Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

I really should read my own blog.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

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

This fight is for everything.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

So many bastards, so little time.

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

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

People are complicated. Love is not.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Bon Appétit! (Open Thread)

Bon Appétit! (Open Thread)

by | 170 Comments

This post is in: ,

As someone who loved “Julie & Julia” but could have done with more of the latter and less of the former, I’m gonna watch the shit outta this HBO Max series:

Leave it to the enormously talented Sarah Lancashire to tackle an iconic role defined by the incomparable Meryl Streep without a hint of fear. Looking forward to David Hyde Pierce as Mr. Child too.

Open thread!

PS: If you have HBO Max, “Somebody Somewhere” is an underrated gem, IMO. It is set in Manhattan, Kansas. I keep looking for Albatrossity’s birds!

Reader Interactions

170Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike in NC

    MSNBC reporting that sniveling weasel Jared Kusher is currently appearing before the January 6 committee.

  2. 2.

    Old School

    Hmmm.  Never heard of “Somebody Somewhere”.  I’ll have to add it to the (too long) list of shows to watch.

    Google tells me that although the show is set in Kansas, it was filmed in suburban Chicago.  So Albatrossity’s birds would have to be visiting.

  5. 5.

    Shana

    Oooh! I’ll have to talk my daughter out of her HBO password. She’s living with us rent free so I think I may have some leverage, but no promises.

  7. 7.

    Brachiator

    To hell with Julia Child. Where is my Jacques Pepin miniseries? ///

    A very interesting woman.

    Also I hear that the comedy series “Our Flag Means Death,” very loosely based on an aristocrat who became a pirate, is worth watching. Also on HBO I think.

  9. 9.

    eclare

    @SiubhanDuinne:   I watch more on HBO Max than any other streaming service, the shows suit my tastes better.  If you do subscribe, definitely add Hacks to your list of shows to watch.  Jean Smart is brilliant in it.

  10. 10.

    eclare

    @Jay:   I saw a really good documentary about that…cuisine varies so much, I don’t have any maple syrup in my house.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    @eclare: Same. We subscribe to way too many streaming services, and HBO Max is the one we watch the most. Great new content, lots of fantastic old stuff. “Hacks” is fabulous — I am very much looking forward to the second season!

  16. 16.

    Ken

    They totally ripped off my script treatment for “Child and Lee”, where Julia Child and Christopher Lee team up in WWII for missions behind enemy lines. Julia’s big catchphrase, when she slit some Nazi’s throat with a fileting knife, was going to be “Bon appétit!”

  17. 17.

    Mart

    When things go south in the kitchen I do my Julia voice when she flopped a pancake on the table, “You just scoop it back into the pan. Remember, you are alone in the kitchen and nobody can see you.” Also too, listening to a space shuttle launch, I was ticketed heading into Manhattan, KS going 57 in a 55 MPH zone. Made me put the last of my work week cash into an envelop and followed me to a mailbox in town to make sure I mailed it. Still pissed.

  19. 19.

    Shana

    We still have cable (I know, but we’re averse to change sometimes) and Amazon Prime and Netflix. Our daughters share their Hulu and HBO log ins with us if we ask nicely. Oh, we also have Viki for korean dramas. They do a much better job with subtitles than Netflix, including song lyrics, explaining idioms so that you get that it’s a comment based on a legend or whatever, and telling you if they’re using honorifics or not if it has a bearing on how people are reacting to each other.

  21. 21.

    p.a.

    I used to lament the hassle of my electric stove and slow-to-adjust calrods ™ until I saw what she was accomplishing on her original b&w PBS cooking show’s electric burners.

  26. 26.

    eclare

    @raven:   Yes!  I remember you writing that.

    Also, how are you feeling?  Walgreens opens up for the second booster tomorrow.

  27. 27.

    Mike S

    The Amazon Prime documentary is well worth the $4 to watch. It is fascinating how  she changed everything about American cooking, food and TV. My wife has been perfecting her omelet, the thing that changed TV, and I am luckier for it.

  28. 28.

    Tony Jay

    @Ken:

    Julia’s big catchphrase, when she slit some Nazi’s throat with a fileting knife, was going to be “Bon appétit!”

    To which Christopher Lee would raise one languid eyebrow and sigh:

    “Typecasting.”

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Every once in a while (yesterday being the most recent case) the closed caption system on some services is lethargic, running maybe six seconds behind the dialogue.

    Then there was the one case where was watching something episodic and the captioning was for an entirely different episode.

    Will grudgingly admit the dubbing on Netflix has improved but is still very subpar.

