Here’s the patient, sans Cone of Shame:
It looks kinda like her hindquarter was shaved in this badly exposed photo, but that’s just sunlight from the window. If you look above her, well, knee, I guess, you can see part of a shaved square. Her position spares you the sight of her incision, which is good because it’s gross.
The best part of this bad photo is the amorphous white thing below her hind foot; that’s the tip of her tail moving so fast it registers as a blur. Wag = Good.
The New Yorker published a piece today entitled “Why You Hate Google’s New Logo,” and it speaks for me. An excerpt:
The new logo retains the rainbow of colors but sheds the grownup curlicues: it now evokes children’s refrigerator magnets, McDonald’s French fries, Comic Sans. Google took something we trusted and filed off its dignity.
So true. Google is my homepage (and my work calendar, etc.), and I wince every time I open the browser. I opened the Google app on my phone earlier, and for a brief second, the reassuring old logo appeared, and I thought it had all been a bad dream. But then the app auto-updated and presented the clown college version. Why, Google? Why?
Anyway, long weekend. Got any plans? We’re keeping an eye on the dog, mostly, and football tomorrow, of course. I have a family cookout to attend on Monday and must find a way to adapt my baked beans recipe for vegetarians. Any suggestions gratefully appreciated.
Open thread!
Virginia (fka Abo Gato)
What a pretty girl! Our dogs just love to hear us say that to them.
Elizabelle
Patsy Marie. Hello girl.
RE the Google logo: when I first saw it, I thought it was a tribute to teachers and kids returning to school. It evokes primary school.
The previous logo had class. Why mess with it?
schrodinger's cat
Google’s new logo is an abomination. Patsy Marie looks like a poor thing, so sad and pathetic. Hope she feels as good as her tail does, soon.
Brachiator
google’s new logo is kinda crap. But then again, so is the name of the new corporate parent, Alphabet. Alphabet. Really?
Meanwhile, geek nation is going nutz over the new Star Wars toys.
http://toyland.gizmodo.com/sphero-bb-8-review-this-is-the-coolest-star-wars-toy-e-1727067215
I am tempted, but $150 is kinda steep. But if anyone wants to get me an early Xmas present…
TXkid
Selling the ole homestead and post inspection, the buyer just wants the house and carpets “professionally cleaned”. Best way to start the weekend! May the rest of the Balloon juicers’ endeavors be as fruitful!
RSA
I don’t know how long it would have taken me to notice if someone hadn’t pointed it out.
You know what, though? A lot of people (present company excluded, of course) hate things mostly because they’re new, or at least newly brought to their attention. And then they think, “Yeah, I guess it’s okay.” And sometimes they even grow to like it.
schrodinger's cat
@Brachiator: Alphabet fits in with their decision to go kindergarten on us with their logo.
schrodinger's cat
@RSA: I noticed it right away and did not like it. Husband kitteh had the same reaction as you, when I pointed it out to him.
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
I think the point is that it’s supposed to load and look better on small mobile devices.
MazeDancer
Pretty puppy! May she heal soon.
And I feel your pain about the serif-assassinating new Google logo. Taking an iconic, universally recognizable look and trimming it into yet another Helvetica-y generic makes zero sense. Especially when one imagines the giant fee they paid, the endless meetings that must have been endured – not to mention cost of re-tooling the whole empire.
Especially big bucks – or threat of low SEO rankings – must have gone out in hush money to the non-New Yorker press. Because few mocking pans were to be found. There were even all kinds of “looks good” articles. (No, it doesn’t.) The New Yorker is right on. I said “kindergarten” a lot.
Twitter had some R U Kidding Me’s. But every other bad logo decision ever made – looking at you hospital sign Hillary – had onslaught of ridicule with every creative director, artist, type fiend, marketing consultant, graphic designer and their friends going on at length about the horror. And while those of us in that camp were still unleashing our 140’s, bizarrely, it was not omni-present or universal.
There was, painfully, much more whining about how people don’t think typography (without using that word, of course) or design matters. And how they don’t like people acting like it does.
TaMara (BHF)
That’s a great picture of Patsy, glad she’s on the road to recovery.
Thought I was the only one who hated the new Google logo.
WaterGirl
But the expression on her face still says:
Day 2. Still mad.
Glad to know her tail is wagging, again, though! Is Patsy Marie a grudge holder?
gbear
Google also decided to hide the ‘delete browsing history’ command in Google Chrome. I found it, but it’s under the ‘more tools’ tab rather than an option under the ‘history’ tab.
Agree that the new logo is dumb. Weren’t they going to change it to just ‘G’? Is that still coming?
schrodinger's cat
Is there an alternative to Google? Any new search engine that’s better? They are morphing into what Microsoft had become in the late 90s early aughts. A monopoly resting on its past laurels.
Gene108
Driving through VA to NC. I have a new slogan for the state:
Come for the beaches, the history and the mountains Stay because of the traffic jams!!!
Iowa Old Lady
Glad to see Patsy Marie is doing well.
We’re heading to Chicagoland to visit our son and DIL. Always a pleasure.
MattF
The new Google logo lacks that elusive something-or-other we call ‘taste’. Or call it ‘sparkle’, ‘intelligence’, ‘personality’… whatever.
The question is, how did they get it right the first time? The fact that some corporate image consultant came along and decided it needed to be fixed is no surprise.
