‘Tis the season!
I present "GS9" for this years gingerbread creation. A tribute to my first watch of DS9. This was tough, but she's holding strong and I'm really proud that I pulled it off??@StarTrek #StarTrek #startrekds9 #holiday #Gingerbread #baking #LLAP #StarTrekFamily pic.twitter.com/8fpJ5bhiKL
— Nic (@piecexpiece3) December 17, 2022
‘Jingle Bells’ was the first song performed in space because 2 military pilots pranked NASA https://t.co/ECF9a2yAFc
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 16, 2022
Speaking of music, a gift for everyone:
Tom Lehrer has put all his songs online (including lyrics & sheet music), and given away all rights to them. The site will only be up for a limited time. This is a very niche tweet that will make a small segment of people very happy. https://t.co/sowetybPhT pic.twitter.com/1vAGafXCES
— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) December 17, 2022
Ceci n est pas mon nym
“All the world is in tune
on a spring afternoon
as we’re poisoning pigeons in the park…”
I’m in that happy tiny Tom Lehrer niche.
kalakal
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
“Shark’s got to swim, bat’s got fly,
She’s my girl, I don’t know why”
She’s my girl
”
So be sweet and kind to mother
Now and then have a chat
Buy her candy or some flowers
Or a brand new hat
But maybe you had better let it go at that”
Oedipus Rex
I too am amongst that small number
arrieve
Good morning all. I’m not usually reading, much less commenting, on threads at this hour, but the combination of having completed my master’s program this week and being knocked flat by my second round with Covid have left me with a lot of free time.
I know that everyone here knows this, but feel free to use me as a cautionary tale for any skeptics in your life–even if you’re fully vaccinated, even if you’ve had Covid before and it wasn’t that bad, DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN NOT TO GET IT AGAIN. I spent yesterday in the ER getting an IV, severely dehydrated after four days of 100 plus fever and not being able to eat or drink. I’m on antivirals, and they have been really effective with the upper respiratory crap and the cough–which is a good thing because I have pulled every muscle north of my knees from coughing, and it hurts so much that when I feel a spasm coming on I have to wrap my arms around my belly like a truss.
Don’t be like arrieve, boys and girls. Avoid the virus.
eclare
@arrieve: Congrats on the masters! Glad you got some medication and are feeling better. I still wear a mask out in public, your ordeal sounds awful.
Cephalus Max
@arrieve: BIG congrats on the Masters!! But hot damn, that sucks about COVID round 2. Feel better!
I’m still in full protective mode… masking, no crowded gatherings, limited interaction with strangers, etc.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
@kalakal:
Pollution pollution,
Wear a gas mask and a veil,
Than you can breathe
As long as you don’t inhale.
We’re everywhere, but nobody sees us until it’s too late.
Cervantes
Christmas time is here, by golly
Disapproval would be folly
Deck the halls with hunks of holly
Fill the cup and don’t say when
Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens
Mix the punch, drag out the Dickens
Even though the prospect sickens
Brother, here we go again
On Christmas Day you can’t get sore
Your fellow man you must adore
There’s time to rob him all the more
The other three hundred and sixty-four
Relations, sparing no expense, ‘ll
Send some useless old utensil
Or a matching pen and pencil
(“Just the thing I need, how nice!”)
It doesn’t matter how sincere it is
Nor how heart felt the spirit
Sentiment will not endear it
What’s important is the price
Hark, the Herald Tribune sings
Advertising wondrous things
God rest ye merry merchants
May ye make the Yuletide pay
Angels we have heard on high
Tell us to go out and – buy!
So let the raucous sleighbells jingle
Hail our dear old friend Kriss Kringle
Driving his reindeer across the sky
Don’t stand underneath when they fly by
OzarkHillbilly
Oh gawd, I hate when that happens to me. Hope it all goes away soon. Oh yeah, congrats on the Masters.
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
@arrieve: How do you think you contracted it?
JWR
This sounds like a job for SuperAlito! (Yeah, another ‘religious’ nutter with a lawsuit.)
StringOnAStick
@arrieve: I’m so sorry about your current state of health! If it helps, yesterday I wore a kn-95 to get groceries after a week at a remote lodge in Canada. I had seen a lot more masks in public the weeks before we left for our trip, and maybe one other mask in a very busy grocery store yesterday. I know Covid rates were in the decline in the PNW last week, but the behaviour I saw today means it’s only a matter of time before trends worsen here, again. And again, and again, and again because we as a group have the attention span of a fruit fly
Please keep us posted on your progress, I hope you feel better as soon as possible. Congratulations on completing your masters program!
PBK
@arrieve: Congratulations on your degree. Hope your recovery is swift. I enjoy your blog also…good photos and interesting stories/observations.
OzarkHillbilly
@JWR: I’m wondering what religion she belongs to because there ain’t a word about pronoun usage in the bible.
The Thin Black Duke
@OzarkHillbilly: Beware of the sadists who use God as an alibi.
StringOnAStick
@OzarkHillbilly: same religion as my oldest sister, I bet. Southern Baptist, which is shorthand for “all deviation from our imagined 1950’s white people conformist paradise will be shunned and punished”.
Lapassionara
@JWR: what a warped view of Christianity.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Mr DAW just sent me this. Supposedly he’s at the gym. I have no idea where he got the info.
arrieve
@David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch: I’m probably lucky I didn’t catch it sooner–I’ve been teaching on Saturdays as part of my master’s program and the university made masks optional a long time ago. I still wore one, but had to pull it down sometimes, like when I was teaching pronunciation. Beginning English students really need to see your mouth.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@arrieve: Congrats on the degree! This bout of covid sounds awful.
