Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

No one could have predicted…

We’re not going back!

Everybody saw this coming.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

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

We are aware of all internet traditions.

We still have time to mess this up!

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

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

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

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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Reader Interactions

127Comments

  1. 1.

    trollhattan

    So sad, especially considering zombies are leading both the UK and US as she passes to the beyond.

  5. 5.

    HypersphericalCow

    Damn, that’s too bad. I was an early teenager when “Dreams” and “Linger” came out, the exact right age for the romanticism of those songs to hit me right in the heart. RIP.

  6. 6.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’m sure I’m not the only one here who’s been thinking of you all day, BC. How’s Daisy doing? Please give her a few extra scritches from me.

  8. 8.

    Miss Bianca

    Got a Cranberries mix going on at work right now. Ugh. So much sadness.

    How you hiolding up, BC? Or is it too soon to ask?

  9. 9.

    efgoldman

    I am An Old. Cranberries mean nothing to me except tasty food.
    But I still miss Janis, and John, and to a lesser extent Jim Morrison.

  10. 10.

    mali muso

    Sad news. The Cranberries were the soundtrack to my early teens. Definitely memories of angsty days set to their music today. When I went to college and was old enough to buy a concert ticket, they were my first big live act. RIP, Dolores. :(

  11. 11.

    brendancalling

    I was never a fan of the Cranberries or most 1990s pop for that matter. That said, Ms. O’Riordan is a year younger than me, so it’s an ominous reminder of mortality. Everybody wants to go to heaven/ nobody wants to die…

  15. 15.

    Lapassionara

    BC, I missed your post about Patsy. Heartbreaking. And now this. So far, this year just sucks.

  17. 17.

    NCSteve

    Fuck. It’s not the part where artists I love have been dying, one after another, since 2016. That’s part of aging. It’s the part where they keep dying before their time, one after another, since 2016 that sucks.

  20. 20.

    Miss Bianca

    @efgoldman: Even we olds can learn to appreciate good new music (Lord, Cranberries’ heyday was in the 90s, and I still think of them as new!)

    Zombie is the song that will never stop giving me chills. Particularly since I got to stand under the IRA ‘martyrs’ wall’ not too long ago.

  22. 22.

    jonas

    Cranberries were one of the essential soundtracks to my college years. My daughter was just getting into them, too. This sucks.

  23. 23.

    geg6

    @Miss Bianca:

    Yeah, I’m pretty old (was in my 30s during the Cranberries heyday), but I always try to keep up on music. I tend to favor the music of the 80s, 90s and 00s much more than most of the music of my youth. Which, in my opinion, pretty much sucked. There were a few greats like Bowie and Springsteen, but if I never hear another Led Zeppelin song again it will be too soon. And I never really cared for a lot of 60s rock either. I understand that Jimi Hendrix was a great guitar player and that Janis Joplin had a great bluesy voice, but they don’t move me at all.

  25. 25.

    Waldo

    Good choice to remember Dolores by, Betty. Listened to that song — and everything else on No Need to Argue — hundreds of times when my kids were tiny tots and we couldn’t afford a lot of music. It was nice break from Raffi and Barney (ugh). Lots of wistful memories there. Very sad news.

  26. 26.

    HeleninEire

    Yeah I don’t have a clue who The Cranberries are/were. But everyone here is kinda freaking. Was Delores Irish? Seriously. I know nothing about music.

  27. 27.

    donnah

    I loved MTV and found music then that I still listen to. And I like classic songs from my youth as well, from the ’70’s. I have two sons in their twenties now and they share their music choices with me as well, so I’m good with the old and the new. My greatest failing is new pop music…I can’t really get into that.

    Sorry about the O’Riordan and Cranberries, though. She was unique and beautiful.

  28. 28.

    Currants

    Aw, I’ve just been replaying a couple of their albums. They were part of the soundtrack of my drive from MA to AZ a couple decades ago.

    And BettyCracker: I’m so sorry about Patsy Marie. Sending you virtual hugs—they’re worth about as much as words, which doesn’t feel like much, but there you are.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @donnah:

    My greatest failing is new pop music…I can’t really get into that.

