The morning shows are wall to wall coverage of the horrible plane crash (Is that redundant? Can we just assume a plane crash is horrible?) in Europe, and I rally wonder why some plane crashes catch the media’s attention and others do not. If I had to guess, it would be combination of who was on the plane, how much is going on elsewhere in the world, and how much access the media has to gory footage.
But really, these endless discussions with experts- doesn’t everyone know by now that they won’t know what happened for a while, so rushing to speculate about what caused the crash is pointless.
Also, why do so many airline experts seem to sport mustaches?
In other news, this foster experience has convinced me of one thing. While puppies are adorable, cute, wonderful to watch and grow, and whose breath and kisses may actually have restorative value ala the fountain of youth, they are also expensive, destructive, nonstop little monsters, and given the choice between a puppy or a several year old shelter rescue like Lily, I am on the Lily team every single time.
Baud
Now you know how your mom felt.
Betty Cracker
I was musing along similar lines regarding plane crashes. I think it’s not just a function of who was on the plane but also how many people were aboard. I don’t know how many people die in car crashes daily, but my guess is a dozen or so plane-loads — every single day.
But when a bunch of people are killed all at once, people are riveted by the horrible spectacle of it all, just as serial killing sprees capture the imagination more than one-off murders do. Also, I don’t remember plane crash coverage being any different before 9/11, but until terrorism is ruled out, that’s probably another factor too.
MomSense
Pups are a lot of work. After the first night with mine I realized I had just brought a very speedy toddler into the house. Last night she pulled tortillas off the counter so my life is pretty much over for the next few years until she mellows out. I don’t know where to put all the things she can now reach.
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Deaths per day globally due to road accidents? Roughly 3400.
Yes, per day.
Want to make a fortune? Buy a hearse. (“Any color as long as it’s black.”)
Ryan
I ditched the morning shows (as well as the afternoon and evening shows) about 6 months ago. Honestly, I haven’t been happier!
Valdivia
since Yemen seems to be blowing up today I don’t know if the plane crash coverage will continue as breathlessly when they can show war carnage. Maybe they will do both!
Baud
@Valdivia:
Glad to see you posting here again.
JPL
The plane crash is terrible and every person has a story. There is a high school that won’t be the same for years.
@MomSense: Finch taught me not to keep food on the table or counter so who says old people can’t learn new tricks from dogs.
Valdivia
@Baud:
blushes :)
Thanks for saying that, totally made my day!
its been a kind of rough year but things seem more stable now (and every time I say that things get crazy again!)
I always read though, even when I don’t comment.
Baud
@Valdivia:
Here’s hoping all the craziness this year is confined to Congress.
ThresherK
As a member of Team Cat I’m not sure how different it gets from young to grown.
First, I’m not jinxed, but I’ve had four felines trusted to my raising and care (and my girlfriend’s, now wife’s): Five, six, nine and nine years is what they lived to. I seriously count months to make my total seem better, akin to a tween telling someone how many years and months they are, to seem more mature. (All were lavishly cared for with fine food and went to a fine vet, and passed from different causes.)
Currently the adopted kitten is nine, and the adopted two-y.o. is five. We keep telling them they each have to live to at least ten, or I don’t know what I’ll do!
So adopting a cat is fine by me, up to the point I start consciously counting the years I have left with it. But an older cat? I don’t know if I have the strength to consider its mortality. I’d like not to have to worry about that for many years.
The nine-year-old cat is still jumping on things. I like that I have to chase him off of tables and counters when he’s trying to mooch food. The other cats who made it to 9 were markedly more sedentary by personality, and his vitality is comforting yet bothersome at the same time. He’s hardly slowing down, except when my wife comes home, then it’s cuddling up with his “mommy and me” routine.
Which leads me to my question: How easy is it for other cat adopters here to suss out the activity level for a grown up cat when you interview it at the shelter or fosterer?
Elizabelle
@MomSense: Friend has a large, food-oriented dog. I put food I’m preparing in the microwave as a storage space, since it has a door and the dog can sweep things off the counter if I’m not constantly watching. (Pumpkin swiped a raw chicken breast a while back.)
