It’s here! pic.twitter.com/9kjM5tl40u
— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) November 23, 2021
U.S. first lady Jill Biden receives the White House Christmas tree ?? pic.twitter.com/FBt2tweAt0
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 23, 2021
‘I know how hard it is to have someone who is not at the table on a holiday’: President Biden told U.S. troops during a 'Friendsgiving' feast at Fort Bragg https://t.co/eozNjhkpol pic.twitter.com/2R8LXH6DjB
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 23, 2021
Thoughts & prayers to those who observe:
Great thing about the pandemic lifting a bit is you can invite people to stay w you for Thanksgiving, which means for the first time in 19 months you get your house really, really clean
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 23, 2021
And speaking of immense turkeys & huge gasbags…
The U.S. House of Representatives committee probing the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol said it issued subpoenas to Alex Jones, founder of the right-wing website Infowars and Roger Stone, an ally of former President Donald Trump https://t.co/H0FanMA4w6 pic.twitter.com/Cj9U92vXim
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 23, 2021
debbie
It’s a safe bet that this year’s White House Christmas decorations will be less horrifying than those from the previous four years. ?
R-Jud
I am in the US for the first time since 2019 and y’all appear to have made my parents shrink while I was away. WTF?
hueyplong
@debbie: You didn’t enjoy the John Carpenter Christmas?
debbie
@hueyplong:
It haunted the visions of sugar plums dancing through my head.
Ken
You’re about a month late, judging from when the stores changed their displays. They’re even advertising Black Friday sales all this week, which is almost Orwellian in its abuse of language.
prostratedragon
And brought by Clydesdales!
Ken
@R-Jud: I doubt it’s a side effect of the U.S. vaccines, so maybe shrinkflation? Your parents get smaller but still cost the same price.
Mustang Bobby
I get the whole week off for Thanksgiving, which is nice to have a little more time to sleep in. Oh, and [shameless self-promotion alert] put the finishing touches on my website.
All the fixin’s have been laid in for my contribution to the dinner I share with friends: pumpkin pie, extra creamy whipped cream, and Hawaiian sweet rolls. I’m eating nothing but salad the rest of the week.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
@debbie:
True that ?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mustang Bobby: I didn’t realize how many plays you’ve written. The website looks great. I assume you’re using creative commons? That’s a good idea. Your stuff needs to be seen
Anyway
@Ken:
Yes, it’s the new packaging – happens to ice cream nd cereal all the time…
debbie
Best response to the juvenile RWNJs:
Betty Cracker
@debbie: I utterly despise that scowling strumpet Melania Trump, but I did enjoy the spectacle of the blood-red Murder Trees. I think the creepy tableau symbolized the murderous rage she felt toward the lumbering beast and his viperous adult children.
Quinerly
Good morning!!!
Thanks for all the kind and encouraging words yesterday after l left the AM thread. Read the comments last night after a long day. Special shout out to Laura for what she wrote.
Inspection went great yesterday! Few minor things, but the 30 year old house has been well cared for. Some stucco cracks and wood that needs to be sealed. Beautiful aspens in the front on the west side. My friend Annie identified fruit bearing apple, apricot, and pear trees on the east side in an area of the walled courtyard. That was exciting. I had missed them on previous visits. Next up: results of the radon test and a colonoscopy? on the sewer lines and a septic tank evaluation. Moving ahead incredibly quickly. Most of their stuff is out. Love seeing the rooms empty and the passive solar heating up the built in banco seating. Thanks for everything. Positive thoughts!!! Have a great day everyone.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
gvg
@Ken:
Everyone was worried about the supply chain issues. The retailers logically decided having an extended shopping season with orders placed sooner, was the solution. I don’t know what will happen after the pandemic recedes but this was a good move for this year. Gifts may arrive on time.
debbie
Suck it up, MAGAts:
Check out the comments.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Good morning! ?
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Looks good, really good.
rikyrah
THEE Jen Psaki’s Head Tilt (@bidonkules) tweeted at 4:23 PM on Mon, Nov 22, 2021:
Republican Governors out here signing bills into law that violate federal laws. Republican judges issue rulings in violation of existing laws, the constitution and precedent. The media presents everything as a “both sides” issue. ?
