Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Consistently wrong since 2002

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

When I was faster i was always behind.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

This really is a full service blog.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Something Fun Friday Night Open Thread

Something Fun Friday Night Open Thread

by | 126 Comments

This post is in: 

rikyrah posted this link, and it’s really fun.

I’m not sure why it’s misbehaving (except that it’s TikTok!) but in order to see the Law & Order version, you may have to click on these words  to go to the correct TikTok.

Click on these words at the bottom of the TikTok: The newest Law & Order: Special Trump Unit #donaldtrump #politicalco …See more
@tristansnell212 The newest Law & Order: Special Trump Unit #donaldtrump #politicalcomedy #lawandorder #politics #tristansnell ♬ original sound – Tristan Snell

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  1. 1.

    AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team

    Finally feeling less depressed and thank freakin god.

    Got out for 2 walks this week, 2 more than in the last two months. Work is picking up. Very smart, curious new potential client. Grateful af.

    Ty to you all who help me stay sane through thick and thin 🙏🏻

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    Having never seen any Law & Order programs, likelihood is high won’t recognize the basis of a lampoon.

  6. 6.

    Scout211

    @NotMax: Having never seen any Law & Order programs

     

    What?!  You’ve just lost your bj membership card.  It’s required!

  7. 7.

    bbleh

    FWIWI I tried a buncha different ways, and after closing everything and reopening, the embed worked.

    @Scout211: srsly what? Like, how can one not be aware of L&O? And keeping an open mind, I will hypothesize that perhaps such a life may be a better one.

    It’s spot-on though.

  10. 10.

    James E Powell

    Right-wingers are celebrating their market power by boycotting Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Lite and making Anheuser-Busch’s Modelo the Number One beer.

  12. 12.

    SpaceUnit

    Video looks fun but my pet peeve is video formats that don’t offer volume control.  Nope.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Open thread?

    Say what now? (Emphasis added.)

    Take Toyota, for example. The biggest automaker in the world is reportedly working on an electric vehicle prototype that mimics the feel of driving a manual transmission, complete with a gear shift that’s not connected to anything and a floor-mounted speaker to pipe in fake engine noises. The car will even pretend to stall out if you fumble the controls — in order to deliver drivers the complete experience of driving a manual car. Source

    Yes, potentially charging extra for an added feature that has no utility whatsoever.

  16. 16.

    cain

    @James E Powell: They are crazy assholes. They probably went for the modelo because it was the same price range. They can’t afford the 3rd party brewer stuff. Some of which are $14 dollars for a 6 pack.

  17. 17.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax: Sound is a huge part of driving.

    I vaguely recall a story that the chief engineer for the Mazda Miata drove around several prototypes that had slightly different exhaust sounds, trying to pick the perfect one for production.

    BMW.com:

    When Hans Zimmer thinks of the sound of BMW, he thinks back to his childhood. In a collaboration with the BMW Group, the Academy Award winner has teamed up with BMW Group Sound Design to develop special drive sounds for the new BMW electric vehicles – BMW IconicSounds Electric. We take a look back at his own earliest soundtracks and the acoustic journey from the initial idea to the sound premiere in the production vehicle.

    […]

    I don’t think I’ll ever forget the snarl of a screaming Mercedes sports car on a highway in Europe.

    YMMV! ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  18. 18.

    cain

    @NotMax: The electric cars don’t give you that manly, big engine, roar that these budweiser modelo drinking men need to hear to feel like they are in a real car.

  19. 19.

    Ken

    @NotMax: It reminds me of the fake thermostats that make little clicking noises when you adjust the temperature, but aren’t actually connected to the HVAC. Except that I understand the market for those — building owners who don’t want the tenants to control the system. Who are the buyers clamoring for a fake stickshift?

  22. 22.

    bbleh

    @NotMax: no difference at all from the race-car game machines at the mall, the ones that had surround-sound and realistic physical sensations!

    It’s a self-infantilizing culture.  Is it any wonder nonsense cults like Qanon and the Trumpian Republican Party have flourished

    I knew I should have gone into “finance.” Yeah, the other people are horrible, but at least I woulda made a pile off the idiots who long ago doomed themselves.

  24. 24.

    JaySinWA

    @Ken: Someone who is trying to impress someone else? My niece got our old Mazda stick and it really impressed the boys around her that she could drive it.

