Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

A consequence of cucumbers

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

The revolution will be supervised.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The lights are all blinking red.

Fuck that bum, let’s go Joe!

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

“But what about the lurkers?”

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Must Be Autumn, Already

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Must Be Autumn, Already

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255Comments

  1. 1.

    Lapassionara

    I’m sure the world needs hard coffee. And we don’t need Susan Collins in the Senate.

    Good morning.

  3. 3.

    p.a.

    I remember a coworker’s experience when Mike’s Hard Lenonade was new: “I was mowing my lawn, and could hear my lawnmower running, but couldn’t find it.”
    (And yes, really a coworker. If it had been me, I would admit it)

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Just what the world needs.

    I’m still waiting for BLECH!, the Tasteless Hard Drink that Leaves You Wondering Why You Bothered.

  7. 7.

    Lapassionara

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: We did. And coffee with rum, or brandy. And scotch in hot tea is nice also, on a cold day.

    In an hour, a supply company is delivering a pallet of sod to my home. I will be completely sober as I do the sod laying.

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    Dog fanciers may enjoy this photo collection from a NatGeo photographer turned pet portraitist — published at The Post.

    My mother-in-law had her gallbladder removed yesterday, and we think the docs will spring her from the hospital today. I’ll be heading that way shortly. When they let her out, I’ll stay with her in Conformity Village retirement community for a couple of days to keep an eye on her. Maybe at midnight, I’ll sneak out in the golf cart and go on a rampage, defacing Trump yard signs and cutting the heads off yard gnomes.

  9. 9.

    Jeanne Thomas

    Good morning. I’ve never had coffee and alcohol at the same time. I wonder if it would help my attitude? I’m swinging between anxiety and crankiness as I get ready to have my (only) bathroom renovated. Fixtures get pulled out on Monday, so one of my tasks today is to set up a little corner with a luggable loo so I don’t have to trek down the stairs and outdoors when I need to pee in the middle of the night. (I’m having a portable john delivered Monday for daytime coverage.) Showers will be at my son’s house in exchange for baby tending.

    I’m not looking forward to the next few weeks, except for chilling with the grandbaby. Probably hard coffee would not be the best way to cope, though…..

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: The epic heart burn afterwards is sure to make one plea with the Gods that you’ll be a good person now.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker:

    Maybe at midnight, I’ll sneak out in the golf cart and go on a rampage, defacing Trump yard signs and cutting the heads off yard gnomes.

    OOOOO! OOOOO! OOOOO! Pick me! Pick me!

  17. 17.

    Don K

    This is the same faux-moderate bullshit Collins has been pulling for years. Maybe with more visibility this is the year she’ll finally be brought down.

  18. 18.

    John S.

    If ever there was a more disingenuous and transparently phony politician than Susan Collins, I’m not sure who that is.

  19. 19.

    Anne Laurie

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I don’t drink(well, anymore), but didn’t we have Irish Coffee?

    TBH, my first thought on seeing that MillerCoors tweet was “Coffee plus a beer — the traditional breakfast of working-class alcoholics.”

    My dad died of alcohol abuse, as did a great many of his fellows from that generation & neighborhood, so I have some experience with the breed. The beer was to quash the shakes / hangover from the night before, and the coffee to allow them to drive to work ‘safely’. Irish coffee was considered an expensive affectation, most appropriate for amateurs and/or for staying ‘hydrated’ during events involving teetotaling relatives.

  20. 20.

    RAVEN

    Yes, booze is funny and makes you smart and attractive and football is awful because of the human toll it takes.

  21. 21.

    SFAW

    Is there no opportunity to lick Shitgibbon’s humongous ass that Susan Collins will not forgo? She’s almost as disgusting as he is. Well, maybe she’s worse, since the Liar-in-Chief doesn’t seriously pretend to be a “moderate” any longer.

    Depending on job offers, we may end up moving to ME in the next 6 months or so. Two more votes to help wipe Suzie Liar’s name from the Senate rolls.

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    It is! When I venture out I think everyone assumes I’m a prototypical Trump voter, so I find myself overcompensating. “Boy, I can’t wait for impeachment! Yes, I’ll have the Combo #2 with a Coke.” And then I end up being the overly chatty geezer holding things up. There’s no winning.

  24. 24.

    Betty Cracker

    Regarding the “hard coffee,” is there some reason the makers of these “hard” products always produce “malt beverages” rather than, say, adding a shot of vodka to the cold brew coffee? Is it so they can sell it in grocery stores in states that don’t allow hard liquor to be sold in supermarkets?

  26. 26.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    And then I end up being the overly chatty geezer holding things up.

    Well, in fairness, you were that way before Trump, too. Cole has often commented that you (and you alone) are the one responsible for keeping him at “almost top 10,000 blog” instead of breaking through to “almost top 9,750.”

    Or was he talking about me? I’m having a tough time remembering these days. What were we talking about? Get offa my lawn!

  35. 35.

    Anne Laurie

    @Ken:

    Isn’t that vodka?

    I think the product you’re looking for may be ‘White Claw.’

    And that article answers Betty’s question as well:

    … White Claw, which markets itself as “hard seltzer” and “spiked sparkling water,” is not precisely a vodka soda in a can. It doesn’t contain vodka or any other distilled spirits. Instead it is made through fermentation, like beer, but starting from a base of sugar instead of cereal grains like barley. Then, carbonated water and flavoring are added.

    Because White Claw is brewed like beer, it’s taxed like beer, which is important because beer is taxed in the U.S. at a much lower rate than spirits. If you made a product similar to White Claw by mixing vodka with seltzer and putting it in a can, a six-pack would be subject to more than $2 in additional taxes when sold in New York City.

    Because of this tax quirk, beverage companies have long sought ways to make flavored cocktail-like beverages for the U.S. market by brewing instead of distilling. Zima, Smirnoff Ice, and Mike’s Hard Lemonade are all “malternative” beverages, brewed from grain, like beer. A problem with malternatives has been the need to find ways to mask the beer-like flavor that results from brewing. To that end, these drinks have added sugar and strong citrus flavors, which a lot of consumers like. But they don’t serve as a replacement for a vodka soda…

  36. 36.

    Ken

    @Anne Laurie:

    But they don’t serve as a replacement for a vodka soda…

    Yeah, and we’re also missing a good replacement for tertiary syphilis, but do we really need one?

    Oh wait, I forgot, this is advertising. It doesn’t matter if anyone needs it, as long as they can make people want it.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Ig Nobels are here! The winners include,

    a chemistry prize for Japanese scientists who calculated how much saliva a typical five-year-old produces in one day (half a litre);

    an engineering prize for an Iranian inventor’s nappy-changing machine;

    an economics prize for Dutch researchers who discovered that banknotes can spread infectious microbes, and none more so than the Romanian leu.

