If you promise not to berate me about my dirty floor, I’ll show you a 9-second video of Badger walking on his hind legs:
As you can see, he’s a talented boy. If I had sufficient cold cuts, I could probably teach him calculus.
He’s four and a half months old now, and we’re starting puppy school this week. I wonder what house he’ll be sorted into? My guess is Hufflepuff, which has a badger as its mascot. Or maybe Ravenclaw since he’s smart. Definitely not Slytherin — he’s not ambitious enough. And certainly not Gryffindor since he’s a little chickenshit.
Seriously, he runs away from every loud noise — he almost poops himself when I crank up my bike. And when Daisy barks at an “intruder” (i.e., a squirrel, a kid passing by on a bicycle, a mother wheeling a baby down the road in a stroller, etc.), Badger positions himself as far as possible from the “danger” but barks as if he too is a bad-ass.
Open thread!
Gelfling 545
My god, he’s adorable. And nobody with kids or dogs has clean floors for more than a few minutes.
SiubhanDuinne
Badger is a cutie-patootie!
dr. bloor
The cold cuts don’t work for calculus.
At least, they didn’t for my son.
zhena gogolia
I want a puppy!
Betty Cracker
@dr. bloor: Good point. Also, I don’t know calculus myself, so…
Mnemosyne
Got my hair cut and colored in preparation for my conference in Denver next week, and then had a nice solo brunch at Le Pain Quotidien. G is going to be at an all-day film preservation conference today, so now I need to decide what to do with myself. Probably work on my new website and do some more pre-packing for the trip.
Mnemosyne
Also, if peeps didn’t know, we blew through Ruemara’s citizenship GoFundMe and got her to her goal in ONE DAY!
I told her that jackals were the best.
MattF
Via Cole’s Twitter feed– pasta with ketchup? Did he eat it with a knife and fork?
Seriously, many years ago, I started working at a place where lunch was with a group that included a guy who ate pasta with a knife and fork. Probably should have gotten up and left the place right then.
stinger
I’m watching Friday’s Strzok testimony on CNN. Goodlatte seems out of his depth as committee chair. So far, nearly 2 hours in, the Dems have pantsed the Republicans (@ 0:45) and Strzok has pantsed Goodlatte (@ 1:45). At some points the Repubs seem to have pantsed themselves. (Is that a thing?)
And judging by clips on Jimmy Kimmel, the best parts are yet to come!
Suzanne
@MattF: I had a boyfriend before Mr. Suzanne who, when we went to a Greek restaurant, ordered “gyro”, pronounced it “jey-roh”. I broke up with him shortly thereafter.
Yes, I’m shallow.
Bruuuuce
@MattF: I ate pasta with ketchup — when I was four years old. Unlike the Toddler-in-Chief, though, I grew out of it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I broke up with someone who, in a letter, said she was a nervous “reck.”
NotMax
Cold cuts? If you want him to learn math, you need to tempt him with pi.
Jager
Betty, you have to get Badger a Boston University doggie shirt, okay?
Question, I have my 55th high school reunion coming up in August, I’ve been asked to do a little talk at the Saturday night affair. Mrs. J looked at my notes and said, ‘I don’t think you should say that.” Here’s what I wrote: “We’re so old, when we were in high school the girls wore garter belts and stockings because that’s all they had. Some how, 10-15 years later stockings and garter belts were considered play clothes.”
Major Major Major Major
Aww, what a cutie. Probably Hufflepuff, yeah.
Got confirmation that my short story will be published in next month’s issue today! Then I guess I need to study some algorithm problems and play video games. Subnautica? Stardew Valley? Far Cry 5 (one of these things is not like the other)?
@MattF: @Suzanne: We got noodles last night from a Shaanxi Chinese restaurant. Really good but the dishes were, like, two really long noodles. We had to cut them with the provided spoon to get them on our plates!
SiubhanDuinne
@Bruuuuce:
Uh-oh, Spaghetti-Os!
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Pong.
