The dog below has a peculiar compulsion to show anyone entering the house that she is in possession of a chew toy:
If you leave the house and come back, she wants you to acknowledge that she has this chew toy, and she will follow you around snorting and whirling and wagging madly until you say something like, “Wow, I see you have a chew toy! Good girl!”
Then she’ll drop it and go back to whatever she was doing before your arrival. Weird.
Open thread!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I have the very first copy of Becoming Phoebe sitting right next to my computer, only because it’s hard to type while I’m holding it. I’ve looked it over, and it all looks ready to go. I ordered ten cases of 18 copies each, which should be here late next week.
LaurenR
My labmix does exactly the same thing with a tennis ball…Oh, to be so happy!
BR
I just realized that without his dad’s money, Donald Trump is just Ricky Gervais’s character in The Office (UK) — an asshole mid-level manager in a failing business.
Mary Jo
This cracked me up, I guess because our dog does the same thing. Weirdos, those dogs.
raven
Bohdi does that with my socks.
donnah
I love your dogs, Betty! Quirky pets are the best.
I leave tomorrow morning and drive seven hours to teach a rug hooking workshop in NC. I dyed wool over the weekend and today I am packing the big duffle bags for the trip. I love teaching, but it’s a ton of work. I get back home Monday, hopefully with less wool and more dollars.
Randy P
Is that a rawhide bone? I’ve never had a dog who would drop a rawhide bone. Give one of those to the dog and you won’t see him/her again till that thing is down to a couple of soggy flaps of leather.
Roger Moore
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Congratulation! I can’t wait to get my copy. I just hope it won’t get here at the same time I get Frankensteinbeck’s new book.
Iowa Old Lady
Are you allowed to touch the chew toy?
Randy P
Is that a rawhide bone? I’ve never had a dog who would drop a rawhide bone. Give one of those to the dog and you won’t see him/her again till that thing is down to a couple of soggy flaps of leather.
But in general when playing games with dogs, I’ve frequently had the feeling that the game had definite rules but I was too stupid to figure them out.
raven
@donnah: My wife went to Arrowmont last summer.
gbbalto
Bloodhound comes in 7th in half marathon!
boatboy_srq
Dogs are such wonderful creatures – especially when they want everyone to know how special their human is for giving them chew toys.
Up to my eyeballs in exam prep and security clearance doc for the new job. Eyes crossed eleventy-one times already and still not through it all.
raven
@gbbalto: Raven ran 5k’s with me when he was young. It was interesting how many people were nuts about not getting beat by a Cocker!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Roger Moore: The ebooks will go out as soon as I get the final files, which should be later this week. There will be more of a delay on the print copies.
piratedan
oh great, BC’s dog has received reparations, just wait until the chickens find out……
boatboy_srq
@piratedan: Egg-zactly.
Benw
@raven: what was his PR?
I used to jog with my Cavalier when he was younger but we never ran a race.
Mike in DC
The dog would also like you to know that she’s going vegan.
jackmac
My mini Aussie does the exactly the same, with enthusiastic tail-wagging!
Germy
Well, Abe Vigoda is gone.
gbbalto
@raven: It looks like nobody could have beaten this hound if she hadn’t wandered off to check things out along the way…
BruceJ
One of mine will come up to me with a bone in her mouth and poke me with it until I take it from her, whereupon she will look at me with this horrified “You stole MY BONE!!!!!” look until I hand it back, whereupon she’ll carry it off to chew on.
catclub
@Germy: Wasn’t he ancient 30 years ago?
sacrablue
OT: RIP Abe Vigoda, age 94.
.Oops, Germy beat me. Nevermind
Germy
@catclub: He was 64 thirty years ago. Some commenters may take offense at that being considered ancient!
catclub
I have wasted time reading this – and the post that motivated it.
Comments at First Things range from wacky ( with a heavy dose un-self awareness) to sensible.
Gravenstone
@raven: If Raven kept pace with you, they should have realized that it was you they were trying to beat, instead of the dog. But I suppose it’s not always easy to put the human with the dog.
