I’m not sure bear spray is going to be a deterrent any longer.
=================
BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — A bear went on a wild ride on the Fourth of July, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said.
On Thursday night, officials said a bear pulled open an unlocked door and climbed into the vehicle.
After the door shut, the bear tried to get out. Instead, it “butt-shifted” the vehicle into neutral and it rolled backward down a hill about 100 feet.
The car hit a tree, popping open a door, allowing the carjacking bear to get out. But the vehicle was left undrivable.
Open thread
dmsilev
I trust it was cited for driving without a license?
burnspbesq
Right out of a Farmers Insurance TV spot.
Snarki, child of Loki
How many of us should have tried using this excuse as a teenager?
Anyone? Bueller?
lumpkin
I’ve seen pictures at Whitney Portal in California of cars where bears have grabbed hold of the door above the window and bent the steel door out enough to break out the window. They recognize food and drink containers left in cars and will tear up the car to get at them.
satby
@burnspbesq: first thing I thought when I saw this story.
Another Scott
It looks like the car was totaled before it even started moving. (Look at the interior.)
The doggie backseat hammock seems to be in pretty good shape though!
Cheers,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT!
mrmoshpotato
The bears are giving Toonces a run for his money.
rikyrah
@burnspbesq:
That, and a sink hole video from this weekend in Maryland..someone was like..
I wonder when it will turn up on a commercial…LOL
debbie
@burnspbesq:
Ha! I was thinking Allstate’s Mayhem.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@rikyrah: I missed that, but I remember years ago in Glen Echo Park, MD (alongside the Potomac), a parking lot opened up and ate a bunch of the cars that were parked there for some event.
Glen Echo is a defunct amusement park but still used for other things. We used to go to square dances there.
Baud
The Fast and the Furriest.
Another Scott
ICYMI, Stephen Robinson at Wonkette’s takedown of Dowd’s Pelosi piece:
Just a taste:
Read the whole thing.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@lumpkin: I think I’ve seen some seagulls at the Jersey Shore who could do that.
ThresherK
@lumpkin:
Our only trip to Yellowstone was twenty years ago, and even though it was winter our guide gave us all the info on the local fauna. A then-new factoid was that bears had started recognizing the sight of food canisters, instead of just the smell of food.
That was several generations of bears ago and the bears aren’t getting any dumber.
TaMara (HFG)
@Baud: You win the internets for today. Where would you like them sent?
Jeffro
Greetings from Ketchikan, folks. I’m about to set off on a kayaking “excursion”…bears don’t like to swim much, I hope? ?
Barbara
@Jeffro: Bears are excellent swimmers. They can also climb trees and run very fast.
Spanky
@Jeffro: Grizzlies wil … when they’re hungry.
James E Powell
@lumpkin:
I saw the same thing in Sequoia & Kings Canyon. The rangers had a wall of photographs to encourage people to make sure their cars were completely empty.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Just how open is this open thread? I have a weird question about German culture but I don’t even know if there’s anyone here who knows the answer.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I blogged about sentence-level revision, using a passage from my work in progress as an examples.
Spanky
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Knowing the answer is never a criteria for an internet comment.
Fire away.
Jeffro
@Barbara: zoils! I’ll keep to the middle of the river, then…make ‘em work for it if they want a nibble ?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Spanky: We were in Heidelberg, an old university town in southern Germany. And right in the middle of this big department store was a department of dirndl’s. These things. Racks of them. A window display too.
This is traditional costume like you might wear for traditional performances. Or put on as a costume in the US.
Why are they selling them next to the sportswear in the department store? Who is buying them in enough quantity to justify that? I don’t recall seeing anyone wearing them on the street.
Also: Never saw anyone swimming or wading in the Neckar River, except for one couple who was playing with their dog in the water. Is there a pollution issue?
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
Just lasso that griz and he’ll pull you around that bay with scarcely a paddle.
Real Alaskans waterski behind them.
otmar
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: ask. I’m Austrian, not German, but I know our neighbours.
