Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

People are weird.

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

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

We still have time to mess this up!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Enough Already

Enough Already

by | 254 Comments

This post is in: 

Carrie Fisher had a major heart attack while on a flight to LA and is now on a ventilator.

Bringing out the big guns because 2016 fucking deserves it. Worst year ever.

*** Update ***

Check the page to make sure there are no mistakes (which I probably should do before I publish, no?) and discover that the ad algorithms are making fat jokes at the expense of Tunch:

Reader Interactions

254Comments

  5. 5.

    daveNYC

    And still one week to go. If RBG goes next I’ll take it as proof that God exists and he’s a fucking dickhole.

  7. 7.

    Spanky

    Worst year ever.

    “In living memory”, maybe. I wouldn’t have wanted to live through 1914-1916 in Europe or 1861-1864 or 1942 in the US. And that’s just the first few that I thought of.

    (Edited to fix fucking dates)

  9. 9.

    Yarrow

    Fuck you, 2016. Worst year I can remember. No confidence 2017 will be any better, so not really wishing 2016 will end. it’s just the starter for the main course of 2017.

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    You know, I think it has been the worst year. 1963 with the JFK assassination: the country had an unbearable shock, but was not faced with a madman taking office. And the whole administration doing a 180.

    Worst fucking year of this life.

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    It’s good to see Tunch, and he would be saying that. At various times, for various provocations.

  14. 14.

    eemom

    For fuck’s sake, people, need I remind you of what’s about to take place in 2017?

    The good folks who passed in 2016 might well have been fortunate.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Yes. That is true. MLK, RFK and the election results. But Nixon was far better than Trump. He looks good in the rear view mirror, after W and Cheney.

  20. 20.

    Time Travelin'

    Don’t worry, next year should be even worse so we’ll forget all about 2016 in no time!

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    Biggest highlight was Antonin Scalia departing this mortal coil.

    And may Mitch McConnell suffer a more painful exit when he goes (soon, please), for denying Obama a Supreme Court appointment.

    Except that he’s big on precedent and unforeseen circumstances, I think Obama should appoint Garland and let the 8-judge USSC duke it out. Perhaps after having a bracing talk with John Roberts before. Although, no idea if Robert is as aghast at the incoming administration as we are …. we iz fucked.

  27. 27.

    Eric U.

    @Elizabelle: I was kinda hoping no president would make W look good in my lifetime. No such luck. I always thought Nixon owed W a favor for making him look good

  29. 29.

    guachi

    The only Star Wars cast member I’ve met is Mark Hamill this summer. He was filming a scene for the new Mystery Science Theater 3000. He was really, really nice and took the time to talk with us fans for ten minutes or so.

    If I could, I’d also like to thank Carrie Fisher for being part of something that made such a difference in my life. Being three when Star Wars came out really shapes one’s life.

    I wish her all the best.

  35. 35.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Elizabelle: Remember that Garland now stays as the Chief Judge on DC’s Appellate Court. He has a tremendous amount of power on that court, which now has a Democratic appointed majority, to stop whatever it is that the GOP tries to pass when it comes before his appellate circuit for review.

    Every strategic success changes the environment and creates new problems. Every single one.

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    @BillinGlendaleCA: And Judge Posner in Chicago is not amused either. And he holds a lot of sway on his appellate court, as well as among conservative jurists – the ones that aren’t simply partisans.

  42. 42.

    Mike in NC

    We’ll go all nostalgic for 2016 in under six months, guaranteed. Trump is going to incinerate Planet Earth in 2017.

  43. 43.

    debbie

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I wish his jurisdiction reached to Ohio. They’re bringing back the Hearbeat Bill next week in a special session. I’d bet it’ll be the first Treacherous Act of 2017.

  46. 46.

    debbie

    @raven:

    Oh, I know. You clearly were at risk. I was just watching and reading. I’m kind of surprised that my parents didn’t stop me, actually. They were both Republicans until Nixon announced he’d invaded Cambodia.

  48. 48.

    lamh36

    @Corner Stone:
    @Adam L Silverman:

    Not for nothing, but Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade…BEST in the franchise, IMHO. With Last Crusade being my personal fav…I watch it everytime its on TV if I can…Raiders I’ll watch, but not as consistently as Crusade!

    Fact the ONLY reason to want to watch Kingdom Skull or whatever…is to see Karen Allen again!! I loved Marion! For my money, her and Ford’s interactions were the BEST of the crappy movie!

  50. 50.

    Raoul

    This. I am bummed that Kander didn’t win in MO. But we can see that in addition to dismantling a gun blindfolded, he can dismantle Rump in a tweet.

    @JasonKander 5 min ago
    Jason Kander Retweeted Donald J. Trump
    And what did Putin say to you about your missiles that made you feel like they were inadequate?

  52. 52.

    Elizabelle

    Oh, I hope that Carrie Fisher can recover, and keep her wits and sparkle.

    Catch you guys a bit later. Gonna go help a friend decorate a tree and watch some basketball.

