Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

The revolution will be supervised.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

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

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Let there be snark.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You are here: Home / Guest Posts / Sunday Morning Open Thread: Pushing Back the Darkness & the Cold

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Pushing Back the Darkness & the Cold

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Garden season’s pretty well over for most of us northern-hemisphere Balloon Juice jackals. So here’s a gift from senior beagle rescuer and long-time commentor Tony S — “Halloween: Celebrating American Family, Community Diversity”:

Let’s get real. Heartland America isn’t some 97% white community. Where the true pulse of America beats strongest are in its diverse, growing, vital communities.

I had a realization that night. Thanksgiving isn’t America’s only celebration of family. Halloween does that, too, with an added ingredient: Community.

Once a year, I get to stand on my porch and share with the neighbors I rarely see and the friends I don’t visit with often enough.

Halloween is my wife, Celine’s favorite holiday. Every year, she hands out not just candy, but hand-made goodie bags. This means we have a very good idea of how many people visit our home. This year the number topped 600.

It was wonderful seeing proud parents and thrilled kids grace our spooky, 115-year old home with their smiles, polite “Trick or Treats” and carefully crafted or freshly purchased costumes, from a 52-year old “Disco Grandma” to a spotted baby seemingly straight out of the crib.

Demographic analysts say true American heartland towns are a mix — the ratio is somewhere around 30/30/30 of the most prominent ethnic groups.

Liars, con-men and parasites try and make us fear the other — when they are the other, with their bleached personalities and toxic policies. Last night, in Peekskill, the real America was on view.



This is especially important to me because I’m an anchor senior. My mother arrived in America about 87 years ago at the age of four with her mother. She was brought in by her father, a political refugee from facist, bullying, lying toad-headed thug Benito Mussolini.

Purity is a poison. Variety and combinations bring strength. Useful tools and durable decorative objects are rarely made of pure metal. Alloys bring strength.

No community or nation is perfect. But if you want to feel pride, look at these images and the stories they tell.

Reader Interactions

155Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. A smattering of weirdities, spread over two posts (because FYWP).

    1) The tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth.

    Most people would find it embarrassing to be caught with pink, blue, or purple teeth after eating or drinking something packed with dyes, yet one company is encouraging people to get that not-so-pearly-white look on purpose.

    Chrom is a new brand of ‘tooth polish,’ which is definitely not the same as toothpaste. Rather, it’s like nail polish — for putting unnatural hues on your teeth. Source

    2) Speaking of teeth, is this a ‘thing’ in Georgia?

    Construction workers renovating an older building in Valdosta, Georgia, braced themselves last week after cracking open a wall to discover an estimated 1,000 human teeth inside.
    [snip]
    What’s even more unusual, this isn’t the first time human teeth have been found in older buildings in the state. Source

    3) Okay, this whole asinine usurpation of Halloween by adults has gone too far.

  5. 5.

    NobodySpecial

    Good morning!

    Back to work after a couple of weeks of laser vein therapy. Still under restrictions, but I finally see light at the end of the tunnel that doesn’t look like odd lumps and fist sized bruises.

    Of course, while I was gone, the co-worker who normally covers my shift got his jaw broken, so now I’m on 54 hours a week. Oh well, it keeps me in perspective.

    Hope y’all are having much less mixed Novembers. Oh, and election note: When I early voted this year, the ballot machine had about 150% of the votes it had during the primaries, so I think it bodes well.

  8. 8.

    LaNonna

    Just getting all the prep done for a big Sunday lunch on the veranda, 3 couples arriving at 1 pm (Italian time). I was up so early that I also had time to make limoncello, mandarinetto, and some cherry cordial, the citrus crop is in and it is bountiful. Wish we could say the same for the olive oil this year, scarce, sparse, and not the top grade, too much heat AND too much rain, both at the wrong time of the growing season. Il Nonno feeling better, we await test results.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    Discovered the free Vidmark channel on Roku.

    Lots of skippable schlock but also a fair amount of tolerable stuff almost tailor made for playing in the background while stretched out with the eyes resting. One can easily doze off and come back without having felt as if missed anything necessary.

  11. 11.

    RedDirtGirl

    Good morning, gang. Glad to move over from the previous thread.
    Been up all night playing music, and may do an early morning grocery shop before getting some needed sleep. Going to text voters through #postcardpatriots later today. Catch you later!

  12. 12.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    These pictures are beautiful! What a wonderfully diverse country you have. We too have the same diversity, but my exposure to it is minimal. But for the life of me I DO NOT understand racism, let alone white supremacy.

    I have everything crossed for you all for a democratically successful Tuesday. First step in taking the bastards down. Go get ‘em.

  13. 13.

