Our local Dems Abroad chair asked the group chat if any of us would be staying up to watch the VP debate tonight. I’d rather eat scabs than voluntarily listen to JD Vance, frankly.
I run a lot (I’m very slow, but it makes me feel great, mentally). There’s a terrific, well-maintained canal network around here which has good, broad running or cycling paths. Along with the usual ducks and geese, I get to see lots of herons, swans, moorhens, and once, this summer, I even saw a kingfisher. I also enjoy the local canalboats:
and you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large water mobile
— Rose Judson (@rosejudson.bsky.social) September 30, 2024 at 6:11 PM
I applied for a mortgage today (the first in my own name! adulting!), so I am fried. I owe y’all an update on US vs. Google Ads now that testimony has wrapped. Probably Thursday. It’s not going great for Google, based on what I’ve read so far. I love that for them.
Whatcha got? Any good boat names? Open thread.
Baud
I’m not staying up, and I’m not even on UK time.
Omnes Omnibus
That skeet is pure genius.
Rose Judson
@Omnes Omnibus: It just happened to be parked (moored? whatever) near the Cadbury factory when I was running there one day. Lucky me!
Ukai
I don’t know if one can top “Boaty McBoatface”.
JPL
@Baud: same
Frankensteinbeck
Unless someone has an absolutely disastrous night, the debate will be a nothingburger. Anyone can give the worst performance of their life at any moment, but the only noticeably likely performance disaster is Vance saying something so heinous even normies take notice. He has a history of it, but he also knows he’ll be in front of a national, not friendly audience.
Math Guy
“Against The Current” because otherwise it’s just a raft.
Rose Judson
@Frankensteinbeck:
I believe in him. I know he can be true to himself. 💕
citizen dave
Well if it doesn’t work out for him, maybe Vance can get an eyeliner commercial…
In peak Covid times, I watched a few of those “slow tv” (think there was a series on Prime; and/or YouTube) of those England canal boats/people. Really interesting history and network. A cool lifestyle. To keep with the Talking Heads theme, another boat name might be Naive Melody.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ukai: Doesn’t come with its own song.
NotMax
@Math Guy
Does whitewater rafting count as keeping up with current events?
:)
Tony Jay
I once saw a barge called ‘Flat-Bottomed Girl’. Made me chuckle.
Also, we visited Cadbury World when we were down in the Midlands last year. After being spoiled by the Willy Wonka wackiness of the Lindt factory in Switzerland, all I can say is it was very… British.
Nice chocolate though.
SatanicPanic
Lawyers just announced Diddy is going to be facing an additional… 120 lawsuits. He’s almost getting into Donald Trump numbers there.
frosty
If you’re interested in British canals, here’s a series by a guy who chucked it all and bought a boat. It’s sort of like being an RV full-timer, except at 2mph.
Travels by Narrowboat
JoyceH
I’ll watch the debate, hoping to hear JD give more insightful comments on the immigrants from Haysha.
Rose Judson
@Tony Jay: Yeah, The Child has been a couple times over the course of her school career, and that’s basically her reaction to it: boring tour, great chocolate.
One of these years when we’re visiting my parents, I’ll get her down to Hersheypark, and then she’ll have the opposite experience: amazing tour, terrible chocolate.
Spanky
@Tony Jay:
Please explain.
A Ghost to Most
The only thing better than getting your first mortgage is paying off your last one. Good luck.
owlbrick
Into the blue again, into the silent water
NotMax
@Tony Jay
Did someone say Cadbury?
:)
M31
@Spanky: went on the tour with 5 kids, came back with one?
Rose Judson
@A Ghost to Most: Thank you! Financial stuff makes me break out in hives.
I’m trying to buy the house I’ve been renting for the last four years. Landlord gave me nine months lead time (and full credit for all the rent I’ve paid him, so the price is FANTASTIC). I’m amazed I was able to cobble together the deposit so quickly.
eclare
@Ukai:
Hahaha…no one can.
