Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

This blog will pay for itself.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

In my day, never was longer.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

No one could have predicted…

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

“woke” is the new caravan.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

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Reader Interactions

158Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    Sorry, John.

    I don’t know if you like pineapple juice, but it can help with strep. That’s what I did for the first 24 hours when I had strep last time and my doctor told me it couldn’t possibly be strep because I was over 50, and you don’t get strep over 50. She was wrong, and I eventually got my antibiotics.

  2. 2.

    Major Major Major Major

    Yikes! At least you’ll be on the mend soon enough.

    I bought Sunless Skies this morning and am looking forward to playing it, so that’ll probably be my evening. Really enjoyed the parts I saw this morning.

  3. 3.

    TomatoQueen

    Streptococcus bacteria are everywhere, especially household surfaces, such as in kitchens and bathrooms. As we have a vulnerable young man here, who used to develop strep/ear infections in the winter, we got in the habit of wiping down with those nice household wipes what have bleach in them. Ymmv.

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Ugh! Or, to channel my inner OzarkHillbilly, Blech!

    Hope you’re better soon, JGC. Strep is nothing around with which to fuck.

  6. 6.

    TomatoQueen

    Also among nice things to drink on a strep throat are ginger beer if you can find it,or failing that, Vernor’s.

  7. 7.

    JPL

    My younger son as a child was a carrier. His brother and I would get strep, but not him. He had enlarged tonsils and finally the doctor convinced me to take them out. Not only did his sibling stop getting infected, but I along with another friend did also. My fever would spike over 104 so I would get shots because they added extra protection.

  8. 8.

    Brachiator

    I have somehow managed to contract strep, so I am now on antibiotics and in the middle of a game of thrones marathon

    Try a little milk of the poppy.

    Take care of yourself, John Cole.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    Tea with honey.

    @Major Major Major Major

    Please do update on how the play experience is. Looked at it several times but was never quite intrigued enough to check it out any further than a cursory glance. Any experience with Endless Space 2?

    By chance if you’re into a short free demo game that is an interesting exercise, story-wise, give a look see at Silent Knight. Only prob encountered with the demo was the final scene freezing up the game. Minor agita, as it was over, but did have to restart the computer.

  12. 12.

    Mary G

    Didn’t click on it since I don’t subscribe, but evidently the FTFNYT has a whole article out in which the president denies using a tanning bed or any kind of cream or bronzer to make himself look tan all the time, but attributes his complexion to “good genes,” ffs.

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    @Mary G:

    Didn’t click on it since I don’t subscribe, but evidently the FTFNYT has a whole article out in which the president denies using a tanning bed or any kind of cream or bronzer to make himself look tan all the time, but attributes his complexion to “good genes,” ffs.

    Trump has orangutan genes? Who knew?

  16. 16.

    Fair Economist

    @NotMax: I really enjoyed Endless Space 2 the first dozen or so times I played it. Very colorful, almost RPG at times. It’s not an over and over again 4x like Civ because the late game AI is very weak (odd because it’s pretty good early). Still well worth the time and money.

  17. 17.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Mary G:
    What on earth does that man see when he looks in the mirror and says ” Yes, that’s the look I’m going for.”

    Dear lord.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Having trouble linking to the site, but I highly recommend Ginger Juice from The Ginger People. It’s great chilled, hot, or room temperature, and whenever I drink it, not only is it defuckinglicious, but you can almost feel the healing going on in real time.

    Amazon can get a dozen bottles to you by this time tomorrow.

  20. 20.

    dr. bloor

    “Strep” is one of the few items not appearing on my Cole Injury and Illness Bingo Card.

    Feel better, John. Also, there’s a few bucks in it for you if you contract mumps soon.

  21. 21.

    WaterGirl

    Second measles case just identified at the University of Illinois. Thanks, anti-vaxers. Autocorrect changed it to vexers, and I have to say, it is vexing.

  23. 23.

    JPL

    @Mary G: I thought that it was reported that a tanning bed was among the furniture delivered. Why lie about that. I think he should lie about important stuff, like declaring that his intel chiefs didn’t say what they said.

