This makes me laugh every time I watch it. That tortoise is provoking the JRT — thus the nervous barking at the beginning. The dog’s been told not to attack the turtle but the turtle is messing with his stuff, mom! Make him quit!! MOOOOM!!!
From the NYTimes, where it is not clickbait, it is SCIENCE:
… Videos of unlikely animal pairs romping or snuggling have become so common that they are piquing the interest of some scientists, who say they invite more systematic study. Among other things, researchers say, the alliances could add to an understanding of how species communicate, what propels certain animals to connect across species lines and the degree to which some animals can adopt the behaviors of other species…
…[U]ntil recently, any suggestion that interspecies relationships might be based simply on companionship would probably have been met with derision, dismissed as Pixar-like anthropomorphism. That has changed as research has gradually eroded some boundaries between homo sapiens and other animals. Other species, it turns out, share abilities once considered exclusive to humans, including some emotions, tool use, counting, certain aspects of language and even a moral sense…
(Insert your own Repub joke here.)
We’re socked in for the storm here, and I’m just hoping the power stays on. Storm-related or not, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Mustang Bobby
Turtles rule.
OzarkHillbilly
That was funny.
Tommy
My brother has two cats and a huge dog. Those cats torment Murphy, but he is never remotely aggressive towards them. It was the same when my niece was born. He jumps up on everybody, but never to her when she was an infant or now as a six year old. It is almost like he has a sense he is larger than them, he could harm them, so he doesn’t. I’ve always felt that our pets have a lot more going on in their heads than we realize.
OzarkHillbilly
Good Penn and Teller “Bullsh!t video on anti-vaccination.
henqiguai
Snow; moving snow, all day long. With a shovel because I can’t afford a big honkin’ snowblower. And when it gets a bit brighter outside (because there’s at least one pack of coyotes roaming the area) I’ll dig my way out to the wood pile.
Manyakitty
Just pulled some long-awaited (started SATURDAY) loaves of sourdough bread out of the oven. As soon as they’re cool enough, I shall slice one, slather it with butter, and stuff if in my pie hole. Then I’ll have the strength to put down the computer, scoop the litter boxes, and go to work. And I get a massage this afternoon. Could be worse, eh?
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: I can’t find the darn newscast online to link to. But it looked at a few communities in CA and OR where there were huge spikes in diseases we could vaccinate against. They were hippies liberal communities and the parents said they were not vaccinating their children. I don’t say that phrase as a slur because I am a proud hippie liberal. I recall watching it and thinking to myself what the heck are you people thinking.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy: Just goes to show conservatives don’t have a lock on stupidity.
henqiguai
@Tommy (#7):
There’s your misconception, right there.
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: No, but they sure as hell are intent on buying up any outstanding shares.
Tommy
@henqiguai: It was hard to watch. These folks with a yoga studio and an indie coffee shop on their main street. Driving hybrids. And then they open their mouths and tell a reporter they don’t vaccinate their children. Again it was hard to watch.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: They think the chemical preservatives will affect their children’s health(autism, etc). Of course every other day here we hear of another case of the measles from one of these yahoos that took their precious infected bundle to Disneyland.
ThresherK
Mid-blizzard here in inland CT. Will take the time to try, again, to get a brownie recipe that gives me the chewy I want and the predictability I need.
Ghirardelli’s Double Chocolate box mix is the only box mix of anything I use, and even then with a perfectly temped oven I bake them 8 minutes longer than the upper range. No “insert toothpick” test. And they’re not overdone, but chewy when they cool.
Any recipe suggestions would be appreciated. My instinct is to try the chewy brownie from my Cooks Illustrated book.
Manyakitty
@ThresherK: If you’re on Facebook, Alton Brown posted about brownies yesterday. Otherwise, King Arthur Flour is my go-to recipe resource.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: I just now caught a piece (via John Stewart) of Sarah Palin’s unfiltered mouth with her brain in that spasm of stupidity up in Iowa. Wow. Just wow. Been a long time since I actually laughed AT someone, but I couldn’t help it. Not sure who I was laughing at more: Her, or the suckers in the audience.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: Oh I know what they think. I just think they are stupid. In high school we used to play this little town in soccer outside of Alton, IL. Most of the students of the school didn’t believe in modern medicine. One of their players had a compound fracture of his leg. The players, coaches, and parents didn’t call an ambulance, they just stood around him and prayed.
