Went down to Stratford-Upon-Avon today to visit with an American friend I met through Dems Abroad. We agreed not to discuss the election, as The Child was with me, and she finds discussion of politics equal parts tedious and scary right now.
50,000 years ago, on last Saturday, The Child and I had this exchange:
The Child: Guy Fawkes Night is Tuesday.
Me: Yes. Tuesday is also the night America elects its next president.
The Child: Oh, I don’t want to think about presidents right now. I’d rather think about Mothra.
— Rose Judson (@rosejudson.bsky.social) November 2, 2024 at 7:01 PM
You know what? She was on the right track. We visited the Stratford Butterfly Farm, and I managed to forget about the election for an hour. We walked through humid “tropical” environments and enjoyed dodging exotic butterflies as they whirled tipsily past our heads. There were also some free-range iguanas to look at. Here, have a selection:
First, a male Great Yellow Mormon, who is neither great nor yellow. The jury is out on whether he is actually Mormon; he refused to answer my questions:
Next, a butterfly apparently named for a comic-book villain. It’s called “The Flame”:
My personal favorite, the Giant Owl Butterfly:
And finally, those iguanas. We spotted them high up on a tree, gazing down on us mammals with contempt. The big red one’s called Bennie. You can just make out his girlfriend, Prudence, to the left.
We also took a short walk along the Avon and passed by the very gaudy 1890s memorial to Shakespeare, which includes sculptures of some of his most famous characters. The Child took an interest in Hamlet. “Who’s this man with the skull?” she asked. “He seems very emo to me.”
The Child tells it like it is.
Home now and spent some time nudging folks in Pennsylvania to see if they’d heard that ballot-curers are needed on behalf of Bob Casey.
Anyone else manage to cadge any small joys today? Share with the group.
Baud
I’d vote for Mothra.
The return of Mo Salad
Liverpool are 5 points clear of Manchester City after only 11 games.
I am also encouraged by the Great BlueSky migration happening today and am shocked that I am the first Mark Wade to try and set up an account.
The blue link has been switched to the Bluesky account.
Rose Judson
@The return of Mo Salad: Followed you back!
Omnes Omnibus
I definitely see Hamlet as a My Chemical Romance guy.
And thank you, Rose, for this thread. The others were getting to be a bit much.
zhena gogolia
“Emo” is the perfect description for Hamlet.
Rose Judson
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks. I’ll have more pertinent things to say later – some interesting analyses of the dilemmas facing Keir Starmer vis-a-vis the “Special Relationship” I want to share – but right now, I’m all about the moths. (Appreciated reading mistermix’s posts, tho.)
The return of Mo Salad
@Rose Judson:
Cool. Thanks!
Gin & Tonic
@Rose Judson:
Moths and butterflies are not the same.
/pedant
Nukular Biskits
Excellent diversion!
Sure Lurkalot
I’ve been to a few butterfly houses (we have one in the Denver burbs) and it’s a very relaxing way to spend an hour or two. The variety of tropicals is also a plus for enjoying these spaces.
After 2 warm, dry months, the snow came with a vengence, starting Tuesday evening and ending mid morning today. Probably got a foot overall but it wasn’t particularly cold so there was a bit of melting during a lull on Thursday and now one big drip. Cleaned house, worked out in the basement, put together a Lego and did some research on Medicare Part D plans. Also drinking more and sleeping less since you know when.
I was anticipating listening to a new Books of All Time podcast (my housecleaning entertainment of choice) so I hope there’s no permaglitch! I think you have more than a few fans here on BJ. Besides your deep research and story telling talent, you have a lovely voice.
Trivia Man
Can’t be Mormon – no underwear. And they never take it off. Certainly not in public.
VeniceRiley
I don’t want to get cut. So, I picked up a remarkable about of poop in our Suffolk garden while my wife made a store run. Boy can Reggie produce. If you could sell dog poop, we’d be rich. We snuggled and watched movies, then had baby back ribs, corn, and sweet potato fries for tea. I got a little backrub because she knows I am down because he-who-should-not-be-named. Man City lost, so we put on mourning wear and watched one of those ER reality shows she likes.
