So, that was a loooooong-ass morning!
Sorry for the lack of content. I don’t know where everyone else is, but I’ve been experiencing nausea for most of the day for no apparent reason, so that’s my excuse. I haven’t puked yet, but I’ve felt on the verge of doing so all day long, which really sucks.
I felt even more like emitting an endless stream of vomit when I noticed that the incompetents who run automated billing for our garbage pickup service tried to bill us our 5-digit house number instead of our 3-digit quarterly service charge. I mean, WTF, trash people?
Please feel free to discuss any topic you’d like below — open thread!
kindness
Oh Betty… those are just symptoms of living in a community run by DeSantis. Hopefully the rest of us don’t get to that place in the next couple years.
prostratedragon
Oh sorry. Ginger ale? Chicken soup? Maybe you can go down to the pickup service office and throw some at them.
Manyakitty
Ugh. Lingering nausea is miserable. Hope it resolves soon.
Sister Golden Bear
Thank you Iowans! Iowans Stage Massive Rally Against Anti-LGBTQ Bills
Jackie
@Sister Golden Bear: Go Iowa! The kids are alright! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Sister Golden Bear
In less happy news, my unemployment ended today and thanks to the massive tech layoffs, I’m still no closer to landing a job. Definitely eating into my retirement savings now.
I’m been downsizing, so figuring out what I can sell on Craig’s List and eBay. Need to looking into temping — although the challenge is that I’m still getting the occasional interview, which can take everywhere from a half-hour to a half-day, and it’s hard for me to anticipate when they’ll happen.
Geminid
Well, there’s some big Turkiye news I’m sure everyone will want to talk about: opponents of President Erdogan have agreed on a candidate they can all back to run against him May 14, when both the presidential and parliamentary candidates will be on the ballot. Kemal Kilicdoraglu will lead a six party coalition that includes the right wing “Good Party.”
Recip Erdogan is seeking his 3rd term, with Turkiye’s economy in poor shape.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
That would be quite a boost in cost, wouldn’t it? At least $10,000 four times a year, that could stack up mighty quick. And if you’re unlucky enough to live at, say, 78937, that would be almost $320,000 a year. I hope the pickup service is worth it.
sstarr
Oh no! Beware the Norovirus. It really means business this year. My entire family went down, one after the other, to this horrible stomach bug. I did lose 3 pounds, which is definitely not worth it.
Alison Rose
Okay, this might not be the best thing to watch when you’re already feeling ill, but John Oliver did a nice flaying of DeSantis on last night’s episode. Right off the bat, he calls him “business Fred Flintstone” which made me chuckle.
eclare
@Sister Golden Bear: Awesome!
Urza
@Sister Golden Bear: What kind of tech work do you do? We obviously don’t have openings now but I can try to keep you in mind for later. Supposedly budget might get a little better come summer.
Alison Rose
@Sister Golden Bear: That’s fantastico!
Ken
Clearly it’s time to petition the post office to rename your driveway* “Betty Cracker Way”, and change your address to #1.
* I assume this is a thing, as I see corporations do it a lot, and use the new name (“#1 Megaconglomerate Drive”) in their advertising. There are also some larger houses in my area that have their own little vanity street sign, though I’m not sure whether they can use that name for mail.
Delk
RIP Gary Rossington – the last original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd. That Smell probably one of my favorite guitar openings.
Miki
Nominating for rotating tag: “I mean, WTF, trash people?”
zhena gogolia
@Sister Golden Bear: I hope you find something good soon! That is distressing.
kalakal
Betty sounds like norovirus which seems to be having a bumper time this year. It normally takes about 2 days and it’s done
Geminid
@Alison Rose: D.J. Mcguire has a good article about DeSantis in the Virginia political site Bearing Drift. It’s titled “Did DeSantis Peak Too Soon?”
Also in Bearing Drift, Lynn Mitchell has an article celebrating Liz Cheney’s teaching gig at the U. Va. Center for Politics. Bearing Drift writers might best be described as Eisenhower Republicans.
MazeDancer
@Alison Rose:
Just heard Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast discussing Ron.
Molly said someone had called him “Bizarre Dukakis”. Rick erupted into laughter, pealing “He even looks like Dukakis!”
Molly brought up my favorite dig on DeSantis: He’s too short.
Perhaps I have spent too long in ad biz, but in politics image is everything. And Ron is too short.
