Here is Scout in her Goodwill find (fifty cents, toddler sweater) to keep her warm on the cold mornings. She was a shivering mess.
I can’t watch, don’t even feel like discussing. If you are the same, here’s your open non-political thread.
Should I do a Super Bowl Recipe Exchange on Friday or Saturday?
Let’s talk favorite movies, books or TV shows of the moment. Lucifer is my guilty pleasure and we are going to go see The Post tomorrow if my work day allows.
Scout gets her 12 week checkup on Thursday, she’s already 22.6 lbs and 18 inches tall.
Bonus Bixby:
Have at it…
Baud
The state of the Scout is cute!
father pusbucket
Finally, a clean clip of Leslie Nielsen singing the National Anthem.
Ruckus
Gunna be a big one. Already a cutie.
She looks inquisitive. As in it’s possible that she might find a way to get into everything. Like you weren’t expecting that.
Major Major Major Major
Omg soooo cute. Tonight I’m gonna eat Japanese food and read sci-fi.
Chris
Favorite TV shows of the moment? Well, not exactly “of the moment,” but I watched The Night Manager recently and I’m convinced: they definitely should give the Bond role to Hiddleston. Too bad they’re apparently not interested.
I look forward to Season 2 of TNM, though.
Mnemosyne
I’m going to see “The Shape of Water” on Thursday. I’m pretty excited because I’ve heard great things about it from everyone.
Tonight I need to try and get the next two chapters of my book into some kind of coherent order so I can start editing them. The first two have already been sent off to an RWA contest for unpublished writers, so keep your fingers crossed!
TaMara (HFG)
@Ruckus: And stubborn. She already thinks she’s 150 lbs and should be able to do whatever the heck she wants. We are working on boundaries, mostly with ducks and cats at the moment.
Gin & Tonic
I bought an Instant Pot during the sale period around Thanksgiving. For various reasons it hasn’t gotten much use, but today I had some meat that I had to either cook or freeze, so I decided to make chili. I used the “chili/beans” setting, and shortly after it came up to pressure, it sounded like stuff was sizzling against the bottom; after about 12-13 minutes, the pot vented a bit of steam, which surprised me. Anyway, I let it finish, let it cool off and all that, and when I was emptying the pot, there was definitely burned-on black crust on the bottom. Any ideas what I did wrong? There was plenty of liquid: a large can of crushed tomatoes and about two cups of homemade stock, and the resulting chili was a little more liquidy than I’d like.
I know that isn’t a lot of info to go on, but I know there are some Instant Pot aficionados here, so this is a Hail Mary.
hitchhiker
Can I say that I like to order Alexa to serve up some classic rhythm and blues? It’s a fine list for a full moon evening in Seattle … here with the dog and the mister and no interest at all in the farce?
I just don’t care. All the things will be said, repeatedly, by all the usual people, and blah blah blah.
We’re about to eat some veg/beef/ginger stir fry on Jasmine rice. NOM!
Mike in NC
Watching “Last Flag Flying” starring Steve Carrell, Lawrence Fishburne, and Brian Cranston, about a Vietnam vet whose son died in Iraq in 2003, and he has trouble reconciling how to bury his kid. Moving.
Wag
Had dinner tonight at the local beer garden and enjoyed a couple of excellent local brews. Beats the hell out watching trump and his strumpets.
daize
TaMara, we enjoy Lucifer, too. What’s not to love? Speaking of love, Scout is amazingly cute, and thank you for the wonderful photo of Bixby. He’s such a beautiful big boy.
Mike J
I’ll have my favorite football snack. Smoked king salmon on tortilla chips with bbq sauce. Salty smoky meaty fatty fish. Good with an IPA.
Gin & Tonic
@Mnemosyne: I haven’t seen that, but I really enjoyed “Three Billboards.”
Felanius Kootea
Thank you for this thread – I am not watching that fat fool. Working on a review paper and I’m getting cross-eyed from all the reading.
Need to decide whether to leave out or include papers that are over 35 years old (but still somewhat relevant to the topic).