Not as good as your day, but every uneventful day with my wife is a precious blessing.
Rose Judson
@Sure Lurkalot: Thanks! Episode 19 is on track for Monday. In addition to the events, some paid work took precedence, and when I sat down to record I realized I wasn’t happy with the script. Want to do Sappho justice.
Trivia Man
@Gin & Tonic: I was once told that if they are at rest, the moth will have wings out wide and flat while the butterfly keeps their together and vertical.
Similar to the tip that a sea mammal has a horizontal tail while a fish has a vertical tail.
wmd
@zhena gogolia: Yeah, it’s an absolutely fitting description.
realbtl
I always loved the Hummingbird House at San Diego Zoo. Those bastards would zip by about 3″ from your ear at light speed.
Doug
Went to the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
This big ugly link might work: https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/rbb-fernsehen/35-jahre-mauerfall-sound-der-freiheit/rbb/Y3JpZDovL3JiYl9kYTRhYjRlZi04YTJkLTQ0MGQtYjY2ZS0wY2IyZjc4NmVjYThfcHVibGljYXRpb24
The narration is all in German (of course). If you want to see what I came for, skip ahead to about 29:00 when the ginormous band plays David Bowie’s “Heroes” from five different locations where the Wall once stood.
Then look at pictures of people standing on the Wall where — just the day before — guards had had shoot-to-kill orders. Respite indeed, beloveds.
Omnes Omnibus
@Doug: It is important to note that it is also the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Percysowner
Thanks for this. I don’t post a lot and I’ll be posting a lot less because I just can’t deal with any of the political posts. Respite posts, pet blegs, anything not newsy I’m in. otherwise, I just go on by.
NotMax
I realize there’s no Thanksgiving Day there in the interim but isn’t the first week of November kind of jumping the gun?
;)
(Not ignoring the election, have nothing to add about it that hasn’t already been said here dozens of times.)
Steve LaBonne
Played a Mozart, a Haydn, and an early Beethoven quartet this afternoon with my usual quartet friends. We were all in good form, I didn’t have too many accidents in the challenging 1st violin parts, and best of all, even though we’re on the same page about politics, nobody said word one about the election, thank the FSM. Music is what keeps me more or less sane.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
Been wondering why I haven’t seen you around.
As for not commenting about the election, this is a good thread to not do that.
Rose Judson
@NotMax: Dude, there were Christmas displays in the shops here as soon as school started back in September. It’s exhausting. This country needs a late-November buffer holiday, stat.
Nukular Biskits
@Rose Judson:
I keep telling Ms. Biskits that it’s a violation of federal law to put up Christimas decorations before 01DEC.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
KFC had a roc-size egg on their corporate faces for that in ’22. Gargantuanly offensive.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Jebus.
Rose Judson
@Nukular Biskits: I was raised by hard-line parents: general home decorations go out on December 6th (feast of St. Nicholas); tree goes up Christmas Eve and comes down on January 6th (feast of the epiphany, before it was — well, you know).
zhena gogolia
@Percysowner: Good choice!
bbleh
Small joys: there was a big running race in Philadelphia today, and as with all road races these days of any length they hand out “medals” to all the finishers, and because of the structure of this race (the Rocky Run if anyone’s interested) you can get THREE, which many people do. And the “medals” are absurdly large: about the size of demitasse saucers. And when somebody has three on and is walking back to the train or their car or wherever, they CLANK with every step. And when there’s several of them together, it’s sounds like a freight train clanking along, or sleigh bells or something – it’s hilarious.
But generally speaking, there are ALWAYS small joys. Smile at random strangers as they pass by. It’s amazing — most of them light up and smile back. That’s always nice.
WereBear
@zhena gogolia: He was supposed to be young and impetuous, a teen. But then gets played by men in middle age 😁
Redshift
We went to an Icelandic Christmas bazaar this afternoon. It was fun, I wore me volcano shirt from when we visited last year. It was listed in the WaPo’s “things to do this weekend,” so almost all the food was already sold out, but I was able to get smoked lamb on flatbread, yum.
