Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

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

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

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

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

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

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

“Alexa, change the president.”

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "Stories from the Road" / Sunday Night Open Thread

Sunday Night Open Thread

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Another perfect day today weather wise. We did a lot but it doesn’t feel like we did much. We went to breakfast with her friend Buzz who is basically her Tammy and they have been a bonded pair for close to 30 years, and I had never met him before. Went to First Watch which is typical chain breakfast (don’t get eggs benedict the hollandaise is NOT made in house and wretched or if it is made in house that person needs to be fired but probably publicly shamed first).

Then we went to this massive antique mall called the Brass Armadillo with is a lot like the antique market I go to in Steubenville, where it’s just a space filled up with different and mostly unattended dealer lots and you just grab what you want and take it to the people up front and they sort out who the money goes to. Ironically enough given our thread the other day I discovered a couple caches of Revere Ware and I briefly entertained picking up a couple more pieces and then just taking the stuff she had to goodwill or to anyone who would take it. Still might, they had a bunch so I can think on it.

Pretty much just browsed there for a while, then went home and just sat outside on the patio for a couple hours. That was nice.

Joelle is trying to downsize/rightsize her furniture situation, so we were hitting these places for the right piece and the right price, and at 4 pm we drove to an estate sale where Joelle had arranged to pick up a MCM hutch and credenza, precisely what she needed. We have to go pick that up next Saturday.

Other than that, we had… fajitas again. I could honestly eat them every day, and it was the best kind of dinner- already cooked and already paid for. Now it’s off to the couch. I see that Taylor Swift’s boyfriend won his sportsball game.

*** Update ***

I am such a clown, I forgot that at the second place, the estate sale, I was standing there minding my own business when out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of red so I went over and looked and there was this beauty of an office chair obscured by sold stuff:

Sunday Night Open Thread 5

Sunday Night Open Thread 6
It was not yet sold so I snatched that bad boy up for 50 bucks like I was robbing someone. Damned this is every bit of 50 lbs and all that solid metal base and thick ass pleather. Could not pass that up. Could probably list it on ebay for several hundred and flip it in a week if it wasn’t an item that wasn’t perfect for her tastes.

I’m sitting in it right now. They used to have this in the old computer lab in the 70’s with those steel desks that weighed 50000 lbs and I always though they were the ibm model m of chairs. It says that it is a Sturgis or at least there was a patent for sturgis pedestal chairs on it but other than that I have no idea what it is. I’d wager it is at least as old as me.

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  1. 1.

    Suzanne

    First Watch is trash. T. C. Eggington’s on Alma School south of the 60, and Snooze (multiple locations) are far superior.

    There’s a good antique mall called Antique Gatherings on 32nd and Indian School.

  9. 9.

    SuzieC

    I was in AZ for the last 4 days.  74 and sunny yesterday.  Beautiful!  Then came home to Columbus–36 and raining.  Oh well.

  15. 15.

    Ohio Mom

    A friend who moved away was quite fond of First Watch so I had a lot of weekday brunches there.

    When ordering the eggs benedict, I always asked for no sauce or sauce on the side. I miss Janet but I don’t miss eating at First Watch. Also, their coffee was terrible.

  18. 18.

    Leto

    @WaterGirl: back when the reports of CTE were coming out, and how the NFL was covering them up, there was a commentator led push to stop having football threads. Which we’ve effectively had for a number of years now. But there are still a lot of us who watch, and miss the community discussion around it. Everyone’s MMV though.

  19. 19.

    piratedan

    @Joelle: Have you ever tried Matt’s Big Breakfast?  Ms. Pirate and I tend to hit it when we’re in town overnight to watch the D’Backs play.

  20. 20.

    raven

    @WaterGirl: First, I deleted the comment I had on the first thread that started with “Water Girl is my favorite but. . . ” Second, you know that I, and even Betty, just stopped talking about football on BJ because of the hysteria every time it is brought up.  I just realized things had changed and I accepted it. My school (and Cole’s mom’s alma mater) won two national championships in a row and there were no threads about those games or the associated seasons. There may not be and BJ rules about it but there certainly has been  a shift in  interest.

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: There were college and NFL threads every Saturday and Sunday throughout football season.  Cole had his decor pics with Steelers paraphernalia.  And so on.

  27. 27.

    Suzanne

    @piratedan: Maaaaan, those pancakes at Matt’s Big Breakfast are so good. Just absolutely no nutritional value. Nothing but carbs. And butter. And sugar.

  28. 28.

    Suzanne

    Oh, and as for the office chair….. definitely go check out the ASU surplus property yard. I got a steel tanker desk and a Steelcase chair just like that, but green. $100 for both.

  32. 32.

