Yesterday didn’t start off well at all.
I’ve developed the habit of scanning the flooded part of the yard from the porch for water moccasins and alligators small enough to have filtered through the fence before letting the dogs out in the morning. As I was peering through the porch screen at first light, I was startled to see a snake inside the screen, lying on a crossbar about a foot from my chin.
I yelped and stumbled back, hastily exiting the porch and slamming the sliding glass door shut behind me. It wasn’t a big snake, maybe a foot and a half long and skinny. I took a picture of it through the glass and sent it to Bill so he could identify it. He assured me it was a harmless ribbon snake, a “good guy,” according to Bill, which he promised to repatriate to the wild when he got home from work.
***
I couldn’t stay home and monitor the snake through the glass because I had a morning hair appointment. I was severely dreading it. Chemo didn’t make all of my hair fall out, but I lost a lot through excessive shedding, and the new growth coming in combined with the remaining longish strands made my head look like a big stupid dandelion. The only recourse was to cut it all to one length — short.
I hadn’t had a really short haircut since second grade. It had to be done, and the stylist did a good job, especially considering the limited material, but I fucking hate it. I feel indignant about it, like a shaved cat.
For hours, I complained to any friend or family member who would listen. They kindly assured me I have the bone structure to pull off the evil Cersei Lannister wine mom look, which cheered me up a little.
Ah well. It will grow back. Meanwhile, there will be plenty of opportunities to take grim satisfaction from watching shit blow up over the next four years.
***
Anyhoo, after the shearing, when I was coming home on our horrible washed-out dirt road that even the USPS is still avoiding, something got caught on my right front tire. It made a ka-chukka ka-chukka ka-chukka sound all the way to the damn gate. When I parked and examined the wheel well, I saw a piece of metal protruding from the tire, which was hissing as it deflated. FUCK!
Back upstairs, I noticed that the snake had not moved at all since I first spotted it hours earlier. I concluded it was having an even worse day than I was since it was probably dead. Fuck it, I thought — I’m not going to let a deceased snake keep me off my porch.
So I went out and settled in my comfy chair to observe the waterfowl. The snake, which was very much alive, chose that moment to revive and slither along the crossbar, causing me to scurry back inside the house. “Harmless snake” my ass — it caused me to bash my knee painfully on the door frame during my panicky retreat.
To pass the time, I experimented with hairdos using gel, creating a faux hawk and a flattop. I still fucking hate it, but I have to admit my current style has more entertainment value than my customary bob.
Bill finally came home and gently escorted the snake outside. Then he dealt with the tire and told me my hair looks cool, so I should stop worrying about it so much. Unlike the snake, Bill is definitely a keeper.
Open thread!
On The Road – lashonharangue – Ngorongoro Crater 1 of 2
Jeffro
No such thing as a ‘harmless snake’, BC ;)
(but you’re right, Bill sounds like a keeper!)
Have a great day, everyone!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
This a lot of the hallmarks of a classic John Cole story.
Baud
Now I want to marry Bill.
NotMax
♫ Tie a snakey ribbon
’round the old oak tree
;)
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: Get in line behind me.
NotMax
@Baud
Obligatory?
:)
Suzanne
Betty, I in no way went through chemo hair, but I did have crazy hair loss after Spawn the Youngest was born and the pandemic. It grew back, but I had this very visible line between the thick hair and the thinner part. So I looked for regrowth solutions that are in my budgetary wheelhouse. May I recommend Mielle Rosemary Mint hair oil? Smells good, too. My hairstylist commented about a year ago that my hair is visibly thicker. I also take no-iron prenatal vitamins.
I hope that our digital overlords are tracking my periods via my digital app, are also seeing that I have been taking prenatal vitamins for years, and are desperately confused.
Why, if I weren’t a nice person, I might try to fuck with this data a little more…..
Anne Laurie
For me, at least, one of the joys of a long-term marriage is realizing how lucky I got when I chose my beloved partner…
(And knowing that he feels the same way about me!)
