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You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Afternoon Open Thread

Afternoon Open Thread

by Betty Cracker|  March 11, 20142:18 pm| 190 Comments

This post is in: Dog Blogging, Open Threads

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Contemplative boxer is contemplative:

contemplative boxer

What are you contemplating this afternoon? My thoughts go something like this: BLAAARRGHHH! Probably similar to what the dog is thinking.

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Reader Interactions

190Comments

  1. 1.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    My, what big nose you has!

  2. 2.

    jl

    March 11, 2014 at 2:23 pm

    Thanks for pet pic. Looks like the an homage to the early work of John G. Cole.

    But through the darkness and murk, I do not see an out-of-it dog thinking ‘BLAAARRGHHH! ‘.
    I see an alert, aware, and ready dog primed for action. Any prospect of food hitting the floor soon?

  3. 3.

    Violet

    March 11, 2014 at 2:23 pm

    So cute! It’s a gorgeous day here today. Just want to go outside the breathe in the warm air. Cold front tomorrow so it’s now or wait a week.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    March 11, 2014 at 2:24 pm

    My local weather forecast:
    “The heaviest amount, possibly up to 10 inches, will fall to the south of Chicago. Anywhere from 4 to 8 inches are expected across much of the area, though some places along the Wisconsin border may see only 1 to 3 inches.
    […]
    This winter is the fourth snowiest on record but could move into third place after the storm, maybe even second. A total of 75.5 inches of snow has fallen so far this season, behind the 77 inches of 1969-70, the 82.3 inches of 1977-78 and the 89.7 inches of 1978-79.”

    BLARRGGGH is right.

  5. 5.

    Tommy

    March 11, 2014 at 2:26 pm

    @Violet: For the first time, since I think of November of last year, it got warm enough here to open my windows.That is a nice thing Freaking my cat out, but a lot of things freak her out.

  6. 6.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 2:26 pm

    Betty Cracker@top
    I loved the photograph and the write-up that went along with it, that you posted last night. BTW did you see the last episode of Downton, Fellowes’ portrayal of the American side of the family was so silly.

  7. 7.

    gussie

    March 11, 2014 at 2:27 pm

    I’m wondering if science fiction fans really enjoy extended descriptions of spacecraft and engines and terraforming, or if that’s just the price they have to pay to read the things.

  8. 8.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 11, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    I’m contemplating my navel.

    And wondering how it is that many good people pass on, but Dick Cheney is still with us.

    I think it’s the horcruxes.

  9. 9.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 2:31 pm

    @gussie: I usually skip over those, the physics in most cases is head-desk inducing.

  10. 10.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 11, 2014 at 2:34 pm

    @gussie:

    That’s “hard” SF (Larry Niven, for example). There’s a lot of not–so-hard SF that doesn’t bother with the nerd shit. Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light, for example, which doesn’t bother to go into long winded explanations, you have to figure out context for yourself.

    Then there’s technobabble, which the Star Trek franchise excels in.

  11. 11.

    ulee

    March 11, 2014 at 2:35 pm

    Here comes the Snow King. Again. Here in Maine I’m wondering about the feedback loop.

  12. 12.

    Tommy

    March 11, 2014 at 2:36 pm

    my cat just went over my lap, suck her ass in my face and either (1) Saw the pic of your boxer or (2) Got mad I wasn’t petting her. Or (3) Both. I fault you for this.

  13. 13.

    ranchandsyrup

    March 11, 2014 at 2:36 pm

    I’m contemplating why a bureaucrat in a red state would say to me, “Yes, we know that FEDERAL AGENCY did a rulemaking in 2003 and from that rulemaking changed its policy on X to favor it and exempt you, but since it was just a policy change, we decline to apply it. We support the revised policy and see the benefits and agree that enforcing it as we plan to could injure the state but we’re gonna go with the unrevised policy from 1971.”

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    March 11, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    I’m contemplating that it was 50 degrees this time yesterday. And by tomorrow, we’ll have 4-6 inches of snow on the ground.
    Sigh

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 11, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    @dmsilev: All of which proves, to such brilliant scientific minds such as Charles “Oh I wish I could have attended a Nürnberg rally or three” Krauthammer and George “I’m as wrong about baseball as I am about politics” Will that global warming is a hoax!

  16. 16.

    jacypods

    March 11, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    My son coaches high school baseball and is really involved with “his” kids, despite the fact that he’s not much more than a kid himself. The father of one of the players was driving in to work really early this morning so that he could take time off to make his son’s game this afternoon and was hit and killed by a drunk driver going the wrong way on the interstate. On top of that, one of the school boosters who was a mentor to my son dropped dead of a heart attack completely out of the blue at 43 a little more than a week ago. This all is so horrible, and I don’t have any words to make any of it better. I almost wish my son was a little kid again, and I could distract him with something, say something meaningless to comfort him, or give him some platitudes about how things all make sense in the big picture.

    Being a grown up sucks.

  17. 17.

    shelly

    March 11, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    It’s finally warming up here (65 degrees) and I feel like I’m coming down with a cold.

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    March 11, 2014 at 2:39 pm

    @ranchandsyrup:

    Because s/he assumes you can’t afford a lawyer?

  19. 19.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 11, 2014 at 2:40 pm

    @jacypods: Holy cow, that really does suck! I hope your son is coping with so much loss in so short a time. Best thoughts to him and his support system, you!

  20. 20.

    roxy

    March 11, 2014 at 2:41 pm

    “Probably similar to what the dog is thinking”

    Reminds me of the Simpson episode “Bart’s Dog Gets an F” I loved how this was from the dog’s point of view.

  21. 21.

    Glenda

    March 11, 2014 at 2:42 pm

    I’m contemplating why, for a budget of over 151 million dollars, I’m being asked to find a discrepancy of 20,859.77.

    Is this really the best use of my time today?

    Oh, well, the latest budget run has just finished, so off to see if I can find the problem.

  22. 22.

    something fabulous

    March 11, 2014 at 2:43 pm

    Aww. What is it the kids say? Doge. Much nice. Very wow!

  23. 23.

    ranchandsyrup

    March 11, 2014 at 2:44 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Maybe. She just wanted to say no and this is the best she could come up with. If she decides to enforce it, people will have no choice but to challenge it. We’re gonna have to go the legislative route with this.

  24. 24.

    JoyceH

    March 11, 2014 at 2:44 pm

    I spent the morning sitting around waiting for the vet to call and tell me my good girl was out of anesthesia – and now she is, whew! (She got spayed and microchipped and also had a little placental hernia repaired.) But why do they ALWAYS say the patient is ‘resting comfortably’? REALLY? Groggy, with stitches, a shaved belly, and wearing a CONE? That’s comfortable?

  25. 25.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 11, 2014 at 2:44 pm

    @Glenda: Because one of “those people” might have run off with it to OTB to play the ponies?

  26. 26.

