Photo by from the inimitable Jeffrey W. As an animist, I’m allowed to hope it’s an augury for a mob of smart, aggressive Blue Dems retaking their seats at the table, leaving the Red Repubs sulking on the periphery.
What’s on the agenda as we flip the calendar and prepare to start afresh?
Resolution: don't let anyone else tell you how to love America.
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) January 1, 2018
In 2017, @HillaryClinton staffers built orgs to elect women, protect the ACA, fight Russia, and use the courts to counter Trump.
Fighting for what’s right is worth it–and in 2018, we’re gonna win. ?? @DemocracyFwd @GetUSCovered @risetorun @runforsomething @SecureDemocracy
— Corey Ciorciari (@CoreyCiorciari) December 31, 2017
(L) Me at the beginning of 2017
(R) Me at the end of 2017#HappyNewYear2018 pic.twitter.com/kjT77a05N6— @HamillHimself (@HamillHimself) December 31, 2017
SFBayAreaGal
Good morning Anne, Happy New Year. I’m off to bed. It’s 2:30 am PST here.
Thank you and all the other FPers for all that you did in 2017.
Arclite
As a life long Dem, I’m not sure I want to be associated with Blue Jays. They are, after all, the assholes of the bird world.
I feel how Mark Hamill looks.
Jeff
Get in up I thought it was Sunday. An indication of the year to come?
Raven
3am and we’re off!
Sab
You will never convince me that cardinals are Republicans, or that blue jays are Democrats. I agree with Arclite that blue jays are the assholes of the bird world.
However, blue jays are in the crow/corvid family, which is very susceptible to West Nile disease, so blue jays being around is a healthy sign for humans.
Silent no more
Woke up after having fallen asleep during the Mythbusters marathon. Watched TWO late-night advertisements for something called the “Trumpy Bear” that holds an American flag blanket, and was so disgusted I had to turn off the TV. Not pleased to see this on the Science channel.
Based on their ads, the audience for Mythbusters skews right wing and in need of subsidized medical products. Who knew?
Major Major Major Major
BOTH PARTIES ARE
CORVIDSAVIANVOTE DR. JILL SQUIRREL
FREE BIRDSEED FOR ALL ANIMALS
eta or is the red guy not a corvid? tired.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Raven: Good luck and enjoy the parade/game.
Major Major Major Major
@Jeff: my prepaid SIM card decided to stop serving my purchased data at 1:30am, across London from where we’re staying, and customer service was closed; this morning I called again, and they charge £0.25 for a service call. My account has zero, since I only bought data, and the minimum top-up is £5. Meanwhile the Airbnb WiFi is apparently metered and we ran out because previous tenants used it all up.
Hopefully this is not augury for American telcos in 2018.
HeleninEire
@Raven: Have fun. Report back when you’re able.
Original Lee
We’re getting the last of the college applications out the door and hosting the traditional neighborhood New Year’s Day dessert party this evening. I haven’t chosen our dessert yet, but I’m leaning towards apple strudel. That should keep us busy, I think.
Amir Khalid
@Major Major Major Major:
Verily, that doth suck.
Major Major Major Major
@Amir Khalid: who the hell charges for a customer service call? (ee, that’s who)
eclare
I like your take on the photo, AL! Raven, have a great day and go Dawgs!
Jeffro
No more saviors – let’s ALL be Skywalkers in 2018!
Steeplejack (phone)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I’m getting peppered with camera ads now. Drool!
Steeplejack (phone)
@Raven:
Have a great day! And go Dawgs!
OzarkHillbilly
geg6
Looks like Mark Hamill had the same kind of year I did. How one year can age me a couple of decades is a puzzle.
2018 must be better.
Baud
Happy New Year.
@Raven:
Have a blast.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Major Major Major Major: That sounds terrible.
On the home front, it’s -18 this fine morning, with a predicted high of -3. And yet, I think I’ll go out for breakfast.
Betty Cracker
I’ve never understood all the blue jay hate. They’re beautiful birds! They’re also smart and bold as brass. Sure, they pilfer the occasional nest (this is rare behavior, from what I’ve read) and monopolize feeders by running smaller birds off. But all birds are assholes if you apply human standards to them — they’re little dinosaurs, after all.