HumboldtBlue
artem1s
Congrats on the mortgage! It was incredibly stressful the first time I did that. I’ve refinanced a couple of times and changed it over to an equity line. I pretty much go zen and just initial away now.FYI, making regular payments on a home mortgage is the best way to build credit. You’ll have banks and fly-by-night lenders trying to throw money at you now. A second loan offers can be a lifesaver if you have a critical need. Just don’t give in to using your equity for frivolous purchases like a $44B social media site fire sale.
matt
When I went and signed the papers for my mortgage they critiqued my signature and demanded that I sign my name more clearly.
eclare
@Rose Judson:
Best of luck to you! That was really nice of your landlord.
Sure Lurkalot
Good luck buying your house, Rose!
UncleEbeneezer
@frosty: Ugh…we used to love his videos but then in one of them he started ranting about the unfairness, stupidity and oppression of Covid restrictions. And we just never could get back into him, which is a shame because his are the best videos of the several series’ we tried.
ssdd
I’ve been fascinated by British canals ever since I stumbled over Great Canal Journeys on YouTube a few years ago. If I ever hit the lotto I would absolutely move to the UK, buy a narrowboat and just putter about the countryside.
Steve LaBonne
@Rose Judson: Wow, great landlord / seller. Congratulations!
Tony Jay
@Rose Judson:
I’ve been informed that American chocolate tastes of pee. Not just a little bit, but actually, in that it’s made with the same something that gives pee it’s, ah, it’s taste. As a result, I’ve never knowingly eaten any American chocolate.
On reflection, I can now see why I’m only infrequently invited to cocktail parties.
artem1s
@matt:
an odd thing I remember about signing my first mortgage way back when nothing was digital- the bank made a huge fuss about signing everything in blue ink. Color copiers were barely a thing then, so maybe it was a security thing?
Tony Jay
@Spanky:
It was great. Really well designed, lots of wacky chocolate machines dispensing different chocolate shapes, and then, at the end, once you’d gorged yourselves on chocolate squirts and chocolate chunks, you emerged into a room with infinite quantities of Lindt chocolate free for the taking.
Unfortunately we took ours in a bag across the border into an Italian August and everything melted instantly.
La Nonna
Once had a beautiful boat “Argo”, with a golden fleece as our flag and emblem.
oldster
“…large water mobile” — first rate pun!
Math Guy
@NotMax: Touché
Ukai
@Omnes Omnibus: Yet.
Math Guy
@matt: Yeah, my handwriting is so bad that, for all intents and purposes, my wife owns the house, cars, etc..
Captain C
@Tony Jay: Did the person who told you this have a stash of American chocolate that they feared (rightly or wrongly) you would raid?
HumboldtBlue
NEW AD: Donald Trump has had a lot of failures… But JD Vance might just be his biggest.
TBone
Boaty McBoatfaceNadine
Omnes Omnibus
@Tony Jay: This person has ingested enough pee to know?
TBone
@Ukai: dang you ! 😆
I second the motion.
Sister Golden Bear
@Tony Jay: Herseys does have a distinct sour taste, due to its unusual recipe. IIRC the founder insisted on using liquid milk — not realizing that European chocolate makers used dried milk.
For many years Herseys was the dominant chocolate maker in the US, to the point they actually provided the chocolate that a number of their competitors used.
Melancholy Jaques
@Frankensteinbeck:
I will put my dollar down on “Media works to make it a big deal, but race is back to where it was by the weekend.”
There is a small chance that Vance could say something that would knock him down even further because he is such an asshole, but I’m not counting on it.
TBone
She Got The House
TBone
Future Poor Person
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: I believe they approached the American stuff veerrrrrrryyyy carefully with a spectrometer looking for butyric acid.
3Sice
@Tony Jay:
The German said it tastes of baby vomit.
Melancholy Jaques
@Tony Jay:
Never heard that before. I’m not that into chocolate, but my choco-holic friends say the beans are low quality and the texture is waxy.
UncleEbeneezer
My wife (ahem) floated the idea of us someday retiring on a narrow-boat. But I get claustrophobic and would still like to be able to play my drums as long as I can. Also, we will probably will never have the $ to move to UK and buy a narrow-boat.
