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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Blessed Solstice

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Blessed Solstice

by Anne Laurie|  December 21, 20165:25 am| 143 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue

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So here in the Northern hemisphere the hinge of the year turns over — no sooner than time — and the days, however cold and dreary, grow infinitesimally longer every one.

All last week and bleeding into this, we had a team of plumbers in the basement installing a new heating system (the choosing of which was a three-year project for the Spousal Unit). For two days last week, there was another team of workers installing a new roof (that only took two years’ research, because the insurance company refused to renew our policy if the replacement wasn’t expedited). So our three little rescue dogs have been in various conditions of stranger-panic and noise-meltdown for the last ten days, and I never got more than three hours’ unbroken sleep at a time. There was also a flat tire (probably from a nail the roofers missed), plus a three-times-rescheduled eye exam and expensive new glasses for me. Not to mention the Spousal Unit’s (rescheduled by the doctor) outpatient surgery yesterday (which, thank Murphy the Trickster God, went off without incident and from which he seems to be recovering well). As a last straw, my flip phone bricked on Sunday, so after a hasty T-Mobile visit (do not visit a shopping mall the Monday before Xmas) I’m learning (not easily) to cope with my first (‘pre-owned’ Galaxy S6) smart phone. Never a good time when one’s first thought is, “Well, at least we’ve got enough slack on the credit cards… ”

Not to mention, all the political and geopolitical stuff. You know.

What I want from 2017 is NO MORE SURPRISES DAMMIT.

***********
Apart from all that, Mrs. Lincoln, what’s on the agenda for the day?
.

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Reader Interactions

143Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    December 21, 2016 at 5:35 am

    Did you go with an HVAC system or do you not need air up there? We have a 17 year old unit and most HVAC peeps I talk to tell me to hang on to it as long as possible because the new ones just are not as good. I’m sure he took that into account as you planned yours.

  2. 2.

    Darkrose

    December 21, 2016 at 5:41 am

    Blessed Solstice back atcha, and remember:

    Axial Tilt is the Reason for the Season!

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2016 at 5:43 am

    Morning Everyone???

  4. 4.

    Schlemazel

    December 21, 2016 at 5:50 am

    It seems to me that things come in bunches. When life has hit a rhythm and things are going ok the stuff happens and not just one thing but a bunch. Sounds like you have had you bunch now and life should settle down a bit

  5. 5.

    gene108

    December 21, 2016 at 5:53 am

    My usual Seasonal Affective Disorder, which has me hating life, until Summer* has not kicked in this year for the first time in at least 7-8 years.

    I count this as a blessing.

    *I would say Spring, but an actual Spring seems to be missing the last few years here in the greater Philadelphia area. It just goes from cold to hot.

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 5:54 am

    Dance naked around the Solstice Bonefire all you Pagan sumbitches, and hoist an ale to the gods of fertility while yer at it.

  7. 7.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 21, 2016 at 5:55 am

    The Winter Solstice is my reminder to change the air conditioning filter and move the orchids to a part of the trees where they’ll get the benefits of the returning sun.

    The one thing about living this close to the Equator is that we have no twilight. When the sun goes down it’s like someone flipped a switch. I remember once walking across campus from my dorm to the theatre for an evening rehearsal, a ten-minute walk at most. I left the dorm in daylight and arrived at the theatre in total night. I welcome a little more light each day.

  8. 8.

    Schlemazel

    December 21, 2016 at 6:01 am

    One quibble with the solstice video AL. Those times given are not universal. @Mustang Bobby: and I do not have the same sunrise/sunset times nor the same amount of daylight except at the equinox. This became most clear to me while watching fireworks on the 4th of July in Titusville FL at 9PM while here on the tundra it is barely dark enough at 10PM to set them off.

    I will be going to work in the dark & returning in the dark today, like I needed another reason to be depressed. I need to get this black dog off my chest

  9. 9.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 21, 2016 at 6:09 am

    @Schlemazel: One of the reasons I moved to Florida was Seasonal Affective Disorder that came on when I lived in northern lower Michigan ten miles north of the 45th parallel (that also runs through Minneapolis). It was exacerbated by the bone-rattling cold and fourteen feet of snow. Long summer twilight was wonderful but all too short.

    ETA: Sunrise in Miami will be at 7:03 a.m. Length of day will be 10h 32m and tomorrow will be 2 seconds longer.

  10. 10.

    raven

    December 21, 2016 at 6:09 am

    @Schlemazel: Buck up dawg.

  11. 11.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2016 at 6:18 am

    @Mustang Bobby: Sun comes up at 6:55 here, though we probably won’t see much of it until Christmas. Two storms are passing though today and Friday.

  12. 12.

    bystander

    December 21, 2016 at 6:23 am

    It’s always time for Rodgers and Hart’s great solstice song. Jack Cassidy’s version is not as good as Malcolm Gets’ was in the Encore production, but still those lyrics. “I measure time by what we do/And so my calendar is you.”

    Hart would have hated President Pu$$/grabber.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 6:23 am

    Tens of thousands of “smog refugees” have reportedly fled China’s pollution-stricken north after the country was hit by its latest “airpocalyse” forcing almost half a billion people to live under a blanket of toxic fumes.
    ….
    Jiang Aoshuang, one of Beijing’s “smog refugees”, told the state-run Global Times she had skipped town with her husband and 10-year-old son in order to spare their lungs. Jiang’s family made for Chongli, a smog-free ski resort about three hours north-west of the capital, only to find it packed with other fugitives seeking sanctuary from the pollution. “It really felt like a refugee camp,” she was quoted as saying.

