I’m just old enough to remember when “Easter bonnets” actually were a big deal — at least in the kind of working-class Catholic neighborhoods where ladies always carried chapel caps folded into their purses, in case they needed to make a quick church stop between errands. Peak bonnet, for me, was a white straw mob cap decorated with tiny navy bows, the year I was six. That was just before Vatican Council II eliminated the ‘women must wear head coverings’ edict. It’s still a good feeling to start packing away the heavy winter coats and boots, secure in the knowledge that there will be cold days and maybe even some snow, but the inclination of the sun has broken winter’s back.
Yesterday, in fact, was the first day that actually felt like Spring here. It was beautifully sunny, the snow piles have (mostly) disappeared, and the earliest daffodil clumps are finally greening up. Amidst the sad grey-brown wreckage of our brutal winter, of course… so it’s going to take that much more spring cleaning to get the yard back into shape. Not to mention the 18 shopping bags & counting that need to be delivered now that the donation bins have emerged from the snowbanks, which will make enough room in the garage that we can continue decluttering, one surface at a time. I’d buy Marie Kondo’s much-recommended book on the Japanese art of ‘tidying up’, but we’d just lose it in the clutter that results when two packrats haven’t moved house in twenty years!
What’s on the Spring Cleaning / Sprucing Up agenda in your neighborhood?
Hal
So Memories Pizza has raised nearly 900 grand. I’m sure they would have made the same amount making pizzas over the next 1000 years or so. I’m also sure they will be able to miraculously re-open to a packed house and lines out the door shortly.
NotMax
TCM a desert for this watcher today, what with all the sanctimonious religious crap.
sharl
I miss The Onion‘s Easter card ideas for kids, but fortunately a few internet heroes have saved some images.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I’m in the late stages of pulling my Kickstarter together. I’m hoping to launch it on April 15th, but the person I’m consulting with to set it up is completely booked with a publishing convention for a week starting next Wednesday so if glitches come up it may have to get pushed back a few days.
Amir Khalid
@Hal:
Don’t these GoFundMe things stop accepting donations after you hit the fundraising target, or are you allowed to take as much as people will give?
Groucho48
Easter bonnets are still a big thing in the black community. At least, for the black community here in Buffalo.
Major Major Major Major
@Amir Khalid: Nope. Kickstartr does the same. Gofundme counts every donation though, whereas kickstartr only pays out if you hit the target.
Major Major Major Major
@Amir Khalid: which is to say (fix the mobile edit button already people), they keep collecting until the deadline, even if it’s above the target amount.
PurpleGirl
@Groucho48: You mean church lady hats. These ‘crowns’ count on any and every Sunday, along with the outfit. People have separate Sunday go to church clothes and hats to go with the outfit.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Major Major Major Major: Kickstarter only pays out if you hit your target, but the sites that take the donations even if you don’t hit the target take an enormous percentage in that case. You really need to be confident that you’ll make your target to avoid watching a large chunk of it go to the site, which kind of defeats the purpose of going with a place that takes the donations regardless.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
And, yes, the donations keep rolling in even after you hit the target. I’m kind of counting on that because I’m setting my target at a point ($7500) where I can afford just an eBook with lousy formatting and no marketing. I’m really hoping I get more like $12,000-$13,000 so that I can have not only a really nice eBook, but also a quality print edition and some marketing.
Zinsky
I am one of those rare members of the religious left (yes, there are a few of us) and will be attending Easter service with my lovely wife and our three grown kids, ages 19 to 26, all of whom are home this weekend (a small blessing in itself). Yesterday was sunny here in Minnesota, but a definite chill in the air, as if Winter were still lurking in southern Canada and sending its evil remembrances our way. Life is good and life is short – enjoy it and be happy. There may be something even better that follows!
Major Major Major Major
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I’m an ePub expert by the way, if you’d like to chat about that. XML is a second language to me.
ThresherK
“Showers likely” here, so I guess I’ll be The Fella With An Umbrella for Easter.
(crickets)
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Major Major Major Major: Thank you for the offer and I might take you up on it. I do have people (Trio Bookworks) that I’m working with on the whole project but we’ll see.
beth
Ah, chapel caps. I can remember as a child that if I forgot mine, Mom would pull her ever present Kleenex out of her sleeve and pin it to my hair. Such memories. It’s amazing I still attend religious services between that and the memory of her pinching my knees when I misbehaved. Anyway, I’m off to our church’s sunrise service. It’s a beautiful way to start the day. Happy Easter to all!
OzarkHillbilly
So Wisconsin beat Kentucky. Didn’t see that one coming.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I had it!
OzarkHillbilly
Oh and… Easter Schmeaster, who cares? It’s Opening Day!!!!
Play Ball!
(priorities and all that)
Major Major Major Major
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I am guaranteed to be cheaper ;) happy to take a peek at their work for QC or let you know if you’re being ripped off tho
Baud
Happy Easter.
Congrats, Omnes and other Wisconsin fans (except Scott Walker).
currants
Making flamiche to take to my kiddo’s for brunch (where we’ll take the grandbabies for a walk while eggs are hidden inside). Then more spring cleanup. What a mess around here, even though it was in order before the snow fell. Gah.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: “That 40-0 Kentucky team would have been, could have been great. One of the greatest. And now, it’s just another elite Kentucky squad that reached the Final Four but fell short of its ultimate goal. Beyond that, however, these Wildcats had finally embraced the pursuit of perfection. Only seven teams in the history of the game had ever ended a year without a loss. Kentucky chased that and nearly grabbed that.”
Baud
@raven:
Wait, so this wouldn’t have even been the first time?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Major Major Major Major: Trio is run by a good friend, so I’m not worried about being ripped off. And given how much I like the cover they designed, I’m satisfied with the quality so far, too.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@raven: Meh. I went through this during the late stages of the season when the Gopher women’s hockey team went 41-0-0 and I’ll say the same thing here: anyone who thinks that a team could make it to 38-0 before finally losing isn’t great has no idea what they are talking about. It’s the utter fixation on the tiny sample size of the playoffs as opposed to looking at the entire body of a team’s work. I don’t like Kentucky and I don’t like John Calipari, but that doesn’t change the fact that this was a great team.
Major Major Major Major
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: every day I’m hustling, at least until this startup gets funding :)
I don’t know if you’re one for chatting, but I do have some questions to ask another writer, specifically about worldbuilding which iirc you’re good at.
max
@Baud: Congrats, Omnes and other Wisconsin fans (except Scott Walker).
Scott Walker, of course, was rooting for Iowa.