Major Major Major Major
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): that sounds terrible, lol.
dmsilev
@Raven: Have fun!
bystander
@Major Major Major Major: In my wandering around Europe days, London was famous for metered heat and metered hot water. Glad to see they’ve branched out into metering new technologies. Paris is comparatively a visit to Mom. Not only is the food better and cheaper, Mom doesn’t try to freeze you to death in the night.
Happy New Year, Jackals. We made it through Leonard Bernstein concert at NYPhil and conked out.
debbie
@Raven:
Woohoo! Have a great time!
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
I agree with you. I think blue jays with their periwinkle feathers are beautiful! I wish they had more pleasant voices, but then I could say that same thing about myself.
Raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The plan worked like a charm so far. There was zero traffic coming in and we were in the first row of parking. It’s pretty chilly but we are dressed for it. We’re just pondering when to take off for the parade .
Mai.naem.mobile
I don’t know anything about blue jays buy they’re pretty birds. That’s a beautiful blue color.
glaukopis
I’ve been in and out recently so may have missed news about it. Is there no 2018 balloon juice pet calendar? My pooches want to see their glamour shot.
woodrowfan
Happy New Year….
satby
Happy New Year again to all. It’s a toasty 6° out, looking ahead our first day back into the 20s will be next Saturday. It’s hunker down weather.
Baud
@Raven:
I hope you don’t find yourself in a Wally World situation.
Mai.naem.mobile
I was flipping channels last night and ended up watching CNN even though I had planned in boycotting it because of Kathy Griffin. Anyhow, Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper were a freaking train wreck. They also had one of the correspondent at a pot and paint party in Colorado. Maybe I am a prude but,honestly, I don’t think that is apprpriate. Whatevs. Happy New Year!
Sab
@Betty Cracker: Blue jays, when they aren’t cawing, have some beautiful songs. Still mean as shit. One if them killed a baby sparrow I was fostering in 1965. The baby sparrow was just sitting there doing nothing and the blue jay killed it for no reason whatsoever. I have had an issue with them ever since. Also we have several one eyed squirrels blinded by blue jays . I don’t see a lot of cardinals or sparrows pecking out squirrel eyes around here.
Damn near impossible to type anything coherent what with autocorrect. My new years resolution is to figure out how to disable it.
woodrowfan
humpf, still can’t buy the Balloon Juice calendar online,
Anne Laurie
@Arclite:
All birds are assholes, except the ones who are too fekkin’ stupid to qualify. At least blue jays are COMPLETELY UP FRONT about their character flaws, unlike cardinals, where the males & females dress differently but both sexes harass all the smaller birds away from the feeders.
Blue jays are under the protection of Murphy the Trickster God. Lots of American legends, going back to pre-Invasion times, about Blue Jay being a little too smart for his own good. One of the earliest stories I remember was Thornton Burgess’ explanation the blue jays’ call: All the birds were having their nests robbed, and Blue Jay (a silver-tongued orator) kept persuading the others that one or another of the victims must’ve been responsible. So Mother Nature called all the birds together, asked which one was the Real Killer, and Blue Jay opened his big beak only to discover that all he could say was Thief! THIEF!
(Prediction: You will never hear a blue jay call again without hearing thief! thief!)
OzarkHillbilly
@Anne Laurie:
I have never seen that kind of behavior from cardinals at any of my feeders.
cain
I missed the whole picture part for the balloon-juice calendar. This is the second year in a row I missed it. :( Of course, now I have no pets. The last one died this past year. :(
Steeplejack
@glaukopis:
It’s for sale at the usual site—CafePress—I think, although some people were reporting there was a problem with the link.
Just checked. Here’s the link; page is screwed.
Lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: I remember that game. Thanks for posting.
Betty Cracker
@Sab: iOS or Android? My iPhone’s autocorrect used to be reasonably helpful, but a while back, it started randomly capitalizing nouns — almost as if it were possessed by a malevolent orange gremlin. I’ve done every update I’m notified about, so I don’t think it’s a glitch. Other users have reported similar troubles. I waste so much time going back and uncapitalizing words that had no business being capitalized by an English speaker. It’s annoying AF.
satby
Since we keep talking about the horrible weather, remember to keep those bird feeders full. Suet cakes help too, with extra fat for all the energy the birds expend trying to stay warm.
