This time of year always makes me reflect upon the time my mom went to go buy a black Santa doll for a friend’s baby & when she asked the clerk where to find one he said “Lady, Santa isn’t black” & she had to break it to this 30-something white dude that “Sir, Santa isn’t real.”
— Frankie Zelnick (@phranqueigh) December 15, 2019
A forged diary claiming to be written by his father, containing a passage that says he wished Donald had died in Fred Jr's place. https://t.co/JkAHlA3Bd9
— Malarksist Revolutionary (@agraybee) December 24, 2019
It’s a renewable resource which acts as a carbon sink and can be composted usefully or dumped in a landfill, stripping some carbon out of the air.
What is there to be guilty about here? https://t.co/KnFKBpArr0
— Lyman Expand the House Stone, AKA ??? (@lymanstoneky) December 23, 2019
santa actually replaced the elves with gnomes in the 1980s due to the former’s shiny rock obsession and propensity for kinslaying
this is why christmas “elves” are always portrayed as short
— Starfish Who Sold Out Botswana to the French (@IRHotTakes) December 16, 2019
Comfort and joy, Cher.https://t.co/iEfG3lIlOi
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) December 21, 2019
Mike J
Silly to feel guilt over christmas trees. They’re a crop, just like any other. They’re planted and grown on farms to be sold for decoration.
Feel bad if you go off into an old growth forest and chop down a 300 year old tree. Don’t feel bad for getting a tree from the supermarket parking lot.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Festivus miracle!
CaseyL
The sweet potatoes are boiled, peeled, sliced, and in the fridge. Tomorrow I make the topping, a healthier variant of the usual sugar- and marshmallow-heavy stuff. Then: bake!
Redshift
@Mike J: Too many people don’t understand what “carbon neutral” actually means.
John Revolta
@Mike J: supermarket parking lot
Blammo! Just like that Proust feller, you triggered a flashback to an old Roger Miller song I ain’t heard in what, 50 years?
Kansas City Star!
That’s what I are!
Yodel-ee-o-lay-ee, you oughta see my car!
I got a big ol’ Cadillac with wire wheels
Got rhinestones on the spokes
I got credit down at the grocery store
An’ my barber tells me jokes!
I’m the number one attraction, every supermarket parking lot
I’m the King of Kansas City! No thanks Omaha, thanks a lot!
mrmoshpotato
@Mike J: And while they’re growing, they find carbon dioxide to be deeeeelicious.
mrmoshpotato
I’ll raise Brother Charlie a Dio.
NotMax
Can we post again?
In recognition of the holiday, some tuneage. And the original.
In the spirit of that other holiday, Jean Shepherd reading from Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid, the basis for the popular movie.
satby
Good morning all! I’m already celebrating that in less than 48 hours the wall to wall Xmas music will be OVER!
Edit: thinking of bringing some Bailey’s to the market for our coffee to get through this last day.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: And then we start up with New Year’s music! Mwhahhahah
?BillinGlendaleCA
Happy Holidays from Glendale.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Madness.
NotMax
@satby
Although there is a song link in my above comment, you have my word it is not Xmas music.
;)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: They do it every year, and that’s a duplex so it’s not just one mad person.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Put in mind of a cartoon from days of yore of a couple standing on the sidewalk, staring open-mouthed at a display like that, only packed with easily ten times the amount of decorations. On the lawn, on the porch, on the roof – gaudiest display you can imagine.
Caption: “They must be very religious.”
While on the subject of cartoons, have ferreted out the powers behind the scene of the flopping of a current movie.
:)
Amir Khalid
@Mike J:
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum …
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum …
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Madnesses! :)
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: Oh Kannenbaum
JPL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
?
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Glendale is losing the War on Christmas.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Appearances are deceptive, Baud; there are significantly fewer houses that have Xmas lights this year as opposed to previous years.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yes! In Your Face, Jesus!
mrmoshpotato
Sometimes the YouTube algorithm is amazing.
T’was The Night Before Christmas by Google Translate
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Could be more provocative.
