Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

I really should read my own blog.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

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

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

When we show up, we win.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / And the Stoat Became Legend among Her People…

And the Stoat Became Legend among Her People…

by | 112 Comments

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Via Buzzfeed, here’s an amazing photo of a baby weasel riding a woodpecker:

woodpecker-weasel

According to the photographer, the weasel was trying to bring the bird down to eat it, but the woodpecker ultimately escaped after giving the weasel a brief taste of flight.

In other news, Israeli PM Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress at 10:45 ET this morning. (PBO is pre-trolling the PM’s speech, and good for him!) The early hour precludes diplomatic breach-speech drinking games for us working stiffs, damn it.

Speaking of diplomatic skull-fuckery and drinking games, is anyone watching the third season of “House of Cards,” now streaming on Netflix? [Mild spoilers ahead.]

I watched several episodes late last night. (The plot lines are increasingly absurd but still more interesting than playing yet another dreary round of PUMAs vs Obots. That’s so 2,000-and-late!) I was bitterly disappointed to find that the loathsome Stamper lived through last season’s noggin-bashing.

Also, I think I spotted an anachronism — y’all help me out. When attempting to gain the trust of the Secretary of State, the First Lady challenges her to a round of beer pong after a state dinner gone awry.

Both characters, who are older than I am in real life AND on the show, claim to have excelled at beer pong in college. I don’t think beer pong was a thing back in the late 80s / early 90s, was it?

We used to play “quarters,” which is essentially the same thing as beer pong but with coins rather than ping pong balls. But maybe beer pong is yet another trend that took decades to filter down to Florida, long after the rest of the country knew of it.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    According to wikipedia
    The game was originally believed to have evolved from the original beer pong played with paddles[10] which is generally regarded to have had its origins within the fraternities of Dartmouth College in the 1950s and 1960s, where it has since become part of the social culture of the campus. The original version resembled an actual ping pong game with a net and one or more cups of beer on each side of the table. [11] Eventually, a version without paddles was created and the names Beer Pong and Beirut were adopted in some areas of the United States sometime in the 1980s.[12][13]

    I have no idea if it is true or not, though.

  2. 2.

    The Red Ped

    Squee!

    (About Netanyahu, not the stupid weasel, duh — he’s a dreamy hunk of man meat.)

  3. 3.

    Big ole hound

    Betty, we played “quarters” at enlisted clubs in the Navy. You bounced a coin on the bar and into a glass. That was in the 60s. Boredom was overcome.

  7. 7.

    JerryN

    @JPL: We played the paddle version in college in the ’70s. It was doubles ping pong and you set a plastic cup of beer on either side of the center line at the back edge of the table. If a shot hit one of your cups, you drank. If a shot landed in one of the cups, you chugged. It was actually pretty hard to hit the cups, even when you were sober.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    I finished season 3 and I thinks it’s time for Claire to push Frank off a bridge. As far as the beer pong thing, given that Claire is in her fifties, she would have graduated in the late seventies, early eighties.

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    That’s a weasel punching above its weight.

    Did it finally fall off? Did it survive to fight another day?

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    @JerryN: In the “House of Cards” version, they were throwing the ping pong balls directly into the cups, not bouncing them in. That seems too easy.

  12. 12.

    Paul in KY

    @Big ole hound: Used to play quarters. One of the regulars found a way to roll the quarter off his nose & into the cup. Could do this 20 times in a row. We had to outlaw that style.

  16. 16.

    peach flavored shampoo

    Can someone tell me why the MSM continues to refer to this British ISIS guy as “jihadi john”? I dont think John is his name, so why the hell do they keep calling him that? Are they too lazy to call him his real name? Or is there an inside joke that I’m unaware of?

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker: Yup. Per the Buzzfeed link:

    the bird flew across us and slightly in our direction; suddenly it was obvious it had a small mammal on its back and this was a struggle for life.

    The woodpecker landed in front of us and I feared the worst. I guess though our presence, maybe 25 meters away, momentarily distracted the weasel. The woodpecker seized the opportunity and flew up and away into some bushes away to our left. Quickly the bird gathered its self respect and flew up into the trees and away from our sight.

    The woodpecker left with its life. The weasel just disappeared into the long grass, hungry.”

