I found next to the trail where I was walking my dog. I imagine there is some innocent use for this product that I can’t imagine judging from the wrapper. Open thread.
Reader Interactions
95Comments
Comments are closed.
by $8 blue check mistermix| 95 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
I found next to the trail where I was walking my dog. I imagine there is some innocent use for this product that I can’t imagine judging from the wrapper. Open thread.
Comments are closed.
dan
Made in the U.S.A.! Woohoo!
raven
Amazon has em.
shelley
Good times!
dmsilev
Well, your dog would probably enjoy using it as a fetch and chew toy.
TR
Could be a wrapper from a “Sixteen Candles” action figure.
ducktape
Less than $11 at Amazon, in all kinds of colors.
http://www.amazon.com/Basix-Rubber-Works-7-Inch-Suction/dp/B001D21QV6
I agree with dmsilev — great chew toy and conversation starter.
Botsplainer
Ah, an opportunity to revisit the Sybian-LELO-Liberator discussion of a couple of nights ago.
Roger Moore
I doubt it. I assume it was purchased for the intended purpose.
Wag
Just got back from the museums in Madrid and say this.
Tommy Ramone died. Last of the original band.
I need a drink
Or some glue
Cacti
For those who were wondering the other day if anyone but debil America conducts nefarious foreign spy operations …
A Chinese national has been charged in a hacking plot to steal information on US fighter jets, military cargo aircraft, and weapons.
Cassidy
http://youtu.be/oJsMb6ywA5A
TaMara (BHF)
If you have the chance to see any of Dale Chihuly’s glass work in person, I highly recommend it. Here’s my favorite from yesterday’s visit.
It was hard to take a bad photo.
Amir Khalid
I did google BASIX Rubber Works. Let me just say that it’s Ramadhan, so I kind of wish I hadn’t. Good god, they sell those things on Amazon, under Health and Personal Care! Won’t someone think of the children?
rikyrah
What it’s like when Michelle Obama shows up to the restaurant where you’re dining
By Tom Sietsema July 11 at 6:39 PM
It’s true what they say about Michelle Obama. She has amazing arms. I saw this up close when she unfurled her bare right limb in front of me Thursday night, while the two of us were doing tapas at the jumping Barcelona on 14th Street NW.
Clearly the first lady works out, clearly she moisturizes and clearly L’Oréal should hire her as its pitchwoman after she leaves 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
“Ma’am, you rock,” I wanted to tell her, even though I was seated a table away from her party of eight, which included White House chef Sam Kass, and was separated by a table occupied by two Secret Service agents. (They ate, too, but didn’t drink anything stronger than soda.)
A food fan who has eaten around the world (Le Diplomate, Cafe Milano, Zentan) around town, the first eater’s better half and I hadn’t exactly planned on seeing each other. She was at Barcelona for what looked like a celebration, seated in the back of the Spanish restaurant’s private room; I was there for the last of three visits in my role as food critic for The Washington Post.
To be clear, our eyes never met. Throughout dinner, Mrs. Obama sat facing the rear wall, and not once during my 90 minutes in the restaurant did she turn around. Her attention was totally on the three men and four women who had joined her for dinner. Only when a server dropped something to her right did she turn in the direction of the crashing noise, and then only briefly. The dark suits next to me, on the other hand, stopped chewing and fixed their gazes on the situation until they deduced the problem was something that didn’t require retreating to an undisclosed location (“Let’s really move!”), but merely a sweep or three of a broom.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/what-its-like-when-michelle-obama-shows-up-to-the-restaurant-where-youre-dining/2014/07/11/3f5ecbfe-0926-11e4-8a6a-19355c7e870a_story.html?tid=pm_pop
Citizen_X
@Wag: Carbona not glue!
smith
@TaMara (BHF): Always loved Chihuly since seeing his exhibit at the Garfield Park Conservatory years ago, some of which is still there. You can easily lose an afternoon on his web site.
currants
@TaMara (BHF): Gorgeous! Saw an exhibit in Boston (and one in Montreal?) but … they didn’t seem quite as lovely as the installation in your photo.
Wag
@Citizen_X:
CBGB’s. 1977
Frankensteinbeck
All the stickers like ‘latex free’ are important. There are places you don’t want to have an allergic reaction.
@Amir Khalid:
So it is what it sounds like? Fair enough. I am definitely a ‘live and let live’ person, and whatever other people do in their bedrooms, I don’t need to know and I hope they enjoy it, even when it grosses me out.
