We are clearly overdue for an open thread and since I can’t be bothered doing anything on major international incidents, here’s me and a bunch of my relatives.
Also, berserker Baby Groot at the 1:07 mark…
Which has put this earworm in my head since the trailer debuted. You’re welcome!
And from what I can tell none of their instruments and gear is even plugged in. The 1970s, what are you gonna do.
Baud
Save your energy. You’re going to need it.
James Powell
We are going to need to develop new categories for international incidents. I suggest “major” “really major” and “never mind that shit, here comes Mongo, major”
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: There was a massacre in the Democratic Republic of the Congo late yesterday/early today. And the Israeli government has decided to overplay its hand. And the Russian government is making noises about the Tu-154 going down as terrorism while the investigators are saying they’re focusing on mechanical failure and/or pilot error. And…
Chat Noir
If anyone is interested in seeing a really great movie, I recommend “Fences.” Denzel Washington and Viola Davis are phenomenal.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
Welp, time to get editing my historical novel that takes place over 200 years ago. At least they didn’t know they were totally screwed in real time.
BillinGlendaleCA
Hey Adam, I used your directions for cooking a roast that you wrote last Holiday season. It turned out perfect. Thanks.
ETA: I did tweak it by stabbing it and putting garlic slices in the hole prior to cooking.
Adam L Silverman
@James Powell: Maybe if we had a color coded system?
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/64/3189/320/yellow.jpg
http://static.neatorama.com/images/2009-03/japanese-homeland-security-advisory-system.jpg
https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2011/01/threat_colors_03.jpg
Roger Moore
@Adam L Silverman:
Remembering, of course, that they’re going to get a crazy person who has promised to back them in everything they do as US President in a month, and thinking that lets them do anything they feel like. Fuck them. They made their bed, they can fucking well lie in it.
germy
lollipopguild
@Adam L Silverman: Green then yellow then red and then put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye. The four stages of Trump.
donnah
It was 70 degrees and rainy here in SW Ohio today, my son went back home from a lovely holiday with us, my brother flew home to Vegas and the Christmas tree is forlornly standing with a few empty gift boxes beneath it.
Christmas is over, the last bastion of cheer, goodwill, and peace before the coming of the new trump age. I don’t want to get up ever again.
Adam L Silverman
@BillinGlendaleCA: You’re quite welcome. Glad it turned out well.
Woodrowfan
Back from NC. Whew. When the lady at the hardies drive thru asked where we were from and my wife said DC the woman looked as if she just smelled a nasty fart. Then told us to be careful.
Baud
@Roger Moore: I still don’t get how Trump can support Israel when Putin hates Israel.
germy
@Chat Noir:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/19/viola-davis-call-to-adventure
Mnemosyne
@germy:
I don’t know who Eric Smith is, but he was a prophet this year:
germy
@Mnemosyne: Was he the same person who tweeted the various stages of Trump (predicting his win) back when Trump had just entered the primaries?
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: I have, somewhere, a Cold War era computer game called Balance of Power. I’m going to try to see if I can run it. It may be appropriate again. Anybody remember it?
Mnemosyne
@germy:
No idea. I only remember that tweet.
Adam L Silverman
@Roger Moore: Its a great example of insider/outsider understanding of the issues. Or, stated another way, the socio-cultural impacts on strategy and policy. Its the lesson that Kennan was trying to teach the US national security and foreign policy community about Russia back in the 1950s and that Bernard Fall was trying to teach the same communities about Vietnam in the 1960s. You have to take the other participants understanding of the world, specific issues, and/or a specific problem/problem set into consideration when developing effective strategy and policy. The Israelis (being a stand in for the political and strategic level decision making sub-cultures both civilian and military) understand themselves and the world one way. Every other actor either trying to work with Israel, competing with Israel, opposing Israel, or just observing Israel sees something else. The result is that you get a series of statements like this:
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/813487206492938241
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/813496999135719424
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/813516184092086272
MazeDance
Being informed that “Calexit” is a Putin goal, being promoted by his army of dime-a-tweet teenagers in Moldavia, has caused me to reassess Civil War.
Constantly, I think “Make them go away” about Trumpists, racists, GOP, all of them. And, of course, they think the same thing about every screaming Freedom and Equality Loving Liberal like me.
But now, finding that “make them go away” feeling is a Putin Plot, I must channel Lincoln. I must recognize that the US has to stand. Ugh.
So, we’re going to have to work so hard. First, for me, forget normal. Putin, Ryan, and McConnell think they can use Trump’s hair-trigger narcissism and early dementia to advance their agendas. They’re deluded.
If we forget normal, we will ignore media distraction, we will concentrate where Putin does not want us to look: Freedom. Doesn’t matter if so many weak racists think they want a dictator, most of us don’t. The majority will assert. We will not let crazy hatred win.
