Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

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

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Let me file that under fuck it.

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

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

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

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

He really is that stupid.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

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Afternoon Open Thread: The Future Is Here

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I have no idea what chance he has, but the Democrats need to get behind him and others like him, because they are the future of the party.

And here is my seasonal plea to mulch not rake your leaves:

I get discouraged this time of year because there are a lot of black plastic bags lined up on the streets, filled with raked leaves for the city to pick up. At the very least, I wish the city would NOT pick up leaves in plastic bags and require them to be in paper leaf bags.

Meanwhile at my house – the grassy areas get mulched and the gardens get to keep their leaves as natural habitats for beneficials, protection for plants against harsh winter temps and generally nice to look at.

Before:

Mulching leaves is sooooo much easier than raking. Mulching the entire backyard took me all of 15 minutes. Setting the lawnmower on about a mid-setting (I use highest setting for normal grass cutting) and running over the leaves, mulches them right into the grass, providing natural fertilizer to break down over the winter months.

After:

This will probably need to be done again, as the many trees that still have leaves on them match the number that have lost their leaves. I’ll probably use the grass catcher on the next batch and dump the mulch into my garden beds.

Safety precautions with this: Leaves HIDE everything. I did two rounds around the backyard picking up dog toys, beef bones and sticks. I still managed to run over two of those stupid beef bones and numerous sticks. Safety glasses and long pants/sleeves are a  must when mulching leaves.

Consider this my seasonal plea to mulch not rake and trash your leaves. And if you feel you must trash them, buy those nice big paper leaf bags at the hardware store.

I’m not traveling this Thanksgiving – should we have a few recipe threads in honor of the feast of thanks?

This is a totally open thread!

Reader Interactions

156Comments

  2. 2.

    Fraud Guy

    Annual conversation:
    “We need more butterflies”
    “If you leave the leaves/mulch them, it creates places for the larvae to overwinter and survive in the spring.”
    “But the lawn looks messy [as she gets on riding mower]…”

  3. 3.

    TerryC

    Thank you. We live on *17.5 acres and rake no leaves.

    *Same size as Mar-a-Lockup except TFG has no golf courses there and we have two 18-hole disc golf courses here, so our property is probably worth $2B on the market.

  4. 4.

    lowtechcyclist

    Mulching leaves is sooooo much easier than raking.

    Totally agree. Only time I rake the leaves is if they come down too suddenly, and they’re too thick on the ground to mulch with a standard mower.

    ETA: Thank you very mulch for bringing this up.

  6. 6.

    Juju

    I like the idea of a recipe thread for Thanksgiving. It’s always interesting to see what other people do for the holiday meal. I’m impressed by people who do the whole turkey thing. I just order a turkey breast and concentrate on the rest of the meal.

  8. 8.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Yutsano: congrats! Why have people been getting pissy about this harmless internet tradition? Maybe not recently, but I’ve noticed more than once people losing their minds over it…

  10. 10.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I compost my leaves (they form the “brown matter” you’re supposed to mix with kitchen scraps). I rake them up, but then dump them in a pile by the composter. I’m the weird guy in my neighborhood who occasionally asks neighbors for their leaves because since the big old oak in our yard came down, our trees do not produce enough leaves to get through 12 months of composting.

    That old guy was a mixed blessing. Aside from the leaves, it produced enough acorns to completely cover the driveway, and occasionally dropped a large limb through my windshield.

  11. 11.

    Juju

    Also, I’d vote for Isaiah Martin, and yes, mulching is way better unless you have a dog who likes to roll around the backyard. That dog will bring in little leaf parts into the house for months. 🙄

  12. 12.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I compost my leaves (they form the “brown matter” you’re supposed to mix with kitchen scraps).

    So do I – well, I compost as much of the leaves as the compost bin can contain.  That’s maybe 2% of the leaves that fall on my lawn.  The rest get mulched.

  16. 16.

    Gary K

    mulch not rake

    We do both. Many of the leaves are on the driveway, and won’t sit still to be mulched; the mower just blows them aside. And we want mulch on our flower and vegetable beds, so we rake some of our lawn leaves and drag them on a tarp over to the beds. But yes: we agree there’s no reason to have them carted off to a landfill.