HeartlandLiberal
Today is an official holiday around here. My wife’s BIRTHDAY, which is celebrated by doing any and every thing she wants. It’s a tradition. 74 years. We have been married 54 of them. Going out to breakfast at our favorite restaurant. I hope since it is Christmas Eve they have the Eggs Benedict., which is usually offered only on weekends. If not, I will go with the steak and eggs. Both with best home fries you can find. We both finally got over head colds and sinus infections that had us down for nearly four weeks, starting weekend before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving dinner was Marie Calendar frozen turkey dinners, an iron skillet of homemade cornbread, and homemade sausage gravy. Which, all things being equal, was a wonderful meal. Happy Christmas and Merry Holidays to all of you.
NotMax
@HeartlandLiberal
Yay! Celebrate!
OzarkHillbilly
@HeartlandLiberal:Happy B’day to the Missus.
Raven
Awful 5 hour of driving rain on the run up to Virginia but it stopped when we hit Floyd’s Gap. The airbnb is a well appointed double wide overlooking the lake and there doesn’t seem to be a soul around. Lot’s better than a motel in Roanoke would have been. The moderately dreaded extended family turned out fine. They knew how to blacken tuna just right and the cousin I sat across from was hearing impaired, a huge fisherman and voracious reader! It was swell. Fucking Falwell cut a huge LU in the Mountain overlooking Lynchburg and they have expanded even more since last year.
Raven
@HeartlandLiberal: Nice! My bride was 62 the 19th and in just 20 years I have learned you don’t double up on gifts!
Lapassionara
@HeartlandLiberal: Same to you. My grandson has requested sausage gravy for our Christmas breakfast, and I have never eaten it nor made it. Every version of it I have seen looks awful, pale and gelatinous. But I will do my best.
Happy holidays, everyone.
Raven
I’m sure we’ve. Noted the passing of the great Ram Dass?
Dorothy A. Winsor
We’re not going to our son’s house until the 26th but we’re having lunch with one friend tomorrow and then going to dinner at the home of one Mr DAW’s bridge partners.
Also, our hot water is back. Cold showers are terrible.
Gin & Tonic
@Lapassionara:
It is. Enjoy.
Gin & Tonic
@HeartlandLiberal:
Felicitations!
zhena gogolia
I turned off BJ early last night because I kept getting 502 errors, both in Chrome and Firefox. It was ironic to not be able to comment in the fundraising thread because of the site not working.
JPL
@zhena gogolia: I’m still getting a few this morning.
tarragon
@Lapassionara:
Oh yum. One of my favorites. Unfortunately I can’t do that much anymore, everyone else in the family is sensitive to milk in one way or another, and I’m always disappointed when I order it.
If you don’t have a recipe all I’ve ever done is cook up a nice crumbled breakfast sausage, leave everything in the pot and add flour, salt and pepper to make a roux. Then add milk to make a white gravy. Serve over buttery biscuits with sunny side or poached eggs and hash browns.
Damn, now I’m so craving that. I wonder if soy milk makes a decent white gravy.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: A couple of weeks back we visited my daughter and SIL in Brooklyn and took a drive down to Dyker Heights. You can look it up yourself – those people must be so religious they sit at the right hand of the Lord. ConEd must *love* them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Lapassionara: @Gin & Tonic: Nectar of the gods.
Kristine
Last night I baked a pumpkin-maple streusel bread that moved to the top of the ‘things I will definitely make again” list. This morning, it’s off to see TRoS with friends. A 915am showing because that’s what fits in our schedules.
Hope everyone has a great holiday.
mali muso
On our third viewing of The Polar Express in as many days. My 3 year old daughter watched it at a daycare holiday party last week and is now a big fan. Lol
Ohio Mom
We had our big Hanukkah dinner party last night. Today and tomorrow’s schedule is pure sloth. After finishing cleaning up the kitchen.
The floor near the stove is a little slippery with splattered oil from making latkes. The cabinets are also coated. So I am going to earn my sloth with scrubbing.
