Eat dessert first…
(h/t Tastefully Offensive)
—
I grew up with golden retrievers — my mum bred them for a while. They’re great dogs, sweet, fun, all good stuff.
—
(As always, avoid puppy mills and look for the overbreeding that exacerbates the breed’s problems with hips and the like…but a good golden is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.)
—
But I have to say that the video above caught the true essence of golden-hood. They’re goofs.
—
Happy Friday, all.
Baud
So is this post. I didn’t think you had it in you, Tom. ;-)
chopper
My dog is half golden (the other half is cocker spaniel). Goofy dog. Energetic too – I run her 8 miles or so a day and it doesn’t even phase her.
Woodrowfan
where was that filmed?
Mnemosyne
I’m assuming the dog got applause at the end because s/he actually did run that course faster than any other Golden Retriever ever had. ;-)
Woodrowfan
comment from this vidoe’s page on Youtube, not sure if serious or not..
beth
My cousin dated a bartender once who was a gorgeous 6’4″ blond who was dumb as a box of rocks. We always referred to him as “George, the golden retriever of boyfriends”.
Suffern ACE
Well, let’s give her credit. She understood “Stay.” My dog never got that far.
Tom Levenson
@beth: If I could up vote comments here, this one would be number one.
Suffern ACE
@Woodrowfan: Nope. That would be written by someone known universally as “a prick.”
beth
@Woodrowfan: Sounds like it was written by an angry femi-leftist. Someone alert Andrew Sullivan!
Omnes Omnibus
@Woodrowfan: My guess is Finland.
Tom Levenson
@Baud: I’ll be in my office, drafting a preliminary reply to this calumny. Shouldn’t take me more than thirty pages or so…
dmsilev
Aaaaah, Friday afternoon. I would just like to extend an upraised middle finger to whatever web “designer” it was who thought that white text on a white background was a peachy-keen color scheme for the buttons on our expense-reimbursement system at work. It was like playing Where’s Waldo, except that Waldo had had a bucket of white paint upended over him and then had gone for a walk in a blizzard.
Feh.
Origuy
@Mnemosyne:
Finland, apparently.
And “Berta”, according to the replies to “her” comment, is a Reddit troll. Reddit, the Mos Eisley of the internet.
Woodrowfan
I think my Fox Terrier would do the same thing as the GR here. FOOD!
Baud
OT. I know people criticize Common Core, and I don’t know enough about it to have an opinion generally, but this story about Texas schoolbooks puts me slightly in the pro-Common-Core camp:
Doug r
They also bark only at people they know because they don’t want to piss off potential friends.
Baud
@Tom Levenson:
So I’ll look for your response in about 10 minutes?
Trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Saw this on my teevee machine the other night and they said Norway, so basically the same place.
You want trouble? Took the kid to friends’ place a week ago to meet their new ‘trieve puppeh. Had to frisk her when we left to make sure the little fluffball wasn’t tucked into her jacket. You know what the last week’s constant conversation has been.
Said fluffball ate a fledgling bird a couple days later, so there’s that.
chopper
@Omnes Omnibus:
The country where I quite want to be!
PurpleGirl
@Trollhattan: Cute puppeh. Cute kid too. (Is she yours?)
Trollhattan
@PurpleGirl: Thanks! Kid: yes; puppeh: not yet. :-)
PurpleGirl
I learned the saying as “Life is uncertain, eat dessert first.”
I was part of NY science fiction group that once a month met at Pete’s Ice Cream parlor for dessert (tea, coffee, soda, ice cream, cake, cookies, whatever). Then after spending a couple of hours there, we’d troop over to a restaurant for dinner. Our favorite place was a Moroccan restaurant just down the block from Pete’s.
Baud
I’m bored, and everybody is out having a life this Friday night.
Oh well…
Ruckus
@PurpleGirl:
Can’t say as I’ve ever heard it said that way before but I did adopt the concept when I was around 12. Not sure it’s always been the best way to go through life health wise but my taste buds like it.
After all ice cream fulfills all four of the food groups, dairy, fat, sugar, decadence.
Ruckus
@Baud:
No, they are not.
Baud
@Ruckus:
I don’t know. It looks like it’s just you and me, old chum.
