For all those both of you who might make it to Beer Authority at 8:30, I will be the guy with a beard in a dark green polo shirt.
In other news something might be happening in Syria. I am on the road and have no idea what, but commenters seem up in arms that we have not discussed it yet. So here you go. Whatever is going on I recommend that you look up what Bill Kristol says to do and urge your elected officials to do the opposite. That man and Dick Morris are the two most reliably wrong human beings on the planet.
Finally, a video of Max. The doberman truly is a brave and noble breed. I should note that the water there is about two feet deep.
schrodinger's cat
Max thinks he is a kitteh and does not want to get wet. Smart dog.
Trollhattan
Have fun; I’ll toast from 3k mi distant.
Today, this happened north of here.
Background checks? We don’t need no stinking background checks. Everybody gets a “cache” and besides, could be a cache of hammers.
Three more dead, including two tykes.
http://www.redding.com/news/2013/may/07/deputies-investigating-stabbing-outside-shingletow/
Grumpy Code Monkey
Could the Syria thing be this?
Network Solutions seizes over 700 domains registered to Syrians
Not entirely sure what this means yet.
raven
Only one brother charged in the Cleveland case.
Baud
@raven:
I don’t follow details of these types of stories. I thought all three brothers lived at the house.
Trollhattan
Today’s Doodle is a great one. Launch the video and see how many film title sequences you can I.D.
ulee
Tim F. I won’t be there tonight because I’m a housebound agoraphobic. Social anxiety is no picnic but I’ve got my dogs, Joplin and Cassady. I’ll be wearing torn sweatshirt, torn jeans, and carrying an empty wallet. But I love you all here at Balloon Juice.
NotMax
What will she be wearing?
Trollhattan
@Baud:
They’ll all be charged, but I’ll bet the brothers are busy dishing on good old Ariel. Per the BBC:
raven
@Baud: Apparently not. The idiots on CNN are breathless stating the obvious. “The girls must have been hidden so no one could see them”! My cable company moved MSNBC off the analog tier so I’ve been having CNN on my kitchen tube. I never realized how,uh, bad Wolf’s speech, uh, problem is, uh, till now.
raven
@Baud: Now the jackass is saying “it’s not illegal to do nothing”.
Baud
@raven:
Wolf will make you miss Morning Joe.
@Trollhattan:
Thanks.
raven
@Baud: I still have MSNBC on a couple of TV’s. I have sort of a problem, 6 tv’s!
WereBear
Louis Doberman bred them to protect him as he made his tax collection rounds. Idiots who create vicious dogs for “protection” have it all wrong.
We are supposed to cultivate their giant hearts.
Legend has it that Dobes can beat a man to a hip draw in 50 paces.
raven
@Baud: I still have MSNBC on a couple of TV’s. I have sort of a problem, 6 tv’s!
raven
@Baud: @Baud: I still have MSNBC on a couple of TV’s. I have sort of a problem, 6 tv’s!
ulee
I’ve always wondered if Wolf Blitzer actually has a normal voice. Does he talk to his family in that same breathless newsbreaking method. Is he method? Does he say, “Honey, this shocking news, a squirrel has again raided the birdfeeder.” It was fun watching Andy Richter kick his ass on Jeopardy.
raven
@Trollhattan: Well, the DA and Chief of Police said there is no basis on which to hold them.
MikeJ
@Trollhattan: When people ask if guns make your home safer, why don’t they ask their insurance agent? Insurance companies are heartless behemoths that do not give a shit about anything except making money. They will do everything they can to get you to minimize your risk so they can avoid ever having to pay out one red cent. This is the sacred free market at work.
So, if somebody were to buy a gun on the premise that it made their home safer, it would seem as if they should get a cut in their insurance premium. If you have two identical cars but one has side impact airbags, chances are you’ll get a rate cut. So the question is, how much would the dollars and cents centric insurance agency cut your homeowner’s premium?
I always smile innocently when I ask these questions.
NotMax
@raven
Just discovered a little while ago that there is a radio station here that live streams the audio from MSNBC for most of the afternoon here.
Used to broadcast solid right-wing during all the daylight hours; now they do Rush, Miller, etc. in the mornings, then switch over after noon.
raven
@NotMax: I hope they didn’t take that reggae station off!
