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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Evening Open Thread: Because We Need A Break

Friday Evening Open Thread: Because We Need A Break

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Apart from sad / horrifying news, what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?

Reader Interactions

328Comments

  1. 1.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    LOL! It is funny. Any misery (like above) an R gets inflicted with is a good thing

  5. 5.

    satby

    I go back to work after 3 days of near coma existence; I’m not much good in extreme heat and humid weather. Just as the heatwave breaks.

    We’re having an old fashioned Irish wake down below for greennotGreen, and some of the most beautiful comments ever posted are in that thread. Go read if you haven’t, and maybe comment if you can. It inspired me.

  7. 7.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    Where do David Daley’s editorship of Salon (and for that matter, late-period vanden Heuvel’s stewardship of the Nation) rank on the scale of disastrous media outlet runs, leftist and overall? For comparison, the Sullivan/Kelly runs of TNR – and Jeff Zucker at CNN –would be the very worst for both scenarios (i.e., roughly analogous to Chuck Austen on…anything).

  8. 8.

    Major Major Major Major

    God, I loathe Sasse.

    Unrelated: I was listening to The Sisters of Mercy at work today and was struck by these lyrics. Everything old is new again.

    We serve an old man in a dry season
    A lighthouse keeper in the desert sun
    Dreamers of sleepers and white treason
    We dream of rain and the history of the gun
    There’s a lighthouse in the middle of Prussia
    A White House in Red Square
    I’m living in films for the sake of Russia
    A kino runner for the DDR
    And the fifty-two daughters of the revolution
    Turn the gold to chrome
    Gift … nothing to lose
    Stuck inside of Memphis with the mobile home, sing:

    Mother Russia, Mother Russia, Mother Russia rain down down down
    Mother Russia, Mother Russia, Mother Russia rain down

  11. 11.

    Baud

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): That reminds me.

    I trying to put together a standard daily/weekly reading list to try to keep up with US and world events. The random approach is getting frustrating given everything that’s happening. WaPo seems good for US politics. Any other suggestions?

  12. 12.

    germy

    @lamh36: I like to think Andy is in hot water with his bosses over this, but he’ll probably get a pat on the back and a raise.

  15. 15.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    @Major Major Major Major: IIRC Sasse is one of the Bad Kind of Lutherans, LCMS or WELS-the really fundie types. He’s a theocrat deep down, he just tries to be reasonable and whatnot to sucker people.

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    I just found out that there will be a Camp NaNoWriMo kick-off meeting near me tomorrow morning, so we’ll see if I can get up early enough for that. I haven’t been sleeping very well this week, and my sleep hygiene has been terrible.

    On the upside, I’m pleased to say that the romance novel that first got me hooked on the genre back in 1983 still holds up today with very little embarrassing content. I bought an original copy from Better World Books so I can blog about it.

  19. 19.

    hovercraft

    Thanks for this OT, I can’t comment on the previous two, I just can’t today.
    My 14 year old just went to her 8th grade dance, she has ridiculously high platforms on, and is fully made up, I teared up because she doesn’t look like my little girl, she looked like a young woman.

  23. 23.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Helmut Kohl was an important part of keeping the peace during the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union. We need more like him.

    Smoke is settling on Santa Fe from a fire in the Jemez Mountains west of Los Alamos. The fire isn’t close to the town, and it’s on the other side of the scars from previous fires, which should protect Los Alamos somewhat. The fire is also not growing very fast. Everyone hopes it will be out soon. There’s no rain in the forecast for the next few days, but at least it’s not windy.

    A doe has made a scrape under my bathroom window and was sleeping there again today. Dinner guests discovered her for the first time last Saturday. I’d really prefer she not hang around the yard, because she eats my roses. None are particularly gorgeous specimens, but one cactus I particularly liked disappeared a couple of years ago, eaten down to the root, and I suspect it was a deer. She ran when I closed the window to keep the smoke out.

    Farmers’ Market tomorrow morning, and hopefully a restful weekend. Glad that there is no major Trump dump of news tonight, but the night is young. And it was a Saturday that Nixon fired his Attorney General.

  24. 24.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @germy: That looks pretty good to me.
    @Baud:
    I’d suggest looking at the BBC for international news and The Guardian for specifically British news

  27. 27.

    MomSense

    I’m a wreck. Started to watch a Bowie documentary but it was boring. You have to work at making Bowie boring.

    Now I’ve switched to a movie my older boys watched endlessly when they were little-Homeward Bound. It’s sappy and dumb but I don’t think I can handle much more.

  29. 29.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @germy: The guy in “Tender is the Storm” has such a dad bod. Those kinds of novels are airport novels, only good for wasting time waiting for a flight and on one

  31. 31.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @Major Major Major Major: Its publication of the Bragman “lesser of two evils” piece seems to be widely viewed as its moral event horizon/jumping the shark; and under anyone else’s hand Daniel Denvir would’ve easily been the worst regular columnist during the primary. (This isn’t to mention its hiring Patrick Lawrence Smith on Russia, who is the stupid man’s Alexander Cockburn).

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I’ve heard that planting lavender as a kind of fence around your roses can keep the deer away — they don’t like the strong scent of the lavender. I think it was naturalist Diane Ackerman who said it.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    When are they going to recreate the poses from superhero comics with ordinary men and women?

    Oh, right, because only female-centric artwork gets made fun of as being unrealistic, not male-centric.

  39. 39.

    lamh36

    Catching up on news of the day after a long week at work.

    So Amazon is buying Whole Foods…huh. I’m a Amazon Prime member, so I use Amazon pretty often.

    Haven’t been into a Whole Foods since I lived in Dallas.

    Amazon-Whole Foods deal could mean new phase of retail https://usat.ly/2swEhWj via @usatoday

  40. 40.

    Peale

    That awful feeling when you waited 9 hours for the next open thread because you had something to share, but now you’ve lost your train of thought.

    I think medium term memory is the first to go.

  42. 42.

    Doug R

    Nickelback was formed by a bunch of guys from Hanna, Alberta, about 135 miles northeast of Calgary. Think Kansas but colder. When his band was starting up in Vancouver, Chad Kroeger was working as a barista at Starbucks where a coffee was $1.95. He used to say “Here’s your nickel back.”

  45. 45.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Honestly even once the content went to shit I still read it to keep abreast of what my left flank was up to. It was once the content was shit and the site became unusable with ads and clickbait that I had to stop.

    @Mnemosyne:

    When are they going to recreate the poses from superhero comics with ordinary men and women?