TBone
I love happy endings! May your hair grow as quickly as your open heart love for your Magnificent Other and your swamp ❤️
TBone
@Anne Laurie: 💙
NotMax
@TBone
That there’s B-J After Dark material if ever I’ve read any.
:)
TBone
@NotMax: reminded me of old friends Bill and Sally – both very Irish. Our ginger haired gal Sal used to belt this out and make rather rotund Bill’s face turn beet red. 😆 They never married.
Rachel Bakes
Ok, I’ll stop bitching about my bad day yesterday.
TBone
@NotMax: not that way! It’s ‘before enough coffee’ time. Too many past mornings:
“Stop poking me with that thing, for God’s sake, I need a toothbrush first!”
Rusty
All snakes should be properly referred to as danger noodles. My current car didn’t even come with spare tire, so your experience requires a few truck. Sigh. May you have used up all your bad luck for the week so the remaining part goes better.
SomeRandomGuy
I’ve always found that it’s the little indignities of illness that sometimes catch us unexpectedly, because we knew about ’em, we knew they wouldn’t kill us, we prepared ourselves, and then, *bam*, it turns out we’re more human than we’d like to be, and even stupid stuff, like hair, becomes a big deal. And it might feel ridiculous – it does to me.
I’ll probably have to cut my hair short, because I’m too exhausted to keep long hair properly groomed, given the amount of scalp-sweat I generate, and no one sees me anyway, but… suddenly, when I might not have any choice, *bam*, it mattered.
TBone
@Rusty: danger noodles 😆❤️
The Audacity of Krope
Actual real life NYT headline today:
Get the entire fuck out of here.
MagdaInBlack
@The Audacity of Krope: JFC
Princess
@The Audacity of Krope: NYT is completely useless. Not meeting the current moment one little bit.
The Audacity of Krope
@MagdaInBlack: @Princess: Decided to get a Lyft to work this morning. Driver has NPR on basically talking about the same thing.
The NPR story notes, encouragingly, that unlike Trump’s last cabinet, this cabinet will have a lot of experience communicating directly with the American people.
🤢🤮🤮🤮
TBone
@The Audacity of Krope: check out Elno and Vivek communicating directly to The People:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-20-2024
The Fuck the Fucking Wall Street Journal.
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
Geminid
This morning’s Politico Playbook has more reporting on the Gaetz nomination and efforts to make the Ethics Committee report public. Democratic Reps. Steve Cohen (TN) and Sean Casten filed “priviledged” motions to bring the matter to the House floor for a vote by all members. Two Republican members, Derek van Orden (WI?) and Don Bacon (NE) say they favor releasing the report.
If they actually vote that way the motion would need only two other Republican votes to pass. A lot of Gaetz’s former Republican colleagues hate his guts so the resolution could pass if Speaker Johnson cannot keep it off the floor.
The Playbook entry also had more information about the rape allegation against Pentagon nominee Peter Hedgeseth, including a link to a 22 page police report. The woman believed that Hedgeseth drugged her before he raped her.
David_C
Yeah – certainly watching the next few months with intense interest. Every so often the west side of Buffalo city kid in me emerges and prepares for battle.
Glad the ended on a hopeful note.
TBone
@Geminid: someone here yesterday said that anyone on the Ethics Committee could read the report out loud to get it into the Congressional Record. I don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds better than wrangling.
geg6
I fucking hate snakes. I was traumatized by one as a small child (a copperhead, which used to be abundant in our neighborhood due to it previously being an orchard).
When my youngest sister had her “red devil” chemo, her hair came out like yours did. Kinda like a dandelion gone to seed. She also had it cut very short, a first for her, too. She was so upset because she always got compliments on her hair, which was usually in a kind of long bob to show off how white and shiny it was (she went pure white in her mid20s, just like our maternal grandmother). She’d never had it short. She also never knew how convenient short hair is. It’s almost three years later and she’s still wearing it short.
lowtechcyclist
@MagdaInBlack:
i’m imagining Betty singing along with this old Marvelettes song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0IHLsoN-Q0
J.