As a tall woman, I have dated plenty of short guys. Height means nothing to me. But it does to voters.
Ron claims he is 5’9″. Which is what every 5’5″ or 5’6″ actor claims. He always wears 2″ heels. And no doubt lifts.
Rick disclosed that he is 5’10” and Ron is noticeably shorter than he is.
Hope that Donald goes with Tiny D for his DeSantis nickname.
twbrandt
So Elon has been busy flushing even more of his $44B investment in Twitter down the drain. For an extended period this morning, the site couldn’t load images, videos, links didn’t work, and tweetdeck was down.
And this idiot wants to sell self-driving cars.
WaterGirl
@MazeDancer: It’s especially good since the first thing I think of when I see or hear “Tiny D” is tiny dick.
Manyakitty
@Sister Golden Bear: have you looked at pharma? I work for a CRO and I can verify that EVERYONE needs more IT professionals.
CaseyL
@Sister Golden Bear: When I was temping, I lucked into a recruiter who was very understanding about having to do interviews for a permanent position. The only rub is if you’re on a long term assignment: they really don’t like you to interrupt those.
However, most (?) initial interviews are screening interviews, and a lot of companies do them over Skype or other teleconferencing program. You might be able to arrange to do one on a lunch break and still work a temp shift.
Best of luck!
Steve in the ATL
@Geminid:
On the plus side, my wife and recently had dinner for two at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Istanbul for the sum of…$38.
coin operated
@Sister Golden Bear: Also asking what kind of tech you do. The company I work for just cleaned house in middle management so they could open up reqs for more techies.
Alison Rose
@MazeDancer: The height thing is so weird, and it’s like…the one and only area that I feel a little bit sorry for cis dudes. I don’t know why society decided that a man must be tall to be A REAL MAN, but it’s fucking dumb. Like I said before, Zelenskyy is only about 5’7″, and there are no doubts about his strength and toughness.
But yeah, it’s depressing to think some people would be turned off of DeSantis as a candidate because he’s short and chubby, rather than because he’s a fucking asshole.
Michael Bersin
Apparently, I need to wash my mouth out with soap.
My below Z-list Missouri political blog gets occasional comments from right wingnuts. Unlike this distinguished locale – we don’t get many commenters. But, when we do we get to put out the tablecloth and fine crockery:
You had to come here to read it
eclare
@MazeDancer: Tiny DeSantis. I love it! Hold me closer…
MazeDancer
@WaterGirl:
So many entendres to Tiny D. Certainly, Trump is aware of all of them.
Steve in the ATL
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): $320,000 for single-stream recycling? Ugh, no thanks.
dnfree
Now taking the new diabetes medication Ozempic. Off-and-on nausea is a feature.
twbrandt
@Sister Golden Bear: I don’t know if this is in your wheelhouse, but the company I work for is looking for a C/C++ engineer. I’ve been with them for almost 6 years and like what I do (Rails and javascript) and the people I work with.
ETA: Just saw your response to @Urza, so I guess this is not applicable.
Sister Golden Bear
@Urza: @twbrandt: @Manyakitty: @coin operated: Thanks. I’m a product/user experience designer with 20 years experience
Alison Rose
@Michael Bersin: Dirty word! He said a dirty word!
MazeDancer
@Alison Rose: Zelenskyy screams fierceness and courage. He transcends height.
Tiny D is clearly hung up on it. The heels, the lifts. This invites mockery.
trollhattan
Yikes
Alison Rose
@MazeDancer: Yeah, it’s sort of like dudes who do the combover thing (some even worse than TFG). Bald can be sexy, guys! Embrace it!
Sister Golden Bear
@CaseyL: Almost all interviews these days are via video. It’s more of an issue taking time away from work to do them — I’m thinking about office temp’ing as one way to slow down the financial bleeding.
I’d also looking at short-term contract work in my field as well.
BeautifulPlumage
Uhg, BC, I just left work early because I threw up at my desk. Probably just stress, in my case. Hope you feel better! I’m eating crackers and sipping on La Croix which is helping.
In other news, my apt will be condemned along with the others in that section, everything still smells smokey and I don’t want to stay in there very long. I’m expecting to recover some items but otherwise don’t have the room or time to spend trying to clean much of it.