    I feel like that last two years or so have been especially poor, even by pop standards.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    Thankfully, no one could hear me trying to match her note for note on Zombie. It had to be horrible.

  36. 36.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I don’t listen to music like I used to, but I’m still hearing good stuff from time to time. What gets the most air play is rarely the best anyway.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    @debbie: I was never a music aficionado. I still listen to radio is the car, and I feel like I have to flip stations more often to find something decent.

    I do like the music streaming services they have nowadays. Listen to all different kinds of music with that.

  40. 40.

    debbie

    @efgoldman:

    I am an old who refused to grow up. I probably looked very stupid standing in line to buy Nevermind (the first time i looked around and wondered if maybe I was starting to get a little too old). I miss Janis, Jimi, etc. and I will miss Delores et al. just as much.

    Hope you’re doing well.

  41. 41.

    mai naem mobile

    Dreams is one of the few songs I haven’t gotten tired of hearing. 46 is way too fucking young. Gawd, what a beautiful voice. Ugh. Fuck 2018.

  43. 43.

    hueyplong

    @debbie: We had four shrieking Zombie in the car on family trips when our kids were very young. Good chance we were worse than you.

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    Daisy is hanging in there. I can’t figure out if she knows Patsy is gone or not. Sometimes she seems to know and be sad. Other times she appears to be looking for her. Possibly both things are true.

    I find myself stabbed in the heart by grief by the dumbest little details that proclaim her absence. For example, no more hearing her wagging tail bang the dishwasher like a drum when I come in through the side door. Unlike most boxer dogs, Patsy had her whole tail, and she used it!

    She was such a sweet, pure soul — all love and loyalty and fun. Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting on the couch watching football, and she sat down next to me and leaned on me like she often did, and I put my arm around her and patted her head and stroked the soft fur under her chin.

    It struck me then that she hadn’t sat with me like that for a few days because we’d just got the dogs new beds, and they’ve been enjoying them so much, they’ve stayed off the sofa. So I really noticed it when she sat with me, and I’m so glad we had that time.

    I’m not going to talk about her for a while because it just hurts too much right now. But it helps to know you guys are thinking of us, and I truly do appreciate that.

  45. 45.

    laura

    Delores O’Riorden had a powerful sound.
    Gone way to young.
    Take care Betty C.,Daisy, and all who were loved by Patsy Marie.

  46. 46.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I listen to maybe one or two songs on a CD, which makes me think of something else I’d like to hear, again for a song or two. This makes for a lot of clean-up when I’m finished.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Nothing whatever to do with student loans. She had heart surgery and didn’t have enough sick days accrued, so her employer is going to withhold paychecks until all the sick days are paid off. Meaning nothing left for little things like rent, food … you know, the luxuries.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    @Litlebritdifrnt: What student loans? She had heart surgery and used more sick days than she had banked, so her employer “loaned” her sick days that have to be paid back. She said it would take her about a year of work to pay back the sick days, and she was hoping to retire this year.

    Going through heart surgery on your own and then having to work one more year instead of retiring when you planned because you have to pay back sick days? I think that’s worth donating to, particularly for someone who has been part of this community for a long time. Your mileage may vary.

  50. 50.

    debbie

    @hueyplong:

    Nope. Did any of your kids get detention because the headmaster was convinced you were singing badly just to make fun of Jesus?

  51. 51.

    p.a.

    Don’t know what’s become of my Cranberries cd over the years (the album w Zombie) but I have Pavarotti’s Concert for Bosnia on iPod, where she does the Ave Maria.

  52. 52.

    Joeg

    RIP Delores. Amazing and strong voice. She and Shirley Manson of Garbage stood/stand out alone in their talent. Rock female voices are the best. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sleigh Bells, Metric, Silversun Pickups, among others will carry Delores’ torch.

  54. 54.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @WaterGirl: The GoFundMe does mention student loans as an expense. And lots of Europeans are flabbergasted at the amount of student loan debt we saddle people with. I took it as “have things really gotten that bad?”

  56. 56.

    donnah

    @Betty Cracker:

    I literally burst into tears when I went to pet food aisle in the grocery after our dog Wendy died last year. Who knew Milk Bones would be such a trigger?

