Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

T R E 4 5 O N

White supremacy is terrorism.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

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

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / MNF Open Thread

Reader Interactions

142Comments

  2. 2.

    Steeplejack

    I was just wondering who’s playing (TV not on yet), so at least now I’ve got half the answer!

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    I’m just not sure what I am supposed to do with Bolts v Bears. I do have to confess I like Commodore Cutler, though.

  9. 9.

    Steeplejack

    @Mike J:

    K.U. a traditional rival, but in my day Mizzou was always a close No. 3 (in the conference) behind national powers Oklahoma and Nebraska. I think we did get to the Orange Bowl one year. (Checked: lost to Penn State 10-3 on 01/01/70.)

  13. 13.

    Mike J

    @Steeplejack: We were usually last place, but we got over it by going to the rugby games at Reactor field before the football started. While the gates at the stadium were tightly policed for alcohol, the open fields around the reactor weren’t, so we could get prepared for one game while watching the other.

    We did almost beat Notre Dame by scoring some huge number of field goals and no touchdowns.

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    Elon James White @elonjames
    I talk with activists just fine when I’m reporting. That’s because I respect their space and have shown I’m trustworthy. I’ve earned trust.

    Elon James White @elonjames
    Wait, is the media being pissy because activists don’t want to talk to y’all? How long were they supposed to deal with being misrepresented?

    Elon James White @elonjames
    The Media has been shitty & told warped/problematic versions of stories for YRS. Now folks don’t wanna deal with y’all. This is YOUR fault.

    Elon James White @elonjames
    Exactly. If you want to report on this earn their trust. Don’t be dicks and then folks won’t tell you fall back. https://twitter.com/IamTheMacrocosm/status/663892782650650625 …

    Elon James White @elonjames
    Ugh. Yeah, that’s how you gain trust. Do you want the real story or do you want a quick quote. Fucking eh… https://twitter.com/thewayoftheid/status/663892821548601344 …

    Elon James White @elonjames
    I have a good rep reporting among activists & there are STILL some who don’t want to deal with me. I don’t threaten them. I say “I get it.”

    Elon James White @elonjames
    I brought a friend of mine down to cover some protests. Black dude. He didn’t show the respect needed. I pulled him out. AS I SHOULD HAVE.

    Elon James White @elonjames
    Respectful is one thing. But if you’re being asked specifically not to do something then you have to respond to THAT https://twitter.com/Journalishm/status/663893660279447552 …

  15. 15.

    Corner Stone

    @Betty Cracker: I like that gunslinger. I’d take him as QB on my team.
    And, sorry. If Brian Urlacher comes out and says you’re a tough mofo, you are a tough mofo.
    Media and sports pundits can try it on with that baby BS, I will take Urlacher 10 out of 10.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Felonius Monk:

    True fact: back at the turn of the last century, it was considered scientific fact that the manliest, most testosterone-laden men would only sire daughters. It even shows up as a minor character point in Hemingway’s “To Have and Have Not.” Science!

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    @Felonius Monk: Not generally. But it’s the most remarkable fact about Rivers that occurred to me. (He hasn’t had a great season, aside from the progeny.)

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): I swear you Hamilton people are starting to sound like a cult. At this point, if they were performing it on my lawn, I’d shut the window and drawer the fucking curtain.

  22. 22.

    Felonius Monk

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    it was considered scientific fact that the manliest, most testosterone-laden men would only sire daughters.

    But six daughters? Raising two drove me half crazy.

  25. 25.

    trollhattan

    @Betty Cracker:
    I’m still not sure what it is, other than the portrait on a certain very common paper currency. Planning on leaving it that way, whilst I scoot any stray castmembers from my front yard.

    Also, too, it rained today. In California this is considered progress.

  28. 28.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Betty Cracker:

    I swear you Hamilton people are starting to sound like a cult. At this point, if they were performing it on my lawn, I’d shut the window and drawer the fucking curtain.

    Amen sister! You know what I would pay to see, a play written by Ms. Cracker, One Flew over the Chicken Coop?