As far as the ferals, I see tracks and food being eaten, but haven’t found anyone enjoying the heated cat house in the shed yet. It looks like a cat or other critters went in though. I’m just hoping that wherever they’re hiding it’s warm enough for them not to be suffering.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: It seems to be a little-known fact that you can turn auto-correct off.
HeleninEire
Happy New Year everyone. Cold and rainy here I’m Dublin (yeah not a big surprise). Sitting in a pub drinking a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and eating a delicious mushroom soup. Savoring one of my last pissing around all day days. Back to work a week from today.
satby
@Betty Cracker: I have the same problem on my Kindle, so it’s not just an IOS issue.
Steeplejack
@Sab:
What kind of device are you using?
Quinerly
@Raven:
Have fun!
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
Can you turn off the autocorrect? I leave it turned off on my own phone, because I don’t care to be second-guessed by some %&#! machine.
Steeplejack
@cain:
Problem solved!
(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy
Happy New Year!
A moment to thank you all for the great conversations, interesting ideas and support in 2017. You really have been lifesavers for my mind in so many ways. Thank you for being a welcoming, wonderful online community!
Freezing here, my car won’t stay running in the cold despite getting a very nice battery warmer for it. The battery checked out when I ran it to auto zone, but it really just does not want to start if left more than two hours without a start, and I am exhausted during the night to not get up and start it.
I hate calling roadside assistance for the 3rd time in so many days.. I am going to wait a few days and talk to the neighbors, they all are handy with keeping old cars running so we will see what they say.
It’s good to see everyone posting had a goodish? New Year. Major, sorry about the phone issue and metered WIFI. Here is hoping it is not a harbinger of things to come, but Americans seem to be docile customers for the most part, mostly because there aren’t any other options in a lot of places for internet and in some cases, even phones. Things like internet and cell phone deserts exist indeed, especially in smaller and rural towns.
I spent my New Year’s Eve sharing a glass of wine with my 1st favorite neighbor, While a really good authentic Paella was on the table, going to the store was not due to aforementioned car issues so I made us bastardized fried rice paella with leftover Chinese diner rice and mussels I found in my freezer. Instead of using the cheaper and less flavorful option of turmeric, I actually found my saffron thread stash, so it tasted more like Paella and less like curry so there was that. First favorite neighbor consumed 3 helpings and kept a plate for his working wife for later, so it must have turned out really well. Then I returned to EQ2, where the evening was spent decorating my virtual dollhouse started earlier in the day. It’s engrossing, fun and tedious as it mostly using a 3rd party excel sheet type layout file and manipulating data in that to load into the game. The floor is in, and am working on the walls and windows now. I forgot how doing one of those virtual dollhouses is my flow activity, I started at 8:00 pm and my sister texted at midnight. My first thought was it can’t be almost 4 hours gone, I just started this!
Stay warm, and layer up if you are in the New North Pole areas!
Kind regards,
PGoCLA
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Cermet
The Secretary General of the United Nations issued a Red Alert for all Nations in his News Year address; interesting that it is more a reflection of what the small handed orange fart cloud is either causing – danger of nuclear war, not doing anything for AGW or rigging our economic system creating vastly greater wealth inequality (while a world wide issue it is far worse here and growing even faster.) Of course, intolerance to immigrants (many are fleeing civil wars that are being directly or indirectly caused by AGW) is a primary part of the fart clouds appeal and so many right wing people through out the world are following this ideology, as well.
So fellow Jackals, lets hope for a good New Year assuming we take at least the House and hold mostly what we have of the Senate but critically, control enough legislator seats on the state level and governorships that we can gerrymander the hell out of the country and turn the country toward Blue.
Mary G
Those birds are beautiful. I like AL’s analogy. Back to sleep now.
HeleninEire
@Gin & Tonic: Oh hai! I had my first Gin & Tonic last night. Went to a place called “The Gin Palace.” They boast 100 varieties of gin. I had Gunpowder Irish Gin and Elderflower tonic.
