Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

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

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

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

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

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

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Afternoon Open Thread

Tuesday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 136 Comments

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Looks like we could use one!

Tuesday Afternoon Open Thread 3

I was sliding Henry’s little holiday kerchief over his head, and it looked like he was wearing a babushka. Too cute.

I grew up in a Polish-Bohemian neighborhood, and all the older ladies used to wear them.

Tuesday Afternoon Open Thread 5

Tuesday Afternoon Open Thread 6

Henry is now wearing his kerchief in the appropriate way.  I’m sure he would want you to know that.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

136Comments

  1. 1.

    West of the Rockies

    I’m taking down the Christmas tree… always a bittersweet thing.  Reflecting upon Christmas’s past, hopes for the coming year.

    Happy New Year, jackals.

    Henry looks superlative.

  3. 3.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Henry looks adorable!

    It just hit me we’re nearly a halfway through the 2020s. 2020 simultaneously feels like it was just yesterday and a long time ago. It’s difficult to believe how much has happened in the past few years

  4. 4.

    mali muso

    @West of the Rockies: Kiddo and I just spent some time doing the same thing.  Took all the decor off the tree, wrapped up the lights, into the storage boxes go the holiday items.

    I don’t really feel ready for 2024.

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Henry looks adorable in his little babushka! (Weren’t there originally two photos of him in the OP, or am I finally losing it?)

  6. 6.

    Alison Rose

    My cat loves this time of year because the tree outside our windows is almost totally bare (there are always a few dozen stubborn leaves that keep hanging on) so she can see the birds much better. I’m not sure what kind of tree it is but it has some little fruits or berries of some kind that the birds love. Most of them are the kind that don’t sit still for more than a few seconds, so Briery has a good Cat TV show to watch all day.

  8. 8.

    There go two miscreants

    Happy New Year to all the BJ family! And thanks to all who provided links to Taylor Swift music. I enjoyed listening to a good bit of that.

  17. 17.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    First official day of retirement after 38.5 years with Club Fed and what happens?

    After four years of *not* getting the plague, I tested positive for it.

    I’m swimming in mRNA vaccines so the symptoms (started feeling them mid-day Saturday) are a head cold and even by head cold standards, it’s not that bad.  I mean I did manage to work my 6.5-mile run in this morning.

  19. 19.

    Delk

    Left Toronto this morning and are about two and a half hours away from home.

    Customs guy takes our passports looks at us (two middle aged bearded guys) and asks how we know each other. We hold up our left hands and say that we are married. Guy smiles, gives us back our passports and we are on our way.

  20. 20.

    Ocotillo

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:   I feel you.

    Mother-in-law (in assisted living) had a sore throat the week before Xmas.  Wife (who like me, has not had Covid since it came into being) tests positive of Friday night.  I go to Assisted Living place to advise they need to test M-I-L, she tests positive.  You know where I am going with this, Christmas day I draw the double pink line.

    M-I-L did the best of all of us with it (at 89).

  22. 22.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Ocotillo:

    I hope the impact was minimal in terms of feeling like crap.

    I should be getting paxlovid today.  Doctor’s office said it was basically my call, they didn’t feel it was a requirement, but when I said I was more concerned about potential long-covid impacts, they were like absolutely, let’s get that for you.

  29. 29.

    JoyceH

    Question for the multi-dog households. What do you do when the puppy goes after the older dog’s tail? Do you let the older dog correct the pup or do you correct her? I figured dogs knew how to train puppies not to do that, and in fact Jazzy rounds on her and barks or growls. But Whimsy keeps doing it and Jazzy’s tail is looking a bit less plumey.

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    Anything going on in the news?   I have been cleaning all morning and haven’t kept up with anything.

    I checked in on BJ for the first time shortly before 3 pm and saw only the morning thread, said “yikes!” and threw this up.

    Not a meaty post, but how can you go wrong in a pinch, with Henry?

  36. 36.

    SpaceUnit

    It’s going to snow here beginning Thursday and then on and off thru next week.  I have made an executive decision to leave the outside Christmas lights up.  The neighbors will just have to deal with it.

    Actually the HOA puts up lights and decor in the neighborhood and usually doesn’t take it all down until mid January.

  37. 37.

    SkyBluePink

    Sweet Sweet Henry in his babushka.  Very familiar- early years in same type of neighborhood (and family)

  38. 38.

    FelonyGovt

    Pictures of Henry made my day brighter! Looks like he’s down to his normal weight after gorging on cat food?

