Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

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

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

So many bastards, so little time.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Saturday Night Open Thread

Saturday Night Open Thread

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Been a busy couple of days here- Joelle is much more mobile so we did a big house clean, then had retro dinner night- shake and bake pork chops, canned peas, and a box of Betty Crocker scalloped potatoes. Now we’re settling in to watch the Steelers lose in the first round of the playoffs like they do every year so we can spend the offseason listening to drunken jabronies from Polish hill whinge about why they need to replace Tomlin.

What else is going on?

Reader Interactions

198Comments

  4. 4.

    geg6

    This is not a playoff game.  This is the last game of the regular season.  This season’s last few games were scheduled such that the Steelers have played 3 games in 11 days.  Ridiculous.  Fuck the NFL.

  8. 8.

    Steve LaBonne

    Nowadays I sous vide pork chops and then sear (on the grill in warm weather), but Shake and Bake is far from the worst way to cook them.

  9. 9.

    Suzanne

    I just had a horrifying moment.

    I was dancing with the puppy, and I told Alexa to play “Sugar Pie Honey Bunch”. And she replied, “Now playing ‘Sugar Pie Honey Bunch’ by Kid Rock”.

    What the fuck?!?!

  10. 10.

    BeautifulPlumage

    What else is going on? I hung up my Pets of BJ calendar which I love. Shout out to WaterGirl and everyone else!

  13. 13.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @geg6:

    No they haven’t. They played the short week Sat12/21  to Weds 12/25, but then had ten days off before today’s game.

    Their problem is they aren’t that good on defense and they are playing Joe Burrow.

  16. 16.

    Kathleen

    @geg6: Bengals need to win this game to have a sliver of a playoff chance. If they lose Bengal fans will be whinging that Zach Taylor should be sacked.
    ETA I want to know if meals were consumed on TV trays.

  20. 20.

    mrmoshpotato

    College hockey (Michigan State vs Wisconsin) and basketball (Michigan vs USC)

    Oh, and pizza (pepperoni, mushroom, green pepper, onion) since we’re talking about dinner as well.

  25. 25.

    Doc Sardonic

    Canned peas are an abomination, however, there is on thing that is so bad they haven’t yet (not even the Germans) invented the word that is adequate. That thing is…… Canned Asparagus, comes in a silver foil looking can, that shit is so bad that one of the demons suggested to Satan that it be placed on the menu for the inhabitants. Satan refused.

  31. 31.

    Sure Lurkalot

    My retro dinner is similar: meatloaf, frozen peas, tater tots.

    I bought a bag of tater tots during the Covid years after not having tater tots for decades and now there is always a bag in the freezer. They don’t get eaten often but I think I might have a problem.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Suzanne: Thanks for confirming.

    Wop bop a loo bop a lop bom bom!
    Tutti frutti, oh rootie
    Tutti frutti, oh rootie
    Tutti frutti, oh rootie
    Tutti frutti, oh rootie
    Tutti frutti, oh rootie
    A-wop bop a loo bop a lop bom bom!

  39. 39.

    Ella in New Mexico

    First day of my vacation. (I take post holiday ones so my colleagues with kids can have their time with family)

    Spent the whole day in bed. Literally, which is so wierd for me. Of course its cold, windy and dark outside so…

    Played a ridiculous number/hours of word games and crossword puzzles.

    Also watched a ridiculous number of AI generated cats singing the “APT” video on Instagram, plus a lot of anti Trump shit. Tried to get one of mine to play along but all of them just bit me.

    Drinking Scotch now with the handsome old man. Heating up completely non-complimenary left overs for dinner.

    Not caring anymore about the incoming dictorship, just gonna focus on family, work, friends…for the next few days anyway.

    But next week: finding and aiding the underground resistance to this fucking COUP

  41. 41.

    Doc Sardonic

    Chilly here in the 352…..heading to the store tomorrow for some dried white beans, them and a big slab of skillet cornbread are calling.

  43. 43.

    Jay

    @Doc Sardonic:

    Back when I was married to the Ex, I would do a late spring run to the Thompson River benchlands to catch the stonefly hatch.

    Seriously large Kamloops Trout.

    I would also, fill a cooler with wild asparagus that would grow in the flood sands along the river bed.

    A couple of times I actually made it home with enough asparagus left for a side.

  49. 49.

    Doc Sardonic

    @Jay: That sounds marvelous, it is hard to beat fresh caught fish and though I have never had wild asparagus it sounds awesome.