You can put stuff in cupboards too, while you’re working. A prepared dish of food on top of the plates.
Love Pumpkin, but she is a challenge.
ThresherK
@Elizabelle: I put food I’m preparing in the microwave as a storage space, since it has a door
Heehee. But I never thought we were the only ones who did this.
Also the oven. We chose our current place because it has two ovens: One for actual baking (and part-time catproof storage) and one solely for catproof storage.
PS Our condo has an old fashioned built-in bread drawer, to save our breads from the cats who seem to love grain.
Cermet
Part of the reason is that the dead are most likely all white and of course, first world. These points matter a lot. Still, as you posted, most likely just the fact that it is a slow day is the #1 reason.
Valdivia
@Baud:
oh yes, I hope so too. Thank you!
Elizabelle
@ThresherK: Yes. Repurposing is good.
@Valdivia: Waves at Valdivia. Always happy to hear from you.
geg6
Way to sell ’em, Cole.
Punchy
White Euros in a Euro plane crashing in Europe — COVER THIS
Dirty Asians in a foreign plane crashing in Asia — MEH…
SSDD
opiejeanne
slow news day, lots of HS kids and their teachers returning from an exchange program in Spain, two babies, and two opera singers. And a soccer team just missed being on that flight.
Elizabelle
@JCole: Lily is relieved you feel that way.
You gave Thurston and Lovey solid starts, and Ginger has a better life ahead too. Well, sort of. It’s going to be hard for any of them to top Chez Cole and all the activity and fellow pets.
I bet they will all think of you from time to time in years to come. Maybe in dreams.
Fred
We have two young dogs (4 & 6 months) and it is a pain. First: people who love having puppies are beyond my understanding. Second: getting two puppies at the same time is not a smart move. Third: the best thing about having a puppy is knowing that it will one day grow up so you can enjoy the friendship.
Still they are darned cute. And sweet. And funny.
But the little buggers ate my favorite persian rug. Well not the whole thing but enough of it to make me sad.
But the worst is over. They don’t poop or pee inside any more.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Assuming you’re comparing this plane crash to the lost Malaysian plane crash, there was just as much coverage by the media. What was missing was the urgency to use all available resources to locate the missing plane. The countries involved were primarily defending their actions (or lack of).
opiejeanne
@Punchy: They covered those Asian crashes pretty thoroughly I thought, including the anniversary of the first one, the one they haven’t found yet.
JPL
@geg6: lol
Valdivia
@Elizabelle:
waves back. It’s always great to be here, even if its silently observing!
Pogonip
@geg6: Hee.
The puppies would not be (as) destructive if Cole would CONFINE and CONTROL them. I don’t understand why he doesn’t do that. These days that doesn’t even mean tied to a doorknob with newspapers as far as the eye can see. These days you can get downright luxurious with your control and confinement.
In any case, I blame Obama.
rikyrah
Mark Holden wants you to love the Koch brothers
WICHITA, Kan. — Every morning around 7:30, hundreds of Koch Industries employees walk from their cars and trucks across a large, gated-off parking lot and into a tiny glass building, no bigger than a log cabin. There, a stone’s throw away from the office buildings where they work, the employees use their keycards to get past security and descend into an underground tunnel that leads to the heart of the more-than-one-million-square-foot headquarters.
The isolated campus feels like a fortress, but over the past five years, as Koch transformed from a nearly anonymous Midwestern oil and manufacturing company to a reviled symbol of corporate influence in politics, the security has been necessary. Protesters and other aggrieved citizens showed up by the busful. Death threats poured in for the company’s septuagenarian leaders, David and Charles Koch. Hackers attempted to infiltrate the company’s networks multiple times.
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/mark-holden-wants-you-to-love-the-koch-brothers-114509971631.html
Germy Shoemangler
@ThresherK: That’s a tough question! Every time I’ve gone to a rescue, I’ve seen a wide variety of behaviors from the inmates. Some curled up snoozing, some alert and active. Some will ignore me, others will want my attention. I could say I’m observing personality traits, or it could be the time of day I happen to catch them. It’s a crap shoot. Trust your gut (as the undecided voters say).
