Proof of Life!
This was apparently so much fun that columbusqueen is already planning for next year’s meet-up, and I am told that you’ll all be invited.
Pics from Ohio Mom
Camera shy: Suzanne (all the way from Pittsburgh!) and Mr. Sab
Pic from manyakitty (taken by Mr. Sab?)
If someone wants to supply names for the bottom pic, in order, starting with the (surely not MAGA hat) red Indycar P1 hat I can add to the caption list!
Clues on names:
Take 1: Goku is at the head of the table. Ohio Farmer is wearing the red hat, Prof. Bigfoot is on the other side of Goku, Ohio Mom is next to Ohio Dad, I can’t remember nym for the woman next to Ohio Mom, or the man to her right. I think Josie is next to the man, Suzanne is next to her, then sab. The man next to Ohio Farmer is a lurker but I can’t remember his exact nym.
Take 2: Nice lurker 1 and 2, Suzanne, sab, temporarily decloaked lurker S., Ohio Farmer, Goku, Prof. B. and his lovely bride, Manyakitty, Ohio Dad, Ohio Mom, and columbusqueen!
Is this our biggest meetup ever?
The PA Supreme Court Retention Election Matters!
Omnes Omnibus
In central Ohio, a hat like that means OSU. Everyone looks surprisingly sane.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Don’t you mean The OSU?
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: I hesitated over that and then thought fuck ’em.
Professor Bigfoot
@Gin & Tonic: I’ve started referring to my alma mater as “The Tennessee State University.”
‘Cause I can be a pretentious as anyone. 😂
Trivia Man
@Omnes Omnibus: in Madison red hats always startle me. Im often startled – but i cant recall the last time i saw a red hat that wasn’t a W.
They all look happy to be there.
Melancholy Jaques
@Omnes Omnibus:
I feel attacked
Dorothy A. Winsor
What a fine looking group!
eclare
@Professor Bigfoot:
Good for you!
Omnes Omnibus
@Trivia Man: Yeah, the fact that there aren’t that many MAGA hat people here makes me less twitchy about red hats. Also the few MAGA hats I have seen have been cammo (maybe because MAGA red looks too much like cardinal).
eclare
What a huge turnout, and it looks like a fun crowd! Thanks for the photos Ohio Mom!
Omnes Omnibus
@Melancholy Jaques: I am sure you look surprisingly sane as well.
Suzanne
It was a great meetup, very glad I was able to make it (though late). Special thanks to columbusqueen for organizing!
Ruckus
The meetups I’ve been to have been fun and interesting. Everyone looks like they are having a good time.
We’ve had bigger one’s here in SoCal but then there are a lot of people that live here. We haven’t had one in a while that I’m aware of though.
columbusqueen
@Suzanne: You’re all very welcome. It was a rockin’ good time for everyone. Am hoping to be significantly thinner next year.
WaterGirl
@columbusqueen:
That might be true for enough people that it could be a rotating tag!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
On an administrative note, Water Girl, you should tag this:
Meetups.
It makes it easier to search for past ones.
MM didn’t do that for the Denver meetup either:
https://balloon-juice.com/2025/01/07/denver-meetup/
If possible, could you go back to that one and add the ‘Meetups’ tag?
Lyrebird
Looks like a really nice gathering!
WaterGirl, I may have missed some clues, but I think it’s like this?
starting from the chalkboard with specials going all the way around:
Nice lurker 1 and 2, Suzanne, sab, temporarily decloaked lurker S., Ohio Farmer, Goku, Prof. B. and his lovely bride, Manyakitty, Ohio Dad, Ohio Mom, and columbusqueen!
columbusqueen
@Omnes Omnibus: Atta boy!
Paul in KY
Great meetup! Looks like it was alot of fun.
Suzanne
@columbusqueen: You and me and everyone else! ;)
John Sterling
So that’s what I missed. Phooey. I see one empty chair, guess that would have been mine.
columbusqueen
@Suzanne: Maybe, but in my case I have to reduce, or I’m in more trouble health wise.
Also, because of my hostessing tendencies, I would be open to planning an autumn meetup if people want. I know several places that would be quieter.
Melancholy Jaques
@Omnes Omnibus:
Appearances can be so deceiving.
RedDirtGirl
Looks like a great time was had by all! Brings back memories of a big gathering we had in NYC years ago.
Manyakitty
Truly a great time seeing you all! (Apologies for spacing on some of the names. Guess we’ll all need to show up for the next one and get those cemented in mind.)
p.a.
Great turnout!
WaterGirl
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Thanks for the heads up.