This is, of course, based on thinking Putin does not want nuclear war. There is no money to be made in destruction of existence. Trump may actually want destruction of everything. So, that may usurp all other analysis. Except: will the people in charge of launching nuclear weapons refuse to do it when it is ordered as a dick-waving first strike for no good reason, not a retaliation?
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: It has long been rumored that Avigdor Lieberman is a Russian spy, the Bratva’s inside man in the Israeli political world, or both. One of the North-South and East-West trade routes for running women for the sex trade and drugs runs from Russia to Israel then on to other locales. Money to be made, business to be done.
http://archive.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2011/11/12/israeli_minister_denied_access_to_intelligence/
http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2016/10/26/secret-documents-expose-israeli-politicians-senior-defense-officials-as-kgb-spies/
opiejeanne
@germy: Me too, the bad dream part.
I cleaned out most of my side of the closet, still need to go through a couple of drawers and assess the shoes. I seem to be gravitating toward Clarks, keeping those and getting rid of almost everything else. We’ll take them to Goodwill tomorrow or the next day. This is just part of taking control of what I can control, which is only so-so as of now because I tried to make a tiny adjustment in a rail and lost the nut that holds the bolt in place; we’ve replaced it temporarily, until we can get to IKEA again but it’s not ideal. I do have a pile of very nice things and some very average things to give away, probably a third of what was in the closet, some of it I haven’t worn in forever. I would just buy everything online, given my druthers.
If Lands End hadn’t dropped Planned Parenthood from their charities list I’d buy almost everything from them, but I’ve boycotted them since and sent them a letter explaining why. Maybe it’s time to write them another letter.
MazeDancer
Thanks for moderation freedom, Adam.
Typed my own nym incorrectly. Oops.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I think I see you problem here, you’re expecting consistency.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Gin & Tonic: Never had it. Do remember the same game designer’s Eastern Front.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: Yup, I may have a copy somewhere.
ETA: IIRC, they did a follow up game called “Guns and Butter”.
Thoroughly Pizzled
“Fuck the Cowboys” is a sentiment we can all agree on today.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: I’ve heard of it. I’m not a gamer, so never played it.
Adam L Silverman
@MazeDancer: Already done!
Baud
@Adam L Silverman: And they say free trade is a bad thing.
@BillinGlendaleCA: None in articulated positions, but in the real world, real decisions have to be made.
LAC
Sitting here and watching the great Muppet caper and I can’t stop watching it. :)
Miss Bianca
OMG, Sweet and “Fox On the Run”? That takes me straight screaming back to my middle school years – my first concert was Sweet opening for a new little act called Van Halen, back in 1977.
They never did very much for me, but I had two friends who were seriously planning on marrying Andy Scott and Steve Priest, respectively (Sweet little baby Jesus, I even remember their names).
Are you sure that’s your family? Cause that bear in the first video looks an awful lot like my dad in any given doorway in our house.
Spanky
@opiejeanne: Skip the letter. I find Land’s End stuff to be fairly cheaply made crap. I suggest looking elsewhere, just for the quality.
Another Scott
@Baud:
Donnie supports Donnie. All the rest is Cleek’s Law / Fvck them 10x Harder / Fleece the Rubes / Grab Them by the Pvssy / etc.
Trump doesn’t care about Israel. He doesn’t care about “Two Corinthians”. He doesn’t care about Putin. He doesn’t care about China. He doesn’t care about NATO. He cares about himself and “winning” for himself.
That is all.
:-/
We have to fight him and his minions every . single . day from 1/20/2017 until they no longer have “any office or public trust under the United States”.
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
Holiday din-din, slightly out of focus and a bit color shifted (meat IRL a bit pinker).
Bonus holiday gift was sleeping straight through for 8 hours last night, something rarer than hen’s teeth.
Corner Stone
@opiejeanne: LE really went downhill over the last 7 or 8 years or so. I won’t buy anything from them again after several disappointing purchases a few years ago.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Miss Bianca:
Damn kids, I remember it from freshman year of college.
ETA: A couple of girls in the dorm were Van Halen groupies, went to seen them at the Roxy and Gaazaries on the strip all the time.
Roger Moore
@Adam L Silverman:
Not to get all serious about terror alerts*, but what I always disliked about the Bush-era system is that it missed the point that to get to a really high level alert, the threat has to get more specific. Beyond the general heightened alert level of knowing the terrorists want to attack inside the US, you can only justify an increased alert in response to a threat that is somehow limited in scope, whether by time, place, method, etc.
