Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

People are weird.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

The willow is too close to the house.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Here Comes the Blizzard

Open Thread: Here Comes the Blizzard

by | 206 Comments

This post is in: 

No SuChang‘s for us, today — the first flakes were drifting down as we left to run errands at 2pm, and now the roads are really getting slippy. (We did score a few precious bags of ice melt, though: win!)…

From the Boston Globe:

At Boston Chops, the steaks are in, the tables are set, and the bar is fully stocked. What’s missing: the customers.

It’s a scene played out all over the region during three weeks of record snow as restaurateurs, against all odds, keep their doors open. As the snow piles up, so does our misery, and many of us want to do nothing but hunker down at home.

It would probably be easier for Chris Coombs, the chef-owner of Boston Chops, Deuxave, and Dbar, to stay home, too. Would anyone blame him? It’s frigid and gross outside, and street parking is hard to come by with more than four feet of snow on the ground.

But that’s not what Coombs is all about, and that’s not how you run a business. This winter, he has closed his restaurants just twice, when the governor asked everyone to stay off the roads. Coombs keeps the lights on for hungry customers, but also for the 120 employees who depend on a weekly paycheck.

Even with business in February down by 35 percent, Coombs has kept paying his workers under the belief that a steady stipend is more important to them than squeezing another penny of profit is for him and co-owner Brian Piccini…

Sometimes when you listen to[Mayor] Marty Walsh, you’d think the city of Boston is closed until March, because that’s when he can clear all the snow.

As of Friday, the mayor hadn’t made a decision on a parking ban, which is put in place so plows can clear the streets. Walsh said in a statement that he recognizes the impact on businesses, and if a ban is necessary, it would be done “as late as possible” on Saturday. (Update: Boston’s parking ban takes effect at 10 p.m. but enforcement will not begin until midnight. Cupid must have gotten to the mayor.)…

The snowbanks may be frightening, but the sidewalks are clear. On Wednesday, a rare snowless evening, the 165-seat restaurant had 30 patrons; typically there would be 150. By Thursday, business improved with 90 dinners served, but still far below the norm of about 200…

***********
What’s it look like this evening in your neighborhood? (Go ahead and gloat, Californians/Westerners — we’ll get our revenge come summer, assuming we don’t freeze to death first.)

Reader Interactions

206Comments

  2. 2.

    jayboat

    No gloating, just happy to be fairly close to the beach.
    The sun is out and I am barefoot, should I zip over and grab a quick photo of sand for all you frozens?

  3. 3.

    Pogonip

    Snow squalls but very little actual snow; it’s just blowing around. Getting colder by the minute.

  4. 4.

    Botsplainer

    Christian Grey is a Bond villain at the beginning of his villain career, 30 years prior to 007 killing him while uttering a smart quip.

    Plus, based on my wife’s recitation of the trilogy storyline, the producers of Dexter are owed royalties.

  8. 8.

    Cervantes

    @Baud:

    Nowadays they’re pretty interesting as cultural artifacts.

    Not a shred of modern-day political correctness in them, of course.

  9. 9.

    Pogonip

    @efgoldman: The Chinese restaurants in Anne’s neighborhood are a lot more expensive than the ones around here.

    And now I have a taste for moo goo gai pan, in one of the few places on Earth where there is no Chinese delivery.

  10. 10.

    JR in WV

    We’ve been off-line to the innertubes for a week now, from a mis-alignment of the sat dish. In the meantime, I had my pre-surgery physical (passed with ease) before my total shoulder replacement next week. Whee!

    At this point it is actually a little difficult to handle a full coffee carafe!

    But the dogs, kats and spouse are all doing well. Really, I’m doing well too, just paranoid and achy – they made me stop taking my NSAID 14 days before the operation, seems that can enhance bleeding. But everyone at the hospital was professional, and the P.A. who did the physical told me her Dad had the same operation/surgeon in which everything went well and he’s very happy with his outcome.

    I’ve never been admitted to the hospital as a patient, just to ER many times, so I’m breaking a 64 year old standard.

    It is 26 23 and dropping fast here in SW West Virginia, and snowing pretty well too. We aren’t supposed to get much, but zero is a realistic event tonight.

    Having neighbors over for fancy dinner tonight; next door east and west in the hollow. We’ve known these folks for around 35 years, so this will be very comfortable. One is a health inspector/ornithologist, one is a hydrologist / systems engineer, one an editor / musician, etc. Good folks.

    And yes, alcohol will be deployed! Happy Valentine’s Day everybody!!

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    It would probably be easier for Chris Coombs, the chef-owner of Boston Chops, Deuxave, and Dbar, to stay home, too. Would anyone blame him? …

    Even with business in February down by 35 percent, Coombs has kept paying his workers under the belief that a steady stipend is more important to them than squeezing another penny of profit is for him and co-owner Brian Piccini…

    I think we should publicize business owners like Mssrs. Coombs and Piccini, looking out for their employees as well as the business.

    No trips to Boston on the radar, but I would make a beeline for Coombs’ restaurants, and other businesses that are run ethically.

    Great counterpoint to the shabby Galtish Papajohn’s and Darden restaurant cretins, who whinge about their employees getting healthcare on their pennies.

  13. 13.

    gbear

    I’ve been wanting to go out for a meal just to get out of the house this winter but when it’s 5 degrees outside it’s just hard to get out the door. We don’t even have any snow.

  15. 15.

    Mike J

    @Baud: The wonderful thing about ebooks is things you would never buy can be obtained in the darker corners of the internet. Very handy when somebody from Politico releases a book, or when you only need to read two or three pages of mainstream smut to see how bad it is.

  16. 16.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Botsplainer: It sounds horrid. I’m glad you’re both watching so I don’t have to.

    We are headed to a VDay buffet of prime rib, crab stuffed salmon, risotto with carmelized leeks, asparugus in herbed butter, red potatoes in herbed butter, plus chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert with a glass of champagne. It’s about a mile down the road** at a coffee shop restaurant owned by a chef. I won’t tell you the price to be kind; you’d be envious.

    Then home to sip French 75s and watch old concerts by TVZ, Gillian Welch, and perhaps Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

    **While there is a predicted temp drop and snow, we won’t have a long drive. And our cul de sac, as well as the village streets leading to it were brined a couple of hours ago.

  17. 17.

    gelfling545

    @Botsplainer: My understanding is that the 50 shades deal was supposed to be based on the Twilight series. This alone is enough to make a billy goat upchuck.

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack

    No snow here in my little corner of NoVA, but it is getting colder. It’s 41° now—balmy!—but going down to 7° tonight and then up to only 19° tomorrow. Brr! High winds are the culprit. Supposed to get up to an inch of snow tonight, but if it’s like the little we’ve had recently it won’t stick.

    Bro’ man is driving to Rehoboth Beach tomorrow afternoon to talk to some contractors on Monday morning, and I was thinking of tagging along with him, but the weather there is equally bad, plus they’re supposed to get more snow. Makes staying home with the housecat even more appetizing.

  24. 24.

