Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

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

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

How stupid are these people?

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Open Thread

Sunday Open Thread

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This post is in: 

It looks like we could also use an open thread.

I have much to update you on this guy. He’s been peacefully living with us for a week now:

Sunday Open Thread 1

Meet Jasper. He’s gaining weight well, I’m hoping he’s up from 106 to about 112 now. He is a charming gentleman, working on making everyone love him (not difficult). We have a vet visit this week, and I’ll do a proper write-up on him then.

Sunday Open Thread 2

 

My tomatoes went from one or two – to now 6-7 a day. I froze my first round of pureed tomatoes. Looking like I might have enough to get me through the winter for soups and sauces.

Sunday Open Thread 3

I have company on the way over, because of course my friends can’t get enough of meeting the newest addition. They are so great at helping me socialize these beasts.

What’s everyone up to (and don’t miss the climate info in the previous post, if you’re wondering if the IRA is going to do enough).

This is an open thread

 

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  2. 2.

    MagdaInBlack

    Congratulations on the new member of the family 😊

    Welcome to Balloon Juice, Jasper ❤️

  3. 3.

    Vickie Feminist

    Thanks for the pup update since we’ve all been wondering what you were going to do.  It’s great to hear he’s fitting in and gaining weight.

    It’s very probable that Joe Biden had something to do with the pup’s success.

  4. 4.

    mali muso

    The kiddo starts her first day of Kindergarten tomorrow. She is ready. Not sure if I am.

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    @mali muso: Be brave!

    edit:  I’m sure it’s always been complicated for parents to send their kids off to school for the first time, but obviously these days it’s more complicated than ever.

    Are you going to have her hold the sign that says it’s her first day of kindergarten, and take the classic picture?

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been wondering but didn’t want to ask!  Good boy, Jasper!  I see you have your very own baby, or at least it’s yours for the moment.  So happy for all of you.

    TaMara, what kids of tomatoes are those?

  8. 8.

    TaMara

    @WaterGirl: I smartly bought 3 large stuffies at ARC the day before I got him and left them in the car with him for the drive home. That way he arrived bringing “gifts” for Scout and Trixie. He seems to have claimed the lamb.

    The long ones are San Marzano (also the pureed ones), and the round are Park Whopper and Better Boy

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    @mali muso:  If you do cry, I hope you have something prepared so you can explain that yours are tears of happiness, or excitement for her big day.

    I am a cry-er, so not judging!  :-)

    With Covid, has she been around other kids much?  Does she need tips that she might not otherwise have needed?

  11. 11.

    Ixnay

    There was an earlier thread asking about favorite funny political writers. Betty C of course and Tbogg finally got a shout out, I may have missed it, but Charlie Pierce and the Rude Pundit are high on our list for decades now. Where would we be without quality snark?

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Jasper looks as though he has lots of personality! It will be fun to hear his story and watch him grow. Congratulations!

  14. 14.

    TaMara

    God, I adore Beschloss:

  15. 15.

    sab

    @mali muso: I am glad she is looking forward to bus and school.

    My oldest granddaughter cried about starting school, so badly that she was known all through elementary school as ” the girl who cried.” She was happy to move to our town and start over in middle school with kids who didn’t remember that she cried in first grade.

  16. 16.

    eversor

    Since I got long term ill I’ve eaten a lot of soup.  Tomato, made from san marzanos, is one of the tops.  The fiancee does really good chicken soups so those are a hit.  I am the miso soup master.  Hot and sour is also a hit.  The tomato soup is always tops though and I guess it’s healthy enough I feel good for a few days after it.  I cheat though and put reaper peppers in my portion so it will peel paint, also clears one out quick.  We made a huge mistake of turning the carrots into carrot soup and then using coconut milk instead of create and the sheer sweetness of it all did a number on both of us.

    Also using the mint from the garden to make a tea which I like but she does not like mint so that’s just me.  We went out for duck at the famous place (Peking Gourmet Inn in Falls Church VA) and though I got ill into it we turned the leftover carcass they give you into a broth with some noodles.

