Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

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

I really should read my own blog.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

He really is that stupid.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Fight them, without becoming them!

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

The willow is too close to the house.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

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

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

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

Mid Day Open Thread

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I had forgotten just HOW MUCH work goes into repainting a room, particularly in a house with 3 dogs and 2 cats. You gotta take everything out take everything down take down the curtains deep clean and keep the animals out while it dries then tape then paint then touch up all with animals detained. I was getting very manic and Joelle relegated me to the kitchen and is making a list for me to work off of rather than just firing in 8 directions at once.

So that is how my day is going.

A quick thank you to everyone moving off recurring paypal donations to patreon. It’s just a logistical mess anymore, paypal is.

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Speaking of dogs:

    It was just another routine day of inspecting shipping containers at the Port of Houston for US Coast Guard officer Ryan McMahon when he and his team thought they heard barking coming from inside one of the thousands of containers that surrounded them.
    “Oh, it’s scratching, dude,” one of the inspectors said on a video they recorded Wednesday morning as the team looked up at the container, stacked about 25ft (8 metres) in the air.

    A crane was used to bring it to the ground, and out popped a very sweet and friendly dog.

    “As soon as we opened it, we could see the little dog’s face poking out. She was right there, like she knew we were going to be there to open it for her. And she just, she wasn’t scared or anything. She just seemed happy more than anything, to be out of that dark space and in the arms of people that were going to take care of her,” McMahon, a petty officer 2nd class, told the Associated Press on Friday.

    Coast Guard officials would later determine that the canine – since nicknamed Connie the container dog – had been trapped for at least eight days, with no food or water.

    The topper?

    Coast Guard officials are not sure where the container came from, but inside were junked vehicles that were likely being shipped overseas to be sold for parts.

    “So based on that, they think that the dog most likely was in a junkyard, in a car. And that’s how she accidentally got put in the container,” Coast Guard spokesperson and chief petty officer Corinne Zilnicki said.

    Her junkyard days are behind her.

  7. 7.

    Suzanne

    The prep part of painting is brutal. Well, maybe not brutal. But definitely a big effort.

    That Benjamin Moore Aura paint is excellent and saves a lot of touch-up labor.

    I am in the mood for Moroccan red lentil soup, so I will be making this tomorrow. I have recommended it before, but I will do so again, so you too can enjoy the aromas created in your house as it cooks. You can thank me later.

  14. 14.

    lee

    The one thing I’ve noticed different WV Cole to AZ Cole is that WV Cole seemed to be tired from just life. Now AZ Cole is tired from living.

  19. 19.

    trollhattan

    @Spanky: ​
    So true–that’s a lot of goddamn taping from a ladder with the head craned backwards.

    Our nearly 100 YO house miraculously has never had the mahogany beams painted over–they have the original varnish and show the mill saw marks–and those two rooms were a beyotch to paint, which is why the ’90s paint looks just fine today.

  20. 20.

    divF

    Just contributed to Balloon Juice via Venmo. Thanks for using the confirmation number option!  Otherwise, Venmo feels to me like throwing money into the ether, the only reason I have it is to send money to my niece (where I can confirm receipt by texting her).

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    @NotMax:  We are Team Julia Child.  She thought cilantro tasted like soap.

    Although, I do like it in small doses.  (Cilantro, not soap.)

  23. 23.

    knittingbull

    i signed up for a monthly membership and then my husband asked if he should cancel our current one. oops. so the $10 recurring one from this morning was deleted.

  26. 26.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @John Cole: i remember you said you were going to do the exterior fence. I don’t know if you’ve done it already but Dunn Edwards is pretty good paint for the outside in AZ. They supposedly test the paint in AZ. I have an acquaintance who used it on the exterior of his house. It looked really good so I assumed it was newly painted  – no, he had painted it seven years previously.

  33. 33.

    Suburban Mom

    @Suzanne: That sounds fantastic.  I’ve got a batch of green split pea soup simmering, but I’ll give the red lentil a try soon.

