Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii all hold their primary caucuses today; I know at least a couple of regular commentors are deputies in their precincts, so we should have some on-the-ground reports by tomorrow. Meanwhile, Seattle’s Dan Savage reports a charming local custom:
Terry Miller, our in-the-tank-for-Hillz cupcake correspondent, writes…
It’s 8AM and what am I doing?!! Participating in the #CupcakeCaucus! Go to @cupcakeroyale [today] and vote with your mouth! (Don’t worry! There are Bernie cupcakes too!) $1 from every cupcake sold goes to the DNC to help elect those important down-ticket candidates this November. A great way to show your support for your candidate, the DNC, and make your friend’s tummies happy!…
On the other side of the country, the Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank prepares for a less appetizing meal:
… Six months ago, I made a reckless vow. With Donald Trump dominating in polls, I said I’d eat a column — 18 column inches of toxic newsprint, wood-pulp, ink and all — if Trump won the Republican presidential nomination…
… With the help of one of the capital’s great chefs — and seeking the guidance of you, the reader — I am taking the prudent step of preparing to eat my words in case Trump secures the nomination…
So I called my friend Katherine Miller, head of the food-advocacy group Chef Action Network, who put me in touch with a chef who would help me eat my words in style: Chef Victor Albisu of Washington’s Del Campo restaurant, an acclaimed Latin steakhouse. I did not discuss politics with Chef Victor, but I doubt he’s a yuuuuuge Trump fan, based on his recipes. And I sensed he was being arch when he told me: “If you’re eating newspaper, man, the world opens up to you.”…
Chef Albisu’s proposals all sound delish, but Milbank is still taking suggestions on Facebook and Twitter…
***********
Apart from food (Easter prep for some of y’all, I’m guessing) and politics, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Steeplejack (phone)
About to rouse myself for a shower and a trip to the grocery before the weekend hordes arrive. Why didn’t I go yesterday? Because I’m lazy! But now I have to go because the housecat is almost out of wet food. That cannot stand.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
The only interesting question left is who runs against Hillary in 2020.
Lil’ Marco is toast.
Rafael Cruz won’t survive this sex scandal.
Christie will be in jail.
Maybe Mittens will run again. I mean, that supposed “deepest bench in a generation” is really fucked.
PurpleGirl
Morning folks.
Actually the ink may not be all that toxic if it’s a soy-based ink. It would pay Dana Milbank to find out what kind of ink the WaPo uses.
PurpleGirl
@Steeplejack (phone): Oh boy, yes, the housecat needs his/her wet food. Otherwise he/she will start planning how to get back at you.
BillinGlendaleCA
In my continuing experiment to marry IR and visible light photos, I think I’ve come up with a process that works:
Visible light photo,
Combined Visible light and IR.
bemused
It was a cute moment when the little bird landed in front of Bernie on his lectern. I would very much enjoy seeing a much larger bird fly over Trump and let loose with a load of liquid poop that lands with a spectacular plop right on top of his head and drip down his face. I wouldn’t mind seeing Cruz get the same treatment either.
I’m sure I’m not the first to dream of this happening.
Baud
I’m ready for the primary to be over. I don’t think I can take many more goose eggs.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
We have some big things up and running. While we’re in NOLA and Mexico, we’re getting new floors and countertops. I’m painting cabinets, kitchen walls and a hallway today and tomorrow, and replacing at least one, maybe two track lighting systems this weekend as soon as the daylight happens (I’ll need natural light).
I saw that Bella Q was asking on a thread now dead for restaurant recs as she is coming to a concert here in the People’s Democratic Socialist Kenyan Sharia Republic of Louisville. If she’s reading this AM, I’m assuming that she’s attending something at the Yum Center. I’m also guessing that for a concert she’ll want to be a little less formal, so that knocks out the very close locations of Jeff Ruby’s (which she’ll know from Cincinnati) and Morton’s (Chicago steakhouse). There are three nice choices that are super close, and totally local.
Milkwood – This is a casual dining project by celebrity chef Edward Lee, who is based out of Louisville (he’s got one of those $250 a plate places in another location). Lots of smoked and pickled things, along with gourmet ramen and glorious bar concoctions. Pricing is not outrageous. It is located within a block of Yum kind of catty-corner and across West Main.
Doc Crow’s – Beautiful oysters on the half-shell from both coasts (there’s a huge fish transshipment house here due to the UPS hub, so this stuff is really fresh), brisket, pork, and a shrimp and cheese grits that could make you cry. The drinks are craft made. I like to eat at the bar. It is also within a block of Yum, in the 100 block of West Main.
Mussels and Burgers – I know it sounds weird, but it works. This is the second location, and was created by a group of Cuban restauranteurs. The location is great, the bar beautiful, the drinks craft made. The mussels are served in multiple configurations with broth, and are plentiful. They come with house made baguettes to sop up the broth. Apps include things like bacon wrapped dates and duck fat fries. The burgers are all that as well – if you’re throwing caution to the wind, you can even have it topped with foie gras. Again, eating at the bar is highly recommended, although all the space is great. That one is on Seventh Street just south of Main, and is in my office block (I’m in the 600 block of West Main). It’s a short walk from Yum (which rests between Second and Third on West Main).
Darkrose
Got to admit, the saffron rice and smoked lamb actually sounds good.
Damn. Now I want to go to the Iranian restaurant near here.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
In 2020 they’ll tell themselves that they lost because they weren’t conservative enough this cycle. The GOP base will demand a ticket with Louis Gohmert and Jeff Sessions.
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused:
Here’s hoping it’s a Fu bird.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Hang in there until California, we’re counting on ya out west.
burnspbesq
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Jason Chaffetz. Ryan. Abbott. Gowdy. And a dozen others you can’t imagine right now.
Raven
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: Hot Brown?
BillinGlendaleCA
@burnspbesq: If they can find a Costello, they could go with Abbott & Costello.
ETA: You’re either up late or up early(I’m going to retire for the morning).
NotMax
Early notice for movie buffs and the cinema curious.
Wednesday, March 30, 6 a.m. Eastern – TCM is showing the groundbreaking non-linear surrealist short film Un Chien Andalou (1929). This one doesn’t come around very often.
Caution advised for the easily squeamish.
burnspbesq
MLB starts for realz in nine days. Hope Harvey comes out feeling mean and flips a bunch of Royals.
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
Oh wow, that is a huge bird and intimidating looking. The bird that I had in mind is a Turkey Buzzard, a large carrion bird with an ugly face just like Trump.
burnspbesq
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Was texting with the kid, who is sitting at Gatwick waiting to come home for spring break.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Raven:
Hot Brown can only be ordered at the Brown Hotel, and is so heavy it can only be ordered in Winter months.
True Louisvillians are purists on this.
Iowa Old Lady
I’m packing to hit the road again but will be home tomorrow. Thank goodness. I’m beat.
So are we taking this Cruz sex scandal as the truth? It seems too convenient. Also a bunch of women had to agree to sleep with Cruz which seems unlikely. Also ewww.
Raven
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/26/sports/ncaabasketball/louisville-is-a-grumpy-ncaa-host-as-its-team-sits-one-out.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Louisville as a Grumpy Host!
TheMightyTrowel
It’s almost easter Sunday here. Spent the day reading a PhD draft and playing with my kitties while Mr Trowel plastered the bed room. I love long weekends.
Raven
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: That’s were I was going. I had one there 49 years ago!
OzarkHillbilly
@bemused: Did you read “The Immortal Foo Bird”?
