Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

In my day, never was longer.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

White supremacy is terrorism.

This really is a full service blog.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

All hail the time of the bunny!

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Non-Political Open Thread

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  1. 1.

    Major Major Major Major

    Because that conference ate my previous weekend, I get tomorrow off, so suck it, libtards!

    ?

    I plan to write and read and sleep in and draw and go to the eye doctor. Tonight I’ll stay up late watching Psych and playing Warcraft maybe, but first, dim sum!!!

  2. 2.

    MikeInOly

    That is lovely! I’ve been listening to Erik Satie lately. So mellow and sweet. Perfect for a slow weekend morning.

  4. 4.

    Jeffro

    Very nice, Cheryl – thanks!

    Very psyched about concerts and trips coming up this fall. Music and travel, is there anything better? (Don’t answer that, jackals)

  5. 5.

    Mnemosyne

    Our company offered tickets to a special charity performance of “Hamilton” and I got an AMAZING seat within my budget. Very very happy day. ?

  7. 7.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    Something stupid this way comes:
    Appalachian Wrestling’s Greatest Villain: ‘The Progressive Liberal’

    http://www.npr.org/2017/06/30/534969928/appalachian-wrestlings-greatest-villain-the-progressive-liberal

    When Daniel Harnsberger leaves his home on the East Coast and drives into Appalachia, he usually packs a T-shirt covered in Hillary Clinton faces and spandex wrestling briefs that say “Progressive Liberal.”

    That’s his wrestling persona — and his costume. And most weekends, Harnsberger dons it to work in semipro regional circuits as a stereotypical coastal elite who trolls in Donald Trump country. (He sometimes also wears a shirt that says “Not My President.”)

    He’s wrestled for years — until recently, without the left-leaning political tilt — in conservative corners of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. It’s a grind. These are small gigs, often in high school gyms or on county fairgrounds. On these regional circuits, wrestlers often schedule a match at a time.

    “I was wrestling for $5 and a hot dog and a soda,” Harnsberger tells NPR’s Steve Inskeep. “There were times I didn’t get paid at all.”

    But two years ago — just after Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign — Harnsberger made politics part of his act.

    He was wrestling in a small town in West Virginia. As Harnsberger recalls, the promoter told him to “be the biggest heel you can be.” That was easy for Harnsberger, who’s always been a fan of wrestling heels — cartoonish bad guys whose job is to rile up the crowd.

    So he took the microphone and brought some of Trump’s campaign rhetoric into the ring: “I said, ‘I hope Trump doesn’t build a wall around Mexico. Instead I hope he builds it around this town so you people can’t infiltrate the population.’ And that got a heated reaction.”

    And his shtick kept getting that reaction. He honed it into a character named Dan Richards, The Progressive Liberal, that he kept playing throughout the election. When Trump won in November, crowds hated Dan Richards even more.

    In character, Harnsberger tells crowds he’ll take their guns. He says he wants to “reprogram” Trump supporters to make them favor renewable energy over coal.

    “I know how you stupid Trump voters think,” the Liberal Progressive says in one video for Appalachian Mountain Wrestling. “Allow me to illustrate: dur-dur-dur, I love coal. Dur-dur-dur, I love mountains.”

    And in the ring, he finishes off opponents with a move called the “Liberal Agenda” he described recently to Sports Illustrated:

    “It’s just a cross-arm neckbreaker, so if I’m standing in front of you, I’m grabbing each of your wrists, crossing your arms, then twisting you for a standard neckbreaker. I call that the Liberal Agenda so then the announcer says, ‘Oh, he hit him with his Liberal Agenda!’ ”
    Wrestling fans seem to eat it up. In one video, a gym full of spectators boos Harnsberger as he makes his entrance before a match; a group of kids scream at him from just a few feet away. In another video, Harnsberger gets into a shouting match with a fan. The man calls him “D.C. girl” and starts a chant of “Bye, bye, Hillary!”

    Harnsberger goes out of his way to make wrestling fans hate his character. Turns out the left-wing views of the Progressive Liberal aren’t an act.

    “I’m the progressive liberal in real life,” he says, “so I think this would generate a reaction from fans, especially the places I was going.”

