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Good lord, these people are nuts.

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Infrastructure week. at last.

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You cannot shame the shameless.

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Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Let there be snark.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

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The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

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You are here: Home / Books / Mid-Morning Open Thread

Mid-Morning Open Thread

by Betty Cracker|  January 30, 202211:00 am| 149 Comments

This post is in: Books, Open Threads

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Woke up this morning to find that my neighbor had already shoveled the iguanas off my driveway. That’s the neighborly way we roll here in Miami.

— Dave Barry (@rayadverb) January 30, 2022

The mister is outside assessing the damage from last night’s hard freeze. Our banana trees and elephant ears got whacked, he says, but they’ll be back. I hope everyone in the areas that really got blasted with the cold and snow is safe and warm.

Also, shout-out to whoever it was who recommended “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell in a recent thread here (can’t remember who or where). Wow, what a gorgeous book. Thank you!

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

149Comments

  1. 1.

    debbie

    January 30, 2022 at 11:04 am

    I just started reading Yonder by Jabari Asim, an author who’s new to me, and I can tell I’m going to like him very much.

  2. 2.

    germy

    January 30, 2022 at 11:08 am

    Golf course airhorn ⛳️ pic.twitter.com/CIx4Oe86vQ

    — Jackass clips (@jackass_clips) January 26, 2022

  3. 3.

    germy

    January 30, 2022 at 11:09 am

    imagine if someone popped a single balloon pic.twitter.com/zoEpThdf7R

    — Jay ✊? (@NoGoodLeftist) January 29, 2022

  4. 4.

    mrmoshpotato

    January 30, 2022 at 11:10 am

    @germy: Never thought I’d see a Jackass clip posted here.

    Classic!

  5. 5.

    Yarrow

    January 30, 2022 at 11:12 am

    How hard was the freeze?

    My favorite Florida iguana story:

    SHAPIRO: Magill says if you meet a semi-frozen iguana, treat it as though it could be alive. He told us this crazy story about a guy in Key Biscayne who was originally from Central America.

    MAGILL: And in Central America, iguana is a delicacy. It’s something – they’re actually farmed for food. So this gentleman just thought, wow, I just have a bunch of protein here. He’s on Key Biscayne. He’s sort of picking up all these iguanas that appear to be dead on the road that had fallen out of trees. They turned gray and were not moving at all and very cold to the touch.

    And he put them into his vehicle. He’s loading them up like he was stocking up for a big barbecue. When they went back into the vehicle, the vehicle warmed up, and those iguanas started coming back to life. And all of a sudden, they started getting up and running around in the car, and it caused an accident.

  6. 6.

    geg6

    January 30, 2022 at 11:16 am

    Hamnet is a truly beautiful book.  Loved it!

    For those curious as to what we chose to watch last night while curling up against the cold, we found a CNN doc, Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago.  Highly recommended!  I am a huge Terry Kath fan and it was very good.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    January 30, 2022 at 11:17 am

    @Yarrow: It was in the 20s for several hours. The water in our birdbath froze!

  8. 8.

    germy

    January 30, 2022 at 11:17 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    The man who throws the golf club at them reminds me of the guy who moved in across the street from us.  Always a polo shit and boatshoes. Inherited a dealership and wants everyone to know about it (“It’s in my DNA!”). Racist who stares at POC.  etc.

  9. 9.

    germy

    January 30, 2022 at 11:18 am

    The chief political project for conservatives in America is to make life harder for clerks https://t.co/sEk5SwTjOd

    — khanate (@polishXcellence) January 29, 2022

  10. 10.

    mrmoshpotato

    January 30, 2022 at 11:19 am

    @Betty Cracker: That’s wild.

  11. 11.

    cope

    January 30, 2022 at 11:22 am

    Here in sand pine uplands, the freeze was pretty minimal. I did cover my baby Fresno pepper plants but beyond that, our thirty plus years living in the Sunshine State have led us to the point where we don’t have any outside plants that need covering.  “Freeze ‘em all and let the gods sort them out”.

  12. 12.

    MagdaInBlack

    January 30, 2022 at 11:23 am

    @germy: Cowards always kick down.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    January 30, 2022 at 11:25 am

    @germy:

    Who taking the video though?

  14. 14.

    germy

    January 30, 2022 at 11:25 am

    Kid Rock looks like a Tim Robinson character trying to beat jury duty pic.twitter.com/BbaUYg7evY— BUNN O))) (@ohmyfuckinggod) January 28, 2022

  15. 15.

    germy

    January 30, 2022 at 11:25 am

    @Baud:

    I thought they always worked in pairs.

  16. 16.

    eclare

    January 30, 2022 at 11:28 am

    @germy:   ROFL!

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    January 30, 2022 at 11:28 am

    @germy: Truth.

  18. 18.

    MattF

    January 30, 2022 at 11:29 am

    Timothy Snyder’s WaPo essay demolishing Putin’s rationale for aggression towards Ukraine. Worth reading on its own, and also good for deconstructing RW support for Putin.

  19. 19.

    Starfish

    January 30, 2022 at 11:29 am

    @Baud: It could go either way here. It could be an anti-masker thinking dude is standing up for justice or a coworker thinking “no one needs to be treated like this at their job.”

  20. 20.