Long ago, there was a Great White Hunter who roamed far and wide, going on safari after safari, hunting down and shooting for sport every manner of wildlife. His den was huge and was decorated fabulously, though some felt grotesquely, with the heads, skins, horns and in some cases whole bodies of the animals he succeeded in bringing down.
His collection was rumored to be the most complete in the world, but he was still unsatisfied because he had been unsuccessful in his quest to bring home the most difficult species of bird to find, let alone kill-the immortal foo bird.
The foo bird was huge, said to exceed even the size of the roc, the legendary avian giant that could carry off elephants. The Great White Hunter was determined that he should be the first in the world to have a foo bird in his den.
But there was great danger in hunting the foo bird, for it was said that the bird was incredibly quick and, when spotted, would take flight and defecate on all in close range. Once defecated upon, legend had it that one could not wash off the excrement, because if one did, instant death would result.
Undeterred, the Great White Hunter undertook another great safari into the deepest, darkest jungles of Africa, in his ever present quest to locate and bring home the immortal foo bird. No expense was spared on this expedition, with the finest weaponry, the most experienced scouts, and the finest and most extensive provisions, so that the Great White Hunter could have many weeks available for locating the foo bird.
At last, one late afternoon, one of the Great White Hunter’s scouts whispered that a foo bird was in the next clearing. The Great White Hunter hurried to shoulder his rifle and, taking quick aim, shot and killed the gigantic bird. Alas, the bird, true to the legend, was able to defecate on the Great White Hunter just before being hit.
But, the Great White Hunter figured that he had his prey. No one else in the world had ever bagged a foo bird and, by thunder, he would take it home, have it stuffed, and show the world that he was, indeed, the Great White Hunter. He honored the legend and left the excrement on him to ensure that he would enjoy his prize trophy.
Sadly, the Great White Hunter’s odiferous state was such that no one would visit him to see his rare foo bird. He could not enjoy his moment being alone. Depressed, he fell to drink and despondency, bemoaning the fact that he could not bask in the glory of the moment.
Finally, he decided that there was no use in going on. If he couldn’t show is foo bird to others and see their reaction, he might as well be dead. He realized that there was no longer any point in honoring the legend of the excrement. One night, when he could no longer stand the irony, he ran to the shower and washed off all the foo bird excrement-and fell dead instantly.
The moral of the story?
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If the Foo shits, wear it.
hueyplong
I wasn’t ready for “Un Chien Andalou” when I saw it.
dmsilev
Midday for me, in the last act of “torture dmsilev’s body clock”. Sitting in the departure lounge of Zurich airport waiting for my (13 hour!) flight back. And another 8-hour-timezone shift to acclimate to. I’m going to be a drooling idiot for the next few days (well, more so that usual).
At least I’m coming back with a box of tasty chocolate truffles.
Baud
@TheMightyTrowel:
I read that as “…was plastered in the bedroom.”.
Mustang Bobby
I slept in until the sunlight started to lighten the sky. Now with a mugful of coffee I will look around, take more nourishment, and find something to do until the afternoon when I go help load in the scenery for a community theatre production of “Nunsense.” Tomorrow we actually get to set up the set.
Raven
@Mustang Bobby: I don’t know if I ever told you about “The Graduate” after we saw it?
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: That is one of the great shaggy dog stories of all time. I salute you for reminding me of it.
TheMightyTrowel
I mean. Often accurate on a sunny Saturday but not when they’re are tools and chemicals around! He’s been insulating the house room by room – in my pay off oz we have 4 glorious seasons including winter nights well below freezing but the houses are typically single skinned and without insulation or central heat (i don’t understand it either). Mr Trowel is fixing that.
Mustang Bobby
@Raven: I know you shared pictures of it.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Raven:
LOL – The sadness IS palpable. The fans from other teams seem to be having a good time, though. Kansas has traveled decently despite weather there, and I’ve seen a lot of Miami fan gear.
Raven
@Mustang Bobby: Well the show itself was quite good. Friends of mine did the live music and it really added to it. The funny thing was that their website listed the production as three hours long! I was freaked out but we went anyway with a backup plan to vanish at intermission if need be. They took the break after an hour and I asked one of the musicians what the hell they were going to do for 2 more hours since the next scene was going to be Berkeley! He said , “what to you mean, this will be over in less than 45 minutes”! I guess it was just a default in the ticket software, whatever it was a it made the show much better!
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: I tell it differently with a white explorer and his porters walking thru the jungle, but it was easier to copy and paste then type it out.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Is that why Cruz has no friends?
bemused
@OzarkHillbilly:
No I hadn’t, lol! What a great analogy to the GOP.
Raven
@Mustang Bobby: I probably told you all that, I’m getting old!
NotMax
@Raven
Used to live not many miles from a factory* involved in making Louisville Sluggers.
*”Factory” is putting the best possible light on it. It was a rickety, leaning, rundown mill building set in the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania. The kind that looked as if an energetic sneeze would blow it over. Inside was a big lathe. Deliveries of identical lengths of wood, already cut and shaved square, were delivered to one door. Out the other door came the same lengths, but now round, to be stacked and shipped to wherever the next step in the manufacturing process took place.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Well, he does come from Texas. Do you know how to find Texas? You walk west until you smell it, then south until you step in it.
NotMax
@Mustang Bobby
Not going to type it all out, but the other memorable one involving a bird ends thus:
“That’s a long way to tip a Rary.”
Mike J
As a Hilay supporter, trying to prepare myself for the Bernie sweep today. There will be some insufferable people until NY where Hillary is up 35% votes. And NY has more delegates than all of today’s combined.
Anyway, I’ll get out of bed soon, make coffe, take a shower, do a little bacon and eggs.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@PurpleGirl:
I used to work for a printing ink company. Old inks used heavy metals for pigments, and you should NOT eat that stuff. But modern newsprint inks are soy based. That’s not to say they’re fit for human consumption.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: How about ostrich eggs then? They’re really, really yuuuge…and classy.
Raven
@NotMax: With baseball season about to begin — and news breaking that Hillerich and Bradsby, the bat company, has sold its Louisville Slugger brand to Wilson Sporting Goods — rampant reminiscing came bounding to the forefront. At least H&B didn’t sell to some foreign outfit that is more familiar with sticky wickets than baseball.
No brand has ever been more prominent in sport than the Louisville Slugger. Nobody has ever been able to compete with Louisville Slugger, although the Hanna Manufacturing Company in Athens was a formidable business rival in the 1950s. The Hanna Bat Rite model was popular with a number of big-league players.
Dr. Bobby Brown, the old Yankee infielder who attended medical school while he was playing baseball, remembers outfielder Gene Woodling rummaging around an old barrel of bats in an expansive sporting goods store across the street from the team hotel in Detroit. Woodling discovered a bat with the Hanna Bat Rite label. He liked the feel of the bat, paid $5 for it and took it to batting practice that afternoon. He hit four or five home runs, all into the upper deck.
His teammates tried the bat with similar success. Woodling became convinced that the bat had unusual power.
“The next day,” Brown said, “Our (traveling) secretary was ordering a batch of bats from the Hanna bat company in Athens.”
It is difficult to recall the career of Brown, who roomed with Yogi Berra, without flashing back to a very humorous incident. The story goes that on a road trip, Brown was deep into a medical textbook while Yogi was passing time with his favorite comic book. When Yogi finished reading his comic book, he looked over at Brown who was putting away his textbook, and said, “How did yours come out?”