    And that’s probably what makes Harnsberger such a good villain. A great heel, he says, is one who “believes what they’re saying and feels justified in their actions.”

    Not exactly about politics. Well, lighter anyway

  8. 8.

    TenguPhule

    @Jeffro:

    Music and travel, is there anything better? (Don’t answer that, jackals)

    Fine Dining. And drinking. And having someone affectionate close at hand. Reading a good book. Ice cream. Puppies.

  12. 12.

    raven

    Round 2 of bluelight cancer preventive treatment tomorrow. Two hours with some acid on my mug, 16.5 minutes gettin cooked and a weekend indoors. Could be worse.

  14. 14.

    TriassicSands

    Cheryl — good taste in music. British composers aren’t, generally, my favorites, but The Enigma Variations are always worth hearing. Thanks.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @Jeffro:

    Music and travel, is there anything better?

    Crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and hearing the lamentation of their women?

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    @TenguPhule: When I said “don’t answer that, jackals”…? Plus you forgot coffee.

    @dmsilev: When I said, “don’t answer that, jackals”…? Plus it’s “…duh lahmentashuns of der vimmin…”

  21. 21.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Jeffro: Not much.
    When I am in a bad mood, these days wedding songs from Hindi movies always manage to perk me up. TBH, I am not big on attending IRL. Unless its for people who are really close to me. However, its fun to watch on screen. Also too, RL weddings are no where as much as fun as Hindi movie versions.
    Kala chasma, (Black Glasses) is not quite a wedding song, but is catchy.

    Disney could have cast Siddharth and Katrina ( the couple on the screen) in that stupid Aladdin movie.

  24. 24.

    TenguPhule

    @Jeffro:

    When I said “don’t answer that, jackals”…? Plus you forgot coffee.

    You thought that would be anything but an invitation here of all places? Also, I think coffee is at best a necessary evil.

  25. 25.

    efgoldman

    @TriassicSands:

    British composers aren’t, generally, my favorites

    I don’t especially like Elgar; the advantage of Enigma is its relative brevity.
    OTOH his big orchestral pieces are good for filling time in an all-night show.
    He wrote a couple of big oratorios that some mid-20th century English conductors loved. They are really, really awful; the most boring music ever; wan to make you take knitting needles to the ears.

  26. 26.

    TenguPhule

    Costco now has Japanese Wagyu Beef for order online.

    $100 a pound for new york cuts.

  27. 27.

    germy

    We were watching America’s Got Talent a few nights ago, and a woman came on with her piano playing pet chicken.

  28. 28.

    ThresherK

    LIstening to a bunch of Rudolf Friml and Otto Harbach. My wife is worried that this is a gateway drug to operetta.

  29. 29.

    dmsilev

    @efgoldman: When I was visiting my parents a few weeks ago, my mom and I had basically the same conversation (sparked by listening to a recording of the Enigma Variations on the radio). For top-tier British composers, we came up with Purcell, Handel (partial credit), Elgar, and Britten. Not much else. Sullivan loses points because his “serious” music is godawful.

    Also, the dog came up to us halfway through the piece because it was time for his evening toilet walk, my mom told him “wait until the Elgar is over”, and he went away and came back 15 minutes later. Smart dog…

  30. 30.

    TenguPhule

    @germy:

    and a woman came on with her piano playing pet chicken.

    I haven’t heard that one before. Did the piano lay any eggs?

  32. 32.

    Emma

    The Dream of Gerontius. My Elgar fave, hands down. There’s a new recording by Barenboim that is getting good reviews.

  33. 33.

    Gvg

    I am taking tomorrow off to drive my mother to a caladium festival. Secondary benefit is avoiding the office. They used some new cleaning fluid on something yesterday and it’s been killing my sinuses plus making me sneeze. Hopefully by Monday it will have aired out. Mother doesn’t drive long distances and she has wanted to go for years. Should be fun but hot.

  38. 38.

    Felanius Kootea

    Okay in somewhat non-political news, I have a short story in the Summer 2017 issue of Ploughshares.
    It is about a tyrannical boarding school principal and the girls who try to thwart her, so maybe not so
    non-political :-). It’s the first time I’ve been paid for a short story, so that’s nice.

  40. 40.

