Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

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

I really should read my own blog.

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

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

The revolution will be supervised.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Open Thread: Surfing Records

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    Some good Petri take on the WHCD bullshit: Good, Approved Jokes for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner 2019

    What is the president’s least favorite vegetable? The LEEK!

    If it’s true what they say that Hope Hicks left Washington, then why, when I look around the room, do I see nothing but Hope? This administration is full of it. It being hope, not any other substance.

    I think Hope abandoning you is FAKE NEWS!

    Ha ha, fake news! A term that is now mainstream, that we use as a joke! We can all laugh together about how the president uses this term to undermine the institution of the free press!

    And if the president is undermining the free press, it is just because he loves the mining industry in America so much! The guy loves to mine, and he loves Americas miners! There is a Roy Moore joke to be made here, but I will NOT make it because I am upholding decorum and deportment!

    What’s the difference between a CNN panel and a hydra? One is a many-headed monster that DOESN’T get excited whenever Donald Trump says something!

    Look at everyone’s charm and deportment. Deportment is different than deportation, something I will not allude to this evening because we’re all laughing together and getting along.

    Haiti is a shithole country! That’s not a joke, just something the president of the United States actually said. We can laugh. We can laugh together in this room. It is important that we laugh together in this room. Try the beef, which we may now be at a disadvantage when exporting to China because of the trade war that might happen.

    What’s the difference between the institution of the free press and the Republican tax-reform plan? One of them is good for America! Something in that joke for everyone, ha ha!

    I will leave the harsh, personal attacks where they belong: in the mouth of the president of the United States!

    Try the romaine!

  3. 3.

    Felanius Kootea

    Why would anyone do this? Oh my God. The bit in the clip about the wipeout award and the person who won it not being able to attend because he’s still recovering from broken vertebrae tells me all i need to know about surfing monster waves. Better them than me.

  4. 4.

    Aleta

    Wolf’s monologue—sharp, unflinching, and pointedly unfunny in places—called bullshit on the role laughter has been performing in Trump’s America. Over the last year and a half, much of the culture has sought relief in humor in much the same way as citizens of extremely repressive countries.
    ——
    I recognize laughter in the age of Trump as though it were a cousin of anti-totalitarian laughter. … The hunger for a reflection of reality is so desperate that, I have discovered repeatedly over the last year and a half, one can reliably get laughs simply by quoting Trump during a public talk.
    ———
    Political satire in less troubled times exaggerates existing facts, pointing out the absurdities inherent in all ideologies, or playing up smaller disagreements and failures for bigger laughs. But Trump is hard to exaggerate—it is enough, it seems, merely to mirror him. But why does faithful portrayal of fact-based reality elicit laughter in a country that has a free press and a healthy public sphere in which, it seems, reality is robustly represented?
    —-
    Wolf’s performance at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner suggests an answer. She called the President a racist, a truth as self-evident as it has proved difficult for mainstream journalists to state. Her humor was obscene: she joked about the President’s affair with a porn star; about his “pulling out,” as promised (of the Paris agreement). … She also made minced meat of White House staff, House and Senate Republican leaders, the Democrats, and journalists on the right and left, in their presence or in that of their colleagues.
    —
    What makes these dinners possible are fictions about civility and performance. There is a fiction that holds that journalists and their subjects can eat and socialize together and yet maintain the distance necessary to continue performing their professional roles. There is a fiction that they can laugh at one another and themselves and not take offense, that the divisions among guests are ultimately bridgeable, that all of them inhabit the same reality, and that both the humor and the objects of the humor are innocuous.

    The same fiction continues to dominate our public sphere. In this story, Trump performs the role of President, albeit poorly, and those in the media maintain a strained civility in their coverage of him. In this story, the statement that the President is a racist is still controversial. In this story, the media can discuss his affair with a porn star, and even the question of whether he used a condom, without undermining respect for the office. This is an essential pretense, because respect for the office of the President is indeed a value that should transcend the current Presidency. But it is this pretense, and these fictions, that cast a pall of unreality over most media coverage.

    New Yorker (TW for two-line unnecessary, untrue insult to HRC)

  5. 5.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah:

    That video was terrifying.

    i can’t imagine why being on top of an 8 story building’s length of water would be a source of dread.

    I mean, its not like he fell off of it.

  8. 8.

    HeleninEire

    Pfft. I am that brave, NOT. Here’s my life mantra. I don’t swim in the ocean and I don’t camp. CUZ THERE’S NATURE IN THERE.
    I’m a city girl. I’d rather deal with the muggers.

  9. 9.