    JPL

    Although I don’t expect pity, I’m going to show you what I just received from the city I’m living in

    Advisory: WINTER STORM WATCH in effect for NORTH FULTON from Mon (2/16/2015), 1am thru Tue (2/17/2015), 7 pm……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
    WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY EVENING…
    THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PEACHTREE CITY HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH… WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM LATE SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY EVENING. ………………….
    * LOCATIONS… PORTIONS OF NORTH GEORGIA… GENERALLY NORTH OF A LINE FROM FRANKLIN TO STOCKBRIDGE TO WASHINGTON. …………………………………………………………………………………….
    * ACCUMULATIONS… A TRACE OF SNOW AND/OR SLEET ON THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF THE WATCH… WITH UP TO TWO INCHES OF SNOW AND SLEET ON THE NORTH SIDE OF METRO ATLANTA. UP TO A QUARTER OF AN INCH OF ICE IS POSSIBLE ACROSS THE WATCH AREA.

  25. 25.

    gbear

    @efgoldman: Are they piling up the snow in huge mounds in unused parking lots? You can have the fun of betting on which day in summer the last of the mound will finally melt. We’ve had some of the mounds go into May, and they get so dirty (the dirt doesn’t melt) that you can’t really even tell that there’s still snow underneath. They get pretty gross.

  27. 27.

    Comrade Mary

    @gelfling545: It wasn’t simply “based on Twilight”, it was web-published, honest to god Twilight fanfic that she used find and replace on to create a “new” work that had very little new material. Really.

    The only thing I find amusing about the book/movie are the brilliant parodies out there right now, like this one:

    I’m opening ‘50 Shades of Grey’ to a random page and posting what I find. Part seven.

    12 February 2015

    I paged through a cook book in Christian’s kitchen. The kitchen was the size of a helicopter. The kind of helicopter that we had done buttstuff in. Also it was made of gold.

    The cookbook was full of strange recipes: “One egg, a blindfold, two whips.”

    I spun around as he used his fingers to surprise my shoulders.

    “I see you found my cooking books,” he said observantly.

    I nervously asked him, “What kind of a recipe is this?”

    He laughed a sexy laugh that a handsome seal would make in some sort of sex zoo. “That’s a book on how to make sex breakfasts, and I’m going to make one for you.”

  28. 28.

    Comrade Mary

    Woo-hoo! My last post went into moderation! Go me!

    EDIT: Oh. Too many links rather than bad content. Sad now.

  29. 29.

    Steeplejack

    @Pogonip:

    [. . .] one of the few places on Earth where there is no Chinese delivery.

    I don’t get why in my area nobody delivers. I’m very close (half a mile) to a shopping center with excellent Chinese and Thai restaurants, plus a Vietnamese shopping center with about ten great Vietnamese restaurants. And there are other restaurants scattered around nearby. But the only place that I’ve found that delivers to me is a pizza place, which I call about once every two weeks. And it’s farther away than the other places. WTF? (It is a great pizza place, though: Brick’s. Thanks to Redshift for the recommendation.)

  31. 31.

    Anne Laurie

    @Pogonip:

    The Chinese restaurants in Anne’s neighborhood are a lot more expensive than the ones around here.

    SuChang’s is a sit-down, white-tablecloth, private-dining-rooms available “nice” restaurant — and the food is incredible. (It was originally recommended to us by Taiwanese nationals doing contract work for one of the tech companies the Spousal Unit worked at.) We can get somewhat cheaper delivery from restaurants closer to our home, but usually we make the drive instead.

  34. 34.

    JPL

    A friend who lives outside of Boston is returning today from a two week vacation in Hawaii. Her plane is suppose to land at six. Hopefully her ride home from the airport isn’t to hazardous.

    @Baud: School is out Monday for the holiday, but if there is a significant storm, they could easily cancel the rest of the week. After last year, most companies are taking extra measures to allow people to work at home.

  35. 35.

    satby

    I made Cajun salmon patties and a buttercup squash souffle for my dinner, to be enjoyed with a nice Shiraz and the absolute joy that no one will be whining at me about the “weird food” and insisting on watching NASCAR reruns.

  36. 36.

    Redshift

    As Steeplejack said, it’s going to be bitterly cold here in NoVa, but no show to speak of.

    I’m going to the Boston area at the end of the month; either driving up or taking the train and then renting a car. It’ll be interesting to see what conditions are like by then…

  37. 37.

    karen

    Thanks Anne Laurie, now I’ve decided that just because I have no Valentine, that doesn’t mean I don’t get a treat and I will order Chinese food delivery.

    I’m in Silver Spring, MD and right now it’s cold as hell and the snowflakes have gone from dandruff to slightly heavier but doubt it’ll accumulate into anything.

    My folks live on Long Island and downstate NY has had their mess of snow. Upstate NY as also been hit but they know how to handle it.

    My sister, on the other hand, lives in Northhamton, MA and has been walloped.

  38. 38.

    JPL

    @mdblanche: Only because those that venture out during the storm, think you are suppose to leave your car in the middle of the road. Roswell purchased some equipment but not enough to do side streets. In March of 1993, we once had a foot of snow. A neighbor and I went out for lunch the day before without coats. It was about seventy. She had just moved from NY and mentioned how it wouldn’t be a big deal because they would plow the roads. I looked at her and said Karen, there are no plows.

  40. 40.

    low-tech cyclist

    As a long-ago-recovered End Times junkie, I laughed my head off at that correction. (Well, that makes all the difference!)

    Here in southern Maryland, little if any snow (had flurries today, maybe an inch expected tonight, this has been the least snowy winter in years), but we’re expecting gusts up to 60 mph tonight and tomorrow.

  41. 41.

    Botsplainer

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    It sounds horrid. I’m glad you’re both watching so I don’t have to.

    Lots of off-putting creepy intense gazes from the actor who played him. I wanted to cock punch him repeatedly.The girl was better, more believable.

    The project suffered when Charlie Hunnam (Jax Teller from SoA) pulled the ripcord.

  42. 42.

    evap

    Also in NoVA here (Arlington) where it is expected to be in the single digits tomorrow morning and very windy. I guess I won’t be doing my usual Sunday long run, although I hope to at least do a short run on the treadmill downstairs. Should be very cold and windy all day, but they are not predicting snow. The spousal unit and I will pretend that tomorrow is Valentine’s Day; we have a reservation at Mike Isabella’s new restaurant (Kapnos Taverna), which is only a few blocks from our place. There were no reservations available tonight.

    Mr. evap is supposed to fly to Dublin via Boston on Monday, I hope the Boston airport is up and running!

  46. 46.

    JPL

    @Baud: Some of the watches are because of last years debacle when the governor didn’t know the difference between a watch and a warning. He then sent everyone home at the same time. I made it home but a lot of people didn’t.

  47. 47.

    Ohio Mom

    @JR in WV: did anyone warn you that one of the effects of anesthesia is constipation? Seriously, stock up on some OTC stuff. I took a fair amount of dulcolax in the week after my boob’s amputation.

