Okay, I don’t claim to understand it, but Eurovision makes a lot of people happy (and it’s not as though I understood the World Cup, either).
A gift (unpaywalled) link: The Washington Post, “Why is Eurovision a big deal? A guide for perplexed Americans.”
Per the Guardian:
Sweden has won the 67th Eurovision song contest in a helter skelter show that spanned chintzy Europop, anti-war protest and a continent’s support for Ukraine.
The Swedish singer-songwriter Loreen started the night as runaway favourite but faced a late challenge from Finland’s wildly popular Käärijä, a fan favourite inside the raucous Liverpool Arena.
Her win means Sweden equals Ireland’s record seven Eurovision wins. Loreen, 39, becomes the first woman to win the contest twice, after her anthemic 2012 hit Euphoria.
One of the most political Eurovision grand finals in years was drawn into sharper focus as Russian bombs fell during the show on the home town of the Ukrainian act, Tvorchi.
Moments after leaving the stage, the electro duo posted on Instagram that Ternopil had been shelled “while we sang … about our steel hearts, indomitability and will” and added: “Europe, united against evil for the sake of peace!”…
Loreen, who first found fame in Sweden’s equivalent of X Factor in 2004, told journalists she was proud of becoming only the second performer to win Eurovision more than once, after Ireland’s Johnny Logan…
The win means Eurovision will return to Sweden next year for the 50th anniversary of Abba’s triumph with Waterloo in 1974…
Käärijä, who spent the week posing for selfies outside his own mobile sauna in Liverpool, was easily the most popular performer inside the Liverpool Arena but failed to impress the juries of 36 voting nations.
The increasingly rowdy crowd chanted Käärijä’s chorus line, Cha Cha Cha, as Sweden raced away at the top of the leaderboard.
It came down to a nail-biting finale as Finland was awarded a huge 376 points, enough that it leapfrogged Sweden at the top of the table to huge cheers in Liverpool…
Congratulations to Loreen! And a huge well done to runner up Käärijä 👏
WHAT A MOMENT for #Eurovision2023 pic.twitter.com/5FFq69Sqjd— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) May 13, 2023
Broadcast from the UK for the first time in 25 years, it was a night of gravity-defying vocals, shameless cheese-pop, achingly sincere balladry and, of course, moments of downright weirdness.
A Croatian punk band dressed in military overcoats provided the night’s oddest moment as they stripped to their underpants and unveiled giant rockets while singing about a “crocodile psychopath” dictator – an allegory about Vladimir Putin and his relationship with Belarus.
Even in this famously well-rehearsed and closely watched spectacle – where thousands of fans attended three full run-throughs before the live televised final – there were still moments of surprise…
In the end it wasn’t a new song that brought Liverpool Arena to tears: it was a moving rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone, the 1945 show tune that has become a terrace anthem in one half of this city, and felt like the perfect ode to Ukraine.
Sung by the Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence, an all-star choir of Eurovision past winners provided backing vocals for a sea of illuminated wristbands in the stadium and footage of Ukrainians singing along at the Golden Gate in Kyiv…
Not a dry eye in the place for this incredible rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone 🫶 #Eurovision2023 pic.twitter.com/Xgm4LQyQi5
— BBC Eurovision (@bbceurovision) May 13, 2023
With no end in sight to the horrors in Ukraine, there was a strong anti-war theme throughout the four-hour grand final.
The country’s culture minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, told the Guardian on Saturday that his government had specifically requested the word “war” be used within the broadcast, which the EBU claims should be politically neutral. And so it appeared in the opening minutes when the co-host, Hannah Waddingham, reminded viewers that the UK was hosting the contest on behalf of Ukraine “because of the war”.
Switzerland’s performance featured falling missiles and the lyrics: “I don′t wanna be a soldier, soldier. I don’t wanna have to play with real blood.” Croatia’s madcap rockers Let 3 warned of nuclear Armageddon while Ukraine’s Tvorchi had been raising funds to buy incubators for babies born prematurely due to the war…
And a universal pop-music theme (with a chorus to which even the most lubricated can sing along): Pina coladas give me the courage to get up and dance!
raven
I had NO idea what this was until Friday when a delightful woman from Austria told me about it at the dog park. She was preparing for a marathon viewing and was really excited. I guess I need to watch the movie about it.
