I was going to post some stuff about the Trump admin putting a Koch Industries hack in charge of weakening environmental protections for birds so that energy companies can kill our feathered friends with impunity while pursuing profits. But why bother? Everything the Trump admin is doing is evil and must be opposed. There — covered it all in a dozen words!
Other than that, I got nothin.’ Open thread!
jeffreyw
Picnicking birds.
Cheryl Rofer
I’m gonna repost this from the previous dying thread because it is so cool. (I have always had a talent for coming in as a thread dies.) The gif of a satellite video shows very nicely how water vapor from Lake Erie becomes lake effect snow.
Big Ole Hound
It seems the only thing Trrump is not against is the ability for the rich white folks to make more money at the expense of everything else…oh and the right to grab any woman he feels like.
Josie
But I thought that their objection to wind farms was the danger to birds. Hmmm – what to believe?
cope
Documenting the atrocities of the deplorables is certainly exhausting. Thanks for the birdie as an antidote.
Brachiator
@Cheryl Rofer:
Wow. Very cool, and very beautiful.
It’s also amazing to think about how recent satellite technology is, and about how part of space exploration is turning the camera on our planet to see how things work.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
This confirms my suspicion that nobody is editing for shit over at Counterpunch. Which, given what they have published over the years, is honestly kind of a relief.
donnah
I am shopping with my sister and niece while my mom is attending a funeral. I think my mom is having a better time.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@jeffreyw: Lovely! She’s got quite a group of potential suitors, doesn’t she? They look like they’re all thinking of preening or strutting or doing whatever cardinals do to show off.
@Cheryl Rofer: That’s very cool.
@Betty Cracker: I very much enjoy your bird pictures. And of course the cute piglets (however wild) and other nature shots. How are the girls? Not to mention young Ms. Cracker and Mr. Betty Cracker? I hope you’re getting over the winter bug.
I had to declare blog amnesty and start over because I got so behind in reading, so I have little understanding of how current any of my impressions of Juicers’ lives are. I did see that Baud has returned to begin his 2020 campaign and that efgoldman offered holiday greetings.
germy
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Yeah, that was quite a response from them: “SHRUG” … Also, I like how they say “Well, we didn’t PAY her.” As if that’s supposed to make us like them more, that they rely on “content providers” to work for free. (not that Alice through the looking glass needed the paycheck, though)
satby
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: well, we’re anxious to hear what’s new with you!
Teddys Person
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Here’s my “favorite” part:
Making 27 phone calls was too much investigative journalism for Counterpunch.
SiubhanDuinne
Reposted from elderly thread downstairs:
Anyone interested in listening to Prince Harry’s interview with Barack Obama, here’s the link: (THE LINK).
Audio only (BBC Radio 4).
It was recorded back in September, in case you wonder about a reference to the hurricane that just hit Puerto Rico. Apparently the interview was scheduled to last half an hour, but those two ran overtime ? so the whole thing is closer to 40 minutes.
SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw:
Cardinals make me happy. Such a cheerful color.
SiubhanDuinne
@Cheryl Rofer:
Very cool!
Patricia Kayden
@donnah: I remember spending an entire day at a huge mall in Mississauga, Ontario with one of my Mom’s friends who claimed to be looking for a dress to wear to a wedding. We literally went through each and every store which sold dresses so that she could try on scores of dresses. After hours and hours, she finally (and reluctantly) picked a dress. When I heard that she ended up wearing another dress to the wedding, my eyes nearly rolled out of my head. I understand your pain.
jeffreyw
@SiubhanDuinne: We have the camera set out on a picnic table overlooking that feeder, I’m going to make bird picnic a regular feature over at W4D.
SiubhanDuinne
@donnah:
I’m not sure whether I was supposed to laugh, but I did.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@germy: “As long as our journalistic malpractice
isn’t a Judith Miller-level fuckupdoesn’t result in a war, you really have no right to complain.”SiubhanDuinne
@jeffreyw:
That would be great! I’ll check it out often.
My dad’s patio was Feast Central for birds and small critters. One time, after a blizzard/ice storm, we put out all kinds of seeds, poured hot water into the birdbath so they could drink, and then sat at the dining table and watched them. Made a list of probably close to 40-50 different species that showed up just within the first half hour.
