Here’s how Miss Patsy relaxes on the deck:
Although that’s a common sprawl for puppies, I’ve never seen another adult dog do that. Miss Patsy is five, but she’s still a puppy.
Last night, the mister and I were talking about taking a real vacation someday. Not a trip to see family. Not a short jaunt to a nearby beach. A genuine vacation that involves traveling to another state.
New Orleans is high on our list since we’re both fond of the city, though we’ve never been there together, and we like food and music. Any other ideas? Nothing in Florida, please, and it has to be in the US.
Please feel free to discuss whatever.
MattF
Semi-random suggestions– San Diego and Seattle are both eminently visitable places. And from San Diego you can take a daytrip to the desert.
TaMara (BHF)
Colorado is nice in the fall. And we have tons of craft breweries and wineries. Boston, as discussed before, is a lovely city, plenty of good food and drink. Virginia/DC are lovely. And California has a wealth of fun places to visit, from San Diego to wine country.
And I love New Orleans, so you can’t go wrong there.
(p.s. I travel a lot…Hawaii is next US destination on my list. Paris my international)
JMG
Come to New England for the leaves in the fall. About as different from Florida as you can get in the Eastern time zone.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Almost all of my vacations involve traveling to watch hockey.
beth
It seems like we’ve done nothing but what we call “oblications”, vacations that really fulfill some family obligation, for the last few years. I guess that’s the downside of moving away when most of your family stays put in one area. We were hoping for a real vacation this summer but a favorite aunt has passed away so all available funds will be used for airfare/hotel to attend the funeral.
I’d recommend Chicago or Charleston. Both fun cities to visit.
Davebo
San Francisco? Austin (especially in cooler months)
cleek
yeah, Boston. and do it in the fall. and take a trip north from there up to NH and ME for the ocean – very different from FL’s.
SatanicPanic
San Diego! I’ll buy you a beer. I am a big fan of Lake Tahoe for family fun
Amir Khalid
At least your dog doesn’t do this.
I kind of liked Rochester, Minnesota, both times I was there. But that’s not exactly a happening holiday destination. So I got nothing. Sorry.
Meanwhile, Bob in Portland is probably “travelling and off the grid” (i.e. waiting for new talking points) again after this admission from a Ukrainian separatist leader.
srv
You think like a Republican. Try Iceland. America as it should be.
Norcal in September. But as someone who has been all over, my first req is the Columbia River Valley. Hike up Eagle Creek. It’s all downhill from there.
Do not come to SF in August unless you like the fog.
piratedan
a number of nifty places spring to mind….
Lake Tahoe
Columbia River Gorge and the Oregon Coast (with a side trip to Crater Lake)
The History trip – Up the Shenandoah Valley to Northern Virginia to tour things like Civil War battlefields but also take in Natural Bridge, Monticello and then DC for monument roundabout
Grand Canyon plus Meteor Crater, Canyon De Chelly and the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest
Yellowstone
Yosemite
naturally, ymmv
HinTN
If you have the gumption to deal with the crowds, the Jazz and Heritage Festival is a great piece of the NOLA year. Always the last weekend in April and the first weekend in May. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Fridays and especially the Thursday are lighter crowds and the number of venues is remarkable. Also great food choices.
SiubhanDuinne
Could you consider Canada? Or is it a passport (which is to say, no passport) issue? Because Canada has a lot of extremely cool places to visit.
Corrected minor typo.
Suffern ACE
In the Summer, head for the hills. I’ve been to Colorado and UNY and it’s usually 20 degrees cooler. Or go to Montreal.
Betty Cracker
@beth: “Oblications” — I’m gonna steal that one. Sorry about your aunt.
@SatanicPanic: The mister and I came really close to visiting Lake Tahoe once; I won a pair of airline tickets at an office party, and we’d picked out that as our destination. Then my sister threw a hissy fit because I’d miss her grad school graduation (in fucking Raleigh), so we went to that instead. Hmmph!
El Caganer
Pennsylvania. Yes, I’m planning on moving to Florida this winter, but do check it out – there’s a lot of really cool stuff here.
Stoned Stats
Philly for a city experience (and the birthplace of Freeeeeedooooommmmm!!!!!!111!!!!!!111!!!). The national (and state) parks in Utah for an outdoor experience: Brice, Zion, Arches, etc.
Paul in KY
Check out Voodoo Fest in New Orleans. Fri, Sat, Sun (31 Oct – 2 Nov). 1st night of Fest is Halloween. Great lineup that includes Foo Fighters, Outkast, Arctic Monkeys, Gogol Bordello, Rise Against, Fishbone, Melvins, Fuel, Big Freedia and many more.
I went last year & had a blast!
Suzan
Chicago, Spring or Fall. “Street Art” is mind blowing with huge outdoor Picasso, Miro, Calder pieces and more. Great art museum. Great place if you like architecture, take a walking tour. NYC is a great place to visit. So much to do and see. We are going next week and taking our 6 year old grandson.
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: I’d have to renew my passport, but that’s no biggie. I mainly want to stay in the States because I don’t want to leave the country without my minor child, but I’d like to go on vacation without her, just this once. I love Canada, and it’s pretty easy to go back and forth, so that’s an option. I hear Banff is really beautiful.
Phylllis
Charleston and/or Savannah, with a side trip to beautiful Beaufort. I recommend early to mid-October. The humidity has broken, the weather is mild, and not quite as many tourists.
In Charleston, be sure to eat at Husk; in Savannah, Pirate’s House lunch buffet.
Waynski
Got to Napa, CA. It’s a lay up. Great wine. Great food = Great fun.
ranchandsyrup
We call that pollywog legs in our house. Our little dog loves to do that.
Here’s a post on contrarianism that was inspired by a comment I saw here at BJ.
catclub
Chalet Club, North Carolina mountains, do as little as possible.
JayinCA
I’ll second Lake Tahoe. North Shore.
ranchandsyrup
Tahoe is great. Go see it before it burns down. The forest is really sick there — lacking diversity of tree species. I’m a north shore fan, myself.
I second Satanic Panic on San Diego.
shelley
Re Miss Patsy:
Belly coolness must be maintained!
Alabama Blue Dot
Birmingham, Alabama would love to have you! Great weather, amazing food scene, really interesting museums (including the incomparable Civil Rights Institute). We are actually in the running as a long shot for the 2016 Democratic National Convention! If you make it, I’ll buy you some sauerkraut balls at the J. Clyde.
the Conster
Santa Fe and Taos, during Fiesta in late August during chile harvest – the smells!!! Try to catch Zozobra, the original burning man. It feels like you’ve gone far far away.
Kristine
King sprawled like that until the end. He was a 115-lb GSD-lab mix, and almost made it to 12yo.
He’d sprawl on the kitchen floor and watch me work. I swear there were times he fell asleep with his eyes open–I heard faint snoring even though he was staring right at me.
Butch
The youngest of my kitties often adopts that “dolphin” pose. But on the subject of travel, you have to like out of the way (and don’t do it in the winter), but the Keweenau (pronounced key ven ah), Lake of the Clouds in the Porkies, Gogebic, the Painted Rocks, the Great Lakes, and a lot of other stuff really are worth seeing here in the Upper Peninsula.
schrodinger's cat
Betty Cracker, go to Maine. Acadia National Park is beautiful this time of the year.
ETA: Seal dog is sunning herself!
Emma
Chicago or Boston in the fall. Seattle in pretty much anytime. San Francisco in the late spring, early summer. San Antonio (blue, blue in a sea of red) but ONLY in the late October/early November or April.
Added: second schrodinger’s cat on Maine. AND let me add Lexington, Kentucky during the Keeneland racing season, either spring or fall.
Kristine
I vote for Portland Oregon. Pacific Ocean on one side, mountains on the other. Great food. Wineries. The Columbia River Gorge.
Trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
If you don’t mind time-zoning 3x, then the left coast has phenomenal geographic and cultural diversity. Pick a city to land in, rent a car and just wander to whatever and wherever suits your fancy. And we have all the good food, wine and such.
Luthe
DC. Yeah, I know, I know, all the politicians give the place a certain parfum du weasel, but the museums are (mostly) free, the Zoo is free, the public transit is decent, and there is excellent seafood to be had within reasonable driving distance. All this, plus a chance to see democracy inaction!
NCSteve
Yellowstone is still waiting to be checked off my bucket list. The place fascinates me, and yet It’s just so easy and nice to go to the beach instead . . .
And with my luck, the super volcano would blow while I was there.
schrodinger's cat
Seal dog thread needs kittens!
