Sorry, moving in slow gear today.
ETA:
Guffey is a tiny hamlet off Rt 9, on the way to Eleven Mile Reservoir. Which is where I wish I was for the weekend, camping, fishing for trout, and catching crawdads in my traps (and, at night, wading and using my hands and a headlamp). Great fun, alas I’m no longer close.
On the way home, I’d always stop at Rita’s in Guffey for some chow, usually a very peppery green chile. On the way out, I’d often drive to Fairplay and hit Dorothy’s Tamales (a converted bowling alley that still opens for bowling after dinner!), then back South to the reservoir. Should you ever be near Breckenridge, Buena Vista, or are driving West from Colorado Springs, check them out. Their bison tamales with red chile are beyond description – they’ve perfected that dish, literally, as in you cannot believe that someone has made something so good, so perfect, so complex. Food like that is sublime, even transcendent, and you’re lucky if you encounter it.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Into the seventh month. Only 42 months left to go. God help us.
Major Major Major Major
Yeah, that’s Colorado all right.
There’s this one curve on the highway where a rancher found a rock that kind of looks like a cow laying down so he painted it like a cow. I always looked forward to that rock when I would drive by it.
Gelfling 545
Weird weather here. Last week there was serious flooding here. We’ve had nuisance flooding here occasionally with water damage, back ups and a mess to clean up but last week there were roads closed, driving bans and even some people needing to be evacuated. Yesterday two TORNADOES(!) touched down, a thing I cannot recall happening before in my lifetime. Tornadoes in Buffalo? As I said, weird.
jacy
Man, we spent a lot of time in Guffy, because my dad liked to fish 11 Mile. I miss home!
Spanky
I just ate a Pop Tart.
– Brick Tamland
Alain the site fixer
@Major Major Major Major: Carol and I, to this day, giggle about driving down to Taos. We went through cow warnings (unfenced BLM and state land), then horse warnings(!), then back to cow warnings, then ufo-adbucting-cows warnings! Seriously, some very funny people in northern New Mexico put these stickers on the cow signs – a ufo with a ray pointing down onto the cow. I don’t believe they’ve figured out who does it, but they are heroes to me.
Alain the site fixer
@jacy: Right? A true candidate for future living, as long as the rural high speed internet (low-latency is a must) rolls out affordably. Those ponderosa pines towering over everything, just amazing.
Major Major Major Major
It’s funny, I was just commiserating yesterday with another transplant from Colorado that it’s impossible to get a good red or green chile out here in NorCal. Or chili, for that matter.
Yarrow
Love that art piece. The satellite dishes behind it kind of make the photo. The old west, the new west.
@Gelfling 545:
Thank goodness there’s no climate change.
Alain the site fixer
@Major Major Major Major: I make my own, in fact, making a batch of green using some defrosted pueblo chiles from 7 years ago that I vacuum sealed and have kept frozen ever since. These are Pueblo “hots”, so it should be fun. Planning on making sloppers for dinner with some nice organic grass-fed sliders on the grill. Of course there’ll be a bowl of chile and some tortillas on the side.
Tip for chile lovers: some grocers can get Hatch Chiles (by Melissa’s produce!) delivered fresh (they roast them outside the stores often for the true experience) in August/September. On the East Coast, Wegman’s gets them in and I get a case every year. They roast, then I clean, vacuum seal, then freeze them and enjoy them all the time, year-round.
rikyrah
An unpersuasive defense of Trump’s health care ignorance
07/21/17 09:26 AM—UPDATED 07/21/17 09:37 AM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump’s ignorance about health care is obvious. Just this week, the president, while bragging about his expertise on the subject, made plain that he simply doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about.
The question, however, is whether Trump’s illiteracy is consequential. MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson asked Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) about this yesterday, and the Republican senator did his best to defend his party’s president.
For now, let’s put aside the fact that Trump’s purported “principles” on health care have been easily discarded, and practically every promise he made to American voters – including his vow not to cut Medicaid – has already been broken.
Let’s instead focus on Cassidy’s broader point: that the president doesn’t really have to understand the substantive details. I can appreciate the motivations behind the argument, but it’s still unpersuasive.
rikyrah
Senate GOP confirms controversial Trump nominee to appeals court
07/21/17 10:42 AM
By Steve Benen
Asked this week about his party’s difficulties in governing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters, “We have a new Supreme Court justice,”
The point wasn’t subtle: the Republicans may be struggling to advance their legislative agenda, but the party is nevertheless moving the federal judiciary to the right. And while this may seem like an argument intended to rationalize failure, McConnell’s argument isn’t wrong.
