Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

I really should read my own blog.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

T R E 4 5 O N

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

We are aware of all internet traditions.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

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

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

The willow is too close to the house.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Welcome to the New Old New Balloon Juice

Welcome to the New Old New Balloon Juice

by | 345 Comments

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Where have you all been?


I kid.

Well, we are back, mostly.  We still don’t have all the bells and whistles and some things are going to look funky and we might have a little hitch in our giddy’up here and there, and the archives are not restored yet, but we are back and can start making new things to archive.

I really want to apologize to everyone for the outage but there was absolutely nothing I could do, and man did I feel hopeless.  Once we get everything back to the new normal, I will be taking major steps to make sure NOTHING like this ever happens again.

Watergirl has spent the last 36 hours re-inserting and tinkering with everything to make it as much like it used to be prior to what we will now call “the unpleasantness (and we need to come up with a fitting name for this),” and I am sure there will be many changes over the next few weeks and months.  So thank her for her work- and honest to goodness when she saw it yesterday stripped bare and I was talking to her on the phone I thought she was going to cry.  I was less distraught because I honestly could handle crtnet if that is all that was available.  But I am super glad home is back.

At any rate, welcome back, ya bastards. I hope you all enjoyed the very nice vacation home over at Jackal-Action, and keep that place bookmarked for emergencies.

And stop calling my dad and asking him when the website is coming back up.

Reader Interactions

345Comments

  1. 1.

    lahke

    @surfk9:  Maybe we’re on Greenwich Mean Time.

    Great to be back.  Joining in the praise for all the work.

    Amazing– my name and email were retained too!

  4. 4.

    Raven

    It’s the annual shoot off celebratory fireworks on a holiday meant to be reflective!

  8. 8.

    bbleh

    YAY!  Stalwart perseverance in a worthy cause!  And a shout-out to WaterGirl and the rest of the crew. We who lurk and comment salute you!

    And I say, no apologies, more righteous outrage!  I realize outrage per se is the drug of choice for RWNJs, but there is such a thing as righteous outrage, and in part — but not entirely — due to recent events, I am becoming much more pro-outrage.  There’s a bar fight going on!  Aux barricades and damn the torpedoes!

  9. 9.

    lowtechcyclist

    Since I’m well into ‘everything reminds me of a song’ mode, I’ll just say it like this:

    Been away so long I hardly knew the place,
    gee it’s good to be back home
    Leave it ’til tomorrow to unpack my case,
    honey, disconnect the phone

    and this:

    Gee but it’s great to be back home
    Home is where I want to be.
    I’ve been on the road so long my friend,
    And if you came along
    I know you couldn’t disagree

    And WaterGirl, it looks like you’ve moved mountains here! So good to see this place up and working again.

  15. 15.

    CaseyL

    Omigod! This Fucking Old House (Internet version) is back! Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

    Hi, everyone!

    I am SO happy. Feels like pulling on the comfy old slippers, or flinging myself onto the extra-cushiony chair.

    For the Recent Unpleasantness, I also like Jackapocalypse. Jackalpocalypse?

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    Helloooooo, loveys. It is indeed nice to be back.

    One of my neighbors is putting on a rather nice fireworks display and I can enjoy it from my porch, sitting in my new furniture! Oooooh fancy.

  17. 17.

    JaySinWA

    So did my nym have spaces here or not? Will try not being spacy.

    The great unpleasantness has a Civil war ring to it.

    Either my nym was spacy or I was im-moderate(d).

    ETA And before I can change it I am free. So no space it is.

  18. 18.

    frosty

    Thanks again to WaterGirl for taking care of us in exile and now bringing us back. Fingers crossed for recovering our old posts and comments … or shoehorning what we can find into WP. Thanks also to John for the informative emails along the way

    It will be interesting to see how the 3xx DC story shakes out.

  20. 20.

    different-church-lady

    Now I can get back to the part of BJ that I find the most valuable: sharing my hate-reading of LGM!

    Today in Loomis-owning:

    Modusoperandi

    “Paw, who’s that?”
    “That’s a man who is wrong, Opie.”
    “Should I kick him?”
    “Naw. The way I see it, there’s nothin’ you could do any worse than life’s already done.”

  21. 21.

    Suzanne

    As for the Events of Recent Days, I think of it more as “The Light Treason”.

  23. 23.

    Nicole

    I really want to apologize to everyone for the outage but there was absolutely nothing I could do, and man did I feel hopeless.

    Oh my God, there is NOTHING to apologize for.  You and Watergirl were absolute champs in an impossible situation.  Thanks for keeping us all updated.

  24. 24.

    geg6

    I have to say, I will be very sad if the whole Balloon Boy saga is poof forever.  My credenza will not be laughing.  Also, Cole’s conversion.  Epic stuff I will miss revisiting.

  25. 25.

    SoupCatcher

    Thank you everyone, and especially Watergirl.

    <Posting to get the cookie in case the first comment needs to get approved. />

  26. 26.

