Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

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

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The words do not have to be perfect.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

76Comments

  6. 6.

    mb

    I find it amazing that neither Lovey nor Thurston seem to have even a wavy coat — much less curly. I’d think the poodle coat would have come out in one of them. What was the daddy?

  9. 9.

    Shana

    Our cat always slept on the dog bed while the dog slept under the other window, hiding his head under the bottom of the drapes in our bedroom.

  11. 11.

    beltane

    @Pogonip: Are you implying that Rosie is overweight?

    I love how she lets the baby have the comfortable spot. Dogs can be very stoic like that.

  13. 13.

    Gin & Tonic

    FC Bayern, which traveled to L’viv (Ukraine) today to play Shakhtar Donetsk to a scoreless tie in a Champions league match, came bearing gifts. They will pay for hospitalization and rehabilitation costs of 30 Ukrainian children injured in the war.

    Interestingly, due to Shakhtar’s relocation, Bayern traveled the same distance to its away match as Shakhtar did to its “home” match.

  14. 14.

    Pogonip

    @mb: Lovey looked wavy, if not poodly, in that one closeup. Poodle puppies actually are born looking much as Lovey did in that picture and then as they grow they get curlier. I have also noticed that modern poodles have a much looser curl than what was popular in the ’60’s.

  18. 18.

    Roger Moore

    I am amused to see two ads for dachshund t-shirts (that’s human shirts with dachshund decorations) and one for “holistic” pet food on this page. I guess the ad serving algorithms are getting better. I’m not sure about the other ads, though.

  19. 19.

    Mike E

    American Experience is playing Freedom Summer, a docu about the fight of the Mississippi Freedom Party to get seated at the 1964 Democratic Convention.

  28. 28.

    Tree With Water

    That big dog will take over that blanket when he feels like it. Indeed, he would kill and eat the smaller dog if need be to survive. Consider Jack London’s To Build A Fire. The animal kingdom has no clue who Walt Disney is, i.e., there nothing “cute” about the photo. I’ve been a curmudgeon for the past few days, and it’s a fun mode to be in.

  30. 30.

    Suzanne

    Dawwwww. Sleeping puppies, kitties, and babies just fill my cold, shrunken heart with squees.

    I want another dog. Sigh.

  31. 31.

    divF

    I missed the Mardi Gras open thread, but the Wild Tchoupitoulas video made me think of this quote. From A.J. Liebling, via the Confederacy of Dunces:

    New Orleans resembles Genoa or Marseilles, or Beirut or the Egyptian Alexandria more than it does New York, although all seaports resemble one another more than they can resemble any place in the interior. Like Havana and Port-au-Prince, New Orleans is within the orbit of a Hellenistic world that never touched the North Atlantic. The Mediterranean, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico form a homogeneous, though interrupted, sea. New York and Cherbourg and Bergen are in a separate thalassic system.

    It is still Shrove Tuesday, even on the East Coast, so I assume I can still post this.

  32. 32.

    JCT

    Awesome news about the beagle – I have one of mine snoring away on the couch next to me. Loved the video of her chewing on her handlers coat – she knew where to find her snacks. Ours is about to turn 13 and she still acts like a toddler. Funny doggies.

  33. 33.

    jl

    I finally looked up tl;dr.

    Most reasonable, respectful, and very polite, demands made by BJ readers for provision of pet blogging material by Cole are very short succinct and to the point. At least from what I have seen.

    Also, this is first pic of Rosie I have seen in awhile where she is still enough to be in focus (‘in focus’ by Cole pet blogging standards)

  34. 34.

    Tree With Water

    Attention all Red Sox fans: Reports are Pablo Sandavol has reported way overweight. Take it from this Giants fan, that is bad news for team. Boston’s front office must be furious.

  40. 40.

    Joel Hanes

    An entire living room of well-socialized and well-fed mammals loafing in company at the end of day.

    Charles R. Knight could paint it as an exemplar of the Anthropocene, if he hadn’t died in 1953.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    John: Pic is great, and puts Lovey’s size in perspective, against Rosie the JRT.

