Here’s something to get us in the Halloween spirit:
This continues to be the greatest squirrel feeder ever pic.twitter.com/SL180o2QrV
— SPENCE, TODD (@Todd_Spence) October 4, 2021
I only have one occasional squirrel visitor to my porch feeders, and I can’t see playing such a trick on poor Eloise since she’s so polite and unassuming. But damn, it’s funny! (Maybe it’s the movement of the paws that make it so hilarious?)
Open thread!
Ken
I’d worry the feeder-mask would get stuck on the poor squirrel’s head, and it would run around the neighborhood giving people heart attacks.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: Heart attacks from laughing?
SFAW
Whilst driving to work yesterday, I glimpsed a snow-white squirrel. I didn’t run off the road, but was pretty amazed, didn’t know they existed.
eclare
For sportsball fans, UEFA match, Italy vs Spain, at 2:30 EDT. Where I live, Memphis, it’s on ESPN2.
The Thin Black Duke
Here’s my latest essay about my bad night in the ICU after recovering from surgery and how a loud popcorn movie brought me back from the brink.
eclare
@The Thin Black Duke: The link did not work for me.
Betty Cracker
@SFAW: In my old neighborhood, we had at least two white squirrels. Surprised the hell out of me when I first saw one.
Omnes Omnibus
@eclare: What if we aren’t in Egypt?
The Thin Black Duke
@eclare: Oops. Try it now. Thanks.
eclare
@Omnes Omnibus: Hahaha…
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Betty Cracker: When I moved to East Lansing, MI for grad school was the first time I ever saw black squirrels. The Lansing State Journal did an article about them (this was back in the mid-90s) and claimed at the time that some place in CT, Lansing, and the Washington, DC area were the only places in the country with black squirrels. I swear I’ve seen them other places since though.
MattF
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Black squirrels are definitely a DC thing.
KSinMA
@The Thin Black Duke:
Wow, that’s beautiful.
narya
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I’ve seen them in Chicago and in Oberlin, so . . .
narya
@The Thin Black Duke: Lovely; thank you for sharing.
The Thin Black Duke
@KSinMA: Thank you. This essay took me a while to figure out.
eclare
@The Thin Black Duke: Very moving essay, thank you.
Betty Cracker
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I saw a picture of a black squirrel on Twitter the other day, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in the wild. It was pretty!
JeanneT
Olney IL has a population of white squirrels: they’re a tourist attraction.
We do have black squirrels in west Michigan, at least in some neighborhoods in Grand Rapids, but no white squirrels!
Wolvesvalley
Brevard College in North Carolina is famous for its white squirrels.
dm
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: When my daughter was attending Bryn Mawr, she heard the saying: “Swarthmore: where even the squirrels wear black”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_squirrel says that black squirrels have the same range as their non-melanistic cousins, but that they’re most common in Michigan and Ontario.
StringOnAStick
@The Thin Black Duke: Excellent essay.
StringOnAStick
I saw a nearly black fox on Lookout Mountain in CO, a rare colour variant. Silver tipped ears and muzzle, just gorgeous!
Eunicecycle
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: We have black squirrels in NE Ohio and have for decades. I think Kent tries to claim their origin here but who knows?
Betty
@The Thin Black Duke: Thanks for sharing that experience. So hopeful. These hard times require such moments.
Kristine
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I have seen black squirrels ? in my neighborhood (NE Illinois). No white ones.
Omnes Omnibus
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: A friend from high school was home visiting her dad and noticed some black squirrels. When she mentioned to her dad, he deadpanned, “Oh yeah, Wausau has been integrated for a good ten years now.”
Betty Cracker
@Wolvesvalley: Ironically, my mom, kiddo and I spent hours searching for white squirrels in Brevard without luck, and a short time after we returned home to FL, the white squirrels started showing up in my yard. We used to joke that they’d stowed away on mom’s RV.
Old School
I wonder if that squirrel feeder gets put up in October or if it is left up year-round.
Benw
@The Thin Black Duke: wonderful essay!
kindness
@MattF: One of the parks in Sunnyvale Ca has a community of black squirrels. They’re smaller like red squirrels but completely black. Haven’t seen them anywhere else in N. Cal.