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
We’re moving stuff around so our new refrigerator can be delivered tomorrow. Ah, marriage!
Tree With Water
A friend of mine once paid a small fortune for a golden lab. He was a hunter, and planned to train it as a bird and duck dog. Trouble was the dog was intellectually challenged, even for a dog. He even farmed out to a specialist who trained bird dogs for a living, and the trainer called back in a couple of days with the bad news. The dog was a moron.
Baud
@Mnemosyne:
Single people don’t use refrigerators?
Mnemosyne
@PurpleGirl:
@Ruckus:
Apparently, the Amish tradition is to set the pies out on the table along with the rest of the meal so people who prefer to have their dessert first don’t have to ask for it.
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
You were lamenting that everyone else has exciting Friday nights where they do fun stuff. I’m just letting you know what gets classified as “fun stuff for a Friday night” once you’re old married folks.
Dee Loralei
@Trollhattan: Your daughters red hair and freckles look awesome with the golden retriever puppy in her arms, they look like twins. She prolly needs her own, the perfect accessory for her, just sayin’. And they are amazingly funny and sweet dogs.
Senyordave
But… Benghazi!
http://news.yahoo.com/house-intel-panel-debunks-many-benghazi-theories-213031463–politics.html
Oops, let’s move on, nothing to see here folks.
Baud
@Mnemosyne:
Got it. I thought you were relating food preservation with marriage in some way. Why are you getting a new fridge? Old one went kaput, or just an upgrade?
Baud
@Senyordave:
I can’t believe it. I was sure that would be Obama’s downfall.
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
An upgrade because the old one is in the process of going kaput — you can only put milk in specific areas of the fridge or it goes bad in two days. I bought it used in 1995, so I think I’ve gotten pretty good service out of it, but it’s time for a change now that we’ve moved to a new place.
Baud
@Mnemosyne:
Excellent. New things are exciting, despite what the naysayers say (which is usually nay). Nineteen years is a good run.
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: What I found remarkable when we bought a new fridge was how long you can keep food in it without spoiling.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: We’re here for ya Baud.
RoonieRoo
I’ve watched that video about 5 times now in various locations and I love it every single time.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
You guys are the best.
Seanly
Our current dog, Chula, is a graying chocolate lab (maybe mixed with a little pit). She’s pretty stupid, whines like Chewbacca and hates cats with the passion of a 1000 suns. We got her from the pound a couple of years ago to be a companion for another passed dog (can’t believe he’s been gone a year now). Chula would somehow fail more than that Golden…
Baud
Good. Business backs the GOP. That’s who they need to look to if they have needs.
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
I suspect I’m going to have to take back a lot what I’ve been muttering about the poor refrigeration by our local grocery stores that was making my food go bad right after I bought it.
Howard Beale IV
@beth: Whatever happened that that coupling?
Trollhattan
@Dee Loralei:
She definitely wouldn’t say, “no.” Have to admit this was an awesome pup. Bright, friendly, playful, following simple commands at ten weeks and an absolute pest to the family’s ginormous Bernese mountain dog.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ruckus:
Not only that. Consider:
Therefore, Revenge is Ice Cream.
Dee Loralei
@Baud: I can’t decide if I’m up to playing in my local pub p-ker league tonight, or if I’ll just veg and wait for the all in for testicular cancer charity event tomorrow afternoon, free trip to Vegas for the winner. Anyone in Memphis? It’s $35 buy in w/ $20 re-buys at 2 @ Dan McGuiness on Spotswood.
So, I’m waiting for dinner to finish and then I guess I’ll decide about tonight.
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: We don’t use a lot of milk, so I end up pouring it out after a week just on general principles, not because it has gone bad.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m eating ice cream right now.
@Dee Loralei:
Always choose testes. You’ll never go wrong.
Dee Loralei
@Trollhattan: they are awesome companion animals. I have 2. Maggie and Cassidy, they were litter mates. Best dogs ever.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Don’t know if I’d go that far.
You feeling a bit down tonight? Not your usual self?
Baud
@Ruckus:
What is my usual self like?
Baud
Heh.