  17. 17.

    lowtechcyclist

    @RedDirtGirl:

    Why have people been getting pissy about this harmless internet tradition? Maybe not recently, but I’ve noticed more than once people losing their minds over it…

    It started back in the aughts when Bill Frist was the Senate GOP leader, and it seemed to go away (after a bit of a delay) after he did.  It’s kinda weird that it seems to have resurrected over the past few years – it’s as if people for some reason started making frequent All Your Base references years after they’d all but disappeared.

  20. 20.

    trnc

    Don’t your mulched leaves eventually have to be removed through dethatching? I’d be pretty surprised if the lawn can actually absorb all that material annually, but I guess it doesn’t matter if it continues to look the way you want it to.

    I rake and still have to dethatch from time to time, but I’m in the county and have plenty of wooded area to dump the leaves in. Until DT creates an executive order to rake all the forests, anyway (shudder).

  21. 21.

    Alison Rose

    @RedDirtGirl: The only time I feel frustrated with it is when it occurs on a post that is about something serious or sad. It feels flippant and out of place. That doesn’t happen often on here, but it’s been done a few times. Otherwise I agree it’s harmless.

  22. 22.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I ended up driving next to a tesla truck yesterday evening. The sun was setting do I didn’t see it in clear daylight. The first thing I noted when it was behind me in the lane over was that it has a straight line of front headlights. Beyond that, it doesn’t look like much of a truck. I don’t see it carrying what  a Dodge Ram or  F-150 would carry. It kind of looks like those one of those  college capstone solar car project cars from the 90s. Also it’s ugly. The only car that can pull off a turtle shape is the Citreon. With everybody else it looks dumb and ugly.

  23. 23.

    eclare

    Impressive young man!  And yes we need more young people in government.

    Last year was the first time in seventeen years living in my current house that I did not pay to have my leaves raked.  I didn’t mulch them, I don’t have a lawnmower, but I left them on the ground and everything was fine.  I also saved about $600, I have a lot of big trees.

  24. 24.

    CaseyL

    Alas, I couldn’t mulch if I wanted to:  my “yard” is a common lawn area between the townhouse units, and we have landscapers maintaining it. Trying to mulch it would last as long as one visit from them.

    We do have many trees, which drop many leaves, which wind up on my decks as well as on the lawn.  So I do stuff the ones on my decks into bags, and then empty the bags into the compost dumpster which the city comes round to collect every week.

  26. 26.

    JustRuss

    I rake mine into the street.  The city has a cool little vehicle with two claws in front, it scoops up the leaves and dumps them into a truck. Super fun to watch them in action.  they then get shredded and in the spring people use them for mulch.  Circle of life!

    I do cover all my beds with leaves, but if I used all my leaves they’d be about 3 feet deep, so most go off to the Mulch Factory.

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    Massachusetts is a place where voting actually has gotten easier rather than harder over the past decade–mostly because the situation was kind of poor before, worse than in a lot of red states (this is a pattern beyond Massachusetts). But we phased in universal mail-in voting and early voting starting with the 2016 election, and it was extended to all state elections over the pandemic.

    It is absolutely shameful that vote suppression elsewhere happens so openly and blatantly (including just over the line in New Hampshire, where there’s been a war on college students voting for years).

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    @Juju: Also on Thanksgiving Day: Dolly Parton will sing at halftime of the Dallas-Washington football game. Probably around 6pm or so Eastern Time.

  35. 35.

    cope

    Recently returned to Grand Junction, CO after a few decades away, I was puzzled to see neighbors raking all their leaves into big piles on the streets in front of their homes. The puzzlement vanished when a big city truck rolled down the street with a huge suction device that sucked in the leaves, ground them up and deposited them in a trailer.

    The material is added to a community compost station where anybody can get compost in any of three or four stages of decay. Pretty cool.

    ETA: I see a couple of other comments from folks who also live in communities with similar programs. We never had such an option living in Florida.

  36. 36.

    mrmoshpotato

    I still managed to run over two of those stupid beef bones

    Mmmmmm beefelicious mulch.

    I’m not traveling this Thanksgiving – should we have a few recipe threads in honor of the feast of thanks?

    Yes please.

  37. 37.

    gvg

    I have always mulch mowed my leaves and grass and it makes my lawn noticeably healthier than my neighbors after a few years. You should not have a thatch problem unless you are over fertilizing. I also go around and take my neighbors bagged leaves for composting in my garden. I no longer bother to ask. After all, they put them out for trash. My city mandated paper lawn bags years ago, so we have that going for us. The bigger trees leaves, especially sycamores and magnolias can form waterproof mats that take years to break down. It’s best to mow mulch, so water can get through later.

