Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

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

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Monday Afternoon Open Thread

Monday Afternoon Open Thread

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We’re getting a lot of rain here today, which is good. The river is so low it’s a pain in the ass to get the boat out of the lagoon. But the exposed banks seem to bring more feathered visitors, like this Roseate Spoonbill I saw just now:

Monday Afternoon Open Thread 2

Over the weekend, we also had a couple of Black-Bellied Whistling Duck visitors:

Monday Afternoon Open Thread 3

We generally call them BBWDs for short.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

92Comments

  1. 1.

    Old School

    Awesome.  Congrats on the rain.  As long as you didn’t have any plans to be outside.

  2. 2.

    japa21

    Damn, Betty.  I remember when you used to say you couldn’t take good photos.  These are beautiful.

  5. 5.

    JML

    A/C hasn’t been working right today during contract negotiations. You can’t make this up. If this were a Hollywood script, it’d get tossed for hackery.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    it’s a pain in the ass to get the boat out of the lagoon

    If that’s not a euphemism it sure as shootin’ deserves to be.
    :)

  7. 7.

    frosty

    According to eBird a Roseate Spoonbill is hanging out in Baltimore Harbor. I’ve got to get down there soon, if it hasn’t left already.

  8. 8.

    S Cerevisiae

    Beautiful shots, particularly of the spoonbill! Whenever I see one Cream starts playing in my head; that spoon, that spoon, that spoonbill…🎵

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I can’t NOT stop and look whenever one drops by. It isn’t great for my productivity, but this is why I live here.

    This fall I’m going to a family reunion thing up in the Panhandle, and I’m planning to go hunt for an American Flamingo that has been spotted frequently in a marshy wildlife preserve ever since it got caught in the eye of a hurricane down south and deposited on that shore (allegedly).

    I saw a flamingo in the wild once while camping on an island in Tampa Bay, of all places. It left a feather on the beach that I sported in a hatband for ages until the kids got ahold of it.

  11. 11.

    Doc Sardonic

    This is the Florida that most people don’t see, and that brings back memories from my younger days. Unfortunately, it’s time for this native to pack up his carpetbag, before I can’t get rid of my house.

  14. 14.

    JoyceH

    I’m back from my California trip. Everything went well and I had a great time. I’d like to be fitter, and those incredible hikes through airports are a bit much, but I’m pleased to know that I’m at least fit enough to go places and have fun.

  16. 16.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:

    Just read your link and it’s no longer twitter, it’s now X. Of course the link is twitter.whatever but the title in the upper left corner of the site is X. I believe that I may be done with it. I used to be on it for hours a week, now I maybe am on for less than 5 minutes a week. I may close my account just for the hell of it.

  17. 17.

    AM in NC

    Wow Betty, your bird photography is really getting good!  Not that it was crap before, but you know what I mean.

  18. 18.

    Salty Sam .

    @Yutsano: QUACKERS!!!

    NO!  WHISTLERS!!!
    They really do whistle as they fly overhead- a really high pitched warbling whistle.  Not duck-like at all…

     

    ETA- MOAR SPOONBILLS!

  19. 19.

    Gravenstone

    @Ruckus: Apparently they couldn’t be bothered to ensure the availability of @X, so someone else holds that user name.

  20. 20.

    Mike in NC

    I guess it was several years ago, but the phone rang one day and a neighbor asked, “Mike, what are those things by your bird feeder?” I had never seen ‘black-bellied whistling ducks’ before and they haven’t returned since. They seem to be common in Florida and Georgia.

  21. 21.

    sab

    @Doc Sardonic: I moved from north central Florida at age twelve in 1966. I still miss sunrises and sunsets, the amazing birds, and the inland waterways. Nothing I have seen since, all over the country, matches.

    But I expect the star-studded night sky is long gone as development increased.

  22. 22.

    Ruckus

    @Gravenstone:

    I’m putting it down to not actually thinking the whole thing through. You know, when you change the name of a business you have to change everything. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. Not in elon world.

  23. 23.

    Steeplejack

    I think I’ve finally found the alternative to Twitter! This new X app looks pretty good. Check it out, guys!

