If you’re a keeper of chickens, people will assume you are fond of poultry, and when they’re looking for a gift that will suit you, you might receive stuff like this salt and pepper shaker set:
Or this antique egg-size indicator and chicken-themed cookie jar:
Or even a work of art featuring barnyard fowl, which I’ve shared with y’all before:
So I’ve got lots of chicken shit. Do you receive themed gifts as well, and if so, what is the theme?
Please feel free to discuss other topics; open thread!
schrodinger's cat
I have received kitteh themed stuff.
Elizabelle
C-Span 1 to re-air Boehner press conference at 2:00 p.
I love the Coop de Ville art.
schrodinger's cat
Has Patsy Marie recovered completely?
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: She’s recovered from the surgery. Now we’re on the thyroid rollercoaster again, trying to find the right dose so she recovers her energy. Poor doggy. But she’ll be okay!
burnspbesq
Mother lode of good new albums out today. Los Lobos, Don Henley, Shawn Colvin, New Order, John Scofield, Chvrches …
Gotta say, though: it’s a little disconcerting to hear actual guitars on a New Order record.
srv
Looks like someone has had enough with the bottomless cookie jars:
beltane
The salt and pepper shakers are my favorites.
FlyingToaster
We usually get weird science-themed gifts, or incomprehensible puzzles.
WarriorGirl got a 12thDoctor Sonic screwdriver, a 4thDoctor scarf (mini), and 11thDoctor themed socks.
My mom gives inappropriate crap (e.g.. 2nd-grade reading level books for a kid reading at 4th grade level, accompanied by an adult women’s t-shirt, or “grillmaster” gear for my husband who is an amateur chef), but that’s moms for you.
I’ve resorted to giving all the teenagers gift cards. They get iTunes cards if they have iGear, or AmEx if they don’t. I don’t need the drama.
low-tech cyclist
As a lefthanded person, I get the occasional lefty-themed gift.
Since I rarely am even mildly annoyed by being a lefthander in a right-handed world*, such gifts usually wind up in a box in a closet, then find their way to the local thrift store when I clean out the closet.
*Now being a person who goes by his middle name in a first-name, middle-initial world – that’s a pain in the neck. I had long assumed that computers would eventually adapt to the reality that a lot of us skip past our first names and use our middle names, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Mike J
@burnspbesq: Like Love Vigilantes had?
Elizabelle
The C-Span callers are out of control. One woman wants to see mass resignations from the White House and Supreme Court too, if they’re not doing the people’s business.
Watching Boehner’s presser. He walked in singing “zippity do dah” and says he used to sing that on his way to work.
He is having fun, and he’s ready to leave the shutdown caucus and other assorted assholes in the rearview mirror, in his wake.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@burnspbesq: I thought the New Order was pretty mediocre.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Mike J: Nothing like Love Vigilantes on the new album.
burnspbesq
@Mike J:
Naw, even worse: acoustic guitars.
burnspbesq
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
We’re going to have to agree to disagree on that, I think.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker:
Refurbished.
BGinCHI
Why can’t the chickens in the painting look at the road?
To get to the other side.
debbie
@srv:
Beginning of RWNJ support of abortion?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@burnspbesq:
Is that a typo? Did I read what you actually typed correctly?
gelfling545
Pugs. All things pug find their way to my house.
scav
Witnessed an aunt’s accumulate stuff that washed in because she was an elementary teacher — all very well meant, but people rarely have a clue so there are apples (in all media known to humanity) and seriously useless bird kitsch everywhere.
burnspbesq
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
Nope.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: Not weeping yet? I saw a clip of his remarks on meeting the pope, and Jeebus. I’ve always thought it was stupid for society to frown on men for being emotional, but he needs to get a damn grip! If a woman politician carried on like that, the Villagers would demand a hysterectomy and attempt to FOIA her psychiatric history.
Kay Eye
I get cats and hippos. My husband gets owls (Rice was his school).
Fortunately I don’t get mascot memorabilia. My high school’s mascot was a body part. I would not like a house full of antlers.
Hal
Ad below the top story: thank you, Scott Walker, paid for by unintimidated PAC.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: There is a double standard.
the Conster
My MIL collected goat stuff. When she passed, her collection numbered over 2 thousand goat things. That’s a lot of goat things. The crazy thing is, as she was getting sicker and sicker and then died, I was looking for a place to move to because I had sold my house and the movers were coming in two weeks and I hadn’t found a place yet. Two days before her memorial service I saw a place I really really liked a lot but I was told they were going to lease it to someone else – the day after her memorial service I was told it fell through, and was I still interested? So, that’s where I moved into, but guess what? The day I moved in, I looked out my front window on a busy street in a close in suburb of Boston, and guess what’s in the back yard, where only I can see in through the trees? A goat. Of course.
