I was busy with work yesterday, so I missed this. Thought I’d post if you did, too.
There’s no feeling like finishing a book, and I’m proud of this one. In A Promised Land, I try to provide an honest accounting of my presidency, the forces we grapple with as a nation, and how we can heal our divisions and make democracy work for everybody. pic.twitter.com/T1QSZVDvOm
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 17, 2020
If we take back our Democracy Nov 3, I’ll order this book. Otherwise, I don’t think I could manage to read it. It would be too painful.
Now for something completely different. My oldest brother is a teacher and he shared this on FB yesterday. Covid is probably hastening a career change for him:
Open thread
zhena gogolia
Someone here recommended eye drops. They’re saving my life. Eye drops between classes.
Benw
Dude, Wesley, that is the wrong mask for this particular crisis
Danielx
In central Indiana it’s definitely feeling like September, getting cooler. But it’s clear and the sky should be beautiful crisp blue and it’s like pale blue shading into hazy gray.
Emma
Mandy Patinkin was such a gem in the WI Dems fundraiser. One of the best moments was when he changed his camera angle right before he reunited with Fezzik, so that he was looking “up” at him. My heart.
raven
Michael Stipe on our predicament in Athens.
Although I now call New York City home, Athens, Georgia, has been a base to me since the late 1970s. It’s where I started REM, and it is a place that I have returned to again and again, even as I have travelled and lived in other places around the globe. Sadly, Athens – also home to the University of Georgia – is now a place that exemplifies the most dangerous aspects of public policy decision-making amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jeffro
It’s the most obvious presidential failure in the history of presidential failures: trumpov’s utter inability to do anything (other than the wrong things) to fight the coronavirus.
Sorry you can’t go to school, kids. Sorry your kids can’t go to school, parents. Sorry you can’t party down, college kids. Sorry y’all can’t enjoy a concert or Broadway show, America. Sorry your small business went under, 100k small business owners. Sorry you’re pushing up daisies, 200k (for now) American dead.
“I don’t take any responsibility” – DJT, all day every day.
TaMara (HFG)
@Danielx: We are under a “don’t go outside” alert because of smoke. Mostly from the west coast, but we still have a few fires.
Unfortunately, I’m in the middle of a project I need to finish before the landscaper and crew come tomorrow. So outside I must go.
bemused
Friend text me photo of Biden lawn sign in PA.
RURAL, NOT STUPID!
BIDEN
2020
JPL
@TaMara (HFG): What about the ducks?
Ohio Mom
Zhena gogolia @1:
I have very dry eyes, it’s an RA thing. In addition to eyedrops, I sometimes find hot compresses helpful. Put a clean washcloth under a hot tap, wring it, and place over eyes for a few minutes.
That helps the tear ducts that line your eyelids get unclogged.
Tears are fascinating. They aren’t just salt water, they are very complex, with three different layers. I could go on for a while, but I’ll stop here.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Good for him.
patrick II
Last night Rachel did the math for “herd immunity” which I wish could be put into a shorter commercial for everybody.
Herd immunity requires about 70% of the population become infected.
.70 x 320,000,000 (the U.S. population) = 224,000,000 people will need to be infected.
So far in the U.S. the virus is killing about 3% of the people it infects. So
.03 x 224,000,000 = 6.720,000 deaths to gain herd immunity.
if blood transfusion or some other miracle cure comes along that might reduce morbidity to 1%, then there will still be 2,200,000 dead people as our most optimistic estimate.
Donald, nor the people he “explains” it to have any idea of the cost or even the proper name of “herd mentality” which is “herd immunity”.
These numbers aren’t hard. In addition to requiring tax disclosure for future presidents, we should require a multiplication and division test.
