Gail Collins, in the NYTimes, reports that “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has No Interest in Retiring“:
… “Now I happen to be the oldest,” the 81-year-old justice said in the tone of a person who has answered a whole lot of questions about her possible retirement plans. Sitting in her Supreme Court chambers on a dreary afternoon in late January, she added, “But John Paul Stevens didn’t step down until he was 90.”…
She’s spent much of her life being the first woman doing one thing or another, and when it comes to the retirement question, she has only one predecessor to contemplate — her friend Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court justice, who left the bench at 75 to spend more time with her husband, John, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
“She and John were going to do all the outdoorsy things they liked to do,” Ginsburg recalled. But John O’Connor’s condition deteriorated so swiftly that her plans never worked out. Soon, Ginsburg said, “John was in such bad shape that she couldn’t keep him at home.”
O’Connor has kept busy — speaking, writing, hearing cases on a court of appeals and pursuing a project to expand civics education. But it’s not the same as being the swing vote on the United States Supreme Court. “I think she knows that when she left that term, every 5-4 decision when I was in the minority, I would have been in the majority if she’d stayed,” Ginsburg said…
But here’s a story about RBG that I hadn’t heard before, from Brittney Cooper at Salon:
… In a recent interview at Georgetown University, Ginsburg reflected on the history behind one of her key legal accomplishments, the 1971 case of Reed v. Reed. After an estranged couple lost their son, his mother, Sally Reed, petitioned to administer his estate. But Idaho law maintained that “males must be preferred to females,” in such matters. Ginsburg authored the plaintiff’s brief for the case when it reached the Supreme Court, arguing that the 14th amendment protected against discrimination based upon sex. When the court ruled in Sally Reed’s favor, it was the first time that the Equal Protection Clause had been applied to a case of sex discrimination.
But much of the legal groundwork for that argument can be attributed to Dr. Pauli Murray, a Howard University-trained lawyer, who began to argue in the 1960s, that the Equal Protection Clause should be applied to cases of sex discrimination in much the same way that it had been applied to cases of racial discrimination. Murray’s argument constituted what legal historian Serena Mayeri termed “reasoning from race,” in which race analogies were used to make clear the subordinate status of women…
Ginsburg named Murray and Judge Dorothy Kenyon as co-authors of her brief in the Reed case, because even though they didn’t help to write it, these two women had been pioneers in creating the legal strategy for fighting sex discrimination…
Back in the 1970s, I remember reading Pauli Murray on feminism and spirituality (she would eventually become an Episcopal priest) but I didn’t appreciate how important her legal work was and is.
Villago Delenda Est
I will not rest until white male nominally protestant straights are all the exact equals to everyone else under law.
Bring them down…that includes me.
It’s time for this fucking medieval shit to end.
aimai
Thanks for posting this, AL. What a fascinating person Paulli Murray is. Incredible.
dp
I love me some Notorious RBG. And Villago Delenda Est, I second your sentiment from the same place.
Major Major Major Major
OT: that laser cat kid died :( tragic
http://news.yahoo.com/-laser-cat–high-school-senior-commits-suicide-212855316.html
Mike J
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31565770
Tree With Water
Such is one consequence of nobly granting women the vote, if any of you King Lear’s out there are wondering.
dmsilev
That’s perhaps a kinder assessment of Justice O’Connor’s voting than she really merits. See, for example, Bush v. Gore…
rikyrah
Republicans want to shut down poverty research in North Carolina
By Emily Badger February 21
The Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill studies, among other things, the depths of povertyin a state with severe pockets of urban distress, the impact of foreclosure clusters on minority neighborhoods there, and the economic impact oflegal aid for North Carolina’s low-income residents.
Now the center may be shutting down, the target of a Republican-appointed committee recently charged with reviewing the state university system’s research centers. The panel’s recommendations, announced this week, have caused an uproar in the state over political retaliation against academia — and, more specifically, over the areas of research curiously singled out by the panel. As Inside Higher Ed points out, the three centers the committee wants to ax “reflect scholarly interests in poverty, the environment and social justice.”
Conservative officials in the state have long groused that academics from North Carolina’s public universities have attacked conservative politicians over policies such as the state’s stringent voter ID law. Since 2010, Republicans have controlled both houses of North Carolina’s state legislature, and the vast majority of the university board’s members have been appointed by the legislature since then. Last year, the New York Times reports, legislators asked the board to reexamine funding for the more than 200 research centers affiliated with state schools.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/02/21/republicans-want-to-shut-down-poverty-research-in-north-carolina/?tid=sm_tw
shelley
I’m gobsmacked. The outside temp actually went up to 40 today. Course it’s gonna drop like a rock again tonight. The torture must continue.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dmsilev: In his book on the USSC of a few years back, Toobin said that SDO’C never admits being wrong, but does everything but when discussiong Bush v Gore, and the quoted her as telling Souter that the Republicans are destroying the country.
Nicole
@dmsilev:
Exactly. She later regretted the decision. Fat lot of good her (half-assed) mea culpa did the country. I hope Bush v Gore has given, and will give her, sleepless nights for the rest of her life.
Iowa Old Lady
Didn’t RBG recently say that 9 would be the right number for women on the court? That made me laugh. Just today I asked Mr IOL when the good old white men where going to rise up and denounce the ones preaching hatred.
Tree With Water
@shelley: It’s when small animal life around you disappears, and people in your area begin looking at you like a butchers cow chart that you have to worry. If the Donner’s taught us one thing, that was it.
rikyrah
Smartypants goes in on Juan Williams about his article on Unca Clarence.
………………
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Juan Williams Ignores Systemic/Structural Racism
In case you ever had any questions about how Fox News tolerated Juan Williams as their token black commentator, your answer can be found in what Williams wrote in a WSJ editorial titled: America’s Most Influential Thinker on Race.
Let’s take this a step at a time. First of all, the person Williams is referring to is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Secondly, the use of the word “influential” can be taken to mean influential in a good way or a bad way. Williams suggests it in a good way.
Now…the reaction Williams notes from a lot of people is to simply call Thomas – and Williams by this association – an “Uncle Tom.” I totally understand that response. When I was reading this article I had to stop several times as my blood boiled. But I think its also important to take this kind of argument apart and demonstrate why it is so wrong. So I’m going to give it a go.
Williams uses Thomas’ words to suggest that government policies that attempt to alleviate the effects of racism reinforce the inferiority of African Americans. For example:
…………………………………………………………
Its almost as if Thomas and Williams never heard of things like separate and unequal, redlining, or sundown towns. That speaks to the heart of what both men completely ignore…the reality of systemic and/or structural racism. When we confront the reality of disparities for black people in everything from education to poverty to housing to health to criminal justice, we are left with a question of why those disparities persist.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.ca/2015/02/juan-williams-ignores.html
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: I disagree. Uncle Tom was a swell guy compared to Thomas and Williams.
Peale
@Major Major Major Major: I read that. While his fame was short lived, he gave us all a little laughter with his devotion to a pet. I am sad to hear he took his life.
rikyrah
OBAMACARE DID THIS
………………
Health Care Opens Middle-Class Path, Taken Mainly by Women
By DIONNE SEARCEY, EDUARDO PORTER and ROBERT GEBELOFF
FEB. 22, 2015
HUNTINGTON, W.V. — For Tabitha Waugh, it was another typical day of chaos on the sixth floor cancer ward.
The fire alarm was blaring for the second time that afternoon, prompting patients to stumble out of their rooms. One confused elderly man approached Ms. Waugh, a registered nurse at St. Mary’s Medical Center here, but she had no time to console him. An aide was hollering from another room, where a patient sat dazed on the edge of his bed, blood pooling on the floor from the IV he had yanked from his vein.
“Hey, big guy, can you lay back in bed?” she asked, as she cleaned the patient before inserting a new line. He winced. “Hold my hand, O.K.?” she said.
