(Ben Sargent via GoComics.com)
Gail Collins examines the state (native Texan) Molly Ivins once called “America’s laboratory of bad government”:
… Texans really love elections. Well, not the voting part — turnout is generally abysmal. But they have a ton of elective offices — land commissioner, agriculture commissioner, state school board. (There are a couple of conservative-versus-crazy Republican school board primaries, and the results may influence a pending war over requiring social studies students to learn how Moses impacted the founding fathers.)
Also, it’s really easy to get on the ballot. There are 12 Republicans running to replace Representative Steve Stockman, who is in a field of seven Republicans running against Senator John Cornyn. You may remember that Stockman is the one whose campaign office was condemned by the fire marshal. We suspect Cornyn will survive…
Well, it’s not boring. And on the positive front, experts in Texas say there’s absolutely no chance that the guy who legally changed his name to SECEDE is going to win a nomination for governor.
The primary voting culminates on March 4, after which there will be run-offs in May for the races in which no candidate got more than 50 percent of the vote. Conventional wisdom holds that by March 5 the world will know that the race to succeed Rick Perry will pit Democrat Wendy Davis against Republican Greg Abbott.
Abbott, the current attorney general, recently made national headlines when he appeared at a rally with Ted Nugent, the right-wing rocker who once referred to President Obama as a “subhuman mongrel.” Nugent, whose last hit record is older than Beyoncé, has recreated himself as a celebrity ranter. Mostly, he rants about gun rights, which is as difficult in Texas as taking a strong stand in favor of oxygen…
Abbott told The Houston Chronicle that he was unaware of what Nugent “may have said or done in his background.” Since Nugent is as impossible to ignore in Texas politics as the heat, this may have been a fib. Otherwise, Abbott is an attorney general with an astonishing lack of interest in the world around him.
What we are seeing here is a microcosm of the national political scene. Texas Republicans are terrified of two things — the angry white, mostly male Republican far right and the state’s huge population of young Hispanics. Nugent is a sop to the first. George P. Bush, whose mother is Mexican-American, is a Hail Mary pass thrown in the general direction of the second…
(Oh, yay, another spawn of the Bush Crime Family starts an independent ‘political’ career!)
***********
Apart from quasi-republics fomenting violence at the margins of empires, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
WereBear
Don’t forget Texas Governor “Pass the biscuits, Pappy” O’Daniel.
Robert Sneddon
Bush family consiglieres are already referring to George P. as “Forty-seven”. Barack Hussein Obama is the forty-fourth President of the United States.
The Dangerman
W. soiled the Bush name forever; maybe 447 would be long enough.
Violet
Texas Republicans ARE angry, white and mostly male. Especially judging from the endless parade of commercials on the TV right now. They’re pretty blunt too, they say things like, “I’ve got two goals: making sure illegal immigrants get no help whatsoever and stopping President Obama.” I realize they’re pandering to their base, but non-base voters see these ads too. They’re one-upping each other on just how anti-immigrant and anti-Obama they can be. This is not the way to win over anyone but older, angry, white men.
NotMax
And George Prescott Garnica Bush continues to bury his Hispanic other middle name.
WereBear
And to quote Lindsay Graham, “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business.”
So glad it’s not a growth industry.
Origuy
Going up to the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley to see Spanish piper Carlos Nuñez. Probably won’t have the flamenco dancer in this video. His new album is more pan-Celtic.
SiubhanDuinne
This is naive of me, but it would be so nice if people suffering from genuine disabilities, like Greg Abbott or Charles Krauthammer, demonstrated even a smidgen of compassion for their fellow citizens laboring under physical, mental/emotional, financial, or any other kind of handicap. How can you break your spine in a freak accident, endure countless surgeries and months or years of physical therapy, and be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of your life, and not empathize with other people? I guess wingnut ideology trumps everything, even normal human decency.