It’s still a good feeling to start packing away the heavy winter coats and boots, secure in the knowledge that there will be cold days and maybe even some snow, but the inclination of the sun has broken winter’s back.
I don’t figure it’s over until it won’t snow again. The last day of that was May 3rd last year. Ugh.
What’s on the Spring Cleaning / Sprucing Up agenda in your neighborhood?
I have to finish digging the hole for the raised bed and then assemble the bed. And then transport the dirt to fill it, but I’m waiting until I get a couple of solid warm days without rain.
max
[‘Otherwise the hand pain will be nigh intolerable.’]
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Like money in the bank! (cause IIRC, it is)
ThresherK
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: You follow the womens’ hockey more than most here, or at least more than I do. The distribution of talent for NCAA womens’ hoops is not as widespread as for the mens’ hoops. What does it look like for womens’ hockey by comparison?
(Per example: In the 21 years of a 64-team womens’ field, the following seeds lower than 4 have made the Final Four: 9, 6, 6, 5, 7, 5. For the mens’ side, Michigan State as a #7 getting to the Final Four is a big deal.)
Major Major Major Major
@ThresherK: I had an embarrassment of riches in college with VanDerveer as coach for women’s b-ball. I was in marching band and actually knew how to play my instrument, so I got to travel with the team for important games.
I dunno, just a random story.
ThresherK
@Major Major Major Major: That is an embarrassment of riches. Quite the eyewitness spot to be–good thing you paid attention during your lessons.
So, what did the “couldn’t play” band members get stuck with? I’m envisioning that SNL skit with the cheerleaders at the swim meet, where all the competitors’ heads are under water.
Major Major Major Major
@ThresherK: they were bodies on the field for football shows. Only 30 of us qualified every year for basketball.
The entire basketball drum section was just this one delightful, and unfortunately late, fellow with William’s Syndrome. His mom taught there, he worked at the bookstore, and, well, he was the best set drummer we had. That’s not faint praise–he was very good.
So most of the people who couldn’t play ended up in the drum section, or at least out of the tenor sax section when I was running it.
Just One More Canuck
@Zinsky:winter is still lurking here in Canada I’m sorry to say – we had snow overnight (Toronto burbs) – just enough to be annoying
grrljock
@Major Major Major Major: I bet that was fun! Sad that VanDerveer has never regained that form. I’m rooting for S, Carolina (go Coach Staley!) and Maryland later today, But really I want Anybody But UConn.
SuperHrefna
I used my garden as a displacement activity this week ( got to have an op in two weeks) – last snow lumps haven’t melted yet but I redid my hanging baskets with winter pansies and my earthboxes with peas and lettuce seeds. I’ve never grown from seed in my earthboxes before, I’ve always popped in seedlings. It will be interesting to see if this works!
We had our spring celebration last night, so today I get to goof off and eat leftovers. I might also make banana bread – I made a loaf last week that was exquisite because in addition to the fresh cranberries I always add, I chopped up two plums and stirred those in too. It’s all gone now, but I really want another slice, so I see baking in my future…
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@ThresherK: The talent distribution in women’s hockey isn’t very deep. The simple fact is that youth programs just don’t have enough girls in them to produce enough good players to stock all 36 Division I NCAA teams. In the last 16 years, only four different schools have won the national championship: Minnesota with 6; Minnesota-Duluth with 5; Wisconsin with 4; and Clarkson with 1. The Gophers have been in the national title game each of the last four years, winning three of them.
I’m really looking forward to the day when the talent pool is deeper and everything is more competitive. In the five years I’ve been following them closely, the Gophers are 24-0 vs St. Cloud State; 22-0 vs. Minnesota State-Mankato; and 21-0-2 against Ohio State. Then again, we’ve also gone 16-0-2 against Wisconsin since November, 2011, so we’re beating up on the good teams, too. Strangely enough, over the last four seasons, in which we’ve gone 147-10-7, the team with the best winning percentage against us, by a significant margin, is Bemidji State, who have never finished higher than 5th place in the WCHA.
satby
@SuperHrefna: That sounds yummy!
Wishing you good luck for the op in two weeks.
Edited to correct autocorrect.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Major Major Major Major: I’m certainly willing to answer questions or just chat about writing. As for world building, I wouldn’t say that I’m all that accomplished at it. In fact, almost all of my stories to date are either fantasy but set in the real world or the novel, which doesn’t have any spec fic elements at all. I’m generally focused on characters and theme far more than I am world building and really just do enough to make the story feel grounded without getting into details.
That said, I’m working on creating a fantasy world that attempts to take high fantasy and thrust it into a proto-industrial revolution.
Major Major Major Major
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: surely the talent pool would be more widely distributed if it was a sport that didn’t require, you know, a giant freezer. It’s gonna concentrate in areas where giant freezers are economical due to low ambient temperatures.
Also where the population hails from Canada, but I repeat myself.
satby
I’m looking forward to a quiet day of cleaning and making a new shampoo bar recipe. Yesterday got derailed when I had to drive to my old house in Chicago to pick up a small shipment of blueberry plants they shipped there, even though I checked the “ship to” field was MI when I ordered them last year. My old house has hundreds of spring bulbs that I had planted, and the blue squill and early snowdrops are blooming together this year, with early daffodils about to open. They usually follow each other by a couple of weeks, the long winter confused them.
Edited again because autocorrect on the kindle suxxx!
Major Major Major Major
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: worldbuilding is perhaps the wrong word. Verisimilitude (which autocorrect just autocorrected so I can only assume is spelled wrong) might be better. Accuracy in characters and their reactions to stuff, which means having a good idea of where they came from, where they’re going, and such.
JPL
Happy Easter all. Because of company I didn’t see the Kentucky/Wisconsin game. In fact I didn’t even check online because I just assumed that Kentucky would win.
Betty’s lamb is amazing. Just wow.
Finally the northern friends can pack away their heavy coats and welcome mud season. Good luck with that.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Major Major Major Major: That is something I try to focus on. For me, stories are very much character driven and the characters really must behave in a way that feels grounded and plausible while remaining compelling.
All that said, it’s just about time for me to go to bed.
Phylllis
@grrljock: Go Lady Gamecocks!!
Major Major Major Major
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Später dann.
Where do you live? Shite.
Europe I guess?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Major Major Major Major: Minneapolis. I work third shift.
Major Major Major Major
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: peace in your chosen path and all :)
SuperHrefna
@satby: Thanks! The cooked plums raised that bread to another level. I’m feeling so lazy this morning, but I really may have to go put my apron on soon. Your shampoo bar sounds delightful! I’m still using that lovely creamy goats milk soap I got from you when you opened your Etsy shop – I just swung by there and saw you had a new goats milk and oatmeal bar which I snapped up, it sounds right up my street, full of milk and oats and honey!