You are definitely NOT having a good year. At least you haven’t lost your sense of humor! And Bill sounds like an absolute keeper. Have you thought of moving out of the swamp that is your backyard and Florida?
Geminid
@TBone: That would be a last resort, and it might not work. While I’m no parliamentarian, it seems to me a member could be ruled out of order if they tried that. And if they had the report to read, they could just cut to the chase and hand copies over to Senators.
I see no drawback to trying to make this report public through a vote by the House. This is not some time-critical emergency, since the Senate won’t vote on the nomination for weeks. And I think that one way or another, Senators will find out before too long exactly what was in the report.
TBone
@TBone: don’t EVER fly on Delta!
Leto
@TBone:
Bold is mine. You know us vets, just continual fucking moochers. Asking for healthcare after being continually exposed to some of the worst shit on the planet. Ingrates.
i mean, 10 years ago they finally got our pension, might as well get our healthcare too.
Baud
@Leto:
This is one of those many areas where protection of the innocents tempers my desire to cheer on the Republican agenda.
Rose Judson
Had The Child’s danger noodle (Cornflake the Corn Snake) out of his enclosure for a bit today while I cleaned out his water dish. He curled himself up in the kangaroo pocket of the hoodie I was wearing and had a nice nap. At least I think he did; he doesn’t have any eyelids, so it’s hard to tell what’s going on in his little sunflower seed of a brain.
TBone
@Leto: the entire WSJ article is them trying to create their own reality wherein they have a “mandate” because this was a “landslide” election.
It is why I fiercely continue to point out that Hillary beat Donold in the popular vote again this year.
And also why I include all non-Donold voters in my “big tent majority” counter-reality.
I’m sorry is all I can say to vets now.
evodevo
Cersei! Good choice. I’ve had short hair for years, and it’s SO much easier to care for, especially now that I’m running toward 80 at an alarming rate…
As for the snake, my degree is in zoology and I’ve been a snake person since I was 10, so they don’t bother me at all. Now if it had been a close encounter with a coral or a rattler/moccasin, THAT would have had me breathing harder LOL. I imagine the recent spate of high water drives all snakes toward high ground, so watch out. You lucked out that it was just a ribbon snake ..
TBone
@Rose Judson: 😆❤️
Albatrossity
Speaking up for the snake, you probably scared it as much as it scared you. I know that this is a minority opinion, but snakes are overly maligned IMHO.
And yes, Bill sounds like a keeper! It is indeed wonderful when you realize that your life partner is grand, and good, and that you were incredibly fortunate to find him/her!
Leto
@Baud: for me it’s one of inevitability. Conservatives have been relentless on this for decades. The amount of defined benefits they cut, along with little things like MWR (Morale Welfare and Recreation), Base Exchange, and Commissary programs, not to mention base housing… it’s part of why I’m trying to use my GI Bill benefits now to get my degree before that’s stripped away too. It’s already been reduced in benefits, so do it now.
NotMax
@evodevo
So old can remember when school age girls hep to the latest trends would iron their tresses.
raven
Black rat snakes are extremely beneficial since they eat large amounts of rats, mice, and other pest animals.
Baud
@raven:
Doesn’t sound beneficial to the rodents.
TBone
Snake stories, I have many. One time I was driving my robins egg blue scooter on the dirt roads that go all through Bald Eagle State Forest with my trusty 😆 BF holding on for dear life behind me. We ran over something very long that I thought was a gulley or something. STOP! he shouts. It was the biggest rattler we’d ever seen and OF COURSE his inner Steve Irwin took over. He got a long stick and tried to pick up and fling the huge rattler from the road into the forest to “save” it. I almost wore that fucking snake around my neck because his flinging abilities backfired!
ema
Not medical advice but you might like to ask your MD for a trial of Finasteride 2.5 mg qd (comes in 5 mg pills and you take half/day). It takes a bit of time to work but, once it does, you will see real new growth.