JWR
@OzarkHillbilly: I think her “religion” could rightfully be called The Church of the Nutters. But alas, the article notes only that she’s a Christian, (with nutty flavor! ETA, /s.)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@StringOnAStick: I’ve seen more masks around here lately, including in the grocery store yesterday. Our county is now an area of heavy transmission.
This building lets us know every week if any residents have covid. The last flyer said 4 people (out of about 300 residents) tested positive last week. Apparently, they were all at the same event. Mah jong or something
Anne Laurie
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s true — I included the links in my latest (Friday morning) Coronavirus update, if you wanna check there.
(People who don’t care about their own, or others’, safety… are also liable to be lousy drivers. Now, with statistics!)
randy khan
It’s great to see that Mr. Lehrer is still alive and kicking at 94. And it may say something about my friends that when I posted the link to his site on social media, I got an immediate and enthusiastic response.
“The rockets go up who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department, says Wernher von Braun.”
OzarkHillbilly
@The Thin Black Duke: Yeah, keep them far far away from this atheist.
@StringOnAStick: I had an aunt who was Southern Baptist and just the sweetest person in the whole world. She believed what she believed, but she had no prob;em with other people believing something else.
After my mother died, all us kids were in the kitchen letting go of all the tensions while waiting for hospice to come and get Ma’s body. I’m having Scotch, probably my 2nd, nowhere near drunk, just letting it all out.
The phone rings. Little Sis picks it up, says “Hello?”. She looks at me with this really strange look on her face. OK, I hold out my hand for the phone and she hands it to me. I got pissed, what asshole solicitor is intruding on this moment?
“Who the fuck are you and what the fuck do you want?”
In a soft Texas lilt comes back, “Tom? This is your Aunt Jeanne.”
I frantically looked around for a rock to crawl under but there were none big enough to hide me. I don’t remember how my many apologies went but with Aunt Jeanne they were mostly unnecessary. She was just that kind of person.
Betty Cracker
@arrieve: Congratulations on the master’s, and I hope you’re feeling better soon so you can celebrate that accomplishment properly. I’ve had chronic bronchitis since childhood, so I know exactly what you mean about being worn out and sore from coughing. No fun at all.
Another Scott
@arrieve: I’m sorry you’re going through all that. Thanks for the report – it’s important!
Continue to recover and feel better soon.
And congratulations on finishing your masters! It’s a BFD!! :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
Heh, it has been a long long time since I’d heard When You are Old and Gray:
An awful debility,
A lessened utility,
A loss of mobility
Is a strong possibility.
In all probability
I’ll lose my virility
And you your fertility
And desirability,
And this liability
Of total sterility
Will lead to hostility
And a sense of futility,
So let’s act with agility
While we still have facility,
For we’ll soon reach senility
And lose the ability.
While enjoying our compatibility,
I am cognizant of its fragility,
And I question the advisability
Of relying on its durability.
You’re aware of my inflexibility
And my quintessential volatility
And the total inconceivability
Of my showing genuine humility.
Though your undeniable nubility
May excuse a certain puerility,
Your alleged indispensability
Underestimates my versatility,
And your boyish irresponsibility
And what now is charming juvenility
Will in time lose their adorability
And appear much more like imbecility
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: Have to laugh in sympathy at your story because something similar happened to me years back when we lived across the street from a very sweet, very religious lady. One day she happened to arrive at my screen door immediately after I’d dropped a skillet on my foot and let loose a torrent of curses that would make the 7th Fleet cover their innocent ears in horror. I too looked in vain for a rock to crawl beneath…
satby
I didn’t get covid last month, just some cold bug; but it went from sniffles to a sinus infection to bronchitis, which happens a lot with asthmatics. I spent the last two days coughing like that, and nights sleeping in a chair. @arrieve: So I’m deeply sympathetic, and hope you feel better soon.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: I’ll be telling that tale till the day I die. Sometimes one just has to laugh at oneself.
Nicole
For many of us Gen-Xers, Tom Lehrer is how we learned who could turn a man into a mane; who could turn a can into a cane.
(And the best way to leave a room when we saw Dracula- immediately, immediately, immediate-l-y.)
satby
@arrieve: and big congrats on completing your masters.
Elizabelle
@arrieve: Adding my congrats on the Masters, and wishing you a speedy recovery to health.
Will wear a mask in honor of your Masters, when it seems prudent.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
rikyrah
@arrieve:
Congratulations on the Masters
🙏🏿🙏🏿 for your recovery
rikyrah
@arrieve:
Congratulations on the Masters
🙏🏿🙏🏿 for your recovery
narya
Two of my profs in grad school helped Tom Lehrer put the labels on his first record album, and, occasionally, you could get them to sing a verse or two of something. I’ve been noticing an uptick in masks, too, particularly among people who are working in service jobs.
oldster
I’m enough of a Lehrer fan to have learned his songs from the LPs as a kid.
But not enough to have known that he is still alive!
That’s good news on a cold morning.
May we all have something to give away before we die, and may we all give it with generosity
M31
I taught my kid to sing the “Elements” song (“now here’s a song that’s completely useless!”) and then one day in high school she got extra credit on her chemistry final by singing the whole thing from memory.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
So am about 14 hours post-surgery (emergency restoration of completely detached quad tendon while on a vacation). Met with PT just now, fitted for crutches and a walker. Somebody allegedly coming to teach me breathing exercises, haha (I laugh because I was doing scuba dives in Exuma all week and had my dumb fall when putting my dive bag together for Friday’s final dives of the trip.).