    Poe Larity

    what we will now call “the unpleasantness (and we need to come up with a fitting name for this),”

    John Cole’s French Leave

  28. 28.

    steppy

    Good lord, what a grim odyssey. I for one appreciate the hard work to restore this very special community. I didn’t even want to comment on jackal-action because it just didn’t feel right. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  29. 29.

    Chris Johnson

    Nice :) I got home to Vermont from Canada, too. Feels good for Balloon Juice to be reasonably okay again :)

  30. 30.

    JaySinWA

    @JaySinWA: I was a camp follower in detox at the Jackel Action Tent city / BJ withdrawal treatment center. There should be a clever name to extract from that. Casualties in the War of hacker aggression.

    Perhaps we can Id each other as friends of WG.

  34. 34.

    Poe Larity

    I’ve been having nightmares of crashing thru mustard colored fields in a Subaru.

  36. 36.

    Ken

    As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…

    @SiubhanDuinne: Visit https://www.pgdp.net and register. Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders is all-volunteer. They find out-of-copyright books that have been scanned by The Internet Archive and similar sites. The page images are run through OCR, then the volunteers proofread the text, format it, and convert it for upload to Project Gutenberg.

  37. 37.

    Laertes

    Welcome back. Missed you. I didn’t realize how often I visited this site until it was gone.

     

    I seldom comment but I’m a several-visits-a-day reader, and have been since the early W years.

  39. 39.

    scav

    I didn’t mind the tent city that much, not for a bit.  A bit like driving a different car when you rent one — handles differently especially if you go a little sporty.  Also, the format testing thread in real time was a complete pure old-school reenactment.

  44. 44.

    BethanyAnne

    Yay, Watergirl! I don’t post as often, but I do lurk pretty regularly. Glad home base is back open.

  45. 45.

    Rusty

    Woohoo!!  A huge thanks to Watergirl and all the Balloon Juice crew. The world is a little less crazy.

  47. 47.

    Sandia Blanca

    Joining the chorus of grateful jackals. Thank you John! Thank you Watergirl! Having the site back has restored a normalcy in our lives.

  48. 48.

    Watergirl

    @japa21: That is not happening.  John had misunderstood something i had said to him, and he removed  that from the post up top.

    We already have a site for the Join the Fight project and the fundraising stays here; it’s an integral part of Balloon Juice.

  49. 49.

    Orange is the New Red

    • It’s embarrassing how happy I am to see the website back again.  I am a several-reads-a-day lurker for the most part. So incredibly happy to have BJ back.  Thank you, Cole and everyone.
  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @geg6: John was supposed to let me know the second that install.local was switched back to the real site so I could test everything one last time and change all the links to balloon juice before anyone knew we were up and running.

    John, being John, accidentally texted Mom Cole to tell her the site was up instead of texting me!

    I had to find out that balloon juice was pointing back here again by reading a comment on the home away from home site.

  57. 57.

    Suzanne

    I should note that I bought a new red lipstick, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and I wore it while folding my laundry and I felt sexxxxxxy.

  60. 60.

    Dangerman

    Tap. Tap. Tap. This thing on?

    ETA: Moderation. Sure, why not? The furniture is comfortable and the courtesy fridge is well stocked.

    ETA2: Freedom! Thanks to WG, Cole, etc.

  61. 61.

    Gravenstone

    @WaterGirl: Well, strangers are calling his poor dad while looking for John. So it seems only fitting he text his mom when he trying to contact his internet mom (you).

  62. 62.

    The Up and Up

    It was only once and he seemed to enjoy the conversation.

    Have a great rest of the weekend. Go yell at clouds or something.

  63. 63.

    thalarctosMaritimus

    It’s so good to have the place back. I really missed it!

    Thank you, WaterGirl, John, and everyone else who worked so hard to bring it back.

  65. 65.

    Another Scott

    [tap, tap] Hellooooo!

    Thanks WG and JC. Well done.

    I see that 15 Days is already taken as a name for the recent unpleasantness.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  67. 67.

    Madeleine

     

     

    @Madeleine: Um. At #45 when I said “you” I meant WaterGirl. I was too excited. Sorry.

    I wanted to express gratitude for all the work you, WaterGirl, have done to bring BJ home back. Sigh. Thanks.

  69. 69.

    Barry A-H-S-S

    Hooray!  Thank you Watergirl, John, and everyone involved in the restoration.  Glad to see Steve.

  73. 73.

    Ninedragonspot

    Since, to my ears, “Jackal Action” always had a slightly … dubious … ring to it, I’m going to suggest that the other site be run by …. possibly shady characters …. as a method of funding the reconstitution of good ol’ Balloon Juice dot com.

  75. 75.

    zhena gogolia

    I did enjoy the makeshift site, but this is great. Time to go to bed. Hope to see everyone tomorrow! I have to attend “Total Joint University” in the morning. i shit you not

  77. 77.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    So lovely.  Thank you for your tenacity, especially Watergirl and John.

  78. 78.