  29. 29.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    Nothing on Cole’s tweet feed in the last 19 hours, either the tweet feed is borked or Cole is.

  32. 32.

    ThresherK

    @Betty Cracker: “Hamilton” may soon find itself too popular with ticket-buyers and critics to be an actual cult.

    Does anyone think “The Rocky Horror Show” (or the movie of same) is a cult any longer?

    Now, “Chess” is a cult.

  33. 33.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @efgoldman: Los Angeles. The Chargers, Raiders, and Rams are all talking about coming back to LALALand. The Rams are most likely moving since they have the land and pretty much everything needed to start construction.

  35. 35.

    Steeplejack

    @Mike J:

    God, Reactor Field. Hadn’t thought of that in years. Played intramural (flag) football and soccer there. My “house,” Miller House—i.e., the third floor of Defoe Hall—won the campus soccer championship my freshman year, fall of ’69. Midfielder Steep bending it like Beckham and preserving good order on the pitch. Particularly nasty final, which was always between the winner of the “independent” (dorm) league and whatever Greek pukes won the fraternity league. Could have used some Solomonic Richard Mayhew officiating.

    The next year our stellar goalie was gone—dropped out and drafted by Uncle Sam—and we had some injuries (including a severe ankle sprain to midfielder Steep), and we couldn’t repeat.

    Amazing how all that came rushing back to me like the hot kiss at the end of a wet fist. I haven’t been back to Columbia—now called “CoMo” by the hipsters, I am informed—since I left in July or August of 1972.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Here’s how much I don’t know about football. I saw MNF and asked someone what the name of the Minnesotra team was. He said Vikings. I said, okay then, who are the MNF? I didn’t even realize it referred to Monday Night, not a team. Jeesh.

  39. 39.

    Keith G

    @ThresherK:

    Does anyone think “The Rocky Horror Show” (or the movie of same) is a cult any longer?

    Fire codes and terrorism killed that off, with maybe a bit of an assist from Wes Craven.

  42. 42.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Keith G: Her will be a big hit, I have no doubt.

    Well, I realize that I too must be boring people to death with recent obsession with Bihar’s electoral politics of all things. What I have discovered is that the stupid in the media is an endless resource, not just confined to Beltway Punditubbies. Should go back to watching kitteh videos in downtime.

  46. 46.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @efgoldman: No tax dollars involved here in LA for the stadium, I’m sure there will be for freeway exits in Carson(Chargers/Raiders). I really don’t give a rat’s ass if any of them come.

  49. 49.

    benw

    @efgoldman:

    The Chargers should move South to Tijuana. At least then there would be a reason to go see them.
    I know I’m pissing in the wind, but the taxpayers anywhere should not pay for one goddamned brick of a stadium.

    The city of SD offered to fund a $350M bond but the Chargers ownership scoffed at chump change. They want at least $500M, the assholes. Let’s make the Tijuana thing work. Vamos, los Caballos!

  55. 55.

    schrodinger's cat

    Is it just me or Has America’s Test Kitchen jumped the shark. Their recipes are getting needlessly complicated and weird. Plus I don’t like the amount of food they throw, in their so called failed experiments.

    The show on how to make pho for example, they brought ground beef to make a broth and then threw the beef away. Wouldn’t going to a Vietnamese place be more efficient?

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @efgoldman:

    Well, you can play this for her. Not only is it sung, it has harpsichord and stuff. And, yes, even the raps have orchestral music with them.

    Or just tell her that kids these days with their hippety-hoppity music need to learn to appreciate the classics like Chad and Jeremy. That’ll fix her.

  61. 61.

    redshirt

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah I saw that string of 90’s. October/November has been “hot” here too, “hot” being relative of course. I hit 60 today which is quite nice.

    I’ve yet to turn on my heat and that seems quite remarkable.

  64. 64.

    Shana

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): Lin-Manuel Miranda’s appearance on Jimmy Fallon Friday was pretty good too. There was an impromptu freestyle battle that was pretty cool. Says the white 56 year old woman.

  69. 69.

    different-church-lady

    Fuck something or other. Fuck it up its stupid ass. I’ve lost track of what…

  70. 70.

    redshirt

    @BillinGlendaleCA: That seems so wrong. What, did it drop into the low 60’s?