    Oh, right, because only female-centric artwork gets made fun of as being unrealistic, not male-centric.

    That sort of stuff (edit: realistic superhero poses) gets around pretty frequently, at least in my corner of the liberal geekosphere.

  47. 47.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Mnemosyne: I meant cheesy ones like the stuff Danielle Steel writes. Very formulaic. I’m sure what you’re working on is nothing like that

  51. 51.

    Laura

    It’s gonna be hotter than 2 squirrels getting it on in a wool sock in Sacramento for the foreseeable future.
    Dog walking will be limited to dawn patrol.
    There’s a new AWESOME exhibit at the Crocker Art Museum called High Fructose that we may check out.
    Booger, brace yourself, it’s going to be a roaster in Davis as well.

  55. 55.

    germy

    @Mnemosyne:

    When are they going to recreate the poses from superhero comics with ordinary men and women?

    I don’t have a link, but I remember a project where male superheroes were posed the way they pose female super heroes. It showed how women are sexualized in the comics, even when they’re fighting crime.

    EDIT: The Hawkeye Initiative. That’s it, thanks.

  57. 57.

    joel hanes

    @Baud:

    suggestions

    google news is remarkably customizable, if you have a google login.
    select the major sections, weight various news sources to be aggregated into those sections, choose topics of interest
    lather rinse repeat
    after a couple years of this, it shows me a huge cross section of stuff I am interested in,
    and very little that does not interest me
    (only gripe: I am such a horrible person that I have zero interest in sports news, and there seems to be no way to completely suppress it)

  59. 59.

    D58826

    CS Monitor is reporting that the Southern Baptists in their annual convention voted, with some reluctance, to condemn the alt-right/white supremacy as anti Christian. Only 50 some years after the other mainline Christians reached the same conclusion. Now hopefully they will be a bit more proactive when it comes to sexism, Islamophobia and homophobia.

  62. 62.

    dr. bloor

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Helmut Kohl was an important part of keeping the peace during the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union. We need more like him.

    Did you happen to catch the interview on public radio this afternoon of some twit who served under Thatcher? Spent the whole thing giving Kohl backhanded compliments and inflating Thatcher’s role in the fall of communism/reconstruction of Europe. To quote young Alvy Singer, “What an asshole.”

  64. 64.

    joel hanes

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I’d really prefer she not hang around the yard

    The deer repellent made of powdered rotten eggs really works, but it stinks to people too.
    Garden stores can sell you a “puffer” to apply it to ornamentals, and to the scrapes.

    When my ex was living in the Diablo Range and deer were eating her garden, we tried the wolf piss and coyote piss repellents; they didn’t seem to make much difference.

  66. 66.

    khead

    Helmut Kohl was an important part of keeping the peace during the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union. We need more like him.

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Yeah, this. Nowadays Americans just pimp Reagan’s Berlin Wall speech and act like shit could not have POSSIBLY gone wrong during the reunification of Germany. In the real world, it took a bunch of level headed folks that weren’t watching cable news and tweeting every hour to keep things in check.

  68. 68.

    HeleninEire

    Apparently I am the biggest rascist in the history of the world for saying that ethnic minorities are fitting in well here. Says Comrade Collette form the last thread. See me at 23. Whoeverthefuck that asshole is.

  69. 69.

    Juice Box

    I called my Mom in AZ today and asked her to call her senators and tell them to vote against the AHCA. She said she spoke to a person in Flake’s office, but couldn’t even leave a message at the Maverick’s ™ office.

  71. 71.

    jl

    @Baud:

    ” No. Sounds like a porn site. ”
    All the news that’s fit for Baud. WTF kind of news do you want, anyway? We are confused now.

  72. 72.

    zhena gogolia

    There’s a proto-film noir with young Lucille Ball and over-the-hill Richard Dix on TCM right now and it’s giving me all the feels (whatever that means).

  74. 74.

    Baud

    @jl: Straight news. Not interested in commentary or analysis. BJ commenters are superior to paid professionals in that respect.

    I heard Bloomberg is actually a pretty decent news operation.

  75. 75.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Baud:

    “I’m addressing a group called the American Warrior Revolution, we’re addressing our friends the Oathcucks, and various III% militia groups. We’ve been watching you people since then and we’ve had a little trouble.”

    Griffin goes on to accuse the varied groups that make up “Patriot Nation” of being “deracinated cucks” and “failing to support our free speech and defending our monuments,” by standing in the way of the League of the South in New Orleans, Gainesville, and elsewhere.

    The allegation that Oath Keepers are “cucks” who “talk about how anti-racist they are,” commonly referred to as “virtue signaling,” is a cardinal sin on the far right and a source of much of the ire directed against Oath Keepers, other militia groups, conservatives politicians, religious leaders, and in particular, “boomers”.

    Better they fight amongst themselves then ally and organize together.

    Also I lol’d at “Oathcucks”

  78. 78.

    Gin & Tonic

    Three months ago today I fucked up my arm. While there has been progress, it has been slower than I’d like. I’m out of the cast, the pins are out, but there is as yet minimal bone growth, and I’m not yet at a weight-bearing stage. On Monday I’m due to get an electrical bone stimulator to try to help with that. For those of you who still have one of your orthopedics textbooks in the basement somewhere, it turns out this was what’s called a Galeazzi-type injury.

  79. 79.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Mnemosyne: Thanks. She hasn’t eaten the lavender, but there is a lavender bush right next to one of the roses she is eating. I’ve been thinking of planting more lavender, though. It does well here.

  86. 86.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @dr. bloor: The reunification of Germany was such a touch-and-go thing. Thatcher had little to do with that. Had to be done so as not to scare the Europeans and not to scare the Russians, which sometimes meant conflicting priorities. But everyone got it reasonably right at the time, maybe not so much lately.

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    You realize that those guys think they look exactly like the comic book heroes when they dress like that, right? And then they make fun of how “fat” the girl in a Batgirl outfit looks.

    Again: no one seems to be making fun of the way men’s bodies are portrayed in male-centric genres the way they’re making fun of people’s bodies in female-centric genres. Even in the Hawkeye Initiative stuff, they’re swapping attractive female bodies for attractive male bodies.

  92. 92.

    ThresherK

    Anyone else hear this in Ron Howard’s voice?

    Narrator: It was, in fact, funny.

    (ETA: I did not read that the Twitter thread beforehand. That the second response to this agrees with me I find heartening.)

  94. 94.

