[Warning: Harry Smith’s audio is pretty loud]
Rookie musher @BlairBraveman is still racing in the Iditarod. Her followers, the #uglydogs, are supporting her and school kids as well. @HarrySmith has the story. #Igivearod pic.twitter.com/Uvjbcnyy5c
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 16, 2019
A favorite to win the Iditarod sled dog race has decided to drop out of the race — less than 200 miles from the finish line — after his dogs refused to continue when he raised his voice at one of them. https://t.co/gk7D0omDTU
— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) March 13, 2019
Everyone who’s lived with multiple dogs knows this stalemate — although most of the time, the consequences are smaller:
… Nicolas Petit of Girdwood, Alaska, and his 10 dogs were just off the Shaktoolik check point on a stretch of Bering Sea ice when a disagreement between two dogs, a veteran and a younger dog, caused the sled to pause, then completely halt, when Petit raised his voice to discipline the animals.
The 38-year-old’s sled earlier in the day left Shaktoolik in the lead “like a rocket,” he told local television station KTUU. But then one of his dogs wanted to stop for a bathroom break and an older dog jumped on top of it in disagreement. Petit raised his voice and it spooked the rest of the team, which refused to mush.
“Everybody heard daddy yelling. Which doesn’t happen. And then they wouldn’t go anymore. Anywhere,” he said to KTUU.
Petit took his dogs back to a cabin at Shaktoolik to rest, but later decided to drop out of the race entirely for the good of his dogs.
“They’re all fine, they all ate good, no orthopedic issue. Just a head thing,” he said Monday.
Last year, Petit held a lead of several hours when his bid for first place was scuttled while on the sea ice. Lost in a snowstorm, he navigated off course and lost precious time. He ultimately lost the race by 2 hours 15 minutes. Petit, a native of France, made his Iditarod debut in 2011 when he finished in 28th place and was named rookie of the year. His highest finish came last year when he placed second overall and he had been a top 10 finisher in four consecutive races before this year’s event…
(Before y’all yell at me… I ended up in the hospital on intravenous antibiotics after getting bitten while breaking up a fight between two of my little foo-foo rescue dogs. And the one that bit me wasn’t even The Biter — it was an accident!)
One more Iditarod story, from the Washington Post, illustrating the old proverb, Take what you want, and pay for it:
Yotam Haber is an established composer and pianist, an assistant professor at the University of New Orleans, a former artistic director of New York’s MATA festival and winner of a Guggenheim fellowship and a Koussevitzky Foundation commission, among many other honors and awards. Since childhood, though, he has had another dream: to race sled dogs in Alaska.
Last week, Haber’s dream came true. On March 2, he got to ride through the streets of Anchorage in the ceremonial opening leg of the 2019 Iditarod, the legendary dog-sled race, on the sled of Blair Braverman, one of the most visible contestants in this year’s race. Haber had come to Alaska to help with Braverman’s sled dogs, as well as to record the sounds of runners on the snow to incorporate into a piece he was writing for the New York-based Argento Ensemble.
But the dream ended three days later when, dragged behind a tipped dog sled, Haber watched his right index finger snap off “like a twig,” followed by a geyser of blood.
“I told people on Twitter that I’m going to call my piece ‘Finger Lake,’ ” Haber said ruefully on Sunday from his home in New Orleans after surgery to reattach his finger. (Finger Lake is a stop on this year’s Iditarod course.)…
UPDATE: Reached by phone on Wednesday, Haber said that the surgery to reattach his finger had been successful and that his doctor was optimistic it would regain much of its function. He has already begun physical therapy — though unable to move his finger more than a millimeter — and even changed two diapers on his 1-year-old daughter.
On Wednesday in the Iditarod, Peter Kaiser won the race with a time of 9 days 12 hours 39 minutes and 6 seconds, 12 minutes ahead of last year’s winner, Joar Leifseth Ulsom, who took second place this year. Blair Braverman was still on the trail, in 35th place.
Dear #UglyDogs and #teamseveredfinger my excellent surgeon has successfully connected tendon and nerves. Started therapy today. Asked him when this surgery would have not been possible. Before circa 1973. Same year Iditarod began! Coincidence?
— Yotam Haber (@yotamhaber) March 12, 2019
Dear #uglydogs, heartfelt thanks for your many well wishes!! From the morning of my accident, this pure joy that I get to share with you. Like all of you, I am continuing to follow Blair’s courageous race at every turn. pic.twitter.com/JZZv60msPp
— Yotam Haber (@yotamhaber) March 9, 2019
OzarkHillbilly
What some people will do for their art.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Beto Mania
Mount Pleasant, Iowa (photo)
Waterloo, Iowa (photo)
Dubuque, Iowa (photo)
Hudson, Iowa (photo)
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
OzarkHillbilly
Just another day in Parliament.
(sorry to hear of your tribulations Anne)
PsiFighter37
Freezing my ass off and up early for the NYC Half. If I knew it was going to be this cold, I wouldn’t have signed up.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Cedar Rapids, Iowa (photo)
Independence, Iowa (photo)
Washington, Iowa (photo)
Girls for Beto (photo)
rikyrah
@PsiFighter37:
Good luck ??
Raven
I got my garden pics in too late so here’s one of the backyard.
