Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Usually wrong but never in doubt

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Not all heroes wear capes.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wee Hours Open Thread

Wee Hours Open Thread

by | 108 Comments

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Some good news: Lady Gaga’s stolen Frenchies were returned unharmed, and it sounds like her dog walker, who was shot by the criminals who took the dogs, is going to be okay.

There’s a lot going on in the world, much of it terrible, so a happy ending is a welcome thing.

I became a Gaga fan in 2008 or so when I accompanied my then 11-year-old to a Gaga concert. I did not want to go. I had stopped going to big concerts many years before because every time I went to a large-venue show, something terrible happened, such as a stranger vomiting in my purse or getting caught up in a brawl, etc.

But the kiddo was a huge fan and desperate to attend when The Monster Ball tour came to town, so I said I would go too because there was no fucking way I was letting an 11-year-old go alone or with other unaccompanied 11-year-olds.

Anyhoo, we arrived at the venue, the kiddo buzzing with excitement and me trying not to be an old grouch about being obligated to leave the comfort of my tiki bar and join a boisterous crowd of strangers, which is one of the things I most despise in life.

But even going in with that rotten attitude, I was quickly won over because damn, what a show Lady Gaga puts on! It was nothing like the concerts of my youth, which typically featured scruffy, sneering bandmates slouching onto a stage to blast high-volume music at the audience for a couple of hours and then slouch backstage to do drugs. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

No, this Gaga concert was like a Broadway production! There were highly elaborate and changing sets and lighting! There were scads of dancers! There was a flaming grand piano that rose from under the stage! There was Gaga hoist on cables and flying through the air! I mean, damn!

So, I’ve been a huge Gaga fan ever since. Glad her pups are home.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I read about the dogs being returned early in the morning. Very happy. That could have been so tragic.

  2. 2.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I never even saw Lady Gaga until she sang at the Inauguration last month. The minute she walked out — to say nothing of the minute she opened her mouth to sing — I totally got what a great showman she is. And great chops!

    I’m glad her pups are okay, and back with her.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    I didn’t click, but curious if the article is douchy.

    How Marty Baron and Jeff Bezos Remade The Washington Post

    NYT > Top Stories / by Marc Tracy / 8min

    The celebrated editor is ending his tenure at the helm of a very different newspaper than the one he originally signed on to run.

  5. 5.

    yellowdog

    Have you read the recent stories about the relationship between her and Tony Bennett? Despite the fact that he has dementia, they are recording a second album together. She seems to really care for him. There is a documentary coming out. Two very good people.

  7. 7.

    Geminid

    I thought Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl show was pretty good. I’ve forgotten the game, but her performance still stands out.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    There’s a bass tournament in town today — $1,000 to the angler who catches the largest bass! So, it’s entirely possible I will encounter what could be called “traffic” when I make my grocery run later this morning.

    @Baud: AL must have gone back in and changed the publish time on her post. Sometimes people do, for whatever reason.

  11. 11.

    Salty Sam

    so I said I would go too because there was no fucking way I was letting an 11-year-old go alone

    Hah!  I got caught in the same situation with my eldest boy, and found myself completely unprepared for an Insane Clown Posse show.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, though I didn’t care for the Faygo soda shower.

    Yes, I am a 67 year old Juggalo.

    ETA- as of today that is- today’s my birthday.

  14. 14.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Lake Orange (the Virginia Lake Orange) has a yearly carp tournament. Probably does not attract as much traffic as the bass tournament near you. Carp fishing is a big sport in Europe, and Romania’s Lake Sarulesti is considered “the carp angler’s Everest.” Tournaments there might cause traffic jams.

  18. 18.

    Juju

    That’s good news about Lady Gaga’s dog walker and her dogs. I am also relieved to hear that I’m not the only person who is vomit weary of going to large concerts. I’ve been to four live large concerts in my life and three of them have involved someone barfing on my shoes, pants or arm. I’ve taken that as a sign that I should avoid those sorts of events, even though most of the concerts were actually good otherwise.  Someone barfing on you can really suck the fun out of things.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    The early bird gets the wildly- (and justifiably) coveted second rather than the no-longer-as-prestigious frist.