Yesterday, for example, Senate Republicans voted unanimously to confirm John Bush, a Donald Trump nominee to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. And who’s John Bush? Let’s revisit a recent piece from Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick:
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow:
Or if there is, we aren’t causing it, or if we are, nothing can be done, or if it can, it’s too expensive, or if it’s not, the damage has already happened anyway.
This is the full range of conservative views on climate change, all of which have the same policy preference of ‘hell no’.
@Alain the site fixer: Yum.
jacy
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s one of things I miss the most. There ain’t no green chile in Louisiana. I made my own a couple of times, but it’s labor intensive and hard to find tomatillas sometimes.
rikyrah
White dude to NYT on #ObamaCare: “I can’t even remember why I opposed it.”
Really?! Cool story, bro. pic.twitter.com/UEykI3c1ne
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) July 21, 2017
Hmmm….let’s see. Maybe you opposed #ObamaCare because the president was black, black, black, BLACK.https://t.co/IlyFIoLQk5
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) July 21, 2017
i guess obamacare looks better to folks now that the president isn’t so blackity black. https://t.co/RQpZZPxCRN
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) July 21, 2017
Major Major Major Major
Seen ’round the innertubes: “You millennials and your obsession with public healthcare. Back in my day we just died.”
Alain the site fixer
@jacy: look for a Hispanic grocer or WalMart. They are getting more and more popular. I’ve started making “Mexican scrambled eggs” for breakfast and use 2-3 tomatillos and wow, they really are a great tasting vegetable. It’s an easy way to add veggies to breakfast so you don’t even miss the bacon or sausage.
jacy
@rikyrah:
And the thing that Cassidy doesn’t seem to understand is that you can’t cover pre-existing conditions while eliminating the mandates and lowering the premiums. Those three things do not go together. That’s why there is no “replace” except one that hurts people. The Republicans are looking for a unicorn, and if they can’t find it, they’ll superglue a paper horn to a goat and call it the same thing.
rikyrah
Does Trump Know He’s Lying?
Yes. He just doesn’t care.
by Nancy LeTourneau
July 20, 2017 2:27 PM
Shortly after the inauguration in January, Jennifer Rubin posed an interesting question.
We may now have an answer to the question about whether or not the president is aware that he’s lying.
…………………..
All of this adds up to the fact that Trump was lying during the campaign and knew it.
None of this is a refutation of what I’ve written previously about his mental unfitness for office. Contrary to what Rubin was suggesting, he knows the difference between the truth and a lie. The situation is actually more dire. He doesn’t care.
jacy
@Alain the site fixer:
There was a tacqueria that ran for a while in the town I lived in before I moved to Baton Rouge — they sold tomatillas and some other produce. (also heavenly nopales with a green salsa that would melt styrofoam). Unfortunately they left. And then I left. (Not that those two things were related). I’m sure there must be someplace in BR, but I just haven’t found it yet.
rikyrah
An Administration That Is Choosing Silence Over Science
by Nancy LeTourneau July 21, 2017 8:02 AM
There is a reason why Obama chose to visit Alaska as a way to highlight the need for action on climate change. Joel Clement, who was the director of the Office of Policy Analysis at the U.S. Interior Department explains.
Dealing with that threat was Clement’s job at the Interior Department…until last week.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Any BJers familiar with SC, especially around Charleston?
Next month I’m going eclipse chasing for the first time in my life. Chose Charleston because it was close by (2 hr flight I think) and seemed like a big enough city to have flight and hotel options.
But since then in articles about the eclipse, I’ve realized that though Charleston is in the path of totality, it’s off center, expecting maybe 90-100 seconds. Max eclipse time in the center of the path is more like 150 seconds.
My questions:
1. Is a minute and a half of totality enough to get the experience?
2. Are there beaches north of Charleston that are likely to be good spots? On the map, what I see is a Wildlife Refuge that can only be accessed by boat. Doesn’t sound promising.
