Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

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

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

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Reader Interactions

112Comments

  3. 3.

    jeffreyw

    I saw my first ever living armadillo when one trundled through the yard this morning. Gabe didn’t see it or he would’ve gone insane. Homer was in the yard as well. He watched with some interest but didn’t approach.

  7. 7.

    A Ghost to Most

    In act of confidence in the future, we laid in our normal yearly supply of roasted peppers from the local market. A round of peeling, rinsing, chopping and freezing commences.

  9. 9.

    AJ

    Watergirl ty for all that you do for our little corner of the almost top 10,000 blog world!

    My checkin is that a little bit of very satisfying work has shown up based on past good work, so I’m very happy about that.

    And also pretty heavily self medicating with chips, ice cream and marathon world of Warcraft sessions.

    It may sound idyllic and it beats drinking, but I miss the parts of myself that like to connect with people and nature.

    This tool shall pass.

    Love you all* here and devouring the posts for hope and the occasional good laugh.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    @raven:  I haven’t seen any in my neck of the woods.

    btw Lots of Biden folks out today waving signs at the major intersections.   It was fun to see, and maybe it will indirectly help Lucy.

  11. 11.

    Jay Noble

    I’m with Tucker today. My phone weather app says “Fog Conditions”. It’s the smoke from the Mullen fire and smells like it’s right next door. So I’m going to be Tucker.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    Closed captioning playing mind games once again.

    Dialogue: This building was constructed in 1865.
    CC: This building was constructed in 1987.

  13. 13.

    trollhattan

    Justlookatdatpuppeh!

    Had a close encounter of the coyote kind yesterday on the river parkway. Cycling late afternoon I thought I saw a shadow crossing maybe a hundred yards ahead then when passing the spot a BIG coyote popped out of the brush and crossed maybe ten feet in front of me. Normally around here they’re small, bony and off in the distance but this one was fat, happy(?) and bigger than our 50-pound housedog.

    They don’t frighten me (that’s reserved for cougars) but I’m also not interested in colliding with one.

  17. 17.

    Ken

    @raven: From the range maps it looks like armadillos are roughly a US planting zone 7.  Of course last Sunday’s garden chat was full of people saying “we used to be zone 5 but now it’s more like a 6.”

  20. 20.

    Ken

    @trollhattan: A couple of months ago I was a little surprised on one of my daily walks to pass a sign warning that it was coyote breeding season and not to approach females with pups.  The surprise was because, although I was in a nature area, it was only a couple dozen acres in the middle of a Chicago suburb with a population upward of 150,000.

  24. 24.

    Ken

    @Baud: We all wish we were Tucker.  It’s like that Hitchhiker’s Guide line, “Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.”

    Still, if we hadn’t uplifted ourselves first, there wouldn’t be any dogs. Or names.

  26. 26.

    Nicole

    @jeffreyw: The first time I travelled to Texas I was told armadillos were frequent roadkill.  I was disappointed that in the 3 weeks I was there, I saw not one armadillo, living or flattened.

    I remember one of the shops there had an oven mitt of an armadillo with tire tracks over its body.  For years I regretted not buying it.

  27. 27.

    BruceFromOhio

    Tucker, such a sweetie! They’re always cute when they are sleeping.

    Got the shopping done early, now its yardwork while exercising some lengthy reporting objects that were updated this week (consists of entering some dates, hitting “run” and then waiting for several hours while it thinks about it, then saving the results for analysis on Monday). Tomorrow is a long bike ride in the morning, then an afternoon and evening of NFL on the patio.

    The weather is obscenely wonderful here this weekend as autumn accepts summer’s warm and sunny embrace. Might get one or two more beauties like this, though its cold and rain all next week. Thinking about the smoke and fire peeps out west, hoping you and yours have safe havens.

    And another contribution, this time to Sarah Gideon.