Anyway, I’m getting a LOT more attention from my providers this time than I did last time I did this (right leg, two years ago). This is gonna suck – they say I will in all likelihood be fine for my Africa trip in April. Will also probs be ok for Japan hiking in October.
OzarkHillbilly
@M31: Heh, who’da thunk it?
WaterGirl
@Lapassionara: If Jesus hadn’t ascended into heaven, he would be rolling in his grave.
Frankensteinbeck
@Nicole:
And that Elvis needs boats!
No, wait, that was Mojo Nixon. I’m sure I’ve got some Lehrer songs around here somewhere…
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: Too bad that he did. If he was still here we could power the world off his spinning.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: You sound like an active person, so you’re probably in shape, but wow that sounds painful. What are the breathing exercises supposed to accomplish?
Geminid
@oldster: And comedian Bob Newhart is still kicking! I heard him on WTOP radio (DC) one day this week when they featured some award or recognition he was to receive. They played his response to a question and while he sounded old, Newhart was still sharp and funny.
Tom Levenson
You just stand there looking cute…
When something moves, you shoot.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Great story, Ozark!
narya
I’ve just turned my friend on to Lehrer . . . I was surprised he didn’t know of Lehrer, given that he plays music w/ a bunch of old folkies (Old Town School . . .), but I sense he will be a willing convert.
NotMax
One recipe for holiday happiness (oh, and also for a drink).
:)
lowtechcyclist
And this is what he said on his way to Armageddon…
@randy khan:
I know I’ve told this story here before, but I can never resist the opportunity to tell it again:
A few years ago, I was doing some Web-surfing at lunchtime, and found that Wernher von Braun is buried in the same cemetery where we’d buried Dad a few years earlier. I mentioned this to two of my younger colleagues when they got back from lunch.
“Who’s Wernher von Braun?” they asked.
I explained who he was, then mentioned that Tom Lehrer had written a song about him.
“Who’s Tom Lehrer?”
Sheesh.
Frank Wilhoit
@randy khan:
Lehrer’s exceedingly pale imitator, Mark Russell, is also, somehow, still among us.
prostratedragon
Thank you, Dr. Lehrer!
A priest who was supposedly a spiritual advisor to TFG [shudder] has been defrocked by the Vatican. Apparently there are limits to the antiabortion activities that will be tolerated.
@arrieve: One of those two-handed situations, eh? Congratulations on the degree, and hope you kick the virus on out soon.
OzarkHillbilly
@lowtechcyclist: Kids these days…
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Turns out that it’s for eliminating byproducts of anesthesia.
eclare
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Good luck with your recovery!
geg6
@satby:
Same here. Took three weeks to completely recover. Got tested for flu and C19 at the rapid care and it wasn’t either. Just some horrible cold virus. Haven’t been that sick in probably a decade.
Omnes Omnibus
@geg6: I had that in late September.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Huh. They must really have doped you up.
OzarkHillbilly
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Watch out for those “byproducts of anesthesia.” My last time under they gave me way too much. They could not wake me up in post op. I remember my wife and a nurse yelling at to wake up, my wife told me they were slapping me too but I don’t remember that. When I finally did come around they decided they had better hold me for the night. The next morning I couldn’t pee (a side effect from the anesthesia) and they finally had to put in a catheter. I was yellow bagging it for a week and half. What a relief when they pulled it out.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@prostratedragon:
Pavone is a nightmare. He claimed to have had a conversation with Terri Schiavo when she simply had water for a brain.
frosty
@arrieve: Congratulations on the Masters! Don’t do what I did and get another, stop now!
I did everything (well almost) to avoid COVID and managed it for 2 years 10 months. Tested positive Dec 5. Talked my NP into a scrip for Pax and was 95% back to normal by Day 8. On Day 10 I got the rebound so I’m back to quarantine in the attic room for 5 days.
Fortunately it’s just been like an average cold but I’m really tired of coughing (nowhere near as bad as yours) sneezing and a runny nose.
Fingers crossed to avoid Long COVID.
PS My son brought it home from college. He got it, I got it, then Ms F got it. I was the only one who caught the rebound
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Wasn’t nearly as doped up this time as I was last time. I had huge issues in recovery with BP and reaching coherence, and my post op treatment was nonexistent (there had been an ice storm and they were understaffed from COVID, they simply sent me home without any support.
This time, I’m getting really positively supportive aftercare, really appropriately dosed meds, and a lot of encouragement.
NotMax
Skipped baking the traditional (well, at my joint) raisin-nut whiskey loaf the last several years, so did a test run this week.
Turned out well, except I totally spaced out flouring the raisins, thus they all migrated to the bottom during baking . Still tastes yummy. I prefer to mince the nuts fine rather than using the original recipe’s recommended chopped pieces, so they tend to stay suspended without additional flouring.
OzarkHillbilly
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:I am probably having another shoulder surgery soon (I find out tomorrow) and I am very hopeful we don’t have a repeat performance.
Weapon X
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Shameless frivolous popinjay who is desperate for attention. He’s given a baby’s corpse for burial, but decides to make a video first?!? What a disgrace.
Kay
It’s interesting. Describes how Evers in WI and Whitmer in MI “shrugged it off” (CRT and gender panics) as narrow GOP base issues, successfully.
Apparently there was a Heritage Foundation analyst who warned them the panics weren’t resonating with normies in states like WI, PA and MI but he was ignored.