The post also has my musings about the latest immigration crisis.
icedfire
Minneapolis/St. Paul is lovely through September at least, and October is quite nice if you’re okay with brisk nights. There are incredible amounts of arts, culture, and craft beers. Biking and hiking trails, day trips outside the Metro…it’s beautiful driving north while the leaves are changing color.
randy khan
U.S. destinations I’d put high on my list:
Seattle – good art museum, fantastic sculpture garden, fantastic food, interesting history, walkable downtown (and decent-enough public transportation), very nice Japanese garden in the Arboretum.
San Francisco – multiple interesting museums, also a fine Japanese garden, fantastic food (but avoid food around the Wharf), Muir Woods and Berkeley nearby, good shopping.
Chicago – fantastic art museum, plus other good museums (and a little gem of a stained glass museum on Navy Pier, free and definitely worth your time), very good food, some interesting history, great architecture (with good tours – consider a Frank Lloyd Wright tour), Millennium Park is quite nice, too.
Washington, DC – in the fall, not the summer (fewer other tourists, better weather), all sorts of free museums thanks to the Smithsonian, all those monuments and memorials, very good food, a nice little carousel on the Mall if you’re into that sort of thing, a handy bike-share system.
Can’t argue with the suggestions of Boston and San Diego, either.
I’d have suggested Hawaii, which is mind-blowingly beautiful (plus the Arizona Memorial, mind-blowing in other ways), but given the desire not to be too far away, that’s probably off the table. And I thought about the Grand Canyon, which everyone should see, but it’s a trip to take with your child.
Iden Hill
If it’s summer, it’s hard to beat hiking in the Boundry Waters area of northern Minnesota. For a real camping challenge, visit it in the winter. Get in some snow shoeing, skijoring (getting pulled by dogs while on skis) and the always fun ice fishing. Traditional ice fishing in Minnesota consists of hauling a well heated fishing shack onto the ice, drilling some holes and playing cards all weekend.
icedfire
@NCSteve: It wouldn’t really matter if you were at the beach…in Tahiti…when the supervolcano blows, so don’t let that stop you :-)
Trollhattan
@NCSteve:
It bears repeating that some commenters are adamantly against Lindsey Graham jokes here.
Bob In Portland
This.
Washington Times says Obama is sending military advisers to Ukraine. I’m pretty sure that they were already there.
Carry on. If you were ready to go to war over the weekend you gotta at least get behind sending advisers to Ukraine, right?
Rosalita
I love New Orleans! The best food is there IMO. Definitely a do. Equally wonderful would be San Francisco and plan to drive up to Napa/Sonoma as well.
SatanicPanic
@Betty Cracker: It’s really nice, the water is cool, and there are lots of smaller lakes in the area that make for nice day trips. Plus there’s Reno, which is some good, rundown Nevada city fun
Cacti
@Amir Khalid:
Commrade Bob has appeared, ready to defend the honor of brave anti-fascists who like to blow civilian aircraft out of the sky with missiles from Moscow.
Roger Moore
One of the classic vacations is the Grand Circle on the Colorado plateau. There are either 8 or 9 National Parks (depending on the exact boundaries you use for the plateau) plus a whole bunch of National Monuments, National Recreation Areas, state parks, tribal parks, etc. You could easily spend a month there and without coming close to exhausting the best parts, but you can do a shorter trip by limiting yourself to just one part of the area. It’s about as different from Florida as you’re likely to get in the 48 contiguous states: high and rugged instead of low and flat, dry instead of wet, empty instead of populated, etc.
Cacti
Just got back from a vacay in San Diego, and wishing now that I was still there.
Great place to visit during the dog days of summer. Was 83 and breezy when I left.
WaterGirl
My cocker spaniel was a big fan of that position from the day I got him as a pup until I lost him at 16 years. It really does look goofy in a photo, though. Go Miss Patsy!
Rosalita
Betty, I just love the white spot at the tip of her tail!
Trollhattan
@Cacti:
Hey now, $heeple, let’s not ignore the two Ukrainian jet fighters Ukraine shot down today, just to prove something to somebody, hmmm?
WaterGirl
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I was just thinking about you a few minutes ago, wondering how you are doing in your quest to find an editor that was a good fit.
Aurona
Seattle; Where summers are in the mid 70s low 80s (most of the time), the border is not too far, and food (let’s talk salmon!) is ever so hip and yummy. Try a progressive city. Its not all perfect, but we don’t have border patrol out my front door. It is great dog weather, too. I fell in love with the city in the early 90s and use this as a staycation or launching pad. My son, the head brewer at Pike Brew at Pike Place Market (the fish thrower guys) will also buy you a beer if you make it here! We would love for you to have a good time on the Left Coast.
Trollhattan
Commie alert:
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2014/07/more-bad-news-in-print-photojournalism.html
JCJ
@Betty Cracker:
Banff is beautiful. Plenty of day hikes available. Continuing up the Icefields Parkway to Jasper National Park is great. I have been camping several times in both parks. Short white water rafting day trips are fun as well. Don’t know if you or your kid would be interested, but the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta has a great collection of dinosaur skeletons. The science museun in Edmonton is excellent as well.
srv
I have to vote against Seattlebots.
Vancouver is hipper and cheaper. Particularly the sushi.
raven
What the fuck? I posted the initial response to this thread and saw no activity for 10 minutes. I come back and it is gone and there are 55 comments!
gogol's wife
Oregon coast.
Roger Moore
@Emma:
Summer for Seattle. The days are really long and the sun actually comes out.
dedc79
Good ole National Review – the magazine that defended Jim Crowe is now trying to pin it on the current Democratic Party:
Note that Fund and his Bond-villain partner in crime, Hans Van Spakofsky (yes seriously that’s his name), are the architects of the nationwide effort to make it harder for the poor, minorities and college kids to vote.
Amir Khalid
@Bob In Portland:
Give us a plausible motive for the Ukrainian military to shoot down anyone’s airliner and you might be on to something.
draftmama
Montana – go to East Glacier and join a packing trip into the park – it’ll blow your mind. Or the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Lots of great outfitters here.
Roger Moore
@Trollhattan:
Because who needs photographers for the digital version of your paper? The on-line version of your paper is way more about text than the printed version.
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: The Olympic peninsula is really close too and unlike CA we were able to get campsites in every place we stopped, no reservation. Rangers looked at us like we were nuts when we asked if they had empty spaces. That being said, those long days played havoc on my sleeping schedule.
SiubhanDuinne
@Bob In Portland:
Thanks. Because this blog is all about relying on the Washington Times for unbiased news, analysis, and opinion.
CaseyL
If you haven’t been to Yellowstone, please consider doing so. It’s mind-blowingly, breathtakingly gorgeous. Sign up for a guided tour, because you get a lot more out of it: the local guides know the area geology, history, and animals. Also, you’ll be staying at lodges inside the park, which is awesome (and hard to get reservations for otherwise).
The tour operator I went with last time is Safari Yellowstone (http://www.safariyellowstone.com), and I can recommend them unreservedly. Please don’t confuse them with Yellowstone Safari, an entirely different company.
Stranded Northerner
My parents like going to Tahoe during October. It’s between summer and ski season, so rates are cheaper and the weather is still nice*.
*(“Nice” by a Minnesotan’s definition of weather, just to warn you!)
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: Ah, quoting that plagiarist again? You really need some original sources, Bob. Lots of independent journalists on Twitter, who actually speak Russian and are on-scene, as opposed to reporting lame rumors from Hong Kong. Try @cjchivers, or @ChristopherJM, or @maxseddon, or @dpelschuk, or @MaximEristavi, or @SimonOstrovsky. Lots more, I can post their handles if you’re interested in actual news.
Roger Moore
@SatanicPanic:
I’m going to be visiting my sister in Seattle next month, and a trip to Olympic is part of the agenda. I might even be able to take a break from the family and go to a Balloon-Juice get-together while I’m there.
Betty Cracker
@CaseyL: We have not been there but have heard wonderful things about it.
Iowa Old Lady
How come nobody ever lists Iowa as their non-oblication destination?
(When we moved here from Detroit 19 years ago, I had to look on the map to be absolutely certain where it was.)
Trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
The disconnect nearly fried my remaining brain.
On-line! It’s new, it’s hip, it’s words upon words contained inside a warm advertising bun.
Juju
If I had the money, San Fransisco and Nappa would be first on my list. I’ve sort of wanted to visit New Orleans, but I have a seafood allergy, so the food situation would make it risky. When the sprout goes to college consider an off season trip to Hatteras Island in the outerbanks of , NC, if it’s still there. September is still warm but it’s not as touristy, and you can find a rental that takes dogs and the rates are lower.
SatanicPanic
@Roger Moore: Olympic is so beautiful. Really a wonderful park.
Trollhattan
@Iowa Old Lady:
Funny you should mention–Iowa was one of two obligation destinations until my grandma died. Somehow it’s fallen off-list since, although my kid (foolishly) would like to see the place my my hatching. “And what would you like to do the second hour, sweetie?”