    I kid. I have a house designed to insulate and absorb as much solar heat as possible, and I’m pleased to report the system works. It’s 68 in my house right now, and that’s with no heat.

  75. 75.

    Tommy

    @raven: You know Miles Davis is just a little west of me. From East St. Louis. Can I just please say Miles just a little.

  76. 76.

    different-church-lady

    @redshirt: I just feel bad because I haven’t been keeping up with my Balloon Juicing responsibilities lately. All I know is that according to current protocol many things and people who have stupid asses need to be fucked up them, but which ones in particular I’m not up to date on.

  77. 77.

    Keith G

    @schrodinger’s cat: Christopher Kimball was, once upon a time, interesting for his different point of view. Now I just find him self-impressed and insufferable.

    Then again, many of the PBS-type cooking shows have moved markedly upscale. To survive, they need underwriting which they get from Alessi, All Clad, and Le Creuset. To get that they need to attract a specific demographic.

  78. 78.

    trollhattan

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    It’s okay, we missed 97% of your floody, drenchy thing a couple weeks back so this is the sprinkling we need to knock down the dust and short out the gazillion pole-mounted transformers a.k.a. the actual, not fake calendar start of fall.

    One ski resort is open but of course they’d been making snow once it finally got below freezing at night.

    ETA cleaned the furnace filter and ran it the first time last Friday; even turned on the heated bathroom floor. Been awhile for either and the furnace had quite the shriek on first starting up. Trying to ignore anything that might hint at replacement time.

  79. 79.

    redshirt

    @different-church-lady:

    I just feel back because I haven’t been keeping up with my Balloon Juicing responsibilities lately. All I know is that according to current protocol many things and people who have stupid asses need to be fucked up them, but which ones in particular I’m not up to date on.

    If you’ve got any go-to Cole insults, roll with that. Otherwise, mock Cole and you’ll fit right in.

  81. 81.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Keith G: Still like Jacques, Pati’s Mexican Kitchen, Hubert Keller and Nick Stellino and of course good old Julia reruns. NYT had a magazine piece on Kimball, that really took the scales off my eyes regarding him.
    Mr K is from old money in NYC, all this Vermont farmer schtick is just for show.

  84. 84.

    FlyingToaster

    @ThresherK:

    Now, “Chess” is a cult.

    Careful there, I can sing along the whole damn thing.

    I’m the Arbiter
    I know the score
    From Square One
    I’ll be watching all
    Sixty-Four

    I haven’t started WarriorGirl on Chess yet — I’ve got her singing Ode an der Freude and her Violin teacher just added it as a technical exercise.

  86. 86.

    redshirt

    @different-church-lady:

    It dropped into the low 30s last month. I did not turn on the heat. I am crazy. And income strapped.

    To go all Tommy on ya, many years ago I lived in a cabin in the woods, writing novels. This cabin had no heat nor any insulation, nor did it get any real sun since it was covered in giant pine trees. It’s a summer cabin, not intended for the cold. But I stayed there till 10/31 through many freezing events, which involved liquids freezing inside the cabin. It was a war, it was brutal. I was so very cold.

    Now, I live in a custom designed house with 100% sun exposure, so I thought I would see if I could go to 10/31 with no heat, just to compare. And I did, it was easy. The weather helped, but I searched back to long ago to find the weather was not that different today then long ago. Temps were below freezing many nights.

    So easy I’m gonna keep going as long as possible with no heat. Looking at the forecast I’ll make 11/15 easy, and we’ll see from there.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @efgoldman:

    We’re saving up to see it in 2018. Okay, it’s really for a trip to NYC (where neither of us have ever been) when G gets his masters degree, but we’re going to get tickets as part of the trip.

    @Shana:

    I loved Lin’s horrified expression when Jimmy said they were going to do a second round.

  93. 93.

    trollhattan

    @redshirt:
    Kinda sounds like where they had Walter White stashed until he decided to head back to ABQ.

    God, how I miss that show. Anybody know when “The Americans” is due to return?

