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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Evening Happy Nice Thoughts Open Thread

Sunday Evening Happy Nice Thoughts Open Thread

by | 105 Comments

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From ABC News, Friday:

Before returning to her “normal life” in Texas, newly Ebola-free Dallas nurse Nina Pham got a hug from President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.

Hours earlier, Pham had walked out of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, where she has been in isolation since Oct. 16, to a round of applause. She thanked everyone who cared for her since her Oct. 11 Ebola diagnosis, and said she would finally go home to her dog, Bentley…

Pham also thanked Dr. Kent Brantly, the American missionary who had been treating Ebola patients in Liberia when he contracted the deadly virus in late July. Brantley was declared virus-free in September and has donated plasma to Pham and other American Ebola patients in the hopes of boosting their ability to fight the virus with his antibodies.
bentley city of dallas and dallas animal services
Pham’s dog, Bentley, was taken to an animal shelter following her diagnosis. He has tested negative for Ebola, but his 21-day incubation period isn’t over until Nov. 1. They will likely reunite a few days later.

(City of Dallas & Dallas Animal Services)

Vinson’s family announced on Oct. 22 that she, too, tested negative for the virus at Emory…

***********
Any other happy news as we wrap up the weekend?

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  1. 1.

    gogol's wife

    I like that limp fox Bentley has bagged.

    Death Comes to Pemberley tonight. I guess Pemberley is being played by Castle Howard. So Sebastian Flyte must have been the heir to the Darcy fortune, but when did they become Catholics?

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I had fully expected, and planned, to spend today doing advanced voting poll-watching, as I have done almost daily for the past two weeks. Unfortunately, they tried to send me to a different county than the one I live in (and the one I’ve been working in), and somewhere along the way my credentials went missing.

    No badge, no admission, no poll-watching.

    So when it was clear I wouldn’t be able to volunteer today, I decided to go see the Bolshoi Ballet Live in HD performance of “The Legend of Love.” I wasn’t disappointed.

  8. 8.

    gogol's wife

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I was making a feeble joke for Masterpiece addicts of long standing. I was trying to imagine how Mr. Darcy’s family (most certainly not Catholics) ended up as the Catholic family the Flytes in Brideshead Revisited, since Castle Howard played the role of their estate too. But I knew as I typed it that I hadn’t found the right phrasing. But I’m sleepy.

  9. 9.

    geg6

    John Cole should be in a good mood.

    So happy that Nina Pham is doing well and will soon be reunited with her precious pup. Happy endings FTW!

  10. 10.

    raven

    @gogol’s wife:

    Death Comes to Pemberley. The mini-series adaptation of P.D. James’ novel by the same name will air on PBS this Sunday and has a fantastic cast. There’s the dreamy Matthew Rhys from The Americans. There’s the ultimate object of my jealousy, Jenna-Louise Coleman, currently starring on Doctor Who and currently dating Richard Madden aka Rob Stark. (That girl has everything! Spread some luck around!) Death Comes to Pemberley centers on the afterlife (no, not that kind of afterlife) of our favorite characters from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as their lives take a dark turn. So, who is our Lizzy Bennet in this “ever after”? Elizabeth Bennet is played by an actress named Anna Maxwell-Martin.

    Anna is the best!!

  13. 13.

    gogol's wife

    @raven:

    I’m looking forward to her performance. She isn’t the conventional beauty they usually get to play Elizabeth. (Don’t get me wrong, I love Jennifer Ehle, but she is beautiful.) I think Elizabeth is supposed to be not hit-you-over-the-head beautiful, so this is an interesting choice.

  14. 14.

    gogol's wife

    @Librarian:

    Really? Well, it should have been!

    I don’t have that vivid a memory of the early 1980s, but it was certainly the TYPE of thing that would be on Masterpiece.

  15. 15.

    Botsplainer

    I made the mistake of going to the comments in the Dallas Morning News article about the quarantined nurse in the unheated tent.

    I hate so many of my fellow Americans, particularly the white Christians and Randians.

    If I had any medical skills, I’d join MSF to help out on ebola so I could come back and spit on quarantine officials.

    So angry right now.

