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They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

T R E 4 5 O N

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The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Bark louder, little dog.

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People are complicated. Love is not.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

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Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Cold Friday (Open Thread)

Cold Friday (Open Thread)

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My dogs are quietly outraged because I haven’t taken them for a walk in several days. Every time I put on shoes or pull on a sweater, they rush to the door in anticipation. But it’s been too damn cold for walks, and they know it too: When we let them out in the yard, they’re banging on the door to come back inside within five minutes.

Other critters in the state are handling the cold snap in their accustomed ways. Here’s a herd of manatees swarming the entrance to Three Sisters Springs in Crystal River, Florida, which is one of the best places on the planet, IMO:

The water flowing from the springs is around 72 degrees year-round. In the summer, that feels heart-stoppingly cold. But on a cold day like this, jumping into the springs feels like sliding into a warm bath. That warmth is what the manatees are after.

Next week, it’ll warm up, and the manatees will venture out of the canals in search of more plentiful vegetation. And I’ll start walking my dogs again.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    LAO

    It’s horrible here in NYC, my dog went on a poop strike yesterday. Imagine her chagrin when I took her out this am in negative temperatures!

  3. 3.

    Alain the site fixer

    I just love manatees and their cousins the dugong. I’ve been lucky enough to see both in the wild. My mother in law used to “water” them in a canal next to her yard. Seems they loved the cold, fresh water from the hose!

  4. 4.

    TriassicSands

    Betty, they don’t want a walk — they want you to make it warmer. Then, they’ll want a walk.

  5. 5.

    germy

    I spent an hour last night shoveling snow. Cleared my sidewalk and driveway. A solid wall of snow at the end of the driveway from the snowplows.

    This morning, about 5:30am, I hear the roar of a snowplow speeding past my house. Sounded like he was going about 50mph. (Speed limit on my street is 30mph)

    I get up and look out, and there’s piles of snow all along my sidewalk and at the end of my driveway. He drove so fast he literally sent snow flying into the air, over a four-foot snow mound and onto my sidewalk.

    I remember, fifty years ago, in the small town I grew up in, watching out my window as the professional snowplow drivers drove slowly up and down the street. They’d even lift their plows before each driveway, so as not to block people in.

    I read that in some states, it’s illegal for snowplows to block driveways. Apparently enough elderly and disabled people complained.

    Okay, rant over.

  8. 8.

    JMG

    I’m sorry, Ms. Cracker, but Florida cold ain’t Massachusetts cold, as you well know. Just spent two hours digging out. Even the snowblower can’t handle all of the ice/snow mountain range plow drivers leave in front of driveways in my town. Everyone has complained for years, and the town’s response is always, “just wait until we finish before cleaning your driveways.” That goes well for those trying to get to work. But it’s done and now we just go back to praying no pipes freeze and the car starts in the morning.

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    hat tip- another BJ poster
    New California bill could serve as national boilerplate for skirting Trump’s tax law
    By Damian Paletta January 4 at 7:42 PM

    A California Senate leader introduced legislation Thursday aimed at circumventing a central plank in the new Republican tax law, introducing a model that — if successful — could be replicated across the country.

    California Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León (D) introduced a bill that would allow taxpayers to make a charitable donation to the California Excellence Fund instead of paying certain state taxes. They could then deduct that contribution from their federal taxable income.

  11. 11.

    Marcopolo

    Good morning folks. Gotta say I have zero interest in reading that book. On the phone last night my brother offered to buy a copy for me through my local bookseller & I told him to take the cost and give it to a good 2018 candidate. About to go for the daily walk—almost 20 so it feels balmy but next Wed the rumor is it might hit 50!

  12. 12.

    Cermet

    Been there and visited those wonderful guys – so very friendly and curious. Glad they have a safe refuge and can warm up a bit.

  13. 13.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: That’s awesome! If they’re going to target blue states for being blue states, then blue states have every right to fight back.

  14. 14.

    Aimai

    @JMG: yes we shoveled last night after the snow stopped falling but the snow plows ran all night and blocked me in this morning. Had to uber to work.

  15. 15.

    rikyrah

    This story infuriates me. I am outraged by McGahn undermining the rule of law in the country I love. While McGahn was demanding Sessions’ break the law, I was on the other line with DOJ demanding Sessions recuse. What I think of your attack on America, McGahn, isn’t fit to print. https://t.co/JgHgPKR0PA

    — Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 5, 2018

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    Btw apologies if this has already been shared here (I think not – pretty sure I saw the link on Twitter) but this is a really good read: Making China Great Again.