  96. 96.

    different-church-lady

    @redshirt: Yeah, Halloween is my standard “target date” for my annual no-using-the-heat game. Thermal underwear and a sleeping bag rated down to 15 degrees are the tools of the trade. That and living alone…

  99. 99.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @redshirt: I turn it on late October and turn it off maybe mid April. I have a high tech thermostat and keep it at 68 for the furry ones.

  100. 100.

    redshirt

    @different-church-lady:

    Yeah, Halloween is my standard “target date” for my annual no-using-the-heat game. Thermal underwear and a sleeping bag rated down to 15 degrees are the tools of the trade. That and living alone…

    Yeah, I’ve definitely changed my wardrobe – multiple layers.

    You should find someone to live with you – each additional person is like a 99 degree heat source! Think of the savings.

  103. 103.

    redshirt

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I turn it on late October and turn it off maybe mid April. I have a high tech thermostat and keep it at 68 for the furry ones.

    I’m surprised based on your location. Do you run an AC during the warm months?

  104. 104.

    Tenar Darell

    @Betty Cracker: Blame it on the soundtrack. It dragged me out twice this weekend to try my luck in a lottery! But, Hand to God was good too, just, no contagious soundtrack there ;-)

  106. 106.

    FlyingToaster

    @efgoldman: Whoa. I think I played the Passacaglia from that (part 2, Night) about 37 years ago on Clarinet. My HS band/orchestra teacher had a fetish for Schoenberg.

    But if Bjork could do it, it should be possible :) Though I think I’ll wait until summer, when she has something resembling free time.

  108. 108.

    Anne Laurie

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Mr K is from old money in NYC, all this Vermont farmer schtick is just for show.

    Hell, that’s been true of most “Vermont farmers” any time since the late 1880s… well, the NYC part; not all of the blow-ins had money *cough*Bernie-from-Brooklyn Sanders* cough* . How you can tell (so I hear), the NYC imports are the only Vermonters who’ll talk to people who haven’t lived in Vermont for at least three generations. And it’s hard to do a cooking show with someone who only opens their mouth to snarl, “Get lost, flatlander bastids”…

  111. 111.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @FlyingToaster: Ha! There a couple in every crowd of liberals.

    My assimilation to the Cult of Chess was completed when I saw the first run on Broadway. Every so often I dragoon my wife into seeing it somewhere nearby, or not so nearby.

  113. 113.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @redshirt: It’s an apartment, so I’m limited in what I can do. I talked to the landlord in July, and he was pretty unsympathetic to any of my ideas(add trees, add insulation, install a solar attic fan) even if there was zero monetary cost to him.

  119. 119.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @Anne Laurie: One show (Cooks Country) is shot in a Vermont place, and ATK itself is filmed in the test kitchen in the Boston suburbs. But Kimball lives in Vermont?

    I just wonder, as I do with all cooking shows, how few of the dishes the on-air folks do themselves.

  120. 120.

    Nate Dawg

    I hate sports. Appeal to the basest of human instincts–tribalism. Encourage and glorify violence. Football is the worst. Soccer too.

  121. 121.

    schrodinger's cat

    @ThresherK (GPad): Have you seen Satyajit Ray’s movie, Shatranj ke Khiladi, Or the Chess players? Its about the Nawab of Awadh on the eve of conquest by the British India Company how the Nawab and his nobles were engaged in frivolous pursuits like playing chess and finessing a new dance form instead of preparing for the British threat that they knew was coming.

  123. 123.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @schrodinger’s cat: The windows are actually new and with double panes and some kind of coating on them. I really don’t have too much of a problem with heating, cooling in the summer is a problem. I did two things last year to help with heating costs: I replaced one of my monitors that would turn grey if the temperature got below 72 and installed a wifi thermostat. I can control the heat more precisely and remotely.

  124. 124.

    Emma

    @efgoldman: Gah. I’d mercifully forgotten that.

    I’m afraid I have been drawn into the cult of Hamilton. For me, though, the best moment comes when Hamilton tells Jefferson that Virginians are wealthy because the don’t have to pay labor costs. “We know who does your planting.”

