Bad news for Republicans: Dick Morris says they will hold the Senate https://t.co/vOShrgIFMo
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) May 25, 2015
If Dick Morris told me I'd be alive next week I'd start making funeral arrangements.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) May 25, 2015
Also for entertainment purposes only, a revised Serenity Prayer from a commentor at People magazine, because it actually made me LOL:
Dear God, grant me the serenity to accept the evidence I cannot deny
The courage to destroy the evidence I can
And the wisdom to know in which closets to hide all my other skeletons.
***********
Apart from cheap laffs, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Lee
If Bill Kristol makes the same pronouncement, it’ll be a done deal.
Do you think we could get someone to ask him?
JPL
@efgoldman: That is so cool.
p.a.
@efgoldman: what’s the application process like?
Valdivia
@efgoldman:
Woo hooo. Good luck to her.
Major Major Major Major
Just broke 10,000 words on my fish story! Part 14.
Both Sides Do It
My cousin was on Jeopardy! She got so nervous she took beta blockers. Good luck to her. Did she tell you how she did?
Silliest presidential predictions so far? The ones I’ve seen: that Lindsey Graham and Rick Perry will add a dose of “centrism” to the race
BBA
Eh. The Republicans have controlled the Senate with a minority before and they can do it again.
ThresherK
@efgoldman: We will tune in, as we do every night, or my name isn’t Roald Amundsen.
raven
@efgoldman: Cheap Thrills
khead
Wife filed for unemployment today.
In her old job, she once held the mike for Tucker Carlson at a conference where she was also hit on by many Randian douchebags.
So, I’m pretty cool with her being unemployed. Even with the financial hardship that may come with it.
Culture of Truth
@efgoldman: To quote Gladiator, I shall cheer for her.
beltane
@efgoldman: I will be sure to watch tomorrow.
David Koch
Digya know Bernie Sanders was an actor before entering politics?
He was a body double in a very famous movie.
JPL
@Both Sides Do It: If you analyze the republican field, Lindsay would be centrist. It’s all how you look at the numbers. Now in the olden days, he’d be far right of Reagan but that was then .
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: Look forward to the Jeopardy appearance. We should do a thread.
schrodinger's cat
JR in WV’s reply to Tommy, two threads below (You must grow up in fear) is epic! ROTFLOL.
schrodinger's cat
JR in WV’s reply to Tommy, two threads below (You must grow up in fear) is epic.
srv
I’ll take “New Democratic candidates for President” for $400
Bernie? Bernie? Bernie? Anyone? Anyone?
Valdivia
@khead:
was there compensation for mental pain and suffering for having to withstand all of that at work?
Pogonip
@efgoldman: We watch Jeopardy every night. We’ll root for her!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL: Linsday Graham is the second most Very Seriousest (Republican) Person when it comes to foreign policy
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yup and that makes him to left of the republican candidates.
khead
@Valdivia:
Heh. Not enough. There was also James Glassman @ a conference a year or two before Tucker. I SO wanted to be there to ask him about Dow 36K. I probably would’ve gotten my wife fired on the spot right then though.
donnah
A small tornado tossed cars around in a Beavercreek, Ohio shopping center just ten minutes from where I live, just a couple of minutes from where my mom still lives. It came out of a small front of thunderstorms and blew about half dozen cars across the parking lot and did minor damage to the buildings and signs. Trees were ripped apart, rooftops blown off, and yet only two people were injured.
Really scary to have even a minor funnel drop down here. It was nothing compared to storms elsewhere in the country, but this was in the neighborhood where I grew up, and boy, that’s close!
Valdivia
@khead:
sounds like she could write a book about all these characters. :)
gf120581
Oh my. I actually made the mistake of reading Morris’ drivel and it’s ridiculous even by his standards. Two things in particular stick out:
1. He actually seems to think Patty Murray is vulnerable.
2. He completely dismisses any potential threat to Kelly Ayotte who (a) will probably be facing the sitting governor next fall and (b) is in a state that goes Democratic in presidential years and is VERY sensitive to national trends (not to mention having a GOP congressman crashing and burning in scandal who may be on the ballot).