JPL
Help! So son wants an electric shaver for xmas. Unlike most men, he could care less what kind, as long as it is decent quality and it’s rotary. The nice Braun is a lot more than the nice Panasonic according to Amazon. Is Braun worth the price?
I had a female golden that we bred in order to have puppies for friends and relatives. After she went to Dog heaven I purchased another Golden that lived for sixteen plus years, After Sunny went to Dog Heaven, I decided to adopt. I still miss my goldens though.
Trollhattan
@efgoldman:
We’re “special” all right. Specially selected to serve. And agree with opinions. Many, many opinions.
At least you get to spoil and spin-up your grandkid, then hand her back. Something to look forward to.
Baud
@JPL:
I use a cheapo Norelco. I don’t know if more expensive razors are worth the price. Based on the online reviews I’ve seen, the answer is no.
chopper
@JPL:
I dunno. I’ve had a beard for a long-ass time. Used to have a Braun back in the 90’s. Wasn’t bad.
Baud
@efgoldman:
Glad you could make it!
ETA: “old farters of dust” Not quite a great band name, but it does have a ring to it.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
I still go with “Live life to the fullest, eat well, enjoy the best part first, you never know when it’s your last bite.”
OK if you are on death row or willing to consider suicide then maybe you know. But otherwise you could choke on a lima bean or a brussels sprout, the smell of liver and onions cooking could over come you, and you’d miss the best part of the meal.
Trollhattan
@Dee Loralei:
My concern with a ”trieve or a Lab, which I also love, is how to keep a dog hard-wired to be in water out of my fish pond. Not an issue with our current pooch (thank Poseidon).
Trollhattan
@JPL:
Have a Braun but it’s not rotary, which are all Norelco so far as I know. Braun are really nice though, and the foil needs replacing less often than the rotary heads (or used to).
Ruckus
@Baud:
A bit more up, if you will. Less casting about, hoping for a bite.
@efgoldman:
I think there is a club for us old farts. Don’t know all the entry rules but I understand there are jackets.
JPL
@Trollhattan: Uhoh! I actually did convince Sunny the golden to stay out of the swimming pool. I then realized that he could fall in and not find the steps, so changed directions. You just have to be really, really firm.
Baud
@Ruckus:
Ah. Like I’m said, I’m bored. Looking for some virtual company to end the week with, since I don’t have happen to have any meat-space company at the moment.
Dee Loralei
@Baud: HA! I happen to like them, though I don’t have any of my own to play with. But that’s tomorrow. I’m trying to decide about tonight.
dmsilev
@Baud: Guess that explains why Boehner evidently doesn’t have any friends in Washington.
Ruckus
@Baud:
Good then.
Sounds like a few of us with not much in the way of lives and an internet connection are still around.
Baud
@Dee Loralei:
You are awesome.
@Ruckus:
Yes. It’s turned into a nice little gathering.
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
Can’t drink cows milk and so I tried soy but have settled on almond milk. Doesn’t seem to go bad for far longer than the cow stuff and tastes great.
Dee Loralei
@Trollhattan: Yea, I could see that being a problem. Maggie the almost white golden goes searching for every mud puddle to splash about in. She’s just a dirty white girl, that’s what I tell her.
Howard Beale IV
@JPL: Rotary’s are pretty much Norelco/Philips territory.
The key is what’s their grooming habits? Cheap to midrange Norelco’s do well if its 1-3 day’s growth; beyond that, it’s Panny’s when they go on sale on Amazon.
Suffern ACE
Eating a Vietnamese sandwich of chicken and pate. I am pretending That since this isn’t the kind of pâté that tastes like liver butter, it must be healthier.
NotMax
@Baud
One thing which Mom drilled into my thick little kiddy head was the mantra “Only bores get bored.”
Baud
Apparently, CNN saves its journalism for late Friday nights.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I’ve got a cold, I’m not going anywhere. Looked at the cold meds in the bathroom, all expired.
Baud
@NotMax:
Your mom was correct. I have never disputed the fact that I am a bore.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
:-(
I’m glad you’re here, but feel better!
Howard Beale IV
@BillinGlendaleCA: Expiration dates on medicines usually dont mean a lot. As long as they haven’t been exposed to light and have been capped/sealed, they’re usually OK.
raven
In from the water. 8 Hours of fishin, 1 flounder. Priceless.
