The Biden-Harris Administration wishes you and your loved ones a joyous and peaceful Kwanzaa! pic.twitter.com/ZzrQ6QPttG
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 26, 2022
Ah, a full day of conservatives being utter weirdos about Kwanzaa. “It’s a made up holiday!!” My dudes, all holidays are made up.
— Jean-Michel Connard (@torriangray) December 26, 2022
When I was growing up, Kwanzaa was a special time in our home. Today, my family and I are reflecting on the seven principles. Happy Kwanzaa! pic.twitter.com/w1pFOIUU9G
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) December 26, 2022
What sadsack objects to more lights at the end of December?…
Christmas Stars at Columbus Circle in New York City ? #NYC #christmastime pic.twitter.com/0gmce8fT3L
— NewYorkCityKopp (@KellyrKopp) December 22, 2022
Federal penalties have increased under a newly signed law intended to protect the cultural patrimony of Native American tribes, immediately making some crimes a felony and doubling the prison time for anyone convicted of multiple offenses. https://t.co/cBTDVvFhEz
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 26, 2022
Representation matters:
… President Joe Biden signed the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act on Dec. 21, a bill that had been introduced since 2016. Along with stiffer penalties, it prohibits the export of sacred Native American items from the U.S. and creates a certification process to distinguish art from sacred items.
The effort largely was inspired by pueblo tribes in New Mexico and Arizona who repeatedly saw sacred objects up for auction in France. Tribal leaders issued passionate pleas for the return of the items but were met with resistance and the reality that the U.S. had no mechanism to prevent the items from leaving the country.
“The STOP Act is really born out of that problem and hearing it over and over,” said attorney Katie Klass, who represents Acoma Pueblo on the matter and is a citizen of the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma. “It’s really designed to link existing domestic laws that protect tribal cultural heritage with an existing international mechanism.”
The law creates an export certification system that would help clarify whether items were created as art and provides a path for the voluntary return of items that are part of a tribe’s cultural heritage. Federal agencies would work with Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians to outline what items should not leave the U.S. and to seek items back…
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Narya
Good morning all. Grabbing donuts at Jolly Donut in Sandusky before heading home.
Baud
@rikyrah:
@Narya:
Good morning.
JMG
In some ways, this is the nicest week of the year, a giant exhale and feeling of gentle letting go of weeks of holiday buildup (I am way too old for New Year’s Eve to be a thing). On the other hand, my daughter has to work this week, so yesterday I had to take her to the airport for her trip back to France. That was sad, and I’m still sad, despite the happy good fortune of having her here the previous week for Christmas.
NotMax
Now you know.
:)
OzarkHillbilly
One hand is slowly raised from the Group W bench…
UncleEbeneezer
Hmmm…I wonder what exactly it is about Kwanzaa that upsets conservatives…
Baud
@NotMax:
Who says everything is getting worse?
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: FREEDUMB!!!!!
Soprano2
That “all holidays are made up” thing is EXACTLY what I told my mother when she started hating on Kwanza a few years ago. She didn’t get what I was saying at all, to her the holidays she celebrated were “real”, all the others were “made up”. LOL Why don’t we celebrate Independence Day on the day the Revolutionary War ended, September 3rd? Isn’t that our real “Independence Day”? It freaks people out when you tell them all holidays are made up, even the ones that observe real phenomena such as the winter solstice or the spring equinox.
Nukular Biskits
@UncleEbeneezer:
Probably all the blahhhhhh, uh, look at that shiny object over there!
mrmoshpotato
@JMG:
Cheez-It Bowl on Thursday! WHO WOKE UP FEELING THE CHEESIEST, COACH?! 🏈
Baud
Baud’s Day is a real holiday.
Soprano2
@JMG: Never buy a bar. We used to fall asleep on the couch on New Year’s, or have a low key party at our house. Now I spend every New Year’s Eve at the bar, listening to drunk people sing karaoke and helping out with busing tables and generally keeping things on a even keel.
leeleeFL
@UncleEbeneezer: Hard to figure out, right? Couldn’t be a race-related sitch, could it? Surely not?!
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: And when is it observed?
OzarkHillbilly
See? He wasn’t lying, all you libtard nitpickers just didn’t understand the nuances of his speech.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: If we knew when it was, we would surely celebrate.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Whenever one needs a holiday. Unlike other holiday’s, Baud’s Day does not hold people prisoner to a prefabricated calendar.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: My hubby and I have idly talked about buying a pub over the years, but it’s idle talk because we’ve both worked in pubs and understand how hard it is. We make better patrons than owners! Still, it must be kind of cool to own a bar. ;-)
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m Jewish, not Jewish.
UncleEbeneezer
@leeleeFL: They just really hate Kwanzaa, hip hop, Lizzo, 1619 Project etc., for some strange reason…
geg6
@Narya:
Yum. Donuts.
Glad temps are back to normal here. We’re having our girlfriends get together tomorrow. We’ll munch on finger foods and do some day drinking and exchange gifts. Probably watch the last season of Dead to Me (again for me). Just my recently widowed sister and two of our best and oldest friends.
On Saturday, we’re finally having our family get together. My oldest sister has tons of food in her multiple freezers left from their Christmas Eve party to which few people came due to the horrific weather. So I am not even expected to make anything, which is very nice.
