Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No Justins, No Peace

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

It’s the corruption, stupid.

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

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Let’s finish the job.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

“woke” is the new caravan.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Sunday Afternoon Open Thread

Sunday Afternoon Open Thread

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So this guy comes home to find an owl in his apartment, and he attempts to transport it out the open window via a Swiffer:

I love the owl’s malevolent death glare at its savior and the guy’s panicky entreaties: OH PLEASE DON’T FLY.

Went for a lovely hike this morning. The trail was a bit swampy in spots, but the weather was perfect. I saw several wild turkeys, one of which gobbled at me, so I gobbled right back at him.

Now I can wallow on the sofa with a clear conscience. What are you up to?

Reader Interactions

182Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I saw several wild turkeys, one of which gobbled at me, so I gobbled right back at him.

    Did it make you think of us?

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    Today is the last day of the LA County Yarn Crawl, an event for which I always seem to catch a cold, so I can’t go as far afield as I might want. So my question for myself is, go east to the yarn shop I know I like, or go west to the one I’ve never been to that has very mixed reviews? I won’t have time to go to both.

  4. 4.

    MattF

    Doing my taxes. Actually made some progress, but there’s still the Great Swamp of Proceeds from Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions to slog through.

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    Working on some work items, waiting for child to come back home. He’s at a bday party for an uncle so we’ll probably continue working on low post footwork and agility drills later.

  7. 7.

    Corner Stone

    Las Vegas just isn’t all that exciting anymore unless you have a bunch of money to spend. And I don’t mean gamble, I mean on all the other amenities and activities going on in the city.

  8. 8.

    Corner Stone

    Did that guy go to the internationally acclaimed Cole School for Photography and the Clumsy Arts?

  9. 9.

    bemused

    Trying to think of something to do with leftover roast chicken for tonight..something tasty over pasta or rice that doesn’t take too long.

  11. 11.

    fidelio

    I have been in Mr. Swiffer’s shoes, although not with an owl. The death-glare can only have made the extraction that much worse.

  13. 13.

    Pogonip

    Watching basketball.

    I hope Mr. Swiffer remembered to put the screen back in. And if he swears like that about one owl, what’s he have left to say if he gets roaches?

  16. 16.

    ThresherK

    What if the owl is the only thing keeping out bats?

    Because we have a friend whose home was invaded by bats.

  20. 20.

    srv

    Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said on Sunday that she will likely seek the Republican nomination for president in 2016.

    During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Fiorina said there is a “higher than 90 percent” chance that she will run for president and make an announcement in late April or early May.

    Fiorina, who has said that President Barack Obama does not deserve credit for boosting the economy, touted her executive experience in the private sector as what will set her apart from the rest of the GOP field.

    You liberals are doomed.

  21. 21.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    Went to brunch with Mrs. Thunder, took Doglius Thunder for walkies, grocery shopping, etc.

    Now I’m amusing myself on hobby electronics forums. I stayed away for years because they are an irresistible and bottomless time sink but with limited available time these days I can safely dabble.

    Oh, have to pack for this week’s work trip: Charleston and Greenville SC. Next week: San Jose.

  27. 27.

    Hal

    @srv: So she’s basically vying for vice president? Probably expecting who ever the republican nominee is will be looking for a counter to Hillary Clinton.

  29. 29.

    Karen in GA

    My brother in law once had a bat in his house. I have a picture somewhere of him in sweatpants, three sweaters, and a catcher’s mask, wearing oven mitts and holding a tennis racket.

    He really hates bats.

  30. 30.

    Corner Stone

    This whole YouTube adding commercials into the middle of the videos is totes irritating.
    Sitting through a first ad before the video starts is one thing, but multiple breaks seems kindof a pain in the ass. If they have a subscript service to go ad-free I haven’t seen it yet.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    Easing into the afternoon after getting into Las Vegas late last night. Didn’t get to bed until 4:00 a.m. EDT—a long day. But I did get that Double Double at In-n-Out that I wanted, so things are off to a good start.

    Maybe dinner and a movie later with the friend at whose house I’m staying. Probably won’t start dealing with my problematic relatives (aged mother and RWNJ brother) until tomorrow. Gonna try to get out into the desert Wednesday or Thursday, when the high will be 75-80°. It’s 84° right now, going up to 90° later. But it’s a dry heat. (Serious, for once.)

