Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

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

Come on, man.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

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

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The National Guard is not Batman.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

This really is a full service blog.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

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

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Food / Years and Years (Open Thread)

Years and Years (Open Thread)

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I’ve been dealing with a particularly persistent and annoying bout of insomnia (a lifelong problem). Sometimes I’ll reread favorite books and rewatch movies and TV series when sleep is hopelessly elusive.

Recently, I rewatched BBC/HBO’s six-part series “Years and Years,” which stars Emma Thompson, Rory Kinnear, Anne Reid and other notables. If I recall correctly, we discussed it here in comments several years back, when it was current in the U.S.?

I may even have shared a link to the clip below? I can’t remember and can’t be arsed to look it up.

Anyway, for those who haven’t seen it, “Years and Years” is a dystopian drama that follows an extended family through 15 years of political, social and economic turmoil. The action opens the year of the series’ real-life release, 2019.

I think I first saw it in 2020-2021 or thereabouts because I think I remember being smugly relieved that they got the 2020 U.S. election wrong (they had Trump winning reelection). In the series, Emma Thompson plays a corrupt, Trump-style clown who becomes the UK’s PM.

Each episode contains scenes that set the timeline, which extends to 2034. One shows the family matriarch (Reid) sadly watching TV coverage of the 2022 death of Queen Elizabeth II. Remember, the series was released in 2019, so the writers correctly predicted the year the Queen would die. Given QE2’s advanced years, I put that down to a lucky guess.

That said, having just watched it again, I’m impressed anew by how much they got right about the ensuing years. God help us, Trump is back. The world is going to shit in all kinds of ways, what with corrupt oligarchs consolidating power, climate change, conspiracy theory madness, technological advances that outstrip humanity’s ability to handle the fallout, social fragmentation, etc.

The following scene contains at least one major spoiler, but I include it because the family matriarch sums up her view of how we weaved the handbasket that’s currently conveying us all to hell.

She’s not wrong. Anyway, it sure as fuck didn’t help lull me to sleep, watching that damn show again.

So, I’m going to go make a giant tray of lasagna. It is my firm opinion that a dystopian timeline cries out for lasagna. I’ll share a pic later, if it’s a photogenic lasagna.

For now, here’s a photo of an extremely photogenic gopher tortoise I met on the trail earlier today. As you can see, it is not worried a bit about anything. I wished it a good day, and we went our separate ways.

Gopher tortoise on a dusty trail.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

98Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    I dunno.  Sort of prefer series about the 1930s and 40s.  Prefer my Nazis dead, not ascendant.

    But would be interesting to see what those writers came up with.

    Handsome tortoise.

  2. 2.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Turtles/tortoises are one of life’s better surprises and pleasures. I was mowing the other day and narrowly missed running over one (the weeds had gotten out of hand in a portion of our place that we only mow a couple times a year, so I couldn’t see him/her until the near miss). I was and am so glad I missed him. He was quite spry getting out the way of the loud metal monster!

  3. 3.

    FastEdD

    Love to all turtles everywhere-they may outlive humans. Nice to carry your RV everywhere you go. I went to the library and checked out some WW2 books. The librarian grimly nodded when I told her I liked reading about when the fascists lost. Then last week the city council cut the budget for the library by 9%.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    Yesterday, Rose posted about a fox in UK. Now there’s a fox photo in the sidebar from Albatrossity. This means something, but I don’t yet know what.

    ETA: The turtles are another clue.

  5. 5.

    The Unmitigated Gaul

    If you can’t sleep anyway, you should read Chris Pavone’s unputdownable new novel, “The Doorman.” It’s superb. About mostly disgusting people in fin-de-siècle New York (the siècle in question being right now).

  6. 6.

    bjacques

    I LOVED that show. The Gator Gulag business model is straight out of that show—sleazy no-bid contracts and planners knowingly skimping on nutritional and medical requirements.

    If you all have Britbox or something like that, check out The Children Act, starring Emma Thompson as a family judge, Stanley Tucci as her weaselly husband, and Fionn Whitehead as a young Jehovah’s Witness dying of cancer. You may have seen him in a recent adaptation of Great Expectations, or the Black Mirror “choose-your-own adventure” episode “Bandersnatch”.

  8. 8.

    HinTN

    Turtles and torti are wonderful. We saw a huge shellback beside the gravel road we took as a detour from Alligator Alley to go deeper into that jungle. The road was the original planned route until the collective gummints ran out of money and old man Collier financed the remainder.