In its defence, NW Iowa can be gorgeous in fall.
srv
@Iowa Old Lady: ietquay aboutway Okobojiway otay outsidersway, okway?
Juju
@Iowa Old Lady: Because I’ve been to Davenport.
Mike E
All really good trips…NOLA is a bucket list item for sure.
I did Olympic Pk (awesome), Seattle, Crater Lake (unbelievable), Yosemite (a jewel box) and Joshua Tree, all in one go.
Roger Moore
@Iowa Old Lady:
If you want Betty to visit, you need to provide her with a list of suggestions of where to go and what to do.
Trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
I do believe you’re missing a bit of that subtle Midwest humor, the kind Rep. Steve King has managed to shuck.
GIndy51
Our Greater Swiss Mountain Dog does this as do all her relatives, only her back legs are straight back not to the sides. Her granddam is 8 and still sprawls like that.
KG
I have this dream of doing a Blues/BBQ Tour of the Mississippi. Basically, start in Chicago and go south, hit St Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans. A day or two in each town, take in some music and BBQ and then move along (maybe by train?)
libarbarian
Trolling
Betty Cracker
@KG: Wow, that sounds fantastic!
MazeDancer
Seconding Santa Fe. But you can go any time. October is beautiful and not the expensive month.
The mountains are dazzling. The food fabulous. The art – both Native American and Modern – gorgeous. Tsankawi, outside the city, is beautiful, sacred ground.
Three days in Santa Fe, you’ll feel like you went to another country, possibly another planet. Beware, it’s a heart-stealing place. Very hard to leave.
Iowa Old Lady
Actually, there’s a cool thing happening in Iowa this week. It’s RAGRAI, the Register’s Annual Great Ride Across Iowa.
http://ragbrai.com/
Thousands of bicyclists ride across the state from the Missouri to the Mississippi. They dip the back wheel of their bikes in the Missouri when they set out and the front wheel in the Mississippi.
Other than that, I got nothing.
KG
my sister has a corgi that still lays down with her hindlegs out like this and she’s 7 or 8.
Hungry Joe
@SatanicPanic: I’ll see your beer and raise you one. San Diego!
bemused
@Iden Hill:
NE Minn lakes are lovely in the summer aside from skeeters, etc. There are a lot of bike trail systems too. For Florida natives or even MN natives, the winter camping idea might be a bit too much of a cold temperature challenge.
KG
@Betty Cracker: yeah, since i’m too old (read: have too much debt) to take a summer off and tour all 30 major league parks, this has been my more recent dream trip. and the best part is, you can actually do this trip, more or less, riding the City of New Orleans
low-tech cyclist
@draftmama: Personally, I’m a fan of the west side of Glacier National Park. Lake Macdonald, with the Garden Wall rising behind it…yeah.
Not to mention, staying on that side, you’re an easy drive from Truby’s in Columbia Falls, which has some of the world’s best pizza. And a great selection of local/regional beers.
Go between mid-July and mid-September.
DC area is good – during the fall. Why fall? Because the place is mobbed with tourists from the time the cherry blossoms start blooming in late March, until the kids go back to school after Labor Day. The city’s great in September and October, but you don’t have to be jostled by a mob of fellow tourists.
Also, the DC area has great ethnic restaurants of all sorts. If you decide to go there, I’m sure I won’t be the only one with a lot of recommendations. So when you’re done checking out the monuments, you can have some great eats. As I get older, going someplace where I can get good food – not fancy, hole-in-the-wall is great, but it has to be good hole-in-the-wall – is increasingly essential when my wife and I go on vacation.
And if you go to New Orleans, I can recommend some places there, too. It’s worth a trip. (Pro tip for New Orleans: if you stay in the French Quarter, don’t rent a car. You won’t need it.)
p.a.
Open a map, grab a pin, close your eyes, spin once and stick the pin. If it’s nowheresville check out the chamber of commerce and state tourism dept website. If it’s in Mississippi or Arkansas just try again.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@WaterGirl: It isn’t. I got emails from a few people who were interested. I sent a story to them for comment and basically none of them got back to me. I say basically because one person sent back a text file but it was a revision of the story without edits marked or comments, so it was useless. I didn’t hear back from anyone else.
Sherparick
My families beagle-terrier mixed used that position all the time. I see lots of beagles and terriers use it.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Iowa Old Lady:
If the University of Iowa started a women’s hockey team and joined the WCHA I’d be in Iowa City for a weekend.
I’ve got my vacations for the next eight months planned: Bemidji; Columbus; Duluth; Grand Forks (twice!); Madison.
KG
@p.a.: in fairness to Arkansas, Eureka Springs is a pretty cool little town worth a trip. don’t know if you can make more than a long weekend out of it, but definitely worth visiting.
Josie
@KG: My corgi lies down like this to work on his chew toys. We always laugh at him because it shows off his fuzzy butt.
raven
Byrds-“Blue Canadian Rockies” from “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”
In the blue Canadian Rockies
Spring is silent through the trees
And the golden poppies are blooming
‘Round the banks of Lake Louise
geg6
Hahahahahahaha, that’s how Koda lays on our deck, too. And she’s over 2 now, so not a puppy either.
I suggest Santa Barbara or San Francisco/Bay area. Love both places.
Bob In Portland
@Cacti: Okay, Cacti, Wednesday July 23 and you are still onboard with the propaganda. No comments on the radar readings? Okay. Let’s see how long. Remember the Maine! And aluminum tubes!
Bob In Portland
@Gin & Tonic: Hey, Gin, I hear you understand Ukrainian. I thought you were going to share with us how you picked that up.
Lynn Dee
I think that’s also a very common sprawl for pit bulls, including adults. I’ve heard it referred to as the “hamhock” position.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@geg6: Do I remember correctly that you’re in State College? Because I’m going to be there sometime in the fall of 2015.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
If you’re considering Canada, I can’t say enough good about Vancouver. What a great city!
Gene108
Rafting/ camping trip along the New River in West Virginia.
Las Vegas/Grand Canyon combo vacation. GC is a four hour drive from LV. Take one of the natural wonders of the world, w/ the GC and marvel at the excess of Man in LV
Roger Moore
@Trollhattan:
I suspect that their answer will be that they expect to get a lot of their photographs from social media, and photography is so easy these days that they can get the photographs they need by providing their regular reporters with cameras. That’s the general direction I’ve seen other media outlets use to explain why they’re firing photographers.
KG
@Gene108: i live in southern California, have been to Vegas more times than I can count because it was the default family trip pretty much my entire life, and in my 20s I was averaging about a trip a month out there for a stretch (and then had my little run as a semi-pro poker player)… and in all those trips, not once have I gone to the grand canyon.
Origuy
If Napa County sounds interesting, but expensive, go another hour north to Lake County, which is much less crowded and cheaper. The main tourist attraction is Clear Lake, which is the largest natural freshwater lake entirely within California. There are a fair number of wineries in the area.
Chat Noir
Chicago is a nice place to visit; it’s also easy and relatively cheap to get baseball tickets to see the White Sox if you’re into that thing. Our fav pizza place is Piece Pizza and Brewery in Bucktown.
@HinTN: We were at JazzFest this past year (first weekend). Love Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers, Rebirth Brass Band, Preservation Hall, Jon Cleary (his band was fabulous). As a bonus, we saw Troy Andrews (Trombone Shorty) dancing to Rebirth next to where we were sitting. He’s awesome.
I’m a vegetarian so I was pleasantly surprised that I had a number of vegetarian options for eats (I had red beans and rice). On our first morning in NOLA, we saw Kathleen Sebelius after her morning run (her hotel was across the street from ours).
Bob In Portland
@SiubhanDuinne: There have been US military advisers in Ukraine since Maidan, probably since before.
And no, I don’t mention Washington Times because it’s a legitimate source of news. But it is a legitimate source of propaganda, just like the NY Times and the Washington Post, just aimed at another market. There’s propaganda for knuckling-dragging conservatives and propaganda for outraged liberals.
By the way, did you notice that yesterday Obama said that Russia created the conditions for the airline disaster. That is known as backpedaling. But our troops are going over there!
Remember the aluminum tubes!!!
Mike in NC
I was sent on a business trip to Des Moines for a week, about 15 years ago. In February. Still vividly remember it, and not in a good way. Same with New Orleans.
Our domestic to-do list includes Vancouver/Seattle/Portland, Napa Valley, Outer Banks in the off season (Roanoke Island), Nantucket, Key West, and Maui. For Thanksgiving we’ll drive through Charleston, Savannah, Orlando, and Tampa. Maybe a visit to Saint Augustine as well.