    But how could the science deniers not be stupid on science? It’s a pathology with them.

  17. 17.

    JPL

    SiubhanDuinne and Raven, the Governor’s debate is on ABC at seven and the Senate debate on PBS at seven. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad that I don’t have a DVR.

  19. 19.

    raven

    @JPL: ATLANTA—Sen. Jason Carter will meet Gov. Nathan Deal in the final debate of the gubernatorial campaign tonight. The debate will air live at 6:30 p.m. on WSB-TV, C-SPAN, and those stations’ websites.
    The debate comes on the second day of Carter’s ‪#‎GeorgiasReady‬ bus tour. The tour will make its next stops in Troup, Muscogee, Peach and Bibb counties tomorrow, including a rally with President Carter and others in Columbus.

  20. 20.

    PurpleGirl

    @Librarian: Maybe not, but I think the point is that people who like the costume dramas on Masterpiece Theatre probably also watched Brideshead Revisited and other similar shows on PBS.

  26. 26.

    beth

    If this nurse thinks her life is going to be the same she’s sadly mistaken. She hugged the scary black man so that makes her a libtard. We’ll know all about her countertops by Wednesday.

  27. 27.

    Howard Beale IV

    @geg6:

    So happy that Nina Pham is doing well and will soon be reunited with her precious pup. Happy endings FTW!

    Someone better record that-nothing more happy than seeing a doggeh returning to their owner!

  31. 31.

    Phylllis

    @geg6: I’m definitely going to be in Pittsburgh in November. Coming in on 11/16. If we can put together a meetup, prolly that Sunday afternoon/early evening or on Thursday 11/20 would be best.

  32. 32.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I went to see Book of Life for the second time today. It was just as beautiful as the first time. Gorgeous art, complex and likable characters, multiple strong female roles, and Mexican folklore is a rich source of storytelling. Many <3 for La Muerte and Xibalba. And Las Adelitas Sanchez!

    Professionally, the editing notes are finally here. Full steam ahead for a holiday sequel release!

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    We are ALMOST completely moved out of our old place — 90% of the sorting is done and the only stuff being left behind are charity donations waiting for pickup. It’s funny, but with all of the stuff taken out … it’s still pretty small and weirdly shaped.

  35. 35.

    Vishnu Schist

    @Botsplainer: I made the mistake of doing the same and came away so angry it took a yoga class to calm me down. The stupidity and sanctimony on display was frightening. I fear for the future of the country. We’ve created a depressingly stupid and reactionary population.

  37. 37.

    lamh36

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I love Masterpiece theatre. It introduced me to some of my fav mysteries and dramas. I saw Pride and Prejudice for the first time as a Masterpiece drama. My first real dark, criminal suspense dramas, that I really loved was Prime Suspects with Helen Mirren. I watched it thx to PBS and loved it. And also my fav new Masterpiece series…hello Sherlock.

    I can always count on Masterpiece for good dramas.

  41. 41.

    Karen in GA

    Hanging out on photography websites, trying to learn something. Ordered my first DSLR thinking I’d take a course in Atlanta that starts in a couple of weeks, but the photography certificate program at the University of North Georgia looks decent, and one of the campuses is close enough for easy access straight after work. Trouble is, it doesn’t start until February — so I’ll be spending three months with an expensive gadget that I don’t understand.

    @danielx: Yeah, what’s going on there? I thought it might be some kind of throwback thing — is that the real uniform?

  42. 42.

    raven

    @Karen in GA: There are many resources for specific cameras on youtube. I have had my Canon T3 for 2 1/2 years and people like my pictures. I also bought a book for mine for cheap. The best way to figure it out is to use it.

  43. 43.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    The Browns win and also in the new Northwest Dramatic series “What’s with the Seahawks?” Where Marshawn (Quit Freakin Call Beacon)Lynch be in 2015.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @chopper:

    Yes, this.

    This stupid “quarantine for everybody” policy is as mindless and arbitrary as all the stupid “zero-tolerance” weapons (penknives) and drugs ((Midol) policies in schools. Is it too much to ask that someone in authority demonstrate a little thoughtfulness and common sense?

  45. 45.