:)
Juju
He’s adorable. I have an 83 lb golden rescue who doesn’t even pretend to be a badass. If our smaller dog, truly a badass, barks at anything, the big dog runs and hides in a corner where she thinks she can’t be seen. Also her best buddy, an almost life size golden stuffed toy, stays in that corner to protect her.
Your floor looks fine. I thought it was just tile pattern.
Bruuuuce
@SiubhanDuinne: :-) Actually, no. Real spaghetti, with Heinz ketchup. Since then, my taste in tomato sauce has become somewhat more sophisticated (a good Bolognese is on the agenda for tonight, in fact). But with several shapes of pasta (finishing a couple of boxes open on the shelves), not spaghetti.
JoyceH
Betty, that’s the wrong kind of floor for a dog owner. My kitchen floor is dirt colored.
efgoldman
@stinger:
“Seems”?
My high school AP writing teacher taught me never to add a qualifier to the obvious.
Yarrow
Badger is so adorable! Like how Daisy knows she can just wait patiently for her treat.
NotMax
@Bruuuuce
When a callow kidlet, used to make a sandwich of cold spaghetti and ketchup on bread.
Jumbleroni!
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: never heard of it. Is it on Steam?
NotMax
@efgoldman
That seems right.
:)
WereBear
He’s a baby. Let him grow into being a bad ass.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: No. It’s artisinal.
Yutsano
@Bruuuuce:
GO for it. Italians mix pasta shapes all the time if there’s only a small amount left in the package.
And never feel guilty about using dried pasta. Italians have been using it for centuries.
efgoldman
@Jager:
So the question is, do I want to spend $26 I don’t really have to send Betty a shirt
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: I thought Steam was where you went for artisanal games.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Actually, jogged a memory that I never did finish going all the way through Grim Fandango. Not in the mood right this second, though.
Set up a Steam account a goodly while back (never used it), planning to play No Man’s Sky and/or Astroneer.
Bruuuuce
@NotMax:
:-D
@Yutsano: We mix pastas often; it’s the natural result of using half-boxes for portioning. I don’t feel guilty about using dried pasta, but wish I could get shut of unexpected medical and dental bills so we could afford a good mixer with a pasta roller extension and practice all the fresh pasta-making skills we see on Food Network and Top Chef.
Jager
@efgoldman:
Do they make them in your size?
Steeplejack (phone)
Point Blank just started on TCM about 10 minutes ago.
satby
@Jager: nope. I’m with the Mrs. on this one.
p.a.
@Bruuuuce: Don’t know if you have physical issues, but manual pasta makers are $50 +/- $x.
Aleta
Point is, he’s sincere. Sweet foolish doggerel.
Jager
@satby:
I left out the thing about how amazing it was we had 3 virgin births our senior year on her advice as well.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mnemosyne:
I had my doubts about legitimizing mutant cat-people in this country, but in the end I relented and threw in a few bucks.
Major Major Major Major
Samwise has the right idea for this afternoon. https://imgur.com/a/by1FGQb
rikyrah
Badger is so cute ? ?
Yarrow
@Jager: If it’s supposed to be a joke, I don’t get it. If you are male and didn’t have to wear stockings and garter belts then you are not the right person to talk them at all unless there’s some well known hilarious story of you wearing them in a school skit or something.
@Jager: This comment like the previous one comes across as punching down. Not a good idea in comedy. You’re making fun of what women had to deal with during a time when girls and women had considerably less freedom, fewer options, and were punished for crossing lines. Stay far away from that.
jimmiraybob
A technical question. If the president was stopping off at his club in Scotland, on the way to see the Boss, for the purpose of dropping off some bags of rubles, would it be proper for him to have the secret service carry the bags or should it be staff? I’m not saying that he did/will. I’m just askin’ for a friend.
Aleta
@NotMax: pi arf1 arf2
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: Upon reflection, it’s probably more heirloom than artisanal.
