Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

In my day, never was longer.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Republicans in disarray!

Infrastructure week. at last.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

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

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

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

T R E 4 5 O N

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Come on, man.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

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

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

You are here: Home / Books / Quick but Interesting (Open Thread)

Quick but Interesting (Open Thread)

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I saw this earlier on the tweet-machines and wanted to amplify it. Click through for the whole tweet thread/slideshow:

It reminded me of the excellent documentary Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten, about the cool rock & roll scene Cambodia had before the Khmer Rouge, ah, murdered everyone involved.

Anywho, looks like we could probably do with an open thread, so, open thread! Hope everybody’s Saturday is going well. So far I’ve done my one big weekend errand and eaten tacos. I’m calling it a success.

Reader Interactions

82Comments

  4. 4.

    PhoenixRising

    I’m grilling a big pile of meat as soon as the rain slacks off & maybe we will watch ‘Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten’ tonight. Highly recommended.

  5. 5.

    raven

    After selling our Lexus yesterday I got notice that we’ll get another $1400 for hail damage. With both car settlements we are close to meeting our deductible for new roofs on both houses!

  6. 6.

    jeffreyw

    Just ate beans and franks with cheddar and am contemplating a graphics card swap so my PC can, I hope, drive all those pixels in HDR on a new 4K tv. My old card pukes when I try to go with its native resolution. I have it set to a lower res for now. Works fine for web pages but I really want it to use for streaming video from the PC because keyboard and mouse. There’s a GTX950 in it now, I have a 1050ti cued up. 1st world problem.

  7. 7.

    Yarrow

    I volunteered for a candidate today and met some great people, including several women who are involved with Moms Demand Action. They all came as a group to volunteer. I learned about some of the good things they are doing around gun issues. They were all very interesting and one had her young daughter with her, who was adorable and super interested in everything that was going on.

    Been to the gym but I’m heading outside shortly to work in the garden because it’s overgrown with weeds.

  8. 8.

    Mary G

    I got up early and did a bunch of household chores, then took a nap. Not exciting, but useful. Finishing up a book, then maybe make some bread and then stream something.

    @Yarrow: Moms Demand rock.

  9. 9.

    CarolPW

    @MomSense: Thanks! Your post reminded me to stick my red lentils in my rice cooker. Having with farmers market summer squash though, burgers are tomorrow.

  10. 10.

    Yarrow

    @Mary G: These women were awesome. I was very impressed with what they have accomplished. It was fun to hear them talk about what they do and some of the things they’ve worked on. Many of them were wearing their Moms Demand shirts and despite having busy lives they came out to volunteer for a candidate today. They’re making change happen.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    Pizza dough is rising, and I’ll start preheating the stone in a little bit. Right now, watching the hummingbirds argue about who gets to use the feeder (“we all do” is apparently not an option).

  13. 13.

    Yarrow

    @dmsilev: Ain’t that the truth! There’s more than enough nectar in the feeder to go around for more than one hummingbirds, but no! Cannot share! Must own feeder!

  15. 15.

    p.a.

    Hesitant to post this since many of you are supping. From (of course) CBS this fall:

    From Emmy Award winner Dick Wolf and the team behind the “Law & Order” franchise, “FBI” is a fast-paced drama about the inner workings of the New York office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. First-class agents — including Maggie Bell and Omar Adom “OA” Zidan — bring all of their talents, intellect and technical expertise to tenaciously investigate cases of tremendous magnitude, including terrorism, organized crime and counterintelligence, to keep New York and the country safe.
    First episode date: 2018

    JesusChrist, couldn’t they have just gone with NCIS:Millinocket…

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    @Yarrow: I’m easily amused by the antics. Bird one stands guard, and swoops in to chase away bird two. Meanwhile, bird three sneaks in and starts eating. Bird one returns and the cycle repeats.

    I’ve managed to get some nice hover-bird pictures though, so there’s that.

  17. 17.