I’m not due back to work until next Tuesday, so I still have plenty of relaxation and home project time. I am liking this holiday schedule very much. I’ve been off since the 16th and, because of how the paid holidays fell on weekends, I got a few extra days. And when I get back, I also get 1/5 off because they are shutting off all the electricity on campus for a day for a construction project. So another PTO I wasn’t expecting. And lastly, we are getting a paid holiday for MLK Day for the first time. I have never, in my career, had that holiday as a paid holiday. For that reason alone, 2023 is starting out better than 2022.
Ken
@Baud: Every day is Baud’s Day!
And now I have “A Very Merry Un-Birthday” earworm.
UncleEbeneezer
@Soprano2: It’s like when Christians scoff at other religions because they “aren’t real religions“
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: I see. Is it a federal holiday in the United States?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I’ve read parts of the old testament, does that make me Jew-ish?
Kathleen
@JMG: I’m so glad you enjoyed your daughter’s company for the holidays. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to have to send her back to France!
Ohio Mom
@OzarkHillbilly: Obviously you can’t believe anything Santos says but traditionally, Judaism recognizes matrilineal descent. *
So if say, his great grandmother was Jewish, and she had a daughter who had a daughter who gave birth to him, Santos would actually be Jewish. Even if none of the daughters practiced Judaism or identified as Jews, they could reclaim their heritage at any point.
The chain would be broken if any of the offspring he was descended from was a son.
Anyway, I will take the liberty of speaking for all my people by saying we don’t want him.
* Contemporary American Reform Judaism decided to recognize patrilineal descent IF the descendants identify as Jewish and practice Judaism. This is in part why I predict that one day there will be two separate Judaisms. There will not be a pivotal moment like Martin Luther nailing his thoughts on a door, it will be a gradual evolution.
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: This has potential.
I’ve been angry, does that make me Ire-ish?
I’ve had cottage cheese, does that make me Kurd-ish?
I’ve worn scuba footwear, does that make me Finn-ish?
I’ve been to a small mountain lake, does that make me tarn-ish?
I’ve peeled vegetables, does that make me a pare-ish?
I’ve lived through the 60s, does that make me rad-ish?
Chief Oshkosh
@OzarkHillbilly: Ya know, we could help him become even more “Jew-ish” with a special knife and some sacred chants…
Baud, are you willing to serve as mohel? Don’t worry, we have a special hazmat suit and face shield for you
ETA: Of course, the important issues for this schmuck’s case are (1) where did the campaign funding come from and go to? and (2) does his citizenship permit him holding office?
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Not as long as the filibuster exists.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
I’m clumsy with a knife, so sure.
OzarkHillbilly
I know, but he’s just using it as cover for his lying about it.
It’s obvious he is no where near as good at this whole lying thing as trump. The first rule of pathological lying is to lie about lying, but he’s not brazen enough to carry it off. That’s why he tried to thread a needle with a small truth (the matrilineal descent) (not that I believe for even a second that his mother’s family was Jewish) which only serves to accentuate his original lie.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: I read that trainwreck of an interview this morning, good lord! Santos definitely comes across as a lying weasel, but NYP pulls punches like a Murdoch property that’s directly invested in GOP control would.
Josh Marshall pointed out there’s no info about Santos’ immigration status, which is relevant because he said he’s a “first-generation American” in one official communication and said he’s an immigrant in another.
The NYP also didn’t question how Santos went from a deadbeat tenant to multimillionaire who could lend his campaign half a mil in a remarkably short time. It’s all very fishy.
Ohio Mom
@Chief Oshkosh: There are many more steps involved in becoming a convert to Juadism, starting with asking a rabbi to oversee your studies (and having him/her agree), joining a congregation and otherwise becoming part of the community, etc.
A ritual circumcision would not be anywhere near the first step, though I think I can appreciate the feeling of wanting some sort of revenge on the slimeball.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: It can be cool, but it can also be a huge PITA. (Example – our manager applied for a “no tax due” waiver, and the response was that we owe sales taxes for November and December 2019! I cannot imagine our former manager didn’t pay sales taxes for those two months, but since she didn’t save statements from the bank our manager is going to have to go there and get records showing that we made those payments, and then hope we can convince the state we made them. Just fun stuff…..) Covid made things a lot harder, and I’d say the industry hasn’t completely recovered from that yet.
The Moar You Know
@OzarkHillbilly: “They’re just saying your name! Boo-urns! Mr. Boo-urns!”
This fucking guy. God only knows what the good people of his district have put in office. KGB sleeper agent for all we know. North Korean yoga instructor. Glem Greenwald in disguise. Who knows? No matter what he says he’s fucking lying, that’s the only guarantee here.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: Ugh, that’s a gigantic pain in the ass!
Ken
¿Por que no los tres?
(Though I would see that combo as more a premise for a sitcom, than an existential threat to the republic.)
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Every day!
MattF
@Betty Cracker: Yeah. ‘Where did that money come from?’ is the big and extremely pertinent question. I’m also ready to set odds that l’il George is, somehow, legally ineligible to be a Representative. It’s a Long Con.
Jackie
Another one bites the dust:
”“A Russian sausage magnate and politician who briefly criticised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has died after falling from the third-floor window of a luxury hotel in India,” The Telegraph reports.
