Bixby is wondering why there hasn’t been an open thread in a while. Another nice day here. Expecting rain and/or snow tonight. I’m going out to garden (see here) to finish clean up.
What’s on your agenda today? Something fun I hope.
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tofubo
Because freedom. Or something.
https://twitter.com/MarianneDavy1/status/829994386507300864
Mnemosyne
If any of the other commenters with crazy sensitive skin has a recommendation for a high-SPF sport sunscreen, let me know. My regular sunscreen has been dripping into my eyes when I sweat, but the sport version is only 30 SPF and I’m hoping for at least 40 or 45.
Kay Eye
We’ve been to the farmers’ market for eggs, cabbage, collards, tomatoes, and radishes. Tonight we’ll have cassoulet, the real thing, made by my son, duck leg sticking up and everything – with lemon pudding cake for dessert.
Oh, and blue oyster mushrooms.
Must. Not. Read. News.
bemused
Hoo boy. Chaffetz is low down scum. Can’t handle the heat so he says his protesters aren’t from his state and paid. Rest are unimportant Dems. Bet he has dreams of deporting Dems out of Utah.
geg6
@tofubo:
Ugh. I hate what this country has become.
We’re doing our romantic Valentines Day dinner tonight. Going to a restaurant at a local country club. Nice meal, bottle of wine and some dancing to the band in the ballroom. Just need to forget about what is happening and enjoy each other.
TaMara (HFG)
@Mnemosyne: I can’t tolerate any of the sunscreens, so I went with a baby zinc formula. Leaves you white-ish, but can’t beat the coverage and so far it doesn’t trigger my dermatitis.
Mnemosyne
@tofubo:
The San Bernardino murderers went on their killing spree because the American citizen husband got tired of being tormented by his co-workers for being Muslim.
Harassing innocent people only makes things worse, but I’m pretty sure conservatives know that and are anticipating the day some pissed-off person overreacts so they can be “proved right.”
Farthestnorth
Colorado Stands With Planned Parenthood rally at Cory Gardner’s office downtown Denver 1 pm
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (HFG):
I’m already pretty white, so no one would notice. ?
I really like my Epicuren SPF 45, but it can get a little drippy if I sweat, and I’m thinking ahead to Disneyworld.
Boatboy_srq
@tofubo: Dub. Tee. Eff.
Boatboy_srq
@Mnemosyne: I think (don’t have it with me) I used a Neutrogena SPF 45. not too bad, and light enough not to have to put on with a trowel.
XTPD
Given his intense hatred for Massachusetts and especially the Patriots, I’m surprised that Magary hasn’t yet described the state (or at least Boston) as “South Africa with shitty wildlife and even shittier weather” in terms of race relations. I’ve never actually been to the state, so can anyone tell me if this diss is relatively accurate or just being a dick?
Florida Frog
Off to my first Indivisible local meeting. They are organizing regular protests at Rubio’s office. Resistance feels so good.
A Ghost to Most
All time February high of 80 yesterday slowly declining to rain/snow tonight.
I love the weather here.
Jeffro
This warmed me ol’ heart a bit: my (college-years) hometown is leading the way in welcoming immigrants and making them a part of the community!
(and in pretty frickin’ red rural Virginia, too – Bob Goodlatte’s district! Bite me, Bob)
billcoop4
@XTPD:
Massachusetts is a very mixed bag of wise-enlightened, clueless-enlightened, privileged, benighted, and colours out of space. It’s the state where you can get rear-ended because of a bumpah-stickah disagreement. Historically, Bahst’n has had a significant race problem; my sense is that it’s less than it used to be, but I suspect it’s still there.
I would love to live again in the Bay State for many reasons, including a return to the ancestral homeland (they arrived on Mayflower and Arabella).
beth
@tofubo: I’m seeing more and more stories like this. So far it’s all anecdotal but there seem to be too many to be false. I’m not on Twitter but can tweets like these be forwarded somehow to real journalists? People need to see the human faces and hear the stories before they believe that yes, it is indeed a Muslim ban.
Woodrowfan
@Jeffro: I did not know that about Harrisonburg. Good for them.
bemused
@Jeffro:
This is just what terrifies repressed white people, communities that become diversified and love it.
