Saturday Night Open Thread
Some random stuff:
1.) Do any of you intend to watch the Prisoner on AMC? Have you heard any buzz? Think it will be any good? Based on AMC’s recent record (mad Men and Breaking Bad), I think I’m going to give it a go.
2.) First they came for the Hola Fruta, now my store is no longer carrying Edy’s seasonal Pumpkin ice cream. It is going to get ugly if they drop Turkey Hill Mint Choco Chip.
3.) On a related food note, all my tupperware is otherwise occupied in the freezer with beef vegetable and turkey rice soups I made last week, so I decided to just buy prepared fruit cocktail instead of making my own. It is shocking the calorie difference between the fruit cocktail in syrup and the fruit cocktail in juice. Double the calories, and all of the extra calories in the syrup are empty calories from the high fructose corn syrup.
4.) Why do dogs like riding in the car so much? And what can you tell from the varying levels of moistness of your dog’s nose? Some days Lily’s nose is super wet, some times it is merely damp, and every now and then it is almost dry. Why?
5.) There is a strong relationship between those who do not think we should trust our democracy and try terrorists as criminals and those who got their panties in a bunch because the President shows his respect to foreign leaders. So much of understanding the current Republican party and their behavior can be explained away as small penis syndrome. Just a bunch of bedwetters.
6.) I guess there is no six.
Shalimar
The original version of The Prisoner is one of the best shows in tv history, so for me at least that alone makes it worth watching the first few episodes.
General Winfield Stuck
I’ve gotten so spoiled with viewing stuff online, mostly commercial free, that AMC would irritate like the dickens.. I did get my order from wally world of Once Upon a Time In the West, and might watch it, but kinda hate too cause then I won’t look forward to it anymore, for a while at least. Lately, I’ve been appreciating the joys of anticipation in life, something not considered in youth. Growing older ain’t so bad, except for the aching joints.
MBSS
so that’s why we really need all that oil. so we can have really big trucks filled with really big guns making sure that no one will ever know what kind of “big” men we have in this country.
Chuck Butcher
Prisoner is on at 5 & 7 PM here in PST, I’ll take a look but seeing the original means a high bar is set.
I like the prepackaged ones for my lunch box, but I work in a difficult environment
Every dog I’ve owned had a nose that went from bone dry to moist to wet with no evident physical changes of health.
Demo Woman
1. I don’t have cable. I do watch Monk online though. It’s disappointing that they wait a full week before they stream it though.
2. Ice cream was meant to be in two flavors, vanilla and chocolate. Then you add your own extras. McCain likes sprinkles.
3. My son was allergic to corn so we only had fruit packed in juice for the last 25 years. Next time just buy fresh apples, oranges, grape fruit or bananas. Most of canned fruit is mush.
4. Who wouldn’t want to take a ride. I have owned dogs all my life and they never shared why some days their noses are wetter than others.
5. Assuming the terrorists are found guilty can they hang them in public preferably in Times Square?
6. Depends on the question.
Chuck Butcher
@General Winfield Stuck:
Republicans?
Tropical Fats
Obama should have throat-punched the Emperor to the floor and then put it in his butt. Really show him who’s boss, you know?
Anything short of that is craven appeasement.
ek hornbeck
Not only will I watch it, I have a friend taping it.
It could be good, but there are many, many ways it could be bad.
There are plenty of repeats, if you’re really interested in my personal opinion I’ll be happy to share.
Bill H
Have read two reviews of tThe Prisoner. Both were quite favorable (one was a rave, in fact), and I intend to watch it. I was a big fan of the original. Anything with Patrick McGoohan. Secret Agent, especially.
Midnight Marauder
1. I am very much so looking forward to the reboot of The Prisoner. I’m a big Ian McKellen fan, and I guess I can give the guy who played Jesus a shot.
6. There is no spoon.
dmsilev
If you’re going to watch The Prisoner, there really should be a Number Six. Just saying.
-dms
SiubhanDuinne
My purgatory of “The Server Being Down” is over, apparently—after nearly 24 hours of silence, my BlackBerry began vibrating and humming and mooing and chirping as it disgorged dozens of pent-up emails. I haven’t read through all the BJ threads by any means, but I saw a lot of photos of Lily—and John, after I had asked you so politely to save them until I got back!
I loved the original Prisoner series and might give the AMC version a try.
freelancer (itouch)
Gooooooo. Biiiiiiiiiiiig. Redddddddddd. Go Big Red!
nice to see the run game working again.
ihop
i will say this, after years of living with a rock solid toughie dog (who would run through a wall if the ball were on the other side of it), a dry nose meant that my little man needed a couple hours to sleep it off.
jacy
The buzz I’ve heard from those I trust indicates you’re better off just watching the original Prisoner. The main complaints I’ve heard are that Jim Caveziel has the magnetism of a damp paper bag, so much so that you end of rooting against him, and the the pacing is so slow that it feels like the Bataan Death March. Everybody gives Ian McKellan high marks though.
Shame, because I was looking forward to it and hoped AMC would do it justice. I loved the original. I’ll still probably DVR the first segment and take a look, because I’m pathetic that way.
demkat620
I plan to finish the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series my son got me to read.
He can’t wait until February to see the Lightening Thief. I think I am going to leave the tv off for the night.
And for the record that Edy’s pumpkin ice cream is the best. Of course to me, anything pumpkin is the best.
General Winfield Stuck
I have often wondered this myself. The Aussie Shepard I had when he wasn’t rubber necking out the passenger side window, who snuggle right up bedside me in the drivers seat, just like Angie did in High School a couple of centuries ago.
My theory also includes the way the Whigs got crazy as bedbugs when political death was nigh. The GOP is doomed as it is, and the common bats in the belfry can’t quite find the escape hatch with the southern wingnut Flying Foxes taking up roost.