    Plus it was a natural theft deterrent. I could see this being rigged as an anti theft device.

  25. 25.

    HeleninEire

    OH MY GOD. On MSNBC the person who is on this show, Stephanie something has an interview coming up with Luke Russert because??????? We all are very concerned about how this privileged, unprepared, unqualified, asshole is doing.

    Scraping the bottom in the barrel they are.

    ETA: Also CLICK. Just turned it off.

  26. 26.

    Percysowner

    @JaySinWA: ​
    A friend’s daughter was taught to drive stick. When one of her friends moved the rental company only had trucks with stick and she was the only one of 6 people who had any idea how to drive it. Everyone was impressed.

    50 years ago the guy I was dating taught me how to drive stick. A few years later I taught my husband how to drive because we couldn’t afford a Chevette with automatic transmission. We consciously bought stick for years, because the gas mileage was better.

  29. 29.

    HumboldtBlue

    @NotMax: ​ 

    Having never seen any Law & Order programs

    I keep telling youse and youse keep telling me I’m crazy that NotMax isn’t really real and is really some big brain creation deployed for nefarious, or maybe just hilarious, purposes we can’t discern or even comprehend.

    That’s the proof.

  30. 30.

    Percysowner

    @NotMax: ​
     

    Take Toyota, for example. The biggest automaker in the world is reportedly working on an electric vehicle prototype that mimics the feel of driving a manual transmission, complete with a gear shift that’s not connected to anything and a floor-mounted speaker to pipe in fake engine noises. The car will even pretend to stall out if you fumble the controls — in order to deliver drivers the complete experience of driving a manual car.

    The fake shifting is silly, but one of the problems with EVs is that they are silent. Pedestrians don’t have the audio warning that a car is coming. Making fake sounds is a safety feature.

  31. 31.

    JaySinWA

    @Percysowner: My wife and I have gotten to an age where we don’t want to have to shift for ourselves.

    Of course now Auto is standard and I think you have to pay extra for something manual.

  32. 32.

    JaySinWA

    @Percysowner: Unfortunately, it sounds like they are only sending the audio to the driver. Sales would probably be better if it was inflicted on everyone else as well. And it might be safer, at least from the type of driver attracted to it.

  34. 34.

    Sad Santa

    @HeleninEire: Really ?  Luke is just like all of us who has had to come to grips with some shit.  You haven’t even seen the interview yet for fucks sake.

  36. 36.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax: There seems to be some garbling of what Toyota is actually doing. Autocar.co.uk:

    […]

    Talking during the recent Le Mans 24 Hours, in which the firm finished second to Ferrari after winning the previous five events, Toyoda revealed that his baseline expectations for the car are that it must be at least as good to drive as current combustion-engined models, which include the GR86, GR Supra, GR Yaris and GR Corolla.

    Toyoda, who is nicknamed ‘Master Driver’, said: “The starting point is not what powertrain the car has, but how fun it is to drive regardless of that powertrain. I actually had the opportunity to test drive a BEV GR we are working on recently. I don’t know if that car will make it onto the market yet, but the first priority of making these kinds of cars is that they need to be fun to drive, no matter what powertrain they use.”

    […]

    “The biggest difference to other BEVs we are developing is that, when you are in the GR BEV, you can actually hear the engine noises, even if you can’t smell gasoline,” said Toyoda. “There is also a manual transmission and also a clutch. If you put someone in the car and asked them to drive it and guess the powertrain, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell you.”

    [ image ]

    Toyoda’s reference to the manual gearbox adds credence to suggestions the GR model could be co-developed with a Lexus equivalent, as last year the upmarket firm revealed early details of a manual transmission project it was working on for future BEVs.

    The firm’s chief engineer, Takashi Watanabe, outlined that the gearstick and clutch wouldn’t be connected directly to the motor, but they would simulate shifts by adjusting the torque settings of the electric motor. He also suggested that it could be programmed to allow the car to roll back on a hill, or even potentially emulate a stall, to ensure poor driving is punished.

    That concept was showcased in a promotional video, which also revealed a test car making simulated engine sounds that were pumped into the cabin, but inaudible from outside the car. “We would want to make sure we continue to offer products for enthusiasts,” said Watanabe at the time.

    Underlining the prototype nature of the GR test car, and how its development showcases the company’s willingness to take on new ideas, Toyoda said: “Whether it makes it to the market or not, what the company is trying to do is explore the idea of what it is that we shouldn’t lose in a car even if it becomes BEV.