ThresherK
@Phylllis: I have a list as long as your arm of Lady Male Names. There are Lady Bulls, Knights, Rams and Stags aplenty.
That’s why I especially root for the Marist Red Foxes (because what woman doesn’t want that name?), the Delaware Blue Hens, and the St. Peters (NJ) Peahens.
satby
@SuperHrefna: I saw that, thank you! And I hope you enjoy the new one, I think it’s a bit better of a combo, though basically they’re quite similar. But the one you just ordered has olive oil too, and it’s my basic recipe now, plus goats milk.
satby
Oh, and for everyone who gave me shop feedback (thanks again, by the way) I’m putting up sample combos, changed the shop info to mention the pet rescue, and added a doggy shampoo. Lots more to accomplish, but those were great suggestions and very helpful.
MattF
I’m hoping to do a second pass on my taxes. After the first pass it’s so far, so good– I owe small amounts to both federal and state, which is exactly what I’d aimed for.
Randy P
My mother-in-law dressed our daughters in Easter bonnets every year, it was very important to her. And that was in the 80s.
I never knew what that song about the Easter bonnet and the Easter parade was all about till one day I was listening to an old Jack Benny show, and he and his wife were doing the Easter Parade. Which is apparently walking around greeting your neighbors and checking out each others’ plumage.
Was THAT really a thing?
Mustang Bobby
Being a Quaker, it’s just another First Day, although the meeting will be sparse this morning with most of the members up in Central Florida for the yearly meeting. I’m doing the crossword puzzle and finishing a research paper.
Here’s a photo of the kids in our family from 1959 when we did dress up for Easter. That’s me on the left in the red jacket. (Wish I still had the ’58 Ford wagon; it would be a hit at the car shows.)
RSA
This past year I thought I had a good recipe for starting to live a simpler life: Pack up all of your belongings (for us an entire house of stuff). Move to a much smaller place (a two-bedroom apartment), taking only what will fit. Take a few months to figure out what you really need and don’t need. Move back.
Now I discover, about a year later, this only works if you were very careful in documenting what went into specific boxes or if you’re willing to just ignore those boxes for the rest of time. I’m not either. Sigh… Most of the boxed stuff is marked for charity now, after a few weeks of off-and-on going through it.
satby
@Randy P: Yep. Mostly after attending church services. And I remember how silly I thought it was that we’d get these stupid little woven white hats that we only wore one day of the year, though as the eldest, I at least got a new hat, the younger sisters got my hand me downs. My mother would put them away for next Easter. The rest of the time we wore those lacy doily things on our heads for church.
satby
@RSA: I was a complete failure at that: I still have boxes six years later of things I want to do and the tiny house I bought is too small for me, my projects, and the critters. We make do, but I miss having a big enough place to actually put things all the way away, instead of temporarily in a box in the garage until I want to work on it again.
Emily68
I lived in suburban New Orleans, LA in the late 1950s when I was a little girl. Every girl I knew got a new, very snazzy outfit for Easter. Most of the outfits had hats. Mine did, and we were Unitarians. So Easter bonnets were non-denominational. in 1960, my family moved to the SF Bay Area and dressing up at Easter wasn’t such a big deal.
Poopyman
There was frost this morning, unbelievably, although my religion informs me that on this day Jesus Christ arose from the dead, rolled back the stone door of his tomb, and saw his shadow, thus marking the real start of Spring.
raven
This is some goofy shit. Tom Cotten and his wife eat birthday cake almost every day!
ThresherK
@RSA: My half-assed “archaelogical” method has served us well. Several months into the new place there are some things in boxes, but remembering what room items came from really helps.
Unfortunately this isn’t quite yet something we’ve mind-melded on. I’ll be looking for an item which I would never put in a box bound for the furnace storage room, but since my wife may have packed it, that’s where she’ll have put it. And when she explains why, it makes perfect sense!
So the idea of each of us being responsible for our own items works, but the shared common goods are still a bit adrift.
debbie
@Hal:
Unfotunately, many will take that as a Christian triumph.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: Maybe that explains why he comes off like a sugared-up six-year-old.
RSA
@satby:
Projects! Unfinished projects will be the death of me. :-) I think I know exactly what you mean.
@ThresherK:
That’s a perfect analogy. I even feel a thrill of discovery sometimes when opening a box. Other times: Uh-oh. Did I just release a curse on us all?
Phylllis
@ThresherK: The ‘Lady’ thing actually irritates the hell out of me. As far as team names, always been a fan of the Campbell Camels.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: The report sad that when he and his wife were dating he told her he ate birthday cake almost every day and she said “so do I”!!
satby
@debbie: I’m going to consider it a triumph for the US Treasury Dept. Bet lots of those bigoted donors didn’t mean to help enrich the jackbooted thugs of big, non-discrimination government, but they just did.
Mustang Bobby
@raven: There’s a Marie Antoinette joke in there somewhere…
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Tying to get out!
debbie
@raven:
It’s got to be the crappy, overly sugared cakes you can pick up at Krogers. The icing’ll rot your teeth.
ThresherK
@RSA: But it’s not just the thrill! of! discovery!
I guess it’s more about geology, not archaeology: The top layer of something in a box is the newest. (I’m correcting myself, as the metaphor holds less for digging in the earth re human civilizations than about everything else stratified in the muck and mire.)
So, if I open a box and find papers from my health insurance circa 2008, I don’t have to search any further if I’m looking for my records from 2010.
OzarkHillbilly
@RSA: I had a system that was fool proof. Once a year when the landlord raised the rent, no matter how reasonable the increase might be, move. Then as you pack, with each item you pick up you have to ask yourself 2 questions (and give honest answers):
Have I used this in the last year?
Am I going to use it in the next year?
If no to both, into the dumpster it went.
But now I have my forever home and a wife who is far worse than I ever thought I was.
satby
@ThresherK: oh man, you were that organized about packing things into a box??
My system was more, uh, circular. Things I could grab from where I was, moving in a circular pattern outward until the box was full.
Only which room I was packing made it “systematic”.
Elizabelle
These are always fun.
Washington Post Peeps dioramas, top 50.
ThresherK
@Phylllis: Do you mean “Lady Rams” et al, or just the reflexive appending of “Lady” in front of a non-gendered name?
My anecdotal viewership of womens’ collegiate sports (hoops, soccer, hockey) notes that the latter is less popular now than some decade and a half ago.
