The older I get, the more I think we need a word for the opposite of nostalgia — a word to express the dark humor-slash-remorse one feels upon remembering that the terrible things one dreaded in the past have come true, usually in forms even worse than we imagined. Robert Chalmers, in Newsweek, interviews the 78-year-old visual satirist probably best known in America for his collaborations with Hunter S. Thompson:
We were sitting in a bar in Aspen, Colorado, almost 20 years ago, I remind Ralph Steadman, when he first told me that he’d become a cartoonist because he wanted to change the world. It wasn’t the first time he’d made this declaration and it wouldn’t be the last. But it’s a mission statement that seems horribly apposite this afternoon, as we sit in the living room of his house near Maidstone, Kent, watching live news coverage from the print warehouse where Said and Cherif Kouachi, the killers of the Charlie Hebdo artists, are making their last stand.
“It is interesting that you should mention that remark today,” says Steadman, “because, looking at what has been happening in Paris, I now feel that I have succeeded. I did manage to change the world, and it is a worse place than it was when I started. Far worse – an achievement I had always assumed would be impossible.”…
Some years ago, when we were travelling in Utah, Steadman told me that he feels interviews sometimes risk sounding like posthumous tributes. What adjectives, I asked him, would he like to see in his own obituary?
“Distasteful,” he said. “Unhygienic. Truculent. Moody. Provocative towards bastards.”
“How about long-lived?”
“Oh, yes. I’d like my obituary to say: ‘He was very long-lived. Endlessly. We thought he’d never go away’. A pause. “And we were right: he didn’t.”…
“I think – I know – that satire does frighten fascists. Fascists don’t like satire. They don’t like it at all. And they especially don’t enjoy visual satire. Because of its unique power to communicate. As Wittgenstein [Ludwig] asserted, the only thing of value is the thing you cannot say. Sometimes you can’t communicate the idea or the emotion, but a drawing can. You draw something, and people say: ‘Oh, I see what you’re getting at now’.” And that thought, Steadman says, “brings us back to what happened in that room at Charlie Hebdo. Some things,” he adds, “there are no words for”.
Steadman’s graphic response to the Charlie Hebdo murders — as well as some of his other works — are at the link. Well worth clicking over to see!
Tommy
I actually got a BA and a MA in Journalism to a large extent because of Hunter S. Thompson. He was in fact one of the only “heroes” in my teen and young adult years. I am sure if he was around today he’d find the irony of me not actually practicing “gonzo” journalism and going into advertising both funny and a sad sign of our times.
I also had no idea Ralph Steadman did the drawings for Fear and Loathing. Read it many times. First time I went to Vegas for a conference my boss wanted to put me up in Caesars Palace, where the conference was being held. I asked to stay at Circus Circus (those that have read Fear know why)!
With that said, there are just some amazing quotes in this article:
One the fact when he started drawing cartoon he did so because he wanted to change the world ….
“It is interesting that you should mention that remark today,” says Steadman, “because, looking at what has been happening in Paris, I now feel that I have succeeded. I did manage to change the world, and it is a worse place than it was when I started. Far worse – an achievement I had always assumed would be impossible.”
On if it is reasonable to people to get offended by some of Charlie Hebdo’s work ….
“Yes,” Steadman replies. “It is quite reasonable for a reader to be offended. It’s slightly less reasonable to enter an office armed with two Kalashnikovs and a grenade. Most people would regard that as something of an overreaction.”
On what some might think of his lifetime of work ….
“Oh, yes. I’d like my obituary to say: ‘He was very long-lived. Endlessly. We thought he’d never go away’. A pause. “And we were right: he didn’t.”
On the killers being like politicians ….
In many ways, Steadman argues, “I think that terrorists and some political leaders share a similar mindset, in that they consider themselves to be believers. They are devoted to a cause and they’ll go to any lengths to uphold their chosen position. They are not completely stable, as the word is usually understood. So you can see a kind of similarity between terrorist operations and the rationale that led to the excursions to Vietnam or Afghanistan?”
There are many others I could have posted, but then I would have almost posted the entire article as is. It is well worth a few minutes to get through. THANKS so much for posting.
OzarkHillbilly
They have claws!
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: LOL. The place was a total dump at the time I stayed there. I can only assume a total shell of itself from when Hunter was there and it became the “jumping off point” for Fear and Loathing. I almost checked out of the place because I was scared to think what might be on the bed/bed spread.
