We’ve stayed home on Amateur Night for many years now, but this evening, we have an adventure planned. We’ve seen Black-Crowned Night Herons hanging around a nearby marshy island in the river, and we plan to anchor our little Jon boat upstream at sunset and stake it out to see for ourselves if it’s true these birds work the night shift so as to avoid competition with daytime herons. Here’s a photo of one I took on a recent evening off said island:
I’m also hoping to see some owls. I hear Barred Owls every night from all directions but rarely see them. Must not forget the mosquito dope, or it’ll be a short trip. Other than that, no particular plans. What are you guys up to this evening?
Open thread!
SiubhanDuinne
Zooming with my brothers and our cousin (who was raised with us, so to all purposes another sibling). There hasn’t been any kind of proper memorial for sister who died a month ago, so I expect we’ll be doing our own informal celebration of her life, just for the four of us at the moment.
May also check in with the BJ zoom — or may wait until tomorrow for that.
Hope you see all the night birds, Betty. Happy new year to you, your husband, and the dogs!
DocH
Maisie, the AdventureTeckel, and I bumped a Barred Owl Tuesday morning – a fun find!
Sister Golden Bear
I’ll be home alone. Might check in on the Zoom. In past years, I’ve skipped going out more than a few times (too far to drive to parties, too peoplely at them). But not having the choice this year is hitting me harder than I would’ve thought.
I did order a nice dinner from one of my favorite local restaurants. A little self-care, plus trying to support local businesses, since the Bay Area is back to take-out only.
raven
The princess had a great idea for chicken and waffles and Popeyes is .2 miles away so that’ll do it
bystander
Mosquito dope, a pith helmet and a veil. But sounds like fun.
Quietly grilling a steak and mashing some potatoes.
p.a.
Will have a pop by 9, bed by 10:30. It’s just another day to the flora and fauna…
R-Jud
The Child and I are having a bonfire with s’mores.
West of the Rockies
I get super reflective this time of year, so I will be pondering this festering turd of a year as it concludes and anticipating the year to come with guarded optimism. My partner/fiancee is out of state with her ready-to-deliver daughter. It’s just me and Sadie, our one-year-old sheepadoodle. Might watch Death to 2020.
Ken
Family zoom scheduled for tomorrow. Otherwise no plans – it’s been a while since I bothered staying up. Maybe I’ll make an exception to see 2020 out.
By the way, I’m sure you’re aware that “taking a boat into the marsh at midnight” is the start of any number of horror stories and movies.
AnotherBruce
Im going to eschew alcohol tonight, because I want to go birding. I didnt keep a FOY list for 2020, because pandemic. I want to start fresh. Going north to the Skagit (Washington state) Apparently there is a Goshawk that’s hanging around up there. That would be a life bird for me.
LuciaMia
Using a packet of Korean fire noodles (with some added shrimp) for some loooong Good Luck noodles. Im never sure though, when are you supposed to eat the “lucky foods”? New Years Eve or New Years Day?
Later will pop some bubbly and check out a little bit of Anderson Cooper.
TomatoQueen
Turning 65 today, so I have resolved to sign up for Medicare Part A by midnight.
SiubhanDuinne
@R-Jud:
O/T: I’m almost afraid to ask, but did Popcorn ever show up?
LivingInExile
BC What is your favorite bug repellant.
Yutsano
Sitting on my butt and welcoming peeps in various time zones into the New Year. I might stay up just to tell this year to spack off.
SiubhanDuinne
@TomatoQueen:
Woot! Happy birthday to you! May your next trip around the sun coincide with a better year for all of us.
LuciaMia
Happy Birthday, TomatoQueen!
Rob
I may Zoom with jackals for a few minutes tonight; after that is a Zoom by the couple that normally host a NYE party. Since it’s raining or worse tomorrow, I won’t be needing to go to sleep early to watch birds in the morning so it looks like I’ll stay up for the second one.
eta: Betty C, enjoy your sunset heron-watching.
narya
Food, mostly: tonight will be venison tenderloin and spot prawns and potatoes and mushrooms and cookies (so! many! cookies!). Tomorrow will be pizza (so I can have some pork and make the ghost of my grandmother happy) and coconut milk black-eyed peas (recipe from Q4 Bean Club) and a poached pear tart (hazelnut sable crust and hazelnut frangipane). Probably fish on Saturday. Gonna make a pot of black beans, too, while I’m at it. And I splurged on the DVDs of the Dead’s 50th anniversary tour (even though I was at all Chicago shows), and will be watching that tonight, though friend does not know that yet. Surprise! I also signed up for a make don’t break challenge for January, to commit me to making something every day; I want to get inspired to pick up needlework again, but will be okay with just making (and documenting) food.
Bruuuuce
I was going to go to the living room for smoked salmon on challah (we didn’t get bagels), but someone forgot to send me an invitation :-)
Ruckus
Not doing a damn thing tonight.
Get off work in 2 hrs might make the Zoom today. Otherwise one day is like the next.
Rob
@TomatoQueen:
Happy birthday and good luck with the signing. I’ll be there before too long.
narya
@TomatoQueen: Happy birthday! It would have been my sister’s 61st.
SiubhanDuinne
@LuciaMia:
[All together now!]: ¿Porqué no los dos?
CaseyL
No plans other than the BJ Zooms. My neighbors may be returning from their other home base by the sea, so I may go over there just to hang out. In years past, I’d go over there to watch the New Year start over on the East Coast on TV, but we’d all be in bed asleep by the time midnight rolled around in Seattle.
In years past, the Space Needle had a NYE festival with fireworks and all. But I’ve never gone, as the only thing IMO worse than huge drunken crowds making a lot of noise, is huge drunken crowds making a lot of noise in cold foggy drizzle. The NYE festival is going to be entirely virtual this year; I may tune in for some of it.
Another Scott
Beautiful birdy and a great shot. Albatrossity better look out!!
Happy hunting!
(We’ll just be home. Amateur night it right! :-/)
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@LuciaMia: Not that we would know, but our family always did the lucky foods on New Years Day.
My brother lives in the Marin County and he has a black crowned night heron that is indeed only active at night.
Ruckus
@TomatoQueen:
Congrats on making it to Medicare, hope you don’t need to make use of it, for a long time.
WaterGirl
@R-Jud: That sounds nice! I keep trying to catch you to ask about Popcorn and about your sister. Hoping for positive news on both fronts.
Pastafarian
Making chicken tacos for the 3 of us & curling up with a book in front of a fire with spiked hot cocoa. I used to throw pj sleepovers with my girl friends (wine, dinner & movies), because the hubby always worked New Years Eve. New Years Day we’ll have a spiced pork pie.
BC in Illinois
The BC family New Year’s Eve celebration happened this morning at noon (ET). Our daughter on the east coast had a gender-reveal zoom for the upcoming baby (May).
Grandchild number eight will be a boy.
All are well, everybody’s happy, and we will all settle in for a long winter’s nap. We will await the celebratory gunfire that marks the New Year, then go back to sleep.
ETA: It’s supposed to rain tonight, there will be rain and a possibility of some snow tomorrow, so the salt truck came down our street this morning. Never to early to be needlessly prepared.
RepubAnon
I’ve made a little 2020 doll, and bought lots of pins to stick in it…
Bluegirlfromwyo
@TomatoQueen: Happy birthday!
hedgehog mobile
Staying home. Managed to catch a cold (snarl). Getting goodies for charcuterie for one and bubbly delivered. I recommend Death to 2020; watched it last night and it’s hilarious. I am going to stay up to watch this hell year out.
Mary G
@TomatoQueen: Happy Birthday!
WereBear
I’m celebrating by disconnecting from everything except partner, treats and drinks, cats, and movies. Starting now.
Happy New Year all!
Betty Cracker
@AnotherBruce: I’ve never kept a FOY list before but may in 2021. Hoping to do some road trip travel later in the year if it’s safe, so this would be a good year to start, I guess.
@LivingInExile: Whatever has the highest DEET content. At our grocery store, that’s usually Deep Woods OFF (25%). Weirdly, we haven’t been able to get it in the pump spray bottle since the Great Toilet Paper Shortage, but it’s available in aerosol form.
Origuy
For your next road trip, Outside magazine has a list of days that National Parks will be free to enter.
Brachiator
Great heron photo!
Got nothing much planned for the New Year. Will have a quiet day, with leftover Chinese food. Will probably do a Zoom call with relatives in Texas.
Saturday is a work day for me.
FlyingToaster
Probably try to make the BJ Zooms, since our original plans were launched into orbit.
