Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

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

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

No one could have predicted…

We are aware of all internet traditions.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

The words do not have to be perfect.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

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

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

This blog will pay for itself.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Mishmash and Hodge Podge Post

Mishmash and Hodge Podge Post

by | 45 Comments

This post is in: 

It’s been awhile since we had one of these Mishmash and Hodge Hodge posts!

In no particular order:

Ajabu Update (and FREE CD Offer)

Balloon Juice really came through for Ajabu with donations of $3,250!  As a special thank you to anyone who gave $100 or more, Ajabu would like to send you one of his CDs free of charge.  So if that resembles you, please send me your contact info so Ajabu can mail your CD!

Ajabu is kind of bummed that only the people who donated by check are getting CDs so far, so don’t be shy.  He paid for the CDs long ago, so the only cost to him is mailing, which is negligible.  He would really like to do something tangible as a thank you.

And, frankly, if you donated $25 but that meant you had to eat ramen noodles for a few days, I’m sure he would like to send you a CD, too.

I’m sure Ajabu will chime in below to share his infinite gratitude for helping him to get back on his feet.

⭐️

Artists / Authors in Our Midst

I was horrified to discover this week that I had dropped the ball on an Artists post way back in 2020.  So if you ever contacted me about an Artists or Authors post, and I dropped the ball, don’t take it personally – let’s pick it back up!

And if you are an author or an artist who hadn’t contacted me previously, don’t be shy about getting in touch if you would like to share with us.

We have an Authors post scheduled for today at 2 pm.

⭐️

Quiltingfool Ukraine Quilt Raffle (or Auction)

Coming soon!

⭐️

$250 remains on the PatrickG Angel Match

We’re at $10,375 on the thermometer for our two Virginia delegates, with $250 remaining on the match.  I wouldn’t want our Angel to think his angel match wasn’t appreciated!

Thermometer is in the sidebar and is in the 3-dot hamburger menu on mobile.

⭐️

Possible Offer of a Match for Ukraine

Pretty sure I dropped the ball on this, too, because the timing wasn’t right and I was swamped.  Sincere apologies for that!  If that was you and you are in a forgiving mood and want to reach out to me again, please do.  Otherwise I will dig through my email and contact you with my abject apologies!

⭐️

Four Directions Zoom Coming Up Soon

I have spoken with the folks at Four Directions, and there’s a good overlap of their priorities and ours again for this cycle, so we’ll be setting up a zoom soon so they can tell us what they’ve been up to.

⭐️

Guest Posts on “What Has Biden Done for Me Lately” (on a personal level) 

Some of you happily agreed to put together a guest post on how you have personally been impacted by some of Biden’s programs. If you are one of those people, could you drop me a line to let me know whether that’s still in the works or if you have changed your mind?

Either one is fine; I would just like to know.

⭐️

Balloon Juice Pet Calendar

It looks like Cafe Press still doesn’t have their calendar option available.

We are looking into Zazzle or some other option.

In the meantime, please start going through your photos for good, high resolution photos of your pets!   Because the timeframe for submission will be shortened as we figure out the road ahead.

⭐️

Postcard Writing & Music Posts

The postcard writing and music posts will be on Saturdays at 8 pm.  (skipping Tuesdays until further notice.)

⭐️

Talk of Meetups – Followup

oops, I planned to include this, but forgot.  I will be getting back to this soon.  I still have the original Talk of Meetups post open in a browser tab for followup.

⭐️

General Request

Work for my summer client pretty much kicked my ass this year, so I know I dropped the ball on some things.  Now that things are settling down, I would appreciate if you would follow up with me on anything I dropped the ball on.

⭐️

Open thread!

 

 

Reader Interactions

45Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    It’s been so long since I did one of these that I had forgotten that either no one reads them or no one comments on them

    This reminds me of Cole, where I sometimes have to ask him to at least grunt as an indication that he has at least read what I wrote, even if he doesn’t reply.

