Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bark louder, little dog.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

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

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

When I was faster i was always behind.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

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

Saturday Night Open Thread

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Dinner was fun, or as I have been informed now, the “hot date” was fun. I tried to tell Joelle that along with dancing, Cole’s don’t do “hot dates” and was thusly informed that “Joelle does” so I guess we were on a Pizza hut/taco bell dinner/hot date. We went to a placed called the Clever Koi and Joelle had a cocktail and we shared some avocado and crab rangoons and some short rib dumplings. Then we headed across the way to the sister restaurant, Across the Pond, and Joelle had a roll and I had some ceviche. And then we went to Joe’s for Italian Ice.

Joelle loves these kinds of places- modern and hip with fancy cocktails with big names and the overly attentive staff who are totally into what they do and it’s almost part of their identity. I don’t dislike them, but I guess it’s not the kind of place I am drawn to (obligatory comment about requiring pants and shoes, etc.). On the way over I saw two places that are right up my alley and pointed them out- “Tacos Chiwa now that’s a place that you know has banging food no bullshit on the sign or the name and no big fuss on the appearances.” That’s how my mind works, I suppose.

Saw another place and pointed it out- Luke’s Italian Beef and Sausage Sandwiches. I think my exact remarks were “Look at that sign you know that’s a real Italian place with snowbirds from back east bet there’s only a half dozen things on the menu, too. Yer gonna get hit with a youse guys when you walk in” I’ll confirm when I go.

***

Fuck the Republicans for what they are doing to Ukraine. That is all.

***

I can not tell you how excited I am for next Saturday- like a little kid for Christmas. I have been waiting for this for weeks, because next Saturday is CATFEST at the Mesa Historical Museum. Sadly, I have been told you are not allowed to bring your own cat with you.

That is all for me tonight.

Reader Interactions

75Comments

  3. 3.

    piratedan

    Luke’s is reliable feed, remember to get it “dry” or else your meal will be soggy on the bottom and all that implies….. more of a combo guy, where you get your italian sausage with your beef, naturally ymmv.

  5. 5.

    eclare

    Dinner sounds great (clever restaurant names), and I can’t wait to hear how CATFEST was!  Be sure you have good photos of both Steve and Max on your phone, you may see an artist that you like who does pet portraits.

  8. 8.

    Anne Laurie

    Karen Kuykendall at the Mew-seum! — now there’s an sf convention flashback. I bought a copy of her Tarot of the Cat People deck back when we assumed it would be a one-off printing…

    Joelle knows you pretty well, or I’d say someone should warn her to check your pockets before you leave the Mew-seum, because whatever the rescue people tell you I’m pretty sure she does *not* want a couple of adorable kittens to keep the dogs occupied once you and Steve and Maxwell decamp back to West Virginia!

  10. 10.

    Jackie

    My first thought was Catfest meant a catfish eating festival. Second immediate thought was; In ARIZONA???!! LOL

  14. 14.

    Prescott Cactus

    John,

    I’m jealous. Tacos Chiwa, go hungry with an empty feed bag.

    Their pastor is great !

    The big Mex chain here was started by two grade school friends. A former  hedge fund manager from New York and a guy who worked in wholesale and retail fashion.

    Think Taco Bell without the . . . great recipes and ambiance

  15. 15.

    different-church-lady

    and was thusly informed that “Joelle does” so I guess we were on a Pizza hut/taco bell dinner/hot date.

    It’s so obvious you two adore each other. 😀

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    Such a shame what has become of Pizza Hut. Never anywhere close to top tier but was for a long while reliably acceptable enough.

    Double ditto for KFC.

  22. 22.

    karl

    As an earlier commenter recommended: get the combo at Luke’s — although you can’t go wrong with anything, really. Wet or dry is up to you (I also prefer dry).

    Chiwas is very good, but out here, almost any Mexican place is worth hopping into (there are some duds, though, but don’t blame me if you get unlucky).

  25. 25.