  32. 32.

    SuperHrefna

    Fabulous!! Apart from enjoying the fine art of owl removal I’m cooking for a dinner party tonight, without going to the store to buy ingredients. So: a lentil shepherds pie with braised cabbage and a lime drizzle cake. Possibly also banana daiquiris.

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @AnneW:

    It’s the yarn crawl, so they all have sales and specials. It’s really a decision of whether I go for one store that’s crammed full of yarn or three stores that are easier to navigate. Since I’m still feeling a little under the weather, the 3 easily navigable stores might actually be a better idea even with the extra driving.

  35. 35.

    SuperHrefna

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): Go to the yarn shop you know you like! Then you will definitely have a good time and add nicely to your stash :-) Plus you’ll be supporting the store you like best.

  37. 37.

    bemused

    @jeffreyw:

    My husband doesn’t think it’s pizza if it’s anything but pepperoni/sausage and red pizza sauce so it will probably be chicken fajitas tonight. I saw a lightened up enchilada recipe that I may explore another time. 2 dogs have tracked in a lot of dirt since snow melted and 2 cats shedding like crazy so vacuuming is urgently needed before cooking.

  39. 39.

    Howard Beale IV

    @JPL: She tried to turn HP into a IBM clone-problem was HP was ten years too late and didn’t have a significant hardware base they could ride on their coattails.

  40. 40.

    SuperHrefna

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): What yarn are you looking out for? I am nearly finished knitting a Tulip sweater in Dream in Color classy for a baby and I’m loving the yarn so much I really want to knit myself something in it. But my heart quails at the thought of buying that much expensive yarn. I’m not exactly baby sized. I may go for it anyway though :-)

  42. 42.

    Violet

    What are you up to?

    Worked outside yesterday and this morning. I’m exhausted. Post-winter cleanup–cutting back stuff, cleaning up completely overgrown areas because last year life turned upside down when my parents had health problems at the same time and I couldn’t get to the garden.

    Things look better, but the people who put in the landscaping to sell the house were idiots. Roses on the north side of the house where they get no sun. Same with bottlebrush plants. No sun. Everything straining for the sun and getting leggier and leggier. Need to redo the entire landscaping but, you know, money. One of these days….

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @SuperHrefna:

    I was forced to go on a yarn diet because I ran out of storage space and my husband insisted that he should be allowed to put his clothes in the closet, too (I know, what a whiner, amirite?) so I’m just picking up random skeins of sock or lace weight that I can use but don’t take up much room. Also notions and needles — I can always justify more notions.

    We moved in November and I haven’t unpacked my craft stuff yet, so I’m way behind on all of my projects. I need to make a baby sweater for one of my friends, but I have to find the yarn in my stash first!

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    @Violet: The whole sun-shade thing is a never ending battle.

    When I first moved to this house, all the sun was in the back yard. I put in a big vegetable garden. Then at some point there wasn’t enough sun for the vegetables, so I turned that into a mostly shade flower garden. My only sun in the backyard was around the edges, along the fence line.

    Then the big tree fell in 2013 and I lost every single bit of shade in the back yard, and a lot of shade on the side.

    The sun-loving plants at the fence line all took off LIKE CRAZY. They loved the brutal sun. The rest had to be moved to the front yard, where it’s partly sunny, partly shaded.

    That was good until last fall when I had to take out my other big silver maple from the front. Hand is now slapping my head (in case you can’t see or hear me). So I have no idea what’s going to happen now in the front.

    The circle of life.

  46. 46.

    Violet

    @bemused: I’ve found this helpful before to give me some ideas. 21 recipe ideas for leftover roast chicken. If I wee really lazy I’d make chicken tacos using the leftover roast chicken, salsa from a jar, corn tortillas and whatever else I could find in the fridge to put in it–lettuce, shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes, whatever. Takes about five minutes to put together. Maybe longer if I need to cut up an avocado.

  48. 48.

    SuperHrefna

    @Violet: Can you dig things up and replant them? One of my friends ( who gardens the way other people raise children) is constantly moving plants around her garden to achieve ever more precise aspects of perfection.