    Tommy

    March 11, 2014 at 2:44 pm

    @jacypods:

    I almost wish my son was a little kid again, and I could distract him with something, say something meaningless to comfort him, or give him some platitudes about how things all make sense in the big picture.

    I totally understand. As you said:

    Being a grown up sucks.

    Yes it does. Yes it does.

  27. 27.

    raven

    March 11, 2014 at 2:45 pm

    We had a great surprise. A friend that lived across the street for a number of years moved to NYC about 4 years ago. He’s a drummer in a band that is just starting a tour and they played here last night. he took the time to swing by and see us and the dogs for a bit. A real treat that he’d make the time.

  28. 28.

    Bill in Section 147

    March 11, 2014 at 2:45 pm

    @jl: That’s what I was thinking. My dog has that look whenever there might be even the slightest hint that someone in the family might soon begin a movement that could possibly take them in the vicinity of the food cupboard.

  29. 29.

    Glenda

    March 11, 2014 at 2:46 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Nah, too far to go. But someone could have gone to the casino, I suppose.

  30. 30.

    IowaOldLady

    March 11, 2014 at 2:47 pm

    One of my former grad students was denied the right to vote in North Dakota today because she has no driver’s license. She had her passport and has been registered for 15 years, but her precinct captain said no.

  31. 31.

    gussie

    March 11, 2014 at 2:48 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Is it? I’m such a physics idiot that I find it intimidating. “Whoa, he said ‘delta vee!’ Holy crap, he must really know how to escape the gravity well.”

    @Villago Delenda Est: I’m trying to think of recent examples of SF that edges closer to ‘technobabble’ than ‘hard sf.’ I guess all the ‘post-human, Singularity’ stuff kinda fits that bill? It’s full of tech, but it’s mostly magictech created by AIs far beyond human comprehension …

  32. 32.

    dmsilev

    March 11, 2014 at 2:48 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: True, but in their defense, they are dishonest hacks.

  33. 33.

    Shakezula

    March 11, 2014 at 2:48 pm

    @gussie: No. OK, maybe the terraforming. But Spec. Porn of any kind is dull.

  34. 34.

    dmsilev

    March 11, 2014 at 2:50 pm

    @gussie: If you’re looking for a way of killing some time and want to understand delta_v and gravity wells, buy a copy of Kerbal Space Program for your computer ($20, if memory serves). Puts you in control of a sandbox of “build your own rockets, and explore an imaginary solar system”.

  35. 35.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 2:51 pm

    @gussie: Did you see Gravity, they played fast and loose with physics in that movie. The way Sandra Bullock’s character was hopping from one space installation to another like they were stops on a bus route was just plain silly.

  36. 36.

    SatanicPanic

    March 11, 2014 at 2:51 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Well we’ll just have to find them all and destroy them so he’ll be mortal again. I imagine he made one of Reagan’s old pajamas, what other objects would have the sort of significance he would value? Booth’s pistol? I’m drawing a blank

  37. 37.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 2:51 pm

    @dmsilev: Those 2 top Winters were the worst (by far) I have ever seen in Central KY. Coldest too, with temps of -25 below zero (farenheit). Snowing a blizzard at time it was that cold too. Kentucky river was 2/3 frozen over.

    This Winter has probably been the worst since those 2 epic ones.

  38. 38.

    patrick II

    March 11, 2014 at 2:52 pm

    @gussie:

    When I was young I loved that “hard” science fiction. My particular favorite was Larry Niven. His descriptions of how his ships and star drive worked and particularly how his famous “Ringworld” was built, how it worked and why it was necessary was thrilling.

  39. 39.

    roxy

    March 11, 2014 at 2:52 pm

    @JoyceH:

    Joyce I finished your book “A Feather To Fly With” Loved it. Looking forward to the sequel.

  40. 40.

    jl

    March 11, 2014 at 2:53 pm

    OK, now I have an interesting dilemma, Since Huck will be GOP prez nominee, obviously, should Hillary run or not?

    Huckabee says that women should be treated with a ‘sense of pedestal’ and all polite and stuff (but whose pedastal? Freudian slip there, patriarch Huck?)

    So if Hillary is the nom, Huck will be so polite and chivalrous that she will win.

    But on the other hand, Huck says “I treat my wife very differently than I treat my chums and my pals.” He doesn’t think you have to be polite and chivalrous to guys. So if he debates a guy it will be more fun.

    I want to see a presidential debate where Huck throws the Dem guy nominee a can of PBR, rips open a bag of Doritos and stuffs them in his mouth, and tells the Dem guy to shut his mouth hole while he talks a little while, and then makes buttsecks and fart jokes all through the debate. That would be fun. And I think the Dem nominee would do that better than Huck, so would still win.

    Shorter Mike Huckabee: It’s Called Chivalry, Bitches
    http://wonkette.com/543794/shorter-mike-huckabee-its-called-chivalry-bitches

  41. 41.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 2:53 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: The bastard hid them better than Voldemort.

    Man, if I had been Voldemort, I would have hidden one on the moon & one in deepest ocean trench, etc. (end Harry Potter rant).

  42. 42.

    dmsilev

    March 11, 2014 at 2:54 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Yeah, plane-change maneuvers ain’t exactly cheap fuel-wise. HST and ISS are in rather different orbits…

  43. 43.

    Bill in Section 147

    March 11, 2014 at 2:54 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: One of his horcruxes was a tumbrel – he thought he was clever with that one but I found him out. That makes twelve so far. Now I only have to track down the other 1,590,209,376 for each murder for which he is responsible. Its a tough slog without Dumbledore or an assist from the sorting hat.

  44. 44.

    ruemara

    March 11, 2014 at 2:55 pm

    @IowaOldLady: How so? Try to connect with http://www.aclund.org/assistance.html ACLU ND. See if they can help. This is what needs to happen now, instead of passing meme pictures around. We need to be working on voting registration and organization. tell her to keep fighting it.

    @jacypods: Being grown up does suck, but we all have to do it, so we can be like your son, helping the littler kids. My heart goes out to him and his students. May he discover his reserves of strength and compassion to be there for the kids who need him.

    I’m working on locating the extra b roll footage for my first short of the year. Had to hard connect to the network and now I am discovering my network is fairly fast via cat5. Maybe I should really go play wow, before I run out to work.

    a girl can fantasize.

  45. 45.

    SatanicPanic

    March 11, 2014 at 2:55 pm

    @gussie: I do, actually. I know a good deal of it is BS, but it’s fun to think about.

  46. 46.

    Tommy

    March 11, 2014 at 2:55 pm

    @Paul in KY: I live in Southern IL. It was -35 this year. Now I am 43 and don’t have any kids, but I went outside that day on purpose. I wanted to be out there and know what it felt like. Short response, it was really, really cold.

  47. 47.

    ruemara

    March 11, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    Putting this in another post, IowaOldLady, also check out http://www.866ourvote.org/state/nd Ourvote North Dakota.

