Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

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

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

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Republicans in disarray!

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

“woke” is the new caravan.

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

White supremacy is terrorism.

Bark louder, little dog.

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

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

You are here: Home / Books / Later Night Open Thread

Later Night Open Thread

by | 178 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Looks like we could use a new thread.

Myself, I don’t have much to report. Writing a lot. Summer proceeds apace. NYC is lovely as always, and safer than a lot of American cities right now. Been chewing my way through the two extant Kingkiller Chronicle books. Currently watching Luther, Avatar, and My Hero Academia. Samwise is doing well, as always. He’s currently enjoying a takeout bag.

Later Night Open Thread

What fun stay-at-home activities does everybody have planned for tonight? I will probably do one of the things I just mentioned. Play with a paper bag, perhaps.

Open thread, clearly.

Reader Interactions

178Comments

  1. 1.

    cain

    I just finished a cool conference. Today I’m going to do some BBQing and practice my guitar.

  3. 3.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Watching an episode of Columbo. 4th season, I think.

    Watched 1917 last week, and it was amazing. It was such a gut-wrenching, action-packed movie that still stayed true to an anti-war message. That’s something that’s apparently hard for war movies to do.

    Will probably watch an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back after Columbo. I always love seeing Ramsay nearly gagging when he sees how disgusting the kitchens are : D

    Myself, I don’t have much to report. Writing a lot. Summer proceeds apace. NYC is lovely as always, and safer than a lot of American cities right now.

    Honestly, good for you. My county had 124 new cases yesterday and we have a population of 229,000. I can’t remember ever seeing that many new daily cases even in April

  4. 4.

    Dan B

    Lovely weather in Seattle so we’ll be sitting on the elevated backyard terrace we call Tikal next to the big rectangular pond we excavated to create Tikal.  The pond is referred to as Atitlan.*  There a rill and waterfall.  And a peekaboo view of Lake Washington and Mt. Baker.  The last of the wildly colored daylilies are blooming in reds, yellows, and pale pinks and yellows with purple black blotches.

    *The crew we hired were from Guatemala, in case you wondered, plus a couple friends have been to Tikal and Atitlan.

    P.S. The kittehs will run around the garden and tge neighbors like crazed adibals! Showoffs!!

  5. 5.

    Suzanne

    So the fire that burned down the Democratic Party office building in Phoenix has been declared arson. There are multiple images from security cameras in the area of a man throwing a firebomb into the building. The building had two sides, the Maricopa County Party offices were on one side and the state party offices on the other. The County side is a total loss, with hundreds of computers and tablets and campaign material lost, which will not be replaced before the election. In a bit of “a sign”, the US flag, Arizona flag, and Barack Obama Community Award (a silver cup) ended up unscathed.

     They really need donations. Apparently they won’t get any insurance payout for six months, and obviously this is an election year. Maricopa County is one of the ten largest counties in the country, and with Mark Kelly running, and AZ potentially going blue, there is much that needs to be done. I am going to donate to the recovery fund. Maybe someone could put up a donation thread?

  6. 6.

    hitchhiker

    Bubble bath, 3rd season of Ozark, maybe go outside when it’s sunset time.

    I’m in Seattle, half a mile from the current excitement. Trying not to look at the news about it. Can’t join b/c mr. h. has a crap immune system, dead sick of violence, can’t understand why the real protestors let themselves be used by the shit-stirrers and abused by the police. There will be helicopters buzzing for half the night.

  7. 7.

    Chetan Murthy

    I know it’s been said before.  But I really like and appreciate the way FPers and commenters share pictures of their pets.  It’s …. somehow very humanizing, in a way that Instagramming your latest vacay or bling or whatever … isn’t.

  9. 9.

    HumboldtBlue

    The world has just gone completely bonkers. It’s absurd, preposterous, gobsmackingly mad. That the GOP candidate for president has been told to keep the name of their ridiculous North Star out of his mouth is just boggling.

    The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, which runs the 40th president’s library near Los Angeles, has demanded that President Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) quit raising campaign money by using Ronald Reagan’s name and likeness.

  10. 10.

    Emma from FL

    Advice, please? Before I go nuts?

    Our county’s smoke alarm code requires a connected system with one central unit then a secondary unit in each bedroom. We had it installed and it has been one damn thing after another with the unit in my father’s bedroom. Every few months it begins to malfunction and goes off in the middle of the night. This time around it has required two visits from the electricians and a complete replacement unit and I am exhausted but wide awake because I’m expecting to happen it again.

    Is there anything one can think of that could set off a smoke detector other than smoke? We’ve had a central AC ducts cleaned, the AC setting stays constantly at 75, I do a walkthrough every night to make sure nothing stays on. Last night after the third time in 5 hours I whaled on the shut off button like a crazed serial killer.

    I would appreciated each and all suggestions from the house-wise.

  11. 11.

    scav

    Big day gardening, with promises of homer-mader buttermilk ice cream for reward.  We’ve the first of the currents and blueberries to put on top tonight and I’ll go raid the neighbors for some raspberries tomorrow,

  12. 12.

    MomSense

    I had an amazing day.  All my kids and I met up at my dad’s place and had lobsters, oysters, fresh corn and tomatoes out on the porch.  Then we walked across the street and swam in the ocean.

  13. 13.

    CarolPW

    M^4: You always take excellent photos of Samwise but I think this one is your (or his) best. Lovely!

  14. 14.

    mali muso

    We’ve been watching “The Last Dance” on Netflix and reliving the 90s Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan. It’s interesting to me to learn more about it because that whole decade was more or less my early adolescence and high school years, and the ubiquitous fame of MJ was sort of the air we breathed. He kinda seems like a dick as a person, but man, he sure had a gift for handling a basketball.

  16. 16.

    Ken

    @HumboldtBlue: Are they complaining because Trump and the RNC are destroying the Republican party, or because they aren’t paying a licensing fee to the library?

  19. 19.

    Ken

    @Dan B: Dammit, I haven’t even got my QAnon decoder ring yet, and I sent in my Ovaltine labels six weeks ago. Now I need a different one to read your posts?