    MisterForkbeard

    Woo! So happy to be “home” again. Good job to everyone who contributed, this is just fantastic.

  80. 80.

    JaySinWA

    @WaterGirl: Thanks. great job overall. Is the contact us Site Feedback page working?

    Just checked and it isn’t yet.

    It might be a good way to organize reporting and tracking the quirks instead of whack a mole comments.

  81. 81.

    Glidwrith

    {Throws arms around Juicer site, sobbing}

    DON’T EVER LEAVE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!

    But seriously, so wonderful to be home, even part way through the rebuild.

    Watergirl, whatever would we do without you? Thank you so much!

  84. 84.

    PsiFighter37

    The first comment on this section says it happened in about 2 hours’ time (May 30th, 12:22 AM). Aside from that – nice to see things back in action!

  85. 85.

    Philbert

    Thanks to all!  And all, please have patience as the rebuilding proceeds.

    I was getting a little paranoid, with so much good here I have some concerns.

    WG, can please make own backups?

  86. 86.

    Ascap_scab

    Not sure what you did, but Feedly/gReader is treating you right, meaning I am not having to go to the web to get correct formatting.

  87. 87.

    Mousebumples

    Loved seeing the comments time travel. I was trying to figure out when this went live (eg, how behind am i)… But it was in the future? So I got confused, lol.

    Thanks to everyone for your efforts!

  88. 88.

    Other Other Other John

    20 frickin years of reading this site and still I was shocked to find how much I missed the community and commentary. SO VERY GRATEFUL to WG and everyone else who has worked on rebuilding this place. Stay grumpy, Cole.

  89. 89.

    JaySinWA

    @Ascap_scab: So RSS reporting for duty.

    Inoreader is working fine again.

    It didn’t have formatting problems before, but of course BJ was offline during the troubles. Good to have it back.

  94. 94.

    randy khan

    I kind of like “the unpleasantness,” or maybe ‘the late unpleasantness.”  Or you could go with “that which shall not be named.”

  95. 95.

    glc

    Hello John. Nice place you’ve got here.

    I’m not entirely sure why one of the auto-fill options my browser thinks is suitable for commenter name is Laura J. Mixon. I guess it’s still a bit disoriented.

  98. 98.

    JaySinWA

    @WaterGirl: Are you the keymaster for trouble reports?  Is there a way to make site feedback into an email address temporarily and route stuff to the poor slub that gets to manage the reconstruction?

  99. 99.

    Anne Laurie

    WaterGirl, if you had never before or never since done anything to deserve it (AS IF!), getting this site up & running has definitely earned you a ticket to The Good Place.

    Cole, you’re godsdamned lucky to have her, and I hope you can overcome your natural instincts long enough to tell her so personally!

    As for ‘the incident’, I vote The 365359DataDenter Interregnum!

  101. 101.

    Spanky

    Hmmmmm! That fresh paint smell!

    Let’s see if the new-old system remembers who I is.

  102. 102.

    ETtheLibrarian

    I am just glad we were welcomed back in BJ fashion… With a picture of Steve looking all judgy.

  103. 103.

    Alison Rose

    Well, I was gonna say we could call it “The Happening” because that movie was so bad, except it was so bad it was almost entertaining, and this definitely was not.

    Glad this place is back, even in slightly abbreviated form.

  105. 105.

    Lefthanded compliment

    So happy to see this place up and running again.  It’s been woven into the fabric of my daily life for many years now.

  106. 106.

    Hirudo

    I’m just a lurker but didn’t realize how much I enjoyed BJ until it wasn’t there. Time to drop some more bucks in the Paypal bucket for Mr. Cole.

  107. 107.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ninedragonspot:

    “Jackal Action” always had a slightly … dubious … ring to it

    Hmm, I never saw it like that until you mentioned it At least it wasn’t “Hot Sweaty Jackal Action” …

  108. 108.

    Jackie

    It’s so nice to have dark, regular sized font to read, again. The light gray tiny font will NOT be missed! I’ve had a headache from eye strain.

  111. 111.

    topclimber

    Oh, was there a problem with the site? I just assumed there was an update to the pie filter that meant you did not see comments from people who did not want you to see them, vs. them blacklisting yours.

    For one glorious moment I was sure I had silenced the entire Jacklatariat just on the basis of some rando remark. Thanks, Watergirl, for taking the air out of my balloon by fixing some sort of problem that had nothing to do with me.

  112. 112.

    Steeplejack

    Note for people as you’re reëntering your nym and email for commenting: leave “Website” blank unless you have an actual site to point to. In other words, you don’t need to put in Balloon Juice—or anything.

  114. 114.

    eclare

    Huge thank you to Watergirl, Cole, Steep and anyone else involved in restoring our little corner of the world!

  116. 116.

    prostratedragon

    Well howdy do!! Nice to be back in the friendly confines.  Thanks to John,  WaterGirl, and who all else.  Let us know if you need anything to help.

  117. 117.

    something fabulous

    Zut alors!!!