    TenguPhule

    @Major Major Major Major: Well they just sent us the monthly ad book. And it looks like actual wagyu marbling in the photos. And Costco isn’t generally a liar when it comes to this kind of thing.

  41. 41.

    Iowa Old Lady

    No politics is a good idea at this time of the evening. I usually listen to Maddow the next day but Mr IOL has her on in the next room and I have to go somewhere I can shut the door or I will stew about things when I try to go to sleep.

  46. 46.

    efgoldman

    @Emma:

    The Dream of Gerontius. My Elgar fave, hands down.

    Oh gawds!
    I spent 15 years of overnight radio looking for long pieces that filled a lot of time (you’d be surprised how hard it is to fill six hours/night without being repetitive). I played Gerontius exactly once – never did again.

  48. 48.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I am going to American Players Theatre this weekend. Family and friends do an annual outing. Picnic and wine in the afternoon. And then up the hill to see a play. This year we are seeing “A Flea in Her Ear.” I am tasked with bringing wine – my capabilities were assessed and this task was found to be in my wheelhouse. After brunch on Sunday, I may go over to Taliesin.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    … and, of course, I discovered after posting that I managed to lose my house key. Fucking instant karma. I should never tell anyone when good things happen to me. ?

  53. 53.

    Jeffro

    @dmsilev: Well of course not…isn’t it twice as much fun piling on when someone says, “now now, let’s be civil”? Just trying to add value here.

  54. 54.

    TriassicSands

    @efgoldman:

    I do like The Enigma Variations, but it is the only music of Elgar’s that I ever listen to. I like some Ralph Vaughan Williams, but not much beyond that from British composers. I have symphonies by a number of British composers and they never became favorites.

    Sometimes I enjoy a run through The Planets.

  59. 59.

    Jeffro

    @TenguPhule:

    You thought that would be anything but an invitation here of all places?

    (Whoops should have copied you in at #53 as well – I’m fully aware of all Balloon Juice traditions!)

    Off to read a bit: “The Warmth of Other Suns” – amazing!

  61. 61.

    david spikes

    I’ve been listening to Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and the other day was pleased to hear its opening movement woven into Dunkirk-which is a good but to me unsatisfactory movie.
    And just picked the first tomatoes-black pear-yummm.
    And note to self-next year not so many cubanelle peppers.

  62. 62.

    raven

    @Jeffro: Try this when you finish

    “Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South

  64. 64.

    K488

    There’s lots of good Elgar – the two (completed) symphonies, the violin concerto and the piano quintet are particular favorites of mine. Pace efgoldman, but while the text of Gerontius doesn’t thrill me, I find a lot of good music in it. But, as efgoldman knows, I like folks like Max Reger and Franz Schmidt, so perhaps my tastes are…questionable. Thanks for posting the Enigma Variations – it’s a wonderful set.

  67. 67.

    Gin & Tonic

    My physical therapist and I decided to take a little break in our relationship.

    A little more seriously, since I can do no strengthening work for at least another month, and can work on flexibility and range of motion myself, there’s no reason to keep spending money. If my next visit with the surgeon (end of August) shows progress, then we can go back to working on strengthening. If it doesn’t show progress, then there are several other possible courses of action, none of them good.

  71. 71.

    satby

    @Felanius Kootea: Congratulations!

    Enjoying the Elgar while nursing the sore shoulder from a wasp sting I got while weeding. On the plus side I did get almost all the weeds before I was driven away by the wasp. The raised bed is frightfully dry though, if we don’t get rain tonight I need to buy a second hose so can reach it to water. Probably should just buy the hose anyway.

  72. 72.

    Schlemazel

    SInce classical music is the theme I’ll add that I played Beethoven once . . . Beethoven lost badly

  74. 74.

    satby

    The last and totally unlamented ex hated that I listen primarily to classical music in the house in the morning. I enjoy a peaceful start to my day as I enjoy my pot of coffee. He used to call it funeral music.
    The local station plays baroque almost exclusively.
    He was and is a total ass.

  75. 75.

    efgoldman

    @K488:

    I like folks like Max Reger and Franz Schmidt, so perhaps my tastes are…questionable.

    Honestly, I never question anybody else’s taste, likes or dislikes. I just know that Mahler, R Strauss, Bruckner reach me in a way that Elgar never did and never will.
    And no, I didn’t love everything I aired. If I did that I’d have played the same 20 hours over again.