    China has never seen such a moment, when its pursuit of a larger role in the world coincides with America’s pursuit of a smaller one. Ever since the Second World War, the United States has advocated an international order based on a free press and judiciary, human rights, free trade, and protection of the environment. It planted those ideas in the rebuilding of Germany and Japan, and spread them with alliances around the world. In March, 1959, President Eisenhower argued that America’s authority could not rest on military power alone. “We could be the wealthiest and the most mighty nation and still lose the battle of the world if we do not help our world neighbors protect their freedom and advance their social and economic progress,” he said. “It is not the goal of the American people that the United States should be the richest nation in the graveyard of history.”

    Under the banner of “America First,” President Trump is reducing U.S. commitments abroad. On his third day in office, he withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a twelve-nation trade deal designed by the United States as a counterweight to a rising China. To allies in Asia, the withdrawal damaged America’s credibility. “You won’t be able to see that overnight,” Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore, told me, at an event in Washington. “It’s like when you draw a red line and then you don’t take it seriously. Was there pain? You didn’t see it, but I’m quite sure there’s an impact.”

    In a speech to Communist Party officials last January 20th, Major General Jin Yinan, a strategist at China’s National Defense University, celebrated America’s pullout from the trade deal. “We are quiet about it,” he said. “We repeatedly state that Trump ‘harms China.’ We want to keep it that way. In fact, he has given China a huge gift. That is the American withdrawal from T.P.P.” Jin, whose remarks later circulated, told his audience, “As the U.S. retreats globally, China shows up.”

    Worth reading the whole way through and sending on to others.

  18. 18.

    Butch

    Minus 25 here this morning. The golden’s feet freeze up and the yellow lab needs his “Caped Crusader” cloak because of his short hair; there’s a lot of pent up energy because there’s just no way to get them enough exercise in this cold.

  19. 19.

    randy khan

    @rikyrah:

    That’s great. There’s already precedent for state credits for donations to various things (Virginia gives a 50% tax credit for small contributions to political candidates in the commonwealth, for instance). It would be interesting to see how the IRS would react.

  20. 20.

    Served

    @Butch: That’s been my house over the past week or so. The lab has been a trooper, thankfully, and the day care trips this week were worth every penny to get that energy out of her system. If I could get her to adapt to booties, it would be easier, but she just can’t figure them out.

  21. 21.

    FlyingToaster

    @germy: At 6pm we stopped shovelling the front steps and concentrated on the driveway and side steps. About 4 additional inches fell after that before 9, when they treated the main drag (driveway side), and we got rid of the plow plug.

    I just got in from trying to shovel the foot-deep drifts on the front door. About 8 inches blown onto the front (and still has a foot differential from shoveled to un-shoveled), and I’m warming up before taking the metal shovel out to break up what the plow shot over onto the sidewalk. The corner mound is higher than my head, and we won’t see the main drag portion of our sidewalk before March.

    Not exactly the birthday present I was hoping for…

  22. 22.

    Karen Potter

    @germy: the plow has been pushing as much as can to other side of road where there is parking lot at night, the day time driver isn’t as nice. There is new owner of apartments next door and by time they finish clearing so fuel truck can get to fill they have mostly cleared behind my suv and end of drive.
    But there has to be an unwritten rule that says that plow drivers must wait until drives are clear before plowing that road or street; last winter I had plow truck watch and wait for me to finish, went by filled back in and waved at me as he went past.

  23. 23.

    germy

    @FlyingToaster:

    and I’m warming up before taking the metal shovel out to break up what the plow shot over onto the sidewalk.

    I’m like you, I got multiple shovels.

    I got my “ergonomic” shovel for removing the first layers, then my metal shovel for scraping and chopping. Unfortunately, the metal shovel empty is as heavy as the ergonomic shovel full of snow.

    I have an old snowblower that is useless for the heavy packed stuff.

  25. 25.

    germy

    @Karen Potter:

    last winter I had plow truck watch and wait for me to finish, went by filled back in and waved at me as he went past.

    There are some decent people driving plows. But unfortunately there are a few assholes. Probably more than a few. There is nepotism in my local DPW, and often jobs go to the douchebag offspring of connected guys.

  26. 26.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    I’m in Vermont right now. Was thinking of driving down to Boston to visit my daughters and get a taste of some warmer weather.

  29. 29.

    Amir Khalid

    @Jeffro:
    That worries me. Asia does not need a China-led Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere v2.0. The Japanese attempt to establish v1.0 was bad enough.