    “I can proudly say that this is an example of how Toyota has changed into a company where members can look into an idea that sounds interesting, create a car from their ideas and then show it for test drives.”

    […]

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  38. 38.

    citizen dave

    I also have never watched any law and order.

    Manual transmission is also an anti-theft device these days.

  39. 39.

    Marc

    @Percysowner:The fake shifting is silly, but one of the problems with EVs is that they are silent. Pedestrians don’t have the audio warning that a car is coming. Making fake sounds is a safety feature.

    New EVs and hybrids in electric mode sold in the US have been required to generate external noise while moving at less than 18 mph (above that speed tire and mechanical noise should suffice) for at least 5 years.  I still look carefully when I cross the street, as I’ve had those electric buggies sneak up on me out of nowhere.

  40. 40.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Marc: Modern hybrid cars do it too when they’re on electric drive. The manufacturers seem to have settled on this sound that is kind of like a choir of angels, or some kind of high-tech turbine with a musical quality.

  41. 41.

    jonas

    @Percysowner: ​  Oh good grief. Did Ford and other early car makers have to figure out how to make automobiles “feel” more like horse-drawn carriages back in the day? Did engineers fret over how to pipe the smell of fresh horse manure droppings into the passenger cabin? Install old-timey phonographs to play recorded “clippety-clop” sounds as the car moved along?​​

  42. 42.

    Marc

    @Matt McIrvin: The manufacturers seem to have settled on this sound that is kind of like a choir of angels, or some kind of high-tech turbine with a musical quality.

    I will buy the first EV that licenses the Jetson’s car noise.

  43. 43.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @NotMax: This sounds suspiciously like the cars in The Marching Morons, if anyone is familiar with that old sci-fi story. The cars made whooshing sounds, the speedometer said 300 mph, but they were only puttering along at 30 or so.

  45. 45.

    Jackie

    @HeleninEire: He just published a book reflecting on dear ol’ dad and his life choices. He’s doing the media rounds.

    I DVR, so I just FF thru.

  46. 46.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Having made fun of the cars, I will now show my oldness. When I first went from typewriters to a computer terminal with a keyboard, I couldn’t stand the silent typing. It had a capability of emitting a fake “click” noise and I would always turn that on.

  48. 48.

    sdhays

    @NotMax: This checks out. Toyota has a track record of overthinking transmission-related stuff.

    See: the Prius model from a few years ago where you would shift between drive and reverse with a lever, but you needed to press a button to put the damn thing in park.

  49. 49.

    Nelle

    When we rented a car in Brisbane, Australia, it was stick shift.  I was surprised that they didn’t check that we could drive it.  But we’d been driving stick in New Zealand so we’re comfortable shifting with the left hand.

    Our last manual transmission car died two years ago.  It had the grace to do so just before the process on used cars soared, do we were able to snag another car, but automatic is all that was available.

  50. 50.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I attended a traveling Broadway play of “To KILL a Mocking Bird” tonight.  It was super intense.  John Boy from The Waltons was Atticus Finch.  He was superb.

  51. 51.

    JaySinWA

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Clicky mechanical keyboards are a thing. There are a number of people that were addicted to an early IBM keyboard that had its own click (and feel, apparently it is tactile as well as audio).

    I see a number of keyboard reviews that are obsessed with the keyboard sound and feel. I can get the mushy verses stiff feel, but the audio part never registered with me.

  53. 53.

    dmsilev

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Digital cameras with fully electronic shutters often had a ‘fake mechanical mirror and shutter sound’ option.

    I confess to setting the ringtone on my phone to ‘analog ringing bell’.

  54. 54.

    Gvg

    I drove manual trans for years and got to enjoy it, until I had some injuries. My sister also had a leg injury and had trouble shifting for a time. I thought about unexpected temporary problems can really mess things up and how expensive cars are, and switched to automatic the next car.
    My sister later had ankle surgery and discovered she could not fit her foot with cast in her car, and had to switch with me for a few months. There are lots of reasons not to choose a car that requires 2 hands and 2 feet, at least when your car is a major expense and necessary for things like jobs.

  55. 55.

    Mike in NC

    Fantastic viewing after a rough week and taking a sick cat to the vet today. Thanks.

  58. 58.

