Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Come on, man.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Wednesday Night Semi-Respite Open Thread

Wednesday Night Semi-Respite Open Thread

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To nobody’s surprise, I am still allergic to oak-leaf mold, especially damp oak-leaf mold, but at least there’s several bags waiting on the curb for tomorrow’s first-of-the-season monthly pickup. (Yeah, yeah — if I wanted compost, I could pick some up for free when the city’s finished cooking it. And oak leaves make lousy compost, because tannins.) Soon’s I finish this, I’m treating my leaky sinuses to a nice nap…

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ETA: Best entry since the Great Orme goats in the Sara Teasdale prize competition!

Reader Interactions

75Comments

  1. 1.

    RobertDSC-Mac Mini

    Some good news was shared with me last night. I have distant family in Fresno that have C-19. After a couple of visits to the hospital, they are at home and resting. The state has OK’d them to be out and about, but as it was told to me, they don’t have as much energy as before. C-19 took a lot out of them.

    I’m just glad they’re at home and alive.

  5. 5.

    Poe Larity

    Unable to partake of a highly cafenated lifestyle anymore, a friend said of my decaf “it’s like kissing a picture of a beautiful woman”. Thanks.

    What we’re missing is a Johnny Cash song about decaf.

    .

  9. 9.

    Roger Moore

    I just discovered 5 minutes ago that I HAVE BEEN MAKING DECAF COFFEE FOR 2 DAYS.

    If you keep it up for another week, you’ll be back to normal.  At least that’s about how long it’s taken me to get over my caffeine withdrawal symptoms.

  14. 14.

    Anne Laurie

    @Baud: HA!  Nope, I can barely play the radio YouTube.

    Also, I look like Nanny Ogg, but with better dentistry.  (Not better teeth, but modern dental implants are amazing… )

  16. 16.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Roger Moore: About 20 or so years ago, due to a very hectic travel schedule and a bunch of commitments I went nearly three days without coffee. I was a wreck, and still remember that.

    Yes, I’m an addict. What of it?

  23. 23.

    Barbara

    @schrodingers_cat: Sorry.  The first week I was confined to my home I felt angry and upset nearly every day.  Things felt mostly better until this week when for some reason I started feeling angry and hyper again.

  24. 24.

    Roger Moore

    @Gin & Tonic: 
    I have given up caffeine a few times, though obviously with relapses. A few years ago I had a health scare*, and during the follow up testing found my blood pressure was on the high side. It wasn’t high enough to justify any medical intervention, but I decided it would be a good idea to get it a bit lower. Part of that was giving up caffeine. As I said above, I was in withdrawal for about a week, but since then I haven’t missed it. I can wake up as easily now without caffeine as I could with caffeine before. And I definitely don’t have problems falling asleep from having coffee too late in the day.

    *Despite a battery of tests, the doctors were unable to find anything obviously wrong with me, but I’ve been more careful since then.

  27. 27.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @schrodingers_cat: I thought I read you cooked up a storm of delicious food. I hope you at least have a nice dinner.  And I’m curious how you store all those dishes! My freezer is stuffed….

  32. 32.

    JMG

    Alice made a Moroccan vegetable stew with coucous tonight. Sqaush, potatoes, onion, diced tomatoes, chickpeas, olives, lots of cumin and garlic. Fantastic. We are trying to have more meatless dishes to keep variety going. Before the lockdown, we’d have one a week. Now at least two.

  35. 35.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    Hey, I could use some help.  Will you go watch my latest video and give me some tips?  Is the pace of the intro ok?  The volume ok?  Narration?  Outro ok?  Etc, etc. I promise it’s non-political and non-covid. It involves a Lichtenberg Woodburning device.  And if you like the vid give me a thumbs up–that would be awesome! Thanks!!!!

    https://youtu.be/Rib28ESiX1M

  37. 37.

    BR

    By the way, speaking of leaf mold, be careful around mulch piles and compost piles right now. Use a mask if you do. There have been reports that COVID-19 patients are sometimes also positive for aspergillus (a common fungus that decays organic materials), and that the two tag team.

  38. 38.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @raven: I’m not really showing them how to do it.  I’m more showing the effect of what it does.  A lot of people like watching those kinds of videos.  I don’t show them the device, how I created it or how I manipulate it and that’s all on purpose.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: Fascinating video. I look forward to seeing the next steps and the finished product.

    Only one comment/correction, and it’s a proofreading one: At the very end, the last caption has     it’s. Should be its (no apostrophe). 

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Was hoping to find you online in a lighter thread.

    Not exactly canon however occurred to me you might find it amusing, albeit some of the new lyrics are forced. (Video sadly of below optimal quality.)

    While never came anywhere within many country miles of having the body, nice to know where the stage voice of my prime has comfortably resettled.

    :)

  49. 49.

