Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Books are my comfort food!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Giving up is unforgivable. ~Joe Biden

You cannot shame the shameless.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

This blog will pay for itself.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Democrats are back in array!

It’s a doggy dog world.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

We still have time to mess this up!

When we show up, we win.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / KULCHA! / Sunday Morning Open Thread, End of A Long Week Edition

Sunday Morning Open Thread, End of A Long Week Edition

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Sunday Morning Open Thread, End of A Long Week Edition

By request, from commentor Dan B:

Some Jackals have requested pictures of the gift of Pre Columbian aculpture I just received. It’s a Jalisco Terra Cotta figure, Circa 100BC to AD250. From shaft burial tombs of Western Mexico.

Sunday Morning Open Thread, End of A Long Week Edition 1

***********
And a little inspiration for a Sunday Morning…

… The toy Krell created may at first glance seem familiar: It makes giant bubbles. The kind of giant bubbles performers have used for years to dazzle audiences. The kind of giant bubbles that have gained certain TikTok users followers. The kind of giant bubbles that Krell — before creating his own product, before even becoming an attorney — used to awe kids at the Boston Children’s Museum. While in college, Krell worked at the museum, which has a beloved bubble exhibit.

But making giant soap bubbles at home usually requires space and skill, Krell says. Products on the market require mixing ingredients in buckets and using large ropes or hula hoops to form impressive bubbles. Krell’s “Inormo” bubbles are different. He worked with a physics professor at Emory University to create an already mixed, soap-based solution and used it to fill containers small enough to fit in children’s hands. Each container comes with string and small wands made from recycled ocean plastic that can be used to make different types of bubbles — even bubbles within bubbles.

In other words, he found a way to bottle joy.

“I wanted to democratize giant bubbles,” Krell says. “I wanted to make it so that everyone can play with giant bubbles out of just a little bottle.”…

While working as an attorney and a toymaker, Krell also wrote a novel. It provides a fictional backstory to the bubbles.

In it, a teenage girl and her brother, who are staying in foster care while their mom goes though a 28-day drug treatment program, meet a scientist who owns a toy store that holds only one dusty product. It’s, of course, a bottle of bubbles. After the siblings and a group of homeless children they befriend learn that the toy supposedly holds magic, they try to figure out if that is true.

“The whole story is all about hope,” Krell says. “It’s not a happy-go-lucky story. It’s more like a lot of darkness and this girl and her friends are seeking out some happiness from it.”

Reader Interactions

171Comments

  4. 4.

    JWR

    Newsom must be a B-J lurker :)

    California governor Gavin Newsom has called for a new California law that will effectively bar the manufacture and sale of assault rifles in the state, modeled on Texas’s victory in the U.S. Supreme Court that keeps in place state legislation banning most abortions.

    Newsom has directed his staff to work with the state legislature and Attorney General Rob Bonta to create a law that would allow private citizens to sue manufacturers, distributors and sellers of assault weapons, according to a statement Saturday.

  7. 7.

    Tony Jay

    @NotMax:

    She’s got it mostly right, if overwhelmingly middle-class, except I’ve never burnt a letter to Santa. Methinks her parents were nasty shits.

    We’re off to a pantomime on the 22nd (Covid allowing) so, yeah, thoughts and prayers.

  10. 10.

    Ohio Mom

    My aunt had several Pre Colombian pieces that she snuck out of Mexico in her suitcase, sometime in the 1960s.

    When her teenaged daughter learned the living room was decorated with contraband, she was appalled and promised to return them to Mexico after my aunt died. So my aunt left them to her other child, her son.

    Don’t know what he did with them, or is planning to do with them, my aunt died just before Covid (great timing on her part, really, to have been a frail almost-90 year old locked down in the house by herself would have been a miserable experience).

  13. 13.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    Have you run that by your strategists team? The Hoff is one of one of few self-pitying alcoholic solipsists who can still legally go within 100 feet of a High School.

    Don’t unilaterally disarm.

  14. 14.

    debbie

    I remember visiting that bubble exhibit back in the late 1980s with my niece and nephew. Kids love bubbles like they love bubbles!

  17. 17.

    Cermet5

    @JWR: I was hoping this would be done – you will see the inferior court quickly strike it down because … just because I said so and we are infallible!  Proving they are the ultimate (ok, second … wait, third, maybe) AO’s!

