(h/t Baud)
Information about the bank closures from Rep. Jeff Jackson
by u/Roundy_Roundy in TikTokCringe
Last night we had an emergency Zoom call with most of Congress to stop a bank run.
Here’s the situation: pic.twitter.com/wiplqp9PsS
— Rep. Jeff Jackson (@JeffJacksonNC) March 13, 2023
This TikTok embed takes a long minute to pop up on my rickety homebrewed browser — let me know if it fails to show up on yours!
so, in review, vc guys:
– panicked en masse and killed SVB
– spent the weekend frantically trying to create a contagion panic
– have spent the morning congratulating each other for forcing the fed to act in ways the fed was already acting through the power of caps tweets— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) March 13, 2023
You can absolutely make the argument that the VC bailout was necessary to prevent contagion and save the economy, but the anger at the millionaire class receiving government support in a cocaine heartbeat while people struggle to pay rent is completely fair and reasonable.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) March 12, 2023
cain
One of these days, alice, one of these days… they aren’t going to get bailed out. Clowns.
schrodingers_cat
Robber barons of the twenty first century are way worse than their 19th century counterparts.
Scout211
Wow, AL, we are now posting Tik Tok thirst traps on ballooon-juice? I have to say, I approve. LOL
Seriously, though, great video message from Rep. Jackson. Clear and easy to understand.
Cameron
No, no, twasn’t VC dudebros….twas Wokeness killed the bank. At least, that’s the line Governor Sassy Boots, WSJ, et al are pushing.
different-church-lady
“The rich are different from you and me.”
“Yes, they have more money. And they’re sociopaths.”
Anyway
Meh. I expected more.
rikyrah
Nothing but whining clowns 😡
patrick II
They went ahead and gave bonuses the day before they were closed down because “it was for work done in 2022” as if decisions made in 2022 had no bearing on their bank’s crisis in the first few months of 2023.
Splitting Image
Happy birthday to legendary MAD artist Al Jaffee, who turns 102 today!
Many happy returns.
SiubhanDuinne
Open thread?
Thirty years ago right now, the “Blizzard of the Century” was battering Atlanta — indeed, was battering most of the South, and just about all of the Eastern Atlantic Seaboard.
In March 1993, I lived in an apartment in Doraville, a northern suburb of Atlanta. The power went out early Saturday. Because my apartment complex was all-electric, a power outage meant no lights, no heat, and no way to cook or microwave anything, or even boil water to make a hot chocolate or cuppa tea.
No electric power also, of course, meant no radio or television, no record or CD or tape player for entertainment. NOTHING.
Even reading was a non-starter. Heavy, wet snow stuck to all the windows and outside screens and blocked all sources of what little ambient light there was — no possibility of reading, or even playing solitaire, or working a jigsaw or crossword puzzle, or stitching a needlepoint canvas. Nothing. (And of course in 1993 there was no such thing as an iPad or iPhone for digital entertainment.)
The roads were ice-slicked and almost impassable with snow, so I didn’t even dare try to drive the mile or so to my dad’s house, although (thank you, land-lines) we were able to stay in touch by phone.
Anyhow, there was basically nothing to do but smoke cigarettes. Which I did, out of sheer boredom, all day on Saturday March 13th. Hungry, thirsty, starved for entertainment and stimulation, I lit one cigarette after another until I got tired. Then I’d take a nap. Then I’d wake up and start smoking again.
About 11:00 a.m. on the Sunday morning, I started to feel a bit shaky and short of breath. At first, I thought I was just weak from hunger. Then, because I had recently read about “panic attacks,” I figured I might be having one of those. But at some point, after a few hours, I twigged to the fact that I was quite likely having a full-blown heart attack (spoiler: yes, it turned out I was) and needed to get to an ER, stat. I called 911 for an ambulance (hoping desperately that they could traverse the icy streets).