Nelle
@arrieve: I had a coughing spasm so intense that it triggered the vagus nerve. I think they called it a coughing syncope. It temporarily interrupted blood flow to heart and head. Intense, temporary pain down the left arm and I, who had left an FAA awards ceremony so as not to disturb people, knew I had to get back to where there were people. I remember nothing, but apparently walked in, sat by my husband with a blank look on my face, and said, “Where am I and what is happening here?” I had no clue, even though he had just been awarded the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award from the FAA. I had no memory of my son and his family being there, though they had only left 20 minutes before.
They’ve done an MRI to make sure it wasn’t a TIA or something. I’ve more or less reconstructed the events, but it was a good 45 minutes before I could begin to piece things together. The doctors have decided syncope without actual fainting. My conclusion is that if one has spasmodic coughing do not walk away from people; you may need them.
J R in WV
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
You might want to reconsider your hobbies, if they put you in hospital frequently. I gave up caving and white water after having physical issues, didn’t want to endanger volunteers trying to rescue me from deep underground.
While I miss the beauty and excitement of exploring wonderful underground crystal cathedrals and powering through rapids, I don’t miss extra visits in the ER at all. Loved diving, also too, but…
Kay
62%. Teachers are popular! Seems like calling all teachers pedophiles didn’t really catch on with the public who actually use public schools.
frosty
Thank you!!!! for the Tom Lehrer link. The rhymes! The rhymes!!
twbrandt (formerly tom)
I’m not Jewish, but I’ve always loved the Maccabeats.
Brachiator
Lehrer is a national treasure. I have always admired the gentleness and love of nature expressed in songs like “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.”
Ah, those lovely Spring afternoons…
Bill Arnold
@lowtechcyclist:
Ask them if they know of Elon Musk’s obsession with Mars.
In the 1950s, Wernher von Braun wrote a science fiction book about a Mars colony. In it, the title of the ruler of Mars was “Elon”:
Project MARS(Das Marsprojekt) (Dr. Wernher von Braun, English translation by Henry 1 White, Lt. Cdr. USN)
Bill Arnold
@frosty:
Good that you scored some Paxlovid.
A large study using US Department of Veterans Affairs databases showed that Paxlovid reduces (well, is correlated with reduced) risk of various long-COVID symptoms by a lot. Preprint, but using similar methodology to other long covid studies using the same database(s).
Nirmatrelvir and the Risk of Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (medRxiv, November 5, 2022, Yan Xie, Taeyoung Choi, Ziyad Al-Aly. PDF downloadable at link.)
See figure 3 for the hazard ratio and absolute risk reduction (compared to no treatment) for various sequelae.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I was a budding teen-aged atheist the first time I heard that song at some point in the 80s, and my latent-catholic self was still kinda scandalized
Geminid
The Moore County, North Carolina power grid attacks occurred two weeks ago last night. When I checked this morning I found no fresh news but I did run into a very interesting (to me) source on Moore County politics, moorevoices.net. The blogger, public education advocate Cheryl Christy-Bowman, just published the first of a series on Moore County politics:
Part one is a timeline of events 2014-2018, including public controversies over public education, problems in the Sheriff’s office, Republican primaries and general elections. One of dozens of items:
Ms. Christy-Bowman is an efficient reporter and I think this series would be a valuable resource for anyone interested in local politics, especially in North Carolina.
eclare
@Geminid: Sounds like a valuable series.
Mr. Bemused Senior
I see I am among fellow Tom Lehrer fans. Somehow it doesn’t surprise me.
In honor of the season, I give you Hanukkah in Santa Monica
Brachiator
Have people seen the teaser trailer for the new Barbie movie? It is seriously demented.
Margot Robbie was born to play Barbie. Perhaps an Oscar worthy performance.
ETA. As a high school student, I once had dinner with a bunch of other people in the mansion of some Mattel executive. He had a room with a medieval throne in it, imported from some castle in Europe. Might have inspired a Barbie Dream House.
Miss Bianca
@Bill Arnold: Man, Wernher von Braun has even more to answer for in the afterlife than I thought…
opiejeanne
@Lapassionara: I have a new-ish daughter-in-law, since last January, a poorly educated woman who grew up in the swamps in Louisiana, and she’s a Jehovah’s Witness, and I can not emphasize how arrogant she is about her “knowledge” of other religions. She says she has to know about other people’s beliefs so that she doesn’t insult them when she goes door to door. I asked what she knew about Methodists, and when I explained why she’s wrong (she was all over the place, just short of saying we eat babies for breakfast), she stopped me and asked if Methodists believe in the Trinity (she didn’t say Holy Trinity) and the kicker was when she asked if we believe in Jesus.
Do United Methodists believe in Jesus???
What kind of question is that?
I told her point blank that ringing my doorbell to “witness” to me is what I find most offensive about her religion.
I am struggling with this because her baby is my only grandchild and she is going to raise that kid to believe that this is “Satan’s World”, and to be terrified of things like birthday parties or Easter egg hunts or Christmas, or especially Hallowe’en. I want her to not be terrified of such things, whether she ever participates in them or not. I don’t want Abby to be afraid of the world, to be afraid to learn and explore. I want the best for her, and I want her to be educated.
And worse, everyone else in the family despises this woman, and she has invited herself to our Christmas and anniversary party on the 27th, because it’s not on the 24th or 25th. We’ve postponed Christmas festivities until then because people will be out of town before then. Her older kids are great, I like them a lot and she and they are welcome to come to our parties, even the Christmas ones, but I am starting to think maybe we should just go to the Bahamas for a week next year and skip Christmas because there will be 10 adults at this party and 9 of them are pissed off at the 10th, mostly just for existing.
