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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Monday Morning Open Thread

Monday Morning Open Thread

by Betty Cracker|  May 11, 20158:07 am| 105 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads

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delighted

The illustration above is from a whimsical notepaper set I gave my mom a few years back. She wasn’t Martyr Mom and neither am I, but I thought it was a good post-Mothers’ Day illustration.

I need to clear up a misconception that arose from a comment I made Friday. I mentioned that we were in a 5K this weekend, and that’s true – the mister and I were in a 5K event to raise money for a schoolmate of our daughter’s, who was injured in a car accident.

But we’re not runners! It was a 5K “run-walk,” and we were decidedly in the latter category, although we did finish ahead of a large pack of moms pushing strollers and at least one high schooler in a knee brace. We don’t run unless the ice cream truck is getting away.

Open thread!

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Previous Post: « Sunday Evening Open Thread: Daydream Believer
Next Post: Pediatrics and low actuarial value insurance »

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    May 11, 2015 at 8:09 am

    I told my bride I was glad all this hoopla about Mother’s Day was over and she informed me that the last time she saw her mother was on Mother’s Day.

  2. 2.

    Central Planning

    May 11, 2015 at 8:11 am

    We don’t run unless the ice cream truck is getting away.

    The fastest I’ve ever seen my kids run is when the icecream truck is just past our house. Usain Bolt speeds.

  3. 3.

    Randy P

    May 11, 2015 at 8:15 am

    I am a train commuter. This means I am frequently running through the station when train #1 is 9.9 minutes late for the 10 minute connection to train #2.

    And I have an Achilles’ tendon issue which means I really shouldn’t be running.

  4. 4.

    JPL

    May 11, 2015 at 8:15 am

    Yard waste pickup is today and my sons did such a good job yesterday, the collection crew will be busy. In my next life, I’m moving to a condo.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    May 11, 2015 at 8:16 am

    @raven: Wow.

    Hey, how was the helicopter gunship ride?

  6. 6.

    Eric U.

    May 11, 2015 at 8:17 am

    I successfully avoided any ice cream truck related activities during my children’s early years. I had a neighbor that had her daughter convinced that it was the “music truck,” and I thought that was a good idea. Not sure we really have an ice cream truck in this area anyway.

  7. 7.

    Cervantes

    May 11, 2015 at 8:18 am

    “Being delighted to put my needs last again” — does the delight take it beyond altruism? — and is this something only mothers do, and only for their children?

    What about fathers?

    And what is the effect on the children?

    Or is it just that certain kinds of people are able (or doomed) to behaving that way, and not only for their children?

    Pay no attention, just thinking aloud here.

  8. 8.

    PurpleGirl

    May 11, 2015 at 8:22 am

    Watching the Margaret Rutherford mini-marathon on TCM. Maybe because I grew up watching them, she is Miss Marple in a way that the modern actresses just aren’t Miss Marple. Haven’t read many of the Agatha Christie novels,btw.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    May 11, 2015 at 8:23 am

    I’m waiting for the first 5K Hoverround race.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    May 11, 2015 at 8:25 am

    When my youngest boxer dog was a puppy, she would howl when the ice cream truck passed, and it was the cutest thing ever. I guess the noise hurt her ears. Now it doesn’t seem to bother her, but we still try to get her to howl.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    May 11, 2015 at 8:25 am

    @Baud: Impractical. The organizers would have to set up charging stations along the route.

  12. 12.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 11, 2015 at 8:27 am

    @Baud: It’ll be in FLA for sure.

  13. 13.

    PurpleGirl

    May 11, 2015 at 8:28 am

    @PurpleGirl: Also, they are perfect movies for when you are puttering around the house doing miscellaneous chores.

  14. 14.

    raven

    May 11, 2015 at 8:32 am

    @Betty Cracker: Yea, I stepped on it again. I’m working on the video of the ride but it was incredible. We did a couple of runs on a target that involved going in on a deep dive at about 175, pulling up, flipping and then hitting it again. I didn’t get sick but it was close. Even working on the video makes me a bit woozy. I think maybe these damn antibiotics for the cut are impacting me.

  15. 15.

    Betty

    May 11, 2015 at 8:32 am

    @Cervantes: You have a point. Some ladies in our family seem to overdo things and then expect others to feel sorry for them or praise them when it’s obvious they have made the choice – or, as you suggested, are constitutionally incapable of sharing the load with other family members. Maybe it’s a situation of being socialized to believe they have to behave this way. It can be annoying though.

  16. 16.

    MattF

    May 11, 2015 at 8:33 am

    A few millennia late in internet-time, but the NYT has discovered Florida Man.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 11, 2015 at 8:34 am

    My ex finally got out of prison a couple weeks ago. Would not surprise me in the least if it wasn’t the worst Mothers Day my oldest has had in years.

  18. 18.

    PurpleGirl

    May 11, 2015 at 8:34 am

    @Cervantes: No, it’s something that women were taught for many, many years.

