From Phil Plait at Slate.
Gail Collins looks on the bright side:
… This week, the Senate finished work on legislation that will forestall any government shutdowns for the next two years. Then our lawmakers packed up and went home for the holidays. They kept everything else open and closed down Congress! Finally, America’s getting what it really wants for Christmas.
It’s great, right? And people have noticed. Even as a new federal budget was wending its way from House to Senate last week, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that American approval of the job Congress was doing had rocketed from 12 percent to 16 percent…
***********
What’s on the agenda as we stagger towards the end of a year very few people will regret seeing the back of?
Alison
Has anyone here seen the documentary Pink Ribbons?
geg6
I want that on greeting cards. Right naow.
ronin122
Gonna use the open thread to tell Cole that we in Chicago are grateful to Pittsburgh, who brought us one step closer to having the chance to be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
KG
wow, a 25% increase in Congressional approval, that’s gotta be a record
SiubhanDuinne
The best thing about this Christmas is that I really don’t have to do anything for a week. The cousins I have mentioned previously and with whom I usually celebrate (they live here, they have been doubly bereaved in the past year and don’t really want to try to replicate traditional Xmases) decided to postpone the meal, gifts, etc. until the Saturday after Christmas. Fine with me, there’s nothing sacred about December 25th. And it will allow me to join a work colleague that day, who kindly invited me to dinner, but since I don’t know anyone else who’s going to be there, all I have to do is take a nice hostess gift, not a slew of stocking stuffers and the like. It’s all good.
KG
@ronin122: I’ve been playing around with the ESPN playoff machine, there’s about 37 possible scenarios still. Which seem like a lot, I feel like by this time most years, we’ve got the seeding figured out except for the 6 seeds.
raven
@ronin122: BEAR DOWN!!
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Yeah, I meant to me, not to people who actually believe there were shepherds abiding in the fields on December 25th. No offense.
Mustang Bobby
I’m going to take off tomorrow for a day trip to the Keys and get away from the madness of the malls and the traffic; go sit on a beach and watch the pelicans soar. Then I’ll come back and have Christmas dinner with some friends and spend the rest of the two-week break sleeping in, working on my novel, and try to get as much lazing as I can.
Congress can go suck dry green donkey hooters.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
@efgoldman:
I’m glad. I was just hoping for a win. I didn’t expect the stomping that occurred. Very happy.
raven
I can’t wait to drive for seven hours in this fucking downpour to our room overlooking Liberty University.
Hungry Joe
Agenda?
Well, there’s a sleazy little place on the edge of town
That’s where I’m goin’ just to hang around.
There’s flies on the fries
The ketchup’s watered down
But everybody rocks like they don’t downtown.
(Guess the band and the song and you get … well, you don’t get anything. But you win.)
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
We’re heading out in a few minutes to get a nice steak at our local established in 1936 steakhouse, where the waitresses are all about 80 years old and have worked there since it opened. It’s our own little Xmas dinner together.
My brother invited us to come over Xmas Eve in addition to Xmas Day, but we declined. G has to work late on Xmas Eve and we really don’t want to have to battle holiday traffic just to go to church or whatever. So it’ll be us at home with a home-cooked meal (probably pork tenderloin), a gin and tonic, and “The Shop Around the Corner.” We don’t even have gift opening stress because we already bought “Book of Mormon” tickets as our mutual gift.
Hungry Joe
Turns out I gotta go … but here’s the answer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lUCttzSyHw
Pogonip
I am going to bed early.
That is all.
The day gets one minute longer on the 25th! Merry Christmas!
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Also, someone needs to explain to Phil that the axial tilt doesn’t bring presents. Well, okay, being a science dude, it probably indirectly brings presents to HIS kids via his paycheck, but not the rest of us. As everyone knows, Befana brings them on her broomstick.
BruceFromOhio
@Mustang Bobby: With you in spirit(s), brother.
Trying to decide if we can beat the weather on the way to the parents house, now that the winter thaw is decidedly over. Drinking heavily and seeing my teams lose is not helping.
Dead Ernest
@Hungry Joe:
I see ya done took off, still…
I don’t know where yours is from but the words and your nym brought this to mind…
Dead Ernest
@Dead Ernest:
On second look, I believe the ‘lyrics’ page I copied that from made a couple errors;
I think it’s “that a Navajo wove.”