WaterGirl
I hate the new google logo, too. Last time I was this pissed about their logo was when they came out with the announcement that they were changing their logo to K a n s a s.
Turns out that was an april fool’s joke. Maybe this can be like Dallas and they can pretend this new logo was just a dream sequence..
gogol's wife
Hi, Patsy Marie. I’m sure you’ll feel better soon. Being home is half the battle.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
So G has been working with a career consultant who kindly agreed to take a gander at my resume, too, since I haven’t been getting any nibbles lately. One of his first comments was, “When I first saw this, I was worrried that G was robbing the cradle!” because my resume is deliberately constructed to make me appear younger than I am. Because the entertainment industry sucks that way.
J.
Hope Patsy Marie feels better soon — and doesn’t cause you a world of grief.
Re the Google logo, I hear you. I also wonder how many tens of thousands Google paid some company for the redesign — basically a font change. SIGH. (I once worked for a marketing guy who would be hired by ailing companies to turn them around. His big fix? He’d change the font of their logo. Didn’t do squat. But he made out like a bandit.)
trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
In the future, Google will be the sans sheriff.
slag
I have no problem with the new logo aside from maybe the font thickness. A lighter line would be my preference, but I can imagine all kinds of reasons they would prefer heavier.
Nice wag, dog!
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Also, too, we may take a ride on the Ventura to Ojai bike path this weekend since it’s not supposed to be too hot. It’s always fun (except for that time I got heat exhaustion) and we get to treat ourselves to fancy bar food at Anacapa Brewing Company since we exercised good. (If we make it the whole way, it’s about a 30-mile roundtrip, but I rarely make it the whole way. Luckily, the return trip is all downhill.)
Roger Moore
I am going to try to make Modernist Cheeseburgers. These are just like regular cheeseburgers, except that they’re prepared using modernist cuisine methods, e.g. cooking patties sous vide. I’m going to see how they compare to the Big Mec from Petit Trois.
schrodinger's cat
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): How do you make yourself appear younger in your resume, I am curious.
Gex
Here’s the nitty gritty of it, probably. How Could Google’s New Logo be Only 305 Bytes While Its Old Logo is 14-000 Bytes
They must serve that up a lot in a day.
schrodinger's cat
@trollhattan: Its not just the logo. Their search results have become crappy too. I had a specific programming query and the first five results were quite useless.
trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
Vertical stripes. Wait, that’s thinner. Uh, tattoos and those earlobe plug thingies.
JPL
Poor Patsy Marie. I do hope she is getting special treats.
When google changed their logo, I did a little research, and discovered that they do this often. Just wait a year or two and it will be gone.
Brachiator
@schrodinger’s cat:
Many alternatives. Don’t know if they’re better. Bing. Duck Duck go. Yahoo, even.
I disagree with you here. They are still doing some very interesting things. And they are being strongly challenged by Facebook and others. Facebook, for example, has surprised many “experts” by being strong on mobile devices, and the way they close off their app to other companies presents significant challenges to google.
It’s funny. Google has only been around for 17 years. The period of supremacy of tech companies has shortened tremendously in recent time. Even Microsoft, which used to be everyone’s favorite Big Tech whipping boy (or person) has had to re-invent itself after some disastrous moves (and they still cannot penetrate the smart phone market).
But I remember when my bosses were sagely pointing out to me why Big Blue (IBM) would be dominant forever in computers, and why PCs would never be more than minor league niche devices.
Tom
@schrodinger’s cat: DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com) is pretty good.
Their main feature is that they don’t track you. Apart from that, the interface is pretty well-organized and easy to use.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@schrodinger’s cat:
Basically, I only go back to 2005 with my job experience. That’s also a ploy to keep it to a single page, though everyone keeps telling me that’s bunk.
G worked at the same company for 21 years before he was laid off, so there’s no way he can fake being a young’un.
jl
thanks for mighty dog pet pic. Dog has a ‘why are you people messing with me, I’ve been good’ look.
MattF
@schrodinger’s cat: I tried Duckduckgo for a while for just that reason. Unfortunately, it turned out that I often needed the dates of search results, and Google generally gives that– so I went back.
JPL
@Brachiator: I recently read that incoming college freshmen, have known nothing but search engines. The article did say google, though. I mentioned that to my thirty something sons, and they said thanks mom for making us feel old.
Tom
@Gex: It does make a difference. Especially when you’re using your mobile device on a cellular data connection.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
I got a sous vide gizmo I’m still learning. When it works, it WORKS. Have yet to do a day-long thing; waiting for cooler weather.
trollhattan
@JPL:
Their “Google” is our “Kleenex.” Utterly genericized.
JPL
@trollhattan: My son brought his over and it makes perfect steaks. He loves short ribs, using the sous vide and that takes some time.
Mary G
I hate the new home page and logo both. Simplified too far and look generic and McDonald’s-ish to me.
Gin & Tonic
must find a way to adapt my baked beans recipe for vegetarians. Any suggestions gratefully appreciated.
Lie.
J R in WV
I used Google as my home page for a long time, but now my default search engine is DuckDuck Go… there are some differences where Google might be a better choice, but mostly I like what DuckDuckGo serves up for me.
Google is too big now to hold to the “Don’t Be Evil” credo… there are so many people running huge multi-million $$ projects that several of them could be totally major evil under the covers, and no one could possibly know that wasn’t on the project team at a high level of secure access to the deliverables.
