This seems like as good a time as any to drop off the grid for a bit. It’s not as if our country is collapsing into the scrap heap of former empires or anything.
In an hour or two I’ll be heading up to a secure undisclosed location in which no landline exists, cell phone towers don’t reach — and neither does town electricity — which kind of renders the internet nonexistant.
Paradise in other words; paradise without a blog!
I’m pretty ready not to think about politics or our economic follies or just about anything other than when the sun crosses the yardarm or anything after about 1750 or so. So this works.
But just to show some connection to the world from which I’m temporarily checking out, here’s a cartoon of which I was reminded by DougJ’s latest BoBo snark (think exchange of genetic information):
(Via the invaluable xkcd.)
And to say farewell, temporarily, let me offer a song that captures what the last week or so has sounded like inside my brain:
<div align=”center”><iframe width=”560″ height=”349″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/RaQaa125EhI” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
Cheers all. See you in a fortnight.
(Open thread, this, if you like).
Valdivia
ha ha ha. That strip is incredibly funny.
General Stuck
When I get overloaded with digital info, I take my modem power pack and hike up a local mountain, and bury it in a tin can. Then the clock starts to whether my urges to get back on the grid, overtakes my natural inhibition of climbing mountains at age 58. Works to varying degrees depending on what happens in the world, one day up to a week max.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Take it slow doc.
Omnes Omnibus
Why pray tell is 1750 or so the period you won’t look past? New book in the offing? Big secret? Traumatized by Handel’s carriage accident? Inquiring minds want to know.
scav
I just watched Hawking yesterday so I’m seeing Benedict fall out of a train and draw things in chalk on a railway platform. Excellent bookend to the strip.
Mark S.
Oh baby
you’re speaking my language
You lost me there. I hate phones, but I do like electricity.
Lysana
@Valdivia: XKCD is a source of marvelous laughs and lately, some very deep truths regarding cancer. The cartoonist’s lady love was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer at the tender age of 28. His drawing of survival odds as a freeway with mid-road exits was stark and perfect.
And Tom, you enjoy that. Middle of this week, the husband and I are headed for his parents’ place in the heart of CA’s red zone. Ironically, we’ll be in better touch with the media since they have cable, but we’ll be needing to watch what we say when we venture out shopping. It’s getting away from our norm but a deeper reminder of why we’re left-wing.
Anne Laurie
Enjoy your vacation, and watch out for bears when you’re grubbing those acorns!
Lysana
FYWP for lying about my permissions to edit my own comment.
And I forgot to mention I get to dog-sit for the in-laws while they’re off at a class reunion. For a week, I will know the joys of tending two chihuahua mixes and a clowder of ferals.
JGabriel
Relax and enjoy, Tom! See you in a fortnight.
.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: Shouldn’t Andrew Sullivan be in Provincetown right now?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Everyone read the cheery article about the Prez in the Times?
Yutsano
If you make this cartoon come to pass, your name will become legend in the hallows of this blog. Which isn’t too far off from where you are now come to think of it.
BGinCHI
Love, love, love xkcd.
It’s the bestest, along with Dinosaur Comics.
Valdivia
@Lysana:
thanks for that info. so sad. will look at the others now.
ETA and Tom have a happy off grid vacay
BGinCHI
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
Can’t stand Drew Westen, but there’s a strong argument to be made that the Dems can’t negotiate with people who are wrong about everything and have every incentive to screw the many for the benefit of the few.
Yutsano
@Lysana: That would be this gem right here. Damn if that ain’t about right though.
jeffreyw
They say that a mortal’s attempt at perfection is a sin against the Gods. I have insurance.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Pretty funny. I totally read 1750 as 24-hour clock, ten minutes before 6:00 pm. Didn’t even think of it as a year until I saw your post.
Tom, have fun, chill, stay safe, and come back refreshed.
PurpleGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: 1750 = 5:50 p.m.
Tom — have a good trip and enjoy your time off the grid.
********
Surfing some other sites I periodically read, I returned to an artist’s blog and discovered her new project. Robyn is making (with help) 1500 20-inch squares to be draped around trees lining the roadway to an art exhibit in Cheongju, Korea. I decided to join the group and now by September 1st I have to have some 20-inch squares done. I’ll crochet mine. I need to pick a stitch tonight and pick out some yarn from my stash. I worked with/for Robyn on a project a few years ago — the Water Tower Cozy. I feel good about this.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl:
Are there any pictures of the Water Tower Cozy? I for one would enjoy seeing that!
