Why are all the ads I see on BJ are always about shoes and jewelry?
Edit: In addition to the wingnut books and websites.
3.
Valdivia
do we know if John is still alive?
4.
geg6
I am so fucking sick of rain that I just want to scream. I can’t recall such a rainy late spring. It’s wreaking havoc with the planting season.
And the mulch was just delivered today. I guess I could sprinkle it over the mud in pretty patterns.
5.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: Browsing patterns. I keep getting an ad for the Fiat 500 since I looked at the website for it a week or so ago.
6.
cathyx
@Anya: You are telling us a little bit about what you’ve been doing online. I have ads for coffeemakers because I was researching for a new one.
7.
robertdsc-PowerBook
Starting my new exercise regimen today. Sledgehammer swings on an old tire and lugging a 20 pound bag of books around my neighborhood in the rain. I’m actually excited for this.
8.
opal
Glenn Greenwald.
9.
Omnes Omnibus
@robertdsc-PowerBook: I have read really positive things about the sledgehammer/tire workout.
ETA: Splitting wood with an axe and/or maul and wedge would provide a similar benefit.
Here too. The lawn is growing like a crazy thing and I can’t even get out and mow because it’s been raining every frigging day. This is not the Colorado I know and love.
12.
gogol's wife
I’m really sorry I missed the Eurovision thread last night. Why do they all speak a debased form of English? Ten or 15 years ago, it was much more colorful linguistically. This year even the Russians spoke English (and dressed like the Fonz)! I liked Serbia simply because they sang in Serbian.
finally caught Lions for Lambs….. yeah the interweaving of threads was heavy handed but still, liked the questions that were being asked.
14.
Anya
@Omnes Omnibus: @cathyx: Shoes and jewelery I’ll admit to, but I have never, ever checked any of the wingnut sites that appear on top of the page. Why do I always get dinesh d’souza’s book and the other wingnut sites?
And now I’m off to have coffee with my mother for a late Mother’s Day. It’s a blessing/curse thing, because all I want to do is sit in front of my flickering monitor and keep obsessing….
19.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: I think those key off some of the words in the post itself. The algorithm doesn’t distinguish between mocking righties and being righties.
20.
BGinCHI
@jeffreyw: Jeffrey, scroll down to Doug’s “shark sandwich” thread. Gave you a shout-out but you no-showed….
/shakes head in disappointment
21.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: It is really tiny. I don’t know that I would want to go smaller than a Mini Cooper S in a second car.
22.
BGinCHI
It’s a beautiful Febvember day here in Chicago.
40s, rain lashing sideways, a nice chase of recycling materials near the dumpster, leaves on the big trees still not fully out.
Thanks Obama.
23.
opal
Settling in for the first two eps of The Shadow Line.
Torrents are wonderful things.
24.
Davis X. Machina
@Omnes Omnibus: My 6′ 5″ brother has a MiniCooper. He also has triplets, and another kid. He and his wife call the Cooper “the escape pod”.
25.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: 40s, sunshine, and a 30 mph North wind here in Mad-town. Mme Omnibus is packing for a trip with her high school best friend to the Dominican Republic for a few days. Friend’s husband had to go back to Romania from NYC for a family emergency so a spare ticket and space in a beach front condo became available. Am I jealous and bitter? Does the fact that I am not a beach person come into play?
26.
Ash Can
@BGinCHI: The husband, bro-in-law, and I were at the Cubs game last night. We arrived in time for the first pitch and stayed until the tarp was hauled out after the sixth. Since the prez is a Southsider Sox fan, I think you might be onto something.
27.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I know where you’re coming from – there’s a reason we don’t have one. Anyone want to buy my kids so I can have a cool car? They’re really cute and wicked smart. Not so good at the chores, though, and the girl cries every time I say her name, but aside from that…
28.
martha
@Omnes Omnibus: We just returned from a beach trip. I’m not a “sit in sun and bake” person, but I’m perfectly happy finding a nice shade tree/shrub/palapa, a lounge chair, a book, and a cocktail. Add in an occasional stroll to and dip into the water, and I’m in heaven.