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elizabelle: Also Ina Garten! I am a cilantro avoider too, though it’s tolerable in light doses. If there’s a ton of it, it’s like biting a bar of Irish Spring.

  36. 36.

    TBone

    Tristan Snell on MSNBC on his book ‘Taking Down Trump.’  Interesting!

    Now I’m yelling at the interviewer tho.  The interviewee is excellent.

  38. 38.

    Betty Cracker

    Speaking of cooking, I made two casseroles before noon: shepherd’s pie and tuna noodle. My stepmom broke her ankle badly, requiring surgery, and I’ve never seen my dad so much as toast bread or boil an egg.

  40. 40.

    MobiusKlein

    It’s just a logistical mess anymore, paypal is.

    Any details why it’s just dumb / a mess?   I can get in touch with folks in the right area of the company, give some feedback.

  41. 41.

    NotMax

    Can’t quite believe it’s so overcast and chilly today that it’s 11 in the morning and I’m sitting here with the space heater switched on in the daytime.

  42. 42.

    Yutsano

    FYWP. I type out a comment then you think I hit clear comment.

    Anyway, the cilantro tastes like soap is genetic and unfortunately there’s no counter for it. You can always use parsley but it’s not the same.

  45. 45.

    karen gail

    Cole; next time you have a prayer plant that looks like it is dying, try this. Let it dry out, ignore for a time and then start watering. I once again had a prayer plant start dying so stopped watering, ignored and remembered after a few months and started watering again. New leaves are unfurling, the new plant will be low and close to soil so will remove all the old long dead leaves.

  47. 47.

    karen gail

    Painted a new to me house, since didn’t want the white walls place came with; during the process the weather changed to hot and very humid. The walls leaked brown, seems the previous tenants were heavy smokers and the walls were saturated with nicotine.

  48. 48.

    Princess

    @TBone: “This is what the oligarchs are scared of “ — the same oligarchs whose taxes Trump is promising to cut, those oligarchs? They’re scared of a Trump win? Doubt it.

    But between that post and the blood libel Hillary cutting up faces stuff from MTG… man were in big trouble and there are a lot of sheep out there who have no clue the slaughterhouse is coming for them.

  52. 52.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Yutsano:

    Anyway, the cilantro tastes like soap is genetic and unfortunately there’s no counter for it. You can always use parsley but it’s not the same.

    True, in recipes that really rely on that unique citrusy quality but the Moroccan Red Soup recipe that Suzanne posted contained but a tablespoon of cilantro amidst a plethora of spices and other aromatic ingredients and could easily be left out. So I don’t quite understand perusing that recipe and saying “ugh, cilantro, no thanks!”

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    @karen gail: When we bought this place in 2018, we had to strip the walls, paint them with Kilz and then 2 coats of paint. We also had to re-duct the house because everything was coated with nicotine. It was gross.

  55. 55.

    gene108

    @TBone:

    They espouse views that used to be very mainstream, when I was growing up in the 1980’s. Whether by a “respectable” media figure like William F. Buckley, Jr. or foul mouthed comedian like Andrew Dice Clay, Kirk and Owen’s sentiments used to be much more openly stated.

    I guess that’s sort of progress.

  59. 59.

    narya

    So last night for dinner I made a choucroute with salmon. Yes, I know, I also thought it might not work, as the base is sauerkraut, but the protein is fish instead of meat or sausage or the like. The FYNYT has a recipe, and I sorta used that, except I used roasted sweet potato cubes instead of rye croutons, and I didn’t use any bacon or smoked anything. So: layer of roasted sweets (olive oil, Penzey’s season salt and Parisian mix and maybe a little sate mix); layer of red sauerkraut cooked with onion, carrot, some stock and white wine, and some thyme; salmon, which I sautéed in the kraut pan; and a sauce over the top, made of of shallot, white wine, a little apple cider vinegar (reduced that quite a bit) and then whisked in some butter. It was really good–it reads “Alsatian” to me, because of the kraut. It will go into the rotation!

