There’ll be two winters in the year;
If Candlemas has clouds and rain
Old winter shall not come again
The Pennsytucky whistlepig (more correctly, the local tourist marketing reps) has predicted six more weeks of winter. So far we’ve barely had a winter here in the Boston area, which is making everyone jumpy, because we remember a mild January as a prelude to absolutely horrible February / March / April.
Alternate view, with due respect to BettyC and Adam, among other fine BJ jackals…
How we do Groundhog Day in Florida! ???? @WINKNews pic.twitter.com/LnG1raputz
— Matt Devitt (@MattDevittWINK) February 1, 2023
Elsewhere, welcome to Black History Month, another period of dependable (excruciating) repetition…
“Why must you always concentrate on color?”
As always, this answer from James Baldwin is what you were looking for. Must watch.#BlackHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/YsJcsmyxsT
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) February 1, 2023
Readership capture:
At my last Black History Month celebration at the White House, we had folks of all ages come together to celebrate—including Clark Reynolds. I hope we'll continue to build a brighter future for young people like him. pic.twitter.com/H9NagqrqmW
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 1, 2023
NotMax
Merry Whistle Pig Day!
(And tomorrow, in the U.S., is 2/3/23. Celebrate!)
Baud
That last cartoon requires some cultural awareness to understand.
Nicole
In honor of the day, here’s the Number Ones entry on “I Got You Babe”:
https://www.stereogum.com/2009474/the-number-ones-sonny-chers-i-got-you-babe/columns/the-number-ones/
Matt McIrvin
They’re predicting a low of -8F Friday night when the big Arctic blast hits us full on, making me think about taking steps to keep the pipes from freezing. That low a temperature almost never happens around here; single digits Fahrenheit is rare.
NotMax
@Baud
Made me turn on images in the browser. Cannot make any sense of it whatsoever. YMMV.
sab
I like that elephant’s quilt.
Baud
@NotMax:
It’s a reference to scenes in the old Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day.
eclare
@Baud: I am aware, and it is perfect!
Anne Laurie
@NotMax: There’s a popular .gif of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, smashing his alarm clock as he realizes he’s trapped in a loop where he keeps repeating his Feb. 2 over & over.
The GOP is currently trapped in a loop, where they can’t bring themselves to repudiate TFG. Never seen the movie myself, but I understand that Murray’s character can’t escape until he takes steps to become a better person…
NotMax
@Baud
Oh. I make a point of avoiding Bill Murray whenever and wherever possible. Something about him on a screen of any size rubs me the wrong way.
Princess
@Baud: it’s pretty clever. And the fact that that movie is old, which it is, makes me feel really old…
Betsy
I’m living where I don’t want to live, working in a job that I don’t love, but it’s unbeatable for work-from-home and flexibility — but my life energy and talents are being wasted. Too much stuff and family connex to move. Can’t deal with the disruption of finding another job.
Don’t have time to downsize and get more mobile — health needs and obligations keep me from working on it, plus when I’m off work and not taking care of my health, I need to do something to unwind, not more chores and work. Otherwise it takes a toll on my health and can’t sleep, etc.
Too little time to live and do what I want. Too many responsibilities. Too much caretaking. I’m stuck.
How do I get unstuck?
Baud
@NotMax:
Ah, so we found a hole in your general knowledge of all things video.
Betsy
@Anne Laurie: That’s a great summary. I hadn’t thought of the “can’t escape until become better person” aspect.
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Not a major fan of the show but the single day looping episode of Stargate SG-1 was pretty darn amusing.
Betsy
@Baud: “old” ?!?!?
eclare
@Anne Laurie: And every Groundhog Day his clock radio, set to radio, wakes him up to “I Got You Babe.”
It’s a really funny movie.
eclare
@Betsy: I don’t know, that sounds awful.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Yeah, the day he linked to a Czech horror movie from the 1950s, I gave up competing.
zhena gogolia
@eclare: I have never seen it, so I didn’t get the joke at all.
NotMax
@Baud
There’s holes aplenty. Have much practice sklenting around them.
As for that particular movie, am aware of the premise, just not any individual scenes.
scribbler
Not a huge Bill Murray fan either but that movie is pretty great. And thoughtful on a level you wouldn’t expect, about Murray’s journey to becoming a better person. Lots of funny bits too.
Loved the comic up top and got it right away.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betsy: I’m sorry you feel this way. Life is short, too short. I would say start by doing some one small thing for yourself everyday. Then build on that.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
My grandmother told me as a child that really cold weather “kills the germs” – if it didn’t get really cold over the course of winter that’s why people got sick, germs still alive. I still think of a very cold snap as germ-killing and cleansing.
Layer8Problem
@NotMax: “Cause and Effect”, the Star Trek TNG episode where they time-loop over and over again crashing into the USS Bozeman, until they figure it out. And along those lines the episode of Battlestar Galactica where the Cylons, like clockwork, drop out of hyperspace next to the fleet and attack precisely thirty-three minutes after the fleet jumps.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
There’s a punch line in there somewhere about a cancelled Czech but 3 a.m. brain fog is particularly active today.
;)
p.a.
Don’t forget to tell the
“When is white history month?” people…
“Every fucking month since 1611. Not enough for you, asshole?”
Baud
Time loops are now a common theme in movies and TV.
p.a.
Here in S.E. New England this is too cold, but we need a long cold spell eventually or the flea & tick season this spring could be horrendous.
Layer8Problem
@Baud: One might say one sees that trope over and over again.
Matt McIrvin
@Layer8Problem: We think of these time-loop stories as “Groundhog Day” imitations now, but the Star Trek: TNG episode was first, along with many other things (some Twilight Zone episodes, Monty Python’s “It’s the Mind!” sketch, an Urusei Yatsura movie). There were accusations that “Groundhog Day” ripped off a short called “12:01”, but, really, it was a well-established trope and there aren’t too many similarities with “12:01” other than the basic premise.
NotMax
@Baud
The Twilight Zone did it way back in 1961.
OzarkHillbilly
@Matt McIrvin: Our weather is going to give me whiplash. Our highs have been in the twenties all week. Going forward: 46 today, then 31, 48, 56, 58, 55, 52. I still expect at least one more blast of winter. I just hope my bulbs don’t get it into their heads that it’s over
eclare
@Kay: My mother also subscribed to that theory.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, but Groundhog Day was the first one that was reality based rather than sci fi.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: What kind of reality do you live in?
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
One where I’m trapped on Balloon Juice until I become a better person.
oatler
Looks like ABC has found the Iowa Diner they’ll be using in their Iowa Caucus coverage. “Ground Zero”.
Layer8Problem
@oatler: “Ground Zero.” Sounds a bit grim, doesn’t it?
NotMax
Amazon’s algorithm needs to go into the shop, methinks.
Recently purchased new casters for the desk chair. Now it’s showing me in the front page “Because you bought these casters” area coffees and sanitizing wipes.
Yeah, those naturally go together with chair casters.
different-church-lady
I saw that Boston’s Mayor Wu has declared a ‘cold emergency’ for the weekend, and my lifelong New Englander brain went, “A fuckin’ what?”
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: HA! Touche’
Soprano2
@NotMax: Have you ever seen the movie “Groundhog Day”? It’s a riff on that.
different-church-lady
@NotMax: My uncle got hepatitis from a dirty chair caster. 🙁
Soprano2
@Betsy: Maybe tackling things in small bites, even extremely small bites? It’s a trite suggestion, but sometimes it’s hard to get started because something seems so overwhelming you feel like what’s the point? I’ve been trying to clean up stuff around our house one small pile at a time. It feels good every time I clear something. I tell myself that if I can only do one a week, that’s enough because at least it’s something.
Baud
People here are older and probably need the bathroom during the night, but if you don’t and you’re concerned about pipes freezing, you can turn off your water intake and open your faucet, which will prevent any water left in your pipes from busting the pipes if it freezes.
Betty Cracker
@Betsy: Being stuck is terrible — much sympathy to you.
Before I had kids or old people to look after, I established a pattern of blowing up my life every five years or so. Now the explosions are much smaller, but I still think they’re necessary for me.
Is there anything you can blow up?
eclare
@NotMax: I understand that algorithm. Amazon thinks you bought new casters for your work-from-home or office desk chair, thus coffee and sanitizing wipes.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@different-church-lady: I had to read that three times. How did that work?
