Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

This really is a full service blog.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I really should read my own blog.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Infrastructure week. at last.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Things To Do On Days When Do Nothing Seems Like The Best Option

Things To Do On Days When Do Nothing Seems Like The Best Option

by | 185 Comments

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Perhaps…rotate your improbable confections once a day for six months…

 

My son dug this up (it should be noted that the sole useful purpose of a sixteen year old roommate is exposure to the zeitgeist — or at least that part of it to which us certain-age types have no direct access). I am awed by the whacky patience required to come up with a chocolate geode.

What’s the most unlikely project you’ve ever attempted. Did it work?

And beyond that question…open thread.

PS: lovely meet up last night. As usual, I completely failed to match up names to nyms but it was a hoot to see such friendly jackals in congress.

Reader Interactions

185Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    It’s been a busy day with all kinds of yard work, car work, mower tune up and not to settle in for the final four (in three hours”!

  3. 3.

    germy

    Are internet providers going to use “We’ll never sell your private info!” as a selling point now? And won’t they sell it anyway?

  4. 4.

    Gin & Tonic

    @raven: 35 degrees and sleeting means nothing outdoors. Being one-armed kind of limits the indoor chores, too.

  5. 5.

    hilts

    OT

    $13M in Settlements Paid to Women Who Accused Bill O’Reilly of Harassment
    h/t http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/usd13m-paid-to-women-who-accused-bill-oreilly-of-harassment.html

    O’Reilly’s statement in response to the report is vintage bullshit:

    Just like other prominent and controversial people. I’m vulnerable to lawsuits from individuals who want me to pay them to avoid negative publicity. In my more than 20 years at Fox News Channel, no one has ever filed a complaint about me with the Human Resources Department, even on the anonymous hotline. But most importantly, I’m a father who cares deeply for my children and who would do anything to avoid hurting them in any way. And so I have put to rest any controversies to spare my children. The worst part of my job is being a target for those who would harm me and my employer, the Fox News Channel.

  7. 7.

    geg6

    @schrodingers_cat:

    We just got the best deal on a used riding mower on Craig’s List. Guy lived less than a mile away, the mower is only 4 years old and the thing that turns the blades was broken. Looked up the part, which was $35, so we called and the guy only wanted $150 for the mower. Looks like he only used it a few times, so we snapped it up. Forget the brand, but it’s red. John and his brother replaced the part and it runs like a dream. For less than $200!

  10. 10.

    Ruckus

    @schrodingers_cat:
    I’d bet that there are very few reasonable used ridding mowers out there. The really good ones are bought by gardeners and used up. Completely. The cheap ones are just that. Some of this depends on where you live. When I lived in OH my lawn would grow an inch or better in spring and I never watered it once in 11 yrs. So there was a lot of mowing going on, my mower ran for 45 minutes a week minimum, then sat for 4-5 months. Here in southern CA you don’t have lawn without watering and even then it doesn’t grow like it did back east.
    That being said, look at a local lawnmower shop that takes trade ins. They may have taken in a good one or fixed one not so good and it could meet your needs.
    ETA As greg6 said it is possible but I’m figuring that you want one that runs OK and is just cheaper than new.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    @hilts:

    $13M in Settlements Paid to Women Who Accused Bill O’Reilly of Harassment

    13 mill
    5 women

    these women got paid.

    but, there’s nothing to their claims..

    yeah…ok…whatever muthaphucka.

  12. 12.

    eclare

    A friend of mine here in Memphis, where grass grows fast, did the math and figured that he would have been better off or at least the same paying someone to mow his lawn rather than having the expense and upkeep of a riding mower. He bought one new, and it lasted five years. He could have paid someone to mow for the same amount of money.

  13. 13.

    rikyrah

    @hilts:

    OT

    $13M in Settlements Paid to Women Who Accused Bill O’Reilly of Harassment

    How much do I love that Maxine Waters brought up the settlements in her flaying of O’Reilly the other day…

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

  14. 14.

    germy

    Famed anthropologist Jane Goodall took to Facebook on Friday to push back at the anti-science policies of the Trump administration, calling it disturbing that there are those who “belittle” scientists at their own peril.

    With President Donald Trump appointing an EPA secretary who wants to roll back environmental protections — including the Clean Air Act — Goodall encouraged concerned voters to take part in the “March for Science” scheduled for Earth Day — April 22.

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/jane-goodall-public-needs-to-face-down-trumps-absurd-anti-science-policies-and-back-researchers/

  15. 15.

    germy

    @rikyrah:

    How much do I love that Maxine Waters brought up the settlements

    Did she do it on twitter or during an interview?

