(Doonesbury via GoComics.com)
NYMag has… good?… news for Betty Cracker:
Despite the incredible number of annual fatalities its citizenry suffers while drunk-driving with gun-toting, bikini-clad, also-drunk alligators, Florida will very soon — perhaps as soon as Monday, when new Census estimates are released — overtake New York as the third most populous state in the country. It’s not that New York’s population is falling, but the lure of Florida — the lack of a state income tax, the warm climate, the lax murder laws, etc. — have simply given it a far higher rate of growth….
***********
No Recipe Exchange this week, sorry guys. Too soon to talk about Amateur Night New Year’s Eve plans, so what else is on the agenda for the start of the weekend?
ranchandsyrup
One night off until the next set of houseguests comes in town. Turkey sandos and a visit to the dog beach are in order.
Mustang Bobby
And they’re all on US 1 in Miami every weekday afternoon between 4 and 6, thereby putting the irony in “rush hour.”
Corner Stone
Leftover crab fried rice and maybe some gay sex. Or maybe streaming broadband pron.
Not sure about the rice part just yet.
Phylllis
We were going to Charleston (SC) for shopping & eating & hockey, but now there’s about a 100% chance of rain for the weekend, so we canceled.
Based on the weather, I’ll be mostly curled up on the sofa reading. Working on Strom Thurmond’s America by Joe Crespino, with Lone Survivor next in the stack.
kindness
Florida has to be great. My Grandparents used to go there every winter.
Mustang Bobby
Oh, and Batocchio has posted the Jon Swift Memorial Roundup 2013. Good reading all around, and I’m honored to be included.
Mike in NC
Shortly after we moved here I had a job interview where the hiring manager jokingly asked if I was a “half-back”. Never heard the term before. He explained it was used for Yankees who retired to Florida for the warm weather, but hated the weirdness and then moved halfway back north (i.e., the Carolinas).
We’ll be visiting friends in Tampa next month and will pack the Kevlar underwear for safe measure.
MikeJ
Going to make turkey enchiladas. Also too, the turkey legs are confit-ing, but they won’t be done until 9 or 10pm.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
Florida made a real push to pass New York with its smart You Don’t Have To Be A Cop To Kill a Negro campaign.
Mike in NC
@Phylllis:
Is that were you get to rape the black housekeeper and wait several decades until you admit she bore your child?
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Corner Stone: I was gonna ask you if you had any leftover crab-fried rice. That is some good shit.
Phylllis
@efgoldman: Charleston Stingrays-ECHL franchise. They’ve been there for about twenty years and have a loyal fan base. They average about 4000 or so in attendance per game.
Corner Stone
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Hell yeah! My momma didn’t raise no dummies!
I also ordered chili basil (beef) with white rice so I get to have delicious inclusion with the rice offerings tonight.
I’m very inclusive.
ranchandsyrup
@Mustang Bobby: Congrats to you and Mnem and Southern Beale! Our little blog made it too. Must be a mistake.
Phylllis
@Mike in NC: That’s it in a nutshell. I live about twenty minutes from Orangeburg, where South Carolina State University is located, and where Essie Mae Williams attended college. That Strom Thurmond had a Black child was an open secret there for years before the official announcement. He would visit her on campus, and everybody in the county knew about it.
ruemara
With the lax murder laws, I’m surprised it’s not #1 on the wingnut relocation list.
I may be freezing much of the time in NorCal, but I think I can pass on FL. Since this is an open thread, how many are up for a mini-LA meetup say, Jan 11th? FYI, a collection of preteens screaming “wrecking ball” is not attractive, Kidz Bop.
jl
Oh boy, Holiday fun. Two days in a row with an excuse to post Cocoanuts quotes.
Hammer: All along the river, those are all levees.
Chico: That’s the Jewish neighborhood?
Hammer: Well, we’ll pass over that.
and…
Hammer: You can have any kind of a home you want. You can even get stucco. Oh, how you can get stucco.
Mustang Bobby
@efgoldman: This is my second tour of duty here in Miami. I went to undergrad at UM from ’71 to ’74, then moved back in ’01 to teach. The trick is to find a place where you can get away from the weirdness. I found a place that puts me exactly one hour from my door to a beach in Key Largo and friends with an extra bedroom at the ready.
schrodingers's cat
@ranchandsyrup: Congratulations!! I forgot to send in a link. Now I has a sad.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Corner Stone: Whenever we are trying to decide where to go, if there’s a tie on where to go, the rule is tie=Thai.
schrodingers's cat
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Vietnamese is pretty good too. I also like Middle Eastern food, Turkish, Lebanese.
ranchandsyrup
@schrodingers’s cat: I’d vote for ya!