Dee Loralei
OK, I’m gonna go play hold ’em! Have a great night all and wish me luck tonight and tomorrow!
Baud
@efgoldman:
Boringness is relative, I suppose.
ETA: Or is it boringosity?
@raven:
What an unlucky flounder!
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: I will look for that, thanks.
Baud
@Dee Loralei:
Good luck. Have a ball tomorrow.
skerry
@efgoldman: Hey! As a red-haired, blue-eyed girl who is mother to 2 red-haired, blue-eyed girls, I’m not sure what you meant by “doomed”.
raven
@Baud: It was pretty warm but windy in bursts. Supposed to be even warmer tomorrow so I think I’ll do another full day fishing and hope for the best. The water is so incredibly clear and there is hardly anyone here. We expect it to start filling ups Saturday but it still won’t be bad. I know folks are probably sick of my pics so I’ll just post this one of sunrise and the crane.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
You still sick? Looks like everyone else left.
@raven:
I don’t fish, but I love being on the water. And I promise you that no one is sick of your pics.
tybee
@raven:
have you ever fileted a flounder from the inside? turns it into a pocket. with almost no bones.
works best on a 12″ to 13″ flounder.
raven
@Baud: What about DRONZE! This sucker came down about 10 feet off the water and looked me in the eye earlier but I thought this was kind of cool. My wife no likey.
raven
@tybee: Which exactly what I had so I wish I had known how to do do it!
Kerry Reid
My sister has always had goldens. I think this dog did exactly what it is supposed to do — “retrieve.” You wouldn’t put a border collie in a roomful of sheep and not expect it to start herding, right?
tybee
@JPL:
i have a cheaper norelco. works ok on 2 day beard. much beyond that and it pulls.
i had a more expensive one in the past that gave a great shave but still pulled after 3 days of growth. the cheap one won’t die and i’m too, ah, frugal, to replace it while it still works.
Baud
@raven:
What did you do to make Obama target you like that?
.
.
When I first clicked, I thought you were talking about the bird. Ha!
WaterGirl
@skerry: I’m sure he meant it in the nicest possible way.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Hey! You’re back! I missed you. I hope you had a good break from all of this.
rikyrah
This just gave me faith again in humanity
……………..
‘If We Left, They Wouldn’t Have Nobody’
November 21, 2014 4:19 AM E
When an assisted living home in California shut down last fall, many of its residents were left behind, with nowhere to go.
The staff at the Valley Springs Manor left when they stopped getting paid — except for cook Maurice Rowland and Miguel Alvarez, the janitor.
“There was about 16 residents left behind, and we had a conversation in the kitchen, ‘What are we going to do?’ ” Rowland says.
“If we left, they wouldn’t have nobody,” the 34-year-old Alvarez says.
Their roles quickly transformed for the elderly residents, who needed round-the-clock care.
“I would only go home for one hour, take a shower, get dressed, then be there for 24-hour days,” says Alvarez.
Rowland, 35, remembers passing out medications during those long days. He says he didn’t want to leave the residents — some coping with dementia — to fend for themselves.
“I just couldn’t see myself going home — next thing you know, they’re in the kitchen trying to cook their own food and burn the place down,” Rowland says. “Even though they wasn’t our family, they were kind of like our family for this short period of time.”
For Alvarez, the situation brought back memories from his childhood.
“My parents, when they were younger, they left me abandoned,” he says. “Knowing how they are going to feel, I didn’t want them to go through that.”
Alvarez and Rowland spent several days caring for the elderly residents of Valley Springs Manor until the fire department and sheriff took over.
The incident led to legislation in California known as the Residential Care for the Elderly Reform Act of 2014.
“If I would’ve left, I think that would have been on my conscience for a very long time,” says Rowland.
http://www.npr.org/2014/11/21/365433685/if-we-left-they-wouldnt-have-nobody?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social
tybee
@WaterGirl:
i dunno, been married to a redheaded, green eyed girl for a few decades.
doomed pretty much sums it up.
Gravenstone
@Ruckus:
You rang?
