I attended Tampa’s pirate festival on Saturday. I’m feeling better now. Truth is, the event seemed subdued compared to previous years’ invasions. Here’s a shot of the fake pirate ship preparing to land at the Convention Center and disgorge dozens of tipsy councilmen, heart surgeons and bankers dressed in swashbuckler garb:
In past years, that channel would be so clogged with boats you could walk from the Convention Center to Tampa General without getting your feet wet. The lowish turnout couldn’t have been the weather, which was lovely.
It seemed to me the Convention Center staff had aired the place out sufficiently to remove the loser stench from the GOP Convention, but maybe it lingers in a way that is only detectable to Republicans. Oh well. Shorter lines at the loo, so it’s all good.
Please feel free to discuss whatever.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Could it be that these are the only people left who can afford to put a boat in the water?
Naah, it’s probably the lingering stench of epic Republican fail that is scaring everyone away.
dr. bloor
Why would the pirates bother invading Florida if your governor has already deposited the state’s treasure chest in the Caymans?
I smell a new Hiaasen novel.
Ben Cisco
I’ve missed various chances to welcome Elon James White aboard. I’m a fan, and am very glad to see him here.
mikej(droid)
Seattle’s pirates come in July. We should set up an exchange program.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Today is National Curmudgeons Day. I’m sure the folk gathered here will celebrate it properly.
Punchy
I thought all Pirates came from Pittsburgh….
dr. bloor
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Go to hell.
And my soup is cold.
Robin G.
This post reminded me to try and get the kids I watch to check out the pirate episode of Doctor Who. The three year old has turned total screaming fangirl overnight, and as much as I love The Eleventh Hour, it’d be nice to watch more than just that one episode twice daily.
Baud
The theme for the GOP convention should have been “We looted that”.
RAM
I see over on Raw Story that snarling loser Bay Buchanan is the latest rat to scurry off the sinking right wing ship. In keeping with the right’s amazing ability to be wrong about just about everything, she’s decided to sell real estate, and as far as I can see, this is not a story lifted from the Onion. I would have thought her more the used car salesperson sort.
Baud
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Just one day, huh? Figures.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Why today? Couldn’t they have picked a better day than this one? Why wait until the end of January? Why not the beginning of February?
I’ve got better things to do than celebrate some stupid fucking day for cranky assholes.
arguingwithsignposts
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Every day is national curmudgeon’s day at balloon juice.
ETA: My Lawn, Get off it.
Mark S.
Why did they put all those different colored flags on the pirate ship? It doesn’t look very pirate-y.
redshirt
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Bah! It was better back in the old days.
General Stuck
How low will the banksters go? All the way down to fleecing the jobless
On most planets, this would be called theft by deception. But Not on Planet
EarthProfit.PurpleGirl
@dr. bloor: That’s just being cranky, which is not the same as curmudgeonly.
Cassidy
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Piss off.
Comrade Jake
Chait absolutely shreds the latest installment of wingnut from the Washington Free Beacon and Matthew Continetti, son-in-law of William “The Bloody” Kristol.
Mark S.
This really reads more like an Onion article:
Bay Buchanan quits TV punditry, takes online real estate class after Romney’s ‘brutal’ loss
But Bay’s a little too D-list to make a joke about.
Poopyman
@Mark S.:
Each flag represents a different letter of the alphabet. Of course, in the pirate alphabet every letter is “arrrr!”.
redshirt
I forget what comic I read this in, but it went a little something like this (scene – pirates are on a beach with a big treasure chest in front of them):
Pirate Captain: Y’argh. We bury the treasure here.
Pirate mate: Ah, Captain, what if instead of burying the treasure, we use it to buy goods and services?
Captain:……
(takes out revolver, shoots mate)
We bury the treasure here!
jibeaux
I know it’s a serious note, but I just want to urge you if you haven’t yet to call your Senators and Reps about gun control. 1, we need to keep this going. Every time there’s some horrible shooting, there’s a short spike in the conversation for about 2 days and then no one talks about it again. That needs to change. 2, a Sandy Hook victim’s father was heckled at a town hall meeting, with NRA assholes yelling “Second Amendment” at him as he spoke. You can bet your booty those assholes are calling their reps. Do it for the victims.
liberal
Downton Abbey: could blow jobs have saved her? [implicit spoiler alert]
J.
Pirates, booze, and boats? What could possibly go wrong?
So, did you get to speak pirate, Betty?
On a totally unrelated note, for those who did not catch Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams (aka Honey Bri Bri) slow jamming the debt ceiling last night, here you go. Oooh yeah. Fiscal cliff sex-ay time.
redshirt
GOS related: What is a “TTFN”?
Baud
@redshirt:
Ta Ta For Now. A temporary absence as opposed to Good Bye Cruel World, which is supposed to be permanent.
General Stuck
Brooks has been sneaking hits off Modo’s crack pipe again.