  48. 48.

    raven

    Not only am I making heart shaped polenta slices to go in the marinara I found I could make little hearts from Trader’s chicken Italian sausage!

  51. 51.

    Steeplejack

    @Cervantes:

    That site is not serving D.C. yet, apparently. GrubHub shows that I can order from 106 restaurants, but they’re a mongrel collection of pizza places, no-name dives, more pizza places and chains (P.F. Chang, Applebee’s, T.G.I. Friday, etc.). But thanks for the suggestion.

    The one that gets me is the excellent Chinese restaurant that I can almost see from my bedroom window. It is a go-to spot for the local Chinese community, so much so that on many weekend evenings it is closed (for banquets, wedding receptions, etc.) except for takeout. They could make a killing if they delivered, I would think. But they’re probably so successful now that they don’t want the hassle.

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @efgoldman: reading about the coming Mega-drought, I’m wondering if anyone is even thinking about water pipelines. I know the Great Lakes states are already thinking about saying “fuck you, this is ours.”

  53. 53.

    Luthe

    @gelfling545: 50 Shades began life as a Twilight alternate universe story on fanfiction.net and became wildly popular (because people have no taste). The author filed the serial numbers off, got herself an agent, and the rest is terribly written history.

  55. 55.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Cold but little snow here. The excitement of the day was buying a new leather band for my old LL Bean field watch. I am planning Ing getting Greek takeout tonight – souvlaki sounds good.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    @evap:

    Ooh, I’ll have to check out that restaurant sometime. I’m at the other end of Wilson Boulevard, where it dumps into Seven Corners.

  58. 58.

    gogol's wife

    It’s snowing. So what else is new. I don’t know how I survived four winters in Wisconsin and one in Moscow. I hate it.

    Now to make the wine sauce for the filet mignons. My Valentine is very sweet.

  60. 60.

    Luthe

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is why I can’t live in the Southwest, as much as I would love to. I have a moral objection to worsening the drought through my personal demands for water. I know my impact would be minimal, but every drop counts at this point.

    As for California, they can gloat all they want, but unless the Sierra Nevadas start getting Boston-level snowstorms, they are fucked sideways. The snowpack’s at record lows and getting smaller every year.

    P.S. Don’t buy California almonds, dairy, or beef products. The water demands of producing them are outrageous.

  63. 63.

    Monkeyfister

    Here in Armpit, TN, we’re bracing for our first winter storm. 2-6 inches of ice and sleet, thanks to Al Gore’s rotundity. Weather Channel is calling it “Octavia,” and I hate to say it, Anne, but it’s coming next for you.

  64. 64.

    Origuy

    I have no plans to read or see 50 Shades of Gray, but Dave Barry did it for me.

    Going out tonight to La Fondue in Saratoga. Pricey, but she thinks she’s worth it and I’m not going to argue. She made reservations before I even asked her, just in case. Good thing, too, since by the time I got around to it, they were booked up.

  65. 65.

    Anne Laurie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The Great Lakes Compact was set up to prevent just such an eventuality. (Of course Kochsucking governors like Walker are trying to break it, like every other contract they can get their grubby little hands on, but in Michigan at least they’ve been working to protect water resources since at least the 1980s, when I was living there.)

  66. 66.

    beltane

    We’re supposed to have highs only in the single digits all week. Until I hit 40, the winters here didn’t bother me at all. Now the half of the year that makes up our winter fills me with dread and despair.

  67. 67.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @efgoldman: If I had to pick between your weather and Bill’s, I could pick up some Chinese take out on my way to your house.

    If I were in charge of the Great Thermostat, the hottest day of the year would be 72, and that only at noon, three days in August. Max.

    I was born in the wrong century.

  68. 68.

    PurpleGirl

    It’s snowing in NYC right now. I should have done some food shopping this morning when it wasn’t snowing. The maintenance staff haven’t started to sand the sidewalks yet.

    I should probably go to bed early tonight. I’ll sleep in the living room where it is warm, the bedroom is on cold side now (due to the wind).

  72. 72.

    Steeplejack

    @efgoldman:

    I know what you’re saying, but I would think my area has enough density: it’s a mix of residential neighborhoods and lots of apartment and condo complexes. The Chinese place (Fortune) probably falls into the category of too successful to bother with delivery.

    I think your daughter lives close to my brother. She’s on/off Lee Highway near the Italian Store? Bro’ man’s palatial estate, Sighthound Hall, is just north of there in the Woodmont neighborhood. They have way better delivery options over there.

  73. 73.

    eemom

    @Redshift:

    it’s going to be bitterly cold here in NoVa

    HATE.

    Since there seem to be a lot of us NoVas on this thread — anyone up for a meetup soon?

    Would especially enjoy making the RL acquaintance of esteemed Steeplejack, and renewing such with Redshift and Elizabelle.

  76. 76.

    Platypus

    Around here (Lexington MA) it’s not so much what you can see as what you can hear. All around town you can hear homeowners or professional crews on top of houses raking, shoveling, chipping away the ice dams (which is a really good way to destroy the roof underneath BTW). Go out, and you’ll hear everyone talking about which rooms have leaks, which walls are bulging out, where you can still buy ice-melt, which contractors are good. I’ve explained the process of making and deploying ice-melt “sock bombs” to several of my friends. Most of the runners just stay home and cry, but a few compare notes on which routes are still safe to run with appropriate (i.e. extreme) caution. It seems pretty bleak to me, or maybe I’m just saying that because I’m home alone to watch the house while the rest of the family is on a ski trip (it’s February school-vacation week). That’s right – I’m missing a ski trip because of snow. The mind boggles.

  80. 80.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Do tell. I have a Citizen field watch I need to get a leather band for. Great watch, but it came with a gray-green canvas band that is teh suck.

  84. 84.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: Yes, it is warm and I can’t use the A/C since I have the pilot light on the heater. Since ya know it’s fucking WINTER.

  85. 85.

    Steeplejack

    @Luthe:

    I think about that every time I’m in Las Vegas. (I have family there.) I find the city surprisingly livable and would hypothetically consider moving there, but I always work around to the question certainty of looming water issues in the years to come.

    ETA: But is anyplace going to be safe from “water issues”? We just have a huge number of people wanting to use huge amounts of water. The arid places will feel the pinch first, but it’s coming for us all.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    @Steeplejack:

    People who mock California’s drought seem to forget the nasty drought in the Midwest a few years ago. Since we expect droughts, we can adapt and change to prepare for them, but there’s not much they can do in Iowa to prepare.

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steeplejack: I just bought $20 one from the Dakota kiosk at the mall. The last one lasted seven years. It looked nicely distressed after a while. It finally broke about a month ago. This one looks too new and is too stiff. I will do what I did with he last one and tray it with baby oil – darkest and softened it up nicely.

  91. 91.

    ruemara

    I am heartily annoyed at roommate with girlfriend in tow who have noisily entered the apartment. I’m hoping that their idea of Valentine’s Day romance is not being here. I’m in the middle of working on something and their presence is like the low thrum of a siren for whales. You may not hear it but it still manages to be annoying.