    Amir Khalid

    @dmsilev:

    I confess to setting the ringtone on my phone to ‘analog ringing bell’.

    I had to do the same. Them Android custom ringtones sounded pretty, but they just didn’t register on my consciousness as a ringing phone.

  65. 65.

    RaflW

    @James E Powell: I believe Modelo was spun off to Constellation Brands (another imbibing company). Some clever wag on  muskker pointed out that American conservatives are helping boost Mexican jobs and (possibly) reduce US employment. But IMO conservatives don’t give a rip about the actual blue collar people working in a brewery (or the corn & rice growers who sell to A-B)

    eta: Due to wacky US anti-trust, it’s weirder that above. A-B owns Modelo except in the US. So I think Constellation brews the Modelo shipped into the US, but A-B brews it for the Mexican and global markets? If so, USers are functionally boycotting A-B, but its all just ridiculous anyway.

  66. 66.

    NutmegAgain

    @Marc: I would even be very happy with the old VW sound of a sewing machine. First car was a ’61 Bug with a canvas sunroof, AM radio, and no seat belts in the back. Loved that car, and it never got stuck in the snow

     

    eta Of course VW may have grabbed that patent for its own EVs.

  67. 67.

    RaflW

    @NotMax: Our Subies have CVTs. Which means, yes, continuously variable transmission. Yet we have paddle shifters and gears.

    I guess if it really was continuously varying the transmission, the engine note (or, for many, the drone – or the RPMs) would rarely change much (which could be engineered to be in the most efficient power-band, huh!?). But: Booooo-ring!

    I will say, being able to ‘downshift’ the CVT is important on steep hills. I suspect engineers could sort that out for as-needed use.

    Our newer Subie has eight ‘gears’ and is smoother (and peppier) than our older one with six. Since it’s just software, why not 9 gears? Or Eleventy-seven?

  70. 70.

    Phylllis

    @Gvg: Agreed. I drove nothing but manual into my 40’s, then started having issues with recurring sciatica. My doctor told me to switch to an automatic and that problem went away. The issue now is with the continuously variable transmission on my Fit, I keep straining to hear the engine change gears, out of a lifetime of habit.

  71. 71.

    different-church-lady

    @cain: ​
      “They” probably didn’t go to Modello. They probably split up into other light beer brands, and Modello took over the top spot, already being a close second.

  74. 74.

    different-church-lady

    The new Teslas will simulate the sound of not running into walls and other cars.

  75. 75.

    Major Major Major Major

    So I guess Sunday is the deadline for the administration to declassify “everything” about the origins of COVID, per some March legislation. It passed both houses unanimously and was enthusiastically signed so I can’t imagine there’s anything to see, but the lab leak enthusiasts are really working themselves into a lather.

    Could it have been? Sure. Still nothing dispositive either way. But I’d expect something other than everybody holding hands and singing kumbaya if this was gonna be some major revelation.

  76. 76.

    SoupCatcher

    When IDEO was designing the first Apple mouse back in the early 80s they found through testing that people hated it when it didn’t make a sound.  So they made sure it clicked, even though it was not technically necessary.

  77. 77.

    karen marie

    @Percysowner:  I learned to drive on a stick, and I’ve stuck to that because it gives me something to do while I’m sitting there.

    Driving an automatic is so BORING.

  79. 79.

    karen marie

    @Nelle:   omg – I’ve driven a stick my whole life but I think if I were faced with a stick on the other side, plus driving on the wrong side of the road, I’d ask for an automatic.

    Are the gas/brake/clutch still in the same order or are those reversed as well?

    @JaySinWA:  I type for a living, and I don’t remember ever having a keyboard that made no noise.  So weird.  The biggest difference between a computer keyboard and an electric typewriter is the finger pressure on a computer keyboard is less.

  80. 80.

    Redshift

    @Amir Khalid: My Android ringtone for years has been a voice saying “brrrring brrrring!” It’s distinctive and people find it amusing. A couple of previous ones I used disappeared with system upgrades, but this one has stuck around.

  81. 81.

    Major Major Major Major

    @karen marie: the clickiness and the feel of a mechanical keyboard switch are both directly related to the design of the switch (which is also true of membrane keyboards, I suppose). So you can’t have the action without the sound. Apparently the new hip thing is a “buckling spring” switch, replica of some old IBM I think… sound and feel come directly from the action of the spring buckling.

  82. 82.