Tommy
@rikyrah: Didn’t Alex Jones (I hate to even type his name) the other day say she was a trany? I hate to even use that word cause I met my first person with gender issues in 1988. I was confused when I first met her. A 6’4 women in a dress. I’d come to find she was about the nicest person I’ve ever met. Back to Michelle. She is kind of hot isn’t she?
Botsplainer
@Amir Khalid:
Amazon delivers that stuff double wrapped, I hear.
Iowa Old Lady
@rikyrah: Oh wow, Rikyrah, for a minute, I misread and thought that was you dining with the first lady
cleek
“Basix” ?
so, it’s, like, the cheaper, no-frills alternative to all those fancy rubber dongs ? not as cheap and shoddy as a generic dong but it’s definitely not a Cadillac dong either.
a quality, reliable dong for the 99%.
Cassidy
@Frankensteinbeck: It says “6” dong”. I’m really curious what else you thought it could be?
Botsplainer
@efgoldman:
The contributions of the women to the discussion were invaluable, in my estimation.
Cassidy
@Cassidy: Forgot to add: nsfw but incredibly funny involving rubber dongs. Not sure if they’re latex free.
Amir Khalid
@efgoldman:
Much of Asia is a generation or so behind the west when it comes to LGBT issues. I find this purging of children’s books in Singapore deplorable, but people in Asia who think as I do are not in the majority.
PsiFighter37
Drinking Hoptimum, forgot how good it was, while scrambling to get a lease application lined up. I’m doing it without knowing if our current owner will acquiesce to us moving out 10 days later than discussed, but I have to take that gamble. This place is too good to pass up.
El Caganer
@Tommy: I thought it was Joan Rivers. Easy to confuse the two, though: one sees aliens, one is an alien.
Tommy
@Amir Khalid:
Why do you think that is the case. I honestly don’t understand.
Tommy
@El Caganer: No Alex Jones said it.
askew
Martin O’Malley is making the moral argument on the refugee crisis on the border.
A contrast with Hillary Clinton’s opinion:
Keith G
Hmmm….interesting pursuit of normative commentary. I would have thought most of it’s possible uses would be “innocent” ….especially if it was in solo use or involving multiple humans above the age of consent in that whatever jurisdiction it was at when used.
raven
@Cassidy: The first thing I thought what that dong is the Vietnamese currency and they are well known for manufacturing sex toys.
Keith G
@askew: O’Malley is of course morally correct on this. Now, if he can convince about 80-100 million of his fellow Americans of the practical benefits of this moral position, he will have accomplished a great deal.
Mike in NC
If these dongs are “Crafted with Pride in the USA”, why aren’t they a foot long?
Cassidy
@askew: Yes! More triangulating. I’m so glad our progressive betters have chosen her as their flag bearer.
rikyrah
A “nationwide gentrification effect” is segregating us by education
By Emily Badger July 11 at 3:03 PM
Census data suggests that in 1980 a college graduate could expect to earn about 38 percent more than a worker with only a high-school diploma. Since then, the difference in their wages has only widened as our economy has shifted to bestow greater and greater rewards on the well-educated. By 2000, that number was about 57 percent. By 2011: 73 percent.
These figures, though, reflect only part of the inequality that has pushed the lives of college and high school graduates in America farther apart. As the returns to education have increased, according to Stanford economist Rebecca Diamond, the geographic segregation of the most educated workers has, too — and not by neighborhood, but by entire city.
This effectively means that college graduates in America aren’t simply gaining access to higher wages. They’re gaining access to high-cost cities like New York or San Francisco that offer so much more than good jobs: more restaurants, better schools, less crime, even cleaner air.
“With wage inequality, you could just observe the average wage of a college graduate, and the average wage of a high school graduate,” says Diamond, whose research has gone a step further to calculate what she calls “economic well-being inequality.” “But then on top of that, college graduates also live in the nicest cities in the country. They’re getting more benefits, even net of fact that they’re paying higher housing costs.”
It’s easy to recognize this phenomenon in San Francisco, or even Washington. College graduates have flooded in, drawn by both jobs and amenities. Yet more amenities have followed to cater to them (luring yet more college graduates). Housing costs have increased as a result, pushing low-wage and low-skilled workers out. At the neighborhood level, this cycle sounds a lot like how we describe gentrification. At the scale of entire cities — picture low-skilled workers increasingly excluded from Washington and San Francisco and segregated into cities like Toledo or Baton Rouge — Diamond describes this as a kind of nationwide gentrification effect.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/11/college-graduates-are-sorting-themselves-into-cities-increasingly-out-of-reach-of-everyone-else/?hpid=z4
TaMara (BHF)
@smith: So true. And so glad he’s leaving several pieces here, as well.