    Prescott Cactus

    @NotMax:

    KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell were under the Pepsi umbrella of Yum Foods until it became obvious to them the that other fast food restaurants wouldn’t purchase Pepsi fountain drinks because it was helping their competitors.

    Poof ! Spin off shares to Pepsi shareholders and anybody who wanted a pure fast food investment. . .

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    Luke’s Italian Beef and Sausage Sandwiches

    You must go there at least once.  This Chicagoan needs a review. 😋😋😋😁

    ETA – I see you are already committed.  Excellent.  Mr. Burns hand gesture!

  29. 29.

    wjca

    @WaterGirl: My money is on Joelle, except that Cole has months back in WV where he can backslide, so on second thought, I’m not sure which way I would lay that bet.

    Look at it as two steps forward, one step back.  It may take longer, but the end result is not really in question.

  31. 31.

    Alison Rose

    @glc: I’m…confused. Why the hell were Tapper and Biden and others acting like this man had been wronged in some massive way? He struck and killed two people with his car and was given three years in jail, which, despite whatever the fuck “mountain sickness” is, sure sounds like a deserved and reasonable punishment. But they’re acting like he was Brittany fucking Griner or something. And the photo of a damn protest demanding his release…like…is vehicular manslaughter suddenly not a crime anywhere so long as you weren’t feeling good??

  32. 32.

    wjca

    @Alison Rose: is vehicular manslaughter suddenly not a crime anywhere so long as you weren’t feeling good??

    Depemds on who and where you are.  If you’re an American (or anybody else) and here, it’s definitely a crime.  It’s manslaughter with a gun that often gets a pass — at least if you are the right race and/or profession (e.g. law enforcement).

  36. 36.

    sab

    @sab: I only care because we have the same birthday. Since I was born in the wee hours my guess is I am slightly older.

    I always mention his birthday to deflect attention from my own. I hate birthdays, but I am excited to be officially old by any definition.

  39. 39.

    wjca

    @sab:  I hate birthdays, but I am excited to be officially old by any definition.

    Bad news.  From my perspective, you still count as a young whippersnapper.  :-)  But Happy Birthday nonetheless.

    So does anyone who has no memory of going out of an evening to watch Sputnik I pass overhead.

  40. 40.

    sab

    @eclare: I don’t think it is official until 3 am.

    My mother had relatively easy quick labors. I was born in a hospital elevator on the way to the delivery room, because my dad insisted that she was actually going into labor. Mom didn’t think so.

    My stepsons on the other hand were each born after 24+ hours of labor, after which their mom almost went into actual shock. Almost died.

    But of course pregnancy and birth is no big deal according to the religious nutcase brigade.

  42. 42.

    sab

    @wjca: I used to watch satellites when I was a kid in Florida. I live in Ohio now where the skies are cloudy all day and all night, and we have trees everywhere too.

  43. 43.

    sab

    @sab: I still miss the Florida sunrises and sunsets. In NE Ohio the sky just gets light and dark with not much visible fanfare.

  48. 48.

    cain

    @wjca:

    Women can control you from afar. My wife is in India for over 20 days. I was told that if she can’t drink alcohol neither can I. And well.. yep, not a drop for over 10 days. Also I must call during 2x a day. At least

    Oh well at least I can still do cannabis and watch action movies !

  49. 49.

    sab

    Three years ago we accepted my stepdaughter’s cat. He had grown up in an abusive household and he was a frightened always angry and scary cat. We agreed to house and feed him and thought it would be a very long haul with this monster in our house.

    Three years later with kindness, the little feline monster has become a silly doofus.

    He is right now asleep on my chest. He still has all his claws but he never uses them. He lives peaceably with four other cats, a pitbull and two people.

  51. 51.

    cain

    @sab: awww.. that’s a wonderful story !

    I’m tired after an epic house clean to get my lady cat to stop peeing. It’s almost a surety that we will need to replace the carpets. Sigh

  52. 52.

    Jay

    @cain:

    dilute orange cleaner. Soak it into the underlay. Stomp on towels to soak it up.