[venting] Our best friends are currently in hell, as one of their parents is basically killing themselves and now all three of the kids have had to meet in NYC to deal with the fallout. Driving from Boston, not so bad; driving from Austin is hell. But there is no choice, as the old fool in question has made it impossible to do anything remotely. On top of this, my godson (their son, on the autism spectrum) has decided to do something, well, decidedly criminal and now the other parent is at home cleaning up that mess. Tonight’s zoom is off, tomorrow brunch is off, and basically I expect WarriorTeen to be on her Switch whenever I’m not making her practice either violin or mandolin. [end venting]
And why the fuck is Trump back in DC?
Dan B
Not sure if it’s Herb d’Provence chicken or a pseudo Thai curry with fresh Galangal. We’ll probably sit out in the big corrugated fiberglass roofed tool shed that my Mike guy rigged up with a pandemic glass and red velvet curtain divider plus wood stove, for heat, and outdoor lighting around “Tikal”, our raised rip-rap walled terrace, and Atitlan, our 12’x18’x4′ deep water storage pond. We’ll wish our friends would join us but our well ventilated shed needs to be better branded. Perhaps they could be fooled by ‘Garden Pavilion of Perpetual Health’ but they’re anxious, a good thing.
Then some highly rated Costco Brut bubbly and fireworks from our SE Asian neighbors.
kindness
In a ‘normal’ year, I spend New Years Eve at a concert somewhere in the SF Bay area. Used to be I had my choice of different artists to see. Well, used to be I would be going to a Grateful Dead show NYE, then Jerry died so that changed. As time has gone by, less and less artists of my choice did NYE shows because they were all getting old and wanted to be with their people that night. It’s OK. Still left some choices. This year though….I’ll be home with my cats & dogs. 2020 looks better in the rear view mirror than it did in real life.
Delk
I’ll be working on my lounge act.
dmsilev
Have to work for most of today. I’ll try to join the Zoom meetup tonight (well, this afternoon local time), and then probably get dinner from one of the local restaurants.
West of the Rockies
@Ken:
And this horror movie might start with an underwater POV shot that rises to and above the surface, focusing on a nearby boat from which conversation and innocent laughter is heard. A tomb-deep, ominous horn is heard as the film score begins…
Interstadial
Hearing about the barred owl reminds me of the article years ago about the barred owl expanding its range into the western U.S. and increasingly displacing the spotted owl. The reporter apparently only got information on the owl verbally, because all the way through the article it was spelled bard owl.
Adam Lang
Ooh those are ridiculous birds. I could have hung around taking pictures of this one all day:
https://dogsofsf.com/archives/11504
There go two miscreants
Supposed to be having a zoom this evening with a friend in the Middle East; not too confident it will happen as it will be 2AM there! No other plans for tonight; I usually don’t stay up anymore.
About to email for the BJ zooms and I may pop in to one or both. The T-day one was fun; it was very interesting to see what people looked like — in some cases my mind had already provided an image, but it was always far from the mark!
mad citizen
From upthread, my plan is:
For tonight we decided on one of our rarely-made favorites: Cioppino, the tomato-wine-based seafood stew/soup outta San Francisco. (And not Trader Joe’s freezer version, although it’s decent. Our meat will be scallops, shrimp and snapper. Maybe some mussels. I’m not a huge clam guy so no clams–only the clam juice.)
Was thinking back to Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose series from the 1970s and his explanation of how great markets are to come together to give us a 10 cent pencil (something like that–could be the economist in me that makes me recall). Our scallops are “USA” (trader joes); shrimp from southern coast of Argentina (target) and snapper from Indonesia (walmart). Thank you markets.
raven
@kindness: Widespread used to play here in Athens on NYE and then they got too big. So they moved to Phillips Arena next to the Georgia Dome. It was quite a trip seeing the spread heads and Peach Bowl peeps mixing.
cain
I plan on drinkin, enjoyin and eating a steak dinner with taters, veggies, and watching some movies and probably a zoom call with my family.
SiubhanDuinne
@kindness:
That’s so true, it deserves to be a rotating tag.
In perpefuckingtuity.
GregMulka
Zoom with the game group to play jackbox and Among Us. Also I have to failback a client server from backup to production.
scav
@CaseyL:
But the payoff is the intermittent dull glows behind the mist! In other words, exactly the same as the 4th of July.
Cameron
Went to Publix this a.m. Have no intention of venturing out of my apartment again until sometime Saturday morning.
SiubhanDuinne
@Delk:
Try the waitress, and don’t forget to tip the veal.
NeenerNeener
I’m ordering pizza from Uno and watching movies, like every other NYE for the past 20 years. I got a cheap 1080p projector and 100″ screen from Amazon last weekend and now I’m waiting for it to get dark.
My parents, who worked in the restaurant business for most of their adult lives, hated NYE even though the money was great. They always called it “Amateur Night” too.
Phylllis
Pizza, Left Hand Milk Stout (which I was happy to discover in these parts at the local liquor barn), BJ Zoom for a bit, then pop some bubbly. We’ll probably be in bed by 10-ish, depending on the artillery noise.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dan B:
Kids (or someone[s]) in this neighbourhood have been setting off fireworks intermittently for the past 72 hours. By the time midnight strikes, I expect to be thoroughly sick of them.*
*Actually, that happened some time Tuesday night.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Mosquitos in December? Egad.
Also, watch out for ‘gators. Do you bring gator-spears?
I bought a steak and some potatoes as a last hurrah before I undertake the battle against my pandemic-thirty, twenty-five of which long pre-date the pandemic, and hope it’s too cold for firecrackers.
Bill Arnold
This is worth a watch (short video clip):
Jager
New Year’s Eve is our Anniversary (easy to remember), we usually have a party with friends, not this year. Small prime rib, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and appropriate wine. We’ve been taking care of our 88-year-old next-door neighbor, so we’ll shuttle food and wine over to Carole and give her a long-distance hug. We’ll talk to the kids, my wife’s dad, and others. later we’ll enjoy listening to Anze the Dog snore by the fire.
Kelly
@TomatoQueen: Happy Birthday! I pass the Medicare milestone in June.
For the last dozen New Years or so Mrs Kelly and I have babysat grandkids so the our kids could have a grown up night out. This year it’s just us. It’ll be just another comfortable night at home.
Suzanne
I might update my resume. Just in case.
Might Zoom tonight. Have a Chuck roast braising in my crockpot. Will likely play video games and try to watch a TV. Like every other night.
trollhattan
What, in the actual fvck is this?
brendancalling
Earlier this year I met a guy wearing a Flies tee-shirt, so we bonded over Boston rock. Later this afternoon we’re meeting up outside to have a beer and say farewell to 2020, the shittiest year of all.
cain
@Suzanne:
See that’s us gen xers.. we’re gonna play video games till arthritis forces us to move to virtual reality games. :D
VeniceRiley
WhatsApp with the future spouse at her midnight, then my midnight. making a spag bol and salad.
Hey where the West Virginians at?
The West Virginia National Guard says it accidentally injected 42 people with Regeneron Antibody instead of a Moderna coronavirus vaccine. Medical experts with the Joint Interagency Task Force said they don’t believer there is a “risk of harm.” The antibody is used in treating some cases of the virus. Major General James Hoyer said the guard “immediately reviewed and strengthened our protocols.”
Hahahaha omg
There go two miscreants
@Suzanne: Have a Chuck roast braising in my crockpot.
Did Chuck put up much of a fight?
Almost Retired
I hate New Year’s Eve, and all other “forced fun” holidays (I’m looking at you, Cinco de Mayo). On New Year’s Eve 1983, I was working at a restaurant in Marina del Rey. Blair from “Facts of Life” threw up on my shoes. And that’s probably my favorite New Year’s Eve memory, which should tell you something.
debbie
Why don’t I see a black crown on that bird?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@VeniceRiley: whelp, that ought to reassure folks like this…
That story’s out of LA, there was a similar report from Ohio and I’m sure every local metro paper has one. FTR, I’d still take any of their doses right freaking now, but like I said, the WV screw up is probably gonna go viral.
mali muso
Have a pork shoulder marinated in “carnitas” seasoning from Aldis in the slow cooker. Planning for some tacos tonight and some kind of Instant Pot black eyed peas tomorrow. No big plans other than TV, food, playing with the kiddo and maybe stopping by the BJ Zoom at some point. I am not really one to stay up until midnight, but I am definitely going to be doing so tonight. I want to see the back end of 2020.
Ken
@trollhattan: I’ve heard that the military solution to people who can’t be forced out is to put them in charge of inventory at a base in northern Alaska. Does VOA have any stations in Greenland?
Ken
@VeniceRiley: Isn’t the Regeneron stuff a couple hundred thousand per dose?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Almost Retired:
You know, there was a twitter thread yesterday about “Your most random encounter with a famous person”, and I really hope you put this in there. As a Gen-Xer (I think, I’m losing track of which generation is which, but I know there all the worst) that is freaking hilarious.