Amir Khalid
A good crowd sing-along of You’ll Never Walk Alone will always move me to tears.
satby
Valdivia will be annoyed, she was heavily rooting for Finland on Twitter. 😮
I mostly listen to classical (or contemporary instrumental like Ludovico Einaudi), so the entire Eurovision pop competition escapes me. Haven’t seen one I liked since 1994, and that was an interval act, not a contestant.
satby
@Amir Khalid: Was that for Ukraine? Because I would bawl like a baby if it was.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Litlebritdifrnt
I was very disappointed. I didn’t like Sweden at all, I thought she was basically a Kate Bush wannabe with a very mediocre song. My favourite was Belgium, I thought it was the opitome of a Eurovision song which was performed wonderfully. After last year’s success Britain returned to form and came second to last (another surprise as I liked both the UK and Germany songs). All week I kept snickering to myself imagining heads exploding all over the US as drag queen after drag queen appeared on the stage, it was glorious. Liverpool was absolutely awash with drag queens WILL NO ONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Ha Ha.
satby
@satby: ah, ok. Now that all the videos finally loaded, I see that it was. Duh.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
satby
@Litlebritdifrnt: Good to see you! Hope you’re doing well.
Amir Khalid
@satby:
In this context, it was definitely sung for Ukraine. It is, after all, a song about solidarity.
Geminid
One of the Turkish opposition’s campaign promises is to get Turkiye back in the Eurovision contest.
Polling places in Turkiye opened six hours ago and will close in another three. Turnout is high and expected to exceed 80%. It may hit 85%, which would be a record.
Amir Khalid
@satby:
Here’s the entire song.
satby
@Amir Khalid: Thank you! Excuse me now while I go blubber over my coffee.😭
Anne Laurie
Spousal Unit walking past while I was streaming the Loreen YT, and thought it was ‘a poor copy of Cher’.
We both guessed, if Loreen was actually Swedish, she must be Sami or Sami-adjacent… but she’s actually the daughter of Berber immigrants!
satby
Repeat from previous thread:
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, aunties who are like moms, dads who are both mother and father, grandmoms, and the rest of the village who act as moms to the children who need them.
Litlebritdifrnt
@satby: Thank you. Doing very well!
satby
@Litlebritdifrnt: I know I speak for others too when I say so glad to hear it!
MomSense
It was also great to see Stefania performed with so many high profile people showing their support for Ukraine. Stefania means crowned in Greek and also cannotes winning. I think it is the same in Ukraine.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@satby:
Back at you.
Jo Jo las Orejas
Feliz día de la madre a todas las mamás perritas de Balloon Juice.
Baud
@Jo Jo las Orejas:
¿Me llamas un hijo de la perra?
BlueGuitarist
@Geminid:
most of the attention on election in Türkiye seems to be on the presidential election, but their parliament has 600 seats, for a population 1/4 of ours – another reminder that we should expand the House of Representatives (when that can be done without gerrymandering making too much of a mess of it).
Election looks close. Erdogan seems like another authoritarian with support from about half of the electorate (a buttoned-down Bolsonaro?). maybe the earthquake response is his Katrina and will outweigh his potential electoral advantage from hostility towards minorities and civil liberties.
satby
I have reached peak momdom. Included in the sentiments on my Mothers Day card from my son and daughter in law is “keep kicking ALL the ass” from my oldest son 😂
My work is done 💖
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: Go you!
MomSense
@satby:
That’s awesome!! 🏆
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: 💚 @MomSense too
Always nice when your strengths are acknowledged 😂😂
Edit: and with that I’m off to make coffee for the UUs (we believe in everything ©). May you all have a wonderful day!
OzarkHillbilly
DNA evidence reveals family man in Australia was teenage killer who escaped Nebraska jail
An interesting story with a lot of unfilled blanks to wonder about. Not too long either.
Baud
@satby:
👍
Jo Jo las Orejas
@Baud:
Mamá, ayúdame. ¿Mi español ahora está oxidado ya que solo me hablas en inglés?
¡He ofendido al Gran Baud!
BlueGuitarist
@satby:
excellent.
David Simon had a similar reaction to getting a
“Happy Father’s Day, motherfucker” card from kid.
Geminid
@BlueGuitarist: The British House of Parliament has even more members than Turkiye’s, elected by millions less people.
Personally, I think our House of Representatives is the right size, but even if I didn’t I’d place House Reform pretty far down on my to-do list, in the “difficult and with unknown consequences” category.