Soprano2
@The Audacity of Krope: Well, in this case they’re telling the truth. He’s doing it like he’s casting a reality show, and it’s probably going to be just as functional.
Soprano2
@The Audacity of Krope: This is why I had to quit listening to them. It’s important to be able to communicate well (see Mayor Pete, for example), but that’s not the main requirement for these jobs! They should mention that none of them are remotely qualified to run the departments they’ve been nominated for.
Ben Cisco
@Leto:
It’s a hobby horse for them – go after something that works (my experience has been pretty good overall) to hoover up the ‘savings.’
I thoroughly actively dislike these people.
TBone
@Ben Cisco: read the rest of Heather Cox Richardson’s letter (#22) and see if that doesn’t reinforce your active dislike.
Goddamn them.
JoyceH
I’m on a bus traveling between Assisi and Rome. I did a lot of working out in preparation for this trip, and know what? It wasn’t enough!
Geminid
The Associated Press has called two more House races. Nick Begich was declared winner over Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola. This is a real loss for the Democratic caucus, I think.
Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur deservedly won her northwest Ohio district.
That brought the House tally to 219R, 213D with three undecided races. Those are the southeastern Iowa 1st CD, where Rpublican Rep. Marriannette .Miller-Meeks leads her Democratic opponent by ~800 out of ~412,000 votes cast; the southern California 45th CD where Democrat Derek Tran leads Rep. Michelle Steel by over 400 votes with 97% counted: and the Central Valley 13th CD where Republican John Duarte still clings to a narrow lead.
JMG
It is very hard not to see the future Trump administration as an act of revenge, an effort to destroy the United States because voters rejected him in 2020.
TBone
@NotMax: glad that I’m too young for that bullshit, I’ve never bothered to iron anything in my life! I did steam my new shower curtains, once.
Wrinkly items of import were tossed into the clothes dryer with a wet towel to steam.
TBone
@JMG: because that’s exactly what it is and Pooty is in charge.
Geminid
@raven: Black Snakes also keep the Copperheads down.
lowtechcyclist
@Soprano2:
Don’t worry, I’m sure each of them will be assigned aides who helped write the relevant chapters of Project 2025.
NotMax
@Geminid
Does that 219 number represent after the Gaetz resignation?
TBone
When we first purchased our cabin in 1995, the grass was waist high. Every snake in the vicinity used that meadow as Lovers Lane, writhing together in one big orgy. We drew straws to see who had to mow first. 👢
Geminid
@NotMax: That number is for the next Congress.
Dorothy A. Winsor
It’s such a relief when someone like Bill shows up and makes things better.
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax:
That raises the question, what did he resign from? From his seat in this Congress, or the next (ETA: which I assume he got re-elected to), or both?
Fair Economist
I had a snake phobia as a kid. One time in high school another student brought a pet snake to school and when I saw it move and realized it was real I teleported to the other end of the hallway. Well, I assume I didn’t *actually* teleport but I saw that snake move and the next thing I remember I was at the other end of the hall.
I’ll bet Bill is right and you look great with short hair!
NotMax
@TBone
Imitating the follicular look of Mary from Peter, Paul & Mary was a thing.
Phylllis
I’ve kept my hair very short for years now. I found a clay pomade is great for styling & I like this one.
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
His letter of resignation was from the current Congress and included wording of his “intention” to resign from the next.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: I had the same question, but I think it’s easy to resolve with some more thought.
He’s a current member of Congress. He resigned from that seat.
He (and nobody else) has been sworn in to the next Congress, so he can’t resign from that. But presumably he will not take the oath for the next Congress.
I don’t know if he notified Florida officials or needs to do that regarding the next Congress.
I don’t know if he could change his mind and try to get back into Congress if his AG nomination blows up.
It would be kinda funny if he somehow got back in to Congress but so pissed off all his colleagues that he was expelled.
It also would be kinda funny if DJT nominates enough GQPers from Congress that control flips to the Democrats (even if only until the special elections to fill the seats).
