Meet PupCake, a pie filter creation by Avalune.
And Penelope DuckCake, another Avalune creation, also for the pie filter.
Who’s up for making our own fun?
We could have a BJ contest for dialogue between Katie Porter and one of her children who pleaded (pled?) innocent after stealing cookies from the cookie jar.
We could have a contest for best Noir opening – someone did a great one in BG’s Noir post. We have a lot of talent here; I’ll bet we could have some great ones.
A contest for best haiku!
We could have separate posts for each of the following entertainment possibilities, with links in the sidebar so people can continue to add to them and access them as the days go by:
– good TV shows
– biographies
– fiction
– movies
– fun podcasts
– political podcasts
– great books on tape
– free online concerts
– etc
You guys could send pet pics and we can make a photo grid of 25 pets and list 25 commenter names, and we can guess who goes with whom. As someone guesses right we add the names to the grid. Everybody gets to yell “Bingo!” when we fill it all in.
I had a bunch more ideas as I lay in bed a couple nights ago… I’m hoping they come back to me as you all jump on the brainstorming bandwagon and come up with ideas for some BJ fun in the coming days.
Please tell me I’m not the only one who is up for some lighthearted fun. This has been a rough week and that would make me very sad. Share you ideas below, please!
HinTN
I’m in
Dorothy A. Winsor
TaMara, you are tireless and a treasure.
Just for amusement, because it made me laugh
WaterGirl
I am not alone!
geg6
Not light hearted but certainly optimistic:
Giant Eagle, an iconic local (and now regional) grocery chain and Primanti Brothers, an iconic local sandwich pub chain, famous for the fries and slaw served on the sandwich, have teamed up to provide furloughed Primanti’s employees with interim jobs at Giant Eagle, helping to keep up with increased demand. I think this is a great idea.
Martin
You want me to ask her?
HinTN
I’m in
@HinTN: Welp, I tried to edit. I’ve got a picture of the chicken pot pie I made from scratch this evening.
PST
Despite having frequented this blog for quite a while now, I was never really sure what a pie filter was. I knew it had something to do with avoiding people, but not how to invoke it or, in practice, what it would do. These new cat cakes and so forth just confused me more. So rather than embarrass myself by asking here, I asked Google:
It is now clear as glass.
Mary G
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I meant WaterGirl, of course. Though TaMara is a treasure too. You both are.
WaterGirl
@geg6: That’s awesome.
WaterGirl
@Martin: Do you know Katie Porter? Maybe she could be the judge for our contest!
WaterGirl
@HinTN: If you send it to me by email, i can put your pot pie in a comment in this thread.
TaMara (HFG)
I am using Penelope Duckcake for all my pies now!!
WaterGirl
@PST: Ha!
Look for this at the end of the posts, before the comments start. Click on the cherry pie tart.
You’ll get a list of comments. Let’s say that WaterGirl person always annoys you. Choose WaterGirl from the list (or search for watergirl) and then all of my comments will be replaced by a dessert image. Or if, if you prefer, by a dessert-related quote. Anyone who replies to WaterGirl will also show up as a dessert.
geg6
@WaterGirl:
Isn’t it? More companies should be thinking outside of the box like this.
Baud
I’m going to have to start pieing some people.
chris
Just watch this
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): Do you like her? I think she’s adorable.
WaterGirl
@chris: That was so good, I snorted. TMI?
HinTN
@PST: Yep, it shuts out unwanted signals.
WaterGirl
@Mary G: It wouldn’t let me view it. Is it x-rated?
Avalune
Haikus can be fun!
Avalune
@Baud: I pied so many people- just to play with the filter. ?
Uncle Cosmo
Instead of putzing around with oh-so-cutesy animal “pies” for our oh-so-sensitive Juicers who can’t be bothered to scroll past the posters that they find oh-so-offensive (but Cole won’t ban) –
How about our web-developers take some time to fix the only-intermittently-functional “back” buttons that are driving most of us batshit?
MazeDancer
Have large list of entertaining, not dreary, or nuanced, well-acted, well-written shows to binge.
Actually sent it out today to my IRL pals as a Happy Spring greeting.
Would love to share here.
CaseyL
I just watched a funny little video by the Livingonadime.com folks: What to do when you have no poo poo paper.
They ran down a list of TP alternatives, from the obvious (kleenex, baby wipes, napkins, paper towels – with cautions that most of these need to go into the trash, not down the toilet) to the retro (old phone books! Non-glossy news papers and catalogs!) to the really-last-resort (wash cloths, and put ’em in a bucket of water by the toilet to be laundered. May I just say: Yuck.).
They also mentioned bidets, which may at last become popular in the US in these TP-less times.
This is NOT a suggestion for a game, though FSM knows the gang around here would probably play one based on this info. I just thought it was amusing. And informative.
WaterGirl
@Uncle Cosmo: In all fairness to the developers, I’m the one putzing with the pie filter stuff. There’s a ton of stuff I can do without involving the developers.
I recently asked the developers for a phone meeting to talk about the remaining items, and the back button is one of the top items. They were going to get back to me last week, but I haven’t pressed them because they are going through all the same shit the we are. Two have small children, one has mostly grown kids across the country, and I’m willing to bet that they are as distracted as most of us are.
Rest assured, I will raise it with them in a week or two. In the meantime, I make do by making a mental note of the comment I am on when I start gallivanting all over the post.
HinTN
@WaterGirl: Done
chris
@WaterGirl: Not at all! I had the same reaction… about five times.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: I sent you a picture that you might like to share.
Sab
I love these new pies. It makes me look forward to BJ After Dark. My husband finally read a comment threat a few days ago. He was appalled. “You actually enjoy this?” I had to admit that on that particular thread all I saw was pastry.
