This is it, right here. This is peak internet. https://t.co/HEqAnFiNA1
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) December 30, 2015
Bahahaha @ReturnOfKings pic.twitter.com/wZFSy6mccR
— #TakeDownMRAs (@TakedownMRAs) December 31, 2015
@ReturnOfKings pic.twitter.com/YqSAOCdtBN
— Millennial Vulcan (@armoredgorilla) December 30, 2015
Before anyone asks: I’m using the ‘Vagina Outrage’ tag because the RoK guys seem to be very, very outraged by even the thought of vaginas.
‘SJW’ is ‘social justice warriors’, meaning ‘women and men who don’t hate/fear women’, and yes the guys slinging that phrase around do think it is a clever insult. ‘MRA’ is ‘men’s rights activists’, meaning… well, I think you can figure that part out.
Speaking of silly people, how’s the New Year’s Even preps going in your neighborhood(s)?
redshirt
Um, can I get a summary?
Is it about Carrie Fisher’s weight? As the Internet thinks its an issue?
Adam L Silverman
Begun the Clone War has.
In non Yoda: I have my twin nephews overnight so my brother and sister in law can go out and pretend they have a normal life.
Burgers and dogs go on the grill in a few. We’ve got at least one new Justice League cartoon cued up (Throne of Atlantis), and we may also do Ant-Man.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: Ant-Man was a surprisingly great movie (for a Marvel movie). Have you seen it already? I don’t think there’s anything inappropriate for younger kids except maybe for a couple of mild swear words.
The Republic, Blah Blah Blah...
@redshirt: There are mild swear words?
And I always thought the whole point of ‘swear words’ was to be shocking… period…
Just saying…
Schlemazel
@efgoldman:
me n my uncle jeb aint gonna see it and nobody we knows is gonna see it so that right there means no real man is gonna go and jeb & me figures there gottta be at least a million guys so theres 12 million dollars they lost, prolly more cuz a lot of em would have to see it 2-3 times in order to understand it.
Yutsano
@efgoldman: The calculation they came up with to get to 4.2 million amounts to nothing more than a minor rounding error for the total intake of the film. The number of repeat viewers more than made up for any boycott these schlemazim (uncertain about the plural there) can imagine doing.
Side note: I’m amazed there isn’t a thread about the Carson campaign implosion. I’m at work and can’t post the info right now but OH MAN did his whole campaign apparatus end up nosediving!
redshirt
@The Republic, Blah Blah Blah…: I’d classify “shit” as milder than “fuck”. As does the film rating agency. For a PG-13 movie I think you get unlimited “shits” but only one “fuck” and that has to be in a certain context.
The Republic, Blah Blah Blah...
So this twit thinks he’s costing Disney $4MM… on an estimated $2BB PLUS BO gross…
Wherein $4MM amounts to about .002 of the anticipated BO…
Wow… just… wow…
Anoniminous
Yeah, they really had a major impact. Not:
ETA: Worldwide, the film already has $1.086 billion
srv
I hear C3PO’s lips move more than Leias.
Is this bb8 thing male or female? Looks fat.
JasonF
So I clicked through to the review that he claims led to the $4.2 million loss. In that review, he says “Don’t get me wrong, parts of the movie are glorious” and then proceeds to heap praise on a scene patterned after the Nurenburg rallies.
Poe’s law in action!
redshirt
@efgoldman: I haven’t followed closely, but did Carson do/say anything to cause this drop and now eventual fold?
I don’t recall hearing anything, and there was that period where, equally unexplainable, he was rising in the polls.
Zinsky
Ummm–I’m not sure I follow this either….
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: I’ve seen it and they turn 9 next week. I’m pretty sure the last Justice League cartoon I showed them had damn in it.
And I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: its been ongoing for several weeks.
Anne Laurie
@redshirt:
They turned the Luke Skywalker character into a (ugh!) girl. And her partner is a BLACK guy — the RoK people will tell you they aren’t racists, it’s just that us “social justice warriors” insist on co-opting black people to steal the heroic roles which rightly belong to white guys.
Carrie Fisher’s role was a sub-issue. The MRAs wanted a new young trophy Princess Leia replacement, but if Disney had to bring the old broad back, they should’ve kept calling her ‘Princess’ and not awarded her the ‘General’ title (because only men, preferably white men, can be real generals). Or so I’m told.
Baud
I was so offended by the SJW propaganda that I haven’t seen Star Wars.
That, plus the fact that I wait for everything to come out on video before watching it.
Anoniminous
@redshirt:
Infighting among the campaign staff, apparently. Campaign manager and 20 staff members quit.
Gin & Tonic
@Schlemazel: me n my uncle
went ridin’ down,
South Colorado, West Texas bound,
We stopped over,
In Santa Fe,
…
Figured I’d toss that in, because otherwise I have no Earthly clue what any of this post is about.
Schlemazel
@Schlemazel:
Me n Jed just checked and I wanna correct one thing. Them guys what watched the earlier movies 2-3 times? Wasn’t cuz they they didn’t understand it. The wanted to see that babe in the bikini. That alone accounted for more than $4.2 MM in hand lotion sales.