On the plus side I did purchase replacement cost versus depreciated value. On the downside most of my furniture is antique or vintage wood, and a lot of my original art can’t be valued very easily.
ETA: meaning renter’s insurance
Urza
@Sister Golden Bear: Ok, not my area, but several other areas of the company could use that. You can send your resume through WaterGirl for now, and I may ask for an updated one when hiring resumes. Obviously can’t guarantee anything but its a large company so someone could use you once they’re allowed to hire again.
Steve in the ATL
@BeautifulPlumage:
Are you also a labor lawyer? [fist bump]
BeautifulPlumage
@Steve in the ATL: Ha, no. I:m on the other side (HR is part of my job).
Juju
I have an autodraft that tells me my bill is due the certain date and to make sure to pay. This is done by text and email. How difficult is it to send a different note and text to all the autodraft people? My dental insurance does that, so I know it can be done. First world problems strike again.
CaseyL
@Sister Golden Bear: Office work is generally during regular office hours. Perhaps you could try scheduling interviews for after office hours…? IT departments tend to be more flexible that way.
I don’t know how you feel about working in the public sector (salaries tend to be lower but the benefits are often better). Universities are big on online presence – not just websites, but class management systems, like Canvas – and SFAIK they’re constantly needing to update UIs. Ditto local governments, putting more services and information searches online; e.g., State Insurance Agencies use fiendishly complicated application systems, and state licensing isn’t much better.
Geminid
@Steve in the ATL: I read that the Turkish Lira had dropped a lot. I bet the food was good.
I expect that Turkiye’s economy will bounce back. Maybe too late for Erdogan, though. Oh well, at least he kept the Black Sea grain deal going.
I think I’m the only person here who likes the guy.
Chetan Murthy
open thread, so … a bleg. Does anybody here use one of these mail-order pharmacies ? ISTR Mark Cuban has one of ’em ? Maybe Amazon ? I know that all the big chains do it, but it seems like it’s not so straightforward, even though all my prescriptions are for stuff that’s available as generics. Literally, I take a statin that was not available via Walgreens mail-order service, but when I called down to the local store, yep, it was available.
Why am I asking about this? B/c *Walgreens*. I want to get off ’em and onto some other service. But (1) there really aren’t any other nearby pharmacies (I don’t have a car) and (2) I *am* a little worried that the same sort of snafu that caused me to need to go down to the local Walgreens store, will happen with some mail-order service.
Anybody got any advice?
Steve in the ATL
@BeautifulPlumage:
That would be awful. We have some old Memphis artists (Carroll Cloar, Bill Christenberry, a painter known to me as “Mom”) that would be hard to value. Not to mention a few William Eggleston die transfers….
SiubhanDuinne
@BeautifulPlumage:
I had a period of about 36 consecutive hours, a week or two ago, during which I felt RIGHTONTHEVERGE of throwing up but never managed to. I thought I had eaten something nasty; never occurred to me that it might be a virus. Anyhow, to my relief, the condition departed as suddenly as it had arrived. No fun while it’s hanging around, though.
Feel better!
Steve in the ATL
@Geminid: seriously? What could you possibly like about him?!
Alison Rose
@Chetan Murthy: My mother (and my father before he passed) has used OptumRX for years and have been very satisfied with it. Hasn’t been any issues with on-time delivery or anything. I can’t speak to the costs but I’m sure it’s not steep or else my dad wouldn’t have wanted to use it :)
Steve in the ATL
@Chetan Murthy: Costco has a mail order pharmacy that is a better deal than Amazon for my meds (mostly anti-psychotics)
ETA: daughter uses GoodRx for her dog prescriptions and I’ve had doctors recommend them for humans as well
kalakal
The pastor of New College has some choice words for DiminutiveSantis’ appointees
Wind up as dust
Dangerman
@MazeDancer: Donald has to stay as far away from “tiny” as possible, if ya get the thrust of my meaning, er, so to speak
kalakal
@Alison Rose:
The best ever comb over sketch
Gregor Fisher – Baldy Man
Starring the wonderful Gregor Fisher it was one of a series of adverts for Hamlet cigars.
Scout211
@Chetan Murthy: Does your insurance have a list of mail order pharmacies under your plan? I would check that first.
We use Express Scripts but only because that’s the mail-order pharmacy that our insurance requires us to use (Tricare). I would say it is fine. They are efficient and under our insurance plan, the 90 day prescriptions are low co-pay.