Turkiye’s election is a very important one in a very important country. The more I learn about it the more I realize how much I’ve yet to learn about Turkiye, a nation I paid little attention to before Russia invaded Ukraine.
I’ll be following this election through, among other sites, Middle East Eye. They and their Istanbul bureau chief Ragip Soylu, are giving the election a lot of coverage and seem objective. Ragip Soylu is reporting frequently on Twitter, as @ragipsoylu.
I encountered him on the military OSINT site Oryx. They are Holland-based and usually write sbout the war in Ukraine, but they have a particular interest in Turkiye
Quinerly
Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate.😉
No snake sightings by JoJo “The Ears” baby pool in 5 days. A very happy JoJo!
My brand new Ryobi portable, electric cement mixer is enroute from Albuquerque. Hopefully, Miguel and I can now finish with this flagstone patio in the side yard today.
Have a great day, BJers!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Quinerly:
Now there’s a sentence you don’t read every day.
Suzanne
Hi all, happiest of Mothers’ Days to all the moms and mom-adjacents.
Mr. Suzanne, Spawn the Youngest, and I are driving back to PGH from Brimfield, MA, where we spent the last couple of days at the giant antiques fair/flea market. We had a blast. This is totally my kind of nerdy activity. I bought a lovely bench for my entryway that I am going to have reupholstered. (I want to note that one of my favorite things about my PGH house is that I have a proper entryway. My Arizona open plan houses never had nicely defined entries.) I also bought a small piece of sculpture that I am very excited about.
However, I did also repeatedly have this experience:
“Ooooh, that’s a nice bowl, would look nice on my table….”
Turns out to be Limoges, $750.
“Those silvery candlesticks are nice, they’d look pretty on the mantel.”
Solid silver, from France, $1800.
“I like that rug, I wonder if it would fit in the bare spot on the wall in the bedroom?”
Acquired by Victoria Hagan, $2000.
Having good taste sucks.
Suzanne
@Quinerly:
Concrete mixer. There’s no need to mix cement!
Geminid
@BlueGuitarist: Erdogan’s “hostility towards minorities and civil liberties” are not neccesarily electoral strengths. His appeal is wider than that, and some people will probably be voting for him in spite of these qualities.
The issue of his earthquake response may help Erdogans opponents some. If he loses though, it’s probably rampant inflation that will be his undoing.
JPL
@Suzanne: What a fun adventure!
Happy Mothers’ Day!
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne: This happens to me in the jewelry store when I’m supposed to pick out my present.
Happy Mother’s Day, Suzanne and all!
Quinerly
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I took Ozark’s advice and went for a good one. Miguel picked it up last week at the Home Depot near his Albuquerque home. It was on sale; I ordered on line. He put it together and is impressed. Anything I don’t have to assemble is a true plus for me now adays. Rental of a smaller, off brand was $60 a day, plus tax and with that went the rush of logistics and timing. If we use the Ryobi a total of 3 days here over the summer and he then buys it from me for 1/2 price, I am ahead of the game.
Win/win!!!!
VeniceRiley
Watched Eurovision and it was comical emails with the wife at her work. It’s a rediculous contest. They don’t play li2v3 instruments or anything!
Geminid
@Suzanne: The masonry contractor I used to work for typically had 6 to 8 cement mixers on his various jobs. All they did was mix Type S masonry cement and sand for stucco (there were no brick or block masons).
The stone masons chopped up their mortar in wheelbarrows. It was Portland cement and sand. People sometimes use Type S sand mix for the purpose, which is what I think is being used on this New Mexico project, using a mixer instead of hand mixing.
Quinerly
@Suzanne:
That’s what I initially called it…..then have been corrected a couple of times. I will defer to you and start correcting the correctors! (Except…..Miguel calls it a cement mixer so I probably will let him call it whatever he wants to call it since he wants to buy it at the end of the summer).
Related…my pet peeve is when people say, “hot water heater.” WTF?
prostratedragon
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Definitely gave me cause to pause. Yesterday I learn about snake tongs, and now this. Quinerly leads an interesting life.
Quinerly
@Geminid:
Exactly. Thanks for the translation. I had 7 tons of sand delivered awhile ago.
