I have traveled so much lately I am (other than the whole wallet/ phone thing yesterday) getting back to being good at it and not instinctively hating everyone around me.
Should have eaten breakfast, though. What are you all up to today?
Reader Interactions
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Corner Stone
Smerconish Smash!
DCrefugee
Life is too short to watch CNN on a Saturday morning…
Corner Stone
Unfortunately it looks like I will be doing some cleaning today. I have let the pig sty get a little too piggish, and am afraid Huh Huh Joni Ernst may show up at my doorstep.
Johnnybuck
In Hinton WV, going to a chocolate festival in Lewisburg later.
zhena gogolia
Reading Dostoevsky and Sologub all day. Then when my work is done I obsessively do word puzzles to try to forget who has power over me.
Corner Stone
Although it *is* a beautiful day here. Sunny and in the low 60’s F. I may have to put off the cleaning for just a bit and basque in this glorious weather while taking in my weekendly allotment of AMJoy.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Now the question becomes – to donut or not to donut? Also, too.
japa21
Going with the spouse to watch youngest grandson participate in an Easter egg hunt. This year he may actually know what he is supposed to do.
Aimai
Bills. Papers. Birthday party for 100 year old neighbor.
Villago Delenda Est
John, hang in there. While you may be a misanthrope sometimes, you love cats and dogs. This means you’re a decent person. Unlike, say, well, every Rethuglican elected to office.
MattF
I had a laundry emergency this morning– washing some bathtowels produced very large quantities of suds, and my washing machine gave up on the job before the spin cycle. So, I had two large, wet, sudsy bathtowels and a dysfunctional washing machine. Mostly dried out and cleaned up now, and I’m running the towels through a no-detergent wash cycle, so we shall see.
Now out to the pharmacy to see if they’ve got my current pills bottled and ready to go.
Gelfling 545
@Corner Stone: when in doubt, donut.
zhena gogolia
@Corner Stone:
You’re going to basque in the glorious weather? In Barcelona, by any chance?
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Oops, I mean Bilbao.
Shinobi42
Today I am steaming about this asshole in Missouri. He is holding up a zoo funding bill with an insane name change amendment designed to punish St Louis for not wanting women who have had abortions to be discriminated against.
The zoo is free, and one of the best zoos in the country. And this guy is making it political. Just ugh. He wants to rename it the “abortion sanctuary city zoo” but you know what, be proud Stl.
Corner Stone
@zhena gogolia: Elizabelle invited me to join her. Who am I to say nyet?
joking, joking.
Mary G
Going to tackle the income tax returns today. My parents always made a giant drama of it. I dread it then fire up the software and it’s a total nothingburger.
Villago Delenda Est
@Shinobi42: I checked the link just to confirm what I suspected. Yes, a Rethug.
Corner Stone
I had actually been doing some pre-lim planning for a fairly lengthy trip to parts of Europe this summer. Until all the stupid Customs shenannies. The video of that child getting a two minute groping made me ill. I would have become violent if that involved my son and I don’t really need to go to jail at this point.
So I’m thinking a couple weeks in Utah/CO doing some wilderness type shit.
Zinsky
Had a good workout this morning, did the elliptical, lifted weights and stretched. Now I’m kicking back for a short 45 minute nap. I hope to bicycle this afternoon and enjoy the 70° weather here in the Twin Cities! Peace to all!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I’ll be heading to bed soon. At 9pm last night, I was in Plymouth, MI celebrating another gold medal for Team USA. I’m now in St Paul, waiting to return the rental car and go home.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: That’s my task for this weekend as well.
OzarkHillbilly
@Shinobi42: Lake STL is the worst place in the world. OK not really, but with neighbors like him…
Gelfling 545
@Shinobi42: Let him make an ass of himself. Possibly even his Republican constituents – I assume they must be Republican – will begin to realize that he’s nuts.
ArchTeryx
Repost from dead thread downstairs…
Apropo of nothing: Coming from the South Side of Chicago, I readily admit I’m a recovering racist. The old joke from Chicago is that there are two main political parties: White Democrats and Black Democrats, and they hate each other with a passion that makes our current political divide look like a Sunday church picnic. The Harold Washington years in Chicago were exactly like the Obama years, writ small.
I still can’t look at a A^2 dude walking down the street and not think, ‘is this guy going to rob me?’ Yet at my scientific conventions, if I happened to see a (very rare) A^2 bioscientist, my thought was, “Neat! I wish there were more of them!” and to show them some support.
I’m far from perfect, but I’m working on it.
O. Felix Culpa
Finishing up taxes. Attending a RESULTS meeting to try to prevent the GOP from making the poor poorer…or dead. Planting irises gifted from a friend.
Baud
@ArchTeryx:
Keep at it. One of the happiest days of my life was when I achieved perfection.
Elmo
Just finished up a lovely brunch of French toast made with thick-cut brioche and our own backyard eggs, lightly drizzled with coconut syrup. It was supposed to fortify me to tackle the garage, but now all I want to do is take a nap.
Sarah Wenk
Trying to figure out if I can emigrate to Australia. I want to rescue bats.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gelfling 545:
Assumes facts not in evidence, namely that they aren’t themselves delusional. And seeing as they did in fact vote for him…
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
You’ll know the place is really bad if she’s wearing bread bags on her feet.
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Me, too. Plus feeding the navy yard cats and some work stuff. Oh and clean my own pig sty. Lots of chores, but I will procrastinate and watch me some AM Joy,
MomSense
Have to buy kid sneakers again today. I’ve asked him to please stop growing just for a bit so I can catch up but he is ignoring me.
Then hopefully a nice walk in the woods and some chores. Going to make fish tacos for dinner.
HinTN
@Zinsky: Wow, warmer in the Twin Cities than TN. Thanks Obama!!! Going to the big city to buy coffee beans from all over the world. Then returning to walk, on this gorgeously sunny day, in the woods where the wildflowers bloom in profusion this time of year.
Corner Stone
@MomSense: Follow Steeplejack’s advice and just get the lazy moocher some dang bread bags.
Shinobi42
@OzarkHillbilly: worst neighbor. Now I kinda want to find a way to name one of the exhibits after planned parenthood. The “planned parenthood baby penguin exhibit” Hehe
Corner Stone
@Elmo:
Wait a minute…you have an egg..plant?
Thanks, thanks. I’ll see myself out.
HinTN
@Baud: Please, in the future, to be have put spew alerts up front.
hovercraft
@ArchTeryx:
Reposting from said dead thread:
HinTN
@Corner Stone: Don’t let the door…
Steeplejack
Final prep before leaving for a one-year-old’s gala birthday party at Sighthound Hall. Probably 40-60 people, screaming kids, Brazilians, bouncy castle and champagne. Maybe a magician. Does it get any better than that?
OzarkHillbilly
@Shinobi42: When I first read of that, my initial reaction was to say, “Sure, we’ll wear that name with pride as long as we can rename Lake STL as ‘Ignorant Retrograde Moocher Capital of Misery’ for all the state and federal money they take.” or some such.
Spanky
@Steeplejack: Clowns. Multiple clowns. Maybe arriving in their own unique car.
OzarkHillbilly
@hovercraft:
I don’t know, I’m a raging asshole myself and long ago just accepted that fact.
Kristine
Dog-walk, our usual 4-5 miles. Then yardwork–it’s sunny here in far NE IL, and may hit 60F.
Steeplejack
@Spanky:
Eek! Clowns no bueno.
kindness
Damn John, I sure hope CNN wasn’t the only channel you could watch. Nothing good could come of that.
Gonna put the garden in. We won’t be getting any more frosts out here in the central valley.