Quinerly
@Emma: I had a Mandy encounter in a Santa Fe restaurant in Feb! I was sitting across from him (and his wife, I later found a pic on line to verify). They were eating late breakfast. I was having a early lunch with Sangria. ? Didn’t recognize him at first. Lots of beard, they were sharing a newspaper and he was playing with his phone. I recognized his voice, looked up, stared. He looked straight at me and smiled. Eyes kinda twinkling. Raised his coffee cup in kinda a “cheers” salute as I was holding my Sangria. I don’t know but like to think it was in appreciation that I was keeping quite and not making a big deal out of it. I don’t know for sure. We had the same waitress and she obviously had no clue. He and his wife left before me. So I thought they were well on their way after I paid my check and left the table. Walked out and they were standing on the corner, discussing their plans for the day. We again smiled at each other, wife smiled and nodded. The he said, “Nice boots.” I almost fainted. Didn’t take off those tall shaft, square toed Tony Lamas for days. ?
SiubhanDuinne
I’m about to watch a streaming funeral mass. Just learned this morning that my cousin’s best friend’s son (35) took his own life last week. I never knew the young man, but I’ve met/talked to on the phone/emailed with his father many times, so I’m going to watch as a way of paying my respects to the family.
mad citizen
@Danielx: Also in central Indiana (Fishers). I was just outside watering and didn’t notice the sky, but took another look and you are right, it is not as blue as it would be on a sun day like this–hazy.
Saw a story about the smoke aggravating/exacerbating Covid symptoms by inflaming your lungs; making you perhaps more susceptible to catching it; or if you have if, you are coughing more and hence more likely to spread it.
So the policy to ignore climate change makes the policy to ignore COVID worse. It’s the typical lose-lose prospect of Republican rule.
WaterGirl
@Benw: That photo makes me think of Zorro, The Gay Blade.
I wonder if that movie is streaming anywhere. I love that movie.
Immanentize
@raven: Thanks for sharing. I am not pissed at GSU for football — but I am outraged about the voting decision.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom:
Thanks. I think it was you who suggested it. My doctor had suggested Thera-Tears a while ago, but I never used them, but now I love them.
I’m on Zoom intensely some days, and it is brutal on the eyes.
patrick II
The thing about combining the strategies of herd immunity and quickly developing an immunization is that they are not a coherent combination of strategies. If you really think that there will be an immunization shot for everyone in the next few months that will make people safe, you spare as many people as possible in the meantime, because in a few months immunization will save their lives. You don’t do herd immunity which will get as many people sick as possible just before the cure that will save their lives comes along. That would be a long term strategy for the possibility you will not develop an immunization therapy anytime in the foreseeable future.
Combining them means you are killing as many people as possible just before the cure comes that would save them. It is stupid, stupid, stupid and thoughtless. Two happy escape words, “immunization” and “herd immunity” that have come together in Donald’s mind without any understanding of what the real-world implications of those words are — other than if he repeats them often enough it will help with the election.
zhena gogolia
@Quinerly:
What a nice story. I like celebrities who do that. I got smiled at by Elliot Spitzer (pre-disgrace) and I really appreciated it (I know, he’s a politician, but still). And Al Gore was really gracious when I met him on a plane. But when I saw Julianne Moore and smiled at her, although I had no intention of approaching her, we were just passing on a sidewalk, she scowled and pulled her hair across her face quite demonstratively. I’ve never felt the same about her since!
ETA: Eliot Spitzer
Peter Strzok
trollhattan
@raven:
Well said.
The UG statement on football: yes, student voting on campus: no, too dangerous is the most deeply corrupt thing I’ve seen uttered by a university not named Liberty. WTactualF?
Matt McIrvin
@patrick II:
I think that’s actually high. It’s closer to a 2% CFR across the whole country; and that’s confirmed cases– many people seem to get asymptomatically infected and never even test positive; the true infection fatality rate is probably closer to 1%. That’s pretty much the number I’ve been assuming in ballpark estimates.
That is, as you said, still a couple million dead. Even if half the country has preexisting cross-immunity because of some other coronavirus infection (which I’ve heard suggested), it’s a million dead. I don’t see how people can talk blithely about herd immunity and not come to grips with that number.
Also, it’s higher in some places than others. CFR in Massachusetts is closer to 4%, which probably has to do with who’s getting infected (older/less-healthy people).