    The woodpecker is lucky it was a such a young weasel. Give it a few weeks to grow, and worse outcome for the bird.

  18. 18.

    Woodrowfan

    I played Beer Pong in the late 7os in college. The one and only time in my life that I drank so much I passed out was one time from playing it. Never again.

  22. 22.

    Cephalus Max

    We played beer pong in 1985 at a major southern university that had (and still has) a rep for being slightly behind the times, trend-wise.

    But it definitely involved paddles. This no paddle, ball-tossing thing doesn’t look to me like beer pong at all.

  23. 23.

    Cephalus Max

    (But we definitely played more quarters — easier access to the necessary infrastructure.)

  24. 24.

    debbie

    Speaking of stupidity, Glenn Beck is freaking out over history repeating itself this week: Bibi is Mordecai, Putin is Hamen, Obama is the King, and the American people are Esther.

  27. 27.

    the Conster

    Tried to watch House of Cards – everyone who knows me insisted I’d love it, and I was sure it was right in my wheelhouse. By the 4th episode I was rooting for a meteor, and when I realized that I was going to be stuck trying to care about someone, anyone on that show, I stopped watching. And this from a huge fan of Walter White and Don Draper.

    ETA: and fuck that warmongering arrogant asshat sideways with a rusty chainsaw, and everyone else who thinks we should be doing his wet work.

  28. 28.

    gene108

    I tried playing Quarters once. We decided just binge drinking would be a faster way to get drunk, and scrapped the game…and yes…our aim was to get drunk, really, really drunk…and we succeeded…

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    I stepped out on my deck with my two pups this morning and half a second later I found myself on the icy deck doing the splits. I think that’s because one foot was out the door and the other foot was still in the house, which, unlike the deck wasn’t completely covered with ice.

    Pretty sure I pulled a muscle in a couple of places, but I should be fine.

    Weather underground is calling it “ice pellets”, but seriously, you could have skated on the deck. I am not going anywhere today until that melts.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    Oh, and the puppy and I are playing a rousing game of “not yours” this morning. Dirt from the planters? Not yours. Stones from the planter? Not yours. Remote for the fan? Not yours. My toes? Not yours!

    I am often reminded of one of my favorite scenes from Turner and Hooch. “This is not your room.”

  33. 33.

    zmulls

    I’m 2/3 of the way through House of Cards S3, and enjoying it well enough, more for the component parts than for the show as a whole. As a whole it’s a pit of wasted style points.

    A few comments, avoiding spoilers.

    I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that Doug Stamper is a character this series, considering he is introduced within minutes of the first episode. And oh my goodness, that first episode was tragically boring. Mainly because it is more than half spent on Doug Stamper, a character I care about very, very little. One of the weaknesses of the current season is that there is a whole emotional, cloak-and-dagger subplot about Mr. Stamper, and I could not care less about his struggles. Huge mis-step by the creators.

    The show works best when Frank and/or Claire are backed into what seems to be an impossible situation, and we watch them dig deep into their reservoirs of strength to fight back.

    I’ve always enjoyed both Kim Dickens and Molly Sharp, not only from DEADWOOD but other shows, and I’m delighted whenever they are on screen.

    They’re giving Robin Wright plenty to do, which is smart, but maybe too much to do. I like it better when she doesn’t have an official position but gets stuff done anyway — the show is bringing her into the main political plots a little too directly.

    I’ll be curious — after the initial flood of viewings, when minor spoilers are OK — to get folks’ take on the big legislation proposed by President Underwood. He implements a job program, but as a trade-off, sacrifices some Democratic priorities that are quite major. I’m interested in how blithely the show sidesteps serious debate on this. I’m not sure whether we’re supposed to root for him to succeed, or see him as a visionary — whether the show’s creators are wanting us to think this is a *good* idea and worth considering — or whether we are to see it as the devil selling us out.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @Paul in KY:

    According to Wikipedia, King Ahasuerus was taken in by Hamen, who was plotting to destroy all the Jews, and didn’t see the danger he posed. All I remember about Purim is the hamentaschen.

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    @the Conster: You’re right — there are no admirable main characters on that show. A meteor would definitely be the most efficient way for everyone to get their comeuppance.