    Mike in NC

    We’re driving south next week, with stops in Charleston, Savannah, Ocala, and Tampa. Weather will be brutally hot.

  96. 96.

    D58826

    @khead: Now I realize that St. Ronulus the Unready was great and wonderful beyond all recognition but ah POTUS at the time the USSR collapsed was one George H. W. Bush. And at least through his first term it was more likely that he would start WWIII then end the cold war. Will Bunch has a book that compares the real Reagan vs the MT Rushmore version that the GOP has created over the past generation. ‘Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future’

  100. 100.

    Mnemosyne

    @? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:

    Sorry, but I do flare up when I run across har-har, those stupid romance novels are so unrealistic! comments from people who read science fiction and superhero comics. And the fact that the romance genre is still primarily written by and for women is a huge part of the reason people feel they can mock it.

    That said, apparently Tender Is the Storm is quite a surreal experience to read. Lindsay is one of those authors who, when she’s good, she’s really good, but who has also produced some seriously hallucinatory books. She’s like the romance equivalent of John Boorman, who directed Deliverance and Zardoz back-to-back.

  101. 101.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @D58826: The Soviets themselves were fat far more responsible for their collapse than Reagan ever was. The seeds were sown decades before entered office

  102. 102.

    D58826

    @Gelfling545: Yes, but the more conservative powers had to be pushed a bit to bring the resolution to a vote. As MLK said the arc of history bends toward toward justice. He just never said how long it would take to travel that arc. But in the end lets welcome our Christian brothers and sisters to the 21st century. Hopefully they will address the other issues before we get to the 22nd.

  103. 103.

    HeleninEire

    @Yoda Dog: Thank you. I didn’t know what to say. I was talking about good things. Never occurred to me that it was rascist..

  104. 104.

    MomSense

    @germy:

    One of my sons has modeled for romance novel book covers. He was “discovered” by an agent who was sitting st the bar of the restaurant where he was working. He thought it was a scam at first but he went to the photo shoot and it was legit. The funny part is that they take a bunch of photos and then an artist draws/paints his image on the cover.

  105. 105.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: I ended up calling a M^4 a straight man yesterday. I meant it in the comedic sense, but still. Now, you are offending him with your discriminatory view of the news.

  110. 110.

    lamh36

    @Khanoisseur
    1. By canceling Obama’s Cuba policy, Trump today bribed Marco Rubio…who sits on Senate Intel Committee investigating Trump-Russia

    @Khanoisseur
    2. Rubio drove Trump’s Cuba move–what does POTUS expect in return from Rubio, a key member of Senate committee investigating Trump-Russia?

    @Khanoisseur 4h4 hours ago
    More
    3. Obama pried Cuba away from Russia–”no puppet” Trump now putting it right back in Putin’s pocket

  112. 112.

    Gelfling545

    @hovercraft: When my granddaughter went to senior prom last week she wisely bought character shoes from the dance supply store. She was comfortable all evening.

  113. 113.

    D58826

    @? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: George Kennan basically said in 1947 that with patient containment, the internal contradictions of the soviet system would be the roots of its own destruction. Unfortunately between 1947 and 1991 a lot of Americans did not the patience to wait for that self-destruction. See Vietnam and the McCarthy era. Bush 41 just handled the final breakup in a way to avoid any major war in Europe. And to quote Uncle Joe that was a BFD

  114. 114.

    germy

    @MomSense:

    The funny part is that they take a bunch of photos and then an artist draws/paints his image on the cover.

    That’s interesting; such a cool job. The people who pose and the artists who paint them.

  115. 115.

    TriassicSands

    Dianne Feinstein is sponsoring a bill — WaPo headline:
    Congress is considering a bill that would expand Jeff Sessions’s power to escalate the war on drugs

    What a nightmare! Sessions wants to be able to arrest and prosecute medical marijuana users. Unless this bill prohibits that, it will be a disaster in the hands of Sessions.

    I’m not from CA and don’t know what Feinstein’s positions are on medical and recreational marijuana. I live in Washington State and voted for both. In theory, recriminalizing marijuana doesn’t hurt anyone*, though I don’t support it. But eliminating legal medical marijuana would be evil.

    I don’t use marijuana either medicinally or recreationally but I am quite certain that it has valuable medical uses (see the video about Charlotte’s Web — if you don’t tear-up, at least, you’re heartless). Sessions is a zealot who will damage people badly.

    Write to or call Feinstein, please, especially if you are from CA.

    * That’s not true in practice.I

    NOTE: I would be willing to use medical marijuana and may at some point.

  119. 119.

    germy

    @D58826:

    the internal contradictions of the soviet American capitalist system would be the roots of its own destruction.

  123. 123.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @Mnemosyne: Oh its fine. I get it. I was really judging them by their stupid looking covers, which wasn’t really right either. I don’t mind romance, just not normally as a stand-alone genre. There has to be other elements to keep me interested.

  130. 130.

    TenguPhule

    @jl:

    Jimmy Dean sausage gravy for breakfast pizzas

    That Very Special Hell just got a new opening.

  131. 131.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @TriassicSands: Fuck that bill. All it will do is perpetuate a “war” that will great for private prison corporations and the fascist pols that want people they don’t like locked up for decades

  132. 132.

    SFAW

    Meanwhile: noted Evil Person, and Person Who Is a Moron’s Idea of What a Smart Person Sounds Like (thx Kthrug), Newton Leroy Wifecheater Gingrich, has said “Technically, the President of the United States cannot obstruct justice,” Apparently, the Asshole Amphibian says it’s because Nixon Shitgibbon has/had the right to fire Comey.

    I swear, if Gingrich’s mother had smothered that fat fuck in his XXXL cradle, the USA and the World would be (and have been) a better place

  133. 133.

    Barbara

    @Mike in NC: Juniper Springs. If you have time. Love, love Savannah. Have not been to Charleston for a while but consider eating at McCrady’s.

  135. 135.

    MomSense

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Sorry to hear about the slow recovery. I’ve experienced the long recovery process and it is awful. Be patient with yourself. And if you have concerns, share them with your doctor. Hope it gets better.

  138. 138.

    TenguPhule

    @TriassicSands:

    Dianne Feinstein is sponsoring a bill

    I would just like to say for the record that Feinstein in her own way is worse then Sanders at wrecking the Democratic Party.

    He’s on the outside, she’s poking holes from the inside and then waving the enemy to come on in.

  140. 140.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?