    Italian scientists won the medicine prize for pursuing the idea that pizzas offer protection against death, a question they never quite managed to answer.

    Mieusset and his accomplice, Bourras Bengoudifa, recruited French postmen to settle a mystery that has received precious little attention: whether a man’s testicles are both the same temperature. Having crunched the numbers from delicately placed sensors, Mieusset only deepened the mystery. According to his studies, the left one is warmer, but only when a man has his clothes on.

    Britain’s pride was upheld by Francis McGlone, a researcher at Liverpool John Moores University, who shared the Ig Nobel peace prize. As part of an international team, McGlone helped map out which parts of the body are most pleasurable to scratch. The ankles ranked highest, the researchers found, and then the back and forearm.

    the biology prize for a Chinese-led team that found that dead, magnetised cockroaches behave differently to living, magnetised cockroaches when studied with a quantum sensor;

    Huh, I never would have guessed that las one.

  38. 38.

    scav

    If some dog person will kindly explain why Willow chose to wake me at 3:43 — and is now confused as to why I am grumpy (and not feeding her!) — I promise to stare uncomprehendingly at them.

  39. 39.

    Spanky

    This is how you do it.

    From the WaPo:

    By
    Jennifer Hassan and
    Siobhán O’Grady
    September 13, 2019 at 11:39 a.m. EDT
    A man in New Zealand was called into a work meeting and feared the worst. So he hired an emotional support clown to join him.

    For Joshua Jack, the suspicion he might lose his job was right on the nose.

    Speaking to Newshub NZ on a video call, Jack confirmed his employer, advertising agency FCB, let him go this week. But having Joe the clown along for the ride definitely “lightened the mood,” he said.

    When his supervisors scheduled the meeting, he said he “thought it’s either a promotion or worse.”

    “I thought it’s best to bring in a professional and so I paid $200 and hired a clown,” he added.

    By the time the meeting was over, Jack didn’t have a job. But he did have two balloon animals: a unicorn and a poodle.

    The process to blow them up and shape them got “rather noisy,” he said, and the meeting attendees “had to tell [Joe the clown] to be quiet from time to time.”

    FCB could not immediately be reached for comment. But the New Zealand Herald obtained a photograph showing a man with his face blurred out sitting in an office next to a clown, who is wearing, well, a clown outfit, and what appears to be an inflatable hat. The clown reportedly also mimed crying expressions as Jack went over the paperwork describing his termination.

    When asked by Newshub NZ how his former colleagues reacted, Jack said they “thought it spiced up the meeting.”

    Emotional support clowns are typically used in situations with children that require a bit more, well, emotional support.

    The U.S. branch of Clowns Without Borders opened in 1995, and describes itself as an organization that “brings laughter where it’s needed most.” The group sends clowns on missions to conflict zones, refugee camps and places experiencing emergencies to play with children and offer them an opportunity to momentarily escape their suffering.

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Huh. Here I’d assumed you were retired.

    Oh, come on, I don’t comment here THAT much. But, yeah, I am old.

    [The possible job offer(s) are for Mrs. SFAW. My work is relatively portable.]

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    whether a man’s testicles are both the same temperature.

    People who suffer from testicular temperature gradient syndrome (TTGS) does think that’s ignoble.

  42. 42.

    Anne Laurie

    @Ken:

    Yeah, and we’re also missing a good replacement for tertiary syphilis, but do we really need one?

    I don’t know if people still think like this (although I have my suspicions), but the “advantage” to canned alcohol is that the kids aren’t sneaking into Daddy’s bottled reserve. And the co-dependent partner can count the empty cans more efficiently, which saves both them & the alcoholic time and energy. (“By ‘one drink’, do you mean a shot glass or a pitcher’s worth?”)

  45. 45.

    Baud

    On Today show right now, NASCAR is recruiting young minorities and female drivers in pursuit of diversity.

    How things have changed.

  46. 46.

    Betty Cracker

    @Anne Laurie: Thank you, that does explain it. But if tax add-ons are the only obstacle, the spirits conglomerates are missing a huge hole in the market, IMO. I’m certain there are plenty of folks who’d pay a premium for a proper canned cocktail. Boaters and tailgaters, to name just two.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I have never forgiven my right testicle for making a father out of me.

    @Ken: Up next, Why is infant fecal matter green when they only drink milk?

    @SFAW: Those Italians should have just asked me about pizza, I know it’s kept me alive on several occasions, especially when I was 16 and drank too much beer.

  52. 52.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    [. . .] NASCAR is recruiting young minorities and female drivers in pursuit of diversity relevance.

    Fix’d.

  53. 53.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Baud:

    I say “majuscule” and “miniscule” to show how classy I am.

    I am even classier and I say “minuscule“.

    [just saw PST @12]

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    EPL action: Livepool come from behind to lead visitors Newcastle 2-1 at halftime, thanks to a pair of goals from Sadio Mane. Bobby Firmino, rotated out of the starting lineup for Divock Origi, was rotated right back in when Divock turned his ankle, and provided the assist for Mane’s first.

  57. 57.

    chris

    4.2% alc/vol? Speaking as a former professional drunk, why bother? A dozen to catch a buzz but with a severe case of the shakes after the first four. Blech indeed.

  66. 66.

    Matt McIrvin

    So, why are people suddenly talking about Sarah Kendzior being a lunatic? Did she say something unusually outrageous or strange? Always thought there was something a little off about her, though her comparisons of Trump to post-Soviet authoritarians was always on point.

  68. 68.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud:

    NASCAR is recruiting young minorities and female drivers in pursuit of diversity.

    So will they get booed in similar fashion to Michelle Obama?

  69. 69.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Ken: I think they tried it years ago, but called it Zima. The market wasn’t ready for it yet but people have much worse taste these days so maybe it’s ready for a second rollout.

  72. 72.

    chris

    @NotMax: Gah! Brass band! So, a kind of boilermaker. Been there, done that.

    I used to live in a very German part of SW Ontario. The farmers make apple cider there, put it in small barrels and add a couple quarts of rye whiskey and let it sit for a year. Very tasty and one smallish glass pretty much knocked me down

  78. 78.

    Ken

    @NotMax:

    Karsk

    So I click to read about karsk, and from there click moonshine, and find that bootlegging is the origin of NASCAR. Strangely self-referential comments this morning…

    Also I don’t follow how NASCAR could be “recruiting”. From what little coverage I’m exposed to, the sport is dominated by a few families (dynasties?) who are now on their third or fourth generation of racing. It reminds me a bit of high-wire acts.