    I’m heartsick for you and I know you’ll get through it. But it hurts like hell. Hugs.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Ah, I went back and re-read the details of the GoFundMe. I’m still pissed about the insensitivity of the remark from one of our own. To be judgmental about still paying back student loans at retirement time seems like blaming the victim to me.

    I wish I had $165 and could donate the final amount in addition to what I already donated.

  62. 62.

    Mike J

    @Shana: Amen. I hated all that crap back then too. The nostalgia brigade never plays the stuff I listened to cause they never played it back then.

    Grosse Point Blank is the exception.

  64. 64.

    Humdog

    @Betty Cracker: Dear Betty, hold that moment on the couch when you cuddled close in your heart. It will be there to comfort you in the weeks and months to come. You let her know you loved her in the best way possible and she submitted to it to show you how much she loved you. Imma gonna go hug my girlies now.

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    So I was taking my plate and fork back to the kitchen after lunch, and a screw that holds the threshold down came loose and snagged my sock. My body went hurling forward into the kitchen, with my sock (and foot) still held in place by the screw. Luckily, I was not eating anything that required a sharp knife!

    I took 3 advil immediately, hoping to fool my body… fall, what fall? It’s interesting to see all the parts that hurt, as they show up one by one. Standing up after the fall, it was my right knee, left foot and something pulled in my left buttocks. (what a weird word!) By the time I got the pup in the car for the vet appointment a few minutes later, my right shoulder and elbow had joined the party, along with my right foot and something pulled in my back on the right side. A few minutes ago, my left shoulder and bicep piped up to say, hey, that’s not cool!

    Most importantly, though. I held onto the plate and fork so they are fine. Just kidding, though they are fine, I’m grateful that I didn’t break anything. I’m pretty pissed at the threshold, though, for the complete and total betrayal! Off to lie down for awhile, hoping the advil will have at least fooled my body a little bit by the time I get up.

  66. 66.

    Davebo

    She was one of my wife’s favorites and mine to. She loved Linger which maybe doesn’t say great things about me!

  69. 69.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: @WaterGirl: Uh, knowing the commenter (as little as I admittedly do), I took that comment to mean that she was flabbergasted at the notion that someone would still be paying off student loans in their 60s. Or at any age. Or be facing bankruptcy for non-payment of medical bills. Or be obligated to pay back sick days. People from more civilized countries than ours (and Britain still counts, if barely) often *are* incredulous at the barbarism of our own. Doesn’t make them necessarily heartless or ignorant.

    ETA: In other words, I chose to give her the benefit of the doubt, rather than jump to the worst possible conclusion.

  70. 70.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: It really came off to me as a criticism of Carol, but I hope you are right and I misunderstood that. I am fond of our Brit friend, even if she picked a nym that is difficult to spell. I’m looking at you on that front, too, SD! :-)

  71. 71.

    laura

    @WaterGirl:
    and something pulled in my left buttocks.

    According to cartoonist Roz Chast, that would be your butt hinge.
    If you can, a long hot shower or bath would be a good thing.

  72. 72.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Need to explain. This money isn’t going for paying back sick days. That money will be taken out of other funds. But the money will be held until that debt is satisfied. It’s just that I’m between retirement day and whatever day I get my first pension check. I hope it’s just a month or so between, but I’m waiting to hear from someone about that.

    As for my student loans-I went to college back in the late 80’s and never got a job big enough to pay back whatever I borrowed plus 6% interest. Except for a few minor payments here and there, I never have been able to catch up on anything. I did get an associates degree, but no job in what I studied for.

  74. 74.

    trollhattan

    @Miss Bianca:
    Ditto. Our higher education system is neglected and badly overpriced. A neighbor decamped California, went to University of Glasgow and paid far less than an equivalent degree in the States or even at a UC. Also met her future husband, so a two-fer.

    We need to make college more, not less accessible and far more affordable. I’ve had to take myriad classes since my degree to remain competitive in my working life and the same will be true for a kid today graduating from a top university along with $150k in loan debt.

  75. 75.

    trollhattan

    @debbie:
    And remember to hydrate!

