Here is the Godson and namesake Cole posing:
He is a spitting image of his mother and right now seems to have inherited my melon sized head through osmosis. I’ll never forget them having to special order my hats in basic training because my head was so big (even at 175 lbs I was rocking a 7 7/8’s). My Drill Sergeant was named Shirley Mason, and he was a light skinned black guy who was about 5’8″ but seemed to be ten foot tall, and he had reddish hair, freckles, and a hairlip, so every time he yelled at us it sounded like “You privateth ith all fucked up.” At any rate, one day in formation while we were all standing at attention and going through inspection, he was standing behind me and shouted out “Private Cole, your head ith tho big if you wath a cowboy you’d need a twelve gallon hat.” We all got hysterical and broke formation and had to do pushups until Drill Sergeant Mason’s arms were tired.
I digress.
Here is Steve from earlier, posing as I walked into the room, showing off his prodigious digits:
While I was taking his picture, all I could think of was this:
What are you all up to tonight? And don’t forget to buy your calendar. Click to the left on the Balloon Juice store, yo!
Also, Prodigious Digits would be a great band name.
Pogonip
What are those splotches on the wall beside young John’s head?
Did you ever get the other half of Steve’s butt trimmed, or is he still rockin’ the dingleberries?
And is your car still in the field?
raven
Hey, I got the calendar. I asked earlier about what Boss and Bandit (I think) are? Hairless cats?
cathyx
I work in retail and the biggest head size I encountered was 81/2. So your head isn’t that large.
raven
There was a dude in my outfit in Korea that had a flap head. The back of his scalp was a flap and he had to pull it up to cut the hair under it. He was known as Buffalo Head.
Pogonip
@cathyx: Have you read Retail Hell, by Freeman Hall, and if so what do you think? (I think I’d rather shave cat butts for a living than work retail.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wonder if it’s the recent discussion of shaving cat ass and dingleberries that is getting me Nieman Marcus ads on the blog
Better than the John Cornyn/Texans for Life ads.
cathyx
@Pogonip: No, but it sounds intriguing. I’ll have to look it up.
Having worked in retail, I can honestly say people are disgusting pigs and ignoramuses.
PsiFighter37
I don’t think there’s anything more relaxing than playing speed chess on the Internet while sipping on beer. That’s exactly what I am doing right now.
Comrade Mary
OMG — hipster hair AND jammies! (So does he have insurance yet?)
Scamp Dog
What a handsome little guy! He’s trying to look all serious, and it’s almost working. Adorbs!
NotMax
That’s harelip, so called because of slight resemblance to features of rabbits.
Pogonip
@cathyx: That’s pretty much the impression one gets from Hall’s book. The Kindle version is $1.99 right now. (I’ve had to quit perusing the freebies; I have 400 books on the thing right now and God knows when I’ll get all those read.)
burnspbesq
Early to bed with Patricia Cornwell.
Pogonip
@burnspbesq: I’m telling Mrs. Burns!
Yatsuno
@Comrade Mary: He does qualify for SCHIP plus West Virginia expanded Medicaid, so one way or another he’s good.
Eating soup and making plans. Kinda hoping I get dinner and a movie out tomorrow with friends. The entertaining part will be getting in their vehicles, but I’ll figure it out. She has an SUV but it’s small and he drives the minivan.
Pogonip
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “Rockin’ the Dingleberries” will probably end up as a post category. Doug won’t be able to resist tying a song to the phrase.
We’re heading up to 20 degrees tomorrow, then to 15 below by Monday night.
ruemara
That is one cute little critter. And Steve is a handsome boy. I’m prepping for a flea market sale on Sunday and I decided to craft some vanilla lavender and candied tangelo cupcakes, along with ginger macadamia white chocolate cookies, and 2 ingredient pumpkin spice cookies. I need to make some money.
Plus, how’s this for insane. I’m crunching the numbers and thinking that if I pack food, I can maybe attend my workshop and pay for my train ticket without a lot more fiscal pain. maybe. So after 4pm today, a graphic design job from the state finally responded. They’ve scheduled me for an interview. The Thursday before I leave. In Eureka. 5 hours away. Each way. In a car that I don’t have. Going would either be a rental or a super long train ticket and a cancellation of my plans, plus rescheduling the time off I had to arrange with my job. Thanks a lot, universe. You just can’t let me win the lottery as a surprise, can you? I got no idea how to do this. And why do they just schedule you, why not contact me and ask? Yikes.
danielx
Always thought Black Velvet Elvis would be a great band name….