I will go as far to say it was a traumatic experience. Some of us were crying. Our coaches freaking out yelling call an ambulance, call an ambulance. They didn’t.
I think this is only a small step or two up from not vaccinating your children.
henqiguai
@Tommy (#16):
No, the not vaccinating thing is neglect, criminal neglect granted, but the other is outright abuse. I believe even the Christian Scientists will engage some sort of medical assistance with a purely mechanical issue like a broken bone.
Tommy
@ThresherK: I am a pretty good cook on top of the stove, but when I get to the oven not so much. I picked up an infrared thermometer with laser sight for ten bucks on Amazon.
I found my oven’s temp was almost 50 degrees off (on the high-end). Not sure if that is a problem you are having, but my baking skills seemed to have improved a lot I now know this :).
ThresherK
@Manyakitty: I’ll look at each. Those are two names I always take into consideration, thanks.
I probably have every “Good Eats” about chocolate manually recorded to DVD, and I don’t remember if I got results from his cocoa brownie recipe.
Schlemazel
I saw a show on Animal Planet a while back about interspecies friendships. There was a goat who took care of a blind horse. Would lead it to the horses favorite spots to feed & rest. The goat was very very old but it hung on until the horse died then it gave up. There were a couple of other stories but none that ‘personal’.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: I should check my oven, my multimeter has a temperature probe.
ThresherK
@Tommy: I don’t know if I need to add to my stable of five kitchen thermometers, and I’ve been geeking out about which infrared to get for so long I may never decide.
I recommend Oxo’s oven thermometer with a see-through glass dial. Position it properly, keep the oven door glass clean (which isn’t always the case in my home) and I don’t have to open the door to see what the actual temp is in my oven.
And for something that’s in the oven all the time, and which I’ve knocked onto the electric element, and also the floor often, it’s damn durable.
Manyakitty
@ThresherK: I recall something about baking for a portion of the time, removing them from the oven to cool a bit, then continuing to bake. Good luck!
Tommy
@ThresherK: You are way past my skill level clearly. I just don’t cook that much stuff in the oven because I seem to be really bad at it. My kitchen thermometer has only been used in the oven a handful of times. Knowing that difference in temp it seems clear (and in hindsight how didn’t I know it) why everything is either overcooked or undercooked.
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: Mel Brooks called it authentic frontier gibberish.
BillinGlendaleCA
My head hurts a bit, from banging it onto my desk this evening. I bought a Windows tablet a few months ago and was reading the reviews last night. Several negative reviews stated they didn’t like the tablet because they couldn’t get apps from Google Play. Head-Desk.
Tommy
@ThresherK: I didn’t know Ghirardelli had a brownie mix. I am one of the those “strange” people that doesn’t really have a joy of chocolate. But I have some Ghirardelli powered chocolate and from time to time I like to use it to make a cup of hot chocolate. As chocolate goes I do find it enjoyable. I bet their brownie mix has to kind of rock.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Well, it’s true.
BillinGlendaleCA
The rain has stopped here, so the threat to life and limb is over. The only rain mishap that was on the news was a young woman that ran her new Beamer into a flood channel(probably was texting). Still had dealer paper plates on it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: (Bangs head against desk again).
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I recently bought a Windows tablet. I like it. MS announced free upgrades to Win 10 for Win 7 and 8 users.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@BillinGlendaleCA: Someone needs to introduce those reviewers to Bluestacks.
Randy P
Went to bed here in southeast PA with 100% chance of 3-7″ predicted.
Woke up with… 0″. Very grumpy about it.
Nevertheless I am declaring it a snow day as I rely on Amtrak to get to work and Amtrak is closed.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Gennymotion is much better than Bluestacks.
Baud
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
I didn’t know about that. Does it work well?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Best Buy had this one(10″, Win 8.1) for 149 for Black Friday weekend. I downloaded the latest build of Win10 and I’m running on a virtual machine. It looks pretty nice.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I paid $200 for mine. 2 gb RAM and a keyboard. I can use it for work and personal stuff so more useful than an Android tablet. But win apps suck.