  30. 30.

    bjacques

    Finished up Pieces Of Her, now watching How To Become A God In Central Florida. It starts to turn dark in episode 3…

  32. 32.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    Despite those facts, senators are grappling with a well-organized letter-writing campaign driven by people worried that the bill’s passage will somehow result in real harms, like an end to Old Age Security and Employment Insurance or the contributory Canada Pension Plan.

    Some of the thousands of letter-writers also falsely claim that, if passed, the bill would limit future social welfare programs to people vaccinated against COVID-19, or that cigarette smokers will be barred from government assistance.

    Wow. It’s as if belief in conspiracy theories is becoming a norm in society, fed by, what, social media?

  34. 34.

    Jerry

    @Old School:

    Hmmm.  Never heard of “Somebody Somewhere”.  I’ll have to add it to the (too long) list of shows to watch.

    Each episode is only about 25 minutes long and there aren’t very many episodes. You can easily get through them in a weekend. And once you start, you won’t stop until the season is done anyway.

    If you have Apple TV, make sure to watch The Afterparty. Very funny show and there aren’t very many episodes of them, though each episode is about 45 minutes long.

    And just for the heck of it, I’ll throw in a suggestion for free: watch Reservation Dogs on the FX channel. Pretty sure I’ve settled on that being my favorite piece of popular culture in 2021. So funny and even though you wouldn’t know it from the first two episodes, it’s very kind to its characters.

    Oh, and Atlanta is back on the air with a new season. Episode 3 airing this week.

  37. 37.

    Kelly

    @Brachiator: To hell with Julia Child. Where is my Jacques Pepin miniseries? ///

    I saw them together at least once, I think he was a guest on her show. It was hilarious.

  38. 38.

    JoyceH

    Question – my nearest pharmacy can quickly accommodate me for a second booster any time today or tomorrow – if I want a Moderna. My first three doses were Pfizer, but I’m hearing that not only is mix and match okay, it might even be better. So… comments?

  41. 41.

    Jerry

    @JoyceH:

    Question – my nearest pharmacy can quickly accommodate me for a second booster any time today or tomorrow – if I want a Moderna. My first three doses were Pfizer, but I’m hearing that not only is mix and match okay, it might even be better. So… comments?

    I was just reading that yesterday as well. My question is: I got my booster back in mid-December, should I wait until mid-May or June to get this second booster?

  42. 42.

    Chat Noir

    @Betty Cracker:

    “Hacks” is fabulous

    Agree completely! I love Jean Smart so much and her cheekbones are still killer.

    Have you checked out “Winning Time” about the LA Lakers in the early 80s? I really like it — very funny and as an MSU alum, the stuff about Earvin Johnson is v interesting!

  44. 44.

    NotMax

    While tastes vary (duh!) I do find the Stream It or Skip It? listings on decider.com a useful time saver for separating the wheat from the chaff.

    That’s not to say I find myself totally in agreement with their affirmative recommendations.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Brachiator:

    An aristocrat who becomes a pirate?

    SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

    .

    .

    .

    .

    That’s the surprise twist at the end of The Pirates of Penzance.  ?“We are all nobleman who have gone wrong.”?

    :-)

  46. 46.

    Martin

    I think it was 4th year French when my teach started showing Julia Child videos in class when she needed some time to do other stuff/and subs. All black and white and both instructive and pretty funny. Learned how to debone a chicken, and turns out when you transition to a new topic, you can with a sweep of the arm clear the cutting board sending all the chicken parts to the floor to be dealt with later. As God intended.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    @JoyceH: I deliberately mix and match, so I say go for it. I was Pfizer, Pfizer, Moderna. Probably will alternate Pfizer and Moderna to the extent possible.

    Studies show that the two vaccines do work a bit differently and produce somewhat different antibodies, which is why mixing seems to work better.

  50. 50.

    Roger Moore

    @zhena gogolia:

    I couldn’t get into Julie and Julia, but this looks really good.

    The problem with Julie and Julia was too much Julie and not enough Julia.  At least that’s how it seemed to me.  The acting was obviously important, but the stories were just so radically different in scale.  You just can’t match Julia Childs’s whole life against some hipster blogging her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

  51. 51.

    JML

    @JoyceH: I mixed with my booster and it was fine. I’d done two doses of Pfizer and boosted with moderna, and everywhere seems fine with people going either way.

    there’s some data to suggest it might be better to mix, but there’s nothing conclusive (and it might be a marginal gain). I’m unaware of anything suggesting that it’s worse.

  52. 52.

    Martin

    @Brachiator: In part. It’s a long watch, but I VERY strongly recommend this Dan Olsen video. It’s extremely good. It doesn’t necessarily answer the question, but does help you to think about the phenomena in some different ways.

    Yes, social media is a contributing factor. But so is people trying to hold on for dear life in a changing world. I would note that the people falling hardest into the conspiracy theory world are white religious Christians. Not helping matters are the grifters in the religious communities are all over this stuff, so they’re getting it on Sunday morning as well quite often.