    In my Mother’s case, it was putting her husband before everything, even the children. (Her first husband killed himself and when she married a second time, she reverted to being the perfect wife and providing for my Father’s every need. For example, speech therapy for me interfered with cooking his dinner and having it on the table at 6 PM sharp, as did ballet classes for me. So speech therapy and ballet classes were stopped. )

  19. 19.

    Hal

    May 11, 2015 at 8:35 am

    Why aids/hiv is still so prevalent in Africa and how it became epidemic in the first place.

    http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category.php/features/86206

    One of the most troubling things about the AIDS epidemic is that it could have been stopped so easily by rolling out life-saving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) early on. Not only do ARVs prevent HIV from developing into AIDS, they also reduce transmission rates and increase people’s willingness to get tested.

    But Western pharmaceutical corporations have colluded in pricing these essential drugs way out of reach of the poor. When they were first introduced, patented ARVs cost up to $15,000 per yearly regimen. Generic producers were able to manufacture the same drugs for a mere fraction of the price, but the WTO outlawed this through the 1995 TRIPS agreement to protect Big Pharma’s monopoly.

    It was not until 2003 that the WTO bowed to activist pressure and allowed southern Africa to import generics, but by then it was too late – HIV prevalence had already reached devastating proportions. In other words, much of the region’s AIDS burden can be directly attributed to the WTO’s rules and the corporations that defended them. And they are set to strike again: the WTO will cut patent exemptions for poor countries after 2016.

    This dearth of basic drugs has gone hand in hand with the general collapse of public health institutions. Structural adjustment and WTO trade policies have forced states to cut spending on hospitals and staff in order to repay odious debts to the West. Swaziland, ground-zero in the world of AIDS, has been hit hard by these cuts. When I last visited I found that many once-bustling clinics are now empty and dilapidated. Neoliberalism has systematically destroyed the first line of defence against AIDS.

    The point I want to drive home is that the policies that deny poor people access to life-saving drugs and destroy public healthcare come from the same institutions and interests that helped create the conditions for HIV transmission in the first place.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    May 11, 2015 at 8:36 am

    @raven: OMG, it dove and flipped? Kudos to you for keeping your breakfast down! I thought they were just taking you for a nice little sight-seeing tour! Presumably you knew in advance it was going to be a performance run?

  21. 21.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 11, 2015 at 8:36 am

    Watched Parrot Confidential on NATURE. Some of it was heartbreaking. Parrots grieving for their deceased owners, self-mutilating out of boredom or loneliness.

    One parrot was identifying colors on different objects, proving that they are not simply “parroting” what humans say.

    It was beautiful at the end to see a parrot released into a sanctuary. No more cage.

  22. 22.

    donnah

    May 11, 2015 at 8:37 am

    I like your thinkin’ Ms Betty!

    We also told the kids that the ice cream truck was a music truck when they were very young. But they figured it out later. We still didn’t let them buy from the truck, tho.

    (Begin old person rant) When we were kids, Mr Softee trucks circled the neighborhoods with soft ice cream machines on board, and the cones were delicious. Now there are people in questionable-looking trucks who wheel around selling packaged ice cream novelties. It’s just safer and cheaper to stock the freezer.

  23. 23.

    SuperHrefna

    May 11, 2015 at 8:44 am

    When I was little in the UK not many people had freezers at home, so the ice cream van was a big event. I have a lot of happy memories of hearing the music and running out into the street to get my ice cream :-) There wasn’t that much traffic then either, and outdoor toilets were common on my street. And before you ask, no, it wasn’t back in the dark ages, this was the 1970s

  24. 24.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 11, 2015 at 8:45 am

    @donnah: And when I was a child, the truck made a soft, pleasant musical tinkle. Now it’s a loud electronic whine, like something you’d expect to hear from Orwell’s ministry of love.

  25. 25.

    Botsplainer

    May 11, 2015 at 8:45 am

    Leftist oldies icon Sy Hersh is mouthfarting anonymous sources again.

    Ironically, anybody young enough to be “in the know” says “Sy Who??”

  26. 26.

    raven

    May 11, 2015 at 8:46 am

    @Betty Cracker: Well, I knew it was a 10-14 minute flight and I figured these pilots want to give you the full deal if you look like you can hack it. I told him I hadn’t been up in 46 years and he said, “awright, let’s get it”! The folks that wanted to sightsee could take the $60 Huey ride, this sucker was $500!

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    May 11, 2015 at 8:48 am

    @donnah: Yeah, the ice cream trucks around here sell awful crap, and often the seller looks like a child molester who escaped from jail via a sewer pipe. Hmmm. The artisan food truck craze seems to have left ice cream out. I see a market opportunity for an enterprising person…

  28. 28.

    El Caganer

    May 11, 2015 at 8:49 am

    Looks like The Hill has chosen to sensationalize Hersh’s Osama bin Laden piece in London Review of Books (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n10/seymour-m-hersh/the-killing-of-osama-bin-laden). Even if everything claimed is correct, I don’t know what difference it makes.

