• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

So very ready.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

This blog will pay for itself.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Mobile Menu

  • 4 Directions VA 2025 Raffle
  • 2025 Activism
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Another Open Thread

Another Open Thread

by John Cole|  March 16, 20149:03 pm| 68 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

Even though the temps dropped quickly this evening, I made a command decision that spring is here now, god damnit, and I shaved my winter caveman beard. Now just rocking the hillbilly face mullet (aka goatee).

Spring is here now. Damnit. I have willed it.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Open Thread: True NFL Crime
Next Post: Here Is a Boycott We Can All Support »

Reader Interactions

68Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike E

    March 16, 2014 at 9:06 pm

    Yay, Cosmos! And Neil deGrasse Tyson starts off with dogs!

  2. 2.

    cckids

    March 16, 2014 at 9:08 pm

    Spring is definitely here, in Southern NV, it was 80 today. This has been the warmest, driest winter we’ve seen in 17 years.

    I had honeysuckle & cacti blooming in December. Just f*cked up.

  3. 3.

    Honus

    March 16, 2014 at 9:09 pm

    You can shave your cat’s ass, it’s still going to snow a foot tonight.

  4. 4.

    Susan K of the tech support

    March 16, 2014 at 9:11 pm

    Wow. just as I post a happy (for contrast) sports-related comment in the sports open thread, lo, a new open thread post opens up.

    Do I hope that someone sees my comment and says something nice (it’s all good, really!), or do I risk the wrath of BJ comment-dom and immediately copy and paste the whole thing in this new thread?

    Door #3: Naaah, I just made oblique reference to the comment. Good evening, everyone from Spring?! But we never had a winter here in Southern California land…

  5. 5.

    ulee

    March 16, 2014 at 9:13 pm

    I do believe this is a direct quote from John Cole from the Donner Party.

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    March 16, 2014 at 9:17 pm

    We got a glamorous dusting of snow out there.

    Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

  7. 7.

    Hungry Joe

    March 16, 2014 at 9:18 pm

    It was 91 in our back yard (San Diego, six miles inland) today. I had to cover the garden with lawn chairs to keep everything (chard, collard, kale, lettuce) from frying. It looked more than a little ridiculous.

    I’ve shaved my beard twice in the last three decades, and both times started growing it back the next day. The last time, my daughter (then about 10) took one look at me and started to cry.

  8. 8.

    cathyx

    March 16, 2014 at 9:18 pm

    Spring is definitely here where I live. Spring is my favorite season.

  9. 9.

    Yatsuno

    March 16, 2014 at 9:19 pm

    @Susan K of the tech support: Peeked over and read. YAY!!!

  10. 10.

    Mike E

    March 16, 2014 at 9:19 pm

    @Susan K of the tech support: Best of luck to your nephew!

  11. 11.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    March 16, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    Yeah well I’m east and just a little south of you and we already have 2, 2 1/2 inches on the ground with 2 to 6 inches more to come. And while this storm looks like it will pass you by, you may not be so lucky on Wed.

    I’m dreaming of a white… St Patrick’s Day?

  12. 12.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    March 16, 2014 at 9:20 pm

    @efgoldman: You beat me to it.

  13. 13.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    March 16, 2014 at 9:24 pm

    @Mike E: Oh, good. I was trying to figure out what to do with myself tonight with no True Detective.

  14. 14.

    Susan K of the tech support

    March 16, 2014 at 9:27 pm

    Yatsuno and Mike E —

    Thank you! I’m like those wives in Apollo 13 (only 100% sincere and unconflicted):

    Thrilled, Pleased, Proud.

  15. 15.

    Susan K of the tech support

    March 16, 2014 at 9:28 pm

    Oh, and speaking of St. Paddy’s, one of the teams in the playoffs has prominent kelly green color. They were eliminated. So I can wear a green St. Paddy’s Day hat along with school colors of Cardinal with no booster conflict whatsoever! at tomorrow night’s game. :)

  16. 16.

    Suffern ACE

    March 16, 2014 at 9:30 pm

    Orlando trip planning. I didn’t want to go. But I’m the one left making the damn trip reservations and fast pass decisions. And of course my decisions are being scrutinized and rejected. I would rather go with children.

  17. 17.

    Mike E

    March 16, 2014 at 9:35 pm

    Heh, NdeGT has some stones: he’s taking on the creationists’ irreducibility claim against the evolution of the eye. Go get ’em, Neil!