Baud
@raven:
Wow, you have almost as many TVs as the average GOP presidential candidate has homes.
Nick
Anybody going to the NYC meet and greet better order like 12 pints of “Enjoy By 5-17-13” IPA from Stone. It will be by far the best beer on tap there. And I’m kinda fucking angry San Diego beer is available in the NYC but not here. (Stone distributes this beer by region. So the west will get one batch, then mid america, then East. etc.)
Amir Khalid
Can’t be there. Wrong side of the planet for me. But you all have fun.
Trollhattan
@raven:
I guess anything’s possible. Hard to imagine they were ignorant of everything for a decade, but maybe brother Ariel is “all that.”
NotMax
@raven
Still going.
What is referred to here as ‘Jawaiian’ has been A Big Thing for at least 25 years.
How times change. When I first moved here there were 2 – count ’em, 2 – AM stations and zero FM stations.
Trollhattan
@Nick:
You need to shake a giant bottle of Arrogant Bastard (the one with the padlock) at them. That’ll learn ’em.
ulee
@MikeJ: I remember buying my house in 2006. The insurance agent asked if I had any pets. I told her I had two ferrets (now gone, rest their little souls) She asked if they were dangerous. I told her they were harmless. She never asked me if I owned a gun. This is USAA Insurance, and they never asked, appparently ferrets are a more dangerous liability than guns. By the way, I don’t own a gun. Never have, never will.
mouse tolliver
@Baud: Apparently there’s no evidence that links the other two brothers to this. Not even statements from the three women. And apparently that story about the naked woman in the backyard is just hearsay. Literally one of those “I know somebody who said she saw…” kind of stories.
NotMax
@ulee
Two ferrets?
Makes one flash back to Beastmaster.
Patrick
February 20, 2003 regarding Saddam:
“He’s got weapons of mass destruction. … Look, if we free the people of Iraq we will be respected in the Arab world…. I think we will be respected around the world for helping the people of Iraq to be liberated.”
– Bill Kristol
ulee
@NotMax: Never saw Beastmaster. But my ferrets were sweethearts.
Trollhattan
@ulee:
At some point recently we began getting quizzed on 1. Dog–yes/no and if yes 2. Breed? They had a no-likie list that included pitbulls (duh) German shepherds, dobermans (sorry, Tim) and…I forget what else. Since ours wasn’t on the list I don’t know if they just raised the rate or declined to cover. Gunz? Meh.
Trollhattan
@NotMax:
“Nice marmots.”
NotMax
@ulee
Enjoy the clip here.
ulee
@Trollhattan: My two sister dogs are whippet/jack russell terrier mixes. They are total cowards but if anyone was thinking about breaking in they would say, “I guess I’ll find another house.” They growl and bark and then run to me.
Anne Laurie
@WereBear:
When I first got interested in AKC obedience classes, I was surprised at how few Dobermans seemed to be involved. Scuttlebutt from the professional trainers was that Dobies tended to fall apart when confronted with ‘novel’ situations. Since the point to obedience competition — at least at that time — was a kind of doggie dressage where the human/canine team was supposed to strive for total streamlined grace however ‘imperfect’ the conditions of a particular ring or round, aspiring top competitors went for breeds who never ‘got ahead of their handler’ (goldens, shelties) or else for those that could recover & still score if they did (border collies, poodles).
The only two dogs in my first training club who’d ever scored perfect 200 rounds (back in the mid-1980s, when this was still newsworthy) were a standard poodle and a rottweiler. Those two dogs also had a history of dramatic, highly entertaining DQ (disqualifying) rounds. The third professional handler in the club, whose goldens routinely scored 197s and 198s without ever quite reaching “perfect” in the judges’ eyes, was publicly sympathetic about overbred drama dogs who couldn’t help being unreliable, bless their hearts…
NotMax
@Anne Laurie
Ancient joke:
What’s black and brown and looks good on a lawyer?
A Doberman Pinscher.
ulee
@NotMax: Thanks, Notmax. My ferrets never saved me from drowning in quicksand, but they saved me fom sadness nonetheless. I remember coming home from work and Maggie had dug up all my plants and capsized them. She came running to me and was obviously saying,”Papa, I had the most fun today.”
