It was windy here today. I was working in my office when this guy blew by. I snagged him and tied him to a tree until his people could reclaim him. He is the size of a car.
I keep looking back at 2018 and cannot believe how many things feel like they happened years ago instead of months. So goes the Trump years…
Anything blow through your world today?
Open thread.
zhena gogolia
Haha, I read this thinking it was Betty Cracker, and I was picturing this polar bear blowing all through the Everglades, right past Burl Ives and Christopher Plummer.
TaMara (HFG)
And this appears to be happening. I’m out of can’t evens.
Morfydd
We have an extra garbage can from an unknown neighbor after Friday’s wind storm… and are down a fence. Heavy winds expected tomorrow. Sigh.
Adam L Silverman
@Morfydd: Maybe it’ll blow a new fence your way.
mapaghimagsik
good save. Losing that really blows.
Jay
@TaMara (HFG):
I’ve always said there should be a tax on stupid.
Aleta
@TaMara (HFG): I keep waiting for him to sell name plaques of sponsors with a promise to affix somewhere on (or sort of near) the wall. Plaques made by a private company that Eric and Jared own, say.
Mary G
Hoocoodanode (WaPo):
We are indeed through the looking glass and off the map. I am trying the imagine who the replacement will be.
Peale
@mapaghimagsik: yep. I can imagine that when it’s owners came home at the end of the day and found it missing, they’d feel very deflated.
Jay
@Mary G:
Requires Senate Confirmation, so nobody.
Geoboy
@Mary G: The replacement for Mad Dog Mattis? Why, Jared.
Peale
For the first time since 2014, I’m staying home for the holidays. No plans. Just five closets, a pantry and a freezer to clean. Bookshelves to thin. Cupboards to reaprganize. I want to start 2019 organized. And after one day, I’m proud to say…I might have tossed enough junk to gain six square inches in my walk in bedroom closet.
Time to admit the reason I have no room is that I’m a hoarder and move out.
danielx
@Aleta:
The BEST plaques! The most beautiful plaques, for really special people!
Steeplejack
I had an excellent news-free day. Drove out to Marshall, VA, with one of my best friends, whom I’ve known since college, to hit the Red Truck Bakery. Picked up a rum-soaked fruitcake for Bro’ Man—he has bought them in past years and claims they’re great—and some other goodies, including baked goods and a couple of little bottles of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce aged in bourbon barrels. Will see how those turn out.
My friend hit a resale shop across the street and found a number of gifts for hard-to-shop-for people. Proceeds went to some local animal charity. Psyched about that.
I got on the Google for “restaurants near me,” and we ended up motoring over to Warrenton to have barbecue at Shawn’s Smokehouse. Score! Incredibly good brisket and ribs. Definitely going on the permanent list.
Then we came back to town—Marshall and Warrenton are about 40-50 miles west of the Beltway—and I ended up putting together a bedside desk/table for friend’s aged mother, who is in an assisted-living facility near me. Thing was a piece of crap—do not buy this from Hammacher Schlemmer!—but I got it assembled somehow, and I guess it will serve the purpose, so . . . mission accomplished?
Came home tired but happy and have been delicately wading into the threads. Nice to have a day away from the Trumpian chaos. Plus it was sunny and up around 50°!
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: If we’re lucky GEN (ret) Keane. If we’re unlucky Senator Tom Cotton.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jay: the incoming Senate is trumpier than this one, Graham or Cotton would cruise through hearings, especially Graham as an insider’s insider. I shudder to think of those hearings, starring Joe Lieberman and 4,579 mentions of John McCain
Hell, this hack is probably gonna coast on in
ETA: Well, maybe not coast. Harris and Whitehouse will leave him limping a bit
Mike in NC
@Mary G: Kris Koback
lamh36
Oooh new set pics from John Wick 3!!
Mann only John Wick and the power of Keanu Reeves can make me excited to see what Halle Berry is bringing to the franchise!!
Halle, gurl… “don’t fuq it up!”
https://twitter.com/johnwickmovie/status/1075511774516981760?s=21
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And there’s the requirement to recuse.
NotMax
Hm, appears to be a juvenile. Best scoot indoors when stressed out mama bear comes a-lookin’ for him.