Shana
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I saw several over the years in my hometown of Rock Island, IL.
We put up birdfeeders for the first time this year, one clamped to the deck railing, one on a post in the yard. Over the course of the spring and summer we’ve learned to put a slinky over the posts to keep squirrels from being able to climb the posts. The slinky didn’t keep the chipmunks off though, they’d just climb up the post and use the slinky as an elevator back to the ground. They chipmunks would just hang out on the perch for the feeder and gorge themselves. We’ve started coating our feed with Flaming Squirrel hot sauce which the critters can taste but the birds can’t.
rikyrah
saw that…hilarious in the daytime…
doesn’t seem like it would be so funny at night.
The Thin Black Duke
Thanks, everyone. As always, I appreciate the support.
ExpatDanBKK
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Yeah, no. Detroit in the late 70s certainly had black squirrels. I remember because I loved them. Conservationists were concerned because they were more aggressive and were running their brown cousins out of their territory.
dr. bloor
I’ve been feeding a squirrel this summer who was pretty clearly nursing earlier in the season, although she’s kind of slimmed down and lost her milk bar look at this point. Hasn’t affected her appetite, though–when I leave the house, she’ll come up to the bottom of the porch and give me the “where have you been?” look.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: Hahahahaha!!!! Yeah, that’d be freaky at night!
Ohio Mom
@SFAW:
There was a clan of white squirrels behind Ohio Son’s old babysitter’s house. My eyes nearly popped out the first time I saw one — the babysitter had seen that face before. “There’s a whole family of white squirrels back there.”
I haven’t seen any since.
Betty Cracker
@The Thin Black Duke: Very nice essay. And speaking of Avatar 2, where the hell is it? The first definitely had its flaws (“unobtainium” — lol!), but I’ll admit I enjoyed it.
germy
Immanentize
@The Thin Black Duke:
Nicely done, but a hard read for me right now.
❤️
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Ive had grey, red and black squirrels this year in my back yard. Most colorful squirrel fest ever.
But no albinos.
Major Major Major Major
Hehe, I saw that yesterday, totally cracked me up.
NotMax
Halloween?
Recently saw this* out of the corner of an eye while randomly poking around.
“No candy for you!” (door slams shut, sound of deadbolt being latched)
*Omnes, do NOT click the link.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Nightmare fuel.
MattF
Josh Marshall sez McConnell has blinked.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Unobtainium has a venerable pedigree.
(Not to be confused with Bolognium.)
;)
Old School
@MattF:
Grace Segers
@Grace_Segers
McConnell statement: “To protect the American people from a near-term Democrat-created crisis, we will also allow Democrats to use normal procedures to pass an emergency debt limit extension at a fixed dollar amount to cover current spending levels into December.”
gvg
I personally prefer squirrel launchers or catapults such as squirrel launcher Too many chewed up birdfeeders…..
gvg
I haven’t seen white squirrels for years but 50 years ago, I saw them at Ginny Springs near Ocala.
Ken
My lunch-time activity has been listening to my apartment complex’s groundskeepers running their leaf-blowers to clear the grounds. It’s a windy day, so new leaves are being added about as fast as they are removed. Still, work order says “clear leaves today”, so what can you do?
eclare
@Ken: Ugh, what horrible noise pollution.
Persistent Illusion
@MattF: And a Colorado thing: Abert squirrels, black with tufted ears.
Quiltingfool
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: The first time I saw a black squirrel was in Windsor, Canada.
JoyceH
@JeanneT:
I lived in Olney as a kid – “Olney, Il, home of the white squirrels”. At least back then the police force had white squirrel patches on their uniforms; that always amused me. Problem is that Olney’s squirrels are albinos and that’s a recessive trait, only passes along when white squirrels mate with other white squirrels. So I think the colony is being diminished by interbreeding with other squirrels.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Well I guess that Lansing State Journal article was less than thoroughly researched.
@narya: I have an Oberlin story, though it doesn’t involve black squirrels. Back in the summer of roughly 1986, give or take a year, I went to a production of The Tempest on Oberlin’s campus. My eldest cousin on my mom’s side went there, and they were from Cleveland and owned a place on the Marblehead Peninsula where we used to spend a few days every summer. So we were either visiting them at Lakeside or Cleveland and decided to go to the play.