KG
dammit, used a word referencing a game of skill and am now stuck in moderation.
geg6
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Not in State College, sorry. That’s where the big campus is, but I’m at one of what are called the Commonwealth Campuses. I’m at Beaver, about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Only (!!) a 3 hour drive from State College, so you could drop by. And if it’s at the right time in the fall of 2015, we have an annual meeting that I must attend at the main campus, so maybe I’ll be there at the same time. Seriously, let me know when you’re going and if I’m going to be there, we can get together. Or, if not, try to find time to swing west and we’ll get together here in the ‘Burgh. Maybe Cole will make the 2 hour drive north and we can have a real BJ meetup!
dp
My dear, departed Rottie laid out like that all the time.
If you come to Louisiana, I suggest you wait till post-basting season, say October or so. Voodoo Fest is a pretty good idea.
I’d also throw in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is wonderful. If you want to avoid some of the “touristy” stuff that absolutely fills Gatlinburg, stay on the Cherokee, NC side of the park.
Chat Noir
@ranchandsyrup: I call it “frog dog.” My husband’s late Wheaten Terrier used to lay like that all the time.
Mnemosyne
@Bob In Portland:
So you’re going with the separatists’ claim that the whole thing was faked? The almost 300 bodies aren’t real? The almost 300 families who say they’re grieving for a loved one are only pretending to even have a loved one?
Because that’s kind of the point with the aluminum tubes: they didn’t actually do anything. And now you’re using them to excuse the violent deaths of almost 300 innocent people, you fucking asshole.
This is what you asked for by backing Russia and the separatists. Enjoy trying to wash the blood off your hands.
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: I thought…
As grounded in fact as the rest of your thoughts.
cckids
For Betty C. – I recommend starting in San Francisco, then head to Napa. Fun, great wine & food, relaxing. Do some research about best time to go, & have fun!
Bob In Portland
@Gin & Tonic: I don’t twitter or speak Ukrainian. But thanks for suggesting Pravda.
How does it feel to support the Ukrainian coup government now? Yes, I know there was election, but here’s a fun fact to chew on: Pinochet was reelected several times, so Allende didn’t have anything to complain about with that coup.
Amir Khalid
@Bob In Portland:
I suspect there’s more of this to come, and it makes a case at least as convincing as what you’re promoting.
Another post on the Guardian liveblog notes infighting between local Ukrainian separatist groups and those who have come in from Russia. I wonder what these signs of potential disunity might mean.
Bob In Portland
@Gin & Tonic: That was irony, Gin. You won’t tell us how you learned Ukrainian and for good reason. Carry on.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@geg6:
I’ll know when I’m going to be there as soon as either Minnesota or Penn State releases their 2015-16 schedule.
Mnemosyne
@Bob In Portland:
How does it feel to support the separatists who killed 300 completely innocent people? Go ahead, blame the victims some more, Bob. They shouldn’t have been in that airspace. It’s all Ukraine’s fault for fighting the Russian-backed separatists. That bitch shouldn’t have worn that short skirt if she didn’t want to be raped.
Iowa Old Lady
@Mike in NC: Yeah, every four years the national press flies into Des Moines in January and does a shocked story about how horrible the weather is.
ranchandsyrup
@Origuy: The “poorest” county in CA. Spent a lot of time at Clearlake. The name does not describe the water. A more accurate name would be Hydrilla Lake.
@Chat Noir: LOL @ frog dog.
Amir Khalid
@Bob In Portland:
From the outset, Obama has been careful not to get ahead of the facts in his public statements about MH17. So what position he is backpedaling from?
Bob In Portland
@Amir Khalid: You mean the recording that was spliced together a day before the airliner came down?
You get lots of propaganda when a false flag happens, so much that you can never nail it down. You will notice how it all disappears in the days and weeks to come, but you’re still left with a personal grudge against bad man Putin and American armed forces will be in place to cut Russia’s gas off from Europe, which is more important to the permanent government than the truth about who shot down that airliner.
Outrage allows you to turn off your critical thinking. Aluminum tubes! Let’s go to Afghanistan to capture Osama! Iran’s got the a-bomb! Assad is a bad man, and he’s no longer our bad man.
Life goes on. At least for some of us.
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: Too bad you don’t do Twitter. You could take a look at what you now own.
You could also pick up on a lot of news. In English. From people who are on the scene and know the scene,
Mary G
Loved Seattle, Tahoe, even Reno. I’ve always wanted to take the railroad across the Canadian Rockies; it is supposed to be beautiful and I dig trains.
Thirding San Diego!
MomSense
@KG:
Add whiskey and I’ll go on tour with you!
geg6
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Well, if you’re flying in, chances are you’re going to fly into Pittsburgh and drive to Happy Valley (only puddle jumpers fly into State College airport, but you may be more adventurous than I). I live 15 minutes from Pittsburgh International, so maybe we can meet for a drink between flights or after you get your rental car.
KG
@MomSense: my drinking policy is that everyone is free to sample the poison of their choice… unless their choice leads them to Zima or Shmirnoff Ice, in which case, an intervention is required.
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: Two good reasons, actually. 1- It doesn’t matter. 2- I enjoy seeing you flail around trying to put me in a slot that’s wildly off-base.
Betty Cracker
@Bob In Portland: I hear Alex Jones has a site where people foam at the mouth about false flags all fucking day. Perhaps you’d find a more receptive audience for the brand of bullshit you’re peddling over there.
Bob In Portland
@Amir Khalid: He repeated that the Russians provided the BUK and the expertise to operate it at the beginning of the weekend. That’s a lot more definitive than creating the conditions.
Also, I hoped you noticed whoever said that it was a Russian-made missile, since both sides in the civil war use Russian weapons. That bit of propaganda was for the really uninformed.
Still, I’ll wait to hear the explanation about those Ukrainian fighters in the air around the plane crash. Please forgive Obama and Biden for their statements on Friday and Saturday.
KG
totally off topic, but this is either enlightening or incredibly dumb.
(insert joke here about Cheney not really being this popular)
raven
@geg6: I used to fly into Pittsburgh and take the “Wheeling Limo” to Oglebay Park. God what crappy roads, the dude had a steel plated welded to the bottom of the cab.
Amir Khalid
@Bob In Portland:
Oh, by the way, you haven’t shared with us yet what you think of the claim that MH17 took off from Schiphol with most of its passengers already dead. I would really love to learn how they did that with a commercial passenger flight where people were tweeting photos of themselves as they boarded.
KG
will. not. feed. the troll.
will. not.
gene108
@KG:
I went to Las Vegas a couple of times, in 1998 and 1999, during the 4th of July weekend.
In 1999, we went to the Grand Canyon for a day.
I’d been to the Grand Canyon, in 1995, but it is one place I can always go back to.
srv
@KG: I would buy a ticket on that bus.
Hey, wait:
http://www.amtrak.com/city-of-new-orleans-train
Do we have an underemployed travel or roadie on BJ?
Origuy
Ukraine rebel leader says, look what you made us do.
To be clear, Khodakovsky is the leader of a group that didn’t have a BUK. So the story has changed from “we didn’t shoot it down” to “yes, but”.
cckids
@Gene108:
Good idea! Since I’m here in Vegas, I tend to forget it as a destination.
Betty, if you do this, I highly rec heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It gets about 25% of the visitors the South Rim gets (which, to my crowd-phobic self, is great), beautiful lodge & campgrounds, nice hikes. Also, you could easily take in Bryce, Zion, and Escalante/Grand Staircase while you’re Utah-ing. (But BYOB, definitely)
Since you live in the land of damp, humid & green, the red rocks & moonscapes here are very cool. There’s a reason so many Europeans vacation out west.
Amir Khalid
@Bob In Portland:
I don’t see how you can call this backpedaling. Saying the Russians created the conditions for what happened isn’t pulling back from the earlier statement in any way.
MomSense
@KG:
I fully endorse your policy!
KG
@srv: yeah, i was looking at that… St Louis is about a 20-30 minute drive from one of the stops too, so it is workable.
Bob In Portland
@Betty Cracker: Aluminum tubes, Betty. True of false? Catching Osama in Afghanistan, true or false? Aiding the Libyan freedom fighters by bombing Khadafy, nothing to do with oil and gas, right? Iran is on the way to getting the bomb, right? Assad gassed his own people, correct? April Glaspie, right? Gulf of Tonkin, right on the mark, right? Bay of Pigs, they told us the truth, didn’t they?
Someone once asked, “How many lies do you allow yourself to believe until you become part of the lie?”
Okay, I’m forming a list here. 7/23/14, cacti and Betty still believe the US propaganda. Check
(By the way, as I’ve said here before, different propaganda is aimed at various audiences. For ex, Alex Jones is available for the right-wing consumers, like LaRouche but without the Queen of England as a heroin trafficker. What’s your propaganda of choice? The post-Judith Miller NY Times? Or maybe WaPo. There is someone out there who will conform to your prejudices.)