    Mike in DC

    I work in DC, itself fairly diverse(though also quasi segregated) and live in adjacent Hyattsville, MD at the moment. It’s pretty close to a 30/30/30 mix of white, black and latinx. Beautiful neighborhood.

  15. 15.

    Matt McIrvin

    That Halloween crowd looks a lot like my Halloween crowd, a real human rainbow.

    Except for the size–600, wow!

  16. 16.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning right back atcha.

    And YES these Halloween pix are the best — What Real America is all about, Really ~!!!~ So glad to wake up to this instead of the just previous thread, which I will read much later in the day. I do intend to get back to bed in a few minutes, after I hydrate a little bit.

    We are so far out in the country we never get trick or treaters. Not even when we lived right on the little country road through the farm. Which isn’t a bad thing, but I miss the excitement for the little kids. And giving kids candy and treats, what could be bad about that!

    THREE DAYS LEFT now, and that’s exciting. All I have left to do, have to do, that we MUST go vote Tuesday early afternoon.

    I spent hours trying to suss out the 20 candidates for the 2 open bench seats on the WV state supreme court. Looked on the Federal Election Commission to see who they contributed to politically. Some hit up Trump, so those were easy to strike off the list. But many were totally anonymous online until I found old newspaper stories about their legal battles with prosecutors, heh, heh.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax:

    Other items — such as razor blades — have been found in homes dating back to the 1870s, The Chicago Tribune previously reported.

    A person would slide an object into a thin metal slot in a bathroom wall or a medicine cabinet, where it would land in a hollow wall.

    Yeah, I’ve found thousands of old razor blades in walls, it was a common practice. The things I’ve found inside of walls are innumerable.

    ETA glitter booty. What’s not to like?

  19. 19.

    J R in WV

    @raven:

    Thanks Raven, a great photo spread.

    And it makes it so Obvious why Der Drumpf is so terrified of the Central American and Mexicans who may move to the US — they ARE scary, just look at them~!!!~

  21. 21.

    satby

    Oh Tony S, this made me cry it was so beautiful. Thank you.
    And it’s true, which is even better. Best garden photos ever.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Some friends of mine were in Belize a few months back. Their oldest daughter brought back a bot fly too. She felt kind of maternal towards it after it came out. //

    eta forgot the snark marks

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Best thing I ever found inside a wall is a who knows how old all wood torpedo level. In my toolbox to this day. The glass tube is yellowed but if one looks close can still make out the bubble.

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    This was our first Halloween in the new house, and we had zero trick-or-treaters, as expected, since we’re in the middle of nowhere and have a gated driveway. I did miss seeing the kids in their costumes. But I didn’t miss my dogs going apeshit all night.

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Tools were a common find. So were half full cigarette packs, coins (on one job a fellow carpenter found a gold double eagle, forget the year) (funniest part is he lost it again… in another wall) coffee cups with the dregs, The most interesting things I’ve ever found were old newspapers. Great lunch break reading. As I recall, the oldest was from around 1900. (’02? ’03?)

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    Another day of painting is on the agenda. I don’t like painting, but it is a satisfying task to complete because the effects of one’s labor are so readily apparent.

    The carton-a-day chain-smokers who used to live here painted all the interior walls light blue — even the wainscoting. The nicotine build-up added a brown tinge.

    We scrubbed the walls with Simple Green and primed them with white Killz. Now we are painting the walls in various light shades and painting the wainscoting white.

    It is already so much lighter and less depressing, and I don’t have to burn anti-stank candles anymore. Woohoo!

  32. 32.

    Keith P.

    Back in the ER this morning. Yesterday was a doozy, as my bank account was defrauded of $700, and my breathing pain turned out to be a blood clot in my lung. I am rapidly entering crisis mode.

  37. 37.

    satby

    @zhena gogolia: mine too, but only 15 kids. We all must live in urbanized areas though. Out in the sticks tends to be less diverse, and that’s where the fear mongering is ratcheted up to 11.

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Keith P.:

    and my breathing pain turned out to be a blood clot in my lung.

    That ain’t no good. As one who has been thru that before (“Your lungs look like cherry trees.” said the Doc) I can tell you to expect several days of confinement to a hospital bed and blood thinners. It sucks but the alternative is death.

    ETA actually I think he said “apple trees”, oh well, you get the idea

  39. 39.

    satby

    @RedDirtGirl: @J R in WV: if I was at all gifted at statistics, I would try to analyze how often “just asking random questions” derails a thread about an important topic. Never seems to happen in upbeat threads. I find that suggestive.

  41. 41.

    debbie

    One good thing about the time change. I just watched an entire, amazing sunrise.

    @Keith P.: Yikes! Hope that your health issues are resolved as quickly as possible.