(This mini-rant inspired by the fact that until I saw the cartoon above, I didn’t realize that Abbott was quadriplegic, and it started me down that train track.)
John O
Duke-‘Cuse. Hate and respect both teams. Suspect the Dookies come out on top tonight just because Syracuse is going to lose sooner or later.
Cassidy
Drinking whiskey, recovering from Disney. Waiting on pizza.
So, my True Detective theory. I haven’t seen episode 5 yet, so keep that in mind. So spoilers, maybe, whatever. Don’t read it.
Cohle and Hart have never had a falling out. Cohle went deep cover and they’re hunting. The Cthulu Mythos is too big and too niche. You don’t translate that to the screen well and then angry fanboys troll the internet. There are already enough supernatural shows out there and I don’t think they’d settle with adding another to the list. I think they’re going in the direction of early John Connolly before he went supernatural with the Charlie Parker series. They’re doing something similiar to when Cohle went after the the Iron Crusaders.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
If it weren’t so insensitive, would say he doesn’t stand for anything.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Robert Sneddon: What horrible people. I do enjoy watching the Freudian loop-de-loop roll on as Jebbie thinks about avenging/topping his idiot brother, as his idiot brother did with Poppy, while Big Bad Bar undermines him in public to preserve his son’s chances. I imagine a lot of clenched jaws and empty gin bottles at Walker’s point this summer.
raven
@John O: They lost their last game, try to keep up.
WereBear
@SiubhanDuinne: Not everyone gets ennobled by suffering. As friends have shared, “You can be a jerk before, and a jerk after. It’s always up to you.”
Redshift
@SiubhanDuinne: Last week, while I was hanging around the book aisle at Costco waiting for my tire to get fixed. Lots of wingnut books there; it’s obviously another way conservative groups dump them after bulk-buying them onto the bestseller list. The woman looked at the Krauthammer book and snorted “I should buy a copy to burn it!” When I laughed, she talked about what a nasty hateful person he is. She used to see him at the Kennedy Center after performances, where he would ram his wheelchair into people if he thought they weren’t moving fast enough.
John O
@raven:
Oh yeah. *blush*
OK, then Duke will win because Syracuse is in a slump.
raven
@John O: :) Can’t wait to see the whine fest from the bench.
lamh36
Um am I the only BJer who’ll be watching the NAACP Image Awards tonight?
raven
I went downtown with pups to get a slice. Some band named Emancipator Ensemble is playing tonight and it is a fucking zoo.
WaterGirl
@Robert Sneddon: Please tell me you made that up.
WereBear
@Redshift: Gee, thanks for that. As it turns out, I CAN dislike him more.
Krauthammer is the most potent example of that saying, Your parents give you the face you start with, but you earn the face you die with.
Violet
@SiubhanDuinne:
What they may not realize is they’ll be the first ones thrown over the side if the Republicans ever decide to close ranks even further. Only able-bodied men are needed–not those takers, the disabled. They’re just dead weight keeping up by their mooching via ramps and handicap parking spots.
gogol's wife
@lamh36:
I’m planning to watch The Red Shoes on TCM. For some reason, at a certain age I became incapable of watching awards shows, even the Oscars.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Redshift: this happened in 2003
WaterGirl
MrSnub, are you here?
I have been wondering what came of the second job interview. Did they offer you the job? Also, wondering whether you might have cancelled the third interview before it took place. If you didn’t cancel it, wondering if it went as you expected it might.
Edit: that’s a lot of wondering.
schrodinger's cat
Just got my iPad, downloaded a book in a pdf format but I can’t find it anywhere. I haven’t yet figured out how everything works and where everything is. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
P.S. I have downloaded some stuff from Apple and am in the process of reading it, but was looking for some tips from iPad users. I would like to use it as a laptop substitute when lugging around my laptop is not convenient.
Cassidy
@gogol’s wife: I thought Red Shoe Diaries was Cinemax?