    Baud

    January 30, 2022 at 11:30 am

    @germy:

    I have no idea.  So this bit of assholery was staged for the TikTok?

  21. 21.

    MagdaInBlack

    January 30, 2022 at 11:31 am

    @Baud: Yes, most likely.

  22. 22.

    germy

    January 30, 2022 at 11:32 am

    I like this bird a lot:

    Their music saved me pic.twitter.com/4onhIfeM2x

    — Spey (@_spey) January 26, 2022

  23. 23.

    Yarrow

    January 30, 2022 at 11:34 am

    @Betty Cracker: OMG, that is COLD for Florida! Definitely a hard freeze. Hope all your plants are okay.

  24. 24.

    Yarrow

    January 30, 2022 at 11:36 am

    @germy:  All I can think watching that is, “Don’t do that! Those white people on the golf course have guns! They’ll shoot you!” I don’t think I would have thought that when Jackass first came out.

  25. 25.

    germy

    January 30, 2022 at 11:38 am

    @Yarrow:

    Yes, I don’t know if Allen Funt would make it nowadays.  He’d try “Candid Camera” and a bunch of people would start shooting.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    January 30, 2022 at 11:42 am

    @Yarrow: I’m in the northern half of the state (too far north for iguanas), so freezes aren’t unheard of, but yeah, it was a long cold night! I’m just glad the mister hadn’t planted veggies yet. That has happened before, and we have to wrap them up, which is a giant pain in the ass. Sometimes he jumps the gun. ;-)

  27. 27.

    Skepticat

    January 30, 2022 at 11:43 am

    Only about 16 inches of snow on this part of the coast of southern Maine, but the wind-sculpted drifts are impressive. I was able to clear the small porch and steps and start a path to the car through waist-deep (well, I’m short) snow, but my cardiologist would have a heart attack if she could have seen me. Usually the only exercise I get is pushing 76. I was happy to see the plow man arrive–until he plowed a couple of feet of now-packed snow over the only space I’d already shoveled. He did manage to leave all the snow between my car and the street. However, it’s a beautiful, sunny day and all of 12 degrees. I’m going to take this job in small bites; there already have been ambulances needed at several houses on the street. I may be dumb, but I’m not totally stupid. You can only imagine how I miss my home in the Bahamas. However, if this snow is my worst problem, I’ll take it.

  28. 28.

    germy

    January 30, 2022 at 11:43 am

     (too far north for iguanas)

    Yet!

  29. 29.

    trollhattan

    January 30, 2022 at 11:44 am

    Just another sunny day in the middle of our evidently cancelled winter. Cancel culture run amok, I tells ya. Will it hit 65? Experts disagree.

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 30, 2022 at 11:44 am

    @germy: and whoever did that thought it was very clever and persuasive

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    January 30, 2022 at 11:45 am

    @germy: They know where you live.

    Kind of enjoy the whole gecko thing, in Hawaii. But reptiles don’t necessarily freak me out–exception carved out for those that rattle.

  32. 32.

    germy

    January 30, 2022 at 11:45 am

    ? pic.twitter.com/wPtseiLnrs— Red Tickseed (@RedTickseed) January 30, 2022

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    January 30, 2022 at 11:46 am

    @Betty Cracker: But no snow?  Poor Pete (and Badger) miss their chance to see snow.

  34. 34.

    Sure Lurkalot

    January 30, 2022 at 11:47 am

    Andrew Kaczynski’s brand new baby

    For those not familiar with the story, their first daughter “Beans” died of brain cancer and they have shared her story to advocate for treatments and cures.

    Totally not sobbing.

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    January 30, 2022 at 11:48 am

    @germy: Had to retweet that one, hilarious! I lived near a golf course when I was a kid, and we would play obnoxious pranks occasionally too. Never had an airhorn though!

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    January 30, 2022 at 11:49 am

    @WaterGirl: Nope, no snow. They’ll have to see it on a road trip.

  37. 37.

    Suzanne

    January 30, 2022 at 11:52 am

    I was going to go to yoga class, but it is snowing. So I will stay home and do Peloton at some point. Probably while dinner is in the oven. I am making Jamie Oliver’s chicken with tomatoes and basil. This is absolutely one of my favorite recipes, as it falls in the low-effort/high-payout corner of the graph.

  38. 38.

    Yarrow

    January 30, 2022 at 11:52 am

    @germy:  That guy just looks so dumb, like his brain doesn’t work right. “Why won’t my hand go through this sheet of plastic? I’ll try again. Duurrrrrrrr….”

    The plastic sheets can be good in some situations and stupid Covid theater in others and downright make things worse in certain situations, but there’s no way they are the fault of the clerk. We live in a society of the worse sort of teenagers.

  39. 39.

    Yarrow

    January 30, 2022 at 11:56 am

    @Betty Cracker:  Oh, yeah. Gardening in such changing weather is a challenge. But if you don’t get the vegetables in early enough it gets too hot. Challenges!

  40. 40.

    MomSense

    January 30, 2022 at 11:56 am

    Finally started watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS and it is a wonderful series.

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    January 30, 2022 at 11:59 am

    @Sure Lurkalot: That picture on the left.  Who’s a grump?  Yes, you are!

