Open thread.
ETA: I will be visiting NYC this summer for my sister’s big fat gay wedding, and even though I’ll be hideously pressed for time throughout my trip, I’m going to try to find time to swing by a cemetery in the Bronx to leave flowers for La Lupe. Always been a big fan.
RaflW
Weather must be really nice. No one’s around.
Hello? (echo echo echo)
Betty Cracker
@RaflW: It’s hotter than hell here. Sensible people are indoors and will remain so until September, at least during daylight hours.
Dee Loralei
BJ meetup in NYC with Betty Cracker! Woot!
I’m gonna be in DC June 11 and 12 and want to do a BJ meetup next week. Ellizabelle said she’s in, anyone else? Come on, DC BJ denizens, it’ll be fun! And I’m mostly harmless.
schrodinger's cat
Its seems I have brought the muggy weather back with me. It is hot and humid in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts.
gogol's wife
A fox just ran through my backyard. Weird.
gogol's wife
@schrodinger’s cat:
Welcome back — I’m glad you survived.
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: I am clearly not sensible, as we depart tomorrow (from mid-70s Minnesota) for Nashville, Montgomery/Selma, Atlanta. By car.
Yes we’re nuts. Thank you for asking.
Suffern ACE
@gogol’s wife: Was it a quick brown fox? Did it by any chance jump over your lazy dog?
RaflW
Oh, and this is the best tweet I think I’ve seen from the already arch and snarky Economist magazine:
And, I love the word whingeing, though I daren’t say it conversationally as it would make this American look a right prat.
Mandalay
The Taliban released a video of the Bergdahl handover.
One of the Special Forces guys shakes hands using his left hand – WTF?
Also, they waited until they were right next to the helicopter before they patted Bergdahl down for explosives. That seems like a pretty basic error. Surely if you suspect he has explosives you keep him well away from your only means of escape to check?
Yatsuno
Now I miss Selena all over again…
Betty Cracker
@RaflW: Nothing crazy about a road trip. Just keep your A/C on and stop only to swim or enter an air-conditioned building. Nashville is a fun town!
ranchandsyrup
TNC jumped on the twitters for a while and patiently educated “history buffs” like Aaron Worthing who predictably wanted to know how the mechanics of reparations would work and not discuss the underlying causes. Assist to Dr. Levenson. Good times.
raven
Just back from a 3 day conference at Stone Mountain. Here’ that sunrise from the top of the moutnain.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Just saw a clip of Gampy McBitters saying that the “Taliban 5” are not just Taliban but Al Qaeda. Is there even a shred of evidence of this, or is this just everybody he doesn’t like is al Qaeda?
raven
And here’s that big, sad, Lion of the Confederacy in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta.
Just One More Canuck
@gogol’s wife: look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn
scav
scusi, need a rant.
link one (links innocent)
Because that’s what missing, a quick highly symbolic memorial to the credo of the institutional perpetrators / enablers of the deaths! And let’s not judge the past by our standards says the guy flogging supposedly 2,000 year old revelations of truths for all times. Whose celibate boss is finger-wagging behind him about pets selfish, babies a necessary ingredient for a fulfilled non-lonely married life.
CBC to spread links around, and this one might be getting some on-site, not just reported elsewhere evidence later on. Has some overlays now.
ok, need to find some cheerful stuff now. thanks.
schrodinger's cat
@gogol’s wife: Thanks! Except for the showdown with she who must not be named and the relentless heat, I had a good time. The best part was eating the Haapus (Alphonso) mangoes which are available only in late April and May.
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: It is, but we will barely make a dent. A friend is being ordained on Sunday in UU ministry, and we’re attending (partner is speaking in the ceremony even).
I don’t think our friend realized she’d picked the Country Music Awards blowout concert weekend. We’re at a Hampton Inn about 30 miles from nothing to avoid paying $250-300 a night. YeeeeeeHaww.
RaflW
@scav: “come and remember the babies that died”
Wow. Points for effective (despicable) use of the passive construction. “Those babies just up and died on us. Whocouldaknowed?”
Betty Cracker
@raven: That is a very sad lion!
scav
Working on the happy stuff, adding to the animal clutter.
Missing the Beached Whale in the Painting.”
Tom L?! Tom L?! Over here!
gogol's wife
@schrodinger’s cat:
Who won the showdown? I missed this.
TaMara (BHF)
@raven: Your photos always make my day a little happier. No pressure.