For years, Hanna made miniature bats, which were given away as souvenirs. Even into the ‘60s, as declining sales put the company in a precarious financial position, you could go take a tour of the factory and leave with one of the souvenir bats.
Dating back to 1935, Hanna gave away miniature bats to Georgia students when the Bulldogs hosted LSU in a big game. The Tigers defeated Georgia, 13-0, as they powered their way to the SEC championship. This prompted the LSU ROTC Cadet Corps to attempt to tear down the Sanford Stadium goalposts.
The Georgia students, armed with souvenir Hanna bats, took exception. The late Dan Magill was 14 years old and saw the game. He always enjoyed recalling what he witnessed. “(The Georgia students) came on the field armed with their bats and not only successfully defended their goal posts but chased the cadets all the way to the train station at the end of College Avenue — and I was one of those brandishing my bat,” he recalled.
The game took place in November, a couple of months after the assassination of Sen. Huey Long, once the populist governor of Louisiana. When he was governor, Long, an avid supporter of the LSU Tigers, forced the railroad to cut rates for the student body so they could travel to out-of-town games. It didn’t matter that the railroad lost money — accommodating the demands of the governor was expected. Long was a “spread the wealth” politician who championed the underdog.
Long was famous for another shenanigan, which had to do with his passionate support of the LSU football team. Night games had been established as a tradition in those years. However, John Ringling North was bringing his circus to town on a night when LSU had scheduled a home game. Huey demanded that North reschedule the circus.
Unaware of Louisiana’s tick law, North refused, explaining that the circus schedule had been worked out many months in advance and it would be next to impossible to make all the changes. Long then explained the state tick law required that every animal coming into the state of Louisiana had to be treated.
Long then asked North, “Have you ever dipped a tiger?”
Surely, you know the rest of the story.
Loran Smith is a contributing columnist to the Athens Banner-Herald.
Cacti
@Iowa Old Lady:
There may be a Cruz sex scandal out there somewhere, but I don’t think it involves women.
Dude screams self-loathing closet case to me.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Raven:
Interesting story on the Brown – in the 70s it fell into disrepair and wound up serving as an administrative center for the school board. Eventually, people realized that old hotels really had possibility, went back into the hotel mix, got some renovations and is really nice, better than business 4 star. The old features are pretty neat. Sometimes we stay downtown when we want to have a nice night out with drinks, 2 out of 3 times we’ll stay there (we like the Seelbach too). Reason why is that cab fare out to the exurbs is $80-$100 each way, and that Uber doesn’t come out this far.
Mustang Bobby
@NotMax: Okay, you are that kid that rode with me on the school bus in 1962 and told me those stories.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Many of us have been woken in the night by a Harley. Some owners consider mufflers optional and undesirable.
But the last two mornings Harley actually called my cell phone at 5:30 am. I’m on 24X7 phone support for industrial equipment this week. Apparently they suddenly couldn’t weld gas tanks and wanted service pronto.
What is it about the sleeping hours of the day that makes machines malfunction? Their shit runs fine at noon.
SiubhanDuinne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
So happens my last name IRL is Costello, but they’d have to make it very worth my while to debase myself like that.
Mustang Bobby
@Cacti:
I don’t get that vibe at all, but maybe I need to have my gaydar recalibrated. But if you’re right, ew, ish, yuck, and barf…
Loviatar
White male privilege example #759: excuse in white males what in any other would be grounds for criticism/disdain.
Duke’s coach Krzyzewski caught lying.
As anyone who has ever coached at any level knows, you say nothing to the other teams players other than good game.
qwerty42
@Mike J: It could be worse: our candidates actually talk about this “policy” stuff. The other side has gone to penises, spouses, mistresses, and the week isn’t over.
cahuenga
Is this supposed to be a joke?
Immanentize
It hasn’t gone below freezing since Tuesday this week here near Boston, so I am hauling my tiller out of the back of my shed and getting after my garden bed. If I am really ambitious I will then put on the aerator attachment and wander about poking holes in my yard.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Loviatar:
Coach K is a whiny assed titty baby on his best day.
Loviatar
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
Last night on CBS/TBS they were falling over themselves to excuse his behavior. They were blaming the kid and calling it a “teachable moment” SMH. Those words are beginning to sound a lot like victim blaming to me.
I full expect white male privilege example #760 to kick in real soon; forgive and move on and lets never talk of this again. (ex: John Cole)
NotMax
@Raven
True story from many years ago involving a circus.
When Ringling Bros. played at Madison Square Garden, the circus trains would park and unload at the rail yards on the other side of the East River from Manhattan. Arrangements were made with the Port Authority to bring the animals, etc. through the Queens Midtown Tunnel at sometime beginning around 4 in the morning, to avoid disrupting traffic.
Anyway, was sharing an apartment in Manhattan and the roommate and I decided to stay up and, as it was only a few blocks away, watch the procession exit the tunnel.
Took along more than a few beers and found a spot at a railing overlooking the tunnel openings. Somewhat surprisingly, we were the only people there. After maybe an hour standing there, along comes a NYC policeman, gruffly asking what we were doing hanging around at that hour.
“We’re waiting for the elephants.”
Policeman tried again, and again, getting the same answer each time. Seemed as if he was approaching the end of his rope and deciding on what pretext to drag us in when out of the tunnel came – a line of elephants.
He noticeably blanched and slowly walked off in silence, shaking his head in disbelief.
geg6
Shopping today. *shudder*
I hate having to hit stores on a holiday weekend. But I have no choice. We need dog treats and I need a new watch battery, not to mention our empty pantry. The good thing is I don’t need Easter food since the family has decided to go out to a local place that has a good Easter brunch buffet instead of preparing a giant family meal at one of our homes. Makes the whole weekend less stressful. So I can avoid the scrum around the hams and legs of lamb and just get what I need for today and Monday. Now to decide what it is I actually need.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Ahhh yes. Have you heard the one of the Lion and the Witch Doctor?
This lion has these birds nesting in his mane. He would be the most regal lion in Africa but because of the birds he is the joke of the savannah. He scratches them out, but when next he sleeps they come back and build another. He rolls around in the mud and they just use it to fortify the nest. Out of desperation he finally goes to see a witch doctor. He tells the witch doctor his tale of woe and when finished the witch doctor looks thoughtful for a moment or 2, than rises and goes to the back of the hut and rummages around a little. On a minute he returns with a small sack which contains an innocuous white powder.
“Sprinkle this in your mane twice a day for 3 days.”
The lion does so and after 3 days…. The birds are gone. On day 4, they don’t come back. On day 5 they don’t come back. On day 6, they still don’t come back. On day 7, no birds. The lion is ecstatic. He is so happy he goes out and kills a zebra and brings it to the witch doctor as a gift of thanks for finally ridding him of the nettlesome birds.
He says to the witch doctor, “I gotta tell you Doc, that powder was the stuff! I tried everything to get rid of them but nothing worked. What was that stuff?”
And the witch doctor said, “It was yeast.”
“YEAST??” asked the lion, “but how did that work?”
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“Elementary my lion,”……
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“Yeast is yeast and nest is nest and never the mane shall tweet.”
Mike J
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I often fix software in the middle of the night because it’s the best time for a scheduled outage.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Loviatar:
I blame a lot of it on the amount of money that is applied to coaching these days – it forces them to be personally overcompetitive and always “on”, coming up with excuses and explanations.