So you should only be allowed to up the threat level from umber to puce (or whatever) while simultaneously narrowing the scope of the alert to some kind of specific threat. For example, if you know that there’s a threat planned for New Years, it makes sense to pay some extra overtime to security people to be on an extra lookout that day. If you know there’s an attack planned against the Rose Parade, you can really saturate the area with police to try to catch the terrorists in the act. If you know that a specific cell is planning to attack the Rose Parade with a poison gas spraying airplane, you can move to arrest them, seize the plane, substitute something harmless for the gas, etc. The more specific the threat, the more specific and powerful the response can be, which is what really justifies a higher alert level.
*And yes, I get that they were primarily political tools intended to mean “be afraid”, “be very afraid”, “be too afraid to change horsemen mid-apocalypse”, etc.
Corner Stone
“Jim Bob Cooter”
Head Coach of an NFL team or the guy you are negotiating your car tow fee with while traveling interstate?
EBT
Fruit bats communicate in a much more complex fashion than we had assumed. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-translate-bat-talk-and-they-argue-lot-180961564/
Methodology: http://www.nature.com//articles/srep39419
Roger Moore
@Baud:
It’s a sign that A) he has some independence from Putin and B) Israel is low on Putin’s priority list.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Is there a reason the talk of Russia hacking the GOP seems to have stopped? Was that fake news?
BillinGlendaleCA
@EBT: That sounds really batty.
lollipopguild
@EBT: Are you implying that we are all fruit bats?
Chris
The soundtrack is half the reason I was looking forwards to GOTG 2.
NotMax
@lollipopguild
“Pack of snarling fruit bats” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Mike in NC
@Corner Stone: I understand there is this Trump fellow who has a line of quality clothing manufactured in Chinese prison sweatshops.
EBT
@BillinGlendaleCA: Let me guess, you are here all night and I should tip my server?
@lollipopguild: I don’t know about the bat part but I sure am a fruit.
opiejeanne
@Spanky: I have little complaint about the quality of their clothing, and some of their shirts that show little to no wear after 5- 6 years, and they have been worn pretty consistently every winter. I’m not hard on clothes and I like their prices. I also like their swimsuits and was very pleased with the cute cover-ups I got from them for our trip to Hawaii two years ago.
Shoes are a different matter: they have to not make my feet hurt. Clarks fit the bill, but they still aren’t that expensive. I can’t shop at DSW unless I want to be miserable.
JPL
@efgoldman: If Trump carried through with his plan to withdraw from the UN and move the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, wouldn’t that help Putin? Chaos theory.
I’m not Adam and I didn’t sleep in a Holiday Inn..
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: good, then perhaps you can explain to me what the hell Steve Priest is wearing in this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM6I-pmV0RA
Also, he has a run in his stockings…
Adam L Silverman
@Spanky: They’ve never been the same since the company that owns Sears purchased them.
opiejeanne
@Corner Stone: Maybe my shirts are older than I remember. Wouldn’t surprise me too much.
I hated that they paired with Sears. I won’t buy anything from Sears if I can help it; residual anger over their CEO funding the fight against the ERA.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: More likely the special teams coordinator for a team in the SEC.
cmorenc
When you provided a video link to “Fox on the Run”, I expected a rock version of this song by that title, which is usually now performed as a bluegrass band standard, but was originally written in 1968 by a member of the Manfred Mann British rock band (Tony Hazzard) as a pop-rock song. Obviously, the link is to a completely different song by the same name (perhaps the one recorded by another British band Sweet in 1974?)
Omnes Omnibus
@EBT: I am Batman!
opiejeanne
@Spanky: Maybe my stuff from them is older than I remember. It’s still very wearable, except for the pieces I got paint on or that got splashed with bleach when I was cleaning the bathroom. I wear those two shirts to paint and clean the bathroom.
bmoak
@Gin & Tonic:
I used to love Balance of Power Doing unexpected things (such as cutting Japan loose, or giving economic aid to Vietnam) would get the game’s algorithm out of whack.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Dear god. That takes me back to swimming lessons during the summer after 2d grade. The song, not Steve Priest’s clothing.
Chris
@bmoak:
Sounds like a good dry run for Donny’s four/eight years.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Linked sans explanation. :)
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: No, its not fake news. But Congress is in recess. The President is on vacation. Whatever is going on with the counterintelligence investigation is running silent and deep, which is what is supposed to happen. Whatever is going on with whatever cyber responses the US and its allies are taking against Russia is running silent and deep, which is what is supposed to happen. Since the President is quite right now and the GOP majority in the Congress just wants it to all go away, and the official responses are, purposefully, opaque, the media doesn’t have anything to feed on.
