH…COUGHS!!!!

    Baker: Reagan Regretted Veto Of Sanctions Against South Africa

    Former Secretary of State James Baker on Sunday said he was “certain” that President Ronald Reagan regretted his decision to veto sanctions against South Africa during Apartheid.

    “I’m sure he did regret it,” Baker said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “In fact I’m certain that he did.”..

  111. 111.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    December 8, 2013 at 6:31 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    You do it in the Midwest because the kids are driving you nuts by mid-afternoon of Christmas Day, but it’s too goddamned cold outside to send them out to play. So the most sober adult drops all of the cousins off at the movie theater with the price of admission and returns to the house for some blessed quiet and adult conversation.

    IOW, it’s not the adults who are trying to escape from each other — it’s the adults trying to get a break from the kids who woke them up at 5:30 am that day and have been bouncing off the walls ever since.

  112. 112.

    lamh36

    December 8, 2013 at 6:31 pm

    Oh, and apparently, Ted Cruz will be apart of the House delegation going to Mandela funeral….Say wha????

    Newt Gingrich Shocked (Shocked!) at Nelson Mandela Backlash

  113. 113.

    Yatsuno

    December 8, 2013 at 6:35 pm

    @lamh36: Ya got something stuck in yer throat there dear.

  114. 114.

    MomSense

    December 8, 2013 at 6:37 pm

    @? Martin:

    I am going to steal that–Republicans just want to bring failed European style border policies to the US.

    @? Martin:

    I would not want to sing a role that Julie Andrews performed so perfectly. I got as far as the thunderstorm scene. Instead of singing these are a few of my favorite things, Carrie screamed the lonely goat herd song–and I do mean screamed.

  115. 115.

    Mike E

    December 8, 2013 at 6:39 pm

    @R-Jud: And at 26, his career was over. If you’re going after somebody like Hearst, you had better take him out or he’ll bury you.

  116. 116.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2013 at 6:41 pm

    @lamh36:
    You would think it couldn’t matter how Republican party handled the death of a foreign leader, but people must be wondering why their party base hates one of the world’s most widely admired and beloved people.

  117. 117.

    debbie

    December 8, 2013 at 6:43 pm

    @MomSense:

    What is with NBC’s obsession with Carrie Underwood? As if last week’s SOM wasn’t enough, she’s got a special on this week called, I think, “A Cautionary Christmas.”

  118. 118.

    jeffreyw

    December 8, 2013 at 6:52 pm

    @Josie: No, that’s a random kitty at the shelter. He is a pretty boy.

  119. 119.

    Amir Khalid

    December 8, 2013 at 7:05 pm

    @efgoldman:
    Sorry, but I just can’t agree that the composers of You’ll Never Walk Alone, the greatest sports anthem of all time, could be capable of producing a weak musical.

  120. 120.

    MomSense

    December 8, 2013 at 7:07 pm

    @debbie:

    Oh my. Way too much Carrie.

  121. 121.

    geg6

    December 8, 2013 at 7:20 pm

    @debbie:
    @MomSense:

    I thought that one was with the other girl that won American Idol. What the hell is her name? I like her much better than Carrie Underwood.

    Kelly Clarkson! That’s it!

  122. 122.

    MomSense

    December 8, 2013 at 7:23 pm

    @geg6:

    Was Carrie the winner the second year?? I think she was an idol winner, too.

  123. 123.

    Ruckus

    December 8, 2013 at 7:31 pm

    @lamh36:
    Raygun didn’t regret anything he ever did to fuck over others. He could fake a lot of emotions in his “acting” but real empathy or regret? NFW
    He was after all a conservative.

  124. 124.

    BruceFromOhio

    December 8, 2013 at 7:32 pm

    @lamh36:

    “I’m sure he did regret it,” Baker said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “In fact I’m certain that he did.”..

    So certain, Jimmy, that you alone knew the thoughts of the man. That the man himself never said or did so indicates otherwise, so fuck off.

  125. 125.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 8, 2013 at 7:33 pm

    @geg6:

    That’s so funny. I always get Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson mixed up in my mind! (Not that I spend any inordinate amount of time thinking about them, and would not recognize either one if they walked in right now and introduced themselves.)

  126. 126.

    BruceFromOhio

    December 8, 2013 at 7:36 pm

    And SF cranks one off over Seattle. So close …

  127. 127.

    kindness

    December 8, 2013 at 7:43 pm

    Niners. Cool day.

  128. 128.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 8, 2013 at 7:44 pm

    @Pogonip:

    I can’t tell you how many Americans I’ve known who thought Martin Luther and Martin Luther King were the same man.

    Not to mention John Wayne and John Wayne Gacy.

  129. 129.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 8, 2013 at 7:45 pm

    @lamh36:

    “I’m sure he did regret it,” Baker said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “In fact I’m certain that he did.”..

    Certain sure?

  130. 130.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 8, 2013 at 7:50 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    I can scarcely express to you how much I loathe, hate, and detest “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” It always makes me gag. Possibly the most revolting song R&H ever wrote (and i’m mostly a big fan of that duo, but I really can’t stand “YNWA”).

    Excuse me now while I go throw up a little.

  131. 131.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    December 8, 2013 at 10:22 pm

    @BruceFromOhio:

    NE gets some major credit for cardiac fortitude. Three times this season they have played to win after looking completely out of it. The fans must be aging in dog years at this point.

    You may hate me for this, but as a Pats fan I have to admit that this is not the case. Having Tom Brady as your team’s QB means magic becomes merely I’m-really-not-surprised-he-did-it-again.

    Anyone who think Peyton “Papa Johns Is Shit” Manning has had a better career than Brady should just stop watching football, because it isn’t even close.

  132. 132.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    December 8, 2013 at 10:28 pm

    @Pogonip:

    I can’t tell you how many Americans I’ve known who thought Martin Luther and Martin Luther King were the same man.

    I actually heard a 19 year old college sophomore say this at Thanksgiving:

    There was another President Bush?

  133. 133.

    Uncle Cosmo

    December 9, 2013 at 9:43 am

    @p.a.: This is a function of the TV contract that awards CBS the rights to broadcast AFC away games and Faux the rights when the visitor is an NFC team. Since there is no NFC team with a home town between NYC & Santa’s Sweatshop, Faux treats that as the Giants’ hinterland & will show their games unless the Elis are playing in the evening on Sunday (NBC) or Monday (ESPN).

    Same problem down in Baltimore with the Ethnic Slurs that play ~40 miles to the southwest.

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