Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

We still have time to mess this up!

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

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

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

People are complicated. Love is not.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

After roe, women are no longer free.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Infrastructure week. at last.

In my day, never was longer.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Painfully Hip

Open Thread: Painfully Hip

by | 253 Comments

This post is in: ,

You’d think it would be Portland, except maybe Portlanders are too evolved to celebrate American Genocide Day?

Speaking of turkeys…

Multiple sources tell CBS News that the announcement of a grand jury decision in the Michael Brown shooting case is not expected before Monday…

***********
Apart from holiday preparations, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

253Comments

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing some slut shaming tonight. Or maybe poor shaming.
    Or hell, maybe poor slut shaming.
    Who is with me, BJ?!

  4. 4.

    Violet

    Look at all those svelte, hip folks applauding in the background. So appropriate for a vegan turkey pardoning.

  6. 6.

    Hildebrand

    Spending the evening bringing footnotes into compliance with the style-sheet for !#$!#%* Publishers. Why can’t academic publishing houses simply agree on one bloody style-sheet. Bah!

  7. 7.

    Pogonip

    Attention parents and grandparents! Just in time for Xmas, for the first time in 30 years, “The Little Witch” is back in print!

  11. 11.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @raven: This still hasn’t completely registered in my brain. The Gophers don’t don’t do contention in football. It’s a team that typically schedules a FCS team . . . and loses. In the last decade, I think they’ve at least once to all of the schools in both Dakotas.

  12. 12.

    Corner Stone

    @Violet: I did, thanks. 90% of my travel is business so it doesn’t come out of my pocket but was just curious on what others where/had been seeing over the last bit.

  16. 16.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    Is there anyone who really thinks that Florida State is one of the four best teams in the country? Sure, they’re undefeated, but so is Marshall.

  17. 17.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    @Corner Stone:

    Jesus, impossible to fly ANYWHERE between christmas and early January for less than $450. Tickets from MSP to DEN are over $400. Crazy.

  18. 18.

    lamh36

    So the Grand Jury decision will fall just in time to sour the people of Ferguson’s Thanksgiving festivities (if they plan any).

    Ugh.

    Anyway, So Hallmark Channel has been showing back to back Christimas movies since the beginning of this month. My FB friends and I have been lamenting the lost of our nightly Golden Girls viewings. Hallmark used to show them every night in a 2 hour block (followed by Frasier). So last night, LogoTV changed their weekend lineup at the last minute to Golden Girls (I’m sure some saavy media person noticed no GG).

    So last night I tweeted to @LogoTV:

    “Golden Girls on @LogoTV . Suck it Hallmark Channel Christmas movie marathon!”

    . LogoTV retweeted and favorited it.

    Well later that night round bout midnight, I got a response tweet from “Hallmark Channel Senior Vice President, Network Program Publicity & Social Content, Hallmark Channel & Hallmark Movies & Mysteries”. She tweeted back to me:

    @psddluva4evah @LogoTV we will be back in 6 weeks. Meantime, it’s great to celebrate #Christmas
    https://twitter.com/pamslay/status/536032366494375937

    So I can take this in two ways, in the holiday spirit, I can let it go and laugh it off (which is what I’m gonna do), or I could have clapped back to her that it’s TOO DAMN EARLY to be celebrating Christimas and just cause I ain’t celebrating Christimas in early November don’t mean nothing.

    So how would you all have taken her tweet?

  21. 21.

    Mike J

    @lamh36: They started the xmas marathon on Halloween. Nightmare Before Christmas is the only acceptable xmas movie on Halloween.

  23. 23.

    Pogonip

    @Hildebrand: For a while my employer was pushing college big-time. We found that the textbooks are ridiculously overpriced and that every year or so a few words would be changed in a text to force everybody to buy the new improved Principles of Whatever. Maybe the variety of styles is a version of that scam?

    I took two classes before I concluded that it was just another management fad, that they couldn’t possibly promote everybody as they promised. They could change the grades on the jobs–but then they coudn’t afford to pay for all those high-grade positions. So I quit doing unpaid overtime at the college. To be fair, I did quite enjoy Business Law I.

    The upshot of the college fad was: lots of educated fools ( previously we had average fools). As for promotions, they mostly went to teacher’s pets, as always, although as always they did have to promote a few triple-digit IQs just to keep the place running.

    The current fad is Black Belt-Green Belt-Six Sigma. I never thought I’d say this, but I look forward to the return of Total Quality Management. Quality Circles just waste the time of busy people. I have found BB-GB-SS to be expensively disruptive.

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Seattle, Portland, it’s all out of step left coast hipsters who the Village loathes, because they know, deep down inside, how much more pathetic they are compared to even pathetic left coast hipsters.

  29. 29.

    Pogonip

    @lamh36: In my usual surly fashion. I would have replied “It’s too damn early, Merry fucking Christmas, tou’re ruining it for everyone!”. Which they are. Because of nonsense like this, by the time actual Christmas comes around, we’re all tired of it.

  30. 30.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Pogonip:

    The current fad is Black Belt-Green Belt-Six Sigma. I never thought I’d say this, but I look forward to the return of Total Quality Management. Quality Circles just waste the time of busy people. I have found BB-GB-SS to be expensively disruptive.

    Sounds like the old GE shit-did they say anything about DMADV or DMAIC?

    Not only that, Six SIgma didn’t save Motorola’s ass, either.

  31. 31.

    lamh36

    So I heard this song on the radio the other day, and it reminded me of that ole school Morris Day and The Time/JimmyJam&TerryLewis/Minneapolis sound back in the day. Loved it soon as I heard it. I think it’s the horn section that harkens back to the 80s.

    Anyway, I posted it on my FB, cause I like it, but also because Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars will be the musical guest on tonight’s SNL (the song is from Ronson’s new mix album, he’s a DJ/music producer if u didn’t know) so Ronson will also be playing an second selection, that I’m hearing may have a surprise guest (I’m hearing Stevie Wonder).

    So tonight may just be my first time watching SNL in a LONG time!

    Mark Ronson – Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars: http://youtu.be/OPf0YbXqDm0 via @YouTube

  34. 34.

    Gravenstone

    As the picture was opening, I swear I thought it was William Shatner. Left me wondering what the hell Capt. Kirk was doing with a bunch of frat boys?