Also pretty sure it should read; “…popcorn in the popper,” but I rather like the change above.
raven
@Hungry Joe: Hot Licks, Cold Steel & Truckers’ Favorites
Baud
By the way, for all you kids reading at home, Axial Tilt is white. Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change. Jesus was a white man, too. He was a historical figure. That’s a verifiable fact — as is Axial Tilt. I just want the kids reading to know that.
JPL
It has rained all day and when you are taking care of a neurotic dog, that doesn’t help. Aushi is a large dog, probably around ninety pounds and my Mr. Finch is eighteen pounds. Mine the little tub finally said enough. Stop stepping on me and eating my food. Poor Aushi cowered when Finch barked at him. I felt kinda bad but certainly didn’t interfere. It’s gonna be a long eleven days.
lamh36
Alrighty. It’s redbox movie night in the LAMH ELBA house. On tape for tonight: Monsters University, The Internship, Reds2 and Grown-Ups2, not necessarily in that order. If you haven’t bought my Christmas present yet, then please get me a fresh popcorn machine. I’m sick of microwave.
Monsters U was great. Just watched REDS2. Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich & Sir Anthony Hopkins being OG badasses. If u liked the 1st you will like the 2nd..
Next up The Internship just cause I love Vincent Vaughn.
Happy Sunday everybody.
raven
@Hungry Joe: Ever read “Star Making Machinery” about the Commander. Great book.
Amir Khalid
@Dead Ernest:
Who does not love The Folksmen?
aimai
I don’t feel that way about this year at all. I felt that way all through the Bush years, sure. But for fuck’s sake we have finally seen the implementation of the ACA, gay marriage legalized in a number of places, the ugly mask is coming off the face of the Republican party and even they know it, the President averted a crisis in Syria, began a new chapter with Iran, and etc..etc..etc… Frankly, despite all the hysteria and the hair pulling and wailing I think its been a pretty good year in some ways. And thanks to the aCA and the medicaid expansion its going to be a much better year for some people, going forward, than any in a long time.
Baud
@aimai:
Agree. There have been far worse years recently.
Gravenstone
@KG: And of course, that’s exactly how it will be spun. The bad thing about low numbers, small changes in them are relatively large in terms of percent change.
Yatsuno
Holy Shit. Shaun White cut his hair and actually looks…kinda hawt. I bet he grows it back out before Sochi starts though.
Day 3 of rehab done. Still pretty sore but making progress on some fronts, especially the OT home care stuff. I got clean teef today!
raven
@Yatsuno: Good deal dawg.
Gravenstone
@lamh36:
I am so, so sorry for you.
/snark
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud:
I know this is snark, but it seems to me that the white supremacist types are getting more and more vocal and unafraid to be seen for what they really are.
One one hand, this is good thing. We know who to shun.
On the other hand, it is a depressing reminder of how much work remains before us in the effort to bring about a truly egalitarian society.
Amir Khalid
@KG:
Actually, going from 12% approval to 16% is a 33% increase, so it’s even better than you thought.
Anoniminous
@Baud:
You are a veritable Thought Leader.
raven
Fucking Bears are getting killed.
Baud
@Villago Delenda Est:
I see even the reminder as a good thing, because we need to be reminded of reality sometimes.
And their getting more vocal is also a good thing. The bigots are no longer willing to pretend to be civilized and colorblind precisely because the Reagan coalition is breaking down.
raven
@efgoldman: May have to dvr it and watch it FF in the am before we hit the road.
BruceFromOhio
Hmmm …. 21 unanswered points in the first. That’s gonna leave a mark.
raven
@BruceFromOhio: Totally predictable given what happened to the other black and blue teams.
JPL
@BruceFromOhio: It’s the offenses fault according the announcers. haha
Linnaeus
After over two years of hoping I wouldn’t get hit by a bus (well, no one wants that, but you know what I mean), I once again have access to medical care though my state’s health insurance exchange. I can even go back to my old health care provider. So I got that going for me, which is nice.
BruceFromOhio
@Yatsuno, @efgoldman: If you seek (virtual) company, please say so.
JPL
@Linnaeus: Do you have granite counters?
raven
@JPL: well
Poopyman
@Baud: Well, I’ve been out of work for 9 months, so that colors things. But there indeed have been worse years. Mrs. P is working and our heads are above water, but no one likes flying on one engine.
