Made it home in one piece, and the puppies are so adorable that you just want to lie on the floor and roll around with them. Ginny is really quite the card, and is simply fearless. Lots of pics when I get home and have my editing software handy.
Some random thoughts:
1.) I ate a handful of pine nuts sitting in the kitchen. Is it just me, or do pine nuts have a distinctly bacon-like flavor?
2.) Speaking of nuts, at some point we were talking about crazy people who walk up and down city streets talking to themselves. Not sure what brought this up, but my brother noted that if we gave all those folks a blue tooth to wear, we would probably think there are far fewer crazy people on our streets.
3.) This is some classic Yglesias-speak:
My half-formed ability to make aesthetic judgments is telling me that this song has certain qualities that most people actually hate, but that I like.
That is Matt speak for “this sucks, but I like it anyway.”
4.) You were right. Season 2 of Heroes is ten pounds of suck in a five pound bag.
5.) Looks like Al Franken is good enough and smart enough to be a Senator.
Cya in the morning. And Merry Christmas!
demkat620
Merry Christmas! And again, bring us home a puppy! Tunch will just love it!
John O
Must. Have. Puppies.
Now.
Bell Curve
Pine nuts do taste like bacon. I can confirm this.
Mazacote Yorquest
My inchoate sense of humor suggests to me that while I may not find your Yglesias-speak risible it may yet evoke laughter from others not so constituted.
Comrade Stuck
Bah Humbug — that’s Stuck speak for Bah Humbug. My Purple Unicorn got stuck in Alaska. It’s Unicorn season there and Sarah Serendipity’s got her gun.
Just Kidding. Merry Xmas to all from the surly denizens of the Funhouse. And a hearty Slap in the Face To Boot. :–)
John Cole
@John O: As I type this, I have a squirming puppy on crawling around my shoulders and behind my neck.
RoonieRoo
GCM and I are just now watching Heroes Season two and we agree – 10 lbs of suck.
Merry Christmas!
Krista
A squirming puppy crawling around you…it doesn’t get much better than that! (Better than my mom’s psycho cat running around the house knocking shit over, anyway.)
Merry Christmas, my lovelies!
ThymeZoneThe Plumber
Just watched the CNN report on the campaign, and relived the climactic moment on the evening of Nov 4.
Damn. What a great year, what a great thing. Merry Christmas, America.
kommrade reproductive vigor
I’d love to get a dog. The cats would love an excuse to crap on the bed.
Cats – 1, KRV – 0.
Merry Christmas, or as we liberal Baby Jesus hating Bible burners like to say: Happy Holidays.
lost in GA
No substitute for puppies. A very merry Christmas to all!
A Squirrel
Pine nuts taste like bacon:
After ganking tonnes of both pine nuts and bacon while putting myself through college bartending at a restaurant that served both that sprinkled on salads – you are crazy:) – Except they are both delicious.
Seriously, half my caloric intake came from making salads during a rush and stuffing my face with those two items. Both oily and tasty, but imho, the similarity ends there (unless your bacon is very much wood-smoked. Ok, no normal human would have eaten such quantities of either item, and I’ll stop talking about them.)
RE: Ygesias – That phrase caught my eye, as well, but I will admit that the Metric song he recommended yesterday kick ass. I bought that album today. It’s good!
And Merry Christmas everybody!
John O
John, I’m jealous. There is no joy like the joy of a puppy.
Christmas in a nutshell.
Have fun. Merry Christmas to you and all of yours. You host a wonderful blog, with sane, sensible commenters, and I love it here.
Thank you,
J
iluvsummr
Bush withdraws a pardon. Merry Christmas Isaac Robert Toussie. Merry Christmas BJers.
The Other Steve
the Minnesota recount isn’t over yet. There’s still something like 1600 absentee ballots they have yet to count.
calipygian
Bush didn’t revoke a pardon, the President of the United States revoked a pardon. Seems to me that the power belongs to the office, not the man.
Look out estates of Cap Weinberger and Tricky Dick!
The Other Steve
Yet another example of incompetence.
The Other Steve
That’s an interesting point. Can the President revoke a pardon, and if so… does that mean they could be revoked retroactively?