  20. 20.

    satby

    You know, while I appreciate the work AL puts into an extra open thread on Sunday mornings, I really hate that it’s kind of ruined the garden thread, which was always open and never just about gardening. So many posts are siloed now with special subjects. It stifles discussions.

  21. 21.

    lowtechcyclist

    @JWR: Newsom must be a B-J lurker :)

    I’m sure that, once the law is passed, the Bogus Scotus will find bullshit reasons to distinguish the CA gun law from the TX abortion law.  But it’s worth doing anyway.  There are two possible outcomes: first (more likely), the Shameless Five will further expose just how blatantly partisan they are; or second, they might actually be consistent and let the CA law stand.

    Either way, nullification needs to be a major issue, and this is about as good a way to do it as I can think of.  If states can nullify Constitutional rights, then there cease to be Constitutional rights, and we effectively split the country in two (or more) based on which rights are in effect in what states.

  22. 22.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    My desktop crashed last night. My files are all in dropbox, thank god, so I didn’t lose any of the book I’ve been working on. But I’m having to locate and remember my passwords for everything else. I just took my first sip of coffee. Maybe things will get better.

  23. 23.

    narya

    Bakers’ alert! Penzey’s has 15% off on vanilla through today. That’s not a huge discount (and I had already stocked up from a King Arthur sale . . .) but vanilla has been sooooo expensive. I think I’m actually going to buy more, despite the vast quantity I have; it’s not like the price will drop, and it doesn’t go bad

    ETA: DAW, that sucks. here’s hoping you retrieve it all safely.

  26. 26.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @lowtechcyclist: Meh, they’ll just uphold the Texas law while simultaneously declaring that it’s a one-off and not a precedent (see Bush v Gore). When the next rightwing shitball of a law comes before them, they’ll do it again. It will not stop because there will always be a Sinema or a Manchin “on” our side and their side is a monolithic, power-mad Borg.

  27. 27.

    Scott P.

    I was going to ask the provenance of that figure, as there has been a lot of illicit looting in Mexico (as in most places in the world).

  28. 28.

    sab

    @lowtechcyclist: Gun laws have an actual amendment. Abortion, contraception, voting etc don’t. That’s how they’ll make the distinction.

    On the other hand, the 14th amendment shouldn’t really count because it was passed long after the Founding Fathers died. Therefore the Bill of Rights only applies to the Federal government and the states can do whatever the hell they want.

    My contribution to legal analysis by amateurs

    ETA: Just trying to think like an Originalist.

  29. 29.

    debbie

    @satby:

    Were you able to get everything planted you wanted to?

    I hope Momsense is around. NPR just interviewed Neil Young and he talked about his mother, who he said was very supportive and really cool about him playing his music when he was growing up. I thought of her immediately.

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: The California law is not exactly nullification, since Scalia’s majority opinion in Heller recognizes an individual right to possess firearms but also says that this right is subject to “reasonable regulation” by governments. That has since allowed many gun safety measures, including Connecticut’s assault weapons ban, to withstand legal challenges. That may change this Supreme Court term if the Court strikes down New York’s restrictions on carrying firearms. This is the kind of long standing gun safety measure that Scalia said was an allowable regulation of 2nd Amendment rights.

  33. 33.

    JWR

    @lowtechcyclist:

    based on which rights are in effect in what states.

    I heard some faceless GOP senator last week making the case that returning the issue of abortion to the states would make for a smooth consensus when spread out over the entire country. This state won’t allow you to do something, go to one that will. That’s not a country, it’s a geography test.

  36. 36.

    laura

    Hey Dan B- I dont see a single Tom of Finland picture even though you mentioned 700 pictures, what gives? Sure commenters said they wanted to see the sculpture, but you had to know that there’d be interest in the shockingly well hung fellers from the land of frost and fjords too…. or one might suppose there’d be interest. ☺

  37. 37.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @satby:

    Some people wanted the garden thread to be a “safe” thread where politics and issues would not intrude. That left those who wanted to discuss politics and issues nowhere to vent on Sunday mornings.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    @satby:

    Sorry. I agree with what you said. Toggling back and forth is too much like work.

    Glad you got your garden settled in for the winter, though.

  42. 42.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid: I was projecting ahead a bit, I’ll confess.  I fully expect that the Shameless Five will strike down the NY law this term, and consequently will get a metric ton of challenges to state laws regulating guns in the next term, which will largely get struck down as well.