  92. 92.

    satby

    The weather here is 10 above but wind gusts of 30+ mph have put the windchill down to between -16 to -23, and there’s been blizzard and white out conditions all day even though the actual snow fall hasn’t been more than a couple of inches so far. Hard to tell because it’s been falling sideways all day.

    I’m just worried about how I’ll drive on Monday, I have disabled clients starting jobs to coach. Cold wouldn’t be so terrible if I could at least get out onto cleared roads.

  93. 93.

    PurpleGirl

    IIRC, the west coast depends on a number of hydroelectric plants for power. There could power problems this year if the water levels are not high enough to support power generation. Just a random thought.

  94. 94.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’ve though about changing the band on my new watch, but even the wife thinks this one looks nice.

    ETA: We went to Costco last night and I showed her the Moto360. She said, “your’s looks much better”. I have the Asus Zen Watch, square not round.

  95. 95.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I’m filling out a questionnaire from my publisher’s marketing department. One question asks if I think great literature is elevating. That one made me laugh. When you teach in an English Dept, your colleagues spend a whole lot of time reading great literature. Some of those colleagues are wonderful people, and some are sociopaths. So no, great literature is not automatically elevating.

  99. 99.

    Another Holocene Human

    Huh. So apparently McD’s is mandating “emotional labor”, that employees be super nice/sparkly to customers. (Was at McD’s recently to get coffee and didn’t notice a change, to be honest.)

    Who comes up with this shit? I’m from the Northeast. I’m not intimidated by “resting bitch face”. You know what, it actually shows a degree of respect that we’re all adults and that I’m paying money to this business that does whatever confident that it is run by adults and they won’t tolerate inappropriateness or fail to step in and be adults, whether it’s about safety, harassment of other customers, illegal behavior, whatever. I was raised to have a deep distrust of the overly friendly (worn down by living in the South, I assure you … but I know why Southerners are overly friendly … because too direct could start an actual, call the police fight).

    I don’t feel happy or grateful when min wage youthful slaves get right up my ass. I feel embarrassed for them. I want to be kind, but the fake gets in the way. I know when they act like that that while I can’t see the manager, he or she is over their shoulder, monitoring the whole interaction. The parameters of interaction will be strictly limited. And the fact that I don’t want a clerk to be up my ass, in fact, I’m horrified to pay to have a clerk be up my ass, can’t enter into things. It makes me uncomfortable and I shut down and frankly end up being a ruder customer than otherwise. (I try to make up for it with tips.)

    You can’t fake joy, gratitude, enthusiasm. I frequent a local restaurant where the owners are deeply involved. Now they may be pushing the outgoing behavior because you have to be assertive with customers, but … they want customers, and customers who buy more and more lucrative food. (They’re always pushing the high margin apps and drinks, for example.) The success of their business is on the line. They want busy. The point is that there’s not a lot of daylight between their external attitude and what they’re actually thinking. And you know what? I respect that.

    Look, if a min wage slave at Dunkies hides instead of taking orders or is rude and condescending, like, yeah, that would suck. But just steadily taking orders–what’s wrong with that? No points for efficiency? I don’t want them to be up my ass, I want accurate and fast. Just make it smooth. I don’t need the verbal blowjob.

  101. 101.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Iowa Old Lady: It certainly expanded my mind when I was a teenager.

    Probably a marginal benefit kind of effect, eventually you hit the end of that.

    Especially as a teen, great literature exposed me to people and places and ideas that I had never encountered before.

  102. 102.

    Another Holocene Human

    @ruemara: Working on Sat. Kudos.

    I know there’s something I ought to be working on, but I’ve got can’t be arsed-itis.

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I hate typing on my phone, only slightly less on my tablet (Nexus 7). I will grudgingly do it for text messages and if someone is wrong about something on Balloon Juice, but other than that forget it. I like reading my e-mail on the phone or tablet, but for me to type an answer it would pretty much have to be in response to an imminent suicide threat or equivalent.

  105. 105.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Omnes Omnibus: The Zen Watch is stainless and a leather band. The watch face is definitely not “old school”. Though I do have one face that has roman numerals…

  106. 106.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Platypus:

    All around town you can hear homeowners or professional crews on top of houses raking, shoveling, chipping away the ice dams (which is a really good way to destroy the roof underneath BTW).

    Job security, stop hatin’.

    (Note to non-ice-horror-dwellers: construction in summer, snow related employment in winter. No construction in winter, no snow in summer.)

  109. 109.

    Another Holocene Human

    The war between white collar and blue collar in New England is kind of hilarious, I mean except for when it takes casualties, like that foul mouthed plow jockey who got fired last year for bitching about dumbshits who leave their car in the road on snow days, or when a white collar loses the contractor roulette and hires an anti-social freak who steals from them and threatens their lives when they go to court.

    “They wouldn’t let me paint my office! They said it was union work!” (btw, I’ve seen the paint jobs white collars do … lol).

    Home inspector: well, the good news is, no home-owner wiring in here so you won’t need to hire an electrician to redo it

    as someone with a physics background who has actually done home wiring … no, not anybody can rewire their fucking house, and while it may not be rocket science, if you can’t pass the rocket science class you’ll definitely flunk circuits, next…

  111. 111.

    Another Holocene Human

    oh noes, I called hiring a contractor in New England a G A |\/| B L 3 and I got moderated because FYWP is a sooooper geniiouus at sniffing out sapm.

  113. 113.

    debbie

    @Botsplainer:

    I’ve enjoyed NPR’s reviews of the movie. So far, my favorite bit:

    I am not a masochist. That’s why I couldn’t bring myself, until the day before I saw the movie, to read E L James’s S&M romance “50 Shades Of Grey,” which began as fanfiction, meaning published online for free, and in a better world would’ve stayed that way.

    http://www.npr.org/2015/02/13/386058495/if-you-strip-the-bondage-50-shades-is-a-conventional-love-story

  115. 115.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: I am disappointed in how they groomed the dude who is playing the Dom guy. That actor is really, really hot….when he has his facial and body hair and muscles and when he doesn’t look like a college Republican on the downlow. Men should be MANLY. A dude who spends more time in the bathroom than I do is NOT HOT.

  116. 116.

    MomSense

    @Botsplainer:

    If you haven’t watched The Fall yet on Netflix, I highly recommend it.

    I’m exhausted and the storm is just starting. Four hours of raking roofs and then shoveling up the snow is quite the workout.

    The kids are all asleep and I’m amazed I’m still awake. Tonight might be a good night for DIY sammiches. I don’t think I have the energy for cooking dinner tonight.

  117. 117.

    MobiusKlein

    In San Francisco, it’s warmer than the average summer day. No fog, no rain, no mist.
    It isn’t right, but I’m grilling anyway.

  118. 118.

    WereBear

    In the words of an efilmcritic review I just read, the original Fifty Shades book read like: “imagine the world’s longest letter to “Penthouse Forum” as penned by Dan Brown”

  119. 119.

    cckids

    @Baud:

    I’m tempted to read the books just because I keep hearing how awful they are.