Genine
Happy Holidays, Juicers!
Just Some Fuckhead
Merry Christmas, BJ regulars.
Whole day off and all I got in the wine cabinet is Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc. Things can only get better from here.
Svensker
Svensker + 1 Eggnog (so far), and watching Christmas Carol. Life is good.
Pine nuts taste like crunchy butter with a faint hint of pine/wood. No bacon. Although if anyone wants to set me up with some samples of bacon and pine nuts, Id be willing to reconsider.
Merry Christmas! And God bless us, every one.
calipygian
Dick Fucking Cheney better hope the fuck not.
South of I-10
Merry Christmas y’all! Finally got all the present wrapping done, so I’m having a glass of wine. I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow.
Chuck Butcher
There are cats, there are dogs, then there are real dogs.
Polish the Guillotines
Merry Christmas, Juicers!
demkat620
@Chuck Butcher:
Gus is beautiful!
Hey John, my mother bought my JRT a powder blue turtleneck sweater.
I can’t wait to put it on him.
Will Hunting
Be careful with little puppies. They are like mustard bottles!
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Chuck Butcher: And then there are bears that [ahem] bear an uncanny resemblance to dogs.
Is he a Grand Pyrenees?
Comrade Stuck
@The Other Steve:
Yes, it’s called the Pitchfork Clause and is buried in the teeny tiny fine print in the Bill of Spites section of the Constitution. It’s never been used, but then there’s never been this many pissed off libtards.
Rainy
Heroes Season three is a lot better. They lost a lot of viewers with Season two.
Studly Pantload
@ThymeZoneThe Plumber:
Mrs. Pantload and I have (for now) permanently saved MSNBC’s election night coverage to our Tivo — matter of fact, we were drunkenly watching it the other night. Still makes me all verklempty. We’re actually going to stay in on New Year’s Eve and save our drinkin’-out pennies for the night of Jan. 20.
Brian J
I’ve only seen one full episode of "Heroes," which was the first, and while I meant to catch up, I never did. I’ll have to go with the opinions of others on this show, but there appears to be near universal agreement that it isn’t as good as it once was and could be. (There’s some hope among TV critics that since "Pushing Daisies" has been canceled, Bryan Fuller will return and make it good again.) I find this odd, since the trend seems to be shows getting better and better as time goes on, at least for the first few seasons.
Does anyone here watch "Damages"? It’s the one show in recent memory that I’ve started to watch from the beginning and actually followed. Even among shows I really like, I never catch every episode. Last season was awesome, and this season is supposed to be even better.
Laura W
I have just finished playing Joni Mitchell’s entire "Blue" CD while sobbing and singing every single word (totally off key). All the lights were off, 5 pillar candles were lit on the fireplace, and one pissy black cat sat forgotten, out on the back deck in the rain, waiting for me to shut up and remember to let her back in.
I feel downright reborn.
It really is Christmas!
Cheers, Sweetie Darlings, Cheers!
Warren Terra
The second point is by now a fairly old joke, that as cellphones have gotten small and sprouted wireless earpieces that have themselves gotten smaller, you can no longer tell whether someone is having a psychotic episode or talking on a phone. It’s madness gone politically correct!
Warren Terra
As I understand what I’ve read on the intarwebs, the pardon isn’t official until it’s been delivered to the recipient, and once it’s official (once it’s been delivered) it cannot be revoked. The pardon Bush announced and then canceled had not yet been delivered, so apparently he was still able to cancel it.
This does raise an interesting question about the posthumous pardons we see all the time and how exactly they’re delivered, of course. Maybe we should look for an especially repellent posthumous pardon issued sometime in the last couple of hundred years and demand that Obama revoke it?
demimondian
@The Other Steve: In fact, no, the president can not revoke a pardon. In this case, he didn’t technically revoke it — instead, he technically intervened at the last minute to not grant it.
South of I-10
@LauraW: sounds like Christmas Eve is going pretty well!
Laura W
@South of I-10:
I’m big on tradition. Lots of wine -> Blue -> sobbing -> off-key singing = Joyeux Noel!