    Sorry I didn’t make the NYD Zoom. We went out for tacos. I spent yesterday dreading the return to my (part time) work this morning. I hope this is the year I can retire for good.

  39. 39.

    Suzanne

    @JoyceH: When Coco has been getting too rambunctious for Chica, we have been separating the two of them. Chica is old and grumpy and never wants to play. Sigh.

  42. 42.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: That’s a lot!  We are on vacation and Mrs. Fro was beside herself 2 days ago, seeing that Cville was supposed to get 9” on Saturday.

    (I think the forecast is down to 3” now) 😁

  43. 43.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @frosty:

    That sent me down a rabbit hole.  Probably the most succinct piece:

    https://www.lesmills.com/us/fit-planet/health/exercise-and-long-covid/

    Which has one medical person (in New Zealand) saying basically this:

    “However, exercising too soon, or pushing through the warning signs, has been noted by many of those with long Covid as the key trigger.”

    I now have a message into the PA I virtually met with earlier asking about this.  Because yeah, as a pretty accomplished ultra-marathoner who plans on doing until I drop dead (or can’t finish a race, whichever comes first), I don’t want to screw that up.

  44. 44.

    lowtechcyclist

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    First official day of retirement after 38.5 years with Club Fed and what happens?

    Congrats on your retirement!  Sorry you got Covid right away, but at least it sounds like a mild case.  Today’s officially the second day of my retirement from the Feds, although my last day of work was two and a half weeks ago.  Most of that time was filled with holiday travel and related stuff, though, so this is the part when it starts becoming real.

     

    38.5 years – was that far back enough that you’re in the old (CSRS) retirement system?  I didn’t become a Federal employee until 1998, so it had been FERS for newcomers for a while by then. (No complaints – my TSP has been doing just fine for all that time.)

  45. 45.

    raven

    In the mid-70’s I had a buddy who played football at Illinois and he was a great running back at Fenwick. He got married in a Catholic church somewhere in your neighborhood and there were a bunch of ladies in babushka’s in the back of the church who apparently went to every wedding in that church!

  46. 46.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @lowtechcyclist: ​
    I’m literally one of the first FERS feds. When I started in Jun 1985, we had no retirement system. Ronald Fucking Reagan and Tip Fucking O’Neal had agreed about 18 months prior to fuck with federal employees but it took Congress almost 3 years to concoct FERS.

    When it went into affect, we were given the opportunity to “buy back” the two “missing years” when we were covered by nothing. Of course the timeline to “buy back” was microscopic and it was either give up the house down payment or do that.

    Would I rather have had CSRS? Yes, and that after all these years of being in FERS. I could have done the same thing investment-wise FERS has done for me *and* still compile the CSRS pension.

    What fucking Reagan did to us was simply a wider war on labor (ala the Air Traffic Controllers) and we’re all still paying the price for that mindset 40+ years later.

    Oh, and congrats on another Club Fed retiree!

  48. 48.

    mali muso

    @Geminid: Not ready but the kiddo would be happy for it. Guess I need to brave the store before the obligatory run on milk, eggs and bread. We are further up (or down depending on how you look at it) the valley, so we may or may not get hit as much. Or more! Always impossible to predict.

  50. 50.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @raven:

    It’s my fault.  We went to a dinner theater show in Boulder last Tuesday.  I stupidly didn’t mask and I’ve been religious about masking at such events.  I’ve done nothing else that could have given me the viral load as going there.

    Thus, mask as if your life depended on it.

    I mean I’ve been abroad twice during the Plague Years: we hiked (yes hiked) Hadrian’s Wall in 2022 and spent 3 weeks galivanting across Sweden, Finland and Norway this past June.  Spent a lot of time masked in appropriate circumstances but not constantly.

  51. 51.

    lowtechcyclist

    @chrome agnomen:

    we are actually less than 1/3 of the way through the 20s.

    You’re confusing the 2020s (2020-2029) with the third decade of the 21st century (2021-2030). We’re 40% of the way through the former, and 30% of the way through the latter.

    /pedant

  54. 54.

    Manyakitty

    @Sister Golden Bear: right? I’ve been working for pretty much the last 40 years and I am OVER IT. Alas, events and life conspired in such a way that I finally got a retirement account and I’m up to a whole 6-8 months worth of expenses. I’ll probably still be working a year after I’m dead.