Do I sound bitter that it’s “Febvember” as BGinChi so aptly puts it. YES I AM. Sigh.
29.
shortstop
@jeffreyw: I don’t know who your spouse or partner is, but he or she doesn’t deserve you. Come live with me and be my love. The third baseman will understand after the first time you make dinner.
30.
Origuy
I rented a car a few weeks ago and I’m still getting ads from rental agencies. For a while, they were all for one-way rentals out of Arizona or Florida. Guess what the posts were about.
31.
Martin
And it’s raining and 60 here in SoCal, so can we join the poor weather club?
@Martin:
I’m enjoying it. Any May that isn’t stinking hot and dry is a good May in my book, even if it means we lose a few outdoor days to rain. The hills are still beautiful and green, and that’s worth the inconvenience.
37.
ChrisS
You’re looking at political blogs, so you get ads for political blogs & things. I get ads for solar and nuclear power. And exxon. And therapy.
Yay.
38.
Mouse Tolliver
Some Sunday afternoon schadenfreude. Atlas continues to get crushed by the weight of the world. Five weeks in release and it’s only made $4.5 million.
39.
patrick II
I was gone this past week, so I don’t know if this has been posted elsewhere, but it is a video of David Stockman, Reagan’s director of OMB, saying Ben Bernanke doesn’t have a clue. Howard Fineman’s amazed reaction nearly matches my own.
40.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: You could drive down and we could drink Belgian beer until Jewish Steel shows up and plays his guitar and then probably mayhem or naps.
Sitting in sunshine sounds dreamy. She owes you.
41.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mouse Tolliver: Any idea how much it cost to make? From the bits I have seen, I would guess that $4.5 million would bring it near the breakeven point.
42.
BGinCHI
@Ash Can: Can’t believe they let that game even start. Optimists in soooo many ways.
43.
shortstop
@Mouse Tolliver: Believe me when I say that Nelson Muntz’s HAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA is dainty compared to the one I’m doing now.
At least I’m not a Republican too. If I were, I might be starting to get a little clue that maybe I’ve been played. If Obama really is the biggest existential secret Muslim anti-colonial Kenyan threat to our American Way Of Life Evah, why has God told savior Pastor Huckabee not to run, but isn’t telling the guy who wears magic underwear not to run? Why does God hate America?
I saw three of those with M plates a couple of weeks ago. Looks like a sweet little car. Good luck to Chrysler/Fiat.
An yeah, enough with the rain already. I drove through a hub-deep flash flood on Thursday. It’s pouring now and the forecast is rain and more rain as far as they’re willing to predict.
54.
Yutsano
It’s raining in Seattle, it’s cool, it’s windy, and I lurve it. Suck on that haterz.
55.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: The al fresco spots don’t mind having her, but I’m thinking those are out today. Eau de chien mouille is a customer killer indoors.
@Omnes Omnibus: And here I thought the trauma had something to do with waffles. It seems like most bad Belgian experiences involve waffles in some fashion.
I rented a car a few weeks ago and I’m still getting ads from rental agencies.
I get ads for custodial equipment because I’m always Googling repair manuals for them. I don’t want to BUY a $15K floor scrubber, I just want to replace the bumpers because someone drove it into a wall.
So you are saying it is just a normal Seattle day?
More or less. At the very least nothing is happening that would keep me from venturing forth into the world. Save my own lassitude, but that’s adjustable.
@BGinCHI: Ah, I saw that, but I wasn’t sure it was a shout out and really couldn’t comment because you closed those off.
65.
Mouse Tolliver
@Omnes Omnibus: It cost $20 million, so it would have to gross about $40 million before it gets to the breakeven point, because the studio splits its earnings with theaters. Business is so bad theaters have been canceling it before its run is even finished. 70 theaters dropped it this week. 143 theaters dropped it the previous week. It’s only playing in 158 theaters now, which is funny because so many rightie publications were saying it would be on 1,000 screens by the end of the month when it first opened.