But check first to see if your insurance has approved plans or you can make your own choice.
dnfree
@Geminid: Why would you like someone who is trying to make the country back into a Muslim country, like the reverse image of Modi in India? I’m down on any leader who is trying to divide their country into the right and wrong kind of people.
MazeDancer
@Chetan Murthy: Cuban and Amazon are both good. Just pick which ever one is cheaper for your particular drug.
Don’t bother shopping around, if they have your drug, you won’t find cheaper.
They are both quite low priced. Really low priced.
Much lower priced than Health Warehouse. Which I have also used because they have drugs the others don’t.
Manyakitty
@kalakal: nice. I hope his church will back him up.
Geminid
@Steve in the ATL: It would take a while to explain. But I have a grudging respect for Erdogan’s stubbornness. And I liked the way he dealt with Russia last October when they announced they’d suspended the Black Sea grain deal on account of a Ukrainian water-drone attack on Sevastopol harbor. Turkiye announced that another convoy would sail shortly, and Erdogan told reporters that Turkiye had a “vital national interest” in the shipments continuing. His Defense told reporters the same, and Russia was like, well maybe we’ll let these shipments proceed after all.
prostratedragon
@Alison Rose: I use them for my Farxiga, and have found them prompt and, after a hiccup this past Fall, much less costly for that drug than elsewhere. Walgreens has been flaky on that one for some reason. I do use WG for everything else, but as renewals come around might switch either to OptumRx or a neighborhood pharmacy.
MazeDancer
@Dangerman: Trump does have itty bitty hands.
MazeDancer
@Chetan Murthy: Here is Cuban’s place.
Amazon Pharmacy is a click in their menu bar.
Layer8Problem
Open thread and I’m gonna whinge and whinge petty: I can’t stand the endless commercials on MSNBC for the red and green bottle “fruit” and “vegetable” supplements. You know, the ones with all the active older people presumably from Utah living their best lives, but not able to wedge into the schedule time to put any large-format plant material into their faces unless it’s in a brightly dyed pill. I want Nicole Wallace to have a regular salary, but I wish MSNBC had a better class of advertiser, like those nice defense contractors and agribusiness cartels Chuck Todd manages to get. Thank god for mute buttons.
KrackenJack
@Sister Golden Bear: So sorry to hear that. Decimation is an accurate term these days. I work in technology on the consulting side. My company has had three rounds of layoffs this year and my primary client is reducing IT budgets by 20 – 50% across the board.
I hope you find something soon. There is still hiring happening even as they trim contractors and specific functions.
Once Meta shit the bed so badly they had to do layoffs it gave all the other big tech companies cover to do the same. There is a lot of illegal workforce collusion in tech. I’m sure they want to put workers back in their place.
dmsilev
Blergh.
One of the systems that I’m responsible for administering chose yesterday morning to cough up a hairball, leaving (a) the interior of the machine stuck at about -70 C with the temperature and vacuum controllers offline so we can’t open it up without damaging the delicate parts inside (b) a stack of users two weeks deep waiting for their 2 or 3 days on the machine and (c) me trying to troubleshoot an hour before heading to the airport to travel to a conference. Well, at least some reps from the manufacturer are here at the conference so I can harangue them in person.
Also, who thought that inviting 13,000 physicists to Las Vegas was a good idea? We tried that nearly 40 years ago and it was a legendary fiasco for the casinos.
Roger Moore
@MazeDancer:
Zelenskyy was put in a situation where his willingness to risk danger was put to the test, and he passed with flying colors. All the crap DeSantis, Trump, W, and their ilk do is a way of compensating for failing that test. You see the same stuff when you compare, say, James Stewart and John Wayne. All of Wayne’s swagger and toxic masculinity was an attempt to make up for not having the courage to risk his life the way Stewart did.
Urza
@dmsilev: You working on something quantum there?
TheOtherHank
@Sister Golden Bear: I’ll second the recommendation for checking out biotech/pharma. The bay area is chock-full of biotech companies that are hiring tech and tech-adjacent folk. I work at one in SSF and we are actively looking for people.
dmsilev
@Urza: Yes. Much quantum will be done this week. No cats will be stuffed into live/die boxes so far as I’m aware, however.
Delk
Joe Zucchero, the founder of Mr Beef passed away. His restaurant was the inspiration for the TV show “The Bear”.
