Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Everybody saw this coming.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Afternoon Open Thread

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  2. 2.

    Germy

    It looks more to me like the hen is saying to the dog “C’mon, c’mon! I love you, I love you, kiss me! Where ya goin’??”

    And the dog is saying “I told you goddammit it’s over. I can’t take your amphetamine addiction anymore!”

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    It’s really funny you would post this now, Betty (and it makes me laugh, too) — by coincidence, I was heading over to see if there was an open thread up where I could post this (with the admonition to turn the sound up, or at least on).

  5. 5.

    Germy

    Fine-looking hen.

    I am reminded of the chicken who was acting all proud. Another chicken asked her why she looked so happy. First chicken said “I’m a special hen… I believe I’m destined for the clergy. I overheard farmer Brown say I’ll be a good friar.”

  6. 6.

    01jack

    And why, oh why, can’t the widget that embeds the gif have a control to please fortheloveofgod STOP the continuous play?

  8. 8.

    schrodinger's cat

    I have a car buying question. I am in a market for a used Prius ( 2 to 3 years old) and have done prior research but it will be my first time going to a dealer to buy a car. Any special tips from car buying veterans? Thanks. Do you call them first and make an appointment or just show up?

  9. 9.

    schrodinger's cat

    Another signboard from Pune ( a city in India where they take special pride in delivering maximum insult in minimum words, kinda like Balloon Juice but IRL)

    Outside a studio for portraits and such. If you don’t like your photos blame your father, not us.

    ETA: When I was being particularly argumentative as a child my mother used to call me Puneri, having only visited Pune once or twice, I am only getting the import of her quip just now.

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    This Governor is a hot mess.

    Governor’s role in hotel disturbance draws national attention

    by Uriel J. Garcia and Milan Simonich
    The New Mexican

    Gov. Susana Martinez, newly elected chairwoman of the Republican Governors Association and recently touted as a possible contender for vice president, found herself attracting a different sort of national attention Friday after the release of a recording in which she told law enforcement dispatchers that police should not investigate disturbance complaints against her group at a Santa Fe hotel.Martinez’s recorded dealings with police, dispatchers and hotel employees made her a wide target for criticism Friday. Her detractors and political enemies accused her of trying to bully other government employees to thwart an investigation.

    The confrontation began about 1:30 a.m. Sunday following the governor’s holiday staff party in a hotel ballroom when an employee of the hotel called police to report troublesome guests “partying” in a room and to ask that police escort them off the property.

    “They’ve been warned already and they’re still not quieting down. They were told to leave and we were told to call you guys,” the employee said. A dispatcher asked if the guests had weapons. “I just know that they were throwing bottles off the balcony, I believe, earlier,” the employee replied.

  19. 19.

    Shell

    At first i thought that couldn’t be a live critter, with those weird arms it had to be some kind of marionette or puppet. but,…guess not.

  20. 20.

    Punchy

    @schrodinger’s cat: Go on a weekday. Preferrably, a rainy or otherwise really shitty weather day. Salesmen trying to make quota on a day where so few peep are out will cut the best deal. So says my former used car salesman colleague….

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodinger’s cat: Have you used Autotrader.com or a similar site to get an idea of the local used inventory of your target vehicle and the prevailing price range? If not, that can be very useful to know. Around here, anyway, you don’t need an appointment. Just show up and you’ll be swarmed!

    Cookie bake-off went well. As usual, we were up to the wee hours packaging the goods. No matter how hard we try, we can’t start early enough or scale back our ambitions sufficiently to avoid that.

  27. 27.

    MattF

    @schrodinger’s cat: Go to the ‘truecar.com’ site and find the prices that nearby dealers have asked for what you want. Bear in mind that car dealers are professional negotiators– trying to outsmart them is a waste of time.

    Get financing, if you need it, from a bank or a credit union, not from a dealer. Avoid add-ons and warranties. Ask friends and associates for recommendations for an honest dealer. Try to have a clear picture of what you want, and be willing to walk out if the dealer isn’t offering it.

    And good luck.

  28. 28.

    debbie

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Betty’s right, just show up.

