A week from today, I’m hoping we will wake up in our own house. Bill checked on our place over the weekend. Previously, he had to visit by boat, but this time, he drove as far as he could on the crappy dirt road until the water got too deep and walked the rest of the way home in waders.
The water level drop is accelerating, and the calculations I made in mid-October about how long we’d need a flood refuge seem to be bearing out, but it will be close. As of this weekend, there’s less than a foot of water downstairs, but since it’s a stilt house and the living quarters are upstairs, the salient issue is whether the road is passable. Not quite yet but maybe next weekend. We’ll just have to wait and see.
***
Meanwhile, life in a Eudora Welty story continues here in town. The neighborhood we’re in could best be described as a downscale vacation spot. There are lots of lakes connected by canals and bordered on one side by our flooded river, so water levels are up here too but in a less bothersome way. The houses are mostly small, wooden structures that look like they were built without regard to codes in the 1950s.
My family has been in this county for generations, so the oddball vibes are familiar. The swampy portion of the county where we normally live is a Southern Gothic tale too but with outlooks shaped by isolation, whereas here the quirky characters are more densely packed and interactive.
For example, there’s a stout middle-aged woman who lives one street over who comes out on her back porch in a housecoat and bellows commands and entreaties and criticisms of personal conduct at a horde of feral cats several times each day. It was startling at first, but no one who lives around here pays her any mind, and we hardly notice now either. Even the dogs quit barking about it.
There’s a man who lives on a screened porch down the street. He looks to be in his late 40s or early 50s and resembles a wiry, grizzled Mario Bro, complete with the newsboy cap, boots and elaborate mustache.
His porch is attached to his late mother’s house, but he can’t live inside because it’s a hoarder nightmare that has never been addressed in the years since the matriarch’s death because reasons. He hasn’t been allowed to drive for many years but flies around the neighborhood on a bicycle, always with a rod and reel (bungee-corded to the frame) that he uses to fish at a nearby lake.
There’s a community store that sells groceries, sandwiches and bait about a half a mile away. I was pulling out of the driveway to visit the store at opening time a few days ago because I was out of half-and-half and Bill wanted a grilled sandwich.
Mario rode his bike past before I pulled out of the driveway, and I wondered if I’d have an opportunity to pass him on the curvy road. The opportunity didn’t materialize because he was riding so fast he beat me to the store.
I went inside and ordered the sandwich while Mario futzed around in the parking lot. The proprietor told me he’d just fired up the grill, so it would take awhile. I took a seat at one of the tables and started reading a dog-eared angler magazine while I waited.
Mario came in, greeted the proprietor and started futzing around at the courtesy coffee station behind me. I regretted my seat choice because strangers futzing around behind me make me nervous. But soon enough he was out the door, paper coffee cup and fishing rod in one hand while he dragged a kayak that had been stashed behind the store into the lake and set off.
After the proprietor prepared Bill’s sandwich, he let me know that it came with a free cup of noodle salad and a “crokersodey,” which I could retrieve from the refrigerated display case along the wall. I had no idea what a “crokersodey” was, and I was too embarrassed to ask, but I take pretty much all free shit offered to me, so I was determined to identify the mystery item.
The proprietor had an accent I could not begin to identify. It did not seem to be a foreign accent, and usually, I can identify an American accent to within a 150 mile radius. (Just the other day while picking our mail up from the P.O., I asked the clerk if he was from the Buffalo or Rochester area, and he was delighted to respond that he was a Finger Lakes region native. That one was easy; he sounded just like my in-laws.)
Upon examining the store’s display case, I deduced that “crokersodey” was a Kroger store brand cola. I don’t think Kroger has stores around here, but they do deliver food — I frequently see their delivery trucks. Anyhoo, mystery solved, except I still don’t know where that guy is from. Maybe I’ll figure it out this week.
***
Later, Bill and I met friends at a fish camp juke joint that had a live band playing blues and classic rock. The outing was balm for my soul, mostly because I could look at the water from the pavilion and notice the comings and goings of the waterfowl, just as I do at home.
