Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

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

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

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

In my day, never was longer.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

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

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

This blog will pay for itself.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Night Open Thread

Saturday Night Open Thread

by | 46 Comments

This post is in: 

Subaru Dianne sent this great clip to a few of us.  I don’t think I’ve seen it in a post yet, and it looks like we could use an open thread.

Enjoy!

 

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  2. 2.

    Salty Sam .

    Fucking hell, this is so Balloon Juice it’s hilarious!

    ”…at the risk of sounding pedantic…”.       HAH!

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    She was very patient. I think I would have kneed him in the groin after about the second or third correction.

  5. 5.

    Scout211

    That was a fun skit.

    @noncarborundum: IMHO he’s wrong about “firstly”.

    I thought “firstly” sounded odd, too.  Of course consulted the google and found a fun explainer on Merriam-Webster

    When used to begin a list of two or more things, there is a strong preference for first over firstly today, but this preference is one of custom and usage, not grammar. Both first and firstly can function as adverbs, but they are not completely interchangeable; for example, we never say “firstly of all.”

    . . .

    It turns out that there’s been a conspiracy against firstly for centuries. The great English dictionaries of the 1700s and early 1800s by Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster didn’t even have entries for firstly, though the word had been used since the 1300s (Webster had no entry between FIRSTLING and FIRST-RATE). When firstly was finally added in the first posthumous edition of Webster’s Dictionary in 1847, it wasn’t even accorded the courtesy of a definition; instead, the entry simply reads “Improperly used instead of first.”

  8. 8.

    Hoppie

     

     

    @Salty Sam .: Correctissimo.  One does not SOUND pedantic, one is/is not pedantic. Sheesh. People who try to SOUND pedantic just sound stupid.  Ipso facto ergo sum demonstrandum.

  11. 11.

    Josie

    This is so wonderful, and I’m sure the comments will be equally so. Unfortunately, it is past my bedtime, so I will enjoy reading them early tomorrow morning. Onward and upward, pedants all.

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    I enjoyed that.

    I was gonna do a long run tomorrow, but it’s supposed to rain all day. So I’ll stick to the Peloton.

  16. 16.

    Salty Sam .

    @Hoppie:  Well played, although I must, in fairness, point out that the error you so expertly pointed out was, in fact, produced by the original sketch.

  17. 17.

    Martin

    @jonas: My wife’s church does their unashamedly gay Christmas play with a set piece with ‘Romanes eunt domus’ written all over it.

    It’s lovely.

  19. 19.

    prostratedragon

    Oh, did I ever know where that was going😆! (Actually she might have missed her cue on “literally.”)

  21. 21.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Alison Rose: I watched it several times while I tried to place him. The comedy angle threw me off. Although he was in a rather odd BBC sitcom about government bureaucracy that I saw  a bit of.

  22. 22.

    Jackie

    @Salty Sam .:

    Fucking hell, this is so Balloon Juice it’s hilarious!

    ”…at the risk of sounding pedantic…”.       HAH!

    You beat me to it! I literally burst out laughing… The priest is an undercover Jackal 😂

  23. 23.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, a good piece by driftglass on late-stage TV brain:

    […]

    Bonanza ran from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. That’s 14 seasons and 431 episodes; the second longest running Western television series in U.S. network history. It was also the first Western series televised in living color. So, this conversation probably happened sometime in the mid- or late-1960s. Back when teevee was still a magic box that brought you Three!Count!’Em!Three! networks to choose from. When color teevee was still a rarity. When Blocker would come into your home as Hoss Cartwright every week, year after year.

    You would have known who Hoss was and what he was about.

    Another part of your brain would have also known who Walter Cronkite was and what he was about. He was serious. The news mattered. And however addled you might get, you’d never have mixed up the news of the day with life on the Ponderosa. But somehow, through the magic of teevee, sometimes some element of that fictional drama on teevee would get to feeling familiar and real. Especially if it was part of an ongoing drama that you spent time with over and over again for years.

    Even though a part of that teevee brain knew it wasn’t, it seemed like it was

    […]

    Even if you see where he’s going, it’s worth a click.

    Internet brain, and FB brain, and Twitter brain, and TikTok brain, and all the rest are related to TV brain. Structures that kept us from being eaten by giant cats, or impaled by invaders, may not be all that useful in protecting us from TikTok. And we, as a species, need to think about what that means for us if we want to be able to construct sensible governments and social structures that address our common problems…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  27. 27.