Mnemosyne
I was supposed to have this whole week off work, but I didn’t finish a project that my boss needs, so I have to go in for a few hours. Le sigh. At least I get to pick my hours and my boss won’t be there, so I should be able to get a draft completed in time for us to see The Last Jedi a second time this afternoon.
Amir Khalid
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
For years now, it’s felt like the “professional” publications don’t have people around to edit copy anymore. These days, it’s starting to feel like they’re starting to give up on editing stories too. Editorial judgement just isn’t what it used to be, or maybe business judgement is taking over everything.
On a happier note, my sense for music seems to be developing nicely. Chord and scales practice aside, I find myself starting to sit down with The Girl to work out some approximation to playing this song or that — I Walk the Line, Que Sera, Sera, and, just now, a bit of the intro to Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll. I wish I’d started learning 40 years ago.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I put up some pics of the local holiday lighting. All were taken with my new phone.
Betty Cracker
@jeffreyw: Pretty! I haven’t seen many cardinals around our feeders lately. But we’ve had an influx of catbirds. They are lovely and elegant in their own understated way.
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: We’re all fine — dogs and humans alike! I’m still getting over my Christmas cold and anxious to become non-contagious so I can resume helping my aunt and uncle look after my grandmother, who appears to be recovering from pneumonia against all odds! How are you doing?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s OK to laugh.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: Good to hear about granny, I’ve pretty much recovered from my bout with “The Cold”.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Amir Khalid: Counterpunch has almost always been fairly crackpot, though. An additional irony is that St. Clair’s rationale is pretty much the same as what Hiatt gave for refusing to fact-check editorials; the punchline is that instigating an Iraq-level catastrophe from the left is literally impossible in the US.
Miss Bianca
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Hey, you! Been meaning to email you. Hoping you were doing well as the year wound down.
Only tangentially related to birds, but this communique from my friend J had me chuckling like mad this morning. Her son Henry (age 6) is one of those amazingly precocious kids, and “Henryisms” have become staple fodder for us. This one is the most recent:
S. (J’s boyfriend) took Henry and Ulysses sledding yesterday.
On the way home in the car, Henry told Ulysses: “Did you know my Mom can’t have babies anymore.”
U: “Why not.”
H: “She had an operation.”
U: “What for?”
H: “She got her hemorroids taken out.”
Pause.
U: “What’s that?”
H: “You don’t need to know about it.”
dnfree
Betty Cracker, I always enjoy your bird and other nature photos even though I rarely comment.
Major Major Major Major
Just closed down the British Museum, what a wild night! lol
Jager
@Teddys Person:
Good thing she didn’t live in the Twin Cities and her name was Alice Anderson.
Yutsano
@Betty Cracker: I miss cardinals. They were one of the best parts of winter when I was a kid in Connecticut. Which is also how I know how to spell that!
HA! We told you she wasn’t done torturing you yet!
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: That’s two people in one thread using “anxious” when they mean “eager.” Hmph.
/pedant
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
I thought it was a fascinating piece. They did a great job looking into the author/troll/creation.
I will admit I stopped reading them years ago because of the crackpotiness.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: I put out a dozen “hot meat” suet cakes about 3 days ago. Yesterday we had a flock of (literally) a few hundred starlings in our yard, looking for bugs and swarming over the suet feeders.
The suet feeders are all empty today.
:-(
Greedy little buggers. (sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
@Miss Bianca: I’m amazed people name their children “Ulysses.”
Mike J
@SiubhanDuinne:
Miss Bianca
@Gin & Tonic: His mother is a bit…unusual, shall we say.
oatler.
Let me recommend Ken Levine’s (always) excellent column today, where he shows us how to write an anti-Trump movie review, and how!
http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2017/12/three-billboards-outside-ebbing.html
Miss Bianca
thread needs moar music – here’s what I’m listening to right now – Steeleye Span’s “Drink Down the Moon”, or as it was known in my circle, “The Cuckoo’s Nest Song”.
different-church-lady
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Shorter Counterpunch: “We publish articles by writers we know absolutely nothing about, and it never occurred to us this might be a problem until now.”