    Do your research, arm yourself with comparables. They’ll name a price and you come back with yours. Know that they’ll bitch and moan and tell you they’ll never get that price past their manager, but then magically, they’ll manage to do just that. It’s a buyer’s market. Your attitude should be that you know you can go some place else if need be. They can’t.

  29. 29.

    Mary G

    @schrodinger’s cat: Next week is a great time to buy a car, because they are trying to make year-end quotas. Edmunds.com and Consumer Reports are great resources. You don’t need an appointment as there are always herds of sales people hanging around dealerships. Allow several hours for haggling and paperwork.

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    Why Lindsey Graham’s departure matters
    12/21/15 10:42 AM
    By Steve Benen
    The massive Republican presidential field hasn’t seen many departures lately, but that changed this morning when the field shrunk from 14 members to 13. MSNBC reported:
    Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is dropping out of the presidential race. “While we have run a campaign that has made a real difference, I have concluded this is not my time,” he said in a statement Monday.

    “I am suspending my campaign but never my commitment to achieving security through strength for the American people,” he said.
    The timing is not coincidental: in Graham’s home state of South Carolina, today is the last day in which presidential candidates can be removed from the first-in-the-South primary ballot.

    Graham also released a two-minute YouTube video this morning to announce the end of his White House bid.

    The senator’s departure was, for all intents and purposes, inevitable. He was out of step with much of his party on a variety of issues, leading to weak fundraising and anemic support in the polls. Graham failed to qualify, for example, for any of the prime-time Republican debates this year.

    The Republican lawmaker did his best to position himself as the anti-Trump – two weeks ago, Graham argued, “You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell” – and he even had a confrontation in which Trump gave out Graham’s personal cell-phone number to the public, but his campaign nevertheless struggled for relevance.

    When a candidate averaging 0.7% in national polling exits the stage, it’s tempting to think the impact will be non-existent, but in this case, Graham’s departure may be more important than widely assumed.

    Keep in mind, Senate Republicans have, by and large, stayed on the sidelines in the GOP presidential race. Of the 54 Republican senators in the chamber, only 11 have made endorsements (one, John McCain, backed Graham, which actually brings the overall total down to 10 as of this morning).

  32. 32.

    Anoniminous

    @rikyrah:

    That’s only the latest fubar. Martinez has a stack of issues going back to her first campaign and continuing right on through. She is unelectable to national office and has max’ed out her career here in NM too.

  34. 34.

    PurpleGirl

    @Betty Cracker: Some of us may have problems with the motion catching our eyes and distracting us from reading. At least in my case, that is what happens. I find gifs like that or animated ads to be very distracting and annoying. It’s a peculiar glitch in my brain but it kicks in and makes it hard for me to read.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @MattF:

    Get financing, if you need it, from a bank or a credit union, not from a dealer.

    And don’t let them talk about how you’re going to pay for the car at the same time you’re talking about the price.

  37. 37.

    gene108

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I have a car buying question. I am in a market for a used Prius ( 2 to 3 years old) and have done prior research but it will be my first time going to a dealer to buy a car. Any special tips from car buying veterans? Thanks. Do you call them first and make an appointment or just show up?

    As stated up thread, you can use Autotrader.com to get an idea of what cars are in your area. I like Cargurus.com, too.

    You can also peruse the Carmax.com website, as they do not advertise on these other websites and their price is the price of the car, no haggling involved.

    Also go to KBB.com and look up what the Blue Book value of the car is, before going into the dealership, so you have a number to start negotiating with, if you feel the dealer’s price is too high.

    Also, if you are trading in, go to KBB.com and figure out what a fair value for your car is.

  38. 38.

    rikyrah

    Data: Meet the finalists that could design the Obama Presidential Center
    By Blair Kamin

    The Barack Obama Foundation on Monday named seven architectural firms that will compete for one of Chicago’s and the nation’s most sought-after commissions — the design of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, which will be built in Washington Park or Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are expected to select a winner by mid-2016. Here are profiles of the finalists:

    Adjaye Associates

    Offices in London, New York and Accra, Ghana
    David Adjaye

    Bio: Born in 1966, David Adjaye spent his childhood in Africa and the Middle East where his father, a Ghanaian diplomat, was posted. His family moved permanently to Britain in 1979. His best-known designs include internally focused, spatially inventive houses for London artists, a public library (called an “idea store”) in a heavily Bengali section of
    London, the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, and the National Museum of
    African American History and Culture in Washington, opening next year. Adjaye is featured in a one-man show at the Art Institute of Chicago that illuminates how he incorporates multiple cultural and visual references into his buildings. The show closes Jan. 3.