  50. 50.

    Violet

    @WaterGirl: Yeah, it’s definitely something you have to work with as a gardener. In the case of these plants they planted them as shrubbery on the north side of the house so they are mostly shaded by the house itself. That isn’t going to change much, so any half-intelligent landscaping company would know that you can’t put full sun plants in that location. They did it anyway and the result is that the plants are always reaching for the sun and aren’t happy. Need to move them but it’s always down the list. Cut them way back today in an attempt to deal with the legginess.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    So far away that wasn’t aware of a Broadway revival of On the 20th Century. Great show. One of the best times at live theater when saw the original on stage.

    Video of a staged recording session of one of the songs with the two leads, Kristin Chenoweth and Peter Gallagher. (The lip synching is at times evident.)

    Only, albeit lesser, complaint is that the orchestra sounds somewhat thin and underpopulated.

  53. 53.

    Corner Stone

    @Gin & Tonic:

    My flight is shorter. And I look at it as an opportunity to disconnect.

    I love getting off a domestic flight, turning my mobile device on and finding I have between 70 and 200 new emails.
    Joy!

  55. 55.

    Violet

    @SuperHrefna: Yes, I can move some of them. At first I wanted to see how they’d do. Some things that say they require “full sun” don’t really like it where I am because it’s so hot. But it’s clear these plants need spots. Not sure they’re what I would have chosen anyway because I tend to like natives and some of these are just standard landscaping stuff. I have design work to do to deal with it and that’s not my strong suit so there they sit.

  56. 56.

    Betty Cracker

    I need to cook something for dinner. I’ve got three ripe avocados and two big tomatoes. Also some shrimp. I’m thinking of making a tostado thing of some kind, maybe guacamole + shrimp on tostados.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @Violet: Yeah, my situation is frustrating and annoying, but at least it’s related to weather and things changing over time.

    It’s frustrating in a different way in your situation, I think, when putting the stuff there was a dumb idea to begin with. Clearly, sell the house was the only thing on their mind.

    When I bought the house in 1987, I shoveled all the loads of rocks and dirt for the landscaping myself. It’s not that easy now that a few decades have passed, so digging up a full-grown bush is not something I do myself, and that costs money, too, not just time.

  65. 65.

    SuperHrefna

    @Violet: I feel you. Before it started snowing(!!!!!!!!) yesterday ( I’m still disgusted, we got four inches and it’s not fair) I was feeling the itch once again to sort out our hopelessly confused veg patch. What it really needs is to have a few perennials (gooseberries, herbs) moved and then a raised bed put in for annuals. But it’s so much work, and it always slides to the bottom of my list, too…

  67. 67.

    Corner Stone

    @WaterGirl:

    It’s not that easy now that a few decades have passed, so digging up a full-grown bush is not something I do myself, and that costs money, too, not just time.

    Maybe some kind of local spa?

  75. 75.

    Violet

    @WaterGirl: Yeah, I should have done it several years ago when the plants were new. Had a look today and under the mulch the plant tags were still on some of the plants! They just put them in to sell the house. Stupid.

    My biggest complaint is how close to the house they planted them. They put them right next to the house so you can’t get next to it to do anything. Just stupid.

  78. 78.

    Josie

    @Karen in GA: You should read the chapter in Shirley Jackson’s Life Among the Savages describing the night a bat got into the house. It is one of the funniest pieces of writing I have experienced in all my many years.

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodinger’s cat: I’m not sure what happened to him. He used to be a fairly interesting and insightful writer, but he’s now prone to pointless contrarianism. It’s annoying.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @Corner Stone: That was my guess.

    Here’s a joke I used to tell the college kids when I taught Human Sexuality at the university:
    Do you know what sound a public hair makes right before it hits the floor? Ptthh. (not quite sure how to spell it.)

    It was a good conversation starter.

  87. 87.

    WaterGirl

    Missed free throws were a good part of why I had to quit watching basketball. Made me crazy.

  98. 98.

    debit

    @Josie: I love both of the books (Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons) and you’re right; the bat scene had me crying with laughter. I have the hardcover version of Jackson collection somewhere in my basement, but grabbed the Kindle edition too. She was such an amazing writer.

