Pop-cult critic Alyssa Rosenberg, at the Washington Post:
… I want to take a moment to acknowledge an area where conservatives have show particular talent and dedication: performance art.
By this I am thinking less of black box theaters and slam poetry and more of the latest provocation from Ann Coulter, who with impeccable timing and flair has declared that “Any growing interest in soccer can only be a sign of the nation’s moral decay.”…
David Roth, at SB Nation:
The good thing about getting older, which is so good that it just about evens out the newly excruciating hangovers and the noisy joints and various existential conundrums, is that you no longer care quite so much about being swaddled in the right signifiers. We still notice, because we’ve been taught to notice, but eventually it begins to matter less, and then even less than that. It starts to seem like a sort of imprisonment to hide yourself away inside various branded costumes, to be reduced to the sum of your consumer preferences…
It’s different, in mostly sad ways, for those public people who are strident for a living. It is their job to be neater, louder, not-quite-themselves versions of themselves. This pays well, in many cases, but all this relentless playing to type seems awfully heavy, and awfully limiting, and awfully awful. To always be one way tends to kind of hollow out and robotize a person; pundits that have done their jobs for too long can seem to have more in common with a defective Teddy Ruxpin than with other humans.
I want to stress, here, that I am not asking you to feel any sympathy for Ann Coulter. But consider for a moment Ann Coulter’s job. It is to find the most rightmost public position on whatever is trending on Google News and then to declaim, through progressively smaller megaphones and in increasingly desperate tones, a position slightly to the right of that. Naturally, she’d need to write a column about the World Cup…
The game is to tell a bullied readership what they can and cannot like, buy and be, and then to sell them things that prove those allegiances. This is dreary work, this process of turning every aspect of public life into a campaign-style wedge issue. Still, it’s hard to argue with its success; the wary smugness and hair-trigger desperation of our popular culture is a testament to how well it works…
This is a lousy way to be, mostly, and one that seems sillier and sadder still amid these great games and all this cheering. All that self-conscious signifying that I Am Not Like Those People is, generally, a petty and self-thwarting thing. But here and now, in the middle of this brilliant, batshit World Cup, it just seems like such a waste, like a good time missed for bad and badly understood reasons…
***********
Apart from looking forward to enjoying what we enjoy, fashionable or not, what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?
Violet
Home, finally. My mom is home from the nursing facility. Dad’s shingles are improving. I’m exhausted but glad things seem to be moving in the right direction. it’s been a brutal couple of months.
I have no idea what I’m going to do this weekend but what I’m not going to do is be a caregiver. I’ve hired someone for the weekend and I’m taking a few days off. I need it.
Patricia Kayden
Coulter’s only job is to make money off stupid rightwingers and she’s done her job very well.
burnspbesq
The US could be facing a badly depleted Belgian back line on Tuesday. Vanden Borre is out for the remainder of the tournament with a broken leg, and Kompany, Vermaelen, and Ciman are all questionable.
Howard Beale IV
I wouldn’t fuck Ann Coulter With John Cole’s dick.
Roger Moore
I’m probably going to watch some World Cup action, possibly at my neighborhood pub. Plus some boring ordinary weekend stuff like laundry. Nothing special at all.
WaterGirl
@Violet: What a relief to have your mom home. And shingles is brutal, so glad your dad is improving. At the end of this weekend, we expect a full report of all the Violet pampering!
(shingles is brutal? are brutal?)
Baud
@burnspbesq:
I’m hoping all the other teams get the flu and we win the whole thing.
Howard Beale IV
BREAKING: Bobby Womack, legendary blues singer, dies, age 70.
infinitefreetime
Marketing. I’m trying to sell a book (and I know that wasn’t subtle; I apologize) and trying to figure out a strategy that actually works. Internet is absolutely chock-full of useful advice, most of which contradicts itself and not a whole lot of which actually seems like it’s going to work right. Whee! Instant success!
infinitefreetime
Also, surely this has to be– just HAS to be– peak wingnut, finally, right?
Mr. Twister
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/photographs/large/C10691-25A.jpg
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
Won’t Defour also be forced to sit because of his red card against South Korea?
Violet
@WaterGirl: Thanks. I think it’s “shingles is brutal” because it’s a disease. It is a huge relief to have mom home. And my dad got a good report from the dermatologist today. He’s improving, even if it’s slow.
I don’t expect much Violet pampering. I spent the night at my parents last night–sleeping on a chair to make sure my mom was okay–and came home to find that no one has done even the slightest amount of housework. All the dirty dishes are still stacked up next to the sink. I was informed that last night’s activity was watching TV. So glad to have so much support.
Can you hear the sarcasm through the computer screen?
So yeah, there’s a ton of work to be done at my own home because no one else seems to be able to take the slightest bit of initiative on their own without me directing traffic. “Please wash the dishes.” “Please take out the trash.” Etc. I guess they must think those things somehow magically happen when I’m around. Shockingly when I’m not around, they don’t magically happen. Wonder how that works?
SiubhanDuinne
That name is just close enough to Ayn Rand’s birth name (Alyssa Rosenbaum IIRC) that I do a double-take every time I see her byline.