MSNBC is still covering it, largely because Malcolm Nance is one of their in house/on contract national security analysts and he’s written a book on it (I understand its excellent, I have not had a time to read it yet, its on the list). Sarah Kendzior, an anthropology professor who is also a journalist and specializes in despotic governments in Central Asia, has also been doing work on it. I recommend there twitter feeds if you want to see folks still working it.
Mike J
@Gin & Tonic:
Early/mid 80s? I remember it. If recall you absolutely could not win as the US if you didn’t support the Contras.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Free speech can be a real bitch. It pains me beyond measure to stand up for racists, sexists, anti-Semites, and others who express views that I personally find hateful and antithetical to my own beliefs. And yet, I’ve been a dues-paying member of the ACLU for most (okay, much) of my adult life. I’ve found myself siding with the right of the Ku Klux Klan to march in parades and sponsor stretches of highway, and the right of Holocaust-deniers to publish their damned stupid books. I support the right of Alex Jones to peddle his absurd and hateful conspiracy theories, and I support(ed) the right of Donald Trump and Orly Taitz and the rest of the “birthers” to question and challenge Barack Obama’s natural-born bona fides. I find every one of these positions beyond awful, but their right to say and write and march and gather and demonstrate and publish is absolutely guaranteed by the First Amendment, and I will stand up for that right until the day I die (even as I rant and mutter “How the fuck can they even think that!?”).
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Obligatory.
ThresherK
@opiejeanne: I like their dress shirts, but I only own a few so I’m not a connoisserr. As of late itmes like their polos and mock-turtlenecks have gotten shoddy by my estimation.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: @SiubhanDuinne: Agree completely. Hell, I don’t even use the pie filter.
schrodingers_cat
@JPL: What does chaos theory have anything to do with it? Chaotic systems are not necessarily unpredictable, and they do converge. People using physics and math terms incorrectly is a pet peeve of mine. Case in point, momentum, uncertainty principle and optics.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@cmorenc:
Er, your first link goes to “Long Black Train.”
debbie
@opiejeanne:
Yes, the quality has definitely gone down. I used to depend on their cardigans, but no more. However, I recently bought a boucle jacket marked down from $129 to $44, plus with a 50% off promo code and free shipping, I got it for $23. It will last a few years, so I think it will be worth it.
cmorenc
@efgoldman:
Israel has so far prevailed in every war vs often ineptly-led / coordinated Arabic opponents, and now become arrogant under the assurance the US would come running to their rescue, no matter what, undermining their incentives to agree to any solution that permits the Palestinians a viable state. The basic fact that Israel has to win *every* single potential future war against Arab countries, whereas the Arabs only need to win *once* seems to have been lost on them, except for Netanyahu’s intransigence against any nuclear arms containment deal with Iran – because he doesn’t think he should have to negotiate at all to remove Iran as a potential threat, but would prefer to force the US to take Iran out for him somehow, without sparking a wider war that would fatally damage Israel and suck the US into a vastly worse Hell-hole in the middle east than even at present.
Omnes Omnibus
@ThresherK: Mock turtlenecks? ::clutches pearls::
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Dickie
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks for the Twitter leads. I was bummed when McConnell said there wouldn’t be hearings.
Corner Stone
This is a surprisingly entertaining MNF game by DET at DAL.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: If you want to unify all the governments in the region – Arab, Turkish, and Iranian, which also would unify very different strains and understanding of Islam (Sunni/Shi’a, the political Islam of the Muslim Brothers, the political Islam of Erdogan, the Twelver Shi’ism of Iran and Hezbullah), moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would do it. What Americans don’t realize, and I’m hoping by now someone has briefed the President-elect about it, is that we have a US embassy in Jerusalem, which is also the oldest continuous US diplomatic mission/embassy: the Consul General in Jerusalem. It was originally established as our embassy to the Ottoman Empire and now serves as our primary, official interface with the Palestinian Authority (PA).
https://jru.usconsulate.gov/
Despite its name it is an embassy, though we don’t use the term because of the fact that there is no state of Palestine.
Working in conjunction with it is the US Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestine Territories (USSC). This is a 2 star military command that is responsible for coordinating the training and development of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF), as well as deconflicting and coordinating with the Israeli military and law enforcement community.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Silk scarves are the best when it comes to protecting once’s neck from the elements. Light weight and elegant, win win.
Mnemosyne
@opiejeanne:
Unless you have super-wide feet, also take a look at Jambu and Merrell. You can get them at decent prices through discount websites like 6pm (the Zappos clearance site) and SierraTradingPost.com. Keens are good if you’re looking for sneakers or sandals.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: When the Suicide Squad trailer came out, which featured Ballroom Blitz, I then went and relistened (as I hadn’t heard it in a long time), the full song at Youtube. Here too Steve Priest is showing off his distinctive sense of fashion (and his new Easter bonnet):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_jdiU47bFA
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
It’s funny that you think briefing Comrade Trump about anything will actually make a difference in what he does.
raven
@Mnemosyne: I just bought a pair of Kuru’s, goofy looking but the feel really good.
opiejeanne
@debbie: For that price, yes.