SiubhanDuinne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Arguably the best episode in what was arguably one of the best series ever to grace sitcom television.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Scott:
Yup. We used to put out suet, too, and it always went fast. Not to mention peanut butter smeared lavishly on tree trunks.
HRA
@Cheryl Rofer:
Yes, many years of being gifted with Lake Erie effect snow storms. It missed us by a few miles south this week. Thanks for sending the gif.
Jager
Up here in the canyon, we have every variety of SoCal bird and an extended squirrel family we call the Wallendas. Our California Brown Hawk shows up for a drink at the pond and all activity ceases. Total silence, no movement, no Wallendas somersaulting through the trees. It’s good to be the King and he knows it.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: guilty as charged. I blame the fever I have.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike J:
Those two should take their show on the road.
germy
@different-church-lady:
“We don’t fact check them, we don’t pay them, so what’s the harm, really?”
geg6
I have been on a news moratorium (with the exception of local news and weather. Been reading, trying to get into Game of Thrones (not completely successful) and taking the dogs in and out in the single digit cold. Oh well, at least the sun is out and I’m far enough south of Erie to have missed the blizzard.
Getting ready to make a mushroom soup for dinner. It’s got yellow onion, green onions, garlic,rosemary, a pound of mixed mushrooms, brandy, chicken broth and heavy cream. That, with a nice crusty fontinella and garlic bread, will be the perfect meal on such a cold day.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Snowy Owl hit by car in Louisville, nursed back to health by Raptor Rehab
oatler.
@Miss Bianca: Song has a really tragic melody until you realize it’s about a boink-fest.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: After 40+ years and having seen it many, many times; I still end up laughing to the point of crying everytime I see it. That and the WKRP turkey drop.
different-church-lady
@Gin & Tonic: I blame standardized tests.
Mike J
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Who is selling alcohol to owls to begin with? That’s what we need to crack down on.
different-church-lady
@germy: Yes, I was just thinking that they wouldn’t have this problem if we didn’t exist in an idiotic new world where management expects labor to be free of charge.
You get what you pay for, assholes.
They might as well title that article, “Here’s a frame by frame breakdown of how we kicked the ball into our own goal.”
Roger Moore
@germy:
If you aren’t paying for the “content”, somebody else is, and you don’t necessarily know what their angle is. Maybe they’re just ordinary citizens doing it out of a desire to serve the public good, or maybe they’re somebody with an agenda you don’t and can’t know who are using you to spread their propaganda. It’s a good reminder: if you aren’t paying for it, you’re the product not the customer.
germy
@different-church-lady: Alice was working overtime last summer:
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: Via Merriam-Webster:
I meant it in the third sense, obviously. Pedantry FAIL!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: You’re a wild man.
Ruckus
@Josie:
You do know that the concept is twofold. First, it isn’t the birds that the conservatives are concerned about. It’s the money that they no longer get for all the natural resources they control after they stole them. Second, whatever liberals desire must be wrong.
Yutsano
@Mike J: You try saying no to an owl. Try it. I dare you. And make sure you have the ambulance on speed dial. Talons don’t play.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne:
I want to party with you.
different-church-lady
@germy: It’s almost as though Putin was sitting there and suddenly… *ZOT!* “Wait… All that psych-ops shit that Stalin taught us? What if we pulled it on Americans instead of ourselves?”
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: walked past Shake Shack on our way to the TKTS booth to get tickets for Kinky Boots, because evidently we’re in New York.
germy
@Roger Moore:
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Cool story!
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Roger Moore: Of course, the real surprise about all this is that Russia felt the need to infiltrate fucking Counterpunch in the first place. The Mitrokhin Archive, only everyone involved is significantly dumber.
glory b
@Mike J: Any further word about the potential Trump snub (not being invited to the wedding)and Teresa May’s anxiety over it?
Of course, everyone knows you can’t talk smack on someone’s mother and expect to be invited to the wedding. Heck, be glad you didn’t get punched.
germy
Go ask Alice.
Josie
@Ruckus: That’s kind of what I suspected, but I’m such a cynic.
Kraux Pas
@Josie:
That Republicans always rationalize backwards from their preferred result?
Sentence first, verdict afterward.
danielx
Nine degrees…..heatwave!