NotMax
@gogol’s wife
The only one I can sit through is the Tonys.
Steeplejack
@Cassidy:
Thank you for the “spoiler!” notice. Possible spoilers here, too.
I have seen episode 5, and I tend to agree with you that Cohle definitely went undercover—underground—and has been hunting all along. Not sure yet whether or how much Hart is hooked in.
I hope the series doesn’t veer into the supernatural. They’ve got enough creepy stuff to work with, e.g., the cult of “big men” who allegedly are doing human sacrifice and other evil things.
lamh36
@gogol’s wife: lol. I’m not big on awards shows either, but with the history when it comes to the older Academies, I fully expect to not be impressed by winner next week on the Oscars.
Talentless Hack
@John O: The “Orange” let Boston College beat them the other day.
Southern Beale
For the second time in one month, a Florida man has shot himself in the leg on his way home from gun safety class.
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: Plug it back in the computer you are using to manage it and it should launch iTunes. The you can go click the “iPad” on the menu bar and you’ll get a menu across the top with all the stuff you can put on it. Hit “Books” and you can synch all or selected.
gogol's wife
@Cassidy:
Ahem. Get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking Robert Osborne here.
raven
@Steeplejack: It’s going to be creepy either way.
Pogonip
@schrodinger’s cat: Can you type manuscripts on an IPad? If so, can you hook it to a printer and print them or do you have to move the ms to a regular computer from there?
gogol's wife
@lamh36:
Yes, I’m afraid it’s going to be irritating. It’s going to be that American Hustle thing.
Pogonip
@Pogonip: Er. “…and print from there,” I meant to say.
raven
@Pogonip: Top Apps for Word Processing on the iPad
NotMax
@gogol’s wife
Would be a real hoot if on April 1, TCM snuck in Ozzy Osborne to read Robert’s cue cards.
raven
@Pogonip: AirPrint Basics
raven
@Pogonip: I would think since she said ” I haven’t yet figured out how everything works and where everything is” she might not know yet.
ruemara
@lamh36: possibly. I’m just here for the monster movie on Syfy. Or Olympics.
Refining the raspberry frosting. My first attempt turned into raspberry glaze. Grrr. This time, sriracha first, then careful addition of the raspberry glazey thingy. Freeze the rest.
In the mean time, packing the car for tomorrow’s flea market booth and prepping to careen through the script analysis I’ve done for a friend via skype. I want to be sure she’s getting value since she did pay. Of course, I’d have done it for free, but she insisted.
Pogonip
@Southern Beale: Well, he’s in the right class! He NEEDS Gun Safety.
My father’s been handling weapons for 70 years, give or take, and has had no accidents. He can’t figure out why there are so many gun accidents these days, his best guess is the population is getting dumber.
Morbo
As you usually post the long read, here’s a suggestion: Assange’s would-be ghostwriter writes in the London Review of Books about how his autobiography fell apart.
WaterGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: One of my favorite surprises when I got my iPad was that you can get a FREE sample of any book that is available on iBooks. Whether you prefer paper books or electronic books, it’s a great way to see if you really are interested in a book before purchasing.
One tip: the more apps you leave open, the more memory it uses on your laptop. Give a shout after you’ve used it for a few days, if you want directions on how to close the apps.
Cassidy
@Steeplejack: If you can get it, take a read of Every Dead Thing by John Connolly. At a minimum, look it up and the plot synopsis will give you an idea of what I’m seeing in the show.
schrodinger's cat
@WaterGirl: You can tell me right now, I have no idea what I am doing on it. I have been a Windows and Unix kitteh so far.
MikeJ
@Pogonip: :
Yes, although it’s easier if you plug in/bluetooth in a full sized keyboard. You can print somehow, but do people actually print stuff any more?
schrodinger's cat
@raven: I used the WiFi connection to set it up.
WaterGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: Well, it will make more sense once you have a few apps open. Have you been downloading apps and then tapping them to see what they do?
