Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

… gradually, and then suddenly.

So many bastards, so little time.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Let me file that under fuck it.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

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

Republicans don’t trust women.

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An Actual Present (Open Thread)

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Aside from the mister, no one at my holiday gathering detected a political / sexual joke in this product name. I’m absolutely certain the giver intended only to facilitate a mess-free cuppa.

Did you get any unintentionally amusing or otherwise remarkable presents? Any big plans for tomorrow? We’re staying home, smoking a ham, watching football and supervising sneaky teenagers.

Reader Interactions

192Comments

  2. 2.

    max

    We’re staying home, smoking a ham

    Wow. Your, uh, ham bong must be HUGE!

    max
    [‘Florida really IS the weirdest state!’]

  4. 4.

    raven

    We normally use the HicFiLA bowl as an excuse to not go out but, damn, what a crappy matchup. The Illini play the hated Hoosiers at 2 and the Hokies have UCLA so that’s something. Our friends have this really nice New Years Day Party and it starts right when the Dawgs kick off in J-Ville so I have another dilemma. 1st world shit.

  6. 6.

    raven

    @Violet: They always say they will and then get caught up. Our crowd is academic/artsy and most don’t care. My evil plan is to dvr it and hope some douche doesn’t give anything away. I also have gotten to where I don’t like watching games I care about with other people. Actually that’s why I like shooting the shit on BJ during games, you can just put it down.

  7. 7.

    Comrade Mary

    I thought that was a ‘Shop, but no, it’s real and it’s — not all that spectacular.

    WHO THE FUCKING FUCK WRAPS THE TEABAG STRING AROUND THE SPOON? WHAT FUCKING REAL PROBLEM DOES THIS DEVICE SOLVE?

    1) If you make your tea in a pot, loose or bagged, this is pointless.
    2) If you make your tea in an open cup, boiling water + tea bag will make a nice cuppa as long as you’re using decent tea.

    There is no need for a little hat over your tea cup, and you can squeeze the tea bag against the edge of the cup with a spoon, then put it in a little bowl if you want a tidy way to carry the bag to the garbage.

    Signed,
    Offended Canuck (who makes several cups of proper tea a day without the aid of any silicone device whatsoever)

    Also, too, this.

  9. 9.

    IowaOldLady

    Someone gave Mr IOL a book the size of a dictionary that’s just a compendium of “extraordinary facts.” He’s reading them to me when he finds them especially interesting. It’s like living with Cliff Claven.

  14. 14.

    Ruckus

    @Comrade Mary:
    Hey! I used to wrap the string around the spoon to squeeze the excess tea out. Then the bag is in the spoon to carry to the trash. Or when money is tight to make the next cup of tea. I see this as should the roll have the paper coming off the top or the bottom? Now I know I’m right with off the top but I don’t berate those that don’t understand.
    But you are right that the tools to work a tea bag after making a cup are right in front of you. Other than a friend who used to just grab the bag and squeeze with his fingers. That’s just gross.

  23. 23.

    Comrade Mary

    @Ruckus: OK, but why wrap the bag in the string? If you have a spoon and a little bowl (which can hold several tea bags at a time if, like me, you can’t be arsed to put each bag directly in the green bin or if you want to make a second, weaker cup of tea), the spoon will squeeze and the little bowl is right next to the cup so there’s no dripping when the squeezed tea bag is deposited in it.

    Also: paper hangs over the top. This is not an opinion, but an observed fact :-)

  24. 24.

    Pogonip

    I use a tea ball.

    I am going to shop the after-Christmas sales for a ham bong. Smokin’!

    Other than that, I will be staying in taking my antibiotics and getting over the crud.

  25. 25.

    Violet

    @Comrade Mary: Maybe it depends how full you fill the tea cup or mug. If it’s full, you don’t really have an edge which works for you to squeeze out the last of the tea from the teabag. So the string works in that situation. I do that if I’ve got a teabag with a string, but I usually use stringless teabags so the TeaBag Buddy wouldn’t work for that at all.