SFAW
Somehow, “Colorado bear” does not roll as trippingly off the tongue/keyboard as “Florida/Floriduh man,” but outside of that …
PS: Which raises the question: do we know for certain that the “bear” wasn’t actually some guy from Floriduh in a bear costume?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: I’m a Pelosi fan, but two media figures no Democrat should ever talk to (unless they’re willing to treat said media figures with open, mocking disdain) are Tweety and MoDo
Gin & Tonic
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: You’ll see entire stores devoted to that kind of stuff in Bavaria. Lederhosen, dirndls, obscenely expensive plumes for men’s hats. Some is sold to tourists, but there are occasions where the local folks like to dress up like that for dances or festivals that – and here is the key – you are not invited to.
TaMara (HFG)
@Jeffro: You know the rule – you don’t have to swim fast, just faster than the person next to you.
Amir Khalid
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Tut mir Leid, ich weiß sehr wenig über deutsche Kultur.
Frankensteinbeck
@Another Scott:
This article is good in some ways, but its critique of Pelosi revolves around that one sentence. Most critiques of how Pelosi is handling this revolve around that one sentence. That sentence is bullshit. If the House impeaches Trump and the Senate acquits, there’s no actual consequence to his lawlessness. The Senate will acquit. Period. So stop fucking judging her on the idea that punishing Trump = impeachment. I support impeachment, but I know it won’t change much, so if Pelosi doesn’t leap straight to doing it and takes other considerations into account I’m not going to bitch about it.
chris
@trollhattan: “Ski this one, pilgrim.”
Tall Tom
No picnic baskets were recovered at the scene.
Just One More Canuck
He was looking for the pic-a-nic basket
ETA – Dammit, Tall Tom beat me to it
The Dangerman
@lumpkin:
Yup. If it ain’t bearproof, it ain’t shit. Locked or unlocked, a bear can open a car door like we open a can of tuna.
rp
@Frankensteinbeck: I think impeachment by the House is a punishment, regardless of the Senate’s actions. Only two Presidents have ever been impeached, so it would be a significant black mark for the public and historically speaking. More importantly, Trump would see it as a significant black mark.
Frankensteinbeck
@rp:
It would make no practical difference, however. It would embarrass him, but not rein him in in any way. So while I support it, it’s not a giant must-do and it pisses me off that people act like Pelosi is refusing to stop Trump. She’s not leaping immediately into a largely symbolic action that would annoy and embarrass him.
Gravenstone
My (then) 5 year old nephew did that once at a family gathering. Climbed into his grandparent’s car and managed to disengage the parking brake. Car starts rolling backwards down the driveway towards the road. Fucking Chinese fire drill ensues as we all come swarming out of the house to stop it before it can reach the road, or the ditch beyond. Successfully, but he did get a couple half hearted swats on the backside for his misadventure.
otmar
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Dirndl are worn
* at certain events. For some, Sunday mass is a good enough excuse, parish fairs for sure, traditional weddings, Trachtenbälle (Balls that have traditional dress as dress-code). These are usually the real stuff. Very localized patterns.
* Oktoberfest knock-offs. These things pop up everywhere these days and people visit them in the most absurd dirndln I have ever seen. Even in Vienna.
* And they are good to make good money from stupid (but well-off) tourists.
If a store is selling them in larger quantities, it’s reason 2 or 3.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Gin & Tonic: I guess I think of traditional dress as something performers wear, but obviously this is something ordinary people buy and wear, more often than I would have thought.
Another Scott
@Frankensteinbeck: Yup. He went off the rails there.
Still, the takedown of MoDo was delicious. Not that it matters, of course.
Cheers,
Scott.
MomSense
@Frankensteinbeck:
I have a feeling this is about timing for Pelosi and giving cover to Dems in conservative districts who are going to need more public airing of evidence before they agree to impeachment proceedings.
I also have a feeling she knows some of what may be coming his way with the Epstein and other cases. Fortunately she is not a wimp and will weather whatever noise she has to. In the meantime, liberals/progressives would be smart to direct their ire at Republicans in the Senate, especially Mitch.