James E Powell
@p.a.:
Apparently not. They are terrified & angered by the idea that there are people who are not like them. And they don’t want to hear about it.
eclare
@Soprano2: Very helpful advice to me.
different-church-lady
Let’s also go to Jack Johnson:
“I’m Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion of the world. I’m black. They never let me forget it. I’m black all right. I’ll never let them forget it.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betsy: That sounds depressing. Is it possible you’re depressed?
Otherwise, I think what works for one person might not work for another. I read, or walk, or phone a friend. Do you have a hobby? Having a project helps a lot of people, I think.
different-church-lady
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Not terribly well. He was in the hospital for a week.
oatler
@Layer8Problem:
There are grim people in Iowa,Layer8. Restless….dissatisfied, still yearning for a world Some Say has been decimated by Both Sides. Chris Christie will be giving His Take after this Shell ad.
NotMax
@Betsy
Off the cuff suggestion.
Change of scenery, even if it’s only a five minute walk around the block or a quick trip to bring back a fancy coffee drink or pastry to treat yourself, can help chase the blues a bit.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: Right there with you. Honestly, I wish it would get cold and stay cold until it’s ready to warm up, because this weather whiplash is hard on the body. I cannot believe my city’s school cancelled for today! I swear, as vehicles have gotten better about getting around in bad weather people have gotten more timid about using them. I thought they should have had school yesterday! I’m getting the old-woman-yells-at-clouds feeling because I’m starting to wonder if when these kids get older they’re going to think their workplace will close every time it snows!
I noticed last weekend when it was in the 50’s that my daffodils are already starting to come up. That’s common down here now. I know when I was in my 20’s this didn’t happen so early; it was usually the middle of February before you saw daffodil shoots coming up.
Soprano2
@NotMax: They think you’re an office. LOL
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Not much of a fan either, but this one I enjoy. How long does it take? Long enough for him to learn to swing Rachmaninoff.
different-church-lady
@Kay: Maybe she was right in a wrong way: when it gets that cold people don’t go out, so they’re not around sick people as much.
Raoul Paste
@Baud: perfect
Soprano2
@eclare: Thanks. It’s a philosophy I’ve adopted as I’ve gotten older, because it’s counterproductive to think you can do everything in one fell swoop because that keeps you from doing anything. I need to tackle the rest of the stuff from my mother’s house, boxes of pictures I missed because they must have been in with decorative pictures I left for them to sell. *sigh*….
prostratedragon
@Layer8Problem: My favorite Star Trek episode.
Ken
And in half an hour, which is more difficult to pull off.
(On the other hand, half an hour was about the right length for the new Zone‘s adaptation of “Button, Button” — certainly better than the movie-length version of “The Box”.)
Kay
@different-church-lady:
Oh, no. She was always very confident and clear when telling me her…facts. She meant the germs die below zero so cannot invade our bodies. Curative too, so if you were sick you would get better with extreme cold and if there’s no extreme cold it just lingers – germs infecting again and again.
eclare
@Soprano2: Maybe where you live everyone drives the speed limit and stays in their lane. That is not the case here. You bet I’m staying home in snowy or icy conditions. I figure even if I’m in a wreck that physically I will probably be ok. But with supply chain issues it could take months for my car to be repaired (took months for my cousin’s generic Toyota SUV to be fixed after a wreck, and that was pre covid) and good luck getting a rental if everyone has been in a wreck due to poor weather.
I am single with no close relatives. If I don’t have a car, I really don’t have a car.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I let my faucets drip, that’s worked for me.
Layer8Problem
@oatler: Stop it, I beg you. I’m getting soft-focus images of waving fields of corn and wheat, closed storefronts on small town Main Streets, long distance shots of barns, and lingering views of long, straight roads across the plain, going . . . to America. 🙂
OzarkHillbilly
All through grade school I never got a day off, had to walk to school in the knee deep snow with bread bags on my feet* (uphill both ways! Literally) because the Parish pastor refused to call school off for any reason. In high school I got a few, because it was a public school.
But I am sympathetic to today’s principles and superintendents calling school off with the appearance of the first flake. These days, a lot more kids ride the bus,** and dawg forbid a bus should lose it on an icy patch, leave the road and roll over, or even worse end up in a head on collision.
*Dawg! I hated that but I had shitty leaky shoes.
** out here it’s most kids ride the bus.
Nukular Biskits
Here in South MS, there has been no winter.
A few hard frosts and a couple of nights in low 30s/upper 20s but that’s been it.
The mosquitos and gnats are going to be horrible this coming summer.
JAFD
The sun shines on New Jersey today. Is welcome, January was mild temperatures but with too many days of gray drear. Hoping we get a cold spell, if not bugs and pollen will be great vexations when summer comes.
Happy February to all yon jackals. Be well.
Kay
@Soprano2:
I don’t know if it’s true in Missouri but when we closed some small rural schools and consolidated – declining attendance plus economies of scale allow larger schools to offer more- we had more and longer “rural routes” for buses which meant more closures for snow, ice or fog. I live in town and my kids walked to school but some of the kids were coming 20 miles by bus.
different-church-lady
@Betsy: I don’t have much good advice other than to tell you you’re not alone in grappling with those kinds of feelings and that kind of situation. So don’t feel like it’s your failure, it’s just the way things are far too often.
mali muso
Phew, that James Baldwin clip is just as accurate today as it was then. Which is really sad.
Ken
ABC News didn’t get the news about the Iowa Caucuses?
Tom Levenson
@different-church-lady: For insect borne diseases, serious cold is the way to reduce that burden later in the year. So, yeah, germ control–just offset enough to make the connection invisible.
And we’re not getting that this winter in the Hub of the Universe. I read somewhere that we need a consistent run of sub freezing weather — 10 days to 2 weeks — to really put the brakes on mosquitos and ticks in New England.
Friday-Saturday will be brutal, but that’s not long enough for insect control. Could be a West Nile kind of summer…
different-church-lady
@OzarkHillbilly: Up hill? You were lucky! We didn’t have a hill, so every morning we had to shovel one into being so we could walk up it!
Cameron
@NotMax: While searching for grant writing jobs on Indeed, I was advised that my qualifications made me a good fit as both a ballroom dancing instructor and a parking lot attendant.
Kay
@Betsy:
This advice is hard for me and I suspect might be hard for you but I think you should stop fighting the situation and see if it comes clearer with acceptance of the boundaries you have. The mental image I use is being tied up and fighting it which just tightens knots when if I just stopped struggling I could get out because the ropes would loosen.
Soprano2
@eclare: So if it’s cold and snowy for weeks, I guess we can all just stay home and kids can be out of school for weeks. Sorry, that’s not practical. Here all of the main roads were clear and normal yesterday, it was only the side roads that still had snow on them. It’s not that hard to navigate in those conditions, because most of the traffic is on the roads that are clear and normal. I agree that if the main roads are really bad they should stay home, but the temps are going to be in the 30’s today and all of the major roads in town are clear. There was no reason for them to cancel school IMHO. It’s ridiculous, and a burden on parents. Plus, this idea that ‘well we can just have remote school today’ doesn’t work that well either. The PA who did my yearly exam yesterday said her kids were going to have to take an absence because there was no way grandma could get on the IPad and make sure the kids were doing their lessons.
And no, they drive like maniacs here just like everywhere else.
Layer8Problem
@JAFD: Out my window Bergen County looks downright hopeful.
NotMax
@different-church-lady
You had a shovel?
Lucky ducky! :)
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: LOL, we were out of school at my school but it was rural and called off when we got a foot of snow, not when there were three inches! I’m not talking about a rural school, I’m talking about Springfield, the largest school district in the state where most of the kids don’t ride the bus! Most of their parents are already going to work, they could drop the kids off at school like normal. I grew up in a rural school, I understand they are different.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: True here too. In the Sullivan SD a lot of town kids take the bus too. Very few walk.
Soprano2
@Kay: That may be a factor for rural schools, that and the fact that it snowed a lot more south of here – some of them got almost a foot, but here in Springfield we got 3″!
NotMax
@Cameron
Heh.
Decisions, decisions.
arrieve
@Nicole: I always like the links to cover versions on the Number One articles but I have to say that David Bowie/Marianne Faithfull version of “I Got You Babe” reminded me of everything I hated about the Seventies. But in a good way.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Viruses thrive in cold dry weather. Bacteria become dormant or grow slowly but they don’t die. Meanwhile we can get hypothermia and die.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
different-church-lady
@NotMax: Well, we called it a shovel. It were only a sheet of notepaper taped to a twig. But it were shovel to us!