Roger Moore
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
It certainly appears that the Russians were throwing a very wide net; they tried to get in just about anywhere they could. It’s the kind of thing that is way easier on the Internet than it would have been using earlier technology. The amount of effort needed to see if somebody will publish you is minimal, so you might as well try everywhere.
Of course the other thing is that this is exactly the kind of thing an actual aspiring freelance journalist would try. You send your work to everyone out there and see if anyone will bite. Once you get published somewhere, you can use that to establish some kind of credibility as a journalist and try climbing the ladder to some place more prestigious.
Roger Moore
@Kraux Pas:
Evidence if they can get around to it.
different-church-lady
PLEASE HIT YOURSELVES REPEATEDLY ON THE FOREHEAD WITH A 2×4 UNTIL THE QUESTION RESOLVES ITSELF.
jeffreyw
Oliver Willis | DECEMBER 27, 2017 Donald Trump is the first president to lose Most Admired Man his first year in office — in the history of polling. He lost to President Barack Obama.”
J R in WV
@Teddys Person:
That was really long for what it was… but also really funny. Evidently people who don’t even exist can get published on important topics, even if what they’re really doing is plagiarizing from multiple sources to build a separate article out of bits from other authors.
And why did the FBI care? But way too long, should have been edited down by half or so.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
I’m off work this week and school is done until January, so I started putting together the Lego Yellow Submarine Mr. Mingobat gave me for Christmas last year. Turns out it’s easy, fun, and relaxing — and I’m missing a piece. I went to the Lego Store near me to see if I could get the piece by itself, because I’m kind of hooked on this and really want to finish it, but no luck. I have to order the missing piece online. So my fun, relaxing one-year-old Yellow Submarine will remain unfinished until the missing piece arrives.
But I did get the London double-decker bus set while I was there, so there’s that.
Shut up. I’m a grownup. I can do what I want.
different-church-lady
COUNTERPUNCH: How in the world are we supposed to know if our writers are real people?
REAL-PEOPLE JOURNALISTS: Well, you could try taking an interest in it, for starters.
Teddys Person
@Roger Moore: good points
In addition, the MSM has been increasingly willing to parrot-back unvetted information and stories from the internet to goose the ratings. So, casting a wide net makes sense to maximize the chance that a narrative makes it into the mainstream news sources.
Roger Moore
@Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA):
I don’t object to a grownup building things out of Legos. I do object to anyone buying those outrageously expensive Lego kits designed to build one thing instead of getting the big box of generic Legos and making up their own designs.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: A cabal of libertines there, obviously.
Teddys Person
@J R in WV: Funny in that – how do these people remember to breath – sort of way.
ETA You’d think they’d be a little embarrassed, but I guess shame is so 20th century.
B.B.A.
@jeffreyw: Looking at the full results, the not-quite-dead-yet Billy Graham is still in the top five, and is splitting the Evangelical vote. Combine his votes with Trump’s and they almost beat Obama. Almost. :P
Gin & Tonic
@Roger Moore: There are no big boxes of generic Legos for sale anymore, and haven’t been for many years. The problem is that many specialized pieces that you might need for a complex creation come only in certain kits. There are eBay sellers who can provide pieces by the pound, but that’s definitely not for everyone.
But really, is there some ethical difference between buying, say, an $800 Lego kit to build a Millennium Falcon and a $1000 Pocher kit to build a Ducati motorcycle?
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Betty Cracker: Please excuse me. Merriam Webster just broke my heart. I’m with G&T on the eager/anxious distinction and now I’m going to need some time after the betrayal by the dictionary. Just a day after I got an email from a p-doc who is also a former creative writing teacher in which he verbed. That made me anxious. So it’s been a difficult 24 hours.
workworkwork
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s also available as a podcast. I searched on iTunes for “BBC Radio 4 Best of Today”. There’s another Prince Harry discussion about the link between mental health and productivity and a talk with Prince Charles about climate change.
Roger Moore
@Teddys Person:
It’s more than that. It’s that the whole right wing noise machine has been built specifically to achieve this goal. There’s a whole system of right wing news outlets of increasing prestige that serve to promote crazy bullshit from the fever swamps of the right and get it into the MSM. They can’t guarantee which stories will make it all the way there, but they’ve been successful at getting some really ludicrous stuff into the news. All the Russians had to do was to target the starting point of that chain.