Tommy
@Baud: That is good to hear because I think a Windows tablet is my next purchase. I have a Samsung phone, tablet, and Chromebook. I really would like to uncouple myself from Google. I do like I only have to pay for apps once and can use them across my phone and tablet, but most of the apps I use are web-based services (like Todoist, Insighthly, Evernote) so all I need is a browser to access them.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Mine doesn’t have the keyboard. I’m thinking of getting one, I use a bluetooth one now, but that doesn’t work to navigate BIOS.
Elmo
@ThresherK:
Not a recipe, just a tweak: my wife uses coconut oil and coconut milk with the Ghirardelli box brownies, and OMG the subtle difference is amazing.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@ThresherK: Poke around this recipe collection. He’s very much a “whatever I have in the pantry” sort of baker.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Baud: My husband is happily playing Boom Beach on his W7 desktop with it, and it’s run anything else I’ve tried so far on a W7 or W8 machine. Vista, not so much, but I think that’s a video driver issue.
I’ll have to look at Gennymotion. First I’ve heard of it.
Baud
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Cool. I’ll have to give it a whirl. Thanks.
Marc
Dear Republican Senators:
Welcome to your new 54-46 minority.
Tommy
@Elmo: I never would have thought of that. Never. But I always have a lot of coconut milk in my kitchen because I have this fetish with Thai food, and coconut milk is often the starting base for it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Thanx. A lot. I lost a tooth just looking at those recipes. ;-)
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@OzarkHillbilly: I should point out that while a lot of them call for boxed mixes and packages of cookie dough, he has a from-scratch substitution for almost everything boxed. Which one he uses depends on the time available.
Betty Cracker
@Marc: Good! I hope their base rends their garments in despair over the inability of their majority to get anything done just like ours did.
Tommy
Does anybody else notice when The Apprentice is on Trump is on TV pretty much 24/7 saying he is running, no really this time I might actually do it, running for president. I think I know the answer to my own question and I hate to say he might be crazy like a fox (and also crazy to boot). You’d think the media outlets outside of say Fox Noise would catch on.
sparrow
Snow usually makes me happy, but woke up cranky this morning. Got into stupid facebook arguments with idiots last night which somehow always just makes me depressed (probably my fault for getting shouty). Le sigh.
Manyakitty
Aaand, just because it’s my life, I dozed under the nymynal Manya Kitty for a bit after eating my delicious warm bread, and slept through the time I needed for dishes and litter boxes. Barely got a shower and made it to work about 7 minutes late. Sigh. Poor lil kittehs.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I hope that too, but it’s not really their style. As much as we criticize Republicans, they know who their adversary is and they know how to play the long game.
danielx
Article in the LA Times about anti-vaxers holding firm to their beliefs….you can tell them, you just can’t tell them much. I can recall reading one article in which some mom someplace was bemoaning the fact that she and her spawn had been turned away by several pediatricians. Seems she didn’t believe in vaccination and the docs regarded her unvaccinated kids as too much of a hazard to their other patients, and it was JUST AWFUL..
Baud
@danielx:
Too bad, so sad. There is no other alternative.
Tommy
@sparrow: Yeah snow makes me happy. As for Facebook I just rarely go there and I have only twice talked politics there. The times I have it just went sideways faster than I could have envisioned. My friends on Facebook are in fact my friends, family members, former co-workers. My friends might not be your friend. Of course the other way around. But if I am in your circle of friends is it so much to ask you treat my friends with respect. I found out not so much.
Manyakitty
@danielx: Maybe criminal child endangerment charges would help them see their errors.
Baud
@Tommy:
I like snow also. It covers up a multitude of gardening sins.
raven
A fucking chiropractor, just shoot me now.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I’m sure that’s true of the GOP movers and shakers, but I’m not convinced the base is politically sophisticated enough to say, “Well, yes, we have a majority, but I can’t expect progress on my pet issue because of those darn cloture rules.”
I think the GOP advantage is all down to single-issue voters who think the most important thing in the universe is their right to carry a gun, their view that a zygote = a human being, their idea that gays are icky, that people of color are moochers, etc.
We just don’t have a unifying principle on our side that can match that, and when we do, such as the folly of the Iraq War, more than half of our own are too compromised to make it a thing.
