Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Giving up is unforgivable.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

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

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Second rate reporter says what?

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

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Friday Midday Open Thread

Friday Midday Open Thread

by | 165 Comments

This post is in: ,

Here’s our old Daisy pretending she’s a sandwich (or a clam):

She hides from the youngster sometimes, and who can blame her? He is exhausting! Speaking of the youngling, here he is, artfully arranged on the floor of the potting shed:

He looks so angelic when he’s sleeping, but then he wakes up and unties someone’s shoelaces or rips the stuffing out of a toy, and the illusion is lost.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

165Comments

  4. 4.

    Immanentize

    Someone is playing a penny flute outside my office window. It is making this beautiful fall day feel so Bostony.

    ETA I am happy as a clam just to be here.

  5. 5.

    mad citizen

    For fans of VEEP’s Jonah Ryan, my senator Donnelly has a new chopping wood ad that copies one from Jonah’s illfated campaign. I’d supply the link (indystar story) but do my BJ surfing at work on my phone, so have limited capability.

  10. 10.

    germy

    Our cat displays the most charming sleep poses.

    Sometimes she curls up in a tight ball. Other times she stretches out with one arm over her eyes. When her whiskers twitch I know she is dreaming she is a lion back in ancient times, stalking her prey.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    @eclare: Good luck and remember your friends on b.j. when you win. Actually just donate some of the proceeds to your local pet rescue.

  13. 13.

    geg6

    That’s how I feel when I watch Lovey sleeping. She looks so cute and she’s always in the most hilarious poses. I especially love when she sleeps on her back with her feet straight up in the air. And then she wakes up and, as soon as she does, she starts barking at Koda as if Koda was attacking her while she slept. Meanwhile, poor Koda was just innocently walking across the room or jumping down from the bed. She’s such a bitch when you wake her up!

  14. 14.

    Manyakitty

    @Immanentize: Neato! I just hear the wind blowing through the trees.We moved our offices at work, and now we are in a small professional building abutting a neighborhood park. It’s good background for updating mechanic’s lien forms (my task for the day).

    Also happy as a clam just to be here.

  15. 15.

    germy

    The multiple accusations against Bryan Singer, as well as his perpetual bad behaviour on sets, have been as well-known in the industry as anything related to Harvey Weinstein. There are a lot of complicit people keeping him afloat.— Kayleigh Donaldson (@Ceilidhann) October 15, 2018

    Seriously, tho – fuck Bryan Singer.
    Imagine if, say, Patty Jenkins had just walked off the WONDER WOMAN set during filming for several days for no good reason.
    She'd never get another studio directing gig ever again.
    — The Norman Nightmare (@BLCAgnew) October 15, 2018

  16. 16.

    geg6

    @germy:

    Is there some context that is not obvious from those tweets? Because I’m not understanding any of it, especially the Wonder Woman comment.

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    @jeffreyw: That photo is the first piece of art I ever named. :-)

    Homer and the Bee. Homer was such a little tyke back then. Thanks for posting it.

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne

    Zhenia Gogolia posted a cat video from a cat blogger called Cole and Marmelade yesterday and now I can’t stop watching their YouTube channel:

    https://youtu.be/bObg_aJ1C_s

    Facebook knows what my mood is right now, because it keeps showing me cat videos from The Dodo.

  21. 21.

    germy

    @geg6: Esquire magazine is planning a big article about Bryan’s exploits with underage boys. He’s going around saying it’s all a rehash of baseless accusations.

    The new Queen movie is out, and he calls it his movie, but he only worked a short time on it, took long absences, behaved unprofessionally on the set. And yet he keeps falling upwards.

  23. 23.

    germy

    For contractual reasons, Singer is getting a director’s credit, but the film was rescued by the person hired to replace him.

  24. 24.

    geg6

    @germy:

    Ah, now I understand. I knew about the mess he almost made of the Queen movie. I was unaware, however, of the underage boys thing.

  26. 26.

    germy

    Does anyone here remember the old Robotman comic strip? It was syndicated nationally about 20 years ago.