Anoniminous
@Gin & Tonic:
Buy some stuff while you are here in New Mexico. Lots of great post-Christmas deals can be found – direct from the artist! – at local galleries and studios.
Gin & Tonic
@redshirt: I think you get unlimited “shits” but only one “fuck”
That sounds like a really awful vacation somewhere.
redshirt
@Gin & Tonic: Come to Guatemala!
Schlemazel
@Gin & Tonic:
I was splaining to all youse SJW how we come up with that $4.2 figure for lost sales. But the song is just as good! Thanks!
Ultraviolet Thunder
I’m home from Alabama. Today the sportsball team from my college is playing the sportsball team from an Alabama college. On the plane this seemed like a big deal to people. But I had earplugs and a book.
I’ll hit the sack early and when I wake up 2015 will be over whether I was awake in my time zone or not.
But not until I Google what’s been going on with Carson…
Pogonip
From an entertainment viewpoint, I think Star Wars is long past its sell-by date; from a financial viewpoint, I’d sure like to have Disney stock.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: I really enjoyed it too, not expecting much of it given the pre-release drama. I’d rank it in the top 5 of the Marvel movies, maybe even top 3. I like that the focus is essentially on a bunch of “good-at-heart” criminals and the bad guy is a CEO.
Schlemazel
@Gin & Tonic:
You owe me a new keyboard for that one! I spit some really nice wine all over the poor thing. I’d send you an Internet if I had your address.
schrodinger's cat
I stubbed my little toe day before yesterday and now my right foot is various shades of purple. So I am staying home and icing it.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Oh, so he hired sane people. Another in a long string of bad choices, Ben.
debbie
@Baud:
It’s all DVD for me. I think I’d be frustrated watching a movie in a theater because I couldn’t rewind at will.
Steeplejack (phone)
God, at first I thought these guys were trolling, and I was like “Well played, sirs.” Then I realized they’re serious. Wow.
redshirt
@Anne Laurie: Thank you.
A woman and a black man as heroes?!
WereBear
@Anoniminous: now that’s a meltdown!
bystander
@Baud: I thought “SJW” meant “single Jewish female” and wondered if it was some reference to Carrie Fisher. Or maybe JarJar Binks had been replaced with Dot Matrix from “Spaceballs”. Then I realized that couldn’t be since Joan Rivers is not around to voice her.
Happy New Year, everybody!
max
1) Carrie Fisher was hot in 1977. Also, 1980 and 1983. Not to mention, 2015 and all the points in between.
1b) As is Catherine Deneuve. Right now.
3) Carrie Fisher is fucking awesome.
4) Fuck those dickless weasels.
5) Carrie Fisher should be in all the movies. (Howabout a senior citizen Thelma & Louise with Carrie Fisher and Diana Rigg?)
Speaking of silly people, how’s the New Year’s Even preps going in your neighborhood(s)?
Sick. Steak, because quick. Sleep. Fuck New Year’s.
max
[‘Boomer Sooner!’]
Schlemazel
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
I was stuck on a flight from Detroit to LA one year when Michigan was playing sportsball in a flower bowl. About 2 1/2 hours of 140 super drunk assholes shouting M GO BLUE before they thankfully passed out. I have never prayed for a plane crash while I was on it except for then. I feel for you.
Redshift
@redshirt:
Just the typical ponzi scheme scenario, I think. Once the rate of new suckers starts to slow down, the collapse becomes self-reinforcing. And since his entire campaign seems to have been staffed by grifters, they all know not to be the one left holding the bag.
jl
I have no clue what this is about, other than the new Star Wars movie is supposed to be involved.
So, the year goes out for me with a minor mystery of the internet that will forever remain unsolved.
Got a bad cold just in time for New Year’s Eve, so hot soup, cough medicine and early bed for me.
No one need bother to try to explain it, I’m no in shape to follow even the shortest explanation.
Happy New Year!
Gin & Tonic
@redshirt: Wasn’t there some other stale movie franchise that got recycled recently with a female instead of a male lead, and people got annoyed? Name escapes me, I don’t know if anyone here watched it.
Schlemazel
@schrodinger’s cat:
Of all the things I have fucked up I have never broken a toe (knock wood – I probably just cursed myself) but the woman foolish enough to marry me manages to do it ever few years. It is painful & there is nothing you can do for it, it just sucks. Hope the ice makes it feel better & you heal fast.
redshirt
@Gin & Tonic: Ghostbusters? :)
Adam L Silverman
@redshirt: I was never a big fan of the character as portrayed in the comics or the cartoons, but I was pleasantly surprised with how it turned out.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Schlemazel:
You haven’t seen sportsball enthusiasm until you’ve spent a week in Tuscaloosa during sportsball season. It’s Roll Tide this and Roll Tide that. Whoever has the big gaudy banner concession is a millionaire.
And the big red ‘A’ on all the vehicles. I guess ‘Bama has stricken Hawthorne from the English curriculum.
redshirt
@Gin & Tonic: I also know plans were underway to remake the classic Roadhouse with Rhonda Rousey in the Patrick Swazye role, but I don’t know if that got torpedoed with her shocking loss.