  21. 21.

    Kayla Rudbek

    To repeat from last night: I had the biopsy on Tuesday afternoon, no results or communication from the doctors as of yet.  Not sure if that’s good or bad.

  23. 23.

    Mary G

    Biden and Gaga have been buddies a while. She was active in trying to get th VAWA beefed up, and they hooked up to work on that. They did a PSA in 2017 and he showed up and introduced her at an award show when she and a group of women who had escaped DV sang with just her piano accompanying. It was the first time I realized she could actually sing.

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    @Juju: There always used to be vomiting back in the day! I tried to tell Kiddo that!

    My concert barf incident occurred at one of those giant “rock super bowl” events in the late 80s. I was in the restroom washing my hands, my purse parked on the side of the sink. A drunk lady staggered up, grabbed my purse, vomited into it, handed it back to me and reeled away in a daze. It all happened in the space of 5 seconds, and I was so stunned I didn’t even remonstrate!

    I dumped the mess in the sink, ran the water to clean it up enough to fish my keys out and threw the purse in the trash. Luckily my ID, $$ and weed were hidden on my person, so I didn’t loose anything essential, save for my faith in humanity…

  29. 29.

    MattF

    Gaga is the genuine article. Personality + pipes to match.

    ETA: And I can never recall her ‘real’ name. I suppose it doesn’t matter.

  30. 30.

    Mousebumples

    I’ve seen Quuen + Adam Lambert in concert twice now, and they also put on an amazing show with lights and effects and props. If you like that kind of music, I recommend that show.

    Others I’ve been to have been less impressive. Hell, i took a friend with me and my then – fiance to see Queen in Vegas a few years ago. He figured the concert would be boring and just them singing. He was impressed by the show.

    Glad Gaga”s dogs are back and that the dog walker is recovering!

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    @Salty Sam: I had never heard of Juggalos until I read John Sandford’s Gathering Prey. Some of the action takes place at two Juggalo gatherings, one in Wisconsin and one in the Michigan U.P. At one of them, Juggalos save the life of the detective/protagonist’s daughter.

    Happy Birthday!

  33. 33.

    Carolina Dave

    @Betty Cracker:  Oh Betty, thanks for a happy story about stolen dogs an a great laugh to start my weekend.
    If you didn’t get my birthday present to you in a previous thread, it is don’t watch The Stand. You’re welcome.

    Also Gaga for Gaga

  35. 35.

    John S.

    @MattF: She’s also not too shabby as an actor. When she first came on the scene, I just assumed she was another manufactured pop star. Boy was I wrong.

    People often compare her to Madonna, but she’s WAY more talented. She’s more like Barbra Streisand.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Militia groups involved in the 6 January insurrection want to stage another attack around Joe Biden’s upcoming address to Congress, aiming to “blow up” the complex and kill lawmakers, the acting chief of the US Capitol police has warned.

    In alarming testimony to a House subcommittee, Yogananda Pittman said that threats were circulating that directly targeted the president’s first formal speech to a joint session of Congress. A date for the event has not yet been announced.

    “We know that members of the militia groups that were present on January 6 have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible,” Pittman said.

    The police chief’s warning was made in the context of her trying to justify to Congress why exceptional security measures put in place in the wake of the 6 January assault needed to remain until alternatives could be devised. A large area around the Capitol is still surrounded by a 7ft non-scalable fence, and thousands of national guard members continue to be deployed.

    “Based on that information, we think that it’s prudent that Capitol police maintain its enhanced and robust security posture until we address those vulnerabilities going forward,” she said.

    But but but antifa.

  38. 38.

    Booger

    @Geminid: “The carp angler’s Everest.” That sentence, I don’t even…

    It’s like Randall Munro’s “football stadium filled to the brim with ants”

  42. 42.