    Notable project: National Museum of African American History and Culture (under construction)

    Inside story: Speculation about Adjaye and the Obama library began after Adjaye sat with the president at a 2012 state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron. The socially conscious character of Adjaye’s buildings and his transnational background appear to mesh well with Obama, a former community organizer whose own multiethnic background includes being raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.

  39. 39.

    slag

    I’m exploring techniques for drawing on video frames such as the method used in that GIF

    I’m curious about this as well. Any tips? Software recommendations?

  41. 41.

    Peale

    The good news is that unless New Orlean’s kicker can get 50 points tonight, I should cruise into the championship game of the office fantasy football league next weekend and might win the $500 pool. The bad news is that my fate hangs on the league deciding against suspending Odell Beckham. Maybe they’ll go easy on him and suspend him for a quarter. Or they’ll hire Steve Harvey to announce the suspension and Victoria Beckham will get the collar instead.

  42. 42.

    Emerald

    Do not laugh. The little emu chick should not be in somebody’s living room, especially not with a dog.

    It is a wild creature. It needs to go to an animal sanctuary to live with other emus.

    Not somebody’s living room. With a dog. Which will at least injure it, eventually.

    /rant

  43. 43.

    Paul in KY

    @Roger Moore: Best thing to do is to let them think you are going to finance thru them & get the lowest price you can (with them thinking they’ll recoup it all on the financing scheme) and then decide, ‘Oh, I’ll just write you a check for it’.

    They will be pissed, but you will have em by the short hairs. Probably will never be able to go back to that lot, though.

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: Benen is a very astute fellow, but I don’t see Graham’s exit from the race having much of an impact at all. It’s hard to believe GOP voters will give a shit if Republican senators stampede to Rubio’s column to spite Cruz.

  45. 45.

    Thoughtful Today

    rikyrah,

    Thank you for putting the links at the top of the articles you post.

    I click-through to more of the articles that way.

  46. 46.

    Paul in KY

    Every time I try to ‘reply’ to comment 39 above, I get sent directly to the book buying site (this when I try to type my reply, in my reply box).

    Slick bit of marketeering there, Iowa Old Lady ;-)

  48. 48.

    elmo

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    Show up knowing what you want, in detail. I would visit Autotrader.com first, so you know what is on the lot and you can ask to see that particular car.
    Know what the Kelley Blue Book retail *and* trade-in values are, so you know what the dealership has probably paid for the car as a trade.
    Know what you’re willing to pay, and be willing to walk away from a deal that doesn’t meet your needs.
    Have your financing squared away already via bank or credit union. If you can’t – and not everybody can – then be sure to focus your discussion with the dealership on the price of the car out the door, and not the monthly payment. Get the price right, and the monthly payment will follow.
    Do not show enthusiasm or uncertainty. This is a business transaction; emotion is your enemy.
    If you can bring a strong-minded friend along to help with that last point, do it.
    The axiom in every negotiation is that He who speaks first, loses. So make the dealership negotiate against themselves if you can. Example: The asking price is $27,899, but everybody at the table knows that’s negotiable. So before you name your price, ask the salesman what kind of deal he can offer if you’re willing to sign papers today.
    The willingness to sign papers *today* and not go away and “think about it” has value. Make the salesman pay for that value with an opening offer.
    And above all, DO NOT BE EMBARRASSED TO HAGGLE. It is expected. It is built into the price. So when you find yourself wanting to be agreeable and accept the “great deal” that your salesman has heroically managed to extract from “the manager,” STOP. Squeeze every nickel until the buffalo screams.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    I replaced the GIF in the original post with a YouTube video because of “CPU cycling” (whatever the hell that is!) and the possibility that the continuous motion might bother people. Turns out that the video is a “Director’s Cut” with a few seconds of additional hilarious footage, so, bonus!