  29. 29.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Some random foodie-related things:

    • I guess everybody knows the Great British Baking Show is back on Netflix? According to what people said on camera, they quarantined everyone in a Baking Show Village for the duration. First episode of the new season dropped in the US yesterday. Makes me curious whether anyone else is attempting to do films or other TV series using the bubble model. As we’ve seen (was it the NBA?) you can’t always trust your colleagues to stay in the bubble.
    • Speaking of baking, here’s a NYT story from back in July about cakes that don’t look like cakes. Definitely play the video. I can’t remember how that one popped up on our radar this week, but…
    • That article led us to this amazing stop-motion animation from years ago called Western Spaghetti which we’d seen before, though I no longer recall where.

    Speaking of TV but not food-related, we watched a film called Enola Holmes on Netflix yesterday. Very well done (in 2019, pre-pandemic), very entertaining, and outstanding cast. Especially the young star, Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven from Stranger Things), who I think also co-produced it. She’s still only a teenager and doing just amazing things. I watched an interview with co-star Henry Cavill and he described her as “sometimes sixteen and sometimes thirty-five.”

  30. 30.

    jeffreyw

    Hm, a comment got eated. Was a reply to raven. I hit post and then refreshed the page by clicking on the post title. That’s my workaround for keeping the ability to click back arrows and get the expected result rather than landing on my own comment.

  31. 31.

    raven

    @Nicole: The Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin was one of the great venues in history! And then there is the London Homesick Blues

    I wanna go home with the armadillo
    Good country music from Amarillo
    And Abilene
    The friendliest people and the prettiest women you ever seen

  33. 33.

    Ken

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Jeopardy is back, with Alex Trebek and the contestants all suitably distanced.

    Some of the cooking/food shows are also back.  One of the weirder ones (IMO) is Restaurant Impossible, where they go fix up a failing restaurant.  The construction workers are all masked and observing distancing, but I can’t help but think re-doing the decor and menu won’t be enough to pull these restaurants through.  A vaccine would do a lot more…

  38. 38.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Ken: Never watched it but I heard they did an Italian restaurant in our neighborhood. No idea if it succeeded after that. It was not a place I knew or ever went into.

    Edit: Here it is. And nope, they only lasted a couple more years. But the story is a little weird. From that last article,

    Prior to the closure, their website was hijacked and replaced with a website featuring bad reviews and telling people not to eat there.

  39. 39.

    narya

    Made bread in the new oven yesterday–an old standby (sourdough whole wheat w/ oat bran and flax seeds, made as bread-pan loaves for easy slicing), and completely naturally fermented baguettes (no added yeast). We had one baguette last night as the base for venison cheese steaks (w/ onions). They’re . . . okay, but not airy enough. Gonna use one today to make a panzanella salad, or garlic bread–I have some burrata in the fridge, and tomatoes from the farm share, and basil on the porch. There are salad greens, too (meh; salad is too much damn work). And there will be fish. There’s also tarte tatin for dessert–made a full batch of puff pastry yesterday, too, and froze it. Might roast the potatoes and beets while I’m at it, and throw them in the freezer. And made two batches of Rancho Gordo beans yesterday, too–pintos and giant limas

    ETA: Thursday’s wildlife was coyotes; today’s was about a hundred geese

  43. 43.

    opiejeanne

    The ad at the top of the page is for the NEW!!!  COMMEMORATIVE SPACE FORCE $2 BILL!

    It’s on sale for $29.99, a 45% savings.  It comes with a display holder and a certificate of authenticity

    There is a line that indicates that this is legal tender, with the certificate of authenticity.

  46. 46.

    raven

    @Nicole: We saw Michael Martin Murphy do “Wildfire” there many many moons ago.