    Just One More Canuck

    There was a documentary made in the 60’s called The Endless Summer that followed a couple of guys from California on a trip around the world exploring new surfing spots. It was on TCM one night a couple of years ago. The intro music drew me in and I didn’t move for the whole show. Surfing’s not something I could ever do,(I swim like a rock) but it’s fascinating, as is the whole culture around it

  12. 12.

    Corner Stone

    @Aleta: Yeah, Masha’s shot at HRC was pure unadulterated bullshit and completely fucking uncalled for. I’m not really a fan of Gessen as she keeps trying to tell everyone how dumb Putin is. Well guess what, genius? It doesn’t fucking matter.

  13. 13.

    bemused

    I don’t think I can even watch that terrifying video again. Once is enough.

    So John Kelly believes women are more emotional than men. Hah. Not from my experience, at work and in general. Plenty of men must have fragile egos considering how their “feelings” are so easily hurt and have hissy fits. Most of the men in my family were/are centered and rational so it was quite an education for me when I was young and started working in my first full-time jobs.

  16. 16.

    gene108

    @bemused:

    Men just don’t emote as many feelings as women. I think most men emote varying degrees of angry, when they get “emotional”, while women express a broader range of feelings more readily.

  17. 17.

    germy

    @Aleta:

    (TW for two-line unnecessary, untrue insult to HRC)

    Amy Davidson (now Amy Davidson Sorkin) was relentless in her Hillary bashing. I mean, it was continuous. Every week, a new attack, over the smallest bullshit.

    And now she continues her New Yorker columns, elevating her eyebrow at the antics of #45, in that wordy way only New Yawker magazine columnists can do.

  18. 18.

    Corner Stone

    @JPL: If Trump starts blathering about IQ tests we’ll have to start the stopwatch. I wonder if J Kelly will avoid going to the bathroom at the WH so he can’t be fired by tweet while on the…uhhh…john.

  20. 20.

    JPL

    I’m listening to Nicole Wallace and someone said they considered Kelly the stabilizing force. hahhahahahahahhahahahahah

  22. 22.

    JPL

    CNN
    Chief of staff John Kelly plans to deny claims in an NBC report that he called President Trump an “idiot,” a senior administration official told CNN.

    The truth teller is going to deny it.

  26. 26.

    JPL

    @TenguPhule: New.. At first I thought it must be old news, but I think that was because Tillerson has called him a moron. It’s doubtful that there is a cabinet member hasn’t called him an idiot. They all need lie detectors tests .

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    Josh Marshall has an Item about PROFESSOR Robin Hanson, esteemed (and tenured!) PROFESSOR of Economics at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople George Moron University. It seems PROFESSOR Handjob has come up with some policy proposals aimed at facilitating non-self-generated sex for “incels.”

    Example # 5391 of why there is no such thing as Peak Wingnut.

  29. 29.

    TenguPhule

    Porn star Stormy Daniels sues Trump for defamation

    Stormy Daniels filed the complaint in federal court in New York today. At issue is a tweet Trump made in which he dismissed a composite sketch that Daniels says depicted a man who threatened her in 2011 to stay quiet about her alleged relationship with Trump.

    In the tweet earlier in April, Trump said: “A sketch years later about a nonexistent man. A total con job, playing the Fake News Media for Fools (but they know it)!”

    The filing says the tweet was “false and defamatory,” arguing that Trump was speaking about Daniels and that he “knew that his false, disparaging statement would be read by people around the world, as well as widely reported.” It also says Daniels has been “exposed to death threats and other threats of physical violence.”

    Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages. Her attorney Michael Avenatti said today: “We intend on teaching Mr. Trump that you cannot simply make things up about someone and disseminate them without serious consequences.”

    I miss the days when headlines were not balls ass crazy.

  30. 30.

    zhena gogolia

    @JPL:

    I love this:

    The White House spokespeople said they haven’t seen Kelly have a negative effect on the morale of women staffers. If anything, they said during meetings Kelly is the “bigger gentleman” who steps in when aides use foul language to note “a lady is present” and similarly says he shouldn’t use foul language in front of a lady if he’s used an expletive. The spokespeople, who would not speak for the record, said it’s possible Kelly may have said women are more emotional than men, with one of them agreeing that “generally speaking, women are more emotional than men.”

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    @Jeffro: Most highly rated WaPost reader comment on the Petri column:

    If any group should be called snowflakes, it is Republicans. They are cold, white and obsessed with Christmas. Plus when you get enough of them together they close a public school.

  34. 34.

    ruemara

    I can appreciate the strength, technique, athleticism and skill. I can also wonder what in the fucking fuck is wrong with people that see that and think, “Hey, I should grab a plank of wood and my non-water breathing, non-high pressure durable body and go play in that.” As incomprehensible as cream of celery soup.

  35. 35.