Cheryl from Maryland
Happy Imbolc (Celtic Holiday celebrating the mid-point between Yule and the Vernal Equinox) co-opted by Christians as Candlemas (time of the Presentation in the Temple for both Mary and her son).
OzarkHillbilly
@different-church-lady: Heh. We lived at the top of one side of a valley and the school was on top of the other side. My HS was on top of a plateau that started with our side of the valley. So while there was some gradient it was mostly flat.
I never minded walking to and from school. In a house with 6 kids it was the only “alone time” I got.
Betsy
@Betty Cracker: I like that idea. What qualifies as a blowing-up? Examples might help me envision some options.
Soprano2
Today in “House R’s Can’t Manage Their Way Out of a Paper Bag”, a typo in a document temporarily made Democrats a majority on the “Jim Jordan Trying to Find Out What the DOJ Has on Him” committee.
The FBI is looking into Santos fake charity where he stole money meant to save a dying dog. This might be the first thing they charge him with, and the article’s author says he thinks there is a sense of urgency because this con artist is in a position to actually help make laws.
Sam Bankman-Fried was mostly financing efforts not against Republicans, but against more lefty Democrats. Regardless of what you think of the Squad, this is not a way to really help Democrats much IMHO. Why not support candidates you like openly rather than finance dark money groups? When you’re allying with people like Robert Kraft and groups like AIPAC, you’re doing it wrong.
Layer8Problem
@different-church-lady: 😁
Betsy
@OzarkHillbilly: That seems useful. And I like your perspective (often read your comments with close attention, because you have kind wisdom).
eclare
@Soprano2: I said nothing about closing schools because it’s cold, that is ridiculous. As is the situation where schools would close for weeks because of snow, that is not going to happen. And I have no idea what your roads look like. We have had multiple ice storms with no temps above freezing since Monday. I was giving a perspective about why someone would prefer not to drive in bad conditions, that is all.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: People always say that really cold weather for an extended period of time keeps down the fleas and ticks, but even after we had two weeks of almost zero weather a couple of years ago people were still complaining that summer about how bad the fleas and ticks were! I’m not sure it does much of anything other than make us really cold and inconvenience us.
Betsy
@Soprano2: Thanks. Got to give myself credit for small bites.
Basilisc
Who’s the white guest that Baldwin goes off on in that clip? Anyone know?
Betsy
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I *know* I’m depressed. It’s situational, though. Major health crisis (severe injuries in wreck) last summer, folks aging, house too much to take care of, cats too much to take care of, solo. Used to have many friends (for decades). Somehow that is mostly disappeared.
I think it’s largely bc of where I live now. Rural. Even the smart people here are kind of stupid. To be perfectly frank.
Soprano2
@eclare: I feel for you with ice storms *shudder* Those are awful, I still start twitching every time I think about the one we had in 2007.
I am only commenting on how ridiculous it is IMHO to close school when only the residential streets are bad and it’s going to be in the 30’s during the day. It’s a huge inconvenience for parents to have to deal with it when they don’t expect to. I guess I get frustrated with the “avoid bad things at all cost” attitude, because you can’t always avoid less than ideal situations, so IMHO it’s better to learn to deal with them. It’s nice if you can stay home when the weather is bad, but a lot of people can’t. A long time ago I decided that I was going to learn to drive in the ice and snow and not be afraid of it because I don’t want to be trapped and helpless (I have known women who are, who are afraid to drive when there is even a little bit of snow on the roads) depending on my husband to take me everywhere.
Betsy
@Kay: Thanks, Kay.
Barbara
@OzarkHillbilly: Yes, that’s my thought, but also, think about how daily chores and housework can be simplified, even if done at a somewhat lower standard.
OzarkHillbilly
Nobody has ever said that about me before! ;-)
Skepticat
I usually count on bitter cold weather to control ticks, but just this morning, the Portland, Maine paper had an article saying it won’t happen this year because there’s too much snow cover, which is protecting them. What I’d give to be free of ticks—and MAGAts.
Betsy
@NotMax: Good idea.
Getting out of the house helps. This area is depressing me, though.
I think I need a real vacation. The other morning while I was making coffee, I visualized taking a boat to Puerto Rico and my knees almost buckled.
Problem is I don’t have any leave left at work after a health crisis last year.
different-church-lady
@OzarkHillbilly: She didn’t say what kind of wisdom… 🥴
Betsy
@different-church-lady: Thanks, that’s good to remember.
schrodingers_cat
@Betsy: Take up a small project, something that you have really wanted to do but have been putting off. Something that you have total control over.
Spend sometime on it regularly.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Glad you’re planning to keep hanging around with us miscreants. ;-)
mali muso
@Soprano2: Just to offer one other perspective, I’ve been told by some of my educator friends that one of the reasons our city may cancel school on days where it’s very cold (even if the snow may have been cleared from the streets) is because we have a significant population of lower income families where the kids may be waiting for long periods at the bus stop in minimal layers and/or walking to school over sidewalks and roads that may not be fully clear (and again in the minimal layers). So that factors into the decision making of the administrators when making the decision to close. But as a parent with a school aged Kindergartener, I do feel the frustration when classes are cancelled. :(
Betsy
I really appreciate the time you took to offer suggestions and sympathy. I’m following this thread and thinking about it all. If I didn’t respond to anyone it’s not because i didn’t appreciate it – got to start the workday but will keep checking back.
I hope everyone has a great Thursday.
frosty
@Betsy: I’m living where I don’t want to live, working in a job that I don’t love…
This is pretty typical. It’s very hard to have both. I did it for awhile but it required a 1 3/4 hour one-way commute by train and Metro. Most of the rest of my working life took at least a 20-mile drive.
I don’t know how you get unstuck other than to hire someone like Marie Kondonto brutally go through the place with you tossing stuff out. I’m sure there are people doing this now. It would take time and money but at least it wouldn’t require as much gumption on your part.
eclare
@Soprano2: I am trying to think of schools that have had delayed starts due to weather warming up during the day, and the only ones I can think of are private. I guess with public schools and busses, it’s either all or nothing depending upon how it looks that morning, unfortunately.
And hey, if I could be the only one on the road, I’d be out there in iffy conditions too. But I had three wrecks none of which were my fault in a span of five years ( two rear ends, one side swipe), so I stay home. That Camry never did drive right after a wreck.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
frosty
@eclare: AL’s link makes a good case that the song is a key to making the movie work. Like they said, it has to be cheesy enough to be funny but not so annoying that the movie audience gets sick of it. I Got You Babe walks that fine line.
eclare
@frosty: Did you see where even Marie Kondo has now given up on tidyness?
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: I let my wife do the household chores. Simpler for me!
Actually, I take out the trash and recyclables, bring in the firewood and keep the fire going when it’s needed, all the yard work and gardening as well as the chickens, and do nearly all of the kitchen work (all the cleaning, all the baking, most of the cooking). My wife does the vacuuming and dusting, mostly because I don’t even see that stuff (on the other hand a messy kitchen drives me over the wall but bothers my wife not at all) We each do our own laundry and split the rest of the house hold cores based on who it bothers first.
It works for us.
schrodingers_cat
@eclare: But her messy may be neater than my tidy.
JMG
In the Boston area, the Catholic schools are more likely to close for snow days precisely because their students come from all over and there are bigger transportation issues. The suburban public system my children attended was well-known for being one of the last to close in the face of adverse weather forecasts.
OzarkHillbilly
@different-church-lady: You have a point.
frosty
@Baud: One where I’m trapped on Balloon Juice until I become a better person.
Perfect answer!
ETA: block quote is too complicated with fat thumbs on a phone. Sorry.
different-church-lady
@eclare: I think her whole shtick is to run the cutest, wimpiest, most timid cult of personality ever.
Layer8Problem
@eclare: She pours another shot of tequila into her shot glass. “I said the hell with all you hopeless animals. THAT sparks my joy.” She knocks back the shot.
eclare
@schrodingers_cat: Ha!
Ken
There is of course an XKCD for this.
eclare
@Layer8Problem: And then she throws her glass into the fireplace, sending shards of glass everywhere!
NotMax
@frosty
Now imaging it being Gilbert O’Sullivan’s Alone Again. Or (FSM forbid) The Archies’ super-treacly Sugar, Sugar.