Sound familiar?
Svensker
I can’t believe I regularly read a blog where the host talks about his Tupperware and the caloric difference between various canned fruit salads. And I like it. Hmmmm.
On a different note, anyone feel like dancing?
Thlayli
Did someone forget to tell Southern Cal’s defense they had a game today?
General Winfield Stuck
@Chuck Butcher:
Only to mock
debbie
This version of The Prisoner got a horrible review at Fresh Air.
chiggins
There will always be Six.
freelancer (itouch)
@Tropical Fats:
this wins.
Corner Stone
Oh, there’s a 6 alright.
+6 baby!
Max
I will offer some random holiday shopping / safety tips for the mall, since that’s my industry…
1. Always lock your doors and never leave anything of value in plain sight.
2. Mall security will always give you an escort to your car if you feel unsafe or have too many packages.
3. Make sure your house keys and car keys are on a different ring (that’s not just holiday related).
4. Ladies – leave your purse at home. Put your cash, id, credit cards in your front pockets.
5. Make a list of what and for whom you want to buy. If you go to the mall without a list, you will spend more than you intend to.
6. Always ask about the return policy before you pay for an item. Many retailers are changing their policies due to the economy and you want to make sure you know if you can get a full refund, or just store credit, or many retailers are making all sales final.
7. Barter with the clerks, especially the indy retailers, electronics, furniture and jewelry. The price tag isn’t always the sales price.
8. Never ever leave your bags unattended. A few seconds left alone in the food court, and your presents will be stolen.
9. Please remember where you parked. If there are numbered poles, write it down, or remember what entrance you came in. I cannot tell you how many people think their car was stolen when it really was parked on the other side of the mall. I have had people tell me that someone must have stolen their car and returned it to the opposite end of the parking lot.
10. If you are shopping with elderly parents or teenage kids, make sure that everyone has a cell phone, and you have a specified time to meet up. Most malls do not have an announcement system like the airport and if security is looking for your tween or grandfather, they are distracted from their safety focus.
11. Be reasonable when dealing with store clerks. I know, the customer is always right, but don’t act like an asshole.
12. Hydrate! I can’t tell you the number of times we have to call fire/rescue for people who get overheated or dehydrated while christmas shopping.
13. When taking your kids to see Santa, most malls will allow you to take some shots with your digital camera, so you don’t have to buy one of the packages, but as a courtesy, come during a slower time so you don’t hold up the line.
14. If you see a spill on the floor, walk around it and tell security or housekeeping about it. If you slip and sue the mall, we have very big insurance companies at our disposal and you will not get a dime from us. Slip and fall cases very rarely amount to anything.
15. Spend, spend, spend. Online shopping doesn’t count. I need shoppers in the stores people!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
General Winfield Stuck
Was your word Cole that sent me to mod hell. An innard wordpress fix to remove from spam list of words would be nice. Since the term is used so often for it’s obvious literary value.
Chuck Butcher
Just for you John
6) I will not shovel snow on November 14th
It can just lay there, ignored.
Corner Stone
And for anyone not completely sure what the elites have in mind for us:
US wages too high
H/T A Tiny Revolution
donnah
Dogs are big sniffers. They smell things a million times better than we do. So imagine driving along with your head sticking out, going faster than you can run, having that vast smorgasbord of smells rushing at you. Ecstasy!
I think that Obama’s team knows the protocol for greeting foreign dignitaries and I assume the Japanese appreciated the gesture, so who cares what the Republicans think? Good god, they are insane.
I don’t know the science of dog nose moisture. I had heard that a cold, wet nose indicates a healthy dog, but like Lily, our Wendy has a variety of nose moisture, and she’s pretty healthy. Maybe it has to do with humidity.
I despise high fructose corn syrup. It’s in EVERYTHING!
That is all.
Midnight Marauder
@Thlayli:
Seriously. That was terrible to watch. I guess it’s going to go down as a rebuilding year for the Men of Troy. But wow, I did not see that one coming this afternoon. Although, I don’t know why not, since the last three home losses for USC have all come at the hands of Stanford, including the last one back in 2007.
Fucking hippies.
AngusTheGodOfMeat
Dogs live in a world of scents that we know nothing about.
A ride in the car is a trip to the World’s Fair of Smells. New and interesting smells are what they live for.
Keith G
I heard that success may escape this production of the prisoner, so apparently there will be no captive audience.
Sorry.
Ron Beasley
Heard a review on NPR yesterday and it was not good. The suggestion was to watch the originals instead.
Demo Woman
@Max: I also stay away from mall parking garages. The day after Thanksgiving is great fun to shop imo, if you start at 6 and meat for breakfast at 11:00.
Seth 4:10
I’m torn between watching a living legend and tolerating a man who does Repug campaign ads in character as Jesus.
Corner Stone
@Max:
This may be true across certain regions but in TX there’s no reason to waste time bargaining with a clerk/associate. they can’t cut a price/discount and they don’t care to.
Ask to see a manager/assist mgr, then pitch it.
JK
According to Jim Freund, host of Hour of the Wolf, a science fiction radio, reviews of The Prisoner have been very mixed with no rave reviews.
arguingwithsignposts
@Max:
I will offer my own unsolicited advice: Never go to a toy store on a weekend.
And unfortunately for Max, I plan to do all my shopping online this year.
Corner Stone
@Midnight Marauder: As I said in another thread – this outcome will prbably have USC moving up one in the rankings.
USC and LSU - garnering love and benefit of the doubt since forever.
Road Trips
I don’t know why dogs love riding in cars so much, but I wish I knew whymy cat HATES riding so much. From the time I pick up my cat till the time he gets to the vets office it’s just “NO NO NO NO NO NO”. Maybe if you start them when they’re a kitten it would be a different story.
