Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

In after Baud. Damn.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

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

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

“woke” is the new caravan.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Shut up, hissy kitty!

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

Bark louder, little dog.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words (Open Thread)

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words (Open Thread)

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All sorts of things to do after my trip.  Farmer’s market, check.  Help the neighbor cobble together something to keep the 3 big dogs out of the baby bunny nest, check.  (Why am I helping with that even though the fucking bunnies are eating everything in my yard?  Because, that’s why.)

Look at the (fake) Jack Smith twitter feed to see if anything (miraculously) happened over night. It didn’t, check.  I thought the picture in this tweet was great.

Next on the list are the grocery store and the old time meat store, and then I’m going to buy a couple of slices of my favorite pizza so I don’t have to think about cooking anything until tonight.

Did I mention that I came home to not-just-a-heat-warning but to an EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING.  With the heat index it was 108.  It was absolutely brutal.  I had someone watering my garden for me while I was gone, and a bunch of things were bone dry even though she had watered in the morning.  Apparently we had not only heat but also wind.  Good thing I had asked her on Wednesday to move all the pots from the front deck to under the carport.  Still, even those were bone dry.

I bought nectarines at the farmer’s market and as soon s they are ripe enough I will make some popsicles.

Enough rambling.  Happy Saturday!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

155Comments

  3. 3.

    Nina

    Someone (I don’t recall where I read it) said that the chess/checkers picture is not credible because Trump would never play black.

  4. 4.

    Nukular Biskits

    Watergirl, if you don’t mind me asking, where do you live?

    Heat index of 108 is nothing to sneer at, to be sure.

    Here on MS Gulf Coast, it’s currently (at 9:45 Central) 89 degrees with 64% humidity, making a heat index of 100 degrees.

    And it isn’t even noon.

    And what is my stupid ass about to do?  Outside/yard work.

  5. 5.

    RaflW

    All of Wisconsin is some color on the Drought Monitor. But we were treated to round after round of slashing rains and lots of lightning between about 8pm and midnight. Haven’t been out to check the rain gauge closely, but I’m thinking 1.5 inches, maybe a tad more. (Update: BF wen’t out to scare a seagull off our swim raft, and reports 1.8″, but a milkweed sagged and may have blocked some rain?)

    Not drought busting on its own, but the MIL reported that it rained here a few days ago, too, while we were away. So I’m thinking we’ll at least go from Severe to Moderate Drought, or maybe even just Abnormally Dry.

    The river birch we planted last fall near the shoreline finally looks happy (I’ve watered it a LOT but as the name implies, it likes moist conditions!). Our rose of sharon was in full bloom, the flowers look a bit bedraggled this morning (t’was windy too, and the raindrops seemed huge last night. A 76.6º dew point will do that when the front slams thru) but hopefully will still be showy for a bit longer.

    Probably won’t be available for the Sunday gardening thread (BF is speaking at a congregation in Madison tomorrow, and I’ll probably drive him unless this mild summer cold takes a turn).

  6. 6.

    Nukular Biskits

    Also, shamelessly plagiarizing myself from another thread:

    OT, but went to see “Oppenheimer” last night. Well, I watched all but the last 15 minutes or so … the entire neighborhood around the theater lost power. They said we could get a refund but I didn’t want to stand in line with 300 other people.

    Anyway, excellent movie. My only regret is that I could have seen it in IMAX format. Unfortunately, the nearest IMAX theater is over in Slidell, about 60 miles away.

  9. 9.

    zhena gogolia

    I love that TFG can’t come up with the right epithet for Jack Smith. “deranged” is so ridiculous

  10. 10.

    Suzanne

    I had someone watering my garden for me while I was gone, and a bunch of things were bone dry even though she had watered in the morning.  Apparently we had not only heat but also wind.  Good thing I had asked her on Wednesday to move all the pots from the front deck to under the carport.  Still, even those were bone dry.

    Yeah yeah. I get hopelessly annoyed by the statement “But it’s a dry heat!”, because it’s fucking stupid. Humidity, being water, has a moderating effect on temperature. Humidity keeps the temperature from climbing too high. So I will grant that 95 degrees and humid is more uncomfortable than 95 degrees and dry, but that isn’t the comparison that actually occurs. It’s 95 degrees and humid vs 115 degrees and dry. And remember that that 115 degrees and dry is so dry that we’re talking skin cracking and flaking off, nosebleeds, dry eyes, dehydration, etc etc etc.