MikeJ
Ain’t this the truth. I understand people hate Justin Beiber, but I couldn’t name one of his songs. I am beyond hatred and well into disinterest. I can’t imagine sneering at an arena full of people who showed up because they do like him. At most I might find it a little silly, but in light of the number of bands I’ve gone to see I can’t even get that worked up.
jl
” It is to find the most rightmost public position on whatever is trending on Google News and then to declaim, through progressively smaller megaphones and in increasingly desperate tones, a position slightly to the right of that. ”
Not sure how soccer itself, is right or left. Unless mindless xenophobic fear and hatred of anything not invented in the U.S. is now a right wing policy position…. oh… well, maybe it is.
David Koch
Coulter’s whole schtick is to say something inflammatory to get attention. To the extent people take the bait she succeeds. the thing she dreads most is when people ignore her.
Violet
I have such a hard time understanding how Ann Coulter is considered attractive in the least. I guess she’s not terrible looking but the older she gets the harder and angrier she looks. Anything interesting about a sharp-tongued young woman with long blonde hair just starts to seem kind of sad and worn out as she moves into her 50’s.
The sexiness is tired and she’s still attempting to play sexy as a 30-something and ignoring how 50-year-old women are and can be sexy. The ugly words and tone make her ugly in general but as she gets older it not only seems stale it just seems odd. It’s like the energy of youth still rolling around in her 50 year old body. That’s not how life works.
She’s never reinvented herself. I guess she doesn’t have to but at some point, just like with Sarah Palin, you can’t play the sexy ingenue. Maybe they still can in their 50’s but I doubt it. What else do they have left?
Poopyman
Your Friday evening “America! Fuck yeah!” post:
This little old bird still rocks!
trollhattan
Would love to drag Ms. Coulter by the man-throat to any NoCal girls’ soccer tournament to see the vast sea of miniscule blonde jockettes tearing up the pitch. Little blonde girls by the score, the gross, the metric tonne. Too, there’s the occasional 13YO six-footer, I can’t explain that.
Whatever she’s smoking, keep it the hell away from me.
Violet
@David Koch: Fox News gives her attention and pays her for it.
lamh36
@Howard Beale IV: I saw that. Had to tweet Doug J.
Damn. They just don’t make music like this anymore!
Bobby Womack – If You Think You’re Lonely Now
From Rolling Stone article on Bobby Womack’s passing.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bobby-womack-dead-at-70-20140627
Howard Beale IV
@Violet: Coulter is the sine qua non of the coke whore chic. If it wasn’t for the fact that she’s best buds with the Fox Red Eye crew and Bill Maher she’d be off the pop culture radar.
dmsilev
@Violet: She got just the one shtick, and it’s worked for her for about 20 or so years now. Why change? Of course, it doesn’t seem to be working quite as well as it used to (she’s aging, as you say, and also the media landscape is a lot different now than when she got started), but it’s really all she knows how to do.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Violet: “Mutton dressed as lamb?”
trollhattan
@Howard Beale IV:
Aww, crud. He had a great voice.
Anne Laurie
@Violet:
Some thirty years ago, I wrote a fanzine essay about the Shirt Fairy — that miraculous being who picks the dirty laundry off the floor & transforms it into clean, ironed, never-worn-out, ready-to-wear. Because it was a real shock for many, many of the young men in my immediate social circles that the Shirt Fairy did not actually exist, it was just their indulgent moms giving them an undue confidence in their ability to function on their own….
I’m glad to hear that your parents are doing better, so that you’ll have a little less stress this weekend. And I hope you can take some malicious joy in introducing your feckless housemates to the (non)existence of the Shirt Fairy!
Villago Delenda Est
@Howard Beale IV: I can only add my enthusiastic approval of this post.
Howard Beale IV
@dmsilev: Curious data-point: Both Glenn Greenwald and Ann Coulter are both Constitutional lawyers.
Food for Thought.
srv
@Howard Beale IV: A weird thing to say, but John’s dick is probably more attractive than her.
@Mr. Twister: Weird that, also, too. A nice girl and I have sex on the East Mall back in the 80’s. Moral collapse must have been my fault. The shrubs were a bit higher, though.
trollhattan
@Howard Beale IV:
Eek, they could become president?!?
Helen
What’s on the agenda? DRINKING, YAY. What a week I had at work. Summer is always super duper busy for me, but the shit is just hitting the fan. Not ‘bad” shit, just a TON of stuff that no normal human being can handle in a 40 hour (OK let’s say 60 hour) workweek and still stay sane.
Also, I had a “discussion” on Facebook today with someone who just kept going down the “but that’s my opinion, we are all entitled to our opinions” road when I kept throwing facts at her. Finally she said “Helen, Facebook is not a political forum, so I don’t want to have a political discussion.” Um, yeah, hon, my post was in response to a political post of yours. So if you don’t want to have a political discussion on Facebook, stop posting political shit on Facebook. Yeah there’s a thought.
Howard Beale IV
@Villago Delenda Est: She actually dated Dinesh D”Souza.
What she probably needs is a good old fashioned proper fucking from a honest liberal.
After all, stranger things have happened (Carville/Matalin)….
Poopyman
@Villago Delenda Est: Also too,Cole got an unexplainable burning in his crotch just now. Phantom clap, I believe.
Higgs Boson's Mate
He’s right, now that I’m in my sixties I could care less about being cool, or looking cool. I’m invisible now and I like it.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Howard Beale IV:
Charming. Jesus.
trollhattan
@lamh36:
Well, baby used to stay out all night long
She made me cry, she done me wrong
She hurt my eyes open, that’s no lie
Tables turn and now her turn to cry
Poopyman
@Howard Beale IV: An honest liberal would find it unpossible, IYKWIM,AITYD.
trollhattan
@Helen:
Heh, well played. Next round’s on me.