    Corner Stone

    @Botsplainer: I’ve been upwardly failing against my entire ignorant white neighbors on the local politics board.
    It’s been so awesome. The white victim card is like 100X harder than on BJ!

  48. 48.

    dexwood

    @Mustang Bobby:
    Very cool, congratulations. My son is restoring a 1973 Dodge Dart and he bought a 1958 Ford Fairlane last weekend which won’t need as much work as the Dodge.

  50. 50.

    SarahT

    @Baud: “Obama now needs to go visit Cuomo and Christie and maybe vomit in their faces.”

    I would pay big bucks to see that

  51. 51.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud: I kept waiting for him to extend a large blade out of his suit jacket sleeve and push it straight through her neck.
    Kind of like the butler in the Hudson Hawk movie with Bruce Willis.
    What?

  52. 52.

    Schlemazel

    @Mustang Bobby:
    Interesting choice of cars to restore, particularly given your nym.

    On another note, it is weird that I think if I had that hat & took a picture we could almost pass as brothers . . . you handsome devil you

  53. 53.

    shelley

    And the good news for Pham (and pup. Is it really possible for a dog to harbor Ebola?) is that it’s confounding all the wingnut hopes for some runaway epidemic they can blame Obama for.

  55. 55.

    Botsplainer

    @Corner Stone:

    There are a lot of people in the wingnuttosphere who should really be happy that I’ve not received any sort of terminal disease diagnosis ever.

    I keep a list. If it ever happens (and I genuinely hope it doesn’t), I’m making the world a much better place on the way out.

  56. 56.

    SarahT

    @raven: “We’re going to see Hurray for the Riff Raff tomorrow night.”

    Have become friends with those guys from spending so much time in NOLA – they’re really nice people. Excellent to see them doing so well. Have a great time at the gig

  57. 57.

    Corner Stone

    @shelley:

    is that it’s confounding all the wingnut hopes for some runaway epidemic they can blame Obama for.

    You may need to start by confounding some of the people here at Balloon-Juice.com, first.

  59. 59.

    beth

    Good Wife fans dvr alert – it’s going to start late tonight. Looks like about 15 minutes late.

  60. 60.

    Corner Stone

    @Botsplainer: You are one twisted honky.*

    Yes, I am at my absolute wits fucking end with these racist fucking white people in my neighborhood telling me anyone who doesn’t have the approved voter ID is lazy, unemployed, uneducated, or a tool lacking self agency.
    And anyone who says otherwise is victimizing their white self.
    I’m about to go full on cracker just about now.

  62. 62.

    Trentrunner

    Sorry no happy talk here. Crazy Rep. Murphy was just on CNN saying that sweat and tears could be spreading Ebola, that it’s always evolving and mutating and trying “to find a new host.”

    CNN host didn’t challenge a word.

    Looking forward to the 8pm (ET) press conference with Cuomo and DeBlasio. I’m hoping for fisticuffs.

  64. 64.

    SarahT

    @SiubhanDuinne: “Masterpiece Theatre fans, represent!”

    Totally schizo evening tonight at our place: “Masterpiece” then the later showing of the last-ever “Boardwalk Empire”, which I will really miss. So glad that there will always be a “Masterpiece Theatre” to look forward to.

  65. 65.

    Steeplejack

    @Botsplainer:

    My condolences.

    I was on an awful run earlier this year. Paid to see The Wolf of Wall Street (Scorsese phoning it in with a side of self-indulgence) and The Counselor (I was faked out by the A-list cast in the trailer). Most recent turkey was The Judge, which without the A-list cast would be a candidate for the Hallmark Movie Channel. Things turning up somewhat with St. Vincent. It’s not “must see in the theater,” but it’s pretty good.

  67. 67.

    Elie

    Just saw the best documentary: Advanced Style. It was about several women ranging in age from their 60’s to 90’s and their wonderful personal style. Its wonderful because its clear that they are not narcissists but just confident women who have taken the ups and downs of life, but always asserted who they are within it. Amazing and highly recommend it. I had a bounce in my step leaving the theater. Hubby made me go cause I was in such a funk over this Ebola shit earlier. Glad that he did..

