My parents are on yet another beach vacation and keep sending me texts and pictures of all the fun things they are doing. Dad always sends them as group messages, so then my phone beeps for the next damned hour as everyone messages back and forth. I’m fighting back.
See how they handle that.
Cervantes
Not sure you want those numbers exposed.
(Or maybe you do.)
JPL
Ted Cruz won the value voters straw poll.
JPL
@Cervantes: We are harmless but I think you are correct. He needs to block out the numbers.
r2r might call to suggest they vote for Jeb
piratedan
@efgoldman: wait til she starts to rickroll you….. bad enough being taken down, but by Rick Astley… yeech.
different-church-lady
Group texts have become a big enough problem that iOS 8 included a way you could opt out of the whole thing in one go.
I had to block a friend who wouldn’t honor my request to not include me in frivolous group texts. It took her three months to figure it out, but when she finally did she got the message (pun unintended).
JPL
@efgoldman: It does prove one thing, that their definition of the word values is different from mine.
raven
Some friends had on of those dopey white parties last week during the Georgia-South Carolina Game.
Cervantes
@JPL:
Good insight, and generous.
Thanks.
benw
@Cervantes: @JPL: @efgoldman: @piratedan: @different-church-lady: @raven: Racists.
Ajabu
We went to a white party with some relatives in Georgia recently. Much to my relief, everybody there was Black.
Would have been nice if they just said, “Everybody dress in white clothes.” Would have alleviated my apprehension
that we were going to some redneck barbecue…
guachi
Spoke with my mom, who is 66, for the first time in a few months. We talked politics. She’s a liberal, but more of a tote bagger type. Thinks David Brooks is worth reading. But also loves Te-Nehisi Coates.
The Republican candidates scare her. I correctly guessed that Kasich scared her least. She said that when she watched Fiorina with the sound off she looked like Putin. She hates her. Especially with the Planned Parenthood stuff. If the Republicans keep bringing the crazy, mild-mannered old white women like my mom are going to be volunteering and donating money come election day.
raven
@Ajabu: Athens?
Schlemazel
I have never heard of such a thing. I am amazed they happen near that bit of the nation. Good for your folks despite the group blast
raven
@guachi: Sixty Six! Holy shit how does she manage?
Cervantes
@raven:
!
raven
@Schlemazel: According to the wiki they are a gay thang. We thought it was just where dopey people wear their dopey white clothes for the last time of the year.
Lamh36
curmudgeon!
biscuits
Someone has to be the evil child. We used to put packages of condoms and supporting accessories in mom’s shopping cart.
Baud
One of the nice things about being a sociopath is that I’m not on many group texts.
Lamh36
time to share family pics?
new Zoe pic…look at them legs…nom, nom, nom…I’m gon bite them when I see her next!!
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/647936355167633408
NotMax
Fine example of pre-internet (hell, pre-broadcasting, pre-manned flight) trolling.
Uriah Smith, among other things, was known for penning satirical and snarky essays.
Schlemazel
@raven:
Yeah I had to google them too
BTW The Man Who Would Be King is on TV. Not just a great buddy film with two good actors enjoying their roles but an interesting take on military adventures in Afghanistan.
benw
@Baud: I guess “being a sociopath” is now a face-saving way to say “having no friends”.
NotMax
Those of you with Netflix, put the (originally made for and shown on PBS) short adaptation of a James Thurber tale, “The Greatest Man in the World,” in your queue.
Excellent production in its own right, but now one also gets to figure out which (or how many) of the current GOP derp bench Thurber might be credited with presciently mocking.
NotMax
@Schlemazel
Perfectly watchable, but over reliance on Michael Caine’s voiceover to explain what is going on (or about to) becomes cloying.
Baud
@benw:
“Having no friends” is not in the DSM V.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Lamh36:
How’s your sister? I hope she’s still recovering well from her gall bladder misadventure.
Schlemazel
@NotMax:
I guess I don’t mind it that much.
Have meant to read Kipling’s version – anybody done that and care to comment?
lamh36
@Mnemosyne (tablet): shes all good thx.
The surgery went well and she didn’t need another. She was more excited cause all the broth they paid her made her lose like 10 lbs in a week :-)
raven
@Schlemazel:
Have you news of my boy Jack?”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.
“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.
Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!
gelfling545
Flora attended a dog party today. My nephew was in town with his husky/pit/ German shepherd mix dog, my niece’s dog pit/lab/ some type of hound mix & my sister’s shi-tzu and her middle aged dachshund were all there. Now I’m cleaning up dog barf as she apparently snuck into the house & gobbled the big dog’s dinner as well as her own.
Schlemazel
@raven:
I love this Kipling
I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.
I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-‘alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.
Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.
We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”,
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind.
You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!
benw
@Baud: Since we’re both commenting on a Saturday night, the difference between sociopath and no friends is splitting a pretty fine hair.
raven
@Schlemazel: If you get a chance to see My Boy Jack it is worthwhile. I knew nothing of it nor his influential Kipling was in the war effort.
Baud
@efgoldman:
“My fellow Americans. Go to hell.”
redshirt
I’ve never heard of a “White Party” before. Seems dangerous if red wine is involved.
mark k
Hilarious. When my parents went to Europe last year, I switched their TVs favorite channel thingy (so when you turn it on, automatically goes to the pre-selected channel) to BET.
They still haven’t figured out how to change it and I just play dumb when they ask me.
benw
@Baud:
Still sounds kinda religious. How about our first solipsist president? “My fellow Americans. I don’t believe you exist.”
MomSense
@Lamh36:
Oh my but she is a cutie. Totally squeezable! I watched my new great nephew a couple weeks ago and it was so great. I miss the baby days.
Ohio Mom
@guachi: Your mother obviously does not live in the Buckeye State.
It is precisely because I have seen Kasich in action, and know that he can come off as mostly sane and reasonable, that I am most scared of him.
I think he could beat Hillary and I think he would be second only to W in the harm he would do.
divF
@benw:
Now that he’s running for President, all Baud has is sycophants and ward-heelers, but no friends.
divF
@Lamh36:
It’s always time for cute kid pix.
SRW1
@Lamh36:
Cutie! The pacifier looks a bit supersized.
Morzer
@divF:
Comrade Baud is too humble and modest to tell you about his good looks, astounding physique and dazzling intellect, so I, unworthy as I am, can only say that our unworthy nation is privileged to have him as a candidate.
John M. Burt
@Schlemazel: If you like Kipling even a little, then by all means read “The Man Who Would Be King”. If you’ve never Kippled at all, then you could do worse than to start there, although it’s fair to warn you that Kipling makes use of the N-word as freely in it as he ever does. But if you can’t look past the word to the actual story, then you won’t be able to read Huckleberry Finn, in which case I can only pity you.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1402037561
groucho48
I thought the Michael Caine commentary was one of the best parts of the movie. Humanized the movie without being too intrusive.
henqiguai
@Ajabu (#13):
Imagine my ongoing mirth every time Macy’s or Bed, Bath, and Beyond advertises a white sale…
Cervantes
@John M. Burt:
In between versifying the US into taking up “the White Man’s burden” and specifically advising TR to colonize the Philippines, Kipling nevertheless said:
One should like Kipling at least a little.