  42. 42.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 30, 2022 at 12:04 pm

    OT: Today is the 74th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Unfortunately, the ideology that led to his assassination is on the ascendant in India right now. His assassin is celebrated among the circles that Modi and his inner circle is drawn from. Though even  Modi has to hypocritically invoke Gandhi when he is abroad.

    V.D. Savarkar, one of the indicted co-conspirators  of the assassination plot is the intellectual father of the hard right Hindutva that currently rules India. Here’s hoping that enough people wake up to the fact that this ultimately a road to ruin soon.

    Here is a song from the 1950s movie, Jagriti (Awakening) that pays a tribute to Gandhi and describes his contribution to the freedom struggle.

    De di hame azaadi bina khadga bina dhaal ( (He) gave us independence without a sword and shield)

    Sabarmati ke sant toone kaar diya kamaal (St of Sabarmati you performed a miracle)

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    January 30, 2022 at 12:05 pm

    @MomSense: Is this a new series or a recycled earlier one?

  44. 44.

    prostratedragon

    January 30, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:  I watched Attenborough’s movie last night.  It’s always sobering, but especially so in the current climate.

  45. 45.

    japa21

    January 30, 2022 at 12:10 pm

    @WaterGirl:  New. This is the second year.  Last week’s was unbelievably good.​
     

    ETA: I just wish they spoke proper English like we do in Chicago.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    January 30, 2022 at 12:11 pm

    @Suzanne:

    ICYMI, SNL Weekend Update last night. (first 0:15 of 2:14)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  47. 47.

    BlueGuitarist

    January 30, 2022 at 12:12 pm

    Bob Dylan:

    ”it was January the 30th

    and everybody was feelin’ fine”

    clothes line saga, the basement tapes.

  48. 48.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 30, 2022 at 12:13 pm

    @prostratedragon: I am not a huge fan of the movie. Its a tad simplistic. And it uses white people as narrators so feels very orientalist to me. It deifies Gandhi at the expense of everyone else.

    But flawed though it is, it is an important movie. I saw it when it was released in the theaters our school did that as a field trip

    I have watched it at least two more times after that.

  49. 49.

    brendancalling

    January 30, 2022 at 12:16 pm

    @Betty Cracker: You would not like Vermont at all. The HIGH today is 16F—the low is 4. Yesterday the wind chill was approaching -20 to -30.

  50. 50.

    Suzanne

    January 30, 2022 at 12:19 pm

    @Another Scott: I like the Peloton.

  51. 51.

    Alison Rose

    January 30, 2022 at 12:22 pm

    Also, shout-out to whoever it was who recommended “Hamnet” by Maggie O’Farrell in a recent thread here (can’t remember who or where). Wow, what a gorgeous book. Thank you!

    It may have been me because it’s my favorite book of all time and I will scream about how amazing it is any chance I get. So glad you loved it!

  52. 52.

    oldgold

    January 30, 2022 at 12:23 pm

     

    Tweets from Maine’s State CDC Director:

    1/Welp, I spent last night continuing my research into the #blizzard2022 #hoax.

    Thankfully, @Twitter and Facebook have helpful algorithms that pointed me in the direction of *real* experts who helped me think through this.

    2/I studied poignant, analytical memes from leading thinkers in finance, technology, and art sales.

    To my surprise, their insights actually CONFIRMED all of my pre-conceived notions about this storm.

    Thanks for the research help
    @twitter!

    3/All of this research has led me to conclude that the hype around #blizzard2022 is being driven by the weather-industrial complex.
    In short, it is all #propaganda.

    4/This morning, my neighbors said I needed to put salt on our shared sidewalk to keep THEM safe!

    But putting salt down is inconvenient. Why should I be inconvenienced to help others in my community?

    Can’t people who are vulnerable to slips and falls just stay inside

    5/Get this: my town implemented a “parking ban” too. They say it’s to help them keep roads cleared.

    But it really amounts to the government telling me, a taxpayer, what I can and can’t do with my own private property. Didn’t we fight a war against England to prevent this?

    6/This is a blatant violation of the Takings Clause of the 5th Amendment to the
    @usconstitution.

    It also violates the Declaration of Independence.

    A lawyer I chatted with last night on Facebook says this could go all the way to
    @SCOTUS.

    7/And these so-called meteorologists have no clue what they’re talking about.

    Earlier this week, the forecast was for 10-20 inches. Then it changed to 8-12 inches. And now they’re hyping it up as a “blizzard”!

    I challenge @KeithCarson
    to debate me publicly on this.

    8/I also find it deeply suspicious that their “models” change all the time. I thought this was “science”, which does not change (see, e.g., gravity).

    9/Who pressured them to change the models? My hunch: follow the $$$ and we’ll find out.

    10/Now I am watching the @weatherchannel and they’re telling people to wear gloves if they go outside.

    Do we know what the long-term side effects of gloves are? How do we know that gloves won’t cause skin infections? Or vitamin D deficiency?

    We need randomized trials. #facts.

    11/ And gloves DON’T WORK!

    The “experts” say that good gloves help prevent frostbite. That’s nonsense.

    I know a guy who got frostbite even though he was WEARING GLOVES. #CHECKMATE!

    12/Plus, I did the research and frostbite only happens about 1% of the time.

    And my buddy who got it was FINE after his ER visit and skin graft.

    13/Honestly, this “wear gloves” thing is ridiculous.