Ms. Waugh, who is 30 and the main breadwinner in her family of four, still had three hours to go before the end of a 12-hour shift. But despite the stresses and constant demands, all the hard work was paying off.
Her wage of nearly $27 an hour provides the mainstay for a comfortable life that includes a three-bedroom home, a pickup truck and a new sport utility vehicle, tumbling classes for her 3-year-old, Piper, and dozens of bright blue Thomas the Tank Engine cars heaped under the double bed of her 6-year-old, Collin.
The daughter of a teacher’s aide and a gas station manager, Ms. Waugh, like many other hard-working and often overlooked Americans, has secured a spot in a profoundly transformed middle class. While the group continues to include large numbers of people sitting at desks, far fewer middle-income workers of the 21st century are donning overalls. Instead, reflecting the biggest change in recent years, millions more are in scrubs.
“We used to think about the men going out with their lunch bucket to their factory, and those were good jobs,” said Jane Waldfogel, a professor at Columbia University who studies work and family issues. “What’s the corresponding job today? It’s in the health care sector.”
In 1980, 1.4 million jobs in health care paid a middle class wage: $40,000 to $80,000 a year in today’s money. Now, the figure is 4.5 million.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/business/economy/health-care-opens-middle-class-path-taken-mainly-by-women.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
Peale
Today in our ever vigilant fight against gangs. I actually thought that haircut was nice. I guess it was dangerous to put in a part if ones hair doesn’t naturally part.
Major Major Major Major
@Peale: the lgbt youth suicide rate is outrageous. Time for another donation to the Trevor project I guess.
Because I mean not to be too presumptuous but if you read about him he sets of the friggin gaydar klaxons..
Iowa Old Lady
@rikyrah: Shut down research on poverty? Oh yeah because it’s just a liberal plot. If we ignore it, it won’t exist. I can’t tell you how furious this makes me.
Villago Delenda Est
@Peale: When I was in the Army, the sure mark of a “druggie” was a part down the middle. This was the conventional wisdom amongst the officers in my battalion.
I always thought the sure sign of being a druggie was to confirm to the “strac trooper” stereotype as much as possible, to throw suspicion off yourself. “Well, he’s a model soldier. No way he’s a druggie!”
Tenar Darell
@Iowa Old Lady: It’s actually worse, because they are in a state which refused to expand unemployment benefits. All the data they’ve already gathered on the (probable) resulting deprivation before job numbers started their uptick might get trashed.
Woodrowfan
@Villago Delenda Est: Don’t bring us down, bring everyone else up. We’re treated the way everyone should be treated.
KG
@Villago Delenda Est: I suppose it depends on what drug you’re looking for. I’ve found very expensive suits and rolexes are usually a decent indication of cocaine. Meth tends to leave physical hints but erratic behavior is also a good sign.
Mike G
O’Connor spoke openly of not wanting a Dem president to pick her successor as one of her reasons. She sold out her country for her own selfish, shallow self-interest. You don’t get to pull an “Oops, shoulda done that different, my bad” later on when you’re on the Supreme Court, you’re supposed to think through the long-term implications before you make a decision — or you don’t belong there. Bush v. Gore will rightfully be the biggest stain on her obituary.
Villago Delenda Est
@Woodrowfan: As far as the assholes who don’t realize that they’re privileged are concern, it’s bringing them down, not raising others.
I don’t mind bringing them down. Not at all. They absolutely deserve it. Their greatest fear is that when the others are brought up to that level, they will be treated the same way as they treated the others.
South Africa proves that need not be the case, but the longer they fight it, the less likely it is that the others will be so generous with them.
So be it.
Currants
There’s going to be a new biography of Murray coming out soon, by a Barnard prof if I’m not mistaken.
trollhattan
Apropos of nothing, just got a new keyboard today (who the heck delivers on Sunday? anyway, somebody did) a “Das Keyboard 4 Professional Brown.”
Holy moly is it nice, especially compared to the bendy seven-dollar plastic thing that ships with the typical PC. Anybody who touch-types will appreciate the key feel.
Peale
@Major Major Major Major: yeah. We won’t know. Apparently he was a busy kid with lots of causes who was planning on leaving Schenectady to make it big. Donating to the pet shelter where he got his cat would be nice, too, since being a rescuer was important to him.
Ohio Mom
@Mike G: O’Connor’s vote in Bush v Gore certainly is proof that the good is interred with your bones, your evils live after you. (Or whatever the unmangled version of that Shakespeare quote is.)
I also hope it keeps her up nights but then I have to think, her sleepless nights can’t begin to compare with the agonies and grief countless others still suffer from all the various Bush projects.
I just hope Ginsberg ultimately times her retirement correctly.
SiubhanDuinne
As I mentioned in an earlier open thread, I went to the one cinema in all of metro Atlanta (30 miles from my home) for the one and only screening of the Royal Opera’s production of “Andrea Chénier.” Well worth the early hour, the drive, and even the dense fog.
Now I am at the library. It’s been several weeks since I’ve come here on a Sunday afternoon, and I had forgotten that the place is overrun with the most adorable, serious little kids who seem to be members of a chess club. Some of them can’t possibly be more than 5 or 6 years old, and the eldest isn’t much past 10. And they are good! I’ve played just enough chess to know that I would roundly embarrass myself if I were silly enough to take any of these kids on. Love watching them. Love the concentration on their faces. Time to watch “Searching for Bobby Fischer” again.
Mike J
@trollhattan: I got my mom a K70 for xmas. I’m jealous every time I’m over. Mom loves it, dad hates hearing the mechanical keyboard.
Woodrowfan
@Villago Delenda Est:
OK, I can go with that….
mai naem mobile
Sandra Day OConnors grandkid has Type 1 Diabetes (Juvenile.) During the healthcare reform fight she talked.about how worried she was about her grandkid and the difficulty of getting insurance with a condition like that. So, you see karma has a way of biting your ass.
Nicole
@Ohio Mom:
Absolutely, but as I try not to wish bad things on people, sleepless nights is as far as I can go in my curse-making.
No point in wishing them on Scalia, as I am sure that asshat sleeps like a log every night.
Nicole
@Mike G:
And Alito was who Bush picked as her successor. I hope that also gives her sleepless nights.
Iowa Old Lady
@SiubhanDuinne: Public libraries are such a wonderful institution. They’re champions of books and the right to read them, and also serve their community.
Violet
@trollhattan:
Amazon does. Well, the post office does it for them. I asked the postman why he was working on Sunday and he rolled his eyes and said, “Amazon.” Wasn’t super happy about it. Regular mail doesn’t get delivered. Amazon packages do.
raven
@Violet: You ask him how much he was being paid?
trollhattan
@Mike J:
Supposedly the “Blue” version of this is even clickier, which is kind of hard to imagine given this “soft” version is already pretty clicky, so I understand where dad is coming from. It’s certainly the godchild of the classic IBM keyboard and I remember working in an office full of those. Pretty darn loud, but of course drowned out by the daisywheel printers!
raven
The Horrific New Marriage Between Your Post Office and Amazon Sunday
Nicole
@raven: Probably not a lot. The Sunday drivers are mostly part-time Postal employees. I think the average rate is about $15/hr.
ETA: Never mind. I see you already know!
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Major Major Major Major:
That’s been my assumption as well. After reading the full story, it’s especially tragic because he was clearly a very persuasive young man who was able to get people on board with what he wanted. The final “laser cat” photo used was of him and the school’s principal — the woman who initially refused permission — posing together with their pets. Definitely a life lost much too soon.
Violet
@raven: No, that wouldn’t have been polite. He did tell me they all used to get Sundays off and now they were going to have to rotate schedules so their days off wouldn’t be the same and they’d all have to work Sundays off and on. He didn’t like it. I didn’t get the impression he’d be paid any more for working Sundays. Said Amazon was the only one they delivered for on Sundays.
raven
@Nicole: Yea it sucks.