Martin
@Tropical Fats:
Yeah, that’s the same sense I get from the criticism. I think had we allowed the wingnut id to really cut loose, they would have demanded that Obama cut down the Emperor with a MAC-10, have his way with Michiko and then make a national address reminding the Japanese that we blew their shit up before and we can do it again, and they should quit bitching about our soldiers occasionally raping their teenagers and demanding they buy some GMC Denalis and F-350s like real men instead of those little sissy cars with the Hello Kitty seat covers.
Demo Woman
Miami is losing.. Not good for Tech, imo.
arguingwithsignposts
@Corner Stone:
Oh, My, God.
The required cut may be smaller. But if American wages get stuck above global market-clearing levels, as in the 1930s, the result could well be something approaching Depression-era levels of unemployment.
Anything would be better than that. Both moderate inflation to cut real wages and a further drop in the dollar’s real trade-weighted value might be acceptable.
I don’t know who that’s “acceptable” to, but I can’t see the vast bulk of wage-earning Americans finding that acceptable at all.
I suggest a new acronym: FTFB (Fuck the Fucking Bankers)
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
A reference to be filed away for multi-future use.
Wile E. Quixote
@Corner Stone
Can I get a job as a financial journalist? I think my new article about how to deal with the current unemployment crisis,They Should Die and Decrease the Surplus Population would be very popular with the sponsors of breakingviews.news.
arguingwithsignposts
@arguingwithsignposts:
Blockquote fail. FYWP
gwangung
As an alum, all I can say is…I cheerfully resemble that remark (except for the fucking, which I’m not currently prepared to do at the moment, since it’s still the afternoon on the West Coast).
Martin
Wow, what a killing for USC - and by the nerds at Stanford no less. Good Lord am I going to have fun rubbing it in at work on Monday…
Corner Stone
@Martin: This is just ugly. I’m afraid for you that maybe you have walked a little too close to the winger side and are now channeling their thoughts.
Go take a vacation somewhere outside the US, some place exotic and foreign. I suggest Hawaii.
Keith
If your dog’s nose is cold and wet, he is healthy, and this is good for conservatives.
If your dog’s nose is warm and wet, he is sick, and this is also good for conservatives.
If your dog’s nose is dry, I don’t know what this means, but it is probably good for conservatives.
Demo Woman
@arguingwithsignposts: But, but they worked hard for that money. My goodness it takes hard work to destroy all that wealth. FTFB
pcbedamned
Know what I would love to see? A BJ forum for us to comment on, a la Politico. Sometimes these threads move so fast comments get lost and ignored. I for one would be willing to pitch in some coin for a sub if that’s what it takes.
Thoughts?!?
JK
Wolf Blitzer behaving badly
BLITZER: I’m sure he [Nidal Hasan] will get a much fairer hearing than those 13 Americans who were brutally gunned down the other day. I’m sure he will get all of the rights that are applied by the military code of justice.
h/t http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....55278.html
Chuck Butcher
Gus loves a ride for about 15 minutes, after that he lays down to sleep, unless there is starting and stopping involved.
There can be issues regarding driver’s position, for an obvious reason.
Gus Ride
harlana pepper
There is and always will be only one Prisoner, and that would be Patrick McGoohan
CynDee
@MBSS: That’s it in a nutshell, so to speak.
Mike
Here is a story about Ian McKellen and The Prisoner.
http://www.latimes.com/enterta.....2250.story
Hopefully, Obama will puke in the Emperor’s lap in the approved Republican manner.
fraught
common wisdom from the days when dogs never went to a vet (1940s): Dry nose means the dog doesn’t feel good.
Yutsano
@Seth 4:10: In this case, I’d go with the legend, especially because of the fact that he’s been mentioning he’s a big ol’ fag in just about every interview he’s done, and that HAS to rankle on Jesus Boy just a little.
Corner Stone
@gwangung:
You have a fucking curfew on the Left Coast?
Hoocouldanode?
Also – I would’ve posted this about 10 minutes ago but the site dropped, as usual. Somebody either needs to give WeeMan more alcohol to keep the discs spinning, or less.
General Winfield Stuck
@pcbedamned:
Any extra stress on wordpress could cause cascading nukular event.
Yutsano
@fraught: If the nose is dry but still supple the dog is fine. If the nose looks dry and chapped take to the vet like NOW.
General Winfield Stuck
@harlana pepper:
Absolutely correcto!!
Corner Stone
@Corner Stone:
I told a GC on a project one time that I “disenjoyed” a couple outcomes his crews caused.
Next time it happens (as it always does, no matter what) I think I’ll bust this one out on them.
“Well GC, it appears success has escaped you on this deliverable. There will be adjustments as per our contract.”
JK
Happy Birthday Gitmo
h/t http://www.propublica.org/feat.....gitmo-1113
scarpy
My dog hates riding in cars. My girlfriend thinks it’s because she used to drive him back and forth from Chicago to Virginia several times a year when she was in school. His nose is always wet because he licks it pensively all day long.
Corner Stone
@arguingwithsignposts: It’s why real wages have stagnated for the last 30 years yet we set record productivity gains each year.
Fire a couple co-workers and anyone still with a job steps up to the plate right fucking quick to take on more work for no more pay.
If I’ve overheard it once, I’ve overhead it a thousand times:
“Hey Bud, how you doing?”
“Well, still employed so can’t complain.”
abo gato
The first Jack Russell I ever had weighed about 12 pounds and she would get up and lie around my neck, on my shoulders, facing out the driver’s window, when we had her in the car. It was hilarious, she’d lie there like a fur wrap and look out the window as I drove. If I was the passenger, she’d lie there and look out the passenger window. None of the other JRT’s I’ve had will do that, but they all love to ride in the car, even if they end up at the vet’s.