  80. 80.

    MomSense

    @Spanky:

    Clowns Without Borders?!?!?! I liked the world better before I knew this terror existed.

    Nobody better try to bring an emotional support clown on a plane when I’m a passenger. How could a clown ever be an emotional support? This is madness.

  81. 81.

    Ken

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Emotional support creatures are supposed to help you not cause you to wonder if you are going to be killed and eaten at any moment.

    I just realized that there are more recorded incidents of clowns killing people, than of dolphins doing so. Of course as has been pointed out, that may just mean that dolphins really are intelligent, and only kill people when they know they won’t get caught…

  86. 86.

    ARoomWithAMoose

    @debbie: It’s sort of become clear a cornerstone strategy of the recruitment of foreign sources by Russian (and other) intelligence services is identifying folks with Cluster B personality disorders.

  91. 91.

    Matt McIrvin

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Hot take: Clowns can actually be OK in their intended context, performing in a circus. Clown makeup is designed to read as wacky when seen from a long distance away. It’s when clowns appear in any other setting whatsoever that things go wrong.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    I’m a little down today. I worked the Democratic booth last night at a fair – the fair was packed- there was a demolition derby – those are popular here and I just think Trump supporters are going to come out in droves again. They’re really hostile, really belligerent, and utterly convinced all the bad stuff about him is “fake news”. They’re angrier than they were last time. The new thing seems to be calling non-Trump supporters dumb and telling us to do “research”. Just a very depressing evening.

  97. 97.

    Another Scott

    ‘morning all.

    Filled up the gas tank in your car recently? You might want to do so soon… AlJazeera:

    Drone attacks claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels have caused fires at two major facilities run by Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant.

    Citing an interior ministry spokesperson, the official Saudi Press Agency said on Saturday the blazes at the facilities in Abqaiq – home to the company’s largest oil processing plant – and Khurais were under control.

    “At 4.00am (01:00 GMT) the industrial security teams of Aramco started dealing with fires at two of its facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais as a result of … drones,” it said.

    The ministry did not identify the source of the attack and said investigations were ongoing. It did not specify if there were any casualties or whether operations at the two facilities had been affected.

    Online videos showed smoke rising above the company’s facility in Abqaiq as what appeared to be gunfire could be heard in the background.

    […]

    I see no sign that the Yemen war is going to end anytime soon. Attacks like these are easy, hard to prevent, and cheap. One could imagine them going on for years.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  100. 100.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    They’re appalled people could be so rude to their president, apparently having forgotten just how rude they were to his predecessor. //

  102. 102.

    Eric U.

    There was a clown scare here in State College a few years ago when that was a thing. One day, I got in my car and there was a foam clown nose sitting on the center console. I’m not usually afraid of clowns, but that was a bit of a shock.

  105. 105.

    bemused

    In thread below, the film Reefer Madness was mentioned which always reminds me of the catnip video, Egress to Oblivion.

  107. 107.

    Spanky

    @Ken: Have you ever tried to bring an emotional support dolphin to a meeting with HR? Don’t, because in the end they don’t give a fuck, unless you have fish.

    And no balloon unicorns, either.

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    @Raven: They’ll make up stuff to get riled up about, e.g. birth certificates and “whitey tapes” and “Obama phones”. You know that.

    Beto’s not going to win.

    We’ve had assault weapons bans in the past without Civil War 2.0. Lots of noisy RWNJs are cowards and big talkers – we can’t let them veto sensible policies. We can do it again.

    One day at a time, Kay. 2020 isn’t going to fix everything. It’s a long road.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    Raven

    @Another Scott: @Another Scott: Yea yea, I’ve heard it all. Theses motherfuckers don’t give a shit about nuance and deep explanations, they got exactly what they wanted and every democrat is going to have to defend it or not defend it, it’s a loser either way.

  112. 112.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @MomSense: I was truly stunned when I learned (I was in my 30s ) that my mother had feared and hated clowns since she was a small child. Until then I had thought everyone found them funny and reassuring.

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steeplejack: But I was told that she had studied authoritarian regimes while working on her PhD and, as a result, I needed to take her predictions seriously.

  114. 114.

    Ken

    @Eric U.:

    One day, I got in my car and there was a foam clown nose sitting on the center console.

    Walgreens sells those every year, for a charity that works against child poverty. Had you given someone a lift to go shopping?

    (Just grasping at straws here, when the obvious solution is teleporting murder clowns.)

  116. 116.

    Spanky

    No clowns in this WaPo article:

    LOS ANGELES — A pungent fog blankets Goda Yoga in Culver City. It’s Friday night and the studio is packed, with overflow mats extending down the back hall to the bathroom.

    Votive candles and sitar music set the mood. But this class offers a whiff — actually plenty — of something extra: the unmistakable scent of marijuana.

    Participants vape, then stretch. It’s yoga with deep breathing.

    And, after several inhalations, a lot of coughing.

    Co-instructor Emily Meyers asks the 20 participants: “What are you most passionate about?”

    “Staying in touch with nature and making out with my dog,” is one reply.

    “I’m not quite sure. That’s why I moved to California.”

    “Uh, I forgot the question.”

    Such moments are common in Higher Self yoga, a monthly “ganja yoga” class that Goda owner Nathania Stambouli introduced in the fall: “We’re bringing together two great spiritual practices. Marijuana is a way of enhancing the experience.”

    OK, maybe there are.

    Ah, yes, enhancing the experience. Of late, there’s been a fair amount of yoga-enhancing going on. It’s yoga with something extra on the side.

    Would you like beer with your yoga? There’s a class for that.

    Yoga in the buff? Manhattan’s Bold and Naked Yoga is precisely what it says it is.

    For yogis who prefer to bundle in down, there’s snowga — yoga with snowshoes.

    Some classes eschew the calm and quiet many practitioners seek. Y7, with locations in New York and Los Angeles, bills itself as “the original hip-hop yoga studio.”

    Wish to vocalize at multiple decibels above a soothing om? There’s yoga with karaoke and — YES! REALLY! — tantrum yoga, which encourages poses and primal screams.

    Trampoline yoga also exists, which must make balancing in Tree pose a challenge.

    And, because it had to happen, there’s a yoga class with goats.

    Yoga now welcomes a menagerie of critters, in fact: yoga with horses, yoga with dogs (doga — yoga lends itself to a sun salutation series of puns), yoga with bunnies, even yoga with cats, which seems like an exercise doomed to failure.