  43. 43.

    zhena gogolia

    @satby: But people used to complain about those who talked about other things in the garden threads. I appreciate having a non-garden open thread.

  46. 46.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: You may be right about the Court blowing up Heller. It seems more like a 50-50 proposition to me. A lot of people who favor more gun control didn’t like the Heller opinion, but I always thought it was basically good for gun safety laws. It’s a reasable, practical compromise, and abrogating it would certainly put multiple, popular laws in almost every state at risk.

  47. 47.

    cope

    I know that few F1 fans hang out here but what a finish to the race and the season to give Max Verstappen his first world championship.

  49. 49.

    satby

    @Steeplejack (phone): I never heard that, and have to wonder about it. I know one person who said she felt like straying from the subject of gardening wasn’t fair, but she’s the only person I ever knew thought that way.

    In general Sundays after the morning threads are vast wastelands here if you want a non-siloed discussion. The blog is diminished for me as a result, but it’s probably just me.

  52. 52.

    satby

    @zhena gogolia: I must be insane, because I don’t really remember complaints of that. I miss the old, free wheeling blog.

    Like I said, probably just me. I’m not here enough any more for my opinion to matter, but I see less and less comments on posts and think that I’m not the only drifter.

  54. 54.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Trump and Bill O’Reilly strike out in FL:

    There were so many empty seats at Donald Trump’s Florida event on Saturday that organizers had to shut down the upper level of the arena in Sunrise, Florida, the Sun Sentinel reported.

    Trump fans sitting in the nosebleed section of the FLA Live Arena were told that they were being “upgraded” to the lower levels, according to the newspaper.

    One supposed audience member, in a tweet that later appeared to have been deleted, complained that the duo was an hour late — and there were a “lot of empty seats.”

    At Trump OReilly show in Miami, running an hour late. Lot of empty seats, think Trump doesn’t want to come out. Getting pissed!

    — Suzy Patriot Party (@SuzyMAGA1) December 11, 2021

    Particularly embarrassing was Trump’s boast in a statement posted on his aide’s Twitter account before the event: “See you in Sunrise, FL, in a little while. … Big crowds!” He signed it “President” Trump.

    h/t https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-bill-oreilly-event-044515232.html

  55. 55.

    Geminid

    @debbie: The way I see it, recognizing a right to possess firearms subject to reasonable government regulation is not giving up anything consequential. But then, I don’t believe in banning private gun possession, even if it were politically and practically achievable in this decade, which it is not. I believe in regulating firearms more intensively. Anyway, a more restrictive decision than Heller would be just as easy for this court to abrogate, in fact easier.

  57. 57.

    JWR

    @zhena gogolia:

    I appreciate having a non-garden open thread.

    I don’t post an awful lot, but I agree. There were times I wanted to post something politics related while everyone else was talkin’ gardens, but felt as if I would be butting in. So one more vote for keeping the non-garden thread.

  58. 58.

    debbie

    @satby:

    As I recall, someone would pop in with a post about shivving TFG (literally), and it was pretty jarring. The serenity of plants and flowers destroyed by angry, violent imagery.

  59. 59.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @satby:

    This is about as open a thread as you’ll find for a “non-siloed discussion.” Two minor niblets at the top (sorry, Dan B!) and that’s it. You can feel free to start a discussion on anything you want.

  64. 64.

    zhena gogolia

    @satby: All I have is my own experience. All that would be available on Sunday mornings were garden threads, and my recollection is that all the comments were about gardening. So if I tried to interject some political discussion, it would go unresponded to. No one ever complained directly to me, but I have some memory of someone being reprimanded for bringing politics in. At any rate, the homogeneity of the discussion did discourage me from participating in those threads, so I was happy that AL started doing this, since during the semester, Sunday mornings (especially now that i’ve stopped going to church) are a freer time for me, so it was depressing not to even have BJ. I’m sorry you are unhappy with your experience here.

  70. 70.

    germy

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    Calling his time at Fox News “a great ride,” Wallace said he’s “decided to leave Fox.”

    “I want to try something new, to go beyond politics to all the things I’m interested in,” he added. “I’m ready for a new adventure. And I hope you’ll check it out.”

    Gardening?

  71. 71.

    Geminid

    @debbie: O’Reilly has really faded as a public figure. trump may be fading as well.

    Glenn Beck seems to be in decline also. A local station here replaced him with Brian Kilmeade, and I suspect they aren’t the only one. I thought Beck was kind of lost after President Obama left office.

