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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by John Cole|  April 12, 202110:49 pm| 101 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Not sure where everyone is, but I am sitting here watching Gamorrah, and it is fabulous. If you liked the Sopranos, watch this.

Had something odd happen over the weekend. Woke up Friday morning, and the crown on upper left molar was missing. It was there the night before. Never found it, so I guess I ate the damned thing. Fortunately, I had my first cleaning since the pandemic started scheduled for Wednesday, so I am gonna do a twofer.

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Previous Post: « Please Stop Calling Them Conservatives
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Reader Interactions

101Comments

  1. 1.

    cain

    April 12, 2021 at 10:52 pm

    The posts in a row by John.. unprecedented.​
     

    ETA – hrmph. I’d thought someone would have beaten me to #1.. but I suppose I can do another post to get #2!

  2. 2.

    opiejeanne

    April 12, 2021 at 10:53 pm

    About to catch up with a wild game between the Twins and the Angels. I love having a DVR and being able to record it and watch it a little later.

  3. 3.

    opiejeanne

    April 12, 2021 at 10:54 pm

    @cain: Nope, I got the #2 spot but I’d gladly trade you.

  4. 4.

    cain

    April 12, 2021 at 10:54 pm

    Anyways, what kind of show is this? It sounds like some kind of show on veneral disesases. I’m not sure what the attraction is.

    What is a good cooking show? I saw one with cannabis that was pretty funny some weeks ago.

    ETA curses! Denied #2!

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    April 12, 2021 at 10:55 pm

    @opiejeanne: Once you buy a prize it’s your’s to keep. No trades, no substitutions, no additions, no deletions.

  6. 6.

    opiejeanne

    April 12, 2021 at 10:55 pm

    John Cole, You woke up with a missing crown? Don’t worry, it will come out in the end.

    I’ll see myself out.

  7. 7.

    opiejeanne

    April 12, 2021 at 10:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: It was worth every penny I paid.

  8. 8.

    opiejeanne

    April 12, 2021 at 10:59 pm

    @cain: I’ve seen some interesting stuff on YouTube recently.

  9. 9.

    Spanky

    April 12, 2021 at 10:59 pm

    It wouldn’t surprise me if swallowing a crown in your sleep was just as easy as swallowing spiders and other bugs without waking up.

    But the question is, why did it come off? Do you grind your teeth in your sleep? Ask the dentist if that’s something you should take care of.

  10. 10.

    MC

    April 12, 2021 at 11:03 pm

    Has anyone else noticed the deafening silence from the MSM on the anti-transgender legislation that republicans are pushing all over the country?

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 12, 2021 at 11:05 pm

    @opiejeanne:
    I thought the Twins’ game was cancelled because of the curfew in Mnpls-StPaul area. One of the networks earlier said that all Twin Cities major sports were cancelled or postponed.

  12. 12.

    Mike in NC

    April 12, 2021 at 11:05 pm

    Today I drove an hour to see the oral surgeon doing my implant. He wasn’t really happy about the situation with the post he’d installed a couple of months ago. Said there was infected tissue/no bone graft and he either removed or replaced the post, so I need to go back in a week. Jaw hurts like hell but I should be grateful I wasn’t charged a couple thousand dollars for his lousy previous work. This tooth implant will cost me roughly $5000.

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 12, 2021 at 11:07 pm

    where does this “Garmorrah” stream? I can’t find any of these programs the kids are all talking about.

  14. 14.

    Craig

    April 12, 2021 at 11:13 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s on HBO max. Gangster show about the Camorra in Naples. Based on a book and a movie. Watch it in Italian, the English dubbing is unbearable. Solid show.

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 12, 2021 at 11:15 pm

    @Craig: thanks, but my one semester of Italian was thirty years ago

  16. 16.

    Ohio Mom

    April 12, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    The other day I walked through the soda pop aisle in my neighborhood Krogers and noticed that Fresca is back! Thought of you, Cole (I don’t like soda pop, I was taking a short cut to the registers).

