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… gradually, and then suddenly.

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You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Friday Night Open Thread

Friday Night Open Thread

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I realized today that I go to Farmer’s Markets like instagram influencer girlies go to thriftshops. I go to four or five a week. It gives me an excuse to drive on sunny days, they all have different vendors, I pick up stuff for the neighbors, I’ve gone enough that I know which are the right wing douchebags to avoid and not give money, I know who is going to have what and when, etc. And it is free and fun. I often come home with nothing.

All of this is a long way of telling you that I went to the farmer’s market. The cute girl from the fall market at the orchard was there with her pies, and she was telling me that she got 150 lbs of tart cherries from the farm across the street from her, so of course I had to buy one. On the ride home I was feeling so guilty I called up my neighbor from across the street if she wanted half a cherry pie because I am too fat to have one sitting around the house, having just a half limits the damage I can do. She said sure, so that solved that problem.

That was it. That was my entire day. And now it is time to watch Deadpool 2.

Reader Interactions

203Comments

  1. 1.

    Martin

    The cute girl from the fall market at the orchard was there with her pies, and she was telling me that she got 150 lbs of tart cherries from the farm across the street from her, so of course I had to buy one.

    Dispatches from Mayberry.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    Farmers’ markets are nice, and one of the great things about SoCal is that they’re year-round. I’ve trained my parents to expect farm-fresh raspberries when I visit them in Boston around Christmas….

    Today will be an early evening for me; have to get up at 4:45 to do a controlled shutdown of my machinery before the planned 5 AM chilled water outage from our construction site. Better that then the unplanned outage at 1 AM this past Wednesday. Waking up to a whole bunch of emergency overheat alarms, two quenched superconducting magnets, and a rebound infection on the case ofCOVID that I had hoped was finished made for a sucky morning.

  5. 5.

    laura

    I realized today that I go to Farmer’s Markets like instagram influencer girlies go to thriftshops. I go to four or five a week. It gives me an excuse to drive on sunny days, they all have different vendors, I pick up stuff for the neighbors, I’ve gone enough that I know which are the right wing douchebags to avoid and not give money, I know who is going to have what and when, etc. And it is free and fun. I often come home with nothing

    It’s all in service to knitting the big web- it catches all of us, and we’re diminished in number, we make the repair so no one falls out.

    I blanched, peeled and froze peaches, and I have butter milk but no vanilla ice cream, so the life altering milkshake wont be had until tomorrow night at the soonest. But, it will be had and bragged about as much as my desire to elect Kamala Harris.

  6. 6.

    catclub

    I know which are the right wing douchebags to avoid and not give money,

    One of the sellers at my farmer’s market drives an MB station wagon [it is not diesel and not 30 years old]. Much nicer car than I would ever buy.

  7. 7.

    Jackie

    @Poe Larity:

    Thriftshops? My grandma ran one and I seriously doubt they are still a thing.

    They’re a thing in my neck of the woods, including flea markets.

  10. 10.

    KatKapCC

    @HumboldtBlue: The Harris campaign should agree to do a debate on Fox, but with the stipulation that both candidates are on stairclimbers the whole time. If Trump wants to pretend he’s still young and hale and hearty, put up or shut up, bro.

  11. 11.

    Martin

    @Poe Larity: Shit, even in liberal upmarket California we still have thrift shops. That’s where pretty much all of my clothes come from.

    When we moved my son in up in silicon valley, first thing he did was find the local thrift shop just a block away and start furnishing.

  12. 12.

    mvr

    Sour cherries make great pies! We had three bushes behind our house as a kid and actually made preserves, which was a small miracle given that the only one who liked to cook in our family was me, since it allowed me to make food I liked.

    Now we have a 25+ year old sour cherry tree in the backyard.  Unfortunately they get insect larva pretty soon after getting ripe, so I don’t use them as much as I’d like to.  Have to time it just right or pretend you don’t know about the larva.  Still love the tree as do the birds. But I hear that 30 is old for a cherry tree.

  14. 14.

    edgefigaro

    If you ever really liked Batman The Animated Series, watch the new Batman Caped Crusader. It’s a love song to TAS.

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    @Poe Larity: Oh my God. Thrift shops are absolutely still a thing. I have to limit how often Mr. Suzanne is allowed to go, else my house be packed to the rafters.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    @Poe Larity: Well, my main symptom was fatigue, so sleep wasn’t an issue… The rebound was definitely milder than the initial infection; last week i had a bit of a fever, but nothing like that now, and the fatigue etc weren’t as severe.

  18. 18.

    KatKapCC

    @rikyrah: Okay, that settles it. Once she’s officially declared the victor in November (as I am BOUND AND DETERMINED THAT SHE WILL BE), I need her to come out to the mics in front of all the press and just say BITCH, WE WON!

  19. 19.

