Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

This really is a full service blog.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

White supremacy is terrorism.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Respite / A Little Thing That Makes You Happy (even for just a minute)

A Little Thing That Makes You Happy (even for just a minute)

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Can we talk about little things?

My little thing that makes me happy – for the time I am looking at it, at least – is the color show that Waffle puts on when you get 5 stars on the Waffle or on the Waffle Royale.  5 stars is a perfect score.

It’s not static colored squares, the colors shift around quietly, slowly, and artfully, beautifully.

That’s my moment of zen when I am in the moment with the color show.  Very short, but sweet!

A Little Thing That Makes You Happy (even for just a minute)

You may also get the color show if you get 5 stars one the Deluxe Waffle,
but I have never gotten 5 stars on that one so I can’t be sure.

The Deluxe Waffle (there is one every Sunday) is 7 x 7 instead of 5 x 5.

There is an archive for the daily game and the weekly Deluxe Waffle.
No archive for the Waffle Royale, catch it that day or it’s gone forever.

Is there a little thing that has that same effect that for you guys?

Reader Interactions

177Comments

  3. 3.

    mrmoshpotato

    Northwestern just beat Illinois in overtime – 70-66.

    Go ‘Cats!  You got your basketball jones on!

  6. 6.

    BellyCat

    @WaterGirl: It’s about sound. Anything related. The host is an audio engineer and I don’t want to out him but he has a distinctive name and I’ve seen it here (rarely) indicating a couple decades of mostly lurking.

    Really good stuff.

  7. 7.

    Splitting Image

    I’m also a Waffle fan.

    I have gotten five stars on the Deluxe Waffle, but not very often. You do get the colour show.

    My latest casual game addiction is Squardle. It’s similar to Boggle and is good if you’re starting to worry that you are developing a good vocabulary of 5-letter words from Wordle and its variants but nothing else.

    I’m finishing up a game of Civ2 right now. The little movie that plays when you land a spaceship on Alpha Centauri is very therapeutic. Many of the tunes that play when you build a Wonder are also very soothing.

  8. 8.

    H.E.Wolf

    I also like it when I use the WereBear method of slowly blinking at a cat I’ve never met before, and it trots over to say hi.

    Interspecies communication! Just like in a science fiction novel.

  9. 9.

    KatKapCC

    An online order came to, with tax and shipping, an even $46.00. I do not know why I love when that happens, but I do.

  11. 11.

    BellyCat

    @H.E.Wolf:  20K Hertz podcast recently simultaneously released pods on communicating with cats and with dogs. Highly recommended. Mind blown.

  13. 13.

    geg6

    The way my Lovey’s tail twitches, rather than wags, when she’s happy.  It makes me smile every time.

  14. 14.

    BellyCat

    Here’s a little happy thing:

    My son is in third grade. About two months ago he said, “Daddy, let’s play Gravity.”

    Being old and ossified in thought, I needed the rules defined.

    “You just pick which way gravity works and try to get from here to there!”

    Brilliant.

    I have slithered across the floor, with gravity sideways, for the last few months. Leaping from table bases to cabinet baseboards, to chair footings (that can’t hold me and slide). Perilous traverses in one’s own home the likes of summiting the highest peaks in the world.

    To be young again!

  15. 15.

    Quinerly

    What’s made me happy the last 2 days?

    Driving around with my dog, looking at things, and talking to strangers….we are on day 2 of a long road trip. (As planned 21 days but might be 30-45 days). Drove the desolate NM CR 9 from El Paso after spending last night in Old Mesilla area of Las Cruces. NM CR 9  hugs the Mexican/New Mexican border. Had a great conversation with a park ranger at Pancho Villa State Park in the tiny border town of Columbus, NM. It makes me smile to live in a state that would name a state park after Pancho Villa.

    And that happy hour $2 Hamm’s beer at a dive bar in Bisbee, AZ made me very happy after today’s 300 mile drive.

    The Geronimo surrender site in Apache, AZ before the beer made me sad, though.

    Covered some new and old roads today. Did lots and lots of thinking.

    Thanks, WG!!!

  16. 16.

    frosty

    Taking online harmonica lessons*. Momentary happiness when I hit a lick and it sounds professional. Then back to hacking through it.
    * Beginner to Boss. Structured, easy-to-hard, slow to fast, recommended. $197.00 and you have access to the videos until you forget your password LOL.​

  21. 21.

    TheflipPsyd

    When Lily — my one eyed rescued cat — jumps on my bed, purring loudly, and snuggles up to me by wrapping  her paws around my hand and falls asleep with her head on my hand. Happens at least once a night after I get into bed.

