Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving up is unforgivable.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

We will not go back.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

We still have time to mess this up!

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Not all heroes wear capes.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / It’s Never Too Late For Festivus!

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  10. 10.

    smith

    @Geo Wilcox: Isn’t this how the hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin crazes got started? Lots of common compounds have already been shown to be effective against covid in cells. Not that it’s bad to be optimistic, but we’ve been down this road before.

  13. 13.

    Miss Bianca

    @Starfish:  You are pet-sitting some guinea pigs, yes?

    Do you ever hope they’ll start squeaking just so’s you can watch their little ears flap?

  14. 14.

    Starfish

    @Miss Bianca: They talk to us a lot when we go give them their morning snacks.

    This is the first job that my son, age 11, has had.

    We never had pets because of his allergies and my allergies. This is a fun short-term commitment.

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I just watched/listened to Mandy Patinkin singing “White Christmas” in Yiddish, and I’ve finally stopped hating that song.

  21. 21.

    sab

    @Starfish: But occassionally they post about capybaras. That should count.

    When we had guinea pigs we kept the cage roght besode the tv. When we watched tv they thought we were hanging out with them.

  23. 23.

    oldgold

    @Starfish: Checking spelling can be tough, if you don’t know how to spell the word. Earlier today on this blog, I wanted to joke about onomatopoeia (someone has to) but did not have a clue about how to spell it. I tried sounding it out (ha), to no avail. I typed “Anomamapeeya“.  The auto-correct spell function whirred, buzzed and then went clink, clank, clunk. 

  25. 25.

    germy

    Here’s my gripe. Leave the VP alone. Enough is enough. A thread:

    In every piece critiquing VP we see the same name, many times the only named source. He worked for VP nearly 9 years ago for a measly 5 months but supposedly respected journalists think this is an important *source* we need to listen to. It is such malpractice and manipulated
    — Thee Kriss (@KMC4wauk) December 26, 2021

  26. 26.

    Starfish

    @oldgold: Once, I dated someone with dyslexia. The spell checker for MS Word could never figure out what he was trying to write because the correct guesses are built on common misspellings and not the type of misspellings that people with dyslexia make.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @germy:

    Oh wow.  I didn’t know that. Important information.

    It reminds me a little of how NYT interviews the same “independents” who hate Biden who just happen to be deeply connected to the GOP.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @oldgold:

    You’re better off typing it into your browser’s address bar or search window. The awesome power of the Google takes over and quite often gives you the result you’re looking for. Typing “anomamapia” returns “Showing results for onamonapia.” (But “anomamapeeya” does give me “Did you mean anomaly?”)

  37. 37.

    Raven

    We had a nice morning on the Blue Ridge Parkway from Floyd to Roanoke. Now we’re at my wife’s hometown at a B&B where she babysat when she was a kid. Her family home is just up the street so she took Artie for a walk.

  41. 41.

    Betty

    @Kathleen: Great interview. Thanks for sharing it. It reminds me of a grievance I have been raising on Twitter for a long time. Build Back Better was okay as a campaign slogan, but it doesn’t work for legislation. Senator Cardin said it right, the bill is about investing in American families. That seems to me a much more accurate and marketable focus for the bill.

  43. 43.

    eclare

    Grievance:  it’s gray and 64 here in Memphis.  The forecast for the week is gray.  I hope I have enough caffeinated beverages.  I also have 32 hours of cpe left to do before 12/31 to keep my CPA license.  That will require even more caffeine.

  45. 45.

    Fair Economist

    @Geo Wilcox: Two comments:

    First, COVID research has become so corrupted I want to see some replication.

    Second, while diphenhydramine is easy enough to use, getting a protein into a cell isn’t easy. So using this for in vivo treatment won’t be easy.

  46. 46.

    Kathleen

    @Betty: You’re welcome! Wasn’t he great? I agree with your assessment that Dems should list benefits (the top 3?) resulting from BBB provisions.

  47. 47.

    Miss Bianca

    @eclare: Weather Grievances con’t – the winds are howling round the Mountain Hacienda. Not looking forward to having to split more wood for the wood stove! Gotta keep that bad boy blazing all day , cuz I have a duck carcass in the stock pot.

    Yes, fellow Marxists*, I am in fact making…Duck Soup.

    *As opposed to “Dear Reader(s)”

  50. 50.

    Raven

    @WaterGirl: She is! We got to the BnB early and the room wasn’t ready and it’s a good thing. It was up a narrow circular stairway and there was no way she was going up it. They gave us another room with easier access and all is well. Meanwhile our Sil’s mom died at 90 after a very long illness so what this day will be I don’t know.

  51. 51.

    citizen dave

    Until an easy COVID treatment comes around for the magical thinkers in our population, my grievances are: We’re not all in this together, because a large minority of stupid people won’t take a scientifically-developed vaccine.  Leading to Grievance #2: Because of #1, we stopped talking about what it takes to get to “herd immunity” long long ago.  Anyone remember that chapter early in the COVID book (I feel like every new development is a new chapter).