I come from the wheelbarrow crowd. But if it makes the job go quicker since Miguel’s time is money, I’ll buy/rent anything and call it whatever he wants to call it. He loves tools and equipment. He is already excited to buy it back from me at the end.
OzarkHillbilly
A problem I will never have.
Geminid
@Quinerly: A mixer is almost essential for brick and block jobs, and probably is essential for stucco work.
For rock jobs, I think the difference between hand mixing and machine mixing is basically a wash. But if that’s what your mason is used to, a machine is the way to go.
I’d be sure to have a good brush on the job to clean the barrel with. Once mortar dries on the metal, as a practical matter it stays forever.
Omnes Omnibus
I am just thankful that it is over.
Another Scott
Two sides of America these days…
vs.
I think the Swifties can take ’em.
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
Chris T.
@Geminid:
You can remove it with C4 (i.e., plastic explosives). Of course this also removes the metal…
Quinerly
@Geminid:
I appreciate all of this and your interest. It’s all in Miguel’s hands. I have to trust him and not second guess, quibble over techniques, language. My best friend out here has known him 30 years and considers him a son. Not just talk…he’s in her Will.
I got bids as comparisons since fake turf and flagstones are not in my bank of knowledge. I think I mentioned he traveled with a crew all over the country for 8 years installing turf for sports arenas/fields. Did the field for Atlanta Falcons and his boss turned down the job for Dallas because Jerry Jones wanted it free “for the publicity.”
Not that it should matter to BJers, but I am paying Miguel by the day to drive back and forth from Albuquerque to work on Sundays. I bought the turf, other materials, and flagstones at a discount (if we can truly say there are any discounts in Santa Fe???). My cost on the turf installation (including product) with Miguel has been 1/3 of what the bids were. Sure it has taken more days, but I am patient. I’m very fair, really like him and his family/lifestory. He’s on track for a bonus at the end which probably will include a gifting of the Ryobi if we get through today with no problems.
brantl
@Suzanne: You mix cement mix with water, concrete is concrete with gravel added. You mix both.
MomSense
@VeniceRiley:
Did you see the Will Ferrell Eurovision movie? I heard him interviewed about it and he said that he was visiting his wife’s family in Sweden and his BIL suggested they watch. He sat for 3 hours unable to speak, completely mesmerized by it. This was in the early 90s and explains his Zoolander character! I just live the idea of Will Ferrell so blown away by the ridiculous nature of it that he couldn’t even speak.
My youngest and I love to watch Eurovision and just laugh. It’s amazing.
sab
@satby: Don’t forget that next Sunday is stepmothers’ day.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Mothers Day? Mother’s Day? Mothers’ Day
ETA: The more I look at it, the worse it gets.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You can always do what I do: Ignore it.
frosty
@Suzanne: That’s precisely our experience! We invariably like the most expensive one of whatever we’re looking at.
Quinerly
@brantl:
😉
Another Scott
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Apostrophe’s are of the devil.
We should just call it Mothering Sunday and be done with it.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
brantl
@brantl: Sorry, concrete is cement mixed with gravel, you mix the cement first, then add the gravel.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
El día de la Madre.
eclare
@Suzanne:
Good entryways rock. I once had an apartment with a foyer, it was wonderful.
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@satby: I just knew you meant Riverdance’s intro to the world before I clicked!
Layer8Problem
Madeline Kahn wrapped up a Saturday Night Live that ended on Mother’s Day 1976 with “Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers.” My sentiments exactly.
eclare
@Another Scott:
Wait til the Swifties meet up with the Beyhive. Together they can take anyone.
Quinerly
@brantl:
I knew what you meant. Thanks for jumping in. I’m off to meet my new “cement mixer.” It’s quite the objet d’art. It’s like a sculpture! Oh, my!!!! Have a great day!!!¡
Another Scott
@Suzanne: Ryobi tries to cover all the bases.
In the US they call it a Portable Cement Mixer.
In Canada they call it a Portable Concrete Mixer.
;-)
It looks like the drum is polyethylene, so cleanup should be pretty easy.
Cheers,
Scott.
Quinerly
@Another Scott:
Should I take a picture of it? And the box?😈
Butch
@Another Scott: Interesting to me that these brave patriots feel the need to cover their faces.
Doug R
@BlueGuitarist: Canada with roughly the population of California has 338 seats in the House of Commons and 105 Senators.
The “United” Kingdom with about 68 million people has 650 seats in the House of Commons and 778? seats in the House of Lords.