  24. 24.

    TheOtherHank

    I like the feeling of getting into bed after I’ve made it with freshly cleaned sheets. I don’t like it enough to wash the sheets every day, but when I do wash them it’s glorious

  26. 26.

    BellyCat

    @frosty: It’s incredibly imaginative. If you REALLY put yourself in it, the teamwork survival aspect is stupendous. If you can’t fully commit, don’t bother (my hips are definitely bruised from floor slithering. 😂)

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    Another for me, which I thought of after reading the comment from TheflipPsyd, is when Miss Willow asks to come under the covers.  She only does it if I am lying on my side.  I hold up the covers and then she walks in under the covers and stretches out against my legs.  It’s so sweet and calming that I often fall asleep after less than a minute, even if I was unable to get to sleep before that.

  31. 31.

    Quinerly

    @frosty:

    Busking in London while my boyfriend played his dobro AND harmonica, while I was dressed like a gypsy with bells on my ankles and a tambourine in hand made me very happy  3 lifetimes ago.

    You got a dobro in that collection of yours?

  38. 38.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
     I’ll think of you, next time I see that combo!

    Also, it’s nice for the Leap Year Day folks, not to have to wait 4x as long as everyone else for their b’day to roll around.

    …I don’t know whose birthday I’m seeing on the clock right now, but it’s definitely shut-eye time for me. ‘Night, all.

  39. 39.

    Bill Arnold

    @H.E.Wolf:
    It was already known, but a few years ago there was some science done on that.
    The role of cat eye narrowing movements in cat–human communication (Open access, 05 October 2020, Tasmin Humphrey, Leanne Proops, Jemma Forman, Rebecca Spoone & Karen McComb)

    This study examines the communicatory significance of a widely reported cat behaviour that involves eye narrowing, referred to as the slow blink sequence. Slow blink sequences typically involve a series of half-blinks followed by either a prolonged eye narrow or an eye closure.
    …
    Collectively, our results suggest that slow blink sequences may function as a form of positive emotional communication between cats and humans.

    (via)
    (Cats (predators) get nervous about empathic links. The slow blinks signal lowering of the threat level/modulate the link. IMO.)

  40. 40.

    WTFGhost

    My little thing that makes me happy – for the time I am looking at it, at least – is the color show that Waffle puts on when you get 5 stars on the Waffle or on the Waffle Royale.  5 stars is a perfect score.

    (munch)

    Is there a little thing that has that same effect that for you guys?

    Side note: if things that normally give you a touch of joy no longer do so, if comic strips that made you laugh now “stupid” and “lame”? You could be getting depressed.

    Joy dampening is a kind-of canary in a kind-of coal mine. If joy is damped down, the canary just dropped, take appropriate action. It’s like, put on your calendar “sign of depression – recheck in 30d”, and 30 days from now, re-assess: things better, worse, same? Is it bearable? Can you be happy? If you NEVER get ANY BETTER, are you satisfied?

    Note that I didn’t mention medication. For some of you, a support group where you can whine with like minded dems might be better than a boatload of antidepressants.

    (I refuse to use the crude term “buttload”, *especially* when talking about medications.)

    But you might not force yourself to go, go, go, out the door, or you will/won’t be spanked, if you’re into that sort of thing, if you’re not doing it because you’re getting depressed. See – knowledge is always power.

  41. 41.

    Yutsano

    It makes me happy when I nail the cooking of a dish. But being improvisational in the kitchen is the best.

  42. 42.

    frosty

    @Quinerly: Of course, that’s all I play. Been playing slide ever since I figured out I couldn’t bend the strings. A National O-14, a National baritone steel Tricone and a Republic Highway 61. I don’t own a wooden guitar. Well, except a Gibson SG.

    My goal is to play harmonica and guitar at the same time. Aspirational goal: She Caught the Katy (Taj Mahal). If I live long enough.

  43. 43.

    TheflipPsyd

    • @WaterGirl: Does it feel like she  knows you are having trouble sleeping and comes in to calm you? I swear Lily seems to know.exactly when to come in and she always calms me.
  44. 44.

    Quinerly

    @BellyCat:

    1996….I was dressed like 1980’s Stevie Nicks. My tambourine had purple ribbons streaming from it. We were playing mostly old Blues.  (The London bar scene was having some sort of identity crisis. Seemed like when you would walk into any pub, the jukebox was playing “Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting” (Carl Douglas, 1974))

    *apologies for the earworm*

    And, that aforementioned “old boyfriend” will be 80 years old come January.