    Don’t need no additional dystopia right now, thank you

    ETA: Lovely fox for today’s picture, WG, but I hope today ain’t the 31st. Updated: OK, then, it’s a coyote.

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    ❤️🐢

    thanks for the recommendation, Betty!  I will have to check that out. 😀

  13. 13.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I was filling gas at Costco this AM. Long lines.  I was the back car. Big SUV in front of me. I think it was the woman’s first time filling gas at Costco and I’m presuming it was her teenage son who was helping  figure it out. I finish filling gas. Car behind me is parked close behind. Not a ton of space between me and the big SUV to pull out and leave so I waited. Idiot behind me honks two three times. By this point the woman in front is done getting in her car. I idiot behind me gets out of his car to ask me why I’m not going out through the middle. Thank god the woman finally moved so I could leave. The poor Costco attendant had walked over to help the woman so he was right there if something had happened. Seriously;though, this was maybe five minutes of waiting. It wasn’t like he was sitting there for even ten minutes.  Chill the fuck out.

  15. 15.

    Jeffro

    @The Unmitigated Gaul: interesting!  Pavone has written a whole bunch of books and I’d never heard of him before, so thanks!

    Has anyone read the latest by S. A. Cosby, King of Ashes?  Holy cow was that good.  ‘Southern crime noir with some very modern twists’, I guess is the best way to describe it?

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    It’s a truism that a giant pan of lasagna turns out better tasting than cooking the same thing in several small pans.

    One of the mysteries of the cosmos.

    BTW, ever try those “no boil” lasagna noodles? Skeptical was I but would say the end product is greater than 95% identical to the ones using traditional noodles. As it says on the box of the no boil noodles,. for best results make sure they overlap as little as possible when building the lasagna.

  19. 19.

    trollhattan

    Am easily hooked on Brit teevee series of all sorts. I did watch this disturbing series at the time and found it spookily on point. They have Brexit, we have Trump.

    Don’t Look Up seemed a different take on the same general theme.

    Currently watching a Brit series having an entirely different vibe: Such Brave Girls. As cringe comedy goes it’s top-drawer. You think Bad Sisters is cringe?

    ETA tortoise, porpoise. Spend a lifetime trying to get the spelling right, the first time. Handsome tortoise, regardless.

  22. 22.

    oldster

    A nearby pond — perhaps it covers an acre— contains some snapping turtles of fearsome size, as well as many smaller painted turtles. There is a footbridge across a neck of the pond where you can stand and lure the turtles by dropping in bits of whatever food you have handy.
    the biggest snapper has a carapace perhaps 16”-18” from back to front, a tail about 10” long, and a head that’s bigger than my fist. Terrifyingly powerful neck.
    The little painted turtles, some as small as 3” long, swim all around and over the snappers without fear. Perhaps the snappers don’t eat turtles? They are certainly growing large on eating something.

  24. 24.

    Mai Naem mobile

    The Arizona Department of Game and Fish is trying to adopt out desert tortoises. Apparently you can only adopt one. It’s illegal to breed them in captivity. I would love to do it but I’m pretty sure my dogs would figure out how to kill the tortoise. I knew a guy who was a AZDGF warden who told me you actually  have to do quite a but to for a desert tortoise habitat but I also know a guy who had a desert tortoise which had just wandered into his yard and stayed. He just made sure the tortoise had water and veggies.

  25. 25.

    No One of Consequence

    Thank you Betty for posting that video link. I watched it, and was shamed by the truth of it, and my role in it. I aspire to that level of clarity and brevity and wisdom.
    -NOoC

  27. 27.

    kalakal

    @zhena gogolia:

    Distantly related

    They’re the same family Canidae but split at the next level, Dogs ( and Coyotes, jackels and wolves)  are all of the genus Canis, foxes are their own thing, genus Vulpes. 

  29. 29.

    Ruckus

    Betty, I use to have a hard time getting to sleep. Part of that for me is that I have been a night person for most of my life. For some reason some humans like dark better than light. I’ve never heard any medical or real rational reason for this or even the concept of it but I’ve known of others when I was in the USN. Mainly because when you are at sea, nothing stops, life is 24 hrs a day. And given the USN, often one’s duties outside of one’s work specialty could change at the drop of a hat. Now add in that often one had to sleep in a room (compartment!) with a bunch of others. My bed and locker was in a room with 85 men. Did you know that some humans snore like they have a bullhorn with the switch on permanently?