  62. 62.

    gene108

    @NotMax:

    Can’t quite believe it’s so overcast and chilly today that it’s 11 in the morning and I’m sitting here with the space heater switched on in the daytime.

    Life’s rough, though in my little corner of NJ, I feel like the winters are getting warmer but still cold and spring is just a crapshoot of random weather with no rhyme or reason.

    Used to be late-November to February end = cold.

    March to mid-April = cold some days and pleasant other days.

    Mid-April to May end = the best weather. Pleasant temps, and daylight hours getting longer. Used to be my favorite time of the year. Now it could 55°F for a high in May, so that bit of predictable goodness is gone.

    The weather usually sorts itself out by June and summer’s still get hot.

    What’s interesting to me is how noticeable this started getting in the last 5-10 years. When a mention strange spring weather to people, they think about a sec and agree.

    People see the climate change around them, but it’s not the massive weather events the media hypes up and gets the notice as hallmarks of the upcoming climate catastrophe.

  63. 63.

    Ohio Mom

    Just got back from driving two hours north to scope out places to watch the April eclipse from. Our house is close but not near where the totality will be. Of course then there were two hours south to drive to get home.

    We found a couple of small parks in the middle of nowhere — the kind of place that makes the New Yorker in me ask, “What do these people need with a county park, they already live in the country?”

    The answer might be, a place to meet up with your dealer since both parks had one occupied car just sitting there.

    We also checked out a cemetery but there were farmhouses nearby and I don’t want any floodlights turning on to ruin the darkness.

    Now to hope for an eclipse day that isn’t overcast. A few clouds will be okay.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    @narya

    Once made an entire lengthwise half of a mahi mahi* baked in foil with kraut and a thin, thin brushing of lightly spiced butter for a dinner gathering of a dozen. When unwrapped folks turned up their noses. Until they tasted it. Not so much as a speck left over.

    *Had to cut it into two pieces in order to fit onto baking sheets.

  68. 68.

    Geminid

    I was checking out Axios diplomatic reporter Barak Ravid’s twitter feed for news on the Israeli/Gaza war and saw an item he reposted from Marc Bennetts:

       Tucker Carlson has been in Moscow for the past three days, according to Russia’s Mash [news] outlet. He was spotted at the Bolshoi Theater tonight.

    Bennetts’ post showed a picture of Carlson standing on a Moscow street and another of him peering down from a fancy theater box.

  70. 70.

    lowtechcyclist

    @MobiusKlein: ​
     

    Any details why it’s just dumb / a mess? I can get in touch with folks in the right area of the company, give some feedback.

    I don’t know why Cole finds PayPal to be a mess, but here’s my story:

    My HOA stopped taking dues payments via PayPal a couple years ago. Can’t remember the exact details, but they were taking a few bucks out of almost every ~$80 payment, IIRC it’s because it’s a good deal less obvious with PayPal how to have it not categorized as a commercial transaction.

    We have rarely had the same problem with Venmo, and on those rare occasions when they do take a bite out for that reason, it’s a much smaller bite than PayPal took.

    I’d bet that PayPal is quite happy with the way they’re doing things, and that they’re not going to go, “oh shit, we didn’t realize what was really happening.”

  72. 72.

    Greg Ferguson

    Dear Cole (& Joelle ❤️) –

    A fking pain, repainting, but it pays off.

    Kind of too bad you can’t take the kids out for a shake & a drive-in while the walls dry.

    Love you.

  75. 75.

    Jackie

    US and UK just launched strikes against Houthis in Yemen. At least 30 strikes in10 locations. This a continuation of yesterday’s attacks per MSNBC.

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Being a high-powered diplomatic reporter for Axios, Barak Ravid typically does not get into the partisan nitty-gritty of Israeli politics. But Ravid will often repost other reporters who do, and today he posted Walla journalist Sagi Bin Nun’s excerpt from an interview of Noam Dan by TV anchor Arad Nir.