OzarkHillbilly
Brexit and the week that all but broke British politics
rikyrah
AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) Tweeted:
[email protected]: I’m part of the #impeachment camp. I am an originalist. Read the Constitution, execute the Constitution… If Bill Clinton’s perjury was a crime… Imagine what is going to happen if #Trump’s questions that he submitted to #Mueller turn out to be lies? #AMJoy https://t.co/fzJFzEijXH https://twitter.com/amjoyshow/status/1106940512961998849?s=17
Raven
@PsiFighter37: The Atlanta is the morning too, it’s about 39 over there.
rikyrah
Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) Tweeted:
I find it offensive that @CNN perpetuates this idea that white men are at a disadvantage in the Democratic Primary. It implies that people of color & women don’t judge candidates on their policy and ability. It implies that the women and minority candidates have no credentials https://twitter.com/WendellPierce/status/1106203811113254912?s=17
ola azul
@OzarkHillbilly:
Puts me to mind of a film I saw a bit ago, “Free Solo”. About a young fella who climbs sheer rock walls w/o trad or pro or assistance of any kind. Pair a climbing shoes, chalk bag dangling off his backside midriff n that’s it. You fuck up, you die.
Capstone triumph was scaling El Capitan in Yosemite. ‘Member watching the film, and fucking well knowing he made er, and still being riveted during the attempt.
Line about what folks’ll do “for their art” put me to mind of it. (Also put me to mind of the deaths of Dean Potter and Graham Hunt, who were base-jumping and took headers into rock faces. It’sa purty thin line betwixt glory and demise.)
Free Solo clip if innerested.
rikyrah
Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) Tweeted:
This idea of the “white male” disadvantage is complicit with white supremacy. To consider competent people of color and women is being considered “less than” and automatically at the expense of white men. Offensive ideology. Sen. Doug Jones owes his seat to Black women voters. https://twitter.com/WendellPierce/status/1106205455309778949?s=17
rikyrah
Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) Tweeted:
In these painful times, here’s a story that will make your heart sing. A homeless boy named Tani living in a shelter was just named New York State chess champion. He’s a reminder that talent is universal even if opportunity is not. https://t.co/P392a8lQ8m https://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/1106994321121837056?s=17
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Nice. Anne will run them next week.
waratah
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: As a Texan it was kind of strange to see a T Shirt with Iowa for Beto.
He will be in Madison Wisconsin this morning at the Cargo coffee East at 9:30 am.
Raven
@ola azul: Standing on the bow of the boat hanging on by the anchor rope while the herb addled cap’n flew across the Indian Rive about 50 mph seeking tripletail roosts was pretty fucking artsy! Seated shot before the caper.
Anne Laurie
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh, that was long ago — literally, the day Osama bin Laden was killed. Thanks to a wonderful hand surgeon, you can barely even see the scar on my right palm now!
(Gloria, the Dog Who Bites, and Sydney, Woody Allen in a Dog Suit, got into a serious argument. I managed to separate them without incident, Gloria slammed herself into her crate, and I picked up a towel to throw over it so she’d have time to settle down. Sydney, feeling he had “won”, snatched at the towel — and accidentally punctured my palm. Despite my best efforts, ten days later I was in the emergency room with an ugly red-streaked, blue-rimmed crater…. Now she’s 14 (or thereabouts), he’s 12, and their spats are just as noisy but a lot less liable to draw blood — theirs or mine!)
Anne Laurie
@Raven: Jealous! *Most* of the snow here has melted, even in the backyard with the northern exposure, but it’ll be a while before we feel save putting the ice melt away. By all means, send me those pics for next week, okay?
ola azul
@Raven:
Looks bad-ass like yer part of a no-mercy fish-gang!
Never gotta tripletail, you? Sposed to be delish!
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
RAVEN
@ola azul: It was tricky in the 25mph wind. He had us stand on the bow and flip a live shrimp hooked to a jig next to a sign piling. They seem to hit on the fall and, like the snook in December, my one hit got away. One was landed and my buddy brought all of our catch back to smoke and I haven’t had a chance to eat any. This was my only catch of note and not that much of a note.
waratah
@Raven: Lovely, you have spring already.
Raven
no-mercy fish-gang!
@ola azul: Like this?
Phylllis
I’m in DC for a conference; managed to snag a timed-entry pass for the National African American museum for today. I’m rarely this lucky. Maybe I’ll buy a lottery ticket as well.
NotMax
Yay! Discovered quite by accident that Movie Movie is now on Amazon Prime. The videotape chez NotMax was getting to the point of showing its age after being lent out so many times over the years, on top of its previous history, having been purchased from a going out of business video store..
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Thanx for this, may Tanitoluwa Adewumi continue to slay them.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@NotMax: the one with George C. Scott and Trish Van Devere?
Kay
@Raven:
Pretty. I love redbuds.
NotMax
@David Merry Christmas Koch
Yup. And Eli Wallach, and Art Carney, and so many, many more, all chewing away at the scenery with abandon. A bouillabaisse of parody.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I bought seed from the company you posted. Pink celery. It looks like it grows to be more leaves than stalk, which would be good because the leaves are the part I like. Also- pink! :)
It’s not up yet. It didn’t look like celery seed. Maybe it’s something else and they just call it celery so we won’t be scared off it.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@NotMax: I really liked Van Devere and Scott in “Day of the Dolphin” Plus, top notch character acting by Paul Sorvino
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Wow. That looks astounding. I’ve never tried to grow celery. You’ve got me thinking hard about placing another order, I especially like this part:
I’m all about ‘easy’.
ola azul
@Raven:
Ha! Expect so.
Can only say, each autumn, anchor out somewheres beautiful and scale the mountains in these parts, sometimes more’n once, shoot a blacktail deer, ideally in the head (so it don’t suffer), gut it (keeping heart and liver), then schlep its (sad but beautiful) carcass like Aeneas bearing Anchises on his back (except, you know, dead) down the mountain in an open invitation to the local brown bears, of which there are many, inna grunting guise we calls “an open-face sandwich”. (One of the best dinners I’ve had is with a buddy, anchored out in Whale Bay, having fresh liver and onions with two — count ’em two! — kindsa single-malt scotch, one a which was delightfully peaty.)