  20. 20.

    Redshift

    Today is Ms. Redshift’s birthday. I got her a birthday greeting from John Barrowman on Cameo, which he did a fabulous job on. Many squeals of delight. ?

  21. 21.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    ‘Unholy alliance’ of power, money fueled corruption scheme

    FBI Agent Blane Wetzel’s detailed 81-page affidavit in support of the criminal complaint against Householder and four others showed how the Perry County politician was connected to FirstEnergy. It painstakingly details how the alleged conspiracy to spend $60 million of the corporation’s money unfolded.

    The affidavit lays out the speaker’s ties to the corporation, starting with Householder and his son flying to President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017 on a FirstEnergy plane.

    According to the affidavit, there were 84 telephone contacts between Householder and FirstEnergy President and CEO Chuck Jones between February 2017 and July 2019; 14 contacts with the corporation’s vice president for external affairs; and 188 contacts with its Ohio director of state affairs.

    “Let me be clear, at no time did our support for Ohio’s nuclear plants interfere with or supersede our ethical obligations to conduct our business properly,” Jones told investors Friday during a quarterly earnings call. “The facts will become clear as the investigation progresses.”

    Jones called it a “grave and disturbing situation,” but said he had “no worries” that he or the company did anything wrong.

    The affidavit supporting the criminal complaint names Householder’s longtime political adviser, Jeffrey Longstreth, and two lobbyists for a FirstEnergy subsidiary, including former state Republican chair Matt Borges.

    All the alleged members of the conspiracy benefited personally from the scheme, using sums Wetzel described colloquially as “bags of cash” from FirstEnergy. Householder spent around $500,000 of FirstEnergy money to settle a business lawsuit, pay attorneys, deal with expenses at his Florida home and pay off credit card debt. Another $97,000 was used to pay staff and expenses for his 2018 reelection campaign, Wetzel wrote.

    Longstreth, as the affidavit details, wrote the checks from an account for Generation Now, a nonprofit through which most of the FirstEnergy-related money flowed. Longstreth also essentially ran the campaigns of Republican House candidates whom Householder needed to win so he could assume the speakership and push the divisive bailout bill through the Legislature.

    According to the affidavit, Longstreth wired $1 million to his personal brokerage account as the scheme wound down.

    A message seeking comment was left Friday with Longstreth.

    Roughly $3 million of FirstEnergy-affiliated money was spent to help 15 Householder-backed House candidates in the May 2018 primaries and six more in the November general election.

    “Having secured Householder’s power as Speaker, the Enterprise transitioned quickly to fulfilling its end of the corrupt bargain with Company A — passing nuclear bailout legislation,” Wetzel wrote.

    It initially appeared that Householder lacked the votes to get bailout bill approved in the spring of 2019. A $9.5 million FirstEnergy-funded media campaign targeted House members’ districts and tipped the scale in Householder and FirstEnergy’s favor, according to the affidavit.

    A House member described as Representative 7 reached out to FBI agents after he grew concerned about pressure from Householder to back the bailout. The lawmaker later was asked to delete text messages from Householder by someone connected to the speaker, according to the affidavit.

    Once the House approved the bill, $7.4 million was spent on a pressure campaign to convince the Senate to follow suit. That worked, too, and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill on July 29, the day the final version was approved by both chambers.

    My deceased R rep, Don Manning, was apparently one of the state house candidates who benefited from this scheme. I wish he hadn’t died earlier this year. He’d have to deal with this albatross around his neck. Now the Republican appointee, Cutrona (guy who said that fatalities/mortality rate are the best metric for the pandemic and who worked as a lawyer/manager for an infectious disease practice) gets to try to brand himself a hero reformer

  22. 22.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Just watched Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th which is on Netflix and also (temporarily) free on YouTube. Powerful look at how mass incarceration has grown in this country. Even for those of us who lived through the Reagan and Clinton years, it’s pretty shattering to see the whole story laid out in an hour and a half.

    On a lighter note I’ve found something else that there’s a shortage of during lockdown: I decided I was going to revisit my childhood hobby of model building. I was going to build the ship USS Constitution, which was the last one I was working on around age 14, was about 75% done with it when the old Constitution suffered a terrible shipwreck on the shores of Dad’s Home Improvement Project.

    Anyway, I found a good supplier and ordered everything I needed. They sent me everything — well, almost everything. I now have a bunch of paints and tools, but no actual model. The Constitution is not available anywhere, nor are most other decent ship models. I’m obviously not the only one who decided to pursue this hobby.

  23. 23.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Ken:

    Seems like it.

    What came to the foundation’s attention — and compelled officials there to complain — was a fundraising email that went out July 19 with “Donald J. Trump” identified as the sender and a subject line that read: “Ronald Reagan and Yours Truly.”

    The solicitation offered, for a donation of $45 or more, a “limited edition” commemorative set featuring two gold-colored coins, one each with an image of Reagan and Trump. The coins were mounted with a 1987 photograph of Reagan and Trump shaking hands in a White House receiving line — the type of fleeting contact that presidents have with thousands of people a year.

  26. 26.

    Kent

    @mali muso: Wanna feel old?  Probably no one under 30 has ever seen Michael Jordan play live.

    For my kids he is about as relevant as “Chuck Taylor”.  Just a name of a shoe.

  27. 27.

    Yutsano

    My brother came home for the weekend so we’re having a big dinner tonight. Tomorrow he leaves so hoping we can snag some sushi before he has to skip out. But no guarantees as it has to be picked up. I’m out in the sticks after getting out of the hospital since my parents house is better for me right now.

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @MomSense: that sounds amazing– I’ve been fantasizing about moving to a place near the ocean, either the Olympic Peninsula or the Atlantic coast north of Boston.

  31. 31.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I came across this stupid shit today

    Abigail Marone
    @abigailmarone

     

    Seeing a lot of journos more outraged
    @kayleighmcenany
    showed videos of violent riots than they are that riots are happening. The violence & Dems refusal to address it deserves coverage.

     

    BlackLivesMatter
    @pink80sgirl

    The only violence is from Trump’s America KKKayleigh, this is what happened. I know because I was there.