“Pavel Antov was a member of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and a multi-millionaire, having founded one of Russia’s largest sausage makers.””
From Political Wire
Alison Rose
Calling Kwanzaa a made-up holiday is, of course, racist, and I also suspect the people who say it are the same ones who get mad about “made-up words” like neopronouns and various queer sexualities. You know, as opposed to all the other words which were naturally occurring in the world and grew from the land like flowers.
MattF
@Jackie: дефенестрация.
Ken
@Jackie: Russian news sources are reporting he was depressed because a close friend of his had also committed suicide in that hotel, just two days before. Poison, if I recall correctly.
(The above is true, not my usual snark.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Josh Marshall, who is not to my knowledge a lawyer, speculates on the possible criminal charges that could be brought against Santos, including a sham marriage for the purpose of immigration fraud. Seems like that could be his biggest political vulnerability in today’s GOP.
Narya
@geg6: the last time I had donuts was when we stopped at Jolly Donut in May 2021. I’m not that big a fan but these are old-fashion (I.e., not as big as your head) and tasty.
stinger
@Ohio Mom:
LOL Well, we don’t want him.
Practically every other group on the planet: “We don’t want him!” “We don’t want him!” “We don’t want him!”
rikyrah
The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) tweeted at 8:44 AM on Tue, Dec 27, 2022:
“Nashville should decide how their government works.”
After NASHVILLE decided against hosting the RNC, state Republicans plan to punish them by passing a law shrinking the size of the metro council.
But “small government” & “local control” right? 🙃
https://t.co/uc1kIa5t8B
(https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1607749261109743617?s=02)
scav
Lying liars and the liars that represent them.
Turns out elephants rot from the feet (too).
rikyrah
Another “Fall”😒😒
greg (@mistergeezy) tweeted at 8:21 AM on Tue, Dec 27, 2022:
(ahem) Russian sausage tycoon Pavel Antov dies in Indian hotel fall. https://t.co/WYqb0NgpoO
(https://twitter.com/mistergeezy/status/1607743436093808646?s=02)
geg6
@Narya:
We have a couple of local old fashioned donut shops and we get some every Sunday for drinking coffee and reading old fashioned newspapers. Mac’s Donuts and Oram’s, in case you are ever in the area here in Western PA. They’ve been around for decades and decades. There is also a newer one a bit out of my way called Peace, Love and Little Donuts. Sometimes students, staff or faculty who live close by bring them in for us.
Frankensteinbeck
I can’t believe a law to protect Native American artifacts passed the Senate. I am boggled. I am gobsmacked. Republicans actually hate Native Americans more than blacks, hard as that is to imagine. And with the tradition of Senate obstruction, no less? I just… HOW did this get passed?
rikyrah
Yep
Henry VIII (@SussexHenryVIII) tweeted at 1:39 PM on Mon, Dec 26, 2022:
In both the US and the UK there seems to be a notable percentage of the older population who are incandescent with rage that they can’t say racist and hateful things out loud anymore without getting push back
(https://twitter.com/SussexHenryVIII/status/1607461189474480128?s=02)
Alison Rose
@Ohio Mom: As far as Israel and many Orthodox are concerned, Reform Jews already are a separate religion. They barely accept us as “real Jews” and to that I say, fuckem.
Cameron
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m kind of impressed that he was able to insult both Catholics and Jews, apparently not meaning to do so to either one.
schrodingers_cat
@Frankensteinbeck: It is because Joe Biden is good at his job and so are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
mali muso
I am hosting the neighbor’s kiddo today for a playdate as her daycare is still closed and ma has to go to work. Send me all your good vibes (and alcohol). Two six year olds stuck indoors after a week of cold weather, sugary treats and holidays. yikes! Between refereeing the children, I have managed to scrub out the oven. Pumice stone is a miracle!
Narya
@geg6: we often stay in western PA on our way east! Grove City this trip.
Alison Rose
@rikyrah: For some reason, reading this made me wonder what people in Nashville are called (à la “New Yorker”) and I was really hoping it was “Nashvillain” but it’s actually “Nashvillian” and that’s just a damn shame. Whoever becomes their next mayor ought to campaign on changing it.
schrodingers_cat
My two year-end gifts to myself have yet to arrive. I am pretty excited about them both.
I have been experimenting with dark backgrounds for my pictures and am pretty happy with the one I am working on. It has a black background and so far I am quite happy with it. I have had varying success with dark blue night back grounds. I ruined one picture, the other one turned out better but I was still unhappy with it. I think I now have the technique nailed.
I am also taking a drawing class and struggling with HW on perspective. It is time consuming. Hopefully this will make my landscapes better.
Also redesigning my blog and reviving it.
Alison Rose
Neat little video from Vox: 2022, in 7 minutes
Kelly
Strong south winds since last night here in Oregon. Power blinks every 5~10 minutes. A lot of rain. We went from temps in the low 20’s and everything covered in ice a few days ago to record warm temps in the 60’s.
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: The other day, James Fallows tweeted that he knows of no other nationality where people die in falls from windows.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Re: the top cartoon. That’s definitely me.
Especially from pet supply company chewy.com. I’ve trimmed back my automatic shipments so there are now only three, but even so I sometimes forget to check up on them and postpone an auto-shipment if we don’t need it yet. So there will be a surprise arrival of two cases of cat food.