Corner Stone
Man, there is a ton of highly watchable college football on tv tonite.
If only I smoked…
Geoduck
Have to be a party-pooper. Your dog may love it, but letting him/her stick hir head out of the window while driving is dangerous: They might get hit with debris, large or small, and if you’re in a crash, they’re gonna go flying.
arguingwithsignposts
@Corner Stone:
True that. I can’t remember what podcast I was listening to the other day when someone made a similar point, and said that our productivity had actually declined over the last 10 years. I think it was Planet Money talking with Simon Johnson.
The big picture for me seems to be that the wealthy and the corporate overlords are saying, “hey, we can make money without you common folk, so take what we give you.”
You might be able to do that in a country that never had a higher standard of living, but I can’t see that taking hold in a country with a thread-bare safety net and knowledge of at least a somewhat vibrant middle class in the past. Pitchforks and torches and all that at some point.
BJ Bjornson
Near as I can tell from my own mutts, dogs like riding in cars because it means you’re taking them with you rather than leaving them by themselves at home.
Martin
Wages at the bottom aren’t the problem in a lot of areas – the problem is that executives are so massively overpaid in this country relative to what they contribute that they drive up the average wage while delivering relatively little in return. That’s the real fix that needs to be applied first.
And I’m going to refute that all of the manufacturing moving overseas are due to labor costs. The unfortunate reality is that for rapidly moving markets, close proximity to components is more important and the components are already all overseas, so the next guy up the food chain is really pressured to move their assembly to where the components are made. That’s a huge benefit that China delivers – you can quite literally walk in looking to make a new device and have a factory up and running with a full supply chain in 2 weeks, mainly because the components are all coming from no more than a few miles away. If you have a component problem, you can often find a replacement across town. If you are trying to get a device on the market for holiday sales, that can be a tremendous incentive.
Is anyone seriously trying to set up economic zones in the US that are competitive in this way? Or are we all too sensitive to the impact on the other 434 representatives and their constituencies? If we want to solve this, at some point we need to start talking honestly about what the real problem is and deciding what we do and don’t have the balls to do about it.
Chuck Butcher
@abo gato:
Gus seems to think the vet is a friend of his.
Well, there was that artificial insemination thing last year…
arguingwithsignposts
@Martin:
Martin, why are all the components made overseas, though? Low wages. Chicken. Egg.
I’d also note that nowhere in that prescription was raising the wages of people from other countries to a comparable standard to the U.S.
Our country is on an economic death spiral if they keep up this kind of thinking.
Martin
@Corner Stone:
Meh, you know they’re thinking it.
General Winfield Stuck
@Martin:
Me, I always enjoy a good spoofin run, it’s a Balloon Juice tradition and should be practiced more, if you ask me.
Linkmeister
Our pointer Tigger hated car rides, and occasionally it got really scary taking her along.
Kirk Spencer
I despise the term “empty calories”. Seriously, you think calories can carry things?
There are good reasons to dislike the corn syrup packed into and around so many foods, but “empty calories” isn’t one of them.
calipygian
@arguingwithsignposts: The second little bit in that NYT article titled, “Oh Noes! American Wages are Too High!” is a bit about the Bear Sterns managers who went to trial and were acquitted because “incompetence isn’t against the law”.
Are the two bits related in someway maybe?
Mike in NC
No, all negative, and no. Permit me to be the contrarian here and say how much the original totally sucked. Maybe you had to be stoned.
I worked for a while in DC with some asshole wingnuts who agreed that Turkey Hill made the best ice cream. Period. Never bothered to investigate since I hated them.
Canned fruits and vegetables are only fit for stocking fallout shelters. I used to give people the freeze-dried peas that the Navy supplied aboard ship, since they looked exactly like green hockey pucks.
She’s just screwing with you. Dogs and cats love that.
With a wide stance. Also.
Kevin Phillips Bong
I read the screenplay of the Prisoner remake when they were developing it for Will Smith, they had turned it into a run-of-the-mill spy story/action flick. Disappointing. I hope AMC went through several re-writes.
I’m a fan of the original series, but would anyone who can cogently explain the last episode please contact me immediately? You may very well be smart enough to solve world peace, cure cancer, and create a unified field theory.
JenJen
I’ll be checking out The Prisoner too. Can’t go wrong with an AMC Original, or Gandalf, if you ask me.
And John, I’m so nervous/excited about tomorrow’s game I can hardly stand it. You guys ready to kiss the baby?
PaulW
My biggest fear about this series is that, based on the clips I’ve seen, they are going to be rather ham-handed about the characters and plotlines.
I do trust AMC’s track record re: Mad Men (not a big fan of BB, though, which is a shame because the production crew is mostly X-Files refugees), so I will give the show my attention. But if they have Hiro jumping back into feudal Japan and screwing up half the season, I’m… I’m… oh crap that was the other show that broke my heart. Ah well.
Huge fan of the original Prisoner series. I gots the DVD box set.
Corner Stone
@Kirk Spencer:
I don’t know if they can or not, but when they show up at my place they’re packing everything but the damn kitchen sink.
Ergo=chubville. But loveable.
Yutsano
@JenJen:
If this bet doesn’t involve public humiliation and/or drag, I’m officially uninterested.
PaulW
@harlana pepper:
I would have been comfortable with a John Simm or Clive Owen, though.
Corner Stone
And let me just add, apropos of nothing – a mortar and pestle are the absolute best shiz to have if you ever thought about making your own dry rubs/jerks/seasoning.
Corner Stone
@PaulW:
I’d be comfortable with a Clive Owen too. That dude is hot.
CynDee
1. We haven’t had TV for five years. Netflix, yes. Everything else we can usually find and watch on line. I refuse to watch one more frenetic car commercial. Ever. I have never bought a car because of a commercial.