HinTN
@Baud: Pie me. I wanna see how that works.
prostratedragon
@chris: You know that yogic exercise where you pump your diaphragm? Thanks.
Baud
@Sab:
I’m an acquired taste.
WaterGirl
HinTN pot pie:
Omnes Omnibus
@HinTN: My understanding is that unless he tells you you will never know that you have been pied.
Baud
@HinTN: If I pied you, you wouldn’t see any difference. Only I would.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: This does not look like a pot pie! But I bet it tastes like one?
Yutsano
@Avalune: Be very very careful with the words…
HinTN
@Omnes Omnibus: pfui – that’s no fun. The pied should be notified.
karensky
I like the haiku idea.
HinTN
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I am not seeing it. :-(
RoonieRoo
I could really use some more lighthearted threads. As a vote. Seriously. I’m really starting to struggle with my mental balance with the daily news.
NotMax
Someone suggested a computer gaming thread, which sounds funnish.
Also too, a thread devoted to cooking in bulk for portioning into immediate and frozen for later meals might be useful. And tips and tricks for doctoring servings so it isn’t same old, same old each time.
Oh, and a cooking thread on favorite recipes which kids can make (or help make). Also suggestions on games one can take time to teach and share with your kids (and don’t necessarily require close proximity): chess, backgammon, hearts, pinochle, cribbage, etc., etc.
Either just Movies or just TV is pretty broad – it might work better to break them down into separate posts by genre or some other delineation.
HinTN
@WaterGirl: It’s a BIG pot pie. Made to spec from The Joy of Cooking, latest edition.
Yes, it’s good. Lots of butter.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: WaterGirl @ balloon-juice.com, yes? (without the spaces of course.)
WaterGirl
I’m thinking I’ll make a list of all the ideas so everyone has access to them. That way if TaMara or someone else who majors in leftovers wanted to take you up on your suggestion for doctoring leftovers to change things up, they could.
Suggestions for genres for TV and movies?
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: yes!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@HinTN:
I don’t want to know if someone pies me! I’d rather be–what do you call it? Shadow pied.
HinTN
@Baud: What DO you taste like?
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: I’ll try again.
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Yummy! Perfect combination of sweet and savory. That’s my guess.
WaterGirl
@HinTN: A good friend of mine makes pot pie with Filo dough. Yum. I have never made a pot pie.
Lapassionara
@NotMax: One of my earliest memories is of a children’s cookbook that I got as a present. And this was before microwave ovens. I learned to scramble an egg, on the stove, and I also learned how to make bisquits and cornbread from scratch.
cooking is a great way to engage children in the real.
HinTN
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Sounds so antiseptic. This is Balloon-Juice, ffs.
BGinCHI
One act play contest.
Winner gets his/her play acted out by Cole, filmed, posted as an Open Thread.
WaterGirl
I heard a few votes for Haikus. And a (firm!) offer from Martin to get us Katie Porter as a judge for the proposed “Katie Porter & child
interrogationconversation?” contest. Anyone else think that contest would be fun?What about the pet pictures grid? Great idea? Terrible?
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: Love that! Limits on length, or any other parameters?
HinTN
@WaterGirl: No sweet. Savory, YES. I was in Denver once and stopped in a sidewalk place for lunch. Ordered chicken pot pie from the menu and was amazed. DO IT !!!
WaterGirl
@NotMax:
Not a gamer. How would something like that work?
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: @WaterGirl: No nudity. Dear god, please no nudity.
HinTN
By the way, on Android using Chrome, the site (comments anyway), is borked.
WaterGirl
Omnes, would you like to tell us about this picture?
WaterGirl
@HinTN: In what way? Always, or just right now?
WaterGirl
@HinTN: I have chicken, butter, flour, celery and onions. Does that about cover what I would need to make a pot pie?
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: it is a picture that the son of a client made for me. He is a six year old from Gambia. The picture is a rocket going to the moon. We needed a new black crayon after he finished.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Cool picture. Definitely a keeper.
HinTN
@WaterGirl: Just right now. Try to comment and window pops up way to the right on the screen. Screen doesn’t auto size. Have to drag and resize. Other comments and such in the background. Borked!
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Some overlap, but that’s a given. Mix, match, combine as desired.
Action/Adventure
Animated
Chick Flicks (sorry, but it’s succinct if maybe on the non-PC side)
Classics (say, pre-1960, or a date to be named later)
Comedy
Detective/Mystery
Documentary
Drama
Eminently Re-watchable
Foreign
Guilty Pleasures
History
Literary Adaptations
Noir
Romance
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sitcoms (TV)
So Bad They’re Good/Things to Veg Out On
Thriller/Horror
Westerns
Also maybe a dip once into Old Time Radio and where to find it online.
James E Powell
How about a group read of The Plague?
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Can you try it on a different thread right now and let me know whether the problem is just in this thread, or in both threads?
WaterGirl
@James E Powell: Young man, I think you might need to stay after class so we can clarify the concept of “fun”!
HinTN
@WaterGirl: YES, but it’s how you use them. MAKE A NICE PIE CRUST. Saute the veggies. Make a bechamel. Throw in the chicken. Throw in the veggies. Put in a baking dish. Put on the crust. Bake at 400. Don’t burn your mouth!
hitchhiker
vote here for the pictures grid!
joel hanes
@Uncle Cosmo:
the only-intermittently-functional “back” buttons
They sometimes work correctly ?
Not in my recent experience. I’ve resorted to making a mental note of the number of the comment to which I’m responding, or from which I’m jumping through a reference
However, I probably block cookies. That may be part of the problem.