If Wyoming was properly represented, that would be roughly 583 ish seats.
Spanky
@Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): And Michael Flatley’s hair was perfect.
Scout211
@Baud: Día de las Madres en México is May 10th every year.
My daughter gets to celebrate both the Mexican and US Mother’s Day every year.
Happy Mother’s Day USA to all jackals and their loved ones who celebrate and are celebrated. 😊
Geminid
@Quinerly: I decided that of all stone work, I like paving most of all because it is something you can use and not just look at. I havent’t done any for two years, but I’ll be looking at a bluestone job tomorrow after work.
It’s for an old friend whom I reconnected with on Balloon Juice! We used to work for the same homebuilder, back in the 1980s. He has since hung up his carpenter’s belt and practices law now.
Doug R
@eclare:
It’s not Bill and Ted that will unite the world, it’ll be the Swifties/Beyhive/K-pop united army.
O. Felix Culpa
President Biden’s Mother’s Day reflection.
Frankensteinbeck
@Another Scott:
And Taylor Swift is aggressively “Vote Democrat because Republicans are trying to destroy every good thing in your life” liberal.
rikyrah
Happy Mother’s Day🤗💐
Quinerly
@Geminid:
Again, thanks for all your input. Much appreciated. Please don’t hesitate to pipe in.
Omnes Omnibus
@Spanky: I didn’t know he was a werewolf.
CaseyL
It’s the time of year that I get up with the sun, and so was up at 5:00 AM.
Which is a good thing, because Seattle is supposed to broil today, with temperatures up into the 90s, and now (at 7:40 AM) I can feel the heat coming in from the back deck already. Yikes.
Glad I got a few things done early.
JPL
President Obama wished us all a Happy Mother’s day and included a stunning photo of his family.
Obama
Geminid
@Quinerly: It sounds like your project is in good hands.
Maybe you can save some progress pics for an In the Garden entry this winter, when garden photos get scarce. It’s garden-adjacent, at least. And people might appreciate the bright New Mexico sunlight by the time January rolls around.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@MomSense: I saw that movie and thought it was pretty good for a Will Ferrell comedy. Not great…his best is probably Talladega Nights which is both the funniest and one of the best movies about racing ever made, although The Other Guys is in the running. And Elf.
Sweden really punches above their weight when it comes to pop music. Starting with ABBA they’ve had a string of artists that made #1 on the Billboard Charts and then there’s Max Martin who is closing in on the Beatles as the writer of the most #1 Billboard chart toppers in history. It’s a pretty small country population-wise for that much pop music glory.
Geminid
From Ragip Soylu, Istanbul bureau chief for Middle East Eye:
He provides a link to Middle East Eye’s election live blog. It can be reached at middleeasteye.net.
JPL
During the midst of the pandemic, my son thought we could safely eat outside. He ordered food from a local restaurant, and when he went to pick it up, they had lost the order. Anyway what to do, what to do so we decided on Chinese since they were always fast and convenient. It was perfect! Now we do chinese on mother’s day.
suzanne
@Geminid:
You don’t mix cement, you mix concrete, mortar, grout, stucco, plaster, hell, even drywall mud.
That’s like making bread dough and calling the tool a yeast mixer.
Quinerly
@Geminid:
Thanks!
Geminid
@suzanne: Sure, they mixed mortar, using Types S masonry cement.
But every brick, block and stucco mason I’ve worked with or next to called their mixers “cement mixers,” so I stand by what I’ve said.
Burnspbesq
I’m sure Cole was cheering madly as Army upset defending champion Maryland in the first round of the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament last night. Other winners yesterday were Virginia, Notre Dame, and Georgetown. Four more first-round games today.
suzanne
@brantl:
Concrete is water, fine aggregate (sand), large aggregate (gravel), and cement — in far smaller proportion than the rest of those other ingredients. Plus admixtures and maybe fly ash to make the concrete do different stuff. The point is that it needs mixing. Cement doesn’t need mixing by itself.
Timill
And a general update, with cats…
Marcia was admitted to hospital on Friday with a small bowel obstruction and is still there as of today. I’ve put in a couple of pull-outs in an upper cabinet in the kitchen: more arrive today thanks to Amazon Prime.
