Cole is withholding adorable puppy pictures, and none of my animals will sit still for a portrait. So here’s a wooden barracuda:
My husband carved it and I painted it — years ago. It commemorates a scary encounter we had with a barracuda while snorkeling in the Keys on our honeymoon. What are you up to?
Baud
I’m wondering if the New England Patriots’ latest scandal got as much press as it did because a bunch of reporters wanted to talk about “deflated balls.”
Schlemazel
http://www.theet.com/news/court_and_police/jury-rules-for-worker-in-religious-discrimination-suit-against-consol/article_d2f42e22-9d14-11e4-a165-a3d29d359286.html?_dc=299693279433.9955
A jury in West by clod verginny awarded 150K to some clown who refused to have his hand scanned as identification by his employer. Because having your hand scanned is the mark of the beast – URP
Diana
He is indeed withholding adorable puppy pics and, I hope, even more adorable puppy vids of puppies trying to walk, squeaking, getting schritched and falling asleep on a dime. Where are these pics????
John, ask not what your blog can do for you, ask what you can do for your blog…
Schlemazel
And then there is this. Cop in NJ shoots a man who has his hands up & empty – 6 times. But this is yet another case of black on black violence so it might play out differently.
http://news.yahoo.com/video-shows-man-shot-jersey-police-raising-hands-150049422.html
Violet
We really need more puppy pics and video. And Ginger. And the rest of the menagerie.
jl
That wooden barracuda looks kind of cute and elongated adorable puppy-like. How scary was that honeymoon encounter anyway?
I deem it a satisfactory substitute pet pic for now.
Thank you.
ranchandsyrup
Pic of lucy this morning. She didn’t want to get out of bed.
Schlemazel
Several times while we lived there I read about fishermen being attacked & bitten in their boats by Barracuda that leap out of the sea to get them. Much scarier than sharks imho
Baud
@ranchandsyrup:
That’s pretty much how I feel all the time.
raven
@Schlemazel: Cuda’s are badass. When I caught the cobia last spring there were schools of cuda’s. cobia and paddlefish cruising the wreck!
jl
@Schlemazel:
Hey, stop with the barracuda slander.
“…but Jason Schratwieser, conservation director of the International Game Fish Association, said that the wound could have been caused by a houndfish”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barracuda
Amir Khalid
Does Wooden Barracuda work as a band name?
Do tell.
Schlemazel
@raven:
I always wanted to hook into a cuda, I bet they put up a fight!
Schlemazel
Here is my favorite cat picture this week
http://i.imgur.com/LDvlyVb.jpg
geg6
Barracuda are some scary and vicious mother fuckers. I used to do a lot of diving and was up close and personal with many types of marine life, including sharks. But the scariest bastards were the barracuda. Completely unpredictable. And mean. Do.not.like.
shelley
Hmm, Top Chef is on at 9pm this week, not 10. May actually be able to stay awake for it.
kc
Nice fish!
Villago Delenda Est
That wooden barracuda is more cuddly than the real thing…or the real thing wannabe.
Violet
Pope Frank gives Santorum a sad:
srv
Je suis AQ:
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
Rih, let me translate this for you: stop fucking all the time, dumbshit.
Amir Khalid
A German, of all people, should have understood how bad this would look. But then again, we’re talking about the leader of Pegida.
Tommy
I got the below in an email a few minutes ago from a client about setting up a landing page on her site after somebody uses her contact form (this is a DIRECT quote):
My response ended with:
And she wonders why she doesn’t get the business she’d like. Wonder why!
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: Hmmm…. Lutz Bachmann. I wonder if he’s distantly related to the former representative from Minnesota.
MomSense
Oooooh Barracuda!
Had to put the adorable puppy in her box for a bit so I could cook dinner. I’ll try and get some pics or a video. Right now she is going nuts chewing on a kong with a little peanut butter inside.
mainmati
@jl: l have had several encounters with ‘cudas over the years scuba diving. I have found them to be curious but. not at all threatening even really close up. They look both elegant and badass at the same time.
Just Some Fuckhead
The people demand dog and butterfly sculptures.
Another Holocene Human
Beautiful carving.