Fortunately everything on the auto-ship list is there because we’ll need it eventually, so our shelves aren’t TOO overstocked.
Cameron
@rikyrah: A sausage tycoon? Shoot. It’s a shame I’m too old for a new career.
Brachiator
@Baud:
Ah. A moveable feast.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Gin & Tonic: I learned from a history YouTube that there was a rash of such mysterious defenestration accidents in Prague centuries ago.
All right, I confess. I get my history from puppets. Absolutely hilarious and incredibly informative channel.
Cameron
@Baud: What? You’re saying it’s…it’s…woke? Oh God, I’ve got the vapours! I must away to the fainting couch!
Old School
@Ken:
I’ve spent the last month moving my daughter’s Elf around each night, does that make me shelf-ish?
schrodingers_cat
A brilliant line from Mirza Galib (famous Urdu poet of the 19th century)
“Manzil milegi, bhatak kar hi sahi Gumrah toh woh hai, jo ghar se nikle hi nahi ” – Mirza Ghalib
You will reach your destination only after you have wandered
The ones who are lost are the ones that never left home.
(My clumsy attempt at translation)
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: RSS kills people on their morning walks/evening walks.
frosty
@geg6:
Maple Donuts where I am; they have about five locations total. Slogan: “A balanced diet is a donut in each hand!” Best donuts I’ve had anywhere.
Unfortunately they put Trump on their billboards in 2016 and I haven’t been back.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I think that’s why Google shut down Google Reader.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: You are funny! But I was not joking that is the modus operandi of assassinations conducted by the Sangh (BJP is their political arm
From M. K. Gandhi to the more recent ones of Pansare, Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh, Dhabolkar
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: Thank you for that sage advice. Best wishes on New Year’s Eve.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Falling out of a window can kill you though. Walking does not. How are the deaths explained?
Paul in KY
@UncleEbeneezer: Hating on Lizzo…Jeezus what a bunch of losers they are. Cause Lizzo is 111% winner!
The Moar You Know
@frosty: the bagel shop in town – the good one – went full Trump train in 2016 AND 2020, banners, flags, the whole deal and lost 75% of his business. He blames COVID, even though that was four years after the fact and literally every other storefront in town is doing more business now than they were in 2020. Oh, except his, of course.
It’s America and you can do whatever the fuck you want but if you mix your politics with your business there are going to be consequences.
side point: it’s really weird how all the local Republicans do not seem to be able to understand that the entire area has flipped in the span of a decade from “extremely lukewarm red” to “always reliable blue”.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: They were shot dead at point blank range when they went out for their morning/evening walk
ETA: The first perp was hanged but BJP is trying to make a martyr out of him. The assassins of the others have not yet been arrested.
marklar
@Ohio Mom: “A ritual circumcision would not be anywhere near the first step, though I think I can appreciate the feeling of wanting some sort of revenge on the slimeball.”
A bris is tough. I couldn’t walk for around 10 months after mine!
Patricia Kayden
@UncleEbeneezer: It’s associated with Black people so they hate it. But they’re not racist because Justice Thomas and Diamond & Silk.
Paul in KY
@Gin & Tonic: Many times having shot themselves in the back too.
phdesmond
@schrodingers_cat:
a pretty good ghazal.
Raven
Our ( her) plan proved flawless. Two in law days, 5am launch from Blacksburg and not bad traffic! I also found out yesterday that, if we beat Ohio State, I have tickets to the National Championship in LA!
Ohio Mom
@marklar: Very good joke! I walked right into it.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@rikyrah: The “why can’t I say the N-word” crowd has always puzzled me. Why is it important to you to say that word?
OK, not really puzzled. I know the answer.
But at a deeper level, I really am puzzled. I don’t really fathom the bigoted thought process.
ian
@marklar: ISWYDT
phdesmond
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
their self-perception seems to be that they are down with the brothers, so why shouldn’t they get to talk the talk? if you doubt their sincerity, it proves that *you* are the racist.
Betty Cracker
@Paul in KY: I’d never heard of Lizzo until the crystal flute kerfluffle but came away from that story thoroughly charmed. She’s incredibly talented.
frosty
@The Moar You Know: My F-I-L owned a furniture store and never had anything political anywhere around the store. His reasoning: “Why should I alienate half my customers?” It boggles my mind that more retail businesses haven’t figured it out.
To be fair, around here Maple Donuts only alienated about a third of the population and probably boosted their business from the other 2/3.
zeecube
@geg6: There’s a Peace, Love and Litle Donuts in my neck of the woods. Something like 72 varieties of tiny donuts. The owner drives around town in a yellow VW Beetle with peace sign and flower decals.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Raven: Congratulations on the potential tix and GO DAWGS
cmorenc
@UncleEbeneezer:
Some of us hate hip-hop for reasons having nothing to do with race….analogous to disliking disco or the “countrypolitan” bastardization of country music. The sound is annoying rather than pleasing to our ears.
OTOH, love delta blues, as black an art form as ever existed.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: There’s no thought involved, just id. Not your fault.
UncleEbeneezer
@Patricia Kayden: Exactly. And you’re the Real Racist for noticing.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
Just a severe case of windowitis. Certain classes of Russians seem particularly susceptible to it.