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    May 11, 2015 at 8:50 am

    @PurpleGirl

    Rutherford played it with a balance of sly wit, innate intelligence and a bulldog persistence to never compromise propriety.

    Have mentioned this before, but all of the Miss Marple outfits in actuality came from Rutherford’s own wardrobe. The reason was that, due to Rutherford’s age, the costs of insuring the first of the films was much higher than expected so the budget had to be trimmed someplace to accommodate that. Once the precedent had been set in that first film, the practice continued.

    BTW, the town librarian was played by Rutherford’s husband, actor Stringer Davis.

  30. 30.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 11, 2015 at 8:51 am

    @donnah:

    Now there are people in questionable-looking trucks

    And nowadays some of the people are questionable-looking. A few years ago in my neck of the woods there was a news item about an ugly feud between competing icecream trucks. One tried to ram the other. There was cursing and harassment. They were ordered to keep a certain distance from each other.

    I remember about thirty years ago when I worked in a small office park. An ice cream truck came around every day at noon. A young lady in a bathing suit. She was smart; made a ton of money from all the guys lining up for her smile. The office ladies would stand off to one side and make comments.

    After that summer, all the office guys had gained about ten pounds. And the ice cream girl had enough money for clothes.

  31. 31.

    PurpleGirl

    May 11, 2015 at 8:51 am

    @Germy Shoemangler: My friends in Peekskill with all the dogs also had two parrots. Because parrots can live longer than humans, they had to make provisions in their wills for the parrots. I would go to their place to watch all the animals for their vacations and business trips because most vets will not board parrots. I did a lot of pet/house sitting.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    May 11, 2015 at 8:53 am

    @Betty Cracker

    Seem to dimly recall some brouhaha over independent ice cream trucks versus the usual company fleets somewhere in upstate New York, maybe a year or two ago.

  33. 33.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 11, 2015 at 8:53 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    often the seller looks like a child molester who escaped from jail via a sewer pipe.

    Yes, that’s exactly my impression. Cigarettes, neck tattoos… they remind me of the guy who didn’t secure my child’s safety harness in the ferris wheel. I had to do it myself before we started the ride.

    And he was on to the next town the next day.

  34. 34.

    Botsplainer

    May 11, 2015 at 8:55 am

    @El Caganer:

    I’m just trying to figure out why Hersh continues to claim these deep ties despite being about a thousand year old has been, desperate to reclaim his forever-lost relevance.

    In modern society, people young enough to know things don’t feel the same need for anonymity as people did 50 years ago. That’s what exposes his current reportage as made up bullshit.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    May 11, 2015 at 8:58 am

    @Germy Shoemangler

    Used to be a ditzy woman here (also a perennial candidate for County Council, who eventually did get manage to get elected once) who made a living making and selling homemade popsicles.

    She would haunt the beaches, lugging a cooler, and approach the unsuspecting with the greeting “Want a party in your mouth?”

  36. 36.

    Cervantes

    May 11, 2015 at 8:58 am

    @Botsplainer:

    Have you read Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib?

  37. 37.

    debbie

    May 11, 2015 at 8:59 am

    Is there no one here to gush over Wolf Hall with me???

  38. 38.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 11, 2015 at 9:01 am

    @debbie: I have not seen episodes but I will say this: I saw a commercial for it, and every shot looks like an oil painting. It looks exquisite.

  39. 39.

    ThresherK

    May 11, 2015 at 9:04 am

    @Betty Cracker: He may not look it on the outside, but the ice cream truck guy from Moralton, has this in spades.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    May 11, 2015 at 9:05 am

    @debbie: I haven’t seen last night’s episode yet. Will probably catch up this evening.

  41. 41.

    MattF

    May 11, 2015 at 9:06 am

    @Botsplainer: My problem with Hersh is that crashing the party and upsetting conventional wisdom is (and has always been) his job– so he ends up, inevitably, with credibility problems. Long, controversial narratives from single ‘insider’ anonymous sources are just not my cup of tea.

  42. 42.

    El Caganer

    May 11, 2015 at 9:10 am

    @Botsplainer: I can believe in the existence of sources who don’t want to be identified (I’m sure Chelsea Manning would have liked to have been one), but a whole piece full of unidentified sources starts to stretch it a little. I guess what surprises me most is the totally breathless revelation of A MAJOR COVERUP – OBAMA LIED – ETC. tone to the whole thing. It doesn’t make any difference to me if events over there didn’t happen exactly as reported. It sure as shit doesn’t make any difference to bin Laden.

  43. 43.

    debbie

    May 11, 2015 at 9:12 am

    @Cervantes:

    It looks exquisite.

    Everything about it was exactly that, down to the score. This is the first series I’ve like as much as I liked Brideshead Revisited (which I’m still a freak for).

    I still wish they’d have waited for the third book to come out so it could be the full story of Cromwell.

  44. 44.

    NorthLeft12

    May 11, 2015 at 9:13 am

    We don’t run unless the ice cream truck is getting away.

