Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Bark louder, little dog.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

This fight is for everything.

I really should read my own blog.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Everybody saw this coming.

Republicans in disarray!

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

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

“Squeaker” McCarthy

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

We still have time to mess this up!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Faunasphere / Friday Morning Open Thread: The Cetacean ‘Spy’ Who Came In From the Cold

Friday Morning Open Thread: The Cetacean ‘Spy’ Who Came In From the Cold

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… Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries official Jorgen Ree Wiig told The Washington Post that the beluga “was the first thing I saw outside of the window” of his patrolling ship in the morning. Speaking from the city of Hammerfest, he said the whale had moved only about 25 nautical miles within the last week and appeared to enjoy the proximity to humans, which he noted was “strange” for a beluga.

Contrary to the species’ normal behavior, the beluga had allowed residents to pet its nose over the last few days.

The whale was first spotted by Norwegian fishermen last week, when they noticed that the whale defied normal behavior by persistently harassing their boats. The fishermen subsequently spotted a strange harness wrapped around the whale’s body.

Wiig said an inscription on the harness they later recovered read “Equipment St. Petersburg.” He said he had handed the harness over to Norway’s special police security agency (PST).

No details over the status of this probe have been made public, and the PST did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday…

In this part of Europe, nobody would be surprised if the latest Norwegian discovery did indeed turn out to be the fallout of a military experiment gone wrong. Since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, there have been creepy reminders of the Kremlin’s massive military apparatus lurking on Europe’s eastern outskirts: mystery submarines; unidentified jets, including one that almost crashed with a passenger plane; and strange troop movements…

Per the Guardian, this beluga could well be a escapee, or a ‘washout’ dumped by its former captors:

… During their research the Murmansk sea biology research institute concluded dolphins and seals were much more suited to the training and arctic climates than the beluga whales. The whales were deemed too sensitive to the cold and did not have the same “high professionalism” of seals, which had a far better memory for remembering oral commands.

But it was Vice’s Motherboard that reported a key detail:

… From their patrol ship, Rind, the men tried enticing the whale with cod fillets. While seemingly comfortable around humans, even allowing them to touch it, the whale wasn’t getting close enough…

In a final effort, Hesten dove into the water and undid one of the straps. Using a tool “handcrafted to free entangled whales,” he pulled on one end of the harness while Wiig pulled on the other from a rope that he’d affixed to a different strap.

“Suddenly, it was loose! First we thought that the rope had been ripped apart but then we saw the most enjoyable thing in the water: the whale was loose from the harness,” Wiig said…

Not to mention the most Norwegian quote of the week:

(My late mother-in-law emigrated from Norway. After many years of uncertainty, I don’t pretend to understand Norwegian humor, but at least I can pick up when it’s happening.)

Reader Interactions

133Comments

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    That line about Yngve and his knowledge of Russian profanities is classic.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    One can livestream super slow TV of Norwegian caviar aging.

    Previous Slow TV projects aired by Norway’s state-run network NRK include several hours of knitting, 12 hours of a fire being built and maintained and 100 hours of chess being played.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Breitbart demands whale be dissected to find Hillary’s e-mails inside in 3…2…1…. //

  5. 5.

    JoyceH

    @NotMax: I watched part of the Slow TV knitting program- there was a bunch of crazy women knitting a Harley cozy!

  9. 9.

    Anne Laurie

    @NotMax: The Spousal Unit claims you can understand a lot about Norwegian humor (& Norwegian culture in general) by remembering that it developed under the intense pressure of spending six to eight months every year confined to a small cabin in the dark with all one’s relatives. Slow TV seems, IMO, a facet of this.

    (He also points out, when the topic comes up, that his ancestors shipped most of their manic berserkers off viking, to contaminate the genes of the Celtic lands & even the Rus. The Norwegians who remained were gifted with stoic endurance.)

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    @Anne Laurie

    “Okay, time for bed, kids.”