The case of Obama is illustrative there — one of his huge advantages was having the prescience to oppose the Iraq War. But that is rare in Democratic politics.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I think those folks just internalize what they hear on Fox News, which is that the Dems used dirty tricks to stop the will of the voters.
I agree with you about the structural differences between the parties.
Jim
Indiana governor Mike Pence is creating a state run news service, will it be Pravda on Broad Ripple?
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/01/26/pence-starts-state-run-news-outlet-to-compete-with-media/22370005/
gene108
@Tommy:
There’s a massive distrust of authority in our country right now. If an authority figure, such as scientists and the government (or worse government scientists – NIH, NOAA, etc.) say it must be true they are part of some conspiracy to defraud the populace.
Either it’s to enrich themselves by getting billions in grant money by perpetuating the global warming hoax or being bought mouth pieces of big pharma (who make vaccines) or big agri-business (GMO’s are safe).
This lack of trust crosses political boundaries, though the reason for authority figures enriching themselves at the public’s expense usually comes from slightly different angles.
Also, too if your kids are young enough to need vaccines, you are more than likely relatively young, i.e. younger than Gen X or the young end of Gen Y and probably the older edge of Millennials
The whole right-wing notion that we’re all on our own and any collective action to make things better for everyone cannot work, i.e. everyone vaccinates to get herd immunity, we all pay little more in taxes to get a noticeable increase in services, etc., has permeated very deep into the collective consciousness of Americans.
Buddy H
Here, a monkey teaches a human how to crush leaves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpxTCuc6kFc
Louise Smith posted it. This is her comment: “This is Chino, a brown capuchin who lives at the International Primate Rescue Centre in South Africa, teaching me to crush leaves!”
lol
@Baud:
Won’t just be Fox News. The entire media, which blamed Dems not being able to pass things through a filibuster when they had the majority, will blame Dems for unprecedented obstruction in the face of the will of the people.
gene108
@Randy P:
I hear you.
I thought we would get a foot here in South Jersey, but we barely got a few inches. I was hoping to be able to work from home today, but I guess I’ll have to go in, though I can say I was waiting for my condo development parking lot to be plowed, so I will come in late.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108:
Gonna have to disagree with that. The very same people who rail about out of control environmental regs and the EPA are the same ones “cheering” when ever a cop kills an unarmed black man.
Keith G
@gene108:
::Nods affirmatively::
We are conducting a massive socio-economic (and thus political) experiment on how far a society can disaggregate. “Do your own thing” (or it’s cousin, “I don’t owe nuttin to nobody”) are okay as unique and isolated sentiments, but if large enough groups of citizens begin to continually act that way (as seems to be the case), we will end up in uncharted territory.
Edit:
@OzarkHillbilly:
I bet there is overlap in that Venn diagram, but there are two separate populations represented as well.
raven
Right now????
Tommy
@Buddy H: That is an amazing video. I know there is more going on in my cats head then I realize. I have an exact example. I have a gravity water bowl for her downstairs. In my kitchen her water comes from my water filter. If it gets below half filled, and she likes water there more, she will comes to me. Vocalize. Paw me until I follow her to give her fresh water.
She has seemed to put together the concepts she wants fresh water. I provide it. Bugging me gets what she wants. She will do the same with her litter boxes. If I don’t clean them almost every day she bugs me about it.
I am not thinking she is going to teach me to crush leaves but she has put concepts into practice.
geg6
@Randy P:
If it makes you feel any better, here in southwest PA, we had a 90% chance with 2-4 predicted and instead got a full 24-hours of continual snow, leaving us with 7-8 over a half-inch to inch of ice from the rain that preceded it. Couldn’t get out of my driveway all day yesterday.
MomSense
The pup did not like the wind this morning. She loves snow normally but I think the amount of snow and the wind is overwhelming. Poor thing was trying to bound through really deep snow so she could get to her poop spot.
About five minutes of this and she is now exhausted.
I managed to shovel the front walkway but I stopped at the edge of the driveway. The drifts are incredible. They haven’t plowed the roads yet.