    …

    But Andrea R. Jain, associate professor of religious studies at Indiana University and the author of “Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture,” points out that although yoga dates back thousands of years, “it has always been open to malleability.”

    Wait, I think my irony meter just broke. Here we shall stop.

  119. 119.

    Amir Khalid

    It’s a comfortable three points for Liverpool in the end: a 3-1 win over Newcastle at Anfield. Two for Sadio Mane, one for Mo Salah. And it looks like all is copacetic again between the two, after Mane was seen in the last game against Burnley complaining about Salah taking a shot rather than passing to him.

  120. 120.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Raven: Are you saying that Dems shouldn’t try to eliminate assault rifles or that Dems shouldn’t talk about eliminating assault rifles?

  125. 125.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott: Oh, and speaking of assault weapons bans, I had a seemingly obvious solution to the problem (probably up there with the other Simple, Obvious, and Wrong solutions to big problems).

    Full-auto machine guns aren’t banned in the US. One simply has to apply for and get a tax stamp.

    We can do something similar for semi-automatic weapons of war.

    Practically, it means that there will be a drastic reduction in the amount of them out there (because being approved to be a firearms dealer to buy and sell such things is a difficult, time-consuming process). But they won’t be “banned”. The non-insane gun-humpers can still get them, if they really want them and can convince authorities that they’re not insane and will obey the rules.

    “But what about the people who need semi-auto rifles for squirrel and wild boar hunting???!?!!!” I’m not convinced that’s a real thing. People killed squirrels with shotguns and slingshots without much trouble. Fences are pretty good about protecting people from marauding bands of wild boars…

    Yeah, lots of details need to be worked out. There will always be corner cases. But the point is, the choice isn’t Do Nothing vs. Black Helicopters will Break Down Our Doors and Try To Take Our Official Red Ryder Carbine Action, 200-Shot, Range Model Air Rifle With A Compass In The Stock And This Thing That Tells Time.

    Eyes on the prize.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  128. 128.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    So Joy Reid must be on target this morning. We were at the bagel shop so I didn’t see.

    Who the hell is Joy-Ann Reid? Never met her, she knows ZERO about me, has NO talent, and truly doesn’t have the “it” factor needed for success in showbiz. Had a bad reputation, and now works for the Comcast/NBC losers making up phony stories about me. Low Ratings. Fake News!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2019

  129. 129.

    RAVEN

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m saying “taking away” says we’re coming to your house and taking them away. It’s the entire rationale against background checks. I get it that most people here think even gun idiots are all for background check and this won’t matter. I don’t. You said last night if that’s what he believes that’s what he should say. I’m doing the same thing.

  130. 130.

    MomSense

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    In third grade we went on a field trip to see the Shriner’s Circus. I think my teacher and all the chaperones were quite surprised to learn that children may find clowns terrifying. The poor bus driver had to spend the rest of the circus on the bus with me. I wasn’t a big fan of elephants in little red hats, either. The whole thing seemed horrible to me.

  132. 132.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    As part of Army drug training (which I was required to take as a civilian employee) they warned soldiers about energy drinks with alcohol, and that you could be drunk without the usual feelings of drunkenness.

    I didn’t know those are a thing but apparently it’s something that young soldiers and people that age indulge in. I’ve still never seen one. I guess they go to different convenience stores than I do.

    Do I sound like an old fart? Don’t answer that.

  134. 134.

    Kay

    @Raven:

    I don’t know raven. There’s some truth to the idea that they like liberal ideas. I worked beside this genuinely sweet 20-something, a young man, and he was asking people “if you could change one thing about the US, what would you change”. I was protective of him, thinking they were going to just jeer at him, but a lot of people answered! So many of them said “healthcare”, then they follow that with “voting for Trump”. I asked a follow up to one “auxillary” sheriff’s deputy- the part timers who don’t have health insurance. He said “healthcare” as the thing he would change so I said “would you buy into Medicare for 300 a month?” and he said “in a minute”. He’s voting for Trump.
    I’m not sure there’s a way to placate them. They’re both mad about their situation and also mad at anyone who wants to do something about it. Does it matter? Republicans run on “they’re going to take your guns” anyway. Successfully.
    We’ve had the bans and run on that, we’ve not had the bans and run on that, and it doesn’t seem to make any difference. I had Trump supporters last night telling me media invented the Trump deficit and that I need to “research”.

  136. 136.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @RAVEN:

    I’m doing the same thing.

    Well, no one is trying to stop you. I just wanted to make sure I understood your objection.

  139. 139.

    MomSense

    @RAVEN:

    They say it about Democrats even when we don’t say one word about any kind of gun control. In all the years I’ve been involved in campaigns, there has never been a democratic candidate who wasn’t the subject of mailers and ads saying s/he would take their guns away. People who think democrats will take their guns would think that even if Beto never said anything about ARs and AKs.

  140. 140.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    The new thing seems to be calling non-Trump supporters dumb and telling us to do “research”

    The proper response to which is “I have, extensively, and ALL the research showed that you morons believe the following: up is down, black is white, that Donald Trump has an IQ higher than a turnip, and that he tells the truth. Unfortunately for you, the research also shows that your beliefs are absolutely, completely, 100 percent wrong, and that “Fake News” only comes from Fox. Have a nice day, moron.”

  142. 142.

    NotMax

    Thing I learned at a going away party for someone to which I was invited last night:

    Don not order a martini on the rocks at Outback Steakhouse. It arrived having been poured into a glass filled with crushed ice. (*shudder²*)

  145. 145.

    Gelfling 545

    @Betty Cracker: That’s exactly it. I live in such a state & find “malt beverages” disgusting. Can’t even buy wine at the grocery.
    On the way to a brunch a couple weeks of weeks ago I stopped at a liquor store I don’t usually patronize for a bottle of champagne. There on the top shelf was TRUMP “champagne”. I asked the clerk if they sell much of it. He said no, not really. Sometimes people but it as a novelty.

  150. 150.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Not bad, but ending with “fucknut” instead of “moron” would have strengthened your argument.

    Must be a regional thing. But I’ll try to remember it, should the situation present itself.

  151. 151.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    I know you’re kidding but I don’t do that anymore. I don’t argue those sorts of things. I was following the lead of this nice young man working with me and he had this admirable ability to just let that ride and engage them “on issues”. People love to be asked their opinion. He works with special needs grade schoolers and I bet he’s good at it. An extremely patient person :)

    Anyway, we did a straw poll for 5 nights running and Biden won the first four and Bernie won last night, so I don’t know what that means. We registered two young women, both of whom were registering to vote against Trump. That was fun. They were in a group of 4 and the registered 2 pushed the other 2 to get signed up. Really raucus girls just having a great time. Now i they’ll just show up.