  35. 35.

    lamh36

    @Mike J: Ya know I thought I remember them starting it in October, but that last week, I was prepping for my vacation, so I forgot about it.

    I just had to LOL when I went to bed last night. I guess the retweet from LogoTV musta rung her line… ;-)

  37. 37.

    Pogonip

    @raven: Well, I always found my textbooks much more helpful when they were open, but I suspect that’s not what you meant. Elaborate, please.

  40. 40.

    Belafon

    @lamh36: When I started reading your comment at 33, I thought you were replying to me and had lost the link. This is one of those times when I wish we could rec comments.

  41. 41.

    Pogonip

    @Gravenstone: One shudders to think.

    Where are John Cole’s frat boys? People seem to dislike frat boys, but his seemed like nice kids and I took a maternal interest in their doings.

  42. 42.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Pogonip: They’re all part of Six Sigma, and best avoided if you can.

    The DMADV project methodology, known as DFSS (“Design For Six Sigma”), features five phases:
    Define design goals that are consistent with customer demands and the enterprise strategy.
    Measure and identify CTQs (characteristics that are Critical To Quality), product capabilities, production process capability, and risks.
    Analyze to develop and design alternatives
    Design an improved alternative, best suited per analysis in the previous step
    Verify the design, set up pilot runs, implement the production process and hand it over to the process owner(s).

    DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control

    There’s a reason why the highest award in industry is the Deming Prize.-and it has primarily went to Japanese firms-which, primarily, hew to TQM.

  43. 43.

    geg6

    Just finished some garlic hot wings and sweet potato fries. Finishing off some Snoqualmie Reisling. Cherry pie for dessert. All while watching the Pens v Islanders.

    And I’m very thankful for this. My John was out in the midst of the ice storm we had this morning and hit some ice. He spun out and almost, according to the guy behind him, rolled over. The Blazer is demolished but John is fine other than a couple of shallow cuts on his right hand, a wrenched knee and a little lump on his head. There were nine other accident calls while he sat in the cop car until I could get to him from home, about 10 minutes away. That phone call scared the shit outta me and I’m still more traumatized than he seems to be.

  45. 45.

    Mike J

    @Villago Delenda Est: They love to talk about how humorless liberals are, and then they’re unable to recognize a joke when it is presented to them. Did you check out the twitter comments?

    Has twitter passed youtube as repository of the dumbest commenters on the internet?

  47. 47.

    JoyfulA

    @Pogonip: Variety of citation styles is not part of the great textbook scam. I quit editing textbooks for moral reasons when I was assigned a third new edition with little difference from the previous two; usually chapters are renumbered so reading assignments don’t work.

  48. 48.

    Pogonip

    @Howard Beale IV: Oh, yes, we do have that, they just don’t call it that, and they add about three words to every one used in your version. I was able to make up 4 different Buzzword Bingo cards, none of which repeated a word from the other three, except of course for the center square ( I used Excellence.)

  50. 50.

    Howard Beale IV

    @efgoldman: I had to book my TurkeyDay flights two months ago in order to get something reasonable-and I still have to fly out on TurkeyDay.

  51. 51.

    Nicole

    So… the pardoned Tofurkys end up in landfill instead of being eaten? Excellent plan there, Seattle mayor.

  52. 52.

    Gravenstone

    @geg6: Glad to hear he came out relatively unscathed physically. A few years ago, the woman I was seeing at the time got spun off a snowy highway by an aggressive semi (redundant around here). I slogged my way down to her apartment to and spent the night with her. Fortunate thing, because she really freaked out in the middle of the night as the enormity of what might have been hit.

  53. 53.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Pogonip: What was amazing was GE rammed that whole Six Sigma shit down GE Capital’s throat, which made it to other financial firms in the early 2000s as their execs left to join other firms.

    Naturally, you can guess what happened.

  55. 55.

    raven

    @Mike J: Not a chance, gotta watch the Tenn-Mizzou game. They’ve been pushing that doc in Athens for a couple of week, I’m sure I’ll get a chance to see it.

    But thanks!

  56. 56.

    lamh36

    @Omnes Omnibus: I know right! Morris Day and the Time are on my bucket list of concerts I want to see.

    Although, they are still touring, they are no longer touring as MD&T. The tour now as “The Original 7ven”

  57. 57.

    Pogonip

    @raven: I like it but I expect it’ll be an uphill battle as it’ll kill the “force a captive audience to buy 4 figures worth of books every year.”

    Where I worked we developed a defense. Everybody working through, say, the Accounting Curriculum would chip in on, for example, one copy of that year’s mandatory version. The person who worked fastest–the smartest person I ever met, incidentally, I wish she were President– would be the Keeper of the Book. Susie, as I’ll call her, would in her brainiac fashion read a chapter ahead throughout the course and advise everyone of any textual changes that actually appeared relevant. The plan worked beautifully and everyone saved money.

  59. 59.

    Violet

    @geg6: Yikes! Scary. Make sure you monitor him for the next several days. Things can show up later after accidents that aren’t apparently initially.

  60. 60.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: I’ve seen them twice. Once in Minneapolis where they opened for the Purple One in the early 80s – just before Purple Rain came out and one around 2000 when they were on a double bill with Cameo. I highly recommend the experience.

  62. 62.

    Pogonip

    @geg6: Yipe! Glad John’s OK. Ice storms scare me shitless ever since I broke my elbow in one. I put on the highest-grade Yaxtrax, the ones made for climbers and runners, and use them to inch along carefully, watchfully, as if I feared attack by arctic ninja. Boo winter!

  63. 63.

    Pogonip

    @JoyfulA: Yes! The Keeper of the Book was always sending out e-mails: “Syllabus says read pages 240-273, in last Year’s edition it’s pages 236-269, wording identical, pie chart a little different but not enough to worry about..”. Etc.

  65. 65.

    BBA

    Regarding Six Sigma and other management fads, I think Scott Adams had the best take: If your company doesn’t do it, you probably don’t know what it’s about. If your company does it, you definitely don’t know what it’s about.

  69. 69.

    22over7

    @raven: The big academic publishers (Pearson, cough) are abandoning the old model of re-publishing the same book every couple of years, and moving toward some other yet-to-be-determined model. Wev.

    Also, the USC-UCLA game is out of control.