    JCJ

    @Major Major Major Major:  I wonder if the lab leak enthusiasts believe the 1918 flu pandemic also originated in a virology lab.  Since one of the first cases was near Manhattan, Kansas perhaps there was a virology lab at Kansas State University.   I can hear a 1918 version of Rand Paul babbling on about “gain of function” experiments which is exactly what an ophthalmologist knows a lot about

  86. 86.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Jackie:

    How can you trademark the sound of “potato-potato-potato-potato-potato-potato…”?

    I get hungry for fries every time I hear a Harley!

  87. 87.

    Ruckus

    @JaySinWA:

    much better than Bud Light

    What isn’t?

    And BTW we used to refer to the above beverage as Butt Light. Always seemed more appropriate.

  88. 88.

    Ruckus

    @cain:

    Isn’t it amazing what some men need to be able to actually function as a human being. It doesn’t seem that difficult, billions upon billions of humans have been doing this for, well, eons. I wonder what that big engine is compensating for…..

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @Percysowner:

    Now you can purchase a car with a manual transmission and a dual clutch system. You get the milage without having to actually shift. My Focus gets over 40 mpg on long drives, 30 around town.

  90. 90.

    Origuy

    @Ruckus:

    much better than Bud Light

    What isn’t?

    Bud LIght Next, AB’s zero-carb beer. Although I really can’t say, because it’s been a long time since I drank regular Bud Light. There are some good low-carb beers, but this isn’t one of them.

    One of the better ones is Michelob Light Ultra Gold, which I much prefer.

  91. 91.

    Ruckus

    @Major Major Major Major:

    On my Apple keyboard the only sound is my fingers hitting the keys. One gets used to the lack of noise rather quickly, or at least I did, many, many yrs ago. Besides I have single frequency tinnitus on one side, I was standing too close to an explosion and my hearing drops to zero at the frequency of the tinnitus. I’m on yr 10 with this 24 hr a day buzz in my ear. Good times. So I don’t really care what sounds my car does or does not make.

  92. 92.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @NotMax: how have you managed to do that? I think the original’s been running for around 20 years and the spin-offs for a decade or so. I’ve never been a regular watcher but I’ve seen several episodes over the years. I won’t watch the Special Victims shows because I just find the whole topic depressing, disgusting and just ewww.

  93. 93.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @James E Powell: i am kind of surprised they would go to Modelo. Modelo sounds suspiciously messican from whom they’re still waiting to get paid from for the border fence.

  94. 94.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    I can almost see the logic of the pseudo-stick-shift on the electric-drivetrain car. Might be a bit like the manual override some automatic transmissions have – and in any case, it’s becoming more and more common to have the transmission selector not directly connected to the transmission. (See cars with dial selectors for automatic transmission, or paddle shifters. Also, my dad’s Prius twenty years ago had a transmission selector that was just an electronic switch, because I’m pretty sure the Prius used a continuously-variable transmission.)

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    @Origuy:

    I stopped drinking alcohol 20 yrs ago this year. Didn’t miss it the next day and haven’t since. Was never actually much of a beer person, whiskey rocks was my drink. Back then I traveled a lot for work. Ate out in restaurants on a daily basis. On the road 8-9 months of the year. Worked in professional sports and went to events, which of course were on weekends. Rented enough cars that a Hertz attendant told me I was in the top 5% of renters, which meant I flew and rented cars – a lot. I’d say good times but I’d be lying.

  96. 96.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Ruckus: In my experience every Apple keyboard makes noise, just usually not a lot. They have moving parts! Those butterfly keys they used to use on their laptops make a real ruckus too.

    My favorite keyboard has sort of a nice round feel to the key action and makes a relatively low amount of noise as a result. My second favorite has weirdly noisy springs and only cost $20, but—this is important—it’s pink.

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The keys of course move and there is a spring under the key so yes there is noise but no added sound. So other than my fingers hitting the keys…..

    A real ruckus? Is it getting late where you live?

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    Time sink indeed! I love browsing through ringtones and sound effects. I settled on a classic ’70s Bell Telephone sound for my Galaxy S10e; all of the stock sounds are jarring or too much like bad electronic music. And I use the Alpha sound for notifications. Discreetly gets my attention, but I can sleep through it at night.