  48. 48.

    Mandalay

    March 11, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    The disgusting Dianne Feinstein suddenly gets outraged by our security services. But only because she has personally been bitten by the beast she has been feeding for years…

    The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee suggested Tuesday the CIA violated federal law by secretly pulling classified documents from her panel’s computers during a staff probe of the spy agency’s controversial detention and interrogation program.

    Sen. Dianne Feinstein said CIA Director John Brennan told her in January that agency personnel searched the computers last year because they believed the panel’s investigators might have gained access to materials on an internal review they were not authorized to see.

    “The CIA did not ask the committee or its staff if the committee had access to the internal review or how we obtained it,” Feinstein said in blistering remarks on the Senate floor. “Instead, the CIA just went and searched the committee’s computer.”

    Imagine that – our security services hacking the computers of the Intelligence Committee! This sets a dangerous precedent. If it isn’t nipped in the bud they might even start making unauthorized access to computers of the American public as well. I am sure Feinstein will be alert to this possibility, and doing all she can to prevent that happening.

  49. 49.

    roxy

    March 11, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    @patrick II: I loved the Ringworld series, Foundation series,
    rendezvous with Rama series and I have read some great Star Trek novels.

  50. 50.

    Anoniminous

    March 11, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    Sprayed TimeAnts-B-Gone around my hallway and office so I’m actually doing some R&D* today.

    Bliss

    * emphasis on the R

  51. 51.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    My review of the last episode of Downton Abbey here.

  52. 52.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 2:58 pm

    @jacypods: Wow! Horrible news. Just mention (when time is right) that this should reenforce notion of living each day to fullest, as we never know when tragedy will strike.

    Good point for the kids too.

  53. 53.

    shelly

    March 11, 2014 at 3:00 pm

    Just saw:

    Michelle Bachmann, the outgoing Republican congresswoman from Minnesota is slated to speak at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom on Friday, according to …

    Man, oh man. Hope that gets uploaded to youtube.

  54. 54.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:00 pm

    @JoyceH: Cause they have doggie morphine in them?

  55. 55.

    catclub

    March 11, 2014 at 3:00 pm

    @Glenda: Accountants don’t get to use error margins.
    yours would be about +- 0.01%

  56. 56.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    @raven: Any band we might know?

  57. 57.

    bemused

    March 11, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    @jacypods:

    Yes, it does. Our youngest son’s very small high school class lost two classmates in tragic accidents a year apart. The class was reeling but they got together almost continually in the initial weeks and after helping each other through the grieving. When I got a call the second classmate was killed, I got off the phone not knowing how to tell our son it had happened again. When I told him, he sunk in the chair, sat for little awhile and then got up to phone his friends and was out the door to join them. They had been through this before and knew exactly what they needed to do next which made me want to cry even more. It”s almost 16 years later and they are still a very close knit group, several of them living together when they went off to college and beyond, going on trips and regularly getting together when they are in close proximity. They bonded for life.

  58. 58.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 11, 2014 at 3:02 pm

    @SatanicPanic: Saddam’s pistol, but he made the Lucius Malfoyesque mistake of entrusting it to the deserting coward.

  59. 59.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:02 pm

    @IowaOldLady: That’s illegal (I think). A valid passport (which has picture) is even more ID than a DL.

    Hopefully the Precinct Captain will get retired.

  60. 60.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:04 pm

    @SatanicPanic: I would say some Nazi stuff, something from Nixon, Nathan Bedford Forrest’s skull…

  61. 61.

    IowaOldLady

    March 11, 2014 at 3:04 pm

    @ruemara: Apparently ND’s new voter ID law says you have to have an ID issued by ND. She was trying to vote in a school where everyone knew her and her house was right across the street.

  62. 62.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 11, 2014 at 3:04 pm

    @Mandalay: Well, you know, when it happens to YOU suddenly, it’s actually important! Sort of like how the Americans with Disabilities Act is oppression until you’re a quadriplegic.

  63. 63.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:06 pm

    @jl: It would freak me out if Suckabee got the nomination. Would be an interesting debate in your scenario, though. Dem nominee would have to watch the sighing.

  64. 64.

    Betty Cracker

    March 11, 2014 at 3:07 pm

    @jacypods: Holy Moses on a pony, how awful! Courage and strength to your son. You’ve obviously raised a fine boy, and the kids he will comfort will be glad he’s a grown up, even if it does suck. Which it does.

  65. 65.

    catclub

    March 11, 2014 at 3:07 pm

    @Paul in KY: Yeah, I figured the precinct captain has not been trained sufficiently. passport does not have address, but still says that you are who you claim you are.

  66. 66.

    Ash Can

    March 11, 2014 at 3:07 pm

    @shelly: Michele Bachmann at the Oxford Union?? She’s sure to be a smash hit there — but not for any of the reasons she’d want to be.

  67. 67.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:09 pm

    @Bill in Section 147: What if he made the Washington monument or something like that into a horocrux?!

    Riffing off my Voldemort rant, he could have made Hogwarts into a horocrux!

  68. 68.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 11, 2014 at 3:09 pm

    @Paul in KY: Huckabee’s baggage should be more than enough to sink him in the general, assuming he ever gets there. Those moronic pardons of men who went on to commit massive mayhem again, and one of them had a Clinton connection that spurred the pardon.

  69. 69.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 11, 2014 at 3:09 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: My wife loved the movie, I kept getting stuck on the bad physics and couldn’t like it.

  70. 70.

    burnspbesq

    March 11, 2014 at 3:10 pm

    @ranchandsyrup:

    I’m contemplating why a bureaucrat in a red state would say to me, “Yes, we know that FEDERAL AGENCY did a rulemaking in 2003 and from that rulemaking changed its policy on X to favor it and exempt you, but since it was just a policy change, we decline to apply it. We support the revised policy and see the benefits and agree that enforcing it as we plan to could injure the state but we’re gonna go with the unrevised policy from 1971.”

    What the fucking fuck? Call him back and remind him (assuming it’s true) that that 2003 Federal rule was adopted through notice-and-comment rule-making in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, and as such IT HAS THE FORCE OF LAW.

    Jesus H. Motherstabbing Kee-rist.

    P.S. That was friendly advice, not legal advice.

  71. 71.

    Cervantes

    March 11, 2014 at 3:10 pm

    @Glenda:

    I’m contemplating why, for a budget of over 151 million dollars, I’m being asked to find a discrepancy of 20,859.77.

    Rick Scott is being asked about a missing $500,000 campaign contribution this week, so you’re in good company.

    Wait — that did not come out the way I meant it.

  72. 72.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 11, 2014 at 3:10 pm

    @catclub: “I don’t know. This picture doesn’t look much like you. I think you’re actually a mezkin.”

  73. 73.

    Betty Cracker

    March 11, 2014 at 3:10 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: My viewing has been all out of whack because my life has been too, and I was thinking I had missed the final episode and was cursing the crappy PBS app when I couldn’t find it. But I had seen it; your review was spot on. Pretty tepid season overall.

