Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This really is a full service blog.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

I really should read my own blog.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

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

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

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

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Reader Interactions

157Comments

  1. 1.

    piratedan

    geez Tom, you never even asked me (and us other Juicetariat Tucsonans) where to go and get a good burrito……

  2. 2.

    dr. bloor

    “Pictured above: 79th year All-But-Dissertation student Joe Bones models his cap for the upcoming commencement, after the University Registrar got sick and fucking tired of filing his matriculation paperwork and finished his thesis for him.”

  3. 3.

    Roger Moore

    @piratedan:

    you never even asked me (and us other Juicetariat Tucsonans) where to go and get a good burrito……

    Los Angeles, obviously.

    The big news on the Pulitzer front, of course, is Hamilton winning for drama. Trying to get in before the rest of the Hamilmaniacs.

  8. 8.

    J R in WV

    So how was Tucson in March?

    I usually like it, balmy summertime, before the blast furnace of desert Arizona sets in!

    I was out there on business, in Cochise county actually, the very SE corner of AZ in June. Had dinner at a friend’s house, driving off to spend the night at my cousin’s, there were thunderstorms all around me. The friend’s house is on top of a prominent knoll, with 360 degree views, so we could see all of them in the gathering darkness.

    I drove all the way “home” without hitting a thunderstorm. But that night, trying to sleep was hopeless. The roof of the house was copper on both sides of a slab of foam -high R-Value, but not quiet, not at all. The small hailstones in each thunderstorm made it like being in a snare drum being played by demons, every half hour, all night long. But no floods, just brilliant flashes of light, huge peals of thunder, and rainy hail blowing along at 50 mph.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    One of the Pulitzer winning works I’m familiar with is Kathryn Schultz’s “The Really Big One” for The New Yorker, which is environmental reporting about the Cascadia fault line. Scary story told well. I remember mentioning it here after I read it months ago.

  10. 10.

    redshirt

    My father attended ASU Business School so he indoctrinated in me a hatred of UoA, but once I had friends in Tucson and hung out in the town, I’ve completely swung the other way. Go UoA! Go Tucson!

  11. 11.

    gogol's wife

    @Roger Moore:

    Wow, I’ll have to look at that. My copy of the “Hamiltome” arrived. It suffers only slightly from delusions of grandeur. But I’ll devour it anyway, since there is some grandeur there after all.

  16. 16.

    gwangung

    @redshirt: Still inculcated with those Sun Devil memes, I see….

    @piratedan: Or, the “U”. Not that I’d know that much….my brothers and nephew went to ASU and my mom and niece went to the U. I went…elsewhere.

  18. 18.

    J R in WV

    @Bob In Portland:

    So the site is registered at GoDaddy, and the person holding the whois data has an email address at hotmail.com. Now there’s a journalistic site worth betting it all on!!

    It is to laugh.

    As a news site, they are limited – every. single. story! is about how great Bernie is doing in his race to the top. Amazing, not that you find such “news” sites, Bob, but that you feel that we will be grateful for you sharing them with us, with anyone, ever.

    Nope.

  19. 19.

    Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap

    @Bob In Portland: Hey Bob, why don’t you head over to Booman’s. Steve has a post you’re sure to love. It’s all about how Hillary is the most vile, evil, person on the planet. Then again maybe he’ll have to retract it on Wednesday.

  21. 21.

    burnspbesq

    @Bob In Portland:

    Try a credible source next time.

    Also, you might want to try explaining how the Sanders campaign received over 200,000 contributions of $35 each from a single zip code in DC on a single day, as its FEC filings apparently say.

  23. 23.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Betty Cracker:

    That was an amazing bit of reporting. Right now, the local news is reporting on the earthquakes in Ecuador and Japan, along the ring of fire. They mention San Francisco and the Big One in the 1700s – the one that wiped out the Northwest – the subject of Kathryn Schultz’s reporting. These earthquakes have seismologists “worried”, and the reporter on my TV warns that residents of the west coast should “be prepared”.