    What’s next? Telling me that I won’t get service in a store unless I’m also wearing a shirt or shoes?

    We need to stop living in fear, #sheeple!

    14/Here’s how I see it: I don’t need gloves.

    Treatments for frostbite are SO GOOD now. I’ll be fine.

    I am warm blooded and have a skin system that is perfectly capable of keeping me warm, thank you very much. #Factsnotfear

    15/I went out for a drive this morning and the entire town is on lockdown!

    This is a completely ridiculous overreaction to something that is seasonal, and will literally melt away. It will assuredly be gone by Easter. #bliz

  53. 53.

    WestTexan70

    January 30, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    @Yarrow: It sounds like you get the show!

  54. 54.

    japa21

    January 30, 2022 at 12:33 pm

    @oldgold: That is so good.

  55. 55.

    J R in WV

    January 30, 2022 at 12:34 pm

    So glad to hear Cole is getting better on the late night thread he posted, great news.

    Last night, while it was 12 degrees out here, warmer than usual lately as we’ve seen 3 and 4 degree lows, the furnace started blowing cold air when the thermostat called for heat. The fan was working, but the burner was not.

    This I discovered at bedtime, around 10:30, after I had taken my bedtime meds. Yawn! I turned things off at the thermostat, and carried up a load of firewood, just in case. Also turned on the kitchen range, two taps and the oven. We have a gas detector for both methane and CO near the range, so not as dangerous as it might seem.

    Fortunately, after I got firewood up from under the back porch, when I turned the thermostat/furnace back on, HURRAY !!!  heat happened, and is still working ok. Dunno what happened, just glad. The wood stove is hundreds of pounds of heavy duty steel, but the gaskets are nearly 30 years old, and not tight any more, so wood burns pretty quickly. I would need to feed one large log at a time every so often, which is a royal pain from 11 pm (bedtime) til 9 am when I typically wake. Nothing I haven’t done many times before tho.

    I will say, carrying loads of firewood around when you are arthritic and 71 is not a fun recreational thing any more! Oh, well. Dogs continue to retrieve deer pieces, yesterday was a pelvis with leg dangling… yum they all say, laying in the snow chewing. So cute, but farm woods dogs thru and thru.

    Best wishes to everyone who got the blizzard, which we did not, just cold.

  56. 56.

    BlueGuitarist

    January 30, 2022 at 12:35 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Thanks for this.

    I’m sorry not to have seen this, or known, before posting a Dylan quote about the date.

  57. 57.

    UncleEbeneezer

    January 30, 2022 at 12:39 pm

    If you love tennis, but slept through it, turn on ESPN2 now for the Australian Open men’s final replay which was truly EPIC!!!

  58. 58.

    oatler

    January 30, 2022 at 12:39 pm

    @BlueGuitarist:

    I’m a sweet bourbon daddy and tonite I am blue

    Please Mrs Henry won’t you pump me a few?

     

    @Alison Rose:

    The Hamnet character appears in Gaiman’s “The Books of Magic”. also a Sandman comic (the one based on Midsummer Night’s Dream, can’t remember the title).

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    January 30, 2022 at 12:42 pm

    @oldgold: I was wanting to put that up in a post today, but I didn’t want to post 15 tweets.  :-)

    Did you put that together manually or is that on-line somewhere in this form?

  60. 60.

    Suzanne

    January 30, 2022 at 12:43 pm

    @J R in WV: We didn’t get the blizzard here in PGH, but we have some snow now. Are you getting it? I think it’s a perfect day to stay inside. Imma make a crockpot of soup later. I love soup.

  61. 61.

    MagdaInBlack

    January 30, 2022 at 12:44 pm

    @J R in WV: I’m quite familiar with the retrieved deer parts. We had a leg that kept re-appearing, no matter how far it was tossed, thrown or buried. The Ghost Leg

    Eta: same dog also once brought home a fully freezer wrapped beef pot roast.

  62. 62.

    debbie

    January 30, 2022 at 12:49 pm

    @MattF:

    He had a half-hour interview on The New Yorker Radio Hour.

  63. 63.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 12:52 pm

    Clear and sunny in my part of NoVA, but brr! cold—27° now, mid-teens at night. But it’s supposed to get warmer this week, up into the high 40s.

    I was thinking about going over to Sighthound Hall tonight, lured by the promise of gigantic BLTs, but apparently even bacon can’t dynamite me out of the bunker. And a little more Omicron isolation probably can’t hurt. Maybe I’ll turn over a new leaf with the Chinese New Year. I’m always a sucker for symbolic milestones.

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    January 30, 2022 at 12:53 pm

    @MagdaInBlack: Friends’ golden once brought home a neighbor’s purse. Guessing that was an awkward conversation when they returned it.

  65. 65.

    MagdaInBlack

    January 30, 2022 at 12:57 pm

    @trollhattan: My husband said ” Good dog, find more.”

  66. 66.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 30, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    @germy:

    Golfer throws golf club at them

    Johnny Knoxville: “You lost your club.”

    Will never stop being funny. My other favorite skit/stunt thing they did (might have been in the second Jackass movie) was when they did Pennyfarthing BMXing

  67. 67.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 1:00 pm

    @Skepticat:

    Condolences on the snowplow. Threadkill Lane is parallel parking, and whenever it snows (not often, thankfully) a pickup with a plow comes through and does a lane and a half down the middle (into the cul-de-sac and back out), which leaves a ridge of snow right next to the driver’s side of all the parked cars. Depending on how much it snowed, it can be formidable. Fortunately, I usually don’t have to go anywhere and can just wait it out. But there have been a few times when I’ve had to dig my car out. First World problems.