“Oh, tarbender!”
WereBear
@Violet: Excellent idea! So glad you are catching a break… and that the ‘rents are improving.
David Koch
Good article on how wingnuts loved Operation Chaos in 2008 but are now apoplectic that it’s been turned on them.
Howard Beale IV
@trollhattan: In a Bloom County alternate reality kind of way? Eh……
Mike R
In regards to the weekend, finally the well drillers are here and our geothermal system should be operational by the end of next week, yeah celebration time. Our previous heat pump thingy died after a miserable 10 year life span. Which included more repairs than anything we have ever owned before. So hot diggity dog and goodbye to the old piece of junk.
SiubhanDuinne
@Howard Beale IV:
Even when Ann Coulter is the subject under discussion, that’s just offensive.
Villago Delenda Est
@Howard Beale IV:
Carville is on my permanent shit list for sleeping with a SIth apprentice, and, rumor has it, passing on Dem strategy points via his consort to the GOP.
No Democrat should ever hire a conslutant who is literally sleeping with the enemy.
WereBear
Some kitten cuteness for everyone:
Tristan and Mithy are buddies
Tristan sees the new kitten as 90% enjoyable!
Roger Moore
@Helen:
1) Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts.
2) Not all opinions are equally valid. If your opinion is based on a mistaken understanding of reality, it is not as good as an opinion based on a correct understanding of reality.
Howard Beale IV
@SiubhanDuinne: If I had to choose who to sleep with between Coulter and Malkin, I’d choose Coulter-Malkin is pure evil, Coulter is semi-sane.
David Koch
@WereBear: cuteness overload.
Howard Beale IV
@WereBear: Link broke.
lamh36
Bobby Womack covers the Beattles!
And I Love Her
http://youtu.be/RvHTRuhxYSQ
dmsilev
@Howard Beale IV:
Um, no. Just no. It doesn’t matter who ‘she’ is, and it doesn’t matter who follows the ‘from’, Just No.
scav
There’s that confortable jolt in life when one acknowleges that being all grown up and in charge of your own bedtime means early nights too.
RSA
Best of luck, Violet. Your story is new to me, but I know caregiving in general. I hope you enjoy your weekend.
JPL
@David Koch: I’m jealous. The link doesn’t work for me. It says photobucket error
PurpleGirl
@Violet: Good that medical things are getting better for your parents. Yay for hiring someone to care for them for this weekend. You do need time off and some rest. (Probably a lot more than a weekend, but bits and pieces, bit by bit is how life goes.)
Villago Delenda Est
@Helen:
I see the problem here. You’re assuming she can actually have a thought.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@David Koch:
Well, dammit, Operation Chaos was white people trying to screw over a black person so it was practically the Will of God. Black people voting to screw over a white person is against the natural order of things and it must be investigated, investigated, investigated. Darryl Issa, please pick up the white courtesy phone!
Ruckus
@Violet:
Neither one of them ever seemed the slightest bit sexy. They both seem, what’s the word, I can’t quite put my finger on it, I think it’s not a very nice thing to call women, starts with a c…… One of my sisters once asked me isn’t ______ a c…..? A very surprising thing I thought I’d never hear her say, but I had to agree with her. Yes, yes she is!
burnspbesq
@Howard Beale IV:
Neither would John Cole, one imagines.
Scamp Dog
@WereBear: Looks like your link is busted–it goes to Photobucket (it’s not the classic double http: at the start), but something about the rest is hosed.
burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
Yup. Amir has been quite the busy deity, arranging all of this for our benefit. One wonders what he has in mind for Messi.
Roger Moore
@Howard Beale IV:
I’d be strongly considering other alternatives, like fleeing the country.
Helen
@Roger Moore: @Villago Delenda Est:
I think one of the biggest problems in our political discourse today is not that we all yell at each other or that we are “rude.” I think the problem is that there is a large number of people who think that “opinion = fact.” I actually had someone say to me “Helen, we both have our opinions, yours is based upon facts and reality, mine is based on what I’ve heard, observed, and lived” (She’s a Fox Noise viewer, BTW) and then she made a political argument for something with illegitimate “facts” and thought that both our opinions should carry the same weight; because she “heard” it.
SarahT
@Howard Beale IV: Really really sucks.
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
FYWP
Won’t let me edit. That other person my sister was talking about was another sister.
Baud
@Howard Beale IV:
No, that would be me. Coulter needs to be ignored.
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev:
Thanks. This.
SiubhanDuinne
@Howard Beale IV:
You’re digging, and it’s not helping.
RSA
@Violet:
I think that a critical part of aging gracefully is having some amount of grace in the first place.
WaterGirl
@Violet: Ugh! What a disappointment.
I suggest you make a list of things that need to be done, post the sign on the front door (or wherever). Announce that you are taking a well-deserved weekend off so there should be no expectation that you are going to be responsible for any of the things on your list.
Take yourself out to dinner if necessary, but do not get sucked into cooking and cleaning, etc unless it makes you feel better to do those things.
Take the weekend off. (sorry for shouting!)
CaseyL
I am home after an Alaska vacation: 4-day land tour, then a 7-day cruise down the Inside Passage. Had a wonderful time, mostly, but also came down with a head cold the last day, so I am congested, feverish and beyond tired.