    I did nothing more till I moved here. I have a sloping lot that is uphill of a paved street with curbs and drains. My big oak on the corner sheds loads of leaves into the street and down the drain, which could clog and theoretically even cause a flood, plus they make the street slippery. We have lots of people who like to walk here. So, I blow the leaves back into my yard and mow them. I want a lawn vacuum. Looking for a used one on Craigslist. I am too old to want to do things manually anymore. Its very site specific, what is the best way to handle it. But it boggles my mind how much labor people waste on raking.

  38. 38.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: good lord…I just checked the schedule for the NFL games on Thanksgiving Day and they’re not good.  I might watch the first half of Niners-Seahawks but there’s no way I’ll make it to the second half.

    zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    Maybe we’ll set up a Netflix movie marathon here at the Fro household instead…hmmm…

  39. 39.

    TaMara

    @SoupCatcher:

    @JustRuss:

    I think this is cool. And for a city that promotes composting (has bins they pick up and everything) and limb collection every spring and Christmas Tree pick up (all of which they turn into mulch) you would think the leaf mulching would be a no brainer, but they still allow plastic bags…I guess I need to talk to my city council critter.

  40. 40.

    Ken

    @CaseyL: This year the landscapers at my apartment blew the leaves into the street, and I thought that we were finally on the city’s rounds for leaf pickup*. But they kept going, and blew the leaves into the forest preserve that’s across the street. I suppose they’ll mulch over there.

    * For some insane reason, the city does leaf pick up for residential but not commercial property.

  41. 41.

    Kristine

    Just got in from mulching the backyard leaves. I’ve been doing it for over 10 years. Most everyone else around here piles them up for the city to pick up.

    Tomorrow I do the front and rake excess over the beds.

  42. 42.

    Josie

    @Brit in Chicago: He is running in the 18th district in Houston, which is the one Sheila Jackson Lee has been in for years. She is running for mayor of Houston against John Whitmire (run-off, both Dems). It is strangely configured, like a doughnut, in order to keep all the black voters in one place, rather than let them spread out into other districts. If he gets through the primary, he is a shoo-in. Since he has worked for Jackson Lee for a couple of years, his chances are good.

  45. 45.

    mrmoshpotato

    @TerryC:

    Thank you. We live on *17.5 acres and rake no leaves.

    *Same size as Mar-a-Lockup except TFG has no golf courses there and we have two 18-hole disc golf courses here, so our property is probably worth $2B on the market.

    Two golf courses?  C’mon!  It’s gotta be valued at at least $20B!

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    Got rid of the lawn so mulching not possible, at least WO buying a chipper and running them through that whilst having Fargo flashbacks.

    City picks up garden piles Nov-Jan using The Claw, we have to stack the debris at the curb. Rest of the year it’s a green waste bin that, frankly, can’t handle fall-winter.

    Keeping drains clear is the biggest headache–we get all our rain during leaf season and our hundred-year old system clogs easily. Not a good thing given the sewer and storm drains share the same pipe network and it’s flat as a pool table here.

  51. 51.

    NutmegAgain

    I have the leaves out front scooped up (because neighbors who I think are insane but groom their lawns like a golf course. Insane.) But all the ones in the back I mulch and leave where they are. I have a nice bunch of fireflies each year (they need the leaf piles). The back has 6 ft stockade fencing because I have giant-sized dogs, so the leaves don’t go into the neighbors’ yards. (Yes, I also bought my house & buy cars to accommodate Newfoundlands. Woof!)

  53. 53.

    trollhattan

    @trnc:

    When I did have a lawn I used a mulching mower. Over time, the stepping stones leading to our courtyard disappeared into wells and so yes, in our case the turf rose on account of adding the organic matter.

    That wasn’t a problem per se, but the drainage eventually reversed back towards the house, which is a Very Big Problem, indeed.

    Guess it’s one of those “depends” questions based on locale. I sure didn’t mind emptying a catcher several times/mow all those years.

  54. 54.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @mrmoshpotato: I feel like this could be a conversation in “Alice in Wonderland”, like if there wasn’t a character at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party saying “My land is worth whatever I say it is”, there should be.

    ”In fact whatever my land is worth, it’s actually worth double that.”

  56. 56.

    FelonyGovt

    Isaiah Martin is really impressive, and kind of adorable. Hope he wins! What better inspiration for young people than to see one of their own running for office.