    Maintaining one’s teeth can be horribly expensive. Last fall I had $6,000 worth of gum surgery. On the follow-up visit, I told the hygienist I was thinking it might be easier to pull them all and get dentures. She told me she hears that a lot.

  17. 17.

    RobertB

    April 12, 2021 at 11:18 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  Gomorrah.  Gamorrah makes me think of Gamera, that giant turtle kaiju that shoots fire out of its shell when it flies.

  18. 18.

    opiejeanne

    April 12, 2021 at 11:20 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I thought so too, but it’s on now, top of the 9th. I don’t know why it’s running.
    The game started at 7pm, there are only a handful in the stands.

    oh duh! It’s KC vs Anaheim. We play the Twins later this week.

  19. 19.

    opiejeanne

    April 12, 2021 at 11:22 pm

    @RobertB: I was thinking of the green chick in Guardians of the Galaxy.

  20. 20.

    RobertB

    April 12, 2021 at 11:22 pm

    @opiejeanne: I was getting a permanent crown, and the tech told me to be careful about spitting it out after she made her adjustemnts.  I asked her what happens if I swallow it?  She said, “Just bring it back in a couple of days and we’ll try it again.”  Had me believing it for a second, until I saw her face.  That joke never gets old for her.

  21. 21.

    L85NJGT

    April 12, 2021 at 11:25 pm

    Citing years of unpaid land grant matches by the state, a joint committee of the legislature discussed a half-billion-dollar sum owed to Tennessee State University.

    According to legislative financial analysts, the state could owe up to $544,000,000 to the HBCU.

  22. 22.

    cain

    April 12, 2021 at 11:26 pm

    @Ohio Mom: ​
     

    Maintaining one’s teeth can be horribly expensive. Last fall I had $6,000 worth of gum surgery. On the follow-up visit, I told the hygienist I was thinking it might be easier to pull them all and get dentures. She told me she hears that a lot.

    Madame – topo chico – you are welcome. So good.. best sparkling mineral water out there.

  23. 23.

    Ohio Mom

    April 12, 2021 at 11:37 pm

    Cain:
    Oh, I like plain carbonated water. But the sweet, flavored stuff, or worse, the diet brands with that weird after-taste, no.

  24. 24.

    opiejeanne

    April 12, 2021 at 11:39 pm

    @cain: Topo Chico? Did you just call her a little mouse?

    oh, I realized that’s the name of the water.

  25. 25.

    Auntie Anne

    April 12, 2021 at 11:39 pm

    @Mike in NC: I have three implants.  The process wasn’t fun, but I love the results.  I too had an infection after one post was put in, but a week of antibiotics cleared it right up.

  26. 26.

    different-church-lady

    April 12, 2021 at 11:40 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    I’ll see myself out.

    So will the crown.

  27. 27.

    Benw

    April 12, 2021 at 11:43 pm

    I’ve got a general rule for entertainment: I don’t watch it if the kid or the dog dies. So most mob shows are out for me. And I’m ok with that!

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 12, 2021 at 11:44 pm

    @L85NJGT:

    a joint committee of the legislature discussed a half-billion-dollar sum owed to Tennessee State University 

    Collect the money, and then slap them with their own skeletons.

  29. 29.

    Betsy

    April 12, 2021 at 11:45 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Every once in a while Adam comes out with an expression  like this that makes me think he grew up in the 1930s or 40s. Or watched a lot of old Hollywood movies and early TV shows

  30. 30.

    Steeplejack

    April 12, 2021 at 11:45 pm

    @Mike in NC, @Auntie Anne:

    I’m looking at an implant pretty soon. I’ve got a tooth—#20, one of my favorites!—that was diagnosed with the beginning of an abscess last year, and I need to get it taken care of now that the pandemic is easing off. I’ve had one (Pfizer) shot, due to get the second one soon.

  31. 31.

    different-church-lady

    April 12, 2021 at 11:46 pm

    Since teeth are the topic, I guess I’ll share some unfortunate first-hand knowledge I’ve come by.

    I had an already-crowned molar going rather obviously bad, but because of financial difficulties and denial, I put off doing anything about it for over a year.