    That is one of the reasons I always carry a “chuck-it” doggie ball with me when I take my chocolate lab [Gus] on a summer walk. Ice cream trucks stop relatively quickly after being struck by a harmless projectile.

    Although sadly, I do not see too many ice cream vendors around the neighbourhood any more. The last time I heard those chimes I bolted from the dinner table, grabbed my wallet on the way out the door, and came in a distant ninth to the athletic children and younger parents who beat me to the truck.

  45. 45.

    Betty Cracker

    May 11, 2015 at 9:23 am

    @Botsplainer:

    In modern society, people young enough to know things don’t feel the same need for anonymity as people did 50 years ago.

    Really? Even in spy vs. spy situations? I can easily understand why Pakistani intelligence officials wouldn’t want it known they gave up bin Laden — the prospect that fanatics might decide to cut their heads off could be a motivating factor — and US officials could have their careers ruined or even face jail time for spilling the beans.

    I think you’re right that young people in general have fewer expectations about privacy in the information age, but investigative reporting about intelligence services is always going to involve anonymous sources, whether the reporter is an old fart or not.

  46. 46.

    Gene108

    May 11, 2015 at 9:26 am

    @El Caganer:

    I tried reading the whole article, but got lost part way through. It does not nail anything down and just raises some questions, which may end up having more blow back in Pakistan than here, if the Pakistani media cares to pick up on it.

  47. 47.

    Keith G

    May 11, 2015 at 9:29 am

    @Cervantes: I am old enough to have parents born before the Great Depression and the one Grandmother that I knew (and deeply loved) was born in the 1890s.

    ‘Family first’ was the currency of the realm.

    does the delight take it beyond altruism?

    It was about fulfilling an identity and feeling good about having success in the role one was given to play (as well as the benefits accrued from that success). I imagine the complexity and arduousness of the task was problably very stifling to some, but others seem to have taken it on as a mission left to them to do well.

    What about fathers?

    I grew up in a rural community and my maternal ancestors were all involved in the rough life surrounding agricultural work. Speaking of none but them, the older males sacrificed quite a bit, including in a few actual cases life and limb.

  48. 48.

    rikyrah

    May 11, 2015 at 9:30 am

    The Cast of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in Vanity Fair Magazine

    Posted on May 08, 2015

    Fanboy and Fangirl salivating may now commence. Drink it all in, nerds

    http://tomandlorenzo.com/2015/05/the-cast-of-star-wars-the-force-awakens-in-vanity-fair-magazine/

  49. 49.

    MattF

    May 11, 2015 at 9:31 am

    @Gene108: I’d expect that, on the Pakistani side, people will just accuse US intellligence agencies of planting negative stories about anyone who gets in their way. Which, of course, could be true.

  50. 50.

    SuperHrefna

    May 11, 2015 at 9:31 am

    Trying to decide whether to buy one of these combination tomato/ potato plants. I wanted one so much last year when they were only available in the UK! But $20 is a lot. http://www.territorialseed.com/product/17284/new_for_spring_2015

  51. 51.

    Paul in KY

    May 11, 2015 at 9:31 am

    @Germy Shoemangler: Can you imagine driving around all day listening to that?! They have to have ear plugs.

  52. 52.

    Punchy

    May 11, 2015 at 9:32 am

    Does anyone know….has Ben Carson been in politics in any fashion before? I know he’s never been a US Sen. or Rep, but has he served in state politics? Mayor or city councilman? Anything?

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    May 11, 2015 at 9:35 am

    @rikyrah: I am ridiculously excited about it! December can’t get here quick enough.

  54. 54.

    MattF

    May 11, 2015 at 9:37 am

    @Punchy: Not in Maryland politics, AFAIK.

  55. 55.

    Hal

    May 11, 2015 at 9:37 am

    Oh look. Jeb says he would have authorized the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That should automatically disqualify him for the presidency, but it won’t. Someone should ask him if he would have lied about the reasons to invade Iraq like his brother did.

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    May 11, 2015 at 9:38 am

    For all those who worry about the “creepy looking guy selling ice cream in dodgy looking trucks”….. Wow. Just wow. Crossing to the other side of any streets lately? Getting nervous about the youths walking behind you?

    Meanwhile you have no problems at all with leaving your child with nice Uncle Jerry. You also probably wouldn’t have any problem being in the same room with a mass murderer like the CEO of RJ Reynolds because he is wearing a $2000 suit.

  57. 57.

    MattF

    May 11, 2015 at 9:43 am

    @Hal: Has Cheney offered to ‘help’ him choose a VP?

  58. 58.

    PurpleGirl

    May 11, 2015 at 9:47 am

    @Punchy: Nope, his career has all been spent in medicine — being a neurosurgeon and in administrative roles at Johns Hopkins. I guess, after he retired, he looked around for something to do and the Rs settled on him because he’s a successful black man.

  59. 59.