    Our tomato crop failed so we’ve been picking them up in giant cans from costco (shut up canned are great for soups!), also eating bean soups.  Having a sudo liquid diet leads to odd “morning moments” though.

  17. 17.

    Chat Noir

    Jasper! What a great name. Welcome home, big guy!

    Also too, very envious of your tomatoes. We can’t grow them for love nor money.

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    @eversor:

    The tomato soup is always tops though and I guess it’s healthy enough I feel good for a few days after it. I cheat though and put reaper peppers in my portion so it will peel paint, also clears one out quick. 

    Tomato soup that all grilled cheeses fear!

  20. 20.

    Suzanne

    @mali muso: Hugs! It’ll be great!

    I am driving to NoVA tomorrow, and then coming back on Tuesday. Should be a busy two days.

    I have been enjoying a lazy Sunday this afternoon. It’s been nice.

  21. 21.

    Suzanne

    @eversor: I make tomato soup in my crockpot with those San Marzanos from Costco. They’re fucking delicious. I am lazy and I don’t feel even slightly bad about it. I eat frozen vegetables, too, by the bag.

  22. 22.

    pat

    I was planning a lazy Sunday after being gone all day yesterday and then the neighbor started SPLITTING LOGS from the downed trees a couple of weeks ago, and the awful noise just reverberates through the house.  Ick.

     

    ETA, I went back and read a few comments from the first post about Jasper, and I would have just said, aw, you know you want him and you know you can make it work!  Go get him!

  25. 25.

    Suzanne

    Also. Jasper is a fabulous name for a dog. Reminds me of Jasper Johns, whose work I have deeply loved for years. Very happy to hear that he’s thriving.

  26. 26.

    CaseyL

    My gosh, I somehow missed the August 3 post about a potential third doggo!  (Thanks for linking to it.)

    Welcome home, Jasper!

    At 6 yo, he’s already a Senior Dog by Great Dane standards, so I hope he will lend a much-needed air of gravitas to the household 😀

  28. 28.

    eversor

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I still do grilled cheese the dirty nasty way.  American cheese, wonderbread, cheap butter!  The soup is simple with just salt, pepper, some basil (I can’t use it fast enough from the garden) and then reaper pepper powder in my portion.

  29. 29.

    Dan B

    We’re getting the first cherry tomatoes and color on the San Marzano hybrids, Yay!  It’s supposed to be mid 80’s this week so we may get a big crop soon.  And there are loads of Cucumbers and a watermelon the size of a tennis ball.  The red Okra is iffy.  Flowers are pretty from the tiny, 1″, buds.  Bigger ones on the way!

    Jasper looks very happy.  Great to have a huge happy doggo!

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    @pat:

    and then the neighbor started SPLITTING LOGS from the downed trees a couple of weeks ago, and the awful noise just reverberates through the house. Ick. 

    Gas-powered log splitter?

  36. 36.

    pat

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Yep.  I have used these up north in an old resort, far away from cabins, wearing noise-cancelling headphones.  It’s awful when it’s going on basically next to your driveway.

    I spoke to him and he will move it farther away next time…..He is stacking the wood where he was splitting it..

  39. 39.

    Suzanne

    @trollhattan: Eh. I use the big cans. The Costco I shop at has the Cento tomatoes, and they’re pretty good. I am not someone who has much time to fuss around in the kitchen, but I want healthy food, so everything gets looked at through the lens of effort/cost vs quality of payout. During the week, I am just happy to have nutritious options. Probably half of my meals are a cut-up apple with peanut butter.

  44. 44.

    pat

    Since someone mentioned canned tomatoes, have you ever checked the contents on the label and the amount of SALT in canned food? Astonishing. I look for “low sodium” or “no salt added.”

    Canned soup is especially bad.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    Jasper is hanging out with the Dane girls and the cats. And ducks.

    What.  Not a surprise.  Welcome, handsome.

    @Suzanne:   You may have given us the recipe before, but can you provide one for the San Marzanos tomato soup?  How could that not be good?