    Noam Dan’s cousin Ofer Kalderon was kidnapped on October 7 and his fate is unknown, so Ms. Nir thought she would ask Mr. Dan about Hamas chief Yahyah(?) Sinuar:

    Arad: Do you think this is simply a frustrating situation where we are faced with a person devoid of emotions, devoid of values, devoid of humanity, with whom it is difficult to reach an agreement?

    Noam: Are we talking about Sinuar or Bibi Netanyahu?

    Arad: I was talking about Sinuar.

    Noam: Oh, I didn’t understand, because Bibi Netanyahu meets all these conditions.

     

  81. 81.

    schrodingers_cat

    Art supplies acquisition update. I got myself an assortment of 70 plus Pitt Artist Pens by Faber Castell. These are India ink based markers which are light fast. I won them in an auction on eBay! I am paying 1/4  of the retail price at Amazon!

  82. 82.

    RevRick

    @Princess: The oligarchs also have much to fear if the Supreme Court, courtesy of Trump, guts the Chevron deference or finds another way to render the regulatory framework useless. I mean that would teach ‘em!
    Worker safety? Meh. Minimum wage? Hahahaha. Clean water and air? Only if you live in the right neighborhood.
    Yeah, the GOP is definitely the anti oligarch party. s/

  83. 83.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Those are great for all kinds of projects.

    I used them to paint patterns on pants for 15mm Celtic Warrior figures.  Those soft heads provide great control.

  84. 84.

    Baud

    Sure the oligarchs will rule the world, but they’ll have to give up their precious DEI programs. They’ll be miserable.

  85. 85.

    Dan B

    @gene108: Here in Seattle, 400 miles north of Chicago, north of the northern tip of Maine, we have Crocus, miniature daffodils, flowering Almonds, and more in full bloom.  They’re 4-6 weeks early.  El Nino is really turbo charging the warmth.  So Climate Change plus El Nino has made for a weird winter.

  86. 86.

    Mark Lass

    Your post reminded me of this.

    It might be a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it.

    Steven Wright

  89. 89.

    karen gail

    @Betty Cracker: In 1988 ex and bought a home that had heavy smokers for tenants; ripped out all the carpeting and parquet wood floors that had been saturated with nicotine and dog urine. Fortunately, the walls were lathe and plaster, falling apart so ripping all that out was a given; did one winter in house and decided to strip out all the walls even though didn’t have money for repairs since the plaster kept leaching nicotine.

  91. 91.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Mike in NC: “Charlie Kirk would have made make an excellent frozen corpse on the Russian Front.”

    Improved version.

    ETA: We have a Mexican Nazi who lives down the street from us. He’s Hispanic and has an 88 in the back window of his Taco pickemuptruck, along with his version of BLM (Bang Local MILFs) and MAGA shit.

    Oh, and he works at a Cali prison as a guard.

  93. 93.

    rosalind

    just got done re-painting and re-flooring my condo yesterday. currently awaiting the young mover guys to redistribute my furniture back into proper position, then i can start putting my condo back together. i have a stack of artwork awaiting re-hanging, but am still at that point of not wanting to put one friggin’ nail into my beautiful new walls. while i may be up for another paint job far into the future, i am not touching these floors ever again. thankfully i really like the vinyl planking i picked out.

    so. much. stress and upheaval.

  95. 95.

    Martin

    @Suzanne: If you are a careful painter you can skip most of the prep. I’ve not used tape or anything more than a very rudimentary dropcloth to catch small spray off of the roller in over 20 years.

    I think a lot of people don’t learn good brush technique because they rely on tape and whatnot to save them. Also, knowing how to use floetrol is really helpful.

  96. 96.

    Suzanne

    @Martin: Agree about tape….. but prep also includes moving the furniture, drop cloths, schlepping the ladder, cleanup, etc.

    Mr. Suzanne and I painted every interior wall of our house (with the exception of the bathrooms) and a good portion of the ceilings. We got a long paint roller that you can load paint in the handle, so you don’t constantly have to get up and down the ladder. A good solution if you are not into paint stilts!

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