JMG
Today I am wrapping Alice’s present (my gift for my daughter is a check towards furniture for her new apartment in Bordeaux. Might be good a chair or table) and doing Christmas Eve dinner prep work. We bought bay scallops in Cape Cod the Saturday before Thanksgiving and they’re now defrosting in the fridge. Also, we will have smoked salmon on crackers with champagne as we exchange gifts. My daughter is in charge of Christmas dinner. Rib roast and on her own whim, shrimp cocktail because she wants to make cocktail sauce from scratch. Since she has a serious heat spice craving due to the total lack of it in French cuisine, my guess is the sauce will be roughly the same color as Trump’s face due to being 50 percent horseradish.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@mali muso: They like the repetition. Doesn’t bother them at all. Adults, OTOH, can go a little bonkers.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Same here, and it’s a real disappointment. It’s not even worth driving through the neighborhood to see them this year. Something’s up with these well-to-do mostly Democrats.
debbie
@satby:
Bring on the Baileys!
debbie
@Raven:
It almost sounds like you’re enjoying yourself.
mali muso
@Dorothy A. Winsor: yeah, she is definitely at the age where repetition is a “thing”. She will go for a week asking me to read the same books at bedtime. Then again, her vocabulary and language skills are pretty sophisticated for her age, so I guess all that repetition is helping her learn.
sab
@Amir Khalid:
@Amir Khalid: Did you know that is the tune to Alaska’s state song? Next line is Alaska, my Alaska.
Immanentize
@Raven: I was looking for you yesterday when I saw he died. Someone (steeplejack?) Posted up a Village Vanguard article reviewing his (first?) public appearance. And because he lived in Maui —
NotMax, were you and Ram Dass neighbors? Friends?
pinacacci
@HeartlandLiberal: Best wishes for a wonderful holiday today!
ETA I hope you get your eggs Benedict!
JPL
@mali muso: That’s awesome!
zhena gogolia
I think the Christianity Today editorial may have opened up a tiny crack. I’m seeing a lot of angry anti-Trump Christians on twitter since then.
debbie
.
zhena gogolia
@mali muso:
Definitely! One of the most pernicious things of recent years is the idea that “rote repetition” is a bad thing. It’s one of the tools of learning, especially in language. Throwing out repetition and memorization from the school curriculum has not been a boon for our young people.
Steeplejack
Test. Did the blog die? Everyone seems to have stopped commenting half an hour ago.
ETA: Ah, the dreaded gateway error. I got one too.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
And even angrier Trump supporters! I hope this leads to something good (though any dissent can’t be bad).
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
LOL, I had to watch Cinderella a million times with my niece and then, six years later, another million times with her younger sister.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
I kept getting 502 errors yesterday afternoon and last night. Sometimes it wouldn’t let me see the blog at all, sometimes I’d see the front page but couldn’t read comments or make a comment.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
Steeplejack
@mali muso, @zhena gogolia:
At family dinner recently I was playing a game with my niece (5) and nephew (3½) where I was a frog sitting on a lily pad (couch) and they were flies buzzing around me. I would zap them and rough them up. Over and over and over. I was thinking (a) how long is this going to go on and (b) how can I change this up? Then it hit me: they didn’t want me to “change it up.” They just wanted this, over and over and over. I asked my brother how long this could go on, and he said, “Until one of you drops.” Finally got rescued by the call to the dinner table.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steeplejack: When my boys were little I would take them to the park and play “Monster” with them on the jungle gyms. Got a little out of hand one time when I slipped and fell on top of one of the anchor posts for a bridge. Broke several ribs. My youngest didn’t realize I was hurt and tackled me.
Cowboy Diva
@tarragon: try making this stuff instead. I love it in soups, and I think it would be amazing in a sausage gravy.
otmar
Here in Austria, presents are given out in the evening of December 24th. All is ready: the kids are off to mass, while I made the last touches on the tree and laid out the presents underneath it.
So we’re at t-3 hours of the big unwrapping.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
I read and read and didn’t see one troll in the comments! Yay!
tarragon
@Cowboy Diva:
Interesting. I’ve never heard of anything like that. I’ll have to make some up and give it a try.
germy
Amir Khalid
@zhena gogolia:
I’ve been having the same problem off and on today. It’s quite frustrating.
Steeplejack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Oof and LOL.