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne:
@PurpleGirl:
I stand by my interpretation until disabused of it by TL himself. So there.
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne:
See
http://robynlove.com/watertower.html
That’s Robyn Love’s web site and this is the URL for pictures of the Water Tower Cozy. It was up for only one day.
TaMara (BHF)
@Yutsano: Honey, I just sent you an invitation to the prom. It’s okay if you say no, just wanted to check.
Elizabelle
Tom — enjoy.
Alwhite
If Scientists behaved like pundits:
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2330
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Yutsano: How ya feelin?
Dee Loralei
Have a great break, Tom. I envy you. And that Green Day song may just become my new anthem, though I was leaning towards some Clash.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@PurpleGirl: The url or the “cozy”?
Yutsano
@TaMara (BHF): Shot you an answer back. And I got a funny story to continue the dialogue when it comes to that.
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): I’m hanging in there. I may start some pushback on the ortho due to my pain levels but that’s still a ways down the road. I just want titanium body parts, is that so wrong?
BGinCHI
Has there ever been anything funnier in 4 minutes than this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92vV3QGagck
Watch through to the end to hear the Germans’ argument against the goal.
different church-lady
What, again?
Comrade Mary
Have a great vacation, Tom. Here’s a little something before you leave:
Cat on Boat Plays with Dolphins
JPL
Tom, Have a great vacation. You will be missed.
Tom Levenson
@Omnes Omnibus:
New book: working on the birth of the financial revolution (no present significance…no, no, none at all.)
Really looking a little earlier than 1750 — but that’s a pretty good date for the point when the basic outline of the modern idea of money is firmly in place.
BGinCHI
@Tom Levenson: Just remember this axiom, Tom:
A fool and his money are soon partying.
JPL
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Yes.. A lot of the opinion piece resonated but it failed to mention that Obama thought he could be President to all the people. He also wanted to change the tone and that gave the repubs the opportunity to polarize against him. He was NOT ready for the backlash.
Lysana
@Comrade Mary: That’s not a boat. It’s the resident cat at a water park.
Tom Levenson
@Mark S.: We’ve got a generator, which we use for maybe an hour so of lights in the evening. But it’s amazing how little electricity one needs if you don’t bother with a lot of stuff. And propane ‘fridges work, as does the beer pool in the stream.
There is a retired engineer not to far from us who has built a micro hydroelectric plant, just because he can. Cool — but not necessary. (And not even a little bit cheap._
JPL
@Tom Levenson: I can do without several comforts of home but I do appreciate a hot shower and a flushing toilet.
Comrade Mary
@Lysana: But those are real dolphins and not animatronic simulations, right? RIGHT?
Amir Khalid
@jeffreyw:
Thank goodness it is not quite dawn yet in Malaysia, and I can still look at your food pr0n.
PurpleGirl
@Raven (formerly stuckinred):
That’s the URL for the specific page with the pictures of the water tower cozy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tom Levenson: Sounds interesting. Development of joint stock companies, stock exchanges, and the like? I am looking forward to reading it. Have a great vacation.
Yutsano
@Comrade Mary: Cat: “I wonder if it tastes like tuna.”
Dolphin: “I wonder if it tastes like tuna.”
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Yutsano: That’s what the harrington rods on my spine are made of and they’ve been swell for all these 35 years!
jeffreyw
@Amir Khalid:
Is the dawn breaking yet? ‘Cause here’s another one for ya.
Amir Khalid
@jeffreyw:
Ooh, just made it in time.
ETA: And I do loves me some jalapeno peppers.
Yutsano
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Yeah, but my problems are A) I’m young, so they don’t really make replacement hips for people my age and B) I’m really flexible, so they really are concerned I’ll dislocate the joint too easily. They may just have to custom design a joint for my needs. Which will get expensive fast.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Yutsano: You’re young, well damn, poor you! :) I was young when I broke my back.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@PurpleGirl:
It
was
a
joke
opie_jeanne
@Lysana: Where are you going, Bakersfield?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@JPL: The brother should have known better. . .or at least someone in his crew should have,
Comrade Mary
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Harrington rods? Did you have spinal fusion for scoliosis? (I did — and yeah, it’s been 35 years for me.)
Poor Yutsy. Physio will get you better than you are now, but it’s a long road.
JPL
@BGinCHI: Thank you.. I needed that.