WereBear
I find Florida too hot to go outside six months of the year, and apparently the new arrivals agree with me; the last time I visited it was August and the streets were as deserted as the ones in Omega Man.
NotMax
Been to Florida twice, once in the early 60s and once in the early 70s.
One stay was merely horrible, the other indescribably horrible.
The only thing that would induce me go there again would be if it were a state one must pass through in order to get somewhere else, which it is not.
schrodingers's cat
@WereBear: Also too cockroaches and other creepy crawlies, do not want.
Emily68
Maybe with global warming, pretty soon Southerners will start to move to New York or Maine or Alberta for the climate.
Bruuuuce
New FB page dedicated to finding and spreading the word about good leftie candidates: https://www.facebook.com/BlueCongress
Aside from that, I would love to get out of NY, except that I can’t get nearly the money for doing what I do (graphics and DTP, currently employed supporting investment banking) anywhere else. And Florida’s Right Out, anyway — my siblings both live there, and we get along far better at >1000 miles apart than any other way.
Elmo
@Phylllis:
Read that Saturday night. Gripping story well told, if you can stand the frequent interjections of wingnuttery.
Elmo
@Bruuuuce:
What’s DTP? My firm in the DC area is looking for a graphics guy…
beltane
We’re expecting lows between -25 and -30 during the middle of next week. It makes me nostalgic for the tropical climate of NYC.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
Fuck Florida. I may, at some point, visit the Keys, but otherwise, Never setting foot in the state again (unless I find a nice Porsche to drive home)
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@beltane:
Northern Minnesota is expecting -75 windchills by Sunday. We’re going to have -45 in SE Minnesota.
mellowjohn
@jl:
Chico: “Why a duck?”
p.s. i’ll move to florida right after my favorite hockey team, the Charlestown Chiefs.
WereBear
@schrodingers’s cat: I am responsible for talking many New Yorkers out of Florida, because it’s not what they imagine.
Yes, I know the house prices are low, and so are the wages. Yes, it’s rough shoveling snow, but you are aware that you can’t get into your car when you get back from the mall for about ten minutes unless you want to bake like a potato?
But the real stickler is the tropical bugs. Northerners are just not used to that.
I don’t have the genes for hot and humid. Florida does have a special kind of crazy, but that I like, in a Carl Hiassen kind of way.
RobertDSC-iPhone 4
@Elmo: DeskTop Publishing.
Comrade Jake
“Lax murder laws” – perfect.
Bruuuuce
@Elmo: Desktop Publishing. I do both graphics and text (CorelDraw or, when forced, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and the MS Office biggies, Powerpoint and Word, with Excel for charting). I’m not sure I’m in a position to move at the moment (the Better Half’s job and her mom are both serious concerns), though I appreciate the thought. The timetable for relocation is probably at least six months, more likely twelve, from being serious.
geg6
With the exception of the Keys, I hate Florida (sorry to all the BJ Floridians!). Just awful all around.
We’re heading out for some fried cod and French fries with lots of cold beer at the bar across the street. I’d normally go with their gyros (Greek food is their specialty), but I’ve eaten enough rich food this week to kill someone with worse cholesterol and BP numbers than me. So I’m going to eat something that is the antithesis of what I’ve been ingesting all week even though it’s no better for me. The Pens game will be on, hopefully (John is working late and who knows exactly what time he’ll get home, probably about 8:30 or 9), and we’ll have a nice quiet night in the home watering hole with all our neighbors.
beltane
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo): They say it builds character.
ranchandsyrup
Lax murder laws, SYG, no helmet laws for motorcycles, “all tea is sweet tea”, no state tax, water wars with GA and AL, screened in porches to keep away the bugs, bermuda grass everywhere. FL is ‘Murica’s wang. The only things I like about it are that Betty lives there, memories of debauchery in S. Beach, kayak trips out of Chokoloskee and orange juice.
Elmo
@Bruuuuce:
Ah! ::slaps forehead:: Of course.
We have been trying to find a mid-level proposal writer/publisher, with graphic skills, for four months. Nothin. Nobody. You’d think it would be a common skillset in the DC area, but nope.
jayboat
I wish I had moved here 30 years ago. Heat doesn’t bother me.
Been unreal warm here this winter.
Flying tomorrow in a Jet Ranger- shooting our annual New Year’s Run…
gonna be 87 degrees and we’ll have 40 boats heading to Marco Island for lunch.
eta: to anyone who states “it’s awful all around” sounds just like the kind of person I wanna meet at the party. sheesh.