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    Not to put a cold towel on but a lot of the people who died this year were at the age when a lot of people start dying. They did last year and the year before that and on and on. Carrie Fisher is 60 and that’s a bit young but I know many people who are now dead and were not much older or even close to that age. That we know of many that died this year doesn’t make it any better, nor should it, but it can’t or at least shouldn’t be unexpected. I personally know people who have died who were aged from 6 months to 104 and all sorts of ages in between. Some had decent lives, some did good things some were shit, one never had a chance but they still all ended up where we all will at some point. Maybe it’s my age and health that is talking, or I might be talking out my ass and I might have 30 yrs to go. Almost none of us know until the last moment and many probably not even then. This has been a watershed crappy year of my life but reflecting back, its hard to say it’s been the worst and in fact it hasn’t been. All of this is not to say that I like seeing people go but I’ve been seeing this for so many decades that this year doesn’t seem different than any other. Maybe I don’t see people, like entertainers, on pedestals, I’ve met a few of them and they really are just like you or me. It’s like respecting people because they have money. That doesn’t make them better, in fact it can make them a lot worse than the rest of us. It’s who and what we are that counts, not what we have or look like. In John’s own words, he looks like a trump supporter (is that like an athletic supporter, a human jock strap?) but he isn’t. It’s who he is, not his looks or this blog, or his house. And it’s the same for all of us. Trump wasn’t an issue with his gold plated shitters and all, until he wanted us to vote for him. He’s always been an asshole, he’s still an asshole and he will be until his last breath, or the con game is over, whichever comes first.

  57. 57.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’ll probably post this again in the next few days, but somehow this seems like a good time to put up a poem written, I believe, in 1935 or -36. More relevant today than ever before. And I think you’ll be surprised to see who the poet is.

    A Carol for Children
    (The Holy Innocents is commemorated
    December 28 or January 11)

    God rest you merry, Innocents,
    Let nothing you dismay.
    Let nothing wound an eager heart
    Upon this Christmas day.

    Yours be the genial holly wreaths.
    The stockings by the tree;
    An aged world to you bequeaths
    Its own forgotten glee.

    Soon, soon enough come crueler gifts,
    The anger and the tears;
    Between you now there sparsely drifts
    A handful yet of years.

    Oh, dimly, dimly grows the star
    Through the electric throng;
    The bidding in temple and bazaar
    Drowns out the silver song.

    The ancient altars smoke afresh,
    The ancient idols stir;
    Faint in the reek of burning flesh
    Sink frankincense and myrrh.

    Gaspar, Balthazar, Melcheor!
    Where are your offerings now?
    What greeting to the Prince of War
    His darkly branded brow?

    Two ultimate laws alone we know,
    The ledger and the sword
    So far away, so long ago,
    We lost the infant Lord.

    Only the children clasp His hand;
    His voice speaks low to them.
    And still for them the shining band
    Wings over Bethlehem.

    God rest you merry, Innocents,
    While Innocence endures.
    A sweeter Christmas than we to ours
    May you bequeath to yours.

    — Ogden Nash

  58. 58.

    Schlemazel

    @Eric U.:
    Maybe Nixon had Satan get Rump elected as a favor to W?

    The 3 of them can be in hell picking out pineapples with Hitler sooner rather than later

  61. 61.

    raven

    @Ruckus:

    My fishin’ pole’s broke the creek is full of sand
    My woman run away with another man
    No matter how I struggle and strive
    I’ll never get out of this world alive

  62. 62.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: Raiders is the only one I’ll rewatch and even that is hard because its so full of plot holes. Never saw anything past Last Crusade. The only reason its on now in the background is that it was basically the only thing even remotely watchable on.

  63. 63.

    lamh36

    On Carrie Fisher…I have a coworker who’s husband had a heart attack after a workout while he was getting into the hot tub at their gym. When the heart attack hit, he hit the back of his head against the tub. The gym is apart of a local hospital, so alot of doctors and nurses and health professional work there. So almost as soon as it happened, some one started CPR on him. He actually coded they said at least 3x as he was being transported to the hospital as they continuted CPR. Once at the hospital, he had to be intubated and induced into a coma for 48hrs…

    Long story short, about a week later, he was awake and 2 weeks later he was going home. The doctors said what saved him was both the CPR almost instantly, and the fact that even when he coded, everytime they’d get a faint pulse, like he had been fighting to stay alive.

  64. 64.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Cacti:

    Does this mean Disney won’t make any more new Star Wars movies?

    They dug up and resurrected poor old Peter Cushing for the current movie. Just think what they could do with someone who hasn’t been dead for 22 years.

  66. 66.

    Schlemazel

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    In my life that is the one I think of when people say 16 is the worst. Kennedy, King and then CHicago & Nixon.
    The difference was that the years before 68 were sort of disreputable (65 riots, anti-war movement, civil right actions) that made 68 feel part of a whole. the last few years things seem to have calmed down a bit (if you don’t live in the Middle East) so 16 is really bad by comparison.

    Spanky mentioned 1861-64 but it mattered very much where you lived. Most of the North hardly knew the war was going on. A lot of deaths but life was normal otherwise. If you lived in the SOuth or along the border where fighting was active I am sure it was hell

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    There are worse places to have a heart attack than on a plane that’s getting ready to land — the flight attendants are all required to be trained in CPR and they probably have one of those automatic defibrillators on board.

  71. 71.

    Roger Moore

    @Viva BrisVegas:

    They dug up and resurrected poor old Peter Cushing for the current movie

    They also did a young Leia. But they can, and IMO should, write the older characters far enough out of the center of the plot that any of them dying won’t be too big an inconvenience. It was nice to have them around for some continuity, but they should really focus on the new generation for the new generation of movies.

  72. 72.

    zhena gogolia

    I love you, Tunch! You’re on my mouse pad (an item which I guess doesn’t exist any more, but I still use one), and a copy of the BJ calendar with you the cover that I have in my office.

  73. 73.

    Josie

    @Ruckus: I’m starting to notice that people I am acquainted with or follow, in one way or another, are mortal. I keep wondering how much time I have left and what i should be doing with it. These are thoughts I didn’t have five or so years ago. There have been upsetting political events in my lifetime – Nixon’s two elections, Reagan, Bush the younger – but Trump looks to be the worst. I will do what I can and contribute to good causes, but i am too old and tired to get out on the picket lines again. I am dismayed that we have to face this when we thought we had won the race. Oh, well, I am wandering and will now shut up and go sit in my easy chair and read a good book.