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    Back in the day Sacramento had several tomato canneries in the middle of the city and from about now through October that’s what it smelled like: cooking tomatoes. They’re gone now and “kids these days” don’t get what that’s like.

    We do still have the Blue Diamond plant, some days it smells like cookies.

  50. 50.

    Ken

    @TaMara: according to closing credits […] who played “The Thing”?

    Oooh! Oooh!  I know!  I’ll let everyone else figure out the credits answer — you can also check at IMDB.  But the person who usually provided the hand was Ted Cassidy, who played Lurch. Because of course it would be the guy who stands 6’9″ who gets to crawl under a table.

  51. 51.

    Dan B

    @trollhattan: I lived upstairs from Hyde’s Candy Company.  Each day had its fragrance.  Very strange apartment.  There was a roof that was halfway up the outside wall of the apartment so it felt like being in a somewhat sinking ship.

  52. 52.

    trollhattan

    @Ken:  Because of course it would be the guy who stands 6’9″ who gets to crawl under a table.

    You mean Ted “Big Hands” Cassidy? Probably a favor to the cameramen. :-)

    “You rang?”

    Even as a wee kid I got that “Addams Family” and “Get Smart” stood well apart from all the sitcoms as being legitimately clever and a bit subversive. Although I had no idea what subversive was. Yet.

  54. 54.

    eversor

    @pat:

    You mean 7% and it has 27 servings  in a giant can that makes over a gallon of soup?  Not all canned food is bad.  Compare canned seafood from Spain to that you get in the US it’s night and day.  CENTO is an Italian brand, it’s not what you think.

    Canned seafood from say Spain can hit hundreds per can.  Food in a can might be cheap, salted, perservative ridden stuff in the US but it’s not in other places.  The European and Asian stuff tends to be rather good.  A basic 10 per can Spanish sardine option is not remotely the same as the 1 buck at CVS item.

  56. 56.

    trollhattan

    @Dan B: That would be a mixed bag, although I’ll bet a kid would enjoy smelling candy all day.

    College buddy who grew up on Long Island said the nearby Mars candy factory made LifeSavers and you could always tell what flavor they were making at the time when you went past.

    Once had a rental a block or so from a Taco Bell and to this day I can’t even with them.

  58. 58.

    HinTN

    @pat: I recently bought no salt canned tomatoes (had to look harder than I would have liked) and the flavor of the dish I made was outstanding. It’s worth the effort.

  59. 59.

    eclare

    @trollhattan:   I once had a job assignment in the suburbs of Baltimore near a McCormick plant.  Some days the spices that you smelled were good, such as cinnamon and nutmeg.  Days it made a spice like cumin were not.  That was about thirty years ago, I have no idea if the plant is still there.

  60. 60.

    CarolPW

    @trollhattan: Why it was called Sacratomato. In the 50’s I took several trips to the tomato cannery near Stockton Blvd with my dad (think it was Heinz or Hunt’s). The major issue with the tomatoes was that the first rain would result in freeways coated in tomato paste and there would be lots of wrecks. It was particularly interesting when an olive oil tanker overturned on the Hwy 99/I 80 interchange, and everything smelled like pizza.

  62. 62.

    mrmoshpotato

    @CarolPW:

    The major issue with the tomatoes was that the first rain would result in freeways coated in tomato paste and there would be lots of wrecks. 

    Why?  Something was seriously wrong.

  63. 63.

    eversor

    @Elizabelle:

    The soup is really just blend the suckers and then add what you like.  We break ours up out because the SO loves garlic, cheese, basic, and I like a ton of hot peppers.  Throw the can in the blender, add water, then adjust as needed.

  65. 65.

    CarolPW

    @mrmoshpotato: As the trucks bring the tomatoes to the cannery tomato juice leaks out onto the roads. For months. The trucks had been bring tomatoes to the canneries for decades with no problems until freeways, with interchanges and curves taken at speed, were built. The most effective thing that was done was grooving the pavement but there were still problems. Then there were no more canneries in midtown and the problem went away.

  67. 67.