    Did that for Twilight; all my daughter’s friends (and moms) were obsessed with it & she & I both read it to see about the fuss. Really, the worst books I’ve ever finished.

    But at least now I can rag on them & criticize from an informed viewpoint. So I do.

    Not doing it again with 50 Shades, though. Life is too short.

  120. 120.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @gelfling545: Just to pile on to the 50 Shades history:

    Modern fanfic is overwhelmingly amateur – but not quite by definition, and some of what fuels the Fifty Shades phenomenon is the commercial potential it demonstrates for fanfic. But however new that seems to many it’s actually old hat, and what E. L. James did when she changed her Twilight fic called Master of the Universe into Fifty Shades has a name – ‘filing off the serial numbers’, as thieves do with stolen guns and cars.

    and

    But when ‘Dear Author’, a “Romance Review Blog”, ran Master of the Universe and Fifty Shades through Turnitin, software developed to catch plagiarism in student essays, the similarity index was 89%, and a significant part of the 11% difference was in the characters’ names and could have been done through global search-and-replace commands.

    and a taste of what you can find further into this essay:

    Disapproval of Twilight need not, of course, extend to Twilight fanfic, let alone to a profic developed from it – but there are at least three quite different ways of relating Fifty Shades back through Master of the Universe to Twilight. The first lines up Meyer and James as similarly inexperienced writers who have found ludicrous success with an inferior product – in effect, one bad writer inspires another, and (as so often) huge commercial success correlates with a lack of quality. The second sees James as having primarily indulged Twilight fans by providing an adult version of its romance storyline. The third, however, sees what James did in making her heroine a participant in explicitly consensual BDSM as critiquing Meyer’s pious silences and implicit endorsement of the abuse Bella suffers, and extends that to other aspects of James’s work.

    Talking Sense About ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, or, Fanfiction, Feminism, and BDSM

  123. 123.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Iowa Old Lady: What kind of fiction? Because I used to hang out on a fanfic forum where the ladies (biddy hens) distinctly lacked empathy. As in, we write about two men doing “the buttsechs” but it is TOTALLY NOT GAY, GAY PEOPLE ARE ICKY, you, you are icky and need to SHUT UP, nobody will ever vote to give YOU rights because two guys getting the hots for each other and doing “ANAL” is HOTT, and manly, but gay is GROSS, because shut up that’s why. W Bush for POTUS.

    When I was deeper into fanfic I did notice a distinct difference between the authoritarian tendencies of OTP (one true pairing) fans versus all other shippers/slashers. (We called them slashers but now they’re called shippers but it’s the same thing.) Who can forget the wankery of the Harry Potter/Hermione Granger fans (I was not into that fandom but everyone knew about it, that’s how hard they were wanking)? If you get too much into online fandom for a show/comic/movie you like, you’ll know. I watched ST: Voyager to snark it on Usenet but was aware because of spillover that Paris/Torres fans had NOT endeared themselves to the rest of the shippers … and fans of Janeway/Chakotay (what? ew) apparently were even worse. There was a website called “J/C Must Die!” among other things. Btw, how much of a tool do you have to be to decide that captain + first officer is the best pairing of evers, does your OKCupid profile list your fondness for licking polished boots? Okay, unfair of me, not like I’ve never been a fan of #1+#2 myself. But I must say that J/C required wingnut levels of devotion and delusion given that there is literally an episode where Chakotay is the last man on earth and Janeway won’t fuck him. I mean how much clearer could the showrunners be? This is not Mulder/Scully people!

  124. 124.

    different-church-lady

    @Pogonip: The problem (as I’m pretty sure comments upthread have already mentioned, but I’m too lazy to check for) is that removed snow tends to be filled with nasty stuff — salt, sand, road oil, etc. We won’t even dump it in the harbor anymore, so I can’t imagine anyone would want to put it on crops.

  126. 126.

    Another Holocene Human

    @MomSense: How is season 2? I got addicted to Season 1, then it stopped. If the show is just taunting us and going in circles I’m going to quit. There were so many disturbing visuals, also so many times the murder dude nearly got busted but wasn’t, ugh, hate him so much. I don’t really like Anderson’s character, she seems so … bloodless.

  127. 127.

    Linnaeus

    @Anne Laurie:

    but in Michigan at least they’ve been working to protect water resources since at least the 1980s, when I was living there.

    If there’s one thing you could get Michiganders of all political views to agree on, it would be to resist any diversion of Great Lakes water outside of what’s provided for in the current management regime. I mean, don’t even joke about it there.

  129. 129.

    Southern Beale

    We had reservations at a nice restaurant for tonight, and tickets to the hockey game. But I woke up with an awful chest cold and it’s supposed to get down to 8 degrees tonight — didn’t think being in a cold hockey arena was a good idea, and didn’t think I’d feel up to the fancy dinner. So we canceled the reservation and I sold our tickets in just 15 minutes on the TicketExchange.

    Of course I’m feeling much better now. Game starts in an hour. Oh well.

  131. 131.

    different-church-lady

    @Redshift:

    I’m going to the Boston area at the end of the month; either driving up or taking the train and then renting a car. It’ll be interesting to see what conditions are like by then…

    Allow extra time to get anywhere, no matter what the mode of transportation. Roads will still be narrow with snowbanks, potholes abound, and public transportation is quite literally crippled. Even if we don’t get any more snowfall, things will be bad until… mid-March?

  133. 133.

    different-church-lady

    @Another Holocene Human: Maybe we need to “harvest” some pure snow from the farms and fields of Western Mass. Wouldn’t do us any good as far as making our travel functional, but could at least serve as drought relief. But California has to pay for shipping.

  134. 134.

    Suzanne

    @Another Holocene Human: You can absolutely fake joy, gratitude, and enthusiasm.

    McDonald’s story: So when I was 16, I worked for a year at the local Golden Arches, and hated every minute of it. Because I was not a dumbass and had reasonable hygiene and had an IQ above 100, I almost always had to serve food at the counter or run one of the drive-thru stations. Because I was a surly teenager right at the time the Courtney Love was popular, and I had an attitude to match, I used to come up with ways to amuse myself. One night, I spoke to every single customer in the voice of Count Von Count. But one day, my friend and I decided to have a contest, and we decided who could be just the most horrifically, sickly, God-awful NICE to people. Just absolute caricatures of good customer service. Ridiculously perky and helpful.

    It backfired on me, because I had three customers in one night talk to the head manager about how nice I was. I ended up getting promoted. Joke was on me. Hah.

  136. 136.

    Another Holocene Human

    Spring rains are harder on transit. Not EVERY spring, just those crazy ones where the water does its worst. I’ve seen the photos of the D-line washing out between Newton and Brookline, wow. And I survived the Great Flood of 98? 99? where I found out that with enough of an initial momentum a GMC RTS II can plow through 3 feet of water. My coworkers’ cars, however, did not survive.

  138. 138.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Cervantes: I’d say people can resist being “elevated” in a wide variety of ways, and the literature could still be great. Really, people are amazing in all directions.