    Yang Xinglin, who also fled to Chongli, said she had requested time off from her job at a state-owned real estate firm so she did not have to inhale the smog. “You ask me why I left Beijing? It’s because I want to live,” Yang, 27, told the Guardian.

    Emma Zhang, a third “smog refugee”, told the South China Morning Post she and her young son had swapped their home in the western city of Chengdu, which has also been blighted by severe pollution, for a hotel in the temperate south-western province of Yunnan.

    “I finally saw the blue sky. It was wonderful!” she said.

    Yeah, that EPA just destroys industries with all it’s job killing regulations. I’m sure Mr Pruitt will fix this problem for us.

  14. 14.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2016 at 6:33 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sounds like LA in the 60’s and 70’s.

    ETA: Even back in the late 80’s, we had one day when I was working on the 46th floor of Satan’s sweatshop we couldn’t see the Central library across the street. However we could see Mt. San Jacinto 90 miles away, serious inversion layer.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    December 21, 2016 at 6:34 am

    @rikyrah: Morning.

    @OzarkHillbilly: Won’t someone think of the oxygen tank makers?

  16. 16.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 21, 2016 at 6:40 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I lived in Idyllwild — in the shadow of the San Jacintos — for about six months back in the early ’80’s and was always amazed — shocked, really — at being able to see the smog layer to the west when I drove down to Hemet. Scary.

  17. 17.

    Anne Laurie

    December 21, 2016 at 6:44 am

    @raven:

    Did you go with an HVAC system or do you not need air up there?

    We absolutely need a/c up here, but the house is (natural-gas) hot-water-baseboards heated, so that has to be separately (expensively) planned from the furnace/water heater. So we’ll be using the window units for a few more years yet.

    New (Navien) heating system is a panel hanging on the wall, replacing the old monster that took up about 5×10 feet of floor space, so Spousal Unit is pleased to have space for another couple wire shelving units in his ‘man cave’.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 6:46 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: As bad as LA got back then, I’m pretty sure this is worse. The WHO sets the safe level of air pollution at 25 micrograms per cubic meter. The reading in Beijing went over 300.

    It definitely affects a much larger area and “the calamity had affected a population equivalent to those of the United States, Canada and Mexico combined with some 460m people having to breathe either hazardous pollution or heavy levels of smog in recent days.”

    The videos are horrific.

  19. 19.

    bemused

    December 21, 2016 at 6:50 am

    We are flying to the opposite end of the country to spend Christmas with two of our boys, daughter-in-law and 3 yr old granddaughter. Grandgirl knows her adored uncle is coming but doesn’t know her grandparents and great-gramma are too. Her parents didn’t tell her because they’d never hear the end of when, when, when. We sent gifts ahead of time and she was sitting in the big box they were in telling her parents to mail her to see Grampa. We can’t wait to see her face.
    It will also be a joy to escape trumpapocalyspe news for awhile.

  20. 20.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    December 21, 2016 at 6:51 am

    So, Winter has come? Fitting.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 6:51 am

    @Baud: Yeah! Think of the business opportunities!

  22. 22.

    Waldo

    December 21, 2016 at 6:51 am

    Question: Are there any Trump admin picks who don’t have ties to Russia?

    More seriously, has anyone seen a list or chart online keeping track of the Russian connections? I feel like it would be pretty damning, but i haven’t seen a complete roundup anywhere.

  23. 23.

    Cermet

    December 21, 2016 at 6:53 am

    Does the solstice really start unless the Druids tie someone to a tree, gut them and wrap their intestines around them? (To think as a kid the “May Pole” celebration was a mock one of these killings … no wonder we turned out so well adjusted – nothing like practice gutting and wrapping the intestinal track (in this case ribbons) around a pole to balance our mental states. May I suggest good old boy Putin as our victim to the any Druids out there? Maybe a certain FBI agent might be a good substitute, if Putin not available?

  24. 24.

    satby

    December 21, 2016 at 6:55 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: A similar smog situation was going on in Delhi when I first arrived last month, the readings were about as bad though for a shorter duration, thankfully it cleared a bit after my second day there. But I hadn’t seen yellow air like that since the 70s.

  25. 25.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2016 at 6:55 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s a different kind of air pollution, LA’s was primarily from autos, so it wasn’t mostly particulates. China burns alot of coal, so you get particulates. It’s an apple/oranges comparison.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    December 21, 2016 at 6:56 am

    How’s the hubby, AL?

  27. 27.

    Raven Onthill

    December 21, 2016 at 6:57 am

    Hail the unconquered sun!

    Me, I’m noticing that Trump supporters seem to think that Trump can repeal cause and effect. I’m also noticing they seem to think that people whose health care has been taken away will love them.

  28. 28.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2016 at 6:57 am

    @Mustang Bobby: Yup, folk would live in Pasadena and didn’t see the San Gabriels for the first 6 months until we’d have a Santa Ana.

  29. 29.

    Mustang Bobby

    December 21, 2016 at 7:00 am

    Denver and Albuquerque get the temperature inversion thing owing to their geography. Driving in from Boulder or Santa Fe you would see the brown cloud and there would be “burn bans” — no wood-burning stoves or fireplaces — during those times. I remember having to get my car inspected for smog emissions and they would change the gasoline mixture during the winter.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 7:01 am

    @Cermet:

    To think as a kid the “May Pole” celebration was a mock one of these killings … no wonder we turned out so well adjusted – nothing like practice gutting and wrapping the intestinal track (in this case ribbons) around a pole to balance our mental states.

    I grew up Catholic. My friends and I crucified the neighborhood children. Literally.

  31. 31.