During a break between sets, I saw Mario approaching in his kayak, which was equipped with an elaborate whistle. He blew it before coming ashore, and it was as loud as a steamboat.
Mario beached his kayak on the riverbank, walked up to the fish camp cook shack and ordered a sandwich and a coke, then returned to the lake. Back at our rental around sunset, I saw him fly past on his bike toward his screened porch. Didn’t look like he had a catch.
***
So, another week, then, hopefully, back home. Last week was difficult for us all for obvious reasons. A national catastrophe looms, and I am acutely aware of it at all times, but with so much other shit going on, it’s background noise, like the cat-shouter lady. That’s probably a mercy.
Open thread!
On The Road – Albatrossity – California Dreaming – Day two in Pebble Beach
p.a.
Downscale Elegy: just waiting to be written.
TBone
Eudora is a perennial favorite!
bjacques
I would have pegged your story as more Stephen King before Cujo or Randall Flagg turns up.
Stay safe, and confusion to our enemies.
Binky
Thank you for this… I have been gone from Florida for so many years, but still remember the quirky, endearing, weirdo characters with fondness.
raven
I just finished “The Creek”
Mai Naem mobile ¹
This is the kind of writing is what I come to BJ for hahaha. So I don’t understand why did Mario blow the whistle? Is it to keep away the gators?
Baud
@raven:
Saw your fish on Bluesky.
TBone
@Mai Naem mobile ¹: I don’t think so but as always I could be wrong. I think maybe it’s more of an alarm to alert people if a gator attacks! I don’t think a “gator whistle” scares hungry gators away.
Wvng
@p.a.: or perhaps Swampland Elegy. Lovely writing, Betty. Long-ago I lived in Florida and you just brought much of the good part back. I’m on sensory overload.
Betty Cracker
@Mai Naem mobile ¹: I don’t know why. Someone told me kayakers are required to have a whistle or they can get a ticket, but surely not such an elaborate whistle is required?
I don’t know — I prefer boats with higher gunwales to keep the gators out. Mario probably just thinks it’s cool. He’s right; it is!
tobie
Good Morning, BC, Good Morning All. I never heard the term “fish camp” until I went to Florida. Does it just mean a simple outdoor joint for grilled or fried catch-of-the-day?
TBone
An excellent, timely read: Tim Snyder’s latest on fascism highlighted at Digby’s place:
https://digbysblog.net/2024/11/10/timothy-snyder-on-fascism
I believe in preparedness, obvs.
A tiny snippet that fits BC’s theme:
Betty Cracker
@tobie: It’s usually a place that has cabins or trailers where anglers can stay during fishing trips. Most sell bait and rent boats. Some have bars. Some will cook your catch. Sadly, there are fewer every year. I’ve always wanted to write a guide to the remaining fish camps. I’ve visited just about all between the Okeechobee to Panasoffkee.
Another Scott
Thanks for this. Living life is important while we recharge for the battles to come.
Hang in there and good luck heading home soon!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Rachel Bakes
Morning, all.
Betty, your observations of people or wildlife are one of the things that drew me to this blog 9 years ago. Husband kept reading them to me so I stopped listening to him and came to read them myself. Thank you the slice of life a la Betty Cracker’s eye.
tobie
@Betty Cracker: Aha! “Camp” for anglers makes sense. Thanks for the explanation. You should write that guide or post pictures in an “on the road” diary. I hope you can return to your home soon. Living out of a suitcase for weeks on end must be exhausting
ETA: Thanks also for the portrait of Mario, the transient in place. You have an eye for wacky wonders.
ssdd
This is a wonderful piece of writing and was a joy to stat the day with. Thank you, Betty.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Today is the 49th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. My grandfather and two uncles worked on the freighters, though none on the Fitzgerald. My brother sailed as his summer job in college.
FDRLincoln
Here’s the play.
On day one, Trump
A) orders the FDA to ban abortion drugs under the 19th century Comstock Act, which is still on the books.
B) Issues an executive order banning birthright citizenship. This is illegal and gets taken to court immediately but he doesn’t care, that’s not the point
C) Sends ICE on a small number of highly visible sweeps into immigrant neighborhoods with heavy publicity
D) Issues a bunch of other horrific executive orders, among others ordering the removal of the legal Haitian migrants in Ohio.