I’ve just unpacked. Most of the clothes went to the laundry basket, which is looking genuinely scary right now. I mean, not only will the lid not close but some of the clothing seems to be trying to escape.
For those interested in tracking such things, we did indeed have some norovirus cases. The last night of the cruise, many guests didn’t make their dinner seating, and quite a few of the serving staff were also gone. My little group renamed our ship “Plague of the Seas.”
So good to be home! Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, with kitties all around me!
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Violet:
Violet, good to hear that your parents’ health is becoming better. Enjoy your time off as much as you can. I did the care giving for both of my fatally ill parents and I know that it’s one of the most exhausting tasks you can undertake. You’re a good person and a better one for taking care of yourself too. You’ll be able to be there much more for your parents after you take a break.
SarahT
@Howard Beale IV: Bobby Womack dying sucks, I meant. But so does Ann Coulter and like so many horrible GOPTards, she’ll probably live to be 100. Sigh…
burnspbesq
@Howard Beale IV:
Fixted, so you don’t get a lynch mob of actual constitutional lawyers chasing you. I wouldn’t want to fuck with Mark Tushnet when he’s pissed off, and John Yoo will have you waterboarded.
dmsilev
@Helen: “For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.” – Richard Feynman. Of course, he was one of them scientist folks, so is not to be trusted.
NotMax
Apologies if mentioned (only had a moment or two available to skim above).
Half a loaf really is better than none.
Howard Beale IV
@Roger Moore: I actually can claim citizenship in another country, but it’ll take some work.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@NotMax: It’s Korea and the DMZ that is our hang-up.
dmsilev
@Violet:
Sounds like some re-education is called for. Are we talking roommates/housemates, a significant other, or (God forbid) teenage children?
WaterGirl
@WereBear: I get an error when I click that link. This is the URL.
http://s223.photobucket.com/user/WereBear_cats/media/TristanMithy-buddies.jpg
Roger Moore
@Helen:
I absolutely agree. I’d take it even further. I’d say that one of the big problems with our politics these days is that we treat superficial courtesy as a primary virtue and honesty as unimportant. Politicians who lie through their teeth and express vile racist and sexist beliefs are treated as serious people as long as they express their beliefs nicely. People who point out their lies and evil beliefs are treated as pariahs if they make their point bluntly enough for people to understand what they’re saying.
WereBear
@Scamp Dog: I am so sick of picture-posting working randomly!
Okay, let’s try this again, with Google Drive:
Massive cuteness as our two youngest cats make friends
lamh36
Mahn, looka here, only a classic soul artist like Bobby Womack could write a song about being in love with HIS BEST FRIEND’S GIRL..forget about Rick Springfield’s Jessie Girl…Bobby Womack was on another level!
I Wish He Didn’t Trust Me So Much
http://youtu.be/ovmS20sc2_U
aimai
@Violet: Have a good weekend. You deserve it. We are down in Florida visiting my spouse’s elderly parents. Its caregiving all the time, right now, with everyone deaf as a post and everyone shouting confused questions and answers at everyone else, punctuated with horrible meals at the wrong time of day. Its different when its your own parents, of course, and its different when its a crisis situation but I feel for you.
Scamp Dog
@WaterGirl: No, no. SHOUTING is done with ALL CAPS. You were elegantly, typographically emphasizing your point.
Scamp Dog
@WereBear: Yay, I iz a happy goggie from looking at that picture.
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: Where are those re-education camps when you need them??
WereBear
@aimai: It is my most fervent wish that I grow into one of those cute, kicky, fun oldsters!
I do have a headstart… I’m like that now :)
Josie
@Violet:
I second WaterGirl’s advice. Those folks on the home front need for lightening to strike. I am glad your folks are better and hope you get some needed rest and relaxation.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: I still can’t get over the ears! It’s been funny to see our little Tristan looking like a grumpy old man in some of the Tristan-Mithy photos. Not in this one, though.
dmsilev
@WaterGirl: FEMA will get to the laundry-reeducation camps once they’re done processing all the right-wing bloggers. May take a while, I’m afraid.
WereBear
@WaterGirl: He can be a tad grumpy when he’s had his head tackled three times in 15 minutes.
Karma, though :)
WaterGirl
@WereBear: Payback’s a bitch! (as they say)
Villago Delenda Est
@Helen: Being a Faux Noise viewer is a sure sign of thinking failure.
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: A long, long while.
Villago Delenda Est
@lamh36: Then there’s “Layla” which takes it to excruciating extremes.
PurpleGirl
@Villago Delenda Est:
conslutant
Great new coinage.
PurpleGirl
@WereBear: Photobucket tells me the page does not exist. I haz a sad cause I wanna see cute kittens.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Yeah, we can’t get over that particular thing. All these retired generals tell us that land mines are really not that effective, but active duty generals can’t tell us that because the firm still believes in them.
Villago Delenda Est
@PurpleGirl: I can’t claim it, it’s been around for years.
Villago Delenda Est
@WaterGirl: My single biggest complaint with the current occupant of the Oval Office. On his ass on getting those FEMA reeducation camps up and running.
Helen
@Howard Beale IV: Darling if you have yet won the internets for today YOU WIN THE INTERNEST TODAY. Of course we still need to hear from John Cole.