    CapnMubbers

    December 21, 2016 at 7:02 am

    @Waldo: LGF chart http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/46709_This_Flow_Chart_Shows_the_Disturbing_Connections_Between_Trump_Russia_White_Supremacists_and_Ethnic_Nationalists

  32. 32.

    Immanentize

    December 21, 2016 at 7:03 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: so China is like the old London “fog?”

  33. 33.

    HinTN

    December 21, 2016 at 7:05 am

    @Darkrose: ;^P Loves me some Bad Astronomy

  34. 34.

    Kay

    December 21, 2016 at 7:05 am

    I still love winter. Maybe I’ll change my mind when I’m older but I don’t think I could live in a year-round warm place. The shorter days are different, but by the time they come I’m always ready for a change.

    I lived in both Georgia and North Carolina but I knew I wasn’t staying – nice places!- definitely had good points, but I knew I would end up living somewhere north of there.

    My husband is thrilled because kids wear hats again. There was a period where you couldn’t get them to WEAR A HAT. It was fashion-forbidden for like a decade. They were freezing! My older son would head out when it was 5 below with a bare head! Now hats are cool again. You can’t get them to take them off :)

  35. 35.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2016 at 7:06 am

    @Immanentize: Yup.

  36. 36.

    ThresherK (tablet)

    December 21, 2016 at 7:10 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ve got this Brazil-like image in my head of those 460m people surrounded by posters and billboards of the Beijing Olympics (when China took temporary steps to make the air quality passable).

  37. 37.

    Raven

    December 21, 2016 at 7:12 am

    @Anne Laurie: nice

  38. 38.

    Jeffg166

    December 21, 2016 at 7:14 am

    I use to look forward to the Solstice. Summer was coming back. Now I dread it. Summer is coming back.

  39. 39.

    Raven

    December 21, 2016 at 7:14 am

    @Kay: if you lived here you know it’s not “year round warm”. I’m sitting outside with my pups and it’s below freezing.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    December 21, 2016 at 7:15 am

    @Kay: As long as they’re not red truckers hats.

  41. 41.

    Laura in Kaua'i

    December 21, 2016 at 7:15 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I grew up in San Marino in the 50s and 60s and the only two days we saw the mountains some years were on Christmas and Easter, when the cars were off the road, I guess. Or if there was a Santa Ana blowing (and then of course we worried about fires breaking out). Summers were the worst, especially if you went swimming. The combo of smog and chlorine made breathing very difficult.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    December 21, 2016 at 7:15 am

    @Jeffg166: I like May 2. That’s a good day.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 7:16 am

    @Kay:

    There was a period where you couldn’t get them to WEAR A HAT. It was fashion-forbidden for like a decade.

    Hat hair was to be avoided at all costs.

  44. 44.

    Raven

    December 21, 2016 at 7:16 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I lived in Whittier in the late 50s and had trouble breathing at times. How bout that huge eucalyptus falling on those folks?

  45. 45.

    Cermet

    December 21, 2016 at 7:18 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Uh, I am really hoping that the word “Literally” has a slightly different meaning for you then me …lol.

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    December 21, 2016 at 7:19 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That’s why the kids love the slouchy hats.

    Big ole beanies with pompoms are back, too. It’s a lot of fun

  47. 47.

    Baud

    December 21, 2016 at 7:22 am

    @Cermet: Don’t ask too many questions.

  48. 48.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2016 at 7:22 am

    @Raven: Pretty sad, killed the mother of the bride. It’s pretty common for those trees to come down after a rain storm and the subsequent wind. I had one fall on my car a few years ago.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    December 21, 2016 at 7:24 am

    @Raven:

    I do know that! Atlanta had a kind of wet cold that goes right to the feet :)

    It’s a fun city and it was cheap to live there at the time. I rented for a time in Buckhead and I was a waitress. I was surrounded by Mercedes drivers and I was driving a car that wouldn’t go in reverse. If I got in a place where I couldn’t turn around I had to push it backwards and jump in. The house had a pool! Just crazy, how cheap it was to rent. It was part of a bad divorce or something- someone was fighting over it.

    I remember ice storms too. Magnolia leaves coated with ice. I envy you unlimited pine straw, which is the best thing ever, and those giant magnolias. I once planted a white pine just for the straw. I also love live oaks. I covet them.

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 7:24 am

    @Cermet: We used rope, not spikes, and we always took them down in time for dinner. Each one of us had also spent time on the cross. I think that is what’s called a “martyr complex”.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    December 21, 2016 at 7:26 am

    @Baud:

    Ski hats. They have whole collections. Some of them wear a thin one in one color and a thicker, different color on top of that. It looks good, surprisingly.

  52. 52.

    Dadadadadadada

    December 21, 2016 at 7:28 am

    I for one am quite looking forward to being surprised in 2017. For example, it would surprise me greatly if Shitler makes it through the year without killing millions of innocent people.

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 7:30 am

    @Kay:

    I was driving a car that wouldn’t go in reverse.

    Reminds me of an old truck I once had with notoriously bad starters. Always had to park on a hill in a place where I couldn’t get blocked in. (manual tranny)

  54. 54.

    Baud

    December 21, 2016 at 7:30 am

    @Kay: Two hats?! I thought kids today were supposed to be suffering.

  55. 55.

    HeleninEire

    December 21, 2016 at 7:30 am

    Yeah, the only thing I’m not liking about the move is that the sun doesn’t even start its rise until 7:45, and if there’s sun, its not out from behind the clouds until 10. Then its dark again at 4:15ish.

    Of course the summer is the exact opposite. The sun is shining bright by 5:30am and it stays in the sky until 9pm. And the whole time, the temps rarely reach 75 degrees. Absolute heaven.