I will admit that the last thing I bought from them, the beloved cover-up dresses, are made of thin cheap cotton fabric, kind of like t-shirt fabric, but that’s exactly what I wanted when I bought them. I don’t go to the beach or swimming pools very often so they’ll last a long time, and I took good care of the swimsuits from them so they have lasted more years than I expected. I really expected the stretchiness to die, which it will eventually. I have a nice pair of warm pants with an elastic waist, and when I took them out of the closet the elastic made crunchy-crackly noises. I’m debating whether to replace the elastic.
ThresherK
@Omnes Omnibus: Would the long description work? To me it’s basically a “slightly nicer long-sleeve crewneck t-shirt”.
opiejeanne
@raven: No, I found two of those mock-turtlenecks in my closet today. Long-sleeves, collar with a seam down the back that folds down and imitates a turtleneck but is less bulky. Their big claim to fame was that LE’s had a seam that didn’t rub against the back of your neck. Mine are about 20 years old.
Adam L Silverman
@cmorenc: If you read the good histories of the Yom Kippur War, this was a problem even back then. When the SIGINT/ELINT guys were getting intercepts showing something was up with Egypt and Syria and raising the alarm, the higher ups – both political and military – discounted the Intelligence because none of the Arab states would be so stupid as to challenge Israel’s military superiority and dominance. Had Sadat not intended to establish battlefield equivalence so he could cut a separate peace, had he kept fighting and not abandoned his ally Syria on the battlefield, Israeli overconfidence would have been their undoing.
JPL
@schrodingers_cat: I didn’t mean to use it that way. My point is that upheaval in the middle east could strengthen Putin. I should have left off the theory.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: McConnell has indicated that there will be hearings through the normal committee process. In this case the Senate Intelligence Committee. There is a cross the aisle/bipartisan push on by Senators McCain, Graham, Shumer, and several others for a select committee dedicated solely to this. So that will be the action to watch on the Senate side.
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne: Thanks. I’ll look into those.
My youngest gave me a pair of shoes for Christmas, which is pretty gutsy of her, but they were from Clark’s and she got the size right. They’re saddle oxfords, but the part that would be white is gray and of a felt-like material. Pretty cute.
raven
@opiejeanne: WalterDrake Dickie Mock Turtleneck???
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman:
Hence, the 10th man.
Omnes Omnibus
@ThresherK: Too late. The pearls are already clutched.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: The people around him that are also receiving the briefings will be the filters between him and what gets done. I would expect LTG Flynn and GEN Mattis to already know about the ConGen in Jerusalem and the USSC.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: Isn’t kuru what you get when you eat the neurologically diseased monkey brains? I’m sure their advertising campaign is genius.
Corner Stone
@Mike in NC:
That screams quality! And I mean screams!
BillinGlendaleCA
@EBT: No, tip the veal, and enjoy your server.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: Do you think that Trump cares about the historical significance of Jerusalem?
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: You have to have 10 to have a minyon.
raven
@Adam L Silverman: Beats me, I came across them somewhere and decided to try them. Not much use for my Mickey Mouse Boots so far this year.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: I do not know. I’m sure his son in law does. And its quite clear that his Ambassador-designate to Israel and his Special Envoy-designate do. And they have very clearly articulated views on it.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: You know who else can be a real bitch?
Adam L Silverman
@raven:
http://anthropology.ua.edu/bindon/ant570/Papers/McGrath/McGrath.htm
raven
@Adam L Silverman:
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Nixon rattled the nuclear sabers, also too:
(Emphasis added.)
Donnie is playing with
firea M67 Flamethrower Tank…:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Roger Moore
@cmorenc:
I don’t honestly foresee any war between Israel and any of its Arab neighbors in the near future. For all they like to talk about how terrible Israel is, it’s far more useful to them as a bogeyman to keep their populations distracted than it ever would be as a defeated opponent. That’s especially true because their championing of Palestinian statehood would make it difficult for them to seize Israeli territory themselves if they should actually win. I think a lot of Israel’s moves make more sense when you see that.
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman:
Well worth following. I’m always impressed when an American goes someplace off the beaten path, like Uzbekistan, realizes s/he needs to learn the language to function as a journalist/researcher, and does so. She is now fluent in Uzbek, in addition to Russian.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
My late cousin had some exquisite clothes, and her daughter gave me one of her beautiful jackets — purple parachute silk on one side, with abstract geometric patterns of red, green, blue — and reversible to a deep plushy fake fur, like beaver — dark brown and really soft. Remember seeing Martha wear it several times, and I’m thrilled to own it. (She was a tall, thin woman and I am a short, stumpy woman, but for some reason her sizes fit me, at least in blouses and tops. Not trousers or skirts, though.)