It was a wacky production – the male characters were in Miami Vice outfits – and the guy who produced it and starred as Prospero was a visiting scholar from the Royal Shakespeare Society. I had never heard of this bald pated gentleman but was surprised when I saw him on my TV screen in the fall of 1987 when I tuned into Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was Patrick Stewart.
BC in Illinois
End of November, 1969. US Navy Boot Camp, Great Lakes IL.
Before dawn, as we are lined up for breakfast, waiting for people to clear out, so that our company can enter the mess hall.
I see a black squirrel, which I had never seen in Maryland, Ohio, or anywhere else. So I say to the guy next to me, “Hey, look! A black squirrel.” And he says the same to the guy next to him, who says the same to the guy next to him.
And that’s what I remember of my second day in Boot Camp. All the way down the line:
raven
@JoyceH: They have that problem in Alabama with the people!
Just Chuck
Black squirrels in the Rockies are fairly shy, I’ve found. In the high alpine altitudes, we have the ultra-cute chipmunks that are a bit more gregarious.
jeffreyw
The Thin Black Duke
@Betty Cracker: I’m afraid the sequel to Avatar is going to be a while. The last I heard, it’s going to be a trilogy, so Cameron is shooting two films at the same time.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: Hooray for gas-powered leaf blowers! (Not really.)
Betty Cracker
@MattF: Well, kinda. He’s still making Democrats clean up his and Trump’s mess, but it looks like he’s giving them more time to do it. Why wouldn’t that work again? Hmmm. I don’t know. Senate rules are stupid.
Ksmiami
@The Thin Black Duke: you’re a great writer and I agree that it’s often not the high art that makes powerful memories but the day to day family fun cultural experiences that bring us together.
Hope you are feeling 100 percent better from that time
raven
@BC in Illinois: My old man was the football and basketball coach at North Chicago High in the early 50’s and, as a reserve Naval Officer, he ran the special services at Great Lakes including the pools, golf course and the baseball team. I was the bat boy for the GLNTC team!
Betty Cracker
@The Thin Black Duke: Seems like I read something like that too, but the original came out in 2009! Good lord, he’s had time to shoot a 10-part series! :)
brendancalling
Unrelated to squirrels, but my scummy landlord sold the house I live in and gave my neighbor and me 60 days to move out so the new owners can renovate it into employee housing.
Sadly for my landlord and the new owners, Vermont Legal Aid tells me they don’t have a leg to stand on, that I should ignore the notice (“I would not even engage with the LL about this, she knows (or should) that what she is asking of you is not legal/enforceable. You are under no obligation to ‘teach’ her.”), and let her try to take me to court.
Sadly for me, I suspect my landlord won’t take any of this very well.
HumboldtBlue
Gorilla dies in the arms of ranger who rescued her as an infant 14 years ago
NotMax
@The Thin Black Duke
Followed by the all singing, all dancing musical epic Avanagila.
:)
Sxjames
@The Thin Black Duke:
Beautiful essay. Thank you for sharing it.
Stephen
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@The Thin Black Duke: Best wishes on your recovery.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
To be fair, that’s how voters have seen our role as well.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
The ultimate “I’ll be back” story.
Baud
@HumboldtBlue:
No freaking way I’m clicking on that link.
lowtechcyclist
Here’s McConnell’s offer. Basically agreeing to raise the debt limit sufficiently to cover spending into early December, through normal order rather than reconciliation.
Anyone see a reason for the Dems to not take him up on this? Presumably they could include a further raising of the debt limit in the reconciliation bill they’re currently negotiating, and it would give them a fair amount of time to finish their negotiations with Sinemanchin. I’m not seeing a downside.
HumboldtBlue
@Baud: The viral photo had people in stitches at the way Ndakasi mimics Mathieu Shamavu, who along with Andre Bauma, rescued her in 2007.
FlyingToaster
@germy: Bullshit. The food in Boston has been excellent for the past 30 years. Before then, well, I only moved here 34 years ago…
Otherwise, it kinda captures the essence of Boston (Crap Weather, missing signage, Half-drunk-Dunks everywhere, incessant construction).