‘Member going to school in Ann Arbor in the early ’90s. ‘Member getting slagged on for hunting, which I totally understand and even sympathize with. (Had my own crisis of conscience about killing animals. For good or ill, and you can chime in!, got over it.) But came to the conclusion that we are all responsible for the harm of animals in some way (eat meat, wear leather, get vaccinated, etc.). Think some folks can drastically minimize their exposure, which I understand and respect.
But: I spend the entire summer killing fish. So folks can eat ’em.
It’s glib and even evasive, but it’s the best I can do: It’s their own fault they taste so good.
Raven
@ola azul: If you can’t kill it you shouldn’t eat it.
“And some folks say he’s up there still. . .”
ETA, the whitetail around here a big rats.
OzarkHillbilly
The miracles of modern science.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
They have a fun variety of seeds. I also got “Irish poet something, something”. They look like they’ll be a rangy, leggy annual with small, intense orange flowers. I didn’t look up the botanical name- if they’re actually something ordinary like a zinnia I don’t want to know :)
I grow flowers for cutting and I’m always looking for new ones.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: Nance is an optimist. I will believe Trump winds up paying a consequence for anything, including perjury, when I see it happen.
Also IMHO, Rs didn’t impeach Clinton because he committed perjury. That was just the excuse. They impeached him because he was a D (and therefore in an office they believed they owned) and because they wanted to even the score for Nixon.
I seem to have woke up crabby. Sorry. I haven’t had coffee yet.
ola azul
@Raven:
If you eat meat, this, to me, is the most direct, succinct, honest expression of human sustenance. It is not, however, one I expect of the multitudes. But: Not taking responsibility for the ramifications of one’s diet *can* lead to some, shall we say, interesting evasions of one’s complicity in our glorious circle of life (and death).
OzarkHillbilly
I was reading the National Geographic yesterday and the article mentioned work being done with the Subaru telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory. It’s name comes not from the car manufacturer’s fiscal support of the project (as far as I can superficially tell, they have nothing to do with it) but rather the fact that ‘Subaru’ is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. (Wikipedia says, Construction of the Subaru telescope began in April 1991, and later that year, a public contest gave the telescope its official name, “Subaru Telescope.”)
Which is a long way of saying I now know the logic behind the Subaru logo.
zhena gogolia
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
When you think of the coverage they gave MONICALEWINSKYMONICALEWINSKYMONICALEWINSKY back then. Stormy Daniels? Access Hollywood? Meh.
Patricia Kayden
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: The attacks on Beto have been quite ugly but I like him. Most of our candidates are excellent and all would be better than what’s in the White House (except perhaps Tulsi Gabbard).
Baud
Apparently, Gillibrand was not officially in the race, but now she is.
Kay
My son’s gf’s 3 year old was with us for the day yesterday while they worked. He helped me set up the bird bath and then sat in front of the kitchen window. He wouldn’t move. He said he was waiting for the birds. He had his coat on, hood up. Just ready for action when the birds arrive “for their bath”. You can’t just toss of phrases with him- he’s dead serious :)
He told me our truck is “not a dump truck”. Duly noted, Mr. Professor.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Yes they do and growing stuff I can’t get elsewhere is the main reason I garden. I’m always trying new to me stuff.
In flowers this year I got
Pacific Beauty Mix and Snow Princess Calendula (a medicinal plant I am growing only for their very striking appearance)
The stunning Rubra Pink Crepis (came with a 45% germination rate warning. I fear this may be the last year they are selling them)
and Gilia Globe
(amongst others)
My main goal this year is to get in some ground covers so that not only do I not have to spend so much time mowing weeds, things will actually begin to look like a garden/s. As usual tho, I have bit off more gardening projects than I can chew this year. We’ll see how successful I am.
bago
Originally to deliver a cure for diphtheria to Nome…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn7HvnMJZd4
Yeah…
Gelfling 545
I too had infection issues and needed surgery on my right index finger after getting bitten while separating two pugs. The bite looked to be about the size of a pencil point. I’ve never recovered full use of the finger and frequently look rude as I have to use the middle finger for former index finger actions.
ola azul
@OzarkHillbilly:
Clover!
Always hated mowing. ‘Member when my wife was alive, we hadda place in south Fla. (ways south a MissCracker). Made her a deal. I’d bed the entire backyard and dog-run (side a house) and the front yard with sea-shells so’s I wouldn’t have to mow the fucking yard. To my astonishment, she either agreed or callt my bluff, not sure which. But (if mem’ry serves) after blanketing the entire surface area with that black woven plastical shit so’s to stop the (ha!) weeds and 13 yards (coupla dumptrucks was involved) a shells for coverage later, we hadda ground-cover that din’t need to be mowed and our two dogs was honored to shit upon.
Baud
@ola azul:
QFT
JPL
The president’s tweets are making as much sense today as they did yesterday. He’s complaining about the one-sided late night shows and SNL in particular. Maybe the FEC or FCC should look into the shows.
BTW SNL was a repeat of a X-mas show. It’s not apparent that he knew that it was a repeat even though there were decorations.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kay: I’m so glad you still get to see Mr. Professor!
NotMax
@bago
For those with kids or grandkids, they’ll enjoy the movie Balto, loosely based on the famous lead dog of the team that made that run to Nome in 1925.
Trivia: After death, Balto was stuffed and is on display in a museum in Cleveland.