    One of the main characters was his roommate’s pet cat, who at one point became overly involved with catnip, to the point where they staged an intervention.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    Betty, my Henry did that all the time when he was crated after his ACL surgery. I had a lovely therapeutic cushion for him to lie on and it filled his crate perfectly. He would still work it until he could be underneath. He did that in crates in both rooms.

    We called it the Henry Sandwich.

  28. 28.

    Proudgradofcatladyacademy

    Hi everyone. Delurking here to thank the community for condolences, poems and support. My dad’s funeral is on Tuesday in Minnesota. He told us that he paid for the funeral but we found out only the plot and headstone were paid. We opted for cremation but I had to make a hard choice to either spend money on the funeral so there actually was one, or travel back from the West coast to Minnesota. I decided to pay for the funeral for the family. They are going to live stream it for me so thank you Zuckerberg for adding that feature?-it does,come in handy at times.

    Anyway thank you again BJers It May sound weird because you would think the last thing a grieving daughter would want to do is read political rants* and snarky comments** but it’s been a huge respite for me.

    *I love rants, I try to do one a day. Hands down Balloon juice front pagers are the best in the business***.
    **the snarky comments are as good or better than the rants. I quote all all the time. You should get royalty checks from my usage of everyone’s comments.

    *** puppy, cat, food, garden, and baby pics are also what I drop by for 100% for those too.

  29. 29.

    Humdog

    @Immanentize: My neighbor plays violin and I absolutely love it when she decides to play out on her deck. The whole neighborhood can enjoy it. The very best was when she was working on a duet with a floutist in late summer when the weather was exceptionally fine. I got nothing done indoors that week of intensive practices and I forbade any outdoor power equipment usage while there was a chance they’d come outside and play.
    Usually, it is just birdsong and the occasional chainsaw in my forest.

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    I’m sure I’m not the only person who woke up this morning thinking about Leto. Breaking my ankle was a shock to me and that was nothing compared to this. I can only imagine how both Leto and his spouse feel. The word sheared used in relation to pelvic bones is haunting me. I hope we are able to do something to help.

  33. 33.

    Yutsano

    I want clams for dinner now…

    This weekend is part packing prep, part cookie prep (dough on Sunday, baked on Tuesday, trust me, it’s insanely good), and part chill as much as possible before I get on a plane to Minneapolis on Wednesday.

    Oh and a system I need for work went ungestuppt. On a Friday. Woot.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @geg6:

    Yep. Singer has had some very powerful people protecting him because he had some big hit movies, but I think his time is almost up.

    ETA: The gay casting couch in Hollywood is just as bad as the straight one.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @geg6:

    She’s such a bitch when you wake her up!

    I know people like that, but not me, no, never. I am sunshine and roses when I wake up.

  40. 40.

    germy

    @Humdog:

    My neighbor plays violin and I absolutely love it when she decides to play out on her deck. The whole neighborhood can enjoy it. The very best was when she was working on a duet with a floutist in late summer when the weather was exceptionally fine.

    You have cool neighbors. My neighbor wears a “BITE ME” t-shirt and listens to Limbaugh.

  41. 41.

    catclub

    @eclare: Lottery linked savings:
    There are a lot of people who invest more in lottery tickets than in savings. For those people, you can encourage savings by linking the amount of savings deposits to a lottery prize. The more you save, the more likely you are to win the prize – which is taken from all the other savers – you all get a smaller interest rate than a pure market rate for saving. It has been tried – I think in South Africa – and works to encourage savings (to some extent) over the usual
    investment in ‘The lottery is my retirement plan’

  46. 46.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker: Leto was on his motorcycle and a car cut in front of him. According to his wife, he will need several surgeries, the first of which is today.
    I hope she checks in later.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: I don’t listen to RedundantTreeBranch but I do have a shirt that says “I’m from Missouri and I will shoot you.”

  48. 48.

    bemused

    @Ninedragonspot:

    Wow, that is one godawful ugly house guaranteed to bring on depression in the most cheerful people. I love the comment on one bedroom that the only hotel still decorated like that has roaches.

  52. 52.

    BC in Illinois

    @germy:

    My neighbor wears a “BITE ME” t-shirt and listens to Limbaugh.

    That gave me a reason to laugh; now off to lunch.