Ruckus
@The Thin Black Duke:
Glad you got better. And glad you recognized why, that’s a somewhat scary feeling, knowing that your own internal safe is locked up so tight that you miss some of the scary parts, and that in the end make life worth that understanding and a bit better.
Baud
@HumboldtBlue:
That is an epic photo.
HumboldtBlue
Texts a mother shared with me from her son, during the shooting at a high school today in Mansfield. Captures the moment well
Burnspbesq
A BFD at the Supreme Court: Justice Thomas asks questions!
germy
@FlyingToaster:
I lived there in the late 1970s and I loved ordering seafood in restaurants. Always great. And I remember a tavern called “Frankenstein’s” where they had great food.
I didn’t have a car there. I walked and used public transportation.
Kent
@lowtechcyclist: Why kick the can down the road 2 months? Put a serious debt limit bill on the floor under regular order that will run out the whole Biden Administration, and dare them to force you to suspend the filibuster if they don’t go along. Dems hold all the cards here. If McConnell doesn’t want to see the filibuster tanked, all he has to do is keep his people from filibustering and let it pass on Dem votes alone.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Burnspbesq: OK, who woke him?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: No, eliminate the debt ceiling, take the gun away from them.
RobertB
I saw a black squirrel at Put-in Bay (South Bass Island) this past summer.
A golf course I used to golf at had a white squirrel that lived by the 18th hole.
Kent
@brendancalling: Let them buy you out. That’s how it is done on the west coast. All you have to do is agree on the price. In San Francisco it usually runs into the mid 5 digits.
Geminid
Recently I happened to read James Michener’s Creatures of the Kingdom, Stories of Animals and Nature. Most entries are passages from novels such as Centennial and Chesapeake. The last chapter, “The Colonel and Genghis Khan,” was (I believe) a true story. “Genghis Khan” was a Texan grey squirrel who terrorized black squirrels and incessantly raided the retired Army Colonel and Wive’s bird feeders. The Colonel tries out increasingly elaborate “squirrel-proof” feeders to no avail. At her wits end, Mrs. Colonel brings out a shotgun to send Genghis Khan to the hereafter. But the Colonel is able to talk her down, and promises to send for a highly reputed squirrel-proof feeder from L.L. Bean.
Michener’s introductory note to this entry includes a poignant story about the time a well meaning guest killed a black snake who lived in Michener’s house, and whom the author considered a friend: “Even writing these words,” Michener wrote, “brings back the pain.”
NotMax
@Burnspbesq
“Who’s the new chick?”
//
Kent
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yes, that’s the better option. I agree. But probably harder to get passed. I’m just objecting to the short-term bullshit. Nothing will have changed in 2-months except that they will all be wanting to go on Christmas break when the next vote comes.
Lyrebird
@Betty Cracker: OT and for another day unless I have just missed it:
Have you weighed in here about the FL Sen race?
I’m currently giving my pennies to Demings, Beasley, and Lamb, and the Demings campaign sends the most emails, not sure what else I can observe.
Anyhoo, you might have already done a column on that, or you might not really enjoy doing one, just thought I would ask.
Good afternoon BC and all!
Burnspbesq
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I can only speculate that he found the issues related to the scope of the state secrets privilege raised in the Zubaydah case particularly interesting. Or someone in his chambers mistook crystal meth for Crystal Light.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Heh.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@FlyingToaster: Yeah I’ve visited Boston several times over the years to visit friends and the food is fine. At least in comparison to where I grew up (Grand Rapids, MI – food used to suck but it’s got a pretty decent food scene these days) and where I live now (DC area, which ditto what I said about GR). Also, the weather…I miss the cold. I’d much rather a Michigan or Boston winter than a DC area summer to be honest.
People act like anywhere the temps are likely to drop below 40 degrees for a 2-3 months give or take is some unlivable hellhole. Try 98 with 70% humidity. That’s all those sunbelt Southern States people are convinced are paradise by comparison. Well, I’d rather put on a coat and suffer through the cold than roast in shorts and a T shirt. No offense to anyone whose opinion differs.