66.
stuckinred
Carlos Santana just got an award at the Atlanta Braves Civil Rights Game and said, in regard to the immigration laws, “I am one of those immigrants, Arizona and Georgia, you should be ashamed of yourselves”! Smooth!
67.
shortstop
@Omnes Omnibus: Via the Mel Gibson/Christine O’Donnell marketing strategy, they may. But flop is too kind a description of how it’s done in traditional theatres. And as you note above, paying $20 million for that talent and those production values does not indicate a free-market savoir faire.
68.
JScott
Balloon Juice ads are like a box of Belgian chocolates.
69.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Nope, when we were there last year, the Belgians were the least appealing Euros with whom we dealt. Everything was more complicated than it needed to be. They seem to have gotten the arrogance of the French without the charm and the commercial orientation of the Dutch without the friendliness. Bruges was pretty though, and Waterloo was cool.
70.
shortstop
@Mouse Tolliver: And by the second week, the studio was paying theatres to make up the deficit between receipts and what the theatres had paid to get the film.
I love that so much.
71.
Dennis SGMM
@Martin:
You have a year to wait before the 500 Abarth hits the US. The current version is a neat little car but, with only 101HP and 98 ft/lbs of torque on tap its performance is way less sporty than its looks.
Next year the turbo’d ABARTH version with 160HP will be for sale in the US. It might be worth waiting for, especially if you don’t want to lose those stoplight drags to geriatrics in Toyota Camrys.
Everything was more complicated than it needed to be.
Ah, you must not have gotten as far south as Italy.
Not that Italians don’t have 1,000,000 other redeeming traits, and we can always stare dreamily at them while they take forever doing what they’re doing. I believe they kill their homely citizens at birth, or at least never allow them out on the street.
74.
Omnes Omnibus
@shortstop: I spent time in Italy and Romania. I do adjust my expectation as I go south and east in Europe.
@Omnes Omnibus: My European experience was overwhelmingly positive, mostly because I was an American who actually bothered to speak their language. Granted this was Germany, and they would almost always answer in English, but the fact was they would smile greatly at my American accent and treat me so much better than my counterparts with me on that trip. The caveat of course being this was Germany and Belgium is a linguistic landmine, so definitely in this case YMMV.
@shortstop: Mrs J said that’s a personal foul on a fumble. When I pointed out it was a position in baseball she changed her call to “error on a foul ball”.
Your food prowess always compels me to conjure you when the subject comes up around here.
You have no peer.
79.
shortstop
@jeffreyw: Bwa! Ask her if she knows all the ways to get to first base. No, don’t. That’ll just make it worse. And tell her I understand her position, but there’s always FedEx if y’all are feeling charitable.
80.
Yutsano
@shortstop: FedEx will ship food packages in dry ice. But the containment requirements are pretty strict.
/former employee
81.
shortstop
@Yutsano: Stop scaring Jeffrey! Whose side are you on?!
82.
MikeJ
@Yutsano: Rain is a relative thing. Right now it’s really just mist. Yesterday afternoon we had showers. I don’t count mist as real rain.
@shortstop: Hey I was just saying it was possible. A lot of clerks at FedEx don’t like doing them though because they have to do an inspection on the container before they accept it.
@MikeJ: Interesting. I hear things falling outside my window, but maybe I’m just making that up in my brain.
84.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: I still enjoyed Belgium; it is just that my experiences have led me to view Belgians the way many others view the French ( who I tend to like).
85.
Ash Can
@BGinCHI: I’ve been bitching about Bud Selig and his fucking Fox Sports TV contract for just about 24 hours straight now.
@Omnes Omnibus: Flems or Walloons? They sure know their cycling…..