Morzer
@raven:
So why is Jeff Bezos keeping tabs on you, raven? Did you speak slightingly of His Sacred Bezosness?
Violet
That video made me laugh out loud. Too funny. That dog wanted every treat in every dish. Good dog!
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good people are good.
tybee
when i see one of those small drones, i think “PULL!”
Violet
@Mnemosyne: Hey, my exciting Friday night is going out to the corner and figuring out why the ditch that used to empty very quickly has standing water in it now. I think it’s clogged with trash from the stupid construction crews that are like cockroaches in our neighborhood at the moment. They’re everywhere. Nothing like an exciting Friday night of digging out wet trash from a ditch in the dark.
JPL
Thanks for all the razor help. I sent an email to the SO, to see if she approves. Actually, I want to make sure that we don’t duplicate presents.
skerry
@WaterGirl: Glad to see you around.
Tom Levenson
@JPL: I’ve had Braun and I’ve had Panasonic, and for my face, the Panny is much, much better.
different-church-lady
So let me see if I’ve got this straight: the track is laid with yummy food and fun toys. The other dogs run right past them, and yet the golden retriever is the dumb one?
Baud
@different-church-lady:
You know that golden is saying “Wake up, sheeple!”
Baud
I think FYWP wants me to stop commenting.
Pogonip
DOG: Great buffet! Let’s come back here again!
OWNER: Oh, ^##^}^^#!!!! (Some things need no translation.)
My mom raised poodles, fluffy little gold mines in the mid- to late ’60’s, before the AKC ruined them (the poodles; blame for the ’60’s cannot be ascribed to the AKC alone). If Tom was still reading, I bet he’d agree with me that every kid should have a whole new litter of puppies every summer!
By the way, when that AKC breeder tells you two-day-old puppies don’t feel much pain when their tails are hacked off with no anesthetic, tell her you have been told otherwise by someone who’s seen it and ask her to lobby her breed club to end the practice. Most breeders don’t enjoy mutilating puppies but are left with no choice if they want to sell their pups. It is now possible to find unmutilated poodles in some areas and I urge poodle buyers to buy one if they possibly can; with the AKC and the breed clubs, only money talks.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Thanks, that’s really nice of you to say.
I’m not sure I’d call rocking in the corner because the election results are so damn depressing “a good break”., though. On the positive side, when you are sticking your head in the sand, you don’t find yourself starting every day reading something that makes you blurt out “what the fuck is wrong with these people?”
For now, I thought I would sneak into some non-political threads and see some old friends. I have missed the non-political side of BJ.
Pogonip
@Baud: I haven’t, but I bet that dog has.
Violet
@WaterGirl: Good to see you around! The political stuff has been a downer but yesterday’s events should be a bit of a pick me up.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I know what you mean. These are the times that try good people’s souls. But yesterday was a good day, with the immigration thing.
Definitely take care of yourself first. Good start with avoiding the media. They are dreadful.
Keith G
@JPL: As Baud mentioned, Norelcos are the Sherman Tanks of electric razors. My Dad used them all the years he used electric. I have his last one – he died in ’95. Not much to go wrong and new rotary blades are easy to come by.
That said, I usually shave in the shower with a blade. The Norelco (one of two) is now used as a reserve. It holds a charge and with new blades, it hums right along.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Nice Tom Paine reference.
geg6
That is the very essence of my dear departed Otis.
Sweetest boy that ever lived. Ever.
Cckids
@NotMax: the nuns used to tell us “being bored means you have no inner resources”. My mom just said “If you’re bored I can find some chores to do”.
We learned early to not be bored.
redshirt
Eat, drink, be merry. – Has anyone said this yet?
Anne Laurie
Most embarrassing AKC obedience trial moment for me was when my beloved first papillon blew off his recall (like the scene in the video, but with no food/toy distractions) to go to the side of the ring and say hello to his (human) friends. Which wasn’t so bad, until he looked back at me, and promptly ran over to the judge, doing a mimed Please don’t let the mean lady beat me again!!! display…
Fortunately, the judge (who could’ve played one of Bertie Wooster’s aunts without changing a hair) looked down at him, said, “You little liar” and told me, “Don’t let it discourage you — I raise pekinese.”