  55. 55.

    Tom Levenson

    One of my great minor regrets in life was, when I worked at WGBH, going out for a work dinner to a good restaurant in Cambridge, only to spy Julia at a nearby table. Some of the people I was with knew her from  the station and said hi, but I did not–that’s not what I regret.

    No. That would be when I failed to tell our server to just give whatever she was having.  That would have been sweet…

  58. 58.

    MisterDancer

    THESE ANTI-ABORTION WANKERS. (Content Warning for — of all things! — Fetuses):

    Police discovered five fetuses at the home of an anti-abortion activist in Capitol Hill on Wednesday, the department has confirmed to WUSA9.
    […]
    The home was occupied by Lauren Handy, an anti-abortion activist who was indicted along with nine others Wednesday by a federal grand jury. Handy is accused of felony conspiracy against rights for a blockade inside a D.C. abortion clinic in October 2020.

    When asked the obvious “WTF?” question, all this stain on Humanity would say is some of the usual claptrap about “people will freak out when they hear”

    …these are the people who have the ear of too many SCOTUS Justices, and retrograde “lawmakers,” today.

    I’m so mad I can’t see straight, right now.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    Hey Betty – remember this?

    daniel a. smith
    @electionsmith
    Massive ruling striking down the Florida legislature’s effort to suppress the voting rights of Black voters. The same case that
    @UF
    tried to block my colleagues and me from serving as experts    . My work was cited more than 70x in Judge Walker’s opinion. Couldn’t be prouder.

  61. 61.

    CarolPW

    @JoyceH: The morning Covid roundup, either yesterday or the day before, had a link to a report in Science about the differences in the areas targeted by the two vaccines. A physician suggested that based on that report the next booster should be a different mRNA vaccine than the previous ones. Yesterday I got a Moderna and my previous three were Pfizer.

  63. 63.

    Martin

    @MisterDancer: Maybe she was Randall Terry’s supplier.

    (Reminder that Operation Rescue presented a fetus to Bill Clinton at the Dem Natl Convention. He got 5 months prison for that stunt.)

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @JoyceH:

    I have the opposite problem. I want to mix and match, but my closest pharmacy only has Pfizer.  Not worth it to drive far for moderna.

  67. 67.

    CaseyL

    Just saw the funniest thing and want to share:  I regularly put out nuts for the squirrels around the greenspace at my townhouse complex.  Today three squirrels showed up, which is a signal to put out a few handsful.

    They ate one or two, then continued poking around looking, apparently, for something else.

    Then I realized: they might be looking for more of the broken-up bits of chocolate pastry I put outside earlier, mostly for the crows and other birds since it didn’t occur to me squirrels would be interested.

    Except the squirrels were interested. Very interested.

    So I crumpled up and tossed out a few more pastries.  And the squirrels went crazy, stuffing their mouths with pieces of chocolately goodness and running off to enjoy them.

    Just delightful to watch!

    (The pastries in question are a bag of cheapie “chocolate croissants” that a friend gave me weeks and weeks ago, that I have been bravely NOT eating because I’m diabetic. Basically soft tubes of cake-bread with chocolate filling. In the interests of total disclosure, had these been “real” chocolate croissants, I would likely have inhaled them, diabetes notwithstanding.)

  68. 68.

    Just One More Canuck

    @zhena gogolia: I was acquainted with a friend of his who said that he had a great sense of humour about himself, so if nothing else, he would have enjoyed the sketch if he ever saw it

  69. 69.

    VeniceRiley

    Lancashire is a favorite of Sally Wainwright. Love her! Will be happy to see this once I am overseas. It’s one I’ll want to watch with my wife.
    Another reason to get HBO Max if here, as season 2 of Gentleman Jack arrives in April, and it’s a cracker!

  72. 72.

    Martin

    @Brachiator: @Martin:

    I’ll expand my comment to say that a paper came out today studying attitudes toward covid among white Americans. As soon as whites found out that covid disproportionately hurt people of color, they worried about it less and started to turn against mitigation strategies.

    I’ve been saying that even covid denialism is rooted in white christian supremacy.

  74. 74.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: Same principal should apply. There was a study being done of mixing first and second shot (pre-booster) and it showed marginal benefits.

    The rule was to stick with the same manufacturer because that’s all that had been tested before these hit the market. It took them a while to do a mixed study.

  75. 75.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL: I just googled:

    Yes, chocolate is poisonous to squirrels and could make them very unwell. So, what to feed them? In general, squirrels will adapt to the conditions and food available to them so they can eat almost anything.

    .