    Which means that I get a text that says only “grunt”!  Which is fine with me, because at least I know he read what I wrote. :-)

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    This seems like a good fit for a Mishmash and Hodge Podge Post: Lost ‘holy grail’ film of life in Brazil’s Amazon 100 years ago resurfaces

    A long-lost Amazon documentary described as “the holy grail of Brazilian silent cinema” has been rediscovered nearly a century after it went missing.

    Amazonas, Maior Rio do Mundo (Amazon: Longest River in the World)was stolen from the original director, Silvino Santos, shortly after it was made in 1918. Just over a decade later, it had completely disappeared. The film resurfaced earlier this year in a Czech archive and was identified by specialists in Italy and Brazil.

    “It’s basically a miracle,” said Sávio Stoco, the Brazilian expert on Santos who confirmed the discovery. “We didn’t have the slightest hope that this work would one day be found.”

    A Portuguese-born cinematographer who spent most of his life in the Amazon, Santos was one of the main non-fiction film-makers of early 20th century Brazilian cinema. He is best remembered for his 1922 documentary No Paiz das Amazonas (In the Country of the Amazons), which experts read as an attempted remake of his lost production.

    The 1918 film is considered a rare gem of Brazilian cinematography for its length, subject matter, and quality of composition. Featuring fascinating footage of the Amazon forest’s diverse landscapes and inhabitants – including some of the earliest known moving images of the Indigenous Witoto people – the feature-length film “mixes different dimensions of the documentary genre into a very enjoyable narrative for the viewer”, explains Stoco, a professor of visual arts at the federal university of Pará in Belém.

    However, a negative copy of an older, now disintegrated nitrate print of the film survived at the Národní filmový archiv, in Prague, where it had been miscatalogued as a US production from around 1925. Doubting its labelling, a curator sent a copy earlier this year to Jay Weissberg, a specialist in silent cinema.

    “Within seconds, I knew it was not 1925, it was much earlier, and it certainly had nothing to do with anything anyone in the US might have made,” says Weissberg, who is director of Italy’s Pordenone silent film festival where the documentary will be screened this week.

    Stoco then confirmed Weissberg’s hunch that the Amazon footage was “the holy grail of Brazilian [silent] documentaries”.

    I won’t say it’s a miracle but it is quite miraculous.

  3. 3.

    Nancy

    Hi Watergirl,

    I have been in that “ball-dropping, losing important pieces and forgetting others, not recalling work and planning for projects that I actually did, then finding said work all too late” kind of place maybe since March.

    I continue to be impressed by your efforts. I count on Balloon-Juice* for reality checks and sanity. What that may say about me will remain unspoken. You are a large part of why it all works.

    I’m going to donate while I’m getting paid regularly and increase my Patreon automatic from the minimum because I get so much from this community.

    Everyone* but right now I’m responding to H2O Woman.

  5. 5.

    Anoniminous

    Re: Dropping the Ball

    I have had my full run of Covid vaccinations and my skin STILL hasn’t turned chartreuse and my head is STILL (sadly) lacking tentacles.

    I would appreciate your attention to this matter.

  7. 7.

    Mousebumples

    I mentioned this late in the postcarding thread last night, but unfortunately, I’m booked or out of town (or both) for I think all remaining Saturdays this month. Happy postcarding to all, and I’ll miss interacting with you all in the threads, but hopefully next time/cycle! And I’ll keep postcarding on my own time. 😊

  8. 8.

    Anoniminous

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     
    No. Nothing. Zip. Nada.

    Depressing.

    The only “benefit” was neither She Who Must Be Obeyed or myself ended up in the hospital, ventilated, while gasping for breathe while we drowned in our own lung fluids.

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    @Mousebumples: Sorry you won’t be able to be there!  I hope you will still keep reminding folks about the postcard posts in the comments, though.

    Sometimes that’s a reminder to me –” oh shit, I forgot, I have to put the post together for tonight!”

    :-)

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: I am scheduled for a week from tomorrow.