  74. 74.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:11 pm

    @Tommy: In Jan 1978, when that stuff was going on, we had a distrurbed individual pull the fire alarm in our dorm 3 nights in a row at about 0230. Fire alarms were so loud, that you just had to get out (first night you thought it might actually be a fire).

    We were all huddled up like those emperor penguins!

    Good times….

  75. 75.

    Tommy

    March 11, 2014 at 3:12 pm

    @Paul in KY: UGH. My mom isn’t anything close to a liberal, but she wants more people to vote. Not less. She runs elections in her district. I can’t imagine showing an ID to vote. That doesn’t happen where I live. We got no voter ID laws.

    My mom calls me after every election to (1) remind me to vote and (2) cry, I mean cry that more folks don’t vote.

  76. 76.

    IowaOldLady

    March 11, 2014 at 3:12 pm

    @ruemara: According to that link, she should have been allowed to vote. I passed it along to her.

  77. 77.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:13 pm

    @shelly: Wonder if she knows they brought her in for comedy?

  78. 78.

    Violet

    March 11, 2014 at 3:15 pm

    @jacypods: I’m so sorry to hear that. Just be there for your son. There’s not much else you can do. He’ll appreciate your love and support.

  79. 79.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:15 pm

    @catclub: That you are the John Q. Doe on her list. Jeezus!

  80. 80.

    Bob In Portland

    March 11, 2014 at 3:16 pm

    The sun is out today. That’s quite astonishing this time of year in Portland. I may walk somewhere and buy coffee beans, then work on music.

    Life is good.

  81. 81.

    scav

    March 11, 2014 at 3:16 pm

    @dmsilev: Hope you exploited that chance to have all the windows open yesterday. I mean, 50°s! ahhhh, the whiplash.

  82. 82.

    Mandalay

    March 11, 2014 at 3:17 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Well, you know, when it happens to YOU suddenly, it’s actually important!

    Just so, and I think that largely explains the sea change on the remarkable increase in acceptance and tolerance of gays in recent years. You have to be living under a rock to not know anyone who is gay now, and to have laws which discriminate against gays is personally offensive to so many people.

    But sadly there is still not much offense taken by the American public over the shenanigans of our security services.

  83. 83.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:17 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Amo ng other things. Also some grifting on the mansion I think. I would hope he was the nominee.

  84. 84.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 3:17 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Thanks Betty!

  85. 85.

    SatanicPanic

    March 11, 2014 at 3:17 pm

    @Paul in KY: Rowling never explains why he left them in Hogwarts, that was a dumb move. Also not explained, why he would create one out of a living thing. Does that mean Nagini is immortal? Does that mean Harry Potter is?

  86. 86.

    ranchandsyrup

    March 11, 2014 at 3:17 pm

    @burnspbesq: I did say that to her and sent her links to the FR. She didn’t budge but did say that she won’t go out and actively enforce due to the “competing arguments”. But if someone complains before they do a rulemaking or introduces legislation, they “may” try to enforce the old policy. Thx for the tip, burnsy.

  87. 87.

    dmsilev

    March 11, 2014 at 3:19 pm

    @scav: Well, I work 40 feet underground, so windows are things that computer screens have…

  88. 88.

    ruemara

    March 11, 2014 at 3:20 pm

    @SatanicPanic: A fan came to the conclusion that Potter may be immortal, due to the wording of the prophesy regarding him and Voldy.

  89. 89.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:21 pm

    @Tommy: Your mom sounds pretty cool. Mine is too. She’s a proud Democrat (emigrated from England). Does get a bee in her bonnet about the illegals.

    Being English, she’s very law abiding, and I fear that if we had been starving down in Mexico, she would have stayed there and law-abidingly starved. On most all other things, she’s really cool.

  90. 90.

    Cervantes

    March 11, 2014 at 3:21 pm

    @Mandalay:

    The disgusting Dianne Feinstein suddenly gets outraged by our security services.

    If she has done nothing wrong, she has nothing to worry about.

    Besides:

    CIA Director John Brennan on Tuesday said that allegations made by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that the Central Intelligence Agency hacked into a Senate committee computer network were “beyond the scope of reason.”

    “Nothing could be further from the truth,” Brennan told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell at a Council on Foreign Relations event about Feinstein’s claims.

  91. 91.

    raven

    March 11, 2014 at 3:22 pm

    @Paul in KY: NYMPH He was with Dark Meat.

  92. 92.

    scav

    March 11, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    @dmsilev: On the upside, you’re employed, but I do honestly sympathcize. I remember similar months on end.

  93. 93.

    gussie

    March 11, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: I haven’t seen Gravity. The idea of George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in the same movie gives me toxic smug syndrome.

    (I also haven’t read Niven in forever! I’ll have to re-read …)

  94. 94.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:24 pm

    @SatanicPanic: I thin the Harry one was unintentional, Product of what happened when he tried to kiill Harry as a baby. The Nagini one stumps me too. Maybe he could have transferred it at later time & was thinking ‘no one would look for one in a living creature’? That is dumb, because living creature can be killed accidently, etc.

  95. 95.

    jl

    March 11, 2014 at 3:25 pm

    @Paul in KY: What I wrote as a dumb joke. I don’t think Huckabee is likely to win the nomination (though he might be the sanest and least awful person with a chance).

    And the real puzzle I have to solve during lunch hour is, what is the hidden homosexuality and bestiality agenda in Frozen? I can’t figure it out. But some preacher men say it’s there! Where? It must be there someplace, since lying and malice are sins, so the preacher men must be right.

  96. 96.

    ? Martin

    March 11, 2014 at 3:27 pm

    @Glenda:

    I’m contemplating why, for a budget of over 151 million dollars, I’m being asked to find a discrepancy of 20,859.77.

    Is this really the best use of my time today?

    Once people figure out you can steal from the company, provide the amount is less than $20,000 is when you discover that 30 year employee walked off with half a million dollars.

    Better question is why aren’t computers better at finding those sorts of problems? (I blame Excel)

  97. 97.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:27 pm

    @raven: Thanks for link. Look like a pretty wild act. Lots of “where’s molly” going on at their shows. Hopefully they will get to play Bonnaroo sometime. Sounds like they would be great for a 0100 show.

  98. 98.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:28 pm

    @jl: Have not seen Frozen. Maybe I’ll have to….

  99. 99.

    geg6

    March 11, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    I am thinking I’m a fool for going to work today. The students are on spring break, it’s at least 60F outside and the sun is shining. I should have taken the day off.

    Meanwhile, my John is considering getting another dog. One of the guys at the post office that he taught back when he was a teacher (he quit in 1982) has a couple of black Lab puppies from a litter that no one has yet adopted. He told John he’d save one of them for us if we want it. I’d love another dog, but am thinking that three, with one of them disabled (poor Otis!), might be a bit much. Any thoughts?