  58. 58.

    Alison Rose

    Sweet Jesus. Why are men so emotional:

    Senator Markwayne Mullin challenged Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to a fight during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Senator Bernie Sanders attempted to cool things down.

    It’s a YouTube short, and it is ridiculous. Mullin literally stands up and starts taking his ring off like they’re gonna rassle right on the hearing room floor. Grow the fuck up, you pathetic manbabies

    ETA Jay got there first.

  60. 60.

    Jeffery

    I rake the leaves into the flower beds.

    I use to build a compost pile I would fill then sieve in spring. Can’t do that any long due to age.

    This year I decided I will fill the flower bed at the right back corner of the garden with everything I cut down through the winter. It can rot away until it is gone.

  61. 61.

    JeanneT

    I’m a compromiser, raking wise, for my small front yard.  I rake the first 6″ of leaves and put them out for the city to pick up and compost, then mulch the ones that fall the rest of the autumn. The early leaves (from a huge sycamore next door) are too damp & too large for my little electric mower to chew up well, but the later leaves are usually nice and crispy.

  62. 62.

    Lyrebird

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    Agreed!

    He goes directly to the important stuff, and it doesn’t hurt that he’s got that beautiful bass voice to carry the message.

  63. 63.

    David C

    Hello. I have lurked here for many years.

    Zandar has not posted for a few days and a comment from his dad let his readers know why.

    http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2023/11/retribution-execution-cont.html?m=1

    I don’t have a way to confirm this. I know zandar used to post here though. Please feel free to delete this comment if this is inappropriate or just not ok for whatever reasons.

    zandar was part of my required reading along with this here blog. BJ introduced me to him.

  66. 66.

    Sure Lurkalot

    I wish Isaiah Martin all the best in his pursuit of a congressional seat and any other goals. The short video shows his talent for highlighting an issue and its root causes.

    As for leaves, we rake and have a mulcher for grinding to cover the beds. If there are surplus leaves, they are taken to a leaf drop location nearby where the city uses them for compost that they sell in the spring. It’s heartening to hear about all the practices and programs that various municipalities do.

  70. 70.

    BretH

    Loved fall growing up when the sound you heard was rakes not leaf-blowers. We would rake leaves into huge piles next to the gutter, then ride our tricycles and small bikes headlong into them, re-rake and repeat. And the city used to have trucks with huge vacuums that we would love to watch suck up all the leaves.

    Was remarking to my wife I bet I could hire workers to rake and market my services to eco-conscious neighborhoods “We rake, not blow”.

  71. 71.

    TaMara

    @David C: The comment is super hard to find, so I’m pasting it here with the link:

    zandardad

    This is Zandar’s Dad. I’m very sorry to let you know that Zandar passed away in his sleep over the weekend. I’m posting this now while his site is still active.

    I don’t know details yet but we think he died peacefully in his sleep. He loved this blog and he would want you all to keep working for justice and Democracy, and he would want you to VOTE.

    Zandar Versus The Stupid: Last Call For The House GOP Circus Of The Damned, Con’t · 20 hours ago

  74. 74.

    hueyplong

    @JaySinWA: And my reading of history is that it’s our turn to take the next swing, so long as the parties at issue are judged by policies and not traditional names.

  75. 75.

    Scout211

    We escaped from out HOA neighborhood 15 years ago where we were required to rake all the leaves and place them in the green waste garbage bin. We now live on 5 acres and never, ever rake the leaves.

    @Jeffro: Oh no! The 49ers and Seahawks are playing on Thanksgiving Day? This should be interesting. My daughter and her family will be here from Washington.  They are rabid Seahawks fans.  The rest of the family are 49er fans here in NorCal.

    I’m a Niner fan and would like to watch the game but maybe I should unplug the cable that day.  Most people worry about political differences marring their Thanksgiving Day but I’m worried about a sports rivalry.  LOL.

  77. 77.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Alison Rose:

    Mullin literally stands up and starts taking his ring off like they’re gonna rassle right on the hearing room floor. Grow the fuck up, you pathetic manbabies 

    Obviously too emotional to ever be President.

  79. 79.

    Bill Arnold

    @Alison Rose:
    Rather worse than rassling. The previous thread has a link showing that Mullin has done MMA fighting. (The birthday matches the Senator’s birthday.)
    Serious injuries or death would be possible. (And bragging, even implicitly, about such skills in a belligerent context is seriously tacky.)