  54. 54.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl:

    I listened to 5 or 10 seconds, it was so bad that I laughed. 

    And yet you posted it.

     

    I just found out, that a girl got killed here last week, and you knew it! You knew there was a shark out there! You knew it was dangerous! But you let people go swimming anyway? You knew all those things! But still my boy is dead now. And there’s nothing you can do about it. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that.

  55. 55.

    wombat probability cloud

    @WaterGirl: Ready to chip in, plus we have some complementary 50s-vintage stuff to contribute from my hometown. Meanwhile, it’s weird to see the original spelling “Betty Crocker,” given how familiar our beloved Betty’s blog-surname has become.

  58. 58.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Suzanne:

    My basement is horrifying, though. Feels like Buffalo Bill’s house. 

    It would be less creepy if you filled in that deep pit.

  59. 59.

    SpaceUnit

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    I have a tater tot addiction too.  I like to eat them with burgers or burritos or fajitas and dip them in blue cheese dressing.

    It’s like fucking heroin.

  60. 60.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @geg6:

    Ah, I see now. I haven’t paid as much attention as I used to.

    The games on Christmas Day was overkill.

  63. 63.

    Suzanne

    Elmo is apparently calling for “heavy use” of C-sections, as he appears to believe that it enlarges the infant brain.

    I can’t believe this piece of shit has ever touched a woman. And now I want to vomit.

  65. 65.

    prostratedragon

    @mrmoshpotato:  As you’re a young whippersnapper, you might not know that back in the day, what’s now known as “stepping,” or in Brooklyn the “hustle,” was once called the “bop” in Chicago, as in, “Have you learned the new bop?”

  66. 66.

    Jay

    @Doc Sardonic:

    Here, wild asparagus is just garden asparagus that escaped confinement. Because it grows in poorer soil, it’s skinnier.

    Along the Thompson River, you can find it in the floodplains from the Wallachine down to the junction with the Fraser.

    Wallachine was a bench land community, apple orchards and garden farms built high above the river that relied on an intricate series of flumes to carry water down from the hills to the farms. It died in 1919, most of the men had gone off to war, and so few came back that there was nobody to maintain the flumes.

    As the benchland eroded, the asparagus was seeded down onto the river flood plains.

  67. 67.

    geg6

    @WaterGirl:

    And I thought you were so nice!  You can’t make me watch/listen to that.  And you are so mean to even link that.  (Fingers in ears) LALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!

  68. 68.

    TBone

    @Doc Sardonic: when I was last in Switzerland, we couldn’t get fresh vegetables (tiny market in Kandersteg) so I bought a couple kinds of canned and made a vinaigrette to make them palatable.  They were not palatable no matter how much I tried to camouflage!  Especially the asparagus!

  69. 69.

    KatKapCC

    @Suzanne: I can’t wrap my head around it. Like…by the time birth happens, the fetus is done forming. Does he think the head gets squeezed so tightly in the birth canal that it permanently smushes the brain?

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Suzanne: My brother and I have really big heads.  I think some mom’s might not mind his plan.  For very different reasons.

    *Not to be taken seriously except for the first sentence.  It’s true.

  73. 73.

    SpaceUnit

    Dang, just when the Steelers start to show a little life they shit the bed with a stupid turnover.

  74. 74.

    Scout211

    I made homemade tomato soup and grilled ham and cheese sammiches for lunch for family who drove down for a visit this week. It’s not really retro unless you use wonder bread and Velveeta or American cheese and canned Campbell’s tomato soup.  But it is comfort food, which feels retro.

    My new range has a cast iron grill that made perfectly grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.  I really love that thing.

    Oh, and I ordered a piece of heat resistant silicon for the stove top. They sell precut ones but I read lots of complaints about them so I got one that you have to cut the holes yourself for the burners.  It was not perfect, but once I reassembled the burners and then put the grates back on, it looks fine.  Plus, it was 1/4 of the cost of the precut ones. Hopefully, it will pick up most of the spills and splatters and my whining will cease.*

    *she will never stop whining.

  77. 77.

    Suzanne

    @KatKapCC: I have no idea what — or if — he thinks.

    Of course, as we all know, C-sections are major surgery and literally endorsing cutting women open unnecessarily is monstrous, right? Right?!

  86. 86.

    Scout211

    @Suzanne: Elmo is apparently calling for “heavy use” of C-sections, as he appears to believe that it enlarges the infant brain.