The future isn’t written yet. Hang in there, everyone.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
@J.: I’m staying. Where else would the gators dance and sing for me? (Maybe Louisiana?)
@Geminid: Sorry to hear Peltola lost, but I suspect we haven’t heard the last of her.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: So far as I know, Gaetz has not resigned his seat in the upcoming Congress. But if Gsetz shows up he’d better have good dental insurance, because there are probably half a dozen Republicans who’d love to punch him out.
Suzanne
@TBone:
This was Mr. Suzanne’s strategy, as well. I taught him how to iron properly. In the course of doing so, I ironed his outfit for him. Exactly once.
I’m actually pretty good at housewifey things.
NotMax
An iota of schadenfreude.
Vance did not serve in Congress long enough to be vested in the pension plan.
;)
Betsy
That’s a great story. I felt your chagrin at being given the Steve treatment, the pain of the door, the yipE! of the snake (round 1 and round 2), and the dismay at the tire. Bodes well to be legendary, along the lines of Cole incidents.
Seriously, I hope the week averages out soon!
Soprano2
@Suzanne: I save old dryer sheets for that. I wet a couple of them and throw them in the dryer with something, and that usually gets most of the wrinkles out. Those used sheets are also good for keeping the dust off the display screen in my car. I dust them with a used one about once a week, and it keeps most of the dust away.
Kay
@Geminid:
There’s an interesting battle on the Right re: Kaptur’s race. Republican orgs donated to the libertarian in the race using dark money pacs. The Libertarian had to renounce this practice because there was real anger among libertarian true believers (they have firmly split from the GOP in Ohio).
Ohio is such a red state now Libertarians can safely be libertarian.
NotMax
@Kay
All three of them?
//
Chief Oshkosh
@TBone: That CEO has been a real shitbird for a long time. He’s pissed because Sec. Pete was making Delta and all the other airlines treat their customers like…HUMANS.
Sadly, Delta is arguably the best of the domestic carriers.
Kristine
Grew up in Florida. Fifty years later, still adjusting to the fact that there are no venomous snakes in this part of Illinois.
I can still remember grade school age me looking down the hallway into my bedroom and seeing something long and black slither along the wall. I told my dad—he went to check, then told me to stay where I was. Then he herded the snake ahead of him and out of the house—we had terrazzo floors and it had trouble getting traction.
Yup, it was a water moccasin. By the time my dad went to roust it, it had gone under my bed. I still think about what might’ve happened if I hadn’t seen it.
Geminid
@Kay: What was Rep. Kaptur’s Republican opponent like? That guy they ran last time was a knuckledragging clunker.
Ed. I think the Libertarian running in OH09 got around 4% of the vote. That was despite sizeable dropoff in their nationwide Presidential vote compared to 2020.
frosty
This is what I call a respite thread.
No respite for you though, BC!! Snakes on the porch, yikes!
Kristine
@Chief Oshkosh: the joy of flying was one reason I drove to Niagara Falls for the World Fantasy Convention.
In other news, two inches of snow expected today in NE Illinois. Two days ago, the temp hit 60. Fall in the Midwest—such a special time.
Kay
@Geminid:
Far Right but more in the mold of a normal OH Republican. Lots and lots of male Christian control measure positions – abortion, anti public schools, anti trans, etc.
Its never a bad bet in OH to pander to the religious Right.
People worked hard for Kaptur (including me). I think her ground operation put her over the top. Ground doesn’t matter unless it’s close then it matters a lot.
Kay
@NotMax:
Agree, but that’s what’s interesting. I haven’t heard a peep out of libertarians for a decade now. I was like “hello! They’re still around?”
Their candidate is a liar though. He knew he was collecting money from a GOP pac. It must have been a huge cash dump among his other small donations.
It backfired for the GOP though. The libertarian took 15k votes mostly from the Republican.
Marcy Kaptur is not just good but also lucky :)
WereBear
During Lockdown on a sweltering day in an attic apartment I chopped a lot of my hair off. (Should have just soaked it.) Wore hats. When I got to my stylist she freaked and all she could do was a punk cut.