    THANKS TO BASTET YOU ARE BACK!!!!

    Thanks for everything! Maybe soon my twitching can abate. Phew!

  118. 118.

    H.E.Wolf

    Congrats, John; and thank you, WaterGirl!

    And many thanks to the front-pagers for continuing to write blog posts during the late unpleasantness.

  119. 119.

    JaySinWA

    @Alison Rose : WG seems to be labeling it “lost in the fire” in the Contact Us page, referring to the lost Site Feedback and Nominate Rotating tags links

    ETA “The great data [center] fire of 2022” is a possibility.

  120. 120.

    TheflipPsyd

    A huge thank you to John and Water girl from a long time lurker. Just want to second all the comments. Never realized how often I visited until you were gone. So glad the website is back. And so sorry you had to go through this and now the lawsuit

  122. 122.

    Layer8Problem

    “So what do you say, is it the New Old New Balloon Juice or what?”
    “Fix the cigarette lighter catcake.  And the Sea Lion Chow.”

    . . . and that seems to be working!  Excellent!

  123. 123.

    WaterGirl

    @eclare: Yes, Steeplejack and Wolvesvalley are the ones who hunted down our 107 rotating tags from the wayback machine, and I typed them all back into the system.

    It wouldn’t be home without the rotating tags.

  126. 126.

    middlelee

    Thank you WaterGirl and thank you John and thank you everyone else who helped.

    I had no idea how important this website was to my well-being (Jesus, is it two words or hyphenated or one word) until it was gone.  And how much time I spent here even though I rarely comment.

    I’m so happy to be home.

  127. 127.

    Ida Slapter

    What a wonderful surprise to come home to! Had a lovely day picnicking with friends. Now that I have put on my play clothes and finished my chores, I’m delighted and comforted to find the BJ front door open again and things at least looking like they’re supposed to!

    Heartfelt thanks to Cole and Water Girl and all you valiant front pagers for the excellent temporary site and emails to us! You guys rose highly above and beyond in all your efforts to keep us as informed and satisfied as things continued to unfold. And thanks to all you jackals who are helping to hunt things down and put them back. Multiple stars will be added to your celestial crowns!

  128. 128.

    JoyceH

    Yay, and howdy!

    My day – I’ve had some folks working on my house, replacing the fascia and soffits. They were out today, banging around reinstalling the gutters, and I wanted to make an errand run, but maybe they were about done, didn’t want them hanging around waiting to get paid. So I went out onto the deck to ask old George.

    He said they still had a lot to do. Mentioned my hair (I’d refreshed the purple, which had faded), and said his wife’s hair was turquoise and they saw a lady at the McCartney concert with a mixture of red and orange hair. His wife got them tickets to see Paul McCartney for his birthday. We talked Beatles for a while, Paul was his fave, and hey, remember Ed Sullivan? Et cetera and so forth.

    Then I head out to do my errands, back out past George’s truck… and there’s the Trump/Pence bumper sticker. I did NOT want to see that. Of course, there are probably plenty of Beatles fans who voted for Trump, but I just don’t want to know about it!

  131. 131.

    planetjanet

    You are the most amazing group of people to get this site back online and the great respite of Jackal-Action.  Delighted to see the new place. We’ll get to redecorating it in no time.

  136. 136.

    Ninedragonspot

    @Amir Khalid: It occurred to me about a week ago just nanoseconds before I hit the Enter button searching for it on Google.

    It turns out the results are mostly for action figures.

  137. 137.

    AWOL

    Congrats on getting this site going again and many thanks to the good people who came up with a great bandage, Jackal Action.

  138. 138.

    FelonyGovt

    So glad we’re back! Thanks so much to WaterGirl, and John, I really appreciated the email updates. I felt so bad for you both, and for the rest of us having our clubhouse padlocked!

  139. 139.

    Andrya

    Total thanks to Cole, WG, and everyone who worked on this.  It’s been a tough two weeks, even with the vacation home.

    Can we hope that Adam will return to nightly (or near nightly) posting?  Asking for a friend…

  140. 140.

    Rekoob

    @WaterGirl:  First and foremost, thank you for your vigilance and efforts to get the main site back up and running.

    Second, I deleted the old RSS feed from Feedly and then retyped it and it gave me this entry and the ones from 15 days ago.

    I therefore suggest we can call it “The Gap” “The Pause” “The Lockdown” “The Quarantine”, or, perhaps, “The Reset”.

    By the way, it appears that the site is back to tracking comments in the US Eastern time zone.

    Kudos to you and JG Cole and all the others for the hard work.

    Onward and upward!

  141. 141.

    Bonnie

    My cat, Belle, died while you were gone.  She was 18 and had a good life; but, only with me for her last three years.  I am really glad to see Balloon Juice working and getting better all the time.

  142. 142.

    Adam Lang

    I’ll keep the Jackal Action fires burning for y’all, just in case. Maybe we can use it for coordinating the social media campaign stuff or something.

    it was cool to see that a colocated ten-year-old Mac mini could handle more than triple its normal activity without even a visibly higher load. Anyone need any progressive sites hosted?