Alison
Heyyyyy, y’all remember that sweet senior doggie Scooby I posted about? Who had diabetes and was at my local shelter and hadn’t had any visitors and made us all super sad? HE GOT ADOPTED! I swear, I’m as happy about that as if I were the one bringing him home :)
My local shelter is so awesome, they work so damn hard for the animals. For about six weeks now, they’ve been doing everything they can to bring a poor, sickly little dog back to health and into adoptable condition. When they got her (think she was a found stray) she was skinny and filthy and had mange and was super scared and unhappy, but between the shelter and the local vet, she’s clean and healthy now, has gained weight, plays with the other dogs…it’s just so great to see people go to such lengths.
So when people are horrible, I try to think of good people like them. Hopefully in the long run we balance out.
Citizen_X
This is supposed to be a good thing?
West of the Rockies
I’ve asked this before (sorry to be a broken record about it), but does Freddie DB post here anymore? I have not seen a thread via that bloke in long months (since some cross-criticism issue long ago).
geg6
@Alison:
One of my former students works for a great local shelter that does great work. She does their PR and social media. She’s worked there about a year and a half and finally broke down and adopted her first from the shelter. It’s not her first dog or first rescue, to be clear, just the first from that shelter. She’s such an animal lover that I’m shocked it took her so long. She hasn’t had a pup since she broke up with her ex-BF, who took the dog they had adopted together. When she did her internship at the Pittsburgh Zoo, she worked mostly with the penguin exhibit. She was always talking about how she wanted to steal the penguins and bring them home. ;-)
magurakurin
Josh Marshal is claiming victory
Seems to me the decisions in Ohio and Utah are bigger and more important than the NSA’s metadata collection program decisions. It is looking like a major victory for the left.
geg6
@West of the Rockies:
LOL! Not in very long time. I don’t think he likes us anymore.
Amir Khalid
@magurakurin:
Your link goes to a Microsoft Outlook sign-in page.
geg6
@magurakurin:
I think the OH and UT cases are huge. They are going to have a huge effect, IMHO, on the cases that still have to be heard in states like PA. Our current AG won’t stand up for the constitutionality of our (PA) legislation that disallows recognition of SSM. The majority of the population supports SSM. I think the reasoning in those two cases is going to have a big influence on what happens here.
West of the Rockies
@efgoldman: Thanks for the info (geg6, too)… I think the name appears (or did until recently) in the list of contributors, but I have not seen any actual postings in a very, very long while. It’s waaaaay late, I suppose, for a post-mortem, but his work always struck me as erudite but over-written. If it was possible to express a thought in ten words, he’d take 25.
I haven’t encountered Ted & Helen in a while, but I am told they/he/she continues to comment on various threads here. I’ve really disappeared of late myself… going through the big D.
Alison
@geg6: Part of me really wants to volunteer there but one reason I’m hesitant is that it’s hard enough for me to see their pics on FB and not go get them all. Being there with them and having to leave them there, especially older ones that linger in the shelter for months, would be so damn hard. But in my current situation I really can’t take on any other pets…
But I admire and adore everyone who does the work! And I do my part by sharing the pics and bringing them food and toys and stuff :)
Anoniminous
@Amir Khalid:
This should work.
SiubhanDuinne
@ranchandsyrup:
Also WereBear! Congratulations to all the includees from BJ.
Amir Khalid
@Anoniminous:
Thanx.
SiubhanDuinne
@West of the Rockies:
I could be wrong, or confusing it with a different troll, but I thought merkafukyeah or however it spells its name was the latest incarnation of the not-at-all-lamented T&H.
ruemara
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh no, no, no, no. That is Derf. Please, let’s not use the name of the other one more. I hear it works like saying “Candyman”.
Yatsuno
@SiubhanDuinne: Nope. Totally different troll who gets banned here all the time. He can’t really help himself though, he’s a sad pathetic little flea who seems to have no life beyond trolling here. Although lately all he seems to be doing is shitting on the porch then running off. Which also makes Durf boring.
magurakurin
@Amir Khalid:
lol
good job by me.
second try
Gex
My out-laws could never figure out why Kate and I wouldn’t go visit them in Florida. It’s a state I won’t go to unless I have to.
Corner Stone
@West of the Rockies:
You’re dying?
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
Timmeh, whatever his nym of the moment, must inevitably put up comments where he touts his website selling those derivative and indifferently executed celebrity portraits, yours to own for just US$450 each. He says there are BJ commenters who buy it, but there can’t be that many. Timmeh’s other signature was his over-the-top hostility and abusiveness, but I think those comments were getting deleted towards the end. Per Yutsy, mericafuckyeah is derf.