    BlueNC

    May 11, 2015 at 9:54 am

    @El Caganer:
    Let’s assume the story is completely true. I can think of LOTS of reasons to cover up the involvement of the Pakistanis. The obvious one would be that they demanded it as a condition of their participation.

    So, Obama lied about their involvement at their request. Who cares??

  60. 60.

    El Caganer

    May 11, 2015 at 10:06 am

    @BlueNC: Sure – there are as many possible wrinkles in this story as there are players. How much difference does it make at the end of the day?

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    May 11, 2015 at 10:12 am

    @BlueNC: I haven’t read the story and have no idea whether or not it’s true, but I can think of reasons it might be important. For example, the military-industrial complex and government surveillance organizations demand billions of dollars in funding every year and the right to collect data. If they blew planeloads of taxpayer money and needlessly invaded people’s privacy on a decade’s worth of wild goose chases and were only able to catch bin Laden because the Pakistanis ratted him out, that might factor into the cost-benefit analysis when evaluating those programs going forward.

  62. 62.

    Botsplainer

    May 11, 2015 at 10:18 am

    @Cervantes:

    Why would I want to? Breathless oldsters telling us that “some guy” in Dick Cheney’s generation told them something (but can’t say who, because reasons) don’t inspire me with confidence in accuracy.

    I’ll go as far as saying I hold him in the same contempt as I do Chomsky, that endless inspirer of “WHOA” at Rawstory.

  63. 63.

    gogol's wife

    May 11, 2015 at 10:19 am

    @debbie:

    It’s always just you and me, and maybe Omnes. I had Tudor dreams all night. What an amazing production! Foy was so brilliant in her last scenes.

  64. 64.

    debbie

    May 11, 2015 at 10:40 am

    @gogol’s wife:

    It’s always just you and me, and maybe Omnes.

    Sadly true. Was Damien Lewis able to redeem himself in your eyes?

    I’m going to be more mindful of the dirtiness of politics. Beheadings aside, it was a whole lot tougher back then. I’d bet even Cheney would have crumbled.

  65. 65.

    J R in WV

    May 11, 2015 at 10:44 am

    @Keith G:

    This. My grandfather spoke Switzerdeutch until he started school. Then he became an orphan at about age 8, was turned out by a stepfather, and found a job on a nearby farm. Then he was harvesting nuts one fall, age 13, and fell from the hickory tree he was shaking nuts down from.

    His thigh was badly fractured and poorly set. When they broke it again to set it correctly, gangrene set in and he lost the leg at his hip. Then he went to an Ohio county home, where they taught him to hand set type, as this was before typesetting machines were invented.

    Many years later he was a successful business man running as many as 4 newspapers. We lived next door, and I frequently helped him with the few tasks you can’t do with one leg, wheelbarrow work for one. He was a kind and gentle man, and very strong, as he would walk anywhere on his crutches.

    When I walked to school in the very early morning, when there was a skiff of snow I would see his footprints going down the hill. A pair of parenthesis and then a footprint, all the way down. Of course you bear your weight on your arms and shoulders when walking with crutches, so you get some upper body strength.

    Life was hard even back in the 1950 and 60s, leave alone the 1900s. Hell, nothing easy about it today for so many.

    What is this Wolf Hall production some talk about? a TV show I suppose, but what about it I mean?

  66. 66.

    BlueNC

    May 11, 2015 at 10:45 am

    @Betty Cracker: Makes sense.

    Side note: This would not be the first time that the US had more cooperation than the countries involved admitted to.

  67. 67.

    gogol's wife

    May 11, 2015 at 10:47 am

    @debbie:

    I’d say that Lewis was the major flaw in the production for me. He was good at conveying Henry’s scariness, but the charisma and charm that are present in the book’s depiction are just not there at all. I also miss the warmth of Cromwell’s home life and relationship with the young men in his household, but I understand they didn’t want to drag it out.

  68. 68.

    Cervantes

    May 11, 2015 at 10:54 am

    @Botsplainer:

    Why would I want to?

    When you make sounds about someone’s “forever-lost relevance,” and yet haven’t kept up on what he’s been writing … well, it raises questions.

  69. 69.

    Cervantes

    May 11, 2015 at 10:58 am

    @Hal:

    Someone should ask him if he would have lied about the reasons to invade Iraq like his brother did.

    If he grants an interview to Amy Goodman, say, or Sy Hersh, then we may have him!

  70. 70.

    Birthmarker

    May 11, 2015 at 11:00 am

    @PurpleGirl: This is interesting because in my own household I tended to prioritize the adults’ work schedules over kid activities. (And yes, I considered an at least half way organized dinner at night to be part of this.) I felt first and foremost, the financial living must be made. Kid “nonsense” was not allowed to interfere with the adults getting out to work on time. This sounds cold as written here, but fortunately we were able to juggle both adult needs and kid needs pretty well most of the time.

    Recently both our adult kids expressed to us their appreciation for our maintenance of a reasonably calm home life, (unlike the homes of some of their friends,) and said that they felt we gave them the freedom to make their own decisions rather than trying to ram our viewpoints down their throats.