    Today the sun is shining and it’s a crisp 47 degrees. The perfect day for a long walk along the quays of the River Liffey.

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2016 at 7:32 am

    @Waldo:
    I saw a tweet of all the Russian connections. Pretty damning.

  57. 57.

    Botsplainer

    December 21, 2016 at 7:34 am

    No more surprises would mean that Me and probably most of the inhabitants of North America survive until February 1.

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2016 at 7:36 am

    I enjoy living in a four season place. I would be lying if I didn’t say that winter gets harder and harder to deal with every year.

  59. 59.

    satby

    December 21, 2016 at 7:43 am

    @rikyrah: Morning!

    I also like living in a place with four seasons, and I don’t mind cold or snow as long as I can avoid having to drive on ice, which hasn’t been possible the last two years but may be after a few more years. I take the short winter days as the required penalty for enjoying the long summer days, and winter solstice is my favorite day because I know the march is on to more daylight.

  60. 60.

    JPL

    December 21, 2016 at 7:43 am

    Anne, I’m glad that your husband is on the mend.

    Twitter informed me that O’Reilly’s is defending the electoral college.

    The left wants power taken away from the white establishment and they want a profound change in the way America is run.”

    Steve Bannon must be so proud!

  61. 61.

    debbie

    December 21, 2016 at 7:45 am

    @JPL:

    “White establishment”??? I say we go back to the day everyone hated the Irish, Mr. O’Reilly.

  62. 62.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 21, 2016 at 7:50 am

    @Cermet:

    Does the solstice really start unless the Druids tie someone to a tree, gut them and wrap their intestines around them?

    Which Trump kid do you have in mind?

    @Waldo: Here is a link to Trump, Russia and White Supremacists which is not exactly what you’re asking for.

  63. 63.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 21, 2016 at 7:52 am

    @JPL: The “white establishment” only includes straight, White Republicans. President and Secretary Clinton need not apply.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 7:59 am

    @JPL: @debbie: On the bright side of Trump’s ascendancy is the tossing away of the dog whistle. Used to be it was OK to be racist as long as you didn’t sound like one. They aren’t hiding anymore.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    December 21, 2016 at 8:00 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I bought it off of this 17 year old southerner. He was so nice. He would let me bring it back and he would fix it sometimes. I have no idea why he was running a used car lot in his grandmother’s front yard. They all drank “Jack and Coke”. They’d run it together like one word- JacknCoke. This might explain why the car wouldn’t go in reverse despite numerous repairs.

  66. 66.

    Central Planning

    December 21, 2016 at 8:00 am

    Happy BS “darkest solstice in 500 years” day!

  67. 67.

    Cermet

    December 21, 2016 at 8:04 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Well, the rope part is good to hear and I hope you guy’s had a foot stand so suffocation was averted …sounds like you all had an interesting childhood of religious fun …guess that wouldn’t go over well at most Sunday schools … . Well, our May pole was colourful but not in a bloody manner.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    December 21, 2016 at 8:07 am

    @Waldo:

    Are there any Trump admin picks who don’t have ties to Russia?

    I’d say Betsy DeVos, but then again, she’s gonna be rushin’ to privatize America’s public schools…get it? Rushin’?!?

    (crickets)

    Guess I better not quit my day job…

  69. 69.

    raven

    December 21, 2016 at 8:08 am

    @Kay: Here are the magnolia decorations on our mantle!

  70. 70.

    raven

    December 21, 2016 at 8:11 am

    @efgoldman:

    We returned to that five room flat
    Now it was empty and this the last time
    There were blinking pictures
    Of how we’d sit and chat
    Some of them are scattered

    Others shattered in my mind

    It was always three flights up
    Cathedral bells kept time

    In the winter, a-chatterin’ cold
    While the building shook like ragweed in the wind
    Stories from the heat pipes
    We were told

    But now they only leave me
    With a half-enchanted grin

  71. 71.

    Spanky (ex-P-man)

    December 21, 2016 at 8:11 am

    Dang! Missed Solstice! That happened back at 5:44 EST, and as it happens I was spending a quiet moment with a cat on my lap after Mrs. P had left for work and before I got rolling out the door. A good activity for the moment of solstice.

    And of course everyone knows we (in the Northern Hemisphere) have been gaining afternoon sun since December 5 while losing morning sun until January 5(ish). That’s due to the obliquity of the ecliptic making the sun run slow this time of year.

  72. 72.

    raven

    December 21, 2016 at 8:12 am

    @Kay: I had a friend in Champaign that lived in the ATL in the 70’s and he said it was wild!

  73. 73.

    Spanky (ex P-man)

    December 21, 2016 at 8:16 am

    A/L, I mis-typed this new nym and am in moderation. Please to rescue?

  74. 74.

    JPL

    December 21, 2016 at 8:17 am

    @raven: That is beautiful! As soon as it warms up, I am going to clip some branches and copy that.

  75. 75.

    satby

    December 21, 2016 at 8:18 am

    @debbie: hey now!

  76. 76.

    Morzer

    December 21, 2016 at 8:20 am

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpQJUps5mPk

    A wide-ranging, challenging discussion by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Rebecca Traister, Chris Hayes, and Sherrilyn Ifill of why Trump won and the state of American society.

    The official blurb:

    Random House presents a “Big Ideas Night” panel with Ta-Nehisi Coates, Chris Hayes, Rebecca Traister, Sherrilyn Ifill, and moderator Chris Jackson. They discuss the fallout of the 2016 Presidential election, and what a Trump presidency could mean for America.

  77. 77.