OH MY GOD. It was delicious. I’m a beer and wine girl, don’t really drink hard liquor.
I could not believe how good that G&T was.
NotMax
@satby
Had opportunity yet to catch up with Mrs.Maisel?
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: I know it can be turned off. But despite the annoying random capitalization, it does have useful, time-saving functions — e.g., auto-completing words as I type them, capitalizing the first word in a sentence, fixing simple typos, etc. — that have to be weighed against the time I waste fixing inappropriately capitalized words.
the Conster
0 degrees to start the new year here in Boston. Looking forward to the blue wave that’s coming our way! Vote Dem for every office, every where local, state and federal, and ditch anyone not an ally. Happy New Year BJers!
Betty Cracker
Kim Jong-Orange has already threatened Pakistan on Twitter this morning and done his best to give the mullahs in Iran a lifeline by associating himself with the protesters.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
He is an expert on lies and deceit after all …
jeffreyw
Cold as a well digger’s ass.
NotMax
90-plus-plus per cent of the body voted for sleep, sinuses exercised their veto. Maybe in an hour or two after their tantrum has run its course.
Gin & Tonic
@HeleninEire: Another convert. It is slow but steady work.
satby
@NotMax: looks like I’ll begin it later today or tomorrow. Was catching up on Brokenwood first, and I can only manage a couple hours of video watching per day generally before I get twitchy from sitting so long. Had to DVR the rest of the Thin Man marathon after the first two last night. Plus Holiday Inn this morning for later. Cold weather like this requires a stockpile of amusements ?
Edited to add: feel better soon!
OzarkHillbilly
@HeleninEire: I love gin and tonics but they give me terrible heartburn.
Yarrow
I love that photo! Thanks for sharing.
@Betty Cracker: Agreed. I love blue jays.
@Raven: Hope you have a wonderful time!
Sab
@Steeplejack: Samsung Galaxy E with Chrome browser. So basically an Android.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
The twitter for Dr Eric Kaplan is a thing to behold. He’s a chiropractor, some celebrity quack who’s been on Dr Oz, and a total Trumper. He tried doing a number of tweets from the NYE Klavern at Mar-a-Lago to show what he thought a nice evening out, but found himself dragged to shit and back on literally every tweet.
ThresherK
@OzarkHillbilly: I read that excerpt in the voice of God, a.k.a. John Facenda, and it took me twenty very entertaining minutes.
Anyone else?
Our NYE was First Night in Sandwich MA (but it was over at 9pm) so we also got back to see Boston’s on TV. Hope everyone isn’t too cold.
geg6
Oh, and here’s to hoping the Ravens have fun today. It may be chilly out there but it’s not Pittsburgh cold. Two degrees with wind chills at -10. At least the sun is out.
zhena gogolia
Off to the cat hospital with the one cat we thought was reasonably healthy but seems to have symptoms of kidney failure.
Happy New Year!
Sab
@debbie: My brother in law, originally from China, spends half his year in Columbus. Columbus has very high levels of reported West Nile bird deaths. We thought it was just a statistical anomaly due to the state u and an unusually high level of ornithologists reporting.
But he was visiting us in Akron last summer and he was entranced by the blue jays . Thirty years in America, half of them in central Ohio, and he had never seen a blue jay before. Weird.
Do you have many jays near you in Columbus?
Sab
@Betty Cracker: It’s an Android. Samsung Galaxy E Chrome browser, Nook from Barnes and Noble.
Annoying corrections example: blue jays is corrected to Blue Jay’s, and the only way to stop it is to put a space after the jay.
debbie
@Sab:
I’m not sure what counts as many. I always hear them whenever I’m out on a walk, but the sneaky devils generally stay hidden. I live in a neighborhood with tons of old, old trees, so that may be why there are so many.
There used to be a pack of them on my block when I lived in NYC. A cat was always harassing them, and they’d dive bomb the cat whenever they thought it was too close to their nests. The balance of power changed when a tenant brought home a Weimaraner puppy. The cat became very skittish, even though the puppy only wanted to play, and I swear I heard the jays laughing at the cat.