  26. 26.

    raven

    You know what I hate? When one of these young people we know sends me a goddamn group text and I get all these fucking reply from granola hipsters I don’t even know!

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Betty Cracker/top:

    We’re staying home, smoking a ham

    That’s legal in Florida now, is it?

  30. 30.

    Violet

    @raven: Try group texting between iPhone technology and Android technology. It’s a confusing mess. Apparently their texting technology works differently but communicating one on one works okay. With groups, the iPhone people can see that it’s a group text but the Android people can’t. I think there’s better texting apps out there for Android, but this is the basic texting that comes with the phone. A big mess.

  31. 31.

    raven

    @Baud: And it’s for a goddamn bondfire tomorrow night! Fucking hippies. (I can’t tell you how lucky we feel to have people 20 years younger than us that invite us to shit even though we don’t stay very late.

    eta And let me hang with their kids, they call me Uncle Grampaw!

  34. 34.

    raven

    Apple support says

    When you recieve a group message, text #exit to the group, and you will be removed.
    You can only leave a group if you are not the group creator. If you started a group, you must delete the group to get out of it. simple text: #exit

  41. 41.

    raven

    @Baud: One of my buddies calls me flat black because of my truck. By the time he was three I’d pop the hood and pick him up and he’d identify the carb, master cylinder, battery, radiator and such. I loved it but he outgrew it when he sat on my lap and I lit the engine up. It’s really loud and it scared him!

  43. 43.

    Tommy

    @Cacti: Plan for tomorrow is watch the first season of Fringe on DVD (which I have not seen) then head to a party and eat way to much and have a couple adult beverages. Or maybe more than a couple, since it is at my brothers house and I got a bed waiting for me :).

  45. 45.

    Violet

    @Tommy: Yeah, I did some reading up on it and remember finding that app but never got around to changing anything. It’s just STUPID that they didn’t at least put a competent group text capability on the phone. That’s a pretty normal thing people do. How the hell do they not include that in the product?

    Do you find GoSMSPro works when doing group texts with iPhone users?

  49. 49.

    burnspbesq

    @raven:

    Duke gave free tix to any student wanting to go

    That’s been Duke policy for as long as I can remember. Except for NCAA tournament games, students get into everything free. Kevin White got a couple of the Iron Dukes to fund the bowl tickets for the students.

  52. 52.

    Tommy

    @Violet: I’ve not tried it for a group text to multiple iPhone users. I hated I had to pay for it, even if it was only a few bucks. It would seem having to buy a SMS program on a new phone would be like having to buy an app to make a call. It should just work with whatever comes with a new phone.

    I will also note that even with the paid version, they try to upsell you a lot of their other products, which pisses me off, since well I paid for the darn thing. But it works well. And most of all the interface is easy on the eyes (most important for me).

  55. 55.

    jl

    @Comrade Mary:

    Sorry, I missed the wonderful video demonstrating the amazing feat of which the teabag buddy is capable.

    Maybe Canucks have the spare time during their long frigid winters to learn the fine and difficult art of wrapping a teabag string around a spoon, but we USians are very buzy making money and power relaxing, thank you very much.

    Why didn’t one of my thoughtless callous family think of getting me one?

  61. 61.

    Aji

    Probably much the same as today, which includes mucking out stables and pens. Also laundry. Also crocking roast chicken and wild rice* soup. If there’s any time left over, trying to edit his newest photos to get them uploaded to the site.

    If the last . . . how many weeks now? . . . are any indication, there will be no time left over, and the pix will have to wait until I can park my ass in front of the TV for the Rose Bowl on Wednesday. Since my alma mater is finally back in it this time, I fully intend to waste the afternoon watching it.

    * That’s actual wild rice, not those silly mixed pilaf things that get mislabeled “wild rice.”

  70. 70.

    Ruckus

    @Comrade Mary:
    Paper on top is correct!

    Give me a break, I learned to drink tea at sea on a destroyer. North Atlantic above the arctic circle in winter. What pray tell is the little bowl that you speak of? We had cups and shit cans. That is all.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @raven:

    My best friend’s daughters call me “Miss Mnemo,” ’cause I’m their honorary aunt. They like me because they figured out I’m a good source for all things Disney. ?