    Dennis Praeger’s afternoon show was dropped by two stations near me a couple months ago. It must have really stung. Praegar fancies himself an intellectual, and he was replaced by a couple of wisecracking bros who just riff off current events. But Praeger was too cranky and lugubrious to last.

  72. 72.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: They started singing. In masks, but congregational singing. And although we had to have a year-long discussion, including explanatory essays in the bulletin, in order to hang a BLM banner outside the church, the decision to start singing was made with no congregational input. It wasn’t even announced in the church the week before — my husband just happened to hear someone shout it out as the congregation was dispersing. When we told our doctor, she grimaced and said, “No!” That was enough for us. When I complained, the minister of music said, “They’re singing in other churches.” Not good enough for me. This is the first Christmas since 1998 that I have not been able to participate in my church (they are not doing any livestreaming). We participated via Zoom all through Covid, when sometimes there were only 20 people participating, but now we’re out. It’s very sad, and I’m sure this is more detail than you wanted to hear.

  73. 73.

    germy

    Thread on the former guy’s latest endeavor:

    1. Trump's "media company" is currently valued at $2 BILLION.

    It has no product, no customers, and no revenue.

    But it's much worse than that.

    Follow along if interested. pic.twitter.com/YKyrgn2Hx6

    — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 11, 2021

    5. The entire page describing the "infrastructure" of Trump's media company is cut-and-pasted from other sites

    In other words, not only does this company not have any technical infrastructure it could not be bothered to even write its own slide of what the infrastructure will be

    — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 11, 2021

  75. 75.

    debbie

    @Geminid:

    Can’t happen fast enough, if you ask me.

    After a brief stint as a Never TFGer, Beck went all in. Listening to him twist and contort TFG’s behavior into MLK-like and very Christian has occasionally been amusing, but his Biden imitation as a drunk has been below even him.

  79. 79.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @JWR: Newsom showed he was more than happy to use nullification on Trump. Those five dimwits ignored it.

    It’s going to be hilarious to see how the conservatives twist themselves into knots on this one.

  81. 81.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @zhena gogolia: As someone who doesn’t garden or have the least fucking interest in gardening, I am happy to have a thread where I don’t have to wade through 140+ comments about plants to find the 12 comments about something else.  FWIW I am also uninterested in gaming, so I tend to avoid those threads as well.

  82. 82.

    debbie

    @zhena gogolia:

    I’m sorry your church hasn’t been more flexible. The one I live next to conducts both in person and virtual. They even added an additional service on Sunday. Now, if they could just time their bell to ring ON the hour and half hour!

  83. 83.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia: I am glad to know all the details.

    “They are singing in other churches.”  Competition with other churches is more important than keeping your congregation safe, and helping keep everyone safe.  In a pandemic.

    Stupid, short-sighted and sad.  I’m really sorry to hear that.

    There’s something terribly wrong in your former church.  Maybe there’s another church that hasn’t lost its way?

  84. 84.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Geminid: Beck is on YouTube with 665 k crazies subscribed and PragerU has 2.93 million crazies. Probably not all actual subscribers, but still, they’re consolidating the rwnj’s.

  89. 89.

    germy

    @WaterGirl:  “They are singing in other churches.”

    [sarcastic parent voice]:  “And if the other churches jumped off a cliff, would you jump off a cliff, too?”

  97. 97.

    Gvg

    I enjoy the garden threads being mostly about gardening because that was my obsession long before I even cared about politics. I didn’t have a problem with people wandering into other subjects but I really read those threads for gardening views around the country.

    The NARGS (North American Rock Garden Society) seed exchange opens on Wednesday. I don’t rock garden (in Florida) but they have the best seed exchange I can access, and I love seeds.

  99. 99.

    laura

    @satby: fortunately, my salad days in the SF Bay Area in the 80’s and friendships through the plague years provide ample opportunities for exposure to Tom of Finland and subcultures across the community that today’s bronies just seems so quaint and pedestrian. Thim’s was the day’s I tells ya, thims was the days!

    BTW- I cannot stress enuff how great your vegan body cream is- just The Best!11!

  100. 100.

    oldgold

    I have commented damn near every week for years on the gardening thread. Not once, have I ever made a serious comment concerning gardening. And, to this point, I have never been threatened with Roundup.

  101. 101.

    narya

    @cope: And, just reading about it, it looks like they’ve done what they’ve been trying to do all season, i.e., give Verstappen the title. (half points for a one-lap race? really?)

