Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Republicans do not trust women.

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

The words do not have to be perfect.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

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

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

The lights are all blinking red.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

This blog will pay for itself.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Open Thread: Spring Sighting

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Spring Sighting

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From loyal correspondent Ozark Hillbilly:

Last Sunday we were covered in white and temps were dropping to zero. Today it hit 70 plus. Daily I hear their calls, and then straining my eyes I find the snow geese high above my Ozark ridge line as they head north for their Arctic nesting grounds. And then I look down at my muddy feet and see the first crocuses popped up in my yard today.

In honor of that moment, and to give those of you still buried in a foot+ of snow with sub zero temps a little hope that spring will return, I send you these pics from years past.

***********
It hasn’t been a terrible winter here in New England (so far), but I’m still getting an irresistible urge to order some tomatoes. Might even have to break down and order from Burpees, since they’re the only source I’ve found for Rutgers plants.

Should be seed-starting time, for you more skilled gardeners, am I right?

What’s going on in your garden planning, this week?

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Reader Interactions

89Comments

  1. 1.

    TheMightyTrowel

    It’s the end of summer here – and it’s been a bountiful one. Our fridge is currently full of tomatoes (and more to come!), we’ve been harvesting zucchini like there’s no tomorrow and the first of the butternuts are coming ripe (though they’re not as sweet as i’d like – advice welcome). Last week we harvested the eggplants and made a mountain of baba ghanoush. I love this time of year.

    also too, Mr. Trowel has been experimenting with wheat beers and his latest – an imperial strength honey wheat is astoundingly yum and goes so well with the eggplant and zucchini green curry we’ve made from our bounty.

  5. 5.

    bystander

    Our ancient forsythia started blooming in December instead of late April. Winter intervened and I’m happy to say the forsythia regained its senses. But OzarkHillbilly’s great photos will result in a trip to the flower beds to see if anything is peeking out. Here in the Poconos, we had below zero a week ago but the past couple of days it’s been in the 50s. On the plus side, the Frenchie is getting his Spring Fling on and romping around without a sweater, raincoat or puffy jacket.

  6. 6.

    Zinsky

    It was 44 in Minnesota yesterday, which is weird in itself. Only a little snow left around the edges, which is also weird at this time of year. Cities and towns are already closing their local skating rinks, which usually happens around the end of March. Anyone who asserts the climate isn’t changing, is delusional or living in a state of denial. We still won’t plant our flowers outside until mid-May, but I may have to accelerate my purchase of a John Deere lawn tractor, since both of my sons have now moved out for good (I hope), which means Dad has to mow again and I am getting too old to push mow a half acre of grass.

  10. 10.

    Gindy51

    70 degrees yesterday and hubby played 9 holes in SE IN in Feb. Amazing. I have daffodils popping up, did some early spring chores, and instead of snow the dogs are covered in mud (ugh). Oh well. I even opened the house up to air it out which was REALLY nice.
    Our forsythia bloomed in December as well. We have spring peepers going at it already and the house finches are building a nest. In January we had bluebirds scoping out the bird boxes… ????????
    It’s really screwed up this year.

  11. 11.

    bemused

    I watched the clip where Jeb announced he’s out. The murmurs of disappointment from the audience there seemed remarkably tepid. Even his supporters had a hard time drumming up enthusiasm for him.

  12. 12.

    satby

    SWMI made it into the 60s yesterday afternoon, but today we’re expecting back to normal low 40s. I also saw the Canadian geese heading north over the last two days, and the early daffodils are poking an inch out of the ground. I’m going to decide about seed starting in a week or two,not really motivated because I have to move by mid July, so I’m not going to see anything really come to fruition. But it would be nice for whoever buys the house to have flowers in the beds.

  13. 13.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Seven Dead at Multiple Locations in “Random” Kalamazoo Shooting

    Starting at around 6:00 p.m. this evening until roughly 1 a.m., an unidentified shooter killed seven people seemingly at random in multiple locations throughout Kalamazoo, Michigan, one of whom was an 8-year-old child. Two more victims remain in critical condition, and the suspect, a 45-year-old man, is currently in custody.

    The killer isn’t mooooslim so the media won’t care about the dead. Had he been a moooooslim then there would have been a freak out with every talking head demanding a land war in Asia and internment camps and waterboarding and demands for every mooooslim to personally speak out and denounce the shooting.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @bemused:

    MSNBC says there were people who were devastated.

    There were tears and confusion at the hotel where Jeb Bush said goodbye once and for all to the presidential dream that his brother and father fulfilled before him.