Elmo
@Steeplejack: I’m not sure I’m entirely comfortable with the idea of children and Brazilians at the same party.
Oh wait. Unless you’re talking about actual people…
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack:
“A gala party with champagne and bouncy, screaming Brazilians doing magical things” ?
SFAW
@Zinsky:
Boston and Pawtucket?
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Join the crowd.
hovercraft
@OzarkHillbilly:
I proudly call myself a bitch. Just don’t even think of calling me one, bitch ;- )
bystander
Good news: We will be gone so can’t attend grand-nephew’s first communion. The family part the last time was fine but the communion itself was ridiculous. The girls were made up for a Mama June beauty pageant instead of Communion. And a fight broke out over seating (“This pew is for my family. Move.”) that reminded me of the scene from the Woody Allen movie that had the aerial view of two crucified Jeebuses fighting over the same parking spot on Wall Street.
Now I have to get back to sending waves of hate toward Trump and rearranging the order of the tumbrels.
ETA Great niece was perfectly appropriate and demure, unlike the other girls. Her mother has very good taste.
Glidwrith
@MomSense: My kiddo just went to a men’s size 13, which is his current age. I am now putting books on his head….
Gator90
@Shinobi42: Taking Mrs. Gator and our kids to the zoo today. I wish it had an awesome name like “Abortion Sanctuary Zoo” — would be willing to pay more for admission in fact — but alas it’s just boring old ZooMiami.
danielx
@Baud:
A solid basis for the Baud!2020 campaign.
Quinerly
Watching Joy Reid…then staining second floor porch and lower deck. Dragging plants out that over winter in the basement. Spray painting black, 1930’s wrought iron chairs that came to live here with me from my parents’ house since my mother’s death. Sinus crap still dragging me down. Probably need to see the doctor….approaching two weeks of it. Have a great day, everyone.
Betty Cracker
I’m going to attempt to make a Shrek-themed birthday cake. Trying to psych myself up for the task, but I suspect I’ll end up on “Cake Wrecks.”
danielx
Yardwork, yardwork and yardwork.
Gin & Tonic
Beautiful breeze and partly sunny day here, and I’d love to go for a bike ride, but my surgeon and my wife would then probably take turns killing me. I’ll be lucky to be able to get on the bike before Memorial Day.
MomSense
@Glidwrith:
Wow! Do you have some old encyclopedias you could try? Does anyone have encyclopedias anymore? I bet our 13 year olds don’t even know what encyclopedias are.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yardwork, but I’m forcing myself to vacuum first, and since I hate vacuuming, it seems I’m sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee and clicking around the internet
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: I want video.
OzarkHillbilly
@hovercraft: My oldest sister was always quite proud of being a bitch. Bragged about it even.
jacy
Work. Then more work. Eventually supposed to go out for “leisure time.” At least that’s what I vaguely remember it being called…..
The Boyfriend and I watched episode one of Patriot on Amazon Prime last night. If you like really black comedy it was hilarious in a kind of panic-inducing way……..
Glidwrith
@MomSense: I just asked, got blank stares and a guess that it tells you words or phrases? Ages 13 and 11.
bystander
@Betty Cracker:
Somehow every time I try to bake a cake it turns out Shrek-themed: misshapen, leaden and unfunny.
oldgold
“other than the whole wallet/phone thing”
How was the play Mrs. Lincoln?
OzarkHillbilly
@Quinerly: A headsup: Looks like I won’t make the science march after all. My brother and his wife are coming out for a wkend visit.
hovercraft
Huh??
Security for Betsy DeVos Costing Education Dept. Nearly $8M for 8 Months
The U.S Marshals Service is providing unprecedented protective detail to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and the added security will be costing her agency almost $1 million per month, the marshals service said Friday.
The stepped up security began in February, following a threat assessment ordered by the U.S. Attorney General, the marshals service said. The agency only said it determined a threat to her safety exists, and did not elaborate.
Under an agreement between the marshals service and the Department of Education, the education department will reimburse the marshals service $7.78 million for security for the nearly eight months from Feb. 13 through September, and the protection will continue for the next four years………………
No other cabinet-level official is being guarded by federal marshals and the last time that happened was in 2009 for the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is no longer a cabinet-level job, said Drew Wade, spokesman for the U.S Marshal’s Office.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: What??? You’re being a good patient? I didn’t think that was possible.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
Did you see that fantastic ZaSu Pitts-Nat Pendleton-Ned Sparks-Pert Kelton movie on TCM the other night? Maybe that’s not your thing, it’s more of a NotMax thing.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
Don’t know if you saw my message to you, but I ordered Pu$$y hats for Peanut and myself. Thanks!
Gin & Tonic
@hovercraft: I guess we should be glad she didn’t outsource the work to her brother’s company. They’d charge 5 times as much and shoot random innocent bystanders every couple of months.
rikyrah
What a completely unqualified clown.
………………
Ben Carson Calls on Rich City Dwellers to Help Poorer Neighbors
APRIL 7, 2017
Wealthy homeowners in gentrified urban areas owe it to their poorer neighbors to help turn around blighted parts of America’s cities, Ben Carson said in his first televised interview since becoming the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Mr. Carson, the retired neurosurgeon-turned-cabinet member, chose a close friend and a comedian — Armstrong Williams and Steve Harvey — to conduct the interview, and with that friendly audience, he was able to avoid any discussion of how he might deal with President Trump’s proposal to cut his agency’s budget by 13 percent.
Instead, in a 30-minute chat with Mr. Williams, a Carson adviser and conservative media personality, and Mr. Harvey, the housing secretary stuck to broad platitudes about his commitment to alleviating poverty.
“My entire professional career centered around children and giving them another chance at life,” said Mr. Carson, who has no experience running a large federal bureaucracy. He added that when he looked out on the country, “I see so many children living in poverty and not having the right kinds of opportunities.”
Mr. Williams peppered Mr. Carson with questions about his plans for the department, while Mr. Harvey, who recently faced criticism for meeting with Mr. Trump during the transition, asked if Mr. Carson planned to “really put some real help” into struggling neighborhoods.
There was no mention of Mr. Trump’s proposal to cut his department’s budget by $6.2 billion and eliminate several programs aimed at providing and maintaining affordable housing for low-income Americans. Instead, Mr. Carson talked vaguely about removing blight across the country, focusing on the development of children and encouraging wealthy Americans to help low-income communities.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: Not necessarily good, I just can’t figure out a practical way to hold the bicycle handlebar with this cast yet.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Ambitious. Don’t forget to share the results with us.
WVm
This is JRinWV, using wife M’s laptop, mine is in luggage about to be delivered.
I just woke up, phone call from guy delivering luggage not available after flight home.
Thursday I was supposed to fly from CRW->Atlanta->Tucson. First flight at 6:25 am, and I am not an early-byrd at all. Got there on time, small crowd, because they called people at home to let everyone know this flight was canceled! M says they called 5-10 minutes after I left home.
9:00 am flight to ATL also canceled – should have taken heed of these warnings, but took a full 11:00 am flight into Hartsfield airport in Atlanta… long time on tarmac, gate skybridge didn’t work, finally debark into a kicked over beehive of congestion and pointless activity.
Evidently many flights were being canceled, large volume of people not going to arrive on schedule, many of whom had appointments that afternoon at their destination. I was a day ahead of my appointment, foolishly thought I would be OK.
My flight number was NOT on the big board of all departures, third big hint. Had to wait in line to ask a gate attendent where to go for flight 59xx to Tucson… B59, I was at D27.. so into the subway.