    Joy Behar:

    “Maybe he should try a cesarean himself,” [Behar] said. “I’ll help. I’ll assist.”

  87. 87.

    TBone

    On that Joy Behar note, I’ll quote this lady from Philly.

    Yesterday, on the first day of the new GOP-controlled Congress, a 78-year-old nut job hand-selected the unpopular Speaker, an 81-year-old GOP (NC-Q) congresswoman fell down the stairs, and a 91-year-old GOP senator with dementia is now third in the line of succession.

    I guess I should say “thoughts and prayers,” but Ginny Foxx is as mean as a snake and she would only be missed by people as rotten as she is.

    I’ll add: if only there had been an open window nearby.

    crooksandliars.com/2025/01/maga-rep-virginia-foxx-takes-fall-down

    She did a Mitch Glitch too.

  88. 88.

    CaseyL

    I must be a wierdo, because I happen to love canned peas.  It’s the only canned veg I like.  They’re so soft and sweet.  (Actually, I like peas of almost any kind, in almost any configuration.  Frozen, canned, fresh from the pod; snap, sugar, and English…)

    It’s good to hear Joelle’s recovery is going well.

    And it makes me nostalgic to hear you’re watching the Steelers again.  Maybe you never stopped, but I remember Way Back When, you were a big fan.  Had the terrible towel and all. Even had a Steeler bankie for Tunch.  Or maybe it was two towels: one for you, one for him.

    A good and busy day today. Did the water quality testing at the park this morning, and went with a friend to see Wallace & Gromit’s “Vengeance Most Fowl” in the afternoon.  I feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth out of this day.

  89. 89.

    Doc Sardonic

    @catclub: I think it has to do with the canning process vs freezing. I generally don’t like canned vegetables but frozen are fine, and yes frozen peas and corn do make good ice packs. Funny thing is my wife’s orthopedic surgeon recommends frozen peas for icing.

  90. 90.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @prostratedragon: One of the LGM guys posts pictures of a grave every day and he recently posted a pic of the grave of Levi Stubbs. I looked at that and thought that name is so familiar. Where do I know that from?

    Turns out I knew it from my Detroit girlhood. Stubbs was one of the Four Tops.

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    @SpaceUnit

    Non-members as well as members may use Costco Shop Cards to shop at any Costco location in the U.S., Canada, or Puerto Rico, as well as online at Costco.com. Source

  92. 92.

    Suzanne

    @Nukular Biskits: I don’t know exactly what he “thinks” is going to happen?

    There are certainly other factors at play, but heavy use of c-sections allows for a larger brain, as brain size has historically been limited by birth canal diameter

  97. 97.

    TaMara

    @Sure Lurkalot: Dear god, don’t accidentally try tater tot crowns, which are just thinner tater tots and so crisp and yummy, you’ll never look back.

    If I’m in the mood for tots, those are my choice.

  100. 100.

    JoyceH

    We’re all feeling retro I guess. In my last grocery order I got some Banquet pot pies. When we were kids if Mom and Dad had a dinner out or an evening meeting, the kids would have TV dinners or pot pies. We thought the pot pies were the mother lode, nothing could be better. In retrospect, they now seem like – a nice little snack.

  101. 101.

    TBone

    Slipped under the radar: the New Year’s Eve Ethics Massacre

    “They can now take dollars from donors and put them in their pocket,” Schuman wrote in his newsletter. “It’s not what they said they did, but under the cover of the New Year’s holiday, Ethics Committee Democrats and Republicans pulled a fast one, legalizing a money laundry so blatantly corrupt it would embarrass Walter White. They also made many other allegations of wrongdoing disappear.”

    The details are astounding (that word is gonna be used a lot):

    crooksandliars.com/2025/01/house-holds-new-years-eve-ethics-massacre

  102. 102.

    Ruckus

    @BeautifulPlumage:

    Same here, got mine thursday.

    Looks good up on the wall, all of them have been great. Nice to see so many people like their pets. They add a lot to living.

  105. 105.

    John Revolta

    @NotMax: I had that record when I was a tyke and I loved it……… but there was one part I didn’t understand. When he says “he taught me to way to win your heart” I heard it as “the waydo in your heart”. I never knew what the waydo was, but I figured it was something bad. Anyway, this was long long ago and it may be the earliest known instance of “Misheard Lyric Syndrome”.

    Now excuse me while I kiss this guy

  107. 107.