    Suzanne

    Oh, and John….. the best thrift shops in the Phoenix metro area are the four locations of WHITE DOVE, which is the thrift shop run by Hospice of the Valley. They get entire estates of goods often, and the condition is usually very good. I’ve found some amazing things there.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    The cherry pies which have appeared at the local Costco look so inviting. But they are huge — 15 inches across, too big for the modest sized fridge in the manse without removing items that also require chilling..

  21. 21.

    Suzanne

    @dmsilev:

    two quenched superconducting magnets 

    OMG that’s bad.
    On one of my projects, a MRI machine was accidentally slammed into the side of the building while being hoisted. The vendor installed it, and its first day of operation with patients, it quenched. That was a terrible day. Patient got out okay.

  22. 22.

    Starfish

    @Martin: In California, you get BETTER thrift shops than everyone else. Everyone else gets green glasses for their kitchen and old romance novels.

  24. 24.

    dmsilev

    @Suzanne: Yeah, big magnets that all of a sudden release their stored energy in less than a second; it can get dramatic. Especially for the older generation of magnets that were cooled with liquid helium; when those quench, they dump all that energy into the liquid, which boils off fast and you get huge clouds of cold (and asphyxiating) gas pouring out of all the relief valves. Fun times.

  27. 27.

    CaseyL

    Too many of my favorite thrift stores closed – not enough business during the pandemic, and/or Seattle property values are too high to “waste” space on low-revenue shops. Goodwill is OK, but I miss the independent charity shops.

    I get most of my clothes secondhand, and nearly all my home furnishings. I really don’t need any more of either one, so I avoid thrift stores (and yard sales) because something will cry out to me to take it home.

  28. 28.

    KatKapCC

    @raven: I don’t even want to total up the amount of money I spent in various Buffalo Exchange locations over my younger years.

  31. 31.

    Jay

    @mvr:

    Like any fruit tree, they need care, feeding, pruning and sprays.

    Step 1 is getting rid of all infected fruit, because the larvae overwinter in bark wounds and bore holes in fresh prunings. Fewer larvae = fewer adult moths = less larvae.

    Step #2 is to spray the tree in fall after leaf drop with sulphur/oil (Dormant Oil) spray. That will suffocate most of the overwintering larvae. Then again in the spring, to suffocate the eggs.

    Step #3 is to hang pheromone traps in late spring to trap and kill the adult moths.

    Step #4 is to spray the tree in June/July with a BT spray, that will kill many other caterpillar pests but also the newly hatching larvae.

    At the Elgin St house I had a 50yr old Yellow Transparent apple tree with rot, worms, pretty much everything as it had been neglected for 20 years. Proper pruning, root pruning, feeding, proper spraying gave me 50lbs of the best pie apples I have ever had, two years later. the next year, 200lbs. Half my deep freezer was ziplock’d bags of apples for pie and crumble, about 1/4 was frozen blackberries picked from the verges for the pies and crumbles.

  33. 33.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Poe Larity: Oh they are indeed a thing. And they arent so ” thrifty” as they once were.

    There’s a whole Pinterest subject of “Upscale Thrift” and my personal favorite, altered thrift store art. That stuff is silly, creative, fun ,and the good kind of weird.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    @Suzanne

    Back in the 60s and 70s, for costumes (or stuff which could be altered and repurposed thereto) for the play put on each year at the summer camp where I worked used to go to a thrift shop in a nearby town when it held a week long Sidewalk Sale event each summer.

    Upon walking in you’d be handed a large brown paper shopping bag. Whatever you could stuff into it, charged a grand total of one dollar per bag when exiting.

    Two of us (both male) would go every year. Got strange reactions from other shoppers when holding up dresses against our bods in “how does this one look?” zeal.

  37. 37.

    Jay

    There is also a category of “Thrift Shop Hunters”. Basically becoming an “expert” on a few common thrift shop items, and knowing that they are way under valued, buying them and reselling them online. Pottery, vintage clothing, furniture, etc.

  38. 38.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @CaseyL:

    We had a fair number thrift shops here for both animal rescue and homeless outreach, sounds like what you’re describing.

    They’ve all shut down post-Plague because the shithead landlords jacked up their rents…and in each case the location remains vacant.  The “milker” property owners are holding out hoping to hit The Developer Lottery: the hope to unload a property that’s been in the family for often 40+ years in order to build more vacant apartments for the white gentrifier/colonizers (a term black activists use frequently) from white burbs all over the country who don’t actually flock here in the numbers assumed.

    When Marx discussed the “rentier” class, he described one aspect of our landlord class to a “T”.

    The small, specific-charity thrift stores that remain do so because the non-profit actually owns the property and hasn’t sold out to developers.

    The best thrift ‘chain’ here is ARC.

  39. 39.

    MomSense

    I am working during the farmers’ market but one of my neighbors brought over a bunch of veggies and flowers from the market.  Another neighbor brought some sourdough bread.  My mom was so happy to have visitors.  I found out that there is a farm stand up the road that sells a dozen eggs for $2.  Going to check it out tomorrow.