  100. 100.

    gogol's wife

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I thought his intervention into the Woody Allen issue was unconscionable.

    I just finally watched the owl video — love it! I used to have that kind of situation (no owls, but snakes) when my cats would go in and out of the house.

  101. 101.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Just found out a friend I had in elementary school just died suddenly. Massive heart attack. I have photos of my birthday parties from age six to twelve. He was at every one. He moved away during middle school. Hadn’t seen him since then.

    I haven’t been back to my home town in decades. Parents died years and years ago. So out of curiosity I used google “street view” to look at my house. Looks pretty much the same as my childhood photos except a big beautiful tree is gone, and there are strange, modern SUVs in the driveway. Who are these people???

    I slid up my street with street view, tracing the route I used to walk to 4th grade. I passed the houses of my childhood friends, saw some beautiful older houses that I remember walking past, occupied (in 1966) by smiling old folks. Saw my elementary school. Told my wife “look, this is where I went to kindergarten!”

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    Okay, family crisis averted. My RWNJ brother is a Sparty alumnus and takes it all way too seriously for someone who graduated 35 years ago. He would have been catatonic for the next few days if MSU had lost that game.

    ETA: Hmm, considering catatonic as an alternative to his usual demeanor. Gimme a minute.

  105. 105.

    NotMax

    Was awakened at 8:26 a.m. – on Sunday – by an automated call from a credit card company about my having to cancel and replace the card due to data breach at a retailer (K-Mart).

    Annoying enough to have to wait 2 weeks for a new card to show up in the mail, but what the bloody heck were they thinking by calling that early on a Sunday?

    Just now called the company directly to take care of it and made very clear my intense displeasure about the hour of the phone call.

  106. 106.

    Botsplainer

    @Corner Stone:

    Lville deserved to lose this game.

    Rozier has driven me up a wall all season. If you want somebody to take an ill advised, poorly timed, off-balance shot into defenders that will not go in AND will bounce bad AND you’re in a clutch moment, give it to him.

  107. 107.

    srv

    Neocon group “United Against Nuclear Iran” accuses foreign shipping magnate of supporting Iran. He files defamation suit. Obama Administration forces judge to dismiss lawsuit, claiming states secrets. Gov’t isn’t even a party in the lawsuit!

    Obama meets Kafka:

    This is the first time a US court has dismissed a lawsuit on the basis of state secrets when the case didn’t involve either the Government or a defence contractor deeply enmeshed with classified government contracts.

    Impeach, already.

  111. 111.

    srv

    Now I can wallow on the sofa with a clear conscience. What are you up to?

    Am sure Obama’s conscience is clear too:

    PALM CITY, Fla. (AP) — President Barack Obama is teeing off in Florida with a trio of oil and private equity moguls.
    …
    Obama was joined for his round of golf Sunday by Jim Crane, who owns the Floridian. Crane is a major Democratic donor who also owns the Houston Astros and golfed with Obama and Tiger Woods in 2013. He’s also a major player in the Texas energy industry.

    Also in Obama’s foursome is Milton Carroll. He’s on the board of directors of Halliburton, the oil company closely associated with former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney.

    Private equity investor Glenn Hutchins rounds out the president’s group. He’s a partial owner of the Boston Celtics

  113. 113.

    gogol's wife

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    At a time when his personal friend Mia Farrow was airing, in every place she could, allegations about Allen that she had been silent about for many years, “coincidentally” at the same time that her son’s talk show was being launched, NK used the platform of his column to help her out.

  115. 115.

    Tommy

    @WereBear: I got cold called last weekend. I call back the number to kind of yell at them. Get this automated message telling me their office hours are 9-5 Monday through Friday. I wanted to yell a little more. If they did want me to buy their service they were not even OPEN when I called.

  117. 117.

    WaterGirl

    @Amir Khalid: I listened to the guy scream 3 different questions at his dog, then closed the video. Life’s too short to listen to that.

    Oh, and if I still get to vote after watching only about 10 seconds? If the guy is screaming, the dog won.

  118. 118.

    Gravenstone

    @srv: You’re late, troll. That has been making the rounds in the comments for nearly a week now. Do try to keep up, you fucking waste of protoplasm.