  144. 144.

    Brachiator

    I really want to apologize to everyone for the outage but there was absolutely nothing I could do, and man did I feel hopeless.

    Certainly no apologies necessary. I am happy that the site is back, and am humbly and profoundly appreciative of the efforts taken to get the site up again.

    Oddly enough, I was down for a while myself, with a series of maladies that just knocked me out, and suppressed much of my ability and desire to hang out on the Internet. Even so, I missed hanging out with fellow jackals and the front pagers.

    Also, a lot of the news about terrible,  pointless events here and around the world added to my personal misery.

    Anyway,  I am back and feeling better. And again I thank everyone for their restoration work here.

  149. 149.

    Joey Maloney

    You guys, you guys, I had the craziest dream! And you were in it, and you, and you, and…

  152. 152.

    Soprano2

    Thanks, Watergirl and John, for all the hard work to get this place back up and running.  I missed this place. The other site was good, but I missed the amenities like up and down arrows.

  153. 153.

    Kayla Rudbek

    Thank you WaterGirl and Cole for bringing the site back!

    I have been head-down in the new job for a couple of weeks now, so I didn’t have a lot of time to comment or even read much of the site.  But it’s Memorial Day weekend, Mr. Rudbek and I made it out to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and I have been relaxing with plenty of walking, biking, and beach time.

    I’m not looking forward to the drive back home, as we were behind at least two accidents on the way out here, one literally a 3-car fender-bender in front of us on the Bay Bridge across Chesapeake Bay. Mr. Rudbek’s reflexes and skill saved us from making it a 4-car collision.

    And today I noticed that Garmin was having problems with their servers as well. Not anything on the scale of 359-minus-n-and-counting, but an interesting data point.

  154. 154.

    Adam Lang

    @Ninedragonspot: no no that would be “hot-jackal-on-jackal-action.com”. I considered registering that too, back when I registered jackal-action, but it would have put me further over my ($0) budget.

  155. 155.

    Regine Touchon

    I just looked in and expected to still see our home away from home and was jolted when our true home appeared. Appreciate all the work that made this happen. It’s truly a new beginning. Let the jackalnalia  begin. I was thinking “The Troubles “  would be an apt description of our time away.

  158. 158.

    Beagleowned

    I almost never post, but the occasion calls for it.

    Thank you Watergirl for successfully defying the quantum improbability of freeing us from Cole’s Black Hole. Perhaps we should take a quick look around for the Peanut Butter? Too soon?

    Although I am seldom observed here please know that y’all were very much missed. My relief is palpable.

  159. 159.

    sralloway

    Thank all of you who worked so hard to bring BJ back to life. You are a tribute to what BJ represents.

  160. 160.

    Wag

    I finish watching a movie with my son and check twitter. Find John’s post announcing the grand reopening. Come here, and the party’s in full swing!

     

    Thanks, WG!  Thanks, John!

  163. 163.

    piratedan

    ty WG for all your hard work, JC for your earnestness in keeping us involved, the FP’ers for giving us something to gnaw on over at JA and for the community for being who they are.

  166. 166.

    James E Powell

    @Poe Larity:

    what we will now call “the unpleasantness (and we need to come up with a fitting name for this)”

    That time when the blog was hiking the Appalachian Trail.

  167. 167.

    JWR

    What a long, strange trip it’s been.

    Thank you one and all!

    (Just commenting in case I need to be reauthorized to comment. Oh good, I can highlight text in the comment box again!)

  168. 168.

    Rekoob

    @Bonnie: Very sorry to hear about Belle. I hope you take some solace in knowing that you were there for her when she needed you. While the site wasn’t immediately available, our collective spirit was there and is here for you now.

  169. 169.

    sralloway

    Addendum. Thank you for all the hard work and dedication you showed in bringing BJ back to life. You are miracle workers, one and all.​

  171. 171.

    sab

    I spent the last two weeks looking for jackals on twitter. I learned a lot about twitter.

  173. 173.

    Seefleur

    FANTASTIC! So glad that things are back to normal… such as it is within the Jackal compound.

  175. 175.

    Luther

    Wait, am I actually first, or are comments not loading?

    (EDIT:  Ha, nope.  And I can’t delete, so this just gets to sit here and make me look dumb.)

  178. 178.

    Origuy

    What? No threaded comments?

    Seriously, grazie to WaterGirl and John for all you did to end the Great Hiatus. And no one else suggested “The Snap”?

  181. 181.

    Baud

    I do hope you get your archives back.  I especially would hate to lose the comments from the Jackals we lost along the way.

  186. 186.

    sphex

    Hi everyone! I’ve been grateful for the vacation home but have missed so many of you so much!
    I’m so indebted to John and Watergirl (among others) for keeping this community alive through such a challenging time.

  193. 193.