    However, even in very small amounts, chocolate can be toxic to birds. Chocolate contains both theobromine and caffeine which can cause vomiting and diarrhea, increase heart rate, result in hyperactivity, induce tremors and seizures, and even cause death in birds.

  76. 76.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: Okay, I’m scheduled for Pfizer after Moderna-Moderna-Moderna.

    I have to go to a different place than usual.   The CVS I like to go to inside the grocery store only has Moderna.  The CVS 3 blocks away only has Pfizer. ?‍♀️

  77. 77.

    CaseyL

    @WaterGirl: That’s very odd, because I’ve always seen squirrels eat chocolate.

    I remember a few of them stealing choc chip cookies literally out of my hand back in college.  Plus, someone ages ago did an informal “study” on whether squirrels preferred regular peanuts or M&M peanuts – the M&Ms won by a mile.

    Granted, this may come under the heading of “chocolate activates receptors like a drug,” and squirrels don’t know any better.

    (And crows, hell, crows will eat ANYTHING.)

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL: My dog used to LOVE red grapes, which I fed her before we all learned that red grapes are very bad for dogs.

    So I am super careful now and always google even when I think “how could cinnamon possibly be bad for dogs / cats / whoever.”

    Lots of us crave things that are bad for us. I don’t expect squirrels to be better than me!  :-)

  80. 80.

    CarolPW

    @Raven: I only feel like half-shit. I had a headache from each Pfizer, and after the first two felt crappy for a couple of days. My arm hurts now only a bit more than from the Pfizers and I don’t have a headache, but all my joints and muscles ache. Without the headache it actually only hurts when I move!

  81. 81.

    Raven

    I would think if this mixed dose stuff is on the up and up they’d, you know, TELL you that instead if reading a “suggestion” on some random blog.

  82. 82.

    Suzanne

    I want to note that Julie Powell, who wrote “Julie and Julia”, is much funnier and sharper in the book than in the movie. The movie made her this standard rom-com trope, but her voice in the book is more complex.

  85. 85.

    cckids

    @CaseyL: Love the squirrel story! I know they are basically cute rats, but they are very, very cute. And so much fun to watch.

    This winter, I was walking out of our apartment’s yard; we have a chain-link fence across the front with a latched gate. A VERY chubby squirrel was sitting on a rock by the walk, watching me. As I got closer, it jumped down & ran directly at me. I stopped (a little freaked out), and it got on the walk, basically led me to the gate, then stopped. It sat there, looking up at me, so I reached out & opened the gate; it ran out & was on it’s way.

    So now I’m a squirrel concierge, I guess.

  89. 89.

    CaseyL

    @WaterGirl: And maybe, just like humans, even if you told squirrels that chocolate is bad for them, they’d say, “Don’t care. Hand over that Mars bar, pronto!” ?

  90. 90.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Martin:

    I’ll expand my comment to say that a paper came out today studying attitudes toward covid among white Americans. As soon as whites found out that covid disproportionately hurt people of color, they worried about it less and started to turn against mitigation strategies.

    I’ll never forget an early write-up from an upscale mall in Atlanta, a guy on the patio of a wine bar, they did not say his name was Chad, and my memory may be faulty if I recall him described as wearing a pink Polo shirt with the collar popped, saying he wasn’t worried because from what he’d read, he wasn’t in a vulnerable “demographic” (edited)

  92. 92.

    Betty Cracker

    @Chat Noir: Haven’t seen “Winning Time.” Do you have to like basketball to enjoy it?

    @Kay: Fantastic! It will almost certainly be overturned, but still…

    @Raven: Huzzah! Love that show too.

  94. 94.

    VeniceRiley

    Forgot to mention that there is a cool new Food Network show where the contestants cook a famous Julia Child dish and serve it to the judgest and they all eat dinner together. It’s pretty fantastic. The winner gets a free trip to Paris and enrolled in culinary school.

  95. 95.

    Origuy

    @Jerry:

    My question is: I got my booster back in mid-December, should I wait until mid-May or June to get this second booster?

    I’m going to Italy in July, so I am planning to wait until late May.
    The rules entering Italy and returning are changing all the time.
    I’d rather not try to get tested within 24 hours of my flight; it can be difficult to arrange.

  97. 97.

    CarolPW

    @WaterGirl: My understanding is that although the two mRNA vaccines generate antibody responses to the virus that are broadly similar in the areas they target, there are enough differences in side targets to suggest an advantage to having both.

    Mixing vaccines should provide a broader defense that may help with variants. It wouldn’t matter if the second vaccine type came in the second shot or the fifth booster (when we get that far). I suspect, but there is as yet no published evidence I’ve seen, that the side-target benefits I might get from the Moderna vaccine would not be maximized until my second Moderna shot.

  98. 98.