    Sergio Pino, an old family friend from Miami, couldn’t believe the news. Why did he drop out? Surely there was some way Bush could have pressed on with the campaign?

    “He was the guy with the most ideas, the most energy, the one guy who took on stupid Donald Trump,” he said, his eyes red with tears.

    More at the link.

  19. 19.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    ¿Jeb? spent $150,000,000 million dollars of fat cat money and he failed to buy even a single delegate, let alone the nomination.

    Welcome to Obama’s America.

  20. 20.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Patricia Kayden: thanks. that was cute. I was watchin a documentary on Jackie Robinson last night. It was a very political doc. And at the end Robinson’s daughter Sharon talked about the importance and significance of Obama’s election in breaking down walls and all the abuse he has had to endure like her father. Mainstream media just doesn’t give him enough credit for this.

  22. 22.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    It’s 38 in Detroit and headed up to maybe mid-40s. Not bad for February but it was 63 and windy yesterday.
    Every weekend the internet ‘radio’ station Classical Music Broadcast plays Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto at least once. Right now they have a great Gilels/Szell recording of it playing. I adore this piece of music and it just makes my weekend. Time to send those folks more money.

  23. 23.

    Xantar

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Tell me if I’m missing something here:

    This shooting spree would not have been possible without easy access to guns. You can’t drive around knifing people from your vehicle very well. The victims wouldn’t have stood a chance even if they or any bystanders had been armed.

    So the solution is…moar gunzz?

  24. 24.

    different-church-lady

    Anne, you should appreciate this: remember one week ago today when the high here in our fair city was 6 degrees? That was the morning I saw the first robin of spring.

    Poor little girl was all puffed out and looking like, “Da fuk I come back here for this?”

  25. 25.

    CarolDuhart2

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I would feel a slight pang of pity for him if he hadn’t robbed Al Gore for his brother. I blame Katrina, 8 years of no progress on climate change, the disintegration of the Middle East, and the housing crash on his shoulders. So you wasted 100 million and didn’t even get a 3rd place anywhere? Bite Me. Hard. I’m sure right now Michael Schiavo is breathing a sigh of relief right now. Jeb, his tormentor will never be President.

    As for another Bush, think about how it must feel for the Republican Party to have the only Republican Presidents after Reagan be the profoundly mediocre father and son Bushes. Each screwed up in their own ways, and probably blocked better candidates from even running. At least Trump seems to be his own man even with his millions and reality how. Trump seems to be the anti-Bush at least.

  26. 26.

    different-church-lady

    With Jeb out, I wonder what new schtick UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH will be embracing.

  29. 29.

    CarolDuhart2

    Trump and the $100 million wasted by Jeb Bush means that money, while important, is no longer everything. Trump is getting his message out without spending very much by being outrageous enough that tv covers him for free. He probably needs more of a ground game, and money is important there if only to supply doorwalkers and organizers.

    But spending money on doorwalkers and organizers isn’t sexy and requires at least folks being enthusiastic enough to pound the pavement for you on a hot sunny day. And while Trump may get some people, Bush never could have done so, and his advisers probably felt there was no margin in it.

    But ads alone won’t make someone palatable who really isn’t.

    And Jeb was a candidate without a clue or a rationale for running, which ads can’t provide.

  30. 30.

    debbie

    Sad to see Kasich is soldiering on, but I’m glad that Rubio squeaked past Cruz. I can’t wait to see how Ted frames that fact.

  33. 33.

    JPL

    It’s 8:30 and GMA leads with Beyonce.. At 8:00 they did cover the Kalamazoo shooting and Paula Faris questioned whether or not the shooter suffered from a mental illness.

    America

  35. 35.

    big ol hound

    This el nino has been over hyped as northern CA is still behind last year’s rain. Half my lawn is now covered in shredded cedar mulch with a new pistach tree planted. The restis for the dogs to play on with little regard for greeness.
    Good news that the bible thumpers in SC are not in charge of the GOP. Maybe this message will start to fall on those congressional ears.

  36. 36.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Baud: -Nobody says that it isn’t, especially in local races where few local celebrities run and the turnouts are much lower. But tv ads alone won’t do it if the word on Facebook is that the person is really a jerk, and increasingly I expect local campaigns will take advantage of the cheaper platform to get the message out with local tv as a supplement.

  37. 37.

    Zinsky

    @debbie: Debbie, not to be too harsh but the remaining GOP candidates are all hard-core right-wing assholes. Every. Single. One. This myth that John Kasich is somehow more “moderate” is just mainstream media nonsense. Kasich wants to make abortion illegal, privatize Social Security and put American soldiers in the Middle East. That’s moderate?? If anyone of these jackasses gets elected, God forbid, a woman’s right to choose is gone! Buh bye!