I’m going to repeat my supposition from the dead thread which is that grandpa is not a gun nut. Grandpa, like many of his background and generation, keeps a legal concealed gun concealed in his car when driving on the road. When he got to Walmart he put the gun on his person, as is his habit, because he doesn’t leave valuables in his car to be stolen. That’s how the White Avenger saw that he had a gun. If he were a gun nut who was strapping while driving the gun would never have been visible.
Gramps likely knows people who were taken and never returned on the roads. It’s not paranoia, it’s reality. Some of the highwaymen wear badges….
Tree With Water
That is a very cool carving. I would definitely buy it if I were on the lookout to fill a spot (say) in my kitchen..
JPL
It’s National Squirrel Appreciation Day.
Baud
@JPL:
That’s just nuts.
chopper
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yarr, that image’ll replace the shark in me nightmares.
JPL
@Baud: The rodents celebrated by coming up to the patio door, taunting the dog.
Another Holocene Human
@Schlemazel: Fresh water isn’t safe either–you could be killed by jumping sturgeon.
Baud
@JPL:
So just like any other day then?
Schlemazel
@Another Holocene Human:
I have never seen sturgeon jump but we are getting those silver carp invading so soon it will not be safe to fish the rivers any more.
Keith G
Betty, you’re the best. Jus say’in.
Pogonip
@Schlemazel: Now if more people would fight back against drug testing.
Roger Moore
Oooo, Barracuda
Pogonip
@JPL: Mr. Cracker and I are not amused.
I only appreciate squirrels when they are fried.
Pogonip
When’s the next pupdate? When they start to walk? I don’t think we can wait that long. Alert Mrs. Cole!
Mike in NC
Our honeymoon was a scuba excursion on a catamaran in the British Virgin Islands. There were barracuda in the water but fortunately they didn’t bother anyone. Evidently they were used to tourists.
jeffreyw
Sad kitty was hoping for puppeh pics.
JPL
@jeffreyw: What a cutie.
Pogonip
For you crazy people–Er, live squirrel enthusiasts–the gray squirrels in these parts are getting busy making little squirrels. We’re at latitude 42, more or less. When the little bastards start breeding it means we will begin edging towards spring in about another 4 weeks.
NotMax
@Tommy
Based solely on the quote, sounds more as if she has the courage to openly state what the vast majority of non-tech-oriented clients really have in mind.
Pogonip
@jeffreyw: Mrs. Cole! You’re needed! Sad Kitty is depending on you!
PurpleGirl
@jeffreyw: Awww, what a cute kittie. I want to boop its nose.
Keith G
Speaking of missing blog hosts…Kevin Drum checked in today saying that he was not feeling well enough to post today. A few of his commenters took over and started an interesting thread of comments on what Democrats should stand for. A good thread.
Southern Beale
My new puppy has some alarming bad habits, chief among them that he eats his own poop and I can’t seem to get him to stop. And no, that food additive does NOT work.
It’s totally disgusting.
jl
@Pogonip: So, maybe Pope Francis was talking about horny squirrels? No wonder Rih was confused.
@Another Holocene Human: That aint funny. You ever have a Great White Sturgeon lumber over you in seemingly quiet and peaceful paradisiacal slough (except for the clouds of gnats)? That could be 7 or 8 feet and a thousand pounds of slow moving bottom feeding supertanker power you are talking about, there.
Baby sturgeon are cute though.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Acipenser_transmontanus.jpg
hilts
12 best social media references to Patriots’ DeflateGate
h/t http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2015/01/21/12-best-references-to-new-england-patriots-deflategate-indianapolis-colts/22105871/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=
Major Major Major Major
Maybe Cole has a bad case of http://imgur.com/ABPREf9
? Martin
@hilts: This was pretty good: https://twitter.com/RobGronkowski/status/557394981930168320
But at the very least I think everyone can agree a lifetime ban on Belichick wearing hoodies should be the bare minimum starting point on punishment, even if it’s found they did nothing wrong.
Omnes Omnibus
@Just Some Fuckhead: I see what you did there.
Elizabelle
PBS (WETA-26) in NoVA has a Nature program about dogs. Pekingnese just spotlighted.
#breadbag free programming.
ETA: They kind of look like moving hassocks.
Elizabelle
Lapdogs as status symbols.
Anne Laurie, you have arrived.
John Revolta
I got your wooden barracuda. Right here.