  16. 16.

    Jim Bales

    “Things To Do On Days When Do Nothing Seems Like The Best Option”

    After carefully considering all my options, I took a nap.

    It was good to see you last night Anne, and everyone else!

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @hilts:

    $13 million will buy an awful lot of falafel, with change left over for a nice assortment of loofahs.

  19. 19.

    Jacel

    Did you get inspired to acquire a rider mower after watching “The Straight Story”? People tend to forget that David Lynch directed that Disney (well, Buena Vista) film.

  20. 20.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:
    @rikyrah:
    Bet he has insurance for that. Or Fox paid for it.
    But he is scum and I’m glad that Maxine Waters not only doesn’t take his crap but that she puts him in his place.
    A bad part is that whole thing is that the faux folks will think even more of him because he harassed at least 5 women. That they know of. They, like everyone else are pretty sure there are more.

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    Hello buds. Standing outside the cruise ship. My personable good driving taxi driver forgot to give me my credit card back, so I have demanded he come back. We shall see.

    Perfect weather. Putting up this story as a cautionary tale, jackals.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    As for those chocolate geodes, I am in awe! They are beautiful to look at, and I imagine they’re pretty tasty. What kind of wonderful trick mind even thinks of that?

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Elizabelle:

    Wow! Hope he gets back to you before you sail! If not, can your bank contact a branch or reciprocal bank in one of your ports of call who can provide you a replacement? (Naturally, it’s a Saturday.)

    Regardless, have a great, relaxing time and let us hear from you again once you’re back in the Wonderful World of WiFi.

  26. 26.

    efgoldman

    I completely failed to match up names to nyms

    We were the late arriving couple.
    I tried to ask you if you have a new book in the works, but you were already on your way out.

  27. 27.

    efgoldman

    @Gin & Tonic:

    35 degrees and sleeting means nothing outdoors.

    It was a fund drive home from Cambridge last nite, too.

    Being one-armed kind of limits the indoor chores, too.

    Just crushed by that, are you?

  28. 28.

    zhena gogolia

    Have to send this to my two geode-freak friends. One is a geode-freak because he loves minerals. The other is a geode-freak because Mandelstam wrote about geodes.

  29. 29.

    Elmo

    Unlikely projects: my wife and I designed and built a 500 square foot cantilevered deck at our house in Tennessee. By ourselves (for those who don’t know me, I’m female). We dug every hole, mixed and poured the concrete, and laid every stick ourselves. I designed the stair risers and cut them myself, custom.

    We’d never done anything remotely like it, and we did all the work on weekends when it wasn’t too cold, wasn’t too hot, and wasn’t raining. It took two years. But it’s the most solid piece of construction on the property.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    I am enjoying the opportunity to sit around in my bathrobe after spending the last three weekends doing stuff. I also need to sit down and write for an hour since I started Camp NaNoWriMo today and set a daily time goal instead of a daily word count goal.

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    @germy:

    How much do I love that Maxine Waters brought up the settlements

    Did she do it on twitter or during an interview?

    The interview with Chris Hayes.

  32. 32.

    efgoldman

    @Gin & Tonic:

    35 degrees and sleeting means nothing outdoors.

    Driving home from Cambridge last nite was not a fun time.

    Being one-armed kind of limits the indoor chores, too.

    And you’re crushed, right?

  33. 33.

    aimai

    I am miserably attempting to write, but really avoiding writing, a quite straightforward paper on writing a questionnaire for Research I. Its hard for me because its just not the way I think about tthings–having spent my entire adult life avoiding the quantitative approach to things and preferring the qualitative, induction over deduction, or whatever. So every time I start to think about writing it–and its fucking due–I just put it down and wander off to do something else and then forget all the thought I had put into it already. Its ruining this weekend, as it has ruined others, and preventing me from getting on with the tons of other work I have. And it just makes me so ashamed of myself–I’m too old to be avoiding work. But there it is.

  35. 35.

    CaseyL

    I’m not sure if this qualifies as a “project,” but a long time ago I was enamored with those tall wood slat “bird cages” that look like Asian or Indian temples. You know the ones, three or four levels tall, starting out wide and narrowing to a point.

    I bought one – a big one, probably 4 feet high – with the intent of painting it in bright colors. Spent an inordinate amount of time debating over the colors and the technique: brush or spray paint? Spray paint would be easier, but for some reason I thought that would undermine the artistic experience. Then I thought: brush for the outside, spray paint for interior and any other parts I can’t get to easily

    There was never any question of where to have my fun: I lived in a 1-bedroom back half of a duplex, a rental, and no way was I going to risk getting paint all over the rug and walls. Happily, we had a carport out back.