In the short time between my placing the call and the arrival of the paramedics, I became a FORMER SMOKER. Haven’t had — nor even been tempted to have — so much as a single cigarette since that moment.
So, although I have had additional coronary issues since then, I remember the weekend of March 13-14, 1993 as a pivotal time in my life, not least because I said goodbye forever to my addiction to nicotine. I observe this date every year, the way alcoholics note their anniversaries of sobriety; the way long-term lovers remember their first dates.
If you’re an ex-smoker, congratulations. I know what that took. If you’re a current smoker, I promise I won’t annoy you about it, because I know the challenges in quitting. And if you never started smoking in the first place, I admire you lavishly and would like to borrow some self-discipline from you.
TL;DR — I had a heart attack and quit smoking exactly thirty years ago. Please celebrate with me.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
👍
Jim, Foolish Literalist
everybody saw De Santis getting a literal softball interview with Brian Kilmeade as they decided to play catch while talking? I wish I were making this up
Scout211
@SiubhanDuinne: 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I can totally see him driving a tank.
laura
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy Angioversary!
Baud
Weird. The Jackson video occasionally autoplays for me.
Joy in FL
@SiubhanDuinne: Oh, thank you for sharing this. I’m so glad you made it through the storm and a heart attack. That is so worth celebrating 👏🏼 💐
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: Congratulations. Raising a toast to you.
BTW I listened to your advice and bid for the crayons. My bid won. And they are on their way.
pat
@SiubhanDuinne: Wow, I am so happy that the heart attack seems not to have been so bad but it motivated you to stop smoking.
In 1983 I had a serious issue with abdominal pain. Turned out not to be serious (can’t even remembered what it was called) but I was in the hospital for several days. In those days you could only smoke in the “lounge” down the hall.
Well, I got a shot of demerol? Not sure. But there was a lounge down the hall from my room and every time I smelled cigarette smoke I threw up.
After two or three days of that, one becomes a dedicated non-smoker. I am still very sensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke.
SiubhanDuinne
@laura:
LOL, thanks!!
mrmoshpotato
@SiubhanDuinne: Congrats! How many days was your building without power?
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Three cheers! Proud of you for giving up smoking.
How long were you in the hospital for that one? There’s a way to get some warm meals, albeit, rather extreme. Do you think all the excessive smoking helped trigger the attack?
Anyway, proud of you!
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
Oh, I’m glad! I love using coloured pencils, and I hope your purchase gives you countless hours of enjoyment.
Brachiator
I get the idea that there is an orderly process that would apply to any bank of significant size.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: Congrats! Like you, I remember the date: 11/14/94. After three serious (and countless unserious) and failed attempts to quit, one day I just thought: I’m done.
Mostly the smell of cigarettes now disgusts me, like most ex I think, but every once in a while, I get a whiff and that temptation comes back
SiubhanDuinne
@mrmoshpotato:
I’m not sure. It was back on when the hospital sent me home a few days later.
Mike E
@patrick II: Yep and with GQP running the House we will get no meaningful legislation whatsoever so “bank reform” is yet another nostalgia trip/trivia question on Jeopardy we will wistfully shake our heads about. Maybe regulatory institutions will offer up a convenient scapegoat but that seems about as likely, sadly.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne: Wow, what a story. I’m so glad you’re with us to tell it!
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s what I was guessing. You missed the rest of the power outage because — hospital!
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m all for pot legalization, but I’m not thrilled that I now often smell pot smoke when walking in public. Less so indoors, thank goodness.
patrick II
@SiubhanDuinne:
My father came from a family of six. Three smoked, and three did not. Three smokers passed on in their 50’s, and the three non-smokers in their 80’s.