Matt McIrvin
@Rose Judson: Hershey used to have an actual tour of their actual factory, but I think they stopped doing it and replaced it with the “Chocolate Tour” dark ride just before the first time I went there in the 1970s.
No matter, I always loved that dark ride. They keep updating it–it has animatronic singing cows now. Also was always impressed by the fact that it’s free, since it’s just outside of Hersheypark at their “Chocolate World” attraction and it’s the one thing there that is not an upcharge thing.
(weird fact: Hersheypark and Chocolate World are technically owned by separate companies, though they have common part ownership. Chocolate World is actually owned by the chocolate company.)
Omnes Omnibus
@UncleEbeneezer: A renovated barge on the Seine would be cooler.
Matt McIrvin
@Tony Jay: Hot take: yes, Hershey’s chocolate tastes weird, with a sort of acidic aftertaste, but I don’t mind it at all. Probably because I was brought up on that.
Geminid
@La Nonna: I follow Turkish journalist Ragip Soylu on social media. His header pic is an evening view from a Bosphorus ferry, and I sometimes imagine Jason and his Argonauts rowing their ship on the way to the gold sands of Colchis. I guess that would have been 3500 years ago at least.
Anotherlurker.
@Rose Judson: Hey Rose, a belated welcome to the front page. I really enjoy your posts.
I am a native NYer living in the SF East Bay area. I grew up on LI Sound and in addition to being an avid fisherman I’m also a fan of everything nautical. I also enjoy learning about amazing engineering projects.
To make a long story short, I ran across an episode of “Crusing the Cut” on YouTube and I was hooked. The English canal system is truly an engineering marvel! Boats traveling thru the sky! (on Aquaducts) Boats traveling thru tunnels! Boats rising thru locks and being lifted by elevators and wheels caisons! Amazing!
And to think that a great deal of the canal system was designed and built in the 18th and 19th centuries to accommodate the production gains of the Industrial Revolution.
I envy you your proximity to this engineering marvel.
BTW, keep up the good work on the front page.
TBone
Even though we’re in close proximity to Hershey, PA our rural small town has its own chocolate factory company AND a really cool, old fashioned candy shoppe on the main drag (as well as other locations).
https://www.puritycandy.com/watch-us-make-it
Booger
@Tony Jay: I believe you might mean vomit, as Hershey chocolate has a high amount of butyric acid in it ( there’s a reason– it’s not just there to make it smell like puke) and once you make the butyric acid-parmesan-ginko-dogshit-vomit connection, Hershey becomes a non starter.
TBone
We had a nice big container of Hershey’s chocolate ice cream two days ago. Had.
No butyric acid. Big chocolate flavor.
Booger
@TBone: Ice cream is made by a different Hershey.
Maxim
It’s difficult to imagine a landlord in the US doing what yours is. Good for them, and good luck to you!
TBone
My favorite yacht was owned by my former BF ship captain from Louisiana/Mississippi’s sister, who married into wealth after working as a physical therapist on cruise ships. I have an actual T-shirt with a rendering of the yacht and her name: Destiny. Sister’s name was Tangie. Tan-zhee
TBone
@Booger: well that explains why it’s extra yum!
Belafon
John Amos, from Good Times and Roots, died. He was 84.
Trollhattan
Chiming in on the topic of chocolate, y’all probably know the industry is in peril due to the challenges to growing and harvesting cocoa and might be relieved the Swiss are ON IT.
https://bakingbusiness.com.au/swiss-scientists-announce-chocolate-breakthrough/
Misswhatsis
We used to play a couple of boat name parlor games. One was names that sound grand but mean something less grand (the Impecunious, the importunate, the belligerent etc). The other was the big boat name and the tender name: the Alexander Graham Bell and the tender is either Watson or the Ringy-Ding. The big boat is Manifest Destiny and the tender is White Man’s Burden (I know I know don’t smack me — this is a game for the clueless) the big boat is Over the Rainbow and the tender is Toto.