OzarkHillbilly
@ola azul: I will be using stone here and there, but finding the right stone at the right price is the trick. No matter what I do tho, I’ll still be mowing the weeds, too much ‘yard’. But with judicious use of ground covers I can easily cut the time it takes in half just by filling in the odd corners and smoothing out the ruff edges.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
So they’re back together again?
germy
satby
I set up my seed starts last weekend and virtually everything germinated already. So I may try a second round of starts as I move the germinated stuff under the high intensity grow lights. Which I still have to hang, and it looks like I’ll have no choice but to do so in the basement. So far 3 heirloom tomato types, mexican zinnia, and some other microscopic seed that I forgot (I just have to look at the package). Now debating what else to plant.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: “in defense of American rule of law” was a phrase from him I read yesterday. Had to buy a new keyboard.
NotMax
@satby
Thinking soap-wise, ever tried growing lavender?
ola azul
@OzarkHillbilly:
Any time saved from mowing is a victory. When hadda place in Michigan, hadda push-mower (just blades that spun n snippt). If I hadda mow, that’s how I preferred to do it.
Expect we ain’t never free of maintenance (life, love, yards, boats, what have you).
Funny you mention stones, tho’. Rose supplemented the yard with shells (conchs, periwinkles, welks, sand dollars, etc.), mostly on trips to Sanibel and Cayo Costa. My answer was to find purty rocks to put on toppa them smart-ass weeds that impertinently poked thru the sposedly impenetrable black plastical shit that was sposed to not entertain their imperious life-force.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I love calendula. They reseed like crazy, but they all go back to “type”- plain orange :).
I started with 5 different ones. I love how the leaves smell.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Most of my tomatoes and peppers came up, the brassicas were so-so. I started some flowers Friday, hope to start some more in a week or 2..
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
“Are we the baddies?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWvpvlT9pJU
bago
I never thought I would have ti utter the phrase “weaponized waterpiks”…
But.
https://twitter.com/DineshDSouza/status/1106527483246071808
JPL
So president bone spurs is informing everyone that McCain was last in his class at the Academy.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I like the sound of that. I am putting in several flower “beds” (actually tilled up and composted places here and there in the areas I don’t mow) that I am seeding with perennial wild flowers and, I hope, others that are prolific reseeders.
They say “Calendula flower is used to prevent muscle spasms”. As a long time sufferer I may give it a try.
Eric S.
@PsiFighter37: Run fast.
I have the StL half April 8. I pay a full month of training to small having injuries. Now i’m on a crash testing course. I know I’ll be doing a run- walk combination.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: It’s a question one should always ask.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Which is untrue (894 of 899) but I laud the president for bringing up the subject of class rankings and in the interest of fairness encourage him to release his own college records.
debbie
@Raven:
Nice to see so much green when they are talking about goddamn flurries here this afternoon.
Another Scott
‘morning everyone.
ICYMI – AL.com:
She had a huge mountain of crap to try to clear up – it would have challenged anyone. It’s not at all surprising that she made the choice to leave.
I hope she lands on her feet in a better position soon.
Cheers,
Scott.
ola azul
@Kay:
One a the more famous literary conceits (which you might know all about already) is an associative train a mem’ry spurred by the taste of madeleines in Proust. Goes on for pages and pages. ‘Member reading this passage to my wife (she liked to be read to, which was convenient, cuz I liked reading for her). Contrasts voluntary and involuntary mem’ry, rooted in place.
We had gardenias in bloom, just a little later’n now, if mem’ry serves, and their intoxicating luxuriant smell inspires a similar revery.
Gin & Tonic
@OzarkHillbilly: I once planted one Asclepias in a raised bed in a sunny spot. I now have them everywhere. They’re a fairly attractive plant, nice flowers, attract lots of bees and butterflies, so I can’t really complain, but they reseed themselves prolifically.
debbie
@JPL:
Check this out at :40. I couldn’t stop laughing!
rikyrah
@Kay:
So adorable ?
debbie
@Another Scott:
I’m not sure we’ll ever get past this “fake news” shit.
satby
@NotMax: I did at the old place. And used the buds in my lavender soap or infused the oil I used occasionally. But to distill the essence from the plant is more effort than I want to put in, so they were more for aesthetic reasons ?.
Speaking of, I need to make charcoal lavender soap today. Added to the list.
debbie
@Kay:
What a great way to spend a day!
debbie
/sniffle/ Poem a Day remembers W.S. Merwin:
Uncle Cosmo
@ola azul: Has it occurred to you yet that you have to work 3x harder to make your posts sound like they were block-printed by an ignorant hick than you would if you just told the goddamned stories? Apparently not.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Raven:
Very nice. I can almost inhale the pollen from here!
Uncle Cosmo
@debbie: OMGOMGOMG is Merwin gone???? NOOOOOOOOOO!
My Perfect Master and Hero of the Zeitgeist! Too soon, too soon by half a life…{bawl}
ola azul
@Uncle Cosmo:
Good morning, Uncle Cosmo. Yes, I am well, thank you for your interest. Are you OK? Am worried about you with that stick up your ass.
rikyrah
Get the ENTIRE Phuck Outta Here ?? ?
Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) Tweeted:
Short-sighted politicians & media pundits who’ve spent last 2 years accusing Trump as a Putin puppet have brought us the expensive new Cold War & arms race. How? Because Trump now does everything he can to prove he’s not Putin’s puppet—even if it brings us closer to nuclear war. https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1106952515793403909?s=17
NotMax
@debbie
Friend lives in a tiny cottage on the Merwin property here (complete with an outhouse and outdoor rainwater-fed shower). Merwin and his wife Paula had put great effort into reclaiming the extensive land they bought out past the middle of nowhere, including maintaining a large and varied palm forest, designated the Merwin Conservancy.
Glidwrith
@satby: We are out of your wonderful soap, but your shop won’t open until 3/26. Whatever shall we do (makes woeful face)?????