ETA: I also too hate the logo, although the tiny hand rising up from behind the page to erase the old logo was clever and cute. But the replacement logo was like finding Mike Vick on your roster one morning. Yuck!
WaterGirl
I have the cold from hell, so my plans for the weekend are sneezing, blowing my nose, coughing and catching up on shows on Tivo.
Today I’m watching season 3 of The Newsroom. (I’m really liking season 3.) Yesterday I watched the Jesse Stone movies.
I love working from home. How do people go to work when they have a bad cold like this? I used to get so cranky when my secretary would come in like that and share her germs with the whole office.
Baud
If you hate the new Google logo, wait till you see the new site design for BJ.
mai naem mobile
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I may be wrong.but I think you mentioned that G was an IV nurse. If thats what he is, has he tried the VA? I have a friend who works for the VA in Phx and says they’re desperate for nurses in Phx and she mentioned San Diego because she’s trying to convince her East coast RN sister to move to SD.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
Teller at my bank was asking about how much longer I’m going to keep working and I had to tell her that I already had in 54 yrs that I have drawn a paycheck or at least worked for myself in a legit business. I ain’t planning to make it 60yrs.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Gene108:
Dude, WTF. It is Labor Day weekend. You want open roads, try Montana.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Don’t even say that as a joke!!!
Riggsveda
Sorry if anyone else suggested this first, but Liquid Smoke added to the beans does a good job giving that smoky flavor without the bacon, etc.
mikefromArlington
When I saw the topic I seriously thought it was gonna be a story about he county clerk wouldn’t issue the marriage license in Kentucky
WaterGirl
@JPL: Are they sure that cooking food in plastic is safe? I won’t bake in silicone – it just creeps me out.
bystander
Patsy Marie is her own watercolor painting! Love the pic.
Lee Rudolph
I really don’t think you can successfully substitute a vegetarian for the salt pork (or pork hock, or whatever the heck you use). Vegetarians tend towards leanness.
Brachiator
@Baud:
Oh noes! And you may be right. Oh, well.
mai naem mobile
@schrodinger’s cat: I’ve noticed their results are crappier too. It seems like there’s more sponsored kind of stuff in the first few results. It may not even be google,just people getting better at SEO stuff. On Twitter,if you click on a trending gashtag,you inevitably get tweets that are not related to the hashtag,just there for clicks.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Will it have rainbow colors?
BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: I went with a new tat and an industrial. Don’t think it worked.
JPL
@WaterGirl: It doesn’t cook at a high temp, so it might be. My son is an anti-chemical freak and he uses it.
mai naem mobile
I saw a clip of HRCs interview with Andrea Mitchell. I know this sounds sexist, but damn,HRC has had a lot of facework done and it’s good. This is what bigger screen hi def teevee does to you.
Schlemazel
BETTY: the look in Patsy Marie’s eye clearly says “Mommy, why did you let those mean people hurt me?”
you know it’s true.
Maeve
Vegan (or vegetarian ) baked beans:
– liquid smoke – yes , its a thing
– carmalized onions (carmalize in apple juice in a non-stick pan means cooking it down, adding juice gradually and letting it cook down repeatedly)
– other unami flavors – e.g., soy sauce instead of salt
lurker dean
awwww. patsy marie’s sad eyes remind me of the sad eyes my cat gives me when i say “bad girl” to her. they say scolding cats doesn’t work but i’m not so sure, the sad face sure makes it look like something is sinking in.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Oh, I’m avoiding the last minute rush and hating the hell out of it now. I think I’ll send an email to Cole telling him how much I hate it – I hear he loves getting emails like that from the rabble.
Mandalay
@schrodinger’s cat:
Useless for you perhaps, but probably useful for their revenue.
shell
Aww, Patsy girl. Wag is good.
******
On the news it said Kim Davis was declaring from jail that any marriage licenses issued that havent been authorized by her, are not valid.
God, what an awful person she is.
Brachiator
Speaking of google (in more ways than one), anyone play with the new google docs voice features?
You Can Now Type With Your Voice in Google Docs
http://gizmodo.com/you-can-now-type-with-your-voice-in-google-docs-1728339420
The update is not available to me yet.
Schlemazel
@Maeve:
Betty, these are all good ideas
also too
Liquid smoke to replace smoked pork. If you have a hippy style co-op see if then have veggie bacon or pork. By itself it sucks but in the beans maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. We do the vegan thing occasionally and some of it is not horrible if it is in something tasty Taste the stuff & if it does not taste like plastic/cardboard you are good to go. Mostly you want the texture the flavors tend toward chenical
Iowa Old Lady
@shell: I suspect Davis will find that she does not rule the world.
Schlemazel
@shell:
Yet a whole new law I have never heard of. It would be interesting to see enforced since there is no place on the document I am aware of that indicate who the hell issued it. I give the cow full marks for playing her part to the hilt though.
shell
@Iowa Old Lady: I suspect shes getting God and her own ego mixed up.
Mike in NC
@Gene108: I-95 must look like a parking lot on a day like today.
Calouste
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I would say one page is a bit too short, unless you’re just out of college. More than two pages is too much though, that gives the impression that you can’t summarize and cut to the heart of the matter. Give the person who is most likely going to be your boss the information they need to make a decision, but nothing that is not relevant.