    Jeffro

    December 21, 2016 at 8:21 am

    Glad to see more and more writers, like Jamelle Bouie today, noting that what’s needed is to restore some of the norms we all used to abide by in our politics. It’s a great way to highlight the GOP’s decades-long spiral into Tea Party madness without giving them any wiggle room or excuses. The Hacker/Pierson book I”m reading, American Amnesia, touches on this theme as well.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    December 21, 2016 at 8:21 am

    @raven:

    They’re lovely. I used to put the magnolia blooms in bowls but they only last about 15 minutes :)

    We used to go to the Fox Theater. One of us had a boyfriend who had a brother who was a concert promoter so he’d get us in free. TONS of drama. Someone was always crying and storming out. I had a (female) friend who was named “Merle” after Haggard. She had NO sense of humor about this!

  79. 79.

    Jeffro

    December 21, 2016 at 8:25 am

    Btw, very cool stuff here (first noted over at TPM by Josh Marshall): great way to make sure we have Dems running for every possible seat in the country. 50-state-strategy? Psshht. How about a 40,000-seat strategy?!?

  80. 80.

    Chris

    December 21, 2016 at 8:25 am

    Open thread, right? A very random question to the floor. Is anyone else here unable to drink coffee on account of irritable bowel syndrome or something like it, and if so, have you ever found an adequate substitute in the “staying awake at work” department?

    (I assume that if your body doesn’t like coffee, Red Bull isn’t even worth bringing up. Anything else?)

  81. 81.

    Chris

    December 21, 2016 at 8:26 am

    @efgoldman:

    As Bette Davis famously said: gettin’ old ain’t for sissies.

    That shit’ll kill you.

  82. 82.

    Botsplainer

    December 21, 2016 at 8:28 am

    For anybody who has seen the vid of the racist old troll berating the Hispanic women at a JC Penney’s in Louisville (with no pushback from other customers), keep in mind that her attitude is pure Kentucky, but not Louisville.

    That mall is in the farther reaches of the South End, bordering deplorable country.

  83. 83.

    raven

    December 21, 2016 at 8:28 am

    @Kay: I have a buddy who knows Dylan and some of his long time players. About 20 years ago I ran into him on the street and he said “I gotta have a ride to the Fox to see Bob, you want to take me”? I thought he was full of shit but I did it. We went to the back door and, sure enough, he was on the backstage list. It was weird, you couldn’t really hear but it was an experience. Jagger was making a movie in Atlanta at the time so he was back stage too. I remember Dylan going off stage and Mick trailing after him “Bob, Bob. . .”

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 8:29 am

    @efgoldman:

    I’d be looking at those Mitsubishi ductless units that hang on a wall. They’re expensive, too.

    I was just about to mention mini-splits. They are very efficient and very popular in Europe and Japan where space is a consideration. The cost overall isn’t that much worse. I’m going to be putting a couple units in my house soon (I hope).

  85. 85.

    magurakurin

    December 21, 2016 at 8:29 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s bad enough that it effects me here in Japan across the goddamn sea. We have alerts now for PM2.5 when the wind blows the smog from China our way. I mean, Beijing is pretty damned far away.

  86. 86.

    raven

    December 21, 2016 at 8:29 am

    @JPL: Should only be a couple of hours.

  87. 87.

    germy

    December 21, 2016 at 8:31 am

    headline:

    Andrea Bocelli Joins a Long List of Singers Who Will Not Be Performing at Donald Trump’s Inauguration

  88. 88.

    Morzer

    December 21, 2016 at 8:32 am

    @efgoldman:

    Didn’t the Youtube link come through? The recording was posted to Youtube on December 19th.

  89. 89.

    Baud

    December 21, 2016 at 8:32 am

    @germy: Yes! Small victories.

  90. 90.

    JPL

    December 21, 2016 at 8:33 am

    @raven: Thanks. I’ll clip them late Saturday afternoon before the crowd arrives for dinner.

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    December 21, 2016 at 8:33 am

    Good morning, all. Happy Winter Solstice.

    Normalizing Fascists. Blogpost by a Case Western professor, with interesting comments following.

    How to report on a fascist?

    How to cover the rise of a political leader who’s left a paper trail of anti-constitutionalism, racism and the encouragement of violence? Does the press take the position that its subject acts outside the norms of society? Or does it take the position that someone who wins a fair election is by definition “normal,” because his leadership reflects the will of the people?

    These are the questions that confronted the U.S. press after the ascendance of fascist leaders in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s….

  92. 92.

    Baud

    December 21, 2016 at 8:35 am

    @Elizabelle: To be fair, Hitler’s opponents didn’t have private email servers.

  93. 93.

    magurakurin

    December 21, 2016 at 8:36 am

    @debbie:

    I say we go back to the day everyone hated the Irish, Mr. O’Reilly.

    Why stop there? Why not go all the way back to hating Germans?

    Those who come hither are generally of the most ignorant Stupid Sort of their own Nation…and as few of the English understand the German Language, and so cannot address them either from the Press or Pulpit, ’tis almost impossible to remove any prejudices they once entertain…Not being used to Liberty, they know not how to make a modest use of it…I remember when they modestly declined intermeddling in our Elections, but now they come in droves, and carry all before them, except in one or two Counties…In short unless the stream of their importation could be turned from this to other colonies, as you very judiciously propose, they will soon so out number us, that all the advantages we have will not in My Opinion be able to preserve our language, and even our Government will become precarious.
    …
    Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion.

    24. Which leads me to add one Remark: That the Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny. Asia chiefly tawny. America (exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, Scouring our Planet, by clearing America of Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect a brighter Light to the Eyes of Inhabitants in Mars or Venus, why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People? why increase the Sons of Africa, by Planting them in America, where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red? But perhaps I am partial to the Complexion of my Country, for such Kind of Partiality is natural to Mankind.
    Benjamin Franklin

  94. 94.