    @Jane2:

    We’ve been listening to the soundtrack for a while now, but we missed the first go-around of the touring company. It cost an arm and a leg for tickets, but that’s why it was our joint Christmas present.

  72. 72.

    Tommy

    @jl: LOL. I am a coffee guy myself, and when I have tea I just use an infuser. But I got a big tea drinker in the family, with tea bags, got her this Tie Tea Cup a few years ago and she flat out loved it.

    However I shouldn’t mock. I brew my coffee in a hand blown coffee maker. Use a digital scale to get the amount of coffee just right. And use a digital thermometer to check the water temp.

    So I guess …. well I have a coffee problem.

  75. 75.

    Baud

    @raven:

    That’s a damn cool photo. You should see if you can get it touched up. They do amazing things with Photoshop these days.

  76. 76.

    WereBear

    We had a Yankee swap this year and I got something that no one even thought of stealing, they claimed was so “me.”

    Imagine one of those “frog butler” things, holding a tray. Only by way of Burton, Nightmare Before Christmas style.

    I have it on my desk at work, and the weird little guy holds my business cards.

  79. 79.

    Aji

    @raven: LOL – yeah, that’d be the one.

    Not entirely unrelated, the Lions finally gave Schwartz the boot today, so we’ll see if whomever replaces him can manage to maintain a 4th-quarter lead in like any game ever. [Sigh] being from MI usually means a depressing time of it in sportsfandom.

  81. 81.

    jl

    @Tommy: The tie tea cup is just too refined for me. That is like something I would read about in the style section of the NYT.

    Actually, I am quite happy with a saucer. And do have an old tea infuser from parents’ place for rare times serious tea infusing is required.

    Once I was concerned that the tea bag was too soggy, and decided that swinging it by the twine and bagging it against the saucer and pouring the results into the cup would be a good idea. There were unexpected results all around the kitchen sink.

  85. 85.

    Gravenstone

    @raven: Appears to be an obscenely young R.E.M. for four. No clue about the other vocalist, keyboards of the kilt wearing guitarist.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    @raven:

    To be honest, I prefer the original version. But I’m telling you, these guys these days can make a photo like that look brand new — even colorize it if you’d like.

  91. 91.

    raven

    @Baud: I had my yearbook picture of my girlfriend when I was in Korea and they blew it up and colorized it. I never saw her again.

  92. 92.

    Aji

    @raven: Well, if you’re a lifelong Cubs fan, then you know from depressing. :-)

    Anything left to fish for in Muskegon anymore? Apparently the Michigan grayling (state fish) can still be found in WI and MN, but is now extinct in Michigan itself. So much from my childhood gone now.

  93. 93.

    Tommy

    @jl: That site I linked to is all about design. More of web sites and print brochures and stuff (graphic design), but design of all kinds.

    See for me a saucer is to refined :). As a huge coffee drinker I have more coffee cups then you can shack a stick at, but not a single saucer for them. The only saucers I have are for the cups my parents got as a wedding present with their place setting in 1967, which they gave to me. I’ve never used the saucers and not even used the china in like three years.

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Those guys were drinking that dark brown/black syrup stuff that came in big urns and was aged for at least a week before any one was allowed to drink it. Don’t know what it was but even Starbucks smells better. Lots better.

  97. 97.

    srv

    A renowned Wall Street tycoon gave away his entire $800 million fortune before falling to his death in a suicide jump this week.

    Hedge fund multi-millionaire Robert W. Wilson, 87, leapt from the 16th floor of his luxury San Remo apartment building (pictured above), a prestigious address in New York’s Upper West Side which has been the residence of Steven Spielberg, Demi Moore, Glenn Close, Dustin Hoffman, Bono, Steve Martin, Bruce Willis and Steve Jobs in the past.

    According to the New York Police Department, he left a note at the scene. He had suffered from a stroke just a few months before.

  101. 101.

    dr. luba

    Most of the tea I drink comes in bags without strings. I usually make it in a tea pot (as I do with loose tea), but when I want a single cuppa, a spoon is usually all I need to squish the bag and transport it to the composter.