2. Just go where they have Ben and Jerry’s and just TRY to find their lovely plain Vanilla. Everybody (except us) wants novelty. We can find Edy’s Slow Churn, and it’s good. Just can’t stand those bizarro things like Crumbake Chocolate Crystal Goo, or whatnot. I do mean to try the Edy’s Pumpkin. Almost ready to go right back to the store, which I just got home from. Will wait until Sunday morning.
3. We are so much healthier since we gave up high fructose corn syrup. I wrote to my store on line and told them we will never buy any product with that in it. There must be a popular uprising, because now the store is starting to stock items labeled “No high fructose corn syrup. I read every label.” Love Michael Pollan’s advice: “Eat real food, mostly plants. Not too much.” We’re not purists and eat too much sugar, but it’s better than artificial sweeteners and other nasty chemicalz.
4. Ditto what everyone here says about the smells. Also, they LOVE to be with us, and nothing is so exciting to them as us saying “Wanna GO?!” It’s good to be aware of how your dog’s nose is when he or she is feeling well, so you can tell if it changes.
5. These people had to have been raised harshly and were humiliated, neglected, abused and controlled, and they have been angry for so long it’s almost impossible to get over it. They can’t seem to think straight, and take it out on everybody who isn’t like them. In the end they become destroyers, eventually eating their own, because they will never be able to trust anyone so the only thing to do is fight for control. Of everything. Exhausting.
6. Slow down and think. When things go wrong, don’t go with them. Examples: Phillipines, U.S. 1861-65, Seminole Wars, Palestine Partition, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Iran 1950s, Iraq, Columbia, 2000 presidential selection, job outsourcing, Iraq again, Afghanistan, Katrina neglect, Wall Street Rescue, Main Street neglect.
Martin
@arguingwithsignposts:
No, I agree. It’s why it infuriates me that Obama calls for a green economy and the right goes all batshit that we can’t afford it, global warming isn’t real, drill-baby-drill.
I just want to punch them all in the neck and say ‘Look, you stupid motherfuckers, every time we rewrite the rules on where our economic demand should go, we have the opportunity to rewrite the rules on who will provide that supply.’
There is no ground zero for components for industries that barely exist, so we should make the ones we want. Who cares if there’s a real market demand to cover the R&D up front? Dump money into solar, wind, and so on with the provision that it be home grown – set up economic zones for these industries where their is already expertise or capacity that is underutilized, and make it a national imperative to beat everyone else to some synthetic milestones – most efficient turbine, whatever. Make a really big fucking deal when we make progress and meet the goal. Then you’ll have those components made here and the industries around it. The only people that lose are the ones that are so entrenched in their market that they’re afraid they can’t compete. Tough shit. Competition is good – get off your fat asses and get it done.
Oh, and another thing that pisses me off – the security theatre of border protection. We should have been inspecting all incoming ships and containers but industry has fought it all the way because it would increase those import costs – particularly for the really marginal cost/size stuff. If I had to bet on the next terrorism vector, that’s what I’d pick, so why haven’t we just told them to suck it up? If some manufacturing has to move back to the US to get around that (totally justified) cost, then so be it.
arguingwithsignposts
Watching “Hell House” on NetFlix, and I am sorry, but I cannot believe anyone falls for that speaking in tongues stuff. Other than trance-like gibberish.
Yutsano
@Corner Stone: Or you need to work on your forearms. Pizza dough is good for that too. I’m seriously considering getting one for my little bro for Xmas, kitchen gadgetry always goes over good with him.
RedKitten
A good compromise we found with Dreyfus was to have his seat belt harness just tight enough so that he could get his nose up to the window, but not out of it. So we’d crack the window and he’d get that nice rush of air and all the interesting smells, but there was no danger of anything flying into him.
It took him a long time to get used to the car again, though. He was really screwed up for awhile when it came to cars, as he’d been stuck in a vehicle for over 24 hours after his original owner died suddenly while getting ready to run errands. For the longest time, in the car, he’d pant and whine—it took months before he enjoyed a car ride again.
adolphus
I loved the old Prisoner series, too. Finally caught up on all of them in order recently on Netflix and saw the final episode for the first time. I hear some people like it, but I thought it was a finale of Seinfeldian levels of disappointment.
If the AMC version is even remotely good and I stick it out, I hope they come up with someway of bringing it to a decent conclusion. (And I don’t mean conclusion in the sense it has to conclude or finally resolve anything. Open ended is fine, just have it make sense and stay true to what has come before)
What do other people think? Do others like it? What happened? How did it relate to all the episodes that came before.
I still don’t get it.
skippy
number six: there is NOOOOO….number six!
number seven: no poofters!
as to the prisoner, i’ll check it out but my hopes aren’t high. the la times was less than impressed, and it takes more than setting it in a desert instead of the seaside, to make a reboot.
Corner Stone
@Martin: This is an interesting take on the JIT model.
Bottlenecks are avoided up the chain, not in country.
Hmmm…
Again WOULD’VE posted this 10 minutes ago…
RedKitten
@Corner Stone:
Indeed. I’d be very happy getting comfortable with Clive Owen, thank you very much.
JenJen
@Yutsano: I’m in a bit of a wagering mood, come to think of it.
raptusregaliter
@General Winfield Stuck:
Seconded.
I’m going to watch it, but, if the ads are any indication, I’m going to be disappointed. No McGoohan; no Portmeirion. What’s the point? And that Jesus dude looks like he has zero charisma. But I’m such a huge fan of the original I’ve gotta give it a chance.
Yutsano
@JenJen: Alcohol or embarrassing clothing, all else is waste.
John Cole
@JenJen: I told you in the thread yesterday I will pose Tunch in Bengals gear if we lose. What will you do?