The subject of mortality is a tough one for me. I fell in love with a beautiful & smart tabby, and lost her too soon. Broke my heart. Our current girl is our love, but the time passes quickly, and she’s now 50 in human years. How can that be??
D58826
@Punchy: I would beg to differ on the Asia part, at least as far as MH370, the recent airasia crash and the Malaysian jet shot down by the Russians. I suspect that a good bit of it is due to proximity to media outlets and how easy it is to get to the crash site. Most of the CNN European reporters were the usual political guys/gals drafted into crash coverage. I think we see the same thing here. Two cops were murdered in NY city and it was wall to wall coverage for a two weeks. One cop was murdered and another hurt in Penna. and the coverage was a good bit less. A cop was murdered in Wisc. yesterday and barely a peep.
jayboat
It’s a well-known fact that the pornstache originated with a group of airline pilots in Atlanta, somewhere near Riverbend Apartments in the late 60’s. Traditions die hard.
J R in WV
Mustaches – lots of these ex-pilots are ex-Air Force, so they can’t have beards until they resign for the big bucks of commerical pilot life.
Most of them are too old by then to change to a beard…
Obviously, the more people, the closer to home, the more news value.
Although auto crashes are the closest to home… Just a couple of winters ago I came up on cars hitting their brakes, so I slowed down too, it was snowy that morning.
Once we crossed the bridge, there were several cars stopped, and then I saw one still rocking on its top. There were obviously plenty of people there already to report and assist, and they were less than a mile from the VFD/ambulance garage. It didn’t look like a bad one, if they were wearing their belts…
Since then I’ve been hit while stationary at a red light, and been passenger in a truck that rolled on the interstate… ouch, he said, sincerely.
opiejeanne
@rikyrah: I saw that earlier today but I didn’t have the energy to “read more”.
I couldn’t sleep last night so I’ve been reading bits of junk all over the internet, and now it’s just after 6am. In a while I’ll get up and make a coffee cake or some muffins; my husband screwed up his back and I took him in to find out what’s wrong. Might be sciatica. They took 6 X-rays standing up, which was good because he really can’t sit comfortably now. They gave him a bunch of good drugs and he starts physical therapy next week. Probably why I can’t sleep.
lamh36
Good morning.
Still tired from last night. Saw Stevie Wonder Song in the Key of LIfe tour.
I’ve got alot of video to edit, but here is this bit before I get ready for work. I plan to do a full blog post after work tonight$
When I tell you Stevie literally sounded just the same as on record, I mean it. The man sounded perfect!
https://youtu.be/mDEVn1JOzbw
I’ll tell ya what…Stevie don’t owe me nothing. Afret almost 4 hrs!
https://youtu.be/6nQUfRTiFGA
Joey Maloney
(Is that redundant? Can we just assume a plane crash is horrible?)
Meh, not necessarily. For example, Harrison Ford had a funny, friendly little plane crash last month. On a golf course, hyuk hyuk! Where doctors were playing, haw haw!
At least that’s how the newsninnies I saw treated it. Of course, there’s a small but nonzero chance that they’re all fucking ghouls and pinheads.
Gin & Tonic
There is nothing wrong with a mustache.
opiejeanne
@Joey Maloney:
We got the bubble-headed-bleach-blond who
Comes on at five
She can tell you ’bout the plane crash with a gleam
In her eye
It’s interesting when people die
Karen in GA
We purposely chose to go with an adult dog too. We wanted a slightly calmer dog that probably knew something about living with people (like, “Oh, I can’t pee on your floors either? Got it.”), rather than a two-pound toddler with fangs. Sometimes I think I’d like a puppy, but then I think of the work involved and come to my senses.
TaMara (BHF)
@lamh36: I want to watch your videos, but they are marked private. And can I say, envious you got to see him in concert. Look forward to reading your post.
