DAY OF THE DEAD:
Hundreds of people dressed as skeletons took to the streets for an early celebration of the Day of the Dead in Mexico City. Yesterday's parade is one of many events for "Día de Los Muertos" celebrations. pic.twitter.com/zymNm6wXOW— KTVN 2 News (@KTVN) October 23, 2023
When I was a wee child in parochial school, the nuns’ Baltimore Catechism said that All Saints’ Day (November 1) was for ‘calendar’ saints — those who were named in the 365 days of the official liturgical calendar — and All Souls’ Day (November 2) was for the rest of our beloved deceased, most especially those who might need a little additional prayer-boosting to move them from Purgatory to the higher plane of Heaven. (Then the Second Vatican Council dropped a whole bunch of the ‘official’ saints for insufficient historical documentation, precursing Wikipedia and pissing off a great many believers in those no-longer-publicly-celebrated icons…)
Regardless of the precise theological dating, it had long been a(nother) three-day observance, in a season when many cultures in the Northern Hemisphere mark the shift from harvest abundance to winter rigor. A time when the veil between present, past, and future seems thinnest… and one where it behooved every community member to settle old grievances and prepare to be cooped up together for the hard dark days.
We’ve all been talking, in recent days, about how the encroaching darkness is making us sad and reminding us of how much we’ve lost, individually and collectively, in the past months…
Good Washington Post story (with a terrible headline) on ofrendas and their purpose — [unpaywalled gift link]:
Enrique Quiroz didn’t know his grandparents, but you would never suspect that if you heard him talk about his grandmother.
He can tell you what she looked like and what sweater she loved wearing. He can tell you what she cooked and what phrases she was known for saying.
“I feel like I know her,” he told me on a recent afternoon. “I feel like I met her because of this tradition.”
“This tradition” is part of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. For the holiday, people across Mexico and the United States put together ofrendas — altars that are adorned with photos of their loved ones and items that tell of the lives those loved ones led. A grandfather’s favorite drink might sit in that space. So, too, might a beloved aunt’s gardening gloves or a child’s toy.
“It’s about remembering and respecting your ancestry,” Quiroz said. “The Aztecs and the Mayans used to say there are three deaths. The first one is when your heart stops. The second one is when you’re buried. And the third one, and the most fatal one, is when you’re forgotten. The minute I stop talking about my grandma, she is dead. Because then no one remembers her, no one is talking about her.”
I spoke with Quiroz while looking into the types of ofrendas that will start appearing across the Washington region in the coming days. (Day of the Dead, also known as Days of the Dead, is traditionally celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2.) A public ofrenda will be on display at the National Museum of the American Indian as part of a celebration the National Museum of the American Latino is hosting on Saturday and Sunday. Visitors will be able to leave photos and mementos of their loved ones on it…
It’s no surprise that as Day of the Dead imagery has become more popular across the country, ofrendas have become easier to find. People might also be embracing them more for another reason. The past several years have brought a lot of loss, and building an ofrenda can be healing. It can make a lost loved one feel less gone. Whether small or large, elaborate or simple, ofrendas all accomplish the same thing: They create a connection between the past and the present.
Quiroz understands the power of those altars — and the symbolism behind the items used to create them — better than most people. He is an altarist. He prepares ofrendas throughout the region in his spare time and as part of his job. In past years, he has made them for churches and other organizations, and since 2017 he has created the public ofrenda that goes on display at the Mexican Cultural Institute of D.C., where he works as the director of artistic affairs…
In the flicker of candlelight, and the aroma of marigolds, a profound connection comes to life💀🕯️
It's the Day of the Dead, where the past & present converge, weaving a story of love and remembrance.
Together, let's celebrate Mexico’s #LivingHeritage: https://t.co/ulvqVzuTr2 pic.twitter.com/2zecwwRSay
— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) October 31, 2023
Another memory from when I was growing up: It used to be said that no ethnic community was ‘truly’ part of New York City until it had some form of recognized public celebration (the St. Patrick’s Day or Columbus Day parades, for instance, or the various Chinese New Year events)…
Dia de los Muertos in Times Square (Day of the Dead) 💀 New York City pic.twitter.com/odpUxGi0Z3
— NewYorkCityKopp (@KellyrKopp) October 27, 2023
eclare
The parade in that first video looks really cool.
Dorothy A. Winsor
As I recall, All Saints Day was a Holy Day of Obligation, meaning you had to go to Mass under pain of mortal sin. Also meaning we had the day off from my parochial school, which was good because we all had sugar hangovers.
Something to look forward to today is that I believe Trump Jr is scheduled to testify. I predict a whole lot of events he can’t recall.
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: A drinking game sure to make you unconscious would be to take a drink every time he says “I can’t recall”
It’s cold here again today; I think it got below 20 degrees last night. It’s supposed to be in the 60’s by Friday, but that doesn’t restore any of my flowers that were killed by the freeze.
Mathguy
“Good Washington Post story (with a terrible headline) ”
That EVERY WaPo story these days. The editors that write the headlines must be Republican operatives.
Anne Laurie
Yes, but at my parochial school, we had a mandatory 9am ‘childrens’ Mass instead!