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: I went to Scotland. Where I studied Arabic. And now I have trouble with English.
Coincidence? I think not…
Dog Dawg Damn
Santa brought me 4 adirondack chairs, which I’m staining in the living room right now (it’s too cold outside). So far so good. Can’t wait to have them by the firepit outback for new years.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: @raven: Okay then, floor wax and dessert topping.
schrodingers_cat
@opiejeanne: Born shoes (not their cheapo BOC brand) and Dansko also make comfortable foot wear.
Mathguy
@schrodingers_cat: This, especially the uncertainty principle.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: The Alps were a simple people, they lived on a diet of rice and old shoes. And the lord Alps them that Alps themselves. . .
Corner Stone
@Mathguy: I’m not sure what you’re trying to argue here?
schrodingers_cat
@raven: Kauravas and Pandavas of the Kuru clan fought at Kurukshetra, which is the climax of Mahabharata.
Shalimar
@Gin & Tonic: I remember Balance of Power. Black and white map of the world as an interface, succeeding was hard but not impossible depending on how aggressive the AI was. Generally, the entire world went boom within the first few game years.
raven
That’s the trouble around here: talk, talk, talk! Oh, sometimes I think I must go mad. Where will it all end? What is it getting you?
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: If these are your shoes, the least you could do was have them cleaned.
EBT
@BillinGlendaleCA: Just the tip though, you don’t know where he has been.
Corner Stone
There is no freaking way Dez catches that pass. Holy schnikes.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: And yet….
SiubhanDuinne
I just got a really nice email from Hillary. And it didn’t even ask me to send money or sign a petition or anything. Just a nice, warm seasonal greeting and thank you message. (Those for or five of you who aren’t on the list and didn’t get your own, eat your hearts out. I thought it was nice.)
raven
@Omnes Omnibus:
and even though I’m on vacay, this may be it for tonight
I stepped up on the platform
The man gave me the news
He said, You must be joking son
Where did you get those shoes?
BillinGlendaleCA
@EBT: I live in Porn Valley(aka the San Fernando Valley), so I have a pretty good idea.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Steely Dan.
EBT
@BillinGlendaleCA: So that is where I need to break in to the industry.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: there it is
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Proving that there is nothing that cannot be made worse by an earnest academic analysis, a textbook on “functional linguistics” refers to this as an “artificial macro-context of situation.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: No, that shit was funny.
ETA: I did take a seminar on comedy in college. IIRC, it relied heavily on Henri Bergson.
Mnemosyne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
@EBT:
Apparently there’s a bar a few blocks away from me in Burbank where porn stars gather to do karaoke on weeknights.
I’ve been told that it’s even sadder in person than I’m making it sound.
Feathers
Just finished a book I think others here will enjoy A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh. It looks at the city and notes how the types of crimes which are possible in any given place are determined by its natural and built environment. Berlin and London have soil conducive to tunneling into bank vaults. The story of the LAPD realizing that a gang of thieves could theoretically rob almost every bank in the city simultaneously, using tunnels built to contain the rivers that used to run through the city underground (which are big enough to drive ATVs through). There is also a guy who robs McDonalds nationwide, using the fact that they are all similarly laid out and follow the exact same schedule to time when to cut through the roof and drop down onto the teenage workers.
It’s written at the level of a very good Sunday newspaper magazine story, a quick and fun read that makes you think. He interviews both retired burglars and lots of law enforcement people. It shows how building codes can help burglars target certain buildings (number of fire escapes letting you know how many bedrooms there are – fewer bedrooms, more money), they also determine what the infrastructure of a building looks like. He points out how architects design buildings for a certain type of use and then criminals come along and imagine entirely different uses – coming in through the ceiling and then cutting their way through from store to store or apartment to apartment.
Fun, quick read. Completely non-guilty pleasure and a good step away from certain current events.
ETA – it does of course talk about the various and great heist films, as well as philosophical and sociological writings about the city as a lived experience.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: He’s the guy who embarrassed himself trying to argue about the nature of time with Einstein, right? I guess I can see that as comedy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: FWIW, the Bergson readings may have something to do with my antipathy for clowns.