Over and over and over. :)
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud:
This poses the question, whose fate is worst, Baud, Sisyphus, or Prometheus?
Layer8Problem
@eclare: That nails the landing!
OzarkHillbilly
@eclare: I rolled my van when I hit a patch of black ice coming home from work. I knew there was a storm coming but thought I could at least get half a day in before it hit.
And I just thought, “You know what? Never again am I risking my truck, my tools, my life, for some contractor’s profit margin.”
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax:
In which case the repeated attempts of Bill Murray’s character to commit suicide would have started way earlier in the movie.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Or anything by Journey.
eclare
@OzarkHillbilly: Yep. Pretty much my attitude working for a Fortune 100.
frosty
@Betsy: I read some decluttering advice recently that I’m going to try. Start with one room, or maybe the corner of one room, and don’t let it get cluttered again. Then build from there.
In 2020 I got the basement and garage done then stalled out. Both of them need work again but not quite as much now. On to the office this spring!
ETA I know your malaise is a lot more than clutter but it’s someplace to start.
Another hint: if it’s piles of old photos, look into Scancafe to digitize them for you.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
“You’re listening to N-Radio. All Nickelback, all the time.”
Manyakitty
@Kay: I wonder if that’s behind the Finnish (Nordic?) tradition of setting babies outside in the cold? Makes perfect sense, really.
Omnes Omnibus
@OzarkHillbilly: No, I am pretty sure that is banned by the Geneva Conventions, and I have actually read them.
zhena gogolia
@frosty: My goal for my winter break was one drawer in the bathroom. I failed.
Geminid
@Soprano2: I think Santos’s affairs present prosecutors with a lot of low hanging fruit, and the bogus charity effort will be one of several counts in an upcoming indictment. It would be great if a courtroom artist captures the looks jurors give Santos when the veteran describes how Santos ripped of his dying dog.
It’s possible that the case never goes to trial, that prosecutors have Santos dead to rights on enough serious charges that he accepts a plea deal. One condition would be that he resign his seat.
Ken
There are of course people who claim that what ended the time loop in Groundhog Day wasn’t Murray’s character becoming a better person, but the part where he sleeps with a co-worker.
Soprano2
@mali muso: I’ve heard this from people, but what I wonder is whether it’s worse for those families to have to figure out child care for those kids. We did a big coat drive here at work for the local schools to provide coats for kids just because of this problem.
I guess it’s partly a feeling that when I was younger they didn’t cancel school nearly as quickly as they do now.
Omnes Omnibus
@Manyakitty: I open all of my windows on a really cold day at least once or twice a winter. It’s on the same general principle.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: But this is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a situation where if you drive two blocks from your house you get to a major street that’s about as clear as it would be on a regular day. When the main streets are snow and ice covered that’s a completely different situation!!!!!!
frosty
@eclare: Yes, I saw that she’d rather spend time with her kids. Funny but realistic.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud: I in fact played that scene for my bride this morning as a way of announcing the day.
Here in my suburban PA region, we have barely seen a flake of snow all winter. I know the rest of you have been getting socked, but I really wish some of that stuff could have diverted to here. I enjoy blizzards.
I’ve even been known to play outside in the middle of the blizzard while the wind is still howling. “Look kids, how it gets so much warmer if you build a snow wall to shelter you from the wind!” They looked from inside.
Baud
@Ken:
IIRC, he slept with her before the end of the time loop, but it wasn’t love so the loop remained. But it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it.
Betty Cracker
@Betsy: I’m almost reluctant to elaborate because I think other commenters gave much better advice after I piped up! ;-) But I owe you for the homemade hard cider recipe, so here goes:
Big explosions: major life changes like moving to a different city or dwelling, changing jobs or industries, getting out of toxic relationships, etc. Sounds like some of those might be out for you, but maybe not all?
Small explosions: minor but still significant life changes such as alternations in daily routines or acquiring/dropping pursuits, habits or hobbies, e.g., stop smoking, try to learn a musical instrument, etc.
NotMax
@Soprano2
Back when men were real men, women were real women and little shivering blue children were real little shivering blue children.
:)
Mai Naem mobile
@Betsy: i don’t know if this is of any help. The downsizing- just tell yourself you’re going to spend ten minutes a day/every 2-3 days. Whatever frequency you can handle but only 10 minutes. Its not much but it may give you the momentum to do more as you start seeing the difference. Also,if its been a while since you’ve looked for a new job you may be surprised by the responses you get just posting your resume on Indeed or other job board. You don’t have to respond to them but it may motivate you to go further on the new job search.
MomSense
@Betsy:
If you figure it out could you please let me know?
You are soooo not alone in what you are going through.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@NotMax:
The stuff he did with Harold Ramis as writer is brilliant. Which, from what I’ve read, caused him to hate Harold Ramis. He didn’t like the idea that he was best in a partnership instead of all by himself. He stopped talking to Ramis on the set (of Groundhog Day, I think?) and didn’t talk to him again until Ramis was literally on his deathbed.
Murray is an asshole. He’s best when “smarmy asshole” is a necessary part of the character. As it was in Groundhog Day.
NotMax
@MomSense
Be best.
(madly dashes for the nearest exit)
Soprano2
@Geminid: When I heard about how he ripped off a veteran with a dying dog, I thought “This is what will finally turn people against him”. I hadn’t thought about the illegality of saying you have a 501(c)3 when you don’t. ETA – I agree there probably won’t be a trial, because they’ll have so much to charge him with that he’ll plead out, and be forced to resign his seat. We cannot have a person like that helping make laws!
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: Thanx for the chuckle.
narya
@Betsy: One of the things that helped me was some of the sleep meditations on the 10% happier app. (I’m not a meditator, I hasten to add.) It helped keep me out of the rabbit holes that often appeared as I got into bed. The other huge thing for me is exercise; if I have to choose between sleep and exercise, I will take the latter. I also like listening to the podcasts on 10%; I broke down and subscribed so I could listen ad-free.
Good luck to you; that stuck feeling sucks.
Princess
@Betsy: That sounds really tough. A wreck can be very difficult to get over, psychologically, and serious injuries can only make it harder, apart from all the other stuff. I can see why you feel caught. I don’t know if this will help but sometimes just acknowledging that I’m having a hard time dealing because I’m in a very difficult situation helps take the pressure off — stops me from beating myself up about not doing better.
frosty
@Betty Cracker: Interesting! Looking back, I can see the major explosions up until I was 30 and got married. Like moving across the country for school then moving back. But there are some less major explosions too, starting an exercise routine, kids, grad school, dropping the exercise routine, changing jobs, moving. Most triggered by a need to change.
narya
@frosty: My approach is either a space–a corner, a drawer, a closet, a PART of a closet–OR a category (clothes; books). It’s usually a space, and I really only task myself with one that I can complete in, at most, a couple of hours. Rinse, repeat the next day. Or next week.
OzarkHillbilly
@frosty: Back in my single days, I moved around a lot, and did all I could to keep the move to a single p/u bed. When packing everything up, I would pick up an item and ask myself, “Have used this in the last year?” if the answer was no, I would then ask myself, “Am I going to use it in the next year?” If the answer was again no, into the trash it went. It was easy for me as I am not a materialistic person and hardly ever get emotionally attached to things.
Now that I am living in the place I hope to die in, I’ve got a lot more crap that I really don’t need.
Old School
@Basilisc:
Professor Paul Weiss, a Sterling Professor of Philosophy at Yale.
Slightly longer clip here.
Cameron
@Soprano2: Why not? We’ve already got plenty of crooks there.
mali muso
@Soprano2: Yeah, I can’t imagine that the trade-off with having to find childcare is any easier. More likely, those kids are hanging out at home unsupervised.
On a completely unrelated note, I spent my last few years of high school in Camdenton, not too far from Springfield. It was considered the “big city” and where many of my classmates went off to party school, err, college.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: I know, that’s why I didn’t bring it up to you. I was replying to eclare because she had said that her Camry was never right after the accidents. My van was totaled. I had to kick the windshield out because all the doors were inoperable due to the roof being crunched down on them. No fixing that.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Was just reading about that on TPM. The numpty claimed he was running a 501(c)(3) charity in writing when he was ripping off the homeless vet with the dying dog! I suppose it would have complicated things for prosecutors if he’d just said it was a “charity,” but nope, he had to include the IRS citation, I guess because it sounded more official?