The drawbacks of growing up in a ‘walkable’ urban parish — as back-end Boomers, the Church used being able to walk to school as a filter for admissions (and there were *still* more than 50 kids in my primary school class). And, they argued, if we could walk to school every day, we could walk to mass every Sunday morning — and the nuns / lay teachers had to attend as well, and take attendance.
The idea, in part, was to encourage parents to attend as well… but it was noted that the only parents who actually *did* show up at 9am were the pious souls who would’ve been there, if not at an earlier Mass, regardless.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: We were supposed to hit 17 here. My thermometer says it’s 20 as the sun rises. Not that it matters much. The 23 we got the night before had already killed everything.
Steeplejack
It’s properly “Día de Muertos” in Mexico, but whatevs. ¡Pedante!
OzarkHillbilly
Heh: Fucker Carlson fired by Fox News for getting ‘too big for his boots’, book says
Sounds about right, to me.
Jinchi
Public schools in my town decided to give the kids the day off today, surprising lots of parents this year. The kids insist they have always had the day after Halloween off, but they’re wrong. Proof that every previous November 1st has been lost to memory by a sugar induced coma.
Frankensteinbeck
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sounds like when everyone was asking which of his offenses got Carlson fired, the answer was ‘All of them, Katie.’
Jinchi
Weird how the “Taylor Swift” of cable news pretty much vanished from the scene the day he got fired.
You’d think that a guy who was that powerful could re-establish himself pretty much anywhere and take his following with him.
Steeplejack
It’s 39° with thin sunlight here in NoVA, but supposed to get gradually warmer this week until 66° on Saturday. I’m meeting my brother for lunch at Huong Viet in the Eden Center complex. That will be good, and I hope it perks me up.
New Deal democrat
I’m pretty sure the Indian burial mounds, like at Cahokia, served a similar purpose. They were ossuaries where every member of the tribe expected their bones or ashes to be buried someday, and where their descendants would come to remember them for as long as the tribe existed.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jinchi: Yeah, comparing him to TS is a gross overstatement.
Hoosierspud
I remember walking to mass on All Saint’s Day with a pocket full of candy for the walk home because you couldn’t eat before communion.
Years later, the Catholic choir I sang in would sing Gabriel Faure’s Requiem with a small orchestra at mass on All Soul’s Day. It was a wonderful tradition honoring loved ones who had died.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jinchi:
Cable news is a Hell of a lot smaller a venue. To be fair to Carlson, which I will force myself to do, FOX did put him on a no-compete clause.
Chris
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s a bleak media landscape we live in, but the Murdochs starting to kneecap right-wing cult figures that they think are getting too big for their britches is one of the few things I like about it.
laura
We have a Dia de los Muertos party every year- but had been on hiatus since the pandemic years. Right now, we’re deep in the setting up, and buying chicken and pork butt scheduled for this morning and making paper marigolds this afternoon. We’ve suffered a lot of loss in our friends and families over the last handful of years, with a dear friend who died on the 30th. The offrenda will be crowded with remembrances. We’ll gather to eat and drink and share reminisces and we’ll dance like crazy with all the furniture pushed up against the walls. The Flower Vato will be spinning the big platters sacramento.newsreview.com/2022/01/27/the-guru-of-groove-a-man-of-many-names-genres-and-talents-larry… and when the night is over, even those no longer with us will be worn out from the revelry. It’s a bittersweet shindig undaunted by death.
Chris
@New Deal democrat:
A stupendous amount of religion everywhere in the world comes down to honoring and remembering your predecessors.
satby
AL, my urban Catholic childhood was a lot like yours. Best Dia de Muertos round up ever.
Just waking up again after getting up at 3 and going back to bed around 8. Not quite above freezing yet, and brilliant sun out. Going to go survey the wreckage of my ruined pots of tubers after another coffee or two. Supposed to wait until after the first frost to lift them, but our first one was a hard freeze.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Salty Sam .
We have an ofrenda set up, gonna do a Dia de los Meurtos celebration tonight. I got out one of my favorite photos of my beloved first wife, gone now for a quarter century. I don’t think about her every day, but the veil between life and death is definitely thinner today- I feel her presence strongly. Have some chocolate to offer her tonight.
Steeplejack
I could have sworn my computer (Lenovo ThinkPad T480) had about a 40% charge when I went to bed late last night, but when I turned it on this morning the battery was drained and I had to plug it in. This is an odd thing that happens occasionally, maybe once every month or two, usually (I think) when the battery is at 20-30%. I haven’t found an explanation for it. I don’t think it’s a Windows update, because one doesn’t show up in the update log. I wonder whether OneDrive is doing something big, but I don’t think so. Maybe it’s the ChiComs using their ownership of Lenovo to loot my personal data, since I’m not on TikTok.
My battery hygiene: I charge the computer to about 90-95%, then let it run down to 20% before charging again. I never leave it plugged in overnight, and I shut it down rather than using sleep mode.
Bupalos
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t remember hearing “too big for his boots” before, in my neck of thw woods it’s always britches. It does make sense as a Nazi modification to the idiom though, what with all the march-march stomp-stomp stuff they get into.
BlueGuitarist
@rikyrah:
good morning!
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! 🙏
patrick Ii
St Patrick will always be the only Holy Snake Herder to me.
