I’m working on a couple more substantial bits, but like Betty, life is full today (and for the next…well, forever). So here’s another bit of candy with which to tide you over ’til supper:
Thought of our blogfather when I listened to the cut this morning — given his love of great rock, I’m not sure how he’d take this version. But boy, can Rodrigo y Gabriela make some noise!
That is to say: I won’t wish John good luck. I don’t want luck to have anything to do with it. Good care, the help he needs from professionals and his circle of family, friends and pets, that’s what I want for him.
I don’t know if I’ve ever discussed this — but John is (a) someone I’ve never met and with whom I’ve had only the most minimal email contact and (b) an utterly straightforward, no fuck around leader/creator. The limit of his advice/rule-making at least as I’ve experienced it was the dictum that I should size any art I wanted to use to no more than 480 dots wide. Done and done. After that, I think I got one note pointing out an error, another to complimented me on my correction…and in some years of graciously allowing me into his blog-home, that’s it. It’s been a simple charge: Don’t fuck up. If you do, clean it up. Other than that, have at it.
There is an inscription (actually two!) in St. Paul’s in London honoring its architect, Christopher Wren. It reads (in part, and in translation) “if you seek his monument, look around you.” I strongly suspect the monuments John most values could be found around his own home…but this is one too, and damn fine it is at that. I look forward to his return at the time that is right for him, in health, and when he’s fully ready to lay waste to the supply of idiocy I am absolutely sure will still be abundant whenever he’s ready to deal with it.
In other words: get well as soon as you can, blogfather.
PS, given the absences here that have been piling up, I’m going to try to show up a little more than I’d planned to over the next few months. I’ll see if I can do my part to keep the argument, or at least the pointing-and-laughing-’cause-we’re-too-big-to-cry going. See you ’round the campfire.
Oh yeah — open, this is, a thread.
BGinCHI
Nice post, Tom. The combination of cynicism, wit, and sincerity on this blog is hard to find anywhere else.
This is probably the only place American Exceptionalism is actually in evidence.
OK, maybe Hot Doug’s on California Ave. But that’s it.
Violet
Look forward to more of your posts, Tom.
gogol's wife
It would be great to see more of your posts during our orphanhood. Lots of art, please!
rk
Here are some ads running in Pennsylvania against the common core. They’re laughably idiotic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPQaAj0Rgg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p51zG4ChbDM
joel hanes
Third and last announcement:
The much-missed liberal blogger Max Sawicky
has resurrected his legendary blog
Max Speak, You Listen!
He has not grown more conservative during his blogging hiatus.
c u n d gulag
Well said, Sir!
Betty Cracker
Well said, Tom. Cole is the exact opposite of a micro-manager as a blog-boss. And as everyone with a lick of sense already knows, he’s a teddy bear beneath that gruff exterior. He was very kind when I lost my mom, which I won’t ever forget. I wish only the best for him. And I look forward to seeing more of you!
Morbo
Something about this post is breaking the site (on Opera 12). Sidebars are borked; links are gone.
the Conster
Thanks Tom. Betty, Richard and AL are doing the heavy lifting, and thank goodness someone is! My First Blog (TM) was Altercation, where Eric Alterman posted once a day, late in the afternoon. I waited all day. One of the reasons I read Sully – Alterman’s nemesis back then – was because of the steady stream of content and his blogroll which led me here after Cole found the light. The quality and content from the front pagers never disappoints. Kudos to JC for climbing in the back seat while letting the FPers drive. It’s so much more interesting and smarter than any other blog.
scav
@Morbo: Yea! We’ve not had an extended site format borking in a while. Some of my text has also gone small.
Bart
Also borked on Firefox. Empty spaces on the left and right instead of navigation and ads etc, small fonts…
Bobby Thomson
NO STAIRWAY.
Yeah, text is small but that can be increased with the mouse. Maybe this is John fixing the damn autoplay ads.
ETA: and just like that, the damn autoplay is back.
gogol's wife
@Bobby Thomson:
I assumed it was a side effect of that.
I watched the movie Stairway to Heaven last night (real title A Matter of Life and Death). It’s a masterpiece. David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, and Marius Goring are incredible!
cbear
Great post, Tom.
Cole’s a good man with a good heart and he’s created quite the “home” here for all of us. I’m glad we have you and all the other FP’ers to keep the home fires burning.
bemused
On Monday, Booman theorized that when the Republican party finally collapsed as a national party, the ending would be sudden and without warning. It’s entertaining imagining this happening just like Booman’s theory and what this country would look like immediately after and beyond.
currants
@Morbo: Same on Firefox.