WaterGirl
You guys are gonna make me watch The Princess Bride, aren’t you? I have never seen it. I did pay my $27 to the Wisconsin Dems just on principle.
They were clever enough to come up with that, and they are working their butts off to win in November.
Anybody know how much they raised from that? I’m guessing maybe 3-5 million?
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: That’s what they are doing?
Students can’t vote on campus BUT they can hold football games?
There aren’t enough swear words in this world for what that makes me want to say.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
Mandy Patinkin is the best part. I’m kind of immune to Wallace Shawn, so I don’t enjoy it as much as all these people.
SFAW
@patrick II:
Fixed, to accommodate the Moron-in-Chief.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Mandy Patinkin is the best part of the original Princess Bride? Or are you talking about their reading?
I didn’t actually watch the reading – I clicked on it twice but unless you know the original, it made no sense, so I clicked off again.
raven
@trollhattan: The University is subject to directions from the Board of Regents and they regents are appointed by the governor who also controls $$. See how it works?
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
Oh, I meant the movie. I didn’t watch the reading.
raven
I tried to watch it long ago. . . nothing for me.
Immanentize
@raven: ooops. You know what I did. I apologize. UGA.
Immanentize
@raven: I wish a group of students would protest/picket the games:
No Votes? No Games!
JPL
@Quinerly: ????
patrick II
@Matt McIrvin:
It sounds like you are working with the right numbers. Rachel (and as a result I) just used the over 6,000,000 number given publicy infected (sorry I don’t remember the exact over 6 mil) divided by 190,000 dead which gave a number of 2.97. So based on the public and basic numbers as I understand them gives a higher (but probably too high as I will now reread your comment to see the difference).
But either way, way too many dead people, and as I comment later, if you believe immunization is coming, stupidly so, because herd immunity will not be necessary.
Hoodie
@Matt McIrvin: The other problem with herd immunity is that it may be impossible to achieve (even with a vaccine) because we do not know how long immunity lasts. It will take forever to get 200 million people infected, even if you remove all restrictions. Many, if not most, of those who develop immunity could lose it before a significant portion of the population has been exposed. It’s a brain-damaged approach, anyone who forwards it should be kept away from sharp objects.
Matt McIrvin
@patrick II: Right, also I was going from current CFR, not over the course of the whole pandemic. Back in the spring, when there was a severe test shortage and hardly any testing was happening, a large fraction of even severe cases were probably missed, artificially inflating the fatality rate by a larger factor.
patrick II
@SFAW:
Thanks, sometimes I subconsciously translate Donald into real words which makes him sound more sane. It is a problem journalists have also.
lowtechcyclist
@WaterGirl: Patinkin was easily the standout of Sunday night’s reading.
In the movie, the balance was more even between him and Cary Elwes because Elwes really was perfect for the lead role, and even a standout performance in a major supporting role has a hard time overshadowing a good lead performance.
Immanentize
This from the Stipe article:
mali muso
I grew up watching the Princess Bride so many times that I can probably quote most of the movie verbatim so the cast read was super fun for me. One of the best lines was definitely Cary Elwes saying “It’s just that masks are terribly comfortable. I think everyone will be wearing them in the future” while slipping on a surgical mask.
Just read that the fundraiser made $4.25 million for Wisconsin Dems.
Quinerly
@zhena gogolia: hate hearing that about Julianne Moore. I always liked her.
Mandy quite handsome in person. (I have a type. ?) The hair and beard… A bit ridiculous, though. I was pleased to learn that is wife is “age appropriate.” ?
Told that story on FB when it happened. Turned out my good friend who lives outside of Santa Fe (and she’s responsible for my adopting JoJo las Orejas on that trip) knows their son. He’s an avid horseback rider and does these cross country rides. Has boarded his horse with her when in Santa Fe. She’s actually friends with the son on the Book of Faces. So she tagged me in a post to him… Something like.. “My friend saw your parents in Cafe Pasqual’s.” He actually responded that Pasqual’s is his parent’s favorite.