So I have two FIP cats to treat, so I tried pills. Plum has a trick with them: she eats the Churu off the pills first, leaving the pills in the bowl. Then she eats the pills as a dessert…
Ahsoka isn’t interested in pills or treats. But if I let her sit how she wants on my lap, she will accept being injected with no problem. Wins all round…
VeniceRiley
@MomSense: it is a spectacle! I did not see his movie.
JPL
@Geminid: Today I learned that there is a flower called Blue Dick and the Canadians call the machine, the concrete mixer and on our side of the border it’s called a cement mixer.
Balloon Juice, all the news that’s fit to print. 😊
Quinerly
No surprises. But at least people are finally speaking out.
“Griffith described Trump telling someone on Air Force One to retrieve the unidentified young woman and ‘bring her back so [they] can look at her ass.'”
washingtonpress.com/
Quinerly
@JPL:
I may go back to lurking.
JPL
@Quinerly: OMG I just found out the flower is edible. I definitely need them in my garden
Apparently the flower does better in your climate.
suzanne
@Geminid: Many structural engineers, concrete contractors, and GCs I’ve ever worked with, we have shared laughs about calling it cement vs. concrete. Literally hundreds of memes about it.
arrieve
@Amir Khalid: Thank you! I was looking for this. (I had to set my VPN to the UK to watch it, which is probably why I couldn’t find it.)
Quinerly
@JPL:
I have to say this…it’s weird. It can be just between you and me…non controversial, I think… but don’t tell anyone. OK?😉 As long as you have been posting, everytime I see your nymn, I think of my parents. EVERY SINGLE TIME. My dad’s first 2 initials were “JP” (Josephus Plummer…how’s that for a first and middle name???) and my mother’s first name started with a “L.” Now, if we tell anyone, they might want to explain how that makes no sense and I am wrong to connect initials with names. Kidding aside, I do think of my parents when I see your nym. And that’s a good thing. I miss them.
Geminid
@suzanne: Of course nobody mixes cement by itself. They drop cement, sand and water into what masons call “cement mixers.”
Quinerly
@suzanne:
I love the memes about “hot water heaters” vs “water heaters.” Crack me up every time.
Happy Mothering Day! Have a great one!!!!
Sure Lurkalot
@Quinerly: Your project and story are super cool. We have an elderly Miguel…Ruben, who is coming in a couple of weeks to dig up some sod to prepare a xeriscape area, with the goal to remove all the grass in the next 2 years.
UncleEbeneezer
Happy Mothers Day everyone. This will probably be a rough one for us as it is the first one without Kelly’s Mom. We are both Mom-less now. Nothing really planned for today aside from avoiding restaurants which will all be packed.
Finally finished Beef last night and g*damn, what an amazing series! Definitely on my short-list for best series of the past 5-10 years, and maybe the best one at tackling why so many people so often get stuck in spirals of toxic behavior, especially in our landscape of social media. Anyways, check it out. It is filled with gut-busting laughs, cringe moments of horror but will ultimately make you bawl your eyes out. And like EEAAO, it’s so great to see a project that was really driven by AAPI people at every level. From a spoiler-free review:
Geminid
The people you are laughing at know the difference between concrete and cement. I learned it while you were in middle school. They might call it ce-ment, with an accent on the first syllable, but they know it’s concrete. You could laugh at the way they call footings “footers” as well, and maybe you do.
This argument started about what to call a machine being purchased in order to mix mortar. You said it should be called a “concete mixer,” but people who use them call it a cement mixer.
You want laughs, why don’t you talk to the brick masons on one of your jobs and explain to them why they shouldn’t call their mixers “cement mixers,” but instead “concrete mixers” even though they’re not mixing concrete.
S Cerevisiae
@Quinerly: George Carlin was riffing on hot water heaters back in the 70’s, I still have a few of those records.
Matt McIrvin
@Frankensteinbeck: The hilarious thing is that for a while, when she was relatively publicly apolitical, white supremacists had decided she was their ideal Aryan wife and posted memes and such about it. Nope.
Brachiator
@Geminid:
On the old TV show, the Beverly Hillbillies, they referred to the swimming pool as the ce-ment pond.
suzanne
@Geminid: Concrete mixer (Wikipedia)
Quinerly
@Sure Lurkalot:
That’s exciting! No sod here. “My” Miguel says that we are removing all gravel, one pea at a time. I think that’s funny.