  154. 154.

    NotMax

    @Omnes Omnibus

    In my dotage have gotten into the habit of having martinis on the rocks (cubes, natch) at home. Cuts down the risk of developing carpal tunnel problems resulting from repetitive cocktail shaker shaking. Also too, it’s Hawaii, so the libation stays refreshingly cold longer in the tropical heat.

    ;)

  155. 155.

    mad citizen

    @Kay: Bless you for working the booth at the fair, it has to help in some cosmic way. Before I read your post I was walking around my house thinking, it can’t just be “hope for a 6 point margin to ensure the Electoral College wind”, it must be much, much bigger than that. Repudiate….with Extreme Prejudice.

    While the Trumpers may be fired up, I’ve seen and read so much more–here especially–that our side will have gigantic turnout. We need to go for the largest margin of victory ever. That we are in this reality is a total embarrassment.

    As far NASCAR, I was thinking the other day that watching racing might be one of those sports that is even more niche in the decades to come. They just had their race in Indy, I watched a few minutes on tv, the stands were 80-90% empty. Not sure how money is being made on it.

  156. 156.

    PST

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: What I love most about the Joy Reid tweet is the word “showbiz”. That’s how he views cable news and everything else. As someone wrote in the WaPo recently, Apprentice Donald Trump is the real Donald Trump.

  159. 159.

    Amir Khalid

    In the 3pm kickoffs, nobody is fancying home side Manchester United’s chances against Leicester City; key United player Paul Pogba is out injured. Manchester City look too strong for Norwich City, and should stay within two points of Liverpool when today’s games are done.

  163. 163.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I know you’re kidding but I don’t do that anymore.

    I know. You’re too nice a person. I could never hold my tongue the way you do. Part of me wants to suggest you get your own “Luther”.

    I think/hope I’ve said it before, but in case I haven’t: THANK YOU!!!!! for all the hard work you’ve done in trying to get Ohio to stop being so messed up. You are awesome.

  166. 166.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:

    The new thing seems to be calling non-Trump supporters dumb and telling us to do “research”. Just a very depressing evening.

    They really are Nazis. At a minimum, they live in a bubble. Maybe we should start telling them that. That we don’t need to do “research” because we don’t live in a bubble.

  168. 168.

    debbie

    Trump has announced that OBL’s son has been killed. How long until he begins insisting that killing the father was a pussy move and far more insignificant than the death of the son, which he magically had a hand in?

  169. 169.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker: What magnificent portraits! And love the captions!

    As for your proposed rampage through the retirement village, I entirely approve. My ex and I had this idea for a video game called “Drunken Hooligan Golf”, that was basicaly Grand Theft Auto but entirely with golf carts. Much property damage to country clubs and retirement villages was planned.

  170. 170.

    Amir Khalid

    Tottenham Hotspur lead Crystal Palace 3-0 in the first half of the first half. Son Heung Min has been brilliant today for Spurs.

  172. 172.

    Another Scott

    Speaking of NASCAR – CNN:

    Washington (CNN)NASCAR rejected advertisements for its souvenir programs from multiple firearms companies earlier this summer as part of what is being seen as a “gradual shift” in its position on guns.

    The move may be another example of how major companies are adjusting as the nation grapples with guns in America.

    While the move did not get widespread notice, NASCAR’S apparent shift stunned gun enthusiasts who said there is a large overlap between NASCAR fans and gun owners, and left some in the firearms industry questioning why NASCAR’s viewpoint has shifted and where the racing organization now stands on Second Amendment issues.

    “They’ve got the drivers shooting off blanks in the winner’s circle. It doesn’t make any sense,” David Dolbee, the general manager for K-Var Corp., a large distributor of firearms, which submitted an advertisement that was rejected featuring an AK-47 and various accessories.

    […]

    “… gradually, then suddenly.”

    (via Rep. Don Beyer)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  173. 173.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @debbie: Hosts and guests on Jim Bakker show (videos on YouTube daily) rant about Trump is hated and attacked more than any president evah!! They warn that God chooses the president, so attacking him is attacking God! And one sits stunned by their lack of self-awareness!

  175. 175.

    germy

    I got pulled over and my vape was in my cup holder and the trooper was like “you know the news says those things are killing people”

    I laughed a lil bit and said “ they say the same about y’all ?”

    He ain’t laugh ?

    — mary-go-round ?? (@trustmeimmary) September 12, 2019

  179. 179.

    Miss Bianca

    @Matt McIrvin: OK, as a circus person myself, I am in modified agreement with tou. As in, the *only* place that clowns in make-up are remotely tolerable is in the circus.

    I will make an exception for Red Noses Palestine, “clown doctors” that work in hospitals in the Occupied Territories. For some reason, their make-up and schtick doesn’t bother me at all.

  180. 180.

    MomSense

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Probably about two months ago during one of pelosi impeachment twitter freak outs, I pushed back and wow she has built up a cult following. It’s like she cannot fathom that being an expert on authoritarians doesn’t mean you are an expert in electoral politics and strategy. Ironically, the more she attacks Democrats the more she harms the only credible opposition we have to trump. At what point is she giving an assist to trump? I hope she comes to her senses, but I doubt she will. She benefits from this mess whether she is aware of it or not.

  181. 181.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Spanky:

    even yoga with cats, which seems like an exercise doomed to failure.

    And not dogs? I can attest from personal experience that when people are down on the floor it’s hugely exciting and a great opportunity for walking on chests, licking faces, laying down on top of the human, etc. But not much yoga.

  184. 184.

    Bill Arnold

    It’s easy to mock, but at least they care:
    Yes, Priests Air-Bombed a Russian City With Holy Water to Stop All the “Drinking” and “Fornication” – It did not work. (Greg Walters, Sep 13 2019)

    Clergymen poured out 70 liters’ worth of sacred liquid from a large chalice through the open door of a rickety green plane on Wednesday, in an escalation of their battle against “drinking” and “fornication,” local outlet Tvernews reported.
    Local television showed a priest strapped into a harness to keep him from accidentally falling from the airplane while tipping gallon after gallon onto the city below.
    “Let them laugh,” a priest named Father Alexander said. “We’re doing our jobs.”
    The priests have been flying over Tver on Sobriety Day every year since 2006. Previously, they’ve limited their aerial interventions to prayer. This year, they added holy water bombardment for extra firepower.

    They’re doing it wrong… :-)

  185. 185.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Ladyraxterinok: My mother was very fond of the story of Damon and Pythias. When I got older I started wondering, “just how good friends were they?” And then there’s the Bible: Didn’t King David have a really, really, REALLY good friend named Jonathon?