Origuy
Why American Chocolate Tastes Different Than European Chocolate (mentalfloss.com)
SatanicPanic
@Belafon: Good Times was an excellent show for the first couple seasons before it became all about DYNO-MITE Jimmie Walker show. Amos apparently left because of that. Great dude, RIP.
WaterGirl
@Rose Judson: Must be what Cole is paying you. //
TBone
@Trollhattan: genius. Nobel prize worthy for chocoholics.
TBone
I am a huge fan of Toblerone bars. I’ll buy Lindt also when the need arises, but something about the honey candy chocolate taste of Toblerone tickles my fancy. Had my first one in Switzerland.
Tony Jay
@NotMax:
Everything you ever needed to know about 1980s British popular culture – plus fruit and nut.
raven
I trace my love for fishing to the insane tris we took from Champaign-Urbana to Hamilton Illinois on the Big River. The Addie Mae was a paddle wheeler powered by a tractor engine, basically a floating bar with a juke box on the deck. T
Tony Jay
@Captain C:
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes, and probably.
But in what order?
Tony Jay
It could be vomit, but I’m 90% (and falling) certain that the episode of QI I’m thinking of that included the interesting fact about why most British people think American chocolate tastes lavatorial said pee. I’ll just check with Lady Jay.
She also thinks it was pee.
But I’ve got a memory like a collander. Catches much, retains little of lasting value.
frosty
@Rose Judson: The Hershey Chocolate World tour is OK I guess. However, when I was a kid you could tour the actual factory and look at vats of chocolate.
I think OSHA killed that one and other factory tours. I remember going through Ford Rouge and seeing molten steel poured. And the Kellogg’s factory in Battle Creek.
TBone
Having grown up with the famous Linvilla Orchards farm in my backyard, I have a burning need to know why candied and caramel apples are so freaking scarce where I live in central PA. I mean, ya can’t find ’em! What the…
It’s not October without a caramel apple on a stick. And I don’t like having to make my own! Linvilla spoiled me.
TBone
@raven: we have paddle wheel tours available here, you have inspired me to finally book a supper/show on one.
https://ridehiawatha.com/
OOH: T Time!
Come onboard the Hiawatha and enjoy an elegant Afternoon Tea Party with us! Fancy linens, china cups and saucers will add to the experience. A variety of Afternoon Tea Treats will be served and several different types of tea to try.
Thanks, Raven!
Steve in the ATL
@artem1s:
I was taught this as a baby lawyer. Still use blue ink exclusively, color copiers be damned!
NotMax
@TBone
Choco choo-choo. (Not an AI image.)
;)
TBone
@frosty: we had a school field trip to the 7-Up bottling factory when I was in elementary school 😆
TBone
@NotMax: that’s cool and funny! 😍 We have railroad/train events here (restored, vintage, etc.) in my town also but nothing like that! My last train ride was on a Christmas train out of West Chester, PA with my young nephew. Hot cocoa is served.
https://youtu.be/6_wnPFdBrWA
The day we went, it had snowed and looked like proper Christmas. The old restored destination train station is decorated in high style!
NotMax
@TBone
Touring a soda pop factory many, many years ago (Nehi?) was were I learned that orange soda starts out green until loads of coloring and other additives are mixed in.
Used to be a good tour of the Musselman’s applesauce factory, not far from Hershey. Maybe still is.
Steve in the ATL
@frosty:
Are they doing tours in Mexico, where the cereal production is now? (leaving BC a meth-infested husk of its former self)
Raven
@TBone: Hell yes!
JML
Lot of deaths in sports and entertainment this week: Maggie Smith, John Ashton, Dikembe Mutombo, John Amos, Drake Hogestyn, Pete Rose. Kris Kristofferson…
Mutombo bummed me out a lot. Great player, great humanitarian.
TBone
@NotMax: our little country church here has an old school Amish-type Apple Butter Making Day each Fall, where we make it in a big cauldron over an open fire in an outdoor pavilion. Of course since it’s not on a Sunday, festivities can occur on the sly!