Pogonip
@WaterGirl: What you need, Water Girl, is more puppies in your life. Right, Tom? There are few things cuter than month-old puppies learning to eat out of a dish, bumbling happily through the baby food. (In our case it was usually more like three-week-old puppies; mom Fuzzy, who had what I now realize was an admirably no-bullshit approach to child rearing, would simply lie down on her stomach and refuse to move until the puppies gave up and went back to the dish, and I don’t blame her; those little puppy teeth are like needles!). Anyway, see if you can hook up with a breeder who will let you come over now and then and practice Pogonip’s Perfect Puppy Palliative for depression. (Sometimes animal shelters get moms with litters of very young puppies, too.). And for heaven’s sake son’t get depressed over politics. This too shall pass, and there’s always another election coming along.
redshirt
@Pogonip: One day, soon I fear, one of these elections will initiate a goon squad of right wingers who ravage America. Pray you can escape the purge.
skerry
So my daughter introduced me to the iPhone app “Trivia Crack”. Appropriately named. I’m hooked.
So my Friday night is BJ, Twitter and Trivia Crack. I’m not bored; I’m boring.
Pogonip
@redshirt: Pfft. Those guys are all talk and no do. Don’t let them scare you. Mine your yard and don’t worry about it.
trollhattan
Further adventures in Redhead World (in which the rest of us are occasionally welcome guests).
redhead.edu, phoning the mom: “Can you pick me up at school?”
wife.gov: “You can walk, I’m busy with work.”
redhead.edu: “But I have a twenty-pound turkey and I can’t carry it.”
wife.gov: “????!!!???”
redhead.edu: “I was fastest seventh-grade girl in the mile and I won a turkey.”
She got the ride and we now have a ten-kilo turkey for a family of three (she guessed a little low). How can I parlay this in a way that I can quit working?
divF
@PurpleGirl:
I first ran across this version of the saying in the 1970’s as the motto of a company in San Francisco called “Just Desserts”. They sold t-shirts with the motto (and their name) printed on it at their bakery on Russian Hill. They are still in business, but the operation has moved to Oakland (near the airport), and their product is distributed nationally. These days, on those rare occasions when I eat dessert, I usually make them myself, but back in the day, their chocolate cake was a special treat.
Cckids
So I’m hanging at the airport, headed to Denver to meet my daughter, driving back home with her for the holidays. I’ve been here just shy of forever, because we couldn’t get a time as to when the President was flying out, just knew it was around the time I needed to get here.
You could not get info about the timing of his speech or itinerary for love or money here today. (Thank FSM) very different from usual.
Of course, our RW rag printed the route he’d be taking from Del Sol HS to airport. Because they’re assholes that way.
I’ve never seen the wingers so incandescently angry as they are right now. It’s very scary.
Pogonip
@redshirt: To be a little more serious, if matters go on as they are for another 5-10 years, I anticipate a coup, probably by the Joint Chiefs, simply because, well, this is still some valuable real estate and there are 350 million people sitting on it and somebody’s got to govern, and if those who are elected refuse to do so, well…
But (a big but) matters rarely go on as they are because people react and that results in matters going in a new direction. I think what is more likely than a coup is people getting fed up with extremists on either end and demanding, well, sanity. The most likely upshot is a switch to parliamentary government.
You might enjoy the Archdruid Report; every week he hashes out various what-ifs.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: You’ll be eating turkey leftovers until approximately Christmas.
skerry
@efgoldman: My father is red-haired, blue-eyed. My mother had dark brown hair with brown eyes. My mother found out she was expecting me a week after my father was sent to the Azores for 4 months. Her friends teased her mercilessly that the baby had better have red hair. I was born with a full head of red hair and have blue eyes like my daddy. None of my siblings have that combo. I was out to prove something from the start, I guess.
Morzer
I don’t know if this fits into the dessert category, but:
Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) is available on Steam at 10% off. It looks like a pretty cool game and is based on Inuit folklore (I nearly said Alaskan folklore, but that conjures up a drunken brawl of Palins which is rather less appealing IMHO):
http://store.steampowered.com/app/295790/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Alone_%28video_game%29
Anyway, I put my money where my cyber-mouth is and bought Madame Morzer a copy as a belated birthday present.