FlipYrWhig
@burnspbesq: Am I missing a joke? Bernard Sumner plays guitar.
NonyNony
Okay, since this is an open thread, I would like folks to help me with a logical conundrum. Bill “Always Wrong” Kristol has written an article this week that essentially says:
a) The GOP is in trouble because Trump and Carson are horrible candidates but likely to win the nomination
b) Their best candidate is Carly Fiorina, so hopefully she catches on soon
c) It might not matter anyway because none of the Democrats can possibly win in 2016.
Given my usual take on Kristol’s ability to pundit like no pundit ever pundited before him, this suggests to me (in reverse order):
c) The Dems have 2016 in a lock
b) Carly Fiorina is the worst possible choice from the clown car that the GOP could possibly choose
a) ???
Now a is where I get a bit fuzzy – because I’m not sure exactly which way he’s wrong here. I mean, I know he’s wrong but there are so many ways he could be wrong here. Anyone have suggestions? Right now I’m going with this meaning that Trump and Carson are both going to flame out soon, since he’s just said they’re winning. But there are alternatives here.
SiubhanDuinne
Hey Betty, I am in Chicago this week and yesterday at the Art Institute I took a picture of a 6th-century Japanese earthenware hen for you. What is your email address? The contact widget is not working for me.
Butch
Chicken salt and pepper shakers, chicken cookie jars, chicken statues, chicken-shaped egg baskets. If there is a chicken-shaped gift to be given I have received it. We have about 50 hens and, believe it or not, an-11-year-old Banty rooster we call Napoleon.
Belafon
Has anyone else noticed how little we talk about the things posted by Elon?
beltane
@NonyNony: Translation: Bush or Rubio will win the nomination. Whoever the nominee ends up being will be trounced by the Democratic nominee. Carly Fiorina sucks and has no real base of support. Bill Kristol will always have a job. It’s good to be Bill Kristol.
boatboy_srq
I get weird unusable pseudonautical stuff (because I love the water and had a boat) and strange books by people who really have no business getting published (because I read – and no, MB, this isn’t you, this is the self-published weirdo I ran into at Starbucks). And every now and then I get pointed toward some really FSM-awful antique thingamabob (because the family collects).
HRA
Many years ago in my single days when I was trying to furnish my apartment, an aunt died and I was given a rooster lamp among other necessary furniture. That set out an avalanche of rooster gifts. Then when I was in my own home, I mentioned the squirrels playing in the yard. I have a lot of outdoor and indoor squirrel statuary. The lighthouse shakers have made me sneaky and silent.
Mustang Bobby
I get antique car tchotchkes, mainly along the line of Mustangs (gee, I wonder why) and station wagon stuff, mostly books.
@Kay Eye:
Better than a fungus, I suppose.
boatboy_srq
@Belafon: Probably because he posts midday, and audio is more often than not NSFW (not the content, merely the sound of stuff playing on work PCs).
BGinCHI
@SiubhanDuinne: You need any eating or drinking or other suggestions let me know.
Benw
@low-tech cyclist: computers do exactly what we tell them to. It’s the stupid first-name only using programmers that have to adapt!
Calouste
@srv: Can we also get one of those that shows how much government assistance all the corporations and farmers have received over the years? And combine that with how much they pay the owners and C-class executives?
debbie
@boatboy_srq:
And it messes up on my iPad.
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon: @boatboy_srq: Some of us aren’t really podcast/talk radio people.
Olivia
When my sister and brother in law got married, he managed a large hog farrowing operation. They had a very large wedding and I think at least 2/3 of the gifts they got were pig shaped or decorated with pigs. For some reason, people thought that him working with pigs meant they both loved pigs and wanted images of them all over their home.
JustRuss
@Kay Eye:
My bro Gaston would like a word with you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuJTqmpBnI0
boatboy_srq
@NonyNony: Sounds like a) is “Trump and Carson are never gonna be the nominee, but Kristol has no idea who’ll survive the Trumpmentum: HEB! is in pratfall H311, Rubio and Cruz are hanging on by their toenails, and with Perry and Walker already out of the running the Beltway VSPs various darlings look worse every day.” Sound about right, given how Kristol is the King of Wrong?
dexwood
Though I’ve had chickens for years, I’ve only received one chicken themed gift – a fridge magnet with a picture of a rooster at the side of the road stating, “I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned”.