  119. 119.

    Tommy

    I slid up my street with street view, tracing the route I used to walk to 4th grade. I passed the houses of my childhood friends, saw some beautiful older houses that I remember walking past, occupied (in 1966) by smiling old folks. Saw my elementary school. Told my wife “look, this is where I went to kindergarten!”

    Sorry to hear about your friend passing away …..

    I showed a women I was dating just what you did above. I walked to school from when I was, well I could walk. I often rant on this topic. That people by me pick their kids up from the bus stop to drive 2 blocks to their homes. What the fuck.

    My parents were not abusive in the least. Walk to school. If it rains take an umbrella. If there is snow, put some boots on.

  120. 120.

    Amir Khalid

    @WaterGirl:
    If you even get in a verbal argument with an animal, the animal is winning. I saw my mother arguing with a kitten once — he’d jumped onto an inviting pile of her dresses that she was sorting — and it was the exact same thing.

  122. 122.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Tommy: It’s weird sliding around google street view. I started at my childhood home. Then I was able to float up the street all the way to the elementary school.

    It was strange seeing the places that have been in my dreamscapes. Sometimes I’ll dream I’m in different parts of the town I grew up in. Certain locations have become part of my dream geography, if that makes any sense.

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    @Germy Shoemangler: I tried that after your comment up thread, but I wasn’t able to see a street view. Do you have to have a login? Any ideas what I might have been doing wrong? I started with a link to google street view.

  126. 126.

    shortstop

    @Amir Khalid: It would be hilarious to have a conversation with that bombastic guy consistently only of short phrases of the type that dogs can understand.

    Occasionally the third baseman will tell our dog (calmly, not screechingly as this guy speaks) something like, “Is it really necessary to do that?” The dog looks bewildered until TTB switches to a short and sweet “uh uh.” (We save “no” for serious, dangerous situations — a terse “uh uh” is our standard for day to day use.)

  127. 127.

    Tommy

    @Amir Khalid: I’ve tried to reason with my cat. Little lady is with me close to 24/7. Never more than a foot or two away. She does what she wants. Trying to reason with her, a failed thought.

  129. 129.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @WaterGirl: It depends where the google camera trucks have been. We tried it with my wife’s childhood home, and all we got was the map and a satellite view.

    I didn’t have to sign up for anything. First I entered my childhood address in google. The first result was a map. I clicked on the map. On the left was the “street view” option. I clicked on street view and I was in front of my old house! Sliding the mouse around let me see 360 degrees all around my street. By clicking further up the street, my view slid up further.

    I was able to roll around my hometown, seeing old houses I hadn’t thought of in years, but must have walked past a billion times between the ages of seven and eighteen.

  131. 131.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Brings back a flood of memories. Some beautiful old 1920s art deco apartment buildings at the end of my old street were torn down for an ugly office complex. I remember being a ten year old, I’d walk down my street and there was a cement railing. I would peek over it and see a small brook. For some reason it fascinated me. The cement thing is still there!

    The house next door to us was an old victorian, very dark brick with a big front porch. The old lady was in her 90s back in 1965. I remember her on the porch, watching the neighborhood. I saw in google street view that whoever owns the house now decided to cover it in extremely ugly light grey vinyl siding.

    It gives me a weird feeling to know the places we occupy outlive us. Long after we’re gone, people will be walking the streets we walked, and sleeping in the bedrooms we slept in, and not know or care a thing about us.

  134. 134.

    SuperHrefna

    @Germy Shoemangler: I often feel that way about saucepans. Several times a week I cook in an enameled cast iron post my grandfather, and then my mother, cooked in since the 1950s. It’s still fine and will doubtless be usable after I die, too.

  136. 136.

    shortstop

    I’m looking out the window at the Wrigley Field bleachers, which are still a forest of bare beams with opening day a week away. The Rickettses are going to be making a huge payout in ticket refunds, not to mention all the other business that will be lost because the entire park exterior is still a disaster. Couldn’t happen to an un-nicer family (except for the daughter).

    @Germy Shoemangler: Sometimes people care. The woman who lived in our condo for 40 years is often the topic of our conversation. We muse over whether she’d like our renovations. She loved the place and so do we, so we think of her quite affectionately despite never having met her.

