Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

So many bastards, so little time.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

I was promised a recession.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Evening Open Thread: Our President May Be A Pool Shark

Sunday Evening Open Thread: Our President May Be A Pool Shark

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Per NYMag:

… According to The Wall Street Journal, [Colorado Governor] Hickenlooper “said he was even thinking of slacking off on the theory it might not be a bad idea to let [Obama] win.” But, once their pool game began, it became clear that Obama is, as Hickenlooper put it, “a shark.” “Literally before my eyes he ran like four balls,” said the governor. After Obama won the first round, the pair decided to play another, and the president dominated that one too. “I still had four balls on the table when he nailed the eight ball,” Hickenlooper recalled. “He was making long shots with a difficult angle. I didn’t know people in Hawaii played that much pool. Evidently they do.”…

Of course, the Faux Newsheads will no doubt remind each other that pool (starts with a P, and that rhymes with T… ) is a very low sort of accomplishment.
***********
Apart from friendly games (right here in River City), what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the weekend?

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  7. 7.

    Randy P

    a very low sort of accomplishment.

    Wait, I thought he was an elitist snob because he drank OJ at breakfast. I’m so confused.

  8. 8.

    MattF

    Being a skilled player doesn’t make you a shark. What makes you a shark is the sudden, unexplained improvement in your game when you’re playing for money.

  10. 10.

    Corner Stone

    @MattF: No, being a shark is the ability to give the other party the idea they just missed winning that contest. And next go round, with a slight adjustment, they are sure to get the better end.
    And with the real shark, sometimes they actually do!

  11. 11.

    another Holocene human

    I know it ain’t pc but we are the champions (both great apes in this house are half German):

    Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles Blueh’ im Glanze dieses Glueckes

    Mein Weib meint dass ,, Der Ritt der Walkueren” bei deutscher Hymne sei.

  12. 12.

    Corner Stone

    If you beat someone by “four balls”, you’re not getting any more action in that joint. At least from people who know the game of the guy you whipped.

  13. 13.

    schrodinger's cat

    Had neighbors over for dinner, made Tandoori chicken on the grill, chole, raita, jeera rice with craisins and almonds and watermelon cooler with vodka to drink. A good time was had by all. Now, I am exhausted.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    @schrodinger’s cat: OJ-gate was a “controversy” in the 2008 campaign. If memory serves, Obama was visiting a diner somewhere, was offered coffee I think, and asked for orange juice instead. This was in fact taken by some (Chris Matthews in particular) as evidence of Obama’s lack of common touch. Saner people took the controversy as one more entry in the ever-expanding “why Chris Matthews needs to be slapped in the face with a large fish” file.

  18. 18.

    gene108

    I’m watching the Harry Potter movies on ABC Family (showing all of them this weekend). Watched the first couple yesterday (when my niece and nephew visited) and the last few after the World Cup Finals. I never saw them before.

    They are very well done, but in the movies, there’s a point where I am sort of rooting for Voldermort (though I know how it will end from reading the books).

    For whatever reason, I often find villains more interesting than the heroes and I think there’s a certain smug self-satisfaction in the British wizarding world that I think could use a good kick in the ass from Voldermort being in charge for awhile.

  19. 19.

    Yatsuno

    @dmsilev:

    why Chris Matthews needs to be slapped in the face with a large fish

    I still consider this a complete waste of a pescine animal.

  21. 21.

    James E. Powell

    If Obama’s seen The Hustler more than twice, and uses quotes from the film, I will consider him to be the greatest president ever!

  23. 23.

    Corner Stone

    @dmsilev:

    Saner people took the controversy as one more entry in the ever-expanding “why Chris Matthews needs to be slapped in the face with a large fish” file.

    That depends. What kind of fish are we talking about?
    Flounder? Yep. Bream? No, they need to be dropped in his shorts.

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    Holy shit. There was a commercial on cookingchannel just now with 3 very attractive women sitting at an outdoor cafe table. They were admiring an adult male casually jogging down the sidewalk. Pretty much ogling the dude.
    He stopped near the table and said, “Oh, hey, Mrs. Adams! Say hi to Brad for me!”
    Like Brad was her son.
    That. Was. Awesome.

  27. 27.