    TriassicSands

    Due to the irresponsible, thoughtless, and extraordinarily stupid action of my PCP, I now stand a very good chance of going into unnecessary and forced opioid withdrawal. I take opionds, and have for years, because of a a life-changing, severe chronic pain condition. The only thing that has helped has been opioids. While I was in the hospital for 25 days, they used my medication to treat my pain. I ran out shortly before discharge. While I was in the hospital i missed my next pain management appointment.

    Upon discharge, the hospitalist wrote me a “bridge” prescription for seven days. Problem. I got out at the end of November and the first available appointment was not until Dec. 22. Oops. I made my PCP aware of this  — he only  works three days a week, so getting through to him from Friday  PM until the following Wednesday doesn’t happen. Apparently, he has told his staff not to contact him during his time off. There is no functional backup system in place. (Big surprise.)

    I pressed the issue and I finally was able to get an appointment for 12/13 with a different doctor, whom I was told could write opioid prescriptions. But the 13th was also AFTER I would go into withdrawal. Great solution. Then I was told that there was a full prescription on hold for me at the pharmacy I used to go to before I moved. I called them and they only had 30 tablets on hand and, due to ongoing (many months now) shortages they said they couldn’t complete the prescription within the required 72 hours (more stupidity from the people who make the rules).

    On Saturday (12/2) I drove 15 miles to the old pharmacy only to be told that my PCP had canceled that prescription on 11/29. WTF? Unless I can work something out between now and Wednesday, I will be forced into withdrawal solely because my PCP is an incompetent idiot. My gastroenterologist’s office (in Seattle) told me that I had an appt. with my PCP on 12/4. The problem? My PCP doesn’t work on Mondays and there is no record that such an appointment exists.

    When I finally see this “doctor” I will have to be very careful. Otherwise, I will be escorted out of the building by security. The hospital he works for demands that patients show respect for their doctors and nurses. How does one respect someone so boneheaded?

    There is more to this than I’ve written, but the comment is already too long. None of the rest does anything but make the situation even worse. Given the amount of totally unnecessary harm our “health care” system has caused me over the last 23 years, I can now fully understand why someone with a crappy  life, no impulse control, and with violent tendencies would pick up a gun and start killing people. That is a terrible thing to say. What I’ve never been able to accept is why, instead of going after the perceived source(s) of their problems, they so often attack random innocent people including children. That only compounds the tragedy. I don’t own any firearms, won’t try to acquire any, and have no desire to threaten or harm anyone physically or psychologically. However, I might consider keying the doctor’s BMWl or letting the air out of his tires.

    Nope, I won’t even do that. But I will tell him (with all expletives deleted) what I think of him and his pretending to practice medicine.

    No time to proofread, I have to get my 12 hour IV started.

  29. 29.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @TriassicSands: I am sorry this is happening to you because of your doctors incompetence and our current US society going round the bend on the ‘opioids bad’ backlash.  Chronic pain is the absolute pits and I hope things get better soon for you.

  30. 30.

    Ohio Mom

    @TriassicSands: Oh dear. That is terrible. It’s something I’ve heard about, how legitimate pain patients get shafted because of rules put in place to discourage and punish abusers but I’ve never known anyone personally who fell into that group until now.

    I understand completely the fantasy about shooting something or someone up. There have been plenty of times I have looked at Ohio Son at his intransigent worse and thought, “If only I could beat him.” Of course I wouldn’t, the fantasy is an escape valve for deep and ongoing frustration.

    I wish I had some solution for you but your situation is beyond my ken. Keep us posted if you can.

  31. 31.

    Barney

    @Scout211: The controversy over “first/firstly” is both transatlantic, and, appropriately, ecclesiastical:

    The strongest proponent of firstly I’ve encountered is H.W. Fowler, Modern English Usage (1926):

    First(ly), secondly, lastly. The preference for first over firstly in formal enumerations is one of the harmless pedantries in which those who like oddities because they are odd are free to indulge, provided that they abstain from censuring those who do not share the liking. It is true that the Prayer Book, in enumerating the causes for which marriage as ordained, introduces them with First, Secondly, Thirdly; it is true that firstly is not in Johnson; it is true that De Quincey labels it ‘your ridiculous and most pedantic neologism of firstly‘; but the boot is on the other leg now. It is the pedant that begins his list with first; no one does so by the light of nature; it is an artificialism. Idioms grow old like other things, and the idiom book of a century hence will probably not even mention first, secondly.

    grammar – First, … Secondly, … &c – English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

    Fowler is the pre-eminent British authority, but that is followed with many American sources advocating “first” (and “second” and “third” to follow it).