    Suzanne

    @O. Felix Culpa: Matt’s Big Breakfast was a place I kinda only treated myself to after going hiking (and therefore negated all of the benefit of the hike). I don’t think they had a single plate of food under 1,000 calories. Just bonkers.

    Generally tried to find restaurants that offered more nutritious options for brunch…. but Matt’s was a good treat.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: If the threads today are any indication, it sure looks to me like there is still interest in football.

    I’m not a big sports fan but I’m a big fan of giving BJ peeps a place to talk about what they are interested in, so when someone asked, I said sure.

    I was happy to see that no one showed up to disrupt the thread.

  34. 34.

    raven

    @WaterGirl: I’m glad too, imagine my shock when I logged in half-way through the first game. It was never so much that people would disrupt game threads, it was more that Anne regularly put up threads about the hazards and that would get the ball rollin.

  35. 35.

    piratedan

    @Suzanne: yeah, Ms. Pirate and I like to hit it to keep away from ballpark food (although as ballparks go, Chase isn’t too bad cost wise…)

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: To me it was different before people knew about the danger and frequency of CTE.

    edit: I remembered that there used to be football threads, and that there was some controversy about it, and I was aware that the threads went away, and that Cole wasn’t interested in watching anymore.  But I don’t recall a decision that we couldn’t have football threads on BJ anymore – maybe I don’t recall because football wasn’t particularly important to me?

  37. 37.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Suzanne:

    I’m with you on usually choosing more nutritious options. I haven’t had pancakes in ages. I love my long-distance multiday hikes, when I can eat any damn thing I want, pain au chocolat being an indulgence of choice. :-)

  38. 38.

    Ruckus

    @Leto:

    I only sort of understand why the football threads needed to stop, other than it seemingly supported football and therefore having to deal with CTE. Maybe I don’t really see the issue because I had encephalitis in childhood (as did quite a few kids in my age group) and really it wasn’t all that. It stunted my growth for a few years, but I’m normal height now and have been for a long time. I also served in the military during Vietnam and that seems to have had a bit of a we don’t want to know about any of it.

    Seems to me that for many things humans have found things that mitigate diseases/health issues that used to be things that were not discussed openly – IOW someone found a cure/assistance for issues so that we don’t have near as many issues. For example polio used to be a very real problem, I know 2 woman who had polio in their legs, both my age, one I knew in school, grade 1-12 and one is a current neighbor. Hiding from it didn’t make it go away, medicine and knowledge did.

  39. 39.

    raven

    @WaterGirl: Well I’ve argued for years that the people I know who played the game knew exactly what the deal was. I finally gave up because I don’t really care what people think. Remember that my social group is largely the same. People would leave our Super Bowl parties to go watch Dowton Abbey!!!

  42. 42.

    raven

    @Ruckus: I don’t participate in plenty of threads here that either don’t interest me or I have nothing constructive to add. Adam’s threads are a prime example of threads that I don’t know enough about the topic to say anything.

  43. 43.

    Joelle

    @piratedan: I haven’t but I’ve heard great things.  I’m a big fan of Vovomeena but haven’t taken Cole there yet.  Portuguese breakfast.  It’s breakfast perfected.

  44. 44.

    raven

    And if we keep this going long enough I guarantee it will devolve. Some folks just have to let us know how enlightened they are.

  47. 47.

    Suzanne

    @O. Felix Culpa: I don’t think I’ve had pancakes in at least five years. They’re scrumptious, tho. I actually love breakfast food at dinner time, and most brunch spots don’t stay open…. so I had to learn to make good breakfast food myself.

    I have been doing a lot of overnight oats, since something like only 7% of Americans eat enough fiber. It, uhhhhh, helps!

  52. 52.

    piratedan

    @Joelle: nice thing about a big metro area is the number of choices available to you.

    I’m guessing that you’re enjoying introducing JC to your favorite haunts and that it has to be awesome watching him enjoy himself.  Just give us a heads up if you need any Tucson intel.

  55. 55.

    John Cole

    @Yutsano: Yes I do.

    And as to football threads, I have no problem with them. I just don’t put them up any more because I never pay any attention to when anyone is playing. I just quit watching a while after I quit drinking and all the CTE was going on.

    I’ll try to pay more attention and put them up in the fall.

  58. 58.

    Roberto el oso

    Just saw a clip of idiot Kristi Noem. She appears to think that Texas was one of the 13 original colonies … !?!? …… This alone should bounce her higher up on the list of Trump’s possible VP picks.

  59. 59.

    Madeleine

    Hi Joelle—I’m interested in hearing more about your preferences, dining, antiquing, shopping, etc. As I understand it, you currently live in Tempe and have lived there for some time. 