CaseyL
Going to glass class this morning, hoping to go a good ways toward finishing my fused glass sphinx. Not sure if I have the correct glass to totally finish the piece.
Also re-thinking a suggestion from my teacher on the framing columns: I wanted to do them in wood, so that it’s as if you’re in an ancient temple looking out at the sphinx. My teacher suggested I do the columns in glass, have them going beyond the boundaries of the main image. I like the idea of breaking the boundaries, but glass columns will likely fire flat with the image, and I want it to be more 3-D than that. Oh, decisions, decisions…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mnemosyne:
Neutrogena makes a spray that goes on thin, dries quickly and has an SPF of 70.
skerry
@Mnemosyne: I’ve been wearing a floppy hat with SPF protection instead of sunscreen on my face. Seems to work for me.
Woodrowfan
if you add twice as much SPF 30 is that SPF 60???
JMG
@XTPD: Lived in Mass. for over 40 years. Is there racism? Oh, sure. But there’s much less of it than there once was.
FlyingToaster
@XTPD: It depends.
Things have gotten immensely better than they once were. (see “bussing” and “South Boston”) You’ll never see a black kid getting suspended for doing doing the Mentos in a coke bottle thing in the school parking lot. But there are still teachers who overly-discipline minorites, and they don’t always get caught. You’ll also see some really dumb ideas in how to deal with students with non-nominal brain chemistry.
Our cops — regardless of municipality — all go to the State Police Academy. So nowadays you don’t see them randomly shooting folks for being black or crazy or college kids. They will still shoot if you run at them with a machete or shoot them in the face, mind you.
Like the other states in New England, we’re whiter than the rest of the country. Our billionaires are split between nice but slightly clueless white assholes (John Kerry, Steve Pagliuca), mean white assholes (Kraft & Ernie Boch Jr.) and evil fuckwads (Rmoney and the BCG/Bain nexus).
We have more college kids than anyone else on earth. A non-trivial number of them are rich white assholes (Babson), rich Asian Assholes (BU) and Eurotrash (every damn school).
And Drew Magary can continue to bend down and kiss my shiny metal ass.
XTPD
@billcoop4: Thx.
While we’re at it, I think we should be writing down entries for a prospective “Why Your State Sucks.” For example, I’m 90% sure that Arizona is actually an overly-convoluted life insurance fraud run by the DOJ at the expense of our most-virulently racist geriatrics.
trollhattan
Water at Oroville Dam in northern California is now flowing over the emergency spillway for the first time. Here’s hoping those designers knew what they were doing back in 1960. The reservoir is the water supply for about 26.5 million.
trollhattan
@Woodrowfan:
Yes (if you have two skin layers).
XTPD
@FlyingToaster: The only difference between northeastern US white-trash and standard Eurotrash is the lack of tracksuits for the former.
Also, keep in mind that the original comment was more a “most dickish accurate/semi-accurate characterization of a state/city as possible.” Magary does this for all of the NFL teams, though it’s clear that the Pats are one of the eight or so teams he genuinely hates.
rikyrah
I don’t know how you get those dogs to pose like that ???
Baud
Bixby looks like he was caught watching doggie porn.
FlyingToaster
@XTPD:
Also their vehicles. The northeast assholes drive pickups that are too long to fit into the parking spaces on campus. The Eurotrash drive tricked-out SUVs that are too wide to fit into the parking spaces on campus.
Magary forgets that the Pats aren’t in Boston. They’re ensconced down in the “rich whiter-than-thou bigot zone” Foxboro-Wrentham-Dover space. You don’t see many season ticket holders from Dot or Eastie. Let alone the inner burbs like Somerville or Chelsea or Watertown.
Larkspur
@Mnemosyne: I used Neutrogena sunscreen for years, and it worked great. Then I got a moderately bad case of poison oak, and it kind of lit up my whole immune system and I had poison oak and an allergic reaction to my faithful Neutrogena.
I now use EltaMD products. I haven’t noticed any eye drippage, but I also always wear a sun hat, so the inner brim may keep it from dripping into my eyes.
Another one I’ve had luck with is the Anthelios line (available on Amazon by clicking Cole’s Amazon button!). They have some that go up into the 60+SPF, although I have read that 30 to 40 SPF is fine – you just have to reapply often enough (which you’d have to do even with a 60+).