I don’t know why there’s West Nile around here, but it was back again this past summer.
chris
Blue jays! Years ago after some experimentation I made a $3 squirrel-proof and, so I thought, blue jay-proof bird feeder. It was too, for a while. Then one of them noticed, as he tried and failed to land on it, that some seeds fell to the ground. Now the flock shows up several times a week to take turns crashing into the feeder while the rest feast on the ground and keep a wary eye out for the cat and the dog.
Sidenote: The feeder is squirrel-proof but not flying squirrel-proof. So that’s fun.
Steeplejack
@Sab:
On your device desktop, go to Settings | General Management | Language & Input | Virtual Keyboard | Samsung Keyboard | Smart Typing. Fiddle with the settings as desired.
The menu tree might not be exactly the same on your device, but Settings | Language & Input | Keyboard is the general path for Android. (Might show up as Google Keyboard or Gboard.)
eclare
@zhena gogolia: So sorry to hear that.
Yarrow
@Gin & Tonic: Gin and tonics are my favorite. I like to tell myself I’m warding off malaria.
Steeplejack
Huh. Psych marathon on Hallmark Movie Channel all day today. Just started with the pilot.
MomSense
Happy New Year, Jackals. I’m drinking coffee and waiting for the banana bread to finish baking. All my birds made it back to their nests safely this morning. So far so good 2018.
Heidi Mom
@debbie: I read not too long ago that blue jays imitate hawks to scare other birds away from a food source. This explains several instances in which I heard a hawk’s cry and looked around and up but was unable to find it.
Yarrow
Happy New Year, everyone! I’m still feeling the effects of last night where I had several sips of champagne. Several! No wonder I’m hungover.
Sab
@Steeplejack: Thanks! That worked!
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
Sorry to hear that. Sending positive thoughts for a good outcome.
Steeplejack
@Sab:
Okay, one resolution down! What are you doing the rest of the year?
Betsy
@debbie: They do have that wonderful pump-handle call (loodle-oot, loodle-oot) and then they make soft, varied, beautiful warbled notes at the nest.
ThresherK
@zhena gogolia: Our wishes for minor trouble and speedy recovery.
mike in dc
My theory about the relationship between Trump and his lawyers:
1) They’re lying to him, to placate him and keep him from doing anything crazy or stupid like firing Mueller/someone in DOJ and/or pardoning people
2) He’s lying to them about the extent of his involvement in every damn thing that went down between 2015 and 2017
On this theory, if Trump were to be honest with them, they’d be urging him to do a bunch of different things, which would tend to reconfirm his guilt among other things, and when he refused to do most of it, they’d resign. If they were to be honest with Trump, he’d fire them and try to do a bunch of crazy stuff, which would alarm the Senate and the VSP and could lead to a more rapid downfall.
Luthe
@NotMax: Goddamn GOP sinuses filibustering your perfectly good sleep. #RedistrictNotMax’sBody2018
Miss Bianca
@Silent no more: @Silent no more: my God, you mean I’m not the only one who witnessed this horror? And what the hell was it with the whole beginning bit? The trees, the storm, the bear saying “i am the storm” and then wtf, a teddy bear with an orange combover?!
WaterGirl
@satby: I’ll see your 6 degrees and raise you, we are currently at -14. I put on my long down coat just to walk across the porch to let my dogs out.
debit
@satby: I bought a heated cat shelter last year that, so far as I can tell, has never even been stepped in. I moved it this spring to a more concealed area hoping kitties would be more prone to use it if they could sneak in and out but no luck. It’s amazing to me that critters can survive this kind of weather.
Ian G.
Mornin’, everyone.
Since we’re talking birds, I’ll mention that Cardinals are dicks like Blue Jays. I’ve seen Cardinals bully sparrows and finches at my feeder just as much as the Blue Jays that show up on occasion.
On another note, my wife doesn’t seem to be pushing back against my desire to head down to Jones Beach in negative wind chills to look for Snowy Owls. There’s been a nice big irruption of the majestic birds this year, and a lot of them are congregating along the south shore of Long Island, Jersey Shore, Connecticut coast, etc. Jones Beach is a short drive away and is practically a wilderness area at this time of year, with arctic birds showing up and nothing but crazy birders looking for them.
