Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Consistently wrong since 2002

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Let there be snark.

“woke” is the new caravan.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Let’s finish the job.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

A consequence of cucumbers

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

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

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Saturday Night Open Thread

Saturday Night Open Thread

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Heard this old song on the radio a couple of days ago, and it keeps replaying in my mind:

I like the song, so I don’t mind the earworm. One time I got “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” stuck in my head. That I DID mind — nearly drove me mad. I’ve you’re susceptible to that sort of thing, please, for the love of dog, don’t look that song up on YouTube.

Here’s a shocking revelation that came out of a Piers Fucking Morgan interview with Donald Fucking Trump:

It’s shocking because Trump uttered a truth. The interview airs tomorrow, and we all may be endangered by it even if we sensibly plan to avoid the broadcast because when two towering masses of egotism and ignorance collide under the right conditions, it can create a cataclysmic wave of stupidity and self-regard that is capable of puncturing the atmosphere.

Quiet evening in our location tonight. Big storm heading our way across the Gulf, but that won’t hit until tomorrow.

Anyhoo, open thread.

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    Don’t they broadcast Morgan’s show on some whacky bandwidth between local UHF and what they talk to the astronauts at the ISS on?

  2. 2.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter

    I don’t need to YouTube it for it to become an earworm. I hate you.

  9. 9.

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

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I recommend use of tin foil hats for best reception. If streams of electrons are arcing across the tin foil that means it’s working.

  10. 10.

    Jager

    We binged watched “The Man in the High Castle”…Edelweiss drove me crazy for a couple of weeks.

  12. 12.

    Steve in the ATL

    I’m back in San Francisco now. No one showed up at the Carmel-by-the-Sea meet up! Probably should have mentioned it before now….

  17. 17.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jager: Here’s Victor Garber doing it as a time displaced Professor Martin Stein – one half of Firestorm – from the TV show Legends of Tomorrow:

  23. 23.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Yutsano: not a per diem, but daily limits that I exceed almost daily. My boss doesn’t hassle me about it because she wants to retire but can’t until I agree to take over her job.

  26. 26.

    Yutsano

    @Steve in the ATL: Pfft. I went over my daily limits all the time on government trips. It’s just money that doesn’t come back to me at the end of the trip really. I’ve never been counseled about it.

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    @Steve in the ATL:
    A town lacking actual street addresses, they’re probably wandering Carmel-by-the-Sea in an ill-formed jackal rabble, as we are wont to do, looking for the spot. They should go to Clint’s joint and ruckus.

  35. 35.

    ruemara

    There are times when I do not handle the collective “meh” of folks I know very well. I’m really reconsidering being a supportive friend.

  38. 38.

    Steve in the ATL

    @efgoldman: not sure. But I’m their only option. As with Suzanne, it would involve a move to a state I don’t want to move to. And not enough of an increase to make me forget how much I don’t want to move there.

  39. 39.

    Steve in the ATL

    @trollhattan: I said “meet at the hobbit-looking place”. What could be easier?

    For the record, there was no meet up planned. I was simply enjoying some free time away from the aggressive panhandlers.

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    You already know my opinion of your so-called friends, so I won’t repeat it.

    I got a good response reading the first 3-ish pages of my novel to a group of women writers, so that was nice.

  42. 42.

    C Nelson Reilly

    My high school senior son received an email Thursday that he was accepted to a local highly regarded college and was awarded a $96,000 scholarship (24k for 4 years). He has a 3.9+ GPA and is ranked 4th in his class of 1300 students. We only have to come up with 100k (over 4 years) to make it happen. Checking the couch cushions for the remaining pocket change. Community College here we come!

  43. 43.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Yutsano: did you ever stay in hotels that cost ~$200 a night more than policy allows? That’s my new favorite thing to do. “If the accounting gnomes don’t like it, they can negotiate the next contract!”

  46. 46.

    efgoldman

    @Steve in the ATL:

    “If the accounting gnomes don’t like it, they can negotiate the next contract!”

