I’ve done many rotten, inconsiderate things in my life, but I’ve never forced a dog to wear a Halloween costume. Someone made this poor bulldog dress up as Princess Leia:
I did recently make one of my dogs wear a Tim the Enchanter hat, but just for a few seconds to get a picture. I also once put a reindeer antler headband on our late, lamented male boxer to get a picture of him out in the yard, but he shook them off, hiked his leg and pissed on the fake antlers, putting an end to that indignity forever.
But actually purchasing or constructing a Halloween costume for a pet? Nope. Have you? Will you require your pet to dress up this Halloween? Will you dress up yourself?
Open thread.
[H/T: Buzzfeed]
Jim Hoopes
Absolutely not!! On the rare occasions we take the dogs to the groomers we request no bandanas, bows, etc. They’re DOGS fer chrissakes.
Felonius Monk
Maybe his ears are cold?
Violet
I’m sure it’s just that the dog’s ears were cold. No dressing up for me. May not even do Halloween this year. Not feeling it.
kindness
I have to use Photoshop to get headgear on my dogs. I’ve never tried doing it to my cats as I don’t want to end up like John when trying to bathe his cat.
Amir Khalid
Halloween is not really a thing in Malaysia; so no, never.
But isn’t the look on the bulldog’s face just perfect? If you dressed me up as Princess Leia, I imagine I’d make that face too.
Botsplainer
I want to go out to a bar in costume since there are never any trick or treaters in our neighborhood, but my wife refuses and won’t go as the slutty vampire I always wanted her to go out as.
Karen in GA
I put Iggy in a Santa hat for a Christmas card. He spent two minutes wearing the hat and got a bunch of treats for his trouble.
By the way, Iggy gives a news update.
SiubhanDuinne
I will be poll-watching all day Hallowe’en (as, indeed, pretty much every day for the next two weeks).
Open to costume suggestions.
schrodinger's cat
Are you kidding me, if I ever try to dress up Boss Cat, I will end up in the ER. So no.
bemused
@Botsplainer:
Maybe if you suggested your spouse dress up as a slutty vampire at home and you the only member of the audience, not the whole bar crowd, she might be more receptive to the idea.
shelley
Would never put my dogs thru that kind of hooey. The most I’ve done is tie a bow from one of the unwrapped Christmas presents around their necks.
NotMax
Whenever asked why I was a no show for a Halloween costume party, always flippantly respond “I went as Claude Rains.”
ixnay
In my experience, English bulldogs are complete hams, and utterly without dignity. I doubt that there was much force involved in the costume.
That said, it would never occur to me to dress up anything other than a pug, since they also seem to enjoy it.
JoyceH
A few years ago, the last session of my dog’s obedience class fell on Halloween so we were supposed to bring them in costume. I did a homemade thing with fairy wings and antennae – thought she looked mighty sweet.
Goblue72
Dear god is that it’s tongue?
Mustang Bobby
The closest we ever got to having Sam wear a costume of any kind was a little doggie t-shirt someone got for him that said “I DIDN’T DO IT” on the back. He wore it once and then chewed it to shreds, thus proving that he had a well-honed sense of irony.
shelley
@NotMax:
Or as Wednesday said in ‘The Addams Family’
“I’m a homicidal maniac. They look just like everybody else.”
StringOnAStick
We’re going to be in Ecuador, climbing things in the 16,000 to 17,000′ range for Halloween, so, no, unless usual mountaineering dress counts as a costume*.
*Thinking in terms of “bathing costume” as the old timey name for bathing suit.
Botsplainer
@bemused:
Nah – I’d get eye rolls.
cckids
I think it depends on the dog’s personality. When my kids were little, we bought a jester “costume” for our Pomeranian – really it was just a ruffled collar & a hat. Put it on him, and the sheer despair & shame radiating from him within 30 seconds got it taken off & lost.
My daughter did, once, make him a pair of fairy wings (so he’d match her costume) that she attached to his harness. He loved the attention from that night, and I’m pretty sure he never knew he was in costume.
We had former neighbors in Nebraska who had two huge bulldogs, a male/female pair. They dressed them up every Halloween as a NE football player (with shoulder pads and helmet) and a ballerina, with a sparkly tutu. Those dogs seemed to LOVE it, they hung out on their huge front porch & greeted all trick-or-treaters & posed for countless pictures. It was adorable.
Mustang Bobby
@NotMax: I love that. I use that line when I’m on an elevator and it stops at a floor but no one is there to get on. Of course, there has to be someone else in the elevator with me.
SiubhanDuinne
@Karen in GA:
Does the Juicetariat know about the contest?
Vote for Iggy! Early, and often*
http://www.publix-pet-contest.com/vote#entry-5658
*(Limited to one vote per day)
ETA: I have no idea why I suddenly cannot paste or link.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker:
Whether or not dogs can be said to actually understand language, one thing is sure: they definitely know how to speak.
bemused
@Botsplainer:
Then I suppose it wouldn’t work for you to dress up as a slutty vampire instead.