    Turns out the root was cracked and the tooth needed to be extracted. That part was easy enough, but when they got in there they discovered that the infection had eaten away at the bone badly enough that the only way to do an implant would involve bone grafts.

    Fortunately I can get by without that molar. But it’s a tale to live by: get things like that taken care of promptly, because the consequences become much greater later.

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 12, 2021 at 11:46 pm

    @Betsy: We’re busting outta here, ya see!  Nawh!

  33. 33.

    StringOnAStick

    April 12, 2021 at 11:47 pm

    @Ohio Mom: Get a Waterpik and learn how to use it under the gumline; there will be one tip that is flexible at the end for this purpose called a “pik pocket”. Add a couple of cap fulls of hydrogen peroxide to the water reservoir each time you use it (at least once a day). The germs causing your gym disease hate oxygen so the peroxide helps reduce their population.

    For the rest of you, only floss the ones you want to keep, ignore the ones you don’t.  This is a gross generalization and flossing works 75% of the time because some people have other issues, but if you don’t floss your chances of gum disease by the time you reach your senior years is basically 100%.

  34. 34.

    different-church-lady

    April 12, 2021 at 11:47 pm

    @Steeplejack: Getting to the point where you know your teeth by number is never a good sign.

  35. 35.

    Kelly

    April 12, 2021 at 11:49 pm

    Mrs. Kelly had her first dental appointment since 2019 today. An old crown came off late Friday.She did not swallow it. Our dentist says the glue just fails eventually. Some of the glue held and broke a bit of tooth. He did a bit of resurfacing and glued it back in.

  36. 36.

    Poe Larity

    April 12, 2021 at 11:50 pm

    It’s with the mustard, John.

  37. 37.

    dmsilev

    April 12, 2021 at 11:50 pm

    Today’s bummer news: ArcLight Cinemas is closing, for good. I’m not really a huge movie-goer, but that was definitely the local theater of choice for me.

    Just another pandemic casualty I guess.

  38. 38.

    StringOnAStick

    April 12, 2021 at 11:52 pm

    @different-church-lady: Thanks for sharing your story. Just so folks know, getting a tooth extracted is possibly the cheapest dental intervention there is, and you really don’t want a bone infection from putting it off.  Cheaper than a filling!

  39. 39.

    dexwood

    April 12, 2021 at 11:52 pm

    Did you have heartburn, Cole? Angina dentata?

  40. 40.

    trollhattan

    April 12, 2021 at 11:54 pm

    @RobertB:

    Gamera: the children’s friend!

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 12, 2021 at 11:55 pm

    OT – Hey boys. You like your boners?

    Um: Anchorage public health researchers have identified young, conservative men as especially vaccine hesitant. So they want to highlight erectile dysfunction as a long COVID symptom and created a “PROTECT YOUR ERECTION, GET THE INJECTION” memegotta h/t @MustReadAlaska #AKleg pic.twitter.com/n88X4DdMep— Nat Herz (@Nat_Herz) April 9, 2021

  42. 42.

    Sister Golden Bear

    April 12, 2021 at 11:55 pm

    @cain: Where is John and what have they done to him?!

  43. 43.

    PJ

    April 12, 2021 at 11:55 pm

    What happened to Cole? Two posts in the same day, and consecutively even! What’s next, is he going to start reading this blog?

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    April 12, 2021 at 11:55 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    Just my personal joke from overhearing the dentist and the assistant talking about it.

  45. 45.

    trollhattan

    April 12, 2021 at 11:57 pm

    @StringOnAStick:

    Used to give a free haircut with each extraction. Or was that vice versa?

  46. 46.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 12, 2021 at 11:57 pm

    @different-church-lady: a year or so ago I had some pain in a tooth and knew right away: Dead nerve, root canal, just call for the antibiotics. I don’t know how many root canals I’ve had. Only one was ever really painful. Vicodin was my friend that day.

    @PJ: twitter must be down

  47. 47.

    different-church-lady

    April 12, 2021 at 11:58 pm

    @PJ: , @Sister Golden Bear: The pandemic has changed us in so many ways…

  48. 48.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 12, 2021 at 11:59 pm

    @trollhattan:Used to give a free haircut with each extraction. Or was that vice versa?