    Scout211

    @JoyceH: OMG!  Are you my sister?! My parents did that, too!  We never had the TV dinners but we had pot pies when they were out for dinner.

  112. 112.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Suzanne:

    @Nukular Biskits: I don’t know exactly what he “thinks” is going to happen?

    There are certainly other factors at play, but heavy use of c-sections allows for a larger brain, as brain size has historically been limited by birth canal diameter

    Maybe he thinks that the human head is like Great Stuff expanding foam and after it “cures”, it’s done expanding?

  114. 114.

    TBone

    Marie Callender’s are the only pot pies allowed in my house unless I make them from scratch.

  115. 115.

    Doc Sardonic

    Oh man, childhood nirvana, Swanson TV dinner with the pull back the foil flap to bake apple dessert. Followed up with a pan of Jiffy Pop and a B&W TV western.

  116. 116.

    Ruckus

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    shitforbrains would have to be a lot smarter and better raised to be a dictator. What he is, is a dogs chew toy that tastes so bad to any dog that he’d get stuffed under the couch as punishment to his owners for purchasing it, letting them smell it till they turned the house upside down to find it and throw it out properly.

  119. 119.

    Ruckus

    @SpaceUnit:

    They must have improved since the last time mom warmed them up. I mean she gets a break since she worked and kept the house up but still… And I like potatoes, especially In and Out fries.

  120. 120.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Sure Lurkalot: sounds delicious. At schools they serve sweet potato tater tots, too. Quite nice. And frozen peas are pretty darn good. Nice in Mac n cheese. And other dishes.

  123. 123.

    Wapiti

    @Suzanne: I knew a guy who claimed to be a drummer for YESS when they were playing in German nightclubs; met a German girl, left the band, they made it big. True? Dunno.

    He said when they were doing their cover of Sugar Pie Honey, the guys singing background vocals would sing “shove a pie up yer bum.” True? Dunno.

  124. 124.

    Ruckus

    @geg6:

    I went right past that, it seemed like it would be – less than spectacular. I see from above postings that I was slightly incorrect, it was, as I’m seeing, pure _ _ _ _.

    You can fill in any 4 letter word you want.

  125. 125.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Ruckus: my mom used to serve canned asparagus w mayonnaise on it. It was pretty vile, and difficult to choke down.

    Dad came from a backyard garden in Virginia, so he was always looking at dinner and asking what was the vegetable going to be. And mom would open up a can of something. It left a bad impression about vegetables…

  126. 126.

    Trivia Man

    @Suzanne: My guess: He thinks that

    IF we make it a habit to only deliver via C Sections

    THEN

    future humans will evolve with bigger brains

    Many Many years ago I read “scientific” articles that guessed that humans can’t get smarter because the birth canal dictates no more capacity.

  127. 127.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @WaterGirl: ​
     those are perfect. And they bring the memories! Once, when Mom had the flu, Dad was feeding her a Swanson dinner on one of those trays while she was on the couch, and it collapsed. My 3-yr old self remembers peas everywhere!

  128. 128.

    Trivia Man

    @catclub: or to fool the thermostat if the stingy landlord sets it at 62 and locks the controls. Just nestle the peas against the heat sensor and the heat comes on.

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Those heads weren’t that size when born. But all is well as long as they grew that way and it’s not just hot air inflation that got them that size….. Some humans do seem to suffer from puffed up brains, I never took you to be one of them.

  131. 131.

    NotMax

    @Doc Sardonic

    So old can remember eating them back before they added a dessert slot.

    Anyone else recall the international ones? “Mexican style,” “Italian style,” “Chinese style,” “Polynesian style,” “English style” — IIRC the “German style” was the best of the lot.

  132. 132.

    different-church-lady

    “Look you idiots, you do the c-section before the baby is born, and the it has lots of room to continue developing the big brain like mine!”

  140. 140.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Nukular Biskits: I have tried a few ways to accomplish the quote box inside another quote box, and have not succeeded. could you tell me how this is accomplished?

    Meanwhile, on births, c sections vs vaginal birth. From numerous discussions w moms, and clients, and following the development of my godchild who was a rush emergency C-section, what I understand is this:

    the cranial bones compress and overlap each other during birth, and the squeezing effect, seems to be followed by an opening or release of the squishing, and may be part of a very beneficial stimulus for the baby, and I imagine it might be part of how the cranial sacral fluid pump starts its “breathing.”

    some people take their babies to a cranial osteopath for help getting the whole body set to rights after some birth experiences. My goddaughter needed extra sensory stimulation, in part due to her birth, and perhaps her first weeks on medical intervention. We used to brush her skin, and do compressions through her joints.

    my understanding is the birth process provides some important stimulation. Maybe all that rubbing and toweling off is also beneficial for newborns. It’s also great they we can have C-sections when needed. It lets a lot of people live, and have better outcomes.