Technically, that’s not true. So to be precise…..I moved 3/4 of it through out the summer by drywall buckets from what is now JoJo’s side yard to the front and made huge cactus beds. (And if anybody wants to ask, “why by hand?” and “don’t you own a wheelbarrow?”….it’s because of the terrain….stone steps, sunken areas of the yard at different levels, moving a wheel barrow when I’m only at 120 lbs across gravel, stones, paths).
Hope to hear about your progress. Where are you?
suzanne
@Quinerly: Oh God, the hot water heater thing from Carlin is one of my favorites. I love how he snarked on language.
ETA: S Cerevisiae got there first. Damn.
Quinerly
@Geminid:
Ok…I’ll go back to lurking a little later……
NotMax
Your Mother.
;)
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
This. I’ve long been in the camp of ‘language does what it does.’ One can attempt to stand astride the path of its evolution, yelling ‘stop,’ but it’s almost always a futile enterprise.
And in this particular case, our language did what it did a long time ago. I’ve heard the term ‘cement mixer’ frequently since my childhood in the early 1960s. The only context I’ve ever heard the phrase ‘concrete mixer’ is in conversations like this one, where people are arguing that that’s the correct usage. And maybe it is in a technical sense, but they were outvoted decades ago.
Hell, Ian Fleming even uses ‘cement mixers’ in Goldfinger, which is copyright 1959. It’s the name of Pussy Galore’s organization.
Quinerly
@Brachiator:
Somewhat related….my vinyl collection is so old…I have the album from the songs of the show. Flatt and Scruggs. The whole cast on the cover, loaded up for Beverly Hills. It was a prized possession when I wasn’t listening to Nancy Sinatra in my white Go Go boots.
Another Scott
@suzanne: Made me look… Edits:
It’s not a machine, it’s a device!!11ONE.
Hehe.
Cheers,
Scott.
opiejeanne
I really like Croatia’s entry.
Quinerly
@lowtechcyclist:
OMG…I feel like I started this whole (cement) dust up! Maybe I’m the real Pussy Galore and you guys just don’t know it.
SiubhanDuinne
Am I the only jackal who remembers that today is the first anniversary of the Great Balloon Juice Apocalypse? It lasted a full two weeks, but thanks to Water Girl’s heroic efforts it was only two weeks — could have been (showed every promise of being) far worse. As it was, it was another couple of months before the Merge, which restored most of the BJ archives.
So not a particularly happy anniversary for those of us who lived through it, but a good outcome. Thank you, Water Girl, a year later!
BlueGuitarist
@Geminid:
@Doug R:
France, Germany, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico are, along with UK and Turkiye, among the countries with larger lower house of national legislature than the US.
UK, France, Germany, and countries with smaller legislatures like Canada and Italy have about 100,000 people per legislator – we have well over 700,000 people per legislator; way more than other countries (except India).
While DC statehood (i.e., making the US Senate larger) and expanding the Supreme Court are more urgent than increasing the size of the House, the House should be increased every decade, as originally intended, to add new representatives and to better reflect the population. They stopped doing that in 1920, not coincidentally the first time the census found more urban than rural residents. A larger House would also reduce (a little) the bias in the electoral college.
The House has 435 seats because that was the number needed after the 1910 census so that no state would lose a representative, not even Iowa, which had lost population. As a consequence of freezing the size of the house, some states lose representatives even if they gain population.
The formula for apportioning seats should also be changed – it is an esoteric use of the geometric mean which is biased towards smaller population states.
Following the 2020 census Montana gained a seat and California lost one, even though the population of California had increased by more than the entire population of Montana.
suzanne
@Quinerly: LOL. We’re all having fun.
Brachiator
@Quinerly:
The Beverly Hillbillies instrumental break was one of the better TV show tunes.
lowtechcyclist
@BlueGuitarist:
Wow, that so totally makes no sense.
Next time the Dems have both houses of Congress, one of them should sneak a change to that formula into an end-of-fiscal-year appropriations bill at the last minute, so it would become law before anyone notices.
Geminid
@suzanne: “Often colloquially called cement mixers.” They would have done better to say “almost always called cement mixers.”
I noticed that they described a concrete mixer as something people used to mix cement, aggegate and sand to produce concrete. It’s true that people still occasionally batch up concrete in the kind of mixer discussed. I worked a big rock job where we added two parts pea gravel to one part each of Portland cement and sand (plus water). But 99 times out of a hundred these mixers do not mix concrete and no one who uses them calls them “concrete mixers” even if you think they should.