Ruckus
Betty LOL
That was one smart dog, that guy with the lifted leg.
I’m so anti pet dress up the first thing I did when getting the dog back from the groomers was to rip off the bandana they always tied around his neck.
jibeaux
Tried to do a mohawk on one once, a fake one. It sent him into a shame spiral. Still have to fight the kids on it every year walking throughTarget.
geg6
Halloween…worst holiday ever or worst holiday ever?
I detest Halloween. I refuse to be around to give out candy. I refuse to attend costume parties. I haven’t worn a Halloween costume in over a decade (thank FSM that the ex is out of my life). And…I would never humiliate my poor pups by making them look as stupid as most humans do during the Halloween season.
Now, Thanksgiving is a whole other thing…the best holiday ever. And the pups love it, too, because they love pumpkin.
bemused
Our kids always dressed up our dogs who were remarkably patient. We have a photo of 60# dog posing as a cowboy, hat, neckerchief, vest and holster w/gun.
Schlemazel
We thought it might be cute to try to costume our cat years ago. The kitty managed to get to the strap and it was stuck around her lower jaw by her teeth. She panicked & was running wildly around the house, we couldn’t catch her. When we finally managed to corner her & get the stupid thing undone we felt like such shitheels that we never even thought about doing anything like that again. So, no.
Karen in GA
@SiubhanDuinne: Thank you for the plug! Not sure how much of the Juicetariat is aware. I did mention it in an open thread a couple of days ago, but only once.
raven
My bride made a great baseball uniform for the Bohdi.
beth
@geg6: But..but.. yhere’s candy! Doesn’t that count for something?
I love Halloween just because it gives me a reason to have 20 different kinds of candy in the house. For one night I get to relive my younger, gluttonous past.
ellie
No Halloween costume but when I took in my dog (named Ziggy, now deceased) from my brother who was moving cross country, Ziggy came with a Burberry coat. My brother said Ziggy loved to wear it! So I put it on him and let him outside in the backyard. A couple of minutes later I looked out the window and Ziggy was in the middle of yard, on the ground, in a twisted heap moving his legs as fast as he could in an attempt to get his favorite coat off. I never put it on him again.
I mention this story because I just donated that same coat to the local Goodwill this past Saturday.
JPL
I have had pets all my life and only one, Miss Moxie, would wear a costume. Actually, she was the only one I purchased a costume for. It was tight around the chest and her personality changed. Rather than the cat attacking her, she would let the cat know to back off. Anytime of the year would she would become scared, I’d pull out the costume. When the thunder sweater or whatever it’s called came out, my first response was, why didn’t I manufacture that.
She was a cheerleader, btw.
@Karen in GA: Poor Iggy, poor Karen!
skerry
When my daughter was 11, she and a group of friends all dressed as honeybees and went as a swarm. She dressed the dog up also. He didn’t seem to mind.
I thought they all were very cute.
janeform
Our Sheltie needs a fleece coat because he’s old and gets cold. For a hoot we looked up tartan dog coat and came across this.
Dog on left: “I guess I’ll just tough it out.” Middle dog: “Can you believe we have to wear these?” Dog on right: “Help! Help us, please! We look so silly!”
JPL
@Mustang Bobby: funny
Betty Cracker
@geg6: I like Halloween AND Thanksgiving. I love to see the neighborhood kids dressed up, and I like carving pumpkins. The candy is a plus too. I wonder if my kiddo will even dress up this year? She hasn’t mentioned it. She may think she’s too grown up now that she’s driving. Le sigh.
dance around in your bones
I used to dress up my long-suffering yet patient cats in doll clothes when I was a kid. You know, bonnet, nightgown, baby stroller. It didn’t seem to scar them for life, but then I was a kid, what the hell did I know?
Since then, the closest any of my pets have come to wearing a ‘costume’ is when someone sticks an adhesive Christmas bow on their head, or one of the cats gets her head stuck through the handle of a plastic bag, and then tears around the house like the hounds of hell are after her (also making it difficult to rescue said cat from bag hell).
Kay (not the front-pager)
Well now I just feel bad. Last year my son’s hair-cutter told me she always dresses her pit bulls (she does pit bull rescue) in costume. She convinced me I needed to dress my son’s dog too. So I knit him a sweater with a blue chest, yellow waistband, and red back that I left loose. Then I drew a Superman S on a cotton scrap and stitched it to the front. He looked very cute as Super
mandog.In my defense, he’s a hairless chihuahua who is always cold after September. Also in my defense, he’s a chihuahua; what else are they really good for?
Don’t judge me! I used that costume/sweater to work out a pattern for a sweater that doesn’t have to pull over the head or legs. It’s much more comfortable for him to put on. So he got several warm and comfortable sweaters out of it. Did I mention that he’s hairless? And the size of a very small newborn?