    My exes will always be significantly older than me. But, I digress…..(Damn, I so want to use 10 plus emojis)

    Have a great weekend…..

  48. 48.

    Quinerly

    @frosty:

    Let me find my bells and tambourine……..

    Love me some Taj. Seen him 3 times. Actually, a really nice guy, too. Got to hang with him a tiny bit when we brought him to our “St. Louis Big Muddy Blues Festival” on The Landing (Mississippi River) mid 1990’s. He’s still touring. I just did miss him a few months back when he played The Lensic in Santa Fe. Right now I’m drawing a blank on my favorite 2 albums of his. Can picture the covers but I’m blanking. Too tired to pull up his discography online.

    We gots to get together when you are in NM. Wanna play at my friend’s place in Lamy, NM?

  49. 49.

    Gretchen

    I didn’t know about waffle but once I did this and got 5 stars on my first try. Thus encouraged, I did 25 of them and wasn’t able to get 5 stars ever again. Like hitting the jackpot your first time in the casino and thinking the next try will be another jackpot…

  51. 51.

    Martin

    Radiohead makes me, well, sometimes happy – a lot of their music isn’t happy. Always makes me less anxious though.

    My wife’s cookies always makes me happy.

    Riding my bike usually makes me happy, if there aren’t cars around, at least.

  52. 52.

    frosty

    @Quinerly: ​Wanna play at my friend’s place in Lamy, NM

    Sure. Do they have a chicken wire screen to block the beer bottles after they hear me?​

  53. 53.

    Martin

    @BellyCat: When my kids were little – like 5/6/7 we’d go on safaris. They’d go in one room and close the door and I’d go around the house and create little ‘biomes’ using their stuffies and other things around the house. We’d dress up and they’d wear a safari hat, and we’d have flashlights and have a little binoculars and a notebook, and then I’d turn off all the light and get them, and we’d crawl around the house to not scare the animals and try and spot them and record what we saw in our notebooks.

    And then when we were done we’d draw pictures of our safari and make a little book and eat cookies.

    That feels so long ago.

  55. 55.

    BlueGuitarist

    This post made me happy, thanks WG.
    And some of the things others have said, or similar.
    Guitars!
    live music
    Re Taj Mahal, went to an excellent Taj performance a few years back,
    (was the youngest person in the audience)
    My favorite Taj album: The Real Thing.

    Cooking: lately, making the omelette from The Bear.

  57. 57.

    prostratedragon

    @Quinerly:  “Hamm’s beer”

    When an age-old mondagreen suddenly clears up on its own. One day not long ago I realized it was “lofty balsams.”

  58. 58.

    Scamp Dog

    For me it’s playing piano. I started taking lessons again in May. I’m making sure to practice an hour a day, so I’m making good progress.

  61. 61.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Quinerly: will you be by the border area that has the ecosystem that’s rare and endangered, that ecologists particularly didn’t  want divided by a wall?

    I’ve been so curious about that. Also, anything you observe that’s noteworthy about this darn wall….?

  64. 64.

    JoyceH

    Right now my little thing is starting to recover from Covid. Testing negative and not falling asleep all the time. Not all the way back to normal but now feel like I’ll get there from here.

  65. 65.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Happy things, memories and treats:

    Lime essential oil spray, or rose water
    burning sweet grass

    giving a massage in a round yurt and feeling the difference

    dancing to drummers in trance, and turning it into prayers

    hiking in canyon lands and hearing the silence, drinking in the vast sky, pretending the starlight is carrying music to me. Imagining the deep roots of a small penstemon growing by a rock plateau, thinking they are reaching 30 feet down around the rock to catch the rain runoff.

    frolicking in ocean waves, and collecting seashells that tumble at the edge.

    stained glass windows.

    making new silly words to songs I know.
    used to be, swinging on tall adult sized swing sets, belting out cat Stevens songs and Simon and Garfunkel

    space music, textural music like David parsons, lisa Gerard. Old old music like palestrina, especially live, or Bach played on a lute.

    ballet and ice skating videos

    writing a poem; taking dictation

    candlelight
    reverent Focused sacred space.

    great conversations. Silly moments with kids at school. Cooking together.

    the memory of standing 3 feet away from Michelangelo’s escapari, his unfinished blocks of marble,  seeing his chisel marks from 400 years ago, and beginning to fathom how much work and love went into his finished sculptures

    fresh figs from a tree

    the joy diet, by Martha beck says three treats a day. First one just because. Second one after you do the hard or risky thing that brings you toward your dream, the third, later in the day, because.