Baud
@Almost Retired:
You take the good, you take the bad…
trollhattan
@Ken:
You mean our 51st state? I’m thinking that’s a yes.
VOA should begin broadcasting to the Trumpist states, starting January.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
40 percent in Ohio. Assholes.
Embra
@Betty Cracker: Those barred owls are very territorial. If you have difficulty spotting them, a decent recording of their calls on a decently loud sound system outside your house will likely bring them to you so they can check out the new guy in town. We used to do this regularly when we lived in the woods.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
My father always called it “Amateur Night” also. When he died, his medical records indicated one of his last doctors thought he might have been an alcoholic because of cirrhosis damage to his liver, but no, he was just a prime time adult in the 1950s. What he did die of was emphysema from his smoking habit. Ugh. The Mad Men era was not healthy.
I have seen Black-Crowned Night Herons at Lake Merritt in Oakland during the day, but the lake is a wildlife refuge with lots of bird protections. There’s several bird islands where safe nesting can take place. I just Googled it and LM was the first official wildlife refuge in the US (1870). Anyway, I remember I got with a couple of feet of a BCNH, because it was safe behind a wire fence, and it knew it! It was very odd looking at birds so close, with dog walkers close by, but everyone protected by fences. Very cool to have such a place in such a big city.
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: Yeah, I might update my resume for 2021 also, to say “Fuck you, I’m retired.”
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: One of the people interviewed had a reasonable concern: She’s pregnant, and while the vaccine is thought to be safe in that situation, it hasn’t actually been tested. The other people in the story don’t really have much of an excuse.
Anotherlurker
Tonight, I’ll enjoy a quiet dinner with 2 friends and their dogs and then it is home well before midnight.
NYE doesn’t mean a lot to me, just like most holidays. With my long life as a TV audio tech, I’ve chosen to work on holidays. NBA or NHL games or Times Square broadcast was the usual fare. Double time days, you know.
Anyway, Happy New Year to all the Jackels! You guys help keep me smiling and sane
VeniceRiley
@Ken: Yes. And it could have gone in the arms of covid positive vulnerable people. 42 wasted doses.
Gin & Tonic
Anyway, quiet night planned. Dear wife is working, kids are hither and yon – son went to MX to see his wife, so we will hope for her situation to be resolved this year.
WaterGirl
Betty, that is one good-looking bird!
Jinchi
@TomatoQueen: Happy Birthday!
I think John Cole scheduled some fireworks tonight in celebration.
WaterGirl
@Jinchi: Fireworks at the zoom? And no one told me! :-)
HinTN
@Betty Cracker: An owl story. I live smack dab up against the mountain with a small five acre field between said mountainside and a wetland full of trees. One very still summer evening, just at dusk, I was standing out on the edge of the field looking back at the mountain. Motion caught my eye and I followed what resolved into a very large owl in a motionless glide coming down over the treetops. The bird leveled off at about ten feet and passed directly over my head on a track across the field toward the bog. There was zero sound from that bird. No wind noise, nothing.
Happy birding tonight.
As for us, going to a friend’s for some early bubbly and sushi. Then to bed to put this blasted mess of a year in the rear view mirror.
Pete Downunder
Happy New Year from Downunder where it’s now about 5:30 am New Years Day here in Queensland. We have had steady light rain for the last week which is a vast improvement over the fires of last year. Mrs Downunder and I have a country place and during this week hire a giant teepee (about 30’ diameter) and hold kind of a running open house. Last night we had 30-40 people for New Year’s but the border collie and I went to our beds a bit early while Mrs partied on. We can gather like that as Oz is relatively Covid free. Stay safe everyone.
Jinchi
Aren’t there rules against self-dealing in positions like this?
HinTN
@WaterGirl:
Might be worth a look!
VeniceRiley
Maybe this Wisconsin story will knock the WV story off the viral perch.
https://news.yahoo.com/wisconsin-health-system-worker-deliberately-023406125.html/
Major Major Major Major
Love black crowned night herons! Ever since I learned of their existence uh, last year, maybe this one? Saw one in the park and asked Twitter what it was. Fat little buggers.
Jinchi
Don’t worry, Jared will send the recipients a bill to make the government whole again.
Kathleen
@TomatoQueen: Happy Birthday, young ‘un!
Litlebritdifrnt
Lots of fireworks going off here. Seeing as we are in Tier 4 lockdown, celebrating anywhere is out of the question. DH and I will be staying home and will probably be in bed before midnight. We are old and boring these days.
Kathleen
I’ll be eating bean with ham soup from my neighborhood coffee shop/cafe and Zooming with BJ at 7. Weather permitting my running partner from Milwaukee is in town and we’re supposed to meet downtown at Fountain Square tomorrow morning at 6am for a New Year’s run. Would love to run up to Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park to see the live nativity scene and lights.
JMG
Grilled tenderloin, baked potato, wedge salad with bacon bits, a glass or two of bubbly, then bed. I assume the Biden’s message will be fairly early on Rockin’ New Year’s Eve with Ryan Seacrest. I’m sure his staff has briefed repeatedly on not saying, “so young fella, where’s Dick?”
realbtl
Back when I lived on the California delta (Bethel Island) wife and I would sometimes take the canoe out into the tules before dawn. Nothing will make you jump like a beaver tail hitting the water 10′ (more like 30-50′) away in the complete dark.
PsiFighter37
New Year’s Eve plan – going to cook up a Chinese duck-centric feast we picked up yesterday from a nearby restaurant. Have a Zoom with childhood friends at 7 PM. Late dinner, but asleep by 10 PM. With a young kid, the early wakeups never end…not worth it to stay up until midnight when we have a guaranteed 6 AM wakeup. Very exciting.
Pennsylvanian
We’ll be doing a meat and veg fondue in butter and oil with a big salad and French rolls. Also whiskey and wine. A once-a-year savory indulgence. Yum.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Ham, scalloped potatoes, winter squash with cranberries and pecans.
Early to bed because I hate staying up late. Always have.
LivingInExile
BC Thanks
Matt McIrvin
New Year’s Eve has nearly always been a quiet night in for me, so this year won’t be a big change. I remember imagining getting into some huge celebration when 1999 ticked over to 2000, but when it actually happened, I think Sam wasn’t even feeling well so it was just me and Niobe the Skeptical Cat hanging out together.
kindness
@SiubhanDuinne: You’re lucky. Out here in Red California too many yahoos go out and fire off their guns at midnight. Scares the shit outta my dogs. In past years when I was going to be away I left them inside the house if I went out this night.
Mai Naem mobile
Cousin sent this today – pretty much my plans lol.
Omg!! Going to an exclusive club tonight for New Years Eve!! So excited, got all dressed up and wore my best outfit. Don’t know if you’ve heard of it, it’s called “The Living Room”, it’s so exclusive that only you and your household can get entry and nobody else! Luckily there’s no entrance fee but It’s such a shame you can’t join us there, would have been such a good night!
Anyway Happy New Year, sorry you can’t come to the living room but I’m sure we can celebrate in 2021!
Matt McIrvin
@VeniceRiley: Well, I guess if some of those people were actually infected, they probably benefited from it!
Just Chuck
I haven’t seen or heard any Barred Owls. They’re barred from the area.
Thankyagnite, enjoy your waitress and tip your drinks.
zhena gogolia
I’m reposting this comment from below from Enhanced Voting Techniques because I think it’s really smart:
Mike in NC
Wife is going to visit a friend down the street whose husband had a fatal heart attack this past year. Then I’m steaming up a huge pot of mussels to serve with angel hair pasta. After dinner the Champagne will taste extra delicious as we place phone calls to friends and family and begin to count down the exit of Donald Trump from our lives.
On New Year’s Eve 1984 I was introduced to a nice young woman at a party in Virginia Beach. We were inseparable for six months, then my ship deployed to the Persian Gulf for six months and she forgot I was alive. Happens all the time I soon learned.
zhena gogolia
As for what we’re up to: BJ Zoom at 7, then The King’s Speech on Prime. We’re still eating the brisket I made for Christmas, can’t wait to finish it. Tomorrow I’ll have two straight hours zooming with friends. Getting kind of sick of Zoom socializing, but there’s no real alternative.
Major Major Major Major
Spanky
@Major Major Major Major: That cat is not starving.
mrmoshpotato
I’m sure I’ll look at my watch about 12:30 and go, “Oh. Hm.”
Bring on January 20, 2021 12:01PM EST!
ETA – probably will hop on Zoom tonight and tomorrow with you silly gooses.
Major Major Major Major
@Spanky: I don’t think anybody could be of the impression that he is.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
Hmmm, there shouldn’t be a comma between Staraya and Russa — it’s Staraya Russa, the town where Dostoevsky had his summer home.