I think the day will be spent drinking tea and at some point switching to sipping wine. Of course there will also be lots of cooking. I have dough rising for pizza and will probably start a soup shortly.
sparrow
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, for major distrust of authority, go to somewhere far more screwed up, like Greece. Or Russia.
gogol's wife
It looks as if we have about a foot already and it’s still snowing heavily. But unlike 2013, I do believe I heard a couple of plows go down the street last night, so I’m hoping we won’t be stuck for several days the way we were then. I could swear our driveway guy has even been here, because there’s a huge drift next to the driveway, but maybe that’s just from wind. Power is still on for the moment, thank God.
OzarkHillbilly
@Keith G: And some of the very same people who don’t trust cops to enforce the laws equitably wonder how it is that Cliven Bundy still isn’t in Federal lock up.
Oh wait a minute…
Keith G
@OzarkHillbilly: If only Bundy had leaked sensitive data to a reporter……Holder would have tossed his ass in the clink PDQ.
Nicole
That video is adorable.
I’m glad there is interest in exploring cross-species relationships. I would also wonder if there’s a difference between domesticated animals and wild animals in the development of those relationships, and if young animals are more likely to make “friends” of other species than adult ones. My own rescue dog is all about cross-species, to the exclusion of her own. She’s terrified of other dogs, but worships humans (ANY human, worst guard dog ever), and is quite tolerant of the vet’s cat when we go to the office.
I think the story (true or not) behind the phrase, “get my goat” is that it’s a reference to horse racing, where rival trainers would steal the goat companion of a race horse the night before a big race in order to get the poor equine athlete upset enough at the loss of his buddy that he wouldn’t run his race.
As to anti-vaccine folk- ugh. It’s the inevitable, dangerous outcome of parents attempting to control all risk factors regarding their kids. Restricting diets and activities are annoying, but limited in who suffers (the kid). Refusing to vaccinate is a health risk to other people. Especially because most of them hope (and assume) that other parents vaccinate their kids! The ultimate freeloaders.
Felonius Monk
We were expecting 8-16 inches of snow here and the day was planned accordingly. The storm shifted eastward and so far we haven’t seen a flake. The current weather forecast says a dusting to one inch.
So now the day is being re-planned. Condolences to those of you being buried in the white stuff.
Gin & Tonic
Still blizzarding here. Looks like somewhere around a foot and a half, and it’s coming down thick and fast. I’m having coffee and delaying thinking about going outside to start shoveling. But I still have power, so that’s good. Just heard a report that Nantucket is 100% out. With the temps in the teens and the winds above 50 mph it must be pretty unpleasant out there.
It’s supposed to still snow on and off most of the day.
raven
Diphtheria Excited About Possibility Of New Outbreak
RSA
I haven’t read the article, but another effect, I think, is the rebirth of “citizen science”, or science projects that amateur scientists contribute to. This has a long history, especially in animal research, and it’s interesting to see what the prevalence of video recording makes possible.
Amir Khalid
I got my laptop fixed today. Repair shop guy taught me how to re-enable the wireless network adapter if it disables itself again, after replacing the monitor screen (thus dealing with the screen flicker) for about US$90. My Lenovo, which I’d feared I might have to replace at much greater cost, is back in fighting form. Yay.
I saw Mortdecai. People are complaining that it’s just a silly lowbrow comedy. Well, duh … It’s meant to be silly. It’s a hommage to a particular style of British film comedy, in which the silly lowbrow humour is a feature rather than a bug. And the Malaysians I saw it with got all the jokes and laughed.
MomSense
@raven:
Some friends of ours had to keep their kids out of school for several weeks because two of them had whooping cough.
It really shocked me when I found out.
raven
@Amir Khalid: I had this bug crawling around my old mac theater display and go all kinds of zapping PRAm advice. This morning another one was on my screen and it turns out there are real bugs beneath the glass (or whatever it is)
henqiguai
Went for some fire wood out back; opened the basement door and was confronted with a knee-deep wall of snow. Dug my way out into the yard and only half-way to the wood stck it was hip deep; I’m 6′ 2″. Did I mention I noticed the road-grader, I mean snow plow, rumble past? Now, along side of upwards of 3 feet of snow blown into my driveway, there’s now a 6 foot wide, 4 foot high barrier of snow and pressure ice across the driveway entrance. May not get out of here before sometime Wednesday.
Yatsuno
It’s Tuesday, which is not Monday. It’s also filing season in full swing, which is its own level of suck. But hey I’m working right?