;)
@Mary G
Eventually Mulvaney will be Acrtng Everything.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: They look cheery.
Jerzy Russian
@TaMara (HFG): This idea is not as dumb as it sounds. I think the first emperor of China used GoFundMe to finance the first sections of the Great Wall of China. Actually, upon further reflection, it is as dumb as it sounds…
NotMax
@NotMax
Acting, not Acrtng.
kindness
OMG a pic with you with the bear like it was a trophy hunt would be funny. Obviously fake gun gives bonus points.
eemom
@Peale:
Yeah, but they’d be totally juiced to find it again.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
If we’re whatever is multiple clicks beyond unlucky, Paul Ryan.
Barbara
@Steeplejack: Marshall is nice. There are some good wine tasting places not too far off the path from Marshall.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: The President would never pick Ryan for anything. He thinks Ryan’s weak. And he’s right about that.
different-church-lady
@TaMara (HFG): To the extent that this might bankrupt some of his fans, I’m all for it.
Morfydd
@Adam L Silverman: that would be… exciting. I think I’ve already talked my mom into a hedge though. As long as I don’t have to paint it!
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Guess I oughtn’t have left the snark tag as implied.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Platonailedit
Repost
Jerzy Russian
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Say what you want about the president*. Unfollowing @AnnCoulter is the right move!
different-church-lady
@Jerzy Russian:
No, that was Kickslaver
Platonailedit
@Jay: This current cowardly senate thugs will approve anything the totus thug puts up.
Major Major Major Major
Signed a lease for an apartment in Turtle Bay. 700 square feet, we’ll live like kings!
Mnemosyne
I posted early this morning asking for jackal good vibes because my brother in IL had had to take our mother to the ER with a suspected stroke. As always, jackal good wishes seem to have contained the damage to a minor, if scary, stroke. They’re keeping her in the hospital overnight but have already started speech therapy and physical therapy.
As soon as she gets home, we are all going to express our extreme displeasure that she decided on her own to stop taking Plavix a year ago— you know, the medication that prevents blood clots from forming so she won’t have a goddamned stroke! ?
Argh. I love her, but she is a stubborn old woman who drives us fucking nuts sometimes. At least she’s still here for us to yell at her about it.
TaMara (HFG)
Hey, looks like the Bay area had something blow through! A confirmed meteor at sunset:
Ben Cisco
Last full week off – and I am ready for it! Rain for the next two days solid, think I’ll cue up some movies or something…
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
I’m glad it’s not too bad.
A Ghost To Most
Not too windy here today, but we are generally blocked from wind coming down the canyons. A north wind rolls down Rocky Flats to us.
EBT
We got two new kittens today.
Kay
I found the money for the wall:
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
I hope it scares her into actually doing what her doctor tells her to do. My poor brother had a really shitty day at the hospital with virtually no cell phone reception trying to keep the rest of us informed while he was trying to keep her calm.
TaMara (HFG)
I love this stuff. Years ago, on two drives through eastern Nebraska, I saw a meteor right in front of my car and land in field – so close I could see the glowing embers. First time I thought I imagined it (driving through NE will do that to you) but the second time, couldn’t deny it.
Steeplejack
@Barbara:
Trump wine?! ’Cause that would be cool.
That area has a number of little towns that are suspiciously top-heavy with restaurants, gift shops, craft stores and other exotica. I can’t figure out what the economy is based on, unless it’s just day-trippers and retired Washington bureaucrats buying farmettes.
Anyway, it was good to get out of the usual rut and see some new stuff. I had been to Marshall before but hadn’t seen much of it. (Not that there’s a whole lot to see.)
TaMara (HFG)
@EBT: Thought you could just slip that in there, did ya? We will need pictures!
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: oh no! Hugs!
Ohio Mom
@Peale: I think most of us have too much stuff. And it’s hard to get rid of because that requires a lot of decision-making.
I do most of my decluttering in jags, like it sounds like you are doing, but I also maintain an “out box” of things I think I am ready to get rid of, and I fill that bit by bit, when inspiration strikes. Eventually it is taken to the Goodwill store.
I’ve found inspiration in Marie Kondo’s idea that some items just need to move on to their next home.
Anyway, six inches is a good start — good luck to you!