Oh yes, he looks even more ridiculous on a day when John McCain gets a serious Democratic challenger on top of his dismal poll ratings and the prospect of a primary challenge.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
For once, I’m really sorry not to own a TV. I’ll try to catch it elsewhere. Good luck to Kate (yes, I realize it was taped many weeks ago, but, you know.)
Pogonip
@efgoldman: Let’s hope Morris doesn’t predict that she’ll win.
David Koch
@efgoldman: you didn’t know Minnesota Fats and Fast Eddie Felsen were Iranian?
Pogonip
Fantasy author Tanith Lee has died at 67.
sharl
@donnah: Were you in that area in 1974, when a tornado wrecked a lot of Xenia (about ten miles east of Dayton)? It was part of something called The Super Outbreak that year (a term which I’d either forgotten or never heard). I was a HS senior that year; a guy in my English class drove a tow truck after school, and he was putting in looooong days cleaning up the aftermath.
Stay safe! Dayton isn’t on the main path for those nasty things – at least it hasn’t been up until now – but I remember us having some tense moments when I was growing up there.
gogol's wife
I love Robert Donat (just watched him in The Count of Monte Cristo). I want to have the voices of Robert Donat, Ronald Colman, and James Mason on a continuous loop piped into my brain.
srv
Orphaned Bernie, perhaps there is a third way:
Tracy Ratcliff
@donnah: My sister lives in Beavercreek (or technically the next suburb over). Looking up the news now…
gf120581
@Pogonip: Don’t worry. Morris could never bring himself to do that.
Omnes Omnibus
@gogol’s wife: I advertised that movie on the last thread – no takers.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
For the Civil War buffs, I brought this up at the end of a thread yesterday — the Autry museum here in LA has a great new exhibit about the Civil War and the settlement of the American West:
http://civilwar.theautry.org
They’ve been making a major effort to discuss race and ethnicity whenever they discuss the American West, and this exhibit is no exception. Really, really well done discussions of how whites, blacks, American Indians, Asians, Latinos, and even Hawaiian Islanders interacted in the West before and after the Civil War. It includes thigs like the disputes between Cherokee (I think) about whether or not they should free their (African) slaves.
Karen in GA
@efgoldman: I’ll watch. I hope we see her win!
@khead: On to bigger and better things. Here’s to your wife finding something much better.
Yesterday a stray cat appeared in the neighborhood that looks just like a short-haired version of my Phoebe. Same face. Saw it a little while ago while walking Muppet, just sitting in the street in front of my house looking at me. I’d take the cat in if not for just having gotten Muppet. I miss my Phoebe.
The vet checked Muppet today — she’s no older than two (the rescue said about a year old), in good health. Behaviorally she’s as good as the rescue said she would be, and I think she’s bonded with me already, or at least she’s well on her way.
Tomorrow’s day five of the five day trial period, and the day I officially adopt her. Welcome home, Muppet!
Chris
@khead:
Ugh, all sympathies and best wishes to her. Being unemployed fucking sucks, emotionally just as much as financially. Really says something about the job she’s leaving if unemployment is a step up.
different-church-lady
Hooo… gonna be an epic game 7 at Madison Square Garden.
ThresherK
@efgoldman: That’s Thor Heyerdahl. Throw in Grieg and Ibsen and you’re ready for any Jeopardy Norwegian clues.
Omnes Omnibus
@ThresherK: Ahem, Edvard Munch would like to scream at you.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Here is a link to a slideshow and podcast about the exhibit on public radio station KPCC:
http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2015/04/23/42537/sneak-peek-of-the-autry-s-empire-and-liberty-the-c/?slide=19
This is the April 23 podcast of KPCC Air Talk, in case the link does not show correctly. I’ve never been to the Autry museum. This exhibit sounds really interesting. Thanks.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I have lutefisk stories. Ancestral ones. I’ve had the sense to never touch the stuff. Someday, when no living person will be harmed, I will tell them.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
you have ancestral lutefisk stories?
