Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Dear legacy media: you are not here to influence outcomes and policies you find desirable.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Fight them, without becoming them!

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

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

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Mostly Open Thread / There Must Be Other Things To Talk About, Let’s Share Other News Here

There Must Be Other Things To Talk About, Let’s Share Other News Here

by | 143 Comments

This post is in: ,

I’m tired of all the bickering that will have absolutely no impact on the outcome.

This post is a place to talk about ANYTHING BUT any possible or potential deal related to the shutdown.

Alstroemeria I brought in before the cold snap.

Saturday Evening Open Thread: The Shutdown Tango (Tangle)

I usually get 3 weeks of this glorious burning bush before it fades.

Not sure what the cold snap and the snow will have to say about that 3-week timeframe.

Mostly open thread.

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: We had multiple inches of our first snow last night.

    And of course with all the “getting ready for winter stuff” I did last week and over the weekend, I did NOT put covers on all the furniture on the screened-in porch.

  7. 7.

    Another Scott

    Pretty pictures.  Thanks.

    Meanwhile, … Phys.org:

    […]

    In 2020, the bistate Kansas City Area Transit Authority (KCATA) implemented a Zero-Fare policy [ for buses ]. It had previously offered free service or discounts to veterans and high school students, but the new policy was unique.

    “Kansas City wanted to sustain the fare-free policy for good, which set them apart,” said Joel Mendez, assistant professor of public affairs & administration at KU and study author. “At that time, Kansas City was the largest metro area in the world to implement fare-free transit. This study looks at what effects this kind of policy can have on mobility.”

    To determine those effects, Mendez surveyed more than 500 Kansas City transit users at bus stops throughout the metro service area about how the policy influenced their ridership habits. The surveys were conducted in 2023, allowing time for the policy to take effect.

    Findings indicate that the policy successfully attracted new riders, as 17% of respondents stated that they started using bus service because it became free. Younger people and women were particularly likely to be new riders. This aligns with broader U.S. trends showing that women and younger populations already use public transit more frequently.

    Also more likely to become new bus users are white residents, who were more than twice as likely to become new users when compared to users of color. This is significant as this segment of the population is generally less likely to use bus service. This reflects how the implementation of a fare-free policy can help transit service providers strengthen their core ridership base while also expanding it, Mendez noted.

    Of those surveyed, almost 40% of preexisting bus users reported increasing the frequency of trips after fares were eliminated. While that suggests fares were a barrier to some, a majority of preexisting users reported not increasing their usage. That is likely due to several factors, such as people already maximizing their usage or the presence of barriers such as limited access to bus stops, inconvenient schedules or safety concerns, but would require more research to confirm, Mendez said.

    Overall, bus use increased across varying personal characteristics such as age, race, income and vehicle access. Notably, new users without access to a working vehicle made 4.88 more trips per week than those who did have vehicle access. These findings highlight the equity implications of the zero-fare policy, suggesting it has a particularly strong impact on people who typically experience limited mobility.

    The study was published in the journal Transport Policy.

    […]

    More information: Joel Mendez, Advancing mobility through fare-free transit: Evidence from the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, Transport Policy (2025). DOI:10.1016/j.tranpol.2025.103860

    Follow the data, and always look for beneficial knock-on effects.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  8. 8.

    George

    How about the fact that today is the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald?

    Gales of November and whatnot.

  9. 9.

    MagdaInBlack

    The sun is out, the snow is melting, and I smoked my IBS into submission. These are all good things.

  11. 11.

    bbleh

    Brrr indeed!  At least in this half of the country.

    Also, too, Supremes denied cert for Kim Davis’s appeal to overturn Obergefell.  Allegedly may have had something to do with people planning a lot of their lives around their marriages (who knew?).  Anyway, good news!

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl: I got the porch cleaned up and the outdoor furniture covers put up a couple of weeks ago. I thought ahead this year!

    The craziest thing, IMO, is that autumn was so late this year. Usually, by Halloween, most of the leaves are gone and it’s well into “stick season”. But there is still plenty of autumn color. This week may put an end to it.

  16. 16.