In sad news for my household, my loving, gentle Dexter Dog, already a gunshot survivor when I found him, was diagnosed with bone cancer two days ago. With amputation and chemo he might have an extra year. Without treatment, perhaps two months. I’ve decided it would be selfish to put him through an uncertain shitty year. He’s been through so much already. My plan, and his Vet agrees with it, is to keep him as comfortable and pain-free as possible in the time left. So sad.
schlemazel
@Kay Eye:
BODY PART?!?!
I went to Johnson HS . . . DO NOT WANT!
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: Thank you! It is: bettycrackerfl-at-sign-gmail-dot-com.
@Belafon: Well, he often chooses to tuck his posts in under existing ones for some reason. I can see in the back room if anyone else is working on a draft if I’m posting from a laptop (as I am now), and I always check to make sure no one else has posted before I hit publish so as to not accidentally bigfoot someone.
The post below was absolutely not there when I published, so he must’ve changed the time stamp to make it appear under this thread. He probably does it out of consideration because he doesn’t want to squash someone else’s post with a podcast. Also, his posts seem to get a fair amount of comments if the topic and/or a POV are clear in the post, but not if you have to listen to the podcast to comment. At least, that’s how it seems to me.
I almost never listen to podcasts by anyone, so I rarely post in his threads unless it’s clear what we’re talking about from what he writes. I’m sure the podcasts are great if you like podcasts. I’m just not personally fond of the format — too time-consuming.
Mike J
@Belafon:
If I knew what he had to say about anything I might comment. I’m not going to listen to an hour of audio about something I could read in five minutes.
The teasers really *do* look like he has interesting topics. Pity he won’t come here and tell us about them instead of just putting up a daily ad for his show.
JGabriel
burnspbesq at 15 (had to kill the link to make room for links to the songs below):
Get Ready (2001) had a lot of guitar work, cf. Turn My Way or Run Wild.
Also, check out Sumner’s guitar solo, and the way it melds with Hook’s base, in this live-in-studio circa 1984 BBC version of Temptation – in particular, the section from approximately 3:30-4:40.
Mary G
@scav: I volunteer in a thrift store and in June teachers bring in boxes of tchotchkes their students have given them. One particularly hideous statuette of a little girl with her legs pressed together saying “teacher, I need to go to the potty” came back four years in a row.
They sell like hotcakes to people who give them the next year. We use the money we make to help local children. It’s a virtuous circle!
Tenar Darell
Went to Fenway for the game last night. Always makes me ridiculously happy, even when the Red Sox lose.
Then walking through the local historic cemetery today, a few splashes of orange/red, lots of acorns and pine needles, and a few stairs and hills.
(Must be the time of year and the Yizkor service this week, but my mother seems to be hanging about in my memories. And yet somehow, walking in a cemetery brings perspective).
Speaking of perspective– anyone else realize they were getting old when they started to wear their glasses to exercise in because otherwise they couldn’t read the screen on their phone to track their walk/exercise and listen to music?
schlemazel
@dexwood:
oh gawd, I am sorry for you & Dexter. I hope you can be comforted by the good memories.
PurpleGirl
@JGabriel: When I was let go from my last job, the development office staff took me to lunch. My direct boss gave me picture album… I should say regifted me with a picture album. She wrapped it in tissue paper, couldn’t even try to find a box to put it in. (It was probably one of her wedding presents, it was dove grey suede.) I donated it to Housing Works.
Betty Cracker
@dexwood: So sad to lose a good dog. It sounds like you’re doing the right thing regarding the treatment decision, but it damn sure doesn’t make it any less traumatic. Peace, strength, courage and love to the family during this difficult time.
Mike J
@Benw:
Talk to the product managers, not the programmers.
srv
@Calouste:
Farm Subsidies is online: http://farm.ewg.org/
I believe most states have state workers’ salary info online also.
trollhattan
When one has Dalmatians one receives many Dalmatian gift items. We could trim an entire, smallish xmas tree with nothing but dally ornaments–once even had a string of xmas lights with alternating Dalmatian/fire hydrant shapes.
Wouldn’t surprise me if there aren’t more Dalmatian-themed tchotchkes and gizmos than any other dog breed. 1. take athletic, short-haired dog figure 2. add spots…voila, Dalmatian.
PurpleGirl
@debbie: Nope, just another level of punishment for a poor person. You have a kid, you pay for it, forever.
tesslibrarian
At some point, my grandmother, in an attempt to be polite, made a fuss over a little ceramic bird figurine one of her grandchildren had given her. It was probably purchased at a Woolworth’s.