    In that tweet, there’s a video of protesters being peaceful.

    Then the peanut gallery had to put it’s two cents in:

    CBinFlyoverCountry

    @cgburkett

    Replying to
    @pink80sgirl
    @abigailmarone
    and 2 others

    Pretty as that Kumbaya scene may, one moment of pause doesn’t mitigate the tantrum tactics the weeks preceding & what’s happened since. Don’t flatter yourself. Average Americans don’t want what you’re selling & like it or not we still run the joint.

    “Tantrum tactics”. I just love the willful ignorance on display in this tweet. Because all protesters are a monolith and the white black bloc assholes are representative of the movement. Oh, and let’s just ignore that Trump’s stormtroopers have beat the shit out of people for no reason, kidnapped them off the street for no cause, and are violating federalism.

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken:

    Are they complaining because Trump and the RNC are destroying the Republican party, or because they aren’t paying a licensing fee to the library?

    Haha!

    I’m finding it hilarious that one pile of shit is being told to stop using the name of another pile of shit.  Least the dead pile of shit’s name is enshittened.

    ETA – that should’ve been “further enshittened.”

    We apologize for the error.

  33. 33.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I’m watching something called Warrior Nun which popped up on some Netflix search or other. It’s pretty good, not just swords and demons but lots of complicated characters and relationships.

  34. 34.

    mali muso

    @Kent: ugh, i definitely am feeling my age. And I’m only 40! Being around college aged kids, it feels like each year the freshmen get younger. I remember the first time we were talking about 9/11 in class (on the anniversary) and none of the students had any personal memory of it. Makes me wonder how my daughter (currently age 3) and her generation will look back on this current epoch we are living through.

  35. 35.

    Scout211

    @Emma from FL:

    Do the smoke detectors have one-year or 10-year battery backup?

    We recently replaced all of our smoke detectors (wired in, connected) with ones that have 10 year battery back up. That was a disaster. They were so sensitive to everything!  We had beeps at all times of the night and FOUR false alarms that lit up each and every alarm.
    The company sent us two replacements, but they also acted up. We finally replaced them all with the kind that has 9v batteries that you replace every year. They have been fine.
    The sensitivity can be dust, temperature changes, electrical surges, interference with electronics, etc.  But for us, the one year back up batteries did not have that kind of super sensitivity.

  36. 36.

    Emma from FL

    @raven: This is a full blown explosion of sound, a voice yells “fire, fire!” loudly as an alarm goes off. You can imagine the effect on an 85-year-old man to have it go off in his room and be picked up within a minute by all the other alarms. It’s an idiot rule because although out house has 4 bedrooms they are all on the small side and clustered along a corridor on one side of the house. It’s enough noise to wake hell. But it is code and we have to comply.

    (added) and each time I run around trying to check every room, garage included. No sign of anything.

  37. 37.

    MomSense

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    This is an especially beautiful summer.  There aren’t many people around so it’s very peaceful.  After swimming we took a walk from the house to the harbor and through town.  There were some people eating outside, but not many.  The water was glassy and the late sun made the boats and lighthouse look so pretty.

    It was tough leaving.  The dog really needed to go home, though.  She was exhausted.

  38. 38.

    Dan B

    @Ken: If you look at my comment sideways and squint you will at minimum be able to smell the evening’s napalm.

     

    But the decoder ring would be less headache inducing.

  39. 39.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I’m watching something called Warrior Nun which popped up on some Netflix search or other. It’s pretty good, not just swords and demons but lots of complicated characters and relationships. 

    Nuns kicking ass for the Lord?

  42. 42.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    what got you started on the Columbo kick? Lol

    Well, I read a Law and Order: SVU and Buffy crossover fanfic awhile back and the Scoobys nicknamed Stabler “Columbo”. I remembered that a week ago and found it on IMDB TV for free with ads.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Emma from FL:

    This is a full blown explosion of sound, a voice yells “fire, fire!” loudly as an alarm goes off. 

    Mine does that!  It’s fun! /S

  45. 45.

    ryk

    @Emma from FL: I don’t know if your system is like mine, but after dealing with it a lot over the years I learned that those individual units just go bad over time. With mine it is virtually impossible to figure out exactly which one is bad since they are all tied together, so when the system starts acting up (every five years or so) I just replace them all. It’s expensive because I have nine total, but it saves a lot of frustration.

  46. 46.

    Mike in NC

    @HumboldtBlue: Loved the story about how Fat Bastard tried to lean on the British government to hold the British Open at his shitty, money-losing golf property. Criminals just can’t help themselves.

  50. 50.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @mrmoshpotato: Pretty much, so the strongest and best characters are women. But like I said, lots of interesting interpersonal stuff going on, various factions, and a reluctant non-religious heroine who was accidentally tied in with this bunch of nuns she hates.

  51. 51.

    JoyceH

    I’ve just spent a couple weeks sorting out my late sister’s house. Shipped a bunch of stuff to my house – the guest room is crammed full of boxes for more sorting, but I can get the house on the market and get out from under the mortgage and utilities. Back home from that and giving myself a week of vacation.

  53. 53.

    Emma from FL

    @mrmoshpotato: By the third time last night I reacted to it like I would to a snake on the porch. When the tech showed up this morning he looked at me like I had stomped on his cat and I just fired back: “I’m 5’3″,  it’s right up against the ceiling and it wouldn’t shut UP!”

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    @Emma from FL: My hot water heater was setting mine off.  It was old and apparently there were tiny particles of ??? that were setting it off.  I was skeptical, but it was always happening when I got out of the shower, which was near the alarm, and I was desperate and the old one was OLD.

    Got a new one installed, the alarms stopped.

  57. 57.

    Emma from FL

    @ryk: The system is less than 4 years old, and a complete replacement is not covered by the warranty because the one that seems to start it is the one in my dad’s bedroom. It’s very frustrating.

  59. 59.

    TS (the original)

    Our Melbourne COVID-19 outbreak is ongoing. Two weeks shutdown hasn’t yet seen the numbers dropping

    Aged Care homes are seeing most of the deaths – those infected are spread between staff and residents. It seems so many of the staff are contractors that work in multiple care homes – so suited to the virus.