Linnaeus
@Germy:
Tessio was always smarter.
hilts
@sacrablue:
This screws up all my arrangements
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d30Y0n1nDH4
JCJ
@donnah:
Are you one of those “hookers” Richard keeps talking about?
raven
@Benw: I don’t know but we ran the Athens YMCA Jingle Bell race and that was a trip!
raven
@Gravenstone: Runners are nuts.
jl
I think the Betty Cracker dog is clearly trying to start a dog pride movement. What self-respecting dog would not be proud of a chew toy? And from other commenters, there are other dogs ready to join.
I wish I had a chew toy I could chew on and show off to my friends, both dog and human, and cat (not that cats would care a bit, but it is the principle of the thing).
I will join the BC dog in a movement for chew toy equality across species. Yes, I will march with this dog for the cause.
donnah
@raven:
Arrowmont has a wonderful reputation, Raven. What did your wife study there?
I’ll be at a rug camp called Caraway. I travel all over the country to teach. Next month, Edmonton! Brrr!
Hillary Rettig
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: is this a book you wrote? if yes, congratulations! if not, why so many copies?
Hillary Rettig
My dog, Billy, like to stare at one of us while the other one scritches him. He’s all, “Admire me while I’m being admired.”
dr. bloor
We all need validation in our own way. Hers just happens to involve a bit more drool than most.
raven
@donnah: She took a week long shibori class. She’s a fabric artist when we are not in the grips of MORE home improvements! Hopefully the front hall will be done tonight and the use can get back to as close to normal as we get. Lil Bit’s vision is going downhill and she needs a stable floorpan.
WereBear
@Germy: My first reaction was to not believe you.
Some indelible performances. His expressions in Barney Miller alone were enough to be in awe of.
dr. bloor
Governor LeWhackjob is at it again.
Ah, beaten to the post above.
trollhattan
@Germy:
Methinks he was one of those guys born looking old, and capitalized on that fact for his acting career.
Loved “Barney Miller,” a groundbreaking comedy in its day.
Hungry Joe
Should the fraudsters/fakers of the Planned Parenthood videos be convicted, how long do you think it’ll take Gov. Abbott — who says investigations into Planned Parenthood will continue — to pardon them?
NotMax
@WereBear
A “premortem” mix from his website.
trollhattan
The Oregon Trailer Daesh shitstorm adds to its growing list of destruction.
Felonius Monk
@Hungry Joe: Hard to imagine that the felony indictment for faking a driver’s license won’t be plea bargained down to something like a misdemeanor farting in public kind of charge which will either be dismissed or a minor fine of $5. Remember it’s Texas.
Amir Khalid
@Hillary Rettig:
Yes, this is a book he wrote, and we have all (most of us, anyway) been following the comments he posted throughout the writing, editing and publishing process.
schrodinger's cat
Open thread blog pimping:
My quick review of Bajirao Mastani.
Bonus: A poster of Purrjirao and Meowstani : A Love Story of a Warrior Kitteh!
kc
The sweet Golden Retriever I used to live with would run and grab one of her stuffed animals every time someone came to the door. Then she’d run at the visitor with her animal in her mouth, trying to talk and making “Wooooo!” noises. Best dog ever.
kc
@trollhattan:
We just have to wait this out, can’t have any of those armed RW radicals getting their feelings hurt.
catclub
@donnah:
Sometimes.
We have a terrible tabby cat. If I am talking on the phone ( just me – her favorite) she wants my attention, and does not want me on the phone. This includes biting. I now have to stand up and watch out whenever I am on the phone.
dogwood
@raven:
Was your wife pleased with her Arrowmont experience? I ask because, while being a sorority girl around BJ isn’t good for one’s liberal cred, Arrowmont was founded and is still supported by Pi Beta Phi. In the 1860’s the founders left Monmouth college and headed to the Gatlinburg area to open a school and a medical clinic. Eventually, the focus of the endeavor was expanded to providing opportunities for the local population to market the amazing folk art indigenous to the area. I’ve never been to Gatlinberg or Arrowmont, but last summer a friend brought me a gift from the place and told me every Pi Phi should be proud of the place.
Schlemazel
@sacrablue:
BAH! I have heard that before & it never turned out to be true.
kc
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Congrats!
