Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

So many bastards, so little time.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

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

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

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Sunday Diversions Open Thread

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73Comments

  1. 1.

    Corner Stone

    I’ll tell you what’s not a diversion: Rocking the brown shoes with that sweetly tailored blue suit, Mr. Trudeau!

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    Just like Trump held the first(?) Iftar Dinner without any Muslim guests, he should just go ahead and announce that from now on all Championship Celebration Events will also be without any athletes.

    ETA, looks like I got the iftar story wrong. Lost something in translation.

  3. 3.

    PaulWartenberg

    today’s diversion: going to a birthday party for my mom (she’s born on Flag Day, but that’s in the middle of the work week so we’re going to Maggiano’s on Sunday instead).

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    Speaking of Justify, has the RWNJ conspiracy pipeline started rumbling about Soros owning a piece? I am sure by now Beck or Alex Jones has to have connected the dots, flash cards, strings or whatever it is they use to flesh these monstrosities out.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    Today’s diversion: a showing of a restored print of 2001, in 70mm film just as Kubrick intended. Should be nice.

  6. 6.

    SiubhanDuinne

    First intermission of Coppélia (Bolshoi Ballet in cinemas). I’ve known the music all my life but have never seen it before today. Absolutely delightful — colourful and energetic!

  7. 7.

    Dorothy Winsor

    Trump could invite Justify. It would be like Caligula installing his horse in the Roman Senate. Caligula and Trump, a match made in a special place in hell.

    Trudeau is my hero. What did Trump he was going to do? Accept a bunch of tariffs against Canada, the national security risk, and do nothing? If Trump wants that, he has to put Trudeau in his cabinet.

  8. 8.

    Mai naem mobile

    Justify is mostly dark brown with a little white. We already know Trumpov feels about non pure whites so he will not invite Justify. Besides, we can be sure Trumpov is scared of horses. Like the supposed manly man Dubbya was.

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    Crap. I was supposed to go to a writers group meeting this morning and I completely forgot to put it on my calendar. I was really interested in today’s speaker, too. Oh well.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Justify’s jockey doesn’t want to visit the WH; he would have come in second if he wanted to see a horse’s ass.

  13. 13.

    Brachiator

    @dmsilev:

    Today’s diversion: a showing of a restored print of 2001, in 70mm film just as Kubrick intended.

    Sounds like fun. Love that movie. Back in the day, I saw it at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.

    Otherwise, I’m just belatedly catching up on chores today.

  15. 15.

    Corner Stone

    @Mai naem mobile: Sure. My snark was that as Soros is involved in any way, it has to be a conspiracy of somekind that Justify won the Triple Crown.
    They’ll bring Soros in to any situation but give them one where he’s actually there already!

  19. 19.

    Brachiator

    I was reading the news about the Queen’s List Birthday honors.

    Emma Thompson will become Dame Emma, a high honor that is the female equivalent of becoming a knight.

    A knighthood for author Kazuo Ishiguro, who wrote the exquisite “Remains of the Day.”

    Keira Knightley gets an OBE and actor Tom Hardy gets a CBE.

    And very cool that rapper and singer Ms. Dynamite gets an MBE under her real name, Niomi McLean-Daley.

    As always, Donald Trump gets an honorary STFU.

  20. 20.

    Steeplejack

    Sheriff Clarke: [Trump] should invite JUSTIFY to the White House lawn for winning the Triple Crown.

    Where Justify can take a giant dump—just like Trump!

  26. 26.

    Corner Stone

    @Steeplejack: You’ve said too much. Grab the warming blanket, the housecat, set the self-destruct timer on the doughty Kia and go!
    Your new name is Jack Stapleton. You’re a retired librarian who now travels the country going from estate sale to estate sale looking for rare and first edition books.

  27. 27.

    Betsy

    Kinda need suggestions, encouragement .. Stayed up waaay too late reading and websurfing last night, for the 10,000th time. Now, like always when I do that, having a crappy-feeling, wiped-out day, along with regrets.

    How do I stop wasting my life like this? What to do in the short term (to fix today) .. and the long term (to quit doing this to myself)?

  29. 29.

    Jager

    There was a great story last week in the LA Times sports section about Pascual Rivera, the Mexican immigrant who is the manager of Baffert’s horse operations here in SoCal. Super guy, a cancer survivor and loves the horses. His only complaint about his job? He never get’s to see them win in person. He said he’s excited to to have Justify back home, his stall is waiting and he needs a rest.

    http://enewspaper.latimes.com/desktop/latimes/default.aspx?pubid=50435180-e58e-48b5-8e0c-236bf740270e&edid=9a419a22-ea0b-4dd2-9b69-0f055f82a711&pnum=55

  30. 30.

    dmsilev

    @Brachiator:

    Sounds like fun. Love that movie. Back in the day, I saw it at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.

    That’s exactly where it’s showing now.

  32. 32.

    lahke

    @Betsy: this is so exactly what I do too! It feels so self- destructive. It’s also preventing me from retirement, because I’ll probably waste the rest of my life if I stop working. Various attempts at antidepressants were total failures.
    Edited to remove gratuitous autocorrect apostrophe.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    @dmsilev:

    Sounds like fun. Love that movie. Back in the day, I saw it at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.