Gin & Tonic
From Reuters:
So that leaves Israel all alone, no?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@mai naem mobile:
No, it’s my friend’s husband who’s a cardiac ICU nurse. I don’t know if he’s planning to make a move, but I’ll let him know. There’s a major VA hospital close to his current workplace.
G was a warehouse manager for a home infusion pharmacy, but he’s getting out of that business and going back to school for a master’s degree in library science.
Steeplejack
That blurry tail wag, given recent events, is also the sign for “Why are you pointing that thing at me? What are you gonna do?! I’m a good dog!”
Patricia Kayden
The photo of Patsy looks like an oil painting. She’s a cutie and I’m glad that she’s okay (although not looking to happy).
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
What I did that works really well was to buy a plastic ice chest- one of the ones with hollow plastic sides, not styrofoam- and cut a hole in the lid for the immersion circulator. The insulation is good enough that it doesn’t heat the house up much even when I leave it on for days at a time. Of course it helps that the multi-day cooking is usually done only with relatively low (e.g. 60°C) temperatures, so there’s less heat leakage in the first place. I did it more for to reduce electricity usage than anything, but reducing waste heat in the rest of the house is a big bonus.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic:
I guess there’s UAE, but pretty much.
Calouste
@shell:
Q: What’s the difference between God and
Bonoa brain surgeona county clerk?A: God doesn’t think he is
Bonoa brain surgeona county clerk.Brachiator
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
I think 2 pages is acceptable, especially if the resume is strong on accomplishments and relevant work history.
But interviewers can be arbitrary and inconsistent, so in the end I don’t think there is a single best strategy.
Betty Cracker
@mikefromArlington: “Friday Afternoon Open Thread”?
@Schlemazel: That’s what kills me.
@Maeve: Sounds intriguing! Thanks! I usually caramelize onions in equal parts butter and olive oil (and still could since these folks eat dairy), but apple juice is an interesting alternative.
benw
@Gin & Tonic:
Ha! But, seriously, don’t do that to the poor vegetarians! If they haven’t eaten any meat in a long time, eating some could make them pretty sick.
Betty, the first, obvious step is just to leave out the meat, but I expect your beans get a lot of flavor from it. So a second step is to find a vegetarian meat substitute. A lot of supermarkets are starting to carry an interesting mix of fake meats. Don’t use the frozen veggie patties or sausages, those can be tasty, but they’re not good for adding flavor as a cooking ingredient: you need to find the fake meat stored in the refrigerators, like they store actual meat. We use a lot of the different faux sausages that Whole Foods carries in things like stuffing and soups and they’re delicious.
If you can’t find a good meat substitute, the third step is to make a vegetarian option, either alongside (yay, twice the work!) or instead of your murder-beans. I generally recommend http://www.vegetariantimes.com for a lot of good, interesting veggie recipes. If you get a regular cookbook that has a “vegetarian” section, a lot of those tend to be pretty bland. Here is link to their easy baked beans. I’ve never made that one, and honestly, that recipe doesn’t really excite me, but maybe you can hunt around a little on the internet.
Good luck with your beans free of the products of murder!
EDIT: @Lee Rudolph: hey, I resemble that remark!
Roger Moore
@WaterGirl:
Reasonably sure. The good food-grade sous vide bags are made with a lining of LDPE, which is incredibly inert and doesn’t require plasticizers. For some kinds of sous vide cooking- not meat, for the most part, though- you can use glass containers like mason jars.
Shana
Everyone else has already given you the suggestions I would have done except for one, add some BBQ sauce.
My weekend: Younger daughter’s boyfriend, who came back with her from Chicago and is temporarily living in our basement, has his parents coming tomorrow to bring all the stuff that wouldn’t fit in their cars. It will live in our new storage room for the time being. We’re taking everyone to our favorite local italian place for dinner, then they head back to Chicago Sunday. We’re hoping some friends can come for dinner either Sunday or Monday. I just got some great steaks at one of the kosher groceries in MD the other day.
Older daughter’s started her last year of law school already, but it’s kind of weird not having anyone in the house going back to school on Tuesday.
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
ITYM Likud.
NonyNony
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): @Brachiator:
I think in a normal industry where being young is an asset but so is experience, going to two pages is never a problem so long as the experience is real and it doesn’t look like you’re trying to fluff your resume up.
But I think in an industry that considers 30 to be “old” like the entertainment industry, I can see why trying to keep it to a single page might be attractive.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
I would say that anything longer than 2 pages is getting questionable. The point of a resume isn’t to document your whole career exhaustively; it’s to provide a capsule summary of what makes you a good potential employee. If you have enough skills and accomplishments to fill more than two pages, you should already be paring them down to present just the most important, relevant, and/or impressive ones.
Betty Cracker
@benw: Is “tempeh” a reasonable alternative to bacon or sausage? I have no idea what it is, but it’s one of the more palatable looking not-meats available locally.
schrodinger's cat
Make your usual baked beans for the meat eaters and make chole (spicy Punjabi style chickpeas) for the vegetarians.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore: Good idea, plus the lid will help keep the water from evaporating off. Once fall hits I want to adapt some braising recipes, because my appetite shifts to those kinds of dishes when the weather turns.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
I would say my daughter had a tempeh tantrum when we served it to her, but that never happened. She actually likes fried tofu, so she might possibly approve. I’ve had it “burger” style and it was…okay. A bit of a blank canvas that really demands good flavoring and prep to taste better than canvas.
