I’ve been tramping through preserves and traversing trails all day. Saw this lovely tricolored heron:
Also these beautiful and huge white pelicans:
And now it’s nap time. Open thread!
by Betty Cracker| 288 Comments
This post is in: Birdwatching, Open Threads
Comments are closed.
Felonius Monk
I guess everyone else is napping also. Pretty shitty day here, weatherwise, because it’s freezing rain until late this evening. Nothing much else to do except nap. zzzzzzzzz
Elizabelle
Thank you for rescuing us. Happy Boxing Day back atcha, Betty.
Major Major Major Major
Nice heron. I love herons.
It’s a beautiful sunny 47 down here in Sunnyvale. About to hop the train up to SF after spending the weekend with the in laws. Soooo much Vietnamese food! ???
delk
Update on my dog, Gav:
When we got home last night, he seemed like he was stoned. Not very responsive and just standing awkwardly. He was drinking a lot of water but seemed like he was doing ok. Eventually he jumped up on our bed and fell asleep in a weird position.
Around 4:30 am, he crawled up to the top of the bed and plopped down between our heads. His leg (where the IV catheter had been inserted) was bleeding. A LOT. The blood was very watery. Gav was completely non responsive and his breathing seemed ragged.
We called the vet and brought him in. He couldn’t get into the car by himself and when we got to the vet he fell out of the car and wouldn’t get back up. Normally he’s very athletic and doesn’t even have to jump in the car, he can lift himself into it.
The vet was shocked at how much his blood work had changed overnight. She suspected that he might have eaten rat poison.
They started him on a five hour plasma transfusion and let us see him after about an hour and a half. The vet said that he was improving but not out of the woods yet. He was crazy happy to see us and wagged his tail.
We are home now and waiting on the phone. They should know in a couple of hours if his blood is coagulating and if they need to transfer him to a specialist.
Thank you to everybody that sent good wishes, I’ll let you all know how it goes.
Elizabelle
Watched “The Shallows” last night. Starring Blake Lively and a seagull. In the best friend or dog role.
Hungry Joe
I’ve already pulled at least 200 still-green kumquats from our relatively small kumquat tree, and will leave the remaining, oh, 400 or so to ripen. Question: What am I going to do with all those kumquats? The juice is good in tequila, but there’s a limit. They kick butt on salads, but only one or two. When the neighbors spot me coming up the walk with a bag full of Those Orange Things, they hide. (They have to peek first, because sometimes I bring lemons or fresh lettuce or chard or collard or, yes, kale.) Not even the goddam tree rats go for them, preferring our navel oranges.
Elizabelle
@delk: Good luck to you. How frightening. I hope Gav improves and pulls through.
The wagging tail is good.
Major Major Major Major
@delk: hang in there. Thanks for the update.
My sheltie, Selkie, got into rat poison once. Nasty stuff. She lived, of course. For the rest of her days one of her nicknames was what that vet called her, Selkie the Wonder Dog.
zhena gogolia
@delk:
Oh, dear! Praying for Gav to continue to heal.
Another Scott
@Hungry Joe: Is there a local food bank or similar that would take them? Just a thought.
Cheers,
Scott.
Lizzy L
@delk: Holding good thoughts for Gav — hope he makes it!
Betty, the birds are beautiful. Thank you. Prior post is spiraling down into insanity.
Another Scott
@delk: Thanks for the update. Fingers crossed for you and your pooch. Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
Nice birds.
@delk: Yikes. Fingers crossed for you.
Corner Stone
80 fracking degrees in the GHMA. Brutal.
JPL
@delk: I hope that the news is good, and that Gav is able to come home soon.
How sad for him, but I’m glad that you were able to see him. Wagging tails are good.
Rob
Hi Betty, the lovely top photo is of a Great Blue Heron, not of a Tricolored Heron.
We did some birding today, seeing some Black Vultures, Buffleheads (ducks), and Pied-billed and Horned Grebes near DC.
Mnemosyne
@delk:
Oh, no! At least it sounds like the vet has an idea what it could be and is treating him. I hope the little guy pulls through.
Betty Cracker
@delk: Wow, hope he recovers fully and soon! How scary!
@Corner Stone: It’s been in the 80s here for I don’t know how long. I mean, we get an 80s day during the winter now and then, but this has been going on for a long time. It’s not normal.
Elizabelle
@Lizzy L: Do you think those two — if they are “two” — are just assholes, or disruptors on purpose? They sure clear a room.
No names, please, of them or their north star.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
I suspect one is a purposeful disruptor since he’s only been around a short time. The other has been around so long that he’s an asshole who needs a new hobby.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: Got it.
Lizzy L
@Elizabelle: I’ve no idea. But I wish people would not engage with them.
daves09
Could someone tell Obama and Biden that they should be aiming their fire at Trump.
They should not let any opportunity pass to point out that Trump did not in fact win the popular vote, that his appointments are the worst in history, that he is a Russian stooge and a posturing buffoon..
Instead we have old decrepit but still handsome Joe saying HRC never really made clear why she was running and Mr. Can’t we all just be friends Obama moaning that dems. didn’t connect with the voters.