    In NSW the latest outbreak is church related. One woman went to 3 funerals & 2 services over 4-5 days. And it’s spreading from there. Also a major group around one city restaurant.

    And this is a country where the Feds and the states are working together to stop this. So my day  (just after midday here) isn’t going so well.

  60. 60.

    piratedan

    We all find our outlets of respite… for the spouse its the Hallmark Channel.. for me its you tube and surfing old anime openings like Love Hina, School Rumble and Kare Kano… find your happy place

  61. 61.

    Delk

    Paint by Numbers on my iPad, tacos, and Mystery Road on Acorn.

    and enjoying the modern convenience of having a refrigerator. Our less than 2 year old fridge went kaput. Took 13 days to repair. Ugh!

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @PaulWartenberg: Wow!  We could do a celebrating jackals post for you, if you are interested.  But you’d have to tell us more about that, and anything else you wanted to share.  :-)

    If you have no idea what I’m referring to by “celebrating jackals”, click the link under Featuring, to find out.

  63. 63.

    Emma from FL

    @WaterGirl: checked that, even though these events happens regularly between midnight and four am. We also had the air ducts for the central AC professionally vacuumed the last time it happened.

    (edit) the second biggest problem is that I have become hyper-alert. I won’t sleep until the sun comes up.

  64. 64.

    WaterGirl

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: That would have to be frustrating and somewhat annoying!

    I picked out some stuff to buy at Pampered Chef, left it all in my cart overnight, and by the next day 2 of the 4 items were sold out!

    I guess I wasn’t the only one who decided to treat myself to some cooking / baking stuff.  sigh

  67. 67.

    Mary G

    @Emma from FL: Does he have a bathroom attached or nearby? We put one in the short hall with doors to my mom’s room, my room, and the bathroom and every time she took a shower, no matter how long she waited to open the door and ran the fan with the window open, the steam would set it off.

  68. 68.

    Evap

    My youngest daughter and boyfriend plus their two dogs are staying with us for a week, and I am in heaven.  The dogs are sweet and well-behaved and it’s the first time we’ve seen our daughter in almost a year.  We’ve been cooking together, eating, planning the next meal, binge watching old episodes of Top Chef.. we’re all about food in this family…It’s fun having dogs in the house!

  70. 70.

    Another Scott

    @Emma from FL: That’s bad.  :-(

    https://ask.metafilter.com/315723/Hardwired-fire-alarms-are-so-sensitive-we-cant-make-dinner-Help

    It’s either defective, or the location is getting too much dust/shower mist droplets.

    Blowing it out with compressed air may help.

    Is replacing it with a photoionization detector (rather than a radioactive ionization detector) an option?

    In the meantime, apparently covering it with a shower cap or similar may let you sleep.  But obviously it defeats the purpose.  :-(

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  71. 71.

    WaterGirl

    @Emma from FL: Yes, mine does that, too.

    Even when you know there’s no fire, a loud voice shouting FIRE!  FIRE!  FIRE! is unnerving, because your entire body thinks it’s supposed to be running out of the house.  Danger!  Danger!  Danger!

    And you can’t turn it off!

    I totally feel you.

  73. 73.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mary G: Emma’s place is probably haunted by a gassy ghost.  Flying up to the smoke detector and letting it rip.

  75. 75.

    Emma from FL

    @Mary G: Yes it does but it never happens at shower time. It’s usually in the middle of the night!

    I am hoping that this replacement unit works better. They are just too ridiculously sensitive. The tech was explaining how even a fly could sometimes set it off and I’m thinking, we life in South Florida, the kingdom of the creepy-crawlies and flyers!

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    @mrmoshpotato: I know “Stabler”!  He was the first, or one of the first, partners that Olivia I-can’t-recall-her-last-name-had.  This was on Law & Order SVU.

    Buffy must be Buffy the Vampire Slayer (?), never watched that.

  81. 81.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Major Major Major Major: 

    A few weeks later, on July 14th, a second march again formed up around the Portland Police Association headquarters. On this occasion the riot declaration was made after a police officer slapped the phone out of an activists hand and sent it careening into the window of the PPA building. It broke a window, which the PPB used as justification to declare a riot and deploy tear gas.

    Portland Police have also been taken to court for their treatment of local journalists. They have regularly targeted press during demonstrations, with the worst night so far being the first protest at the Portland Police Association. Three reporters were arrested within the span of a few minutes: Cory Elia, Lesley McLam and Justin Yau.

    Video taken by Elia shows that his encounter started when he walked past an officer he recognized, John Bartlett, and mentioned his name while livestreaming. Officer Bartlett knocked Elia’s phone out of his hands. Several minutes later, a group of officers grabbed Elia, tossed him to the ground and arrested him. He was charged with two counts of assaulting a police officer.

    Based on that article, while some activists were causing trouble, more often than not it was the police who were inciting violence and making the situation worse. Trump’s little green men are no exception

  82. 82.

    Another Scott

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: My dad was into ship models near the end of his life – one of his many hobbies.

    He built one of these Panart HMS Victory models. It took him about 5 years, I think. He was very patient. (Each of the copper “plates” on the hull is a separate piece…) It’s in a display case here now.

    He didn’t start with that, of course! He started with the Nina and/or Pinta.

    So, yeah, there are lots of ship models out there! Enjoy!

    [eta:] It looks like I misread you.  I hope your model shows up soon!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  83. 83.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Mike in NC: That’s exactly who I ordered the stuff from. And the Revell models are the ones I like. The best ones seem to be Revell-Germany.

    Almost every good model from that company is unavailable, out of stock. From Micro-Mark or anybody else.

    It’s OK. Today I did locate a couple of others that will keep me busy for awhile.

    @Another Scott: I didn’t have the skills or patience for wooden models when I was a kid. Not sure how it would go for me now, which is why I’m starting with plastic. But I may end up taking another crack at wooden ones if the plastic ones go reasonably well or are too easy.

  84. 84.

    Jay

    Work is shit. We are even more short handed.