    Here, CVS makes appointments – and even sends texts to remind you to make your appointment – but overbooks so they don’t actually have the vaccine when you get there.

    And they don’t bother to call you to say they are out!

    So while I have the appt scheduled in a week, I’m not confident that I’ll get the vaccine at that time.

  12. 12.

    Mousebumples

    @WaterGirl: I can try but depends on the weekend. I will probably not be in threads much some weekends due to said plans, but I think I saw HE Wolf remind people yesterday, which was great since I late/behind like all day, lol.

  13. 13.

    Another Scott

    +$126 on the Thermometer.  Thanks PatrickG and WG and everyone!

    Time is getting short – voting is already underway (I voted Friday).  I hope we can finish this this week.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  16. 16.

    eclare

    @WaterGirl:

    CVS does that?  Wow.  We pretty much only have Walgreens here in Memphis, and they do a good job from my experience.

    There is only one CVS near me, and this may sound odd, but the store always seemed dirty to me.  I finally figured out why:  it had carpet.  I never go there now.

  17. 17.

    Paul in Jacksonville

    I’m still interested in a North/Central Florida jackal get together. I’ll coordinate it if you can supply me with email addresses of anyone willing to meet up.

  18. 18.

    H.E.Wolf

    @WaterGirl ​[to Mousebumples]: I hope you will still keep reminding folks about the postcard posts in the comments, though.

    @Mousebumples [to WaterGirl]: I can try but depends on the weekend. I will probably not be in threads much some weekends due to said plans, but I think I saw HE Wolf remind people yesterday, which was great since I late/behind like all day, lol.

    * * *
    I think BlueGuitarist gets the credit for that one! :)

    No worries – we’ll all keep crowdsourcing the reminders, and we’ll maintain a place for you at the postcard table, because you’ll definitely be there in spirit. Thanks for being a moving force on this project!​

    [ETA: fixed whatever the heck I did to the formatting]

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    @Paul in Jacksonville: Yes, thanks for the reminder.  I intended to include that in this post and I have just updated the post up top.

    I still have the original Talk of Meetups post open in a browser tab so I can pick that back up in the next week or so.

  24. 24.

    H.E.Wolf

    Michael and Kim – “endorsed by the wolf pack at Balloon Juice”! :)

    ETA: which is to say, I talk the talk, Wolvesvalley walks the talk!

  26. 26.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @WaterGirl: I have my appt with the county health dept next Saturday but they had the disclaimer about running out. I’m hoping they’d text if that happened, but 🤷.

    Thanks again for all you do for Balloon Juice! I second some of the remarks above thanking you.

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    @Alison Rose: There is a carpet in one drugstore here that I only went to 3 times – because they carried something none of the other stores did.  Sadly, they no longer carry that, so I haven’t been back.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    @BeautifulPlumage:  Before at CVS, you could get on an informal cancellation list, where if you lived really close by, they could call you at 6 or 7 pm if there had been cancellations – so you could run right over and get a shot that was thawed at the beginning of the day for someone else.

    When I inquired about that last week, they said they can no longer do that because the shots come in individual servings now.  When I said, “yeah, but at the end of the day, or the end of the week, you should still have extra shots available, right?” they said “nope!  We have overbooked people by about 60 or 70 shots a week.”

    Sigh.

  33. 33.

    Barbara

    @WaterGirl: ​It might not be overbooking so much as not getting shipments as planned. Either way, I agree that is infuriating that they think it totally okay to waste your time like this.

  34. 34.

    WaterGirl

    @Barbara: There may be some of that, too.  There definitely is.

    But they outright told me the website was scheduling 60 or 70 shots a week MORE than what they knew they would have.

  37. 37.

    kalakal

    Watergirl,

    You’ve been doing a great job of holding this together and there’s a lot of grateful people because of that. The downtime last year certainly taught me how much I rely on this place.

