Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Let there be snark.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Come on, man.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Yellow Cardinal No-Politics Open Thread

Reader Interactions

83Comments

  1. 1.

    tom

    Here in Ann Arbor, MI, it hit 60F yesterday. Today we are in the middle of a winter storm which is dropping snow at at the rate of 2″/hour. Forecast calls for 5″-9″ total. Crazy.

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    You shoulda warned me it was a WaPo link. I open those in a private window. Handsome bird, tho.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    I meant to send that around yesterday but I had a medical procedure done on my back (day surgery, I’m fine with possible major improvements soon) and got busy working with other things. It’s one beautiful bird.

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    I have bird, art, flower and sunset tweeters in my feed to keep myself sane. That is a great photograph.

    ETA: Plus lots of pets.

  10. 10.

    frosty

    Sitting outside the camper at Hunting Island state park in SC. Getting bit up by sand fleas. Tiny, nasty little buggers. But I’m going to stick it out because tomorrow we start the trek north ending this year’s Snowbird Road Trip and I want to enjoy the mild weather as long as possible.

  14. 14.

    debbie

    I did not know there was even such a thing as a yellow cardinal!

    One spring, a Wilson’s Warbler landed outside an upstairs window and sang nonstop for more than 15 minutes. It was the most beautiful thing to hear.

  19. 19.

    Gin & Tonic

    @CarolDuhart2: I think NotMax, who also lives alone, bought a smaller one. Maybe ask him. (I’m assuming you’re referring to the “Instant Pot.”)

  20. 20.

    Yutsano

    @rikyrah: Thank you! This was for the removal of a trial for a high frequency spinal cord stimulator. It makes back pain disappear like nothing else I’ve ever done. I’ll keep y’all informed for when the permanent one goes in. Which should be in a few weeks.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    Cranked out a loaf of really yummy blueberry bread the other day in the super duper bread machine. Tweaking the recipe by including several tablespoons of blueberry jam in addition to upping the recommended amount dried blueberries worked wonders.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    @Gin & Tonic

    Content with the 3 qt. one I opted for. Only real drawback is if planning to do something like a big hunk of pot roast, have to do half at a time.

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Wow, I’ve never heard of — let alone seen — a yellow cardinal. Just the red males and the drab females. That is one beautiful bird!

  29. 29.

    Heidi Mom

    @oatler.: Having lived in PA all my life, I didn’t realize how rare cardinals were in other parts of the country until I read your and other comments to that effect. Cardinals are always present here in south-central PA — heard or seen, usually both — and I’m very glad they are. The bird-feeder trifecta, as far as I’m concerned, is to see a cardinal, a bluebird, and one or more goldfinches at the feeder at the same time.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    Ugh. Migraine day. I did at least get some non-screen reading done today, but I probably need to get off the intertubes before the backlight starts the migraine back up again. ?

  33. 33.

    Emma

    Help from the experts. When I was switching from regular ATT to Uverse (long story) somehow they created a Facebook account for me. Every time I try to delete it, it says it doesn’t recognize my passwords. I finally got some answers. In order to delete the account I have to send them a copy of my passport page OR my driver’s license (with the “sensitive parts” blocked) and then they will do it.

    WTF do I do now? I don’t know that I want my passport or in fact any sort of important ID floating about!

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @Heidi Mom:

    My favorite moment of winter is when I step outside, hear that familiar song, look up about 40 feet, and spot a bright red cardinal singing away on a snow-covered hundred-year-old oak branch under a cloudless, bright blue sky. That’s my kind of red, white, and blue!

  36. 36.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Emma: is it really that important that the Facebook page go away? I have a (relatively) ancient second one that came into being for weird reasons and I can’t reclaim it either, without doing a similar dance. I just live with it. It doesn’t actually cause problems.

  38. 38.

    JMG

    Big nor’easter here tomorrow. Sixteen foot ocean flood crest predicted for Boston seacoast. The oh-so-trendy Seaport District, where Amazon just announced it’s building a new office for 2000 people, was under water in early January’s big storm and will be again if the forecast is correct. Yet that’s where developers want to go. I’m no real estate genius, but this seems less than ideal to me.

  42. 42.