Baud
@Kent:
”All the cards” is contingent on Manchin’s cooperation.
lowtechcyclist
They would, if they were all on the same page.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Burnspbesq: I think the later explanation makes more sense.
Baud
@Burnspbesq:
No, he’s become active in other cases. I wish he weren’t awful on all things I care about, because he does have a nice voice.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Of course it is.
/Southern California native.
Another Scott
@The Thin Black Duke: Thank you very much for that. It’s a great piece.
Cheers,
Scott.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@RobertB: That’s right off the coast from Lakeside where my cousins’ place is. I grew up in West Michigan and am partial to the Lake Michigan shore but that part of Ohio is pretty pleasant on a nice summer day.
germy
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I find as I get older, I can’t tolerate the cold the way I used to.
But at the same time, I can’t tolerate excessive heat and humidity anymore.
I prefer the cold. The only stress is keeping the old boiler running so the house doesn’t freeze.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah but along the coast there you don’t deal so much with the extreme heat and it’s not humid either. I kind of get the lure of California weather (if it ever stops burning) but GeorgiaAlabama/SC/FL weather holds no attraction for me. I mean, I don’t mind going down there for a week in the winter for a break from the cold but suffering through the summers isn’t any better than dealing with winter in the Northeast and upper Midwest.
The Thin Black Duke
@Ksmiami: Thank you. It was difficult to write but I felt better when it was done.
Burnspbesq
Late in the first half, Italy is down a goal and down a man. Bonucci appropriately given a second yellow.
Betty Cracker
@Lyrebird: I wrote a post on it when Demings first announced, I think. I think she has a shot because 1) she’s a compelling candidate, and 2) everyone hates Rubio, even Republicans. I’ve already got a Demings sticker on my car and have donated a bit. You’re right — her campaign is very aggressive with outreach!
Betty Cracker
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: As my nephew from Buffalo (who now lives in Florida) puts it, “You don’t have to shovel heat.” :)
Burnspbesq
And a beautifully constructed second just before halftime, scored by Ferrari Torres.
gene108
@dm:
Haverford’s campus is also full of black squirrels
?BillinGlendaleCA
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: It can get hot here in the basin(it was over 100° on Sunday), but it is usually only for a few days and then the ocean A/C kicks in.
ETA: I shot fall color up north on Saturday and in the afternoon the smoke was pretty bad around Mammoth.
eclare
@Baud: Totally agree.
dww44
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: While you’re generally correct, as a Georgia resident and citizen, I’m thinking we’re doing pretty well in this year of weather extremes. We’ve had plenty of rain with no hint of drought, no excessive heat waves, and yes, plenty of humidity. We’re actually counting our blessings. No Floods, no Fires, and no Oil spills, and, of course, no snow to date.
Mike in NC
@FlyingToaster: In Quincy last week I ordered a clam roll, which is a plain old hot dog roll stuffed with whole fried clams. Came with fries. $27!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Betty Cracker: In Buffalo winters you don’t have to fend off alligators, or even biting insects for that matter.
Speaking of Buffalo, there’s a fun movie staring Tea Leoni and Ben Kingsley set there called You Kill Me. Kingsley plays a drunken hitman for the Polish mafia whose drinking habit causes him to miss out on a hit that costs the Poles their one remaining money maker – the contract to plow the streets of Buffalo – to a rival Irish mafioso (played by Dennis Farina). I won’t go any further so as not to spoil too much but it’s a pretty amusing black comedy.
Raven
@dww44: what oil spills would we get here?
eclare
@Burnspbesq: Yep. Italy down to ten. Game over.
Ksmiami
@The Thin Black Duke: See I CAN be nice… anyway keep writing!
Raven
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: is it as good as Sexy Beast?
mrmoshpotato
@Burnspbesq:
Wait. US Supreme Court? Thomas isn’t a mute?
Burnspbesq
@eclare:
Barring a miracle, it will be Spain against either Belgium or France on Sunday.
JustRuss
@Betty Cracker:
Friend of mine lives in Mill Valley, north of SF. Lots of black squirrels there, kind of freaked me out the first time I saw one.