    @Another Holocene Human: I used to write fanfic because writing it was fun. Squabbling about it was not. What was that site that used to post all the big quarrels? Fandom Wank? People get really wound up in it.

  140. 140.

    different-church-lady

    @Another Holocene Human: I think what we need at this point is a couple of days of above-freezing temperatures. What I’m gathering from blogs and such is that third rails are icing over, signal mechanisms are freezing, and various objects on the trains themselves are overheating because of accumulated snow and ice.

    It never occurred to me before this winter how much we count on occasional mini-thaws for our snow-management. Usually some of it goes away before we get another load, but not this year.

  141. 141.

    Suzanne

    @cckids: One night while I was visiting my in-laws, I got food poisoning from something and was stuck in the bathroom crapping for an hour. The ONLY reading material in that entire bathroom was Twilight. I got to page 50 and then decided I’d rather dwell on the agony of my lower intestine and flaming butthole than read Twilight.

    I haven’t tried the Fifty Shades books because I fear a similar reaction, but at least there’s S&M involved. But then I heard that it’s like kindergarten S&M, and that she won’t do fisting. COME ON. I don’t want to read a book that just about the shit I did last Tuesday.

  142. 142.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Suzanne: Oh, sure, you can raise your energy level by being perky–and aggressive. Push out the script, ask questions, move the interaction. Raises your confidence level and somehow your energy level comes up with it.

    That’s different from going right up the customer’s ass.

    And since too-perky IS aggressive, as a customer sometimes it feels like a browbeating. I’m tired. I just want my coffee. Stop bugging me.

    In New England we really valued a fast moving line so doing orders fast and paying fast with minimal chit chat was a good thing. One employer told me to note names and use them. It felt really intrusive and I hated it but did what I was told. Yeah, some customers LOVED it. But some customers got really pissed at the familiarity. DUH.

    You know what? Local hires know the local customs. Don’t push some national policy on locals and expect it to work.

  145. 145.

    Another Holocene Human

    @different-church-lady: Actually if it was below zero and stayed there it wouldn’t be a problem. It’s the hovering around freezing–warmer during day, colder at night–that is fucking your shit up. Where do you think ice comes from?

  146. 146.

    trollhattan

    @different-church-lady:
    Shipping is always the rub. Water is expensive to ship, especially when it needs to be pumped over mountain ranges. The problem has spurred a lot of crazy ideas and one that keeps popping up is Spragg Bags.

    The last study I saw had the cost of hauling Alaska water to SoCal competitive with desal and with fewer environmental consequences. Will never be cheap enough to farm with, though.

    At this late date it will take a weather miracle to halt drought year 4, which makes bragging about our shorts & tshirt weather a little hollow. Still….

  147. 147.

    Suzanne

    @Another Holocene Human: I actually agree with you. I want to get in, get my shit done, and leave. I need slightly more assistance in clothes stores, but I don’t need fake smiles or friends. Everybody leave me the fuck alone, get me my Egg McMuffin and Oreo McFlurry (breakfast of CHAMPIONS) and fuck off,

  149. 149.

    Another Holocene Human

    @different-church-lady: If they bought equipment that couldn’t take snow intake, shame on them.

    Snow getting caught in rail equipment has been a problem since–forever? Google snow and GG-1.

    Of course the MBTA does have the worst capital procurement process I’ve ever heard of besides the DC (federal, not local) method of choosing a bidder at eleventh hour based on campaign contribution promises.

    Boeing and Breda comes to mind. Come to think of it, Breda cars used to LOVE to jump the tracks ever time it got a wee bit nippy.

  151. 151.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Another Holocene Human: I remember years where the weather turned and the slush froze. Frozen slush = weaponized suck. You are screwed.

    Slipping and falling on it? I think I’m getting flashbacks. Breathe. Breathe.

  153. 153.

    Another Holocene Human

    @different-church-lady:

    Maybe we need to “harvest” some pure snow from the farms and fields of Western Mass. Wouldn’t do us any good as far as making our travel functional, but could at least serve as drought relief. But California has to pay for shipping.

    Funny story (and maybe this has changed) but the RRs were running so many empty cars OUT of New England you could get boxcar space for a song.

  154. 154.

    Another Holocene Human

    What is so special about Poland Spring, anyway?

    I loved Quabbin water, until it got too polluted because exurb douchebag septic tank leaks and then they panicked and chlorinated it but didn’t scrub out the nasty toxic Chlorine organic compounds. That was gross.

    Unless you had a Victorian house with lead pipes, okay, then you don’t look like such a tool buying bottled water.

  156. 156.

    FlyingToaster

    @Another Holocene Human: At my house (a few blocks from different-church-lady’s) it’s sunshine. The sun hits the roof, the snow melts and sublimates, and we end up with ice dams and icicles over the gutters. Since my house is 2.5 stories (according to the realtors), we won’t be getting up there with anything.

    The rooftree is bare; the snow right above the ice dam is about 8″. Steep peaks means things slide down.

    I added gutters and a fascia seal (rubber thang between edge of roof and gutter ice can’t back up under the eaves), and I leave it alone.

    We hadn’t had icicles since 2005. I’m pretty impressed; unlike some of my neighbors, we don’t have any leakage or ballooning.

    I am, however, stuck in Watertown rather than winging my way to Fort Myers in the morning. Grandma is disappointed that she won’t see her granddaughter, but quite scared of the weather tomorrow. I’m just hoping the power stays on.

  157. 157.

    different-church-lady

    @Another Holocene Human:

    n New England we really valued a fast moving line so doing orders fast and paying fast with minimal chit chat was a good thing.

    As a life-long NE’lander, when I travel I have to actively remind myself that in other parts of the country chit-chat is considered a good thing. One day I had a realization that when people in other parts of the country say a casual “How are you?” they actually expect you to answer! In a complete sentence, even! And replying with “Hey” and a nod was probably being taken as rude.

  158. 158.

    Mike J

    @different-church-lady:

    As a life-long NE’lander, when I travel I have to actively remind myself that in other parts of the country chit-chat is considered a good thing.

    The one horrible thing about Seattle is the people who insist on chit chat while I’m trying to get my coffee/screwdrivers/video cards/heroin. Here is my money. Give me my goods, and if you want to talk to the other customers, do it after I leave.

  159. 159.

    FlyingToaster

    @Another Holocene Human:

    If they bought equipment that couldn’t take snow intake, shame on them.

    Actually, they weren’t allowed to replace the dying equipment because our current tool of a governor, then a Weld functionary, saddled the T with the state’s Big Dig debt. So they got no money for replacements. And the hackorama that is the Lege let it stay there.

    If you’ve got a spare 50 bil or so, we could replace the failing equipment and buy the maintenance tools in time for our betters’ 2024 Olympic bid. Otherwise, nothing good will happen.

  160. 160.

    ThresherK

    @Another Holocene Human: I was raised to have a deep distrust of the overly friendly (worn down by living in the South

    I’m a Yankee, and was informed by a Daughter of the South that much of the famed hospitality there can be skin deep.