  31. 31.

    geg6

    My poor Lovey is just beside herself over peeing and pooping in this weather. It was -1F when I took her out this morning. She stood on the front stoop, took a quick look around and turned right back around and came back in. I think there will be pee and poop on the pad when I get home, an unusual thing for her the last few months. She’s been such a trooper through this whole single digit/sub-zero couple of weeks. But her little paws and behind have had enough. Today was her limit, I think. Koda usually doesn’t care about cold and absolutely adores the snow. But even Koda went out, peed and pooped and was back in the house within five minutes.

    Weather is supposed to finally break on Sunday. We’ve all had enough around here. Not a single gas station around here has an air machine that isn’t frozen and many of their pumps are, too. Two weeks of this shit is wearing everything and everyone out.

  32. 32.

    schrodingers_cat

    MSM journalists are talking about how ethical they are compared to Wolffe for “protecting” their sources. I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. These bastards delivered the country to Doll Hands by harping on HRC’s email non-issue 24/7. Even now love to both-sides every issue. Fuck you, your definition of ethics is broken, you fucking courtiers.

  33. 33.

    tobie

    @Served: Say what? Could you provide a link? This may be the biggest attempt yet to shut down the Mueller investigation. This move, coupled with renewed investigations into the Clintons, means we’re heading down that slippery slope to autocracy damn fast.

  37. 37.

    Jeffro

    @Amir Khalid: You and me both.

    A lot of ‘ifs’ here:

    In Beijing’s political circles, some strategists worry that their leaders risk moving too fast to fill the void created by America’s withdrawal from its global role. I dropped by to see one of the city’s wisest observers of America, Jia Qingguo, the dean of the Department of Diplomacy at Peking University. “The U.S. is not losing leadership. You’re giving it up. You’re not even selling it,” he said. “It seems Donald Trump’s view is: if China can take a free ride, why can’t we? But the problem is that the U.S. is too big. If you ride for free, then the bus will collapse. Maybe the best solution is for China to help the U.S. drive the bus. The worse scenario is that China drives the bus when it’s not ready. It’s too costly and it doesn’t have enough experience.” Jia, who has a wry smile and a thick head of graying hair, said that universities have not had enough time to train scholars in areas that China is now expected to navigate: “In the past, the outside world was very far away. Now it’s very close. But the change happened too fast to digest.”

    Joseph Nye, the Harvard political scientist who coined the term “soft power,” to describe the use of ideas and attraction rather than force, told me that China has improved its ability to persuade—up to a point. “American soft power comes heavily from our civil society, everything from Hollywood to Harvard and the Gates Foundation,” he said. “China still doesn’t understand that. They still haven’t opened that up. I think that is going to hurt them in the longer term.” Nye predicts that Trump’s unpopularity will not erase America’s soft-power advantage, except under certain conditions. “Probably he won’t be seen as a turning point in American history but will be seen as a blip, another one of the strange characters that our political process throws up, like Joe McCarthy or George Wallace,” he said. “Two things could make me wrong. One is if he gets us into a major war. The second is if he gets reëlected and winds up doing damage to our checks and balances or our reputation as a democratic society. I don’t think those are likely, but I don’t have enough confidence in my judgment to assure you.”

  38. 38.

    Jeffro

    @Served: @tobie: I think Adam noted late last night how this potentially helps DOJ entrap anyone (Nunes, folks at the WH, etc) who tries to leak or otherwise use some of the info they’ll be seeing as part of this agreement.

  39. 39.

    MomSense

    Define too damn cold. It’s wicked frickin cold up heah!

    I’m hoping it goes back to warm before my trip to FL in March. I’ll be in the Fort Myers/Naples area for 10 days starting March 16th if any FL juicers want to try to meet up.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @Quinerly:

    G was very disappointed this morning that his Kindle copy had not magically appeared. He wrote a strongly worded email to Amazon asking where it was.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    I like cold weather and it’s too cold for me. My eyes were watering walking a block and a half this morning. I put Eucerin on my son’s face this morning because it’s all chapped.

    It’s really amazing stuff when it’s this cold- I put a layer on under makeup. Use a trowel then smooooth it out :)

  43. 43.

    Butch

    @Served: The Reebarks (my name for the booties) lasted one outing and then were chewed to shreds. I had hoped that would be a cure for the golden’s feet.

  44. 44.

    Jeffro

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thanks! A few great additional insights from their conversation there.