For the next 30 years, she was bombarded from all sides at every possible occasion (including “just because!”) with ceramic birds. I might be the only one she told that she never liked them, but knew that her grandchildren (there were 9 of us) meant well, and it was better than the nasty perfume sold at drug stores.
dexwood
@schlemazel: @Betty Cracker:
Thank you. He’s always at my side. In the seven years he’s owned my heart, we’ve had a lot of adventures, a lot of good times. I saved him once, but I can’t do it this time.
ET
I haven’t traditionally been a big getter of stuff though black cats were popular becuase I had a black cat and now some fun Minion stuff – but never a lot. However, I am a big, BIG, BIG giver for my best friend. She like flamingos and I have given her some doozies over the decades….. I do try to find new, never before things or just the cool.
schlemazel
@srv:
Fed workers too. I know people can look up my pay online. This, of course, causes some hard feelings particularly since promotions have not come with raises for the last several years so a worker who got 3 promotions in the last 5 years because they are doing outstanding work and deserved his position was making 66% of a worker at the same grade, with fewer responsibilities that had been hired from the outside and had to be paid closer to market rate when he came in.
trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
In the next couple weeks will be seeing Mavis and then Los Lobos. Chuffed, to say the least. Sorry to not be seeing Phil and Dave Alvin performing in the area this weekend. Have not seen them together since the Blasters and the last time I saw Dave he was playing with X.
Ruckus
I have no cat themed stuff. I live with a cat, is that good enough? I hope so. Now I do have a picture of penguins mating, along with a couple of lizards and a porcupine – the last are NA art from New Mexico. And that’s enough stuff, any more and it’s just a pain to cart around in the next eventual move.
Elmo
@dexwood: So sorry, Dexwood. If it helps any, I very strongly believe you are making the right choice – it horrifies me what some people will put their dogs thru for a few extra months of “life.”
I think the feral Lab that my wife and I took in two years ago is about to have the same diagnosis. We’ve seen many dogs with osteosarcoma and she’s showing familiar signs. Right age and breed too. And like you, we will treat her with affection and love and treats and gentle ball throwing until she no longer enjoys her life. And then her life will end.
tesslibrarian
@dexwood: I’m so sorry. I’ve made the same type of decision twice, and it’s always so hard, but it also is the most merciful.
Peace with you and Dexter Dog.
Jeffro
Finally, something that gets Trump booed by conservatives…badmouthing Marco Rubio?!?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/donald-trump-marco-rubio-clown-comment
scav
@Mary G: Had she but known! She was too terrified to bring them to local thrift stores lest they be recognized, hence the accumulations in-house. There’s a shrunken dried apple dressed up as the guillotined head of an elderly teacher that could wander forth and traumatize others for a few more cycles.
WaterGirl
@dexwood: I’m so very sorry about your boy.
Matt McIrvin
@low-tech cyclist: You might like this:
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/
Mark
Shit from the Seattle Mariners team store. And I do mean shit, but the giver does mean well.
catclub
@NonyNony: Well, you went and read him. That is on you.
Elizabelle
@dexwood: I’m so sorry. You are doing the right thing, and I hope you and Dexter Dog have some sweet days left ahead.
dexwood
@Elmo: @tesslibrarian:
Thank you. I am not, will not be, second guessing my decision. It’s best for him. We do what we can for them, but in the end we do what we must for them.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: My answer as well.
dexwood
@WaterGirl: @Elizabelle:
Thank you.
Elizabelle
@Belafon: Agree with y’all. Think it’s purely the podcast format.
Matt McIrvin
My wife Samantha gets French-horn-themed gifts, because it’s the instrument she plays. We have a lot of French-horn-shaped Christmas ornaments.
Ruckus
@NonyNony:
logical conundrum
I think I see your problem.
You are talking about little Billy Kristol here so there is no logic. None, not any kind of logical construct in the known universe. We, as logical or at least semi-logical people try to see how how logic may be applied here but there just isn’t any way. It’s little Billy Kristol, take it for what it’s worth, which is less than the value of a bucket of warm spit.
Miki
@dexwood: {{{{{{{dexwood & Dexter & family}}}}}}}
Juju
VW bug convertible stuff, and golden retriever stuff.
dexwood
@Miki:
With this final thank you, I’m out of here. A beautiful afternoon for a walk.
PurpleGirl
@dexwood: {Hugs) {lots and lots of hugs} So sorry for the news about your companion. You gave him a good life and enjoyed having him in yours. That’s the best part of life.
A member of my group therapy session lost her cat. (Already let go, because of cancer.) He was old, she acquired him as a stray. But he became her baby and stayed with her.
Miki
I have way-too-many Poodle Tchotchkes.