Gin & Tonic
@Schlemazel: My daughter was a competitive gymnast. You wouldn’t believe how often they break their toes.
Schlemazel
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
I can imagine it is wall-to-to wall big red As. Something about sportsball that brings the worst out in people.
PurpleGirl
Quite night for me, watching whatever I find on TV, reading the blog and stuff on the internet.
I’ve not seen the new Star Wars movie yet. I’ll probably go in a few weeks when I can pick any seat in the house. I really don’t like having other people too close around me for a number of reasons.
Redshift
One of the many things I find hilarious about the “he-man woman haters club” (aka MRAs) is how they managed to pick a pejorative term they think is clever, but that any sane person would be proud to wear as a label.
I mean, there always the “Yankee Doodle” effect, where a labeled group turns the pejorative into a badge of honor, but in this case we don’t even have to do that. “Social justice warrior? Sure, I’m a social justice warrior!”
At Worldcon this summer (where the whole “sad puppies” brouhaha was yet another offshoot of these same bozos) you could get buttons of the Captain America shield with “Social Justice Warrior” over it. I wear mine proudly.
schrodinger's cat
@Schlemazel: I don’t think its fractured, I have fractured my toes twice before so I know how much that hurts, but its pretty bad.
redshirt
@Adam L Silverman: Rudd was an inspired choice, as was Douglass, and Lilly as Hope was fantastic. But I think the movie was made by the Luis character and the incredibly smarmy CEO guy.
geg6
Thoroughly enjoyed SW, so fuck the MRAs.
Staying in tonight (too old for going out for NYE). John requested my roasted chicken stuffed with lemon, garlic and thyme (an Ina Garten recipe–delish) with carrots, onions and fennel. Brown and wild rice and green beans on the side and a Cotes du Rhone. Dessert is lemon poppyseed cake with vanilla bean ice cream and Asti Spumante. Bed by 10pm is very likely.
Schlemazel
@Gin & Tonic:
Oh man, she is one tough kid I bet. I seriously do not understand how anyone could deal with what women gymnast have to go through. That is a brutal sport (and that is coming from a womens hockey fan.) It doesn’t surprise me that she would break toes, and fingers as well as other things. It takes not just physical strength but a mental strength I am not sure I have.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Schlemazel:
I’m told college sportsball is huge in Tuscaloosa and ‘Bama generally because there isn’t a pro team within driving distance. They invented one from locally available materials. Admirable.
Password for the hotel WiFi: “CRIMSONTIDE”. last visit: “ROLLTIDE”.
Of all the recreational things I could be involved in, team sports would be the last choice. You’re guaranteed, long term, to be disappointed exactly 50% of the time. Except Yankees fans, but it’s not worth it.
JustRuss
@PurpleGirl: When I saw it, the only seats left were the front row. Wouldn’t want to see many movies from that vantage, but for StarWars it worked pretty well.
FlyingToaster
@Baud: I asked my daughter (after she learned that the DVD would be out in April) if she wanted to go see it in a theater:
“Do I have to sit down and be quiet for two whole hours?”
“For the entire movie. NO DANCING.”
“Can I get up and go to the bathroom?”
“Yes. But you can’t pause the movie because of everyone else in the theater.”
“Oh. I’ll wait until April.”
raven
@Ultraviolet Thunder: That shit was a LONNGGGGG time ago.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
“Hawthorne’s tragic tale of a young woman ostracized by her War Eagle family when she accepts a cheerleading scholarship to ’Bama.”
Frankensteinbeck
The closest things to ‘SJW propoganda’ in the new Star Wars movie are a female action lead, and a couple of interesting female characters in Leia and Maz Tanaka. I wish I was surprised that they think this is an attack on manhood.
Redshift
@PurpleGirl: We went to a smaller theater on Sunday of opening weekend and got to do that. It was less than half full and there was no one else in our row. It opened in *so* many theaters there was no way they could all fill after Thu-Sat nights.
redshirt
@Frankensteinbeck: Anything below the line of “HE-MAN: MASTER OF THE UNVERSE” is an attack on manhood to the MRA’s.
Co-incidentally, and strangely enough, there’s a Venn diagram that has a large number of MRA’s also being My Pretty Pony fans. Make of that what you will.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@raven:
Maybe this is why fantasy sports is such a big deal for hardcore fans. It gives them a semblance of control over the outcome. Like me, they hate to feel like they lost through no fault of their own.
Don’t mind me. I got up at 3:00 am and I’m blathering.
Redshift
@Frankensteinbeck: MRAs were also outraged that there was a black stormtrooper (and black leading character), even though they’re totally not racist.