  77. 77.

    Schlemazel

    @Gin & Tonic:
    I find its the friggin waiting and fretting that is the worst. Better to find out then to wait. Hopefully this will work out for you and you will look back at all this agita as a dim memory

  78. 78.

    Ninedragonspot

    @K488: whatever Max Reger’s faults, tasteless wasn’t one of them. There’s a lot of Franz Schmidt I enjoy, but his final project, the post-Anschluss “Deutsche Auferstehung”, kind of soured me on him.

    As far as British composers ago, things pick up with Britten, Maxwell Davies, Birtwhistle, and Thomas Adès.

  79. 79.

    efgoldman

    @Schlemazel:

    how have you been, alta kaker?

    Not well, thanks. My kidneys have failed, I’ve started dialysis. I was in the hospital over the weekend getting it round the clock. My doc never told me, but I think I was nearer to croaking than they said.

  80. 80.

    StringOnAStick

    We’ve made plans to go Austria for 10 days in Sept since my husband found rt tickets for less than $450 each. So, climb some via Feratta’s, rent some mountain bikes and climb some peaks in the late summer/early fall. Should be nice.

  81. 81.

    gene108

    My mom unearthed many pictures from the 1990’s, which I do not want to accept was mostly 20+ years ago….

    Let’s just say, I have not aged well…

  83. 83.

    sm*t cl*de

    @dmsilev:

    we came up with Purcell, Handel (partial credit), Elgar, and Britten. Not much else

    No Vaughan Williams?!
    Good Day, sir!
    In other news, the national School of Music is staging a production of ‘Vixen Sharp-Ears’ tonight, so yay, cheap tix.

  84. 84.

    gene108

    @efgoldman:

    My kidneys have failed, I’ve started dialysis.

    There’s a pretty big range, from my personal experience, on how exactly kidneys fail. It’s not like your heart failing, where there are two modes: pumping and not pumping.

    Even at low levels of performance, they still do something.

    That’s why they leave them in there, whenever possible, when you get a kidney transplant.

    How’s dialysis going? Feeling any better?

  86. 86.

    Jeffro

    @raven: Sounds like a great recommendation, thank you!

    On a civil rights/progress/sports note, the fam and I were recently blown away by watching “Race” (with Stephan James and Jason Sudeikis) – wow what a movie! The kids asked to watch it again the very next night.

  87. 87.

    efgoldman

    @gene108:

    How’s dialysis going? Feeling any better?

    Maybe a little. My appetite is coming back, but the generalized weakness is still there, It’s a real effort just to get around the house. Plus four days in a hospital bed played havoc with my legs (hospital beds are torture devices).

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Actually, the reason people are pissed about the Aladdin movie is that the female lead is (half) Indian-American and not Middle Eastern (Arab or Persian), so that would have just made them even more mad.

    The male lead is Egyptian (born there to Egyptian parents, raised in Canada), so I’m not sure what people are pissed about there.

  95. 95.

    Cheryl Rofer

    efgoldman: I am sending good thoughts your way. I didn’t follow comments closely until I became a front-pager, but I have enjoyed your insights and general crochetiness.

  98. 98.

    Yarrow

    @efgoldman: So sorry to hear that it’s a slow recovery. I hope your energy starts to improve and you feel better. It’s been a long haul for you.

  99. 99.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: This can give you years and years, no? I can say that I hope that your cranky ass is around here for a long time to come without even stretching the truth. .

  100. 100.

    Jeffro

    @Cheryl Rofer: btw Cheryl, I have to thank you, uncultured lout that I am, I’d never heard of “The Enigma Variations” nor Edward Elgar. What a fascinating backstory there! And of course great music. Thanks!

  101. 101.

    Madeleine

    @Ninedragonspot: Have you heard any of George Benjamin’s music? I heard/saw a performance of Written on Skin a couple years ago and was completely enthralled.

  104. 104.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Quick updates on mugging-related news, plus a question:

    1) Making good progress recovering from the slash/stab wound in my left elbow, with range of motion improving hourly. Arm strength will be the big challenge – I’m a long way from being able to handle a carry-on on the port side.