  107. 107.

    Jinchi

    @Wyatt Salamanca: There were so many empty seats at Donald Trump’s Florida event on Saturday that organizers had to shut down the upper level of the arena.

    It sounds a lot like the Trump rally that Herman Cain literally died to get into.

  109. 109.

    Alison Rose

    @eclare: What I love too is how much this PISSES gun nuts/anti-choicers off, and how he totally knew it would, and is clearly like “Stay mad, motherfuckers.” (If only he would tweet that at detractors. Oh man.)

  111. 111.

    Dan B

    @Scott P.: No idea of the provenance.  I believe it’s been in the US for a long time but no idea and no idea if it’s genuine.

    Time to do some ‘digging’ investigation.

  113. 113.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: From his article:

    The structure of the PIPE deal, however, suggests that these investors are less interested in influencing a future president than fleecing retail traders for a quick buck. Levine notes that typically “in SPAC mergers, the PIPE investors can’t sell their stock the day after the merger closes.” Rather, the PIPE investors need to wait “a couple of months.” In this case, however, “DWAC and TMTG have promised the PIPE investors that they’ll be able to freely resell their stock the minute the merger closes.”

    In other words, there seems to be a real push by these investors to flip these stocks immediately. The investors, whoever they are, seem to be keenly aware that time is not on their side. They want to be able to cash out before anyone gets too much information about how the company actually performs.

    It’s a deal that makes Trump money and the investors money. The people holding the bag will be retail investors paying premium prices for a mirage of a company because they like Trump.

    That group includes Marjorie Taylor-Green (R-GA), who bought between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of DWAC on the day it announced its merger with TMTG. She paid somewhere between $67.96 and $175 per share. That means she’s probably already lost about half of her investment — and possibly a lot more.

    A fool and her money are soon parted.

  115. 115.

    karen marie

    @narya:  I get my vanilla at Trader Joe’s. It’s very good – bourbon, with no corn syrup. It’s not a large bottle but it’s under $10. It should get one through a Christmas baking season.  I still have not been to a Penzey store. They closed the one I found closest to me right before I found it. The next one is 45 minutes away but because of the pandemic it had been closed to in-store shopping.

  116. 116.

    Dan B

    @laura: Sorry to disappoint.  We donated the book to the Salvation Army.  It will undoubtedly brighten an Xmas stocking.  Hopefully of some young person named Tom.

  117. 117.

    MomSense

    I love pre-columbian penis head man.  My dad has a lot of pre Colombian sculpture and many of the human figures have penis heads.

    A friend of mine recently released a simple hat pattern and I don’t have the heart to tell her that my kids call it the condom hat.  Funny how that seems to keep coming up in art and design over the millennia.

  118. 118.

    Anoniminous

    @germy: ​
     

    A companies “worth” is an artifact of arithmetic, viz.:

    1. Form a company
    2. Issue 100,000,000 shares
    3. An “investor” (sic) buys a share for $50
    4. The company is now worth $5 billion

    Isn’t Finance wonderful?

  120. 120.

    Jinchi

    @germy: ​
     
    The entire page describing the “infrastructure” of Trump’s media company is cut-and-pasted from other sites

    My favorite example of the cut and paste presidency is when Melania Rick-Rolled the country during her convention speech.

  123. 123.

    sdhays

    @Geminid: I think TFG is nothing without Twitter. He can’t dominate coverage or the national conversation without it. I think he knows it too, but he’s such a grifter incompetent that he’s more interested in making a quick buck than trying to set up a viable competitor to Twitter that would let him “back in” the national conversation again.

    Of course, with the size of the loans coming due for him, it’s probably a good idea to focus on #1.

  124. 124.

    Mary G

    @satby: I comment on anything in any thread sometimes and hate the idea of siloed threads. Since I don’t have the severe insomnia I had throughout the Early Covid Years, I’ve just woken up at 8::30-ish PST, the garden thread has been up 5+ hours and is dead to most.l

  126. 126.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @satby:

    I miss the old, free wheeling blog.

    Like I said, probably just me.

    There’s at least two of us.

    I’m a lousy gardener, but I often get a kind of zen thing from reading the gardening threads, sometimes frustrated when there was big political news, or at least something discussion-worthy, and there was no open thread for hours.

    In general, back when gardening/cooking/pet threads were an occasional thing, I tried to at least not be teh first one to bring politics into the threads. Now it’s not uncommon to get two or three restricted threads in a row

  130. 130.