Amir Khalid
@otmar:
Frohes Weihnachten.
germy
Has Mr. Silverman written about this?
Ambassador Kaidanow becomes 5th Pentagon official to resign in 7 days
Gin & Tonic
Since tonight’s dinner will be, as per tradition, meatless, and since all guests are leaving early Christmas morning to go to their other families, last night’s dinner was dominated by an all-belly porchetta, which was outstanding – even though it set off the smoke alarm (despite the range hood at full blast and the kitchen window open.)
It’s just a shame that a couple of bottles of what I thought was good Malbec that I brought back from our trip to Mendoza a few years ago had gone bad. Substitutes were available, though.
SW
Yes they are grown as a “crop”. Yes, they removed CO2 from the atmosphere while they were growing. No they weren’t taken from a forrest. Still, I can’t help thinking it is a shame. From a little seedling it takes what five years? maybe more to turn into that beautiful young tree. Given the right location and simply left alone it would live for decades and become huge but no. Chop it down. Hang a bunch of crap on it and celebrate commercialism like the god it has become. Fine. It smells great for a few days. Yeah its just a crop. Like any other. I guess.
germy
Boris Johnson
otmar
@Amir Khalid: Danke.
O. Felix Culpa
@mali muso: Is she three already? It’s so much fun to watch them turn into their own little persons (most of the time, anyway). As others have said, repetition is mother’s milk to little people. I have countless stories and poems memorized thanks to many times over readings to my guys when they were small, so the repetition was good for me too.
“There was a little fur family, smaller than most, warm as toast, in little fur coats, and they lived in a warm wooden tree.” A favorite: Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Garth Williams.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Just saw your post yesterday about your coughing. A lidocaine patch will take the edge off the pain when you cough. They helped me when I was dealing with pneumonia.
germy
@debbie: Available OTC?
Kathleen
@mali muso: My now 23 and 21 year old grandsons said Polar Express rates in their top 3 favorite Christmas movies.
OzarkHillbilly
Kay’s lack of commenting this AM has me hopeful her first grandbabygirl/boy is arriving.
debbie
@germy:
They are OTC as well as prescription.
Miss Bianca
@John Revolta: The Wilders – band out of Kansas City, MO – do a bang-up version of that tune on one of their CDs. Not sure if they are still around or not, I haven’t been following them for a few years.
debbie
I hope SD is listening to the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. Here, it was preceded by an hour of Bach et. sons (annoyingly called “Christmas Bachs”). Despite the title, it was lovely listening.
joel hanes
I’m mostly wrapped and shipped, have parceled out the chocolate for the Christmas stockings, and have secured all the materials for Christmas brunch. ( Discovered late last night that I need to go get eggs. I’ll do that after finishing this comment. )
Sometime this afternoon I’ll make and refrigerate the death-by-cholesterol “cheesy potatoes” hot dish from the 1982 Presbyterian ladies cookbook, and broil the teriyaki salmon.
I’ve got four little presents to wrap, and then I’ll be wrapped out.
Christmas Day brunch: bacon, sausage, cold shrimp, cold broiled salmon, smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, strawberries, danish, coffee cake, bagels, english muffins, croissants, the aforementioned cheesy potatoes, sparkling apple juice, OJ, or mimosas, coffee.
Next year I have to learn to make my grandmother’s “graham-cracker pudding”, a sweet vanilla custard made with stiff-whipped egg whites, with just enough graham-cracker crust. And the lemon sauce for the plum pudding.
Whichever holiday you celebrate, may it bring you joy, and may 2020 be a better year for all of us, everywhere.
mapaghimagsik
@SW: who doesn’t love coniferous veal?
Miss Bianca
@mali muso: OMG…not sure whether to laugh or commiserate you!
Kathleen
@zhena gogolia: One of my Christian Republican co workers who has always been anti Trump was so relieved that her thoughts and fears were expressed. She also thought the article was very clear about why he was being impeached. Because of her mistrust of the media she was not sure about why it was initiated. She didn’t vote for him but didn’t vote for Hillary either. She’s mostly very private regarding her political beliefs but we ended up having a very open and heartfelt discussion about politics and religion. My sense is there are many other Christians (she considers herself to be evangelical) who will at least have the conversation about how support for Trump conflicts with their religious beliefs.