It also depends on what iOS you are using on your iPad. Do you happen to know? I’m guessing it’s 7, but maybe 6?
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: Aha, see if this helps
http://www.jcu.edu/language/ipad/file_management.html
raven
@WaterGirl: You know about the security update?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@SiubhanDuinne:
You know who else mistreated the handicapped.
Pogonip
@MikeJ: I do because I can’t proofread on a computer screen, I miss things.
I had Bluetooth in my car and disabled it; found it distracting. Worse than those damn kids on my lawn. I think I need to take a class in Modern Gadgets, if there is such a thing. I’ve tried kids and they always have trouble explaining what is second nature to them. ME: but how does the TV show get into my TV from the computer? KID: Oh, it’s simple. All it does is download the frenulated pixels from the kadiddlewhomper and then when you set the control on backflip the Vogonpoet II program ties in and embibbles the doobobble.
Or at least that’s what it sounds like.
Glocksman
@Pogonip:
Not dumber, just more careless.
When I took a motorcycle rider’s course years ago, the instructor started lecturing us on safety gear by saying that there are only two types of riders; those that have already dumped their bikes and those who will.
IOW, gear up and treat the machine with the respect it deserves because it will hurt you if you do not.
That bit of advice also applies to firearms.
Treat a gun like you would any other dangerous device that you otherwise find useful and ‘accidents’ will be minimized.
Treating a gun like your favorite nonlethal gadget is just asking for tragedy.
WaterGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: It’s much easier to show than to explain. Let’s see if this makes sense:
Edit: that sounds completely ridiculous when I read it, so it may not make any sense at all!
jonas
@Violet:
If you can ensure that that’s the only demographic that can actually vote, then you’re set. So that’s pretty much their main strategy now.
mai naem
George P(eabrain) Bush’s mama was from Colombia.
WaterGirl
@raven: Yep. I appreciate the heads up, though! They still don’t seem to have an update for mavericks yet, even though they say it’s vulnerable, too.
Tim C.
Totally new thing. Google Flappy Bert. trust me.
Cassidy
@Glocksman: Guns aren’t fashion accessories.
IowaOldLady
@Pogonip: I think a different population is buying them. Many of my neighbors are hunters and so were their parents. They grew up around sane gun users. People buying them because of black helicopters are a whole different kettle of fish.
Glocksman
@WaterGirl:
On android, Google Books and (I think) Kindle offer the same functionality if the book publisher allows it.
It’s a great idea because if you get hooked in 2 or 3 chapters you’re likely to purchase the book, and as you said, if it doesn’t grab your interest you’ve saved $$.
NotMax
@
For proofreading (and for composing, for that matter) have always found Metapad invaluable as a text editor (Windows only, though). Small footprint and not a resource hog like Word. Have only used the free version, as the more robust features in the paid, but eminently affordable, version aren’t particularly necessary for anything I’ve yet done.
NotMax
No edit button.
#66 meant to be @Pogonip
Origuy
@schrodinger’s cat: The way iOS works, you start an application that knows how to read the file. For a PDF, use Kindle or Adobe Reader. Either one should be able to find the file and open it. There may be better options.
Gex
@WaterGirl: From what I have read they do not have updates for the desktop/laptop environment but expect to put one out in the next day or so.
pseudonymous in nc
Americans in general, but especially in the South, vote for far too many positions, and the result is anti-democratic. The intention was to stop patronage, and the result is that… well, the only people who give a shit about who gets elected as commissioner of widgets are the people who can get something out it.
WaterGirl
@Origuy: @schrodinger’s cat: When I got my iPad, everyone raved about Good Reader as the best .pdf app, but that was 2 years ago, so it may have changed.