    Schlemazel

    Got back from making calls for the Dean Phillips – https://www.phillipsforcongress.org/ – He is running against a GOP empty suit in a district that has been red for as long as I can remember but we have nearly flipped the last couple of times. The incumbent is scared enough he has agreed to debates.

    Trying to get ready for dinner with friends while commenting here & not doing either one well

  18. 18.

    donnah

    https://imgur.com/gallery/exW7meA

    So, after success with Christopher Robin, I’ve started hooking my next rug project. It’s a Marine with a bomb-sniffing dog, great image. I’m using a very fine cut for the wool strips so it may take a while. It measures 21” by 33”.

  19. 19.

    Brachiator

    @p.a.:

    JesusChrist, couldn’t they have just gone with NCIS:Millinocket…

    Ah, CBS. Also home of the new needless reboot of Magnum, PI.

    I’m waiting for CSI: Trump Tower. Each week, still no collusion.

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack

    Quiet evening at home with the housecat. Just ordered a pizza, which should be here in about 20 minutes. Looks like Shetland (think I’ve seen it) and Hinterland (maybe not) on WETA-UK’s “rugged landscapes” night. Possible side trip to the German series The Inspector and the Sea on MHz (also rugged landscapes).

    I’ll recommend again Juliet, Naked, which I saw last night. Best movie I’ve seen in quite a while. Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, Chris O’Dowd, directed by Jesse Peretz. Not quite a rom-com, but rom-com-adjacent and very intelligent and funny. Glad I saw it before reading any reviews, because a couple I looked at this morning were WTF. Sort of dismissive and not getting it, IMO.

    Slightly Hollywooden trailer here.

  25. 25.

    joel hanes

    Pet bleg in San Jose CA area :

    A friend’s serious health problems force him to move back East, and into a living situation that’s not good for cats.
    He’d like to leave his black cat with mediu-length fur, “Buddy”, in the South Bay if possible. He says :

    Buddy is a great cat, a happy cat, 4.5 years old and in good health. She is fairly small, less than 8 pounds. She likes to spend most of her time outside chasing critters (mice, lizards, birds, squirrels and rabbits). She is very affectionate around people that she knows well, but is cautious around strangers. She wants to stay in California instead of moving to Connecticut, so I am looking for a new home for her….
    I’ll miss her a lot. But any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

    Interested parties please join the lines below for my email address.

    joe
    l554
    @com
    cast.
    net

    That first character in the second line is a lower-case ‘L’, as in liberty

  26. 26.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Yarrow: I’ve always thought if they had any brains, they’d cooperate. As it is, they waste so much energy chasing each other away. I don’t understand.

  31. 31.

    lamh36

    Movie night is over for me…watching Avengers: Affinity Wars earlier, and just finshed watching “Love, Simon”.

    And a2w…Love, Simon was real cute. I give a a solid “A”

    Aside from the coming out aspect of it, it really was as close to a classic John Hughes teen dramedy, but with an obvious LGBTQ feel at it’s heart.

    If you like the John Hughes films like Pretty in Pink, and the like…and you like your teenage love stories more sweet than angsty…then you’ll def like Love, Simon

  32. 32.

    raven

    @Gin & Tonic: When I got off the boat I had time to kill so I pulled into Meldgie’s Diner in Point Judith hoping for a lobster roll. The place was full but they had a sign on the door saying they were closed because the AC was down. Since the the joint was packed I though maybe it was some kind of mistake. I went in and it was basically “don’t you see the sign”??? Damn yankees.

  33. 33.

    dmsilev

    @Gin & Tonic: There’s not much room for brains in those tiny little heads. Also, given how transient their natural food source tends to be, it’s not too surprising that they’re very territorial.

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    @Steeplejack:

    I’ll recommend again Juliet, Naked, which I saw last night. Best movie I’ve seen in quite a while.

    I listened to a positive review, but couldn’t quite figure out what the movie was about. Is Juliet really naked?

    I may check it out this weekend, but also want to see the new Spike Lee joint.