Thirty years ago, a coach would say “hey, great shot” and been gracious in defeat. Now you get all kinds of reprehensible nonsense (Pitino blowing off a post-game presser really frosted me).
satby
@BillinGlendaleCA: Really interesting. I’ve always enjoyed your IR stuff especially, one of my photography teachers specialized in that.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Jimmy Kimmel mansplainin’ to Hillary Clinton was hilarious. I don’t know where he got the Hillary t-shirts at the end of the segment with her, but the “Hillin’ Like a Villain” was genius.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Mike J:
This is why I’ve been working so many weekends lately. Some factories run Mon-Fri and want service done Sat-Sun. So I’ll end up working 12 or 19 days straight.
But this on-call stuff is different. I’ll have no calls all day, then the scrubs on the night shift call at 3:00 am for something the day guys would have taken care of on their own.
Loviatar
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
Yeah money has some to do with it, but I see it more of a power trip thing. Its one of the few areas left where white men can be publicly and overtly assine and get away with it.
I still can’t believe Pitino kept his job after the whole sleeping with his assistant’s wife in a public restaurant. Also, how could you as a parent send your child to play for someone so greeeasy. Nope couldn’t do it and I would let the world know why not.
Applejinx
@bemused: You do know that Trump got menaced by a Bald Eagle in a photoshoot, right? The meme going around contrasting Bernie smiling at the sparrow and Trump cringing away from an eagle is not a photoshop. Trump was being posed with the eagle, and it came pretty close to fucking him up.
Gotta give the Donald a few points for bravery, because that is genuinely scary: he was pretty cool about real physical danger though he looked ridiculous.
Gotta deduct a whole LOT of points for being the kind of dumb-ass who agrees that he should be hanging around posing with a freaking raptor as if that means anything.
Now if Hillary can pose with an eagle, but it becomes totally friendly and fawns upon her, like preening her or something, that would be cool. If any politician COULD pose with an eagle and the bird treated the pol as kindred, it would be Hillary. I, however, remain a Sparrowican at heart.
PurpleGirl
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Right. I knew that some inks used to be made with benzene. I know one reason soy inks were pushed was that people often reuse bread wrappers by turning them inside-out (my boss and my mother did that). Putting food into a bag with benzene-based inks was bad. When I tried to tell my mother to just use the bag as is, and not turn it inside-out, we had a fight.
Have you ever heard of banana paper? There was one foundation my non-profit was applying to for a grant wanted applees to use banana paper and soy-based ink only, I did some research and found only place in NYC that sold the banana paper and while I don’t remember what the cost was, it was way more expensive than the recycled paper we did use. I eventually got permission to use the paper and computer ink we usually did. (We didn’t get the grant.)
Betty Cracker
Gotta sculpt a butter lamb today for tomorrow’s Easter feast. When I married into a Polish-American family from Buffalo nearly 20 years ago and got to know their odd (to me) holiday customs, I thought the butter lamb thing was one of the most amusing. Little did I know I would eventually become the official butter lamb sculptress!
satby
Wow, I slept for 7&1/2 hours last night, my usual is 5 &1/2.
So this is how the world looks with enough rest. I like it ??
satby
@Betty Cracker: You have a real gift for the butter lamb carving though. But why don’t they just buy one? They’re all over in grocery stores around here.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@PurpleGirl:
That’s interesting. The only place I’ve run across banana fiber is in the paper ‘cones’ of loudspeaker drivers, where its resonant characteristics are preferred by some people. Banana plants (which are not trees) are cut down after fruiting, so there should be a large supply of the material for other uses.
OzarkHillbilly
@Applejinx:
Heh.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@efgoldman:
Lasers and optics. I repair YAG laser sources and cutting and welding optics. From the little 20W, 700 femtosecond UV pulse lasers for research to the big 10KW continuous wave lasers they use to weld utility poles. A lot of the work is in the auto field, but I just worked on an 8KW unit that was used in an experiment to send power to a ‘vehicle’ for a space elevator (see Arthur C. Clarke) experiment.
Betty Cracker
@satby: I’ve never seen one for sale around here, and I’d never even heard of butter lambs until I met my husband. It’s strictly a Great Lakes region Eastern European ethnic thing, as far as I can tell.
My in-laws are snowbirds, and what used to happen is they’d ask a family member who was coming down to visit at Easter to bring a store-bought butter lamb in a cooler. Last year for whatever reason, they didn’t have one from up north and couldn’t find one here, so I offered to make one from scratch. Now it’s my job going forward.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
How do you sculpt the wool? Or is that a trade secret?
OzarkHillbilly
@Ultraviolet Thunder: In Mexico they use banana leaves as the wrapper on their tamales.
Amir Khalid
@efgoldman:
There are better, and to my eye handsomer, motorcycles to be had for less. Why do people like Harley Davidsons so much?
Ultraviolet Thunder
@efgoldman:
Nothing like that. But one of my colleagues quit to get a PHD in engineering optics. When you eventually see a video of a working lightsaber that’s Pat and I know that guy. He is obsessed.
satby
@geg6: I thought I had done all the shopping I needed to but realized this morning I hadn’t actually gotten anything to make Easter baskets for the girls. So back I will go for candy and grass (baskets I always have). And turkey bacon for breakfast tomorrow. They love turkey bacon.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
You have attained “permanent cool” status.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@OzarkHillbilly:
*bows*
Betty Cracker
@debbie: Garlic press.
Amir Khalid
@satby:
It’s the closest a Muslim can get to eating bacon from a pig without bursting into flames.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Loviatar:
That was always about Pitino living large and not so secretly being known to be in a fairly open arrangement insofar as his marriage was concerned. Restauranteurs loved him and wanted him to come hang around because of the cachet for the rest of their clientele, businessmen wanted to be seen talking to him because he does like to invest in local stuff, and he’s a proven winner. Even now, Pitino spends his evenings at nice restaurants; I know, I’ve seen him holding court.
Karen Sypher rocked the applecart not by having some brief and unsatisfactory sex with him, but by going to an idiot for her lawyer and making an outrageous money demand because she’s insane and has always been a wild child. She compounded it by engaging a publicity hound lawyer later, and when he pulled the ripcord, by using the “services” of a felon scam artist self-professed podunk legal advisor.
And yeah, the legal community in this city being the way it is, I know every lawyer involved very well, and my wife knew Karen Sypher well enough to laugh about her and tell stories long before this Pitino thing ever arose – as did one of my former partners. I’ve even crossed paths with the podunk felon, who talked a would-be client of mine into a course of litigation action that netted him the loss of two drugstores, all his assets and a lengthy prison term, for dribbling out twice the amount of money as I was going to charge (my solution still would have resulted in the loss of both the drugstores, but he’d have wound up with probation and keeping his other assets).
It was like the perfect storm of stupid.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
Your mistake was doing it so well last year.
dr. bloor
@efgoldman: And what effect does it have on guys riding Harleys?
PurpleGirl
@Betty Cracker: Do you hand sculpt the butter lamb or use a mold? I Googled it and found some pictures and explanations of the tradition. Interesting.
satby
@Betty Cracker: Ahh. I thought they’d be everywhere, because they are here. I used to think it was a Greek thing because my Greek neighbors also had a lamb’s head in their fridge for Easter dinner (or something, I was a kid and never had the nerve to ask). But my Polish friend claims butter lambs are a Polish tradition.
dr. bloor
@Betty Cracker: Ha. My mom’s side is Polish-American from the southern tier–Elmira, Salamanca, etc. Dad’s side was eleventeenth-generation Methodist farmers. When I was a kid, I always suspected half my family came from another planet, and I could never figure out which half it was.
satby
@Amir Khalid: I know.