  33. 33.

    evodevo

    @jonas: Yess…as someone who took Latin in HS from a female teacher who delighted in waiting till you were up at the blackboard (remember those?) to start in on what you were doing wrong, I LOVED this scene…I can only assume Latin teachers are the same worldwide, and that the Pythons based the sketch on their personal experiences LOL

  34. 34.

    zhena gogolia

    @RedDirtGirl: He’s in Paddington! And Notting Hill! He was known more as a comic actor before Downton. (He sometimes gets to show comedic chops on there too.)

  35. 35.

    Central Planning

    I learned first/second/third, nothing with -ly at the end. If writing is supposed to be transparent to the reader, those words distract me when I’m reading. The struggle is real!

  38. 38.

    SteveinPHX

    Does BJ maintain an Honor Roll of posters who have scored first?, firstly?, frist?, fristly? Just curious.

  39. 39.

    Daoud bin Daoud

    @Hoppie:  isn’t “sounds pedantic” part of the joke?  The vicar doesn’t care that he is being obtusely pedantic, he just cares if he sounds that way.

  40. 40.

    Daoud bin Daoud

    @evodevo:  think Pink Floyd’s The Wall and its depiction of abusive teachers. That style of pedagogy has been around far too long.

  42. 42.

    kalakal

    @evodevo: That was certainly my experience of Latin teachers and I went through the same system as the Pythons a few years after them. Gradgrind had nothing on English public school Latin teachers. In one sense it worked, I can still do Latin conugations in my sleep despite never having used them in 50 years. You could carve Amo, Amas, Amat, Amamus, Amatis, Amant on my tombstone

  43. 43.

    LiminalOwl

    @TriassicSands: oh, man. Much sympathy to you.  Much rage towards the health-care system that is causing you and other chronic-pain patients distress rather than alleviation.

  44. 44.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @TriassicSands: I was going to start this with I feel your pain but…no. I do definitely share your despair at the mindless arrogance of MDs. If you have a couple of minutes, allow me to share a story from many years ago:

    I was diagnosed in my 20s with arthritis in my spine, hips, shoulders, chest (yes there are joints there too – I would go months without being able to complete a sneeze, long story). The rheumatologist put me on an NSAID that worked wonderfully for me, but even so a few times a year I’d get back spasms. For which he prescribed me the minimum dose of Valium, which also worked wondrously – knocked out the spasms without affecting me in any other way. I never exceeded a dozen pills a year.

    Some years later Doc Rheum retired (long story) and passed me off to a colleague. When I detailed my meds he said I will not prescribe you Valium, it’s addictive. I explained as detailed above and once again he refused – I would get Flexeril, period.

    I filled the Rx, and when the next round of sporadic spasms occurred I dutifully took the pill. Ten minutes later I felt as if King Kong had crept up behind me & whacked me upside-da-haid with his biggest, heaviest pillow. I was out and barely managed to drive home without wrapping the car around a pole.

    I explained this to the new doc & he once again refused to prescribe the Valium that had worked so well. So I dug up another rheumatologist and never went back to the arrogant sonofabitch.

    I guess we need to remember that med school is by & large 4 years of rote memorization, and that –

    Q: What do you call the person who graduates at the bottom of the medical school class?

    A: Doctor.

  45. 45.

    BC in Illinois

    @kalakal:

    You could carve Amo, Amas, Amat, Amamus, Amatis, Amant on my tombstone

    Yup. I still remember — from the years of the Nixon administration — how to conjugate the verb λύω.

    λύω λύεις λύει λύομεν λύετε λύουσι … ουσι …ουσι …

    [To the tune of “Louie. Louie.”]

  46. 46.

    Barney

    @kalakal: I’ll see your “amo..” and raise you

    A, ab, absque, coram, de

    Palam, cum and ex and e

    Sine, tenus, pro and prae

    Add super, subter, sub and in

    when state not motion ’tis they mean.

    That’s from 40 years ago.

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