  66. 66.

    Jay

    Going out, ( I am always masked), giving the eye smile to a dog or kid, and have them respond.

    Almost wound up with a dachshund the other day. In the store, they pulled their owner over, (laughing), crawled up into my sweater and started licking my face.

  67. 67.

    Jay

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    the joy diet, by Martha beck says three treats a day. First one just because. Second one after you do the hard or risky thing that brings you toward your dream, the third, later in the day, because.

    The dog diet is different.

  68. 68.

    WendyBinFL

    @eemom: Yes! My son Travis was born on 11/11. Whenever I see 11:11 on a clock, I immediately say, “God bless Travis and everyone who loves him,” and that makes me happy every time!

  69. 69.

    Nancy

    When my students go deep into assignments. I’m an adjunct so I can’t change the requirements of the class. It is one of the most demanding in their program. The final project requires them to find and use school and district data from their school counseling internship sites to determine an underserved population. They develop a plan to close an achievement gap or provide a needed service to students or families that may alleviate a problem that affects students’ abilities to succeed.

    I’ve been blown away, awed, humbled by their compassion and insight. The projects this semester have gone beyond. It is an honor and a joy to work with students like these.

  74. 74.

    Mel

    Hearing my neighbor talking to her dog when they sit out on her porch. He’s 100 pounds of big old cuddlebug, and she loves him dearly. She chats to him, and he thumps his tail and gives little chuffs and woofs. Makes me smile every time.

  75. 75.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: if your dog has studied with cats, it will weasel uncountable treats out of you, and succeed in convincing you it is starving

    some dachshunds can be like fairy princesses

    the Pollyanna roommate had one who could convince you to pet her for half an hour straight. She did it all with her eyes, her belly up posture, her clear absolute relishing of it.

  78. 78.

    Jay

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    Right now, no dogs, no cats. Mellow was the last of the crew, (cat) and it’s been 3 years. Still have bags of healthy dog and cat treats in my jacket that get “gone through” and refreshed, just for the ones I meet.

    I always ask.

  79. 79.

    TBone

    After living with a composting toilet for a couple of years, every time I flush a toilet in my current home, it makes me happy. I say a little “thank you!” in my head.  Compost is heavy.

    The plumber seems to have fixed the mystery leak so hubby has his own toilet again, which is also a happy circumstance.

    Also the hydrocortisone ointment finally seems to be working and my lips feel almost normal today – that’s a big thing!  Josey Wales of the Nicked Ear has eaten some Gerber and some Fancy Feast and some dry food since yesterday and is alert and affectionate again – that’s the best of all the things!

  84. 84.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: since it’s bj after dark, here’s a little haiku.

    I’m distilling a friends philosophy paper into poetry, because I don’t understand what he’s saying. But it gives me images.
    This is a bit rough, choppy;  I’ll try to improve it:
    Ill
    Mountain meadows rise,
    Into the eyes, with colors,
    Flowers, summers past.

    Eyes gaze across mist
    Memory rearranges
    Spirit touches time

     

    the #2 is longer free verse, it’s late night for me, early morning there.

  87. 87.

    TBone

    @Gloria DryGarden: you just resurrected a wonderful memory of being with a now-deceased friend one afternoon.  We were in a special place here – a farm field with an expansive view of the surrounding, rolling green mountains.  The sun was at that special place where it makes everything glow in gold and green.  We could see forever.

    Thank you!

  88. 88.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: oh wow.
    That makes me so happy

    here’s a smoother attempt: ( but if it doesn’t evoke the same memory, maybe the first one is better.)

    IV
    Mountainside flowers
    Meadows of color pour through
    Summer memories

  89. 89.

    TBone

    @Gloria DryGarden: lovely.  I am a big (huge) fan of haiku.  I wish I could remember the one I wrote for our rental landlord in the guest book at a beach house a few years ago…

  91. 91.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: ok, since it’s about making ourselves happy, I’ll just put this here, poem #2 off the weird philosophy paper. I’m not sure it’s polished enough, but I somehow like it anyway. Sadly it’s not haiku, but you see where I distilled it from.

    PHILOSOPHY MYSTERY II
    This reality, (has become) so relevant, rusty from excess rains:
    The wet blades of grass stroke my feet, cool, cold, soft.
    The house of spirit is not one floor, but room after room
    Rising from the plane into a third dimension, rooms
    In an old Victorian house, creaky wooden stairs, landings,
    more steps,
    time as a fourth dimension,
    high ceilings, bannisters, mirrors.
    Some memories are inconvenient.