  42. 42.

    debbie

    @satby:

    I’ve been guilty of that a few times, but I’ve seen threads move back to the topic. We are capable of multi-tasking!

  43. 43.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Keith P.: Ouch. The while thing sounds like a nightmare, but if you stay cool and collected you’ll be fine. Good luck and best wishes.

    I’min the beginning of a business trip to the Czech Republic. Stayed up nearly 30 hours between the trip and that my hotel room wasn’t ready on time, and even though I took a 3 hour nap and then slept for 10 hours I’m still exhausted. Kind of worried about getting sick.

    On the other hand, the city (Brno) is still lovely. Going to hike up to the old castle overlooking the city later this afternoon. And my favorite restaurant from my last trip 7 years ago is still open, and still serving a fantastic peppercorn steak in mushroom sauce. So there’s that. :)

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Yeah, the Docs out here were rather…. Nervous, yeah that’s the word. Couldn’t wait to get my ass out of their hospital and up to STL where there were specialists available 24/7 as opposed to once a month out here. I really didn’t want to go, it was going to make things a lot harder for my wife and besides, I had really cute nurses.

  49. 49.

    Hunter

    Just a footnote, to point out that diversity is the sine qua non of evolution: a population of organisms with a more-or-less uniform genome is vulnerable to changes in the environment. Genetic variation ensures that at least some members of the population will survive changed circumstances.

  51. 51.

    JPL

    @raven: If you or the princess like anime, Coco is available to stream on Netflix. It’s about celebrating the day of the dead, and family.

  56. 56.

    Honus

    @OzarkHillbilly: one of my favorite parts of renovating old houses is finding things in the walls. My favorite was old newspapers, that the carpenters would purposely nail up in there like time capsules. I’ve read some really cool contemporary sports articles from the 1920s and 30s when the writers weren’t so much in awe of players that later became legendary, and looking at routine box scores with names like Waner, Slaughter, Dean, and a photo of a really cool looking twenty-something Shirley Povich.

    I’ve also been told there’s an Elvis poster behind the walnut paneling in my living room, who installed it the week he died in 1977.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Instagram’s Aids memorial: ‘History does not record itself’

    The Aids memorial on Instagram is unlike anything else on social media – there is nothing trifling about it. The first face I look at is of a New Zealand airline host called Barry Hayden – an ordinary man, extraordinary to the people who loved him, the sort of handsome that looks made to last. There is a lightness about the picture, as if there were no end in sight. The man raises a glass of wine to propose a toast. But it is we who must toast him instead. As the Aids memorial’s profile page explains, this is a place for “stories of love, loss and remembrance”. Scrolling through the feed is like looking at an unending family photograph album in which people are related by one thing: Aids, the disease that has led to the deaths of 35 million people worldwide. There are men, women, a handful of children. Not strength in numbers, only mortal weakness. So many gone – seen here in their carefree prime. The faces are mainly young, often beautiful. The collective impact is devastating.
    ………………………….
    And now this Instagram site – the most unlikely vehicle for recording history – has taken off – especially in the US (4.451 posts; 59.8k followers). The Aids memorial was started in April 2016 by Stuart, a Scot who prefers to keep himself – and his surname – out of the story. Each contributor emails or messages Stuart with the story of a friend or family member affected by HIV. He then posts their text and pictures on to the Instagram feed. If you don’t have a photo of your loved one, he’ll help you find one. If no image exists, an illustration by artist Justin Teodoro will be used instead. This was never a vanity project and Stuart is no fan of social media’s narcissistic routines. Nor does he swank about educating a younger gay generation, even though his site succeeds in doing exactly that. “It’s still taboo to talk about Aids, I thought maybe I could help change that,” he says. “History does not record itself, Instagram reaches a far-ranging demographic.”

    ……………………………

    You might assume the contemplation of all these deaths would turn mawkish but, as Stuart rightly claims, the feed is not depressing: “Ironically, it’s the opposite.” The feed’s brave hashtag, “what is remembered lives”, is endlessly appropriate. Yet, when I ask about posting these stories day-in, day-out, he admits: “It’s difficult. Sometimes, I feel too emotionally drained to continue. However, I sleep on it. I don’t stop. There’s more to each post than death. I’m reminded to live life to the full, appreciate the people closest to me, be more compassionate, less judgmental, not to sweat the small stuff. I relapse constantly but these daily reminders call me to action.”

    A lot of dust in here all of a sudden.

  61. 61.