    MagdaInBlack

    @WaterGirl: I’m calling it an “i’m fed up day.” We’ve been without a manager for 3 months. My estimator and I running the shop. We are quiet quitting/fed da f up. I have struggled thru several bad days and this morning I just said nope.

  18. 18.

    Eric S.

    My softball team won the Fall Championship Saturday. Chicago promptly celebrated by dumping snow on us.

  20. 20.

    Another Scott

    @Old Man Shadow: Mammals generally don’t like hot spices.

    Maybe something like this strategically applied? (I use that on shelled sunflower seeds I put in our feeders, to keep the squirrels and chipmunks and mice out of it – it works.) There probably is something that might work better for plants, with the same idea.

    Or give them some “cat grass” that they can have as their own salads?

    Our dogs over the years would/will seek out specific kinds of long grasses to chew on on their walks. It seems to be a thing.

    Good luck!

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    J. Arthur Crank

    No snow here in San Diego, with a forecast high of 86 today.  Winter will apparently arrive here this Friday where the forecast high is 62 degrees with a 75% chance of rain.

  22. 22.

    Suzanne

    @Old Man Shadow:

    Any suggestions on keeping the 7mo. old fur demon from destroying house plants? 

    A strongly worded email. If that fails, maybe a rational, reasoned conversation. Works equally well for young children.

    In all seriousness….. I moved my houseplants into non-cat-accessible rooms, when I had a kitty who gnawed on them.

  23. 23.

    Timill

    No new feral cats yet – they were sufficiently feral not to be caught.

    Today, however, a local put out her trap and now has two of them in carriers, so we’ll pick them up in a bit.

    Apparently these are the parents, so maybe the kittens will be easier to get now.

  25. 25.

    lowtechcyclist

    After the past couple of days, the leaves are mostly down here, like maybe 60-65% or so.  I mulched the leaves on the lawn yesterday, which was good timing, given last night’s heavy rain.

    Yesterday it was still quite pleasant outside in the afternoon, but I’m thinking it’s time to pull the deck furniture into the shed for the winter.  My wife still has flowers out there, but what to do with them is her problem.

  32. 32.

    Belafon

    @Another Scott: Nice. If there was only a way to get around the “Why should I pay for something I don’t use?” and “It’ll just bring criminals to our town” attitude we have here to get public transportation to be adopted.

  34. 34.

    VFX Lurker

    I’ve had blurred vision in my right eye for the past year. In June, my optometrist asked me to see an ophthalmologist ASAP, but the soonest UCLA Health could see me was last week. In retrospect, I probably should have taken the first ophthalmologist appointment I could have gotten outside of the UCLA Health system in case it was something serious.

    Luckily for me, it was not serious. I got an OCT (optical coherence tomography) and other tests. All is well save for two issues: the start of cataracts and dry eye. Although my right eye’s cataract is farther along, the real culprit for the blurred vision is the dry eye.

    The ophthalmologist prescribed a more aggressive eye care routine than my optometrist did six months ago. I’m following that routine now. Ocusoft Original eye wipes + hydrochlor spray in the morning; repeat with a heated eye mask inbetween those two steps in the evening; preservative-free eye drops four times a day.

    All I can say is: blink often, folks. You need to blink frequently to maintain the quality of your tear film, which I am attempting to restore now. Folks tend to forget to blink when looking at screens, which got me into this pickle in the first place.

  35. 35.

    Professor Bigfoot

    We are getting a dishwasher installed. At long last. As the CURRENT dishwasher, I’m pumped.

    We’ve had a long running water problem in the basement– found a water dam product at Hammacher-Schlemmer (remember them?) that seems to really really work,  along with a standalone “cooking vent” that I now know actually works (thanks to those wretches at the Food Network I’ve been trying different dredges to make deep-fried onion strings, and didn’t smell it in the house at all)(yes, yes, I know it’s bad for me but crikey, my current total cholesterol is 77 and I was born and raised in the South)

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne:  Then I suppose “Fuck you, strong letter to follow” doesn’t work either?  Darn.

    @VFX Lurker:

    All I can say is: blink often, folks. You need to blink frequently to maintain the quality of your tear film, which I am attempting to restore now. Folks tend to forget to blink when looking at screens, which got me into this pickle in the first place.

    Public service announcement.

  37. 37.