    2) There is in fact video of the mugging courtesy of the supermarket’s surveillance cameras; it’s gone to the police who have matched it up with data from other nearby camera to trace the robber’s line of retreat. They might actually be able to nail him!

    3) No dry-cleaners will touch the clothes I was carrying at the time, two sports coats & two vests now radically stained with my own blood. I’d really like to resurrect these items but it looks like it’s up to me. Whence comes the question:

    Anyone have any advice on removing substantial bloodstains from “dry-clean-only” clothing?

    As of now I intend to start with the more rugged of the coats, soak it in cold water, & hand wash it with dishwashing soap. (Other soaking suggestions I’ve seen for when the stains persists are vinegar and (separately) hydrogen peroxide, which looks like a last desperate resort to me since it’s a bleaching agent.) If I can get most of the stains off it I may take it back to a cleaner or swallow hard & run it through the washer with cold ware & Woollite at the most delicate setting.

    Your thoughts?

  106. 106.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Bill Arnold: Thanks. I’m just checking around before I turn in, so I’ll read it tomorrow. I never took the music theory course I wanted to in graduate school because the chemistry department already looked askance at the math courses I was taking, and although never particularly subtle, I did get that hint.

    The Enigma Variations have always been a mystery to me because I don’t hear the continuing theme in the variations. I’m not too good at that, and it’s taken me some time to “get” the Goldberg Variations, but I think I’m starting to see through them.

    I tend to be skeptical about cryptology applied to music, but I also love Les Préludes, so maybe that is it.

  107. 107.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Uncle Cosmo: Glad to hear that things are moving along and you are healing. You might try dissolving regular laundry detergent in cold water and soaking the clothes. The ability of laundry detergent to remove blood has improved immensely over the past decade or so.

  110. 110.

    TriassicSands

    @K488:

    You failed to mention the Cello Concerto. If you’re a fan of Elgar’s, as you appear to be, do you really not care for the Cello Concerto?

    Out of curiosity, I searched for Elgar’s most famous composition just now. A DGG page came up and sure enough the Cello Concerto was listed first.

    Is K488 a reference to Piano Concerto No. 23?

  113. 113.

    Ninedragonspot

    @Madeleine: I haven t listened to “Written on Skin” all the way through, but I liked it, and it has been both a critical and, by classical standards, popular success.

  115. 115.

    HeartlandLiberal

    Well, it is 3:48 am, and I see I am not the only one who could not sleep, David Evans posted at 3:37.

    Regarding Elgar, all I have to say is, if you have not listened to it, you must: ELGAR CELLO CONCERTO, JACQUELINE DU PRE.

    Du Pre died too young, sadly, a terrible loss, but her performance of the concerto is just masterful. It is a powerful, moving piece. I searched for the above caps text and found an eight minute video of her playing a section of the concerto. RIP, Jacqueline Du Pre, your talent was lost too soon.

    I was chatting with my wife while we were driving the other day. Sadly she has suffered severe hearing loss as we journey into older age, but the one thing we agreed we should try is getting out vinyl of all our favorite classical pieces like Elgar, Tchaikosvky, Brahms, especially the violin and cello concertos, and have a vinyl analog music fest. Right after I retired a few years ago I invested in a brand new turntable and a nice compact Denon amp and speaker set up, and I use it in my upstairs study / office to listen to vinyl while I work. A great investment it was. My ears, fortunately, still work, and I count myself among those who can often HEAR the difference between a CD or other digitized music, and the analog technology of the old vinyl LPs. Digitized music is, when you get down to it, no matter how sophisticated, a SAMPLING of the sound stream. There are minute bits of the stream missing. That is why to my ears I have run into CD version of classical music that sound ‘tinny’, you can sense the difference.

  116. 116.

    K488

    @TriassicSands: Not so much a fan of the cello concerto as I am of the violin concerto, but it’s still a lovely piece. Nor did I mention the violin sonata and the string quartet, from the same period as the piano quintet, and wonderful pieces as well. Re the number, yes. The key is the key!

  117. 117.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Bill Arnold: Interesting theory. I can’t refute it, and I have been having phrases from Enigma and Liszt playing in my head since last night. Could be something there.

    I like the cello concerto too. I even like “Pomp and Circumstance.”

Comments are closed.