Damn, I miss my old life. I’m supposed to be at Mesa Verde right now, then 12 days in the Four Corners Area and also looking forward to Oct in Santa Fe. All cancelled. My high desert puppy is turning a year old next month. We actually had planned a party in Lamy at the train station.
Chyron HR
@patrick II:
Oh, no, it actually makes complete sense once you realize that the government doesn’t care about making a real vaccine.
zhena gogolia
@Quinerly:
Well, don’t write off Julianne Moore. She’s an excellent actress. She didn’t owe me anything. I was just kind of hurt. I was a middle-aged woman attending a scholarly conference, and I wasn’t about to jump on her and demand a selfie.
Geminid
@raven: I’m looking forward to January 2023, when I believe Stacy Abrams will take office after kicking cheatn’ Brian Kemp’s ass. Hope Georgians make it till then without too much damage. Georgians need a good Governor, and Abrams could be a great one.
Raven
As if!!@Immanentize:
Quinerly
@JPL: I sound so shallow. But I miss dressing up and bopping around cities and talking to strangers. I absolutely adore traveling alone and interesting little encounters, even if it is with a security guard at a museum… Just striking up a chat. Now, I consider it a treat to take a shower and put on pants, mask up, and dash in and out of Lowe’s. I miss my Tony Lamas and my vintage Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo jewelry. I miss listening to strangers’ stories. I’m a bar and restaurant person. Live music. My wings are fucking clipped.
Raven
@zhena gogolia: man I thought that meant she died!!
lowtechcyclist
@Immanentize: Hell, they should protest the games, altogether. They shouldn’t be happening.
First, there’s an argument that education is a sufficiently worthy and valuable endeavor that it’s worth the exposure risks. I happen to disagree, but at least there’s an argument for it.
However, no such argument exists for college (or high school) football. This is all about movers and shakers (including big donors, I’m sure) wanting their Saturday entertainment. They’ve decided that other people’s lives are worth risking for their benefit.
And second, the players are being tested daily or close to it – and meanwhile, meat packers, nursing home workers, and so forth are having a hard time getting tested regularly. Shut down football, and let people who really need those tests get tested.
To me, this has almost a pre-French Revolution feel to it, in the way that the luxuries of the aristocracy are being prioritized over the basic needs of the people who are scraping by while doing our society’s dirty but necessary work.
Raven
@Quinerly: hang in there!!!
lowtechcyclist
@Chyron HR:
This. As usual, this is all about Trump saying the things he thinks his listeners want to hear. In this case, his listeners are the people he hopes will, by voting for him, make this election close enough that he can steal it.
Immanentize
@Raven: I think that protesting during college should be a required for-credit activity. Kids today just don’t get out enough!
Betty Cracker
@Quinerly: I’m anti-social enough to have probably fared better psychologically under lockdown than most, but I really do miss bars and restaurants. Bars opened here again on Monday, but I’m not setting foot in one until the state’s positive test rate is under 5% and stays there a while. Right now, it’s around 13%.
Subsole
@WaterGirl:
“There is a problem with your bowels.”
“My waht?”
“You know, ah eh ee oh oo”
Immanentize
@zhena gogolia: I frankly cannot imagine the lack of privacy that the end of anonymity brings. But I am willing to find out for the related compensation.
Quinerly
@Raven: venting a bit. Bad couple of days re depression. Thanks.
A Ghost to Most
@raven: See you at the book burning.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That’s 3% of those tested positive, not everyone who might have been infected. The WHO says the death rate is likely .0065%, so “only” 2 million dead Americans to get to Herd Immunity the old fashion way. Not to mention it’s going take years to get there.
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker: bar/restaurant scene doesn’t interest me under these conditions. It’s not so much fear of Covid. I’m afraid I would start screaming in uncontrollable rage or crying hysterically. Plus, I can’t do what I like to do. Find a spot a just chat with strangers. I truly love hearing other’s stories. It had become my hobby. ?