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Just making sure I had the ingredients since I won’t, you know, be running out for anything I’m missing. :-)
Benw
All these ideas sound fantastic! I say yes to all and suggest dirty limericks as well
WaterGirl
@hitchhiker: Oh, good! I think that would be fun. Anyone interested should send me photos (not super high quality, nothing higher than 2000 pixels wide).
Be sure to tell me your nym and the pet’s name in the email message.
FelonyGovt
Another vote for fun lighthearted threads, games etc. I’ve been reading much too much all COVID19 all the time and sometimes I feel like I’m on the verge of crying- or losing it completely.
ETA and I love DogCake and Penelope Duck Cake.
WaterGirl
@Benw: Dirty limericks! Excellent idea.
joel hanes
@WaterGirl:
IMHO, better with a small amount of carrots or peas, or potato.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Any number of ways. Just a few follow:
What games are you playing currently?
Which would you recommend for newbies?
Which have you ever played through multiple times for the sheer enjoyment of the world/setting/etc.?
First person, third person or non-shoot-’em-up suggestions.
Multi-player vs. single player suggestions.
No separate controller necessarily needed suggestions.
Available free or for under $10.
Relaxing or educational suggestions; mind teaser games.
Stuff like that there. More avid gamers than I can doubtless come up with lots more.
WaterGirl
@FelonyGovt: I started tearing up in the grocery store line today, where I wasn’t supposed to be. I got it together, though, and didn’t actually start crying.
Hard times; fun is good.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Thank you! That helps a lot!
WaterGirl
@joel hanes: I have potatoes! I was supposed to get carrots at the store but there were no carts, so I was filling up paper bags and the fucking handles were breaking off, so I said fuck it to the carrots.
WaterGirl
@FelonyGovt:
Yay!
Sab
I hadn’t thought of it, but I do always pay cash. So my weekly cash stash is now soaking in a hot tub of Dreft. After I rinse it and dry it it should be good to go. Handled by me briefly, but nobody else.
@HinTN: I just made pizza from scratch from my 1970s vintage Joy of Cooking. It was amazing.
I normally use my grandmother’s Joy. It is only about a third edition, so very old and battered. It didn’t have pizza.
joel hanes
@WaterGirl:
You’ll need milk and butter for the sauce, maybe onion, and a touch of nutmeg goes well. Google for bechamel recipe, and don’t hurry that step
FelonyGovt
@WaterGirl: ❤️ We will get through this.
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Also, are you on an android phone or a tablet? What if you close this thread and then click on it again? Same, or no longer borked?
HinTN
Wow, alternative reality. Comments on this new window are fine AND my conversation on the subject with WaterGirl has disappeared.
joel hanes
@Sab:
My cash was all acquired a month ago, so probably OK, but the people to whom I give it don’t know that, so I’m thinking that I’ll spray it with Lysol two hours before using it to pay the pizza delivery guy and telling him to keep the change plus extra for hazard pay.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: You mean…like…Radio Mystery Theater? Man, I used to love to listen to that with my dad when he’d drive me way out into the sticks for my evening riding lessons.
WaterGirl
@Sab:
I went to the bank 2 and 3 weeks ago. Three trips, took out a total of $800.00, and in absolutely fresh new bills. I wasn’t sure how ugly things might get, so I wanted to be prepared.
HinTN
@WaterGirl: Back to this window. Borked! And my comment from the other window is here. Twilight Zone music…
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Your comments are still here.
HinTN
WaterGirl
@joel hanes: I have milk and onions, too. Nutmeg also, but I am not the biggest nutmeg fan. Definitely a spice to be used sparingly, in my opinion. Have never made béchamel – is that basically just a cream sauce?
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Refresh the other window and see how many comments there are.
joel hanes
@Sab:
my grandmother’s Joy
The recipes in the older editions of Joy of Cooking are less healthy, but oh! the flavor. I treasure the one that my mom gave me in 1975, although it’s quite battered and stained.
The advice to e.g. hang gamebirds for a day after drawing but before skinning or plucking can seem — like something from another world.
Also, they tell you to baste your turkey obsessively, but liquids cannot penetrate turkey skin, so that’s futile. Nevertheless, I consult my copy before making any large holiday meal.
The About [family of ingredients name goes here] sections are invaluable background for novices.
WaterGirl
@joel hanes: My mom’s joy of cooking was absolutely falling apart.
mrmoshpotato
PupCake’s tongue makes it high art.
WaterGirl
Any other ideas for games, contests, anything?
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Avalune does great expressions. That’s part of why I think her art is so good.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
One other category came to mind for computer games – old school that holds up today.
M⁴ and others are certainly more versed in this area than I.
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Is it wrong if I suggest that you just close the borked window and use the good one? :-)
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Love your M⁴
BGinCHI
@WaterGirl: It should have both male & female characters, one of which can be an animal.
HinTN
@WaterGirl: Shut the phone down and came back. Big lag in typying, still not fitting to the screen window. It’s a mess. Must need ice cream.
mrmoshpotato
@PST: LOL While still true…
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: Light nudity, adult themes, accidental violence.
joel hanes
Amazing radio theater for those who’ve never heard it (and for those who love it) :
Temporarily Humbolt County
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjNqlhPFc4Y
If you’re a Boomer and used to watch Saturday TV, starting in the wee hours of the morning with the religion shows and through old WW II movies and high school hijinks movies …
Don’t Crush That Dwarf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLZOXm3zY1w
Welcome to The Future!
I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmWFrMq3qNY
You have to pay attention, or you’ll miss about 90% of the jokes. (It’s almost _all_ jokes)
HinTN
@Sab: I prefer my 1973 ish version but it doesn’t have the chicken pot pie that the latest version has.
ETA: Mama gave me the book when I moved out. Told me I would need it. She was right!
raven
@joel hanes: rancho malerio, if you lived here you’d be home now. . .