BlueGuitarist
What?
mike Johnson, speaker:
daily beast, via political wire
politicalwire.com/2023/11/01/mike-johnson-has-never-reported-having-a-bank-account/
John S.
@Bupalos: Unless you’re Caligula, in which case you have little boots to fill.
Barbara
@BlueGuitarist: His family is wealthy. It’s possible that a trust pays for everything. It’s still odd that funds wouldn’t be deposited in a bank account, but it might be a bank account held in the name of a trust for which he has the authority to make withdrawals and deposits.
patrick Ii
@OzarkHillbilly:
Finally a guy too mean for the Murdochs.
OzarkHillbilly
Same here.
Manyakitty
@John S.: ope
Manyakitty
@Barbara: great way to hide all his assets, too.
lowtechcyclist
@Chris:
Who else have they kneecapped lately? AFAICT, Fucker is just a one-off.
Frankensteinbeck
Hey, has anybody seen that Musk is touting the bizarre selling point that arrows can’t be shot through the door panels of his cybertruck?
Chris
@lowtechcyclist:
I was counting calling Arizona for Joe Biden (and being the first network to do so (and then refusing to backtrack no matter how many temper tantrums the asshole-in-chief threw their way)) as the other time.
Only twice, but still, if you’re going to pick two right-wing cult figures to stick it to in the early 2020s, Trump and Carlson are the right ones.
RevRick
Just a point of historical accuracy, but the original date for All Saints’ Day was May 13th, set by Pope Boniface IV in 609, when he dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to the Virgin Mary and the saints. It got shifted to November 1st by Pope Gregory III during his reign (731-741) when he dedicated a chapel in St. Peter’s to the saints. It was made a day of obligation throughout the Holy Roman Empire in 835 by Pope Gregory IV.
In Eastern Christianity, various dates were chosen: the Sunday after Pentecost, the Friday after Easter, and May 13th, which was the date of the pagan festival of Lemuria, when restless and malevolent spirits of the dead had to be propitiated, showing that Christians had nothing to fear.
In Protestant theology, all Christians are saints (and sinners) simultaneously, both in a right relationship with God through Christ and still estranged because the human heart is curved in on itself.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
1) Does he know Arrow isn’t a documentary?
2) Then again, props for having the self-awareness to realize that if it were a documentary, he’d be one of the first people in Oliver Queen’s sights.
Chief Oshkosh
@lowtechcyclist: And none of this is why they fired him. They fired him because of previous, ongoing, and potential exposure. Basically the lawsuits were getting too expensive.
Ken
Undoubtedly useful for those frequent occasions where you travel back to 1885 and arrive in the middle of a battle between the US cavalry and Native Americans.
satby
@Frankensteinbeck: saw it and kept wondering who the hell Joe Rohan was 😆 Elmo is such a dumbshit.
RevRick
@Chris: In Judaism, the burial of the dead is the most noble mitzvah, since they cannot repay you.
UncleEbeneezer
We are talking about a trip to Mexico City next year for DDLM. Looks amazing. Or back to Merida for Hanal Pixan (the Mayan version).
Layer8Problem
@Steeplejack: Speaking as an interested ThinkPad E580 owner, do you know how many hours you get off of a full charge?
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
A distant cousin of Henry Gondor from The Sting.
John S.
@satby:
At least the Gap of Rohan could then be used as an accurate descriptor for the space between his ears.
cain
Don’t forget to purchase or play the game “Grim Fandango” ! A wonderful adventure game that came out in the 90s that combines the Day of the Dead with ‘Casablanca’ and a murder mystery. Some really awesome concepts.
store.steampowered.com/app/316790/Grim_Fandango_Remastered/
ETA – it’s on sale today 75% off! :)
Brachiator
@Bupalos:
Yep. Same here.
Maybe the writer was also thinking about Ron “Sexy Boots” DeSantis.
Ohio Mom
@RevRick: The idea that everyone is a saint and a sinner at the same time reminds me of the Jewish belief that we all have an evil inclination and a good inclination, and it’s our task to favor the good inclination.
cain
@RevRick: Hinduism and Judaism share one interesting about death – both require you to mourn for a year and one day.
Ohio Mom
@Chris: And the weather and the skies, a lot of religious observance is, the weather is getting warm, let’s celebrate, the weather is cooling down, let’s observe the change of season, the planets are aligning thus, the sun has moved to a new spot in the sky.
Steeplejack
@Layer8Problem:
Sorry, I haven’t tracked it in a long time. The computer almost never leaves my desk, so I haven’t had occasions where I’ve had to calculate likely battery life. I plug it in when I get the “battery saver” alert at 20%, charge it up to about 95% and unplug it again. I use it a lot all day, both plugged and unplugged. I want to say I get at least four hours on a charge (going down to 20%), but I don’t know how much more time. I’m at 95% right now, and the status bar says I’ve got 5½ hours left, but I don’t know how much to trust that.
I’ll try to monitor it today and tonight and see what’s what. Remind me tomorrow if I don’t see you before then.