  25. 25.

    piratedan

    @gwangung: is Tucson perfect… not really but overall, I could be in a LOT worse places and it is on the front lines of the Democratic revolution with hispanic voter awareness and gun toting ammophiles aligned against them. Hoping that this year we kick McSally to the curb (along with Johnny Maverick) The GOP gerrymander in the state lege is under siege with solid voter registration drives and the latest bs with the primary brings into stark relief just how far these folks will go to disenfranchise anyone who doesn’t align with them politically.

  36. 36.

    Bob In Portland

    @FlipYrWhig: Steven D has been there for years. So have most of the commenters. What’s horrible is that they are farther to the left than your little village here. That’s all. If you are such a delicate flower that alternative points of view bother you so much, just hunker down here. Nobody will scare you here.

  37. 37.

    Keith P.

    @gogol’s wife: Extremely frazzled. The last three weeks have, for some reason, just been really trying. This is that moment in my life where everything starts to collapse, and when I think “Well, that certainly was awful,” something else collapses. this situation has really done a number on my heart, which was already in rough shape, but I did decide to finally dump the boat anchor that is my house so I can get an apartment so I can just focus on my health instead of having to scrimp and save to fix parts of my house that are going to fall down in 6 months.
    And I’ve had a couple of shots of Bulleit while waiting for my Xanax to kick in. Not a good idea (especially given that I was dialyzing an hour ago), but I need to be numb for a while.

  43. 43.

    Brachiator

    @gogol’s wife: As noted in a prior thread:

    Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical phenomenon that tells the story of “ten-dollar Founding Father without a father” Alexander Hamilton, was named winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

    It joins an exclusive club of just eight other musicals that have won the prestigious award since it was founded nearly a century ago. The Pulitzer, which is awarded to “a distinguished play by an American author, preferably original in its source and dealing with American life,” includes a $10,000 cash prize.

    The last musical to win was Next to Normal in 2010. Other musicals that won the Pulitzer: Rent (1996), Sunday in the Park With George (1985), A Chorus Line (1976), How To Succeed in Business without Really Trying (1962), Fiorello (1960), South Pacific (1950) and Of Thee I Sing (1932).

  44. 44.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    @Blob In Portland:
    And we know the media has never chased a single bullshit story on the Clintons so this must be the final nail.

    Kindly go to hell and take your poo poo with you

  45. 45.

    Keith P.

    @satby: For the most part. My house smells like wet animal, and I’ve got a pump draining my living room. My cat puked in the middle of my bed this morning (I’m getting extremely pissed off at God-or-whomever, because I am getting my chest get tighter and tighter for every one of these), so I’m debating taking a nap in my car.

  46. 46.

    Betty Cracker

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, coincidentally, I was just trying to find a credible source to read more about the alleged scandal. The Bernie Bugle our resident crackpot cited doesn’t count, obvs. Reuters has a brief, but it just outlines the accusation. Nothing of substance on credible news sources that I can find so far.

  48. 48.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    @Blob In Portland:
    You would smell it though, you’re good at that. I think you should check the bottoms of your shoes, that would reveal the source of the odor since it seems to follow you around.

  49. 49.

    ? Martin

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: May be coincidental, but it seems like these large earthquakes sometimes occur in pairs. Japan/Ecuador a day apart. There was a 7.0 in Japan the day before the 8.3 2010 Chile quake. These are roughly antipodes (locations on opposite sides of the planet).

    Big quakes don’t occur that often, and having them show up in pairs this way seems suspicious.

  51. 51.

    scav

    Maybe the backing Brinks Trucks ran out of money and so have had to resort to delivering Chinese Take-away. PuPu Platters or Bust!

  53. 53.

    bystander

    @Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): Yes, but Whitewater.

    I’m wondering to what extent Miranda was behind the move to profitshare with the original members of the cast. IIRC the Chorus Line creators and honchos had to be strong armed to share with the dancers whose lives were used as the basis of the show.