    I'll be Frank

    So nature got tired of red cardinals and threw a yellow one out there to see what the ladies think (not to mention the predators and prey insects.)

  43. 43.

    I'll be Frank

    @rikyrah: We got one for a wedding present in 1982 and have not been without one since. Imho, baked goods and roasted meats come out much better and you can cook 25 degrees cooler, which is nice in a hot kitchen.

  44. 44.

    NotMax

    Seems like a good place to drop in a few TCM weekend heads-ups.

    Friday, 6 a.m. Eastern – Five Star Final. Think FOX news in the heyday of newspapers. Dated and over obviously sensationalistic but still entertaining. Edward G. Robinson rocks, and Boris Karloff gets to strut his stuff while saddled with a wonderfully outlandish name, T. Vernon Isopod.

    Also a rare chance to sample some prime cuts of Josephine Baker. Monday at 2:45 a.m., The French Way and at 4:15 a.m., Zou Zou.

  46. 46.

    HinTN

    @Yutsano: Without wanting to pry, Mrs H has a totalled lumbar disc causing chronic compressive nerve pain. She has that stimulator on her near term horizon. Is your back condition similar? You can get my email from Adam if you prefer not to answer here.

  47. 47.

    Joyce Harmon

    Hey, I’m real close (like within a day or two) of publishing the book that had been stuck for two years! A Town and Country Season, coming soon to a Kindle app near you!

  50. 50.

    No Drought No More

    My yard is a bird diner, and the birds are my floor show. I zone out watching them the same way people do staring at aquariums. Recently the cheap birdseed I usually buy them was out of stock, so I bought a small bag of a bird caviar instead, leastwise to judge by its price. To my astonishment, within an hour of tossing that seed around my yard, a group of wild pheasant- I think that’s what they are anyway- made an appearance out of nowhere, for the first time in months, to chow down on the stuff. The other birds in the neighborhood obviously loved eating it more than the regular seed, too. Which means that birds apparently can and do differentiate the quality of the seed they’re eating. And how did those wild pheasant (or whatever kind of bird they are) know I had spread the good stuff around as quickly as they did? And they did know it, too, because they appeared again the next time I spread that seed around. Whatever they are, the plump little bastards are lucky I’m not a hunter..

  51. 51.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Seems like a good place to drop in a few TCM weekend heads-ups.

    TCM was recently added to YouTube TV, which I use for streaming, etc. I’m having lots of fun with TCMs selections and will add your recommendations to my DVR queue.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    @Major Major Major Major

    Whether smoked, slurped or gulped, the writer got hold of the good stuff to come up with that one.

    Film is from just before Karloff’s name became synonymous with horror films.

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    He’s actually quite good — don’t forget, IRL he had that plummy British accent that makes him a good sleazeball. He’s very good at creepy obsequiousness.

    @Joyce Harmon:

    Yay! Is it available for pre-order, or will you just let us know for sure once the balloon goes up? ?

  56. 56.

    jeffreyw

    @schrodingers_cat: Yeah, that’s Ginger Boy, he’s been here for 2-1/2 years so he has us broken in. Homer is doing better. I feed the kittehs while Mrs J is recovering from her oopsie and both Homer and Toby will eat at the same time, if not exactly rubbing elbows. Some sotto voce grumbling has yet to break out into yowls because I am quick to threaten them with starvation when I hear them start up.

  57. 57.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    Since you rarely leave your island home you probably will never have an opportunity to hear Sara Karloff talk about her dad, but take it if you have a chance. She’s very funny and self-deprecating and has some great stories about him. Now that she’s retired, she’s kind of a professional daughter, as happens here in So Cal.

  58. 58.

    Sab

    I googled yellow cardinal. They actually exist, but in Argentina and Uruguay. That guy in Alabama is really lost. They are actually finch tanagers, not cardinals.

  59. 59.

    Ohio Mom

    @Sab: I wonder if he was someone’s exotic pet who got away.

    Years ago, while walking in a Cincinnati neighborhood, I saw a bright blue parakeet hanging out with a flock of sparrows resting on a porch roof. It was fall and I couldn’t help but be sad that he probably wasn’t going to survive the cold weather.