  81. 81.

    MomSense

    I have some good news from Portland Maine.  We are getting a pro soccer team! United Soccer League’s proposal to rent and renovate a stadium was approved by the Portland city council unanimously last night.  There were hundreds of young people there – such an amazing sight!  USL and the local Immigrant Welcome Center started sponsoring the pick up soccer league at the Kennedy Memorial Park.  It is one of the coolest community grown things I’ve ever seen.  USL to Portland, immigrant welcome center of Maine and Kennedy Park Pick Up Soccer are all on Instagram with videos guaranteed to make you feel good about humanity.

  83. 83.

    Alison Rose

    @MomSense: Yay! Do you know the team name yet, or is it too early for details?

    I miss going to soccer matches. Probably my favorite live-sports experience was seeing the USMNT play Japan in SF. It was a great crowd, especially since there’s a large Japanese population, so both sides had a lot of supporters, but it was a really genial atmosphere.

  84. 84.

    trollhattan

    We need more tech bros elected to office. They’re risk-takers, change-makers, innovators! Also, sociopaths, but who among us hasn’t fired thousands in one day?

    Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy says that if he is elected president of the United States, he would cut 50% of the government workforce at random on his first day in office.

    Ramaswamy, who has been a proponent of downsizing the government, said in a tweet Sunday that former President Donald Trump was stopped from “firing bureaucrats” by civil service protections. “Here’s the solution: randomness,” Ramaswamy said. “Non-discretionary firings are legally defensible and avoid civil service rules.”

    Ramaswamy suggested using a random method to the firings, such as firing employees whose Social Security number ends in an odd number.

    “If that sounds too random, that’s exactly the point: No bureaucrat can allege their firing was discriminatory or politically retributive,” he added. “Absolutely nothing will break as a result.”

    He has previously proposed eliminating government agencies, including the Department of Education and the Internal Revenue Service. He has also been outspoken against U.S. support for Ukraine. During the Republican primary debate last week, he said support for Ukraine has been a “disaster” and Ukraine is “not a paragon of democracy,” and called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a nazi.

    Ah, the fabled “first day in office” threats.

  87. 87.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Scout211:

    Oh no! The 49ers and Seahawks are playing on Thanksgiving Day? This should be interesting. My daughter and her family will be here from Washington. They are rabid Seahawks fans. The rest of the family are 49er fans here in NorCal. 

    One side of the family will have a happy Thanksgiving, the other will not. 😁

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @Geminid:

    The cybertruck looks like a botched origami project.

    Designed by a 4th grade class, every one of them with 20/100 vision and have had all their crayons taken away.

  90. 90.

    trollhattan

    @MomSense: Good luck with that, pro WoSo is fun–great fan experience! We go to the Other Portland every year to watch the Thorns–their fans are crazyballs and the field is packed with World Cup players.

    We were awarded an NWSL expansion team, then our designated billionaire decided we were too small, took the franchise to San Diego instead, where they’re now the SD Wave.

    Fucker.

    Since then, a Bay Area expansion team has been awarded and our NSWL door is closed tight. Guess a USL women’s squad is a possible option, given we’re first in USL Championship League attendance.

  92. 92.

    kalakal

    Question for the hive mind.

    I’m giving a talk on Mozart in a couple of days and when I do talks on musicians I like to leave the audience with a few minutes of the subjects music. What I need is something up to about 5 minutes long and readily available on the internet. Now trying to  decide has been the most difficult and enjoyable thing I’ve done for ages. Any and all suggestions appreciated

    So far I’m down to the overture of Figaro,

    Piano Concerto 21 andante (a bit too long)

    Piano Sonata 11 Allegretto

    Horn concerto 1 Allegro – this is a favourite of mine because many years ago I played the French Horn and Mozart wrote the best horn music ever

  93. 93.

    trollhattan

    @Scout211: As opposed to the usual Dallas and Detroit TGiving games I shall be motivated to watch, and as we’re going elsewhere for the day I’ll be with nothing but ‘Niners fans. Time to dig out my Bobby Wagner jersey.

  95. 95.

    JoyceH

    @Yutsano:

    Dueling or GTFO. Let’s go back to settling things a gentleman’s way, with proper state sanctioned murder.

    No pistols though. Swords only.

    Hah – picture these jackasses going after one another with swords. Make it pay-per-view, settle the national debt.

  96. 96.