    When I’m feeling all fancy, or when I remember to use them, I have a fine set of teabag tongs.

  104. 104.

    Tommy

    @Baud: It is stunning. At the last ad agency I worked out we got a huge project for a Maritime veterans association (I don’t recall the name, wasn’t my client). We hired a person to do nothing but clean up and colorize the photos and I’d stick my head in his office like once a day and it was staggering what is possible. Cost an arm and a leg, cause they wanted it done my hand, almost pixel by pixel, and not just with any of Photoshops scripts or autocorrect. But it is amazing.

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Your dad is only slightly more bow legged than me. A little lot less geeky looking in his whites as well. I always looked like I was trying out for the jr high play.

  112. 112.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Destroyer I was on was build in 58 but the insides were not much different that the 4 stackers or really any WWII ships. I went through Old Ironsides in Boston once and while head room was less, the living conditions were not that much different. Later ships are better. Was stationed on a very late 60’s helicopter landing ship for my last 2 months and that was way, way better.

  114. 114.

    jl

    @Tommy: You got me there. Saucers are not he-man. Look at raven’s WWII pic of his old man and the crew above. Not one saucer among them, no sir.

    And thanks to raven for the interesting pic.

  115. 115.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Looks like signalman.
    Some rates had changed or been added between his time and mine. But signalman was still the same. Not as many on a ship what with better communications but still was a necessary rate in the 60-70s.

  116. 116.

    Tommy

    @Baud: Interesting. Did not know that.

    I have the full version of Photoshop, but really only use about 1% of the functionality (if that). But still do a lot of stuff that amazes clients. Color correction. Contrast. Croping. Optimize them for the Internet (I do web sites).

    There is this thing called the Laso tool. One way they can Photoshop the face of somebody on the body of somebody else. The program is smart enough to know that when you use it, and select one area, like where the gap from the headshot doesn’t match up with the body, you can just let Photoshop merge the color, brightness, and texture itself.

    It is a staggering program.

  117. 117.

    Tommy

    @jl: I didn’t mean it that way. It wasn’t that long ago folks, even at war, were more cultured then I am or much more cultured then folks years younger then me. I have pics of my grandfather in WWII, a HUMP pilot, using a saucer.

  119. 119.

    PsiFighter37

    About to get my New Year’s Eve cooking started with a long, slow-cooked roast of Kalua pork (basically pork butt doused with Hawaiian sea salt and liquid smoke).

    I’m also wasted and alone, which makes me feel like I’m at my equilibrium spot in the universe.

    PF37 +6

  120. 120.

    Baud

    @Tommy:

    I purchased a lesser version of Photoshop for simple photo editing. Never really learned how to use it well, however. It really is its own art form.

  122. 122.

    Ruckus

    @jl:
    The only place I saw saucers in the navy was in the wardroom. But then they had actual plates to go with them. Besides, holding on to your tv dinner tray, your silverware, your cup of coffee, bug juice or tea and trying to eat with the ship rolling 15-20 degrees and pitching even more left no hands for a saucer.

  123. 123.

    Tommy

    @Baud: Adobe Photoshop Express right. A wonderful program and all anybody, even a pretty amazing shutterbug needs to edit photos.

    I will just say if you have never looked, YouTube is your friend. I’ve learned 95% of what I know with Photoshop with a combo of I just “click on shit and see what happens” (how I learn most new programs BTW) and YouTube.

    There is a wonderful tutorial, and this goes for any program, on how to do this or that. Saves my life like weekly on something I can’t figure out ….. which happens more often then I care to admit.

  124. 124.

    raven

    @Ruckus: The four stackers were built from 1917-1919. Most went into mothballs and were brought to service and given to the Brits and Russkies under Lend Lease. 32 were converted to High Speed Attack Transports but there were also new APD’s built during WWII. This is the Crosby’s sister ship, the Ward. She sank the mini-sub off Pearl that morning and as know as having fired the first shot of WWII. The Ward was hit by a kamakazi 4 years to the day at the Battle of Ormoc Bay. Her skipper at Pearl was the captain of the cruiser that scuttled her.