    Corner Stone

    @zhena gogolia:

    Kelly is the “bigger gentleman” who steps in when aides use foul language to note “a lady is present”

    Does he also refrain from whipping the servant that brings his saddled horse around to the front lawn? How gentlemanly of him!

  36. 36.

    germy

    @Elizabelle: No surprise that WaPo’s funniest and most penetrating essayist has the best comments.

    She’s young, but I see a Pulitzer in her future.

    from Jabba the Hutt's perspective Star Wars is the story of a guy who owed him money and then instead of paying had his friends murder him
    — Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) August 29, 2016

  37. 37.

    Fair Economist

    If you REALLY want scary, watch the first of the 2018 wipeout competitions award nominees. He bails when he realizes he’s going to wipe out, but the wave literally flings him in the air anyway – hard to say how high, but I’d guesstimate about 30 feet. He landed flat on his back and broke it – that’s right, he broke his back with *water*.

    Fortunately he was rescued, with apparently no nerve damage, and plans to continue surfing.

  39. 39.

    bemused

    @gene108:

    In this country, big boys aren’t supposed to cry so they emote in anger, silence, anything else. Not the most healthy.

    There was an “emotional” guy at one job who was notorious for basically throwing tantrums to the point where all the women co-workers would say, “Joe” is having a PMS day again.

  42. 42.

    No Drought No More

    I worked with a surfer who was a friend of the guy that founded the Mavericks tournament (near Half Moon Bay, Ca). Before it was a tournament, the founder had surfed the dangerous waves all alone. When he asked the surfer I knew to join him, he was told there was no fucking way, that he was family man and that it was too fucking dangerous, and if he had any brains he’d stop surfing it himself. And the guy I knew lived to surf. He once told me he’d surf every day of the year if he could. Even so, he definitely thought his friend was out of his mind.

  43. 43.

    opiejeanne

    @rikyrah: Did you catch the comment at the end, that one guy was unable to attend because he was recovering from a broken vertebrae sustained in the wipeout?

  44. 44.

    The Pale Scot

    @Felanius Kootea:

    Why would anyone do this

    It’s a real life Magic Carpet Ride. Standing on the board, the view is watching the water ahead of you get drawn back and seemingly lift the board up, preventing you from falling over the edge as you hurtle forward. The important thing is Don’t Panic!

    It’s rush. And different beaches have different waves (strength, speed and shape all differ) that you have learn how to ride.

    Tow in surfing, that’s pro football level athleticism . You need to be able to swim 1000K full tilt and hold your breath for 3 minutes before any driver would say yes to giving you a tow.

    My best wave was ’82 in Oct at Montauk Point L.I., an 8 footer. The next one grabbed me like a rag doll and beat me repeatedly against the soft sand bottom until I washed up onto the beach.

    The worst part of going surfing is that when there’s no rideable waves. which means that you spend a couple of hours out in the water splashing around. And that sounds REALLY Terrible, doesn’t it?

  45. 45.

    VeniceRiley

    80 foot wave. Now, that’s somethin’! In other news, I am out of the city of Anaheim and into Laguna Hills. Twice as far to work but in half the time. We all b*tch and moan about traffic on CA Fwy system but, if you’ve had a surface street commute in recent memory, you wouldn’t! I hedged early and got in a jaw-dropping 45 minutes early to work today.
    And now I live on a hill, have a view, and am not in a food/park/safe walk desert.
    Oh, and my rescue jack Russell roommate is now traded in for an adorable rescue Chihuahua roommate. Scrappy is his name. He’s colored like a mini Doberman.

  47. 47.

    Aleta

    The guy who drives the jet ski into that stuff is also nuts; he deserves name recognition too. And that bird following the surfer’s every move is obviously a pro.

  51. 51.

    Ruckus

    @Fair Economist:
    We searched for a long time for a sailer that was blown off the flight deck of the carrier we were following. It’s 75 ft from the deck to the water. They figured he was dead before we started looking, just from the fall. And all that was ever found was his life jacket. Water is dense enough, especially salt water, that if you fall far enough and don’t enter perfectly, you might as well as have landed on concrete.

  52. 52.

    opiejeanne

    @Aleta: Yeah, that was unnecessary and untrue. It’s as if they’ve never paid attention to her when she’s speaking, they just write it based on “conventional wisdom” which is anything but.

  56. 56.

    opiejeanne

    @HeleninEire: I wade in the ocean, maybe up to my waist. I don’t camp because that’s what hotels are for but I do like visiting state and National forests
    .

  57. 57.

    MomSense

    @Just One More Canuck:

    They made a sequel to it (90s?) that was also really good. Recently I watched a documentary on Netflix about surfing on the coast of Iceland. It’s worth watching just for the last scene.

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    @germy:
    Is the “judge” suing his imagination, then?