    PPL are 98% okay, only some 2% are aholes.

    Been house sitting now for a month in several places, to get away from the the Fundi  Compound, it’s been great. Love the Wosk ppl and the Hairnet Girls SWIMBO works/worked with.

    Self medicating with good fud, wine and beer.

    tomorrow, I am going to take some time to make a better walking cane for an older Russian neighbour, who has been relying on her granddaughter and an old umbrella for mobility.

     

    I am going to make something, not just fix something, which I almost never get to do, even though it’s my “jerb”.

  85. 85.

    WaterGirl

    @JoyceH: That was surely a tough couple of weeks.  I think of grieving happening in layers, and I can imagine that you may have gone through a couple more layers in your two weeks of going through you sister’s things.

    Aren’t you twins?  I started to write “aren’t” and wondered if I should change that, but if I’m remembering correctly that you were twins, I can imagine that may never go away.

    If it was as hard for you to go through the house as I suspect it might have been, I hope there were good parts in there, too, and that maybe you can feel some peace about it.

    Must have been horrid to need to do that and be stuck because of coronavirus.  You deserve a month of vacation!

  86. 86.

    Feathers

    @Emma from FL: Someone from another apartment suggested blowing it with a hair dryer to get all the dust out. I was doing that when the phone rang. Never screwed it back in. It’s been hanging from the ceiling for months now and never gone off. The light is on and it chirps periodically, so I know it’s working. Not optimal, but I’ll take it.

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @HumboldtBlue: the posthumous adoption of Ronald Reagan by the never-trumpers (edited) has me remembering Pat Buchanan, one of trump’s major predecessors. Bitburg, and Philadelphia MS. Apparently he’s still with us, but I haven’t seen his name mentioned in a while.

    And while I was down that rabbit hole, I learned that Bay Buchanan is now selling real estate. So I guess the rightwing gravy train doesn’t run forever.

  91. 91.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: I am sending email to DougJ to see if he would want to put up a fundraiser for that.  edit:  Just sent the email.

    I can’t imagine that he won’t, but if so, then I can put it up.

    I’m sure it was a total coincidence re: Mark Kelly, etc. (!!!)

    Why 6 months?

  95. 95.

    Another Scott

    @JoyceH: It’s never a good time, but I’m sure it’s worse now.  Pace yourself and remember the good times.

    Best of luck.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    I had late lunch or early dinner doing outdoor dining at a nearby cafe. I did triple social distancing, and there was a nice breeze. Had some fish and a salad with Greek dressing. It felt really good to be outside.

    Then I walked home and started doing some set up and customization of my new Chromebook. In looking over various reviews I notice that there may be some great values in a variety of laptops recently, especially Chromebooks and Windows laptops using Ryzen chips. This is very timely for parents who might need to buy devices for their kids for remote learning.

    A little later, I think I will finally get around to watching the new Perry Mason series.

  100. 100.

    WaterGirl

    Pop Quiz.  (not really)

    I keep trying to remember who got married on Valentines Day.  Does anyone remember?  It was in a morning thread, so I guess I could hunt it down, but I’d rather not. :-)

  101. 101.

    frosty

    @Emma from FL: It’s code and you have to comply when the house is built or you pull a permit for construction. After that, pull them out and replace them. There have been debates about the usefulness of wired smoke alarms. We would need them when the power is out and we’ve lit a couple candles. I suppose they all have battery backup now.

    I’ve got the 10-year ones and haven’t had any problems with them.

    ETA: This is probably bad advice. :-)

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Bay Buchanan, realtor

    In 1980, President Ronald Reagan handpicked me to be the Treasurer of the United States. If you handpick me to be your agent, I will treat it with the same sense of responsibility. President Reagan had a vision for America, and I did my best to help him achieve that. You have a vision too, of finding your dream home, or of exciting new adventures after selling your current one. As your agent, I would again do my very best to help you make that vision a reality, with as little stress and headache for you as possible.

  109. 109.

    Another Scott

    @Mike in NC: He was amazing.  Was in to HAM radio before he went to college.  Worked for some company and had to climb 300+ foot transmitter towers to do maintenance a few times (including in Puerto Rico).  Ground his own reflecting telescope mirrors a few times.  Made radio controlled airplane models.  Had a pen pal in the USSR.  Had his own earthquake monitoring station.  And took care of a 15 acre homestead.  And built stuff in his shop.  And volunteered to do audio/visual stuff and electrical stuff for his church.  And…

    He had a full life.  ;-)  I don’t think it was the ship models that did him in.  So, you’re probably Ok!

    Enjoy!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    Boussinesque

    Watching some anime on Netflix and playing Ghost of Tsushima. Also attempting to polish off my audiobook of Old Man’s War.

  113. 113.

    frosty

    @WaterGirl: LOL, you’re right. I should have remembered the CYA Rules:

    Don’t email if you can write. Don’t write if you can call. Don’t call if you can talk. Don’t talk if you can nod. Don’t nod if you can wink.

    Also attributed to former Boston political boss Martin Lomasney as follows:  “Never write if you can speak; never speak if you can nod; never nod if you can wink”

  115. 115.

    Drdavechemist

    A couple that we are friends with invited us early in the pandemic to join them and several other scattered friends for a remote Saturday game night. It turns out that the board game  Codenames works really well if you have one device for Zoom and a second device for the game board that a developer set up for free access at the site horsepaste.com.
    We play every Saturday, and even though we’ve never met most of these people in person, they have become friends. The spousal unit says it’s the only good thing that’s happened since the move to social distancing.

  117. 117.

    mad citizen

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I did a few car models when I was a kid–the Testor’s paint!  But you triggered a memory for me–my dad put together a Constitution model when I was a kid (he was a history major/teacher before going into counseling).  I remember it being quite an undertaking, and all the little cannons in the square holes.  My dad is just turned 88, wonder if he still has it (he’s still in a single family house but did move a couple decades ago).  I will have to ask about it.

    Good luck on yours

    I finished reading a graphic novel “Introducing Kafka” artwork by Robert Crumb.  My wife and me have started watching the Zack G. series “Baskets”–very funny.