  63. 63.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Just watched the 2022 Elvis biopic. Can I just say, the Hollywood publicity machine works. We were watching a clip of Colbert interviewing Austin Butler, and they talked about this movie (though Butler was doing publicity for something more recent), and just like that we decided to watch it.

    I vividly remember his death. My wife and I both do, as he was slated to come to Syracuse on tour (where we both were going to school at the time) but never did. And yet I had no memory until this movie that he had been so young (42). It’s kind of shocking.

    It probably didn’t strike me as “so young” when I was 20, the same way it does now that I am — ahem — somewhat older than that.

  64. 64.

    Roberto el oso

    Re football posts/threads, etc. I’m not sure if it’s just me but LGM seems to be falling over itself to have 1 or more a day recently. A number of the frontpagers over there seem very knowledgeable (i.e. nerdy about stats, etc.). I haven’t followed football since my dad passed away and so I tend not to read them unless the title indicates there’s something scandalous afoot.

    But just out of curiosity, are there some commenters who feel obliged to read every single post, including ones that don’t particularly interest them?

  67. 67.

    Poe Larity

    I believe the chair is a Precision Posturect product from Chicago.

    It was used at a lot of nuclear plants in the 50’s.

  69. 69.

    Honus

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: At 42, Elvis was relatively old to me in those days.  These days I find myself thinking about all the great music we lost and how young Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Gram Parsons were.  All of them only 27.

  71. 71.

    RevRick

    @TerryTime:

     

    @WaterGirl: My wife wanted to watch the men’s US figure skating championship this afternoon and saw Ilia Mallin do a quad lutz (which is an insane feat). His coach has hinted that he’s been able to do a five-rotation jump in practice.
    Before that I watched the progress of the UConn men’s basketball game, in which they routed Xavier. John Calhoun, their legendary former coach stated in an interview that he didn’t want to build just a winning team; he wanted to build a program. He succeeded.

    Before he came on the scene, UConn was part of the old Yankee Conference and seldom had a winning record. But when that conference fell apart, UConn joined the Big East, and that made all the difference. And what Calhoun did to recruit players was not to sell the school, but to sell the Big East, which meant opportunities to play in NYC, Philly, Boston, and Washington in their TV markets. After all, Storrs CT is in the middle of nowhere. And when Calhoun built a competitive men’s team, while Geno Auriemma was doing it for the women’s, two fans in Bristol CT got the brainstorm of broadcasting the games, so they went to companies with space to rent on satellites and asked for a rate. It turned out it was cheaper to rent by a whole month than for individual games, so now they had huge blocks of available airtime. So, they created a cable broadcast network: ESPN.

  73. 73.

    TaMara

    If that is a Sturgis chair, I’m wondering if it’s not actually leather, not pleather. Anyway, a quick google search says you can’t find one like that under $300. So an excellent find!! Even if it’s not that much.

    I love a good old furniture find. My house is full of 75-100 year old pieces in excellent condition I picked up ridiculously cheap. I’d much rather have something with a history. My Art Deco high boy came from a guy whose grandfather worked for the furniture manufacturer that built it. Had been in his family since and looked it – so well cared for – he just wanted to make sure it went to a home that  wouldn’t paint it (as if!).

  74. 74.

    CaseyL

    @RevRick:

    You hush up. That chair is gorgeous. I like vintage furniture: heavy, comfy, built to last. I think the one thing the older chairs lack is being able to adjust the back at all, so I hope it does fit Joelle, or can be made to with a lumbar pillow.

  75. 75.

    RaflW

    I no longer care for or about football, but I am delighted that a bunch of MAGAs are in a tizzy about how Mr. Pfizer and his girlfriend are going to Super Bowl LVIII.

  76. 76.

    RevRick

    @CaseyL: Well, we often refer to decadent luxuries like hot fudge sundaes as sinful as we eagerly order one at the ice cream shop.

    On the other hand, one wouldn’t want to sit on it if you’re lounging around in boxers or it’s been in the sun too long.

  77. 77.

    mvr

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: ​
      One of my college roommates had seen him the year previous at the University of Illinois. He wasn’t someone I would have gone to see at the time. The next summer when he died I was hitch-hiking across Illinois/Indiana and it came on the radio that he had died.
    A few years later, under the influence of Greil Marcus’s book, Mystery Train I did start to appreciate some of his early stuff as well as 1968 Comeback era Elvis. Was just in Memphis for the first time a week or so back and did tour Sun Studio, which was worth seeing.

  78. 78.

