A few things: First, huge thanks to whoever recommended “Somebody Feed Phil.” Phil probably has the best job in the world, and he knows everybody. On an episode I recently watched, he had lunch in DC with Pete Buttigieg. Another episode from a few years back featured a Zoom call with Norman Lear, then 100 years old, who told the following joke (paraphrasing):
An elderly gent says to his wife, “I’ve got something special planned for this evening. We’re gonna have super sex!”
The wife replied, “I’ll have the soup.”
Lear noted that people used to tell each other jokes a lot but the practice has declined. I think that’s right, and I’m not sure why. Tiresome wingnuts would claim it’s because people are too easily offended now, but I don’t think that’s it. I suspect it’s because we’re sharing funny animal gifs instead.
It’s a humid, windy night in the swamp. Owls are hooting, insects are trilling and frogs are singing in anticipation of an approaching storm. I usually enjoy storms too, but I’m not so stoked about this one because I have to drive to Tampa this morning, so I’m trying to figure out how to both avoid rush hour traffic and get my errand completed in time to make it home before the squall line arrives.
Wind speeds are expected to be in the 40 to 50 MPH range with gusts up to 70! Even I’m not foolish enough to drive in that, so if I get stuck in town, that’s okay — I have friends I can hole up with. But lately, I dislike spending time away from my lovely husband and dogs.
And finally, from HuffPo, the most Trumpublican headline ever:
Police Report: Trump County Chair Threatened To Rape Boss’s Wife, Then Kill Him
Jonathan Stone, a former New Hampshire police officer, has been a part of Trump’s campaign since 2016, when he gave Trump an inscribed AR-15 assault rifle.
Nice party you have there, Republicans. It would be a shame if it were overtaken by violent, depraved grifters. Oh wait…
Open thread!
![On The Road - way2blue - Aitutaki, Cook Islands [2 of 3] 7](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/8BB-26-JAN-24-80x80.jpg)
On The Road – way2blue – Aitutaki, Cook Islands [2 of 3]
satby
Since I got so sick over a year ago, I’m even more of a homebody than I already was. I’m fully recovered, and even traveled quite a bit last year, but I still have some inertia about leaving. I think the pandemic changed that for a lot of us.
Betty Cracker
@satby: I agree the pandemic changed things, including many people’s relationships with their homes. Definitely true for me too, and Bill and I have somehow dodged covid so far. More broadly, it seems like there’s a lot more free-floating anxiety and maybe PTSD since 2020. Society will be sorting it out for years to come.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, Betty! Surprised to see you up this early.
Based on NWS radar, it doesn’t look like you guys are gonna get anything near what we got here on MS Gulf Coast yesterday … and what the central part of the state got was even worse.
Even so, be careful.
JoyceH
Uh… he was a police officer. He received a five days suspension over his involvement with a high school girl… which enraged him so much that he threatened to go on a shooting spree. And his punishment was – to lose his job? There were no criminal violations in there? So that he remained a citizen in good standing and was able to open a gun shop?!
Nukular Biskits
@JoyceH:
Remember “BACK THE BLUE!!!111!!!” rules:
1. Cops NEVER do wrong. Ever.
2. Even when there is irrefutable proof, including audio, video and/or eyewitness testimony, of wrongdoing on the part of a law enforcement officer, the victim made him/her do it and see #1 you stewpit criminal-supporting lib.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Nukular Biskits: It’s scary how deeply ingrained that attitude is, and how the cops try to push it on the public at large, with stuff like “Blue Lives Matter”.
I quit accepting that framing before the turn of the century. I’ve known too many cops; cops are human, and a lot of humans are bastards, and the selection process for cops has been skewed towards more bastard-like behavior. Modern cops seem more often than not to want to be Judge Dredd, not Barney Fife.
NotMax
The Association, Windy.
;)
eclare
Lots of thunder boomers here in Memphis this morning, I just hope the power doesn’t go out. As for rain, I love it. Yard, trees, soak it up and dig those roots deep.
Baud
True. I was never a good joke teller. Never quite got the delivery right. My joking these days is usually snarky (quelle surprise).
Betty Cracker
Oh for fuck’s sake, CNN!
There’s no one in this country who cares LESS about election integrity than Donald Fucking Trump!
Baud
@eclare:
I thought at first there was a Harley convention in Memphis.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Cares = lies
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
That’s true, but he cares a great deal about “election integrity.”
OzarkHillbilly
How long before Stone threatens the entire staff of the InDepthNH, to rape and pillage the wife and children of the editor, and to burn the trump org to the ground with a lot of lurid details of criminal behavior?
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I guess I shouldn’t be shocked, but that’s as obnoxious an example of the sheep political media swallowing the 🍊 liar’s framing as you’ll see. No excuse for that bullshit in the year of some people’s lord 2024…
Frankensteinbeck
This is telling jokes. They’re not limericks or knock-knock jokes anymore. Favorite societal format changes over time. When one person tweets another the Scream At Own Ass meme, that is exactly the same context as “This reminds me of a joke.”