(https://twitter.com/bidonkules/status/1462909512755650566?t=3crdTz62hleUQT9tAml3QQ&s=03)
hueyplong
@Betty Cracker: Might be something to that. So you’re saying the one time she was given a chance to take of the mask, she went all Goya’s Saturn Devouring about her “family.”
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
How are the grandkids?
Will you get to see them this week??
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
All four years of her Christmas decorations were out of a nightmare ?
raven
@R-Jud: The gravity of the situation. . .
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: How’s it hangin?
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Nice!
narya
Getting my booster today! I’m glad I could find one this week; I got shot 2 in February, so I’ve been getting a little anxious. (Not that I go very many places, but still.) Also: ran 5+ miles today–longest distance ever. Next goal is 10k, which might need to wait until February or March, depending on how the weather goes. Yeah, I know I sound all cheery and shit, but that’s just until I log into work
ETA: Quinerly, that sounds AMAZING!
Ken
@rikyrah: Cut her a break. She was working within a strict budget and the requirement that the decorations contain coded messages for QAnon.
(Disclaimer: I am not aware of any QAnon claim that the WH Christmas decor had secret messages.)
(Disclaimer to the Disclaimer: However it’s no more ridiculous than any of their other claims of secret messages.)
raven
I started the thawing of my 20 pounder too early so I went and got a smaller one at Publix ($.49 lb) and I’m making tasso out of the first one!
Betty Cracker
From Politico:
So does the quack Dr. Oz now have the inside lane?
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: They’re fine, my eldest and his family are heading to Memphis for the wkend. The youngest’s are sheltering in place while he works.
Nah, we won’t see them. We skip holidays, which means they can ignore us. We’re OK with that. Holidays mean nothing to us but they are important to the other GPs. Both sides of their families are divorced, so having us check out cuts 25% of the holiday demands on their time.
evodevo
@debbie:
No more aisles of weird red MAGAt trees!!
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: Hater. What did blood red, and phantasmagorical, trees ever do to you?
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: Junior just can’t catch a break. I’m so sad.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: It hurts more now than it was, but that’s normal.
What’s your recipe? If I may ask. I’ve been wanting to do that for some time.
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
That’s exciting, and I’m so happy for you! Would love to see photos — perhaps as an “On The Road”?
Steeplejack (phone)
I’m girding my loins to transit the downtown D.C. area for a medical appointment at 11:00 in Largo, MD. Just some tests before a long-delayed (minor) operation coming up on December 7, but of course it will require me to don the tactical gear (pants!) and emerge from my modest rooms in Threadkill Lane into the gradually less threatening (?) coronascape. Maybe I’ll look for an interesting place to eat lunch on the MD side. A grand day out!
(The operation has been delayed not by me but by the providers, what with this whole COVID thing and being short-staffed. I’ll be glad to get it over with.)
stinger
@Mustang Bobby: How does one make whipped cream extra creamy? I’d really like to know!
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Some hedge fund owner named McCormack is said to be getting ready to enter the race. If he runs, Doctor Oz will be Yellowbrick Roadkill.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
I find it hard to believe that TFG is, or could conceivably be, incredulous about any male of his acquaintance being an abusive bully.
He endorses guys like Parnell because of, not in spite of.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m just going with curing in Tony Chachere’s and cinnamon for three days in ziplocks and smoking on a water smoker. I’ve done in before and, although most turkey tasso call for just thighs, I’ve cut up the whole bird
I used this as a reference.
raven
@Steeplejack (phone): An operation on Pearl Harbor Day!!!
Kay
Southern whites migrated north for jobs in this period and made the northern states more like the south.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I am relearning to walk, after throwing the hell out of my back yesterday.
I’ve actually made a surprisingly fast recovery. I was doing yoga stretches and repeatedly doing the most difficult move, which was (a) standing up from the sofa and (b) getting back down onto the sofa. A couple of times I was in between those two positions thinking I was never going to either get down or get back up and I’d have to spend the rest of my life hunched over holding onto furniture.
But despite “assistance” from the dog, the stretching worked. I just walked the dog (slowly and carefully) and I think I’m going to actually be able to enjoy Thanksgiving with the kids and grandkids.
But my granddaughter expects me to be the only adult who is still willing to give her piggyback rides or let her climb on them, and I’m not sure I’m up to that.
raven
@Kay: Bobby Bare
Detroit City
‘Cause you know I rode a freight train north to Detroit City
And after all these years I find I’ve just been wastin’ my time
You know what I’m gonna do?