Howard Beale IV
For those in the Twin Cities, there be a kitteh show in town.
Roger Moore
@? Martin:
I think you should have stopped right there.
ThresherK
My wife is looking for a proximity alarm or other device that will go off when she’s about to forget her purse somewhere.
Anyone have any non-smartphone-based solutions?
Elizabelle
@mainmati:
Kind of like Samuel L. Jackson, but more streamlined.
Schlemazel
@Pogonip:
Maybe Pastifarians should make it a tenet of our church that drug testing is the mark of the beast. That way they would have religious freedom as a platform to launch from.
jl
Be careful, it might be tarp!
US Senate: Yes, climate change is real
AFP
In a surprise move, US Senate Republicans joined Democrats and went on record Wednesday acknowledging that climate change is real.
…
But with the 2016 presidential race on the horizon, Republican leaders may have agreed to hold votes on the measures now in order to avoid potentially embarrassing climate votes in the midst of a White House race.
Applause rippled through the chamber when Inhofe declared he was co-sponsoring the measure saying climate change is not a hoax.
“Climate always changed,” Inhofe said, noting there was archaeological, historic and “biblical evidence” of that.
The hoax is, that there are some people who think they are so arrogant to think that they are so powerful that they can change the climate. Man can’t change climate,” Inhofe insisted.
http://news.yahoo.com/us-senate-yes-climate-change-real-002229559.html
Article says it might be just political positioning for 2016: GOP will try to make it ‘old news’ long before the election.
Or corporations liable to damages told the GOP to get real?
Or more Obama mind control? Who knows?
I am eager to hear Inhofe expound on the Biblical angle of global warming. Anyway, nice pirouette by Inhofe on what the real hoax of climate science really is.
Edit: Or, McConnell issued serious directive to the Senate GOP to act like grown-ups (at least until it is no longer a useful tactic, but I am cynical) If McConnell did issue such directive, then we’ll need an income assistance program for unemployed Fox News ‘experts’ on a variety of topics.
Pogonip
@Southern Beale: Welcome to dog ownership, and thank you for bringing up dog poop. I was afraid we were going to miss a day.
Yes, it’s gross (unless you are an Antarctic explorer and need the dogs to eat poop); most if not all dogs do it, and no, you can’t train him to stop. If the special food doesn’t work, your choices are to learn to live with it or find him a home and get a cat. I’d try learning to live with it first. Look at it this way, you probably have a habit or two he isn’t thrilled with either.
jl
@jl: Oops. I forgot about the GOP House. i guess Fox News ‘experts’ will be in demand for a while
Pogonip
@Schlemazel: Well, if you do, I’ll join. Or start the Church of the Holy Pogonip, in which drug testing is a mortal sin.
JPL
@jl: But is it man made?
Elizabelle
@chopper:
Signed,
Mrs. Rih
Pogonip
In other news, my son mopped today.
I don’t know why he felt this was news. He almost always does the mopping unless he’s sick. But he called me and told me, so, in an effort to keep this topic going until Mrs. Cole can wring some dog pictures out of HER kid, I pass it on. I know it’s not dog poop, but it’s all I have left to offer.
Baud
@Pogonip:
Was he naked?
Pogonip
@JPL: No, I believe dog poop comes from actual dogs. Except the plastic kind they sell around Halloween.
Cervantes
Over at the NYT, Matt Apuzzo and Michael Schmidt report:
Pogonip
@Baud: I doubt it. Gets cold around here in January.
Baud
@Pogonip: Mopping while clothed is a bit scandalous in these parts.
jl
@JPL:
” But is it man made? ”
The prophet Inhofe commands thee to pull down thy pride man, pull down thy pride! Thou art but an antling in this vast centaur, er… God created world.
Pogonip
@Baud: Well, it’s unlikely he had shoes on, is that close enough?
JPL
@jl: Does God like deflated balls?
Violet
@ThresherK: How about one of those alarms for people who forget their kids in the backseat of the car. The alarm goes when the person gets 15 feet away or so. You do have to have the alarm on your keyring so if the keyring is in the purse it wouldn’t work.