JPL
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): You would think.. At least Rahm is now the mayor of Chicago so no longer involved. The reaction of the repubs after the inauguration caught me off guard. There was such a great time of hope and splat. McConnell knew if he couldn’t stop the movement, the repubs would not regain control for a decade or more. They adopted the splat theory. (screw the country)
Edit.. Somehow I don’t think Tom will be writing about the splat theory.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Comrade Mary: No, compression fracture T-6 in a nasty van wreck. But yes spinal fusion with a bone graft from the hip. I was insanely lucky, sleeping in the back of the van when machine gun mike hit a fire plug and a telephone pole. Also very lucky to have been in Atlanta where the Emory orthopods hooked me up. I was in Grady for 2 months but got up and walked out of that puppy.
eta, I’m glad yours worked out too!
PurpleGirl
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): K. I wasn’t sure what you were asking. Sometimes jokes go right past me.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@PurpleGirl: just slap me
lamh34
Just saw Crazy, Stupid, Love!!! it was soooo good!! I’ve never been much of a Ryan Gosling fan (never saw The Notebook), but I so have a new white boy crush…lol! Oh & I would so have Steve Carrell’s babies…LOL
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus: Can we be friends again if I tell you that I, too, hate mayonnaise?
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl: Thanks! Love that it was orange :-)
licensed to kill time
Y’all should check out God’s Blog at the New Yorker.
Cracked me up, the comments!
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: It was supposed to be a giant pencil — the black was the carbon/lead, the cream was the wood, and the orange was the outer most surface color of a pencil. It was thought up by a Toronto ad agency for a pro bono campaign they were doing for a charity in England. Robyn Love was hired to design the cozy and find people to help her make it. We received small stipends from the Toronto agency.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Comrade Mary:
You know I often think that if the theory of dolphins leaving the ocean and then changing their minds and going back is true (like the Whales) then really they made the right decision. True they have their perils but when you think about it what do they have to do all day? Eat, sleep, play, make baby dolphins, play some more, eat some more, make more baby dolphins. When we naked apes crawled from the water and began this oddysey of building and managing the land, I wonder if we realized how difficult we would make it for us to actually survive on this sometimes barren planet. If reincarnation exists I wanna come back as a Dolphin.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Sure, but when weren’t we friends?
Yutsano
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Yeah yeah yeah problems of the pups I’ve heard it all before. At least I can say I have something in common with Bo Jackson now.
@Comrade Mary: I’m working with a physio now in fact. Well working is being mild. I’m getting tortured twice a week by an Amazon from Montana. I’m not kidding, she is NOT a small woman!
hilts
Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation
h/t http://www.mediaite.com/online/tea-party-nation-founder-liberal-ideology-killed-a-billion-people
Amir Khalid
A few threads down, I outed myself as an X-Files geek. I don’t know, man, maybe I shouldna done that.
FlipYrWhig
@Tom Levenson:
Cool. I hope there’s a big section about the South Sea Bubble.
Yutsano
@Litlebritdifrnt:
-Douglas Adams
Valdivia
@Yutsano:
sorry to hear you are in a bad way. :(
Hope you get better with PT…
@licensed to kill time:
needed that laugh. great.
FlipYrWhig
@different church-lady: Suckiest collection of relics, ever.
licensed to kill time
@Valdivia:
I loved the spoiler alert and the complaint about commenting system. So bloggy! :)
eta: and the s.p.a.m.
now we know why you couldn’t say s.h.o.e.s. on here for so long.
shortstop
In case anyone is wondering about Anthony Weiner’s post-Congressional employment, he’s selling beer at Wrigley Field.
I totally wish I’d gotten a photo of this doppelganger, but I forgot to juice my phone again. Maybe tomorrow night.
Violet
@Tom Levenson:
Lived without it for years. You don’t really need electricity. Life’s a lot simpler without it.
Have a great trip, Tom!
shortstop
@Amir Khalid: Now that cracked me up.
BGinCHI
@shortstop: You get rained on?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Yutsano: You’re my horse if you never win a race!
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@shortstop: When we went to Urbana for the 4th we had a 3 hr layover at Midway so we took the El up just to look at Wrigley from the platform!
Dee Loralei
@Amir Khalid: Dude, you may be hanging your head in shame, but I’m cracking up. So thanks for that.
shortstop
@BGinCHI: No, but the Cubs did. Haw, I am hylarious.
No, just made it home before da rain. And it was a decent game; they fought bravely and well, but there will be no eight-game winning streak.
Elie
@BGinCHI:
Well by definition, that is not a negotiation, is it? I think its fair to say that it is a challenge to any entity trying to work out an agreement without violence with people holding guns to innocent heads. Yeah, that is pretty hard unless you don’t mind brains on all the bystanders. Is that what you call a solution?