OTOH, I’ve gotten very used to this simulated retirement.
Paddy
I’m having a huh? moment. When and/or why did it become de rigueur to wear crosses on a necklace horizontal instead of vertical and why are the wingers not screaming about it? I mean, it basically implies Jesus was asleep on the job….
BruceFromOhio
@JPL: … and yet another reason to watch on mute, and listen to some classical music instead.
Also: Anything bad that happens to the Baltimore NFL team is a good thing.
MomSense
Shit, crap, ugh. My dog just had either a seizure or an episode of vestibular syndrome. I talked with the vet on the phone and if something else happens tonight we will try to bring him in but unfortunately everything is coated in ice so it isn’t a good night to be driving.
We have been dealing with health issues for some time now but still this was scary. At least he is calm and resting now but we are all on edge.
raven
@BruceFromOhio: You can mute it all you want but if you can’t figure out the Bears offense sucks you need another hobby.
JPL
@raven: I just tuned in and read the play by play.. One fumble led to a score. Okay it would be nice if Chicago held on to the ball longer but it’s not just the offense..
Baud
@Poopyman:
More time for Balloon Juice! You don’t know how many times I’ve come home from work and realized I missed a good thread. Consider yourself a lucky ducky.
.
.
Kidding, of course. Hope the job market picks up for you in the new year.
raven
@JPL: They didn’t say it was just the offense.
Schlemizel
@Baud:
and far, far worse ones yet to come
Linnaeus
@JPL:
Ha! Formica, actually. My apartment was built in 1960.
bewleys
@lamh36: “Who you call’n cowboy?” his best line.
BruceFromOhio
@raven: Hells bells, the defense is kinda lousy too, not much figuring required.
raven
CHI: 4 plays, 22 yards, 1:43 – Punt
PHI: 10 plays, 72 yards, 4:33 – Touchdown
CHI: 3 plays, 5 yards, 1:44 – Punt
PHI: 5 plays, 39 yards, 1:58 – Touchdown
PHI: 6 plays, 43 yards, 2:59 – Touchdown
CHI: 3 plays, -1 yards, 2:07 – Punt
JPL
@MomSense: Since I’m aware of your struggles with your dog, all I can offer is hugs and more hugs.
raven
@BruceFromOhio: Yup, we suck again.
Ruckus
@Linnaeus:
Grand.
raven
@MomSense: Aw poor pupster.
Poopyman
@Baud: It was Sequestration what did me in, so things look to heat up in January. Thanks.
MomSense
@JPL:
Thank you. Means a lot. I just want to get us all through Christmas.
Ruckus
@BruceFromOhio:
Don’t know how much company I’ll be but I’ll be here as well.
Schlemizel
@Yatsuno:
There I made that comment a lot more interesting ;)
Glad to hear things are going well. Its a great feeling for something so simple isn’t it.
JPL
@Linnaeus: I remodeled my kitchen a few years ago and put in granite. Since I wasn’t picky, it cost only a few dollars more than formica.
Baud
@efgoldman:
States are getting more polarized, but I think social conservatives and big business are not on the same page anymore. What’s keeping them together is that neither side has anywhere else to go right now.
raven
If we make it through December
Everythings gonna be all right I know
It’s the coldest time of winter
And I shivver when I see the fallin snow
pretty song
and, even prettier
How pale is the sky that brings forth the rain
As the changing of seasons prepares me again
For the long bitter nights and the wild winter’s day
My heart has grown cold, my love stored away
My heart has grown cold, my love stored away
. , .
Get me through December
A promise I’ll remember
Get me through December
So I can start again
Linnaeus
@JPL:
I rent, so I can’t remodel even if I had the money to do it.
JPL
@MomSense: It doesn’t get easier. The good news is that you will do it again even if you say you won’t.
Poopyman
McAfee is blocking the ads just below the Newsmax headlines. Sez they’re from potentially dangerous or suspicious sites. Anybody know what they may be? I’ve typically gotten the same ads a lot of folks here have.
JPL
@raven: In the words of that great statesman.. Bqhatevwr
just kidding..
raven
@JPL: Frustrated Bear fan. . .
Ruckus
@MomSense:
Good luck.
Our pets can help us through the worst of times, mine sure did, and all we have to do is the same for them.
It is tough though.