DanR2
I get a lot of beer stuff like mugs, pub glasses, T-shirts, sample glasses and, best of all, actual beer.
Better than ceramic chickens, that’s for sure.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@dexwood: I’m so sorry to read that. He’s a lucky dog to have found you.
I get coke themed stuff. The beverage, people; jeesh.
A friend gets lots of chicken stuff. She once got a chicken painting box of notecards from a coworker with the (inexplicably) attached note “I know you love chickens!” She doesn’t, but we all take turns getting her a chicken something, and sometimes we overlap. She now has lots of chicken stuff.
schrodinger's cat
I usually get jewelry from my relatives when I go to India. I am not complaining. At all. Much better than cat shaped dust collectors.
ETA: Note to self, must go more often.
Omnes Omnibus
My mother’s first name is a flower, so she gets lots of presents featuring that flower.
schrodinger's cat
@dexwood: That’s so sad, but you gave him a good life. {{{}}}}
shell
Re: the chicken themed artwork…What, no chickens playing poker?
When a friend acquired a kitten (thru a new boyfriend) I warned her to expect many cat-related gifts from now on. (When they broke up., she of course, got custody of the ‘child’.)
Ive gotten my share of garden related presents, which are always welcome.
shell
@dexwood: Im so sorry. But, it sounds like youre doing the best thing you can for Dexter.
SFAW
@NonyNony:
“All of them, Johnny!”
Jeffro
And by the way, Fareed Zakaria really laid the wood to religious fundamentalists in America today, holy cow:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-main-message-of-pope-francis-and-jesus/2015/09/24/997e1e54-62ea-11e5-b38e-06883aacba64_story.html
Ba-DOW.
The eventual Dem nominee would be wise to put a few notes from that op-ed on a 3×5 card, laminate it, and pull it out at every other speaking engagement between now and November 2016.
ThresherK (GPad)
@dexwood: The handwringing over not being able to tell a pet how much one cares for its well-being, or can’t ask how much something may hurt, is palpable in our home.
The decision is not easy. But the relief afterwards is cleansing.
Ruckus
@dexwood:
Sorry about your dog. And sorry that you have to go through this.
We do what we can for them, but in the end we do what we must for them.
A wonderful and in my opinion the proper attitude. Life decisions can be difficult and traumatic but we are in charge of their lives so we have to make them. Have been in charge of two human lives after they could no longer make decisions and that’s still the way it works.
PurpleGirl
On topic: I don’t get many gifts from friends. But for years I bought myself kaleidoscopes. All kinds of scopes — glass, crystal, paper and plastic, water filled, oil filled object boxes. One reason I love my apartment is the terrace orientation is south-southwest and is the best light for looking into the scopes. Also have some coloring books with kaleidoscope themes.
Oh, one friend has bought me a couple of paper-weights made of dichroic glass. I love the stuff and use such beads in my jewelry.
SFAW
I hope I’m not tempting the Blog Gods by asking, but: I haven’t spotted Reich to Rise in awhile? Banned? Or just lazy? (Guess which one I’m hoping for.)
Betty Cracker
Via TPM, President Obama’s remarks on Boehner’s resignation:
Let the wild rumpus begin!
MazeDancer
The Dalai Lama is cancelling his US trip, planned for October, with many stops across the country, visiting several college campuses including Smith, Amherst and U Mass. Health problems. Rest required. Fuller statement below. (From an email, so no link)
Have been thinking how much the Pope and the Dalai Lama remind me of each other. They’re about the same age, both have big smiles, big hearts, remind people how we are all equal and connected, seem so calm and unruffled, make you feel good listening to them, and want to make the world a better place.
Hope the Dalai Lama recovers soon.
PR statement:
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: The biggest fear that GOP has is the appearance of weakness. That’s why they swagger and bully, when you are confident like our current President you don’t need false bravado, the type the likes of Palin and Trump exude.
SFAW
@PurpleGirl:
Mrs. SFAW has a fair number of dichroic earrings and a few pendants, courtesy of a handcrafts store/gallery in Acton, MA (and her dumbass husband who keeps buying stuff like that). I like the stuff too.
rikyrah
Jeb Bush shaped by troubled Phillips Academy years
In the fall of 1967, when a 14-year-old Texan named John Ellis Bush arrived on the bucolic campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, great expectations preceded him.
Jeb, as he was known, should have been an easy fit in that elite and ivied world. His much-accomplished father and his older brother had both gone to Andover; no one was surprised that Jeb had followed suit.
But this Bush almost ran aground in those first, formative prep school days. He bore little resemblance to his father, a star on many fronts at Andover, and might have been an even worse student than brother George. Classmates said he smoked a notable amount of pot — as many did — and sometimes bullied smaller students.