    Nice rollup of pro-Michelle Wolf Tweets, many from comedians. They also unload on Dennis Miller’s threatening to have some really zinger jokes about her…by Wednesday. How will she sleep?

  62. 62.

    raven

    I’ve been a body and boogie board surfer for 60 years. When we moved to LA in 57 we’d go to Huntington and rent surf mats, a kind of short air mattress. They were canvas back then and the really chaffed your nipples so we wore t-shirts in the water. I’d turn blue and my parents would have to drag me out of the water but I loved it. I almost always get in the water at Manhattan Beach when I visit family but I stayed out when we went to the Rose Bowl and I made the right choice since I was sick the whole month of January after that trip.

  63. 63.

    germy

    @trollhattan: I never understood why people were so shocked that Dennis Miller stopped being funny.

    He was amusing on SNL because he had a team of SNL writers feeding him lines. He didn’t take them with him when he left SNL.

    I saw a recent clip of him with Bill O’Reilly, and he was painfully unfunny. He really has no material.

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    @germy: He really went south after 9/11, but was already schtick before that. Jon Stewart gave him a pity guest slot on TDS which he used as an opportunity to poke fun at Pelosi for blinking too much. Cutting edge stuff! Was never on again.

  71. 71.

    lamh36

    No spoilers…but Can we talk yet ’bout how Infinity Wars is tramautizing kids left and right……ya got adults all shooketh, but we all understand the deal with star contracts and box office receipts…but the poor kids who don’t know no better coming outta theatre like…

    https://68.media.tumblr.com/e410c1fccd852fdb1a094e5a4afda077/tumblr_oocvanoKYK1w4o831o1_540.gif

    I mean it’s funny, but it’s not…ya know what I mean?

    My godbaby Maddie asked me to take her, but I’m honestly not sure if I should…ya got folks with teens telling me their teenagers were speechless and some in tears!!! I’m thinking Maddie may have to sit this one out?

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    @opiejeanne:

    Camping? Bah. Been there, done that, don’t see the need.

    I used to love camping. Now, I love comfort.

    @trollhattan:

    Nice rollup of pro-Michelle Wolf Tweets, many from comedians. They also unload on Dennis Miller’s threatening to have some really zinger jokes about her…by Wednesday.

    I guess that a lot of the madness has abated. But the last I heard, Trump was thundering that neither he nor his people would ever attend this event again.

    I thought I heard something about complaints from reporters that the jokes failed the spirit of “supporting journalism.” Reporters don’t need to be supported by censored performances.

  73. 73.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    When I was a kid we used to go camping by the beach or just go for the day. A lot. I body surfed all the time, never did a board, mat or raft. One thing you learn is to respect the water. The other is to hold your breath and to protect yourself but not with your hands/fingers out in front. Stuffing your fingers into the sand or a rock with all your body weight/wave action behind that could be painful. Fun times.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    @ruemara:

    I can also wonder what in the fucking fuck is wrong with people that see that and think, “Hey, I should grab a plank of wood and my non-water breathing, non-high pressure durable body and go play in that.”

    I assume it’s a matter of working their way up. They start surfing on ordinary-sized waves, decide bigger is better, and wind up searching the world for ever bigger waves to surf. That and they have developed a tolerance for adrenaline, so they keep needing crazier things to do to get the same size rush they used to get from something only moderately dangerous.

  77. 77.

    opiejeanne

    @No Drought No More: Several surfers died at Mavericks when we lived in the East Bay, two during a monster high surf phenomenon, one of whom came from some other country, Brazil or maybe Australia just to surf those giant waves.

  78. 78.

    Kathleen

    @opiejeanne: I do wish I liked to cook. I sort of envy people here who share recipes and pictures. I’m just not that into it. (Confession – I think I’m too lazy!!!!)

  79. 79.

    cmorenc

    For those of you who don’t surf, from the perspective of a surfer, an approaching eight foot wave appears terrifyingly tall and massive, and is dangerous for anyone but an expert surfer to try to ride. It’s like watching a watery single-story ranch house galloping forward to collapse on you. The power (and danger) of waves with increasing height grows exponentially, not linearly because both the total mass involved with the wave increases nonlinearly with height, but also its gravitational potential energy (more water breaking from a greater height).

    An eighty foot wave is absolutely insane to ride without getting crushed or drowned (or both).

  81. 81.

    Ruckus

    @trollhattan:
    Went through a storm for over 7 days crossing the Atlantic in winter that while standing on the bridge, the ship in the trough, the waves were well over my head. Which at that point would make the waves around 45-50 ft possibly more. But likely not close to much more. That was more than tall enough

  82. 82.