3. Actually even if I do watch in Charleston I’m not sure where to go. I’m hoping for a beach because I’ve heard there are some pretty awesome effects when you can see the shadows at start and end, moving across the ground.
rikyrah
The Unbelievable Hypocrisy of Free-Speech Conservatives
Republicans who accuse college students of hampering free speech should actually practice what they preach.
by Jim Sleeper
July 21, 2017
Why did it take the latest damning revelations about the Trump family’s Russia connections to provoke Fox News anchor Shepard Smith to ask “Why is it lie after lie after lie?…If there’s nothing there—and that’s what they tell us…If all of that, why all these lies?”
Fox News has abetted so many of the president’s cons that Smith’s outburst was indeed surprisingly off message for the network. But why—throughout Trump’s vulgar, violence-invoking, free-speech-ravaging ascent to the White House and now through his first six months in office—have so many others in the chattering classes remained fixated on a much smaller danger to our freedoms: politically correct college students?
Instead of challenging Trump’s threats against open expression and inquiry—including his own debasement of “free speech” in a one-man cacophony of self-contradictory tweets and Rose Garden lies—a national chorus of alarm, goaded by a well-funded crusade, has spent most of the last year-and-a-half hunting up threats to our freedoms from students and deans on some of the nation’s college campuses.
rikyrah
@Alain the site fixer:
Just googled Mexican Scrambled Eggs…thanks.
Alain the site fixer
@jacy: Sometime soon, I’ll post a new recipe I’m playing with. It’s easy and doesn’t take tons of time because there are shortcuts, like using ground pork. Of course it’s not nearly as good, but it means you can make it more often, so that’s a plus.
I’ll also post my “How To Clean Chiles” walkthrough. My technique is somewhat self-taught, but the results are unbeatable.
rk
I have a question for knowledgeable people. What if Trump fires Muller and pardons himself or his cronies. Is it all over at that stage? Are the investigations shut down? I can totally see Trump doing both these things. I don’t expect congress acting to do anything at all.
Miss Bianca
Guffey, eh? Wow, that’s back of beyond! But hey – someone was selling a grow operation there not too long ago. Just FYI. : )
Alain the site fixer
@rk: I don’t think that the Intelligence community, domestic and partner/foreign, would hold back at that point and so much crap would come out that we’d have to do something. Also, no state charges can be pardoned, nor international charges. Not sure he can pardon himself, though, as that’s a point of contention.
Major Major Major Major
@rk: Then our slow-moving constitutional crisis becomes a lot faster-moving, and… well, who knows, it might be bad enough that even Republicans would move towards impeachment. Better to have a wounded President Pence than a toxic President Trump, perhaps.
@Alain the site fixer: If he pardons himself it will go to SCOTUS.
J R in WV
@Alain the site fixer:
WTF?? Are you crazy? When fresh garden tomatoes come in, it is time to make bacon, lettuce and tomatoe sammiches, with Hellman’s Mayo, on good bread. With thick cut bacon simmered in its own fat ’til just crispy.
We save the bacon fat for bean dishes the rest of the year, and usually have enough by the time the local tomatoes are no longer available to last until next summer. Usually.
And say, what about the submission tool? Did I just miss the christening? Or am I too unobservant to see the buttons? I know I am, but still….. ;-)
Alain the site fixer
@rikyrah: Thank you for all you do – I always mean to say that. I really appreciate your comments/links. It really helps spread information and we all benefit. You’re like a mini-frontpager (and not the only one – lots of folks offer info and benefit!). So thanks!
J R in WV
@jacy:
Hey Jacy, try this:
Looks promising to me….
Immanentize
@jacy: I’m outside Boston and I grow Anaheim (which are fairly close to Hatch), poblano, jalapeno, serrano and tabasco in my garden. I also grow Tomatillos which are always a race against the fall frost — The first time I planted tomatillo here, they flowered but didnt set fruit. I ripped them out. Then I learned that they generally flower twice before setting fruit up here because the temperature isn’t right until July for the little buggers to set. Now, the fruit sets in July and takes about six weeks to mature — which puts us into frost danger territory.
But I always get enough to make verde and delux tomatillo (with sour creme) sauces and roast and freeze some for soups in the winter. Now, ocra….
Alain the site fixer
@J R in WV: It’s coming Monday. I’ve got a lot going on, so wasn’t ready to deal with a bunch of submissions.
I love bacon, but I’m trying to reduce the meat and preserved meats that we eat. So figuring out ways to make a satisfying breakfast without meat is a good.