    Maybe Rosie is kind of protecting the little temporary dog?

  43. 43.

    sparrow

    @Mike E: This is an excellent documentary! I was lucky enough to see it at the Maryland Film Festival last year, and the creator was there. He is also doing a new documentary about the rise of the black power movement that I am very interested in. I can’t recommend this doc enough, though. It’s entirely told in first-person narrative of people who were there, and archival footage.

  44. 44.

    ThresherK

    For the moment my car has heat. Half a bottle of Bars Leaks 1111 applied as instructed, and so far, so good.

    I don’t know how long it will last, but I finally decided to do it this winter as the heat has been very, very spotty unless the engine has been running for a while. There was no heat yesterday, I rarely drive 40 miles in a day, and if I can survive little heat, I’m more worried about frosting on the outside of the window (should it ever get above freezing) and fogging on the insides when spring gets here.

    Per lore, I am prepared to apply the rest of the bottle when I need to. And since I went all summer with full AC and no ill effects on the engine, I’m trying to gauge how many times a year I’d do this.

    (You gearheads will ask, so: I got a diagnosis of head gasket, but there was very, very little coolant loss. I believe the diagnosis as the radiator is 2 y.o., the heater core is 1 y.o., and I am familiar with all coolant leak traditions. Cost of the head gasket done properly, even with the “10 cent per mile rule” would be prohibitive. So it was time to go to the parts store and look for what Click and Clack call “something with Miracle on the label”.)

  46. 46.

    ThresherK

    @raven: The whole thing was flushed and filled last winter with the heater core.

    When you say “drained” do you mean “radiator petcock only” or also the engine block coolant drain plug and air relief valve?

    Before putting the Bars Leaks, I got conflicting advice about draining the system, and even conflicting advice about whether to open the block plug and air relief valve. All the drawings and photos are without the drive belt, which is maybe in the category of “I don’t want to learn this right now, I drive this car every day”.

    Mind you, I’ve had some beaters where I felt like pouring a half pint of coolant into the oil filler at every dipstick check because that’s where it was going anyway. So seeing as how this is the least leaky, least worrisome head gasket failure since Otto invented the four-cycle engine, I decided to leave that plug.

    Plus I have a dose left in the bottle if I want to do it again in a couple of months. I will admit to not being that fascinated in finding out more about this until April or at least St. Patrick’s Day.

  47. 47.

    Schlemazel

    @Mike E:
    We watched part one of “The Book Of Negros” a Canadian made docu-drama about the plight of blacks during * after the American revolution. A bit more drama than I like in my docu’s but interesting & a part of history roundly ignored by American text books.

    EDIT: It is on BET btw.

  49. 49.

    ThresherK

    @raven: Thanks, but I stand on the shoulders of many people who’ve fixed (or destroyed) a bit of their car so I could work on mine. The Nissan geeks out on the intertubes have done everything to their long-produced engines I could imagine.

  51. 51.

    Tommy

    @ThresherK:

    The Nissan geeks out on the intertubes have done everything to their long-produced engines I could imagine.

    Oh I hear that. I am a VW guy. The few times I’ve gone online to learn about the engine in my car, or heck just my car, I was stunned by how much knowledge was out there. Might have even thought to myself, would you people get a life. It is just a car!

  52. 52.

    Mustang Bobby

    @ThresherK: Coming in late to this, but what’s the thermostat situation on the car? I was about to spend big bucks on a whole cooling system clean and check on my ’74 Jeep Wagoneer and it turned out the thermostat was inop. Just asking.

  53. 53.

    ThresherK

    @Tommy: Yeah, but dilletantes like us get to pick their brains without talking to them in person and sounding like dweebs.

    VW guy? Hey, have you heard anything anecdotal about the long-term prospects of their new 1.8T engine?

    We had to rent a car (see: no heat in one vehicle, other one hit a deer, just before 600 miles of travel planned for Thanksgiving week) and given the choice of a Chrysler 200 or a Jetta 1.8T, I went with the VW.