    Ksmiami

    @Alison Rose: what an idiot to go up against the teamsters: true story, the teamsters owned shares thru mob connections in a large REIT and when their spokesman expressed disappointment in an analyst, he used coffin as a verb….

  97. 97.

    CarolPW

    @jonas: Today I learned there is a retired Israeli general whose first name is Nimrod, and despite the aptness of the name for an accomplished warrior it made me snicker because I have watched too much Bugs Bunny.

  101. 101.

    sdhays

    So, apparently we’re going to go ahead with the “laddered” CR – Democrats are going to bail out “Speaker” Johnson and vote for it. So, no shutdown this year, perhaps.

    I don’t know what they’re going to do about funding for Ukraine and Israel, except I have to believe that Johnson failing to pass shit with only Republican votes weakens his hand.

    At least he doesn’t have to worry about McQarthy plotting his way back to power, since he’s obviously given up if he’s elbowing his (admittedly very stupid and shitty) colleagues. It’s a wonder why Democrats didn’t feel compelled to keep that piece of shit in the super cool Speaker’s office.

  105. 105.

    sab

    We rake the front yard leaves to the curb and the city crews pick them up on an appointed day and haul them away for composting. They don’t want them in the landfills any more than we do.

    The backyard leaves get blown to one side of the yard and composted against the fence. The pile is huge right now, but will be tiny by next summer when they have broken down.

    First year with a leaf blower instead of a rake and a tarp. Excuse the pun, but that leaf blower is a blast to use. My own little pet tornado.

  106. 106.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Mulching leaves? Shoot, I used to dust ’em.

    Several years ago, my neighbor was throwing out a small push mower that didn’t run right. It also was a mulching-only mower (there wasn’t an outlet for grass cuttings), which limited its use if you let the grass height get away from you even just a little bit. As he was leaving it at the curb, I asked if he minded if I took it, and further, to promise me not to get upset if I got it running and used it. He laughed and said words to the effect “I hate that thing! More power to you if you get it running, but I think it’ll drive you crazy!”

    There was an issue with the carb governor, as is common on these cheapo mowers, but that suited my plan just fine. I simply disconnected the governor. I regret now that I never got around to measuring the rpm that that thing ran at, but it was impressive. It burned through its small tank of gas in about 20 min of use. And the oil level needed close monitoring.

    But don’t think I was massively polluting our neighborhood air using this thing all season. I never actually used it to mow grass; I had a regular lawnmower for that. No, this little buzzbomb was used just once a year. After all the leaves had fallen, I would rake them from everywhere (driveway, walkways, the roof, etc.) and evenly distribute them on top of my small front and back yards. Then I’d fire up the buzzbomb and slowly run it across the carpet of leaves.

    Dust. That’s all that got deposited from the buzzbomb. There weren’t even little bits of stuff that might look like they were from a mulched leaf. Just dust. It was a great solution – minimal raking and a neat tidy little lawn with no sign of scruffy mulched bits. And the grass seemed to really respond well to this approach, as the little lawns never looked better before or since. Very satisfying all around.

    Sadly, the buzzbomb exploded one hot summer day. One of my other neighbors borrowed the buzzbomb when I was out of town. Classic miscommunication – I neglected to tell him which of the two mowers in the shed was used for actually cutting grass. Apparently the buzzbomb held together for the first hour or so of use, but it grenaded sometime in hour two, after having run out of gas twice (but no doubt after having burned through all the oil just once).

    Well, these things happen.

  107. 107.

    sdhays

    @trollhattan: LOL.

    My friends, I plan to run the US government like Elon has run Xitter. After randomly firing 50% of the workforce, I will then scratch my head wondering where all the revenue went and decide to rename the country ‘The United States of X’, for obvious reasons. I would then seek to transform the country into a bank, like WeChat, and sell the new entity to Mexico for $4 for protection since I fired most of the military my first day. Who knew the Department of Defense was part of the US government. I’m sorry, the X government

    Why does our economic system incentivize shoveling money at evil morons?

  109. 109.

    Miss Bianca

    @cope: That community compost station you have in Grand Junction is CLEAN OUTTA SIGHT. I toured it once years ago to write a story about it, and if it’s anything like it was then, it’s a model for the rest of the state and the country.

  110. 110.

    trollhattan

    @MomSense:

    As a retired soccer dad and continuing fan, I like telling the curious how soccer has become not just a popular girl’s sport in the States, it’s the most popular girl’s sport. That is a huge reservoir of fans, players and families alike.