Now, if I lived in Austin, I’d be getting my uncle’s Tyrolian bacon (and everything else he makes). In his retirement, he’s become an even better craftsman in making ham, bacon, sausage, and pate. Since he hunts, a lot of it is venison, but not the bacon or ham. He’s found a source for some quality hog, and the special bits that old-country artisans use, not what you can get normally. In one case, for example, I think he makes a smoked ham from pig cheeks or something like that. Anyway, they’ve gone low-carb which means it’s “bring on the bacon”. It’s a good thing.
jacy
@J R in WV:
Ooh, the first one is just a couple miles from my house. Thanks! Because now I really want to make green chile.
Major Major Major Major
@J R in WV:
Ah, man! Now that brings me back! Back when I was a kid and we gardened we totally did that. (Not sure about the mayo brand.)
@Alain the site fixer:
I think the Brits have it right with beans on toast, personally.
ETA: Oh, you know that you can just let the submissions languish in the admin panel, right? They don’t go anywhere. Unless you delete them, then they go to the bit bucket.
Adria McDowell
Smoked tomatillo salsa is everything!
@Immanentize: Thanks for this info. In a few years, I’ll be trying to grow tomatillos here in the Midwest.
Also, I’ll have to remember that tomatillos aren’t self fertilizing, so I’ll have to have more than one plant!
thewesson
@rk: Pardoning cronies would prevent them from pleading the Fifth when asked to testify against Trump. Trump cannot pardon himself against impeachment (that is certain.) There is disagreement as to whether he can pardon himself for federal crimes. He cannot pardon himself for state crimes.
Mike in DC
Today is the deadline for Manafort and Trump Jr to agree to appear and testify next wednesday. Feinstein and Grassley have said they’re willing to issue subpoenas and even use a marshal to bring them to the hearing. We’ll see.
Iowa Old Lady
@rk: That’s the nightmare scenario. Basically, he does it and says what are you gonna do about it? And I’m afraid the Republican congress might do nothing.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@rikyrah: I had a few weeks in El Paso a couple years ago. Once I discovered the REAL Mexican restaurants, I started going there for breakfast too. At first I stuck with stuff I knew, like “huevos rancheros”. But finally I decided, dammit, I was going to find out what Mexican breakfast actually was, and order those things on the menu that I had no idea what they were.
So let me recommend at least two other “Mexican breakfast” items: chilaquiles and nopales.
Nopales are prickly-pear cactus meat. Apparently it’s somewhat of a pain to prepare from scratch as there is a significant amount of boiling involved. But very tasty and very characteristic. They are sometimes compared to green-beans. The consistency is a little like that, but there is definitely a whole different interesting flavor, kind of lemony.
Chilaquiles are more basic, leftover tortillas fried up in salsa. They come in green or red. From what I’ve read, it’s what Mom does with leftover tortillas, so it’s very common as a comfort food.
Alain the site fixer
@Major Major Major Major: I go a little more Swiss/French – mushrooms on toast. Duxelles on home-made bread, lightly toasted, is quite satisfying, but hard on the arteries. I love beans, but not so much for breakfast, but that’s just “baked beans” type beans. A nice bowl of lentils – from almost any cuisine – is welcome anytime, and with a toasted pita, some fruit and yogurt, is a great breakfast.
rikyrah
@Alain the site fixer:
Nixon’s OLC told him in 1974 told him he couldn’t pardon himself.
Another Scott
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Sounds like a fun trip.
I don’t know anything first-hand about SC (drove through a couple of times).
As far as, “is 90s long enough”, maybe look at some videos. 2 minutes in Australia (4:34).
I assume you’ll be looking up most of the time, so where you look probably won’t matter too much, but yeah, being out in the middle of nowhere and seeing it would be pretty powerful.
Is there a park with a hill that might work? It looks like they have some that are open 24 hours, but I haven’t checked to see the terrain.
I remember sitting in out on our wood fire escape deck in Chicago in the early ’80s and watching a lunar eclipse. Not as impressive as a solar one to be sure, but it sticks with you.
Enjoy!
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
@J R in WV:
I feel you. Love me a good BLT.
Yarrow
@Alain the site fixer:
Oh, yeah! I was just thinking about that. You pull into the parking log and you can already smell them. Buy them warm out of the roaster to take home. YUM.