Ben Cisco
@Mnemosyne: Glad it was minor and that you get more time with her. Cherish it even if/when it makes you nuts.
A Ghost To Most
@Mnemosyne:
Glad to hear she’s doing better. Maybe she will listen now.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Congrats. Midtown or more to the east?
Lived for a year or so just below there, at 2nd and 40th.
Trivia: The name Turtle Bay has nothing to do with the animal. It is derived from Deutel in Dutch, meaning knife, the shape of a protected cove in the East River thereabouts. Cove long ago lost to industrial landfill.
Steeplejack
@Major Major Major Major:
Congratulations! Depends how it’s laid out. My place is ≈625 square feet and doesn’t feel cramped. But I share it only with the housecat, not another human.
Viva BrisVegas
@TaMara (HFG):
The organiser of that GoFundMe is a fully accredited member of the wingnut gravy train.
Watch that money evaporate. Not even the IRS will have a clue where it went.
If he was serious about money for the wall, he’d go ask someone with real cash like the Mercers.
The upside is that after this money gets sucked away, the magats will have less to throw at the feet of Trump.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay: What is amazing about that snippet is that the stupid contained has not collapsed upon itself.
Ohio Mom
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hah! Ann Coulter and Max Sawicky agree on something. Never thought I’d type that.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: sorta in the middle.
And yeah, I saw that googling it, sort of like how Fishkill doesn’t have anything to do with killing fish.
But they used to have turtles there anyway as a total coincidence, so I’m just going to pretend ??
Platonailedit
EBT
@TaMara (HFG): I actually just tossed pictures and stories of the kittens and existing cats in to the submission tool!
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne, @zhena gogolia:
What Mrs. Gogol said.
Steeplejack
@EBT:
Congratulations on the acquisition!
Platonailedit
They are all easy marks of rubes, Kyle.
Major Major Major Major
@Steeplejack: it’s laid out just like we like them. Two big rooms, buncha closets. Our last place had a kitchen that was way too big.
John Revolta
Hey! That bear just shat out my car!
EBT
@Steeplejack: Yeah I want to get them all on the cat tree at once, for a fun family photo. I think Takkun will take a few days to get used to new cats in her space.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
So you’re bound to become intimately familiar now with the nooks and crannies of Grand Central.
Or Flushing doesn’t have anything to do with….
;)
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
When you’ve lost
Cronkite>Eva Braun, you’ve lost aryan Nazis.Barbara
@Ohio Mom: I find that it helps if you can locate a recipient that will use your donations. I resisted dealing with all the kiddie art supplies, some of which were really nice, until I found out that the new art teacher enthusiastically received all donations. My local library takes donations of magazines and books. My local flower shop takes any and all vases. And so on.
Barbara
@Mnemosyne: It certainly could have been worse, and fortunately wasn’t. I know that people can be stubborn but sometimes drugs have side effects that are unpleasant or worrisome. Hopefully someone can straighten out her ongoing drug regimen.
Steeplejack
@EBT:
LOL. Good luck with that!
Mandalay
@Jerzy Russian:
In the world of RWNJs I have more time for Coulter than most of them. She is still a really nasty piece of work, a vile grifter, and a generally shit human being, but she does have a couple of saving graces:
– She regularly concedes that the whole outraged pundit thing is just a game. Not explicitly, but close enough. She doesn’t take any of it seriously. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her say in an interview in a few years time “Well of course it was all a sham! Of course it was just a way to make money! How thick do you have to be to have taken me seriously?…“.
– She has never been a kiss ass to Trump. She’d certainly sing his praises if he talked about being cruel to brown people, but the moment he went soft she’d be on his ass, and telling her followers to ditch Trump if he didn’t show some spine. I haven’t checked, but I’m pretty sure Trump would never dare to go after Coulter. She could do real damage to his support if he pissed her off enough: she’d call him weak.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Interesting POV on the trump ‘foundation’
khead
@EBT:
Yeah, this. And congrats!
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: So you’re moving into Trump’s building.
Platonailedit
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fuck that learned helplessness from pollack. The scum was a con man his entire life and to pretend that pollack is puzzled how the scum con doesn’t have a ‘passion’ for any cause is utter bs.