  30. 30.

    zhena gogolia

    @kalakal: Thank you!

    Once in Moscow a little girl of my acquaintance tried to convince a bunch of men that foxes were dogs and not cats, but they didn’t believe her!

  31. 31.

    kalakal

    @zhena gogolia:

    Close up they look like a mixture of both, espescially the face, but much more dog like. They used to be in our garden a lot back in England, they’re usually pretty wary but one was very friendly, liked to have his head scritched*. The fur is very coarse, feels totally different to a cat or dog. They’re very slender** with very long legs proportionally compared to either dogs or cats. Lovely things

    *He liked cat biscuits

    ** A lot of their apparent bulk is fluff, bit like squirrel tails

  32. 32.

    Gvg

    I had a gopher tortoise that considered my yard part of his territory. They circulate and generally have several burrows. There were at least 3 on my acre and he was there maybe half time. The extra burrows are part of why they are considered so important to Florida ecology. Other animals use them. “Mine” only had 3 legs, but did fine apparently. That was 20 years ago at my first house.

    Before that my parents had one that turned up in their very urban developed area of Orlando. It used to walk by the patio each morning to look for fallen flowers of mom’s double impatiens hanging baskets. Apparently they were very juicy sweet flowers. Dad said the tortoise had preferences for certain colors so there may have been a taste difference. It would walk slowly by and inspect the flowers, then choose which to eat, then wander on.

  34. 34.

    cope

    A fellow teacher of mine told the story of how, when he had first moved to FL from NJ, he saw a large soft-shelled turtle in the middle of the road. He pulled over, carried the critter across the road in the direction it was headed and drove away, feeling pretty good about himself.

    Looking in the rear view mirror to make sure the turtle hadn’t turned around and started back across the road, he was just in time to see a pickup stop where the turtle had been.  A man got out of the truck, went into the brush and picked up the turtle which he then threw in the back of the truck. When I, newly arrived in the Sunshine State, asked my buddy why, he replied “soup”.

  39. 39.

    The Unmitigated Gaul

    @zhena gogolia: A character describing her wealthy (and once-Democrat) husband:

    “… swayed by a president who wallowed in immorality, who cheated on his taxes, cheated in business, cheated on his wives, cheated in politics, cheated the public health in a pandemic, and even bragged about all this cheating, making dishonesty into a key personality trait – the core.If it was acceptable for POTUS to boast about a lifetime hobby of sexual assault, it was hard to imagine what behaviour was unacceptable. Whatever’s the worst thing about you? Own it.”

    The novel is full of that sort of thing – and has a great plot, to boot.

  45. 45.

    eclare

    Lovely tortoise!

    As someone else wrote, I just cannot do dystopia or shows like Succession right now.  I need comfort tv for insomnia, like Ina Garten or GBBS.

  49. 49.

    trollhattan

    @Gvg: I’d treasure having little dino descendants wandering around my yard, happy.

    Once had a GF who kept a tortoise (no idea what kind) in her garden apartment backyard. It would disappear late fall in a hibernation burrow, then emerge in spring looking for its first meal.

  50. 50.

    kissel

    Thanks for sharing that…I was not aware of this series until now. Maybe I live under a rock. What a powerful clip, glad you showed the tortoise afterwards to give us all a lift.

  55. 55.

    Jackie

    Speaking of reptiles and movies, took my granddaughter and her bestie to see How to Train Your Dragon last evening. Highly recommend! We all loved it, and now the girls want pet dragons to ride on in the sky :-)

  56. 56.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @bjacques: haven’t seen that show, but Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci are always reliably wonderful.

  58. 58.

    Citizen Dave

    @Mai Naem mobile: Costco regular here.  We got a new one about a year ago (now two are equidistant), which has 10 lanes, 3 pumps each, so 30 pumps.  Much easier to get gas there.  Re-reading your story, I get it.  I’m often the guy who waits for someone to finish so I can pull away or pull up; and my wife is the impatient one telling me to go in the middle.  I hate the middle lane.

    One can never quite predict how long it takes our fellow humans to do something.  So,  yes, chill out impatient costco people.

  61. 61.

    Citizen Dave

    I remember reading about Years and Years and putting it on my ‘to watch’ list.  Never did.  Recently I picked up HBO Max for the Jayne Mansfield/Marisky Hardatay doc (highly recommended).  Also started Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal, season two.  You can never go wrong with him.