  68. 68.

    Corner Stone

    @Schlemazel: Thanks for the reply. Do you, by any chance, have a full on facebeard?
    I’m trying to determine where on the hipster douche evolution scale you may, or may not, fit.
    Thanks

  69. 69.

    geg6

    @Phylllis:

    Wonderful! We must make a plan for a meetup one of those days. Gotta get something front paged. And we must email John Cole. Maybe he can be tempted to visit his sister or something. ;-)

  73. 73.

    Elie

    I briefly looked to the Chicago Bears to try to up my mood, but boy, was THAT a mistake. Thankfully, I am also a fan of the Seahawks, so I had a little break there…

    Beautiful day now — much of the rain blew over. Making a bit pot of chicken soup with all sorts of carrots and greens from Hubby’s garden… that’s the ticket!

  75. 75.

    Howard Beale IV

    @raven: I took my Sony a65 up To Rocky Mountain National Park during Memorial Day this year. Got some critter shots. Even shot some 3D panoramas. Should see about throwing them up somehwhere…

  77. 77.

    Jewish Steel

    PAGING OMNES. PAGING MR OMNES OMNIBUS.

    What’s open late for dinner here in Madison? My wife and I had a late lunch and anticipate a ravening appetite c 10 pm.

  84. 84.

    Culture of Truth

    So by my count that’s four Americans diagnosed with ebola, four declared virus-free. Do I have that right?

  85. 85.

    Karen in GA

    @raven: Thanks. I was actually considering the Athens program — I bookmarked it a while back. But the UNG program is convenient to my job.

    Once I get a feel for the camera, I’ll check out the photo guild.

  87. 87.

    Ruckus

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Absolutely. I stole it decades ago. I’m pretty sure that the man wanted it used. It was by far the best thing I learned in his class. I got the impression that only a few recognized it for what it said, thereby proving his point.

  88. 88.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    She’s been good about staying on message. Maybe not the most dynamic candidate, but then again neither is Perdue. I hope Michelle’s overall calm and competent demeanor, her excellent ground game, and her political antecedents will all work in her favor. I think I’ve mentioned that in advance voting the past couple of weeks there seemed to be a great many young/female/minority voters. Not to generalize or stereotype, but I am feeling optimistic.

  89. 89.

    Tree With Water

    I’m a Giants fan, and am watching the Series as I type. From out of the blue, for the first time since circa 1969, I suddenly thought about Flip Wilson, in drag as an old lady on Laugh In, staring at the camera and shouting, “Hit da ball, Willie, hit da ball”.

  90. 90.

    Gin & Tonic

    Not sure to what extent everyone else has been following (ha!) today’s elections in Ukraine, but in case you’re interested, one of the interesting results is that the Communists have been completely turfed out of the parliament. The second is that in this, the first parliamentary elections since what at least one regular commenter refers to as a fascist coup, the right-wing nationalist Svoboda party has done more poorly than they did in the 2012 elections, prior to the supposed fascist coup.

  91. 91.

    JR in WV

    @Karen in GA:

    What brand/model of DSLR did you buy?

    I’ve found that with modern cameras if you just set it on auto it will amaze you with the goodness of what you take.

    I bought a Panasonic with a Leica lens to travel with, and learned that in the dark it tells you to hold it still and hold the shutter down. It takes a couple of dozen exposures and combines them into a single well exposed, well focused, bright photo. Automatically.

    So don’t hesitate to read the manual to see how to set it for automatic and go for it.

  93. 93.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @JR in WV: When we were out at Antelope Canyon a couple of years ago, the guide made a point of taking pictures with our point-and-shoot cameras in “P” mode (for Canon cameras anyway). Apparently it works better for photos there than in full Auto mode. For landscapes anyway. The P&S pictures turned out very nicely, but not as nice as the professional ones, of course.

    The manuals for modern cameras can be very intimidating. But reading up on “P” mode in the manual might be a good place for Karen to start.

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  94. 94.