    RSA

    Thanks for all your hard work, Water Girl and John and everyone else involved.

    what we will now call “the unpleasantness (and we need to come up with a fitting name for this),”

    Balloonageddon

  201. 201.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    Nice mount you have here (again). Last joint weren’t so bad either!

    thank you WaterGirl for all the hard work you do to make us jackals feel at home. And thanks to John for giving us jackals a home.

    The week I spent without you was dreadful.

    thank you to all the jackals who make this a wonderful place to gather , to discuss, occasionally argue, sometimes learn and always care!

  202. 202.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    Thank you so much John, WG and everyone for all the hard work done over the last few weeks.

  205. 205.

    AJ frmly of the Mustard Search n Rescue team

    It’s good to be backkkkkkk

    Thank you Watergirl, John and everyone else! ❤️

  208. 208.

    Baud

    @RSA:

    what we will now call “the unpleasantness (and we need to come up with a fitting name for this),”

    Balloonageddon

     

    The Jackapocalypse!

  218. 218.

    Ivan X

    Also, man, it’s a crazy thing to see post #1 here.

    Thanks so much @Watergirl for fighting to bring this back, and for @John Cole for unstated reasons.

  221. 221.

    2liberal

    Many thanks to watergirl and all the others who made this happen. I’ve missed this place.

  224. 224.

    Josie

    Wow. How great is this? Many thanks to WaterGirl, John Cole, and any others who helped get us back in business. I don’t comment very much, but I depend on this community to keep me sane and informed.

  225. 225.

    Juju

    It’s nice to see things have returned. Thanks WaterGirl for all the hard work you’ve done.  You truly deserve something special to express my gratitude. I wish I could think of something.

  229. 229.

    John Cole

    @dexwood: Several people did.  They were not intending to call my dad, but his is the only number listed for John Cole because I do not have a landline.  I called one back and they were very sweet, so be nice.

  231. 231.

    Emerald

    Yay! Beyond that I am speechless. I don’t comment much but I read ALL the time. Yay!

  234. 234.

    Steeplejack

    @James E Powell:

    For others who may be wondering: The blog is starting over from scratch, so everybody’s first comment goes into moderation until it is approved by a front-pager. After that you’re good to go for future comments, if you checked the “save my info” box below the comment form.

    Also, FYWP does not like apostrophes in nyms, so don’t use them. If someone is feeling frisky, they can try using a Hawaiian okina character—
    > ʻ <
    —and see if that works (&#699;). Been meaning to try it sometime.

  235. 235.

    Doc Sardonic

    Smooooooooooooth up in Ya……..It’s back…..Hopefully when I sober up 10 years from now (oh yeah like that’s gonna happen) it’ll all be a dream

  236. 236.

    Mike Field

    • ❤️❤️❤️❤️ So happy to be home. Thank you. Sorry the last couple weeks have been so rough.
  237. 237.

    StringOnAStick

    @Bonnie: You lost a long term friend and I’m sorry.  I hope the love you two had for each other warms your heart.  I’m sure Belle had her best possible life with you, and treasured you as much as you did her.

  238. 238.

    Madeleine

    Whee! I didn’ t expect this until Tuesday at earliest! Home again! Thank you so much for bringing so much back and to John for making Balloon Juice.

  241. 241.

    JanieM

    Whoa, go away from the computer for a couple of hours and look what happens!

    Repeating myself, but it’s an amazing couple of weeks of work WaterGirl has done, and everyone else who’s had a hand in handling the “unpleasantness” and the resurrection. I know we all have our favorite features to be glad of, but mine would be a tie between the Reply button and the navigation links on the left and right side of a post. They’re going to feel like a luxury for about … 30 seconds ;-)

    Thanks again, and welcome home.

  244. 244.

    different-church-lady

    The next fundraiser should be for a lifetime supply of chocolate and flowers for Water Girl.

  245. 245.

    geg6

    OMG, thank you, thank you, thank you to WaterGirl, John Cole, Steep and everyone else involved in keeping us connected and getting home sweet home back up.  Jesus, what a couple of weeks to have no Balloon Juice!  It was good to have an alternate site but this is HOME.

  247. 247.

    terben

    The first thing I noticed was the rotating tag. I have never noticed before that I always check it first. Many thanks for the monumental effort the keep the site up and running.

  249. 249.

    normal liberal

    Hosannas to WaterGirl, and to our Bloghost – so good to have you back on familiar turf.
    WG, once you have time to recuperate, perhaps there should be a Central Illinois meetup to celebrate you and your rescue work…

    Best from a normal liberal

  251. 251.

    japa21

    I hope you all enjoyed the very nice vacation home over at Jackal-Action, and keep that place bookmarked not only for emergencies, but because it is going to be getting a lot of use for our fundraising and political action work.

    I really like that idea.

  253. 253.

    jeffreyw

    Mystery Road  – Decent series and movie, starting last episode of series 2 now.  I’ve been promised a gun battle by IMDb.

  254. 254.