There were 4 Denver meetup posts, none tagged with Meetup.
Fixed now.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@RedDirtGirl:
I just plowed thru such posts that have been tagged “Meetups” and one thing is clear, NYC and Seattle have had a lot of meetups dating back to 2014!
MazeDancer
Cute! Cute! Cute! What a cool grouo!
Ohio farmer
@Omnes Omnibus: the only thing worse than saying it’s an Ohio state hat is saying it’s a maga hat! It’s an Indycar P1 hat from winning pole at mid-Ohio race and we were meeting on Indy 500 qualifying day…. Which is why I wore that hat…. Half way there I realized I was wearing a red hat…. Wtf was I thinking? Oh well, pot committed at this point. And my friends is why I stupidly wore a red hat
Omnes Omnibus
@Ohio farmer: A likely story.
Ohio Mom
@John Sterling: There’s always next year
WaterGirl
Okay, I think I pieced the names together – can you guys check my work?
But I am missing Josie, unless she is the person whose hair I can barely see by the chalkboard? Or do I have someone misnamed in the caption?
Baud
Best news today!
WaterGirl
@Ohio farmer: In defense of your honor, I have updated the post and the caption to correctly describe your red not a MAGA or an Ohio State hat!
columbusqueen
@Ohio farmer: Indy is good. My brother be there this weekend.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
First, speaking as a Californian, look at all those white people.
Bit off topic, but I was reading some of the rage replies to Pitchbot on Blueskye and that was bit disturbing – a lot of the Palestinian Supporters keep on compering Israel to the Nazis, but in a truly insanely ignorant way. To them; Gaza is worse than what the Nazis did in WW2, which is so absurd it gets into revisionist history . I can see why the Right accuses them being antisemitic ( I don’t think the Palestinian Supporters are, just them being idiots and not thinking before they speak)
(Bombing cities and staving the population by blockades is what the US did to Japan in WW2, the Israelis are doing a full American. And yes Curtis LaMay, I see you sniffing about “Then were is the napalm?”)
cain
I remember the portland meetup to be pretty decent sized. Maybe 15 people?
Redshift
Pretty sure the debate watch meetup we had with DougJ in DC years ago was even bigger, but this is definitely a contender!
Speaking of which, we’re overdue for another DC-area meetup!
Omnes Omnibus
@Redshift: The one in Madison in 2013 where Cole got bored and wandered off to play video golf was pretty big.
Ohio farmer
@columbusqueen: I was able to go to qualifying weekend and race weekend twice…. In luxury as my cousins father in law owned a team…. But no more and going to races as a regular ole ticket holder, well, I just can’t do it
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I had a lot of fun going to this meet-up and meeting folks for the “first” time. Would definitely like to do this again!
I really hate that I closed my eyes in the last picture though lol
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus:
That is so Cole! Sometimes it seems like he has the attention span of a gnat, but it’s all part of his charm. :-)
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: The 0-4 Ohio State University.
sab
@John Sterling: That was sab’s spousal unit’s chair. He refused to allow a picture on the internet, so we ended up making him take some of the pictures so that Ohio Mom could be in them.
Come next year.
Steve in the ATL
Which is worse? Tough call.
We had a huge meetup a few years ago at the Thirsty Bear in San Francisco, but I assume that attendance was high because people knew I’d be there. Ok, maybe not.
Miss Bianca
What a fine-looking group o’ jackals!
Trivia Man
@Omnes Omnibus: Is that the one he drank liquor for the last time? I was at that one.
Omnes Omnibus
@Trivia Man: At the Great Dane? If so, I was there too.
John Cole
I suck for not showing up but in my defense a four hour drive both ways did not sound palatable after driving cross country.
Maxim
Looks like a great time!
JML
@Omnes Omnibus: aw, man! The Great Dane! miss that place.
columbusqueen
@John Cole: Understand. I suspected that much driving after your trip was too much, but one can hope.
Layer8Problem
I think you all look outstanding and certainly above average.
Steve in the ATL
@Layer8Problem: as Garrison Keillor described this place:
John Cole
@columbusqueen: I will say the guy in the red ballcap and beard and similar physique is doing a marvelous job as a stand in.
sab
@John Cole: Isn’t he? Ohio has its rural parts and a lot of them are good people.
sab
@John Cole: I for one was hoping for you but not expecting you. Our drive was a lot and yours would have been twice that. I was amazed suzanne made it.
And the Detroit guy. That is a ways.
Cliosfanboy
Was this in Columbus? or Dayton??