  100. 100.

    raven

    March 11, 2014 at 3:32 pm

    @geg6: How disabled is Otis? We got Bohdi right before Raven got cancer and we think he really helped keep the boys spirit up (by being a total pain in the ass)!

  101. 101.

    SatanicPanic

    March 11, 2014 at 3:32 pm

    @Paul in KY: That’s one of the big mysteries of that series for me. The other was Snape- in the end, what was his purpose? My dad watched the movies and asked me why it was so important that Voldemort trust him and I had no answer. Maybe I should re-read the last book.

  102. 102.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:33 pm

    @geg6: That’s alot of dogs (says the dude with 4 cats).

    Black labs are very friendly animals. One of my favorite dogs.

  103. 103.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 3:33 pm

    Identity of an infamous Balloon Juice troll, revealed.

  104. 104.

    raven

    March 11, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    This is Bohdi and Raven the day we found the pup. Notice how thrilled Raven was!

  105. 105.

    IowaOldLady

    March 11, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    @ruemara: On the other hand, if you look here

    https://vip.sos.nd.gov/PortalList.aspx

    a passport isn’t allowed. That info is marked “updated sept 2013”

  106. 106.

    roxy

    March 11, 2014 at 3:34 pm

    I’m sitting here watching the hummingbirds and oriole feed at the hummingbird feeder. I’m sitting here listening to a woodpecker rat-a-tat away on one of our trees some songbirds whistling and talking to each other and a couple of squirrels having their own conversation. It’s a sunny 60 degrees today, temperature this weekend up to 80s inland and 70s at the coast. Beautiful day here. Just wish we had more rain.

  107. 107.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 3:36 pm

    @raven: Raven looks like he wants to return the puppy to the store.

  108. 108.

    Paul in KY

    March 11, 2014 at 3:36 pm

    @SatanicPanic: I think it was because Snape was intregal to his plans to off Dumbledore (once Snape was able to get teaching position there), also to ensure no one found/destroyed the horocruxes at Hogwarts. Just my thoughts off top of head.

  109. 109.

    jeffreyw

    March 11, 2014 at 3:37 pm

    Bea is bored kitteh.

  110. 110.

    Violet

    March 11, 2014 at 3:38 pm

    @raven: You’ve linked that picture before and I always love it! Poor, poor Raven. So unimpressed. Little Bohdi is a white puffball of squee!

  111. 111.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    March 11, 2014 at 3:38 pm

    51 degrees presently. 10+ inches at least by tomorrow eve. Bleh.

  112. 112.

    raven

    March 11, 2014 at 3:38 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: We found him at the bakery we walk to every day. He just wandered up, we never found out where he came from. Awful pup, great dog.

  113. 113.

    raven

    March 11, 2014 at 3:40 pm

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: 75 here but the rain and 50 is comin.

  114. 114.

    raven

    March 11, 2014 at 3:41 pm

    @Violet: But we are sure Bohdi was at least responsible for Raven’s cancer being found so there was that.

  115. 115.

    Mandalay

    March 11, 2014 at 3:41 pm

    @Mandalay: Well the brouhaha over the CIA spying on the Intelligence Committee has been resolved, by Ted Cruz of all people: he assures us that it was Obama’s fault.

    Glad that issue got resolved. And kudos to Ted for helping out by thinking outside the box.

  116. 116.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 3:42 pm

    @jeffreyw: How is Homer Kitteh?

  117. 117.

    raven

    March 11, 2014 at 3:43 pm

    @jeffreyw: Ya’ll freezin your ass off up there?

  118. 118.

    Violet

    March 11, 2014 at 3:43 pm

    @IowaOldLady: This is typical not to allow passports. They don’t have home addresses on them, so they don’t “prove” you live in the voting area.

    How does your former student live in North Dakota and not have a ND drivers license or ID? I’d think that would have made her life difficult in the past.

    We have to fight back against these draconian anti-voter laws. Republicans don’t want you to vote. Republicans don’t want you to have the right to vote. Republicans want to steal your right to vote. Keep dropping that into conversations. And fight the laws on every level.

  119. 119.

    geg6

    March 11, 2014 at 3:44 pm

    @raven:

    Well, poor Otis is quite unstable on his feet and very grumpy about it. He has some sort of syndrome that is, apparently, common in large dogs that causes nerve damage to his legs that make him unable to feel where his feet are and so he cannot stand or walk well. I can never remember the name of the syndrome. It’s to the point that he has to be fed where he lies because he can’t stand up long enough to eat. He can still go outside and do his business, but he has to wear a huge harness with a handle on it for us to hold onto him and keep him steady. The whole ordeal has made him pretty clingy with me (he will only eat for me, for instance) and pretty grumpy when Koda bugs him, which is her wont.

    However, Koda would love the company. That is what is driving this whole thing. A buddy for her.

  120. 120.

    geg6

    March 11, 2014 at 3:45 pm

    @raven:

    That’s an adorable pic. And Raven looks like WTF is with this little fluffy thing.

  121. 121.

    IowaOldLady

    March 11, 2014 at 3:46 pm

    @Violet: I didn’t know she didn’t have a driver’s license until she posted this on FB. I assume it’s some health issue. She’s a middle-aged, white woman and one of the things she commented on was how her sense of white privilege led her to blithely ignore the new law, thinking the passport would be enough as it has in the past.

  122. 122.

    Betty Cracker

    March 11, 2014 at 3:46 pm

    @raven: Haha, Raven’s like, “Dafuq?”

  123. 123.

    jl

    March 11, 2014 at 3:48 pm

    Any new, or worsening foreign crisis anywhere will now be the fault of Obama appearing on that Funny or Die show. GalifianakisGate!

    Was there any discussion of whether Bush doing a vile skit where he looked for the non-existent Iraqi WMDs damaged the presidency? Enquiring minds want to know. Probably was not worth ‘peppering’ the WH spokesman with questions the next day.

    Aghast Reporter Asks If FunnyOrDie Interview ‘Damaged’ Presidency

    ABC’s Jim Avila peppered White House Press Secretary Jay Carney with questions during a daily press briefing about President Obama’s appearance on FunnyOrDie.com’s interview series with actor Zach Galifianakis.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/aghast-reporter-asks-if-funnyordie-interview-damaged-presidency

    Peppered? That appearance was worth a peppering?
    I guess the brains in the WH press corps are canned, fat, and well salted, so why not some pepper?

  124. 124.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 3:54 pm

    @geg6: What happened to the orange kitty you were feeding?

  125. 125.

    jeffreyw

    March 11, 2014 at 3:58 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Homer is in between beatings. He gives them to Ginger and gets them from Toby.
    @raven: It’s in the 70s today, they say snow tomorrow. I think we might put out a hit on “they”.

  126. 126.