  74. 74.

    Ruckus

    @Schlemazel:
    Like the depression. I know of people who lived through it and never had a day out of work. I also know of 5 teenaged people who got jobs in the middle of it because their father died and they needed to support their mother. Did that make the depression less for others? No it did not but it shows that life is life, some days you get the shaft, some days the sparrow.

  76. 76.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Schlemazel: I’d contend that the years leading up to this year were similarly disruptive: endless war, Black Lives Matter and the backlash, etc.. I’ve said earlier in this election cycle that this year reminds me of 1968 alot.

  79. 79.

    Corner Stone

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Black Lives Matter and the backlash, etc

    Black people demanding to not be killed any longer for simply living in their skin, combined with a black president really set this nation back to 1861.

  84. 84.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Schlemazel: The first thing I remember, as a national(and local) event, was the Watts riots of 65. I also read Nixonland this year as a refresher.

  86. 86.

    raven

    Well I’ve had enough of this down-in-the-mouth bullshit so I’m going to watch episode 4 of Bleak House!

  87. 87.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Catherine D.:

    Now that does make me feel old. I grew up in a time and culture in which everyone not only recognized the name of Ogden Nash but could quote yards and yards of his poems (“Candy is dandy/But liquor is quicker.”) (“A mighty creature is the germ/Though smaller than a pachyderm/His customary dwelling-place/Is deep inside the human race.”) (“A primal termite knocked on wood/And tasted it, and found it good/And that is why your Cousin May/Fell through the parlour floor today.”) (“The cow is of the bovine ilk/One end is moo, the other, milk.”) But yes, I suppose hardly anyone knows his name today, let alone his verse.

    That’s what always socks me in the solar plexus with this poem. Nash was so renowned for his humorous poetry — clever doggerel, really — that a serious poem like this comes as kind of a shock, at least to me.

  92. 92.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    Weather Underground is showing a wet start to 2017 here in LALAland, the Rose Parade may be a bit on the damp side(it’s on the 2nd this year).

  93. 93.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @lamh36: Omnes insisted last night hat Max was a Cocker Spaniel, I always thought Max was more of a hound dog. I have a Cocker Spaniel sitting across from me, waiting for dinner.

  94. 94.

    Waldo

    For what it’s worth, Anthony Bourdain weighs in in favor of mocking Trump as much as possible:

    You know, it’s why they always kill the comedians and the poets first. People can’t stand ridicule. It clearly gets under Trump’s skin — he can’t bear it, it’s really a problem for him. So if you’re looking to do something, I think, you should ridicule him.

    The whole interview is worth a look.

  95. 95.

    NotMax

    A good thing about 2016?

    Discovery of an orchid not only fetchingly attractive but also destined to drive fundamentalists even more bonkers.

    (Was saving this for an end of the year post, if that occurred, but seems to fit right in on this thread.)

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    @Josie:
    Mortal. That was the word I left out. Born, live, die. Each and every one of us. It’s what we do with what we have that makes a difference. Hillary Clinton tried to do something great. She may have failed but she tried. And it really did work, she won with the majority of people. Only our founders screwed up, not trusting the people fucked that up.

  98. 98.

    greennotGreen

    the ad algorithms are making fat jokes at the expense of Tunch:

    John, what makes you think they’re at the expense of Tunch? ;-)

    BTW, Lewis Country Store that famously lost its Shell franchise over its political electronic signs (“Trump that bitch,” and “The only pussy Trump ever grabbed was Paul Ryan,” etc. now has a sign up that says on one side,”Putin wishes you a Merry Christmas,” and on the other, “Don’t blame us.” I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.

    God rest ye merry, everyone! The rest of the weekend, let’s hold our loved ones close and tune out the morons.

  106. 106.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ruckus:

    If you’ve ever heard a recording or attended a concert performance of the narrated “Carnival of the Animals,” the standard poems that introduce each section are by Ogden Nash. (“Camille Saint-Saëns was wracked with pains/When people addressed him as Saynt-Saynes/He held the human race to blame/Because it could not pronounce his name/So, he turned with metronome and fife/To glorify other kinds of life./Be quiet please – for here begins/His salute to feathers, fur, and fins.”)

  108. 108.

    Lizzy L

    1963 was a tough year. 1968 was a really bad year. 1978 was a bad year if you were in San Francisco — Jim Jones & the folks from the People’s Temple dying in Guyana, and Harvey Milk & George Moscone assassinated 9 days later. 2001 was a bad year, we all know why. I appreciate what Ruckus said upthread: people die, I’m getting older, it’s what happens. But 2016 has been a hard year for a lot of people I know, and the election and what might come next makes it especially challenging.

    I keep reminding myself: through most of human history, it’s been like this. There have always been wars, always plagues, always tyrants. The barbarians are always on their way over the hill. And still we hope.

  109. 109.

    JPL

    @Lizzy L: I remember when Nixon won, and this election feels different to me.
    Trump is a raving lunatic, and who knows what he’ll do. We know what the repubs will do to the economy though.

  110. 110.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Citizen Alan: I dunno. The obit section of 2016 is pretty heavy duty. Rickman, Bowie, Frey, Prince, Wilder, my mom…just off the top of my head.

  112. 112.

    Shinobi42

    While 2016 has been bad in a macro way, it has not been nearly as bad as 2014 for me personally. (I spent that year on an air mattress with a dying dog who couldn’t walk up stairs, and then everyone else died too.) I can’t even pretend that 2016 is as bad. But I am certainly ready to kick 2017s ass. So ready.

  113. 113.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Lizzy L: The barbarians are taking over on January 20th.