SiubhanDuinne
Re the Garry Trudeau cartoon (so much better than the Ted Rall thing this morning!), I love his little details. Note the careful combover on the bald guy in panels #1 and #4, and the Trumpian dead-animal-rug on the senator also in #1 and #4, mostly #4. Delicious.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid: I cannot keep them straight. But thanks for the cast of characters.
Anne Laurie
@West of the Rockies: To my knowledge, Cole’s never taken the dashboard keys away from a front-pager, but some individuals (going back to Tim in SF and Michael D, before my time) eventually decide that there are Other Priorities in their lives. So I’m assuming Freddie deBoer could come back and front-page here, but he’s decided to put that effort into his own blog and/or commenting elsewhere. If you’re really curious, you can contact him through his own blog.
Litlebritdiftrnt
As I told you made a really hefty baking chicken for Christmas Dinner. Broke it down into sandwiches last night. Tonight DH had a burger and fries but I broke the chicken down further to make a chicken pot pie for tomorrow night. My mum, bless her cotton sox, would have broken down the carcass, boiled it and then made a curry out of the results. She always told me that any decent cook worth half their salt could make at least four different meals out of one decent sized chicken. As it was I gave the carcass to the outdoor cat that doesn’t belong to me. He seemed to like it. Spent Christmas and Boxing day like Ms. Betty watching Dr. Who marathons in my onesie that Mum got me for Christmas. Loved the final Matt Smith ep.
I thought I caught all of the David Tennant episodes so I am quite confused about people talking about him regenerating twice? Help Please.
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone:
Or in Dallas.
Corner Stone
@Amir Khalid: You sound really petty and jealous.
rda909
@SiubhanDuinne: Same thing.
West of the Rockies
@Corner Stone: Uh, no… divorce. But, yes, the really big D (Death) would be worse.
Yatsuno
@SiubhanDuinne: Not quite…
Litlebritdiftrnt
@Alison:
I used to volunteer at the Animal Shelter in Hong Kong, mainly because I could not stand to be away from dogs and cats for that long but also I just wanted to hug some poor homeless creature. I would see many a heartbreaking scene, mainly people who had owned pets who had to move to a non pet apartment for whatever reason, they would drop their dog off in the anonymous drop off area and wander off in absolute rage and tears carrying their pets leash in their hands, refusing to let go of it.
I also cared for a lot of really sickly kittens, with eyes long gone thanks to fleas, yet they were always willing to cuddle and purr.
I owned a Budgie when I lived in HK, I couldn’t spend any time without a pet, I passed my Budgie on to the girl who took my room when I left and I am informed that he lived a long and happy life.
jeffreyw
Psst…are you awake?
Hey! Are you AWAKE?!
Dammit, I am now. What?
Amir Khalid
@Corner Stone:
Do !? Well, the fucker did try to get me banned here. I stand by what I just said about him.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
I lived in Tampa for six years (1969-75), and while I enjoyed my time at USF and got a good-enough education there, you couldn’t pay me to go back to Florida to live. Hated the heat, humidity, predictability of the weather phenomena, bugs, allergy-inducing smells and, well, the whole plastic Floridaness of the place. (No offense, Betty Cracker and Mustang Bobby!) It took a divorce to get me out of there (although I ended up in Michigan for the next nine years, which is its own set of weirdery).
Anne Laurie
@jeffreyw: Such a great sequence! Ginger, pestering poor Annie?
Tommy
@jeffreyw: Wonderful. Wonderful. For years I’ve thought of getting a dog (never had a dog in my household). My cat is an in your face cat. Yo come over and she inspects you. I’d like to think with a dog, they would be fast friends. And my cat, well all over said dog.
rda909
@Amir Khalid: I have a Photoshop plug-in that makes images look exactly like T&H’s “art.”
West of the Rockies
I don’t get the pleasure some people get out of being nothing but a troll… Is it akin to people who plant computer mischief to wreck the internet for millions of random strangers? What’s the big draw to showing up in a room full of cat lovers (for instance) and declaring dogs the superior species? Must be some sort of S&M thing….
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
I’ll go ahead and do the recipe thing since that’s what I’m working on right now. Prior to Christmas, I acquired a Virginia Country Cured Ham. I soaked it in water for 24 hours, then simmered it in water, apple juice, apple cider and molasses for 6 hours. Then I baked it for two hours with a honey glaze and pineapple.
So incredible. It’s almost gone in two short days.