  18. 18.

    scav

    March 16, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    It’s not spring unless the daffodils get snowed on solidly at least once. I suppose goldish hillbilly face mullets work similarly.

  19. 19.

    Helen

    March 16, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    No. Just no on the goatee. Goatees look good on exactly no one.

    Case in point; Chuckles Toddler.

    I rest my case.

  20. 20.

    superfly

    March 16, 2014 at 9:39 pm

    Spring? We don’t have that in SoCal anymore.

  21. 21.

    Cassidy

    March 16, 2014 at 9:42 pm

    @Helen: And Billy Ray Cyrus

  22. 22.

    currants

    March 16, 2014 at 9:43 pm

    @Helen: YES! Yes, yes, YES!! OMG GAH! goatees. have yet to see one look good on ANYONE. Not a baseball team, not my brothers, not NO one.

  23. 23.

    PurpleGirl

    March 16, 2014 at 9:46 pm

    Winter isn’t over in NYC until it snows on Easter in April.

    And in 1980 it snowed on St. Patrick’s Day.

  24. 24.

    Drunken hausfrau

    March 16, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    Frickin cold here… And watching Cosmos … How many fundie heads are exploding tonight?

  25. 25.

    Ash Can

    March 16, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    Goatees make guys look fat.

  26. 26.

    RuhRow_Gyro

    March 16, 2014 at 9:47 pm

    I like spring. THe flowers are pretty.

  27. 27.

    John Cole

    March 16, 2014 at 9:48 pm

    @Ash Can:

    Goatees make guys look fat.

    Reasonably sure that being fat is what makes me look fat. Thanks for the crutch, though.

  28. 28.

    cathyx

    March 16, 2014 at 9:49 pm

    @Helen: No. I disagree. Some men can pull one off quite nicely, as long as they’re not bushy.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    March 16, 2014 at 9:51 pm

    @Drunken hausfrau:

    How many fundie heads are exploding tonight?

    Natural selection!

  30. 30.

    Poopyman

    March 16, 2014 at 9:51 pm

    @Drunken hausfrau:

    How many fundie heads are exploding tonight?

    None. They’re not watching. If anything, Fox News will give them a “sanitized” version tomorrow.

  31. 31.

    max

    March 16, 2014 at 9:51 pm

    @Kay (not the front-pager): I’m dreaming of a white… St Patrick’s Day?

    Since I’m finished with my corned beef & cabbage, I can now confirm that I’m not dreaming of a white St. Patrick’s, I’m seeing a white St. Patrick’s Day.

    {runs outside} GODDAMMIT. Shoulda put shoes on! Um, so far about four inches.

    max
    [‘Just fell below freezing, which is weird, but is saving me from shoveling the walk.’]

  32. 32.

    gwangung

    March 16, 2014 at 9:52 pm

    @cathyx:

    No. I disagree. Some men can pull one off quite nicely, as long as they’re not bushy.

    See Evil Spock.

  33. 33.

    Ash Can

    March 16, 2014 at 9:52 pm

    @John Cole: Don’t worry. Just keep wearing your horizontally-striped shirts and no one will notice.

  34. 34.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    March 16, 2014 at 9:54 pm

    My neck of the woods has had an average temp of 27 degrees since November. 5 Fucking months of below freezing temps. Yeah, buddy. And Neil D sure does like his little spaceship on Cosmos. : )

  35. 35.

    Mike E

    March 16, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    Home run. Neil deGrass Tyson is bringing it. Well done.

    eta @efgoldman: Snowed in Charlotte April ’93

  36. 36.

    cathyx

    March 16, 2014 at 10:01 pm

    @gwangung: Uh, no. I wouldn’t say him. But I would say him.

  37. 37.

    cathyx

    March 16, 2014 at 10:07 pm

    @efgoldman: Not sure what you’re talking about.

  38. 38.

    RuhRow_Gyro

    March 16, 2014 at 10:09 pm

    I think he’s talking about Cheerios.

  39. 39.

    Mike E

    March 16, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    @Baud: Since fundies also share a common ancestor with tardigrades, then they are tough enough to withstand the strong buffeting forces of reason, too.

    Alas.

  40. 40.

    FlyingToaster

    March 16, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    Maybe it’s spring inside your head, but dude, it’s been below freezing all day out here in the real world. And, at least in the Hub of the Universe, it wlll be even colder tomorrow.