Peale
@raven: I did get a package from Amazon a few Sunday’s back. I was shocked as I didn’t request rush delivery. I was very reluctant to buzz in the postal worker as I was Sunday and I was kind of worried that it was someone posing as a postal worker to gain entry to the building.
SiubhanDuinne
@Iowa Old Lady:
Yes, I’m a huge fan of public libraries and have been all my life. I actually don’t usually use the library close to me. I regularly come to one that’s several miles distant and a couple of counties over from where I live. Membership/library card is free in my home county but I am willing to pay $60 a year for the privilege of using this much-better-equipped and better-staffed library (of course I can come and sit here for free whenever I want, but for checking things out and being able to sign up for special talks and workshops and so on, they do charge a modest fee for those who don’t live in the county). It works out to a roaring $5 a month, and I drop that much in one visit to Starbucks, so I can’t complain.
Mike J
@trollhattan: The browns are better for gaming, the blues for typing. The browns respond to taking pressure off the key quicker.
raven
@Peale: Six Days of the Condor!’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iaqusi3cAAc
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: You know that the libraries here are part of the USG?
mainmata
Murray’s work, in an interesting way, is similar to Rep.Howard Smith of VA during the 1960s when the Civil Rights Act was being drafted. He chaired the Rules Committee and was a Southern segregationist, of course. He tried to find amendments that would poison the bill and kill it. Finally, he included in the Civil Rights Act prohibition of discrimination not only on the basis of race, creed, etc but also gender. He thought surely that would kill the bill. But it didn’t and the Act was passed, which included prohibition of gender discrimination (at least in the areas covered by the Civil Rights Act).
trollhattan
Expect a giant pushback from the railroad and energy industries on this tomorrow morning.
Huge row over these trains in California, with the railroads trying to hide their schedules and car string lengths.
Villago Delenda Est
@trollhattan: Exqueeze me? Hold us responsible for the damage our hauling of oil around on railroads can cause? What part of the utter oxymoron that is “Corporate Responsibility” do you not understand?
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
USPS. More proof that the government is ungodly.
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
Welcome to the club! I have had my Das Keyboard for exactly a month, and I love it. I got the Professional 4 MX-Blue, which has the clickiest keys. It really is the best keyboard I have typed on since the original IBM PC ones. Plus it is a USB 3.0 hub and it has a few nice media controls (volume, etc.).
My only (extremely minor) cavil is that the keycaps aren’t fully etched (just “laser etched,” whatever that is). We’ll see how long the printing lasts.
Roger Moore
@Mike J:
I got my mom a wireless mechanical keyboard a few years ago, and she absolutely loves it. There isn’t nearly the choice in wireless models because most mechanical keyboards seem to be aimed at gamers, who don’t want wireless.
Another Holocene Human
so my neighbor just got penalized $95 on her tax return because when she enlisted her cousin for help seeing if she qualified for Obamacare apparently her personal info (SSN, phone number) never made it into the database and she doesn’t have an exemption number
Florida, non medicare expansion, she makes way too little for the subsidies.
That’s fucked. Everywhere else in the tax code if you don’t qualify you don’t fucking qualify. What a bitter poison pill for desperately poor people. Congress should be ashamed of themselves.
eta: for not fixing it, SCOTUS broke it
trollhattan
@Steeplejack:
Maybe we’ll find out they’re really the blank-key “Extreme” model in drag. :-)
Also, too, the USB3 passthrough is a great feature!
Another Holocene Human
@Roger Moore: anything that makes me have to replace batteries regularly is evil and wrong. I was going to get my dream old school IBM model but then lightning fried my compy and I went with a laptop because fuck it. (I had a surge suppressor, but not for the coax which was hard connected to the modem and the modem to the computer, so my computer got killed by the cable company which was not liable for a fucking thing … no backstops, no surge suppression … meanwhile after this lightning strike the LIGHTS didn’t even flicker … amazing …
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack:
“Laser etching” is etching — just done with, you know, a laser. (Duh.) They use lasers to do all kinds of stuff these days. I’ve even come across jeans that were distressed with lasers. They look every bit as ugly (and are just as overpriced) as any other jeans that you buy already distressed.
Jim C.
I wonder if everybody lionizing RBG now will feel the same way about her if she dies in office and the GOP wins in 2016.
I have nothing but the highest respect for her as a person and a justice. She’s done us proud on the bench. But the fact of the matter is she should have stepped down back when Obama had large Senate majorities. By not doing so at her very advanced age, she’s put our attempts to get control of a majority of the court at risk. We had a pretty liberal president and a good sized Senate Majority. That was the time to call it quits and indirectly influence the next forty years of jurisprudence in this country.
Staying on the bench and hoping and praying that A) she does not die and B) there’s another Democratic president in the next decade, is a massive combination of ego and risk that’s unsettling to me. All of her good works would be undone if there’s a new Scalia appointed to replace her.
Zinsky
That an unqualified bureaucratic hack like Clarence Thomas could remain on the Supreme Court for 25 years and be on the wrong side of so many bad decisions is a joke and it literally shames and cheapens our justice system.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven: What, the Athens-Clarke County libraries? That’s pretty sweet.
When I worked in academic relations for the Canadian Consulate, I used to make a point of stopping by the main campus library and the campus bookstore with every college or university visit, no matter how many appointments I had or speeches I was scheduled to deliver. Always a high point of campus tours.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: No, the entire state library system. GPLS.
http://www.georgialibraries.org/
Another Holocene Human
@Villago Delenda Est: If the car-building industry in the US hadn’t collapsed maybe it wouldn’t take so long to replace that damn cars with better ones.
BTW, Lac Megantic was a US owner. But Canada is pretty meh (or eh?) about environmental and safety regulation especially when it comes to railroads.
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
Heh, I thought about getting the blank-key Ultimate for about two seconds and then wussed out. I’m a good touch typist, but I still need occasional help with the exotic computer keys, which end up being in slightly different places on a lot of keyboards anyway.
Roger Moore
@Another Holocene Human:
The newer models use little enough power that you don’t have to replace the batteries very often. My mom said that it took her a while to figure out what the problem was the last time she needed to replace them, presumably because it happens rarely enough that she didn’t recognize the symptoms. She really likes the wireless functionality, and she grew up using mechanical typewriters, so I spent the time and effort tracking down a wireless mechanical keyboard. It was a big hit as a present.
Another Holocene Human
@Nicole: $15/hr to deliver on Sunday is BULLSHIT even by the extremely low wage standards in my area. WTF.
Amir Khalid
I think this is an obvious example of denial.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Well, then I’ll say that the laser etching is the shallowest etching I’ve ever seen in my life, like almost imperceptible. The old IBMs had grooves deep enough to collect a little grunge. But I do love this keyboard.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Damn, and that guy is “currently a director with a human rights organisation—the World Human Rights Forum.” Although maybe “ex-Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer” is a tell.
trollhattan
@Jim C.:
And what happens with the confirmation hearings under the current Republican-run Judiciary Committee if she steps down today?
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: Right. Exactly. That dividing line was maintained by white violence. By terrorism. Today that violence might show up wearing a blue uniform. Affirmative action dealt with some of that. It’s notable that affirmative action got knocked down in the context of trying to desegregate public safety. Because that was the avenue that white supremacy had chosen this time. Even today as big city law enforcement looks to hire locals for community policing they’ll find their measured scrutinized and hauled into court by the watchful defenders of white supremacy.
Thomas has spent his entire career on the court denying this fundamental reality. Instead he rules again and again in favor of state and police power and against the individual who has come under the crosshairs of the criminal justice system. Then, like a typical wingnut, he whines and cries about how unappreciated he is. Sure, it’s wrong for people to say he just does whatever Scalia says and stuff like that. But that makes him look better than his actual legacy of shredding the bill of rights and recycling the pulp into toilet paper. You’re a mean old cuss, Clarence Thomas, exempted from most of the realities of American life by your position and wealth, but nursing that grudge when some of those realities peek through, on account of your skin color. You see the blowhole and think it’s the whale.