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: I have tried a lot of things from the Ginger People, but I have never heard of their ginger juice.

    Have you tried Blenheim pink cap ginger ale? It’s their spicy one and it is so good. So good.

  25. 25.

    BruceFromOhio

    I suggest a daily elderberry extract to pump up the immune system while antibiotics do their stuff.

    Stumbled onto Babylon 5 while exercising MrsFromOhio’s Amazon Prime account on a new piece of video equipment. Eerily reminiscent, and aging well. Swap out the Shadows for Adelson/Mercer/Koch, and it’s a cautionary tale we missed that landed us here.

  26. 26.

    dr. bloor

    @Mary G: FTFNYT will continue to do everything they can to avoid running the obvious “HE’S FUCKING INSANE” hed in 72 point type until the country is irretrievably down the shitter.

  29. 29.

    JPL

    @WaterGirl: I hate them all at this point. When my second son was born, he was a few weeks old when I bundled him up to watch his older brother swing in the public park. When dad was out of town, he was in his carrier while his older brother and I ate at the local Friendly’s Now every one near a new born is suppose to have a tdap vaccine or wait until the baby is six months to come in close contact.

    @SiubhanDuinne: Baby watch week still sucks.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Ronny Jackson (the Admiral Doctor who said Trump weighed in at 239 LOL) stated clearly, publically, and for the record barely a year ago that much of Trump’s incredible robust health was attributable to his “good genes.”

  32. 32.

    Amir Khalid

    @Brachiator:
    Orangutans actually have very fair skin under all that orange hair. It looks like the skin of a white human who has never been in the sun.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    Baby watch week still sucks.

    Must be very stressful for everyone concerned — not least the baby himself.

    I suppose they’ll induce at some point if Young Master What’s-the-Rush decides to keep on keeping his own sweet time.

  34. 34.

    C Stars

    @JPL: Yeah, when I was a kid I guess I was a “carrier,” too, though I was sick for two or three years. Constant fatigue and low-grade fever, and every couple of months would test positive for strep. Finally took a month-long course of antibiotics that destroyed my appetite for years but cured my constant fever and swollen neck glands and strep. But then, as an adult, 30 years later, I got strep and it progressed within hours to an abscessed tonsil, and I almost died of sepsis in the ER. In the olden days this used to happen more commonly and it was called Quincy, which is such a twee name for a brutally painful and dangerous ailment. When I was a kid it was all the rage among pediatricians to keep the tonsils in no matter what, and thirty years later I am still cursing the stupid doctors who didn’t just take my tonsils out when I first had neverending strep and spare me all the trouble (and spare me having to get my tonsils out at 40).

    Anyway, long story. John Cole, I’m sure you’ll be fine.

    :-)

    (But have someone take you to the ER right away if you start puking)

  38. 38.

    Eural Joiner

    @TaMara (HFG): haven’t started it yet but heard good things about it! BTW I can’t recommend Future Man on Hulu enough if that’s your thing – every sci-fi trope ever and funny as hell ?

  40. 40.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I bought Sunless Skies this morning and am looking forward to playing it

    I hear the attrition aspect is way more forgiving than Sunless Seas, which I couldn’t get into because it’s just too damn hard to make a regular income before you take risks and die.

    @Major Major Major Major:

    why the hell did they grant somebody anonymity for that one

    Because Trump himself said it. Kinda ruins the point of him pretending people talk about how great he is if he’s the one being quoted as the source.

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Trump’s incredible robust health was attributable to his “good genes.”

    Nazi ideology. Trump is a literal Nazi, considers himself one, and thinks Hitler was the coolest of the cool kids. He hates brown people more than Jews, though.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    Have you tried Blenheim pink cap ginger ale? It’s their spicy one and it is so good. So good.

    As a rule, I don’t care for anything fizzy or carbonated, so no, haven’t tried that. If its shelf date is several years off, maybe worth buying half a dozen to have on hand. But apart from the bubbles, I have to say it does sound good.

  42. 42.