BruceFromOhio
This is an older essay from July, one of the TeensFromOhio posted it this morning on a family group chat and is enjoying a hearty reception – warning, FTFNYT:
Seems most of my family are dirty communist liberal hippies who agree with this heresy.
Fair Economist
I feel doxxed by that cartoon of the dog forgetting what they’d ordered.
scav
Wouldn’t it be amusing if it turns out he was lying about voting with his GOP colleagues as well. “When I said I was a Conservative, I meant I made conserves and jellies. Want some Sour Grapes jam by any chance?”
brendancalling
My kid’s flight on Friday got canceled, then he got stuck in YYZ when his Saturday flight arrived too late to make the connection. His mom flew him back to Montreal Sunday morning. Due to her job—she’s a nurse, on call all week, she can’t drive him halfway down to Syracuse, and I can’t do a 16 hour round trip. It’s also not a good use of out time.
so now he’s not coming at all, and I’m probably not heading up there because I can’t afford it. Tis the season, my ass.
zhena gogolia
@Fair Economist: We call it the “Wells Fargo wagon.” I never know what’s going to be in the box.
UncleEbeneezer
@cmorenc: Sure. No need to #NotAll here. As long as you don’t go around talking shit about hip hop, claiming it’s not “real music” or saying it’s inferior to other style etc., I don’t think anybody minds. Tastes vary. And there are definitely legit cultural barriers for art. My interest/appreciation for rap and hip hop are definitely limited due to the fact that a lot of the time I just don’t know the lingo and references well enough to truly get it. Same goes for K-pop, Gospel and Country. It’s when people start going out of their way to shit on hip hop and other Black art and you notice that they are always shitting on the Black stuff that it becomes pretty obvious that Racism is in the mix. I believe that is 100% the case with Conservatives.
BruceFromOhio
@mali muso:
push two chairs together and throw a blanket over them. See if you have a big cardboard box as an “addition”. Couch cushions and pillows to make it comfy. You’ll get at least 30 minutes of play time out of it.
ETA: if the kids behave, they can play in it too
Fair Economist
@schrodingers_cat:
I assume this is all public knowledge in India. I don’t understand how the BJP can win elections with that baggage.
geg6
@Narya:
Drop down south about an hour and I’ll buy you some donuts next time!
Betty Cracker
@brendancalling: That sucks. I’m sorry. :(
Narya
@geg6: will do! We sometimes take 76 rather than 80
Alison Rose
@brendancalling: Okay, I had to Google “YYZ” because I was like, where the hell does he live??? I was not expecting Toronto, and then I had to look up why the heck it has that code:
Well, alrighty then! Sorry for the travel troubles :(
Another Scott
@Alison Rose:
Obligatory: Rush – YYZ (4:54)
Cheers,
Scott.
opiejeanne
Our youngest has been stuck in Florida, got a flight out this evening, showed up to check. in and discovered that there was a booking error, and she and her husband are now stuck until the 30th. She is incandescent. We have moved Christmas twice already so various people can attend, but can’t move it again, so the party is tomorrow and we’ll just see them when we see them. She is so pissed she didn’t want to talk about it, so I don’t know which airline(s) did this to them.
And today is our 53rd anniversary. Yay!
mali muso
@BruceFromOhio: Yes, the blanket fort is a favorite! (for the kids too)
To the hive-mind, since there are many pet experts here…hot tips on how to keep beta fish alive? I feel like this should not be that complicated, but we have lost two sets of fish since giving the kiddo a small aquarium setup on Xmas eve. First the water was probably too cold, then we bought the heater that goes with the unit, but I think they got cooked last night. And here I thought fish would be the low-key easy maintenance kind of first pet to get for the kiddo…
StringOnAStick
@Kelly: Strong winds and hard rain all last night here on the East side. Yesterday we tried to walk the river trail since the sidewalks had been clear of ice for a day; big mistake. It was still icy enough to require lots of spontaneous interpretive dance to maintain a non bruised body; we bailed out as soon as we could. It is squishy soggy outside today.
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: Love that! Thank you!
Paul in KY
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: It’s all they got to keep their interior voices at bay. The ones that tell them what loser, POSes they are.
Kathleen
@BruceFromOhio: Can’t believe I’m saying this but I agree with this piece in the NYT. 100%.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: Betty, I first saw her at Bonnaroo back in 2015 or so. Played on Thurs night (what I call New Music Night). Had no idea who she was when I rolled up to the stage. Came back to campsite saying she was the best act I saw that day.
Since then I have seen her 3 more times. Each time biggerer than the last. The most recent was ACL a couple of years ago where she must have had a crowd of 60,000.
She has earned every accolade she has gotten. She’s also not finished. Not by a long shot.
Matt McIrvin
@JMG: I’ve always loved this post-Christmas week. The run-up to Christmas is incredibly stressful; Christmas Day itself is hugely hectic in my family and then all the pressure just dissipates.
Most years I take the whole week off. This year I shifted my vacation a little early so I could do more last-minute Christmas stuff, so I’m going to give ’em a little holiday coverage Thursday and Friday before the long New Year’s weekend. But that’s fine; there’s a lot to get done, it’ll help me ease back into the game and I’m hoping for a quiet couple of days without a lot of interruptions.
prostratedragon
@opiejeanne: Happy Anniversary!!
schrodingers_cat
@Fair Economist: The same way Republicans do after a failed insurrection attempt.