Steeplejack
I’ve got no major plans for the holiday weekend. Tonight I’m going to a birthday party for my brother-in-law at a gay bar where Friday night is “Bear Happy Hour.” Should be interesting. Looking forward to seeing all the guys in their bear costumes. Wait, what?
Bro’ man and the BIL rented a house in Rehoboth Beach from tomorrow until next Friday and invited me down for a few days, but I’m not sure I’ll go. Haven’t been able to get hold of the woman who usually looks in on the housecat when I’m away, and I’m feeling a bit sluggish and stay-at-home-ish anyway.
So that leaves me with the First World problem (nerd division) of programming the new “universal” remote I got yesterday. I have been perfectly happy with the Universal WR7 I got five or six years ago for about $20, but it is dying (balky and unresponsive buttons) and is no longer available. (I would happily have bought another one.) I did a lot of research and was about to pull the trigger (reluctantly) on a Logitech Harmony 650 for about $70—it seemed like overkill—when I stumbled on the one I did get, the Inteset 422, for $25.
It was relatively easy to sync to my TV and cable box for the basic functions, but I need to manually program it to add some other functions (e.g., PIP) and to remap some of the keys to be more convenient. Not really a big deal, just a lot of nitpicky tweaking and trial and error. Already loving the fact that I’ve got mute and volume control back.
Finally, the weekend is off to a good start because I got a great haircut yesterday from my regular guy, Khalid, who finally returned from vacation/sleeper-cell recertification in Morocco. Back in June I got a career-worst haircut from another guy at the shop—think Jethro Gibbs in NCIS (the haircut, not the barber)—and it took a long time to grow out enough to look not awful. So I was overdue for a haircut and feeling emotionally fragile. Khalid did a great job, and I feel like a new man. A good start to the autumn season!
Mandalay
Bad enough that in our Bizarro world President Obama is Hitler. But now Kim Davis is Martin Luther King…
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
Jethro is cute!
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
No.
redshirt
Great picture Betty C!
I know you have artistic talent, so I request that you draw that picture. Please?
shell
@Steeplejack: Having to find a new stylist can be as stressful as finding a new doctor.
Baud
@Mandalay:
Which position in the government did MLK hold again?
trollhattan
@Mandalay:
Well then, I hope her very next MLK-ish act is to lead a march of fellow True Believers across a river using a major interstate freeway bridge on a Monday at 7:15 a.m.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
I’ve heard about people using ping-pong balls floating on top to keep down evaporation and heat loss. I never really tried an open top sous vide cooker; I started out with a Sous Vide Supreme water oven (which comes with a lid) and then moved on to the cooler set-up I’m using now.
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t think so. I actually like tempeh, especially the fresh tempeh you can get if there’s an Indonesian or Malaysian grocery nearby, but I don’t think it would work as a substitute. I think the meat is there as much to add some smoke and umami taste as anything. I really like the suggestion of using liquid smoke and possibly some soy sauce instead.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
I agree here. But sometimes with older workers with lots of experience, a one pager might be too jam packed. Yeah, an elegant, concise one pager is good, but a good two pager will be OK with most interviewers. And in the real world, interviewers with a bias against older workers may view a 2 pager negatively. But a good reviewer will want to ask about and will consider all past relevant work experience. It’s still a tough job market.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: Cooking with meat substitutes and expecting them to taste like meat is an exercise in futility best not attempted. Make a hearty vegetarian dish instead. I have one example in my comment above. I can give you other suggestions if you want.
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
Heh, that’s just not my look. I can’t pull it off. And wouldn’t want to!
Roger Moore
@Mandalay:
Free hint to all wingnuts*: do not compare yourself to Churchill, MLK, Reagan, Gandhi, Jesus, or whatever other historical personage you think you’re emulating. Just talk about what you’re doing and why it’s important. If you’re right, other people will make the comparisons for you. If you’re wrong, comparing yourself to those people will make you look like a puffed-up, self-important idiot.
*I guess plenty of non-wingnuts could benefit from this message, too.
redshirt
I’ve been a vegetarian for 20 years and still can’t get tofu to taste anything like blah. No matter the spices or marinade. I can’t figure it out.
gogol's wife
@schrodinger’s cat:
I agree. It’s kind of the “Moosewood Cookbook” principle, to use an old-fashioned reference. I liked the suggestion for caramelized onions.
rikyrah
Political Animal Blog
September 04, 2015 2:29 PM
A Counterrevolutionary Supreme Court Litmus Test in the Making
By Ed Kilgore
I really do appreciate the efforts of Constitutional Conservative legal beagles Randy Barnett of Georgetown and Josh Blackman of South Texas College of Law in laying out in some detail—and not in a legal journal but in the Weekly Standard—rules for examining future Republican Supreme Court appointments. It’s not just a litmus test in the making—which presidential candidates in both parties typically say they do not want to administer—but a rationale for a litmus test. And their piece has the advantage of being very clear on the key points.