    Theodoric of York: Medieval Barber. 

  49. 49.

    different-church-lady

    April 13, 2021 at 12:00 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t know why people are afraid of root canals: they are literally removing the bit that causes the pain.

    Physically afraid. I completely understand why they’re financially afraid…

  50. 50.

    dmsilev

    April 13, 2021 at 12:00 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Pfizer by preference, I assume, given their long history in the boner-protection field?

  51. 51.

    StringOnAStick

    April 13, 2021 at 12:01 am

    @trollhattan: Dentists and barbers used the same chair in the old days, might as well multitask!

  52. 52.

    Sister Golden Bear

    April 13, 2021 at 12:03 am

    @MC:

    Has anyone else noticed the deafening silence from the MSM on the anti-transgender legislation that republicans are pushing all over the country?

    Yes, but I’m trans so I suppose that doesn’t count.

    For those not keeping count, the “bathroom bills” are back again — this time as Arkansas is proposing to let cisgender people sue if they encounter a trans person in a public bathroom — as the Bible humpers attempt to cancel trans people from public life.

    At this point, there’s some many bills being introduced that it’s another day ending in “y.” Which is part of their strategy to wear us down through the sheer number of bills.

    On a happier note, the NCAA — which has had a trans-inclusive policy since 2010 — announced today that it won’t host championships in places that discriminate against transgender athletes.

  53. 53.

    cain

    April 13, 2021 at 12:07 am

    @opiejeanne:
    ??

    Yes – it is really good too. Kind of reminds me of back in the 80s when they started doing Perrier commercials and for the life of me I could not understand why sparkling water would remotely interesting. I mean didn’t we have like club soda already? Of course I was like 17 so..

  54. 54.

    StringOnAStick

    April 13, 2021 at 12:07 am

    @Sister Golden Bear: I was glad to see the NCAA step up on this.

  55. 55.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 13, 2021 at 12:07 am

    @dmsilev: Not sure.  I personally got the Moderna vax.

  56. 56.

    RaflW

    April 13, 2021 at 12:09 am

    Well I had to be in the house before 7 pm this evening, because a 25 year veteran of the Brooklyn Center P.D. (and head of the BCPD union, and a trainer) ‘mixed up’ — per the Star Tribune — her Taser with her Glock and murdered a 20 year old.

    Policing in America is completely fucked up, and maybe even more so in this state. It’s heartbreaking, but there’s also this deep rage coming closer to the surface.

  57. 57.

    Poe Larity

    April 13, 2021 at 12:09 am

    Gamorrah

    If you’ve got Prime, you might try ZeroZeroZero. One-off series decently done.

  58. 58.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 13, 2021 at 12:11 am

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    this time as Arkansas is proposing to let cisgender people sue if they encounter a trans person in a public bathroom 

    Public bathroom, eh?  Who are these Bible bangers gonna sue?  And can’t Bible publishers sue these fuckers so they stop banging their Bibles?

  59. 59.

    NutmegAgain

    April 13, 2021 at 12:12 am

    Gotta chip in and say if you liked the Sopranos, check out ZeroZeroZero.  Much shorter; fewer families–but more geographic coverage, and plenty of episodic criminal violence.  I liked it!

    And a sad note, I learned thru the dog shelter I support that there was a similar-to-Walter but with more shooting situation, and doggo did not make it.  (And this was a Newfie–dogs who are just kindly by nature, like low-key Golden Retrievers or something. )The asshole owner not only shot the dog (but non-fatally), he had starved him for long enough that the vet could not ultimately revive him.  He went into sequential organ failure even with intensive fluids and all the medical things.  On the one hand, he was in loving hands for the last week of his life. On the other had–who the ever loving f***  are these monster people??

  60. 60.

    The Moar You Know

    April 13, 2021 at 12:19 am

    Still sitting in a damn hospital, having had part of my colon removed and a stoma put in.  Boy, as bad as it sounds the reality is worse, and here’s the really fun part; I have hiccups that will not stop.

    cannot catch a break tonight.   Hope everyone is having a better time than I am.   Off to read the thread!