  55. 55.

    chopper

    @lamh36:

    because the purpose of it all is for fundraising. rile up supporters to open their wallets. ted devine needs a new pool house.

  56. 56.

    Calouste

    @Betty Cracker: Well, terrible accusation there by Sanders that the Democratic National Committee supports a candidate who has been a national figure in the party for at least 24 years over a Johnny-come-lately who hasn’t even been a member for a year yet.

    Shocking, I tell you. Shocking.

  62. 62.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Bob In Portland: Yes, Steven D has been there for years, and so have you. Which is not exactly proof against its being a nest of goofballs, complainers, and wannabes, innit?

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @? Martin:

    May be coincidental, but it seems like these large earthquakes sometimes occur in pairs.

    Maybe not pairs … but sequences.
    The first shock changes the strain in the rocks, thus often allowing a next quake, followed by yet another one, etc.

  65. 65.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @? Martin:

    Figure in volcanoes too though – not just earthquakes. Iceland, Italy, Guatemala have very active volcanoes now. Release valves, but you don’t want to live near one. If the Yellowstone caldera blows, then we’ll have our own problems.

  67. 67.

    FlipYrWhig

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Every sign that Bernie isn’t winning is proof of how deeply the rot, corruption, and suppression lie, because the only other reason would be that people actually like Hillary better, and we know THAT can’t POSSIBLY be true. The only explanation is a far-reaching conspiracy. Probably Ukrainian fascists and/or builders of natural gas pipelines, probably in cahoots with HITLERY

  70. 70.

    Baud

    BY EMAIL AND U.S. MAIL AND CARRIER PIGEON

    (Dis)Honorable Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chair
    Democratic National Committee
    430 South Capitol Street, SE
    Washington, D.C. 20003

    Re: Baud! 2016!

    Dear Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz:

    On behalf of myself and my campaign Baud! 2016! (“Baud! 2016!”), I am writing to convey some extremely serious concerns regarding my opponents in the primary. It has come to my attention that both of my opponents are poo-poo heads. Baud! 2016! strongly believes that the Democratic nominee for the Office of the Presidency of the United States should not be a poo-poo head. We look forward to your response to these concerns. Either way, we will use this letter to raise money from Baud! supporters.

    Sincerely,

    Baud
    Counsel to Baud!

    cc: America

  72. 72.

    redshirt

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Heh. When buying my land I was running simulations of what happens if Yellowstone blows (and nuclear bombs also, too). The Mt. Washington area is predicted to be one of the last areas in the world engulf by a years long volcanic cloud. So I’ve got that going for me.

  74. 74.

    Bluemouser

    @LAO: That was a heart breaking story. A recent episode of This American Life featured this story with interviews of most of the people involved. It was riveting and depressing and rage inducing. I’ll just say that the young lady at the center of the story shows more grace and forgiveness than most of the other people involved.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @FlipYrWhig: I made the mistake of following a Cole subtweet in to a Bernista thread and…. oy there are some far-gone motherfuckers out there.

    This Joan Walsh piece has some eye-roll makers, too.

    Clinton surprised the crowd with a short unscheduled performance, at which she briefly danced to Latin music with State Senator Adriano Espaillat, thrilling the audience (though haters would predictably hate online later.) Meanwhile, a young white woman carrying a “Unidos Con Bernie” sign pushed through the crowd, jostling the older Latinas who were crushing the stage to get closer to Clinton, chanting at them, bewilderingly, “Shame, shame, shame.” It was not a good look….
    A young (but older than Justin) female Sanders supporter with a “Bernie para presidente” T-shirt joined the circle and started screaming at Dear and McLaughlin. “Hillary didn’t just vote for the Iraq war—she promoted it state to state for George W. Bush! She traveled around the country to sell it!” Dear, calmly, tells her that isn’t true—or at least, no one has ever reported that news—and the Sanders supporter starts pointing her finger in the older woman’s face. “It is true! George Bush has given her credit for that! She spread the hate, because of September 11!” she yells at a higher pitch. “She is not qualified to be commander in chief!” Like the woman who roamed the crowd earlier crying “Shame,” this Sanders supporter was strangely overwrought, seeming near tears. “Bring it down now, bring it down,” Dear told the young woman, who walked away in rage before I could get her name, saying she would vote for Jill Stein. “There’s another party out there,” she warned the older Democrats.