Massive nation wide protests break out. These are intended to be peaceful, but Proud Boys and other fascist militia types stir up trouble, vandalize things, etc. We know this will happen because that’s what happened during the George Floyd protests.
Trump then ivokes the Insurrection Act and deploys the military with orders to shoot protestors.
And then what?
Baud
@FDRLincoln:
Chris Murphy blames Democrats.
TBone
@FDRLincoln: the military splits in revolt. The sane ones will never attack U.S. citizens and then they turn on the MAGA traitors in their ranks, who have foolishly outed themselves and in so doing are wearing large targets on their backs. Fragalicious.
Reposting from yesterday because “And then what happened?”
https://www.robertleefulghum.com/and-then-what-happened-2024/
Antidotal!
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I remember hearing the Gordon Lightfoot song about the wreck as a child. I assumed it was about an event that happened in the 1800s or early 1900s and was surprised to learn as an adult that the sinking occurred in the 1970s!
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Uh oh. Is Senator Murphy trashing the party? I like him, but there’s going to be a lot of fragging. I’m trying to avoid the sturm und drang for now, successfully, I guess since I didn’t catch the reference.
kalakal
@FDRLincoln:
The New York Times leads with a story about the falling price of eggs
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
https://balloon-juice.com/2024/11/10/sunday-night-open-thread-85/#comment-9427015
rikyrah
Hope you get home soon, BC
Baud
@kalakal:
Probably more like
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
And after all these years, I still can’t stand Gordon Lightfoot’s song about it.
TBone
@Baud: 😆😭 is
fElonElno now the Editor?I mean Government Efficiency would demand that propaganda, right?
Bupalos
Waking up with Mario’s incongruous whistle toot feels like hope. I don’t know why, I guess because it’s a dose of humanity and life in the neutral and quirky sense. I don’t need to know why. Thanks for turning your incredible talent in this direction today BC.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Thanks! I think Murphy made some decent points in general, but I agree with YY_Sima Qian’s critique of why it’s incomplete.
WereBear
It’s really about “why I live at the P.O.” 💕
A favorite snapshot.
The South does have a safety valve in that someone like Mario is allowed to be who he is without question. Since he’s “from there” many have an inkling why that might be so.
Freewheeling maiden aunts and bachelor uncles all have their places.
Truman Capote wrote about it because that was the family who raised him in early childhood.
Gloria DryGarden
I followed a link on the other thread, about a boy chanting “your body my___,” to a girl at school who then clocked him one, and about and the guy, nick F___, who originated it, getting some repercussions.
What jumped out was a commenter suggesting all women carry a pair of scissors w them at all times, prominently displayed. Because, snip…
while I can’t actually do this,
It would be fun to wear a lapel pin that looks like scissors. Just as a hint, that we won’t take kindly to such talk.
TBone
@WereBear: Fruitcakes love. I know you’ll know.
For anyone who might not:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Memory
I am a freewheeling AunT. Now AunTfa.
Aziz, light!
On my shelf I have the first eight volumes of the complete collection of Walt Kelly’s Pogo comic strips. The publisher issues a new volume of artfully restored strips every two or three years, with 1965-66 due next year. Betty, do you know if the patois spoken by the characters in Pogo matches that of the denizens in your post? The erstwhile setting for Pogo is the Okefenokee Swamp. Kelly was a Connecticut Yankee in California, so I’ve always wondered whether his swampland lingo was an accurate rendering.
Peale
I know on a blog post about waiting for receding floodwaters its probably a little gosh…but it rained all night here in my neck of the New York City region. I’d like more, please. I don’t know how they deal with fires in Northern California. We probably had like 40 acres burn in the entire region so far and the air was already “smoky.” and noticeably more difficult to breathe. I have no idea how 100,000 burning acres would feel.
Ramalama
@Betty Cracker:
Damn, just keep writing anecdotes here then.
Or write something like “A Brief History of Florida’s Fish Camps.”