Mel
@HeartlandLiberal:
A peaceful, wonderful birthday to your love, and all things good to you for making sure that she has her heart’s desires on her day.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: No, no front page about that resignation yet.
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa: Oh, that sounds like a cute one! I’ve never heard of that one before!
Yarrow
I have to go to the store for some things I missed getting earlier. I also have to go to the airport to pick up someone coming in on a flight. Apparently the flight is very full (got a text) so I think the airport could be chaos. All this after my second night in a row of four hours sleep. Promises to be a fun day!
Kathleen
@zhena gogolia: I think they’ve been out there judging from what I’m hearing from my evangelical co worker. She was very relieved that it was published. I showed her the article from the BJ comment that had the link.
sab
@Kristine: Recipe?
schrodingers_cat
BJP’s carnage in Uttar Pradesh, the Hindi heartland is being completely ignored by our media. Twenty dead and rising and thousands arrested. BJP leaders openly saying that they will wipe Muslims out of India in their public rallies. Our media is sleeping.
JPL
@O. Felix Culpa: Brown bear, brown bear what do you see……….. In his own ten month jibberish, I swear he’s reading the book, but I’m just a grandmother so what do I know. lol
cmorenc
@Mike J:
Christmas tree farming as commonly practices turns out to not be a very eco-friendly form of agriculture. The horticultural practices necessary to produce the attractively shaped, densely foliated, superficially healthy-looking trees for market involve heavy use of fertilizer, insecticides, and often selective herbicides, all of which runs off into local watersheds. Christmas tree farming is a big thing in the appalachian region of North Carolina, and I know about what’s involved from my late brother-in-law, who was involved with Christmas tree farming on a section of his own property – his widow is discontinuing the operation for the adverse reasons cited.
THAT is what folks should feel guilty about wrt commercial Christmas trees, much more so than because cut Christmas trees are dead trees walking, so to speak.
Steeplejack
@HeartlandLiberal:
Happy birthday to the missus!
I believe today is also the birthday of valued commenters Mary G and Zinsky.
???
debbie
Huh, unsure why my last post and I have been disappeared.
zhena gogolia
@Kathleen:
Even Billy Graham’s granddaughter was on TV supporting the author of the CT editorial.
Sandia Blanca
@debbie: I am enjoying the veddy British Lessons & Carols too! A favorite tradition.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly:
Either than or she’s barricaded herself in her office.
Dorothy A. Winsor
THEY: A paranoid nonsense poem
They
were killing the bald eagle.
If you shoot a bald eagle,
they
want to put you in jail
for 10 years.
A windmill will kill many.
It’s true.
And you know what?
After a certain number,
they
make you turn the windmill off.
That’s true,
by the way.”
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Somewhat indicative of where we are now:
(poets.org poem of the day)
dnfree
Speaking of holiday lights, We actually got an email from ComEd with this calculation:
In the holiday classic “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” Clark Griswold famously decorates his family’s house in a light display so big and bright that it not only blinds his neighbors, but it causes a citywide power outage.
With 25,000 lights, the festive display was undoubtedly the brightest on the block. But Clark was likely also blind to the costs of powering the lights for his old-fashioned Christmas display.
So, what would it cost to pull off Clark’s lights display in Illinois today?
Using the traditional incandescent holiday lights in widespread use when Christmas Vacation came out in 1989, it would cost $3,699.85 today.*
Using the LED holiday lights that are now widely available, it would cost just $68.71.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: ahhh. Little Fur Family.
This is a song.
One of our top 10 repeaters. I love the little fur animal the little Fur animal catches…. Thank you, I am going to pull that out again.
mad citizen
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The stupidity, it hurts!
My wife and me hosted her 3 sisters (with one husband) Sat night. I smoked a beek tenderloin and prime ribeyeon the grill–awesome beef. Sister-in-laws classic low information trumpers. Two of them, right in front of me post dinner, have this exchange: “….impeachment” “They’ve got the devil in them” “Don’t worry, it will never happen”.