Qunoot told me that they assume in Bahrain that Americans eat pork because it’s cheap. I told her no, it’s because pork is delicious. I never considered myself much of a meat eater in general, I do a lot of vegetarian cooking. But after 7 months, I find myself sneaking pork tacos when I’m out of the house and craving sausage. Bizarre.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Amir Khalid:
I rode for 25 years and never considered a Harley. There are guys that would crawl on their hands and knees rather than ride anything else. A sociologist could study the cult of Harley and answer your question. I’ll just say that the Venn diagram of Harley/handgun/stand your ground/Amurrica/white people has a lot of overlap.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I remembered that I loved your lamb girl from last year, but I had forgotten just how adorable she was until I clicked the link.
Are you going to try to do the same one again since I can’t imagine how anything could be cuter? Or are you going with creating something new is half the fun? Either way, I demand photos!
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: A vegetarian buddy of mine craves braunschweiger. THAT is bizarre.
WaterGirl
@satby: My bleary eyes this morning read that as 78-1/2 hours of sleep. Damn right you should be well rested!
Just checking in with BJ while I eat my toast for breakfast, getting ready to head out to Chicago for Easter in about 90 minutes. Off to shower now.
Happy Easter, everyone!
PurpleGirl
@Amir Khalid: There’s a bagel and coffee shop in my complex’s commercial building. It’s owned and operated by a Yemeni man. They don’t serve pork or ham and use a beef bacon substitute. I tried it once but I don’t care for it. But they make great hamburgers, fries and onion rings, etc.
ETA: So sometimes I’ll bring something home and add my own bacon.
dr. bloor
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
I’d feel considerably better if there wasn’t as much overlap with “Law Enforcement Officer.”
Betty Cracker
@PurpleGirl: I sculpt it with a paring knife and use a garlic press to make the “wool.” It takes about two and 1/2 sticks of butter.
@dr. bloor: That’s probably how our kid feels, with half the family tree comprising Catholic, Polish-American Buffalonians and the other half Southern Baptist, North Florida rednecks. She’ll probably require lots of therapy some day.
@WaterGirl: I’ll aim for a similar look, but I imagine today’s creation will have its own unique features. I’ll post a pic if I get a chance!
Loviatar
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
Didn’t know all the background details. Read about the woman being a flake and a serial litigant, but didn’t know about the Pitino’s open relationship.
Still for me its hard enough teaching a young man respect for women, without sending him off to a coach who seems to have little respect for any of the women in his life.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@dr. bloor:
When the KKK became more or less pariah in the eye of the public, they became law enforcement.
bemused
@Applejinx:
I missed that. Now what would a rich New Yorker/Florida guy who lives in penthouses and flies in his own luxury jets know about wild critters? I’d be leery of being near a bald eagle even if had been in captivity all it’s life.
father pussbucket
According to National Review, Batman v Superman has “moral and political substance”. Could be; it’s had to tell from the article, which hardly seems to be about the movie at all.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Some flavors just aren’t able to be recreated in a vegetarian dish. Especially sausage flavors (IMHO).
I’m not a vegetarian any longer, I was for years in my teens and early 20s but I missed carnitas.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
ThresherK
Planning a dessert for Easter dinner tomorrow; our friends will feed us if we bring a dessert. (Spousal ThresherK does sometime joke about having married me for that.)
But the hostess said she’s already making something with chocolate! That’s about half my repetoire. Going to pineapple upside-down cake, with real cherries and plenty of them.
rikyrah
But but but…I thought it was all about class though….
Uh huh
Uh huh
…………………………..
Poor white kids are less likely to go to prison than rich black kids
By Max Ehrenfreund
March 23
It’s a fact that people of color are worse off than white Americans in all kinds of ways, but there is little agreement on why. Some see those disparities as a consequence of racial discrimination in schools, the courts and the workplace, both in the past and present. Others argue that economic inequalities are really the cause, and that public policy should help the poor no matter their race or ethnicity. When it comes to affirmative action in college admissions, for example, many say that children from poor, white families should receive preferential treatment, as well.
In some ways, though, discrimination against people of color is more complicated and fundamental than economic inequality. A stark new finding epitomizes that reality: In recent decades, rich black kids have been more likely to go to prison than poor white kids.
“Race trumps class, at least when it comes to incarceration,” said Darrick Hamilton of the New School, one of the researchers who produced the study.
He and his colleagues, Khaing Zaw and William Darity of Duke University, examined data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a national study that began in 1979 and followed a group of young people into adulthood and middle age. The participants were asked about their assets and debts, and interviewers also noted their type of residence, including whether they were in a jail or prison.
The researchers grouped participants in the survey by their race and their household wealth as of 1985 and then looked back through the data to see how many people in each group ultimately went to prison. Participants who were briefly locked up between interviews might not be included in their calculations of the share who were eventually incarcerated.
About 2.7 percent of the poorest white young people — those whose household wealth was in the poorest 10th of the distribution in 1985, when they were between 20 and 28 years old — ultimately went to prison. In the next 10th, 3.1 percent ultimately went to prison.
………………..
About 10 percent of affluent black youths in 1985 would eventually go to prison. Only the very wealthiest black youth — those whose household wealth in 1985 exceeded $69,000 in 2012 dollars — had a better chance of avoiding prison than the poorest white youth. Among black young people in this group, 2.4 percent were incarcerated.
Uncle Cosmo
@NotMax: These things used to be called Feghoots in the SF community, from shaggy dog stories by IIRC Reginald Bretnor devolving to outrageous punnishment in the last line that appeared irregularly in Fantasy & Science Fiction all featuring one Ferdinand Feghoot as the lead character.
You want another bird story? Have I got one for you! Listen up:
———
The dolphin researchers at the Hood’s Whole Institute in Connectichusetts discovered by accident that adding a complex compound found in seagulls to their diet appeared to completely arrest the aging process, to the point where the only limitation to the lifespans of the grinning aquatic mammals was the chance of accidental death.
The scientists were eager to expand their studies but the necessary chemical could only be obtained from the fledglings of one particular species whose nesting grounds were restricted to the Skeleton Keys of Florida–& the material had to be harvested from live birds because it decayed quickly in the external environment.
So they packed a young assistant into a Hood’s Whole van & sent him rumbling down the Least Coast with orders to return with a full cargo of recently-hatched birds & fertilized eggs.
After a month the assistant had filled the van with caged fowl & eggs & set forth for home. But soon after he crossed into Georgia he was pulled over by the state police & thrown into jail to await sentencing in Federal court. The charge?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Interstate transport of underage gulls for immortal porpoises.
:p
magurakurin
@Mike J: The only thing that matters is 2026. Whoever has that number of delegates coming into Philadelphia is the winner. Everything else is bullshit.
SiubhanDuinne
@satby:
You don’t know what might be in that “Easter basket.”
Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
ThresherK
I especially side-eye the “Landover-Baptizon” logo hoping for Amazon to sue those Christianists into oblivion.
Wait, I’m eating what? Soooo many tasteless jokes. And since it’s too early for me to drink, I won’t type any of them.
PS Anyone who hasn’t clicked on Siubhan’s link: There’s worse stuff over there.
Mike J
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Hunter S. Thompson actually answered it pretty well in Hell’s Angels.
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: OMIGD
Mike J
@ThresherK:
Landover Baptist is a parody site that’s been around forever.
satby
@ThresherK: it’s a snark site, I hope?? Because that kind of crazee can’t be real outside of the Westboro weirdos.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: @satby: I almost clicked but decided I didn’t want to know. Then I saw satby’s comment and I was SURE I didn’t want to know.