Haven’t seen the show but have eaten the sandwich. Not better than Johnnies but light years better than Al’s.
Ohio Mom
@Alison Rose: I missed when you announced your father’s passing (it must have been a day I was taking a break). I am so sorry, please accept my belated and deepest condolences.
Fake Irishman
@Steve in the ATL:
Istanbul food is amazing. My wife and I were there about nine years ago; took a food tour. We introduce ourselves to one of the folks on the tour; nice Australian lady. Turned out she was the Lonely Planet staff writer for Turkey and was doing research for a new edition. She was a hoot (and darn useful to talk to)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Layer8Problem: I watch just about everything on a time delay these days, because commercials drive me crazy. With MSNBC, it helps skip through any interviews with celebrities (and sometimes when Nicolle Wallace’s Garland Derangement Syndrome is particularly unhinged), because my god they have a collection of slobbering star-fuckers on that network
Manyakitty
@TheOtherHank: mine is based in Michigan, but we have tons of remote colleagues.
indycat32
@Layer8Problem: I’m right there with you. Every time I see one of those commercials I yell FFS eat an apple, which scares the kitties.
Fleeting Expletive
@Chetan Murthy: I just transferred two prescriptions from Walgreens to CVS for the same reason. It ain’t much but I hope enough people bail that they notice it.
TheOtherHank
@Manyakitty: I was hired as a remote worker at my current job, but I live about 8 miles from work. I’ve been there almost a year and have been on-site 4 times. It’s so much nicer to have my commute be carrying my cup of coffee to my desk. Plus about half my team is actually remote from the office, so all meetings are on-line anyway.
Ohio Mom
@dmsilev: The physicists in Las Vegas reminds me of my sister’s friend, a math professor who used his sabbatical to play the stock market. He did very well; used his winnings to pay for a very nice retirement home for his widowed mother, a Holocaust survivor.
Manyakitty
@TheOtherHank: it’s a good setup, no? I’ve been to the home office a few times, which is no big deal from NEOhio, but it’s more than 8 miles lol. Not sure what it would take to get me to go on site full time again.
Baud
@dmsilev:
I’m confident this time you’ll figure it all out.
Sister Golden Bear
@KrackenJack:
Oh absolutely. It’s not a coincidence that it’s been occurring at the same time companies are being hard-nosed about forcing workers back into the office.
Sister Golden Bear
@TheOtherHank: Thanks!
Alison Rose
@Ohio Mom: Thank you <3
Matt McIrvin
@Alison Rose: My father is the best role model I could have here. Embraced the baldness the moment it became inescapable. I always thought I took after my mother’s side of the family but I see him looking back more and more when I look in the mirror.
He told me a story about a salesman trying to sell him a toupee. “Your wife won’t even notice!” “You must think she’s pretty stupid.”
Chetan Murthy
@Fleeting Expletive: My insurance automatically gives me a CVS card and plan, but I haven’t used it, only b/c there are no nearby stores, and I’m a little worried about going mail-order-only. But maybe I should just take the leap.
dmsilev
@Ohio Mom: My understanding from the stories I heard is that the conference in 1986 featured a whole horde of physicists on the casino floors doing odds calculations on cocktail napkins and then loudly telling everyone in earshot just how bad the odds were.
Some stereotypes are grounded in truths.
dmsilev
@Baud: Terry Pratchett solved the problem, I believe in _Lords and Ladies_. The cat can actually be in one of three states, “alive”, “dead”, or “bloody furious”. Depending on the cat, the latter can be by far the most likely.
trucmat
Having a shitty day already but seeing height based attacks is the cherry on top. That bit of being a literal misfit can never go away. Reminds me how the farmer kids thought it was hilarious to tell me what they did with runt pigs.
cain
@Sister Golden Bear: Might be better to do temp and wait a few quarters.
I’m almost certain this whole economy thing is faked by the powers that be. Eventually, they’ll go back to hiring. They are just mad that labor seems to be gaining traction.
Roger Moore
@KrackenJack:
Meta is still making enough money they didn’t have to lay anyone off. They’re laying people off because rich people (as a group) are a bunch of sadists who get off on being awful to workers. The stock market demands it, and tech executives are more than happy to oblige.
And yes, there’s a ton of illegal labor practices in tech, just as there are in plenty of other industries. Tech is unusual in that they faced major fines for their transgressions. Not that the fines would stop them from trying again.