I can be a loner. Only child born of only children so I come from an odd tribe and know how to “self entertain.” My attitude about all of this is probably incredibly selfish. If it can’t be the way it was, I rather just keep my ass at home. Never have been good at half measures. I am so fucking tired of Styrofoam, though…. take away.
Miss Bianca
@TaMara (HFG): Is it that bad on the Front Range? We had a couple beautiful blue-sky days right after the clouds lifted from the snow fall last week, but now we are back to haze so thick I can barely see the mountains. No advisory on air quality, tho.
patrick II
Obama:
I know what he means. I just finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone all the way to the end.
zhena gogolia
@Quinerly:
I feel for you. I’m kind of a homebody, so that part isn’t hitting me as hard. But I must say I’ve cheered up since I’ve been putting on real clothes and going to the office some days a week and seeing some people off in the distance and talking to them through masks.
JPL
@Quinerly: I’m just angry that our president doesn’t say everyone needs to wear a mask. Our country would be so far along if only…
Earlier I read Coats oped in the NYTimes about the importance of elections and democracy. He wants an independent commission to allow for fair and easy voting. Loudly to the dog, I said well “fk that Dan cuz you know what would help save our democracy is for you to call Lester Holt and say I have some extra time, do you”? If Vindman can go on with Holt, sure Dan Coats can work up the courage.
Anyway that’s where I’m at.
Miss Bianca
@Quinerly:
Tell me about it, she said, gazing round her shuttered theater.
Zzyzx
@Quinerly: I’m not a bar person but I’m a travel to see live music one. That’s what I do and what all of my friendships revolve around. Other than the time I hired someone to play my driveway for an hour, I haven’t seen music since March and I haven’t seen anyone other than my wife since then either… and she’s an essential worker so I’m home alone tons.
I haven’t left a 20 mile radius of my house but once since February and it just feels like my world has shrunk so much.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Quinerly: I tend to stay home, but your life in the Before Times still sounds wonderful to me. Of course you miss it. This will be over someday, one way or another
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: Hugs. On some scale, I think COVID is one thing to extroverts, and another to introverts.
You’ve got JoJo, who is a people magnet. Are you able to hang out on a coffee shop patio with him? Cannot believe people will not come over and say “tell me about that dog!”
And toasting you with a mug of coffee that travel to NM and other points west becomes possible. Soon after the Biden-Harris inauguration in 2021. Counting the days (I know; got to elect them first).
Jay
@Quinerly:
feel for you, we had a local pub, that helped us survive the early days in The Compound, great food too, wonderful staff,
but when Covid hit, we passed.
We will go back, if it survives, once 80% of the people have been vaccinated.
Elizabelle
@patrick II: LOL.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: we had strange overcast skies in Virginia yesterday, said to be a result of high level dust from the west coast. Curious: what’s shaking in the Colorado 3rd Congressional race? Thought I’d ask, you being an eminent local journalist and all.
Matt McIrvin
@WaterGirl: The Princess Bride is one of those movies that generates endless memes and in-jokes because its dialogue is just one quotable line after another. When you actually see it you might end up finding all the jokes overly familiar.
Elizabelle
@Zzyzx: I live in central VA, and made one pilgrimage up to the DC area, a few weekends ago. Enjoyed every moment of being 2 plus hours from home. Two nights in a very nice hotel, and seeing friends and family I’d missed for months.
Have since done a bit of driving around on weekends, and biking. The need to get OUT. Always with a mask in pocket, but don’t get that close to others.
It’s pouring today in RVA. Nice to hear the rain; hoping it is falling out west, too. Forecast is rain all day.
JPL
We need a Covid festivus day post. It’s long over due.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: I dunno about “eminent”. And hard to say about CO CD-3 – according to 538, Mitsch Bush has crept up a bit in the polls – she’s at 46% among likely voters, up a few points from August – but I still haven’t seen much of her campaigning. I’ll take a deeper dive and then maybe ask DougJ for a bleg for her.
Miss Bianca
@Matt McIrvin: It’s kind of become like “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” that way.