B59 there were no empty chairs, B-concourse chairs are hard plastic, pebbled surface, seems impossible to wipe clean, ever… this is because they never do so. Board at gate for some other flight, not to Tucson, 50 people in line to the single young professional gate attendant, so I wait for the line to win down a little… not to happen.
Young, calm professional gate attendant occasionally announces a flight is cancelled, or delayed, or moved to another gate. Finally I see the flight to Tucson on the board, the line is shorter, only a dozen or so, so I jump up from the seat I finally got after a gate-change announcement.
I show her my flight document, not a boarding pass, just a slip with the flight number and a “check in required” on it. Sheseems surprised a little, says “Tucson?” I point at her big video board which still says Tucson, she says “OK” and gives me a boarding pass for a flight departing in a couple of hours, upgraded to First Class!! No so bad.
After about an hour they delay the flight by 4 hours, until 7. I have a good book, so no big deal. I go get lunch. When I get back our flight was no longer on the board. I get in line to check it. The lady in front of me wanted to get to Nashville, flying from Richmond.
She was a little upset, but I hadn’t seen anything yet. She tells Gate person “I was going to a function in Nashville that is now about to end, and would like a boarding pass to a flight back to Richmond, please!” Gate lady is sympathetic, tells Richmond
to go to rebooking desk for a new boarding pass.
Moved to new gate, a small crowd of us depart from B-39 to B-14 for our increasingly dubious-looking flight to Arizona. I’m still reading my good book, and have picked up a couple more paperbacks in the increasingly likely case that I will be here longer than I guessed. “New York 2140” by Kin Stanley Robinson is a big thick hardback, and complex enough I have to pay attention to the details.
After chatting with the elderly lady next to me about why her Android device doesn’t connect to Wi-fi, and showing her settings-> Wi-fi, which she navigates unerringly, she is grateful to have the Internet to keep her occupied. Then she fires up a game, too. It’s evening now, so I pack up and go to the middle of the concourse to search out the best sit-down meal.
I get a small table by the windows, and can see jetliners taking off and landing – big problem is that arrivals seem to out-pace departures by about 2 to 1. Dinner is OK, not the best airport meal I’ve ever had, not the worst, certainly better than the free pretzels the Delta people hand out from time to time.
I get back to B-13, and nothing has changed in the hour I was gone. I sit in a different place, and notice that one aisle between a set of seats is piled high with carry-on luggage and sports equipment. Someone tells me a team was there, and put it all there to go to eat.
I’m with a group of Tuscon residents who want to get home, an engineer, a PR guy and his wife reading a Bill O’Reilly novel called “Who Killed Patton” supposed factual history, as if BO’R would know history if it smacked him on the ass. We chat, mostly about airline trips good and bad.
The already delayed 9:27 pm flight (all times approximate, I didn’t wright them down) is re-re-delayed til 12:47, and the gate person keeps informing us that this one flight has equipment – a plane – but no crew, and the other flight has some crew, but is missing a first officer, or some other vital crew member.
Comes 12:30 and a young guy next to us holds up his smart phone, and shouts “They’ve cancelled it, they’ve cancelled our flight!” as if he was shocked, shocked!!
Now I spend from 1am til 7am in a line of thousands of travelers who need new tix to wherever they now need to go. The PR executive is talking about a flight he sees in the smartphone to Tucson via Minneapolis, and the GE engineer is talking about getting a flight into Phoenix and either getting a rental car or a shuttle flight to Tucson.
I’m feeling bad, and so I ask for a boarding pass to the flight to CRW on the big board, departing at 9:47, back to my origination 27 hours ago! I ask about my bag checked to Tucson, and the professional and patient woman clicks away at her terminal, and tells me the suitcase is in the terminal, not on board an aircraft due to depart for Tucson (for will there ever be an airliner departing for Tucson here? Nope!) and they will be able to put it on a plane to Charleston. Just not the flight I’m taking.
Now I have slept about 17 hours, a long 5 hour nap after M picked me up at the airport, then a good night’s sleep. The phone woke me about 9am, and it’s a guy who delivers suitcases for Delta. He has delivered my suitcase, and I’m drinking coffee, admiring the blue psring sky and having a Trail Mix Cookie from our favorite bakery.
I survived the utter failure of Delta’s main hub. and the pain of standing for 7 hours on marble has faded away. Will I ever get to the Southwest? maybe so. I hope so.
John, have a nice trip!
OzarkHillbilly
@hovercraft: Public school teachers are such thugs.
Peale
@Glidwrith: to tie strands together…when I was 13, I also had size 13 shoes. My mom bought them for my confirmation. I was so impressed with myself for needing shoes that were bigger than my father’s. What I didn’t realize at the time is that my mom and the shoe store clerk decided was that I would eventually need size 13 since my feet were growing so fast. My mom didn’t want to have to buy another pair of dress shoes for my graduation and proms and whatnot. I never actually grew into those shoes, but it wasn’t until I was 25 that I remeasured my feet and found out that I was size 10 1/2. I just always bought size 13. I thought shoes were supposed to be loose and wondered what was wrong with the shoes I was buying because the toes seemed to cave in.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Well, just cut it off then. “Look Ma, no hands!”
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
I’m up to my eyeballs in Hugo Award reading. I want to share a bit of recent fandom history, because it’s not all that often that I get to cheer on someone trolling for our side in the neverending battle against the “special kind of lonesome man who lives underground and crys about ethics in basement dwelling and space books.”
A former World Net Daily columnist has been trolling SF fandom by getting a bunch of GamerGaters to help him force books and stories from his vanity publishing house onto the awards ballot. Last year, he included a gay dinosaur porn story in his list, I suspect with the idea that it would embarrass the people reading out the nominees list at the ceremony. It backfired.
The author of the gay dinosaur porn is a performance artist known as Dr. Chuck Tingle who claims to be on a timeline-hopping quest to MAKE LOVE REAL. He trolled them on Twitter. He registered a website using their group name and put up a page with links to books and groups like Zoe Quinn’s Crash Override.
He so delighted the fandom community that we nominated his efforts as fan writing this year.
So the devilmen upped their game this year, nominating another dinosaur porn story, this time by someone using the pen name “Stix Hiscock”, presumably to be even more embarrassing to read out at the ceremony. Dr. Tingle lost no time in registering the name and putting up another site, this time with links to several books by people they hate as well as donation links to Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and the Billings Public Library. He’s updated last years site, too. (Linked from the Vox article.)
jacy
@rikyrah:
It’s all magic words all the way down the line. That’s how every problem can be solved: magic words! It will all be tremendous. Saying things will be fixed will fix them. It’s genius. I wonder why nobody ever thought of it before.
Baud
The guy on Joy just now was good.
danielx
One of those piercing whines occasionally emitted by one David Brooks:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@danielx: so that’s from, what, 2005? 06?
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
Isn’t that how all of America’s problems are supposed to be solved? Allowing rich people to determine who’s worthy and donate what they want? I’m sure all those people in the “hood” are just so grateful to the Koch’s and other like them who’ve donated millions to the Met and MOMA, that’s really enriched their lives*, and helped improve all those crumbling schools. Fucking moron.
* I’m all for funding the Arts, but I think providing people with safe housing and schools and healthy food is a priority. If rich people want to fund “culture”, then the government must fund the basics which rich people as far as I can tell, very few rich people show any inclination to fund.
Corner Stone
@Baud: You mean the deepvoiced Joe Conason?