  68. 68.

    oldgold

    January 30, 2022 at 1:00 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Despite being a professional procrastinator dedicated to my craft and inherently indolent, I confess,  I put this together piece by piece.

    Why? My skills are circa the Flintstones.

    That expressed, why not just copy my comment? Yabba Dabba Doo!

  69. 69.

    trollhattan

    January 30, 2022 at 1:02 pm

    @MagdaInBlack: :-)

    “We kept the drugs, but your money’s all there.”

  70. 70.

    WaterGirl

    January 30, 2022 at 1:03 pm

    @oldgold: I wanted to provide a link to the put-together thread.  Why can I not think of the name for that?  It’s thread-something. :-)

    edit: I applaud you for pulling it together!

  71. 71.

    Spanky

    January 30, 2022 at 1:04 pm

    @J R in WV: Last week our furnace started putting out cold air too. Or more precisely, the thermometer kept dropping even when we would bump up the thermostat. That’s when I decided to check the filter, and yep! Clogged.

    So if you think your furnace isn’t keeping up, you really want to check the filter first before calling the heating guys, who have about a hundred folks in line ahead of you, many of which will be fixed by one expensive filter change.

  72. 72.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 30, 2022 at 1:07 pm

    @BlueGuitarist: No worries and you are welcome!

  73. 73.

    trollhattan

    January 30, 2022 at 1:11 pm

    @Spanky:

    Heh, our filter frame is a crappy design and the filter will pop out if I don’t stuff something in to take up the extra space. And if it clogs it auto-uninstalls itself.

    But in our case, our furnace was still broken the last time I discovered the wayward filter, and we had no heat for ten (or as it twelve?) days, starting December 30. Used the last of the firewood on the day the needed blower got installed. Spectacular electricity bill running those space heaters we rushed out and bought.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 30, 2022 at 1:17 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Curious timing! Not twenty minutes ago I ordered the DVD of Philip Glass’ opera Satyagraha, without realising the anniversary.

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 1:20 pm

    @prostratedragon:

    According to my voluminous files, this is your birthday, isn’t it?

  76. 76.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 30, 2022 at 1:20 pm

    We are living in the worst timeline:

    John Lennon’s son takes the Beatles into the metaverse with NFT

    John Lennon’s son, Julian, is turning items from his personal collection of Beatles memorabilia into NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, that are being sold at auction.

    The items, which are each one of a kind, include the coat John Lennon wore in the “Magical Mystery Tour” film and three Gibson guitars the music legend gifted his son.

    The centerpiece of the “Lennon Connection” auction are notes written by Paul McCartney for the song “Hey Jude,” which was originally titled “Hey Jules” as a letter to a 5-year-old Julian when John and his first wife, Cynthia, Julian’s mother, divorced. Experts predict the “Hey Jude” notes could fetch more than $60,000

    I’ve lost a lot of respect for him, using his father’s legacy to make money with a scam

  77. 77.

    Jerzy Russian

    January 30, 2022 at 1:24 pm

    @WaterGirl:   Thread Reader (or something like that)?

     

    Regarding twitter:  Suppose I am a twitter user (which I am not).  I get the urge to tweet out stupid shit.    Do people who “follow” me see that stupid shit right away?  Also, suppose I “follow” 200 people.  Do I see stupid shit instantly from them whenever they tweet?    If so, based on what I have seen in tweets embedded here and elsewhere where the users either have hundreds or thousands of followers and in some cases follow hundreds or thousands of others, Twitter must be full of stupid shit going back and forth.  I don’t see how anything gets done, given the time it takes to tweet stupid shit, and to read all of the stupid shit that is coming in to the feeds of the users.

  78. 78.

    MomSense

    January 30, 2022 at 1:27 pm

    @oldgold:
    Thank you for posting that!!

  79. 79.

    zhena gogolia

    January 30, 2022 at 1:29 pm

    @Jerzy Russian: These are my feelings. And I’m pissed that they’re getting ever more restrictive in allowing nonmembers to read tweets. I always thought that it was great that you didn’t have to be a member in order to be a passive consumer of whatever useful info was on offer.

  80. 80.

    MomSense

    January 30, 2022 at 1:30 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Given what his father put him and his mom through, I think he’s got a right to monetize whatever he can.

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 1:30 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    “Start by finding the last tweet in the thread that you want to unroll and reply to it. Here, tag ‘@threadreaderapp’ and type ‘unroll.’”

    Personally, I find it easier to just link to the first tweet in a thread, and then you can read them in order.

  82. 82.

    eclare

    January 30, 2022 at 1:31 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer:   Thanks!  I DVR’d it but only set it for an hour of extra time.

  83. 83.

    different-church-lady

    January 30, 2022 at 1:32 pm

    @Jerzy Russian:

    I don’t see how anything gets done

    You’re completely missing the point of Twitter.

  84. 84.

    JPL

    January 30, 2022 at 1:33 pm

    @Sure Lurkalot: Talia could not ask for better parents.   I have to admit that when I saw the news, I shed a few tears of joy.