Nicole
@zhena gogolia:
I used to work in a theater department at a zoo and was doing first-person interpretation at the lemur exhibit and had a lovely interaction with a delightful pre-teen girl, whose mother was very, very standoffish. The girl was great, asked lots of smart questions. I attempted to bring the mom in to the conversation, as I always did when interacting with families, but no dice. After they left, my coworker said, “I think the mom was Julianne Moore!” I, being unable to recognize most celebrities, was unaware, and we kidded that about 2 hours after leaving the zoo, Moore would realize I didn’t know who she was and would get annoyed about that. ;)
I never took those things personally (as I usually can’t recognize anyone, anyway, I have no business getting offended) and I think she’s a good actor. Loved Far From Heaven.
Sometimes I’d recognize, though. Tea Leoni was really, really friendly and asked lots of good questions when she and David Duchovny came with their, at the time, very young child, and the best one ever was Diane Keaton, who, with her, again, at the time, young child, saw one of the little plays with puppets we did, in which I starred as a singing bat, and was back a few days later when I was doing first-person interpretation as a prospector. She asked a question about the animals, and then said, “Weren’t you in the puppet show the other day? You were really good!” I don’t think I was able to speak coherently to anyone the rest of the afternoon. :)
zzyzx
The other problem is that this smoke and the marine air has given us a week in November in the middle of September. I’m already breaking out my winter depression playlist and it’s still technically summer. Going to grab some vitamin D supplements this weekend.
patrick II
Because of Donald Trump’s inept handling of the early stages of the pandemic many people have become needlessly sick. But, like a blind pig finding an acorn, Donald has stumbled onto a new strategy — since so many are sick, let’s just let everyone get sick and give it a cool, scientific name! Scott Atlas, his new White House pandemic adviser, has something called “herd immunity” which makes Donald happy because he doesn’t have to understand all of those numbers and strategies and hard stuff, it can be easy! Just let people get sick and the virus will go away!. That’s what Donald wants to hear, so Scott is in, Fauci is out, and Scott is all over FOX extolling the virtues of herd immunity without naming its vices — at least 2 million dead.
Ignorant, stumbling, but rationalized incompetence — the new American way.
zzyzx
@Nicole: all of my celebrity encounters end the same way: someone patiently explains to me who it was that I just interacted with.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: Thanks. CO3rd is like my VA5th: an incumbent republican knocked out by a more conservative challenger, maybe giving a good Democrat a shot in a district carried by trump in 2016. Good luck. And keep up the good journalism!
Hoodie
@Quinerly: We were talking about this with some friends the other day. One friend was talking about distinctive and meaningful furniture pieces she had inherited or found over the course of her life and that she couldn’t conceive of ever leaving her home. In contrast, I grew up in a family that wasn’t big on collecting stuff, whether it be furniture, objects, photos, etc. My parents didn’t even own a house until they were in their 50’s. My dad was an inveterate wanderer who took me along on a lot of adventures, so the big thing for me has been collecting experiences. To the extent that work schedule and finances allow, I have always loved to explore new places and meet different people. Restrictions on the ability to do that is the aspect of Covid has been a real bummer personally. The internet helps somewhat because you can kind of travel virtually and mix with folks in places like BJ.
JustRuss
I’m trying to imagine Trump saying or writing those words. Impossible.
JPL
@zzyzx: omg.. I mentioned it before, but was grocery shopping decades ago with my ex and his parents. Danny DeVito was also shopping with his wife at the time and their children. I went to tell my ex and he was reaching down to put beer in our cart, and I said Danny DeVito is here and just as my ex loudly said who the hell is Danny DeVito, Danny turned the corner and laughed.
James E Powell
@Quinerly:
You & I have similar pursuits – apart from the jewelry. If I won the lottery I would spend most of my time traveling around talking to strangers.
JustRuss
@zzyzx: Heh, I almost walked into Jean-Claude van Damme once, had no idea who he was, until a friend told me. JC was very gracious about it.