Elizabelle
@henqiguai: Where do you live? You perked my ears with the coyotes reference.
Wish you the best.
Nicole
@Elizabelle:
These days, it might as well be Manhattan!
FlyingToaster (tablet)
We’ve got maybe a foot of snow, with a 3 foot snow dam at the end of the driveway.
Untouched, because I was vomiting last night and don’t really want to be shoveling at all. However, WarriorGirl wants me to help her knit, so I’m probably going to put on my snow pants and clear off a set of stairs. Anything but knitting.
Steeplejack
The big blizzard was a bit of a letdown in my corner of NoVA. I usually steer clear of the hysterical TV coverage, but even the staid Weather Channel app (on my phone) and Weather Underground let me down. They were both wrong about how much snow we would get and when it would start. It started later, well after sundown, and we got less—about 1.7" in my immediate environs.
My brother and I canceled dinner at a restaurant, which it turns out we could have done anyway, but it was probably for the best, because the woman who was going to babysit for bro’ man’s new baby girl is a very nervous (and not very good) driver. But we had a good time at his house, and then I drove home in the finally arrived snowfall about nine o’clock.
I’ve got to go back over there in a bit to collect my old family friend who has been on an inspection visit to take up her “memaw” duties with the baby and take her out to Dulles for her flight home to Las Vegas. Shouldn’t be any problems on the road.
Just want to add that the Weather Channel’s “regular” Web page is getting increasingly obnoxious. (I go straight to the page for my ZIP code.) They have loaded it up with so much junk and visual clutter that it takes forever to load, and then half the time I have to load another page to get all the information I want. So more and more I just go to the mobile version on my phone. It loads a hell of a lot faster and usually has the basic information I want right there or a quick click away.
I console myself with the thought that as I get into the “old man yelling at clouds and obsessively studying the weather” phase of my life I have the benefits of Internet technology instead of having to thumb through the Old Farmer’s Almanac or some such. Progress!
sparrow
@Steeplejack: Wunderground is much better than weather.com visually, I find. However, I do think weather.com is *slightly* more accurate.
JPL
@henqiguai: Move to the south. Two inches of snow keeps us home for days.
Steeplejack
@sparrow:
Yeah, I check them both, but for the quick essentials I usually hit the Weather.com page for my ZIP code on my phone. I agree that their accuracy has improved over the last few years (not exactly what you said, I know), probably because of the acquisition of Weather Underground, which is what made the blizzard fail yesterday annoying.
Steeplejack
And happy birthday to Shana and Tom Q!
henqiguai
@Elizabelle (#86):
North-Central Massachusetts; just east of Leominster / Fitchburg. One of the three towns that contributed land to create Fort Devens (re-activated, if anyone is interested) and bordering on the Oxbow Federal Wildlife Sanctuary – which is why we also have wildcats, moose, fishercats, tons of racoons, deer, possibly wolves, and bears (’cause one wandered through my backyard a few years back). Beavers galore. Also, did you know ducks and wild turkeys roost in trees? I didn’t until I noticed them doing so down the street (yes, this country burg has ‘streets’; this ain’t
CowNew Hampshire).gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
Your last paragraph made me laugh so much. That’s me exactly.
Peale
@Amir Khalid: I saw it in previews. Reading the reviews now makes me wonder if they released a different film. But it’s clear that film critics have decided that Wes Anderson makes the only comedies worth watching and every other kind of comedy is to be dismissed.
henqiguai
@JPL (#91):
Grew up in DC, lived a year in Tampa/St. Petersburg area, did assignments at Charleston (SC) Naval Shipyard (in mid summer). I know the South, in all its facets. I prefer digging my way out of ass-deep snow to the heat, humidity, nastiness, and learned ignorance of the South. Not everyone agrees…
ThresherK
@Manyakitty: I’ve done that when I found out after complete cooling that they were very “battery” in the middle. It just led to more angst about how much more dried the outside would be and how bringing it back to temp would affect the time.
Your encouragement is appreciated; today is the day for my “office is closed” wife to test everything.
Peale
I don’t think I’m following Jonathan Chaits “the scary PC police of my youth are back” concern. He’s sounding very much like an old man these days.
henqiguai
@Steeplejack (#92):
Have you tried weather.org? NOAA-like but with a more chatty interface; my preferred weather spot over the others, including NOAA.
scav
We may be dealing with more than two species in that sequence. There seems to be a dung beetle consciousness inside a turtle physique.