    Here’s one:

    OSNOS: North Korea is the big puzzle for China when it comes to dealing with the United States because that’s the issue on which they think that Trump is going to continue hammering them over because they know that he’s staked some of his political image to being able to find some sort of resolution in the North Korea crisis. But the simple fact is that China is not prepared to do what Trump wants them to do. What Trump has asked China to do is to cut off or significantly reduce oil exports to North Korea because the U.S. administration believes that that’s really the – that’s the key, that if they can do that, that would put enough pressure on the North Korean government to bring it into some sort of – bring it to the negotiating table.

    But the truth is that China has indicated in a variety of ways that they are trying to manage Trump, meaning that they’re trying to do as little as possible for as long as possible while continuing to hold him at bay. They don’t want him to attack North Korea because that could have negative implications for China, but they are also – they are simply unwilling to put the kind of pressure on North Korea that he wants because they worry that that would lead to the end of the North Korean government and then that would also be bad for China.

    So just recently – and this really didn’t get much attention in the news but it’s an important fact – China sent an envoy to Washington at the end of December. And that envoy was there to talk with senior administration officials about North Korea and oil. And the administration said to the Chinese official, look, you need to cut off oil or we’re going to do – we’re going to take these very drastic steps where we’re going to try to punish you in a variety of ways. And China called their bluff. And the Chinese envoy said, we are simply not going to do it. And the United States backed away* and said, well, in that case, let’s continue to work this problem together and so on and so on.

    And those kinds of little minor interactions which really never make the press, or at least never get very much attention, that’s the marrow of the relationship. That’s the center of it. And bit by bit, China is coming to the conclusion that the Trump administration is both inexperienced and simply just doesn’t have the staff or the know-how to be able to make the kinds of actions and – that support what the president’s language sometimes promises.

    *shocking, right? NOT

  45. 45.

    tobie

    @Jeffro: @Served: I wish I had your optimism. Using this handover of ultra-sensitive documents to Nunes et. al. to track leaks sounds a bit like gilding a lily to me. Nunes, Jordan, Graetz and others requested as much as they did so they can discredit the intelligence community and above all the investigation into Trump. I’m sure they can cherrypick comments in the documents to make the inquiry seem like a witch hunt. This is going to get ugly. Please, Mueller, indict Devin Nunes!

  46. 46.

    FlyingToaster

    Well, that didn’t take long… ❄️

    My neighbor came by with his dad’s 2-stage gas snowblower (I have a single-stage electric, which is only useful on the patio & driveway). I broke up the mess with my metal shovel, he blew it onto the plow mound and then headed up the driveway to clear out his parking area/patio. He encountered the plow wall on the main drag and backed out — “What did they do?” he asked me, and I told him they took all of our side street’s snow and pushed it up onto that corner; so we blew our driveway snow onto it as well. From the street side it’s 6 feet tall.

    And thank you all for the birthday wishes! I’m lazy, so I’m gonna go to Russo’s for a cake.

  47. 47.

    realbtl

    Maybe my 2 Wiemaraners are just used to it but they seem to enjoy the cold as long as it is above -10 and no wind. They will stay out 5-10 min nosing through the snow (probably looking for turkey poop).

  50. 50.

    kindness

    Betty do Floridians take heads of lettuce/cabbage out and thrown them to manatees to feed them? Seems to me it’d be nice but I’d hate to start a manatee stampeed.

  54. 54.

    tobie

    US District Court Judge Richard Leon has ordered Fusion GPS to turn over it’s banking record to Nunes’ committee. Leon is a W appointee and seems like a piece of work. Someone at TPM dug up the following on him from his Wiki page:

    Leon graduated from the Holy Cross (where he was a classmate of Clarence Thomas) in 1971.

    Leon served as deputy chief minority counsel on the House Iran-Contra committee from 1987 to 1988.

    Leon was with Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease from 1999 to 2002, when he was appointed to the district court. (Manafort was with Vorys from 1977-1980)

    Leon was nominated to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by George W. Bush on September 10, 2001 and confirmed by the Senate on February 14, 2002.

    Leon issued a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for ordering graphic images on cigarette packs. On February 29, 2012, Judge Leon’s final ruling held that the graphic images & statements violated the commercial right to free speech.

    On May 17, 2016, Judge Leon ruled the Washington, DC handgun carry permitting scheme unconstitutional. He struck down the District requirement that an applicant show “good reason” before a concealed carry permit would be issued

  56. 56.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I know people hate it but I like how you have to get dressed in layers in the winter. Eucerin is a layer, I told my son. Younger male lawyers wear lace up, lug sole boots with suits here in the winter- I sort of like how that looks, suit/boot combo. Very practical, too.