Quinerly
@Brachiator:
Well, you can better believe my parents didn’t buy me the album for “Green Acres.”
BlueGuitarist
@Suzanne:
Echoing:
Well put!
Not seeing much clearly these days, but saw in your comment “silver candlesticks” and a name with the initials VH, so thinking of Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, one of my mother’s favorite books.
All the best to you and yours, and the Balloon Juice Family.
love all y’all
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: they don’t have big hits (yet!) But The Swedish trio Dirty Loops are amazing and great enough to have Quincy Jone’s as their production company.
Eunicecycle
@SiubhanDuinne: OMG was that only a year ago? I feel like it was much longer. Time is weird when you get older.
Hungry Joe
Highly recommended: “I Wore This Dress for You Today, Mom: Poems on Motherhood,” by Kim Dower (Red Hen Press). Accessible, hilarious, heartbreaking stuff. Sample:
Maybe or was something her mother said
one morning as the young girl dipped
her donut into a glass of whole milk
powdered sugar still on her lips her mother
tells her, don’t get used to this
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: Hear! Hear! I really appreciate everything she does for us.
Anyway
Yes, making the congress reflect the population and “correct/modernize” the under-representation of certain states needs to be prioritized and sold to the media. Ds need their own Leonard Leo (gack) to spearhead a 10-yr project if that’s what it takes …
frosty fred
Just leaving this here.
Jess
I couldn’t get past those talons… definitely preferred Finland’s punk-influenced dance pop. Hilarious.
Quinerly
@frosty fred:
You sly devil.
Love it!!!!!
BlueGuitarist
@lowtechcyclist:
Further adventures In the small state advantage permeating the political system:
After the 1990 census,
Dividing the total apportionment population by 435 seats = 572,466 dividing each state’s apportionment population by that number
NJ 13.54
MA 10.53
OK 5.52
MS 4.52
With the Hamilton “largest remainder” method, NJ would have continued to have 14 seats and MA would have continued to have 11; OK would have 5 and MS 4, each losing a seat.
Because of the small state biased in the geometric mean formula instead NJ and MA lost seats, while OK and MS did not, remaining at 6 and 5.
You may recall that with Florida’s electoral votes Bush won the 2000 election with 271 – 267. Bush carried OK and MS, Gore carried NJ and MA, so if the House had been apportioned using the arithmetic mean, the Electoral College would have been tied 269-269.
Of course the procedure for breaking electoral college ties is another small state advantage in the rules.
JPL
@Quinerly: 💝
Quinerly
@JPL:
You did it again. 💚
Geminid
@Geminid: Unofficial Turkish election returns are now being posted. As expected, it’s a close race. A third candidate, Mr. Ogan, is polling a little over 5%, which makes it more likely that the presidential election will be decided in a runoff May 28.
I found this reporting on journalist Ragip Soylu’s Twitter feed. (@ragipsoylu). I expect it’s also being posted by the news site Middle East Eye (middleeasteye.net). Ragip Soylu is their Istanbul bureau chief.
Mai Naem mobile
The beginning of Loreen’s song sounds quite a bit like Abba’s ‘Winner Takes It All’. It took me a little while to figure out which Abba song it sounded like but I really did initially wonder if it was her version of it. I think Eurovision is the precursor to all the current musical talent shows The Voice, American Idol etc.
Jacqueline Squid Onassis
Croatia’s entry is just the essence of Eurovision. But those never win anymore. Finland was also excellent in that vein. Germany was also fantastic, especially since they had to know that glam death metal had zero chance to win. Other favorites of mine in this year’s contest include Moldova, Portugal, France, Spain, Albania, Norway, and Israel. I found Sweden’s entry to be pretty dull.
But it’s clear that my taste doesn’t match that of the Eurovision judges and audience so I never expect my favorites to win. I’m just happy when it has enough entries that make me smile and laugh and/or love the music. This year was a good one.
Matt McIrvin
@BlueGuitarist: The thing about the small state advantage is that the small states regard it as right and proper and will passionately advocate to retain it.
But when it comes to Presidential elections, specifically, it’s really big swing states that have the power and get all the attention. The whole election is essentially determined by them, and the advantage for small-state voters usually doesn’t amount to much because most small states aren’t swing states (maybe NH and Maine are).