Major Major Major Major
I seriously can’t believe people are watching the speech. Why?
Jane2
@Gin & Tonic: I always deglaze after sautéing and before setting the pressure…usually don’t have issues when I do that
Wag
@Gin & Tonic:
My wife got me an instant pot for Christmas and we have had a great time with it. We got a very good cookbook as well. https://www.amazon.com/Dinner-Instant-Recipes-Pressure-Multicooker/dp/1524762962/ref=nodl_
We made the Cuban style pork shoulder this past weekend. 80 minutes and the meat was amazing. As good as my 24 hour sous vide pork.
Gin & Tonic
@Mike J: I think you know that smoked salmon belongs on a bagel.
Jane2
Scout is adorable!
I’m watching La Mante on Netflix…holy crap.
seefleur
Scout is adorable – and boundaries are meant to be stretched as far as possible when one is a cute pup. I too have a Scout – she’s a Boston terrier-beagle mix (the worst of both breeds in the best possible way) and quite the canine princess.
Bixby looks pretty chill(y) too.
Gin & Tonic
@Jane2: I sauteed the onions and garlic in the IP, but browned the meat in a separate pan – easier to drain off the extra fat that way. Maybe I should have deglazed with the stock before throwing everything else in. I might still be thinking in crock-pot mode.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Junkies.
Ohio Mom
Scout and I are twins! Right now, I am wearing black jeans, a turquoise sweater and a turquoise scarf, all from Goodwill. It is my favorite place to shop.
P.S. Thanks for the non-political thread. These days I am finding I need a lot of respite.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: little sadder.
Mike J
@Gin & Tonic: Not paper thin, big chunks. Not sickly Atlantic salmon, good, wholesome pacific salmon.
Wag
@Gin & Tonic: deglazing is your friend. Get this toasty bits incorporated in to the sauce.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
They are both too, too adorable. Scout in her little pink sweater and Bixby snuggled in his zebra print. They are much more comforting than the emotional support scorpion I wanted to help me hate read SOTUniom summaries.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: I thought that was your resting face.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I’m watching a Stormy Daniels marathon. She’s really good in “Forrest Hump”
Gin & Tonic
@Major Major Major Major: I think my wife may have it on in the other room, so I’ve turned up the music so I don’t have to hear any of it, even by leakage.
raven
I’m going to repost this
This dude was a journalism professor at Georgia and I invite you to read this hilarious obit. At the end he urges people buy a young person a subscription to the NYT so if you don’t like it don’t read it and then go fuck yourself
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Link is broken.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Ohio Mom: How’s Ohio Dad doing?
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: that’s existential terror.
efgoldman
Repeated from earlier today
Here’s my kid’s new job. Started today, didn’t want to jinx it by going public after the offer but before she actually started (~2 weeks ago).
She’s the staff writer, mergers and acquisitions, here.
Yes, proud I am.
She’s have gladly stayed at Consumerist for many more years, but the mother ship nuked the whole site without any warning.
raven
@Gin & Tonic: My guess is not enough liquid, I haven’t had anything scorch except steel cut oatmeal.
raven
@raven: My name is Barry Hollander, of Athens, Georgia. I died on January 30, 2018 due to complications related to thyroid cancer at the age of 59. Yes, I wrote my own obituary in advance. No one who knows me is surprised.
Thyroid cancer killed me. It’s usually treatable with a high survival rate, but I was blessed with a rare genetic mutation that allowed the cancer to shrug off the standard treatment and take a tour of my lungs. Drugs forced the cancer to behave itself for a few years and I continued to work while dealing with a host of colorful side effects and occasional pain. For treatment I traveled to MD Anderson in Houston, the top cancer center in the country, and my doctor there is an expert in the field.
Even an expert can only do so much. Eventually the cancer won.
I was a journalism professor at the University of Georgia for over 26 years, teaching basic and advanced reporting classes and, at the graduate level, public opinion. I never allowed my students to write their assignments in the first person, so it’s ironic that my very last piece of published writing is in, of all things, first person. We’ll come back to this in a moment.