JenJen
@John Cole: Oh, crap, I missed it. Hmmm. You have kitty-sized Bengals gear lying around the house?
adolphus
Plus, is anyone else disappointed that Number Two for new Prisoner seems to remain the same throughout? I liked the constant rotation in the original.
Yutsano
@JenJen: Uhh, it’s TUNCH, I’m sure anything fitting a small child will do.
JenJen
@John Cole: I’ve probably mentioned this before, but back when I actually had a good job as a hotel executive, I had the cringeworthy job of greeting the Steelers when they stayed at our hotel. Under their very nice suitcoats, they were all wearing black shirts that read, in very small letters, “WE DEY.” I have to admit to getting a kick out of that.
But, back to business. OK, I’ve thought it over. Remember my dog Strider? Just tell me what you want the sign to say, I’ll hang it around his neck, take a photo, and send it off. I have a pretty strong feeling I’m not going to lose this bet, so be creative!
South of I-10
@RedKitten: Clive Owen is hot! That is all.
JenJen
@Yutsano: Silly me! OK, I’m still surprised to learn that John has child-sized Bengals gear lying around the house, but you just never really know a person, I guess.
General Winfield Stuck
@JenJen:
Hard to beat the Stealers at home. What with bought off refs and all those little magnates in the football.
General Winfield Stuck
Think I’ll be going along now, I hear coyotes calling.
JenJen
@General Winfield Stuck: No worries, Ochocinco says he has some new NFL fines planned for tomorrow!
I’ll say it again, but I always knew I liked you.
Martin
@Corner Stone:
The company I most closely follow for investing is Apple – been following it for 20 years now and know it inside and out.
Apple will design something like the iPhone and they’ll get some components before they hit the market for prototypes, but there are other components that they don’t trust to bring to market within a short time frame. Now, they’re more time-to-market sensitive than most companies, but not as much as you would think.
So, Apple needs CPUs from someone like Intel, TI, etc., other electronic components that are already being produced, screens and batteries that are likely to be very new to the marketplace, plus they might be chasing hardware for new protocols like USB-3, 802.11n, that kind of thing.
Taken together, it’s a mishmash of old, new, and not yet on the market components, plus the less exciting stuff like plastic molding, assembly, and so on. Now, for any of the hardware tech guys, they need to take as advanced a prototype as they think they can get mass produced from the final design stage, get a production line ramped up (sometimes a HUGE production line) in order to get product on shelves in October/November. For Apple they’ll finish that prototype work between Jan and April, so they have about 6 months or so to get everything done. If there are logistics issues that would drag this out, Apple needs to finish prototypes earlier which might preclude them from being able to use as advanced tech as their competitors – and that can help make or break a product.
What’s appealing about places like China and Taiwan for Apple is that they can get the assembly, custom plastics molding (plust the plastic itself), the electronics, the battery and screen most likely all out of the same city if not the same building. Foxconn makes Intels motherboards, they make a lot of the computer cases out there, they make graphics cards, etc. So Apple benefits from manufacturing there because half the components they need come off of other Foxconn production lines and they can handle most of the other work Apple needs done. If there’s a production problem for nVidia that will impact Apple, they know right away. A LOT of the logistics problems just vanish and that prototype to market window really shrinks.
The labor costs there are lower, but not drastically so. It’s Taiwan, not mainland, after all. But what’s key to Apple is the ability to get their devices on the market ASAP - and Taiwan does that.
But other industries have the same challenges. Toys for instance. It takes about a year to get a toy from design to market, but many toys are very dependent on other trends – popularity of TV shows, movie releases, and so on. The more they can close up that window, the better their chances.
Morbo
Fuck the Buckeyes. That is all.
noncarborundum
@Corner Stone:
6. Ceci n’est pas un six.
John B.
Dogs do not sweat. They rid themselves of excess body heat through the mouth and nose, hence the panting and wet noses.
A cool, wet nose means that the dog is successfully regulating his or her body temperature, as does a cool, dry nose. A warm, wet nose indicates the presence of a fever.
Of Bugs and Books
#3) – Easy tip from diabetics is to never buy anything that lists corn syrup as the first ingredient (or second, etc.).
Americans rarely need jet fuel in their diet.
And the phrase empty calories is an appropriate hammer for a lot of foods.
arguingwithsignposts
@Martin:
When you factor in that Taiwan has national health care, I can’t see how the labor costs are not drastically lower than in the US. If it costs less to ship stuff from the other side of the world than to produce it in the largest consumer market on the globe, then labor costs (not to mention environmental costs, etc.) are drastically lower.
Let’s face it, our corporate overlords screwed us over. No ifs ands or buts.
Comrade Kevin
6. There is NO 6
7. No Pooftahs!
Corner Stone
@Martin: I have a long (somewhat cogent) response to this rattling somewhere around in my cranium.
But I’ve crossed the rubicon and now possess only the ability to make snark. I’ll not apologize for it.
Didja you hear Carrie Prejean has boobies?!?
General Winfield Stuck
@Corner Stone:
Yer cranium is empty.
MissKG
As I recall, when it comes to high ranking Japanese, the preferred Republican greeting consists of throwing up on them.
Corner Stone
@noncarborundum: I’m sorry but I only speak Redneck, Texican, Mexican, Spanish, and a little English.
French is too civilized for me.
In fact, I was recently at a seminar where one of the keynote speakers was from ghei Paree. I confessed to him that the only Francaise I spoke was, “Haugh. Aux haugh. Un haugh haugh.”
John B.
Sorry, missed a case. A warm, dry nose would only be indicative of a problem if the dog is clearly exerting him or herself or appears to otherwise be in some distress. That is, the body temperature is high, but the normal cooling mechanisms are not engaging. At most resting times, a healthy dog’s nose will be warm and dry.
noncarborundum
@MissKG: Dave Barry referred to this as the “ceremonial ralph of friendship.”