ETA: I’ll try to run it continuously from a full charge this afternoon/evening and see how long it goes.
satby
Timothy Snyder is doing a fundraiser to expand hostile drone and missile detection to smaller cities and towns in Ukraine.
geg6
@BlueGuitarist:
Say what? How is that possible?
coin operated
@Frankensteinbeck:
Don’t ever do that again, please ;-)
cain
I think Dia Dos Los Muertos is regional in Mexico. Mostly in the north?
Ohio Mom
@Barbara: That sounds very plausible, that the Johnson family uses a trust (or trusts).
Also seems very Republican, to hide your finances, thinking here how Democratic candidates and elected officials always make years and years of tax returns public, and how much effort went into prying Trump’s returns out of his hands.
wjca
But wouldn’t that be “too small for his boots”?
geg6
@Ohio Mom:
Real man of the people stuff, huh?
Layer8Problem
@Steeplejack: Thanks. I’m down to 32% from a full charge after two and a half hours, but I’m running Linux and its reputation was that it wasn’t as good at power management as Windows. The machine and battery are nearly five years old and I do no battery hygiene to speak of.
satby
@cain: no, Dia de los Muertos has roots dating back to Mayan and Aztec precolonial America. It’s celebrated throughout various Latin American countries as well as the United States.
Chris
@wjca:
Maybe with Trump we could coin a new expression, “too small for his gloves.”
Jeffg166
@Anne Laurie: I had an Irish Catholic mother and an atheist father in the 50s. We were recruited, indoctrinated and brainwashed into the Catholic sect of the christian cult.
Sunday mass was bad enough but holy days of obligation didn’t sit well with me at all. I was ready to stop going to church at age 7. I didn’t get any say in that.
The worst was when a holiday of obligation fell on a Saturday or Monday. Then it was mass two days in a row.
cain
@satby: oh – ok. I think what I remember now is that different region celebrate it differently.
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Frankensteinbeck: Are the sparrows driving or passengers?
eta, oops I see you said arrows not sparrows!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@cain: I second the recommendation. Grim Fandango is a great game.
FridayNext
I am trying to get a new holiday started.
It’s called “Bowling Day” ™
It’s much like Boxing Day. It’s the day after Halloween, and to celebrate Bowling Day, all the members of a work site (be it office, construction, health care, whatever) bring in all the leftover Halloween candy from the night before, or castoffs or stolen from kids, and puts that candy into a communal bowl for everyone to share in a spirit of workplace fellowship and camaraderie.
Whaddya Think?
Steeplejack
@cain:
Día de Muertos is a background theme in Malcolm Lowry’s novel Under the Volcano (1947), set in or near Cuernavaca in southern Mexico. And even Mexico City is fairly far south in the country. So I don’t think it’s just a northern regional thing.
japa21
@FridayNext:
We were at my son’s last night to help them hand out candy as we get no trick or treaters at our apartment building. Due to the cold and “snow” there was limited traffic so he had a huge amount left over. He also teaches at a private high school in Chicago and he mentioned that his students are going to be very happy today as he takes all the left over candy to his classes. Looking at the haul his boys brought hoe from their stint, I can see why he wouldn’t want any additional at his house. Apparently all the folks in the area, realizing how slow it was going to be, were very generous.
rikyrah
How do we have a Speaker of the House without a bank account?
None listed on his paperwork
Jeffg166
@rikyrah: He might be a big time drug dealer and all his transactions are cash.
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly:
The only thing that didn’t make sense was not firing Fucker Carlson into the Sun.
Betty Cracker
Was just reading new polls that illustrate the ongoing implosion of the Ron DeSantis campaign. It’s incredibly gratifying to watch that shithead crash and burn! And the recent results are especially satisfactory because his stupid, corrupt “Never Back Down” PAC is carpet-bombing Iowa and SC with pallets of cash, only to see Trump consolidate his lead and Haley siphon off some votes from DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Scott, etc., as Ron for Prez circles the drain. I hope the whole experience is so personally mortifying for DeSantis, his horrible wife and their awful political operatives that they all crawl under a rock permanently when the money is gone.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: What the? How did the government pay him his Congresscritter salary?
ETA – did and does
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Hope all of the TV execs are loving the cash.
(“Take my money!” meme from Futurama)
geg6
@FridayNext: At my office, it’s Bowling Week then. Because someone in the suite will bring in their leftovers for the next week.
ETA: In fact, I just saw that there is a giant bowl of Snickers and Twix on the island in the reception area.
NotMax
Used to be (Still is? Haven’t played in some years.) a celebrated holiday in World of Warcraft. Your character got the opportunity to wear a sombrero for the day, IIRC.
;)
mrmoshpotato
@japa21: Was that freak, fast snowstorm not enough for you? :)
Made for an interesting walk to Jewel.
buddhacat
If anyone hasn’t, should watch Coco – a fantastic movie about the Dia.
dr. luba
In ancient Ukrainian culture, today was the midpoint between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. It was believed that the gates to eternity opened on the night of Oct31/Nov 1, and the spirits of our ancestors could come visit.
My cousin in Lviv, who writes on this subject, had this to say:
On these days, October 31/November 1, our ancestors used to celebrate Autumn Didy (Grandfathers). The calendar midpoint between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice was considered the time when the gates of eternity open and the spirits of the ancestors can visit the living. Their arrival was solemnly welcomed and honored.