  57. 57.

    trollhattan

    @raven: ​
    During plane travel seems prudent, even max-vaxxed. It’s a tube in the sky, even if it’s a ventilated one.

    These continual new variants are sneaky bastards. Not looking forward to returning to an office filled with folks returning from holiday travel. Ugh. (Will ponder being on jury standby this week, separately.)

  58. 58.

    lowtechcyclist

    Saw some humongous deer tracks in the yard this afternoon.  There had been a big buck in our yard before we went to Florida for Christmas; my next-door neighbor says he’s still around, and there were some big tracks in his yard too.

    Our neighborhood is basically a horseshoe of development surrounding a Corps of Engineers flood plain that’s heavily wooded.  Our yards back up to it, and it’s a deer paradise back there.

  59. 59.

    trollhattan

    @Manyakitty: Cemetery visit from HR: We need your time for the rest of the month filled out by Friday. It’s the end of fiscal year!

    Proposal for grave marker text: “What’s the WBS number for deceased?”

  60. 60.

    BlueGuitarist

    @WaterGirl:

    some news: a lawsuit has been filed to remove Representative Scott Perry (PA-10) from the ballot for involvement in the Jan 6 insurrection.
    Jury selection begins in NYC for Wayne LaPierre/NRA corruption case.

  62. 62.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @trollhattan:

    One thing I’ve never stopped masking for is mass transit (mainly the light rail to the airport), the airport and the plane.

    I’ve even been so good about masking for concerts once they started up again.  I was sitting there last Tuesday in a theater of around 300 people thinking “I should be masked” but blew it off.  Possibly because I was in Santa Barbara the week prior at a concert with a similar-sized venue (around 300-350), didn’t mask and didn’t suffer any consequences.

  63. 63.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    The New Year aside, are you ready for snow? Harrisonburg’s supposed to get 4″ starting around noon Saturday.

    It’s supposed to be rain by the time it gets up here, which sucks.  Last winter, we got flurries just once, and the snow melted when it hit the ground.  I miss snow.

  64. 64.

    WaterGirl

    @FelonyGovt: Yes, I think Henry is mostly back to his “girlish figure”.  it took longer than I thought it would!

    But eating 1/5 of your starting weight is a lot of food, by any standard!

  66. 66.

    cmorenc

    @mali muso:

    My older daughter was born very near the end of February in a leap year, but lucked out and was born on the 28th instead of a day later on the 29th.

  68. 68.

    Martin

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Buddy, don’t run. One of the effects of Covid is low blood oxygen even when feeling well. Something about Covid masks your physiological response to low blood oxygen until it puts you on the floor. That’s part of why the hospitalization worked the way it did – people were sicker than they realized until they lost consciousness or couldn’t breathe – many people reported it came out of nowhere.  You don’t want to find yourself a mile out and then absolutely hit the floor unable to stand or walk.

  69. 69.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: WTOP said that I-95 would be the likely dividing line between rain to the east and sleet or snow to the west. The storm was described as starting on the southern plains, heading east and then curving north.

  72. 72.

    Dan B

    @Delk: Nice story.  My partner and I went to a NYE party.  Our host’s nephew and his partner of a year or so and another couple – friends together for 45+ years were there.  Everyone else is straight and not phased by us gay guys.  Ah, Seattle!

  74. 74.

    Alison Rose

    @cmorenc: I have a friend born on Leap Day who I met when we were 11 years old, and I remember thinking back then it would be cool because you could demand a two-day celebration during non-Leap Years. But I also thought it probably got pretty annoying when people would joke about you only being the age that matched the number of Feb 29ths there had been in your life.

  75. 75.

    Martin

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Also, my analysis on how covid would impact the university was that the large lecture halls would cause it to absolutely tear through the place, in part because of close seating and in part because these venues make trade-offs in ventilation because better ventilation is loud – even if the fan is far away, moving large volumes of air through ducts and vents is loud. I knew the air exchange rate in those spaces, and they were incredibly insufficient for a virus that can remain airborne for hours. One benefit of CA is that we open a lot of these spaces to the outdoors when the weather is a bit nicer and that’s pretty safe but in a 300 seat venue, you’re pretty much guaranteed right now to have at least dozen people that are transmissible in that space, only because Covid is transmissible really quickly after you catch it. People that feel good enough to run are sick enough to spread it.

  76. 76.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Martin:

    People that feel good enough to run are sick enough to spread it.

    Back in the early days of the plague, I’d run with a mask on.