Major Major Major Major
@Roger Moore: oh let people enjoy things.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Teddys Person: @Roger Moore: That explains the why behind it, but not really the who: The media doesn’t puke-vacuum as much from the left as it does the right, and my impression is that Counterpunch is too crackpotty even for them. I get that in choosing their targets, they’re seeking a balance between influential and sufficiently lax editorial standards, but Alternet and the Nation would’ve been better choices.
daverave
OK, here’s a bird question for you jackals…
My next door neighbor has been feeding the crows that are ubiquitous to our fair city. Where they roost downtown the streets, sidewalks, cars, etc. below them get turned into a toxic soup of bird crap on everything. When I asked her why she is feeding them, my neighbor says that she “just loves them!” I’m terrified that they may decide that they have it pretty good on my street and then start roosting here, turning my yard/vehicles into the white stew. She does not seem to be open to that line of reasoning and has continued to feed them despite my protests. Some mornings there are 30-40 crows.
Am I right to be concerned or are they unlikely to leave their long-time roosting spots downtown? How should I negotiate a crow detente? At least there’s no pigeons yet.
Mary G
I follow @_everybird_ on Twitter. A bot randomly posts a picture of a bird from what they say is a database of all the known birds on the planet, along with its common and Latin names. They are over 5,000 now. One of my favorite names lately is “Rufus-webbed Bush-Tyrant.”
Gin & Tonic
@Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): I enthusiastically support your activity. I also find assembling Lego to be relaxing.
SiubhanDuinne
@workworkwork:
I’ll take a British Royal over a DeVos or Trump or Koch any day of the week.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
Stunning bird – looks like it will recover enough for release.
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
Yes, there are. They aren’t exclusively the classic brick shapes- they include things like wheels and windows- but they’re big boxes of pieces that aren’t designed to be a kit for something specific.
Cheryl from Maryland
It’s been enjoyable and relaxing to read all jackalish holiday events. To update re: my mother-in-law’s broken leg, she’s walking down hallways like a champion and getting up and off the bed by herself. So hopefully no lingering despair about Colonial Williamsburg where she fell (we didn’t go for the Grand Illumination but we did get to see the decorations, stay in a rehabilitated tavern on the main street and eat “right out of the oven” ginger cakes). We snuck in a holiday Christmas Eve feast, but then ate the rehab center’s Christmas Day dinner (not bad for institutional food) after presents in her room. Expectations are that she will be back in her apartment in no more than two weeks time. Whew!
Major Major Major Major
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
Perhaps it is you who is out of touch with the language.
No, of course not, it must be the lexicographers.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@daverave:
Corvids are highly intelligent and cooperative problem solvers. If the word gets around that your street is a great deal, then you’re going to get overrun.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Gin & Tonic: This made me feel better:
I’m still having some difficulty with the verbing. No doubt we will need to discuss it, as he’s clearly now running with a bad crowd.
Kraux Pas
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
This is the goal of every right-wing blowhard whining about the so-called liberal bias of the media.
Also, left-wing politics aren’t as good for the parent companies’ bottom lines, at least not in a way immediately obvious to those fixated on quarterly earnings reports.
Kraux Pas
@daverave: Reminds me of something I once saw on the Colbert Report about an Alaskan town that was overrun with bald eagles because someone was feeding them.
Gin & Tonic
@Roger Moore: Huh. Obviously I didn’t know that, thanks. Since I am into the Technic line as opposed to the “classic” line (and they don’t really interoperate), I don’t have much interest in the bricks. For the Technic pieces you have to go the eBay route. I stand in awe of people who can build something like this.
Betty Cracker
@Mary G: I follow a couple of bird accounts on Twitter too and am astonished by the number of (mostly UK-based, I think) birds called “tit” of some type. My inner 12-year-old finds it amusing.
Calouste
@glory b: Presidents do not get invited to royal weddings. They will get invited to the funeral of a reigning monarch as a fellow head of state, but that is about it as far as royal occasions are concerned. There will be lots of people whose families used to be reigning monarchs though.