    I laid out the newspapers, laid out my paints and brushes and water and spray cans, and got to work. I’d paint a bit, step back and eyeball; paint a bit more, step back and eyeball.

    It came out great, actually. I like bright, jewel-tone colors, and those were the colors I used. Bright red, deep purple, emerald green, sunburst yellow, and sky blue; plus some gold accents here and there. It looked like a rainbow geometric oddity, and I was quite pleased.

    But I couldn’t figure out where to put it. My apartment’s ceilings were nowhere near high enough to hang the cage from, and there wasn’t enough room in the place to have a stand devoted just to one piece of art. I wound up placing it on a storage chest near the big front window, so it would be in the light.

    And there it stayed for, good lord, must be five or six years – until I moved out of the apartment. I didn’t take it with me. After so many years – and the inevitable damage accumulated by living at close quarters with cats, swordmaker boyfriend, visitors, etc. – the painted cage looked a bit ratty. It went into the trash as we packed up – and, yes, I definitely felt a twinge of melancholy.

    Every so often I’ll see one of those birdcages and the old urge comes back.

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: I will say hello to BCN for you. They were warning me about Trump. I told them no way he’d be elected. Sad!

    Cab driver returned the card. Yea! Check in w you all later.

  37. 37.

    geg6

    @eclare:

    Our last riding mower lasted more than 20 years. If you are diligent about maintenance and sharpening, a good mower should last way more than 5 years.

  38. 38.

    japa21

    Since this is an open thread: I am serving as an election judge this Tuesday. This is when all the local offices, school boards, etc get elected. Did early voting since I won’t be able to vote on election day (and the spouse and I do that usually anyway) and disturbed that the local township top 3 offices only had GOP candidates. I actually do know the top one, and she is nice, but I can’t bring myself to vote for any Republican any more so left that blank. The GOP has always dominated the board of trustees for the township, but for the first time I can remember, there was a full slate of Dems this time around.

    While I was checking the Cook County Clerks website for some info I needed as a judge there was a blurb about early voting turnout county wide and it has set records. Hopefully this is a sign that Dems are actually more motivated to vote in not only an off year election, but one at a weird time of the year. WE’ll know more when the results come in. And maybe I’ll run next time around, if I can get enough people to sign an old fart’s petition.

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    From TOD:

    GGail
    March 31, 2017 at 10:05 pm
    As a black woman, being “scared shitless” was when I was 16 and couldn’t find my father because he had been beaten by white police officers and we weren’t notified until we searched the hospitals and found him. Being “scared shitless” is wondering if my black son or other family member is gonna be shot to death by a rouge white police officer. This criminal in the WH makes me angry, but not “scared shitless”.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @japa21:

    And maybe I’ll run next time around, if I can get enough people to sign an old fart’s petition.

    Woohoo! Just don’t tell the voters you post here.

  46. 46.

    japa21

    @germy: I’m hoping it continues through the mid terms. Almost worried that if Trump leaves office too soon and bland Pence gets in there, the enthusiasm might die down.

  50. 50.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @rikyrah: Time to start thinking about taxing the living shit out of the parasite overclass to finance a national minimum income program. “Working for a living” is an old paradigm of a pre-automation era.

  56. 56.

    WereBear

    I was gifted with a bread machine back when they were the hottest new appliance, and I wowed my friends and neighbors with my expertise. The lightest, fluffiest, Irish Soda bread. The incredible tastiness of my nutmeg peach bread. My honey wheat was famous.

    I flew too close to the sun. I winged it with an idea of my own. Plum bread.

    It rose and it baked and it smelled good. But when it rolled out of the baking pan it was the color of a psychedelic rock band jacket, and it weighed as much as those iron doorstops. After trying to cut a slice, and failing, I threw it out in the yard for the dogs to eat.

    They played soccer with it. They were rescue dogs and they wouldn’t eat it.

    After winter passed, I found it poking out of the snow. The birds hadn’t eaten it either. There wasn’t a mark on it. It was:

    The Bread That Would Not Die

    I wound up throwing it in the trash because it would not decompose.

    Now, I would offer it to the military…

  57. 57.

    efgoldman

    @aimai:

    So every time I start to think about writing it–and its fucking due–I just put it down and wander off to do something else

    Were you at the meetup last nite? SO many people i never got to talk to.

  59. 59.

    bystander

    @Jacel:

    I’m watching on MeTV a 1960 episode of Wanted: Dead or Alive, “To the Victor” with Richard Farnsworth. The women have moved away from town until the men give up their guns. The women’s ringleader? Liz Strata. Uh huh.