FlipYrWhig
@geg6: I thought I was the only one! I’m a Halloween Scrooge. I’ll abide it for children, but adults without children? Come the fuck on. It doesn’t help that I have some kind of low-level face blindness and thus never know who anyone is once they’re in costume. But the thing that killed Halloween forever was grad school Halloween, where everyone does these aggravating-ass “costumes” based on concepts and nonsense, like “the gendered division of labor” and “infectious clown” and “wild vegetable man.” Horrific.
PsiFighter37
I haven’t dressed up for Halloween since high school (so…11 years at this point) and have no intention of doing so this year. Seeing the masses get dressed up in NYC to do what they do every weekend – go out and get plastered – makes zero sense. If you want to get drunk, why dress up? I suppose it’s fun and all, but to spend a solid chunk of money on an outfit isn’t my idea of a stellar time. That definitely puts me in the minority for my age demographic (and even for those who are older than I am, aka in their 30s), but, to me, it’s a continuing symptom of adults who haven’t quite fully grown up yet in some ways. I also hate dressing up generally, so that probably adds to my hostility. It’s basically become the more varietal version of SantaCon, which has to be the worst invented holiday ever thought up of.
That brings me into a feedback loop about how immature behavior is basically given a pass because the ‘purpose’ behind it is charity, but that’s another rant for a different time.
Other than that – the new apartment is finally looking civilized; I got our bedframe reconstructed today. Just waiting on the home office items (desk, chair) to come, along with new dining chairs and my clothing dresser, and this house will finally be a home.
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
A hanging chad.
Karen in GA
@janeform: That’s hilarious!
Ruckus
I have a friend who makes dog coats. Functional dog coats. Mostly for pugs who don’t seem to mind. They are not costumes though she will make them out of most any material on special order. I like is her two pets who are with her in her shop, what else a pug, and a great dane.
And I see she sold the business to another pug person and retired. Looks to be in good hands.
Roger Moore
@StringOnAStick:
I’m going to be starting that day in Escalante, UT, hiking, then continuing on to Ruby’s Inn. So I will probably be dressed as a dirty, tired hiker.
Tree With Water
Halloween is a day best left to kids trick-or-treating. As an adult, my experience of the unofficial holiday involved my regular commute to work many years ago. The route emptied from 17th St. into upper Market St. in San Francisco, where a curve in the road obstructs a straight line view of the boulevard. Every year I would forget it was Halloween, so on my way to my swing shift job I would hang a left onto Market, follow the curve and five seconds later see a swarming mass of humanity blocking the intersection at Castro and Market. I’ve since been a bah humbug guy where adults and Halloween are concerned.
raven
So, Bohdi broke a couple of teeth on the marrow bones I’ve been giving him. We have doggie health insurance on him and were happy when they said a good portion of the $500 would be covered. They just sent a notice that my claim was ready and, because they cleaned his teeth while he was out, they will only pay $41, less than a one month premium.
I suppose this is just normal insurance company behavior and my vet’s office manager said they’d write another letter of explanation but, shit.
gogol's wife
@geg6:
July 4 is the worst holiday. On Halloween the weather is usually nice and there are no fireworks. (except in our neighborhood, which uses every excuse for fireworks)
Karen in GA
@raven: Who’s the insurance company? I have PetPlan, and I’ve been happy with them.
raven
omn @Tree With Water: I’ve hated it since 1971 when some chick on acid kept sticking a plastic M-16 in my face. I told her about four times to stop it and then whacked it, it hit her in the face and I was the asshole.
raven
@Karen in GA: I’ve been really happy with Embrace too. Bohdi is getting up there and changing now would probably not be good.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@shelley: In that vein, maybe I’ll dress up as the long term unemployed.
raven
This is what they do in Athens now
WILD RUMPUS Friday, October 31, 2014 Quick Reference Timetable
Major Major Major Major
We’re trying to decide between “startup douchebags” and “sexy supreme court justices” for a group costume.
Mnemosyne
I have a kitty vampire costume that I once dressed my late great Boris in. As with so many things in his life, he accepted it with dutiful stoicism. (Well, I guess if She likes it …)
I am sometimes tempted to try and put it on Charlotte (aka Miss Bitey) but haven’t decided if the bloodshed would be worth it.
Karen in GA
You know, I don’t usually mind being holed up with Iggy while he recovers — but sometimes he lets out this toxic puff that would choke a grizzly bear.
Thought I’d share that so I’m not so very, very alone with it.
raven
Costume ideas from of Montreal
Villago Delenda Est
“I recognized your foul stench when I was brought onboard”
gvg
I had an angora cat that loved attention who would allow doll clothes if people admired her. I did it a few times just to see it, then forgot about it. That cat enjoyed showing people who were afraid of cats just how sweet cats could be. My current cat is more of a bah humbug type who is larger than any other cat I’ve actually seen and has claws strong enough to climb a house. No costumes for him. Dogs it depends on personality. I have never been that attracted to the concept but have noticed they all seem to be made for tiny pooches and the sweaters and jackets too. Current dog is large but has sleek thin hair which he is scratching off due to allergies and cold weather is coming. I had been thinking he may need a coat this winter and wondering if I can get him to appreciate one. Choices seem limited.