I still remember the time when the mysterious autumn didy, the ancestors of the family, were honored and commemorated with prayer, ritual food, live fire, and tradition.
My grandmother used to bake bread for the didy.
The three finest loaves of bread were considered ritual bread and were carried to church on the Saturday before St. Demetrius (a memorial day). The first loaf was “intended” for the long-dead ancestors of the family, whose names have been forgotten, but whose descendants remember them, thank them for the gift of life and ask for their assistance. The second loaf is for the deceased grandparents, blood relatives of the family who have passed away, whose names have not been forgotten and are remembered with special reverence on the memorial day. The third loaf is in memory of those who died in the war, defending the land from the enemy, for those who died a sudden, unexpected death (drowning, suicide, injury, all the unquiet souls).
Another obligatory ritual dish that was prepared for the “Didy” was kolyvo (grain, honey and nuts). Don’t confuse it with kutia, because the recipe is a bit different (no poppy seeds), and the ritual content is even more so.
On the first of November, people would go to the cemetery with kolyvo and bread to commemorate the dead. The night before, they would have supper.
As soon as it got dark, “the didy (ancestors) would start scurrying around the corners,” and my brother and I would try to see and recognize them in the shadows that fell from the candles on the walls. The candles burned in the house that evening until early morning. This was so that the didy who live in the dark could find their way to their home.
Supper began with the words:
“Душі Роду! Ідіть, рідні, до нас! Колива-хліба з’їсте”.
“Souls of the family! Come, our relatives, to us! Eat some kolyvo and bread.”
Since this was a special day and a special meal, a time when the souls of the dead were free to enter the homes of the living, those unclean dead who brought misfortune and disaster might come into the house with them. These were uninvited guests and they were stopped before the threshold. The hospodynia would put onions and garlic on the threshold, and sometimes blessed salt and poppy seeds would be sprinkled below the threshold.
I won’t write about how easy it was to make a deal with someone who must not be named on that night, but good people tried not to go to the crossroads at night. Because the “gentleman in the red cloak” might seduce anyone with promises………
NotMax
@rikyrah
It’s rural Louisiana. “Emptied cans of chicory buried in the yard were good enough for grandpappy.”
:)
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Baba Looeys everywhere!
wjca
Is it even possible any more to hold a regular job and not get paid electronically? Day labor would be different. But a regular job, with like deductions for Social Security and such?
scav
@rikyrah: God himself delivers manna to his table, directly. Tucks in Mike’s little napkin carefully and spoons it into Mike’s little bible-believing mouth.
Soprano2
@FridayNext: I like it! Bowling Day is a great idea for a holiday.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
He is shady AF. I’m not buying the “son” either.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
“Es verdad, QueexDraw,”
:)
mrmoshpotato
@wjca: Dunno. Regardless, cashing a Congressional paycheck twice a month sounds like a pain. Wonder how many coffee cans they had around the house.
stinger
@dr. luba: So interesting! Thanks!
Steeplejack
@Layer8Problem:
That sounds about right, from what you describe. You might be able to perk things up with a new battery. The computer itself shouldn’t be a problem. My T480 is three years old, I think, and still going strong. And the one I had before that, also a ThinkPad (can’t remember the model number), lasted like six or seven years. And I did no battery hygiene on that one. I decided to do battery hygiene when I got this one with a somewhat “eh, it couldn’t hurt” attitude.
Brachiator
@Chris:
It’s also to make sure that they don’t come back and harm you.
mrmoshpotato
@MomSense:
I saw the son on TV! Saturday News Live showed him in their cold open errr first segment Saturday night!
NotMax
Hear tell about a Sid & Marty Krofft streaming channel in the works.
Ia anyone, anywhere clamoring for a chance to watch The Bugaloos over and over and over?
;)
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It’s funny how state often doesn’t translate to national. We’ve seen it so much (Jeb Bush, Christie, Walker, Kasich, now DeSantis) and I think we’ll see it again with Youngkin. It’s the one set of circumstances where people IN state are consistently wrong- they always over estimate their own governor.
Youngkin may be a national politician but odds are he isn’t and he flops outside Virginia. That’s USUALLY what happens.
Shana
Anne: did you ever find the Pogo cartoon you were looking for last week? It took me a while but I went through all the books I have and didn’t find it but would be interested if someone else did.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I saw the clip where he was asked about whether he’s wearing lifts in his boots and I had the slightest pang of sympathy for him when he was asked how tall he is and he said “5 11” really defensively and really quickly. What a miserable person and what a pathetic lie. How the mighty have fallen, huh?
Alison Rose
HAAAAAALP.
Does anyone here know a lot about Pages on Mac???
Miss Bianca
@dr. luba: Wow. That’s all I got to say.
Chris
@Kay:
I’ve heard it pointed out multiple times that every mayor of New York thinks their experience there is going to catapult them into a career in national politics that ends at “President of the United States,” only to faceplant embarrassingly when they try, and I always thought it was a New York thing. But thinking about it, yeah, you’re right, it happens all the time in all kinds of local/regional contexts. NYC is just the one we notice the most.
NotMax
All ghe chatter regarding payments dredged up a memory.