Another Scott
Watching old Simpsons shows on FXX. Homer’s trying to buy a gun at BloodBath & Beyond…
[edit:] The Evil Apostrophe makes an unfortunate appearance…
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Was Bergson pro- or anti-clown? You never know with the French, land of mimes.
gene108
@efgoldman:
Thank you for posting this. I got my master’s degree from Drexel. I hope being an alum, though not much of a donor, has more weight than the screeching poo-flinging neo-Nazis.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: Same guy. Rather like William Jennings Bryan making himself a laughingstock in the Scopes trial. Someone significant, but in decline, still trying to fight. Roberto Duran as well.
catclub
@Adam L Silverman:
Trump is capricious. He might be backing them now, but one insult/snub later he could be their worst enemy. Likewise with Putin – which gets messy if nukes are involved.
frosty
@Corner Stone:
I think it’s because of the same hedge fund manager who’s ruining what’s left of Sears. My LE story: Ordered two pairs of khakis that I’ve been wearing for over a decade and they changed the sizing. WTF? Tried on a few pair at Sears and none of the styles they sold fit right. Dunno what I’m going to do, wear jeans* as I glide to retirement?
* I’d better not get started on the Levi’s rant, speaking of changing sizing arbitrarily.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: This is at a distance of 30+ years, but he saw laughter as induced by clowns as an function of the mechanical nature of humans (Philosophy students please feel free to correct me). Also, funny and moral ain’t necessarily related (I am sure that is a clown reference).
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I always said, Henri Bergson is a LAFF RIOT.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Clowns induce fear, not laughter. I am going to hide under the bed now.
Corner Stone
@frosty:
Similar to my being pissed off that the same exact style of slacks/pants I had bought for years now had the pockets pouch out like fucking Disney Ears. Return. Done.
Mike E
@Woodrowfan: erm, did the scary NC lady say, “We don’t take kindly to strangers.” Too? That stinks!
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: The one thing that stuck with me was the concept of snowballing. That some little thing in a comedy that is repeated again and again eventually becomes funny even though it is not funny in and of itself.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: We know that. Bergson did not.
schrodingers_cat
Am I the only person who has never bought a single thing from Land’s End? Their clothes are too matronly. They make LLBean seem hip.
catclub
@Adam L Silverman: The exercise seems close to pointless, when the first ground rule is: “no matter what we find out was done, Trump is still President.”
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: I call that “tedium.” What every Woody Allen movie descends to as its end approaches.
Adam L Silverman
@catclub: That’s not my quote. I think you mean to address your remarks to that statement’s writer.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: I wouldn’t be surprised if Allen read and was influenced by Bergson.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: I have certainly never purchased a skirt or dress from LE. As far as you know.
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: Were people asking you:
“are you happy to see me or is that a mouseketeer in your pocket?”
catclub
@Feathers: Sounds interesting.
This American Life on the one person burglary crime wave – by person with nearly batman level skills – but also a gambling problem. was too.
catclub
@Adam L Silverman: sorry. my mistake.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@schrodingers_cat: NO. No you are not.
Adam L Silverman
@catclub: Forcing governmental institutions to function properly is itself something important regardless of who is President.
Adam L Silverman
@catclub: No worries. It was Roger Moore responding to me. If you go back to his response you’ll see him quoting me within the blue box.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): If we go with a 30 year SOL, I am in. Bought so stuff in the early to mid ’80s.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: No mouseketeer. No mousekeeter. You’re the mouseketeer!
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: SOL?
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: If it is not, then violent rebellion or curling up in a corner and rocking back and forth while weeping softly are the only options.
opiejeanne
@raven: Nope. Long sleeve shirt with a collar that folds down to create the turtleneck. The collar is the only part that is “mock”.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Statute of limitations.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Ayep.
RandomMonster
Fox on the Run is the first song I remember playing on a jukebox when I was way pre-teen. Only years later did I discover the whole Desolation Boulevard album which, as ridiculous as it is, still stands up with some great songs like Ballroom Blitz and Six-Teens. The YouTube videos of them are priceless.
Omnes Omnibus
@RandomMonster: And yet, as a glam band, T-Rex wins.
ETA: Bowie never name-checked Sweet.
opiejeanne
@schrodingers_cat: Thanks for that info. Will make a note of all of these recommendations when I need another pair of shoes.
RandomMonster
@Omnes Omnibus: I will not argue that Sweet even begins to compare with T-Rex.
Omnes Omnibus
@RandomMonster: Fair enough.
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: I just got a thank you from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign. It was nice and didn’t ask for money, just thanked me for my contribution. I must have given them a bit of money, but it couldn’t have been more than $10 because I don’t remember it at all.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Ah Lawyerspeak!
opiejeanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: I didn’t know Glendale was part of the San Fernando Valley.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: I prefer LL and Eddie Bauer to LE.
opiejeanne
@Mnemosyne:
That made me laugh and scare the cat.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: You get snippy about your language; we get snippy about ours. Our objection usually “That word, I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Steeplejack (tablet)
Reminded that (the) Sweet did “Love Is Like Oxygen.” That was a good song for its time.