TaMara (BHF)
As far at the topic of raising puppies is hard, all I have to say is: hahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahah…gasp…….hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha….gasp…hahahahahaha
In other words, totally feel you, Cole, totally feel you (and Momsense, Fred and Watergirl).
I wanted a Great Dane puppy [[[looks over shoulder to see what trouble he’s gotten into]]] what was I thinking?!
Tinare
@ThresherK:
I have had four cats. All adopted as kittens. I just had to have one PTS in December from kidney failure at 18. One of the other three is currently 17, 2 will shortly be 16. I would never hesitate to adopt an older cat. Yes, they can be pricey if the develop health issues — my 17 year old and one of the soon to be 16 twins were recently diagnosed with early-to-mid stage kidney failure, and the other one has hyperthyroidism. So I have meds and special food to provide, and they need to have their bloodwork checked more frequently, but they are sweet, affection couch potatoes now and I can forgive them all the houseplants they killed and furniture they scratched as youngsters. (I’m not sure I could endure kittenhood again…)
I also adopted an adult dog. Best. Decision. Ever. He came fully housetrained, and though I think he was younger than intially advertised — they said they thought about 2-3 years, I think closer to 9 to 18 months — he knew some basic commands and manners. He chewed a little, quickly outgrew it, and has been the best companion ever since.
Puppies and kittens are cute, but I’m also firmly in the adopt an adult pet camp these days.
WaterGirl
@Valdivia: @Baud: Me, too. A monring thead from Cole and Valdivia is here. And Baud. It’s a good morning.
edit: Lots of old familiar names here this moorning. Yay for that.
MomSense, between you and TaMara, I am feeling better and better are Henry having been a shockingly small dog for me. :-}
Mike E
My oldest sis is now in the Cole camp regarding rescues but I wouldn’t be surprised if she went the puppy route one last time. Youngest sis prefers to raise puppies one at a time even though she made noises about adopting an older dog…she’s 56 so mebbe her & hubby’s impending retirement will be a factor in all this. Dog people, heh.
My goal is to build a shelf course and get a couple of cats. Someday.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: @Elizabelle: @ThresherK: My cats are the problem here. I put any food the kitties might find interesting in one of my cupboars and i call it “protective custody”.
Violet
@Valdivia: Good to see you here!
@WaterGirl: What’s the latest on the construction?
WaterGirl
@geg6: Have you been secretly worried that you might have to pull Lovey out of Cole’s cold, dead hands?
lamh36
@TaMara (BHF):
dang. I forget I have those privacy settings. I’ll try to fix those
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: I love the book Animal Dreams. Maybe we should publish Animal Dreams, Balloon Juice edition.
Bystander
Imagine HRC was found spying thru her State Dept contacts on the activities of the Iran negotiations and she was giving the information to the Dems. There would be no more than a passing mention of the plane crash along with the same shots of the debris field each time the story got hit the second tier news. We would be 24/7 on HRC’s case, with full on psychoanalysis and color commentary by Monica Lewinsky.
As it is, none of the networks is really covering the Israeli spying and manipulating the racist Repubs in Congress. I think they’ve decided it would look kind of foolish if they side with the spies and the traitors so keeping quiet is the least they can do.
bemused senior
I adopted a 7+ year old beagle-chihuahua mix a year and a half ago from a rescue that specializes in saving senior dogs. It is the first dog I’ve had in 50 years. I always had cats because of the works-all-day problem. This dog, Toro, has turned me into an obsessive dog mother. He was easy to house train, he is affectionate, and he has proven that the adage “you can’t teach old dogs new tricks” is a base canard. Also, his need to be walked three times a day has lowered my blood glucose from Type 2 range to borderline, and my mood is immeasurably better. Yay for old dogs.
Tractarian
@Punchy:
Haha, I get it, you’re making fun of people who reflexively accuse the media of ignoring the plight of brown people. After all, who could forget that, just last year, the cable nets comically devoted every second of air time for six months to speculation about the fate and whereabouts of MH 370 and its almost-entirely Asian victims.