    My DIL had a grand piano delivered to the house today.  She can’t keep it at their apartment and she really wants to be able to play and practice with it.  I think she and a local opera singer are going to do a concert here in September.  I have a lot of work to do to get the house ready for that.

  40. 40.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Poe Larity: Ugh. I’ve been feeling off all week and just tested positive for Covid this morning. And I haven’t slept more than 3 hours a night since Monday >_<

  41. 41.

    Martin

    @Starfish: Yeah, they’re pretty decent. Our craigslist/freecycle is awesome. The community next to mine is $10M homes and up, and they just give shit away. Ms Martin landed an 19th century full height hand made cabinet from a British rail station for $50. We got a brand new faucet set (retail $1200) for I think $100, because the contractor got it on site and the homeowners didn’t like it and had him buy a different one. Never bothered to return it. A friend of mine gave me a free Sub Zero dishwasher (a year old) when we were replacing ours because they were remodeling again. We couldn’t install it – wrong fittings, but we shopped it around. Tried to give it away but everyone assumed it was broken, and once we put a price on it everyone lined up.  Someone gave us a cast metal outdoor chair. It was nice but we didn’t really have a need for it. Ms Martin looked it up and it was apparently worth $800 – some designer piece. I think she sold it for $200.

    I’m telling you, if you ever get a little bit of wealth, it’s almost impossible to become poor. You could make a good living just upcycling the stuff rich people just want out of their houses. But you have to live close to them. You can imagine what they dump off at the thrift stores.

  44. 44.

    wjca

    Been listening to music on YouTube.  Pretty much every selection (60s, country, you name it) starts with a Harris ad.  Not sure what targetting parameters are being used.  But it seems to include pretty much everything a nostalgic Baby Boomer might pick.

    Enthusiastic as some here get about the youth vote, it kinda looks like the Harris campaign thinks they have the potential to gather some serious votes among the old folks who vote so reliably.

  46. 46.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Martin:

    The best ‘Habitat for Humanity’ store in CO is the one north of Aspen (and Carbondale but before your get to Glenwood Springs).

    “Best” for obvious reasons.

  47. 47.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Jay: Church and community rummage sales used to be a goldmine. My mother worked setting up for the church sales, and on several times snagged full sets of  really fine table linens, which she and I both had a weakness for. No use for, just loved them.

  48. 48.

    seefleur

    @Poe Larity: Believe me, they are DEFINITELY a thing still. Every town in Maine has at least one. And they are beloved institutions, frequented by a wide range of socio-economic groups.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: This is one of the arguments for a return to mixed use row housing (think Bob’s Burgers). You get small businesses that buy the building, which is both business and their housing, and possibly a rental. If the business has years of success and can build equity in the property, that offsets their housing costs and gives the business room to recover in a downturn (the rental often does that as well). It stabilizes everything for that business owner and if they can pay off the building, basically allow it to operate so long as the owners want to work.

    We pretty much stopped building that sort of thing after WWII.

  50. 50.

    p.a.

    Saw a play last night that’s been around a while that I’d never heard of (not that I’m Joe Theater Theatre): The Play That Goes Wrong, at New World Stages, 340 W 50th NYC.

    Almost pulled a few muscles laughing.  If you like subtle humor, this isn’t for you.  Slapstick, farce, overacting, a Duran Duran fan sound & effects tech…

    If you can get to it, see it.

  52. 52.

    Suzanne

    @dmsilev: Oh I know alllllllll about the -270 degree helium gas cloud. That’s how MRIs cool themselves in an emergency, as well as at decommissioning. We have to design a vent for it through the building up to the roof or out to the side. The problem is that, if it quenches, it doesn’t escape the vent fast enough sometimes, and the gas cloud can back up into the room itself. Which might have a patient in it. So an emergency quench is…. a total emergency. Like I said…. a very, very bad phone call.

  54. 54.

    Jackie

    @NotMax: Freeze the pie, then while frozen, cut into serving sizes, put in individual freezer bags, put back in the freezer and remove slices as/when needed. Each slice is as fresh as when purchased.

  55. 55.

    BretH

    Best thrift stores I ever visited were in Ventura, CA. Ours in Central VA pale in comparison.

  58. 58.

    hitchhiker

    @wjca: I just saw a Harris ad on a youtube video about how to manage your breath while singing. I guess they’re flooding the whole zone with sunshine.

  60. 60.

    Jackie

    @dmsilev:

    Obama won Indiana in 2008, but seems kind of unlikely now.

    Because he’s not eligible to run, again?

    I’ll let myself out…

  64. 64.

    mvr

    @Jay: Thanks for all of this advice.

    So you think the larva in the fruit are the same as the borers that harm the tree?  Or am I misunderstanding your comment about overwintering?