  80. 80.

    WaterGirl

    Paging Betty Cracker… I think I got some of your mail today, Betty. There’s still time for you to make it here, and I would be honored to put you up while you’re here.

    YOU’RE INVITED!
    Join us for a night with
    THE CHICKEN WHISPERER
    Andy Schneider
    April 20

  81. 81.

    Miss Bianca

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: As i mentioned on another thread, I went back onto FB today, and that was a mistake. I don’t know how I’ve ended up with so many raging bernistas as friends – and what it is about Dear Leader that makes them lose their shit over him – but going to the mat with them is not good for any of us. I think I’d better stick to my resolution of staying the hell away from it until after primary season.

  82. 82.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I’ve only been in Seattle once for a few days and witnessed the scale of that mountain and kept mistaking the peak for a clowd. I’ve been to Portland and seen Mt. Hood, and its impact. I was given ash from Mt. Saint Helens, which I remember watching in real time so yeah. Be prepared.

  83. 83.

    Cacti

    @Roger Moore:

    Los Angeles, obviously.

    Out of AZ, NM, and CA, southern California is definitely the bronze medalist of the bunch for Mexican fare.

  85. 85.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Miss Bianca:

    Yeah. Remember though, that President Obama is paying attention, and when it’s time for him to get off the sidelines and make the case for his legacy, he will. He will save us from ourselves.

  86. 86.

    redshirt

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Despite the generally crappy weather, New England must be one of the safest places in the world. No major earthquakes, no volcanoes, no real tornado threat, no real hurricane threat (may not apply to CT and RI and Cape Cod in the future), no major floods, no major droughts or forest fires. The worst thing we have to deal with regularly are ice storms, and while they suck, they don’t compare to a flood.

  88. 88.

    jl

    Human skeletons give me the creeps. So do academic gowns. So do bare corners of anonymous rooms.
    I can handle clothe racks a little better, though.
    But still, scariest BJ blog front post pic for me yet(!).

  91. 91.

    Miss Bianca

    @Baud: OMG, you nutball. That’s it!! I’m in the bag for Baud! All because you used the term “poo-poo head”.

    ETA: Yeah, i’m easy that way. Reasoned debate and principled insults just blow my dress up.

  92. 92.

    Gravenstone

    @J R in WV: It’s hard out there for a pimp. BiPpy must be supplementing his retirement income shilling for the Bernfeelers, since shilling for Putin isn’t paying as well these days.

  95. 95.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    @Baud:
    OK, if anyone needs actual proof that Sanders supporters are hurting more than helping that right there is all the proof they need. Reddit should divide about evenly between Bernie & Ayn Paul, if they have turned on Sanders he is toast.

    As several people here stated last night (I think) I started as neutral, leaned heavily toward Bernie, then have gone from neutral to being heavily leaning against Sanders in part because of his terrible answers when asked for specifics but finally because of people like Blob.

  98. 98.

    Davebo

    @Cacti: Mexican food in the US is sort of like Chinese food in the US.

    Meaning, it’s hard to find Mexican food in the US, even in AZ, NM and CA (and TX).

    My rule is order in english, and if they don’t give you a confused look you’re probably at the wrong place.

  100. 100.

    Davebo

    @Cacti: Good Grief!

    They are just wailing about now. I’m starting to think Bernie and Trump had the same election advisors.

  101. 101.

    Cacti

    @redshirt:

    NM has a pretty unique Mexican cuisine. But I assume CA wins just because the sheer amount of people and their influence.

    I used to assume the same thing. Then I lived in the southwest for 12 years. CA has some surprisingly pedestrian Mexican cuisine.