    I’ll take the not-putting-on-friendlyness-airs of the Northeast as a general rule, and from someone in a service role, I don’t want someone to be too nice if it slows down their task of providing me service. (Let alone providing the person before me service.)

  162. 162.

    Another Holocene Human

    @FlyingToaster: It’s been freezing fucking cold in Florida the last week so you aren’t missing anything. Ft Myers isn’t that far south AFAIK.

  164. 164.

    Another Holocene Human

    @different-church-lady: OTOH, when I was in Germany I found out they are even more anxious about rapid line movement than in Boston. I just about died. (Fuck me, I didn’t realize you have to tell the cashier you want to pay extra for bags up front and even though I thought I was pretty quick with money I got looks like we used to give little old ladies with checkbooks for $18 purchases.)

  165. 165.

    Another Holocene Human

    @ThresherK: It’s absolutely skin deep, as I alluded above, it’s only put on under threat of violence.

    We nearly had a fistfight at work once, the snarky British dude asked a former union rep just some slightly too pointed questions and you’d think he said something crass about his mother and his favorite sports team in a pub at 1245am on a Saturday….

  167. 167.

    ellie

    Mid 60s today in Denver. There was some cloud cover but the mountains were glowing from the sun shining on them. I think we get snow on Monday, the temps go back up Tues-Thurs and then it snows again at the end of next week. I wouldn’t trade this weather for anything.

  168. 168.

    Another Holocene Human

    By comparison when I worked in a restaurant in Boston, annoying snarky teasing was a daily occurrence. I was a bit sensitive–touchy–on account of being really insecure, but I had to suck it up. I kind of thought of myself as thin skinned.

    Then I moved to the southern part of Florida, which is geographically in the north, and found out what thin skin REALLY is. Damn.

  171. 171.

    MomSense

    @different-church-lady:

    I’ve visited the south a few times and when I would meet people the first thing they asked is where I go to church. It threw me for a loop. I’ve known people for 20 years who would still never think to ask me that question. It’s just not done in New England.

  172. 172.

    Pogonip

    @Another Holocene Human: Hey, I resemble that remark! I still write checks, though not in the express lane (Americans are too heavily armed to take the fun that far).

    Could someone please rouse Cole for a pupdate? Readers have been talking about the weather for nearly 8 hours (and still, I might note, no one has done anything about it). It’s time for something more cheerful like cute puppies!

    Mandatory weather remark: the wind has died for which I am duly thankful. This is no night for a power outage.

  173. 173.

    Another Holocene Human

    Btw, don’t want to imply that every single person in the South is a totally thin skinned crybaby. I mean if anyone knows how to suck it up from white people it’s Black people in the South.

    But damn, if I haven’t seen more fights break out between grown behind people, color no object whatsoever, than I ever saw in the North, I mean, okay, we had dipshit crazy parents who would fight over their kids at sports meets, but that wasn’t every sport, every Saturday (except LIttle League, I guess), but even in junior HIGH we would talk about fights DAILY did they happen for real? Rarely.

    I found out the hard way that when a Southerner goes to screaming and cussing, look for the fist to follow. Up north we dropped f bombs all day long, one time I was with coworkers and our boss wandered in all casual and we forgot ourselves and kept dropping f bombs and I don’t think the man even noticed. I work with this guy from Chiefland (where the family trees represent a telephone pole – his words) and he said he briefly drove class A, pulled a load into Boston and the guy operating the yard starting in with “take the fucking load over the the fucking dock” and he thought “What the hell did I do, one look at me and this guy wants to kill me?!” Which I gotta say, what a stressful way to live.

    It’s what’s keeping the South down. In part.

  174. 174.

    Steeplejack

    The temp is dropping rapidly. It’s 27° now—down 14 degrees just in the last 2½ hours—pushed by a 25 mph wind from the northwest. I can hear it zooming around outside and occasionally rattling the windows. I’m glad to be snugged up inside with the housecat. I’ve got a timer set on my phone so I can reset her heating pad when it times out so she doesn’t lose heat at her workstation. LOL.

  176. 176.

    Shana

    @Steeplejack: Fortune has the distinction of being just about the only place in the area that serves dim sum. I always try to plan my trips to G Street around lunch time.

  178. 178.

    JPL

    Be safe up in New England. My friend just called and said the roads are quite icy and slow going.

    @ThresherK: It is. When we lived in CT, a neighbor from Australia had lived in VA for a short time and was surprised at the difference.

  180. 180.

    JMG

    Dear Ms. Laurie: Good luck with your dinner. Here in Lexington (Mass., of course) nothing could get me outside on the roads.

  182. 182.

    Steeplejack

    @Shana:

    It worked out okay. Got folded into an entourage dinner at my brother’s house. Great food, great company, no big fuss. Quite nice.

  183. 183.

    Southern Beale

    @Another Holocene Human:

    When I moved to Tennessee 26 years ago I was struck by all the “crimes of passion.” In L.A. where I’m from you’d have a carjacking or a robbery, it was all about stealing your stuff or getting your money. These are crimes that make sense.

    In Tennessee the crimes were always about jealousy, emotional rage, or some crazy-assed scheme that no one in their right mind thought would work. Not long after I moved here was this notorious case, for example:

    The Rev. John David Terry, 44, was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder and arson in the slaying of James C. Matheny, 32, whose headless body was found June 16, 1987, in Mr. Terry’s burning church.

    […]

    Mr. Terry admitted he killed Matheny, dressed the body in his own clothes and set the Emmanuel Church of Christ Oneness Pentecostal on fire in a scheme to fake his own death. Prosecutors said Mr. Terry wanted to start a new life and leave insurance proceeds to his family. Mr. Terry also admitted misappropriating more than $30,000 in church money.

    Terry cut off Matheny’s head, part of an arm and patches of skin marked with tattoos and threw the body parts into Lake Barkley near Dover, Tenn.

    This was quite a big story in Nashville, and I worked with one of the guy’s relatives, so it had extra resonance. It’s like, who thought this was a good idea?? If you’re having money troubles, rob a fucking bank. You don’t do some complicated scheme like this.

    The south is known for its crazy uncles and larger than life characters, maybe it’s the humidity and the fried food and the religion, hell I don’t know. Maybe it’s in the fucking water. But it sure is different.

  184. 184.

    Pogonip

    @MomSense: Glad to know that in case I ever visit there, as it is done as far north as lower Michigan. So what’s the New England equivalent of ” Where do you go to church?”

    The question really only makes sense to Protestants, as we Catholics go to whatever parish we happen to live in, but we ask it to be polite, and when the Protestant responds in kind we can say ” I go to Our Lady of Perpetual Snowfall, in Boston,” and they figure we picked out OLPS and the pleasantries are completed.

    Usually we go to whatever parish we happen to live in, but it sometimes happens, due to the way parish lines are drawn, that even if you live in OLPS, St. Snowplow happens to be just around the corner. But you don’t have to explain all that to the Protestants.

  185. 185.