It’s comforting and cleansing.
And narcissistic and self-centered.
But isn’t that what the spirit of the season is all about anyway?
Happy Holidays to the South of I-10’ers!
D0n Camillo
Does anyone here watch "Damages"?
I watched the first season and it was awesome. Glenn Close is amazing as someone both repellent and oddly sympathetic at the same time. I’m looking forward to season 2 starting in the new year. I’m also looking forward to more episodes of the American version of "Life on Mars". I loved the British version and was going to give the American version a skip, but so many people on BJ liked it that I decided to give it a chance. I’m glad I did.
A guilty pleasure that is starting again in January is USA Network’s "Burn Notice". Some of the episode plots are complete crap, but I’m a big Bruce Campbell fan and it’s a fun way to kill an hour. Gabrielle Anwar is quite easy on the eyes and, now that she lost that crap Irish accent from the pilot episode, is easy enough on the ears too.
Just Some Fuckhead
Never had ’em but I always think salmon cream cheese has a bacony flavor to it.
South of I-10
@LauraW: I finished my Christmas shopping two weeks ago. On Sunday, little South of I-10 sat on Santa’s lap and told him all she wanted was a teddy bear. Did I have a teddy bear? No. The teddy bear has been procured, food left for Santa and the reindeer and I am ready for tomorrow.
srv
My bluetooth/wifi-enabled homeless parking spot spotter idea never took root, but maybe demi can find angel funding for this one: Since the rest of the f*ing country (besides SF) is completely f*ing incapable of synchronizing stoplights, give stoplight controls to the homeless and pay them by intersection throughput.
I pick people up at SFO, and drive to mid-SF without stopping at a SINGLE stoplight. I go to Austin, laughably referred by some as Silicon Hills, and spend 4 minutes at stoplight at the airport exit. At 1:30 am. And that’s the short light.
I’d wish everyone a Merry Christmas, but I’m not sure what that really means at a god-hating site like this.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W: Sigh, whole day off tomorrow and all I got is a cabinet full of Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc. On the up side, things can only get better.
Laura W
@srv:
If we could also pay them to hand-walk idjuts through left turn protocol, I am so on board with this.
Mwangangi
Happy whatever the hell y’all celebratin’ (me, I’m doing an intersession class).
Brian J
Absolutely. The cast for the first season was excellent, and with Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt, among others, joining it for the second season, it looks like it’s going to be even better. I also liked the fact that you could kind of sense the truth behind the big questions with Frobisher but still had a lot of guessing to do about other stuff.
Just Some Fuckhead
I appear to be repeating myself.
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead: You’re just testing me to see if I remember #20, huh?
Fuckhead…did you sniff that white paint you call "snow"?
I always find that bacon has a baconish taste, don’t you?
EDIT: Too late. I caught you! Huffer!
Just Some Fuckhead
Had the inlaws over tonight and no fistfights or Fuckhead-generated controversy. Mrs. Fuckhead couldn’t let the night end peacefully so she confronted her nephew’s wife about her recent infidelity and they left abruptly.
That’s why God sent Jesus, ya know. So we could get together once a year and be really uncomfortable. I always feel like a burden’s been lifted for another year when everyone’s gone.
D0n Camillo
Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt? Nice. The script writers would have to hire Jonah Goldberg to screw up a lineup like that. January is looking pretty good for American television.
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead: I am sorry that Mrs. F. threw her nephew’s wife under your Santa’s Village-bound train.
But listen…next year, if you want to achieve that "burden’s been lifted for another year" feeling, lock yourself in a closet all alone and play BLUE all the way through and sing and sob. I mean it. Christmas miracles happen!
(And don’t worry about the paint huffing repetitive lapse because you are still riding on the fumes of last night’s Letterman quip, on my scorecard, so you’re good till this time tomorrow.)
And to all a good night.
Punchy
Still nobody wantz to talk Teixiera? Is it possible to hate da Yanks any more?
Brian J
My extended family is usually pretty good at not fighting like that. In fact, despite the fact we’re all Catholic, we have this WASP-ish like quality of keeping everything bottled up, or so I remember.