  61. 61.

    different-church-lady

    April 13, 2021 at 12:28 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    Hope everyone is having a better time than I am.

    It would be quite an accomplishment if we weren’t!  8-0

  62. 62.

    MC

    April 13, 2021 at 12:28 am

    @Sister Golden Bear: Hello Sister, I am also trans. I had a lot of hope for 2021, and I’m trying not to let go of it. Must not get worn down!

  63. 63.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 13, 2021 at 12:34 am

    @The Moar You Know: Watch some TCM and Cartoon Network.

  64. 64.

    John Cole

    April 13, 2021 at 12:35 am

    @PJ: I read the damned blog it’s just if I don’t have anything to say I don’t. You fuckers.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    April 13, 2021 at 12:37 am

    ♪ How are things in ol’ Gomorrah? ♫

    ;)

    Noted that along the same lines of an in your face gritty series, all seasons of Banshee are also on HBO Max. Also too, for Mafiosi TV, first season of The Octopus available on Prime.

  66. 66.

    prostratedragon

    April 13, 2021 at 12:37 am

    @L85NJGT:  Repa– Repa– What is it again, and why?

  67. 67.

    smike

    April 13, 2021 at 12:38 am

    @different-church-lady: ​
     
    I sense a tv series here, but I just can’t figure out what it would be called…

  68. 68.

    prostratedragon

    April 13, 2021 at 12:45 am

    A ballet version: La Camorra

  69. 69.

    BruceFromOhio

    April 13, 2021 at 12:46 am

    Woke up November 9, 2016, and the Gaia-damned world had lost its fucking mind. Ain’t been the same since.

  70. 70.

    NotMax

    April 13, 2021 at 12:49 am

    Whether it’s early onset or psychosomatic can’t say, however a bit over three hours since Moderna #1 definitely feeling off. Not dizziness — more akin to mild disorientation, similar to what being dehydrated is like. And noticeable, though quite slight, difference in depth perception.

    Probably unnecessary precaution but just in case am foregoing the usual daily (if I remember) spritz of sinus spray today and tomorrow.

  71. 71.

    cain

    April 13, 2021 at 12:49 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    Ugh.. sorry my man – that sounds like an awful experience. I hope the hiccups stop!

  72. 72.

    Sister Golden Bear

    April 13, 2021 at 12:50 am

    @John Cole: Remember we’re a vicious pack of snarling jackals. //

    BTW, if you did swallow the tooth, you know where to find it.

    @MC: I hear ya, I hear ya. As I said in a thread the other day, the Bible humpers have eliminated the nice/patient/gentle trans folks, and all that’s left are pissed-off cockroach motherfuckers like me.

  73. 73.

    cain

    April 13, 2021 at 12:50 am

    @John Cole: ​
     
    Eh.. next thing you know he’ll claim this is his blog. The nerve.

  74. 74.

    KrackenJack

    April 13, 2021 at 12:51 am

    @cain: ​
      Ah, I remember those: “From the center of the dog, Terrier.”

  75. 75.

    NotMax

    April 13, 2021 at 12:52 am

    @smike

    Doc Holliday, the Early Years.

    ;)

  76. 76.

    Danielx

    April 13, 2021 at 12:59 am

    @John Cole:

    Could be worse, Cole. You could romancing the stone, kidney variety.

  77. 77.

    Danielx

    April 13, 2021 at 1:12 am

    @different-church-lady:

    I have four implants and have had three bone grafts and while happy with results, the processes involved have tried me something fierce. I really work at hygiene, and hence tend to get irate – at one point I looked at my guy’s tray thingy and then asked in disbelief “is that a torque wrench?”

    O no, o yes…I wanna be sedated. It’s the only way.

  78. 78.

    Comrade Colette

    April 13, 2021 at 1:13 am

    @NotMax:

    a bit over three hours since Moderna #1 definitely feeling off. Not dizziness — more akin to mild disorientation, similar to what being dehydrated is like. And noticeable, though quite slight, difference in depth perception.