I had a terrrrrrible experience one time long ago in a part of Florida and shall not return. But I will indeed enjoy reading about it from afar if you keep this up, Betty C.
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: I like it! ✂️
Baud
@Betty Cracker: People love to give us advice and critiques instead of going out and successfully doing the work themselves.
I’m gonna let the young people figure it out.
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: I’m hoping you caught my reply to you on the Sunday Night Open Tread. It was #160.
Aziz, light!
Then Bernie Sanders praises Trump for addressing the concerns of the working class.
Another Scott
@Gloria DryGarden: I’m suddenly remembering my MIL flying from BOS to DCA for the last time and being held up at security because she had some giant seamstress scissors in her handbag. She had to surrender them and she was quite upset about it!
So, remember that you have them when you leave for the airport!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Gloria DryGarden
Now I want to read Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Love an eccentric wild independent woman.
on another note, I inherited my cell phone number from my mom, when she couldn’t use it anymore ( dementia). She was a registered republican. I get all kinds of odd invitations from really heinous candidates. (Jan 6, will be wild! Ted cruz!)
Yesterday Kari Lake urgently wanted money to help with Vote counting.
I thought Rubén Gallegos was completely leading in AZ,
BUT my power went out for 12 hours during our Friday night snow storm (20”), and I didn’t reset my internet box until late last night. So I don’t know what’s going on. Surely Ruben is still leading?
(misplaced accent care of autocorrect …)
Gin & Tonic
Two years ago today, the Ukrainian armed forces liberated the southern city of Kherson. Unfortunately my good friend T was killed in that operation.
Bupalos
@FDRLincoln: I think the beginning of this administration is likely to be pretty “quiet.” A lot of sub Rosa maneuvering to divide up the coming spoils. The themes he ran on will be used primarily to reorder and erase the ethical structures that interfere with corruption.
People have written Trump into the role of Hitler, and to me he just ain’t. He doesn’t care about anything but himself. There is no ideology beyond that. He’s a dumb version of early Putin. The corruption is going to be staggering. The cruelty spectacle is going to be ‘as needed.’
Chris Johnson
@TBone: Oh, I like this. It’s been a big victory for me, working out who I am. It’s a hell of a solid foundation and I understand how important it is to other people, the more I clear it up for myself.
Gloria DryGarden
@Gin & Tonic: I am so sorry.
Layer8Problem
@Peale: I watched a helicopter dumping water on the Palisades fire the other day. We have had at least two more in Van Cortlandt Park. This sort of thing is uncommon around here but I expect we will see more.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Yeah, that Gordon Lightfoot song is a literally a downer.
I scanned over to the local oldies station last week and heard Noel Harrison singing “Windmills of Your Mind.” I guess I grew up listening to Henry Mancini’s instrumental version and I had not heard Harrison’s vocal rendition before. And I gotta say, once was enough.
Baud
@Bupalos:
I don’t know what’s going to happen, but whatever bad thing does not happen, we need to tell everyone it’s because we stopped it.
Layer8Problem
@Gin & Tonic: So very sorry.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: My condolences.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: I’ll go look for it. I just got back on, after two days offline. Supposed to go to bed, sleep, actually.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: The wreck was a big deal in my part of the world.
Here’s a more amusing ship story. A ship foundered (though didn’t go down, I think) near Harbor Beach, Michigan, which is where my mother is from. She was working at the Detroit Free Press at the time, and the Freep sent reporters. Afterwards, one came to her and told her the hotel keeper gave him the wrong room key, but the reporter noticed right away and tried to give it back. The clerk said not to worry because all the keys fit all the rooms.
Lily
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Trivia Man
Lake Woebegone sequel just dripped!
Subscribe!
zhena gogolia
This is a masterpiece. John Kennedy Toole, eat your heart out!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Bupalos: CNN has a piece up saying Trump hasn’t signed an ethics agreement that the law requires before the current administration hands over classified info as part of the transition. Ironically, the ethics statement is a new requirement, introduced to congress by Ron Johnson and signed into law by Trump
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: No rush. It’s an article about a visit to Rome, Georgia that I was hoping you’d let your Georgia friend know about. I got a little snarky with them about Rome the other day and I want to make amends.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@lowtechcyclist: @Geminid: Yeah, I’d say none of us in the mood for that song right now
TBone
@Chris Johnson: 😊
Yours in service,
TBone 💙
Layer8Problem
@Geminid: ” . . . Noel Harrison singing “Windmills of Your Mind.”