Sorry to unload here, but this is difficult for me.
cain
@Kay: so basically a loud minority making waves helped by conservative politicians. We are under siege by these cultists. But it’s really heartening to know that these things are not really hitting the mark. They spent a lot of money on it. I think the cutlure wars are starting to bore the public – especially the younger generation – it’s not their lived experience. Only the older ones seem to be all panicky because it ain’t 1950s America. Cry harder conservatives.
eclare
@opiejeanne: Ugh. What a bad situation.
cain
@Geminid:
If they really want to make an impact they could just wait for the Texas power grid to fail on its own and take responsibility. That way, the Texas govt will have cover for their irresponsible management of their grid. This coming week is going to bring a lot of pressure on that grid and I’ve been told Abbott is going to continue to keep energy prices high as part of the grift of course. I’m flabbergasted that this man and his incompetence is tolerated by the “meritocracy” crowd. I must assume that Texans want this govt and all the problems it has as no one has uncovered any voting irregularities.
I expect the power grid to fail. Again.
As for the attacks on our infrastructure, find the group, declare them domestic terrorists and use every authority of the FBI to go after them.
cain
Sorry to hear this – but if her other kids worked out well perhaps there is hope. Plus your son is the other half of this marriage and would have his own thoughts on this. Unless he’s drinking the kool aid as well.
The woman seems to be part of a cult and de-programming is going to be hard slog. I’m somewhat surprised that she would marry into a family that isn’t a Jehovah’s Witness? Unless her plan is to convert the lot of you. That’s not gonna happen.
Kathleen
@arrieve: Congratulations on your Masters and condolences for your illness. I hope you recover quickly and I’m glad to see you are getting great care. Your post caused me to renew my vow to start wearing a mask again, especially when I travel to Tampa at the end of this week.
Kay
@cain:
I don’t think it’s most peoples lived experience that all teachers are pedophiles and/or radical Leftists.
There are a LOT of public school teachers- normal people (people who don’t write op eds for the NYTimes or have Substacks about cancel culture) KNOW public school teachers. I personally know double digits in the town where I live. Two of our (Republican) judges are married to public school teachers. I bought my house from a public school teacher. One of my closest friends is a public schol principal. This idea that people could be convinced that these people WE KNOW are all secret CRT purveyors or pedophiles is not the normie lived experience in the US.
cain
Since I’m on a roll – with multiple posts:
The twitter migrations continue and more journalists are being banned as of yesterday. They are all coming over here and of course post.news. I’ve been told that post.news has the same tech bro people and it’s the same investors as twitter. But more importantly the tech pro CEO has similar thoughts as Elon. Stick with community folks, everyone on mastdoon at least that are interlinked are people striving to be good humans and be part of something worthy.
This is a good lessons to journalists though – it must really hurt them as people who depend on access to see this happening to them in real time.
Geminid
@eclare: I will be very interested in the last two parts which I think will cover the lead up to the substation attacks and their aftermath.
But I have a general interest in local politics. Moore County is not that different, I think than my own rural/exurban county and many others across the nation. A lot of residents commute to jobs in neighboring counties including Cumberland next door where Ft. Bragg (soon to be renamed Fort Liberty) is located.Moore County’s 97,000 thousand residents include people who live in the Southern Pines complex of retirement and golfing communities.
Steeplejack
@Geminid:
Thanks for the update.
Kay
@cain:
Next time they pick a profession to smear they should choose one that doesn’t have such a local, close presence in communities.
“Grand Rapids teachers are all pedophiles!” People in Grand Rapids are like “my neighbor, son, spouse, friend, etc….Really? See, I don’t think so”
Pick something obscure and tiny and not at all representative, like NYTimes columnists or Substack pundits or people who own Twitter.
cain
Preach. My wife is a BiPOC educator/teacher and actually writes the lesson plans for other teachers from a DEI perspective. The teachers who get these lesson plans sometimes have to be talked down off the balcony. But what I’ve observed is how even if they arent quite sure about the lessons, they teach it and do it for the kids.
It’s been interesting observing the world of teachers and how they treat each other, how they hold each other up and also what bad apples look like.
We have nothing to fear from teachers. Bigoted parents are going to have a hard time being in this world because if it isn’t coming from the schools it’s coming from popular culture, social media, movies and tv shows. The number of shows I’ve watched that put out all the shit that white people have done – it’s like a reverse education. I’m all for it!
Kathleen
@M31: “Elements” song was featured on an episode of NCIS!
cain
@Kay:
I just wish they attack each other – and watch them convulse into whiny hysterics. I want a gigantic break up and watch these people point fingers and tear their hair out and rant and rave at each other.
Kathleen
@Brachiator: As a recovering Catholic I always appreciated the Vatican Rag (“genuflect, genuflect, genuflect”).
Kay
@cain:
I didn’t even like teachers. It wasn’t their fault- I was impossible- I was either afraid of them or defying them. I was a terrible student. I used to take the stairs in law school if I saw a professor getting on the elevator- I didn’t want to talk to them. But it is ridiculous how they are the national punching bag, so I have ended up defending them.
America has a lot of problems. Americans should stop dumping all of or problems on public schools. It’s cowardly and lazy.
Kathleen
@cain: Ah but the clever Ohio GQP proposed a way to insure their beliefs become policy in the schools. 3 Democrats were just elected to the state Board of Education and Rethuglicans are stripping Board’s power to craft policy and give it to the governor.
https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/11/21/ohio-gop-moves-forward-bill-to-strip-powers-from-board-of-ed-after-losing-control-to-democrats/
Steeplejack
@opiejeanne:
So the Jehovah’s Witness was previously married? I think divorce is very rare with them. She must have an interesting back-story.