    Jeffro

    @lamh36: there were a few kids crying at the end of the movie when I took mini me to see it on Saturday … One would assume that their comics fanboy dads (like myself) would inform them how deaths work in the comics, but if not, then oh well

    Mini-me was like, “wow… OK then… so can we grab some takeout Chinese for dinner ?”

  84. 84.

    ruemara

    @lamh36: Sit it out. Sit. It. Out. Wait for it to have a the second part, because Maddy is gonna see a lot of heroes die and it’s heartwrenching.

  86. 86.

    Brachiator

    @lamh36:

    No spoilers…but Can we talk yet ’bout how Infinity Wars is traumatizing kids left and right……ya got adults all shooketh, but we all understand the deal with star contracts and box office receipts…but the poor kids who don’t know no better coming outta theatre like…

    I loved the movie, but I guess it is a hard PG-13. Parents should consider the sensibilities of younger kids. Seriously. All comic book movies are not for small kids.

    Hell, I know a few grown-ass adults who were rocked by this movie. Some even cried.

    ETA: I see that Black Panther moved up from 8 to 5 in the weekend box office, a rare situation where an opening movie also enhances the box office of another film in the franchise.

    I see that the weekend actuals for Avengers was adjusted to $257 million. That’s a lot of cheese for Disney’s Mouse.

  88. 88.

    Ruckus

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:
    I haven’t seen a prostitute on a street corner in about 40 yrs here in LA. And she was only the second one I’d ever seen. I did see the hookers in the windows in Amsterdam but that was before those 2. Yes there are supposed to be internet sites for good times these days but you might be forgetting that these morons don’t want to just have sex or to meet someone, they want to control someone. And no one is up for that. Well not that would talk to them. Even hookers have standards.

  91. 91.

    lamh36

    @Brachiator: Yeah…I saw that…next week it comes out on digital video, then on full BluRay/DVD the next week.

    I haven’t seen IFW yet, but as ya probably know, I’m not afraid of spoilers, esp when I know I may not be able to see a film the first week/weekend. So I pretty much already know what happens…I’m probably gonna see it myself Wednesday maybe.

    With all that I’m hearing, and speaking of BP…a good bit of BP’s box office is from people going back and seeing the film more 2x…I’m wondering what the repeat business will be like for IFW…esp since, they really only have about 2 more weeks before Deadpool 2 premieres, so the field is open for re-viewing…but will people want to?

  92. 92.

    SFAW

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    These guys really live such a sheltered life they never heard of prostitutes?

    That would compromise the Purity of their Essence.

    And besides, they probably think they’re owed sex from women they deem suitable. Because the wimmins should feel grateful that those manly-men bestowed appreciative glances/leers upon them.

    I think it would be good fun if someone were to explain to those incel snowflakes that it’s a GOOD THING that their DNA is getting withdrawn from the gene pool. “Think of it as evolution in action, baby!” [PS: No, I really don’t want to hear about Niven and Pournelle’s politics.]

  94. 94.

    jl

    I’ve noticed some pundits, commentators and general purpose politically smarty pants people wondering with amazement about various supposedly moderate GOPers suddenly publicly announcing that, golly gee, hoocoudanode?, the GOP tax cut really sucks and they maybe shouldn’t have voted for it. Paul Krugman’s twitter is the latest example I see, on Rubio.

    So, on the ‘hoping for a wipeout’ score, I hope this is a sign that the voting population is outraged and these sadsacks are forced to admit that they are miserable spineless failures and frauds who voted for a miserable failure tax scam bill. And hoping for more wipeout, If the insane Congressional GOP plan for another tax cut does make progress, I hope that miserable bad faith artists like Rubio are forced to go on the record for or against it this summer.

    Though, overall, I hope another GOP tax cut scam doesn’t get close to passing.

  95. 95.

    opiejeanne

    @Ruckus: In the 80s we used to see them across the street from North HS in Riverside, or across from the McDonald’s, both not far from UCR. They all looked unhealthy, too thin, dark circles around the eyes, dirty hair.These were not the “pros” I saw in the 90s in the theater district in SF who were made up and dressed to elicit certain stereotypes: school girls (in her 30s if you looked closely), large black woman with big hair wearing lots of spangles and leopard print lycra, a Bad Girl (again in her late late 30s), etc. The black lady said “hello girls” to my kids and they didn’t ‘know what to do with themselves. They “helloed” back while trying not to stare and kept walking. She was pretty and knew it and kind enough not to laugh at them. I smiled at her and said, “Hello”. These and a couple of others were part of my near-daily neighbors while I was working on costuming a play in a theater called the Alcazar. I saw drama with one of the schoolgirls, a very pretty Asian woman that the cops arrived to rescue from a John in a Mercedes who was trying to drag her into his car.
    These days I wouldn’t know where to find them in Seattle, but we used to see them working near the Pike Place Market about 35 years ago.