Mart
@Steeplejack: You do not want to go near this place.
With all the foreigners working there very good chance of your car being broken into while you tour and taste. Believe me.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: We’re keeping good thoughts. My Mom’s a speech language pathologist and former rehab director, so feel free to reach out offline if you’ve got questions regarding the therapy.
danielx
@Platonailedit:
If Tangerine Torquemada could arrange it, there would be black clad figures with knives in their teeth crawling down the chimneys of that company.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
jesus, you’re weird.
Adam L Silverman
@EBT: Congratulations!
Adam L Silverman
@TaMara (HFG): Please check your email.
John Revolta
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Sounds like a pretty damn good legacy to me. If only she was right for once.
khead
@TaMara (HFG):
So, who gets the cash when the go fund me ends up in the crapper?
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
I missed your previous post. I hope your mother makes a speedy recovery. I hope she’s learned not to self-unprescribe her medications.
Major Major Major Major
@EBT: nice!
@Adam L Silverman: sure.
Adam L Silverman
@TaMara (HFG):
You sure it wasn’t something more like this?
divF
@TaMara (HFG): I saw this just as I was getting home from the gym – very striking.
The quote from sfgate.com left something to be desired though.
Mainmata
@Ben Cisco: Here in MD it’s going to be more rain. This region has seen historic annual rainfall amounts this year (also predicted by most climate change scenarios).
Dan B
We had several downpours yesterday – Seattle style, not eastern US style but close. My Mike guy had to go to his rental house and deliver a dehumidifier because the pond outside the downstairs master bedroom overflowed. Drain was plugged. Of course I designed the pond and 6 inch pipe for the drain… so might be blamed.
It could have been worse. A town on the other side of Puget Sound had a tornado that tore off roofs and collapsed some buildings. Tornadoes are EXTREMELY rare here. Nobody has records of the last one that did damage.
And the neighbor’s giant Snoopy blew over. Ha!
Steeplejack
@Mart:
Yeah, I know. The Virginia ABC stores have a few lonely bottles of Trump wine gathering dust on a back shelf. Slightly odd, considering that wine can be sold at wine shops and grocery stores, etc. The state has a monopoly only on hard liquor.
khead
@Major Major Major Major:
I can’t lie to you about your chances (in Turtle Bay)…. but you have my sympathies.
Adam L Silverman
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Is Ingraham, She-Wolf of the SS still on Team MAGA? If so, the President is still running 50% in the crazed Aryan pundit department.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@divF:
Reading entrails. Results mixed.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: You moving in above or below the Saudi ambassador?
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
To this day no one talks about the black sheep of the family, Third Avenue El.
Local resident trivia: whoever posted the video with the quotes around the middle name is wrong; that’s his legal name.
EBT
I am gathering futher good photos of the kittens, and I will find a thread to take over with links of them. RIght now Hobbs and Archimedes are curled up on the cat tree while Binx walks around talking.
NotMax
@poleaxedbyboatwork
Reading rocket entrails is exhausting.
;)
Chetan Murthy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There was a bit of a discussion about this (indirectly) over at LG&M yesterday (or maybe day-before). About how Shitler is so devoid of any redeeming qualities, even when looked at from what would otherwise be odious points-of-view. To wit, I and others felt that even Shinola Miller as a better person than Shitler, because at least Shinola actually cared about something [sure, the something was pretty goddamn evil] whereas Shitler, well, he cares only about himself and his appetites.
A man wholly devoid of qualities. And yeah, I think Pollack’s right.
Ben Cisco
@Mainmata: Wow. Between the rain and it getting dark around 4, not a lot of fun. Going to need a distraction without a doubt.
Adam L Silverman
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Apparently he’s lost Ingraham, She-Wolfe of the SS.
Cheryl Rofer
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: So glad to hear it’s not that bad. Getting therapy started right away can make a world of difference. Hopefully she’ll go back on the medication now. Parents can be so frustrating! Payback for when we were kids and teenagers I guess. LOL.