  24. 24.

    Ken

    @Ruckus: I have a suspicion that this will work about as the many renaming attempts by cities. You can change the signs to “Alderman Dan Smith Boulevard”, but everyone in town is still going to call it Water Street.

  28. 28.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    We have next door neighbors who are fairly private but always friendly.  They never attend any neighborhood functions.  We had about a dozen other neighbors over Friday night to break in our new fire pit.  The neighbor whose house backs up to the private neighbor was complaining to me about some tree branches over the power lines that are near her border.  She called the power company but she was told it was not her property so the private neighbors would have to call.  This conversation was less than 2 minutes.  When I woke up Saturday and walked the dog all the branches over the private neighbor powerlines had been cut and were curbside in front of private neighbors house.  I found this to be rather……unsettling.

    I always feel like, somebody’s watching me.

  30. 30.

    Doc Sardonic

    @sab: The stars are still here in my little(but rapidly growing) area. But if I really want to get a good view of the stars, I just jump in my my Jeep and take a 30 minute jaunt up to the forest and park  by Little Blue, stretch out on the hood and watch the night sky for a while.

  31. 31.

    cope

    Thanks for the spoonbill shot, our favorite bird.  When we moved to FL (very much against my will) from CO in 1989, the birds were the first thing that I allowed myself to like about the place. Having moved back now, they are among the few things we miss.

    We moved back to western CO largely because all my family is here. As such, I can see why your family connections to FL will keep you there for the duration. Me, I’m looking forward to voting against Lauren Boebert this fall and being able to come home after that and knosh on some dummies.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    Over the weekend, we also had a couple of Black-Bellied Whistling Duck visitors:

    Oh, you whistling beasts.

  39. 39.

    Doc Sardonic

    Sound does carry well at night. My little neighborhood is like an amphitheater, you can hear everything.

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    @cope: Dummies? Anyhoo, I’m glad you’re back where you belong, even if that means two fewer sane voters in FL. The short stints where I lived out of state, I missed Cuban food (bread especially) the most. I could replicate the dishes but not the bread.

  45. 45.

    Doc Sardonic

    Without the Palmetto frond you just can’t do it, also requires lard. Cuban bread ain’t vegan.

  47. 47.

    sab

    @mrmoshpotato: We had a pileated woodpecker which I usually see once a year and assumed migrated. They don’t. One was issuing raucus territorial calls in my backyard yesterday. So they have always been near me but I just didn’t notice. Cool birds.

  49. 49.

    delphinium

    Gorgeous picture of the spoonbill-looks like a pink angel descending to earth!

    Also, am thinking of maybe doing my own double feature with Oppenheimer, ‘Across the Oppen-Verse’ if there is a theater nearby playing both the Spider Man and Oppenheimer movies. I really enjoyed the first Into the Spider Verse movie and have been meaning to see the sequel.

    ETA: fixed typo

  51. 51.

    sab

    @Betty Cracker: Back in 1960s north central Florida we got no benefit from Cuban culture. They were all in Miami and we were closer to Jacksonville and Georgia.

    But we did get excellent Spanish classes with a Cuban accent every day on TV from first or second grade on through.

    When we moved to Ohio nobody got any language until middle school, which is a bit late. I took my first year of French from Madame Garcia, who understood the Spanish I came into class with. It made her laugh. Her French was good, but my next teacher’s was awful. She wanted to be teaching us her ancestral Czech.

  52. 52.

    cope

    @Betty Cracker: I am going to have to fire my editor who is…me. Gummies are much more fun to gnosh than dummies (spellcheck even has problems with gnosh).

    I spent my teen years in the Chicago area before moving out west in 1970.  Italian beef is a concrete connection to my youth. I can make the meat and the gravy/juice but the bread…it’s just damned near impossible to replicate elsewhere in my experience. In other words, I understand your yearning for a regional baked delicacy.