Re her questioning Methodism, is it possible at some point to tell her that she is woefully ignorant (suitably rephrased) about the general topic (religions that aren’t JW) and to drop it around family? Yeah, I know, probably not. What is your son’s position on all of this?
cain
In all this discussion I forgot the wish the Jewish commentariat – Chag sameach! Which the Internet tells me means “Happy Holidays!”
Of all the Abrahamic religions, Judaism has always been the best and the most relatable as a Hindu. To this day, I will never understand Anti-Jew sentiment. I know it’s been tough for our Jewish friends these days with global anti-Semitism continually rising over the years. As many have noted the Nazis killed Jews but they also killed LGBTQ+ people as well. We said “Never Again”, and we need to make we fight so that it is true.
cain
@Kay: They are definitely a mixed bag – but wow for what they paid and how much work they do. Blows my mind.
If I was doing a startup I’d start hiring former teachers.
opiejeanne
@cain: Jehovah’s Witnesses are definitely a cult. They do not encourage education of any real sort for their members, and the last time I checked, their kids tend to abandon the cult when they get old enough.
Her first husband was a self-described pagan so yes, I was shocked that she’d consider marrying a non-JW.
I don’t think my son really understood what JWs are and he agreed to allow her to raise their kids in her beliefs because he says he doesn’t have any religious beliefs. From some of the comments he’s made to me it’s evident that he has now recognized that giving that up before he knew was a foolish mistake. He’s told me about his dismay at what he hears during their online services, and she did get him to attend one “convention” with her, after which he told he was never going again. She’s not going to convert him, and certainly not us. Her beliefs offer nothing but misery in the here and now, and judgement of everyone else.
As for her older kids, 12 & 14, they are neuro-divergent and may possibly never be able to leave home because they have so many issues including being on the spectrum for autism and the boy has Type 1 diabetes. They are polite and they are eager to share what they’re doing at school, and when they come here they love it because we have a big yard, nearly an acre, and a lot of fun things for kids to do.
What gets me beside the word-twisting* is the absolute hypocrisy. The kids have been getting presents for the past week, but those are NOT Christmas presents, just … presents.
*said she believes in the resurrection, but if you dig down they do not believe in what the rest of the Christian world believes about the Resurrection. That doesn’t bother me, I don’t care that they believe in the resurrection of the spirit rather than the physical body, but it’s the weasel words that really get me because they use them to confuse people into joining their cult.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@cain: of course we have the lines from National Brotherhood Week:
Tony G
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Tom Leher was/is great.
Brachiator
@opiejeanne:
I am sorry about the problems you are having with your DIL. I have a former co-worker who is a JW. He has never been obnoxious about his faith. I would also run into JWs during my morning commute, and we would sometimes chat, but again, always respectfully. Maybe it’s a Southern California thing, but I don’t think that there is anything in JW theology that demands disrespect of other people or other faiths.
cain
@Kathleen:
Of course – that’s the playbook. You can anticipate just about everything these fuckers do. They aren’t so clever. Eventually, the governor will run everything. Then eventually they are going to lose the governorship – so they’ll either throw way democracy or throw huge cryfest about cheating.
eclare
@Brachiator: That trailer was strange! I loved Barbie growing up, I never got into baby dolls.
lowtechcyclist
Cool story about Stafford and Schirra playing “Jingle Bells” in orbit! I’m pretty sure I heard at the time about them doing that, but needless to say I’d forgotten in the intervening 57 years.
Hadn’t heard before that their rocket almost blew up on the launching pad, though. And I was paying attention to all that stuff back then. Not just the manned missions, but the Ranger and Surveyor programs as well.
cain
@opiejeanne:
I’m starting to get the feeling that this marriage might be hard to manage for him and for all of you. :/
I feel bad for her other kids. They seem like sweet kids. Lot of responsibility there for your kid.
Dan B
My partner and I got some bug that became a bronchial mucous extravaganza and after several days became a nasal goo fest for a combined two weeks. My partner had double hernia surgery. Tha doctors said the “cold” was not an issue… but they didn’t mention that deep coughs use the abdomen. Whee! Poor guy.
opiejeanne
@Steeplejack: My son doesn’t want to make waves. He has a domineering mother and has found a domineering wife.
I let her know that she knows squat about other religions within the Christian realm. She doesn’t dare bring it up around the rest of the family because she would be ejected from the property, and I’m pretty sure she senses that. My niece is married to an ex-Catholic, they both used to belong to evangelical churches until they realized how ridiculous they were, and how unwelcome they made my nephew-in-law feel because he’s noticeably Hispanic. Mexican, to be exact. She has since seen the light, done a 180 and is now a rabid democrat, although a bit of a Bernie-lover. The rest of the clan was raised either United Methodist or Episcopalian, and I think one Presbyterian.
I swear, it’s enough to make me want to go back to attending church.\s
cain
@cain:
You know this comment is grand since it is #100! :)
cain
So twitter changed their rules such that you cannot post links to other social media sites. I’m guessing space boy is very angry. I bet now the other social media sites eg Facebook is not going to be very pleased. Perhaps they will do similar things?
opiejeanne
@Steeplejack: She was divorced, then he died of Covid because he was all about his Free-dumb. Of course, that’s her side of the story and we can’t ask him (as my son now says).
lowtechcyclist
@Kathleen:
Of course they are! And if by some miracle a Dem got elected governor, the legislature and the outgoing governor would strip the office of the governor of most of its powers, as has been done in other states where this happened.
opiejeanne
@Brachiator: Them ringing your doorbell and telling you that your beliefs are all wrong is the height of disrespect. Telling anyone that their beliefs are all wrong is disrespectful in general, but to come uninvited to your door to do it is beyond the pale.