  105. 105.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Cacti: I think (I was in the car and it was the end of the segment) I heard Jeff Weaver on MSNBC saying that the Clinton camp is like Trump, trying to change the rules in the middle of the game.

  106. 106.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @redshirt:

    So true, and still with so much beauty. I’ve stayed with a friend in Tarzana who had Riverside earthquake foundation cracks, and she had to have her hillside growth all pulled up regularly because of fires. Across and up the street from her was an empty lot where a landslide took a house. No thanks – I’ll take granite and the weather. I remember reading some obscure local history tome that the local tribes’ stories claim that Mt. Wachusett used to be higher than Everest, but that New England is so geologically stable and old that it just wore down. Might be something to it, so yeah, we got that going for us.

  108. 108.

    Davebo

    @redshirt:

    I don’t know. Losing electricity for a week in a blizzard could be worse than losing it for a week in a hurricane depending on how you heat your house, cook your food, etc. And at least you can safely drive the day after a hurricane (in most cases).

    At least both weather anomalies offer a fairly long warning period.

  109. 109.

    redshirt

    @Davebo: I went to this hole in the wall in Tucson and no one spoke good english but I got enough out of them to learn not a single thing on the menu was vegetarian. Lard, everywhere.

  110. 110.

    scav

    @redshirt: That’s may only true if you discount the relentless tallying up of deaths due to cold, heart-attacks due to show shoveling, etc. that happen every year versus the spectacular ones that happen once in a while.

  111. 111.

    Cacti

    @Davebo:

    My rule is order in english, and if they don’t give you a confused look you’re probably at the wrong place.

    I’d add if they don’t serve menudo and posole (at least a few days per week), you’re at gringo-fied place.

  112. 112.

    WaterGirl

    @Davebo: Right after grad school, while my mother was terminally ill, I tended bar in a Tex-Mex restaurant. (I was going home a lot and didn’t want to get my first real job while we were going through that.) One evening there was a couple at the counter, paying for their food. They ware discussing where to get the best Tex-Mex. It was the most polite (and funny!) argument I have ever witnessed.

    Him: No, dear, they don’t have the best Tex-Mex in (some location). They have the best in (some other place).

    Her: No, darling, the food at (some place) is so much better than that.

    Him: Sweetheart, you’re just wrong about this.

    Her: Really, Honeybuns? You think they have the best food there?

    As the conversation went on, the dears and darlings and honeys and sweethearts were spoken with a less friendly tone and much tighter faces. I want you all to know that I DID NOT LAUGH.

  114. 114.

    redshirt

    @Davebo: It’s highly highly unlikely anyone would lose power for a week because a blizzard. But an ice storm? Yeah. That’s possible and it’s happened several times over the past twenty years. But people here are generally prepared for the loss of power with generators and wood stoves. But that’s a bad as it can get.

  117. 117.

    jl

    @Cacti: I don’t think any US ‘Mexican cuisine’ is really food that people eat regularly in Mexico, whether AZ, NM or CA, or even TX. They are regional cuisines with a lot of stuff that originated in the areas now occupied by those states, from very long ago to just recently.

    I think in particular, CA ‘Mexican cuisine’ is mostly some selected festival foods from Northern Mexico, that have been heavily modified after they got to CA, and have been thoroughly intermixed with US fast food traditions. I haven’t met any Mexicans who recognize the CA burrito as very close to anything their country came up with. For what it’s worth, I like the ‘Mexican’ cuisine I found in NM and CO better than a steady diet of CA burritos and tacos.

  118. 118.

    Cacti

    Oh, and a recommendation for a good Mexican dive in Tucson, go to Tania’s.

    It’s a literal hole in the wall, and is inside what used to be an auto body shop. Still has the garage doors on the back end. Great tamales, chorizo, etc.

    If you’re looking for a tourist experience, go to El Charro, the birthplace of the chimichanga.