  71. 71.

    Botsplainer

    May 11, 2015 at 11:00 am

    @Cervantes:

    My disdain is excessive anonymity and goofy conclusions – that’s why I refuse to bother anymore.

  72. 72.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 11, 2015 at 11:04 am

    WASHINGTON — Many people in the United States doubt that the Supreme Court can rule fairly in the latest litigation jeopardizing President Barack Obama’s health care law.

    The Associated Press-GfK poll finds only 1 person in 10 is highly confident that the justices will rely on objective interpretations of the law rather than their personal opinions. Nearly half, 48 percent, are not confident of the court’s impartiality.

    “That lawsuit should have never made it this far,” said Hal Lewis, a retiree from Scranton, Pennsylvania.

  73. 73.

    the Conster

    May 11, 2015 at 11:05 am

    @debbie:

    Amazing. Can’t stop thinking about it. Costumes, sets, music, lighting, settings – and then the acting. The acting!!!

    Left a comment in previous threads about it too, so add me to the BJ Wolf Hall fan club.

  74. 74.

    WereBear

    May 11, 2015 at 11:10 am

    @Birthmarker: I don’t consider speech therapy to be a kid’s “activity.”

  75. 75.

    El Caganer

    May 11, 2015 at 11:10 am

    @Botsplainer: Hm. I find his conclusions in the LRB piece to be quite possible – it’s just that they don’t interest me. It wasn’t any secret that we were going to nail bin Laden if we got the opportunity, and it should have been easy to assume we weren’t going to be very scrupulous about it. The whole who-did-what-who-knew-what is probably, as Ms. Cracker says, of more interest to the Pakistanis.

  76. 76.

    gogol's wife

    May 11, 2015 at 11:10 am

    @the Conster:

    Yes, we’re a small but enthusiastic group!

  77. 77.

    gogol's wife

    May 11, 2015 at 11:11 am

    @the Conster:

    I actually ordered the sound track, although I’m sure it will just be that lute riff over and over. But I love it!

    ETA: I asked a friend of mine who’s a lutenist (jokingly) whether he was on the soundtrack, and he said ruefully, “No, but that is a great gig.”

  78. 78.

    the Conster

    May 11, 2015 at 11:16 am

    @gogol’s wife:

    Mark Rylance is a revelation. A REVELATION. I guess he’s considered the finest actor of his generation in the UK, but I’d never heard of him, and certainly never seen him before, because he doesn’t do movies or TV. Now I’m obsessed with him. He carried the whole series with the look in his eyes, and the few words he spoke, without emoting except that once with the tear for Wolsey and the crossed wrists for Henry. A remarkable, astonishing performance.

  79. 79.

    gogol's wife

    May 11, 2015 at 11:20 am

    @the Conster:

    I’m obsessed with him too! There’s some of him on YouTube (particularly a performance of the “band of brothers” speech from Henry V). A friend of mine was in London recently, and he was telling me excitedly that when he was in the lobby of a theater, Rylance came down the stairs. I couldn’t figure out why he was so excited. Now I know!

  80. 80.

    gogol's wife

    May 11, 2015 at 11:22 am

    @the Conster:

    But I guess he’s a Shakespeare truther (i.e., Shakespeare didn’t write the plays). I guess all great artists have their quirks.

    https://doubtaboutwill.org/declaration

  81. 81.

    the Conster

    May 11, 2015 at 11:31 am

    @gogol’s wife:

    One of the recaps I read filled in what my thoughts were about that last scene – how Henry’s hug was filmed, with Cromwell’s body-less head floating on Henry’s ermine. All presaging of course, with the close up of his eyes revealing that his fate would likely be the same with Henry being Henry, which of course we all know was, but still, I can’t stop thinking about how fraught that look was – a coming reckoning. Really, just remarkable.

  82. 82.

    boatboy_srq

    May 11, 2015 at 11:31 am

    @Betty Cracker: DC is already feeling the Sequester Slump (the District’s equivalent of the Great Recession, which for reasons directly attributable to the build-up in contracting for military-security-intelligence alphabet soup and the drawdown the Sequester enforced unknown lagged the national pattern by about four years). Property valuations are leveling off, real estate sales are starting to feel the pinch and employment (which was going like the clappers until a couple years ago) is sagging. Naturally, despite the nationwide improvement, this is beginning to lead Beltway VSPs to complain that the recovery is “stalling” and that new tax cuts are required to reverse the trend. Keeping mum about all the $$s wasted in DHS “intelligence” is probably high on the priorities of anyone in DHS or DoD, because they lose all those juicy contracts, and high on the priorities of SAIC, CSC, Lockheed and other contractors becoming dependent on sweet DHS cash.

  83. 83.

    Betty Cracker

    May 11, 2015 at 11:31 am

    @the Conster: Rylance is fantastic! I haven’t seen the final episode yet (though of course I know what happens), but you’ve described his ability to convey emotion well. Not a jot of overacting — he simply inhabits the role.

  84. 84.