Soprano2
@Cameron: Yeah, but he’s so blatant about it! That’s bad for everyone.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh that’s awful! Ice is a bad, bad thing on the road. It’s a bad thing pretty much anywhere except in a glass with a drink. I could live without experiencing another ice storm ever again.
My mother had a car that she rear ended someone in, and it was never right again. Every time I’ve had an accident my car was totaled, so it wasn’t an issue. The last time the dumb adjuster thought it could be fixed, so they tried to fix it; after the 3rd time the body shop called the insurance company to say “we found more damage, you need to consent to fix this” they called me to say they were going to total the car, which is what they should have done to begin with. It was ironic, all the damage was from the back seat back, nothing in the cabin or engine was damaged, but it was still enough to total my 5-year-old Sonata Hybrid.
Wanderer
@Betsy: one thing I do during the winter (because I loathe it) is pick out a destination on a travel website and read everything about it, then came YouTube and now I can look at tropical videos that people make. Some are about hotels(I could never afford) others are about the area. It’s your choice as to presenters – there is a lot of different approaches out there. I hope you find a coping mechanism that works for you.
Cameron
@Soprano2: You mean he’s giving the other crooks a bad name?
Old School
@Old School:
Full clip from The Dick Cavett Show here.
Geminid
King Abdullah of Jordan has been in Washigton DC this week, talking to politicians- Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday- and I assume with administration security and foreign policy officials. Today, President Biden will have lunch with the King at the White House.
They’ll have lots to talk about, particularly Israeli PM Netanyahu and his coalition’s radical nationalist parties led by Smotrich and Ben-Gvir. Last week Netanyahu made his first trip abroad to Amman, Jordan to confer with Abdullah. The head of the security agency Shin Bet accompanied Netanyahu and the visit was not announced until afterwards.
The King is also showing Crown Price Hussein the Washington political ropes. The 28 year old prince will accompany his father to the White House today. He already knows the city from earning his degree in International History at Georgetown University
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
That wouldn’t have really fit the character of the radio station. In 1993, Journey was firmly in the Classic Rock universe, and those morning deejays definitely don’t sound like Classic Rock deejays. Definitely more Oldies if they’re going to be anything rock/pop.
piratedan
@Betsy: my suggestion is much more modest… a small change such as turning off the TV and spending time by reading each book in your library or listening to each album/disc in your collection. Allows you to get in touch with why you have those things and can decide if you want to keep them or toss them and bring back the memories as to why you even have them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: It was a little scary. Traffic was heavy and slow (55mph) on I-44 when I hit the ice and my rear end started coming around. I was just a 1/4 mile from the Bourbon exit and could even see my house. I have no idea how I managed to not hit anybody or the cable barrier but once I got it heading for the ditch on the right side I just let it go. I also have no idea how I didn’t get hit by any of the tools that were in the back. My only wound was a broken thumb nail (down into the quick). Well, that and a wrenched neck from falling on my head after releasing the seat belt. :-)
I was lucky, very lucky.
Betsy
@Betty Cracker: These are great examples, thanks for the brainstorming prompts.
Ah! cider! Funny you should mention; as it happens, I’ve just this week finished my first batch of lazy-gal cider in quite some while. Used a half-gallon jug of suboptimal apple juice (from concentrate, but organic, so OK) — cheap from LIDL.
Which I like to refer to as DIRNDL.
I need to lighten up. Probably the cider will help.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: George Santos is no Professor Moriarty.
Sandia Blanca
@Betsy: I have recently “blown up” a big part of my life by retiring, which gives me more time for the family responsibilities. I know that is not an option for you.
But you mentioned your house as being too much to take care of. Do you have an extra room that you could rent out? A little extra income might give you some slack.
If that’s not a possibility, then find an area where you can intentionally let things go for a while without guilt, such as gardening or keeping up with voluntary outside responsibilities. Give yourself the grace to get through a tough time, knowing that it will get better eventually.
ian
@Ken: I believe the Republican caucuses are still going first. I’m not as sure about the Dem caucuses, there had been talk they were going to hold theirs before S.C. anyways, in which case their delegates would be discarded. If Iowa wants to hold their caucuses first, there is nothing the rest of the country can do to stop them. The only lever that the national committees hold is to disqualify the results if the states do not comply with the schedule.
RaflW
@Betsy: “Used to have many friends (for decades). Somehow that is mostly disappeared.”
I’ve been having this challenge. Some of it is friends have moved away, some of it is that my own life has shifted so that I’m with my partner’s family a lot more (a family cabin on a lake happened, but it’s far for us, so we go stay for a week+ at a time) … distance work/work from home (wherever that may be) has actually meant were less rooted in a weird way. I like his family, but I need my own friends with our shared histories and touchpoints.
Anyway, I’ve been trying to sort out how to re-connect with some of my peeps. Its one of my more stuck places in life. As what I call a gregarious introvert, I need friends to talk and hang out with, but my introvert nature wants to just lay low. And then I get more depressed. Ugh.
Betsy
@Mai Naem mobile: Thanks. Great stuff.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Hell, he’s not even a Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
OzarkHillbilly
@lowtechcyclist: If I was a captured spy, all they would have to do is play Journey. I would break in less than 5 minutes. Well, maybe I could take for 10 but that would be the max.
Betsy
@RaflW: Yep. Familiar. Honestly I wish I had a life partner, so at least I’d have a few ready-made relationships in that person’s family. Of course, that’s not a given. Some people marry into families full of assholes who have to be tolerated or wholesale ignored; I need to count my blessings on that score.
Several old friends have died, so that’s really tough. I get depressed thinking that I’ve just moved into the part of life where that’s going to happen more and more.
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly: I might be able to hold out for an hour, but only because I used to regularly listen to classic-rock stations, so I’ve built up some endurance.
ETA: Now if they wanted to break me quickly, they’d just have to put Celine Dion singing “My Heart Will Go On” on a loop.
hueyplong
@lowtechcyclist: He’s a stream of consciousness liar, more Joe Isuzu than Professor Moriarty. The sheer volume of fraud makes it inevitable that some of it will be absurdly easy to prove.
We’re probably not done hearing about ridiculous assertions. No way the Onion will be able to keep up.
Betsy
@Sandia Blanca: Some good ideas here, thank you for taking the time to offer suggestions. It really does help me to hear a different perspective.
eclare
@Betsy: One thing I just recalled, because I just called a friend to do so for me, is to tell someone what you are going to do. Just say it out loud to someone, I will do this one thing. Might just be looking at a job message site, finding your resume on the computer, etc. Somehow saying that you are going to do something out loud gives you momentum.
Betsy
@eclare: That makes sense and it also brings the benefit of talking to someone :)
Nelle
@eclare: In 1987, we drove out of Fairbanks, out of Alaska, through the Yukon, British Columbia, to Haines, Alaska. December, minus 30, snow. We caught the ferry, five days on the ferry to Seattle. Drove to Wichita, KS, though stopped by blizzard and closed roads for a day in Wyoming. The absolute worst roads were the last 90 miles on black ice in Central Kansas. Woke up the next morning to find out two family members were killed in an accident on those icy roads about the time we were cautiously arriving in Wichita.
Some people absolutely need to be on the roads but I remove myself from their way. Maybe that will make their journey safer.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Ha! She was supposed to be watching us after school while my parents worked but it bored her, so she would take off. She would leave a note “run the sweeper before your mother gets home” and sign it Your Pal.
My pal! She was a delight.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@lowtechcyclist: SNORT!
Basilisc
@Old School: Many thanks.
I miss the days when philosophy professors and prominent authors would duke it out on TV talk shows.
OzarkHillbilly
I’m the same, tho it doesn’t depress me. I’ve been dealing with depression all my life. At this point it’s my normal. As far as reconnecting with friends, just ring them up. That’s what I did with some of my old friends. I never feel guilty about losing touch with folks, friendship is a 2 way street. Both have to work at maintaining it.
Betsy
@piratedan: Thanks. This is revealing. For some reason, just looking at my collections and thinking about the reasons I have these items makes me sad and worried. I guess that means I’m depressed. Or that I have unfinished business and a lot of life regrets. What a mess! I can’t bear this stuff, but it’s also hard work to decide to let anything go, so the mental burden makes me just ignore it … You are right, though.
eclare
@Betsy: So true!
eclare
@Nelle: Oh how awful about your relatives!