Bruuuuce
@p.a.: My physical problems are with my feet and legs, not my hands and arms. But I want the mixer with pasta attachment because I subscribe to Alton Brown’s philosophy that everything in my kitchen should multitask except the fire extinguisher
Yarrow
@jimmiraybob: Staff carries the bags. Secret service does security and protection.
sukabi
@stinger: At some points the Repubs seem to have pantsed themselves
They certainly showed their asses.
efgoldman
@Jager:
My size, Badger’s size, Shaq’a size, future grandson’s size….
They’ll sell them to whoever wants one.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: oh, all of Tim Schafer’s games are amazing.
WereBear
@Steeplejack (phone): Great one.
chris
Such a cute puppy! Will he need calculus? He can use basic trigonometry to work out the shortest path to the treat.
We went for a walk yesterday after the illuminating but frustrating press conference. Waiting for Mueller’s Hammer to come down on the GOP is making me a little crazy. So, five miles on a beautiful mid-70s afternoon with a water break at the halfway point with mud as a bonus.
EBT
With how many GOP sex criminals Gohmert goes to bat for, I wonder what crimes of his own he has.
sukabi
@chris: the only calculus he’s likely to master will be on his teeth. But he’ll be adorable anyway.
Waynski
@Jager: Listen to your wife. Best advice I can give you and not just about this.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
Here’s how out of it I am, until recently I thought you invented that cute cat name Samwise. He’s adorable.
stinger
@efgoldman: LOL. I’d never heard of the guy before, so was giving him the benefit of the doubt. I’m another hour in now, and I’ll rewrite:
Goodlatte is out of his depth as committee chair.
efgoldman
@EBT:
Anything Gohmert did is small time. He is, by any measure, the stupidest person in congress, and he insists on demonstrating it
TaMara (HFG)
@Jager: Your wife is a keeper. You should probably listen to her and then buy her a nice gift.
EBT
@Major Major Major Major: Log on to steam in your browser, and type the following without the quotes “steam://install/480/”. Enjoy your game.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
Please remind me when the grandson is due. I want to say Septemberish?
germy
muskrat
Steeplejack (phone)
@chris:
But the stick was retrieved, which is what’s important.
Jager
@Yarrow:
Relax, I just started on the thing, 30% of my class are a bunch of pompous jerks another 25% are god-bothers, Pretty much like it was in high school The organizers sent me the bios they’ve gotten back so far, most read like Christmas letters. I’ve stayed close to a few classmates, 4 of the guys and three of the girls. We have a good number of classmates who’ve retired in the Phoenix area. One of them married a billionaire, he’s been dead for a couple of years, she has his private jet. One of my female classmate suggested CT should be asked if she gave any of her fellow classmates a ride to the reunion in her Gulf Stream. I got the virgin birth thing from another of the girls.
Pogonip
Cat lovers and computer mavens: have any of you played Meow Match and if so what is the solution to level 138?
Also, does the EU, or anybody for that matter, have a law that it must be possible (if not easy) to win a game without buying “coins” or whatnot? I’ve noticed Internet companies generally just go with one-size-fits-all, which is why Americans are suddenly seeing all these privacy notifications, and I can’t imagine the U.S. having a law protecting customers from being suckered into buying “coins” if they want to win. I myself have a 99 cent limit—I’ll spend that much and then if I can’t win I’ll delete it.
chris
@Steeplejack (phone): The stick is all, nothing else matters.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Jager:
What Yarrow said, unless your goal is to quickly let everyone know that you are a clueless, sexist fuckhead.
Major Major Major Major
@zhena gogolia: oh dear!
@germy: Elon Musk is so weirdly terrible.
Jager
@efgoldman:
Speaking of sizes, have you ever been to the sports bar at Disney World? I can’t remember the name of it, they have a ton of memorabilia on display. They have a Shaq jersey in a display case right next to Olga Korbut’s Olympic gymnastic outfit. It really puts things in perspective, wow!
efgoldman
@SiubhanDuinne:
Pre-scheduled for Sept 6
Granddaughter starts big girl school (kindergarten) same week
Major Major Major Major
@Jager: gonna have to agree with everybody else, especially on the virgin births thing—the pregnancy during HS ordeal could have been traumatizing for the young women.