    SuperHrefna

    I’m trying to calm down, not very easy as I’m flying to Australia tomorrow! I’ve never been before, but I am overdue to visit a dear friend of mine. I’m really scared of taking such a long flight… It will take 22 hrs to get to Sydney then I have to change for my flight to Melbourne. I hope I can cope with cattle class for that long.

  28. 28.

    gene108

    @Corner Stone:

    In the movie, they are just like “hey, I’ll go to Hogwarts, graduate from Hogwarts, either set up shop at Diagon Ally or work for the Ministry of Magic or if I’m rich, just hang out and manage my wizard equivalent of a trust fund”.

    Outside of Voldermort, there really isn’t much that shakes up the wizarding status quo in Britain.

    No one really pushes the limits of what magic can do. They just live ho-hum lives.

    Hell, no one’s even bothered to try to compete against Hogwarts, in Britain. The wizards just plod along.

    Voldermort is the only one, who wants to challenge the status quo and push the limits on what can be done.

  29. 29.

    Mandalay

    @dmsilev:

    This was in fact taken by some (Chris Matthews in particular) as evidence of Obama’s lack of common touch.

    That reminds me of time Cokie Roberts denounced Obama for vacationing in “foreign, exotic” Hawaii rather than Myrtle Beach.

    Plant the heads of the Villagers on pikestaffs. All of them, Katie.

  30. 30.

    Corner Stone

    @gene108: You have completely missed what the series of books is about.

    ETA, ah, you said in the movie. Have you read the books?

  31. 31.

    SuperHrefna

    @gene108: definitely why I like Luna Lovegood the best of all the characters, she won’t settle for plodding Little Englander smugness.

  32. 32.

    gelfling545

    @Tommy: we had one in the basement when I was a kid. My mother would put the laundry in & shoot pool while waiting for the next load. She was pretty good at it, having learned from a somewhat disreputable uncle who more or less made his living at pool & other games of chance & skill (and I suspect other things that have gone unspecified). I was always hopeless at it but daughter #1 is very good indeed. Must have skipped a generation.

  34. 34.

    SuperHrefna

    @Corner Stone: They are a long metaphor for English racism. That’s why they are full of some of the most appallingly bullheaded, smug and blinkered English traits.

  35. 35.

    gene108

    @Corner Stone:

    I kind of missed this angle in the books, but see it in the movies.

    The regular wizards just seem like folks, who need a kick in the ass. They seem not to have had one in centuries.

    Think about the U.S. without the Civil War and Lincoln or India without Gandhi or South Africa without Mandela.

    At some point every society needs radical change.

    Voldermort is the agent of that change.

    Sometimes the changes are for the better, sometimes they are for the worse, but as a civilization we cannot progress without change.

    The wizards refused to progress.

    Voldermort is their agent of change.

    So what if he’s more a Hitler/Stalin change agent than a Gandhi/Mandela change agent, he’s forcing change.

    In the long run, Hitler and Stalin forced Europe to stop going to war with itself every fucking generation, since the end of the Roman Empire. Hitler caused a bloody war tha caused so much damage people were reluctant to fight. Stalin posed such a threat of dominating Europe, the other countries had to work together for mutual self preservation.

    Without Hitler or Stalin, you would not have the EU and a Europe, where war is a thing of a past and free trade and relatively open borders are the future.

    I think a few decades under Voldermort’s rule, the British wizards would create something better than what was before.

  36. 36.

    Cacti

    @gene108:

    I’ve never read any of the HP books, but from the movies I saw, the supposedly heroic Gryffindor House struck me as mighty self-righteous, and very “ends justify the means” in their regard for the rules that every House was supposed to follow.

    And Dumbledore was completely in the tank for them and encouraged it.

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    @SuperHrefna: I agree they refer to racism as well as classicism. But they aren’t boring and/or plodding tomes of a bunch of people going along with the status quo.

  38. 38.

    Gin & Tonic

    @SuperHrefna: Make sure you have plenty to read/listen to/whatever your pleasures are. Get up and walk around more often than you think you need to. It is long, and it is boring. Your internal clock will also be completely screwed up, because (assuming you’re traveling from the US) it’s completely opposite. It will also be chilly in Melbourne.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @dmsilev:

    It really is funny to read when Media Matters puts the whole thing together:

    As Media Matters for America noted, Matthews has previously suggested that the Democratic Party does not consist of “regular people,” and that African-Americans and college graduates are not “regular people.”