Jobeth
Out for a walk around the neighborhood today I saw at least six households busy at work putting up Christmas decorations. As a now Southerner who grew up in the Northeast I just can’t get used to outdoor Christmas decorating being interrupted by the sound of the ice cream truck coming by.
VeniceRiley
@Rose Judson: You do need a November holiday to stave off Christmas until a decent time. I told my Anne Lister group FB friends this.
Going to the remembrance ceremonies in town tomorrow. Maybe make those a bigger meal/family gathering/triumphant celebration That’s how Americans commercialised this stuff.
But I vot no. It would be tacky, and Brit instincts are correct.
PS my sister is making fun of my developing accent. I told her I had to do it because everything from the dogs to the TV remote to the cheese man in the market didn’t understand what I was saying.
Weftage
I get marketing email from a number of craft-supply vendors I patronize. Some of them started the [Gah!]mas promotions in June. I think my favorite, so far, is the Holiday Lint Rollers from the sewing-supplies place.
mrmoshpotato
@VeniceRiley: The TV remote was all “WTF, mate?”
zhena gogolia
@WereBear: Or older!
NotMax
@WereBear
Given a choice, I’d take Omelet/a>.
:)
TBone
@NotMax: my rumpy neighbors started putting up their way overdone, Home Improvement tv show/Xmas Vacation movie-style Xmas lights display today. I’m not ready for that kind of spirit yet.
Trivia Man
Speaking of pets, I am trying to figure out how I can help my son. He is across the country in NM and soon to be homeless. His cat would not do well in the car and he is rightly concerned about surrendering him to a shelter. Another stress item for him.
Phylllis
I lol’d. Also, there are still some people in our neighborhood who have not yet taken down their Halloween stuff. It’s starting to get on my nerves.
Nukular Biskits
@Rose Judson:
Growing up, we usually put our stuff up around the 2nd week of Christmas.
Ms. Biskits, I’m not sure, but she absolutely loves Christmas decorations, especially the overpriced cheap yard decorations at the big box stores <sigh>.
mrmoshpotato
@VeniceRiley:
@Weftage: Slap them with a turkey. Maybe they’ll remember.
NotMax
@Jobeth
Ah, the holidiay spirit.
//
mrmoshpotato
@Phylllis: TP their houses! 😁
TBone
@NotMax: I’m SO getting that!!!
mrmoshpotato
@TBone: Festive poop!
Rachel Bakes
College daughter home for the weekend. Nice just having her presence in the house. Wandered out downtown for a couple hours then came home and made Chicken tikka masala (with a jar) and aloo gobi so she could have “Indian” food that tastes good. Hasn’t found good Indian in Newport yet and each time the cafeteria makes it she is “disappointed in a new and interesting way” or words to that effect. She’s off to her high school’s fall play tonight then I drive her back tomorrow. What has everyone been saying about road-trips?
Miki
My emotional pallet cleanser since Monday has been posts from a Doggo Midwife who just helped a year old golden retriever girlie deliver 11 puppehs. I know her through a poodle forum and her incredible foster based poodle rescue. But her super power is helping any doggo whelp, including this baby golden having babies.
Here’s a link to the births.
Here’s a link to the rescue.
Doug
@Omnes Omnibus:
As indeed the hosts did note. They did not note that it was the 106th anniversary of the proclamation of the republic after the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
TBone
@mrmoshpotato: my neighbors have a section of their garish Xmas display that’s all red, white, and blue, complete with a huge American flag made out of lights to honor American Jeebus.
And hubby doesn’t want me to put up an inflatable orange poop emoji in a Santa hat? Ppfftthhbbbt! He’ll not win this argument!
🎶 😎
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sVzvRsl4rEM
zhena gogolia
@TBone: Do it!
I was going to list the yard signs I’m fantasizing, but it’s a respite thread.