  62. 62.

    Shalimar

    Ordered a “Keep the Immigrants, Deport the Racists” t-shirt.  i doubt it will lead to much confrontation, few racists admit in public that they’re racist, but still feels necessary to wear right now.

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    @Shalimar: Good one! I like the t-shirts John Cole shares here too — very “in your face!”

    I recently acquired the tee below. The depraved right-wing jerks in FL are photo-shopping ICE hats onto alligators. Figured I’d recruit the reptiles for a worthier cause! T-shirt that says “Protect queer and trans Floridians or get chomped” illustrated by a cartoon gator.

  64. 64.

    Citizen Dave

    I see there is a t-shirt version with “Keep the Immigrants   Deport the Republicans”.  Also the simpler “Deport Republicans” which I thought of the other night.  Choices, choices.

  69. 69.

    WTFGhost

    Please tell me you didn’t turn the tortoise on its back, as part of a series of questions to root out replicants. It’s an important duty, but ’tis a duty for less pleasant folks than yourself.

  71. 71.

    laura

    I have been fascinated with the Mitford sisters for years because Wowza. There’s a new brit box series called Outrageous that is all about the six. Highly recommend. I get 2am insomnia and have been listening to episodes of the fall of civilizations as the hours long episodes are an almost guaranteed method of welcoming sandman. However, that second sleep is the land of weird and anxious dreaming.

  72. 72.

    Steve LaBonne

    This past week I sang in the choir at my UU Summer Institute, and at one of the morning services we led the congregation in this. To me it’s exactly the way to survive, and respond to, these horrible times: focus on lifting one another up.

  73. 73.

    WTFGhost

    @bjacques: I LOVED that show. The Gator Gulag business model is straight out of that show—sleazy no-bid contracts and planners knowingly skimping on nutritional and medical requirements.

    That’s historically accurate – one of the key reasons Hitler’s “final solution” was both shocking, and completely unshocking, was you had tens of thousands of prisoners being moved by rail to prison camps, and you only had food, blankets, and medical supplies for camp staff, essentially.

    That is why, so the legend goes, a lot of people were shocked when Hitler’s Final Solution was announced, but realized that, by golly, they’d participated, and they looked about as guilty as people could look.

  78. 78.

    hells littlest angel

    I’ve not heard of this show, but I’m eager to check it out. Anne Reid is a hell of a good actor.

  79. 79.

    Jackie

    Heh! FFOTUS is begging his base to leave Bondi allooonnne:

    What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’

    They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the Russa, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 ‘Intelligence’ Agents, ‘THE LAPTOP FROM HELL,’ and more?

    They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier that they used on me, and now my so-called ‘friends’ are playing right into their hands.

    Why didn’t these Radical Left Lunatics release the Epstein Files? If there was ANYTHING in there that could have hurt the MAGA Movement, why didn’t they use it? LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT!

    The 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen, and they tried to do the same thing in 2024 — That’s what she is looking into as AG, and much more. One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

    From his social media.

  82. 82.

    Gin & Tonic

    The FTFNYT sent a correspondent into Kursk accompanied by (erm, babysat and propagandized by) russia’s notorious Akhmat unit to produce a piece on the destruction wrought by Ukrainian forces. Still doing Walter Duranty proud, they are.

  83. 83.

    HopefullyNotcassandra

    Wow. That struck multiple nerves

    i tried to buy a thing two days ago from somebody small.  I couldn’t.  There was not a one extant making what I need.  She’s right.  Ugh

  90. 90.

    Miki

    @eclare: Great British Menu is also excellent, season after season after season

    I alternate it with Heartland to soothe my 💔.

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    @eclare

    For something different (if you don’t mind subtitles) the Taiwanese series Marry My Dead Body on Netflix is an entertaining ride.

  97. 97.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Baud: foxes can take down a raccoon. We have them in Denver. I’m rooting for the foxes.

    Racoons have been pretty persistently damaging to my property, proving that good looks are always not a winning ticket.

    up on the nearby wildlife refuge, the coyotes have taken out the foxes. I saw a very fat raccoon there once. The rangers were sure there are no racoons there. I guess the little critters get around.

  98. 98.

    Chris T.

    @kalakal:

    They’re the same family Canidae but split at the next level, Dogs ( and Coyotes, jackels and wolves)  are all of the genus Canis, foxes are their own thing, genus Vulpes. 

    I like the description that says that foxes are “cat software running on dog hardware”.

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