    @D58826: Agree with all of this. Do you think it was ever possible for the SU to pull a China and liberalize? Perhaps surviving into the 21st century?

  142. 142.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Cheryl Rofer: I was in Germany at the time of Reunification (’89-92). Front row seating for the Wall coming down, Reunification, and Maastricht.

  146. 146.

    Schlemazel

    @? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:
    The Soviets wasted their nation fighting a war that made no sense & that they had no hope of winning. If this does not sound familiar to you you might want to read up on US history since 1990.

    Instead of focused on making life better they focused on making more and bigger weapons while concentrating wealth into fewer and fewer hands.. You might recognize this trend elsewhere now.

  147. 147.

    Barbara

    @TenguPhule: California is one of the states that has not been hit nearly as hard by opioid epidemic. Maybe somebody should try to figure out why. I wish Feinstein would retire.

  148. 148.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    Sorry, but I do flare up when I run across har-har, those stupid romance novels are so unrealistic! comments from people who read science fiction and superhero comics.

    In my defense, I love them all.

    Amanda Quick has quite the wit.

  149. 149.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    When I was volunteering at the RWA booth at the Festival of Books, there was a guy who came to our booth who was so handsome, a passing photographer gave him his card because he thought he might have some modeling work for him.

    Unfortunately for me, he was mostly interested in getting his photo taken with our standee of Fabio, so I was clearly not his type. ?

  151. 151.

    Booger

    @Laura: Thank you for the reminder…I’m currently enjoying some classic right coast June mugginess, intrigued by what 105 will feel like.

  152. 152.

    germy

    @Barbara:

    California is one of the states that has not been hit nearly as hard by opioid epidemic. Maybe somebody should try to figure out why.

    Marijuana?

  154. 154.

    MomSense

    This is the best part of the movie. Sassy the cat is mocking the guards at the pound. She’s about to break all the dogs out.

  155. 155.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Aw, c’mon. I’m pretty sure we can get at least one more round of “I’m surprised that you’re surprised that I’m surprised that you’re surprised” before it becomes completely ridiculous. Where’s your Douglas Adams spirit?

  158. 158.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud: We have to put up with idiots like her because she’s a vote we need. Let’s not pretend we didn’t have to eat shit for the sake of party unity before now.

  162. 162.

    Shalimar

    @Mnemosyne: We make fun of the horrible male comic character artwork too. Google “Rob Liefeld guns pouches” for samples. It’s just not as persistent a problem as male artists trying to draw women’s faces and butts on the same cover.

  167. 167.

    Mnemosyne

    @TenguPhule:

    I’m okay with people who try a few romance novels and decide they’re not their cup of tea, but the archaic stereotypes just bug the crap out of me.

    I haven’t read Amanda Quick since she started going towards romantic suspense/supernatural. I’ve been liking Tessa Dare a lot, who has a very similar tone to what I liked in Quick’s early books.

    (And I don’t usually read Jayne Ann Krentz even though she’s the same author.)

  170. 170.

    rikyrah

    Adam Khan‏ @Khanoisseur

    1. By canceling Obama’s Cuba policy, Trump today bribed Marco Rubio…who sits on Senate Intel Committee investigating Trump-Russia

    Adam Khan‏ @Khanoisseur

    2. Rubio drove Trump’s Cuba move–what does POTUS expect in return from Rubio, a key member of Senate committee investigating Trump-Russia?

    Adam Khan‏ @Khanoisseur

    3. Obama pried Cuba away from Russia–”no puppet” Trump now putting it right back in Putin’s pocket

  171. 171.

    TriassicSands

    @Baud:

    From the Post article:

    The bipartisan legislation, sponsored by powerful committee chairs in both chambers of Congress, would allow the attorney general to unilaterally outlaw certain unregulated chemical compounds on a temporary basis. It would create a special legal category for these drugs, the first time in nearly 50 years that the Controlled Substances Act has been expanded in this way. And it would set penalties, potentially including mandatory minimum sentences, for the manufacture and distribution of these drugs.

    The bill “gives the attorney general a ton of power in terms of scheduling drugs and pursuing penalties,” said Michael Collins, a deputy director at the Drug Policy Alliance. “This is a giant step backwards, and really it’s doing the bidding of Jeff Sessions as he tries to escalate the war on drugs.”

  173. 173.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    She’s not actively running against a party that she doesn’t belong to.

    No, she just gives cover to Republican shit more often then not in the spirit of “bipartisanship”.

    We can repute Sanders as an outsider, but Feinstein feeds that corrosive :”both sides! No Difference!” narrative that depresses turnout and enthusiasm.

  174. 174.

    eclare

    @Barbara: I have read about studies that show that in states that have legalized marijuana prescriptions for opioids have decreased.

  175. 175.

    D58826

    @Schlemazel: Law of unintended consequences. We helped make Afghanistan the Russian Vietnam. Unfortunately the blow back gave us Osama, 9/11 and the 16 years and counting war in Afghanistan. And it looks like the Trump admin. only plan is wade deeper into the Big Muddy.

  176. 176.

    rikyrah

    Adam Khan‏ @Khanoisseur

    May 3: Rubio tells Trump to act fast on Cuba, WH agrees

    May 9: Comey fired

    During Comey testimony, Rubio acts as Trump’s defense counsel

  178. 178.

    Baud

    @TriassicSands: I found the article. It also supposedly decriminalizes penalties for users. Still, it sounds like a net negative, especially with Sessions as AG.

  180. 180.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    (And I don’t usually read Jayne Ann Krentz even though she’s the same author.)

    You should try some of her older works under that name. Some of them are actually quite funny. I’ve learned to live with her heroines tending to fall into a niche (general dislike of red meat being one).

  182. 182.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’ve been liking Tessa Dare a lot, who has a very similar tone to what I liked in Quick’s early books.

    I’ll be sure to check her books out then. Thank you for the heads up on it.

  185. 185.

    germy

    @Mnemosyne:

    har-har, those stupid romance novels are so unrealistic! comments from people who read science fiction and superhero comics.

    That wasn’t my point. I wasn’t attacking romance novels, just noticed that the vast majority of us look nothing like the super men and women on the book covers. The “ordinary” (meaning normal) people striking the poses seemed to be poking more fun at themselves than anything else. Also, I don’t read sci fi or superhero comics. Just not my thing.

    Have people belittled you for writing Romance? I know from my own experience that genre authors don’t get the respect from so-called serious people. I have had my own humor pieces published in major magazines; I grew up reading and idolizing the humorists of the 19th and 20th centuries… and yet my idols aren’t taken seriously because they are considered the “comedy genre” and filed with the dead cat joke books.