Another Scott
@Trivia Man: :-(
The engineer in me did some looking and found some tips from Feliway. Maybe?
Car trips are stressful, moving houses is stressful, but getting new humans is stressful too. I hope things work out.
Hang in there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
TBone
@zhena gogolia: 💙🤘
prostratedragon
This dream ballet from Oklahoma gets a lot of texture as it goes along.
mrmoshpotato
@TBone: Ahhhh yes – white American Jeebus!
TBone
@mrmoshpotato: orange is the new white.
Or should I say burnt umberish-orange with piggly pink edges.
Dang, sorry I broke the rule aaarrghh
Trivia Man
@Another Scott: Worst case I might try to drive out and get the cat, his current worry is living in the car with the cat.
Side note – I drove from UT to WI many years ago with two cats. My poor girl meowed non-stop the whole trip. She was quite hoarse by the end but never stopped. Just … meow. meow. meow. Not panic, not anger, just a forlorn meow ever few seconds. Luckily I could turn it into a zen thing for me, wife in the other car would have been driven berserk.
middlelee
@Trivia Man: contact Satby. I think she knows people in NM.
sab
@middlelee: Does anyone know how to contact Cheryl Rofer? Isn’t she a cat lady in NM?
Raven
@middlelee: Quinerly too, no?
Trivia Man
@middlelee: thanks
karen marie
@Sure Lurkalot: Maybe someone else did – you should have – but here’s a link to Books of All Time with Rose Judson!
I haven’t listened to it yet because I’m stuck in The Rest Is History. Because I’m that kind of person, I had to start at episode one. I’m now almost done with episode 72. It’s been very interesting listening because it’s not just a dry recitation of what happened. Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook put the subject matter in the context of everything, or lots of things.
I’m delighted to have something to look forward to when I either finish or get tired of history.
sab
@Phylllis: I was offended when the stuff was up on Nov 1, All Saimts Day. We still have a neighbor with a display that plays spooky organ music all night, and another with a giant half skeleton in the front yard.
It’s our first year here. Hopefully they (displays, not neighbors) will be gone by Thanksgiving, not Christmas.
karen marie
@Rose Judson: It’s the same here in the US. I don’t know when Thanksgiving fell off the calendar but it apparently has. I do not understand people who put up Christmas decorations on November 1st. The new manager for my apartment complex put up Halloween decorations in the office on October 1st, which was bad and stupid, but on November 1st he took them down and put up the fucking Christmas decorations. I can see trees up in a number of apartments when I’m out with my dog.
How are people not sick to fucking death of Christmas by December 25th? I’m already sick of it and it’s not even close to December 1st.
karen marie
@Nukular Biskits: When I was a kid, my parents didn’t even go out to buy a tree until Christmas eve. We’d all go to pick it out, then go home and decorate it. It would come down on Epiphany, if not sooner.
As an adult, I’d get a tree the week before Christmas. Taking it down was more variable in terms of when, mostly determined by laziness. I haven’t had a tree in 20 years. Too much trouble with the putting up and taking down – esp the taking down. The last several years of tree-having, I just put lights on it. Much nicer all around. And lights were cheap enough, I didn’t bother removing them, I’d just take the stand off the bottom of the trunk and toss the whole thing out onto the sidewalk for pickup.
Gvg
@Weftage: Sewing crafts take time so all of their projects get started well in advance, including all the other holidays. And Christmas gifts have to be wrapped and mailed weeks before, Christmas decorations have to be ready before hand. It makes sense for crafters. Not so much everyone else.
I suppose performers have to practice before hand.
hitchhiker
My world has contracted to the size of the lovely island village I’m lucky enough to live in. (My only indicators to how bad things are is that when I’m out and about with the doggo, I keep seeing grown women greeting one another with long hugs and teary meaningful looks. Actual “news” is still way too much for me.)