    These Memories inconvenience me,
    Curling back toward now,
    transforming this world into unknowns and mystery deja vu’s.
    I recognize
    something.
    The veil of mist blows across and I am in another time,
    my eyes are dreaming in their lost gaze.
    Was there a relation who touched me?
    Is this misty memory one of sadness, or longing?
    Is it an old ceramic object, a rock I used to hold?
    I turn, cast my eyes across the span of a meadow,
    across a vast stretch of time.

    the sweet nourishing golden time,
    can I reach across and bring it to this now?

    I look inside,
    AndI ride down, down, into a deep lake,
    sunlit memories, then hidden things, discoveries.
    Unknowns
    Deeper, darker, coated in algae and silts.
    The shelf of the lake turns steep.
    Something waits in the silence, in the depths,
    It Enters this dimension in tiny currents
    It transforms my mood, reshapes all I thought I knew.
    Inconvenient memories rearrange my sense of self;
    They touch me, and the knowing requires me to move.

    Tiny actions unfold, a miracle of habits,
    a glance of the eyes, a single step on a new journey.
    I am touching back into myself,
    But transformed into a darker deeper quieter being.
    Floating on mists,
    Shifting in and out of memories across time.
    I hold those golden moments
    like a candle
    in every dark room.

  92. 92.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: a friend of mine does pet haiku. Catku , and dogku. Mostly I find her on Facebook, but I’ll find out, maybe it’s on Amazon too. Her name is Diane grindol. She walks dogs on the beach in Monterrey. We used to practice French together in high school.

    playing with languages is another happy thing for me.

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    I am happy WaterGirl finally got a Democratic Representative, the excellent Nikki Budzinski.

    I’m a little sad though, that Rep. Budzinski was not assigned to the Government Oversight Committee. Then WaterGirl could brag about viral video of Budzinski shredding some evil Republican witness, or dunking on Marjorie Taylor Greene.

    She could still find C-Span tape of Rep. Budzinski discussing soil conservation incentives at an Agriculture Committee hearing, but it’s just not the same!

  94. 94.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @BellyCat: this one’s for you. I ask you to fix it so it’s more accurate to the details and mood. I promise that I have a permit for being silly. Children have spotted me.

    Slippery gravity

    Slippery slinky snakey humans
    Slither across a floor, around table legs
    To the door, around chairs, writhing the spine silently
    In waves of watery ambulating.
    Here to there, gasping for air, you pool you body
    like fluid by the fridge,
    You move as water through gravity
    Sliding silly across the baseboards,
    Around and across the ocean of your kitchen

  95. 95.

    divF

    I am able to get a baby to sleep, smile, or wave (in order of increasing age). One of my major hobbies starting 45+ years ago has been providing free babysitting for the infant and toddler children of my friends. I still have the knack, although the opportunities are fewer these days. And connecting with a very small child always sends me to a happy place.

  98. 98.

    Ramalama

    Sometimes I’ll take a pair of scissors and chop them, two hands, so that they make quick tapping noises that remind me of an old time newsroom.

    sometimes when I make a fresh batch of salsa, I’ll clap my hands quickly like a person of flamenco. And then shout out, “tortilla!”

    I walked in a literal snowstorm to get my Nth Covid vax last week, car pooped out. I’m in the clinic waiting for the next step in the process, when I have to dig out my health card even though I’d already had it scanned by the person three feet away at a card table set up as vax desk. My snow pants allow very little give, so I have to slack my legs in order to reach in my pocket and a retired lady at the next card table looks at me like she knew I’d have to struggle some. Everyone there much older than me. Everyone easier with my bad French, two women opting to speak English. After my shot, and my wait, I bundle up and get out and bop into the boulangerie for a chocolate croissant**, no two of them, even though the last time the man running it, my pal, addressed me as “vous ” and wasn’t joking about it, which freaked me out, but it was just after the election and maybe I’m an enemy? but I go in anyway and he’s back to singing along to old time chansons while asking me what would be my pleasure, and back to “toi ” and then jokes using a very bad French accent, and we’re back. I put my paper mask from the clinic back on because the snow is pelting my face. I’ve got a pair of small crampons on my boots and so make the trek back home, 30 minutes, making sure the gigunda farm tractors used to clear snow see me when they back up, turn around, carry on. I stop at the next block knowing what the John Deere big shovels gonna do. He waits for me to cross. I stay put because I don’t want to rush. He goes this and that way, and then I carry on. I’m now at the last part of the journey, a level 8 on your treadmill to walk up the actual hill that will take me to my actual hill (a level 9) to get home. The aspens and pines are frosted, across from me is a chorus of trees blocking the sky. It’s a silvery white right now. I get in, fire on slow burn in the wood stove we use to mostly heat the house. Dog is sleeping in the corner in my office, barely alive but alive. He’s had a second wind that will soon end.but for now I open a damp bag and enjoy the opening salvo of a new winter.