Iowa Old Lady
@rikyrah: Again, if Trump does “pardon” himself, what are we going to do about it? I wish I were certain of the answer.
Iowa Old Lady
@rikyrah: BLTs are the best summer food there is. With a side of sweet corn.
bluefoot
@Gelfling 545: I remember a tornado touching down in the Buffalo area when I was young. There were also rare tornado warnings/watches some summers, but very rare.
MomSense
Ok, Maine if I wanted New Jersey summers I would live in New Jersey. Enough of the high 80s temps with horrible humidity. The entire outside is like the bathroom after taking a hot shower and forgetting to turn on the fan. It has been like this for days.
I DO NOT LIKE.
schrodingers_cat
@J R in WV: I don’t get all the bacon love. I am kinda meh about it. I did not grown up eating either pork or beef, must be an acquired taste. TBH I am not a fan of how bacon grease smells, too strong for me.
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah: He probably can’t pardon himself, but it really comes down to whether Anthony Kennedy thinks he can.
Miss Bianca
@MomSense: Whereas we’ve been having 20-degree temp swings here in the central CO mountains, where an 85-90 degree day will suddenly plunge back down into the 60s when it starts raining. Can’t complain, altho’ it’s a bit disconcerting at times.
One of my sisters moved up to Maine after living out in NM for 20 + years. I’ll have to check in with her to see how she’s doing. She’s coming out here in the beginning of August, was talking about wanting to go camping in Bear’s Ears.
rikyrah
@Iowa Old Lady:
We need state charges.
Mike in DC
@Iowa Old Lady:
1. Voters–mass protests, phone calls and town hall pressure on Republicans to act
2. Dems in Congress–push to reinstate Mueller. If Trump grants pardons, push to formally declare the entire investigation is now to be considered an impeachment inquiry. If the GOP refuses to act, good luck with the whole “raising the debt ceiling” thing.
3. Dem state governments –start signaling that theyre watching things very closely, and arent happy with what they’re seeing. Talk about launching independent state investigations into Trump.
4. Media–start exploring the possibility that there is kompromat on members of Congress. Keep doing great work. Kick the talking heads in the ass to stop them from normalizing all this.
Also, markets hate uncertainty. A constitutional crisis would tank the market. Money talks…
A Ghost To Most
@Alain the site fixer:
My wife and I are headed to Taos on Sunday. I will try to take some pictures.
scav
I’m now skipping direct to a massive need for mole. Only helped make it once (so far) as chili-polisher, cuisinart-wrastler (unfortunate wedging of cinnamon in blade) and general dogsbody, but what a thing to have tucked in the freezer.
otmar
btw, don’t pay by credit card at Trump properties: 3rd breach in 2 years
Immanentize
Spicer just resigned
Immanentize
@MomSense: This is sadly, our future. One moves to Maine to escape this sauna! Where to next? Nova Scotia?
Immanentize
@otmar: Why hasn’t someone started a #ShutTrump movement which places protesters in front of Trump properties (like a permanent picket line) 24/7?
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I’d suggest Sullivan’s Island. I’m not much of a beach person, but the Fort Moultrie area should be open enough. Grab lunch at Poe’s Tavern.
The parts of James Island I’ve been to were overgrown.
JPL
@Immanentize: Who knew that he had a spine.
anon
because the new comm guy is too crazy or not crazy enough? not sure
TriassicSands
@Spanky:
and
My condolences. I hope you washed it down with chocolate milk.
Immanentize
@JPL: It is still uncertain if he does have a spine. He might have just been pushed (in his jellyfish form).
Alain the site fixer
@A Ghost To Most: It is a wonderful place. As a Freemason, and explorer/mountain man aficionado, I really enjoyed seeing Kit Carson’s house and learning more about him (he was a good man and a Mason). Do go the the Taos pueblo (forget the name). It still makes me cry – typing this now – thinking of the ruined church where US forces -our forces – bombed, shot, and burned alive women and children, in a church!
Carol was shocked – knowing that there’s unsavory aspects of our history is one thing, but being somewhere that the former victims control the narrative makes the true horror we inflicted on natives visceral, and it’s a punch in the gut.
JPL
@Immanentize: We do know that it’s good news for Melissa McCarthy.
rk
@Alain the site fixer:
Does Muller share information with NY state attorney? I’ve no idea what Schneiderman is investigating, but surely there must be an overlap between the two?