To many in Athens I’m best known as Edith Hollander’s husband. To put this in traditional obituary phrasing, I leave behind my wonderful wife, the very best part of me. It sucks that I won’t get to grow old with her. It sucks that I won’t get to watch our amazing children raise families of their own: Jacob (a geologist with Schnabel Engineering in Greensboro, N.C.) and Erin (an MD/PhD student at UPenn in Philadelphia). Both, just amazing. Just short of your first child arriving you think it won’t be all that different, right up until the moment you hold him that first time and the entire universe reorders itself. You think with the second child it won’t be that big a deal, and again when you first hold her, the universe changes again. Despite all my threats to send our kids to Jesuit military boarding school, nothing comes close to the delight in watching them grow into remarkable adults.
It’s time now for the boring but necessary stuff because this is my last chance to bore everyone and you’re obligated to slog through it. I mentioned above I am survived by my wife and two children.. I’m also survived by my sister, Deni Patton of Ethridge, Tennessee, of whom I was never the brother I should’ve been. I was preceded in death by my father, the fiercely loyal Buddy Hollander, and my mother, the ever-patient Shelby Hollander, who was probably her own guardian angel’s guardian angel. I was a better father than I ever was a son.
More boring information. I was born in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, at that time a Mayberryesque small southern town where you can also trace journalism roots as my dad was a circulation manager for the two large Nashville daily newspapers and in charge of several counties along the Tennessee-Alabama border. So I grew up surrounded by newspapers. By age 12 I was a paperboy, peddling a bike at 5 a.m. in all kinds of weather to deliver the morning paper and then doing it again at 3 p.m. for those who took the afternoon paper. At 14 I increased the size of my route and bought my first motorcycle, a thing legal at the time. By 16 I had a bigger route, a bigger motorcycle, and I also bought my first car. I delivered papers through high school and sometimes on weekends when home from college. Surrounded by papers, I grew up reading the news of the 1960s and 1970s, prime time when it came to big stories, but in college I majored in of all things marine biology — right up until that fateful semester when organic chemistry convinced me that perhaps journalism was a better career choice.
After graduation I took a reporting job at a small daily newspaper in Mississippi, where I began accumulating the usual awards you get in the news business, such as best investigative reporting or best breaking news coverage. True story: on my first day at that paper, having nothing else to do with no assignments yet, the editor gave me a pile of obits to write. Here I am, full circle, writing my own.
Later I moved to a daily paper in Louisiana where I met my wife, Edith, who was also a reporter there. After that, I covered politics and government for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. At some point Edith and I rolled the career dice, quit our jobs, and moved to Gainesville, Florida, to attend graduate school at the University of Florida, she in public relations, me in journalism (our marriage survived). The plan was for us to both get our masters degrees, me in a specialty like data journalism, and then I’d return to the news business. That changed when grad school — and Dr. Mary Ann Ferguson — sparked in me a love of academic research, so I stayed for a Ph.D and in Fall 1991 took a job as an assistant professor at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at UGA. Years later, through sheer dumb luck or perhaps after being around for so long they felt obligated to give it to me, I made full Professor, being one of the top scholars in talk radio, how people learn from the news media, and why people believe in theories.
I never once regretted accepting the UGA job, though once or twice perhaps Grady did. I got to work with the very best faculty in the world, got to work with the very best students in the world, and got to live and raise a family in the very best town in the world. I’m convinced Heaven, assuming I go there, looks a lot like Athens.
Send flowers if you like, as Edith loves them, but in my memory raise a good glass of bourbon or single-malt whisky. In my memory, tell stories about me, especially the ones that make me sound like an idiot. In my memory, buy a young person a subscription to a good news source like The New York Times. And in my memory, watch out for Edith, the love of my life. I never deserved someone as good as her, and she doesn’t deserve this.
The visitation will be held at Lord & Stephens funeral home on Lexington Road on Thursday, February 1 from 6:00-8:00pm. The funeral Mass will be held at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Epps Bridge on Friday, February 2 at 3:30pm. Flowers can be sent to Lord & Stephens funeral home.