    Doc Sardonic

    @Bonnie: It is so hard to lose one. They leave permanent paw prints on ones heart and soul. Belle will be with you forever, and on occasion out of the corner of your eye, she will be there, to let you know you are OK.

  256. 256.

    grandmaBear

    Back. Safe. Home Again. Thank you to all who made this happen, and especially Watergirl!

    After 3 and 1/2 months finally got to take my cam boot off and started very belated work on my garden. It won’t be as great as my plans last winter, but life goes on and there were strawberries today!

  257. 257.

    DarbysMom

    So, so happy to be home! Don’t comment much but read every post.

    Thanks to WaterGirl and Cole for keeping the Jackal family together through trying times.

  260. 260.

    Betty

    Thanks to you, John, for persisting in getting answers and to Watergirl for her dedication to getting this site put back together.

  262. 262.

    Expatchad

    BJ RESURREXIT, ALLELUIA!

    All the way out to the Philippine Archipelago!

    It is to rejoice

  263. 263.

    eddie blake

    “echo (echo)… pinch hitting… for pedro burbon… manny mota! (mota)”

    oh, hey… mike’s live!

    thanks so much WG and all the big brains here that got the old girl back up and running. just never realized how much news i got through the juice and how much i’d miss the community until it was gone.

    great to be back.

    “you can’t stop the signal, mal.”

  268. 268.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    John Cole @ Top:

    Watergirl has spent the last 36 hours re-inserting and tinkering with everything to make it as much like it used to be prior to what we will now call “the unpleasantness (and we need to come up with a fitting name for this) …”

    The Ransom Interregnum?

  270. 270.

    R-Jud

    260+ comments in and none of you geniuses have come up with “The Crapture” yet to describe the outage? I am disappoint.

    And glad to see the old site back. Thanks to WG and JC for all your work.

  271. 271.

    thalarctosMaritimus

    @Bonnie: I’m sorry to hear about Belle, and wish we could have been there to be supportive while you were going through her loss. I hope that her memory will be a solace to you.

  274. 274.

    Rose Weiss

    I missed this community so much… I never post but I read every day to keep up with news, both private and public.  BJ has been part of my life for at least 10 years.

  275. 275.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    In the words of Aral Vorkosigan, “my home is not a place; it is people.”

    The records of our history may have been stolen or vandalized, but that doesn’t negate the fact that the events took place, much like after you throw a stone into a pond, the ripples may fade, but the stone remains in the pond.

    John Cole has built a community, which is too strong to be laid low by the fecklessness of an incompetent internet hosting service.

    I don’t know about everyone else, but it’s not the coding and layout that brought me here.

    It’s the people.

  277. 277.

    stacib

    I am soooo late to the party.  A huge thank you to John Cole, Watergirl and all of the helper bees.

  279. 279.

    2liberal

    @glc:  I’m not entirely sure why one of the auto-fill options my browser thinks is suitable for commenter name is Laura J. Mixon. I guess it’s still a bit disoriented

     

    Laura J. Mixon is an American science fiction writer and a chemical and environmental engineer. In 2011, she began publishing under the pen name Morgan J. Locke. Under that name, she is one of the writers for the group blog Eat Our Brains.

  280. 280.

    Jimmm

    Thank goodness!  I didn’t realize how much time I spent here until suddenly I couldn’t.

  282. 282.

    MisterForkbeard

    @R-Jud: Maybe we can repurpose an old joke? The blog was ‘hiking the Appalachian Trail’, maybe.

  283. 283.

    Ann Marie

    A million thanks to John and WaterGirl and anyone else who helped for bringing Balloon Juice back!  I was lost without it.

  287. 287.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    And like an idiot, I forgot to give thanks for the massive effort put in by WaterGirl (or is it properly Watergirl?) and company in rebuilding the site.

  288. 288.

    Tony Jay

    Fantastic work, resurrectors. It Lives!!!

    Smells funny. Did you find Darrell under the floorboards while we were gone?

  289. 289.

    Dan B

    Nice to be back!  I just had a celebratory French Vvanilla Ice Cream* with fresh raspberries** indulgence.

     

    *goat milk ice cream for the extremely lactose intolerant.  Moi..Moisture…

    ** For 263, and dropping, cloud host.

  290. 290.

    Amir Khalid

    @Bonnie:

    I know the weight of such a loss. They’re never just a cat or just a dog to us, are they? We love them and cherish them, and they us, for however much time is allowed us.  And at the end, it always feels like it was a lifetime’s worth.

    My condolences. May the memory of Belle ever bring peace and comfort to you.

  291. 291.

    Dan B

    @Bonnie: Your loss of your Belle reminded me of wonderful kitties we’ve lost and of the wonderful memories they lent us.  I’ve got a little cutie asleep on what is currently his chair, except when he’s on the back of my chair so I can lean into him or whe he usurps my partner’s spot on the sofa.  I’m glad she was loved by you.

  292. 292.

    Martin

    Sorry Cole and Watergirl. Shit like this is infuriating.

    Appreciate everything you two do.