  37. 37.

    mai naem mobile

    I went to the GoFund site for Sheriff Richard Mack, the anti-Obama who didn’t have insurance who had health issues along with his wife and has a gofund site set up. Anyhow, he’s got a lot of people donating $5 and leaving nasty comments about Mack’s assholery. I know this would never happpen.but I would love to see Obama donate a few bucks and make some short comment about how O care was set up exactly for people like him.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    @zmulls: I wondered the same thing about the policy angle — it’s just absurd to think it would ever fly, politically or practically. Either the writers are Paultroons or they’re asking us to suspend disbelief harder than the creators of Avatar…

  41. 41.

    Tommy

    @zmulls: I would love to talk about the show, I got a lot to say about it, but I don’t want to post any spoilers here for those that have not watched it yet.

  42. 42.

    Debbie(aussie)

    Great pic. Do you guys make your woodpeckers big or your weasels small?

    Our idiot PM has decided to send 300 more troops to Iraq in conjunction with 100from NZ. As it is the 100year anniversary of our becoming a nation, and other sundry BS, at Gallipoli, I wonder if he hasn’t totally lost the plot. Maybe with all the ANZAC mythology he has forgotten that Gallipoli was an epic failure.
    The concern is increased as I am worried that my future son-in-law may be sent,.

  45. 45.

    Cole Moore Odell

    I played the paddle-free version of beer pong (more than I should have) at Middlebury from 1989-1993. Definitely not an anachronism.

  46. 46.

    Paul in KY

    @debbie: So I guess Hamen is worse. See, progress! 3 years ago Beck would have made Pres. Obama Hamen. Now he’s the King. One day he’ll graduate up to Achtiopel.

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    @WaterGirl:

    Let it go, let it go
    Didn’t you hear me just say no
    Let it go, let it go
    Pup that’s not what those lamp cords are for

    Disney ear worm plus puppy training.

  48. 48.

    greennotGreen

    I have chemo today which is 3-4 hours of imposed inactivity, so I’m depending on the BJ community to keep me entertained. Oh, and Netflix.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    @Tommy: Go for it, man! Just type CAUTION, SPOILERS AHEAD

    and

    then

    scroll

    down

    and say what you wanna say! No one will be able to say they weren’t warned! I’m about a third of the way through season 3.

  50. 50.

    ScottF

    Played the paddle version of beer pong at Princeton in the early eighties — we put the cups in the middle of each side of the table. It was actually kind of fun to play even when sober, especially if you had some real table tennis chops.

  51. 51.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: That’s great, what a fun way to start the morning! (except for my splits, that wasn’t fun)

    When it gets too quiet, I have my own little song, sung to the tune of the song that I can’t spell but starts with the words “are you sleeping, are you sleeping, brother john”.

    Where is Henry,
    Where is Henry?
    There he is.
    There he is!
    What have you been up to?
    What did you get into?
    What a good boy, what a good boy. (this is the happy ending version)

  52. 52.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I read it was because there was a group of 4 ISIS interrogators with British accents that would visit the hostages from time to time. The hostages dubbed them the Beatles and referred to them individually as John, Paul, George, and Ringo. I also read there were only 3 in which case Ringo was left out.

    Not sure how much weight to give this as surviving ISIS hostages seem to be rare.

  55. 55.

    Tommy

    @mai naem mobile: I really wish Mack and his wife were not sick. I’d never wish bad health on anybody. But this is EXACTLY what the bronze plan is for. If people like Mack would just suck it up and realize that Obamacare works he and his wife would be in a much better place. If god forbid we have a Scott Walker as president and he passes a bill that will help me I will use it in a heart beat. I could care less a Republican passed it. If government can help me in some way I am not above taking said help. It is really that simple.

  57. 57.

    greennotGreen

    Also, I have a couple of ferrets, the female being exceptionally tiny even for a female ferret. But she was the one who climbed on top of a parrot cage and attacked one of my parrots who is much bigger. I intervened, so no one was injured. Ferrets, and I’m sure their cousins the weasels, have no fear.

  58. 58.