    Booger

    @Salty Sam: LOL let me tell you about taking my early teen son, a couple of his cousins and some friends to the “Up in Smoke” tour in Baltimore. Early high point: Treating them all to a great Charm City seafood dinner at a hole in the wall…which was actually attached to a strip club, unbeknownst to their chaperone/chauffeur. So that was fun.

  43. 43.

    MomSense

    @Salty Sam:

    Happy birthday!

    My friend just got a new puppy and it is the cutest puppy I’ve ever seen.  She’s a little corgi named sweet potato.

  45. 45.

    Juju

    @Betty Cracker:  Ewwww yuck. That probably would have been my last concert. At least you were in a place where you could rinse your keys off. I’m curious, was it a Jimmy Buffet concert? That was where my last concert barf incident took place.

  48. 48.

    Nicole

    @Betty Cracker:

    I concur with Carolina Dave’s opinion of the remake of The Stand.

    Thanks for sharing the good news about the French Bulldogs returning home.  In an attempt to link both of these topics, Stephen King adaptations and dogs, I offer up this delightful tidbit about the St. Bernards used in Cujo (which my husband and I watched on Valentine’s Day because we’re romantic like that):

    Despite the terror that unfolds on screen, the dogs themselves were useless at being scary; they had to have their tails tied down during filming to stop them from wagging happily (a notable gaffe shows this during one scene). And a Rottweiler had to stand in for numerous scenes because wranglers simply couldn’t get the Saint Bernards to look anything other than happy to be there.

    https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/the-real-dogs-behind-10-iconic-canine-roles/

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    Will admit that earlier today when saw in a thread a passing reference to Frenchies being stolen I assumed it meant some sort of lingerie.

    ;)

  52. 52.

    Juju

    @raven: where are you in the crowd shot?
    I think I’ve read in some of your comments that you lived in Champaign IL. This might mean something to you. When I was a child I lived in Windsor Park and went to the Savoy school.

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    @Juju: I think it was a bunch of different bands, including the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd?

    I also got in a fight at a Cyndi Lauper concert in Gainesville! My friend accidentally spilled a drink over a stairway railing, and this big oaf below climbed up to the landing and drew back his fist to punch her, so I threw my entire drink in his face, and he punched me instead. Then, my sister (who was dressed as Cyndi Lauper, with long gloves and a feather boa, etc.) jumped on his back and started punching his head, and he was spinning around while she was pummeling him and our friend was trying to kick him in the balls. The cops had to break up the melee, and they arrested the guy.

  55. 55.

    Nicole

    @WereBear: I also read that one of the St. Bernards bit the tip of Jean Counter’s (the stunt woman), nose off during a scene, but she blamed herself (and production for filming the scene for so long that the dog, Cubby, was too worked up).  The dog was leaping at her in the car (they got him to do this by tying his favorite toy around her neck) and the director yelled, “Cut!  We got it!” and the stunt woman, without thinking, leaned forward excitedly and the dog was still excited, and oops (she was okay; doctors reattached what the dog bit off).

  59. 59.

    Betty Cracker

    @Nicole: That’s too funny about the waggy tails! My sister had a Saint, and he was 180 pounds of sweetness. The only danger he posed was the possibility of squashing you on the couch when he decided he was a lapdog. We used to take him for walks around the neighborhood with a shovel and bag for the enormous droppings!

  68. 68.

    geg6

    @Juju:

    You and Betty are very unlucky!  I’ve been to, easily, a hundred concerts (probably more but I never counted).  They’ve ranged from metal bands to Steely Dan to Backstreet Boys with my niece.  I’ve never had anything like that happen except once.  I used to work for the big country radio station in Pittsburgh and got free tickets or sometimes take clients to country concerts.  It was at a Dwight Yoakum concert with clients who drank waaaaaaaaaay too much and who puked all over the VIP tent.  That was the last country concert I ever went to.  The whole crowd seemed to be like my clients: drunken assholes.  Country concerts were always my worst experiences.