    Be afraid. Be very afraid. But transform that fear into defiance and action.

  116. 116.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    You may well know the Bunyan that is Paul,
    You may have read the works of Stanley Milgram,
    But still, you have the unremitting gall
    To blow off Bunyan (John), who wrote the Pilgrim.

    NotMax, of you I’m very, very fond
    (I’m not a witch, nor even yet an ogress) —
    But watch your step near dread Slough of Despond,
    Which you can read about in Pilgrim’s Progress.

  120. 120.

    Yarrow

    @Lizzy L:

    And still we hope.

    Not so much, no. Hope is a lie you tell yourself because you don’t want to do the hard work to make things change. I’ve given up on hope. It’s bullshit.

  121. 121.

    Lizzy L

    @Villago Delenda Est: I know. And I am ready to fight them. What I am not willing to do is to sink into either paralytic fear or rage. I did that for a week after the election, and I’m done with it. No despair, no circular firing squad analyses of how-Clinton-lost, no hair on fire rhetoric, no fake news stories. We need to stay steady and clear-eyed.

    Don’t mourn, organize.

  123. 123.

    Bruuuuce

    @Yarrow: Hope was the last critter out of Pandora’s box, following the evils of the world. The jury is still out whether she was last because she would alleviate the evils, or was the worst of them.

  124. 124.

    Inmourning

    I remember when Nixon won, and this election feels way different to me. Compared to T, Nixon was a stable personality. He did not have the Twitter machine, for one, so if he was a raging narcissist in private, we did not know it. He was crass, which was his undoing. I think he would have survived Watergate, if the tapes had not revealed so many expletives. But Trump is so much worse, and what amplifies his danger is that the Republicans will not be any kind of check on him. With Nixon, there were R’s who put country before party. Not now. They all fall in line.

    WASF!

  125. 125.

    Lizzy L

    @Yarrow:

    Hope is a lie you tell yourself because you don’t want to do the hard work to make things change. I’ve given up on hope. It’s bullshit.

    Bullshit for you. A lie for you. Not for me.

  127. 127.

    trollhattan

    Across the whole year, there was a 30% increase in BBC pre-prepared obituaries used in 2016 compared with 2015.
    “In 2012, we had a total of 16,” says Serpell. “In 2013, it went to 24. In 2014, it rose again to 29. In 2015, it rose slightly again to 32.” For 2016, as of 15 December, it stands at 42.

    </2016

  128. 128.

    Mnemosyne

    Debating whether or not to go to my English Country dance group tonight. On the minus side, my knee hurts, my shoulder hurts, I’m tired, I have an essay to write, and it’s raining. On the plus side, I’m already halfway there (having dinner in Pasadena with G) and it’s only $5.

  132. 132.

    Millard Filmore

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The only reason its on now in the background is that it was basically the only thing even remotely watchable on.

    You don’t have the weather channel?

  136. 136.

    Lalophobia

    @Yarrow: While there are those who lean on it like a crutch and do no more, hope is what inspires the hard work for change in those who use it as their tool and weapon. If people don’t have hope that what they do might do something, they don’t see any reason to bother to try.

  138. 138.

    mdblanche

    With the caveat that all the competitors were before my time, 2016 has certainly been the worst year of my life. And it’s the way it’s happened. A year ago I couldn’t have imagined how my country and my own life are falling apart. Both seemed to be on the upswing. And now I have an endless list of fears for how they’re only going to get worse next year. I’m struggling to find the mental energy to go on. Please recover, Carrie Fisher, you and your chain are our only hope.

  139. 139.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    And I don’t feel completely sad at Fidel Castro’s passing. But besides those two, pretty much everyone else who died in 2016 was someone beloved, yes?

    John Glenn. Janet Reno. And for you, I’m sure, your mom was the most devastating loss of all.

  140. 140.

    lamh36

    @schrodingers_cat: Oh, I have watched a few of those…thx to my trip to India…the hotels had movies like Om Shanti Om…I never was able to watch the entire film while there, so I ended up watching it in US…I want to say on Netflix?

  142. 142.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @schrodingers_cat: He also knew how to govern, as opposed to the tax-cut crazies who have destroyed a once honorable political party over the past 36 years. He understood and appreciated the role government has to play in the promotion of the general welfare, as opposed to the mango-faced asswipe and his party of barbarians, who are in it exclusively for themselves…kleptocracy, crony capitalism, call it what you will.

  144. 144.

    lamh36

    No offense HGTV…but you can keep this “My Lottery Dream House” show…I’ll wait for House Hunters…

  148. 148.

    schrodingers_cat

    @lamh36: I saw Hasee to Phasee, two weeks ago and I really liked it. I have to say though, that the subtitles were not great, a lot was lost in translation. They need to hire me.

    One sentence synopsis: Nerdy science girl gets the cute guy not a model turned aspiring actor. The guy is actually a nice guy, not a smug asshole who thinks he is God’s gift to womankind, like many a filmi hero.

  149. 149.

    JPL

    Enough already..

    Piers Sellers, a British-born climate scientist for NASA who remained optimistic about the fate of the Earth despite the grim climate change models he oversaw and who gained American citizenship to fulfill a childhood dream of becoming an astronaut, died Dec. 23 in Houston. He was 61

    I didn’t recognize the name but according to the article, he said “History is replete with examples of us humans getting out of tight spots.” I hope he’s correct and may he rest in peace.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/piers-sellers-climate-scientist-turned-astronaut-dies-at-61/2016/12/23/145c5c0a-c37e-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.38289d3adeb3

  151. 151.