We’re going over to one of their houses for xmas eve eats later–the one who in the past has fervently told us about the chemtrails.
I pledged to my wife that if somehow trumpov is re-elected, I will not be hosting this dinner again. Not spending a couple hundred dollars making premium beef and dishes for trumpers. I’m sorry, can’t do it.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia:
Yes. Not Ideal!
Aleta
@Steeplejack: These are the ones I like. Also the best price. The owner of the co., a Japanese woman living in TX, used to make them all herself. The site now says she (older) still supervises everything. You can also buy them on Amazon, same price, listed as “Beans72 Organic Buckwheat Pillow. ” The smallest sizes work fine for me. Great for neck support. Last forever. Mine is at least 20 years old. But the zipper lets you add more hulls over time if you like. (Watch out for another co. that copied her web site (uses the domain name “original”) and came up 1st in a search. Looks shady to me. )
zhena gogolia
@mad citizen:
OTOH, think how sweet it will be to garnish it with their tears if he’s gone. (by whatever means)
WaterGirl
@Baud:
That’s a bold move in an election year.
chris
@cmorenc:
Can confirm. I live on a Christmas tree farm. It takes 7-10 years to raise a balsam fir for your living room. They are sheared every year, chemically fertilised and the undergrowth is killed with round-up. There are very few “organic” farms and they are quite small because of the labour required.
Happy holidays to all!
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: Did you ever figure out the problem with On the Road?
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: I know it’s frustrating. We know what the issue is, it’s a long-standing WordPress bug that has been documented for years, but it has never been addressed because it only affects a small number of sites. Sites that have a huge number of comments, which is us, with our 5.5 million comments.
It’s less of an issue with more space for the server, and I hoped we wouldn’t see it in action much at all now that we have more space. But dog does not love us that much. Kind of hard to move forward on solutions over the holidays.
Aleta
@WaterGirl: Hey you’re supposed to be on holiday. Thanks for your note.
Steeplejack
@Aleta:
Thanks for that info! I really like that one pillow my brother has. He has a king bed with like 20 pillows, and they all suck except for that one. I’ll think I’ll get one of these.
(Woody the greyhound does like the other pillows.)
Aleta
@chris: My first underage job was spraying Christmas trees.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: If you eliminate the stupid comments, you can cut that number down quite a bit.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: I wrote to you the next morning and told you it was resolved when we successfully moved to the new space last Friday morning at 9:45.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: Here’s something for the greyhound.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: That last step might explain why I never received your message.
mad citizen
@zhena gogolia: Yes! I’ve got a President Obama christmas card from his first year–I thought about prominently displaying it this year. Maybe next year!
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
God, that looks like medieval torture!
Woody is definitely over racing, and racing around. He came up hard in the Mexican leagues and apparently suffered a broken leg at some point. Took a lot of time and patience for my brother to help him feel secure and “normal.” And he’s still the least normal greyhound I know.
All of my brothers’ greyhounds have been like “Yeah, I did the racing thing. Now get me a beer.” Gigantic lapdogs and couch hogs.
Jeffro
We are, for the first time in absolutely forever, spending Christmas both a) at home and b) without visiting family. It’s ALREADY awesome. My wife and daughter have been out hiking while I’ve been cooking and prepping, and we already called around to find out which Chinese restaurants are gonna be open tomorrow.
For tonight I already have crock-pot pork al pastor going. Tacos! On Christmas Eve!!
Now to go get some STAR WARS tickets for sometime tomorrow and we’ll be all set!
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: Thing is, that device is self-powered – it goes as fast as the dog spins it.
But yeah, I know about the retired greyhounds. There used to be a dog-racing track quite near here (there were several in New England) and an erstwhile co-worker volunteered for a rescue outfit and had a few hounds himself. I think they were all content to be retired.
WaterGirl
@Aleta: I am away for Christmas, but I came down with something last night. I suspect it’s strep. My favorite! (not). So I’m not real energetic but I can sit and read and type.