Amir Khalid
@dr. bloor:
Le Page wants to bring the guillotine back? Did Maine ever use it before?
Mnemosyne
Hamilton.
Los Angeles.
2017.
raven
@dogwood: She was very pleased.. It was a bit costly to stay there but she was very happy with the instruction and hands-on nature of the experience. Here’s some photos.
trollhattan
@Randy P:
Our previous dog was obsessed with them. He’d disappear to the backyard and chew away until it was as you described–a couple slime scraps. But we noticed they were disappearing ever more quickly and he’d come demand another. Finally, the dirty snout clued us to some trickery–he’d taken to burying them “for later” then like a squirrel, return for as many more as we’d give him.
The gas they generated could have powered all the stovetops in town. Horrid.
One Christmas, friends gifted him with a giant, comedy-size rawhide bone, which so thrilled him he galloped through the house with it, knocking lord knows how many things to the floor. It became his “special event” bone that we’d keep in the coat closet and only give him when folks were over who didn’t want the endless array of saliva’d tennis balls dropped in their laps.
Miss that dog.
raven
@Amir Khalid: Ever see The Widow of St Pierre with Julitte Binoche and Daniel Auteuil?
Schlemazel
@raven:
I’m sorry if I missed updates but how is the house coming? Seems its been a while since you said something but I am not always on every thread.
@Amir Khalid:
Some of us have even read it! All 1400 pages of the original draft :) (Sorry JM, had to make that joke)
Amir, I saw your post from this AM after I got home – that sounds really crappy, I hope it goes well, that finger is important & being mucked up lie that has to be a pain. Good luck with it.
Mnemosyne
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Congratulations!
@catclub:
Kitty thinks that you’re talking to her while not actually interacting with her, so those mixed signals frustrate her. Hence the biting and begging for attention — she thinks you’re taunting her. Give kitty a break and go into another room with the door closed, if you can.
boatboy_srq
@trollhattan: So much for “stewardship of the land.” They don’t care about invasive tumbleweed on the range either, so long as the cattle can eat, and besides, more carp means better fishing, amririte?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Hillary Rettig: Yep. As Amir said, it’s mine, and the official release date is next Monday.
Roger Moore
@jl:
The cat would care, but it would pretend not to and claim it had been chewing chew toys since before they were cool.
boatboy_srq
@dr. bloor:
Given his latest proposal, that’s such an appropriate name for him.
Shana
@Mnemosyne: And San Francisco.
By the way, I think the Musicality kids (they’re in high school, so they’re still kids) should be given front row seats to opening night in Chicago. They have a new video up of “Burn” which is lovely, although I like “Wait for It” and “It’s Quiet Uptown” better.
chopper
@raven:
my toller runs with me about 6 miles tops. any more than that and i have to keep her home or she tuckers out.
raven
@Schlemazel: It was done before Thanksgiving. Of course that means the contractor part was done! I’ve been framing the windows in the basement, putting the fences back together and all the other stuff that was not part of the job. I guess I always knew she planned to tackle the front hall way but it’s been 2 weeks of a rolling scaffold in the hall and the joint being trashed! We bought this old bookcase at a yard sale from some friends, turns our her dad built it, and we relished it and installed it with a new bead board back. It should hold the model of my dad’s WW2 destroyer just fine!
schrodinger's cat
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Congratulations!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Schlemazel: No, that was the second draft. And I’m pretty sure that you’re the only one in these parts that has read more than the first chapter, and the second half is now substantially different than what you read.
dogwood
@raven:
Good. I send a donation every year to the Arrowmont endowment fund. It’s kind of remarkable to think that until the 1960’s when a public school district was formed and the schools were turned over, Pi Beta Phi ran education there. Proof that women really do awesome work in this country.
schrodinger's cat
@Amir Khalid: How is your finger?
Patricia Kayden
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Congrats!! Hope it sells well.
So it seems that Republican voters are warming up to Trump. Who knew?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-first-voting-nears-trump-seems-stronger/2016/01/25/349439d4-c392-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_poll-715am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Hillary Rettig
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Wonderful! and congratulations!
Mnemosyne
@Shana:
Pffft to San Francisco (says this Southlander).