Patricia Kayden
@zhena gogolia: Wow. Not good but I hope there’s a good outcome to the vet visit. (( )).
Timurid
Spayd’s Razor is getting a workout this morning.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Damn. Hope it turns out to be minor.
@mike in dc: Sounds about right to me.
@Ian G.: I’d put up with weather like that to see a snowy owl!
Honus
@OzarkHillbilly: and on top of all that, it was a hell of a game. Both teams scored in the final minutes, and it was decided in the last seconds. I was a sorely disappointed 12 year old Dallas fan (because Chuck Howley is from Warwood West Virginia and WVU)
debbie
@mike in dc:
3) He’s bullying them into saying and doing stupid things.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
A balmy +7 here, but I spent 15 minutes bundling up just to take the recycling to the curb (30 feet at most).
N M
@ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy: new spark plugs work wonders, definitely worth a shot.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was a huge Packer fan as a kid. Jerry Kramer was my idol after ‘Instant Reply’ came out.
I have since paid attention to the film. Kramer was illegally in motion at the snap, should have been flagged. The Dallas CLownboys got that back a couple years later when not flagged for offensive pass interference in the NFC championship game,
eclare
@Timurid: Wow, that is stunning, even for the Vichy Times.
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone???
Happy New Year!
rikyrah
@mike in dc:
He doesn’t have ‘A’ list Washington, D.C. Lawyers.
Those blue chip firms wouldn’t take him on as a client.
As with the rest of his hires, they are sub par.
Yarrow
@zhena gogolia: Sending good thoughts. Hope everything turns out well with your kitty.
rikyrah
Unless forced to, I will not be leaving the house today.
Period.
We are under a winter chill warning.
rikyrah
@zhena gogolia:
Sending positive thoughts to the ?
Schlemazel
@Gin & Tonic:
I love a good gin & tonic. It seems some places want to make is ‘special’ & do disgusting things to gin ( I have ne where the gin tasted like lawn).
Yarrow
@Timurid: The replies to that tweet are not kind to the NYT.
Schlemazel
IT a balmy -12 here at the moment & even the birds are in hiding.
Had a very nice fire last night but of course that shuts the heat off so the pipes to the second floor froze. Had to futz with them till 3 to get water flowing. The good news is that no pipes burst
debbie
A sweet start to 2018.
scav
@Miss Bianca: Trumpy Bear has already been mocked on TV in the UK, pretty sure it was on Have I Got News for You. Alas, not a personal hallucination.
debbie
@Timurid:
Who actually wrote that headline? Aloof this, asshole!
brendancalling
@Arclite: i have a blue jay tattoo on my right arm. They’re assholes, but tough as nails. I once saw a jay win a fight with a squirrel.
Pushing 11 am here in Philly. The teenager and I sat up til 2:00 am watching “The Tick”, and have had leftover pizza for breakfast. Skipping the Mummers because it’s too damn cold, but an early afternoon New Years Day open house awaits.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Just saw the B-2 flyover, let the parade begin…
chris
@Schlemazel: Heh, replay from last night. Has eclare checked in?
Set the taps to drip and hang a cloth over the tap so you don’t hear the dripping. The colder the weather the more drip required.
Schlemazel
@chris:
25 years of living here & that has never happened before.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Aleta
@zhena gogolia: Sending good wishes to a good cat and you. (If it’s kidney we’ve had incredible luck with the hydration, one time did the IV (2-3 day, miraculous) and w/3 other cats the sub-cu + diet.
eclare
@chris: Pipes survived! 14 here now, but at least it’s sunny. Low tonight is 8.
burnspbesq
Recreational doobage is legal here in CA as of this morning. One of the untold stories is how difficult it is to actually run a dope business, because they are effectively denied access to the banking system. It won’t surprise me to see Sessions’ DOJ trump up money-laundering charges against people, just for the sake of being assholes.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/sd-fi-cannabis-banking-20170705-story.html
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Happy New Year, here’s a pic of three airplanes to start off your New Year*.