Maintenance was a darn easy and Mr WayofCats sympathetic. But soon, the stage where it whispered on the pillow as I breathed began…
I can do a 1924 Girlish Bob1924 Girlish Bob to myself, now. A century ago… And we’re here.
TBone
@NotMax: I have naturally straight hair, unlike the rest of me! Then, in the 80s, perms became the thing to do. Poodles look much better than I did in a perm 😆
Some days I wake up with wavy hair, and then I know what the weather thinks of me.
Geminid
@Kay: And candidate quality matters a lot when it comes to mobilizing the ground game, I think. I cannot think of a better Democratic Representative than Marcy Kaptur. There are plenty who are better known, and there are some I rate as highly, but I can’t think of any who are better.
TBone
@Suzanne: did he voluntarily iron after you taught that old dog a new trick? One and done was smart!
I remember my grandma AND then later my mom with an ironing board in the kitchen with a big spray can of starch. I can still smell that activity.
I never picked up the habit!
TBone
@Chief Oshkosh: well if that’s the best on offer, I will take the train!
Jeffg166
I don’t know how old you are but short hair tends make people look younger. Plus there’s a lot less screwing around with it after washing it.
I saw my urologist yesterday for a follow up to the third bladder cancer operation. Turned out the red spot in my bladder was chemo residue from August.
I was told the cancer was gone. There will be a once a week for three weeks chemo maintenance treatment to help insure it doesn’t come back within the year starting in January.
I will get scoped every three months for the next year to see what it is doing.
Now I can go back to having only pulmonary fibrosis which will do me in eventually unless the bladder cancer returns and not be treatable.
Getting old sucks.
Getting old in the felon’s America sucks bigly.
The upside is I now have more energy. The IPF still takes its toll but the combination of IPF and bladder cancer was really doing a number on me.
A month ago I told my husband’s cousin I couldn’t do Thanksgiving this year. Now I can. At least I know I will like it.
TBone
@NotMax: 💙😆
twbrandt
Of all the clips of Cersei Lannister, you had to pick that one.
I love it.
CaseyL
@JMG: It is precisely that. And the mooks who voted for him are also after revenge, for their lives not working out as they “should have.”
Letting my freak flag fly for a moment here:
I don’t believe in gods or afterlives or any of that religious stuff, but I think there is something like a collective (sub)consciousness. Whether it’s species-specific or an all-beings thing I do not know, but there does seem to be a connectedness, at least among humans on a subconscious level. (How else to explain fads, manias, and similar ideas generating spontaneously in various places?).
The global tilt toward fascism requires a sufficient number of humans across the world to believe fervently in things that are not true, that are contrary to provable fact, contrary to widely accepted fact, and that are – provably, demonstrably, over and over again – ruinous in the short run and the long run.
It’s not enough to say, “Oh, the RW media has spent decades selling fascism!” because, one, the RW media isn’t at work everywhere the fascists have popped back up; and, two, what made so many people susceptible all at once to the fascist message in the first place? It’s a mania that appears to hit humans periodically throughout history, long before there was a Fox News, or even TV/radio.
What triggers these collectivist, subconscious fascist waves is another question. I have some vague ideas, but nothing firm enough to hang my. hat on.
TBone
@Jeffg166: hugs
WereBear
Butchered my hair so badly during Lockdown I made my stylist grab her own head. Said all she could do was a punk cut. Easy maintenance but soon I could hear it rustling on the pillow as I breathed.
Now? I can do the 1924 Girlish Bob1924 Girlish Bob myself.
TBone
@Kristine: crap, how did you ever manage to fall asleep again after that?
Jeffg166
@TBone:
If a republican wins an election by one vote it is a mandate. If a Democrat wins 99% of the vote it’s not a mandate because 1% didn’t vote for them.
TBone
@Kristine: we’re supposed to get first snow of the season in Pennsylvania today/tonight. Possibly upwards of eight inches in some spots.