    Yarrow

    @WaterGirl: The “debate” over vaccinations was amplified by Russian bots and trolls.

    The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health on Thursday, suggests that what appeared to be Twitter accounts run by automated bots and Russian trolls masqueraded as legitimate users engaging in online vaccine debates. The bots and trolls disseminated both pro- and anti-vaccine messages between 2014 and 2017.
    …
    Overall, the researchers found that Russian trolls, sophisticated bots and “content polluters” tweeted about vaccination at significantly higher rates compared with average users.

    The goal was probably to cause discord, as was their goal with lots of their activity.

    Also, hey there, Facebook. Thanks for taking money from anti-vaxxers and running their ads!

    Facebook also accepts advertising from anti-vaccination groups, boosting the performance of misinformation. The company’s political advertising archive shows how Stop Mandatory Vaccination, whose ads have included blatantly false statements such as “vaccines kill babies”, and other anti-vaccine groups use Facebook’s advertising tools to target their propaganda exclusively at women.

    Link.

  43. 43.

    dexwood

    Might sound funny, but dark chocolate melted in my mouth helps me with a sore throat. Good for coughs, too. But, hey, I ain’t normal.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Nazi ideology. Trump is a literal Nazi, considers himself one, and thinks Hitler was the coolest of the cool kids. He hates brown people more than Jews, though.

    Oh yes, of course. Didn’t mean to imply that Trump’s affection for the ideology of genetic superiority began on Dr. Ronny Jackson’s watch.

  45. 45.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mary G: A lot of people are saying, and it’s being recognized more and more that Dump has the most luxurious, classy and tremendous bigly genes at being the best at everything with his very good brain.

  47. 47.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    I have somehow managed to contract strep …

    Warm saltwater gargle. Tilt yer head back so the water rests deep in your throat and gurgle-gargle long’s you can maintain it w/o swallowing. Breaks up the nasties. Soothes. Relieves.

  48. 48.

    sukabi

    @dexwood: funny you should say that. There was an article on tv news the other night saying chocolate worked better than other cough remedies…milk chocolate being the best.

  50. 50.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Trump totally told him to say that. Either that or the sycophant in Jackson came out and tried to prop Trump up. Trump brings out the worst in everyone as Jackson served for several years under the Bush and Obama administrations.

  52. 52.

    Ruckus

    Has anyone gone on the IRS website, looking to file your taxes?
    If you’ve done this in years prior you surly had to take your time and carefully read all the instructions. And still until you do this for a while and get used to the system….. Try it now. We’ve heard here how this was rushed to make changes to make it simpler. They didn’t so much make it simpler as they left off a few things, like the instructions are missing important lines on the 1040. And the 1040 is the only form, and that now looks more like the 1040 EZ.
    I predict fucking chaos.

  54. 54.

    opiejeanne

    @C Stars: Quinsy, not Quincy. I believe that’s what George Washington died of. I’m sorry you had that; it’s terrible.

    A HS friend died of a strep throat. She had rheumatic fever as a kid and was so sick she missed a year of school, so was a year behind my class. She died because her mother refused to learn to drive and wouldn’t call an ambulance or the neighbors to help get her to the doctor. Waited until her husband came home from Long Beach to Temple City, and her fever was terribly high by the time the hospital saw her. They couldn’t stabilize her and she died not long after arriving. This was in 1968.

  55. 55.

    C Stars

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: This is true. I have spent recent months of my life gargling with saltwater morning and evening.

    Japanese people gargle often as a means of staying healthy. When I was in Tokyo in December I often saw people gargling warm water in public restrooms.

  56. 56.

    PST

    @TaMara (HFG): I watched Russian Doll and enjoyed it hugely. I’ve liked Natasha Lyonne a lot since The Slums of Beverly Hills, and I thought she was perfect for this. The obvious touchpoints are Groundhog Day and The Good Place, but I found myself thinking throughout about Breakfast at Tiffany’s: tough loner who’s a vulnerable child, lost cat, bohemian New York parties, diamond ring, two train wrecks saving each other.