What I hate is job related costume encouragement. I just don’t have that kind of rah rah personality and quietly ignore this “fun”. On the other hand helping a 6 year old with his costume is loads of fun.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
In 2008, one of my friends at work came as a Robo-Call. I still say he got cheated in the costume contest — he came in second to someone dressed as Tippi Hedren with birds glued to her. Someone does that same costume every couple of years.
Why, yes, Halloween is a huge deal at the Giant Evil Corporation — is anyone actually surprised? One of the duties of the CEO is to judge the companywide costume contest. He only gets out of it if he’s traveling.
Pogonip
I hate 4th of July too, and the 2 weeks before and week after. A month of idiots with firecrackers waking up babies and making dogs miserable. Halloween I like.
Villago Delenda Est
@Pogonip: Not to mention sending combat vets on unpleasant trips down memory lane.
All in the name of “patriotism” by chickenhawk asstards.
JPL
I like holidays that involve family time. Even when the children were young, someone had to stay home and dole out candy. Now my sons have their own places and dole out candy also. The only upside is when little ones ring the doorbell.
ferd of the nort
Canada is juuuuuust slightly different. …
The irony of needing to hire a security guard to protect the crops…
And brand/loyalty retention managers
Villago Delenda Est
@ferd of the nort: You’re missing a colon in that URL (right after http) and it’s causing havoc with the comments, because a closing tag also got missed.
StringOnAStick
@Roger Moore: Looks like some lovely hiking; the desert southwest is gorgeous, especially in the fall when the heat has faded. Spring has more water, but also has those obnoxious biting gnats. I think the coldest I’ve ever been was camping out in Canyonlands around the New Year – clear desert nights can be shockingly cold!
My husband prefers to skip Halloween because it means there is candy around, and his will power is sorely tested. His office tends to get all dressy and competitive about it by department, and as a confirmed introvert he finds this stuff seriously uncomfortable. The fact that we’ll be doing outdoor stuff someplace completely new to us instead of the usual grind is a real bonus. I’ll miss not seeing our next door neighbors/friends 5 and 2.5 year olds in this year’s costumes though.
elmo
My wife absolutely loves Halloween, so for a few years we got seriously into decorating, costumes, makeup, haunted house, the whole catastrophe. We dug a grave in the front yard – a shallow one, but still – and I would lie in it, wearing dark clothes, until the teenagers came up the walkway to the house. Little kids, I would rise out slowly and gauge the fear level. Teenagers? I leaped out of the grave just as they came by, and roared.
Couple sets of the little buggers never made it to the front door, they were so scared.
For parties, my wife makes me up as a werewolf, with theater hair and spirit gum. Takes about three hours. Blood on my lips and fangs, hair on my hands, ripped clothes, etc. The whole shooting match doesn’t cost more than a few bucks, and people I’d known for years didn’t recognize me.
PsiFighter37
Anyone else feel like the amount of blog posting here at BJ has taken a bit of a dive recently? I feel like we get RIchard’s policy posts after the AM open thread, but then it’s pretty quiet until the evening, with a couple of posts at best, and most of them are open threads.
Personally – and I know BJ isn’t a big horse-race blog – but I would really, really like to see more stories about the various contested races (primarily in the Senate and the gubernatorial races) this election. Easy to get disenchanted by the media noise, but I think there are going to be a lot of surprises this election.
raven
@Villago Delenda Est: Not all that great for remf’s either. The odd mortar or 122 stays with one.
raven
@PsiFighter37: no
Seanly
We put the occasional holiday ears on our late dogs. They were good pups & ignored them – we eventually tired of denying them some dignity & took them off. Don’t think we’ve tried it with our latest dog though.
Cris (without an H)
His hair buns say Leia, but his face says Gamorrean.
geg6
@gogol’s wife:
I much prefer July 4! The weather is fine here, but I agree about the fireworks. Not so much the municipal ones that are generally too far away to be heard from my house, but the ones all the neighbors set off that night (and for weeks before and after July 4). Halloween is just stupid, IMHO. Never liked it, even as a kid. The good thing about Halloween then was the Van Ormer house, a home situated halfway through the suburb I grew up in. They would open up their four season room to all the kids (and parents) where they served up homemade donuts, hot chocolate, mulled cider and coffee. I’d take those homemade donuts over all the candy I got in my bag. Most of the candy sucked (I was and still am quite picky about candy), but those fresh donuts were killer. Once the Van Ormers moved, Halloween ceased to interest me. And the childish antics of the adults on that day has made me actively detest the whole affair as an adult myself. I hide from Halloween because I don’t want anything to do with it.
slag
No and no. I already dress up everyday as a mild-mannered asocial-ite, and I refuse to blow my cover for something as trivial as a fun size Snicker’s bar.
FoxinSocks
I used to have a strict no-costume policy regarding my pets.
Then one day my evil hound mix, Hope, ate the sofa. It was a really nice sofa too. Then she ate my wallet. After that, I put her in costumes on a regular basis as a sort of repayment for all the trouble she’s caused me.