Aluminum tubes!!!!
Gin & Tonic
@Bob In Portland: those Ukrainian fighters in the air around the plane crash
You’ve got a link to that information, surely? Because I think if you’re posting something that not even RT or ITAR-TASS are reporting, you may indeed be well off the reservation, and maybe should take Betty’s advice.
Citizen_X
@Betty Cracker: Try Newfoundland. In the late summer & early fall, it’s spectacular, plus has one of the most unique cultures in North America. Might want to warm up your liver aforehand, though. The locals’ll drink you under the table.
Oh, and it’s accent on the last syllable, more rarely the second. Never the first. And don’t call ’em “Newfies;” they don’t like that.
cckids
Whyfore moderation?? Vegas? I didn’t mention our main industry?
FYWP.
Bob In Portland
@Amir Khalid: Wait and watch. If the US had demonstrable proof, for ex, their spy satellites over the area, do you think that Obama would be talking about conditions.
Just wait and watch. Amir, I’ll include you with cacti and Betty as still buying the narrative.
But not Gin, as far as I can throw him.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
I think he’s going with the claim that the US’s was responsible for the protests that threw Yanukovych out of power, which makes everything since then our fault.
Mnemosyne
@Bob In Portland:
Three hundred (300) dead people, Bob. True or false?
The Killing Fields of Cambodia, Bob. True or false?
That’s the trouble with setting your worldview up as US Bad, All Others Good. You find yourself supporting Pol Pot and making excuses for genocide because, well, if the US opposes it, it must be good.
WaterGirl
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Well, that kind of sucks. There seemed to be so much interest that I was sure you would find the right person.
I will check in with my sister – I know she was really interested, but her husband had a heart event a few weeks ago, so maybe it fell off her radar? He’s back at work as of yesterday, so life may be returning to normal.
Mike E
A thread with BiP is like a vacation from reality! Or pizza.
gogol's wife
@Amir Khalid:
That was stolen from an episode of Sherlock, I believe.
Joel Hanes
Open thread ?
The legend returns
MaxSpeak, You Listen!
http://maxspeak.net/
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Since that’s the exact defense that Russia is using, I’m not surprised that Moscow Bob is parroting it. He’s a pretty reliable source of Russian propaganda at this point.
scav
@Amir Khalid: All the best conspiracy theorists think Sherlock episodes are real life. I’m telling you, Kumberbund is everywhere in the intelligence world.
eta and @gogol’s wife: notices too! confirmation!
Amir Khalid
@Bob In Portland:
There used to be a commenter like you, who liked to go on (and on) about how Mitt Romney would win the Presidency in 2012 with his UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH!!!! This commenter could get a bit incoherent from time to time. In the end Mitt did not win, as you might recall, which came as a severe blow to this person. They posted again, but with a halfheartedness that was pitiful to see, and then they were gone.
Are you that person, by any chance?
Gin & Tonic
@Citizen_X: Try Newfoundland. In the late summer & early fall, it’s spectacular
Gotta take a break from the other stuff to second that, although it’s as far from Florida as you can get up the east coast. But Gros Morne is pretty incomparable, IMO.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
It’s perfect because it’s an all-purpose defense that absolves everyone you choose- except for Obama, of course- of any guilt for anything that’s happened. It’s like using predestination to blame God for your sins.
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
Grew up in Ohio, been living in AZ for over 3 decades now, and I’ve been to every state in the union excepting Hawaii, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota.
I agree wholeheartedly with the suggestions for the left coast, particularly California. Among other wonders there I most highly recommend Sequoia & Kings Canyon Nat’l Parks up in the beautiful Sierras (good accommodations there, too). And you could fairly easily work in other great destinations there like a portion of the Pacific Coast Highway (sweet beach towns and excellent B&Bs all along the coast) and/or the Bay Area. Quite different from your home area in the Southeast (which New Orleans really is not).
Every American, if they can get there, should visit Sequoia & Kings Canyon and experience firsthand the largest-ever living things (the sequoia trees) which are also among the longest-living. For me they are the most amazing things I have ever seen. Walking the sequoia groves beats visiting the grandest temples or cathedrals anywhere, hands down. Haven’t been to them all (never will, I’m sure) but of the dozens of National Parks I’ve visited, Sequoia & Kings Canyon are my favorites.
For those suggesting Napa, I would say Sonoma instead. Same vineyards, really, but more homey and down-to-earth and certainly less expensive.
My wife and I did our long-delayed (by like almost 30 years!) “honeymoon” trip a few years ago in early autumn, and we started and ended in San Francisco, driving up the coast through Marin and Sonoma and Mendocino counties up to Humboldt, then back down again through wine country. Beautiful Pacific coast, forested coastal mountains, and Mediterranean-climate inland hillsides covered in vineyards and dotted with interesting and friendly little towns like Healdsburg and Calistoga and little Boonville. And San Francisco, to me, ranks up there with the very best urban places like Paris and Manhattan. New Orleans is ok (been a few times) but I’d much rather spend time in San Francisco and nearby environs.
I have been very fortunate to visit a lot of places on this wonderful planet, including all across the US of A, a number of spots in Canada (British Columbia my favorite), the Amazon in Peru, Bali and Java in Indonesia, Tunisia, and a number of European countries (France my favorite, Ireland the friendliest).
But that 2-week northern California trip my wife and I did together – just the two of us, no children, not visiting family or anyone else we knew, with scenic drives, beach walks, forest hikes, kayaking, canoeing, wine-tasting, soaking in a hot-tub watching the sunset where the Russian River meets the Pacific, California cuisine, art galleries, riding the cable cars to Chinatown and Golden Gate Park, and a hundred other fun things besides – stands out as probably our best vacation of all. Gotta reprise it one of these days.
And a “420” trip to Colorado would be pretty sweet, too. Even after living in AZ so long, I still say the best sunsets I have ever seen were the ones over the Front Range when I lived in Denver in the mid-70s. Got a short trip there coming up next month, in fact, with a concert at Red Rocks worked in (Flume, Chromeo, and Cut Copy). Stoked for that, as it were.
Betty, wherever you go with your hubby, I wish you a most fantastic time. Just do it, sooner than later — life is too damned short.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Not that long ago someone here posted links to BJ threads from years ago, before I was reading here, when Bob in Portland was Bob in Pacifica and posting wild-eyed conspiracy theories about the spread of AIDS, IIRC.
Joel Hanes
@ranchandsyrup:
Tahoe is great. Go see it before it burns down.
With any luck, it’ll burn in a succession of smaller fires over a number of decades.
sick forest
The late nineteenth century photos in the Truckee cafes show that much of the North Shore had already been clearcut for timber and firewood
In Roughing It, Mark Twain relates that his party inadvertently started a forest fire near the present location of Camp Richardson.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
As we pointed out to Bob when he first started down this path, it’s basically the abusive husband’s excuse: I wouldn’t have had to hit you if you hadn’t talked back to me!
If only the Ukrainians had accepted their incredibly corrupt president and his abuses of power instead of throwing him out, none of this would have happened.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
So he’s not that person. Thanks. I don’t recall Bob in Pacifica; is he from before I started commenting here?
Calouste
@Amir Khalid:
Most of its passengers dead, but not all of them?
I know conspiracy theorists don’t use logic or common sense, but even at their standards, they might think for a moment about what happened when the other some of the flyers that were apparently not dead yet noticed the less-than-animated behavior in the seats around them.
raven
Lil Bit comes up every afternoon just before 4 and begins her performance for dog food!
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Here you go.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Awww, how can you resist that face? Feed that puppy! Now!
ranchandsyrup
@Joel Hanes: spent a lot of my youth up in Tahoe and it has a piece of my heart, but the way the forest is managed is garbage. The sick forest will be what causes it to have a larger scale fire.
Did not know that about Twain in Roughing it. Thx for info.
raven
@Betty Cracker: Not till 4!
They needed a study for this!
Entering Gray Area, Study Says Dogs Can Be Green With Envy
Mnemosyne
@Calouste:
Totally random, but there’s this Italian horror movie directed by Mario Bava called Lisa and the Devil that ends with an incredibly spooky scene of the heroine going to the airport and getting on a giant jumbo jet, only to realize that it’s completely empty except for herself, four corpses and, of course, the Devil (Telly Savalas — not kidding!)
LIke most Bava films, it makes zero sense on a plot level, but he was a master of low-budget terrifying dream logic.
cckids
Hi Betty, if you’re still around, I’ve got a comment at #144 in mod hell, not sure why. Rescue if you please! Thanks.
Shakezula
Not to pick a fight with the New Englanders, but the mountains of Maryland, Virginia & West Va. are all gorgeous in the fall. At the beach, the water is as warm as it is going to get in September.