WereBear
@Betsy: Maybe you can’t afford to NOT take that vacation. All these things you want to reduce, and yet no energy to tackle anything.
Of course you are depressed but I suspect you are also exhausted by trying to heal amid all these pressures.
In such circumstances, I pick the thing I loathe the most and see if I can get rid of it. It might be attached to a bigger thing, and lead to a cascade of things, but that’s always the risk of any change, no matter how tiny it might seem at the time.
Barbara
@Betsy: When my mother died, very suddenly, I was really struck by how much effort it was to go through what had become her minimal belongings, and how many things could be donated or repurposed for others. For many years I have routinely taken stock of books and clothing and become more and more ruthless about donating to the local library and Goodwill, or throwing it away if there truly are no takers. Freecycle is also a great way to find new owners and I am sometimes shocked at what people are willing to take.
There may be small things you can do to reconnect with others — committing weekly or monthly to meeting up with someone for coffee or by telephone, or writing a letter to someone who has drifted away.
I think the feeling that you are drifting and bobbing along can lead to malaise, and small deliberate acts that give purpose and order can help alleviate it.
eclare
@Barbara: Your last paragraph is so perceptive and true.
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
If I recall correctly, a jackal once said he was on a transatlantic flight with an Up With People ensemble and they sang damn near the whole way. Years of therapy….
Soprano2
@Cameron: He’s making them look good by comparison! How much lower can you be than stealing money from a homeless vet? TFG stole money from cancer patients, I guess that’s as bad. Why do people find this kind of thing acceptable now?
Betsy
@frosty:
@Mai Naem mobile:
@MomSense:
@narya:
@Princess:
@frosty:
@narya:
@Wanderer:
@Sandia Blanca:
@OzarkHillbilly:
Goshalmighty. So much good advice, now I’m more depressed because I can’t follow it all. Ha! Seriously, thanks to each of you for taking the time to offer helpful ideas. I really get a lot out of the external perspectives. It is good to know that you are here in our thoughtful community. Yay for BJ :)
Going forward today with some positive feelings.
WereBear
I love Groundhog Day and Bill Murray, so it is a holiday movie for this house.
What carries over is how he learned how to do things well and stop being defensive. How to care about someone else so his connections are genuine. And it took a long time for him to wind up with someone loving him for himself.
But it was worth it. And if we keep that in mind often enough, we realize we can live in a way we get enough of that, for ourselves. In only one lifetime.
I guess this weatherman was a slow learner :)
Manyakitty
@Betsy: i liked to keep a bag at hand for clothing donations, and sometimes a box for random crap donations. For me, at least, it’s easier to toss in a few items whenever the mood strikes.
Betsy
Previous comment stuck in mod. Thanks @Anne Laurie
Soprano2
@RaflW: I think Covid hurt a lot of friendships, because suddenly people weren’t seeing each other in person. It’s easy to drift away when that happens. One of the things I want to start doing this year is reaching out to people to have lunch with them again. I did that before Covid, but of course had to stop, and I got out of the habit. Covid was hard on almost everything about our lives.
Omnes Omnibus
@piratedan:
This is akin to something that I advocated at height of Trumpism. Fighting against fascism, etc., seemed overwhelming to some, but I suggested that resistance could be as simple as saying no to some aspect of what they were trying to do. Starting somewhere with, “No, I won’t do that, I won’t accept that” to something puts you on the right path. Not everyone has to be the hero, and, even if you are, you don’t have to do it all the time. A piece of advice my grandfather gave my brother, “Do one thing for your house everyday.” Funny, he never offered me that advice, but he did give me a motorcycle.
catclub
Douglas Adams describes a planet that was depopulated because all the telephone sanitizers had left in the B Ark. And there was a dirty phone based pandemic.
NotMax
@danielx
Up With People was a sort of clean cut sex cult which could harmonize.
//
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: She sounds like it! I have great memories of my grandma as well. She was pretty strict as a mother but as her first grandchild in her eyes I could do no wrong.
narya
@Betsy: One of my mottos: First this, then that.
Another thing that really helps me is making a list (for the day or week). Writing it down makes me think about how long that task will take, so I avoid over-committing myself (i.e., I’ll shorten the list if necessary), and I can organize the tasks in an order that makes sense. Crossing things off is very satisfying. When I was still working, I did it, too, and it was useful to be able to go back and review what I was doing during a stretch of time. If that will help your sense of accomplishment, you might want to do something similar. I also think that writing on paper is more . . . satisfying? It somehow sticks better in my head.
Soprano2
@Kay: Kay, I’m listening to a “This American Life” podcast about the Ohio redistricting debacle. That Republican leader is quite a piece of dishonest work, claiming that the law allows them to redistrict by how many people won offices on the previously horrendously gerrymandered map! Just wow, what a dishonest prick.
WereBear
@NotMax: It was faith-based, wasn’t it? Like the Christy Minstrels?
catclub
@lowtechcyclist:
How do you like “The Ballad of the Green Berets?”
frosty
@Soprano2: COVID plus simultaneous retirement wiped out 90% of my interaction with people. I am actively setting up lunches and happy hours and if I don’t do it maybe only one or two of my friends will reach out to me. Sucks to have to be responsible
One or two get-togethers a month helps a lot. I can add to that a friend I play music with more-or-less weekly.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@catclub: That’s just mean.
lowtechcyclist
@catclub: Just shoot me now.
piratedan
@Omnes Omnibus: I get it, was just thinking that sometimes the best way to get out of a rut is to revisit the past and those emotions that caused you to accumulate what you have, kind of a get in touch with yourself moment. Sometimes it helps you redefine yourself and sometimes you determine that as part of your personal housekeeping, you don’t need that any more, either as a possession or a memory/emotion because you’ve moved on. At others, it takes you back to a memory evoking moment that you want to recapture and provide direction. You get what you put into it I guess. One the few ways I can still escape is to simply turn everything off and get immersed in some music or a book or both.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: They’re Republicans, it’s part of their DNA.
UncleEbeneezer
@Betsy: Just curious, does escapism (movies, tv, books, music) help at all? Sorry to hear about your situation, We feel kind of the same way (aging/dying Mother-In-Law, thwarted plan for us to move cross-country, Covid still happening, everything in the world..etc.). For me, music and exercise (tennis/hiking) always help my mood but it can be very hard to get out of a really deep funk so sometimes even those don’t really work. A good therapist always helped too, if possible. And after I lost my Mom, a secular FB group for grieving really helped. There are probably more generalized support groups like that out there that might be worth looking into. Just being (virtually) around others who could relate, always made me feel a bit better. Anyways, just know that you aren’t alone and that a LOT of people (including many of us here) go through what you are now. Virtual hugs to you.
OzarkHillbilly
QFT.
trollhattan
@catclub: Worst. Slow. Dance. Song. Ever.
mrmoshpotato
@Betsy: It’s probably cold in your neck of the woods, but are there any city parks nearby that you like.
There’s a nature park somewhat near me that’s nice to walk around any time of year, and it helps that it’s a bit of a hike to get there. Gets my bones out of the house.
UncleEbeneezer
@piratedan: Getting off tv/social media, can be a HUGE improvement.
OzarkHillbilly
@Omnes Omnibus: Did he give you a helmet with the motorcycle ?
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
How about She’s Having My Baby?
//
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@NotMax: Glenn Close has a helluva life story, from her patrician Connecticut ancestry– she has some kind of six-degrees of step-grandparent relationship to Marjorie Merriweather Post– to Mobutu’s Congo (her father was his personal physician) to Up With People and MRA to her illustrious but Oscar-less acting career
UncleEbeneezer
@Betsy: Remember, you don’t HAVE TO do anything. It’s all about figuring out what works for you. There’s no shame at all and saying “nah, that’s not for me.”
Kay
@Soprano2:
The redistricting group gave a presentation to our county Dem group and I thought they were very nice, very earnest “good government” people who, sadly, were going to get rolled by Republicans because they developed the plan assuming Republicans would operate in good faith. They were conflict averse so the thing was designed to avoid conflict- THIS committee then THIS safeguard and if that fails it goes to THIS neutral tribunal. Republicans just fucking destroyed them. They didn’t know what hit them.
OzarkHillbilly
Wow. I never would have guessed that.