Resolutely apolitical despite his lineage, he refused to join the Progressive Andover Republicans club and often declined even to participate in informal bull sessions with classmates. In a tumultuous season in American life, he seemed to his peers strangely detached and indifferent.
“He was just in a bit of a different world,” said Phil Sylvester, who said he was a Bush roommate. While other students “were constantly arguing about politics and particularly Vietnam, he just wasn’t interested, he didn’t participate, he didn’t care.”
Meanwhile, his grades were so poor that he was in danger of being expelled, which would have been a huge embarrassment to his father, a member of Congress and of the school’s board of trustees.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/02/01/tumultuous-four-years-phillips-academy-helped-shape-jeb-bush/q6ccyHNOtP1n6kqDokMBfK/story.html?event=event25
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker:
That just made Gohmert the odds-on favorite.
schrodinger's cat
@PurpleGirl: Do you make your own jewelry?
shell
Is there anything religious loonies wont glom onto?
*********************************************************
‘If you’ve waited your whole life to see a supermoon lunar eclipse, you’re in luck.
Mark your calendars for Sept. 27 if you’re in the United States — or Sept. 28 if you’re overseas — because all of us earthlings are in for a treat as the supermoon aligns with a lunar eclipse to create an event .
According to online posts by religious theorists, the supermoon lunar eclipse also lines up with an asteroid apocalypse.
There’s also the Blood Moon prophecy. (Because…of course there is ) Followers of this prophecy think a pattern of moon events, including the one this weekend, signal the end of the world as it is described in certain passages of the New Testament. They point to a series of lunar eclipse in recent months and years, called blood moons for their reddish hue, as a sign that “a major prophetic event regarding Israel is on the horizon.”
*******************
Sigh. The fact that the Moon always takes on a reddish color during a lunar eclipse, observed for centuries, doesnt matter to these morons.
beltane
@rikyrah: Where did the rumor that Jeb was the smarter brother originate? I didn’t realize he was an even worse student than George II.
schrodinger's cat
@shell: What do you expect from the scientifically illiterate?
Mary G
John Scalzi lives in Boehner’s district, and put up a blog post about it.
He’s pretty complimentary in the end about someone he disagrees with:
SFAW
@rikyrah:
Wow, wouldn’t have thought it was possible to be more uninterested in the world than W was, but …
Elizabelle
MSNBC: Chuck Todd and Luke Russert just told us a bunch of celebrity crap about Kevin McCarthy, whose knob they were polishing:
he is like a surfer dude, although he’s from Bakersfield
people like him, cuz he returns their calls and checks in on them (it’s his job in the House leadership, but …)
he leads a bipartisan exercise group in the morning. Russert said “bipartisan” twice, in case we didn’t get it the first time
he’s met Kevin Spacey of House of Cards, and we’re told Spacey had the set decorated like McCarthy’s office, “right down to the pencil holder”. Russert kept saying “Casey”, but same diff.
They ran a video of John Boehner’s greatest hits, mostly when he was mocking Democrats, and talked about whether McCarthy might be as entertaining.
Not a word on McCarthy’s politics.
Just entertaining and — oh, look, he’s got a baby and a dog. (They didn’t say that. Yet.)
MSNBC. Where politics goes to die.
beltane
@Mary G: Hillary can appoint him Ambassador to the Vatican.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: My mom’s name was sort of a flower – Blossom.
beltane
@SFAW: “Jeb? A president you’d like to do bong hits with.” I personally would not like to do bong hits with him but I’m I’m sure someone out there would.
WereBear
@dexwood: I’m so sorry to hear about Dexter Dog. I’m sure you are doing right by him.
This next part is so hard. We handled it with Herbie (who was a Very Shaggy Dog) by taking him through drivethroughs frequently.
SFAW
@shell:
Outside of my braims initially reading it as “blood morons,” I was hoping to read “a major prophetic event regarding Israel is on the horizon, and that prophecy can be hastened and guaranteed by true believers drinking the ritual ethylene glycol.”
PurpleGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: Yes, I do. Mostly stringing and not metal working. I should put some pictures up.
ETA: Mostly for myself; other people often don’t want to pay my prices, even friends think I should discount for them.
Elizabelle
How very strange. We were all told the Pope’s visit would cause problems “for both parties.” Then, when the pope delivers a very progressive message, Very Serious People told us pay that no mind, cuz the parties are both playing to their base and nothing will get done anyway.
I’ve heard a lot of talking about the Pope’s health. Someone was talking about the original saints and St. Francis of Assisi burning out and dying young, because they burned so brightly.