  126. 126.

    Baud

    @Tommy:

    Photoshop Express or Photoshop Elements. Can’t recall the exact name.

    Good advice on the You Tube videos. I never thought about trying that. I generally don’t do much YouTubing.

  128. 128.

    jeffreyw

    @Yatsuno: They are some of my favorites, Cedar Waxwings. They were mobbing the persimmons still hanging on. Hard to get any details with a shot against the grey sky sans flash.

  129. 129.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    You know, my dad was a machinery repairman on a destroyer tender in the pacific during the war. Your old man and mine may have met or at least been in the same place at least once.

  131. 131.

    raven

    @Tommy: When WWII started and we broke the Japanese code there was an Admiral that refused to use the information because it was uncouth to read other people’s mail!

  132. 132.

    JoyfulA

    @Aji: Hmm. I’m picturing the situation and seeing I’d have to build a barn because ponies don’t live in houses AFAIK and don’t fit into doghouses and probably shouldn’t be left outside to get snow-covered or broiled. And then I’d have to get up earlier every day to muck the stalls, curry the pony, and take it for exercise (none of which I know how to do). Weekly, I’d have to go to Petco or find wherever the local ag store is for a couple of 50-pound bags of PonyChow. I’d have to pay the vet $50 extra for a house call because the pony doesn’t fit in the minivan.

    I think I’ll have to turn down your kind offer and just snicker at my sister as she copes with all of the above.

  134. 134.

    Tommy

    @Baud: Neither am I. About all I use YouTube for. Not much else of interest to me. But hardcore geeks seem to want spend the time and do a video screen cap of an app with audio overview. It is stunning actually, cause a lot of sites will charge you hundreds of dollars for the same type of educational videos.

    Oh just as an aside I’ve expanded this to other self-help videos. I wanted to know how to use my new Chemex coffee pot. YouTube video. Best way to cut my basil and keep the plant growing. YouTube video.

    I use it for stuff like this 24/7.

  136. 136.

    Aji

    @JoyfulA: LMAO. Okay, just askin’. We had one show up on Christmas Eve (another starving one, natch), and . . . well . . . we couldn’t very well leave him to die, y’know? And no one has shown the slightest interest in saying, “Hey, that’s my horse,” so apparently, we have another pony, at least for now.

  138. 138.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    My duty station on underway refueling was forward, just under the bridge. Out in the open. I had to string the sound powered phones for the captains to speak to each other. Or some admiral to speak to our captain. Some very interesting conversations, gives truth to the rumor that shit flows downhill. And gains speed and force as it gets close to the bottom of said hill.

  140. 140.

    Tommy

    @Baud: I have the entire like $2,700 Adobe Creative Suite. Lightroom is one of the programs. It flat out rocks, but spent little time with it. It seems to me the best part is if you connect any device to your computer it organizes and stores all images. Then you can edit.

    I got Flickr for that. And of course Photoshop. I love some of Adobe’s products, but I push people away from them cause they are so expensive and really meant for professionals. Like I said I’ve been using Photoshop for 5+ years and I bet I use like a few percent of what he does.

    Waste of money to be honest.

  142. 142.

    Tommy

    @raven: When I was the VP of marketing for a small software company and we were building out a design group, where not everybody was up to speed on the latest software, I bought Lynda for them. Wonderful. Wonderful. But not inexpensive for a novice that wants to learn something for a hobby.

  143. 143.

    Baud

    @Tommy:

    Like I said I’ve been using Photoshop for 5+ years and I bet I use like a few percent of what he does.

    Sounds like my college education.

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Possibly. Dad didn’t want to discuss the war or much of anything in the past, was always looking forward. A trait I am only now learning to ignore.
    How might you allow me to see them?

  147. 147.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    They did when you and I were in the service 40+ years ago, I’d imagine they still do to some extent. When everything else fails, if the ship is still upright signal flags still get the message across. And signal lamps have a limited range and scope so are harder to intercept. But they are much slower to use and acknowledge and given the weapons in place even when I was in speed of response can make or break the situation.