  71. 71.

    Nicole

    @Kayla Rudbek: They may not get the results until Monday.   But I’m sorry; I am sure the uncertainty of not knowing is putting stress on your entire weekend.  Keep us posted, please?

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    @Juju: Good times! That might have been the incident that made me swear off concerts until I was a parent and compelled to act the chaperone. But it might have been something else — honest to dog, I should write a concert disaster memoir. There have been so many.

  76. 76.

    Matt McIrvin

    The biggest BIG CONCERT I’ve been to was Muse’s tour in 2019, at TD Garden in Boston. It was a great, hilariously over-the-top show crammed with this purple neon 1980s-retrofuturist aesthetic–dancers with light-up costumes, smoke and lasers, a ginormous inflatable cyborg skeleton-monster looming over the stage. Tremendous fun and LOUD.

  78. 78.

    bjacques

    @Betty Cracker: bwahahaha! Some movie industry lurker is gonna steal that.

     

    I got barfed on exactly once, coming out of a concert by UFO (supported by Judas Priest), February 1978, Houston Music Hall. It was more of a solid burp from someone behind me, a mild mannered little guy. It was my second concert ever, so maybe a sort of vom vax.

     

    EDIT: Lady GaGa us a dear. Somewhere on YouTube is her original version of Poker Face, in a talent show—just her and a piano. Instant respect.

  79. 79.

    Juju

    @Betty Cracker: you should, and with the illustrations to go with the story.  I was 15 when I went to my first concert, which was my first concert barf incident. I went with a 15 year old friend.  Her mother dropped us off at the concert venue and my dad picked us up.  At the time it never occurred to me that a parent should have been with us at the concert.  I guess parents in the late 70’s weren’t as careful as they are now.

  85. 85.

    MomSense

    @Nicole:

    My childhood dog was a St Bernard German Shepherd mix.  He looked like a jowelly Shepherd but he was the size of a St Bernard.  He was the best dog.  He would pull all of the neighborhood kids around our yard on a toboggan and play soccer with us.

  86. 86.

    Quiltingfool

    In my younger days, I went to a lot of concerts – and very lucky not to experience vomit.  I liked to people watch before the shows started.  At one concert (in the old Municipal Building in KC) I noticed a very disheveled man sing-songing the word “opium”.  Of course I stared at him!  Well, he noticed, and then very nicely asked me if I wanted to buy some opium; I politely declined and he wandered off, singing his opium song.  Heh.

    I noticed, too, that crowd activity mirrored band activity.  The more frenetic the stage, the audience followed.  The opposite was true, too.  I went to a Pink Floyd concert, and those guys just stood in one place, playing their music.  No jumping around, nothing.  They acted like they were in a studio, recording.  The audience didn’t move a muscle the whole evening, just sat quietly.  Then again, I’m thinking everyone was stoned to the gills, joints were passed around to everybody.

  87. 87.

    raven

    @Juju: Heck yes, small world. In the crowd shot I have a headband and am nest to my two buddies with big JewFro’s! I’d only been home for a couple of months so my hair was still short,

  88. 88.

    Suzanne

    I love Gaga. I have heard some criticism of her for paying tho get them back, on the logic that it encourages others to steal dogs. But I can’t fault her for that; if I had the money, I would, too.

  89. 89.

    raven

    @Suzanne: My SIL had a dog stolen in Columbus, Ohio and she payed the ransom and got the dog back. Someone tried that shit with me and “somebody’s goin to emergency. . . “

  90. 90.

    cope

    @raven: That you in the upper left quadrant to the viewer’s left of the two fros? I too was at U. of I. as a geology grad student from ’72 to ’75 and continued living there off and on until about ’77. I worked at Barnett’s when my assistantship and income ran out.

    Edited to add a happy natal day to Salty Sam, a fingers crossed for Kayla and a thanks to Betty for a happy ending.  Makes up for our new fridge being 1/2 inch too big to get into our kitchen yesterday.