A Ghost to Most
Finally doing the taxes. After that, installing the last of the armor on the mountain assault vehicle. Beautiful day in Golden.
geg6
Beautiful day here but still a bit chilly. Not as bad as yesterday’s return of January. Going to hang with my sister a while and maybe watch an episode or two of Grace and Frankie. Then hitting the grocery and bottle stores for tonight’s dinner. Think I’ll make a chicken and artichoke dish I downloaded a few weeks ago and never made. Pretty chill day. Looking forward to next weekend which will be a four day weekend. My snowbird friend Tracey will be coming back north this week for Easter and we’re planning a girl’s day out for Friday. Which translates to eating an elaborate lunch and drinking the afternoon away.
laura
I’ll once again be driving down I-5 to walk the picket line at Saputo Dairy where the workers have been on strike since New Years Eve.
The strike is over health care and the desire to move the bargaining unit to a High Deductible Plan -an immediate wage cut as there’s no offsetting wage increase to cover out of pocket costs.
Interesting factoid, Mr. Sauto is the 8th richest man in Canada and enjoys free national healthcare. So there’s that….
frosty
@Mary G: @?BillinGlendaleCA: Taxes for me, too. Did the Fed and State last weekend, have to finish up the County one, then help my son do his first return ever. PA sucks, 3 different tax returns. At least in MD they combined state and local on the state return.
Also, too, haircut and painting a bedroom.
trollhattan
@MomSense:
Mine’s feel have mercifully stopped growing and are letting the rest of her catch up, meaning she finally gets to wear shoes out before outgrowing them. A good thing given her discovery last year of $300 soccer cleats. I miss the forty-buck days.
Josie
I finished the rough draft of Act I of my historical novel. Been working on it for months. Now on to more research and reading in preparation for Act II. I’m planning three acts total, so I am feeling pretty good at this point. I have a teeny bit of writer’s block about starting this new phase, but I think if I just force myself to start writing, it will start to come clear. I feel lucky that I started this project some time ago, since it helps to take my mind off of unpleasant events, both personal and national.
Glidwrith
@Peale: We actually have been struggling to keep up. His toenails have this weird upward sweep which is a sign of too small shoes, despite our efforts to keep him properly shod. He stands at 5’10” and 129 lbs right now. The nurse was muttering under her breath, “Kids these days”.
And did I mention the mustache?
Gin & Tonic
Just the thought of this is enough to make me want to vomit.
frosty
@Zinsky:
Damn! That was supposed to be our weather this weekend — instead we’ll only get to the low 50s. So much for that idea that I might do some yard work.
But hey, it’s sunny, I’ll take it.
bemused
@rikyrah:
No one has tied the hands of urban wealthy homeowners from helping turn around blighted areas in their cities. I don’t suppose Williams or Harvey asked Carson why they haven’t and what makes Carson think they would bother now.
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly:
You’ll be missed. Sam has been practicing his science chants. Eyerolls from Sarah Jane.?
Josie
@MomSense: I feel your pain. With three boys, someone was always either growing out of or destroying their shoes, and athletic shoes are not cheap.
frosty
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s the story of my weekends, where (N) = damn near anything remotely productive.
Tracy Ratcliff
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: It gets better, I hear. “Stix Hiscock” turns out to be nice female writer of dinosaur porn who had no clue that her book got nominated, but is grateful for the the increased sales.
bystander
Ayman Mohlyedin just gave David Frum a quick kick to the shins on AMJoy When Frum bent over in pain, Mohlyedin brought his knee up quickly to Frum’s forehead. Very funny.
Baud
@bystander: I pray you are speaking literally.
Corner Stone
Breaking News: David Frum Still An Asshole
It doesn’t matter what negative things he says about Trump, he is still a piece of shit who should have his history hung around his neck at every opportunity.
bystander
@Peale: That’s ok. All men overestimate the size of their feet.
Baud
@Corner Stone: Ok, that’s two comments about Frum now. What did he say?
hovercraft
@bystander:
That was awesome, Ayman just wasn’t having it .
Corner Stone
Damn. David Frum is making one of the most uniquely ridiculous arguments I think I have ever heard.
Baud
DON’T MAKE ME TURN ON MY TV!!!
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Let me guess, neocon Frum loves all the bombing T did?
bemused
@Josie:
I remember feeding three boys with bottomless pits for stomachs. $100 for groceries every time we turned around and that was almost 20 years ago.
Corner Stone
@Baud: He lied about refugees. And then he lied about refugees and violent acts. And then he implied the recent London terrorism act was done by a refugee.
Aymen went at him to point out that the London incident was by a person born in country. And don’t try to stir up the shitpot by talking like that was a refugee terrorism act. He then went on to torch the whole thing about refugees and the muslim ban.
Baud
@Corner Stone: Thanks! Good for Aymen.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: He was saying that Garland was never going to be on SCOTUS so what Turtle et al did really didn’t matter. The timeline was going to play out with Gorsuch on the court no matter what. It was nonsense and really hard to follow.
ETA, he also threw in some things about separating not liking Trump from things President’s do and that the Democrats and Obama were just as bad and that seat was not Obama’s to anoint.
I actually think he said anoint instead of appoint but I have no desire to rewind to confirm.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
(put this in the old thread, hope the repost works)
Interesting thread from a Sibelius campaign vet on the race in the Wichita area of KS that DougJ mentioned the other day
good comments from a local on Wichita, too– as Houle says, this district is basically Oklahoma with a fairly diverse (for the Plains) mid-size city
bystander
@Baud: Frum started explaining how we shouldn’t bad mouth Trump’s immigrant policy. Paraphrase: “Just look at what happened in Stockholm yesterday. Look at London.” Mohyeldin’s upper cut was the Stockholm guy was Uzbeki and not on the block list. The knee drop was pointing out that the London terrorist was a native of England. Then he turned Frum’s words about basing policy on facts not emotion back on him.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Never trust a member of the Rich People’s Party. They have no principles except to make the 1% richer.
hovercraft
@Baud:
Basically the discussion was about Twits hypocrisy in using dead babies to justify his strike while refusing to allow those same babies into the country because they are dangerous. They pointed out that Twit ignored dead toddler on the beach, five year old in a ambulance and twin boys who were banned and ended up dying in a Sarin attack at nine months old. Frum said not to rely on emotion, then tried to twist the recent London attack into an excuse for not allowing refugees in saying that refugees don’r assimilate well and become terrorists. Aymon pointed out that London attacker was born in London, was not from banned country and none of the people who’ve carried out or planned attacks have been from banned countries, and that by citing things that had nothing to do with the ban was using emotion leaving Frum fuming.
Baud
@hovercraft: Sounds like Frum’s theory was premised on the collective guilt of all non-white people.
Josie
@bemused: Yup. That too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@schrodingers_cat: @Corner Stone: actually Frum has been pretty skeptical of the action and the media reaction, but it’s good to have a reminder that he is still the Axis of Evil guy, and an asshole. Immigration, and judging by this exchange and history, Fear of the Brown is a big motivator for him.
Aymon Moyhadeen is good, I like Engel too, if you remember when listening to him that like a lot of correspondents of Iraq War (Logan, Ware, even Filkins I think) have bought heavy into the idea that US, specifically the US military, can fix what we broke in 2003.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: By white people we mean people who trace their ancestry to Europe, amirite? Because I know many Kashmiris and Afghans who are paler than David Frum.
Baud
Thanks, all. TV is still safely in the off position.
hovercraft
Any credit anyone is giving Frum for what his criticism of Twitler should be taken back, he is still the same partisan hack he’s always been. He’s defending Mitch on Garland and Gorsuck. Like the good republican he is, he’s keeping his eyes on the real prize, control of the Supreme Court.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Yes. White in the U.S. sense, not as measured by a chronometer.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
IIRC both the London attacker and the one who assaulted police at Charles De Gaulle had records as petty criminals and drunks. I don’t think radical Islamists, whatever else you wanna say about them, are usually boozers.