    Ken

    Oh sure, squirrels are so cute until you find yourself mobbed by two dozen of them trying to get the pastries out of your shopping bag. But if you must train squirrels, at least direct it to socially-useful purposes.

  99. 99.

    trollhattan

    We just wrapped binging “Life in Pieces,” which was a CBS comedy that came and went four seasons without crossing the radar at the casa. Now on Prime. One of the most cleverly written comedies I’ve watched and brilliantly cast, starting with the incomparable Diane Wiest, who is clearly having a blast throughout. At the other end of the age spectrum is the youngest recurring cast member, Giselle Eisenberg, who as Sophia nails sophisticated lines in a way that shows she knows what she’s saying and not just  projecting a tiny faux adult.

    The writing quality had me baffled until I put two and two together and figured out Maggie Mull, who gets most of the credits along with creator Justin Adler, is Martin Mull’s daughter. Clearly has dad’s comedy chops and I’m eager to see the forthcoming “Maggie” series hoping for more of same.

    Not an LOL person, but this one had me breaking the trend, a lot.

  100. 100.

    geg6

    @Chat Noir:

    Have you checked out “Winning Time” about the LA Lakers in the early 80s? I really like it — very funny and as an MSU alum, the stuff about Earvin Johnson is v interesting!

    I am loving that show.  Super funny for this old Lakers fan.  I don’t watch NBA anymore but I was a huge fan of the Lakers back in the 80s.

  101. 101.

    germy

    Stoner food and picky eaters both get a bad rap but it's important to remember that any number of culinary breakthroughs from potato chips to poutine likely happened because a disagreeable drunk pissed off a chef

    — lauren (@NotABigJerk) March 31, 2022

  102. 102.

    gvg

    @Raven: ​
      They have from time to time. There have been some studies, HOWEVER the doctors at the time of the first booster were saying the one you will actually get is the best. They didn’t want any barriers or ideas of what is best to cause people to not actually get around to getting it. People with transportation issues or not enough time or just getting discouraged. So they decided not to make any recommendations beyond making it easy.

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    Yes, social media is a contributing factor. But so is people trying to hold on for dear life in a changing world.

    The world is always changing. I was throwing social media out as a contributing factor, but I would also include bots and deliberate bad actors.

    I have mentioned this before, but I think that the Internet itself has contributed. I noticed this with the Terry Schiavo case.

    With the Internet, it became possible to verify facts more swiftly than ever before. This also made it possible to demolish a lot of ideology and deeply held beliefs.

    But there are people who need their beliefs in order to live. Fox News, Florida Governor Bush and others lied about the Schiavo case. But I remember some blogs where people would refer to a court website where people could easily read the judge’s decisions and follow the case. Despite this, advocates would continue to lie about the case and refuse to read the actual documents.

    Added to this is the Trump factor. Trump lies all the time, and his supporters, augmented by the Republican leadership, belief in Trump and accept his lies as their truth.

    With Covid people lie and simply avoid sites which contradict them and amplify the lies in friendly spaces.

    And of course governments and bad actors deliberately disseminate misinformation. The Internet and social media makes it possible to easily amplify bad messages.

    And to top it all off, nutcases can more easily find and connect with others who want to believe nonsense. Conspiracy affinity loops are nearly instantaneous.

    I would note that the people falling hardest into the conspiracy theory world are white religious Christians.

    This is true in the US, but this is a global issue.

    Weren’t there stories in India of the government having to shut down some apps that were used to spread rumors that resulted in Muslims and others being attacked?

    Covid lies popped up in many countries.

    And the beat goes on.

    But there is a deliberate attempt in the US to weaponize conspiracy theories to denigrate and to attack not just specific people, but the Democratic Party itself.

    And Fox News and conservative media are at the heart of this.

  104. 104.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Raven:

    I would think if this mixed dose stuff is on the up and up they’d, you know, TELL you that instead if reading a “suggestion” on some random blog. 

    Yup.  “Should I…?”

    Should you what?  Should you ask a doctor or pharmacist about mixing doses?

  105. 105.

    Chat Noir

    @Betty Cracker:

    Do you have to like basketball to enjoy it?

    Not really. It’s an interesting character study on the people involved in getting the Lakers franchise into a long-term successful venture. It’s fun.

  106. 106.

    Gary K

    “Julie and Julia” is a perfect one-hour movie yoked to a bland and uninspired movie. Even the hints of sex in the Julia portions are rollicking, and the supporting cast (husband and sister) is droll. In the Julie portion, there’s a brief moment when they chase after a lobster to the accompaniment of “Psycho Killer,” which suggests how that end could have been handled, but alas it’s just a moment.

  107. 107.