I think that people familiar with hostage crises (an imperfect anology for what happened), try to wait out the hostage taker or eventually talk them out of the situation. The anology becomes imperfect when you consider that the last strategy is to “take out” the hostage taker. Clearly, that would not work in the situation we are in.
Yes, it is difficult to manage this situation. I guess the question that I have is whether it makes sense to blame the people trying to free the hostage. No.. that doesnt help, does it.
I also wish we weren’t here in our history and politics. However, we have been heading to this place incrementally for a long time — through watergate, the Clinton impeachment, Bush vs Gore and the excesses of 911. We couldn’t predict this exact situation, but the right has been escalating and testing the limits for a while. The question is what to do about it.
I think that the answer lies in the body politic — the people who vote and either put these people and their policies in office or eventually see the light. It seems a long time to see that change and like other tipping points, you don’t always know when its going to happen.
Americans have a lot to adjust to these days. Their fear and anxiety makes them short sighted and reactinary. Its a test for our representative democracy. It is not the first time and won’t be the last. There is no magic here. Patience, working hard and the discipline of strong values is what I believe in. If we are not certain about the right way to behave in a democracy, and that we must always try to protect the hostages – the weak and powerless, then that is the only way they win….
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@shortstop: Last time I went to a game the Mets hit TWO grand slams in one inning!
AA+ Bonds
:(
shortstop
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Was this four or five years ago? If so, the third baseman was there with some friends, and one of them had a bright-eyed little kid in full Cubs regalia. After the 2GS inning (which, IIRC, weren’t even the only Met runs in the inning), the kid started to cry and all the adults rushed to comfort him. But his own mother said, “No, no, he has to learn. Our lives are already ruined, but there’s still time for him.”
BGinCHI
@Elie: Agreed. But it does make you want to kick a Tea Partier in the teeth.
I can only hope the American electorate gets frustrated and angry in a smart way at the polls.
Elie
@Amir Khalid:
Heh heh heh… I am chuckling also…
I’ve been trying to wean myself from those stupid reality show “Housewives” of wherever… I am just fascinated by these creatures and can’t tear my eyes away from their crazy delicious viciousness.
My husband thinks I’m insane, and I know its just crazy, but its like watching the dumbest girls in the High School fight in the bathroom then cry over their broken fake nails while spraying Aquanet on their beehives.
BGinCHI
Hey Texas, please take some of our rain. Obviously God loves us too much and your prayers are not working.
Elie
@BGinCHI:
yeah — know what you mean. I think that th Housewife shows give us a read into the heads…not too hopeful that it will be a short time to sanity
Valdivia
@licensed to kill time:
yes. To all. The meh one was just fucking genius too. Oh and the one about Vishnu and the paywall.
Hal
God, I hate Democrats. Reading Drew Weston’s “What Happened to Obama” Obituaries in the NYT, and of course, it’s filled with the the obligatory “I voted for Hillary” “I warned my friends” ” Only I saw the truth” bullshit only Dems are capable of.
Weston, Krugman, Maddoew; et all, are Political Idealists,not Political strategists. It never amazes me how much Dems are willing to give up the farm in order to feels superior to everyone else. Fuck it. I give up and Politics, and wait for our Republican overlords.
Dee Loralei
I was listening to “Weekend All Things Considered” on my way to the grocery store, and they had an interview with the editor of a new cooking magazine called “Lucky Peach.” Has anyone here read it? The first issue is all about Ramen noodles. Apparently it has some recipes and some chefs cussing each other and it sounded pretty cool. A years subscription is like $28, but I’m trying to cut back on my dead tree stuff, and their web site is only to sell subscriptions from what I can tell. And they are working on an App, so I don’t know if I should run to B&N and pick one up.
Dilemma, dilemma. (Yes I would rather worry about something so trivial because tomorrow who knows what the markets will do. Apparently 2+ trillion dollars was lost in the last week. And the Nikkei opens in a few hours.)
Tom may be really glad he was away from any news of the world ending, LOL.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@shortstop: Yea, it was really really hot that day. Great story!
jeffreyw
Here’s a link to a gyro-scope. LOL
Served
Is anyone here familiar with InDesign CS5.5? I can’t get a simple “Go To Page” Button to work and I have no clue why.
licensed to kill time
@Valdivia: yep. a virtual tour of blogitudes ;)
Yutsano
@Dee Loralei: Just keep saying to yourself over and over: the stock market is not the economy. The stock market is not the economy…
Valdivia
@Hal:
I simply did not read it. After that first graph I knew what was coming.