  70. 70.

    tybee

    @Nicole:

    reminds me of the rutabaga recipe:

    first, dig a hole in the back yard so you’ll have some place to put them when they’re finished cooking.

  72. 72.

    tybee

    @raven:

    wire hooks. used forged. they don’t bend.

    of course i don’t use forged hooks much either when fishing off the beach.

    don’t do as i do, do as i say.

    that kinda looked like a kahle hook.

  75. 75.

    raven

    @tybee: Yep, that’s a crappy iphone pic but I’ve got it in my tackle box.
    eta I’m pretty sure it was illegal, son-of-a-bitch took off and screamed the drag.

  76. 76.

    Howard Beale IV

    @BBA: Six Sigma’s questionable. TQM does have value as the human equation is very much front and center in it. In Japan, Deming is considered to be a God, and he has a statute there to boot, so he’s no fad-far from it.

  81. 81.

    srv

    We still have a tofurkey turkey in the freezer. What’s the shelf life on these things? I’ll accept in fruitcake units.

    I have too many vacation days left. What’s the ski report on Alta?

  82. 82.

    tybee

    @raven:

    plan on revenge now that you know how far out they’re feeding.

    just beyond those breakers would be my guess.

    what kind of bait?

  83. 83.

    PurpleGirl

    @Howard Beale IV: lamh36’s comment about the Hallmark Channel brought to mind Kitten Bowl. The 2015 2nd annual Kitten Bowl will be on February 1st. Did you watch the 2014 edition?

  84. 84.

    billb

    A.L., All you all, like to pick on us portlanders, because of some carpet-bag tv show, that no one here watches. How thoughtful of you. We have serious culture here, award-winning authors and chefs and artists. We care deeply about the environment and social justice. AND we re-elected a great young liberal Senator. Get back to us when you all do that too.

  85. 85.

    raven

    @tybee: I’ve been wading out as far as I can on the second sandbar and throwing. The water is 64 so it’s brisk but I can hack it. I caught a hammerhead and a flounder out there and there was a blue caught today too. A big rain storm is here now and I think I’ll take a break tomorrow. I have a nasty rash, I guess from my mesh lined trunks, so a day out of the water may be good. (I say that now but if I get a chance I’ll proly fish).

    Live shrimp. I bought 3 dozen Thursday and they are still in good shape.

  87. 87.

    srv

    New Yorker:

    On Keystone and the N.S.A., Hillary Clinton Remains Quiet. The Ready for Hillary meeting was the perfect embodiment of the Democrats’ current Hillary problem: everyone in the party seems to be supporting her, and yet nobody can articulate exactly why.

    You people need to come up with a post-modern Bartlett For America. Stat.

    @billb: Give us that Columbia River water or we Californians will be in your base.

  89. 89.

    tybee

    @raven:

    big reds will feed surprisingly close in. you could stand on the beach in street clothes and chunk bait just beyond the breakers in your photo. who knows what you may find?

    blew 15 to 25 kts here all day. tomorrow is a 100% chance of boomers and 1 to 3 inches of rain.
    and they’re not broadcasting the foulcons game. guess i’ll catch up on my reading.

  90. 90.

    dance around in your bones

    Well, I’ve got a fucking painful hip, am all out of pain pills, and am baby sitting a kind o sweet little neurotic dog, as her “Mom” went out to a costume party tonight all dressed in white and wearing angel wings.

    In honor of which, lil doggie and I are watching Dogma again becuz – well, it just seemed fitting.Also , I love Jay and Silent Bob, Alan Rickman, George Carlin, Chris Rock, Linda Fiorentino…..Who am I missing?

    AND still waiting for cream of sum yung guy to get home.

  93. 93.

    Mike in NC

    Prepping for a drive to Savannah on Tuesday, then spending Thanksgiving in Tampa. Probably will defer a visit to Saint Augustine because it looks sort of boring.

  97. 97.

    tybee

    @raven:

    i like the calibogue sneakers.

    i’ve spent a fair amount of my life on those powdered sugar beaches. pretty place but too many people these days.

  101. 101.

    Mike E

    @Howard Beale IV: Huge travel day. That’s why I’ve done the “midnight run” for years, driving up I-95 in the early am to avoid the DC rush…last couple of years there have been lots of fellow midnight riders thinking the same thot, especially on the way back. Ugh.

    Sis cancelled the family feast due to inertia…she can use the break tho. I was going to stay put for the 1st time in over a decade–Miss E is working and dealing with enrolling at school–but I may go up and hang with some high school friends anyway. It’s only 450 miles…

  104. 104.

    raven

    @Mike E: We stay at the beach until the Monday after Thanksgiving. The drive is a breeze compared to Sunday. Of course half of it is through the middle of Alabama on 2 lane roads.

  113. 113.

    Mike E

    @raven: Heh. I used to love detouring thru Virginia horse country–missing all the road-crossing deer, thank you very much–but then every Thanksgiving traveler stole that idea, too. Feh.

  115. 115.

    WaterGirl

    @geg6: So glad your John is okay. Agree with everyone who said it may hit him later. It can get pretty scary when you realize how close you came. It may haunt you for awhile, too. What a blessing that he came through with hardly a scratch. I salute the Blazer for doing such a good job keeping John safe.

    So glad the vehicle didn’t roll, that would be terrifying.

  116. 116.

    SFAW

    Earlier this evening, I had the pleasure of filling out the DNC “Survey.” ‘Twas a wondrous experience, not to be missed. Among the genius-level survey questions were things like “Why did mid-term turnout suck so bad?” and “What can be done to un-suckify mid-term turnout?” Amongst the suggestions I made was that they get Howard Dean to run things. I resisted – albeit barely – the urge to add “and fire everyone who had anything to do with this year’s campaign.”

    Of course, the best part about the survey was the multiple choice question at the end, asking about what I plan to do for the 2016 elections. The options – any/all of the four could be selected – included:

    Support the Dem candidate for Pres
    Support state and local Dem candidates
    Support President Obama’s agenda
    Support holding the Republicans accountable for their actions

    Reading the last two choices tempted me to suggest to the survey writers that perhaps killing themselves, because they’re too fucking stupid to live, might be something they should consider. And it’s fucking stupidity like those questions which will make Rove’s “permanent majority” much more likely. If I had any hair left, I’d have pulled it all out after reading that stupid fucking thing. (Hmm, seems to be a lot of “fucking stupid” in this diatribe, what can it mean?)