    Schlemazel

    @lamh36:
    I want granite counter tops. Whaaaa
    This room is too small. Whaaaaaaaa
    All this carpet has to go. Whaaaaaaa
    “Here is a place that is only 33% over your budget”

    This has been another episode of House Hunters. They have something even worse now with Tiny House Hunters. Everyone bitches about how small everything is. HELLO?! DO YOU KNOW THE WORD “TINY”?

  152. 152.

    lamh36

    @MomSense: Didn’t I tell ya!!!

    I’m still amazed how much I like that movie…I mean Keanu but I can’t say that just cause I like him that I love all his movies…but John Wick…I loved and I can’t wait for John Wick2

  153. 153.

    lamh36

    @Schlemazel: Oh goodness don’t get me started on Tiny House Hunters…smh.

    I said a few days ago, that I have NO need for a soaking tub…I prefer showers, but I’ll be damn if I can live in a home with a small ass shower…smh

  154. 154.

    greennotGreen

    Why am I in moderation? My joke was about John Cole (with deepest affection!), not Herr Drumpf.

  156. 156.

    greennotGreen

    Once again, with an altered spelling:

    the ad algorithms are making fat jokes at the expense of Tunch:

    John, what makes you think they’re at the expense of Tunch? ;-)

    BTW, Lewis Country Store that famously lost its Shell franchise over its political electronic signs (“Trump that bitch,” and “The only pu$$y Trump ever grabbed was Paul Ryan,” etc. now has a sign up that says on one side, ”Putin wishes you a Merry Christmas,” and on the other, “Don’t blame us.” I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.

    God rest ye merry, everyone! The rest of the weekend, let’s hold our loved ones close and tune out the morons.

  157. 157.

    lamh36

    @jaboukie Dec 22
    jaboukie young-white Retweeted IndieWire
    god is absolutely a black woman. she’s patient, forgiving and her son was killed by a white state official

    @IndieWire
    Octavia Spencer’s role as God in #TheShack has Christian figureheads enraged

  159. 159.

    mai naem mobile

    I think it would be normal for Carrie Fisher to be in critical condition at this point. I don’t believe the massive heart attack bit. The blurb said the plane landed 15 mins after she had the MI. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

  161. 161.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Yarrow:
    Hope is not a lie or bullshit; to me, it is the ability to continue to plan for a future you can’t see and may not get to- like life.

    “Some people stop livin long before they die”

  162. 162.

    MomSense

    @lamh36:

    I don’t even know why I like it because it’s not my usual fare but I love it, too.

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I agree with you but it was the first video I found and she loved him. I haven’t seen Bajrangi Bhaijan.

  163. 163.

    mai naem mobile

    What blows me abut House Hunters is the amount of money that these people spend on the house and they look relatively young. Between $500K to 1M for people who look like they’re in their late twenties/early thirties – some with kids. Some are their first homes so it’s not like they’re stepping up and have already cleared the hurdle of the downpayment for the first home. They’ve got $100-200K for the downpayment and are probably going to spend $10k just moving and then extra $$$ for fixing stuff and getting stuff done the way you prefer it. I guess I should say I’m impressed.

  164. 164.

    Morzer

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Remember that Garland now stays as the Chief Judge on DC’s Appellate Court. He has a tremendous amount of power on that court

    “My name is Merrickus Garlandicus, commander of the Judges of the North, general of the Appellate Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Barackus Obamius. Father to a murdered justice system, husband to a murdered Scotus nomination. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”

  165. 165.

    Trentrunner

    The difference with 2016’s suckitude is that it is such a huge own-goal, self-inflicted wound.

    I mean, America had a perfectly competent, experienced (some of us thought she was extraordinarily so) to choose, and instead America chose the thin-skinned rapey narcissistic bellicose ignoramus.

    The things that define other years as dire were usually done TO us, not BY us.

  166. 166.

    greennotGreen

    @lamh36: One of the things I love about the Flying Spaghetti Monster is that it is and unintentional comment on an incomprehensible God – incomprehensible to our finite minds. Maybe God permeates the universes as dark matter. Maybe God is the power of all life. Maybe God looks like a flying plate of pasta. Maybe there is no god. But the truth is whatever the truth is. The important thing for us is to be open to it.

  169. 169.

    Hal

    @lamh36: Ha! We’re watching the same show. What I don’t get, you win a million dollars and you’re looking for a house for 400 to 500 grand? That’s all your money.

    And just because you won a few million you suddenly need a 6000 square foot house for a few million? Though one couple won 180,000,000, so I guess in that case budget isn’t an issue.

  170. 170.

    Schlemazel

    @greennotGreen:
    Omniscient
    Omnipresent
    Benevolent

    Cosmic Muffin or Hairy Thunderer, this alleged supreme being cannot be all 3 given the evidence provided by the world around us

    Perhaps dark matter it is

  173. 173.

    lamh36

    Late to thread, but wanted to post this all day…of course I’m sure another open thread is coming in bout 2 min…lol. If so, I’ll post it them too…lol

    All that brouhaha about the Black Santa at the Mall of America…and yet, here in NOLA…

    For past 50 years in NOLA, for many children and their families, Santa had ALWAYS been Black!!! Generations hav pics!!!!

    Including my sister and Zoe…

    ‘Chocolate Santa’ is a holiday tradition in New Orleans that began as a treat for children on his school bus.

  177. 177.

    lamh36

    If you saw the pic I tweeted of Zoe, then you’ll see it’s the SAME Santa!

    ETA: Someone joked…shoot this guy might be the “real” Santa…cause dang he really doesn’t seem to age…and the Santa smile is the same 47 years later!

    NOLA Santa

  180. 180.