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    @sab: Tampa is home to a large population of Cuban Americans and has been for ages — that’s who made all the cigars and invented Cuban sandwiches, though Miami erroneously claims that distinction. ;-)  It is the closest city to my home town, so we always knew about Cuban food and had access to Cuban bread. I do load up on Tampa-style Cuban bread when I visit. Publix sells Cuban bread, but it isn’t as good (but better than no Cuban bread).

  55. 55.

    sab

    Current issue in our marriage: he thinks I mumble ( I do.)  I think he is deaf and needs a hearing aid (he is and he does.)

    Standoff here, but the deaf guy usually wins because he cannot hear WHAT I AM SAYING BECAUSE HE CANNOT HEAR!!

  57. 57.

    sab

    @Betty Cracker: We were east coast. Daytona and Ormond.

    ETA Our only Hispanic family in my school were from Chile. I think their dad was a doctor in the hospital where my dad worked,

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    @cope

    spellcheck even has problems with gnosh

    Gonna go out on a limb and surmise that’s because it is spelled nosh.
    ;)

  61. 61.

    Alison Rose

    Here’s a bit of nice news out of my nice state:

    Children and teens in foster care across California will be able to attend state and community colleges free of charge under legislation signed into law this week.

    Through the new Fostering Futures program, the state will allocate $25 million to cover tuition for foster youth attending a California State University, University of California or a community college, according to state Sen. Angelique Ashby’s office.

    The funding also covers the cost of housing, books and food.

    “Far too many foster youth want to go to college, and are unable to afford it,” Ashby, who authored the bill, said in a statement. “This funding will ensure that California’s most vulnerable young people can take agency over their lives by seeking higher education.”

    There are approximately 60,000 children in the state’s foster care system and lawmakers say the vast majority of them, or 96%, want to receive higher education.

    While 64% of foster youth graduate high school in California, only 4% currently obtain a four-year college degree, according to Ashby.

    The bill became law as part of a budget agreement signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday.

  62. 62.

    trollhattan

    When the girl was younger she did zoo camps in summer and when old enough to help with the critters, swooned over the baby whistling ducks to such an extent it felt like I had to check her pockets for “stray” ducklings when picking her up.

    They are cute as a cute thing to be sure.

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @sab:

    Standoff here, but the deaf guy usually wins because he cannot hear WHAT I AM SAYING BECAUSE HE CANNOT HEAR!!

    Of course a hearing test could be the tie breaker.

    My mother has been reasonable about most things as she gets older, but for some reason she refused for the longest time to get a hearing aid, and sometimes will not use it. And yet when she does, she is happy to be able to hear everyone.

  64. 64.

    cope

    @NotMax: Thank you, I wondered why I had so much trouble confirming the spelling.

    I will now leave the computer and take the dog out in the 100 degree heat to have her daily play date with my sister’s dog at her place while I sit in the shade with my ice tea.

  67. 67.

    sab

    @Betty Cracker: I love Cuban food, but we don’t have it in Ohio. Oddly, western Michigan does because of Mariel boat people. They were new there when I lived there in the eighties. They bonded with the Mexican migrants at least culturally (food.) Different but on the same page. Dutch and Scottish food just wasn’t their thing.

  68. 68.

    Betty Cracker

    @Brachiator: My mom’s mother was deaf as a post and often refused to wear her hearing aids. She had the sometimes hilarious habit of repeating back what she THOUGHT you had said, no matter how preposterous, instead of just asking you to repeat it. So, we’d have conversations like, “My friend Cathy is a nurse,” to which Gran would reply, “SHE STOLE YOUR PURSE?!?”

  70. 70.

    mrmoshpotato

    @The Lodger: “We made a single gnosh for dinner but it’s really, REALLY BIG!  Grab a fork and knife and a gallon of Alfredo sauce!”

  71. 71.

    sab

    @Brachiator: Some of my sister’s nephews-in-law work with hearing aides professionally. As your hearing goes your brain shuts down on processing it. Classic don’t use it you lose it. That is my fear with husband. That is where my dad has been for twenty years.  He lost it.  Hearing aides don’t work for him. If I have to screech at my husband for the next few decades I would rather just move on.

  73. 73.