This evening, I pulled the hambone out and some of the skin and simmered them for a few hours over medium heat, then I added great northern beans, carrots, onions, celery and some spices and now it’s stews on very low heat overnight.
Tommy
@SiubhanDuinne: There is a story I tell. Went to grad school at LSU in Baton Rouge.
I used to take an extra tee-shirt. Needed it to walk from the parking lot to where I had classes. So hot. So much humility. I love the place but not some place I want to live again for an extended period of time.
It was painful. Then I took Andrew and didn’t have power for two weeks or water ….
jeffreyw
@Anne Laurie: Yup, Ginger is feeling poorly right now, though, Mrs J took him to the vet this afternoon to get cured of certain of his problematic male features.
West of the Rockies
@Anne Laurie: Thanks, Anne, but as my comment made clear, I did not enjoy his posts very much. He is probably a prince among men; the enjoyment of another person’s writing is, of course, wildly subjective, so my opinion hardly serves as a meaningful indictment — I just did not like his stuff. Struck me as very self-involved and over-written. Of course, I am a misanthropic bastard.
opiejeanne
It’s our 44th wedding anniversary today, so we’re going to Purple Cafe (which is neither). We invited the two children who live here but neither of the ingrates wants to interrupt their plans for tonight. So we’ll have pan roasted duck breast without them.
http://www.thepurplecafe.com/pdf/PurpleWoodinville_Menu_Dinner.pdf
opiejeanne
@MikeJ: You would make duck confit.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@West of the Rockies: Then why the fuck are you asking about him?
West of the Rockies
I noted that I hadn’t seen his name here in a long-ass time, but that I did not miss his writing. I asked if he had gotten the boot or stomped off on his own. Anne Laurie told me I could contact him at his blog. I was pointing out what I thought was obvious from my first fucking comment. End of story.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@West of the Rockies: Sorry about your divorce, BTW. How many years?
SiubhanDuinne
@Tommy:
After my sophomore year, I was both a student and a staff member at USF (my introduction to being a classical music DJ on a nascent NPR station). So I qualified for some kind of partial-staff parking permit (I think it was reserved spaces, but some distance from the Real Faculty assigned slots). Prior to that year (1971), I didn’t know how to drive, but the combination of gaining some independence from my husband and having a preferred parking slot on campus prompted me to take driver’s training.
The downside, which haunts me to this day, is that in 1971 Florida didn’t require (or teach!) parallel parking. Everything was nose-in. This has not served me well in the intervening years,
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Tommy: Hot AND Humble. That’s a keeper combo.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@opiejeanne:
Your two children couldn’t take time out of their lives to celebrate your 44th Wedding Anniversary? What kind of fucking little ingrates are they? a) they should take time out of their lives to celebrate the fact that they still have living, breathing parents, because a bunch of us don’t and they should be grateful for that alone because a bunch of us here would give our right arms and several other body parts just to be able to spend time with them. b) they should also take the time out of their lives to celebrate their parent’s stellar 44 years of life together, because the chances of parents doing that in this day and age is almost nil.
Again, what type of selfish little ingrates did you raise?
West of the Rockies
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Fifteen… we have a 12-year-old daughter — that is what is making this so incredibly shitty. I don’t want to see her damanged, disillusioned. We’re both just trying to be kind to each other. It’s all a work in progress. Not the best Christmas ever…. Thanks for asking.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yatsuno:
Fvkin YouTube won’t load on my iPad. Do you have an ugly link?
Yatsuno
@opiejeanne: First time I ate at Purple I was meh about it, but that was the one downtown that’s not open any more. Second time was in Woodinville & I was much more impressed. So Mazel Tov to you and your other half and enjoy the evening!
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m just gonna say FYWP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUe-dba924g
Bruuuuce
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Here’s the clip (from The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End) where The Doctor regenerates, but focuses the regeneration energy on his severed hand and retains his (Tennant’s) form.
tybee
i love 95 degree weather, high humidity and biting flies.
and i have no allergies to anything that blooms.
i love florida. gets too damn cold here in coastal georgia to suit me.
Eric S.
My brother had to put down his puppeh after 14 years today. After dinner tonight I’m just sitting here giving my Ozzie all the lap time he desires.
RIP Ghost.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@Bruuuuce:
How the hell did I miss that? Thanks!
Steeplejack
DVR Alert!
Klute (1971) is running for the first time on TCM at 2:00 a.m. EST. “A detective ties a friend’s disappearance to a Manhattan call girl.” Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Roy Scheider. Directed by Alan J. Pakula. An excellent film from the mini-golden age of American cinema in the early ’70s. Fonda won her first Oscar as Bree Daniel.