Nearly ran over a gray riding my bike to work today. How the squirrel managed to ride my bike is another story.
eclare
@Raven: That movie is so good…
dww44
@Raven: we don’t and that’s the point. Anyways, it’s entirely possible as we do have a coastline capable of sinking pretty large container ships, No?
eclare
@Burnspbesq: Hoping Mbappe has a good day tomorrow. He is so impressive when he is on fire.
Gavi…wow. I hope he has good people around him, seventeen is so young.
Gravenstone
@Burnspbesq: Read that. My immediate thought was, “what is he planning?”.
Geminid
@dww44: I live in Virginia, but I have visited a friend in Atlanta many times. My Atlanta friend claims they have the best weather, and I am inclined to agree. Not too hot, not too cold. Atlanta’s 1000 foot elevation makes the difference in the summertime.
Ocotillo
@The Thin Black Duke: Thank you for sharing, glad you are home.
Low Key Swagger
Hive mind question: My best girl, Cookie is a 12 yr old mix of some kind of sheppard and god knows what. She’s been with me since nearly birth. She’s been an incredibly active dog that sticks to me like glue. If I make a hundred trips to the barn…she makes a hundred trips. Lately, she’s been slow getting up and I have to sometimes help her on to the sofa. We’ve had a little girl here as a guest for a couple of days so Cookie has been going back and forth to the swimming hole with her, and that’s a fair hike. She couldn’t up awhile ago, and I think it’s her hips. My question: Have any of y’all tried CBD oil for soreness/pain with your dogs? I will Google it but I’m guessing opinions are split.
brendancalling
@Kent: well, that’s a problem. Vermont is in a housing crisis—very little stock, very high rents. It took me three months to find my last place. I can barely afford what I have now, and buying me out would basically push me into housing I really can’t afford.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: Oil barrel full of fries for that price?
eclare
@Geminid: The elevation makes a big difference in cooling off at night. I used to live there. Now I live at about 400 feet, it never cools off at night during the summer.
dww44
@Geminid: My daughter lives in Atlanta, but we’re smack in the middle of the state and don’t have the benefit of the altitude they enjoy that can tap down on the high heat. So we’re hotter than them, but not necessarily muggier, but we are cooler than the extreme southern portions of the state. They’re flatter and just a teeny bit more tropical. The Long Hot Summer has long been an apt description of life in the deep south. but the mild winters can make up for that.
Kay
Watch as the normal parents turn around and tell the Trump supporters to get away from them. There are hundreds of these videos, where Trump supporters chase normies outside of schools and harrass them. If Democrats don’t use this, they’re nuts.
RobertB
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Lovely weather when my wife and I went there this past summer. Since we didn’t have a boat, the three days we spent there were just about right.
Ruckus
@dww44:
Where do we get our oil for all the vehicles? We import billions of barrels per day. According to the government we import 7.86 million barrels of petroleum per day, both crude and refined products.
I’d guess that not all of it comes through pipelines and realistically the only other way is ships. Now here is the other part, we export more than we import. The likely hood is that we are refining a lot of the product and exporting the finished product. So where does all the gas that we burn in our cars come from? The link above goes into a lot of detail.
raven
@dww44: I’m not sure it the “coastline” that sunk that ship.
germy
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Could be a ship running into the coastline.
Geminid
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I did not beat up my Honda! The equipment I backed into, and the stop sign I ran over did.
Another Scott
@Kent: I’m not seeing the benefit to putting it off, either.
TheHill:
Obama tried to get them to break their fever about never ever raising taxes. He couldn’t get them to do it. It’s hard to see why things would be different in December.
“The only way out is through.”
We’ll see. Schumer has put off the vote to talk about it with the team.
Cheers,
Scott.
Stacy
@Low Key Swagger: Lurker here- my 6 year old Brittney had difficulty moving due to arthritis from a previous Lyme infection. Did some research and put him on Adequan. Gave him shots at home on a once a week schedule(set by the vet) to renew the cartilage then backed off to maintenance of once a month. It was like a miracle drug. He went from limping so much that he couldn’t go for walks of any length to full mobility in a very short period of time.