    The burn center in Phoenix has every bed full with people who came in contact with concrete surfaces and metal railings and got second- and third-degree burns. Dry heat kills people.

  11. 11.

    Yarrow

    @Nukular Biskits:  Stupid and dangerous. You know better. Yard work from dawn until about 9:30 a.m. Then inside. Then back out from maybe 6:30 pm or so until dark. Too hot otherwise.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Must admit “old time meat” acted as a speed bump for the eyes.
    :)

    No Amtrak horror or semi-horror tales? That’s good.

  15. 15.

    OverTwistWillie

    I just can’t with that neo-facist X, and that neo-facist dickhead.

    The crossed hammers ⚒ was the symbol of the jack booted thugs in “The Wall”.

    I guess that tracks with a perpetual fifteen year old multi-billionaire.

  16. 16.

    RaflW

    @Yarrow: When I lived in Austin, TX (the ‘dry heat’ thing was a myth, it was generally very humid, just not Houston-level), I’d do most of my yard work in the golden hour in the evening.

    I learned by doing that there’s a sweet spot where the temp starts dropping but relative humidity doesn’t seem to rise for about an hour. So the comfort level seemed more tolerable. And at least at that yard, the neighbors huge oak shaded me from the long slanted rays so I could get some stuff done. Still, it was hot. For like 6 months of the year, IMO.

  21. 21.

    Yarrow

    @RaflW:  Yep. It’s hot. You have to learn to work around the misery. The golden hour is nice and you usually get about 20-30 minutes when the breeze kicks up.

  24. 24.

    OverTwistWillie

    The news from Iowa is Trump bitch slapped Ron and he didn’t even clap back.

    Sad. Low energy.

    The political press in this country should be ground into hamburders.

  27. 27.

    mvr

    For bunnies eating everything — we grow tomatoes, eggplants and various herbs along with decorative plants Jenny knows more about than I do.  We grow the food plants in the midst of a clover mulch.  We’ve never had a rabbit eating the plants we care about issue because they prefer the clover.  We scatter the seed and then just dig up places for the other plants later in the season.  The clover tends to come back from year to year and helps put nitrogen in the soil as well.

    Nowadays they also have miniclover that grows amongst the grass in the lawn.  Which is good since we now have clay dominant soil in the yard since Spring of 2022 when we had our basement replaced under the house very much changing what soil was on top.

    YMMV.

  36. 36.

    currants

    @WaterGirl OOH what’s your popsicle recipe for nectarines? I make watermelon popsicles for my grandkiddos and it’s the first thing they ask for every year when the get here. And it couldn’t be more simple–watermelon in an immersion blender, squeeze half a lime in (more if it’s not a juicy one), and you can add 1 T of sugar, but I don’t. Whiz up and then freeze.

  37. 37.

    kindness

    I would steal that chess/checkers pic and post it on FB, but I don’t want my feed to be overtly Republican loathing.  I puppies, kittens and sparkly rainbows there.  Yea, I really prefer to zone out in a Barbieland haze on that site.

  40. 40.

    Another Scott

    Relatedly, … GovExec.com:

    The Biden administration has announced no shortage of federal initiatives aimed at addressing the long-term threat of climate change, but fewer to address immediate concerns. Changing that dynamic will require a rethinking of the definition of emergency response and may need congressional intervention. Extreme heat kills 600 people annually, more than die from hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined.

    President Biden on Thursday announced some new federal actions to address the growing threat of heat, such as worker protections through the Labor Department and new funding streams to support state and local efforts. For many, however, the federal government should be taking more direct action to help localities confronting emergency situations.

    The federal government could provide funds for cooling centers through its Public Assistance program, as well as emergency food, water, generators, medical care and other supplies and activities, though that would require an emergency declaration. A recent review by the Congressional Research Service found the federal government has never issued an emergency declaration due to heat and heat is not named in the allowable conditions for such an action. Generally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s regulatory structure restricts actions to those related to physical damage.

    CRS said Congress could consider changing the definition of what constitutes an emergency under the Stafford Act.

    (Emphasis added.)

    Someone on NPR yesterday said that there are national requirements for landlords to provide heating, but none to provide cooling.