Corner Stone
Fareed Zakaria, David Ignatius, John Heilman can all go choke to death on bags of salty dicks.
Baud
@hovercraft: A lesson to keep in mind when considering how much to appreciate the new Jennifer Rubin.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ayman Mohyeldin, I googled.
hovercraft
@schrodingers_cat:
Stop being so literal! We all know that the one thing that can supersede color is the Muslim taint!
Miss Bianca
Lessee…today’s agenda is: meet with a friend to plan the article I’m writing for the Salida Circus 10th anniversary; go horseback riding with another friend after that; mini-BJ meet-up, if the proper stars align; and then steaks on the barbie. Quite the carousel of social whirl for this introvert!
Josie
@Baud: I’m with you. In the months since I’ve been reading and writing obsessively, I have not turned on the TV once, and I don’t miss it at all.
Brachiator
Love the pushback here.
Got all kinds of errands to do today, big and small.
Enjoy hearing about folks settling in to do their taxes. I will delay a while longer and then do an extension.
Baud
@Josie: I can’t say I’ve been as productive as you.
hovercraft
@Corner Stone:
Well at least a few out there are trying to remind everyone of how well this went the last few times we’ve tried it.
Too Many of Trump’s Liberal Critics Are Praising His Strike on Syria
Anyone who supports these missile strikes has to account for what comes next.
By Joan Walsh
The media loved Trump’s show of military might. Are we really doing this again?
By Margaret Sullivan Media Columnist April 8 at 6:00 AM
The cruise missiles struck, and many in the mainstream media fawned.
And I’m liking Jake Tapper more each day.
Skepticism is always good.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Who decides who is white then, in the US sense? Is there a whitey department?
Do we have scale?
Does religion matter?
ETA: Artificial construct is artificial.
germy
– David Frum
hovercraft
@Josie:
I gave up cable after the election, but not AMJOY, she is more than enough for me, especially since she makes a habit of beating up the lying shills who come on just to lie and repeat talking points. If anyone else would do the same, might make exceptions for them too.
glaukopis
Trying for ComicCon again. Made bran muffins with honey butter earlier then flew kites with the grandkids. No wind today though.
schrodingers_cat
@hovercraft: Indeed. For many of T’s voters Frum wouldn’t past the whitey test, either because of his religion.
germy
During the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, David Frum issued a series of tweets labeling as “fake” a photo of 2 blood-covered Palestinian youths bringing their father’s body to a hospital in Khan Younis; the man had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Frum apologized on TheAtlantic.com. Frum was criticized by fellow correspondent for The Atlantic, James Fallows, who termed Frum’s tweets “…a major journalistic error.” and by Washington Post media writer, Erik Wemple.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes.
germy
@hovercraft:
One of the villagers, I forget which one, said he never pushed back against lying guests because then they’d never return to his show.
Joy has no shortage of guests, so maybe the villager was talking out his behind?
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I’m with you!
If it doesn’t involve ZaSu Pitts, I’m out.
brendancalling
Getting ready for my first long run of the year. I was laid low by Lyme Disease last summer, and by the time it passed… well, inertia is a real thing.
But I’ve been out 2-3x a week since March and shooting for 8 miles today. Which is bittersweet because at this point in 2016, I was considering my first marathon. Baby steps…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hovercraft: I usually fast forward through Chris Hayes (I watch pretty much everything on a fifteen minute or so delay these days) when he has a Republican on, because it’s usually so dispiriting, but the other day he did actually push back against some lunkhead from Staten Island, who was I guess filling in for Hayes favorite Mo Brooks, talking about the Obamacare death-spiral
(do you New Yorkers have a political nickname for Staten Island? Statlabama?)
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: But he is orange! His hair looks like my straw broom.
Josie
@Baud: I don’t know how productive I am since I really don’t know how good my stuff is, but I figure at least I will leave something for my kids (and grand kids) to remember me by.
hovercraft
@germy:
Well there’s your error right there, Frum is not and has never been a journalist, he’s a partisan hack, period!
Baud
@Josie: You have procreated. More than I can say!
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No, we just try to pretend it doesn’t exist. I can also tell you that many of us live our entire lives here and never once step foot on it, so there’s that. The Staten Island Yankees do draw a few of us across, but mostly people ride the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, but never actually step off the boat.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Oh yay! I mailed them yesterday so you should get them soon.
Corner Stone
@Baud:
His blessings, large and small, His wonders to perform.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat:
No but there is a Whitey Tape. I’ve seen it.
Josie
@Baud: Actually, that didn’t take a lot of talent.
Ruviana
@germy: Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd. I’d link but I’m on my phone and can’t figure out how.
Aleta
That’s quite a photo.
lgerard
@hovercraft:
This makes no sense whatsoever…..more then $32,000 a day
why doesn’t she just rely on her “prayer warriors”?!
brendancalling
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: this is AMAZING. Actually L’ing OL.
dance around in your bones
@Betty Cracker: You just made me spend an HOUR gazing in horror/glee at Cake Wrecks. Thanks!
germy
@lgerard:
If cheeto had appointed Bachmann, she could have been guarded by those little birds that fly around her head all day.
PaulWartenberg
Going to a writers group to see about getting motivated to finish a story for a FWA anthology, as well as getting a novel done so I can market it in time as a new book when I go to Albany this August as a guest author at a comic-con.
Kick me if I don’t get anything done by tonight.
Mnemosyne
Sitting in the car parked in a mall parking garage eating oatmeal from Corner Bakery with the cats in the car. Yep, it’s Merry Maids day at our place, and I have to clear out with the cats because otherwise Keaton will try to be helpful.
Well, until the vacuum cleaner comes out, anyway.
Sab
@schrodingers_cat: Isn’t Forum himself an immigrant?
germy
@Mnemosyne:
That sounds like it could be the title of a Paul Simon song.
Sab
@schrodingers_cat: Isn’t Frum himself an immigrant?
Brachiator
@germy:
The media industrial complex is strange. Some programs fear that they won’t be able to get hot guests if they don’t play nice. There’s a deathly fear of dead air.
But Fox News, as a counter example, is all about propaganda as entertainment. So they have no problem with putting on someone with fake or dubious credentials in order to help push a story.
Also, producers are lazy. It is easier and faster to round up the usual suspects if you play nice, even if a little more effort would yield a better guest.
Mnemosyne
@ArchTeryx:
I’m from the North Shore, and my knee still instinctively jerks that way, too. The important thing to realize is that it’s habit, not reality, and just acknowledge that racist thought and move on from it.
schrodingers_cat
@Sab: From Canada IIRC.
Kathleen
@Corner Stone: Always, always donut.
germy
@Brachiator: Did you hear the theme from the 1940s film “Kings Row”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tysCiL1-24w
It inspired John Williams to create the Star Wars theme.
(If I’ve got you mixed up with another commenter, then never mind.)
germy
@Brachiator:
Jeffrey Lord is an unusual but popular choice. He lives with his mother out in the middle of nowhere, and every day they send a limo to go pick him up to “air his views” and then take him home again.
BBA
@lgerard: I’m reminded of Roger Ailes being convinced Fox News would be bombed by homosexuals, and ordering his lackey to install bomb-proof glass on their Manhattan studios.
The lackey quickly discovered that there’s no such thing as bomb-proof glass.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Doesn’t the bakery have anything better than an oatmeal, like may be a muffin or a brownie.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Brachiator: a few years ago in the annual round up of which pols were the most frequent Sunday show guests, all but one of the top five were Republicans, unless you want to count number two Bibi Netanyahu as a Republican, which I would have no problem with. In 2016, the number two spot went to Bernie Sanders. Hard not to see a pattern.