    “Aw, Mom, can’t we stay up until this program is over? It’s just getting good.”

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jay:

    An extraordinary threat requires an extraordinary response, one that the hidebound foreign-policy establishment couldn’t imagine. Someone unburdened by expertise, like Trump, could break out of that rut. And it was Skinner’s job as head of policy planning, “the only foreign-policy think tank in the federal government,” to backstop the president by providing the “intellectual architecture” for the Trump Doctrine.

  17. 17.

    sukabi

    Not so stealth flying killer whale…

    Very impressed with the freshmen class of representatives.

    UNDERWOOD: I’m a nurse, and I’m a co-founder of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, and I can tell you that for far too many women in this country, pregnancy can be dangerous, or even deadly. One of the judges that blocked your rules wrote that they would cause over 70,000 women to lose contraceptive coverage. 70,000 women. 70,000 women whose lives and health depends on their ability to have access to contraceptives. Your actions, YOUR ACTIONS, SIR, are denying science, and putting American women at risk.

    Video at the link, Rep. Underwood is very good in her questioning.

  19. 19.

    Anne Laurie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Everything I know about Norwegian bachelor farmers I learned from the Prairie Home Companion

    Keep in mind: Garrison Keiller wasn’t Norwegian himself — his people were from a rather dour Scottish clan!

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Reports of military sexual assaults jumped by 13% last year, but an anonymous survey of service members released Thursday suggests the problem is vastly larger. The survey results found that more than 20,000 service members said they had experienced some type of sexual assault, but only a third of those filed a formal report. The survey number is about 37% higher than two years ago, when one was last done, fueling frustration within the defense department and outrage on Capitol Hill.

    Gee, I wonder what changed?

    Gen Robert Neller, commandant of the US Marines, said Thursday that his troops “cannot truly be loyal to our nation without first being loyal to each other. All Marines must be involved in preventing and addressing sexual assault and harassment.”

    Col Kathy Turner, an army spokeswoman, said leaders must enforce standards to ensure a healthy command climate and prevent sexual misconduct by soldiers.

    The survey found that young and junior enlisted women between ages 17 and 20 were most likely to experience sexual assault. In the vast majority of the cases the alleged perpetrator was a military man, often near the same rank as the victim and usually someone she knew. The report also found that nearly two-thirds of all incidents involved alcohol use by the victim and/or the offender.

    Galbreath said the department had to reassess why prevention programs were not working as well with younger troops and adjust those efforts to better reach them. Programs that worked a few years ago, he said, were no longer effective.

    Gee again, what changed?

    According to the survey, 21% of the women who said they reported a sexual assault also said that they suffered some type of retaliation aimed at stopping them from making a complaint.

    Hmmmm… Still don’t know what changed but it’s pretty plain what didn’t.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    “We figured the whale might be Russian, but we don’t know so much Russian words except some quite bad ones Yngve knows from his days working as a fishermen, so we tried to just talk Norwegian to it.”

    Send in Buttigieg. He speaks whale!

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning.

  28. 28.

    Immanentize

    Good morning, All.
    I was supposed to go to a conference in San Fran today, but instead I will be staying in Beantown to be the Immp’s Uber-Dad for his school formal (and harbor cruise) tomorrow night. He got his first suit, which had to be purchased at the store that caters to the Celtics. Not joking.

    But the

  29. 29.

    Immanentize

    Calling Kay!

    Has Ocasio-Cortez been reading Kay’s comments on B-J?

    One of the things that genuinely surprised me in Congress is the sheer mediocrity of witnesses called forth by the GOP in hearings.

    Yesterday they brought in a guy w/ a polka dot bowtie backed by oil lobbyists arguing that fossil fuels are “healthy.” HEALTHY.

    It’s embarrassing.

    Linky

  31. 31.

    JPL

    Friends who are long time Bernie supporters visited for a few days, and they are determined to support the nominee even if it’s Biden. Everyone is concerned about the level of power that trump is asserting.

