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

Sunday Night Open Thread

by John Cole|  February 5, 202311:34 pm| 51 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Looks like we need one.

You are allowed to talk about anything but that god damned balloon.

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Previous Post: «spy v. spy flyouts War for Ukraine Day 346: A Brief Sunday Night Post
Next Post: Late Night Open Thread: Debating The Dubious Privilege of Being Obnoxious in Public »

Reader Interactions

51Comments

  1. 1.

    Alison Rose

    February 5, 2023 at 11:37 pm

    My favorite part of the Grammys is white men getting big mad about people they don’t like winning awards.

  2. 2.

    Alison Rose

    February 5, 2023 at 11:46 pm

    I don’t know where everyone else is, so I’ll just say HARRY!!!!!

  3. 3.

    Ken_L

    February 5, 2023 at 11:48 pm

    “Can we talk about Hunter Biden’s laptop?”

    “NO NOT THAT EITHER!!!”

  4. 4.

    HumboldtBlue

    February 5, 2023 at 11:57 pm

    The 7.8 earthquake in Turkey is fucking horrible. The pictures and video coming out show devastation, numerous collapsed buildings. The news is only going to get worse.

    Pete Buttigieg channeling John Cole.

  5. 5.

    Origuy

    February 5, 2023 at 11:59 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: There are a lot of Syrian refugee camps in the area. They are going to be terribly affected.

  6. 6.

    Poe Larity

    February 5, 2023 at 11:59 pm

    Oh, the humanity.

  7. 7.

    Quaker in a Basement

    February 6, 2023 at 12:00 am

    @Alison Rose: Crazy, ain’t it? It’s like they expect Aerosmith to still be getting the prizes.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    February 6, 2023 at 12:08 am

    What about Zeppelins? Can we talk about Zeppelins?

  9. 9.

    Ken_L

    February 6, 2023 at 12:09 am

    @dmsilev: Led Zeppelins?

  10. 10.

    West of the Rockies

    February 6, 2023 at 12:12 am

    @Alison Rose:

    Well, Ye is no slouch on that front either…

  11. 11.

    Martin

    February 6, 2023 at 12:13 am

    @HumboldtBlue: Finland and Sweden should send their condolences and regrets they can’t help more, but not being part of a defensive coalition is tying up a lot of money for border defense.

  12. 12.

    dmsilev

    February 6, 2023 at 12:13 am

    @Ken_L: They don’t fly very well. Being made of lead and all.

  13. 13.

    Alison Rose

    February 6, 2023 at 12:15 am

    I blinked like twenty times after reading this:

    As we approach the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine — and the ferocious Ukrainian response backed by a U.S.-led Western coalition — the following question urgently needs answering: How is it that on Feb. 23, 2022, virtually no one in America was arguing that it was in our core national interest to enter into an indirect war with Russia to stop it from overrunning Ukraine, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map in 10 tries? And yet now, nearly a year later, polls show solid (though slightly shrinking) American majorities for backing Ukraine with arms and aid, even though this risks a direct conflict with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

    Well, gee. Perhaps because the full-scale invasion hadn’t started yet on February 23, 2022? I’m no NYT op-ed columnist with a mustache, but I’m pretty sure that might have something to do with it.

  14. 14.

    Alison Rose

    February 6, 2023 at 12:15 am

    @West of the Rockies: Thankfully his crazy ass wasn’t there, he might’ve socked Harry in the face.

  15. 15.

    JaySinWA

    February 6, 2023 at 12:32 am

    @Alison Rose: I didn’t see a link but found the NYT Opinion piece. It’s by Tom Friedman. You could have warned us.
    link here for the morbidly curious:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/05/opinion/ukraine-war-putin.html.

    ETA I see you dropped the ‘stach hint, but still.

  16. 16.

    HumboldtBlue

    February 6, 2023 at 12:34 am

    @Martin:

    Indeed.

  17. 17.

    Bill Arnold

    February 6, 2023 at 12:34 am

    Pout.
    This site’s name suggests that it is about Crushing, Grinding and/or Squeezing Juice out of [Redacted].[1]

    [1] Orz (Star Control): “We are *squeezing* the *juice*!”

  18. 18.