The supermarkets will be full of those who need to have French toast parties. Thankfully, I’m already stocked up on bread, milk, and eggs.
gene108
@JMG:
It’s more than just Trump, it’s all the far right Christian fanatics who never got over the fact their power over popular culture has totally eroded.
They want revenge and Trump is willing to help them. Purely transactional, they help Trump get elected, Trump helps them ban abortion and anything else they have in mind.
It’s going to be a revenge tour of powerful entrenched interests pissed off society no longer bows down to them.
WereBear
@CaseyL: i think it’s because it’s never been easier for people to fall into their own fantasy world.
Especially people who get cruelly punished for using their imagination. When the religion is the culture, there’s no escape except into one’s own mind.
Our minds are both an incredible resource and, untrained, a trap.
WereBear
@CaseyL: You like Jung? I do.
TBone
@CaseyL: hive mind
WereBear
During Lockdown I so butchered my hair my stylist almost screamed when I took off my hat. Only thing she ould do was a punk cut. Easy maintenance but then it grew out and made noise on the pillow when I breathed.
Fortunately I know how to do this myself. 1924 Girlish Bob1924 Girlish Bob.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jeffg166: Glad for the good news
Kristine
@TBone: As I recall, I promptly forgot all about it. If it had happened to current me, I’d have emptied the closet and checked all the other rooms. Carefully.
Kay
@CaseyL:
We just spent several weeks in Portugal, in Lisbon but also in Olhão, which is a traditional fishing village that is being transformed by UK and US expats retiring there. Friends of ours who owned a restaurant in NY for 30 years moved there a year ago. Our friends are lovely people, liberal (like most of the expats we met) but they moved there because it has the climate of San Diego but is affordable. The reason it is affordable though, is because Portugal has some of the lowest wages and household income in the EU. They make far, far less than middle income Americans.
I think liberals have to decide if they want high wages (like Denmark) but also high prices (like Denmark) OR if they want a very low paid underclass to serve them and low prices. It’s sort of gross that upper middle class and wealthy Americans and British are flocking there to exploit the fact that Portugese make about 900 USD a month.
Not an option for me. I’ll pay more for dinner if it means workers are getting a fair wage. I don’t want the cheap meal if it’s on the backs of their underclass.
pieceofpeace
@Baud: Okay, this made me laugh outrageously outloud and way too early in the morning awhile ago…
Baud
@Kay:
I think liberals have decided. It’s other people that showed they wanted a more Reaganesque economy.
AM in NC
@CaseyL: I think when wealth inequality rises to extremes (like we have now around the world), you necessarily have a lot of desperate people, and desperate people will turn to anything promising to save them in their desperation.
A strong man who promises to be your savior can be compelling. A strong man promising pain on those you have been convinced to believe have harmed you can be even more compelling.
How we combat the ignorance and informational bubble the rightwing billionaire class has been building upon since the Richard Vigueire direct mail days is THE problem of our time.
TBone
@Kristine: 👍 kids’ minds are protective like that, and I am very grateful for that feature! My mind still blocks things sometimes.
Suzanne
@CaseyL:
Agree. Fascist-leaning media arises to fill the hole. It doesn’t create the hole. Cause and effect is the opposite.
The distinction is important, because the “solution” — such as it is — is not as easy as building a liberal media ecosystem.
I think the mania is deeply fear-based and is conservative in nature. Not just politically conservative, but based in really big, existential fear about the future.
Ben Cisco
@TBone: I’m subscribed and yes, you are correct.
evodevo
@NotMax: Yep…me too…watching a co-ed in my dorm in 1966 getting out the communal ironing board and pressing that shoulder-length hair with her steam iron. Good times!
CaseyL
@WereBear:
I only know of Jung in a general sense, but from what I know he comes closest to describing what I’m talking about. He’s far too of-his-time for me, with his emphasis on the male Journey, and all that.
Another work that’s influenced more than I thought is Julian Jaynes’ “The Origin of Consciousness as a Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.” There’s also a lot to disagree with – his very human-centric viewpoint, chiefly – but the book was still a thunderclap for my thinking.