Frankensteinbeck
@MomSense:
My guess is that she’s slow-walking it until next year, so Trump’s crimes can be a major feature of election coverage.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Hear fucking hear, and let it echo throughout the land, o’er hill and dale, from Queens to Telegraph Hill, from the Justice Democrats to the Sunrise Movement, from The Intercept to Jacobin
donnah
Just in passing last night I caught part of a news bit on TV where a bear rescue place keeps them safe until they they can be released. And they use them as product testers for inventors who want to create bear and weather-proof containers for camping or garbage cans. There is a time limit given for the product and if it survives the bear test, it’s approved.
Apparently bears can smell food fifteen miles away and if they smell it, they go for it. The containers they showed in the news were filled with fish parts and pbj sammiches. Yummy for bears, I guess. And the containers took a big beating.
scav
@Gin & Tonic: My cousin, when he worked in Germany for a German company, went to at least one business party where everyone wore traditional dress. This was up near Frankfort and I got the impression it was an annual event, not a one-off.
SRW1
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Here’s an article (in German) in the regional paper (Stuttgarter Zeitung) from 2015 about the water quality in the Neckar:
https://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.schwimmen-im-neckar-nicht-erlaubt-nicht-verboten.e4476d09-71d8-4001-a2ff-2d8d93fbe31b.html
The title of the article says that swimming in the river Neckar is not prohibited, but neither is it recommended. Apparently, the river was quite a stinking mess 100 years ago. Even about 1968 it was classed as ‘very heavily polluted’. By 1985 it had been ‘upgraded’ to merely ‘heavily polluted’, by 1988 to ‘critically stressed’, and by 2003 to ‘moderately stressed’. That apparently also is how it stayed until 2015 ( the time of the article). As a consequence, swimming in the river was not recommended, but neither was it prohibited.
I went to high school (gymnasium) in a small town on the Neckar in the 1970s and I would never have thought of swimming in it.
CaseyL
@donnah: I love that! OMG, that sanctuary could make great googobs of money if they filmed the bears testing the containers and then offered it as pay-per-view. I could watch for hours.
Also – I heard a story some years back that the Park Service in Yellowstone also tests its “bearproof” lockers by letting an old lady grizz have a go at them. She’s apparently famous for breaking into “bearproof” stuff.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@otmar: Ah thank you. That clears up a lot.
And if “dirndln” is the correct plural that confirms my despair at ever getting any real proficiency in German. Particularly the plurals.
Elmo
When I lived in the Eastern Sierra, there were a number of bears that would roam the neighboorhood. Our local police dept had a full-time “Bear Control Officer” with two Karelian Bear Dogs.
One day I went out to my driveway to find my 1987 Jeep Cherokee with three windows broken out and the fiberglass tailgate torn completely in half, as apparently I had overlooked toothpaste that had fallen out of a grocery bag. The toothpaste itself was in one of those hard plastic “pumps,” not a tube, and the pump had toothmarks all over it but was otherwise intact. I told the BCO to look for the bear with the minty-fresh breath.
The Town gave out stickers for placement on dumpsters, to warn people not to dispose of food trash in them. I got one for my Jeep after that, and made lots of people laugh with the torn-off tailgate above the bumper sticker that read:
“NOT A BEAR PROOF CONTAINER.”
rp
@Frankensteinbeck: I disagree. I think it would have a pretty significant practical impact on him b/c of the media coverage and the public perception. And I think it would accelerate his decline by causing a major melt down, making it impossible for folks to avoid discussing the 25th amendment.
Steve in the ATL
Has anyone posted this article yet? Republicans across the land are having spontaneous orgasms as their union busting fantasies come to life, and middle class shrinks even further:
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/trump-nlrb-eliminates-hurdle-to-employers-kicking-out-unions?inf_contact_key=f52530da8871f0e4905495024cb627ebf651f238aa2edbb9c8b7cff03e0b16a0
#WASF
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: Make sure to start each day rubbing your skin with a salmon fillet! ?