If it’s a snake or a crawly thing, please don’t tell me. Seriously.
*I was friends with an iguana – Iggy – he lived in my house for 2 years. But other than that I don’t do reptiles.
satby
@Mike J: whew!
Soylent Green
Couple guys are in a boat on a lake fishing for carp. One of the guys accidentally drops his wallet and as it falls toward the water, a carp leaps up from the lake and pops it into the air. Then as it comes down another carp swims up and pops the wallet into the air to another carp.
The other guy says, “Hey, will you look at that. Carp to carp walleting.”
satby
@WaterGirl: knowing it’s a parody makes it funny now. Happy Easter Watergirl!
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
My old man came from a dirt poor Slovene Catholic family of 10 children in Joliet IL and my mother hailed out of an old, very wealthy and proper, Texas Southern Baptist family with 2 children. (when my mother told her parents she was marrying my father, my grandmother threatened to disown her) (Ma said, “OK.” and went to pack her bags) Look at me, I turned out all right. (YMMV)
Tho Grams did observe once that “You sure have strange children.”
Amir Khalid
@Mike J:
Um, and what does Hunter say?
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: What happens to the butter lamb after the festivities are over? Is it melted, eated? or preserved for posterity?
Soylent Green
I owe Bob in Portland an apology for a very rude remark I made yesterday. Drunk blogging is never a smart move.
HeartlandLiberal
I has a sad. I stayed up way past my geezer bedtime to watch my Indiana Hoosiers be dismantled by North Carolina. No answer for the complete mismatch in size of players, and their three point shooters showed up. Ours did not.
As for the link to the WashingtonPost Milbank article, I clicked it, and got refused because I have read to many free pages. Which prompted me to research FireFox AdOns, and install “selectiveaddcookiedelete”. To use it after install, you have to go to the AddOns page via the Tools menu, but then you can look at options. I typed in search for all washingtonpost.com cookies, deleted those suckers, and read the article.
Nice.
And yes, Milbank, Brooks, they are all exemplars of the failed and miserable pundit class of our political discourse, they have been, and always will be wrong, and yet for some reason they are still paid money to spew their idiocy and blather.
George Hayduke
@Mike J:
LOL. A grand total of two polls with about 300 RV each.
We’ll see.
ThresherK
@Mike J:
@satby:
Ha! I’m the stooge. (Not like that’s a new thing.) I must admit being amazed at how easily that went Poe. I thought I was aware of all internet traditions. Perhaps more caffeine will help me.
The thing is, I can imagine it actually existing, not just targeting the Westboro jamokes, but many self-labeled Christians.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: The best carnitas I’ve ever had came from a food cart at a bus stop on the Pan American highway, some small town in SLP. Just thinking about them has me craving them for dinner. Won’t be near as good tho.
Mike J
@Amir Khalid:
A lot of guys got out of the army at the same time and had nothing to do and there were a ton of war surplus bikes for sale everywhere. They were big, powerful bikes they could get dirt cheap.
After a while the surplus bikes were all gone, but by then they were the bike to have in the nascent outlaw biker culture.
magurakurin
@George Hayduke:
2026
Amir Khalid
@Mike J:
Ah. Thanks.
lollipopguild
@Uncle Cosmo: He was actually drunk on The Beer That made Milt Famy Walk Us.
BruceFromOhio
Milbank got crossed off the list with the 2008 election, I think, so his work in journimalism is irrelevant (to me, anyway). Have to give him credit for walking the talk, and providing a fitting analogy to which the Village clearly aspires.
Bob In Portland
@Soylent Green: When I’m back in town we can buy each other a beer at the Laurelwood.
PurpleGirl
@Mike J: I thought I recognized Landover as a parody site.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: mmmm, carnitas.
I have an illicit slice of ham steak hidden to cook when the girls aren’t home in one of the non-halal pans (yes, I have duplicate halal pans). It’s seriously weird, because I can’t ever remember craving anything other than a nice steak before.
Edited to add: the no pork thing was a serious block to us placing Muslim students, even when we explained that the host family didn’t need to give it up, just have a non-profit alternative meal for the exchange student.
Immanentize
@dr. bloor: my family is just the opposite — Binghamton/Johnson City Slovak father while my Mom was the Methodist daughter of a farmer and school teacher whose family traced back to the Mayfloer and the Puritans (and still had some of those traits. They were ft om more rural communities Whitney Point, Castle Creek, Nimmonsburg, etc. Hard drinking Catholics meet tea toting Unitarians.— both sides had issue with the marriage….
And we had butter lambs on Easter at my Aunt’s yearly feast. I remember even individual little lambs one year
WaterGirl
@satby: You will probably hate me because I am going to Fogo de Chão for dinner tonight for an Easter celebration. We were at the one in Chicago at Christmas (after we saw The Lion King) but today we are going to the newish one in Naperville. I will eat some port for you. :-)
At Christmas, they had the BEST pork ribs I have ever had. I was very sad that I had tried 3 kinds of beef before they brought out the pork ribs, but they were so good that i still managed to eat 3 of them. Very sad that by the time they brought out the leg of lamb and rack of lamb, I just couldn’t even eat a bite, but everyone said they were both wonderful.
The nice thing is that you can get a tiny portion of each thing if you want, so it’s possible for someone who’s not a big eater to try a bunch of things. The guys at the table, however, ate like they were still teenage boys.
BruceFromOhio
@BillinGlendaleCA: Is this one done using the same method? This is really cool, and presents similar to the black & white hand-coloring method (light color oils or pastels applied by hand to a black and white photograph) Extremely cool!
MrsFromOhio was reorganizing some of her photos recently, and revealed a number of b&w IR photos shot in 4×5″ format in an abandoned quarry that were beautifully eerie. It’s compelling how a scene that may at first glance seem rather ordinary can suddenly reveal another world of tone and color when done in IR… like the fence/mountains photo linked above! =)
Nicely done, thank you for sharing.
satby
@satby: Ahh… non- pork, not non-profit
Immanentize
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Isn’t that the storyline of A Clockwork Orange?
satby
@WaterGirl: I was there about 3 years ago. It is a meat lovers paradise. Expensive though, even considering it’s basically all you can eat.
Amir Khalid
@satby:
You’re around people who don’t eat pork, for whom you must remember not to cook any pork. So you find yourself obsessing on pork. Hmm. Interesting.
WereBear
@NotMax: That’s a New York story.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@OzarkHillbilly:
San Luis Potosi? I go there for work a few times a year. I don’t eat meat but my colleagues swear by the street food there. I ALWAYS have fantastic meals in Mexico.
BR
Morning…
I’ve been feeling like I don’t care who the dem nominee is at this point — but I am feeling a bit too complacent and seeing too much complacency about Trump. I don’t care if he has astronomical negatives — I want us to have a voter registration and turnout operation that dwarfs Obama ’08 and overwhelms the GOP.
satby
@Amir Khalid: Lure of the forbidden, though of course it’s not forbidden to me. I’m just attempting to honor their needs.
And my cousins are Jewish though they don’t keep kosher. So not like I haven’t encountered the no pork issue before, they don’t serve it (much) either (my cousin by blood is Italian, so they do have Italian sausage though his Jewish wife and kids don’t eat it).
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Mike J:
A lot of the Harley worship is just USA nationalism. Never got over having their asses handed to them by Honda CB750s in the ’70s and just dug in further.