Congratulations on quitting smoking. Not everyone can.
narya
@SiubhanDuinne: Congratulations! I quit on August 31, 1988, so it will be 35 years ago this year for me. I used to be a guest speaker at the smoking cessation groups that my friend ran–I did one of her 8-session groups to quit, and she just completed running her 424th group. I started calculating how many cigarettes I haven’t smoked, using my rate when I quit, and I’m well over half a MILLION unsmoked cigarettes. I like to provide that nugget to the groups. I also like to talk about how it’s an addiction–I worked for a substance abuse treatment agency at one point, and the parallels are instructive, as are the things that are not parallels. Good for you–it’s a worthy thing to celebrate!
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I can’t stand that smell. I prefer plain old cigarettes.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Also pot legalization did not turn out the pancea to get Democratic votes as was promised to us by bros.
schrodingers_cat
I am going to watch RRR tonight, will give you my thoughts later.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
I definitely think all that two-fisted weekend smoking helped trigger the timing, although there’s little doubt in my mind it would have happened sooner or later in any case (and in fact eight years later I had quadruple bypass surgery — on the same date, March 14, coincidentally).
I think they had me in hospital for about three, maybe four days. Don’t rightly recall that detail.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: I liked that dance number but it needed moar Shah Rukh Khan 😄💜💙
Jay
KPMG* apparently gave SVB and one other a “clean bill of health” two weeks ago,……
*gee, where have I heard that name before,……..
Elizabelle
@narya: Three cheers for you too!
And for Jim, Foolish Literalist.
My mom had a stroke which was relatively mild, but apparently knocked out the pleasure receptors for smoking. Or whatever it did. Anyway, the impulse was gone, and she never had another.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m not surprised by that at all.
Dan B
@SiubhanDuinne: Prost!! Congrats!!! My father was a smoker, not quite a chain smoker. I would bum a cigarette when I went out to gay bars because they made me anxious. I haven’t been in one in 30 years because no longer single, yea!
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Congrats backatcha! We’ll celebrate your own 30th next year, along with massive Dem wins in the 2024 elections!
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: March 14 is a big day for you. We shall celebrate it, going forward.
As we will celebrate the days that Trump’s indictments fall upon him, and when he finally gets convicted of something major. (Personally, not just a slap on the wrist to the corporation.)
May they arrive sooner rather than later.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Ugh, pot smoke. 😒
Not a fan of getting a whiff of cigarette smoke either anymore, and I used to come home from concerts reeking of cigarettes when you could smoke indoors. Had to throw my clothes in the wash and shower before bed every time.
raven
I thought the VC was Charlie?
SiubhanDuinne
@narya:
Congratulations right back atcha! What a great idea, to calculate the number of cigarettes you would have smoked (but didn’t) and the money you didn’t spend on smokes. I’ll have to do that. We’ll all celebrate with you come August!
Splitting Image
@SiubhanDuinne:
Congratulations! My granddad quit under similar circumstances, although I think in his case it was a doctor warning him that this was going to happen PDQ if he didn’t quit pronto. He put his last cigarette down on New Year’s Eve and started the new year a former smoker.
Sparkedcat
@Splitting Image: Mad magazine. A staple of my misspent youth. The foldin was always the final pleasure.
laura
@schrodingers_cat: several years ago I spent $5.00 at an art garage sale for a box of slightly used this and that’s. Amongst the goods was a box of caran d’ache water soluble oil crayons- and my oh my they are special. I went back to school as an aging, retiree co-ed and my art teacher (the fabulous Gioia Fonda) shared the giant blue crayon she was gifted by Gregory Kondos’ wife. I got to draw a line with it. Talk about pigment and smooth….. the good stuff is spendy for a reason. I look forward to your reports on the new goodies.
Elizabelle
Gonna put this comment up again, because I thought this was a really well done WaPost interactive feature. Gift link: click away!
Meanwhile, in Rodanthe NC (Outer Banks, south of Nags Head), the woke ocean took down another house today. That makes four in the past year.