Jager
@Steeplejack (phone):
Gee, thanks
Gelfling 545
@Bruuuuce: My next door neighbor when I was a kid used to drape the kitchen table in sheets, flour librally and attack the dough with a rolling pin about the size of a broom hamdle. She had some kind of hand tool with a wooden handle abd a row of tin disks on a dowel for cutting. She always dried the pasta. Now I’m hungry.
Shana
@Suzanne: How do you pronounce “gyro”? I always thought it was supposed to be pronounced “hee-ro” but everyone I know pronounces it with a hard G.
Mike in DC
@Major Major Major Major:
Still a ways to go to match Henry Ford. I am willing to tolerate his many flaws if it helps get rid of gas-powered cars and the planet’s use of fossil fuels.
Jeffro
@Shana: same question here !
I’ve been told the “right” way to pronounce it is “yeer- oh”
stinger
@chris: Luuuuuv the pics!
Yarrow
@Jager: It’s your choice and your speech. I will note from what you just said that one of the “girls,” now a woman, made the comment about the virgin births. She is talking about her peers, other female classmates. She can do that; you can’t.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Jager:
My apologies. I see from your subsequent comment that you’re representing the mean girls faction. Please proceed, alumnus.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike in DC: agreed. I don’t follow Musk that closely, but isn’t this very off-brand for him? Doesn’t he pose as a woke-leaning billionaire?
Jager
@Mike in DC:
Most of the major manufacturers and their engineering departments believe that electric cars are the future from everything I’ve read. Even cranky old Bob Lutz, ex Iacocca’s right hand man, ex-CEO of Ford and Chrysler believes electric is the future, Lutz said this about Musk, “H’s finding out building cars isn’t as easy as he though it was.”
MobileForkbeard
@EBT: @Jeffro: This is how I pronounce it, too. Had a Greek lady tell me that, so unless she was screwing with me (very possible) that’s probably how it is.
Major Major Major Major
@Jeffro: @Shana: I’ve been told that hero is correct but gyro (like gyroscope) is accepted regional variation.
@Mike in DC: sure, I didn’t say I want his head on a stick, but he’s… well, so weirdly terrible as a person. The habit of picking twitter fights with experts outside his field is particularly strange.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Yarrow:
The female classmate can also grab a giant cup of STFU. Being a pregnant teen in 1962-63 was no picnic—it never is—and probably had life-changing consequences. To bring it up as a cheap one-liner at a class reunion is the essence of no class.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
That’s a lot of excitement for a five-year-old!
Bruuuuce
@Gelfling 545: I’ve seen that done. Oh, to have the space to do it. My kitchen is a long, narrow space with most of the counters in use, and no large table available for that. Reminds me of my youth, though, growing up in a Jewish and Italian suburb on Lawn Guy Land, watching one of the Italian nonas making homemade pasta. Thanks for bringing that up; it’s always good to remember the good stuff!
Jager
@Steeplejack (phone):
She can since she was one of the virgins.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: He’s kind of reminding me of Howard Hughes as he gets older. Probably not as eccentric, but certainly odd.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Jager:
Jesus, just stop digging.
Yarrow
@Steeplejack (phone): I know. Even given the mean girl vibe, it would be better received from a woman than from a man. You are correct that it would be a terrible thing to say at a reunion. I should have added that to my comment.
JPL
@Jeffro: It’s so nice to return from a busy day out and about, and discover the most important thing on balloon juice is how to pronounce gyro..
Here’s your answer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9QOYYq3GkE
El Caganer
@efgoldman: Gohmerta – the Code of Stupidity
?BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Calling him the stupidest Congresscritter is OK, just don’t cast aspersions on his asparagus. He gets really upset about that.
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: the superego can be quite weak on the wealthy, and it gets quieter as well every year after age 25, so the elderly wealthy can be… yeah.
chris
@Jager: Reminded me of this picture. Shaq and Simone Biles, 7’1″ and 4’8″. Cute couple.