Here’s the thing, it turns out Hope actually loves the costumes, because when I take her out in them, people give her treats. As in, “Oh, your dog is so cute, would you mind if I give her this piece of pizza?” So it’s become a win-win situation.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
Never figured out what’s patriotic about blowing stuff up, even if it’s just making noise. Haven’t lived since I was a kid where private fireworks are allowed. And live in such an area even now. And yet on the cul de sac I live on there are two competing families trying to out do each other. Along with every other block in the area. Fun times. Now I understand why dogs hide in thunderstorms and on the 4th.
ferd of the nort
If a moderator would be so kind as to delete the post above (#64), what i wanted to say is….
Canada is juuust a little different…
The irony of needing security guards and brand loyalty and retention managers. Also an occupational Health and Safety Manager.
Tilray, Careers at bottom of the page
Like wow man…. SAFETY!
raven
@ferd of the nort:
hahahahahha, you are not from around here are you?
Betty Cracker
@PsiFighter37: I hope you’re right about the surprises; so much of the horse-race news is grim for us Democrats, although some polling in Florida here lately seems to show Charlie Crist edging out Governor Voldemort, which is welcome news!
I can’t speak for anyone else with front page keys, but I’ve been dealing with a lot of depressing shit in my life that has sapped my will to think or write about politics. (Not that I ever added much to the conversation on that score; I’ve always been more of a point-and-laugh kind of gal.)
But lately I’m finding it hard to even look at the news, political or otherwise, to identify subjects that deserve mockery. Everything seems so damn pointless and stupid. I don’t know if others are experiencing something similar, but here’s hoping we all snap out of it soon if so!
skwerlhugger
Sorry, I seem to have missed that pivotal moment in American culture when Halloween stopped being an event for small children. Let the little shits have something to themselves without trying to horn in on it.
ferd of the nort
@raven:
Not often posting. I work on the premise if it causes too much trouble with the system, get rid of it. My words are not so valuable as to be precious pearls of wisdom. On some boards, errors cause issues and I do not wish to cause problems for the site.
The fact that blog commentary is the realm of jackanapes and buffoons, well…
I resemble that remark.
ps. I spent my Thanksgiving morning bathing the 3 husky mix dogs… who have only recovered from the vile betrayal with peanut butter on a spoon.
StringOnAStick
@Betty Cracker: I hear ya, Betty. We don’t watch much TV, so we are spared most election ads but the ones we do end up seeing make my blood boil with the level of lies and BS; it is depressing because people are falling for it. I can’t figure out why the dems are losing in my state (CO), but I keep telling myself stories like “no one but Fox-watching oldsters answer phone calls from pollsters” to “the whole state is mail-in ballot now, we should win” so I don’t get too depressed. My husband is getting tired of all the ‘desperation donations’ I’ve been making.
We’re going to be on the Galapagos for election day. It is going to take serious self-control to not try to find an internet connection to check the election news. I think my husband designed this as a test of my self control…
Roger Moore
@StringOnAStick:
This will be my fourth time going to Utah around that time of year. The temperature is nice, but what’s even nicer is that it’s not so busy. The big National Parks get so crazy and crowded in the summer that they lose a lot of their fun. By late October, most of the crowds have gone home, but there are still enough people to keep the facilities open.
About the coldest I can remember being was being in Bryce around the winter solstice. I went out to Bryce Point to photograph the canyon at sunrise, which meant a lot of standing still. It was cold enough that the autofocus motor in my lens stopped working because the lubricant froze.
ruemara
I love pets in costume, but I have no idea about putting them in there.
Better news. I have an interview next week! It only took a month or so and it’s not an offer, but it’s a step towards an offer.
geg6
@skwerlhugger:
Yup. I never liked it myself as a kid, but I find the adults who celebrate it mentally ill. Sorry, but it’s so immature and childish and takes all the fun out of it for the kids (if they like it). It isn’t and was never meant to be for adults and the fact that they’ve appropriated it for themselves is just selfish assholery.
skerry
DoD released the “2014 Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap” today. (link is PDF)
Josie
@ixnay: My middle son has a pug named Emma. Some years ago Emma went with him to a costume party as Barbara Bush, wearing a pearl necklace and a wig. She was the hit of the party and enjoyed herself tremendously. Since then she is all in favor of costumes.
raven
@ferd of the nort: It’s just the notion of a moderator that is funny.
PsiFighter37
@StringOnAStick: From all I’ve read, the pollsters are under-weighting Hispanics in all the polls coming out.
That said, Hick hasn’t been doing himself any favors on the matters of pot and fracking…seems like he is more likely to lose because he is actively pissing off liberals in the state. Hard to believe that he’s in a tossup against someone BIll Ritter took to the woodshed in 2006.
As for Udall – I’m sure he’ll eke it out. That would be might embarrassing for Bennet (who is DSCC chair) to lose in his home state. Also, Cory Gardner is fucking crazy.