    Honus

    @OzarkHillbilly: when taking down an old building we would always look for coin near a corner of the foundation under the sill plate. It was traditional to put one there with date the house was built. Found a few of those. Also found a pre revolutionary British coin under the floor of an 18th century schoolhouse on Punchbowl Farm (Peter Jefferson’s estate)

    Found a whole sack of brass 5 cent beer tokens under the floor of an old store once. Seems it had been the Court Square Saloon at one time. “Good for One Beer/Court Square Saloon”

  62. 62.

    debbie

    @Honus:

    There you are! I wanted to thank you for your help with the electric stuff. Coincidentally, there was a power/internet outage that same day due to a wind storm. Helpfully, the electric company guy checked the meter and confirmed that the power coming into my apartment was just fine. With your and his help, I wrote a detailed email which demonstrated it wasn’t me, the outlets, or the appliances. They came out the next day and found that one of the breakers was in fact bad. It took a couple days to get the part, but it’s fixed now, the heat’s back on, and everything works!

  63. 63.

    Immanentize

    @MisterForkbeard:
    My grandfather was born near Brno — In Vresovitza. I only went to Brno once, in the early 1990’s and it was a bit shabby. But had the best Ice cream outside of Venice I had in Europe. Safe travels!

  64. 64.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    Nice that so many visitors are families. Around here, it’s usually left to the moms to shepherd the kids from house to house.

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “My mommy died, over 16 years ago, due to complications from AIDS. Growing up, I didn’t truly know the reason for her death. All I know is that I was in the hospital and she told me she had to have surgery and would be back. I never saw my mom again.
    .
    On the night of her death — at the time I had no idea she had passed on — I was in my hospital room on the third floor and saw an ‘Angel’ floating. I screamed and the nurses came running. After informing them of what I saw, they came and sedated me.
    .
    The next day, I didn’t hear from my mom. I missed her, so I made her a picture of a heart and wrote inside, “I love you.” The day after that, I was told she had passed away around the time I saw my ‘Angel’ two days before by her husband.
    .
    Long story short, I haven’t seen you in my dreams in a while, will you come visit me tonight?” — by Leshia Scott

  67. 67.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “That’s Rusty. Actually, Rufus Rusty Russell, III —ginger he was, ergo Rusty. And a very very close friend. We connected through a mutual therapist who recognized we had things to share. It was about 1992.
    .
    Both Rusty and I had spouses who were quite ill with AIDS and who did not want us speaking about it publicly. Rusty’s Tom went first around 1993. My Curtis left in 1994. Rusty in 1998. I win. Last man standing.
    .
    Rusty was known for quite a few bon-mots. He was fond of saying that he would often find a boyfriend under a rock in Central Park, have sex with him, let him move in, and then find out his name. Another era.
    .
    His took great pride in the house he’d created in Dobbs Ferry. Once, Victorian Magazine came by for a look-see about showcasing it in their magazine. Too over the top it was for them. Rusty called it Victorian on acid. “Too much was not nearly enough” his motto.
    .
    Rusty created an audio-visual company with many celebrated projects. He was one of the most creative individuals I have ever known and had the pleasure to know.
    .
    While our friendship was deep, is was too shortlived. But I started choreographing in the midst of our friendship, wanted a video camera, and Rusty gifted me with one. Much later on, my husband Stanley, when I mentioned that I’d like to digitally edit film, gifted me with the technology for that.
    .
    The crazy thing is that both Rusty and my husband Stanley worked in the same field — they knew of each other, were competitors, but were not known to each other. And today I am known as a filmmaker and a choreographer. Sometimes the themes and the connections are so apparent it seems like something else is in control of it.” — by Richard Daniels

    That’s enough for now.

  69. 69.

    Immanentize

    From Tony S’ post at the top:

    Alloys bring strength.

    Fun fact — Ralph Waldo Emerson talked of America not as a “melting pot” where things are blurred together, but rather as a “smelting pot” where strong metal was forged.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Honus: Cool, I never found anything of real significance but I knew a guy who found a matched pair of dueling pistols in an attic. He gave them to the owner. The owner took them with barely a word of thanx.

  72. 72.

    chris

    @Betty Cracker:

    in the middle of nowhere and have a gated driveway.

    Ha! I read that as “gatored driveway.”

    I don’t get any people either. There are no little kids out here and the high school bus has two passengers left when it goes by. Can’t say I miss it but I loved the picture in the post.

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: Wasn’t it you who was asking me about hammers yesterday? Specifically leather handled hammers? I stopped by Lowes yesterday to pick up a couple things and just out of curiosity checked out the hammers. I found 1 leather handled finish hammer and 1 leather handled hatchet. Both Estwings I think. So they’re still making them after all.

  74. 74.

    Matt McIrvin

    @satby: I got about 100 kids showing up, which was a brisk but, I think, not record-busy evening. The weather was kind of chilly and overcast, and our town’s official trick-or-treat period had been changed at the last minute because of a northeaster. But they showed up anyway.