    Here’s a book about that scene
    Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks : The Countercultural Sounds of Austin’s Progressive Country Music Scene

    Country music of late 1960s and early 1970s was a powerful symbol of staunch conservative resistance to the flowering hippie counterculture. But in 1972, the city of Austin, Texas became host to a growing community of musicians, entrepreneurs, journalists, and fans who saw country music as a part of their collective heritage and sought to reclaim it for their own progressive scene. These children of the Cold War, post-World War II suburban migration, and the Baby Boom escaped the socially conservative world their parents had created, to instead create for themselves an idyllic rural Texan utopia. Progressive country music–a hybrid of country music and rock–played out the contradictions at work among the residents of the growing Austin community: at once firmly grounded in the conservative Texan culture in which they had been raised and profoundly affected by the current hippie counterculture.

  48. 48.

    raven

    @raven: When glitter, hair metal and punk came along my people bailed and went to that kind of music. Willie, Jerry Jeff, and the the Ya’llternative folks.

  50. 50.

    Argiope

    This is the weirdest.  My university is holding its annual September graduation as a youtube stream today.  Right now there is endless pomp and circumstance playing on a loop prior to the kickoff.  I’ve sat through this (counts on fingers and toes) 15 times previously in full regalia, often wishing as we neared the end that it was shorter or that I was somewhere else.  Now I am somewhere else, and this is some strange shit.  Guess I’ll leave it on in the background and knit.

  54. 54.

    LuciaMia

    they quarantined everyone in a Baking Show Village for the duration

    There could be worse fates!

    Huzzah for the return of Great British Baking. But no binge watching, its doled out one episode a week, consarn it.

    But some of the cakes in the show-stopper challenge. Reminded me of that Eddie Murphy baking skit on SNL. (“That’s backwoods devil talk,”)

  56. 56.

    Ken

    @opiejeanne: There’s been no special issue of the $2 bill, so – since it emphasizes the bill is legal tender – I assume this is some grifter who is enclosing ordinary $2 bills in a SPACE FORCE envelope.

    At least, I hope it’s a grifter, and not the Department of the Treasury.

  58. 58.

    Ken

    @LuciaMia: I generally like cooking contests, but the ones for decorated cakes or cupcakes generally leave me flat.  At what point do the judges finally say “This is not a cake, you have frosted a collection of PVC pipe and styrofoam.”

  60. 60.

    Argiope

    @Ken: No, we’re not on camera (most of the faculty) and I have it on good authority that some of us aren’t wearing pants. Shhhhh.

  61. 61.

    Brachiator

    Rants… Over the past few days I had to go out for medical appointments and other errands. I had to listen to the radio and sometimes some overheard conversations. A few just annoyed me with their refusal to look at the larger picture.

    Sports talk radio: lots of babbling about how “the kids” just had to get back to playing college football, part of the conversation about the PAC 12 possibly starting their season in late October or November. For fans, it is essential for “the kids” to pursue their life dreams of playing football, and maybe also getting to the NFL. The schools already allowing play is proof that the virus can be handled. And besides, “the kids” are so healthy.

    A talk radio host insisting that school children are “resilient” and so should all be back in school. Again, there is this stupid emphasis on the apparent healthiness of kids, and the problem of illness and infection spread is just totally ignored.

    Related to this was a lot of grumbling about Zoom education, and some kids crying and not being able to get a hug from a teacher, of other kids trying to avoid Zoom classes. I get it, it is not a perfect situation, but people need to find ways to adapt and make it better. One non-idiot talked about how one teacher had a set-up with a stand, camera, microphone and white board which allowed her to do a Zoom class and in-class teaching at the same time.

    Some Marvel Movie Universe nerds were whining big time about how Black Widow and other films have been delayed again. They talked about how the recent film Tenet had grossed only $250 million worldwide, but how the studios should let them see the movies they want to see right now in theaters and via streaming.

    Here they are in total denial. The studios are sitting on a boatload of big budget films, but traditional theaters are either closed or have limited seating, and audiences are staying away. And the virus risk raises the question, “What movies are you dying to see?” to a whole new level. The movie industry is crippled right now, and strangely, entertainment reporters either are not touching the stories or are delicately dancing around it. More movies are being pushed to 2021 or later, and even then there is no guarantee that we will be back to normal.