TaMara (HFG)
@raven: I fixed your link. :-)
raven
HOW TO FIX INSTANT POT OVERHEATING
raven
@TaMara (HFG): tanks
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@efgoldman: I meant to offer congratulations to her earlier. And her kiddo is a hoot! It’s so good to see you posting again. Please keep feeling better.
MobiusKlein
@raven: “a good news source” is the key part. You get to use your judgement here. Your money, after all.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: Good for her. I had no idea CQ was owned by The Economist Group. Politics aside, a good business (and very good writing.)
Gin & Tonic
@raven: Thanks for the tips.
Ohio Mom
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: He’s just started back to work, half days. Still sometimes easily tired but nothing a nap doesn’t cure — all pretty amazing considering it’s not even eight weeks out yet. If you need heart surgery, Steve Park at Tri-Health Heart Institute is your man.
How’s by you?
MomSense
I’m sitting in front of the fireplace with a nice fire drinking ice water with lemon and ignoring the news. Scout is adorable.
The Mindy Project is my guilty pleasure. It is a guaranteed escape which is necessary In times like these.
Ohio Mom
@efgoldman: This job looks more interesting than the other one. Congrats to Daughter!
zhena gogolia
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
But I’m thinking Tamara needs to turn up the heat a smidgen.
MobiusKlein
I am content – got to release two updated production microservices today and yesterday, at subsidiary of big company X.
And nothing needed a rollback!
New version of Android app shipped too, with no glitches. So tech world is doing great.
Now just need to fill the job req.
efgoldman
@Gin & Tonic:
Given CQ’s heritage, I was surprised, too.
schrodingers_cat
I am discovering the Indian standup comedy scene. I am listening to Varun Grover’s interview. He is funny and smart, he is a writer and lyricist and a standup comic. He is not afraid to take on Modi and his cultists. He has won several National (Indian) Awards for his lyrics and screenplays.
Tu kisi rail si gujarati from Masaan (Crematorium/Graveyard) which won at Cannes.
When you pass like a train, I shake like a bridge.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Ohio Mom: That’s very good news! We’re all hanging in – thanks for asking. I’m behind in correspondence, and I owe Ernie P an email. Shoot me yours if you’d like me to pass it along. You never know when he might find a slot to see somebody.
Major Major Major Major
@MobiusKlein: woohoo!
Ohio Mom
@raven: I enjoyed that. Always admire people who can pull off writing their own obituaries. His is the first professional one I’ve seen.
Sounds like he was fun to be around. Hope Edith manages.
O. Felix Culpa
I watched the first episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and plan to watch the rest of them. But not tonight.
ETA: Cute doggie is very cute.
efgoldman
@Ohio Mom:
Actually, Consumerist gave their writers a pretty free hand, including allowing snark in a story as long as it wasn’t political.
Her specialties were net neutrality and the complicated ACA business. Her signal ability is to translate stuff from federal regulatese and testimony into understandable English; she sees it as just another language to learn.
She hates FCC Chairman Pai with he heat of a thousand…. etc
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: I feel a duty not to turn away, but’s that just me. I am still listening but I had to come to this thread because I was trying to eat dinner and I could not swallow.
Another Scott
@efgoldman: Wonderful news. Congratulations to both of you!
Can she do anything about the horrible RollCall.com web page? Scrolling through masses of “candid” shots of smiling politicians is a horrible way to present congressional news stories.
(groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
Clearly, NYT was just an example. A Washington Post subscription would fit the bill, too. Now everyone’s happy!
SWMBO
@TaMara (HFG): To answer the question at the top, post it on Friday. That gives us Saturday to gather ingredients for Sunday.
Slightly OT: I used to buy Ronzoni pasta. Now I buy Mueller pasta. It seems to satisfy us more in some small way.
efgoldman
@Another Scott:
She could fix it; she knows how. But they have a whole art and design department that probably wouldn’t let her in the door
SWMBO
@efgoldman: She really does have a superpower then. Congrats and I hope she loves the new job.