    Two flu victims at my house and I’m praying, praying the damn shot works for me, as I’m the only vertical human. You do not want this bug.

  76. 76.

    CarolDuhart2

    I do have an arrangement that will help keep my payments within reason, but unless I get a massive windfall, I will be paying something for the rest of my life. I didn’t borrow all that much, but the interest is a bear. One thing I blame Biden for is not making student loans dischargable in bankruptcy. I would more than qualify. I blame the student-bashing for this. Major not all that lucrative? Not able to get a job in your field? No break for you. All because of the student loan equivalent stories of “T-bone steaks” I bet, like people using loans to buy new cars or go on vacation or something.

  78. 78.

    trollhattan

    @CarolDuhart2:
    Republicans are doubling-down on any university education that’s not STEM being worthless and filling our country with elitists, nasty nasty elitists. Betsy DeVoss has a solution than may or may not involve replacing public universities with for-profits. Somehow they’re going to partner the for-profit college and prison industries and then we’re really in for some fun.

  80. 80.

    Yarrow

    @WaterGirl: Falls can be so dangerous. May times injuries take time to show up, so more may show up over the next 24 hours. Adrenaline can mask some of it initially, so as that recedes please pay attention to what your body is telling you. If something continues to hurt for a few days consider getting it checked out. You may have a hairline fracture or sprain or something more serious that could benefit from early treatment.

    You’re doing the right stuff with the advil and rest. If something is particularly obvious then ice that area. Take care of yourself.

  89. 89.

    cope

    @Joeg: I absolutely agree with you about Delores and Shirley. I, too, am an old (68 soon enough) but one aspect of having spent 28 years teaching teenagers was trying to stay on top of their, uh, “culture” so as to be able to try to relate. I even drew my wife into an appreciation of the Cranberries after watching a documentary of one of their mega-concerts with her.

  91. 91.

    Currants

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Lol I’ll be working on mine til I’m … 77, unless I get a job that pays more than bare minimum. Serves me right for making a career change at an advanced age and at the wrong time in history.

  93. 93.

    TriassicSands

    Betty, I missed your post about Patsy Marie. I’m so sorry. Our critters all too often leave much too soon. I hope it’s some consolation that she had a warm and loving home and left knowing she was loved. I lost two 16-year-old cats in 2017. They’d been together every day for almost sixteen years and died within six weeks of each other. I know how much this hurts. My deepest condolences.

  94. 94.

    Mnemosyne

    @WaterGirl:

    Yeah, I had physical therapy for my sprained knee this morning. I’m still hopeful that only having a partial ACL tear means I can avoid surgery.

    Rest for the rest of the day and ice any appendage or joint that needs it.

  96. 96.

    trollhattan

    @Mnemosyne:
    @Adria McDowell: @schrodingers_cat:
    Yup, it’s no employment guarantee and the scientists are often used poorly, hired to defend incorrect premade conclusions. Soul-crushing work environment, that. And find me a room with twenty engineers I’ll show you five or six climate denialists.

  100. 100.

    Mike in NC

    Cranberries were great back when I could get decent FM radio where I lived. Used to catch them from time to time on SNL and the late night shows like Letterman. Have them playing on Pandora Radio right now. RIP, young Dolores.

    We’ve been introduced to a handyman willing to do a lot of stuff we feel too old or lazy (or both) to do ourselves. He convinced us to install a cat door in a wall leading to the screened-in sunroom. With three critters, constantly opening and closing the sliding glass doors in winter can leave the house feeling frigid. Bought one on Amazon and he’ll put in it for $75 cash on a milder day than we’re seeing this week. I also noted to my wife that the kitchen walls are looking like they could use a fresh coat of paint, but we don’t even own a ladder necessary for reaching 14-foot walls. Might try painting around the countertops and sink and let someone else touch up the high spots.

  101. 101.

    Aleta

    Solo acoustic, It’s You Dolores O’Riordan, written for her dad:

    It’s you, it’s you
    It’s you

    You know you made me feel better
    And I knew, I knew
    I knew
    When I was under the weather

    Where did it all the time go?
    Where did it all the time go?