The only positive was I was there the first time over Halloween. I’d left dinner and a networking party at Caesars where everybody in the hotel was in a suit or high-end designer cloths. I got back to Circus Circus and everybody but me was in a costumes. And I mean over-the-top costumes. It was a total “freak show” (and I mean that in a good way).
Oh and their was a Krispy Kreme 10 feet directly in front of me when I got off the elevator on the main floor. You could watch the donunts coming off the conveyor belt through a glass window and almost directly into my hands. In the four days there, I shutter to think how many I ate. But it was dozens and dozens.
OzarkHillbilly
I have to say, it would take a lot of money to get me into Vegas, and I suspect I would give it all back in a New York minute to leave again.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m with you. I’ve never been a huge Vegas fan. The surrounding desert and hills and lakes are nice, however.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: I hate Vegas. Been a dozen or more times for conferences and work and the second the plane leaves the ground getting me back home I do a happy dance. Now it is much, much more “family friendly” then it was years ago, I think the city is trying to get people to visit that don’t just want to gamble and party, but still …..
There is also amazing food everywhere you look, if you want to mortage your house. But still I just hate, hate, hate the place. Even free booze while playing cheap video poker machines doesn’t make it bareable.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: My wife has been to Vegas for business a couple times, and that is just what she says.
Mike E
@Tommy: Hot. Donuts. Now.
Raven
It’s 34 at the bakery and it seems like it’s 60!
Raven
It’s 34 at the bakery and it seems like it’s 60!
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Hey, I don’t know if you saw this?
Tommy
@Mike E: Oh I am right there with you. I just had an egg sandwhich with mushrooms, onions, banana peppers, and of course cheese. A small side of hashbrowns. But lets be honest, if you had knocked on my front door just as I was sitting down to eat, with a dozen, warm, Krispy Kreme donunts what I just fixed and ate would have ended up in the trash and I’d be grabbing you and me some paper towels and a large glass of milk :)!
BTW: I am one of those “strange” people that don’t like sweet food. Almost can’t stand chocloate. But donuts, well that is something else all together. I am just lucky the only Krispy Kreme by me is a 40 mile round trip. Just two blocks from where my brother lives. If I lived there I fear I’d weight a lot more and might have to join a 12-step Krispy Kreme program.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: When it comes to donuts, I lived at Shaw and Vandeventer for a couple years. Half a block away was Worlds Fair Donuts. Donuts still made the old fashioned hand made way. Many’s the morn I walked over there and got glazed donuts still warm from the fryer. They would literally melt in my mouth. Their’s make Krispey Kremes look like the pigs fodder they really are. ;-)
Really the best donuts anywhere. If you ever go to the MO Botanical Garden, make the side trip and have a few (they are still in business). In fact, have a couple for me, I can’t eat donuts anymore. Really messes with my blood sugar.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for the heads up.
I might just do that. I am down to the last week or so (if the client can flipping get me the products he wants to put on his e-Commerce site) of finishing up the largest web development project I’ve ever worked on, by like a factor of 5. Once done I am going to take a few days off. Even though the Metro is only a few miles from my house, I don’t head downtown and to places like Forest Park enough.
Thinking of looking for a few days it is in the high-40s lows 50s. Heading down with an overnight bag, my mountain bike, getting a cheap hotel room for 3 or so nights, and taking a short (but needed) kind of “stay at home” vacation.
Heck it has been months since I’ve been to the Central West End, about my favorite place in the city. Take a cab to “The Hill” and eat enough pasta to kill a horse. You know do things like that and recharge.
That seems like a good idea …..
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Yeah I caught that. Soon now… very soon. You and your bride have to be getting a little excited now.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: My grandmother used to make old fashioned donuts in a deep fryer. There is no comparison.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m just particularly pleased with the contractor and his troops.
Raven
This review of Sniper is much better than the bullshit someone posted the other day.
Raven
Link
Crap, no go on the ipad
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: @Raven: Weird, click on your reply button and I leave Balloon Juice. I was just gonna say that Clint makes good movies. Some people have trouble separating his work from his politics.
ThresherK
@OzarkHillbilly: And you’re on the same side of the mighty Mississip’ as Las Vegas. From my East Coast vantage point I don’t get the appeal of Vegas on its face.
Mind you, my idea of “big entertainment” is going two hours to NYC and the real Broadway, so I’ll admit that has shaped my tastes and perhaps spoiled me. How close is Las Vegas to achieving that “megalopolis entertainment momentum” wherein it’s so big a planet that little moons and asteroids of niche places and events gravitate to it?