I’m gonna take my foolish pride
Get it on a southbound freight and let it ride
I’m gonna go back to the loved ones
The ones I left waiting so far behind]
Taken4Granite
@SiubhanDuinne: The thing TFG might be incredulous about is that Parnell got caught.
raven
@Kay: John Prine’s family moved from Kentucky to Maywood, Il.
Paradise
Geminid
@Kay: I’ve read that descendents of Okies and other southerners who migrated to California are the backbone of Republican strength around inland California.
Betty
@Betty Cracker: Besides the enjoyment of watching the wingnuts pretend how beautiful it was and so classy!
sab
@Kay: I had never thought of it, but yes. Completely changed my area, We used to be a hotbed of Abolition. Then we became a hotbed of white race riots twenty years before Tulsa.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Thanx.
NotMax
FYI.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SiubhanDuinne:
Trump is mad because Parnell dropped out and is therefore a loser. And because his useless son tied him to a loser.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Ouch. Easy does it.
eclare
@debbie: What, you don’t like Christmas decorations with a “Hellscape” theme?
Kristine
@Quinerly: the new place sounds lovely. Looking forward to Sunday morning garden photos of fruit trees.
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
Hopefully not another day that will live in infamy!
indycat32
with the cold weather the water I provide for the neighborhood cats I feed is freezing. Is there anything I can do or something I can use for a water dish that will slow the freezing process?
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Lamb or Fetterman either one seems like a good match against a vulture capitalist.
sab
@Quinerly: What kind of limp housing market are you in where you feel entitled and able to have inspections? // ( only sort of//)
Betty
@Geminid: He already is from what I read. Even Republican bigwigs are puzzled by his decision to run.
Kay
@raven:
It’s funny because that’s still a real thing where I live among a certain set of people. The original group of landowners came from the east coast and those families still own a lot of the ground. They’re of German ancestry, primarily. There’s one town here that was laid out exactly like a town in Connecticut- they just replicated the town they left. They make a distinction between themselves and the later-arriving from West Virginia and Kentucky (not a good distinction- it’s snobby) who came for work. It’s a class marker. One group were owners and the next group were employees. The religious traditions are different too.
evodevo
@indycat32: You can go to your nearest farm supply store and see what heated water dishes they offer…or there are lots of options online…must have an electrical outlet nearby, however…
sdhays
@Taken4Granite: Or that there was anything wrong with what he did.
Immanentize
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I am enjoying the pleasant ministrations of a heating pad on my lower back at this very moment. Stretch!!
indycat32
@evodevo: forgot to mention, no electrial outlet.
raven
@Kay: My high school in the western Chicago burbs had a good number of Southern immigrants many of whom worked at Bell Telephone and the Ovaltine factory!
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby: Your website is really inviting!
I know I still have an update to make for your entry in Our Authors in the footer. I hope you have a link to your website in what you sent me for the update.
sab
@Kay: I hadn’t realized the Connecticut Western Reserve idea went so far west. My dad’s family is Western Reserve. My mom’s family was among the “new” immigrants (Irish and Canadian Scots). We could always sense the difference. And that was before the West Virginians. What a bunch of snobs on all sides.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Has Oprah come out against Dr. Oz yet?
SiubhanDuinne
@Geminid:
The Internet can close up shop for the day. Nothing left for it to do.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone):
I first read that as Fargo, ND. Glad I’m wrong! Good luck!
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Bob Casey Jr. won reelection in 2018 by 600,000 votes, so Pennsylvania’s is a winnable seat.
Kay
@sab:
I never thought of it either, except in a local sense. As I wrote, this distinction between the two groups is still made here but in derogatory way so I was aware of it.
Fair Economist
On a personal level I am continuing to improve from my long COVID from COVID last December. Before I’d been able to do an exercise bike at level 13; this May I could still only do level 9. Yesterday I managed 11 for the first time.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kay:
White emigrant lament: Bobby Bare, “Detroit City” (1963). “By day I make the cars / By night I make the bars.”
OzarkHillbilly
@indycat32: If you have access to electricity.