SarahT
Betty, not sure when you’ll be in NYC but we have loads of free summer outdoor shows that (almost) make hanging around the sweltering city worthwhile:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2014/05/the_ultimate_list_free_summer_concerts_nyc.php
I’m most excited about these –
6/27 – Valerie June @ Prospect Park
8/2 – Dr. John @ Summerstage
8/7 – Spires @ Pier 84
8/10 – Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires, St. Paul and The Broken Bones, Bobby Patterson, Music Maker Blues Revue/Lincoln Center
schrodinger's cat
@gogol’s wife: I used to comment on the late night threads because of the time difference between India and the US, when I was in India.
My godbothering MIL wanted me to perform some religious rituals. I was going to agree but stopped short when she blamed me for all the ills that have befallen her family because I did not perform some rituals she wanted and defended my thesis instead, many moons ago. Conveniently, she had scheduled the ritual so it clashed with my thesis defense.
P.S. The version of Hinduism she practices is closer to the harsh Puritanical version of Christianity than the feel good touchy feely new agey version popular here.
schrodinger's cat
@gogol’s wife: I used to comment on the late night threads because of the time difference between India and the US, when I was in India.
My godbothering MIL wanted me to perform some religious rituals. I was going to agree but stopped short when she blamed me for all the ills that have befallen her family because I did not perform some rituals she wanted and defended my thesis instead, many moons ago. Conveniently, she had scheduled the ritual so it clashed with my thesis defense.
I also don’t understand much Tamil, so I would have no idea about what I was actually doing. So I told her that we should wait when I came back to India with my husband and then we would all sit together and decide what rituals to perform and so on.
P.S. The version of Hinduism she practices is closer to the harsh Puritanical version of Christianity than the feel good touchy feely new agey version popular here.
gogol's wife
@schrodinger’s cat:
Sounds hairy!
schrodinger's cat
@gogol’s wife: It was! The real reason behind her shenanigans.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
I know I’m already a veritable font of negativity, pessimism, and cynicism these days, but when I see shit like this, with every indication that it’s meant to be a legit product and not some elaborate Onion hoax, then I lose just a little more of my will to give a shit about anything anymore.
Fucking bulletproof blankets for kids. As a solution for school shootings. The fuck is wrong with this fucking country.
SiubhanDuinne
The last of the WWII Navajo Code Talkers has died, age 93. Well done, sir. RIP.
gogol's wife
@schrodinger’s cat:
HaHa — where’s the sari?
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodinger’s cat:
@gogol’s wife:
Who’s sari now?
SarahT
@SiubhanDuinne: they were so amazing – thanks for posting
Hal
Very funny. Obama’s really is taking peoples guns but replacing them with something much better:
http://explosm.net/comics/3059/
AliceBlue
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
I’m the same way. The bugfuck crazy over Bowe Bergdahl hasn’t helped any. As for the bulletproof blanket, I just…WORDS.
SiubhanDuinne
@SarahT:
Apparently neither I nor the reporter of that story can do simple math. Chester Nez was born in 1912; therefore, he was 101 or 102 when he died today, not 93.
RaflW
This shit makes me fucking furious.
Reuters has the story.
Fuck the GOP and their evil minions. Bergdahl may face serious issues with the Army. But he’s home dammit, and his parents and all the supporters who stood by him for 5 years have all been shat upon by egotistical maniacs in the Republican movement.
Bollocks.
AliceBlue
@RaflW:
I saw this coming. Christ, this just makes me want to scream and throw things.
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Indeed, RIP Chester Nez.
For anyone who wants a definition or example of patriotism, look at the Native Americans (or AAs or Japanese) who have become members of the armed services and served with distinction. With all that their tribes and people have endured, they still joined up to protect and defend their homes and communities.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I can’t cut and paste the tweets, but this Gawker post on ‘wingers who were saying OBama abandoned Burghdal and now want them both tried for treason contains at least one famous name, if this is The Charlie Daniels (for you younglings, a once hippie-ish country singer who had some crossover successes in the Southern Rock moment of the late seventies, early eighties, found Jeebus and is now a hard core right-winger and IIRC Birther)
RaflW
This is how Fox, Glenn Beck, the “modern” GOP and the Murdoch worldview are, once again, fucking ruining America. I don’t have some bullshit rosy picture of the past. We’ve been through McCarthyism, southern lynchings, etc. But we don’t have to be this awful going forward. But there’s a buck to be made in creating human suffering. And right wingers are the folks to do it.
celiadexter
Thanks for the tune! I looked up La Lupe to find out if she’s buried at Woodlawn, where Celia Cruz is, but found out she’s at St. Raymond’s, where one of her neighbors is Hector Lavoe. Please leave Hector some flowers too.
Paul in KY
@SarahT: Saw St. Paul & the Broken Bones at Hangout Festival. Really good soul band. Lead singer has a great voice. Highly recommend.