    Yup, that’s exactly what happened to me after a few hours: general wooziness, indefinable vision offness, progressing to fatigue, malaise, and eventually an afternoon in bed. I was OK the next day – hope you are too. And congratulations on getting the shot!

  79. 79.

    Steeplejack

    April 13, 2021 at 1:14 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    Whoa! Hope your recovery goes smoothly.

  80. 80.

    KrackenJack

    April 13, 2021 at 1:16 am

    @The Moar You Know: Sorry to hear that. Twenty years ago I went to the hospital with persistent abdominal pain. They were prepping me for imaging when the docs decided that it was appendicitis and sent me straight to the OR. Woke up with 13 surgical staples and an ostomy. Turned out that my appendix was pink and healthy so they cut me open and started searching around. The ostomy was reversed a few months later. Which is just as well, since it was impossible to find shoes to match the bag.

  81. 81.

    N M

    April 13, 2021 at 1:22 am

    @John Cole: it’s a hat trick – two posts in a row, and a comment :)

  82. 82.

    hitchhiker

    April 13, 2021 at 1:26 am

    Tonight’s activity: one hour devoted to the reddit sub for families/friends of people lost to Qanon.

    Saddest place on the internet.

    I read it because I still can’t quite believe it’s real, and because I feel obligated.

  83. 83.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 13, 2021 at 1:33 am

    @hitchhiker: Sad stories of batshit crazy.

  84. 84.

    MisterForkbeard

    April 13, 2021 at 1:33 am

    @hitchhiker: I read that every few days. It’s really, really sad to read, and in some cases scary.

    I also read some of the subreddits that track/make fun of Parler/Gab/Other Rightwing crazypants sites, and those are depressing for a whole other set of reasons. But it does explain a lot the Qanon casualties context :(

  85. 85.

    Mary G

    April 13, 2021 at 1:53 am

    The Arclight Theaters in LA and other areas of LA County are closing due to the pandemic. I went to so many movies at the Cinerama Dome in the 70s and 80s; you always saw famous people slouched in the back under a hat and nobody asked for autographs or selfies. So many great movies in those days.

    Ronald Brownstein, who I read for years in the LA Times until he went to DC and became rather too David Broder-ish, just came out with “Rock Me on the Water: 1974-The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics,” which I preordered and was planning to read, but decided to wait until I am a little less emotionally fragile, but I was a college junior that year and did and saw things an extremely introverted preacher’s kid from Orange County had never ever conceived of, and it was glorious.

    So I burst into a two-hour crying jag when I saw the Arclight was going, even though I had only been there once after the big remodel and thought it was ridiculous.

    Some unexpected things hit me hard because I would have thought, if it ever occurred to me, that people like Spielberg, Lucas, and all the other movie people (wailing and gnashing their teeth on Twitter over the loss of its perfect sound system and all the employees who, even the janitor and the guy selling popcorn, were obsessive Quentin Tarantino types who had imdb memorized and could knowledgly discuss the most obscure movie trivia) would’ve saved it.

    I guess that big a piece of land on a prime section of Sunset Blvd. costs too much even for them, and some consortium of Chinese/Russian/Trumpish/hedgefund people will tear it down to build an insanely expensive retail/office/residential tower that nobody actually lives in more than six weeks a year.

    Column in the LA Times by Mary McNamara

    When I moved to Los Angeles more than 30 years ago, I could not believe the amount of time native Angelenos spent mourning by-gone businesses. The coffee shops, the department stores, the endless bars and restaurants that had occupied this corner or that block. For such a relatively young and ever-changing city, its natives willingly wallowed in ghosts. Chasen’s, Trader Vic’s, the damn Derby; the mere mention of even department stores like Bullock’s and the Broadway could bring a tear and a quaver.

    I thought it was ridiculous. I thought it was absurd. Sure, I like the places where I shop and eat and buy doughnuts, and I wish well the people who run them. I am sad when any business shutters, because every business is someone’s dream. When the closures mount, as they have during this pandemic, I worry about the damage it will do to the local economy and even, occasionally, the city’s culture.