PsiFighter37
I hope there’s good lighting because that’s an awfully vague description. If you keep your collar down, maybe it’ll be easy enough to find you.
Hope you are going to be there until at least 9-9:30ish, as I’ll probably make my way over to that part of town by then.
Diana
I’ll be there in a red sweater. see you soon….
JCT
Poor Max!
I know that phenotype well – my beagles are comically afraid of the water, taking them to the beach was always a laugh riot. Hell, one of them is so food-obsessed she would probably walk on hot coals for a snack, but water? Ah no.
MattR
Looks like my call should be over by 7:30 so I hope to be there by 9 if the traffic and parking gods permit.
@JCT: This is why I am glad my kennel bathes Ellie before giving her back to me. If I try to do it, the entire building will think I am murdering her based on the blood curdling squeals.
IowaOldLady
I love the way Max looks away and pretends he doesn’t care. And really, how’s he supposed to know how deep the water is, poor baby?
TG Chicago
@Nick: Good recommendation. I haven’t had that, but I had the Enjoy By 9-??-12, and it was tasty.
(?? = I forget the exact date)
PurpleGirl
@ulee: My Peekskill friends had 3 ferrets. One albino, who was huge, was the last of her litter still at the pet store and N felt sorry for her so he bought her; the other two were sisters a fellow IBM employee had advertized as needing a new home because they couldn’t be kept any longer. N said he’d take them and find them a permanent home — he did, with himself.
One of the sisters would sit on my shoulder and lick my cheek. She liked my salty skin. It tickled me — such a small tiny tongue and so soft. I liked watching the sisters play and run around. The albino hadn’t been socialized and was hard to handle at times, but she liked going into plastic bags and being swung around in them.
ranchandsyrup
I coulda fedexed you the Tunch pic poster from the SD meetup. My daughter made me put it in her room for a spell because she loves the “big kitty”.
Trollhattan
@ranchandsyrup:
Aww. There is no boogyman the Mighty Tunch can’t scare off, including the naked guy with a mop.
Linkmeister
You gotta admit, from the camera angle that water looks to be the North Sea from one of the Orkney Islands. I don’t blame Max a bit.
Davis X. Machina
Whatever it is in Syria, BBC World Service’s home page knows naught thereof.
PsiFighter37
Whenever I show up, I’m wearing a black windbreaker over a blue Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt
eemom
From our splendiforous DC area meetup in Feb, I have this advice to pass along: hang out near the door while waiting for folks to arrive….it is very easy to spot the BJers by the way they are looking around as they come in.
MattR
@Trollhattan: That was how I was gonna find the group tonight. Wander through the bar listening for the people discussing the finer points of naked mopping.
Yatsuno
Dobies have very little body fat and wide dense chests. They don’t swim very well, so Max iz smaht puppeh.
ranchandsyrup
@Trollhattan: Heh. Co-ed naked mopping would have made for a good Big Johnson tshirt back in 1990 or so.
Tonal Crow
@Trollhattan:
He’s armed with a 1982 Volare hubcap, right?
MomSense
I can’t keep my lab out of the water–he just loves to swim.
He is terrible at fetch though. He likes to get the stick or ball but refuses to bring it back to you. We call him a Labrador receiver.
raven
@MomSense: Try turning your back on him when he has it.
MomSense
@raven:
Ooh, I will try that. Thanks.
gogol's wife
This is a sweet thread.
@Linkmeister:
That’s what I thought!
NotMax
@raven
Back when a group of us worked at a summer camp and also lived there year-round, someone who had worked there that summer (whom we didn’t have much respect towards) asked if we would sit her golden lab while she took a two-week vacation at the end of the season.
Loveable dog, but also the stupidest canine in the known galaxy.
She was somewhat taken aback when she returned and discovered we had managed to retrain the dog over the fortnight to respond only to the name ‘Veggie.’
raven
@NotMax: “No Bad Dogs” Barbra Woodhouse.
raven
Dobermans of World War II
NotMax
@raven
Except beagles.
Have known three families/friends who owned a beagle.