  117. 117.

    Deecarda

    @Mike in NC:
    Don’t bug out on St. Augustine, a great city in FL and well worth a visit. Beautiful old historic town withartisan shops along cobbled streets and the oldest schoolhouse in the U.S. cafes, bars, beautiful beaches and a fort to explore.

  118. 118.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Mike in NC: TQM is decades older than Six Sigma, and like I said, Six Sigma couldn’t save one of its biggest proponents, but had the nastiest side effect of being misapplied in places that it had no business being applied to.

    TQM actually provided significant value-its what made Toyota the number one automaker on the world, it also was used and it wound up saving Ford’s ass with the Taurus.

    Deming was the architect of TQM, and there’s a reason why there’s a statue of him in Japan-he saved the fucking country.

  119. 119.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Hildebrand: That formatting shit is like hazing.

    “Oh, so you did research that produced results and now you’ve spent months with your colleagues or advisors working on this paper/thesis/book but we’re going to take you back to school, specifically to elementary school where you have to reformat ALL THE THINGS for several weeks before we’ll even consider accepting it.”

    It’s not simple formatting, you know single-spaced 12 point, end notes, follow MLA footnote formatting. A ha ha. A ha ha ha ha ha.

  120. 120.

    Mike E

    @Howard Beale IV: Oh, believe me, I know. I’m no further down the road than say 20 years ago, but this could be my last drive for the holiday…the flesh is no longer willing.

  122. 122.

    lamh36

    So someone sent out a tweet showing some behind the scene bloopers from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The link photo tag was of Commander Riker, and I was just reminded how much of a geeky teen I was back when being a “nerd” or “geek” really was a joking offense.

    Mahn, I loved me some Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’m a Picard girl now, but man did I love me some Commander Riker (with the beard, NOT without). When Riker and Troi got married in Star Trek: Nemesis, I was just over the moon.

    Gawd…welp I’m a scientist now and proud of my geekdom

  123. 123.

    Another Holocene Human

    @lamh36:

    So how would you all have taken her tweet?

    Corporate marketroid is a corporate marketroid and every word she o/b/o the company shows how much she and they don’t get it.

    IOW, I would laugh.

  125. 125.

    wasabi gasp

    @billb:

    A.L., All you all, like to pick on us portlanders…

    I assumed Anne Laurie mentioned Portland because Tofurky is manufactured just outside Portland…and this looks like a publicity stunt.

  126. 126.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Corner Stone: I love how it’s XMAS all the time for 8 weeks prior, fuck all those other holidays, then 12/26 it’s all torn down, in the garbage, sold–suck it, Greek Orthodox. And by lame, I mean that people suck. (But mostly people working in groups, for example, corporations.)

    In good news, Jerk Cameron’s preachy holiday “movie” is flopping hard and got 10% on Rotten Tomatoes so he is attempting to get some flying monkeys to improve his user reviews to counter the pro’s calling it a rip-off and garbage.

    According to the reviews it’s two guys having a conversation in a car. He should pay people to watch that. Especially when it’s preachy crap that frankly most of the target audience (Christians) would seriously take offense to anyway and we’re getting into forget paying people to watch it, find every print and burn it territory.

  131. 131.

    Pogonip

    @Morzer: “Captain, I sense hostility from Dr. Crusher.” “Oh? Why do you say that”. “Because she is on top of me pounding my head on the floor.”

  138. 138.

    SFAW

    @Morzer:

    They didn’t have an option for supporting more sunny days and mom’s apple pie?

    They did, but it was along the lines of “if the Repubs don’t attack us for doing so.”

    I also suggested to them that someone should have told Alison Lundergan Grimes to say “You’re goddam right I voted for President Obama! His opponent was a whiny rich snot who hates non-Mormons and the non-rich in general. I wanted someone who gave a shit about more than the 0.01-percenters, and who can stick with a position for more than the time it takes to go to the next campaign stop.”

    OK, so those weren’t my EXACT words – but they weren’t far off from that.

  139. 139.

    dance around in your bones

    @raven:

    What if god was one of us?

    Maybe SHE’D give me gawddamned pain pills!! I mean, I know they get abused and all that shit, but I am just NOT willing to go through this pain for another couple a weeks until my surgery.

    The DEA have made it MUCH harder for people who reallly NEED pain meds to get them. Doc cain’t just call them in anymore. You need the triplicate thingymajig, and every fucking month as well.

    Oh, Alanis!!!! Sprankle me some pills!!!! Just until Dec. 9th.

  141. 141.

    SFAW

    And in other “Why are the Democrat Party ‘leaders’ such fuckwads?” news:

    Andy Cuomo is, apparently, being a dick. Again.

    Kinda gets me all warm and fuzzy or something.

  143. 143.

    SFAW

    @dance around in your bones:

    Just until Dec. 9th.

    It will be tons better after that. (Your hip, right? I had both done at once, and except for the pain from the incisions, I was pain-free for a long time after. And the incision pain was pretty much gone after 2-3 days. Even now, the pain is from soft tissue, not the joint itself.)

  147. 147.

    jibeaux

    Trying to unravel some hopelessly tangled yarn so I can finish knitting a 2nd sock.
    It’s not as sad as it sounds. I saw Interstellar — in I MAX — earlier, and SNL will be on soon.

  148. 148.

    lamh36

    I swear I’m not stuck on Star Trek, but this just came across my twitter til.

    Wow, is this true?

    Well, someone already said that Lucille Balla and Desi Arnez was actually first interracial kiss, but I’m thinking this kiss had way more impact for a larger number of people?

    @KhaledBeydoun
    46 Years Ago Today – Star Trek featured the 1st Interracial Kiss in American TV History.

    https://twitter.com/KhaledBeydoun/status/536262011391205376

  149. 149.

    SFAW

    @Morzer:

    Is it wrong of me to pray that Andrew Cuomo encounters a buzzsaw on a dark and stormy night?

    Only if you have don’t have an alibi.

  151. 151.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Morzer: I have a friend who cut off two of her fingers with one. She picked up her fingers, put ’em on ice, and then her partner drove her to the hospital where they were reattached. The ring finger attachment was fully successful, the pinky one was not. Now when she does hand tracery turkeys for Thanksgiving, they look a bit odd.

  153. 153.