If you don’t, google “Solar water heater for chickens” and you can probably find something that will work. My search came up with a bunch, not all of which were feasible.
eclare
@Fair Economist: Congratulations! I hope the progress continues!
raven
@Steeplejack (phone): I posted it above.
RandomMonster
I always thought it looked like how they would have decorated the Reich Chancellery starting around 1933, and was thus an aspirational aesthetic for Melania. Your interpretation is better.
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
LOL, great minds, etc.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: Do Oprah and Oz have a beef? I vaguely have the impression that she’s to blame for elevating the quack to national prominence, but maybe I’m wrong about that. ;-)
eclare
@Betty Cracker: That was my memory too, I thought Oprah had him on her show many times…
sab
@Fair Economist: Yay for you. I hadn’t realized you had long Covid. Makes me admire your perceptive posts even more.
Kattails
It’s so nice to see a first lady who has a radiant smile, instead of the models’ haute scowl.
I had to send my dear sweet kitty Becca over the bridge yesterday afternoon. She had been having increasingly severe sinus problems for several months. We’d tried Convenia, then nose drops, another tougher antibiotic, an antihistamine that made her so sick I thought I was going to lose her over a weekend. Finally a sinus flush. The vets had a pretty good idea at this point but on the 10th my Sis and I drove her to a specialty vet an hour and a half away.
It was likely a cancer, probably lymphoma, which is the most common in older cats. The only way to get a real diagnosis would have been a CT scan to the tune of $3000, with a biopsy, or followed by a rhinoscopy which could bring it up to $4800. Then, if “treatable”, chemo plus 2x/day liquid prednisolone, and an antibiotic. Even palliative care would have meant the steroid + antibiotic, and she absolutely loathed being pilled or oral anything, her thyroid medication was a transdermal cream in her ears twice a day.
So this was just impossible. Over the weekend her breathing, whatever was obstructing, was just getting worse and the gunk worse, cleaning her nose 5 times a day, so I called first thing Monday morning and they had an opening at 3:20. I didn’t want to wait and then have things go critical over the long holiday weekend.
I brought her home and got to stroke her and talk to her some more, and cry, until I knew she really was gone. It was surprisingly helpful as I usually go for cremation, or they would disappear (all indoors only nowadays). So she’s on the cold porch and I will find a spot in the garden and bury her today. She was an absolute dear, funny, beautiful black long soft fur, chartreuse eyes. Loved to lay directly under the wood stove and visit me in the bathroom. She’d lick my legs after a shower to help dry. A cuddle kitty, my other two are not. She was 15 but I got her from the Humane society when she was 5. I will miss her terribly.
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
Thanks!
I accidentally saw most of Grantchester Sunday night at my brother’s house, and all I can say is I need to get busy on my catch-up binge watching, because there were numerous things that made me do a spit-take.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kattails: So sorry. You gave her her best life.
NotMax
Booster received Monday afternoon at Costco. Shall spare y’all reports of the unsavory aftermath thus far. The ol’ bod apparently doesn’t play well with odd numbered Moderna shots.
Belatedly included my monthly grocery gathering trip to immediately following the post-jab waiting period at the pharmacy (had overshopped last month in anticipation of doing so in order to need to make only one sojourn into town). In all the years Costco has been open here (25?) have never, but never, seen the place so packed. Absolute madhouse. Practically needed to flag down a guide for the trek to the entrance from where I ended up parking.
Not that I needed to pick up any (still a more than ample supply at home) but noticed the price of toilet paper has nearly doubled.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kattails:
Condolences to you.
??
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
Si Kahn, “Blue Ridge Mountain Refugee,” 1982
sab
The Canadian side of my mom’s family is racist as hell. The other American side spent decades as teaching missionaries in Africa. It was a way to get off the farm in Pennsylvania, and they absolutely loved Africans
ETA We have new Canadians in my family and they ar not racist. They ar lovely people and we are thrilled that they wanted to marry with us.
NotMax
@indycat32
Let them
eat cakedrink vodka.;)
Kay
@Steeplejack (phone):
My middle son had a GF (no longer) and her parents retired from BP and moved (back) to Kentucky. I asked the GF about it and she said “that’s where we’re from”. She was born in Toledo, like, city-of. She went to an urban high school.
laura
@Quinerly: ?
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Quinerly,
You bought a new house?
Yeah!!