  293. 293.

    ColoradoGuy

    All praise to Cole and WaterGirl! We get to move out of the Temporary Autonomous Zone and return to … well, it feels similar, and it’s got a beat and you can dance to it!

  297. 297.

    J R in WV

    So my large group of age-related health issues had me awake at 4:30 am Hillbilly time, and just for grins and giggles I clicked on the link to B-J  —  AND IT WORKED!!!!!~ Amazing at 4:30 am…

    So now I have reached the bottom of the comments. All the same old folkx are here, too, so swell.

    While Wife was undergoing neurosurgery and visiting a dozen different Drs this place this place was always there when I got home from hospital at midnight. Now she’s home and doing great, and YOU GUS ALL WENT AWAY, WAH!!! but now you’re back.

    So grateful for WaterGurl and Cole and everyone else who pitched in to reignite this site, and for the interregnum Jackal site!!! WG, you Rock !!! Thanks so much for everything. So… do you like like champagne???

  301. 301.

    lowtechcyclist

    @geg6: ​
     

    My credenza will not be laughing.

    It can run off and join the Credenza Clearwater Revival.

  303. 303.

    Chris T.

    @JaySinWA:

    Cole’s Black Hole is the official name for the time of tribulation

    The Cole Hole (coal mine) of West By God Virginny?

    (first comment so as to get re-whatevered)

  305. 305.

    raven

    I just knocked down the last Paxlovid pills. Oddly the “metallic” taste peaks at night and is yucky when you wake up (which is about three times a night). We decided to delay our anniversary a week since I’m still supposed to mask even in the house!

  308. 308.

    NineJean

    I’m sooo delighted! The unexpected vaycay was okay, but it’s good to be home, lurker though I am. I’d had to work to quit checking the home site every hour or so during the last couple of weeks, so I missed the re-arrival. 295 comments already when I got here!

    I’m quite awed by all the work you’ve done, WG.  Do you ever sleep?

  310. 310.

    NeenerNeener

    Hey, it’s back! Woo hoo! And someone please take me out of moderation.

  312. 312.

    JPL

    Thank you so much Water Girl, John and all those involved in getting the site up and running.

  313. 313.

    bluejersey43 (fka texasboyshaun)

    “A name for what happened”

    I suggest calling it “The Fuckening”.

  315. 315.

    AM in NC

    Thanks to Water Girl and everyone els who had a hand in getting this place up and running again after “the fuckening”.

    I really missed this community you’ve created here!

  319. 319.

    Nukular Biskits

    Great to see things (mostly) back to normal!

    John, et al, I mostly lurk here but you guys are part of my daily routine.  I damned near panicked when I thought BJ had gone away.

  320. 320.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Thank you John C. & WaterGirl for working so hard to bring the site back, & for providing a temporary home while the situation was a being sorted!

  323. 323.

    KSinMA

    Many thanks to WG and everyone else for all your hard work and resourcefulness!

  329. 329.

    leeleeFL

    @RSA: As an Irish person in somewhat good standing, I give permission to use the Recent Difficulties.  The Troubles were much worse, but this felt kind of apocalyptic, if I’m honest!

  330. 330.

    Miss Bianca

    Woot! Thank you, WaterGirl and JC! The temp site was surprisingly nice, but it sure feels good to be back in (some semblance of) the old saddle again!

  332. 332.

    Zelma

    Late to the party.  I was actually offline last night – a rare thing – and missed the notification.  Adding my thanks to Water Girl and everyone else who got BalloonJuice back.  Jackal Action wasn’t quite the same.

  334. 334.

    glc

    @2liberal: And also – she’s not me.

    I am reading one of her books at the moment but that by itself should not confuse my browser’s autofill function.

    To be specific: Up Against it has been reissued as a Tor Essential with an introduction by the “author” of The Expanse (we/us).

  335. 335.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Old folks?

    Most of us?

    A lot of us?

    Those who have been here a very long time?

    What the hell else you going to call those whose rear view mirror is bigger than the windshield? Old farts?

    I don’t know when I checked in here the first time, but like a whole lot of us, I’ve been here, checking in, for a rather long time as computer stuff goes, and like most of us I spend way too much time here – and wouldn’t have it any other way.

    For all of those who worked to get this home away from home back up, a giant thank you. And yes, this is my home page in my browser, which is rather appropriate.

  336. 336.

    Splitting Image

    we need to come up with a fitting name for this

    404 Red Balloons?

    Thanks to you and WaterGirl for all the work you’ve done here. Here’s to 20 more years.

  339. 339.

    Bonnie

    @Rekoob:

     
    That is so nice of you to say. Thank you so much. Belle was a sweetheart. When I took her at 14, I know the big decision would come to me.

  344. 344.

    Bonnie

    @Dan B: ​
     
    Thank you. When she first came here, she took over my dining room table showing great taste in furniture. It was my Mom and Dad’s table, which held many family meals, games, and numerous other activities. This last weekend has been tough every time I went past the table.

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