    JoyceH

    Hate to bring a nice chat back to politics, but —

    Okay, I’ve got Nicole Wallace on, and I’d already been following the news about DOJ, etc, and she led with that story. First for the presentation of facts – it turns out that DOJ has a grand jury investigating 1/6, that the grand jury is looking into involvement of executive branch personnel, legislators, Trump insiders, includes pre-1/6 coordination AND the bogus electors plot, and that they been operating for two months and we’re just now hearing about it, so that when people were complaining that DOJ wasn’t doing anything, they were in fact doing quite a lot. So – that sounded like great news.

    Then they got into the discussion of the story…. and somehow it all turned into a total downer, and DOJ is too scared to target Trump (when the story seems to indicate pretty clearly that they ARE targeting Trump), who will get away with it all, etc. By the time they finished with that topic, I would have been SO depressed if depression hadn’t been crowded out by bafflement. How is this a BAD story? Why do we DO this to ourselves?

  108. 108.

    Betty Cracker

    A treat for Child fans: this 2017 New Yorker article about a book featuring Paul Child’s photos in France. He was a really talented photographer, and Julia was his muse.

  109. 109.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    As soon as whites found out that covid disproportionately hurt people of color, they worried about it less and started to turn against mitigation strategies.

    But of course, this was not quite true, and yet even some astute Balloon Juice jackals believed it.

    There were stories of lower death rates in Africa, where there are lots of people of color. Idiots, even some health officials, just attributed this to bad reporting of data.

    The truth was more complex, which of course led to more sickness in red states.

  111. 111.

    Miss Bianca

    @Suzanne: I would agree with this assessment.

    I actually really enjoyed her second book, too. Can’t remember the title, but it had to do with learning to be a butcher while going through a divorce after a really messy affair.

    Let’s just say it was much less…cute and cuddly than the first one.

  113. 113.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Martin:

    I’ll expand my comment to say that a paper came out today studying attitudes toward covid among white Americans. As soon as whites found out that covid disproportionately hurt people of color, they worried about it less and started to turn against mitigation strategies. 

    And where did they go to find their interview subjects, these selfish, white assholes?

  116. 116.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Brachiator: Wow. It’s as if belief in conspiracy theories is becoming a norm in society, fed by, what, social media?

    You need learn more history. All this shit we are seeing long predates the internet. The whole “medical science is EVIL” goes back to John Harvey “more yogurt for your enema” Kellogg in the late 19th C and the great Great Disappointment of 1844. The conspiracy theory is a core belief of the theology of a branch of American Christianity.

  117. 117.

    laura

    @NotMax: Stroppy!

    All this Julia Childing has me craving Craving CRAVING spinach and mushroom crepes with a sharp cheddar cheese sauce. Could eat that right about now- tender thin crepes, just crisp at most of the edges, the spinach and mushrooms creamed light like a souffle all tucked side by each in a chafing dish enrobed with the cheese sauce and broiled until it’s just that hint of sizzle.

  119. 119.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JoyceH: I saw the same bit. Nicolle Wallace has gone from Eisenhower-Bush (II) Republican to full-on emo-prog. She’s said she’s proud of her service in the Bush WH. I want at least one of her guests, just once, to ask her where the Bush brothers have been hiding for the last five years.

    And I’m thinking of starting a twitter account that will document every time RNC chairman Michael Steel supported/advocated for the Republican Senators and Congresscritters who very effortfully (if you’ll allow that) looked the other way at trump’s corruption from “Russia if you’re listening” to Helsinki to the trump tower meeting to the Mueller report to the perfect call to January 6 (not really, I’m too lazy and it would be like throw rocks at the ocean), creating the mess he now petulantly whines Merrick Garland hasn’t cleaned up yet

    @Baud: by that standard, you’re going to have to give up these threads, too

  122. 122.

    Ken

    @germy:

    According to legend — which we like to believe — Louis XIV, on campaign against the Dutch and, as major monarchs of the 17th century were wont to do, traveling in an exquisite little palace on wheels, had sent a courier ahead to his chef, detailing just what he desired for dinner. The roads were nearly impassable; the hour grew late; and the chef, who had managed to keep most of the elaborate menu in reasonably prime condition, found to his consternation as the King’s party clattered into the courtyard that his pommes frites had gone utterly limp. In a frenzy, he immersed the potatoes in the hot fat a second time, madly agitated the pan, and behold! — the dish which was to make him rich and famous.

    — Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, The Joy of Cooking (1975 edition), introducing the recipe for Soufflé or Puffed Potatoes.

  126. 126.

    NotMax

    @Brachiator

    Since bringing it home on the 21st it’s been patiently parked in the garage as I really don’t have anywhere pressing to go. Several errands to attend to at the beginning and again at the end of next week.

    It’s just such a comfort to know I can go anywhere, even on a whim, without crossing my fingers.