WaPost video feature, with about 2.6 K reader comments. Gift link: Retreat in Rodanthe
I truly don’t understand how anyone bought an oceanfront home here in recent years, but … I kind of wish they’d return these islands to nature preserves, with some camping and temporary structures.
Barrier islands want to be barrier islands.
Cameron
@SiubhanDuinne: Congratulations on the thirty years, and hopes for another thirty (or more)! I had plenty strange experiences with the blizzard in Philly, but unfortunately I was too dumb to stop smoking right then and didn’t quit until ’95. Don’t know if it was those extra two years that gave me COPD, the gift that keeps on giving.
Cameron
@raven: Which Charlie? The one that don’t surf?
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: I quit in 1968, too much other stuff to smoke!
raven
@Cameron: There it is.
Captain C
@SiubhanDuinne:
Congratulations (on stopping smoking)! As one whose last cigarette was 29 years ago on the 24th, I’m really glad you quit
ETA: With a very few exceptions that involved hashish and International Relations.
brendancalling
I called one of my senators to complain today, will be calling the rest this week.
My student loan debt is pretty large. For these guys it’s a drop in their bucket. I’d be willing to bet that a lot of these guys could afford to personally recapitalize their stupid bank, and not even feel it. When do the rest of us get a f’ing bailout?
SiubhanDuinne
@Captain C:
Sounds like quite a few of us quit somewhere around 30-35 years ago! Celebrations definitely in order all around.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Heh, yeah :-)
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
Honestly, it had nothing to do with self-discipline. I just never hung around with people who smoked at the normal age for starting. My parents and siblings didn’t smoke, and neither did any of my friends. At the same time, smoke just irritated me, so I associated it with unpleasantness. That kept me from even thinking about starting.
Geminid
Some more fun Jeff Jackson facts:
Demographically, Jackson’s Charlotte-based 14th CD is very similar to North Carolina as a whole. For the 14th CD, Whites constitute 57.1% of the population, Black pmeople 21.8%, Hispanics 12.8%, and Asians 6.9%. For North Carolina, the numbers are White 60.5%, Black 20.2%, Hispanic 10.7%, and Asian 4%.
Jackson won his first term last year by 57.7% to 42.3%.
Jeff Jackson is 40 years old, married with three children.
Jackson is an Emory University grad. After Law School at the University of North Carolina, he enlisted in the Army and served in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan as a JAG officer. He is currently a Major in the National Guard.
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
Very happy to celebrate with you! What an experience. So glad that things worked out well.
Baud
cain
@schrodingers_cat: my wife could only stomach about 35 minutes of it. It’s like taking one of those Hindi serials and then amping it to 20 – everything is over the top. The dancing choreography, the fighting, and possibly the acting – still, I suppose it entertainment – but more like the Mortal Kombat variety. :D
Geminid
@Elizabelle: A friend of mine’s mother lost her small Kitty Hawk house to the ocean about 1980. Fortunately. she was able to build another on Manteo Island. It’s not far from the Lost Colony theatre.
cain
@zhena gogolia: That dude is like 57 – I’m not sure how well he can do dance numbers – but hey why not! I’m 53 (tha’ts right, same numerals as Herbie the Love Bug!), properly trained I could do it!
WaterGirl
@Baud: Maybe every time you comment? Because that reloads the page. And every time you refresh? Otherwise no autoplay
can you confirm or deny? :-)
Jay
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I can neither confirm nor deny the problem.
I’ve turned down the volume on my phone so I don’t hear it anymore.
WaterGirl
@Jay:
who or what is KPMG?
Baud
@Jay:
Also, way different fashion sense.
WaterGirl
@Baud: That’s what they all say!
TikTok is not very well behaved on WordPress.
Sparkedcat
@SiubhanDuinne: Congratulations upon quitting. I quit cold turkey on St. Patrick’s Day 2009. Every once in a great while there is still a momentary desire. Told myself that I could have a cigarette on the day I was diagnosed with terminal cancer. If that day ever comes I fully intend on lighting up an unfiltered Camel.