    Cervantes

    May 11, 2015 at 11:38 am

    @Botsplainer:

    Hersh’s editors, who have to stand by his work, have generally stood by him as well. You may have heard of the New Yorker’s ferocious fact-checkers. Here’s David Remnick, the editor, commenting on Hersh’s use of sources:

    “I know every single source that is in his pieces,’ Remnick says. To “every ‘retired intelligence officer,’ every general with reason to know, and all those phrases that one has to use, alas, by necessity, I say, ‘Who is it? What’s his interest?’ We talk it through.” The tension between the two men can be acute — “David isn’t always nice to me” sighs Hersh — but both parties are well served by it.

    As for this:

    My disdain is excessive anonymity and goofy conclusions – that’s why I refuse to bother anymore.

    Well, that’s surely up to you. Presumably you know what you’re doing.

  85. 85.

    Bystander

    May 11, 2015 at 11:38 am

    Bumper sticker on car parked in handicap space in NE Pennsylvania grocery: NRA…Stand and Fight!

    Should have taken a picture.

  86. 86.

    the Conster

    May 11, 2015 at 11:44 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I can’t really give spoilers about the plot, so it’s all about the production and performances. I found myself making involuntary sounds when a new scene is revealed – each one is like an old master’s painting by Vermeer or Velazquez. Each lute note is used perfectly. I can’t say enough about it!!!

  87. 87.

    Birthmarker

    May 11, 2015 at 11:55 am

    @WereBear: I agree of course, and in fact I did get one of my kids to speech therapy. My comment was meant more as a viewpoint from the “other side” of the kitchen table. Most parents are just trying to do the best we can do, and our motives aren’t always clear to the kids. Nor are we parents always correct in all decisions.

  88. 88.

    Elizabelle

    May 11, 2015 at 11:58 am

    You could remake Wolf Hall with dinosaurs. Henry VIII is the mercurial T rex, surrounded by velociraptors and prey animals.

    One of the first shows that made me wish to be a commoner who never appeared at court.

    Mark Rylance is terrific; think we will see a lot more of him.

    The revulsion at beheading. Watching the Boleyn drama play out and thinking: she was your wife and mother of your daughter. Couldn’t you just smother her with a pillow?

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    May 11, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    You will be happy to know that that viper, Lady Rochford (Jane Boleyn, wife of George) gets her own severe haircut many years later. During Catherine Howard’s brief appearance. After the Cromwell saga concludes.

  90. 90.

    gogol's wife

    May 11, 2015 at 12:04 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    We were talking about the fact that the great portrait of Sir Thomas More is in the Frick; I guess the best surviving copy of the Holbein portrait of Cromwell is also there. I never noticed it!

  91. 91.

    PurpleGirl

    May 11, 2015 at 12:06 pm

    @WereBear: Thank you. Speech therapy at that point (when I was 6 or so) might have had a far greater impact on my life and self-consciousness. I remember the few session I attended at New York Hospital but it wasn’t until many years later that I discovered I’d also been seen at another therapy program. Which I was also pulled out from because of the dinner thing.

    When the second wave feminist movement began, I was quite primed for it.

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    May 11, 2015 at 12:06 pm

    @gogol’s wife: Claire Foy was brilliant. All the casting was terrific.

    To go to your death, having to make a pretty speech about how gentle and merciful your killer and husband is.

    Look forward to watching the whole production again, because some of the dialogue was hard to catch.

  93. 93.

    the Conster

    May 11, 2015 at 12:07 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Yeah, she’s quite the mean girl. I was surprised Jessica Raine pulled that off since she was Nurse Jenny from Call the Midwife, which I also watch, and it took me a bit to place her. Stories about European courtiers are just the same as the stories about high school cliques. Too bad our courtiers – the Villagers – weren’t in fear of being burned or beheaded.

  94. 94.

    PurpleGirl

    May 11, 2015 at 12:13 pm

    @Birthmarker: Please see my comment back to Wear Bear (#92). My father left for work at 6:30 AM (before we kids woke up). He finished work at 4 PM, he then spent an hour or so at a bar drinking a beer or two before coming home. Every thing in our household revolved around doing things the way my father wanted them done and when he wanted them done.

  95. 95.

    liberal

    May 11, 2015 at 12:32 pm

    @Betty Cracker:
    This.

  96. 96.

    Tenar Darell

    May 11, 2015 at 12:40 pm

    @debbie: Wow. Really wow. I thought the choice to showcase Rylance’s ability to react against the repeating theme of executions was brilliant. It will be so very interesting to see what they do after the final book.

  97. 97.

    Tenar Darell

    May 11, 2015 at 12:48 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Well this server farm in Utah won’t fill itself. /hah snark

  98. 98.

    JCT

    May 11, 2015 at 12:59 pm

    @raven: Sounds like he really made it worth your while – sounds like a blast.

  99. 99.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 11, 2015 at 1:12 pm

    NYTimes:

    The House resolution that led President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 to proclaim the second Sunday in May Mother’s Day was the only memorable accomplishment in the 26-year career of the biggest boob in the history of Congress. He may also have been the most shameless racist.