    Fair Economist

    @zhena gogolia: With Delta everywhere, and Omicron and H3N2 coming on fast, I think you are very wise to steer away from singing services. Maybe you can go back in a few months – I think Omicron and H3N2 will come and go fast.

  131. 131.

    Nelle

    @zhena gogolia: I’ve been thinking I’m the last person taking precautions.  It is full steam ahead, despite rising positivity rates, increased hospitalizations, and wastewater results of Covid showing highest concentrations yet.  Normally, I will join Tai Chi outdoors on Sunday mornings, but the wind was whipping across the lake, gusting 25, and the real feel temp was 24.  But the leader sets up Zoom too, so I did it at home.  What brand of church do you attend?  We’ve moved a lot and I intially thought I would visit some former congregations via Zoom, but nah, Tai Chi wins every Sunday.

  132. 132.

    Jinchi

    @Wyatt Salamanca: ​
     
    Chris Wallace to Leave Fox News

    For years the go-to defense of Fox as a legitimate news organization was to point to either Chris Wallace or Shepard Smith.

    Is there anyone left over there to keep up the facade, or can they finally kick Doocey Jr. out of the White House correspondents association?

  133. 133.

    Dan B

    @laura: Agree about the body creams, and, am about to shower with Eucalyptus and Rosemary soap.  Wahoo!!

    Tom of Finland, Leather, Sisters, etc.  It was 70’s and 80’s San Francisco.  Went to an early show by the Cockettes.  My “memory” is that they performed in a church in North Beach!?!?

    Seattle was so dull by comparison.  Now that “Seattle has burned to the ground!” maybe something wild will emerge from the ashes.

  134. 134.

    Fair Economist

    I like the garden thread being a respite thread. We do need those from time to time. My experience was that it was usually treated as a respite thread, and there was consequently often no general discussion on Sunday morning. Certainly we get a lot more comments and participation with two threads.

  136. 136.

    Anoniminous

    @Dan B:

    Guess it depended on which groups you hung with.  For a New Lefty kid from Renton there was lots happening in Seattle.  And there was the Seattle Rep, I saw “Hair” at the Moore Theater, & etc.

  137. 137.

    MomSense

    @delk:

    HA!!!

    Seriously it is a long, roll brim, ribbed hat pattern so when you turn up the brim – it looks just like a condom.  The designer is a lesbian and I just ??‍♀️

  139. 139.

    opiejeanne

    @Dan B: Many years ago, a realtor we were working with asked if we wanted to see her Pre-Columbian artifact. She said it with such a grin that we were a little surprised since we knew her to be a person of integrity.

    She laughed explained that a little boy about 8 had come up to her in Tijuana and asked if she wanted to buy some Pre-Columbian art, and escorted her to a garage full of the stuff, brand new, still warm from the kiln.

    The object was convincing to the untrained eyes (hers and ours).

  140. 140.

    MomSense

    @laura:

    INORITE – I’m obsessed with the body cream and the soaps.
    I just tried the cuticle oil and it is also amazing.  My kid stole the lip balm so that tells you how good it is.

    Reminds me I need to order some things today for Xmas.

  144. 144.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Chris Wallace is leaving Fox News, which some people think is meaningful, but I always thought his reputation for independence was overblown, and I don’t think a 74 year old man retiring is earth shattering news.

    Maybe he’ll start going on CNN and ABC and saying “Do you guys fucking get what’s happening?” We’ll see.

    Lauren Peikoff @laurenpeikoff 2h
    Wow – Chris Wallace announcing it’s his last Fox News Sunday. That is the end of an era. (video)

    Kind of interesting that he announced it so suddenly, as opposed to Brian Wiliams’ multi-week living wake

    ETA: and in other news….

    CNN Communications @CNNPR
    We’re thrilled to welcome Chris Wallace to CNN as an anchor for @CNNPlus. His new weekday show will feature interviews with newsmakers across politics, business, sports and culture & will contribute to CNN+’s slate of live programming available at launch.

    They must’ve offered him a boatload of money

  149. 149.

    Dan B

    @Anoniminous: I hung with the Gay Students Association and lived in one of the gay communes that dotted Capitol Hill during the Boeing Bust.  A block away was a gay commute tha hosted parties for the likes of Led Zeppelin when they were in town.  We went to a show at the Showbox in skag drag – full beards.  Took the bus home when our truck was towed.  There was lots going on, just tamer than San Francisco.