UncleEbeneezer
Kay
@Soprano2:
Corruption in Ohio has risen dramatically because Republicans have insulated themselves from any accountability coming from voters. They draw maps to protect their incumbent asses and not have to compete and as that has played out they have become more and more blatantly corrupt – going from 70 million dollar charter school scandals to 1 billion dollar scandals around sleazy energy lobbyists.
I think there’s a “tipping point” for states as far as continued decline and Ohio has passed it.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
FTA
Omnes Omnibus
@OzarkHillbilly:
Two.
Kay
@UncleEbeneezer:
Good for him. He has rights and legal protections too.
brantl
@Cameron: In my last job search, I got a jostle on every job that has the syllable “tech” in it, I swear. I live in Michigan, set the job distance in every job curator I could find at 25 miles and got jobs in Alaska sent to me
Sandia Blanca
@Betsy: You’re very welcome. This thread shows how many of us face similar pressures. Wishing you all the best.
Baud
@Kay:
You sure? I don’t think Hunter is a Republican.
sab
@Kay: I think you are right about Ohio and a tipping point.
J R in WV
@Matt McIrvin:
We rarely get way below zero temps, but it does happen. Coldest we’ve seen here was -28 or so quite some time ago.
Back then the old (1920s) gas distribution network had a low spot going under the road to our meter. Petroleum condensate would accumulate in that low spot, which didn’t matter as long as it was a liquid fluid — but when it got really cold it thickened to the point the very low pressure gas couldn’t bubble through the grease.
When the gas goes off and it’s -25 outside, an elderly house gets cold fast and everything froze hard….hot water baseboard heat, all split by the freeing water!
Last time that happened we were in the new house, well insulated and tight. By the time the gas company had restored the gas service around dark, it was ~55 inside, cool for sure, but not frozen. Now there’s a new gas distribution network, and we don’t have that problem any more, so far.
sab
@Betsy: I think the discussion you have started will be useful for many of us. Thank you.
Manyakitty
@RaflW: oof. That sounds painfully familiar.
Brachiator
Fun thread. Groundhog Day is considered to be an old classic movie. Funny how now the 80s is considered to be a Hollywood golden age.
People on YouTube react to Groundhog Day and most people find it charming and unexpected fun, especially if they know nothing about the film.
Manyakitty
@Betsy: you might also seek out a volunteer opportunity for a little while every week. Force yourself out of the house. Helping others also helps the helper and all that.
trollhattan
“The Onion” interviews George Santos. An excerpt:
Nelle
@sab: I agree. The kindness here gratifies me.
Burnspbesq
@NotMax:
“office supplies”
Sure Lurkalot
@Omnes Omnibus: Or Tantalus or Ixion? The cruelty of Greek gods was key to their control of a nascent world.
OzarkHillbilly
@Omnes Omnibus: I would guess than he didn’t want you dead, just maybe a little beat up.
I am stupid on a motorcycle, got rid of mine before it got rid of me.
Kay
GM year end bonuses for hourly workers are 10 and 12k this year. Booming economy here in the rust belt. I don’t care what anyone says- it is the best I have ever seen it. I tell my youngest and middle son – “this is the best you will see it”. The youngest thinks one just wanders online and chooses between 18 dollar an hour jobs. It’s all he’s ever seen at 20.
They spend it all too which will just make the giant wheel o commerce spin faster :)
Sure Lurkalot
@eclare: I’m retired now and until the last couple of years, there weren’t work from home options. So, for over 3 decades, I had some hellacious commutes in Denver, especially when I lived 10 miles from the office but even when I moved and it was just a couple of miles. I’m 100% symp with your plight, especially since your demon is ICE.
Burnspbesq
Who says irony is dead? Belatedly pulled the trigger on rooftop solar and battery, to protect against the Texas power grid’s fragility in the face of cold. While the city has been dragging its feet on permits, we’ve had two multi-day freezes, with nary an outage.
Not looking forward to going out today. It’s a mess.
satby
@Betsy: IIRC, the accident was life altering for both you and your parents; and you felt a great deal of guilt over the fact it was you who had advocated for a car trip over an airline flight. If you haven’t dealt with some of those feelings in counseling, that may help too. You made the best decision you could at the time and no one could have predicted the accident; so some neutral help processing the trauma and the changes in your life that resulted could also “unstuck” you. Good luck.
FelonyGovt
@Betsy: Very late to the thread- just getting started here in California- but maybe spend 5 to 10 minutes a day trying to learn a new foreign language (Duolingo is free), learning to draw or paint, learning a musical instrument- just something different to break you out of the “same old same old”.
Kelly
I had a lovely walk around the Trail of Ten Falls loop through Silver Falls State Park yesterday. Blue sky. Lots of ice around the waterfalls and canyon walls. Not much ice on the trail. Never put on my boot chains. We’ve been having a kinda average western Oregon winter clear, cold spell low 20’s at night well above freezing by afternoon.
artem1s
Jeebus what a yutz. He’s getting fined by the IRS for sure – no way he claimed the income on his personal taxes. If any of those flyers were sent thru the USPS, he’s probably going to get hit with fraud charges too. He is so fracked.
Betty Cracker
TPM says Nancy Pelosi will back Schiff for US Senate if Feinstein retires. I often wonder how influential endorsements are — generally, I think they’re overrated. But this seems like an important one. I envy Californians — can only dream of picking between outstanding candidates like Schiff and Porter!
Soprano2
@NotMax: I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I have ALWAYS hated that song, it’s gross.
Westyny
@trollhattan: Also sub-optimal for twerking
Soprano2
@Burnspbesq: I’m so sorry, I still get the heebies thinking about an ice storm. I don’t think that will ever go away, the 2007 ice storm we had was a once in a century event.
NotMax
@Soprano2
I hear that. You ‘n’ me are both on the same page.
Steeplejack
@Matt McIrvin:
When we had our extended arctic blast here in the D.C. area in late December—several days with the temp never getting up to 30° and some drops below 10°—I set the taps to drip/drizzle and also kicked the thermostat up to 76° in the unscientific belief that it might help protect the pipes. Came through unscathed, for whatever reason.
Sure Lurkalot
@frosty: Some people just don’t reach out…I have many friends like this. I try not to take it personally because usually, when we do connect, it’s a happy occasion. It’s easy to send a text…”long time, how’s by you?”, so I just do that.
A dear deceased friend of mine seemingly had contact info for just about anyone he ever met and liked (and even some he didn’t). A good memory for faces, even as they aged. He would just hop on a plane to go visit someone he hadn’t seen for a while or throw some impromptu party. He had a gift and it was a fine gift.
Steve in the ATL
@danielx: that was I! And I still bear the scars to this day.
Eyeroller
@Baud: They did not sleep together before the final scenes; the coworker (a producer) despised him. And even in the end it was supposed to be in the literal and not euphemistic sense, because they were fully clothed, but of course everybody has dirty minds. The release from endless cycling had something to do with him becoming a more humble and better person in order to win her over.
WaterGirl
@Betsy: You can’t take time off work to take a trip, but would it help to start the morning with On the Road where you are likely to see some beautiful images and interesting places?
Suggesting that not to promote On the Road, but because people often share memories of their own trips in the comments, so it might help you feel more connected?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
It is with decidedly mixed emotions that I announce to you the return of
Jethrene, Jethrene
The Possum Queen!
Let the curse of Thirsty Marco and Trying Too Hard Bob McDonnell return
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Eyeroller: my recollection is Andie McDowell’s character had a kind of eye-rolling (if you’ll allow it) exasperated affection for the Murray character from the start, but not romantic attraction.
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Also too, Bobby Jindal.
File ’em all under Fustercluck. ;)
Scuffletuffle
@NotMax: Edge of Tomorrow and watching Tom Cruise get his ass kicked, over and over…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
In which Kevin McCarthy tries for his very own Sir Story, many Democrats are telling him he’s so much better and being Speaker than Nancy Pelosi.
During the Week of the Speaker Vote, during which David Jolly played the Steve Kornacki role of the guy who seemingly never leaves the set, he kept repeating over and over again that the reason nobody likes McCarthy is because they don’t trust him, because he’s a liar. Adam Schiff tells the same story. An anonymous member of the Gaetz hold-out crew was quoted as saying to His Kevin, you lied to me, then about me. I wonder if the narrative will take hold.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have a theory about Andie MacDowell, which is that she can’t act her way out of a wet paper bag and yet somehow doesn’t ruin the movies she’s in. She’s like a maypole the other actors dance around — wooden, stationary unless carried by others, etc., but not personally responsible for the success or failure of the endeavor.
cain
@Nukular Biskits: may they all find republican targets.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Paternal. but my father didn’t approve of her because she was the kind of person who is babysitting and gets bored and leaves while also making sure we know we’re not supposed to rat her out :)
I know this now, but I feel like we picked it up because we were defensive about her – knew she was somehow disreputable.