There is a slight whitish tinge to the Anthelios products, but it’s less noticeable than most. The EltaMD leaves you kind of shiny, but it’s not too bad. Also, ‘gators HATE the taste of both products.
Mnemosyne
@Boatboy_srq:
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Neutrogena makes me break out. ? I have rosacea, so my skin is ultra-sensitive and, frankly, quite cranky.
@skerry:
Oh, I will also be wearing a hat, but my skin is so sun-sensitive that I can get a sunburn from the light that reflects off the sidewalk. Ask me how I found that out …
Hal
Trump really is cancerous. And it’s only been three fucking weeks! He needs to go. I’ll take Pence and Ryan for now. Especially if dems can at least gain seats in Congress enough to gum up the works until 2020.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Mnemosyne: Zinc oxide won’t drip. Just saying.
Someone please give my good wishes for the Momnibus to OO, and share my delight at seeing him with Amir Khalid, and UV Thunder also too.
I’m spending the weekend putting away bowls, toys, and beds of our late beloved Layla. They leave such big paw prints on on hearts, and she was the last of the Q pack – she declined (quite emphatically) our attempt to introduce a new element after Django crossed the bridge and she was a singleton. It was a bit of a shitshow when the vet blew 2 veins, and I was poorly behaved (it’s not good form to note “baby girl; we don’t want to have to jug you, so work with us here honey,” with the disdain palpably audible in your voice). But to dose the pre-euth sedation so high that BP goes too low to support an easy IV is an unacceptable mistake, especially compounded with an attempt to use the sedation vein for euth. *I* knew that the sedation meant there was no discomfort, but it was harrowing for Mr. Q to watch and I was beyond pissed.
I’m currently incapable of civilized interaction, and I appreciate you snarling jackals more than you know. I plan to work on getting more stylish than stodgy, and perhaps pick out a new jewel toned pantsuit as a pick me up. Adam’s gonna have to help on the security clearance thing though.
Apologies for the TMI. Hug your people and your pets. Enjoy the sunshine if it’s in your neighborhood, and may it come soon if it isn’t.
Mnemosyne
@Larkspur:
I found this list from the Environmental Working Group, and now I have my eye on the one from Badger Balm. I usually end up wearing “baby” sunscreens, too, because they don’t have as many of the chemicals that I tend to react to.
Larkspur
@Mnemosyne: My skin is incredibly sensitive too. Back in the days when my knees and hips allowed me to run, I’d be partway through a run and be feeling happy and comfortable – and people would worry because my face would get so red so fast. I felt fine; I just get red red red with exertion. And at the end of my run, my t-shirt would be soaked with sweat, which was kind of good news/bad news. It made me look hard-core but not huggable. But hard-core was more important at the time.
Mnemosyne
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
I’m so sorry. Even when it’s the right thing for them, it’s still hard as hell to do. Hugs when you’re ready for them.
I remember getting enraged during Boris’s last procedure because they used a really loud electric razor to shave his leg for the IV and I was like, Don’t you people know that he doesn’t like loud noises?!?!
Larkspur
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I am dog-sitting for a beloved golden doodle and will go over right now to scritch his tummy in memory of Layla.
ETA: One of my favorite golden retrievers died two weeks ago. I got to say goodbye, but she wasn’t my dog so I didn’t go to the vet’s with the family. They told me later that they said goodbye, then the vet and techs took her back to administer the drugs while they waited in the reception room. It seemed to take longer than they had expected, but when the vet came out to say she was gone, he explained that the delay was only because all the staff had loved her so much that everyone wanted to pet her and say goodbye.
Feathers
@XTPD: Well, just about anyplace on the planet has shittier weather and shittier wildlife than South Africa, so…. Race relationships in Boston are… not good. Some of the problem is just that it is a very white place, especially when you get out of the city itself (which is about 20% black). I remember reading about a fight for more black teachers in Newton. Buried in the article was the fact that the percentage of black teachers was over double the percentage of black students. They just gave the numbers, not spelling out what they meant in terms of the discussion. And I get all the structural, racist reasons for why there were so few blacks in Newton, but the emotional toll must be hard on those that are there and it’s not a problem more black teachers are going to fix.