The geek in me, though, is fascinated by how Vegas “works” as a feat of engineering, in the same way that I’d love to watch the Radio City Music Hall Holiday Spectacular from behind the curtain, or a Disney theme park from underground, simply to marvel at the logistical planning and coordination required to run it.
JPL
Raven, Is this the proper link? American Sniper
JoyfulA
@JPL: My grandmother made doughnuts, too, but fried in a big pot of lard and then cooled on a broomstick. Those were the days!
I have the recipe somewhere. If I weren’t so lazy, I could be really fat.
JPL
@JoyfulA: That is how my grandmother did it, although she didn’t use a broom. I haven’t even tried fried chicken so donuts would be out of the question. The good news is I’ve never been a fan of krispy kreme, since those things aren’t donuts.
jayboat
Love me some Ralph- my favorite illustrator, mostly because of Thompson and because I’m a dirty liebrul cynic.
@Baud:
Don’t want to hijack the thread, but ‘nice’ is a bit of an understatement. 8-]] I am fortunate that I cover a large boating event in Lake Havasu every spring and to get there (about 150 mi south of LV) I fly into Vegas. My buddy lives there and is a helicopter pilot that flies the event so we take the chopper down the Colorado River. Breathtaking does not begin to cover how incredible that country is. I have so many incredible images that I am seriously considering publishing a book. There is nothing I’ve ever seen to compare to it.
Since it’s Sunday and we gots no puppehs yet, here’s a few pix.
Lake Mohave
The Sandbar
Devil’s Elbow
Lake Havasu looking north
Vegas at sunset
satby
I’ve had several opportunities to go to Vegas and passed them all up, and I love to travel. I don’t gamble, I burn in the sun, and I don’t like to be inside all the time. Vegas sounds like hell to me.
satby
@JPL: Agree. Krispy Kremes aren’t donuts, they’re abominations. A real bakery donut can be a treat, Krispy Kremes are just fried sugar.
Gin & Tonic
As Wittgenstein [Ludwig] asserted, the only thing of value is the thing you cannot say
Bullshit.
nancydarling
@OzarkHillbilly: I liked Vegas in the old days when, I’m guessing, the mob still ran it. It was an adult playground—no one would have dreamed of taking their kids there.
All the casino bars had great lounge acts. They were young singers and stand-ups trying to break into the big time. The only cost to see them was a two-drink minimum. And a necktie—there was a dress code in those days.
Also casino restaurants had uniformly great and cheap food. It was a draw to get people into the place. They figured they would feed you well and cheaply and then fleece you at the gaming tables.
The sight of all those families passing through on the way to places like Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon gave someone the idea of turning Vegas into a family vacation destination and it’s been down hill ever since.
The last time I was there was the late 80s and I saw someone dressed in a tank-top and cut-offs wheeling a baby stroller down the Strip at 2:00AM. That was it for me.
PurpleGirl
A little after 7 a.m. I began to go out to get my morning coffee and a bagel. I only got a few feet from the curb on my side of the side and I turned back for home. The sidewalk was quite slippery and I almost slipped four times. I will try again in an hour or so and hope the sidewalk isn’t so slippery.
ETA: It’s foggy this morning now.
wilfred
Well, just think of all the politically incorrect things you can’t say and start saying them. Better, don’t complain when someone else does.
jayboat
I can haz comment released from moderation, plz?
OzarkHillbilly
@wilfred: And when you are a d!ck, and I call you on it, are you going to refrain from complaining?
Tommy
@PurpleGirl: That sucks, but alas I know the feeling. We’ve had a couple of long, but light rain for the better part of early afternoon until evening. Just above freezing so not snow. But as the sun when down it got colder and that rain/water turned to a sheet of ice. Not fun trying to walk about. I’ve used several bags of salt already this year in on my walkway and driveway.
NotMax
@satby
Yes, yes, and yes again. Tried some when one opened here. They don’t even try to mask the putrid chemical flavor. Worse than the so-called donuts is the glaze, which has a repulsive metallic taste. Suffice to say one visit to the shop was more than enough.
Baud
I’m thinking of getting Chromecast. Let me know if you think it’s a good product.