    It was in the days before cellphones, nowadays that is something I’d photograph. It seemed to be a metaphor for something.

  61. 61.

    FlyingToaster

    @JMG: They’re putting up flood walls to try and protect the buildings. Any employer along Causeway, Atlantic, or in the Seaport who brings their employees in tomorrow is criminal.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ohio Mom:

    We have feral parrots here in Southern California. No one is entirely sure where they came from, but the most common story is that they were set free when a pet store caught on fire in the 1940s and there’s been a good-sized colony of them ever since.

    The parakeet might have done okay — if the sparrows were letting him/her hang out with them, they probably helped protect it and showed it how to get by in the cold.

  63. 63.

    Ohio Mom

    @Shana: I thought you were a big cook. At least I remember you listing lots of dishes prepared for Shabbat (we usually celebrate by going out to eat).

  66. 66.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Shana: While I’m glad you enjoyed it, I’m having a difficult time processing the idea of someone seeing it for the first time now, in 2018. Not judgmental, it just seems weird.

  67. 67.

    Yutsano

    @HinTN: I have degenerated discs at L4-L5-S1. If she’s been told she’s a good candidate for the trial, I highly recommend she at least try it. You do get about 5-7 days to decide if it will work for you or not before you commit to the full implantation, which is nice. Make sure she goes for high frequency tho. It’s much more comfortable and doesn’t have the buzz of low-frequency.

  68. 68.

    opiejeanne

    We’re on the road with our Annie cat. I think Mnemosyne has an Annie also. Today has seen the damnedest weather, from Yreka to our current location in I-5 north of Buttonwillow. Drove through rain and sleet and hail and a pretty bad snowstorm between Weed and Redding but it was also very beautiful. After that there were periodic deluges that nearly blinded us.
    There were several really ugly accidents on the icy roads and in the rainstorms, a couple we just missed being part of by maybe ten minutes.
    Stopping at 6 at the junction with Stockdale Highway where there’s a hotel that accepts cats and dogs. We’ll be glad to get off the freeway.
    Today has been an adventure.

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    @opiejeanne:

    That storm is probably why I had a migraine today — I tend to get weather migraines before a big storm. Drive safely!

    (And, yes, our middle cat is Annie, the miniature Maine Coon. She looks exactly like Steve but only weighs 8 pounds.)

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    @Shana

    May have been me, may have been others. Lots of well-deserved admiration for that film here. Gripping cinema..

  73. 73.

    Joyce H

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yay! Is it available for pre-order, or will you just let us know for sure once the balloon goes up? ?

    I’m too superstitious for pre-order. (Certain that if I list something on pre-order, I will then immediately discover a huge problem that takes months to resolve.) But I hope to publish this weekend and once I do, I’ll be back with links.

  74. 74.

    ET

    That is the look of a bird that know it is the most beautiful thing anyone will see in a 5 mile radius.

  76. 76.

    Miss Bianca

    @rikyrah: You have an air fryer!! Oh, I want want want one now that two friends of mine have turned me on to them!

  79. 79.

    Joyce H

    Hey, in other news, I signed me and my dog up for a rally obedience class which started this week. Our regular agility starts up again next week, so we’ll be going to two classes a week! Jazzy did great, but the class just wore me out – lots of walking. I need to work on that.

  81. 81.

    Tenar Arha

    I figured out how to sideload .mobi files (i.e. Kindle book files) from eBooksDirect onto my iPhone so they’re readable in the Kindle App and also got them to show up on my macOS Sierra laptop version of the App as well.

    Short version how I ended up with them? They were an impulse gift because the author was having a sale. Then I had to help with tech support to get them onto the giftee someone’s Kindle, & then I got curious.

    ETA1
    (Plus, I feel energized yet old, bc I relearned on youtube how to convert fractions into decimals, in order to help with homework).
    ETA2
    grammar

  83. 83.

    workworkwork

    @Gin & Tonic: Not really. Except that the air fryer doesn’t take up as much space or use as much electricity.

    I like mine since I can cook up frozen stuff like fish with the same amount of cooking time but none of the pre-heating time of my conventional oven. Since there’s just two of us to feed, I usually prefer using the air fryer if I can do so.

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