Jim C.
@trollhattan:
Which is why I said: “But the fact of the matter is she should have stepped down back when Obama had large Senate majorities. By not doing so at her very advanced age, she’s put our attempts to get control of a majority of the court at risk. We had a pretty liberal president and a good sized Senate Majority. That was the time to call it quits and indirectly influence the next forty years of jurisprudence in this country.”
Although in all honesty, having her step down a few months before election time and motivating liberals to actually get off their keisters and go vote might not be a bad idea either.
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack:
The shallowness of the etching must have been a designer’s decision. There’s nothing to stop them from etching the keys as deep as they want.
trollhattan
@Steeplejack: +
I think I’m pretty good but I know I’m not that good, plus there’s the occasional brain freeze where I’m all “Where’s that goddamn squiggly thing key?!?”
Only folks I know using blank keyboards are doing the Dvorak thing. I think learning that would be like randomly swapping the pedals in my car (except with a lot more pedals).
lamh36
Alright, on this Oscar Sunday, I ain’t watching but I’m hanging with my sis. She’s never seen John Wick, so I’m watching in again.
#JohnWick was a damn fine movie. Too bad it didn’t do better at the box office cause I could certainly see “sequel” possibility. I’m not at all a shoot em up kinda of movie goer. I don’t mind guns and blood, but I’m more of a hand to hand Mortal Kombat, martial arts type of action movie goer. But I gotta hand it to Keanu Reeves and the cast and crew of John Wick. I really did enjoy it and too bad I missed it on the big screen. John Wick get’s a thumbs up from me!
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
Years ago I thought about going Dvorak—there was a memory-resident program available to remap a regular keyboard—also for about two seconds, because you’re screwed as soon as you go back to a regular keyboard. Plus anyone else is screwed trying to use your computer/keyboard (maybe not a bad thing). Dvorak is probably a faster/more efficient system, but I’m fast enough, and it was never like I was doing eight solid hours of transcription-level typing all day.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
True.
Another Holocene Human
@Villago Delenda Est: Unfair to medieval people. They had lots of issues (being ruled by intemperate warlords chief amongst them, also rampant illiteracy and belief in magic) but as far as the purely ethnic goes they were quite gregarious. Affiliation was a matter more of choice than birth. And it was well before the area of linguistic chauvinism. Between speaking whatever doggerel you were raised with, the constant movement and resettlement, and the lack of literacy, it was a time of rapid linguistic change.
Southern Beale
Anyone know what happened to Ed at Gin and Tacos? The G&T blog has been down for a while. Wondered what was up.
Buddy H
http://accrispin.blogspot.com
Nice site “Writer Beware” where the tricky business of publishing is navigated.
ThresherK
@trollhattan: Have you seen a new desktop keyboard lately?
My only experience is with Dell, as that’s the ones our local libraries take. They’ve upgraded their systems and OS, which is good, because they get used and worn out in a few years. Nice to see towns not chintzing out on The Public.
However, the new keyboards just suck.
Bendy is bad enough, but who decided the keyboards had too much indent on them? See anew Dell desktop keyboard v. this Windows 7-era Dell desktop keyboard.
(And this isn’t to slam Dell alone. Nobody else is better, I’d bet. I’m hanging on to my old PS/2 to USB converters like a miser.)
SiubhanDuinne
@Southern Beale:
??
I read it all the time. He seems to put up a new post every couple of days.
(Although — I just went to check and I see that “Safari cannot open because the server cannot be found.” Still, he had a new thread up as of Friday morning, and I think sticks pretty closely to a MWF schedule.)
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack:
It may be better, but the claims that it’s radically better are all based on flawed studies carried out by Dvorak and his associates. The basic flaw is that Dvorak would train a group of typists on using his keyboard and compare them to a group that had stuck with QWERTY, but the QWERTY typists had received no equivalent training on their keyboards. Since he was working mostly with relatively inexperienced typists, it’s not possible to separate the advantage of the keyboard from the benefit of training. I suspect that a similar phenomenon is why so many people who switch to Dvorak report much better results; they’re benefiting from the extra training them give themselves as part of the switch rather than from the difference in layouts.
Cervantes
More eventually still, she became an Episcopal saint.
Southern Beale
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think his last post was 3 days ago, I guess they had technical issues?
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
There’s really no need to etch any deeper. If they did that they might as well mold the key designation into the top. But then you need a unique cavity for each key. With laser etching you can do that even after the keys are inserted on the board. And as it is etching into the plastic, not printing on top it should last longer than the operational part of the keyboard.
Mike J
@Steeplejack:
I was hacking perl for a bank in Italy once. Perl is about half punctuation marks, and was primarily designed in the US. Which was fine on my computer, but using the client’s computer was a pain. It took forever to locate the right key, even with the right keycaps on. I was always slow on German and Swedish keyboards, but Italian beat me.
Steeplejack
@Roger Moore:
Damn, there’s always something like that when you look below the surface.
Buddy H
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b5oWwFUhN0
Rock and Roll – 1934 – The Boswell Sisters
gogol's wife
I want some more pictures of puppies sleeping with big floofy cats.
trollhattan
@ThresherK:
My theory is the competition for “how cheap(ly) can we make a thing?” never ends because there is no practical limit to how much you can reduce materials, labor, # of parts, etc. Maybe someday we’ll buy a computer and it will include a program that prints you a keyboard. “We recommend 80# cover stock, but 20# bond works too.”
Baud
@Steeplejack:
You can’t trust Big Dvorak.
Buddy H
@gogol’s wife: Or cats massaging dogs. I remember some amusing ones, where some wag dubbed a voice for the cat; a soothing european accent.
SiubhanDuinne
@Southern Beale:
Well, I haven’t checked in since Friday morning* but it was okay then.
* I mean, except for just now checking when you first mentioned you were having problems.
He normally posts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings — not long after midnight Eastern time, although his schedule doesn’t seem to be all that consistent. If I’m plagued with insomnia tonight, as I seem to be so often recently, I’ll have a look and see if he’s back on schedule. I like G&T a lot, and hope Ed’s not running into problems at his site.
gogol's wife
@Buddy H:
Cool!
SiubhanDuinne
@gogol’s wife:
Hear, hear!
Ditto!
Second!
This!
Me too!
MomSense
@lamh36:
That’s good to know since my kids like martial arts movies and Keanu Reeves.
Steeplejack
Dunno if I will watch the Oscars tonight. For some reason I am unmotivated almost to the point of anti-motivated. Will hopefully achieve closure with the season-ending episode of Grantchester, which has been steadily improving, though I still want to smack several of the characters.
It got up into the low 40s today, and all afternoon what I noticed was the eerie silence of the HVAC not blowing. It’s going down to 27° overnight, will stay there all day tomorrow and drop to 9° tomorrow night, so this was a brief (but welcome) respite. At least it spontaneously melted almost all the snow off the car, which is still squatting in the prime Doris Day parking spot down on the street. Good times
Steeplejack
@Buddy H:
I like my oars to have sequins on them.
Buddy H
@Steeplejack: I see 60 MInutes is planning a tribute to Bob Simon.
I love the Boswell Sisters’ close harmony. After listening to a bunch of 1930s music, contemporary music sounds poundingly aggressive to me.
Violet
@Steeplejack: I’m watching Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet pre-Oscars. I really like Neil Patrick Harris, so I’m hoping he does a good job of hosting tonight.
Buddy H
We’ll be watching Downton. Our local station plays last week’s episode at 8am, followed by the newest episode at 9.
“Some say” season six will be the last for Downton Abbey
trollhattan
@Buddy H:
Once they achieve Peak Edith [car crash] then it’s time. This season’s story arcs are practically straight lines.
Buddy H
@trollhattan: I think there’s a syndrome where I can recognize a show is going downhill, but I’m so invested in the characters I can’t stop watching
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
Which characters do you want to smack? The bitchy housekeeper or the fey curate?