HeleninEire
@SiubhanDuinne: Not arguably. Absolutely. In fact because Netflix doesn’t have it I am thinking about getting HULU just to watch it all again. Mary Richards was the woman I wanted to be but I had no real life examples. I am the person I am because of her.
Roger Moore
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
I think you’re missing an important point behind targeting crackpot establishments: audience. If you’re trying to get people to believe bullshit, you need to find a credulous audience, and there’s no better place to find one than a crackpot “news” source. Feed them something that plays to their prejudices, and they’ll believe it no matter how crazy.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Mary G: Thanks for the idea! i kinda fancy Dot-eared Coquette as a name. Lophornis gouldii
LaNonna
@Majorx4
We thought we could easily pitch a tent in the V&A museum for about a month our last trip to London, what a treasure chest of a museum. That was after spending a dreamy 5 hours floating through the Turners at the National. Best of British food, definitely curry in all its regional forms. Have fun, and of course theatre for a fraction of US prices.
We try to hit the city once a year or so, when Ryanair runs the 19 eu round trip specials from Southern Italy, a treat.
HeleninEire
@Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): How’s my dogboyfriend?
JustRuss
If only we could make that fit on a hat.
A Ghost to Most
@Brachiator:
Being caught out in the middle of a lake effect snow can be very disorienting. You sometimes literally cannot see your hands in front of your face. Driving is right out.
Steve in the ATL
@LaNonna: my favorite part of the V&A is the fakes gallery. Jarring juxtaposition of well known works.
Suzanne
I got a small bonus at work, so I am replacing some of my crappy kitchen equipment, as well as getting a few new pieces. I have never had a Dutch oven, and I would really like to have one. I could use some advice from the jackals……what size do you recommend? Round or oval? I have been told by my friends that Le Creuset is absolutely worth the exorbitant price tag…..do y’all agree or disagree? What are your favorite things to cook in your Dutch oven?
Considerations: durability and performance, appearance, weight, and storage. I will shell out for the good one if it is indeed worth the money. I have learned my lesson regarding cheap kitchen stuff.
Fair Economist
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: “Anxious” as a sort-of-replacement for “eager” still has a different meaning. It implies the person has strong negative feeling about the event as well – concern it may not happened or concern that it might have different effects.
Kraux Pas
@Suzanne:
Speaking of things with multiple definitions, I legit had to do research to confirm you
weren’tETA: might have been talking about something other than trapping farts under bed sheets.different-church-lady
MY LANGUAGING IS RIGHT. YOUR LANGUAGING IS WRONG!
JCJ
@Kraux Pas:
Wow. Ya learn something new every day!
Roger Moore
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Maybe the crows will decide his street is a good place to get food, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a good roosting spot. Crows can travel a fair distance between their roost and their feeding location. Especially during the winter, they’ll roost in big flocks to conserve heat and then disperse during the day to forage. It’s unlikely the neighbor is going to leave out enough food to convince the whole downtown flock to change roosting locations, so he’s most likely to get only commuting crows.
That may change during the breeding season, but only if the neighborhood has the kind of tall trees crows like to nest in. If that’s the case, though, the crows are probably going to nest there whether there’s a great food source in the neighborhood or not. They’re still capable of traveling to get food, and good nesting sites are often the limiting factor in crow reproduction when there’s abundant food, as there is in the city.
Kraux Pas
@JCJ: Right? Furthermore, I realized that a real dutch oven is what I have always called a crock pot. Apparently the difference, if I understand correctly, is that a crock pot has a heating element.
A Ghost to Most
@Mike J: Drunken birds are a hoot (pardon) to watch. In MD, we had a mulberry tree, and the fallen fruit would ferment. Hilarity would ensue.
jeffreyw
@Suzanne: Calphalon enameled Dutch ovens are cheaper, Lodge pieces are cheaper still (sans enamel). The 7 quart size is bigger than you will need for all but the largest dinners, I think I have a 5 qt Lodge that works for most everyday stewing chores. They get heavy fast as the size goes up. I think Lodge is making enameled iron pots now, too, but I have no experience with them.
jeffreyw
@jeffreyw:
Yes, they do make them.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: My dad always had lots of hobbies. One of his last ones was building things like this. I don’t know if that’s the particular HMS Victory kit he used, but he spent years finishing his and it’s huge. It has hundreds or thousand of little tiny copper plates on the hull, each individually placed. His has the sails out, also too.