  32. 32.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I know. I’m sure I had an extra thought,
    but the coffee needed drinking.
    But the sun got in my eyes.
    But the car had a flat tire….

  34. 34.

    JPL

    @Immanentize: She’s good. The new democratic women Freshmen are using their platform to ask real questions, rather than just to bloviate. I’m amazed by several of them.

  38. 38.

    satby

    @Immanentize: I remember how hard it was 20 years ago getting things that fit 6’5″ # 1 son.
    #2 son is a shrimp at a measly 6′ even. Both tower over me.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    Immp’s Uber-Dad for his school formal

    Fun. I love Prom Season. Ours is next weekend. Some boys are coming here to get dressed and I’m going to give them dinner. Ours eat at houses before- boy and girl groups separately- and then they get dressed, join up, and go to the dance. The girls are always freezing. I think all prom dresses come out of a central facility in Ft Lauderdale, FL. It’s too cold in May for these dresses!

  42. 42.

    debbie

    @sukabi:

    This religious freedom garbage has me screaming at the radio again. Now it appears even receptionists can refuse to check-in a patient! These bastards will never get all they deserve.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    The documentary on Netflix about the candidates who challenged incumbents last cycle is good. Anyone who has been active locally with Democrats anywhere will recognize all the “types” of supporters. Boy, was her opponent complacent. I have to say though he was decent to her all the way. One of his supporters said she was an “idiot” at an event and the incumbent shot right back with “she’s not an idiot”. Manchin’s challenger didn’t have a shot in hell so this may be why he was generous, but Manchin called her after the race and said he would meet with her to talk about the issues she says he ignores.

  44. 44.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: My son’s formal is for everyone at the school -+ although it also is understood as the senior’s event. You do not need to have a date and this takes huge pressure off of everyone. Straight and gay students arrive with who they like, groups of boys or girls (dateless) go together. No one “takes” anyone else. It really seems so much kinder than my highschool experiences.

  45. 45.

    plato

    With nearly 50% in, cons have already lost nearly 500 council seats, labour has lost 75 while libdems have gained over 325 seats and indies gained over 225 seats.

    brexshit is fucked now, I guess

  46. 46.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: That really does sound like a winning formula — even if you lose, you don’t lose ugly.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    They all do that to a certain extent now. That’s how we ended up with the home parties prior- so many of them go in as singles in groups. They used to go to restaurants in groups of couples, but there were so many “singles” going that that stopped making sense. You’re right- it’s much better and I bet more fun. I want to make them a real sit-down meal but my son is objecting to that- says they will want snacky food. I think he’s wrong (I’ve done this before) so I’m trying to persuade him otherwise. Eating together makes the thing. I dress it up- candles, the whole works. They’ll like it. I blew it when I told him I would make “mocktails”. I always have to push it, right? “Mocktails” were a bridge too far- he saw this going off the rails and into crazytown! He doesn’t like when I treat them like they’re cute, which they are :)

  52. 52.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    He doesn’t like when I treat them like they’re cute, which they are :)

    Am not!

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @rikyrah:

    At another point, a kid asks Sanders, “Did you know you look like somebody on Back to the Future?’”

    LOL

  57. 57.

    Patricia Kayden

    Russian Beluga spies defecting to the West would make a great thriller.

    The whales were deemed too sensitive to the cold and did not have the same “high professionalism” of seals, which had a far better memory for remembering oral commands.

    Interesting. I never thought of seals as professional. Trump should put one in his administration. Would be a big improvement on the “best people” he has now.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    FWIW

    Democrats’ Progessive Wing Less Powerful Than Thought? Alexandria Octavio-Cortez and other firebrands aren’t steering the ship. Yet.

  65. 65.

    zhena gogolia

    @rikyrah:

    Good. I think people just haven’t been paying attention yet. She’s going to get a lot more support when they do, IMO.

  67. 67.

    zhena gogolia

    @zhena gogolia:

    She has that strength and intelligence that Hillary has, but she hasn’t been dragged by the media for 30 years (yet).