My niece keeps her house at 60 in the daytime, and if it’s 40 degrees outside as it has been for the past 2 days, they like to open all the doors and windows. And there are 13 of us, with people from 6 locales across the country, plus two college students and small children. I’d say that’s the trifecta for getting sick, even though I almost never get sick.
Aleta
@Steeplejack: The only downside I’ve found is it becomes unsatisfying to use anything else. I especially like that you can push the insides around a little to get your head and neck aligned and supported. (The really old-time traditional ones are stuffed much harder and are even smaller, and for some reason become like a nightlong dream of head massage once you adjust to the hardness, which takes a while.)
If it was for your cat, and esp if you have a co-op nearby, you can just buy 275 pounds of hulls, stuff them in your car and later enclose them in a tightly zippered cover, such as a Chihuahua dog bed cover or a pillow protector. (People do make them — as neck pillows for example. Buckwheat unlike some other things that are used, like millet, isn’t affected by humidity so doesn’t mildew.)
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Do you think that would cut the number in half? If my comments any indication, that might not be far off!
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: More like 80%
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: What happened to your OTR submission?
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
I get that it’s self-powered, but does the dog know that? And how do they slow down and stop?
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: On Thursday night there was an error message if you submitted to On the Road, and the submission didn’t make it through.
So I added a BIG RED WARING message to the form. Took it down again the next morning once we moved to the bigger space, and confirmed that the form was working again. If you didn’t see the error message, you are all good.
Aleta
@WaterGirl: Hot water bottles are my miracle cure for sickness or no heat. Big old fashioned kind from a drugstore, not too full so they lie flat. Ideally one on the chest and another to move around.
Eat an apple every day. Get to bed by three.
Wear your flannel underwear, when you climb a tree.
Take good care of yourself. You ? belong to here …..
Brachiator
@germy:
Is this a real person?
Who’s next? Jiminy Cricket?
I guess I am doubly alarmed by this. I worry about good people leaving. And I worry about what kind of people their replacements might be.
And even though it is easy and typical to demonize the GOP, to just write them off as malignant, I still am stunned that they care so little about the country that they will sit back and meekly support Trump as he subverts the government from within.
WaterGirl
@Aleta: My doctor just called in a prescription for me. Thank goodness penicillin is a magic drug for me and I respond really quickly.
I am trying to wait an hour before I call the pharmacy to see if they have it ready, but I am definitely feeling worse by the minute.
Gin & Tonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I got a database error and the whole thing (7 pics, some explanatory text, about a half-hour’s work) vanished. I reported it to WG, she tried a one-pic post and got the same error. Apparently it has been corrected once they moved the server instance. Maybe I’ll try resubmitting tomorrow night when everybody has left the house.
Aleta
@WaterGirl: That’s good. Really, take care of yourself. You could use a rest I bet.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Unacquainted in person.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: OK, I saw that you’d had some difficulties and was concerned about the pics I submitted. I got a confirmation email, so I assume I’m good.
joel hanes
@WaterGirl:
gargle with warm salt water
deeply
please
WaterGirl
@joel hanes: I was thinking about that, too. My doctor suggested a raspberry vinnagrette gargle, as well, which I had never heard of.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
That seems similar to apple cider vinegar, which is reportedly a cure for just about everything.
SWMBO
@Lapassionara: To make milk gravy, you need to get proportions right. Brown sausage and crumble it. Empty the skillet and save the drippings. (This is true for bacon as well.) Use 1/4 cup grease (you can use peanut oil if you can’t tolerate grease) 1/4 cup flour and 2 cups milk. Get the grease (or oil) hot and make a roue with the flour. Stir and stir and stir. The browner the roue, the darker the gravy. Don’t scorch it. Slowly add the milk and stir to keep it from scorching. Add the sausage or bacon back in and serve hot. Makes a little over 2 cups. If you are trying to feed a crowd, double the recipe. Keep the proportions the same. Serve over biscuits, buttered toast, any warm bread. If you use the same proportions, use 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup flour, 2tablespoons cocoa, and 2 cups milk. You aren’t trying to brown the roue since the cocoa will darken it. Chocolate gravy over cinnamon toast is lovely.