In all three cases, from the very first time I set foot in their house onwards, the beagle made a warp speed beeline in order to chomp down hard on my ankle.
lamh35
Reading all this accounts of neighbors calling Cleveland Police about the house with the kidnappers and the cops saying, what we got no calls,and the crappy 911 operators, all I can think is that Public Enemy was right!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1hsvl_public-enemy-911-is-a-joke_music#.UYrdsrWTjuI
raven
@NotMax: They are made for one thing and one thing only.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
FTFY.
NorthLeft12
Chocolate Lab
ownerhousemate here. I would have a hard time keeping my dog Gus out of the water. Whether there was a stick floating out of reach or not.Gus is always entertaining to the other owners at the dog park here in Sarnia as he quickly heads for the nearest mud hole for a good lay down and roll after saying hello to the other dogs and their owners. Fortunately there is a large and deep pond nearby to wash him off in.
I have come to believe that Gus has trained me to do this.
Dog Park > Mud hole > Swim in Pond !!
Roger Moore
@Tonal Crow:
Close; it’s a 1979 Datsun 210.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Going to bed at 8:00 pm so I can catch a 7:15 am flight to Norfolk, then Virginia Beach. This should be an easy gig. I didn’t score a room at the oceanfront hotel I stayed in last time there. In-season rates exceed my travel protocols.
Monday – Thursday it’s San Diego. I get to see the Atlantic, Great Lakes and the Pacific all in 4 lively days.
So I’ll be lurking for the next week or so. It’s easy to read BJ on my iPhone, and I do. Commenting mobile-ly is a great hassle so I don’t. But I’ll be around.
Cheers.
NotMax
@raven
Remember the foofaraw over this? Another shot.
Tonal Crow
@Roger Moore:
Oooo, those Datsuns had really light, strong hubcaps. I used to hunt deer with those, and never failed to stock the freezer for the entire year. Never tried ’em on bear, though.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yatsuno:
Am I imagining things, or have you changed the speeling of your nym? (Or perhaps you’re someone entirely different and not Classic Yutsano at all.)
raven
@NotMax: Oh yea!
JWL
Cut Max some slack. Sure, you know the water is 2 feet deep, but he probably doesn’t. More to the point, that’s a steep angle of bank. Max probably understands that if he commits, he wouldn’t necessarily be able to climb back out.
David Letterman told the following story about his two dogs. He woke up one morning and glanced down at his swimming pool. One dog was in the deep end of the pool, frantically bumping up against the side trying to get out– the fact there was a shallow end didn’t occur to it. Meanwhile, the other dog, without betraying any feeling one way or the other, sat a few feet away vacantly staring at the other dog’s frantic attempt– as if it was gazing out a window on a lazy afternoon.
raven
@JWL: We had a dead squirrel in our rain barrel. Dude had been in there a while and was really ripe.
MattR
Call completed. Follow up emails sent. Dog is walked. NYC, here I come.
JPL
@JWL: We put a pool in Dallas cuz you have to. I didn’t want dog hair so trained the dog to stay out of the water. I realized that if the dog were to fall in, he wouldn’t know how to get out. Long story short, it’s December and we are heating the pool in order to teach the dog how to get out. The boys thought it was wonderful too.
TD
Nuts. I thought your pub thing was tomorrow.
Ash
And back at the airport! Looks like the plane will leave after 10. Hopefully things turn out better this time around. If anything now seems like the perfect time to pick up drinking!
PsiFighter37
I’m fucking wasted: is Tim still at the bar? Will factor into how aggressive I am getting cross town
PF37 +5 Belgians
PsiFighter37
TIMMEH I’m on my way don’t leave me like you left Luke
MattR
@PsiFighter37: Unfortunately we have left the building. I would have hung out a bit longer if I had seen that you were on the way. That would have kept me from sitting in post-Rangers game traffic trying to get to the Lincoln Tunnel.
JGabriel
So where are the photos?
MattR
@JGabriel: Only 3 of us showed so it was easy to make sure none were taken.
PsiFighter37
@JGabriel: IIRC you’re a NYer, so what’s your craptastic excuse for not showing up?
JGabriel
@PsiFighter37: I am terribly insecure.
Had I known there would only be 3 other people there, I probably would have shown up though.
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