JWR
@Delk: Followed your Lynyrd Skynyrd link just to remind myself of the song, and saw one of my own personal guitar Gods, Little Stevie Vai, doing Blue Powder, from his days endorsing Carvin amplifiers, and included on his Passion & Warfare CD. Slapped on the cans, cranked it to 11, and OMG, that guy makes air melt!
For all you guitar people out there, this here is my kind of crank it music!
Now, off to catch my breath. ;)
And RIP, Mr. Rossington.
Roger Moore
@Matt McIrvin:
The only people fooled by the comb-over are the people doing it. Which is fine, when you get down to it. People pay way more attention to their own appearance than they do to other people’s appearance. If a comb-over makes you feel better about yourself, do it.
Scout211
@Chetan Murthy: Most plans allow an initial prescription at your local pharmacy if you have an acute illness that requires a script immediately. Our plan allows that in any pharmacy that our insurance covers in our area. Check your insurance plan, but they have to have a way for you to get medications immediately. Our plan allows one 30-day and one refill and then we have to move the script to mail order.
Origuy
@Chetan Murthy: If you are in one of their delivery areas, check out Alto Pharmacy. My housemate gets a lot of medications and is on MediCal (CA MedicAid). They do all the fighting with the state for approval. They have their own delivery people and are careful about getting signatures for the meds that require them.
https://alto.com/locations
Jackie
@Layer8Problem: I record almost every program so I can ff thru those commercials, along with the butt crack deodorant commercial and 99% of others.
Baud
@Jackie:
What brand are they advertising? Asking for a friend.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Mama Cisco is up for a visit, so I’m getting dosed with:
Concerning that last – does anyone else think it’s weird that the “To Catch A Predator” guy is doing boner med commericals? ‘Cause I think its WAAAAAAAAY weird.
Jackie
@Baud: 🤷🏼♀️ I ff so no clue.
If this product interests you, I’m sure your friend can Google ;D
Delk
@JWR: did you see his collaboration with the Polyphia guys?
Geminid
@dnfree: I thought that Turkiye already is a Muslim country, and that the issue with Erdogan was how strictly secularism would be enforced in civic institutions. Modi is trying to marginize if not wipe out India’s large Muslim majority, which is a different thing.
But I did not say I like Erdogan a lot. I just take his and Turkiye’s side sometimes in the Ukraine threads. People there are really down on Erdogan and Turkiye.
Scout211
@Baud: This one is on my cable tv every night. Feel free to tell your “friend.” The founder is supposedly a doctor and she does say “butt crack.”
IHTH (your friend).
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
@Jackie:
FreshFart for Men
Hemorrhoid Helper
Ass Axe
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: You are giving Modi far too much credit. He is but a cog in the RSS machine.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: Well, the commenter was comparing Erdogan to Modi so I did too.
kalakal
@Geminid: Turkiye is officially secular. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) had a pretty impressive modernisation program in the 20s & 30s (free primary education, womens suffrage in 1934) in his desire to escape the debris of the Ottoman Empire. As part of this he was particularly keen on Turkey being a secular republic. By the 80’s religion was beginning to creep back into the education system and Erdogan doubled down when he came to power. He’d love to make Islam the official religion
Something like 98% of the population is Sunni Muslim
Ataturk was quite the character
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
L’eau de Toilette!
Citizen Alan
@dnfree: I wish my experiences with Ozempic had been limited to occasional nausea. For me it was more like “occasional and unexpected explosive diarrhea.” After the second time I had to get up in the middle of the night to change the sheets, I decided I’d rather be fat and diabetic.
RandomMonster
I feel ashamed to be so insensitive to our dear BC’s predicament by mentioning that I pan-seared steak au poivre with a brandy cream sauce and it did verily rock. I’ve been on a bad culinary streak recently and it felt good to not mess it up.
Geminid
@kalakal: The figures I was going off of was 92% Muslim, 6% no religion, and 2% minority religion. That’s why I said Turkiye was a Muslim country even though I know about the secularist constitution. I just thought the comparison to Modi was unjust.
cain
@kalakal:
I feel like ‘ataturk’ could be phrase like ‘attaboy! A positive exclamation of encouragement.