  150. 150.

    Tommy

    @Ruckus: It is amazing isn’t it. I am 44. My father has a freaking PhD in history. We didn’t know much if any of what my grandparents did in WWII. They NEVER talked about it. It was only after they passed away and we started to go through their records where we pieced things together.

    My mother’s father got to Europe late and didn’t see much combat. Really none.

    My other grandfather, wow. He was a medical doctor. Was sent to Texas to be a flight surgeon on HUMP planes. On the weekend he was taught to fly, or well at least maybe land a plane cause he was told large number of people never came back.

    Not so much the “japs” as he would call them to his died day in 1989 (he was not a big fan, as he said they shot him), but cause flying over the Himalayan Mountains in prop planes wasn’t as easy as you might think.

  151. 151.

    raven

    @Ruckus: I’ll mail it to you, I have sent it out a number of times. I have the army footage of the assault on Corregidor that fits too. There isn’t a great deal of Navy but enough to give the idea of what it was like to go in guns blazing.

  152. 152.

    JoyfulA

    @Aji: A starving pony showing up on Christmas Eve does sound like the start of a holiday TV movie, doesn’t it? We have horse farms, cows, even buffalo nearby, but it isn’t a place where a pony might wander in.

    My favorite cats have been those who showed up at the door, and I’m trying to track one now. I see pawprints in the snow, but I lose the trail. I’m thinking of putting out a bowl of crunchies.

  153. 153.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Was reading on a blog by an officer who served on tin cans in the 80’s about ships using CB walkie talkies for a while. But when two ships in the same area, one getting ready to set anchor and one steaming down river got their signals crossed and the ship moving right along at 10-12 knots dropped anchor, that changed back to sound powered phones only. There are places and reasons for some old technologies, solutions that are simple, work and are hey, relatively cheap.

  154. 154.

    raven

    @Tommy: Funny, my dad was a football coach in California in the early 60’s. He had a deep admiration for the Japanese after having faced them . He always said that he’d watch the Japanese kids on the practice field and when they got gassed he knew he’d pushed enough. My uncle, who spent the entire war and Navy Pier, hated them. Go figure.

  155. 155.

    raven

    @Ruckus: When I visited the North Carolina they have an exhibit in the Fire Control Center explaining that they tested computerized fire direction control and the old analog and found that changing from analog was not cost effective because it was so accurate.

  156. 156.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @raven:

    Apparently the broken code gave the Allies all the information they needed to shoot down Admiral Yamamoto’s plane in 1943. There was some debate on whether they should act on the information, because doing so might well tip off the Japanese that their code was broken, and they’d find other means to transmit sensitive information.

  159. 159.

    Tommy

    @raven: My grandfather never seemed to get over Japan. That phrase “the Japs” was maybe one of the first what I’d call racist slur I’d heard in my life (I am blessed that was how I was raised — I didn’t hear anything like this until I was a teen). My grandfather later in life was a rich man and told me if I graduated from college with honors he’d buy me a new car.

    I told him what I wanted, a Japanese car, and he freaked out.

    Now he was to the right of say Rush. So funny that many times in this life he’d travel to China. That I might have tens of thousands of dollars of artwork from China in my house. He loved the place. Couldn’t stand Japan.

    I don’t profess to understand for a second how this all could happen ….

  160. 160.

    Ruckus

    @Tommy:
    I used to work with a gentleman who was a radioman in the hump planes (C47?). We traveled together for a year in his truck both of us driving and talking and he never once wanted to talk about it. But then I really didn’t at the time either. When I go to the VA most guys don’t want to discuss their time in. Some will ask what branch and do a little small talk but never about more than what the food/coffee was like. Most of us Raven’s/my age, Vietnam era vets will discuss things a little more but not as much as you might think. I believe it is because of the situation. You probably think someone needed to be where you were but you wish it was someone else. It sure was like that when I was in hospital. Getting someone to openly discuss what had happened to them or what they had done to others? That was like trying to do and appendectomy through the nose.

    ETA Shorter. You really don’t want to talk much about things you really, really want to forget.