Mike in NC
I can’t keep up. First the Holy Wall was going to be metal, then invisible metal, but then metal slivers. It’ll never be built in the 21st century, so whatever…
EBT
Yeah, Takkun came out from under the bed and is hissing and spitting whenever anyone looks at her. I got a good laugh in at it and she just looked hurt.
scav
I’m of the crowd hypothesizing that all the people contributing to the wall are actually revealing themselves to be those oft-heralded “Mexicans” with checkbooks and thus documenting that they should be unceremoniously tossed from this fair nation forthwith according to their own cherished and great rulebook.
Yarrow
@scav: Makes total sense to me.
ruemara
@EBT: You have a Takkun too? Mine is my boy who is with my ex. But he’s still mine.
Blew through? I have to shut down my social media management project and deal with the Digital Asset Management project for the next few months. I have enough leftover cookie dough to make another dozen and then I need to make some cupcakes for the charity Christmas Eve dinner. So I think I’ll make a few more and give that to the homeless drop in shelter for Christmas, along with much needed socks and personal grooming supplies. And that should close out christmas for me. Speaking of blowing in, I’ll be back in Seattle in January for PodCon, so should there be a BJ dining and roustabouting evening?
Wapiti
@Chetan Murthy: Well, there was that one time that Turnip was reported to have decked Turnip, Jr. That’s a good thing, sort of, maybe?
Yarrow
@Wapiti: Jr. had failed so had to be dealt with. That’s how I see that. No love for his kids. Either they do what he wants or they’re problems to be dealt with.
Burnspbesq
@EBT:
You probably have that backwards, but congrats!
Burnspbesq
I’m aggressively decluttering. Anybody want 1,300 vinyl records and 3,400 CDs?
Aleta
@Burnspbesq: Impressive.
Chetan Murthy
@Burnspbesq: Yeah, I ripped my CDs a few years ago, haven’t looked back. Just keep a few backup copies for incase.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Even the liberal Drudge Report is mocking Drumpf and hailing Nancy Smash
https://i.imgur.com/E1eIfZS.jpg
Aleta
This fundraising ploy for the wall. Has the guy who’s doing it made a commitment to how he’ll handle the money?
Do the donors think he’s handing whatever amount over to a federal agency? Or do they think it goes to Tr’s office? Do they really want the hated feds to take the money? Or do they think the gofundme guy will keep control over how it’s spent? Who do they think will own whatever part of the wall (they hope) gets built? All the people? That’s communism. The federal government? Why should the feds get it? Should GFMe guy privatize it? Don’t they get to own a share then?
They’re not thinking this through too well. They don’t want higher taxes, they hate gov’t spending and waste, but they’ll turn their $ over with no vote over what happens to it. Such a scam.
I think they’ve got bots out pumping people up to join the Patriot’s Army of Easy Marks. Fck yeah build the wall! No need for Mexico to pay!! Don’t need no stinking Congress!! We’ll do it ourselves. Yay!! That’ll show ’em !!
Soon the fights begin. No one will ever know where that money went. No FOI requests allowed.
Viva BrisVegas
@Burnspbesq:
Ebay.
John Revolta
@Aleta: “I remember what my dear old Poppa said to me, just before they sprung the trap; he said ‘Son, you can’t cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump.'”
J R in WV
Well, do pet and love up to your previous cat, who can’t believe you got these two tiny interlopers when you HAD HER!!! She won’t understand why you wanted kittens, which to a non-parent cat are just a pain in the butt. Like your brother-in-law’s triplets.
Mmenosyne, glad your mom appears to be doing well !!! Not surprised she stopped taking a drug to prevent stroke and not long after had a stroke; nor that she didn’t mention it to anyone…. This is how that would work also.
Burnsy,
What kind of music? Pop Country? Jazz, New Orleans style or Bee-bop? Acid Heavy Metal Death slam Rock? David Bowie, which era? Jimmi and the Mothers of INvention?
Every Dead concert every played? I know a guy who would jump on that. If you have a good classical collection, with some classic rock added to the orchestral collection, and historic big band swing jazz, talk to me. In other words totally depends upon what kind of music is on the albums and CDs
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
Sending prayers for a complete recovery
rikyrah
@EBT:
Congratulations??
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mnemosyne: I’m glad that came out more or less all right.
Shana
@Barbara: I’ve also had luck offering stuff to the cleaning ladies who come every other week to clean our house. They’re through a company and I figured they, or someone they know, could use much of what we donate.