    SFAW

    @Morzer:

    is to procure a reverse-kitten.

    I was afraid you were going to say “anti-kitten.” Because then, if the kitten and anti-kitten met – total annihilation.

  154. 154.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Desi was Cuban, but isn’t he still considered white in terms of race?

    Desi was Cuban, in somewhat the same way that Maximilian I was Mexican.

    ETA: And, yes, Kirk and Uhura kissing was the first.

  156. 156.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    You’d think it would be Portland, except maybe Portlanders are too evolved to celebrate American Genocide Day?

    ah, history, how does that work? One can go bother doing some fucking research – boring, or run with the latest cause head bullshit peculating around – fun. Meanwhile Wiki claims Thanksgiving as we understand it was a creation of Henry VIII as part of the English Reformation. But, hey they show Indians in the department stores, so Thanksgiving must really be about ganking Americans Indians, am I right?

    Meanwhile, back to laughing at Tea Party members for running on self serving emotion.

  157. 157.

    Howard Beale IV

    @dance around in your bones:

    The DEA have made it MUCH harder for people who reallly NEED pain meds to get them. Doc cain’t just call them in anymore. You need the triplicate thingymajig, and every fucking month as well.

    Yep: You can thank the fact that hydromprphone went from Schedule III to Schedule II. OTOH, there are some other opiates if you want to do some research that may work that may not pose such a prescribing burden (hydromorphone, tramadol, oxymorphone)

  159. 159.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I don’t know Desi’s back story.

    I don’t either. But, as best as I can tell, Cubans of that era seemed to be either strong Spanish lineage, or “native” lineage. Although I guess Desi would have had to be Austrian for my analogy to be totally spot-on.

  165. 165.

    Feebog

    Just booked a flight for Seattle tomorrow morning. My 93 year old dad has been in the hospital all week and things are not looking good. So glad we were able to throw a 70th anniversary party in August with the entire family there. Not looking forward to the next couple days.

  167. 167.

    lamh36

    On Monday, President Obama will be giving out the Medal of Freedom award to a number of individuals.

    One of the posthumous groups who will receive the Medal are the 3 Freedom Riders killed at the onset of that crazy summer.

    Medal of Freedom for the Freedom Fighters 50 years later http://bit.ly/1vtLu6h

  170. 170.

    Morzer

    @Howard Beale IV:

    Andrew Cuomo is such a mean, petty, small-minded thug. At least we can be sure he’s never going to make it through the presidential primary, which has to chap his ambitious little corruptican ass mightily.

  171. 171.

    Suzanne

    @geg6: That Snoqualmie Riesling is one of my favorite wines. It’s spendy for my tastes, but I love to have it on occasion. I’m glad to hear that John is okay.

    I am usually a Grinch about the holiday season starting too early, but I am just feeling really great about life this year and am having fun decking the halls. (Though I did return the stuff I got at Hobby Lobby because of my liberal guilt, even though their prices are AWESOME on holiday stuff.) I treated myself to two new candlesticks from Ikea, and my table already looks so damn festive.

    Part of the reason that I am feeling so good about life is that my new job is SO MUCH BETTER than my old one. SO MUCH BETTER. I was told at my last place that I was negative, and it’s true—I was hating my job and my life because I was at the end of my rope and totally burned out. I had an unreasonable workload and I dreaded going in. Never took a lunch break, never had projects adequately staffed, never felt like I was giving any project the attention it deserved. But I’m a very positive person by nature, and I come home tired but not exhausted at the end of the day now. I have time for my family and my art. I even sprung, for the first time in my life ever, for a cleaning team to come in and clean my house. I seriously almost came afterward. Mindblowing.

  172. 172.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: Good. They deserve it. After all these years I still can’t believe that Reagan started his official 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, MS – on my 16th birthday no less.

  173. 173.

    PurpleGirl

    I don’t know Desi Arnaz’s back story but I dated a Cuban in college and he was always talking about his family’s history and their being lower Spanish aristocracy who established themselves in Cuba 300-odd years years ago. He had black hair and eyes and that pinkish milk white skin.

  174. 174.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Omnes Omnibus: When I was 17, I was running a high-speed check sorter. I was adjusting the ink punp on the endorser drum pump when my middle finger on my right hand (its always the middle finger) got caught in a tri-pully mechanism, which resulted in the top of my finger being severed, being held together by a half-inch of of skin and a nerve. The interlock, which is supposed to stop the sorter from running when the lid of the sorter is lifted, was disconnected.

    I didn’t feel anything the instant it happened, but five minutes later I was in shock. Six hours later I was in surgery where the plastic surgeon (God rest his soul) reattached my finger.

    This was in 1977. My right middle finger is still bent, but I still have it.

  175. 175.

    skerry

    @Omnes Omnibus: Ben Chaney was James Chaney’s younger brother and just a boy when James was murdered. This is from an interview with Amy Goodman in 2000:

    BEN CHANEY: His grave has been desecrated and vandalized for the past thirty-six years. The most severe desecration occurred in 1992, right after we put up a four foot marble monument. His photograph was shot out of the monument, someone kicked down the monument and tried to scratch his name off the inscriptions. So, yeah, there’s been a lot of serious vandalism, particularly in that area around the grave.

    Very little has changed in east-central and southeastern Mississippi. It’s like time has stood still. There’s still large unemployment of African Americans, particularly African American youths. Education is still, like, very low; jobs, very, very bad off, very low. There has been very little change. In fact, the power structure has remained pretty much the same.”

    The family had to erect a steel structure to keep people from knocking over the tombstone. As recently as 2005, someone tried to dig up the grave.

    ETA: The last 2 paragraphs should not have been in the block quote – nor this ETA. Ugh. chocolate, I must have chocolate.

  176. 176.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Howard Beale IV: My friend’s ring finger is bent and comparatively thin, but it’s there. What is great about it is that she, from the time it happened, handled the whole thing with humor.

  177. 177.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Morzer: Andrew “Gorilla Face” Cuomo deserves to have a 20-ft long barb-wire wrapped curare-tipped telephone phone rammed up his ass with no lubricants.

  178. 178.

    p.a.

    @Baud: not at that time. Changing definition of whiteness. To be crude about it, once white males are willing to publicly admit to fvcking group X, group X magically becomes white (enough).

  179. 179.