  161. 161.

    raven

    @Tommy: Oh my old man was a DuPage County Republican. He never batted an eye about dropping the bombs, common sentiment for those who were at Okinowa. When he bought a Dodge Colt and found out it was a Mitsubishi he had a fucking fit. Understand it by realizing that they fucking butchered people like there was no tomorrow.

  162. 162.

    Pogonip

    I have decided to start bird watching this year. It’ll also be fun for my autistic son who likes organizing and charting and categorizing.

    The biggest category seems to be those which Patrick McManus classifies as Drab Little Birds. We get a lot of DLBs in these parts.

    Does anyone besides me spider-watch? Spiders are a lot more interesting than you’d think at first glance.

  164. 164.

    Anne Laurie

    @Tommy:

    So funny that many times in this life he’d travel to China. That I might have tens of thousands of dollars of artwork from China in my house. He loved the place. Couldn’t stand Japan.

    Lots of Chinese nationals would agree with him on that, of course. And not just those who lived through WWII…

  166. 166.

    Ruckus

    @Tommy:
    You only have to remember one thing. Japan and China were on opposite sides. And they had been for centuries before WWII. China was an ally and of course Japan was not. Many people in that time felt the same way.

  167. 167.

    Tommy

    @Ruckus: I think those were different times in WWII. Clearly the time of you and Raven.

    I give up personal information about myself at a place like here, but not sure my grandfather ever even said he loved me.Heck I am not even sure he ever said he liked me :).

    Different time. Different place. Different social standards.

  169. 169.

    raven

    @Tommy: My old man opened up a lot more when I came home. He also experienced “late onset PTSD” and was a mess in his last few year. “Too many ghosts” he’d say.

  170. 170.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    And my dad had no problem buying a couple of Hondas. But I had broken that ground before him. He also never used any racial epitaphs like Tommy’s grandfather. Maybe being in the background was key.

  171. 171.

    raven

    @Ruckus: Yea, I think the Colt thing was because he didn’t know until he saw it under the hood. They were as different as we all are. I remember my old man talking about what bullshit it was when a WWII movie showed guys weeping about FDR dying. His position was that people being dive bombed by the Japanese were not all that worried about an old man dying in his sleep. I mentioned that to my father in law who was a SeaBee late in the war and he did not appreciate it.

  172. 172.

    AliceBlue

    @Ruckus:
    My dad was a HUMP radio operator. He rarely spoke about it to me or my mother; I think he talked a little more to my brother. I don’t know if he felt any personal animosity for the Japanese in later years. He never talked about that either.

  173. 173.

    Tommy

    @Ruckus and @raven: Let me tell you a story that you might get a kick out of, see what we’re talking about.

    My father was pretty hard on me. Pushed and pushed. It seemed nothing was every good enough. I recall getting second in state in golf and being happy. My father asked me if I liked being a loser.

    I was not close with my father for years. My grandfather passed away. My dad’s PhD Dissertation in Civil War military history (all like 866 pages) came to me, my grandfathers copy.

    His major professor was T. Harry Williams. Google that if you don’t know him, he would be like studying physics and your major professor being Einstin if you wanted a PhD in History.

    I open it and there is this ode to me (I was like one) and my mom, who worked two jobs to pay for this college.

    Biut then I read on and my grandfather ripped apart the book in Dissertation in red pen. Just mean to be honest. It was at this time I realized my father, although hard, was a lot nicer then this father. Any maybe being raised this way, well it is what we do.

  174. 174.

    raven

    @Tommy: Cool. I dedicated mine to my folks and my buddy that got killed by Charlie.

    looks like T. Harry Williams oral history project has some Vietnam interviews.

  175. 175.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    That may just have been an excuse. They probably would have done that anyway.

    Tommy is right, the world is a different place now than it was 40 years ago and 80 years ago and …… And it will be different 40 years from now and 80 and …… Those of us who forget that or can’t allow change are called conservatives. The Japanese of today are 2-3-4 generations removed from those of WWII, just like we are and everyone else is. You can’t stop change, you can fight it, but you will eventually lose that battle. I’d rather enjoy it, it’s easier and I learn a lot more and have more friends and acquaintances.