  118. 118.

    frosty

    Back to the OP. Fun activities planned? None. I haven’t had much ambition to do much of anything since we got home. My brother calls it Quarantine Brain. Granted, most of what’s on my list isn’t the most fun stuff in the world (clean out the basement?) but still.

    I think I’ll go to the back room and try to figure out where I left off watching Expanse. New season starting up soon.

  120. 120.

    zhena gogolia

    @Emma from FL:

    I don’t suppose you have a cat litter box in there? Ours kept going off in the middle of the night when a cat used a box directly underneath the alarm, and I guess the fine particles from the litter set it off.

  121. 121.

    Chris Johnson

    Not a great day, but a momentous one, not in a good way.

    Walking away from the only circle of friends I have left that I spend any social time with. They are pilled and politics reared its head and I couldn’t choke down the notion that Trump-cheering alt-right panic-monger media sources are ‘center left’ even when my friends insisted that was what center left was. Ugly words and lines crossed even when the ugly words subsided, and that’s it really.

    Turns out when you hide yourself so you can get along with someone TOO far away from your reality, and they were hiding themselves too (in fact I’m told they hid their real beliefs more), what’s left won’t stand.

    I know I don’t have you folks as friends, but by God at least you mostly seem to see the world as it is. I’ve never felt so gaslit as those hours talking to that one friend who thought he could argue me into justifying unidentified feds bundling people into unmarked vans because ‘it was better for everybody and more peaceful’. But then they’re really, really sure those cities are being torn apart by violent savages, and it would indeed be more peaceful than just murdering all the savages. That would be a whole other level of pilled, and either they’re not there yet, or I didn’t have enough of their trust for them to cop to it: and I never will again, or vice versa.

    Fear QAnon and 4chan, people. Not so much because they will win: because my friends were GOOD people (and still are, to themselves) but now they are living in an unrelenting hell of Fox News-like terrorized extremism, and everything they see only underscores it, and there was nothing I could do to un-pill them and I don’t know what’s going to happen. I only know that their position is hurting them, dreadfully, way more than mine is hurting me.

  122. 122.

    Boussinesque

    @Drdavechemist: my regular Wednesday board game group from The Before Times has been experimenting with various digital versions of stuff on Steam and elsewhere—so far, Armello, Terraforming Mars, and Sentinels of the Multiverse have been pretty decent adaptations.

  123. 123.

    mrmoshpotato

    @frosty:

    Don’t email if you can write. Don’t write if you can call. Don’t call if you can talk. Don’t talk if you can nod. Don’t nod if you can wink. 

    And if none of that works – INTERPRETATIVE DANCE!

  124. 124.

    piratedan

    @Boussinesque: great story by Scalzi… just a great read from start to end… working my way thru the Flashman series again H/t Frosty when it gets quiet.

  125. 125.

    Patricia Kayden

    How does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stay so thin when she regularly eats congressmen for lunch?— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) July 24, 2020

  126. 126.

    mad citizen

    @Chris Johnson: Condolences to you.  My sister-in-law has fell into the QAnon information hell.  She was going to visit my wife the other day but begged off because of “no money” and having to start wearing a mask when she drives the school bus next week (Indiana governor just did a mask rule starting Monday), etc.  When my wife pointed out our Gov. is a Republican, the phone call ended…you simply can’t deal with these people.  Not sure how it ends but hopefully we’ll find out shortly.

  127. 127.

    Another Scott

    @Chris Johnson: It’s hard.

    My best friend from high school and I stayed in touch for decades.  He was a life-saver for me when I was in grad school  We had similar politics back then, but he turned into a Trumper.  We didn’t talk about politics much after that, but we stayed in touch.  I was in his hospital room when he died of leukemia a little over 2 years ago.

    Compartmentalize if it’s worth it, move on if it’s not.

    People change; life is change.  You can (and should) make new friends.  Including here (and meetups do happen).

    Hang in there.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  128. 128.

    Emma from FL

    @zhena gogolia: No liter box. I am hoping it’s just a matter of sensitivity — the last replacement took a few months to start acting up, so maybe if I vacuum the outside of the detectors more often than twice a year (recommended by installer) I can keep it going. We’ll see,

  129. 129.

    Mike in NC

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:  I built the 1:96th scale Revell USS Constitution when I was a senior in high school around 1972. I visited the ship to get some details right. To this day the finished model sits in my brother’s log cabin in North Conway. NH. Great kit, too.

  130. 130.

    Bill Arnold

    Here’s the DJT campaign grift-mail of the day (well, the second one. The first was a 1-hour deadline to contribute and have my name (literally) inscribed in the Trump Donor Hall of Fame.). These emails are so astonishingly untruthful.[1] I’m reminded of a paper-mail contest (90s?) where the prizes included Land, which was a thousand(?) square foot parcel on the Baja peninsula where one would get a (1/(number of contestants)) share. As usual, I’ve removed the whitespace and the tracker links so that nobody clicks on them, and kept most of the formatting.

    Bill,
    WARNING: Your offer is set to expire TONIGHT.
    President Trump PERSONALLY invited you to be his VIP GUEST at his upcoming event, and since you’ve always been a TOP supporter, we’re going to give you one more chance to enter, along with something special…
    Until 11:59 PM TONIGHT: we’ve unlocked an exclusive DOUBLE-ENTRY just for YOU!
    All you have to do is contribute ANY AMOUNT and you’ll automatically be entered TWICE to win a trip to meet your favorite President at his upcoming event.
    Please don’t share this email, Bill. This exclusive offer is for TOP supporters only.
    Please contribute ANY AMOUNT by 11:59 PM TONIGHT and you will be automatically entered TWICE to win a trip to meet President Trump. >>
    Double Entry: Unlocked Meet President Trump
    Remember, if you win:
    -We’ll cover your flight
    -We’ll cover your stay at a very nice hotel
    -You’ll get VIP ACCESS
    -You’ll get to bring a guest of your choice
    -And, you’ll even get to take a photo with the President so you can remember it forever.
    President Trump is reviewing the final list of DOUBLE-ENTRIES at 11:59 PM TONIGHT, so don’t wait until it’s too late.
    Contribute ANY AMOUNT RIGHT NOW to be entered TWICE to win this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet your favorite President.
    Thank you,
    Team Trump 2020

    Meanwhile, I might be being teased by a [redactedwitch] about those recent lightning strikes on the (base of) the Statue Of Liberty or maybe just behind, that were captured on video and that got a lot of attention. Very nice video, good for Mikey Cee.