Tazj
@Gelfling 545: Yesterday was crazy. I live in Hamburg and thought I’d just run to the drug store to pick up some medication before it started to thunderstorm. I didn’t go to the Walmart near my house because my husband likes to get the points from the Plenti/Riteaid card and I’m afraid of a long walk to my car if it’s thundering and lightening(yes, I’m a wimp). It was just sprinkling when I left the house and the warning was only for severe thunderstorms north of Buffalo. The thought of a tornado never crossed my mind.
When I got out of the drug store it had stopped raining and it was partly cloudy. When I turned off of South Park onto Scranton it was partly sunny, though I could see lightening in the distance. Halfway down the street suddenly all hell breaks loose. It gets dark, torrential rain, the trees are bending from the wind and stuff starts flying and hitting my car. Tree limbs and junk from people’s yards are flying all over the place and the road gets blocked from large tree limbs. I decide to turn around in someone’s driveway because I think it’s too dangerous to head home but in retrospect that was stupid because I was heading in the same direction as the tornado. After a few minutes people get out of their cars and move the trees limbs and the road is passable again, and I head back to the stores for shelter and to call my son. I was frantic and worried that I had left my 12 year old in charge.
By the time I get back to the store parking lot the worst of the storm had passed, and I notice an Emergency Alert notice on my phone issued a few minutes earlier. Fortunately for me, the worst of the storm had missed my neighborhood and I only had an overturned recyclable bin and some garbage in my front lawn, many others in Hamburg weren’t so lucky. We just replaced our roof due to 75 mph wind gusts at the end of March. I’m used to snow but not this weather.
Alain the site fixer
@rk: He can but he likely won’t pass evidence over that he wants to use, unless it’s to create a legitimate evidence trail for the states to use if the pardons mean the Feds can’t do something.
Waratah
@Alain the site fixer: My grocery store ad says hatch green chili roasting coming soon. I like to put some in the freezer whole for chili rellanos.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Found some self-respect?
Mike in DC
@Immanentize:
Over the Scaramucci hiring. Which Reince also objected to. Wonder if Reince is next to jump. GOP leadership would find Reince’s absence unsettling.
Mnemosyne
In light of the controversy over “Confederate,” I thought I should let folks know that Octavia Butler’s sci-fi novel Kindred is a Kindle Daily Deal today for $1.99.
It’s the story of a post-Civil Rights Black woman who is magically transported back to her white ancestor’s plantation and is enslaved, but also has to help him to ensure a better future. Butler said she tried several times to write it with a Black man as the lead, but they kept acting like the post-Civil Rights men she knew and getting themselves killed, so she changed the main character to a woman who would have more patience. ?
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: Ooooh. Will grab it.
Gonna slide by the library later today and take out the first of the Parable books.
JPL
@Tazj: What an amazing story, and I’m glad that you are safe.
A Ghost To Most
@Alain the site fixer: Thanks for the tips. Much of the trip will we will out on the 4-wheel drive roads around Red River, NM, but staying in Taos, and will probably visit Santa Fe as well.
Also going to try to find Uptop, CO (near LaVeta Pass), per Miss Bianca’s comments a few days ago.
MomSense
@Miss Bianca: @Immanentize:
I had to break down and get air conditioners for the bedrooms a couple years ago. It’s just too hot and muggy now to go without. When I was a kid we had 2 or 3 hot days like this at the end of August but the rest of the summer was cool. We used to wear our windbreakers most mornings and evenings because it was so chilly. Not anymore. Call me Cole because I may not wear pants again until October.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Excellent suggestion, thanks. I will do just that!
Gelfling 545
@Tazj: The news had video of cars overturned in Hamburg and a lot of other damage. Holland got a tornado touch down as well. Glad you missed the worst. In the city we got a heavy thunderstorm and fortunately not much more. My daughter, a mile away in Amherst, got her 3rd water main break in a year, though.
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
I always wanted this to be made into a movie.
tybee
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
http://www.weather.gov/chs/eclipse
up around moncks corner or cherry hill looks like it ought to be good viewing.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
She grew up here in Pasadena and left her papers to the Huntington when she died. They have a terrific exhibition about her that’s up for a few more weeks. Like all of their author exhibitions, it’s small in the space it takes up but is jam-packed with fascinating information about her and her work. The famous curmudgeon Harlan Ellison was her mentor and champion and they have some great letters from him on display.