Pogonip
@Cckids: Never? Weren’t you here yesterday?
I swear I don’t know how people can stay angry 24/7. I’d poop out and say, “Ah, to hell with it.”
Mike J
@Pogonip: Parliamentary government just means that when the extremists do get the majority, there’s absolutely no way to even slow them down.
Mike J
@Morzer: YogsKim said she might do a play through.
Have you tried the Goat MMO sim yet?
Morzer
@Mike J:
Arguably one of the big problems is that the GOP brought a parliamentary party into a system which wasn’t adapted for it.
skerry
Today’s political cartoon from the Indianapolis Star
So glad to be a recovering Hoosier.
Morzer
@Mike J:
That’s distinctly memorable. I did recommend the glorious Goat Simulator a while back on here.
Morzer
Graphically Never Alone reminds me a bit of Yuri Norstein’s Hedgehog in the Fog, which is a very good thing. If you’ve never seen Hedgehog, you should take 10 minutes and enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW0jvJC2rvM
Morzer
@skerry:
Remind me to avoid Mr Varvel’s “work” in future. I wonder how long it’ll be before the Boston Herald snatches him up.
satby
@Trollhattan: @Trollhattan: A ginger holding a blond!
Edited to add: I am redheaded also, too.
skerry
@efgoldman: I had the same experience, in reverse. Ex-husband has dark hair and eyes (Italian heritage). Our first daughter was born with jet black hair. Every nurse that brought her from the nursery checked and re-checked the ID bands.
Woodrowfan
@Cckids:
Yep, they are whatever step is beyond bat-poop crazy…. Seriously, if some nut took a shot at President Obama and killed one of his daughters instead the Reichwingers would cheer.
Mary G
I am going home tomorrow, so happy. I walked 40 feet down the hall on one of those aluminum walkers. Everybody up to and including the administrator, tried to get me to stay. Not because I need more care, but because I pay through the nose for the best Medicare supplemental coverage and have no copay. I am so ready to leave.
satby
@Baud: want some beard oil? ;)
Morzer
@satby:
For external consumption, I hope.
Mike J
@Woodrowfan:
Alex Jones is already saying that any assassination attempt will be a false flag op. Because there’s no reason to suspect gun fondlers of violence.
redshirt
@Pogonip: A coup is what I’m expecting as well. Need all 3 branches, though, and they’re close!
BR
@Pogonip:
Never thought I’d see a reference to Greer’s blog here. I do think there’d be a lot gained if some of the stuff he writes about reached a wider audience. (Though it might be good if there were others that delivered the same content he does without the self-assured tone that he does.)
skerry
@satby: I wanted to let you know that I took your advice and wrapped my poor Jane’s Magnolia all up in burlap. I had a couple of neighbors ask me what I was doing. It looks funny, like a big brown ball in the front yard.
I spoke with the landscaper and here’s the plan. He is going to get me a 6 ft new tree and put it where the sad one is now. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get some spring blooms from it. The sad tree will be replanted in another location in the yard to see if it will recover. I talked to a few master gardeners in the area and that seemed to be the consensus of the best action to take. I’ll keep the burlap on it. Thanks for the suggestion.
ETA: Hey, ginger!
Poopyman
@Mary G: Yay! Walk proudly through those doors!
On other subthreads; I thought/hoped I would be doomed to have my heart broken by fairhaired/blue-eyed daughters, but was instead doomed to be childless. Brauns are better than Panasonic, but now I shave in the shower with a blade. Dogless, too,at the moment, but hope to have a lab when I retire. We have the room for it to run.
I’m sure I missed something….
Anne Laurie
@Mary G:
CONGRATULATIONS!
May your enjoyment be even greater than your anticipation!
NotMax
@satby
Next, beard fracking?
Violet
@Mary G: Yay! Congratulations! Will you have help when you go home?
Morzer
@NotMax:
Andrew Sullivan is going to move to Pennsylvania?
Pogonip
@Mike J: Yup, it’s by no means better, but it’s looking likely.