    I don’t really know my neighbor well. I put up signs on my yard for Claire McCaskill and for Cort VanOstran, the D running for Congress against the invisible Ann Wagner (R – safe Republican vote). Cort’s best publicity comes from Ann not showing up for debates, because the League of Women Voters is too partisan.

    At any rate, the neighbor put out a sign this week for Sarah Unsicker (D), our (very fine) incumbent State Rep. It’s good to find out we’re on the same page. So between our two houses, we have signs for State Rep, US Rep, and Senator — all Democrats. It’s a good look for the neighborhood.

    I guess we could talk to each other more.

  55. 55.

    Schlemazel

    @Proudgradofcatladyacademy:
    Sorry both for your loss and for the added grief around the funeral. My folks always told us they had it all taken care of through the Cremation Society of MN. Then when dad tipped the canoe it turned out that no, they really did not cover everything as they had suggested, you needed to read the fine print. At least we were able to prepare better for moms departure a couple years later. It is not like those are not stressful enough times.

  56. 56.

    WaterGirl

    @Manyakitty: Leto’s wife Avalune responded to raven’s question very late in the thread:

    His body armor and helmet saved his life. He has no head/brain injuries. His pelvis is going to have to be reconstructed Tuesday and as a result of his pelvis injury he lost a lot of blood and had other very bad injuries from the pelvic bones shearing. He also has a fractured knee but they don’t really care about that at the moment. They said most people die from his kind of injury and attribute his current status as combo of armor and his being a fit runner. He’s running a fever that just doesn’t want to stay down but his bp is up and he looks a lot better tonight. They think eventually he will be able to walk again but there are some things that will be very hard for him to accept.

    https://balloon-juice.com/2018/10/18/open-thread-1996/#comment-7058610

    She also shared this elsewhere in the thread:

    Thank you all for the well wishes. I’m having a hard day today. He has surgery tomorrow and Tuesday and I don’t know about the rest I could only process so many. Our son is being flown in in a couple days by the Red Cross. It will be so good to see my baby boy. Leto’s work and my work are putting together a Go Fund Me I think. I don’t have any details atm but I will keep you guys posted. I know he only recently started commenting but he was a balloon juicer a long time and he talks about y’all like family.

  58. 58.

    Schlemazel

    @Humdog:
    We used to have a neighbor who was a trombonist with the Symphony Orchestra here. When he practiced it was often repetitive scales or the same passage he was apparently perfecting over and over. You situation sounds lovely!

  59. 59.

    Avalune

    I’m living off the dog and cat pictures. One of my friends is animal control and she was instructed to post pictures of all her pick ups.

    Considering the gravity of his injuries he looks amazing. The doctor keeps talking about how lucky it is that Leto is so fit. I’m going to have to make a shrine of his helmet. I’d shrine the body armor too but they made a mess of it.

    He’s in the OR now. Today’s is more a clean up of open wound (you can put a fist in it they tell me). They weren’t sure if they were going to close it before or after they give him robopelvis.

    I’ll check in later. Thanks again for the support.

    Also catladyacademyperson, so sorry to hear. That was a nice thing to do for the family.

  60. 60.

    Schlemazel

    @WaterGirl:
    WHAT?! I missed something and that sounds horrific.
    I fractured my pelvis into three 21 years ago and I know what that was like. “Sheared” is not a word I want to hear in relationship

  62. 62.

    JPL

    @Avalune: Thank you for letting us know. As you can see from the thread, we have been concerned. Take care of yourself, because you also have a long road in front of you.

  63. 63.

    trollhattan

    @Ninedragonspot: @bemused:
    Yup the stuff of nightmares and continuing proof one cannot buy taste (our president* being the top working example). ETA there must be a coal furnace there somewhere–they should have shown it.

    Sending it off to my spouse’s cousin, who stages homes in the CA wine country and will have abject nightmares after seeing this. My work here is done.

  64. 64.

    Schlemazel

    @JPL:
    edit upon further reading

    Please remember some of us are irregular visitors so some sort of permanent link to donation site, updates etc would be most useful.