  188. 188.

    Raoul

    @Baud: I will never understand car racing. I like cars. I like driving. It’d be fun to drive a car that fast. But watching lap after lap of cars on a track? Only way back when I had no cable, and the other choices were golf, terrible westerns, and some Ronco infomercials on hung over weekend mornings (which don’t happen any more, either). And even then, not for long.

  189. 189.

    WereBear

    @ARoomWithAMoose: It’s sort of become clear a cornerstone strategy of the recruitment of foreign sources by Russian (and other) intelligence services is identifying folks with Cluster B personality disorders.

    It’s been severely overlooked, you ask me. But not anymore! They’ve found the mother lode.

  190. 190.

    MomSense

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Jesus had a beloved disciple who spent the last supper with his head on Jesus’chest and who was sharing a tent with Jesus when the Romans arrested Jesus. There are lots of references to him from the other disciples who establish the authority of their story by saying it cake from the beloved disciple, disciple Jesus lived the most, etc.

  192. 192.

    WereBear

    @Kay: The new thing seems to be calling non-Trump supporters dumb and telling us to do “research”. Just a very depressing evening.

    Heavens. I would need a sensory deprivation chamber after that.

  193. 193.

    Another Scott

    @Amir Khalid: In general, yes, full auto is senseless for shooting at people. I remember some Panorama or similar report about accompanying Afghan troops on patrol a few years ago. One scene that stuck with me was of some young guy standing up behind a wall and dumping half an ammo box of bullets into some nebulous target some ways away. It was obvious that he wasn’t shooting at anything in particular. It was just a waste.

    But there are other instances when it makes sense – guns are a tool and different tools are used in different circumstances. Protecting one’s family from packs of wild boars or people in a movie theater or thieves breaking into one’s home aren’t reasonable circumstances…

    Metal Storm was an interesting concept for “guns” that could fire 1M rounds/min.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  195. 195.

    ola azul

    “Must be autumn already”, indeed. Feels like.

    My part of the world just made good light, and I can see I ain’t had any bites yet, despite the dual advantages of the proverbial “morning bite” and an incipient tide change inna hour.

    Do so love this time a day, tho. Arose once at 2am to check position (big SW swell warping round Beaver Point into anchorage), then back to bunk till 4:55 wakey. (Insomnia is a feature notta bug for commercial fisherfolk!) Pull pick in full dark and steam for grounds, vessel riding high like a duck on the moon-gleamed waves. Coffee made and enjoyed en route. Now-just-waning (full yestiddy) moon slung low on the surface a what NOAA tells me is 9-footers, but I gots my doubts. Seems smaller’n that, but prolly cuz it’s just swell and not breakers.

    Even when i gots crew, I very seldom wake her or him till morning is purty long in the tooth or there’s a buncha fish already on deck. Partly it’s cuz I want crew to be fresh throughout the day so’s (if I trust ’em to do wheel-watch), I can pilfer a half-hour to an hour nap during the long hours of summer, and partly it’s cuz I selfishly relish them moments of reverent quietude of a morn (metaphorically speaking, course; hard to have too much quietude w/a 4-71 jackhammering away).

    (One of the weirder [for me] advents of this our crazy age is the arrival of spotty recep on parts of the traditional fishing grounds. And it moves about a bit, so it’s come like internet whack-a-mole. Last night, coming into the anchorage after dark, gotta text from the brother of a friend of a former deckhand of mine. Young fella, went to Interlochen Arts Academy, innerested in film and scriptwriting, asked me to be an actor inna short film he’s wrote. Which got me to wondrin, in every single facet and aspect, what would some a the old salts who plied these waters think about gettin a acting offer from someone they’d consider a boy at the end of a very long day onna tempestuous sea? I find that funny, but mebbe I’m weird.)

    Now I’ma see if this goes thru and then check my lines.

  196. 196.

    RAVEN

    @Another Scott: SLA Marshall

    Marshall’s modern pre-eminence
    rests upon just one: the “modern
    classic” Men Against Fire (1947) and
    the extraordinary claims it made
    about the propensity of infantrymen
    not to do any actual fighting in
    battle. Marshall’s core thesis was
    that only 15 to 20 percent of combat
    infantrymen ever fired their weapons
    in battle; he was the first to document
    that most riflemen were spectators.

  199. 199.

    RAVEN

    @ola azul: Go get em, I got 12 days for my rig trip and can’t wait. Reading reports indicates the yellowfin bite has been off for a couple of years but what ya gonna do?

  201. 201.

    Kay

    @mad citizen:

    As far NASCAR, I was thinking the other day that watching racing might be one of those sports that is even more niche in the decades to come. They just had their race in Indy, I watched a few minutes on tv, the stands were 80-90% empty. Not sure how money is being made on it.

    I agree about NASCAR. It’s really cratered here. I’m sure you know this but demolition derby is different. It’s local people in their own modified cars in a sort of dirt parking lot. It’s a lot less serious than the big racing sports, so more fun. They’re not really cheering for the driver- they’re cheering for the town where the driver lives, which they announce.

  202. 202.

    Bill Arnold

    @Kay:

    calling non-Trump supporters dumb and telling us to do “research”.

    Ask them to describe their “research” techniques?

  203. 203.

    Amir Khalid

    One early Marcus Rashford penalty is all that keeps Man United ahead of Leicester in a match of toothless attack against toothless attack. Wolverhampton Wanderers are 0-4 behind to visitors Chelsea, with Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham securing a hattrick.

  204. 204.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: I saw a couple of Demolition Derby things at a track outside of Dayton years ago. It was kinda anticlimactic because a particular 1960s Chrysler model always won. The rear end somehow crumpled in such a way that made it the perfect shape for smashing other cars without itself being further damaged. Let’s see… Wikipedia:

    The 1964-1966 Chrysler Imperial achieved near-legendary status for its crashworthiness, and is still banned from most derby events.[4][8]

    Ah, I must have seen them before the ban. ;-)

    I like the technological-progress aspects of racing, but the cars are so fast, and the traffic so tight, that it really is too dangerous these days – especially at places like Indy that were designed 110+ years ago. Schumacher was amazing, and the competition between Senna and Prost was exciting. But F1 is just a race for the first turn most of the time these days…

    Different strokes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  205. 205.

    Suzanne

    Coffee with a splash of Bailey’s (or the Costco equivalent) is one of my favorite weekend treats. I am nursing right now, so drinking has to be planned out.