*B-2 and F-35 flyover for the Rose Parade.
pluky
@Major Major Major Major: Nope. Cardinals are in their own family Cardinalidae.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_(bird)
FWIW, our friend in the picture (Northern Cardinal) is actually the index species of the genus (Cardinalis cardinalis).
chris
@Schlemazel: It’s been very cold for some time now and over time it seeps into every nook and cranny. I’m used to it here, the hovel wasn’t really built for long periods of -10 or colder.
@eclare: Good to hear. Stay warm.
Doug R
March 26 the Cardinals face the Blue Jays in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.
eclare
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Awesome!
Aleta
@Schlemazel: Very good news. Yikes I’d better run some hot water down in the kitchen.
@chris: Once we had a drain pipe freeze because of a leaky slow drip in the kitchen. The drips began to freeze to each other on the way down, and after a while the pipe closed up. After that we set up a thermometer and a small cube heater-blower under the frost wall to plug in if it got too cold. Haven’t needed it for so long that we forgot to check on the wire safety this fall. Too much snow blocking things by now to check.
Glad we have power for the hot water!
Aleta
@eclare: Is it cold where you are?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@eclare: …but creepy.
eclare
@Aleta: 14 here in Memphis, low of 8 predicted for tonight
chris
@Aleta:Heh, yup. Part 2, Winter Survival: always check the drain, sometimes water in the trap will freeze. If so, pour in a pot of boiling water. Yes, I speak from experience.
Schlemazel
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
And then that inflamed asshole as grand marshall. Pasadena is wingnut country
Brachiator
@Raven:
Enjoy all the festivities!
OGLiberal
@scav: The two worst things about Trumpy Bear are 1) it’s not a joke and 2) it’s targeted at adults.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
Thanks. She’s in for observation now.
ETA: Thanks to everyone for the good wishes. We’re hoping for the best. Her brother has a tumor and definitely has no more than another 6 months, so it’s tough.
Vhh
@Betty Cracker: German phone. Sehr einfach.
Vhh
@Betty Cracker: German phone. Sehr einfach.@mike in dc: i’d put #2 first. Trump lies about EVERYTHING, why would he not lie to his lawyers? He fires anyone associated with bad news, so his lawyers ho along. It’s the worst bubble since Nixon.
Gravenstone
@Silent no more: SciChan is part of the Discovery network of channels. If you look at their other channels, they do appear to target an older and probably more ‘conservative’ (read Reactionary) audience. I was unfortunate enough to hear one of those commercials yesterday as well (was on the computer so only listening to the TV in the background). Simply appalling that such a market is even presumed to exist. But, suckers appear to be plentiful.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Schlemazel: Pasadena is NOT wingnut country. Their House member is a solid blue Dem. Schiff used to represent Pasadena, he may still represent part of Pasadena.
ETA: That said, your characterization of the Grand Marshal is spot on.
The Lodger
@ThresherK: I remember John Facenda from Philly when I was a kid. I thought he’d stayed local. Yet you’re in the Boston area.
scav
@OGLiberal: You forgot 0) it’s apparently selling.
eta
The Lodger
@Sab: I miss blue jays myself. Here in the PNW we see mostly scrub jays and a few Steller jays, none of the ones with crests.
Aleta
@The Lodger: I wonder, if blue jays and cardinals were rarely seen, or tropical, if we might treat the sight of them with as much awe as for parrots. (As it is, my family loves them for the color on the snow.)
We have something in the yard — it’s one of the 2-3 scrubby bushes with forgotten berries–that attracts flocks of cardinals this time of year. Beautiful.
hedgehog mobile
@Miss Bianca: Sadly, no.
CaseyL
@satby: @debit: I’ve read that cats don’t like going into cave-like objects that have only one opening, because they can too easily be trapped in it. That’s got to be particularly true of ferals.
It would be a pain to build, but maybe put a door on the front and back sides – at opposite ends from each other – with a tunnel-like extension on each to hold the heat in?
No One You Know
@brendancalling: I miss the Mummers. Only parade I’ve ever enjoyed!
Steeplejack
@The Lodger:
John Facenda was the ubiquitous voice of NFL Films for a long time.
J R in WV
@bystander:
Lenny Bernstein? I thot he died!?!?!