Also: Out of the Past (1947)—great film noir or greatest film noir?—is on TCM at 9:45 EST tonight. Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas.
JoyfulA
@Phylllis: 20 minutes from Orangeburg? In the direction of Denmark or Barnwell?
Tommy
@tybee: A few years ago my brother and his would be wife decided to get married in FL. We got no connection to a beach much less Flordia. I am a huge hiker camper. I like forests. Nothing against a beach, but not my cup of tea.
After a week there I totally get “beach bums.” I didn’t want to leave the place. I could see myself on that beach for the rest of my life.
Jebediah, RBG
@Alison:
I am so happy to hear that…
SiubhanDuinne
@Yatsuno: Still not working. I’ll try again later.
MikeJ
@opiejeanne: I would if I had any duck legs sitting around. But I lopped the legs off mom’s turkey on xmas, so that’s what I’m confiting now.
opiejeanne
@Litlebritdiftrnt: I was kidding about them being ingrates; they are the farthest possible from being ungrateful children.
It’s two days after Christmas and they both just spent several days hanging out with us. The younger one is maid of honor for an upcoming wedding (which is hard because she’s working with a travelling Disney show, just got back from Peru, and is leaving for Florida on the 30th) so tonight is the only date she and the bride can get together, and the other kid has a great boyfriend who rented a cabin in the mountains for this weekend and we want her to go and be with him. Heck he was invited too, but this was after they’d already rented it.
Getting married two days after Christmas was both brilliant and stupid.
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: We are eating in Woodinville because we live there and because that one has always been very good. Never fails to impress out-of-towners with the good food.
SiubhanDuinne
@Eric S.: That is so sad. Hugs to your brother and Ghost (what a wonderful name!), and the same to you and Ozzie.
opiejeanne
@MikeJ: Ha! I never thought of doing that with turkey legs, mainly because I don’t really like turkey legs when they are roasted. I tend to dry them out too much.
Yatsuno
@MikeJ: And then he’s going to share the fruits of his labour right? RIGHT???
(BTW CaseyL is sick, doesn’t know if she’ll be up for coming out to watch the game.)
@opiejeanne: You and your hubby, however, are welcome to come watch the Seahawks game with me in my hospital room. Visitors seem to not be an issue.
Anne Laurie
@Tommy: LOL. First time I went to Florida was for my mother-in-law’s (second) marriage, in Miami. Got off the plane and it felt like the whole state had been running a hot shower for the last several hours — and this was in November. My Norwegian-born, ex-Michigander MIL adores FL — before her retirement, she made her living as a yatch charter — but her son & I could not wait to get out of there, lovely party people & sunny beach & all.
Second time I went to FL was for a hobby convention in Orlando, in January. Again, loved the people at the event, hated the effin’ climate.
If I never have to go back to the state, I wouldn’t feel it a loss.
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: How are you doing? Did you already have your surgery? Get well soon, either way.
ranchandsyrup
@SiubhanDuinne: cool! Congrats Were Bear!
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: Want us to bring some standing rib? We have a lot of it left over and it’s really good.
MikeJ
@opiejeanne: What are you doing Sunday? We were gonna watch the handegg competition on TV up in Yutsy’s room.
ETA: Damn his editing comments while I was typing.
SiubhanDuinne
@opiejeanne: Sorry your kids aren’t with you, but huge big congratulations on 44 years together!
(This coming May, I will be celebrating my 50th, but since [a] the marriage ended in divorce, and [b] my former husband died in 1999, I’m not sure “celebrate” is the right term. Still, I will mark the date, and reflect.)
Not to put a downer on things, though. Forty-four years Is an incredible run!
Tommy
@Anne Laurie: Well I have lived in the south. Lousiana. Used to the heat and humidity. IMHO better when you got an ocean to run into :). I bought all these plums. Went and spent like 8 hours a day on said beach. For lunch I went up to a bar and ate oysters. For like five days I didn’t wear any shoes. Just wonderful.
SiubhanDuinne
@rda909:
:-)
srv
My regrets to those who’ve lost animals, a marriage or have ingrate kids.
My congratulations to Florida in the race to the bottom. Germany will never be able to keep up.
JoyfulA
@SiubhanDuinne: My parents celebrated their seventieth anniversary last week. Yes, they got married right before Christmas, but they have the excuse that that’s when he was home on leave.
opiejeanne
@Anne Laurie: We went to Florida in August 2007 to catch the Disney Wonder and see our youngest in the shows. She was great, we had a surprisingly good time; Disney cruises are set up so you don’t have to be around the kids if you don’t want to and there were lots of people our age without kids or grandchildren, but we liked some of the kids we met on the cruise.