    HumboldtBlue

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Most likely from the tomatoes that spilled from trucks as they were shipped in from the field to the factory. In California, oil and stuff like those spilled tomatoes stay on the pavement through the dry months, but when it rains, all that oil and other residue and detritus gets loosened and can create very slick roadways.

    I recall an incident when my sister and I were turning onto an on-ramp of the 118 after the first winter rain and the car did a complete 360 as if we had hit a patch of ice. It was the built-up and oil and other stuff that had gathered during the dry months.

    @kalakal: @Betty: @eclare:

    It’s fantastic.

  70. 70.

    Scout211

    @mrmoshpotato: The trucks with trailers full of tomatoes on the way  from the fields to the canneries are piled high with tomatoes, often over the top of the trailer. If the trucks take a sharp turn on an on ramp, the top layer can dribble off onto the highways. We lived in Stockton for 30+ years and there used to be many canneries there. The Central Valley is still a big tomato producer but this time of year, you see tomato trucks up and down I-5 and 99 in both directions, tomatoes scattered here and there.

    ETA: and what Humboldt Blue said.

  73. 73.

    Elizabelle

    @Suzanne:   Thank you!

    Right now is Hanover (Virginia) tomato season, so lots of delicious fresh tomatoes in the mix.

    But good to know about the San Marzano soup too.  Will get some big cans on next Costco visit.

    Enjoy DC!  Visit the Portrait Gallery, if you have some spare moments.  (Assume it’s open; haven’t checked lately.)

  75. 75.

    Ken

    @Raoul Paste: “Itself”. Thing may have been the first actor to use a gender-neutral pronoun.

    (Though the Thing had gender. There was an episode where it was romancing a lady Thing, played by a woman’s hand. It may have been in that same episode that we saw a picture of Thing’s two parents.)

  77. 77.

    Suzanne

    @Elizabelle: I’m going for work stuff. Will have absolutely no free time. I have been to the Portrait Gallery within the last year, though.

    I went last October and was disappointed to find out that the Obama portraits were on tour. But lucky me, I ran into them in San Francisco at the deYoung museum in June!

  80. 80.

    Marc

    @trollhattan: College buddy who grew up on Long Island said the nearby Mars candy factory made LifeSavers and you could always tell what flavor they were making at the time when you went past.

    New England Confectionery Company used to be in a building diagonally across Mass Ave. from MIT and adjacent to their (sub-critical) nuclear reactor.  You could smell NECCO Wafers for blocks around. I never noticed if they glowed in the dark.

  81. 81.

    Jay C

    @Ken:

    But the person who usually provided the hand was Ted Cassidy, who played Lurch. Because of course it would be the guy who stands 6’9″ who gets to crawl under a table.

    Except for scenes where Lurch and Thing were in the same shot: then they had to get a stand-in (hand-in?): often one of the producers.

    Supposedly, Ted Cassidy would occasionally shift hands (Thing was normally a rightie) just to see if anyone would notice. And according to the trivia notes, they didn’t always.

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    @Suzanne:   Have a good trip.  I haven’t seen the Obama portraits yet.

    I am cringing at what the Portrait Gallery will have to do with including TFFG in its gallery of presidential portraits.  Something small, in a heavily gilded frame, that is hung out of sight behind a black curtain sounds fine to me.

    Even his image is not fit to adorn a wall there.

  84. 84.

    pat

    @eversor: ​
     
    I just got back from dinner and I have to say I have nothing against canned tomatoes SOUP per se, but if you are trying to restrict your salt intake, just read the labels. I have a can of soup in my cupboard that is labeled as “0rganic” and has three servings in a small can and one serving is 9% of a daily dose.

    And an “organic” soup that is one serving and has 36% of a daily recommended amount of sodium.. In one serving.
    Just read the labels if you have any concern about sodium intake!!

    edited

  85. 85.

    eversor

    @Elizabelle:

    I think that, for me at least, the tomato soup is always great but the key is in the grilled cheese that goes with it.  I always toss half in and mix it about and then eat half straight up.

    East coasters and cheese are odd though.  For a bunch of “elitist snobs” we sure do love our “wit whiz” cheese steaks, just plain cheese NYC pizza, and American cheese grilled cheese.