  50. 50.

    lethargytartare

    @MattF:

    @schrodinger’s cat: Go to the ‘truecar.com’ site and find the prices that nearby dealers have asked for what you want. Bear in mind that car dealers are professional negotiators– trying to outsmart them is a waste of time.

    as a personal favor to all Chicago soccer fans, please boycott truecar.

    I’m kinda sorta almost not kidding.

  51. 51.

    elmo

    @Iowa Old Lady: Don’t be embarrassed!! Self-promotion is a vital part of living as a writer. Go and read John Scalzi’s site and see what he has to say about it.

    She who has a thing to sell
    And goes and whispers in a well
    Is not as apt to get the dollars
    As she who climbs a tree and hollers.

  53. 53.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    @schrodinger’s cat: Don’t let them bully you into anything. Go in with somebody else and play good cop/bad cop. The bad cop had to be the one who appears in the relationship to have final decision powers and,this is important, the bad cop needs to walk away towards the end of the negotiating when they’re haggling over something minor. If there’s space there, they’ll make it work. Go towards the end of the month when they’re trying to make.
    their numbers. Don’t fall in love with a car or at least don’t show it. Don’t answer the ‘what payment do you want to be at?’ question. When you’re negotiating ask for the out the door price so they don’t magically come up with a tax or something to tack one. Make sure you don’t get screwed on the price/upgrades/the loan term/the interest rate/the trade in and the extras – extended warranty / extra insurance(both bad ideas.) They’ll try and screw you at each point. Make sure you double check your paperwork that you actually sign on the figures. I’ve had finance people magically add on stuff or change interest rates/terms on the final paperwork. Good luck.

  54. 54.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @elmo: Thank you. Scalzi is always a great read.

    I’m not earning my living with this (thank god because I’d starve) but I would like my characters to have readers to love them.

  59. 59.

    Cermet

    @schrodinger’s cat: Bought one – found it via internet at a small second-hand dealership – decent price but very good car/low mileage; listed the options (important – does it have GPS? Multi-speakers, other upgrades you may or may not want) as well as std mileage/color. These cars are built well but if there is an issue can be expensive. Tires tend to be an issue on some – can leak! As I tell everyone – unless you drive a lot, the car isn’t worth the extra cost.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Everyone else has given good advice, so I’ll give a random piece of advice based on my last car buying experience — bring a snack. It’s a really, really long process that will take far longer than you imagine. I was lucky that the nice lady in the finance department had a granola bar in her desk.

  62. 62.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    @Anoniminous: Martinez sounded like a total beeyotch on the phone call to the police dispatcher. What was she going to do with the info on who complained about the noise if she got it. And the way she said we’re just having some ‘peee-t-zah and coke’ just was like chalk on a board to me. Ugly person. Ugly voice.

  63. 63.

    schrodinger's cat

    Thanks everyone for the great tips. I have looked at three dealer websites

    1. One suggested by AmEx and AAA, it has a no haggle price guarantee. (Prices are slightly higher here and inventory seems limited)
    2. The Toyota dealership
    3. A used car dealership that my neighbor brought her Prius from.

    I will be taking husband cat, who is a serious kitteh with me.

  65. 65.

    Doug R

    a href=”#comment-5595095″>schrodinger’s cat: There’s a great book out there called”Don’t Get Taken Every Time” by a former car salesman packed with excellent advice.

  66. 66.

    Brachiator

    @Lamh36:

    JK Rowling had spoken!

    Rowling is still the world’s richest author, with a net worth slightly less than $1 billion. She has no fvcks to give, and seems to always have had a generous attitude towards her characters and readers.

    Good on her!

  67. 67.

    Mike J

    For those of you like me who always forget about Monday night football until the half, Arsenal just scored in first half stoppage time. Arsenal 2 0 Man City

  68. 68.

    Mike in NC

    We fly home tomorrow. Ten and a half freaking hours from Frankfurt to Atlanta. Gave a 20€ tip to our bartender Natasha, a beautiful Penelope Cruz lookalike from Belgrade.

  69. 69.

    Ken

    I’m a little surprised no one’s mentioned the Great Emu War.