We got to Orlando a few days early and met up with an online friend and visited Homosassa state park and Weeki Watchee. Before and after the cruise our daughter had a day off so we went to Cocoa Beach before the cruise and took her to Cape Canaveral the day after, and then we went to Disneyworld for a day. We had a super time but it really is different from what we expected and seemed pretty weird. It was hot and humid and there were bugs, but what got me were the alligators everywhere we went.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Also, at 12:01 a.m. (Eastern) Monday, TCM is re-airing an interview with Peter O’Toole (runs 55 minutes).
Mike in NC
@Tommy: Went to New Orleans in 1995 to visit an old buddy from Hoboken who relocated there with his lawyer wife. Stepping off the plane (April or May) was like getting smacking hard across the face with a soaking wet bath towel. By the time we left a week later I promised we wouldn’t return for 50 years.
opiejeanne
@MikeJ: No plans. We do have a standing rib roast left and it is absolutely perfect (if I do say so myself). We could bring that if it’s allowed, and some bread and mustard.
JordanRules
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Mmmmm…long simmered white beans from the ham leftovers is sublime.
I made some great red beans with some fancy hocks I got at Whole Paycheck cause the regular grocery story didn’t have any hocks or shanks left and I was short on time. The pricey hocks are damn good though.
opiejeanne
@JoyfulA: Wow! 70 years.
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: I understand perfectly, I think.
Mike in NC
@srv: @srv:
I recall several years ago reading a number of stories about tourists from Germany, Spain, England, etc. being brutally murdered while on holiday in Florida. This was well before the insane “Stand Your Ground” gun stuff came to be. Not sure what effect that had,
Yatsuno
@opiejeanne: A whole Chinese meal got smuggled in here with no issues. I also have no dietary restrictions. I did want some tempura, but that does not preclude you bringing cow! :) So I think it’s a doable thing.
I’m at Swedish Cherry Hill campus room 636E. It’s a bit of a maze to get here I’ll warn you right now!
Melissa
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo): Congratulations! Minnesota has outdone Saskatchewan.
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: We will find you. Be warned, there are Christmas cookies as well. How many are you expecting?
Looking for a Canadian (fka wini)
@GHayduke (formerly lojasmo): and I am heading just. that. way. (temporarily to see family, but still)
JoyfulA
@opiejeanne: Although this may be it. They’re in great health, but for the first time ever they’re spending two months at my b-i-l’s place in Florida.
Who knows what might happen in two months in Florida?
opiejeanne
@JoyfulA: Alligators!
Yatsuno
@opiejeanne: If CaseyL feels well enough to show, 5. If not then four.
tybee
i’ll take the 95 degrees and 80% humidity.
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: Which tower are you in? I just looked at the site map and that info would help, I think.
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: We will slice enough roast for five, find a nice crusty bread of some sort, and a nice jar of mustard. We have a picnic basket and we aren’t afraid to use it.
tybee
@opiejeanne:
alligators?
a few years back, in one of the gated communities nearby, a woman from (new jersey? new york?) up north came down to house sit for some relatives.
she brought her toy poodle with her and went walking the golf cart trails beside some of the lagoons in the development.
they never found the dog but did find most of her.
the supposition is that the little white dog attracted a 10′ gator and she tried to protect the dog.
but we don’t have ice storms…
opiejeanne
@tybee: We usually don’t have ice storms either, in California. I live in Washington now and we have had them a few times (I’m told this) they are not common here. We try to spend some of the dark part of the year in SoCal so we don’t lose our minds. We have a little cabin near Lake Arrowhead, rarely gets too hot there and it’s a dry climate. We do have bears, though.
opiejeanne
@tybee: There was someone killed on a golf course just before we got to Orlando, and some friends of my youngest went to look at the spot (I don’t know why, morbid curiosity I guess) and one of them saw what he thought was a smallish gator and teased it. It moved a lot faster than he expected and almost got his leg.
Yatsuno
@opiejeanne: James Tower. Sorry forget the layout of this place is kinda bizarre.
opiejeanne
@Yatsuno: Thanks. See you around 1:30.
SiubhanDuinne
@ranchandsyrup: It is awesome how many Balloon Juice regulars are represented in that list! I feel privileged just to be an occasional commenter in y’all’s company.
SiubhanDuinne
@JoyfulA: That is some kind of wonderful!!
SiubhanDuinne
@opiejeanne:
Always so hard not to make obvious jokes.