Anne Laurie
@Pogonip:
Mostly less experienced, would be my guess. Used to be that the people handling guns would’ve had some training, not just in using the weapon, but in handling it in ways that wouldn’t put the handler or innocent bystanders at risk. You got a gun because your daddy gave you one, and it was a friggin’ tool, a potentially dangerous tool like an axe or a chainsaw. You didn’t screw around going pew-pew-pew like it was a video game, if only because video games hadn’t been invented. (Sure, little kids pretended sticks were guns, but little kids also pretended dolls were babies; once you were old enough to be trusted with a real gun or baby, it was time to stop playing games.) Even going into the modern era, when urban dwellers would be introduced to guns in the military, that introduction was designed to impress upon them the fact that guns are tools-not-toys.
People have “accidents” with guns because they’re not taking the power of the tool seriously, frequently because they’re just not as experienced as they think they are. Heck, if you read any American literature, making fun of “city dudes” who show up once a year to go hunting and make fools of themselves shooting cows, barns, their dogs, and sometimes each other goes back to at least the early 1800s!
raven
I’ve never had kids so it is really nice when my 40 something friends from up the street stop by with their 2 and 5 year old boys!
Glocksman
@Cassidy:
Unfortunately some people think they are, and treat them accordingly.
I’ve never read about some kid dying because his Dad left a Rolex on the nightstand.
Gex
@raven: That sounds like great fun. Getting to have time with children and send them home afterwards is not a bad deal at all.
raven
@Gex: zactly!
ruemara
@Southern Beale: At what point do you get that the universe is trying to tell you, “NO”?
KG
@schrodinger’s cat: open iBooks, tap the Collections button on the top left and select PDFs.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
I’m not Schrodinger’s Cat, but I have a relatively new iPad Air, bought to replace my old, mortally damaged iPad 2. I regularly closed open apps on the old device, but I simply cannot figure how to close them on the Air. The former technique of double-clicking the home button to expose open app tabs, holding one down until they jiggle, then clicking the little “X” to close them one at a time — that doesn’t work any more.
Tips? Thanks in advance.
Gex
@SiubhanDuinne: If you use four fingertips and swipe upwards it should bring up the tray so you can close apps.
ETA: After that, if you have the iOS7, you use one fingertip to swipe up on a selected app to close it.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Ah, hadn’t seen this when I sent my plea at #78. Thanks!! I’ll try it right now.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Brilliant! Worked like a charm!
Many, many thanks.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gex: didn’t know the four-fingered trick either. That will come in handy. Thanks!
Mnemosyne
@Cassidy:
@Steeplejack:
That is my “True Detective” theory, also, too. I guess we have three more episodes to find out.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@Cassidy: The Yellow King is brought up too often for it not to be related to something H.P. Lovecraft, I think. There’s also the repeated mention of wealthy, powerful higher-ups behind it all, which also smacks of Lovecraftian … craft.
WaterGirl
@KG: I had no idea you could read .pdf files with iBooks, and I have had my iPad for 2 years. Nice!
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Hey Mnem, O/T but I responded to your question about your niece and ballet the other day, but not until the thread was long dead, so you might not have seen it. Short answer: Sleeping Beauty, Royal Ballet performance in theatres next month. March 20, IIRC. I gave a link.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Yay! I preferred tapping the little wiggly apps, myself, but time marches on.
Edit: once you have the hang of closing an app with a swipe, you can try closing 3 apps at once by swiping with 3 fingers.
Also, I really appreciated the Sleeping Beauty info the other day. I had no idea that there was such a thing as ballet at the movie theater.
kc
@Robert Sneddon:
No way. No FUCKING way.
Cassidy
@The Fat Kate Middleton: I just don’t see how they can bring in Lovecraft without it becoming cliche or silly.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Pictures of the Ukrainian presidential villa, including the private zoo and a collection of what I think are Rolls Royces but I can’t quite tell. Better taste than Trump or Limbaugh
raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: What are these dudes gonna do when Putin turns off the gas?