The theme of the original Thomas Crown Affair. It’s on my phone in my Recollecting a Sixties Childhood’s Soundtrack playlist.
His father Rex had a low regard for his son’s singing and told him so. My partner can’t stand it either.
TBone
@Trivia Man: 😆
Issat a typo or a jab?
TBone
@Lily: 💜💜💜
TBone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: 😆😍
kalakal
@Geminid: I remember a weird conversation where I mentioned a Gordon Giltrap record to somebody who decided. that I’d meant Gordon Lightfoot.
They’re a bit different.
WereBear
@Geminid: Nothing tops my personal favorite, Richard Harris, talk-singing that song where they left the cake out in the rain.
I sing along and laugh at all the overwrought elements I think he’s also making fun of.
Dorothy A. Winsor
On a happier note, it’s the 55th anniversary of the debut episode of Sesame Street.
Gin & Tonic
Anniversary celebration (Twitter link)
TBone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: my mom sat me down in front of the TV she normally detested for that. Thanks for that memory. I’ll be 59 later this month.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TBone: That tells you exactly how old you were when your mom did that. What a nice memory
Fair Economist
I’ll bet you could get published in the Atlantic with these stories. As long as you bothsided or ducked the politics enough, of course.
But, seriously, you write an interesting slice of life story.
Trivia Man
@FDRLincoln: and then Shady vance invokes the 25th amendment.
And pleads for “time to study and correct” the outrageous overreach. And repeals one or two immediately. Then studies the rest to see how he can strengthen them.
Then calls for the proud boys to stand by and takes credit for DEFEATING ANTIFA because the violence stops,
TBone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: 💜
I miss her so, she taught remedial reading and practiced on me while attending University of Penna and waitressing. She taught me to read at 3 y.o. and then gave me every important book at every opportunity for the rest of her life. She taught so many K-6 kids to read who formerly couldn’t or wouldn’t. She’d use weekends to take me to the library where she could study while I read to my heart’s content. That’s why TV was frowned upon except for educational content.
I’m glad she doesn’t have to see this, what’s coming.
Also we both adored Mr. Rogers.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Trivia Man: One thing we could see immediately is Trump pardoning people because he can do it easily. I wonder what he’ll do about the Jan 6 rioters. If he pardons them, I hope to see footage of the riot all over the TV. I don’t expect it, mind you, but I hope
tobie
I realized Chris Murphy had changed about two years ago when he started routinely citing Anand Giridharadas. Populism of any stripe leaves me cold. I get that a party needs vision, not just a raft of policies. But the vision of a literal revolution (an overturning of the existing social order) in which all woes are swept away, and no one but the bad guys are hurt, strikes me as at best fantasy and at worst demagogery. Maybe that’s where we are politically and that’s the only way to combat Trump. If so, I’m glad I’m a dual national and can emigrate. That sucks. I care about the US but I’m feeling more and more like a political orphan.
Betty Cracker
Thanks to all who offered kind words about my ramblings!
@Aziz, light!: I’m not familiar enough with Pogo to have an answer, but I intend to remedy that on the advice of another commenter who wrote with an intriguing description of the collected works.
Trivia Man
@TBone: I tell people “I am so old I learned to read before Sesame Street started”.
i thrill to imagine how many precocious 2,3,4 year olds got a jump on learning that spurred them for life,
Trivia Man
@Dorothy A. Winsor: pardon easily… after the check clears
geg6
@lowtechcyclist:
Same. I despise that song.
Lovely writing, Betty. Very evocative. I don’t like Florida but you make it sound magical.