  141. 141.

    KatKapCC

    @Leto: Oh, that was lovely. I adored him in Family Ties, had the biggest crush as a kid. The advocacy work he’s done has been so admirable and moving.

  142. 142.

    Ruckus

    @TBone:

    When I was in the USN there was no disguising the taste. You ate the disgusting slop provided. Now on the first ship I was on the head cook actually was extremely good at turning the supplied crap into good meals. Of course he retired, 30 yrs in, 2 weeks after I reported on board. In less than a week it went back down to starvation or eat, starvation or eat, every damn day meal. It took effort to talk myself into the eat part. But survival took over.

  145. 145.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ruckus: In Basic, a drill sergeant told us that the mark of an experienced soldier is that they take toilet paper and Tabasco to the field.

  146. 146.

    JoyceH

    @NotMax: I got them all – chicken, turkey and beef. And something that I think is new since my childhood- sausage and gravy! OMG! 

  147. 147.

    Ruckus

    @Nukular Biskits:

    Well he’s such a pompous ass, and one that doesn’t have the proper equipment to grow and give birth to a child, but is also, don’t forget, that rather pompous ass.

  148. 148.

    TBone

    @Ruckus: the old saying, you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.

    I have never had to be that hungry, because I am too privileged.  Because people like you made that possible. I’ve had to eat bologna sandwiches on Wonder bread, and prison food in my past too.  I still make homemade shit on a shingle (cream of dried beef on toast for those who don’t know what S.O.S. is) because I love it.  I also eat scrapple but only Habersetts.

    I keep a teeny tiny restaurant mini bottle of Tabasco on the backsplash ledge next to my stove, as a reminder…

  149. 149.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @SpaceUnit: I have a Costco membership but 8 lbs of tots would be a bit much regardless of price and addiction. Besides, now that I’m a tater tot expert, I think the Kroger brand (Tater Bites) are better than Ore-Ida.

  150. 150.

    Leto

    @KatKapCC: I was just a bit too young for Family Ties, parents didn’t watch it, but I’ve watch the Back to the Future trilogy probably a billion times. I remember when he announced his Parkinson’s on Spin City, and always cheered when he made guest appearances on other shows. Agreed on the advocacy.

  152. 152.

    Neo-Librettist

    @TBone:

    FWIW, the corporate website lists 22 restaurant locations remaining.

    The frozen pies (Con-Agra) will be the brand legacy.

    The College Inn was the restaurant at the long gone Sherman Hotel in Chicago. Del-Monte continues to sell soup and stock under that brand.

  153. 153.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    @Nukular Biskits: I have tried a few ways to accomplish the quote box inside another quote box, and have not succeeded. could you tell me how this is accomplished?

    1. Copy the entirety of what you want to quote (including the quoted-quoted text, if that makes sense).

    2. In the text editor, click on “Blockquote” and the paste everything inside THAT quote box.

  156. 156.

    KatKapCC

    @Leto: I was the perfect age for the show as far as developing a puppy love crush. I think I was 7 or 8 when it debuted. But yes, BTTF is one of my all-time faves, such a comfort movie! Though…it’s a little harder to watch the second one these days since we know Biff is a stand-in for Trump and in that one in particular it’s really obvious. Makes me wanna punch the screen, LOL.

  157. 157.

    TBone

    These Libbyland frozen dinners marketed to kids in the 70s were the shizzle when we were littles!

    gbnfgroceries.blogspot.com/2012/03/from-frozen-foods-dept-libbyland.html?m=1

    (Hahaha!  The cartoons on the package were the only good thing about them but me & little bro were suckers.)

    Libby the Kid was Libbyland’s mascot, and he didn’t just bring kids processed microwave meals. Oh no. He brought them adventure. You could choose from Safari Supper, Sea Divers Dinner, Pirate Picnic, or Sundown Supper. Each box had fun and games on it, and it popped up into a cool scene you could look at as you tried to choke down the little hot dogs, or tater tots, or fish sticks, or chicken patties, or blazing hot pudding, or grape infused applesauce, or any of the other items not fit for consumption by anyone over the age of 11.