Another factor is that the white community in Beantown is different from other places as well. There were deep and painful battles among the various waves of white immigrants who arrived. Some families (like mine) see that as a reason to be more open and welcoming to newcomers, but others it curdles into a deep hatred of the other. I spent a summer canvassing for MassPIRG. One day I got a lecture from an old Irish lady how I should stick to my own kind, “they” are taking over and ruining the town I live in, that mixed marriages were doomed to unhappiness. I must admit that I just sort of listened out of sheer fascination at the pureness of the hatred. I told my crew about it on the way back to the office, and a black guy chewed me out over not standing up immediately to that sort of racism. I had to explain that she was talking about Italians. Much amazement. But if that’s the hatred for Italians, what happens when you have to deal with blacks? (Who are all Protestants, by the way. Nudge, nudge.)
And the Catholic Church didn’t help. When there was the whole mess over closing down churches 15 years or so back, nobody pointed out why there were so many empty churches. The Archdiocese used to allow any group that could fund a church to build one. So a town or neighborhood that might realistically support one or two churches had an Irish church, an Italian church, a French-Canadian church, and a Polish church. (There aren’t separate Hispanic churches, they get to have an afternoon mass at the “white” churches.) This may have made the church seem all powerful, but it bred ethnic resentment, which necessarily expands to racial hatred.
It’s easy and fashionable to say causes don’t matter, but without knowing the causes it’s hard to find solutions. You don’t raise your kid to hate black people, you just tell them to stick to their own kind, and the rest will sort itself out.
Sorry that got long. I’ve been thinking about this this week.
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
My redhead soccer kid uses spray stuff that goes on clear–brand escapes me because we’re not in sunscreen season–I like it myself as non-irritating and no fragrance.
Mnemosyne
@Feathers:
Interesting trivia: it’s fairly common for African-Americans to be Roman Catholic in Chicago and New Orleans.
Larkspur
@trollhattan: Your redhead soccer kid sounds adorable just from that short description. Alas, for me and my skin, it’s always sunscreen season. Last week was stormy, so I didn’t need it; today is brilliant and sunny, so I need it.
JanieM
@Feathers:
Feathers — great comment. This dynamic is very like the one in the small town I grew up in (in Ohio). My paternal grandparents came from Italy, my maternal side is very, very old American and Baptist, you can imagine the culture gap in my very own household as I grew up.
I didn’t know that bit about why there are so many churches in Boston — although to be fair, there was a time when they were all full, right? My little town had 3.5 Catholic churches (the half was a “mission”) — two much older and predominantly Irish but with a smattering of Hungarians, Poles, etc. My parish was specifically chartered as the Italian parish. We had six masses on Sunday when I was growing up, several of them packed to the rafters.
This is a fascinating topic, but I’d better leave it at that and just repeat my appreciation for what you wrote.
Feathers
@Mnemosyne: Interestingly, many of the Af-Am Catholic churches are “mission” churches run by one of the Orders, rather than the local dioceses. This means they become meccas for liberal Catholics in places with asshole right-wind Cardinals.
The current shame of the Church is the way it segregates Hispanics into afternoon masses. The church I went to as a child is now ultra-conservative. Scalia’s son was there for a while. I went back with my parents out of curiosity recently. It was a sparsely attended, all white, fancy dress crowd – in a parish that is now mostly poor and Hispanic. They have to attend a very crowded afternoon mass. There really should be a move to at least one bilingual morning mass. Said the very lapsed Catholic. But I agree with my highly devout father on this one.
tesslibrarian
@Mnemosyne: I’m practically translucent, but have had luck with Neutrogena’s “pure & free liquid” sunscreen, which is SPF 50.
It’s 3% zinc oxide, and I’ve worn it all day outside when we have football games in September (our seats are only 6 rows up, so we are in the sun most of the game). It’s often in the mid-to-upper 80s at kickoff, if we’re lucky.
It’s not on the list you posted a link to, but it doesn’t react with my very sensitive skin, and at 46, with a family history of skin cancer, I’ve decided sun protection matters more than a few hours of chemicals.
ETA: it’s a small bottle, meant mostly for the face, neck, ears, &chest. When my mother-in-law decided to take a family vacation at Disney World one August, I found light-weight full-length linen pants and overshirts were much more helpful than sunscreen. Less stickiness when you sweat, and actually felt better than the sun hitting the skin on some rides that are out in the open or carry you up high (Aladdin’s carpet ride), even in a dark color.