    People’s lives are increasingly at stake in elections.

    Eyes on the prizes. Stay cool and safe.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  42. 42.

    OverTwistWillie

    @Baud:

    Republican presidential rivals Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis appeared at the same event in the 2024 White House race for the first time on Friday

     

    I’m sure backstage was like Spinal Tap running into Terry Ladd, with Ron waiting till the orange un-holiness was out of earshot to mutter “wanker” under his breath.

  46. 46.

    JPL

    I have the grand imps Tues, Thurs and Fri next week so Jack will indict on one of those days.   It’s impossible to follow the news when the boys are here.   A two and a four year old demand lots of attention.   I used to have them sleep over on Thursday, but the four year likes to invstigate in the middle of the night.

  48. 48.

    JPL

    @Baud: I didn’t know that I had a basement.   Now for me to go look.

    Ha the four year old can open the doors to go outside, so I will put looks up higher.

  49. 49.

    Almost Retired

    It’s a lovely 70 degree day in the South Bay section of Los Angeles, but what am I going to do?   I’m going out to Palm Springs for the day with my high school friend, who is closing on a retirement condo.  It’s 115 degrees there and even the lizards are complaining.

    I guess it’s “heat tourism” on my part.  Which makes me no better than those buses full of Germans I regularly mock for their August jaunts to Death Valley.  Ach du lieber.  Mrs. Almost Retired – what with her opposition to dehydration and all that – declined an invitation to accompany us.

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, …

    Darth Putin
    @[email protected]

    OTD in 1944 Moscow radio made calls for the Polish resistance to begin the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis. We stopped our army & let the Nazis butcher them so they couldn’t later object to us occupying Poland.

    Something something isn’t even past.

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    raven

    The Farmers Market at Lincoln square I assume? We just had a young lady and her friend stop by for a visit while they help her friends move to Durham. She’s in the final year of her PhD in marine biology and I have known her since she was 5. It’s so touching that she would take the time to come and visit and it makes me a little Sadie never had kids.

  52. 52.

    cope

    @WaterGirl: My wife used to work there oh so many decades ago. One of the perks was getting to take home pizzas left over at the end of the night. I can’t begin to tally up how much of that pizza we consumed late nights when she got off work and I was done working my shift at Barnett’s Liquor Store (now, sadly, gone).

  53. 53.

    Kelly

    It’s been a very good summer here in the western Cascade foothills. Warm enough to swim in the river for half of June and all of July. Maybe 10 days over 90f. We ate our first home grown tomato a couple days ago. The wildfire smoke has stayed too high to smell although the damned grass seed farmers burning their harvested fields have driven us inside twice. The farmer smoke only lasts 2~3 hours.

  55. 55.

    Trollhattan

    All I can add about dry and not-dry heat is at the point your sweat can’t evaporate you will transition to heat stroke very quickly. We luckily don’t do that here but flirt with 110 most summers.

  56. 56.

    suzanne

    @Another Scott:

    Someone on NPR yesterday said that there are national requirements for landlords to provide heating, but none to provide cooling.

     

    It was only fairly recently that Arizona passed a law making it illegal to disconnect electricity for non-payment in extreme heat. I don’t know the status in other states. There were people who died every year because they couldn’t turn the air conditioning on.

    The cost of AC is really high, too. Our bill in the biggest heating month in Pittsburgh is lower than our biggest cooling month in Phoenix, by about $100.

    Housing for all, with cooling, is one critical part of the answer.

  57. 57.

    cope

    @Suzanne: Having just moved from humid (Central FL) to dry (Western Colorado), I can only relate my own personal experience of dealing with heat. The major difference to me is that in a dry heat, just getting out of the direct rays of the Sun offers instant lessening of discomfort. In a humid heat, your sweat doesn’t really evaporate to give a cooling effect on the body so being in the shade is small comfort.

    As a kid in the ’50s, we lived in Saudi Arabia for a few years and before getting hijacked to FL for 33 years, we lived and worked here in Western Colorado so maybe I have a personal preference for the dry but I will take it anytime over the humid.

  58. 58.

    Danielx

    Past week: miserable heat and humidity.

    Today: 75 degrees, bright breeze blowing, cotton candy clouds.

    I’m good.

  59. 59.

    Tenar Arha

    @Nukular Biskits: ouch, 60 miles is a lot.