    It has been absolutely crazy for the last couple of weeks, at home, at work, etc. My FIL is having heart surgery next week, so Mr. Suzanne is stressed out. It’s been so busy that I haven’t watched the debate, I’m behind on chores, and I still have some work to do at home this weekend (redlines ahoy).

    After pumping this morning, the first stop will be to drop off two big boxes of clothes that I emptied from the closet to the Girl Scout Goodwill drive this morning.

    Have I mentioned that pumping is terrible?

  206. 206.

    Cacti

    @debbie:

    I just listened to NPR interviewing Edward Snowden. Still a pompous dick, after all these years.

    It’s amazing that there’s anyone left in this country who thinks he was anything other than a mole/spy/traitor, etc.

  208. 208.

    Bill Arnold

    @Matt McIrvin:

    So her dislike of Nancy Pelosi has turned into outright claiming Pelosi is a pro-Trump Russian agent.

    Pelosi tells Dems she wants to see Trump ‘in prison’ (HEATHER CAYGLE, 06/05/2019)
    I don’t see a Russian Mafia tool saying this:

    “I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” Pelosi said, according to multiple Democratic sources familiar with the meeting. Instead of impeachment, Pelosi still prefers to see Trump defeated at the ballot box and then prosecuted for his alleged crimes, according to the sources.

    The Pelosi hate doesn’t seem to have much solid factual foundation. Perhaps I’m wrong. There are some hints, sure, but the misinformation apparatuses are relentless and sometimes subtle.

  210. 210.

    L85NJGT

    @Kay

    Their core audience is very trumplican and reflective of broader US demographic changes. Aging out as customers but resistant to the changes that would help keep the sport afloat. That and the tobacco dollars dried up – Phillip Morris, etc. were papering the houses with lots of ticket freebies.

    P.S. Small time track are dying at a fast rate than NASCAR.

  211. 211.

    chris

    @Kay:

    The new thing seems to be calling non-Trump supporters dumb and telling us to do “research”.

    Funny, that’s what the flat-earthers, anti-vaxxers and moon landing hoaxers all say. I guess it’s true, you can’t fix stupid.

  212. 212.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @chris: I recall that as a crackpot technique back in Usenet days. Might be as old as the written word.

    Crackpot: some crackpot claim about “studies show…”
    Sane people: Uh, you have a cite for that?
    Crackpot: I’m not going to do your work for you! Do your own research, you’ll see!

  213. 213.

    L85NJGT

    Fermented product (beer) is the input for any distillation. So using ethanol would be more expensive than a fermented product. Also spirit tax is basically a VAT.

  214. 214.

    Kathleen

    @debbie: So he gets lucrative book deal and mainslime media adoration while Realify Winner languishes in prison because her leaked docs didn’t support Snowald’s agenda.

  215. 215.

    Amir Khalid

    Wolverhampton Wanderers have are now only 2-4 down to Chelsea, although I don’t think the football gods will smile on Wolves to the extent of letting them snatch a draw.

  217. 217.

    StringOnAStick

    @Kay: it seems to me that a demolition derby would be way more appealing to red state R’s than actual or potential D’s,but then you mentioned the 4 young ladies, so maybe not. Perhaps temper your sadness over who came up and harassed you for daring to stand against Dear Leader with the knowledge that Beto’s comment really fired them and their propaganda sources up. Plus, the people who are that worked up as it were never going to vote D in any case. I’m supportive of the idea too, but I think it was a bit rash for him to blurt that out; good for his campaign, risky in a larger sense.

    One excellent nugget in there is that these people want Medicare buy-in too, and in the long run that will help us get there. I knkw, small beer for sure. Good on you for being willing to be there and face these people!

  218. 218.

    MomSense

    @ola azul:

    I think being in a film sounds like fun. You can tell them you’re a method actor.

    The inaugural performance for our new music director, Eckart Preu, is on the 23rd. I think the program is Sibelius’ Finlandia, Elkington’s Out of the Mist, and Strauss’ Alpine Symphony. I’ve only seen Preu conduct once before, but I was really impressed with him.

    Kid got to spend some time with Warren Haynes when he was in town for a concert. He really liked him, both his playing and just talking with him about music and life on the road. It’s not an easy life – but few are it seems.

    I think if I were out on the water in the middle of the night I’d be tempted to blast Shostakovich. Here’s a link to one of my faves – piano concerto 2. About 6:30 the strings break my heart and then when the piano joins it’s just perfection.
    piano concerto 2 F Major

  219. 219.

    Bill Arnold

    @schrodingers_cat:

    According to the Wire, T may show up at Modi’s rally in Houston. I think it highly unlikely.

    Very interesting, thanks. It seems a remarkably bad idea for both N. Modi and D. Trump; so many significant possibilities for it to go seriously, embarrassingly wrong for one or both of them.
    [0] Direct link for those who don’t click deep: Trump Might Appear at Modi Rally in Houston – Trump and Modi’s political managers have apparently been in touch since the two leaders met in Biarritz, France on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit on August 26 and came up with the idea. (Seema Sirohi, 2019/09/14)

  220. 220.

    Gary K

    The drawing reminds me of 8th grade shop class. I didn’t much like wood shop the previous year, nor metal shop the following year, but 8th grade print shop was kinda cool. We made woodblock and silk screen prints, and we learned to set type from a job case. Unlike the one in the drawing, ours were California job cases, which had the uppercase letters to the side. The raised letters on the little blocks of type were of course mirror images of those that would appear in the final product, so, e.g., if you wanted the letter “b” you needed to look for something that appeared to be a “d” or a “p” – and if you really wanted one of the latter two, they were not the same! Even when you picked out a block of type from the proper compartment, it might have been sorted into there by mistake, so you had to check.

  221. 221.

    Amir Khalid

    @Amir Khalid:
    And indeed the football gods did not: Chelsea make it 2-5. All Chelsea’s goals this season have been scored by its youth academy alumni. Man United hang on to beat Leicester 1-0. In the 5:30pm kickoff, it’s Norwich City vs Man City. All the pundits expect Man City to win, unless Norwich striker Teemo Pukki has a really good day.

  224. 224.

    Citizen Alan

    @Cacti:

    I’m profoundly embarrassed that I was ever taken in by Edward Snowden. I take comfort in the fact that Julian Assange never fooled me for one second.

  225. 225.

    Kay

    @StringOnAStick:

    the 4 young ladies

    There’s nothing to do here on a Friday night, other than high school football. They all go to fairs- they make fun of it and say how boring it is but that all go. I like the cowboy boots with shorts/skirt thing they’re doing, the young ladies. You wouldn’t think that would look right but it somehow does. I have dress boots I love and they have a sole and heel like a cowboy boot, but not the top. They’re comfortable.