    Elizabelle

    December 21, 2016 at 8:36 am

    @Baud: I know. Emails, emails, emails.

    Despondent. That is the mood. (John and others discussed it in the overnight thread.)

  95. 95.

    Baud

    December 21, 2016 at 8:38 am

    @Elizabelle: I was a sociopath before the election so part of me is happy to see my outlook validated.

  96. 96.

    Morzer

    December 21, 2016 at 8:38 am

    @Baud:

    *cough* Alan Turing was just wily *cough*

  97. 97.

    Morzer

    December 21, 2016 at 8:40 am

    @Baud:

    So, would a sociopathic sociologist be a sociopathologist?

  98. 98.

    germy

    December 21, 2016 at 8:40 am

    @Baud:

    Yes! Small victories.

    At this point I believe the only entertainment will be Rush Limbaugh playing The Presidential March through his ass cheeks.

  99. 99.

    Jeffro

    December 21, 2016 at 8:41 am

    @Botsplainer: saw it on Twitter…what a horrendous person. Would have been nice if someone had bothered to get the JCP manager (then again, it’s only a 1-minute video; the manager may have been on the way)

  100. 100.

    germy

    December 21, 2016 at 8:41 am

    @Elizabelle: And then I see this WaPo headline:

    Could Trump’s freewheeling foreign policy have its benefits?

    By David Ignatius

  101. 101.

    NotMax

    December 21, 2016 at 8:42 am

    Got yer sunrise right here.

  102. 102.

    Morzer

    December 21, 2016 at 8:42 am

    @Botsplainer:

    I once spent two of the most annoying weeks of my life in Louisville. I am prepared to believe the worst of that city and its denizens.

  103. 103.

    Elizabelle

    December 21, 2016 at 8:43 am

    @germy: Freewheeling, huh? How carefree.

  104. 104.

    germy

    December 21, 2016 at 8:43 am

    @Chris:

    have you ever found an adequate substitute in the “staying awake at work” department?

    Those caffeine supplements give me the jitters. Sometimes just standing up and doing some brisk movements (without alarming your co-workers) will provide a rush of alertness. A quick walk, some arm flapping, etc.

  105. 105.

    Morzer

    December 21, 2016 at 8:43 am

    @germy:

    “Are nuclear wars a growth opportunity for the corporations who survive them?”

  106. 106.

    germy

    December 21, 2016 at 8:44 am

    @Elizabelle:

    Freewheeling, huh? How carefree.

    I know, right? I love the words they use. So safe and harmless. I thought Bob Dylan was freewheelin’, not herr drumpf.

  107. 107.

    Elizabelle

    December 21, 2016 at 8:45 am

    @Morzer: Yeah, really. Much like those who survived the Black Death benefitted from less folks being around in the aftermath.

  108. 108.

    germy

    December 21, 2016 at 8:47 am

    @Morzer:

    “Are nuclear wars a growth opportunity for the corporations who survive them?”

    “Diet and fashion tips for your post-safety net lifestyle”

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    December 21, 2016 at 8:48 am

    @efgoldman

    When it comes up in conversation, like to describe getting old as “a carnival of revelations.”

  110. 110.

    MomSense

    December 21, 2016 at 8:48 am

    @Elizabelle:

    I’ve gone from despondent to furious. A long time friend made a comment about the DNC being mean to Bernie and I congratulated for falling for the Russian con game. The Sanders supporters were the initial targets for the Russian information warfare. She looked really shocked. I then told her that anyone who harbors one bit of admiration for Sanders is an idiot and I’ve given up playing nice. I’m sooo done coddling people. They honestly didn’t care enough about the people who would be harmed to warrant any concern from me now.

  111. 111.

    Morzer

    December 21, 2016 at 8:49 am

    @Elizabelle:

    Oddly enough, they did. Agricultural laborers found that their services were in great demand because their segment of the population had died off at horrendous rates and the big estates simply couldn’t get the peasants they needed, and so they could negotiate for better wages (or simply up and go elsewhere) in ways that simply weren’t possible before. These tendencies worried the aristocrats enough that you find new laws being passed in e.g. England to restrict freedom of movement and cap wages at a pretty low maximum legal rate.

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    December 21, 2016 at 8:50 am

    @MomSense: Furious would be a step up. So there’s that to look forward to.

    And yes.

    But how about changing the S-word to Wilbur in your comment, or we will have that asshole NR smelling up the place.

    I agree with you totally. The manic progressives shivved us. Fuck them.

  113. 113.

    Morzer

    December 21, 2016 at 8:50 am

    @NotMax:

    I think we shall soon experience the joy of living through a carnivorous revelation.

  114. 114.

    Spanky (ex P-man)

    December 21, 2016 at 8:51 am

    @Elizabelle: You know the rules about headlines. For every headline that ends in a question mark the answer to the question is “no”, even (especially?) if the author’s conclusion is “yes”.

  115. 115.

    Elizabelle

    December 21, 2016 at 8:53 am

    @Spanky (ex P-man): Gonna put that to the test. LOL. Might amass a collection. Of the ridiculous.

  116. 116.

    Chris

    December 21, 2016 at 8:53 am

    @efgoldman:

    Don’t the caffeine tablets have the same effect as drinking coffee would?

    Getting a co-worker to slap one upside the head is, of course, always an option, thank you for reminding me. And several of them wouldn’t mind a bit.

  117. 117.

    germy

    December 21, 2016 at 8:53 am

    @magurakurin: I am so naive that it didn’t occur to me until much later in life that many of the old books I’d read and enjoyed in my youth were written by men who would have hated me on sight.
    I am one of Ben Franklin’s tawny swarthy undesirables.