Elizabelle
We can haz Oscars thread?
muddy
It’s been so cold here the sewer froze outside my house. For 180 feet. Cost $450 as it took them 3 hours and I was told I was lucky, because at their last stop they got to 300 feet and ran out of equipment and just had to quit. Now I’m curious what they will do next on that one, surely not wait until spring? At the time I didn’t think to ask because I was so busy boggling over the price for mine.
Of course it would happen the same week the car needs work. At least my mechanic is coming to get it so I don’t have to go out when it’s too cold. Trying to focus on the positive. Trying..so..hard…
Elizabelle
@muddy: Hugs, muddy. What a mess.
trollhattan
@Buddy H:
Didn’t start watching until…season 3? So never had everybody’s backstory. The writers seem hellbent on making once enjoyable or at least sympathetic characters into not-so-much versions but more tellingly, many of the subplots seem contrivances they aren’t invested in.
Put another way–I watch for Violet-time.
Pogonip
@gogol’s wife: Studies show that 93% of blog readers prefer cute puppies and floofy cats to elderly (is there any other kind?) Supreme Court Justices. The other 7% are, as usual, drunk.
SiubhanDuinne
@muddy:
Omg, what a nightmare. I’m so sorry.
Buddy H
@trollhattan: We didn’t start watching until season 3 either. So i rented the first two seasons from our local library and binge watched, brought us up to speed. Gives wife and me some entertainment.
Hate to see the dog go, but I understand it’s necessary because of the time line.
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
Well, those two, for starters, but I really want to smack Amanda, Sidney’s semi-unrequited love interest. Okay, she decided to marry the upper-class twit of the year, for reasons, but then she keeps dangling herself in front of Sidney while seeming to wonder, “Golly, why can’t we be besties forever, even though I’m marrying this colossal tool and tearing your heart out?” Plus she gave Sidney the surprise gift of a pet, which is a real taboo to me. Basically, you’re saying to the other person, “Hey, here’s a 10- or 20-year commitment for you; hope you like it!” And, yes, Dickens is lovable, but still.
The housekeeper actually scored a few points with me last week when she rescued the jazz records and said something about them not being totally awful. An almost predictable development—like her warming to the German widow, Hildegard—but nicely played.
trollhattan
@Pogonip:
Hey now, I can be a drunken, puppy-RBG fan, also, too! I’ve got a [hic] Venn diagram here, somewhere….
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I really like Grantchester. Curious to know who is on your “smacking” list.
raven
@WaterGirl: Pretty big game up there in a minute!
WaterGirl
@gogol’s wife: I posted the same question before I saw yours!
If I had to guess, I think he might want to smack the vicar!
Edit: this is clearly projection on my part, because sometimes I want to smack the vicar. He should fight for the woman he loves.
Edit 2: and now I see that Steep had answered your question before I posted my question AND then posted my guess. oh well
muddy
@Elizabelle: @SiubhanDuinne: At least the toilet didn’t back up. I found out yesterday when I went down cellar because the washer was making a weird noise, it wouldn’t drain. It’s more expense than mess, although I suppose I could still find out it damaged the ancient stone foundation or something. Will find out in the spring, I guess.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
I have been meaning to ask if anyone else is seeing The Doctor Blake Mysteries on their PBS station. It’s an Australian series, set in roughly the same time as Grantchester—the early ’50s. Not flawless, but an interesting cast of characters and good enough to keep going on with.
Buddy H
@muddy: Scary stuff. We’re in a 150-year-old house. This freezing weather is worrying me.
WaterGirl
@raven: I see that! I had to give up watching basketball on TV because I got so wound up when I would watch it. Too wound up.
raven
@muddy: The sewer froze? They just did my entire block and the sewer is really, really deep. I hope they aren’t selling you a bill of goods? What did they say they did?
raven
@WaterGirl: I’ll always remember the night we beat Michigan State when they had Magic and Company. Damn what a night in 1979!
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I just searched for Doctor Blake on Tivo and it had no idea what I was talking about. I wonder if it’s not on everywhere?
muddy
@WaterGirl: Yes, it’s the vicar and the girl who could use a smack from me too! I was looking up online to see if he has had to take vows and that was why he can’t, but it isn’t, it’s just income. It’s supposed to be in 1960, not 1860. Her dad arranged that marriage, it’s creepy as hell.
In looking it up I found the show is from a series of books, and don’t know if the things I read coming up are spoilers for the tv show or not, I don’t know how/if the episodes match up.
Buddy H
We’ve been addicted to Doc Brown. So many U.S. shows have a NORMAL main character surrounded by eccentrics, but Doc Brown is just as messed up as the townsfolk.
Baud
@raven:
Yeah, that sounds strange to me also.
raven
@Baud: Couple comments from a website:
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Well, Sidney himself definitely has his smackable moments. I don’t get why he can’t declare his (obvious) love for Amanda, and last week I thought he was almost caddish to the jazz singer Gloria Dee.
But all this talk of smacking probably just means that I’m invested in the characters. I can’t quit them!
muddy
@raven: No, it’s not a bill of goods in a 150 year old house in Vermont. I actually saw the ice. It’s been 20-30 degrees colder than normal here the last 6 weeks. I should have been more on the ball about running the hot water. I don’t normally use a lot, this has happened before. It was years ago and I forgot about how I should waste water and propane when it’s extra cold.
WaterGirl
@raven: I am kind of off and on with basketball, different phases of my life, I guess. I missed that – must have been beyond exciting!
muddy
@Steeplejack: Yeah, he was pretty dickish to the singer. If you had regrettable drunken sex you can at least be pleasant for 3 minutes as you rush off. He acted like he was offended that he fucked her.
raven
@WaterGirl: They were #1 in the nation. We beat them on Thursday night and then lost to Ohio State in heartbreaking OT game Saturday. I have the SI with my buddy Derek Holcomb on the cover. It was a great night but the rest of the season did not go well.
Baud
@raven:
I guess anything is possible.
raven
@muddy: Well I’m glad you’re not getting stiffed. Good luck.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
The big PBS station here, WETA, does a fair amount of “independent” programming, so there are series that they get that I don’t see on the other stations (or they show up later on the other stations). Doctor Blake is following in the footsteps of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, another Australian series that I am now seeing pop up on other PBS stations.
Doctor Blake trailer here.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I thought last week at the club was going to be Sidney’s big moment with Amanda, and then her husband-to-be swooped in and took her away.
I don’t think he was being a cad with the jazz singer. My take: after the almost-husband took Amanda away when (I think) Sidney was about to declare his love for Amanda, I think Sidney kind of gave up and felt he should move on, and there was Gloria, taking him home. I think he was genuine in his regret afterwards and kicking himself because he is supposed to set an example and clearly knew he had screwed up. Plus, Gloria was the aggressor, so I don’t think she was taken advantage of at all. Besides, she knew he had a thing for Amanda when she took him home.
And yes, the puppy! That was her wanting to stay connected to Sidney. Or rather, I think that was Amanda wanting to keep Sidney connected with her. Amanda wants to have it both ways, which is why I want to smack her.
Are you watching the slap? I am finding it very interesting.
muddy
@muddy: They’ve had trouble in some of the towns near here where they are having problems with frozen pipes on both the town supply and waste lines. One town officially told people to just run the water all the time and they are going to have them pay based on last year’s bill amount.
I used to work in road/piping design here, and the pipes are a minimum 6′ deep, which is usually enough. But last year the main in front burst, and there was a sinkhole developing until I noticed water where it should be frozen. Of course I didn’t pay for that, it was in the street. The same line burst further down the street this year, same thing. Sadly for me the sewer goes out the back of my house and not into the street. The line angles off the street and goes cross country a bit to the treatment plant. My line goes in at an angle and hits their main a long ways out. It’s all under my property, so it’s my problem. Well, my line is, once it gets to the main it’s them.