Pogonip
@Baud: This makes me line Common Core too. I never did like one state dictating to the other 49.
satby
@Mary G: Hooray! Have you got help at home lined up?
satby
@skerry: Good luck! Wrapping shrubs isn’t done as much anymore, though lots of people cone their roses. But after last winter, I saw lots of burlap balls around here this fall. It should protect the tree from drying freezing wind as well as the cold.
satby
@NotMax: :)
Pogonip
@Woodrowfan: This, fortunately, helps show they’re all talk and no do. So far as I know, nobody has yet shot at Obama or his family.
J R in WV
@chopper:
My beard is old… since 1968 old, except for the 3 months I was in boot camp. Then I grew it back, in 1970, haven’t shaved my whole face since.
I did trim it back to a van Dyke (large goatee) once to start a new job, but that only lasted a couple of months.
Right now it’s pretty long and wooly, which is usually good going into winter. I’m retired, so who cares? It’s all good!
I understand it’s becoming quite the thing in Europe, don’t really understand why that style change would happen, but whatever. Not the first time I’ve been years ahead of a style… Grunge! I was there 20 years ahead of Nirvana!
Still right there! Work boots (’cause I work) and flannel shirts in the winter, tees in the summer.
J R in WV
@raven:
So there are condo towers in Panama City now?
The only time I was there (in the 1960s) there were just little 2 story motels between the road and the beach.
Florida sure has gone down hill!
When we lived in Key West, there were 4 or 5 hotels. This fall when we went back for the first time, there were 70!!! 70 of them on a island 3 miles long!
Sad.
Pogonip
@BR: Really? Is he unpopular with liberals for some reason?
I read all kinds of blogs, even the really nutty ones with nude mopping.
Morzer
@Pogonip:
He’s fun to read, but his understanding of history is pretty idiosyncratic. Is he still writing that online episodic novel?
maeve
@skerry:
Hi – regarding Magnolias – when I was at the University of Oklahoma in Norman – the campus there has some magnificent 30+ foot magnolias – but they are all in the internal corner of an L shaped, T shaped, X shaped etc. building where they are shielded from wind.
Temps there can get occasionally into the teens or even single digits during a cold snap – but its really the wind on even higher temp winters that dries out the broadleaf evergreens. Where I live now I have a Rhododendron (from the previous owner) that didn’t bloom for years – then last (really mild n SE Alaska) winter it unexpectedly had blooms. I need to transplant it somewhere else – it is on the side next to a road that can be a funnel for wind.
(SE Alaska is actually in the same agricutural zone as Oklahoma – we get a lot more rain though – and a LOT lower temps in the summer!)
dance around in your bones
Goldies are great – they DO shed a lot of hair, and they DO need a lot of exercise. but they are sweethearts.
Pogonip
@Morzer: If he is, I didn’t pay any attention; I only read for the what-ifs and might-be’s and suppose-thats.
BR
@Pogonip:
Not that he’s unpopular with liberals, more that a) his message is probably unpopular or unpalatable to 95% of Americans of all stripes, b) his premises (and those of similar writers) are so different than the usual that most people won’t even get it, c) he speaks with a self-assured tone that can be off-putting to some, even those who agree with him, d) he’s a druid and that pretty much makes people dismiss him out of hand, and…well lots of other reasons. I think the media could really use a Greer that can communicate better and who doesn’t have those issues.
grishaxxx
I’ve babysat them for friends – goofs is putting it mildly, but I adored them.
Pogonip
@BR: Hey! I finally made it into the 5%!
Unfortunately, not the filthy rich 5%.
dance around in your bones
@dmsilev: Sweetie, can you install a kinda theme font and style changer on your office computer? It will let you change the stupid background and typeface – well, on Firefox, anyway..
I’m sure there are other add-ons for other browsers if you are able to install them w/o the the Tech Nazis banning you…….
opiejeanne
@Pogonip: It was California and Texas for a long time because they were the two biggest markets in the US for school books. Then some of them started catering to Texas and forgot about the California market; maybe they thought we’d buy whatever they produced.
Fred
They shoulda put a big stinky pile of moose poop in there. Nuthin’ my goldens love more than rolling in slimy green moose crap till they have it all over their fur. And moose crap BIG.
And then when I hose ’em off back at the ranch they lay this guilt trip look on me for being sooo cruel.