87.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, it only rained for an hour. It’s sunny now. Dried up and already 65. That’s about all the plants here need anyway. I’ll let y’all know when it rains again. Probably November.
@Dennis SGMM: Yeah, 101 is pretty weak. But I’ve got a neighbor with a GT-R and another with a Bentley, so pretty much anything is a matter of bringing a knife to a gunfight around here. Even the geriatrics are as likely to be pushing a decent BMW or Merc.
88.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: We were in Flanders (Antwerp and Bruges) the majority of the time. Waterloo was the only place we went that was, I believe, in Wallonia, and we were only there for a few hours.
89.
Yutsano
@Ash Can: Speaking of ruining baseball, I just read an article (that won’t let me link back to it) fluffing Pete Rose again. These folks just ain’t gonna give up, even though Rose full well knew he committed the ultimate sin in professional baseball. If he gets let back in I’m done.
(then breakfast, maybe catch that new Herzog doc after)
93.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: I have to get up a 3am to launch Mme Omnibus on her journey, so dawn is doable. However, as the challenged party, I get the choice of weapons. Apropos of nothing, have you ever fenced?
Mr. Prince, who resettled here last year after his security business faced mounting legal problems in the United States, was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times.
Next stop, Pyongyang, where Erik Prince will be importing Sudanese Janjaweed to put down burgeoning democracy activism in North Korea. I hope the bastard ends up like Mussolini.
102.
Ken
@jnfr: Did get lawn mowed Thursday, between showers. I’ve got a dozen bags of mulch stacked and ready to go, but today it’s raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock. Living in Buffalo, I’m thankful it’s not snowing.
103.
TomG
Hmmm guys?
Any thoughts about the libertarian Republicans (wealthy, even) who are apparently putting a lot of funding into the effort to get gay marriage passed in my New York State?
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jeffreyw
time for breakfast, yo
Anya
Why are all the ads I see on BJ are always about shoes and jewelry?
Edit: In addition to the wingnut books and websites.
Valdivia
do we know if John is still alive?
geg6
I am so fucking sick of rain that I just want to scream. I can’t recall such a rainy late spring. It’s wreaking havoc with the planting season.
And the mulch was just delivered today. I guess I could sprinkle it over the mud in pretty patterns.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: Browsing patterns. I keep getting an ad for the Fiat 500 since I looked at the website for it a week or so ago.
cathyx
@Anya: You are telling us a little bit about what you’ve been doing online. I have ads for coffeemakers because I was researching for a new one.
robertdsc-PowerBook
Starting my new exercise regimen today. Sledgehammer swings on an old tire and lugging a 20 pound bag of books around my neighborhood in the rain. I’m actually excited for this.
opal
Glenn Greenwald.
Omnes Omnibus
@robertdsc-PowerBook: I have read really positive things about the sledgehammer/tire workout.
ETA: Splitting wood with an axe and/or maul and wedge would provide a similar benefit.
cleek
time for someone to invent a cold vaccine
jnfr
@geg6:
Here too. The lawn is growing like a crazy thing and I can’t even get out and mow because it’s been raining every frigging day. This is not the Colorado I know and love.
gogol's wife
I’m really sorry I missed the Eurovision thread last night. Why do they all speak a debased form of English? Ten or 15 years ago, it was much more colorful linguistically. This year even the Russians spoke English (and dressed like the Fonz)! I liked Serbia simply because they sang in Serbian.
piratedan
finally caught Lions for Lambs….. yeah the interweaving of threads was heavy handed but still, liked the questions that were being asked.
Anya
@Omnes Omnibus: @cathyx: Shoes and jewelery I’ll admit to, but I have never, ever checked any of the wingnut sites that appear on top of the page. Why do I always get dinesh d’souza’s book and the other wingnut sites?
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
I know, I know, I’m only around like, once a week these days, & today I come w/ links. But I’m a woman possessed today.