  99. 99.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Ruckus: right, mechanical keyboard don’t have added sound either is what I’m saying. The sound is an artifact of the action. The really loud ones are loud because they take more pressure and the switch is designed to snap all the way down once you reach the tip of a barb on the key column. You pick your keyboard based on how it feels to type. I have a super loud one and it’s insanely satisfying to use but my husband doesn’t let me use it much haha.

  100. 100.

    James E Powell

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I know I should not waste time trying to figure out what right-wingers are all in a lather about, but I just don’t understand how “lab leak” leads to “arrest Fauci” and I don’t understand why right-wingers are so invested in it. I mean, does proving “lab leak” mean “Trump is president” or something?

  101. 101.

    Steeplejack

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I am old enough to remember (and love!) the original clicky IBM keyboards. Right now I have a Das Keyboard that is the successor to the one I got when they were the only ones in the clicky market space. Now there are others, of course, and I might be due for a change, because the spacebar on my current keyboard double-strikes occasionally. Minor but irritating.

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I use an Apple keyboard. Light, thin, works great. Minimal key movement and had really good feel. And it recharges with a cable that comes with it and plugs into the back of my monitor.

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    @James E Powell:

    Don’t try to figure out morons and idiots. You’ll just give yourself a migraine. Which are less than fun BTW. And because they are just following the idiots that tell them that they are being used for idiots.

    What I’m saying is that today’s conservatives don’t actually make any  sense or have any concept of logic. They have morons and idiots telling them what to believe and what and who to hate. And they are morons and idiots so they follow the other morons and idiots. IOW they really do not have any actual political ideas or ideals. They are guided by monied people that are using them to make a lot of money and constantly tell them that their lives are worth more than say, ours, although they often live in places that have a lower standard of living, fewer jobs and prospects. Now that’s a political concept for you.

  105. 105.

    NotMax

    @Mai Naem mobile

    how have you managed to do that?

    Not anything ignored intentionally, just the way things shook out. Know in a vague way of its existence but the little I do know never has been inviting enough to sample. Too, the fabric of my patience with commercial-stuffed over the air broadcast TV has grown increasingly threadbare.

  106. 106.

    Tony Jay

    Add me to the ‘never seen any Law & Order’, ever list. I know that there’s lots and lots of them and that Law & Order: Moon is less popular than Law & Order: Marianas Trench, but that’s about it. I guess stories about cops being cool don’t do it for me.

    You need a gearstick for proper driving, otherwise you might as well be imprisoned in an overambitious dodgem car. Also get your fancy new trainers off my lawn, you rascals.

  107. 107.

    Steeplejack

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I have procrastinated a bit because there are so many options now. I don’t even remember which type of switches my Das has. I need to look that up.

    Damn it, I have gotten sucked into Hercules, Samson and Ulysses (1963) on TCM. Classic Italian sand-and-sandal “epic.”

  109. 109.

    bjacques

    I could go for the “manual” option, because that’s what I’ve always driven. I kinda hoped there’d be a market for it. You’d probably want the option to disable it if sharing the car with someone wh never learned to drive stick.

     

    Car rental agencies in Europe are lowering prices on automatic cars these days.

  111. 111.

    Chris T.

    @Another Scott: Personally, I prefer the silent pushback into my seat from my EV. I don’t usually kick it hard off the line, but when I do, it’s fun! Seeing other drivers look a little puzzled (“how did that happen? didn’t hear a thing…”) just adds to that.

  112. 112.

    raven

    @Chris T.: .

    I have Smithy’s Glasspacks on my 66 Chevy truck with a 350

    “The world’s oldest performance muffler, Smithy’s has been around since the twenties!

    It has got the original “glasspack” sound that we all grew up hearing and still sounds cool today.
    3 1/2″ opening ends on each side with the same original looking finished cases only by Smithy’s.”

  113. 113.

    Chris T.

    @Marc: Yes, mine makes such noises (including a beep when backing up). They’re pretty quiet though and don’t sound anything like a vroom-y engine.

    My previous car (which, alas, got totaled on a California freeway) made what the maker called the “TRON sound”. A coworker called it the “spaceship sound”…

  114. 114.

    Chris T.

    @jonas:

    Did Ford and other early car makers have to figure out how to make automobiles “feel” more like horse-drawn carriages back in the day?

    Yes. There’s always a transition period.

  115. 115.

    Chris T.

    @Nelle:

    I was surprised that they didn’t check that we could drive it. But we’d been driving stick in New Zealand so we’re comfortable shifting with the left hand.