  58. 58.

    opiejeanne

    @PST: We enjoyed the first ep but it was a bit tough watching what happens to her, again and again, and are wondering if we really want more.

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dr. bloor:

    “Strep” is one of the few items not appearing on my Cole Injury and Illness Bingo Card.

    But you made out like bandits on the “plunge through the back deck of newly-purchased home and rip leg flesh to shreds,” right?

  65. 65.

    C Stars

    @opiejeanne: I’m sorry. That sounds horrible. Yes, the admitting doctor at the ER implied that I just had like a little touch of strep and was being a wimp about it. After I passed out on the intake floor and had blood tests done they sussed it was an infection that had become septic. Strep should be taken seriously.

    Weirdly, I also had rheumatic fever as a kid as well (no heart damage). My parents and I have talked to doctors since about whether there was some connection between that episode, my propensity for strep/long ailment as an older child, and what happened more recently, but haven’t really gotten a clear answer or commitment one way or the other. It’s been about a year since I had my tonsils removed and overall I feel much healthier now and more resistant to the bugs that everyone else seems to get.

  66. 66.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @poleaxedbyboatwork:

    Warm saltwater gargle.

    Excellent treatment for throat irritation and inflammation, which would be recommended by doctors more, but patients don’t want to hear it. Seriously. I’ve listened to doctors complain about that. It doesn’t sound medical, so most patients assume it can’t be as good as drugs.

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    Trump totally told him to say that. Either that or the sycophant in Jackson

    Trump specifically told him to say that. I guarantee it. It’s a Nazi thing.

    @Major Major Major Major:
    Sunless Skies is a Fallen London franchise, known mostly for their bizarre, in-depth world and choose-your-own-adventure style play. The flying around is really just to add variety and action to the choose-your-own-adventure part.

  70. 70.

    opiejeanne

    @JPL: My third was over 3 weeks late and we were at the point where they were going to have me come in daily for a blood test to make sure the placenta wasn’t breaking down. I was in for my twice weekly visit and to run a non-stress test when the little mug decided to pretend to be in distress. There was a panicky argument between the doctor on the OB ward and my OBGYN in the hall outside the room. After I walked from one room to another for a stress test and she had settled down, the doc told me about a baby he’d delivered in a rush because of the same symptoms and the little stinker had one little fist wrapped around the umbilical cord when they opened up the mom. He laughed, and then asked me if I wanted him to “turn up the juice”. I had the baby four hours later.

  71. 71.

    opiejeanne

    @PST: Thanks. Good to know. That was my fear, that it was just going to be the same but in new and creative ways.

  72. 72.

    jacy

    Ack. Feel better, Cole! Strep is bad; Ginger tea is good.

    The boyfriend is picking up beer and coconut green curry and I am taking the rest of the night off, and we are NOT going to talk politics. (And hockey is back. Yay!)

  73. 73.

    ixnay

    Dang, moderation? People doctors blame strep reoccurences on pet reservoirs. Ask your vet.YMMV.

  74. 74.

    opiejeanne

    @C Stars: Oh crap! That’s just awful.
    My friend lived a couple of blocks from my house and we would have taken her to the hospital if they’d called, but her mom was kind of shy and it was all so sad. I was a freshman in college and my sister called me in the dorms to tell me, no mean feat. It’s been nearly 50 years and it still hurts me. She was dating the guy I refer to as my HS boyfriend, but he’d broken up with me two years before they got together, and I adored her.

  75. 75.

    opiejeanne

    @PST: Was she quoting a movie when the guy was hitting on her in the first sequence? I didn’t recognize it and now I can’t remember what she said, other than him grabbing her by the ahem and commenting on how wet she was.

  77. 77.

    JPL

    @opiejeanne: lol As the grandmother, I’m not pleased that they are going to induce after a week. I think they should wait a tad longer but I am not opening my mouth. I’ll save my opinions for breastfeeding.

  81. 81.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Excellent treatment for throat irritation and inflammation, which would be recommended by doctors more, but patients don’t want to hear it. Seriously. I’ve listened to doctors complain about that. It doesn’t sound medical, so most patients assume it can’t be as good as drugs.