    We did have peach borers in another tree that eventually died.  And we have used the moth traps to keep them from hitting this tree.  But I thought those were unrelated to the bugs that get into the cherries which I think are fruit fly larva.

    I’ll look into using the sprays as well.

    I have now twice talked to two tree professionals who told me that cherries tended to last maybe 30 or 35 years if one had an old one.  The most recent was a local extension agent who specializes in trees.  Is it possible that apples just last longer than cherry trees?  I know that some of them live a good long time.

    Anyway, thanks for your help!

  65. 65.

    piratedan

    @Martin: with the whispers that the Trump Campaign internals are absolutely horrifying (and I have no way of having that validated, just have read this thru some of the reddit feeds and Bsky and Mastodon posts) maybe it makes sense, if the money and the opportunity is there to press them everywhere.  Down ballot effort is important and the Trump campaign does appear to be on the defensive.  The Dems using each coalition getting its own zoom call and warm fuzzies seems to be working in keeping that enthusiasm up.

    I can only be enthused that the plan enacted by the Democratic party to parry their issues with the top of the ticket into putting their opponents onto their heels is working and the press is having their own issues trying to help the GOP find an attack to depress Dem turnout and allow GOP talking points to establish a new narrative.

  67. 67.

    dmsilev

    @Suzanne: Yesh, and the killer (occasionally very literally) is that these things happen fast. Everything is fine, until all of a sudden it’s Not Fine, at which point it’s too late to do anything except evacuate the room ASAP.

    I’m just thankful that the magnets I deal with, while higher field than MRI typically uses, are physically quite a bit smaller. Makes all of the safety and ventilation issues much less difficult than what you have to design for.

  68. 68.

    geg6

    @Poe Larity:

    Goodness, are you serious?  We have numerous ones here, from for profit shops to shops supporting nonprofits.  I fish around at two of the local for profits and another in Sewickley (a very high income area) as they tend to get higher quality merch but they tend to be on the small side with very limited and curated stock.  I also shop the larger nonprofit stores, one run by our local Humane Society and the other the local Restore run by Habitat for Humanity.  I get clothes, furniture, art…you name it.  It’s a treasure hunt every time.  It’s the only in person shopping I do other than for groceries.  I’m not a garage sale fan though.  Some neighborhoods here have yard/garage sale crawls and I’ll check those out since the volume of a whole neighborhood often produces some sort of “treasure.”

  69. 69.

    dmsilev

    @Jackie: Regardless of anything that the Constitution has to say about the matter, Michelle Obama has made her feelings quite clear…

  71. 71.

    laura

    @MagdaInBlack: imagine autumn leaves or poinsettias low pockets on a pajama suit top- luxury! Seriously great upcycling opportunities. The drape, the finished edges, the nobody else is wearing it..

    I make a bee line for linens at estate sales

  72. 72.

    Jackie

    Another Marc Elias win:

    Nevada Republicans have suffered yet another blow in their legal bid to make it harder to count mail-in ballots, according to Democratic voting rights attorney Marc Elias.

    The national Republican Party, state Republican Party, and Donald Trump campaign had filed suit to try to block mail-in ballots from being counted when received after Election Day. But per Elias, “Nevada judge DENIES preliminary injunction in Trump/RNC voter suppression lawsuit targeting mail-in voting … Big victory for our clients and the voters of Nevada.”

    More detail at the link:

    https://www.rawstory.com/news/nevada-gop-2668871754/

    Thank the dogs Marc Elias is there for democracy!

  76. 76.

    BR

    I just watched some clips of Shapiro and he’s good at speaking, but he, like a lot of lawyerly dems, uses somewhat sophisticated phrasing / language when a more simple approach would work. Kelly and Walz are pretty simple in the way they speak, maybe because they aren’t lawyers.

  77. 77.

    Geminid

    @divF: I’ve heard about such a group. They’ve taken a cue from Hotties for Harris and are calling themslves Notties for Harris.

  78. 78.

    Rachel Bakes

    @p.a.:  saw that back in 2019 and I was hyperventilating through much of it. Then my daughter’s high school theater did the high school version last fall and our family did set and costumes. So much fun.

  79. 79.

    divF

    We’ve been flooded with cherries this year – first from California, and then from Washington. The produce store I go to has taken to listing on the sign not only the state they’re from, but also the variety. We’ve bought more than half-dozen varieties since late May. The ones I remember are Bing, Ranier, Lapins, Tieton, Skeena, Sweetheart. I’ve been pitting then and freezing them, looking forward to cherry compotes and other goodies this winter. I haven’t found any fresh sour cherries on the West Coast, and my understanding is pretty much any cherry dish requires some kick of sourness. However, there are dried sour cherries, which I think will do the trick. I’m going to try  them tomorrow in a cherry compote for my in-laws.

    ETA: they don’t have to be all sour cherries, just a small fraction.

  80. 80.