    Jackie

    @Honus: My daughter ordered me a Taylor Swift Chiefs teeshirt for the SB – knowing full well I’ll send it to her afterward 😂

  81. 81.

    mrmoshpotato

    don’t get eggs benedict the hollandaise is NOT made in house and wretched or if it is made in house that person needs to be fired but probably publicly shamed first

    Hahaha!  Ouch!

  82. 82.

    zhena gogolia

    Haha, I just upvoted this reply on the NYT, to an interview with Calista Flockhart.

    Sushirrito
    San Francisco, CA
    Jan. 26
    I’d like to see more interviews by Ms. Dowd. This is a dynamic, uplifting piece! Ally McBeal was a staple of TV during my grad school years, and made for good conversation the next day. Workplace dynamics between men and women, socializing with coworkers. Good stuff.

    274 RecommendShareFlag
    1 REPLY

    Matthew
    NJ
    Jan. 26
    @Sushirrito

    Yes, she should immediately leave political commentary and cover Hollywood exclusively. Better for everyone.

    28 RecommendedShare

  83. 83.

    Kirk

    @Another Scott:

    The demand for ergonomic and meeting OSHA requirements combined with ‘save the pennies’ means I always seem to get chairs that sink while I’m sitting in them. The rocking ability always pops loose as I’m trying to lean against the back. The arms are loose pretty much any time after the first few months.

    In short, trying to meet the adjustability requirements on the cheap leaves me in chairs that are not ergonomic and potentially unsafe. But they’re the standard chair in America’s offices, so i’ll cope.

  84. 84.

    Joelle

    @piratedan: certainly pd.  And I’m sure there will be a BJ southwest before Cole rolls out of the copper state and leaves us to fend for ourselves in the summer stench.

    It’s been amazing watching Cole take in all that is big city livin in a warm winter climate with a growing food scene.  I sure am going to miss the big galoot come March-ish.

  85. 85.

    Suzanne

    @Kirk: On my current project, we are currently agonizing, department by department, about heights of counters. 34” maximum height is the ADA requirement, but it’s not ergonomic for most adults who can stand erect, and 36” is standard/preferred. Most equipment designed to go under a counter will only fit under a 36”….. but then we have a couple of pieces of equipment that will only fit under a 40”. Which is, of course, too tall for many adults to use comfortably. And we don’t want to have weird jogs and transitions in height, because it looks bad and is hard to construct well.

    I can’t wait for Monday. Another day of riveting counter-height discussions.

  86. 86.

    Joelle

    @Madeleine: Sure!  It’s funny… 39 years ago I used to work for a Village Voice arts and entertainment publication where I did just that!  Life has come full circle.

  87. 87.

    Prescott Cactus

    John,

    There is a place called “The Dump Furniture Outlet: in Tempe. All new stuff, little if any dent and scratch stuff.  No ordering stuff from a catalog or the internet.

    Joint is gigantic. It comes in, they display it and they sell it. Used to have free delivery, with ? purchase amount.  Furnished our whole house with them. They set everything up too.

    You should be able to find that missing piece there.

  89. 89.

    StringOnAStick

    @TaMara: Most of our stuff is 60-100years old, and was obtained from family so each has it’s own history. I regret that I had my favourite aunt’s 4 maple dining chairs dipped to strip; I need to knock them apart and do a serious reglue and change the fabric too.  As crappy as the skiing is now, it might be a good time to do that.

    We scored a leather sofa and chair from a neighbour who is downsizing; she found the original receipt and in 2001 these two things were $4k.  They’re in great shape and super comfy, so apparently dropping the big bucks on furniture can mean it’s long lasting and holds up well.

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    Embellish it even more for visitors.

    “That? Oh, that’s Oppenheimer’s chair from Los Alamos.”
    ;)

  91. 91.

    sab

    Last time I went to the Humane Society Thrift Store I broke my basic rule of donate more items than I bring home.

    In my defense I needed the vase, and I hadn’t realized that I need a night light and there was a nightlight that was a porpoise sticking it’s head out of the surf. I didn’t need the eggbeater, but it seemed so much better than my grandmother’s. I bought it and tried it this morning and it was worse, so I will redonate it this week. I have to stop buying 8″ pyrex pie pans because I already have two.

  92. 92.

    Chris T.

    @sab: When I go to the Humane Society I always bring back too many items.

    Oh, wait, you said Thrift Store.

    😺🐈🐈‍⬛

  93. 93.

    sab

    @Chris T.: Our humane society is pretty strict on pet adoptions, so we only got one dog from them. He was lovely. But they let me buy all the books and dishes I want.

    Also I got a wicker lounger for $10!!! The cats want to shred it, but I won’t let them.

  95. 95.

    Frank Wilhoit

    Sunny Street is much better than First Watch.  Around here (central A’ha’a) we have Scramblers, which is better than either, but I think they are very local.

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