My nuclear family, on the other hand, usually has screaming matches before we ever leave for something like this. [deleted passage involved today’s nonsense that’s funny and not bizarre only if you know me in real life]
Comrade Stuck
No. But it heightens the pleasure when they lose. It’s like watching the Evil King pulled from his jewel laden throne and body surfed by the crowd of angry peasants.
Brian J
I don’t know about you, but even though I don’t watch as much television as I used to, I think there’s still a lot that’s good. There are probably even more good shows than there were in the past, but now, instead of being concentrated over a few channels, they are spread out over many channels.
I also think that American television could end up looking a lot more like cable or British television, with shows lasting only for a few, much shorter seasons. This is more of a hunch than anything else, but I expect some of the big networks to try a format where they are no repeats for most of the year. Except for the end of May to the beginning of September, there will be two shows, each with 16 to 18 episodes in some time slots.
Zuzu's Petals
@Laura W:
Well heck. The predicted Christmas Eve deluge never happened, so you really could have come here and drunk with me and then gone to see the Napa folks. They say deluge will happen tomorrow, though.
Portland is still wickedly snowy and icy, so I don’t feel too bad about canceling trip up there. My DiL made her grandmother’s version of chorag (an Armenian sweet bread)…so they will have a nice Christmas breakfast while snowed in.
D0n Camillo
I think that is a good idea. It is really hard to maintain a great narrative over 24 odd episodes as is required for your average American series. "Dexter" and "The Wire" showed what 12 episode series were capable of. I still think that 8 episodes per season for the British version of "Life On Mars" was a little stingy. And don’t even get me started on the 5 episodes for "City of Vice".
Still, I look forward to more episodes of the American "Life on Mars".
DougJ
Wonder why the Madoff scandal didn’t get detected for so long:
Comrade Kevin
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Chuck Butcher
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
Yep, Great White Pyrenese. Gus is the "show" variety, the "working" variety has a less heavy coat. In my experience most of the working ones are the show variety.
Raising a Pyrenese takes care because they imprint, and you can’t have them printing on what they shouldn’t. Gus doesn’t know from toys, his only toy is a 4 year old 12oz dishsoap bottle, smashed and dented to hell, but intact. He will pounce on it, carry it and throw it, and even play keep away but nothing else is of the least interest. My wife kept trying to buy him something as a toy, the last thing was a stuffed white cylinder with a pig face stitched into the end and little pink ears. He didn’t play with it, he’d carry it someplace and lie down with it and that was it. I kind of thought, "uh oh." Those with a SO can figure out why I didn’t say anything. Our cat, which he leaves alone, stepped on it or something and there was a hell of a ruckus as cat ran for life across two rooms onto our bed and down behind the headboard with dog stopped by headboard. Later that day my wife tried to pick it up from between his feet and got a very serious warning. Stuffed pig ‘went away.’ The reason they could be left alone with sheep on the side of the Pyrenese Mtns is that they would continue to print on sheep and keep them safe from wolves and bears and etc.
Chuck Butcher
Happy Hollidays y’all. Snowing steadily here, couple inches in the last hour – on top of a couple feet. Nothing real new in that, here.
Comrade Stuck
A heartwarming Christmas Poem penned by our Fun-in-house Poet Lariat.
Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house
The whole damn family
was drunk as a louse
Momma and Pappa
Were singing a song
The kid was in bed
Tooting his bong
Nite, John Boy, nite Zuzu, nite Laura and Fuckhead and
all the Balloon Juicers!
Warren Terra
From what I’ve read, the current American funding model for television shows is to strike it rich with syndication – and apparently rule 1 of syndication is that you need a hundred episodes broadcast for your show to get syndicated. This is, obviously, not compatible with a British-style season of a half-dozen episodes, each lasting from 30 minutes to an hour. Even the resurrected Dr. Who, for all it’s amazingly great, is only 13 episodes a year (and less next year).