    ** in Quebec they are called chocolatines, like , chocolate teens.

  99. 99.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Ramalama: wow. Breathtaking.

    this line popped out at me

    across from me is a chorus of trees blocking the sky. It’s a silvery white right now

    you’re a writer by trade?

  100. 100.

    bjacques

    This time of year when the late morning sun just clears the roof of the neighbors behind us and it shines directly down the living room stairwell.

  102. 102.

    Gloria DryGarden

    There once was a woman named water
    Who suggested we cease our mad fodder
    She read it with dread
    And tried a new thread
    For this happy one we could applaud her
     

    Third time’s the charm. Might be more than 4 tries, to get a no negatives thread. Yay
    ( I’m happy that the poetry haters are either silent or abed, with visions of sugar plums…

    and that the silliness police are elsewhere)

  103. 103.

    WereBear

    @KatKapCC: Or a significant date in history. I’ll often say, “Look, the Magna Carta.”

    Sometimes they don’t know, and want to, and I get to tell them.

    Education outreach.

  106. 106.

    Rivers

    On a cold day after being outside and doing lots of constructive things and being with lots of people, the moment when I arrive home and my cat greets me and I put on the kettle.

  108. 108.

    Nancy

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    Thank you. So great to get a response and in that spirit, I’ll return to your offerings over time. I enjoyed the images and the back and forth of haiku writers.

    This thread has been a hift from Watergirl with many lovely gifts in return.

  109. 109.

    TBone

    @Ramalama: had to see this again, and might start doing it at random, maybe even (especially?) in public, and certainly at the supermarket in the fresh salsa section.

    sometimes when I make a fresh batch of salsa, I’ll clap my hands quickly like a person of flamenco. And then shout out, “tortilla!”

  111. 111.

    Geminid

    As William Tecumseh Sherman said, “War is Hell,” and its hard to celebrate war.

    But it has made me happy to see some scenes from liberated Aleppo, Syria: a son in rebel uniform hugging his mother for the first time in 13 years; two brothers embracing each other after 12 years apart.

  112. 112.

    Nancy

    @Nancy:

    Also a gift from Watergirl. When I tried to fix that my phone did a thing involving being unable to find Balloon Juice until correction time was over.

  116. 116.

    Nancy

    @Quinerly: I almost got to see Taj last summer. A family obligation meant I couldn’t go. I gave my ticket to a young co-worker who’d never heard of him but is open to adventure. He reported that he was the youngest one he saw in the audience and that along with the music he liked the banter between audience and Taj.

  122. 122.

    TBone

    @WereBear: it’s a huge relief, thank you.  I spoke too soon about the mystery leak though, the goldang thing started up again a little while ago so we resolved that hubby will simply fill the tank only when he needs to flush, and we’ll just leave the water to that toilet turned off in perpetuity.  Take that, constantly running toilet!  STFU!

  125. 125.

    Geminid

    @Gloria DryGarden: Rep. Budzinski is no farmer, but Illinois’ 13th CD is has some of the nation’s most productive farmland and that is why she asked to be on the Agriculture Committee.

    Ed. She also knows the importance of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program and has teamed up with another Illinois freshman on the committee, Rep. Jonathan Jackson, to protect it.

    Nikki Budzinski chose a political career early on. While pursuing a degree at the University of Illinois-Champagne, she interned during her summers for Rep. Richard Gephart, Senator Paul Simon and Planned Parenthood. Her first job out of college was political director in the D C. office of a national union.

    Budzinski worked for Hilary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and had a senior post in Jay Pritzker’s first campaign for Illinois Governor. When he won, Pritzger tapped Budzinski to be his transition chief and then made her his primary liason with the Illinois legislature.

    In 2021 Budzinski returned to Washington as Chief of Staff for the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, but she did not hold the job for long. After Illinois Democrats drew a new 13th CD that included Springfield and Champagne County, Budzinski resigned her OMB post to run for Congress. Republicans complained that the district was drawn with Budzinski in mind, and they were probably right.

  126. 126.