    Yutsano works for the fed gummint. He’s lucky if they let him buy a carton to unfold and sleep on under the bridge.

  49. 49.

    NotMax

    the hobbit-looking place

    Trivia: Before there were counties, the colony of Virginia was organized into 8 shires. One of them was given a tongue twister of a Native American name, Warrosquyoake, which was changed to Isle of Wight fairly fast.

  50. 50.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mnemosyne: I hit Monterey and Point Lobos State Reserve as well. I didn’t hit your aunt; don’t believe anything she says about it.

  51. 51.

    efgoldman

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Texas. [shudder]

    Enormous Brokerage & Mutual Funds LLC built a huge new operations center in the Dallas Metroplex, and offered huge bonus and promotions to move from New England. I didn’t do it. Of those that did, about 1/3 cane back.

  56. 56.

    Peale

    @C Nelson Reilly: hmm. Have you thought of feeding him steroids in case the prestigious college needs an offensive lineman and is willing to pay? It’s probably easier than asking him to become a French horn prodigy at this point.

  60. 60.

    lamh36

    Ok, I posted this in the LA Meetup thread, but I’m not really sure if anyone is still reading it, so I’ll just post it here too.

    My understanding:

    Meetup Place: Grand Central Market (exact spot TBD?). I can just hop on the METRO.

    Time: I’d prefer 6 instead of 7, afterwards, I can always UBER back to the Motel.

    I’ll check back in the morning here at BJ before heading out to do more touristy stuff (and maybe Anne Laurie can email me, if anything changes

  61. 61.

    lamh36

    hello BJ!!! Don’t know who’s still up, but I’m just getting back to the hotel from hanging with my friend. We went to a mall and ended up at the Landmark theatre and saw The Shape of Water. I really liked it and wasn’t as skeeved out by the fishy love interest as I thought I’d be. I def recommend it…but to be clear it’s a romance for sure so if ur not quite into that then maybe still go see it because it was beautifully shot and the story really draws you in and even the sappy romance ending feels like a triumph!

    P.S… I loved Octavia Spencer, but I really hope Richard Jenkins wins he was sooo good…& instead of Octavia, but Micheal Shannon or Michael Stuhlbarg deserved a nom more, IMHO

  62. 62.

    Tokyokie

    @Mnemosyne: Back when I was in high school, we held a fund-raising garage sale at a community center that had a malfunctioning jukebox that would play a song for a nickel. As a result of that and kids with lots of small change, I heard the Osmonds’ “One Bad Apple” more or less continuously for about six hours. For months afterward, I’d find myself humming the damn thing while driving, whereupon I’d begin screaming in agony. And I now worry about my drive home in the morning. For some reason, a couple of weeks back, my ear worm was the theme song to “The Great Escape,” even though I haven’t watched it in probably 10 years. But hey, better Elmer Bernstein than the fucking Osmonds.

  64. 64.

    OnkelFritze

    Of Course I HAD to look it up on youtube.
    I honestly always thought Herman’s Hermits were some kind of punk band that I had missed.

  65. 65.

    Amir Khalid

    @Tokyokie:

    I heard the Osmonds’ “One Bad Apple” more or less continuously for about six hours.

    I can’t imagine a worse audio experience, except maybe six hours straight of Donny’s Nat “King” Cole covers.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    Good evening, pals. (Good morning for me.). Saying hello from Strasbourg, France. (Alsace Lorraine.). Just here for an overnight. Cloudy, but cheery and charming. City’s symbol is the stork, apparently. No boat tours — the river is too high.

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    @lamh36: I really want to see that but haven’t had the chance. Haven’t heard a negative review yet from folks I know who’ve seen it.

  71. 71.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @lamh36: Grand Central Market is about a half a block from the Metro station on 4th and Hill and is across from Angels Flight. Get off at the Pershing Square station but don’t go to the exit for Pershing Square(that’s Hill and 5th). I was just at that station tonight.