But that’s mostly the older dudes. I see guys in their 20s and 30s who like ‘traditional cruisers’ looking at Polaris, Victory, ‘Indian’ and Yamaha. Often because the quality is superior and the price much lower.
Kathleen
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: There are pretender restaurants in Northern Kentucky who have it on the menu all year. Too rich for my delicate constitution.
Emma
@SiubhanDuinne: Ah… well…. umph. .. got nothing. Really… holy… ah…parody? (Added later to preserve my sanity)
WereBear
@Loviatar: I once took my in laws to a steakhouse named after a famous coach. Nice meal, but I kept cracking up because there were pictures of the coach all over the walls.
And in every single one of them, he was yelling.
satby
@WereBear: Ditka’s, right?
Immanentize
@WereBear: Landry’s?
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Happy Easter!
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I have a serious weakness for all things pork, especially cured/smoked. I recently bought a 55 gal drum to make into a smoker. I have a long list of sausages and meats to work on. I have a dream of building a small smoke house some day so I can do my own hams.
Baud
@WaterGirl: Have a good Easter, WG.
Mike J
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Harley worship is all based on the myth, not the bike.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly
I’ve been craving poutine for the longest time and it’s getting worse. I’m going to a concert next week and there is a fabulous restaurant that does amazing poutine and lots of other things like fries cooked in duck fat in the same city. Now the craving could be a reality and I’m considering breaking my veggie ways to indulge. My kids are telling me that I will have to start eating meat gradually now or my poutine dream could become a nightmare.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Immanentize:
I don’t remember, but I was watching Malcolm X the other night and I think it’s mentioned in the opening montage. Not that it should shock anyone, given what we had to re-learn, yet again, from Ferguson and the Anonymous outing.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m envious about the drum — standard issue in San Antonio but I only have a bullet smoker here in the Boston burbs. As for a smokehouse, someone once described eternity as “one ham and two people.”
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: Typically about half gets eaten during Easter dinner and the rest over breakfast the next day (if there’s a fairly big crowd for the meals). It’s treated as a regular old stick of butter once the Easter feast commences.
BruceFromOhio
@OzarkHillbilly: Also explains the nym. =)
Immanentize
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: I was joking a bit about Clockwork Orange. But I did work as an intern at the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Venn center of police and Klan — at least in Georgia and Alabama where I was focused — was pretty big.
schrodinger's cat
@satby: I grew up not eating either pork or beef. I don’t cook pork and I cook beef only occasionally, but that’s mainly for health reasons. I could totally give up most meat but not seafood. I actually do like salami and other cured meats, also sausages, especially chorizo but looking at 80% to 90% fat in them always gives me a pause. Not much of a fan of either ham or bacon.
WereBear
@Immanentize: That might have been it.
@satby: The funny part is that it could have been any coach :)
Another Holocene Human
@Cacti: That guy is weird–could even be in the closet about something–but I don’t think it’s Teh Ghey.
The fact that he has a history sexually harassing girls as a teenagers rather than pulling the weird monk thing like so many closeted gay teens would indicate his freakiness lies elsewhere.
BruceFromOhio
@Mike J: MMMmm, I’m going to disagree with this. I’ve ridden Honda’s lifelong, with a sweet 95 Shadow ACE the current ride. I visited my cousin in Dallas last spring, and rented a 2012 Harley Road King for the weekend. I put almost 600 miles on it before turning it in and heading to DFW, and it was hands-down the best riding I’ve ever enjoyed. With stock pipes and bags it was still eye-catching, and it rode like a dream – smooth as silk cruising, and a twist of the throttle was like going to warp speed, streaky stars and all. My plans to acquire one post-haste are neatly thwarted by the $16k + price tag on a new one – even Road Kings from 3 and 4 years ago still fetch 5 digits.
While there is an obvious cult-myth-tradition around Hogs, I think a lot of the lure with the post-AMF bikes is that they are just damned nice to ride. 600 miles on the Shadow leaves me rattled and fatigued – the Road King did neither.
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: Bless you for posting this stuff. Tired of the lies and denial.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: @Baud: Thanks, you guys. I screwed up my back a couple weeks ago so I’ve been MIA from BJ. Missing all of you!
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Mike J:
Astoundingly successful brand building. They’re the Apple of the motoring world, if Apple was using tech from the 19C.
But it hasn’t always been that way. In the early ’80s you could have bought the Harley dealership in Lansing MI (home of Oldsmobile and thousands of blue collar workers with dollars in their pockets) for $50K.
They hit a real low point before Vaughn Beals and his management team took the company private, developed a new engine and started the long painful process of making the bikes respectable again after decades of being technologically outdated.
ETA: arguably they’re still technologically outdated but at least they’re not using engines designed for WWII any more.
Uncle Cosmo
@lollipopguild: Long ago one of my colleagues in a Balkan folkdance performing troupe was the son of a former announcer for the old Washington Senators–who, he told us, would tell that same shaggy-dog story in exactly the same way at the dinner table every Thanksgiving.
Another Holocene Human
@PurpleGirl: Actual Evangelical Fundamentalists who believe in White American Jesus never give away the game by talking about Africans as “colored”. The whole page is full of “tells” because it’s written by ex-Fundies who are disgusted by the hypocrisy and double talk. Landover Baptist makes a point of saying the quiet parts loud. A lot of their early pages were devoted to materialism in Southern Baptist communities and the way that avarice and status seeking were given a sickening “Christian” gloss.
Oh, and Betty Bowers, she of “I’m more Christian than YOU!” has her own Youtube channel these days.
Another Holocene Human
@BR: Agreed. Negatives/positives aren’t that important. GOTV is.
Bob In Portland
Kerry still won’t talk about it.
Linnaeus
Time to prepare myself for caucus day here in Washington.
Ked
@Mike J:
South Park did it already.. Dangit, the full episode is Hulu-only. Worth seeing, tho. REALLY NSFW, Definitely offensive if you’ve internalized the American definition of a certain term. Maybe the funniest thing I’ve seen in the last decade.
Also, a bunch of those guys were next to me at a stoplight Friday. I did not know that my (northern Indiana) county had a motorcycle (read, Harley-riding bearded asshat) club.
RaflW
@David Canadian Anchor Baby Koch: Kasich will only be 67 if he decides to run a third place campaign again in 4 years. Just sayin’.
BruceFromOhio
@Ultraviolet Thunder: Ummm….
Potato-potato-potato … =)
john fremont
@BR: Me too
<blockquoteI have a hunch the academic experts and political junkies are once again missing the real story.I suggest that with misplaced arrogance and a few wrong turns, the Democratic Party could find itself obliterated by this election. I wouldn’t bet my mortgage on it, but this is a sequence of events I find plausible:
First, let’s assume that Trump succeeds in securing the Republican nomination and Clinton wins the Democratic race. Sanders retires gracefully so he will not be labeled a spoiler, as Ralph Nader was when Gore lost in 2000.
Then, in the fall campaign, Trump changes his style and launches a ferocious and substantive assault on Clinton, with devastating effect. He does this essentially by taking over the Sanders economic agenda. He denounces HRC as a tool of wealthy plutocrats and speaks for working-class discontents, much as he has done in the primary season. He piles on the ugly personal slurs, but his central thrust becomes more grown-up and closely argued. Indeed, one can already observe Trump moderating his tone, edging toward a more “presidential” performance. Imagine a campaign that merges Bernie’s straight-talk values with traditional Republican values. If so, this could alter the profile of both parties, at least for the 2016 election. It could even define longer-term changes.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
We’ve missed you back!