  186. 186.

    Gin & Tonic

    @eclare: Galeazzi is a fracture of the distal radius combined with a dislocation of the distal radio-ulnar joint. Yes, an image search on that term is not for the squeamish.

  187. 187.

    Baud

    @TenguPhule: That mentality feeds itself. We have moderate and conservative Democrats throughout the party. While we could and will do better in California once Feinstein is gone, there will always be a Feinstein that people will have to work with. After they way they demonized Hillary and helped elect Trump, I have no empathy for people looking for excuses to run away.

  190. 190.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    You’re no fun anymore.

    And the variation on the new rainbow flag that I saw on Facebook was a rainbow flag background with a multihued Black Power fist in the center. I kind of liked that one, but I don’t have any say in it.

    @TenguPhule:

    I’ve read a lot of JAK’s older books — I kind of got away from reading fiction on a regular basis when I was doing screenwriting. The classic 90s authors I’m keeping up with are Mary Balogh, Mary Jo Putney, and now Lisa Kleypas. Devil in Spring is one of the best romances I’ve ever read, because the stakes are all internal and yet almost impossible to overcome.

  191. 191.

    Dnfree

    @Baud: I like Foreign Policy. Costs me $2.39 a month and they have daily newsletters and a variety of commentators. Also The Guardian for about $49 a year is excellent.

  192. 192.

    cain

    Breaking: it seems that a U.S. Ally is planning on releasing some tapes that put Trump in a compromising position according to MaggieNYT

    But of course anonymous sources. I would laugh if it ends up being Israel, but likely France or Germany. Jeezus, if it is Israel, that will get evangelicals into a frothing mess.

  194. 194.

    rikyrah

    This Cuba Deal Reversal Is Bad, But I’m More Creeped Out By How Obsessed Donald Trump Is With President Obama
    Damon Young, 6/16/17

    We have a few years worth of proof that Barack Obama is leasing prime real estate in Donald Trump’s Cheeto-adjacent brain. Beginning, of course, with the birther fiasco — the transparently racist pseudo controversy that made Trump a viable political figure and reminded us that Capital Letter Whiteness, if believing your Black ass to be a threat, will literally conjure shit about you out of thin air to satiate its nefarious thirst for racial hierarchy. His entire campaign and platform was basically just him touring the country with a WWBD (What Wouldn’t Barack Do) t-shirt. And since he’s been in office, the obsession with Obama has become even more conspicuous. Every week brings a new repeal of an Obama measure or reversal of an Obama policy. He even invited the heads of every HBCU to the White House for some ill-fated Obama-shaming photo opp, despite the fact that this nigga can’t even spell HBCU without a Lego teleprompter.

    Earlier today, Trump continued his creepy infatuation with his predecessor, announcing a new Cuba policy that either stalls or outright cancels much of the progress Obama made with the nation. Of course, the White House is spinning this as some sort of humanitarian altruism.
    ………………..

    You can only wonder how deep this obsession is. Does he try to get Botswana erased from the map because it rhymes with Obama? Does he refuse to say his name in private; choosing to just refer to Obama as “him over there”? Did he run out and cop a pair of Kyrie 3s to play golf in, just because Obama famously hooped in Costco Force Ones and he wants to stunt on his shoe game? Or is this infatuation more like a fatal attraction where Trump sleeps with a wax Obama mask every night? (Which might be why Melania couldn’t even sleep in the same state as this nigga.)

  195. 195.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne: Its always the character interactions that make or break the book for me, I can suspend a lot of disbelief if the dialogue is well written and the personal chemistry comes alive on the page.

  198. 198.

    TriassicSands

    @? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?:

    It’ a bill custom made for the barbaric Sessions.

    @Baud:

    Decriminalizing for users is analogous to what Republicans propose for Medicare — they say they won’t change it for people already on Medicare or close to eligibility. The purpose is to peel off a large group of voters who would oppose the bill if it applied to them. It’s classic divide and conquer. — in other words, standard Republicanism. It’s deplorable.

    If growing medical marijuana becomes illegal, what do you think will happen to that market?

  199. 199.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    It’s better than it used to be, but it’s still pretty common to run into idiots who dismiss the romance genre as “porn for women” or think that the romance genre and feminism are somehow incompatible when feminism has been hugely influential and most of the best-selling authors are feminists.

    On the humor side, I once told someone that The Code of the Woosters was the best novel ever written in English, and he sneered, “You can’t be serious!” His nominee was Heart of Darkness, which I never bothered to finish even though it’s a novella.

  200. 200.

    TenguPhule

    @cain:

    it seems that a U.S. Ally is planning on releasing some tapes that put Trump in a compromising position

    On his back, mouth wide open?

  203. 203.

    TenguPhule

    @TriassicSands:

    If growing medical marijuana becomes illegal, what do you think will happen to that market?

    The rich people will go to their friendly neighborhood connection.

    The poor people will go to jail.

  206. 206.

    Quinerly

    @MomSense:
    Reading from bottom up. You must be talking about Homeward Bound…something like that…remake, updated Incredible Journey??? I loved the book and movies.?

  207. 207.

    Barbara

    @Mnemosyne: Sounds like a good topic for a thread.

    ETA: My guilty reading pleasure is detective stories and mysteries and it always has been.

  208. 208.

    germy

    @Mnemosyne: I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that in a few decades (maybe sooner) that attitude against genre will disappear. Good writing (no matter what the genre) will always find an audience, and I think much of what is held up as respectable and serious today will in the near future be seen as pretentious. People like what they like, and the snobs are having less and less influence over readers.

  209. 209.

    rikyrah

    I needed this laugh and the comments
    ……………………….

    This Man Cooking On A File Cabinet Grill Is The Blackest Thing I’ve Ever Seen This Week
    Tonja Stidhum, 6/16/17

    I love us. “Us” being Black folks. And there is no greater time than today to flaunt and celebrate it. We are swimming in the ocean of the Black TV Renaissance resurgence, we’re the driving force of social media, our music (as always) is the soundtrack to everyone’s lives, and well… the Carter twins are Black.

    Oh! And let’s not forget the Blackest event that will ever happen in the history of polished ebony: the nationwide premiere of Black Panther on Friday, February 16, 2018. It hasn’t even happened yet, but it is already the Blackest event ever. This is scientific fact, conducted by Neil deGrasse Tyson’s play cousin Tyson LeBron deReefer.