Sloane Peterson's knee therapist
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The dept.store’s backlog is probably the result of trump’s Merkel Dirndle tariff.
Jeffro
@mrmoshpotato: Oh sure, sounds like great advice there ??
Kay
I’d like to see the other case. Let’s take bets on whether that person was wealthy and well-connected too.
We have a corruption problem in the United States. It’s at the root of all the other problems.
I went to a funeral on Saturday. It was for a 21 year Air Force veteran, a geologist and meteorologist, so not a combat person. His son told a story about how he had taken a pen from his dad’s briefcase to take to school and his dad made him walk back in from the driveway and return the pen because the pen is Air Force property. It’s probably true too- I knew him and he really did have high standards. Something else too- given the absolute (and inappropriate) worship of the Trump Administration of the military. I knew him after he retired from the Air Force and he never once told me he was a veteran. I knew him as a farmer. Other people told me, because I wondered where he spent 20 years after leaving here and then returning to the family farming operation, but he never did.
We could pick people like that and promote them instead of promoting such bad people. That’s possible. Attainable.
sukabi
@Jeffro: You’ve heard of polar bears haven’t you?
jl
Heard a news clip of Trump babbling that they are going ahead with the printing of census survey forms, and he will ‘probably’ try to get an addendum with a citizenship question added later. Trump sounded like he thought you could print up a bunch of post-it notes and slap them on the census forms, or photocopy a bunch of yellow sips and staple them onto the end. Or, God knows what he is thinking.
I guess that is good news. Census will get things ready without a poorly designed and bogus citizenship question, and Trump can whine about the dastardly and very unfair Deep State, which is never nice to him, foiling him again to rile up his base for the election.
Edit: though of course, Trump is likely to say or tweet to opposite tomorrow.
oatler.
“Unedited Footage of a Bear”. Classic bearage!
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Was your self-effacing friend with high moral standards a Republican or Democrat?
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: You’re welcome. No charge.
MattF
Seems that Bill Barr’s father was head of the Dalton School in NYC and gave Jeffrey Epstein his first job, teaching the young’uns there. Yes, that Jeffrey Epstein, and that Bill Barr. Small world, I guess.
dmsilev
@jl: Wait until he finds out that there’s no money in the Census budget for an addendum and that if he wants one he’ll have to ask Nancy Pelosi to allocate the funds…
dexwood
But, Yogi, the ranger won’t like this.
Fuck the ranger, Boo Boo.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I see that Eric Swalwell is dropping out of the presidential race to run for the House again. That’s a good thing.
rikyrah
@MattF:
WITHOUT A COLLEGE DEGREE
germy
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Good!
germy
@MattF:
“There are no strangers in the aristocracy of success.”
– S.J. Perelman
dmsilev
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wait, chanting ‘pass the torch’ over and over again wasn’t a sure path to the nomination? Shocking!
the Conster
@rp:
The media loves Trump. They’re all his buddies, especially Jeff Zucker. It is not 1974 when there were only 3 networks covering the Select Committee hearings, and there is no guarantee that cable news would give up any of their commercial time to even cover it. What is it about the word *impeachment* that will compel the WH to comply with House subpoenas, when they’ve already stonewalled every request? The House would just have to go TO THE SAME COURTS they’ve already asked to back up their Article I oversight demands. Impeachment hearings without evidence or testimony is going to be exactly what?
Barbara
@jl: I think the judge was kind to the government attorneys. I would have told them that “tweets” don’t count. They can either use the process for reopening and file a brief — like, by Friday before the holiday weekend — to state the government’s actual legal position or stand on their prior representations.
MattF
@germy: Dear Leader thinks he’s great:
rikyrah
SDNY indictment against Jeffrey Epstein charges him with enticing children to engage in sex acts at his NYC mansion and also uses conspiracy count to charge similar conduct occurring in Florida. Strategic move to bypass the Acosta non-prosecution agreement.