Immanentize
@Linnaeus: For us who have already voted — I salute you. You go and do some excellent participatory democracy!
Linnaeus
@Immanentize:
Thank you. I’m glad to do my part.
The only lawn signs I’ve seen around my neighborhood are for Sanders, but I suspect my precinct will be mostly for Clinton.
VFX Lurker
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Not sure if you’re still following this thread, Bill, but I have a request. Please vote “No” onBallot Measure N on June 7th. It’s an attempt by anti-tax private citizens to repeal the 7% utility tax. This tax has been in place since 1969, and it is the third-largest source of funding for Glendale, California.
In the event that voters pass this measure, the city offers an online survey to ask which services its residents would like to see cut (ex: fire stations, libraries, 911 services).
Tripod
@dmsilev:
East -> West is easier.
Ruckus
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
That overlap.
Tough guys. Actually most of them tough guy wannabes. I’ve known a few harley riders who really were but mostly it’s an act, like the guy who looked like a dentist from Omaha, with his skinny, big haired wife/girlfriend, both dressed in brand new harley leather gear and looking completely alien in them at 1am coming out of a Daytona Beach Waffle House during bike week and having a very difficult time getting his rented harley off the stand and moving. Living the dream he was.
Ruckus
@Ultraviolet Thunder:
Funny thing about that made in USA thing. Many if not most of the parts come from other countries, Japan, Germany…….. But I’ve never met a harley rider who’d admit that.
Frankensteinbeck
@Loviatar:
I don’t care who he slept with. If you want an example of what a disgusting human being he is, he kicked a kid off the UofK basketball team and stripped the kid’s scholarship for saying in an interview he took the scholarship to get an education.
@father pussbucket:
No, Zootopia has moral and political substance. Did they mention that?
@john fremont:
Ha! No fucking way. I’ve heard this theory before, and it requires a wildly superficial reading of both candidates. Trump scorns big business one day, and praises it the next. He’s neck deep in corruption himself. He can’t go populist left, only populist right – which is what he’s known for, blaming everything on brown or yellow people. In practice, his support comes from centers of racism, not industrial flight areas. Most of all, he won’t and can’t pivot to the center, because he only has one style, saying whatever pops into his head. He could try, and five minutes later he’ll reverse himself, like with Planned Parenthood and his anti-war stance.
Meanwhile, Hillary’s positions are solidly left, and only look centrist compared to ‘break up the banks!’ She has decades of experience dealing with bullshit artists, and has proven she can make them look like idiots under the harshest circumstances. She’ll roast him over the coals for his hypocrisies.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Ruckus:
There was a big stinkeroo when they went to superior Japanese made shocks, but they got over it.
I know their bodywork is made here. And they’re not making any at the moment because the night shift guy tried to change a YAG rod and resonator cavity in the laser. That fix will have to wait until we get someone out there Monday.
Soylent Green
About Harley-Davidson, keep in mind that as the company was foundering in the early ’80s, Sir Ronald of Reagan imposed a 45% tariff on imported bikes with engine capacities greater than 700 cc. This protectionism was aimed squarely at Japanese manufacturers, whose superior technology was clobbering Harley. Your “free-market” Republican ethos at work.
Harley then lived on to sell a lot of still-antiquated bikes to a lot of 50-and 60-something guys as a mid-life crisis cure. Their tech has improved (despite their primitive architecture) and their marketing has been brilliant.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@Soylent Green:
I recall that. I had a Honda CB700SC Nighthawk tariff beater. 70HP at the rear wheel. Outstanding bike.
NotMax
@Uncle Cosmo
Feghoots! Now there’s a term haven’t thought of in forever. Have several decades worth F&SF packed in in boxes someplace in the back of a closet.
BTW, the way I first heard the tale you related, the pun(ch) line began “Charged with crossing state lions”
Loviatar
@Frankensteinbeck:
Don’t care who he slept with either. I care about the example he would set for my son in his possible relationships with women.
PNW_WarriorWoman
Returned from local caucus in my area here greater Tacoma in Washington State. In my precinct 28-522 held at the local Senior High School cafeteria, the vote was 6 delegates for Bernie, 2 for Hillary. Massive amounts of people. Turn out was flipping fantastic. Everyone polite and courteous. Too bad the establishment wants to make it so unnecessarily messy since our state’s Democratic Party changed from a primary system to a caucus system some years ago. Results coming in now. Bernie is Berning right along and running the table. Yay!
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
I think it’s mostly the sound, Amir, It’s trademarked, you know. So the sound is very popular. I knew a guy with an older cherry Harley (this was in the mid 1970s, so the bike was probably 1950 or so), I forget if it was a Pan-head or Knuckle-head or what exactly. But if he was going to start it up to show off to someone (like me) he would open the garage doors, saying “If I don’t open the doors first, it’ll break out some of the windows!”
It was loud, but he always claimed that since the sound was aimed behind you, it didn’t bother the biker nearly as much as the people behind him. Which was what mattered to the bikers. There weren’t any other Made in the USA bikes for nearly 50 years after Indian when out of business.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Bernie wins Alaska. The “win the white states” strategy keeps rolling on.
TriassicSands
I’m on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and I caucused earlier today.
I was quite surprised by the number of people who showed up at my local caucus until I realized that several precincts were all caucusing at the same site. In my precinct there were 49 people — that’s not a lot of people for an entire precinct, though I don’t know what the population of my precinct is. I live in a fairly rural area and population density is low.
We chose 4 delegates. There was a strong preference for Sanders. Unfortunately, with only four delegates and an even number to boot, the outcome was slightly skewed and a bit unfair to Clinton. Sanders got 3 delegates and Clinton only 1. However, with almost 65% of votes going for Sanders, it would have been an even more unfair outcome if they’d split 2-2. So, with a less than 2 to 1 advantage in votes, Sanders received a 3 to 1 advantage in delegates.
The general attitude was unsurprising — the Republicans are a nightmare and must be defeated. There was agreement that whoever gets the nomination gets the vote — no sulking or taking my ball and going home ‘cuz I didn’t get my way.
Caucuses are both good and bad. Years ago, Washington State Democrats had both a primary and a caucus. I think we should still do that and have delegates allocated through both means. The caucus is good because it gets people more intimately involved in the political process and for most people it is probably the most intimate involvement they will ever experience in politics. However, turnout is a problem. Most voters don’t show up at the caucuses. The truth is that if most voters did show up, the system would crumble under the weight of so many people. It’s one thing to have 49 people voicing opinions, supporting candidates, and proposing resolutions for the Democratic platform, but if there were hundreds of people present it would be unworkable. The intimacy would be lost and the proceedings might take 8 hours instead of 2. In truth, most voters don’t want to caucus. However, if we had a primary as well, it would give those who are less involved the chance to participate at a less committed level. People who caucused would have input twice, which is recognition of their greater commitment and involvement, but people who only voted in the primary would still have some say in who the state party’s preferred candidate would be. As it is, they’re entirely cut out of the process. And that’s not good.
mclaren
There, fixed that for ya.
maeve
I caucused in Alaska – our precinct was 306 Bernie 88 Hillary. Which I expected in a caucus state. I fanned out for Hillary – in the end I did not feel the Bern – I agree with every statement he makes but there’s no plan. A woman next to me (when we were lined up to be counted) said “she’s more of a socialist than Bernie” but she’s still voting for Hillary.
Everyone was nice and agreeable – we even applauded Rocky de la Fuente’s statement (they asked if he had a caucuser to read it for him – there were none so the Dem chair read it.)