    Quite a coinkydink.

  64. 64.

    germy

    @aimai:

    So every time I start to think about writing it–and its fucking due–I just put it down and wander off to do something else

    A GREAT MANY PEOPLE have come up to me and asked me how I manage to get so much work done and still keep looking so dissipated. My answer is “Don’t you wish you knew?” and a pretty good answer it is, too, when you consider that nine times out of ten I didn’t hear the original question.

    But the fact remains that hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country are wondering how I have time to do all my painting, engineering, writing and philanthropic work when, according to the rotogravure sections and society notes I spend all my time riding to hounds, going to fancy-dress balls disguised as Louis XIV or spelling out GREETINGS TO CALIFORNIA in formation with three thousand Los Angeles school children. “All work and all play,” they say.

    The secret of my incredible energy and efficiency in getting work done is a simple one. I have based it very deliberately on a well-known psychological principle and have refined it so that it is now almost too refined. I shall have to begin coarsening it up again pretty soon.

    The psychological principle is this: anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.

    http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.se/2010/01/benchley-tonight-how-to-get-things-done.html

  66. 66.

    efgoldman

    @rikyrah:

    Senate Republicans’ decision to rush Price through confirmation has set up an explosive corruption bomb inside the administration.

    Hardly a “scoop.” It was reported, they just chose to ignore it.

  67. 67.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @hilts:

    13 million dollars here from this pontificating putz, 25 mill from Trump U a few days ago in another settlement….

    It’s like right wingers are fundamentally dishonest and corrupt!

  70. 70.

    NotMax

    @schordingers_cat

    A lot depends on these things:

    How large is the property?
    What grows on it that requires mowing besides regular lawn grass?
    Are there slopes which require mowing?
    Is there a suitable space to park and store it out of the weather?

    Experience has shown that people tend to buy more mower than they need. Bigger isn’t necessarily better, dependent on the circumstances.

    (Back some 40+ years ago, knew someone who lived in the boonies who had an electric riding mower. Not with a rechargeable battery, mind you, but required industrial-type outdoor extension cords. – lots of ’em.)

  71. 71.

    efgoldman

    @Baud:

    How many showed up?

    I didn’t count, but it was two long tables with people having to squeeze in. so 25++. Biggest we’ve ever been to.

  72. 72.

    Yarrow

    I finally did the notes for a committee meeting for a group I’m involved with. I got this job a few years ago when I opened my big mouth and suggested that someone do it. Ha. That’ll show me. I’ve been dragging my feet on them and finally did them today and sent them out to everyone. So I feel good about that.

    Of course I’ve got an assignment from the most recent meeting that will be time consuming and I don’t even want to start it. But at least I got the first thing off my plate.

    I think I’ll go to the gym next.

  75. 75.

    Pogonip

    Moving on with the blogging topic, from below, I think I might try it. I inherited the 1963 edition of The Good Housekeeping Cookbook and ca 1970 editions of the Farm Journal publications The Farm Journal Cookbook, Cooking For Company, and The Busy Woman’s Cookbook. I thought it might be fun to work through one and then figured I might as well write about it. I will start with the last-named (because I’m busy!).

    The Farm Journal Cookbook cracks me up. It has lots of sentences like “Country women frequently possess great skillet skill in scrambling eggs.” Like everyone else can’t boil water. I guess they figured it was a good idea to flatter the audience!

  77. 77.

    germy

    Does anyone remember Peg Bracken’s recipes?

    “Brown the garlic, onion, and crumbled beef in the oil. Add the flour, salt, paprika, and mushrooms, stir, and let it cook five minutes while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink”

  79. 79.

    efgoldman

    @Pogonip:

    It has lots of sentences like “Country women frequently possess great skillet skill in scrambling eggs.” Like everyone else can’t boil water.

    You never met my son-in-law. If it can’t be done in the microwave, following the instructions exactly, he can’t feed himself.

  81. 81.

    MattF

    @germy: Right, the ‘I Hate To Cook Book’. Back when I was in college, that was the go-to cookbook for the apartment-group I was living with.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @WereBear:

    It’s that eternal conundrum of ADHD — I do best when I have a routine I can stick to, but it’s hard for me to stick to a routine because I have ADHD. Le sigh.

  83. 83.

    Yarrow

    @WereBear:

    The Bread That Would Not Die

    That’s a great story! Made me laugh. I can’t believe that something didn’t do it in. Maybe if you’d left it out in spring rains?

  84. 84.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah:
    #39. I read this with great interest (plus, you and I often read the same sites but this one is new to me). Thanks for posting. Do we have any background info on the actual site? It’s “about” tag doesn’t give much. Thanks for all your links.