Kay
@Baud:
I know this is both ungenerous and also political poison, but I have had it with what I see as a worldwide Right turn based on this petulant WHININESS from middle, upper middle and wealthy people. You’re not actually entitled to cheap restaurant meals prepared by people who make 1/10th of what you make. You’re not entitled to 3000 sq feet for 150k at 3% interest. That’s not a fucking civil right.
Anyway. Don’t ask for my time,money or sympathy if you’re a comfortable middle class person in the EU or the US or Canada who is whining because your supermarket tab went up 19% or your mixed drink is 11 dollars instead of 9 dollars. I don’t care and I think you’re coddled and pampered and should have to experience real privation. For perspective. And maybe some gratitude that you just happened to be born in the right place at the right time.
Geminid
@Kay: One thing Pirtugal has going for it is their asvanced clean energy trsnition. They started adding hydro-elecric capacity in the 1970s, after the oil shock. They’ve built up wind generstion capacity in this century. Portugal’s western coast is good for both forms of renewable energy. They intends to be an energy exporter by the end of this decade.
Suzanne
@AM in NC:
Income inequality is threatening some of the core American myths/values…. about the value of striving, and potential for upward class mobility, and generational improvement. And that’s deeply destabilizing.
If we tell ourselves stories in order to live, and those stories prove to be untrue…. what replaces the story?
MazeDancer
Bill is a treasure, indeed.
As is your storytelling, dear Betty.
lowtechcyclist
@evodevo:
Hadn’t heard the term ‘coed’ (with or without the hyphen) in decades, thank goodness!
It’s a reminder of the days when young women enrolled in colleges and universities weren’t considered students in their own right, but kind of an auxiliary.
RevRick
@TBone: Pagans apply maple syrup to their French toast. True believers apply cinnamon and sugar. Heretics use powdered sugar.
Mel
@TBone: Woke up this morning to snow on the car and a forecast for more to come throughout the day and evening. I’m too old for this cold damn weather!
Kay
@Geminid:
The whole EU is way ahead of the US in terms of sustainables. Their almost complete rejection of single use…anything just warms my frugal heart.
I really loved Lisbon. It may replace Milan as my favorite city outside the US. It’s kind of a mess! But in a great, vibrant way. There’s a huge African influence, due to Portugal’s colonizing past.
There’s a lot of Dutch expats there too, amid the Americans and British, and I was amused watching them trying to handle the chaos – they like order. I met a Royal Dutch Shell oil heir and his hippie UK gf. Imagine my expression when he whines that London real estate is too expensive so he’s buying fucking Portugal. Gross.
AM in NC
@Suzanne: Indeed. Those narratives are incredibly powerful, and when we are unmoored, we can end up a lot of places. Not all of them good.
Jeffg166
@gene108:
When they get the blowback from their overreach lots of whining will get done.
Bulgakov
You are a singular treasure, BC. Adversity brings out the best of your wordsmithing!
Aziz, light!
@CaseyL: I think the simple explanation for a global shift to fascism is that the Information Superhighway is delivering massive loads of the same types of persuasive lies directly to people’s brain pans.
Geminid
@Kay: Portugal has an interesting history. I’ve read in several sources that Portugal and England had a secret treaty dating back to the 14th century.
The British helped keep Portugal out of Napoleon’s hands in the early 19th century. Many of Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe novels are set in that period. Cornwell did his research, and the novels seem like a decent way to learn some about Iberian life in those times if you can stand all the violence.
Denali5
@Betty C
Thanks for the amazing video of the roaring, dancing alligator.
@Kay,
How did your friends get the extended stay visa for Portugal? Was it complicated? We love Portugal, and it is certainly closer to our son and his family in Hungary.
Dr. Regina Phalange
@Suzanne: Do you just rub on your scalp? My hairdresser recommended this to me years ago and I tried it, but didn’t notice anything. I am intrigued by the vitamins. Any side effects? Thanks for any info you are willing to share.