    I already saw it & 👍👍. But I had to settle for reserving a single seat sandwiched between two groups for a digital projection showing bc it was the only decent one available that opening night on the 20th. So, I decided to try for the 70mm IMAX after reading a couple reviewers, &  I’m taking the day off & going next Tuesday in Boston. AFAICT because that’s also the last day the 70mm IMAX is even going to be available at all.

  60. 60.

    suzanne

    @cope: That comfort-from-shade breaks down in the urban heat islands, in which the hardscape surfaces have absorbed so much radiation for so long that they reflect it back, even in the shade.

  61. 61.

    Alison Rose

    @cope: Yeah, I’ve lived in CA my whole life, where we typically have dry heat. But my mom’s parents (both passed now) moved to Florida when I was in high school, so we started visiting there, and uuggghhhhhh. I hated how you would step outside and just immediately feel sticky. It was like walking through an invisible curtain of slime.

  63. 63.

    raven

    @cope: When my old man was in school at Illinois they had a rich dude that lived in the Sigma Nu house. He would call Piccadilly Liquors and say “Dilly, Kenner, Booze” and they’d deliver. Dad said he could write a check on a napkin anywhere in C-U.

  64. 64.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: Did you know?

    Rep. Nikki Budzinski

    Today’s #farmbill101 Lesson: Did you know?

    Illinois is 3rd in the nation for numbers of farmers’ markets!

    @RepNikkiB July 28

    Although her district is described as 80% urban/suburban, Rep. Budzinski has a seat on the Agriculture Committee and she is making the most of it.

    ,

  65. 65.

    RaflW

    @OverTwistWillie: NYT Opinion’s David Firestone early Friday, but this was telling: “Both men will speak Friday night at the Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, and if Mr. DeSantis leaves his rival unscathed, it’s hard to imagine how he goes the distance.”

    Seems Ronda Simper didn’t even take a single swing at that bloated, obvious target.

  67. 67.

    cope

    @suzanne: Our electric bill here in Colorado during the summer is 1/3 to 1/4 of what it was in FL. A big part of that is that our FL home had standard AC while here in Colorado, we have a brand new, state of the art evaporative cooler, formerly known as a “swamp cooler” back when we lived here previously.

    I don’t know what kind of cooling system you had in Phoenix but swamp coolers are much simpler and have the added advantage of pulling fresh air into the house from outside whereas standard AC is most efficient when your house is essentially sealed and the air in it is constantly recycled to be cooled and dehumidified.

    I agree wholeheartedly about the reality of the heat island effect for sure, that does complicate matters. I spend a considerable amount of time driving around in parking lots looking for shady places to park.

  68. 68.

    raven

    @Geminid: I don’t know how it’s described but that is corn and soybean country!

    Illinois’ 13th Congressional District spans Central and Southern Illinois – covering Macoupin County and parts of St. Clair, Madison, Sangamon, Piatt, Macon and Champaign Counties.

    At the heart of the 13th district is Springfield, the State Capitol of Illinois and home to the Illinois State Fair, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the Lincoln Home National Historic Site and President Lincoln’s final resting place.

  70. 70.

    RaflW

    @Geminid: Farm Bills, authorize most federal policies governing food and agriculture programs, including SNAP. So it’s a huge funder of urban (and suburban, and rural) people needing food assistance.

    In general, I think it’s great to have city folk on the Ag committee. Farmers rely on consumers to need their products as much as city folk rely on farms to grow it. (I’m less sanguine about corn for ethanol, and definitely leery of big ag feedlot systems, but anyway…)

  71. 71.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    I thought the same thing, but then decided it should be a gaudy Dixie Swastika with the stars replaced by white letters spelling out TRUMP.

  72. 72.

    Cameron

    @RaflW: The audience was confused by a rage potato standing in front of them shouting, “Woke! Woke! Woke!” for 20 minutes straight.

  73. 73.

    cope

    @raven: Picadilly was our biggest competitor but at the time when liquor stores were required to be 1,000 feet from university property, Barnett’s had the advantage of being the liquor store closest to campus, located at 1st Street and Green. Our weekend keg sales were insane.