  40. 40.

    debbie

    @Zinsky:

    Kasich is expected to sign a bill defunding Planned Parenthood today. I don’t remember hearing about a signing on a Sunday, so this is clearly a political message that I think he hopes will siphon off some Cruz supporters.

  41. 41.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    @Germy:
    So, of course, if she had not run a “man’s campaign” (WTF is that supposed to be anyway?) you can bet he would be whining about her playing up the female thing (we are getting that BS tossed around a lot this year) and not appealing to a broader constituency.

  42. 42.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Germy: He doesn’t like that she downplayed her gender in 2008 and he doesn’t like that she’s playing up her gender now. I guess if you’re female there’s pretty much nothing you can do.

  43. 43.

    Germy

    @Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): What irritates me about Shaun kikoshouse Mullen is when he goes on about HRC being untrustworthy. He sounds like fucking Glen Beck while at the same time doing his liberal baby boomer routine.

    Someone commenting on LGM said something to the effect of “If I read one more blog calling HRC untrustworthy, I’ll have to vote for the person I’d most like to have a beer with.”

  44. 44.

    Germy

    @Matt McIrvin: And he never fails to run grotesque cartoon illustrations of HRC as a witch or a queen on a throne. It’s like he absorbed every right wing talking point against the clintons and doesn’t perceive it dripping out of his pores. Almost like a colorblind racist, but not quite as horrible as that.

  45. 45.

    RedDirtGirl

    Random question about Marco’s campaign logo: did anyone notice when he replaced the map of the US with a regular dot for the “i” in rubio? Saw that he had changed it when I forced myself to watch his “victory” speech in SC.

  46. 46.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    I have to admit I have never heard of this Shaun kikoshouse Mullen asshole before today & I feel I was a better man for it.

  47. 47.

    Matt McIrvin

    Among the Sanders fans, it seems to be the old boomer guys who are most likely to post the cartoons and memes showing Hillary Clinton as a hideous ballbusting virago, or attack her in some other way that seems at best tone-deaf about gender. There was some of that in the Obama camp in ’08 too.

  48. 48.

    Germy

    @RedDirtGirl:

    did anyone notice when he replaced the map of the US with a regular dot for the “i” in rubio?

    I didn’t notice that. Someone must have gotten a nice paycheck for adjusting his optics.

    These campaigns seem to have attached themselves (like health insurance companies) as ESSENTIAL parts of the economy. The media gets paid to run the stupid TV ads, the campaign experts and handlers and logo designers get paid, and of course all the restaurants, taverns and convention centers rely on the additional income. At some point, someone will ask “why are we always in perpetual campaign mode?” and the answer will be “Do you want to put all those poor people out of business??”

  50. 50.

    Germy

    @Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): Shaun has written books and was a reporter for many years (I think he was laid off in 2009). His self image is of a progressive boomer: loves white blues bands, jazz fusion, long drives, good beer, hates Nixon, but his blind spots are a mile wide.

  52. 52.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I went to see Hail Caesar! last night. It’s pretty entertaining but doesn’t seem to have a structure holding the pieces together. Only maybe it does. Faith, temptation with wealth and power (and tobacco), an unwed mother, Romans, doctrinal disputes, Jesus, someone swallowed by a whale…
    In Oh, Brother Where Art Thou the Coen Brothers loosely adapted Homer’s Odyssey. Maybe this time they set their sights on a different Bronze Age book.
    Josh Brolin is great in this as a behind the scenes fixer keeping unreliable stars under control. George Clooney plays a nitwit movie star and he’s hilarious.

  53. 53.

    Shell

    Starting seeds? I usually don’t start the hot weather ones like tomatoes until mid-March.

    Really surprised Jeb bowed out this early. Thought he was good for at least a few more primaries.

  54. 54.

    Germy

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: I haven’t seen the movie, but a brief clip of Scarlett Johansson saying “heh!” made me laugh. Her character looks hilarious.

    I guess the best way to see a Coen Brothers film is to just let it wash over you. Rather than looking for a tight story arc.

    I saw the clip with the frustrated director correcting an actor’s diction. One thing I like is the attention to period detail. Something that always bothered me about films in the 1970s that were set in the ’30s or ’50s was the careless way they portrayed the decades. Actors would have long ’70s hair, etc.

  57. 57.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    @Roger Moore:
    I was thinking more of his campaign. Having seen him run for gov in fla and now for President I question whether JEB! really exhibits higher level functioning at all. After all, even an amoeba eats and poops.