Villago Delenda Est
@David Koch: Exactement. She’s essentially a troll.
Helen
@Roger Moore: @dmsilev: Science? what is science?
PurpleGirl
@WaterGirl: That also gets me a “page does not exist.”
Sniff, Sniff.
Iowa Old Lady
@Violet: That made me mad just reading it, and it’s not even my house.
Howard Beale IV
@burnspbesq: Fuck, they’d laugh their asses off.
dance around in your bones
@Violet:
Violet, I know I haven’t been commenting lately but I have been following your ‘care-giving my parents’ saga and I feel for you. It’s a really REALLY tough job, and I hope you have the time now to take a bit of a break.
@WaterGirl: This advice is very good. We care-giver types often don’t realize how much we are enabling the helplessness/sloth of the people we live with. Just today I was watching my 3 yr old grandson peel and dismember his second banana in pieces all over the counter. Then he left it there. I asked him who was going to clean it up and he said “You will”. Ok, he’s 3 years old…..but his 8 yr old brother was asked the same type of thing at school when he casually discarded some wrapper on the playground – who will pick it up? And he said “My nana will”.
I think maybe I am the one with the problem here. Only I ain’t Harvey Keitel getting the big bucks for cleaning up messes.
Violet, get some rest and just ignore the mess. Gawd knows I wish I could. Ignore the mess, I mean.
Also, my father died today, so there’s that. He had a stroke a few years ago while playing tennis (which he loved all his life) and really it was only his body being kept alive. I called him on Father’s Day just to say hello and I don’t think he had a clue who I was, just like when I went to see him last year at the nursing home. I guess you can be grateful that you still have a chance to talk with your parents? I kind of wish my dad had just died that day he had the stroke, because it was so painful to see him struggling to make words and failing, and me wondering if he even knew he was talking gibberish.
He did get happy when my sister and I sang karaoke with him! Well, at him. He loved to sing, too. Ok, this is turning into a novel so……I’m glad to hear you are getting some respite from your travails.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@dance around in your bones: My condolences. It has to be tough no matter what the parent’s condition is.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@dance around in your bones:
My deepest condolences for your loss.
WereBear
I am freaked out. That is a serious level of messed-up.
Ronnie P
RIP Bobby Womack.
Reminds me of the movie Fish Bowl, where his California Dreaming cover is used to great effect.
WereBear
@Scamp Dog: You are welcome.
Ruckus
@dance around in your bones:
Sorry about your dad. I know the feeling about them suffering, dad had Alzheimer’s, suffering from it for the first 10 yrs and then bad dementia for the next 10. It ain’t fun.
@Violet:
If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s you have to take care of yourself to take care of others. The stress, just the magnitude of it, requires time to relax and an occasional reboot. Good to hear things are getting better.
Culture of Truth
Agreed, but, Mr. Roth’s writing, gave me a headache, from which, I have yet, to recover.
WereBear
@dance around in your bones: I’m sorry to hear of your loss, whenever it occurred.
Helen
@WereBear: Me too. How do you respond to that? I cut off all contact. OMG what’s gonna happen at the next funeral?
scav
@WaterGirl: and @Violet: There are no doubt a lot of people here rooting for the continued existence of your dirty dishes and other assorted piles. You’ll probably break and clean before they do, but there is no reason to to be prompt, systematic or speedy about it. All the best and with comfy pillows.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Thank you both so much for the condolences…it has been a rough day. Even if my dad and I never really saw eye to eye – he was one of those “pre-Nixon Republicans that I admired” as one of my friends said today whereas I am basically a socialist (Yes, I took that Political Compass Test Chris talked about and scored in the lowest of the lower left quadrant), plus I left home when I was 15 to run away with my boyfriend (later my husband of 40+ years). What can I say, it was the 60’s!
And you will peel my Crocs off of my cold dead feet because I just want to be comfortable. I haven’t listened to a word Ann Coulter has said for over a decade, either, to get back to the original post.
WereBear
I see Ann Coulter trying to be as mean and nasty as possible to win her distant father’s love… and it almost makes me feel sorry for her.
Because she is miserable every minute of every day. And don’t even have the heart to wish it on her, and she does it to herself.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@dance around in your bones: CROCS?! It’s okay, my mom wears them around the house since she had hip surgery and no longer feels comfortable being barefoot.
LAC
@Violet: I agree. But as long as she can yank up her flaps and cracked crepey skin, tuck it in her crotch, slip on her tired black dress and make sure the camera has a thick layer of Vaseline, she will pose on the cover of some clearance rack piece of shit that just enough people buy to keep her not eating in some fancy place.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@dance around in your bones:
I doff my hat. Damned if I don’t wish that I could say that I found the love of my life at 15.
WaterGirl
@dance around in your bones: I’m sorry you lost your dad to the stroke, you know, the dad you knew your whole life. Now he’s undeniably gone, and that’s a whole different kind of loss. I’m really glad you all had the happy time singing karaoke together. Big hugs.
tybee
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
i’m not sure even jesus would give a charity fuck.
dance around in your bones
@Ruckus:
Thanks, Ruckus. I always wondered what was going on in his mind? Did he know he wasn’t making any sense when he spoke or did he think WE weren’t making sense? He would struggle so hard to get words out and they were all scrambled up. And sometimes he would cry – about what? Jeezus. I hope I die quick.
@WereBear: Thank you. It was today, so still kinda raw but not unexpected, if you know what I mean.