    Until that day comes; however, I bring you this treasure:
    https://twitter.com/fuckvisuaI/status/874056374392680449?

  210. 210.

    Mnemosyne

    @TenguPhule:

    My favorite Tessa Dare is probably Romancing the Duke — great characters, interesting story. I kind of snickered that there are 19th-century cosplayers in the book, but it turned out to be historically accurate! Cosplaying is much older than people realize.

  211. 211.

    TenguPhule

    @germy:

    I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that in a few decades (maybe sooner) that attitude against genre will disappear

    Ha ha, No. I’ve been waiting for that to happen since being mocked for reading it in the 90s and I’m still waiting.

  214. 214.

    Peale

    @rikyrah: but nothing happened. As far as I can tell, there’s still a Cuban embassy and a US one. Caps on remittances remain lifted. Cuban immigration policy hasn’t changed. There will still be flights.

    The only people punished by this policy are us citizens who now once again can only travel on educational tours (punishing us, not them) and US businesses who have their investment options restricted.

    It was a policy reversal for people who didn’t know what the policy change was. And despite what numbskull says about Obama’s weak, one sided deal, Trump’s one sided deal, impacts US more than them.

  217. 217.

    Immanentize

    @Mnemosyne: Tristram Shandy didn’t make the first English novel list?

    I am obsessive about reading every novel I start until the end. Almost OCD. But I have started Tristram Shandy four times and never finished. Although I love the Sunday clock winding conceit. I am a bad ex English major.

  219. 219.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    We’ll see. We’re still a pretty reflexively sexist society, so I don’t see it happening anytime real soon.

  221. 221.

    TriassicSands

    @TenguPhule:

    I don’t honestly think there is any comparison. Feinstein is much worse. If we laid out all of their positions side-by-side, I’d agree with a lot more of his.

    Feinstein isn’t my Senator but I’ve sent her a lot of emails concerning her positions on legislation. I don’t know if there was ever a positive message. (I may have thanked her a time or two for a specific vote but overall my messages have mostly been to ask her to change her position on a pending bill.)

  223. 223.

    SFAW

    @tobie:

    I’m so old, I remember when Dershowitz wasn’t a complete fucking asshole. He actually used to be relatively liberal. Of course, I actually used to be in shape, too, so that gives you an idea of how long ago it was.

    But Newt was always a fat, evil fuck. Thanks, Obama!

  224. 224.

    Balconesfault

    @Amanda in the South Bay: Sasse pissed me off recently when he was on NPR touting his book, and he was taking some Hi-Tone talking about how wonderful it would be if we had adults to show leadership to model for children in this country. And I was thinking WTF, what the hell were you guys doing for the last eight years when we did have an adult in the White House. You spent eight years throwing feces at him.

  225. 225.

    Mary G

    This way of discussing whether a ship will sink or not cracked me up:

    7/ A source with knowledge of the efforts said the ship is making progress on dewatering— David B Larter (@DavidLarter) June 17, 2017

  226. 226.

    Mnemosyne

    @Immanentize:

    Best, not first. IIRC, Robinson Crusoe is usually considered the first novel in English, but I wasn’t an English major. ?

    The movie of Tristram Shandy with Steve Coogan is very good, if you haven’t seen it. It’s not a straight adaptation of the book, but that would be almost impossible anyway.

  228. 228.

    Immanentize

    @tobie: Dershowitz became insane between 20 and 15 years ago. I am not exaggerating. His only issue today is Israel and every word he utters is in support of his view of the security of that State. As a longtime defense attorney, it really breaks my heart. And a whole lot of other really famous defense attorneys as well.

  231. 231.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I’m so old, I had to ask der Google what Nickelback is. Based on the description in Urban Dictionary, subscribing Sen. Sasse to their promos is indeed very funny:

    Another mediocre somewhat popular nu-metal band, this time, from Canada, which isn’t a surprise considering their musical track record (Avril, Celine Dion, Barenaked Ladies, etc). Lead singer Chad is an extremely nasal “Marlboro Man” type vocalist who sounds constipated on a permenant basis. Guitar consists mostly of easy-to-play power chords that give the band a “tough” sound to the untrained ear, but a closer look reveals a band that has nothing to offer creatively. They were recently exposed recycling their music in their two hit singles, “How You Remind Me” and “Someday”, which sound nearly identical when played simultaneously.
    Nickelback should simply give up.

  235. 235.

    germy

    @Major Major Major Major:

    is that the one that’s a movie about failing to make a movie about the book?

    I thought that was ADAPTATION, about trying to turn “The Orchid Thief” into a screenplay.

  236. 236.

    Mnemosyne

    @TriassicSands:

    Feinstein votes with the Democrats every time. She’s a little maddening because she’s similar to Susan Collins — she makes lots of speeches about needing to listen to all sides.

    But when it comes down to it, she sticks with the Democrats.

  241. 241.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    We’re still a pretty reflexively sexist society, so I don’t see it happening anytime real soon

    I blame the Puritan heritage. Our nation still can’t have a rational adult conversation on romance and sex.

  243. 243.

    Gelfling 545

    @HeleninEire: I feel we would all be better off if people accepted good intentions for what they are. We can come to no understanding otherwise. I don’t see what good making folks of demonstrable good will afraid to speak will do.

  244. 244.

    Mary G

    @Gin & Tonic: Sorry that your arm/wrist isn’t progressing as much as it should be.

    I went to google that ship and it turns out there was a serious collision between a USN destroyer and a much bigger cargo ship. The commanding officer was flown to the hospital and there are sailors missing. The first result google gave me was from rt.com – wtf google?

  247. 247.

    TriassicSands

    @TenguPhule:

    At first, yes.

    But do you really think Sessions will care about the color of the skin of the people who grow for the wealthy? Remember, “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” If Sessions is statutorily prevented from arresting rich, white smokers, he’ll go after their growers. The supply will shrink, the price will increase, and sick people will suffer.

    And, of course, we’ll see the return to draconian sentencing.

  250. 250.

    TenguPhule

    @TriassicSands:

    But do you really think Sessions will care about the color of the skin of the people who grow for the wealthy?

    Yes.

    Whites get a pass, brown and blacks get a bullet.

    His connection with Russia already suggests he’s open to bribery from fair skins.

  260. 260.

    eclare

    @Barbara: Same here with detective stories, I’m partial to Michael Connelly, although his latest was not my favorite. Love the Lincoln Lawyer books.