Schlemazel
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
I am a fan of U of MN Gopher womens hockey. They may be the Yankees of hockey. 62 wins in a row a couple years back, and undefeated/untied season, 4 of the last 5 national championships. But I don’t cheer for them just because of their record though. Without a pro future there is no pressure to make big bucks soon and no pressure to cheap. Hockey was one of the last pro-possible sports to produce asshole players whose sense of entitlement made them think the sun shone out their ass. The mens side has fallen into that trap sadly. Not all of them but then not all basketball or football players either but far too many. Sure I love the wins but even with a ‘down’ season (they have lost 3 games this year & I do not think they have a championship coming unless they improve a bunch in the second half – we work on a different scale here!) I love the team because I believe they are great kids who happen to be good hockey players. Its a fun game with no fighting and very very little thuggery like found on the mens side.
PurpleGirl
@Redshift: That’s what I figure. I can check out the theatres in NYC showing it and I should find one that within the next few days or week will be okay.
Cacti
@redshirt:
I thought all of the original trio (Luke/Leia/Han) looked like hell in TFA.
raven
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Nah, it’s fun. I hate that fantasy stuff myself but lots of folks love it.
redshirt
@PurpleGirl: I don’t like crowds either but I guess I hate spoilers even worse, and they were talking about this movie on local sports radio of all places, so I had to turn off everything until I could see it.
Pogonip
@schrodinger’s cat: If it’s broken, or you think it is, tape it to the toe beside it, with cotton between them, so it doesn’t heal crooked. I broke one just last month. Klutziness, thy name is Pogonip.
Gin & Tonic
@Schlemazel: She runs marathons now.
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: Elevate that sucker.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano:
Yeah, I commented about that several hours ago and was greeted, essentially, with a Mighty Shrug (and non sequiturs).
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Schlemazel:
This is one of the reasons I occasionally watch college baseball. Good competition, and players who are students first and athletes second. Football has just gotten out of hand.
Redshift
@redshirt:
I have it on good authority that that’s not the case any more. Apparently at the time My Little Pony first became popular with adults, it was in part because of a group of young male fans who liked it “ironically” (meaning they pretended to like it and laughed at people who actually did, even though that’s not at all what “ironically” means.) There was a documentary about them, so “everybody knows” that’s who the fans are. But that group has since mostly gone away, and (based on visiting one of the big conventions where a writer friend was a guest), the fans are now more diverse and predominantly female.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
With your banjo on your knee?
Gimlet
Via Digby
The Washington Post’s longtime progressive columnist Harold Meyerson published his final weekly piece for the paper yesterday.
Meyerson, whose column appeared in the Post for 13 years, took a pro-labor approach to politics that often mirrored that of Sanders.
So, here we are in a primary campaign just a month ahead of the first votes. Polls show that at least 30% of the Democratic Party are receptive to Bernie Sanders’ democratic socialist message. Progressives are the single largest faction of the Democratic Party, roughly mirroring the Republican party’s evangelical support. And yet, the Washington Post is firing the one columnist on their staff who writes about the issues that are energizing these millions of mainstream Americans.
I eagerly await their explanation as to why the incoherent Richard Cohen maintains his completely useless column. Or Robert Samuelson or Charles Lane all of whom can be assumed to only be talking to each other recycling the same ideas over and over again inside the beltway bubble. Would they have the nerve to fire Michael Gerson, who writes about politics from a social conservative perspective, in the middle of an election campaign? And what about Sally Quinn’s sinecure as a fatuous religion columnist? I’m doubtful.
pea
it is so tedious having to defend one’s sex/race when all one is is human.
Goblue72
So some dickless wonders are upset that some Star Wars characters don’t have any dicks? Talk about self-hating.
Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)
@Cacti:
Check your non-human bias at the cantina door, huh? Chewie looked great!
FlyingToaster
@Redshift: I know a number of pre-teen and early teen boys who are Bronies, and talk (intelligently) with WarriorGirl about it.
According to one of their moms, the attraction is that it’s about emotional intelligence and teamwork. And I think, like WG, they prefer the comic books to the television show.
WereBear
I guess we all know who can’t compete on anything not even close to a level playing field, huh?
They need the level to be not just “Easy,” but “Super Easy for Defensive Undateable White Males with Anger Problems.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Schlemazel:
Wasn’t there an Olympic gymnast several years ago on Team USA who did her final routine on a broken ankle and still won gold, I think? Blanking on both her name and all the details. Could it possibly have been as long ago as the Atlanta Games (1996)? Seems unlikely, but I trust very little about my memory these days.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oddly, the banjos are here. If you say ‘Bill Monroe’ on consecutive days Mrs. Thunder starts looking for the sheet music.
eemom
@Gimlet:
Holy shit. Indeed Meyerson IS one of the few remaining voices of non-bullshit in the emmessemm, besides Krugman. If WaPoSuck really did fire him, I might have to renew my subscription just so I can cancel it again. Fucktards.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Anoniminous: I thought is was conflict between (many of, including manager thereof) the staff of the campaign and the business manager Williams dude. Posting prior to reading the thread, naturally.
Redshift
@FlyingToaster: Yeah, I probably should have said “slight majority female” rather than predominantly. There are still plenty of male fans, but of a different stripe than the ones in earlier days, more like you’re describing.
I’ve seen some of the show, and it has pretty good writing, and guest appearances from fun people like John deLancie and Weird Al Yankovic.