    Might be better’n drugs. Always opted for that remedy in lieu of Rx drugs, never failt me yet. Can’t hardly do it too much. Can feel it working. Saltwater intensity mixt to tolerance. Only trick is takes a little experimentation to get the feel for allowing the slurry to recess as deeply as possible in yer throat so’s it can double, double toil and trouble the sore spot w/o swallowing (which’ll make the fire burn n cauldron bubble).

  84. 84.

    Keith P.

    @SiubhanDuinne: And there are reports that he’s back to being Trump’s doctor again. That would explain Trump’s sniffing fits on his last speech LOL. But seriously, it has to be a coincidence that Dr. Ronnie (aka The Candyman) is back in the fold right before Trump’s yearly physical, particularly when Trump magically came in just barely under “Obese” last year.

  85. 85.

    Waynski

    Strep sucks donkey balls, John. I had it bunch of times when I was young. Take your meds and stay indoors as much as possible. And hot liquids help too.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne

    I was going to snark about the rainstorm we got in Los Angeles today (with more coming tomorrow), but it was heavy enough that hillsides are going to start sliding pretty soon, so I don’t want to be an asshole right when people in burn zones start losing their homes.

  90. 90.

    MobiusKlein

    @chopper:

    that shit-ass orange color comes from ‘good genes’? was his mom a fucking sweet potato?

    Who knew that Jaundice was hereditary?

  91. 91.

    Skepticat

    The good thing is that I haven’t been online beating my head against the virtual wall all day. The bad thing is that’s because I’ve spent the entire day either treating injuries of the few survivors (coming over a coral reef onto an ironstone shore is brutal) or helping carry the bodies of victims of the wreck of a boatload of Haitian refugees (very few of them can swim). A thirty-foot sailboat with eighty-six aboard apparently hit the reef and sank somewhere off our tiny island, and bodies have been washing ashore all day here and on the next island. There are helicopters still out there searching with infrared, but the survivors already were pretty hypothermic, so it’s recovery rather than rescue. I’ve gone through a lot of first-aid supplies, what little food I had in the house, and a lot of water with lemon, salt, and sugar (the poor woman’s Pedialyte or Gatorade). We’ll be out at daybreak for the next few days searching, and I assume we’re going to find some sadly gruesome things. I am so sad.

  92. 92.

    evap

    Strep is no fun, we went through it a lot with my kids. My first semester in grad school was awful, both the grad school part and my personal life, and I kept running fevers for no apparent reason and just generally feeling shitty. I went home at Thanksgiving and my mother took one look at me and dragged me to the doctor. It turned out that I had strep! I had probably had it for the entire semester, although I never had a sore throat. Luckily, antibiotics cured me easily; what a difference being healthy made.

    John, make sure you get a new toothbrush. Apparently those strep bacteria can hang out on the your toothbrush and reinfect you.

  93. 93.

    Jeffro

    @Brachiator:

    Trump has orangutan genes? Who knew?

    He must be some kind of hybrid…last I heard, he had mushroom genes as well.

    (my apologies!)

    Although he is dumb as a rock, so perhaps it’s “all of the above” and he is a descendant of Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man…where is the classic Doom Patrol when we need them?

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    @Skepticat:

    What a horrible tragedy. As you do the best you can to find survivors and locate those who didn’t make it, remember to take care of yourself, too. PTSD for rescue workers is a real thing and can be debilitating if you don’t seek out help for it.

    If your organization needs financial assistance, make sure to let one of the front-pagers know so they can give us a link to help out.

  100. 100.

    mad citizen

    I got the original Doctor Zhivago from the library (3 hours long and hearing that tune now for about the 20th time). I had to bail because everyone has strong English accents. WTF? How arrogant of a culture do you have to be to make a movie about Russians and not even use the slightest Russian accent, if you’ve decided to make it an English-speaking movie. We also have the remake with Kiera Knightly standing by. It’s only 2 hours long.

    As for netflix, we watched Roma the other night and it is really sticking with me. One of the most beautifully filmed movies I’ve ever seen.