  58. 58.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @Germy: Ralph Fiennes and Alden Ehrenreich are hilarious in the diction scene. It’s comedy gold. Cowboy actor repurposed for a drawing room comedy can’t say “Would that it were so simple” and the director loses his mind.
    The cinematography is gorgeous. Way more effort and attention than was necessary. They’re showing off what they can do with film and it’s really a treat.

  59. 59.

    Roger Moore

    @Germy:

    I thought he was reformed.

    He thinks he’s reformed, but he still responds to all the ridiculous anti-Hillary crap as if it’s true- or if it isn’t true it still convinces him that she’s untrustworthy or has too much drama or whatever.

  60. 60.

    Matt McIrvin

    …though in 2008, there was also this interesting pattern I noticed of old, formerly hippie-ish white boomer guys favoring Clinton over Obama for reasons that seemed to be more generational than anything else. They felt like they got Hillary, but Obama’s motivations were a mystery to them.

    I haven’t seen that really happening in this cycle, I think because Bernie Sanders is even more designed to appeal to these guys; he’s actually one of them. (Technically, slightly too old to be a boomer; he’s my parents’ age, but those people included the instigators of the boomers.)

  61. 61.

    Germy

    @Roger Moore: Is Mr. Cole a small business owner? He writes entertainingly on twitter and here. I confess I don’t know anything about him; I still feel like I’m new here.

  62. 62.

    Germy

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:


    The cinematography is gorgeous. Way more effort and attention than was necessary. They’re showing off what they can do with film and it’s really a treat.

    Does the soundtrack play a big part in this one? I remember the Oh Brother film music with fondness.

  65. 65.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @Germy:
    Not really. Oh, Brother had a lot of folk music integral to the plot. There are a couple of big production numbers, one extravagant aquatic number in the style of Busby Berkley and one Gene Kelley style song and dance piece (with Channing Tatum). But the rest is ordinary program music.

  67. 67.

    rikyrah

    My Reaction to Yesterday’s Election Results
    by BooMan
    Sun Feb 21st, 2016 at 09:23:57 AM EST

    Okay, we have the answers to my six pre-election day questions from yesterday. Let’s take a look.

    1. Who wins Nevada? Clinton
    2. Does Cruz or Rubio come in second place in South Carolina? Rubio, by about a thousand votes.
    3. Assuming he wins, does Trump get more than a third of the vote or more like a quarter of it? He actually got exactly a third.
    4. Does Bush do better than Kasich or not, and does he exceed expectations? They both got eight percent, although Bush got a little over a thousand more votes, coming in fourth place to Kasich’s fifth. This does not exceed expectations for Bush.
    5. Does Kasich knock Bush out? Yes.
    6. Does Carson call it quits? No.

    So, what did I say that these things would mean……..

  68. 68.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @rikyrah: If I was Rubio I wouldn’t accept Mitten’s endorsement. He’s box office poison and Trump will have a field day dumping on the both of them as loooooosers.

  69. 69.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    I spent yesterday afternoon cutting back our boxwoods in our front yard. NoVA was in the low 60’s, so it was do it now or probably another year would pass before I got around to it… It’s been about 15 years since I did it last, so they were getting too huge for the space and rather scraggly. I hope to spend this afternoon finishing the cleanup (getting the pieces in bags for pickup on Monday).

    We’ve got some hollies that are too close to the house that are around 15′ high that need to be cut back too. The birds are still eating the berries so I haven’t wanted to do it yet, but it will have to be done in the next few weeks. That’s always fun. “Ow! Ow!” ;-) They should be replaced with something else, but I really don’t want to remove a food source for the birds. Decisions, decisions…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Roger Moore: I thought it was just me. Cole responds to the most banal political spin from Team Clinton as if Mark Penn had just announced she was hiring Dick Morris to vet Evan Bayh as a running mate.

  74. 74.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Baud: Far, far too much. It really is disheartening that so many of the “she’s not liberal enough, she’s a secret Republican” talking points from the left are exactly the same as the “she’s an evil liberal *&#*(%&#(” talking points from the right.

    Human brains are amazing for keeping opposite positions as stable mates. :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  76. 76.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @debbie: Maybe someone knows off the top of their head – I haven’t checked and no time now.

    Wasn’t something like this tried in Texas and slapped down in the courts? As I recall the news, if some qualifying person under Medicaid goes to PP, then Texas has to pay the bill. There is no legal way for them to refuse to pay them. Is this Ohio bill similar? If so, will it also get slapped down?

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  77. 77.

    PurpleGirl

    @A Ghost To Most: Cole also spent a few years in the Army and was in the first Iraq war. When he left the Army, he continued his college education and became a college instructor/professor.