  96. 96.

    Aleta

    @trollhattan: So Miller put out a threat? He’ll hit her with jokes to make her sorry she ever worked a roast (of all things). Which wasn’t even about him. This sounds like a paid gig; his name in front of 75% storebought zingers. If he tries it, I hope he gets roasted until his career falls into the fire. Unprofessional in the worst way.

  97. 97.

    TenguPhule

    @Ruckus:

    Yes there are supposed to be internet sites for good times these days

    Banned by the Internet Decency Shit Act of 4/20/18.

  98. 98.

    jl

    @Aleta: Miller will be locked and loaded with jokes by Wednesday huh?

    I guess Jack Benny’s ad lib gores for Miller too: “You wouldn’t dare say that to me if my writers were here.”

  99. 99.

    opiejeanne

    Tomorrow afternoon I have my pre-op appointment for my cataracts surgery. They’re doing the right eye first and they’ve agreed to knock me out for it because I was honest and told the doc that I didn’t think I could hold still long enough. He was fine with it since it’s covered by insurance and it’s easier for him anyway.
    So, I’m looking forward to being able to see well with at least one eye. I don’t know how long they’ll wait to do my left eye.

  101. 101.

    Brachiator

    @lamh36:

    With all that I’m hearing, and speaking of BP…a good bit of BP’s box office is from people going back and seeing the film more 2x…I’m wondering what the repeat business will be like for IFW…esp since, they really only have about 2 more weeks before Deadpool 2 premieres, so the field is open for re-viewing…but will people want to?

    This will be interesting. Even though I think the movie is very good and engaging, it may not break out as much with casual film goers. And parents may not want to go with or take small kids. But for pre-teens and above, who have seen the previous Marvel movies, it may be an “essential viewing” film.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @opiejeanne:
    I think it’s possible they have gone electronic and can be found on the internet if one was looking. Seemingly everything else can be found on there. Wanna bet Amazon delivers?

  103. 103.

    Roger Moore

    @Ruckus:

    I haven’t seen a prostitute on a street corner in about 40 yrs here in LA.

    Have you looked? Because when I was living just off Colorado Blvd in eastern Pasadena, I saw what I assumed were prostitutes pretty regularly. At the very least, women were hanging around after dark in a neighborhood full of motels wearing way to little for the weather. PPD would occasionally crack down on prostitution and they’d go away for a while, but they’d come back when the crackdown was over. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were still there.

  104. 104.

    Mnemosyne

    @SFAW:

    And besides, they probably think they’re owed sex from women they deem suitable.

    It’s exactly this. They’re usually anti-prostitution because that gives the woman some control over who she has sex with and what she’ll do. They basically want to be able to point to any woman they want and force her to have sex with them whenever they want because they’re men and therefore superior.

    They don’t want a girlfriend. They want a slave, and they’re pissed that they can’t have one.

  106. 106.

    Brachiator

    I’m glad that I saw “Avengers: Infinity War” early, since critics and some fans seem intent on spoiling the shit out of it. I will try not do that. Some early observations.

    I think it is largely very satisfying. It is the most comic-booky of all both the Marvel and DC movies. The themes, motivations, actions of the characters all unabashedly spring from comic book logic. Visually, the movie looks great. Some scenes are like a Jack Kirby panel come to life. And the movie is surprisingly ambitious and big scaled. You feel that there is a reason all these heroes have come together, that yes, these Avengers must assemble if the world is to be saved. And there is a largely successful effort to give key character decisions some emotional weight.

    Unlike “Black Panther,” Infinity War is not a standalone film. It probably helps if you have seen the most recent Thor movie and probably “Black Panther.” Otherwise it may also help if you’ve seen a handful of the previous Marvel films, although it doesn’t really matter which ones. Either way, hardcore fans may get the most out of this film, and there might be a backlash from more casual viewers who are not deeply invested in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and are unwilling to invest in learning all the ins and outs, or who don’t want to be subjected to a lot of nerd exposition from their friends or loved ones who know Marvel lore,

    One thing that worked well for me, but which may also leave casual viewers cold is how some of the secondary Avengers are allowed to become central to the story. The writers and directors do a good job of making this decision feel right as they juggle multiple story lines. Still, the casual viewer may feel cheated that they don’t get to see more of the heroes they know better.

    With what feels to be a hundred superheroes that require a bit of screen time, “Avengers: Infinity War” does a great job in finally fully unleashing Thanos and giving him a “Villain’s Journey” almost as completely realized as that of Killmonger in “Black Panther.”