    In the 1930’s Australia went to war with the Emu; two regiments using machine guns (Lewis Guns, one of the first ‘light’ machine guns) against giant, literally unarmed, flightless birds.

    The Emus won.

  71. 71.

    goblue72

    @Lamh36: Not surprising. Before she was an author, she worked for Amnesty International, and also spent a period of her life (following her divorce) on welfare. She’s an outspoken supporter of the Labour Party, and has noted before that the Harry Potter world was meant to reflect the class hierarchies and racism of the real world.

  72. 72.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Lamh36: You said something last night about rumors that John Boyega isn’t in SW:TFA as much as you might hope.

    Fear not.

    He has a major character arc, perhaps the character arc of the movie. I don’t know the exact minutes on screen, but I think he and Daisy Ridley come out pretty close to equal.

  77. 77.

    Peale

    @redshirt: I’m doomed. He deserves the suspension, he has the suspension, this isn’t like baseball where the appeal can take weeks. My season now rests in the very shaky old hands of Anquan Bolden.

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    @Peale: Hope you don’t have Odell Bechham Jr. The NFL just suspended him for one game for jackassery during yesterday’s contest vs. the Panthers.

  84. 84.

    Ken

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Essentially, as I understand it, the Australian government settled a bunch of WWI veterans as farmers on some land that was right on the edge of the emu’s range. The emus responded as wild animals often do to free food.

    The vets reacted with force, but there were too many emus. So they appealed to the government, who decided to send in the army.

    It went sideways. Emus are fast and surprisingly resilient, so the machine guns killed a relative handful, and then the herd scattered. Making things worse, they were surprisingly tough (soldiers compared them to ‘Zulu Warriors’). The thirties was a rather less sensitive time.

    Some reading, if you’re interested.

    From ‘War is Boring:’

    https://medium.com/war-is-boring/australia-once-lost-a-war-to-the-mighty-emu-fd0f07203ca4#.t9kd7qc9f

    Scientific American:

    http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/running-ponies/the-great-emu-war-in-which-some-large-flightless-birds-unwittingly-foiled-the-australian-army/

    Wikipedia:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War

  86. 86.

    NotMax

    Turkey alert!

    Knew that TCM would again drag it out of the depths of the vault. Two opportunities to squander 12 minutes watching the most stupendously insipid, the most tacky Christmas short ever, A Visit To Santa.

    Ed Wood himself likely would have called it an awful example of film making.

    Thursday, Dec. 24 at 5:43 p.m.
    Friday, Dec. 25 at 11:43 p.m.

  88. 88.

    Betty Cracker

    @Peale: Ah, I see Red already informed you. Oh well, good pick in any case. He deserves the suspension, but he’s a helluva receiver when he’s not smacking corners around.

  89. 89.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WereBear:

    I can’t remember now which particular Hillaryscandalgate was going on at the time, but weren’t there also some accusations of “suspicious timing” with Chelsea’s first baby?

    Those nefarious Clintons will stop at nothing, nothing, to secure their dynastic takeover of America!

  94. 94.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m hoping it’ll be born on the same day the Republican nominee names his vice-presidential running mate.

    ETA: Or, as NotMax notes, the traditional Labor Day start of the general campaign.

  95. 95.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    ETA: From a screenwriting POV, Finn is the protagonist, but some people might try to argue.

    It’s Rey. No argument. None. But you are right that Finn actions set the narrative in motion. Or is it BD8’s actions?

    Still avoiding spoilers, Oscar Isaac’s Po Dameron has relatively less screen time than the other two new characters. But the film is deliberately designed to move into any number of directions to explore characters and story.

  98. 98.

    redshirt

    @Peale: That’s not good.

    What’s your starting roster? Who’s on your bench?

    Since I got kicked out of the playoffs because of one bad decision, I’m free to offer non-biased advice.

  99. 99.

    Betty Cracker

    @Felonius Monk: Even if that happened, Beckham’s actions during the game were inexcusable. I don’t know how many yards he cost his team in penalties, but it was a close game, and that shit matters.

  100. 100.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    I think they’re co-protagonists, TBH. So much of the plot depends on each of their decisions throughout the story that I don’t think you can say only one of them is the “real” protagonist.