WaterGirl
@HinTN: I have ice cream! (sorry, not helping)
HinTN
@joel hanes: Definitely frozen peas. This version was sans carrots but I prefer them. Potatoes not so much
HinTN
@WaterGirl: No nutmeg. Salt and pepper.
NotMax
@HinTN
Similar but different, shared here a while back.
Tuna Pie
I am eternally unlucky with homemade pie crust, so use frozen ones for it. Either will do.
Benw
@WaterGirl: thanks and thanks for your big list of rad ideas!
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: @Omnes Omnibus:
I’m serious about this, but not sure how to resolve the final two suggestions. Can we set a limit on length, so they’re not too long?
Mary G
@joel hanes: In my younger days, I think I could have recited We’re All Bozos on This Bus by heart. “Mr. President, I need a job…”
joel hanes
@HinTN:
I like a pinch of nutmeg, but de gustibus.
Those who like limas can use frozen ones.
HinTN
@NotMax: Mine doesn’t have a bottom crust. Otherwise looks yummmmmmmmy. I love fish.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
Yes! I already know a couple recent YouTube videos that cover that.
Yeah. Gotta break that down to categories – and not just silents and talkies!
HinTN
@Mary G: Glad I didn’t have a snoot full of … I read that.
joel hanes
@Mary G:
I can still do most of The Wall Of Science, which is a wonderful parody of the 16-mm science films we used to watch in elementary school, films such as “Our Mister Sun”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEfomqnif34
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato:
Ha!
HinTN
@NotMax: Sings, “Jambalaya, crawfish pie, file gumbo…”
I’ll just let myself out now.
August West
Some streaming providers have lifted their paywalls and are offering temporary extensions on free trials.
This article has a good roundup
h/t https://slate.com/culture/2020/03/streaming-services-free-trial-coronavirus-pandemic.html
joel hanes
@Mary G:
JIM: Mr. President, where can I get a job?
PRESIDENT: Mmmany busy executives ask me, “What about the Job-Displacement Market Program in the city of The Future?” Well, count on us to be there, so that if we’re lucky, in the future, we will never have to answer questions like yours ever again.
mrmoshpotato
@BGinCHI: LMAO! Something tells me you haven’t run this by Cole.
WaterGirl
@August West: Oh, wow! That’s great!
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Cole is always the last to know.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Long time favorite joke on that topic.
The scene: The Irish National Dirty Limerick Contest.
“And the winner, by unanimous vote is – Ms Eileen O’Leary. Will Ms O’Leary please come up on stage.”
Movement in audience reveals a frail, old – very old – woman slwowly making her way forward.
“Ms O’Leary, congratulations. Before we can award the prize, the rules stipulate you recite your contribution. The microphone is yours.”
(She blushes deeply and softly says) “Oh my, no. I couldn’t possibly say such things in public, much less in mixed company!”
(Quick conferring among the judges.)
“Ms O’Leary, in deference to your sensibilities and age, the judges have agreed that whenever anything you find embarrassing or unseemly is reached, you may say ‘Ta dum de dum’ instead. Is that satisfactory?”
“Sure and begorrah it is.” (She loudly clears her throat and, in a thick brogue, recites.)
“Ta dum de dum ta dum de dum
Ta dum de dum de dum
Ta dum de dum ta dum de dum
Ta dum de dum fuck you.”
mrmoshpotato
@HinTN:
@WaterGirl: Same problem on Android phone, Duckduckgo browser as HinTN with comment box.
August West
I’d like to see a playlist of music for relaxation. These are the first songs that come to my mind.
No Woman, No Cry – Bob Marley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJzJewlOfVs
Across the Universe – The Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90M60PzmxEE
Eyes of the World – Grateful Dead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCy9k_RWlvA
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: @HinTN:
Interesting. I do not know why it would have a problem with this thread. That said, unless this problem rears its ugly head in another thread, I am not inclined to pursue it. Does that make you guys want to yell at me?
WaterGirl
@August West: Relaxing music is a great idea!
WaterGirl
@MazeDancer: That sounds really good.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Not quite sure why, but somehow that made me think of the elderly mom of a middle-aged fellow that went to my church (when I went to church).
He was a professor, and his mom wrote soft-core pornography when she was younger.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Forgot Film Noir and Silents.
And you want old time radio?
https://www.patreon.com/FullPricePod
Scroll down for free episodes. The radio play The Undecided Molecule from episode 8 is hilarious.
Some episodes might be chilling, so wear long pants.
Origuy
I am not seeing anything to turn on the pie filter. I remember a form at one time, but it’s not here now.
Chrome on Windows 10, also Edge
WaterGirl
@Origuy: See my comment at #14 for brief pie filter instructions.
You just click the little cherry pie and add people.
edit: unless it doesn’t show up in Edge? Not everything works perfectly with IE or Edge. Let me know? thanks.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Noir is there. Was going to include silents as a separate category but then thought it might work as well lumped in with classics.
mrmoshpotato
@joel hanes: Hand me the pliers?
Martin
@WaterGirl: I know her a little. Had some meetings with her before she got elected. At the very least, I know how to get in touch with her outside of her current position.
I wouldn’t though – she’s got more important things to deal with at the moment.
WaterGirl
@Martin: Yeah, I know. Just fooling around.
Is she as awesome in person as she seems on the TV? (still laughing at Bernie in the debate “on the YouTube”.
ziggy
I’m in, any non-fiction with natural disasters, wrecks, violent crimes, diseases, etc…to take my mind off the anxious times we’re in.
WaterGirl
I will just say that I haven’t received any pet pics, and we can’t do the pet grid without pictures. Just saying.
joel hanes
@mrmoshpotato:
MUDHEAD: Doesn’t Bottles count?