Nelle
@satby: Yes. A friend and I were noting this a few days ago. We have to shove ourselves out of the house. But yesterday was a perfect spring day. People came out to walk and linger. Our street is one block long and a bit of its own village. It was nice to chat a bit with those I had only waved at during the winter. And then go back in my own house.
lowtechcyclist
The pandemic and subsequent developments changed my habits a great deal. Instead of spending my work days inside the Beltway, where it wasn’t that big a deal to meet up with other family members and friends in the DC area after work, I was spending them out in the boonies where it was a much bigger deal to drive to the other side of the area where they lived. So we do that sort of thing a lot less, and it’s really become more of a big deal to drive anywhere that’s more than 15 minutes from the house.
The weird thing is, we’re just as likely to get on a plane and travel to some other part of the country as we were before.
Baud
I was antisocial before the pandemic and I’m antisocial now.
Gary K
Well, I told a joke to two friends yesterday.
Beethoven’s housekeeper was threatening to quit, and he said to her, I can’t live without you. I bet, she said. No, really, you’re the inspiration of my greatest compositions. And she scoffed: ha-ha-ha-HA.
lowtechcyclist
@Gary K:
At the cemetery where Beethoven’s tomb is, one night the night watchman saw a light on in the tomb. He looked in and saw Beethoven’s corpse going through a big pile of musical compositions, frantically erasing every note from every one.
“Maestro! What are you doing?” the watchman asked. “I’m decomposing,” Beethoven replied.
eclare
OMG I just saw Dr.Jill’s dress last night from the state dinner, I love it.
Ken
There’s a joke I sometimes tell, when I’m feeling my age: “We men can’t show weakness or the other men will kill us and take our gold and sheep and women.” Now I’m wondering if believing that is a requirement for being on the Trump campaign.
NotMax
@Ken
Old Soviet joke.
(farmer complaining to the local commisar): “It’s unfair. My neighbor Piotr has two goats and I have none. ”
Commisar: “We’ve investigated your complaint and killed both of Piotr’s goats.”
Ceci n est pas mon nym
We tell each other jokes, but not so much other people. But then we hardly socialize with other people. The pandemic definitely made me even more of a hermit than I was.
Baud
@NotMax:
It’s funny because that attitude reflects the current American right
Dorothy A. Winsor
Wife says: “You never listen to me. You only hear what you want to hear.”
Husband says: “You’re right. I do want a beer.”
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Reminded of Superman.
:)
topclimber
@Baud: You will never be a Lincoln and Baud 20XX will therefore fail. Makes me sad.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: LOL. Good one!
WendyBinFL
@NotMax: That’s my song! The Association was popular when I was in high school, and my boyfriend at the time used to sing “Cherish” to me. Then they recorded “Windy,” and naturally that was a slam dunk!
satby
Enjoyable essay from Brian Klass on The “Moronic Inferno” and “the Fidgets”… on whether anything is really new under the sun.
mrmoshpotato
I love a good storm but those wind speeds are a bit much. Safe travels.
prostratedragon
@satby: “There’s too damn much music!” — Quincy Jones
sab
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I just told that joke to my husband and he laughed.
bluefoot
I love “Somebody Feed Phil”! I do prefer the earlier seasons to the later ones, but that’s a quibble. He so obviously enjoys what he’s doing, and I love that he bring us along for the ride.
A friend of mine and I like to trade bad jokes. It’s true we tend to do it in text rather than in person. A lot of our – the collective “our” – interactions have moved online rather than in person, so it’s not surprising joke telling has adapted to online mechanisms – memes, funny gifs, multi-tweet jokes, short tiktok videos.
Jinchi
Was this before or after Trump hired him?
StringOnAStick
I guess we’re the exception that proves the rule. We moved from CO to OR during the early Covid days into what has proved to be a very social neighbourhood and local music community. My husband and I joke that we somehow managed to get dropped into what must be someone else’s lives, going from a few friends to having so many different social circles that it’s rare to not be turning down invitations because of prior commitments. It’s been so much fun!
I’ve become garden buddies with the gardener in the couple of guys (married as long as we’ve been) who live behind us and he and I spend so much time walking back and forth (around a corner) carrying tools that the other neighbours are starting to ask questions (in a friendly way though). We’re salvaging an extra gate and installing it in the fence between our backyards in a couple of weeks, not to stop the gossiping but just to make it easier to help each other and to get together for evening happy hour. We feel like we’ve landed in paradise here, the city, the region, and the neighbourhood. Love it here.
opiejeanne
@StringOnAStick: We used to live in a neighborhood like that. I really miss walking home down the alley from our friends’ house after a dinner where a bit of wine was consumed. Or dropping in on another friend as she was watering her garden just before dusk, to catch up on family news. My kids went to dance class and soccer practice with neighborhood kids, trick-or-treated well into high school. We all carpooled so we heard all of the gossip from the kids, and it was hilarious.
davek319
@JoyceH:(places hand on shoulder of horrified JoyceH, tries to steer her away from the carnage)” It’s New Hampshire, Joyce. C’mon. Let’s go.”
Paul in KY
@Baud: Agree with Mr. Lear that people don’t tell as many jokes to each other as say 30 years ago.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Time moves on, but the Baud remains consistent
Paul in KY
@Gary K: That’s pretty bad. Gonna tell it to my mother!
Paul in KY
@WendyBinFL: Their greatest song! Still love to hear it. Takes me back to mid to late 60s (my early youth).
Jacel
A refreshing supply of joke telling is on the xtwitter feed from @RCdeWinter. She holds forth most evenings with a string of old jokes recrafted with a poet’s sense of timing.