  85. 85.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    January 30, 2022 at 1:33 pm

    @germy: Howard Stern interviewed Johnny Knoxville this week. It was about 2 hours.  Good stuff.  I have loved Jackass since it 1st aired in MTV.  I watched a bit yesterday as it was airing all day. It makes me laugh always.

  86. 86.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 30, 2022 at 1:35 pm

    @MomSense:

    I don’t have a problem with him making money, just not using a scammy technology that’s bad for the environment is all

  87. 87.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 1:35 pm

    @Jerzy Russian:

    That’s why I pretty much don’t have a Twitter account and just dip in (semi-)judiciously with my browser. I have a few favorite nyms that I check regularly, and I branch out from there or from Twitter’s “More Tweets” aggregation.

    ETA: Depending on your platform and browser, Twitter might try to coerce you to get an account, but there are ways to skirt that.

  88. 88.

    NotMax

    January 30, 2022 at 1:37 pm

    Hands, those who did not see this coming. Anyone? Bueller?

    Former President Donald Trump is dangling the prospect of pardons for supporters who participated in the deadly Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol if he returns to the White House.

    “If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6th fairly,” Trump said Saturday night during a rally in Conroe, Texas. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.” Source

  89. 89.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 1:37 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    It’s pretty easy to work around their restrictions, but I don’t think you’ve shown an interest in that before.

  90. 90.

    PaulWartenberg

    January 30, 2022 at 1:37 pm

    Noooooooo Howard Hesseman, Dr. Johnny Fever, passed away this weekend.

    Someone get me Tim Reid’s phone number. I gotta thank him for teaching me the atom on WKRP before it’s too late.

  91. 91.

    PaulWartenberg

    January 30, 2022 at 1:38 pm

    @NotMax:

    I hope to fcking GOD trump is found guilty and in a jail cell before 2024 rolls around.

  92. 92.

    Jerzy Russian

    January 30, 2022 at 1:38 pm

    @zhena gogolia:   Putting aside the restrictions, and acknowledging that not all tweets contain stupid shit, I just wonder about all of the time involved.  To pick a random example of someone whose tweet was featured in the COVID thread, Eric Topal has 616.2K followers, and himself follows 535 others.   He seems to tweet on the order of 10 times a day.  Assuming the people he follows are equally thoughtful as he is, that is still on the order of 5000 tweets coming his way each day.  Does he read them all?

  93. 93.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 1:39 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Julian was famously disinherited by his father in favor of Yoko’s son, Sean. He’s got a legitimate beef, IMHO.

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    January 30, 2022 at 1:40 pm

    @Jerzy Russian: Yes, thread reader!

  95. 95.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 30, 2022 at 1:41 pm

    @zhena gogolia: It’s easy to join Twitter without revealing any personally identifiable information.

  96. 96.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 30, 2022 at 1:41 pm

    @NotMax:

    So, I guess this answers the question of whether Trump is going to run again in 202

    ETA:

    Then again, there’s a lot of “ifs” in his speech: “If I run….”

  97. 97.

    NotMax

    January 30, 2022 at 1:42 pm

    F is for flop.

    ;)

  98. 98.

    WaterGirl

    January 30, 2022 at 1:42 pm

    @Steeplejack: True, but then people have to click to see the whole thing.  And I’ll bet a ton of people don’t click.  Especially now with twitter flipping everyone off if they don’t have an account.

  99. 99.

    Ruviana

    January 30, 2022 at 1:42 pm

    @MattF:  I came here to see if anyone posted that.  Timothy Snyder is wonderful!

  100. 100.

    different-church-lady

    January 30, 2022 at 1:43 pm

    Welp, this storm dumped a lot of powder, which is relatively easy to deal with — I’ve worked much harder shoveling far fewer inches, and I was able to clear most of it in half an hour yesterday.

    As far as I can tell it remains that way today because the temps are staying well below freezing,  so dealing with the rest is going to be just as easy.

    I say “as far as I can tell” because I haven’t gotten out of bed yet.

  101. 101.

    WaterGirl

    January 30, 2022 at 1:43 pm

    @Steeplejack: Oh, plus I see that I would have to have a twitter account and be logged in to be able to do that.

  102. 102.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 30, 2022 at 1:43 pm

    @Jerzy Russian: You can be a Twitter member without tweeting stupid shit.

  103. 103.

    NotMax

    January 30, 2022 at 1:44 pm

    Media note. Check out an unusual 35 minutes on Netflix, Camp Confidential. Trailer.

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 1:44 pm

    @Jerzy Russian:

    I’m not a Twitter “user,” but I think there are multiple ways to manage the message flow on your account.

  105. 105.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 30, 2022 at 1:45 pm

    @Jerzy Russian: No.

  106. 106.

    MagdaInBlack

    January 30, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    @NotMax: i Just finished listening to that word salad mess of a rally. He has really lost it. It was several hours of drunk at the end of the bar rambling

    Eta: He isn’t capable of running for Prez again. Won’t happen.

  107. 107.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 30, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    I didn’t know that, but it doesn’t surprise me. Still, he didn’t have to go the NFT route, which is what I have a problem with

  108. 108.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Oh, I see, you’re talking about posting it here.