  150. 150.

    Dan B

    @opiejeanne: I wonder if this figure is the real thing. It’s a great piece of art!

    My partner is anxious about the peen which is now at eye level.  He put a Noxema blue candlestick in front of it.  Attracted the eye and made one curious about what was behind the ‘stick’.  Poor guy….

  151. 151.

    Princess

    @NotMax: Everything in this has been a part of my Xmas, even a few things that I didn’t realize until I saw this, were British (stockings on the bed) — I grew up in Canada with a British mother.

  154. 154.

    satby

    @Steeplejack (phone): and I did.  I just miss the tribe, but I seem to be the only one. Besides, I think the idea that Sunday garden chat was only that subject developed in the last year(s?) or so, concurrent with so many subject specific threads. Anyway, as I said, not really here enough any more to matter. Just sharing partly why.

  155. 155.

    cope

    @narya: Sorry for spoiling the result. I really didn’t think any other fans would see it.

    I agree that the whole thing stunk. In my view, FIA is one of the most disgusting governing bodies around.  Letting governments like Abu Dhabi and S.A. host races is telling.  And don’t even get me started on FIFA. 

  156. 156.

    satby

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Used to be able to get as much breaking news here as CNN, now crickets while people comment about TV shows. It was fine as an occasional diversion, but now it’s constant. Which may suit the elusive lurkers who evidently are the target audience now.

    Anyway, that’s all I’ll say on it.

  160. 160.

    Brachiator

    RIP Vicente Fernandez, king of Mexican ranchera music, age 81

    Vicente Fernández, one of Mexico’s most recognizable and cultural icons, sold more than 65 million albums and filmed more than 35 movies in a decades-long career that brought him international fame.

  162. 162.

    zhena gogolia

    @satby:

    Used to be able to get as much breaking news here as CNN,

    When was that??? I’ve been here since before 2008, and I don’t recall this.

  164. 164.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Chris Wallace is leaving Fox News, which some people think is meaningful, but I always thought his reputation for independence was overblown, and I don’t think a 74 year old man retiring is earth shattering news.

    I didn’t know how old he was. He and his dad Mike Wallace contributed to centuries of radio and TV news. I wonder if Wallace has any children in the news game.

    Interesting that he is joining the new CNN streaming service. Another sign of the coming death of cable.

  167. 167.

    J R in WV

    The photos of the ancient sculpture are interesting. I think a huge number of those artifacts were brought across to the US over the many decades before anyone cared about original ownership of artifacts. There are a ton of gorgeous local artifacts for sale in the American SW legally found on private property.

    Many years ago I visited Wife in  NYC while she was part of a union negotiation committee. While she worked on their new contract, I wandered up and down Manhattan avenues window shopping art and other galleries. One of the most interesting was a small gallery of ancient ceramic artifacts, mostly quite small.

    The owners were an elderly couple, who were happy to educate me while no other customers were actually buying things. It wasn’t a high-traffic shop. Interestingly a Russian guy came in trying to sell some similar wares, they weren’t interested, after he left they told me he had genuine artifacts, by poor taste, none of them were attractive to their eyes.

    I always wished I had bought some items, they had functional, operational slide whistles, etc, completely intact, 100s of years old. I tried to take Wife there on a day she wasn’t hard at work, but they were closed… now long gone as rents skyrocketed and quaint shops either moved to other areas of the city, or just sold out and closed.

    Statue is fabulous gift !!!

  168. 168.

    PIGL

    @germy: Dang Don’t those kids just look radiantly happy?! unlike the poor wretches in some gun-buggering photo I could mention.

  170. 170.

    narya

    @cope: Eh; at least now I don’t have to watch the race. When I read it and saw that Hamilton was leading the whole race, it looked like they were going to finish under yellow, then Max changes tires, then oops, one more racing lap! Seriously? Bullshit. I don’t need to see that. I really think Verstappen is overrated, championship be damned. And Christian Horner can also fuckrightoff.

  171. 171.

    Mel

    @zhena gogolia: It’s good to let it out.
    That has to be so disconcerting. I’m really sorry that happened, and sorry that the congregants wouldn’t listen to reason. Nobody should have to be on the receiving end of a choral Covid wave.

    Having an integral, long-standing, very personal  part of the rhythm of your life upended in the midst of all the other chaos of these past few years is really hard.

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