  65. 65.

    geg6

    @Avalune:

    Please let him know that we are all pulling for him to make as complete a recovery as possible. You sound like you feel a bit better today, too. Glad to see that. And yes, a shrine to his helmet sounds like a good idea. Without it, we might all be hoping for an even bigger miracle.

  69. 69.

    Avalune

    @JPL: Thanks. I finally got a little sleep last night and ate something more substantial than a cheese cracker and pot tarts. I’m doing a little better now as a result. Im going to look at doggo and kitteh pics and knit the hell out of this sweater. I have lunch with my supervisor tomorrow – she’s trying to work out something for me since I hadn’t really been full time long enough to generate much leave and that’s been high on my mind when contemplating balancing the bills and my need to be here while he’s here.

  70. 70.

    Schlemazel

    @Avalune:
    Pot tarts sound like a great idea!

    Seriously though please let us know if there is anything we can do and send out best wishes to Leto. My pelvis fracture was not as sever as his sounds and it took about a year to feel almost normal. Even at that there were bad days. Tell him recovery is not a straight line & the worst days, even if they come after good days, will be followed by better ones.

  71. 71.

    satby

    @Avalune: keeping good thoughts for Leto and you. Be sure to tell him we’re all thinking of him. It’s so good of you to keep us updated with all that’s on your plate right now.

    @Proudgradofcatladyacademy: paying for the funeral even though it meant you couldn’t go will be remembered by your family forever. Incredibly brave and generous of you. You deserve whatever respite you can get.

  73. 73.

    Marcopolo

    Just voted. We don’t have early vote here per se but if you don’t know where you will be on election day or have some other reasonable justification you can go in and cast an in person absentee. A steady stream of folks were lined up but considering it is the only place to vote in the county, I would not say we are experiencing a huge flood of early votes.

    I’ve said it before & I will say it again, vote early this year if you can–no telling what will happen between now & election day that might get in the way of casting a ballot.

    Have a lovely day everyone!

  74. 74.

    Yutsano

    @Avalune: Again: thinking of both him and you. Did your son make it okay?

    Also: ignore any prognostications about “what he will have to accept” this early. Modern medicine has learned a TON (thanks to numerous war injuries, for one) about how to get humans put back together. And physiotherapy, especially if you find a good team of therapists, can really do wonders at regaining function and balance. So please don’t give up any hopes yet. Doctors are often wrong about how people can heal.

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    Last night I sent that video to a friend in a multi-cat household, and this morning I got an ominous reply: “I’m doing this.”

  76. 76.

    Schlemazel

    @Yutsano:
    Let me second this. Both my pelvis & cancer diagnosis came with projections of what my future would hold & both were wildly wrong in predicting a worse outcome than what I have

  77. 77.

    Gravenstone

    @geg6: Singer is the director of record for the new Queen biopic. He apparently went AWOL near the end of filming and they had to bring another director in to finish the product. But DGA rules apparently stipulate the Singer get sole credit because he helmed the majority of the work. The cause of his absence, and ultimate replacement has not yet been clearly explained, just lots of speculation.

    And the Patti Jenkins comparison is likely due to Singer getting his big break doing several superhero movies, similar to her breakthrough work on WW.

  80. 80.

    Gravenstone

    @germy: Saw a piece on youtube yesterday about the film and the little trivia piece that caught me was John Deacon is being played by the little kid from the original Jurassic Park.

  81. 81.

    FelonyGovt

    @Avalune: Just catching up on this. Please wish Leto the very best from us, and take care of yourself too. Keep us updated as you can, please.

  83. 83.

    Gravenstone

    @Schlemazel: When my grandfather passed in ’83, we thought my grandmother had paid for his services and funeral. When she ultimately passed in ’05, we learned that no she hadn’t actually paid anything. But the small town mortuary floated the outstanding cost all those years without adding any fees, so we ended up paying for both services.

  85. 85.

    Fair Economist

    @germy: I liked Superman Returns because the characters have inner life and motivations (apart from the lead villain). The central love triangle has some pretty complicated motivations and dilemmas, and it mostly plays out without the characters expositing what’s going on. It’s far better than the last Superman reboot, which is just atrocious with pointless fights, a flat lead, and making out as a city collapses.