  109. 109.

    raven

    January 30, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    @PaulWartenberg: Ever see “Gridlocked” with him, Tupac and Tim Roth? Really good movie about junkies trying to get help and being “Gridlocked” by the system. Hessman plays a blind Vietnam Vet.

     

    In the film’s best scene, a blind, elderly war veteran (played by Howard Hesseman) trashes the lobby of the Department of Social Welfare with a piece of metal having grown tired of being treated like a statistic. He ironically screams “name, rank, serial number” over and over, as desk shrapnel flies into the air. And as his superbly named Rottweiler ‘Nixon’ aggressively patrols the building, attacking and forcing working class people to cower on top of desks, it isn’t hard to imagine the parallels to what Tom Price and Mike Pence might soon do to Planned Parenthood.

  110. 110.

    different-church-lady

    January 30, 2022 at 1:48 pm

    @NotMax: That’s a very forward-looking design. For, say, 1962.

  111. 111.

    debbie

    January 30, 2022 at 1:48 pm

    @Jerzy Russian:

    Oh, you have no idea.

  112. 112.

    raven

    January 30, 2022 at 1:49 pm

    How Gridlock’d exposed America’s broken healthcare system

  113. 113.

    different-church-lady

    January 30, 2022 at 1:49 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Assumes facts not in evidence.

  114. 114.

    debbie

    January 30, 2022 at 1:50 pm

    @NotMax:

    I heard that and thought that by 2024, most would have already served out their sentences.

  115. 115.

    different-church-lady

    January 30, 2022 at 1:51 pm

    I don’t wanna click on WaPo: who else has joined Neil and Joni in the Spotify walkout?

  116. 116.

    debbie

    January 30, 2022 at 1:53 pm

    @Jerzy Russian:

    I’ve noticed that some do for a couple of comments, but then no more. I’d bet most don’t, though. I don’t comment, only read. Now and then, it does turn into a time suck, but some posters really are worth reading.

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 30, 2022 at 1:54 pm

    @different-church-lady: Nils Lofgren. And I think I saw on twitter yesterday, Barry Manilow.

    and Harry and Megan are rethinking the podcast they haven’t produced yet.

  118. 118.

    debbie

    January 30, 2022 at 1:55 pm

    Answered.

  119. 119.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 30, 2022 at 2:00 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    I used to follow Aaron Rupar’s Twitter feed regularly, but just in the past few days it has started to cut me off abruptly after I see the first three or four tweets. A shame, I like him a lot but I will not join Twitter for the sole pleasure of reading him.

  120. 120.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 30, 2022 at 2:03 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’ve noticed that happening to me too. It’s very annoying when you’re just trying to read the comments

  121. 121.

    Baud

    January 30, 2022 at 2:04 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Never read the comments.

  122. 122.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 30, 2022 at 2:06 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: What is your primary objection to opening a Twitter account, if you don’t mind sharing?

  123. 123.

    Ruckus

    January 30, 2022 at 2:06 pm

    @trollhattan:

    66 here now. The temp and the famous road the same…..

  124. 124.

    MagdaInBlack

    January 30, 2022 at 2:11 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I don’t know what you’re using, but after I set my chromebook to not allow twitter to set cookies, I can read all twitter comments.

  125. 125.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 2:14 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    Nils Lofgren, that I know of. (Guitarist for Crazy Horse and Neil Young collaborator.)

  126. 126.

    Starfish

    January 30, 2022 at 2:15 pm

    @Jerzy Russian: No one reads them all. Twitter algorithmically hides things from you. If you interact with certain people, you will see more of them. If you do not interact with people, you will see less of them. It is like Facebook in that algorithms will make people disappear, and you generally will not notice. Facebook was weird though in that it would amplify conflict. Twitter doesn’t, generally, do that.

    Being a completionist on any of these platforms is futile unless you keep the number of people you follow down to something really low.

    Any of the platforms screwing up time ordering and manipulating your timeline in any way will not let you live your life as a person who completes reading things.

  127. 127.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 2:16 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It might vary a bit according to your platform and browser, but what works for me is, in my browser but not on a Twitter page, to go into the settings and delete any Twitter cookies. Then I can go back to Twitter pages and navigate without problems.

    ETA: Someone else suggested opening Twitter in “private” mode, which might accomplish the same thing.

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    January 30, 2022 at 2:21 pm

    @NotMax:

    Talk about buying votes……

  129. 129.

    Geminid

    January 30, 2022 at 2:24 pm

     

     

    @Jerzy Russian: If you are selective, you can find a lot of smart stuff on Twitter. @Magi_jay would be a good example. I’ve also run into a lot of very articuate, committed Democrats through @eclecticbrotha (Ragnarok Lobster). These folks don’t tweet stupid shit, they refute it.

    I also find a lot of good smart stuff through @Betty Cracker and @Cheryl Rofer. So I guess I’m saying that Twitter is what you make of it.

  130. 130.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 30, 2022 at 2:30 pm

    @Baud:

    Advice to live by

  131. 131.

    zhena gogolia

    January 30, 2022 at 2:32 pm

    @Steeplejack: I don’t find it that easy. I do the incognito thing when I’m desperate but it’s a pain

  132. 132.

    trollhattan

    January 30, 2022 at 2:37 pm

    @PaulWartenberg:

    :-( Loved Johnny Fever. r.i.p. Mr. Hesseman, and thanks.