    Ruckus

    @dance around in your bones:
    The VA won’t do anything about mine until either the pain level is a constant, probably somewhere in the 7-9 range, either that or when I can’t walk. So I understand having to wait and what that can make your life like. But then I don’t need the Vicodin yet so probably not as bad as all that. But there are days when it’s all I can do to keep from screaming. Which is not as much fun as some might imagine.

  180. 180.

    Howard Beale IV

    @skerry: This kind of shit makes me want to fund installing automated weapons stacks that shoot lasers of such assholes that come in such range. I don’t want to kill them, I want to mark them for life.

  182. 182.

    Suzanne

    @skerry: That is so unbelievably awful. I hope Chaney’s family, as well as Goodman and Schwerner’s families, believe that they acted in the right. That would be, I think, the only small comfort to them for their losses.

  184. 184.

    skerry

    @p.a.: I grew up in a sundown town in Indiana. I’m not old enough to personally remember when Italians were accepted as “white”, but I heard stories. I do remember a family moving in where the mother was light-skinned Puerto Rican. The children were not treated well, but the house didn’t burn down unlike the black family that moved in around the same time (late 1960s). A couple of years later, a family moved in where the mother was native Hawaiian. Those children (one of whom was a friend of mine) were bullied horribly and called all kinds of racial slurs, including n*clang. In both these families, the father was a native son who had been in the military, married and brought his family back to his hometown.

    (I speak of the children because I, too, was a child. I don’t know directly how the adults fared.)

  186. 186.

    max

    @Pogonip: @SFAW: Reading the last two choices tempted me to suggest to the survey writers that perhaps killing themselves, because they’re too fucking stupid to live, might be something they should consider. And it’s fucking stupidity like those questions which will make Rove’s “permanent majority” much more likely. If I had any hair left, I’d have pulled it all out after reading that stupid fucking thing. (Hmm, seems to be a lot of “fucking stupid” in this diatribe, what can it mean?)

    … YEAH! Of course it’s not for actually asking any opinions (I filled in a DNC mailed survey earlier in the year and I just started writing in stuff like, ‘No idiot wars with Iran’), they just want to rally the troops to give more money.

    That said, I see they have a fill-in-the-blank question: “What do you think the Democratic Party can do differently to be more successful in midterm elections?”

    I am thinking of answering ‘Sack Debbie Wasserman Schultz’.

    max
    [‘”What did the Dems do well?” Well, Obama did more or less OK, all things considered, but Congressional Democrats couldn’t find their asses with both hands, a guide dog and road map.’]

  187. 187.

    Violet

    @Suzanne: A soul-sucking work situation is just awful. It just gets into every aspect of your life. Been there. I’m sorry you had to deal with it but glad you’re out. Sure does help you appreciate a good work situation, doesn’t it?

  189. 189.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Suzanne: From everything I have read about them, their families were strongly supportive of what they were doing. Schwerner’s wife, IIRC, was working for civil rights somewhere else in MS when the three were killed.

  190. 190.

    Suzanne

    @max: Do you really think that firing DWS would fix the problem the Dems are having? I think it’s a systemic issue, myself.

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s great. I hope that, like many soldiers, their families are comforted by the fact that they died honorable deaths. Ironically, they truly did make the world safer for democracy.

  191. 191.

    Hal

    The Indianapolis Star ran a Thanksgiving-themed cartoon today, from editorial cartoonist Gary Varvel, featuring a family bursting through the window of another family’s Thanksgiving feast. “Thanks to the president’s immigration order,” says the family patriarch, “we’ll be having extra guests this Thanksgiving.” Ha-ha!

    http://gawker.com/newspaper-runs-racist-cartoon-removes-mustache-and-mak-1662127425?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

    So how did the star “fix” the cartoon? They erased the guys big bushy mustache. Then finally deleted and apologized for the cartoon.

    So the executive editor has since written about the cartoon.

    On Friday, we posted a Gary Varvel cartoon at indystar.com that offended a wide group of readers.

    Many of them labeled it as racist. Gary did not intend to be racially insensitive in his attempt to express his strong views about President Barack Obama’s decision to temporarily prevent the deportation of millions of immigrants living and working illegally in the United States.

    Gary did not intend to be racially insensitive, but could not think of any other way to convey his feeling other than a racist portrayal of a Mexican family breaking into someone’s house to steal their turkey?

    http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/2014/11/22/jeff-taylor-gary-varvel-thanksgiving-cartoon-immigration-opinion/19408509/

  192. 192.

    Suzanne

    @Violet: I hated it so, so much. I was working ridiculous hours even though my coworkers weren’t. You know what they gave me when I got my license? The license they pushed and pushed and pushed me to get? Saying that I’d get promoted and it would be amazing? The license that took me more than three years of studying until I was bleary-eyed every night to get, and I was the first person in my office in about six years to earn? In other firms, getting licensed is a multi-thousand-dollar raise.

    They gave me a $50 gift card. And they only gave it to me after I put in my notice. And then my boss told me that he was disappointed in me for quitting, after they “invested so much” in me.

  193. 193.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Hal:

    Gary did not intend to be racially insensitive, but could not think of any other way to convey his feeling other than a racist portrayal of a Mexican family breaking into someone’s house to steal their turkey?

    Yes, exactly. I mean, what other way could he have possibly chosen?

  194. 194.

    Morzer

    Gary did not intend to be racially insensitive

    He’s just naturally gifted that way.

    Mind you, even the despicable Varvel pales in comparison with Ira Hansen, the newly selected GOP speaker of the Nevada House:

    http://www.newsreview.com/reno/on-paper/content?oid=15531962

    He wrote that African-Americans are insufficiently grateful for being given their freedom: “The lack of gratitude and the deliberate ignoring of white history in relation to eliminating slavery is a disgrace that Negro leaders should own up to.”

    Latinos did not escape his attention: “Locally, gangs and their associated criminal activity are obviously dominated by immigrants, especially Hispanic immigrants. You cannot read a story about criminals or watch a news report locally without noticing a grossly disproportionate amount of Hispanic involvement.”

    Hansen seems to define men who abuse boys as homosexual, though the scholarship says that most abuse is committed by heterosexuals. He also seems to consider gays to be deviant by definition.

    “Considering only about 2 percent of adult males are homosexuals, the numbers show why homosexuals have been historically regarded as such a threat. Male homosexuals are grossly disproportionate in child molestation cases, and the youth orientation of male homosexuality drives this trend.”