    There are aspects to the college and pro games that IMHO make the women’s game the better viewing experience and communities can come together and really embrace it. (Was astonished that LA came out and supported Angel City considering they compete against two MLS teams, two MLB teams, two NFL teams, two NBA teams. Chicago, New York,  Houston, Orlando by comparison do not.)

    This can elicit horror responses from your Arsenal, Barca and Argentina fans, but that’s just how I respond to the game among its myriad formats. Feel the same about tennis TBH.

  112. 112.

    Betsy

    @trnc: No, dethatching is something that was invented by lawn care equipment vendors to keep themselves in business.  A few lawn grasses actually need this if they are kept under certain highly artificial maintenance programs.  The leaves don’t create thatch; those particular lawngrass species make their own thatch problems (knots of roots and stems that block the flow of water and nutrients to the soil).

  113. 113.

    TaMara

    Hi all, just an update on Zander, I just talked to Cole and let him know. He is planning on doing a front-page post later today – he was out when I talked to him. We for sure will have that for everyone.

    And thanks @David C:  for letting us all know.

  114. 114.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @kalakal:

    If you want to end with some fireworks (but familiar), you might consider either the Queen of the Night aria from Die Zauberflöte or “Alleluia” from Exsultate, Jubilate. 

  116. 116.

    catclub

    @cain: ​
    &nbsp

    ;I tried to mulch oak leaves and – let’s just say that – it was very difficult.

    Try mulching magnolia leaves or pine needles.

  119. 119.

    Martin

    We about to start counting down to Johnson’s sell by date? Freedom caucus opposes his government funding plan. So the only way it passes is if he gets Democrats on board.

    We’re right back to the McCarthy scenario.

  121. 121.

    Splitting Image

    @JoyceH:

    No pistols though. Swords only.

    Hah – picture these jackasses going after one another with swords. Make it pay-per-view, settle the national debt.

    Cannons would be even better. Only girls duel with swords these days.

  123. 123.

    Kathleen

    @David C: Thank you for sharing that. I believe he lived in Northern Kentucky. May he rest in peace. I was sorry to see that he had passed.

  127. 127.

    RaflW

    My hippie neighbors in Austin back in the 90s would drive around in their tiny Honda picking up dozens and dozens of leaf bags from the neighborhood. They’d use the leaves over the year to layer their compost bins with their scraps.

    After watching them do that the first fall, I built a huge, cheap leaf bin in the far back of my yard and never sent any more leaves off-property again.

    My second house, in MN, I got even fancier, making a three bin ‘system’ out of discarded pallet boards. Two compost sections and another huge leaf bin. That yard was so productive of leaves that I’d still have to bag some of it, which I then stored in my garage for later mix-ins.

    I miss all that with our townhouse. We now take our green compost to a bin site at our food coop. But the landscapers, eghad so many power tools :(.

  130. 130.

    NobodySpecial

    For myself, I mulch everything on my lawn, and the only things I bag are the leaves that inevitably end up on the curb, blocking the path to the drain. I tried bagging my first year in my house – problem is half my neighbors have 50-60 foot oak trees that don’t have the courtesy to stay on their lawn. 20+ bags of my neighbor’s leaves was not what I was doing anymore.

    This year I left everything until 90% of my neighbor’s leaves were down, ground it all into the lawn, bagged up the stuff in the drain, and only needed 3 bags. Much better.

  131. 131.

    SeattleDem

    Our trees mostly drop their leaves on the beauty bark, so we ignore them. The fir needles carpet the driveway so we sweep them up and dump them where we want to inhibit weeds. Six inches of that and nothing grows there the next year

  133. 133.

    sdhays

    @Martin: Apparently McQarthy likes to physically assault members of his own caucus, so maybe Johnson will be able to survive just on not being as much of a petty dick.

    Wouldn’t bet on it, but it’s possible.

  134. 134.

    steve g

    In Portland OR they collect compostable material every week, including leaves, grass, bush trimmings, food waste, even coffee filters and pizza boxes. We get garbage collection only every two weeks. The compostable stuff they gather goes into enormous compost piles out along side the river, and you can buy a nice dark pile of compost from them delivered to your curb.

  135. 135.

    Matt McIrvin

    @trollhattan: On the original UK “The Office”, David Brent explained that you should throw away 50% of job applications at random without reading them, because that way you don’t hire unlucky people.