As for me, our new sewer line is in and functioning as of Saturday. But of course, nothing seems to ever go right for me. As soon as the sewer line was fixed, we discovered our well has run dry due to the massive drought conditions here. We are going to just tap into the township water line but because of the holiday, the work can’t be started until tomorrow. Thankfully, my sister collects rain water and has a dozen or so gallon jugs so we can fill the toilet tank with that to flush. Also bought a ton of spring water to use for drinking, washing the few dishes we’ve been using, and the animals. Been driving over to the sister’s place for showers. We tried to get a hotel room nearby, but the only one that allows pets is full. So we make do and hope that the work gets completed tomorrow. Ugh. I am not enjoying retirement so far.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid:
@Geminid: I would be so happy to tell mr Pollyanna about this article in the wapo. Were you able to provide a link to it? I’d like to read it too; I suspect my library will have a subscription.
Rome, by the way, is full of Democrats, and democratic candidate signs, but ms green has got a big gerrymandered zigzag district, full of rural areas. I’m glad your author felt welcomed by friendly people; that’s very heartwarming.
On the subject of feeling welcomed:
the Pollyanna lives up the hill, maybe 30 minutes northwest of Rome. Were you dissing Rome to him? His neighbors are a mix. One guy is a non voting fellow who’s become quite a good ally,and the first night there, that neighbor said he was welcome, because although from Colorado, he was at least not black.!! Yikes.
Pollyanna is good at staying calm, and stunningly neutral. His nephews, however, are black, and his daughter is trans. He says they are his shock troops. He did tell me to say so. did he already make that comment on another thread?
His other neighbor called the police on him his first night there (he was looking for the North Star, and she took it personally that he was gazing around) and she wrote the most horrific, heinous hostile Facebook post warning people about him. Her commenters recommended that her dad (another neighbor ) and cousins should congregate on her porch with guns, as a warning to him. Decidedly not friendly.
I told him to tell her, in the Midwest, you bring a pie to your new neighbor. In Illinois in 1965, we got pie when we moved in.
he will love your article. I’ll tell him. But it would help to have a link, or know what day it was published. It would be cool to direct him to the shops where your guy had such a kind interaction.
I think he does feel welcome at his little anti-gay trumpist Baptist neighborhood church.
Quinerly
@raven:
Good Morning! Not really looking for a discussion, but since you popped up in this thread was wondering if you have been listening to MJ this AM? Not looking for an opinion about Maureen Dowd, etc al nor a pile on of others who don’t listen to MJ. Just a yes or no kinda thing if you care to.
Anyway, I’m listening; and I’m back to crying.
Did have a pretty good day yesterday. Hung with a friend originally from Alabama. Came to Santa Fe as a belly dancer 7 years ago at age 52, now a jewelry designer. Lapidary. We had fun together yesterday designing some pendants for her Christmas sale and then had a huge late lunch of Northern New Mexican food as a belated birthday celebration for her. Her boyfriend is 15 years younger, and his parents are old hippies in their late early 70’s. Came out here in the mid 1970’s. Strong Dems. The boyfriend’s father has gone around the bend since Tues. Stockpiling guns and ammo and is convinced Trump is coming for Democrats based on voter registration.
Hope you are doing well. I’m abysmal at discussing health even with people face to face. Just know I am thinking about you.
TBone
Senator Bob Casey still refusing to concede until the votes are FULLY counted! ✊
prostratedragon
Passion is not always enough.
The demonstrations of the heyday of the Civil Rights Movement were organized by CORE,SCLC, SNCC, et al. with training for the sitters-in and freedom riders, and designated marshals where the demonstrations were larger and had more open participation. As a result there were few cases of infiltration by agitators, and police agression against the demonstrators was hard or impossible to characterize as anything other than what it was.
The Center for Nonviolence has a toolkit site that looks useful in this regard. Some key entries:
“Nonviolent Demonstration Safety & Training”
“Responding to Violence From Within Our Ranks”
Mr. Person is associated with the Freedom Riders Training Institute which should be opening next year in Anniston, at Jacksonville State.
lowtechcyclist
@Trivia Man:
I was 15 when Sesame Street first aired, so it was just an interesting news item to me. Missed Mister Rogers as well.