    So, yeah, it’s good guys gotta beat the bad guys and save the day. But the scale and details all make this fun and involving, especially if you’ve seen and enjoyed the earlier films. This would not be a good first time introduction to the world of the Avengers, but it is a satisfying continuation of the Avengers saga.

    There’s humor, most of which works; but some of it should have been cut back. The acting is solid and Josh Brolin makes a damned impressive Thanos. Some of the hero pairings are fun, especially among those who are meeting for the first time.

    There is a post credit scene. It works well given what’s come before, but if you skip it, it won’t be the end of the world.

  107. 107.

    Ruckus

    @opiejeanne:
    I had laser eye surgery before Lasik so they would only do one eye at at time. It only took a few moments to do the actual surgery and I felt like an old hand when we got to the second one. I waited about 45 days between but I understand that cataract surgery heals about the same speed as Lasik so you should be in pretty good shape in a few days.
    I’ve got an appointment in 3 weeks for my annual check up, they tell me I’ve got cataracts but it’s early so we just wait for them to get bad enough to fix. I’m expecting a glasses prognosis this time, but who knows. Every day is an adventure in healthcare.

  110. 110.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    They’re usually anti-prostitution because that gives the woman some control over who she has sex with and what she’ll do.

    Its much simpler then that.

    They don’t want to pay for it. They expect it to be delivered for free.

  111. 111.

    TenguPhule

    @Ruckus: They were electronic until 4/20/18. Now they have to find a new way since the traditional sites have either shut down or been raided (Backpage).

  112. 112.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @zhena gogolia:

    If anything, they said during meetings Kelly is the “bigger gentleman” who steps in when aides use foul language to note “a lady is present” and similarly says he shouldn’t use foul language in front of a lady if he’s used an expletive.

    Help us, Obi-Wan Kelly! Only you can protect our shell-like ears from being sullied with the assault of foul language and expletives!

    Christ on 18-1/2 missing minutes of Nixon tapes, what fucking year is this again?

  113. 113.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    I never heard that but I would have put in for it. And didn’t earn it as much as some. Engineering all slept in the back, flat part of the ship, that place it pivots around in rough seas. The squids that lived up front, in the pointy part, I have no idea how they survived. Up, way fucking up on the top of the big waves, crashing down in the troughs, non stop for days at a time. Not so much fun.

  117. 117.

    Aleta

    @Ruckus: I saw two vivid ones at the Moscone Center in SF. Their 3D bodies, spike heels and high tech makeup stood out among the others sitting in the lecture hall—-planetary geologists, vulcanologists, lots of field boots and signature nerd hats on display. I wondered if the women had wandered into the wrong side of the center, thinking they’d find businessmen. But maybe they knew better than I.

  118. 118.

    Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California)

    @raven: I live in Manhattan Beach. The cafe at the end of the pier closed but the aquarium is being remodeled and updated.

  119. 119.

    The Moar You Know

    I can also wonder what in the fucking fuck is wrong with people that see that and think, “Hey, I should grab a plank of wood and my non-water breathing, non-high pressure durable body and go play in that.” As incomprehensible as cream of celery soup.

    @ruemara: it’s a shitload of fun is why, but I grew up surfing.

  120. 120.

    TenguPhule

    Trump-allied House conservatives draft articles of impeachment against Rosenstein as ‘last resort’

    It must be Infrastructure week, because they’re really building up their bullshit reserves.

    Conservative House allies of Trump are targeting the deputy attorney general, who oversees the ongoing special counsel investigation, setting up a possible GOP showdown over the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

    Breaking at Wapo.

  121. 121.

    Roger Moore

    @Brachiator:
    Infinity War definitely felt more like a classic team-up/crossover comic book than anything else Marvel has done. They did a good job of splitting the heroes and villains into manageable-sized groups for plausible- or at least plot-justifiable- reasons and then shuffling them around so the groups didn’t stay too static. And while it had some nice lighter moments, it definitely had a darker tone that matches the seriousness of the threat they’re facing.

    The other thing I think they got right was the big climactic battle. Too many of their other movies where they try to have an epic final battle- the previous Avengers movies were especially bad in this department- they wound up splitting the final battle into too many moving pieces. They wound up having to jump between a bunch of separate fights to keep you up with the action, which diluted the impact of any one part. In this one, they started with the massive scale battle but were able to bring the most important players together in one place for the crisis. Instead of cutting between a bunch of different sub-battles, they were able to focus on one epic final showdown, which gave it a much better payoff than the ones where the final battle was more spread out.

  123. 123.

    VeniceRiley

    @raven: Pretty sure I had the first (blue and white!) boogie board at manhattan beach. Churchill swim fins. Jr High stylin’.

  125. 125.