    Can’t recommend it now in view of Spacey and Springer, of course. Damn, do those molesters look out for each other or what?

  86. 86.

    geg6

    @Gravenstone:

    Yeah, I was aware of the Bohemian Rhapsody kerfluffle and that no one really knows where he went and why, let alone the fact that he didn’t seem to alert anyone from the studio or cast and crew. I was not aware of the molestation charges against him.

    I was under the impression that he got his big break when he make “The Usual Suspects.” I really loved that movie but can’t watch it anymore because, well, Kevin Spacey. I also thought “Apt Pupil” was good. But maybe I’m wrong about that (the big break) because I despise superhero movies (I fell asleep watching “Wonder Woman” and won’t waste my time trying to watch it again) and haven’t seen a Singer movie since “Apt Pupil” and didn’t follow his career. Did he do superhero stuff first? Until I found out about the Queen film. I am a Freddie Mercury fanatic since the mid-70s when they first broke out. So I’ve followed the twists and turns of that and plan to see it for sure as soon as possible. To show you how special that is, I almost never see films in a theater. I can count on one had the number of films I’ve seen in a theater the last five years. And almost all of them were Star Wars movies.

  87. 87.

    Proudgradofcatladyacademy

    @Gravenstone:

    Not to mention how marked up everything is! 300 for thank you cards? I am all for businesses paying workers fair wages and making a profit, but come on, I can run to the dollar store and buy thank you cards. Visitation was an extra 500 and if we got a catered lunch the lunch desserts would have been an extra 250.00. My brother said, “I can run to Sam’s club and buy 40.00 worth of bars for 60 people.” Funeral director replied “That’s what our caterer does.” I remember reading even taking into consideration fair wages and a bit of a profit margin, funerals are a big overpriced scam and now I start to see why.

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    @Avalune:

    It sounds like your supervisor is willing to be as flexible as possible, so that’s good. You may not know that unpaid family leave taken under FMLA does NOT have to be taken all at once — you get 16 weeks total, but you can use it in small increments of a few days or a week. That may give both you and your employer some additional flexibility.

    We used to have a commenter here whose husband was severely injured in a fall and had some spinal injuries. If she’s still around and is willing to come forward, maybe the two of you could email?

  90. 90.

    Mnemosyne

    @Fair Economist:

    Superman Returns was INCREDIBLY poorly cast, though. Parker Posey should have been cast as Lois Lane because she was the right age to have gone through everything the character did. But Kevin Spacey had a weird thing for Kate Bosworth and insisted she be cast as Lois Lane even though it meant Supes must have knocked Lois up when she was a teenager. ?

  91. 91.

    germy

    @geg6: Bohemian Rhapsody seems like a film that would be worth seeing in a theater. Especially the big Live Aid concert. The soundtrack will be great on a theater sound system.

    The kid from Jurassic Park, grownup actually looks a lot like John Deacon!

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @Proudgradofcatladyacademy:

    Wow! I have to say, when my brother died of cancer, I was very pleased with Fuller Funeral Home in Naples (FL). The pricing was very reasonable and they let us bring in our own food. They didn’t even try to upsell us on an urn since we were going to scatter the ashes.

  93. 93.

    Yutsano

    @Mnemosyne: This is why I plan to be burned. No funeral. No formal memorial. Just scattering my ashes in the locations I select. Granted that’s all over the world, but I want my family to get some travel time in.

  94. 94.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    The Houston Chronicle just endorsed Beto O’Rourke. And holy cow, they endorsed Cruz last time but are scathing in their comments on him. Just one example:

    It was the rookie Cruz, riding high after a double-digit win in 2012, who brazenly took the lead in a 2013 federal government shutdown, an exercise in self-aggrandizement that he hoped would lead to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Cruz, instead, undercut the economy, cost taxpayers an estimated $2 billion (and inflicted his reading of Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” on an unamused nation)

  99. 99.

    Mary G

    @Avalune: What horrific injuries; hope today’s procedure goes well and they can get the fever under control. Glad he looks better and that his care in wearing good gear and being fit paid off. Once the GoFundMe is set up, let us know. I am on Social Security disability and don’t give a lot, but there are many lovely people here who would be happy to chip in to take at least some of the burden of worrying about money off you. It’s always a surprise how much Juicers can accomplish working together.