Back in the day one of the random tasks dumped on me when working at an ad agency was to mail acheck to Bob Hope after each of his TV specials aired.
Trudged to the accounting department, located on a different floor, and picked up a check for $750,000. Didn’t have to sign for it or anything.
Back at my desk made out an envelope with his home address, put in the check (no cover letter), slapped on a regular first class stamp and dropped it in the mail cart when next it rolled by.
NotMax
@Kay
You left out Pawlenty.
Not to worry, everyone does.
Timill
@dr. luba:
“Have you been naughty? Or nice? I might have a present for you…”
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: You resisted the chance to write a letter to Bob Hope?
Betty Cracker
The Mike Johnson “son” story reminds me of the Matt Gaetz “son” story. I think it’s much more likely that they are perverts who are exploiting teens than humanitarians who are raising them.
emrys
Disturbed. “Hold On To Memories”
geg6
@Kay:
LOLOLOLOLOLOL! I don’t.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Neglected to include it wasn’t a cashier’s check, just the next next one in that account at the agency’s checkbook.
Salty Sam .
We just finished up the final season of “Rez Dogs” a few nights ago, and it struck me how much the entire arc of the show was about just that. From Season 1 with the kids dealing with the loss of a close friend to suicide, to the final episode at the funeral of one of the tribal elders, a very strong point was made about remembrance, and how that is one of the backbones of community.
If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend- one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Oooo, I missed that! (I’ve been away for a week and mostly unplugged.) Will have to look that up. Also, 5’11” — LOL!
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Hope reads only cue cards, not letters.
//
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: But he reads them so well!
Brachiator
@Chris:
I think that Grover Cleveland is the only president who had been a mayor. He also had been a governor.
But then again, Trump was and is nothing but an ignorant grifter. A sad precedent.
dc
@satby:
Thank you, I donated. I look forward to the day when Ukraine doesn’t suffer shelling or missiles raining down on the country.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
I think that this might be the DeSantis boot video clip referred to earlier.
Betty Cracker
@Betty Cracker: Okay, I watched the clip, and not only does DeSantis say “5’11″” quickly and defensively (and pretend not to know about the TikTok mockery!), he inflates himself to maximum height in the chair while saying it. Pathetic.
It’s stupid that height is an issue. No one should give a shit how tall DeSantis is; it’s the fascism that’s disqualifying. But the way people handle adversity is telling, and the wedge heels in cowboy boot wrappers say “will never be ready for prime time.”
NotMax
@Brachiator
Also the only president who had been an executioner.
trollhattan
@lowtechcyclist:
Same. Reading now that everybody at Fox hated li’l Tuck (so very hard to believe) and the mega-lawsuit was handy pretext to give him the ol’ Murdoch boot.
He was far from the only on-air Fox person spewing election lies, where they all at?
wjca
Noted without comment: Before becoming Governor of California, Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco.
Subsole
@patrick Ii:
Mean has nothing to do with it.
Murdoch got his ass handed to him in court for lying about the voting machine company, with more pain lined up behind that.
Tucker thought he was important enough to fuck with the money and not get in trouble. No more, no less.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: Everything sounds promising until the “permanently” bit. Ron and Casey retain the smug knowledge of their special entitlement and are, by this country’s standards, young and ambitious.
We have not seen the last of them, perhaps she more than he. [shudder]
FridayNext
@geg6: Make it 12 Days!!
On the twelfth day of Bowling Day, my true love sent to me
Twelve Sugar Daddies
Eleven Kit Kats Crunching
Ten Reese’s Pumpkins
Nine M&M’s
Eight Good-n-Plenty
Seven Powdered Smartees
Six NECCO Wafers
Five Mary Janes
Four rancid Peeps
Three Musketeers
Two Cookie Twixt and
A White Zero Bar
Mars Bless Us Everyone!
Subsole
@Frankensteinbeck:
Seriously: why are redpillers such weird people? Like, every single one of them ends up being an utter mutant. Every. Single. Time.
FridayNext
@japa21:
It’s a Bowling Day Miracle!!
NotMax
@Subsole
Secretary of State in the Dolt 47* administration?
//
*no way, no how
FridayNext
@Soprano2:
And to be clear, it doesn’t have to be a bowl per se, unless you are Orthodox. It could be a platter, a take out container, paper bag, or whatever. Just don’t scatter candy across a table or counter like the 5th Century Nestlétorian Heretics.
trollhattan
@wjca: “Objection: San Francisco is not part of Real America!”
–27% of the nation.
NotMax
Anyone else have to endure thankfully (scattered) neighborhood fireworks for Halloween?
WTF, splodey people.
NotMax
@FridayNext
Substitute circus peanuts (scans better) for rancid Peeps and you’re on the way to a winner.
:
Brachiator
@wjca:
Yep. I live in Southern California. I happily voted for Newsom to become governor.
trollhattan
@NotMax: We had zero booms but lots and lots of kiddos, ran out of candy and had to go into lockdown.
Thought it would be slow on account of being a school night, but forgot their parents are still kids too, in their heads, and so out they all came.