JPL
@raven: In an odd way, I love Scott Brown for his tweet. Of course, I hope that he lives a long healthy life pulling weeds in N.H. and never returns to Congress.
Linnaeus
The Lions’ loss today will be even worse if Chicago loses because that would mean that, given the Packers’ loss earlier today, the Lions would just need to win their last game (against a bad Minnesota team) to win the division and get in the playoffs. But that’s moot now.
raven
If it was a fight they’d stop it.
raven
dupe
Betty Cracker
I’m watching “The Sound of Music” on ABC for the 100th time. All footballed out.
raven
@Linnaeus: Fuck the Lions and the Packers.
eta and the Vikes.
Linnaeus
@raven:
And fuck the Bears, Packers, and Vikings right back atcha!
BruceFromOhio
@raven: Not that it helps, but my daughter and I just discussed the “GSH” on the jerseys, and discovered the history that is Papa Bear Halas.
As Zachary Quinto once said in an outtake, “Fascinatin’.”
raven
@Linnaeus: Weren’t the Lions the odds on favorites?
Linnaeus
@raven:
I don’t know if that was true at the beginning of the season, but maybe after Rodgers got hurt. In any event, they were supposed to be solid contenders for the division. They have the talent to be one of the best teams in the NFL. The problem is coaching, IMHO, but I don’t think the Lions will get a quality coach as long as William Clay Ford owns the team.
raven
@BruceFromOhio: And their uniforms are have the Orange and Blue because George was an Illini. He was coaching the Decatur Staleys and Mr Staley gave him the team to move to Chicago. He had an agreement with Mr Wrigley on the rent and concessions of Wrigley Field that was made on a hand shake and it lasted 50 years. George also played for the Yankees and ran the Morale Recreation and Welfare in the Pacific during WWII.
divF
@Hungry Joe:
I spent my 21st birthday standing in front of the bandstand watching CCLPA and getting drunk on beer (oh for the simple pleasures of youth).
Since Hungry Joe has left the building, I will repeat a something a guitarist friend of his said to him years ago (Hungry Joe and I go back a ways). “I can’t learn to play the pedal steel guitar – it’s all mathematics”.
raven
@Linnaeus: And they have two fucking scumbags on the d-line.
BruceFromOhio
@Betty Cracker: When the family gets testy in the fourth or fifth hours of a long car ride, I break out ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain.’ Suddenly the boring tedium of the journey is embraced like a rescue squad during a structure fire.
raven
@divF: Have you read the book I mentioned? I saw the Commander the night Oakland won the series. It was in Bloomington, Il after they had left Ann Arbor for the Bay Area. The A’s won and he went nuts on them 88’s. He played this little joint up the road about 20 years ago and I had a great time shooting the shit with him.
Ash Can
Excellent. The Bears get handed a golden opportunity all gift-wrapped courtesy of the Giants and Steelers, and all the Bears can do in response is to stand around and load their pants. Oh well — the way they’ve been playing this season, all they’d do by winning tonight is to set up the opportunity for themselves to stand around and load their pants in the first round of the playoffs.
Linnaeus
@raven:
They’ve been better disciplined this year. But proper coaching would have prevented that from being a problem in the first place. Schwartz himself has some issues with that.
raven
@Linnaeus: They are scumbags no matter how well they are coached. My boy Matt, however, is a Dawg!
Josie
@MomSense: I know how hard this must be for all of you, especially at this time of year. I hope that things go well and that the good dog has a restful night and a good Christmas.
raven
Nighty night
MomSense
Thanks, everyone. I just love this big old puppy so. Last night the kids had a bunch of their friends over since they are all home on break from school. The dog was in the middle of the action and enjoyed seeing everyone and getting lots of love. Every day we get to spend with him is a gift.
barbequebob
@Hungry Joe:
“Truck stop rock” by Commnader Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, on the album, “Hot Licks, Cold Steel, and Truckers Favorites”
Linnaeus
@raven:
He ain’t bad.
divF
@raven:
Yes, I own a copy. Great book. Also, Bill Kirchen gets around here a couple of times a year, and they sometimes open the dance floor at the Freight and Salvage when he plays. Since I courted Madame in the mid-70’s by taking her out to dance to CCLPA, the Moonlighters (another Kirchen band), and Asleep at the Wheel (she learned to like Western Swing and I learned to dance), we try to make those shows if at all possible.