4jkb4ia
PITT!!
(And I was stuck with Texas Tech-Oklahoma State over the air)
Pitt 27, Notre Dame 22.
“Lonely Man of Faith” excellent movie. Even my husband liked it.
This week I also saw “A Serious Man”. A.O. Scott was very perceptive about it, especially that it was a shaggy dog story and you don’t know which side the Coen brothers are on for any of it. My dad raised the issue of the difference between being truly innocent and simply being clueless, which the lead character was for most of the movie. I don’t actually know if I liked it.
4jkb4ia
But you have to say that for a truly evil person the arc of the moral universe is long. Simply to prepare a trial for such a person would take more than the two weeks of this movie.
4jkb4ia
@Corner Stone:
I sacrificed French for Italian in the 10th grade. Now I am slightly sorry.
Martin
@Corner Stone:
We all get there.
4jkb4ia
@Martin:
Obama met the emperor? That is so cool!
Corner Stone
@4jkb4ia: Actually, if you can speak Spanish then Italian slides really close by. And I’ll guess visah versah.
So it may not be a total loss.
I say this being conversational in Spanish and having an ex-in law who speaks fluent Italian.
Martin
@arguingwithsignposts:
Shipping costs are relatively low for Apple, but it doesn’t really matter if you are shipping one computer from Taiwan to the US or one computers worth of components from Taiwan to the US to be assembled into a computer here, it’s still all about the same shipping. And that ignores the international market where you might actually want the computers in stores in Taiwan.
But if you go into an Apple Store, you’ll see the attention Apple pays to shipping costs. The Mac Mini size reductions over traditional PCs saved Apple a massive amount of money because they could fit 20x as many Minis in a shipping container as a Dell tower, and which required only 5% as many trucks to move them to stores, 5% as much labor to stock them, 5% as much storeroom space for inventory, and so on, not to mention less cardboard for the box, etc. – it really adds up.
To see where this all pays off, Apple’s 5th Avenue store in NYC is 5,000 square feet and was reported to have sold more than $350,000,000 in merchandise last year – just that store, which is about 4% of what Starbucks sold worldwide last year. You physically shrink your merchandise in half and you solve a lot of problems for a location like that.
Corner Stone
@Martin: When you say you “pay attention to Apple for investing purposes”, do you really mean you’re the CFO for Apple?
BillCinSD
#6: Who is Number 1?
Wasn’t their just a story that in some industries, outsourcing was mostly about inflating stock prices. Wall Street just loves the outsourcing
Number 6: Be Seeing You
The Golux
2. I’ve never had Edy’s pumpkin, but I love Edy’s Espresso Chip; there are two containers in our freezer at the moment. It’s my second favorite ice cream, after B&J’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch, which cannot be equaled. I’ll keep my eye open for the pumpkin.
4. I think it’s the tremendous olfactory rush that dogs find irresistible when they stick their heads out the window. I guess having hundreds of times more receptors isn’t enough for them; they have to cram as many scents up their noses as possible.
Anne Laurie
Dogs love dens. People sometimes miss this, but dogs are very territorial (why they make good watchdogs, after all). Dogs also love running around, especially if they can run with their “pack”; they are descended from wolves who can cover 30-40 miles a day, every day, defending their very particular territory. A car is a den that travels, one big enough for the whole pack to enjoy! Of course dogs love cars… from a dog’s perspective, cars are like the second or third best human invention ever, right behind can openers and either pizza delivery or those giant self-refreshing porcelain water bowls!
Incidentally, dog’s understanding of cars as “dens” is why so many dogs get frantically, abnormally “protective” when they’re in the family car, threatening every passerby in the parking lot or lunging at perfectly innocent toll-takers. The “my space, my space” wiring tends to override the higher judgement function even of normally pacific and well-mannered canines, sometimes to the great puzzlement or embarrassment of their human companions.
Our first papillon loved to ride shotgun, especially when he could do it from my lap. But these days the Spousal Unit is paranoid about the air bag deploying in an accident, so our current three dogs ride belted into the back seat, which gives them just enough slack to lie down, stand up, or in Worm Boy’s (Sydney’s) case stick his wet nose in my ear and snuff ‘are we there yet?’ every 37 seconds.
ruemara
1. yes yes a thousand times yes.
2. on summer bikini diet. no sugar no fat non dairy fudge pops.
3. consider that hfc is also in bread, crackers, sauces. it’s nutty.
4. it’s why I like riding in a car. the feel of a chauffeur.
5. I see. The Bunched Panty Party.
6. Venture Brothers is darned near perfect fun.
AhabTRuler
It’s a reasonable fear. When I smoked, I worried about getting a lit cigarette up the nose, but a Momo (whether she was lit or not) would be drastically worse.
Martin
Hell no. But Apple is the only single stock that I hold. Usually I stick with mutual funds, but Apple has always been incredibly predictable in its behavior and there’s a lot more information about the company to dig into than almost any other. If you are willing to put the time in, you can learn a LOT (and I mean a crazy lot) about the company and where its going.
Martin
I was once following a pickup truck with some kind of hound in the back when it accidentally ran a newly installed stop sign and t-boned a passing car about about 40MPH. The humans were all relatively okay, but that poor dog – he flew a long-ass way even after bouncing head-first off the top back of the truck cab.
When the corgi comes for rides, he sits on the floor of the rear seat of the Element with his harness hooked to the rear seat mounts. I’m not willing to have a projectile dog, no matter how much he might want to sniff the world at 60 MPH.