PurpleGirl
I will be dressing up this year. As has become my tradition, I greet trick-or-treaters as Yarn Monster. Yarn Monster is a costume I made sometime in the 1990s for a Halloween party. It’s time to add some more flounces to it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25838683@N06/
I wore it to work once.
rikyrah
@PsiFighter37:
I think it’s closer than people think. The MSM is going way overboard since their narrative of GOP Wave doesn’t seem to working out.
Corner Stone
@Seanly:
Were you really clear with them up front that there was a curfew involved? Otherwise, that’s just cruel.
Tree With Water
@Betty Cracker: Depressing isn’t quite the word I’d use. Maybe just numbed to it all. But one great, sure fire escape from bumming out about our ludicrously deranged political systems is to read American history. To reflect on the state of the union in terms wider than the here and now can be soothing. I’m into reading Traitor To His Class (H.W. Brands, Doubleday Publishing) and am enjoying every page. FDR dealt with-and-within a deranged system equally as vicious as our own, and managed to accomplish much good.
Corner Stone
@Roger Moore:
Those are amazing. One of the coldest two times in my life was sitting in a deer blind in West Texas, pre dawn in January. The other was outside of Salina, KS, getting gas in the middle of the night one winter. Had a KS state police car follow me for maybe 10 miles before he pulled me over to give me a ticket. Kind of a dick move, all things considered.
ETA, And I have been skiing in both CO and UT and they were never even close to as cold.
Villago Delenda Est
@raven: Don’t let any fucking REMF tell you you’re a REMF. If mortar rounds landed anywhere near you, you’re a combat vet in my book.
Villago Delenda Est
@skerry: Damn liberals have infested the fucking Department of Defense!
StringOnAStick
@Roger Moore: Obviously you know your way around vacation season in the desert! It never made sense to me that the busiest season there was also the hottest; I suppose school vacation schedules are the main reason.
When I was a geology undergrad in western CO, we spent every spring break somewhere in the Utah desert, and once went as far as Havasu Canyon. Early March is too early for many tourists, but it is also tough as far as weather goes. I recall one early, very wet and cold morning where half on us had tried to seek shelter under picnic tables from the driving sleet; being young and stupid we’d decided that tents took up too much room in the vehicles….
Freezing your motor drive sounds exactly like weather I’ve experienced in mid-winter Utah desert country. I had a super heavy down bag and still woke up with hip bursitis from the cold leaking through my foam pad.
tsquared2001
@elmo: I had a neighbor who went all out – scary smoke, eerie music, homie came to the door dressed as Creature from the Black Lagoon, the works.
So we hit that house while I’m taking the kids out trick or treating and, well, I could only grab one when the other two jetted the fuck away.
Man, I make fun of those two chickenshits to this day.
StringOnAStick
@PsiFighter37: Yes, I agree about Hickenlooper; he managed to piss off everyone involved with Occupy here too. I think there is zero coordination going on between the campaigns too, since I’ve given plenty to Udall and races out of my district, but I’ve never been contacted once by Hick’s campaign; for awhile I didn’t think he was even up for re-election this year.
They may be undercounting Hispanics, but who knows? Local NPR had a story where they interviewed some immigrant Hispanics, and one older lady decided she was voting republican this time because the democrats hadn’t passed any immigration reform; she thought she’d see if the other side was any better. Granted it was NPR, but wow did that interview bum me out.
gogol's wife
@Tree With Water:
My husband’s an (art) historian, and he always calms me down with stuff like that, Lincoln also too had to deal with some stuff.
PsiFighter37
@rikyrah: That fits in with what I said earlier – I think there will be a lot of surprises.
IF I had to make a prediction today on what happens in the races that are interesting/close/something I have an opinion on, I would say this (starting first with governor’s races):
Gubernatorial races:
AK-Gov: Parnell wins re-election. The whole fusion ticket is an interesting idea, but I don’t think it’s enough to knock off an incumbent who (I don’t get the sense) has done anything abhorrently wrong while in office.
AZ-Gov: Frankly, this is a race that has gone under the radar, and I’d like to hear more. I know the GOP had their typical bloodbath of a primary, while the Democrats coalesced around DuVal. Basically, any time I think about Arizona politically nowadays, it basically reminds me that we could have had Gabby Giffords in the Senate (I’m nearly certain she would have run in 2012 and beaten Flake rather easily).
AR-Gov: Hutchinson wins by mid-high single digits over Ross. State continues its move towards complete takeover by the GOP.
CA-Gov: Jerry will win easily, but he should be using his clout to help Democrats run over the GOP in the state legislature. I wonder if Kashkari will get his job at Pimco back once he finishes getting embarrassed.
CO-Gov: Hick scrapes it out, but barely. Wins by less than what Udall does. Bob Beauprez is as charismatic as stale bread.
CT-Gov: Malloy has been making a comeback in the polls and, in a surprise, wins by a wider margin than he did in 2010.
FL-Gov: Crist wins by less than 5%. Likability for both candidates is in the shitter, but Scott has a really crappy record to defend. Hopefully Crist turns the FL Democratic Party into an entity with a heartbeat.