To be fair, Jan Sangh (BJP’s earlier avatar) was electoral poison for decades after India’s independence. BJP only gained electoral traction post 90s. When the have-nots (OBCs and Dalits gained power in the Hindi heartland of India, namely Bihar and Uttar Pradesh).
Before that they were known as the party of Brahmins and Baniyas (trader caste)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@brendancalling: I’m sorry. That must be disappointing.
Betty
@opiejeanne: It’s time for a serious investigation of the airline business. Customers are being treated horribly, and it seems employees are as well.
brendancalling
@opiejeanne: that’s infuriating.
I’m so sorry.
Anotherlurker
@UncleEbeneezer: I’m not a fan of Rap and Hip-Hop but I can appreciate the talent and creative effort that goes into it. The artists are true artists!
To all the creative people out there: keep on creating, no matter what the medium or style!
Alison Rose
@Paul in KY: Lizzo + Harry at Coachella = pure joy :
(Video isn’t the best quality, but it’s still fun)
Paul in KY
@opiejeanne: Happy Anniversary To y’all!!
brendancalling
@Dorothy A. Winsor: the best part is when you call Air Canada and a pre-recorded message says that “due to unforeseen circumstances” (which is a lie) they can’t even put customers on hold or in a queue.
So I will likely be making an in-person appearance today at Philadelphia Airport, to discuss things with an actual human being.
It is very easy for me to go from normal human to whatever the male version of Karen is. Last time there was an airline ignoring me, I was able to get the local CBS affiliate to make some calls on my behalf. It didn’t go well for the airline.
Paul in KY
@mali muso: Make sure the water has no chlorine in it. Cannot use water straight out of the tap. Have to let it sit 24 hours.
Anyway
@brendancalling:
Chad,I think?
Sorry about the busted holiday plans. What a bummer.
jackmac
@UncleEbeneezer: I’m not a fan of rap/hip hop and country music hurts my ears. But having said that, I subscribe to the philosophy attributed to Duke Ellington (via P.D.Q. Bach / Peter Schickele) that “if it sounds good, it IS good.”
Soprano2
@The Moar You Know: That is so, so stupid, even in an area like mine that’s around 60% Republican. Why would you alienate 40% of your potential customers like that? It’s why I make an effort to never talk about politics at the bar. The regulars know how I feel about TFG, but we mostly don’t talk about it.
Soprano2
@Paul in KY: My husband has a distant relative who, in the 1920’s in Chicago, was ruled to have committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart twice! It was a pretty big deal, he was some kind of higher-up at a bank.
Paul in KY
@Alison Rose: Thank you much for that, Alison!
geg6
@Narya:
The Chippewa exit on 376 (Beaver Valley Expressway portion) is very close to Oram’s. The Green Garden/Aliquippa exit is super close to Mac’s.
Quiltingfool
@Ohio Mom: I knew about the Judaism matrilineal descent rule, but your explanation is very helpful to this gentile! I did not know that it must be through daughters only.
Not sure why I need to know that, but I just like to learn about other religions. I would really like for some Christians to learn about their own religion, though…and quit that damned cherry-picking! Lol!
Paul in KY
@brendancalling: I think it is ‘Kyle’.
Edit: ‘Chad’ would work too.
schrodingers_cat
@opiejeanne: Happy Anniversary!
Soprano2
@Matt McIrvin: I actually love working this week, because so many people take off (and pretty much all of the big wigs do). Makes it quiet so you can get a lot of stuff done without being bothered too much.
Soprano2
@opiejeanne: Happy anniversary! That’s quite an accomplishment, 53 years.
schrodingers_cat
@Kathleen: You are welcome! Ghalib was awesome.
cmorenc
Those of you moaning about missed airline connections: – I traveled through the Denver airport yesterday (5 hour layover) and the United Airlines Customer Service desk had a line over 200 people long, moving so slowly some of the people in line could have walked home faster than getting the the head of it and finding an available flight. Met a few people who had been stuck in the Denver airport for 2-3 days (including Christmas) because of original missed connections. EVERY single flight, whether to another bit airport e.g. Orlando, or to the smallest regional podunk-ville, was leaving the gates at full capacity, usually with a few hopeful stand-by passengers left stranded and disappointed. And that doesn’t count the folks who likely were stranded trying to get to the same place who knew they were too far back in the queue to have any chance on that flight.
The gate agent at my origin airport had let on that my DEN => RDU flight was overbooked, and I know that I had obtained one of the tiny handful of available seats on my third try to not get cancelled getting out of my original airport, and so I paid for an upgrade to one of the small handful of extra-legroom seats still available, to minimize the possibility of getting bumped. And I got home last night, felt bad for the folks I met still stranded in the DEN airport.
CarolPW
@mali muso:
If you have more than one in the tank, make sure you do not have two males. It doesn’t hurt to let the tank stabilize for several days so the water ages and you can check the temperature stability. If your water is highly chlorinated buy some distilled water for the tank instead of using tap water. Betas are easy usually keepers (you see them in a jar on a countertop doing fine if the room temperature isn’t too cold) so either the temperatures are really off or the water is pretty bad.
tybee
@mali muso: get a goldfish. pretty tough critters.