@SiubhanDuinne:
Amir Khalid
@WaterGirl:
Only one of the world’s “big four” accounting firms.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
The one that gets me most often is on public transit. Someone will get on the train absolutely reeking of pot smoke. Sometimes it lingers badly enough I’ll get on an empty train that smells like pot.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: I remember when the SC and NC beaches had those little one-story beach houses, without air conditioning.
Before all the behemoths arrived.
Anne Laurie
@raven: VC = Venture (vulture) capitalists.
Who have killed way more Americans (and not just Americans) than the Viet Cong could ever dream of!
Josie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Congratulations and good for you! I quit 40 years ago and have always said it was one of the hardest things I ever have done. My husband was diagnosed with heart problems. The doctor told him that smoking was the worst thing he could do for his heart. I threw away the cigarettes, saying that I would not be his excuse for not quitting. Unfortunately, he did not quit and died fifteen years later of a heart attack. Thank goodness, none of my three sons have taken up the habit.
JoyceH
VC? I’m finding a lot of options – vice chairman, voice channel, video chat, viet cong, and venture capital. In context, I’m guessing venture capital?
Eolirin
@schrodingers_cat: The criminalization of pot has been a massive social justice issue that’s been used to lock up large numbers of black people (though not just) in this country, with massive consequences to their futures, including, in some states, permanent disenfranchisement.
We shouldn’t care whether it gets us more votes or not, there’s an overwhelming moral imperative to end it.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
It is still happening.
Baud
@Eolirin:
We should always care about what gets us votes, because that’s how we keep the fascists at bay.
We should also stop taking people at face value when they tell us that doing something will win us more votes. Those predictions rarely pan out.
BC in Illinois
The talk about cigarette smoke and other smokes reminds me of my mother, whose 101st anniversary of her birthday was this past Friday.
WW II WAC; she and my father both smoked like chimneys during the ’50s; quit during the early 60s; and sometime around 1969 she mentioned that she didn’t even know what marijuana smoke smelled like. She was not pleased when my brother and I — 19 and 18 at the time — proceeded to make an attempt at describing it to her. What did she think we learned in college?
Jay
@WaterGirl:
the wiki KPMG “scandals” page is over 3 pages long. pretty much every major fiscal scandal globally has their fingers on it.
Anne Laurie
Sorry — I will do my best not to make a habit of it!
cain
Just saw a Hindi movie in the theater (I haven’t done that in.. I have no idea how long – like a decade or something) – it was over 3 hours long and it had an intermission! Anyways, the songs were pretty good – but this is my favorite;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZsRjrYW-lk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgpFBdapobY
If you enjoyed RRR – these are pretty good in terms of songs and dancing.
CCL
@SiubhanDuinne: Congratulations! Happy 30th!
Gvg
@schrodingers_cat: No, no they aren’t. Read some of the details if you want to get sick. Worker safety regs were paid for in blood, lots and lots of it. Misery, starving families, fires, loss of limbs, mine collapses, i can’t even remember and count all the evils we have reduced to almost nothing compared to then. Which is not the same thing as actually nothing, oh no. Just better.
zhena gogolia
@cain: I know I’m just indulging my crush
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Splitting Image:
Here’s a great podcast with Al Jaffe and Gilbert Gottfried (link)
CaseyL
I see Rep. Jackson has done a few of these TikToks, explaining the war in Ukraine and the debt ceiling issue.
He’s fantastic.
kalakal
In BBC self immolation news it seems that
their managements folding to the Tories is exploding in their faces big time.
Due to public outrage they’ve completely climbed down and reinstated Gary Lineker
Both the Director General and Chairman are now the ones whose jobs have the shelf life of a lettuce and the blowback is also hitting their chums in the government
Davie & Sharp
The best 2 minute explainer of the whole mess is here
https://twitter.com/SkyKaveh/status/1634288030658842641
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Looks like I picked the wrong week to start smoking
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Thank you. had no idea. It seems they are all corrupt.