To Barnett and Blackman, who first discuss the notorious history of Republican SCOTUS appointments they view as betrayals, the big thing is that prospective Justices have a clearly documented willingness to ignore both other branches of government—the principle behind the receding Republican doctrine of “judicial restraint”—and stare decisis—the principle against overturning well-settled Court precedent—in pursuit of the “original” meaning of the Constitution. That means treating SCOTUS as an all-powerful institution communing with eighteenth century Founders—or worse yet, Con Con mythologies about those Founders—and empowered to kill many decades of decisions by all three branches of government, precedent and democracy be damned. No wonder they talk repeatedly about needing Justices—and presidents—with courage! And the dividing line between good and bad “conservative” Justices could not be made much clearer: Alito goooood! Roberts baaaaaad! Barnett and Blackman even suggest their rules should be made clear to and then demanded by presidential primary voters!
If that actually starts happening, it will be as or even more important to watch as any other discussions of any other issues. As Brian Beutler recently noted in an important piece at TNR, Barnett and Blackman are among other things leading advocates for a return to the Lochner era of jurisprudence, whereby most regulations of private economic activity by the executive or legislative branches would be declared unconstitutional as an abridgement of “natural law” concepts in the original Constitution and an exotic understanding of the due process clauses in the 5th and 14th amendments. These are dangerous people to let anywhere near a Supreme Court nomination. But they and many others like them, who now play a dominant role in the very powerful conservative legal fraternity the Federalist Society, are likely to be right there with their litmus test in hand.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_09/a_counterrevolutionary_supreme057449.php
Steeplejack
@shell:
I consider my “hairdressing” needs simple, bordering on minimalist—short but not military short. But I had a hell of a time before I found Khalid. There was the succession of Vietnamese women who tried to cut my hair like that sergeant they remembered fondly from Saigon back in ’74, and then there were the stylists who would give me a good haircut or two and then disappear, with no information on how to track (and follow) them. Can’t remember how I ended up at Khalid’s place—Willy’s in Ballston (Arlington, VA)—but this guy gets me! I have gotten occasional haircuts from other barbers there when Khalid was not in, with mixed (but not awful) results, but the last guy’s job was criminally bad.
WaterGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: @Betty Cracker: I second this – make your regular beans that everyone no doubt loves, then make a good alternative. Otherwise, you may please the vegetarians but others may be unhappy.
redshirt
@Steeplejack: Heh. I haven’t gone to a barber/hair stylist for 20 years as well. Coincidence?
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
I guess I’m used to thinking about academic CVs, where you have to include a list of publications in addition to the educational and work histories and list of skills. There, it’s a very good idea to trim your publication list to show only your best work. When I see somebody filling up several pages with fluff- lower author publications and stuff from weak journals and conferences- it makes it look as if they’re trying to use quantity to overcome lack of quality. I would probably be a lot more impressed if they trimmed the list to one page of their best work.
Elizabelle
Patsy Marie is a darling Boxer and one of the most beguiling dogs I’ve seen.
Betty: maybe make her her own little wine sculpture tonight? Not to eat or anything, just in her honor …
benw
@Betty Cracker: yes! It’s consistency is more meat-like than extra firm tofu, and it absorbs flavor better than tofu. A lot of veggie restaurants use tempeh to substitute for taco or burger meat. Of course, in either case you need the flavoring: but if your choice is between tofu bacon and tempeh bacon, I’d go for the tempeh.
The brand of non-death meat I’ve had the most success with is Quorn, which Publix sometimes carries (I swear they aren’t paying me). It’s a fungi-based mycoprotein (seriously, is your mouth watering yet?) but the frozen “chicken” breasts are amazingly moist and tasty roasted with veggies, and the “chik” nuggets are so good. So keep an eye out for fake pork or bacon from Quorn.
shell
Nothing that a little bacon therapy cant cure.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@NonyNony:
It’s a fine line I’m trying to walk since I’m trying to sell myself as an experienced assistant who won’t need to be trained in the basics but who wants to move out of the assistant role. I can pass for being in my mid-30s fairly easily (though I suppose Roger, Bill and Ruckus can disabuse me of that if necessary ;-), but the whole 2-page resume thing makes me nervous since it goes against everything I’ve been told pretty much my entire working life.
Steeplejack
@redshirt:
Twenty years? Wha—?
shell
Jeez, every single video on YouTube has the same damn Netflix ad.
Schlemazel
@Betty Cracker:
BAH! Dogs memory only lasts about an hout, she’ll forgive you the first time you feed her a can of food.
I was only yanking your chain.
Steeplejack
Dang, I gotta get movin’. I thought the bear happy hour birthday party was someplace in Arlington, but it’s at Town Danceboutique downtown. Son of a—!
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
And PsyFighter37 and a few other people who have been to the Southern California meet-ups. I would agree, though, that you could pass for mid-30s.
benw
@Cervantes: Step back and leave this to the experts.
@Roger Moore:
Yeah, like I said, you’ve got to use the flavored tempeh, like bacon or pork. But I think the tempeh will absorb the flavors from the beans, onions, and sauces, better than tofu.
@schrodinger’s cat:
It can be done, with a good fake meat, but if you are using plain tofu or frozen faux sausages, it won’t taste right. If Betty doesn’t have time to try her recipe with a good fake meat option, it might be best to go full-non-murder. like you say.
@redshirt:
Plain tofu is hard to make super flavorful. Have you tried the flavored baked tofu? You can find Italian or Teriyaki style baked tofu that are much, much better in salads or stir-frys than plain extra firm.