Happy new memories :)
sab
@Kattails: I am so sorry. We sent Mac over the bridge yesterday also. We still have’t quite dealt with the pain, which is huge.
rikyrah
@Kattails:
So sorry for your loss :(
Kattails
@sab: Yes, huge. It’s going to take a while. I’m so sad for you.
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: Condolences to you too.
WaterGirl
@Fair Economist: That is wonderful news!
And it surely gives you hope for further recovery. Yay for that.
rikyrah
@sab:
Sorry for your loss :(
topclimber
Three threads later and so OT:
In the discussion about “woke” being the latest tag the GQP and media use against Dems, I just don’t see the problem.
The opposite of woke is…asleep. This is not like “defund the police”, where the opposite is “more money for racist cops.” Rather than “oh my God there will be less money for safety if that happens,” the worst thing that may happen is that some snowflakes feel uncomfortable.
Yeah we are woke to how the rich play a struggling white working class against programs that would help everyone by terming them racist. We are woke to looming climate catastrophe. We are woke to how many fascists are on the other side.
More people need to be woke, not less. Spread the word.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I have the same impression as you about Oprah’s responsibility for Dr. Oz.
I just made the leap to thinking that surely Oprah regrets that, was guessing that she can’t possibly support him, and was hoping that she would come out against him to help stop the bleeding.
Too much to hope fir?
Subcommandante Yakbreath
Condolences to you both.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: Admitting a mistake is the hardest thing to do for some people.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: Not just the North; It’s been a running gag in Silicon Valley about Southern Hickies migrating from some poverty state for a job and spending the work day lecturing us Californians about how screwed up we are.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone): Like what?
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone): Oh, you saw just the final episode. Yes, I’ll bet you were a bit disoriented.
I hope Al Weaver isn’t leaving the show. That won’t leave much.
satby
@indycat32: Tractor supply has heated water dishes. Low level warm that keeps the water from freezing, but you have to check them daily to be sure they haven’t evaporated completely. They make deeper ones for livestock but they’re too deep for most cats and other small critters. Mine is a heated bird bath, so very shallow.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Kattails:
I’m so sorry. As fellow animal nuts, we like to share in the joy as well as the sorrow of having these creatures in our lives for an ever so brief period.
Losing them is never easy and it never gets easier. I know as humans we’re wired somehow to believe in an afterlife so I always imagine our pets are out there somewhere, either waiting for us or floating along supported by the love we gave them during their lifetime. And the loving memories we carry with us until we’re gone.
satby
@Kattails: @sab: Condolences to you both! I’m facing the same with both my oldest animals: not quite there yet but getting closer. But at least we can spare them the suffering and fear.
sab
@Subcommandante Yakbreath: Thank you.
zhena gogolia
@Kattails:
@sab: I’m very sorry for both your losses.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: Hope springs eternal….
Fair Economist
@sab: I had a mild case compared to the horror stories. Low oxygen saturations (92-94) for about six months accompanied by low and variable breathlessness – I’d get out of breath just doing house chores. Chronic dry cough too. After vaccination my oxygen sats climbed back to the normal range and I was OK with normal activities. The cough went away after a few more months. My exercise tolerance was still low, and is s l o w l y improving still.
I didn’t get the real horrors like chronic fatigue, brain fog, parosmia etc. Well, a little parosmia – everything tasted stale/moldy for about a month. I have more trouble concentrating, but it’s hard to pin that on COVID vs. coup-induced PTSD, lack of structure, etc. But when I read the horror stories, I’ve had enough of a taste to understand and believe them.
sab
@satby: Been through this with human relatives. It is easier with animals. That sounds cold but it isn’t. We have few choices with humans thanks to the fucking ‘lifers’ who are more interested in politics than actual human life and suffering.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Sigh, the real Hitler was an artist, the kind of lame poser shit the Trumps were up to was one of the things Hitler was in a twist about. Of course Hitler being Hitler, he would have blamed the Jews for the Trump’s tacky Christmas decorations as some kind of plot to destroy western civilisation.
Fair Economist
@Kattails: That’s hard. At least you know you did all you could and you gave them a good life.
@sab: Sorry for you as well.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kay:
She might have had some culture shock if she went with them!
My mother’s family is from rural (northern) Tennessee, so I can relate.