I had a little bit of that bug, putting together the most complex crane example of the Erector set I got for on Christmas day decades ago, but I don’t have the patience for anything that intricate these days.
Cheers,
Scott.
Roger Moore
@Suzanne:
I think the choice of Dutch oven depends on how you’re going to use it. My mother hates the enameled cast iron ones (like Le Creuset) for stovetop use because the enamel tends to stain and get worn away by the utensils you use for stovetop cooking. You should seriously consider a hard anodized aluminum one, which should be as durable as any hard anodized aluminum and obviously a lot lighter than a cast iron one.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@HeleninEire: He’s doing well, thanks. He’s a little attention-starved because Muppet the Semi-Poodle has been sick with a misdiagnosed stomach bug for the past three weeks, but he’s being stoic about it — when he’s not climbing all over me and Mr. Mingobat demanding to be petted. So not stoic at all.
SiubhanDuinne
@A Ghost to Most:
In the back yard of the house where I grew up, there was a huge mulberry tree. The walkway directly beneath it was always covered with purple birdshit.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@HeleninEire: Funny to see MTM mentioned. I just got on a Rhoda kick a few weeks ago. (Thank you, Hulu, for bringing back my childhood.)
Not quite as great as MTM, granted, but having grown up in New York, I’m more wired for it.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@Suzanne: Congrats on the bonus. I haven’t had time lately to follow all the comments/posts here — I hope all is well with Spawn (and you).
Kathy Quinerly
@jeffreyw: I bought a couple of knock off Lodge enameled dutch ovens from Aldi’s a few years. Heavy and surprisingly well made….under $35.00 a piece. Have held up very well. Sometimes you can catch the Lodge and fancy French ones at Marshall’s. The Lodge outlet store in TN is great for deals. Have bought several true cast iron pans and from them.
TriassicSands
@jeffreyw:
I’ll bet Trump does better with “Least Admired POS.”
Mnemosyne
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
Russia was feeding their propaganda to both sides in 2016. Why are you surprised that Counterpunch was one of their success stories?
As Adam likes to say, “penetration at all levels.” The America Left has less appetite for BS than the right, but we definitely have our crazies.
TriassicSands
@Betty Cracker:
I’m curious, Betty, do you ever use “eager” to mean “eager” or do you always use “anxious.” I almost never hear or see the word “eager” anymore — it’s much more likely to be “anxious.” Which seems strange since there can be no ambiguity in the use of “eager.”
Sab
@Suzanne: Around here (Ohio) you can get amazing quality cast iron cookware at antique stores for not much money. The quality 100 u years ago was so much better than now.
daverave
@Roger Moore:
Thanks for the replies. The property in question has an 80 foot pecan tree so it certainly meets the tall tree requirement but there are hundreds of trees that size in my ‘hood. Speaking of the intelligence of crows, they regularly do stop by the tree when it is ripe with pecans and drop them on the street where the traffic runs over them so that they can easily extract the nuts/feast on the pieces. So even before they were getting fed they would stop by in the fall to feed. Now it has just become a constant thing.
And don’t even get me started about the squirrels around here. If I had a nickel for every first-year pecan tree I’ve dug up! (After the first year they are there for good.) My lot has a chestnut tree to boot but, unlike the squirrels, the crows don’t seem interested in those.
Kraux Pas
@TriassicSands:
I bet he’d like that framing too. Superlatives!!!
TriassicSands
@Kraux Pas:
For Trump himself:
Very, Very Least Admired POS
With Trump, even when one “very” is unnecessary, he invariably adds at least two. He seems to believe, as with saying “believe me,” that the excessive use of adverbs makes his case that much stronger.
Another Scott
@daverave: Crows around here seem to like to find barbecue ribs bones and put them in rain gutters. I guess the hope is that the water will soften them up or something. It was pretty surprising the first time I found one!