I love the Musicality kids, so I’ll have to look for “Burn.” I wasn’t super-impressed with the staging of “It’s Quiet Uptown,” but the vocal performances were once again superb.
hilts
John Krasinski (aka Jim Halpert from The Office) is disgusted that people are politicizing “13 Hours”
“I am actually slightly disgusted at the idea that applauding our military has become a political thing rather than universal”
http://www.mediaite.com/online/jim-from-the-office-is-disgusted-that-people-are-politicizing-his-political-movie
jl
@trollhattan: @boatboy_srq:
The latest news I see at TPM blog is that the Bundy Gang has decided to present themselves as pro multi-use, I guess as long as the white ranchers and loggers and their other special buddies who they think can use the land most productively, get first dibs. They now claim that they aspire to be their own private BLM.
Except for the Paiutes, who they said are welcome to come pick up their trinkets stored in the refuge museum and then get lost, since they are losers due to white man conquest and productive use. But, maybe they have graciously changed their mind on that and are willing to talk with the Paiute too. Who knows?
If they keep moving in this direction, the feds can set up a sting operation. Create a dummy company to manage the private Bundy Gang BLM, get them off the refuge and then arrest them all.
Ammon Bundy: Militiamen Are ‘Actually Protecting Rights Of All’
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ammon-bundy-says-he-is-fighting-for-all-in-oregon
WereBear
@NotMax: Awesome! Thanks.
trollhattan
Where’s SP&T? It’s Straya Day!
Amir Khalid
The Beeb reports that the US$700 million found sitting innocently in PM Najib Razak’s bank account last year was a political donation to his Barisan Nasional coalition to help it win the 2013 general election. Which makes me wonder:
keith p
@Germy: He’s another one of those “I thought he already died 20 years ago” actors. Although I have a specific false memory of Vigoda dying maybe years ago. Maybe I’m mixing him up with Anthony Quinn or someone else.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
The whippet of my brother in Las Vegas does the same thing. She has five or ten plush toys strewn around the house, and whenever you come home she grabs one and starts running around, making a circuit of living room, dining room, kitchen, always pausing to greet you but never really offering to give up the toy or allowing it to be taken. After a certain unknowable number of laps she stops and everything goes back to normal.
Her companion, the big black greyhound, greets you and wags from across the room, darting in but never getting within arm’s reach. I think he had a hard life on the track and has PTSD. Once things settle down he is very affectionate, but he doesn’t deal well with sudden breaks in the routine.
Amir Khalid
@schrodinger’s cat:
Still attached. But throbbing a bit; the local anaesthesia they gave me has worn off. I purchased latex prophylactics to keep it dry when I shower. I hope that works.
Steeplejack
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Congratulations! It must be awesome to finally hold the physical object itself. Well done.
WereBear
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Congrats! It’s such a thrill to hear.
dr. bloor
@hilts: Jim appears to have caught a bad case of Teh Stoopids from his boss.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Unless you have unusually large fingers, or the local market caters to, ahem, unusually small men, you’ll probably be better served with something called a “finger cot” which, here in the US at least, can be found in the chain drug stores in the section with gauze, adhesive bandages and the like.
Having had a pretty serious finger injury a couple of years ago, I’ve been through this.
Brachiator
@schrodinger’s cat:
Impressive nose jewelry.
I kept thinking, what if she had to sneeze?
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
I did consider that, but the bandage looks way too bulky for regular finger cots.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hilts: DIdn’t see it and I’m not gonna, but I think the trailer includes someone giving an order to “Stand down!”, which if it isn’t deliberately political on Bay’s part, I suspect it was on somebody’s. And they’re promoting it, I think, as “the true story….”
Steeplejack
@Germy:
Exactly! I just turned 64 today. Ancient?! Hmmph.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
Snot-encrusted jewellery.
Stacy
My Brittany Spaniel does the same with his stuffed animals although not every time someone comes in the house. He also acts the fool, wiggling and waggling with it in his mouth when he wants to impress our 17 year old ginger tabby. Who of course gives him a look of withering disdain.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: I fit one over a reasonably bulky bandage on a ring finger, but you can certainly judge what’s best. I just wasn’t sure if you’d considered the alternative.