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
Yeah, I just saw part of the Sunday night episode. I am way behind.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: Apparently he was a real,honest-to-goodness MD at one time. I don’t see him making it in a state-wide race in PA.
Heidi Mom
@Kattails: So very sorry for your loss.
L85NJGT
Migrant songs are a staple of post war country music. Streets of Bakersfield, Streets of Baltimore, Oklahoma Sunshine, to name a few. Appalachian coal industry employment cratered in the fifties, forcing workers to take factory work in the big cities.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Cameron: The Philly area suburbs have been getting bluer and bluer over the last decade or so. Though Toomey (spit!) managed to win his last re-election bid, a Democrat has a real shot. Even though the deplorable parts of the state are still very much deplorable.
I think it hinges on Democrats getting credit for the improvements in people’s lives that are going to happen in the next year under the infrastructure and (FSM willing) BBB bills.
sab
@Kay: Culture shock is coming.
We have this in my extended family. Stupid parents do untold damage. The untold part is important but untold.
coyoteville
@Quinerly:
Eldorado is great. My sister and her partner have lived there for years. She’s one of the founders of High Desert Massage, with studios both downtown and in Eldorado. Good luck on your move. Scritches to el perro.
hueyplong
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yes, he’d have called Melania a slav and noted the Jewish influence of the son-in-law.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Between Drs Oz and Phil, Oprah has a lot to answer for. I’ve never particularly sought her out, but I like her well enough and I think in some ways she’s done a lot of good. But she also seems to allow herself to be at the mercy of any and every prevailing cultural wind, and always strikes me as a classic mark just waiting for the grifting snake-oil salesmen to come along and sweet-talk her out of her money.
Immanentize
@Kattails:
@sab:
@satby:
I am with you in sadness. Having been through it before I can report that and I didn’t like none of the end stuff much. But the deal all told over the years is certainly a big overall win.
My cat disappeared for 24 hours this weekend. Was Toast out? In? Dead? I was a mess, depressed, worried, anxious. But he reappeared happy, inside, just was mousing in the basement I later learned.
Have people watched “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain”? I recommend it
Kristine
@Kattails: I am so sorry.
Immanentize
@SiubhanDuinne: Oprah is not the mark in the room…
Kristine
@sab: Heartfelt sympathies.
eclare
@Kattails: I’m so sorry about Becca.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone): There’s been a whole arc with Leonard, and another with Geordie’s war buddy.
MisterForkbeard
@debbie: Yeah, but when do we get the recording of Jill Biden yelling “Fuck Christmas”, huh? I was assured that was a perfectly normal thing to do.
SiubhanDuinne
@Immanentize:
She’s certainly not the only mark, I agree. But I don’t think she’s malicious, and I think Phil and Oz are. But you’re right, they took as much advantage of Oprah as they did, and continue to do, of the viewing public.
NotMax
Amusing (and educational) to have on as something pleasant whilst puttering around the kitchen doing holiday prep, noting that the four seasons of QI (all from the Stephen Fry years) currently on Tubi are going bye-bye at the end of the month.
eclare
@sab: I’m so sorry about your kitty, Mac.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
O/T, and BTW, and no pressure, but would it be possible sometime fairly soon to get a BJ Pets Calendar update?
Again, I am absolutely not nagging you or Beth, just curious how soon we can see the mock-ups and place our orders, and when they’ll be ready to ship.
Thanks. It’s a massive job, and I know you’ve been juggling quite a few balls.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kattails:
I’m very sorry about your Becca. Whenever kitties cross the Rainbow Bridge, I always picture them lapping at the Milky Way, with the cream rising to the top for them. And when we have weather, and hear rumbles of thunder, that’s the sound of all the kitties purring at once.
eclare
@Immanentize: No, Oprah is definitely not the mark…
OzarkHillbilly
It is for me.
Immanentize
@SiubhanDuinne: I like your image. In my Czech Grandma’s telling, thunder was the sound of angels bowling.
NotMax
@eclare
She’s still busily buying up chunks of Maui.
OzarkHillbilly
@SiubhanDuinne: Phil and Oz are the remoras to Oprah’s shark.
Immanentize
@NotMax: Did someone take her to see the movie, “The Descendants”? Or does she have Larry Ellison envy?
Kalakal
@Kattails: So sorry. You gave her a good life and an ending fee of pain and fear and in loving company.