Mnemosyne
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
I keep thinking that the Yellow King stuff is how you control a bunch of weirdos who are into mixing meth and LSD. Right now, I doubt there’s going to be any actual supernatural activity. YMMV.
@SiubhanDuinne:
I did see it — thanks! The only downside is that the closest show to them is at 7:00 pm, and I don’t know if G’s 70-year-old aunt is going to be willing to make that drive at night when it’s probably going to still be pretty icy. :-(
jayboat
Got a nice shot Thurs of sunrise in the Everglades.
Driving over to Card Sound, the coolish night was making for a lot of mist.
The photo looks serene but it was noisy with the chatter and chirping of hundreds of birds.
WaterGirl
@jayboat: Gorgeous! It does look serene. I felt my breathing slow just looking at the photo.
ruemara
BWHAHAHAH! I did it! I had to grind my own brown sugar powdered sugar but I did it! Sriracha Raspberry! Of course, I now have, like, a massive tub of raspberry buttercreme-ish glaze in the freezer. Requests?
And the fancy pantsy, expensive bacon I used for the first candied bacon, is a bit meh. The Trader Joe’s normal bacon, came out nicely chewy and rich. WTF, expensive bacon. Y U NO IMPRESS ME?!
@jayboat: Gorgeous!
The Other Chuck
@SiubhanDuinne: Swipe the app up to close it, but you don’t actually need to do that to free up memory — iOS automatically closes apps when it needs memory. I got an iPad Air and I’ve never been able to slow the thing down. Thing’s more powerful than any of the laptops in this place (well at least til I got the macbook)
As for PDF reading, I kind of like Cabinet.
RuhRow_Gyro
Huckabee in on TeeVee teaching us that the Republican Party is the party of inclusiveness. To prove it his guests are black and brown people, who are being paid by the Republican Party apparatus, to say they are Republicans.
If you are articulate enough to speak sentences, not physically repulsive to the degree that viewers will remain seated when your image appears, and a black or brown person, you can make money in this manner.
Suzanne
@Redshift: WOW. THAT is some hardcore assholism. I’m almost impressed.
The kid just shit her pants in her sleep and that feels like a metaphor for something.
I spent the day working on a Habitat for Humanity house for a lovely Mexican immigrant family. It felt like giving the middle finger to all the assholes in my state government.
Jebediah, RBG
Just watched last week’s “Archer,” in which Archer repeatedly finds out that there are many different types of p0rn0graphy that he had been unaware of. Some of them seem to skeeve him out a bit.
Because I am remarkably civilized, I am not going to draw any attention to any possible unintended reference in this post’s title.
DissidentFish
@mai naem: Jeb Bush’s wife’s name is Columba. She is from Leon, Mexico. Don’t like that family much, anyway…
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Yeah, it’s great to be able to see classic ballets in the neighbourhood multiplex! I’ve seen Giselle and Swan Lake so far this year, and really looking forward to Sleeping Beauty in a few weeks.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
On the other hand, given the vagaries of this year’s weather, it might be a balmy 75° by mid-March!
g
How does a candidate allow himself to be “unaware” of what the guy he appears on stage with said? That’s a real brain trust there.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Or they could get another 10 inches of snow. You never know in Chicago. IIRC, one of the biggest snowstorms we ever had was in April when I still lived there.
Pogonip
@SiubhanDuinne: Last year in Ohio it was 85 on St. Pat’s Day.
Pogonip
@The Fat Kate Middleton: The King in Yellow is in the public domain and so is free electronically. If you want the real-book version, you have to pay, but you can get free shipping if you live in Carcosa or Dunwich.
Pogonip
@IowaOldLady: By George, I think you’ve got it!
Mnemosyne
@The Fat Kate Middleton:
You can download the original book from Project Gutenberg.
It gets a little confusing because there’s what Chambers wrote, and then there’s what Lovecraft decided to create while referencing Chambers, and there’s what other writers used of Lovecraft when creating their own works, so the Lovecraft stuff about the Yellow King may or may not have anything to do with the show. So far, the creators have only talked about Chambers and his book.