    That’s exactly where it’s showing now.

    Very cool. Enjoy the show!

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Second intermission now. Act II had lots of mechanical dolls and toys doing those wonderful, comical, rather menacing moves, with the entire workshop left in chaos. Really charming ballet.

    ETA: Hoffmann ;-)

  35. 35.

    Betsy

    @lahke: The various attempts and failuresay be the most dismaying part, you know? Then you read about how many ways sleep deprivation is bad for you …

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    @Villago Delenda Est

    Justify’s jockey [Mike Smith] doesn’t want to visit the WH; he would have come in second if he wanted to see a horse’s ass.

    Applause. Justify and Mike looked fresh as daisies after the race. So it was a surprise to see a photo of the other horses and their jockeys, covered with track mud.

    USA Today: … Justify will continue racing through 2018

    … Some clues could come from how trainer Bob Baffert handled American Pharoah, who got a bit of a break after winning the Triple Crown in 2015 and returned to the track on Aug. 2 to win the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park. After a shocking upset loss in the Travers at Saratoga — the biggest summer race restricted to 3-year olds — there was some question whether Baffert would run him again. But American Pharoah stayed on course for the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, which he won in dominating fashion against older horses to finish off his career in style.

    Baffert said Sunday he will essentially do the same thing this time he did with American Pharoah, which is to bring him back to Churchill Downs for a week or so and then likely to Baffert’s home base California.

    From there, he’ll read the horse’s physical signs before determining the next steps.

    “Usually about a week later you can see how much of a toll it’s taken on him,” Baffert said. “We’ll sit down and figure out a little gameplan after that, but (right now) we have nothing at all.”

    If Justify remains healthy and sound, Baffert will have plenty of options to map out his summer and fall campaign, with the obvious goal being the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 3 at Churchill.

    The question is how many races he’ll have between now and then, especially considering Justify made his career debut on Feb. 18 and ran six times in a span of 111 days, a significant workload for modern horses.

    It would be hard to imagine Justify running again before the Haskell, a race Baffert has won eight times. The Travers, a race with significant history, could have some appeal on Aug. 25. However, if Baffert prefers to keep the horse out West, the Pacific Classic on Aug. 18 at Del Mar could be an appealing target.

  39. 39.

    Jager

    At one point in my life, my ex-wife had a horse, so did both my girls. We had Nikki, Jimmy and Stormy. I was the guy who bought the feed, paid the stable and drove the truck and trailer. What I really liked to do (in addition to riding the piss out of Stormy) was groom the horses. The wife and kids were off seeing her family, I went to the barn, took Stormy out and put him through his paces for an an hour or so and then gave him a bath. I had on ratty old Levi’s, worn out boots and a Rolling Stones t-shirt. While I was sponging Stormy off, a woman, in full riding habit came up and said, “That young lady Stephanie’s Arab is always so well groomed, what do you charge your grooming services?” I told the snotty bitch, “$250.” She was stunned, she said, “My goodness, that’s rather expensive.” I smiled my best working class smile and told her, “Well, if you want your horse to look as good as Miz Stephanie’s that’s what it costs.”

  40. 40.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    I want to buy a 49cc scooter and could use a little advice.

    Cheap Chinese no-name (tao tao, roketa,etc.), Kymco Agility 50, Honda Metropolitan, or Yamaha Vino?

    Locally, a Chinese no-name runs for less than half the price of a Honda or Yamaha, but has little or no warranty and service is a concern.

    The Kymco Agility is about $2300 after dealer fees and taxes and comes with a 2 year warranty. The dealer also does service work.

    The Honda and Yamaha come in at around $2700 after fees & taxes.

    As far as service goes, it’s Honda and Yamaha we’re talking about, so service is a given.

    Right now I am leaning towards the Kymco, but I figured I’d ask the commentariat if they had any advice.

    Thanks

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I never figured out what the deal was with the giant space baby.

    The movie intends for this to be ambiguous.

    Mild spoiler for a 50 year old movie. ……

    You could read it as a reverse horror movie, with the astronaut Bowman transformed into a Star Child, returning to Earth.

  43. 43.

    Jager

    @Brachiator: Clark wrote follow ups, 3001 wraps it up and pulls all the story threads together and Frank Bowman comes back to life a 1,000 years later.

  44. 44.

    John Revolta

    @schrodingers_cat: This is a movie where it really helps to have read the source material- Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke. The idea is that mankind’s evolution has been pushed along at various points over the millenia by an alien race. The Star Child at the end is Keir Dullea’s astronaut character, reborn and sent back to Earth.

  46. 46.

    Origuy

    For horse racing fans, a friend of mine posted this on Facebook yesterday:

    Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015), and today’s contender, Justify are all descended from Bonnie Scotland, who was foaled in England in 1853, and transported to the United States in 1872.

    Among his many other famous descendants are Bramble, Man-O-War, Prince Rose, Sea Biscuit, and War Admiral.

    “Bonnie Scotland was bred in the purple, but after becoming a forgotten horse in England, he established one of the most important sire lines in America in the late 1800s and early 1900s.”