Violet
So I’m reading that Geithner is going to stay on as Treasury Secretary to avoid an “unsettling transition” or something.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
First, Cliff Floyd homered with the bases loaded. Then, Carlos Beltran did the same. After David Wright added a two-run shot, New York had 11 runs—the most in a single inning in club history.
Valdivia
@licensed to kill time:
I think it’s telling we find it so funny. We know the shorthand!
shortstop
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): I continue to be grateful that I had to be somewhere else that day. I don’t even remember where now, but I still remember my husband’s abject horror mixed with fake insouciance as he told me all about it.
licensed to kill time
@Valdivia:
Oh gawd, yes. I was reading it aloud to my SO who does not read blogs, and had to keep stopping and explaining why it was funny. What does that say about me.
Valdivia
@licensed to kill time: I forwarded to some freinds and they wrote back saying they did not get it! They don’t read blogs! Oh well I enjoy it a lot thanks!
lamh34
@Violet: I saw that and I can see why that decision was made.
Can you imagine Obama trying to get anyone appoited let alone nominated?
The fuckin’ repubs won’t even have a complete recess so that which is why POTUS hasn’t been able to make any recess appointments.
From all we’ve seen of this GOP so far, why would they be reasonable to let a fair and fairly Secretary of the Treasury nomination right?
Yutsano
@lamh34: Of course if Geithner did resign I’d kill if Obama put up Elizabeth Warren as his replacement. Just for shits and giggles.
Violet
@licensed to kill time:
That is awesome. Thanks for the laugh. Love the complaint about the commenting system.
FlipYrWhig
@Hal: To try to bring multiple strands of this conversation together, it’s like being a frustrated Cubs fan whose idea for how to fix the team is to draft and sign better players. Well, no shit. How do you do that? It’s not the same as complaining that the current team has problems, which is obviously true. It’s figuring out the repeatable practices by which those problems get, first, mitigated, then, second, worked out of the system.
licensed to kill time
@Violet:
I knew people here would get it. It made me think of John Cole as God, and his bitching minions, haha!
Josie
@Elie: I strongly agree with what you have said here, and I always enjoy reading your comments. You are so reasoned and calm. We need more of that.
mcmullje
I love your comments, but know you need a rest.
Have a restful peaceful time.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl:
Pencil, eh? Well, I have to say I missed that but will go back and have another look.
@Omnes Omnibus: We always were, but I was thinking of that whole “1750 So There” thing.
Josie
@Elie: Here is a story that shows a tiny little victory and an example of how to proceed. I know Dana Milbank can be pretty villagey at times, but here he nails it pretty well.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-faa-shutdown-and-the-new-rules-of-washington/2011/08/04/gIQAJIUOvI_story.html
SiubhanDuinne
@shortstop: Don’t worry about juice for your camera. He’ll take his own picture and tweet it to you.
shortstop
@SiubhanDuinne: Gasp! I failed to think of that.
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: There is an educational group in England involved with graphics and art education — D&AD. They have an annual award — the White Pencil Award. (I guess the “White” was added within the last two years.) A Toronto ad/pr agency (I don’t remember their name) was doing a pro bono campaign for them in 2009. Someone on their staff got the idea of a water town wrapped in a “cozy” that looked like a pencil. Robyn was hired to implement the idea and design the crocheted piece and find a water tower to wrap. The ad agency would create a 30-40 second video on the making of the pencil. (It was on the internet very briefly before it was removed.) The two videos that Robyn has on her site were created by Lion Brand Yarn, the company from whom she bought the yarn we used. (Lion Brand loved the idea.) It’s hard to tell that it’s a pencil. But that was the idea.
It was fun to do.
Elie
@Josie:
Yeah, that is heartening, though I disagree with Milbank’s conclusion that Obama lost the debt ceiling decision, but that’s for another day…
Elie
Tom:
Have a great vacation and escape this weird place the nation is in right now. Come back refreshed and ready for more.. :-)
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Pshaw, ’twere nothing.
Liberty60
Damn cheeky Anglophiles-
How long is a fortnight again?
PurpleGirl
@Liberty60: 14 days
JCT
Couldn’t agree more, Tom. Just submitted a grant and I’m going to treat myself to 2 weeks of camping in the Smokeys as a present. No phones, no electricity. Hell, only bringing my manual film cameras !
Can’t wait.
RosiesDad
Enjoy the time away, Tom. As you well know, it’ll all still be here when you return.