In 2004 or 05, some Dems/critics tried to make an issue of the overrepresentation of Rs in the media, and the defense was, they’re the majority, they set the agenda. After the ’06 elections, the argument was, the Dems set the agenda, so we have to get the counterpoint.
ArchTeryx
@Betty Cracker: Cake Wrecks only deals with professional bakers that foul things up. Amateurs are never featured as “wrecks”, though extremely GOOD amateurs do sometimes get onto “Sunday Sweets”.
Mike in NC
Just turned on the TV and they’re running some dumb infomercial for a workout routine called “PiYo”. Has Paul Ryan discovered it yet?
Kathleen
@Quinerly: Ugh. I’ve been fighting one. of those for almost 2 months and it has really worn me out. I did my first run in. three weeks this morning. and it was tough. You have much more ambition than I. I did get my Kroger run in and will perform my Saturday cleaning ritual. Hope you feel better soon.
NotMax
Wallet/phone thing?
Please to elucidate (or link).
hovercraft
@Sab:
Yes he is, it’s a conservative trait to pull up the ladder after you get to safety. See Frum, Canada, Sully, UK, Thomas, affirmative action.
Edited for spelling.
Mnemosyne
@Josie:
I discovered while free writing last night that my villain’s evil plot is not what I thought it was. Now I have to rethink a bunch of stuff and possibly do more research. Gah!
hovercraft
@NotMax:
He was supposed to fly out yesterday, but realized half way to the airport that he forgot his phone and wallet.
Alain the site fixer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think it’s a newly-pious, “born again” type of Muslim, who was a crook, drunk, druggie, then finds a path to permanent redemption via martyrdom.
bemused
It does feel odd to be reading conservatives recently. Frum and Bruce Bartlett were a couple of the first conservatives to stray from sticking strictly to GOP narratives, long before Trump and got quickly shunned. Bartlett is more critical of Republican policies than Frum. Charlie Sykes, former rightwing radio talk show host, got disillusioned with the increasing rage of callers and I’ve seen him on msnbc several times. Rick Wilson is no liberal but he sure can deliver lethal barbs at Republican idiocies. I never thought I’d stop from switching channels when some of these folks are on the tv but Trump times, they aren’t normal.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Pitts’ rolling around on the money spread atop the bed in Greed is supremely memorable.
Much later in life, she was the best part of both incarnations of Gale Storm’s TV series.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
acknowledging that Jack Schafer is a glib-ertarian and can be a dick, this is a hoot. Worth a click just for the rant(s) on Tweety
ETA: My only complaint is he didn’t say enough about Beautiful Beautiful Brian Willaims.
germy
@NotMax: Remember her as the switchboard operator in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
NotMax
@hovercraft
Thanks. Much less dramatic than what was envisioning, which involved a certain porcelain appliance (and possibly the fire brigade).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Alain the site fixer: absolutely– that was the case for most of the Bataclan shooters, IIRC?
NotMax
@germy
Yuppers.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Reason 3,472 for my nym.
StringOnAStick
Hey, Ghost to Most, Ed Perlmutter is launching his campaign for CO governor today at 12:30 at the Golden Natural Grocers. I think I will ride my bike over and have a look. I sure hope he has someone in mind to replace him!
SWMBO
@Spanky: I think they are at Mar A Lago this weekend.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
When I was at Disneyworld waiting to meet a couple of Pixar characters, G thought the following text message sounded like something Sartre could have written:
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: These assholes cause my blood to boil. Williams, in particular, with all that beautiful shit. Yes, broken human bodies, even brown ones, are beautiful to him.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
I like oatmeal! They had Bananas Foster oatmeal today.
Corner Bakery also makes a really good cold oatmeal (yes, cold!) with apples, currants, and yogurt called Swiss Oatmeal. I think they call it muesli in Scandinavia.
NotMax
Damn. This stuff is so good it ought to be illegal.
Big 30 oz. jar picked up at Costco on a whim.
Origuy
@Baud:
ITYM spectrometer. I’m wondering how you would measure color with a timepiece.
germy
Wait, what?
Mnemosyne
@Mike in NC:
It’s a combo of Pilates and Yoga, so it’s too girly for Manly Man Ryan and his backwards baseball cap.
El Caganer
@Mnemosyne: ‘I was sittin’ in a breakfast room in Allentown, Pennsylvania,
six o’clock in the morning, got up too early, it was a terrible mistake…
sittin’ there face-to-face with a 75 cent glass of orange juice
about as big as my finger and a bowl of horribly foreshortened cornflakes,
and I said to myself: “This is the life!” . . .’ 200 Years Old, Frank Zappa
eclare
My dog has an upset tummy, don’t ask me how I know. Glad I got paper towels yesterday. Good times.
amk
maxine vs fifth columnist fourth estate. your pick.
glaukopis
No joy in the Comic-con waiting room for me. Sigh.
Alain the site fixer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: and many of the men on 9/11. Especially in Europe, I think it’s a profile now, for newly-religious former bad boys.
On a related note, I think I’ve finally gotten a glimpse into the reasoning behind being ok with killing innocents in pursuit of martyrdom and it scares me because it makes sense, in a religious/heaven-kind of way. As in, the reasoning to get there isn’t as hard as I assumed and so I’m not sure how easy it will be to defuse this trend.
So basically, they rationalize the pain and horror they inflict, murdering in some cases hundreds of innocents in bloody, torturous ways. And this is done by acknowledging that the targets of this behavior are mostly not enemies, and that God will put innocents so murdered in Heaven for eternity and so it’s actually almost a gift, even if they have to go through pain and horror beyond belief to receive it. And so, when you might have doubts about killing innocents of any faith, age, nationality, you can fall back on the “hey, no matter how terrible the path, I’m sending them to heaven to be with God, I’m doing them a favor, really, taking the, away from this hellish existence and putting them up there, before they have a chance to live longer and fall.”
Yet more evidence for the evil potential of humankind to find ways to be lousier to those around us.
And yes, I’m quite aware of the contemporaneous labeling of Christians as being in a death cult for similar reasons, but that was more a commentary on their belief in Heaven and so, capable of enduring torture until death almost with a smile. And assholes hate that.
I need to go for a walk and see some curious, playful, beautiful life not being nasty.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so this is the most significant consequence of Trump’s Beautiful Beautiful missiles, making the fight against ISIS– we’re gonna bomb the shit out of them thirty day plan it will be easy believe me I know more than the generals– harder
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The media want republicans on to counter the “liberal” media perspective. So it’s basically heads you lose tails they win. The story will change, but as far back as I can remember there are more republicans on as guests.@Villago Delenda Est: !
BBA
@glaukopis: Nobody goes to Comic-Con anymore, it’s too crowded.
Alain the site fixer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: there are a couple more. Allegedly the air defenses were off and if so, that would provide some evidence to help defend against future attacks. But even if not, the Russians announced the next day that they were upgrading the air defenses in Syria immediately. So this was great for anti-US-cruise-missile tech that Russia wants to perfect and sell around the world!
And I bet that at least one missle didn’t detonate correcly
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@hovercraft: As a native, I can vouch for this. Never got out of the boat.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
The man obviously hasn’t seen Bad Boys II.
Alain the site fixer
Commenting issues locked up iPad but I figure there’s some Russian technical experts gathering circuit boards, etc. to better understand our tech. So one issue in using your tech is that it exposes it to others who might learn. But then again, Hair Furor is not known for deep thinking.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
She was in this fabulous flick on TCM the other night, Sing and Like It, where Nat Pendleton as a tough gangster got all teary eyed every time she sang a sappy song called “Mother.” Sheer hilarity.
mai naem mobile
@Mnemosyne: Alpen is the best muesli. Trader Joe’s used to carry it a long time ago.