— Barb McQuade (@BarbMcQuade) July 8, 2019
Barbara
@the Conster: The degree to which people believe against all evidence that Nancy Pelosi (or Barack Obama for that matter) has magical powers, while at the same time excusing others from carrying out their plans is evidence of something.
otmar
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yes, it’s “ein Dirndl” and “zwei Dirndln”.
Additional German smart-assery:
The same word can also mean “girl” in the Bavarian/Austrian Dialect.
The word derives from “Dirn”, a very old word for women. The “-dl” is a diminutive affix (similar to -chen, -lein or -rl).
Plato
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
I don’t know. I suppose I could look it up. If he votes in a primary in Ohio he has to declare. His wife is an (active) Democrat, which is unusual around here, although she’s a moderate. She’s one of those “why can’t they ever get anything DONE?” people- she’s very practical. I haven’t asked her yet, although we talk about politics, but I would bet she’s a Biden gal. I know she doesn’t like Bernie, from 2016.
germy
@MattF: Conservatives are making a big thing out of trump ordering him out of one of his resorts because he made a pass at the daughter of one of trump’s guests.
There are certain rules, apparently. One of them is to restrict his victims to young women who lack important parents.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
sounds like a sad year book signature from your sophomore year of high school: “Dude, I can’t believe Miss Crabtee’s seating chart put me next to somebody as rad as I am!”
Kay
@MattF:
That quote makes my skin crawl. I don’t know- maybe I’m too conventional. This person and his gross associates and low quality hires should not have such powerful positions. They’re ordinary thugs. If they hadn’t inherited wealth they would all be in and out of prison. Career criminals. Maybe some accountability when they were younger would have stuck and we wouldn’t have this situation where we have people who should have entered the justice system in their 20’s and come out the other side just now running into accountability at 50, 60, 70 years old. It’s too late.
the Conster
@Barbara:
Every criticism of Nancy Pelosi puts a lipless grin on Mitch McConnell’s chinless face.
And the irony, lost on all the IMPEACH NOW screamers, is that Pelosi is preserving the rule of law by demanding that the courts uphold the House’s Article I powers WITHOUT calling oversight requests *impeachment*, because if the courts won’t affirm House subpoenas as part of their Article I oversight duties, then the executive branch will NEVER comply with them again. What a horrible precedent to set, and it means we’ve already lost.
Kay
@germy:
That’s the key difference. The social status of the victims. Some girls get legal and other protections from predators and some do not. Just Us rather than justice.
rikyrah
Why is it so hard for people in the press to spell it out.
PEDOPHILIA
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
THIS is what this man peddled in.
Don’t dance around it. Say it with your chest.
SFAW
@scav:
Did Traitor Turtle attend? I always figured him to be more partial to Russia, than to German festivals, but …
Amir Khalid
@otmar:
Since you’re here, I have a question. I’ve always wondered: is Mädel a diminutive of some other word? And why are so many common words for a female person — Mädchen, Weib, and so on — neuter nouns?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Credit where it’s due, Eric Swalwell made a funny.
(or one of his staffers did)
and the Berniebots are predictably outraged at Dave Weigel.
SFAW
@germy:
Was that reported by Jacob Wohl, perchance? Because I have a tough time believing the Pedophile-in-Chief would ever order a “brother” out of any of his properties.
Kay
Still associated with Harvard, still making big bucks, still makes appearances as an expert.
Seriously. Why do out elites have such low fucking standards? You have to poison a whole city and even then, they’ll hire you unless there’s public outcry!
Barbara
@the Conster: Right, it’s the equivalent of using the debt ceiling as a budget policy cudgel. It’s untenable for any normal order of governmental oversight of the executive branch.
Timurid
@rikyrah:
It looks like SDNY is hoisting the Jolly Roger.