    MomSense

    @JPL:

    I wish I had thought of that! You are more skilled in the ways of discussing religion in the South than I.

  186. 186.

    Steeplejack

    @Shana:

    And they serve dim sum every freaking day, not just on the weekend. That is the mark of a balls-out serious Chinese restaurant.

  187. 187.

    different-church-lady

    @Pogonip: I was thinking in terms of mutual benefit. Our “clean” snow has no need to be removed, since it’s not on the roads. If it’s out in a nice, fresh field or meadow we’re fine leaving it there. It’s our road snow we need gettin’ rid of.

  189. 189.

    MomSense

    @Pogonip:

    The question here is probably some combination of where you live and where you were born. In Massachusetts there are people who are accent connoisseurs. I have friends who know the difference between Revere, Southy, East Boston, etc.

  191. 191.

    maeve

    SE Alaska – temps are in the 40s and lows in the high 30s and we’ve had virtually no snow this year – lots of rain (as per usual) but with no snowpack in the mountains then in the summer the rivers will be very low – bad for the salmon runs.

    Tonight: Rain showers becoming scattered in the evening…then diminishing late. Patchy fog. Lows around 37. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph in the evening becoming light and variable.
    Sunday Partly cloudy. Patchy fog in the morning. Highs around 44. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph.
    Sunday Night
    Washingtons Birthday Cloudy. Slight chance of rain. Highs around 45. Southeast wind 10 to 20 mph.
    Monday Night Cloudy. Slight chance of rain. Lows around 37. Southeast wind 10 to 15 mph.
    Tuesday Mostly cloudy. Highs around 47.
    Tuesday Night Cloudy. Chance of rain. Lows around 38.
    Wednesday Through Thursday Rain likely. Highs around 44. Lows around 38.
    Thursday Night Through Saturday Cloudy. Rain likely. Lows around 38. Highs around 43.

  192. 192.

    ThresherK

    @Another Holocene Human: Heeheehee. Nothing like that in my own past, but I am told that DotS’s parents were still looked on as “from away” because they’d only been living in (decently-sized well-known Southern city) for 40 years.

  193. 193.

    different-church-lady

    Update: I’ve been compulsively checking the forecasts, and I’m seeing a significant downgrade to the snowfall totals. The latest from Wunderground is saying more like 6″. But still very high winds!

  194. 194.

    FlyingToaster

    @Another Holocene Human: Further south than Betty Cracker :) The only sizable habitation further south on the Gulf Coast is Naples.

    Actually, my mom’s house is currently 54°, and clear, as opposed to 27.9° and snowing about 1/2 inch an hour in Watertown Square.

    We’ve gone down for 7 years to my mom’s; this year we had a blizzard, so next year we’ll go.

  195. 195.

    Aleta

    @Anne Laurie: Appreciate the link (wow they have salt and pepper shrimp !!) as sometimes I get to Gloucester. The wind forecast for that area tomorrow — unbelievable. Waiting for lots of cold snow tomorrow.

  196. 196.

    karen

    @Luthe:

    0 Shades began life as a Twilight alternate universe story on fanfiction.net and became wildly popular (because people have no taste)

    I’ve written some anime fanfic but my fic writing is 98% original. But I owe her for giving me the courage to submit my smutty fic to be published. I figured if someone could publish her novel, then I could.

  198. 198.

    John in Kiev

    @Ohio Mom:

    Yes, thanks! I’ve been on Miralax for quite a while because of the meds for the pain. Without huge pain I wouldn’t be interested in the surgery!

    Plus I was the caregiver for my Dad when he got his hip replacement while undergoing leukemia treatment back in 2001-2003. Hard for him, should be much easier for me, I’m in pretty good shape but for the shoulders.

    I had two motor vehicle accidents, first I was stopped at a red light when a lady drove through the intersection, I saw her coming and braced myself by holding the steering wheel hard… both shoulders took a hit.

    Then last March I was passenger in a pickup truck that rolled to the right, so I landed on my right shoulder… ouch.

    Got worse over the summer. Done with it now. Thanks for the advice!

  199. 199.

    Anne Laurie

    @Southern Beale:

    The south is known for its crazy uncles and larger than life characters, maybe it’s the humidity and the fried food and the religion, hell I don’t know. Maybe it’s in the fucking water. But it sure is different.

    Don’t forget the booze (& other mind-altering substances). There’s a reason “children’s classic” TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD includes both a rich, respectable old lady with an opium addiction and a “town drunk” who’s actually just a not-racist drinking Co-Cola out of a paper sack — even apart from the no-‘count Ewings. Psychoactive chemicals are the root, the result, and the fuel of a great deal of “Southern culture”… just as it was for their ancestors back in the Celtic highlands.

  200. 200.

    J R in WV

    Not so much alcohol in my immediate family, although one uncle was fond of it on each side. But we were pretty much part of the Celtic Highland culture – plenty of room on both sides to veer into strange.

  201. 201.

    Another Holocene Human

    @BruceFromOhio: I actually had to be dragged kicking and screaming into Harry Potter because I was pretty allergic to it (almost destroyed some friendships over it, so, yeah, kicking and screaming), and I enjoyed a little X Files now and then I was by no means a fanatic … but you can’t be in fandom and not be aware of it. (Like the coocoo for Cocoa Puffs nuts who spin up conspiracy theories about how Anderson and Duchovny are in love for reals y’all. But Supernatural and Twilight fans are way worse in terms of wanking and acting creepy online and off.)

  202. 202.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Steeplejack: IDK about that, all the Chinese people I know only go to dim sum on the weekend, and I wouldn’t eat anything at a Chinese restaurant that the Chinese people aren’t eating….

    (Dim Sum in Boston is amazing, imo.)

  203. 203.

    Another Holocene Human

    @efgoldman: Being a clown probably helps him politically. If the swing section of Mass voters thought he was an evil genius they would’ve voted for the machine AG. Instead, what I heard going up to election day was “Eh, what’s the worst he can do?”

    omg that lt gov is the worst, though … not that lt govs do ANYTHING, except I guess take over if the gov gets indicted, and given how Mass corruption works, that will never happen

    (Springfield pols get indicted. Boston pols just need to be in the ‘club’ and Boston FBI will never ever touch them. Be not in the club, like Chuck Turner, go to jail on trumped up joke charges. See, ya gotta laugh about states that brag about their corruption based on rates of conviction because if these people are going to the big house something has gone right. The states with no indictments? Those are the ones ya gotta worry about.)

  205. 205.

    Anne Laurie

    @Another Holocene Human: Plenty of drunks all ’round the country (& the world) but Mark Twain’s “Southern Cavaliers” are the ones who romanticized the corrosive effects of intoxicants on top of a deeply-farked-up tradition of violence as “honor” and/or “manliness”. The so-called Scotch-Irish are not quiet, drop-over drunks — we’re mean, flamboyant, showy murderers (& self-murderers). It’s like self-selection for the human version of terriers — not every JRT or pit bull will be an insane violent anti-social beast, but there’s a long tradition of rewarding the type.

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