I was unlucky enough to try it in Minnesota once & I still have not recovered.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: One quarter of my ancestry is Scandinavian. There are legends of lutefisk topped with melted margarine. But it is nearing people’s bed times and I have no interest in causing nightmares.
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus:
Did you watch it? It’s not a great movie, but Donat is great. It was amusing to see Louis Calhern and Sidney Blackmer chewing the scenery. But it’s too long. I loved the mobile witness stand in the last scene, though.
jl
@Omnes Omnibus: My cousin and I fixed lutefisk once. It was kind of like fish jello. Not sure why he picked it up. I think he wanted something different one night, and the only different thing in the case was some weird stuff that fish monger said was lutefisk ready to be re-constituted into semi edible form. Or something. It was lark of his.
We probably messed it up, being Swiss-Irish.
Belafon
@JPL: Graham is centrist because he actually has to think of crazy things to say.
Omnes Omnibus
@gogol’s wife: I watched it. Dumas is one of my weaknesses. I will watch even the worst Three Musketeers remakes just because.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
its good you’re sparing everyone: I still get a little nauseous just thinking about it.
Lutefisk aside I have a deep love & curiosity of all things Scandinavian. I was there a year ago and would very much like to go back again.
eta: For your Dumas weakness, have you read this?
gogol's wife
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m going to bed now, but you’ll have to tell me if Dumas really has a happy ending. I was kind of surprised by that.
I have to read Dumas some day. I’ve only read the Classics Illustrated version.
Gin & Tonic
@efgoldman: Bacalau can actually be edible under the right circumstances, in contrast with lutefisk.
Gin & Tonic
Correcting myself, I think it’s bacalhau.
Brachiator
@Pogonip: Very sad to read about the death of Tanith Lee. When I was gobbling up all the SF I could find as a kid, I picked some of her works just because I thought her name sounded cool. A talented writer. It was sad to read in the Guardian obit that she fell out of favor with publishers and could not even get her proposals looked at, even though she never stopped writing. Rises and falls in popularity are particularly quixotic.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia:
It just made my list.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
it’s one of the best books I have read in the last couple of years. I think you will really dig it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: It just moved up on my list.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
:D
was today’s version of Monte Cristo your favorite or there are others you prefer?
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: As Ali G. would say, “Respect.”
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think the Richard Lester “Three Musketeers”/”Four Musketeers” from the 1970s is one of the best adaptations, but I have a strange weakness for Oliver Reed.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Well, everyone has a weakness for Oliver Reed. He made Bill Sykes vaguely sympathetic. Who can do that?
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
You can add Stewie from Family Guy to the list. He nails that accent. Probably don’t want him on the endless loop, however.
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia: Honestly, it wasn’t a very good version. But it was Dumas.
Tree With Water
“The best outcome to Ballghazi would be for the Pats to start Brady in week 1 and dare Goodell to do something about it. Just have Brady go full Costanza and trot out for the first series like nothing happened. If they’re looking at a possible 0-4 anyway, why not just play Brady all four weeks and dare Goodell to make them forfeit the games? I know Kraft would never allow it, and the refs would probably just refuse to blow the whistle and start the clock, but it would be the absolute ultimate “fuck you.”
I still think the ultimate FU would be for Brady to walk away. Here’s a guy who has played russian roulette with his long term health (for over a third of his life), and helped to put god knows how much money in the pockets of the NFL’s motley crew of ownership groups. Now he’s being treated like a mutt for all his efforts, punked by an arbitrary, hypocritical fool of commissioner and a chickenshit owner. I’m not a New England fan, but I am a lifelong fan of the game. The Sheild’s shot-callers have grown too obnoxious to ignore, and hope Brady takes the opportunity to say as much with a timely exit.