    It’s a shame, because I would really like to see the remake of “Death on the Nile” on the big screen, but the possibility of “Death in the Movie Aisle” kinda pushes me away. And sadly, right now, the economics of streaming probably says that the studios cannot recoup the budget costs of many of these films, even though I think publicity and marketing costs would be cheaper. And I feel sorry for the actors whose work is not being seen.

    During the past couple of weeks, I have kept away from a lot of politics, but I am still on edge. Time tough, and everything is getting harder and harder, as Toots and the Maytals would sing.

  63. 63.

    Cowgirl in the Sandi

    It’s really smoky here in the East Bay.  I was out re-potting a rose and was hosing off all the dirt from the patio when Indiana Jones burst out of the house, ran through the muddy water, bounced into the plantings (getting his wet feet even more muddy) and then ran back into the house and got muddy paw prints everywhere.   GRRRR!  So I’ll be mopping this afternoon.

    In other news, the mascot of the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota Florida is the armadillo!

  64. 64.

    LuciaMia

    “This is not a cake, you have frosted a collection of PVC pipe and styrofoam.”

    Thats why I dont like all those monster cake construction shows on Food Network. And it seems like such a waste of food. Who is gonna all that stuff?

  67. 67.

    frosty

    @raven: Lots of great songs from that era:

    “It’s the same old tune, fiddle and guitars

    Where do we take it from here?

    Rhinestone suits and new shiny cars

    It’s been the same way for years.

    We need a change.”

  68. 68.

    Nicole

    @JPL: Thanks for asking- we are just about to leave to take her to her vet appointment.  Fingers crossed we leave with a prescription.

  69. 69.

    raven

    @trollhattan: Fuckin A. . .!  Ever read Star Making Machinery?

     

    The author takes us inside the music business, up close, giving us a blow-by-blow, true-life account of a year in the life of the band Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, a mid-tier rock band poised on the brink of greatness. It’s a story of drama, comedy, pathos and heartbreak as we see the band members work their way through (and be worked by) the “star-making machinery” of the record business.

  71. 71.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:  The most recent episodes of “Bargain Hunt” which I love are doing  the socially distancing thing and it is really weird to watch. Normally the Antiques experts are really close to their teams to discuss the antique they are looking at but now the team look at it, put it down, and then the socially distanced expert goes over to look at it separately.  Like I said it is really weird but at least they are trying.

  72. 72.

    trollhattan

    @Cowgirl in the Sandi:

    Wonder if your smoke is from the “August Complex” up north? It’s been burning since August 16, is only 43% contained and has become the state’s largest fire by far, at nearly 900k acres.

    Clear this a.m. in the Valley, but the weather is taking a bad turn with combined high heat and high wind so buckle in.

  73. 73.

    Kelly

    We returned home from Beachie Fire evacuation Monday.Cleanup and recovery in our little island of green in the Beachie Fire has gone well. The fire stopped at the edge of our lot at the well watered shrubbery. Our home had a bit of smoke stink which cleared out after we opened the windows. The garage is not as tight and took all week to clear.  The shed with most of my whitewater raft gear and some yard tools burned. It’s well insured but I’ll feel better after the adjuster meeting next week. Adjusters are prioritizing the folks that lost their homes which is a good thing. We have eight 2 foot diameter and one 3 footer doug fir that will be need to be removed. My brother, who was a timber faller 40 years ago says they’re OK for a while and is organizing a logger who will remove them for the value of logs. A better use and a better deal than having a tree service turn them into firewood for several hundred dollars a tree. Mrs Kelly spent two days of pressure washing outside to clean up the soot and ash. She’s responded to the situation by working to exhaustion then settling in for a nice snuggle in the evening. I can work for awhile then just need to lay down and be still. The cats are glad to be home. 1 year old Martin went right back to his old routine, insisting we play chase the string every morning after I start the coffee pot. Phoebe spent much of the first 3 days back hiding then coming out for a bit of petting. She back to normal now.