Lehrjet
Mali muso, betta are fairly easy to keep. No chlorine, you can get a water conditioner from your local pet store. Make sure the water temp is 76 or above. To cold will shock and kill them. A 5 gal or better is a good size tank. Otherwise they come in a vast variety and are one of the most colorful of fresh water fish.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Re: airlines. Yikes!
We have an Iceland Air voucher from a cancelled 2020 trip that expires sometime around May of 2023. So we’re going to get back on a plane and do some kind of European trip sometime in 2023. I don’t even remember what the original destination was, but it was only a change of planes in Reykjavik. This time I think I want to stop for a few days there, and I don’t even know what to pick for the next leg of the trip.
I’m hoping some of the chaos settles down by the time we decide to do this, but I’m really afraid of not just cancellations but uber-asshole passengers.
My last trip on a plane was to France in 2019, to a conference. I had a really nice trip planned with landing in Paris, then a leisurely train ride to Marseille with plenty of time to check in to the hotel and get to the conference.
Instead the airline kept delaying and delaying the flight and then unexpectedly cancelled it. The alternatives they offered me would have caused me to arrive days late and miss half the conference. I went online myself and managed to find a last-minute flight direct to Marseille that cost me an arm and a leg, and got me to the conference only an hour or two late.
I wasn’t as pissed as the large group of soccer fans who had (I think) World Cup tickets. Or whatever was going on soccer-wise in France around June of 2019.
schrodingers_cat
deleted double comment
NotMax
@Alison Rose
In case anyone ever wondered how the main airport on Maui got assigned OGG, it was requested as an honorific of sorts to a guy named Hogg, who oversaw the conversion from a WW2 naval facility to civil aviation.
Some old timers here still call the airport complex NASKA (Naval Air Station Kahului).
/trivia
brendancalling
@rikyrah: the state already quartered Nashville’s districts to neuter Democratic representation. It’s what they do.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: A bunch of my coworkers are in India and this is not their big holiday week at all. But they’re not the ones calling the shots on meetings.
Another Scott
@cmorenc: My J’s twin is visiting us in NoVA from Austin. She was supposed to fly SWA back on Xmas. The originating flight never left SAN, and they brought in a flight from MDW. Because she couldn’t get any information from the airline (she was on hold for something like 3 hours), she moved her seat to Wednesday so that she wouldn’t get in at 2 AM if it actually did leave. That flight eventually left DCA several hours later than scheduled (one of the few that wasn’t cancelled).
Earlier in the day there was a SWA flight listed from DCA to STL to AUS that supposedly would have gotten in around her originally-scheduled time, but I read this morning that STL was a nightmare so it’s good she didn’t try to make that one…
Right now we’re just hoping that her Wednesday flight goes…
Agreed with a comment above that there needs to be an investigation of what’s going on. If airlines have gates locked up at airports – as they do – preventing competition, then they have a responsibility to make sure that flights go on time.
Grr…,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@cmorenc: I really do think there needs to be a Congressional investigation into how the airlines are doing business now, it really seems like they just all around suck at their jobs. Tho, good luck getting Congressional investigations into anything of actual substance for the next two years. If only there was some way we could convince the GOP that Hunter Biden’s laptop was involved somehow…
brendancalling
@cmorenc: Air Canada sent my kid a text while his already-too-late-to-make-the-connection flight was disembarking. It said the connection was delayed by a half hour. The poor kid RAN to the waiting area, where he and a few other passengers waited for a half hour. When someone finally showed up, they said the flight had already left, and that the delay in the text referred to “delayed on the runway.” As in “had already left the gate.”
Thats going to be discussed today, in person.
NotMax
@mali muso
Once had a beta fish. Almost mandatory to name it Max.
;)
@Ceci n est pas mon nym
Flew NYC — Reykjavik — Luxembourg in ’74 without incident. Return trip from London was delayed for some 16 hours, around 10 at Gatwick and another 6 or so at Keflavik (at the time one of only a handful of places in Iceland where it was legal to sell beer).
Another Scott
@Miss Bianca: Congresscritters fly a lot. We saw Cornyn on a SWA flight from AUS to DCA once. (He had an exit row seat, of course.) They have an interest in finding out what’s going on too.
We’ll see!
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There is also a possiblity that Santos’s funny money situation might lead to criminal charges beyond campaign law violations. I saw a report linking Santos to a man whose cousin, Viktor Vekselberg is a Russian oligarch with a house on Long Island. Vekselberg made the news late summer when FBI agents showed up at his Long Island home with a search warrant. Reporters at the scene saw agents carying out a number of boxes to their van.
Santos has money but how he got it is unclear. Journalists are probably trying hard to find this out because it’s a hot story.
I expect federal prosecutors and FBI agents are interested as well. Santos might as well have a neon sign hanging over him flashing, “INVESTIGATE HERE.”
Santos’s personal story- family history, marital status, etc. get a lot of attention. His immigration status could be become a consequential story because it bears on his qualification for the office he just won.
I think there is a good chance some more serious criming has been going on, and Santos is involved. It’s even possible that he is already on the FBI’s radar because of the Vekselberg investigation.