Another tip that I’ve found out the hard way after many years of eating bland tofu curries and stir-frys, is that if the recipe calls for a couple tbsp of curry or red-pepper paste, you’ve got to just put in the whole jar.
MomSense
Holy crap we had such good news on the college financial aid front today. I’m in shock.
Happy to see Patsy Marie and hope she is feeling much better.
sukabi
So do an image search for Google logo, and you can see that they’d have been better off going with a variant of the original (if they felt that updating was necessary, which it wasn’t) rather than going with the clunky, lacking personality, uninspired fail that they went with.
redshirt
@benw: Quorn is fantastic. I love all their products. They make a cubed chicken substitute which is just fantastic in stir fries.
I recommend this product for everyone.
redshirt
@Roger Moore: Psyfighter37 has been missing for awhile, has he not? Hope he’s OK.
Iowa Old Lady
@MomSense: Yay for good financial aid news! It too often goes the other way.
Steeplejack
One last reminder: The Bank Dick on TCM at 8:00 p.m. EDT, followed by It’s a Gift at 9:30 and You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man at 11:00. Good W.C. Fields stuff.
Germy Shoemangler
@Steeplejack: My three favorites.
MomSense
@Iowa Old Lady:
I was so nervous. My son thought he was a total failure and he wouldn’t be able to go back to school. He only has to take 1,600 in loans and the rest is scholarships and grants. I’m honestly in shock.
Germy Shoemangler
Google’s latest redesign shrank its logo from 2,145 bytes to only 305.
Bit conservation.
redshirt
@MomSense: Congrats!
Germy Shoemangler
@Steeplejack: “Mr. Muckle! Please Mr. Muckle! Please, dear!”
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Every woman I know under 70 is really 29. At least that’s a safe number to use and I’m sticking to it. Of course I’ve known two or three who have been 29 for about that length of time. Also I used to be pretty good at telling ages but that skill has gone by the wayside as my perspective has gotten older. So now I refrain from even wanting to know anyone’s age, it’s just safer.
debbie
@MazeDancer:
It’s not Helvetica. That upper-case G is Futura, but they’ve monkeyed with the other letters. If you have to go sans serif, you could do worse.
Germy Shoemangler
@Steeplejack:
Now and then I’ll see a spectacularly bad haircut (on a mugshot photo or something) and think “it looks like he went to my barber…”
bemused
We have an 8 mo old pup, our son’s dog, with us and our two dogs for a couple of days. It’s been going smoothly until today when she reminded us what trouble a young dog can get into. I was grocery shopping when I got a call from my husband. He and the dogs were visiting his elderly mother when pup discovered mom’s nylon footy things by her shoes. Pup then decided to play keepaway with my husband and promptly swallowed a footy when he got close. The other footy was nowhere to be found so it was a good bet she had swallowed that one too. After a call to our vet office, he gave pup hydrogen peroxide from a nasal syringe, no turkey baster in the house and problem solved right away. Along with the footies there was also a small piece of my husband’s shorts which she had tried to rip apart earlier in the day. She was giving my husband a wide berth for awhile but I think she has forgiven him now.
schrodinger's cat
@Steeplejack: Besides being a journalist, and a beloved Balloon Juice commenter, Amir Khalid is also a hairstylist! A true renaissance man
Germy Shoemangler
@schrodinger’s cat: I had no idea. He should be a front pager. And I wish I lived close enough to him to have my hair fixed.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Betty Cracker: Some crisply sauteed mushrooms can add some interesting umami, also. You want them sort of seared, as opposed to softly caramelized if that makes sense as a description. A little smoked paprika ground with coarse sea salt will add a different kind of smoky flavor from liquid smoke.
schrodinger's cat
@Germy Shoemangler: It may have lost weight but it looks ugly.
redshirt
@Germy Shoemangler: Agreed on Amir. He’d be an awesome front pager.
Germy Shoemangler
@schrodinger’s cat: It looks strangely familiar to me. I remember seeing something exactly like it in elementary school, back in 1964.
gogol's wife
@Germy Shoemangler:
I believe it was cut out of construction paper with blunt scissors.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Steeplejack:
Shemp Howard is in this! Poor guy, he got kinda screwed by having to give up his independent career to go into the family business with the Three Stooges.
Germy Shoemangler
He did some great double-takes watching W.C. Fields gulp his drinks.
gogol's wife
For some reason I’ve lost my taste for both W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers, although when I was younger I thought they were hilarious. I still like Mae West, though.
Germy Shoemangler
@gogol’s wife: How do you feel about Chaplin’s sound work (like the Great Dictator and Limelight)?
gogol's wife
@Germy Shoemangler:
I’ve never had the slightest use for Chaplin, sound or silent. I’m sure I must be missing something. He’s never made me crack a smile.
I do like the song “Smile,” though (he wrote it).
Concerned
A forever lurker chiming in on Google. Skip Google entirely and use Duckduckgo.com. Duck does not track you and deletes all search history every day so there are no search records to turn over to the govt. I’ve noticed no big difference in search returns, speed, etc if you use Safari higher than I-6 (I think it was) you should be all set to enable it as your search engine, but I go the further step of going thru Safari only once, then thru duck, then deleting the Safari link.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@gogol’s wife:
I’m a Keaton girl — never got into Chaplin. I don’t think I’ll ever be tired of Fields or the Bros. Marx, though.