    Liked it enough to wonder what kind of used car it would make in two years.

  54. 54.

    Tommy

    @raven: I don’t think I have ever mentioned this with you but my father only drives Chryslers. I am brand loyal on a few things, but nothing close to him and his Chryslers. When they stopped making the Pacifica he was heart broken. I was like dad there are other car manufacturers. You drove my VW Passsat back from DC when I moved and I know you loved it. They make cars. He would have none of it. Chrysler.

  55. 55.

    ThresherK

    @Mustang Bobby: Thanks for your concern. The thermostat was given a clean bill of health by the mechanic (but the radiator cap was replaced) since before they went ahead with the heater core, and the temp gauge seems to bear that out. (That’s how a mechanic’s shop gets on my “multiple-cookie-delvery” list.)

  56. 56.

    Tommy

    @ThresherK: I have not. My parents have a Chrysler 200. Nice car. They travel a ton. Drive everywhere. Dad told me it was getting around 100,000 miles on it. Might be time to get another car. VW people would just say you have finally broken in your engine at this point. He didn’t seem to get my point. With that said I’d have gotten the Jetta as you did.

  58. 58.

    ThresherK

    @Tommy: Yeah, it’s easy to enjoy a car with literally 6,000 miles on it to drive for a week. Everything runs right and nothing’s rattled loose by then.

    Some VW / Audi items are, anecdotally speaking, reputed to be easier and cheaper to take beyond 100k-150k than others. Always in the back of my mind is how they have a history of making hatchbacks and wagons; there’s appeal in the idea of a 5-door Golf hatch or Jetta wagen.

  59. 59.

    Mustang Bobby

    @raven: That is one cool Chrysler. My grandmother started out with Pierce-Arrows (she married well, they say), then went to Chryslers after WW2. I remember her 1955 Newport, her 1961 300, and then a 1966 Plymouth VIP. She had brief flirtation with Mercedes-Benz in the ’70’s, followed by an ill-considered Chevrolet Caprice, but her last was the Chrysler version of the K-car.

    Speaking of cars, my Pontiac got a very nice mention by Richard Lentinello in his April 2015 column in Hemmings Classic Car. Wow.

  60. 60.

    Tommy

    @raven: Nice!

    You have seen my Flicker feed. Many pics of my dad, not to make you feel old, just like that. Wonderful.

    I come from a family of people that drive. I am not that guy. I get the lets drive and find this rest stop. This hidden gem. Well I want to fly to where I am going. Did the “drive” thing before I could afford to fly and not entirely sure is what folks say about it all.

    Not lumping you in, just thinking outloud ….

  61. 61.

    ThresherK

    @Mustang Bobby: Okay, some ’50s Chrysler product I can bypass, especially before their ’57s, but a Pierce-Arrow?

    The Cooper-Hewitt-going geek in me has a bit of lust for something like that. At some point there are fewer and fewer cars every generation which are styling gems, and even with the surfeit of $150,000 Maybachs and crap aimed at the people who have helipads on their yachts, I don’t think I’m indulging in nostalgia to prefer the lines of a Pierce-Arrow or anything from the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg lines. (Not that I have the money or time to even keep a Model A in trim.)

    PS Noticed the link contained a Dodge Diplomat ad. I drove its plebian ancestor (which will not show up in anyone’s Concours list), the Aspen, which was the aforementioned “mix the oil and coolant” rig. It’s almost impossible to really kill a Slant Six.

  62. 62.

    raven

    @Tommy: I try to load the dogs up for a cruise in the chevy a few times a week. There is a street downtown with big buildings on both sides creating a tunnel. When I slam it coming off them stoplight and drop off the gas I get this really nice loud BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR pop pop pop!

    This is a good one, I loaded Raven up and took off down the street. When I was coming back I ran out of gas. My wife pulled around the corner and just ignored me!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SXWsNBpJeo

  63. 63.

    Tommy

    @ThresherK: It is easy for me …

    My car is a 1999 VW Passat with less than 45,000 miles on it. When I say I am a hippie liberal and I use mass trans I am not joking. Car sits in a garage most nights and just gets older.