    Yesterday I watched the crew replace the plastic culvert  under our private road. It burned but the hole remained in spite of fire trucks driving over it. Turns out the fill is supporting the weight the pipe is just a form to pack the fill around and prevent the water from washing it away. The crew was able to slip a new pipe into the hole using 2 track hoes, one pulling a cable and the other wiggling the pipe. The crews are doing 2~3 a day and there may be hundreds to repair. I’m a neighborhood hero for taking care of the problem so fast.

  75. 75.

    trollhattan

    @raven:

    No, I haven’t seen it, sounds very good, not least because that was the era of peak wretched excess in the music bidnez. [checks Amazon link] Dang, it’s pretty in demand!

  77. 77.

    trollhattan

    @Kelly:

    All those little things you wouldn’t think of sure add up to a lot. “Hey, our house escaped!” still leaves “But wait, there’s more!”

    Good luck with it all. Sorry so many neighbors didn’t fare as well. 2020 is racking up a lot of damn demerits.

  79. 79.

    laura

    In the before times, the first weekend in October would be the time and the place would be Golden Gate Park. It would usually be glorious weather and worth the fuss and bother of getting there because the music was live and the people watching amazing and all of it free. All the armadillo talk get me nostalgic and so if you’re looking for a really good time next weekend, please join me virtually from the comfort of your pandemic bunker – it’ll  do you good in ways known and unknown:

    https://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com

  80. 80.

    ThresherK

    I’m a cat person, but when I was raised, we always had a dog.

    Even our black Labrador, the one who–as a puppy–climbed up on the table and ate a stick of butter, would not think of lolling around on the back of the armchair! Love it.

  89. 89.

    zhena gogolia

    Why is everyone getting their flu shots now? Our doctor’s office said we should wait until the end of October.

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    @zhena gogolia:

    Why is everyone getting their flu shots now? Our doctor’s office said we should wait until the end of October.

    I had heard beginning of October.  When I went for some medical appointments this week, the flu shot was offered and I said OK.

    Unfortunately, work and other stuff will get busier soon, so this was a good window.  I had skipped a couple of earlier opportunities in September because of the “get it later” stories.

  91. 91.

    Nicole

    Back from our new veterinarian’s, $400 later.  Le sigh, but I like the new vet a lot.   The pooch has 10 days of antibiotics; I just gave her day 1.    The vet is cautiously optimistic it’s just a UTI, but they’re going to run a urine check on her after she’s done with the antibiotics to verify.

    It’s been so long since I had to give the dog pills, I forgot how good she is about it.  Whew.  I still gave her lots of bribe treats, but she would take them plain.  If drugs for UTIs work on dogs the way they do on humans, she should be feeling a lot better by tomorrow night.

    Thanks for everyone’s concern; it meant a whole lot.

    One weird thing, but yet thoroughly not weird in 2020- I haven’t met the vet face-to-face.  The office lets you in, but a vet tech comes to get the pet, so as to minimize Covid transmission risk.  Smart; vet exam rooms aren’t usually large or well ventilated here in NYC.

  92. 92.

    Nicole

    @zhena gogolia:  They are recommending flu shots early this year to stave off the health care system getting overwhelmed early in flu season, I think.  Ideally, you do it mid-late October so that your own immunity is peaking during the peak of flu season, but this year they’re recommending, for the sake of the health care system, we all try to do it a little ahead of schedule.

    But, as always, the most important thing is to get the shot, and whenever that’s best for a person is when that is.

  93. 93.

    zhena gogolia

    @Nicole:

    We have appointments with our doctor in late October, so they can give us the shots then. I guess I’m just worried they might run out of vaccine.