  51. 51.

    Dan B

    Jeffro on a previous, probably dead, thread

    Howard Schultz sold the locally beloved, world champion, Seattle Sonics to a group from Oklahoma who promptly reneged on their verbal promise and moved them to OK. Seattle has not had a b’ball team since.

    Media would have a field day.

  52. 52.

    Brachiator

    @Jager:

    Clark wrote follow ups, 3001 wraps it up and pulls all the story threads together and Frank Bowman comes back to life a 1,000 years later.

    I respect Clarke and grew up greatly admiring his best work, but I view his follow-ups as separate and parallel to the film, and ignore it all as adding anything to Kubrick’s work.

    @debbie:

    The evil of progress and a return to a purer innocence.

    Hmm. Interesting. I think that Kubrick saw progress as a necessary evil. There is only going forward. When the early humans in “2001” lived in ignorance, they did not inhabit Paradise, but were fearful and vulnerable.

  53. 53.

    debbie

    @Brachiator:

    They could have used tools to build a society and flourish, but they chose to turn violent and take what others had.

    I always thought the monolith represented progress (tools, space exploration). Progress presents a choice — use it for good or for evil. To me, the narrative was that man always chose evil.

    This is a bleak interpretation, but I think Kubrick was far bleaker than I.

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    @John Revolta:
    Clake himself always cited his short story The Sentinel as the seed from which 2001 grew. I don’t think he ever mentioned Childhood’s End as a source for 2001.

  56. 56.

    Brachiator

    @debbie:

    They could have used tools to build a society and flourish, but they chose to turn violent and take what others had.

    Didn’t humanity use tools to build a society and flourish?

    The bone used to kill becomes a space craft. You can’t separate the good tools from the bad tools.

    Yeah, Kubrick is bleak, but with a twisted sense of humor. HAL is a tool that becomes evil all by himself. It’s not just mankind choosing evil.

  57. 57.

    RedDirtGirl

    Skimmed the thread and didn’t see much info about Justified? Was he a longshot? That announcer sounded pretty excited…

  58. 58.

    chris

    @Betsy:

    How do I stop wasting my life like this?

    If you enjoyed yourself it’s hardly a waste. Fun is good for you, the puritan work ethic is not.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @Amir Khalid:

    Clarke himself always cited his short story The Sentinel as the seed from which 2001 grew.

    Yep. But this annoyed Clarke a bit.

    I am continually annoyed by careless references to “The Sentinel” as “the story on which 2001 is based”; it bears about as much relation to the movie as an acorn to the resultant full-grown oak. (Considerably less, in fact, because ideas from several other stories were also incorporated.) Even the elements that Stanley Kubrick and I did actually use were considerably modified.

  62. 62.

    Miss Bianca

    @Elizabelle: I had to miss Justify’s Belmont win in real time, as I was on my way back down from riding in the high country, but I was totally rooting for him. He’s a great, great colt.

  63. 63.

    Miss Bianca

    @Origuy: Wow, never heard of Bonnie Scotland, I’ll have to do some reading up on him. He was 19 when they transported him across the ocean?! That’s pretty amazing.

    @RedDirtGirl: Nah, he would have been the faraway favorite for the Belmont. There was a lot of buzz about his winning the Kentucky Derby because he was the only horse since Apollo way back in the – hmm, 1870s? 1880s? – to win the Derby without having raced as a two-year-old.

  66. 66.

    Brachiator

    @Origuy:

    Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015), and today’s contender, Justify are all descended from Bonnie Scotland

    What a cool factoid!

  67. 67.

    Barbara

    @Betsy: I don’t do this as much as I used to, but stil . . . I would try to set a “devices off” time and switch to old fashioned books and magazines for between 30 and 60 minutes, along with some other soothing practice like tea or meditation or bath/shower. It ‘s really easy to get into a countercyclical sleep pattern by staying up late, especially when you are looking at screens of any kind.

  68. 68.

    J R in WV

    Having watched Secretariat run away from all the other horses in his great Triple Crown winning race, I am firmly convinced that he is the greatest horse to have ever ran, bar none. That race is astonishing to see even after all the many times I have watched it.

    Always fun to hypothesize about if Man O’ War had raced against Secretariat, etc, but that’s just hot air as the remarkable horses are so rare and almost never run together.

    Yesterday’s race was wonderful to see, Justify didn’t have to run hard, once he heard the horse running beside him, he just loped a little harder and walked away with the number one spot. One of the great horses or our times.

    I love horses, they are so wonderful to be around. I wish our land was more suitable for horses, but we don’t have enough flat ground, fencing on the hills is crazed, hay costs a fortune whether you bale it yourself or buy it, and is a huge ton of work either way. Plus if you want to travel, you need to hire full time people to be on the farm…

  69. 69.

    Barbara

    @J R in WV: My uncle kept horses and it worked so long as some of his 9 kids were around to do the work. After they left he sold them.

  72. 72.

    glaukopis

    I’m making the marinade for lamb vindaloo, which I’ll cook in the instant pot tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m also going to try baked pumpkin donuts with maple glaze.

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