    I wanted the V6 and had to order if from Germany at the time. Not easy to get a manual at that time. But I did. Flat out wonderful car.

  64. 64.

    Mustang Bobby

    @ThresherK: When my grandmother got married in St. Louis in 1928, she married into money, and at the age of 25, she was told to go out and buy any car she wanted as long as it was a Pierce-Arrow. She wept; she thought it was ostentatious, but the family insisted. Ten years later she and my grandfather got La Salles. My grandfather kept his through the war, and I vaguely remember riding in the back seat when I was two or so, which would have been 1954.

    Cars from that era are to me the epitome of style; nothing since has matched them, and I’m looking forward to seeing some more this weekend when I and some cohorts from the antique auto club here in Miami go up to judge at the Boca Raton Concours d’Elegance. I know I’ll be assigned the Mustangs (no duh), but I will get to see the classics, too.

  67. 67.

    Amir Khalid

    If this thread is not yet dead —

    I went to the University of Malaya Medical Centre today for an eye exam and heard two wonderful words: “cataract surgery”. I have a follow-up eye appointment in May before any final decision is made; but yeah, the opthalmologist is pretty sure.

    RM1,500 per eye is UMMC’s quote, half the private-hospital price; but on the other hand it’s a government hospital so there’s a waiting list of a few months. That aside, what kind of medical experience am I in for?

  69. 69.

    Josie

    @Amir Khalid: I had cataract surgery a few years ago- one eye one week and the other eye the next week. It was done with a minimal amount of anesthesia and went well. I was able to go home within an hour after surgery and stayed in for one day. Lots of eye drops were involved – had to keep a chart to keep them organized, but I healed with no problems. I had the corrective lens installed instead of the regular ones and can see quite well now without glasses. I am sensitive to bright sunlight and always use sunglasses. All in all a very successful experience, although expensive. Medicare covered the surgery but not the corrective lens.

  71. 71.

    raven

    @Josie: Lil Bit has no tear ducts so she gets 4-5 meds twice a day for life in her eyes. She’s so good, she comes to me and sits on my lap when I do her eyes.

  73. 73.

    Beeb

    @Amir Khalid: It’s a piece of cake. It isn’t really accurate to call it surgery any more. That’s a leftover from years ago when it was done in a hospital and required a couple of days’ stay. Now, it’s a procedure, done at an outpatient center under light sedation. It takes about half an hour for the series of drops to numb and dilate the eye and maybe 5 minutes, tops, for the procedure itself. I was still waiting for the doctor to start when he said he was done.

    I was quite nervous before the first one and then felt like an idiot for worrying. For the second one, I was so relaxed that the doctor had to tell me to stop chatting with him because he was about to start.

    Like Josie, I paid for the multifocal lens implants. But if you don’t mind wearing reading glasses, the monofocal ones should be fine. Oh, and if you have astigmatism, that can be fixed at the same time, although it costs a tad more. At least, that’s how it works here.

    Also like Josie, I now wear sunglasses if I’m out for long, but that’s something I should have been doing all along.

    Hope this helps.

  75. 75.

    No One of Consequence

    Holy fracking Shite. When did the comments section on Pierce’s shebeen become such a cesspool of Freeper spew? Just got back from there on a post regarding Boner, and wow, I need a shower (not in a good way).

    I always hated the comments of his site because I had to have Facebook to submit anything. Fuck that. Pierce and Esquire should up their game and let people who don’t play Zuckerberg or the Twit or the Double+Goog to post their thoughts.

    Dayum.

    – NOoC

  76. 76.

    bluefoot

    @ThresherK: Someone after my own heart. One of my dearest “if I won the lottery-if I were as rich as Bill Gates” fantasies is to own a 1936 Cord 812. Or alternatively a 1929 L-29. Perhaps more feasible within my lifetime and my earning ability would be a 1967 Chevelle. The first car I ever drove was a 1965 Chrysler New Yorker. I still miss that tank of Detroit steel.

Comments are closed.