    “Yet, one fact of homosexuality deliberately downplayed is the grossly disproportionate numbers of child molesters, called ’pederasts,’ which fill their ranks. In fact, they are called, in the homosexual vernacular, ’chicken hawks.’ Many of these pederasts are not the least bit ashamed of their vile behavior and have adopted the militancy now so common with their fellow homosexuals.

    https://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/hansen-im-victim-character-assassination

    Hansen: I’m a victim of “character assassination”
    by Jon Ralston Sat, 11/22/2014 – 13:23

    Yeah, that’s it: Ira Hansen is being bullied and his character impugned by, you know, anyone who has read his horrific columns, terrible letter about gays and words during the session.

  196. 196.

    skerry

    @p.a.: An interesting book written in 2005 about the subject. A lot of James Loewen research can be seen at this website.

    My first clear memory is when I was about 5/6 years old. I was riding my bike down the street. There was a black man walking on the sidewalk. A man was sitting on his porch and stood up and yelled, “It’s almost dark, boy. You should get on home.”

    I never had a conversation with a person of another race (excepting the 5 bi-racial children I mentioned in the earlier comment) who wasn’t in a service role (waitress, retail, etc.) until I was in college. In 1978. I recall meeting the first person I knew to be Jewish in 1979.

  200. 200.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @divF:

    Jamesir Bensonmum: She murdered herself in her sleep, sir.

    Dick Charleston: You mean suicide?

    Jamesir Bensonmum: Oh no, it was murder, all right. Mrs. Twain HATED herself.

  202. 202.

    Violet

    @Suzanne: Yeah, I remember you saying that before. That former workplace sounds awful. Your boss was abusive. I had an abusive boss. At any one time about half of the people in the department would be clinically depressed. He’d pit one person against the other by telling lies–say one person had said X about the other. Just complete lies. He was also a complete misogynist so tormented any strong, smart woman that had the misfortune to be in his area.

    I could go on and on but I know you know where I’m coming from. It’s a horror show working for someone like that. So glad you got out. It’s toxic to every area of your life.

  204. 204.

    Morzer

    @efgoldman:

    It’s very noticeable that the UKIP followers in the UK have been using the same trick whenever (rather frequently) one of their councillors resigns after saying something racist/homophobic/misogynist. It’s a marvel and a wonder that so many representatives chosen by the faithful can be completely unrepresentative of a party that had no idea what they were like.

  209. 209.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Morzer: I am capable of putting away a decent amount of liquor if the mood takes me, but I don’t think that I could last more than a day or two of drinking the amount of liquor that it would take to square the circle of being sensible and Republican.

  211. 211.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: My ex had a co-worker at a job a few years ago who was in a band. He liked her and talked to her about his band – metal. He gave her a cd. I saw the band name – Lester Maddox. I made sure that we had something else to do on nights when that band had shows. In the ex’s defense, she was foreign and the name would have had no resonance for her. But to me, Jesus. The cd was never played.

  212. 212.

    Little Boots

    is it wong I come here for the music? is it really wrong that omnes has not been providing lately?

  217. 217.

    SFAW

    @max:
    Yeah, I chose to use the fill-in-the-blank-box to answer their question(s), and get in a few shots unasked-for, including commenting on that last multi-choice thing. Also told them I’d be happy to chat with them, if they so desired. Which they won’t, of course.

    @Suzanne:

    Do you really think that firing DWS would fix the problem the Dems are having? I think it’s a systemic issue, myself.

    1) Yes. Maybe not completely, but it would be a good start.
    2) And who heads up the “system”? (And it ain’t Obama, Rahm, Plouffe, or Axelrod.)

    Her response to Rancid Priapus’s lies and generally vile behavior was, more or less, “Nuh uh! We’re not1 And stop being mean!” Yeah, she sometimes fired a shot across the bow, but not often enough.

    I seem to remember, somewhere in antiquity, someone had a 50-state strategy. But I think he was a loony-tune – screaming on camera, or some such – so I’m sure that never worked out for him. Thank FSM he wasn’t overseeing strategy this time, otherwise the Dems might have gotten killed in the midterms.

  220. 220.

    Morzer

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Especially when that head has been far too buddy-buddy with GOP congresscritters from her own state, rather than fighting tooth and nail to boot their worthless asses into the ocean.

  231. 231.

    LookingForACanadian

    One of the biggest problems Gopher football has is a completely flaky and inconsistent fan base. I smart enough to know there are other fundamental issues, but this is one that I am so completely tired of.

  235. 235.

    Suzanne

    @SFAW: I agree with you that Howard Dean was a much better leader and strategist. But plenty of the left hated the 50-state strategy, and plenty of those people think that Elizabeth Warren can win over enough people across the country to win the presidency. I think the fundamental problem is that there are more politically active, engaged conservatives than there are liberals, and that will be a problem no matter who’s in the corner office, or the Oval Office, for that matter.

    @Omnes Omnibus: You can post New Order 10 times a day and it wouldn’t be enough. As for Swift, I have to admit she’s grown on me.

  237. 237.

    SFAW

    @Suzanne:

    But plenty of the left hated the 50-state strategy,

    That’s not how I recall it. There may have been skepticism that it would work, but once it became obvious that it would/did, skepticism mostly evaporated. But I don’t think “hate” was an operative verb during that period.

    I think the fundamental problem is that there are more politically active, engaged conservatives than there are liberals, and that will be a problem no matter who’s in the corner office, or the Oval Office, for that matter.

    Not sure what “politically active, engaged” means, unless it’s your way of saying the Rethugs GOTV operation (in whatever form – personal contact, fear-mongering ads, heavy negative ads against Dems) worked better than the Dems.

    As for “problem no matter who’s in the corner office, or the Oval Office, for that matter”: So what? There will always be problems to overcome. If DWS ain’t up to it – as seems to have been the case – then get someone who is. I seem to remember people – myself included, actually – saying in 2007 that this country, with all of its overt and covert racism, would not elect Obama. That was, to my mind, a far bigger problem than what DWS had to overcome. She (or her surrogate/proxy) should have started hammering the Rethugs as soon as the 2012 election was over. The Rethugs had someone hammering Obama and the Dems every fucking day – where were the Dem hammers?