PORGY: Only to three, Mudhead.
joel hanes
@raven:
Antelope Freeway, 1/16th mile
WaterGirl
@ziggy: For real? That wouldn’t make you more anxious?
Mary G
I used to love puzzles, like figuring out where “a view from your window” was taken on Saturdays on Andrew Sullivan’s old blog. I never got a hard one, but I enjoyed looking for them on Google Earth, and finding the answer was a real high Eureka moment. So the pet grid would appeal.
Today I came across this on 538:
I’m too distracted to even do the easy one, though.
frosty
@HinTN: Did Cleek know this when he created it? If so, awesome pun on top of a successful filter.
WaterGirl
@frosty: I wondered that, myself, when I read that upthread. Someone should ask Cleek next time he is here.
WaterGirl
@Mary G: That’s very cool! Maybe we need a list for places with puzzles.
Distracted, yes, very much so. All week.
Kattails
@HinTN: Some of us prefer a biscuit crust for our chicken pies, mind you. You make simple biscuits, buttermilk if you have it, cut them out and place around on the top, they get cooked through, the top is browned but the bottom is yummy from contact with the sauce.
@WaterGirl: also carrots, frozen peas. A splash of sherry in the sauce doesn’t hurt.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
Not any more than usual! Kidding! ?
I’m not out of this thread yet, so I’ll report once I am.
Origuy
@WaterGirl: Duh, thanks. I remember now, but for some reason I didn’t notice the picture of the pie. Works fine on Edge as well as Chrome.
WaterGirl
Tucker keeps telling me it’s snuggle time, so I am closing the laptop.
I’m sure in the morning I’ll find a ton of pet photos in my mailbox, she said hopefully. :-) Not to mention more cool ideas for what should go on the list.
Good night, all!
WaterGirl
@Origuy: oh, yay!
The developer told me the tiny pie with the word Filter under it was too subtle, but I thought it was fun so we went with it anyway.
Martin
@ziggy: One of my favorite Youtube podcast/series is an informative but humorous explanation of engineering disasters. The point person on the series is an engineer and true to brand relatively incompetent at the technical aspects of doing a podcast. They’re all socialists, one is transgender (and muslim and scottish). And every disaster is the fault of capitalism or racism or Republicans or all of the above. They love trains and organized labor, make fun of everything and each other, and I find them incredibly endearing.
Their channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPxHg4192hLDpTI2w7F9rPg/videos
But they recorded their first episodes on a different channel and are bad enough at Youtube that they’ve never gotten them altogether. First episode is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TOS68qWHhw
It’s on the Silver Bridge disaster, so appropriate for this site as it takes place in WV. Not sure if it’s anyone’s cup of tea beyond my son and I, but I love it.
frosty
@raven: Antelope Freeway, 1/64 mile. I have so much useless stuff stuck in my head!!!
Yutsano
@HinTN: I had to do a quick run to the drugstore. Then I decided to be lazy tonight and grab some dinner.
THANKS TO YOU THAT SONG WAS STUCK IN MY HEAD THE ENTIRE TIME!!!
That’s not a complaint BTW. Just informational.
MomSense
Taproot magazine is giving out recipes and really nice coloring book pages you can download and print.
Kattails
@WaterGirl: Pre-cook the chicken breasts by simmering, it will give you a light broth if you don’t have stock on hand. Sauce: 4 Tbs. butter, 1/2 c. flour, saute to cook the flour, whisk in a combination of chicken stock and milk if you have both, 2c. stock +1 1/2 c. milk. My recipe is from Cook’s Illustrated#20. They used thyme also. I sometimes make up the whole batch without any topping, portion it out, and freeze. Then I can put the chicken over any leftover rice, noodles, potatoes.
Avalune
@Yutsano: OMG – that’s one of my favorite things from Avatar. That, the cabbage guy and the boulder. :D
Ruckus
I made bread yesterday for the first time in decades.
A bit old fashioned as I don’t have a mixer so every thing done by hand.
First time I used whole wheat flour and it didn’t rise as much as I thought it would. Is dense and the loaf is actually heavy. But it’s good bread, simple, no designs on top or toppings but tasty and good toasted. Next loaf going to use active yeast rather than instant, see if that changes things.
BGinCHI
@mrmoshpotato: Cole is a professional, and like Ron Burgundy, he’ll read whatever we put on the teleprompter.
frosty
@joel hanes: Great minds… remember useless stuff!
Avalune
Other people could join my have people name an animal and an activity and draw it game. It doesn’t have to be digital or fancy. Just one of the list of animals doing things I have going?
I’m game for some kind of knit along or craft along kind of thing with the craftier jackals.
MomSense
@Ruckus:
Did you mix the instant yeast in with the dry ingredients? I don’t think you mix it with water first.
Kent
Anyone going to throw up another COVID thread at some point? My wife is a physician and working as the incident commander for Kaiser for all of Clark County WA. She just got home and debriefed over a bottle of wine. Lots of interesting things to say, good and bad, about what is actually happening. But I don’t want to sidetrack this thread with a lot of on-the-grounds COVID stuff.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Might consider ½ whole wheat flour, ½ white flour.
Kattails
@Ruckus: What I read that seems to work well is to put in the minimum amount of flour that the recipe suggests, kneading just a bit, and then let it sit for about 20 minutes. This lets the flour absorb the liquid more thoroughly so you don’t add too much trying to make the dough un-sticky.
Others have recommended the King Arthur flour website and they’re great, have countless recipes for all kinds of baked goodies. Their SAF yeast is phenomenal and keeps forever in the freezer.
randy khan
A haiku contest?
Who could resist such a thing?
Certainly not I.
emrys
@WaterGirl: probably a little late, but just sent you one.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
No I used it correctly just put it in with the dry ingredients. The recipe that I used called for active and the water may have been part of how much was needed.