Gary K
Since two of my three grandkids had birthdays last weekend, over in Pittsburgh, I was not able to drive down from Mansfield, OH. Maybe next year! It’s nice to see my pen pal Ohio Farmer in his non-MAGA hat; maybe we’ll meet in person one day soon. He has contact info for me, if anyone happens to live near Richland County.
sab
@Cliosfanboy: Columbus’s German Village. Very gentrified neighborhood that is very very old Columbus. It looked liike it could have been old parts of Philadelphia or Georgetown DC or Alexandria VA.
Brick townhouses sideby side. Narrow streets, not much parking. It really looked more like the east coast than central Ohio. I was surprised by it.
I have lived (briefly, thank God) around Columbus many years ago, and I had no idea this little gem of a neighborhood was there.
sab
@Gary K: Could you come to NE Ohio for a summer meetup? We have ideas to make a plan (I forget the exact Trump word salad) but I think our plans are more real.
zhena gogolia
Wow, an all-star lineup!
sab
Acoustics aside (and we weren’t all deaf and old) wasn’t this a lovely venue? Sort of inside, sort of outside.
Central Planning
In the before times, we had a meetup here in Rochester. I felt like that was pretty big.
sab
@columbusqueen: I would love that. Meanwhile there are a lot of jackals in NE Ohio.
Spousal unit (who reads the front pagers but never the comments) wants to know why we are jackals.
Seriously?! We have been this for decades.
I told him something about a disparaging comment sometime about our behavior as a group that we loved. Ravening pack of jackals attacking a commenter. Anyonne got anything more accurate or more current?
Anyone have something better?
columbusqueen
@sab: LIke I said, I’d be happy to prep an autumn event here if there’s interest.
worn
Yeah, I agree that we had at least as many folks there, if not a few more. Didn’t it take 2 tables to hold us all?
My memory is also that Mnemosyne dropped off the site not too long after (I only have this recollection because she was there at the meet up).
columbusqueen
@Layer8Problem: That’s very sweet. I think I look like a pink version of the Goodyear blimp, but whatever.
Ohio farmer
@Gary K: funny enough bc of circumstances…. I ended up in Mansfield for dinner the night of the meet up!
Ohio farmer
@sab: I would try to make a NE Ohio meetup for sure… someone has to stand in as a bog standard middle aged rural white grumpy white guy…..I guess I need to work on the grumpy part
They Call Me Noni
That looks like a fun get together. It’s nice to put faces with nyms.
sab
@Ohio farmer: As far as I can see, your grumpy part is sorely lacking.
sab
@columbusqueen: The Goodyear blimp is very large, gray and sneaky. Does that sound like you? I think not.
I was surprised about how much larger I am than I remembered me.
lowtechcyclist
@sab:
I can’t remember the wording, but it’s one of the rotating tags up top. Do a screen grab for him the next time it pops up!
Glad y’all had a good time, and good to attach faces to some nyms!
LAC
What a nice turn out! Nice to put faces to poster names. Mrs. Bigfoot, yay!!
sab
Pedant here . Could not resist. Shouldn’t Proof of Live be Proof of Life? I would want toclarify that for my loved ones. Biting the rest of my comment.
John Sterling
I just noticed, Shaun Lurker looks just like my brother. He could be his identical twin (if he had one).
Well, my brother from 10 years ago.
Okay, 20 years ago.
sab
@John Sterling: Yikes. You couldn’t show up or your own theoretical brother?
frosty
@sab: A snarling pack of vitriolic vicious jackals. The rotating tag misses one of the v’s. THEY’RE BOTH IMPORTANT!!!
Gloria DryGarden
@John Cole: 4 hours is a long long drive, and 8 hrs round trip, even worse.
we did have several folks who traveled to the very populous and congenial Denver meetup. One guy drove in from eastern Nebraska iirc. Several people from the mountains or distant towns, 1.5-3 hours away. So worth it.
y’all look beautiful.
here’s to success in slimming down, especially to those of us with health concerns.
yes watergirl, that could def be a rotating tag…
Gloria DryGarden
bingo.
Also, I’m experiencing and edgy curiosity on what you bit back. Sometimes accurate spelling and grammar and punctuation make such a difference for clarity
You’ve caught me being unclear over my failure to capitalize US. I’m glad I’m not the only one who notices these things. Sometimes I can’t get my cursor to behave enough to add a period or a space. By the 4th try, I tend to leave my mistakes (the ones I noticed)
columbusqueen
The two lurkers are Joe & Rosie Drake, a lovely couple from Clintonville who kindly gave me a lift home from our shindig.