  86. 86.

    germy

    @WereBear: Her last book was called On Getting Old for the First Time

    Her daughter writes a great blog

    Recently, she was looking at a notebook of her mother’s old poems, and found this:

    A Matter of Storage
    Life is a matter of getting and losing,
    Or leaving or giving or throwing away:
    Youngsters or kittens or husbands or lovers;
    No one was ever intended to stay,
    In your orbit forever (enough of such gloom!)
    Otherwise, wouldn’t you run out of room?

  87. 87.

    Yarrow

    @Quinerly: That’s Louise Mensch’s blog. She’s extremely active on Twitter, a former British MP (Tory), married to the manager for Metallica (and other bands) and very anti-Trump. In keeping with the discussion of ADHD, she says she has it and she uses the hyperfocus that she says she has because of it to crank out a lot of articles. She’s been pretty on target with Trump’s Russian ties and corruption and cronies.

    She posts things on her blog that are pretty well researched but also include speculation and seeing if she can connect dots. She has said thing go on the blog that she wouldn’t publish on an official media site.

  88. 88.

    WereBear

    @Yarrow: I was afraid it would divide like in an old science fiction movie.

    And it would make a good one. The plum bread, now sentient, lurks down at the landfill, plotting revenge for its culinary rejection…

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    @germy: I’m not sure whether to grumble about it or say thank you, but for the past two days you have been noticeably making comments or asking questions about things that I have also been thinking or wondering about. Okay, I’ve decided – I’m going with thank you!

  91. 91.

    hovercraft

    The Political Walls Are Closing In On Donald Trump
    Already, Republicans are talking about getting their court nominee through and then jettisoning the president.

    JOY-ANN REID

    04.01.17 4:01 AM ET

    Not 100 days into the Trump presidency, one thing is abundantly clear: it is completely unsustainable as it is operating today.
    There are even rumblings in the seams of Washington that Trump may not last the summer, including Republican consultant Michael Steele, the former RNC chairman, reportedly telling clients to prepare for President Pence.
    Indeed, something fundamental seemed to shift in the zeitgeist this week with General Michael Flynn’s Hail Mary offer to testify about Russiagate in exchange for immunity. The Senate intelligence community has already turned down Flynn’s offer, and it’s hard to imagine the House committee, led by the thoroughly compromised Devin Nunes, having the political capital to say yes. For the FBI to agree, Flynn would have to offer up someone bigger than him to make it worth the agency’s while. One wonders who that could be: Paul Manafort? He’s been around the political block much longer than Flynn and knows where more bodies are buried. Wouldn’t he be a better immunity target if you’re an elected Republican? Donald Trump? What would Flynn claim Trump personally did to advance Russia’s interference in our election, other than dutifully repeat Kremlin talking points, which we already know? Does he have some proof that Trump took a bribe? Broke a law? Made an incriminating phone call?…………….

    Will this series of inferences ever be conclusively proved? Who knows. But the Trump presidency is permanently tainted by the implications of their clear use of Russian propaganda to batter Hillary Clinton and her campaign. Trump’s legitimacy will forever be questioned because of his personal enthusiasm for WikiLeaks’ peddling of Russia-hacked emails.
    Even if he survives, Trump’s leadership in Washington is in tatters. The Freedom Caucus doesn’t fear him. What’s left of the Republican moderates don’t respect him. The Democrats will have nothing to do with him. And his fair weather friend, Paul Ryan, is a disaster as speaker of the House who is fighting harder for tax cuts for the top one percent than for anything in the Trump campaign agenda and making enemies of the Breitbartians in the process. The Senate Intelligence Committee is showing signs of conducting a real investigation into Trumpgate, and there are fewer and fewer Devin Nunes’ professing a willingness to destroy themselves on Trump’s behalf. Republican partisans are openly advising the GOP-led Senate to cram through their Supreme Court nominee and then wash their hands of Donald J. Trump forever.
    Barring some dramatic change—and we should seriously worry about what Trump and Bannon might cook up in that regard—this only goes in one direction, and that’s further downhill.

  96. 96.

    NotMax

    What’s the most unlikely project you’ve ever attempted. Did it work?

    Perhaps not the most unlikely, but did work like a charm.

    Building an addition to a building for a communal shower/changing room (6 shower heads), poured the concrete pad to be used for the floor and foundation. Rather than rebar, used a bunch of old hotel bed springs that were lying around doing nothing, having been tossed into storage sometime between 1890 and 1920.

    Then there was the time we had to surreptitiously cut a path through the woods in order to transport a dozen or so cabins from a summer camp across the lake which went belly up to our own, but that’s another story.