    ;)

  127. 127.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’ll post this again, for the third time, even though it doesn’t seem to interest the people who yesterday were waving around Adam Schiff quotes like a bloody toga as proof that Merrick Garland’s a yellow-bellied trump- enabler who should be driven out with torches. Or medical supply-store spines (remember those?)

    Daniel Goldman @danielsgoldman
    It is a Herculean task to prosecute 750 cases arising out of Jan 6, which is more than the vast majority of US Atty’s offices prosecute in a year. These additional attorneys are necessary for those cases, and hopefully free up other prosecutors to investigate the attempted coup.

    Hugo Lowell @hugolowell · Mar 28

    New: Deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco reaffirms Justice Dept commitment to prosecuting Jan. 6 cases at any level — as DOJ announces they are adding 131 new attorneys to work on Capitol attack investigation.

    2:41 PM · Mar 28, 2022· Twitter for iPhone

    I don’t know much about government personnel, but it looks to me like Do Nothing Garland has virtually created a separate department to prosecute criminal cases tied to January 6. I suspect if any of Do Something Twitter has noticed, it’s to take credit for their tweets of yesterday that caused Garland to Do Somthing he pretty clearly started Doing a long time ago.

  128. 128.

    whomever

    @Roger Moore: +1 I agree with you and Ms. Cracker.  Meryl Streep as Julia was a joy to watch, the Julie bits were tedious to the extreme.  Agree the book had a lot more nuance..

    EDIT:  I will also say that my much loved copies of Mastering The Art Of French Cooking are practically falling apart from overuse.  Her hollandaise is pretty idiot proof, and once a year I make her ratatouille…

  130. 130.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Betty Cracker: I think you could totally appreciate Winning Time as a non-basketball fan, for sure.  It even plays a bit to that audience with literal breaking-the-4th-wall moments where someone on screen explains something about the sport, league, player etc.  It’s fun!  And even as a pretty big Lakers fan at the time, I was unaware of some of the more unbelievable parts of the story.

  132. 132.

    stinger

    @cckids:

    It sat there, looking up at me, so I reached out & opened the gate; it ran out & was on it’s way.

    Great story!

  133. 133.

    Brachiator

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    You need learn more history.

    I know history pretty good.

    All this shit we are seeing long predates the internet.

    I didn’t say that the Internet creates conspiracy theories. I said that it reinforces them and spreads them more efficiently.  And this always happens with new forms of technology.

    What I think is somewhat new is people deliberately avoiding accurate information on the Internet that debunks conspiracies and the rise of sites and techniques to deliberately create and to spread misinformation.

  134. 134.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Shana: I leave in mid-April for Scotland and have my 2nd booster scheduled for tomorrow. I opted for Pfizer since all my other shots were Moderna and, as others have noted, there seems to be some marginal benefit in mixing them up.

  135. 135.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @CaseyL: my very sweet new niece-in-law made me a big jar of homemade trail mix, full of peanuts and granola and mini-M&Ms and… raisins. I was about throw it all out for the birds (because… raisins) when something made me google, so I wound up picking out all the chocolate. And eating it.

    a bigger surprise to me: left over popcorn is bad for birds, because of oil and salt. It’s okay if it’s air-popped and unseasoned, in which case why does it exist?

  138. 138.

    Ruckus

    @Martin:

    Which studies?

    I’m having the conundrum of change/no change, my first 3 were Pfizer, in January 2021 that was all I could get and second and booster were both from the same place so Pfizer. I was thinking change and didn’t find any definitive answer this morning.

  139. 139.

    SHCSTRAT

    Looking forward to new Julia Child show too!

    Some outdoor scenes filmed on my street last fall.  Had to get my car off the street so the period cars could drive unfettered by modern cars.

    My friend’s house was used for several interior scenes.

    Looking forward to spotting my neighborhood!

  140. 140.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The size and scope of the investigation and prosecution of 1/6 crimes is almost impossible to even fathom.  And that’s just the parts/people we know about!  Just the thread that somebody posted yesterday about the process of tracing burner phones through triangulation, is incredibly extensive and labor-intense.  Now throw in legal challenges, court backlogs, hostile witnesses, timing considerations so as not to tip-off higher level targets etc., and this is why I really hate when people say shit like “there’s no reason we shouldn’t have seen big-name indictments yet.”  Actually there are tons of valid reasons.  I wish the wheels of justice were working faster, just like everyone else, but I’m not gonna pretend that there aren’t legitimate reasons for why the system is relatively slow.

  141. 141.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    …were waving around Adam Schiff quotes like a bloody toga as proof that Merrick Garland’s a yellow-bellied trump- enabler who should be driven out with torches.

    That’s a colorful but completely inaccurate description of the conversation here. To the point of dishonesty even. If you took a similar tack in previous comments, ignoring it was a kindness.