    ETA. Saw and enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians. Somewhat predictable in places, but a great cast and a lot of great observational touches. I want to visit a Singapore food stall big time.

    Listened to an interview with the author of the book and was not surprised to learn that a big studio wanted to make the movie, but really, really, really wanted to make the female lead a white woman. Maybe adopted by Asians??

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    @lamh36

    They showed that on the overhead screens on one of the planes during the NY trip. Lost interest and stopped paying more than cursory attention about a third of the way through.

    Rated: passable.

    YMMV.

  39. 39.

    M. Bouffant

    @Brachiator: Saw a promo for the new Magnum, & thought how sad it was. At least Will & Grace & Smurphy Brown have most of the original casts. Network broadcast telebision has gone the way of Broadway; too many revivals.

    Hmmmm … did mass media nostalgia lead to Trump?

    Speaking of broadcast tee vee & Cambodia, in L.A. you can catch up on the Cambodian diaspora on Khmer TV, Channel 6.3.

  40. 40.

    sukabi

    @Jay: poor Milo. Sounds like he’s sad because nobody wants to pay him $997.00 / month for his brain farts.

    Maybe he’ll leave the ingrates and go back to his native home.

  42. 42.

    Gelfling 545

    @Jay: He doesn’t seem to ever consider that msybe he’s just bad at this stuff and should consider snother line of work, does he?

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @Yarrow:
    I find it helps to have two feeders. Try as they might, the hummingbirds just can’t protect them both. When things really get going, I have to refill two 1 qt feeders daily. Since they each eat about their own weight per day, and they each weigh about 4g, that means I’m feeding something like 500 individual birds, and that’s assuming they get all their calories from my feeders alone. If they’re getting a lot from other sources, I might be getting well over a thousand individual birds each day.

  48. 48.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    Marinating a tri-tip and chilling champagne for dinner. It’s M. Colette’s and my 22nd anniversary. So far today I have:

    – Discovered that the “sea kayak outing” my husband booked for tomorrow, about which I’ve been asking for info for weeks, is actually an 8-hour, intensive lesson, where we will learn how to roll (the Bay is cooooooold!), do rescues, read tide tables, etc. I had envisioned as a leisurely 2-3 hour paddle and had sold it as such to our 15-year-old son. I do not have an entire Sunday to spare on this kind of thing, but it’s paid for so I guess I’m stuck.

    – Weathered an epic meltdown from the aforementioned teenager over kayaking, homework, video games, and his perpetual case of the don’ wannas.

    – Completed all my grocery shopping in one efficient, hyperspeed loop around the store, only to have my husband e-mail me with
    a request for 20 more items – not listed in the order they are found in the store, dammit! – just as I was heading to the checkout.

    – Successfully completed the first marital argument of our 23rd year. Yay, us.

  52. 52.

    Roger Moore

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I’ve always thought if they had any brains, they’d cooperate. As it is, they waste so much energy chasing each other away. I don’t understand.

    It’s instinct. They evolved in an environment where flowers have only a limited amount of nectar, so they have to defend their territories against other birds who want to drink their supply. They don’t have the behavioral tools to deal with an environment with an essentially unlimited food supply.

  59. 59.

    JPL

    @dmsilev: When he tweeted NO COLLUSION at one in the morning a few nights ago, I happened to have a restless night and put on the television. I don’t know if it was ABC or CBS because they both have nighttime news. Anyway the late night anchors were reading his tweet and laughing.

  60. 60.

    Platonailedit

    @Jay:

    I don’t advertise my selflessness, because I’m not a victim.

    After doing exactly that for 99% of his watb whine.

  61. 61.

    Steeplejack

    @Brachiator:

    Is Juliet really naked?

    Juliet is the name of the reclusive singer-songwriter’s big album from 20-odd years ago. A bootleg CD surfaces called Juliet, Naked, purporting to contain raw demo tracks for the original album.

    @lamh36:

    No, the puzzles one is, uh, Puzzle. LOL. I want to see that one, too!