Completely reversing the field: I’m soooo glad that the rise of collegiate womens’ basketball, the establishment of numerous all-sports broadcasting outlets 24×7 and on demand, and the fall of the nickname “Indian” have happened concurrently. I can imagine a more insulting name for a sports team than Indians being used, and I don’t even want to know if it’s been done.
kc
@Hal:
Geez, for 800 grand, I’ll announce that I won’t cater gay weddings either. Then I’d donate half my take to gay causes.
Phylllis
@satby: You and my late husband were obviously separated at birth. I’m a ‘pack up the kitchen, label boxes, move the kitchen boxes to the new place, and put those boxes in the…kitchen’ kind of gal. Late hubby? Let’s get a box, wander about the house and fill it with random stuff, and then take it to new place and put boxes down where ever whimsy strikes.
Randy P
@Elizabelle: The Peeps Show!
It’s not Easter in our house till we’ve viewed that. Check out previous years too. The amount of detail people put into these things is scary.
I think one of my favorites was the Metro station, complete in every detail including grumpy commuters angry at tourists blocking the left (passing) lane of the escalators.
OzarkHillbilly
Latest sign*** of the apocalypse: A $200 ‘Lincoln Axe’ That’s right, a chunk of steel on the end of a hunk of wood that you can buy at your local hardware store for about $20 except this one has ‘AL’ stamped on the head.
***remember, these people vote
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone:)
Happy Easter!
Jacks mom
I’m going to go shower my mom who is in a nursing home here. My sister and I usually do that on Tuesdays and Fridays but last Friday she didn’t want to shower. I had to deliver some bad news so that may have been why she declined the shower.
It seems after 35 years of marriage Mr. Jacks Mom wants to go the rest of the way on his own…..or at least without me. He’s actually got a “friend” .
Anyway I’m still glad I got the black lab puppy. He’s actually helping us get thru this. And of course the new grand baby is a blessing.
Anyhoo….I’m going to Easter lunch at Jack’s and taking my mom to meet her latest great grandson.
max
@OzarkHillbilly: Latest sign*** of the apocalypse: A $200 ‘Lincoln Axe’ That’s right, a chunk of steel on the end of a hunk of wood that you can buy at your local hardware store for about $20 except this one has ‘AL’ stamped on the head.
They list it as a 1791 Lincoln axe. Lincoln was born in 1809. Wouldn’t you want a Washington axe?
max
[‘Jesus Christ.’]
ThresherK
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m the neater one of us, too, by default.
The comparative “neater than”, with my name, would bemuse anyone who’s seen my quarters in my bachelors days.
Some things we missed, but I did field-marshal diktat generalissimo bossify my spouse into getting her shreddables into a few huge boxes. And it paid off last weekend when I dumped them all at a bank’s “free shred event”.
Having had to go through her late mom’s records last year, getting these bits taken care of properly is quite the load off.
Phylllis
@ThresherK: or just the reflexive appending of “Lady” in front of a non-gendered name?
This. Although, like you say, you don’t hear it as much anymore.
Jacks mom
Can I ask why it always takes 5 minutes for my comments to post. Is this the moderation of which you all speak?
OzarkHillbilly
@Jacks mom: Sorry to hear about the dissolution. They suck, even when the relationship is long past it’s ‘Sell by’ date.
OzarkHillbilly
@max:
NO! That one chopped down a cherry tree and I am way to fond of my cherry trees to bring an admitted murderer into my house!
ThresherK
@Phylllis: “Wherever the whimsy strikes”?
After one day of a two-week move I carried in some items to our new place’s garage and found the following on a shelf : Battery charger, hydraulic jack, toolbox, assorted spray cans of car stuff, wrenches and bits too big for toolbox, four glass-framed posters .
The same person who put the glass-framed posters there also said “Don’t micromanage me” at least once a day during the move.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: You can spend a lot more on an axe, actually. Just not from Glenn.
MattF
@Elizabelle: Being from a different cultural tradition, I had no idea what all the ‘peeps’ stuff was about– until this year it dawned on me that peeps are some sort of traditional sugary foodstuff for Easter. More material for the ‘inscrutable Gentiles’ folder.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Probably the only implement that can used to destroy the $150 print of Glenn’s cheek-trickling tear.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Dayum, $570 and up? My chainsaw didn’t cost that much ($400+ IIRC)
Poopyman
@OzarkHillbilly: Why did you choose the ax instead of the autographed poster of Beck crying ($150)?
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: I got a match right here that’ll do the trick.
Phylllis
@ThresherK: I would ask if he could explain his thinking on doing things like that. That never went over well. 2nd Hubby and I have moved together once and handled it pretty well. We’ve already said we’ll hire movers once we find our retirement location.
OzarkHillbilly
@Poopyman: Because that is “art”.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA….. gasp, wheeze…
Sometimes I just crack me up.
Gin & Tonic
@Poopyman: Um, that’s TPM’s humor, not an actual item from Glenn’s store.
Jacks mom
@OzarkHillbilly:Well life goes on as they say. We are just trying to be a civil as possible for the kids sake. They are all grown up but it’s still painful.
OzarkHillbilly
@Phylllis: In our last move (forever and ever) my wife moved the spare tire (a donut) to a car she hadn’t owned in 8 years.
Frankensteinbeck
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Good luck. Self-publishing can be done, but you have to be a salesperson! My utter lack of that skill is a big reason why I’m so grateful to have a publisher.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Phylllis: Hee. This was our third move, and each time to a bigger place. The odd thing is, after the second move 17 yrs ago, I saId my next move would be into a little pine box. Ate my words, but at least I wised up and we hired people this time.
Gives a good idea of how filled we managed to make the house in those years. Friends and family moved us in, but too much stuff to DIY move out.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jacks mom: It took a while but I finally found a way to have a reasonable relationship with my ex. They sent her to prison. Unfortunately for my sons, that is kind of heartbreaking. The latest heartbreak was on 3/18 when she was supposed to get out but didn’t (she screwed it up, I don’t know how but I know she did) My youngest came up from Baton Rouge for the big event but…
There is nothing I can say anymore.
satby
@Phylllis: “whimsy” pretty much describes my approach to lots of stuff. Makes life very fun but not as well organized as it could be. I have learned to be organized as needed, but left to my own devices whimsy rules!
grrljock
@Phylllis: I’m with you on that. Have always liked the Cardinals based on the lack of “Lady”, plus their mascot. Kinda related: I loved Haley, the late Houston Comets’ mascot. Whoever acted her was close to genius.