Say, did you see my request for photos of Agent Scully? I think she deserves her own post.
Would you send photos to me? Or if you want to maintain your anonymity, you could send them using the On the Road form.
I know we would all love to see her. Maybe with one of your guitars! :-)
cain
@zhena gogolia: he’s totally crushable – but I’m still going with Amitabh Bachchan – :-)
WaterGirl
@Anne Laurie: A few weeks ago, Baud was haunted by eerie music that appeared to come and go randomly on his phone.
I finally tracked it down to a TikTok video that Major Major had posted in the comments.
They say that every day you learn something new is a good day. In that sense, technology is the gift that keeps on giving. :-)
WaterGirl
@CaseyL: Uh, oh. Is there competition for the explainer-in-chief postion?
Another Scott
@kalakal: Thanks for the pointer. That’s a powerful indictment of the BBC management.
I hope it, and the Lineker incident, leads to sensible changes at the BBC. It’s an important resource for the world.
Cheers,
Scott.
Eolirin
@Baud: Caring about what gets us votes isn’t the same as only caring about what gets us votes.
This is an issue we do not lose votes on. There are significant moral, social justice, and practical benefits to legalization. It’s straightforwardly right to do.
Ignoring idiots talking about things being big vote getters is great to keep in mind, but this is a situation where it doesn’t matter. We should want to be doing it even if it doesn’t net us a single extra vote. Anyone who was pro-legalization solely or primarily on the grounds that it’ll be this massive game changer for the electorate is a fucking monster, in addition to being an utter moron.
The entire war on drugs was explicitly constructed to target our political coalition. It has only lead to *worse* outcomes at every level.
lowtechcyclist
@Splitting Image:
Holy shit, he’s still alive?! Happy birthday to him indeed! I was seeing his stuff in MAD when he was a young fella in his forties.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
What do you base this on? Who was supposed to be motivated by this issue, and did they show up or not?
Anyway, like student loan forgiveness, it’s just one of those things that should be done regardless, given that there’s no evidence that it hurt us in any way last fall.
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: Wow, cheers to that anniversary! 🥂 What an ordeal! So glad you overcame it!
I gave up ciggies about 10 years ago, and though it was hard at first, I’m still mad at myself for not quitting sooner.
kalakal
The BBCs negotiations with Lineker brilliantly summed up. I laughed a lot, what a self inflicted debacle
https://twitter.com/Nick_Pettigrew/status/1635222611537051648?s=20
stinger
@SiubhanDuinne:
Lucky for us you quit! Congratulations on the anniversary!
Betty Cracker
@Eolirin: Agree. Also, if it has been definitely proved that pot legalization or decriminalization doesn’t benefit Dems politically, I guess I missed that.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne: You’re my hero, and not just for this but still….
Both parents smoked, so we kids of course smoked along with them but not through the act of “light ’em if you got ’em.” Just inhale, kids.
Mom got a bad flu over Christmas break when I was a young kid and noted every time she coughed it tasted like an ashtray. (One did not ask mom how one knows an ashtray’s flavor.) Mom quit and lived to 88.
Dad soldiered on with his habit, ironically acquired in the Navy via free rations, and lived to a ripe old 65 when lung cancer spread to his brain undetected and ensured a horrid final year.
None of we kids officially picked up the habit and it’s nice to live in a society where smoking is the exception. If I were Joe Brandon I’d convert Big Tobacco into ammo manufacturing for Ukraine.
Hearty congratulations on 1. surviving a heart attack and 2. ditching the cause of 1.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: I could loan you my tube of glue?
frosty
@SiubhanDuinne:
Congratulations on quitting. I smoked at bars in my 20s but thankfully never got addicted and gave it up by the time I was 30. I watched a roommate quit about then – what an ordeal! So glad that you’re here with us after the heart attack scare, too.