    I will finally put in my herb seed orders this week; nothing’s going in the ground until June. I did get a mini-greenhouse (vertical cold frame), and won’t even plant it until it effing stops snowing.

  41. 41.

    currants

    March 16, 2014 at 10:11 pm

    @cathyx: Objectively? Reasonable people may disagree.

  42. 42.

    me

    March 16, 2014 at 10:15 pm

    @Drunken hausfrau: Well, the Discovery Institute will probably have a bigger conniption than they did for the last one. I like how they used the evolution animation from the original Cosmos and Neil stood by the same tree as Carl when that animation was first run.

  43. 43.

    Helen

    March 16, 2014 at 10:15 pm

    @cathyx: I’m not sure what he’s talking about either, but, bizarrely, I agree. Hello Mr. PR guy; Please stop telling me that my life sucks and the thing that will make it better is eating your fucking cereal.

  44. 44.

    Schlemizel

    March 16, 2014 at 10:19 pm

    Spring? HA! Not out here on the frozen tundra it ain’t. We finally had 3-4 days of above freezing temps & some sunshine so the snow mounds are 1/2 of what they used to be, but spring is still a month away.

    I get to go back to jury dootie tomorrow and hope to avoid a couple of the morons I had to listen to last week. I wouldn’t mind getting a trail just to avoid the boredom of voir dire one more time.

  45. 45.

    Cassidy

    March 16, 2014 at 10:21 pm

    @efgoldman: I like graham crackers.

  46. 46.

    ranchandsyrup

    March 16, 2014 at 10:22 pm

    My coblogger’s post on misconceptions about extroverts. I told her it would be a great #slatepitch. She had no earthly idea what it meant which is another reason to love her.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    March 16, 2014 at 10:22 pm

    Presume you mean goatee plus ‘stache. The true goatee look can be difficult to pull off successfully (unless one is a Pharaoh).

    Varioustypes of facial hair depicted.

  48. 48.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 16, 2014 at 10:25 pm

    @efgoldman: “Next time.” Funny, I haven’t been called in 20-some years.

  49. 49.

    Ferdzy

    March 16, 2014 at 10:26 pm

    Another thumbs down on the goatee front.

    And since I remember very clearly that when we moved here 5 years ago we got A FOOT OF SNOW AT THE END OF APRIL, I am still in stoic Canadian winter mode. Although getting less stoic by the day – I keep telling Mr. Ferdzy that it is not too late to go to Cuba for a week. He keeps not getting the hint, though. Also, before we get to the end of April there is still the little matter of a foot and a half of semi-ice on the ground right now. It ain’t spring here.

  50. 50.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 16, 2014 at 10:28 pm

    @efgoldman: Well, considering the guy who invented Graham flour, it’s kind of returning to the roots, as it were. Yes, I’m reading this thread bottom-to-top.

  51. 51.

    fidelio

    March 16, 2014 at 10:29 pm

    John, are you acquainted with the phenomenon called blackberry winter?

  52. 52.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 16, 2014 at 10:31 pm

    And I think we should all congratulate Putin (and our friend Comrade Bob) on getting a 95.5% vote in favor of Crimea joining Russia. That’s what we call a mandate.

  53. 53.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 16, 2014 at 10:33 pm

    @efgoldman: Yeah, but I’m in the same “place” as you, which is why your “every 2-4 years” was funny. My wife has been called up three or four times since the last time I served. I guess they don’t like me.

  54. 54.

    Drunken hausfrau

    March 16, 2014 at 10:37 pm

    The hAll of great extinctions… Are we next? Aaaauuuggghhh! Thank you, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, for fueling my drunken nightmares.

  55. 55.

    PurpleGirl

    March 16, 2014 at 10:37 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Queens County says they use voter rolls and motor vehicle lists for jurors. Well for 20+ years I was a voter and I was never called. Shortly after I got the Non-Driver ID card from motor vehicle, I was called for jury duty. Last time I was called was like almost 10 years ago. I recently received a juror survey to fill out, they’ll be calling me sometime soon. NY has something like was MA has, so I don’t mind jury duty too much. They have TV and computers in the one waiting room. Compared to the first time I was called, they have tried to make it better to serve and not so mind-numbingly boring.