Juju
@Bruuuuce: get an Atlas/Marcato hand crank. I make my pasta dough in my 1981 cuisinart food processor and roll with my Atlas/Marcato hand crank pasta roller that I got in 1983. They last forever. You can also go old school and mix dough on a counter or cutting board, flour with a bit of oil, salt, water and egg in a puddle in the middle. I never measure. When you’ve done it enough you go by look and feel.
Jager
@Steeplejack (phone):
You know who gave her the most grief? The nice, smug girls, she thought were her friends and a bunch of the teachers. Her parents and her real friends (including this misogynistic fuckhead) were very supportive of her. The baby daddy ran off. She finished college living at home and retired as a HS principal a few years ago. Not a mean girl, sorry, woman.
And another thing, I have two daughters and two granddaughters, they always use the word girls, as in a “girl cousin reunion” they have coming up, so apparently a man can’t use the G word? They also use “guy” as in “what do you guys want to do on Saturday night?” Apparently this old, decrepit sexist needs to sign in at the re-education camp. ASAP
sukabi
@El Caganer: gohmerrhia – the sudden explosive of rain of stupid shit emanating from a person’s mouth.
satby
@JPL: that was cute. I didn’t know Fallon could sing so well.
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
I say “Jackie O.”
smedley the uncertain
@Jeffro: That’s how I heard my Greek friends pronounce it. However of my attempts to emulate sound resulted in great hilarity.
Bruuuuce
@Juju: Thanks. I had the cutting board in mind for making the dough; cracking eggs into a hollow cone of flour looks appealing and, especially on days when I could use to work off some tension, working the dough could be therapeutic
Jim Parish
According to Nate Silver, Musk spreads his contributions around. He’s given money to Dana Rohrabacher and Kevin McCarthy, but also to Clinton, Obama, and Diane Feinstein.
JPL
I still have to be careful when I pronounce Qatar.
Davebo
Precious!
Shalimar
@Major Major Major Major: Yes, Pong at least used to be on Steam. There is an old Arari collection that included it.
Brachiator
@Steeplejack (phone):
I’m out and about, but will save it for later. Still one of my favorite films of all time.
Mary G
@Suzanne: The first guy I dated in college ate pizza with a knife and fork. We never went out again. He married one of my friends and as time has gone by, I am surer than ever that I was right.
J R in WV
@germy:
And t think I was wanting a Tesla!!! No more, won’t ever sit in one now. The name is so cool, but the mind behind the whole project must be deformed.
Doug R
@Shana: On Seinfeld they said Ji row: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFE9C7BBkTY
I think it’s supposed to be more like Yi-row.
guachi
@JPL: The simplest way to pronounce it correctly is to say it “Cutter”. Though in Arabic the ‘Q’ is pronounced with the tongue on the soft palate and not the hard palate like the letter ‘K’.
Kayla Rudbek
I should be cleaning up my home office. Instead, I’m wondering whether I should reset my iPad again, as Safari now refuses to log into Ravelry on the iPad. iPhone is working fine in terms of logging into Ravelry, Twitter, Facebook, etc. but the iPad is older and seems to be rather cranky (I’ve given up on getting the iPad to recognize any other email accounts than iCloud).
Mnemosyne
Just got home from what was hopefully the last round of shopping for my Denver trip. I needed airport shoes (ie slip-ons) plus various toiletry items.
Steeplejack
@guachi:
So what is an English word (if any) that approximates the right sound?
Scamp Dog
@Steeplejack: I say it something like year-oh.
Steeplejack
@Scamp Dog:
Sorry, dude, talking about “Qatar.”
Amir Khalid
@Bruuuuce:
You want a really good pasta maker? See if you can get your hands on one of these …
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
I would advise someone to say the French word for “four”: quatre.
patrick II
Try and take their tax cuts away and see how malleable they are.
Mnemosyne
@patrick II:
Promise them that their tax dollars will always be spent on projects that only benefit white people and watch how fast the “taxed enough already” crowd changes their minds.