  42. 42.

    Kay

    “Well, it looks like bowlers won’t have a champion in the race at all. I’m actually surprised by the fact that neither Barack or Hillary have bowled much in their lives. Maybe that tells you something about the Democratic Party.”

  44. 44.

    Mandalay

    The Mayor of South Miami (who also happens to be a biology professor) provides a vivid description of how the effects of global warming may be felt by those of us living on low land near the sea:

    “Another foot of sea-level rise will be enough to bring salt water into our fresh water supplies and our sewage system. Those services will be lost when that happens,”…

    “You won’t be able to flush away your sewage and taps will no longer provide homes with fresh water. Then you will find you will no longer be able to get flood insurance for your home. Land and property values will plummet and people will start to leave. Places like South Miami will no longer be able to raise enough taxes to run our neighbourhoods. Where will we find the money to fund police to protect us or fire services to tackle house fires? Will there even be enough water pressure for their fire hoses?”

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/11/miami-drowning-climate-change-deniers-sea-levels-rising

    Global warming won’t result in tsunamis that destroy all in their paths. Instead there will be a gradual breakdown of basic services that will ultimately make places uninhabitable. And for those in denial, that shit will happen whether or not climate change is man made.

  45. 45.

    SuperHrefna

    @Corner Stone: I agree with you – Rowling wields a fine stiletto. Her portrayal of Percy – how he goes wrong and how he just can’t admit to being wrong – is shatteringly realistic. And she does it again and again, from Gilderoy Lockhart’s narcissism to Dolores Umbridge’s banal evil to Ron’s peevishness. Just beautiful character studies. I loved her novel The Casual Vacancy because she really let that aspect of her writing run wild and free there.

  46. 46.

    mai naem

    I was flipping channels and started watching a Reframed doc on PBS about two leaders of the two different teabagger groups in Pennsylvania. It was kind of a sad/pathetic/a little funny. The one guy was an older white guy with financial problems who was scared the browning of the country. The other one was a woman who discovered politics listening to Glenn Beck and Rush. Worth watching if for nothing else than the ending with the woman being shocked, shocked I say, that Romney lost and the old man mad not wanting to talk to the reporter because he was done!!!

  47. 47.

    Cain

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Nice.. we have some paneer in the fridge.. thinking of grilling that with a coriander/ginger/mint braising sauce after marinating the paneer in chicken tikka spices.

    Going to watch the Portland vs Seattle soccer match. Apparently, I’m now a fan thanks to World Cup.

  49. 49.

    dmsilev

    @Kay: As opposed to that true man of the people Mitt Romney….

    What is the market niche for Tweety anyway? Are there really that many people out there who (a) enjoy watching someone shout incoherently about politics and (b) aren’t already watching Fox News?

  50. 50.

    The Sailor

    @PIGL:

    “A good pool player is the sign of a wasted youth”. (My grandfather)

    Full quote:”A certain dexteriety in games of skill argues a well-balanced mind, but such such dexterity as you have shown is evidence, I fear, of a misspent youth.” – Herbert Spencer 1820-1903

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    That’s receded a little, I think, the “real voters” and the… other voters. They dropped that after 2012.

  53. 53.

    SuperHrefna

    @Gin & Tonic: Thanks for the advice! Most gratefully accepted. Ive booked an aisle seat so getting up should be pretty easy. I’ve stocked up my Kindle and iPod and I’m hoping they last all the way. I looked to see what movies they are playing and I think they might be screening Her, which I haven’t seen yet and really want to. I’ve had such a weird time today,alternately going swimming in the Long Island Sound and digging out my winter clothes, my long johns, my Icelandic cardigan….

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    @SuperHrefna: My brother-in-law really hates flying, and he made it through the trip to Australia just fine.

    I bought him an iPod and he bought himself some headphones and he spent the whole trip in his own little world of music. That worked great, but he never got up out of his seat, so he ran into a bit of trouble because of that. Don’t forget to move around!

    You know how they sat brides and pregnant women are radiant and just seem to glow? That’s how my sister and brother-in-law were when they returned and would talk about their trip.