  57. 57.

    Jeffro

    Btw here’s Wolff’s quote on how grateful he is to Trumpov for all the free publicity:

    Asked how he felt about the president’s attempt to keep the book off shelves, Mr. Wolff quipped, “Where do I send the box of chocolates?”

  60. 60.

    Humdog

    @rikyrah: @rikyrah: de Leon is running for senate against DiFi and I am pretty excited.

    Lawfare has an entry up wondering if mueller is NOT investigating obstruction of justice by shitstain since Rosenstein was involved in obstruction and he has not recused himself. Yikes!

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodingers_cat: Especially galling from the NYT, which treated “Clinton Cash” as a credible source.

    @kindness: Yes, but you’re not supposed to! I believe you can get a serious fine for feeding manatees. If you’re in a boat, the best way to interact with them is to anchor nearby and wait for them to come to you. They’ll come and start nibbling the weed strands on your anchor line.

  63. 63.

    gvg

    Local stores and on line seem to be sold out. I may be doing kindle. didn’t want to because I think it’s possible there will be some legal fighting that might make Amazon “take back” the book. Not usually my type off book but this may be too relevant so I want to see it myself. I strongly expect a rash of fake quotes to try to discredit it.

  64. 64.

    Suzanne

    It’s 75 degrees here. I was sweating yesterday.

    Hoping my books arrive soon! I may end having to hide them with the rest of the contraband.

  65. 65.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @schrodingers_cat: I have found that Carmex is the best for healing lips, but that once they are no longer damaged the others are good for maintenance.

    And CVS is carrying the Cococare 100% cocoa butter sticks–you need to warm those up a bit but they are so handy.

  66. 66.

    Jeffro

    Btw just for the sheer comedic value of it, y’all should pop over to Fox News dot com and see what they have up – ONLY THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES OF THE DAY, of course!

    #1: Iran’s leaders are ‘running on fumes’
    #2: article implying that George Stephanopolous (yes, him) has something to do with the Clinton Foundation and ‘pay to play’ (hint: he doesn’t)
    #3: Brady vs. Belichick (ok that one I like)
    #4: Ben Vereen (who?) accused of sexual harassment
    #5: some female teacher someplace has been fooling around with her male high school students

    And why not? It’s not as if there’s any breaking news about the leader of the free world being revealed as a complete moron in some book that’s coming out today or anything…

  70. 70.

    Markk

    Was just there at 3 Sisters Springs last week. I’d post pictures if allowed. I go every year and have probably been 100x. Its paradise.

  73. 73.

    Mike in NC

    Many roads are in terrible shape with huge patches of ice. Had to turn around and come home due to so many accidents. Golf course we live on has been closed for days. Schools are closed. County government closed. Still no mail service. There’s a pond behind our house that has frozen for the first time in the ten years we’ve lived here. My brother in Boston wants to relocate to North Dakota.

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    Alexandra Petri on Twitter just now:

    really mad someone else already stole my plan to Bring A Presidency To Its Knees By Just Kind Of Wandering Into The White House And Acting Confused When Anyone Says To Leave And Then Eventually Steve Bannon Will Just Grant You Interviews You Can Publish In Book Form

  76. 76.

    Yutsano

    @Markk: I’m happy to see so many seacows. That looks like a decent population even if it’s clustered temporarily. Hope they keep warm and get lots of cabbages!

  77. 77.

    Fair Economist

    @rikyrah:

    California Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León (D) introduced a bill that would allow taxpayers to make a charitable donation to the California Excellence Fund instead of paying certain state taxes. They could then deduct that contribution from their federal taxable income.

    I love my state.

  78. 78.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: Fox News is totally fixated on naughty teacher stories. If they can’t find a new one, they’ll do a “where are they now” feature on an old case.

  79. 79.

    schrodingers_cat

    Our mailman left us a note this morning, clean your mailbox. It was covered with snow after yesterday’s blizzard and husband kitteh hadn’t gotten around to clearing it up.

  80. 80.

    Percysowner

    I am in Ohio and it’s currently all of 9 degrees and feels like 0. My dogs are so funny. I have a Beagle/Chihuahua who demands to go for a walk twice a day. He whines and whines until I take him out. Since it got cold he’s dropped the morning demand, but come 4:00 he want to go for his walk now. I leash him, put on his coat, open the door. He looks out the door and basically says “This wasn’t what I had in mind” turns around and doesn’t walk. His buddy is a full Beagle. She doesn’t ask to go out, but once she smells the cold air and snow, she thinks it’s perfect hunting weather and then she wants to go out. About 100 feet later, her toes are cold and she happily goes back home. Today, I’m not even going to try to take them out. I mean I’ll leash my Cheagle let him stick his nose out and retreat, but the Beagle isn’t going to get her “hunting trip” no matter how short.