  137. 137.

    Tree With Water

    “That’s the biggest mouse I’ve ever seen”.

    “Look, this isn’t necessary- you want me to leave, I’ll leave”.

    “I’m staring because I want to remember your face. This isn’t over”.

  138. 138.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @WaterGirl: that sucks. I want everyone to experience it. It’s almost like astral projection.

    @SuperHrefna: The house we bought came with an old coal shovel in the shed. Thing must be 90 years old, back when the house was heated with coal. I use it to dig in the yard. I sometimes wonder about the people who used it before I was born.

  143. 143.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @shortstop: I have vivid memories of my kindergarten class. And there are five-year-olds still using that room, with a teacher who probably hadn’t been born when I was there.

    Cue music: “Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset…”

    I remember reading an interview with Paul McCartney. He remembered his old school, the Liverpool Institute. Charles Dickens delivered lectures there!

    In Europe they really know how to have old stuff.

  144. 144.

    catclub

    @Hal:

    looking for a counter to Hillary Clinton.

    yeah, her only job is to tear down Hillary, starting in the primaries.

  148. 148.

    sharl

    @Germy Shoemangler: This discussion involving Google Street View got me to wondering about the story linked to by Nellcote in comments last night, and whether the drivers of those Google camera cars get accosted by suspicious citizens:

    Photographers Shooting in West Virginia Reportedly Harassed and Detained by ‘Mob’

    Photographer Marisha Camp and her brother Jessie were recently passing through West Virginia on a nationwide tour for a documentary series when they were reportedly confronted by “a hostile mob.” The residents were suspicious of the photo taking and allegedly harassed and detained the duo until a trooper arrived and escorted the photographers from the scene.

    Assuming Google occasionally ran into problems like this in its earliest days of doing this street view mapping, they must now have advance teams and a big spreadsheet containing community POCs to enable them to let the local citizenry know they are coming. They certainly have the assets to include those program components.

  150. 150.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @catclub: A line that made me laugh was from The Office, when (I can’t remember their names now) the lady didn’t want to marry the guy, and kept throwing out impossible obstacles for him. She said she wanted to get married in a 300 year old cathedral in the United States, or something like that.

  151. 151.

    raven

    @Germy Shoemangler: Ever see Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet”?

    “Wai-Tung and Simon have a blast filling it out with the most impossible requirements they can think of. His ideal woman would have two doctorates (one in physics), speak five languages and sing opera. Simon’s suggestion that she also be six feet tall is overruled because, after all, she is Chinese and we can’t be too unrealistic. Imagine their shock when the service finds someone who meets most of the requirements (she only has one phD), and mother is flying her to New York to meet him.”

  152. 152.

    sharl

    @raven: They’re worse – robo-cameras on wheels, and not even normal cameras at that, but alien-lookin’ doohickies starin’ at em and their cars out on the streets, gettin’ all nosy and whatnot.
    I say shoot em on sight; any questions came come later. It’s the only way to be sure.

  153. 153.

    shortstop

    @catclub: If it weren’t irritating enough that the GOP thinks a stint as CEO is both critical to and perfectly translatable to presidentin’, they keep running people who have utterly failed as CEOs. Where is Fiorina’s dignity? She’s a laughingstock.

  155. 155.

    ThresherK

    @NotMax: You saw the original? I’m jealous a bit.

    I was too young to “get” it when I heard the album. I was in high school, if that’s any defense.

    I was reintroduced to it years later and it all clicked. (That in the intervening years I learned who John Cullum, Madeline Kahn and Kevin Kline were certainly helped.)

    It seems to have been about the last successful “big show” in the grand style before the English “took over”.

  162. 162.

    Tree With Water

    @Germy Shoemangler: Our 1st grade choral song lyrics ran, “good morning to you, good morning to you, we’re all in are places, with bright shiny faces”. I think that’s the age the bastards also began to drill every day in reciting the pledge of fucking allegiance.

  163. 163.

    Shana

    @bemused: Open a can of chicken stock. Saute some onion in about 3 T. of butter or margarine, make a roux with 3 T flour, add the chicken stock, stir to thicken, add in the chopped or shredded chicken. Heat through, serve over pasta or rice. You can throw in whatever veggies you have and make a one dish meal.