I’m glad I have a place to air my feelings. Thanks BJ! (and our BlogOverlord JGCole – whom I thought of last night while watching Philip Seymour Hoffman in Boogie Nights getting so excited about buying the same “genuine imported Italian polyester shirt” as Mark Wahlberg…no offense, JGC, it’s just that you have said the person you most resemble is PSH)(well, before he was dead, I guess).
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@tybee: Still, it’s rather misogynistic, isn’t it?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@dance around in your bones:
As my mom neared the end of her life the brain cancer destroyed her speech centers. She would try and try to make herself understood, but her words made no sense. She would cry then. She was an intelligent and witty woman. I wept in private.
WaterGirl
@dance around in your bones:
That’s just heartbreaking. All of it. Life is so cruel sometimes. All the more reason to hold on to the happy karaoke time you had.
The awesome thing is that you have lived a crazy wonderful life so you don’t need any reminders about living life fully while we are here. You weren’t the easiest kid ever, but I”ll bet your parents were really proud of you.
dance around in your bones
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Ok, that made me smile big time. He was a slender dark-haired hippie from the East Coast with a (weird accent to me, being from ABQ) with the most beautiful blue eyes – which he has passed down to our daughter and grandchildren. We ran away to San Francisco together (lots of stuff in between) and then further to Europe and overland to AFG, India, Nepal and anywhere else they would let us in,
I lost him in 2011. He used to have that t-shirt that said “Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse” ? Well, he got two out of three.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@dance around in your bones:
HBM bows deeply.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Redacted
Peter Castle
Coulter hates the left and abhors immigration. Hence, her diatribe on soccer. Coulter’s inexplicable hatred of the Other is one reason why we should Never Trust Ann Coulter – at ANY Age, a new book available at http://www.coulterwatch.com/never.pdf.
Tehanu
@dance around in your bones:
Very sorry for your loss. My dad passed away in February and my mom in April, and for both it was much the same — their bodies were still here but their minds were unreachable, or close to it, anyway — but there is a difference when they’re gone. Just hope you get through the next few weeks and months okay.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
What did you redact? (I am not easily offended) Something by Blondie – I got distracted by a friend who came in and heard me laughing at something I read on this blog – I explained to her about the community here and the ‘live fast, die young’ t-shirt and she said “but your husband didn’t die young!” and I said he was over 60! and she said that’s not so old (she’s in her 30’s) and I said when we were young we thought you couldn’t trust anyone over 30. The ‘die young’ crowd was Jimi, Janis, Jim Morrison, later Kurt Cobain – you know, the 27 club.
Oh shit, there’s that number again!
@Tehanu: Thanks, Tehanu – it’s sad to see people decline like that, period.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@dance around in your bones: I had linked “Die You, Stay Pretty” in the context of your comment about your husband, but I decided it might be rather crass given your father’s passing.
LAC
@dance around in your bones: so sorry about your loss. Prayers are with you.
RSA
@dance around in your bones: You have my condolences. I’ve also found BJ a good place to tell people about what’s going on. I hope that you have support getting through it all.
Fort Geek
Making progress on my CAD drawing project of the evil, demonic Car from 1977’s “The Car.”
Since there’s so little reference material, I started off with what George “Batmobile” Barris started with: a ’71 Lincoln Mark III. As of Wednesday evening, I’ve gotten most of the top-view plan worked out.
Should be done with all the main views (top, one side, front, rear, and bottom) in a few months. I’m not in any particular hurry. THEN comes the fun part, reworking the Lincoln into The Car.
The movie itself is cheesy as hell, a sort of “Jaws in the desert.” It looks like most of the filming budget went into building the three Barris cars. Worth watching with friends and making fun of.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
My husband would have thought it hilarious.
I have no idea what my dad would have thought – his tastes ran to musicals and Al Jolson and….folksingers. I remember him and my mom taking us to the U of ABQ for folk singing concerts. Pete Seeger may have been involved.
@LAC: @RSA: Thanks guys (or gals, as it may be). I have used/abused Balloon Juice many times to vent my sorrow, anger, despair. I’m glad other folks have this outlet as well.
Long Live BJ! (no, not THAT way, you pervs!)
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@dance around in your bones: Okay then, here is the link.
(N.B. Debbie Harry and Chrissy Hynde were sex symbols in my early teens.)
@dance around in your bones:
Not that there is anything wrong with it.
You do realize that you are one of the favorite commenters of a lot of people around here (including me), right? Don’t be a stranger.
trollhattan
@dance around in your bones:
Damn. Very sorry, both for the loss and the long, hard journey there. We don’t really choose our fates, nosiree.
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Did I say anything was wrong with BJ’s? No, I did not. (I recognize the Seinfeld ref) (redacted comment about swallowing)
Thanks, Omnes, for your comment about me and etc…..I don’t want to veer into Lil Boots category, so I will stop now. (Does it feel creepy to have a web stalker? It kinda gives me the creeps when s/he goes on and on about you) not that there’s anything wrong with that (stifled snort)
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@dance around in your bones: Implication noted, and thank you. As for the rest, I was just trying to be amusing. Capering about and such.
Caligula lives is the same city I do, so I always wonder when I see people…
dance around in your bones
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): OMG you live in Rome?!
Psych. Possibly literally with s/he who will not be named.
@trollhattan: Thanks. Ain’t it the truth? Sometimes life just sucks. And then you die.