StringOnAStick
@ola azul: I’m a long time rock climber and hoping to be back on the sharp end this summer once my bionic conversion is complete, though watching people free solo knots my guts, hard. I do plan to watch that movie but I’ll probably wear my bite splint so I don’t crack a tooth from stress!
satby
@Glidwrith: sorry Glidwrith! I have it on hiatus while I wrestle with redesigning it or just ditching it because of the increased fees. Send me a message about what you want and I can send you a PayPal invoice for it.*
* Edited to add: if I decide to d/c the Etsy I won’t do it without proper warning and a longish timeline. But a real retirement has been calling me to come play with it, and next year I just might.
debbie
@NotMax:
Wow, I had no idea he settled down in Hawaii.
As a college dropout, I palled around with poetry majors at Dartmouth and learned to love Merwin.
oldgold
Yesterday I attended a St. Patrick’s Day parade with my grandchildren.
Near us were African-American, Hispanic- American and Laotian families enjoying the parade and all dressed in some form green attire.
Standing there, watching the floats and bagpipers parade by, while the families along the route clapped and smiled; hearing the high-pitched joyous voices of the kids; I thought, this is one helluva lot better than Trump thinks it is.
JPL
@debbie: He’s a treasure.
germy
Here is my understanding of our cat’s psychology:
Right now it’s almost 10am, and she’s still lying on our bed. She never sleeps late. She usually goes to bed when we do, curled up at the foot on my wife’s side. She’ll get up occasionally during the night to eat or look out the windows at night critters. Then she’ll return at dawn but raise a fuss if we don’t get up and let her into the living room.
But early this morning, about 5am, I heard a racket downstairs. She was scratching and banging on a window. I went downstairs and saw a cat outside staring at her. Our cat was outraged seeing this cat on our property. Finally, the interloper wandered off. Our cat returned to our bed.
“Why is she still in our bed?” my wife asked. I think it’s because she wants to reassure herself that it is HER bed, her place with us. And no outside cat will take her place.
A few years ago we watched the PBS NATURE show; an episode about snow wolves. The whole show you see them howling and running around. Our cat stared wide-eyed at the TV for the full hour.
Early the next morning I found that she’d pooped right outside our bedroom door. She was apparently sending a message to the wolves: Keep away from my people.
Glidwrith
@satby: Awesome! {Does happy dance}
satby
@oldgold: I miss my old neighbors in Chicago on St.Patrick’s Day, where everyone is Irish for the day and boisterous fun is the rule. I’m a Southsider, where in protest of the politicians dominating the downtown parade all that sort are allowed to march at the back, while local non-politicians get pride of place in front.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie:
It all begins to make sense now. ;-)
Glidwrith
@satby: Awesome!{Does happy dance}
debbie
@JPL:
NPR just did a tribute to him. By the end of it, I was online reserving a documentary about him, Even Though the World is Burning.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Little did I know back then…
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Back in the late 70s, early 80s I hung out with folk musicians and singer song writers. Now just look at me.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Do you know how to get a singer songwriter off your front porch?
Pay for the pizza.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Nothing like music to make a person anti-social, amirite? ;)
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
/Belly laugh!/
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Ha, same for me, but five years earlier. Folk music brings you to a bad end are you saying??
JPL
@oldgold: How nice. I imagine that he never experienced true joy.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Fuck you. ;-)
satby
Oh no, zulilly sells plants. I’m in trouble.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
If you could see me you wouldn’t bother asking.
debbie
@satby:
And at that age, I was listening to Muddy Waters and Mississippi John Hurt. That has to be why I’m such a good person. //
JPL
@debbie: I started researching poems for children, even though my grand son is only five plus weeks old. lol Thank you for reminding the absolute joy one feels when reading poetry. It’s yoga for the mind.
Ode to my shoes Francisco X. Alarcón
my shoes
rest
all night
under my bed
tired
they stretch
and loosen
their laces
wide open
they fall asleep
and dream
of walking
they revisit
the places
they went to
during the day
and wake up
cheerful
relaxed
so soft
Amir Khalid
@ola azul:
Uncle Cosmo is trying to make the point that you seem too full of yourself to take in. An “I gotta be me” writing style loaded with rustic affectations might gratify you. But the reader trying to make sense of your writing and understand you has to work so much harder, for no more reward, than he needs to with other commenters. I was taught this as a professional writer: your priority is to help readers get to your meaning. Putting stylistic and orthographical hurdles in their way for the sake of self-expression is vanity. It wastes their time and makes it too easy to misunderstand you.
If there’s anyone here with a stick up their butt, it’s not Uncle Cosmo.
StringOnAStick
Last summer I received a lovely gift card for my favorite xeriscape nursery and in the fall I placed a huge order, with the plan of finally getting around to a redesign and new hardscaping of one garden section that has just never looked good. Our yard is very small and Is adjacent to designated Open Space that I want to complement, not aggressively contrast with. Then I finally did my bad knee in, got a replacement 6 days ago, and all these plants will be showing up 5 weeks from now so that’s going to be a bit of a challenge. I think the new hardscaping has to wait. Thankfully the neighbor can help me; I designed their total conversion from grass to plush looking xeriscape and helped her install it 10years ago. It will be fun to work that closely with her in the yard again.
* I have got to say that kindle’s aggressive attempts to change my prose is irritating as all hell!
schrodingers_cat
OT problem
All the lights and displays in my 10 year old Kenmore fridge seemed to have stopped working overnight. Everything in the fridge seems cold as do things in the freezer. What could be wrong.
WaterGirl
@Kay: They must be back together? You must be happy to still see the little one you had grown fond of.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: The displays and lights on your fridge are broken?