Felonius Monk
@Baud:
I usually just wait for the coloring book, myself.
trollhattan
My visiting bro and I took the kid to Star Wars ala 3-D and were quite amused. Much better than the last three messes. Here are some fireworks from Hobart, where it’s been 2016 for quite a while now.
Elizabelle
@Gimlet: And what about the WaPost’s “fact” checker, Glenn Kessler?
That paper is so down the toilet, although it still produces some good journalism. (Unlikely, but true.)
raven
Kiss it goodbye Sooners.
mclaren
Oh, so that’s what MRA means. I thought it means “Methycillin resistant aureus staphylococcus.” I.e., flesh-eating bacteria.
Felonius Monk
Just got back from our favorite Mexican restaurant. A New Year’s Eve All-U-Can Eat buffet –– started at 5:00PM. We were there 10 minutes early and were seated right away. Had to wait until they were finished setting up. When we left about 5:45 PM, there were 50 or so people waiting by the door. Place was packed.
Food was scrumptious, as always. Huge vat of fresh guac and just about anything else you could want. And only $12.
And now we are back home. Far from the madding crowd. Probably will fall asleep before the ball drops.
In case that happens, I wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2016. May the Juice be with You.
Mike in NC
@Gimlet: Wingnut columnist Cal Thomas may also be retiring. This moron thinks Ted Cruz will runaway with the 2016 election. Of course he also predicted that in 2008 millions of Americans would be falling in love with Sarah Fucking Palin.
Gimlet
@Elizabelle:
He’s the scholar that fact-checked Hillary’s quip.
ABC aired the third Democratic presidential debate Saturday
Not every statement could be easily fact checked, but following is a list of 10 suspicious or interesting claims.
“He [Donald Trump] is becoming ISIS’s best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”
—Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
hamletta
I hate NYE with the white-hot intensity only an ex-bartender can nurture. I don’t like amateur drunks.
Going to see Star Wars in January with my pops at the Uptown Theatre in DC, where we saw the first one fourteen times. My dad’s the same age as George Lucas and grew up watching the same Saturday serials.
JustRuss
@SiubhanDuinne: I volunteered at a regional competition a few years ago, during practice I saw one of the girls twist her ankle very badly coming off the bars. She still competed, nailed her landing, then collapsed in pain. Bravest thing I’ve ever seen, she know how much that landing would hurt and totally went for it.
Schlemazel
@Gin & Tonic:
yeah, that indicates mental toughness to, you raised a strong girl, good for you.
Villago Delenda Est
@Frankensteinbeck: Their manhoods are so small that they think everything is an attack on it.
JPL
@trollhattan: Beautiful pictures! How’s 2016 treating you.
Gimlet
@raven:
You obviously have never seen a Buffalo Wild Wings commercial at the local sports bar.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Charlie Pierce on the Post:
Schlemazel
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Did you know that the NCAA “limits” sportsball to 20 hours of organized activity over a 6 day week? That does not count individual time like the weight room or working with the trainers on aches & sprains and, of course, game time. Sadly, I don’t think any student-athlete is a student first but at least those not in the big-time sports seem to graduate with an education.
Anne Laurie
@Redshift:
I am in no way an expert on the topic, but from what I understand of “Bronies” (men/bros who like My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic), I can actually see MRAs joining the fandom on the downlow. The whole attraction to “Friendship Is Magic” seems to be that it’s so deliberately anti-competitive. Testosterone is one hell of a drug, guys seem to be able to turn practically anything into a dick-measuring contest (‘My humility is vaster than yours, and has more staying power!!!’) but the MLP fandom seems to be very much about “We don’t do that here.” After a long week of Competitive Manhood, there must be a temptation to put down the foam fingers, or whatever it is that’s being waved, and relax in a giggly pony-pile. Refreshes one for the sportsball competitive-watching rigors of the weekend…
trollhattan
@JPL:
Ooh, sorry, was just posting a link from a forum I participate in. I’m still in 2015 where everything is TERRIBLE! (Not really, it just sounded better.) Anyway, thanks and a happy New Year to you and yours as well.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gimlet: It’s painfully obvious to anyone with multiple syapses that Trump is doing a bang up job as a recruitment officer for Daesh.
Which leaves out the “both sides do it” crowd at Politifact.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
NYE is Amateur Night. Among the things my father taught me.
Sooners got kind of shredded it seems. I still missed the whole point of bowl games today, but it’s truly a first world problem.
In that same vein, I do not have any caster (super fine) sugar and need to grind some granulated to prepare the artillery ingredients for later in the evening.
Schlemazel
@Mike in NC:
About time! Cal’s brain retired in the early 60s so the rest of his body should be going too.
trollhattan
@hamletta:
Once worked with a guy who went to high school with Lucas in Modesto, where he was known as “crazy George.” Apparently a fun, nerdy fellow.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Schlemazel:
Schools are finding ways around even that. I read today that Clemson is building a $55M football facility. Included are recreational rooms for (only) players to use on their off time. Amenities, conveniences and distractions, basically. This is supposed to help recruiting because prospective students will be attracted by the nice setup. But it’s feared that they’ll be further distracted from what little coursework sports leaves them time for.