    Raven

    We’re talking our annual day trip in the mountains. It flurries a bit but now we’re back in the sunshine. Today is the  250th of the USMC and 76 for me!

  38. 38.

    FastEdD

    I’m absolutely wiped out. This weekend I ran an engineering contest for high school kids. I’ve volunteered doing that for about 23 years. I’m a retired teacher and they are really good kids. The biggest problem is that it is in conjunction with NASA and the coordinator lost his job. Permanently, and it wasn’t due to the shutdown, it was the grim reaper at OMB. We had to reconstruct all the data from our own emails because work computers are off limits. I’m mostly done, but it is really difficult to encourage students to work for NASA when the best and brightest have already lost their jobs. Publicly I was non-political and positive but it took a toll on my emotions. When I got home I threw up. It is gut-wrenching and this is only a volunteer job. Next year we may try to organize the contest through a private company, although it will never have the cachet of NASA.

  40. 40.

    pat

    Is it possible that the FAA will now go back to work and flights can resume?  That might be the biggest and best result of stopping the shutdown.  In the biggest flying season of the year.

    As a person looking forward to flying home from Austria in a couple of weeks…..  well…. maybe I won’t have to worry so much??

    I agree that the dems should have insisted on the ACA payments, but when the only gun in the room is the one pointed at your head….

    Sorry if this is going to get us back to the “dems gave up…”  Read and move on..

  42. 42.

    wenchacha

    In the last month or two, I have been replanting some gardens I dug up. I found that some of my daffodils and narcissus had been damaged by narcissus bulb flies and their larvae. 😐

    I took pictures this spring to remind me what was planted where, and that is all for naught, because everything has been moved around.

    Another day, I started trying to excavate a giant vining thing out of the same spot as a giant lilac bush. This is not really like me, to go HAM on something this gnarly, but I guess I feel the need to take out my rage on something, so I hope the garden appreciates it.

    I already laid waste to thousands of jumping worms over the spring and summer. Then the bulb larvae, and always the deer!

    Now a very light blanket of snow is everywhere. I still have hundreds of little bulbs to plant: grape hyacinths, some small alliums, a bunch of little Dutch iris offsets, and a handful of tulip offsets. I think it was voles who wrecked them last time.

    Thanks for letting me spend some time in my garden, online, since it’s too cold outside today.

  45. 45.

    Suzanne

    @VFX Lurker: Which heated eye mask ate you using? Mr. Suzanne has dry eye caused by a thyroid condition, and he is very annoyed by having to carry Systane eye drops around.

    Some men seem to think that carrying a purse around is an imposition!

  46. 46.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @bbleh: I heard the news!! Here’s hoping the Evangelical fascists feel betrayed! Also, it means my wife and I don’t have to move anytime soon. That’s a relief.

  47. 47.

    p.a.

    Heading to B&N to do some xmas shopping.  Just some stocking-stuffer type stuff to supplement gift cards: I’m not running ragged any more.  Here’s cash-equivalent: you know what you want better than I do.

    Ever notice, if you’re unfortunate enough to be “obligated” to get presents for mopes, how tough they are to buy for?  People who have few, or no, interests, are hard to buy for.  People with passion and interests: easy.

  49. 49.

    XeckyGilchrist

    I’m thankful that Balloon Juice is no longer unreadable for the entire month of November bc of pissing matches over whose turkey cooking method was the best.

  50. 50.

    They Call Me Noni

    @Old Man Shadow: This spring our neighbor kitties dug out a few annuals I put in pots so I put some pointy sticks pointy side up in the pots and they never bothered them again.

  52. 52.

    Belafon

    @p.a.: When my brother remarried, three new step-sobrinos joined the family. When it came time for Christmas, I spent time trying to find what I thought they would like for gifts. You would have thought I gave them coal. After that it was money.

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    I had done lymphadema wrap therapy earlier in the year. Did the allowed number of sessions, and then had to get back in line after an insurance required time out to see if the compression garments worked (left side did, right side were ill measured and hadn’t worked from day one). I usually don’t answer numbers that I don’t recognize, but I did this morning, and a spot opened up for me. I start Thursday! I’m so psyched.

  54. 54.

    Suzanne

    @p.a.:

    People who have few, or no, interests, are hard to buy for. 