Andrew Abshier
@Michael Bersin: I used to read your blog regularly when I was living in Alton, IL. I came over the bridge to work some elections in Missouri (McCaskill in 2006, Obama in 2008) so was interested in the politics there.
Alison Rose
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think that’s all Axe.
Layer8Problem
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m hopelessly distractable and commercials deal in grabbing you by the eyeballs and ears and demanding you to register their existence. I don’t have that many years left on the planet to waste on some dimbulb product.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne: reading from the bottom I saw this comment first and wondered WTF is she talking about
SiubhanDuinne
@cain:
Yup. Like you’d say to a dog who flawlessly obeyed a command or performed a trick.
kalakal
@Geminid: fair point. Apologies for the unnecessary lecture. I must control my inner didacticism😀
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
You could readily ask that about nearly anything I post.
PaulB
One of my favorite Vegas stories came from a former colleague. As a CalTech grad student, he and a few of his buddies visited Vegas. They spent a couple of days monitoring the (mechanical) roulette wheels at a few select casinos. The wheels were ever-so-slightly out of balance, which meant that certain numbers showed up more often.
Once they had the info, they began placing their bets. He made enough to pay for his schooling before the casinos caught on and asked them to leave.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Haha
Layer8Problem
@Jackie: “butt crack deodorant”
EWW! EWW! EWW!! — uh, ahem, er, I mean . . . why heavens, who asked for that product?
Brachiator
I’m looking forward to the Season 2 premiere of Perry Mason on HBO tonight, I think, or sometime this week (gotta check). Season 1 slowly grew on me. Mason was too flawed, almost a sad sack. But the writing and acting are good, and I like stories about 1930s Los Angeles.
dmsilev
Conference update: someone used the messaging platform to Rick-roll the entire conference. Just the lyrics, not the actual video, but still.
Geminid
@kalakal: No problem. You added to the discussion, and people need to know more about Turkiye. It’s an important regional power and also perhaps the most advanced Muslim country, and with 85 million citizens one of the largest.
Tazj
@Layer8Problem: I would have thought no one. However, the only place I saw those commercials a while ago was on Duolingo and now more disgusting ones are on television. Someone must be buying it.
JWR
@Delk: Not that I know of, but I may have seen it. Is that the one where a band plays crazy guitar stuff until halfway through, when the camera pans to someone doing even crazier guitar stuff, and it’s him? He plays with everyone, everywhere, and never ceases to amaze. Thanks
ETA. Is it this one?
If so, yes, and it’s amazeballs.
Sister Golden Bear
@cain:
At the moment I’ll take whatever I can get, and even if it’s full-time, I’ll treat it like it’s a temp job where I can get laid-off at any moment without notice. No, I’m not cynical and bitter.
Delk
@JWR: that’s the one.
Amir Khalid
@Geminid:
India’s religious majority is Hindu. I believe that Muslims are its largest religious minority.
JWR
@SiubhanDuinne:
OMG! Can’t stop laughing!
JWR
@Delk:
Yeah, those guys are amazing. BTW, I just warched a pretty good live version of Blue Powder. Vai’s live stuff is usually note perfect, but this one goes off a bit:
Lousy camera work, though. I don’t wanna see his grimace, I wanna see his fingers! ;)
Geminid
@Amir Khalid: Thank you for the correction. I mistakenly wrote majority when I meant minority.
Betty Cracker
Update: I am still nauseated as heck. The mere thought of food makes me wanna hurl. I’m forcing myself to sip water to keep dehydration at bay (had the trots all morning, so it’s a concern). Maybe it is norovirus; I’ve read that’s going around. Damn this sucks! Hope it goes away soon. 🤮
Michael Bersin
@Andrew Abshier:
Yeah, we’re still operating. There’s no shortage of stuff to cover in Missouri. There’s just not enough of us nor enough time to cover it all.
Shana
@Chetan Murthy: Our health insurance has been pushing us into Express Scripts for years. Sometimes it makes sense, you’re taking a regular medication and know you’ll be taking it. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, you need an antibiotic asap, you are taking something new and don’t know what the side effects may be and if you can tolerate them. We do use ES for some stuff and CVS for other things.
Once we had a package disappear in the mail and they were kind crappy about replacing it, but that was once in over 10 years. I don’t know if the pricing is any different but you can generally get a 3 month supply at one time.
Paul in KY
@BeautifulPlumage: Very sorry to hear that.