Tokyokie
Cole, my hat size varies between 7 3/4 and 7 7/8, so I appreciate what have an oversized melon head is like. I don’t wear ballcaps with adjustable headbands, because they won’t fit right. However, I really, really like hats, and seeing one that I like only to find the XL doesn’t encircle my noggin has kept me from buying a lot more hats.
Anyway, I seem to come from a long line of people with big heads. My father also wore a size 7 3/4 hat, as did his father, as does my brother, and one of my male cousins and his son. One of my brother’s daughters even wears a 7 5/8 hat. We now refer to this phenomenon as the family fathead gene.
Hungry Joe
Steve is perhaps a descendant of Gary “Big Hands” Johnson, the best defensive tackle in Chargers history. Which, given Chargers’ defensive history, isn’t saying a whole lot, but still …
Suzanne
Young Cole is stinkin’ adorable. He has the same shiny brown curls as my Mia Mousie.
Steve is also lovely, as always. Do you ever think that maybe the reason he’s always flaunting his paws is because he’s trying to give you the finger as best as he can?
gbear
@Pogonip: I second the question: What is going on with the wall finish on either side of the adorable scamp? Did someone scrape the paint off the wall?
I’m not sure what size my head is, but I wear a 3XL motorcycle helmet. The only brand I can buy is Fulmer, which kind of sucks because wind noise is horrid with the one helmet that fits.
AliceBlue
That’s a couple of handsome guys.
I’m reading “The Spy Who Loved” the bio of WWII spy Christine Granville. Makes Bond look like a rank amateur.
PsiFighter37
Via TPM, apparently 60% of Kentucky Republicans approve of Medicaid expansion. Too bad they didn’t poll what happened if they were told the expansion was part of Obamacare…bet it would’ve lost more than half.
TPM is quick to note that it might be bad for McConnell, but frankly, I think it’s a case of a group of people approving of a policy on its own merits. God forbid someone told them the Kenyan socialist was responsible, then it’d be the work of Allah and the Devil.
LT
On the subject of – oh never mind.
Last night out of the blue I thought, “Is the guy who plays lawyer Saul on Breaking Bad the guy who played that guy in **that** episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm? Can’t be.
It is. All the way back in 2000. This, I’m telling you, is a triumph for my brain. Cannot believe I hooked this up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plrtX555eoA
Yatsuno
@PsiFighter37: There was an article that showed that if you just called it health care reform, folks were a LOT more receptive to the idea. Call it Obamacare and it’s sinful and immediately rejected. So the folks in Kentucky got clever and just credited the state. They lined up to join up for that in droves.
I can’t wait until someone gets hit with presumptive eligibility. That will be funny.
Roger Moore
@Tokyokie:
I have one word for you: Tilley. Their hats are pricey, but they’re worth it.
Jane2
Great Steve pic! I’m watching “Mitt”…he comes across as more human, but can see why he lost.
rikyrah
What a cutiepie
Joshua Norton
Steve looks like he’s working on his Sphinx impersonation.
gbear
I made a visit to Goldmine’s website this evening. The top two stories are about an autographed copy of Sgt. Pepper that sold at auction for $175,698, and a rave review of a new live album by Head East and an interview with the one remaining original member.
Every now and then they have something I like, but most of the time it’s like Tiger Beat for octogenarians.
brantl
I also wear a 7 7/8 hat, I have never seen a bigger one.
Roger Moore
@Joshua Norton:
It’s a standard cat pose; they all lay like that with their paws stretched out some of the time. Where do you think the Egyptians got the pose for the Sphinx in the first place?
Older
@ruemara: “why do they just schedule you” — I’ll bet it saves them a lot of time. But why don’t you contact them? And ask for another time? It might even make you look sought-after, if you hint that you already have an interview at that time.
NotMax
@gbear
If the autograph reads “Best wishes, Sgt. Pepper” someone got rooked.
Jebediah, RBG
Just back from an interesting walk/run with Chucky. She sniffed at some dude as we went past, so he started threatening her..”go ahead, touch me again, see what happens.” I told him she’s a dog, they do that, lighten up, and he started threatening me. Approximately twenty steps from the police dept.’s front door. Fun start to the evening!
Tommy
Wonderful looking kid. I love this pic of my brother and his little girl.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/webranding/9594725584/
He said to me before it was taken he had to run, going to a tea party.