    We have a scheduled two-hour period from 5-7 that is not necessarily on Halloween itself but on an adjoining weekend. It’s untraditional, but I differ with some people around here in that I think this is actually a great idea; it makes the whole thing work better with people’s work schedules and particularly makes it possible for parents to easily go around with the little ones before it gets really dark. In practice, the crowds mostly come during the first 45 minutes or so, and the volume drops off seriously during the second hour.

  76. 76.

    HeleninEire

    Back in NYC. Woke up at 5. I just went in search of a Dunkin Donuts coffee. I only had to walk a block and a half. There are really only two things I can’t get in Dublin that I really really miss. Dunkin Donuts coffee and Diet Mountain Dew. Yeah, stop judging me on that second one.

  77. 77.

    WaterGirl

    On Friday night in the name the kitty thread, TaMara posted a link to the origin story of Jake (and his siblings). I came across it just now, unread in an open browser tab from Friday night. It’s a perfect read for a Sunday morning and a great palate cleanser after last night’s thread.

  78. 78.

    Honus

    @OzarkHillbilly: I gave that old coin to the owner. He brought me a pair of cowboy from the Zona Rosa on his next trip to Mexico City. He and his wife were great people. They used to fix us drinks after work, let us swim in their pool on hot days, treated us like their friends.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    Beto O’Rourke reminds me of the energizer bunny that just goes and goes and goes. He might just be the hardest working candidate I have ever seen. I hope to god he wins.

  83. 83.

    satby

    @WaterGirl: Beto could just be an average Democrat and we would still adore him if he replaced Ted Cruz from our TVs

    So this is funny: the manager of the doctors office texted me yesterday to tell me another staffer quit and asked if I would help them out again for a couple of weeks. Of course I said yes because I love the doctor, but I told her I was available Mondays and Wednesdays only ?.

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WaterGirl: Heh:

    12. Kitten, kitten, where is the kitten? One of the boys took to hiding, a lot. One night I couldn’t find him anywhere and I was afraid he’d figured a way out of the room. It was late and I wanted nothing more than to go to bed. I did one last sweep of the room, all the others were accounted for, when I heard scratching. I followed the sound and a bit incredulously opened my bottom desk drawer, and there he was looking at me like, “tag, you’re it!”

    13. Kitten, kitten, where is the kitten, again? The little scamp hid several more times in my bottom drawer, I’m assuming he can’t teleport, so there must be some way from the bottom that he could climb in. If I couldn’t find him, I’d head for the drawer and there he’d be. Except one day he wasn’t, I presumed he’d found a new hiding place and I’d find him eventually. I sat down to work and opened my top drawer to get something and had to stifle a scream, because there he was. I still don’t know how he does it. Dang, maybe he can teleport. (Editor note: Not long after that, all the kittens followed him and found their way into my desk drawers. They loved to pop up when I opened a drawer, like it was the best game of hide and seek ever).

    It’s the Fluidity of Cats theorem.

  88. 88.

    JPL

    JFC Brian Kemp has opened an investigation into the GA Democratic Party for attempted hacking into the Voter Registration.
    The FBI and homeland security have been notified.

    Well at least he didn’t send himself white powder like Handel did.

  89. 89.

    MazeDancer

    @RedDirtGirl:

    Going to text voters through #postcardpatriots later today.

    Yay!

    More people have early voted in Texas than voted in the entire 2014 mid-terms.

    One million more people have voted in Tennessee than this time in 2014.

    Dems can lose 2 of these Senate races and still control Senate: 51-49
    AZ:Sinema
    FL: Nelson
    IN: Donnelly
    MO: McCaskill
    MT: Tester
    NV: Heller
    TN: Breseden
    TX: Beto
    ND: Heitkamp

    If we win them all, Dems control the Senate 53-47.

    Missouri does not have Early Voting. People gotta show up Tuesday. People consistently don’t vote because they think their “opinion doesn’t count.”

    Text for Claire. Text for Beto. Text across the nation.

    People consistently say they don’t vote because they don’t think their “opinion counts”. Text and tell them “Your Vote Matters”.

    Get texting info: PostCardPatriots.com

  90. 90.

    OzarkHillbilly

    This past summer I got an automatic chicken door for the coop and boy did life get a whole lot easier. It’s fairly easy to program too (I managed it, proof enuf?) One enters the latitude, sets the clock, and then set the times you want it to open and close (for my birds, a half hour after sunrise and a half hour after sunset) and the computer adjusts the open/close times by the necessary minute or 2 every day. Works great.

    Last wkend I got to thinking about the clock change and started wondering if the computer was programmed to adjust for it, then I started worrying about it because if I was gonna half to reprogram it I was certain I couldn’t do it right twice in a row. After a few days of fretting over this problem, it finally struck me: DOH!