    J. Thomas Heflin of Alabama served in the House from 1904 to 1920 and the Senate for 10 years after that. “Cotton Tom” was a walking editorial cartoon of the yahoo nabob, a great bus of a man in white frock coat, outsize bow tie, pointy shoes and candy-striped socks.

    Another nickname, Tom-Tom, presumably alluded to his gallery-packing oratory, which featured moos, cock-a-doodle-doos and the obligatory “Negro dialect.”

    To point out that Tom Heflin was a member of the Ku Klux Klan does him too much justice. The Alabama Klan of the 1920’s was the insurgent populist wing of the Democratic Party, which launched such liberal politicians as Hugo Black. Heflin was a demagogue uncorrupted by ideology.

    He was very high on womanhood, however — provided that it was preceded by “sacred white.” In the 1930’s, he championed two famous oppressed females against “vile despoilers of our precious white women”: the unemployed mill workers who defined an epoch in American race relations by leveling false charges of rape against nine black youths, the Scottsboro Boys. Not long after arriving in Washington, the Congressman had shot and wounded a black man for “insulting” a white woman on a streetcar.

    Mother’s Day was not Tom Heflin’s idea, of course. The creator was Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, who mounted a one-woman letter-writing campaign to lawmakers, editors and heads of state after her mother died in 1905. Jarvis’s sentimental obsession caught Heflin’s ear above the din of the era’s suffragists. He voted against their cause, the 19th Amendment, a few years after his legislative favor to Jarvis.

    Jarvis soon threw her own militant energies into anti-capitalist crusades against the confectioners, greeting-card interests and carnation profiteers she felt were exploiting her day. Her inheritance dissipated, she spent her last years, blind and destitute, in a sanatorium room swamped once a year with the mass-produced Mother’s Day wishes she abhorred. She died, at 84, in 1948.

  100. 100.

    Paul in KY

    May 11, 2015 at 1:56 pm

    @Elizabelle: Getting beheaded was supposed to be a favor of a sort. You could be hung, drawn & quartered…if you really pissed them off.

  101. 101.

    gogol's wife

    May 11, 2015 at 2:08 pm

    @Paul in KY:

    Yes, and having the expert swordsman from Calais (as opposed to the usual butchers) was a further sign of mercy.

  102. 102.

    Paul in KY

    May 11, 2015 at 2:11 pm

    @gogol’s wife: Good point. Henry VIII executed one of the last of the Yorkists (an old lady) and since he was up in Scotland executing people (with his regular executioner), the job went to the executioner’s 15 year old temp, who botched the job.

  103. 103.

    opiejeanne

    May 11, 2015 at 3:33 pm

    @Betty: A good description of my sister. We were raised that way; I struggled to free myself from that mindset and sometimes find myself falling back into it.

  104. 104.

    Pontious Pilates (Ed)

    May 11, 2015 at 6:59 pm

    CAT HELP!

    – Ballon Juicers in New York City AREA –

    My dear friend recently died of cancer at only 56 years old. He left behind his beloved cat Monkey. He is 11 years old and in good health. He is very sweet and relaxed. None of us (friends of the deceased) can take him due to allergies and other pet issues. This blog has some amazing pet lovers and I’m hoping some Juicer from close to the city could give poor Monkey a new home. The thought of him going to a shelter is awful. My buddy rescued him off the street during a blizzard when he was a kitten. PLEASE HELP!

    you can EMAIL ME HERE: [email protected]
    I can email you pics and get you more details.
    Monkey is currently in Greenpoint Brooklyn at our late friends apartment which needs to be vacated in a week or so.

  105. 105.

    opiejeanne

    May 11, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    @PurpleGirl: I’m 65, was born in 1950, and my parents liked to have supper around 6pm, but they were flexible when we kids had something we were involved in, including but not limited to school activities. They came to every open house and parents’ night at our schools, and Dad sometimes came home a little early on Friday to go to the HS football games. I took piano lessons and swimming lessons, was in Brownies and Girl Scouts, later picked up the clarinet and was in HS band. They came to some of my parades, they always came to my concerts and the musicals I was involved in, and if supper was a problem they were able to deal with it.
    Dad commuted to work, left before the sun came up half the year, and got home between 5:30 and 6. My parents were Republicans, thrifty to the core with personal finances, took us to church/Sunday School every Sunday like clockwork, but they were able to fit their schedules with that of their kids.

    We continued the process, saw raising our kids well, educating them and enriching that experience as our mission. We were far from perfect, heck we were still voting Republican until 1980, but our kids turned out very well, and they just told us yesterday what great parents they think we were and still are.

    I do not understand the mindset that mealtimes must be rigid, or that kids’ needs come second to that. We ate around the same table most of the time, but it was when supper was ready which varied a bit depending on what I was making and what else had to get done that day. My husband isn’t my boss, he’s my partner, as were my parents partners with each other.

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