  98. 98.

    Quinerly

    @Yarrow:
    Thanks. Heard of her. Read some banter here back and forth about her. I perked up reading the Cambridge Analytic part….pretty sure a few months ago in that extensive Kushner interview, he was touting Cambridge. I’m still down with this flu/sinus thing so between it , the meds, and being behind on everything in my life I’m pretty out of it. Had to read that piece 3 times to halfway absorb it.?

  100. 100.

    Ruckus

    @aimai:

    I’m too old to be avoiding work.

    I’d guess we are in the same general age bracket and I’m positive that there comes a time when that statement is false. It’s fine if you are under say 50 but if you are anywhere near my or ef’s age then the opposite becomes true, “I am too old to be working.”

  101. 101.

    Suzan

    My dad was an engineer, and when I was in high school we (mostly him) built a travel trailer of Styrofoam (think very dense Styrofoam) and fiberglass. These were new products at the time, we’d never heard of them and he obtained scraps for free. It was cool. Had a skylight over the dining table/bed and a bath tub under the bunk beds. I remember having to go get the registration where he declared (I’m sure he was right) it only cost him $50 (including the trailer it sat on). He also invented Mr. Coffee. My parents were going to quit their jobs and get them manufactured and sell them, but chickened out. Circa 1950s before anyone else made them. He was always tinkering on one project or another, including a kiss ass tree house for my son. I miss him.

  105. 105.

    Yarrow

    @Quinerly: She’s kind of intense and her hyperfocus can lead her to take hold of a topic and research it in great detail. I haven’t read her latest but follow her on Twitter so I’ve got the gist of it.

    The Cambridge Analytica thing makes me angry. I know Big Data is coming/here but it’s still kind of jaw-dropping how much detail is out there on people.

    @WereBear: When you least expect it…a knock on the door…The Return of the Plum Bread!

  106. 106.

    SFAW

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Any tips for buying a good riding mower. I am also thinking of buying used.

    My most recent one: Craigslist. The one before: yard sale around the corner, I drove it home.

    Nitpicky/finer point: there are “riding mowers” and “tractors.” The riding mowers are (in my opinion) a waste of money. “Tractors” — and not talking about the large farm tractors, Eddie Albert :Green Acres” things — come in different classes or sizes, depending on power and expected work load. If you have one acre to mow, that’s a smaller sized unit; five acres, you probably want a fairly beefy “garden tractor” (which I believe is the big brother (so to speak) of a “lawn tractor.”)

    There’s more, but I’m running a little behind at the moment. If you’re OK with it, I can follow up via your website.

  107. 107.

    NotMax

    @Pogonip

    Ooh, have six different Farm Journal cookbooks, all purchased ages and ages ago. Some good stuff in there, along with more than a fair share of clunkers.

  109. 109.

    WaterGirl

    @WereBear: When I was 20, I made a broccoli casserole that was so bad that even my cocker spaniel wouldn’t eat it. She would eat anything – the pineapple core, corn cobs, fruits and veggies. She even liked the hot pepper rings you can buy in a jar at the grocery store. She would even eat lettuce if it had touched taco meat.

    But when I held out the casserole for her, she made a face that I would make if you if you stuck fresh poop under my nose and she turned her face away. It really was that bad.

    And yes, I was an idiot for giving my pup some of that crazy stuff to eat. Oh, well.

  111. 111.

    Elizabelle

    And. The first ppl I talked w on the ship were Canadians. Vancouver. They can’t stand Trump either, but think he is allbluster and ineffectual. And Im not even the one who brought up politics!

    Disney mouse in departure channel. We are next.

  113. 113.

    raven

    My sis asked for my address. She has tickets for the Final Four, maybe she’ll send me something in return for that Masters shirt I sent her last year!!!!!

  115. 115.

    Elizabelle

    I can see Cole causing an international incident. Or going overboard. Entangled in deck chairs. But love the idea of jackal misanthropes on the waves. Pirates might fear us.

  117. 117.

    Pogonip

    @WaterGirl: When I was a kid, we had a dog who, like most dogs, would eat darn near anything–she was particularly partial to Hostess Ho-Ho’s, which, to be fair, had actual chocolate in them back then. My brother decided to make an omelet one day. I don’t remember what he did to it but I do remember that when he tried to pawn it off on Fuzzy she sniffed at it and walked away.

  118. 118.

    Josie

    @aimai: This is kind of embarrassing to admit, but, when I have a difficult writing assignment, I reward myself with food. I go to the grocery store and buy things I ordinarily would not eat (cheesecake, etc.) and then break the assignment up into sections. As I finish each section, I allow myself a treat. This is obviously not a very mature approach, but it works every time. Of course, later I have to cut back on carbs to pay for my sins, but the assignment does get done.