If you’re curious about the Nakba Day events in Israel/Palestine:
Al-Jazeera and AP are doing good reporting, & following @ibnezra on Twitter is always a good idea.
I wrote this about it on Friday: “Dear Israel – Your house is on fire and you’re worried about the pilot light” http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/israel-palestine-yawm-al-nakba-2011/
Two books you can read to catch up on Palestinian history and nationalism: Baruch & Kimmerling’s The Palestinian People: A History http://peacenow.org/entries/reading_the_conflict_-_the_palestinian_people_a_history & and Khalidi’s Palestinian Identity:The Construction of Modern National Consciousness http://peacenow.org/entries/reading_the_conflict_-_palestinian_identity_the_construction_of_modern_national_consciousness
Davis X. Machina
@Anya:
Fat people can buy jewelry and shoes, and within reason, not worry about fit, or size, or it being flattering.
Bloggers are all fat, cheeto-stained wretches, chained to their Barcaloungers*.
Ergo, bloggers love jewelry and shoes. QED
*Can you also buy Real-loungers? ManU-loungers? Inquiring minds want to know.
Martin
What fucking wizardry is this? Newt attacking GOP policies from the left?
@Omnes Omnibus: Good for you. It’s a hot little car. I’d love to have one.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: Also, if you’re looking for a good take on the resignation of George Mitchell, read Mitchell Plitnick: “The Ignominious End of George Mitchell” http://mitchellplitnick.com/2011/05/14/the-ignominious-end-of-george-mitchell/
And now I’m off to have coffee with my mother for a late Mother’s Day. It’s a blessing/curse thing, because all I want to do is sit in front of my flickering monitor and keep obsessing….
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: I think those key off some of the words in the post itself. The algorithm doesn’t distinguish between mocking righties and being righties.
BGinCHI
@jeffreyw: Jeffrey, scroll down to Doug’s “shark sandwich” thread. Gave you a shout-out but you no-showed….
/shakes head in disappointment
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: It is really tiny. I don’t know that I would want to go smaller than a Mini Cooper S in a second car.
BGinCHI
It’s a beautiful Febvember day here in Chicago.
40s, rain lashing sideways, a nice chase of recycling materials near the dumpster, leaves on the big trees still not fully out.
Thanks Obama.
opal
Settling in for the first two eps of The Shadow Line.
Torrents are wonderful things.
Davis X. Machina
@Omnes Omnibus: My 6′ 5″ brother has a MiniCooper. He also has triplets, and another kid. He and his wife call the Cooper “the escape pod”.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: 40s, sunshine, and a 30 mph North wind here in Mad-town. Mme Omnibus is packing for a trip with her high school best friend to the Dominican Republic for a few days. Friend’s husband had to go back to Romania from NYC for a family emergency so a spare ticket and space in a beach front condo became available. Am I jealous and bitter? Does the fact that I am not a beach person come into play?
Ash Can
@BGinCHI: The husband, bro-in-law, and I were at the Cubs game last night. We arrived in time for the first pitch and stayed until the tarp was hauled out after the sixth. Since the prez is a Southsider Sox fan, I think you might be onto something.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I know where you’re coming from – there’s a reason we don’t have one. Anyone want to buy my kids so I can have a cool car? They’re really cute and wicked smart. Not so good at the chores, though, and the girl cries every time I say her name, but aside from that…
martha
@Omnes Omnibus: We just returned from a beach trip. I’m not a “sit in sun and bake” person, but I’m perfectly happy finding a nice shade tree/shrub/palapa, a lounge chair, a book, and a cocktail. Add in an occasional stroll to and dip into the water, and I’m in heaven.
Do I sound bitter that it’s “Febvember” as BGinChi so aptly puts it. YES I AM. Sigh.
shortstop
@jeffreyw: I don’t know who your spouse or partner is, but he or she doesn’t deserve you. Come live with me and be my love. The third baseman will understand after the first time you make dinner.