That is what you were getting at, right?
WaterGirl
@Violet: thanks for asking!
I heven’t heard from the city since monday, which likely means… absolutely nothing. Could be the ultimate decider guy is still sick, could mean the folks responsible for the confllicting code areas are duking it out, could mean my neighbor has petitioned the decision, could mean there is a decision but the city forgot they promised to call me if there was a change so I didn’t have to find out be watching them pour concreate on the side of my house. It’s been rainy, too, so the lack of progress on the project could just be because of the rain.
Waiting mode!
Jay C
@rikyrah:
Yes, I had noticed that the Evil Brothers were trying to branch out and do a little mass-market PR: I saw a commercial on TV last week featuring this Average-Joe guy (?driving a truck?) going on and on in banal generalities about what a swell All-American company he worked for: I didn’t pay much attention at first, since I had thought he had mentioned “Cook Industries” – it wasn’t until the closing logo that I saw it was Koch Industries. My wife wondered what had suddenly started me swearing at the television….
Mike E
@Jay C: I’ve seen those Koch spots, but locally we’ve been treated to Duke Energy slices of apple pie… “See? I have children too! [get used to the arsenic… we have no choice]”
catclub
OT: But how could it be? A case so secret the government will not let you sue a (presumably) non-government entity. Even if they have libeled you.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-25/iran-case-is-so-secret-it-can-t-go-on
Jay C
@Mike E:
Arsenic?
Hey, if it’s good enough for Fetzer, Franzia, Glen Ellen and Sutter Home, you shouldn’t complain about it!
catclub
@Jay C: I remember a Prairie Home companion song – “Yust a little bit of Lefsa” (it’ll go a long way)
how about “Yust a little bit of Arsenic”?
Calouste
Plane crashes that involve Western airlines are pretty rare these days (Asia and Africa are a different matter). The last major crash in Europe was more than 5 years ago, the last one in France 15 years.
Stacy
We got our first dog ever, a Brittany puppy, last August after much research by our 14 year old daughter. Archie is great now but we nicknamed him Sharkey for the first few months. Who knew puppy teeth are like tiny razors! He’s brought much happiness to our lives. Even our 16 year old rescue cat appreciates him for the extra treats he gets when we train him. Plus he’s got he gets to put him in his place everyday. Gives him something to live for.
Keith
Mustaches? Why?
Because they all want to be like Biggles best pal, Algy
MaxL
There is exactly one good thing about plane crash news: Cap’n Sully Sullenburger.
In January 2009 the world was falling apart. I had just been laid off. The stock market was crashing every day for months. W was frozen in the headlights and couldn’t wait to get on Coast Guard 1 for the last time. We were all waiting for our next great president to get to work, but he was stuck measuring drapes until the end of the month. Our awesome allies in Israel were dropping phosphorous bombs on Gaza because they knew all that, too. Well, except for the part me getting laid off.
And then we find out your airplane can crash because of ducks. Geese, whatever. Seriously?
But Sully landed that motherfkng plane on the Hudson River. Just like so, no big deal. America still has the best pilots, hell yeah! And for like two whole days it didn’t suck as bad and the news was kind of good.
So, last night on the tee vee news: Sully ‘splaining. Telling everyone to chill out.
Keith G
@opiejeanne:
You are right, they did, to the point of a sickening ghoulishness. Those who complain otherwise are just too attached to their common hackneyed reactions to really think about what’s going on.
There are way too many examples of ethnocentric bias in media attention, but the coverage of disasters generally is not in that category.
Valdivia
@Violet:
waves too, even if the thread is dead.
DaveInOz
I agree with John. We’ve just adopted a 7 year old West Highland Terrier/Mini Schauzer cross and had her now for 6 weeks. She’s a great character and has changed us already.
We got her on an adoption day being run by a pet rescue organisation in country Victoria. We went along to have a look and came home with Juno which was a bit of a surprise. She hardly makes a sound (unless someone comes to the door) and we’re certainly getting fitter.