RandomMonster
@schrodingers_cat: I shop from them all but then clothes shopping for me consists of replacing one set of black tshirts with a new set of black tshirts.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (tablet): All of the Sweet songs mentioned here are good songs. Eli Manning is a good quarterback, his brother was something else.
schrodingers_cat
@RandomMonster: Marc Zuckerberg is that you? Or are you the ghost of Steve Jobs?
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat:
LL Bean is hip. They can’t make those duck boots fast enough. Every hipster wanted them for Christmas.
RandomMonster
@schrodingers_cat: I was wearing them before Zuck was even born. For me it was probably just formative years listening to the Stranglers, and choosing careers where I wouldn’t have to wear a tie.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Oh, come on.
schrodingers_cat
@Yarrow: They are so ugly, what hunting do hipsters do? Why do they need them? I have their Blucher mocs and hiking shoes but not the duck boots.
SiubhanDuinne
@opiejeanne:
If they did a bit more of that — just an occasional thank you with no donation form attached — they’d actually, ironically, get more money from me.
Kristine
@schrodingers_cat: I’m a fan of Fitflops. Their leather sneakers are very comfy, and I have problem feet.
Elie
@SiubhanDuinne:
I got one too. I hope she stays some sort of active or else, what was all this for? I still think she conceded too fast and has been a model of acceptance. Fuck that! She was fucked and robbed and we were fucked and robbed right along with her. I am not accepting any of that bullshit and I wish she didn’t. I am sick of hearing about her book store and hiking trips. We need leaders for the fight ahead. If that aint her, fine but then I don’t want to hear about her. She is the past if she is not part of a future.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve worn the duck boots. They’re well made and work well for keeping your feet warm and dry in wet, slushy, muddy conditions. You don’t have to hunt to be in those conditions.
As for why do hipsters need them, well, why does anyone need anything except a few basics? They likely don’t. It’s something they want instead. And people want things for all sorts of reasons.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Never heard it called “snowballing,” but it’s a good term, and I’m familiar with the concept. First came across it, I think, in Gaudy Night. (As you know, I can often, tediously, find an apt line from either Dorothy L. Sayers or Gilbert & Sullivan. This time, DLS comes to the rescue — a sentence from a letter Lord Peter Wimsey writes to his beloved Harriet Vane):
“Will you marry me?—It’s beginning to look like one of those lines in a farce—merely boring till it’s said often enough; and after that, you get a bigger laugh every time it comes.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Elie: I’m perfectly willing to give her until January 20 but after that I agree, I want her to be in the vanguard or step out of the way. She may choose to funnel her activism through the much-maligned Clinton Foundation or start/serve as patron for something new. I think she still has a lot to offer and I’m happy to give her some time to decide. I do wish she hadn’t conceded so fast.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Yup, PSK(Porn Star Karaoke), I’ve heard of it and it’s not as sad as might have heard.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Remember I’m married to a Korean, so karaoke(Norebong) is a good time. In fact we have a laserdisc karaoke machine.
BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: Generally not part of the valley, but there are no hills between the valley and Glendale. There are porn companies here and porn performers do live here(I’ve seen em).
Elie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Why by Jan 20? She is either in some sort of way or out and should just go curl up and read a book. After running to lead us in hard times I am not sure how she can just retreat but that is of course her decision. If she decides she is in for something or such she should have Bill admitted to somewhere with a lock, good security and no phones or internet. His bullshit w Loretta Lynch opened up the opportunity for Comey. I personally will never forgive him but that’s irrelevant anymore. Still if Hillary joins in they will come after her again
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Probably too late, but you would never believe that the line, “So they call me Concentration Camp Ehrhard?” could be funny at all, much less get funnier with each repetition, but that’s the genius of Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not To Be.
But there’s a skill to it. Seth Macfarlane seems to have only gotten the memo about repetition without understanding how to make each repetition funnier.
Anne Laurie
@schrodingers_cat:
As long as you don’t take a wide width. I’ve tried many varieties of both brands, and never found a pair I can even get my feet into!
J R in WV
@SiubhanDuinne:
Well, I like Hillary, donated Big $$$ to her campaign, worked locally to phone bank, all to no avail, and I didn’t get a sweet email from her. Maybe because I stopped the flood of begging emails in mid-October, because I was donating the max we could on a monthly basis…
We also donated to some successful Senatorial candidates, including Tammy Duckworth. The more i know about her the better I feel about supporting her. Much the same for Hillary, who seems to me to be a nice person in spite of being whip smart.
gogiggs
If I had to choose between killing you and never hearing Sweet’s “Teenage Rampage” again, I’d send your children an apologetic gift basket before I resumed rocking.
I fucking love Sweet.