GA-Gov: Goes to runoff, but Deal wins more of the first round vote. I keep wondering what is wrong with Georgia and how their state can function at a level that doesn’t reflect that it is moderate Republican at best – and a state I could easily see Hillary winning in 2 years. Also, Jason Carter doing his best conservative Democrat shtick and distancing himself from Jimmy is shameful. He’d be a nobody if his last name wasn’t Carter.
HI-Gov: From my recent visit during the honeymoon – Hawaiians take their yard signs seriously. Saw very little signage about this race, though – more focus on local/county races. I would assume Ige should be helped by the fact he defeated Abercrombie and Hawaii’s inherent Democratic lean, but it’s been a tossup in the polls taken. I’d say Ige will win by high-single/low double digits.
IL-Gov: Pat Quinn’s going to do it again and come back from the dead. Like Malloy, he wins by wider than his 2010 margin. Pretty incredible, since I have basically not heard anything positive about him from Democrats.
KS-Gov: Davis will win, but by a few percent or less. Brownback has burned too many bridges with his fiscal experiments and marginalization of moderate Republicans in the state, and while some of the base is coming back in recent polling, he’ll still end up losing.
ME-Gov: Michaud wins by mid-single digits. Eliot Cutler can go take a hike for trying to be a spoiler this time around, when the Democratic candidate was much more legitimate than it was in 2010.
MA-Gov: Martha Coakley loses a statewide race, again, and Masshole Democrats can ponder the whole ‘fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice…well, you won’t fool me again’ shtick.
MI-Gov: I really hoped Mark Schauer would overtake Rick Snyder – he of shitty-ass Gateway computers – but it seems like he’s going to come up a bit short. Snyder will win by low-mid single digits after ‘moderating’ enough.
NE-Gov: Anyone have insight? I’ve heard that both RGA and DGA were looking at this race, mainly because the GOP LG candidate had to drop off the ballot, and Ricketts is an asshole of the first degree. Default to GOP holding, but could be a totally out-of-the-blue surprise.
NM-Gov: Easy GOP hold, and Democrats are responsible for letting Susanna Martinez likely ending up as the vice presidential nominee for the GOP in a couple years.
NY-Gov: Cuomo will win easily. Rob Astorino is apparently Alex Keaton who never grew up emotionally. Wish there was credible third-party option (say, from the WFP) to see how much support Cuomo would have bled. Since there isn’t, he will win by 25%+ but will not break 60%. The GOP/IDC will continue to hold the state Senate, and I continue to hate NY state politics. My dislike for Bill de Blasio also continues to grow.
OH-Gov: Ohio Dems shat the bed on this one. I’d like more color from Kay as to how the party could so poorly vet Ed FitzGerald. This will result in us losing all the downballot statewide races too, even though guys like Josh Mandel and Jon Husted deserve the boot.
OK-Sen: Another deep-red seat that’s had some noise recently. Soonergrunt have any thoughts?
PA-Gov: I wish Tom Wolf was doing more to help out downballot Democrats. He’s going to absolutely demolish Corbett, but the state legislature is likely going to remain in GOP hands.
SC-Gov: Haley will defeat Vince Sheheen by more than the 4% margin in 2010, even though she’s proven less competent than expected (surprise!)
TX-Gov: Wheelchair ad appears to be backfiring, even though I like Wendy Davis being a bit nasty (to use Pops’ terminology). Abbott wins by at least 15%.
WI-Gov: It would be so freakin’ sweet to win this one, but I think Walker holds on by 1-3%. Burke hasn’t done enough to motivate the base to kick the shithead out of office, nor is she that inspirational herself.
Betty Cracker
@Tree With Water: I think that’s true in general — things have always been fucked up, and the sky isn’t falling today any more than it was at any other point in time; in many ways, things are actually much better than at any point in history. My point was that I’m finding it hard to give a shit about any of that right now because of personal stuff. But I’m sure it will pass.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
You can shovel only so much BS before the stink is too much. But creators of BS never seem to notice the stench, maybe they think things are supposed to smell this way. I think it’s hard to overcome the down in the dumpster blues and nothing in politics is there to help. As some have pointed out, politics has been like this for ever, just the nature of the beast. But now we have more avenues of info, both mis and true so it’s harder to ignore the BS. Add on the amount and level of absolute batshit crazy on the right and it is the perfect stew of overload. I don’t see how some do it, like digby. And I’ve noticed a lot of blogs that I used to follow have gone silent or post infrequently.
Gin & Tonic
@PsiFighter37: RI is closer than this very blue state should be, with Gina Raimondo only up by 4 points over Republican Allan Fung. We’ve elected Republican governors before, but up until recently they tended to be of the now-extinct New England moderate Republican variety.
The Democratic candidate this time around would be the first female governor, but she also gets a lot of grief for being a Wall Street-loving Third-wayish politician.