    I predict a fabulous trip for you!

  55. 55.

    schrodinger's cat

    @SuperHrefna: I usually set my watch to match the timezone of my destination, and try to eat accordingly. Try to get as much sleep as you can.
    I did not sleep at on my flight to India and my jet lag was worse than it was after my return trip back. Drink plenty of fluids. Easy to get dehydrated on a long flight.

  56. 56.

    SuperHrefna

    @WaterGirl: thank you! I think it is going to be glorious, I’m staying with a very dear friend I haven’t seen for years and I can’t wait to have weeks and weeks to really catch up properly with her. That’s why I’m going in winter – we’re going to celebrate her 50th!

    I’m definitely going to try to get up and walk around. I’m so sorry your brother in law ran into trouble that way, but I will use his example to prod myself into taking short constitutionals.

  59. 59.

    Corner Stone

    The first 20 minutes of C@$ino Royale with Daniel Craig may be the best action intro of any movie in the last 20 years.
    Just Hall of Fame type stuff.

  60. 60.

    SuperHrefna

    @schrodinger’s cat: that’s a good idea – I will have to look up what how much further ahead Melbourne is from me – I think it is about 14 hours ahead. I downloaded some guided imagery new agey things onto my iPod in the hopes that they will help me sleep on the plane.

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    Loved the Harry Potter books and love the movies too. One of the coolest thing about the movies is watching the kids grow up. The transformation of Neville Longbottom must be a beacon of hope for spherical children worldwide.

  62. 62.

    gogol's wife

    So I guess no one watched Endeavour tonight. It was quite good — there was even a fake Michael Caine in it. And a fake Diana Dors.

  64. 64.

    Corner Stone

    @SuperHrefna: There are a lot of truths in there, both stunning and common place. It’s one reason they were so widely successful. I guess that speaks for itself, eh?
    But the idea that the entire class of characters is stunted, held back by convention, and afraid to innovate is, to my mind, simply wrong headed.
    And asking for a Voldemort to drive one out of a rut is like asking a teabagging moron like TX R Louis Gohmert to take the wheel in the middle of the night.
    You’ll wake up either in a muddy ditch or wondering why you’re pasted to the ceiling as it falls off a cliff. He’s not an innovator, and the enured destructive nature doesn’t create a new order, even through chaos.

  66. 66.

    Gin & Tonic

    @SuperHrefna: You won’t need long johns. It doesn’t get below freezing, unless you go up into the mountains, but that’s pretty far. I have skiied there, but wouldn’t go back to do it again.

  70. 70.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Corner Stone: I do, but I prefer to live in a world where many of them are merely typos. It was, of course, a mistake to ask.

  74. 74.

    gene108

    @SuperHrefna:

    definitely why I like Luna Lovegood the best of all the characters, she won’t settle for plodding Little Englander smugness.

    Yeah, Luna is interesting.

    @Corner Stone:

    ETA, ah, you said in the movie. Have you read the books?

    I read the books.

    I was not in love with them like others have been.

    Rowling did a masterful job tying up all the plot threads in the last book. She built a very detailed, deep and rich urban fantasy world. She did a great job in introducing complex topics like political power struggles into a children’s book, with the tiff between the Ministry of Magic and Dumbledore, as well as how Snape changed in the end.

    The books are not flawless though.

    I think she made light of child abuse, with how she treated Harry early on. His home life with his aunt and uncle was not just “not nice”, but could probably cause the aunt and uncle to lose custody, if anyone bothered to investigate.

    I have a friend, who works in mental health, who said the way the elves were treated makes light of people, who self-punish, like cutting themselves when they make mistakes.

    Also, the really tough thing about urban fantasy is it relies on most normal folks not knowing about magic.

    There’s some explanation for why these things happen and how the magical community hides from the rest of us, but at some point most urban fantasy puts a strain on the reader’s willingness to “suspend disbelief”. How many things can go boom, without satellites picking it up, when wizards are ignorant of modern technology and are not warding against it.

    There’s a point in the Harry Potter books, where I found that it pushed me a bit too far to believe in the premise of a magical world living utterly in secret from the ordinary world. For example, why exactly would the Grangers be wiling to allow their daughter to go to some boarding school they never heard of and are not sure of what kind of job their kid would get at the end of her studies? They were professionals, who went to university (as the Brits call it) and would have probably wanted the same for their daughter.