  118. 118.

    JPL

    December 21, 2016 at 8:54 am

    @MomSense: I’ll be good, I promise!

    Actually, I thought Bernie’s lack of transparency about his finances, would have shown his supporters, that he was a phony. I think it was here that someone here who mentioned that Trump didn’t release his tax returns, because he didn’t want his followers to know, how little money he actually had. Bernie didn’t release his, because he didn’t want his followers to know, how wealthy he was.

  119. 119.

    germy

    December 21, 2016 at 8:56 am

    @JPL: Susan Sarandon can enjoy her tax break while fighting the good fight on twitter.

  120. 120.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2016 at 8:56 am

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

    Conservative Group Wants Trump To ‘Ferret Out’ Pro-LGBT State Department Workers
    A new twist on old McCarthyism.
    12/16/2016 04:57 pm ET | Updated 2 days ago

    A leading social conservative organization is calling on the Trump administration to “ferret out” employees at the State Department who worked to promote LGBT rights and replace them with conservatives.

    The Family Research Council, in a little-noticed statement on Thursday, accused the Obama administration of having deployed the State Department to advance an LGBT agenda, and argued it was incumbent on the next secretary of state ― likely ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson ― to stop it.

    “I certainly don’t see Tillerson cut from the same cloth as [Hillary] Clinton or [John] Kerry, but he doesn’t have to be for these anti-life, liberal social policies to continue,” said a statement that appears to be written by the group’s president, Tony Perkins. “He must have the courage to stop the promotion of this anti-family, anti-life agenda, which is very much a question mark given that he capitulated to activists pushing to liberalize the Boy Scouts’ policy on homosexuality when he was at the helm of the organization.

    “The incoming administration needs to make clear that these liberal policies will be reversed and the ‘activists’ within the State Department promoting them will be ferreted out and will be replaced by conservatives who will ensure the State Department focuses on true international human rights like religious liberty which is under unprecedented assault,” the statement concludes.

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    December 21, 2016 at 8:56 am

    @JPL: That strikes me as true.

    So: the only nominee who disclosed: was done in by emails, emails, emails.

  122. 122.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 8:58 am

    @NotMax: I got yer moon rise right here.

  123. 123.

    Morzer

    December 21, 2016 at 9:01 am

    @rikyrah:

    true international human rights like religious liberty

    I’ll believe it when I see Tony Perkins fighting to defend Muslims whose mosques have been attacked and whose civil liberties have been threatened by right-wing white Christian terrorists.

  124. 124.

    Elizabelle

    December 21, 2016 at 9:05 am

    The Family Research Council can go to the devil.

    Honestly. I would love to see The Great Orange One’s face when he has to give them a meeting. He probably thinks they’re as whacko as we do. But they’re a channel to more of his supporters.

    The evangelical set. WIth Trump as their defender of morals.

    You can’t make this shit up.

  125. 125.

    Weaselone

    December 21, 2016 at 9:06 am

    @Morzer:

    “Nuclear Winter: Solution to the Climate Crisis?”

  126. 126.

    Chris

    December 21, 2016 at 9:08 am

    @Elizabelle:

    To be somewhat fair to them, fascism was still a relatively new phenomenon at the time, even if it was composed of a ton of things (authoritarianism, antisemitism, imperialism) that were anything but. Also, note that dictatorship was much more widespread and accepted in those days.

    The article is, of course, pretty much spot on. A lot of this is stuff I’d thought of years ago when reading up on fascism, looking around me and wondering how many conservatives would hop on board the bandwagon if it ever came around and how they’d justify it. And it was, unfortunately, all very easy to imagine.

  127. 127.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21, 2016 at 9:09 am

    @Elizabelle:

    The Family Research Council can go to the devil.

    Where do you think they came from? Trust me, Satan is not taking them back.

  128. 128.

    Spanky (ex P-man)

    December 21, 2016 at 9:11 am

    @Weaselone: Actually, that may be the one headline that violates the rule I mentioned in #124.

  129. 129.

    Elizabelle

    December 21, 2016 at 9:14 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Truth.

  130. 130.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2016 at 9:26 am

    I’ll just leave this here:

    “What It Means”
    Patterson Hood

    He was running down the street
    When they shot him in his tracks
    About the only thing agreed upon
    Is he ain’t coming back
    There won’t be any trial
    So the air it won’t be cleared
    There’s just two sides calling names
    Out of anger out of fear
    If you say it wasn’t racial
    When they shot him in his tracks
    Well I guess that means that you ain’t black
    It means that you ain’t black
    I mean Barack Obama won
    And you can choose where to eat
    But you don’t see too many white kids
    Lying bleeding on the street

    In some town in Missouri
    But it could be anywhere
    It could be right here on Ruth Street
    In fact it’s happened here
    And it happened where you’re sitting
    Wherever that might be
    And it happened last weekend
    And it will happen again next week
    And when they turned him over
    They were surprised there was no gun
    I mean he must have done something
    Or else why would he have run
    And they’ll spin it for the anchors
    On the television screen
    So we can shrug and let it happen
    Without asking what it means

    What it means?
    What it means?

    Then I guess there was protesting
    And some looting in some stores
    And someone was reminded that
    They ain’t called colored folks no more
    I mean we try to be politically
    Correct when we call names
    But what’s the point of post-racial
    When old prejudice remains?
    And that guy who killed that kid
    Down in Florida standing ground
    Is free to beat up on his girlfriend
    And wave his brand new gun around
    While some kid is dead and buried
    And laying in the ground
    With a pocket full of skittles

    What it means?
    What it means?