  226. 226.

    Bill Arnold

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Crackpot: I’m not going to do your work for you! Do your own research, you’ll see!

    The flip side of that is the crackpots that copy-paste 10 cherry-picked links from their cherry picked collection that they probably got from someplace else. And when you drill into them with e.g. google scholar (or if news, other tools) you find within minutes that they’re exceedingly fringe, maybe not relevant, maybe not peer-reviewed, and then need to decide whether to continue to engage with a crackpot liar (perhaps not self-aware) with an agenda.
    Very occasionally, the google scholar (or other) hunt turns up an interesting area of research or inquiry. But it’s the minority case in my experience, excepting polymath types.

  227. 227.

    StringOnAStick

    @ola azul: I always enjoy your posts, definitely a window into a world I couldn’t handle (deep water spooks me!). As for acting, just be yourself. A friend from my husband’s childhood and even a college roommate at one point had a role in a cult classic, playing what he was at the time: a reporter in Vermont. We were watching the movie and had no idea he was in it, so imagine our surprise. He looked a bit stressed out in the film, but I’ve watched him work a crowd and be the guide on several occasions and he’s a natural, but his response to the camera took away that easy familiarity he normally has. If this kid wants you for a film, he wants you as you.

  228. 228.

    StringOnAStick

    @Kay: I figured it was the “lack of other entertainment options” that put those 4 young ladies there. Good for them for understanding exactly what an idiot the idiot in chief is, and being ready to vote to do something about it. Apparently not everyone in rural Ohio is a FOX bot.

    I keep looking every year for a decent set of “dress” boots and still haven’t found something that works, or the price just makes me turn away, yet I’m about to spend $600 for new back country ski boots and won’t bat an eye over that. Only one brand fits my well beaten and operated on feet, but they all cost that much.

  229. 229.

    Amir Khalid

    The train station by the usual shopping mall I go to was clogged today by people in red-and-white national dress. Najib Tun Razak’s party, the United Malays National Organisation, has been having a number of Malay-supremacist rallies in recent months. (Malay supremacist ideology with an Islamic veneer, UMNO’s selling point since 1946, will look very familiar to those of you guys who have had an up-close look at white supremacism with a Christian veneer.

    I am never more ashamed to be Malay than when I see these gatherings, which draw an audience that is the equivalent of your red-state Republican party supporters. (A historical aside: Najib’s great-uncle and UMNO founder Onn Jaafar left the party when it wouldn’t open membership to non-Malays, and founded another, multiracial party.)

  232. 232.

    J R in WV

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m certain there are plenty of folks who’d pay a premium for a proper canned cocktail. Boaters and tailgaters, to name just two.

    We have been drinking sparkling wine, and the two problems with that are a) it only comes in really heavy bottles; and b) glass is no longer recyclable.

    So champagne in aluminum cans would be fabulous… also NOT distilled, at least when made properly.

  233. 233.

    The Lodger

    @Gary K: In 11th grade I dropped a California job case full of 6 point Helvetica. The b, d, p, and q were all identical. Took me weeks to get that sucker sorted out in my free periods.

  236. 236.

    MisterForkbeard

    This thread is pretty dead, but I can recommend a (very) hard coffee that’s really excellent: http://www.griffodistillery.com/coffee-liqueur

    This stuff is local – made at a local gin distillery with coffee from a local coffee shop. It’s about 75% cold-brew coffee and 25% vodka, from what I can tell. Really good – you can barely tell it’s alcoholic. I see it at CostCo sometimes, but I keep giving them as gifts to out-of-town friends and everyone seems to love it.

  241. 241.

    Yutsano

    @MomSense: This might be tacky, but the Shostakovich sequence from Fantasia 2000 is really well done. Plus an intro from Auntie Bette never hurts.

    (Also: the Dali sequence did get made by some amateurs. It’s also on YouTube.)

  242. 242.

    Amir Khalid

    @Amir Khalid:
    Man City scored just before the break for 2-1, but Norwich have restored their two-goal cushion with a second-half strike by Teemu Pukki after a horrendous defending error by City.

  244. 244.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    I know how he feels. Tell him he’s not alone.
    There is a secret club, the white, non racist, old farts club. We don’t ever met, people might get suspicious that we were planning a golf cart raid. Or a cane walk. Or just a lot of time wasted doing nothing. We aren’t harmless, we can consume 3 whole cookies in one sitting, but there is guilt involved and we aren’t allowed to have milk to go with them.

  246. 246.

    Ruckus

    @mad citizen:
    They aren’t making money. They pushed the concept right into the ground because they didn’t get that it is actually a very narrow market. They thought they appealed to the every man, and a few every woman. They were wrong, they misunderstood the word every. Comes from selling out a small market and thinking it will scale to massive proportions. One other small point, they didn’t realize that people and tastes change, they thought they had THE winner of an idea and that it would last forever.

  247. 247.

    Amir Khalid

    Norwich hang on to claim a famous scalp: Manchester City’s, whom they have beaten 3-2. The result leaves City five points behind Liverpool after five matches; Liverpool still have their perfect start to the season, with five wins out of five matches and 15 points to City’s 10.

  250. 250.

    sgrAstar

    @Jeanne Thomas: Dear Jeanne: this is a public service announcement. Please google Irish Coffee. We like to drink this very restotative conoction in a local irish pub, but you can easily make one at home.

  251. 251.

    sgrAstar

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Hi Bill! Thanks for the shout out. In case anyone is interested, there is a time-lapse video of ME on youtube, taken/assembled by the ESO. Of course I am not visible in the sequence, but the effects of my presence are. It’s pretty gobsmacking to see gigantic stars flung around like tennis balls.

  254. 254.

    johnnybuck

    @Raoul: I think it had a lot more appeal when it was actual “stock” car racing. The cars were more or less like what you could buy off the lot. The motors were factory, with modifications, and you cheered for your favorite brand (Ford, Plymouth etc,) rather than the sterile all alike cars of today. It was still pretty stupid though, and really uninteresting TV, even then. I went to a Nascar event in Atlanta some years ago. Took a while to figure out what was going on. The spectators all had favorite drivers, of course. They all hated Jeff Gordon as I recall. And they all loved America. Now the sport has priced them out. I doubt diversification will change any of that. I also remember it being one of the last spectator events that you could smoke in the stands. I imagine not being able to do that anymore has contributed to the decline of the sport as well.

  255. 255.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SFAW:

    In how many langauges [sic! :^p] are you lysdexic?

    I dunno, lemme czech: Dyslexa, count the number of gualanges I’m exlysdic in!

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