    Ken

    February 6, 2023 at 12:35 am

    @Alison Rose: So it’s someone else’s fault that a year ago, none of the political analysts considered the possibility that the US might support Ukraine?

    It reminds me of when a company “fails to meet analysts’ expectations” and their stock drops. This is never reported as a problem with the analysts’ forecasting.

  19. 19.

    Craig

    February 6, 2023 at 12:36 am

    @dmsilev: definitely

  20. 20.

    Carlo Graziani

    February 6, 2023 at 12:38 am

    Can we talk about Semprini? Aack!

    <Police seizes offender and bundles him out…>

  21. 21.

    Alison Rose

    February 6, 2023 at 12:39 am

    @JaySinWA: I didn’t want to lead you all astray. Also the comments there suck.

  22. 22.

    kalakal

    February 6, 2023 at 12:44 am

    Has the time come to talk of

    Shoes and ships and sealing wax

    of cabbages and kings?

  23. 23.

    CaseyL

    February 6, 2023 at 12:47 am

    This weekend I did the dance of Changing Internet Providers.

    As some of you know, I had been on T-Mobile’s wireless home internet for a year or so, when connectivity went straight to hell.  Three weeks later, after innumerable attempts to fix it (which I described here last week), T-Mobile threw up their hands and said maybe their service wasn’t right for me.

    So I switched over to Verizon Home Internet, which is also a wireless service and  also depends on connecting to cell towers.  So far it’s working just fine… but then, my T-Mobile also worked just fine for quite a long time, until it… didn’t.

    I have no idea what the problem was.  Maybe T-Mobile was pulling good old towers and putting in lousy new ones, in its rush to upgrade everything to 5G?  Whothehellknows.

    Now I have to decide whether to change my phone service as well.  (My phones aren’t with T-Mobile, strictly speaking, but with MetroPCS, which T-Mobile acquired some time back.). Verizon is offering some amazing deals, so I might just switch.  Have to make sure my current phones are unlocked is all.

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 6, 2023 at 12:49 am

    Has everyone forgotten the blog’s safe word?

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    February 6, 2023 at 12:49 am

    You are allowed to talk about anything but that god damned balloon.

    The helicopters aren’t laughing.

  26. 26.

    kalakal

    February 6, 2023 at 12:50 am

    @CaseyL: Let us know how verizon works out please. Spectrum keeps racking up the price so it may be time for the intro offer switch

  27. 27.

    kalakal

    February 6, 2023 at 12:52 am

    I think we should talk about blimps.

    And blimp magnates

  28. 28.

    Alison Rose

    February 6, 2023 at 12:52 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: mustard?

  29. 29.

    BigJimSlade

    February 6, 2023 at 12:58 am

    They shot the juice out of it.

  30. 30.

    scav

    February 6, 2023 at 1:01 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Green Balloons?  Not just for identifying parties I thought.

    Manatees was a different context.

  31. 31.

    The Up and Up

    February 6, 2023 at 1:02 am

    Comrade Cole I noticed your Tweet about cutting tiny pills in half. How is that going? I have some 2 mg pills, tiny also, but that’s likely going to switch next month.

  32. 32.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 6, 2023 at 1:02 am

    @scav: Correct.

  33. 33.

    Rokka

    February 6, 2023 at 1:03 am

    The Grammys were a bloated blimped up mess. Noah was annoying. There wasn’t much music in the first hour. That Harry song was copied from the verse of “Take On Me” The Tank and The Bangas album “Red Balloon” lost for “Best Progressive R&B Album”
    At least I know the father of one of the winners. His Facebook comment: “I hope they give all that food to the homeless people living right down the street from the blocked off Grammy Block”

  34. 34.

    RaflW

    February 6, 2023 at 1:10 am

    I’m happy for Lizzo. I thought Jill Biden looked amazing. Seeing Bonnie Raitt in real time going “WTF, I won song of the year?” was delightufl. Harry winning pop song was fine, but Record of the Year? No. The Grammys have a longstanding problem, and it isn’t fixed.

    Now, off to bed!

  35. 35.

    Alison Rose

    February 6, 2023 at 1:13 am

    @Rokka: Just because two songs have a similar sound does not mean one copied the other. The lyrics, chorus, and other beats sound nothing like it.

  36. 36.