    I’ve driven a lot in NZ (and rather less in Oz), and I can drive a stick shift, but I’ve never driven a stick in NZ/Oz. So I have no experience there, but I think I might be OK: the thing that always gets me, when switching driving sides, is the windshield wipers vs turn signal.

  116. 116.

    Chris T.

    @JaySinWA:

    I see a number of keyboard reviews that are obsessed with the keyboard sound and feel. I can get the mushy verses stiff feel, but the audio part never registered with me.

    I got a clicky mechanical keyboard (with, alas, USB cord) after my most recent wireless keyboard/mouse pair started flaking out. The feel is the most important, and you can get a sampler of mechanical switches to test that out, but if you’re buying a Cherry-switch (or equivalent) keyboard and get to choose your sound and feel, you might as well go for whatever you prefer most.

  117. 117.

    Splitting Image

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    how have you managed to do that? I think the original’s been running for around 20 years and the spin-offs for a decade or so. I’ve never been a regular watcher but I’ve seen several episodes over the years. I won’t watch the Special Victims shows because I just find the whole topic depressing, disgusting and just ewww.

    I cut cable in 2002. Never looked back.

    I actually started weaning myself off of TV back in 1990 or so. I followed Seinfeld and the Simpsons throughout the ’90s, but other than that, my TV became a device to watch movies with. It wasn’t really a declaration of war against TV shows. More against the idea of being forced to watch commercials. I also watched one too many movies that had been cut up and censored for broadcast and became an avid DVD collector.

    Anyway, that’s how I’ve avoided seeing an episode of Law and Order to this day. I imagine others have similar stories.

  119. 119.

    Geminid

    Ooof.

    I looked up the 15 day weather forecast for Central Virginia, and it said temperatures for the last week of June will be high 90°s, at least one day over 100°.

    I need to stock up on lime juice. That, sea salt and cool water make a good hydration mix.

  120. 120.

    Geminid

    In news from the wider world, Secretary of State Blinken is on his way to Beijing.

  121. 121.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @James E Powell:

    I just don’t understand how “lab leak” leads to “arrest Fauci” and I don’t understand why right-wingers are so invested in it.

    The background is the conservative belief that they are oppressed heroes and liberals are evil.  Throw in their childish “You’re not the boss of me!” resentment.

    They see Fauci as the person trying to tell them they had to restrict their lives for the common good.  They heard a rumor that there might, maybe have been a lab leak in China and there is something called ‘gain of function’ experiments.  The conspiracy ball starts rolling.  The logical conclusion for a hard core of conservatives is that Covid was a bio weapon released by liberals so we could bully conservatives and condition them into de facto slavery.  Publicly proving who the good and bad guys are, arrests, etc. follow.

    How many conservatives go that far in the crazy conspiracy thinking?  I don’t know.  But there is a scale of how near they are to the ‘deliberate bio weapon’ belief, and they all want to believe they are heroes and Fauci is evil for telling them what to do.

  122. 122.

    evodevo

    @Percysowner: ​
      Also, it’s cheaper and easier to replace a clutch than an auto tranny …our stick-shift ’95 Saturn has had one clutch in 260k…

  123. 123.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Percysowner: Making fake sounds is a safety feature.

    Baseball cards jammed between the wheel spokes make just as much noise and are a helluva lot cheaper… :^p

  124. 124.

    Another Scott

    @mrmoshpotato: My mom had an IBM Selectric II.  Those were loud. (The 029 Key Punch was louder, of course, and less forgiving of mistakes. ;-) Our cat hated it and would bat at the ball as it was flying across the page. If it hit the ball just right, it would mess up the mechanism and we would have to take it in to get fixed. (After a couple of times, I eventually figured out that some leaf spring was just out of place and fixed it myself.)

    IBM’s keyboard division was spun off decades ago and is still alive in Kentucky. You can still get buckling spring keyboards from them – New Model M. It really is hard to beat the feel of those things (they do offer other kinds of switches as well).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  125. 125.

    Steeplejack

    @Another Scott:

    I bought a Correcting Selectric II in the ’70s and loved it. Mine was a “European” model that had a switch which, with the right ball element installed, allowed you to type, say, a tilde or an acute accent (which replaced other symbols over the numerals) and the ball would not advance until you typed the letter to go under the symbol, e.g., ñ, á. Fancy!

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