I was over playing with her the other day and she said to me, I want to play dress up with you, but I only have girl cloths and you are a guy. I won’t make you wear girl cloths.I put on “girl” cloths to play with her and didn’t mind it for a second.
Ruckus
@ruemara:
I think you and I may live in parallel universes.
My life is a country/western song and I hate c/w songs. Maybe that’s the revenge.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
I can never keep this straight.
Is it shoot you, then arrest or arrest then shoot?
Tommy
@Jebediah, RBG: Sorry to hear. I am a huge walker. I walk a lot. I find the only other people around me that tend to walk have a dog. I always approach them with a little ease. Stand off. Cause I don’t think every animal wants me around them. But I think like 99 percent of the time the interaction is wonderful. I don’t know how you have this happen to you.
Jebediah, RBG
@efgoldman:
Naw, pretty likely homeless – he was carrying what looked like a sheet or blanket, and didn’t seem quite right in the head. It really looked like he was expecting Chucky to answer him. I should have immediately kept moving, but it took me a few seconds to figure out what was going on. Every other time Chucky does that to people, she gets at minimum a smile, sometimes some petting and whatnot. So it really took me by surprise.
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
I think it’s shoot first and ask questions later. I also remember very distinctly that you’re supposed to pillage before you burn.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Will they let you Skype instead? Most places are willing to do that these days. We hired a software engineer that way.
Jebediah, RBG
@Tommy:
Exactly – especially for this area, it was a bizarre experience. And now that I am home and can think about it a little, I am really glad it didn’t get physical – I don’t know how Chucky would react, but if she got too protective of me she would probably get in all kinds of trouble.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: Are you black or brown? It makes a difference.
@Roger Moore: Well, pillage before burn goes without saying but then I have viking-type ancestors, so it might just be knowledge passed down through the generations.
gnomedad
@Pogonip:
Hopefully, he’s too young for them to be the result of a Cole-esque cleaning disaster.
Tommy
I @Jebediah, RBG: kid you not I have a cat larger then this dog, which his owner is always walking and hates me. It comes at me like I don’t know what. But outside of him I know every dog in my area cause well I am walking around and engage their owners. I see in another comment you mentioned he might be homeless. That is another story. That gets more complex.
srv
US Olypmic athletes warned about wearing swag outside of official venues. Because, like fuck yeah, let’s maximize our colors. Missing the neon though.
USA!
This is looking like Benghazi II.
Maybe Snowden will make a Sochi appearance and get blowed up by a Widow for his flag pin.
Comrade Mary
@gnomedad: I think those are little fluffy clouds. Is there a lamb in the one on the right?
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s easy to say for an armchair raider, but it’s completely different when you’re out there trying to do it in the real world. It’s chaos, and people do all kinds of crazy things like trying to set fire to the valuables and livestock and make off with the village. You have to practice, practice, practice or you’ll never get it right.
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Mary: The story is that Suzanne Vega was not happy about her voice being used in that song. Allegedly she wasted when she was recoded and did not want it to be publicized
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hard to be a successful pillager if you burn everything first, yea that one’s not too hard.
Yes black or brown does seem much more likely to get shot first, then arrested, it is after all probably much easier to put cuffs on a corpse.
Jebediah, RBG
@Tommy:
Yes, it does make it more complicated. I was trying to take that into account, and that’s mostly why I didn’t just call the cops on him. I doubt they would have just told him to move along. And I probably should have stopped calling him asshole and telling him to fuck off a little sooner than I did. But it isn’t every evening that somebody mad-dogs your dog!
Tommy
@Comrade Mary: OK. When you said little puffy clouds I thought I would link you to, well the Orb song. Then I followed your link and saw you did just that.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Damn takers. :)
ruemara
@Ruckus: Ugh. I hate country & western. Only classic bluegrass.
@Mnemosyne: It’s government. We’ll discover Skype in 2021.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore:
That is why the Vikings never quite got it down until they became Normans. Then they just took everything.
Tokyokie
@Roger Moore: I have a Tilley, and wear it when I’m planning to be outside for an extended period. If it’s only 15 minutes or so, I’ll wear an antique pith helmet that I think I acquired from a Portobello Road vendor. The pith helmet, especially if worn with a light scarf hanging down the back of the neck, really keeps the head cool, but it’s not so great once you start sweating. The Tilley will wick away the sweat really well.
Lyrebird
@Comrade Mary: WIN! I wish the outrage had churned on longer over Pajama Guy, he was such a cutie.