    Woodrowfan

    we played with paddles. You’d hit the ball and drop the paddle for the next guy. If you hit the ball into the cup, the person holding the paddle at the other side of the table had to drink the cup. There was a pitcher full set at each end too. If the ball went into he pitcher, you drank it. And you did with with a bunch of people at one time, all in a circle going around the table. Typical college game, lots of fun but one you look back on and say “what the f was I THINKING!!!????”

  59. 59.

    GregB

    Hopefully the cleaning staff will put down plastic on the floor of the House. All of the shitheels going to listen to Netanyahu will be hell on the carpets.

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @greennotGreen: Weasels are blood thirsty assassins. Ever seen a chicken coop after a weasel got in? Looks like something out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. If you had 50 birds, you now have 50 dead gutted birds.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: Why, thank you! I get to sing it a lot, with mostly the happy ending version.

    Alternate ending: What have you done? What have you done?!?!!?!!!!

    P.S. Sometimes I sing to Mr. Bear, my long-haired black kitty:

    O-oh black kitty, bam-ba-bam,
    O-oh black kitty bam-ba-bam,
    Black kitty had a string
    bam-ba-bam
    and the song goes on…

  63. 63.

    Karen in GA

    @zmulls:

    They’re giving Robin Wright plenty to do, which is smart, but maybe too much to do. I like it better when she doesn’t have an official position but gets stuff done anyway — the show is bringing her into the main political plots a little too directly.

    Isn’t she just as ambitious as he is, though? I got the feeling early in season 3 that with the Presidency, he got what he wanted from their marriage, while she’s still waiting for what she wants. I can’t see how that would sit well with her.

  64. 64.

    Elmo

    The flooring guys are here doing the demo before they put down my new bamboo floor. The noise is astonishingly painful. But the worst part is sitting still and not helping! Anyone else have this incredible impulse to help when workmen are doing their thing?

    I wasn’t raised to sit idle when there’s work being done right in front of me!

  65. 65.

    Tommy

    @Karen in GA:

    I got the feeling early in season 3 that with the Presidency, he got what he wanted from their marriage, while she’s still waiting for what she wants. I can’t see how that would sit well with her.

    They explore that storyline in detail as the season progresses.

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    @Elmo: Go clean something in another room. I cleaned the grout in my kitchen with soap and a toothbrush while some of the repairs were being done in my house after the tree hit.

    That’s something I would NEVER have done otherwise, so it was a win-win.

  68. 68.

    Karen in GA

    @greennotGreen: Ferrets! It’s been years since I had ferrets. I miss them terribly. I could write a book about all the weird and hilarious stuff they did.

    The other day I came across a couple of dog toys I had bought for them. I gave them to Iggy and kind of got something in my eye when he carried them off to play.

  70. 70.

    Woodrowfan

    @Elmo: same here, at least if it’s not skilled labor. If it’s an electrician or some such then I stay the hell out of their way!

    @WaterGirl: Great idea!!!

  71. 71.

    JasperL

    I started college in 1981, and we always played quarters. Never saw a game of beer pong played, but that might be because I was never around a ping pong table in close proximity to beer. I spent a lot of time shooting pool….

    We’re caught up on House of Cards and my wife is about over it because (as others have suggested) she can’t find anyone to actually like.

  72. 72.

    ShadeTail

    @mai naem mobile: What gets me about that stupid debacle is that the irony of it must be totally lost on him. What he’s doing is just Obamacare writ small, spreading around the cost so that it’s more affordable to him. So he’s bitching about Obamacare while using the same basic idea. If he weren’t an utter moron, he might have had the decency to shut up about it.

  73. 73.

    Tommy

    @Karen in GA: Yeah I’d love to talk about the show, but have no idea how without giving away a ton of spoilers. As another person said I think it started pretty slow but picked up pace pretty fast.

  74. 74.

    Amir Khalid

    @Elmo:
    You know the sign at the car mechanic’s that says the hourly labour charge is $X, or $X x 5 if you watch and $X x 10 if you help? I think a commenter mentioned it here a couple of days ago. Whenever you’re tempted to pitch in, remind yourself of that sign.

  75. 75.

    Tommy

    @JasperL:

    We’re caught up on House of Cards and my wife is about over it because (as others have suggested) she can’t find anyone to actually like.

    I was thinking the same thing as I watched S3. There isn’t a single moral character on the entire show. Not a one.

  77. 77.