    Dan B

    @schrodingers_cat: It’s amazing the protective shell people build.  My partner visited his sister yesterday.  She has gone full OANN.  He’s been miserable all day.  Knowing there are people who would not care if your life is miserable and your rights taken away is frightening and discouraging.  Knowing they would take away the rights of your friends and neighbors is as well.

    Hang in there you are not alone.

  50. 50.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @Dan B: my kid is Trans and gay, and he knows that at least half of my family is anti-LGBTQ Trump supporters.  It depresses him that they would take rights away from strangers much less his rights as their kin.  I don’t know what to say to make it better because it enrages and depresses me too.  All I can do to is support him and if that means I cut them out of our lives, then so be it.  All that to say I understand exactly how you are feeling.

  52. 52.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax: Is that YOU??? If so, wow. If not, wow anyway.

    I’m a sucker for G&S parodies, and The Mikado always lends itself well to modernised mockery.

    I sang Pitti-Sing in a (very) local TV production, some 45 years ago now. Have always yearned to do Katisha, but although it’s the right tessitura for me, my voice just isn’t big enough to do the role justice. Alas.

  57. 57.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: I might slow down the entry of your works at the beginning, but I really enjoyed the presentation. It was fun watching how the fire traveled through the wood. I’ve never seen this particular craft before. Thank you for sharing!

  59. 59.

    joel hanes

    When I was working for Apple, supporting chip design simulation, I absolutely required a cup of triple-strength Peet’s Sumatra or Major Dickason before showering in the morning, a cup of corporate coffee upon arriving at work, and another at 2:00 PM.   That would fuel nine or ten or eleven hours of concentration and bug tickets and code construction and testing.   Such weeks culminated with considerable beer on Friday nights.

    But every Saturday was low-caffeine day – sleep in, one cup of a nice Oolong in late morning.  Several naps.   Accomplish nothing except washing dishes and clothes and making a meal.

    Now I’m retired, and one cup of regular-strength Peets in the morning is all the caffeine I can handle without getting jittery, and Saturday is just another day.

  60. 60.

    Mai naem mobile

    That tiger looked huge so I looked up Amur tigers. The males get to be around 700 lbs. That is freaking huge.  Even bigger than Tunch.

  63. 63.

    BigJimSlade

    @schrodingers_cat: Not to belittle your shitty day, but it reminds me of a Red Meat comic.  The strange character in a bolo tie says:

    When life gives you poop

    Make poop juice.

  65. 65.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mai naem mobile: I started that Tiger King show people are so het up about, and among the many depressing things was the stat (which I’ve seen repeated a lot so I”m assuming it’s true) that there are more tigers in captivity in the US than in the wild all over the world.

    If I prayed, I’d pray for Amur tigers.

  66. 66.

    Mai naem mobile

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: gave you a thumbs up. I think it could have been a 10-15 seconds shorter. I had no idea that’s how you get that effect on wood. Pretty cool. If not for a small fire by my lab partner in my college chemistry lab I would want to try this at home.

  68. 68.

    Mai naem mobile

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: probably the same stat with cheetahs and leopards.  I don’t understand how anybody can kill the big wildlife animals that we all know are endangered. They’re unique and beautiful animals. If nothing else don’t you want them to exist for your kids to see?

  70. 70.

    Ohio Mom

    Schrondinger’s Cat: I imagine it is a double whammy. First, it is deeply discouraging to find out something ugly about someone we love. It’s inevitable, because people are always mixed bags, but there are degrees of ugly. Supporting a fascist is right up there, sadly.

    Second, it is maddening to offer someone your heart-felt thoughts, the best of what you have (in this case, your principled disgust at Modi) and have them reject it without any consideration. What else do we have to give each other except to share what is most important to us? For someone to reject caring about what we have to say is to reject us in some portion.

    No wonder you describe today as shitty.

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Heh. Absolutely not me. Spookily close, though, to the timbre of the voice of my long ago onstage days (although the bottom of my lower range was a tad deeper).

    Without giving too much away to any who haven’t watched i, two inspired moments in the video: the walk across the stage and the aside after singing about knives.,

  72. 72.

    Ohio Mom

    Lamh 36: Are you graduating this spring, already? Are you yet another who will be missing a graduation ceremony and all the related celebrations? If so, Phooey.

  73. 73.

    Amir Khalid

    China Global Television Networks spotlights three doctors who have become unlikely media stars in the pandemic: Anthony Fauci, New Zealand’s Ashley Bloomfield, and Malaysia’s own Noor Hisham Abdullah. Dr Fauci you guys already know; Dr Bloomfield and Dr Noor Hisham are the directors-general of their countries’ respective health ministries.

  75. 75.

    ZeeLizzee

    Wednesday was hard. Learning about Alain was a shock, and came on top of the news of another friend’s death.

    But the best part of the day came as I was driving home and saw a BOBCAT cross the highway exit ramp in front of me!

    I’ve lived in CT and western MA my entire 50+ years and this is my first bobcat sighting. Such a treat.

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