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
At least with Keaton I can see why other people think he’s funny. With Chaplin I can’t even go that far.
Germy Shoemangler
@Mnemosyne (tablet): I was never into Chaplin in my youth, because all I saw of him were grainy, sped-up poor quality very early silents now and then on PBS.
It wasn’t until I was in my late 20s, and I saw “The Great Dictator” on the big screen at MOMA, that I was impressed.
I wondered why I never saw his films on TV when I was growing up, and then I realized he’d been purged because of his politics. I could turn on my TV when I was a kid in the 1960s and ’70s and see Abbot slap the shit out of Costello, or Moe poke the shit out of Larry and Curly, but no Chaplin.
Suburban Mom
@Betty Cracker.
Smoked paprika (mildly spicy) works well in vegetarian red beans. Might be worth a try in your baked bean recipe.
gogol's wife
@Germy Shoemangler:
I’ll have to see “The Great Dictator” again. I realize now that all sorts of movies that I used to hate, I now like, and vice versa.
Germy Shoemangler
@gogol’s wife: I know Abbot and Costello made me uncomfortable as a child, and they still make me uncomfortable. It’s just cruel humor; there’s no love there.
Laurel and Hardy, at least there’s a sweetness to it, and some real laughs, not cheap.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@gogol’s wife:
“Great Dictator” is good right up till the big final speech, which unfortunately is ridiculous today. (Chaplin even admitted later that he was naive about how bad Hitler was.)
There’s a (possibly apocryphal) story about Chaplin and Keaton at the same dinner party at the height of both their silent careers. Chaplin, newly political, is going on and on about how much better communism is, ending with, “All I want is to make sure all the children have enough to eat?”
And Keaton says, “But, Charlie, who doesn’t want that?”
(They were always frenemies, but Chaplin had a better education and was able to keep an eye on his own finances, unlike Keaton, who got cheated many times in his life.)
Germy Shoemangler
@Mnemosyne (tablet): I like the scene they share in Limelight
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Germy Shoemangler:
“Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” still holds up, but that’s partly because Lon Chaney Jr’s Larry Talbot is the real star with A&C as his sidekicks.
Germy Shoemangler
@Mnemosyne (tablet): If you want to cringe, watch “This Is Your Life!” when they surprised Costello.
When Abbott comes on the show, it’s obvious Costello loathes him.
SiubhanDuinne
@Germy Shoemangler:
You wrote “Limelight,” I stupidly thought “Gaslight,” and was desperately trying to remember a scene with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer and Buster Keaton/Charlie Chaplin. How would that work, anyhow?
Germy Shoemangler
@SiubhanDuinne: Keaton lights a match and they all blow up??
Origuy
I’m spending most of the next two days at the Highland Games in Pleasanton, CA. I’m not dancing on stage this year, so I’ll have more time to see all the other events. Just got home from setting up the country dance stage and booths.
Calouste
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Mr. Buster Keaton, please meet Representative Paul Ryan. Representative Paul Ryan, please meet Mr. Buster Keaton.
Maeve
@Betty Cracker: \
The tip about carmalizing onions in apple juice is a low fat top not just a vegan tip – I got it from Paul Prudhomme’s cookbook “Fork in the Road” which has a lot of tips to develop flavor profiles without meat/fat (RIP Paul – it can be hard to follow those good intentions!)
So vegetarian/vegan doesn’t have to omit complex flavor or even texture – you just have to figure it out (texture is actually the harder part).
MazeDancer
@debbie:
I know. That’s why I threw the “y” in there – “Helvetica-y”. Sorry if not clear. (Though, guess one could say Helvetica, itself, is kind of Furura-y, since Futura came 50 years first. And go back to the olde school sans serifs for Futura’s lineage)
Apparently, (using Google to find out) Google type is a new font called “Product Sans”, developed in-house at Google. The thicker G favicon and rainbow stand-alone usage is way better looking, IMHO, than the thinner version in the logo type itself.
BTW, anyone who hasn’t seen the fabulous Helvetica documentary about the type face – it’s on DVD at Netflix, alas, not streaming. Really, a great film. Not just for type fiends.
Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim
That’s a handsome doggie.
Only an asshole or a cultureless fool cares about a change in typeface.
PurpleGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: I have a friend who likes Duck Duck Go. I haven’t tried it yet, though.
lurker dean
@redshirt: come to think of it, yes, psifighter hasn’t been around. Someone was also asking about dances around your bones, who also hasn’t been seen on a while..
satby
Wagging tail is good. Happy Patsy Marie is home and feeling better!Great picture.
kindness
Google is my homepage too.
Death Panel Truck
Sounds like a first world problem
BruceFromOhio
Your photograph looks like one of Levenson’s painting picks.
May you all heal quickly.
Steeplejack
@schrodinger’s cat:
Ha! If I had remembered that we could have discussed blog topics. Usually I tell Khalid I’m going to doze off and he should wake me when he’s done or if he cuts me.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Yeah, it’s kind of interesting to see him on his own, and he does all right. I think there are a few other similar movies. Too tired to look right now.
Another Holocene Human
@Betty Cracker: lol, it’s made of beans
yo dawg, I heard you liked beans
Clockwork Buddha
Gods, I know that face! We have an American Bulldog and that’s his go-to pose when he wants to melt our heart and powderize our will.