Steeplejack
@muddy:
Exactly! I couldn’t think how to phrase it, but you nailed it perfectly. LOL.
muddy
@WaterGirl: I don’t think she was taken advantage of at all. But I’m sure he was not churlish *before* he stuck his dick in her. He acted like he was the one who had been taken advantage of.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
I have not watched The Slap so far, except for an accidental five minutes of Kevin Bacon’s (?) bail hearing. For some reason it didn’t sound appetizing to me.
raven
@muddy: Holy smokes. We just had 100 yards of main rerouted and every house on our block hooked up. They went as deep as 18 feet at the end of the street. The shallowest the main line is is 9 feet and that’s in Georgia.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: I hope Ed’s ok. The internet needs more Bulldogs, and G&T has helped me ease the pain over losing Bartcop.
Oh, and fire Mark Richt!
WaterGirl
@muddy: Yeah, I agree with both of your comments about that. I really don’t think he was being a cad, but he was kind of a dick in the morning!
raven
Here’s the mail line going in.
raven
@Steve in the ATL: GO DAWGS!!!! GO ILLINI!!!
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: At first I thought I might be interested. Then I saw the promos and thought it sounded like a terrible show. Then I looked into it and decided to record it.
They have done such a good job of capturing the characters that I think it’s worth watching. Watch the first episode. If you don’t like it after one, I don’t think it would grow on you.
P.S. Don’t know his name, but it’s not Kevin Bacon.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
@raven:
Why do your nyms have links that don’t go anywhere?
muddy
Typically the ground freezes 4 feet deep. If they went 18 feet it was due to maintaining a slope. Unless there is a pump station you have to go as deep as you need to. That’s also brand new design build. This system is really old. There are places in town where you still find the original wooden pipes (hollow tree trunks) right next to the newer old clay tiles.
raven
@Baud: better?
Baud
@raven:
Link is gone.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: Saw last night’s episode at O dark hundred. The Filipino quiz show contestant with Aspergers from the 1950s. Not your usual TV fare. Liked it a lot.
WaterGirl
@Baud: oops. I don’t know about raven, but I found this in the URL field:
http://!
I never intentionally put anything in that field so… um, the kitties did it?
raven
@muddy: Right, the street we are on rises. That is probably why they ran the damn thing through my yards (I own the house next door) and UNDER the house behind us. We discovered it when we broke ground on an addition. The city had no easement and because of that and it running under the house they agreed to move it. Two years and $300k later we are about ready to resume the addition. We are damn lucky and we know it.
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
The commenters on IMDB imply that according to the books, it was he who rejected her, or didn’t propose, or something, so it’s not that she jilted him. I like the actress.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
You make some good points about the Sidney-Amanda dynamic, and I definitely agree that the jazz singer knew the score going in, but I thought Sidney’s behavior in the morning-after scene was harsh, as captured by Muddy above. Particularly since the flashbacks indicate that Sidney was a soldier during the war and has presumably been around the block a few times. Actually, there was a scene in one of the episodes where he was sitting next to a prostitute in the police station and he basically said as much.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Or the new puppy.
raven
@WaterGirl: me too, it was the bohdi
gogol's wife
@muddy:
He was late for church.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Okay, I’ll give it a go on your recommendation.
raven
@Steeplejack: Happy Valley is really good.
WaterGirl
@gogol’s wife: In the very first episode, I think, they were in the field and he said something like “let’s run away together and live a life we’ve never dreamed of” – I know those aren’t the right words, but the words he used were the exact words from the “suicide” note.
Maybe then he asks her why she is marrying him and she says something like “because he asked”, implying that Sidney had never spoken up, he’d taken her for granted and missed his chance.
gogol's wife
@WaterGirl:
Yes, I think that’s it.
For you Grantchester fans, I read in the comments on the NYTimes Downton recap that they’re going to do a War and Peace with James Norton as Prince Andrei and Lady Rose from Downton as Natasha, written by Andrew Davies, who did the 1995 Pride and Prejudice (of the canonical Colin Firth Mr. Darcy performance). Should be a travesty of Tolstoy but with pretty people.
raven
@gogol’s wife: He’s nasty psycho in Happy Valley.
Baud
@raven:
I was hoping you two had started your own blogs.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I had actually written “the kitties or the puppy” and changed it. I didn’t want to be unfair to Henry – it’s the kitties who type things when I plug my laptop in on the counter without putting it to sleep and I come back and some awful thing has happened. Items on my to do list are still there but are completely blank. or they hit some keyboard shortcut and now the text on my screen is so huge I could read it if I were nearly blind, and the only thing I can do is restart the computer. or they highlighted a huge chunk of my file and then pressed some other key and everything is gone.
yes, now that you ask, I do try to remember to put the laptop to sleep before I walk away, but I forget all too often. and yes, bad kitties. no matter what I do, they get on the counter if I am not there to see them.
raven
@Baud: I got banned from Illini Loyalty this week!
Steve in the ATL
@raven: Unlikely as this is, I am also a Chicago native. But I root for the Generals instead!
(Not the Washington Generals, but our teams weren’t much better than that outside of country club sports)
WaterGirl
@Baud: If only I were that interesting!
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
WETA2 and WMPT show episodes at different times throughout the week, so you can catch a few more if you want. First run is Friday at 8:00 p.m. and midnight.
Oops, and that’s on WMPT, so there’s my whole “WETA leading the charge” theory shot to hell.
Baud
@raven:
That seems to happen to you a lot.
muddy
@WaterGirl: I don’t think it was that he took her for granted. It was that he was of a social station that he could not compete with. She would have had to be a poor vicar’s wife. He ought to have given her the option, but I think he’s supposed to seem noble not to condemn her to such a thing, especially when her family would have been entirely against it as well. Her dad was just thrilled to say to Sidney that he wouldn’t be seeing him around any more.
I mean, how horrible must Sidney’s family be to let the sister date a black guy! “Not our sort!” Class consciousness in England. I had a friend there who said he could tell exactly where anyone was from and where they went to school and what their family was like in 2 sentences.
WaterGirl
@raven: I was eavesdropping on your comment to Baud – what did you do to get banned? You’re as loyal an illini fan as they come.
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
Well, I’m going by what I see in the series. Harrumph.
ETA: They could have thrown in a short clarifying scene: “I can’t ask you to marry me, because I can’t give you all that you deserve!,” etc.
And I like the actress. Just think Amanda deserves a smack.
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
Yes, but see WaterGirl at #164. It was one line of dialogue that zipped past.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Ahem. That was a private comment.
gogol's wife
@Baud:
Amy? Amy Pascal, is that you?
Baud
@WaterGirl:
You have cats and a dog. What else do you need?
gogol's wife
No one has picked up on my comment about Sidney’s “morning after” behavior. He was so upset and rushing because he heard the church bells ringing. He was supposed to be giving a sermon at that moment.
BruceFromOhio
Gaia save me, this snow shit is old, old, old. Three to five and minus eight for the wake-up call.
Justice Ginsburg is awesome.
That is all.
raven
@WaterGirl: They had a thread about the Little League team and people started whining about Jesse and Sharpton and all this bullshit. I asked if any of the commenters were African American and the fuckers didn’t like it.
Suzanne
Oscar thread plz?
raven
@Baud: What, FDL 6 years ago? Fuck em.
Baud
@gogol’s wife:
Reference?
Steeplejack
@raven:
I know, I need to get to that, and Peaky Blinders as well. Hell, I still haven’t finished watching Breaking Bad all the way through.
raven
@Suzanne: No one is here.
gogol's wife
I thought the Oscars started at 8:00. Instead it’s a bunch of commercials and people spouting nonsense on the red carpet. I can’t wait for Downton to start.
Baud
@raven:
Well, that’s now 2 more than I’ve been banned from.
raven
@Steeplejack: Better Call Saul is killin me!
Suzanne
I want to be Lupita N’yongo.
gogol's wife
@Baud:
The Sony chief executive who said a lot of stupid stuff in her e-mails that got hacked by North Korea.
raven
@Baud: Yea but you are really nice and reasonable.