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    You have to use display port to take full advantage of the 4K, IIRC.

    Not with the latest generation of HDMI. It would be very strange otherwise, since most 4K TVs have a bunch of HDMI ports and no DP ports.

  67. 67.

    Brachiator

    John McCain, rest in peace. He could have been a greater political figure, but is a giant compared to Trump.

    Earlier, I watched a video of the point in the 2008 campaign where he refused to indulge the fear and bigotry of a couple of supporters who insisted that Obama was not American.

    McCain’s mother is still with us and is 106 years old.

    ETA. Fuck Trump for the inevitable lame comment on McCain.

  68. 68.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: To cheer you up, learning to roll a kayak is hard, and takes time. Lots of time. During which you will be wet and disoriented. But first you have to learn what’s called a “wet exit.” During which you will be wet. A lot. I hope you have a wetsuit.

  72. 72.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Gin & Tonic: Thanks – I had a long conversation with the guy who runs the kayak lesson place this morning, and he told me more or less what you describe. They supply wetsuits, and he gave me some tips on how to prepare to stay warm(er) and somewhat less uncomfortable. I’m an excellent swimmer and not too apprehensive about being disoriented under water; I just hate being in really cold water. My kid is gonna hate it, but I’ve survived more than one full day of surliness before.

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    In any case, sorry for the bummer news. Is it possible to reduce the sale price and let the new owners deal with it, or you do have to take care of it before any sale?

  77. 77.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Too late to change anything, of course, but it would be useful to ask whether they teach according to ACA (American Canoe Association) or BCU (British Canoe Union) curriculum. The latter is more rigorous and (IMO) better.

  78. 78.

    J R in WV

    I made sauerkraut with onions, peppers, celery, and Beef Knockwurst for dinner, served with champagne… will do chocolate covered cookies for dessert later on.

    I will respond to other comments, this is just to respond to Major^4’s taco menu… and others, I suspect.

  79. 79.

    J R in WV

    @raven:

    Ohh, good news, too bad you can’t use sheet metal, newly developed technologies banned for historical reasons is a terrible policy.

    Perhaps you should be forced to indulge in yellow fever too? I hear it was quite the thing down south back in the day! But glad you’re making out financially on the car swap!

  80. 80.

    Bruuuuce

    While most of CNN’s front page is blaring red about Senator McCain, this is also there, and is excellent news:

    In her opinion, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia criticized significant portions of three executive orders issued by Trump earlier this summer that limited the time union officials could spend with union members, the issues that unions could bargain over in negotiations, and the rights of workers disciplined for poor job performance to appeal disciplinary actions.

    The court concluded “that many of the challenged provisions of the Orders at issue here effectively reduce the scope of the right to bargain collectively as Congress has crafted it, or impair the ability of agency officials to bargain in good faith as Congress has directed, and therefore cannot be sustained.”

  81. 81.

    J R in WV

    In my experience, anyone who needed training to “wet exit” from a kayak probably can’t walk without help. Rolling is trickier, and sometimes it’s safer to just pop out of the boat. Never used a wet suit doing white water on the New River.

    Quit white water and caving when my legs went numb on the river from muscle spasms in my lower back. Couldn’t see making a rescue team wrestle me out of a cave after an injury that happened years ago. River neither.

    Dorothy, sorry to hear about your radon issue. When we decided to tear down the old farm house, which was an attractive nuisance, it turned out to have asbestos in the roof coating on the front porch and in the roll roofing used on the back addition for the kitchen/utility room/bathroom.

    I was allowed to remediate it myself, but no one else was allowed to help. When we went to the landfill authorized to accept asbestos containing building debris, there was a tractor trailer load of plain old black plastic bags — not the regulation required asbestos bags!! Which I was stupid enough to acquire and use. No one followed the rules but me, the old hippy enviro.

    Best of luck on the house!!

  82. 82.

    Gin & Tonic

    @J R in WV: You may not need training, but you do need to practice it, just so you’ve done it a few times *before* that time you really need to do it.

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