Roger Moore
@Patricia Kayden:
What’s that old saying? Something like “Democrats fall in love; Republicans fall in line”. It’s just that this time it’s the Republican establishment that’s falling in line with what the base wants rather than the other way around.
hilts
@dr. bloor: @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I was a big fan of Krasinski on The Office and I’m sorry to see his career to devolve from The Office to 13 Hours.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: Well, Happy Birthday to you!
schrodinger's cat
@Brachiator: I have no idea, Kashibai’s naths are pretty impressive too
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
Now there’s an image that I will have a hard time getting out of my head.
Amir Khalid
@hilts:
His wife is still getting good parts in movies, as I understand.
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack:
Do they still need you, do they still feed you? And happy birthday!
JCJ
@Steeplejack:
Well then! Best wishes on your birthday. I hope the battle against the snow is going well.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Steeplejack: I pick it up every few minutes and smile stupidly as I look at it.
gene108
@Steeplejack:
Happy Birthday!
boatboy_srq
@Amir Khalid: One dose of brain bleach please.
catclub
@Steeplejack: In the pictures from the Godfather (1977?) he already looks
pretty old – even if he was only 57 at the time. LGM has a post up.
mrmike
That used to be a common anti-bark training technique – train the dog to show visitors a toy, if their mouth is full they can’t bark at them. Don’t know if that’s still a thing in training circles ’cause I haven’t had a doggie in a while.
schrodinger's cat
@Steeplejack: 64 is the new the 34. Happy Birthday!
gene108
@Amir Khalid:
Every time I see this phrase, I initially think people mean Justin Bieber reports, and I wonder why Justin would report on such and such topic making the words that follow very confusing for me.
chopper
@Steeplejack:
happy birthday, ya fossil.
danielx
@efgoldman:
Shows a deplorable lack of imagination on LePage’s part. Read a novel recently in a protagonist described how mirrors were taken from the home of aristocrats during the French Revolution. The mirrors were used to show said aristocrats what had happened to them in their last few seconds of awareness after their appointments with the National Razor.
Schlemazel
@raven:
Nice – thanks.
Keith G
@trollhattan: That would be a shame. Hopefully if remediation work is needed that will be added into the rather lengthy bill that the “boys” will be ordered to pay.
Schlemazel
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
Any chance of a sequel? I assume the heart of the second half had to stay with the book but there was a lot of story there.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
That is incredibly exciting! The biggest and warmest of congratulations to you, TTP!
trollhattan
Robert Gates tells you what you already know.
Still, he goes in with some boff-sides-duit but I don’t sense his heart is quite into it.
hilts
@Steeplejack:
Happy Birthday
https://vimeo.com/74081216
Schlemazel
@hilts:
Anybody tell him those were mercs & not military? No, probably not.
Anyone remember Jon Erik Hexim? (spelling probably not right) Between takes on his TV show he got bored and took the stage pistol there, pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger. He died from the wadding entering his brain. Seems he is not the only actor who could blow his brains out with a blank gun.
Matt McIrvin
@keith p: There had been all manner of mistaken and hoax reports of Abe Vigoda dying over the years, to the point that it became a running joke, from Vigoda himself and others. That’s why so many people are talking about seeking corroboration, but, sadly, this one seems to be the real thing.
Matt McIrvin
@Schlemazel: I’d heard some speculation that Hexum’s death was not an accident, that he was suicidally depressed and knew exactly what he was doing. Don’t know how credible it was.
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack:
I turned 64 earlier this month & it feels ancient to me – Harry F’ing Truman was President when I was born! The whole world was black and white, I know I have seen the photos!
Happy birthday ya ol fart.
Schlemazel
@Matt McIrvin:
I had not heard that. Bad either way but that would be worse.
raven
@Steeplejack: Happy birthday kid!
Brachiator
@schrodinger’s cat: India seems to be the new go-to place for Hollywood actresses. Priyanka Chopra has made a splash in the tv series “Quantico.” Now, Deepika Padukone has been cast to play alongside Vin Diesel in “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.”