    That being said, I get up at 3:30am to run around City Park here in Denver.  Typically ain’t nobody out then.  Note I said “typically”.  I have stories. ;)

    And thanks for the advice.

  82. 82.

    SpaceUnit

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    I caught Covid in 2022, late summer.  Mostly just an intermittent cough.  Never really felt sick and so I kept up my daily routine of biking, walking and working out.  I was testing negative in very short order, but that cough hung around for a solid eight month.  Still isn’t gone entirely.

    Wish I’d known about the exercise thing.  Hold off.

  86. 86.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Martin:

    Hah!  I hadn’t intended to make it to 38+ years either.  Original plan was to retire 5 years ago but, well things happened. ;)

    I still remember during my first 5 or so years with the feds about old-fart employees and how I never wanted to turn “into them”.  Of course I did in many ways.  Hmmm, now that I think about it, I’ve probably been “in” longer than many of those who I swore I’d never turn into.

  87. 87.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Manyakitty:

    right? I’ve been working for pretty much the last 40 years and I am OVER IT. 

    Over IT?  I hear ya!  Look for a new line of work. 😁

  89. 89.

    ColoradoGuy

    Yeah, get the meds. Paxlovid is two different antivirals that block Covid from mutating its way out of the immune response. And no exercise until you test negative.

    Back when I was going to the gym a lot, I got a mild cold and kept to the usual regimen. Two weeks later, I got pericarditis, which is pretty scary, but resolved on its own. The docs were pretty clear I had done it to myself … so take it really easy when your immune system is working flat-out to clear a virus.

    Covid tampers with the immune system … its little party trick of being asymptomatic for the first few days is how it spread around the world as fast as it did.

  90. 90.

    Dan B

    @twbrandt: I’m not surprised but… years ago a friend from Detroit was staying at my house on Capitol Hill and gay couples held hands.  He was very surprised by this and hauled me out on the front steps to “hold hands in solidarity”.  This was about 30 years ago.  I thought it was odd because we weren’t dating.  At the NYE party were a young couple of guys who were beefy and sort of inseparable.  It was cute.  None of the other gay or straight couples were glued to each other.

  91. 91.

    Spanky

    I guess this is as good a place as any to drop this …

    We ended a shit year in true shit fashion. Nymsake Spanky left the planet Friday night. He’s had urinary issues, diabetes, and thyroid failure for years, and those at age 17 caught up with him as his system collapsed.

    He ruled the house with an absolute iron paw, and his feline nephews and humans are rather adrift.

    So here’s to a better 2024 to all of us!

  94. 94.

    Spanky

    We do seem to have dodged one bullet last week. We spent a cozy Christmas Eve with some friends at their place, and the next morning they came down with covid. So far, Mrs. Spanky and I have tested negative, but we can’t quite believe it.

    We’ve both gone about fully masked since, and it was disturbingly easy to fall back into that habit.

  97. 97.

    Spanky

    @zhena gogolia:  His is the only name given at the shelter(s) that we’ve ever kept. It fit him perfectly – short-legged, a little tubby, and an attitude.

    ETA A lot tubby in later years.

  98. 98.

    brendancalling

    I had professional development today. The children return tomorrow. This will be my last year in the miserable profession. That’s my resolution.

  99. 99.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid: ​
     

    WTOP said that I-95 would be the likely dividing line between rain to the east and sleet or snow to the west.

    I’m about a mile from the Chesapeake Bay, about a half-hour south of Annapolis. So well to the east of I-95. Rain it is. I think we’ll use Saturday to take down the indoor Christmas decorations. Outdoor lights will stay up longer, my wife and I have agreed.

  103. 103.

    Barbara

    @Spanky: I’m sorry.  The older of my two dogs is turning 16 this year and I have never had a pet live this long in my care.  It’s so hard to say goodbye.

  106. 106.

    Chris T.

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: There is apparently some pretty good evidence that Covid can infect plaques (see, e.g., https://www.nature.com/articles/s41569-023-00949-0). I speculate that exercise is likely to help “push” infected macrophages into plaques sprinkled throughout the body, which then act as reservoirs that continuously supply extra virus.

    It could, of course, be even more complicated than this, but a plague that infects plaques is a plague plaque plague.

  107. 107.

    pluky

    @JoyceH: The older dogs will indulge more puppy crap than one might expect up to a certain age. Past that, expect correction to come swiftly, clearly, and forcefully.