TeezySkeezy
My first night heron encounter was on a grassy commons on Rice University campus at 2 am. I’m heading home after a long day and see these amazing large birds standing around, looking back at me. Even in the middle of Houston you can spot the wetlands wildlife, which is not so surprising considering how often Houston is under water.
raven
Gov Dumbshit expanded the eligibility for the vaccine to 65 and that means I can (might could as they say in these parts) get a hit in mid-January
NotMax
@TomatoQueen
Wishing you a happy day.
(Did you parents ever refer to you as Little Miss Tax Deduction?)
pamelabrown53
@zhena gogolia:
Hmmmm…why am I not surprised you know that! Happy New Year!!!
zhena gogolia
@pamelabrown53:
Happy New Year!
Baud
Because some people were concerned about Trump and Iran.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
@pamelabrown53:
Wikipedia
The Dangerman
For kind of a cool story, Google “Nellie the Night Heron”. She was a Shell Beach “resident” for quite a long time. I haven’t seen her in years and I’m not in Shell Beach now. When I did “meet” her, she was fascinating to watch.
My NYE land are simple. I’m writing appropriate phrases (2020, Trump, etc.) on squares of toilet paper and flushing. Over and over until I get writers cramp or run out of TP, whichever comes first.
Poe Larity
Garrison Brothers Single Barrel Cask Strength Bourbon.
That is all.
Baud
Good news, and long overdue.
Dan B
@Dan B: Sent a New Years Eve message to friends who called 30 seconds later saying, “Are you having a party?” So my Mike guy is upset because he wanted to finish “The Aqueduct”. He’s got ladders and bracing up. I informed him that his Yelp reviews would be devastating since they would be here after dark and would get a poorly lit glimpse. T was especially enthused to have something to do instead of hide under the covers. We’ll have a toast long before midnight with our separate bottles and glasses. My Mike will enjoy himself a lot and be thoroughly delightful and create much hilarity.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Animal mascots and trains have a long history. Every time I go to the Smithsonian, make it a point to find and visit Owney, the bespangled postal mutt.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Nice!
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Send me an email so I can send you the info!
Citizen Alan
I’m actually kind of proud of my NYE plans in a nerdy sort of way. One of my leisure activities is writing a somewhat popular fanfiction with about 15,000 followers, including 4000 following me on a Discord server. The guy who is doing the audio book for my original novel has performed one of the more popular chapters which is timed at 58:55, so we’re going to start it on a Twitch channel at 11:00 EST, so that fans can listen to the whole chapter and then count down for a minute at the end to the New Year. I have no idea if anyone will be joining us on Twitch, but even if it’s just a few, it’s a neat experience for me. We’ll see how it goes.
The Dangerman
@The Dangerman: NYE plans. Fucking spellcheck.
If you Google the story I referenced, gotta use Shell Beach in the search too,
Major Major Major Major
@Citizen Alan: well you can’t just say all that and not put up a link. (And cool!)
The Moar You Know
I’m sure my blood-gargling psychopath neighbors still have a large quantity of the military-grade explosives they so kindly shared with all of us on the Fourth of July, so my main goal is to keep my dog in his crate with all the windows closed and hope it doesn’t take him another three months to get over his fear that things will go boom when it gets dark. I will also be drinking a beer. Probably a few.
J R in WV
Here in W VA the vaccination situation is fuckin’ DIRE… I can’t learn anything about where to go, how to get my immune-system-damaged wife into the first group for vaccine shots, nothing!
CVS says they’re immunizing long-term care residents, but don’t call us about YOUR shots…
The National Guard dosing people with the wrong medication, antibody Way $$ doses instead of vaccine, that could happen to any military org. Remember one of the favorite sayings out of the military is FUBAR — Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition is what it stands for, which should mean something to all veterans and their families.
We’re gonna eat crab cakes tonight, with oven-browned potatoes of some sort, big salad, bottle of fizzy wine, maybe the good champagne … may save the best bottle for midnight? I dunno. All that depends on Wife cleaning up the Kitchen. That’s our deal, I do all the procurement of foodstuffs, menu planning, cooking, she does the dishes using a relatively new dishwasher mostly.
Not really feeling like Zoom meetups today. Trying hard to be optimistic going forward, but it is really hard for me at this point. I have burned so much optimism over the past 4 years I don’t have much left. I keep thinking we’ve seen the worst of Trump, and he keeps me looking stupid for forming that thought. Every day I think, “Well, that’s the most un-American thing the monster can do!” and every day he shows me I don’t understand his secret super power to become more un-American every day.
I don’t know which is worse, the vaccination program being more fucked up than the plague management, self-quarantine, and wear a mask part — or the obvious contempt for democracy or Por Que no los Dos? did I get that right? Close?
Glad to hear some good news about Jackal’s personal health, though. Being sent home from the hospital has to be better than being rushed to ICU, after all. With a 90+ blood oxygen level, too!\
You all take care, now. Glad not to see anyone confessing to plans to go out to a NYE party! And keep in touch, too!
AnotherBruce
@Betty Cracker: It’s really worth doing. log the time, date, location, and species. I’m into my 8th year of this.
It helps you to find old and new bird friends.
Major Major Major Major
@J R in WV: interesting… reading the news I got the impression that WV was best in the country at vaccination right now… although given what other states are up to these aren’t mutually exclusive.
Dan B
@SiubhanDuinne: The fireworks are much reduced this time of year from Lunar New Year. Those and 4th of July have been like war in some years. We used to have dozens of kids but they’ve grown and moved so we’re down to one teenager! Quieter.
NotMax
Cooking schedule will need to be altered in order to accommodate the Zoom; small price to pay for visiting Jackalcon.
Proposed menu for tonight:
Fried chicken
Noodle kugel (the slightly sweetened kind)
(probably) some sort of spicy black bean side dish, ingredients to be a little of this, a little of that autoschediasm.
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: Virtual hugs for you J R. We just have to hang in for a little while longer. Knowing we will have a new president and that the vaccine is coming is a big help, because it means there can be an end to this madness.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Should have traded you access to the zoom for some fried chicken!
I cannot make good fried chicken. So sad.
opiejeanne
@TomatoQueen: Happy Birthday!
You share it with my mom, who would be 102 today. She once told me that her mother went into labor while they were at her grandmother’s house for a New Year’s Eve party, and her mother was very annoyed that she was going to miss the party.
marklar
@Just Chuck:
Groan. Nobody should cook for you ;) ! (Barred owl joke)
Mai Naem mobile
@zhena gogolia: idiot never thinks ahead about anything. Some moron Trumpov supporter on Twitter has put up an older pic of Trumpov supposedly playing chess with Barron. They’re not even seated in the standard chess playing position – across from each other and there is no fucking way Trumpov knows how to play chess.
The Moar You Know
@zhena gogolia: I’d be surprised if that’s dipshit’s motivation. There’s 350,000 American families who are a lot closer to where he lives and easily just as motivated.
zhena gogolia
@J R in WV:
Hang in there. There was never any chance that Trump was going to behave any other way than the way he is. Biden is on the way!
LuciaMia
Here in the Baltimore area officials are asking people to lay off the fireworks, even sparklers. Not sure why, we’re hardly in a drought/fire risk situation now. And sure, I hate the ones that sound like military grade explosions too, but we could use a little shared celebration tonight, viewed from a distance.
Dan B
@Kathleen: Loved that conservatory and Eden Park.
Suburban Mom
I’m cooking. NYE is my husband’s birthday and he gets to pick the dinner menu. Tonight’s is venison with a rosemary and dried cherry sauce, potatoes Anna, and a salad with blue cheese. Dessert is an Apple crostata with a pecan crust. We’re drinking Pinot noir with it.
Phylllis
The Armed Forces bowl is ending with an ongoing brawl between Tulsa & Miss. St. Looked to me like a Tulsa coach started it by going after a Miss. St player.
les
Jason Isbell and the 400, livestream on Fans.live. God, I miss live music.
JoyceH
I just got myself a Zoom account and tested it out with a friend, so I’ll be zooming with you guys tonight. Other than that, probably going to make a tuna noodle casserole, and turn on the TV to see what Time Square New Years Eve looks like without a horde of drunken strangers crowded into it. I presume Andy will be getting Anderson drunk again tonight…
FelonyGovt
Trying to decide whether to bother staying up, but I’m leaning toward doing so just to make sure 2020 is really gone. No special dinner or other plans.
JoyceH
Of course, the real celebration will be January 20th. Don’t know about you guys, but I plan to be parked in front of the TV all day.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mai Naem mobile:
Never heard that story before, so I looked it up.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/barron-trump-chess/
WaterGirl
@LuciaMia: Hospitals are overrun with COVID. I can imagine idiots with burned and blown off fingers, or eye damage or whatever, from fireworks. Not helpful.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne: What a horrible picture. Trump is looking at him as if he’s never seen him before in his life.