    Astrophysics at our fingertips
    And we’re standing at the summit
    And some man with a joystick
    Lands a rocket on a comet
    We’re living in an age
    Where limitations are forgotten
    The outer edges move and dazzle us
    But the core is something rotten
    And we’re standing on the precipice
    Of prejudice and fear
    We trust science just as long
    As it tells us what we want to hear
    We want our truths all fair and balanced
    As long as our notions lie within it
    There’s no sunlight in our ass’
    And our heads are stuck up in it
    And our heroes may be rapists
    Who watch us while we dream
    But don’t look to me for answers
    Cuz I don’t know what it means

    What it means?
    What it means?

    Wolverines!

  131. 131.

    MomSense

    December 21, 2016 at 9:33 am

    @JPL:

    That would be me who said that about their taxes. Bastards.

  132. 132.

    Weaselone

    December 21, 2016 at 9:42 am

    @Spanky (ex P-man):

    Good point.

  133. 133.

    jenn

    December 21, 2016 at 9:51 am

    @A Ghost To Most: Hadn’t read this. Thanks.

  134. 134.

    matryoshka

    December 21, 2016 at 10:11 am

    @rikyrah: So I guess America will soon be officially supporting the “kill the gays” people in Uganda? And what’s good for Uganda is good for. . .

  135. 135.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2016 at 10:22 am

    @jenn: and this:

    “Once They Banned Imagine”
    Mike Cooley

    We had our heart strings dangling ripe for the yanking
    And lot of reasons grabby was good
    Poor huddled masses singing boots up their asses
    Giving grabby what he needed to pull
    All the way back to where ghosts from the past were still
    Fighting their wars from the grave
    Complete with record burning and threatening and spurning
    The crime of getting blood on the page
    Since the big one ended we’d been mostly pretending
    We’d have had the same gumption and grit
    As the greatest among us when harm came upon us
    We wouldn’t hesitate to defend
    But with or against something’s been out to get us
    And it looked like something finally did
    No nobler cause in our lifetime for setting our sails to the wind

    But once they banned Imagine it became the same old war its always been
    Once they banned Imagine it became the war it was when we were kids

    Are you now or have you ever been in cahoots with the notion that people can change
    When history happens again if you do or you did you’ll be blamed
    From baseless inquiry
    To no knocking entry
    Becoming the law of the land
    To half cocked excuses for bullet abuse regarding anything browner than tan

    Cause once they banned Imagine it became the same old war its always been
    Once they banned Imagine it became the war it was when we were kids

    Wolverines!

  136. 136.

    randy khan

    December 21, 2016 at 11:06 am

    “The hinge of the year” – what a lovely phrase.

    The Winter Solstice is one of my favorite days of the year – I yearn for the promise of the return of the light.

  137. 137.

    Chris

    December 21, 2016 at 11:11 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The Family Research Council can go to the devil.
    …
    Where do you think they came from? Trust me, Satan is not taking them back.

    “This isn’t Wall Street! This is Hell! We have a little thing called integrity!”

  138. 138.

    Jeffro

    December 21, 2016 at 11:26 am

    @A Ghost To Most: “Ramon Casiano” = great history of the guy who made the modern NRA so vile (Ramon was his first victim) and “Surrender Under Protest” = a sharp take on how the Confederacy lives on after all these generations

  139. 139.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    December 21, 2016 at 11:59 am

    @randy khan: I want to second the beauty of the phrase

    the hinge of the year

    and thank you for noting it.

  140. 140.

    HeidiMom

    December 21, 2016 at 12:16 pm

    @magurakurin: I’m a descendant of those “ignorant Stupid Sort” so feared by Ben. According to our family history, our surname was originally “Kraehenbuehl,” meaning “crow hill.” As with so much of Pennsylvania “Dutch,” or German, culture, it’s been Anglicized. Like all bigots, Ben feared what he didn’t understand, or even have first-hand knowledge of. (Where did he meet those swarthy Swedes, anyway?) About the only danger our culture poses to the Commonwealth nowadays is the possibility that if you order chicken pot pie in a family restaurant or diner in central Pennsylvania, you’ll get something you’re not expecting. Ask before ordering!

  141. 141.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2016 at 12:58 pm

    and for Harlon Carter, who made the NRA what is is today:

    Ramon Casiano”
    Mike Cooley

    It all started with the border
    And that’s still where it is today
    Someone killed Ramon Casiano
    And the killer got away

    Down by the Sister Cities river
    Two boys with way more pride than sense
    One would fall and one would prosper
    Never forced to make amends

    He became a border agent
    And supplemented what he made
    With creative deportation
    And missing ammo by the case

    Since Bullet ran the operation
    There’s hardly been a minute since
    There ain’t a massing at the border
    From Chinese troops to terrorists

    He had the makings of a leader
    Of a certain kind of men
    Who need to feel the world’s against him
    Out to get ’em if it can

    Men whose trigger pull their fingers
    Of men who’d rather fight than win
    United in a revolution
    Like in mind and like in skin

    It all started with the border
    And that’s still where it is today
    Down by the Sister Cities river
    But for sure no one can say

    The killing’s been the bullet’s business
    Since back in 1931
    Someone killed Ramon Casiano
    And Ramon still ain’t dead enough

  142. 142.

    E

    December 21, 2016 at 7:14 pm

    Aarghh. The northern hemisphere is not, as the video states, “furthest from the sun” on this date. The earth is actually pretty close to the sun this time of year, it’s just that our northern end is tipped away from it.

  143. 143.

    Gary K

    December 21, 2016 at 9:05 pm

    @E: Yeah, thanks for mentioning that. I left a similar comment at the YouTube posting.

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