    Love ginger. My green juice usual is apples, lemon, ginger, kale, spinach, parsley.

  103. 103.

    Mnemosyne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Ironically, my doctor advised a saltwater gargle for my cold just yesterday. I haven’t done it yet, though. And also that I use my asthma inhaler (albuterol) every 6 hours so it doesn’t turn into bronchitis.

    (I did not see my doctor for a cold — I was there for a pre-scheduled follow-up and happened to have a cold the same day. I’m not THAT much of a wimp.)

  104. 104.

    Mnemosyne

    Since this is a ginger thread, does anyone have advice on how to freeze it? I ended up with a huge batch in this month’s farm box.

  105. 105.

    raven

    @poleaxedbyboatwork:

    Long as I remember the rain been comin’ down
    Clouds of mystery pourin’ confusion on the ground.
    Good men through the ages tryin’ to find the sun.
    And I wonder still I wonder who’ll stop the rain.

  106. 106.

    Aleta

    @Skepticat: Thank you for telling about this. Thanks for what you’re doing to help. Please take care of yourself too. (Maybe if you’re not too tired, massage or soak your feet tonight or in the a.m.)

  107. 107.

    mad citizen

    @raven: I’m old enough, so under a rock I guess. I watch things like Room 237–theories of what Kubrick’s The Shining is. We recently watched It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Enjoyed that one a lot. I’ve never seen Lawrence of Arabia. But my dad loved Bridge on the River Kwai, so I’m familiar with that one.

  108. 108.

    Amir Khalid

    @mad citizen:
    I seem to recall that Russia’s Imperial family was closely related to the House of Windsor, and that among themselves they spoke a lot of English with a strong upper-class English accent. So that may have been how the aristocracy spoke English too.

  110. 110.

    debbie

    @Mnemosyne:

    You want it to be in something airtight, like a baggie with all the air pushed out. I’d break it up in several packages. I’ve kept ginger for a few weeks in the crisper drawer, wrapped loosely in a paper towel.

  113. 113.

    Skepticat

    @Mnemosyne: Thanks so much. Fortunately, though just a lapsed EMT rather than a professional, I’ve learned to separate myself; I think I’m just inherently selfish (except about animals; those sad stories actually are harder on me). “Your organization” did make me chuckle a bit, as this island feels crowded when there are a dozen people in residence, and a couple of friends and I are about it for response of any kind to anything. At least we’re never bored.

  114. 114.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @mad citizen:

    I watch things like Room 237–theories of what Kubrick’s The Shining is. 

    A REDRUM movie?

    You prolly know this already, but a lesser known early Kubrick “Paths of Glory” very good, too.

    Kubrick’s kinda unusual (inna lotta ways, come to think on’t), but seems like alla his films is distinctively different, one from another.

  115. 115.

    TomatoQueen

    I’m starting to see signs of folks marching in Richmond on Monday at 11 am, Indivisible talking to BlueVirginia, early stages.

    Meanwhile, A Soldier’s Story on t’telly.

  117. 117.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @mad citizen:

    I had to bail because everyone has strong English accents. WTF? How arrogant of a culture do you have to be to make a movie about Russians and not even use the slightest Russian accent, if you’ve decided to make it an English-speaking movie.

    Why would they speak English with a Russian accent? The movie is in English; how would Russian accents make anything more believable or whatever?

  119. 119.

    Keith P.

    @Omnes Omnibus: I always liked how “Hunt for Red October” handled the accents….until Connery met up with Baldwin and still had his Scottish (or maybe he affected a British accent? I can’t remember) accent.

  121. 121.

    mad citizen

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I get that now. Was probably thinking of Mel Brooks movies or something. Or Sophies Choice–I thought it used to be the method of having English spoken in the accent of whatever nation the movie takes place.

    One bad example was the 2015 Steve Jobs movie. Kate Winslet’s character had a demonstrably heavier accent (some Euro accent) in the middle section (movie was basically three scenes) than in the first part. Movie was chronological. Why would someone’s accent get MORE pronounced the longer they lived in the U.S.? I couldn’t believe this movie was up for awards–I think Winslet was even Oscar-nominated. I hated that movie—boring.