  79. 79.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @RaflW: I get that most elected and donor Republicans, as opposed to their voters, are just hoping trump dies between now and the convention, but at least most of them have the good sense to lie low while he’s still on this side of the grass. I think De Santis is done (usual caveats about who knows what Republicans will do) even if trump snuffs it this afternoon

    From that same Iowa even, trump took the stage to some problematic lyrics, but I’m not convinced yet he wasn’t just trolling, as he seems to like to do with his music

    Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowski 4h

    Team Trump is furious at host IA Governor Kim Reynolds after Trump’s intro song last night started out with the lyrics, “One could end up going to prison.”

    next line is, “one just might be president”

  80. 80.

    RaflW

    @raven: Illinois 13th also contains Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, which I highly recommend to anyone in or visiting the greater St. Louis area. “One of the greatest cities of the world, Cahokia was larger than London was in AD 1250.”

    Right now the sizable interpretive center-museum is closed for significant renovation, but it is a site well worth visiting when it re-opens in about a year. And if you can’t wait, guided tours of the mounds are still available now.

  86. 86.

    Captain C

    @Suzanne:

    Yeah yeah. I get hopelessly annoyed by the statement “But it’s a dry heat!”, because it’s fucking stupid.

    My late dad’s response to that was, “Yeah, well, your oven’s a dry heat, too.”

  87. 87.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @raven:

    see the Dead at the Fox!

    Such a beautiful theater for a 6 hour concert…when I went, even the cops were digging it.

  88. 88.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Yarrow:

    Roses are such a pain. How much are you watering them?

    Enough to keep the soil moist, but not damp.  That’s what’s got me puzzled.

    Before I planted, I tilled in organic compost, a little sand to loosen things up (flower beds originally had nothing but packed construction fill) and 5-5-5, just in case.  Then mulched.

    I’ve lost 5 rose bushes so far.  Looks like I’m going to lose one or two more.

  90. 90.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Tenar Arha:

    All the reviews I had read said IMAX was THE way to view “Oppenheimer”.

    I might still bite the bullet and go over to Slidell next weekend.  HMU and let me know your thoughts if you see it in that format before then.

  92. 92.

    Geminid

    @raven: Budzinski’s district is a fine example of gerrymandering done right-that is, by Democrats. It runs from the Illinois suburbs of Saint Louis through Springfield all the way to Champaign County, and is mostly one county wide. The rural, Republican-heavy 15th CD wraps around it like a horseshoe.

    Republicans complained that Springfield Democrats laid out the 13th with Ms. Budzinski in mind. They probably were right. She has strong ties with Governor Pritzker, as well as with organized labor. Budzinki is a very hard-working woman with a bright future.

    And she has a French Bulldog named “Lulu.”

  95. 95.

    cope

    @raven: Yes, Foremost Liquors and Scott Park. I spent a couple of hours at Scott Park once, head full of mushrooms, just sitting on a swing watching everyone come and go. Good times, good times.

  97. 97.

    Geminid

    @RaflW: Rep. Budzinki and fellow freshman Ag Committee member Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Chicago) are teaming up to defend and enhance the SNAP program.

  98. 98.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Nukular Biskits: There’s an IMAX ~20 minutes from me in PVD. Have tickets for next Friday, but had to pick the 10:00 am showing to get decent seats – most of the later ones had slim pickings.

  101. 101.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Glidwrith:

    Sun is DEFINITELY not a problem … this bed is facing south and has full sunlight until late afternoon.

    Given the original crappy “soil”, lack of iron may just be it.  I’ll try putting a little Ironite around them this weekend and watering it in.

  104. 104.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Nukular Biskits: I drink a good, inexpensive rehydration mix: water, lime or lemon juice, and sea salt. I worked yesterday and went through most of a gallon, probably should have drunk more.

    I walked out into the sun an hour ago and walked right back in. I’m kind of old too.

  105. 105.

    Glidwrith

    @Nukular Biskits: I read smith’s link as well-the pattern of yellowing matters: starting from leaves, it’s iron deficiency. Starting from veins, it’s oxygen.

    The addition of sand could be a problem if the soil has clay. The clay forms clumps like concrete and destroys the aeration needed for the roots.

  106. 106.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Geminid:

    Born/raised in MS.

    I learned a long time ago that when you sweat this much, drinking water ain’t enough. You must replace electrolytes.

    I usually mix some flavor* of Gatorade (about the only “sport drink” I’ll tolerate) with water … I don’t like it full strength.