Kalakal
@sab: Sorry to hear that
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: exacaticatackily.
schrodingers_cat
@sab: Was mac your mackerel kitty? I still miss boss cat and it will be six months this December.
Soprano2
I’m listening to 1A talking about the OSHA vaccine mandate, and it occurs to me that they never mention that some people might change jobs to go to a company that requires vaccination! They always talk about the refusers quitting, but never about people wanting to quit for a safer workplace. I find that a strange omission.
Soprano2
@Kattails: Oh I’m so sorry, I lost two cats that way. Now I’m paranoid when my cat starts sneezing a lot. Sorry for your loss.
Soprano2
@sab: Oh man, I’m so sorry. I saw last night in a thread that you had bad news about Mac.
NotMax
@Soprano2
Doesn’t fit the preconceived narrative.
SATSQ.
Brachiator
@Fair Economist:
I did not realize that you had been battling with Covid. Glad to hear that you are doing better.
My best to you.
Booger
UncleEbeneezer
Has there been a thread yet about the Rolling Stone story on the texts of the 1/6 organizers yet?
No smoking guns, per se, but some suggestion that organizers were in contact with various arms of Trump’s re-election team/The White House. Very interesting…
“On Nov. 28, 2020, the day before the bus tour began, Kremer texted fellow activists in a group chat.
“Welcome to the March for Trump bus tour,” Kremer wrote. “We are going to save the world!”
Two days later, Kremer texted some of the organizers to let them know she was temporarily getting off the bus to travel to Washington for a White House meeting.
“For those of you that weren’t aware, I have jumped off the tour for the night and am headed to DC. I have a mtg at the WH tomorrow afternoon and then will be back tomorrow night,” wrote Kremer. “Rest well. I’ll make sure the President knows about the tour tomorrow!”
The message describing Kremer’s White House meeting is one of several where she and Kylie, indicated they were in communication with Trump’s team. Both Amy and Kylie Kremer did not respond to requests for comment on the record. Chris Barron, a spokesperson for the Kremers, called Rolling Stone to insist elements of this reporting are untrue.
“You are printing things that are 100 percent factually untrue that we can prove are not true,” Barron said. “You are printing things that are absolutely, factually untrue and, beyond being factually untrue, for anybody who knows Amy are like hilariously preposterous.”
Barron repeatedly declined to answer specific questions about which aspects of the story he wanted to dispute.
The texts reviewed by Rolling Stone reveal that on December 13, 2020, Kremer texted the group to say she was “still waiting to hear from the WH on the photo op with the bus.” On January 1, before the Ellipse rally was publicly announced, Kylie sent a message to another group chat that said she was still working on the permits and “just FYI – we still can’t tweet out about the ellipse.””
OzarkHillbilly
A quiet revolution: the female imams taking over an LA mosque
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
So I saw! The Leonard part was especially shocking. (No spoilers.)
OzarkHillbilly
In Brexit news: Post-Brexit scheme to lure Nobel winners to UK fails to attract single applicant
Amir Khalid
@Kattails:
My condolences. It’s never easy to lose a furry loved one.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: Mac was the mackerel. I am sorry for your loss also.
montanareddog
@OzarkHillbilly: The Tory government’s relentless bullshit funnel failed to work on the top 0.001% of the intellectual world. That is definitely a dog bites man story worth reading about nevertheless.
sab
@Amir Khalid: My husband is as sad as you were about Bianca. Mac was a wonderful cat and a wonderful personality. Kind, warm, fuzzy, sweet, and always attemtive to his loved ones.
Soprano2
The Sony 200 CD player I ordered from EBay arrived last night. We had to redo the whole stereo cabinet because the new player is bigger than our old one that quit working two years ago. I needed to clean the cabinet out though, it was filthy inside! My husband had to almost completely dismantle the old player to get our CD’s out. So yay, now we can listen to our Christmas CD’s again! And for those saying “Why would you want to do anything but stream music”, well we own the CD’s and want to listen to them. I looked some for something to store all that music on so we could listen to it, but I really didn’t find anything that would work. At least when I have CD’s I actually own that copy of the music, and ITunes can’t take it away from me without warning.