WaterGirl
@muddy: It would help if they, you know, actually talked to each other about their feelings!!!
Amanda’s dad is really a
dickarrogant ass. Boy, that party when you got to see all the class issues come out was really interesting.Baud
@raven:
OK, that’s awesome.
gogol's wife
They’re really pushing American Sniper on this red carpet.
raven
@Baud: Fucker won’t answer me when I ask why.
Nicole
@Another Holocene Human: If your neighbor shouldn’t have incurred the penalty she should be able to argue it with the IRS. I incurred a penalty on behalf of my 4-year-old son last year because he had been in a commercial (non-union, not a lot of $$) and owed like $100 in taxes. When I wrote the check out of his account it bounced because I’d put what he earned into savings and there wasn’t enough in checking to cover it (and our credit union isn’t allowed by law to automatically move the money from savings on a UTMA account, like it can on regular bank accounts). Anyway, I wrote to the IRS asking that the penalty be dropped because it wasn’t fair to penalize a four-year-old because his mom didn’t realize there wasn’t enough in the checking account. And I got another letter demanding the penalty fee, and I paid it and then four months later got a check from the IRS refunding the penalty. It was a hassle, to be sure, but the IRS isn’t interested in fleecing you; they just want what a person honestly owes.
(And since I paid the penalty fee out of my own account and the refund check was made out to my son, he made $27 off of my mistake!)
Baud
@gogol’s wife:
Ah, thanks.
muddy
@WaterGirl: If people on tv and in movies just talked about their feelings there would be no story! They have to be stupid for our sakes.
WaterGirl
@Baud: You are so right. Cute stories. Pet photos.
Excuse me for a moment while I go click on the link at your nym so I can see what your 2 dogs look like. Oh, wait.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: They did, but they went nowhere. /snark
WaterGirl
@gogol’s wife: I read what you wrote and I completely agreed. I should have said so! See how easily I let myself be talked into thinking he had been a dick? Peer pressure.
muddy
Someone should tweet John, he’s watching the Oscar thing and posting there instead of here. He’s being as mean as morning-after-Sidney.
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
Yeah, I saw that. It was practically the first thing in the first episode, so not only did it zip by but it was impossible to apprehend the significance of it.
Another thing that kind of threw me in that first episode was that it started out very warm—Amanda took a dunking in the pond—and then suddenly it was November and everyone was wearing long coats. But seemingly with no passage of “film time.” Or if there was it was another thing I missed.
WaterGirl
@raven: You got banned for that? Ridiculous.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: All week long my sis in law in Sherman Oaks has been fucking with people on Facebook about the glorious SoCal weather. Not a fucking peep tonight.
gogol's wife
@muddy:
And Sidney’s hot, so he can get away with it.
muddy
@gogol’s wife: He could still be decent for the 90 seconds it took him to get his pants on instead of being a dick for the 90 seconds. I refuse to concede.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Suzanne: It’s raining in LA, what else do you want to know?
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: @gogol’s wife: I think those two comments nail what happened. But Sidney did not handle it well.
gogol's wife
@muddy:
Okay, you win. I think we are supposed to be somewhat disturbed by his behavior. He’s working on a drinking problem, etc., so we’re supposed to be worried about him.
Baud
@raven:
I can guess why.
muddy
@gogol’s wife: Yes, he’s very pretty. Of course I am prejudiced towards ginger. I think he’s a little too fit to be a man of his times, however. Anachronism!
srv
President McCain goes nukular:
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
Yeah, I got that, but I still think he was unnecessarily churlish to Gloria Dee. He could have given her a peck on the cheek and a “Ta, love, must run.” Well, not that, but the suitably buttoned-up Sidney version thereof.
gogol's wife
@muddy:
You must be referring to the “scything the grave plots” scene.
Omnes Omnibus
@gogol’s wife: Yeah, he is dealing with undiagnosed PTSD while being expected to help other people with their problems. He going to behave in a messed up way on occasion.
WaterGirl
@gogol’s wife: Okay, I have that episode in “deleted items” in Tivo. Off to watch that scene again, be right back.
Edit: Hmm. Someone seems to have deleted the episode from deleted items. I blame the same person who doesn’t fill the ice cube trays.
Steeplejack
@raven:
I am DVR’ing that.
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
See my #213.
“Lady Gaga, your dress is stun-ning!” What tripe. Can’t wait for Violet and Mrs. Patmore to clear my head of this nonsense.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: My outside cam had some white specks in the pic, maybe even a bit of show mixed in. Though it’s way too warm for snow(55) it’s a really cold(and not so wet) storm.
Suzanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: I want to talk about the clothes, damnit.
I saw Birdman today. Ed Norton and Michael Keaton were tremendous. But Gone Girl was the best movie I saw this year. (Of course, I didn’t see many movies.)
Baud
@srv:
Well, I agree with him on one thing.
Not too late to volunteer, Senator.
raven
@WaterGirl: Blog owner is Dan O’Brien, if you run into him give him a stugatz!
BillinGlendaleCA
@gogol’s wife: I worked on a drinking problem for years, then I quit drinking.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: There it is.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Suzanne: The clothes are all wet, cause it’s raining.
Steeplejack
@muddy:
I know, and I keep telling myself that, but still I want to smack ’em around! Like I said, it means I’m invested in the characters
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I still have the “Airplane” style drinking problem, sometimes I just miss.
Elizabelle
Oscars thread Oscars thread Oscars thread.
Missed most of the blather on the red carpet. It hardly ever rains in the City of Angels, but tonight …
OK: who’s voting for what?
I’m hoping Boyhood does well. Did not see Birdman (the apparent favorite) or Imitation Game.
Did see the short films. Totally torn between “Parvenah” and “Aya.” Both worth watching. All the shorts were good.
Steeplejack
@muddy:
I’m with you!
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: I think you could have called “Gone Girl” “Sympathy for Scott Peterson.” Wickedly funny.
Loved seeing Rosamund Pike with a British accent. Liked her more, somehow, for that. She seemed like a real person.
Suzanne
@Elizabelle: I saw Birdman, and I think it’s more an actors’ movie than a Best Picture.
Elizabelle
I loved Grand Budapest Hotel too.
Did not see “American Sniper”, but kind of rooting against it because we’ve done enough shooting wars.
Did see Mrs. Chris Kyle on the red carpet, and she was lovely. Attending with her sister. Are they twins?
Honoring Hollywood’s Best and Whitest. Yup.
muddy
@Steeplejack: I really enjoy the show. It’s one I actually watch, and not just have on while I am online. The curate and the housekeeper are delightful. I’m terrible at names. I also like the older detective in this. I have previously seen him in BBC shows where they had him as the sexy lead and I wasn’t feeling that. He’s better in the character role.
Although I guess someone was feeling it, as I think there was more than one series where that was his thing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: As someone who once said out loud, “Ooh, this was a mistake,” the morning after (I was referring to the lack of sleep and need to be socially function that morning, but that’s not how it came out), I have some sympathy for Sidney. I realized the depth of my error as I was saying it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle:
Cole obviously likes his friends on teh Twitter better than us; then again, who could blame him.
MomSense
Spent all day hacking at ice dams and they are finally gone. We also took care of the ice dams on our neighbor’s roof.
Neighbors are in their 80s and very grateful for all the roof raking and shoveling assistance. Tonight they invited us over for dinner and drinks. I can’t keep up with people who have been drinking nightly cocktails for over 40 years. I doubt I’ll make it through the Oscars.
MomSense +4
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
I think we’re all violenty agreeing at this point. LOL. I concede all your points (and Violet’s), but I agree with Muddy that Sidney—as much as we love him and understand his issues—was a bit of a dog with Gloria Dee in that one scene.
Great follow-on joke later was when the next thing to turn up in his mail was Gloria Dee’s record.
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: Yeah. I get tired of the Academy voting for actors/their profession.