Analogy fail. Billy Bob only stays at Motel 6. Otherwise, it sounds like the Custer Plan. Split your babies and adjust the bullshit.
redshirt
@Baud: How lame. I pat myself on the back for deciding years ago never to wade into the comments there. Great front page stuff usually, but the comment section is… ug.
Baud
Where’s Raven? I can’t believe he’s going to miss out on National Curmudgeons Day.
Baud
@redshirt:
I gave up on them in 2010. The front page was better than the comments, but not enough to make me want to hang out there. What they offer is quantity of information, and they do have good people there, but as a whole that community just went in a different direction than I was going politically.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Baud:
Kos made TTFN = GBCW yesterday. He’s getting tired of all of the drama queens and rep farming via diaries like that. I had to laugh at Kos saying that most people who did either eventually returned. Not me. I burned my bridge there back in 2006 and I haven’t had the slightest inclination to rejoin that fucking mosh pit of stupid. I do like to head over there to rubberneck the daily train wrecks though.
Lately it’s been the RKBA assholes (2nd Amendment huggers) who have been raising hell to keep their ‘babies’ safe.
jeffreyw
Thread needs moar kitteh. Yarrr!
Baud
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Seems like they’re constantly doing purges over there. I’ll sympathize by noting some of that comes with being the big kid on the block and attracting the most attention. I always thought their biggest problem was a lack of identity about what that community was about. Like you said, a mosh pit.
kerFuFFler
Gasparilla Day? I went to elementary school in Tampa and remember looking forward to the festival and the rides. Had kind of forgotten about it, so thanks for the reminder.
Suffern ACE
@General Stuck: westin vs. Sheraton = $75 a night for a nicer lobby. Blue Green vs. Green Blue at least are different in ways that matter.
Jerzy Russian
I have wondered about this. Also too, what about the airplanes, taxis, shuttle busses, etc. that were used to move delegates too and from the venue? Do those things get aired out too?
themann1086
So apparently the fever swamp view on the election is that Romney really won, but the Chinese and voter fraud (voting while black I guess) stole it for Obama. Overheard this from someone getting a Physics degree next year. This country is doomed.
Fouten
The world’s longest contiguous sidewalk is right there!
I find it fascinating.
Suffern ACE
@themann1086: that scientist might be mad. But anyway, I can’t see china wanting Obama over Romney. That whole pivot to Asia thing doesn’t make them happy.
Joey Maloney
@RAM:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@RAM: Heh. This is kind of like when some actor who was on a middling TV hit twenty years ago announces their retirement and people say: “Who? Oh, yeah. S/He’s still alive?” Arguably the only thing weirder than Willard sending Bay B out as a surrogate was dragging John Sununu out of the hate-infused mothballs he’d been sleeping in since he got fired from Crossfire in 1997.
aimai
@General Stuck:
Actually it seems pure Friedman–MoDo very seldom speaks marketing talk or of brands and customization. She’s all about the gossip and the pop cultural references.
General Stuck
@aimai:
LOL, could be
Mark S.
@RAM:
I swear I didn’t see your comment earlier.
japa21
@Joey Maloney: There goes my breakfast.
Mike in NC
Would love to see Lord and Lady Rmoney dressed up as pirates, since looting has been the story of their lives, but they lack a sense of humor.
General Stuck
Obama is taking no prisoners on his march to the wingnut sea.
That should be worth an entire chorus of squeals from right wing culture warriors. War is all hell.
General Stuck
@General Stuck:
linky fix
Ben Cisco
Having a Stevie Ray kinda day.
Ben Franklin
Dijon is selling their prized wines to pay for social programs
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-29/dijon-sells-wine-stock-as-french-economic-slump-hits-budget.html
China is rumored to be developing a gold-backed currency. If oil can be pried from the Petrodollar, you might want to stock up on your favorite liquor while your currency of choice is still in vogue.
Mnemosyne
@jeffreyw:
Bitsy! I love calico attitude.
Since this is an open thread, I’ll mention that G and I got sucked into a Paul Williams documentary this weekend. The director isn’t very good and injects way too much of himself into it, but Williams himself comes across very well and you realize how many songs of his you still know even if you didn’t know they were his.
Basically, it seems like the director went in with an agenda of showing how very, very sad it is to not be famous anymore, but Williams pretty much subverts that. He’s been in recovery for years and seems to associate being famous with being really fucked-up on drugs, so he seems very at peace with his current low level of fame. The director keeps trying to show him interviews that Williams did when he was at the height of his fame and all Williams can see is how fucked up he was (to the point that, in one outtake, Dick Clark calls him an asshole).
I’m sure the fact that Williams is still making pretty good money from his songwriting to this day helps ease the pain of not being as famous anymore.
RAM
@Mark S.: Great minds and all that…it was in moderation for about a week, I think.