    Rachel Bakes

    Daughter bought both her prom dresses new, with tags, at our town thrift store for a combine $50. Then bought most of her accessories at the one at my mom’s church. We frequent them for xlothes that aren’t tacky or ridiculously expensive.

  81. 81.

    Martin

    @piratedan: No, I agree. If they have money in the bank, they should try to expand the map. Every swing state voter winds up hating their TV after about 3 days anyway – so every dollar after that yields little return.

    But Indiana? That’s not where I force Trump to spend money. Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Iowa. You go up in Nebraska because there’s a possible senate pickup there and a lone EV that you might need. Does anyone see IN-Sen as a pickup? There’s no incumbent, but I didn’t think we had a strong candidate there.

  82. 82.

    KatKapCC

    @Geminid: A lady a few doors down from me is a makeup artist, and she said she and some of her colleagues were joking about a “Cosmetologists for Harris” call, since she’s the only candidate who knows how to apply makeup well.

  83. 83.

    ronno2018

    keep posting mr. cole!  charming as always.  also don’t worry about adhd meds.  just try them and you can stop taking them any time!

  86. 86.

    Poe Larity

    @geg6: I guess we have Goodwill but the thrifty stuff is a pricey touristy. Grandpas Pendletons would be $50+ here.

    Beall’s went bankrupt when my mom stopped shopping. Just like Falstaff closed down when Uncle Phil died.

  87. 87.

    Wave Function Collapse

    I’m having trouble comprehending these comments. It seems to me that if you buy an MRI at a thrift shop, you should not be surprised at what happens when you turn it on.

    I’ll let myself out now.

  88. 88.

    BR

    @Jackie:

    It has been confusing me how much Nevada seems to have moved away from Dems. It used to be consistently lean Dem when Harry Reid was around.

  90. 90.

    Steve Holmes

    My Grandma in Chicago had a tart cherry tree in her backyard, it really yielded, My father and I would stuff ourselves until we were sick.  Then we’d eat on of her cherry pies. It is engraved in my memories like no other.

  91. 91.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @piratedan:

    The Dems using each coalition getting its own zoom call and warm fuzzies seems to be working in keeping that enthusiasm up

    This is also just good practice for going forward.  Different messages resonate with different groups.  It’s not segregation or silos, more like “break-out rooms” for different groups before we all go back to the main hall to unite.

    And like with my demographic, white men, it normalizes and creates a permission structure for voting Dem and being proud of it, despite the fact that a lot of our society pressures us to be Republicans.  It also provides a good opportunity to help white dudes understand why we aren’t always needed/welcome in other spaces.  A lot of white men, and men in general, still don’t understand that hugely important truth.

  92. 92.

    Martin

    @dr. luba: And Clinton won West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee and lost Virginia in ’96. What’s your point?

    State demographics change, their economies change, and their politics change. 2008 is the better part of a generation ago now.

    If we’re going to win Indiana, it’s going to take a few elections. You aren’t going from R+17 to D+anything in one cycle.

  93. 93.

    Jay

    @mvr:

    The key to tree longevity is root stock, Grafted trees don’t live and produce anywhere as long as ungrafted trees. Well cared for cherry, plumb, peach and apple trees, on VF5 root stock amongst others, can live and produce for a couple hundred years. Well cared for is the key word.

    When I lived in the Maritimes, there were stone walls in the woods, enclosing  abandoned Loyalist Orchards, that still produced fruit, not pretty fruit, and not a lot, dating from 1776/1778/1779.

    If the worms are around the pit, and exit via a tunnel to the base, leaving poop behind, it’s the moths. The fruit fly traps work on both species.

    The larvae look for any wound in the tree, fresh prunings or bark injuries, bore in about a 1/4 inch, seal the entrance with silk and over winter. They don’t really damage the tree in that regard.

  95. 95.

    eemom

    Don’t usually love people who make these kinds of requests, but since it’s a Friday night Cole thread….

    eedad and I are going out to San Diego for 12 days in early September to visit eeson, who is a Marine Lieutenant at Camp Pendleton (whole long story there), and, since he can only be with us on the weekends, looking for cool places to check out in the general SoCal area the rest of the time. We do have one trip to Joshua Tree planned, but I love the beach more than anything. Any recs from locals much appreciated.

  96. 96.

    dmsilev

    @Martin: Any election this year where Indiana is at all competitive is one where Harris has won in a landslide and it’s all about running up the score to help downballot candidates. That’d be a wonderful thing, but it’s not hugely likely.

  97. 97.

    Martin

    @UncleEbeneezer: So far the vibe has mostly been ‘hey black women, we see what you’ve been doing for the party and we feel like we need to pull our weight. We don’t know what the fuck we’re doing but we’ll figure it out’.

    I think if we can get different demographic groups caught up, we’ll see a bit of restructuring.