We went to a fantastic concert at the local venue last night — two old musical maestros with a collection of dozens of guitar-like instruments from around the world, some of them new technology and some of them replicas of things like Renaissance-era lutes and Chinese stringed instruments. Just watching the two of them make music for a couple of hours was thrilling — imagine the muscle memory to keep switching style, configuration, number of strings, shape, pitch, key, everything — and keep an audience of mostly geezers on the edges of our seats.
So, so wonderful.
https://www.wicaonline.org/events-calendar-view/cytharavi
sab
@karen marie: I have a large pewter vase from my mother and a bunch of silk and dried and other flowers that I put in it.
On the day after election day I took out the cheery fall flowers and leaves with tiny orange pumpkin, and replaced it with a more somber arrangement with duller fall leaves, cattails and some sorghum stalks. I used to leave the cheery fall one up through Thanksgiving.
My Advent arrangement is really dismal, but offset by the Advent wreath and candles. Then Christmas!
We still have the
strawwicker dragon basket I bought my mom from my allowance in 1965, displayed prominently and filled with candy. Still year of the dragon until Chinese New Year. I think we will pass on a snake display next year. I donated dad’s wooden cobra to the local thrift store and it was bought the next day. Also too I donated the wicker cornocopia. I should have kept it for Thanksgiving.ETA: Maybe I’ll sew and stuff a friendlier variety of snake. I like having the candy around. Indigo snake! In real life they are almost black but no reason a stuffed one can’t be denim.
JMG
@karen marie: Preach sister! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and it’s getting crushed between Halloween and Christmas.
NotMax
Costco hasn’t had their delicious Kirkland brand sliced seasoned roast beef in stock here since August. My go-to for sammiches.
So today cooked (low and slow) an eye of round roast. After sitting in the fridge overnight will slice that up, deli style.
Do have an electric meat slicer which handles that job very well. Bit of a PITA to take apart and clean afterward soI drag it out only rarely.
Frank Wilhoit
@Steve LaBonne: I hope it is not a breach of etiquette to suggest that you listen to my quartets on YouTube dot com slash at FrankWilhoit. They’re not easy, but the slow movement of the third ought to be quite manageable.
Phylllis
@sab: The worst offender has a cornucopia of inflatables. How difficult can it be to let the air out of the damn things and then wad them up until next year?
Dr. Regina Phalange
@JMG: I feel the same way. It is a (relatively) low stress holiday with my favorite foods. I love cooking and being cozy. NO shopping on that day.
karen marie
@JMG: Did you make construction-paper buckles for everyone’s shoes for Thanksgiving? That was my job on Thanksgiving morning when I was old enough to use scissors.
Jackie
@karen marie: Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and it makes me sad decorations go from Halloween straight to Christmas.
Also Halloween has become an adult holiday; I don’t see hordes of trick or treaters any more, but lots of adult Halloween parties – plus an abundance of horror movies – which aren’t my cuppa tea at all.
Steve LaBonne
@Frank Wilhoit: Not a breach at all! I would like to hear some of your music and I find quartets are often a good place to start with an unfamiliar composer, so I will check that out. Thanks.
Weftage
@Gvg:
Yes, I understand that (being a slow crafter myself). It’s just jarring to start seeing the ads.
Kayla Rudbek
@Weftage: well, you have to have the crafting projects done by December first in order to use them as decorations, so crafting supplies get a pass on “don’t sell it until after Thanksgiving”.
Kayla Rudbek
@sab: the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist…😁
Weftage
@prostratedragon:
In the light of the brigades of little tools braying “Your body, MY choice” and promising “rape squads,” what should have been a fine choreography left me feeling queasy. Damn if that didn’t look like a trumpist goon murdering the last decent man and forcing himself on a blatantly unwilling woman.
In summary, America is a land of contrasts, and every piece of art is going to hit differently now.
trollhattan
Does he have carte blanche to bang all the lady Great Yellows and have all the Great Yellow babies possible? Does he eschew coffee and other caffeinated beverages (other than the holy Pepsi), alcohol other than Coors for obvious reasons, vehicles smaller than a Chevy Suburban?
Is he oddly attracted to sheep?