    I remember that purple hot mess vividly!

  158. 158.

    Leto

    @Ruckus: so the Dutch conglomerate that controlled the DFAC for our outpost in Afghanistan, Supreme (think KBR), was consistently rated worst food provider in theater. We were a bit worried, but thought, can’t be that bad. First day in there we smelled sewage. Couldn’t see any sewage, but smelled it. As we moved through the line, finally located it: the rice. The rice smelled like sewage. Two of the guys got it, basically bragged about “iron stomachs.” First guy had one bite, noped the hell out after that one bite. Second guy finished about half of the serving before calling it quits.

    I didn’t touch rice for the entire tour (8 months), and basically had a very similar experience of starve or eat. Between the marathon training, and not really eating, I did manage to shed almost 50lbs. Our last mont there, KBR finally moved in. That place was always f’ing jammed packed because there was finally edible food. But yeah, I still remember the smell of that rice almost 16 years later. Ugh.

  159. 159.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Leftover Chinese take-out (beef with snow peas and rice), and just wrapped up the second Murderbot novella. (Thanks to whoever suggested the series in a past thread!) Definitely imagining Murderbot’s narration in Blogfather’s voice — grumpy attitude and “eeewww people” seems like a perfect fit, even if Murderbot prefers soap operas to GOT.

  161. 161.

    Leto

    @KatKapCC: I was 6, and the parental units didn’t watch it, but I knew of it. I didn’t know about the Biff/Trumpov thing, but when I read your comment, I looked it up and Jesus… how did I miss that. Makes a ton of sense though. Ugh!

  162. 162.

    TBone

    My mom took me to see the original BTTF on a just us mom & me movie night.  It sure beat the night she took me into Center City Philly in her little Chevette to see an Ingmar Bergman film in a blizzard haha!

  165. 165.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ve known a number of vets that fought in Vietnam and know how much fun it wasn’t. Most meals at sea in the Navy weren’t all that  but better than needing tabasco on every thing. Actually had a chief who actually knew how to cook for over 300 people a day. Of course he retired not long after I reported on board. I also once unloaded an entire semi trailer of boxes of food for a deployment by myself, handing off the 50 pound boxes to the guys that carried them on board up the ramp and down 2 sets of steep stairs to the storage areas. I got the better end of the deal, by far. I know, I once had to carry them on board. A lot tougher than it sounds. For example I’m 5’10” tall in stocking feet and had to duck for overhead wiring mounts every 18 inches as you walked down the main passageway. All the electrical and electronic wiring went down the main fore/aft passageway. I believe every USN ship I was ever on, other than aircraft carriers, had passageways were about 5′ 9″ clearance at best. We had a guy who bunked across from me that was about 6′ 5″ and he only fit on his bunk knees to top of his head. Half his legs, knee down hung over the walk way between bunks. Navy ships were not built for comfort. Quite possibly for discomfort though. They have actually improved over the decades. I have no idea who let that happen.

  166. 166.

    KatKapCC

    @Leto: I think in the first film, it’s easy not to connect it. But the second one, yeah, they turned it up to 11, haha.

  167. 167.

    Leto

    @Sister Golden Bear: They’re making a tv series out of those novels. Avalune and I enjoyed them immensely, so we’re hoping they don’t f this up too bad. Though, Apple seems to be doing pretty well with their adaptations.

     

    @TBone: Yeah, my food service experiences in both Iraq and Afghanistan are really… unique. While a lot of people were at the mega bases, enjoying DFACs with like 5-6 different food type lines (Mexican line, regular food line, Mongolian bbq line, etc…), I was like, “What’s the least disgusting thing here I can manage?” Hell, I wish they would’ve just given us MREs. I’m that weirdo guy who didn’t mind MREs, except the egg omelet one. Ugh, no thank you.

  168. 168.

    TBone

    @Leto: I’d like to see the magats on Meal Team Six scooters at the Walmart who think they are badasses have to do meal service like yours.  They’d literally be crying.

  169. 169.

    Leto

    @TBone: my dad took me and my sister. As a high school teacher, he had summers off (within reason. He still worked at my grandparents ceramic shop, which my mom managed, but overall child wrangling was his department) and we did that quite a bit. The summers of 84-87 were amazing and will never be matched. No blizzards though. SC: unrelenting heat and humidity. :)

  170. 170.

    different-church-lady

    @Leto: How do you make rice smell like sewerage? I mean, it’s impossible, unless the liquid you were cooking it in actually was… oh… oh god…

  173. 173.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Leto  @Ruckus:

    Never served in the US Navy but have been underway I don’t know how many times on commissioned ships. Most of the time, slept in crew berthing and messed with the enlisted personnel.