Not as adorable as little Cole, tho!
@Tokyokie: Ditto on Tilley hats. (Try being a 7 3/4 of the girl persuasion, sigh…) ETA – we posted simultaneously, pardon redundant repetition!
Tommy
@Jebediah, RBG: IMHO it is hard to know what to do there. My parents were putting in this tent like thing in this land they own. They said they were worried a homeless women might go there when it was cold. I get why they didn’t want this, but I was like is that a bad thing?
Comrade Mary
@Omnes Omnibus: Really? I’ve always heard that the voice was supposed to be Rickie Lee Jones.
@Tommy: Here’s a bonus. Best remix EVER.
Comrade Mary
Ah, here we go:
Omnes Omnibus
@Tokyokie: I wore a 7 1/2 in the army – with short hair. Now, with longer and thicker hair, I wear a 7 3/4 if I wear a hat – which I try to avoid doing because it messes up my hair.
Jebediah, RBG
@Tommy:
Yeah, it’s hard to blame someone for trying to survive.
Comrade Mary
@Comrade Mary: Well, best remix next to THIS. Both are awesome.
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Mary: You are right. It was Ricky Lee Jones. I have had a long week. I will also be working this weekend. It will not help my brain function.
Joel
@LT: You should check out the Ben Stiller show for some very long ago Bob Odenkirk (plus a pre-Reality Bites version of Stiller and Jeneane Garofolo).
kdaug
@Jebediah, RBG: I mentioned in the vacay thread that I’d just taken the dog out for 3 hours on the greenbelt.
Standard policy is we move over to the side and she sits when approached.
Tokyokie
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m wearing my hair short these days, so I’m usually 7 3/4. When the hair’s longer, 7 7/8 is the most comfortable. I’ll sometimes get a 7 5/8 hat, but that’s usually because I liked the hat, that was the largest size, and I ignored it pinching my skull and deluded myself into thinking it actually fit.
Yatsuno
I’m enjoying this.
Quoth the judge:
That. Is. Hilarious.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yatsuno: So the MO State Gov’t has no skin in the game, eh?
Liquid
Reminds me of a good friend — He’s allergic to cats and not very fond of children. He moved to Des Moines, Iowa about three years ago. Less than a month after the move he inherited part-time ownership of a cat; plus amateur baby-sitting duties. He loves to complain but I know deep down he relishes being “that” guy.
Jebediah, RBG
@kdaug:
Our evening run/walk is in town – lots of people walking around, and we’re usually moving faster than them.
Jebediah, RBG
@Yatsuno:
Love it! I also look forward to winger WATB yowling over it.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Doesn’t hurt to ask, is all I’m saying.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Government won’t do Skype. Asking may not hurt, but it will accomplish nothing.
Tommy
@Comrade Mary: I almost missed your link. Maybe the best concert I ever went to was the Gipsy Kings at Wolf Trap. If you don’t know what Wolf Trap is, well it is a National Park in Northern Virginia. The only National Park I am aware of that caters to performing arts. They did something like this:
http://vimeo.com/35456805
Comrade Mary
@Tommy: Oh yes, that’s really lovely, too.
The Eagles put out so much lazy, smug, over-hyped music, but I’ll let them live for Hotel California, both the original and the best covers.
Here’s some more. I especially recommend the one by the French cats.
Gretchen
How do kids get so big so fast?
Suffern ACE
@Omnes Omnibus: might as well ask. There’s really no reason she can’t use Skype. Thanks to the NSA it’s really no more or no less secure than any other form of communication.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s not unheard of for the Cal State schools:
Maybe the problem is that Wisconsin is not a tech leader, not that no state governments use Skype. (And, yes, the Cal State system is part of the state government.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Suffern ACE: It isn’t due to security. Gov’t offices generally won’t have the capability of doing it. Most run on IE as well.
jenn
@Omnes Omnibus: It depends. I’ve never skyped, but I have had phone interviews with various gov jobs. Worth asking.
Omnes Omnibus
@jenn: Phone interviews, sure. Skype, no. My experience. Others may be in far more sophistimicated states with all sorts of fancy tech.
Also, I didn’t say there was anything wrong with asking. I just suggested it was likely to be unproductive.