  72. 72.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @OzarkHillbilly – yeah having been there, back in the 90s I am saddened to see that not much in the military has changed, and if I could go back and change something I did , I would not have reported my attempted assault. Let’s just say NIS (now called NCIS) were and are, not the good guys they are portrayed on TV. They wanted to make the incident go away, so they did. They nearly torpedoed my career at the same time, so win/win for them I guess? The experience really opened my eyes to the fact that the cops are NOT always the good guys and made me think twice about ever calling them for anything again.

  76. 76.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Baud: Best part of that piece? “Sanders declined to be interviewed for this article”

  77. 77.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Patricia Kayden

    Completely random thought: I wonder if they actual meant sea lions and not seals? The reason I wonder is that on one of the Navy bases I was stationed on the seal lion training pens were on my way to work and you could hear the sea lions yelling to each other every morning. I’m not really a fan of using wild animals to look for bombs etc…

    Here’s an article about the US military and their marine mammals –

    https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140328-navy-dolphin-sea-lion-combat-ocean-animal-science/

    “A 2011 media demonstration in San Diego Bay, California, featured a former U.S. Navy SEAL attempting to infiltrate the harbor with an unarmed mine. The Navy deployed dolphins and sea lions to patrol the area, and both caught the diver on every one of his five attempts. The sea lion even managed to attach a clamp to the diver’s leg, and handlers on the surface reeled him in like a fish.”

  79. 79.

    Steve in the ATL

    The whales were deemed too sensitive to the cold and did not have the same “high professionalism” of seals

    Beluga whales are from Florida? Huh.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Right? Who wouldn’t love a nice mocktail. It’s the word, I think. If I had just shut up and made them he would have been fine. He thinks I’m teasing him and to a certain extent I am.
    I love how he is with me these days- “absolutely not”. He used to just go along with these things.

  84. 84.

    mere mortal

    So, this story about the white whale has me thinking two things.

    First, the folks at WaPo must have cabin fever from the Trump dumpster fires, to take such a deep dive into this bit of news.

    Second, I feel a little bit like Captain Rogers when he had to pony up the ten bucks to Nick Fury.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan are running out of places to espouse their views online.
    ….
    In addition to Jones and Farrakhan, Facebook also kicked out right-wing extremists Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer and Joseph Watson, who works for InfoWars; white supremacist Paul Nehlen, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016 and 2018; and Jones’s company, Infowars. The groups will also lose their accounts on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.

    https://www.npr.org/2019/05/03/719897599/facebook-bans-alex-jones-louis-farrakhan-and-other-dangerous-individuals

  88. 88.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Steve in the ATL:

    The Congressional Progressive Caucus is bigger than ever; it boasts 96 of the 235 Democrats in the House as members. But the New Democrat Coalition, a bloc of more moderate members, is bigger than ever too, and it now includes 101 members.

  89. 89.

    Leto

    @Anne Laurie: Sisu! Recently read a book about the Norwegian lifestyle and that was a prominent component. Similar to hygge for the Danes.

    OT: I have my PT in 90 minutes but I’ve been up since 5am. Multiple cups of coffee down, small breakfast had, pretty sure I’m ready. Avalune bought me a new small backpack for me to transport a few of my medical supplies, as well as my handicapped parking tag, for these visits. I get to test that out today. I’m sore. Good sore, but still sore. I’ll probably be ready for a nap when I get back.

    I don’t have anything to say about the assaults in the military because I still haven’t seen substantive change. We got a few more PowerPoint slides but nothing fundamental has changed. Blech.

  90. 90.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The newer members probably love “firebrands” but what comes thru in the documentary with her is she’s calculating in a good way. She thinks all these moves thru. There’s a funny part where she compares her mailer to her opponents mailer and she’s right- his is terrible. For one thing he didn’t put the date of the primary on it. She says one flyer was created by an organizer and the other was created by a consultant and there’s truth to that. The Establishment don’t have to adopt the ideology to listen to the suggestions on HOW to do this. This is broadly applicable.