I knew several JWs growing up and as an adult when we lived in SoCal and they were polite, quiet people at work, a bit less at school. They never came to the door once in the 9 years we lived in NorCal, but they seemed to show up very often in Riverside. One time they were coming up our front walk and I was taking our daughters to a dress rehearsal for a dance recital, and they were in costume. I saw them pause, and then turn around and hurry away. I’m not sure what their objection was to little girls in what amounted to party dresses with a few sequins on them. but they sure shook the dust from their sandals, so to speak.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@opiejeanne:
the end times are approaching
Dan B
@opiejeanne: Please feel welcome to unload. I’ve got a similar situation with country club RWNJ + plus Koch related siblings of my partner. Whenever I think of seeing them I begin to hurl epithets, sometimes outloud to the detriment of the cats naps. My partner has accepted that it probably for the best if I don’t go to Christmas Eve.
MomSense
@opiejeanne:
How frustrating and worrisome. It’s so hard to know what to do. You can’t go scorched earth because you want to see your grandchild. It’s like a scream in your pillow, take up needle point or needle felting so you can stab something 10,0000 times situation.
In all seriousness your way of being and living and the experiences that you provide will be so important. Children are curious and you can provide a world that is welcoming.
Betty Cracker
@opiejeanne: One Saturday when I was a teenager, I was watching cartoons on TV and smoking pot with friends (mom was working a double shift), and a JW knocked on the door. He was about our age, and after he’d gone through a couple of minutes of his spiel, we asked him if he wanted to come inside and party with us, and he said yes! He seemed so relieved, LOL! He told us his parents made him knock on doors
Sorry about the family conflict. That sort of thing is so stressful.
OzarkHillbilly
Fuck me: Marion Smith, the World’s Most Prolific Cave Explorer, Dies at 80 Behind the NYT paywall, so I can’t read it.
I have some small personal memories of the late great Marion O. Smith. I suspect anybody who ever spent much time in TAG does.
Once ran across him in Ellison’s Cave (2/3 the way up Pigeon Mountain in Walker County, Georgia) where he was repeatedly dropping and climbing the Warm Up Climb (125′). We were doing one of our all balls out 24 hr trips which usually consisted of dropping Fantastic Pit (586′) and then proceeding to get totally lost in hopes of seeing things that folks doing a thru trip never got to. We usually succeeded in that.
Marion? He was there just for the hell of it and because he had nothing better to do that day. We spent some time talking to him about caves and Ellison’s in particular (he always had time to shoot the shit with fellow cavers) and then we went on in. And he continued to Yo yo the Warm up drop.
The 2nd time I ran into him was at Never Sink , which is a must see for any caver, possibly the most beautiful pit in all of TAG. At the very least, one of the most photogenic. I didn’t talk to him much that time as I was a bit tense because I had several first timers with and I wanted to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid. It was a treat for them to meet Marion and he didn’t talk down to them at all. They were cavers, that was enough for him.
On a another trip (that I had to back out of at the last minute due to work) my eldest got to meet him. IIRC it was at Valhalla but I might be wrong about that. (google Valhalla Pit Alabama if you want the particulars) For some reason I no longer remember he got to use Marion’s rappel device.
RIP Marion, may the pits in the afterlife be too numerous to count, the passages too long to measure, and the glories of the underworld surround you always.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: Gift link for you. RIP, Mr. Smith.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I once read an article by a woman raised JW who was estranged from her family because of it, etc. She said when they knock on her door she quietly says “I’m apostate” and they run like she had the plague. I was tempted to try it once, but they were such nice normal-seeming folk I defaulted to my usual, I’m sorry, I’m really busy right now, took their literature (right into the recycling) and we wished each other a good day.
opiejeanne
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Oh God, thank you! I had forgotten that scene! I loved that movie, and we paid real money to see it in the theater.
OzarkHillbilly
>@Betty Cracker: Thanx, much appreciated.
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: LOL! That really made me laugh out loud. Thanks.
I think that’s why they always come in pairs, so they can keep an eye on each other. Kind of like taking two Southern Baptists fishing, or two Mormons, so they don’t drink your beer.
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: A woman I met at a very informal quilting/sewing group told me that when she sees them coming up her walk she takes off her clothes and greets them as God made her. They leave in a hurry. I think she said it’s been quite a while since they last darkened her door.
I can’t do that, but it makes me laugh to know that someone does.
Betty Cracker
@opiejeanne: I’m sure that’s why they do it. That kid was the only JW I’ve ever run across who was unaccompanied, and it does seem weird that his parents would send him out alone. Not only because he might decide to hang out with a bunch of girls and smoke pot but also because he might come across hostile people. This was in Tampa in the 1980s.
In my present abode, we’ve found there are many disadvantages to living at the end of a terrible 1.5 mile dirt road, including that there’s no such thing as Instacart, Uber, pizza delivery, etc. But one great thing is no one ever comes back here to try to sell us stuff, including religion. ;-)
opiejeanne
@MomSense: We are hoping that doing the latter, living as decent humans and giving them attention will have some influence, and my son has mentioned that we have had a positive effect on the kids and his wife, but that was before the baby arrived. The kids are now going through a bit of a legalistic phase, probably feeling that enjoying themselves here is being disloyal to their religion. I watched a Mormon kid go through that the last six months before he left on his Mission, because now it was do or do not do, no equivocating. He was part of a group of teens, friends of my son from HS, and during a paintball session at one kids’ house he started defending Joseph Smith to them, but no one had brought up anything about any religion or Smith.