  125. 125.

    Satby

    Talking about living without heat and cash-strapped, last year my furnace started blowing cold air in the middle of winter, I think around the end of January. I moved the heaters that I used to use for the dogs into the house and carried on, never had the cash for what I assumed would be a big repair. For the rest of the winter, the warmest the house would get on a sunny day was about 55. I was fine, so were the animals, but visitors didn’t linger long.

    Fast forward, this winter I have two girls from tropical climates staying with me. When they arrived in September they thought the low 70s were nippy. We were pretty lucky that the weather stayed warmish and I didn’t have to put on the heat, but last week I finally had the furnace guys in. Know what was wrong the whole time? A spring in the freaking thermostat. Cost: about $10.

  126. 126.

    redshirt

    @efgoldman:

    Yuh can’t get theah from heah…..

    I’m proclaiming this the official “Maine Quote” right here.

    Well done on the spelling out of the accent for all to understand.

    I’d vote your post up if such a thing were possible.

  127. 127.

    Renie

    Anyone here been following the Blankenship/Big Coal trial? This guy is some nasty piece of $hit. I hope he gets convicted and goes away for a long time.

  128. 128.

    trollhattan

    @redshirt:
    The casa is circa ’28, Spanish revival. Other than thermal mass (they had no concept of “insulation”) over the years we’ve added attic insulation, dual-pane fenestration (love that word), blown-in exterior wall insulation, replaced furnace and added A/C. Comfort and livability are vastly improved. Who can tell about efficiency? I’m certain we’re using less gas and electricity than had we not done all it and after a ten-day hundred-degree stint, I don’t mind coming home.

  129. 129.

    lamh36

    So the media has made the Mizzou protest a story about protestors vs journos…art of distraction wins again….smh

  130. 130.

    trollhattan

    @Renie:
    I’d love Blankenship to get Saudi justice but I’ll settle for life in prison and civil judgements that vacuum his entire estate. Bastard.

  132. 132.

    Mike J

    @lamh36:

    So the media has made the Mizzou protest a story about protestors vs journos…art of distraction wins again

    It’s happening at a school known for two things: sticking your hand up cows, and even more distasteful, journalism.

  133. 133.

    Renie

    @trollhattan: there was questioning by his lawyers to one of the witnesses and he was implying that it was the workers’ fault that safety issues weren’t taken care of. typical CEO attitude, blame the problem on the workers. Blankenship is a true a-hole.

  134. 134.

    trollhattan

    @redshirt:
    Depends on the groundwater basin but for the most part, yeah, go deep, get a ginormous pump and suck your neighbors’ aquifers dry. California has laxer (a word?) groundwater laws than Texas.

    Texas.

  135. 135.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Emma:

    You should definitely watch the piece about the cast album I posted above. I keep switching on which cast member I’m most impressed with, because they’re all astounding. Leslie Odom Jr sings “Wait For It” in the recording booth and the whole rest of the cast stops to listen.

  138. 138.

    Keith G

    @lamh36:

    So the media has made the Mizzou protest a story about protestors vs journos…art of distraction wins again….smh

    NO!

    Your statement is 50 lbs of wrong in a 10 lb sack.

    When the students set up a “press-free zone” in a public space, they were…well… they were not using their college education to it’s fullest potential.

    When the students used physical intimidation to deal with a reporter (fellow student) whose presence they objected to, they became Donald Trump.

    It was so very foolish.

  140. 140.

    Sad_Dem

    @redshirt: I can’t believe the Chargers are going to move. And to LA?!?

    Dean Spanos *wants* to move the Chargers because the people of San Diego aren’t keen on building a free stadium for a billionaire. He’s been making loud noises about Carson, and to heck with those pesky environmental impact reviews. So far, no free stadium. Ha-ha, as Nelson Muntz would say.

  142. 142.

    moderateindy

    @schrodinger’s cat: Are you an old wife? Because you’re believing their tales. You don’t catch a cold by not wearing a jacket in cold weather. And while we’re at it antibiotics can’t cure a cold either.

Comments are closed.