  263. 263.

    TriassicSands

    @TenguPhule:

    It’s an interesting question but Sessions is a zealot when it comes to marijuana. He might get greater pleasure from incarcerating people of color but I don’t see him giving anyone a pass when it comes to marijuana (or drugs in general). Since he won’t be able to go after users, that will leave him more time and resources to pursue growers. If he can cut off the supply (a fantasy), he automatically gets the users. I hope we don’t get the chance to find out.

    His stance on marijuana is just one more case of a devout states’rights proponent modifying his position to accommodate his biases.

    Trump’s position on medical marijuana is unknowable. He said he supported it but we know those words mean nothing. (See health care)

  266. 266.

    Dnfree

    @Mnemosyne: I read Tristram Shandy last year. Took a while to plow through the language but the characters have stayed with me. Apparently the origin of the term “hobby horse” referring to an obsessive hobby.

  267. 267.

    TenguPhule

    @TriassicSands:

    Trump’s position on medical marijuana is unknowable.

    Not true! It’s simply a wave function set against whatever pisses off liberals at any given moment.

  269. 269.

    TenguPhule

    @TriassicSands:

    He might get greater pleasure from incarcerating people of color but I don’t see him giving anyone a pass when it comes to marijuana (or drugs in general).

    He won’t have to. Selection bias will ensure the feds only bring him cases with black and brown skins.

  276. 276.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Omnes Omnibus: The one on the Ten Duel Commandments is amazing. Pulls together everything from Biggie to J. S. Bach.

  277. 277.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Cheryl Rofer: Try a low growing nepeta like Little Titch or Little Trudy around them. i had good luck with that, though I wasn’t guarding roses as I had none. It grows well in places where lavender does well and blends well with it.

  278. 278.

    chopper

    @TriassicSands:

    it can be both. old school anti-weed attitudes are steeped in racism. a guy like sessions is just as likely to hate weed for the racist-ass old reasons from the day as for any others.

  279. 279.

    amk

    Can’t travel to Cuba because human rights but here’s a $100 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, global champion of freedom.— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 16, 2017

  282. 282.

    TriassicSands

    @Mnemosyne:

    Feinstein votes with the Democrats every time.

    According to Progressive Punch, Feinstein overall (on all votes) is the 40th most liberal Democrat. On “crucial” votes she ranks 37th and votes with the Dems 78.36% of the time. I guess it depends on what one’standard is for party loyalty and what the meaning of “every time” is.

    On “all votes” (lifetime) she’s with the Dems 87.06% of the time, but only 85% of the time this session.

  286. 286.

    eclare

    @jl: Yes, I watched again, and there were some. I would have more ribs than chicken, but that’s just me. Bravo for finding a good use for a file cabinet.

  287. 287.

    TriassicSands

    @TenguPhule:

    If only Trump were that coherent.

    His obsession with Obama doesn’t help him much here since Sessions is citing Obama administration positions on marijuana to support his own preferences.

  292. 292.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: I find I’m looking at Reuters more frequently these days.

    Google News should be great, but it seems to be very laggy in updating new stories (like 3-12+ hours laggy). And it took me ages to convince it that I wasn’t interested in the latest RWNJ memes. And, as mentioned above, it isn’t easy to get rid of sports… But I always have a tab with GN open during the day.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  293. 293.

    Ruckus

    @Barbara:
    The problem is the depth of field has been weak and a few Rs with lots of money have run (poorly for sure) and we have the jungle primary. And she isn’t all bad. She just is bad on a lot of things that have changed course in the last 20 or so years. It might be because she’s what 300 yrs old? OK only 83 and a senator since 1992. While keeping a Dem in place in CA is vital, I’d imagine that there has to be someone better than her out of over 20 million democrats. Look at her fellow senator from CA, Kamala Harris. I’m very impressed with her and hope that we can find someone to replace DiFi in 2018 when she’s up for reelection.

  294. 294.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    You are correct: Adaptation is about a screenwriter failing to adapt The Orchid Thief. The film gets finished in Tristram Shandy, but no one understands it, and Gillian Anderson gets cut out entirely despite shooting for two weeks.

  295. 295.

    Another Scott

    @Gin & Tonic: Slow and steady…

    Best of luck with the treatments!

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (“That’s a nasty looking fracture in Google Images…!”)

  296. 296.

    Ruckus

    @eclare:
    It might also be possible that the economy being not too shabby in CA has meant that people can find jobs and have something of a life. The pain of being un/under employed is I believe a contributing factor in a lot of opiate drug use.
    Which of course makes the situation much better. /sarcasm

  297. 297.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Ruckus: I voted for another Dem in the last primary where DiFi was on the ballot. If there’s a case like 2016 where 2 Dems come out of the Primary, the other Dem would have to be pretty bad for me to vote for DiFi. I hope she decides to retire.

  298. 298.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Having worked in professional sports I know people who carry around their x-rays and Dr cards because they always trip the airport scanners, what with all the plates and screws. That one looks like fun if you are older than say 25-30 yrs and therefore somewhat slower to mend. Good luck, take time so that it heals properly and well.
    And just because I can’t resist, I’ve seen worse. Have a friend who wore a neck halo for over a year. Bolts in his skull and all that. Have seen exterior fixation of legs that people had to cart around for six months. Makes a 6 week cast (which I’ve had on both hands, not at the same time) seem….. insignificant.

  299. 299.

    jl

    @Ruckus:

    CA seems to be about average of US over last few years. Hardest hit ares, continuously, since 2013 are KY, WV, OH, and PA.

    CDC drug overdose data page:
    Drug Overdose Death Data
    Opioids—prescription and illicit—are the main driver of drug overdose deaths. Opioids were involved in 33,091 deaths in 2015, and opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999.

    https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html

  300. 300.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    I hope she does as well. As I was under employed last time she ran I considered running. Of course I’d have been one of what 30+ unknowns doing that and as I had no money………. so the consideration lasted maybe 30 seconds.

  302. 302.

    Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire

    Took the little one birding today. It was 92 degrees. Too hot for us.

    Have a long run planned for tomorrow morning (training for a ten miler in September). Hope it rains overnight to cool things off.

  303. 303.

    dnfree

    @Jeffro: Google “t-shirt 10 kinds of people binary” and you will find many options. It’s not a new saying, but always makes me chuckle (or maybe smirk).