Also, there was a link to go with the quote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk5T26P_lVc
raven
@divF: I look a lot like Roy. One they were playing Champaign when I had broken my back and was in a full body cast. We were in the parking lot and he walked up. It was like he was looking in a mirror but with this big plaster cast on! The orginal hippy softball team in C-U was the High and Mighty and our spinoff team was Asleep at the Bat!
Betty Cracker
@BruceFromOhio: Ha! I’ll have to remember that trick.
Origuy
@Paddy: The sideways cross has apparently been a thing on jewelry for a year or so. I found a few links to Christian blogs where they can’t make up their minds about it. Most seem to have decided not to be offended by it. On flags, of course, it’s been around for centuries, where it’s called the Scandinavian Cross.
divF
@raven: One more thing about “Starmaking Machinery”. Bill and Louise Kirchen’s wedding is described in the book. When he performs now, Louise travels with him, and she will come out and sing for some of the songs they have written together.
For a long time Kirchen was based in Washington DC. He did not tour much, but was a mainstay of the club scene there. But he has been touring extensively now for at least a decade.
Ruckus
@BruceFromOhio:
I don’t understand boredom even on long trips. Most of the miles I’ve driven/ridden over the last 48 yrs have been driven alone, without radio/cd/mp3 and there have been only a few times I’ve missed the noise. I’ve been across the US a number of times on bikes, cars and big trucks on I-10, 40, 80/90 and none of them are boring. I-5 in central CA is boring unless you like the overwhelming smell of cow dung for about 30 miles in the middle.
BruceFromOhio
@Ruckus: It’s a teen-ager thing, we won’t understand. I was well acquainted with I-10 for a bit, and I’m with you: it’s the journey, not the destination.
Betty Cracker
@Ruckus: I’m with you fellows; I love a road trip above all things and almost never get bored. One time I drove from Pensacola, FL to Tucumcari, NM in one straight shot. I was tired as hell. But not bored!
Hungry Joe
@raven: Yes! Yes! God, NOBODY knows about that great album. I used to see Commander Cody & the LPA in west Berkeley (somewhere on San Pablo) for a nominal cover that included a beer. Man, talk about great days …
lamh36
@Gravenstone: @bewleys:
Just finshed watching The Internship with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. It was alright, not spectacular, but alright. I’m definitely glad I didn’t waste the $10 it woulda cost to see it in the actual theatre. Still, my love for Vince Vaughn STILL stands.
Hungry Joe
@raven: LOVED that book. Could never figure out why it wasn’t a huge hit. I once wrote a feature story on George Frayne (AKA Commander Cody) for the San Diego Union-Tribune. He had a lot of great stories. One: Originally, there was no “Commander” — it was just the name of the band. Then the (then) pedal steel player, the West Virginia Creeper, said he’d volunteer to be the Commander on stage. Everybody said, “No no no no no no NO!”, and on the spur of the moment (and in desperation) they appointed Frayne. John TIchy, the rhythm guitarist, went on the become the chairman of the Civil Engineering Dept at Renssalaer Polytech; Frayne tours with the Commander Cody Band. Tichy performs with his son, a pretty hot guitarist, as The Tichy Boys.
Suffern ACE
Grrrrr. 11-2 regular fantasy season to win regular season 2 games. Last week, I set the record for most points ever scored by a team in the three year history of the league. And this week, fantasy league championship week? Nuttin doin. No trophy for me!
Now I know what it’s like to be Bill Bellicheck and it’s not a happy place.
Hungry Joe
@barbequebob: GOD, but I love Balloon Juice.
Carrie
I’m back from work Christmas party where attendance was mandatory…..i’m sufficiently drunk and very grateful that i have the rest of the week off from those fuckers.
I think i goosed the CEO, but i don’t really care.
David Koch
@MomSense: Sendin your pooch warmest vibes.
Hungry Joe
@divF: Hey, divF! Way too long! Shoot me an e-mail.
divF
@Hungry Joe:
I realize that this is a dead thread, but this is too good to pass up – the name of the dive was “The Long Branch Saloon”, and the space is now occupied by a Good Vibrations outlet (I’ll be interested to see if this has me ending up in moderation).
Hungry Joe: bedtime now, shoot you an e-mail in the morning.
jc
I think I’d make the land red and the sea green.
raven
@Hungry Joe: Sorry I missed you guys last night, great info!