El Muneco
@cain: When John Wick 3 premiered, Keanu Reeves was 55 and Halle Berry was 53. Not only did they both do all their own stunts, they were both dead sexy. They’re both back for this month’s John Wick 4 with three more years under their belts, but I’m not sure if either of those facts has changed very much…
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: Here’s some advice from Ben Franklin if you ever start worrying that you spent too much on your new pencils from eBay :
Layer8Problem
@WaterGirl: “They say that every day you learn something new is a good day. In that sense, technology is the gift that keeps on giving. :-)”
I used to explain to people why I liked what I did as follows: “It’s lots of puzzle solving. Something was working, then it stopped; or even better, worked badly. It’s my job to figure it out and make it work again. They’re paying me to solve puzzles!”
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Same here. July 22, 2013. Haven’t felt any urge in nearly ten years. Cigarette smoke doesn’t disgust me as much as it’s a really strong irritant. Even outdoors from several feet away.
Jackie
@Amir Khalid: How is Scully adjusting? I’m so happy you have a new overlord!
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: Happy Myocardial Infarction Survival Day! Count me among those who are happy you survived and gave up the cancer sticks.
Splitting Image
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Thanks! That was a good listen. I always enjoy hearing the MAD guys talk about the mag.
RevRick
@SiubhanDuinne: Congratulations on kicking that habit. My older brother couldn’t and it claimed his life.
I remember that blizzard too, as it capped off the snowiest winter ever here in Allentown, which began the day after New Year’s when temperatures plunged and it snowed every third day, and it piled up to 75 inches, and the shoveled piles reached eight feet or higher.
At one time there were ice ruts on I-78! And it drove our poor mini dachshund crazy trying to find a spot to pee/poop.
Manyakitty
@SiubhanDuinne: woohoo 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 So glad you’re still alive to celebrate!
mrmoshpotato
@Layer8Problem:
Glad you actually enjoyed doing tech support. :)
kalakal
@mrmoshpotato: :)
LiminalOwl
@SiubhanDuinne: wow, what a story! What a nightmare too. Congratulations on thirty years of non-smoking. (And, btw, not necessary to admire those of us who were never smokers. At least in my case, there was no self-discipline involved—i just tried and hated it.)
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I had a thought on waking up this morning and seeing this thread.
Assuming that Thiel was instrumental in collapsing Silicon Valley Bank by pulling his money out and advising his cronies to do the same – whether he shorted SVB first is another story entirely – could it be that their actions might have had a secondary objective as well? Specifically, a 2008-level collapse that would have been useful fodder against Joe Biden the way the 2008 collapse hit the GOP and helped (to whatever degree) elect Obama?
I’ve got stories about smoking, too – although I’ve never lit up a cigarette in my life – but hopefully they’ll keep for a few hours. Got a deadline to struggle against.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: In the pre-Trump era I thought pot legalization was a potential winner for Republicans–a bunch of their libertarian types were for it, and it would have been a cultural hot-button issue where they could outflank the Democrats on the left. But they didn’t go for it. In fact it seems like a lot of them want cannabis to be illegal. Police like pot bans because in any situation they can just say “I smell pot” and they have probable cause for a search.
Some of the people I know who partake use only edibles because they regard smoking as so unhealthy. Of course you have to be very careful about dosage with that stuff. But it also means you don’t stink up the place so much. A while back I stepped on a fuming doobie someone had dropped on the elevated walkway to the train station and my shoe smelled like probable cause for days.
Matt McIrvin
@Layer8Problem:
It’s great except for the part where you made the puzzle yourself and people are blaming you for it.
dnfree
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m very late to this thread, but I quit smoking on my wedding day in 1967. The smoke bothered my husband. This was before the connection of smoking to asthma was understood, so since my husband had asthma (probably from his parents smoking), it’s a good thing I did.