J R in WV
@The Thin Black Duke:
Wow, what a moving piece of work. Thanks! So glad you recovered eventually.
WaterGirl
@Stacy: @Low Key Swagger:
I will second the recommendation for adequan injections.
When I got those for Bailey years ago, it was 2 injections a week for 4 weeks. Then several months after that, you could get a couple of boosters, as I recall.
It was kind of like a miracle. They maybe have a different regimen now – after more years of research – but I would definitely recommend adequan.
J R in WV
@dm:
There are a lot of black squirrels in NE rural Ohio, around Dover/New Philadelphia area. Was a surprise to me to see them.
Ksmiami
@Another Scott: wtf is wrong with Manchin?
WaterGirl
@Old School: I don’t know what you did to deserve it :-) but I found 5 of your messages in spam. Two or three of them just said “test” so I deleted those, but I released the rest.
Please try commenting again right away so I can see whether you still have a problem.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@JustRuss: They are pretty freaky (sort of like demon spawn squirrels) the first time you see them. Appropriate for Halloween though.
moonbat
@The Thin Black Duke:
That was very good. Thank you for sharing.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Raven: I’ve never seen Sexy Beast so can’t say.
J R in WV
@Baud:
Me neither. Thanks for providing the link, but not for me.
Another Scott
@Ksmiami: He’s stuck with 1970s thinking about economics. Maybe that’s the only thing that keeps him in office from WV.
He seems to like to put down markers – or things that the press takes as markers. We’ll have to see what happens. So far, he has been a necessary vote when we’ve needed it.
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
JoyceH
@Low Key Swagger: Have you tried glucosamine? I know it helps my knees and that there is a canine version.
raven
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Ray Winstone is great!
Old School
@WaterGirl: Have I successfully paid the ransom?
Baud
@Another Scott:
I don’t understand. Can’t the Dems easily add this to the recon bill? I of course would prefer a filibuster carve out, but that hinges on the holdouts signing on?
Another Scott
@Baud: I assume the same issues would hold as before – if they change the reconciliation bill, then 2-3-4 weeks have to elapse, they have to do a “vote-a-rama” thing were they try to score points on amendments that won’t pass but have to be voted on and create political fodder (like Sinema’s thumbs-down vote on the $15 minimum wage). It invites too much mischief on the other side – people who haven’t bargained in good faith on this whole issue.
Things are moving fast.
TheHill:
On to the RB and the BIF and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and all the rest.
Cheers,
Scott.
J R in WV
@Ksmiami:
Manchin is a self-centered, arrogant, crooked, greedy, manipulative, bigoted, narcissistic DINO. Oh, yeh, also pretty stupid.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Ok, thanks. I’m not too worried, just curious.
Ksmiami
@J R in WV: he is getting ratioed by his own voters on Twitter- he’s just such a scummy idiot..
Enhanced Voting Techniques
A story from my sister;
She works (remotely, in California) as a programer for a software company in Texas. While most of the team she is on is in Texas, all of them are typical techy types, mostly male, sort of liberal, no hang up with my sister’s gender, except for the conservative dude. She says every team meeting The Conservative Dude is trolling for a fight with the libertards, with the whole team ignoring him The Conservative Dude has a go at her, she replies with “meh” and turns the conversation back to work.
So last month the company updated the HR policy and in the middle of team meeting The Conservative Dude starts complaining about the all the HR mandated harassment classes everyone has to take. The manger replies “No, Joe, that’s only you who are required to take theses classes, not the team, and this is not open to discussion”
So even in Red Texas the boot of Liberalism oppressing the poor conservatives.
It’s sad.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Ksmiami: What does getting ratioed mean? That’s a new one on me.
Another Scott
St. Bernard demands that Manchin explain himself.
Thread:
Interesting. I hope something productive comes from it.
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Kent Ohio has black squirrels smuggled in from Ontario by a Kent State groundskeeper back in the day when that could be done. Students and alumni have little black squirrel decals for their cars. The squirrels have migrated into surrounding counties.
sab
@brendancalling: Yikes. Good luck. In Ohio my daughter as a tenant had not a legal toe to stand on. Hope it goes better for you.
sab
@The Thin Black Duke: That was brilliant.