Geoduck
As a size 8ish hat-wearer, I’ll add another recommendation for Tilley, tho yes, they are quite pricey. They do offer lifetime replacements if yours wears out. If you’re looking for something a little cheaper, Henschel is a company which makes 2XL and 3XL-sized ventilated sunhats.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: CalTrans. After my adventures watching LAFCO, SACOG, BACOG and a bunch of other initials, I can attest that some municipalities run towards future tech while others grab their chisels and say, well, this still works for our constituents, why would we waste money and time doing something so new? However, I will ask. I can’t afford to pass up an interview for any position I’m qualified for, but if I can do it Skype (no phone interviews was adamantly specified in the mail), or at least reschedule to another week, preferably for the much more flexible mid-month paycheck, that would cut some of the stress. It’s like they have a 6th sense for making things an adventure.
Alison
I can imagine the hat thing would also be difficult in a place like the Middle East, where you’re hot as fuck and your head might swell a bit during the day. When I was in middle school, I was in the marching band, and I remember a couple of times after a parade, prying that damn hat (which went *on* just fine) off my head and seeing the deep indentation it left in a ring around my fucking scalp. Ow.
Goblue72
@LT: I assume you’ve seen Mr. Show?
Yatsuno
@Alison: Honestly I never had to deal with that. Tubas don’t get shakos (scary it has a name!) but we get shit like berets or something. One year my section leader said fuck it and we had no hat wear. That was liberating. Damp in rain and snow, but liberating.
@Omnes Omnibus: Basically the judge said you wanted no part of this remember? Then you also gave up your right to make the rules. Which is true: Missouri government has no role in ACA. Suck it wingnuts.
? Martin
@ruemara: Yeah, we will do Skype for interviews. We even have multiple conference room with a big TV and camera to make it feel pretty normal. I don’t like phone interviews because so much of the interview really involves reading the candidate, and that’s a visual thing.
But CA is such a large state that almost all of us turned to Skype years ago rather than having to fly the fuck all over the place. My travel budget used to be my largest line item after staff salary.
Alison
@Yatsuno: The first year we all wore cotton berets, because our uniforms were embarrassing and cheap and lame. Our school colors were blue and white. The band uniforms were: white beret; blue polo shirt; white sweatpants (yeah); white shoes.
Picture that.
Yeah, every other school would sing the Smurfs song at us.
So I guess the band teacher finally had enough of that bullshit and got the school to get better uniforms (which I’m sure parents still had to foot at least part of the bill for), which included these plastic black sorta-cowboy hats. And yeah, it was like my head got pumped up like a bike tire. Plus the girls had to have our hair french braided and fucking shellacked with hair spray.
I loved band but some of that shit sucked.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yatsuno: That is what is sounds like to me. And, vastly more importantly, that is what a federal judge heard.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
If it’s a technical position, they’ll be impressed you know how to Skype even if they don’t have the capability. If it’s a tech position and they say, What’s Skype? that may not be a good sign.
Yatsuno
@Alison: I. Hate. Aussie. Hats. Not the real ones that are actually part of Australian culture but the fake plastic ugly things some drum corps thought was a good idea one year and then half the bands in the country copied them. They’re awful, tacky, uncomfortable, and pretty distracting honestly. Horrible idea whoever thought of it.
@Omnes Omnibus: Well one day when you’re at that level (it’s my fantasy don’t question it!) you can make those choices. And really it’s a no-brainer. What influence does Missouri really have on the ACA? Since they’re actively not participating, zip.
? Martin
@Alison: My son’s marching band is currently saving up for new uniforms. There’s 200+ on instruments, and they need enough extras so that they can fit all sizes. They’re planning on buying 250-300. The uniforms are $800 each, shakos about $100 and the plumes on the shakos about $100 as well. Kids are responsible for shoes, but they hand down most of them, so you might pay $40 over 4 years of high school. Not bad. But the budget for new uniforms is about $350K. There’s additional costs for auxiliary (60 strong) plus percussion who wear different uniforms (30 strong). They’d also like to replace the 15 brass tubas so they don’t discolor the new uniforms. I think the silver plate ones are $6000 each. So another almost $100K. All told they’re aiming for north of half a million dollars for full replacement. I think the current uniforms are almost 20 years old. They look like they’re in good shape, but up close they’re a bit rough.
Their annual expenses are about $400K a year. They get $1300 from the district. Everything else is kids and parents. It’s a LOT of car washes.
Nutella
He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK!
cbb
No doubt you’ll see that Bethany College made the Front Page of Wikipedia (sadly, not the Internet, but close enough):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethany_College_(West_Virginia)