WaterGirl
We learned last week that John loves us and wants us to be happy. Now it seems that Tom loves us, too.
Thanks, Tom! Lucky us!
Emma
Same here. No sidebars at all. And I don’t care what they say, that was some mighty fine guitar!
JPL
@Emma: This.
Hopefully, John is now in a safe place and Tom, thank you for the post.
the Conster
@bemused:
Beyond Thunderdome? The last scene from Planet of the Apes? The nutjobs aren’t going away without trying to bring everything they can down around us.
ThresherK
Maybe it’s just cos I got out of the pool and I’m a little low on blood sugar, but the included video only made me think of this SCTV classic.
Scott S.
@bemused: The GOP collapse won’t be sudden, won’t be without warning, and will definitely be messy. The party is largely dedicated to nihilism and the fantasy that they can never fail — they’ll go nuts, and they’ll try to take everyone out with them.
bemused
@the Conster:
They’ve already been working feverishly on that since the usurper has been living in the WH. If an overwhelming percentage of fed up Americans caused a sudden, decisive GOP collapse, they may not be able to rebound very quickly. They haven’t learn a thing from the Romney rout or stopped pissing off women, LGBTs or almost everyone else not white stale males.
Heck, I’m having fun fantasizing the reactions of the Village, Morning Joe, Fox, the entire rightwing world and how soon most start pretending they have always been moderate.
Eric U.
@Scott S.: I always figured that the collapse will take out the Democratic Party first, but I am a bit of a pessimist. But the moronic “centrist” types have a lot of money and aren’t going away, so my idea is that they will strip off idiot dems like Manchin and give the republicans a second life
Baud
@BGinCHI:
Fixed.
Raven
@gogol’s wife: Trippy flick!
Baud
And they were this close.
Bobby B.
Good backing music for the Quintana bowling segment of “The Big Lebowski”. Better than the Gipsy Kings anyway.
gogol's wife
@Raven:
Love the escalator.
Raven
@Bobby B.: you must be joking son, where did you get those shoes?
shelley
One of my favorites too. Love the scene early on, after Niven’s jumped from the plane and wakes up on the beach and assumes it’s Heaven. A dog runs up to him and he pets it, saying, “Oh, I’d always hoped there be dogs.’
I hope as well.
*******************
But it is too sad that in Heaven ‘They’re starved for Technicolor up there.’
Schlemizel
I hope JC is offline now. A few weeks ago the local NPR interviewed a (details are sketchy but I bet someone knows what I am talking about) a Yale psych prof who had written a book about recovering from addiction. He was not a fan of 12 step and stated that most rehab places relied too heavily on it. One of his biggest criticisms of 12 step was that if you failed it was because of a moral weakness in YOU. He said most people fail the first time, often repeatedly fail, and that this belief that failure made you a bad person was a roadblock to recovery. It was a call in show anf man did the FOBs call to rip him over this charge!
JC has to know when he gets back that it is OK if he fails, he needs to keep trying & to seek out alternatives if 12 step does not do the trick for him. That is not a message he needed to hear going in but maybe, if the time is right, when he gets out. I come from an ancient family of addicts and I am grateful every day that the demon has no hold on me. I like a drink, as a kid before I was married I enjoyed many other things too but I never felt I HAD to have any of them and they have never interfered with my life in any way. I have no idea what it takes to overcome but those I have seen try & stumble suffer worse in some ways than those who never tried. Those who stumbled but got back up are heros to me in my family. godspeed JC
burnspbesq
Speaking of Republican wisdom, did you hear Sen. Rafael “Ted” Cruz allege that the FAA instruction to avoid Ben-Gurion Airport is part of a U.S. economic boycott of Israel?
BGinCHI
@Baud: Human ones?
Schlemizel
@Scott S.:
Since I have been saying for 15 years that today is exactly like Antebellum America I need to read up more on the death of the Whigs. I think the GOP could go that way with the T-baggers and the Paultards being the 21st Century Republican party, Its sort of a shame that the Dems sold their soul for corporate cash in the 90s. The old world Dems would have been a natural home for the populist bits of those two off-shoots. They could really have sped the demonize of the goopers.
Baud
@burnspbesq:
Cruz’s mouth has been waging an extended boycott of his brain.
Baud
@BGinCHI:
Yes, I believe most of them are.
gogol's wife
@shelley:
Love that dog line!