    Woz was the genius of apple.

  123. 123.

    mad citizen

    @poleaxedbyboatwork: Haven’t seen Paths of Glory but maybe will get to it. Was watching a panel on the Shining and someone pointed out all of Kubrick’s films were from other/existing source material–no original screenplays. Though of course he changed things as he wanted.

    I was going to re-watch Barry Lyndon recently (haven’t seen it since the 1970s), and I think I started it up and had to shut it off because it was going to be simply boring. Interesting then one of the Room 237 guys talked about how even Kubrick found Lyndon boring and one of the things he did was go see advertising people to learn their ways–subliminal messages and all that–and eventually did some of that in the Shining. At least that was this dude’s theory.

  124. 124.

    Pogonip

    @dr. bloor: I’m missing Strep, Rabies, Kuru, and Falling Through The Ice-Skating Rink In July While Chasing Thurston, but I have confidence in Cole. We’ll fill our cards.

    (Get well soon, Cole.)

    Someone mentioned her dr saying you can’t get strep over the age of 50. I suggest changing doctors. I’m 59 and had it 3 weeks ago. The nurse mentioned it’s a bad strep-throat season around here.

  125. 125.

    Lyrebird

    @Mnemosyne: peel, slice, and freeze, making sure the slices are not crammed back together so you can separate them.

    Can toss the slices into hot oil in a pan to cook, no need to thaw, or into boiling water for tea!

  129. 129.

    Amir Khalid

    @Keith P.:
    Connery doesn’t do accents, regardless of his character’s origins. His James Bond was from Glasgow, Scotland, and his Marko Ramius was from Glasgow, Lithuania.

  134. 134.

    Bill Arnold

    @Mary G:
    Here’s the Daily Mail version if you don’t want the NYTimes:
    White House official claims Donald Trump’s year-round glow is due to ‘good genes’ rather than tanning beds, creams or make-up (Leah Mcdonald 2 February 2019)
    D.J.Trump is from a family that claims to selectively breed its children. What exactly they have been selecting for is not clear to me. (/snark) Also, who has been doing the selecting? (The women or the men? :-) Inquiring minds inquire.
    This May Be The Most Horrible Thing That Donald Trump Believes – And it just may be the master key to unlocking how he thinks. (09/28/2016, Marina Fang and JM Rieger)

    Trump’s father instilled in him the idea that their family’s success was genetic, according to Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio.
    “The family subscribes to a racehorse theory of human development,” D’Antonio says in the documentary. “They believe that there are superior people and that if you put together the genes of a superior woman and a superior man, you get a superior offspring.”

  135. 135.

    J R in WV

    @Mnemosyne:

    I put my ginger in white wine in a mason jar in the fridge… but I just use it for cooking, where the wine actually helps out.

  136. 136.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Surely you’re familiar with translation conventions for film and tv? They’re not really speaking English. Just for the sake of an English-speaking audience. I haven’t seen the movie in question but I have to assume that’s what is going on.

  139. 139.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Bill Arnold:

    re: Trump’s year-round “glow”

    It all sounds like such a eugenic hodge-podge of master-race twaddle, but I’m sure it reads better in the original German.

    Motherfucker “glows” like he’s been irradiated at Chernobyl.

  141. 141.

    Dan B

    @C Stars: I had my tonsils out at 30 after annual strep, and a one time possible Scarlet Fever 106 temp.

    As an adult the tonsils are much bigger so the raw area seems like a couple feet. I had the nightmare of the piranha corn kernel and didn’t eat for two days.

    Only mild sore throats since and no more annual erythromycin. Yea!

  143. 143.

    Barbara

    My sister gets strep anytime anyone in her office or family gets it, yet I have never had a strep infection. Some people just really seem vulnerable to strep. I hope you feel better soon.

  145. 145.