@currants: The friend I went with said he does a different style of installation for Botanic Gardens than he does for art museums – he really played with the plants and colors, just a joy to see. They were setting up for a wedding and one if his pieces (pink and white polka-dots) was the backdrop.
ETA: One of the best parts of it was how much the kids loved it. They were everywhere and were so excited about each piece.
PsiFighter37
@askew: The problem with Hillary is that, at her core (like Obama), I think she’s more liberal than her policy actions would dictate. Unlike Obama, though, she always will pick the cautious / what she is told is the politically ‘safe’ route above all else.
Frankly, though, we have nobody on our bench who is inspiring. And, given the status of SCOTUS, we absolutely have to win the next presidential election (well, really the next 3, so we can replace Kennedy and Fat Tony).
Mnemosyne
@Wag:
Are you going to be anywhere near Barcelona? Some folks in my office just got back from visiting the Dali Foundation in Figueres and apparently the museum is fucking amazing. Dali designed it himself and it really shows.
Cassidy
@PsiFighter37: It wouldn’t a Clinton without trying to figure out the safest answer.
Mnemosyne
@Botsplainer:
I always order from Good Vibrations. Comes in the proverbial brown paper wrapper and they never sell your information to porn companies.
Amir Khalid
@Tommy:
The general run of Asians tend to be quite socially conservative, more so than the general run of westerners — Europeans, North and Latin Americans. In countries like mine and Singapore, condemnation rather than compassion remains the norm. (I understand this is also true of Africans, by the way.) The kind of growing acceptance that LGBT people have in the west is still relatively new, still short of what they need and deserve. But it’s nonetheless way ahead of what they get in Asia, where no country I know of is contemplating any real recognition of LGBT people let alone addressing their issues.
Keith G
@Cassidy:
That makes me a bit curious – in a good way.
If we were to create an online list with the heading: These progressive leaders have (actively and assertively) chosen Hillary Clinton to be their flag bearer in the 2016 Presidential Election, who would be on that list?
Suffern ACE
@askew: thanks for the contrast. Hillary appears to be sensible on the issue. I believe that is Obama’s position, too. Depending on the day of week, and which official you’re asking.
Iowa Old Lady
I just want to make one plea to those hostile to Hillary Clinton. I don’t question your right to be hostile. I just beg you not to get go so far that you can’t get back if she’s the nominee. Flawed though she is, she’d be better than anyone the Rs are going to run, and I, for one, don’t want purism on our part to put one of them in power.
Before the nomination, go to it.
ETA: I remember Ralph Nader, whom I liked. So I’m scarred. Also scared.
Origuy
@TaMara (BHF): I went to the Glass Museum in Tacoma, where he lives. It’s not all his works, but they have a lot of them there and around the city. My sister knows people who worked with him during the installation of the three-story sculpture at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. She said he was–difficult.
WereBear
@Mike in NC: You made me snort tea out of my nose.
beth
@smith: I saw that show too – it was one of the neatest things I’ve ever seen. I recently visited the Kalamazoo Art Institute where they’ve got a chandelier of his hanging in the entranceway. I was a little disappointed at how dirty and dusty it was.
HinTN
@TaMara (BHF): Cheekwood Mansion (City Park) in Nashville had his work all throughout the grounds two (+) years ago. It was AMAZING, as I imagine was what you saw.
Amir Khalid
@Mike in NC:
I doubt there’d be much real demand for a Dirk Diggler-sized model, whatever some might say. But they do sell one on Amazon that’s 25cm (about ten inches) long. Close enough?
Iowa Old Lady
A librarian friend of mine was telling me about a teen lock-in they staged in her library. The teens stay overnight and try to unravel a mystery by following research clues the librarians make up. I love libraries.
scav
Must admit I’ve gotten rather bored with Chihuly as he’s coming to resemble himself more and more. (Was edged back by slightly by seeing some of his early stuff at an exhibit at Toledo, but again, that was early stuff — and there’s more to him than the glass he produces. The Hot Shop in Oakland, etc.). Technically, I’m more fascinated by Bertil Vallien. I don’t always get them but golly. What he managed to do with the media. The Janus axe heads are fascinating to walk around. And some of his boats — slabs of dirty ice with an archaeology to them.
p.a.
@efgoldman:@Botsplainer:
Ah, an opportunity to revisit the Sybian-LELO-Liberator discussion of a couple of nights ago.
Which, as I recall, you started.
Damn. I was here for the Neti Pot era, but this I miss.
WereBear
@Iowa Old Lady: I have misgivings, but if the polls are accurate, she will shellac the Republicans nationwide. Two coats.