Miki
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): My 93 yr old Grampa died from liver failure – cirrhosis – but he drank very little, maybe 2 beers in the summer. (His Dr. asked us if he had a problem with alcohol – ffs, he was 93.) He also developed emphysema in his old age – and never smoked. Turns out my sister and my brother are both Alpha 1 – she now has pretty bad asthma, he has liver issues (and doesn’t drink). IOW, the emphysema and the cirrhosis could be part of a genetic issue. But yeah – cigs and booze will each kill you, regardless, and apparently earlier for some if they’re also Alpha 1.
Happy New Year.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Such a great film.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@The Moar You Know: Yes, I was thinking, Trump being the gutless coward he is likely is running back the White House bunker even though logically the Iranians will simply wait until next year when he is out of office to do any attack on him
I do quite seriously hope the Iranians aren’t as stupid to try something like this and make Trump a martyr. That would really be disgusting to listen to conservatives talk about Trump in the same tones as Lincoln.
FelonyGovt
@JoyceH: You bet! I’ve blocked out January 20 and plan to watch the entire inauguration.
SiubhanDuinne
@JoyceH:
Oh, yes, as will I. And I have little doubt that our wonderful frontpagers will keep us well supplied with live-streams and fresh threads for running commentary.
Eight hours and two minutes to midnight.
Nineteen days twenty hours and two minutes to the inauguration.
mrmoshpotato
@Phylllis: Had to check ESPN.
Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl
Yup. Good god. (shakes head)
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Even the Rock of Gibraltar has its faults.
Mine is gravy. Can churn out sauces by the barrelful; a good, rich, savory gravy eludes my paltry pantry skills entirely.
;)
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
I wonder if Barron even spent the holidays with his parents. He wasn’t in the video I saw earlier today of Trump and Melania boarding AF1, and I don’t recall seeing him or even hearing mention of him flying to WPB with them last week.
debbie
I’ll be trying to stay up to time the celebratory gunfire at midnight. Based on the constant shootings in this city over the past year, I’d bet this year’s show will be staggering.
LuciaMia
@WaterGirl: Yeah, you’re probably right.
UncleEbeneezer
After 9 days of wearing masks at home, sleeping in separate beds etc., my wife just got the negative result of her Covid test. So we are celebrating with some lobster for dinner and some of LA’s best burritos for tomorrow.
raven
@NotMax: It’s all in the roux.
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer:
Oh, good. There’s nothing like that “negative.”
Jeffro
It has been a long, long year without it. The last folks I saw live in 2020 were the DBTs and KISS (not on the same bill, obvs ;)
I think if I had my way about it, I’d probably hop from YouTube concert to YouTube concert tonight, but I think my better half is going to want to watch movies instead. Sigh.
pamelabrown53
@zhena gogolia:
Thanks! Have you ever visited the museum? If not, is it in your top 5 of “museums to visit before I die”? The only Russian museum I visited was the Hermitage. Quite the daunting place.
Bill Arnold
@The Moar You Know:
Pretty sure he (and much of the rest of the Republican party) hasn’t yet internalized that mass homicide has consequences that might personally affect them.
Also, more mundanely the Secret Service probably knows of buzz about Iran (probably chatter generated by Iranians just to mess with DJT’s head :-), and I’m sure they have mentioned their concerns to him.
If he makes further moves to initiate war with Iran, rules about chain of command and other forms of … pushback will be practically temporarily loosened. Sample (of the plays, not pushback):
Israel, Saudi Arabia reportedly pressuring Trump to strike Iran in final days – According to Arab media’s report, which is based on anonymous US sources, Riyadh and Jerusalem want to sabotage Biden’s plan to re-enter negotiations with the ayatollah regime. (Daniel Siryoti, 12-31-2020)
(Israel and the Israeli right in particular have long engaged in political assassination mainly foreign but also domestic (Rabin), so (deniable) retaliation in the fullness of time is another possibility.)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I plan to overimbibe and probably stream “The Crown” in a desperate attempt to avoid being forced to watch and stay awake for the idiotic awfulness that is “Bridgerton”.
My objections to this kind-of-regency-set fiction are multifold – there are zero externalities in the universe of the story that affect (or create a genuine break from) the moronic dialogue as to who should be matched to whom or who gets what income or dowry. There’s allegedly some war in Spain, but it affects nothing, and the men are either cads, gamblers or hopelessly noble, with no pursuits other than counting money or the lack thereof. I find myself caring about none of the characters or their petty relational foibles, and want a meteor to come down and slay them all.
Plus, I got shouted at for falling asleep 10 minutes in to Episode 1.
LuciaMia
It is strange. Its one thing to keep your child out of the spotlight/scrutiny of the news cycle. But its like he doesnt even exist.
HinTN
@J R in WV: Don’t forget SNAFU.
germy
@Jeffro:
The great thing about youtube concerts is that you have control of the volume, not some half-deaf maniac at a mixing board.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@UncleEbeneezer:
We could find no fresh lobster here in Louisville, which is incredibly unusual.
cope
Staying in, going to bed before midnight (probably). In other words, same as it ever was. We did whip up a quadruple batch (for sharing) of our traditional Texas Caviar black-eyed pea dip for good luck. I’ll add a little more hot sauce and Worcestershire to mine when the time comes.
Owlwise, I hear screech owls pretty often and larger owls (barred? barn? great horned?) on occasion. I even stopped for a burrowing owl in the middle of the street in our neighborhood one night. However, just a couple of weeks ago, I went outside around 4 or 5 AM to take our new puppy on a potty break. Just before I stepped out on the pool deck, headed for the grass, a very large shape glided from left to right down the full length of “lawn” that borders our pool. It was no more than three feet above the ground, but 15 feet in front of me and absolutely silent. I was in awe, the puppy clueless.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@LuciaMia:
When was the last time President Shit for Brains Clickbait did something with the kid?
germy
@LuciaMia:
Someone here (I don’t remember who) said they heard a tape and he has a thick Slovenian accent.
germy
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Like all of Trump’s offspring, he’ll be considered a “kid” when he’s well into his thirties.
As in “Leave the kids alone!” or “The kids have suffered enough. Grant them immunity!”
NotMax
Ooh, turns out there’s a single bottle of Prosecco in the house. Bubbly tonight!
zhena gogolia
@pamelabrown53:
No, I’ve never been there. Russian “house-museums” are kind of boring. (I’m not a big museum person in general.) My experience outside of Moscow is pretty limited. I’m a terrible traveler. I’ve been to Turgenev’s Oryol house and Tolstoy’s Moscow house and Lermontov’s Moscow house and Tsvetaeva’s Moscow house and Tchaikovsky’s Moscow house, and that’s about it.
Jeffro
@germy: yeah, but on the other hand the merch table is sooo lame… ;)
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
“Where do I find info about Russian museums?”
“Gogol it.”
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: What a relief! So happy for you. Does she get one more test, or is she totally in the clear?
germy
@Jeffro:
You must have adblocker.
mrmoshpotato
Good to hear. :)
Kelly
For me it isn’t even Trump’s increasingly bad actions. The widespread enthusiasm for or acquiescence to all this meanness is daunting.
germy
Lin Wood’s Ex-Law Partners Claim He Was Taped Admitting to Assaults, Asserting He May Be ‘Christ Coming Back for Second Time’
UncleEbeneezer
@WaterGirl: By the time we could even get a second test, she’ll be past the incubation period. So not much point. Her potential exposure was very slim (not exposed to someone WITH Covid, just to someone outside of our bubble).
sab
@les: My husband has always been a stick in the mud about going to concerts. Now he is hyper anxious to get out of the house. If we live so long, a couple of years from now could be wildly fun… That assumes there will still be working musicians.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: WTF? These assholes give bags of nuts a bad name!
raven
mrmoshpotato
I see mosh pits in your futures. Maybe some crowdsurfing.
MomSense
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It’s an eye candy shoppe. Suffer through until you get to the honeymoon sexy times.
mrmoshpotato
Of course he did! What Rethuglican doesn’t potentially have COVID-19? I guess he has a valid excuse to not debate Ossoff now!
pamelabrown53
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Lighten up, Francis. Just think of it as Regency romance with a ShondaLand twist.
It’s quite alright that you don’t relate to Regency romances.
Mike in NC
@pamelabrown53: We visited the Hermitage during a 2014 Baltic Sea cruise. My wife attended art schools and never in her wildest dreams did she ever expect to go there and see so many treasures.
germy
@mrmoshpotato:
They need excuses now? My favorite was Tuberville, who just said “Nope, I ain’t gonna do it.”