  98. 98.

    dmsilev

    @eemom: There are …many beaches in SoCal. If you want the prototypical tourist beach experience, Santa Monica would be a good place to start, followed by a walk or bike ride a couple miles south into Venice for a very different vibe.

  99. 99.

    KatKapCC

    @eemom: You could take a drive out to the Hotel Del Coronado for some beach fun and a great meal. It was the setting used in Some Like It Hot, and it’s a beautiful place. Haven’t been down there in years but I assume it’s still worth the drive!

  101. 101.

    different-church-lady

    What you know about rocking a wolf on your noggin? What you knowing about wearing a fur fox skin?​

  103. 103.

    Ohio Mom

    @CaseyL: I think there may be less second hand stuff going to thrift stores because there’s so many places to sell things on line, especially clothing.

  105. 105.

    piratedan

    @Martin: unsure myself Martin, but perhaps there’s seats to be had in the Indianapolis area and perhaps in Terre Haute and Bloomington with the youth vote.

    Not an Indiana expert by any means and perhaps the ad was shown because rates were cheap and it could have been spillover from the Chicago markets.

    Perhaps my previous hopes of seeing a Blue Wave engulf the nation still ring true.  Is it a done deal, not by any means.

    against us:

    The SCOTUS, the Media, the Rich, Putin, China, the Evangelicals, the Nazis and the Fascists

    for us:

    Dobbs, Project 2025, DJT indictments, GOP idiocy, economic success, competency, Ukraine

    so, I dunno….

  106. 106.

    Steve in the ATL

    @BR:
     

    Kelly and Walz are pretty simple in the way they speak, maybe because they aren’t lawyers.

    Non-lawyers are simpletons? Sounds about right. Doesn’t explain Omnes, though!

  107. 107.

    Martin

    @eemom: You might want to consider hitting one of the beaches mid-day and snagging a fire pit and ride that into the evening.

    Different beaches usually have different vibes – some are more family oriented and others more popular with teens/young adults (loud), but packing in a dinner for a bonfire on the beach is pretty nice. Google search usually helps you figure out the vibe at a given beach.

    dmsilevs LA suggestion is a much different vibe – more of the boardwalk/pier experience. Lot of people, though.

    Literally hundreds of beaches. Going to Olamendes in Dana Point and then over to the beach is a nice day. Pretty quiet beach overall – a bit rocky. Laguna has a different scene with the town abutting the beach, lots of shops. Trestles can be pretty nice – not a ton of people, popular surfing spot. Further north Crystal Cove is a large beach so you can get away from the crowd a bit – no homes there it’s a state park. Keep going and you hit Newport Beach with view of the harbor and mansions. Just past that you can go over to the Newport Beach peninsula which isn’t bad on weekdays. Lots of restaurants and whatnot. Further up you hit the LA beaches which I don’t know super well.

    I’d avoid Huntington Beach – kinda Trumpy.

  108. 108.

    Suzanne

    @Ohio Mom: During the pandemic, thrift shops were getting so many donations that they started declining to accept any more. People were cleaning out their houses. We have donated some used kids stuff recently without issue, though.

  109. 109.

    Martin

    @dmsilev: No, I agree. But if you have the cash, forcing Trump to spend it in a state like Texas could be helpful. It’s close enough to worry over, and the Senate race is likely to be close.

    Putting some nationally is a good move. I think we way overspend on ads in swing states. My mom is in Iowa and election seasons are crippling. It’s too much. It’s got to be counterproductive.

  110. 110.

    Chet Murthy

    @Martin: this is partially why I’m only donating through the thermometers here at balloon juice: i don’t see the point of donating to put more TV ads out.

  111. 111.

    brendancalling

    Today:

    I edited and published a new episode of the Progress Pondcast. We normally don’t do more than one/month, but we wanted to follow up on Kamala. We also have fun at CouchFucker’s expense and discuss Trump’s failed kayfabe at the NABJ Conference.

    That was about 4 hours of (volunteer) work. Besides hosting, I put the whole thing together, editing the chaff from the wheat, mixing it down, and getting it up online.

    After that, I headed home, packed my gear, and played a 2-hour gig with the country band. It was a solid gig, good jams, hit the note. I’m having a last beer, they all went home.

    As I’m typing, the couple behind me is having a really intense conversation. I think they’re breaking up. Either that or someone wants to be poly. Eavesdropping…

  114. 114.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ohio Mom:

    Same, maybe, with yard sales/garage sales? I hadn’t really paid attention, but I now realize I don’t see nearly as many signs on weekends as I used to.

  120. 120.

    Suburban Mom

    @eemom: I’m not local but my daughter lives in San Diego.  La Jolla Cove is beautiful.  The town is very upscale, so not to everyone’s taste.

  122. 122.

    piratedan

    @eemom: I am not a local, but a semi-frequent visitor to SD.

    there are the usual touristy things like the Zoo, Sea World and Legoland.

    Balboa Park has a great collection of museums and parkland.