TBone
@Raven: 💜😘
TBone
@JML: 😔 ugh
pluky
@JML: add Gavin Creel to the list.
Rose Judson
@WaterGirl: hahaha yup. Once I told the mortgage brokers I had a sweet Balloon-Juice contributor contract they were like, oh, we have deals for you!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Sister Golden Bear: As an average American chocoholic, I totally agree Hersey’s chocolates are not worth the calories, whereas Lindt and Cadbury’s definitely are, although their chocolate (especially milk chocolate, which I am the most familiar with) do taste different from each other, but both excellent. Just my 2 cents.
Chief Oshkosh
@UncleEbeneezer:
@frosty:
Here’s a very laid-back yet still very English canal boating YouTube channel that gained a following during the pandemic. Lots of good stuff, but I prefer the earlier profferings:
https://www.youtube.com/@CruisingTheCut/feature
ETA: Anotherlurker beat me to it.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Trollhattan: Very interesting! Went on a chocolate tour in Costa Rica last year and it was impressive how many steps between the ripe fruit and cocoa nibs. And how difficult it is to harvest ripe fruit. Forget the details, but a lot of ways it can go wrong before successful harvest. And yes, the cocoa farmers work very hard for not much money. Good for the Swiss!
JaySinWA
Sunk Cost may be too on the nose for a boat name
I nearly typed “too on the knows”, thought about keeping it as a typo pun.
kalakal
@Rose Judson:
Congrats on the mortgage.
One of the best holidays I ever had was poodling about on the South Oxford canal for 2 weeks in 1986, just totally relaxing*. It was quite weird in a way, you booked it turned up, they gave you a 5 minute talk and then handed you the keys to a 30 ft boat – none of us had ever been on board one. One day we tied up at the bank, walked across a field to a village to get lunch and the place seemed totally deserted. As we walked toward the pub we passed a Dalek in a garden. Quite an odd sensation. The pub was good.
*The exception to the relaxation was as we passed Upper Heyford. The tranquility of a perfect April morning in the English countryside was shattered when 5 F-111s took off, fully loaded with massive drop tanks. Reagan had just ordered the bombing of Libya
Kenneth Fair
@citizen dave: Regarding the eyeliner, maybe he’s born with it. Or maybe it’s Maybelline.
jimmiraybob
I have been on something of a vacation from commenting anywhere for the last month or so. But since a certain somebody will be spewing lies and BS tonight free of fact checking, I thought I’d plant this here.
George Washington fathered no biological children of record. When he married Martha he helped raise her children from a previous marriage. No word on if they were cat people.
I guess what I’m getting at is that he and Martha and the kids were the first Kamala, Doug and kids of record. Which brings up the question of if he had a stake in the United States of America? Is it too late for a Republican investigation and impeachment?
Gloria DryGarden
@UncleEbeneezer: maybe take a few weeks vacay on one, if you can save for such a trip..
why couldn’t you play the drums on your canal boat?
columbusqueen
@Ukai: How about “Debauched Sloth,” courtesy of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Matarin novels?
Little_Big_Tug
My favorite boat name was seen on the Kuskoquim river (Alaska) about 30 years ago, anchored up buying salmon. It was made from several fiberglass septic tanks for floatation and sporting a plywood deck.
It was, of course, Cirrhosis of the River.
My second favorite name was from Popeye (Robin Williams) known as Vile Body. “Dis is no place for infinks!”
Slightly_peeved
My parents got really into narrow boat trips in the early 2000s. Had some great holidays on the canals – including the one going past the Cadbury factory. Would heartily recommend – the boats are pretty easy to drive, the locks require a bit of physical effort but are otherwise a reason for a nice walk, and the inside of the boats is equivalent to a bigger fancier RV except you can still use the whole boat as you travel.
I’d suggest “Rishi can’t stop this boat” as a name but it would probably be unnecessarily provocative. Or “The Justice’s Bribe.”
Sandman
Boat names:
NotMax
No one votes for Pride of Walvis Bay. (Semi-obscure comic book reference.)
Nor for Yorikke (See: B. Traven novel The Death Ship.)