  94. 94.

    JPL

    @Nicole:  Hopefully good news.    Is he still going outside every few hours?  It’s not unusual for it to take some time before the antibiotics kick in.

  95. 95.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Nicole: what about the theory that mask-wearing and distancing really slowed the flu in the southern hemisphere? did that pan out?

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    @Brachiator:  @zhena gogolia:

    CDC recommends that people get a flu vaccine by the end of October. However, getting vaccinated early (for example, in July or August) is likely to be associated with reduced protection against flu infection later in the flu season, particularly among older adults.

    Of course, they don’t say what “older adults” means.

    Also interesting to note that when I see “CDC guidelines” I now no longer have the faith in them that I did.

  98. 98.

    raven

    @Nicole: I put her pills in a ball of canned food. I’ve already said this but she took to the chicken and rice this morning. I put a bunch of breasts and rice in the food processor and ground it into a blob and then added green beans and she doesn’t seem quite as interested. She may have just eaten enough and isn’t hungry. She also has had some pretty messy poop but I guess that’s what happens when you change to food she’s been eating for 10 years.

  100. 100.

    zhena gogolia

    Well, given that we see no one except each other most of the time and we wash our hands a million times a day and wear masks everywhere, I assume we won’t be in as much danger of the flu as when we used to be closeted with sniffling 18-year-olds all day long.

  101. 101.

    Gvg

    @WaterGirl: I sort of expect to be in lockdown by flu season. I’m actually a bit surprised we aren’t already. Cases are rising but people are in denial. DeSantos is as willing to kill as Trump.

    Even if we aren’t I think I am going to be staying in. I need to stock up on a few things.

  102. 102.

    J R in WV

    @zhena gogolia:…

    I was at my family doctor a couple of weeks ago, and in the 20 minutes or so I was with him, he told 3 or 4 patients calling in about flu shots to wait until their next scheduled appointment — which for me is about 3 or 4 weeks away.

    ETA: I wouldn’t hesitate to get a second flu shot come mid-winter it it’s still available. Which I expect it will be, lots of anti-vaxers are running wild right now.

  108. 108.

    Brachiator

    @WaterGirl:

    CDC recommends that people get a flu vaccine by the end of October. However, getting vaccinated early (for example, in July or August) is likely to be associated with reduced protection

    Hmmm. I guess late September is my compromise date. A nurse offered me the flu shot this week while I was getting other stuff done and I didn’t want to come back later, when it might be less convenient.

  109. 109.

    Nicole

    @WaterGirl:

    Did they not do a urine test on her today – checking for bacteria and/or blood and/or crystals?

    Sorry- I’m just seeing this- I went out for a cocktail after my sleepless night and trip to the vet. ;)  She peed all over the vet’s floor, so they couldn’t get a sample, but she’s going back in in 2 weeks for the full checkup.  If the antibiotics aren’t fixing what’s broke, we’ll know by then for sure.

  110. 110.

    Nicole

    @raven: Dogs definitely can have messy movements when their diets change.  I have to gradually switch food for ours when all I’m doing is changing the FLAVOR of the brand she’s eating.  If I do an abrupt switch from chicken to salmon or beef, it’s ugly for a few days.  Just see how she does over the next 48 hours.

  111. 111.

    satby

    @zhena gogolia: Someone told me they’re concerned that there will be shortages of flu vaccine in a few weeks so get it now. I usually don’t get one at all but I may this year. I just stay away from people, and we’ve perfected that this year.

  112. 112.

    WaterGirl

    @Nicole: That worries me.  It may just be an infection, but if it’s crystals, you don’t have two weeks to wait to find out.

    I am not a vet, but my two cents is that you should take her in on Monday so they can get a sample.  If she won’t pee for them, they can use a needle to extract it from her bladder.  That’s what they have to do with my boy kitty who will not pee in litter for them, no matter how many hours he stays there.

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