Steeplejack
John Cole:
I hear you. My grocery store, which I am in almost every day because I live the urban hiker lifestyle and it’s on the way between home and work, does this to me regularly. They seem to monitor my buying habits and then yank the choke-chain just to fuck with me. The latest is that they stopped carrying my go-to beer, Samuel Adams Black Lager. WTF?! They’ve been carrying it forever, and now they suddenly don’t have any. (“Suddenly” like the last three months.) And I’m supposed to drink “Coastal Wheat” or “Winter Lager”? What the hell. (Although I have to admit that I’m sucking on a Winter Lager right now. A man has to adapt.)
Because smell is their big sense, and riding in the car hanging out the window is like speed-reading for them. Some writer once said she loved bringing her dog to Manhattan because it was like giving him a copy of Moby-Dick to read. So riding in a car for a dog is like speed-reading an encyclopedia on meth. Good times.
Martin
Oh, and people really need to learn to make their own ice cream. It’s cheap, easy, and really damn good – and you can have pumpkin off-season if you like. It just takes some planning unless you’ve got a relatively large freezer you can keep the equipment in all the time.
DaddyJ
@adolphus: Re: the final episode of the original Prisoner, I think it’s 50% pop psychology (psychoanalysis was still a respected thing in the late 60s) 50% booze and 50% okay-we-boxed-ourselves-into-a-corner-now-what.
In regards to the first 50% my wife thinks the repeated singing of “Dem Bones” is a big clue: it’s a reference to Ezekiel—the dry bones in the desert being given new flesh. If you take the last episode together with the preceding episode, you can see it as a mediation on undergoing a shattering course of psychoanalysis, in which you are torn down and rebuilt as a new man. This certainly happens to No. 2, who literally dies but is then unaccountably reborn.
This destruction/rebirth happens to No. 6 as well, who is initially smug about his seeming triumph, but whose declarations of ego get shouted down by the chorus of ministers “I! I! I!” until he is allowed to finally meet No. 1. To repunctuate the opening dialogue: “Q: Who is Number One? A: You are, Number Six.”
At which point No. 6, self-actualized superman that he is, destroys the diseased edifice of himself with a good healthy round of ultra violence. And then he happily gets on with his life. But with maybe a little less ego and a little more compassion (or at least that’s how his rescuing the lost and lorn midget butler always strikes me).
Of course, that’s just my interpretation of the ending, which I admit sidesteps the central theme of the series: the struggle of the individual against the state. If the individual is the state, then…huh?
If you are unsatisfied by metaphorical explanations and need a linear one, you could try: The Prisoner is about a man who recovers from a catastrophic nervous breakdown at a lovely sanatarium in Wales. But that one doesn’t satisfy me.
The only part of the ending I could never tolerate is the Youth, who is presented as being beyond psychic turmoil because he’s too hip, daddy. We’ve all seen what happened when the “free-spirits” of the 60s got tired of hitchhiking and decided to apply for good-paying jobs in the Village.
Steeplejack
@PaulW:
Man, you nailed it. That is exactly where Heroes lost me.
Is there any point to going back and trying to pick up the thread?
asiangrrlMN
Yo, bitchez. What’s up with all the serious threads on a Saturday night?
I have met my personal NaNoWriMo goal thus far. This is good. Night, bitchez. See ya on the flip side.
Darkrose
@Max:
Nothing personal, Max, but 1-14 are why I prefer to do #15, and shop online. It’s also much easier for me, because I don’t have to deal with packing things up and shipping; most of my family isn’t in CA. I hate shopping, and if I can do it in while waiting for my HP to come back, so much the better.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Sure, just drop in then crash, I see how you are! If I was paranoid, I’d think you and Sydney were up to something, but I’m not, so I’m just gonna chart it up to coincidence.
BeccaM
The DVR is already programmed. No, it won’t be the ‘real’ The Prisoner…but it does look interesting enough to give it a go.
Chuck Butcher
I’m watching the wind up of the Matrix Trilogy on AMC, every commercial break has Thr Prisoner. I’ll give them the first half hour to snag my interest.
bob h
My Rottweiller hates the car, and did a lot of damage to it last time I took him to the dogwashing salon.
Kristine
I’ll be giving The Prisoner a try, mostly because of Ian McKellan. I’d watch him read a phone book. Huge Patrick MacGoohan fan, though. Hit me during my formative years, he did, and hard. Jim Caviezel (sp?) has his work cut out for him.
I wasn’t crazy about AMC’s push campaign during The Matrix, though. Could have done without the keyhole graphics thingies that intruded on the movie right after every one of the eleventy gazillion Prisoner commercial breaks. I get that the premiere is Sunday night, AMC. The tag that you stuck at the bottom left side of my screen throughout the movie sort of clued me in.
My puppies’ noses go from warm and dry to cold and wet to “would you like a handkerchief” over the course of a day, with no apparent correlation with health.
gil mann
That’s nature’s way of insuring that easily-panicked dog owners will pour money into unnecessary veterinary care. See also: changes in pigmentation, occasional barfing.
harlana pepper
I’m older than fossil dirt. I don’t even know who Clive Owen is.
Bruce Webb
“Why do dogs like riding in the car so much?”
If you live to sniff then driving down a country road at 50 miles an hour must be like main-lining a Speedball, sensory overload.
Your dog, like all dogs, is just a smell junkie. Who has no intent of getting clean. Don’t bother with any attempts at Intervention.
tiny tim
Malls, ha. christmas shopping, yeah right, nobody gets any fucking christmas presents until the president grows enough of a pair to: 1) prosecute the torturers, as required by the highest fucking law of the land; and 2) get rings in the noses of the big failed banks and cut them down to size. Till then I’m going to fuck up his economy. Every day and every way.
tworivers
I definitely plan on watching at least the first couple of hours of the Prisoner. My expectations are pretty low, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised (all evidence so far to the contrary)
Why on earth did they choose Caviezel? In the previews, he appears to have a single unchanging facial expression throughout the entire series. The dude is a seriously inexpressive actor.
Lex
With a #5 like that, who needs a #6?