Violet
@dance around in your bones: So sorry about your dad. Even if he’d been ill for some time and not able to communicate like he and you would wish, it’s still a huge loss. My condolences.
Thanks everyone else on your suggestions and support. I expressed my dismay that not even a single dish was done while I was gone for two days and was told that they were afraid they’d do it wrong and I’d get mad at them. Uh huh. I’ll probably end up doing the dishes because I don’t mind it really but hell, it would be nice if someone saw a need a did something about it. I do think the FEMA laundry reeducation camp is a good idea.
I’m going to get some sleep, which is the thing I most desperately need.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Violet: I have in the past cleaned the bathroom at my parents’ house and found that my mom trailed behind me and cleaned every thing again because I left some streaks on things. It does cause a why bother response. Seriously, why should I do it, if she is going to follow behind and do it all again? If she said, “Hey, here is how you avoid getting streaks,” I would have listened. I was trying to help by doing the cleaning.
dance around in your bones
@Violet: Sleep, that knits up the ravlle’d sleeve of care….
Sleep tight, Violet.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@efgoldman: I have never had a stroke and hope never to do so, but, as I am sure you know, music can make people cry. This one always does me in.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Yeah there could be some of that, I guess. But it’s more things like, someone washes the pans that have to be washed by hand. I go to put them away when they’ve dried in the dish drainer, find they’re still greasy–as in, the grease comes off on my hand–point it out to them, and tell them I had to wash it again because it wasn’t clean. That elicits a, “You’re too picky!” response. No, you didn’t actually clean the pan. It was still dirty. Or the meat carving board that got washed on only one side and the little feet it sits on were sticky. So again, when I went to put it away I had to wash it again.
I don’t think it’s too picky to expect people to wash dishes so they’re actually washed, is it? I’m not going to put away “clean” pots and pans that still have grease and food particles on them. I’m going to make sure they’re clean.
It’s like that technique for getting out of work–do a crap job so eventually people stop asking you to do the job and just do it themselves.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Violet: It is not unreasonable to expect clean, but not spotless. My mom, who is a wonderful person and if anyone her criticizes her I will challenge that person do a duel and people should understand that I an pretty good with both pistol and sword, is a bathroom perfectionist. Thank dog, she hired people to take care of it.
Anne Laurie
@dance around in your bones: In honor of your father, then:
Because All Men Are Brothers
Such Is Love
Hurry Sundown
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I’m not remotely a perfectionist. I don’t like food or grease on “clean” pots and pans and dishes, though. If you have to use extra dish soap, then that’s what you do. Or if you have to turn over the pan and clean both sides, well that’s just too bad. That’s how you clean the whole pan, not just the inside. Because guess what–whatever you cooked can drip down the side of the pan and even get on the bottom of the pan on the outside.
Sometimes I feel like I’m working with toddlers. “Let me teach you how to tie your shoes!” Ugh.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Violet: You aren’t my mom, then. How old are the subjects?
dance around in your bones
@Anne Laurie: Thanks, Anne Laurie.
I have quite vivid memories of sitting way high up in the bleachers (seats?) at UNM with my mom and dad listening to folk singers on stage. I have no doubt that it helped form my political inclinations, whether that was the intent of my parents or only a by-product of their attempt to be hip.I only know that I had all of Peter Paul and Mary’s lyrics (whoever they were stolen from) memorized by the age of ten. So, Yay Parental Units!
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@dance around in your bones:
I’m so sorry for your loss. It really sucked losing my dad last year, but at least he was (reasonably) lucid until he lost consciousness.
And if you find yourself starting to clean up after your grandsons instead of making them do it themselves, just remind yourself that you’re doing it on behalf of their future lovers/spouses.
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Thanks for your comment – but do you really think I am helping my future lovers/spouses by letting my grandsons slide on cleaning up their own messes?
I watched a really great Stephen Colbert and Neil deGrasse Tyson video Tyson (who I love!) said that interfering with your kid’s messes (WHY did you get into that mud puddle with those freshly washed jeans?! why can’t you stop banging those pots and pans – because it’s obviously an aural experiment….) ok, at that point I had to wonder if he had ever had children (he has four, I think) and secondly, I had to wonder if he ever stayed HOME with those kids instead of being an astrophysicist.
I still wish my grandkids would go the fuck to sleep so I can, too. Or at least waste my time here on BJ.
Mnemosyne
@dance around in your bones:
I would guess … nope! But just ask my husband about the bad effect having my grandmother clean up for me had on my ability to clean up after myself as an adult. If we didn’t have cleaning people come in twice a month, we’d have divorced by now.
Groucho48
@Violet:
Doing household chores poorly is classic male passive-aggressive behavior to get out of doing chores in the future. I confess I was a master of the art as a teen-ager, but, a few years of living on my own made me realize I’d only been making sure I had to figure out the right way to do things by myself.
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne: Doesn’t that prove my point though? That having gramma around to clean up your messes makes you more lazy in the future (i.e. – expecting that there will always be someone to clean up your messes, so why bother yourself?)
That said, I remember when I was a very young teenager, our house cat (nobody really treated them like family members at that time) shat in my closet, and i just flipped a paper towel over the mess and forgot about it until my gramma came to visit. She, of course, was horrified, and spent some time frantically scrubbing the catshit out of my closet, I don’t know what my mom was doing at that point, I think she was working and thinking about divorcing my dad. Which she did soon afterward and then I split town with my boyfriend/later to be husband,
And Number One grandson is STILL awake! The other two are in Slumberland.