     

    * Sans “fruit punch”.  I don’t know what kind of monster invented that “flavor” but I’d sure like to kick his ass.  It’s hard to find the other flavors because, apparently, everyone and his brother luvs them some “fruit punch”.

  108. 108.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: Papa Dels used to be on 6th street, on the corner, right?

    Then they moved to a bigger location on Green Street.  Now they are on South Neil street where the pool & food place used to be.

    Which location are you referring to?

  112. 112.

    RaflW

    @cope: Oh, wow. I had a friend in Albuquerque who lived with his aging mom in their split level. It had a swamp cooler (old school). It worked great, but the city was trying to get people to remove them because of water consumption rates.

    Are the new ones stingier on water, to your knowledge?

  114. 114.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    Hole in the wall pizza shop in Queens I would sometimes go out of my way to visit (wasn’t by any definition nearby) made a dynamite pizza topped with strips of fried eggplant and chopped clams.

    I’m anything but a purist when it comes to pizza toppings, but those ones with sunnyside up eggs on top are several bridges too far, IMHO.

  115. 115.

    cope

    @RaflW: We had a Breezair cooler installed when we moved in. It is supposed to consume less water than competing swamp coolers because it only dumps water when the cooler is switched off. Other coolers dump water whenever they cool a room/building to the temperature set on the thermostat.

    Given that, yes, swamp coolers definitely consume water while standard AC does not. However, AC does consume considerably more electricity and creates lots of waste heat.

  116. 116.

    Kirk

    @Nukular Biskits: Like geminid, I mix a ‘natural’ electrolyte in to make my rehydration liquid. In addition to lime and lemon juice, fruit vinegars do well. See “Farmer’s punch” aka “shrubs” – the non-alcoholic versions.

    I really dislike the sugars in Gatorade and its competitors so tend to avoid those.

  117. 117.

    cope

    @raven: Yes, it was…mmmmmm, Steak and Shake.

    And I just had the same experience looking at Google Earth as you…where is everything?

    Truthfully, though, my wife and I visited C-U about 15 years ago with two of her sorority sisters and their SOs and were amazed at how much things had changed. Who would have guessed?

  118. 118.

    Geminid

    @Nukular Biskits: I figured you had a good hydration system. I mainly put mine out there for people who might not.

    For some reason straight water does not appeal to me, but when I add some some lemon or lime juice I can guzzle it.

  119. 119.

    suzanne

    @cope:

    I don’t know what kind of cooling system you had in Phoenix but swamp coolers are much simpler and have the added advantage of pulling fresh air into the house from outside whereas standard AC is most efficient when your house is essentially sealed and the air in it is constantly recycled to be cooled and dehumidified. 

    We had both. Probably most homeowners there do. But evaporative cooling doesn’t work when the dew point is over approximately 45, which it is in Phoenix for essentially the second half of the summer (the monsoon season).

    And again, the biggest problem is when it stays so hot for so long that the surfaces also become radiators. Concrete and asphalt temperatures have approaching 180 degrees in the last two weeks and they trap heat. This is why the people in the homeless encampments are passing out and heat stroking in their tents. Shade is utterly insufficient to deal with the kind of heat I’m talking about, which is what is happening in these places.

    The desert used to be hot in the day and then cool at night when the sun went down. Then, yes, the shade made a difference. That is not the case any longer. They have had 100-degree nights.

  120. 120.

    BC in Illinois

    It’s only 90° today (though the wind-chill factor is still over 100°), but I did see a new comment on the heat, from a FaceBook friend.

    It’s very hot this week!

    So be sure to drink plenty of water and watch how you talk to me . . .

    A good piece of advice.

  121. 121.

    cope

    @suzanne: Good point about night time temperatures, that is crucial.

    Where we live is not particularly urbanized, a bit over 150,000 people spread over a county that is about 3,300 square miles so nothing like Phoenix, the city that shouldn’t be.

  122. 122.

    John S.

    @Kelly:

    Yes, it has been quite lovely here so far this summer. My mother in law was enjoying the weather this past week, but unfortunately she just went home this morning — to South Florida.

  125. 125.

    pika

    Just hopping on to let Jackals know that two Larime pet portraits commissioned as gifts for friends came out wonderfully: each recipient said that Larime “got” the animals’ souls. Highly recommend!