  119. 119.

    japa21

    @Elizabelle: Isn’t it National Review that has an annual cruise. BJ Cruise sounds nice. Get Cole to foot the bill. BTW, were are you cruising to?

  120. 120.

    NotMax

    @Pogonip

    (ambles to kitchen to look)

    Yup. Copyrights ranging from mid-60s to very early 70s. All bought new at the time.

  122. 122.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: Oh. sigh. her poor daughter. i can’t remember her name, but i have tears in my eyes thinking about what a horrible day this must be for her. in a year surely filled with a lot of horrible days.

  134. 134.

    NotMax

    @Pogonip

    Do not have the cooking for company volume. Of the six, Farm Journal Country Cookbook probably has gotten the most use, followed by America’s Best Vegetable Recipes. Printed on the cheapest, coarsest paper they could find.

  136. 136.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @rikyrah: Two words…

    Andrea… and … Makris…

    So Bill O’Reilly, Bill Cosby, and Donald Trump walk into a bar…

  139. 139.

    Baud

    Another one for the hoocoodanode file.

    Yesterday a draft letter was leaked from acting USTR Stephen Vaughn to Congress on the Trump administration’s intentions towards NAFTA. The letter describes the administration’s intention to “update” NAFTA to include provisions on topics such as copyright and e-commerce that had been contained in the TPP:
    ……
    The USTR letter also indicates that the administration intends to maintain the controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions of NAFTA, which allowed pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly to sue Canada for the country’s decision not to grant two drug patents. Although Canada recently won that case, the ability for foreign companies to challenge legislation and court decisions that go against their financial interests was one of the TPP’s most controversial provisions, and will remain divisive as the NAFTA renegotiation goes forward.

  140. 140.

    Pogonip

    @NotMax: We do not have America’s Best Vegetable Recipes, nor have I ever seen a copy. People must make sure that one stays in the family.

  141. 141.

    Robert Sneddon

    My weirdest commission was probably making a chain-mail hauberk for a mouse. The teddy-bear’s hauberk and coif was piss-easy by comparison.

  142. 142.

    Quinerly

    @Yarrow:
    I read Heat Street occasionally and guess I remember her from there. Pulled a Daily Beast piece about her MSNBC appearances and pretty sure I tuned her out after she attacked Malcolm Nance…plus looks like a lot of her tv rise was happening while I was driving around looking at red rocks?. I’ll say one thing, she’s not one to try to get up to speed on when souped up on flu meds…what a headache now. You guys will have to spoon-feed me Louise snippets in small dosages. ? That Forbes piece from 11/22 on Kushner and Cambridge Analytica was worth the reread, though. Thanks for answering my questions.

  146. 146.

    NotMax

    @Pogonip

    Not that it matters a whit, but here are the others on the shelf besides the two already mentioned:

    Homemade Cookies
    Complete Pie Cookbook
    Homemade Candy
    Family Favorites

  147. 147.

    hovercraft

    @japa21:

    BJ Cruise sounds nice.

    Are you insane?
    Half the people here are or should be shut ins, the other half are rabid jackals and you want to confine them on board a vessel on open water?
    I thought we weren’t fans of reality shows here. SURVIVOR – BALOON JUICE What’s the prize?

  148. 148.

    schrodingers_cat

    @SFAW: The yard is little more than an acre, its pretty flat. I have a shed to put the tractor in. As you can probably tell, I am new to all this. Thanks for your input. Of course you can contact me through my bloggy email.

  150. 150.

    chopper

    rode a taped-together vintage lambretta frankenbike across the country as part of a “cannonball run”-style race.

  153. 153.

    Robert Sneddon

    @zhena gogolia: It was a long time back — Someone playing a rogue in 3rd ed D&D got trampled by a war elephant when he opened the wrong door, courtesy of some bad dice and a Bastard Gamemaster From Hell. He took to carrying a stuffed toy mouse around with him, just in case it happened again. Someone suggested the mouse needed an armour equip, I didn’t say “nope” fast enough. 3mm rings working under a magnifying glass with needle-nose pliers, a real PITA.

    Berk (short for Hauberk) is my own bear, I could probably get you pictures of him if you want them. Here’s a picture of his girlfriend, Ted Sonja.

  155. 155.

    raven

    Exactly 12 years ago, to the minute, Illinois was getting ready to play Louisville in the Final Four and Bohdi decided to play runaway in the back yard! He thought me chasing him was great fun until I caught his little butt. The bride didn’t like it but she admits he’s been the best dog ever since!