    TBone

    @Gloria DryGarden: I did not comment on that for reasons (night dreams I used to have with a recurring, overarching theme).  I can’t put the right words together…

    ETA Yes I can – those are thank and you

  131. 131.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Nancy: cool.

    twould be brilliant, if your students’ projects could be implemented. Think of all the ripples of influence, the numbers of people helped to something better, the expanding wave of support, from professor to student to families to children. Ah!

  132. 132.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @TBone: oh no! I’ve spoken to your nightmare, or woken it. Let me send you a dry coat, some shoes, and a flotation device…

    you’re welcome.

  134. 134.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @eemom: 11:11,

    12:12 today

    2:22,

    12:34

    3:33 earlier this week,

    less frequently, 4:44

    not sure if I’ve gotten 5:55
    The double numbers are a hoot. I’d like them better if I understood the message

  135. 135.

    RileysEnabler

    A few good things- every year my jerb participates in a craft- making event at the local Boys and Girls club, in which we supply and help the kiddos make gifts for others (or themselves!). It’s one of the best evenings you can imagine- hundreds of happy, messy kids, Christmas music and 2 hours of absolute chaos. Exhausting bliss.

    Also, my Hibiscus are blooming like nuts. Every day I go out and am greeted by a handful of new bright pink blooms. Can’t help but smile!

    And Christmas lights. They make my evening commute so much more fun.

  136. 136.

    scribbler

    @Ramalama:  Very late to the thread, but had to remark on how very lovely and evocative this was.  As in all good stories, the reader is there with you.  Thanks!

    ETA: Reading your story was a little thing that made me happy.

  137. 137.

    Ohio Mom

    I’ve heard these moments described as “glimmers.”

    Going outside and down the driveway for the morning paper, when it’s just me and quiet and maybe whatever critters are out and about — squirrels, birds chirping, sometimes a rabbit, a few years ago, an occasional sighting of the late neighborhood fox.

    Enjoying the sunrise and feeling the weather, whatever it is. Even bone-chilling cold can be appreciated if it’s only for a few moments.

    It’s the main reason I still subscribe to the local dead tree edition, my morning mini-commune with nature.

  140. 140.

    Quinerly

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    As I recall that is in a section of AZ pretty much west of Nogales, AZ. Unchartered turf for me. Won’t make it on this trip. I head north to Tubac, Green Valley, and Tucson after poking around Nogales for the first time.

    Yesterday was such a dreary drive on CR 9 that I only took one pic off to the left of the border. Now that we connected on the evil Book of Faces you can catch it there. Wish I had gotten a pic of the blimps I mentioned on FB and on another thread here.

    It would take some digging to find some pics of Jon and me on the streets of London and in “The Tube.” I am sure some that we didn’t take existed at some time. I said a few years back that it would take running for office for some really fun pics to surface….especially those dancing in the mud/rain while holding a joint and a beer; wearing a Harley bandana, a bikini top and Daisy Dukes at NOLA Jazz and Heritage Fest. My “uniform.”

    I’m sure I’ll never get my hands on those pics. But, just thinking about them makes me happy.

    Have a wonderful weekend!

  142. 142.

    Quinerly

    @Nancy:

    I’m kicking myself about missing him at The Lensic. He was coming right at the beginning of March. I travel in the Winter because of the dog, heat, no tourists….would have just been getting back from a 2 week drive about and houseguests descending were on me. I heard the show was great and sold out.

    I was very impressed when I saw Josh Ritter a little over a year ago at The Lensic. Excellent sound. I’m sure Taj tore it up. Such a nice guy for sure. Keith Richards is a huge fan of Taj. That says a lot.

  144. 144.

    Quinerly

    @BellyCat:

    But he probably will be up shortly. Can’t have him reading from the bottom up and blowing a gasket.

    😈😈😈😈😈 (smiling devil emojis….5 of them, fuck Cole and his delicate sensibilities. I woke up feeling frisky and ready to seize the day!!!!)

    Have a wonderful weekend.

  147. 147.

    kalakal

    @BellyCat:

    I love his soundtrack for that film

    My favourite is Miles from nowhere

    There’s a lot makes me happy.

    Coming home from work to see Virgil ( one of the cats) sitting on a bookcase in the hallway waiting to give me a headbump

    Watching birds fly

    Walking along the marina, feeling the breeze

    The moment when I realize I’ve nailed playing a piece of music

    Mrs kalakal’s smile

  150. 150.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Quinerly:

    And that happy hour $2 Hamm’s beer at a dive bar in Bisbee, AZ made me very happy after today’s 300 mile drive.

    We drank a ton of Hamms in college a lifetime ago.  Several of the same people have gone onto being insufferable beer snobs, one who, at the age of 62, just got a BS in Fermentation Science, ie., how to brew beer.