PsiFighter37
@rikyrah: For the Senate:
AK-Sen: Begich wins, barely, again. This vaunted rural GOTV game he has saves his bacon by a few thousand votes. Dan Sullivan moves out of Alaska within 5 years.
AR-Sen: I think Pryor will run ahead of Ross, and Tim Cotton is an absolutely odious Manchurian candidate who’s basically going to take orders from Wichita (location of Koch HQ) if he wins. Unfortunately, I think he wins by 3-5%. Pryor becomes the last Democrat elected to federal office from Arkansas in forever, mainly because AR Dems were idiots and never thought to gerrymander the state to their advantage.
CO-Sen: Udall wins by 3-5%. Polls undersample Hispanics, and Udall hasn’t pissed off liberals like Hick has.
GA-Sen: I actually think Nunn will come out on top, but not over the 50% mark. This goes to a runoff, which (likely) is a bad thing for us.
IA-Sen: Braley barely wins. He has run a shit campaign and has said worse, and he needs to improve. Either way, a big step down from Tom Harkin.
KS-Sen: Orman wins but waits until after the LA-Sen and GA-Sen runoffs to make a decision about who he sticks with. Pat Roberts goes back to his Virginia home and enjoys a nice retirement.
KY-Sen: Just have a generally bad feeling about this one. I think McConnell will actually win by more than he beat Lunsford by in 2008 (which was 6%). Grimes hasn’t been able to make a decisive push, and she’s not ready for prime time.
LA-Sen: Landrieu gets most votes but is under 50%. She goes to the runoff and barely ekes out another win, reminiscent of 2002.
MI-Sen: Peters wins by double digits. Terri Land is a disaster of a candidate.
MS-Sen: Cochran wins easily and does nothing to repay African-American voters who put him over the top against McDaniel.
MT-Sen: Unmitigated disaster. We lose a seat Democrats have held for a century by over 20%.
NH-Sen: Scotty Brown decides where to move next after Shaheen beats him by high single digits.
NJ-Sen: Booker wins by less than 10% – man has not even set up a coherent election campaign. If NJ Republicans tried, I think Booker would be very easy to take out.
NC-Sen: Hagan wins surprisingly easily, by 5-7%. Tillis looks like and acts like a turdblossom.
SD-Sen: Rounds will come out ahead in the end, but he wins by mid-single digits over Weiland. Pressler’s support collapses and he gets barely 10% of the vote. The right-winger in the race will get more than 5%.
WV-Sen: Thanks for nothing, COLE. Capito Moore wins by 15% or more.
Roger Moore
@StringOnAStick:
And non-school summer vacation schedules in Europe. It seems as if a large fraction of those French people who get to take all of August off fly to the Southwest USA. You certainly hear a lot of foreign accents (and languages) in that part of Utah. I wonder if the Mormon interest in foreign languages for their missions helps to make Utah an especially good part of the USA for foreign tourism.
Gin & Tonic
@PsiFighter37: Man, you ignore RI in every post.
In the RI Senate race, incumbent Democrat Jack Reed will obliterate Mark Zaccaria. The only suspense, I think, is whether Reed will beat him by more than 30 points.
Gin & Tonic
@Roger Moore: I’ve been to Death Valley in summer a few times, and it’s positively crawling with Germans. Apparently some want to experience 50 degrees C (that’s 122 in American.)
Others are test drivers.
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
My mom loved all holidays, but especially Halloween. She would dress up as Raggedy Ann to pass out Halloween candy, but (to me at least) it came across as her joining in the celebration and trying to make it fun for us, not trying to take it away from the kids or appropriate it or whatever.
I find young adults celebrating Halloween to be more than a little weird (Sexy Snowman, really?!) but I don’t see anything wrong with parents or other adult friends/relatives helping to make it fun for the kids, or acting a bit like kids themselves.
satby
@Roger Moore: Awesome shot, thanks for sharing!
Roger Moore
@satby:
It’s even better to experience in person, even with the cold. The subtle changes in the scenery as the light goes from twilight to pre-dawn to dawn to early morning is fantastic. I’ve even invested in better cold gear so I won’t freeze the next time I go someplace like that.
RoBNYNY1957
I have dressed my terrier as the world’s worst seeing eye dog. He dashes back and forth like a crazy dog, wearing sunglasses and a harness. I wear a hat, sunglasses and mismatched plaid clothes.
WaterGirl
@raven: That completely sucks. Switch to PetPlan.
WaterGirl
@raven: I see what you’re saying, it’s the whole preexisting condition thing.
But it might be worth a couple of phone calls to PetPlan and some other pet insurance company, asking if they would have covered that. Then you have some data that might help you fight for the claim.
WaterGirl
@Karen in GA: I thought Iggy outdid himself today with his news report. Good job, Iggy.
tsquared2001
@PsiFighter37: I have said consistently that Team Blue keeps the Senate or at the least my boy Joe is the tie breaker but WV? What the fuck Cole? And any Kentuckians in the house, you done lost your damn minds too.
Jane2
@Karen in GA: Why did you put Iggy in doggy Guantanamo, Karen?