    Schlemazel

    I apologize before I begin – long post
    FORD PREFECT: Er, excuse me, do you rule the Universe?
    MAN: I try not to. Are you wet?
    FORD: Wet! Well, doesn’t it look as if we’re wet?
    MAN: That’s how it looks to me, but how you feel about it might be a different matter. If you find warmth makes you feel dry you’d better come in.
    ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX: Er, man, like what’s your name?
    MAN: I don’t know. Why, do you think I ought to have one? It seems odd to give a bundle of vague sensory perceptions a name.
    ZARNIWOOP: Listen. We must ask you some questions.
    MAN: All right. You can sing to my cat if you like.
    ARTHUR DENT: Would he like that?
    MAN: You’d better ask him that.
    ZARNIWOOP: How long have you been ruling the Universe?
    MAN: Ah, this is a question about the past is it?
    ZARNIWOOP: Yes.
    MAN: How can I tell that the past isn’t a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical sensations and my state of mind?
    ZARNIWOOP: Do you answer all questions like this?
    MAN: I say what it occurs to me to say when I think I hear people say things. More I cannot say.
    ZARNIWOOP: No. Listen. People come to you, yes?
    MAN: I think so.
    ZARNIWOOP: And they ask you to take decisions—about wars, about economies, about people, about everything going on out there in the Universe?
    MAN: I only decide about my Universe. My Universe is what happens to my eyes and ears. Anything else is surmise and hearsay. For all I know, these people may not exist. You may not exist. I say what it occurs to me to say.
    ZARNIWOOP: But don’t you see? What you decide affects the fate of millions of people.
    MAN: I don’t know them, I’ve never met them. They only exist in words I think I hear. The men who come say to me, say, so and so wants to declare what we call a war. These are the facts, what do you think? And I say. Sometimes it’s a smaller thing. . . .
    MAN: But it’s folly to say you know what is happening to other people. Only they know. If they exist.
    ZARNIWOOP: Do you think they do?
    MAN: I have no opinion. How can I have?
    ZARNIWOOP: I have.
    MAN: So you say—or so I hear you say.
    ZARNIWOOP: But don’t you see that people live or die on your word?
    MAN: It’s nothing to do with me, I am not involved with people. The Lord knows I am not a cruel man.
    ZARNIWOOP: Ah! You say . . . the Lord! You believe in . . .
    MAN: My cat. I call him the Lord. I am kind to him.
    ZARNIWOOP: All right. How do you know he exists? How do you know he knows you to be kind, or enjoys what you think of as your kindness?
    MAN: I don’t. I have no idea. It merely pleases me to behave in a certain way to what appears to be a cat. What else do you do? Please I am tired.

  185. 185.

    zhena gogolia

    @lamh36:

    Right! The Shakespeare show is really good — it’s fun to see Lord Grantham and Thomas More and Sherlock really getting their Shakespeare on, but it’s pretty grim. They’re a little too realistic. I like it when they stand on a stage and read pretty verse.

  188. 188.

    zhena gogolia

    @lamh36: Stopped watching it after a half an hour. And I’ve seen Sleepless in Seattle a million times (Shop Around the Corner too).

  190. 190.

    lamh36

    @schrodingers_cat: 47 years, he better be…lol.

    He’s gettin old though. Zoe took her pic with him a couple days ago. But he’s had to cancel the next two days cause of illness…

    take care Santa!

  193. 193.

    Another Scott

    @BBA: It takes a certain amount of hope to get out of the bed in the morning…

    Hang in there.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  194. 194.

    Chris T.

    @Hal: Haven’t seen that show, but apparently these people (a) don’t understand how lotteries work and (b) don’t understand how expensive houses have expensive maintenance, expensive taxes, and so on.

  196. 196.

    schrodingers_cat

    @zhena gogolia: Its like cutting your nose to spite your face. The AB interview that has been linked here several times, blames liberals again for looking down on “real Americans”. What BS is this? Is the cradle of American revolution not Real America, anymore?

  199. 199.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ruckus:

    I think someone could set up one of those quizzes where you have to guess if a particular couplet was written by Ogden Nash or Dorothy Parker or someone else (there was another prominent rhymester of the same period — he wrote prolifically for magazines in the ’50s — but I’ve misplaced his name).

    A lot of Nash’s “animal” poems were set to music by Frank Loesser. We had a (first-edition) copy of that songbook always at hand near the piano when I was growing up. My cousin owns it now, but I have my eye on it :-)

  200. 200.

    Ruckus

    @Lizzy L:

    And still we hope.

    That little ray is what keeps most of us going. You lose that ray and have a really bad day and you can make the decision that you’ve had enough of this. It’s a fine line and one that many have walked on more than one occasion. It’s why we can get through and beyond the 5 stages of grief. We still have that ray.
    It’s also a hard thing to watch someone lose that. They don’t go screaming into the night, they are relaxed, for them they have taken back control. Not taken it back well mind you but they don’t see it that way. I’ve talked on here about the woman I talked to for 45 minutes when I worked at a crisis hot line decades ago. She was serene, while I was trying not to panic. For me her decision was the worst possible answer to what couldn’t have been that big a problem. For her it was a natural conclusion. To this day I have no idea of the outcome, except the woman I was working with that day, my mentor, told me “You gave her 45 minutes she otherwise wouldn’t have gotten.” Isn’t that all we ever usually do, is add time into each others accounts, make it worthwhile to stay and see how the show ends?

  205. 205.

    J R in WV

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I always thought this poem was by Ogden Nash, but just now learned that it was by Roy Bount Jr.

    ​Song to Oysters,

    by Roy Blount, Jr.

    ​

    I like to eat an uncooked oyster.
    Nothing’s slicker, nothing’s moister.
    Nothing’s easier on your gorge
    Or, when the time comes, to dischorge.

    ​

    But not to let it too long rest
    Within your mouth is always best.
    I prefer my oyster fried.
    Then I’m sure my oyster’s died.