Cermet
Spending quality time and chilling with my daughter at MIT. Never did care much for “New Years” since it has always been just another day.
J R in WV
I think that anyone who attacks another player in a game should be dragged off the playing field in hand-cuffs and brought before a court of law for assault, however that process works in the locale where the attack took place.
Odell Beckham Jr should have been arrested. Hockey players are rarely taken into custody long after the game is over. But any deliberate attack on another person intended to cause physical harm is assault.
I know that these players are volunteers, and want to play hard, but attacking one another is past the game.
Schlemazel
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Yeah, its an arms race paid for by tax payers & students. MN has plans for a $200million sports palace with indoor football and several basketball facilities. It also has a ton of rehab stuff and study spaces. The board of regents said they would not approve it unless there was $100million pledged. They hit $60 and of course the regents approved it. Gawd I hate sports any more.
divF
@hamletta:
That is also where I saw 2001 at the age of 16 (it had its world premiere there in 1968, according to the Wikipedia). A storied history as the place to go for A-list science fiction movies.
JPL
Well my friends are going to Phoenix.. Congrats to Clemson.
redshirt
@Anne Laurie: “And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”
Be careful delving into the Bronie brain. That way madness lies.
Schlemazel
@J R in WV:
I saw that fucker Dave Forbes take Henri Boucha’s eye out with his hockey stick – on purpose. The county attorney wanted to file charges but took a ton of shit from the big money boys because the NHL would have been really hurt by something like that.
Anyone remember when McSorley of the Boston Bruins attacked Donald Brashear and bashed his head into the ice unprovoked? Guy still suffers affects but McSorley skated (literally) away.
The only way this is going to end is if the players association finally balls up and demands action ( a CTE lawsuit will do) or law enforcement demands at least a modicum of decency within the field of play. The damn games are dangerous enough, the added thuggery should not be tolerated.
Mike J
@Baud:
After you win the election you can invite all the Balloon Juicers over to the White House for private screenings.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@SiubhanDuinne: Kerri Strug is who you’re thinking of. Mary Lou Retton had similar issues about a decade earlier, but in her case it was her knee.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who wonders when Cervantes will return and answer things like this from memory… ;-)
PurpleGirl
@hamletta:
I hate NYE with the white-hot intensity only an ex-bartender can nurture. I don’t like amateur drunks.
While in college a group of celebrated New Year’s Eve Eve. We decided there were too many people out who you wanted to avoid (drunks, etc.) and transit was iffy. We didn’t even try to do the Times Square thing. But the day before NYE — that was easier to navigate and party. We even managed to keep the thing going after a few of the group graduated and moved away from NYC for their jobs. The party became a house party and took over several days.
NotMax
Just popped in to wish a Happy Hogmanay.
BBC video
SiubhanDuinne
I’ve been trying for the better part of the last hour to make a modest donation to the Metropolitan Opera before year-end, so it can be matched dollar for dollar. They will not take money without the donor’s having an account with them (WHY?), so I obediently plugged in my email address and a password. Rejected, they already have someone with that email addy (I’m guessing that would be ME) but password doesn’t match. So, given that at some point in the distant past I set up an online account with them, but can’t remember password, I clicked the “forgot my password” button and they sent me an email with a link to plug in a new p/w. I have now tried at least three different passwords, and every one of them has been rejected. Maybe it’s the server, but as you know, I volunteer for the Met Live in HD cinemacasts, and I invariably have trouble with their various links and special accounts for Met Ambassadors, so I think it’s a systemic problem. I love the Met, but they really need to spend some money on decent IT that will make it easy for people to give them money and not piss us off.
Edit: Should add, I had not the slightest difficulty making online donations to my other two causes, Planned Parenthood and Heifer International. They make it super easy. If I’m unable to figure out a way into the Met site by midnight, I’m just going to take the money I would have given them and split it between PP and Heifer as a little extra donation.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@PurpleGirl:
I worry a bit about NYE crowds. I heard today that 1M people were expected to be in NYC in the Times Square vicinity tonight. That sounds improbable, but big crowds anyway.
Big crowds, drinking, limited freedom of movement and terrorism opportunity is a bad combination. Even a small event could escalate into a catastrophe.
Mike J
@NotMax: Thank god iplayer is back up. Was down for an hour or two this am.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
In case I get distracted once the French 75 is complete, here’s my Happy New Year greeting. The text is added to an image of the Pleiades.
Frankensteinbeck
@Anne Laurie:
That is one element. The show also praises diversity of personalities, femininity defined a hundred different ways with all correct, and real friendship, valuing and understanding other people and treating them well, with complex morals. It is an absolutely fantastic show, and I was delighted to see lots of insecure young men overcoming their fear of being shamed for liking girly things to watch it. Shaming young men for not being manly enough is what got us into this mess. I’ve sure watched how that happened close up over my lifetime.
The show is literally everything the MRAs hate, so their presence in the fandom would be baffling. There are assholes, but there are assholes in every fandom. Personally, when they put the woman who wrote Equestria Girls in charge, I thought the show lost its special spark. It’s good now, and the message is mostly good, but it lacks the deep attention to characterization and I can’t watch it anymore.