ThresherK
@Tommy: The Ghirardelli brownie mix rates “it’ll do in a pinch” from Cooks Illustrated. Compared to what they say about other box mixes, that is high praise.
@Elmo: Everyone’s using coconut oil now; I should start and see what all the hubbub is about.
And @SisterRailGun, there’s a travel ban here, so I’m interested in seeing what others hunt down in their pantries.
catclub
@Elmo: Interesting! We add nuts to their mix. I have a brownie here right now.
Grumpy Code Monkey
It freaks me out that the turtle is playing with the ball. I would never have expected a turtle to play with something.
Never mind fighting the JRT for it.
Betty Cracker
@Peale: Ageist!
buddy h
@henqiguai: Yeah, the snowplow drivers…. I remember the exurb I used to “live” in, the snowplow guys would push about six feet of heavy snow to the end of my driveway. They were buddies with the racist guy across the street, who was outraged that I would dare move to his “neighborhood” with my black wife. I’d see him chatting with the snowplow guys, and then they’d bury the end of my driveway. Then, in the spring, I saw them dumping a pile of roadsalt on the side of a road. I guess they didn’t want to deal with returning it to their headquarters or something. I didn’t make much of it until the next winter, when my local media lamented the shortage of road salt.
I remembered when I was about five or six years old, looking out my window during a snowstorm downstate, and the snowplow drivers would lift their plows when driving past each driveway, so as not to create a pile of snow. But it was a different time back then, and a different place.
The upstate exurb had some of the biggest teabag assholes in the town driving the snowplows. Routinely knocking down mailboxes, blocking driveways…
gogol's wife
@ThresherK:
The Ghirardelli mix is surprisingly good.
gogol's wife
@buddy h:
I had no idea there was any snowplow ethos other than trying to knock down as many mailboxes and block as many driveways as possible. But let me not offend the plow drivers, as I need them right now.
Elizabelle
@buddy h: I wonder if no one trained them not to block in driveways. Perhaps a letter to the editor?
Some of them may be jerks, but some may have no idea.
Elizabelle
@henqiguai: Thank you. Area sounds lovely. Good to hear about all the wildlife.
Some friends in Rhode Island mentioned the owners of a donkey a few properties down needed to move him in at night so he’d be safe from coyotes or wolves or worse …
LOL re Cow Hampshire.
Marc
@Betty Cracker: Sadly, their base usually remembers that it’s not about their fee-fees, and turns out to vote.
ThresherK
@gogol’s wife: It’s even better when about 4 oz of the 60% Ghirardelli chunks are added to it, and 1/2 tsp of smoked salt is sprinkled on top.
Steeplejack
@henqiguai:
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
Steeplejack
Just got back from my post-blizzard expedition. Had lunch with my friend, took her out to Dulles—straight shot on Route 66 and the special access road, no problems at all—and delivered her at the exact minute she wanted to be there. Red Cap Steep on the case.
Made a run by the grocery to pick up a few things and am now back in my rooms in Threadkill Lane for some much needed alone time. Gave the housecat lunch, fired up the heating pad at her workstation and told her to hold my calls for a couple of days.
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
I never used to care about the weather forecast; I just experienced the weather in real time. But that changed when I moved here, didn’t have a car and started living the urban-hiker bus/Metro lifestyle. Now that I have a car again it’s just a habit. And I do think it’s an old(er) person thing!
karen marie
@Tommy: I think those laser therms are THE BOMB for stovetop. Not sure how well it would do with the oven. I would recommend instead a simple oven therm you can get in Target or whatevs for about $5. Those who don’t have the laser therm and cook at all should get one. Prices have dropped a lot since they first came out.
rikyrah
That video is hilarious. I didn’t know that turtles could move like that.
Sondra
Even more adorable – check our Lulu and Leonard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84838260&v=njKqAlJa8yY&feature=player_embedded&x-yt-ts=1422327029
Original Lee
@danielx: Gah. The guy who was upset because his kid spiked 102 after the MMR. Hello, if your kid actually had the measles, you would have been struggling to keep his temperature under 104! Just no words.