    Even more importantly, they’re generally difficult to be around.

  56. 56.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Suzanne: I LIKE TURKEY! MY TURKEY IS THE BEST. TURKEY HATERZ ARE WHAT SUCK!!1!

    And then the Balloon Juice Turkey Civil War began anew…

  57. 57.

    Jeffro

    several non-political thoughts today, all good…

    1)Mrs Fro is now a fan of Royel Otis…(the Fro family is experiencing a love of all things 80s synth-pop, R.O. is just a modern version)

    2)went to a GREAT public policy talk…more later!

    3)Froette is on the verge of landing an AMAZING job…fingers crossed…more on that at the end of the week!

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    @George:

    been watching TikTok’s all weekend about the Edmund Fitzgerald.

     

    have come to the conclusion

    Lake Superior = Our North Sea

    If you’ve ever been on North Sea Tok, you’ll understand the comparison

  61. 61.

    rikyrah

    @bbleh:

    Also, too, Supremes denied cert for Kim Davis’s appeal to overturn Obergefell.  Allegedly may have had something to do with people planning a lot of their lives around their marriages (who knew?).  Anyway, good news!

     

    she’s going to have to PAY UP!

     

    CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP

  63. 63.

    Ohio Mom

    VFX Lurker:
    Another dry eye sufferer here, my triggers were the estrogen blockers I take to prevent a breast cancer recurrence and RA. But plain old menopause can also dry your eyes.

    If your current protocol turns out to be not enough, there are also prescription eyedrops that might help. During allergy season I add OTC Zaditor or Pataday drops.

    You are right, you were not smart to wait to take care of your eyes. But all’s well that ends well.

  64. 64.

    Matt McIrvin

    @bbleh: This is surprising to me–I completely expected Obergefell to be as good as dead. Maybe they’re waiting for a test case that looks better? Or maybe they really don’t want to touch this one?

  66. 66.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @rikyrah:

    she’s going to have to PAY UP!

    Yes! The judgmental, sanctimonious,  divorced sinner doesn’t get bend the world to HER convenient interpretation of biblical truth.

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    @Belafon: I was so honored when – in their teens – my nieces told me that I was the only adult who was allowed to buy them clothes!

  68. 68.

    cckids

    @Suzanne:

    TURKEY SUCKS. YES, EVEN YOUR TURKEY.

    Come sit by me with my lasagna, roast chicken . . . literally anything but TURKEY. How people get excited about it is beyond me.

  69. 69.

    Scout211

    Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La, laid out a potential timetable for the House schedule this week, including a vote on a government funding bill, during a conference call with House Republicans this morning, four sources on the call said.

    Johnson said he’s hoping to vote as soon as Wednesday on the Senate’s deal to re-open the government, although that will depend on how quickly the Senate is able to move, the sources said. Although the vote timing is fluid, members were encouraged on the call to start getting back to Washington as soon as possible given the air travel delays.

  73. 73.

    Kelly

    Spray bottle cat training has worked for all our cats except for our Abyssinian/Manx Phoebe. She is sweet, obedient Miss Personality when we’re around. Does what she damn well pleases when we’re out of the room.

  74. 74.

    no body no name

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    My garbage disposal failed so getting that replaced.

    As for the food if you like it eat it.  I love liver and onions and have been told to stop eating it but I’m not gonna!

  75. 75.

    Scout211

    Some election updates from NBC

    Christine Pelosi, the daughter of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced today that she is running for a state Senate seat, ending speculation that she might run for her mother’s seat in the House.

     

    Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., announced she will not run for re-election in 2026 after her sixth term concludes.
    Watson Coleman was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2014 making her the first African American woman from New Jersey to do so, her office noted in a news release. Before being elected to Congress, she served as majority leader of the New Jersey General Assembly.

    In a statement, Watson Coleman said she made the decision after much reflection and conversations with her family.

  80. 80.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211:

    Christine Pelosi, the daughter of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced today that she is running for a state Senate seat, ending speculation that she might run for her mother’s seat in the House.

    I was just wondering yesterday if she might run for office.  I like what I have seen of her.