Valdivia (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
If I was going to watch one which would you recommend?
Omnes Omnibus
@Valdivia (tablet): Try this. I will say that the story really does not lend itself to a movie version. I’ll still watch them all, but it doesn’t mean that any are good.
Hungry Joe
I actually have a real Minnesota Fats story. In the early ’60s there was kind of a pool boom — all kinds of well-lit “Family Billiards” places opened up, as pool was marketed as a safe, family-friendly sport. Minnesota Fats was shilling for Brunswick, which sold pool tables. My brother and I went to an exhibition at a Montgomery Ward in San Diego: Minnesota Fats in person, demonstrating the superiority of Brunswick tables. He did some amazing tricks, then took questions. A plantinum blond bimbo, with a Brooklyn accent, straight from Central Casting (I was about 12 and mesmerized by her), asked, “Was dere an Eddie Felson?” Fats explained that Eddie Felson, the Paul Newman character in “The Hustler,” was a composite, a fictional character — young, brash up-and-comers in the professional pool world were known as “Fast Eddies.” She took that in for a moment, furrowing her brow, then said, “Yeah … but was dere an Eddie Felson?” My brother and I dissolved, I tell you, DISSOLVED.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne (tablet): I recall Reed in a werewolf movie, I think. And he was great in Women in Love and The Devils.
I loved Lester’s Musketeers. I brought this film up recently, in talking with friends about Game of Thrones. They insist on movies and shows with protagonists you can clearly root for, and for happy, entertaining endings. The Three Musketeers is a comical romp, with witty banter and thrilling action. The Four Musketeers is much darker, and not everyone is rescued in the nick of time. Both films are true to Dumas’s vision. Some of the darkness and sexuality in the novel was deliberately eliminated by most English translations, to make the adventure more acceptable to delicate sensibilities.
Didn’t this version also feature Charlton Heston as Cardinal Richelieu? I think overall this version was very well cast.
Origuy
Speaking of swashbucklers, I just finished Cary Elwes’ book about the making of The Princess Bride, called As You Wish. Among many other things, he tells how he and Mandy Patinkin spent months learned stage fencing to do the big fight between Wesley and Inigo Montoya. There’s a lot of great stories about the making of that movie.
David Koch
@Hungry Joe: pretty cool story.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne (tablet):
Seconded. That is a great “double album” pair of movies. Very light on its feet but true to the spirit of the original novel(s?).
Ruckus
Anne Laurie
Once again thanks for the Nick Drake video. I like his style and wish I’d heard him when he was alive or even had any idea about him before now. He does sound a bit young with a some what inexperienced voice on some songs but then he was young. The overall effect is great though.
Both Sides Do It
@JPL: In office he’s gone along with all the crazy-ass shit Republican Senators cooks up. He was part of the knee-jerk filibustering of Appeals court judges, has a 100% pro-life rating, and might be the most hawkish guy running.
He doesn’t talk about “states being allowed once again to breathe the sweet air of freedom once federal regulations are finally shot and buried”, but that’s rhetoric. On substantial policy guy takes no back seat to being a radical loon.
donnah
@sharl:
I sure was! Actually, there was another small tornado that hit almost the same spot as the one yesterday, back in about 1970, and tore up an apartment complex and convenience store.
And the Xenia tornado was a monster. I’ve read that it was an F5, the kind that not only uproots big trees, but lifts sidewalks out of the ground. We lived about fifteen miles from it. I was in tenth grade when that hit, and later my folks drove us out to see the damage. I cried the whole time.
J R in WV
@schrodinger’s cat:
Thanks, Shrodinger. Glad you enjoyed it. Things are really so much better now.
Valdivia
@Omnes Omnibus:
thanks for this. It’s now on top of my movie list.