  56. 56.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 16, 2014 at 10:45 pm

    @efgoldman: I posted something like that here, based on a photo that was circulating on Twitter. Photos from polling stations today seemed to indicate that the ballots were marked by hand. Not sure why the curtained voting booth, if at the end of the process you exit and drop the (unfolded) plainly visible ballot into a clear plastic box. I’m sure nobody was at all intimidated.

  57. 57.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 16, 2014 at 10:46 pm

    @efgoldman: Ah, didn’t catch that it was MA.

  58. 58.

    Cassidy

    March 16, 2014 at 10:51 pm

    @efgoldman: I guess if you’re hungry enough there as good as any god out there.

  59. 59.

    FlyingToaster

    March 16, 2014 at 11:01 pm

    @efgoldman: Our snow hasn’t melted yet; WarriorGirl is still wearing skibib and snowboots to Kindergarten every day.

    I’m glad not to have to shovel tomorrow. I wish DC didn’t have to, except Congress, which could be coated in a solid 5cm of ice by my preference.

  60. 60.

    Suffern ACE

    March 16, 2014 at 11:07 pm

    @efgoldman: graham crackers are a remnant of 19th century dietary spiritualism that has stayed with us through 7th Day Adventism, Christian Science, and whatever it was that Harvey Kellogg thought he was leading. The cracker was kind of culty…

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    March 16, 2014 at 11:12 pm

    @Suffern ACE

    Bakers of cheesecakes worldwide rejoiced.

  62. 62.

    Origuy

    March 16, 2014 at 11:25 pm

    The new Crimean government is enforcing laws it hasn’t passed yet. From the Interpreter:

    Euromaidan PR, citing a report from the Ukrainian Institute for Religious Freedom reports that Mykola Kvych, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest who was abducted yesterday, has been released. According to the report, Kvych was held for twelve hours at a police station in Sevastopol where he was questioned and accused of organising provocations in Crimea. Having searched Kvych’s home, where body armour, kept by the priest for ministering to Ukrainian military forces, was found, the self-proclaimed Crimean authorities plan to prosecute him for illegally possessing body armour. The Institute for Religious Freedom point out that possessing bullet-proof vests is not a crime under the Administrative Code of Ukraine.

  63. 63.

    Kent

    March 16, 2014 at 11:27 pm

    Everybody knows when your dog vomits cat turds on your bed, that means spring is here. It’s the West Virginia Punxsutawney Phil.

  64. 64.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 16, 2014 at 11:42 pm

    Gaia hears your words, and will likely test your challenge, though her heart is of the earth, not the sky.

    Between you, the groundhog, and the Gaia-take-me-in-my-sleep cold, I’ve had enough of this killing season.

  65. 65.

    BruceFromOhio

    March 16, 2014 at 11:48 pm

    @fidelio: If you’re referring to this, it’s come as late as 02 April in the northern Buckeye.

    There’s little in this life as sad as a fully blooming dogwood, iris or daffodil covered in heavy, wet snow.

  66. 66.

    Optical Inch

    March 17, 2014 at 8:58 am

    Ha-ha – Hillbilly face mullet, you mean prison pussy.

  67. 67.

    Snarla

    March 17, 2014 at 9:44 am

    I love goatees. True story.

  68. 68.

    Shakezula

    March 17, 2014 at 9:50 am

    Winter says “Oh yeah?”

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Image by OzarkHillbilly (1/15/26)

Mary Peltola Alaska Senate

Donate

Order Your Pet Calendars!

Order Calendar A

Order Calendar B

 

Recent Comments

  • Gin & Tonic on Today in Lives Lived Well: Renfrew Christie, Anti-Apartheid Saboteur (Jan 15, 2026 @ 4:52pm)
  • strange visitor (from another planet) on Foreign Affairs Open Thread: Denmark Has Friends — Does Trump? (Jan 15, 2026 @ 4:50pm)
  • satby on Foreign Affairs Open Thread: Denmark Has Friends — Does Trump? (Jan 15, 2026 @ 4:49pm)
  • Gin & Tonic on Marc Elias with Joyce Vance Part 2 (Jan 15, 2026 @ 4:48pm)
  • rikyrah on Today in Lives Lived Well: Renfrew Christie, Anti-Apartheid Saboteur (Jan 15, 2026 @ 4:48pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
On Artificial Intelligence (7-part series)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix
Rose Judson (podcast)

Mary Peltola Alaska Senate

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Privacy Manager

Copyright © 2026 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!