    PaulW

    March 11, 2014 at 4:00 pm

    It’s a little late in the day, but GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT IN PINELLAS COUNTY FLORIDA FOR THE FL-13 SPECIAL ELECTION! Get everyone to vote for Alex Sink! PLEASE.

  127. 127.

    Violet

    March 11, 2014 at 4:01 pm

    @IowaOldLady: I’m sorry for your friend and good for her for recognizing it’s her sense of privilege that led her to assume she could proceed as usual.

    Is it wrong of me to hope that a lot of older white voters get caught in this situation. Specifically the ones who vote Republican.

  128. 128.

    Poopyman

    March 11, 2014 at 4:03 pm

    “BLAAARRGHHH!” pretty much covers it, but at least I’m getting paid to think it, so I’ve got that going for me.

  129. 129.

    bemused

    March 11, 2014 at 4:03 pm

    @jl:

    I don’t remember any WH reporter asking if Bush giving Merkel an ambush neck rub harmed the dignity of the president’s office.

  130. 130.

    Citizen_X

    March 11, 2014 at 4:04 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: “I knew it!”

    –Every dog in the world.

  131. 131.

    IowaOldLady

    March 11, 2014 at 4:05 pm

    @Violet: Unfortunately this is someone who’d cut off her hand before she’d vote R. Coincidence? I think not.

    The only good thing is that one of her FB friends posted that they hadn’t intended to vote until they saw her post and then went and cast a ballot.

  132. 132.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 4:05 pm

    @jeffreyw: Boy Kittehs trying to establish a pecking order?

  133. 133.

    Citizen_X

    March 11, 2014 at 4:07 pm

    @jl: Didn’t the guy who was shot by Cheney say he got “pretty well peppered” by birdshot?

  134. 134.

    gelfling545

    March 11, 2014 at 4:12 pm

    50º here today, down to 5 by tomorrow night with 12 in. or snow & up to the 40’s again by Friday. This is getting even the diehard winter fans (of which I am not one) edgy.

  135. 135.

    MomSense

    March 11, 2014 at 4:12 pm

    @jeffreyw:

    I think we might put out a hit on “they”.

    Especially since “they” say we will get another foot of snow tomorrow. I think “they” are trying to kill us.

  136. 136.

    jeffreyw

    March 11, 2014 at 4:16 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Yeah. Homer kept whuppin up on Ginger and Tobe thought he was cutting into his own bidness. “Any cat whuppin to be done, I’ll be the one doin it, capice?”

  137. 137.

    sensesfail

    March 11, 2014 at 4:20 pm

    @jl:
    The phony outrage has moved the Right to the border of self-parody.

  138. 138.

    Betty Cracker

    March 11, 2014 at 4:23 pm

    @PaulW: Damn skippy! I’m not in that county, but I am watching with interest! In other local news, hot damn, but David Price had a good showing today!

  139. 139.

    Suffern ACE

    March 11, 2014 at 4:23 pm

    @Paul in KY: The ones on the Moon and in the ocean would be out of place and found rather easily. Howarts is full of magical things, so the presence of a few more would go unnoticed. Also, no one actually cleans hogwarts or archives anything, so the chance that the horocrux’s would be sold at the Hogwarts flea market are nil.

  140. 140.

    IowaOldLady

    March 11, 2014 at 4:26 pm

    @Suffern ACE: Can I just say this is an awesome discussion?

  141. 141.

    Mnemosyne

    March 11, 2014 at 4:26 pm

    @geg6:

    IIRC, commenter Jebediah got a third dog when his oldest (also named Otis, IIRC) started going downhill a bit. He wanted the new dog to be integrated into the group before his Otis died so the younger one would have some support once her buddy was gone. So although the puppy will probably drive all of you insane for a while, it may not be a bad idea for the long term.

  142. 142.

    catclub

    March 11, 2014 at 4:27 pm

    @Cervantes: “Nothing could be further from the truth”
    we didn’t hack in, we already had the administrator passwords.

  143. 143.

    ? Martin

    March 11, 2014 at 4:30 pm

    4.2 million Obamacare signups is breaking news at CNN. Wingnut poutrage incoming in 3… 2… 1…

  144. 144.

    geg6

    March 11, 2014 at 4:33 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    It is now three kitties, two marmalade and one gray. They won’t get very friendly, though. They do, however, now wait down by the greenhouse, impatiently, for us to bring their evening meal every night after work.

  145. 145.

    ranchandsyrup

    March 11, 2014 at 4:33 pm

    A post about a difficult decision we made to give away one of our dogs. I never thought that would be something that I would do. Tough to write. We miss her so much.

  146. 146.

    jl

    March 11, 2014 at 4:34 pm

    More on GalifianakisGate.

    There are twits with twoots, which were twatted on the tweeter.

    GOPer Not Amused By Obama On ‘Between Two Ferns,’ Because Benghazi
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/texas-gop-rep-slams-obama-galifianakis-interview

  147. 147.

    geg6

    March 11, 2014 at 4:35 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    That’s what my John keeps telling me. That Koda will be devastated when Otis goes and a new puppy will comfort her.

  148. 148.

    Mnemosyne

    March 11, 2014 at 4:40 pm

    @ranchandsyrup:

    It sucks, but if you’re not happy, and the dog’s not happy, why make everyone suffer? Though I guess it’s a little weird to admit that you divorced your dog and now she’s happier with her new love (owners). :-)

  149. 149.

    ranchandsyrup

    March 11, 2014 at 4:42 pm

    @Mnemosyne: I know, that is really weird. We are struggling with it.
    I’m embarrassed that I made everyone struggle for so long because I didn’t want to admit that I’m not the bestest dog owner ever. I hope I take the lesson.

  150. 150.

    cckids

    March 11, 2014 at 4:45 pm

    @raven: “Do. Not. Want”

  151. 151.

    MomSense

    March 11, 2014 at 4:46 pm

    In other news, a 22 lb “ferocious” feline held his family hostage by trapping them in their bedroom until the police arrived.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/11/terrified-portland-family-rescued-police-22lb-house-cat-lux-attacks-baby-trap-video_n_4941046.html

  152. 152.

    Josie

    March 11, 2014 at 4:48 pm

    @geg6: Is there a way to give Otis some privacy from the youngsters at least part of the time. When my older large dog was going downhill, I used baby gates to keep the little ones from bugging her, and I think she appreciated it. She wanted to see them and check on them but not play with them.

  153. 153.

    Elizabelle

    March 11, 2014 at 4:50 pm

    @IowaOldLady:

    I think she needs to call a TV or radio station. Pronto.

    That should not be happening re voting with a US passport.

  154. 154.

    Elizabelle

    March 11, 2014 at 4:57 pm

    @ranchandsyrup:

    Sounds like you made a good decision.

    Maybe Bianca and her retired couple will send you holiday cards.

    I wonder what happens if they have grandchildren that visit …

    PS: so glad you kept the cattle dog. Just seeing that smiling face makes me smile, every time.