Next loaf will use active, I bought both. It did rise in the bowl, after that you are supposed to roll it out and roll it into a loaf and let it rise in the pan, which I did but it didn’t really rise the second time, that’s why I think it might be the yeast. The whole wheat flour is ground different than all purpose so that may have something to do with it as well.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Odd that all of those tweets are unavailable?
Yutsano
@Avalune: The whole series is amazing, but “Tales of Ba Sing Se” has to be one of the most unusual mental breaks in the series.
And if you don’t cry during “Leaves on the Vine” we can’t be friends. :P
Avalune
I miss bread.
I used to make a pretty tasty easy white bread recipe but a combination of worthless oven that our “luxury apartments” will eventually replace (maybe?) and going on a pretty strict diet/exercise plan to prep for this bike tour in Maine that I’m probably going to have to cancel now… = no bread.
Feathers
Someone upthread asked about perking up dishes for a second time around. One of the best tricks is not to make the dish all the way the first time. Double the recipe and find a place to stop. Split it in half, finish one half now, fridge or freeze the other to finish off later. You are lookin for things like adding starch to a soup. Pasta for one, rice or potatoes next time. Go through some make ahead recipes because they do a lot of this.
on the recommendation threads. I think moods might be a good way to go. Funny, emotional, learn something… also I find people’s long lists unhelpful, unless they are a checklist.
Avalune
@Yutsano: Oh man why did you have to do that! Of course I do. That song pops into my head at random and it’s so freaking sad.
I ought to work out how to play that on my ocarina – bet it would be pretty.
Aleta
Piano with cat
https://twitter.com/sarperduman/status/1241081483189792771
randy khan
@joel hanes:
I always figured that the basting is for the skin, not the meat.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
You do use some all purpose flour as well, but not half/half.
@Kattails:
I used only what the recipe called for but I’ve seen other sources say what NotMax said, less whole wheat, more all purpose.
And given our current shopping situation ya gotta make do with whats available off the shelf of what looks like a raided grocery store. There is going to be lots of bread baked by first timers over the next few weeks.
And as I said above the bread is very good, just denser than some. I’m actually amazed considering that it’s been decades since I baked bread at mom’s house, I don’t think I was 15 the last time I did this.
Avalune
@Yutsano: It really is so good. The sequel was meh but I can rewatch the original over and over. I broke my “I will not spend X money on a stupid big headed funko pop thing” when they brought out the cabbage vendor.
MY CABBAGES!
Have you ever watched Fruits Basket? I really like that one too.
West of the Rockies
For those seeking calming virus news, type Coronavirus Good News. Within the first few screen inches is an article out of Harvard Medical School. I found it took the raw edge off my nerves.
West of the Rockies
@Avalune:
Oh, I loved Fruits Basket.
Avalune
@West of the Rockies: I might have to rewatch that this weekend.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Great drawing. Space is soooo dark!
West of the Rockies
@Kent:
I look forward to the news.
debbie
@Sab:
I have my mother’s Settlement Cookbook. The copyright is 1948. Lots of the recipes call for a warm oven, but I’ve never figured out what that would be.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
If you’re worried about length, there’s always Six Word Memoirs.
Yutsano
@Avalune:
The original or the remake?
West of the Rockies
@Yutsano:
Has the remake come out yet?
Mary G
This is from one of those sites that’s about 4 ads to 1 content that isn’t always attributed, but these 35 dogs of snapchat are very cute. They are all on one page, so lots of scrolling but no clicking “next” a million times.
Avalune
@Yutsano: The original…I think? Pretty sure it’s the original.
Yutsano
@West of the Rockies: Funimation released season 1 last year! Season 2 just aired in Japan. Sub should be on Crunchyroll and dub on Funimation.
@Avalune: The remake, at least through the first season, is an almost shot for shot copy of the original. The big difference is the new version is going to do the entire manga (which is REALLY long!) so there will be even more Souma family hijinks!
Avalune
@Yutsano: Yeah ok – I know I talked about it with a friend some time ago but lost track of the status of it. I thought about getting the books after I finished the original, to continue the story but it gets so costly and it was kind of hard to find and well…shiny over here!
Kent
@West of the Rockies:
This thread is tailing off. I’ll just do a stream-of-consciousness report and copy/paste to a new thread when get one.
My wife is the ad-hoc incident commander for Kaiser in Clark County WA (Vancouver area) which is about 1/5th of the Portland metro area by population. So she is coordinating care across the entire county. All the doctors have been re-deployed to either virtual care or to central clinics where they are doing urgent care and COVID triage.
Kaiser was ahead of most of the country on virtual care. They have been doing it for about 4 years now, getting their platforms up and learning how to do things. So every Kaiser primary care doc has a laptop through which they can do virtual care visits from anywhere. But this week they are truly pushing the envelope of what is possible. Luckily about 3/4 of their normal call volume has dropped off as people just aren’t calling in with normal stuff, only serious stuff.
She says they are basically getting calls 24/7 from patients who have COVID symptoms. Hundreds of them. But since they have no testing available here (very limited numbers of test kits) all they can do is tell them to stay home and self-quarantine unless their symptoms are so critical they need urgent care/hospitalization which is thankfully only a small percentage. They are getting a new type of patient with symptoms are are DEMANDING to be tested. She had one patient who had gone around to 6 different hospitals in Portland trying to get tested to no avail because she didn’t meet the criteria and who kept calling back. All they can do is just send them home to self-quarantine and treat it like the flu unless it gets worse. My wife thinks it is the Facebook effect. People want CONFIRMED COVID diagnosis so they can go on Facebook and get all the sympathy. She has also had 2 elderly patients die of respiratory failure in the past 24 hours in intensive care. One was tested with no results back yet, the other not even tested. They just assume COVID and treat appropriately. So basically she says whatever numbers you are seeing are complete garbage. The number of cases in the Portland metro area are probably already in the thousands given how many people with mild or no symptoms are walking around. Even the death stats are way low because people are dying without ever getting a confirmed test back. They just assume is is all COVID so testing doesn’t really tell them anything. CDC’s page currently shows 88 confirmed cases in OR. She guesses it is in the thousands already.