My older sister (at that point, my only sister) started first grade when I was 4. I learned to read by watching over her shoulder as she was learning to read – she’d put her finger under each word as she read it aloud, and I just kind of inhaled it. So I was reading and writing before I was 5. Been a bookworm ever since.
TBone
Hubby has taken to watching Little House on the Prairie reruns instead of news. I don’t know how I feel about this yet. On the one hand, tonic masculinity. On the other, white Xtian-infused patriarchy. Tossup?
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: 💙
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: I remember. :-(
Peace and comfort to you and all the good people of Ukraine.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Gloria DryGarden
More notes on welcome
I’m told the Pollyanna from hell would be glad to welcome guests for primitive camping and conversation on his land NW of Rome, GA. He’s about an hour or so south of Chattanooga TN.
Best way to reach him is to request my email. He’s not in town at the internet very much.
TBone
@Trivia Man: 🩷
Gloria DryGarden
@Another Scott: seconded, to Gin and Tonic
WereBear
@TBone: Manufactured fantasy in either case.
Potayto potato…
Another Scott
@Dorothy A. Winsor: An early example of there’s no such thing as privacy??
Ahead of their time!!
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Trivia Man:
Um, NO.
Have you READ the 25th Amendment?
Short version:
1) It’s easy to invoke if the President is quite literally incapacitated.
But (2) if the President can so much as sign his name in the appropriate place when someone puts a document in front of him saying he’s not really incapacitated, the VP would need 2/3 majorities in each house of Congress, as well as a majority of the Cabinet, to remain as acting President.
No matter how fast TFG is going downhill, it’s likely that he’ll be capable of signing his name to something for a few more years. So the only things Vance would accomplish in the meantime by trying to invoke the 25th would be to make himself look really stupid, and have all the MAGAts screaming for his head for having betrayed their orange god.
WereBear
@Gin & Tonic: My condolences.
I can see how current events have made it even worse.
TBone
@WereBear: He frequently chooses (IMO) better fare than that white bread and fluffer nutter, so I’m giving this a large pass. To love a man that’ll watch Little House voluntarily and also let me have free rein with my TCM addiction without complaint is the important focus, thank you for that!
The one time I put my foot down was Ancient Aliens during the Qanon-ascendant age. I mocked him mercilessly and he insisted he was laughing too!
Gloria DryGarden
Has anyone heard again from Yarrow? Has she been on at all? I’m referencing her comment and conversation w a few jackals sometime last Wednesday or Thursday.
also:
i saw Subaru Diane requested to see my poem that Dorothy winsor arranged on the page. Did that get found? I can repost it, i kept a copy in my notepad app.
someone wrote of saving a folder of balloon juice comments. How would I do that? Some things i want to refer back to, but i sure don’t want to scroll, hunting. Can anyone suggest how to do that?
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: you just reminded me:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/what-the-ashcroft-hospital-showdown-on-nsa-spying-was-all-about/
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist:
Autopen, also too.
:-/
There’s no One Weird Trick for them, either. Every path in every real, complex system has friction points. Friction points that good people can use to slow bad things down.
Hang in there, everyone.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Gloria DryGarden
@Betty Cracker: when you write your fish camp guide, you could so easily and joyfully intersperse it with these nature /place/ character vignettes. The delight you would bring to your readers…
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: If J.D. Vance wants to become President through the 25th Amendment process, he’ll have Susie Wiles standing in his way. I expect Wiles will forestall such an effort by ensuring all Cabinet members are loyal, with no ties to Oeter Thiel or Thiel allies, and no independent power base of their own.
Vance’s better strategy is to be a loyal subordinate. If Trump dies in office, no one can keep Vance from advancing to President. But if Trump finishes his term, Vance’s only chances of winning the 2028 nomination depend on him staying on Trump’s good side.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I wonder if you are familiar with Don Marquis’ Archy and Mehitable poems. Marquis (1878-1937) published three volumes of them in the 1930s. The supposed authors are Archy, a cockroach and Mehitable, an alley cat. The books include illustrations by George Herman, the creator of Krazy Kat.
A good Don Marquis quote:
Aziz, light!