MattF
@ThresherK (GPad): I remember, when I moved from a postdoc job in Minnesota to the DC area 30 or so years ago… I mailed all my belongings to the new address. Can’t do that anymore.
satby
@Jacks mom: Oh, that’s tough. Sorry about that. Just remind yourself often there’s no fool like an old fool.
raven
I continue to move crap out from under the deck in anticipation of the slab for the addition coming in a couple of weeks. I don’t really know what to expect in the kitchen, we’re losing the west facing window to the addition and the north will become a door going to a new, small deck. The boss wants to move all of the cabinets and maybe take out a load bearing wall that would give us more light.
Betty Cracker
@Jacks mom: Damn, I’m sorry.
A childhood friend of mine’s parents split up after nearly as long, also initiated by the husband who had “a friend.” Long story short, she (the mom) was devastated at first, but after a while, she realized she was better off without the cad and went on to have a less well-funded than planned but happier and more meaningful retirement, and when the husband tried to come crawling back inside two years, she told him to go pound sand.
I wish you courage and wisdom as you chart your new path.
WaterGirl
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I understand why they do it, but I always think it’s terrible timing that so many requests to fund political candidates come in at the end of the month when I, and many other people, have no money left.
By the same token, I’m wondering if it makes sense to launch your Kickstarter on the day that so many people have to write checks to the government. On the other hand, there will surely be some people who get money back, so who knows?
Just thought it was worth mentioning since my first thought was “tax day!” and not, “how cool that JMN is moving forward!”.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: When I did our kitchen I opened up a wall so that we could pass food thru to the DR table without walking around. Best thing I could have done. Not for the intended reason, but because it connected the kitchen to the rest of the house in a way that just made it whole.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Those axes seem more like high-end sports equipment than woodcutters’ tools.
Poopyman
@Gin & Tonic: I’m sure I’m not the only one who had to check on Beck’s actual site to make sure. With Beck anything is possible. And if he did offer one I’d bet somebody would buy the damned thing.
WaterGirl
Thanks for the reminder about easter bonnets!
I have two sisters, and the three of us always got new stuff for Easter – new dresses, hats, spring coats, new purses, even new anklet socks and shiny new shoes. You didn’t even get to wear your new spring coat until we went to church on Easter, so it was always a big deal!
So nice to be reminded of happy childhood memories.
ThresherK (GPad)
@grrljock: Stanford Cardinal, a la the color? (Apologies for pedantry.) Or Louisville, the Cardinals who have a bird logo with teeth?
Cervantes
@Jacks mom:
I admire your taking things in stride. When we think about it all — the crises, the inevitable, and, in between those, the humdrum trials of everyday life — what the human heart can do, and usually does, is a minor miracle.
I’m in Brooklyn Heights today, where they are hoping for, and making plans for, another minor miracle.
Poopyman
I’m sitting here contemplating a switch from oil heat to propane, and a corresponding switch from an oil(!) water heater to … which? Propane seemed logical, but damn! An electric heat pump water heater blows it out of the water (so to speak), energywise. Initial purchase price would hurt more, but at least I’d get a $500 rebate from the electric company.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: That’s because they are. Check, e.g. this video starting at about 5:40
Violet
I spent the entire day in the garden yesterday. I was beat last night and I’m really sore today. Mostly weeding because last year I did almost nothing due to my parents’ health problems. The garden was a disaster.
I had a look around at what I worked on yesterday and it looks pretty good. I’ll keep working on this long stretch on the side of the house. It’s probably going to take weeks to get it weeded properly. It’s always been a mess, probably because the previous owners put in crappy mulch and cheap bedding plants to sell the house only made it worse.
Looking to do a redesign of that area. Going to take some work but hopefully it’ll make it more usable in the long run.
Poopyman
@Jacks mom: What a shit-tastic time this is for you. I’ve had plenty of bittersweet experience with parents/ in laws in increasing states of infirmity and dementia, but none with a dissolution of my marriage. I wish you well, and although things look to get worse, just remember that you’ll come out the other end wiser, if maybe sadder.
ruemara
@Amir Khalid: It’s called stretch goals. You can hit your target, but you can also take in as much as anyone wants to give you. For many, that feature is a blessing. A little Easter shenanigans https://youtu.be/BuoWNWQf-D0
OzarkHillbilly
Dizzy Gillespie:
“We were traveling down South, in some of the bigoted areas. So it was two o’clock in the morning, or something like that, and we pulled up to one of those roadside diners. And I looked, and there was the famous sign: No Negroes. And the deal was, we all had duos or trios of friendship, so one of the Caucasian cats would say, ‘What do you want me to get you?’ And they’d go in, and they wouldn’t eat in there, they’d order and come back on the bus and eat with us. But Dizzy gets up and walks off the bus and goes in there. And we’re all saying, ‘Oh my God, that’s the last we’ll see of him.’ And he sits down at the counter—we could see this whole thing through the window. And the waitress goes over to him. And she says to him, ‘I’m sorry, sir, but we don’t serve Negroes in here.’ And Dizzy says, ‘I don’t blame you, I don’t eat ’em. I’ll have a steak.’”
WaterGirl
@satby: Do customer reviews make much of a difference on Etsy? Would it be helpful if those of us who have purchased your stuff write reviews?
It’s hard to make time for that kind of thing, but if there’s a good chance that it would make an actual difference in your sales, you could probably count on your BJ customers to write some reviews.
Phylllis
@MattF: Brings back memories of the days when all I owned would fit into a Mazda GLC hatchback.
@satby: I find myself approaching many things in life with a lot more whimsy than I once did. Life’s too short to be so damn serious about everything all the time.
Poopyman
@Violet: I didn’t do a damned thing in the garden last year because of lack of time, and we were part of a CSA. This year the CSA moved to meat only, so we dropped out. That combined with the water situation in America’s Breadbasket ™ is pushing me to get the garden going whether I have time for it or not. Which sucks, because I really like lingering in the garden, not feeling like I have to get in the car and drive an hour to work.
Amir Khalid
So I took a look at Glenn Beck’s merchandise. It includes sporting goods: a US$180 leather basketball and a US$130 American-code football. (But for some reason, no baseball.) At those prices, these items must be for the display case rather than the court or field.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: It also includes (and I could have sworn I just posted this) a hardcover Whole Earth Catalog from 1974, in the “Vintage” section. Already sold.
I was trying to imagine a forum in which you’d find Stewart Brand and Glenn Beck together.