Gelfling 545
@bemused: I have 2 Girls. My sister has 2 boys. At the teenage years my grocery bill was about 1/3 of hers.
Josie
@Mnemosyne: You don’t know it, but you have been such an inspiration to me ever since you started commenting about your writing. I have benefited from your tips and am anxious to see your published story. I know what you mean about discovering something about your character that you didn’t realize was there. It’s a little strange but fun.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Henceforth, communiques will be transmitted through the concierge at Mar-a-Lago.
Baud
@Origuy: The March for Science can’t happen soon enough.
Ruckus
@Gelfling 545:
It’s not that he’s nuts, he’s their kind of nuts.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: I think eating that guy’s liver transmitted some prions to Hopkins and he’s gone insane.
StringOnAStick
@Alain the site fixer: Wasn’t it reported that the air defenses in Syria were switched off before the US attack on purpose? Drumpf thinks he made an equal under the table deal with Putin to make it look like we slapped Syria a bit, giving Drumpf a chance to point and say he’s not Putin’s lap dog and oh my how manly he was for telling Assad a thing or two (cue Williams and his misuse of Leonard Cohen). However, I suspect Putin saw what they “agreed” to as giving his asset some cover while it had the much more useful effect of allowing him to do what you pointed out: beef up Syria’s air defense systems.
If Drumpf gets any drunker on the media praise for blowing up stuff, Putin will get a chance to show off his expensive new system. If the bombing stops here, Putin got an excuse to do the upgrade. Either way, win-win for Putin, as usual. Having the Orange Id in power here means all tactics, no planning; Putin in power over there means all planning, all strategy, and plenty of money to back up whatever chain of outcomes things start moving down.
I really miss having adults in power here.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
Eh, Sing and Like It, I presume? I didn’t watch it, because it started right before one of my few remaining appointment-TV network shows, Elementary. And I think I was juggling Rachel Maddow on the other channel of my DVR. (It keeps track of the most recent hour of two different channels.) But normally I would have given it a look.
I’ll pencil it in with a “Gogol’s Wife” recommendation for next time.
Brachiator
@germy:
The similarities to the point of outright theft were amazing. I had no idea. A weird blindspot, since I know a lot about the visual and literary antecedents to Star Wars.
I also watched the ending of King’s Row. A supremely corny movie with two sides of hammy acting by Ronald Reagan and Robert Cummings.
Baud
@Alain the site fixer: Hey, if you’re still here, I’m still having problems with the mobile site on Android. It won’t pull up for 5-10 minutes at a time, even when I put my phone browser on desktop mode.
Ruckus
@hovercraft:
Just in case you don’t get an answer, as an old white guy, it is perfectly acceptable to hate drumpf voters, in all their paleness, stupidity and racism. At least I hope it is, as I’m right there with you.
Alain the site fixer
@Baud: Dude I’m lost on that. It should be fine. What model phone and OS version?
hovercraft
@germy: Anthony Hopkins Calls Michael Bay ‘A Genius’
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Yes, Ben, that’s why we pay taxes! Jee-sus.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Which browser are you using?
opiejeanne
Setting up a new tv today.
Our faithful Sony tv of 20 years died this week; the dark areas of the picture were flashing green or purple graininess, darkish shows were so dark we couldn’t figure out what was going on, so we replaced it yesterday. Iforgot it was a 37 inch tv, and wanted one a little bigger because my eyes are getting pretty bad. Won’t be ready to have my cataracts done for at least another year, so we got a 65″ and HOLY COW IS IT BIGGER!!! It didn’t look all that much bigger at Costco yesterday. They had a sale on some of the Samsungs.
The only thing I’m not sure I like is that tv shows look the way soap operas used to look back when they were the only things on tape and everything else was on film, if that makes sense. The Expanse was extremely odd looking, in the scenes with people. It feels more … intimate?
Alain the site fixer
@Baud: oh and over wifi or phone network?
Baud
@Steeplejack: Android Chrome.
Baud
@Alain the site fixer: Droid Turbo running Marshmallow.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: I like muesli too. I make my own.
Baud
@Alain the site fixer:
Hmm. I think both, but definitely wifi.
Chyron HR
@hovercraft:
You forgot, “the check cleared.”
Mnemosyne
@glaukopis:
All the cool kids are going to WonderCon instead, if that helps. Though WonderCon just ended.
Mnemosyne
@Josie:
Thank you! Hopefully I’ll be able to be a real inspiration and finish the darn book soon!
Steeplejack
@WVm:
God, what an ordeal!
I have been very fortunate in my traveling career. Worst I can remember is way back when, probably when I was in college, flew from either St. Louis or Kansas City to Minneapolis in bad weather around Christmas, then somehow ended up taking the train from Minneapolis to Minot, North Dakota (visiting family). Of course lots of drama and waiting interspersed throughout.
Nowadays my flights are infrequent and (usually) simple, i.e., nonstop.
chopper
@Betty Cracker:
I’m working on a superhero themed cake for the boy’s birthday party tomorrow. should work.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Great redundant name. Gale Storm. Like Rip Torn or Peter O’Toole.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
Ben is such a putz. Does he realize that if his fucking rich neighbors would pay their fair share of taxes and that if his fellow fucking conservative assholes would let the government work reasonably, the poor neighborhoods wouldn’t be nearly so poor? Or is that one sentence that I just wrote too fucking difficult for conservatives to understand? Or worse yet, too difficult for their selfish little minds to live with?
Steeplejack
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
I picture puzzlement at these charities: “Um, we’re getting a lot of donations on behalf of Stix Hiscock?”
“Shut up, the deposits are going through.”
Brachiator
@opiejeanne:
There are settings that can fix that. Check the manual. It may be easy to select one that is more pleasing. Maybe someone else here is much more knowledgeable than I am on this. I’m mainly going by what I’ve heard on some tech and video show.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Brachiator:
I was on my commute one evening with the local classical station on, and I heard something start up and said “Oh, someone’s done a new arrangement of the Harry Potter theme. Kind of nice.”
Nope. Something Vivaldi, IIRC. I haven’t taken the time to go through the entire Vivaldi collection to try to find it again, but the similarity was stunning.
Ruckus
@Josie:
My last TV stopped working, OK the damn thing broke, in 2007. Nice big Sony old style tube TV it was. But bottom line, have never replaced it. Have over the last few yrs had occasions to watch TV, hotel rooms, friends houses, and I noticed that my life seems far better without it.
glaukopis
@BBA: went last year for the first time and had a great time. Didn’t realize how lucky I was to get those 4-day tickets. Got books signed by Berkeley Breathed & William Gibson too.
hovercraft
@StringOnAStick: @Alain the site fixer:
Who we hell knows what’s going on here, for all we know Lawrence O’Donnell’s theory could be right. Putin is very Machiavellian.
Lawrence O’Donnell Wonders: What If ‘Vladimir Putin Masterminded the Last Week in Syria’?
Ruckus
@germy:
A villager talking out of their butt? NO, that can’t be. Oh wait you said villager. That’s the only orifice they know how to transmit sound out of.
Ruckus
@hovercraft:
Selfishness is not a conservative trait.
Selfishness is THE NUMBER ONE conservative trait and by a good distance ahead of #2, which is assholyness. But they mostly get the assholyness from being so fucking selfish.
germy
@Ruckus: They’re so insufferable on TV. They must be even more horrible at their cocktail parties.
hovercraft
@Ruckus:
AMEN!!