    Cat’s and dogs will “mark” spots where there is urine. The orange cleaner breaks the urine down, and the residual smell prevents remarking.

  53. 53.

    wjca

    @mrmoshpotato: I hesitate to ask about the Moon landing(s).  And I’m not on your lawn!

    I certainly remember watching the first one from my college dorm.  As the song so accurately put it:

    “the world all stopped to watch, on a July afternoon,
    Watched a man named Armstrong walk upon the moon.”

    It sure seemed that everybody I knew did.

    There is no lawn (water conservation, you know), just wood chips surrounding an oak tree.  So there’s no way for you to be on my (nonexistent) lawn.  Sorry.

    You are, however, welcome to walk across my front yard.  I’ve never quite understood people who get exercised about neighborhood kids running around.  What’s the problem???

  54. 54.

    Jay

    @wjca:

    The Moon Landings were faked.

    However, Stanley Kubrick, who filmed them ,was such a perfectionist, that he demanded they be shot on location.

  57. 57.

    opiejeanne

    @wjca: I don’t remember seeing Sputnik fly over when I was a kid, but I do remember seeing Echo I, or maybe it was Echo II. I can’t seem to find anyone who remembers that.

  58. 58.

    opiejeanne

    @wjca: I watched the moon landing in my college dorm common area, too. We didn’t have a tv in our room, heck, we didn’t even have phones in our rooms yet. There was a pay phone in the stairwell on all three stories. It was a primitive time.

  63. 63.

    LiminalOwl

    @wjca: Suddenly, I feel young!

    I was nine. We were on vacation, staying in a house near the beach in Provincetown. My father took me out to see the nighttime high tide, and explained the connection between full moon and highest tides.

    I wanted to become an astronaut, but my parents told me I didn’t want any career associated with the military-industrial complex.

  66. 66.

    frosty

    Joelle loves these kinds of places- modern and hip with fancy cocktails with big names…

    Aha! This explains why she had creme de violette in the house. I’m still impressed you even knew what an Aviation was, much less how to make it.

    Ms F’s pandemic hobby was mixology. We like to find these places too but they are few and far between. Most house specialty cocktails are different kinds of fruit juice.

  67. 67.

    frosty

    @sab: So you’re saying Ohio won’t be the best place to see the eclipse in April? Oh well. I didn’t want to go to Texas so I decided to gamble and got camping reservations in a state park. We saw the totality in 2017 and it was awe-inspiring.

  72. 72.

    sab

    @frosty: Cedar Point (historic amusement park near Lake Erie) is selling Eclipse Day tickets.

    If you aren’t supposed to look directly at the sun then who cares if it’s cloudy. When it goes dark it will be dark clouds or no.

  73. 73.

    S Cerevisiae

    @frosty: I drove from Minnesota to Wyoming for the 2017 eclipse, I had been waiting 38 years for a total eclipse I could drive to. We have an RV reserved for a week around the eclipse and as much as we don’t want to, Texas has the best odds for clear skies in early April. Fortunately my liberal sister and her family live west of Austin on the line of totality and will get 3 minutes if we just stay there and avoid the epic traffic jam that will happen afterwards. She has a small place but it has room to park so the RV is basically an expensive spare bedroom and our insurance in case of a cloudy forecast to run north or south on the line if necessary.

  74. 74.

    lowtechcyclist

    Coming in way late (yesterday was a busy afternoon/evening, been online only briefly since 1pm yesterday), but just wanted to say I’d go in a heartbeat to either of those places you pointed out, Cole. But I’d still want to go to the Italian ice place for dessert.

    And yeah, fuck the GQP every which way with rusty farm implements. For what they’re doing to Ukraine, and for what they’re doing to America. And fuck people who identify as Christians who support their crap.

  75. 75.

    glc

    @Alison Rose:

    killed two people

    Not people – Japanese.

    That, at least, is the message received.  But from a politician’s perspective, it’s just campaigning.  Whatever the advisers think will work.

    Meanwhile, as anticipated, the link text has been rewritten to be more sensible.

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