This has the “coat tails” effect in Congress and even the Senate.
That alone will move the country to the left.
Suffern ACE
@Amir Khalid: I thought you were done peeking. Will no one think of the adults?!
Betty Cracker
@askew: FWIW, HRC’s position is identical to President Obama’s. O’Malley’s stance on this strikes me as correct morally too, but mighty risky politically. I admire him for that.
nancydarling
@Amir Khalid: They sell vibrating dildos in the Vermont Country Store catalogue these days.
Amir Khalid
How could we forget the song that this thread cries out for?
TaMara (BHF)
@Origuy: LOL. I don’t know why, but looking at his work, that comes through. Prickly comes to mind.
I had a friend who worked for Salvador Dali – whose work I love, been to the museum in St. Petersburg – and she said he was a horn-dog and difficult. I was still jealous.
raven
News flash, successful artists are a pain in the ass. Say it ain’t so!!!
Frankensteinbeck
@Cassidy:
Who knows? I wouldn’t have believed a ‘dongle’ could be anything innocent, but it was. There are too many words out there for me to know, and too many products that need names. I figured it was probably a sex toy, but I wasn’t going to bet on it and I sure wasn’t going to look it up on Google and find out!
raven
The đồng (/ˈdɒŋ/; Vietnamese: [ɗôŋm]) (sign: ₫; code: VND) has been the currency of Vietnam since May 3, 1978. Issued by the State Bank of Vietnam, it is represented by the symbol “₫”. Formerly, it was subdivided into 10 hào, which was further subdivided into 10 xu, neither of which is now used
Amir Khalid
And another thing: I know it’s only the third-place match tonight, which no one gives a damn about, not even the teams involved. But it’s still a World Cup match, goshdarn it, and I’m hoping for a Randinho open thread .
Suffern ACE
@Cassidy: it could be a snack cake? It was missing the ding?
raven
@Amir Khalid: Me three!
Villago Delenda Est
Noisemax at it again:
Perry: Rand Paul’s ‘Curiously Blind’ to ISIS Threat
This is because Rand Paul is a secret Mooslim, like Obama, no doubt.
MattR
@Amir Khalid: I don’t know. This song may be more appropriate.
Mnemosyne
@TaMara (BHF):
If you’re ever in Barcelona, the Dali Foundation is about an hour away by train in Figueres and, according to my officemates who were just there, it’s well worth the trip.
(Yes, I’m pimping Dali in multiple comments today, but they were really rapturous about it.)
raven
@Mnemosyne: Hello Dali.
Suffern ACE
@Villago Delenda Est: maybe Rand needs a different set of glasses.
Villago Delenda Est
@Suffern ACE: He should see a board-certified ophthalmologist and get that corrected, ASAP.
J R in WV
@Origuy:
He is an Artist! Part of that job is being picky about your work. We visited Colunbus, Indiana (home of Cummins Engines) which is a miracle of good architecture and art. The visitor center actually had a big hanging instalation of Chihuly’s – and little bity pieces for sale.
Mrs J R saw the ceiling he built for the Belagio resort in Las Vegas NV and reported that it was absolutely amazing! Having seen his glass, I will allow him to be as difficult as he wishes regarding his work.
Dinner on the other hand, he should shut up about and eat or not.
He is somewhat disabled, I believe, and most of the glass is blown by professional glass workers with him watching and instructing, as he cannot physically do the thing any more. Being in Physical Therapy for cervical injuries affecting my shoulder and arm strength, I can relate.
Lots of things I won’t be doing again! And it sometimes makes me difficult! I am a do-er, builder, maker, and while I like being part of a team doing it, I hate being a pointer only member of the team.
By the way, I strongly recommend a 2 or 3 day visit to Columbus, Indiana, which can barely be taken in in that amount of time. The Cummins Foundation is willing to pay for architectural services for any public purpose if you pick one of the listed designers. So all the churches, libraries, city and county buildings, and industrial facilities are amazing!
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: The Dali Museum in St. Pete is almost worth a visit to FL. Seriously, it’s a great museum.
D58826
There is an article over on KOS comparing the startup problems of Medicare Part D and Obamacare. Part D had many of the same issues, broken website, sticker shock, use of executive orders to easy the transition problems etc. Part D was just as unpopular in the early days as Obamacare.
There was one major difference however. The Democrats and the blue state governors did not try to sabotage the law. In fact there were several fixes that were passed with Democratic votes in Congress. Hilary voted against the original bill but voted for the later amendments in order to make the law work for seniors. I suspect other democrats did as well.