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes, we did a bit of a double-take when we first heard of it.
Weeki-Watchee is fun and strange. Real mermaids!
JordanRules
@SiubhanDuinne: Agreed. Wish I could de-lurk more but I’m just too drained by life most of the time.
SiubhanDuinne
@opiejeanne:
Wait, I don’t remember Cole posting about that.
Corner Stone
@Amir Khalid: Yes, you do.
SiubhanDuinne
@opiejeanne:
I visited Weeki-Watchee a couple of times when I lived in Tampa, but my earliest recollection of WW is the 1952 film “This Is Cinerama.”
WereBear
@SiubhanDuinne: Congratulations to all! And thanks!
I never understood retiring to Florida instead of staying in the neighborhood where all your friends are. Don’t you know what retiring means?
It means you don’t have to go out if you don’t want to.
Mustang Bobby
@opiejeanne: A) Congratulations on your anniversary, and many, many more. B) My brother and his family live in Woodinville, and every time I go there we go to this Mexican restaurant in Duvall (sp?) that is really very good for being about as far north from Mexico as you can get in the lower 48.
ruemara
@tybee: *faint*
JordanRules
@Corner Stone: Hmph, sounded pretty accurate to me. It is subjective no doubt, much like the troll-art in question.
Something fabulous
@ruemara: oooh, would love it. have been very hermity (thankfully at least as opposed to vomity) since i got back from family sadness in chicago last month. would be nice to meet more folks!
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: Maximum Bob was the first I’d heard of it.
opiejeanne
@Mustang Bobby: You know a good Mexican restaurant up here? I NEED THE NAME!!!
There is a decent place in Redmond and there are small good ones tucked into either scary or random neighborhoods, but I always want to hear about more. When we lived in the SF area (East Bay) we were struck by how few there were around us.
mainmata
And Florida will be one of he first states to disappear under the sea during this century so it should celebrate its insane political culture as quickly as it can because it is going away.
JordanRules
Dayum. It’s like Florida bullied everybody growing up. So much I don’t like about so many states including my own and every other state I’ve lived in. Easy target and all, but still, shit is like a D3 pile on with one CFL scout in the stands by accident. Humidity in the South makes my skin feel lovely FWIW.
Corner Stone
@JordanRules: You’re such a simp.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@ruemara:
I’m in, too. We may have to find someplace a little more indoors than Golden Road since January gets a little chilly in the Valley. Though I can’t think of anywhere else that would be better.
YellowJournalism
I blame Golden Girls.
JordanRules
@Corner Stone: Ha! Nice! Dead thread memory outliving dead threads. Dope.
Won’t be so dope when you use it to flog someone with words just cause you can and cause power dynamics give you a tiny spike.
I swear if you could take that where it belongs, it would give less fuel to the “gutless dems” argument…then we’d only have about 299 fronts for purity ponys to march on.
Threehunna
Corner Stone
@JordanRules: Yep. I doped your dope ass.
Now go derp your stupid fucking derpy ass in some other derpy climes.
Purity Ponies on their relentless march
Striding across the dopey fields of derp
Stop for lunch at the Derp Cafe
JordanRules
@Corner Stone: Derp deez.
Corner Stone
@JordanRules: Derp deez nutz!
something fabulous
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): It was awfully noisy, though nice. Maybe once we see how many and where most are based for this one, we can look about a bit.
JGabriel
Come for the fun, stay for the killin’Z!
Ruckus
@ruemara:
I’m in.
Another Holocene Human
@Mike in NC: Look, Florida has an insanely high murder rate, period. That’s what happens when you invite in all the criminals with no income tax and shoddy, insufficient policing or anything resembling government whatsoever. “Come here, criminals, keep on committing crimes and keep the proceeds.”
Hell, look no further than the governor’s mansion. It’s crooks all the way down.
The sad thing is, people accept it because they’re poor (florida wages, plantation laws, right-to-work-for-less) and have never gone more than a day’s journey from the village where they were born. They think everywhere is the same. South Florida (Dade, Broward) is like a completely different world. The county govs do what the state won’t. When it’s up to the state, third world country, baby.
Another Holocene Human
@opiejeanne: Weekie Watchee shut down.
Homosassa is now a state park.
So is Silver Springs, as of a few months ago.
Cypress Gardens went broke and the property was bought out and turned into Lego Land USA.
opiejeanne
@Another Holocene Human: homosassa was a state park when I visited. I’m sorry to bear about Weeki Watchee.
mclaren
The appropriate accompaniment for this post is The Cramps’ classic music video, “Bikini Girls With Machine Guns.”