Sorry, that’s the best I can do. Well, that and “Call a repaiman.” which I’m pretty sure you already figured out.
debbie
@JPL:
That would be perfect for a children’s book (if it isn’t already)!
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Can you reboot a refrigerator?
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: I did unplug it and plug it back in. No change. Also tried to see if that socket works by plugging in another device in it. It does.
Amir Khalid
@schrodingers_cat:
Have you tried the old “turn it off for a while, then turn it on again”? If you have and it didn’t work, I got nuthin’.
Kathleen
@PsiFighter37: Good luck!
Kathleen
Anne: So sorry to hear about your injury but glad it appears you are on the mend.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
If you didn’t keep the instruction manual, I’d bet you can find one online for your specific model.
ola azul
@Amir Khalid:
Aren’t you more comfortable maundering on (with others, talking about me, not with me) about how you vacillate back and forth on whether to pie me or not? Isn’t that more your speed?
It’s metronomically regular — someone starts whinging about how I write, and in sails Amir Khalid, concern troll par excellance, wanting to splain communication to me. Cuz I just. don’t. gettit. And with your paternalistic didactic admonishments, maybe there’s a chance! Go you!
Does fuck you work for you? Cuz fuck you works for me.
I was nice with you pendantic hidebound assholes for a very, very long time. No more.
Pie me. Do. Not. Care. It’sa drama queen move to get all Hamlety over whether you do or don’t pie me, specially when you could just as easy scroll by and shut the fuck up about your problem, but you just gotta be *performative* in yer disdain, amirite?
There are those, and I know you will find this shocking, who can understand what I write w/little or no difficulty. Some even profess to enjoy it! I know, color me astonished, too!
What is especially rich is how so many pedants who make free to slag on me will themselves slip into colloquialisms or tactical bad grammar or deliberate misspellings or what-not, but wanna accuse me of an affectation. I talk like this, they don’t — so who’s got the affectation? Who’s inauthentic?
I write how I talk. Sometimes it’s proper. Sometimes it ain’t. But I ain’t yer monkey, Amir Khalid, so I suggest you learn to pie or scroll, cuz if I cannot impress upon you that it’s purty fucking presumptuous and galling for you to tell me how to write, like it’s *my* fucking problem you gotta stick up your ass, then I expect we got nothin’ to talk about for the time being.
StringOnAStick
@schrodingers_cat: Sounds like a problem with the display function, likely a control panel board is kaput.
I recently bought werebear’s cat behavior book, and it is a treasure! I thought I knew cats but she’s on another plane of existence. We had dispaired of ever getting our 1.5 year old sisters to respond to us calling their names, asking them to hop up into the couch with us, just generally show a sign that they recognize we are speaking to them. The book says to sing silly songs with their name in it; three times yesterday I got the smart one to instantly lock into me and hop onto my lap. It was like flipping a switch and suddenly our relationship is so much deeper. The other sister might be so much bigger but she’s still a kitten in brain and easily distracted so maybe this will work for her later. Teenagers for sure right now.
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: I just downloaded it. The fridge came with the house, we moved here two years ago.
Kathleen
@Eric S.: Be careful! Run/walk is a good decision. I trained with Galloway group and several runners hat PR times in marathons doing run/walk.
ETA: Will you ever do half Pig again? I’ve been toying with the idea but not sure I have the juice this year.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
Good. If you have time, you might want to download manuals for all the stuff that came with the house. Better to have but not need than the reverse.
The manufacturer must also have a helpline.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s what I was about to say. Something similar happened with my oven a few years ago. EVERYTHING was on a single board, and the appliance repair guy said it would be 1,000 to replace it.
Luckily, my appliance repair guy was an old-timer with some skills and he did something with his soldering iron to make it work again. May you be as lucky with your repair person as I was!
OzarkHillbilly
@ola azul: I don’t have a dog in this fight and really don’t care, if it flips your wig, go for it. But I feel the need to point out something.
Writing is a form of communication. Presumably you come here to communicate with the people who reside here. Communication is a 2 way street, the one ‘speaking’ and the one ‘listening’. Right now you are communicating to the ‘listeners’ “My way or the highway” which is fine as long as you understand that you are incentivizing people to ignore you.
Which kind of defeats the purpose of commenting, doesn’t it?
And for the record, I nearly always read the first line or 2 of every comment you make but when you get too deep into your ‘patois’ or lingo or whatever, I skip the rest, especially if it is a longer comment. Which is too bad because you have worthwhile things to say.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: We’ve had the same appliance repair guy since we moved out here and he has been a godsend. A year or 2 ago he started having seizures and was no longer able to drive.
Shit.
The Pale Scot
In mind of the guy who banished snakes from his land, (God he’d have his work cut out for over here);
Irishwomen travels to the Bronx, Irish dancing mania ensues.
“Everybody’s hopping around”, principle says in broad Bronx accent
Cali pro surfers the Malloy Bros. go to Ireland and help out at a surfing camp run by Richie Fitzgerald that brings kids from both sides the border (that doesn’t exist for now at least (F you DUP). I set the the start point at where the film is about the camp. Nice surfing scenes before that, the visuals are beautiful
And there’s a music program run by Irish language immersion summer school Coláiste Lurgan that translates pop tunes into as Gaeilge. Many to choose from, here’s Avicii’s Wake Me Up by Seo Linn and a cast of hundreds. Click on the TG Lurgan icon for more
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: I may have already told the story of how, when my father was learning English, somebody told him that John Steinbeck was considered a good writer. So somewhere, no idea where, he picked up a copy of “Grapes of Wrath.” It was unhelpful, although he joked about it later.