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby: So cute! That’s exactly how I pictured you. Except older, of course.
max
@OzarkHillbilly: NO! That one chopped down a cherry tree and I am way to fond of my cherry trees to bring an admitted murderer into my house!
Not you, silly. People who buy stupid crap from Glenn Beck.
Perfect decent Nupla Pulaski axe for 47$ at Amazon. And it’s named after the Revolutionary War hero!
max
[‘Trust a tea bagger to miss the historical tricks.’]
max
Moderated for two links? Really!?
max
[‘Jeez.’]
satby
@WaterGirl: Customer reviews make a big difference in helping other prospective customers to decide to purchase at a specific store when they see that the previous customers rate it highly. It adds a lot of credibility to the store. And many of my fellow Juicers have left wonderful reviews, so kind of them to both order and take the time to come back and leave a great review!
satby
@Gin & Tonic:
Any forum where Glenn Beck can sell something and make money. I’m waiting for when he drops all pretense and offers himself as an escort for parties and to functions.
Doomsday preppers are huge on sustainability, like it or not the hippies got there first so they use all the old Whole Earth materials a lot.
ruemara
@satby: Good for you. Those reviews are crucial . We’re trying to find a way that doesn’t seem desperate to ask people to please leave a review. So few of our new products have anything on it.
Frankensteinbeck
@Amir Khalid:
They’re prizes to show how much you support Glen Beck. The conspiracy theorists (a considerable portion of the GOP base) think he’s a god.
EDIT – Actually, have you watched his show? I had to during my stint in Japanese news. It is fucked UP. He rambles like a paranoid schizophrenic, connecting people by whether they use code words like ‘social’, while drawing arrows connecting pictures and names on a blackboard. It looks exactly like those scenes you see of a crazy paranoid in movies. No fooling.
germy shoemangler
@Frankensteinbeck: He has some serious psychosomatic illnesses going on. Hasn’t that been an ongoing saga with him, his variety of mystery ailments that those fools in medical science told him were all in his head? I haven’t been following too closely.
Violet
@Jacks mom: Sorry to hear about that. Sounds like you’re handling it as well as you can, but it’s still difficult. Be kind to yourself throughout the process.
@Betty Cracker: Are we related? A second cousin of my mom’s had that happen. Her husband just informed her one day he was leaving, had met someone, etc. She was upset but moved on. A few years later he came crawling back. She told him to stuff it. She’d met someone else too and is happily married to him now.
OzarkHillbilly
@ruemara: Got a link to your site?
Bobby B
Meet the old mess/Same as the old mess. Gonna watch “The Ten Commandments” on the tube tonite as tradition has required me since I was 10, forever cursing how they’ve ballooned it into a five hour adfest.
Amir Khalid
@Frankensteinbeck:
What I’ve seen of him on YouTube perfectly matches your description. He reminds me of Harrowed Bile, the Harold Boyle character in the MAD Magazine parody of Network.
MattF
@Frankensteinbeck: I’ve seen videos of Beck interviewing some ‘guest’ where the guest gradually realizes that he’s dealing with someone who’s non compos. Kind of amusing, but not actually.
germy shoemangler
@Bobby B: I love Edward G. Robinson. He was a great character actor. But when I think of him in “Ten Commandments” I always imagine him walking around in the period costume: tunic, black socks and black sock garters, black 1940s oxfords shoes. And taking a cigar out of his mouth to say “Yah, Moses, see?”
germy shoemangler
@Amir Khalid: There was the famous “New York City Incident” where Beck took his family (and bodyguard) to Central Park for an outdoor concert. Some New Yorkers told him they didn’t much care for his show.
I think it was after that he decided to build his libertarian commune in Texas or wherever it is.
WaterGirl
@Jacks mom: Sorry to hear about your bad news.
I always think that people who cheat on their partners and can’t end a relationship until they have someone else to make them feel good are total fucking cowards. (In case you’re not at the anger phase yet, I will do it for you.)
If I were you I would print out Betty Cracker’s story and tape it to the bathroom mirror, where I could read it every day until I didn’t need to read it any more.
I’m so glad you’ve got a sister to help with your mom and the new pup and a new grand baby to keep your heart open and your spirits up. Living well is the best revenge.
SuperHrefna
@Jacks mom: Hugs! I’m so sorry to hear of your troubles, but so glad you have both a puppy and a grand baby to delight in.
Violet
@satby: Just checked out your site. I like the changes. I remember someone commenting the name of your shop, Skinluvvers, might not be as useful a brand name for the wider range of products you might want to offer–men’s products, pet products, etc. I just saw the name of your pet rescue is Black Dog Rescue and thought that “Black Dog Soaps” or something incorporating “Black Dog” might be a good name. You could have a cool logo with a black dog.
Not sure you were thinking of changing it at all, but if you were I wanted to toss that in as a suggestion. Also, if you’re doing a sub-brand, for pet products or men or whatever, that would be a good name.
WaterGirl
Speaking of which, has anyone heard from jacy? I keep wondering how she’s doing. Jacy, if you’re lurking, I hope you are doing okay.
Frankensteinbeck
@WaterGirl:
I was about to email her and find out. I’ll do it now, before I go back to sleep for this cold.
WaterGirl
@Frankensteinbeck: Be sure to tell her that we are sending her love and good wishes from BJ.
P.S. So glad you are getting in touch with her!
satby
@ruemara: Linky, please? I can share it.
WaterGirl
@Violet: What a great idea for the lines for men and dogs. Go Violet!
shell
The 5th Avenue Easter parade has picked up a bit these past few years. And here in Jersey, Asbury Park has it’s own little fashion parade.
satby
@Violet: Well, you made a lot of good suggestions I acted on, but the shop name ship has sailed. It’s a hassle to change, and I have too much “stuff” out there with the old name. My son wants me to change the name on the beard oil to something more manly, so I’m making a photo of him into a line drawing and using his picture and name as the name on the oil. I was thinking of doing the same with a picture of Bigs and Maggie for the doggy shampoo.
satby
@WaterGirl: @Frankensteinbeck: Yes, do tell jacy we’re thinking of her!
Ruckus
@Mustang Bobby:
I have a pretty good childhood memory, but I blacked one out completely. One easter, I had to be about 5 or 6 mom dressed me in a pink suit. My lovely sister gave me the pic for xmas about 10 yrs ago. Damn her. Now it’s burned into my retinas for all time. This may have been the start of my wondering what the hell all the religious fuss was about. No just god (or sane woman) would make a small boy dress in all pink, not in the early 50s.
Gin & Tonic
@satby: Tying some threads together here, it appears that Glenn Beck also sells beard oil.