The right has spent the past 5 years complaining that the law was jammed down the throats of the American people by a strong arm Congress lead by Pelosi and Reid. What they conveniently forget is Tom Delay and the GOP leadership in the House kept the vote open for over 3 hours in order to round up, browbeat, bribe or threaten enough Republican critters to pass the bill. This was a complete violation of House rules.
For some strange reason none of this rose to the level of a law suit or impeachable offense (rhetorical comment, I know the answer).
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
I think we’ve worked with them a couple of times — I know that some of our artwork was part of a big traveling exhibition a few years ago and it went to St. Petersburg. There’s some talk of doing an exhibit specifically about the failed collaboration, but there aren’t any specific plans yet.
D58826
@efgoldman: Another product made with pride in the USA:
How has the country survived this long with these.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
Too many phthalates in the dye that makes the stars.
(That’s a joke, BTW — it just amused me that even the cheapo toys are advertising “phthalate-free!” these days.)
JoyfulA
@askew: Well spoken by O’Malley. It makes me think highly of him.
Mr Stagger Lee
It looks like Curtis Reeves the scourge of movie goers who text in theaters is out on bail. FLORIDA B*TCHES!!!
SiubhanDuinne
@TaMara (BHF):
Can’t remember whether I actually mentioned it the other day when you said you were going to see the Chihuly installation (if so, forgive me for repeating myself) but one of my all-time favorite memories is the “Chihuly in the Garden” at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens a few years ago. He has also done installations at Kew Gardens, London. I missed his 2006 show there by a year, but bought a book of photographs and a bunch of postcards. Just stunning work, always. I love him.
ETA: The picture you linked is gorgeous. Wow!
Iowa Old Lady
One of my grad students just posted this on FB:
“I idly mentioned to the young salesgirl that this week will be our 15th anniversary. Her response was, “Oooh, that must be so weird–watching each other get old!”:
Made me laugh.
SiubhanDuinne
@askew:
That alone pretty much settles whom I’ll support in the Dem primaries.
The Fat Kate Middleton
@SiubhanDuinne: My thought exactly.
Betty Cracker
@Mr Stagger Lee: You should see the sick shit people are saying in public and writing in the comments section of the local rags in celebration. Apparently there is a not insignificant number of folks down here who think the victim needed killing.
Steeplejack
@TaMara (BHF):
About 15 years ago I saw a Chihuly installation at the Atlanta Botanical Garden that was magical. It wasn’t really “an installation.” He put pieces—lots of pieces—in all the different micro-environments (including the huge lily pond), and you came upon them as you went through. It was like an Easter egg hunt. And it was really cool to see them in the day and then come back on one of the designated nights when they were illuminated.
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
Well, you do live in an honor culture (pdf). Insults and challenges to someone’s masculinity are punishable by death.
(Totally random thought: has anyone ever investigated whether inner-city honor cultures developed on their own or if they were imported from the South during the Great Migration? I dunno, I could be talking out of my ass, but it just occurred to me.)
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
Also, don’t think I’m getting on my high horse about honor cultures — after all, my ancestors were the people who invented the vendetta.
another Holocene human
@TaMara (BHF): Lucky you! Let us know when you post the rest.
another Holocene human
@Betty Cracker: Seconded heartily. I wouldn’t miss that or the Gulf beach in Clearwater but I would give Gulf seafood a miss as well as the Scientologists.
Botsplainer
@Betty Cracker:
Stupid cranky old white people -they’re using it to ensure compliance with their whims and tantrums, lest they decide to shoot somebody.
Makes me want to start sponsoring gun giveaways in urban areas, and take the recipients on bus tours of suburban malls and megachurches.
another Holocene human
@Iowa Old Lady: I know hrc is no republican and will work to get her elected if nominated but I question the health of the party, perhaps it will thrive despite her because all the interest groups that make up our coalition will still be there.
And she’s no cuomo or Schweitzer (I would question what realistic chance they have with D primary voters anyway).
Those early out polls are exaggerated. In fact we are probably looking at similar margins to the last contest, I hope we win popular by incrementally more and flip more house seats, but that’s a slow demographic grind that occurs with our without a Clinton. It’s not going to be HRC finding lost Dems under a couch cushion.
another Holocene human
@Amir Khalid: Otoh, the West is far more barbaric in its treatment of gay and especially transgendered prisoners. The US likely one of the worst because of the excessive sentences, overcrowding and poor conditions and general mistreatment of prisoners.
RSA
@raven:
If you type Basix into the Amazon search box, the first hit is “The Safe Sippy 2 2-in-1 Sippy to Straw Bottle, Pink”, and the picture is roughly consistent with the rest of the search results. That’s just wrong.