  102. 102.

    E

    I see our friend and comrade Assange is suing Ecuador for not treating him with the necessary care and respect.

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    I never understood the appeal of Singer’s “Superman Returns” movie. It was baffling in its horribleness.

    I’ve never seen it. Now, I am mildly curious. I guess I am in a mood to watch a train wreck.

  107. 107.

    Mary G

    Brutal, but true:

    The Houston Chronicle: “A "Beto" victory would be good for Texas, not only because of his skills, both personal and political, but also because of the manifest inadequacies of the man he would replace.”— TOᑭ ᖇOᑭE TᖇAViS (@TopRopeTravis) October 19, 2018

  108. 108.

    LuciaMia

    Wow, just heard that George Soros is funding those Hondurans and their zombie caravan.
    Thanks Fox News!

  110. 110.

    raven

    @WaterGirl: Yep, my pal died a couple of years ago from the same kind of crash. He was undergoing cancer treatment at the VA and hit a deer coming back. They thought he was going to make it but the treatment had weakened him so we lost him.

  115. 115.

    zhena gogolia

    @LuciaMia:

    Even if George Soros were doing all this (which he isn’t): Why is it that it’s okay for billionaires to control all our lives (Koch, Adelson, etc.) as long as they’re right-wingers? Why can’t George finance a few things too?

  116. 116.

    Fair Economist

    @Mnemosyne: Bosworth was a lot younger than Lois Lane plausibly would have been but I thought she played the role just fine. Branden Routh was too young as well – he’s only 3 years older than her. I didn’t find it implausible that they were in their early 30’s or so.

  118. 118.

    laura

    @germy: I have a Virgin flight bag embossed with the Freddie Mercury Live Aid logo as a gift from one of the Roadie Brothers. It is a rare treasure that I’ll never part with. Brother the Younger is still tight with Brian May.
    We three siblings were fortunate to see Queen twice, back in the day, at the Oakland Collosium, though it was the last Sex Pistols show at Winterland that led them both to careers working with so many bands/artists.
    Can’t. Wait. For the Movie…

  121. 121.

    Mnemosyne

    @Fair Economist:

    Kate Bosworth was 23 when she played the role and did not in any way come across as older than her years. It was super creepy.

    I actually didn’t mind Routh being young, because Superman is an alien. Who knows how fast he ages? But a 23-year-old Lois Lane with a 7-year-old son was just gross.

  123. 123.

    Yutsano

    @laura:

    Brother the Younger is still tight with Brian May.

    I will say watching Dr. Brian May geek out with all of NASA when New Horizons info arrived from Pluto was one of the best things I have seen in this century so far.

  126. 126.

    Kent

    @Mnemosyne:

    Even creepier was when she played against Kevin Spacey in “Beyond the Sea” at age 20 but I guess she was playing Sandra Dee who actually married Bobby Darin at age 17 or 18. Kevin Spacey seems to have had a Kate Bosworth obsession.

  128. 128.

    trollhattan

    @Mary G:
    Does the paper bother to atone for their sin of endorsing him six years ago? Ted never fooled anybody who bothered to pay attention for more than 90 seconds.

  131. 131.

    germy

    @laura:

    Can’t. Wait. For the Movie…

    Make sure to share your thoughts on it after you see it. I always enjoy reading balloon-juice movie reviews. And I don’t think anyone will complain about spoilers.

  132. 132.

    trollhattan

    Am now having entirely too much fun perusing the McMansionhell.com website. Thanks a lot, enemies of productivity.

    To be fair I’m coaxing Acrobat to OCR a 9,482-page file without first breaking it apart, so that’s my babysitting task for the moment afternoon.

  133. 133.

    Yutsano

    @trollhattan: I red the endorsement. While it doesn’t come out and completely offer an apology, it doesn’t hold anything back in ripping apart how Rafael has acted since getting to the Senate. An apology is probably not going to be forthcoming, but it does sound like a back-handed boy did we mess that one up!