  91. 91.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I went to a run down Catholic high school in Detroit. We didn’t have a prom. Rumor was it was because there was a rummage sale in the gym.

    Then my son went to this neo-hippie school that didn’t have a prom either. It was the kind of place that let anyone who wanted to be on whatever athletic team they had, though they didn’t have to play if they didn’t want to. My teacher DIL now rolls her eyes when my son describes his schooling.

  93. 93.

    Raven

    @Kay: Our was weeks ago and graduation is in two weeks. The daughter of wonderful friends has the choice of about 10 schools but, even though she is Hispanic, the cost is overwhelming and she can go to UGA for free with the Hope Scholarship.

  95. 95.

    tobie

    @sukabi: I like that Underwood studied hard and developed expertise in public health policy and is now using her position in Congress to cast a spotlight on how this administration is endangering public health. I’m also impressed with how Katie Porter brings her teaching experience and legal knowledge to bear n questions of finance and wages.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    @Kay: Yeah, Crowley phoned it in. But good for us, because AOC has been very good since she took office.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Speaking from a 70% Trump county where we run statehouse candidates and US House candidates every two years, I am a little annoyed at the whole “how HARD it is beating the establishment Dem machine!” thing. Her race was an upset and she deserves all credit for busting ass, but she’s talking to people who are voting for a Democrat. That first barrier doesn’t exist in her race. Our candidates have to take people all the way from voting for Republicans to voting for a liberal Dem, which is hard as nails. I think the liberal insurgents vastly underestimate this journey.

  102. 102.

    chopper

    @Raven:

    raven, dunno if you saw my post in yesterday’s thread, but i had a crazy-ass run in similar to your neighbor. guy on a clear psychotic break who was trying to get away from the police decided my house was the place to go, and ended up kicking my front door in. got tackled by a million cops in my living room.

    no tasers or anything, just 1000 pounds of cop jumping on him.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The Missouri insurgent challenger is talking to a voter in the film and voter says “we never had a choice I guess. In Democrats”

    He’s a voter who limits the field to Democrats. She’s half way there. That’s not true in R areas. They start so far back it’s a huge win to get to “I might consider a very specific Democrat, but probably not you, for this reason that will be ever-shifting”

  104. 104.

    Tony Jay

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Not to speak for Plato, but I think the basic message from these local elections seems to be that pro-Brexit parties have taken a massive kicking, anti-Brexit parties have seen their vote skyrocket, including large gains in areas that voted Leave quite strongly in the 2016 Referendum, while Labour has failed to capitalise on Conservative weakness because its balancing act over Brexit has been painted as being wishy-washy and neither pro or anti enough for either opinion.

    You can tell how bad the result has been for the idea that Britain Wants Brexit by the volume with which the Tories and their enablers in the BBC Politics department are screaming “Bad Night for Labour! Britain demands Brexit!”

  105. 105.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Our side definitely has blinders when it comes to thinking our experiences are universal.

  106. 106.

    plato

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Because, the cons party and the ukippers which pushed brexshit heavily lost heavily. Wishywashy labour lost moderately.

    Remainers like libdems won handsomely along with indies and greens.

    Now corbyn is saying that may be his party should support another referendum. I don’t see how theresa, who is now a lamer duck, can push her my way or highway brexshit agenda any farther more than she did in the last 3 years.

    eta: Tony Jay beat me to it while I was following the bbc live feed.

  108. 108.

    Baud

    Sounds like there was a good jobs report today. It’s really the only thing buoying Trump’s approval numbers.

  109. 109.

    Steve in the ATL

    @rikyrah:

    Nicholausa Wants Kamala for POTUS! (@acidsaltydame) Tweeted:
    I love how I am seeing “if Kamala doesn’t win… she’d make a great AG.”

    It’s May 2019.