Mnemosyne
@Feathers:
I’m in Los Angeles, so people out here definitely don’t have any trouble finding Masses in Spanish. I’m guessing the church in my old neighborhood also had Mass in Tagalog (Filipino), but I left the church a while ago, so I don’t know for sure.
XTPD
@FlyingToaster: I was also thinking if PA and upstate NY. Also, my impression is that Magary’s conflation is intentional, given the Pats being most closely identified with a region as opposed to city, and Boston being the region’s premier city of note.* (And he’d lived in CT for some time, so).
* Although I do recall him erroneously ID’ing Everlast as a Boston folk hero; House of Pain was actually a Long Island-originated group that moved bases to CA.
Josie
@Mnemosyne: Neutrogena Pure & Free is the bomb. Works really well and doesn’t break out my sensitive skin (I can’t use the chemicals that are in regular sunscreen). I worked at a bird sanctuary for three years, out in the weather all morning every day and never had a problem.
trollhattan
@Larkspur:
Thanks. Here she is in the rain, last fall. I could project movies on her so sunblock is a lifestyle necessity as much as food.
Spanky
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Hugs to you, Bella Q. When we had to say goodbye to Poopyman back in December, his heart just would. not. stop. Nearly killed me too.
Willful to the end.
Spanky
@trollhattan: You take good pics! I went through most of that stream. I like this one too.
trollhattan
@Spanky:
Thanks! Kids and puppies, the pics practically take themselves.
humboldtblue
@Kay Eye: What time is dinner?
Another Scott
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Condolences to you and yours. I’m sorry the passing was stressful. :-(
Hang in there and remember the good times. She’ll always be with you, and she loved you for all you did for her.
Cheers,
Scott.
JMG
This morning, I snowblowered-shoveled again. Another foot plus coming by Monday. Alice has the same bad cold John Cole has, and I had last week, so I’m cooking lamb chops, sauteed zuccini with onions, green pepper, sour cream and dill, and carrots for dinner. That’s fun.
Another Scott
@Feathers: That’s a great short summary. Thanks.
Chicago is very much like that, too. As part of my undergraduate studies in Chicago, I took a walk west from the lake along some major street (58th?). There were (and probably still are) very, very distinct neighborhood boundaries – it was astounding to me (who grew up in GA and OH). The “self-segregation” (which wasn’t always “self” (see TNC’s discussion of red-lining and the like)) was blatant and overt and was much more than skin color (Poles vs Irish vs …). It boiled over in MLK’s Chicago Campaign in 1966 when he argued for fair housing laws, of course.
I was in Chicago from ’79 – ’83. There had been some progress, but there was (and likely is) still much more work to do.
Racism is a national problem – not just a southern one, but it expresses itself in slightly different ways in different parts of the country. (Of course, it’s a world-wide problem, also too.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Shantanu Saha
Fun, if you think having the flu is fun. Was supposed to put up shelves in my son’s closet today, but I’m too congested and achy and feverish to do anything remotely strenuous. The worst part is my wife alternating between concern and yelling that it can’t be that bad.
SWMBO
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: My sincere condolences. Yes, they do leave ginormous paw prints on the heart. Peace and comfort to the entire Q family.
hedgehog mobile
@Farthestnorth: See you there. On the light rail headed down
efgoldman
@billcoop4:
Last time I rode the red line (about 10-12 months ago) I was astonished and delighted by the rainbow and babel of more different eths, languages and national origins than I could count. Yes, there are still some pockets of shitheads, especially in the Southern suburbs, but the city has changed incredibly.
The state senator from Billy Bulger’s old South Boston district is Haitian born. The city council president is Asian.
efgoldman
@FlyingToaster:
That’s more expense-dependent than geographical. If they depended on just the locals, they couldn’t get 15k for a game. It would look like a UMass “home” game.
Larkspur
@Shantanu Saha: Yes, when it’s really flu as opposed to a nasty cold, it’s like every time you try to stand up, a big mean hand keeps pushing you back down. So stay down for a while so your body can fight back, and hope that your wife doesn’t get it too, cause the “I told you I was sick!” part isn’t worth it.