  112. 112.

    karen marie

    @JoyceH:   I’m a big fan of letting them work it out themselves, only intervening if it looks like someone’s going to get injured or the one being harassed comes to me for protection.   Redirection and positive reinforcement are your friends.

  116. 116.

    Yarrow

    @raven: If you’re flying you might want to consider masking in the airport. Especially when packed in a TSA line and that sort of thing. Supposedly planes themselves have pretty good air circulation/filtration, so are safer than the airport. Covid isn’t the only thing going around and you don’t want to get any of it at the beginning of a fun trip.

  117. 117.

    TriassicSands

    @Alison Rose:

    Dogs are like people. They’re always willing to make the same mistake twice. And again. And again. And again.

    I had a friend whose dog went after a porcupine with unsurprising and very painful results. One would expect that lesson to stick. And one would be wrong.

    Another friend’s dog went after a skunk with predictable results. Did that prevent future pursuit of skunks? Nope. Or maybe Eau de Skunk was the dog’s preferred cologne.

    Of course, the list of foolish, dangerous, unwise, and evil things that humans do repeatedly is more or less endless.

    In Henry’s case and defense, binge eating is at least initially gratifying and the penalty usually short-lived. So, maybe, just as many women appear to block out the pain of childbirth (otherwise, every child might be an only child), Henry will block out the memories of vomiting and binge again. Alternatively, I guess it was cat food, so maybe species competition was behind it all. And that will never go away.

  121. 121.

    frosty

    @Geminid: Not ready for snow. Need to get the shovels out and ready. I got a call from the roofer under contract who was supposed to do the work in mid-December. He asked if they could start tomorrow and get it done before the snow. I said sure. They bumped us ahead of a few other customers … is it because our roof is in worse shape???

  123. 123.

    frosty

    @Jeffro: ​
     Our forecast is 3-5″ Saturday and 3-5″ Saturday night. We’re right on the line, it could be all rain. Early forecasts are intended to scare you.

  124. 124.

    frosty

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: ​The New Zealand quote is what I remember. My friend with Long COVID was told to work through it as soon as she felt better. I have no idea if it was any part of the cause, but she thought it might have been. Anecdata at best.

  125. 125.

    Mel

    @Alison Rose: Same for Leonard, but his favorite Cat TV show involves watching an amazingly plump squirrel scaling the gutters and faux-stalking him. Lenny puffs his tail and chatters and glowers at the squirrel advancing; Mr. Chonkers the squirrel gives Lenny the stink-eye and creeps stealthily  forward, forward, forward towards the window, then – wobble! kerplunk! Off he goes.

    Ten minutes later, Mr. Chonkers has breached the edge of the porch roof, and they’re at it again, rinse and repeat for at least an hour.

    Despite Lenny’s posturing, I’m absolutely certain that If Mr. Chonkers ever got closer to the window than 10 feet away, Lenny would have a Scarlett 0’Hara worthy fit of the vapors.

  129. 129.

    Mel

    @eclare: We finally figured out why Mr. Chonkers is so plush. A neighbor, two houses down, sits out on their back porch and shells and eats peanuts while  doing fantasy football league stuff of his laptop. Often, the neighbor leaves  his bowl of peanuts out on the porch while he goes in to get coffee or a beer.

    We saw Mr. Chonkers was scaling the gutters with his cheeks stuffed  full of peanuts the other day…

  130. 130.

    WaterGirl

    I think all these compliments might go to Henry’s head, so I only shared half of them with him today, and I will spread the rest of them throughout the week.

  131. 131.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Spanky: ​
     

    Sorry to hear about your feline Spanky. We do get attached to our furballs. 17 is a good run, but their passing always leaves a hole in our hearts.

  132. 132.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    A mile from the Chesapeake Bay? I bet there are some nice creeks nearby. You know the yellow perch will be running next month, don’t you?

    We’ve got a nice creek running through the protected wetland behind the house, but it can be intermittent at times during the year.  Also, I wouldn’t know a yellow perch if someone put it on my dinner plate.

  133. 133.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Gin & Tonic: ​
     

    Only thing that ever gets me out of bed at 0330 is my bladder.

    Back in college, some friends of mine decided that 3:30am was the true dividing line between one day and the next: people were more likely to stay up to 3am than get up then, and people were more likely to get up at 4am than to stay up until then.

    Half a century later, that still makes sense to me.

  136. 136.

    Alison Rose

    @Mel: We did have a couple of adventurous squirrels who used to show up and climb the tree all the way to our height on the third floor. I haven’t seen them in a while…

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