  126. 126.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: You’re right, I think that it was Wright, not Sixth.  But it wasn’t Green.  It was on the corner, one or two blocks north of Green.  Probably one block, but possibly two.

  127. 127.

    WaterGirl

    @NotMax: Eggs on pizza.  Shudder.

    On my trip, we ate at a  really good hole-in-the-wall diner.  Really great burgers. All of them were stuff with something, and several of them came with an egg on top.  At our table, we all said “hold the egg.”

    edit: My burger was excellent, and I am going to try to reproduce it.  Stuffed with chopped jalapeños, with cheddar cheese, really good salsa, and one onion ring on top.

  128. 128.

    SC54HI

    @RaflW: Second this recommendation. Cahokia is a World Heritage Site as well. The National Park Service has a done a reconnaissance survey as part of the process to add Cahokia the NPS system and the National Register.

    Here is a 30-year old driving guide to the greater Cahokia area & southwestern Illinois. The archaeological information is out of date but many if not all of the sites are still there.

  131. 131.

    RaflW

    @cope: I of course ended up googling and am reading a report (pdf) about new systems. Old ones used a thin medium so they didn’t get as big a surface area and thus a smaller temp drop, and it sounds like your’s does the impurity purge infrequently. Old systems sort of continually flushed, also wasting water. (Report says the dump water can even be diverted to one’s garden. Dunno if that might eventually over-mineral the area? Hm).

    Generating electricity can also consume water in the form of cooling towers, so there’s that factor in the total water use in evap vs. a/c.

    We bought a tiny, $30 evap cooler for our mountain condo bedroom. It’s working pretty well for afternoon naps when it’s in the 80s but very low dew points. I bought it mainly in case we have another late-summer/fall fire season that requires closed windows. I suppose eventually without exhaust/intake of fresh air, the room would get too saturated, but so far for 20-40 minute cooling jobs, it works!

    (Someone on BJ asked recently about these cool cubes. I’d say they do about what you can expect a $30 investment to offer… a bit of cooling and, perceptionally, actually more comfort because too-dry air can feel (to me) hotter than just-right humidity)

  133. 133.

    WaterGirl

    @Jackie: Thanks for that!  I don’t particularly care for the look of the micorclover, but I do like the no-mow grass!  And I live right in the “recommended” zone, so that’s a big plus.

    I bet you have to start from scratch – wipe out your existing lawn and sow the seeds. ?”?

  137. 137.

    JaneE

    Heat index?  Try actual temperature of 108.  The thermometer under the patio has gone up to 118, but 110 was more common.  Mid to late afternoon temps.

    This year’s miracle of snow and water has also resulted in higher humidity as the flooded areas are still drying up.  The cattle are up to their knees in grass and loving it.  And mosquitos, but the good news is the swarms nearest us aren’t carrying any diseases so far. Seriously, that is what they said when the county was notified about the excessive mosquitos eating people alive.

  140. 140.

    raven

    @cope: Not across from, that is still Everitt Laboratory. It was down from Follets past the alley and over the Boneyard (that was covered there”.

  142. 142.

    cope

    @raven: I t’s funny but when this conversation started all I could picture was the alley. Thanks for bringing old memories into focus.

  143. 143.

    raven

    @cope: Yea, my buddies were “The Boneyard Navigators” and lived in a house behind the DeLuxe and across the creek.

  147. 147.

    cope

    @raven: We just had had fish sandwiches the other day in homage to The Deluxe…rye bread, sliced onion, yellow mustard.

  152. 152.

    Mokum

    @WaterGirl: yeah, Antica has a powerful oven, I like it.  manolo’s is on campus next to the music department, Oregon street. At least it used to be there, but I emigrated a year ago. We still remember their Spotted Goat.

  154. 154.

    mvr

    @cope: I went to college in Champaign-Urbana for a year before dropping out since college was more like high school than I had hoped. It was back when the drinking age for beer and wine was 19 and Illinois had home rule.  Urbana lowered the drinking age to 18. So I could legally drink on one side of Wright Street but not the other.

  155. 155.

    Tenar Arha

    @Nukular Biskits: I’ll definitely let you know.

    (seemed clear from those reviews that it was only not worth it if you had to sit in the first couple rows bc it just distorts from that viewpoint ;)

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