    I feel like I’ve been dripping balls for months what with so much stuff happening at home and work. At the moment it seems everytime I see the finish line something floods 😄.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Anoniminous:

    my head is STILL (sadly) lacking tentacles. 

    I imagine that would make for some very interesting interesting sleeping modifications.

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @kalakal: Your flood at the library is a big Joe Biden deal, though not in a good way!  Seems like you have been handling it with grace, and I loved your story about your boss saying these guys know that place, so they will be based there, and those guys know that other place, so they’ll be based there, but you and I know nothing so we’ll be here in this little cubbyhole.

    Sounds like you have a great relationship with your boss.

  40. 40.

    kalakal

    @WaterGirl:

    Thanks, that flood really didn’t help.

    Sounds like you have a great relationship with your boss.

    Yes, I’m lucky there. I have a lot of professional respect for her having been in a similar post myself back in the UK ( though her job is, I think, tougher ) and we are both tea fiends.

  41. 41.

    Ajabu

    Thought I’d jump in (even though the conversation has gone in multiple unrelated directions) to Amen what Watergirl said about my infinite gratitude. IS IT EVER! When the original post about my situation went up I was literally down to my last $50 with $4000 in bills facing me requiring immediate payment and my only steady gig on hiatus for dog knows how long… YOU GUYS CAME THROUGH FOR ME BIG TIME AND THERE’S NO WAY I CAN EVER THANK YOU ENOUGH! I wouldn’t say I’m a lurker but definitely admit to casual commenter. Mostly because the nature of my work means I mostly hit dead threads so my commentary is irrelevant by the time I have any worthwhile to say. And yet, the jackals treated me like I was a front pager. I truly love the BJ jackals! (Pro tip: Do not become an elderly non-famous musician. It’s a poor career choice…) And Thank you all again for your help!!!

    Now, to the business at hand: The only way I can even attempt to repay you for your generosity is with product from my unique skill set so I’m sending out CDs. I can’t send them to everyone who donated or I’d be returning most of what I received in donations but I’m selectively giving to the people who went over the top to help ($100 or more) and anyone who hurt themselves to help me. To do this, I need physical addresses. I only have the ones who mailed checks. Everybody else, I have names (not nyms) so I can’t even thank you online. So, we have only two options if you want to be the proud recipient of my music :) – Either have Watergirl give me your mailing address or, if that makes you uncomfortable, I can bulk mail the CDs to Watergirl and she can forward them. And, I just thought of a 3rd option: If you’d like expedite it, email me your address directly and I’ll send them when I get it. (My email is: ajabu86 at yahoo dot com). To quote the lunatic fringe —I Report, You Decide.   Once again, Thanks to All for the Bailout!!

  43. 43.

    Another Scott

    For folks who are able to donate, but are wondering if their contribution will matter – BlueVirginia.US:

    With 30 Days Until VA Election Day 2023, Chaz Nuttycombe’s Latest Ratings Have Dems with 71% Chance of Senate Majority, 57% Chance of HoD MajorityChaz has 8 ratings chances (6 in the “blue” direction and 2 in the “R” direction) in this latest update…

    With just 30 days until Virginia’s 2023 Election Day (11/7), political analyst Chaz Nuttycombe is out with his latest forecast. See below for highlights, and CNalysis – here for more detail on the House of Delegates and here for more detail on the State Senate.

    In sum:

    […]

    – As for the House of Delegates, Chaz has it at 49D–48R, with three tossup races, and with a 57% chance of a Democratic majority vs. a 34% chance of a Republican majority, plus a 9% chance of a 50-50 tie (which would require some sort of power-sharing arrangement).
    – Chaz has three tossup House of Delegates districts: HD82 (Democrat Kimberly Pope Adams vs. Republican Del. Kim Taylor); HD21 (Democrat Josh Thomas vs. Republican John Stirrup), and HD97 (Democrat Michael Feggans vs. Republican Del. Karen Greenhalgh).

    Every little bit can make a difference. Let’s not leave any points on the field!

    Thanks everyone.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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