    Doc Sardonic

    Well, I know what my weekend menu is now. Pernil, Moros y Christianos, Yucca con Mojo, a big loaf of Pan de Cubano and Flan. Maybe a lavender flan if I’m feeling my inner foodie, but most likely the classic, sometimes my inner foodie needs to stay in the pantry and not make work for me.

  75. 75.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Ruckus: Though it may not be X for long. Meta owns a trademark for X as it relates to “online social networking services… social networking services in the fields of entertainment, gaming and application development…” although Meta’s version looks different, so there may be wiggle room there.

    OTOH, Twitter new mark appears to be a generic Unicode character known as “mathematical double-struck capital X.” Unicode characters cannot be copyrighted or trademarked. It was added to Unicode in March 2001, and has “been used in mathematical text books since the 70s.”

    The new logo is also appears identical to the “x” in the Monotype font “Special Alphabet 4” — which I’m sure Monotype has copyrighted.

    Any patent attorney jackals in the house?

  76. 76.

    Ken

    @Ruckus: @Gravenstone: The new eX-twitter may have a few other issues, depending on how service mark 2693757 is interpreted by the USPTO or by its holder, Microsoft Corporation.

    Maybe Musk can get around it by forbidding any potentially-infringing uses on eX-twitter. Those would include “providing information on computer games, video games, video game consoles and accessories therefor via the Internet”, which I’m sure wouldn’t be hard to eliminate from the platform.

  77. 77.

    sab

    OT My husband stopped drinking 45 years ago. In hot weather he loves non-alcohol sangria. Grape juice not over sweetened, with sliced oranges and sliced apples and any other sliced fruit in season. Put it in a pitcher, refrigerate, and serve it late in the day when everyone is tired and cranky from heat. It is so refreshing.

  82. 82.

    Scout211

    @tom: update on that:

    Link

    According to SFPD, officers from the Tenderloin Station responded to the area of 10th and Market streets on a report of a possible unpermitted street closure. However, an SFPD spokesperson told KRON4 that investigators were able to determine that no crime was committed.

    “The incident was not a police matter,” SFPD said.

  85. 85.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Doc Sardonic: ​
     

    And by chance is your private neighbor’s Wi-Fi SSID NSAPSYOP, or FBI and a series of numbers?

    My next-door neighbor named his modem FBI Surveillance Van.

  86. 86.

    Jay

    Still not a Drag Queen, a book or Trans,……

    The former chair of the Alliance for a Pro-Life Alabama, who more recently served as an official in the Alabama State Department of Education, was ousted from the education department last week after being indicted on child sexual abuse charges, the Alabama Political Reporter first reported on Friday. Marty Decole “Cole” Wagner is accused of sexually abusing a child under the age of 12 and was indicted by a grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, on June 30. An unnamed source familiar with Wagner’s case told the outlet that the child victim in question is actually under 10 years of age.

    https://news.yahoo.com/alabama-anti-abortion-leader-indicted-144500449.html

  87. 87.

    frosty

    @Betty Cracker: Same as real cheesesteaks from Philly. Lots of people make and sell them but you can’t get the right bread anywhere else. And they don’t taste right without it.

  88. 88.

    currants

    @Doc Sardonic:

    sometimes my inner foodie needs to stay in the pantry and not make work for me.

    What a FANTASTIC way of putting it. This is a problem I regularly encounter, and now I know who to scold when I talk to myself!  :-)

  89. 89.

    lowtechcyclist

    @sab: ​
     

    Hearing aides don’t work for him.

    They probably all quit after the first day, the way he acts. ;-)

  92. 92.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Sister Golden Bear: Trademark attorney jackal is who you’re looking for, and in my IP-trained opinion I agree that Musk did absolutely no due diligence or clearance searches to check and see if he could use this. I’m not sure if he checked with an attorney or not, and he probably completely ignored their advice if he did check. I’m going to stock up on popcorn and keep checking IPLaw 360 and the TTAB blog (although it’s going to take a while for results to shake out, as the trademark side of USPTO is also backlogged)

     

    ETA; see Ken at #76 above for an exact cite to a competing registered trademark.

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