    And why exactly are there no ordinary people, with magic ability (like Lilly or Hermione), who decide to go back to the ordinary world and not stay in the magic world? After a thousand years, there should be enough back and forth between the world’s that it could not stay secret forever. There would be a certain number of ordinary folks, who know about the magical world, to allow it to be known more broadly than it was. Outside of the parents and siblings of ordinary people with magic, you do not have anyone knowing about what is going on.

    Why Petunia’s going to school everyday, so why exactly did you send Lilly off to a boarding school? She was not a trouble maker really and/or how exactly can you afford boarding school?

    Plus, why the hell would the social services in Britain not be bothered by kids going to an unnamed boarding school and no longer attending their assigned school? I do not think Europe is as tolerant of home schooling as the USA, so you’d need to have some basis for smoothing it over with the authorities. Also, Europe has more centralized exams, so they can keep track, if your kid is not in the system because he/she is not taking their centralized exams every kid has to take.

    The Potter books are really well done and a great read.

    They just did not transcend to a higher level for me.

  75. 75.

    Ruckus

    @SuperHrefna:
    All the suggestions are great but the most important is to get up once in a while and walkabout. I removed my watch(was going on vacation and cared less about the time) and that helped. I like window seats as I find it easier to sleep, but noticed that most seat mates had no problem understanding the need to once in a while get up but the isle seat makes that unnecessary for you, but not your seat mate. On a flight to NZ I sat next to a german fellow who lived and worked there. Sat down in the waiting area on the way home 3 weeks later next to the same chap. It’s a long time but break up the time with sleep, movies/music, food and maybe a good seat mate. But most important, have fun.

  76. 76.

    gene108

    @gene108:

    Why Petunia’s going to school everyday, so why exactly did you send Lilly off to a boarding school?

    Just want to add, how exactly do you keep grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. from not talking about what their little loved “rug rat” is up to?

    Ever talked to a grandmother? Get them on grand kids and they go on and on because they love their grand kids so much.

    It’s not natural to have a world, where Lily’s grandmother would not talk about the wonderful things Lilly did at school.

  79. 79.

    gene108

    @gene108:

    Tl;dr summary: Potter was a good read. I enjoyed it. Turned the pages wondering what would happen next. Just did not love it enough to keep a set on my book shelf, to read over and over again.

  81. 81.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Mike J: I find it interesting that although Ravenclaw was the House for the brains, Luna is one of the only ones of note in the series. Slytherin ambition, Gryffindor courage, and Hufflepuff willingness to die in the trenches for their betters always seem to come into play. Also, if Ravenclaw was for the brainy, why wasn’t Hermione sent there; is it because she was a swot, not a genius?

  82. 82.

    goblue72

    @mai naem: Watching it now. The two Tea Party “leaders” they profile are just insane, stupid, and horribly racist. The woman is just crazy – and quite possibly lying through her teeth – the whole “oh, I have no idea how much money we make, my husband takes care of all the bills” is just clearly a bold-faced lie.

    And the old guy is your boilerplate old white guy ranting about illegals. The scene with him wheeling his incapacitated by dementia mother into the voting booth to vote for her was just classic.

    I really hate these people.

  83. 83.

    jl

    I semi-suck playing pool. Depends on how drunk I am.

    Query for BJ lawyers and policy wonks: the House lawsuit thing is based on the word game about what a state exchange is, and whether the feds could set up an effective substitute for state exchange if a particular state choose not to do so? Izzat right? Or, is there more to it than it?

  85. 85.

    The Other Chuck

    @gene108: I always figured Hogwarts and related stuff is located in a parallel universe, and where the stuff does happen in the muggle world, they have “cleaners” of some sort to make it look mundane. Maybe some Men In Black on the muggle side to help them out, forge boarding school records, etc. Part of escapist fantasy is suspending enough disbelief for the escape.

  86. 86.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @jl: As far as the lawsuit goes, I don’t see how the weeping Cheeto has standing. If the WC gets by the standing issue, any court should find it a political issue and punt.

  87. 87.