    Kamala has been an AG already.

    We want her as POTUS

    Oh come on—AG California is not AG USA

  110. 110.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I think not. They do a much better job knowing what sells to voters in different areas. You don’t see them kvetching over fairly moderate governors who get elected in blue states, for example.

  111. 111.

    plato

    @Tony Jay:

    Who is this nutjob “Professor” Sir John Curtice “Polling expert” with hot takes like this?

    Finally, although UKIP look as though they may not perform as well as the party did in 2015, when it won 13% of the vote in the general election, it is still scoring more strongly than it did in 2018.

    This hot take on a fading party that has a loss to win ratio of almost 4 to 1.

  113. 113.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: You should read the bullshit they send into the local red state rag. They don’t even try to engage in a discussion, because everybody already knows they are right.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    Rebecca Ballhaus
    ‏Verified account
    @rebeccaballhaus
    10h10 hours ago
    More
    Stephen Moore on why he told the @WSJ he wouldn’t withdraw from consideration for the Fed board post, hours before Trump said he had withdrawn: “You may think I misled you. But it is what it is.”

    See, the problem is they all lie, so what ends up happening is no is accountable. I don’t know that we had a plan for this. It’s difficult to catch any one of them because it’s entirely possible that he was lied to, too.

  115. 115.

    Belafon

    I joke that I’m learning Spanish so my dogs will finally understand me.

  117. 117.

    tobie

    @Baud: @Kay: Like Kay, I live in a district that is over 70% Republican. We worked our butts off in 2018 to get a Democrat elected to the House and still lost resoundingly. The 2018 Blue Dog Democratic candidate got 38% of the vote. This was actually an improvement over 2016, where the then Sanders-style Democratic candidate got 28% of the vote. I don’t know how you make inroads in such a district.

  122. 122.

    different-church-lady

    @rikyrah: If the sum contents aren’t the statement “Because they’re racist as all fuck, Jim,” followed by 45 minutes of light music, then they’re just wasting my time.

  123. 123.

    Tony Jay

    @plato:

    It boggles the mind, doesn’t it?

    Yeah, Prof. Three years after the Referendum, in strongly nationalised ‘local’ elections held mostly in rural, pro-Leave districts, amidst a deafening campaign accusing the ‘political elite’ of betraying Brexit and calling on Leavers to ‘send a message’, and with the Tory vote collapsing, the party most associated with Leave does so strongly that it…. loses seats, wins no councils and sees the anti-Brexit Lib-Dems and Greens suck up all the protest votes.

    You wanna get your political hot-take emitter looked at, Prof. Yours is proper wanked.

  125. 125.

    rikyrah

    @plato:

    Now corbyn is saying that may be his party should support another referendum.

    I know I’m across the seas, but, he absolutely SUCKS…shoulda said this years ago.

  127. 127.

    Procopius

    @Immanentize:

    I loved Omar’s questioning of that evil rat, Elliot Abrams.

    I enjoyed her questioning, and I despise the hypocrites who accuse her of anti-semitism even when she says nothing about Jews, but I don’t think we’ve yet found a way to get at the basis of their crimes. I regret just a little that I’m not a resident of her district, because I’d sure be glad to be able to vote for her.

  129. 129.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    At my high school the student body voted to do away with such frippery and to donate any money which had already been budgeted for a prom to anti-war groups.

  130. 130.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    @Anne Laurie: Everything I know about Norwegian bachelor farmers I learned from the Prairie Home Companion

    When we moved to our holler, there was a pair of Appalachian Bachelor Farmers next door, with a different heritage, but many of the same traits. They were really helpful and happy to share their knowledge and tools.

    I enjoyed their company a lot, and learned about farming in general, and tobacco farming in particular, which was their tiny cash crop. They managed on about $3,000/year all their lives. Somehow.

  131. 131.

    Raven

    @chopper: I missed it. The best I can understand is that as long as this dude was in his house they couldn’t do anything. Crazy shit.

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