  164. 164.

    scav

    @SiubhanDuinne: Why disfigured?

    ETA: Granted, there are a lot of trees in the way, and as best I can tell, I’m looking at the brown-gray one with yellow flowers on the posts.

  165. 165.

    Mary G

    @WaterGirl: On google maps, if you look down in the right bottom corner, there should be a little orange-yellow figure like you might see on an unisex bathroom door (head, arms, legs, no middle bits). Hover your mouse over it and you should see “browse Street View images.” If you click on that, streets where SV is available will be marked with blue lines. Click on the blue line to get into Street View. It isn’t available in every corner of every town yet, so you might not be able to find it where you are looking.

  167. 167.

    sharl

    @shortstop: I figured as much. I vaguely recall some concerns from the privacy rights folks in the earliest days of Google’s project, but whatever legal wrinkles may have once existed were ironed out long ago. Just the same, in its earliest days I could totally believe that a small town such as that in the link would react in hostile fashion if not forewarned by the arrival of the high tech outlanders.

    And I just looked at the home I grew up in back in Ohio, as well as my old elementary and high schools; the former (ES) totally redesigned, and the latter (HS) actually a new building about 500 yards from the old school.
    The years, they do fly by…

  168. 168.

    debbie

    Substitute a broom for the Swiffer and a stinkbug for the owl, and that could be me, especially the “Oh, shit!”

  169. 169.

    Amir Khalid

    The owl in the video isn’t mad at the guy or scared of him. It’s not screeching at him to stay away, or making itself look bigger to try to scare him off. That unnerving stare is just the bird watching to see what the human does. And when it figures out he wants it to leave, it does so without any fuss. The human was plainly the more nervous one here.

  171. 171.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    I know, weird, right? I’ll see if I can find a better link (it was actually on the street view when I copied the link).

  172. 172.

    shell

    Ah, reminded me of the time a little brown sparrow flew into my house. Tried everything benign to get it out one of the windows. No luck. Little thing finally ended up in my bedroom, perched on the top of a bookcase like Poe’s raven. He tucked his head under his wing and went to sleep. I wasn’t up too late myself. Cut to daybreak and morning birds are singing. He starts chirping like ‘Comrades!’ I finally got the bright idea to open the window from the top…..and out he shot like a shot. I went back to bed.

  175. 175.

    normal liberal

    @raven:
    Doomed thread, but I’ll note you were quite handy to downtown. Shame about Lincoln Square, which is now mostly insurance office.

  177. 177.

    Kay

    We had an owl in the cellar once. My son came and woke me up to tell me “there’s an owl in the cellar”. I thought it was a dream because it sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? An OWL?

    It was a barn owl and it was perched on a shelf at the top of the stairs. It was just watching us silently, like the owl in the video. Unfortunately, then it took off flying down the stairs and my husband and son had to catch it by using a sheet as a net. It had a huge wingspan and it was panicking, swooping around down there. They released it outside and it seemed to be fine.

  178. 178.

    Tommy

    @Kay: Years ago I took this online survey. What animal I might be. I came down as an owl. Well a cat first and an owl second. Which makes sense because if i could be my cat I’d be my cat.

  179. 179.

    Kay

    @Tommy:

    Between a bat in the house and an owl, I’ll take the owl. We also had a mourning dove come in once. Our cat at the time (Zinnia, now deceased) completely ignored the bird flying over her head.

    Someone told me a bird in the house is bad luck. If so, we’re doomed :)

  180. 180.

    Tommy

    @Kay: If I had a mouse in my house pretty sure my cat would want to play with it. Laid back. Not a mean bone in her body.

  181. 181.

    Mustang Bobby

    Re: final seconds of the video: I haven’t heard such a rapturous “FUCK YEAH!” since a friend brought over a pirated “Shaving Ryan’s Privates” video snaked from Manhunt.net.

  182. 182.

    Amir Khalid

    We used to have a sparrow fly into the house once in a while, Then Bianca came to stay. A few sparrows died gruesome (and messy) deaths. It’s been a decade since a sparrow has dared venture inside here.

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