Mnemosyne
@Tazj:
Yikes! I’m glad you stayed safe. I’m not sure what the current recommendation is to do if a tornado strikes while you’re driving — I moved to an earthquake state 20+ years ago.
Tazj
@JPL: @Mnemosyne: Thanks, I guess I’ll take severe thunderstorm warnings more seriously now.
@Gelfling 545: Yes, the weather has been terrible this summer. It makes one almost wish for the drought of last summer, though I know the farmers, gardeners and wildlife didn’t appreciate it.
catclub
@Gelfling 545:
Massachusetts was high on the tornado fatalities list for awhile due to one tornado.
Mike in DC
Speaking as a lawyer(albeit newish and kinda broke), as I noted in previous threads, the major concern we should have about the pardon power is using it to silence or coopt co-conspirators, NOT the self-pardon thing. Focus on that.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: I just read this last year. First Octavia Butler for me, won’t be the last.
Miss Bianca
@A Ghost To Most: Wave to Uptop for me! Now that I know that’s the high road to Taos I’d like to drive that way again.
DesertFriar
@Yarrow:
Here in Southern NM, New Mexico State Univ has a fund raiser in September. 35 lbs. of roasted Hatch chilies (mild, medium or hot) for $25. Chilies can be put in the freezer for over a year with no problems.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
Her stuff goes on sale for Kindle a LOT, so keep an eye on the Daily Deals and monthly deals. I got the whole Xenogenesis trilogy for under $5 on Kindle. They like to put her books on special almost as much as Vonnegut’s! ?
J R in WV
@Mnemosyne:
I was driving back to WV from AZ one spring, alone, and stopped for a bathroom break in Oklahoma on I-40. It was a really big white stucco-looking building, in the flat middle of nowhere OK. After hitting the bathroom, I was walking around the building to see what else was in such a big structure…
Then I saw the door into the big room – like a bank vault or bomb shelter. The whole thing was super reinforced concrete – a tornado shelter for people on the interstate !!! I was amazed, what are you supposed to do if you aren’t right beside one of those bunkers?
Then the tornadoes tore through Soonergrunt’s neightborhood, and we learned that the building code in OK doesn’t require storm shelters for residential buildings, nor for schools, because FREEDUMB from safety is an Oklahoma founding principal… or something. Sooner had to buy their newly constructed house and THEN have a storm shelter buried. CRAY….
Ang
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Yep, I’m in Charleston. Hi!
I hope you’ve already got hotel reservations? From what I’ve heard, everything’s damn near fully booked by now. Similarly, pretty much anywhere you go is likely to be crazy crowded.
From what I can tell, looking at the interactive maps, going just a smidge north adds to the length of totality, so Sullivan’s Island or Isle of Palms will have longer exposures than Folly Beach, and the poor snobs on Seabrook and Kiawah Islands are just barely out of the path of totality. I’m not a beach person myself (meh, grew up in Florida, so it was never a novelty to me), but if I was looking to spend Eclipse Day at the beach, I’d probably head to Sullivan’s or Isle of Palms. That said, head out early. Our local roads are sad and liable to be stupid-busy, and because the whole area is built on marshland, there are very few straight lines between any two places. Downtown is just annoying to drive, with lots of one-way streets that were designed for horse-drawn carriages, not cars, but it’s also super pretty and historical. However, the area tends to flood with heavy rain, especially in conjunction with high tide.
Where are you staying, and how long will you be here?
Beyond the eclipse, you’re in for some damn good food. Make sure you get some shrimp and grits while you’re in town. Vickery’s in Mt. Pleasant, Crab House on James Island, Sunrise Bistro on Johns Island, or if you’re feeling fancy-schmancy and up to tourist central, Slightly North of Broad downtown all do it right. Bluerose Cave is a little hole in the wall in the St. Andrews area of Charleston that does amazing breakfast, and fish and chips to die for (really there isn’t much there they don’t do well). Hominy Grill downtown gets all sorts of great press, but is IMHO overrated. If you go somewhere any they specify Geecie Boy Grits, you’re almost guaranteed to get something amazing.
Alain the site fixer
@Miss Bianca: good to see you, figured that pic might encourage a comment or two! I missed the high road comment, and hope sometime to do the. Cañon City-Taos drive again, the LaVita pass route was just great.