Equestria Girls is a travesty of bad messages to girls, but that’s a separate topic.
raven
@Ultraviolet Thunder: There is very little booze at the Times Square event and the heat are thick as flies. If something comes it will be a “softer” target.
Steeplejack (phone)
@NotMax:
Destination says U.K. only. I assume you need a cloaking device here.
Schlemazel
@SiubhanDuinne:
SOrry, I missed your reply earlier. yes and@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: has it right. I often wonder if it is just the expectation of coaches & family or if it really is the person who is willing to drive themselves to that level. Outside of the damage caused by the drug abuse I wonder how much pain & suffering great athletes go through to push themselves so hard.
tybee
ho lee shit
the back button works again.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: If they won’t allow to reset your password, create a new gmail account for that purpose or just put a check in the mail. The match is their loss.
redshirt
I once celebrated NYE in Amsterdam and it was the craziest thing ever. Like a war. Champagne and fireworks vendors were plentiful, and when the moment came, the huge crowd shot fireworks at each other. People were getting burnt, windows exploding, chaos everywhere.
I hope they haven’t cracked down.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Waiting for the VHS tape at the video store?
raven
@redshirt: Nothing like Dubai!
Thomas M
@Gin & Tonic: @Gin & Tonic: Just what I was thinking!!
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Hey, my Betamax still works.
PurpleGirl
@raven: Yes, the 6,000 extra cops on duty tonight (most of them at Times Square) will check all bags and backpacks going into the corals set up this morning and through the afternoon. No booze gets through, not a lot of other stuff. But it’s still wall to wall people and if you don’t like crowds, it’s best to stay away.
raven
@PurpleGirl: I agree, I just never got the idea that it was millions of blind drunk people.
Here’s a great one from their site :
Will there be portable public restrooms available?
No. There are no portable restrooms in Times Square during the celebration.”
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@SiubhanDuinne: Send them a note when you can. I had a problem like that with my alma mater’s web site and was able to make a donation that was dated 12/31…
Good luck.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@PurpleGirl:
I hear no one goes there anymore because of the crowds.
different-church-lady
If I ever find myself at a point in life where I have some clue as what the heck this thread is about, I hope some angle of mercy has the kindness to snuff me with a pillow.
SiubhanDuinne
@JustRuss:
Ouch ouch ouch.
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Kerri Strug, of course. And it was Atlanta. Thanks.
Knew it wasn’t Retton I was trying to think of, although I had forgotten she competed with an injury in LA. Will never forget her determined little face as she ran toward the horse. The TV camera was dead ahead of her, and it was a wonderful moment.
Bostondreams
@Anoniminous: I confess I have seen it three times already, and will be taking my little wonderful seven year old daughter to see it for her second time this weekend.
raven
@different-church-lady: Do you care?
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Just means people will piss on the street.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Yes, I think I will just send them a check dated 31 Dec 2015 with a cover note. And I may call their client relations people Monday morning to (a) complain and (b) tell them the check is in the mail.
Thanks.
Gin & Tonic
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I suspect it wasn’t memory.
different-church-lady
@raven: Sometimes I find myself knowing a fair amount about things I don’t care about.
It never works out well.
The Republic, Blah Blah Blah...
@Gin & Tonic:
Good point… the question is: where?
And is that somehow the exchange rate for the local currency?
Or some sort of special promotional deal from the airline that flew you in?
Patricia Kayden
@pea: Don’t waste time defending your race/sex is my motto. Screw the bigots.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@different-church-lady: It’s an open thread, so as you very well know, who the hell can ever tell what it’s about. I did, however, link to a greeting for HNY earlier (#128).
I’m sure someone will wield a pillow per your request if you ask nicely enough.
catclub
@Schlemazel:
There was a special on EO Wilson of many insects fame, and the section where he says he is a massive Alabama fan was actually enlightening. People really do love to be part of that happy mass of people.
It is tribal. And the sports fan type is mostly harmless.
BillinGlendaleCA
@PurpleGirl: The only NYE big crowd thing I’ve ever done is the camping out for the Rose Parade. It’s one of those things you should do once, and I’ll never do it again.
Peale
I’m not certain why Fisher’s weight is an issue. I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. She looked capable of active fighting and running about giving orders during battle without the need for a sedan chair or hover-round and that was all the role demanded physically. She is plausibly fit.
Troubling to me is that her character hasn’t seemed to have developed her force powers in the 30 years since we discovered she had them. she’s still got that long distance empathy for those she loves, but not much else going on.
catclub
@SiubhanDuinne: Football and gymnastics are ‘sports’ I dislike because they are only for the young. Does anybody over 25 do gymnastics?
Compare with swimming, tennis, table tennis, cycling.
catclub
@Peale:
I was struck by how bad her teeth must be. It was off-putting.
catclub
@mclaren: Mens Right Stunted Activist.
Bostondreams
@Peale:
It seems as though she never really had time, considering she had an ongoing war to fight while her brother played around with starting a school. Keep in mind that the war, according to the new canon as well as the EU canon, continued for years afterward. Recent story had Imperial police massacring that cheering crowd on Coruscant we saw in the re-release, for example.