    The Padres have a great stadium downtown if Beisball is your thing.

    My spouse, who is a 10 year veteran of Bike The Bay says that there’s one local eatery that is a must do… Ho-Dads.

    I would echo that the state parks are the way to go to enjoy the beach sans the maddening crowds.

  123. 123.

    J. Arthur Crank

     

    @eemom:   I like Torrey Pines.  There is a State Beach, and there is a State Preserve next to it.  You could spend a half day there easily.  Also, I often take visitors to Seal Rock in La Jolla and the nearby areas.    Belmont Park and the nearby Mission Beach are nice.

  125. 125.

    mvr

    @Jay: Thanks for the response. I’ve never noticed any poop. I only notice them when I make preserves or pies when they show up in the boiling cherry juices.

    I know these are on root stock but I don’t know what kind.  IIRC the tree itself was either a Montmorency or a North Star.  I planted it when we bought the house in around 1996.

    Thanks again!

  127. 127.

    J. Arthur Crank

    @piratedan:

     

    The Padres have a great stadium downtown if Beisball is your thing

    The Gaslamp neighborhood near Petco Park is nice to visit. Lots of good restaurants along 5th and 6th Avenue.

  130. 130.

    Bupalos

    @divF: At some point in the identity politics cycle we’re going to get to 1,900,000 “Me, for Harris” zooms.

  134. 134.

    Jackie

    @Martin: I saw that! More fake electors need to have their feet held to the fire – and hopefully dissuade potential fake electors this election.🤞🏻

  136. 136.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Didn’t expect to stay up past midnight, didn’t want to be awake past midnight, but since I am, I’ll just observe that as of this new day I’ve managed to complete 82 orbits of the Sun.

    Which is, let’s be honest here, pretty ridiculous.

  142. 142.

    piratedan

    @Martin: aye, shared that alternet link a few threads back.

    This has a certain potential to fracture the AZ GOP, they’re cash poor (even some of the electors are having to use public defenders) and there has been infighting between those with the cash and those with the votes.

    Plus, they have named Meadows, Guilliani and Ephstyn as defendants as well.  Mayes is the State AG and as such, she shouldn’t have any of the conflicts that have been seen in Georgia.

  146. 146.

    Gwangung

    @BR:  Bet it has to do with local chaos, with the infighting between the traditional party folks and the folks who came in in the Sanders tide in 2016. Dems in disarray fir real.

  148. 148.

    Citizen Alan

    @Steve in the ATL: More like lawyers are trained to talk in an overly precise and legalistic way and and to hedge our words rather than say something absolutely definitive. It’s a big part of why non-lawyers don’t trust us; we always sound like we’re trying to trick someone.

  151. 151.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Yeah, he’s three months younger. Otherwise, I would definitely have thrown my fascinator in the ring.

  155. 155.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jackie:

    Nope. If there’s a check mark beside it on the list, I’ve done it once and won’t do it again.

    Let’s see….

    ✔️   Skydive

    ✔️   Get enlightened once and for all

    ✔️   Go on diet, start exercise regime, be nicer, etc. etc.

    ✔️    Wash dishes

    ✔️.   Make bed

  159. 159.

    RaflW

    @Martin: This still just blows my mind:

    Of those indicted, 11 are from Arizona, including a former state GOP chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state lawmakers.

    The GOP is so g.d. corrupt, but the press too often acts like it’s just a whole buncha random, unconnected incidences.

  160. 160.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ramona:

    It’s not unheard of for me to be in bed and asleep by 8:00. But I never know from one day to another and since I’m retired I don’t really worry about it :-)

  161. 161.

    Bupalos

    @dmsilev: Things change.

    The migration patterns in the US are shifting. Ohio for instance is adding population and if trends continue this migration pattern might bring 2008 (when Obama won with a margin) back in 2 cycles.

    Things change. Residential is flooding into downtown Cleveland. Ohio State kids are sticking a little better, and it’s drawing more from out of state. Things change.

  164. 164.

    Bupalos

    @MomSense:

    I found out that there is a farm stand up the road that sells a dozen eggs for $2.

    No. You misheard or something.

    If someone is selling eggs for 2$ you need to ask where they got them, what “bird” laid them, what those birds are eating…or why they need to have Craig come and pick up the 6 eggs on the left side of the carton at 11:45 on August 14th, and why you should only hand that carton off to anyone claiming to be Craig if he hands you exactly $14.53 and says “Albuquerque needs more chickens.”

  167. 167.

    tam1MI

    @piratedan:Not an Indiana expert by any means and perhaps the ad was shown because rates were cheap and it could have been spillover from the Chicago markets.

    Chicago markets get huge spillover into other states, as anybody who sees the numbers 588-2300 and knows the melody can attest.  ;)

  168. 168.

    Shalimar

    @eemom: San Diego has a world-class zoo near downtown.  They also have the San Diego Zoo Safari Park northeast of town, which has big open spaces for the animals to roam around.