    The interesting thing is that all of us, including the beer snobs, still like Hamms and they think that for the kind of beer it is, it’s actually one of the best.

    Here’s another interesting tidbit about Hamms: it’s inflation proof.  When we moved back to Denver in 2018, I could get a tall boy of Hamms at Argonaut Liquor on Colfax for 99 cents.

    I can go down there right now and still get one for 99 cents!

  152. 152.

    Geminid

    @Josie: I intend to check the Jolani interview out. I’ve read excerpts, but I want to get a better sense of the man.

    It sounds like Jolani is saying the right things. In coming day we’ll get to see if he means them and if his militia allies will follow his lead. If nothing else, that would show that someone like Jolani can learn and grow.

  155. 155.

    TerryC

    We have a family of eight or nine turkey vultures who circle overhead several times a day. If it’s sunny out, they always manage to cross one of their shadows over wherever I happen to be standing or riding on a tractor. I feel like I communicate with them at those moments and that they do it on purpose and that makes me happy.

  156. 156.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    Morning sunlight, a warm creamy cup of coffee, and a purring kitty in my lap is my happy place. :)

  158. 158.

    Quinerly

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Love this!

    I honestly thought all Hamm’s was gone from the shelves…out of business…until I hit this bar that had just reopened in Bisbee in February. A musician friend from Santa Fe had just played there on a little tour out here and suggested the bar. A lot of the locals didn’t even know the bar was selling Hamm’s so I became a trend setter.

    Mentioned this in a thread here after February and the thread turned into a beer trivia thread with all of us throwing out old labels and looking up what’s still around. Fun thread, imo.

    And some of us learned that there are some true beer snobs in the BJ community. Made me chuckle. Age seemed to have a lot to do with the snob factor.

  160. 160.

    RevRick

    @WaterGirl: Every morning I start the day with several cups of coffee while doing four puzzles in the local newspaper: two of Sudoku, a cryptoquote, and word game, which involves trying to find as many four or more letter words out of the day’s given word. Today’s word is ephemeral and the challenge is to find 60 or more words using those letters. I’ve found 62.

  161. 161.

    BellyCat

    Bookmarking this thread for days requiring UP to counterbalance DOWN!  :-)

    (… not an emoji, right?))

  162. 162.

    Ramalama

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    No. Not yet, maybe. I work at 1.45 novels daily. Got a degree in fiction, poetry, but then got quick cash doing websites and stuck with it. Now even that’s kind of wobbly so I’m back working on blocks of texts also known as paragraphs. Will I ever get paid again? We shall see.

  163. 163.

    Ramalama

    @TBone: I once made an impromptu dance for fudge at the Provincetown Fudge Factory (insert gay joke as you will) that the guy behind the counter gave me a discount. Clapping may also have been involved. And yelling out, “Penuche,” instead.

  165. 165.

    pieceofpeace

    Watergirl, reading all of this post brought good feelings and thoughts.  I think plenty, maybe most, of BJ like sharing positive, fun, meaningful personal experiences occasionally.

    Thanks for this post.  It made me smile, consider someone’s comment, smile again – over and over.

  166. 166.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @BellyCat: yay.

    typo fix: your

    thought about an additional line, your kitchen in the space station. But it didn’t seem true.

    Your description made me see it.
    I used to pretend I was a snake and lie back, slide head first off my bed, pretending I was a snake…., and slither onto the floor.

  167. 167.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Ramalama: make a book of your paragraphs, and your poems. Please. It shines, it glistens, you took me there on you walk, the feeling of your calling you vous.. all that. So vivid. A prose poem, a vignette for all the senses
    whats 1.45 novels? Editing one, halfway through another.
    im rooting for you, I want to read more.

  171. 171.

    Wanderer

    @WaterGirl:  I had never heard of Waffle… I have tried since you showed it.  Very fun. They ask for some very infrequently words though. Thanks for the happy tip.

  172. 172.

    Ella in New Mexico

    So this is what we’ve come to to find one single crack of happiness anywhere in our lives right now?

    Playing online word games to see the little letters float around magically on the screen?

    OMG we’re so fucked folks.

    :-D

  176. 176.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @WereBear: OK, I’ll try.

    How about warm fuzzy socks you wear to bed cuz its finally cold enough to need them?

    There, best I can do right now. lol

  177. 177.

    There go two miscreants

    WG, I was happy that you headed a post yesterday with the floating-dumpster-fire gif. I laugh every time I see that one!

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