Mike in NC
I spent three miserable weeks at Fort Hood in 2005. One of my fellow officers mentioned going to flight school there years earlier, where on the wall of a head somebody wrote, “Here I sit with my bowels flexin’, giving birth to another Texan.”
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne: And all of those Chambers/Lovecraft stories go back to Ambrose Bierce… who I personally suspect was ‘punking’ his more ‘aesthetic’ associates to see how tangled they would get in their own imaginations…
schrodinger's cat
Thanks so much, Watergirl, Origuy and Raven.
Cervantes
@Violet:
Maybe, but:
Data are from the UT/Texas Tribune Poll, October 2013.
Anne Laurie
@Jebediah, RBG: One gapes, aghast, at the gaping… maw of Ted Nugent.
Fort Geek
@Pogonip: There’s your problem. Gotta go through a Frattastat Synchronizer first.
PIGL
@mai naem: You know what else is from Columbia?
Pogonip
@Fort Geek: I thought that was only for Apple, not Microsoft. I thought Microsoft used the Pediddle Fweebengoggler. Or was that only for Windows 7?
Pogonip
Does anyone else think Suzuki Koji read The King in Yellow? Or are Ring and The King just serendipitous? 6 basic plots and all that. Also, did anyone else read Spiral and Loop and if so, what the hell was all that? He lost me with Ryuji’s mitochondria. I have concluded that I will not like any novel where mitochondria are an important plot feature. I never understood that L’Engle book about Charles Wallace’s mitochondria, either.
Jebediah, RBG
@Anne Laurie:
It would be a public service if somebody found a way to shut that gaping sewer of a maw…I’ve never understood how an admitted pedo* isn’t shunned by all.
*Colloquial meaning, as I now understand there is a different term for one who preys on post-pubescent, but still underage, girls.
Cervantes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They are mostly Soviet-era vehicles — Zils, Volgas, Zaporozhets. Nothing you’d want to drive, believe me.
Honus
@John O: here’s the difference: joe Biden went to Syracuse, Nixon (and david addington) went to Duke.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne: I’m a Chicago (well, Oak Park) native, and I well remember how quirky the weather can be, especially in March. But really, any time. Let’s hope by March 20 (whatever the SB date is) the snows are gone and the temperatures are balmy. I would love for your niece to see that ballet.
SiubhanDuinne
@Pogonip:
Oh, I believe it. One year when I lived in Michigan it was in the 70s on Christmas Day. OTOH, I’ve known blizzards in October.
Jay C
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Here’s another set of pix from Yanukovych’s Presidential Retreat: bizarrely, it looks like his taste in collecting classic motors tended more to old Fiat Topolinos and what must be native Ukrainian versions of 1940s-era Buicks.
Cervantes
@SiubhanDuinne:
Paraplegic.
GregB
I think Wendy Davis should use this clip in a commercial against Bud Abbott.
another Holocene human
@pseudonymous in nc: Damn if you haven’t got that right.
Ditto for other failed reforms such as term limits, elected judges, and sheriffs–causing the corruption the reform was instituted to prevent.
Otoh, calis competitive districts have been a beautiful thing
another Holocene human
@Jebediah, RBG: Both terms are misleading when discussing sexual assault and coercion of minors as these are usually crimes of opportunity by adults with no actual paraphilia.
Probably there is good overlap with certain personality disorders plus enabling by others, or, anti social outlook.
Cervantes
@Jay C: The Zaporozhets looks like a Topolino from a distance.
slippytoad
@Robert Sneddon: If there is one thing that must never happen again, it’s a Bush in the White House. No more bumbling, third-rate morons with nothing more than family money to propel them.
brantl
That’s harder in Texas than you might think, since so few Texans know what oxygen is, and it sounds all sciencey, being three whole syllables…..