He attributed this to her bad family – worse than my grandfather’s family- so it’s in her blood. That thinking is so nuts- ‘born bad!” – pure tribe.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I think in Groundhog Day her limits of be-pretty-and-smile meet the script. And as I recall that worked for her in Four Weddings and a Funeral, one of those movies that everyone seems to love but me, though I did take away the great and very British interjection of “Fuck-a-doodle-doo!”
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
I thought she was good in Groundhog Day. And also in Green Card. Maybe movies beginning with a G.
Limited range, perhaps, but she makes it work. Other actors can react to her well. Some bad actors give nothing that the other actor can react to.
She was the female lead in Greystoke, Legend of Tarzan. Her dialog was entirely dubbed over by Glenn Close, I think.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I like “4 Weddings” but admit it’s not a great movie. There were funny scenes though — especially when Hugh Grant got seated at the reception table with ex-girlfriends.
@Brachiator: I thought MacDowell was fine in “Groundhog” and “Green Card” too, but my sense is you could slot in someone from the local community theater group into those roles and get the same result. That said, she didn’t ruin the movie! She never does! That takes some level of talent, I guess. I would ruin any movie I appeared in for sure.
IMO, the one movie MacDowell was actually good in was “Sex, Lies and Videotape” (lord that’s a blast from the past). She was good in it because the role required a flat affect.
Layer8Problem
@NotMax: Has anyone seen young Jindal in, like, years? The likely image in my mind is of him in a stained parka on a mild day pushing a grocery cart full of stuff down the street.
TEL
@OzarkHillbilly: Exactly what I was thinking. Don’t try to change your world when you’re already feeling overwhelmed. Start with something small that you can build on.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Layer8Problem: not even gonna google but I’m gonna guess Senior Vice President for Public Affairs (or whatever they call lobbyists) at some extraction or waste-dumping chemical company, or a partner in a law firm that represents both if he has a JD
Layer8Problem
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Much more likely. I have these flights of fancy that make me smile sometimes.
Joey Maloney
@Betty Cracker: I think the value of an endorsement from Nancy Pelosi lies less in how many voters she might persuade than in her fundraising juggernaut. Especially when it comes to buying California media time.
Betty Cracker
@Joey Maloney: Agreed.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Love 4 Weddings, mainly because it introduced me to Simon Callow and a number of other interesting British actors. Notting Hill and 4 Weddings kinds of runs together in my mind.
And there were a couple of sly touches about the British class system.
Totally see your point, and I agree that not ruining a movie is important. She is not a good actress, but she has good screen presence, which is also important. In Groundhog Day, I believed that Bill Murray’s character could fall in love with her.
Haven’t seen this in year, but I know what you mean. Yep.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Joey Maloney: Schiff is racking up endorsements. I’m pretty sure this list is notably smaller than one I saw this morning and can’t find now
I think the other one I saw included some retired warhorses, all of whose names are somehow escaping me. I think Henry Waxman was one of them…?
also, as someone noted, even with the “if Senator Feinstein retires…” caveat on NP’s endorsement, this is a pretty hard nudge toward the door.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Spot on.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Senator Feinstein does not need nudging. She intends to retire, and just hasn’t announced it yet.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: You have stated that with certainty a few times, and each time I wonder if you have some inside information or if you are just confident that she will.
Nukular Biskits
@cain:
LOL! Agreed.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Representative Barbara Lee would make a good Senator as well.
Some people hold Lee’s age against her and say she would not be around long enough to earn seniority.
If I were voting, that might be a consideration, but several others would come before it. One is whether they would put their state ahead of their national following, and their party ahead of their personal ambition. I think Lee and Schiff would.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: Rebecca Traister wrote a mostly sympathetic piece on Feinstein last summer in New York Mag. One takeaway (for me) was that she’s no longer up to the job, and if she does run again and win reelection, the people of California will be represented by unelected staff members. I mean, that’s certainly not unprecedented in the U.S. Senate!
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I agree, not unprecedented. But awful and horrifying. The best choice is if people who care about her convince her not to run. If she runs and loses, that would be a sad way to end her long career.
Worst case is what you have described, made all the more horrifying that the current Senator Feinstein seems unlikely to be discerning at this point and able to at least choose wise and good staffers.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I’m one of those people, though not necessarily because of Senate seniority issues. Generally speaking, I don’t think it’s ideal to have people who are in their 80s running the country. There are exceptions and extraordinary circumstances where it makes sense — Biden and Pelosi are examples of that.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I am going by reporting on national and state news sites saying that Feinstein intends to announce her retirement by Spring, probably early Spring.
I also base this upon her age and health. A lot of people say she wants to run, but I think this view comes from people who do not like Feinstein and is based upon the common prejudice that people you don’t like will never do the right thing voluntarily.
Both Representatives Lee and Schiff say they’ve spoken to the Senator about their candidacies already, so maybe they will shed light on her stated intentions after she makes her announcement.
Gravenstone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Let us not forget Bobby Jindal. Then again, yeah forget that fucker!
Gravenstone
@Betty Cracker: I believe they dubbed her voice for one of her earliest roles in Greystoke. Hopefully she improved with time.
mrmoshpotato
@Gravenstone:
You guys do whatever you like, but I’m going to keep on forgetting that fucker.
Gravenstone
@Joey Maloney: It might also be intended as a nudge for Sen. Feinstein. “Love ya, but it’s time to gooooooo.”
mrmoshpotato
Rectal cancer doesn’t deserve to catch a case of health insurance claim denier.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Barbara Lee is not as well known nationally as Porter and Schiff. If you knew more about her you might or might not want to apply that rule to her, just as you do not apply it to Biden and Pelosi, politicians you know better. It would not be hard to learn more about Lee.
But this race will get a lot of attention nationally, and Lee will be making her case and I think vigorously. People will have a lot of info with which to fairly judge her.
Burnspbesq
@Soprano2:
It turns out that the roads are fine if you can navigate around all the fallen limbs. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny with a high of 50, which should take care of the remaining ice (I was the proud owner of a Porschesicle when I left the house today).
Geminid
@Geminid:
@WaterGirl: Another reason to believe Feinstein will not run: she raised $600 last quarter, and she has only $10,000 in her campaign account.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Yeah, but there were extenuating circumstances in the cases of Biden and Pelosi that don’t seem to be present in the California race. Everyone was scared shitless of nominating someone who might lose to Trump, so there was a logic to the Biden pick. With an extremely narrow margin in the House, it made sense to go with the most accomplished Speaker of the House since Rayburn in Pelosi.
Doesn’t seem like the situation with the U.S. Senate seat in California is so fraught, so if I were a voter there, I’d probably go with a candidate who could reasonably be expected to stick around for a couple of terms. Incumbency is powerful.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Biden and Pelosi have still performed well in their own right, and the political considerations behind choosing them at there age do not detract from that.
Like I said, if I were a Californian I would not give very much weight to the potential for winning seniority. If I thought Barbara Lee would be a better Senator years 2025-2030 than Porter, I’d choose Lee. First term Senators have plenty of power, and I think Lee would know how to use hers for the good of her state.
Steeplejack
I had to look up the guy who James Baldwin torched. It’s Paul Weiss (1901-2002), a Yale philosopher and, notably, a Jew, who might be expected to be at least slightly familiar with the concept of being “the other.” The episode of the Cavett show was on June 13, 1968—a week after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis.
Wikipedia:
Betsy
@satby: Dang, I can’t believe you remembered that. You do recall correctly. This I count among my blessings: my folks both have recovered to nearly their pre-wreck health status. It was absolutely traumatizing what we all went through. The closer my dad came to losing his life (several times), the more racked with guilt I felt. That’s much less of a thing since he’s been doing better. I don’t have words to describe it all.
We are almost eight months out and still processing what we have been through. Some days I feel elated to even be alive. Other mornings are like this morning, tough ones.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Late seeing this response from you. Thank you! I hadn’t seen any reporting on her intentions, so I was curious.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: That speaks VOLUMES!