So good news. They are pushing the envelope and discovering how much they can actually do with virtual care. My wife talked an elderly woman through suturing her husband with a cut hand over an iPad face time. She viewed their medicine cabinet virtually, they found a new bottle of super glue and she walked them through gluing it up. They are walking patients through how to take high-resolution images of rashes and moles with their phone cameras to diagnose dermatology cases. Basically everything they can do to prevent patients from having to come into the clinic.
There are also volunteers coming out of the woodwork. Kaiser now has a fleet of volunteer drivers who are making deliveries for them. Hundreds of people are calling in to volunteer. They are mostly putting them to work doing pharmacy deliveries to elderly patients. Volunteer pulls up, pharmacy comes out with a handful of prescriptions, and off they go to deliver them. They do mail order too, but often they need stuff delivered sooner.
They are, of course, running out of everything. They are now saving and re-using masks. They have big UV sterilizer lights that they normally use for sterilizing infected exam rooms Staff writes their names inside their masks and they just set them out on the tables and they blast them with UV light and hope it is good enough. No one knows.
Soon they will be forced to rely on home-made stuff if they don’t get re-supplied soon. Hopefully they can get seamstresses and sewing shops in the area to start making protective gear. Because it isn’t arriving from anyplace else. I expect we will see local sewing shops of all kinds start making this stuff. Most clothing is made in Asia these days but there are still niche industries around the region that do specialty clothing, bike clothes, sporting clothes etc. They will soon need to be marshalled. It’s not just masks, its robes and all the other protective suits they need to use.
piratedan
@Yutsano: are we talking anime?
afterist
Legs that make priests weep
walking through my office door.
Dead men, crooked cops.
Kent
The other thing she says is that there is going to be a lot of suffering because of all the elective surgery that is being deferred. A lot of this is stuff like hip replacements, back surgeries and such that is really to alleviate suffering. But it isn’t trauma care and can be deferred so it is being deferred. This isn’t due to lack of capability. The surgeons and surgical staff aren’t really involved in COVID care and they don’t know how to do respiratory care. So a lot of surgeons, anesthesiologists and surgical nurses are basically sitting around. They just can’t afford to use up all the protective gear on this stuff when the hospitals are running out.
West of the Rockies
@Kent:
Very interesting. Toilet paper is made in America. It is easy to make and package. The shortage is human-panic nonsense. I would think masks are not difficult to produce. Is some company on that?
Yes, I think we have many degrees more active cases than we know. The good news though is that clearly many of those cases are similar to a bout of flu. Still, we need to flatten the damn curve.
Kent
China is also getting back to normal. So no reason why Chinese factories can’t start producing this stuff for the world now too. In enormous volumes for profit. And air-freight it around the planet. Forget the container ships that take 5 days. Send military and commercial cargo planes around. This is what the Federal government should be doing. Who knows what they are actually doing.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: Last I heard, the kid(a OR nurse) is still doing surgeries at Ceder’s here in LA; she’s been complaining about having to reuse surgical masks.
Kent
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, we are off the map right now. At least your kid is probably safe. Presumably surgical patients aren’t any more contagious than ordinary people. The surgical mask is more to protect the patient. But still. Ridiculous we are at this point.
Amir Khalid
I was just at the grocer’s, practically the only place open in the mall. Longest lines I’ve ever seen there. 20-odd shoppers long. All the staff and nearly all the customers were in masks. But it was calm: no panicked or stressed-out people, no one fighting over anything. Plenty of TP. No hand sanitiser in stock, but plenty of soap and disinfectant products. I got a bag of regular adult-cat food for Bianca. (I couldn’t get senior-cat food, the specialty pet stores are closed.) The Grab driver warned of police roadblocks but we weren’t going far and encountered none of them.
Steeplejack
I think the formatting of this thread is fucked up because of the dumb-fuck formatting of the embedded tweet in comment #17 above.
Apparently some browsers have a problem with the extremely long “word” of unending periods and don’t know where to breeak it up. My Samsung phone with Samsung browser handles that all right, but the comment editor is fucked up. And the “Comment | Refresh | [navigation]” bar has disappeared. Don’t know if those are related to the havoc of #17.
(Doing this comment on my computer, which has none of those problems.)
Kelly
@Kent: Deepest admiration to your wife. Thanks for the report.
Avalune
@piratedan: We were – Avatar, The Last Airbender and Fruits Basket.
West of the Rockies
@Steeplejack:
Ah, perhaps you’re right. I’ve encountered weird, new problems, too, on this thread.
James E Powell
@Kent:
Thanks to your wife and thanks for the report.
Ruckus
@West of the Rockies:
As I understand it most masks are made in China. We still do some production stuff but it doesn’t make enough money for investors to pay people to produce anything but money. Most everything we purchase other than most foodstuffs is made offshore. Even car parts are often produced elsewhere. We could do more but that would mean building factories and actually running them to produce stuff. We don’t have enough basic manufacturing infrastructure and adding more would cost the rich money and we can’t have that. We specialize in moving money around and buying cheap ass stuff at walmart. And republicans blame democrats for making it hard to steal lives and money.
James E Powell
@Ruckus:
“You know what the trouble is, Brucie? We used to make shit in this country. Build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy’s pocket.” Frank Sobotka, The Wire.