    Steeplejack

    February 6, 2023 at 1:30 am

    Redacted.

  37. 37.

    JaySinWA

    February 6, 2023 at 1:30 am

    @CaseyL:I have Ziply fiber up here north of Seattle. I don’t really have many problems with them but I have looked at T-Mobile wireless internet as a possible stop gap.

    I tried finding your earlier posts, with no luck, I would be interested in your Verizon/T-mobile experience as well, I think Verizon has coverage here now too.

  38. 38.

    Chris T.

    February 6, 2023 at 1:36 am

    @dmsilev:

    They don’t fly very well. Being made of lead and all.

    Not lead, LED. They’re Light Emitting Diodes. Although Sound Emitting Diodes might be better for such purposes.

    (I’ve seen those. But they only emit one sound, a sort of crackle. After that, they emit the magic smoke that makes them work. Once the magic smoke has escaped, they’re Dead Emitting Diodes.)

  39. 39.

    mrmoshpotato

    February 6, 2023 at 1:58 am

    @Alison Rose: Oh good grief!  What idiot wrote that paragraph?  What a maroon!

    ETA – JaySinWA answered my question.  I’m not surprised.  Friedman is a horse’s ass.

  40. 40.

    Rokka

    February 6, 2023 at 2:22 am

    So I’m an idiot? Did I get get something wrong? “As It Was” is a blatant copy of the verse of “Take On Me” with the same key, tempo, drum machine beat and a slightly altered chord progression. I knew it the first time I heard it. There are mashups on YouTube. There are no “other beats” or parts.

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    February 6, 2023 at 2:37 am

    @CaseyL:

    Sorry to hear that you couldn’t get the T-Mobile problems resolved.

    Hope things are better with Verizon.

  42. 42.

    Rokka

    February 6, 2023 at 2:39 am

    Sorry, I got the idiot thing wrong.

  43. 43.

    Rokka

    February 6, 2023 at 2:42 am

  44. 44.

    prostratedragon

    February 6, 2023 at 3:11 am

    @Alison Rose: ​Opens new vistas in speciousness masquerading as wisdom. Breathtaking.

  45. 45.

    PaulB

    February 6, 2023 at 9:45 am

    @JaySinWA: I have Ziply fiber up here north of Seattle. I don’t really have many problems with them but I have looked at T-Mobile wireless internet as a possible stop gap.

    I live northeast of Seattle (Granite Falls area) and upgraded from Xfinity to Ziply a couple of weeks ago. So far, it’s been great.

    I have T-Mobile as my cell phone provider. At least where I live, the service gets, at best, 2 bars and it is not completely reliable. I’ve got a great deal with T-Mobile and I’m reasonably happy with them, overall, but if I had to use them for all of my connectivity, I think it would not work out well.

  46. 46.

    Paul in KY

    February 6, 2023 at 3:37 pm

    @dmsilev: No, it’s a zeppelin that has to be ‘led’ by a plane or autogyro or something like that.

  47. 47.

    Paul in KY

    February 6, 2023 at 3:39 pm

    @Alison Rose: Think he’d have gotten a blue-collar English response. Harry’s no upper class toff.

  48. 48.

    Paul in KY

    February 6, 2023 at 3:40 pm

    @CaseyL: We had to switch to T-Mobile when they killed off Sprint.  I hate the fuckers.

  49. 49.

    Paul in KY

    February 6, 2023 at 3:41 pm

    @Rokka: I only hated the ‘fans’ discussing the AOY nominees.

  50. 50.

    Robert Sneddon

    February 6, 2023 at 4:00 pm

    @Chris T.: Back in the Old Days tantalum capacitors were used on digital circuitry for Vcc supply smoothing and line noise suppression. They earned the cognomen of “Shrapnel-Emitting Capacitors” since their failure mode was NOT to gently and slowly let the Magic Smoke out if something went wrong (or if you looked at them funny). Like our Good Host they did not age gracefully either. Electronics engineers don’t specify tantaulm caps any more in their designs.

  51. 51.

    Chris T.

    February 6, 2023 at 4:18 pm

    @Robert Sneddon: I used to build with them (tantalum smoothing capacitors). Never had one explode on me, but that explains why I don’t see them on boards these days…

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