Ohio Mom
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I got my kid into seeing the junior junior doc in that group. She is the one with spaces on her dance card because she is so young. She is sweet and well-meaning and enthusiastic but young — did I say she was young? In another ten years, she’ll be great. Luckily, my kid is going through (hopefully a very long) uncomplicated stage.
I wonder how awkward it would be to switch docs? I appreciate the offer but worry about the awkward part. Hmm…
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: whatever, neoliberal Amazon Bezos-humping old white lady.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
Doesn’t mater who you are or what has happened it can not be easy to bury your kid. You expect them to out live you. I doubt that the circumstances make a lot of difference. Mom had to bury her 66 yr old daughter and she couldn’t talk about it for the rest of her life. My aunt had to bury her 6 month old son. Not a word. It’s devastating to lose a child. Hell it’s hard to bury your parents, but your kid? Had a step daughter and worried about her getting sick or injured, I couldn’t imaging her dying. I’ve been to and arranged a lot of funerals, including my family and I still can’t imagine the devastation of losing a child.
SWMBO
@Ohio Mom: I don’t know how old your child is but mine (now 37) does not change doctors easily. I have found that if you can manage a well visit instead of the first contact when they are not feeling well, that helps a lot. He tends to like women with long dark hair (think Mulan or Violet Incredible) so if you can get someone that is more his “type”, that also works in your favor. If he is well and feeling up to it, have a reward for after. Something he enjoys that’s a bit out of the ordinary. He transitioned last time very easily because I spoke to the staff before going in and the doc came in and knew his likes and dislikes ahead of time. He hates having blood drawn because he thinks he’s going to bleed out. The doc showed him the vials that were needed then showed him a couple of jugs next to them to let him know how much they were taking. He let him know how long it would take to replace it. No surprises and he helped ally his fears. Made a lot of difference.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
You forgot “centrist.” Apparently “centrist” is the new magic word that’s supposed to make us all understand how impure we are. ?
Kristine
Scout is so cute. ❤️
Spent a few minutes laughing over these: Scientific uses for equipment not originally designed for the tasks.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: oh right, sorry.
CarolDuhart2
I’ve read so much here about Hot Pots. Should I give away my crockpot, or just add a Hot Pot to the mix?
WaterGirl
Scout is adorable.
SectionH
Thank you so much for this post! I’ve been reaching my own peak tolerance of things political. Didn’t go dark after 11/8,but Mr S did, and used to get srsly angry if I mentioned anything about the Pissgibbon. After about 13 months, he started paying attention again, and pesters me 3 times an hour on bad days. Meanwhile, I’m parlously close to a meltdown, for all the endless drumming of evil and stupidity…
And having managed to let too much back into my mellow mood, let me say that I’ve been loving the moon the last several days, and am on our balcony watching it slide behind our building right now. Fabulous weather this evening, and we’re expecting Tom get up at 4am-ish to see some of the eclipse.
Late as usual from the Left Coast. Going back to read the comments now.
TaMara (HFG)
@zhena gogolia: LOL. We wrap Bixby up because it’s cute – Scout wears her sweater when we are out doing duck chores. I run around barefoot in the house now that I got all these great energy upgrades over the summer (along with an awesome rebate).
prostratedragon
It’s the end of Saudade Day in Brazil.
Cesaria Evora, “Sodade”
SectionH
@SectionH: “to get up” ffs. No Toms here… mutter, grump, mutter…
SectionH
And because I’m insanely proud of her, I’ve got to brag that my DiL has been asked by the Old Globe Theater in San Diego to give them a full length play – and they’re paying her for her submission, and a non-trivial amount. She had a short play on stage there a couple of years ago as part of their “New Voices” that year, so it wasn’t completely out of the blue, but they came to her. No guarantee it’ll be produced, but they’re are paying well more than nominal.
Just found out this evening at “Christmas Dinner” with the kids. Got my happy mood back now just writing about it.
Sab
@efgoldman: I also hate him that much.
Sab
Scout is finally starting to grow a proper Great Dane snout. I look forward to future views as her looks progress. Gorgeous girl even now.