That is why I’m kind of hoping that Santos’s papers are good and he joins the Republican caucus on January 3rd. And then sticks it out for a while before he finally resigns (which I think he will eventually do when he’s indicted).
So, Kevin McCarthy (or Steve Scalise) would start out with a slender majority and a developing scandal. It would be kind of like a pirate captain taking his ship and crew out on their shakedown cruise with a dead albatross on board.
Matt McIrvin
@cmorenc: A friend just spent 5 hours in line at Frontier Airlines DEN customer service to get a refund for a cancelled flight that, she said, took 30 seconds to process. While waiting, managed to book a hotel room and a car and ended up driving to her destination, stopping at the Grand Canyon along the way.
At the end of one summer vacation we missed a flight at DEN because of a 2-hour combined wait at baggage check and security, and it seemed like the whole airport was filled with people who were in the same predicament, snagging every available seat. We desperately booked any flight that went out of there to anywhere and ended up spending the night in the terminal at Chicago Midway. We eventually found our way home via separate routes, my wife and daughter going Chicago to BWI to Manchester while I went Chicago to Nashville to Boston Logan, and they had to drive into Boston and pick me up there.
Gin & Tonic
@Geminid: Vekselberg’s cousin is also his bagman, and the single largest contributor to the Santos campaign, IIRC.
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: That makes me think we’ll be hearing more about that cousin. I hope he sent a lot of money to Representative Stephanik too. She and Santos are pretty tight.
Or at least they were. It could be that now she hardly knows him.
Steeplejack
@Alison Rose:
There used to be a traffic guy on the radio in Atlanta who called people from Snellville Snellvillains. He had a lot of other funny demonyms. The only other one I remember is that people from Villa Rica (“Rick-uh”) were Villa Ricardos.
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
What is “HW”?
cckids
Re: all the missed/late flights – Southwest Airlines is in complete meltdown. They’ve cancelled 2000+ flights yesterday, today, tomorrow . . . and aren’t even trying to reschedule people. My SIL drove from Shreveport to Dallas, waited over 8 hours, then just drove home.
SW announced this morning that ALL flights out of S. CA are cancelled until after Dec. 31st. Sec. Pete says DOT will investigate. It seems that their tight turnaround schedules, outdated computers and processes, and their policy of super short-staffing, combined with the storm and flu/RSV/Covid has truly bitten their ass off. Their Sept. 2021 meltdown cancelled 2000 flights over four days, and cost them $75 million. (and they seem to have learned exactly nothing from it). Can they survive this?
I guess we’ll see.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: Homework.
Matt McIrvin
@Steeplejack: “Villa Rica” must sound a lot like “Billerica”, though I’d guess the etymologies are completely different.
Matt McIrvin
@cckids: I use Southwest Airlines all the time because the most convenient airport for us is Manchester, NH, which is mostly a Southwest airport at this point, and their fares tend to be really good out of there. Usually we do not have a bad experience–that nightmare at Denver we had was on Southwest but I get the impression it was mostly a Denver International problem, not a Southwest problem.
But I’ve been hearing more and more ominous stories about them lately. It’ll be interesting to see if MHT can even survive if Southwest melts down–lately it seems like Logan expansion has been eating their lunch. They don’t get overflow traffic like they used to.
2liberal
most likely southwest
About 87% of Tuesday’s US flight cancellations are Southwest,
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/27/business/southwest-airlines-service-meltdown/index.html
cckids
@2liberal: Yes. For yesterday, Southwest cancelled over 2000 flights, blaming the weather – more than any other airline. The company in 2nd place? Spirit Airlines, with 83 cancelled flights.
Which tells me that the weather is NOT the problem.
UncleEbeneezer
Oh look, Transphobic Terrorist “Libs of Tis Tok” was likely trespassing at the Capital on 1/6!!
Matt McIrvin
@cckids: There are some airports where Southwest Airlines has a majority of the flights, often second airports peripheral to metropolitan areas. It looks like Buffalo isn’t quite one of those but Southwest does have twice as many flights as the next biggest carrier, so Buffalo shutting down would hit them harder than it did anyone else.
2liberal
the link refers to IT issues
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
Gee, what a damn shame, they can’t hate as loud as they did, upon many a time
Must be horrible not being an asshole as easy as it used to be……
dnfree
@mali muso: I don’t keep fish, but one of our daughters has since she won a goldfish at a school fair in sixth grade. Yes, no chlorine in the water, let tap water sit for a day (always have some waiting). Water temperature is important. Goldfish are easier than bettas. A different daughter had a betta, repeatedly. They were always dying. Also, fish require more space than you’d think. And I think you never replace all the water at the same time when cleaning the tank or bowl.
LiminalOwl
@Ohio Mom: The chain would also be broken if someone in the line of descent converted to Christianity. Which Santos’s Catholicism (if that part is true!) suggests; if he were older, it would be almost certain.
On an unrelated topic, I really have to remember no caffeine after 5 pm. Maybe after 3 pm.
LiminalOwl
@Ken: Some sources are speculating on the nature of that close friendship; if I’m reading the hints correctly, it may have been such as would incur criminal penalties back home in Russia. Might that be a reason for suicide? Or even for “ suicide”?
LiminalOwl
@schrodingers_cat: (Hope you’re still checking replies.) Thank you; that’s beautiful, and I’m saving it.