    Betty Cracker

    I’m partial to Professor McGonagall. Also, Cole needs to get a female Maine Coon and name her Mrs. Norris after Caretaker Filch’s feline.

    Did you Potter fans know Rowling wrote a short HP piece recently? It was an article from Rita Skeeter from the Quiddich World Cup and gave updates on the main characters.

  88. 88.

    Belafon

    @gene108: Those books did exactly why I had hoped they would do: They got one of my kids to read. Percy Jackson got my second one to read (and at 14, he just finished Dorian Gray because he wanted to read it).

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Belafon:

    he just finished Dorian Gray because he wanted to read it

    That book scares me. I am afraid that someone will stab my portrait.

  90. 90.

    different-church-lady

    “Sit down Lurline, this may be rough…

    [pours drink]

    “Honey… the Governor of Colorado is named Hickenlooper.”

  94. 94.

    ruemara

    Every so often, I miss the sight of Kage licking his very dainty paws on the sofa. And Takkun I miss just generally being himself all over. *sigh*

  97. 97.

    NotMax

    Once in a while, everything just lines up right. True story.

    Sometime in the 1960s or 1970s: a group of the younger staff at the summer camp where I worked liked to occasionally pass the hours after the kiddies were tucked away but before their own curfew at a pool table. They once asked why I never showed up, intimating I might be scared of the competition.

    So one night I popped into the room with the table. My opponent won the break and knocked two balls into pockets before missing a shot. I proceeded to sink 14 in a row.

    Have not touched a pool cue since.

  98. 98.

    Mike in NC

    @SuperHrefna: I cannot sleep on airplanes; never could. Longest flight I ever endured was from Providence, RI to Philadelphia to Diego Garcia via Naples/Athens/Bahrain. A grueling ride of about 30 hours. Needed to sleep for a day after we got there.

  101. 101.

    Botsplainer

    I really like the parallel universe Potter thing -gives infinite story options, and after all, what is magic other than the ability to manipulate quantum forces and gravity.

  104. 104.

    PurpleGirl

    @Tommy: Obama was offered coffee and he said he’d prefer orange juice… well, how uppity and rude can he be!

    /snark. Republican reaction.

  105. 105.

    burnspbesq

    Holy shit. Lyle Thompson just passed his stick from one hand to the other behind his back while spinning away from a defender, in order to get his hands free to shoot. I have been playing this game since 1972, and I have never seen anything remotely like that.

  106. 106.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    Samsung has joined whatever constitutes the current Axis of Evil. They are using Iggy Azelea’s Fancy* in an ad.

    *Yeah, I posted a link. Because fuck all y’all.

  107. 107.

    Steeplejack

    @gogol’s wife:

    I watched Endeavour tonight and thought it was very good. Generic Michael Caine was good. I didn’t think the blonde was generic Diana Dors; I thought she was just a platinum blonde. She wasn’t projecting enough glamour-puss to be Dors.

    I liked the peek into D.I. Thursday’s back-story, and I really liked things heating up with nurse Monica. I feared that Morse had blown it with his gaffe last week.

    Most of all, I was glad to see that the writing in this episode was better. There was no “Let me wrap up all the loose ends, half of which the audience hasn’t even heard of, while we drive over to apprehend the culprit in the nick of time.” Okay, there was the “nick of time” part, but they got there much more, er, organically.

    Also have liked the little hints at the end of each episode that weird stuff is going on inside the police, e.g., someone took the murderer’s ring from evidence last week. Apparently Morse has noticed it too.

  108. 108.

    burnspbesq

    Game on. Iroquois have come back with four unanswered goals. It’s a one-goal game with ten minutes to go. Time out Canada.

  110. 110.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @SuperHrefna: If you can find a platypus water bottle – it folds up when you’re not using it – fill it up after you pass through security since you never get enough water on a flight.

  113. 113.

    burnspbesq

    Tie game with 2:32 to go. It’s been all Iroquois in the fourth quarter. Crowd is going batshit.

  114. 114.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Steeplejack: I am interested in the Endeavour series for ths same reason I watched the Star Wars prequels. I want to know how the young guy becomes the iconic character. Endeavour is far, far better than the Star Wars prequels.

  115. 115.