    I always crack up when people “Georgetown” my ass because it’s like, you know the local dish is a fucking pork and beef sauage with chilli and liquid cheese right?  You also do know the local seafood thing it steamed crabs spiced to hell and back with cheap beer and not sashimi right?

    I’m A OK with canned tomato turned into a soup and then loaded up with hot peppers.

  86. 86.

    Jackie

    @Dan B: Late summer/early fall driving from the Tri-Cities through the Yakima Valley, the aroma was heavy with Concord grapes.

    Sadly, that aroma has been replaced by pungent cow manure. Grapes have been replaced by dairy farms.

  87. 87.

    Gin & Tonic

    @trollhattan: Used to be a candy factory right in the middle of Cambridge, MA. The New England Confectionery Company (NECCO). Sometimes the whole town smelled.

  92. 92.

    JMG

    @different-church-lady: I see you Gilroy (where I have been), and I raise you Kennett Square, PA, the self-proclaimed mushroom capital of the world. Nothing like being behind a mushroom truck in summer in those long-ago days before automobile air-conditioning. They grow those things in pure manure. That’s why they tell you to wash ’em thoroughly.

  93. 93.

    Feathers

    @Marc: My dad grew up in Belmont. He told stories of going to the factory as a kid and buying bags of broken candy. I was working nearby in the 80s and stopped by to ask if they still sold broken candy. The guy laughed and said no, but he did let me through the factory to go to the company store to do Christmas shopping for Dad. He still uses the Necco cans I bought that day.

    There were a lot of factories in that end of Cambridge. At least one more candy factory by Lechmere. There was a great exhibit at the MIT museum about it, with a map and examples of the products.

  94. 94.

    NutmegAgain

    I’m so glad to hear that the boy has come home with you. He’s a lovely fellow, and he’ll do so well with you. As long as the feeding situation works out OK, you’ll be in total doggy bliss!  Sending scritches and hugs from the East coast land of Newfies and one cranky Pyr.

  95. 95.

    pat

    @WaterGirl: Wow. Thanks!

    Until my legs and ankles started to swell for no apparent reason, I didn’t pay much attention to those labels.  Now I am frankly appalled at how much sodium chloride the folks who eat these prepared foods are ingesting.

    ETA: still do not know exactly why my ankles are swelling, but limiting sodium can’t hurt.  Especially when there is a “recommended daily requirement” and so many prepared foods seem to be over stepping that if you eat a lot of them.

    PS, the swelling is not really that bad….

  96. 96.

    NutmegAgain

    @Feathers: Did you ever notice the … what’s the opposite of a spigot??  the giant connections on the outside of the building, right at the sidewalk, for deposits of sugar & corn syrup. Wish I had a cell phone the last time I saw them!

  98. 98.

    geg6

    @WaterGirl:

    I don’t eat Hershey’s chocolate, but the smell is lovely.  And the Kiss-shaped streetlights are charming.  If I’m eating cheap chocolate, it’s Peanut M&Ms.

    I used to live two blocks away from a small family owned chocolatier.  It’s internationally known and has been honored and toured by the Fine Chocolate Industry Organization several times.  I am spoiled for most chocolates.  But chocolate smells like chocolate, the good or the bad.  It’s a lovely smell.

  99. 99.

    geg6

    @NutmegAgain:

    Anthony Bourdain did a show in Cleveland where he toured an old, shut down Twinkies factory.  You could still open those big spigots they had the for the filling and there was still filling in them.  He and Harvey Pekar opened the valve on one and tasted it.  It was still edible and tasted like Twinkie filling.  Years after the plant closed.

  100. 100.

    NutmegAgain

    @geg6: Woah!  Well, they do say that twinkies are up there with cockroaches and Keith Richards in the who’ll-survive-the-nuclear-apocalypse stakes…

  102. 102.

    The Lodger

    @eclare: International Flavors and Fragrance on Rt. 36, Holmdel, NJ. It never smelled really bad, but you never knew what the aroma of the day was gonna be.

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