  156. 156.

    jharp

    “What’s the most unlikely project you’ve ever attempted. Did it work?”

    When I was about 7 or 8 years old my buddy and I were going to build a baseball field in the woods behind his house.

    No. It didn’t work.

  158. 158.

    MattF

    @hovercraft: Everyone would stay in their cabins and communicate via BJ comments. The crisis occurs when the ship’s WiFi feed goes down and people have to emerge and communicate person-to-person.

  159. 159.

    NotMax

    @WereBear

    Is that the one with the red and white gingham cover? Wanted to snag that when Mom moved out of the big old house, but it had already gone in the tag sale before arrived to help her move.

  161. 161.

    EBT

    Writing an interactive fiction, engine and all, from scratch. I guess it’s a half success? The engine works and the stuff I wrote all works; it’s just like 600 000 words from being done.

  165. 165.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    From today’s thumb-sucker about Trump voters, this time from Nicholas Kristof

    Moreno was sitting at a table with his boss, Rocky Payton, the factory’s general manager, and Amy Saum, the human resources manager. All said they had voted for Trump, and all were bewildered that he wanted to cut funds that channel people into good manufacturing jobs.
    “There’s a lot of wasteful spending, so cut other places,” Moreno said.
    Payton suggested that if the government wants to cut budgets, it should target “Obama phones” provided to low-income Americans. (In fact, the program predates President Barack Obama and is financed by telecom companies rather than by taxpayers.)
    Judy Banks, a 70-year-old struggling to get by, said she voted for Trump because “he was talking about getting rid of those illegals.” But Banks now finds herself shocked that he also has his sights on funds for the Labor Department’s Senior Community Service Employment Program, which is her lifeline. It pays senior citizens a minimum wage to hold public service jobs.
    Yet she said she might still vote for Trump in 2020. And that’s a refrain I heard over and over. Some of the loyalty seemed to be grounded in resentment at Democrats for mocking Trump voters as dumb bigots,

    Those illegals and Obamaphones. Where would anybody get the idea these good folks are dumb bigots?

    Though, memo to whichever reporter is working on next week’s thumbsuckers: Maybe Oklahoma isn’t the most useful place to evaluate Trump’s political fortunes?

  169. 169.

    Shana

    @germy: Oh God, that reminded me that I picked up a copy of The New Chinese-Kosher Cookbook at a used book sale years ago published in 1978. It’s full of recipes like “Bubuluh Won Ton Soup” and “Szechuan Fish Yachnah*” “Yachnah is a yenta with an audience of other yentahs.” It’s truly bizarre. I don’t think I’ve ever used it but still have it on my shelf.

  172. 172.

    efgoldman

    @schrodingers_cat:

    As you can probably tell, I am new to all this.

    Given where you live, you should probably get a tractor with changeable implements, so you can attach a plow.

  173. 173.

    efgoldman

    @Shana:

    It’s truly bizarre. I don’t think I’ve ever used it but still have it on my shelf.

    Back when mrs efg and I got engaged (40+ years ago) my mother gave her A Shikse’s Guide to Jewish Men.

  177. 177.

    schrodingers_cat

    @efgoldman: That’s the plan. This year my friend who owns plow truck, plowed for me. I am helping out his kidlets with math, but the next year I think I want a tractor thingie with a snow plow. Craftsman has been suggested.

  179. 179.

    mainmata

    @eclare: DC Suburbs (Silver Spring MD) grass grows fast where we haven’t converted to native trees, shrubs so we long ago decided it was much more cost-effective (and employee providing) to have a gardener service (pretty cheap and good) do all that work. We have a small farm that keeps us more than exercised otherwise.

  180. 180.

    Ruckus

    @Pogonip:
    On my ship in the navy we had a guy who got seasick in the harbor while tied up to the pier if a big ship went by. Slowly by. Two weeks after he was discharged he re-upped and was re-assigned to the same ship. Cole would be a paragon of normalcy at sea after knowing that guy.

  182. 182.

    No One You Know

    I built a pond in my yard. The feeder insects arrived in year 1, barn swallows in year 2, six colors & sizes of dragonflies in year 3, frogs in year 6, a blue heron to monitor the frogs in year 9.

    Along the way the neighbor who hated me because I’d dared to do something different from Immaculate Green Grass All One Color gave up and moved after three other neighbours built their own water features.

    I taught two ad hoc summer science classes to 8-year-olds along the edges, including how to tell dragonfly nymphets from tadpoles. Two dads were required their own daughters to build water features.

    Projects do spawn projects and change!

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