  155. 155.

    ranchandsyrup

    March 11, 2014 at 5:01 pm

    @Elizabelle: I’m sure they’ll send us something. So far they’ve been sending daily updates and pics.
    Our cattle dog isn’t going anywhere. He’s my “first” dog. Coming up on 10 yrs with that dude.

  156. 156.

    bemused

    March 11, 2014 at 5:01 pm

    Healthcare.gov has had 19,000 hits by this afternoon from Obama’s Funny or Die gig which will make R’s even more pissy.

  157. 157.

    Amir Khalid

    March 11, 2014 at 5:08 pm

    I’m trying to make sense of the reports that MH370 may have turned around after its last contact on civilian radar and flew west across Peninsular Malaysia, finally being spotted on military radar off an island in the Melaka Strait. Apparently, RMAF’s theory is that MH370 got into some (so far unknown) difficulty, involving the loss of the systems that would have told them where they were, and the crew were trying to find their way back to KLIA with the help of landmarks on the ground. (It was excruciating to hear Wolf Blitzer mispronounce “Pulau Perak”, by the way.)

    A question: If MH370 went down in the Strait, one of the world’s busiest waterways, then how come no one has spotted bits of wreckage?

    Another thing seized upon by the media is the claim made on Australian TV by a young woman about MH370’s first officer, Fariq Abdul Hamid. She says he and the other pilot on a KL-Phuket flight once invited her and her friend into the flight deck for chitchat and selfies — a serious breach of crew discipline if true, and she does have the selfies to back her up, but probably irrelevant now. (Phuket is a Thai resort island, near where the Bond movie people shot The Man With The Golden Gun.)

  158. 158.

    Trollhattan

    March 11, 2014 at 5:10 pm

    @jl:

    “‘Damaged’ the presidency?” I’ll tell him what damaged the presidency: every day GW Bush showed up at the office.

  159. 159.

    srv

    March 11, 2014 at 5:12 pm

    @Mandalay: She’s gone all Firebaggersnowman.

  160. 160.

    Trollhattan

    March 11, 2014 at 5:13 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Per NPR:

    as the investigation continues, police in Malaysia are also concerned about four possibilities, the inspector general said Tuesday: “hijacking, sabotage, personal problems among the crew and passengers, and psychological problems among the crew and passengers.”

    With the new course revelations, it seems far more possible the plane went down on land than previously thought. Presuming heavy tropical forest, it might be tough to find.

  161. 161.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 11, 2014 at 5:15 pm

    @Trollhattan: As Jonathan Chait says, Presidents may only do comedy for them, at their sanctioned star-fucking nerd-proms. Remember that High-larious bit when that charming and dignituded George W Bush did a long video skit about how he couldn’t find them WMDs? Remember when he dressed up like a real live army pilot guy and pranced around so Karl Rove could get some footage for a re-election campaign ad? Remember “weapons of mass destruction related program activities”?

  162. 162.

    Trollhattan

    March 11, 2014 at 5:22 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Oh yes, I can well imagine how high-larious the Oval Office hunt for WMDs must have been for families of Iraq KIAs.

    Little did those sociopaths know how well they were setting themselves up for Colbert’s WH Correspondent’s Dinner appearance.

  163. 163.

    jl

    March 11, 2014 at 5:22 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    ” Remember that High-larious bit when that charming and dignituded George W Bush did a long video skit about how he couldn’t find them WMDs? ”

    I remember that one. It made me gag.

    Here’s Nixon on an old comedy show. Apparently he did the ‘sock-it-to-me’ running gag through the show. Watching Nixon trying to be funny in any way is painful, though.

    SOCK IT TO ME???
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qRZvlZZ0DY

  164. 164.

    bemused

    March 11, 2014 at 5:25 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Also Bush at a fundraiser calling the donors an impressive crowd, the haves and have mores. Some call you the elite, I call you my base. Love that one.

  165. 165.

    Amir Khalid

    March 11, 2014 at 5:28 pm

    @Trollhattan:
    They’ve been searching the sea for days now, and have yet to find even the merest scrap of MH370 and its souls on board. At some point extending the search to land MH370 might have overflown is inevitable.

    The turnback thing is problematic. If the pilots had time and enough of a functioning aircraft to do that, they had the time and means to send distress signals; so why didn’t they? Did MH370 hit the mother of all BSODs up there?

  166. 166.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 11, 2014 at 5:28 pm

    @bemused: Ah yes, that was the Smith dinner, wasn’t it? White tie and Cardinal Dolan?

  167. 167.

    JoyceH

    March 11, 2014 at 5:30 pm

    @roxy:

    Joyce I finished your book “A Feather To Fly With” Loved it. Looking forward to the sequel.

    Thanks! Glad you liked it! Now I just need to stop hovering over my Amazon sales reports and get back to work…

  168. 168.

    schrodinger's cat

    March 11, 2014 at 5:34 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The President has to talk through comedians because the media is a joke. From Crimea to the ACA website, there is only one headline, how is Obama to blame. Katrina or Watergate?

  169. 169.

    Mandalay

    March 11, 2014 at 5:36 pm

    @Trollhattan:

    Presuming heavy tropical forest, it might be tough to find.

    By land yes, but presumably not by air? Although a journalist, James Fallows is also a pilot and pretty authoritative on all matters related flying. His take? Just wait and see:

    Might the Malaysian plane have broken up in flight? Yes. Might it have been hijacked? Perhaps. Might both pilots have conked out? Maybe. Could there have been an on-board bomb? Perhaps. Does this show a problem with the Boeing 777? Likely not. Does it have anything to do with the Asiana 777 crash in San Francisco? Hard to imagine how it could. Did the stolen passports matter? Conceivably. Might the plane have been hit by a meteor? Or undone by pilot suicide? I suppose anything is possible. But these are all in the realm of “would King Kong beat Godzilla?” until there is more evidence, which can take a long time.

  170. 170.

    PurpleGirl

    March 11, 2014 at 5:37 pm

    @IowaOldLady: Ask her if ND has a Non-Driver ID card. These are typically processed by the motor vehicle agency. In NYS, it is a driver’s license with a restriction — Non-Driver. I got one in order to use checks to make purchases in stores.

  171. 171.

    Randy P

    March 11, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    @jl: Assume that’s from “Laugh-In”. “Sock it to me” was one of their tag lines, along with “you bet your sweet bippie”. I think they were hoping it would catch on in general culture but I never heard either line outside the context of the TV show.

    There was a lot that was embarrassing about that show, but they gave some great comedians their start.

  172. 172.

    Trollhattan

    March 11, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Has certainly now strayed into the realm of other possibilities than catastrophic mechanical failure, which was where my thinking was before the new information. A JAL Flight 123-type loss of flight control was unlikely to have disabled all communications, to the best of my knowledge. If it has gone down at sea, the pingers should have been detected by now, particularly given the relatively shallow waters.