That they lived centuries ago, not mentioned.
Message I was getting was: don’t worry too much about the progressive message. This guy is a short timer.
And then, today, the Republican Speaker of the House resigns, and a possible GOP food fight begins.
C-Span public phones was whack. Disparaging Tea Partiers calling in, Boehner was a traitor; these were some truly mean people. Wondering how many might be calling in from the “Values Voter” conference.
On the Democratic line, people sad that they’re in such terrible shape financially or medically; they need help with medical insurance, and Boehner was so disrespectful to the president.
schrodinger's cat
@PurpleGirl: I have a beautiful pendant and I want to make a necklace out of it, do you have any advice? I have no clue where to even begin.
SFAW
@beltane:
I defy you to find someone willing to do that who wasn’t already blind drunk (figuratively speaking) or in some other quasi-vegetative state.
schlemazel
@SFAW:
unemployed?
It may be that the recent polls showing JEB? dropping make right to retch’s BS harder to produce so he is laying low. Didn’t hear much out of unlimited corporate crap after Nov of last year.
Elizabelle
@Mary G: Thanks. That looks interesting.
The Golux
I’m sure you do, just as I’m sure you have an excellent boot scraper by the door.
sharl
Simon Maloy, and other seekers of cheap and easy political comedy, got some bad news:
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I wondered about that, myself.
To answer your question from last night: Gabriel Macht.
SFAW
@schlemazel:
Maybe. But the RCP polls that Reich mentioned last week (the ones where he talked about Jeb!’s “surge,” but the RCP graph showed he was still dropping) showed Imbecile Brother ticking up a percent or two, so there may still be enough to pay Reich his penny-a-post.
PurpleGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: Let’s talk later. I’m about to head out. I’ll comment at your web site later.
debbie
@MazeDancer:
Sometimes, when I’m thinking about the current Pope or the Dalai Lama, I start to think there may be something to this faith thing, but then John Hagee or Franklin Graham spring to mind, and I get a grip on myself.
The Dangerman
Late to this thread, but I’ll confess to being a hardcore pharaophile (sp?), which is a lighthouse fanatic. Maybe there are others similarly afflicted around these virtual parts. Once one has THAT reputation, lighthouse gifts are a must (and very welcomed).
I spent many, many hours (well into the many hundreds) restoring a Lighthouse to a place that is now a significant place for people to come visit and it gets in your system. Lighthouses are just cool places.
schrodinger's cat
@PurpleGirl: Or you can email me at manyworldsonecat at gmail.com
SFAW
@The Dangerman:
That’s pretty amazing. Where’s the one you restored?
schlemazel
I have told this story here several time so skip it if you already know that the GOP is aware that JEB? is the dumbest Bush (no mean feat!)
We lived in FLA, good friend & neighbor was deeply involved in GOP politics & a party operative. JEB? running for gov in 94 chose as his running mate a moron on record with anti-Hispanic and anti-Jewish remarks. I naturally gave the guy a ton of crap about it. His comment was that JEB? was well known as the stupid brother. Niel was the smart one but he was crooked & basically bared from running because of the dirt on him, one (the guy didn’t even remember his name) was a junkie/drunk and totally useless (yes, W) and the fourth avoided politics and nobody seemed to care why.
So the GOP knows they have a mentally deficient candidate but they do not care.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
I despair for the future of California water and oil politics if McCarthy ascends to the throne. I read earlier (where I can’t recall) McCarthy was putting Peter King’s name out there. Suspect it’s simply too early to be putting odds on this horse race.
FWIW I always thought of Boehner as a throwback to a previous generation. He’d have fit in perfectly on “Mad Men.”
trollhattan
@sharl:
Gohmert would necessarily become the very first Miss-speaker of the House.
beltane
@schlemazel: That is very disturbing. It’s too bad the brothers were never told that but for their family connections, they would have been doomed to lives of low-paying menial labor.
beltane
@trollhattan: Peter King would never be able to hold the evangelical Krazee Kaucus together. If Boehner couldn’t do it, he won’t be able to do it. The true believing teabaggers will have their rebellion regardless.
redshirt
I had a friend who’s mother collected Sambo stuff. And a lot it. Her house was covered in it. So terrible, and I told her, but she was crazy and told me to STFU.
Ruckus
@PurpleGirl:
A friend who laid carpet for a living gave me a great line once. “I can discount stuff I’ve purchased and priced with a profit in mind but I can’t discount sweat.”