  120. 120.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    *I’m not an idiot who thinks the local tribes referenced Everest in their legends – I mean their legends were that Mt. Wachusett had been the tallest mountain on earth, before The People.

  121. 121.

    Cacti

    @jl:

    For what it’s worth, I like the ‘Mexican’ cuisine I found in NM and CO better than a steady diet of CA burritos and tacos.

    I love New Mexican style carne adobada with red hatch chili sauce. Their open face enchiladas are A+ too.

  122. 122.

    jl

    @Baud: In Baud I trust. Baud! 2016! is the fount of truth and wisdom, at least it seems so the few times a person can make out what he is saying.

  123. 123.

    redshirt

    @scav: I don’t think many people if any actually die from the cold up here. I sure hope not! Heart attacks from shoveling snow, yeah, that happens, but that can’t be too many.

    No parasitic diseases up here either; nor venomous animals or insects.

  125. 125.

    Trollhattan

    @jl:
    I’m guessing in Tokyo they don’t see a lot of avocado and cream cheese in the sushi, either.

    California is a crazy mish-mash and a lot of the most interesting stuff comes from first-gen immigrants with Tia Eleanora’s hand-written recipes tucked under their arm and a line on the correct spices and herbs.

    Anyone who thinks they’re able to summarize, say, SoCal food from a given ethnicity or country of origin is either innumerate or can eat a hundred meals/day.

  126. 126.

    redshirt

    @Mike J: That’s a pretty busy sub.

    I assume the majority of reddit users are Sanders supporters, just like I assume the majority of reddit users were incensed over “GamerGate”.

  129. 129.

    jl

    @Trollhattan: Every cuisine is a mish-mash. I think some of the most popular Japanese dishes, internationally, are things Japanese adapted from Portuguese traders. No bread and no bread crumbs in Japan for cutlets and the version of tempura that we know today without bread introduced by the Portuguese, from what I’ve read. Same for those little Japanese yeast buns with goodies inside, particularly bean paste.

    Edit: when I first got to Los Angeles, there was a crazy take out place named Mago’s. I remember getting teriyaki chasu BBQ pork burritos there. The placed closed down shortly after I moved there, sad to say. I think it was a famous regional place, fast food speaking. They had all sorts of weird mixed up dishes, that changed every time I went there. I remember to menu was felt pen stuff scrawled on butcher paper taped to the walls.

  130. 130.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    @redshirt:
    No, the majority of reddit users are Ayn Paultards – white middle class kids that think they got where they are no thanks to any public facility & would all be better off in Gaults Gulch. Berniacs would finish secod

  136. 136.

    redshirt

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Yeah Quebec got hit real hard. There were large portions of Maine without power for over a weak. I lived on the side of a mountain back then too, and I was trapped for a couple of days.

    I remember going for a hike the day the ice finally broke – I hope I never see/hear anything like it again. The forest sounded like a war, with explosions of ice everywhere.

  138. 138.

    Brachiator

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I answered your comment about megacities in the last thread.

    Went back and read it. Much thanks. Interesting bit about the names of some of the people whose families have lived in Bombay for generations. I like to learn about all of the things that make a city special, give it energy, set it apart from minor cities. And how people view themselves.

    A bit of trivia. I went back to New York once and specifically did some of the tourist things I avoided during earlier visits. Standing in line to go up the Empire State Building, some NY kids were leaving. They started spontaneously singing “I Love New York” to those of us waiting to go up the elevator. They had a sense of themselves and their city, irony, pride, and having fun with tourists. And how many cities have songs written about them.

    When I visited Mumbai, our group was going somewhere and we got a quick shot of a group of young women, all in very sumptuous looking saris, quickly darting into a building. I don’t know if these were actresses or models or women rushing to a party. But there was just something about the rapidity of motion, the purposeful rushing to a destination, that made the quick glance memorable.

    And then there is the size of the city, and the sense of all the activities taking place. And it reminded me of London, and how the City of London is a separate area, and the city itself has expanded from an ancient Roman outpost, with layers like a historical onion, but still blooming.