    Karen in GA

    @Elmo: We have a flooring guy coming today to measure. To save money we’re ripping out as much of the carpet as we can ourselves. And painters are coming on Thursday, so have to pack stuff away so we can move the furniture on/in which the stuff sits. This after last week when they knocked out part of a wall and replaced it with a railing. Yay, open floor plan. And that was after they demoed and rebuilt the front steps outside.

    Oh, wait, before we do the flooring, I should probably paint the front bedroom and dining room (doing it ourselves to save money).

    I’m looking forward to seeing how it will all look when it’s done, but I want this over with.

  78. 78.

    sharl

    OT: A bit of kinda-sorta positive news – though maybe short-lived – from Cole’s state:

    Tomblin vetoes fetal pain bill; still time for legislature to override

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed the pro-life supported Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act Tuesday just like he did last year.

    “As reflected in my voting record during my time in the Legislature, I believe there is no greater gift of love than the gift of life. As governor, I must take into consideration a number of factors when reviewing legislation, including its constitutionality,” Tomblin said in a prepared statement. “At the start of the regular session, I urged members of the Legislature to consider a compromise that would help us establish legislation that would pass constitutional muster. Having received a substantially similar bill to the one vetoed last year on constitutional grounds, I must veto House Bill 2568.”

    The bill bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy with a few exceptions for medical emergencies.

    The legislature does have enough time to override the governor’s veto before the regular legislative session ends March 14. Only a simple majority vote in both the House and Senate would be needed to override. House Speaker Tim Armstead promised as much just minutes after Tomblin’s veto was announced.

  79. 79.

    Paul in KY

    @Elmo: I wouldn’t say it was ‘fun’ in the weasel’s case. More like an overload of prey stimuli that cause it to do what it does best.

  80. 80.

    Elmo

    @Woodrowfan: If it’s an electrician or similar I always want to watch so I can learn something.

    And since those are usually single-man jobs, I hover in case they need a second set of hands.

    It’s a sickness.

  81. 81.

    greennotGreen

    @Karen in GA: If you only have a couple of pets, ferrets are an excellent choice, but I have a lot going on, and mine are pretty casual about using the litter box. OTOH, they’re very dedicated to getting into drawers and scrambling the contents. Some time ago, I accessed a drawer I wasn’t using because I had a birdcage blocking it, and I found about a dozen small plastic bags of screws and buttons and other small parts the ferrets had gathered for their treasure trove.

  83. 83.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Elmo: I don’t. I had a floor redone in one room last fall, and when the guy showed up I went off to work. He had my number in case there were any questions or issues.

  84. 84.

    dexwood

    What a great photograph. Reminds me of something I saw about five years ago. While working in the yard, I heard a a crow that sounded really upset about something. I stood up just in time to have it fly about three feet from my head at eye level. Attached to it’s back was a sparrow hitching a ride. It was firmly holding onto the crow with its claws and pecking the hell out of it.

  85. 85.

    Elmo

    @Karen in GA: OH MY. Yay open floor plan indeed, but that’s more trauma than I can handle in a short time.

    We are also going to paint, and should have done it first, but the paint we can do at our leisure and the flooring has to be done when I can afford it – meaning now, with refund money, before I fritter it all away on dinners out and new shoes. Save? What would THAT be like? So we will paint after the floor is in.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elmo:

    Anyone else have this incredible impulse to help when workmen are doing their thing?

    Not me. I got over that impulse decades ago while watching hod carriers stock scaffolding with 40 lb loads of bricks and mortar one hod at a time… All day long.

  87. 87.

    germy shoemangler

    @Betty Cracker: Without any apparent physical injury. I imagine they’re both a lot more nervous these days.

    Weasel’s husband: “Will you calm down? Why are you pacing? You’re scaring the children!”

    Weasel: “Did you see the picture? Goddamn woodpecker almost killed me for God’s sake.”

    Woodpecker’s Wife: “You got away, didn’t you? Why are you so tense?”

    Woodpecker: “She might come back.”

  88. 88.

    Tommy

    @OzarkHillbilly: I can build you a website or a computer, but stuff around the house, I am close to useless. Actually I am totally useless. I need like a ten page PDF to hang a picture. I kick myself as a kid growing up I didn’t pay more attention to my father in his workshop. Dad can build, make, fix almost anything.