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    I’ve bought a number of new cars and trucks over the last nearly 50 yrs, including being equipment manager for a medium sized company. A few hints.
    1. When you walk in and have been there for less than 5 minutes, do you feel you need to watch for a knife in the back? If so walk directly out the door. There is almost always another dealer within short driving distance. IOW they think they own you, don’t let them.
    2. Have patience. Lots and lots of it. They will hand you off to different people to disarm/confuse you. Keep a level head.
    3. As many have said the internet is your friend. Look and learn before you go. A side note, some dealers understand that you may actually know something and treat you OK.
    4. Always be ready to walk out the door. Always. It is your only real power. Even when you’ve agreed with the car, the price, be aware and be ready to walk. Of course once you sign the papers it’s your car and all. But at that point they generally aren’t trying to squeeze more money out of you.
    5. Be aware of add ons. Do you really need what they try to make you believe you do? Most of the time they are money makers for the dealer and nothings for you.
    6. I’ve used credit unions, and mfg credit (or cash) for most of my purchases and been happy. Do not use the bank or credit companies that auto dealers will try and push. They are getting kickbacks and you are paying for those. If you have good credit I’ve found the best deals with mfg credit but as in all cases it’s buyer beware.
    7. This could be number 1. Know what you want before you walk in the door. What make, if used what year, colors you will buy, etc. If you are buying used, mileage is important but how the car was cared for is even more important. A 2-3 yr old car off lease will be more expensive but will generally have lower mileage and usage.
    That ought to get you started.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    I think they’re co-protagonists, TBH. So much of the plot depends on each of their decisions throughout the story that I don’t think you can say only one of them is the “real” protagonist.

    Fair enough. I know some Star Wars …. “purists” who wanted the movie to be all about the further adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. They are stuck in that nostalgia rut. But the movie wisely does more than that. And I obviously left out Kylo Ren, who also has his own story arc.

    And given Disney’s past caution in designing movies for popular consumption, there is, sadly, some risk in a major entertainment with a black actor and a woman actor at the center of the action. Even more than the US, some foreign countries are hard sell markets when it comes to this.

  103. 103.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    I think that, once they knew they had a good script, it lowered the risk of having the non-traditional leads, though. At this point, even hardcore racists and misogynists are going to have a hard time convincing people to stay home now that just about everyone else on the planet has seen it.

  104. 104.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Ordered. Sounds like fun! Congratulations!

    If that’s really a photo of you, I have to say I was envisioning a very different-looking person based on your nym.

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    I think that, once they knew they had a good script, it lowered the risk of having the non-traditional leads, though.

    Sadly, I think this is still a risk. “Creed” had a good script and was a good movie. The other day, I was listening to a movie podcast hosted by two Australian women. They noted that “Creed” could not get booked in some of the better theaters and was dissed by many people they knew who were just not interested in a movie, even a Rocky movie, with a black in the lead.

    And there has already been the mini-Star Wars scandal of the Chinese movie poster that appeared to demote John Boyega by moving his photo on the poster and making it much smaller.

    Aside from giving BB-8 more prominence, the biggest discrepancy between the two posters is the shrinking of Boyega’s Finn and the positioning of his body. Boyega, who plays a lead role, is lowered down from the original poster — where he’s the third largest character after Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren and Daisy Ridley’s Rey — and tucked under Harrison Ford’s gun-toting Han Solo and Carrie Fisher’s Leia, and behind a much lager BB-8.

    Meanwhile, other non-white characters, including Oscar Isaac, who plays rebel pilot Poe Dameron, Lupita Nyong’o, who plays alien pirate Maz Kanata, and Chewbacca have been cut out altogether. They’re replaced by X-wings, TIE fighters and rows of Stormtroopers….

    In a similar recent incident, Lionsgate was forced to recall marketing material for “12 Years a Slave,” after posters in Italy featured Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender at the expense of star Chiwetel Ejiofor.

    Racist attitudes die hard, and movie studios have not always been willing to stand up to it. The movie has not yet opened in China, so it remains to be seen what the reaction there might be.

  106. 106.