I wonder how Barr will respond to this…
Mo
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I see people have answered, but the answer is that Germans break out their dirndls for formal events. I worked at an Ivy, where fancy parties are “black tie or national costume.” I had a German friend who was on the list for some those and always broke out her very fancy dirndl from home. She said it saved her money, it was a gift from her grandmother, and she could just wear the same thing to every party. Also, the chit chat small talk about dirndls was vastly preferable to the usual boring chit chat and meant she got to talk to interesting people who wouldn’t have introduced themselves to her otherwise. It also meant she met every German person at the parties, in case she ever moved back.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Was trump’s guest a lady with an accent named Ivana?
the Conster
@Barbara:
Exactly. Mitch McConnell and the GOP have broken the Constitution that the impeach now screamers demand to be upheld by only 1/2 of 1/3 of the government, when the only way to get it back is to vote them all out in 2020. If I were Pelosi, I’d just keep drip drip dripping information that comes out of the Committee investigations, and hope that this Epstein ugliness gets smeared all over every GOPer. All of his properties were surveilled, and there’s a server somewhere containing all the dirt that will explain A LOT about why they all rolled over for Trump.
Doug R
@SFAW:
Those Colorado bears are clever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13UcsAr0quc
trollhattan
@chris:
10 Quatloos for the “Jeremiah Johnson” ref.
Elmo
@Steve in the ATL: Thanks Steve. Directly relevant to my own professional work as well as yours.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Bears need a field goal kicker
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
There is a Bear in the woods. For some people the Bear is easy to see. Others don’t see it at all.
Aleta
From the thread @rikyrah: pointed out:
@BarbMcQuade lanswered a few questions
Not That Michael Cohen @mdcohen
Can you explain how it bypasses the federal agreement and how it isn’t double jeopardy?
Barb McQuade
Charge is conspiracy, which is different from substantive offense for double jeopardy purposes. Also, he was never charged. SDFL promised not to charge, but it cannot bind other districts.
GallopingGoatGang @GallopingGang
Indictment seeks forfeiture of his townhouse at 9 E 71st but not Palm Beach residence. That must be because of jurisdiction?
Barb McQuade @BarbMcQuade
Yes, but it also includes substitute assets, so that if he sells his mansion, feds get the money upon conviction.
Sue Parmet @SueParmet
Enticing?
Barb McQuade @BarbMcQuade
“Enticing” is the word used in the statute. The allegations are that he lured his victims to his home with money.
Death Panel Truck
“I swear to God, Officer, it was a bear! No, I’m not drunk!”
otmar
@Amir Khalid: According to the Duden, Mädel is a diminutive of Magt.
joel hanes
Black bears around Yosemite’s Tuolomne Meadows trailhead have long ago learned to push their claws through the rubber window seal gasket and pop the side window out of the door, rendering locks ineffective.
They’ve also learned that they can rip their way through the back-seat upholstery to get to foods locked in the trunk.
Photos of the aftermath are prominently posted at the trailhead ranger station.
Michael Allen
@lumpkin: Replying to a bear related post about a hundred feet away up above:
My friends left a cooler chest on the floor in the back seat of their car. A bear bent the back door window frame out, breaking the window, but didn’t get in. I guess it couldn’t figure out the door lock.
Meanwhile, that bear trashed car is a Subaru Impreza about twenty years old, or possibly a Saabaru from then. So really, no great loss.
J R in WV
@Frankensteinbeck:
I agree. I think the impeachment vote in the House should be in very late October, as in hours before the election, which IIRC is November 2nd. So a House vote on Halloween might be the plan.
I’ve said this many times before: Not wanting a vote on Impeachment NOW is not the same thing as not wanting a vote on Impeachment EVER. Far from it.
Pelosi is a master of timing, and here that is a critical element of the strategy she is trying to implement.
Origuy
I think Dirndln are like kilts in Scotland. Most men have them and wear them at weddings and ceilidhs; you don’t see them often on the street. Some men wear the kilt regularly, especially upper-class men with titles.
oatler.
@Origuy: Lord Summerisle wore one in 1973.
StringOnAStick
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Those are costumes for Oktoberfest, people definitely dress the part and it’s not disposable wear, they put some money into it.