Baud
@germy:
Jesus Christ Super Thug.
JoyceH
Hah! I was just coming here to post about the Perdue quarantine. But I see I’m late, so will just add – LOL.
Baud
@germy:
“Why debate? I’m a Republican running in Alabama who hasn’t molested children.”
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Wonderful Senator-elect Alaboneheads have there now.
NotMax
@sab
‘Twill ere be a wandering minstrel or two.
;)
germy
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: Having had two friends whose husbands had covid, with each of them living with their spouses… where the wives had to not only isolate during the husbands 10-14 days, but the wives also had to start their own isolation once the husbands go the all clear, because they could have gotten exposed to their husbands on the last possible that that he was potentially contagious.
I suspect that she should have the second test, just to be safe. Because in the unlikely event that she did have it and was asymptomatic, she could be contagious to you.
TomatoQueen
Thank you everyone for very kind birthday wishes. In return, my best hope for a better year and a better time coming.
@NotMax: I’ll check that link when I sign off the w*o*r*k computer. And of course every year I have endured the tax deduction nick-name. Especially because (and I’ve never been allowed to forget this either) I was born two weeks late. Been a professional slow-arse from birth.
No success so far with medicare.gov. Gonna be fun this evening, interrupted with bouts of That’s Entertainment on TCM.
JoyceH
Also? The Congresswoman-Elect who beat Donna Shalala will miss her own swearing in because she’s caught COVID. I think the ratio of COVID positive Republican legislators to Democrats is something like three to one.
Mary G
I’m actually bemoaning the loss of the Rose Parade, even if I haven’t watched it in decades. Probably bed early. Housemate who got back from Guatemala a few weeks ago just got the news that his younger brother was in a motorcycle accident and gravely ill.
germy
germy
Advice for writers:
sdhays
@Baud: “Why debate? I’m a Republican running in Alabama who
hasn’t molesteddoesn’t have a public record molesting children.”trollhattan
@sab:
My bride gets antsy at concerts and always wants to leave early, no matter who it is or the quality of the performance. She was able to leverage “We need to get home to the babysitter” for quite a long while but with said baby in college, I hardly ever fall for that one now.
Thing about sitting with somebody who’s antsy, the stress is contagious.
trollhattan
@sdhays:
“They never proved nuffin’!”
ETA Still flabbergasted “Judge” Roy Moore was so blatant about his teen stalking he was banned from a mall. In Alabama.
Martin
Orange County just approved 1000 care facilities for vaccine distribution, so hopefully they’ll catch up to supply. Until now it’s mostly been hospitals and they’re just slammed.
In other news, a nice retrospective of ‘Trump’s 8th wonder of the world‘.
People were forced out of their homes. I don’t inherently dislike Foxconn, but you have to understand how Foxconn operates. They play hardball capitalism like Trump. And if you offer them $4B, they’re going to take it and do nothing with it if you let them.
Not only is that not how you rebuild the manufacturing sector, naive and corrupt schemes like this from Walker and Trump are how you continue to do harm to it.
J R in WV
@HinTN:
I seem to recall there’s a special detail to owl feathers so that they fly with no sound. Helps them predate on the tiny rodents who can’t hear them until way too late.
Some years ago I was driving home after work in early winter or late fall, well after harvest was all in. It was nearing winter evening dusk. Passing a harvested corn field of little stumps, I got to watch a tiny hawk stoop from a telephone pole onto a little rodent foraging for dinner.
When it hit the ground, it formed a wall with its wing and tail feathers, to force tiny rodent to flee straight ahead, if not nailed at first. Was amazing to see, hawk had such an interesting pattern of dark and light feathers, all extended in use as part of the act of capturing hawk’s dinner that night.
raven
@Mary G: Three years ago was one of the best days of my life. We were at the Rose Bowl at 4:30am. Walked up the hill to Colorado Blvd, watched the parade, walked back to the stadium, ate collards and black eyed peas on the golf course and then went to the best game I’ve ever been to! We were so close to the floats I had to use my phone because I’d put too big of a lens on my Canon.
The only problem was that people had told us how great the smell of the flowers would be and that didn’t happen.
frosty
@Suzanne: The nice thing about being a consultant instead of a County employee was that my resume was always up to date, done for every new proposal.
Another Scott
Law&Crime – Lin Wood said he may be Christ
Who is genuinely surprised? Who??!
(via Popehat)
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@J R in WV
Stealth soaring. Which is why Hitchcock should instead have made The Owls.
;)
pamelabrown53
@zhena gogolia:
Well, that sounds like a lot! (House museums). I have a love/hate relationship with Russia and Russian literature. Too dark and nihilistic for my tastes.
However, I do appreciate your comments on the subject and try to keep an open mind.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: (And, late again.)
Cheers,
Scott.
frosty
Staying in as usual. My millenial son isn’t going out so I’m going to light a fire to cheer up this drizzly sleety gray chilly day, and then the three of us will watch Death to 2020. Ms F will be preparing champagne cocktails as she continues experimenting with her new COVID hobby of mixology.
Princess Leia
@The Moar You Know: You must live in my neighborhood. they actually have a launcher. In a residential area. My girl won’t go out after dark either.
NotMax
@frosty
Haven’t yet gotten around to it. Shall also note (haven’t watched it either, so consider it nothing more than an FYI) Yearly Departed showed up on Prime.
Spanky
I always assume Barron spends a lot of time with his biological father.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
Albertsons, the grocery chain, which owns a lot of companies, like Vons here in socal is setting up inoculation places, based upon the pharmacies in their stores. I’ve received info from Vons because I shop there and have a store card. If you go to the website, for Albertsons, they have a place on there that gives the info.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Martin: No one is going stick the kind of consumer goods product line in the US like some dimbulb like Trump fantasies about. The labor costs are too high and not enough people willing to work on assembly lines like that.
sdhays
@trollhattan: Considering everything else we know about the man, I can’t say that surprised me. I’m still scratching my head at how, after all of his antics and campaigns and years in the public spotlight as a very controversial individual, being banned from a mall for being a suspected sexual predator didn’t come out until he ran against Doug Jones.
Either his Republican opponents didn’t do their homework, or they didn’t think it was something that would be considered scandalous in a Republican primary. “Who amongst us hasn’t been banned from a mall for trying to pick up teenagers, am I right?” Failing to protect students from sexual assault didn’t harm Gym Jordan, so there’s precedent for that line of thinking, as stomach-churning as it is.
pamelabrown53
@Mike in NC:
The Hermitage is just so vast. Neither the Louvre, British Museum nor the Vatican felt so overwhelming. All are imposing with centuries of sometimes pillaged treasures.
NotMax
@frosty
Kir Imperial. ’nuff said.
;)
Xavier
@Gin & Tonic: My bumper sticker says “I’m Retired Go Around Me.”
JoyceH
@Spanky:
Ooh, is that snark or a genuine rumor? If genuine rumor, details please?
sdhays
@Spanky: While I have no opinion or care as to the Third Lady’s faithfulness, or lack thereof, to his Dumpiness, I strongly suspect Donnie John is Barron’s father. Just like in the old royal families, producing a child is her insurance policy and an important status token.
Any subsequent children – all bets are off. Besides, I seem to recall that their prenup “allowed” her one child, so any other fetuses, if they were somehow to be conceived, would likely be aborted. Or else be subject to a renegotiation of the prenup.
PsiFighter37
@NotMax: It’s pretty good. Hugh Grant’s character is the best in it, and I didn’t even realize it was him until the credits rolled.
Citizen Alan
@Major Major Major Major:
It is actually on my Discord server. Which often baffles and confuses me. But I’ll see what I can do. It’s probably not to everyone’s cup of tea, since it’s (a) Harry Potter, (b) fanfic, and (c) a chapter from the middle of Book 3. But that was what the Discord members picked for a holiday treat, so we’ll see how it goes.
pamelabrown53
@raven:
What an amazing experience. Always wanted to be there. I remember when HGTV had actual gardeners who enthusiastically imparted all the float details (and with no commercials)! Damn I miss the sense of wonder that the garden people imparted to that wondrous parade. The only parade I care about.
Martin
@raven: Yeah, no. They’ve been decorating those things for weeks. The smell goes pretty fast and there’s a real art to choosing how to decorate them such that they can be assembled with things that can last weeks and things that can last days, and organized as such. Ms Martin used to help decorate them.
PsiFighter37
@raven: Sounds like a great excuse for a chicken to avoid talking to anyone before the election. Cluck cluck, motherfucker.
Billcoop4
Soloing dinner here, since my long-time soulmate with whom I’ve done NYE with since 1989 — save twice — passed this year of a rapid, relatively painless cancer.