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: That is an advantage. Where we live now, the houses sit on at least an acre, which makes it a mighty long walk between houses so we’ve only gotten one visit from them. Unfortunately, we don’t get any kids at Hallowe’en and that makes me sad because I really love seeing their costumes.
Steeplejack
@OzarkHillbilly:
What is TAG in this context?
Dan B
@opiejeanne: I was working as Sous Chef at a restaurant and not getting to bed until 2 AM. JW’s came to my apartment door at 8 AM. I put on some boxer shorts and opened the door. Pajamas always got in a twist for me. The shocked looks were memorable. Last time that happened. There must be some registry of dangerous addresses.
Bill Arnold
@OzarkHillbilly:
I just checked, and with a browser (desktop) that shows the paywall if I let the NYTimes page fully load, the trick of hitting x to stop page load as soon as text appears still works. There’s a small window, maybe 100 milliseconds, so it make take a few tries.
Ruckus
@JWR:
What about her respect for the students? Or lack thereof.
cain
@Betty Cracker:
I would worry about alligators crossing my path !
Brachiator
@opiejeanne:
Lots of people selling stuff knock on my door. JWs are less insistent than other sales people when I tell them I am not interested. I am a furious agnostic and I have had to deal with all kinds of proselytizing Christians tell me that my lack of belief is just unacceptable. I have had Baptists and evangelicals insist that I go to church with them or come to Bible study. I even had one guy at a bus stop almost start a fight with me because I had not accepted Jesus.
By comparison, my interactions with JWs have been courteous. I have challenged them on their being apolitical, because I have no interest in their theology.
I really hope that you can find some accommodation with your DIL. My closest relatives are all pretty relaxed about religion, but there are some in my extended family who would burn me at the stake for being a nonbeliever.
Ruckus
@Dan B:
If I open the door and it isn’t someone I know or someone in a uniform I never say hello, I say, Yes? Not bitting or sarcastic just a question. It sets the tone so when I say no, they understand. Most of the time. If they continue I always ask “What part of no do you not understand?” Then I just stand back and shut the door. But here, now, in SoCal, no one knocks on the door that I don’t know.
Ruckus
I’d say there should be a club, open on Sundays at say 10am that those of us who don’t attend religious ceremonies could go to and compare notes. Of course that would mean I’d have to get up before 10 on Sundays, so never mind…
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Cover their ears? Not in the 7th fleet. They would carefully listen to see if there were words they didn’t know or usage that might be different. But cover their ears? Heavens to Mergatroid they would never do that, they have to grade your usage and tonal inflection and award you a score.
I’d worked in a machine shop before I joined the navy and yes I learned to swear in that shop, but my enlistment polished my ability to converse in swear words beyond anything I ever heard in that shop. Also I served on a ship in the 7th fleet for about 3 weeks. Not that the fleet made any difference in the learning curve of prolific swearing.
brantl
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Sorry to hear that bud, but good you can start recovery quickly.
opiejeanne
@Brachiator: I put up signs years ago that the only people trying to sell me something, religion or otherwise, had better be Girl Scouts selling cookies. I don’t even want people from my own church showing up on my doorstep, I’m that much of a crank.
And thank you, I do like her except for this small percentage of the time.
You’ve had a very different experience with them than I have, and it may have been the individuals and their particular Kingdom Hall, because their attitudes do vary.
StringOnAStick
@OzarkHillbilly: I think my sister’s Southern Baptist choice has always been her excuse to hate who she would have hated anyway, but with extra religious approval and then a hard turn into right wing politics, like a lot of evangelicals have done. She had to decide between her son (came out as gay after a lifetime of self hate thanks to their church) and, well, her church. I was amazed when she chose her son, but she’s still a RW freak. Wouldn’t let any of their 3 kids go to any college other than Bob Jones U. because of the risk of them learning about evolution. Evolution is evil, ya know.
glc
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I got distracted downloading some sheet music and didn’t get around to the comments till now …
Anyway I now have the Aristotelian version of The Elements safely in my personal files, along with more substantial flowers of the muse (to coin a euphemism).
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: Made me look…
It seems to be Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia based on TAG Corner.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who doesn’t remember hearing that term growing up outside of Atlanta.”)
LiminalOwl
@opiejeanne: Much sympathy; that sounds dreadful.
Years ago, in Ancient and Medieval Jewish Thought, I had a classmate of similar bent. (He may have been a Seventh Day Adventist rather than a Witness, I’m not sure.). He kept trying to “explain” the Bible to the professor. But it was relatively easy to ignore him as I had no personal connection. I’m sorry you have to endure for the sake of family relationships.
LiminalOwl
@arrieve: Congratulations on the Master’s! And ugh, sorry you have to struggle with the virus. Sending hopeful healing thoughts.
LiminalOwl
@arrieve: Congratulations on the Master’s! And ugh, sorry you have to struggle with the virus. Sending hopeful healing thoughts.
Kayla Rudbek
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I saw this on Facebook, I think (probably from one of the science accounts that I follow)
SWMBO
@frosty:
My high school friend is now an ICU nurse supervisor in Arkansas. When I caught covid in May, he told me to get Paxlovid right away. Then he told me to keep up the guaifenesin, robitussin, motrin, every 4-6 hours for two weeks. He said if I did that I wouldn’t get rebound covid. He said most folks stop taking the over the counter stuff and they get mucus that it grows in for the rebound. He told me to take it faithfully for two weeks and keep down the mucus. It worked. I didn’t get rebound covid nor did my son who was given all the same meds.