  139. 139.

    redshirt

    @Brachiator: I’m as anti-city as they come, but I appreciate them all the same. One of the things I loved about the Daredevil show on Netflix is how important not only NYC is to the show, but a specific neighborhood of NYC. It became a character on its own.

  140. 140.

    Davebo

    @WaterGirl:

    I love Tex Mex. I have a good friend who owns two Tex Mex joints and I think I probably sent his kids thru school.

    But it’s not at all like Mexican food. Just as the vast, vast majority of Chop Suey places in the US are not at all Chinese food.

    I’ve dated on and off with a girl from Hong Kong and she’s taken me for Chinese in Hong Kong, Toronto, Seattle, San Francisco, Banff, Edmonton and Houston. You’d think San Francisco would have been the best in N. America but I think Toronto beats it. None came close to the hole in the wall joint in Sha Tin at 3:00AM however and no, I hadn’t had a drink!

  141. 141.

    Mnemosyne

    @gogol’s wife:

    Meh. It uses the word “fuck” too many times to truly aspire to grandeur.

    And watch out for the chapter on “It’s Quiet Uptown.” Fuckers blindside you with an anecdote that will leave you reaching for the Kleenex.

  142. 142.

    WaterGirl

    @Davebo: Hole in the wall places can really be the best. Oh, and if you get into an argument about the best Tex-Mex, be sure and be polite. :-)

  144. 144.

    Davebo

    @WaterGirl: For sure, or a good school bus converted into a taco truck.

    But seriously, it’s not like Tex Mex requires great culinary skills. The best places are the ones that have quality ingredients (and good, large Margaritas!).

    Now I’m getting hungry…

  145. 145.

    WaterGirl

    @Davebo: Best tacos I’ve ever had were somewhere in an ethnic neighborhood of Chicago. My friend Connie would drive us down there – often when we were high, but not always. They were made with two soft corn tortillas and they were beyond good, with some thin spicy sauce that would drip out of them as you ate. So good. If you know a good place, I can be ready in 10 minutes.

  147. 147.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Brachiator: You are welcome. Another interesting bit of trivia: Victoria Terminus railway station* was designed by John Kipling, Rudyard Kipling’s father and the first dean of the J J School of Arts. Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai. My uncle got his architect’s diploma from the same school!

    * You see it in the header of the Mumbai Heritage Twitter account.

  148. 148.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Brachiator: You are welcome. Another interesting bit of trivia: Victoria Terminus railway station* was designed by John Kipling, Rudyard Kipling’s father and the first dean of the J J School of Arts. Rudyard Kipling was born in Mumbai. My uncle got his architect’s diploma from the same school!

    * You see it in the header of the Mumbai Heritage Twitter account.

  150. 150.

    PurpleGirl

    @Keith P.: If the car is dry and will be comfortable — i.e. has a couch-like backseat — take the nap in the car. After the day you’ve had, you need to rest.

  152. 152.

    WaterGirl

    @satby: No idea! I didn’t have my license back then and I have absolutely no sense of direction. But whoever they were they made some awesome tacos.

  154. 154.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl: My parents used to do that to each other. When my father said “dear” to my mother in a certain way – with a tight mouth, thru’ his teeth – I knew that meant that he was really trying to hold his shit together.

  155. 155.

    J R in WV

    @piratedan:

    It does get hot from time to time in that valley where Tucson lays out. Even in the winter it can be quite warm. I don’t think I could stand it in the summertime. I broke a huge sweat today, here in WV, just walking around briskly. It was upper 80s and humid here. Strange for April.

  156. 156.

    laura

    Speaking of Pulitzer Prize Winners,hat’s off to Sacramento Bee’s Jack Ohman. He left Portland to replace the late Rex Babin. His friend and gifted editorial cartoonist.
    Jack Ohman chronicled the sudden decline, and slow death of his father. A lovely man recognized in his time. Well deserved.

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