Of course, the popularity of DVD box sets could change this; a high-quality show that produces fewer than a dozen episodes a year and far fewer than a hundred episodes in total could generate a lot of DVD sales, and producers could in theory make shows with that funding model in mind rather than syndication. HBO and Showtime, with their shows like Dexter and The Wire and with funding from subscribers rather than an advertising, have gone down this route, with more limited shows that aim for high quality and later DVD sales. But I’m not terribly optimistic that it will happen with the networks; after all, even when they adapt British shows (The Office, Life On Mars), the plan is for much, much longer seasons. The advertisers are likely to prefer the networks’ current model; after all, by the time the size of the audience for a short-season show can be determined it’s too late to sell advertising on it. And of course the advertisers love the syndicated shows, which are even more predictable.
It’s been OK, although I think it flagged after the first couple of episodes. I really wish Netflix carried the British version for comparison, though.
Conservatively Liberal
Merry HanukaChristmaKwaanza to my fellow BeetleJuicers and may you all survive it intact, hopefully smiling for a few before reality creeps back in. ;)
Hope you have fun with the folks John, and I hope you have a safe trip back home. Pick Tunch up a puppy for Christmas, he’ll love ya for it. :p
I saw the Obama stuff on CNN and while it was interesting I thought they liked to dwell on any potential negative aspect a bit too much. Maybe it is just me but that is the way it came across, almost like ‘well, there is nothing here but…’.
The next four years are going to be one hell of a ride. Count on it.
Jim
Merry Christmas John, and thank you for the blog.
Brian J
Warren Terra,
You make a good point that I forgot about. There’s definitely a buttload of money in the syndication market. That’s probably going to stay a profitable center for a long time.
I just think that the current model will be changed in a lot of ways. Repeats just don’t get viewers any more, at least not on network television. For some shows that are more serial in nature, like "Lost," I could see smaller seasons, with shared time slots. For shows like "30 Rock," it might be different. Then again, a show like "30 Rock" is more likely to be syndicated.
There’s definitely a limit to how many cable channels can realistically be supported, but right now, it looks like there are so many networks competing for the same number of eyes. I don’t see how this lasts for much longer.
There are a number of quality shows out there, but the biggest problem for the networks, which supply most of the original programming, seems to be quality. It’s kind of unfair for me to judge without having watched any episodes, but who the hell wants to watch a remake of "Knight Rider"? Probably not too many people. There must be something about this industry I don’t understand, because it doesn’t seem like it’s that hard to find one or two shows with the potential to grow into great shows, if they don’t start out that way, each season. It’s not as if there’s a shortage of people who want to work in television, and while it’s easier to go with a known quantity, perhaps relying more on fresh talent would make things better. It’s probably easier said than done, but this seems like the industry where taking risks reaps great rewards. At the very least, they couldn’t do any worse than they are doing now.
AnneLaurie
I don’t have Squirrel’s professional experience, but I believe that human taste buds perceive both toasted pine nuts & bacon as "High-calorie fat, fire-enhanced for digestibility, YUM!". As anyone who’s ever been, or been exposed to, a dieter can attest, resisting the craving for fatty foods is harder for a lot of people than resisting "sweets" (high-calorie simple carbohydrates). Bacon is the one meat product most responsible for vegetarians ‘cheating’, and pine nuts have a very similar effect on fat-cravers. Food-catnip for people.
Happy Return-of-the-Sun Holiday to all, and to all a good night!
Ash Can
Am enjoying a flute or two of tasty domestic bubbly (Stone’s Throw) after having made sure Santa found our house. Bottle Rocket has too many Legos already, but Santa, being a thorough softie, brings him a few more of the sets he wants. Atta boy, Santa. It’s all good.
Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it, and to those who don’t, have a relaxing and enjoyable day off.
Conservatively Liberal
I decided to look up a time chart for our area and winter solstice lasts five days here. From the 19th through the 24th, each day is the same length. So for us, Christmas marks the beginning of the return of the sun.
The wife and I celebrate our birthdays this month (her on the 20th and me on the 27th), so this month is the triple suck of fun for us! We celebrate our birthdays by planning a motorcycle trip every April so at least we get to put that off until then…lol!
bago
Can we upgrade from "slap in the face" to "kick in the teeth"?