  142. 142.

    JoyceH

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    left over popcorn is bad for birds, because of oil and salt. It’s okay if it’s air-popped and unseasoned, in which case why does it exist?

    Uhhhhh – ‘leftover popcorn’?! What is this thing of which you speak?

  146. 146.

    Origuy

    @Shana: Enjoy Madrid. I was there in 1995. Went to the Prado on the first day and was so jetlagged that I took a siesta on one of the cushioned benches. I recommend a day trip to Toledo if you have time.

  147. 147.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL: My cocker spaniel was in the vet school ICU for 7 days after she stole some really good chocolate from Germany that she managed to get to on the TABLE in the middle of the night.

    Their bodies cannot process something that’s in chocolate, so it’s not just that it’s bad for them, it can literally kill them.

    I haven’t done the research on birds and squirrels except for the quick google, but it sounds like it’s a lot worse than just “isn’t good for them”.

    edit: apologies if that came off as preachy, which I suspect it did.

  148. 148.

    Nutmeg again

    Fun! Being a many-years long habitant of JC’s environs, I used to see her at the local farm stand, selecting her greens. One time I inadvertently bumped into her! Brush with fame.

    And not for nothing, Smith College celebrates Child’s birthday by making something yummy from her repertoire for the kids on the day.

  150. 150.

    debbie

    If you haven’t read Julia’s memoir, My Life in France, please do. You’re right there with her as she discovers her passion for cooking, her dedication to her cookbooks, her television programs, and especially her husband, Paul. Such a well-lived life!

  151. 151.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: That tug of war seems pretty even here. Proponents of either side charge the other with exaggeration and are sometimes right. This argument and the many like it have filled plenty of virtual balloons.

  152. 152.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: I read that in the Second World War word was put out to American soldiers liberating concentration camps to not give the prisoners any chocolate because it could stress their systems, perhaps fatally.

  153. 153.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: Interesting.  Horrifying that they could be in such bad shape that chocolate – caffeine?  sugar?  some other ingredient? – could kill them.

    And here we are again.  Or at least way closer than we should be.

  156. 156.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: A lot of those poor people were just skin and bones, already on the edge of death. Evidently, chocolate bars like the GIs carried could push them over.

  158. 158.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: I have no idea what the content of a Hershey Bar is today, much less in 1945, I think one has pretty much the RDA of refined sugar. Also what @CarolPW: .

    I’m relying on the old stereotype of GIs carrying Hershey Bars, which I imagine was based on a marketing/support-the-troops move similar to what Camel IIRC did with cigarettes.

  160. 160.

    Gary K

    @Origuy: We parked our car once in Toledo and took the Amtrak train to the west coast. What’s that you say? Oh, sorry, never mind…

  161. 161.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: I agree. It’s been happening in Yemen for years, and in northern Ethiopia also, among other places. Most of those folks could still survive a candy bar, but a lot of the kids will be developmentally disabled.

  162. 162.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think there were more companies than Hershey’s supplying chocolate to soldiers. But unlike cigarettes, chocolate has real food value that is useful if a soldier is active or cold, or both. Tobacco has some value as a stimulant, but after a while it may  be only psychological.

  163. 163.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @NotMax: ​Reminds me of that classic Far Side panel where souls entering heaven are issued harps, and souls entering hell are issued accordions. (And I like accordions most of the time.)

    For marches, see you and raise you with the stirring Ukrainian New Army March: Not synched to the parade, which took place in Kyiv 24 Aug 2021 celebrating 30 years of independence. (There are a number of longer parade videos available on UToob, mostly without music; one such is here.)​

  166. 166.

    Grum Grumby

    Here is a fun Gawker article about the new Julia Childs show on HBO Max: https://www.gawker.com/culture/julia-child-hbo-max-series-review

    If food is something you are interested in, last week I just watched a very enjoyable movie called “The Hundred-Foot Journey” about a snooty Michellin starred restaurant owner in southern France and a family of Indian refugees who used to run a family restaurant who open up an Indian place across the street.  Really heartwarming.   https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2980648/

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcyiJtVPsgQ

  167. 167.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Now I see that Hershey did supply the Army with over 3 billion chocolate bars during the Second World War. These were four ounce emergency rations made with cocoa, oat flour, coconut oil and just enough sugar to make them palatable. The bars were not sweeter because the intent was to keep soldiers from eating them unless they had to.

  168. 168.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid: interesting– kind of a proto-energy bar? Now I’ll have to buy a Hershey Bar to see if it still has oat flour.

    just enough sugar to make them palatable. The bars were not sweeter because the intent was to keep soldiers from eating them unless they had to.           

    I bet that was Patton’s idea //

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