Origuy
I rented a car a few weeks ago and I’m still getting ads from rental agencies. For a while, they were all for one-way rentals out of Arizona or Florida. Guess what the posts were about.
Martin
And it’s raining and 60 here in SoCal, so can we join the poor weather club?
Martin
@Origuy:
Fertilizer bombs and federal buildings?
shortstop
@cleek: This. Whomever finally unlocks the secret to destroying a virus will be a world hero until the end of time.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: No. I am reliably informed that it never rains in southern California. Don’t make me break out the link.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: You have no dog to be walked, so you only get to be in the caterwauling chorus. No solo for you.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
I’m enjoying it. Any May that isn’t stinking hot and dry is a good May in my book, even if it means we lose a few outdoor days to rain. The hills are still beautiful and green, and that’s worth the inconvenience.
ChrisS
You’re looking at political blogs, so you get ads for political blogs & things. I get ads for solar and nuclear power. And exxon. And therapy.
Yay.
Mouse Tolliver
Some Sunday afternoon schadenfreude. Atlas continues to get crushed by the weight of the world. Five weeks in release and it’s only made $4.5 million.
patrick II
I was gone this past week, so I don’t know if this has been posted elsewhere, but it is a video of David Stockman, Reagan’s director of OMB, saying Ben Bernanke doesn’t have a clue. Howard Fineman’s amazed reaction nearly matches my own.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: You could drive down and we could drink Belgian beer until Jewish Steel shows up and plays his guitar and then probably mayhem or naps.
Sitting in sunshine sounds dreamy. She owes you.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mouse Tolliver: Any idea how much it cost to make? From the bits I have seen, I would guess that $4.5 million would bring it near the breakeven point.
BGinCHI
@Ash Can: Can’t believe they let that game even start. Optimists in soooo many ways.
shortstop
@Mouse Tolliver: Believe me when I say that Nelson Muntz’s HAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA is dainty compared to the one I’m doing now.
BGinCHI
@Martin: Are there no workhouses?
Oh, wait, CA. Never mind.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: I have unresolved issues with the Belgians since EuroTrip 2010.
shortstop
@Omnes Omnibus: $20 million.
BGinCHI
@shortstop: Deal. What time should I come over?
Jeffrey?
shortstop
@Omnes Omnibus: Everyone has unresolved issues with the Belgians. We all just have to find a way to not let it rule our lives.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: Okay, but you’re taking the late-night dog walking shift.
BGinCHI
@shortstop: Ouch.
If I had a dog it would be wearing Depends today.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: OK, I know a couple good wine bars. Shortstop can even bring her dog.
Cat Lady
@geg6:
Srsly. Fucking sunshine – how does it work?
At least I’m not a Republican too. If I were, I might be starting to get a little clue that maybe I’ve been played. If Obama really is the biggest existential secret Muslim anti-colonial Kenyan threat to our American Way Of Life Evah, why has God told savior Pastor Huckabee not to run, but isn’t telling the guy who wears magic underwear not to run? Why does God hate America?
RossInDetroit
@Omnes Omnibus:
I saw three of those with M plates a couple of weeks ago. Looks like a sweet little car. Good luck to Chrysler/Fiat.
An yeah, enough with the rain already. I drove through a hub-deep flash flood on Thursday. It’s pouring now and the forecast is rain and more rain as far as they’re willing to predict.
Yutsano
It’s raining in Seattle, it’s cool, it’s windy, and I lurve it. Suck on that haterz.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: The al fresco spots don’t mind having her, but I’m thinking those are out today. Eau de chien mouille is a customer killer indoors.
jeffreyw
@BGinCHI: Oh? I’ll run right down there.
Omnes Omnibus
@shortstop: I try, but the experience of trying to fuel a car in Antwerp is too fresh.
freelancer
@Omnes Omnibus:
20 mil.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: So you are saying it is just a normal Seattle day?