    I just fried up a pint of oysters and a trout (for the Mrs) and enjoyed them to no end. I like them fresh and raw, too, with just a dash of tabasco and a squeeze of lemon.

    Merry Festivus all !!!

    ETA: 1963 turned bad in November. Reading a history book about Dallas in the 1959-1963 era, I’m amazed that (a) Kennedy wanted to go there, and (b) that the Secret Service allowed him to go and to ride in an open convertible. Like they knew and wanted him shot!

    And 1970 sucked too, Kent State, Jackson State. I was in boot camp, the the other boots wanted guns, and to go shoot college kids who hasn’t done anything.

    But you guys may be right, 1968 may have been the worst, so far. I’m not looking forward to 2017, except for the perverse excitement of waiting for the world to end. That’s interesting, in the curse sense.

  207. 207.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    While swimming in the sea just now
    A jellyfish approached my brow.
    Who wants my jellyfish?
    I’m not sellyfish.

    *****

    The kitten’s face is soft and furry,
    The kitten’s voice is soft and purry.
    The trouble with the kitten is that
    Eventually it becomes a cat.

    *****

    Pray, butcher, spare yon tender calf.
    Accept my plea on his behalf.
    He’s but a babe, too young by far
    To perish in the abattoir.

    (No one ever claimed that the animal poems weren’t graphic. Trigger-worthy, even.)

  210. 210.

    Schlemazel

    I am a fan of Nash and Yip Harburg
    Nash:
    To keep your marriage brimming
    With love in the loving cup,
    Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
    Whenever you’re right, shut up.

    Harburg (who wrote the lyrics for Wizard of OZ)
    You’re paid to stop a bullet
    Its a soldiers job they say
    so you stop the bullet
    Then they stop your pay

  212. 212.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @PaulWartenberg2016:

    I saw that both Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip had rearranged their Christmas travel plans to Sandringham because of health concerns, and had exactly the same reaction: “Don’t even think it, 2016!!”

    (Apparently they both still have really bad colds — no joke at ages 90 and 95, respectively — but they flew to Sandringham today instead of taking the train yesterday, and I hope they have happy and comfortable holidays.)

  215. 215.

    Schlemazel

    The other Harburg I like
    God made the world in 6 days flat
    On the 7th He said, “I’ll rest”
    So he let the thing into orbit swing
    to give it a dry run test
    A billion years went by when he looked at the whirling blob
    His spirits fell
    As he shrugged, “oh well”
    “It was only a 6 day job”

  219. 219.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    My Marine buddy arrived for his first day in country the day the Tet offensive started. He wasn’t over joyed. Fortunately for him he was an aircraft electrician and didn’t have to go out into the jungle.

  220. 220.

    Major Major Major Major

    @SiubhanDuinne: my favorite:

    There is not much about the hamster
    To stimulate the epigramster
    The essence of his simple story
    He populates the laboratory
    Then leaves his children in the lurch
    Martyrs to medical research
    Were he as smart as people am
    New York would be
    New Hamsterdam

  221. 221.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @The Lodger:

    Nope.

    I totally see why you would suggest Benchley (and why @Mike in NC would suggest Thurber), but the guy I have in mind had no profile that I know of apart from his amusing rhymes in magazines and newspapers of the time. Thurber and Benchley were both very well known apart from their rhymes, and their reputations and works have lasted. My guy’s have not :-(

    The fellow I’m thinking of — I’d know his name in a heartbeat if I saw or heard it, but I don’t recall any specific rhyme or poem title or anything, so I can’t search for him. It’ll come to me, I expect.

  223. 223.

    Schlemazel

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    I lent my copy of Rhymes For the Irreverent to a friend & the bastard never gave it back to me. Harburg was a good lyricist. In addition to Oz he wrote Its Only a Paper Moon, Brother Can You Spare a Dime? and Lydia the Tattooed Lady (that is a range!) and many Broadway musicals.

    As a liberal Jew he was blacklisted by HUAC and couldn’t work for more than a decade. Then there are these bits of verse that I loved & from them found out about the author
    No matter how high or great the throne
    What sits on it is the same as your own

    Should I write a letter to my congressman?
    Each congressman has got two ends
    A sitting and a thinking end
    And since his whole success depend upon on his seat
    Why bother friend?

  228. 228.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    I saw Martyn Green pre-accident once or twice when D’Oyly Carte toured North America in the late 1940s, and after his amputation at an outdoor concert in Chicago (Grant Park), probably very early 1960s. At one point during the concert a plane flew over, fairly low (probably coming into Meigs Field) and without missing a beat — I doubt it could have been rehearsed — MG took his cane, aimed it at the plane like an anti-aircraft gun, and went “Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!” in perfect rhythm to whatever G&S tune they were doing at that moment!

    Cut my teeth on his recordings. He is, to my knowledge, the only person who made it through an entire verse of “My eyes are fully open” on one breath! Link.

  229. 229.

    Debbie1

    @Elizabelle: The justice who gutted the Voting Rights Act? You actually wonder whether he’s against the upcoming (or ANY) Republican administration? Nah!

  230. 230.

    fuckwit

    Personally and professionally, 2016 has been an awesome, amazing, watershed year.

    Culturally and politically, and for quite a few friends personally, 2016 was an unmitigated catastrophe.

    Next year will be far, far worse, culturally and politically. Look at the demographics: many cultural heroes are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, and the list of those who will be with us no longer will grow each year for several more.

    Politically, is it even a point worth mentioning that it gets worse from here? The catastrophes start in earnest on January 20th and it goes downhill from there.

    Personally, both my parents will not likely make it through this coming year. It’s going to be a rough ride.

  231. 231.