NotMax
@Raven
Good that they’re so amenable. Waste is a terrible thing to mind.
satby
@Baud: I have it and I like it ok, but it turned out that with the Roku and the fact that I just don’t watch that much TV, I honestly don’t use it very often.
Buddy H
I’m just wondering how Sibelius is doing. He shared his story about horrible neighbors, 18 year olds putting nails under his tires.
I suffered through a similar experience a couple of years back. Some other commenters said “18 year olds move away” but in my experience the type of kids who play with guns and hang out in the garage all day don’t really move far away. The kids who graduate from good schools tend to find meaningful work far away, but the dumb bb gun shits tend to stay close to the old homestead well into their twenties and beyond.
Hope all is okay with Sibelius. His story hit close to home to our own.
WereBear
Ah, now we have a battle! Yeast raised vs cake type. Filled vs frosted. And the side note of the twirly sticks designed to let a busy farm wife not need to flip them over.
I’m sick in bed for the second day running. Must conserve my strength for The Big Annual Event Monday night. It’s highly politic for me to go.
Tommy
@Baud: I have two of them and just got a third in the mail yesterdcay for my third TV. For $35 (not on sale) it is well worth it. Almost no errors ever streaming. Holds the connection for hours. Anything you play/view in the Chrome browser, even a static page you can interact with, goes right on your TV. And of course with things like Netflix and Hulu it works as well. I flat out love it.
The only down side is if you are using all but one HDMI input, it might not fit. The part that plugs into your HDMI is kind of large (and there is a second line that plugs into your TVs USB to power it).
Baud
@satby:
Thanks. I don’t have Netflix. I currently connect my computer directly to the TV with wires and I figured Chromecast would be more civilized.
Baud
@Tommy:
Oh, does the TV need a USB port? I’m not sure mine has that.
Elmo
Not a fan of Vegas either, but my company does our annual manager’s conference there, so I have to go. I amuse myself by putting on a craps-playing seminar. Lots of people don’t know how to play and don’t want to be embarrassed by muddling through in public, so it’s helpful to them to have somebody who knows the game standing behind them telling them what to do.
Last year I had four or five people rotating in and out around me. One of them ended up winning about $350, and the worst anyone else did was break even.
WereBear
@Baud: We had it for months and thought it was great. You need a flat screen TV and some kind of device to “cast” it from, though a laptop or smartphone will do fine.
We had no problem with YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and Vimeo. “Tis a great deal!
Liked it so much, in fact, that we upgraded to an Amazon Fire.
Baud
@WereBear:
Why is the Fire better? (I don’t have Amazon Prime.)
Tommy
@Baud: The TV doesn’t have to have one, but then you’ll need to get one of these to plug the Chromecast into. It doesn’t have a “traditional” AC power outlet you plug into the wall/powerstrip. Of course you can get on with a cable incase the poweroutlet isn’t super close to the TV/Chromecast, since that cable is only a few feet (like two looking at mine) long.
Also the power outlet is the same as for a cell phone and/or tablet. So you could also just get one of those cables that plugs directly into the wall.
You have several options.
WereBear
@Baud: The Chrimecast is like a flash drive.
Baud
@Tommy:
I have a ton of those.
Tommy
@Baud: No, not if you don’t have Prime. I have two Rokos (got rid of cable March of last year) and three Chromecasts. Outside of not getting HBO, Showtime, and the various ESPNs I don’t miss cable in the least.
Amazon’s service is a wonderful, wonderful service, but many shows are pay as you go, like iTunes. You pay for a single show or the entire season for a reduced price. I was worried I’d impluse buy and end up pay about what I was just paying for cable :).
Tommy
@Baud: Then you are good to go right out of the box.
Baud
@Tommy:
Awesome. Thanks.
Woodrowfan
I love his work ever since I saw it in “Fear and Loathing.” But, he also designed stamps for the UK and a few beer cans (!) for Flying Dog Brewery in Maryland,.
Gin & Tonic
@wilfred: Except that’s not what Wittgenstein said at all.
wilfred
@OzarkHillbilly:
Nope, I’d just answer free speech with more free speech and call you a fucking c*nt.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: The Chromecast plugs into your TV’s HDMI port. The device is about 6″ long, so depending on where the HDMI port is it may stick out a little, although part of it is flexible, so you can bend it partially out of the way. It does need power, for which it uses a standard Micro USB B-connector. It comes with one, or at least mine did when I bought it. The power connector is unfortunately at the opposite end as the HDMI, so that adds a bit to the perceived length of the whole setup.