    Peale

    @redshirt:

    For receivers I’ve got Beckham, Marshall, Decker, Boldin and Benjamin. I’ve been doing well starting Marsall and keeping decker in the flex spot even though they are both on the same team. They’re usually good for a combined 30 points.

    At TE I’ve got Kelce and Rodgers. I could move Rodgers to the flex, decker to start or start boldin in place of Beckham and leave well enough alone, even though the jets face the patriots this week which worries me about starting both Decker and Marshall for a change.
    At RB I start Gurley and Hightower. Gordon and Demarco Murray are on the bench. I’m going with the unproven Hightower tonight because Murray and Gordon have proven that they are finished.

    qb is Newton. Minnesota is the Defense. Basically this team has relied on Newton, Marshall Gurley and Beckham to go nuts.

  108. 108.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    Marketing =/= final cut. Sometimes in movie marketing, you have to get people’s butts into the seats before they figure out what’s really going on, and it’s not just bad movies that have to do that. If you start hearing about movies being recut to remove minority characters, then that would be much bigger problem.

    And I’ve heard good things about “Creed” (we’re going to try and see it over the holidays), but it was always a big risk to do a new “Rocky” movie, and it probably was never going to play well outside the US. On the other hand, it’s made $87 million in the US alone on a $35 million budget, so Warner Bros is still happy.

  109. 109.

    redshirt

    @Peale: Damn, you’re stacked.

    Maybe Boldin is your best bet. Too bad about losing OBJ – although maybe his suspension will get pushed back a week on appeal.

  110. 110.

    lamh36

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: thx, I have since gotten reviews from a friend or two who saw the film and they also said that at the very least Boyega is set up to be an integral part of the series.

    That is good to know. I have a godson and a nephew who aren’t big on SW, but they are intrigued by the character of Finn, played by Boyega

  111. 111.

    J R in WV

    @Roger Moore:

    Don’t let them talk about the monthly payment either. That’s none of their business, even if many customers work that way.

    Take a look at Carmax.com who sells used cars nation-wide. They’re not the lowest cost seller, so you can use them as a ceiling for a local business. Consumer Reports has a well-regarded car-buying service where they have ID’d reputable dealers and act as a go-between to get customers valid current best prices for cars worth buying. It isn’t an expensive service when you think about how much you expect to spend.

    I have had auto salesmen offer me bribes to “help” my mother-in-law pick their car! So don’t expect a high level of professional behavior here.

  113. 113.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Mnemosyne: I think I would argue that Finn is the protagonist for this movie and Rey the protagonist for the trilogy. If we had a spoiler thread, I would love to dissect the Hero’s Journey beats with you.

    @lamh36: They will love Finn.

  114. 114.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    Your godson and nephew will definitely have many opportunities to run around the house saying, “Pew-pew-pew! I’m Finn!” With the way it ends, I’m pretty sure he’ll be back in the next movie, too.

    Also, until I looked him up in IMDb, I always assumed Oscar Isaac was British or South African. He’s actually Latino — his dad is Cuban and his mom is Guatemalan.

  115. 115.

    henqiguai

    @Betty Cracker (49):

    I replaced the GIF in the original post with a YouTube video because of “CPU cycling” (whatever the hell that is!)

    It means, on my system, at least, that it’s forcing Firefox to draw additional system resources every time that GIF cycles through. Maybe it’s not much of a problem for most, but I’m still running an older more resource constrained system. There are work arounds…

  118. 118.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    If you are within even semi-convenient distance of a CarMax, consider going there. The price is the price and there are no shenanigans. You can check stock and prices on their website, and they will bring a car from another location if you want it. The price you pay may be a little higher then you could negotiate elsewhere, but from the level of questions you’re asking here you don’t sound like a hardened car negotiator.

  119. 119.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @J R in WV:

    I bet the grammar is correct…

    I have read the first chapter plus a couple of pages, and I can assure you that not only is the grammar impeccable, but also the world IOL has created is fascinating and compelling. I may be 73 years old, but I am very much enjoying this YA novel so far!

  120. 120.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Doug R:

    That is an excellent book! I was going to recommend it, but I assumed it is out of print. It must be 30 years old. (But the information would still be valid today.)

Comments are closed.