    Gravenstone

    @Ruckus: It’s not the density, it’s the non-compressibility. You hit at speed and it doesn’t just ‘get out of the way’ like a slower speed impact. And the human body also being largely water means it gets rigid on impact too. The shockwaves that end up getting transmitted through are … not healthy.

  126. 126.

    lamh36

    @Brachiator: thx for the review. I haven’t seen it yet, but as I said, I’ve not been immune to spoilers…but I’ve tried NOT to spoil it for other folks who I know aren’t into spoilers like I am.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    Virginia’s largest public university granted the conservative Charles Koch Foundation a say in the hiring and firing of professors in exchange for millions of dollars in donations, according to newly released documents.
    The release of donor agreements between George Mason University and the foundation follows years of denials by university administrators that Koch foundation donations inhibit academic freedom.
    University President Angel Cabrera wrote a note to faculty Friday night saying the agreements “fall short of the standards of academic independence I expect any gift to meet.” The admission came three days after a judge scrutinized the university’s earlier refusal to release any documents.

    You really can bet on projection. It’s a completely safe bet- they make an accusation, there is a stack of documents somewhere proving that they are doing EXACTLY what they are accusing others of- it’s the reason for the accusation!

    So if you hear the accusation make your bet- because you will win.

  129. 129.

    eclare

    @Mnemosyne: Hahaha! Can’t believe that paddleboarder just figured he/she could swim right into the dolphins with no problems. Good for the dolphins for letting him/her know, nope, not today, dude.

  131. 131.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    In this one, they started with the massive scale battle but were able to bring the most important players together in one place for the crisis.

    OK, mild and spoiler Avengers stuff ahead.

    I agree with much of your take. Also, I like that they try to give you a feel for how the characters think and use their powers. In the scene you mention here (unless I’m totally wrongheaded), Black Panther makes a decision that shows that he is a field general.

    Also, some of the action is not just fights, but smaller scale confrontations between a few individuals, which have large consequences.

  132. 132.

    Ruckus

    @Gravenstone:

    The shockwaves that end up getting transmitted through are … not healthy.

    That makes better sense. Of course I did say dense enough…… not as dense. Still, your summation is right, it’s not healthy.

  133. 133.

    Jay S

    @opiejeanne: I live just North of Seattle, the pros usually are on 99 close to the edge of the city in this area. Sometimes they migrate north into Shoreline. According to the local police they get relocated frequently between the two cities at the border. I see a few that dress the part occasionally. I haven’t checked their credentials so it’s just a guess on my part.
    ETA I expect that downtown is still a large market, but I don’t visit often. Even when I did it was rare to see them working.

  135. 135.

    Brachiator

    @Ruckus:

    I haven’t seen a prostitute on a street corner in about 40 yrs here in LA.

    Maybe you just weren’t paying attention. Or maybe you look like a cop.

    I guess it’s interesting how prostitutes and customers recognize one another. Not to long ago, I saw a guy, driving, slow and pull next to a woman walking by. They exchanged a few words and she hopped into the car. I was sitting in the outside area of a coffee shop. A little later I see the car come around again, and the woman hopped out and arranged her top and started walking slowly down the street.

  137. 137.

    J R in WV

    @eclare:

    When you enter the ocean, you enter the food chain.

    eclaire, when you entered the world, you entered the food chain. It’s less obvious in town or the city, but I met a lion in my cousin’s back yard after dinner a few years ago, and I know we are all in the food chain.

  138. 138.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:
    It also might be where I live and hang out. I used to work south east of LA city hall 2-3 miles. One of those girls I mentioned above propositioned me at the front door of my shop. I haven’t been in that area for work in 30 yrs. I’ve been to Pershing Square 3 times in the last few months. Other than that it’s driving by on the freeway or stopping in Union Station to change trains. I’m not in their area, they don’t appear to be in mine. Never said that there aren’t hookers any more. As long as there are men and women………
    ETA I’m pretty sure I don’t look like a cop. People here can verify.

  139. 139.

    Isua

    @Aleta: Dang, I’ve been in the wrong sessions at AGU. The people-watching in Paleoclimate is way less interesting.

  140. 140.

    smedley the uncertain

    @opiejeanne: Have you decided what lens you want. I opted for 20/20 distance vision because of driving and sailing. Three dollar ‘cheaters from Walmart suffice for reading. My Dr. did write a script for computer glasses that are Bifocals for reading and the computer. They correct for close work and a PC Screen an arms length away. There are transition replacement lenses available but my insurance wouldn’t pay for them.
    I have no regrets. first time I can drive un- corrected.

  141. 141.

    opiejeanne

    @raven: haven’t watched it recently. I lost track of the show after the third season. We had a neighbor who waited until she was almost completely blind before she had hers fixed in the 60s. I mentioned that to my surgeon and he shuddered. Dark Ages in comparison to the current technique

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