Betty Cracker
@Quinerly: I hear you. My husband and I are a pair of odd ducks, and I think this thing has been easier on us than most, but we’re both chafing under the strain after…6 months of this. We’re trying to hang in there, and I hope you hang in there too. No choice, really.
zhena gogolia
@Nicole:
So funny that we were both snubbed by Julianne Moore!
Téa Leoni > Julianne Moore
and Diane Keaton is off the charts!!!
ETA: Oh, and I was at a party with David Duchovny when we were in grad school, but since he wasn’t a celebrity yet, I have no memories of it.
zhena gogolia
@zzyzx:
That’s what happened for me with JFK Jr.
zzyzx
Here’s a longish story but kind of amusing from my college days. One of the games we liked to do is to be silly around prospective students to show them the “real” Bard. A Deadhead friend of mine was giving a tour and the prospectives – and a father of one with a long greying ponytail – were eating in the cafeteria.
We decided that we would stage a mock fight with a twist. I walked up to the Deadhead and asked him if he had any new tapes to trade, and then Greg came behind me and said, “We don’t allow animals in here [I had a long beard]” and we pretended to fight. Then enter Christie Searing, a weird but amazing woman. She had just read an article in Cosmo about ways to flirt which she delighted in demonstrating. One of the tips was to point at the male’s crotch and lightly giggle, so she came up to us, pointed at our pants, and laughed hysterically.
We then walked out to get some more food. The father took a picture of us as he left the room and we were wondering if he was going to choose schools based on dining room architecture.
Later that afternoon, I went to one of the rooms that had a tv to watch football when a woman came in. She was saying, “I’m bummed that I didn’t get to lead the tour today. Peter Gabriel’s daughter might come here and he was here with her.”
“Wait,” I interjected, “Older man… grey ponytail?”
“Yep, that’s him.”
So that’s why Peter Gabriel has a photo of me somewhere.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Quinerly: Closest I can claim to a Mandy encounter was seeing him in a concert in a fairly small intimate space. I was maybe 6-8 rows back. I think it was an all-Sondheim concert. A lot of Sondheim is not to my taste (sue me!) but hey, it was Mandy Patinkin.
Wanda Sykes either lives near me or has family here, because I’ve run into her a number of times. She also at least once took a part in a community theater production. When running into her, I probably didn’t play it as cool as my memory has it in my brain, but I at least didn’t run up and interrupt her shopping.
zhena gogolia
@zzyzx:
That is funny.
JPL
@zzyzx: That’s hilarious.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@lowtechcyclist: Josh Gad might arguably be the second most fun cast member from the table read. I thought it was interesting that he chose to go with a (pretty accurate IMO) André the Giant impression. On the internet, nobody can tell you’re a short guy.
I also loved that they had as many technical issues with their Zoom as the rest of us peons. Half the fun of live theater is watching the actors deal in character with glitches, forgotten lines, falling over scenery, etc. I was having fun imagining the frantic back-channel communication going on while we were watching, and I was impressed that they got past everything.
Right up to the point where my screen froze halfway through the Q & A and never unfroze. I’m guessing that was just me?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@WaterGirl: We’ve been to many readings of new plays conducted in that format, actors reading from scripts off music stands with just a little bit of motion and the odd prop or two to suggest the action. It can be quite effective.
But I can see that in this particular case, a table read combined with the technical issues so that sometimes you had to fill in dialog from your head, would have made it difficult.
Do you intend to actually watch Princess Bride? Because there are a bunch of mandatory guy movies I’ve never seen (such as the Godfather films or Pulp Fiction). I’ll watch one of those if you watch Princess Bride.
Nicole
@zhena gogolia: I had a moment this year when I thought fans expecting attention from celebrities they see in public = men expecting attention from women they see on the street and that the celebrities who blow it off are just doing what a lot of women wish we could do.
But some of them, by assuming every person they see is about to be a needy fan miss getting to have those nice little casual human interactions with a stranger that make life so nice sometimes (although I guess there are plenty of people who are not famous and still hate those interactions anyway).