  133. 133.

    J R in WV

    January 30, 2022 at 2:42 pm

    @Suzanne:

    Our heavy skiff of snow is mostly gone now, high this afternoon supposed to be 43, won’t be that warm here in our little hollow. I’m just very glad the furnace decided to fire up after I shut it off for a few minutes. Computers are all the same… “Did you turn it off and restart it?” is always the first thing to try.

    We have used the wood stove to keep warm in deep freeze times, but I was much younger then. I contemplate chicken and dumplings, or else a meatloaf with the pound of ground lamb I have.

  134. 134.

    J R in WV

    January 30, 2022 at 2:44 pm

    @MagdaInBlack:

    ” I’m quite familiar with the retrieved deer parts. ”

    We call them Bambi Bits. The most disgusting was one morning we woke up to an eyeless head of doe on the back porch — yuck!

  135. 135.

    Jerzy Russian

    January 30, 2022 at 2:52 pm

    @Geminid:   Yes, there is a lot of good information on Twitter, which is probably a tiny fraction of all tweets.   I wonder overall if the upsides of Twitter (for example it is a good way to put out timely announcements, like “the next round of JWST data is now available on the archive”) outweigh the downsides (decreasing attention spans, distractions from important issues, etc.).  Yahweh knows I don’t need another time sink (in addition to the one I presently have here).

  136. 136.

    Starfish

    January 30, 2022 at 2:59 pm

    @Jerzy Russian: If you don’t need another time sink, then you are probably right to avoid Twitter. Yes, it does decrease attention span. There are ways to reduce those aspects.

    For example, turning it, so you do not get notifications from people you don’t know, helps. Muting particularly stupid people helps. BlockParty App helps you avoid extended fights with stupid people.

  137. 137.

    Steeplejack

    January 30, 2022 at 3:06 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    I understand.

  138. 138.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 30, 2022 at 3:16 pm

    @Jerzy Russian: Twitter is worth it for the ongoing beef between Richard III and Henry VIII.

  139. 139.

    Geminid

    January 30, 2022 at 3:18 pm

    @Jerzy Russian: Yes, it’s easy to waste time on the internet, and I would probably get more done if I just turned off my device 23 hours a day. But it’s a slow time of the year for me and I’ve kind of given in for now.

    The short format of Twitter has it’s advantages. Considering how visual material is so predominate in people’s media intake, Twitter may not be lowering attention spans so much as hitting them where they are already. It does make for concise argument, at least for those who know how. I think that if I were a political communications professional I would spend some time with the better amateur polemiscists on Twitter, particularly the commited Democrats, and take notes. Political advertising has to work on as an short attention as span as allowed for on Twitter, maybe even shorter.

    But I get my best information reading reporting from national, state and local reporting. I usually look it up on my own, but often I find it referenced on Twitter accounts. @Cheryl Rofer is good that way, and @Betty Cracker is good for Florida politics.

  140. 140.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 30, 2022 at 3:24 pm

    @Jerzy Russian: Twitter is indispensable for me when it comes to keeping track of what’s going on in India. I follow several people who tweet in Marathi and Hindi.

    Block and mute and pick and choose who you want to follow.

  141. 141.

    HeartlandLiberal

    January 30, 2022 at 3:32 pm

    Here in South Central Indiana, we have finally had temps for the past two weeks that sometimes got below 15 F, at which point we close the cat door. With cats inside, of course.

    Two nights ago, at our house the temp got down to 1 degree F, but weather service says it got to -1 F at the airport. But we have had no real snowfall to speak of, just a couple of episodes of snow showers that did not stick, and may three times with half an inch accumulation. Indiana has been in a “snow hole,” with all the major snow falls bypassing us to the north or south. Take that, Kentucky.

  142. 142.

    satby

    January 30, 2022 at 3:38 pm

    @Geminid: I love Twitter. Fun, smart stuff to find all over it.

  143. 143.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    January 30, 2022 at 4:10 pm

    @MomSense: Isn’t the casting of the woman who plays Helen wonderful?

  144. 144.

    MagdaInBlack

    January 30, 2022 at 4:11 pm

    @J R in WV: Oh, you definitely win the Creepiest Bambi Parts award.

  145. 145.

    MomSense

    January 30, 2022 at 4:20 pm

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):

    So good.  The whole cast is perfect, including Ticky Woo.

  146. 146.

    Geminid

    January 30, 2022 at 4:26 pm

    @satby: @Susan Vermazen! @(((Buffalo Meg)))!! Women seem to lead the flock.

  147. 147.

    J R in WV

    January 30, 2022 at 4:33 pm

    @MagdaInBlack:

    It was horrific, a bright sunny morning, there it was — not staring at us!

  148. 148.

    MagdaInBlack

    January 30, 2022 at 4:46 pm

    @J R in WV: ??

  149. 149.

    prostratedragon

    January 31, 2022 at 4:13 am

    @schrodingers_cat:  I could see what you mean while I was watching —in fact you can’t miss it— but in the end the subject,  by which I mean more than the person, still comes through.

    At the end, Mankiewitz recounted something of the difficulties Attenborough had to overcome to get backing.  Whatever his own concept might originally have been,  I doubt that it would have been easier for him to have pitched a more centered perspective,  let’s say.

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