Ruckus
@Origuy:
Well, if your timepiece told you it was 1850……….
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
It started too late for me to watch the whole thing, but what I saw (about 40 minutes) was side-splitting. Nat Pendleton is a genius.
Steeplejack
@Mike in NC:
Pilates + Yoga?! Not manly enough! I think Ryan is moving to CropFit.
Ruckus
@WVm:
The only time that I didn’t get where I was going, eventually, was on 9/11. Going west, flight at 8:30ish EST, ended up in Atlanta and had to wait a day for any rental agency to have any car to drive back.
OTOH, I have had a 13+ hr flight from Minneapolis to Columbus, OH, which is normally about 1 1/2 hrs. We had to make a pit stop for fuel, at O’Hare, which when we were told about, the plane had to turn northwest to head to. I’ve flown to New Zealand in less time.
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
Don’t forget, since you’re a TCM subscriber, you can probably stream it on WatchTCM, either through the website or via their free app.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
Goat Crossfit.
ETA: Yes, I swiped the link from BellaQ.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
I have no idea what streaming is. I just turn on the TV and watch whatever’s on.
Steeplejack
@eclare:
Bummer. The housecat threw up in her bed yesterday before I could move her. Laundry time.
SFAW
@A Ghost to Most:
You better thank FSM for that — if there were showers, Shitgibbon would command that Air Force Less-Than-Half take him to you, immediately!
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
My cat now throws up if daddy doesn’t come home on time to cuddle him. Daddy didn’t get home until 10:00 PM last night, so it was messy. Geriatric cats are labor-intensive.
Josie
@Ruckus: Yeah. I have noticed my blood pressure is lower, even with all the stuff that is going on politically. I’m still aware of everything and involved to a certain extent, but I don’t have to listen to stupid, evil people tell their lies on a daily basis.
Steeplejack
@opiejeanne:
There’s a setting you have to change to get rid of that “video” effect. If this appropriately named article doesn’t help enough, feel free to get back to me.
Ruckus
@germy:
Could you imagine being at a function with them and not being able to drink?
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
WatchTCM homepage.
They make it super-easy to use once you log in because they know a lot of their users are … not computer-savvy, shall we say.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
Ooh, thanks, it’s there. I’ll watch it later today.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
I use Chrome on my first-gen Moto X, mobile version of this site, and I haven’t experienced what you’re talking about. But do a little testing and see if it’s related to this:
Sometimes—not all the time—this site will get into a state on my phone where about every fourth or fifth tab (or new page opened) takes forever to load. But, if I close that tab and then immediately click on the original link to open it again, it works fine. Go figure. I wonder whether you are in a situation where you are stuck in that “fourth or fifth tab” position and can’t get off it. Do you open multiple tabs or are you a one-page-at-a-time person?
James E Powell
@Gelfling 545:
In which case they will re-elect him for life.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
Actually, it’s not so easy, they want my SSN. Forget it!
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
Whaa? That must be a requirement from your cable company for the sign in. Charter doesn’t make me do that. Bizarre.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
That’s hilarious! “I’m trying to get up to goat weight on my arms, but . . .”
Baud
@Steeplejack: I’m a one page at a time person.
I use the Google data saver. I wonder if that’s the glitch.
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The real reason is that the audience for those shows – apart from a sprinkling of news junkies & hate watchers – is almost all old white males.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
The housecat does a lot of hacking and Foster Brooks heaving before she lets fly, so usually I can deploy a towel or at least put her on the floor, but this time was rather sudden. I always have to wait for the inevitable little afterspew that comes about 30 seconds later. Good times.
Synchronicity: I went to YouTube to find a Foster Brooks clip for those who don’t remember him, and by chance I found this great one of him at a roast of the lately departed Don Rickles.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: That’s hilarious.
@Steeplejack: I do plenty of CropFit in my own yard. Tossed the compost with a pitchfork two days ago, shoveled mulch yesterday. Tired!
opiejeanne
@Brachiator: Thanks I think I figured it out by doing just that and it’s a little different, but I’m also getting used to this new look and this may just be the way the better televisions are now, although news shows don’t have that look.
The Expanse scenes showing the outside shots are amazing. I’ve been eyeing new tvs for a couple of years but couldn’t justify the expense. Our tax refund just showed up and more than covered this. so YAY!
Also, I can see! New glasses coming in the next 10 days, which will help but this is amazing for me.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Might be. I don’t have any experience with that. Can you disable it temporarily and see if that fixes the problem?
Re my earlier suggestion, since you are a “one-pager,” try this: if a Balloon Juice page is taking forever to load, click to stop it from loading, go to a page on another site, then come back and see if it still takes forever to load. That might indicate whether you are getting the “four-five” delay or every Balloon Juice page is taking forever to load. If the latter, maybe the Google data gizmo is the problem.
Denali
@JR in WV,
I have spent a sleepless night in Hartsfield due to storms, but your experience transends that by far. Will avoid connecting through Atlanta in the future.
Brachiator
@opiejeanne: Glad to read that you found a way to adjust your tv set. The videotape like smoothing is an artifact of some of the tv settings, but is not the default or recommended.
I watch The Expanse on a 24 inch TV, sometimes my tablet, so I can easily imagine that it is spectacular on a big screen.
Happy viewing.
Baud
@Steeplejack: Thanks. Will try.
Ruckus
@Denali:
You spent sleepless nights at Hartsfield? Why? It has some of the most comfortable floors for sleeping of any airport. Terminal 2 was my favorite.
Yarrow
@Baud: I occasionally have a problem on mobile with Balloon-Juice. Stop the loading and reloading usually helps. I think sometimes the ads cause problems but reloading sets up a different ad and the problem goes away.
You’ve done the usual clearing of cookies, etc. already, right? That can help sometimes.
opiejeanne
@Steeplejack: Thank you! That article helped and I was able to turn off the “smoothing”.
Steve in the ATL
@WVm: I feel your pain! Anyone flying to or from Atlanta was screwed. At least I finally got somewhere (home) but it took two extra days. Sorry you had to suffer through that. As much as I bitched about my delays, at least I had a corporate expense account and no children to wrangle. What a nightmare.
The airlines don’t have to make anyone whole as weather was the cause of the problems, but they are going to lose a fortune on overtime, bag delivery charges, etc. On the other hand, airport restaurants and bars made out like bandits.
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
The reason I found out that terminal 2 was the best was that I once accepted the offer of a hotel room. Doesn’t sound bad right? First they don’t make the offer until after midnight. Then they have to fill up the shuttle bus and drive across town to Joe’s Motel, famous for their low hourly rates. So it’s maybe 2 am when you get to your room and you have to make the 6 am shuttle back because otherwise you are stuck there till 9 am. So a refreshing 3 hr nap, quick cool shower, shuttle ride across town and then, because you weren’t there at 6 am you are going to wait till maybe 10 or 11 to get assigned a flight. Not actually on a plane, just then thinking that you may get on one, if it ever shows up.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Yarrow:
Yes! I think this could be a factor.
NeenerNeener
@opiejeanne: Yeah, “soap opera”-type images on new LCD tvs is a thing you can correct by fiddling with the settings on your new tv. Check out “www.avsforums.com” for recommended changes for your new tv. Chances are someone there has one and has already calibrated it to look really good.
MoxieM
@Glidwrith: Back in the Viet Nam draft days that was my brother, who went over a size 13 I think, anyway it put him in some funny category for the draft b/c there was something about not being able to get standard boots. That’s my recollection–I welcome corrections by Vets. In the event, he was too young to be in the actual draft. He just registered. Not to be doom and gloom, it may happen again.