  81. 81.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @no body no name: A disposal! <swoon>

    That’s kinda where I am. And TBH, it’s really been fun coming up with different dredge combinations. CURSE YOU, GUY FIERI!! 😂

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211:

    Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., announced she will not run for re-election in 2026 after her sixth term concludes.

    I wonder if Tuesday’s election results will allow a number of people to step down who otherwise might have worried about being replaced by a Republican?

  83. 83.

    Ohio Mom

    @rikyrah: I have lymphedema in my right arm and am too small for the readymade sleeves so I get them custom made. I go to the best sleeve-fitter in the city, even though she is all the way on the other side of Cincinnati.

    Every six months she sends her carefully taken measurements of my arm to Juzo and every few years, Juzo sends back something so wacky, we have to send the sleeve back. They have the worst quality control, if indeed they have any quality control.

    After about ten years, my arm has reached some sort of plateau. I certainly don’t miss the early years of doing daily lymph massage or wrapping my arm every night.

    Good luck to you!

  85. 85.

    WaterGirl

    @FastEdD:

    Publicly I was non-political and positive but it took a toll on my emotions. When I got home I threw up. It is gut-wrenching and this is only a volunteer job. Next year we may try to organize the contest through a private company, although it will never have the cachet of NASA.

    I’m sorry. The current stupidity re: NASA must be especially heartbreaking for you.

  86. 86.

    kalakal

    Well at around 9pm last night one of the cats started wailing in pain. Phoned emergency vet then had to extract him from under the bed where he was hiding ( this basically involved having to take the mattresses off as he was out of arms reach).  3 hours we returned home with a soon to hopefully unconstipated cat. I sat with him to till 2 am when the enema finally worked.

    He’s fine, I’m tired. Have to say the vets were great.

  87. 87.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Scout211: Christine Pelosi, the daughter of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced today that she is running for a state Senate seat, ending speculation that she might run for her mother’s seat in the House.

    Start in the state legislature, learn how things work, learn how to work things, move on from there. That’s what you do when you want to actually make things happen.

    Best of luck to her.

  91. 91.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: The Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority (MeVa) put out a similar report recently after having free buses in the Lawrence/Methuen/Haverhill area for a few years. It’s vastly increased ridership, gotten some cars off the road and provided a vital transit link for people who can’t afford cars. They even increased the frequency of a bunch of lines to meet the increased demand.

    The farebox recovery rate of the system was low anyway, so they weren’t giving up much by eliminating fares, and fare collection slowed down the buses, ate up about a quarter of what they took in all by itself, and created all sorts of social friction as drivers had to decide how strictly to enforce it with riders for whom bus fare was a significant expense.

  92. 92.

    stinger

    @cckids: It’s not so much the turkey, as it is the many things that go so well with it — mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing, gravy, creamed corn, sweet potatoes with marshmallows and pecans, cranberry sauce…. Can’t say the same for lasagna!

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    Well, while we fixate on our domestic political troubles, the world keeps spinning. There’s a whole lot happening in the Middle , and today two power players from the region are visiting Washington, D.C.

    Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa will visit the White House and meet with the Dodderer-in-Chief. This will be the first such visit by a Syrian President in 80 years.

    Ahmad al-Sharaa is 41 years old. No long after he graduated from a Damascus high school, al-Sharaa traveled to Iraq to fight the American invaders. He was captured in 2006 and spent several years in an American prison. After he was released, al-Sharaa returned to Syria and organized an Al-Qaeda franchise there.. He later broke with that group but as of a year ago, Ahmad al-Sharaa still had a $10 million US bounty on his head.

    And Turkiye’s powerful Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan is in town. Fidan might not visit the White House, but he has important busines to discuss with Pentagon and State Department officials.

    Hakan Fidan is an interesting figure. He’s almost certainly the only foreign minister in the world to have served 15 years as an army noncom. Then he earned a PhD in International Relations from elite Bilkent University, and was teaching there when then-Prime Minister R.T. Erdogan tapped him be his diplomatic troubleshooter in 2005.

    Fidan’s father is Kurdish and among other jobs, Fidan was Erdogan’s point-man in the negotiations with Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan that have finally come to fruition this year.

    Fidan served as head of the M.I.T. intelligence for 11 years before Erdogan named him foreign minister in May of 2025. He has his boss’s implicit confidence and is widely considered to be Erdogan’s likely successor.