The Pale Scot
@schrodingers_cat: Circuit boards should be banned from house appliances. My sister has a 30+ yr old Kenmore washing machine. Periodically a motor or timer or switch needs to be replaced. In the same time period my mum went thru 5 washing machines.
It’s likely that if you live somewhere with “dirty power”, fluctuations in voltage and amps, the board that runs your display screen got dinged. Replacements can be expensive. Keep a thermometer in the freezer and live with it if the ice maker is still running. Second hand fridges can be a good value.
Gin & Tonic
@The Pale Scot: Great NYT story. Reminds me that the artistic director and choreographer of one of the leading Ukrainian folk dance groups in the US is a Puerto Rican from the Bronx
ola azul
@OzarkHillbilly:
You’re not invested in this, and you call it like you see it. Fair enough.
Yes, some peeps have repeatedly unburdened themselves as to their disapproval of how I write (which, from *my* perspective, feels very much like “my way or the highway”).
I am fully prepared for some to ignore me. That’s fine. I ain’t everybody’s cuppa gumbo. What’d be nice if folks would keep it under their bonnet and either pie or scroll by. I don’t go picking thru the manifold defects in the writing of others, even those who repeatedly chime in on my horrendousness, cuz that would be petty and unkind.
Which is kinda the point behind my objection to the periodic dogpiles — they are petty and unkind.
(But I do appreciate your measured signal flare.)
The Pale Scot
@The Pale Scot: Frack, here’s the surf camp vid
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Shit for you, and for him. Sorry to hear that for all concerned.
Note to self: make sure everyone you rely on for medical, professional and legal services is younger than you. :-)
CaseyL
OK, I’m getting in on the fight:
I like ola azul’s style.
It does require a tiny – tiny! – bit more time and attention, but it creates a distinctive voice and conjures up a distinctive mental image. I have fun reading ola’s posts and creating a series of mental images of the speaker.
Uncle Cosmo
@ola azul: I have not the slightest interest in the “concern” of a Bogus Incoherent Hayseed. Let me invite you quite cordially to unearth up one of your rusty farm implements & fuck yourself with it.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
1) 10-y-o Kenmore is end of life?
2) unplug it for 30 seconds, plug it back in to reboot?
3) ? … i give up all I got is the first two.
We have an older Kenmore, french doors on top, freezer drawer below. The top french doors are hard to get closed, the alarm that sometimes beeps when the doors stand wide open never beeps when the doors are just ajar.
Sears is repeatedly going bankrupt due to the Ayn Rand philosophy of the venture capitalist who bought it, and then bought it again at the bankruptcy sale. He has various departments in his stores competing with each other, not how companies are supposed to work. The competition is other stores, not your own store!
And of course, trump has imposed a tariff on imported fridges~!
edit to fix paragraph break, etc.
Gin & Tonic
@CaseyL:
Which quite certainly do not reflect reality.
CaseyL
@Gin & Tonic: That’s… not the point. It’s just fun.
ola azul
@Gin & Tonic:
You never fail to take the low road when given the opportunity, do you?
And you know that how? You base that on what? Enlighten me about me.
(Or is the moment in which you get all high-minded and say you don’t care, even tho you cannot resist putting your petulant oar in the water and splashing it in circles.)
Gin & Tonic
@ola azul: I was responding to CaseyL, not to you.
J R in WV
@ola azul:
This sounds just like a Trump tweet, thoughtless, ungrammatical, cruel and racist, towards someone who aimed to give you good advice.
I grew up in an area where people from way up the hollows sometimes nearly needed a translator when testifying in court, because their speech was so Elizabethan and archaic. My local wife helped other reporters from away understand this speech. The elderly witnesses couldn’t help it, they never were around people who spoke proper English as they learned how to talk. You can, but don’t.
My elderly next door neighbors’ great grandparents moved up the hollow where we live now when Native Americans were the only folks living here. When they were kids you still needed strong horses to go to town. Woody worked as a teamster back when that meant putting harness on the team. They spoke more correct but antique English than the potage you type up.
I know college professors, PhD folks, who talk a little folksy with farmer neighbors…. that’s a natural thing in an area with many dialects, and I do it too sometimes. That is not what you are doing.
You are doing a condescending and despicable put on, pretending to be lower class and doing it poorly, for odd reasons we can’t even guess at… if you actually talk like your comments here, dog only knows what your friends and neighbors think about that!
Troll, also, too.
ola azul
@Gin & Tonic:
That’s sorta true. But … not really. Yes, you were responding to CaseyL. But point being: You were opining *about me* to CaseyL.
If you are going to passive-aggressively make snide remarks, Gin & Tonic, it’d be nice (and honest!) if you’d one, own it, and two, do it directly.
And you could answer the question: You know what you claim how? You base it on what?
Or, alternatively, if you can’t or won’t answer the question, you can shut the fuck up. You might try that, too. Cuz your options are: 1. you know what you’re talking about and can make a convincing case to back up what you’re saying; 2. you don’t know what you’re talking about and you look like a petty chickenshit for saying it; or 3. you could refrain from making comments about me, and then you and I won’t have to interact, which neither of us enjoys.
(For a guy who airily professes not to care, you sure seem determined to get your digs in.)
CaseyL
OK, enough with the pissing contest.