OzarkHillbilly
@montanareddog: As Jessica Wade, a leading scientist at Imperial College London said, “Frankly, having precisely zero people apply for this elitist scheme doesn’t surprise me at all. UK scientists’ access to European funding is uncertain, we’re not very attractive to European students as they have to pay international fees, our pensions are being cut and scientific positions in the UK are both rare and precarious.”
Not to mention shitty weather and shittier food*
*having never been to England, don’t personally know about the food. Just what I’ve heard and read.
Kattails
A group thank you to all who sent their messages about Becca, it’s wonderful to read them all. We’ve shared many losses on these pages.
Kattails
@Immanentize: Phew!! so happy for that outcome.
laura
@sab: Dear Sab – you’ve each lost a heart companion this year and you’ve had your heart dragged from hither to yon with the refugee critters and I wish there was a way to give you the biggest hug you deserve?
Kattails
@Soprano2: Oh no–two? That would be brutal. Yes, she was sneezing and runny nosed. Kept hoping it was something else. they can be so stoic, but eventually you have to realize that they just can’t breathe.
Kattails
@SiubhanDuinne: Love this.
Soprano2
@Kattails: What’s worse is it was one right after the other. With Gizmo the vet X-rayed her head and told me there was a mass that was impeding her sinuses that was probably cancer, but there was nothing to be done about it. I made her comfortable until we finally had to make the “final trip” to the vet. When Dozer started having the same kind of symptoms shortly after Gizmo died, I didn’t even bother having her X-rayed, because I could tell it was the exact same thing, and the vet agreed. She got to where she couldn’t eat because the mass was impacting her upper jaw and distorted her mouth. We had to make the “final trip” to the vet with her too. They were both older cats, but it was still heartbreaking to see them suffer. It’s hard to know when it’s time.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: @Steeplejack (phone):
With Sidney having left, Leonard is one of my favorite characters on the show. Will is okay. The new addition mostly pisses me off.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: That’s a rough 24 hours. I went through 48 hours of that with my kitty soulmate over a decade ago, and the worry and panic are unforgettable.
Bad toast for worrying you. Good boy all the rest of the time!
frosty
@Immanentize: @Ceci n est pas mon nym: For the first time I can remember, both my upper back (below shoulder blade) and lower back are giving me issues at the same time. The lower was very bad, about like your description of standing up from the couch, but it mostly resolved. The upper just stays there, coming in waves. A couple days ago a double dose of Aleve and a heating pad knocked it back.
Sucks, the doc doesn’t have any solutions. I’m ready to find a masseuse and see if that helps.
frosty
@Kay: My maternal grandma was a Mississppi to Chicago migrant, but nothing like the ones you describe here. Educated, liberal, she earned a PhD in 1948, when less than 10% of women had any college education. I wonder if there were others like her, whites escaping the Jim Crow south, racism, and lack of opportunity.
jonas
@NotMax:
Bezos clearly feels his ex-wife is showing him up in the philanthropy department and won’t have it.
frosty
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I was working the polls in Deplorable Pennsylvania. Judging from what I saw of the new R voters, I think Fetterman could have beaten Toomey. It was a populist year and Katie McGinty was the wrong candidate for the times.
Super Dave
This post reminded me of the old joke, what’s the difference between Rush Limbaugh and the Hindenburg? One is a flaming Nazi gas bag, the other, a dirigible.
James E Powell
@Betty Cracker:
Recent poll shows Fetterman (27%) ahead of Lamb (17%) but 36% are undecided.
Very much hoping there is not a destructive primary.
Brantl
Somehow, Roger Stone always looks like someone has just applied Preparation H to his face……
Betty Cracker
@Kattails: Sorry for your loss. Seems like several of us are going through that here lately. It sucks. :(
SiubhanDuinne
@Brantl:
What a perfect description! Bwahahahahahaha!!
Kay
@frosty:
That’s interesting but the reason the study got my attention is they looked at the counties with the most incoming southerners and then tracked the ideological shift over decades.
I didn’t consider that they had the numbers to influence ideology in northern states, but apparently they did. There were enough of them to make certain northern counties more “southern”.
columbusqueen
@Kay: My late mother used to laugh about all the WV & KY people in New Albany who still called those states “home,” even if they’d been in Ohio for 30 or 40 years.
columbusqueen
@Kattails: Hugs to everyone who’s lost a pet–I wish it never had to happen.
Miss Bianca
@Quinerly: Sounds fantastic! Congratulations!