    The clock is set to follow the sun, not any puny human notion of time. It was still going to open a half hour after sunrise and close a half hour after sunset.

  91. 91.

    WaterGirl

    Just putting in one more plug for folks to do what they can to help Leto and Avalune. I know I had to wait until I got paid on the first, and way too many of us have overextended on political donations.

    But how many of us could go 4 months without a paycheck, and one month without both paychecks in a 2-paycheck household? Factor in the need to hire an attorney and (in my opinion) you need a lot more money than the original 5.000 that was posted as the goal for the GoFundMe.

    https://www.gofundme.com/support-michael-barnwell

    There have been 45 contributions totaling ~ 2,500 since Cole first posted the link to the GoFundMe that Leto’s work put together. Many are from folks on Balloon Juice, but there’s no way to know exactly how many.

    They are close to 7,500 now on the GoFundMe, and I would feel a whole lot better if we could get them to the 10k mark.

    I hate talking about money, so I promise this will be my last reminder. :-)

  93. 93.

    MazeDancer

    Not sure why comments won’t load for me to edit anymore.

    But just in case twice wasn’t enough, let me repeat: people don’t vote because they don’t think their “opinion counts”

    Text them the truth. Your vote matters.

  95. 95.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MazeDancer:

    People consistently say they don’t vote because they don’t think their “opinion counts”.

    They’re right… If they don’t vote.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: That looks to be a fun link. My laptop is at 5% battery, so I will have to wait to read it until I close the laptop and let it charge for awhile. thanks

  97. 97.

    donnah

    Betty, painting is a chore, but it has a big reward. Rooms change tone, they smell fresh and clean, and they give us a chance to recreate our home to suit our tastes.

    We moved into our house knowing we would paint every room. The kitchen had a nightmare wallpaper pattern of roosters, hens, and chickenwire. That came down immediately. Every room was painted very dark, maroon, navy blue, charcoal gray, and deep forest green. It was depressing from the start. And we used double coats of Kilz and double coats of color to make sure there was no bleed.

    At some point our Craftsman bungalow had a deep red brick fireplace, but the previous owners painted it cream, and then burned candles in the fireplace and on the mantle, which created black smoky residue. We had to repaint that, too.

    But in the end, we had a pretty new place that was all ours.

  101. 101.

    MomSense

    This is the best Sunday garden chat! Love the costumes and I can tell the photographer was handing out smiles as great as the ones captured in the photos.

  105. 105.

    Quinerly

    Totally unrelated to anything. Had to take a break from politics. Anyone have any experience with “paper bag flooring?” Lots of info out there. If done right, holds up for years and looks like stained concrete/leather. Specifically, I’m wondering if it is feasible to do the technique on an above ground, walk out concrete basement floor. Basement is totally dry but I have still have to wonder about unsealed concrete. No definitive answers about basements in my research. Some successes, some disasters on line. The key, of course, is several coats of sealant. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

  106. 106.

    WaterGirl

    @JPL: “WaterGirl made me do it!” That’s a new one. :-)

    I don’t have to be the only one to post the link – it would be awesome of a few other people would do it, also.

  107. 107.

    Stuart Frasier

    @raven:
    The Dio de los Muertos parade in Mexico City is an ancient tradition dating all the way back to 2016. It was inspired by a scene in a James Bond movie.

  108. 108.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: They get left out. Hasn’t happened yet. Chickens have a pretty hard wired “head for the roost” light level.

  109. 109.

    Miss Bianca

    Super photos, thanks for sharing! I live so far out in the sticks that i get no trick or treaters, which is why I jumped at the chance to be the one who handed out the candy for the theater at our downtown merchants’ Halloween. We are im the middle of white white redneckistan, so I was thrilled when we, too, were seeing black and Hispanic families showing up. Wish i had taken some photos!

    OK, WaterGirl, I am gittin’ on it for Leto!

  112. 112.

    Quinerly

    @satby: same tutorial I started with yesterday. Comments really helpful. She should have used poly to put down on concrete. Also, she should have used the expensive commercial sealer that takes less coats. I would never put it anywhere but in this basement project. Trying to solve a flooring problem without expense of acid staining concrete.

  114. 114.

    WaterGirl

    Question 1: So how do you guys handle the pet feeding issue after the time change? This year I’m trying the “just rip the bandaid off” approach, so I made everyone wait until 8:15 for breakfast.

    Me: “it’s too early” (repeat about a dozen times)
    Them: But it’s really 9:15 and we’re starving!!!!!

    Question 2: Who thinks they will expect lunch at an earlier hour than the clock says, and who thinks they will expect lunch 5 hours after their first meal?