To return to the topic: I had the opportunity to meet a bunch of mushers and their dogs a few years ago, when I took an Alaska cruise. And I have to say, those dogs !LOVE! mushing. We visited a few sledders and at every single one, the dogs yipped and whined and jumped up and down waiting to be harnessed. Once in, they took off like bats out of hell. I was impressed with their speed, their enthusiasm, and their general joie de vivre.
ola azul
@J R in WV:
Is that you hyperventilating again? Or are you bed-wetting this time? Aren’t you the fabled pie-king? You are a very silly reactionary man who loves nothing more’n declaring peeps trolls. Howz’bout you go fondle your precious pie-filter? You’ll feel better.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: if the mental image includes “Christ, what an asshole” it may be spot on.
debbie
@CaseyL:
I can’t help but wonder how the driver above knew the two dogs were arguing about a bathroom break.
ola azul
@satby:
And right on cue, here comes the sweetheart of the grammar rodeo. Yes, *I’m* an asshole for objecting to *you* acting like an asshole. Go with that. It’sa fitting look.
Uncle Cosmo
@schrodingers_cat: Check the circuit breaker; if that’s OK, test the outlet itself (or move the plug to a different outlet, which is probably easier). If all else fails, look in the instruction manual to see if there’s a fuse in the box itself that might have blown. Recent fridges do a foine job o’ holdin’ th’ cold** – particularly if the fridge & freezer compartments are fairly full – & it may not have been powered off long enough for the contents to warm up significantly.
And if none of that pans out, keep the doors closed as much as possible & call a repairperson. Good luck!
(ETA: ** Posted in shanty-Oirish brogue on account o’ th’ holiday: Top of the Irish to ya!)
schrodingers_cat
@Uncle Cosmo:
Is there a fuse box in the fridge? I am confused. I tested the outlet, it is fine. I also plugged the fridge in a different outlet.
Gin & Tonic
@ola azul: Thank you for reminding me that I was foolish to rise to the bait. You go your way, and I’ll go mine. It’ll be easier, since your stylings are, in fact, difficult for me to read (cf. my story about my dad and “The Grapes of Wrath”) and I skip them after a sentence or two.
Why you take the trouble to do it escapes me, truly, but if you are the bumpkin you “act” on these pages, then I am the Pope of Rome.
Uncle Cosmo
@OzarkHillbilly: The
posterposeur in question apparently spends most of his time with his head up his patois. He claims he “writes like he talks” – if he thinks like he talks, he’s simply a fucking imbecile.@Amir Khalid: Shout-out in the direction of the near-Antipodes for the weighing-in.
Uncle Cosmo
@CaseyL: Pro tip: If that sort of style appeals to you, Sam Clemens did it better 135 years ago in Huckleberry Finn. You might want to dig up that work of literary merit instead of wasting precious minutes of your life deciphering some Fuckleberry Fake.
ola azul
@Gin & Tonic:
The “bumpkin” tag is your, I would argue, uncharitable and inaccurate assessment. Think the bad grammar and deliberate misspellings unduly colors your judgment in that direction (cuz apparently one leads to the other in your mind), but whatever.
If we might could coexist in peaceful avoidance, I’d take that as a kindness.
Uncle Cosmo
@schrodingers_cat: Honestly I don’t know. If the manufacturer has a hot line (yeah, I know, doubtful) they might be able to tell you. I was just going down a mental list of all the ways the current might be getting interrupted before it got to the guts of your fridge. (Here’s something else equally unlikely – has the beast or anything near it been moved, which might have pulled out some connection in the plug or where the cord attaches to the inside?)
schrodingers_cat
@Uncle Cosmo: We put in the a new pipe that connects to the ice-maker last week.
ETA: I have located a Sears appliance service technician too and am currently studying the instruction manual.
Mohagan
@Amir Khalid: Word! I read the first two posts he made and then started skipping them because they were too much work for the benefit received. ETA plus that pseudo rustic I find annoying.
J R in WV
@ola azul:
Now I’m a “very silly reactionary man”??? Jeez, how far wrong can you get? Do you even know the definition of reactionary, politically?
Right now the only folks actually on my filter list are folks who have been banned.
You’re not there, for example. I do admire the Pie Filter as first developed by cleek, and later enhanced by Major^4, it’s a great piece of work by good software folks! Fortunately real bots get banned pretty quickly, and then eventually I remove those names from the filter list.
You are obnoxious, but probably not a Russian troll, and not spreading much hate, except for a little on people who prefer real grammar. You be you, Blue.
Plato
Gawd, the ‘regular’ judgmental assholes are in full force in this thread. No wonder Cole can’t attract any new readers/posters. Talk about own goals.
Uncle Cosmo
@schrodingers_cat: OK, so has the icemaker been working OK? Hopper full of ice but not too full? There is always the off chance that the motor dumping the ice into the hopper froze up & while trying to break up the frosty constipation burned itself out… but I kinda doubt it. Read the manual, listen to the tech, don’t take advice from guys like me. Good luck!
Uncle Cosmo
@Gin & Tonic: Doncha just love it when someone jumps on this blog & in a mere handful of posts strips off his hillbilly-wannabe act & to show the dissembled faithless what an utter jerk he is?
Helzbelz, if it’s that easy to provoke the hypersensitive Dunning-Krugered into frothing at the mouth (or the other end of his GI tract, which he is probably more used to speaking from), maybe we ought spend some electrons trying to lure a certain former-“reality”-TV-“star” over here so we could do society a favor.
Reminds me of a story about an astronomy department that invited an out-of-town prof to give a seminar on some topic (might have been crater counts on Mars) where the visitor profoundly disagreed with one of their own. The attending faculty laced up their metaphorical golf spikes & with great gusto stomped him – after which the department chair rubbed his hands & said loudly, “Well, that was fun – now let’s go get a beer!” :^D
Aleta
(Via Cheryl Rofer’s twitter)
sgrAstar
@StringOnAStick: this is so fun! I’m a climber too- started in California at the usual beloved places and have gone on to travel far and wide in pursuit of that perfect line. I’ve always wondered if there were other climbers here.