    MikeJ

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Heh. I worked on the unreleased Clueless online game (and the video is very much a Clueless homage/ripoff). When I had my dev meeting at Paramount I threw a party at my bungalow at Chateau Marmont.

    I still think it’s a develop-able property, even if it is 20 years old. Basically paper dolls. Cher’s closet, earn new outfits, etc. Wish I had the rights to it.

  116. 116.

    SectionH

    @SuperHrefna: I will mostly just say “Have a good flight” That’s my best wishes, and what I say to Mr S on every flight he makes. (He flies 125K miles a year so I don’t have to.)

    Have a wonderful time in a wonderful city!

  117. 117.

    Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)

    @Mike J:

    (and the video is very much a Clueless homage/ripoff).

    I believe the polite term is homage.

  118. 118.

    Mike J

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I do keep meaning to change nyms to add a space so that others who aren’t as hip as you can respond. I’ve actually read the source looking for a clue to this bug but haven’t found it. Difficult to do without having all the plugins and the server in debug mode.

    I wonder if this one will show up wince the nym has an extra space?

  119. 119.

    CaseyL

    @SuperHrefna: Congrats on going to Australia! Have a great time. I went a few years ago and loved it.

    About the flight: one reason you should try to get up and walk around is that otherwise on a long flight your lower legs may swell with edema. It’s not permanent – the swelling goes away; no lasting damage – but can be kind of freaky and scary if you’re not expecting it.

  120. 120.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):

    I liked Inspector Morse, and I am liking Endeavour a lot. The previous couple of episodes just threw me because of the slapped-together denouements. Galling because they were about the only thing wrong with otherwise good shows.

    I think they have done a great job of showing a young Morse that could plausibly become John Thaw’s Morse in 30 years. (And some of the other characters, too: P.C. Strange, the big uniformed dimwit, is going to end up being Morse’s boss eventually.) I fear for how things are going to go with nurse Monica, because of course we know future Inspector Morse is a loner.

    And they are doing a good job of suggesting the ’60s mise-en-scène without overdoing it, which sometimes happens on Inspector George Gently, another good series set in the same time period.

  122. 122.

    SectionH

    @CaseyL: *Waves* Um, I did promise Yatsuno a while back that I’d warn SEA area BJers if we were in the area for more than a few hours/a wedding/ whatnot this summer. Um, well, we’re coming back from Alaska and overnighting in SEA next Sunday night – the 20th (I’ll check for sure if needed). It’s not like we’re important BJ names or anything, but we’re always up for hanging out if the noise level of the place is geared for ppl who gave their hearing in the ’60s.

  123. 123.

    Amir Khalid

    @Betty Cracker:
    I read about it. It’s meant to be a Rita Skeeter story (Rita Skeeter and The Daily Prophet are of course the wizarding world’s equivalent of the Murdochian scumbags who hacked Rowling’s and other celebrities’ cellphones) insinuating that all is not well in Hermione and Ron’s marriage. You’ll remember, of course, what Hermione did to Rita Skeeter in The Goblet of Fire.

  124. 124.

    Yatsuno

    @SectionH: Well…I no longer live in the immediate area BUT…I can do a day trip if the even is early enough. Sadly no imbibing on my part but if the timing is right I could manage it.

  125. 125.

    joel hanes

    @Corner Stone:

    And asking for a Voldemort to drive one out of a rut is like

    letting Dick Cheney nominate himself for Vice President, and giving him free run of the Executive Branch.

  127. 127.

    joel hanes

    @different-church-lady:

    “Honey… the Governor of Colorado is named Hickenlooper.”

    “And we’d like to thank our sponsors:
    Fantastic Cigarettes, long in the leaf, and short in the can; and Loosner’s Castor Oil Flakes —
    Loosners for the smile of health, Fantastics for the smile of sucess —
    the French Legume —
    and the Hong Kong Fireworks Company, without whom none of this would have been necessary.”

    [over: swell triumphant final notes of “We’re Bringing The War Back Home”]

  128. 128.

    askew

    For those who are interested in helping out with the child refugees at the border. They are looking for:

    Here is the first thing that happens when refugees walk into the shelter here at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, Texas: everyone–especially the volunteers–all applaud. They applaud these human beings. That’s one way I Define American.