    Lizzy L

    @efgoldman: I remember that year well. I was living in Chicago in 1968, I was in my twenties, and very politically active. We hated it that Nixon won, but it didn’t stop anything, hell, it didn’t even slow us down — we believed we were winning the larger battle. We believed we were going to stop the damn war. (We were right. Took longer than we thought it would, but the troops came home.) We believed we were going to change the country. (The country did change.) And when I look at T, and the people he has surrounded himself with, I see the same damn people I fought 48 years ago.

  233. 233.

    James Powell

    @Yarrow:

    I’ve given up on hope. It’s bullshit.

    I’m with you. I didn’t have the highest hopes to begin with. And every time somebody tries to give a silver lining it’s not all that bad talk, I have to walk away before I let loose with yet another obscenity laced tirade.

  235. 235.

    James Powell

    @Trentrunner:

    The things that define other years as dire were usually done TO us, not BY us.

    I object to that “by us” – I had nothing to do with that dickless piece of shit getting the White House.

  236. 236.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @fuckwit:

    Personally, both my parents will not likely make it through this coming year. It’s going to be a rough ride.

    I’m very sorry to hear that. Hoping for the best outcome for them and you, whatever that may look like.

  237. 237.

    lamh36

    @M. Bouffant: thanks…someone told me about it on another blog.

    I’m working the mid-late shift at work this holiday weekend…but I’m going to try to make it home in enough time to watch it. I do every year and also live-tweet and post on FB bout it.

    Anywhoo, off to bed now…gotta get up for work tomorrow.

    Good night BJ

  238. 238.

    Yarrow

    @James Powell: I just think hope is a way to lie to yourself and maybe to other people. I’m more into reality these days. Sure it sucks, but it’s not going to let me down the way “getting my hopes up” seems to. I’d rather look with clear eyes about what is, and think about what I want. Then see how to get from where I am to where I want to be. That isn’t hope; that’s realism.

    It doesn’t mean I can’t imagine things being better. But I’m not wasting time on hope. What good does hoping things will change do me or anyone? Hoping isn’t going to change a damn thing. Working toward something is what will change it. Might not work. But at least you haven’t wasted your time hoping it will.

  240. 240.

    fuckwit

    I’m not good at hope. What I’m good at is escapism.

    If something is fucked in one, or many areas of life, there’s always some good to be found in some other area.

    There are simple pleasures. There are friends, family, pets. There’s music. There are things to read and learn. There’s work, if it’s going well. There are things to focus on that do not suck.

    But having hope about things that are hopeless and beyond my control? No fucking way.

    This coming year, I’m going to focus more on things I can do and control. I’ve already donated money to worthy causes and will continue to do so. I have friends that need support through some rough times, and have already come to their aid and will continue to do so. I have some family drama approaching.

    Expect the government or the established institutions to do any of this? Not a chance. They’re toast.

    Gotta do my part, on a tiny local scale.

    The world just got a lot smaller for me.

    I’ve never been the type to give money to people begging on the street. Now I do. I can’t not do it.

  241. 241.

    seaboogie

    @Ruckus: I hear you. Many of us here are middle-aged +/-, so we are entering the life’s season of loss of our cohort. Also, many of the folks that we are losing have achieved a body of work that makes them notable and somewhat dear to us and the popular culture.

    My personal spate of heavy loss started pretty young (38) for someone who doesn’t live in a war zone, but this feels familiar to me now at 55. It’s kind of why old folks – back before the internets – read the obituaries with some religiosity – just keeping up with the news.

    Now we are faceless nyms gathering here in a community made possible by technology – back in the day we’d be the old guys sitting on the bench outside the post office, discussing pretty much the same transience of souls in bodies…

  242. 242.

    NotMax

    @efgoldman

    Did read somewhere credible that the management of the Rockettes announced participation in this isntance was voluntary and not mandatory.

  247. 247.

    Morzer

    @Yarrow:

    Hope is like gold – too soft to do the work on its own, but it does make some things look a little better and sometimes that’s what you need to get you out of bed in the morning.

    This concludes your daily broadcast of Optimists Mix Metaphors For The Waffle Iron Of Life.

  249. 249.

    Ithink

    @Spanky:
    Yeah, I said that same thing too when I first read and came across that & this post. Though I personally, as an African-American wouldn’t want to live in a Pre-Civil Rights, Fair Housing or Voting Rights Act world.

    That is to say for all of us regulars here @ B.J. both contributors and silent readers: things can, and most certainly most likelt, get worse in light of the shitstorm of an 11/08/2016 election. But future times can also be very much greater if we get all hands on deck and resist with every constitutional protocol bestowed upon us for the oncoming authoritarian onslaught. Trump was and will be a disaster in most every aspect as President but it is our job to sustain the Republic and the remarkable progress Obama gas given us these past 8 years. NEVER normalize Trump!

  253. 253.

    opiejeanne

    @SiubhanDuinne: I have the LP of Between Birthdays: music by Tchaikovsky, verse by Ogden Nash, read by Peter Ustinov:
    I don’t want to play
    Ma-ma today,
    My doll won’t say
    Ma-ma today.
    By the rain she was pelted
    once too much,
    By the fire she was melted
    once too much,
    I’m too sad to dine or sup…..

    but I think a cookie might cheer me up.

  254. 254.

    Fair Economist

    I love Ogden Nash. He died while I was a child but I already knew his stuff well enough to be sad when he did. I got a collection of his poems fairly recently and tried to pick some to read to my son. Many are still good, but there are a lot of topical references that go over my head, never mind his. Wandering through Wikipedia teaches you about how ephemeral culture can be. It’s surprising how often you find things or people that were huge deals in their time but are almost completely forgotten now.

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