  305. 305.

    dnfree

    @Another Scott: Agreed about the timeliness of Google news, although I still use it. And it sometimes shows me Breitbart as a first choice. I tried building that list of sites you don’t want included, and at least at the time I did it, there was a maximum of ten entries, and every time I added a new one, an old one disappeared. Not that it told me it was doing that. I do like that I can specify to get physics news.

  306. 306.

    J R in WV

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I can’t read Dickens. No way. Tried any number of times, many different novels. Can’t do it. Like other stuff from that era. Sherlock Holmes, etc. But Dickens is just boring.

    I like some romance, the horror type, vampires, ghosts, etc. Mostly, tho, I read science fiction. Always have. Mystery too, Nero Wolfe, John Kellerman. Surprised someone referred to Faye Kellerman’s work as romance upthread, seems more like mystery if you insist on pegging everything into a genre.

  307. 307.

    Peale

    @jl: there was a concerted effort on the part of drug manufacturers to market drugs in those states. Talking about the emptiness and all the stuff just covers for that marketing plan to doctors.

  308. 308.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @J R in WV: The only interesting characters in Dickens are the villains and Sidney Carton (who is meant as a villain redeemed).

  309. 309.

    hedgehog mobile

    The mister and i have tix to Cirque du Soleil tomorrow.I The show is Luzia, described as “a waking dream of Mexico.”

  310. 310.

    Ruckus

    @jl:
    I did say under employment. I lived in OH for 11 yrs, suburb of Columbus and while most of the city was pretty decent there is a lot of the surrounding area where under employment is a way of life. Some states in the same area were lots worse about living wages. KY, WV, western PA, IN.
    From your link:
    Opioids—prescription and illicit—are the main driver of drug overdose deaths. Opioids were involved in 33,091 deaths in 2015, and opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999.
    In 2015, the five states with the highest rates of death due to drug overdose were West Virginia (41.5 per 100,000), New Hampshire (34.3 per 100,000), Kentucky (29.9 per 100,000), Ohio (29.9 per 100,000), and Rhode Island (28.2 per 100,000).

    Significant increases in drug overdose death rates from 2014 to 2015 were primarily seen in the Northeast and South Census Regions. States with statistically significant increases in drug overdose death rates from 2014 to 2015 included Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia.

  312. 312.

    Mnemosyne

    @J R in WV:

    Faye Kellerman is definitely a mystery writer — she gets sold and categorized that way. She usually has an ongoing romance in her books, but that’s not the same as those books being romance novels.

    ETA: A caveat — I haven’t read Kellerman in a while, so maybe she is writing romance now. There are quite a few writers who go back and forth between romance/romantic suspense and mystery/thriller.

  313. 313.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    That’s part of the reason that I like her!
    She knows what shit sounds and smells like and doesn’t put up with it at all. My best friend who died in Jan was like that, just not as public/political about it. It was one of the many things I liked about her.

  314. 314.

    Barbara

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think Great Expectations is a great work. It still breathes with Dickens’ penetrating assessment of English society, and the destructive potential of hereditary wealth. I am convinced that Dickens is underrated because he wrote for the masses, and his works do tend to have sentimental conclusions (although Great Expectations is an exception, and he was forced to write an alternative ending). Miss Havisham is one of the great characters of all time, as is Jack Maggs. Another underrated work, laugh out loud funny, is Vanity Fair by Thackeray.

  315. 315.

    ruemara

    @Laura: I was out trying to shoot in that and I realized I was both shaking and punch drunk. I let the young lady trying to pro shoot with the much better camera than me, but in high heels and a mini tank dress, have the area. Tomorrow is the main event.

  316. 316.

    ThresherK

    @J R in WV: That was me. Detective with a romance arc spread across the novels. I.didn’t mean strictly romance, but people who like romances with detectives, will find Faye K. a shorter step than they might think.

  320. 320.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @SgrAstar: True story: Back when I was in college, I came home one night and was greeted by the sight of the drug dealer who lived next door laid out on his front stoop with a team of paramedics working on him. I rang the doorbell to summon my roommate, who came out to see what was going on, and as he did what came wafting out into the street from our apartment but, you guessed it, “Gimme Shelter”, as covered by the Sisters of Mercy.

  322. 322.

    frosty

    @TenguPhule:

    I was mocked through HS & College for reading romance novels.

    I went on a romance binge about 10 years ago and yeah, felt a little strange taking them out of the library. College was when my genre reading descended from sci-fi and mysteries down to Westerns. I still have a box of Louis L’Amour’s in the attic*.

    *But not Sackett Brand, dammit! I must have bought half a dozen copies and gave them all away to people saying “Don’t knock westerns until you read this one!”

  323. 323.

    Tim in SF

    I’m still reeling from yesterday. One of the people killed in the San Francisco mass shooting (same day as the D.C. one) was my UPS driver. Wayne Chan. I’ve known him for almost twenty years. He knew me and my husband by name and would say “hi” to us when he saw us on Haight Street. He loved my dogs. There are dozens and dozens of people in my neighborhood sharing stories about him on Facebook in the past 24 hours.

    A news report says Wayne was shot in the back, then “finished” with a shot from the front. He deserved better.

    This god dammed country with all these fucking guns.

    This is the SECOND mass shooting victim in under two years I knew personally. We won’t hear about this one, though, because three UPS drivers getting murdered takes a distant back seat to a Congressman being shot in the ass.

  325. 325.

    frosty

    @Barbara: We were assigned Great Expectations in high school. I hated it. Perhaps they should have assigned something else so we would have appreciated Dickens and picked up G.E. later in life when it would have been a better time to read it.

  326. 326.

    Another Scott

    @Tim in SF: :-( Condolences.

    It’s far past time that we demanded sensible gun laws. Organizations are trying to push sensible policies forward, but it’s very hard.

    How many wore Orange on June 2? I would have if I had known about it. (I have an orange shirt that says “Do Something” in big print on the front, and a short blurb arguing for sensible gun laws on the back, but I knew nothing about the event earlier this month.)

    Hang in there.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  327. 327.

    Splitting Image

    @Major Major Major Major:

    has anybody checked that the last pages of Tristram Shandy are even printed? I don’t know anybody who’s managed to finish it.

    I’ve read Tristram Shandy. I thought it was terrific. You’re thinking of the Time Traveler’s Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations by Dr. Dan Streetmentioner.

  328. 328.

    SgrAstar

    @Tim in SF: Tim, I am so sorry to hear your story about Wayne Chan. My family are SF and Bay Area natives since the Gold Rush. We love it- SF is such a great city… heartbroken for you and all of us.

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