  135. 135.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kent:

    She also showed up in the movie he’s in about a group of college students figuring out how to cheat casinos — you know, the one where they turned all of the real-life Asian-American and Arab-American characters into midwestern white kids. There was definitely something strange going on with that relationship.

    @rikyrah:

    I do also watch Maru, but Cole and Marmelade are great, too. Especially since they now have two little sister kittens to play with.

  136. 136.

    Ruckus

    @Avalune:
    Been there, although the ending was nothing like Leto’s crash. Did get hit head on, literally, by a truck though. Fun times.
    Over time, a lot of things can now be fixed that at one time were never attempted. He’s in good shape, that goes a very long way to recovery.
    Best of luck to both of you.

  137. 137.

    Mnemosyne

    Though I have to say, the movie age difference that really pissed me off was Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd in De-Lovely. Cole Porter married a woman who was about 20 years his senior, but they had to reverse that and make her much younger than him because Hollywood fucking sucks when it comes to women.

  139. 139.

    Avalune

    I have a link for the go fund me they set up now but I’m not sure how to handle it. Like I don’t want to rat him out publicly but want to give people the opportunity to help I guess? Any suggestions?

  140. 140.

    Mary G

    @Yutsano: They gave stars like movie reviews.
    Ted ⭐⭐1/2
    Beto ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

    They mention they endorsed Ted in 2012 and while not saying “we were wrong” there follows a pan of all his actions since he was elected:

    Ted Cruz — a candidate the Chronicle endorsed in 2012, by the way — is the junior senator from Texas in name only. Exhibiting little interest in addressing the needs of his fellow Texans during his six years in office, he has kept his eyes on a higher prize. He’s been running for president since he took the oath of office — more likely since he picked up his class schedule as a 15-year-old ninth-grader at Houston’s Second Baptist High School more than three decades ago. For Cruz, public office is a private quest; the needs of his constituents are secondary.

    Just as important, they compare Beto to moderate Texan Democrats:

    “While he may look like the second coming of Bobby Kennedy to D.C. pundits,” political scientist Jay Aiyer of Texas Southern University has written, “Texans can see that O’Rourke has more in common with the politics and approach of former Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, who advocated for modernizing Texas through bipartisan cooperation during his time leading the Texas Senate.”

    Aiyer also compares O’Rourke to Lloyd Bentsen, Ann Richards and Mark White – reform-minded Democrats all, “who recognized the need to expand opportunities systematically when leading a conservative state.”

    He’s a good old boy, not some wildass Sochulist!

  142. 142.

    Mnemosyne

    @Avalune:

    Email Betty Cracker or one of the other front-pagers and let them know what you want to do. If you want to protect his anonymity, maybe have people email you directly to get the information?

  143. 143.

    Fair Economist

    @Mnemosyne: When it comes to mismatched ages in romantic leads (always with the woman too young in any I’ve ever seen), there is an incredibly large set to pick from. The one I remember is As Good As It Gets, where many characters comment on assorted reasons the leads shouldn’t be together – but nobody even mentions the very obvious 26 year age difference? But there are so, so many others…

  146. 146.

    Mnemosyne

    @Fair Economist:

    Mismatched ages alone don’t bother me as much because I’ve grown calloused. It’s when they change the ages of actual historical figures that I get annoyed.

    And, yeah, the Kate Bosworth thing really annoyed me. What, she was an award-winning investigative journalist at age 12? Really? Movie ruined by bad casting.

  147. 147.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Are you sure?
    If you saw some of my first drafts……….
    And even if he doesn’t, it pushing that hard into his cheek is going to make it difficult to see what he’s typing.

  148. 148.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    Though I have to say, the movie age difference that really pissed me off was Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd in De-Lovely. Cole Porter married a woman who was about 20 years his senior, but they had to reverse that and make her much younger than him because Hollywood fucking sucks when it comes to women.

    What struck me about the casting is that Cole Porter was 5 ft 6, while Kline, talented as he is, has gotta be 6 ft 2 or so.

    Ah, Hollywood.

  149. 149.

    germy

    @Mnemosyne: Willem Dafoe is 63. He plays Vincent van Gogh in a new movie.