    But a department store is not my family, a fancy bar is not a dear friend to be eulogized as if an owner‘s or company’s decision to close marked the end of the world or even an era.

    Then I learned that the ArcLight and Pacific theaters were closing, and now I want to howl at the sky.

    I know I am being insulting in getting gut wrenched about this instead of staying gut wrenched solely about the murder of Daunte Wright, a far more important issue. I know I am mourning the loss of my youth and that brave crazy woman who went to see “Deep Throat” on a blind date, who didn’t know she was gorgeous because at 5’9″ and 165 pounds I called myself the Great White Whale because the charts said I should weigh 125 pounds and I had learned an eating disorder from my mother, who in addition to being amazing was also a monster from successive addictions to pills, alcohol, and smothering me.

    I mourn because maybe a year and a half after graduation I got sicker and sicker and went from someone who loved to run miles on the beach and was starting to bag easy peaks in the San Gabriels with other Sierra Club members to bursting into tears because I had to get off the bed or couch and hike the 12 feet to the bathroom.

    I mourn because I hated Orange County in my youth because it was so freaking white and boring as fuck and have secretly harbored the hope of moving back to LA for the last 20 years, even though I know I should stay here in my lovely little house that everyone wants to buy and continuing to do everything I can to continue to turn the OC bluer.

    I have created havoc and upheaval and good trouble in two different volunteer organizations run by ultra old ultra Republican woman just because I had no problems calling out racisms every time I saw them.

    One had five or six old fossils running who were Tea Party fanatics who were still printing the membership roster in the format of “Mrs. John J. Smith (Judy)” even though most of the husbands were long dead or divorced. They paid an ancient printer $400 every year to print 150 copies in 4 point type to save money, and accepted that he took at least two months to produce it. I said oh hell, no, volunteered to do it, fired up my Adobe InDesign, formatted it over a day or two, took out all the husbands, changed all the chairwomen to chairs, formatted the phone numbers in 16 point type, uploaded it to Office Depot’s site, paying $85 with a coupon for the 60 copies actually needed, picked them up the next day, and that was the crack in the dam. Turned out more than half the younger women were Democrats but were too scared to say so. Now they aren’t.

    A bunch of the old guard quit in a huff, but we replaced them two times over because we began to have fun and people saw that.

    I told the old biddies they had to accept male volunteers after they turned away two lovely gentlemen. They were afraid of being raped, these 80-year-old Fox watchers, and I informed them that the men we would get would be likely to be gay and thus by definition not lady-rapers. I offered to run a professional background check if they wanted one, but it would have to be done on everybody, including themselves, to be legal, and be spendy.

    The day someone called me to ask me to fill in for Sandy, because her daughter was having the baby and she and her wife wanted Sandy there, I was so happy.

    So my life here in the Orange bubble hasn’t been completely useless, and like the LAT lady says, the LA I miss is long gone, because the city isn’t really into preservation and has remade itself over a thousand times. I took the teen and his then girlfriend up to LA a couple of years ago, and we passed the corner on Wilshire where the last drive-in restaurant was and I told them that years ago Warren Beatty tried to pick me and my roommate there at 4 a.m. and they thought I was kidding about a coffee shop where you sat in your car and waitresses on roller skates brought out your food, and had no idea who Warren Beatty was, and that’s OK.

    Sorry for the long whining screed from an incredibly privileged woman. Fortunately it’s gotten very dead around here in these hours because Juicers are very sensibly sleeping instead of venting about TFG.

  86. 86.

    cckids

    April 13, 2021 at 2:42 am

    @Mary G:Sorry for the long whining screed from an incredibly privileged woman. Fortunately it’s gotten very dead around here in these hours because Juicers are very sensibly sleeping instead of venting about TFG.

    You’re not whining in any way. You’re grieving, and teaching, and venting a bit. Your life sounds fascinating, fun and extremely worthwhile.  I always find your contributions here to be genuine and interesting. Thank you for sharing!

  87. 87.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 13, 2021 at 2:46 am

    @Mary G: As cckids said, thank you for sharing.  I now need to look into the Cinemara Dome.  Thank you.