Per tradition, I’ll have sirloin, Yorkshire pudding veggies, a good Zinfandel. Bubbly, then a Zoom call with staff alums from the summer place I’ve gone to and worked at my whole life, Silver Bay YMCA.
Should be a good evening. May peek in on the BJ Zoom, even though I’m mostly a lurker here.
BC
Kathleen
@Dan B: I don’t know if you were a Boardwalk fan but George Remus (the notorious bootlegger aka “The Bourbon King”) killed his wife in that very spot. I’m reading a book about him entitled – “The Bourbon King”. Fascinating. His mansion was also about 1 to 2 miles from where I live. And yes. Eden Park is magical.
raven
@pamelabrown53: It was pretty funny. When I got tickets I gave my bride the choice to go. After a bit of thinking she said she did so I booked the incredibly expensive plane tix. Right after that she said “we’re going to the parade”! This was a statement of fact even though I said “what do you know what that will be like to go to the game and the parade”?? It turns out I was glad we went even though the seats at the parade cost me more than the game (but not parking on the golf course)!
frosty
@NotMax: Coincidentally, the mixologist sent that recipe to herself today. We have the Chambord so I think it will be on the list. Thanks for the recco!!
raven
@Martin: Well, up until now, no-one has ever been able to explain that to me! Thanks
way2blue
A Zoom this evening with friends. Traditionally we’d share a late dinner, then ring in the New Year with champagne. Tonight, fish chowder for two; tomorrow the winter, Latvia Stew from the novel, ‘Gentleman in Moscow’…
zhena gogolia
@pamelabrown53:
Russian literature is not nihilistic!!!!
J R in WV
Nearest real Albertson’s is just over 1000 miles away according to Google maps. Nearest Albertson’s owned stores appear to be around Dayton OH, so 250 miles away. I would actually consider going to Dayton for the shots. Kroger’s talks about having vaccination, hiring new staff, etc, but no actual dates.
But really, I expect we’ll get them just as quickly staying put. CVS says they’re inoculating folks in care homes now… no details on when next set of folks can make appointments.
zhena gogolia
@PsiFighter37:
I just watched the trailer and didn’t see Hugh Grant. It was all women. Did I miss something?
raven
Since I’m babbling on about the 2018 Rose Bowl here’s a video of the band as Sony Michel scores the winning touchdown on 2bbl OT. It’s great how excited they are and how quickly they recover and begin to play!
This is not my video but we were sitting right next to them.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
He was referring to Death to 2020 on Netflix. Yes, the Prime thing is all female.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
Wish I could see Death to 2020, but I am just at my limit and refuse to sign up for Netflix on top of everything else.
Martin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The labor costs aren’t really the problem, though. The number of workers is a huge problem.
I worked with the CA Gov office a number of years ago when I was heading up statewide advisory group that had received an inquiry from a large manufacturer to move to CA. The inquiry didn’t even inquire about labor costs – which would have been high in CA, with higher than national minimum wage and standard of living, and many more state regulations on benefits and the like. It was entirely about infrastructure and access to workers. Simply put, not only could CA not generate the number of workers they needed with the specific background they were looking for (degrees, etc), the entire US barely could.
My understanding is this turned to some inquiry into guaranteeing H1Bs, but they then chose to set up in Germany. Wages and benefits and taxes were higher, but they had the labor force the US didn’t have. Particularly they had the type of labor they wanted.
Apple weighed in on this as well when Steve Jobs met with Obama.
So, Apple wasn’t the company – they sure as shit don’t need my input. But Jobs is right. The US has gotten too invested in both treating the BS as a lowest viable degree, and in constraining the number of those degree around the cost to educate them rather then the benefit of them to the economy.
See, it costs 4x as much to educate an engineer – higher paid salary to compete with industry, lots of technical facilities, more courses – than someone in the humanities or social sciences. So given a flat tuition structure, universities grow their BA programs and don’t grow their engineering programs – particularly the 2 year technology programs that manufacturers hire in volume. The research universities want nothing to do with those programs, but they can grow on the back of their research funding. The teaching universities are more open to them, but can’t grow because they don’t have that additional revenue stream. As a result, the nation has the wrong mix of training.
Making matters worse, those students going for degrees in the US don’t want to work in an environment like that. Assembly line jobs are only a step above ag jobs, and we need to import that labor as well. They’re absolutely better than nothing, but nobody wants to stand there and assemble iPhones or TVs for 30 years.
In China they’re mostly transitional jobs for young people. The manufacturer above went to Germany because of the strength of Germanys apprenticeship program and a better national focus on educational expansion.
We were a part of Obama’s effort to produce those workers, but the federal incentives weren’t enough to overcome the state and local disincentives, and it was really challenging to build the kind of partnerships with industry that we needed because there were a number of other obstacles they were facing that also needed to be dealt with – supply chains, access to markets, etc. They layered on that program incentives to recruit and train vets, which we loved – we have a lot of vets – but that too was slow to get going.
So if anyone wonders why the proliferation of administrators – this is part of the reason. We tried really hard to make this work, and when the government doesn’t just hand you a solution, you need to hire people who have the right experience to make this work – how do we find these students, what exactly does industry need, what specific services do vets need. I mean, if we had everything, we’d have the students, so clearly we don’t have everything. And that all has to get built out before any students arrive, and if the GOP slashes that funding because of the deficit, well, it all falls apart before you really had a shot at making it work.
Matt McIrvin
@sab: We didn’t go to pop/rock concerts much until just the past couple of years, when my spouse decided it’d be fun to see much more live music, and it’s been great… but 2020 killed all our plans. We had so many awesome concerts lined up. Don’t know when it’ll be reasonable to do that again, if ever.
pamelabrown53
@zhena gogolia:
Down trodden, things always sucked and always will? Is that better? Like I said, I’m keeping an open mind and not being facetious.
opiejeanne
@Baud: Thank you for posting that. My husband has been worried about that ship being there, thinking it was the run-up to Trump trying to start shit with Iran in the next 19 days.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
OK, they have a lot of brands didn’t know that not one of them would be located in WV.
Does your wife’s doctor have any info? I’d imagine that they might be the first to know about it.
I’m on a list with the VA to be kept updated on vaccine news, like when they will be vaccinating. They have started with actual healthcare providers, the hospitals are getting first supplies, clinics will very likely be down the list. They tell us that if we get health care at the VA they will contact us individually when it’s our turn, to set appointments, if we want the vaccine, unless like me, as I’ve stated that I will be vaccinated.
Martin
@raven: Its funny, I’ve never actually attended the parade, even though it’d be trivial for me to. Ms Martin grew up a few miles from the parade route and volunteering to decorate a float was a regular winter break activity for her.
I get up and watch it on KTLA or HGTV like everyone else.
The floats take months to take apart. The smell is reportedly apocalyptically bad as all of the flower and fruit and such rots in 100 degree warehouses. They shovel up the rotting stuff, disassemble the floats with propane torches and saws, and dispose/recycle/store it all. And then they start designing and building the next years.
The float designs get approved in Feb, they get sponsors sorted by May when they start construction. Flowers start getting added around Dec 15 or so – the dried stuff that gets glued on, etc. the fancy stuff gets put in a little flower vial with water and is done just a day or two ahead.
They do have some volunteers to remove the flowers, but not enough of them. I understand they sometimes hide money in the float for the folks who dismantle them to find.
raven
@Martin: We moved to LA in 57 and no one in my family had ever been. My mom and my father-in-law always regretted it and that was the reason my bride insisted. I’m glad she did
We actually went to Pasadena three days in a row. The day before to scout it out, the game and then met with friends and family for lunch the day after. I scored some great prices on UGA gear that day.
zhena gogolia
@pamelabrown53: That’s not the message I get from Russian literature!
Steve in the ATL
@Miki:
Keith Richards says hello!
NotMax
@Enhanced Voting Techniques
Quasi-obligatory.
:)
Ruckus
@Martin:
Back a few decades we always kept 2 apprentices (in actual apprenticeship programs) in our small shop because that was the only way to get people into machine shop work. All the schools were focusing (and not real well, but still) on other than physical jobs. And that’s over 50 yrs ago. This is not a new thing at all. The younger guys I work with (OK that’s everyone else….) have the bare minimum of knowledge in math and especially in trig, stuff I learned as a kid and which we use every day. They get spooked by my $10 Casio calculator, which has trig functions. They are not in any way stupid, they can learn and do very well when shown a way to do something, but they don’t have the basic approach concepts. Even when I was in HS, the shops had stopped actually teaching any of the physical trades, other than auto shop. And even there it was at least a decade out of date. And I graduated in the mid 60s. This has hurt this country a lot, in that we don’t have the basic skills to do the work, these have to be taught. I’m a decent machinist, I can work to millionths tolerances but I learned none of that in school and even our apprentices never saw all that they should have in the school setting. BTW we taught a man with a 4th grade education – he had to leave school to work to help support his mom – we taught him trig in 2 months of when we could spare the time. He wasn’t dumb, just not educated. I’ve met far more people that could have had great jobs but didn’t because they never got a proper education that showed them their strengths, only that they should be paper pushers.
cope
“Twilight Zone” marathon on SYFY for anybody who’s interested.