The device works very well, although I don’t use it that often.
WereBear
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks for correction, been a while since I set mine up and now it’s gone to a friend.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
Thank you.
Schlemazel
@Tommy: @Gin & Tonic:
hang on a second. Are you saying the chromecast needs external power? I may be confused because I didn’t read the comments in order but it seems that is what you said. I have been thinking about getting one but keep finding excuses not to.
Glidwrith
@WereBear: Hey, I take mine filled AND frosted!
Joel
@OzarkHillbilly: haven’t seen Sniper, but Gran Torino was garbage. Plotted about as well and cleverly as one of HBO’s old Life Stories specials that featured young Ben Affleck or Callista Flockhart.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I like mine. They’re great for sharing your tablet screen on the TV. The big problem is that you can’t share everything. For the most part, you can only share stuff that you’re seeing from the net rather than stuff that resides entirely on your device. So you can show Netflix or pictures from your online account, but not the game you’re playing or the pictures you uploaded to the device directly. That makes it great for entertainment but not so good for work.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
That’s what I would use it for, so not an issue for me. Do you have to use Chrome browser? I have it, but wondering if it is required.
Gin & Tonic
@Schlemazel: Yes, it needs external power.
Roger Moore
@Schlemazel:
Yes, it does. It draws power through a USB cable. If your TV has a USB port, you can use that to power the Chromecast. If not, you can use an other USB power source.
Tommy
@Schlemazel: Well power via USB, and it comes with that cable. But I suggested a micro connector pluged into the wall outlet. But yes, it won’t run just plugging it into your HDMI port.
I don’t if most people realize this and/or noticed+, but if you have a TV, flat screen you’d bought in the last couple years, and all of them recently they almost all have a USB port.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I stream mostly from my Android tablets, and they can stream from apps other than the browser, like YouTube, Netflix, Photos, etc. I haven’t tried it with a computer, since one of my computers already uses the TV as its screen and the other uses a wired connection rather than WiFi.
Tommy
@Baud: Yes you do for almost everything (not Netflix or Hulu). Now Firefox might have a third party plugin/extension you can use, in fact I bet they do, but I am 110% Chrome so I have never looked.
But pretty much to use Chromecast you have to use the Chrome browser :).
Schlemazel
@Roger Moore: OK – I thought you were saying it needed a USB port AND external power. Darn, now I have one less excuse for not buying one.
@Tommy:
Yeah I have both USB & HDMI on our current TV. I have plugged my chromebook right into the TV to watch some streaming womens hockey games and its kinda clunky.
Thanks guys
Sibelius
@Buddy H: Hey, thanks for your concern. Well, it’s been awfully quiet across the street since Tuesday. I know the one boy is home, his car is there, but the garage door is closed. I’m hoping the message has been delivered in the form of one of our neighbors who is close friends with another of the gents (and his parents). We think it wasn’t either of those boys, but one of their associates who doesn’t live here. Oh, and it looks like mom is home as well. I hadn’t seen her car until yesterday.
Yeah, as I said in a followup, why would they move? Until maybe a girl shows up in their lives? I’ve always thought that women, more or less, modify that sort of behavior.
So, as of this morning (haven’t ventured out yet) we’re staying and going through with our project. Moving out of state isn’t really an option and neither is moving around here. We’re going with the ADT fortress option I suppose to keep everyone as safe as possible.
We feel really stuck. We used to call it the golden handcuffs. Too much to lose to leave. Funny how risk averse you can get. I guess part of me understands these type of youts’. What is their future? If their not “college material” where do they turn for employment, housing, things to stay out of trouble? Here, if you aren’t wealthy you really are limited in your options.
Well, thanks again for your concern and hope everyone has a great Sunday.
Buddy H
@Sibelius: Just make sure you keep checking under your car before you drive. We had the nails-in-the-tire treatment. Long roofing nails. It really bugged me because every now and then I’d read about accidents on the thruway, where someone’s tire blew out and caused a massive problem, often fatal. Some serious stuff.
We finally moved. The little acts of vandalism, the nails (which I considered attempted murder) the dogs sent into my yard to shit, and I just didn’t want to live like that anymore.