Ruckus
@debbie:
The icing will rot your teeth.
Not to mention in his case the rot has gone to his brain. Not sure how it found it, but there it is.
Kathleen
@NotMax: Yup. That always happens around the holidays. So I watched “Going Clear” on HBO this morning. I cannot recommend it enough. What struck me was Lawrence Wright’s statement that he did not set out to write an expose, but to examine how intelligent people get involved with organizations like Scientology.
Also, too, Anne – you’re lots younger than me but I remember not only keeping the chapel veil handy but also keeping hankies or kleenex, which could also be used in a pinch. Easter was my favorite holiday when I was a young practicing Catholic.
Kathleen
@Baud: Or as I affectionately call him, “Governor Rat Eyes”.
divF
@Mustang Bobby:
I just got back from a week traveling, NYC and Long Island, sitting in the original Peet’s store enjoying by first decent cup of coffee in a while.
You have to get up relatively early to get a parking space here on Sundays. Two of the other corners at this intersection are occupied by a Quaker meeting house and a Mormon church, and the Jewish community center (which has activities on Sunday mornings) is just down the block. The Quakers appear to be doing quite well, they just completed a major renovation and expansion of their facilities.
I find it one of the more delicious ironies that the place that starting the coffee revolution in the US is located across the street from a Mormon church.
germy shoemangler
@Kathleen: I haven’t seen “Going Clear” but last night I saw SNL do a parody commercial. It shows a joyful scientology 1992 rally, and subtitles point to various members to explain what they are doing now: “missing” “missing” “thrown off boat” “lost mind”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOpapeX6Vzs
SuperHrefna
@Ruckus: Was there before or after The Great Pink Shift? In the early part of the 20th C, pink was considered an aggressive, manly color, whereas girls were dressed in calming, docile blue.
Kathleen
@Mustang Bobby: What a wonderful picture! Brings back some nice memories for me. And you are so cute in that picture (I hope that you as a grown man are not insulted that I called you as a small child “cute”). I know my “baby brothers” (46 and 49 respectively cringe slightly when I refer to their baby pictures as cute but daggone it they ARE).
satby
@Gin & Tonic: LOL!!
I doubt our customer base overlaps.
grrljock
@ThresherK (GPad): Cardinals as in the color. Their mascot is a tree.
Violet
@satby: I get it. I wasn’t intending to be critical of the name of your store in any way. I just recalled that the discussion of the name had come up–maybe you mentioned your son talking about it before–and when I saw the “Black Dog Rescue” name I thought it might be a good name for that purpose. The drawings and names of your son and dog sound like a great idea.
satby
@Violet: Didn’t take it critically at all, you’re a sweetie to offer so many suggestions, and I have taken most of them :)
SuperHrefna
@germy shoemangler: I loved that! Not so much a spoof of Going Clear as a summary of it :-)
SuperHrefna
@Gin & Tonic:@satby: If I ever needed beard oil, I would definitely buy from you!!
Kathleen
@Jacks mom: My best to you. A change of this magnitude is never easy. You sound like a very strong, caring person so I’m confident you will enjoy a lot of support, which to me was very important. Happy Easter to you.
Old Dan and Little Ann
My wife and I watched Going Clear last week. It’s always entertaining watching batshit crazy.
Just One More Canuck
@WaterGirl: OT, but I saw the exchange between you and MomSense about jacy earlier this week – did you ever hear anything about how she is doing?
Kathleen
@germy shoemangler: I’ll have to check that out! Thanks!
Suzanne
@WaterGirl: Me too! The news about her health was good, last time I saw her comment, but there was still personal drama. I hope she’ seeing awesome.
@Frankensteinbeck: THX for checking on her!
WaterGirl
@Just One More Canuck: Nope, but happily Frankensteinbeck said this morning that he would email her before he goes back to bed. So hopefully we will know something soon.
Happy Easter everyone!
Ruckus
@SuperHrefna:
Pink a manly color? Never heard of that. But then for me fashion is a clean tee shirt and levis. I do own a suit but haven’t worn it in over 10 yrs. I wore the tux I owned more often but that was because of a yearly work awards banquet I had to attend and occasionally speak at. As I grew up in the 50s and 60s the color of men’s suits was normally black, dark blue or brown, ties were not colorful and shirts were white.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: That’s good news, I hadn’t seen anything from jacy since right after she started chemo.
Kathleen
@germy shoemangler: That was really good. The writers had to have watched the documentary because they nailed it.
Just One More Canuck
@WaterGirl: Thanks – I’ll keep an eye out for Frankensteinbeck’s update (thanks to him as well)
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: Maybe the pink suit was all part of what made you the great guy that you are.
rikyrah
@Jacks mom:
Sorry Jacks mom. Hope you let your family help you through it.
germy shoemangler
@Kathleen: I was approached by scientologists in 1978. They invited me inside to take a “personality test” and then told me I could improve my life 100% by joining. I politely declined.
This was the era when every time I’d visit a park, I’d have a representative of Rev. Moon approach me.
What was it about the ’70s?
tazj
@Jacks mom: Though I’m an infrequent poster, I felt the need to respond to your post. My own mom is in the later stages of dementia and I know how hard that alone is. Enjoy your family and puppy. Happy Easter.
WaterGirl
In case anyone is wondering, it’s really important to press START on your bread machine when you are making the dough for the dinner rolls for easter dinner.
I checked in on the dough after 30 minutes and discovered I had neglected that all important step. sigh
germy shoemangler
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN is a scientologist??
WereBear
@germy shoemangler: It would explain so so much.
Betty Cracker
@germy shoemangler: I read an autobiography by Lauren Bacall once, and she and Bogart were great friends of EGR. In fact, EGR walked LB down the aisle at their wedding. According to LB, she was fussing with her hair and outfit in the ladies’ room when the wedding was supposed to start, and when the music began, EGR yelled something like “Hold up a minute! She’s still in da can!” And all the guests cracked up!
Keith G
@WereBear: I was thinking just the opposite.
She should sue to get her money back. The auditing did not work. She most definitely is not ‘Clear’.
germy shoemangler
@Betty Cracker: In the 1940s Lauren & Bogart were living in the fabled “Garden of Allah” apartments in Hollywood. I’ve seen photos of the place, and it was 1920s beautiful.
I think it was torn down sometime in the late ’50s for a parking lot.
Mustang Bobby
Meanwhile over in Jesusville, Ross Douthat is having a very Easter strawman festival wherein he interviews himself about the Indiana RFRA. Guess which side he comes down on.