    I am in the “an hour earlier than the clock” group because if I get back late from a meeting and they don’t get lunch until 3 o’clock, they still expect dinner at the normal time.

  116. 116.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly: she’s got her plate full already here with this basement project, doing it as “filler work” when not working other jobs. Mosaic stone and marble counters, backsplash and part of a ceiling in the kitchen; areas on the stairs coming down from the first floor; slate, marble, copper mosaic in the bathroom and double shower; plus guiding me through the penny floor in the bathroom. Floor space is close to 800 square ft. It would be years before we finished if we mosaiced it. ? Probably will do the acid stained concrete. The paper just has too many variables, I think, when applied to concrete. BTW, Red will be here this afternoon to work on the bathroom. The slate I found on sale for 84 cents a square is gorgeous.

  117. 117.

    Glidwrith

    I want to thank the various California -based Juicers that recommended the judgevoterguide web-site as a way to know who NOT to vote for. That made it easy for myself, hubby, a friend and a new voter that she had persuaded to the polls. Her district is in the odious Duncan Hunters’, so well done Juicers!

  118. 118.

    Quinerly

    @WaterGirl: I’m with you. Just got frustrated yesterday when I couldn’t find a straight yes or no answer on application on concrete basement floor. I tend to over research, become an “expert” then abandon the plan. Last year I became an “expert” on the different looks/kinds of barn door hardware. Ain’t a barn door in my home. ?

  119. 119.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Over at Stonekettle Station in a rant he put up on the 22nd (The Big Lie) he notes:

    Speaking of Nazis, back in World War II the United States intelligence community – specifically the Office of Strategic Services, the core of what would later become the Central Intelligence Agency – compiled a detailed psychological profile of Adolf Hitler. The report said, in part, that Hitler’s basic rules for maintaining power were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

    History would call this technique The Big Lie.

    Joseph Goebbels, the Nazis’ Minister of Propaganda is often credited with the idea, but it was Hitler who first outlined it in Mein Kampf in 1925.

    Sounds familiar, don’t it?

  123. 123.

    MomSense

    @Quinerly:

    Go buy some allure flooring. It’s plank vinyl and comes in lots of different styles. I’m partial to the cork myself. It’s very durable, goes over anything and is fine with water. It’s very easy to install. Don’t fuss with sealants and materials that may or may not last. Your time is as valuable as the money you might save by using paper bags. I have used it and have helped friends install it in basements Nd it holds up beautifully – even as a tricycle big wheels racetrack!

    I’ve used the dark cork which looks surprisingly modern but my friends went with the country pine and that fit their look better.

    You will need some sharp blade (like a box cutter with extra blades) and a capenter’s square. You will be able to do this and it will look great.

  133. 133.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly: will do! Give her a call sometime. Lots going on in Red World. Don’t tell her I suggested it though. You know Red pretty well. Not much on nudges.

  136. 136.

    Quinerly

    @MomSense: thanks so very much for piping in! I have been working on this basement project… apartment for about a year. Completely dry, walk out, limestone foundation… 1880’s brownstone in historic/entertainment district. Want to Air BnB it some. Full kitchen, steam punk bathroom with lots of exposed pipes. It’s my first retirement project and was supposed to keep me off the political blogs and MSNBC.? We keep lots of exposed limestone (spent hrs researching the correct sealant… limestone has to “breathe,” I learned) and went with lots of rocks, stone, granite, slate, metals mosaics done by OzarkHillbilly’s and my mutual friend. My contractor/carpenter/plumber has become so committed to “Salle Roche” that he agreed to take a break from his retirement and drives in from rural Missouri (1 1/2 hrs each way) to work on it 1-2 days a week. He calls it an “art project” and now fancies himself as an “art carpenter.” ? Glanced at the Allure flooring on line when I saw your post. I’m intrigued…. especially the cork look. You have given me another option to research on a rainy St. Louis day. Thank you so very much. I had been very hung up on trying to get an acid stained concrete look that I wasn’t even thinking in the direction of other options. Much appreciated.

  137. 137.

    Luthe

    @WaterGirl: While they are a good weapon in the fight against homelessness, for the most part tiny houses are mobile homes for hipsters.

    @Quinerly: I have an Abercrombie shirt* which features an owl sitting atop a stack of books with a keg funnel wrapped around it. Underneath it says, “The Library: Funnel your thirst for knowledge.”

    *It was a gift and extremely comfortable, so I continue to wear it despite its unfortunate origin.

  138. 138.

    J R in WV

    @JPL:

    And his evidence is all those darkies looking up their registration to be sure they’re still eligible to vote next Thursday!!!

    This is another case of every accusation is a confession on his part, isn’t it!!??!! He’s confessing to messing with the voter rolls, and all we can do is hope that the FBI accidently finds him out.