  136. 136.

    narya

    Apropos of nothing, King Arthur has a sale on the fancy-schmancy ThermaPen–$15 off plus free shipping; sale ends tonight. And! I had a $15 Baker’s Reward, so I got another $15 off.

  138. 138.

    eclare

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I remember that!  Ricky Gervais was cringe-inducing brilliant in that role.

    I’ve never watched the US version because I don’t see how it could compare.

  141. 141.

    JGreen

    @kalakal: ​
      Try Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, first movement. I’ll bet everyone has heard it before even if they don’t know what it was called. No doubt that you can find it on the Internet.

  143. 143.

    Matt McIrvin

    @eclare: The US version turned into its own thing–much less dark and biting than the UK one, but the UK one had an intensity that couldn’t be sustained for very long.

  146. 146.

    Bill Arnold

    @Citizen Alan:

    So you’re saying it’s probably Roid Rage?

    Don’t know. I do know that if I ever had to fight that man or one like him, I would cheat[1]. He looks strong, and maybe quick. The arrogance is a weakness.

    [1] “cheat” is a technical term. (I am not an easy target.)

  147. 147.

    Bill Arnold

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Ramaswamy was probably actually inspired by Thanos, come to think of it.

    That was my first thought as well. I wrote up a comment including Leviticus 21:18-21 (certain temple rules about the priesthood) but it was a bit weird, didn’t post.

  148. 148.

    sab

    @kalakal: I used to listen to a public radio station in Las Vegas Nevada because I lived there in my misspent early adulthood.

    They bought their call letter KNPR from the Coast Guard. In US “W” as a first letter for radio stations is east of the Mississippi  and “K” is west. So the Coast Guard had a decommissioned ship with rights to the call letters. So they sold them.

    Anyway  they had a Sunday call in show talking with visiting celebrities. Every week that weeks celebrity had to pick out a piece of classical music they liked ( ???) and every week the not-classical music interested celebrity picked out something from Carmina  Burana.

    Then one week they had Ritchie Havens, who did know and love classical music and opera.

    He picked out Nessun Dorma from Turandot. I am not an opera fan so I had never heard it before. Changed my life. Although I do think Turandot otherwise is kind of stupid. Chinese Ice Princess? Seriously?

  149. 149.

    hotshoe

    @TaMara: sounds like an issue that would not be controversial but probably does require someone “professional” at the city to negotiate with the garbage folks to set the new policy.
    It can be done.
    My stupid cowboy town is smart enough to have good garbage recycle and compost policy: will not collect any lawn/garden debris in bags, only in the big green roll-y bins they supply as part of the garbage service. All garden debris goes to the huge superhot compost facility, then twice a year residents can collect as much compost as they can shovel to take back to compost their own gardens.
    I live in dry-ish suburb: everyone has a lawn tree or two, but no one has the truly giant piles of autumn leaves. Not sure how collection would work if ya had to fit all your giant pile of leaves into a can to be taken. But how does it work if ya have to bag ’em all anyway? Too much fiddling with holding the bag open, filling, tying, carrying to the curb …​

  150. 150.

    dr. luba

    @cain: Agreed.  Oak leaves take forever to decompose.

    I run my mulching mower over them twice, and then use the mulched leaves in my flower beds.  It’s a lot of work.

    I tried using a mulching leaf vacuum, but it doesn’t chop oak leaves well.  Does a good job with non-oak leaves, but when you have four 70 foot plus oak trees dumping into your yard, it just isn’t enough. Especially when you have drifts of leaves up to a foot deep.

    So I mulch what I can (there are only so many hours in a day), and then the lawn guys pick up everything else and take it to township composting.

  153. 153.

    LifeInTheBonusRound

    Our multi-unit 100-year-old building in Cambridge has an enormous English walnut tree in the front yard. It rains conkers down on unwary pedestrians and covers the front “meadow” (formerly lawn) with walnuts. We daren’t mow, and we can’t really leave them to break down for the next 20 years. So we don’t rake leaves, we rake walnuts (after the squirrels have taken their fill for the winter months).

  154. 154.

    kalakal

    Thank you for for all the Mozart suggestions, Mrs kalakal has suggested I break up the lecture will small snippets which I like, I think I’ll play ’em in with a bit of the intro to Figaro, out with Eine Kleine, have the Queen of the night reducing wannabe sopranos to tears, and the piano sonata 11 interleaved.

    Once again thanks

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