    Every ship was different.  Some ships the food wasn’t too bad. Some it was downright awful. I’m not a picky eater but I always carry snacks, just in case.  Usually the main thing I have a problem with is the coffee because #1, a lot of kids these days don’t know how to make it (’cause they drink energy drinks) and #2 the bromine treatment in the potable water makes coffee taste absolutely nasty to me (which is why I also carry bottled water with me).

    On one ship, the galley was run by a 1st class because they’d lost their chief and their sr. chief (don’t remember the circumstances). The poor kids were doing the best they could but the food was terrible.  And you know it’s bad when the eggs at breakfast are bad.

    Anyway, at either lunch or dinner one day, I was eating what was supposed to be cheesy scalloped taters and I remarked to one of the technicians I was working with they tasted funny.  He said, “You know why? Because they used fucking nacho cheese instead of regular cheese on them!”

    Damn if he wasn’t right.

    ETA: Edits/corrections

  176. 176.

    Leto

    @Nukular Biskits: hahaha, that’s funny! I mean, I don’t complain too much because in the grand scheme of things, and total time in service, those were just blips. Extremely memorable blips, but still blips. Gonna chalk up what you said about food, and what Ruckus said above about ceiling heights and food, as more reasons why I made the right decision on branch choice :P

    But for that Afghan deployment, for 8 months my lunch and dinner was: 1 chicken breast, some spaghetti noodles (if they had them), a serving of peas/carrots, and a serving of corn. Stuff from a can, never cob. Breakfast was eggs, 1 sausage patty, 1-2 slices of toast, fruit if they had it. Friday dinner was special as they had spaghetti with water sauce (it was water with red food dye), corn and peas/carrots. 8 months. /shrug.

  179. 179.

    RevRick

    @Suzanne:So, I went to his tweet and replied, “Yes, let’s butcher women to get those bigger brains…Do you even hear yourself @elonmusk.?”

  180. 180.

    Leto

    @Nukular Biskits: I would’ve taken ketchup sauce in an instant. I remember that scene out of the first episode of Band of Brothers when Guarnere sits down, insulting the sauce as ketchup, then Ross busts in and tells them they’re running Curahee. This was red water, with like a few pepper specks put in. But at least it had two thumb sized meatballs and it was different.

  182. 182.

    Ruckus

    @different-church-lady:

    Military food was often everything but actual eatable food. Didn’t mean you never ate, it was just so seldom that it was reasonably close to actual food. If you want to you can make any assembly line style food taste like sewage. If you don’t give a damn what you served to the troops, some of whom carried a loaded weapon on watch, you could serve sewage and not blink an eye. Not that the cooks ate what they served the rest of us. And officers had their own cooks and food stuffs. They didn’t have to eat the crap we did. In port I stood a watch with a loaded .45 semi automatic pistol. On that watch I walked all over the ship. I asked once what I should I do if I saw someone on board that didn’t belong. “Shoot the fucker.”  I never took the pistol out of the holster. (And no, I didn’t learn to swear in the USN. I worked in a machine shop from about 12. I knew how to swear rather well)

  183. 183.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    We went to NOLA right after Katrina for animal rescue for several months.  Total ad-hoc, grass roots.  Steve Gilliard used to list the groups.  I found one and we hooked up with them.

    Ate MRE’s the entire time except for the occasional Salvation Army of all groups stopping by with hot food.  We even had some MRE’s that had been re-packaged for humanitarian delivery.  I still have one all these years later, un-opened.

    There was a National Guard unit in the next block and probably the only thing that stopped gangs from coming in and intimidating we volunteers into giving up pit bulls or smaller dogs that we’d rounded up as bait dogs.  Funny how some dude in fatigues with an M-16, by his mere presence, got a gang-banger to high tail it outta there.  Fun times.

    If anybody ever wants to see the disaster that was Dubya’s administration, you should have been in NOLA for the remainder of the year after Katrina.

  186. 186.

    Leto

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: was stationed right down the road at Keesler AFB (Biloxi, MS), 2003-2008. Had a front row seat for that. I remember when they plopped down 5 pallets of MREs in the center hallway of our building for everyone.