    Ruckus

    @Karen in GA:
    I just upped my game with a new Nikon 5300 a month or so ago. Last job I had I used a couple of different Nikon bodies for technical photos and so went with what I know. What I didn’t know but had been told is that over the last ten years digital cameras have gotten much better. And they have. I’m still learning the camera but just setting it on auto and shooting is getting some pretty good results. I’d give that a try just to get used to handling it, then just mess around with settings and see what happens. Worst case you delete shots you don’t like, best case you learn what works for you and the camera you bought.

  95. 95.

    Another Holocene Human

    @raven: I love Bletchley Circle. Kind of have to sneak in the serious dramas when my wife is asleep because they make her anxiety go nutso. I can’t stand the stuff she binge watches so we have to compromise and watch David Suchet’s Poirot over and over. :P

  96. 96.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Gin & Tonic: Kyiv Post:

    Below are the results of most respectable exit polls of voters on their way out of polling stations on Oct. 26:

    National exit poll

    Bloc of Petro Poroshenko – 23 percent;

    Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front – 21.3 percent;

    Samopomich – 13.2 percent;

    Opposition Bloc – 7.6 percent;

    Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party – 6.4 percent;

    Svoboda – 6.3 percent;

    Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna – 5.6 percent;

    Civil Position – 3.5 percent;

    Communist Party – 2.9 percent;

    Serhiy Tigipko’s Strong Ukraine – 2.6 percent.

    5% was the threshold for getting a seat.

    It’ll be interesting to see the final composition. Apparently 1/2 of the seats are allocated by party and the other half are by individual elections. Or something.

    Superficially, it looks like a good result in that there will be a strong diversity of opinions (Poroshenko can’t simply rule as a king with a rubber-stamp legislature). But we’ll see.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  100. 100.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Mnemosyne: :-)

    I just happened to check something. The Russia Duma has 4 parties –

    United Russia (Putin’s party)
    Communists
    A Just Russia (Social Democrats)
    LPDR (Nationalists)

    Funny how the LPDR has much more power and may be much closer to fascists than anything in the Ukrainian parliament, isn’t it? I wonder why BiP hasn’t been railing against it?

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  101. 101.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Do you really wonder? Bob thinks that US support for anti-Communist parties (some of which may have been hard right/fascist) in Ukraine is all that matters. FWIW any dollars spent on fascist parties in Eastern Europe were improperly spent.

  103. 103.

    Mustang Bobby

    @Schlemazel: Thank you! (I blush.)

    Sometimes you pick the car; sometimes the car picks you. The nym is from a character in my never-ending novel (see backstory here), and while my daily driver is a 2007 Mustang convertible, the Pontiac came to me in 1989 with 5,000 miles on it and it’s now an antique with about 275,000 miles on it. They both get along well, and I take the Mustang to Mustang shows.

  105. 105.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Omnes Omnibus: Speaking of Nazi’s, on the NY Times this morning:

    WASHINGTON — In the decades after World War II, the C.I.A. and other United States agencies employed at least a thousand Nazis as Cold War spies and informants and, as recently as the 1990s, concealed the government’s ties to some still living in America, newly disclosed records and interviews show.

    At the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, law enforcement and intelligence leaders like J. Edgar Hoover at the F.B.I. and Allen Dulles at the C.I.A. aggressively recruited onetime Nazis of all ranks as secret, anti-Soviet “assets,” declassified records show. They believed the ex-Nazis’ intelligence value against the Russians outweighed what one official called “moral lapses” in their service to the Third Reich.

    The agency hired one former SS officer as a spy in the 1950s, for instance, even after concluding he was probably guilty of “minor war crimes.”

    […]

    In all, the American military, the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and other agencies used at least 1,000 ex-Nazis and collaborators as spies and informants after the war, according to Richard Breitman, a Holocaust scholar at American University who was on a government-appointed team that declassified war-crime records.

    The full tally of Nazis-turned-spies is probably much higher, said Norman Goda, a University of Florida historian on the declassification team, but many records remain classified even today, making a complete count impossible.

    “U.S. agencies directly or indirectly hired numerous ex-Nazi police officials and East European collaborators who were manifestly guilty of war crimes,” he said. “Information was readily available that these were compromised men.”

    None of the spies are known to be alive today.

    It would be interesting to do a search for “Ukraine” in Breitman’s report.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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