    The best video I ever captured. #NewYork #WeatherChannel #NYC pic.twitter.com/cOBqTqJ9LO
    — Mikey Cee (@_Mikey_Cee) July 22, 2020

    Not one, not two, but four bolts of lightning hit her in dramatic, rapid succession. Around the city and around the country, millions of people thought: “Damn. I can relate to that, Ms. Liberty.” (Mrs.? Lady??) We, as Americans living in 2020, can empathize deeply with the sensation of being pummeled over and over again. And, in a way, this particular event feels perfectly suited to the surreality of the end times that we’re living in.

    [1] Balloon Juice After Dark Research Article:
    Ayn Rand’s Vibrator: Masochism as Conservative Style (Russ Castronovo, November 01 2019)

  132. 132.

    J R in WV

    @mrmoshpotato:

    My cousin and best friend’s house burned last October, about 1:30 am… his dog jumped on him In bed, woke him up…

    He said he doesn’t  recall hearing the alarms until they were out of the house. It was a total loss. Very fortunately he gave two big storage boxes of old family photos to scan not long before the fire, so those were saved.

    Hope  you never need those smoke alarms!!

    I went out to the neighbors  next door up on the ridge hoping to see the comet… no luck. The tree line was too high, and the comet too low for any success. Was a pretty  night,  though,  and the neighbors are  nice,  so pleasant all in all…

  134. 134.

    eddie blake

    legend of korra will be on netflix in the middle of august.

    right now, for entertainment, my goil and i are re-watching star wars: rebels, and i’m playing jedi: fallen order.

  138. 138.

    mrmoshpotato

    @J R in WV: You totally misread my comment.

    Anyways, mine isn’t hard-wired, but it does yell “FIRE!” while it’s screeching.  And I hear it loud and clear (and then take it down for a bit while I run my kitchen AC fan and living room ceiling fan.)

  139. 139.

    frosty

    @Chris Johnson: I’m sorry to hear all of that. The pandemic isn’t a good time to go out and find new activities and start to meet new friends, is it? Not a great time to lose any social connections either, but I would have done the same in your shoes.

    Best wishes for you and I’m glad you’re on this blog with us.

  140. 140.

    Chris Johnson

    @mad citizen: Yeah, it’s rough. I want to be calling on basic human sympathy but it’s never okay unless you’re ready to cosign all the panicky ‘information’. There’s a guy on youtube, ‘Beau of the Fifth Column’, who’s like some sort of ex-mil redneck in his tool barn, but he’s been doing all these serious and measured videos about how wrong Trump etc. are being, and the latest ones have him making extensive reference to a military manual of war that explains how you must NEVER send in feds and rendition people off the streets against a movement that has popular support because it will always polarize the people against you and you’ll get 10 new protesters for every one you grab.

    This assumes you want to stop the protests, so it confuses him, but if you are actually trying to stoke a civil war because you’re working for Putin and need open combat in the streets, your needs are somewhat different. And so, the government continues to do the exact opposite of what will work.

    Good for us I guess. yay. It’ll create people who can’t go the QAnon or alt-right routes. It is also driving the Q people absolutely mad and radicalizing them further, and it doesn’t matter that much if the protesters are peaceful as hell: they’ll use pictures from Ukraine if necessary, or make shit up as they need it.

    This is already a war, just by unorthodox methods. We are not going to lose, but it looks like we’re in for one hell of a time. Me and the one friend who was most deeply hurt by this schism, in saying goodbye probably forever, vowed to hunker down and try to stay out of trouble. Neither of us live in a big city or anything: we probably can. I hope there’s a country left for us when all this blows up, because I think more damage is being done by THIS than by the inevitable open revolution.

    I don’t know about other alt-right warriors, but my friends are suffering and stressed and not well and frankly I’m in better trim for street fighting if it came to that. The costs of their pilledness are doing them a lot of harm. It makes for fierce haters, but not for disciplined and trained warriors. They kind of end up running screaming at you with a sword and get knocked out. Outrage makes you more explosive but does not help make you actually effective: they’re so goddamn panicked and stressed.

  143. 143.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Chris Johnson: Sorry to hear that.  I’ve had to cut ties with some friends too after they turned out to be Trump-supporting jerks.  It sucks how much ugliness has been revealed in people we thought we knew.

  145. 145.

    Dan B

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Have you explored tge Oregon coastal communities?  We go wirh a group of gay couples to Iron Springs on the WA coast every Labor Day, not this one.  It’s north of Ocean Shores by 10 miles or so.  There’s a little development just to the south that looks good but places like Manzanita south of artsy Cannon Beach in Oregon has a bit better weather and more culture / community.

  146. 146.

    J R in WV

    @Chris Johnson:

    We ARE your friends,  Chris. Far more than a few right wing nut jobs who  believe in Stazi fascists kidnapping people off the streets could be friends.

    Don’t let them drag you down either! Come here and chat,  or just come and read the comments of your friends.

  147. 147.

    Martin

    CA is maintaining a stockpile of 100M N-95 masks, and 200M surgical masks. That’s 3x the size of the national stockpile. PPE makers are now reporting that they can no longer buy some of the materials needed to make them – the US is depleting those resources faster than they can be produced.

    My new requirement for elected officials is proficiency at Factorio/resource games or 4X games in general. They don’t need to be my level of good at them (I’m pretty fucking good at Factorio) but basic proficiency is all I need.

  150. 150.

    pinacacci

    Just here to say Tr*** has Playmobil hair.  You could pluck it off and pop it on another so easily

    ETA if you haven’t had exposure to Playmobil this will make no sense at all.

  155. 155.