OzarkHillbilly
You and me, Tom, luck is for the lottery. I wish for Cole to find the strength with in, to do what he needs to do. He has it, he just has to find it.
burnspbesq
@Baud:
Objection, Your Honor. Assumes facts not in evidence.
Baud
@burnspbesq:
If it’s good enough for the D.C. Circuit…
srv
Were’s Bob? I just have to laugh about this
Dudebros will be dudebros in Brociti, Brah.
Trollhattan
Moving account of a Hiroshima survivor, and he and his daughter’s quest for peace and forgiveness.
“When Time Stood Still”–BBC
Roger Moore
@bemused:
If the Republican party suddenly collapsed, something weirder would take its place. Nature may not technically abhor a vacuum, but politics certainly does.
David Koch
@burnspbesq: (photo) Ronaldo scores inventive hat-trick, while making Messi look like a nerd.
burnspbesq
I didn’t know that Adler and Cannon are the brains behind Beck’s defense in this case.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43638_Glenn_Becks_Bizarre_Defense_Against_Boston_Bombings_Defamation_Suit
burnspbesq
@David Koch:
By all accounts, Messi is a nerd.
He probably doesn’t even know who his teammate Pique’s girlfriend is.
(hopefully that will summon TBogg).
Schlemizel
@David Koch:
I’m sorry but a hat trick is 3, he is one trick short of a hat
Roger Moore
@Schlemizel:
Sorry, but it was the Civil Rights Act that drove away those parts of the Democratic Party, not the party selling its soul for corporate cash. The Republican party would be a very strange place for anyone worried about the Democrats being too corporate to wind up, but the post-Southern Strategy Republicans are a logical place for anyone upset about the CRA.
Baud
@Schlemizel:
Who do you think is taking the picture?
mdblanche
Um, what’s going on right now in the West Bank/East Jerusalem? And who put Israel/Palestine in a handbasket and where are they taking it?
David Koch
History’s Greatest Monster saves life of mother of 6
If we had only listen to our progressive betters those kids could be orphans, today.
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
Sounds like Beck’s lawyers are in the “pound the table” stage of legal defense.
Schlemizel
@Roger Moore:
Sure, the racist bits, but not everyone of the baggers or the tards is a bigot. Many are anti-oligarchs who have been suckerd in by the goopers. Many have no real strong convictions on race one way or the other but only care about themselves. Having them as reliable votes every other November would go a long way to crushing the worse elements of both parties that are paving the way to hell with bad intentions
Violet
@Schlemizel: So would that be a visor trick, since it’s not quite a hat trick?
Schlemizel
@Violet:
I like that! As a hockey fan I am so gonna steal it. Maybe 1 goal could be a ‘barrett’ trick.
Schlemizel
@Baud:
I am a sick, sad man though. When I saw that pic & the comment about ‘hat trick’ this is all I could think of:
Lawrence: Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I were a millionaire I could hook that up, too; ’cause chicks dig dudes with money.
Peter Gibbons: Well, not all chicks.
Lawrence: Well, the type of chicks that’d double up on a dude like me do.
Violet
@Schlemizel: Would that be a “beret” or a “barrette”? How about a “fascinator” trick?
Johannes
Since this is an open thread, may I share that I have a novel out? It’s called Phineas at Bay, and it’s a sequel to Anthony Trollope’s Parliamentary novels. From the site:
Not to trumpet my own wares, but…it’s kind of amazing to me that this thing is real, now.
Schlemizel
@Violet:
I was thinking beret but can’t spell in French :) OTOH barrette works for the womans game!
Schlemizel
@Johannes:
I stand in awe of people who can successfully write books. I have a million ideas but no talent in that area. I feel like Scalari in “Amadeus’ I curse god for giving me the ability to see it but not to be able to do it. I hope you hit the Times best seller list.
Trollhattan
As head-scratching political events go, Wonkette found a doozy. It makes me wonder who’s scammin whom here? “Nyuck-nyuck, I’m sure not signing up for Obamacare after seeing your skits, nosiree mister!”
Also, too, return of the Doctor Uncle Sam puppet.
catperson
Hi, Tom. Nice to see you back!
Taking advantage of the open thread to get a couple of relatively inconsequential things off my chest:
1) Most of the frontpagers
don’t know jackshitneed some education about the proper use of strikethrough humor. It’s only funny if the strikethrough part reads like the uninhibited first draft.2) Linking to the source material in the first line of the quoteblock is irritating and deceptive, given that quotes can include hyperlinks that are native to the text.
e.g.