Shorter version: “I don’t speak for all Christians, but they should listen to me because I know best and I stand up for sniveling bigots.”
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
That was worth a hearty laugh.
But then…….. From a post yesterday, my basic thoughts from a lot of studying I’ve done and some research germy shoemangler pointed out, a lot of our experiences are/can be imprinted on our DNA even if it doesn’t become a part of it. As we are really just living chemistry sets, changing/upsetting some components even in minor ways can have lasting effects, not only for us but for our offspring.
Jacks mom
Just got back from showering mom. Thank you all so much for the kind words and good thoughts headed my way.
This is going to be a very painful time but I do have a wonderful family and a lot of good friends.
No regrets. I got two wonderful sons out of the deal & I’m just going to try to concentrate on the good stuff.
Citizen Alan
@debbie:
Since American Christianity has been almost wholly subsumed by the worship of Mammon,
Ruckus
@Jacks mom:
Sorry about your situation. Sounds like a great attitude you have, look for the good.
My folks divorced after 36 yrs. In our case we kids wondered why it took them so long, it really wasn’t much of a surprise. They were both better off for it.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: I thought that discussion yesterday was really interesting; maybe that subconsciously helped form my previous comment. Also, I was thinking the other day (as we were talking about what’s important in life, and our attitudes about work, etc) that I really liked what you were saying. So that played into it, too.
WereBear
@Jacks mom: I’m so sorry about that.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Jacks mom:
Everyone else has already given you good advice, so my only bit is to say you should go do all of those things you weren’t doing because your spouse didn’t enjoy them. Go to museums, watch movies you know he wouldn’t like, go places he wasn’t interested in but sounded cool to you, start a new hobby that you were putting off. Take time to mourn the relationship, but also take advantage of your new free time.
MattF
@Mustang Bobby: Douthat and Brooks both present themselves as thoughtful conservatives and both end up defending bigotry. A coincidence. I guess, given the old saying (“Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, third time is enemy action”) we need to wait for the opinion of a third thoughtful conservative.
Citizen Alan
Just got back from Easter services with my Mom. (I used to go on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, but since my Dad died two years ago, I added Easter to my twice-a-year filial duties.) Anyway, three minutes into the sermon, the preacher reminds me why I find it hard to take Christianity seriously.
First of all, he talks about some prophecy from the book of Jonah that supposedly predicts that the Messiah will lay in the grave for three days and three nights before rising. Then, he points out that Jesus was put in his tomb at dusk on Friday and arose at dawn on Sunday. BAM! Absolute fulfillment of prophecy. The fact that this means Jesus was only dead for two nights and one day was absolutely ignored.
He also went on a tangent about Michael Bloomberg wrongly believing that he would get into heaven on the basis of his good works without mentioning that Bloomberg is Jewish which I thought was weird but strangely typical of Baptist theology.
Kathleen
@germy shoemangler: We were all trying to “find ourselves”. Not that that’s a bad thing. I made some questionable choices myself in the quest for understanding of self, so I could identify with what the people in the doc were saying. I just have too much of an independent streak to actually join a formal structure.
Ruckus
@MattF:
You can find THREE thoughtful conservatives? Today? Or are you expecting a very long wait?
BTW, you do understand that you have to actually find the first two thoughtful conservatives before you can count them?
Thinking that it is so difficult to type with your tongue putting that much pressure on your cheek.
ETA I do realize that they are calling themselves thoughtful conservatives. They may be as thoughtful as it gets. That ought to set your hair on fire.
WereBear
@Violet: Seconded!
Violet has great ideas.
Battled two viruses at once this week. Finally feeling like I will eventually win.
germy shoemangler
@Citizen Alan: God created the universe in six days and was arrested on the seventh.
– ambrose bierce
WereBear
@Frankensteinbeck: Thanks for doing that. Add me on the Karma bench rooting for her and Jacksmom.
It’s one of the rottenest things to have happen. But, in the end, also one of the most survivable.
Ruckus
@germy shoemangler:
What was it about the ’70s?
The drugs?
MattF
@Ruckus: Well, yes. I was thinking this morning, after noting that Geraldo Rivera had said that Donald Trump was the most important developer in NYC, that we need a term for a sentence in which every word has air quotes.
germy shoemangler
@Ruckus: But the moonies and the scientologists were anti-drug.
I’d be sitting in the park, stoned, and a moonie would approach me with his jeebus talk, and I’d stare at him like a lizard staring at a tap dancer.
John M. Burt
@Jacks mom: So sorry to hear that. I join with others in hoping things look better for you soon, but that is not, alas, likely to reduce the pain you are feeling right now.
I was on the wrong side of that story a few years ago. One of the great blessings of my life is that my sweetie was willing to risk excruciating humiliation to ask me to come back. Another great blessing is that I was (belatedly) smart enough to take her up on her offer.
That’s not the best option for everyone (I’m still not sure it was the best option for her), but I hope the best comes to you in some form.
Regarding your mother, I helped my father in his last years, and while I am glad I did, I am aware that I suffered for it. Take care of yourself.
As Mustang Bobby would say, I’ll be holding you in the Light.
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: My first book went online four years ago, and is not doing well. I’ve been thinking about setting up a Kickstarter to gather funds for a print edition, and now my second book is about ready to go. I’d like to discuss options with some knowledgeable person such as you and/or Major Major Major Major
@Anne Laurie: One of the more visible minority groups in the mid-Willamette Valley are Mennonites, who are conspicuous by the chapel caps worn by the women at all times.
@Fred Astaire: A friend of the family wrote a memoir awhile back in which his child-self observed wistfully that men’s hats never have ribbons or bows, except for dark brown ribbons and plain flat bows.
WereBear
I have come to the belief that the ’60’s cracked the world to its foundations. The world split in half.
Some went forward into the future. Some ran screaming back into the past.
Look at what has changed. So much of it is for the better.
Ruckus
@germy shoemangler:
That reaction to a moonie is the most appropriate.
The addiction is there, the drug is just different. Amazing that moonies are nowhere and scientology is stronger than ever. A grift of epic proportions. It turns out that L. Ron could write fiction.
Amir Khalid
@MattF:
The great New York Times columnist Russell Baker once distinguished between seriousness and solemnity, the mere appearance of seriousness. With his colleagues Brooks and Douthat, some similar distinction needs to be made between thoughtfulness and the mere appearance thereof that they present.
Douthat, in particular, knows (and understands) less about Christianity than he realises. A few years ago, he published a book about modern Christianity. Its reviewer in The New York Times had many harsh things to say — well, harsh by Times standards — about Chunky’s poor grasp of facts and logic.