    If you want a different perspective read: Being a commander during a hurricane.

    From Aug. 28 – Sept. 2, I lived with 730 of my “closest friends” in 50-year-old Bryan Hall at Keesler AFB, Miss. It was my third stint as a shelter commander, but it was unlike anything I had experienced before. As life slowly returns to normal on the Gulf Coast and I reflect on the experience, I’ve come to appreciate the unpredictability of command and how much an event like Katrina can change people and communities.

    His description of smokers is fucking hilarious and spot on.

  187. 187.

    Ruckus

    @TBone:

    Mom used to make SOS and it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. (That’s shit on a shingle, just in case you didn’t know….) In the USN however the quality of the food carried up the gangway and down the stairs to storage wasn’t bad. Put navy cooks in charge of it and they could make any food taste like soles of used army boots, that had been used around cattle. I imagine that some other branches of the military were actually worse – I know ex Marines and Army, I use the VA for my healthcare and my best friend was a Marine, in Vietnam. I had decent meals – occasionally. I had eatable meals the vast majority of the time. Thankfully I was able to lower my standards for eatable.

  189. 189.

    Ruckus

    @Leto:

    On board ship one could only smoke when the smoking lamp was lit and that was not often. And that was not inside the ship if I remember correctly. Thankfully. Under way one could smoke on the fantail of the ship when it was allowed. But that was only on your off duty time. Fortunately for me I didn’t/don’t smoke. I believe a carton of smokes was $10, maybe $15. I was discharged over half a century ago.

  190. 190.

    Leto

    @Ruckus: Yeah, the “smoking lamp” was off for about 5 days for most of the smokers. A buddy of mine had quit right before Katrina hit. He went out to assess his home, came back, sat down on the picnic bench in front of the building and just lit up.

    I was like, “Dude, you’ve been good for like 6 months. What happened?”

    “Leto, it’s all gone.”

    ”What do you mean it’s all gone?”

    ”Remember how I had a two story house? The second story is perfectly aligned with the foundation. You’d think it was always a one story house. Pictures on the walls are still hanging there, bed is still made, looks just fine. But it’s one story. Everything else? Gone.”

    I didn’t say anything else about the cigs.

  192. 192.

    Ruckus

    @Leto:

    I didn’t have anything like that but it wasn’t all whiskey and roses. I crossed the Atlantic 6 times, that’s 3 crossings/both ways. This was as I believe I stated above during Vietnam. I was lucky to be stationed on the east coast and sent to Europe. No war but it was considered wartime so a lot of what we did was with that in mind. I’ve stated here before that we were sent to the northern tip of Norway 3 times and to Guantanamo Bay also 3 times. I can’t say I enjoyed one moment on board ship but walking around Europe was fun. Guantanamo not so much. Now my last moment was pretty good. Walking off with my honorable discharge was a highlight and my best day. I was in charge of an electronics department on a USN ship and still treated like, well shit. I really didn’t know anyone that actually enjoyed any of it other than their last day.

  193. 193.

    Gretchen

    @RevRick: My daughter had a csection two years ago, and they sent her home in two days after cutting her open with just Tylenol for pain control. Not the Tylenol with codeine, just regular Tylenol. I was shocked. 35 years ago they used to send you home with the codeine Tylenol for a regular birth, but now they’re so afraid of opiate abuse they don’t even do it for major surgery.

  195. 195.

    MagdaInBlack

    Holy cow is it jarring to see my maiden name at the near end Cole’s post: Tomlin. Yeah, I know it’s their coach, but it was momentarily weird.

  197. 197.

    TBone

    @Gretchen: I had basal cell carcinoma cut off of my face, skin graft from my forehead sewn into the tiny space between my eyelid and bridge of nose to fill in the hole, all while wide awake and only local anesthesia where the needles were so painful that I almost passed out on the table. Skidded needles across my skull/forehead. I was given nothing for pain afterwards also.  Plus my face now looks lopsided because my eyebrows are no longer in line with each other.  They told me beforehand, when I made an appointment to specifically ask questions about what they were gonna do, that it would be no big deal and over before I knew what happened.  LIARS!  They never mentioned ANY of what actually happened.  Just “no big deal, be a good girl and STFU.” I should have cancelled but…cancer so I went.

  198. 198.

    AnthroBabe

    @MattF: oh but Cole made clear on bluesky that they were Le Sueur peas, of which I still have few cans. Grandma used to have those for the holidays!

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