  89. 89.

    debbie

    And now Glenn’s minions are insisting Obama’s scared out of his mind over what Bibi’s going to say.

  90. 90.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elmo: Electricians have a sure fire way of getting rid of the overly solicitous, they just say “Here, hold this.” Works every time.

  91. 91.

    dmbeaster

    @the Conster:

    and fuck that warmongering arrogant asshat sideways with a rusty chainsaw, and everyone else who thinks we should be doing his wet work

    Amen. Since for Netanyahu there is no acceptable diplomatic solution, the whole point of this stunt is to keep the US on a path to war with Iran. How I wish someone would point this out, and that at least occasionally, Israeli interests and US interests conflict, instead of all this crap about bff.

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    @Elmo: Yeah, if you leave the house, even if you leave a phone number, ugly things can happen.

    But if you say “I’m gonna be in the kitchen, cleaning the grout, let me know if anything comes up or you have a questions” then you should be okay. If they can’t walk a few steps to ask you a question to help prevent a problem, then you’ve hired the wrong people!

    From my experience, they will be grateful that you are easily available but not in their way.

  93. 93.

    Karen in GA

    @greennotGreen: Ha! When I moved out of my last Brooklyn apartment, I found a hole ripped in the cloth underneath the sofa. Packed in there — not just stashed, packed — were toys, plastic bags, socks, universal remotes (I’d wondered why I kept losing them), and a pair of sweatpants.

    Good times.

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    @Elmo: I had a ton of work done after the tree hit, and I thought it was crazy, but and the painters INSISTED on being last. I’m thinking “my beautiful hardwood floors have just been redone and you want to PAINT?!?!!

    It worked out okay. Painters tape is your friend. Get the wide stuff.

  96. 96.

    Elmo

    @Tommy: At least you’re honest with yourself about it. I have delusions of adequacy when it comes to home improvement, and I have done my own framing, carpentry, drywall, plumbing, and very minor electrical. But I hate it and it terrifies me.

    My wife and I built a 500 sq ft deck at our old house, cantilevered, with custom stair stringers that I designed and cut myself. But it took two years, and by the time we were done I had no more energy to build a railing to make it conform to code. (This was in Tennessee, tho, so it hardly mattered.)

  98. 98.

    Tommy

    @Elmo: I have spacial issues. In high school I scored close to the worse in the entire school on some test they gave me. That may sound strange since I build websites for a living, but instructions and putting stuff together and/or fixing something, I am not so good at it.

  102. 102.

    Tommy

    @Patricia Kayden: Years ago I had an idea for a screenplay. Went out and got a few books on how to write one. They all said the same thing. You have to have conflict, ever increasing conflict until you reach the climax. Think of that when you watch a clip of Beck or even MSNBC. Why ISIS is the worse thing. Iran. You name it. They play up the conflict, it has to be the worse ever, or they can’t tell the story the way they want. Beck for all I can’t stand about him knows this and plays to it 24/7.

  103. 103.

    max

    We used to play “quarters,” which is essentially the same thing as beer pong but with coins rather than ping pong balls.

    We used to play quarters in high school. I still have the table. It’s a good table. Could sink a quarter in a glass from three foot away. While drunk. Never played beer pong.

    max
    [‘Nothing about House of Cards made it sound like it was going to be good. Reading the folks’ impressions of the current plotline, it sounds like it could be called ‘American Hitler’. Too unconcerned to see if that’s true.’]

  104. 104.

    Tommy

    @max: House of Cards S3 is hard to explain. I binged watched it over two days. I am not even sure if I liked it. Need to watch it again I guess.

  111. 111.

    Nutella

    In other weasel-related news, Israeli PM Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress

    FTFY

  112. 112.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Tommy:

    I am a million hours late to this thread (reasons), so you probably won’t even see this comment, but … have you ever watched the original British House of Cards? I haven’t seen the American version, but Ian Richardson is so good, I can do without Kevin Spacey. And yes, the Brit characters are loathesome, but I never found myself praying for meteors during HoC or the two successor series, To Play the King and The Final Cut. Whether or not you’re a lover of the U.S. series, I urge you to watch the original.

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