    Planes don’t “vanish.”

  173. 173.

    Amir Khalid

    March 11, 2014 at 5:39 pm

    @Amir Khalid:
    Investigating 370’s passengers and crew members sounds like part of the drill for the Royal Malaysian Police, rather than them actually having a lead in that area. So far, they’ve gone through the thing about the two passengers with stolen passports; that turned out to be two Iranian teenagers trying to migrate to Europe, one to join his mum.

  174. 174.

    Mnemosyne

    March 11, 2014 at 5:45 pm

    @Trollhattan:

    I’m assuming a huge part of the problem is that they don’t know where to look. There’s a huge expanse of land and ocean where it could have gone and only so many hours of daylight to look for it. I wonder what the range of the pingers is.

  175. 175.

    bemused

    March 11, 2014 at 5:51 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I don’t remember that. It was the “comedy” line that stuck in my mind and have never forgotten. I wonder which of the Bush White House crew wrote that for him.

  176. 176.

    Cervantes

    March 11, 2014 at 5:52 pm

    @Randy P:

    Assume that’s from “Laugh-In”.

    Yes, it is: the “apolitical” (i.e., mainstream conservative) show, as opposed to the Smothers Brothers’ show, which was (and grew) somewhat radical.

    Paul Keyes, a kid from Boston who had done PR and propaganda work for the military during the war, was a friend of Nixon’s. Having trained for radio with Woody Allen and Rod Serling, Keyes become a writer on Laugh-In, where he managed to get Nixon some time on the show — which time, according to Hubert Humphrey, helped decide the ’68 election.

  177. 177.

    IowaOldLady

    March 11, 2014 at 5:52 pm

    @PurpleGirl: She already knows they do. She just assumed her passport would be good enough. Wrong.

  178. 178.

    geg6

    March 11, 2014 at 5:56 pm

    @Josie:

    Late to the thread, but they do.not.want baby gates. They have broken several. No baby gates can hold them, it seems.

  179. 179.

    srv

    March 11, 2014 at 6:12 pm

    The 911 call in Portland, Ore., on Sunday began with a hint of embarassment, or at least of sense of self-awareness: “Yeah, hi, I have kind of a particular emergency here.”

    Particular indeed. The voice on the line belonged to Lee Palmer, who called to report that his 22-pound Himalayan cat had gone berserk, attacked his 7-month-old child, and now had Palmer’s family trapped inside their bedroom after the father responded by kicking the cat in the butt.

    The cat, in other words, had taken the family hostage.

    “We aren’t safe around the cat,” Palmer told the emergency dispatcher in audio (embedded below) obtained by the Oregonian, which contained several statements like, “We’re trapped in the bedroom, he won’t let us out of our door,” and “He’s very, very, very, very hostile.”

    http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-hostage-cat-20140311,0,5954603.story#ixzz2vh8g16oI

  180. 180.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 11, 2014 at 6:15 pm

    @Paul in KY: Snape did not know of the horcruxes. This is the key to understanding Voldemort’s reactions. If you’ll recall, Harry had insight into Voldemort’s thoughts on the horcruxes, and Voldemort, until the Gringots break in, was absolutely sure that no one ever knew his greatest secret.

    He never told Lucius Malfoy what the diary actually was. He never told Bellatrix Lestrange what Hufflepuff’s cup actually was.

    Dumbledore’s first clue as to the existence of horcruxes was the entire Chamber of Secrets incident. Acting on that suspicion, he found and destroyed the Peverell ring, and then when he finally got Slughorn’s true memory of Slughorn’s horcrux conversation with Riddle, his overall theory of horcruxes was confirmed. From there he put together the other clues he had acquired over the years as to what the other horcruxes might be.

    Voldemort never told anyone, not even his most trusted followers, about the horcruxes. They didn’t have a clue as to how Voldemort returned to them after his apparent defeat when he attempted to kill the baby Harry.

  181. 181.

    WaterGirl

    March 11, 2014 at 6:16 pm

    @geg6: I have gone both ways in similar situations over the years. You’re never sure what to do in a situation like that.

    My advice is to go with the new pup. Just close your eyes, hold hands, and jump. Just do it.

  182. 182.

    WaterGirl

    March 11, 2014 at 6:19 pm

    @ranchandsyrup: You’re ready when you’re ready, and not a moment before. Grieve for your loss of your pup, but don’t beat yourself up.

  183. 183.

    Jebediah, RBG

    March 11, 2014 at 7:28 pm

    @Mnemosyne:
    @geg6:

    you do recall correctly – except his name (Otto.)
    It did work out well, altho it was hectic for a bit. If you have questions I can answer when I get home (at work now, gotta do work-related activities for a bit longer)

  184. 184.

    Mnemosyne

    March 11, 2014 at 7:31 pm

    @Jebediah, RBG:

    Well, I remembered that it started with “Ot-” at least. :-)

  185. 185.

    Jebediah, RBG

    March 11, 2014 at 9:36 pm

    @Mnemosyne:
    and I am impressed by that – a pet you’ve never met, of a person you’ve met once…not bad!

  186. 186.

    Paul in KY

    March 12, 2014 at 7:43 am

    @Violet: Would think that if passport proves you are person on voting list, bei ng on voting list would prove you lived in that precinct.

  187. 187.

    Paul in KY

    March 12, 2014 at 7:45 am

    @Suffern ACE: I guess a ‘magical’ item can be found rather easily? I would have been hoping no one would be looking on moon/ocean trench.

  188. 188.

    Paul in KY

    March 12, 2014 at 7:50 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: Appreciate your thoughts on matter. You have educated me.

  189. 189.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 12, 2014 at 8:10 am

    @Paul in KY: Harry, being a more clever man than Riddle, thought that as well. Make your horcruxes ordinary objects that no one would notice. Hide them in obscure places.

    Aside from Voldemort’s lack of knowledge of love, his other undoing was his enormous ego. One that insisted that his horcruxes be extraordinary objects, just like he was extraordinary. Then he hides them in places with a specific meaning to him. Dumbledore was the only one he ever feared because while he could never admit this, Dumbledore was much more clever and much more powerful than Voldemort. His first thought when he learned of the theft of Hufflepuff’s cup was that Dumbledore was somehow behind it.

    In the final confrontation, Voldemort was shocked when Harry told him that Voldemort may have figured out Dumbledore’s plan, but Dumbledore’s plan didn’t work out. The elder wand didn’t die with Dumbledore, because Dumbledore’s paralysis jinx on Harry in the tower gave Draco the split second Draco needed to disarm Dumbledore, and thus the allegiance of the Elder Wand was transferred from Dumbledore to Draco…which screwed up Dumbledore’s plan for the Elder Wand.

    Dumbledore’s love for Harry wrecked Dumbledore’s plan. But Harry saved the day anyways.

  190. 190.

    Paul in KY

    March 13, 2014 at 10:54 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: Once again I thank you for your comments, VDE.

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