    So, yeah, there will be problems. If I thought I were smart enough to do the job, I’d volunteer, because I’m OK with working on problems previously beyond my grasp. I have usually found a way to solve them. All I want is someone with a clue to run things.

  239. 239.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Suzanne: I have dated people who called me 25 or so times from midnight until 6:00am to find out who I am with (I was in bed alone with the ringer off) with each call being gradually more insane and containing more assumptions that I was screwing around. There are more stories about this particular ex, but this isn’t the time. FWIW, if I am actually dating someone (or are married to someone), I don’t fuck around. When officially single, I can be slutty. Ms. Swift gives off vibes of the insane caller. Of course, that doesn’t make her type unattractive, because I am a bit nuts myself.

  240. 240.

    Suzanne

    @SFAW: Plenty of libs voiced a great deal of frustration with the Blue Dogs. I heard a great deal of, “What’s the point of electing a Democrat if they’re gonna vote like a Republican?”. And a fair share of people, including many on this blog, seem to think that the correct response to this ass-whupping we just received is to put up more pure progressive candidates, as they are more “inspiring to the base”.

    Of people who are very likely or somewhat likely to vote, especially in midterm elections, there are more Republicans. That’s what I meant by “politically active, engaged”.

    I think this is a big problem and I think that the leadership can’t fix it, no matter who it is. I think laziness with regard to citizenship and a culture of political disengagement have crept into society to a greater degree. I meet horrifyingly large numbers of people who tune out completely, and don’t vote, even if they have the time. More people watched The Big Bang Theory than the President’s speech.

  241. 241.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: DAMN. That’s some top-shelf batshit right there. But if you bring that on yourself repeatedly, you must like it, in a weird way. Have fun with that. I learned not to like crazy. It distracts from other fun things.

  243. 243.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Suzanne: It doesn’t describe the totality of my dating experience. I have always tended to let women make the first moves. If they like me, who am I to say no?

  245. 245.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Suzanne: No, you cynical person. A good 90% of my dating relationships have come from the woman making “the move” to change things from a casual conversation/flirtation to a “thing.” That is my history. I’ve been kind of pretty in my day.

  246. 246.

    dance around in your bones

    @different-church-lady: Well, thanks for saying that. I was right cranky that day and probably took it wrong.

    Plus my hip FUCKING HURTS all day, and all of the night! Makes me kinda cranky – though I did sing a lil old doggie to sleep tonight – her “Mom” went out to a costume party wearing angel wings, and from then on it was just me and Maddie.

    I ran thru the whole Beatles repertoire, some Willy Nelson, some Dylan, some Neil Young, some Eddie Vedder and then I just started making up shit.

    Like, singing what had happened during the day….I wish you could see the pic I took of her lying on my pillow with her legs up in the air and her tongue hanging out and I told her “Dudette, I think you took some kinda drugs tonite” because she was just so relaxed and out of it.

  247. 247.

    dance around in your bones

    @Another Holocene Human: Lighten up, dude. He’s actually very sweet and considerate of my funky hip and like I said, I’m kinda cranky due to the pain meds running out so perhaps I have lapses in humor from time to time,

    I guess I shouldn’t say that about him, but I had just watched Wayne’s World again for the laughs, and naturalmente, the line stuck with me.

  248. 248.

    SFAW

    @Suzanne:
    Sorry for getting back to you late, couldn’t stay awake any longer last night.

    Frustration with Blue Dogs is, although a big factor, different from hating a 50-state strategy. About the only Blue Dog that (currently) drives me crazy is Manchin, and a large part of that is because of where our esteemed Mr. Cole is located. (Meaning: I wouldn’t be as aware of Manchin otherwise.)

    The thing about pushing the progressive base, and associated issues, is that in survey after survey, the country supports policy choices that are more, or much more, progressive/liberal than what the Rethugs do. For example: the current health care law is less popular when the word “Obamacare” gets thrown in; immigration policy would be much more liberal if the Rethugs followed what the voters want; minimum wage increase is more popular than whatever bullshit the Rethugs are pushing in that regard; marriage equality is more popular than the Rethugs would have you believe, and so on.

    But the Dems can’t seem to figure out how to use the country’s ACTUAL policy preferences to gain votes, by doing something like, oh I don’t know, SCREAMING FROM THE ROOFTOPS that the Rethugs are trying to fuck over anyone who isn’t extremely rich. And THAT is what DWS should have been one of the key things that DWS should have been focusing on.

    I agree that a too-large proportion of Dems need(s) to have a perfect world before they’ll vote for someone. Some of them are even BJ commenters, who’d’a thunk it? Until they realize that the real-world implications of allowing Rethugs to win elections will fuck them over – in large ways or small – they’ll keep pulling a St. Ralph (“both sides are the same,” “he’s almost as bad as a Republican,” “well, the Repub seemed like a guy I could have a beer with,” or whatever).

    So, yeah, I’m OK with focusing on the “base,” because that’s where the votes are (or would be, if the Dem braintrust did their jobs).

  249. 249.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ve been kind of pretty in my day.

    Arty got all the pretty boys, eh?

    ETA: Said in envy, of course. The expression “good-looking” has never been used within 25 words of my name, unless they were referring to someone else.

  251. 251.

    Older

    @dance around in your bones: You need one of those new-fangled “Pain Reduction Specialists”. I was recently referred to one. He’s very weird. Very very weird, in fact. Apparently he reviewed my records and when I met him for the first time, he was prepared with a prescription for something I had never been offered before, never even knew it existed, and it was wonderful. He knew what I needed. But he’s still weird.

    But practically speaking, if you can just hold on till the operation, your problems are probably pretty much over. Or anyway, that’s how I remember my hip replacement surgery. They kept offering me pain pills and morphine drip in the hospital, and I kept saying, “No thank you. They cut off everything that hurt. I feel fine.”

  252. 252.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    @Corner Stone:

    are you exclaiming at me or telling me?

    just curious on what others where/had been seeing over the

    Just commenting in response to your query.

  253. 253.

    SFAW

    @Older:

    morphine drip in the hospital

    PCA morphine is pretty effing good. I hated taking pain killers, but the pain from my incisions was pretty bad, until I pressed that button. Oh yeah.

    Hips done on a Thursday, stopped the morphine that Saturday, ibuprofen for another day or two, et voila!

Comments are closed.