  96. 96.

    Scout211

    @Professor Bigfoot: Start in the state legislature, learn how things work, learn how to work things,move on from there. That’s what you do when you want to actually make things happen.

    I agree.

    But interestingly, former Congressman Jerry McNerney D-CA, served for over a decade in the House of Representatives and now he’s a CA state senator. That was an interesting inside local politics story. I’m no longer in that district but he was a good Rep.

  99. 99.

    VFX Lurker

    @Suzanne: At the moment, I am using disposable CorneaCare heated eye masks. My opthalmologist approved as long as the surface against my eyes is sterile. (For reusable masks, he recommends disposable liners).

     

    @Ohio Mom: Thanks. ❤️

  100. 100.

    cckids

    @stinger: With lasagna, you don’t NEED other stuff to make it good.

    Although yes, sides are what Thanksgiving dinner is truly all about.

  105. 105.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Scout211: That IS interesting… but it might be that he just likes retail politics— I imagine it’s easier to knock on more doors and be more involved with a specific community.

    We’ve all seen discussions of how the House can be expanded.

  111. 111.

    Ohio Mom

    @p.a.: I have a few standard gifts for people I have no ideas for, colorful socks and/or fun snacks, like chocolates from the local hipster chocolatier or something nostalgic like Cracker Jack. Fancy bakery cookies is another.

    In my old age, I am developing a deep dislike for the whole gift exchange thing. So much money spent and so many misses.

    I still wince at the memory of receiving a copy of Hillbilly Elegy when it first came out (the giver has since apologized). I slogged my way through that book, afraid the giver would one day trap me into a discussion about it.

    I’d much rather operate on buying presents when I come across something that I just know a particular person would like. Yes, some people would get more presents that way than others but more of my purchases would hit their mark.

  115. 115.

    StringOnAStick

    @Old Man Shadow: Location changes help, as does a squirt bottle.  That said, I just had to move the African violets because a 7 year old cat decided the flowers are tasty.

  116. 116.

    Belafon

    @Ohio Mom: About 10 years ago, my parents, siblings, wives, and I decided that we would no longer buy gifts for each other or others’ children. The grandparents could gift grandchildren if they wanted. We just didn’t really need anything.

  117. 117.

    StringOnAStick

    @wenchacha: Have you tried getting a bulb auger that you use like a drill bit?  I planted another 100 daffodils over the last 2 days, only a couple of hours in total.  First I arrange the bulbs on the land surface for decorative planning, drill holes with my cordless drill and auger, then enlarge the holes with a sharp trowel and mix in some fertilizer, then plant.  The soil here is prone to random rockiness and trying to dig without the auger is hard on my wrist, so softening up the ground with the auger lets the rest of the process go smoothly and quickly.

  119. 119.

    WTFGhost

    @VFX Lurker: Also, if you have frequent “foreign object in eye” sense (FOIE, in medicalese) it’s often dry eye. Get some “lubricant eye drops;” they come in different formulations, you’ll find one for your eyes. Use them 2-3 times a day more often thn you thin you need them, until you no longer have a problem, then one more day, then, you’ve treated your dry eye.

    If your eyes get dry enough, your eyelid can stick to your eye, and cause surprisingly large amounts of irritation.  This is what you’re trying to prevent, and hence, the reason you treat for an extra day.

    Dry eyes can be neurological, which is a bit harder to treat than just plain “too much intense screen time” – that’s why I’m always ready to treat them.

     

    @WaterGirl: Yeah, you’d think so, but now an over-enlarged sidebar photo is altering earth’s orbital mechanics, which shows that “always enlarge” instructions can be overstated.

  120. 120.

    Chris T.

    @WaterGirl:

    Water bottle to spray at them when they attack the plants?

    That only taught ours to eat the plants only when there’s no pet-parent around to see it. 😺

  121. 121.

    Another Scott

    @Matt McIrvin: +1

    I was living in Chicago when bus fares moved to $1.  There were a few stories in the news about what a disaster it was because, among other things, they were having to hire more staff to straighten and flatten dollar bills before feeding them into the counting machines.  Revenue wasn’t going up, costs were going up.