    Grievance: After brilliant films The Big Short and Vice, Adam McKay made a real stinker with Don’t Look Up.  So very boring and a total waste of 2 hours and 18 minutes.

  52. 52.

    laura

    I have made a donation to the Human Fund on all your behalves. The Human Fund – money for people. You can thank me in the replies. \\

  53. 53.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Just tested negative again!!  But was legit worried since I spent 10 minutes in a gas station with 15 unmasked rednecks yesterday.  In short: f*** North Texas!

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    @Raven: Sigh.  Circle of life.  Artie gets a new life and there’s joy in that, 90-year-old mom dies after a long illness.  Joy, sadness, relief.  I know you guys will roll with the punches.

  60. 60.

    Raven

    @WaterGirl: Yea, Sil may or not be vacxed even though she’s a schoolteacher. The rub is that she basically spent 10 years taking care of my wife’s dad before her mom’s decline so fussing about Covid ain’t happening. We have our rapid’s so that is just what we’ll do.

  61. 61.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Ha ha ha – idiot in OR who ruined his kid’s Xmas call with the President has opened a bucket of worms for himself & his family’s business. Why did he leave the Medford police force after only 6 years. His dad was charged with illegal weapons sales in 1991 while  a Navy SEAL. How did the 2 family businesses get startup money & justify the large PPP loans? Keep opening your yap, asshole.

  66. 66.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Not sure links works. It’s to a Twitter thread with a link to the 1991 article. Further down are links to address lookups. PPP of $400K stated but I haven’t looked up the PPP website myself.

    ETA ugh, let me try that in another post

  67. 67.

    Kelly

    @BeautifulPlumage:  idiot in OR who ruined his kid’s Xmas call with the President has opened a bucket of worms for himself & his family’s business

    Nope, for that very MAGA region of Oregon it’s good publicity. He’ll get hi fives all around

  68. 68.

    Central Planning

    Here’s my Festivus grievance: People who double click EVERYTHING annoy me. There are plenty of things that just need a single click. Don’t those people ever wonder why there are multiple copies of the exact same web page opened in their browser?

  70. 70.

    Jackie

    @Kathleen: I saw it on the earlier thread and watched it. It was a GREAT interview! That it was on Fox News is amazing!

    It’s too bad it won’t be seen by CNN or MSNBC viewers – instead of Manchin ad nauseam.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    @BeautifulPlumage: The trick with a tweet is that you copy the code in your browser and THEN click the TEXT tab in the comment editor.

    Your issue appears to be that you were copying the code with the visual tab, and the visual tab doesn’t know what to do with HTML code.

  80. 80.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @germy: one twitter theory is that they’re so in their bubble that they don’t think any of their behaviors are a problem. Then they discover the 2nd half of FAFO.

  84. 84.

    germy

    @BeautifulPlumage:

    I sometimes think we’re in our own bubble.  Often I’ll see reporting here about some magat or another who has done something terrible, and we’re all “he’ll never be accepted again, he’s finished” and then the magat is greeted as a conquering hero in his own bubble.

  93. 93.

    Starfish

    @germy: If there is anything we have learned from the Trump years, it is that there are very few moral standards or standards of civility left on the right.

    The things that are forbidden are:

    • Being gay and being a priest
    • Jerry-Falwell level exploits (but only because he was a minister, and the lawsuits were going to cost his university a lot)
    • Saying anything against Trump

    Other than that, they can feel free to not uphold any civility standards.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @gmat: Hi there,

    Your first comment has to be manually approved before they show up for everyone.

    I just approved your first and second comment, so you are good to go now.

  101. 101.

    eclare

    @Steeplejack:   Written courses and test questions on-line.  It is SO boring, and I don’t learn anything.  But I worked too hard to get that license, I will keep it til the end.

  102. 102.

    mrmoshpotato

    Chuckles can get fucked, forever and ever, Amen.

    This shows why I absolutely cannot stand to watch Chuck Todd. He’s horrible. Notice how when she busts him on his implicitly racist framing he tries to talk over her and shut her up. What an asshole. https://t.co/SElEMbFMre— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) December 26, 2021

  103. 103.

    Starfish

    @Central Planning: My sister had to have “the talk” with me. It consisted of “You know you can single click that instead.” It was painful to hear. I am not sure that I am doing much better, but I try.

  106. 106.

    Kent

    @germy:

    @BeautifulPlumage:

    My question is:  Why do these cockroaches keep switching on the kitchen light?

    If their pasts are so sketchy… why not keep a low profile?

    They are following their cult leader Trump.   I mean who the hell had more sketchy shit in his past than Trump?   No one.

  108. 108.

    NotMax

    People pooh-pooh Seinfeld, but it did give birth to Festivus.

    @Starfish

    One of the things on the personal must do list whenever am setting up a new computer running Windows is to change the appropriate setting so single click applies to everything.