    It’s you …

    But tell me where did all the time go?
    where did all the time go?

    I would like to go back to that car
    When our destiny was never far
    I would like to go back to that car
    But I can’t
    It occurred to me today that maybe
    I wished those days away

    Still it’s you, it’s you
    It’s you
    You know you made me feel better
    Whatever you do
    Don’t wish your days away

    Whatever you do
    Take it easy today
    Take it easy today

    (Fixed the link)

  104. 104.

    WaterGirl

    Thanks for all the good wishes and advice on self care. I have a work meeting tonight (of course I do!) but I will bring more advil along in case it runs long. So far, so good.

  106. 106.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @WaterGirl: Hmm, that might make the basis of a good sequel to Bubba Hotep (a surprisingly touching film, considering its silly premise: Elvis and JFK are secretly still alive in a nursing home, and fighting mummies).

    Your accident reminds me of one I had at work years ago. A bunch of us were working crazy hours trying to finish up some project by deadline, and all crowded into one conference room with our laptops. I wanted to show something to a colleague on the other side of the room, so I stood up, started to walk around the table and suddenly YANK! the power cord which was still plugged in pulled me backwards and off my feet.

    I held up the laptop from my position on my back and said “saved the laptop!” by way of covering my embarrassment and assuring people I was ok. Which, surprisingly, I was. Maybe it was all those years of Aikido. Never learned to fight but I sure can fall down good.

  107. 107.

    mapaghimagsik

    46 is just a shame. I loved her music and her voice. Sad to hear she’s gone, and as time passes, the digital age will have me listening to more and more ghosts.

  108. 108.

    David

    @betty cracker..we just had to euthanize our German Shepard and cairn terrier over the past 12 weeks after all that goes on you think this stuff gets easier.we are sorry this happened to you

  109. 109.

    The Moar You Know

    It’s the part where they keep dying before their time, one after another, since 2016 that sucks.

    @NCSteve: With musicians, this is no surprise. I was a working player (ie my main job) from 1985 until 2000. At best, most (me included) were at the poverty line, there was of course no health insurance (even Obamacare with subsidies would not have been affordable) and dental care is a distant dream. Add to that a working culture that downright encourages substance abuse and the real miracle is that most musicians live as long as they do.

    I am always saddened to hear of a musician dying young, but never ever surprised.

  110. 110.

    Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot

    I’m an old, too; not quite as old as efgoldman, but pretty close (soc sec eligible, anyway). Was into the Cranberries when they first came out, caught them in a wonderful concert in ’94, love their music still. Really, Dolores O’Riordan was the Cranberries — she wrote the music and the lyrics, and sang the songs (beautifully). Tremendous musical talent, far too young to die.

    I’ve tried to stay current with music all my life, rather than stick with the 60s and 70s stuff from when I was a kid. In fact, most of what I listen to (and attend concerts for) is new music, these days primarily underground electronic, industrial, noise, psych rock, and techno, plus a smattering of other stuff ranging from Americana to experimental post-rock to witch house. Go to Coachella most every year, don’t care that we’re (the wife and I) decades older than the target demographic; we always have a blast, and find a ton of new music acts to enjoy we’d never heard before. Yeah, Janis and Jimi and Lennon, et al, we’re great, and I love ’em still, but the golden age of pop/rock music is right now.

    But damn, RIP, Dolores.

  111. 111.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Bubba Hotep (a surprisingly touching film, considering its silly premise: Elvis and JFK are secretly still alive in a nursing home, and fighting mummies).

    And starring two inimitables, Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. It’s about time for a re-watch on that one.

    @Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot: “witch house”?

  112. 112.

    Ruckus

    @Litlebritdifrnt:
    Well my sister was to her dying day. Not sure what happened to the debt after she passed but I do know that she still had student loans outstanding. She was 66 when she passed.

  113. 113.

    Ruckus

    @Ruckus:
    I don’t think that litlebritdifrnt meant it that we were supposed to pay off Carol’s student loans, but that she was amazed that someone at that age would still have them. Carol was paying them off until the heart surgery and need of far more sick days than she had coming. And now she’d like to retire. I can’t of course speak for Carol but I know how wanting to retire and having medical problems can be and we are all on edge because of Patsy, because of drumpf, because of our own situations, but geezee can we give one of our own a break?