    I hope normies begin to internalize these stories about costs and benefits.  It costs money to collect fares.  It costs money to evaluate whether someone is qualified to get benefits.  It costs money to do all kinds of things that seem sensible, but often aren’t when scaled up.

    The solution is, as Atrios has advocated for ages, is to make as much as we can universal and have the rich pay more.

    Thanks.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  122. 122.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @wenchacha: are your little bulbs outside on the ground, exposed to the cold? I’ve lost things that way, being in the middle of a task when the cold comes down.
    I’ve also been out planting for hours in cold and snow, just to get it done.

    I can tell you the regular grape hyacinth and the purple sensation alliums are not that picky, you can plant them shallow and too close, just to get them jammed in the ground.

  123. 123.

    wenchacha

    @StringOnAStick:  I should try it next year. I am definitely noticing the wear and tear on my hands and wrists (and all the rest of me) from all the digging and clawing in the soil.

    When I get as many bulbs into the ground as I can possibly manage, then I wait for springtime with anticipation.

    Thanks for the suggestion.

  124. 124.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: I think Americans are heavily inclined to fret about the moral hazard and “tragedy of the commons” risks of giving just anyone anything for free. But we don’t consider the social costs of not doing that.

    (But then there are also some public goods we just don’t question, like free roads. But if the roads are assumed to be for cars and trucks, there’s still a high price of entry.)

  125. 125.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Tonight we begin our dress rehearsals for a show of Broadway tunes that will run this and next weekend.  It’s gonna be fun but it’s also been a bit like Waiting for Guffman.  The actors/singers are all very good, but the other band-members are quite a bit below the level I’m used to playing with so it can be pretty challenging.

  126. 126.

    Gin & Tonic

    Spent Friday through Sunday with two of our grandkids. They do not know what cloture is, so we didn’t talk about it, which is a blessing. Grandson, aged 8, is becoming quite the whiz at Rubik’s Cube. Granddaughter is curious about everything, and wanted to know about my eye surgery.

    A real respite, unfortunately followed by 6 1/2 hours of I-95, which is never a respite.

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    @Belafon:

    “Take On Me” is 40 years old.

    Yes, I know there was a post, but 40 years.

     

    I do my arm exercises with weights to the 80’s music channel on Directv. The realization that those songs are 45 years to almost 40 years old…..

     

    sigh..

    time flies

  132. 132.

    Paul in KY

    @rikyrah: I flew one time out of Homestead AFB on a training mission with a RAF sub destroyer aircraft (4 engine turboprop). A whole lot of non-airliner-type flying. I was feeling a bit green and asked one of the guys who were in a windowless part of the fuselage looking at radar scopes how they did it. He laughed and said I should be on one of their Winter training flights over the North Sea.

  133. 133.

    Paul in KY

    @Geminid: Mr. Fidan will really enjoy meeting with and dealing with our crack national security team. I expect he has the diplomat’s skill of maintaining a straight face at all times. That skill will be tested.

  135. 135.

    The Lorax

    Do your local ecosystem a favor and rip out the Burning Bush. It is one of the most invasive shrubs around, its sale being restricted in several states. In the northeast it infests woods and roadsides, out competing native shrubs and creating monocultures with little benefit to wildlife.

  136. 136.

    gvg

    @Old Man Shadow: Bird cages and pet crates for the plants. Found as cheaply as possible at garage sales and from friends.

    Can you have a relative or friend take them until baby cat grows up?

  139. 139.

    raven

    @Paul in KY: I had a call with none of my dad’s ww2 shipmates after my old man passed. In the course of the conversation he said “thank god we weren’t in the Atlantic”!

  140. 140.

    Paul in KY

    @raven: Ha! My dad went over to Europe in 1943 on a troop transport vessel. In each bay or room where the soldiers were confined (they rarely were able to go on deck, due to weather, etc.) there was a 55 gallon oil drum bolted to floor that was for them to puke in. By the time they were near England, the puke had completely filled up the oil drum and the overflow was sloshing back and forth on the deck.  Good times…

  141. 141.

    Dextrous

    There are two native replacement options for the burning bush: blueberry bush and fothergilla, both of which perform in 3 seasons, not one, and are not invasive.

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