    IMHO double clicking shortens mouse life. And aggravates arthritic fingers.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor

    Gift as a verb has a long historical usage in English. It has gone out of fashion (as have other eccentricities of more formal speech) but is not some radical new coinage.

    @WaterGirl

    “snuck”

    :shudder:

  109. 109.

    CaseyL

    Being on the Left Coast, and subject to occasional bouts of insomnia, I feel it is a great failing of this blog that conversations start petering out after 2:00 AM my time.

  111. 111.

    Starfish

    @Central Planning: I think that age matters in these things.

    People are using computers in the way they may have been accustomed to. I would always get mad when my boss dragged and dropped wrong, and now I am noticing myself dragging and dropping things into the wrong folders.

    “There is a lot of ‘Oh no, you are watching me type, so I will mess it up because I am being observed'” that goes on too.

  112. 112.

    James E Powell

    @germy:

    I always liked when he read (in an angry voice) angry letters to the newspaper.

    Some comedian whose name I cannot recall did that with negative yelp reviews. I laughed my ass off.

  117. 117.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @NotMax: I grew up with “snuck” and was appalled to learn semi-recently the more “correct” usage is “sneaked” and that “snuck” is considered a non-standard version of the past tense of sneak, which just sounds WRONG to me.  Of course I prefer non-standard versions of tenses etc. in English, they are usually older versions.

  119. 119.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Starfish: It was well known in my IT department office that many people could not type properly while being watched, for whatever reason (particularly with someone looking over your shoulder as you typed).

  125. 125.

    Brachiator

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):

    I grew up with “snuck” and was appalled to learn semi-recently the more “correct” usage is “sneaked” and that “snuck” is considered a non-standard version of the past tense of sneak.

    Much like the word “ain’t,” I think that “snuck” has stuck around, because it just seems right.

    My imaginary conjugation of the verb has always been “sneak, snack, snuck.”

  128. 128.

    zhena gogolia

    Just watched the Queen’s message. I’m in tears. I guess because it was like another episode of “The Crown.”

  130. 130.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Raven: We had a nice morning on the Blue Ridge Parkway from Floyd to Roanoke.

    Ooh, nice!  It’s been too many years since I’ve driven the Blue Ridge Parkway.  My then-girlfriend and I drove the length of it, from Rockfish Gap to the Smokies, all the way back in 1982. That was a good trip!

    My wife and I are down in central FL with her family this Christmas. We drove over to the Dali Museum in St. Pete this morning, and it was awesome.  I’d seen reproductions of the four or five best-known Dali paintings, but that was the sum total of my exposure to Dali before today. I came away totally awed.

    On the way home, we swung through (let’s go) Brandon, and had a terrific lunch at Jimmy Hula’s.  My wife and I had tacos – I had the Voodoo and the Kingston, and my wife had the Wipeout, all of which were amazing, as were the zucchini fries.  The kid devoured a Burnt Reynolds burger.

    Now it’s nap time.​

  131. 131.

    NotMax

    WT everlovin’ F? Half listening, with back turned to it, to the TV but ears caught enough of an ad to pick up it is for a perfume named Aryan Goddess.

  132. 132.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Central Planning: Here’s my Festivus grievance: People who double click EVERYTHING annoy me. There are plenty of things that just need a single click.

    Then I’d have to pay enough attention to figure out, and remember, which is which.

    In my work environment, there’s often a lag time between clicking and opening, during which I wonder whether it even registered my clicks (often enough, it doesn’t).  During that time, I’d rather not also wonder whether or not I needed to do a double click, so I always double click.  Makes it more likely that at least one click got through.

  137. 137.

    PAM Dirac

    @Geo Wilcox:

    I know what works in a petri dish does not always pretty close to never translates well to real life

    In vitro data is fine for prioritizing things to investigate further, but pretty useless for predicting what will happen in humans. The vast majority of things that look good in vitro fail before they even get into clinical trial. Even those that do fail about 90% of the time. In this particular case some one at In the Pipeline points out a pretty big problem:

    In the article, the EC50 of their proposed therapeutic combo was 54 ug/mL diphenhydramine, but diphenhydramine is lethal >8ug/mL plasma levels. Don’t think it’s anything to write home about.

  138. 138.

    Raven

    We’re sitting outside as the sun drops, it’s been nice but it’ll get cold quickly. My BIL has SIX dogs, three goldens, a bulldog, a cocker , a mutt and a bichon!

  143. 143.

    Ruckus

    @Geminid:

    Up until not long ago I’d find myself up till 3 or 4 am. Just couldn’t sleep. Now 1am is about as late/early as I stay up, normally it’s midnight. Part of that is retirement, I can now sleep as late as I want, which is difficult to do when you actually have a starting time that you get paid to abide by.

  144. 144.

    Argiope

    Coworkers who constantly reply to all, when replying to sender would be sufficient.  Can I get a witness? Some people need that option taken away from them due to abusive practices.

  149. 149.

    Central Planning

    @Argiope: +1 to that. My coworker and I would bet on the ratio of account managers to sales engineers that would reply all. The ratio was ALWAYS high.

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