  114. 114.

    Ruckus

    @Currants:
    I’m without student debt. Not that I paid it off, I just never had any. No degrees with my name on them. I’m what you’d call a member of the WWC. Sister had more than enough for both of us and yet I think I made more money than she did. We both owned our own businesses for big chunks of our lives so on those days when receipts weren’t up to snuff, we didn’t get paid. She lost hers when she passed and I lost both of mine to events way outside my control. But she owed student loans and would be paying them off forever. It’s a very shitty system and we should be ashamed that an education costs so much that we effectively have reinstated debtors prison for large segments of our population. Hard to get a good job these days without a college education, hard to afford one unless you don’t actually need one because you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

  115. 115.

    Steve in the ATL

    @The Moar You Know:

    Add to that a working culture that downright encourages substance abuse and the real miracle is that most musicians live as long as they do.

    And then, inexplicably, there is Keith Richards. Maybe open G tuning has restorative power?

  117. 117.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mike J:

    The nostalgia brigade never plays the stuff I listened to cause they never played it back then.

    The Residents and Sigue Sigue Sputnik?

  120. 120.

    Steve in the ATL

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    so her employer is going to withhold paychecks until all the sick days are paid off.

    If I were a lawyer, I would recommend taking a hard look at the Fair Labor Standards Act and what it says about not paying people who are working

  121. 121.

    Felanius Kootea

    I loved Zombie – she wrote the lyrics to that herself. May she rest in peace.

    As for student loans – I believe the commenter was expressing incredulity that a country would allow
    its citizens to owe on student loans well into their sixties. Higher education is heavily subsidized
    in many countries, so unending loans don’t exist the way they do in the US.

    The reason so many Nigeria doctors can afford to migrate here after passing the USMLE Steps 1, 2, etc.,
    is that the Nigerian government is essentially paying for the medical degree. They don’t owe anything
    when they’re done with medical school. We basically have a developing country in effect subsidizing
    graduates who go on to do their residencies in the US or move to the UK or Saudi Arabia. The Nigerian
    government will be ecstatic if Trump blocks Nigerian medical doctors from migrating to the US (while
    continuing to ignore the reasons why medical doctors leave in the first place – it’s not just about money).

  122. 122.

    Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot

    @Miss Bianca: Witch house is dark, downtempo electronic dance music. Purity Ring, Holy Other, Crystal Castles, oOoOO, Pictureplane, White Ring, Salem (of course) are some notable witch house acts (all these except White Ring I’ve caught in concert). Lot of Russian acts (not well known over here) doing witch house, like IC3PEAK and Crossparty. They take the gloom to a different level (seems appropriate for Russians).

  125. 125.

    Ruckus

    @Steve in the ATL:
    I haven’t heard anyone asking if Carol’s employer continued to pay her as if she had all the sick days she needed. And if he did this thinking he would get it back if she continued to work till she was 65 or what ever age. IOW it was more of a loan than anything. Not saying that’s the case at all, just wondering. And now that Carol is really ready for retirement after her HA and recovery and is unsure what her pension will start as soon as she needs it to. IOW, It sounds to me like she is between a rock and a hard place here and is trying to find a way to bridge the gap. Not for the same reasons, but I’ve been there and it is scary.

  126. 126.

    Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot

    @BruceFromOhio: Most of the songs on Purity Ring’s first album (Shrines) are, I think, noticeably better than those on their second (Another Eternity, which Begin Again is on). Sophomore curse and all that, I suppose. Still, I hope you enjoy their music, whether you agree with my take on that or not (they just have those two albums out so far). They’re great in concert: dark, dreamy, and dancey.

  127. 127.

    Spinoza Is My Co-Pilot

    @Miss Bianca: Crystal Castles and Purity Ring are the most “accessible” to listeners unfamiliar with the genre (or other “goth”-like music) I’d say. They are all fairly new acts, and I like all those I mentioned (hope you will, too). The Russian stuff can be harder to get into.

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