He Mormon.
mali muso
My kiddo started asking to decorate the house for Xmas the day after Halloween. I’ve managed to hold her off from any of the big stuff by getting her a little stash of craft supplies to make her own “decorations” and letting her loose to tape up her little homemade pipecleaner candy canes and paper chains. It brings her joy and there is precious little of that in this world at the moment, so I can’t say no to it. She’s also jumped into learning how to knit with gusto and is currently working away on her second scarf, building up a stash of homemade presents for our close friends for Christmas gifting. Watching her is keeping me level this week.
trollhattan
@sab: A front pager at LGM I expect you can contact Cheryl there.
trollhattan
First fire in the livingroom wood stove since…March? Ahhh, warmth amidst the obvious absence of sweat-just-from-sitting weather, which lingered a looooong time this fall.
Need to order firewood, stat.
sab
We are having two Thanksgivings. Actual Thanksgiving is just a meal with husband and me, and stepdaughter (his adopted out of foster care daughter) and her child. Our only granddaughter. We love them both and it will be wonderful to have them alone with us for once.
Stepdaughter’s real mother is dead. Husband’s first wife jumped through hoops to adopt her then wanted to return her like every animal she ever adopted. Broke up their marriage. Stepdaughter was a difficult teenager (what girls aren’t) but is a wonderful mother and daughter now. She wants me to be her mother now but I can’t. I love her a lot but I remember she had an actual mother who loved her before MS took her. I have never been a mother. Her birth mother was a mother and I don’t want to insult her memory. Sounds stupid. Probably is because I do love this young woman
ETA Friday after is when the boys and thier SOs can come for the full turkey dinner. Easier this year because one parent has died and another voted for Trump so familial ties broken.
I mention that like it is normal. Politics broke up the family. Whatever.
NotMax
@Jackie
Curl up with comedy horror. For instance, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein or their lesser but still fun Hold That Ghost. Or The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Or Hitchcock playing it light, The Trouble with Harry. Or such silly suspense as Frankie Howerd in The Runaway Bus (a.k.a. Scream in the Night).
;)
@mali muso
What, no glitter?
;)
karen marie
@Jackie: I think, unless you live in the suburbs, Halloween has been an “adult” holiday for a long time. And I think a lot of places aren’t built for kids – lack of sidewalks or “slow” streets – the way they were when we were young.
Part of what’s wrecked Thanksgiving is “black Friday.” It sucked all the laid-back joy out of the day. In the 1980s, when I was in my thirties, my friends and I would make a five-day weekend of it. I’d make five pies and devilled eggs, everyone else would do the rest, and we’d bring it over to a friend who had a house in Manchester-by-the-Sea. It was so nice.
Melancholy Jaques
@Omnes Omnibus:
Or Frightened Rabbit.
prostratedragon
@Weftage: The thing about it that interested me was precisely that these issues were depicted, in what clearly does become a nightmsre for the woman, in the middle of what everyone thinks of as a bright, sunny, all-American entertainment. When people act as if these are new issues invented by kooky trend-setters, they are probably lying; they have always been visible.
Jackie
@NotMax: I don’t like horror at all. I take it to sleep with me and have nightmares. Don’t need/want nightmares.
Quinerly
@sab: I am friends with Cheryl. She’s in Santa Fe on the Eastside. She’s actually on FB, too. I think she will answer FB private messaging.
Let me know if I can do anything.
Quinerly
@Trivia Man:
Hi! I was reading from the bottom up. Just got to your comment after seeing raven’s comment. Where in NM is your son? I am outside of Santa Fe. I could never manage a kitty with my JoJo las Orejas (Australian Cattledog mix), but there is an organization here that helps the unhoused with their pets. Street Homeless Animal Project.
https://www.nmshap.org/
They do really good work. Strong presence on the streets, FB, social media. They have at least one street van. Take out food and coats/sweaters for pets.
“Sometimes Love Has No Address.”
ETA…I think Ali MacGraw is still involved with the organization. She is a strong presence in all the animal rescues here in Northern NM.