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Schlemazel: No sequel. I don’t really have anything else to say with these characters. If that changes, you’ll be one of the first to know.
NotMax
@Schlemazel
Confirmation, from an unimpeachable source.
;)
Calouste
Various reports that Joe Arpaio is going to endorse Trump and campaign for him in Iowa.
NotMax
Whoopsie. Correction.
@Schlemazel
Confirmation, from an unimpeachable source.
;)
Mike E
@raven: While delivering a pizza, the lab at the house I visited was pretty happy I showed up and decided to bring all the bathroom place-rugs to the front door… pretty impressive for a medium size dog. The owner was aghast…I thot it was quite hilarious
Schlemazel
@NotMax:
THANKS! I love Calvin & this is proof the acorn didn’t fall far from the tree.
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
Happy Birthday!
Shana
@Amir Khalid: After a dog bite many years ago I used disposable gloves over that hand until it healed when I needed to wash myself. Or dishes. Not sure about availability where you are, but in the US they’re at all groceries and pharmacies.
gogol's wife
Okay, I’m going to plug the History/A&E/Lifetime War and Peace miniseries again. The second installment was last night, and Paul Dano is giving a brilliant performance as Pierre. For the first time in my life I’m seeing a version in which I’m actually rooting for Pierre to get together with Natasha! Even though Prince Andrei is also dreamy. Aisling Loftus is doing great work as Sonia as well. Lily James is charming, but isn’t making much of Natasha, but it doesn’t really matter that much.
Shana
@Steeplejack: Happy birthday to you! I turn 57 tomorrow. I hope we’ll be able to get out for my birthday dinner. VDOT is showing plows on our street as I type. The humans in the house are all figuratively wagging our tails in anticipation.
debbie
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
It must really be something to finally hold the actual finished book in your hands. Congratulations!
PurpleGirl
@raven: The pictures are very nice; I’d love to do something like that. I’ve always wanted to attend a Convergence biannual fibre art conference).
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
Happy birthday, old timer! ;-)
Patricia Kayden
@Steeplejack: Happy 64th!! And wishing you many many more.
@hilts: So Krasinski doesn’t understand that in a political climate where Republicans have conducted multiple Benghazi!!!! Congressional inquiries/hearings, including one where Secretary Clinton was grilled by hostile Republican Congress Critters for nearly 11 hours, most people would consider 13 Hours to be a highly partisan film?
Plus, is Krasinski upset that Republicans and Conservatives rallied around the film because they viewed it as a political hit job on Secretary Clinton?
I loved him on The Office, but he appears to be naive in real life. I’m glad 13 Hours bombed.
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
I’m glad to hear you say that — the early reviews on IMDb from people in Europe and the UK were pretty scathing. They seemed to feel it wasn’t “Russian” enough. I’m still curious about it.
debbie
@gogol’s wife:
Makes me wish I had cable. I loved reading that book!
Brachiator
@Steeplejack: Happy birthday!
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne:
Although I swooned over the Russian (Bondarchuk) version when I first saw it in 1968, now I think it’s ponderous and clunky, and he’s way too old to play Pierre. And although Savel’eva was visually perfect as Natasha, her performance is saccharine. Viacheslav Tikhonov IS Andrei, but James Norton is easy on the eyes. Andrei’s character suffers in the miniseries, because he’s so much inside his head, and it’s hard to dramatize him. But in general I’m amazed at the taste and cleverness with which the novel has been adapted. The battle scenes (so far) are particularly good, very much in the spirit of the novel. It was jarring to have Natasha dancing to gypsy music rather than Russian folk music, which kind of missed the point, but that kind of thing doesn’t bother me much. The guy playing Denisov (one of my favorite characters) is really good. I guess I’d better stay away from Imdb.
gogol's wife
@debbie:
I’m hoping a DVD comes out soon. The Vi–ra commercials are spoiling the mood.
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
It actually has an overall IMDb rating of 8.1 (out of 10), but the people who hate it REALLY hate it and are very vocal on the message board. It seems to be a bit of a backlash against the BBC’s overall miniseries style and not this one in particular.
gogol's wife
I did peek at Imdb and actually saw some positive responses. But I’d better not get into reading those comments or I’ll get no work done for the rest of the week.