  81. 81.

    efgoldman

    @Aimai:

    yes we shoveled last night after the snow stopped falling but the snow plows ran all night and blocked me in this morning. Had to uber to work.

    I don’t work anymore, but we did get a truckload of dialysis supplies first thing this morning.
    Our neighbor with the commercial-grade snow blower did all the driveways in the neighborhood, as he always does. Mrs efg will bake cookies for him.

  82. 82.

    Served

    @Butch: Musher’s Secret has helped to some extent in the cold and salt, but once it gets down to the single digits and colder, there’s only so much you can do. This is my first winter with a dog in the city, so it’s been an experience.

  84. 84.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t work anymore, but we did get a truckload of dialysis supplies first thing this morning.

    Feeling pretty good about the home dialysis decision today despite the hiccups, I assume? ?

    My dad did in-office dialysis, but he was a snowbird in Arizona.

  86. 86.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @schrodingers_cat: It’s the chapped lips dilemma (part of the greater horrible winter weather dilemma)–you have to expose your lips (and the rest of you) to go and get anything to resolve the problem of chapped lips…even if it’s just out to the mailbox to collect the order from Amazon. At least you have decent products to work with–I once resorted to Neosporin, on the grounds that it couldn’t hurt, and had to taste better than really old petroleum jelly.

  87. 87.

    efgoldman

    @FlyingToaster:

    I’m gonna go to Russo’s for a cake.

    Russo’s!
    Actually, among the things we DO have down here, are a couple of really super, small Italian bakery chains. It’s just a coincidence that one is right next to my PT place, in the same strip mall….
    Just a coincidence. Yeah, that’s the ticket….

  88. 88.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @Mnemosyne: I save the Carmex for times when my lips are actively cracked and on the verge of bleeding–the flavor helps keep me on track to use the other stuff as a preventative.

  89. 89.

    efgoldman

    @Mnemosyne:

    Feeling pretty good about the home dialysis decision today

    Winter in New England was pretty much the main reason for my choice.

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack

    Still cold here in NoVA. Tonight and tomorrow will be the worst, and then supposedly next week we’ll get back to “normal” winter weather: highs in the low 40s, lows in the high 20s.

    It just inched up to 20°, not expected to go any higher today. Then down to 8° tonight and 5° tomorrow night. I’m still dripping my faucets, no problems so far.

    In a bit I’m going to gear up (read: pants) and make a run to the grocery to get a few things. I could probably tough it out another couple of days, but I’ve been having little twinges of hunger for things that I don’t have on hand (of course). I have been out a couple of times this week, so it’s not like I’m actually iced in, but when you don’t have to go out it’s hard to come up with a reason. I did go out on Wednesday to have a late lunch and see Molly’s Game with a friend, and 30° felt positively balmy.

  92. 92.

    kate p

    @Served: Musher’s Secret at least stops those little ice balls from forming on their paws. If I don’t put it on the dog’s paws, he starts limping within a few minutes. My dog has gone from pooping 3 times a day to only once. And I think that only occurs because I make him go out with me in the morning to get the paper.

  93. 93.

    J R in WV

    @Miss Bianca:

    Actually the Very Finest New York Times was a very favorable news outlet for German AND American Nazis right up until Pearl Harbor, which was a breaking point for both the local Nazi Party and the New York Times. They first boosted Mr. Hitler in 1922, and didn’t take a break until France was fallen and Dunkirk was over. I may be off by a month or two, but no more than that.

  94. 94.

    Ked

    So, looking at that image I’m boggling a little. My impression of manatees was formed in a classroom back in the 80’s when the teacher showed us a film (and I can hardly believe I just wrote that) mourning the declining population. At the time, the experts were pretty sure it was below 1000, and maybe as low as 500. Which would mean this pic is showing us maybe a third of all surviving manatees in one spot.

    …fortunately it appears that manatee population has rebounded to higher than 5000 (good manatee lovin’ FTW) and they’ve been moved from “endangered” to “threatened” status. Some local asses apparently are arguing that the state is undercounting, so they should be able to operate their boats at any speed they want and kill more manatees.

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