And, too, there was also a day when Jamie Lee Curtis came to the zoo and some other visitors, as soon as they recognized her, made such a screaming fuss that she had to leave, so I can also understand being really reluctant about interacting with the public, too. People can be so weird.
Duchovny wasn’t rude when he came with Téa, but was definitely more stand-offish. I remember him carrying their kid around on his shoulders, though, so they could see the birds up in the trees, which I thought was nicely parental. :)
Nicole
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
The Princess Bride is a guy movie, too. I’m not saying it’s not plenty enjoyable for a lot of non-guys (I love the Godfather movies and enjoyed Pulp Fiction in the theater), but it’s a guy movie.
Matt McIrvin
@Miss Bianca: Or “The Big Lebowski”, or Rob Reiner’s other masterpiece, “This Is Spinal Tap”.
Soprano2
If you have problems with dry eyes I suggest you try Omega-7. It was recommended by a doctor I heard on People’s Pharmacy a long time ago – he said he recommended it to all of his patients with dry eyes (he was an eye doctor). I thought “what the heck” and tried it, since some days I’d wake up feeling like my eyelids were stuck to my eyes. After a couple of weeks I noticed a big improvement, and have taken it ever since. It’s also called “sea buckthorn oil”, and you have to get it at health food stores or online – I get mine at vitacost.com. I work on the computer a lot, and this helped me a bunch without having to take a prescription or put eyedrops in my eyes every hour.
Quinerly
Thanks for all the interesting comments and replies! Much appreciated. Bookmarking this thread to connect nyms with stories for other threads. In related news, I put on pants!!! and took JoJo for a long walk. Offline for a bit.
Mousebumples
Mine froze multiple times. My husband found a copy online somewhere, so I’m planning to rewatch at some point when I need a pick me up.
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: Very similar scenario to VA5th, here’s hoping we get a good outcome!
WaterGirl
@Subsole: Such a great movie.
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin: Interesting. I will have to keep that in mind.
WaterGirl
@JPL: That could be arranged!
WaterGirl
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Sure, I can do that, if you will. I’ll watch Princess Bride if it’s free somewhere, even if it’s through a free 7-day trial or something.
J R in WV
@Zzyzx:
Me too, I only go to bars if there also great food and music. We normally have a ton of musical opportunities around here, Mountain Stage is live music most weekends for Public Broadcasting rebroadcast, the concert arena has music from Keb Mo thru the Symphony to Trombone Shorty! But not now.
I get further from home than that, tho. We’re 25 miles from the nearest Kroger’s, for example. I stay home generally for 8 or 10 days at a stretch, and wear an industrial respirator with an N100 filter that also removes many complex and poisonous fumes and gas. The twin filter packs are lavender and make me look like a gay alien from Mars or one of the moons of Jupiter.
But in the parking lot at Kroger’s one time there was an old GM SUV next to me, running (poorly) to keep the occupant cool, blowing blue smoke on my feet as I loaded my provisions into my vehicle. In spite of the cloud of un-burned hydrocarbons around me, I could not smell a thing! o I know my 3M respirator is working, and working well.
Skepticat
I just returned my November 3 ballot. Maine has ranked-choice voting, which I love and strongly support, but I blanked everyone but Biden/Harris for president, especially as I had no idea who the others were. My first choice for Senate was Gideon and my second was the least nuts of the other three (no, it most definitely was not Collins). I watched the Collins/Gideon debate, and I hadn’t realized how bizarre one of them (the only male) was.
I realized not long after I commented on a long-ago thread that I had tRumpishly confused email and online voting. I hope the person who was kind enough not to savage me in the comments knows I figured it out fairly fast. Blush.
the pollyanna from hell
@Miss Bianca: My emphysema is not hurting, but orange sun every morning and evening, hazy all day. Denver
randy
Emma
Back from work, so nice to see all the Mandy Patinkin stories :3 I have to admit, I quit when the Q&A session when it became a Rob Reiner monologue. Love him, obviously, and he was a great Peter Falk, but one of the unfortunate things about PB is how few lines and cool scenes Robin Wright has. At least let her answer some questions.