Another Scott
@Martin: Thanks for that and for your perspective on training and education. It’s very valuable and appreciated. You obviously bring a lot to the table.
I’ve gotta give a counterpoint, though.
Back in the ’50s-’60s, giant industries in the US ran their own in-house education programs. GMI is but one example. It’s long gone. Why is that?
Why don’t masses people want to go to trade school and work on Apple’s assembly lines in the USA? Because Apple doesn’t really want American workers at its (non-existent) US factories. Their actions say as much. Where’s Apple Institute, churning out the tens of thousands of trained workers they say they need? They’ve got no interest in training people themselves, for whatever reason (don’t want to pay enough, don’t want to risk that they’ll leave (since their anti-poaching agreements were thrown out), etc.).
“Money talks.”
Apple is a giant global corporation and follows the <a href=”https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition”>Rules of Acquisition</a>, like they all do if they’re able.
If giant American companies really need more American engineers, they’ll pay for them. They’ll poach from other companies; they’ll pay HS graduates to come work for them and pay them to get trained as engineers; they’ll relocate/expand to places that have property taxes high enough to support public education (rather than run abroad, and demand to have H1Bs for a few spots at headquarters in the US) to help the rest of the community. Etc.
I have a distinct memory that a while ago you were telling us that Apple couldn’t build iPhones in the US because all of the other feeder suppliers were long gone overseas (if they were ever in the USA). And that’s why China was a powerhouse now – all their (relatively) small suppliers were down the street. Now it’s because there aren’t enough US engineers? (Of course, there’s some truth to both, but it’s not the whole truth – not by a long shot, IMHO.)
Kids going to school and thinking about where they hope/want to work when they graduate aren’t stupid. They look at how much school costs (even in just opportunity costs, if their tuition is free) and want to have a decent chance at a secure future. Apple could have people beating down the doors if they looked more than 6 months ahead, if they really want to have more Americans, especially over the long term…
To be clear: I’m a STEM person and have been for decades. I, too, have seen how STEM graduate programs are dominated by non-Americans. But I also have seen STEM graduates who have been on perpetual post-docs, or adjuncts, or left STEM positions for patent law or other types of law. There is no evidence for a “shortage” of young STEM people in the US. I remember in the mid-80s when there was a genuine shortage of electrical engineers. Masters graduates were hopping jobs every 2-3 years for big raises and bonuses. The market is nothing like that now… Again, money talks. Big companies, and the government, both need to invest more in the USA. And the Rules of Acquisition need to be reined in…
tl;dr – China will always have more engineers – they have a much larger population and are rich enough now to support a rapidly growing, modern economy to keep them employed. Apple (and others) are wanting others to do their work for them (and keep their taxes and regulations low, also too).
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“What? Me cynical??”)
Another Scott
@NotMax: Zooks!
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
@Ruckus: Yeah, our engineering school has been trying to expand their machine shop. They have a few million in in-kind gifts, but can’t get either the space to house it or the budget to staff it because as you know if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll get featured in one of those equipment safety videos where someone saws all their fingers off.
Students fill every seat in the machining classes, so it’s not a lack of demand. They could probably train up 200 or more starting machinists a year.
Ruckus
@Martin:
Yep. A lot of the guys like me are/have aged out of the business and there will be a shortage of people who can actually make stuff in this country. We don’t make a lot of furniture, clothes, household appliances, electronic doodads, etc any more because without workers and without a major guarantied ROI, people won’t invest in them. I really don’t get how we survive selling each other insurance, and by considering that wall street is the only way to make money. An economy is made by making and selling things people want to purchase, money is made by trading money and monetary positions among those who have money. And those bastards are ruining it for the rest of us. Did we learn nothing from 1929? You don’t have to answer that, obviously.
Martin
@Another Scott:
No, it is both, and more. Other factors are infrastructure and speed of development. So, how quickly can you export your goods. The US isn’t great at this. China invests pretty heavily in ports and cargo airports, shipments to the US clear customs in China, so they aren’t delayed as they hit the distribution efforts.
And speed of development related to how long it takes to get things built in the US. That maybe a little bit of paperwork, but more the US obsession with efficiency of capital which means you never build anything sooner than you need it which makes everything take ages, like road work.
Yes, Apple can pay for training, and they do. But nobody was providing the equivalent of 2 year degrees worth of training. And that’s what we’re talking about here. It’s not the million assemblers they’re talking about, it’s the 10s of thousands of engineers, which is more than the entire state of California turns out from nearly 200 colleges and universities.
We were approached by Boeing to provide additive manufacturing training for 30,000 of their employees, and the scale of the program would have been overwhelming. And that was vastly less than a 2 year degree, and it was just supplemental training for people who already had engineering degrees, so no issues with attrition, etc.
The problem with your description of ‘young STEM’ people is overly broad. Engineering is very narrow. You typically can’t hire an electrical engineer to do mechanical engineering work. Engineers aren’t very fungible. And if you need industrial engineers, which are critical to manufacturing, most engineering schools don’t even offer industrial engineering programs, and the ones they do have tend to be pretty small.
There’s about 300K industrial engineers in the US. Apple needs ⅓ of them. You can’t hire ⅓ of the national workforce. You can’t relocate ⅓ of the national workforce. We could increase our output of degrees, but there’s some institutional problems there. You see, I can create seats for non-Americans, but I can’t create seats for California residents because every resident must have a state subsidy, and the state doesn’t want to pay for more. So our ability to grow (even if Apple were paying) is constrained by the states willingness for us to grow. So Saudi Arabia pays us a lot to train their workers, but Apple can’t pay us to train workers for them, unless the workers are on a visa. So it’s not even a cash problem in the end. It’s a much bigger structural problem.
I mean, these students pay for themselves in tax revenue, yet we demand to austerity our way to prosperity.
But I focused on labor because the original comment was focused on labor.
lowtechcyclist
My wife and I are staying home. But I dropped the 13 year old off at his first NYE party ever. And in the age of Covid, too.
It helps that we know the couple hosting it very well; we’ve known each other since our son and their twins were 2. And it’s going to be just their kids and maybe 3-4 others besides our son. Other than the bf of one of the twins, we know the other kids pretty well too, and they’re all pretty much part of our friends’ bubble. So I think it’s unlikely that the kiddo will bring home any nasty spiked virus home with him. But we’re still a bit apprehensive.
But this is the first time in two months that the kiddo will see any of his friends face to face, and before that time it had been even longer. He’s been a really good sport about it, so it was hard to say no. And it’s a lot lonelier of a feeling when your friends are getting together and you’re not, than when nobody’s getting together at all. It may be nearly five decades since I was a teenager, but I remember.
So if it weren’t for the damned coronavirus, I’d be quite happy to see him go out and spend the evening with friends. But there it is, and it’s hard not to be nervous. All we can do, I guess, is quarantine for the next couple of weeks just in case, and keep an eagle eye out for any symptoms.
The Pale Scot
I should have shared this earlier. I have inadvertently created a very austere version of the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, at least in its effectiveness.
Ketal One Vodka
Organic unsweetened cranberry juice.
A dry lime seltzer, I’m using Publix Greenwise brand
Doesn’t have the panoply of ingredients of the original, but it can be made in Earth’s atmosphere, which is impossible with the original because some ingredients are explode in the presence of Oxygen.
Christmas Eve I started off watching Luciano Pavarotti at Notre-Dame, Montréal, a few hours later I was watching Gogol Bordello, I had more than two, less than eight, it’s all a bit foggy.
Best I can figure the extremely tart cranberry juice hides the taste of the vodka, and is complemented by the lime flavor. This is why one should shot glasses or measuring spoons instead of taste testing. There’s enough seltzer bubbles to tickle the pyloric sphincter and let it all gush into the small intestine. Lots of room for mods. Be careful! Use measures.
HNY!
Skepticat
There’s a yellow-crowned night heron who likes to come right up by the deck and let out its incredible loud, raucous, and almost frightening squawk. It’s extremely startling, and the cats freak.
I’m told an optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. A friend reminded me of the Irish tradition of opening all the doors at midnight on New Year’s Eve to let the old year out and to welcome the new year in. I’ll be sound asleep but sleep with all the doors wide open; I hope the years figure it out without my help. And that it’s too windy for heron.
Here’s my great fear—that 2021 is about to say to 2020, “Here, hold my beer.”