  91. 91.

    TheQuietOne

    1. When will Betty be declared a national treasure?

    3. Santana, in the pouring rain. Fine concert, Santana after all. Time to go when I discover I’d lost my car keys. We’d covered a lot of ground so lost cause finding them. My wife had hers so off we go.

    I went back the next morning sort of remembering where we’d parked in Swope Park. Walked from that spot toward Starlight theater and within 30 steps saw my keys in the still wet grass…remarkably.

  92. 92.

    Nancy

    Happy Birthday to the Pisceans of whom I am one. My birthday was Thursday and if age brings wisdom, then I might be pretty wise.

    I enjoy Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, and I was impressed by her inauguration performance of that song with the worst tune ever. She made it work and she sounded great as well.

    I enjoy the idea of Lady Gaga because as an elementary school counselor I saw how she was able to empower her young fans. Some of the children saw possibility for themselves in her presentation of herself. I am less enthralled by the theater aspect of live performance and video but it worked for the kids I used to support.

    Took our son to see Bare Naked Ladies back when they were a big deal. I enjoyed watching him and his friends and the show was OK.

    My last concert was the Allman Brothers just before they ended their run. The sound wasn’t as good as the sound in our living room. My friends sneered when I said that, but we have a really good set up while the outdoor venue had a problem with static. Makes me wonder just how good the concerts of the good old days truly were. My appreciation may have been enhanced by certain factors that members of my peer group can probably recall. Do you remember when the smoke was so thick in the upper regions of an arena that we didn’t need to inhale?

  93. 93.

    laura

    Hang in there Kayla Rudbek!! The waiting IS the hardest part.

    I miss live music almost more than any/everything else from life before Covid. So many shows – huge crowds to small shows, indoors and outdoors. The Roadie Brothers and Roadie cousin Tom want to go back to work and back out on the road. Very first concert was Boz Scaggs un 1974 and the last show was X in December 2019. I’ve gotten into a drinks throwing face punching girl fight fight at the Warfield and had a monstrously large loogie land on my arm launched from the upper section of the Oakland Coliseum at a Monsters of Rock. I’ve been yelled at by Bill Graham to get my goddamn feet off the goddamn seat and enjoyed many a show from the wings or backstage. Kept every ticket from every show and still have a John Prine flyswatter. The very first thing I do at any venue is plan for an escape. I want to know where all the exits are and I size up the crowd and security and make a plan to bounce. The bigger the crowd, the closer I move towards the exit. So much good music still waiting to be enjoyed some day, hopefully soon.

  95. 95.

    dr. luba

    I was a punk in my youth.  The “concerts” I went were shows in clubs (or other small venues). I  saw the Clash at the Motor City Roller Rink (loved the lockers you could leave your stuff in!), the Pretenders at Detroit Symphony Hall (while it was still being redone–there may have been pigeons in the venue), and the Pogues in a tent in a muddy field in a London park.  I’ve seen Billy Bragg perform several times, once at the Majestic Theater in Detroit–the “least aptly named venue in the Western world” according to him.

    I’ve only ever been to three arena concerts–David Bowie (twice 1980s) and Bruce Springsteen (2000s).  All great shows, but I had an aisle seat for the Springsteen show and during the ENTIRE concert there were people going to and from the concessions stand.  Concessions!  At a concert!

  96. 96.

    Miss Bianca

    @dr. luba: You were/are a Detroiter? *waves*

    First rock concert ever was Van Halen and Sweet (or “The” Sweet, whichever you prefer) at Masonic Temple in 1978. I was 14. Ah, the memories…Masonic Temple was also where I would see the Metropolitan Opera, which did a tour to the provinces every year back in Tha Day. We had a rich family friend who would give us tickets. So I saw my first opera there, “Aida”, as well. Good times!

  100. 100.