  176. 176.

    JoyfulA

    @WereBear: I hadn’t thought of water. I’ve never had a cat who showed much interest in water, except the last one, when she developed a hyperthyroid condition. But a stray or feral cat wouldn’t be getting much canned food “with gravy,” etc.

    I think I’ll do the water first. I worry what crunchies might attract that isn’t a cat.

  178. 178.

    Tommy

    @Ruckus: I drive A VW Passat (made a mdshipped from Germany, kind of old). My brother and his wife Hondas. My parents were looking for a new car, and they are retired and drive around the US going to flea markets. I am like a VW station wagon might work. Load a lot of stuff in. Comfortable. Good gas mileage.

    They laughed at me, only American made.

  181. 181.

    Aji

    @JoyfulA: Yes, water. Even here, with lots of snow, water’s scarce. The new horse is going through several gallons a day, he’s so dehydrated.

    And you’re right about the Disney-movie plot. :-) Except, of course, he wouldn’t look so raggedy.

  182. 182.

    Ruckus

    @Tommy:
    I haven’t told this story to too many people.
    My paternal grandfather was a racist. Not the join the KKK level but he hated blacks with a passion. So 2 steps below KKK. My father would occasionally use some racist terms, never the n word, which granddad had no problem with. But he hired black or latino men to work for him and paid and treated them equally as best as I could tell. And I did the payroll for years, so yes I saw the money end. When my sister moved in with her black girlfriend, and I don’t mean they shared an apartment, he welcomed her with open arms. So maybe 3 or 4 steps better than granddad. I’ve learned much from this. One, that things and people can change, if they want to. Two that young people can learn from bad examples as well as good ones. Three, generations are stepping stones in life. Maybe some day enough of us will have learned and life won’t have to suck as it does for so many.

  183. 183.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    I grew up with a girl a couple doors down who was born in Japan and has the same birthday as me. Her parents weren’t bitter and mine didn’t care that we were friends. We went to school together though 12th grade. The world can be a strange place, look at the Hatfields and McCoys. A family argument that lasted years and had several deaths and at the end almost no one even remembered why. People hate President Obama and I’ll bet other than the open racists don’t even know why.

  186. 186.

    Aji

    @JoyfulA: It’s not enough. Also not all that good for them – at least with horses and dogs. The extreme cold is an issue digestively, and while it adds hydration, the dryness of it doesn’t do much to slake thirst. I dunno about cats (haven’t had one since childhood, since I developed an allergy to the dander), but I’d bet it’s similar.

  189. 189.

    JoyfulA

    @Aji: What about wild animals? How do the rabbits and coyotes and squirrels get by? Now I’m worrying about attracting 300 squirrels to my water bowl; we have a huge old oak (that my husband says is going to fall over and kill us in our sleep any day now) and a couple of dozen evergreens and many fat squirrels.

  190. 190.

    Liquid

    @Pogonip: “So are ya Chinese or Japanese?” — “We’re Laotian.” — “. . . So are ya Chinese or Japanese?”

    Then there’s something else in their about propane and propane accessories.

  191. 191.

    Betty Cracker

    @Pogonip: We are half-assed bird watchers (no formal logs, but we have birding guides and enjoy identifying feathered visitors). It’s a lot of fun! I hope you and your son love it.

  192. 192.

    Aji

    @JoyfulA: Wel, if your squirrels are fat, they sound healthy, so they’re probably finding it elsewhere – and 1) being wild, are used to doing so, and 2) being small, don’t need as much.

    No squirrels in our immediate area, probably because we have too many larger predators. But those animals – coyotes, for example – range pretty far and wide in their search for water (and food), and at night, when the dogs are indoors, they get pretty close to the house, so they’re probably cadging out of the dogs’ and horses’ bowls when all else fails. We’re also in an extended (as in now about two decades long) drought, so they’ve been struggling to adapt accordingly.

    Frankly, I’d be more worried about the squirrels deciding the cat food was a useful addition to their diets than about the water.

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