@Geminid: Marquis was a newspaper columnist. The books of his collected output came later. All of which is still highly enjoyable.
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: The article is by Silvio Peçanha and was published October 24. The title is: “I’m a brown immigrant. I visited Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Georgia district. Ready?”
I’m not good at linking because of my innattention to detail. But I will try:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2024/margorie-taylor-greene-rome-rural-america/
Well, looks like I drilled another dry hole. The article isn’t hard to find though.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: love it, this quote. Loved Archie..
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Yeltsin stands on a tank.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: love it, this quote. Loved Archie..
@Gloria DryGarden: fuck me, it’s an anti gay trumpist METHODIST. Church. Sorry to any Baptists here.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: he’s on now, I just called him. Sorry for my illiterate reading, you did give me date and title.
apparently when I stay up all night, I’m less coherent in my processing.
Trivia Man
@lowtechcyclist: I don’t remember ever not reading, it predates my earliest memories. Last year I finally learned the story. I was 3, brother was 5 and a good reader. He had a friend with difficulty learning so brother set up school to teach him. I was around and he liked doubling the size of his class so i was invited.
Side note: sister was 7 and tried to sabotage it. She liked reading to me and was afraid that when I learned how she would lose that job.
Another Scott
@Geminid: Here’s an archive.is version of the WaPo link that I found:
https://archive.is/AJ7Nr
(To use Archive.is , just go to Archive.is and paste in the URL that you want to read. It will search for versions, versions that aren’t paywalled.)
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
Trivia Man
@lowtechcyclist: I think he goes voluntarily. He hates work but loves the grift and the attention. A guarantee of $$$ and the status of wise statesman and full pardon for all past and future crimes… that is his dream job.
the pollyanna from hell
@Gloria DryGarden: re the Famous Rapester:
rapester n. 1. One who approaches rape in the spirit of a gangster.
2. Adjudicated sexual predator with criminal assault.
3. Apprentice rapist anxious to get the big R up on the rap sheet.
Sandia Blanca
@WereBear: But have you ever enjoyed the vocal stylings of Richard Harris as he performed that song on Mel’s Rockpile? https://youtu.be/I8JlQNIvIfI?si=_iy1Ga7ZJjBfa9Z7
One of SCTV’s finest moments, IMO. Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas really digging into their characters.
Spanish Moss
Thanks for the glimpse of small town life in a corner of central Florida. Makes me feel like I am there, without the humidity. Perfect!
SamInWa
Thank you for this story. It was what I needed this morning. 😊
Gloria DryGarden
@the pollyanna from hell: as often happens, just slightly too terse. Charge your phone, because there will be a phone call.
Gloria DryGarden
@the pollyanna from hell: you know that old story with the lady who had to wear a big scarlet A on her dress? ( and why didn’t guy in the story have to do the same?)
Can’t we make him wear a big R on his outfit?
Eunicecycle
I know this is a dead thread, but just had to say this post is the best thing I’ve read in days. It put a smile on my face. I already love the lady who yells at the cats! And Mario of course! Thanks, Betty!
dnfree
@Aziz, light!: Me too! Wow, it has been a long process and labor of love, especially after Walt Kelly’s daughter died. I keep wondering if they will finish.
I still have a collection of six plastic Pogo characters that came free with packages of soap back in 1968. They have a place of pride on my bookshelf.
dnfree
@Betty Cracker: I think Pogo’s language was Walt Kelly’s wordplay, with a basis of “southern” but well beyond it.
Fot instance, there was a strip where the resident “intellectual “, Howland Owl, has come across a nuclear physics book and is evaluating it. He looks at it and says critically “Not so new.” Flips a few pages and says “Not very clear.” Dunks it in a bucket of water and holds it up to his ear and declares “Not so fizzical. Nary a fizz.” (This is from my memory, so exact wording not guaranteed.)
There were occasional characters like three bats (definitely batty) named Bewitched, Bothered, and Bemildred, and there were political strips with characters representing Khrushchev and McCarthy. And can’t forget Deacon Muskrat, whose words were depicted in some kind of Gothic font.