    When an interview mentioned the age difference, Dafoe said something to the effect of the life expectancy in van Gogh’s time being 40, which made no sense to me.

  150. 150.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Ruckus:

    If you saw some of my first drafts……….

    Remember, I’ve met you.

    And even if he doesn’t, it pushing that hard into his cheek is going to make it difficult to see what he’s typing.

    Ya got a point there.

  151. 151.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    I’ll mention here that the reason I was away from the jackals yesterday is Madame wanted to go on a picnic(she’s had serious envy of her daughter’s trip downunder). We headed up to a picnic area off Angeles Crest Highway with the doggies(one threw up on the way up, the other on the way back). We also stopped at the trailhead for the hike to Mt. Lowe(Madame wants to climb Mt. Lowe now) and up to Mt. Wilson.

  153. 153.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    DAISY! And Badger too. We’re very lucky Juicers today.

  154. 154.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    Meh. Talented actors can sometimes pull off playing younger or older than they are. The trouble is that producers are usually more interested in getting a “big name” for a part and don’t care whether or not that actor is appropriate for the part. The extreme version of that was the bad old days when they would cast Katharine Hepburn as a Chinese woman living in pre-WWII China because the studios wanted their (white) stars and contract players in their films regardless of what the film was about.

  155. 155.

    Brachiator

    @Mary G:

    Just as important, they compare Beto to moderate Texan Democrats…He’s a good old boy, not some wildass Sochulist!

    I hope this gets through to Texas voters. Conservatives have been working overtime to portray Beto as a wild eyed librul. And dishonest, to boot: “Why would a 4th generation Irish guy call himself ‘Beto.’ ” Of course, Cruz’ name change don’t bother them at all. No, not at all.

  156. 156.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Willem Dafoe is 63. He plays Vincent van Gogh in a new movie.

    When van Gogh was 63, he had been dead for 25 years.

  157. 157.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Cool kids at NYT and now at the National Republic have already written off Beto’s senate run. They are pooh-poohing his record breaking fundraising and predicting his loss based on the polling two weeks before the election day.
    I detest our political media more than Rs and that is saying something.
    ETA: There are some exceptions like John Harwood, Daniel Dale but by and large they are R enablers.

  159. 159.

    laura

    @Yutsano: yes. His Membership in the Royal Society is well earned. I’d pay a bushel and a pack to listen in on May, Adam Steltzner and BillinGlendale. Adam is the guy who fell for the stars watching change night after night, heading home from gigs.
    Dan Ackroyd’s wife is also a Member, but I believe that her area of interest is earth sciences.

  160. 160.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @laura: Wait until you see what I’ve got planned for next year…how about a time-lapse of the Milky Way rising? For the off-season I’m going to concentrate on nebula and galaxies.

    ETA: Sunday, I’ll see how the kid’s pics turned out from her trip downunder…there may be a guest OTR, no promises.

  161. 161.

    Steeplejack

    @laura:

    Dan Ackroyd’s wife is also a Member, but I believe that her area of interest is earth sciences.

    C’mon, man. This is the craziest thing I’ve read all day—not including Trump bullshit, as always.

    Which “royal society”? Brian May, ARCS, is an alumnus/​associate of the Royal College of Science. Legitimate big brain of science. Dan Aykroyd’s wife, Donna Dixon, while a capable actress (now retired), was a college dropout who has managed to keep any significant interest in science completely hidden from the Internet.

  163. 163.

    Amir Khalid

    @trollhattan:
    Is The Chronicle a rightwing rag that prefers to endorse Republicans? I agree that it’s impossible to even glance at Ted Cruz and not see his odiousness, but maybe his opponent then was an only okay Democrat.

  165. 165.

    J R in WV

    @Avalune:

    I’m so sorry for Leto’s injuries as a result of a completely inattentive driver’s misfeasance at the wheel. I’m really glad he was in good shape and wearing real protective equipment and is doing well. Modern medicine can work miracles, we’re all hoping that’s happening right now for you and Leto.

    When the GoFundMe shows up, do please let us know. There are enough of us jackals that we can add up to a real amount without hurting any of us. Witness our contributions for many worthy causes!

    Best of luck, take care of yourself too ~!!~

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