  88. 88.

    Mary G

    April 13, 2021 at 2:54 am

    @cckids:  Thank you.

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    April 13, 2021 at 3:31 am

    @Mary G

    As the Dome is designated a historic landmark by L.A.’s government, razing it (if ever) will be a drawn out process.

    It’s exactly the sort of venue cash rich entertainment entities such as Netflix could take over, if for nothing else then for purposes of the ballyhoo of Hollywood prestige.

  90. 90.

    Mary G

    April 13, 2021 at 3:59 am

    @NotMax: I imagine they’ll just build the skyscraper around the dome. But you never know. LA likes developers, but they have to be cool. TFG spent years and years trying to buy the Ambassador Hotel and the more they saw of his insult schtick the more everybody hated him, because a carpetbagger coming into town from the East Coast screaming lies in a horrible accent is not cool.

    You’re, it could happen. At least one of the really great old time movie palaces hasn’t been developed.

    THEATRES YOU SHOULD MOURN IN #LA : The Fairfax Theatre. opened in 1930. Became very cheap in its final years, an absolute dive and it was great. pathetic that the city wouldn't grant it historic status and now it sits in developer limbo. #SAD #ArclightCinemas pic.twitter.com/xxeG5w2mA6— ?DOY? (@doykitto) April 13, 2021

      Of course, it’s in an area of midtown that hasn’t been upgraded much yet, so there’s no appetite to do it. (Yet.) It was a single screen so tiny it shares its block with six other one-story buildings all with different owners who won’t or can’t cooperate on who to sell to and how much to be paid vs. somebody wants to wait a couple of years to get more money.

  91. 91.

    rikyrah

    April 13, 2021 at 4:43 am

    @MC: 
    Yep. Because, they can’t both sides it.

  92. 92.

    rikyrah

    April 13, 2021 at 4:46 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    ?????

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    April 13, 2021 at 4:46 am

    @John Cole:

    ?????

  94. 94.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    April 13, 2021 at 4:48 am

    @Mary G:

    Beautiful story. I am finally going to bed, or I would write more. Thank you for sharing this.

  95. 95.

    rikyrah

    April 13, 2021 at 4:48 am

    @Mary G:

    Just venting!

    Vent away

  96. 96.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    April 13, 2021 at 4:51 am

    @rikyrah:

    I will say good morning to you now, because I probably won’t see you later. ?

  97. 97.

    PST

    April 13, 2021 at 4:58 am

    I can’t sleep tonight for some reason, but it’s comforting to be up with other people who were college juniors in 1974, or have lost crowns in interesting ways, or are missing big chunks of their colons. It’s like a very special club.

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    April 13, 2021 at 5:21 am

    @PST:

    “The Jackals.” ?

  99. 99.

    lowtechcyclist

    April 13, 2021 at 5:36 am

    @Mary G: ​
     

    I told them that years ago Warren Beatty tried to pick me and my roommate there at 4 a.m. and they thought I was kidding about a coffee shop where you sat in your car and waitresses on roller skates brought out your food, and had no idea who Warren Beatty was, and that’s OK.

    Reminds me of this moment from a few years ago: surfing the Web at lunchtime one day, I discovered that Wernher von Braun was buried in the same cemetery my father is buried in. Mentioned this to two of my officemates (one fortyish, the other early 20s) when they got back from lunch.

    “Who’s Wernher von Braun?”

    I gave them the 30-second bio, then mentioned his being the subject of a song by Tom Lehrer.

    “Who’s Tom Lehrer?”

    Ouch.

  100. 100.

    J R in WV

    April 13, 2021 at 12:27 pm

    @John Cole: 

    I read the damned blog it’s just if I don’t have anything to say I don’t.

    And we are dammed glad of it too !!!

    You fuckers.

    What’s this for? I mean we are, and glad of it, but still~!~

    Thanks, Cole, for the Blog and everything~!~ You’re a mensch of a hermit…

  101. 101.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    April 13, 2021 at 2:10 pm

    I’m not the only one who saw “Gamorrah” and expected a knockdown, drag-out fight with Godzilla, am I?

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