They’re also rather insistent about keeping owls and bald eagles out of their territory around here, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
The Lodger
@Roger Moore: Also, if you leave the burner on under an enameled Dutch oven, it’s ruined. I speak from experience.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Mnemosyne: I’m not surprised it’s a success story on Russia’s part, I’m surprised Russia even bothered infiltrating a site with content a native pink-bunny jackoff would write for free.
Kraux Pas
@TriassicSands:
Well, he was elected president, so he has to be doing something right. The only plausible explanation I can think of is that it has something to do with those vaguely English-sounding utterances he makes, even though I don’t get it personally.
Mnemosyne
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
I think that Democrats vastly underestimate how much Russian fuckery there was from the “left.” Were you around when BiP got banhammered for spouting Russian propaganda? There are way more lefties than we’d like to believe who actually think that Russia Today is an unbiased news source.
Putin hedged all of his bets, and one of the ways he did that was by propagandizing the left as well as the right.
ETA: I know I’m answering much more seriously than you intended your comment to be, but I haven’t had lunch yet and my blood sugar is low.
Suzanne
@Kathy Quinerly: If I do end up going with a Le Creuset, I am definitely going to wait for a sale.
I have a large stainless steel stock pot (good quality, from Williams Sonoma), so I am planning to get a cast iron Dutch oven. Haven’t decided on whether or not I want the enamel-coated. I have a Lodge cast iron skillet that I love, but rust is a pain and I think the enamel would be easier to mantain,
Suzanne
@Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): Spawn seems to be on the upswing….thx for asking. She is going to an intensive outpatient program three days a week, and is on Prozac. So far so good. She said that she feels that the Prozac is effective but that she also said the same thing about the Lexapro, but that the Lexapro stopped being effective over time, so I need to be watchful.
Brachiator
@TriassicSands:
I would be more likely to use “eager” over “anxious,” but maybe I’m just old.
I think you may be right that “anxious” is nudging “eager” out. Not sure, but maybe there is an association of “eager” with childish impatience, as in “children eagerly tearing open their Christmas presents.”
And “eager beaver” is more about being active and enthusiastic than any sense of anticipation or yearning.
Mnemosyne
@Suzanne:
Since (IIRC) she also has ADHD, have they discussed trying Wellbutrin (aka bupropion)? She may have some of the counter-indications for it, though.
StringOnAStick
@Suzanne: I bought an enameled LeCruset knock off at Bed, Bath, etc. that was under the Emeril brand at less than half the expensive one. I love it, though I’m not one to care about the enamel getting stained with use, I think that just happens to any enamel based on what I’ve seen at friend’s homes. One of the reasons I don’t use plain cast iron as much is because any kind of acidic sauce (like tomatoes) ruins the seasoning of the pan surface. I also agree that if you want cast iron, go to an antique store. The new cast iron has a rougher cooking surface and all the seasoning in the world won’t work as well as an older one that has a much smoother cooking surface.
MzRAD
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Steeplejack
@Suzanne:
I’ll second what jeffreyw says and add that in my experience there are some good inexpensive Dutch ovens out there. One of my two cherished possessions from my period of dire, dire poverty* is a 4½- or 5-quart Dutch oven I got at Target for about $30. I don’t think it has a name on it, but I suspect it’s a Tramontina. I used it to cook almost everything that wouldn’t go in a skillet and still use it a lot. I’m not cooking for a family, as you are, but I don’t think you need to go much bigger (or at all) in capacity.
. . . Just looked on Amazon, and here’s a good deal on a 6-quart Lodge (enameled) model ($50).
ETA: Le Creuset is great stuff, but I don’t think it’s worth the exorbitant price tag.
* My other cherished possession from that time is a big end-grain cutting board, also procured at Target for about $30. Both great values.
Steeplejack
@Suzanne:
I definitely think enameled is the way to go. Keeping a big non-enameled pot “seasoned” is a much bigger headache than maintaining a skillet.
My Dutch oven has held up well for about ten years. I don’t abuse it with metal utensils and I hand-wash it. (Too big to go into the dishwasher, anyway.) Still looks like new.
Steeplejack
That feeling when you realize you haven’t been looking at time stamps and you’re replying on a probably dead thread . . .
Suzanne
@Steeplejack: I’m here and I appreciate the input! Thx!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Suzanne:
Thank you! Glad you came back.
Steeplejack
Redacted.