Argo best picture? No, no, no.
WaterGirl
@muddy: hahahahaha
you are so right!
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
True.
muddy
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh dear. Were you able to recover it or was there unpleasantness?
Elizabelle
Does anyone own this blog?
Oscars thread?
Dammit?
Violet
@gogol’s wife:
I’m here! Stop watching that rubbish!
Violet
@Elizabelle: The only film I’ve seen in a theater is “The Imitation Game.” It was great but don’t know if it’s expected to win anything.
Steeplejack
Too bad that TCM is running The Man Who Would Be King against the Oscars. A great movie that few will be watching.
Violet
Lupita Nyongo’s dress is crazy.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I laughed out loud at your first line, though I suppose it wasn’t so funny at the time. That conversation probably didn’t go well.
Omnes Omnibus
@muddy: She had been a bridesmaid and I was a groomsman at a wedding the day prior, so the post wedding brunch had a distinct chill and then I got on a plane to fly home. I sent flowers with an apology note once I was back in Wisconsin. I haven’t been back to Fargo in the ensuing 27 years so I hope I am safe.
Elizabelle
Edward Norton. He was so good in “The People vs. Larry Flynt.”
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Did Violet even comment on that?
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Elizabelle:
For work reasons, I want “Big Hero 6” to win for Animated Feature and “Feast” to win for Animated Short, but they will probably both lose. “BH6” will lose to “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” because it’s lost to it in all of the other awards, and “Feast” might lose to “The Dam Keeper,” which was made outside of Pixar by a couple of Pixar guys.
We have it DVR’d so we can skip forward to what we want to see. I love living in the future.
Elizabelle
JK Simmons please, although I love Ethan Hawke too. He was so good in Boyhood.
ETA: And it is!
JPL
As long as Patricia Arquette wins for best supporting actress, I’m fine with the other results. This year, I saw three of the movies and loved them all, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game and Boyhood.
Omnes Omnibus
Does no one else watch The Great British Baking Show?
Central Planning
@Steeplejack:
My son did a few years ago – he was probably 15 or 16 at the time. He swears it is better than QWERTY. He switches back and forth between the two as needed and doesn’t seem to affect him.
Although whenever he gets on his high horse about how awesome Dvorak is, I challenge him to an online typing contest and always beat him (with QWERTY). Perhaps it’s the 30 years of touch typing I have under my belt.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Suzanne:
Actors are the biggest contingent of Academy voters, so “Birdman” will probably win. Actors love movies about acting and actors, which is one of the reasons “Shakespeare in Love” upset “Saving Private Ryan”
Elizabelle
JK Simmons has good timing.
I wonder if those Farmers Insurance commercials just got more expensive.
Violet
@Elizabelle: I really want to see “Whiplash.” He seems like such a nice guy. This speech is great.
muddy
@Omnes Omnibus: 27 years. You might be safe by now. Might.
Elizabelle
@Violet: Yes, he does. Will see Whiplash this week or next.
Do they tend to bring movies back? Some of the big ones never left DC area.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Oops, sorry, I meant you, of course. I think Violet’s name was on the screen as I was typing. My apologies.
Omnes Omnibus
@muddy: I am going to give it a full 30.
Elizabelle
Like Liam Neeson’s voice.
Have never seen any of his violence movies. The other ones, yes.
Elizabelle
Grand Budapest. I loved it.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
It must be weird to get an Oscar when 95 percent of the people watching will say, “Hey, it’s that insurance guy from the commercials,” and will have no idea what movie you were in.
Not bad, just weird.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Favorite show! I have to DVR it though because no one else in my household wants to watch.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’ve seen one, liked it but keep missing it. Must put it in the DVR queue.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: @Steeplejack: I discovered last week the my dad and I are addicted.
muddy
@Elizabelle: Oh yes, “comic booooks”.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Well, I thought you might have meant me, but I didn’t want to presume.
I do that kind of thing, too. If there’s a way for you to catch the first episode of The Slap, let me know what you think. Oh my gosh, I think they captured the couple who don’t discipline there kid – and the mom who is still breastfeeding her son at 5 years old – perfectly! And the relationship with the parents, and the dynamics with the various couples.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: We can hope that she’s turned it into a funny story that she enjoys telling.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: I’ve always though he’s quite good in the insurance commercials, he deserves an Oscar. Wait, he’s in some film?
Suzanne
@Elizabelle: I’ve had a thing for Edward a Norton for years. What a hottie.
muddy
@Omnes Omnibus: The setting is so nice, it’s quite beautiful visually, aside from the content. It’s so much more civilized than an American cooking contest, where they have to use 3 bizarre and disgusting ingredients or whatever. I find the (rather bizarrely) tanned male host a little on the creepy side though. I’m not sure why, he just gives me the ick.
Violet
@Elizabelle: Oh, yeah. Watched that on demand over the holidays. Fun film. One of Wes Anderson’s best.
Steeplejack
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Yeah, they give Oscars for commercials?! They really have opened up the categories.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Nice. I love the mishaps like that crazy bread that ended up a soggy mess because it was stuffed with so much fruit.
I’m a sucker for those English cooking shows even though my cooking is decidedly more adventurous. I used to watch Two Fat Ladies where every recipe was either wrapped in bacon or covered in a poultice.
Violet
Wow. J-Lo’s dress is amazing.
Elizabelle
Costume design: Grand Budapest?
YESH!!!
Lobby Boy!!
ETA: The winner won for Barry Lyndon? Wow.
Elizabelle
@Violet: It is. I tire of her cleavage, but pretty dress.
muddy
@Violet: Check this out. We can’t get a new thread, but John had time to complain about J-Lo’s boobs. What in the world? I say she should have them out. They are very nice.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: I haven’t watched or paid much attention to the Oscars in 25 years. So I believe you. The only coverage I see is the local news afterwards of the parties(I hate awards season in this town). Now I think I have to change the onion on my belt, this one’s going bad.
muddy
@Elizabelle: We can’t seem to agree this evening. I posted about the boobs before I knew you did!
Suzanne
NPH is awesome.
Steeplejack
A friend just texted me with a question about some wine and reminded me that I have Conde de Caralt (Spanish bubbly) in the fridge. Opening!
Elizabelle
@muddy: I missed your boobs posting. Checking back for it.
ETA: noted. And JohnG is posting elsewhere — Lovey might be assisting — but we’re about to go to 300 comments on a Notorious RBG thread.
Anybody?
Suzanne
Love Kidman’s style. Classic and new at the same time.
Elizabelle
Chiwetel Ejiofor. Say it fast, 4 times.
Thinking Ida will win this one? It did during Independent Spirit Awards.
ETA: This charming director seems like Christoph Waltz’s younger brother. But Polish.
Suzanne
Rad speech. LMMFAO.
muddy
@Elizabelle: He punked them on the hurry-up music!
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: Yeah, it was great. Late wife? Hmmm. So prefer those speeches to the “i have to thank my producers, and …. list of a dozen plus names. Ick.”
Elizabelle
@muddy: Loved that. Class.
Steeplejack
@muddy:
That Twitter thread is funny. Cole gets righteously spanked, including “This tweet is a sure sign that you’ve become the crazy pet guy who has lost all perspective on women,” and he counters with impeccable Cole logic: “If it was her dick hanging out I would say the same thing.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Dear god.
Elizabelle
I saw Marion Cotillard’s movie. She was great! But she’s already got an Oscar.
At least the Lego movie’s in contention with Best Song. Talk about consolation prize.
Suzanne
lego oscars!
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Elizabelle:
Apparently his family and friends call him “Chewie” for short. London born and bred of immigrant parents, and my future ex-husband. Don’t tell my current one. ;-)
Elizabelle
John G Cole detached from Twitter long enough to put up an Oscars thread.
Brand spanking new.
With some question about pet training.
JohnM
Isn’t it a rule (or at least, it should be) that if you refer to the good Justice as RBG, you have to use “the Notorious RBG”?