And if you’re in the area, there’s a cute little town called D.C. you might visit. The Fells Point area in Baltimore is also nice.
Amir Khalid
@Calouste:
I think the separatists’ claim, that MH17 took off with dead passengers, wasn’t specific on that point. But the passengers who tweeted photos of the plane and of themselves boarding it were definitely alive, even if they didn’t happen to notice the corpse in the next seat (he said with a straight face).
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: They’re doing a ‘Crime Nior’ showing at the Alex on Saturday. One of the movies they’re showing is ‘Gun Crazy’ which was filmed in Montrose, and was also discussed here a week or so ago.
raven
@Amir Khalid: I picked up an Argentinian soccer version of Romeo and Juliet called “Barras Bravas”
Karen in GA
Late to this, but Iggy’s two years old, and he does that sprawl. We call it frog legs.
Suffern ACE
@Amir Khalid: You’d think that at least one of them would have tweeted “OMG. Don’t eat the fish.”
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: I’ve done plenty of long-haul flying, and there were definitely times I wouldn’t have minded if a seatmate didn’t move around or regale me with conversation.
raven
@Karen in GA: How bout that election? The county commission meetings just got way more interesting.
Karen in GA
@SiubhanDuinne: “Why not consider a holiday in Canada this year?” /Python
Betty Cracker
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot: Amen to that. Been feeling the “life is too short” vibe myself here lately.
@cckids: Rescued! And I concur wholeheartedly on the North Rim suggestion. I’ve been to both (hubby hasn’t see either) and much preferred the North Rim. That lodge is a wonder.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Same here, but I’d mind a lot if they smelled bad.
Mnemosyne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I’ve seen it many times (including sitting on the lawn at the Doctor’s House at Brand Library), but we’re probably going to go see it again. It’s a great movie, and strangely romantic to boot.
Yatsuno
@Amir Khalid: It is because SHUT UP THAT’S WHY!!! Haven’t you been listening?
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: much preferred the North Rim. That lodge is a wonder.
We spent the last two nights of their season there a few years back. It was great.
El Caganer
Gotta be a Pennsylvania pimp again…..two great cities in Philly and Pittsburgh……some cool stuff in between (e.g., the Grand Canyon of the East, the Poconos)……loads of craft brewers in central PA……Brandywine Museum (Wyeth stuff)….200 wineries….lots more, including some really odd historical things (first hotel with electric lighting in Shamokin – I think it’s Shamokin, anyway; final resting place of Joseph Priestley, co-discoverer of oxygen, out in east Bumfuck somewhere – I remember seeing the historical marker)….and birthplace of wingnuts: not just Rick Santorum, but Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are from Pennsylvania! What more could you want?
Suffern ACE
In the end, if it was a false flag operation, it certainly doesn’t seem to have much effect. Let’s see. Australia says that Russia can’t come to the G20. the UK digs up the body of a dead KGB agent. So Russia is shamed.
Now for the big ticket items. The UK says that Russia should be punished by cancelling France’s military ship order. France says Russia should be punished by confiscating real estate in London. The Netherlands says that Russia should be punished by banning the sale of Belgian beer and chocolate. Poland wants everyone to stop importing Russian vodka and offers to make up the shortfall at its own distilleries. While Germany thinks Italy and Greece should cut off their shipments of crud oil.
Yeah. Clearly the west is serious about sanctions. At least our oil companies are pulling out of their Russian projects.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Bob In Portland: Please enlighten us as to you theory of how and why G&T learned Ukrainian. Please explain why it is important.
Amir Khalid
@Suffern ACE:
I love this typo.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Memphis for barbecue and the Blues. Plus, you can go to the National Civil Rights museum and Graceland.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Gehlen, dude, haven’t you been paying attention?
ruemara
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/23/mh17-day-of-mourning-in-netherlands-as-bodies-arrive-live-updates#block-53cfeba5e4b00fcfed2d4480 where’s Bob in Pravda to Cyrillicsplain this?
SatanicPanic
Why do you guys even bother arguing with Bob? I don’t get it
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Oh, c’mon, thatt’s easy. G&T was an OSS agent who worked with the Banderists. I’m pretty sure he took orders directly from Ernst Kaltenbrunner at one point.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
Betty C., consider the Apostle Islands in northern Wisconsin. Absolutely gorgeous and very different from your part of the country.
Cacti
@SatanicPanic:
It’s not so much an argument as it is whacking a pinata and waiting to see what spills out.
cckids
@Betty Cracker: The last time I went to the North Rim, we were camping farther north (a little town called Duck Creek), and drove down for the day. Great hikes, kids did the Junior Ranger program, hiked a little of the Bright Angel & under the Rim trails. What a wonderful place!
Driving back to our camp at nightfall, we saw what seemed like every deer in Utah – we stopped counting at roughly 150 – every half mile or so there’d be another group of them, right by or crossing the road. It started out cool, then got surreal & nerve-racking; a feeling that wasn’t helped when a HUGE owl swooped down & caught a rabbit that dashed across the road right in front of our van. Seven years later & my kids still talk about that night.
raven
@SatanicPanic: Because they get to prove how smart they are.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Stax Museum; it is awesome.
@Gin & Tonic: @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I just want BiP to come out and say it instead of this inept attempt at sly insinuation.
catclub
@Calouste:
Which pilot volunteers for this run? Some might get a little suspicious.
Drones!
SatanicPanic
@Cacti: Maybe it’s just not a subject I think is that fun. I do my share of troll-whacking so I guess I shouldn’t talk.
Amir Khalid
@SatanicPanic:
Well, cats like to chase little red dots. We Balloon Juice commenters like cats, and consider some feline traits worth emulating. Think of Bob in Portland’s conspiracy theories as a little red dot.
ETA: On second thought, Cacti said it better.
JPL
I just read a pretty damning article about plagiarism and Senator Walsh in Montana. ugh, I know the odds would be slim for the democrat to retain the seat but really!
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
It’s just a bunch of aluminum tubes disguised as human corpses. At least, that seems to be his argument.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Amir Khalid: I am a Leo.
gene108
@cckids:
I’m like that with NYC. My brother’s been living there for many years now. He has a wife and kids.
I now go to NYC to do family stuff.
I end up some place, like Central Park, and hear people talking in a foreign language, looking at a map, and pointing about where to go next, it hits me that NYC is a major tourist destination.
SatanicPanic
@raven: I’m as guilty of that as anyone
Glidwrith
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot: If you liked the Sequoia park you should head up to the farthest northwest corner of California and check out the Redwoods. There are far more of those giant trees with a ferny understory that makes for a most awesome cathedral of nature indeed!
And fourth’ed Betty! San Diego all the way for the Safari Park, Stone Brewery (Arrogant Bastard Ale) and winery’s to rival Napa just a little farther north. The world famous San Diego Zoo, the Midway aircraft carrier, Balboa Park with a dozen museums (free Tuesdays!) and we’ve got ComicCon this weekend.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: That sounds about right. I don’t have a dog in the Russia-Ukraine hunt and believe there is plenty of villainy to go around on both sides. But I continue to be amazed at BiP’s failings as an advocate for…whatever the hell perspective he’s trying to promote.
I thought I’d seen worse with a peculiar PUMA site that pivoted to firebaggerism after Obama was elected. The proprietor of the site in question (which shall remain nameless, but it rhymes with TorrenteFire) was so inept an advocate for single-payer that I swear he half-converted outright socialists to a market-based approach. But damn if BiP isn’t even worse.
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Don’t you see? It’s totally obvious! G&T is a mole for the Ukrainian usurper! He’s here to steal all our golfs!
Wait…I may be getting my conspiracies mixed up a bit. It’s so hard to keep up!
No matter.
ALUMINUM TUBES!
libarbarian
Troll Seeking Thread.
I really want to troll this thread and amuse myself but I jut can’t think of anything quality … and I only do quality – no low-brow obnoxiousness for me.
Please help.
Mnemosyne
By the way, interesting history on the Gulf of Tonkin: the first incident was real, though it was probably in response to the US firing first. It’s only the second that was fake.
Another fun fact: Doors singer Jim Morrison’s father was the commander of the local forces
ship involved in the first incident and gave the order to fire.Edited to fix misstatement — I read the Wikipedia article too fast. Morrison was the commander of the local forces, so the ship was under his command, but he was not in charge of the Maddox.
Violet
@Betty Cracker: Betty, did you say what time of year you were planning to take the vacation? That could influence where you go. Personally I wouldn’t go to Seattle in January for a vacation but summer and early fall is great. I wouldn’t go to New Orleans in summer or early fall (hot hurricane season–your trip might get canceled–you know that drill) but winter the spring there is excellent. Off seasons in the national parks can be fun but fighting summer crowds can be a pain. Etc.
JCT
One of my beagles lays out like that – I’ve never had a dog do that before.