BethanyAnne
Merry Christmas, everyone! I’m off this afternoon to a friend’s house to eat too much, and to play Dark Tower. Cheers!
MMM
Don’t roll over on the puppies. They have not harmed anyone.
I have a 2009 resolution for you…actually a spring/May 2009 resolution; want to guess what it is? Want to share it with everyone here?
It would be the biggest Christmas miracle since Brian was born in the manger next door.
harlana pepper
Puppies, Christmas and pine nuts?
Yes!!
harlana pepper
My next door neighbor is celebrating her first Christmas without any parents at all. Hug your loved ones.
harlana pepper
This website hates me by the way.
I have to say that if you told me a few years ago that Al Franken would be a US Senator, I would have laughed. Now if you told me our next president was gonna be black (and with a ‘scary name’ and unconventional upbringing as icing), I would have just been like, ‘oookay, sure. go play with the fairies, now’
I am so glad I am so colossally wrong some times.
maxbaer (not the original)
Merry Christmas Day, John and Tim and all Balloon Juicers.
Rejoice in the fact that we have survived yet another war on Christmas and the truce is on for another year.
Montysano
I have a brother-in-law who is a rightwing know-it-all, and I have suffered in silence lo, these many years while he shoveled his bullshit.
Last night he went off on the "poor brown people broke the economy" meme and I just lost it. Hilarity ensued.
Merry Christmas to all here at Balloon Juice!
Montysano
@Laura W:
Just above, I posted about my idiot brother-in-law. He got me warmed up by opining that Joni might be an "interesting" guitarist, but since she didn’t use "proper" technique (like he does, natch), you couldn’t call her a "good" guitarist, and what sort of a moron listens to anything except "good" musicians. He’s a real joy.
Joni’s "Little Green" might be the most lovely song evah.
DougJ
You sound eerily like someone I know. Your last name isn’t "Sturges" is it?
Studly Pantload
@harlana pepper:
Dunno what my dad’s doing, or even if he’s doing, but I lost my mom, last month, and today would have been her 65th birthday.
So, yeah, cherish those dear to you, and as well those times spent with dear ones passed. Raise a toast for the former, another toast for the latter, and a third just because ya freakin’ can.
Peace to all.
The Other Steve
Merry Christmas Trolls!
Blue Raven
Pine nuts are just plain tasty.
Season 3 of Heroes, from what I’ve gathered, is 10 lbs of WTF in a five-lb bag that still carries some of last year’s suckitude. I gave up on it mid-season two. Too many resurrections in the recaps for my blood.
And Happy Merry, gang. The deluge has hit the SF Bay area, and I’m only up now because I get to go have breakfast with the in-laws. We avoid national politics in our discussions and stick to safer areas of state ones, like our mutual disdain for Herr Gropenfuhrer. They’re from Bakersfield. Need I say more?
And I find since the BoSox got ring #2 to prove the first was no fluke that my seething hatred for the Yanks has transformed into an amused disdain laced with high-test schadenfreude. I saw that they signed Texeira for 8 years and realized they’ve gone insane. Trying the same thing that’s no longer working and clearly hoping it will again. I just feel smug in their general direction.
harlana pepper
Studly, I am so sorry. There’s not much one can say for comfort’s sake about something like that, other than to say I am sorry and I would be devastated, it’s something I will have to face one day.
Best wishes and plenty more loved ones and good friends for 2009.
On a lighter note, I totally love your ‘screen name’ – it’s one of my favorites. It ranks right up there with ‘komrade reproductive vigor’ :)
bernarda
"good" and "smart" are not words one necessarily associates with a Senator. They don’t seem to be in the job description.
Jon H
Pine nuts taste like death, but that might just be me.
Brian J
My sister-in-law lost her mother this past Sunday. I’ll be heading upstate tomorrow to go to the wake. I wasn’t going to go at first for a few reasons, but I am glad I’m now going. She really liked me, and she always made me laugh because she looked like Rue McClanahan from "The Golden Girls." As someone who gets frustrated with my mom frequently, I try to realize that I still have her, so I am lucky. I wish that one of my brothers and I would get along better, but maybe that will come in time.