Kelly
@Kent: You wife’s report that the published numbers of cases is garbage confirms my vague suspicions. Our nearest cluster is the Lebanon OR Veterans Home. Seems like it took all week to test 150 residents and 225 staff. Testing that limited doesn’t even seem like a sample.
Mandarama
@Yutsano: Oh gosh, I love Fruits Basket and had no idea it was being remade! And having more details from the series added will be amazing. Thanks to you and Avelune for this info.
Another manga I loved that made a fun anime and live-action series was Nodame Cantabile by Tomoko Ninomiya. ?
Steeplejack
@Ruckus, @Kattails:
Or you could use this guy’s incredibly easy recipe, which I have posted here several times. He’s got about 70 videos now. I picked this one as (I think) one of his most recent tutorials.
danielx
@Kent:
Ridiculous is the word, or maybe surreal. My doc sister-in-law bought ten N-95 masks on Amazon last night – ten being all she could find – and paid $23.00 apiece because the hospitals in which she works don’t have enough and the radiology group she works for didn’t see fit to invest in buying a bunch.
She has heard tell that docs are closing down their private practices because they figure they need to be available to work at hospitals. Plus which people aren’t calling in to a lot of primary care clinics unless it’s really serious – I mean, who the hell wants to visit a medical office right now? How much of this is true I cannot say.
She, as a specialist, has had her hours cut severely because the volume of bread and butter x-rays, CT scans and the like have dropped to, let’s see, to 30 a day from 600 a day.
I suspect that before too long hospitals will be asking for volunteer physicians whose main qualification is not what their specialty is, but whether they are sober, sane, upright and breathing. As with Italy, we are going to lose doctors, nurses and other people because they don’t have protective gear – this, in what is supposedly a first world country.
Item: I have always felt – from day fucking one of his term – that sooner or later Donald Trump would do or not do something that would get a lot of people killed. I did not imagine this, this plague, or anything on this scale nor yet how damaging Trump’s various pathologies and their consequences would be. I have to admit that I did not fully foresee the consequences of having a president whose first thought is himself, first and foremost. But it should not be a surprise that someone who claims a condo project has a waiting list when in fact it’s 25% sold is willing to lie about virtually anything else. A deadly combination, which anyone who’s ever spent time in bars can tell you – a shithead who has to be the center of attention.
We are all going to lose someone we know and/or love before this is over, assuming we survive ourselves, including a lot of deaths preventable if an even semi-competent chief executive was in charge. Not even thinking about second and third order effects, just mortality from disease. If there was ever any doubt in anyone’s mind – this country cannot survive another four years of Donald Trump. Hopefully, as they lose family members and friends over the next months and weeks, some of the Trumpites will lose faith.
Kent
Yep. And the hospitals and medical staff aren’t really even paying attention to testing anymore. Test kits are so scarce here in PDX that they just don’t give a shit anymore about testing at the clinics and hospitals. They are way past that. Tests don’t provide them with any clinical information because there aren’t any unique COVID treatments or therapies that would result from a positive test. They just put them all in isolation and treat like any other respiratory pneumonia. A positive or negative test result isn’t going to change the treatment. Tests are more for the stats people and public health people who are trying to implement prevention. By they time they roll into the hospital it’s too late to test anyway. As in there’s no point.
Ideally you would be testing ENTIRE POPULATIONS and then isolating positive results, and then re-testing them weekly until clear. But that takes hundreds of millions of test kits, not tens of thousands.
danielx
@Kent:
This.
The pros know what to do, they just don’t have the wherewithal to do it. In what is the richest country in the world with arguably the greatest pool of expertise.
Kent
@danielx: Just based on mortality stats we are likely to lose about 10% of the Senate before summer. And those fuckwads are still looking for ways to screw the poor and reward the rich rather than do their jobs. They just can’t help themselves.
Steeplejack (phone)
There’s a new thread upstairs. I hope it’s not as (technically) screwy as this one.
Sab
@debbie: I have that one too. I should check it out.
206inKY
This dog-nym bingo idea is inspired.
J R in WV
@NotMax:
OK !! That’s really funny… thanks so much !
Steeplejack (phone)
@Steeplejack:
Test: Is this thread “normal” now, since #17 has been fixed?
. . . Yes, it is.
debbie
@Kent:
I have a co-worker who was scheduled to be induced this week. It’s not considered elective, but she is concerned about being in a building with COVID-19 patients.
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Steep hit the nail on the head very late in the thread. The comments were borked because of a badly formatted tweet at #17.
I fixed the formatting, and Steep confirmed for me that the page is no longer borked.
WaterGirl
@debbie: That would be disconcerting, to put it mildly.
WaterGirl
@206inKY: Dogs and cats! :-) Thank you!
If anyone is still reading this thread, please send me pet pics. Not crazy high resolution – no more than 2000 pixels wide, please.
fmbjo
@WaterGirl: Thanks for the info. I, too, was mystified about the Pi filter.
WaterGirl
@fmbjo: You are most welcome!
SWMBO
https://katv.com/news/entertainment/elton-john-to-host-tv-radio-concert-as-coronavirus-antidote?fbclid=IwAR16IutkdY1X7YHEQ1aPBHcJRJWs9LN2B3Nc3GlDTn52tw2-cPgiPsJbKaQ
https://www.timeout.com/london/news/patrick-stewart-is-posting-a-shakespeare-sonnet-a-day-until-this-horror-is-over-032320
https://nothingintherulebook.com/2017/01/10/55-places-you-can-download-tens-of-thousands-books-plays-and-other-literary-texts-completely-legally-for-free/
https://livelovefruit.com/vegetables-you-can-grow-from-scraps/
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KKNaYlzssbc