Omnes Omnibus
@shortstop:
@freelancer:
They might actually make a profit. Damn.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: And here I thought the trauma had something to do with waffles. It seems like most bad Belgian experiences involve waffles in some fashion.
RossInDetroit
@Origuy:
I get ads for custodial equipment because I’m always Googling repair manuals for them. I don’t want to BUY a $15K floor scrubber, I just want to replace the bumpers because someone drove it into a wall.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus:
More or less. At the very least nothing is happening that would keep me from venturing forth into the world. Save my own lassitude, but that’s adjustable.
jeffreyw
@BGinCHI: Ah, I saw that, but I wasn’t sure it was a shout out and really couldn’t comment because you closed those off.
Mouse Tolliver
@Omnes Omnibus: It cost $20 million, so it would have to gross about $40 million before it gets to the breakeven point, because the studio splits its earnings with theaters. Business is so bad theaters have been canceling it before its run is even finished. 70 theaters dropped it this week. 143 theaters dropped it the previous week. It’s only playing in 158 theaters now, which is funny because so many rightie publications were saying it would be on 1,000 screens by the end of the month when it first opened.
stuckinred
Carlos Santana just got an award at the Atlanta Braves Civil Rights Game and said, in regard to the immigration laws, “I am one of those immigrants, Arizona and Georgia, you should be ashamed of yourselves”! Smooth!
shortstop
@Omnes Omnibus: Via the Mel Gibson/Christine O’Donnell marketing strategy, they may. But flop is too kind a description of how it’s done in traditional theatres. And as you note above, paying $20 million for that talent and those production values does not indicate a free-market savoir faire.
JScott
Balloon Juice ads are like a box of Belgian chocolates.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: Nope, when we were there last year, the Belgians were the least appealing Euros with whom we dealt. Everything was more complicated than it needed to be. They seem to have gotten the arrogance of the French without the charm and the commercial orientation of the Dutch without the friendliness. Bruges was pretty though, and Waterloo was cool.
shortstop
@Mouse Tolliver: And by the second week, the studio was paying theatres to make up the deficit between receipts and what the theatres had paid to get the film.
I love that so much.
Dennis SGMM
@Martin:
You have a year to wait before the 500 Abarth hits the US. The current version is a neat little car but, with only 101HP and 98 ft/lbs of torque on tap its performance is way less sporty than its looks.
Next year the turbo’d ABARTH version with 160HP will be for sale in the US. It might be worth waiting for, especially if you don’t want to lose those stoplight drags to geriatrics in Toyota Camrys.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mouse Tolliver: Okay then, I feel better.
shortstop
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ah, you must not have gotten as far south as Italy.
Not that Italians don’t have 1,000,000 other redeeming traits, and we can always stare dreamily at them while they take forever doing what they’re doing. I believe they kill their homely citizens at birth, or at least never allow them out on the street.
Omnes Omnibus
@shortstop: I spent time in Italy and Romania. I do adjust my expectation as I go south and east in Europe.
n.u.m.b
Aha! Open thread. Looks like Blackwater/Xe have gone full on mercenary now…http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/world/middleeast/15prince.html?_r=1 No more pretending.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: My European experience was overwhelmingly positive, mostly because I was an American who actually bothered to speak their language. Granted this was Germany, and they would almost always answer in English, but the fact was they would smile greatly at my American accent and treat me so much better than my counterparts with me on that trip. The caveat of course being this was Germany and Belgium is a linguistic landmine, so definitely in this case YMMV.
(several edits. No can type this AM.)
jeffreyw
@shortstop: Mrs J said that’s a personal foul on a fumble. When I pointed out it was a position in baseball she changed her call to “error on a foul ball”.
BGinCHI
@jeffreyw: The “closed comments” was just a joke.
Your food prowess always compels me to conjure you when the subject comes up around here.
You have no peer.
shortstop
@jeffreyw: Bwa! Ask her if she knows all the ways to get to first base. No, don’t. That’ll just make it worse. And tell her I understand her position, but there’s always FedEx if y’all are feeling charitable.