My vote is for Sedona, AZ in the Fall, with or without a trip to the Grand Canyon. Great way to shed life’s stresses by surrounding yourself with almost limitless natural beauty for as far as you can see.
Another great trip is SF + Yosemite.
Jawjan
@Phylllis: second Savannah. Phyllis has the season pegged, and there are dozens of excellent restaurants.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@geg6: UNLIMITED CORPORATE TUBES!
geg6
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
LOL, good one. Wish I’d thought of that.
BiP just cracks me up. He reminds me of the faxing credenza guy, BoB and the unlimited corporate cash guy all rolled up in one hilariously crazy package.
SatanicPanic
@libarbarian:
Phantom Menace wasn’t that bad.
Lord of the Rings is racist.
Cats are better than dogs. Or dogs are better than cats.
The Yankees are an admirable organization with a proud history of excellence.
Just throwing those out there.
JPL
@efgoldman: How was the birthday dinner?
catclub
That dog is not skinny.
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne: John Herrick was in command of the Maddox and the Turner Joy.
Trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Wow, Hodor! bin Hodor!
That was some firmware upgrade but the language module remains, sadly, unimproved.
Suffern ACE
@SatanicPanic: “It’s time for liberals to bury the hatchet and ask Nader voters for forgiveness for ever thinking that they had any influence on the outcome of the 2000 election.”
“There’s just no way I could vote in 2014, and I hope none of you are planning to. I’m telling my friends to stay home, and I think you should, too.”
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@geg6: He’s not wacky enough to be Brick Oven Bill. I think there were at least two different BOBs, but in his prime BOB wasn’t so much trolling as he was pure performance art.
BiP doesn’t even write his own stuff; he just rebleats whatever Russia Today cranks out. And none of it is as off the wall as a even a third rate BOB post.
Trollhattan
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
“Series of”?
geg6
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
You’re right. Sorry. BoB was truly a work of art, as was Kokoloko or whatever her name was. Okay then, how about Timmeh?
Mnemosyne
@Cervantes:
Yes, that’s why I corrected myself.
Violet
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): @geg6: I’m most intrigued that our new RT paid commenter seems to be keeping some kind of list of commenters who don’t agree with him. It’s like when you’re in school and they threaten you with something going on your “permanent record”. Ooooh! We’re on the list!
SatanicPanic
@Suffern ACE: I wonder if we could talk Jane Hamsher into being a front-pager?
BobbyThomson
@schrodinger’s cat:
Great hiking with wild blueberries and no poison ivy. And mountains right next to the ocean.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@geg6: I find BiP to be more like Ted & Hellen.
JPL
@geg6: At least they provided us with a few laughs. Bip just doesn’t measure up.
Mandalay
@JPL:
It’s worse than damning. His plagiarism was blatant and obvious, and on a grand scale, and there was no possibility that it was accidental or due to carelessness. Yet “he did not believe he had done anything wrong“.
The fraud has progressed in life at the expense of others who are more deserving. He is a piece of shit and I hope his reputation is destroyed.
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne: Sorry, just mentioning the right name so you have it, that’s all. Or did you already have it from your Wikipedia article?
Also, you asked a question last week about the relative price of water in Detroit. Some article you read (was it in the Atlantic?) said it was twice the national “average” and you wanted to know how that could be. Short answer: it isn’t. I looked at the article as I said I would. To construct that ratio (2:1), the authors used one old number (an old national “average”) and one new number (a current number they got from someone in Detroit). The old number was more than ten years old. You see the problem.
Suffern ACE
I really can’t believe that between Alan Sherman’s “My Son, the Nut” and Weird Al’s latest album, there hasn’t been a number 1 comedy album. 51 years?
Suffern ACE
@SatanicPanic: Good idea. I’ve always liked Jane and I’m not certain why there is this disagreement between her site and this one. There must be a history here that I’m not aware of. But I’m guessing whatever it is, it isn’t important.
(Too trolly? Too obviously trolly? Not trolly enough?)
Betty Cracker
@Violet: That’s still up in the air, but yeah, definitely a consideration.
Amir Khalid
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
So far, Bob in Portland has not tried to peddle fourth-rate portrait art. T&H actually sold John Cole a portrait, which still astonishes me, but despite T&H’s occasional boasts I don’t think he found many other customers here.
gogol's wife
@SatanicPanic:
You’ve left out Snowden and Greenwald.
the Conster
@cckids:
We had a day and night like that in the Bighorn Mts. Moose though, and all kinds of weird and wonderful birds and creatures. Wyoming is an amazing state to meander on a road trip. Basically empty roads for hours on end .
gogol's wife
@Amir Khalid:
You just know if he does it’s going to be shirtless Putin on horseback. Don’t give him any ideas.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Suffern ACE: Way, way too reasonable sounding. That’s not the post of a troll, though it might be a post trying to incite trolls.
Botsplainer
@Mandalay:
Before I talk, I’ll say this: I’m not an academic. I grew up and went to school pre-Internet, and my research material was my own, so I’ll never know the temptation of the entirety of human knowledge to use in order to create a paper.
I never really did give a shit about plagiarism. For me, its a big “meh”, because as a lawyer, we routinely create conclusions, then string a bunch of stupid shit together in order to support those conclusions, and aren’t real neat about delineating how much of our stupid shit comes from “citation A”, or where “citation B” starts.
To me, most research into great concepts would be kind of like that, and isn’t so much about the credit to somebody who came up with something years or decades earlier, but instead, about the new concept created from a synthesis of old concepts.
Botsplainer
One more addition – the dude is my age. Damn, I feel pretty good about myself, looking at him.
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
@Glidwrith:
I have been in the redwoods in various northern CA locations a few times (first back in ’74) including Redwood Nat’l Park near Crescent City. Eerily beautiful, awe-inspiring, and for an atheist like me, more of a “religious” experience than just about anything else I’ve ever encountered.
You are correct about the sheer number of giant trees and the ferny understory making an awesome natural cathedral. Similar in eerie and awesome majesty are the Douglas fir forests, particularly the old-growth along the coast of British Columbia (where I worked for a while as an itinerant – and “undocumented” – young man).
The sequoia groves are a bit different, being more open and parklike, though still seeming like natural cathedrals. For me, the sequoias are most-special-of-all because of their unrivaled size as living things – nothing else comes close to the biggest sequoias, not even the wonderful coastal redwoods.
Just the fact that I’ve been able to see and touch these largest things that have ever lived, things that have been living and growing in some cases for thousands of years, makes me feel both inordinately privileged and as humbled as I can be. “Not worthy” doesn’t begin to convey it.
Been a while now since my last visit. I need to get back.
Suffern ACE
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I’ve tried. I guess I just don’t have it in me. I guess its that fear I have that someday, wordpress is going to take my posts and drop them in the mail to my mother and I’ll be in trouble.
Cervantes
@Botsplainer:
Sure, except in academia, people, especially younger people, depend on others giving them credit for their work. Other people’s citations to their work are part of how they are evaluated and rewarded.
As for Walsh’s problem — I could be wrong about this — it seems to be that, while he did credit his sources in footnotes after quoting them in the body of his text, he “quoted” them without using quotation marks.
RSA
Some of my favorite travel destinations (though most in the distant past): Yeah, New Orleans, but also Seattle; San Francisco (born there); Boulder; Austin; San Antonio; Charleston; Burlington, VT; … Hmm. Most or all of these have been mentioned, so I’ll add Asheville, NC. Great mountains (The Last of the Mohicans was filmed in western NC, standing in for NY), the Blue Ridge Parkway, rivers–the place is surrounded by gorgeous scenery, and it’s a funky little town.
scav
@Botsplainer: He didn’t synthesize, he didn’t digest, he didn’t integrate, he cut and pasted text on a massive scale — generally passage through an active brain leads to novel word order. Moreover, despite the legitimacy of boilerplate and formulaic assemblage of text in other areas, he was operating in an environment under clear rules that he chose personally to disregard. Clearly a man of “honor” to whom mere established norms do not apply.
Mandalay
@Botsplainer:
Apples and oranges. Your job as a lawyer is to represent your client, and I don’t really see where plagiarism enters into the picture. But someone submitting a final paper for their Masters at the US Army War College is not expected to steal the work of others.
For a TL;DR snapshot of the extent of his fraud, see the image at the start of this NYT article. The pink bits are what he directly stole from others without attribution in his Masters paper. The man is a complete fraud.
gene108
@SatanicPanic:
Nah, you’d have to go with TPM was the best Stars Wars movie EVER, to get the troll factor.
It is racist, to humans, at least.
All the heroes are European looking.
All the humans evil humans Sauron has working for him are swarthy types – either brown Arabs or black Africans – while the “good” swarthy folks are the pigmy-esque Wild Men of the Wood, who seem to be technologically inferior to the Rohirrim and only good for leading people through their woods.