First link is by the post author, second link is native to the quoted material. Why not put the link to the source in the “courtesy Heather Digby Parton” part? It’s more accurate. And I’m not picking on the author of that particular post, it seems to have become the FP norm over the past year or so.
Feel free to flame. I’d rather say something than continue to be silently irritated.
Steeplejack
@ThresherK:
The Five Neat Guys rule. I’ve got their greatest hits on eight-track.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Johannes: Congrats. Well done, sir.
gogol's wife
@Johannes:
Sounds great! I’m a Trollope fan, but hardly ever get time to read him, since it’s such a commitment. It took me three years to get through The Way We Live Now, grabbing a few minutes before falling asleep. But it was worth it! I love Phineas Finn, the Irish member.
Origuy
Those neo-Nazis in Kyiv are sneaky. They’ve named an interim prime minister who is Jewish.
schrodinger's cat
Small correction, our blogfather is Tunch, Cole is merely the son of the blogfather. Anom.
Johannes
@Schlemizel: I hope so too! For what it’s worth, I was in exactly your place re writing for decades. Agony. I started several projects and dried up, cursing my meager imagination; that’s why I wrote academic stuff–it was a way of doing the next-best to what I wanted to do, and actually I liked it. Then, last year, when I picked up the aborted first 3 chapters, and retyped them, I knew what came next.
Johannes
@gogol’s wife: The “what happened next?” question haunted me with Phineas, because of the small part he plays in the last two books. And he seemed to have lost some of his edge in Dukes Children. So I hope I did him, Marie and Trollope justice.
Johannes
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Thanks Omnes!
Tommy
I saw Rodrigo y Gabriela play after hours at a tech conference in San Fran years ago. They brought the house down. Jimi Hendrix would be proud of what that women does with a guitar, and lets be clear, I own their albums, it is the women in the duo that can really play. I try not to be over-the-top about this or that. But I swear if you click the below link and watch the three minute video you will be stunned beyond words what she does with a guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qgum7hFXk
schrodinger's cat
@Johannes: Congratulations!!
burnspbesq
@Origuy:
I’m sure BiP will be along any time now to tell us that Groysman isn’t really Jewish. I dunno, maybe the guy who did his bris wasn’t a real mohel. Bob continues to amaze with the shit he comes up with.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@burnspbesq: Come on Groysman. It is right there in front of you.
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Y’s end up in funny places in Ukrainian. See, e.g., former Chelski player and current member of Parliament Andriy Shevchenko.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@burnspbesq: No, look at the bolded letters for proof that he is not Jewish – in BiP logic.
David Koch
@Origuy: the fringe Counterpunch/Consortiumnews/Alternet/RT News/First Intercept wing sees conspiracies in their morning cereal.
schrodinger's cat
Are we sure that BiP is not bored DougJ in the faculty lounge?
David Koch
@schrodinger’s cat: There’s really a fringe that believes Obama engineered a Nazi coup in Ukraine.
“Deep Forces” sounds like a classic porn title.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@schrodinger’s cat: @David Koch: And BiP has been around for a long time. Now, he could be a longstanding spoof by DougJ, but he ain’t a recent thing.
RSR
Seeing Rodrigo y Gabriela tomorrow (Fri) night; closing act of local radio station xpn.org annual summer festival night one (of three)! Really excited to see them!
lots of great music, much of it broadcast live and archived for later enjoyment at xpn.org
http://www.xpn.org/xponential-music-festival/2014/lineup/schedule-grid
RSR
Ha, and a Christopher Wren reference?!? Word. I make monuments…cemetery memorials…tombstones. I work with my mother. We took over her father’s business. Who took over his father’s. And *his* father–my great-grandfather–was the first caretaker of the cemetery next to which our company was located.
All three men, their spouses (Great-grandmother Anna kept a greenhouse growing flowers for the cemetery), and many, many other relatives are all buried in the cemetery, which is filled with thousand of memorials and monuments we have produced. Thankfully. mom is still here and working.
But I think of that phrase often: LECTOR SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS CIRCUMSPICE
Johannes
@schrodinger’s cat: Thanks!
Bart
I’m pretty sure the layout issues introduced by this post are caused by one simple item in the HTML: at the end of the line with the YouTube video there’s this:
/iframe /div
. This should be/iframe /p
. Can someone please fix this?