  79. 79.

    HRA

    The most important word in politics is likeable. Jack Kennedy had it wile Dick Nixon lacked it in the debate. Yes, Nixon worked on achieving it for his next time at the bat. Bill Clinton had it while Hilary does not have it even on the second try. Jeb does not have it while his Dad and brother both had and have it Al Gore did not have it.
    I know you could say it’s all the eye of the beholder and worse about the above. Still you do have to take appearances and or perceptions into consideration.
    In re: to yesterdays NV caucus, first of all they should be banished from our elections. There is way too much leeway into not being done well or fair.
    I’ll leave it there although I could say a lot more which I won’t in the knowledge of having to dodge blistering flames.

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @HRA: I could say a lot more which I won’t in the knowledge of having to dodge blistering flames.

    O! your courage, risking having to read unpleasant things on a blog, is inspired, and inspiring.

    Keep calm and carry on, Little Soldier.

  83. 83.

    Germy

    @different-church-lady:

    Shouldn’t “thoughts” be in quotes there?

    Too late for me to go back and edit. He’s one of those blogs I stumbled upon (I don’t remember the details; someone somewhere must have linked to him) and then I got more and more irritated. I think I’ll just avoid him from now on in favor of cat videos. Better for my blood pressure.

  84. 84.

    Germy

    Last night on “Comet TV” we watched George Romero’s “Monkey Shines” about the helper monkey run amok.

    It reminded me of an episode of Malcolm In The Middle where a co-worker of the mom was temporarily disabled and utilized a monkey helper. The monkey actually prepared delicious meals for the guy. Omlets, full dinners, but of course nothing was good enough; the guy kept passive-aggressively criticizing everything the monkey cooked or did. It was a funny, surreal episode. I remember the guy trying to call for help, and the monkey’s hand very dramatically coming in from off camera to turn off his phone.

  85. 85.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Germy: I try, but I’m not really a “gardener”. I cut the grass on our 1/4 acre lot every week, try to keep the bird feeders stocked about half the year, feed the grass 2-3 times a year, and otherwise try to minimize the amount of work I do. Every 10-15 years things have gotten to the point that I have to actually do some work for a few days straight… :-) I try to minimize our impact (having a small volunteer wildflower patch in the back yard, not going nuclear on the chipmunks that are making burrows in various places over the last two years, etc.)

    Wildlife has sorta exploded around here in the last decade or so. It used to be that it was very rare to see a fox. Now, they’re run over all the time – they don’t seem to have a well-developed a fear of cars yet. :-( Bald eagles are pretty common, and we’ve seen raccoons and opossoms in our backyard. The occasional coyote, too. And a few weeks ago a young buck was walking through our yards around 9:30 AM, as nonchalant as could be. About 5 years ago I saw a beaver waddling through a creek-side yard. I was surprised how big it was.

    Next door they apparently had about 40 bats in their attic that had to be removed.

    Nature is clawing its way back here in NoVA, and that’s a good thing. :-) Of course, I live near where snakeheads first entered the Potomac, so we’re still having a bad impact on nature in very many ways. :-(

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  86. 86.

    dlm

    Thank you for the lovely photos. My former lawns are mud. More rain this week and more mud. Spring is coming.

  87. 87.

    joel hanes

    Here in Silicon Valley, it’s a beautiful spring with solid weeks of balmy weather.

    That’s terrible news. What we need is rain, lots of rain, days and days of steady cold drenching rain.
    This is the El Nino year, our best hope for an above-average year in which to catch up and fill the reservoirs. Instead, the northern half of the state is running around 80% of normal precipitation.

    So no lovely row of heirloom tomatoes for me again this year, no new bed of strawberries, and only a little pot of basil.
    I’ll be spending my reduced water budget on keeping the roses and shrubs alive.

  88. 88.

    WaterGirl

    @Germy: I like Roger Moore and often agree with what he says on BJ, but on this we differ greatly. Cole is not at all the right-winger he was years ago.

    Not being a fan of Hillary Clinton does not make you a right-winger. If you are someone like me – who neither trusts nor particularly likes Hillary Clinton – it’s easy to have those feelings stoked by some of the reporting of her more negative characteristics and actions.

    If you are someone who really likes Hillary Clinton, I think it’s easy to mistrust people who don’t care for Hillary.

    But yes, I will vote for her if she’s the nominee, just as Cole will.

    Edit: I just don’t get why we have to attack other people because they feel strongly about a different candidate than you do. Seems to me it’s best if the arguments are on the merits of the candidate not on personal attacks.

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