    Aleta

    @mad citizen: Now that you mention it, Omar Shariff and others playing Arabs speak with accents in Lawrence of A, but the actors don’t use accents in Zhivago. (Both by David Lean, both scripted and acted in English.) Wonder why he decided no accents for Dr. Z.
    Could be in Lawrence he used accents to give a feeling of Lawrence being a stranger in a mysterious land?

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    translation conventions for film and tv

    However, in Dr. Zhivago the English isn’t a translation of a film made in another language. It’s acted in English to start.

  146. 146.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Aleta:
    What I meant was that, in-universe, the characters may be speaking a language other than English, but are speaking English just for the sake of the audience and the story. Like Star Trek.

  147. 147.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Jay:

    Both love and hate when I gotta resort to Lord Google to catch a funny. Forgot they was orange!

    (Never seen an obese speed-freak Oompa Loopa with a thyroid and diarrhetic word-salad problem, tho.)

  150. 150.

    Steeplejack

    @Aleta:

    However, in Dr. Zhivago the English isn’t a translation of a film made in another language. It’s acted in English to start.

    I think what Goku meant is the conventions for an English-language movie made about films with “foreign” characters.

    Take The Three Musketeers, for example (any English-language version). All the characters are French, but we don’t require that they speak with French accents. Or Gladiator. Russell Crowe and everybody else are playing Roman characters, but we don’t require that they speak with a Latin accent (?), much less speak classical Latin.

    I haven’t seen Doctor Zhivago in a long time, but I think mostly it’s Russians talking to other Russians, presumably in Russian. It’s an English-language movie, so the convention is for the characters to speak English—although a slightly formal English drained of any potentially embarrassing colloquialisms. (“Holy Toledo, Ivan! Wait’ll the Czar gets a load of this!”) Which often means what we Americans think of as a British accent.

    I think accents come in when foreign characters are speaking English to English speakers. It’s a way to shorthand the characters, e.g., the lovable, singsong Italian or the sinister Nazi. “Ve have vays to make you talk.”

    I blame mad citizen for their original bad take: “How arrogant of a culture do you have to be to make a movie about Russians and not even use the slightest Russian accent, if you’ve decided to make it an English-speaking movie.” Wrong.

  151. 151.

    Mnemosyne

    @Aleta:

    There is a weird convention that historical film actors are supposed to speak with British accents regardless of where and when in Europe the film takes place. People were PISSED when Sofia Coppola cast American actors with American accents in Marie Antoinette even though giving them British accents would be equally as inauthentic since everyone spoke French.

    This is probably because most historical dramas that Americans are familiar with are made in England, or at least by British directors.

    Also, fun fact: in Czarist Russia, the aristocrats spoke French, to the point that some of them didn’t even know Russian. I can’t remember if it was Peter the Great or Catherine the Great who started that, but I’m sure one of our Russia experts would know.

  153. 153.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Steeplejack:
    Pretty much, although I prefer when correct and non-stereotypical accents are used.

    potentially embarrassing colloquialisms. (“Holy Toledo, Ivan! Wait’ll the Czar gets a load of this!”) Which often means what we Americans think of as a British accent.

    Speaking of which, I hate when old period pieces do something like this. Using modern slang in the wrong time period. The kid character in the Rifleman show did this a few times. He said “swell” (as in the slang usage) a few times despite the show taking place in the 1880s.

  156. 156.

    Aleta

    @Mnemosyne: There’s an assumption Americans in earlier days got from English theater, that ‘classical’ means British accents, because they sound formal in a Shakespearey way; and maybe that’s why people found it acceptable in the 60s-70s that Zhivago, which felt classical or classy, was almost entirely cast with Brits speaking in (like mad citizen said) heavy British accents. To fit in, Rod Steiger does too.

    But when you listen to it in the way mc pointed out—if instead of accepting it, you focus on the fact that an entire bunch of English people are speaking naturally to each other in that setting—it can slip into a weird jarring sensation. Lean made a choice to cast it that way, instead of casting Russian/Slavic expat actors in many of the roles along with Shariff and Christie.

    Do you remember Robert Mitchum doing an Irish accent in Ryan’s Daughter? (Also by Lean).

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