Cervantes
@Mandalay:
OK, I see it wasn’t only a matter of footnoting while leaving out quotation marks.
The whole episode is a damn shame.
SatanicPanic
@gene108: What about the concept that Sauron was just a misunderstood Simon Bolivar type for the third world? Any thoughts?
Mandalay
@Cervantes:
Exactly so. Plagiarism in the academic world is not a victimless crime.
The good news is that the fool has recklessly decided to deny everything, and that will surely make things even worse for him.
InternetDragons
Tossing these out as I don’t think I saw them mentioned:
Santa Barbara (California central coast). So beautiful, so relaxing, so much fun.
Sedona (Arizona). Red rock country. Words don’t do it justice, no photos do it justice. Easy day trip from there to the North rim of the Grand Canyon.
Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur. No explanation needed.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@SatanicPanic: I prefer the idea that Lord of the Rings is in the preindustrial era of history and Sauron and the orcs are the union of capitalists and proletariat that overthrows the feudal landowners. The struggle between Sauron and the orcs over the means of production comes at the end of the Fourth Age.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Yes. Stax Museum is great! So is Sun Studio!
Roger Moore
@catclub:
Otto the pilot volunteers.
Roger Moore
@SatanicPanic:
Looking for a job at Slate?
SatanicPanic
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I’m pretty sure that’s what Tolkein was trying to do
@Roger Moore: Why, are they hiring?
tybee
@Spinoza Is My Co-pilot:
this.
many moons ago, we rented a motor home in ontario california and drove through the desert to red rock canyon and then wandered up the sierras to the redwoods and then over to the coast and down the pacific highway. took a week. it was truly wonderful.
Mnemosyne
@InternetDragons:
Second all of those. Even Carmel doesn’t have to be crazy expensive — when we went there for my cousin’s wedding, we stayed at the Sandpiper Inn. In a residential neighborhood, about two blocks (and a loooong staircase) from the beach, and under $175 a night. My husband was in seventh heaven because he was able to take long walks on the beach twice a day between mandatory family time.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Botsplainer:
I have say I completely disagree with that. I am extremely careful to cite everything. I generally don’t string cite, and I tend to omit internal citations (but when I do I note it).
@Mandalay: Plagiarism absolutely enters the picture in the practice of law. If a judge or a law professor or what have you devises a novel solution to a problem or phrases something so aptly that one wants to quote the language rather than just cite to the case as authority, that person deserves to get credit for it. It is how reputations are made.
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
@InternetDragons:
My wife and I spent the week in between the two weekends of the Coachella Music Fest this past April in Santa Barbara instead of going back home to Joe Arpaio County (doing both Coachella weekends was a blast, but probably won’t do that again).
Wonderful place, Santa Barbara. The people who live there seem rightly proud of the place. Three random residents we met on different days at the beach/park/street told us we should move there because of what a great place it is. Seemed pretty liberal politically, from what I could tell (not surprising). And it’s the most dog-friendly place I’ve ever been, even more than Paris!
Sedona itself is more than a bit kitschy and touristy, but Oak Creek Canyon and the red rocks all around are awesome. Some nice places to eat and drink in town, though. Pretty short jaunt up the freeway for me, go as often as I can. The West Fork trail in the state park (along and over the stream) is my favorite day hike in AZ.
Pretty much anywhere on the CA coast from Santa Barbara north is just great.
bumper
@raven: Your comment is in the secret comment section behind the photo. Apologies if someone already found it and mentioned it earlier.
Steeplejack
@Iowa Old Lady:
I may be visiting Iowa City sometime in the next year. A niece is going into a program at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, and I told her I would visit. I feel a little responsible, because she is a big-city/warm-weather girl who had some trepidation about going into the hinterlands, and I talked up the joys of Midwestern college towns. (I went to Mizzou, as did her mother.)
Steeplejack
@KG:
Linky no work. You fix.
Botsplainer
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
In family law, there is no such thing as a misrepresentation of fact or law. It is either an alternate interpretation or an oopsie, take your pick.
Everyone knows this, especially when it is stated earnestly.
rikyrah
if you’re traveling in the fall:
DC is a wonderful city to visit. all you need is good shoes and a guidebook – so much to see.
Vegas is good in the fall. I don’t gamble, and I love Vegas. Why?
1. People watching
2. The shows
3. The buffets and the local restaurants
New England is marvelous during the fall. The foliage is amazing. Beautiful.
Montana- the state – has a big ad campaign that I see all the time on our local buses. Got me wanting to go to Billings.
Roger Moore
@Botsplainer:
The difference is that you’re judged on outcomes in court, not on the originality of your argument. Arguments are a means to an end. In academia, the ideas and arguments are the final product, so copying without attribution is straight theft. You argue that the important point is how old ideas are transformed into new concepts, but how can I judge that if I don’t know where the old ideas leave off and the transformation of them starts? How can I judge that if you don’t say which ideas came from whom?
Suzanne
My cocker spaniel slept like that until the day she died (fortunately, at an advanced age).
For a US vacation, I’d go coast of Maine.
Botsplainer
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
A former partner of mine got a favorable opinion out of SCOTUS in a case, bragged it up for months. Ran into him one day, he brings it up again. I asked him how well it enhanced his business, and he admitted that it hadn’t netted him a single revenue generating piece of litigation, considering the time sunk. He was getting calls, however, from folks who wanted a proper Quixote for their crusade – chewing up time he could have been devoting to the generation of revenue by helping people with real problems.
Most of the time, that reputation thing is worthless.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Botsplainer: That is one of the main reasons that I never want to go near family law.
Loneoak
Sleeping Bear Dunes in northern Michigan, so you can see what a real beach looks like.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Loneoak: You call that northern Michigan?
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
And it’s a favorite of mclaren’s, so there’s that. Maybe you can have a meet-up.
Mandalay
@Botsplainer:
IANAL and did not properly understand your earlier post, but I think I see where you are coming from now.
FWIW, someone who was a student at the Army War College with Sen. Walsh posted this in the NYT comments under his own name (Tom Berg):
Ouch.
Karen C
@Betty Cracker: I’m gonna put in a plug for the CA central coast. I am from your neck of the woods, and have lived out here in CA for awhile. From Big Sur to Marin, which includes all of the bay area, is some of the most glorious coastline, and completely different from Fl.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Seconded on Las Vegas. I used to go out there every year in the ’80s for COMDEX, and now my mother and one brother live there, so I’m out there once or twice a year.
Aside from the gambling, the glitz and the shows, Vegas is great for restaurants of all types. The town is infested with restaurant folk, so even out-of-the-way spots often have great food—in a lot of different cuisines. Even the standard bar food in a lot of off-Strip places is really good. Hell, Lotus of Siam, in an unprepossessing strip mall, is about the best Thai restaurant I have ever eaten in anywhere.
The other thing is that, if you are at all outdoorsy, there are a lot of different “environments” within easy driving distance: high desert, regular desert, Death Valley, but also mountains, quaking aspens, Lake Mead. Lake Tahoe is about three hours away, and the Grand Canyon is about five. (Makes a good overnight trip.)
And the weather is great most of the year. Just don’t plan to go between mid-May and mid-September if you want to be outside longer than it takes to sprint from your air-conditioned car to some other air conditioned place.
Now I’m getting myself psyched. I’m going to be out there for three weeks from late August to mid-September to house- and dog-sit for my wingnut brother while he’s on a trip, and in between cataloguing his arsenal of guns and spending quality time watching Bill O’Reilly with my mom I hope to hit some good restaurants and get out into the desert. And go to the Neon Museum. I keep missing that.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: I went to Vegas ages ago, mostly as a staging area for camping trips at the Grand Canyon and other national parks in the region. It’s great if you’re not a big gambler because the rooms and food are relatively cheap. I was there in July, so it was a bit warm, but like they say, it’s a DRY heat. It damn sure is; I was molting like a goddamn reptile the whole time. Couldn’t wait to get back to my humid swamp, climate-wise. But Vegas is fun in the right frame of mind.
joel hanes
@Suffern ACE:
between Alan Sherman’s “My Son, the Nut” and Weird Al’s latest album, there hasn’t been a number 1 comedy album. 51 years?
Cosby had a chance with “Wonderfulness” and “To Russell My Brother Whom I Slept With”.
Firesign Theatre was too complex and full of in-jokes for mass appeal.
Monty Python worked in video, not audio.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
Har har. If nothing else, I have a feeling that Mr. Mnemo would not be on board with that.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Afraid he’ll be gunned down in the crossfire?
ETA: I said meet-up, not hook-up!
brantl
Our dog, Speckles (Lab-Dalmation mix) does that same pose, except the legs are straight back.