Baud
@Pogonip:
Good enough for Juicers? Unlikely. Not much is.
askew
I realize asking this question makes me sound like a complete moron but I am asking anyway and hope people here will take pity on me. If my mortgage company pays my property tax and incorporates it into my monthly mortgage, can I still file a property tax refund for myself or does the mortgage company do that? I always thought the mortgage company did that and now I am second guessing myself and thinking that I could be getting back some serious money on my mortgage. Does anyone know?
Pogonip
@Baud: We have high standards of blogitude. Naked mopping must be discussed at least once per week.
CaseyL
@askew: You get to claim the tax as a deduction, along with (but separate from) the mortgage interest. The mortgage company should send you a statement showing the total amount of tax paid over the past year, as well as a statement showing the total amount of interest.
jl
@Pogonip:
” Well, it’s unlikely he had shoes on, is that close enough? ”
Did he step in pet crap? He needs to step in something. We have high standards here.
Southern Beale
@Pogonip:
I have 7 cats. So no, getting a cat won’t work.
Neither of our other 2 dogs eat their own poop. And actually, I’ve never had a poop-eating dog before. I had one dog that loved to roll in poop, but never one that ate it.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Violet:
I think the Pope was channeling Groucho Marx: I like my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth every once in a while.
Pogonip
@jl: Anything my boy stepped in would be obliterated. He wears a size 15.
realbtl
Dammit, OK. My Weimanaraner loves to bring in her poop after it has frozen. No problems in warmer weather, just winter time.
She will also scarff down the wild turkey poop which is actually preferable to her rolling in it.
Dogs! If they weren’t so lovable they would have never made it.
realbtl
Dammit, OK. My Wiemaraner loves to bring in her poop after it has frozen. No problems in warmer weather, just winter time.
She will also scarff down the wild turkey poop which is actually preferable to her rolling in it.
Dogs! If they weren’t so lovable they would have never made it.
Pogonip
@Southern Beale: The others were chowing down when you weren’t looking. Seriously. Several experienced dog people have told me they all do it at least once in a while. (Maybe the intermittent poop eaters are watching their cholesterol or something.). And if there’s a practical way to stop it, nobody’s told me.
Gene108
@askew:
You file the property tax deduction along with your other itemized deductions. The mortgage company will send you a statement t with the total property taxes you paid, which is the extent of their responsibility for your taxes.
Pogonip
@realbtl: Poopsicles!
This topic is surprisingly entertaining. Maybe it should be added to the Balloon Juice dictionary. POOP, DOG: along with MOPPING, NUDE [which see], a topic that readers have agreed may always be pressed into service on a slow night.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@askew: First, what kind of property tax refund are you talking about?
Everyone is assuming you are talking about Federal income taxes, but I’m wondering if you mean something similar to the property tax rebates my mother used to get.
David Koch
Please proceed, Mr Speaker
JustRuss
@Schlemazel:
But drug tests are A-OK. We live in a weird country.
askew
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Yep that is exactly what I was talking about. Sorry for not being specific. This is for Minnesota Property Tax Refunds. No one I know has their mortgage company pay their property taxes so I am pretty lost trying to figure this out.
Jane2
@Pogonip: I’m at about 50 Latitude, and my yard squirrels are enjoying premium shelled almonds because someone forgot to pick up peanuts.
Beatrice
@askew: Yes, you can still file for a property tax refund. You will get a statement from the State of Minnesota which tells you the amount of taxes that were paid on your property; it usually arrives in February or March.
Also, you can file up to a year later so you can go back and file for 2013 as well as 2014 as long as you do it by August 15.
askew
@Beatrice:
Excellent. Thank you! I could really use the money this year.
LT
That’s awesome, Betty. I had a scary barracuda meet in the Keys as well, off Big Pine, ages ago. Big fuckers come right up to you, big eye looking at you. Awesome stuff.
Paul in KY
Very nice sculpture, Betty. I have also had a couple scary/interesting encounters with barracudas. Unlike pike, for instance, these fish are a lot wider than you think.
Paul in KY
@Schlemazel: They are quite tasty, I have heard. Ate a lot in Far east.
Cervantes
@askew:
What “refund” is it you think you can obtain? If you paid the property tax via your mortgage holder, then the tax is paid. Did you pay it yourself separately also and want a refund of this payment? Or did your mortgage holder over-pay the tax? (It happens.) Or are you seeking a tax credit or deduction for having paid the tax?