  139. 139.

    J R in WV

    @Quinerly:

    I acid stained all the floors in our mountain camp in SE Arizona. It wasn’t hard, but took some time. You wouldn’t want to do it when you couldn’t have some ventilation, for example, so if you need to do it before next spring, pick a warm spell and get to it.

    I bought a kit for each room at either Lowe’s or Home Depot, which ever I was visiting at the time. The acid wash was the chanciest part… I washed it with sodium bicarbonate to neutralize the acid because I didn’t want to wash inside the house with a hose like you could on a patio… sheet rock damage and not enough water to waste.

    The two coloring layers were spotty, but that was OK too, part of the technique is to come out mottled. I could have used a little more sealer for the top coat, so it was a little thin around the walls where no one will be walking.

  141. 141.

    Ruckus

    @Keith P.:
    Shit!
    You know the drill, do what the docs tell you.
    Are you just getting a lot of crap out of the way all at once?
    A dear friend of mine had sickle cell and so many medical issues from it and didn’t let it slow her down. She got a pacemaker back in the early 70s. I’ve gone to visit her in intensive care when she had a crisis. In case you don’t know sickle cell can easily create clots because of the shape of the cells and create a lot of issues as with poor circulation. If you do know….. may I suggest making sure your docs know your entire history.
    Good luck and better days.

  142. 142.

    Quinerly

    @J R in WV: thanks. The reviews for the kits from the big box stores are mostly terrible, I have found. Lots of complaints about peeling/flaking. Found an outfit on line that has a really good product that I’m considering. Right now, I have fallen into the Allure Flooring research hole.

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    @Immanentize:
    Great!
    I was going to point out that most metals we use are there because of the alloys. The base is not up to the tasks that we need them for, the alloys change and strengthen the blend, making the whole a lot stronger than the individuals.
    A fine analogy for individuals in the human race. Diversity makes us stronger, and better.
    One the purity ponies would be horrified to even think about.

  145. 145.

    MomSense

    @Quinerly:

    You could always do it now and then rip it up in 5 years or whenever if you want to change the flooring. Get the non adhesive kind and you won’t do any damage to the concrete floor underneath.

    Part of why I chose cork was because you expect cork to be soft underfoot. Laminate or vinyl floors that look like wood or tile do not have the right feel and I find it offputting.

  146. 146.

    J R in WV

    I like Jim Wright’s writing, but he can run on a bit. So many good writers need an editor to cut things back a little.

    He’s also a little overboard on what it means to have been a Warrant Officer, but it doesn’t seem to have destroyed his critical thinking ability. Still and all, a good guy with many positive attributes.

  149. 149.

    Quinerly

    @MomSense: I have always steered clear of laminate flooring because I don’t like the feel when walking on it. Not seeing the bamboo Allure on their website or on the Home Depot site. Also reading about people complaining about applications in basements. Ugh….

  151. 151.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Don’t they also sort of follow each other? One goes in the rest saunter on in. At least that’s the way they did at my neighbors coop.
    Interesting side story, one day a hawk flew into the coop and picked out his prey, problem was with a 6 foot wing span he couldn’t get through the door with his prey, not enough take off distance for the extra weight. He tried a couple of times, gave up and flew away by himself. Chickens didn’t seem too excited by the attempted meal take out.

  152. 152.

    Sruart Frasier

    I did the Allure floor on the mezzanine in my old loft. It was easy to install and turned out really well. The only lame thing is there isn’t enough variety in the prints, so you have to place them carefully to not have repeating patterns. A cork pattern probably wouldn’t have that issue. In the end, the next tenant decided to keep the floor, so I didn’t have to remove it before moving out.

  153. 153.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax: Last week’s Antiques Roadshow, featuring lots having scary or creepy items, included a jar of teeth, which were part of one woman’s legacy from her dentist father or grandfather. The main grouping consisted of interesting and less creepy professional equipment.

    Don’t recall whether she was from Georgia.

  154. 154.

    Sab

    Very late to a dead thread. Hopefully the parents will still be looking.Does that tiny girl in the full length orange skirt not look like cinderella staying at the ball beyond godmother’s curfew.

    Was the first kid’s costume storebought or made by Mom. It is gorgeous.

    They look like my small city urban neighborhood, but not quite 600. Happiest day of the year for my late much lamented german shepherd was welcoming the tiny kids, and scaring the adolescents.

  155. 155.

    soapdish

    I love Halloween for all the reasons in this essay. I had a moment of cognitive dissonance seeing a white kid dressed as Black Panther, tho. I couldn’t decide on the fly if it was an awesome indicator that the kids will be all right or some insidious form of cultural misappropriation. Either way, the kid got his Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups. Full size. Because that’s how we roll.

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