  169. 169.

    eemom

    Thanks so much to y’all who responded!

    My cup runneth over, to quote my favorite of all Bible thingies.

    @danielx:

    Yeah, so my boy shocked the hell out of me 2 years ago when he signed up for OCS. I was horrified, but, well, had to learn to live with it. Still not thrilled that he’s in this profession for another 2.5 years, but so very, VERY proud of how he has embraced the commitment.

  170. 170.

    cain

    We have some really weird weather in Portland this past week. Really muggy and it just feels heavy in addition to the heat. Plus at 11pm, it’s still damn hot. I’m trying to decide which southern state we are aping right now.

  171. 171.

    cain

    @RaflW: No they are willfully do that. If it was Dems, there will be a deep article about whether the Dem is too corrupt for America.

  172. 172.

    KatKapCC

    @eemom: I *wish* I could tell you to have a meal at City Deli, which was an amazing Jewish food cafe in the Hillcrest neighborhood in SD, but it closed years ago. I was bummed when I heard. Best place on the West Coast for a knish!

  188. 188.

    JWR

    @Capri:

    Just saw a Harris for president TV ad in Indiana

    You think you got problems, just today I saw one here in Southern California! ;)

  189. 189.

    frosty

    @eemom: San Diego Zoo and Catalina.

    One problem you will run into is that SoCal is huge and the traffic is tough for a visitor. My advice is to pick one corner and see stuff there. So if you’re near Pendleton, Newport, Laguna Beaches or Mission and OB in San Diego.

  192. 192.

    karen marie

    @BR: I really really want Harris to pick Wallz. He’s competent and he brings joy. Shapiro is a slug in comparison, and he’s way too conservative and bullish on more business tax cuts.

  193. 193.

    frosty

    @eemom: Our son surprised us when he joined the Army National Guard. He didn’t tell us he re-enlisted until this year when his brother convinced him we’d be OK with it as he signed up again. It’s a good fit for him. He’s a Sergeant in Artillery, teaching now.

    He’s planning to stay in for 24 years and qualify for VA. Thinking ahead!!!

  195. 195.

    karen marie

    @rikyrah: Rachel Scott, the ABC news correspondent, who was the lead person at Trump’s disastrous interview, reminded him he hates ABC.  He’s too much of a coward to admit the truth: he suffers from oppositional defiance disorder and two black women have him triggered. It’s easier to make up yet another lie and say it’s because of a lawsuit that wasn’t an issue when he agreed to the debate.

    What a weak little man.

  196. 196.

    Martin

    I’ll try and repost this tomorrow, but there’s a nice YouTube discussion of the rise of Kamala in popular culture and young voters that people might be interested in seeing. The host is a makeup artist and LGBTQ activist with a large online following, and the guest is a media critic YouTube/podcast/writer.

    These are not political analysts but it’s a serious discussion (an hour) through what I would say is a pretty accurate lens. They talk about authenticity, cynicism, how to reach and not reach young voters, the importance of  being cultural relatable but why that’s not a substitute for competence, the dangers of fandom toward politicians, and so on. Fair warning, it’s not particularly kind to Biden. It’s not always kind to Harris either. Zoomers in my experience pretty much never pull their punches – if they have a criticism, they air it, don’t take it personally. Toward the goal of trying to understand why the energy of the campaign shifted SO heavily with the announcement, there is a lot of insight here. They do a pretty good job of giving explainers for memes and the like, so I think most anyone will be able to follow it

    Comments are worth reading as well.

  198. 198.

    WereBear

    @Martin: Thanks, that looks quite interesting. And your explainer clarifies both their bluntness in personal discourse and how they value people who are genuine, not an airbrushed illustration.

    I’ve been cut-to-the-chase minded myself, but grew up in a repressive culture, which crushes everyone with senseless conformist demands. I celebrate any breaking through of pointless affectation. Power likes to make status symbols the easy solution, instead of being judged on actual value.

    A more authentic-minded population is a culture less likely to be mass-bamboozled by a con artist.

    Can’t argue with their logic. Because so often, someone complaining “it’s complicated” is covering for a whole host of evils. Which could explain why toxic/estranged parents is a hot topic lately.

    When people feel like it’s the only way to break a chain of abuse, they will do it. We built a society that gave them that. I’m proud of it.

    And I agree. We have a lot of senseless rules that, followed back to their cave, turns out to be about one special group getting an unfair advantage.

     

    I think any young person

  199. 199.

    WereBear

    New poll saying Republicans want someone younger than Trump as President, 8/1

    But they have Vance! They are saved!

    Personally, I think they just throw their cement head at the problem and they just want to be part of the excitement, yanno? How can grumpy older people get a rockstar?

    They thought that is what they had. A power trip with their warrior prince.

    As always, they were conned.

    Sorry, we have a better formula. We sell the steak, not the sizzle.

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