The guy playing Denisov (Thomas Arnold) also played Hans Holbein on Wolf Hall! Didn’t recognize him although I’ve watched WH three times.
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne:
I’ll have to read them later.
Congratulations on Hamilton coming to LA. I have not even tried to get tickets yet. I’m not sure I ever will! I’m afraid seeing it in the flesh will be a disappointment. I just keep driving around town listening to it over and over again.
hilts
@Patricia Kayden:
It appears that John Krasinski is a lot closer to Dwight Schrute in terms of intelligence than to Jim Halpert.
Mnemosyne
@Patricia Kayden:
I still think that Bay made “13 Hours” because he wanted to compete with Kathryn Bigelow, who was very acclaimed (and Oscar-winning) for “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty.” Unfortunately for him, directing talent does not actually require a Y chromosome, so all he did was waste the studio’s money and embarrass himself in his attempt to prove that Boys Rule, Girls Drool.
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne:
And to think that Bay went to the same university as LMM.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Best wishes.
Doo-wop version for you.
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
I promised to take G to see it as a graduation present when he finishes his MLIS, and by 2017 it would probably be easier to get tickets in NYC than to get tickets here. Big name theater productions are super expensive and sell out really fast.
(MLIS=Master’s of Library and Information Science, for those who don’t know.)
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
How does he keep getting that kind of money with his track record for crap?
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
I went to the same university as several Watergate criminals (though 40 years apart), as BillinGlendale would be happy to tell you.
;-)
(We are cross-town rivals, alma mater-wise.)
Mnemosyne
@debbie:
Because Bay’s crap usually makes a shit-ton of money. The “Transformers” movies made an insane amount of money both here and (especially) overseas. The studio doesn’t really care how hard “13 Days” bombed since he probably already agreed to direct 3 more “Transformers” movies in order to get the financing for this one. Bay will be crying all the way to the bank, unfortunately.
cckids
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Oh, congratulations!! So, so happy for you.
PurpleGirl
@gogol’s wife: I’m watching it also. Because I haven’t read the novel, I felt like I couldn’t keep the characters distinct and remember the names properly. So I went on-line to find a character list and Wikipedia has a very good, extensive list of every one in the novel with a brief description/explanation of who they are. It was very helpful.
MomSense
@dr. bloor:
Oh my dog. Please make him stop. He is a scourge.
PurpleGirl
@gogol’s wife: I hate the first commercial of each night — the Geico thing with Napoleon wanting more power. It’s just too close to the story line and then the Geico tie in comes on and the mood is ruined for a while.
gogol's wife
@PurpleGirl:
Yes, I think it’s like Wolf Hall in that it doesn’t really explain some things for people who haven’t read the book. But my husband seems to be enjoying it, and he hasn’t read it. I’m there to bore him with explanations, though.
gogol's wife
@PurpleGirl:
Yeah, that one’s really heinous.
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
I am going to go watch ham4ham videos now. I had a day.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
I’m waiting for Bad Boys 3.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Actually they went to both schools(hangs head in shame).
ETA: We’d still be X-town rivals, except you moved to the city next door?.
BillinGlendaleCA
Happy B-day Steep! Mine was last Thursday, though not 64(56).
schrodinger's cat
@Brachiator: Priyanka was the best thing in Bajirao Mastani. Deepika is the reigning queen of Hindi movies, I think she could do better than a Vin Diesel movie.
MomSense
@Steeplejack:
Happy, happy birthday! If I could link on this stupid phone I would play you Leon Bridges’ Smooth Sailing. He’s my current favorite new artist.
Matt McIrvin
Sam’s cat Savant used to do this same thing with balled-up socks. She had a special pair of socks that belonged to her so she could kill them over and over and present them as a gift to her humans, making a special sock-in-mouth meow. She expected acknowledgement and praise.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: Happy Birthday, snowman!
@gogol’s wife: Ha! I rooted for reliable old Pierre throughout the novel when I first read it (something-something) years ago! Will have to check out this adaptation!
Steeplejack
Thank you one and all for your birthday wishes. I got interrupted by the real world yesterday and didn’t get back to this thread.