Mnemosyne
@dance around in your bones:
I think we are violently agreeing. :-) Plus, you’re grandma — you should be training them to fetch and carry for you in preparation for the day that you’ll need it.
I will tell this story with the reminder that I had undiagnosed ADHD: I had a rotting container of spilled yogurt under my bed that I had no idea was there until one of my cousins was helping me clean my room. They still talk about it after the third or fourth glass of wine at the annual family dinner.
(Also, both of my parents smoked, so I probably had no sense of smell at the time.)
dance around in your bones
@Mnemosyne:
Oh gads, EVERYBODY smoked when I was a kid. It was like on Mad Men, even to the point of ‘cleaning up’ after a ‘bridge party’ when us kids emptied ashtrays and leftover drinks ( a young friend calls them ‘dead soldiers’ now).
I don’t remember it ever affecting my sense of smell, maybe because I had no point of reference.
P.S. – Your story about the unattended yogurt container reminded me of this – an unexplained foul smell in the garage (I am always mocked in SoCal for saying GARage instead of gahRaj but that’s beside the point) which turned out to be a leftover bait container that THE GUYS had left in the GARage….and I had to scrub it up. spill bleach over it and then 20 Mule-Team Borax, leave it for a couple of days and then sweep it up.
And these guys who caused the smell are MEN. Who have the wherewithal to own a BOAT. FML.
Draylon Hogg
As usual Ann Coulter is talking out of her arse. The NFL is far more socialist than soccer. Teams can’t buy players and the worst ones get first pick in the draft.
Mack
Mike R, congrats on your geothermal system. Mine is three years old, and I love it. In fact, I went to work for the company that installed it. If anyone out there is considering a retro fit, act soon. The 30 percent tax credit (not deduction) is only funded through 2016.
Your yard will be a mess for around a week…well worth it.
WaterGirl
@dance around in your bones: I doubt if you will see this, but as I caught up with the end of the thread this morning, it struck me that the sentence below was the source of all confusion. I think what Mnemosyne may have been trying to say was:
dance around in your bones
@WaterGirl: I actually DID see this ( woke up early after a long night with grandkids) and I appreciate your insight – I don’t think Mnemosyne and I were at odds in our back and forth commentary – I just know how my grandkids view me – as a human cleaning machine. That’s prolly my fault. Like, here I am at 6 something am on the left coast after being awake until after midnight. That’s seriously fucked up.
WaterGirl
@dance around in your bones: It sounds like you are ready to make a change with the grandkids. Once you have seen the big picture (the kids expect you to clean up after them) it cannot be un-seen.
It will likely be a struggle, and maybe if you can acknowledge to them that things are going to be different, and explain to them how things will be different, then maybe there won’t be as much of a struggle.
Your world did revolve around then for awhile, you lost your husband and were getting your feet back under you, but now you have a bit of perspective. And now, sadly, you have lost your dad, too. And you moved too, right? That’s rough.
Maybe focusing on the long view with them will help you in some way, too. I woke up thinking of you this morning. Take care.
dance around in your bones
@WaterGirl: Oh gads, thank you for thinking about me. You know, I complain about my grandkids and then – like today – the youngest comes in, his white-blonde surfer hair all a-tangle, and I smile and say “Good Morning, how are you, duckie?” because he resembles nothing so much as a little duckling.
I’m working on the ‘Gramma is a cleaning machine’ thing. Because I think I have more to give than cleaning.
(You know, Lil Duckling is in my room right now, and he is listening to a parody of Usher’s (whom I barely know about) song Revenge (which I know nothing about) on his iPad – and dang me if I cannot sing every word of that parody/song! ‘Baby tonight, Creeper’s gonna steal your stuff again’ – I even know what Creepers are, from watching them play Minecraft endlessly. (ETA: Usher’s song is DJ Got Us Falling In Love which I have no clue about because all I’ve heard is the Minecraft/Creeper parody).
So, I guess what I am saying is that there are rewards (?) from cleaning up after grandkids. It’s all how you look at it (she says, in the morning light). {{{smile}}}
I am so thrilled that someone woke up thinking about me!
vtr
About a decade ago, someone as tired as the rest of us are of Coulter being called an attractive blond, described her as a kneecap with hair.
WaterGirl
@dance around in your bones: Happy to know that I brightened up your day a bit!
There’s a reason babies and kids and puppies are so cute; I am convinced that it’s so we don’t strangle them. :-) I have a 4 year old great nephew that is just charing and delightful, so I am very aware of the rewards that go hand-in-hand with the frustrations.
You have a chance, here, to have a big impact on how your grandkids view women. How cool is that?
J R in WV
@dance around in your bones:
So sorry to hear of your loss.
No matter the circumstances it is a hard blow when a parent goes. Best of luck dealing with the situation!
dance around in your bones
@WaterGirl:
I think that,as a species, we have a genetic predisposition for cute little things – otherwise, we wouldn’t survive (as a species). Thus, our OMG aren’t they cute ? even as they pee in our beds and make messes on the floor (for gramma to clean up) without ….
Chet
Good to know. I’ll remember that next time I see “cosmopolitan” SWPL types bagging on stuff like NASCAR and country music, like they do all the goddamn fucking time.