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    You may want to email Anne Laurie and ask her to post an update thread. I agree that 6 pm would be a better start time than 7 — the latecomers can always show up at 7. I don’t think I’ve been to any meetup that was less than 2 hours.

  78. 78.

    Elizabelle

    @ruemara: Am. Starting to plan to return to JackalLand. The time away has been useful.

    Will have to come out to SoCal and NorCal and elsewhere to meet up w jackals, when possible. Glad lamh is out there; hope she gets W&Grace tickets, and that tonight’s meetup is great.

  79. 79.

    HumboldtBlue

    Earworms.

    I made the mistake of listening to Diamond sing Sweet Caroline the other night. Sweet mother of annoying refrains I tried to use Having my baby to clear my head and all I got were stark memories of my mother’s anger at the fucking song. What the fuck was 1974 thinking? That shit went to number one in the US and Canada.

  82. 82.

    Tokyokie

    @Amir Khalid: As I recall, the Carpenters covered both “No Milk Today” and “There’s a Kind of Hush,” which were the A- and B-sides of a late Herman’s Hermits single in the U.S. Needless to say, the Carpenters’ versions are much better known.

  84. 84.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @HumboldtBlue: Actually the Lennon #1(his only one post Beatles and before his death*) was “Whatever Gets You Thought the Night” which was a duet with Elton.

    *(Just Like) Starting Over hit #1 but only after Lennon was assassinated.

  85. 85.

    Stardus614

    Those horrible Bud Dilly Dilly commercials have doomed me to a perpetual earworm of “Lavender Blue, Dilly Dilly.” And not even the cool blues version from the 50s; the nursery version. I can still picture my little yellow 45 record going round and round on my phonograph. As if the Bud itself wasn’t unforgivable enough.

    P.S. posthumous apologies to my mom. You probably should’ve come upstairs and broken that damn record if I played it one more time.

  86. 86.

    Amir Khalid

    @Tokyokie:
    I remember both the Herman’s Hermits’ and the Carpenters’ There’s A Kind of Hush, but not No Milk Today. YouTube doesn’t seem to have the Carpenters’ version of the latter. And I’m not sure if the lyrics could be changed for a woman singer and still work.

  87. 87.

    Tokyokie

    @Amir Khalid: I could be misremembering that. And given my long-term dislike for the Carpenters, I’m not going to look it up. When I was 12, I loved me some Herman’s Hermits, but now that I’m an old crank, my favorite British group from that era is The Kinks.

  88. 88.

    Central Planning

    @Steve in the ATL: I once worked for a company where I tried to keep my daily food spend under $100. That’s tough in NYC.

    Anyway, during a period of corporate belt-tightening, a VP sent out a note saying please try to keep daily food spend under $200. That opened up a whole new world of restaurants to me.

    I have never been questioned about any expenses. And really, in any job, don’t lie on the expense reports. That’s a quick and easy way to get fired.

  92. 92.

    Cathie from Canada

    Just had to share — one summer, when I worked at a food booth at the local Exhibition, a neighbouring booth played “I’m Henry the Eighth I Am” on a continuous loop. Over and over and over…. So for 40 years, that’s been my fall-back earworm. Aghhhh!

  93. 93.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Central Planning: Only lying I do on expense reports is to understate the things that wouldn’t fly. I ate dinner at Saison in SF one time while there on business. I knew that one was coming out of my own pocket.

  96. 96.

    chris

    Dead thread but on topic. Here is my $2 squirrel-proof feeder. (It’s old, I need to make a new one.)

    A widemouth jar is best but I have used juice jugs, a $2 funnel and some old wire. Cut a little port in each side and let the fun begin. There is no place for the red squirrels to get a grip except for the wire but they sure tried. They tried off and on for several years but now the local population doesn’t even try. Our squirrels is learning!

    It gets better. The label is left on because, amazingly, the flying squirrels can cling to it and I like feeding them. They grab the label, slide down to the port and hang there stuffing their faces. Two feet from the window where Steve the mighty hunter is going mental. Too cute.

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