Yutsano
@shortstop: FedEx will ship food packages in dry ice. But the containment requirements are pretty strict.
/former employee
shortstop
@Yutsano: Stop scaring Jeffrey! Whose side are you on?!
MikeJ
@Yutsano: Rain is a relative thing. Right now it’s really just mist. Yesterday afternoon we had showers. I don’t count mist as real rain.
Seattle Rainwatch: instant precip rate readings.
Yutsano
@shortstop: Hey I was just saying it was possible. A lot of clerks at FedEx don’t like doing them though because they have to do an inspection on the container before they accept it.
@MikeJ: Interesting. I hear things falling outside my window, but maybe I’m just making that up in my brain.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: I still enjoyed Belgium; it is just that my experiences have led me to view Belgians the way many others view the French ( who I tend to like).
Ash Can
@BGinCHI: I’ve been bitching about Bud Selig and his fucking Fox Sports TV contract for just about 24 hours straight now.
BGinCHI
@Ash Can: They are fucking ruining baseball.
@Omnes Omnibus: Flems or Walloons? They sure know their cycling…..
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, it only rained for an hour. It’s sunny now. Dried up and already 65. That’s about all the plants here need anyway. I’ll let y’all know when it rains again. Probably November.
@Dennis SGMM: Yeah, 101 is pretty weak. But I’ve got a neighbor with a GT-R and another with a Bentley, so pretty much anything is a matter of bringing a knife to a gunfight around here. Even the geriatrics are as likely to be pushing a decent BMW or Merc.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: We were in Flanders (Antwerp and Bruges) the majority of the time. Waterloo was the only place we went that was, I believe, in Wallonia, and we were only there for a few hours.
Yutsano
@Ash Can: Speaking of ruining baseball, I just read an article (that won’t let me link back to it) fluffing Pete Rose again. These folks just ain’t gonna give up, even though Rose full well knew he committed the ultimate sin in professional baseball. If he gets let back in I’m done.
@BGinCHI: And waffles. Don’t forget the waffles.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: You gotta hand it to them with frites, though.
Frites, mayo, and cycling. That’s a lot to like.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: I fucking hate mayo. The waffles are okay.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: Pistols at dawn.
(then breakfast, maybe catch that new Herzog doc after)
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: I have to get up a 3am to launch Mme Omnibus on her journey, so dawn is doable. However, as the challenged party, I get the choice of weapons. Apropos of nothing, have you ever fenced?
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus:
I knew I respected you for a good reason.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: I sold some stereo parts out of a van for a friend of mine, but that was a long time ago. Pretty rusty at this point.
Flexible on the movie, though.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: Well played.
BGinCHI
@Omnes Omnibus: OK, I’m gonna let you off with a warning for the mayo comment. We can compromise with a nice aioli.
You have your hands full with that wife of yours scampering off to tropical island pleasures. That’s enough to make anyone’s trigger finger jumpy.
At least have her bring back some dark, aged rum.
Omnes Omnibus
@BGinCHI: Rum is a good idea.
BethanyAnne
@Yutsano: I saw someone make felafel in a waffle iron! They were calling them fawafels :)
Joel
@Mouse Tolliver: I love how that wingnut clown titles his op-ed “Atlas shrugs off California”. I would argue the opposite is true.
Joel
@n.u.m.b:
Next stop, Pyongyang, where Erik Prince will be importing Sudanese Janjaweed to put down burgeoning democracy activism in North Korea. I hope the bastard ends up like Mussolini.
Ken
@jnfr: Did get lawn mowed Thursday, between showers. I’ve got a dozen bags of mulch stacked and ready to go, but today it’s raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock. Living in Buffalo, I’m thankful it’s not snowing.
TomG
Hmmm guys?
Any thoughts about the libertarian Republicans (wealthy, even) who are apparently putting a lot of funding into the effort to get gay marriage passed in my New York State?