We had no luck with the parents, because asshole boys more often than not are the product of asshole parents. And of course the police were uninterested. But it sounds like you might be in a better situation than we were. Good luck to you.
dance around in your bones
My mom used to make what I called ‘ Episcopalian donuts’ after we went to ( Episcopal ) church on Sunday’s. That would be those biscuits ( cut in half) that come in a pop tube, then deep fat fried in her table top electric skillet (as I recall, Crisco was the deep fat) until golden brown and then shaken in a brown paper bag with powdered sugar, sugar & cinnamon or other asst sugars, and piled high on plates until consumed ( in about 2 minutes flat, 4 kids doncha know) —– they were miraculously good.
jak
Extinct Boids is another excellent Ralph Steadman collection.
dance around in your bones
Also, I used to read Rolling Stone in the bathtub back when it was a big fold over newspaper ….. So, problematic!!
LOVED Ralph Steadman – he complemented Hunter (a genius!) so well with his chaotic, blood/ink spattered drawings.
Ruckus
@Tommy:
I also used to have to go for work and I also hate the place.
It’s so phony. It’s like a movie set, abet even less, all glitzy on one side and all filth and sweat on the other. It’s all presented as fun but in reality it’s all about money, more importantly how to separate you from all of yours. None of the spots are like the real thing other than the slightest, smelly veneer.
And to me the sad part is how many people I know who think the place is grand.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
Funny how none of my fellow Vegas haters mention the part that drives me insane: the giant clouds of cigarette smoke everywhere you go. Including outdoors. I know I’ve gotten spoiled by living in CA, but MAN it was bad when we went there for a cousin’s wedding. Never again.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
I was going to add that to my rant but it just seems to me to be part of the whole – It’s a fantasy place!, rather than – It’s a fucking money vacuum, a dressed up carnival of a money vacuum that smells like a barn, but you are right, it smells like a burning barn.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Ruckus:
Obviously, I have s pretty high tolerance for fantasy places — look where I work, after all — but I prefer my fantasy places to have fewer real-world consequences. Very few people get alcohol poisoning at Disneyland, and nobody loses their rent money at blackjack.
Origuy
I can take Vegas in small doses. I used to go there for meetings because the chairman of the committee lived there. (His wife had allergies and was comfortable there.) We’d stay at someplace like Embassy Suites and go to the restaurants away from the casinos. Red Rock Canyon is a good place to go to get away and Valley of Fire is a little farther.
They’re a little better about smoke than they used to be, at least at the restaurants. The casinos still are better avoided.
Another Holocene Human
@Sibelius: It’s not that the women modify the behavior. It’s that some boys–some, not all–suddenly get a character transplant when a person they like drops into the picture. Suddenly they wish to please this person–far over and above any impulse they might have had, well-shredded by adolescence–to please parents, siblings, teachers, or neighbors. Suddenly they wash their hair, clean up their f*$#ing room, talk in calm, quiet tones, and have better stuff to do than disturb everyone with loud music/video games/destruction of household goods.
It is an amazing transformation, the magic of a teenager discovering the motivation to engage in behavioral inhibition. (The “good” kids inhibit their behavior on their own, or are at least sneakier about hiding their pot smoking, vandalism, and computer hacking, doing it away from home. They anticipate a future of academic success and a good job. They date other “good” kids because the wild romantic sort aren’t satisfied by someone who is thinking about getting into the “right” school in the back of their mind, ie the end of the relationship, rather than the “I would die for you” bullshit teens love.) Such a relief to the rest of the household. Previous household rules are disregarded as little Miss Goth Wannabe Rocker is ushered into the house in a deferential hush and allowed to disappear down the hallway. “Have fun CHATTING in your ROOM.” *turn music up, retreat to other end of house* “Whew, what are the odds they will keep dating all summer? Cross fingers?”
Another Holocene Human
@Buddy H: Say what you will about renting–shit tenants can be evicted.
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini): Been to 12345 lately? One inlaw of mine who is a recovered alcoholic was ranting about the inebriated people at food & wine fest. Though he’s no fan of your BEC anyway the parks had kind of been a safe place as far as drink-triggering goes but not any more. He was really upset.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Another Holocene Human:
I’m on the West Coast. If your relative sticks with Disneyland proper, he should be okay — there are still no alcohol sales inside the park. It’s Disney California Adventure and Downtown Disney he should avoid. The Food & Wine Fest out here is at the Grand Californian Hotel and DCA.
ETA: Though, again, alcohol poisoning is going to be vanishingly rare in the Disneyland area, unless you bring your own or can afford to buy enough $15 glasses (not bottles, glasses) of wine to poison yourself.