    Boussinesque

    @Martin: I may have to give Factorio a try—loved Spacechem, but I think the closest equivalent I’ve played is “Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists“, which is basically Supply Chain The Video Game. You’d think that the principles for games like that would be common sense and not too much of a problem for people to grok, but I literally watched one of my friends melt down trying to plan out production runs to meet some in-game goals/time limits ><

  156. 156.

    pinacacci

    @mrmoshpotato: Thing is, I can’t see what his head would look like without that felted web.  It is creepy, I can’t envision a human skull on that…whatever POTUS is.

    Expressing that I still can’t get over that people voted for that thing.  Just still having such a hard time with that.

  160. 160.

    Jay

    Arrest at Olive/Boylston. SPD withheld medical treatment for 10 minutes towards woman arrested who has been unconscious after they kneeled on her neck and attempted to shoo away a reporter from the scene. She was revived by SFD #seattleprotestcomms— s t a t i o n s t a t i c (@nostation1312) July 26, 2020

    re·vive
    /rəˈvīv/
    Learn to pronounce
    verb
    past tense: revived; past participle: revived
    restore to life or consciousness.

  162. 162.

    Chris Johnson

    @J R in WV: They are NOT nut jobs.

    They’ve been listening to the nut jobs, and Putin propaganda feeds, and they know in their hearts they are not nut jobs, they are just realistic about the world. (that has been fed to them, at great effort)

    Which I guess is part of the answer, really. If we can get our reforms done CALMLY and things quiet down in spite of everything the Republicans and/or Putin can do (and it seems he has some domestic problems to attend to, as well) then some of them will straighten out quite naturally, and some of them will sit around thinking incredibly toxic stuff but not DOING anything about it, and that’s not too much to hope for.

    We used to talk about being civilized. Civilized is when you do not share every belief and opinion, and still you can find ways to hang out and enjoy whatever you’ve got in common. These folks do know how to be polite: the tough part was, they were being polite while constantly choking on my offensive opinions, and it all got too much in the end. I thought I was dialing it way back, too.

    Sheds a light on times I was difficult in the past, considering that these were my only friends (me being a big isolated nerd and all). I’m sure I soaked up a lot of their attitudes, until I couldn’t anymore.

  164. 164.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    @Chris Johnson:

    oh Chris, I am so sorry. I can’t say I’ve experienced what you are going through. Not to garner sympathy, but my problem is no longer having any friends because of severe anxiety and depression along with chronic pain these past twenty years.(I have an amazing family and medical professionals on my side) Please, even in this time of social distancing, find a way to increase your circle of contacts. Nothing wrong with thinking of fellow jackals as friends. I do, to keep the extreme loneliness at bay.

    your experience is an example of the unbelievable number of morons around and that, in the west, we are truly in a fight fo the soul of our experiment with enlightenment.
    best wishes

    deb

  165. 165.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Have you read cartoonist First Dog on the Moon, in the Guardian. An Aussie from Tassie. Very clever, informative and a little different ? (the interpretive dance comment made me wonder)

  168. 168.

    SectionH

    @Debbie(Aussie): I’ve loved First Dog for years. Have a weird idea that the cartoonist moved to Tassie after they’d been being published for a while. Because some of the old ones were basically WTF about this climate shit*? Doesn’t really matter, they’re not entirely why I send some USD to the Grauniad (sorry Tony Jay) but they’re part of it.

    *and I mean localized climate, I know FDotM does a lot more on the general fucked-upness.

  169. 169.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    @SectionH:

    yeah. He moved to buy a hobby farm and become more self sufficient and loves it.
    //But Tasmania is horrible place don’t come. // is often stated in his comics. I too subscribe. The Aussie branch is pretty good and certainly far, far above the likes of ‘bottom of the bird cage’ Nrew Corpse.

  170. 170.

    SectionH

    @Debbie(Aussie): I know how bad Tassie is, my friends there tell me so… well, they just report. But srsly, I already live in climate heaven (San Diego, near enough to the coast) so we don’t lie too much either way. We share fucking wildfire worries though.

    Not to worry, we can’t fucking leave the country now anyway.

  172. 172.

    J R in WV

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    A few weeks later, on July 14th, a second march again formed up around the Portland Police Association headquarters. On this occasion the riot declaration was made after a police officer slapped the phone out of an activists hand and sent it careening into the window of the PPA building. It broke a window, which the PPB used as justification to declare a riot and deploy tear gas.

    I don’t know what the Portland PoPo  thought they were doing there… they declared a Police Riot by attacking someone, stealing their expensive computer/comm/video system and using that stolen expensive object yo further damage a window in the Police folks own building?

    And the whole thing is also on video from multiple witnesses?

    I would hope that the specific cop will be found guilty of committing Riot, assault, theft, conspiracy to commit all that, etc. etc. Lose his job for multiple felonies. Is there a terrorism crime in there? I bet there is!!

    Now almost everyone captures video of what exciting goes on around them. These cops don’t appear to realize that all those similar videos telling the same story of LEO breaking multiple laws to start a “riot” is pretty convincing and clear evidence of a conspiracy to start a riot.

  173. 173.

    J R in WV

    @WaterGirl:

     

    I keep trying to remember who got married on Valentines Day.

    I’m sure thee are others also, but my grandma and grandpa got married on Valentines Day, way back in the 19 teens. TL;DR pretty romantic details.

  174. 174.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Been chewing my way through the two extant Kingkiller Chronicle books.

    I like those books. Rothfuss is good with creating characters. Sadly, he seems pretty blocked about finishing the third and final one.

  175. 175.

    MomSense

    @Chris Johnson: 
    My mom let go of her one remaining school friend ( my mom is almost 83) because she started ranting about our governor being a NAZI. My mom finally had enough and this rant was worse than the usual sprinkling of FOX comments. It made my mom sad, but she is doing ok.
    Whatever you decide to do, please check in with us for support.

  176. 176.

    Lee

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I thought the first was great. The second was ‘meh’. The part with the sex was atrocious.

    The author had some personal issues that he had to work through after writing the second book. My understanding is he is doing better and has started the third.

Comments are closed.