    Nutmeg again

    Hah!  For me, it was Franz Ferdinand with openers Death Cab for Cutie.  The Ferdinandoes were excellent (I’m a sucker for any power pop, although I could pass on screaming teens). The Death Cabs were just awful, and more than that, had a set that was uncannily like the Stonehenge set from Spinal Tap. Hilarious!  I hadn’t been to an arena show, even a smaller (college sized) one for a long time, and was amazed at cleanliness, bathrooms, hot dogs and etc.  I had been used to small, dark, scuzzy clubs where your feet stick to the floor and you often need a tetanus shot to visit the toilet. So, I did what any rational parent would do, I started bringing my under-18 to those clubs (for the good music!) pretty quick.

  101. 101.

    J R in WV

    I quite agree about Gaga, she is a huge talent, creative, great musical ability, and fun to see perform.

    IIRC she attended NYUs famed music school majoring in Broadway musical skills, and it shows. I think when she had trouble getting past auditions for actual B’way shows, she decided to be creative and become a crazed rock star. The rest is musical history.

    At this point in her career she can let up on the crazed rock star schtick and concentrate on being a great musician, pianist and singer, as opposed to competing with Ozzy Osbourne or the Jugaloes for most crazed rack persona. Or not, up to her, she obviously knows what she’s doing.

    And no wonder her shows have a Broadway feel, that was her goal from the beginning of her musical career, like so many kids in NYC. Flaming piano, flying superstar, gotta get to one of those shows after the Trump Plague is conquered.

  102. 102.

    J R in WV

    Aaena shows… Greatful Dead(4), Pink Floyd(2), blues a whole lot, Dr. John, Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Procul Harem, Janis Joplin(3), ok, all of those weren’t arena shows, some were inside big halls. Tina Turner, ZZ Top, Bob Weir at the Beacon Theater, Santana, Joe Cocker, Los Lobos. ETA Buddy Guy, BB King, Pinetop Perkins…

    But I’m obviously old and got a very early start. I’m leaving out jazz shows, classical shows, Broadway shows… we are eclectic in our musical tastes. One of the better shows was a big Mariachi band in a big fancy Tucson restaurant. Wife and I were seated right beside the stage, and they asked if we had a request. I don’t know the names of famous Mexican songs, so I asked them to do a tragic love song from the border. OMG, the violinist put his fiddle under his arm and sang the greatest love song in history straight at my wife, was a great moment in performance! What a night!

  103. 103.

    J R in WV

    @Juju:

    Someone barfing on you can really suck the fun out of things.

    No kidding. I must be really lucky, I have seen really inebriated drunken people at great concerts, but the only place I have experienced extreme public vomiting was on the streets of the French Quarter on Mardi Gras evening. This was in the V early 1970s, and the gutters were awash in puke. You had to watch your step lest you fall in it.

    Almost ruined the music for me… Not really anxious to attend Mardi Gras any more, either. It’s really more a morning early afternoon party with the floats and parading music. After dark is more for the drunks.

  104. 104.

    burnspbesq

    Bought tickets for a concert the other day. Keb Mo at the Austin Paramount in October. Hopefully it will be safe by then.

    Supposedly our tickets for last August’s postponed Jason Isbell concert at ACL Live will be good for this August’s rescheduled show, but I’ll be damned if I know where they are, and August might be too soon.

    Gaga is not my taste, but she has a fabulous instrument. Her teachers at NYU did well.

  105. 105.

    Geminid

    I saw Asleep at the Wheel at a free concert in (I think) 1971, in DC at the Washington Memorial. They were really good. They were based in Paw Paw, West Virginia at the time, and played western swing around the middle Atlantic area, with modest success. A few years later, they wisely moved to Texas, and from what I hear did well

    I think the concert artist I enjoyed the most was Flora Purim. A wonderful singer.

  108. 108.

    Xenos

    Biggest concert I ever went to was Van Halen at the Worcester Centrum back in ‘83.  I did not much like them, so it was awful (buddies were passionate fans, so it sounded like fun).  Sat all the way now the back and still suffered permanent hearing damage.

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