Schlemazel
@catclub:
You won’t find anyone competing at an international level in any of those much above 30, even younger for some of them. I get what you are saying but its a difference without a distinction. You could add golf as well as distance running, bowling and softball to the list but its just a matter of fact that bodies peak well before 40 and sports performance drop off before then. You can participate & enjoy but those are different from what most people think of.
liberal
@Gin & Tonic: lol
Schlemazel
I’m gonna go now to be with family. I wish a very merry new year to you all. My sincerest hope we all have a greater 2016 than any previous year; I sure could use a better one.
SiubhanDuinne
Aww, bummer. Wayne Rogers (“Trapper John”) has died.
RIP. You gave such pleasure.
Baud
@Schlemazel:
Happy new year.
schrodinger's cat
BTW Bajirao Mastani is kicking Star Wars’ ass in India.
Aaj Ibadat : Today’s prayer
I particularly like the juxtaposition of Bhagwan Vishnu Mangalam (Sanskrit Prayer to Vishnu) with Mere Maula (Muslim Prayer)
Anne Laurie
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
There’s a great scene at the end of a Boston Legal episode where the obnoxious lawyer played by William Shatner tells his protege (played by James Spader) that if his mind goes, he wants Spader to shoot him. Spader replies that, given the Shatner character’s career, there will be plenty of people more than happy to euthanize him. To which Shatner replies “I don’t want to be put down, like an elderly pet! I want to die at the hands of someone who cares about me!”
Origuy
Going to a Scottish country dance for Hogmanay tonight. My housemate just informed me that she believes she has a bladder infection and may need to go to the ER when I get back. Not where you want to be on NYE.
SiubhanDuinne
@Origuy:
My most memorable NYE ever involved Scottish country dancing, haggis, and whisky.
Lang may yer lum reek!
BruceFromOhio
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I suppose you yutz made the Mississippi flood too, how about them apples, bitchez. Claim credit for the sunrise, you will.
Fucking rubes, this is not the fastest-grossing billion-dollar movie you are looking for.
schrodinger's cat
@BruceFromOhio: Nice Yoda speak!
CaseyL
@SiubhanDuinne: Well, shit. I liked that character, though BJ Hunnicut was a worthy successor. RIP, Trapper.
Some backyard fireworks are already going off hereabouts, so I’m glad the kitties are inside. Like most of you, I expect to be asleep long before midnight, so let me wish y’all a Happy New Year. 2015 didn’t entirely suck, but could certainly be improved upon: let’s hope 2016 is a Very Good Year.
Marc
Why do warriors get all the credit? Why aren’t there SWP, SWC, SWD, SWR, SWT, SWW, or SWB? ((Paladin, Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Thief, Wizard, or Bard) I’m second edition fan).
Pogonip
So far, 2016 has not been a good year (bad cold and, for that matter, my toe still hurts when I walk fast) and it’s only going to get worse. In a “battleground state” every 4th year is annoying at best.
I still predict a President Hillary. OK by me. I don’t hold NAFTA and welfare reform against her, for all I know she tried to talk him out of it. However, I think my protest vote this year will be cast for…Steve Cole! Wouldn’t it just shave his ass if he won?
EthylEster
@Redshift: This is one of Rod Dreher’s fav terms these days.
Keith G
@redshirt: h
Here is a stab at a summary.
In today’s modern connected world a couple folks with out of the main ideas can post stupid things that get read by thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people throughout the nets.
Of course they are helped by those people who highlight their stupidity by making posts that say “Have you seen this stupid thing” which many of us would never have seen at all……. ever.
Twitter is a mixed bag.
Mental Mouse
@Peale:
Her own comment was that they made her lose something like 35 pounds for the movie. She’s made some pretty good cracks about that in various interviews.
Howlin Wolfe
@redshirt: loved Ant Man.
Applejinx
@Anne Laurie: Well, that and the show’s amazingly well written and well animated and well acted. For whatever reason, the people making it from season 1 threw their hearts and souls into the project, and sometimes there is justice in the world.
But then I’m as brony as they come, so naturally I’d think that ;)
I would correct one point: the outrage and viral nature of the original 4chan bronies was not because it was ironic. It was ironically UNironic, if you follow me. Nothing is quite so outrageous as sincerity, and a majority of bronies have always just run with the strange opportunity the show gives you to be nice. That is, after all, the message to six-year-olds of all ages, and here in America we’re all six-year-olds these days when we’re not two-year-olds.
There is NOTHING ironic about being a brony. At worst it’s a little embarrassing given that everybody brings their own issues along with them into the fandom and then you gotta deal with it through at least a modicum of love and tolerance, but the fact is, social cooperation and friendship lessons work. It’s right to not abandon them, and worth making the effort.
/) (feelin’ the bron)
Dan
@redshirt: I live in Guatemala. If you’re only getting one fuck you’re doing Central America wrong.
Dan
@Dan: Just realized how disgusting my comment was, Sorry about that. Failed attempt at humor.