    Here’s what you can do to help:

    You can send monetary donations to Catholic Charities RGV, P.O. Box 1306, San Juan, Texas, 78589. In the memo write, “immigration crisis.”

    You can send clothes, kids clothes (boys and girls), women’s clothes, sports bars, blankets. And send sweaters for all ages–when they leave the shelter, they get on a bus, which is often cold. Mail them to this address: Food Bank RGV, 724 N. Cage, Blvd. Pharr, Texas 78577 (it’s the old Valley Fruit Co., next to Poncho’s.)

  129. 129.

    BruinKid

    Ben Shapiro said this is a “Jew-hating administration”. It was repulsive enough Megyn Kelly distanced herself from it when he said it on her show.

    I posted it on Facebook, only to have two Jewish friends (who aren’t even that conservative) chime in to say he has a point.

    HE HAS A POINT??? WTF???

  131. 131.

    SectionH

    @Yatsuno: @We.Are.Not.Worthy. On our own. No, srsly. but BJ meet-ups should be encouraged.

    Ask Anne Laurie for my email. Scott and I have been known to travel Insane distances for fannish (read: ScFiction or Flyertalk) friends in the past, so I love your offer. But I’ll be happier if you’re sure you know that we’re Olds. I’d be unhappy if we weren’t cool enough for the meet-up.

  132. 132.

    Suzanne

    At the airport with Mr. Suzanne and the Spawns, getting ready to go to Cancun for a week. We are so excited for this vacation, but I am sort of dreading the flight. PHX-DFW-MIA-Cancun. With a toddler. Doing a red-eye in the hopes that she will sleep. I want to sleep, too, but I cannot sleep on planes.

  133. 133.

    voldemort

    @gene108: for those you feel there is something lacking in the wizarding world’s interactions with the muggle world, there is a very interesting fanfic-like story set in an alternate universe in which Lily Potter’s sister Petunia married a Biochemistry professor @ Oxford instead of Dudley Dursley. See what happens when Harry reaches age 11 (a) being loved and appreciated and (b) well-educated in muggle science. It is generally worth the read, though sometimes it goes a bit overboard on the dark-side… see: hpmor.com or look for “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality”.

  135. 135.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    Back atcha.

    An actual Frenchman will be wearing the yellow jersey in the Tour de France today. That’s a big deal.

    I have been background-watching it partly for the drama but mostly for the scenery.

  140. 140.

    sharl

    This Bastille Day celebration in Philadelphia sounds like fun, though perhaps somewhat lacking in historical accuracy:

    Go back in time and experience 18th century France and what happened at the Storming of the Bastille for yourself during the Eastern State Penitentiary’s celebration of Bastille. The Bearded Ladies Cabaret will perform and lead a Monty Python-like reenactment of what happened at the Bastille. You are encouraged to choose a side – peasant or aristocrat- and dress the part.

  141. 141.

    John M. Burt

    @gene108: “[T]here’s a certain smug self-satisfaction in the British wizarding world that I think could use a good kick in the ass from Voldermort being in charge for awhile.”

    I believe that’s how Thatcher became P.M.

  142. 142.

    SuperHrefna

    @John M. Burt: Maggie (Maggie, Maggie, Out! Out! Out!) was much scarier than Voldemort could have ever hoped to be and she did indeed destroy the Britain I was born into. She genuinely didn’t believe in community:

    And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families

    Thanks so much for the flying tips everyone! I will make sure to follow them all to the best of my ability. And Happy Bastille Day! It’s a bittersweet day for me now as I used to have a niece whose birthday this was, but then she ODed on heroin, poor love. So today I’m remembering her and holding her in my heart as well as all the members of my family who grieve. And Maggie T be damned, I’m also holding in my heart all the people who are grieving a loved one lost to drugs.

  145. 145.

    Sad_Dem

    @SuperHrefna: Agreed. Notice that even though she’s adorable, she gets picked on for being different? I knew a girl like that in school. She even had white-blonde hair (like Luna).

    Whenever Harry Potter movies are on the TV now, my SO and I can’t stop pointing out that Harry and Hermoine should be a couple. All Hermoine and Ron do is snipe at each other. But it’s an English school, so outsiders like Hermoine and Harry MUST marry into an established family–even a poor one like the Weasleys.

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