The Dangerman
@SFAW:
It was an AMAZING time (I was part of it for about a decade) and I thoroughly enjoyed being part of one of the coolest teams of people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. Over the process of the last 20 years, roughly, the amount of person hours donated by the volunteers is around 80,000 or so now, I understand. Which works out to about 40 person years (at 40 per week and 52 weeks) if I did the math in my head right just now (it’s Friday; I make no promises).
It was this one near San Luis Obispo, CA (it’s actually Port San Luis, which is basically Avila Beach). My specialties were restoring the tower and lantern (where the lens would have gone) and the foghorn house (in a tour once, I once shortened that name to only hornhouse, which led to a unique question when a guest didn’t here the “n” in that name so I always call it the FOGhorn house these days).
Asking me about lighthouses is, um, dangerous; I can get going and not stop for a while. There is SO much history involved with them, generally.
Also, for those into watching gray whales migrate, there may be no better place for watching them on land in California.
Thanks for asking and the compliment; there aren’t many times in life when you get to be part of such a cool project. Enjoyed every second of it..
The Dangerman
@The Dangerman:
I should correct myself a little bit; there may be no better place to watch NORTHBOUND migrating gray whales. The Mothers and Calves stay very close to shore on their NB trek.
Too bad their travels are entirely unpredictable, of course; it would be a huge tourist spot otherwise.
SFAW
@The Dangerman:
Thanks for the link, looks great. When I have more time, I’ll try to ask you to tell me more. (Not worried about your “TMI” warning, but thanks for that too.)
J R in WV
A couple of years ago we drove down to Asheville, NC. We drove the twisty mountain roads of that region, visited Appalachian Crafts museums, etc.
When coming out of one of the shops along the Blue Ridge Parkway (which is a wonderful driver’s road!) we saw a brand new Mustang, top end model. It was full of chickens, and a couple of roosters!
We pondered the effect on the resale value of an American iconic auto that using it to move a flock of chickens around North Carolina, and while we murmured together, the drover (driver too) of the Mustang came by.
They turned out to be on a rescue mission, to save the flock from some dire threat, and were delivering the chickens to a refuge farm, where they would be free range chickens, living as barn yard birds.
Most interesting/odd combination of vehicle and cargo I have ever seen!! Ever!
SiubhanDuinne
@BGinCHI:
Thanks! You are welcome to share suggestions, although we’re mostly revisiting our youth. Had dinner at the Berghoff last night, lunch (chicken pot pie) at Field’s (Macy’s — spit!) today. Have a long list of places we all used to frequent, and in a week I doubt we’ll manage to check off more than about a third of them. But by all means, send your ideas!
A guy
We had a rooster that was wrecking havoc on the hens. Damn near killing them during sex. I had enough and gave him a whack on the head and chunked him over the hill thinking he was dead. Next morning he was standing outside the coop with a bloody head looking in at the girls. He’s always been referred to as the prodigal chicken.
Steeplejack
@Belafon:
I’m late to the thread, so I checked to see how others responded, and I pretty much agree with them. Elon’s posts are often little more than a notice about what’s up on his podcast—not that there’s anything wrong with that—and I’m not a podcast person. Also, the posts are often delayed (from the events/issues discussed) because of the “do the podcast and then write up the podcast” process. Often the issue has been discussed (to death!) in a previous Balloon Juice thread. And Elon rarely (never?) makes an appearance in the thread, so that spur to further discussion is not there.
Steeplejack
@dexwood:
My condolences to you. That’s rough.
Tony P.
On the original topic:
As an avid (though mediocre) chess player, I have received as gifts a number of “theme” chess sets, the worst of them being a stone board with stone pieces modeled on Aztec totems or Easter Island heads or something.
Listen up, people: the only style of chess set worth giving to a chess player is one with traditional, Staunton-design, solid pieces with pawns at least 1.5″ tall. Go nuts on exotic woods or precious metals if you must, but if the knights look like anything other than a horse’s head on a round pediment, you’re doing your gifting wrong.
–TP
SWMBO
I get dachshund stuff and eggs. My son collects dinosaurs, space, and cetecia. My husband collects flashlights.
Shana
@schrodinger’s cat: Most jewelers should be able to put a little loop on it, either at the top if that works with the design or on the back so you can run a chain through it.
Back to the original topic: I have a number of cows, some are cow creamers, some just cows. I’m a P.G. Wodehouse fan and one of his most famous stories involves a silver cow creamer that is stolen, or attempted to be stolen. BTW, heading to Seattle at the end of October for the biannual Wodehouse Society convention. Should be fun, as usual.
Kerry Reid
I have more coffee mugs and kitchen towels with cats on them than you can imagine. None of which I bought for myself. But since I’ve never seen “Crazy Cat Lady” as a BAD thing, it’s all right.