Beats the years we got zero kids, which was always depressing. Also a perfect fall night–cool, windless, moon in the eastern sky.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Very interesting anecdote about Cleveland. And it is interesting to read how troubled he was about serving as executioner, but insisted on doing the deed himself.
trollhattan
Speaking of, and to, the dead, this article was dateline yesterday but fits today as well. Boo!
Newark to San Diego? Tarantino might work up a plotline for that.
Subsole
@NotMax: Nah. Minister of Communications.
No, excuse me. Acting Minister of Communications and Public Entruthification.
Or whatever unAmerican doublethink they end up calling their discount-rack MiniTru.
cain
@NotMax: That really slays me. :D
Subsole
@trollhattan:
At least 2% of whom live in SanFran…
H.E.Wolf
@Betty Cracker: The Mike Johnson “son” story reminds me of the Matt Gaetz “son” story. I think it’s much more likely that they are perverts who are exploiting teens than humanitarians who are raising them.
* * *
And in both cases, I would not be surprised if there is more than one such instance in their past.
Same goes for Jerry Falwell, Jr., who resigned his Liberty University job in 2020 after a similarly seamy revelation.
JoyceH
Sorry, but I just don’t find this Johnson ‘no bank accounts’ story plausible. Family trusts? Maybe, but the man draws a salary! Most employers these days won’t even cut paychecks, they’ve shifted everyone to direct deposit. Maybe the Congressional payroll is different in deference to the old fossils with power they serve, but still. Say they cut him a check every month. Even with max deductions, that’s going to be a check for over ten grand. Will a bank cash a check for that amount for someone who doesn’t have an account with them? Mine sure wouldn’t.
I seem to recall there is a Congressional ‘bank’ that will handle members’ salaries – a number of years ago there was some sort of scandal about it. I think the bank was giving members no-interest payday advances or something. But then surely they cleaned up their act and if not a real bank, set up regulations to behave more like one.
Anyway – my take is, he does have bank accounts, or his wife does. He just doesn’t report them.
Another take is that this guy is going to turn out to be an absolute cornucopia of scandals and weirdness.
Manyakitty
@dr. luba: well that’s lovely 😍
And probably more than a little bittersweet these days.
lowtechcyclist
@wjca:
I don’t know about Congress, but AFAICT, if you work in the Executive Branch, you need a bank account where the National Finance Center can electronically deposit your pay.
wjca
And New York is?
Manyakitty
@Salty Sam .: that show blew my mind. Every episode was better than the last and the first one was excellent. Just wow.
Alison Rose
@Brachiator: I lived in SF when he was mayor, and also happily voted for him for LG and Gov. On the whole, I think he’s been great, and folks here know I will defend him when I think people are being unfair. I haven’t agreed with everything he’s done, of course, but I don’t expect to ever agree 100% with any politician. I think he would be a terrific president, but I have doubts about his ability to secure the nomination. While in some respects, he’s basically the Platonic ideal of what a lot of people think a president should look like — he’s a white man, for one thing; he’s tall and handsome, has a pretty wife and cute kids; he’s very outgoing and gregarious; etc — you know he would get painted in the media, and not only right-wing press, as the furthest left lefty that ever existed, even though that’s obviously not accurate. He would also get dismissed as lacking intelligence, which is very much NOT true, and not having enough experience, but I happen to think leading the most populous state and almost-4th-largest world economy is good experience. But that’s what would be said, and I worry that people in swing states would think he was too left of center and would go with someone seen as more moderate. And even if he did get the nom, the general would be iffy too. Unless and until we get rid of the EC, you have to win multiple swing states to win the election, and I think that would be a tough road for him.
HOWEVER…I think he’d make a terrific Secretary of State.
FridayNext
@NotMax:
I suspect there will be regional and generational differences.
In fact, each year and in each worksite the lyrics can be adapted to reflect whatever is in that year’s bowl.
trollhattan
@Alison Rose: Heh, Loomis at LGM thinks he’s a squishy neoliberal or stealth Republican or something, and posts his complaints every time Newsom vetoes a bill, adding the so-scandalous French Laundry photo as the banner image. That’ll show him!
I can only conclude living in Rhode Island might indicate a general lack of understanding of California government and politics.
More seriously, is there another state office holder doing more for the Democrats nationally ATM?
Brachiator
@BlueGuitarist:
I wonder what Mike Johnson is hiding?
The money has to be somewhere.
Alison Rose
@trollhattan: “stealth Republican” LOLOLOLOL. JFC how can someone be that stupid? Yeah, because we all know full-throated support for abortion rights and gun control are totally things a sekrit Repub would constantly push for.
And God almighty, will people ever let go of the French Laundry thing??? Yes, it was dumb. Newsom admitted as much himself multiple times. Lord, they act like he went there for dinner and then committed ritual sacrifice on the table.
Manyakitty
@Brachiator: who owns his house?
Brachiator
@Alison Rose:
I have followed Newsom’s career since he became famous as an activist mayor. I recall that some local LA talk show hosts used to play some annoying audio clip of Newsom favoring gay marriage (“Like it or not, it’s gonna happen!”). I find it odd that some people don’t like Newsom because he is slick and comes from a wealthy background, but love Trump because he is slick and comes from a wealthy background.
I remember when Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Francisco mayor Newsom were both getting a lot of press as potential future governors. The LA mayor gained a reputation as a shameless publicity hound and was brought down by a tawdry love affair scandal.
Newsom had had his own challenges, but overall has been an effective governor. We will see how he does in the future.
Secretary of State? Might be interesting.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Manyakitty: Harlan Crowe? /s
sdhays
@Kay: We can’t know for sure because of Virginia’s stupid-ass one term limit for governors, but I don’t think he’s the striding colossus in Virginia politics people seem to regard him to be. He got pretty lucky in 2021; personally, I don’t think he would have won if the Afghan government had hung for a couple more months, as random as that is. He made it close enough, so you can’t take that from him, but he would be the same guy if he lost by a point or two and no one would be talking about him as Presidential material.
I guess we’ll have a decent indicator of how powerful he actually is when we get the results of this election. He’s even taking a tip from the Trump playbook and sending out special tax rebates just before the election to remind people he doesn’t think tax dollars should be spent.
Alison Rose
@Brachiator: Yeah, I remember that clip well. Turns out he was right! He was just ahead of his time. He paid mightily for his support of same-sex marriage, too, but he still did it even though he knew that would happen. And people talk about him coming from wealth, and yes, his father was a judge and attorney. But his parents split up when he was a kid and his mom worked three jobs to support them because his dad didn’t always step up financially. So it’s not like he lived in the lap of luxury his whole life. But of course, haters don’t care about facts
And yeah, I just think he’d be great as SoS because he’s very knowledgable about the world, very amiable and loves to meet people, has a lot of forward-thinking ideas and is always open to learning new things and new ways of thinking. He just came back from a trip to China and they seemed to welcome him there!
(Of course, the LA Times or some place had to write a whole ass article about how, when Newsom was playing basketball with some kids at a school in China, he bumped into one of them when going for a shot and they both fell down. The kid was totally fine, not injured, Newsom helped him up and checked on him, it was a total nothing burger. But they wrote an article about it as though he’d suckerpunched the kid.)
Subsole
@Alison Rose: From what I have seen of his shop, Mr. Loomis is an exceptionally intelligent pessimist whose obsession with labor has converted him into a hammer, scouring the world for nails.
But that’s subjective, and I didn’t stay long. I can only handle so much unrelenting bleakness.
Alison Rose
@Subsole:
Same. I’m naturally pessimistic so I try to avoid others who are as well, because it doesn’t do me any good. I like BJ because we often manage to go with realistic optimism.
Manyakitty
@Mr. Bemused Senior: lol, but I can easily believe he has a billionaire ‘daddy.’
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
N.B. I brought up Under the Volcano because this time of year always makes me think of it.
trollhattan
@Alison Rose:
Newsom attended Santa Clara where he had a baseball scholarship (pitcher, lefty of course).
Know who else attended Santa Clara? Jerry fuckin’ Brown, baby!
If I’m a Santa Clara publicist, I’m going with “Be a Bronco today, be a governor tomorrow.”
BellyCat
Thank you for capturing a complex emotional state in such an eloquent way. Enjoy your visit tonight!
Manyakitty
I got another Bluesky invite if anyone wants
wjca
I know folks here aren’t big fans of the New York Times. But you might be interested in an article today, headlined Mike Johnson Just confirmed How Unserious He Is:
Money quote:
So essentially the U.S. can protect Israel as long as it also protects rich white-collar criminals.
Steeplejack
@Shana:
I looked for quite a while on the Google and couldn’t find it.
Alison Rose
@trollhattan: LOL love it!
BellyCat
@Alison Rose: I’m an avid Pages fan and *might* be able to help?
Unfortunately, I’m on lunch break and can’t hangout online. So, if it’s not crazy urgent and you’re still struggling, email a front pager for my email and I’ll give you my contact info. If the answer isn’t obvious, I can take a closer look in the evening after work (Eastern time) when I’ve got Pages in front of me.
cckids
@dr. luba: That’s so beautiful :) Thank you.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: What year was this so we can adjust for inflation and drop our jaws more?
mrmoshpotato
@FridayNext:
Lots of Communion.
Horrible, and even more horrible.
:)
Alison Rose
@BellyCat: I’ve reached out to someone else, but I’ll try you too, just in case you have knowledge they don’t :)
Mel
@Salty Sam .: May she feel the comfort of your love and the joy that her memory brings you, and may you feel the same from her.
Chocolate, coffee, and a good mystery novel will be set out for my beautiful grandmother, who was my mother in all the ways that matter.
Mel
@dr. luba: That is beautiful and fascinating.
My great-grandmother was English and Welsh, and this time of year she would always say, “Well, the gate is getting thin…”
We would make “kitchen witches” from corn husks and walnut hulls (protect the hearth over the winter, and ensure a hood crop the following year), take little baskets of offerings to the graves of deceased relatives /ancestors who were known to have been good people, and keep a candle lit in the window each night for a week from the 30th of October through the 5th of November (so they can find their way), and leave a little treat tray out on the porch each night.
The action of salting the doorstep resonated with one of her traditions. For the graves of sketchy ancestors, she would pour out a generous amount of whiskey onto the grave, then take a container of Morton salt and sprinkle a ring of it around the grave, saying,”That ought to keep you occupied and right where you belong!”