If the woman who won the pop. vote by almost 3 million didn’t connect, then what the fuck did the odious charlatan do.
Goddammit guys, if you don’t have anything good to say about the dems. then just shut the fuck up-this is not the time to be giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
Karla
@Hungry Joe: I’ve candied them and stuffed them with a coconut filling like I’ve seen done with limes in Mexico. Perhaps you could pickle them, make marmalade, or preserve them in salt like lemons? Punk Domestics may have some ideas.
Karla
@Hungry Joe: Also, the green ones might be pickle -able as well.
zhena gogolia
@daves09:
Yeah, I didn’t like Biden’s appearance on Colbert (haven’t seen anything much else). He smirked and implied that he would have won. Sorry, Joe, but no.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@delk: Good thoughts for Gav continue from here.
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
My aunt who’s visiting from Florida has been complaining because it’s quite chilly here in So Cal — low to mid 60s even during the day.
Betty Cracker
@Rob: I thought it was a blue heron at first because of the eye stripe (and maybe it is), but it has a white belly and reddish feathers on the back of the neck and tops of the shoulders, so I concluded it was a tricolor. I could totally be wrong.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
Hey, I came across this on Twitter about Ayn Rand’s work with the FBI to identify It’s a Wonderful Life as Communist propaganda. Have you ever heard about this?
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
He might have — Wilmer’s bros might have been more willing to flock to another peni$-owner than a lowly vagina owner like Hills. But we’ll never know and, since the Russian meddling and voter suppression would still have been factors, it’s quite likely that he still would have lost.
Miss Bianca
@Felonius Monk: I wish I was napping! But alas, I don’t get paid for Christmas unless I’m here today – ah, the joys of retail. So I’m lurking here in my office like a troll under a bridge, feeling cross and sorry for myself with my scratchy throat and achy head. Boxing Day birds help, tho’.
@delk: Oh, I am sorry to hear this. best wishes for Gav’s recovery.
debbie
@delk:
I hope he recovers quickly and completely. I hate when people leave poisons around like that for anyone or anything other than a rat to come across.
Gravenstone
@Elizabelle: Pretty much convinced the one has a Google alert for posts that mention their patron taint. It always shows up to those.
Miss Bianca
@Hungry Joe: Send ’em to me, because I LOVE kumquats. Particularly when I’m under the weather, as now!
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: plus, Biden’s well-documented love of banks and surveillance and his vote for the Iraq war are for whatever reason completely inconsequential, but when the corrupt harridan does them she’s evil.
schrodinger's cat
DELETED
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: I was happy that it was warm yesterday. It was in the 40s!
Uniqlo order arrives tomorrow and so does my new Dell XPS laptop. I has an excited!
Larkspur
@delk: Hey, delk, I don’t want to presume or anything, but if you need a little assist with the vet bill, I’m in. Best wishes.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Didn’t Biden fold much earlier than Clinton when he was running against that articulate young man, whose name seems to escape me at the moment.
Mnemosyne
@debbie:
I had heard about the FBI’s opinion of It’s A Wonderful Life, but I hadn’t heard about Rand’s involvement in it. I have to admit, I am darkly amused that some people think that a movie with angels and an interventionist God is somehow too atheist.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
As I once recommended to someone else here, make sure to secretly cough on your boss’s door handle or keyboard. That’ll teach him (or her) to make people come to work while sick.
schrodingers_cat
@Hungry Joe: Juice them and make booze out of them? I have never tasted a kumquat so I don’t know squat about it, except for your description here.
SiubhanDuinne
@delk:
That’s horrible, that he might have eaten poison. But I agree with everyone who noted that the wagging tail and happy reaction to seeing you are both promising signs. Everything crossable is crossed for Gav. Do keep us updated.
Larkspur
@Major Major Major Major: I love these brilliant, cold northern California winter days. (I know: not cold for Minnesota or South Dakota, but too cold for Floridians.) This is my kind of weather.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
Right! It makes no sense, but then I never associated Ayn with sense. It’s so Talibanish, though.
Elizabelle
@Larkspur: That is so sweet of you, offering to help with Gav’s medical bill.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m still really curious about those Uniqlo tights. Even if they’re only good for 40-degree weather and not below zero, they would still come in handy for the kind of chilliness we get out here.
I should be revising my novel, but Charlotte harassed the other cats until I came into the bedroom and let her snuggle under the covers with me.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: Had a terrifying moment earlier this summer when I found the box trap containing rat poison that my friend had put in his skid steer ripped open – as with a pair of very powerful jaws or claws, or both – and the block of poison gone, with Luna the Wonder Husky prancing around in the near vicinity. Finally came to the conclusion, after some Googling on the symptoms of rat poisoning in dogs, close observation, and some worried phone calls to vet, that she must not have eaten it. Never did find out what did – given the amount of damage to the trap, I’d say a bear or maybe even a mountain lion.
Felonius Monk
@Miss Bianca: Sorry to hear you’re a bit under the weather. Hope you feel better soon.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Exactly, in subzero weather I am wearing my long underwear and jeans or pants, thank you very much. But it would be nice to wear a dress and tights in say February.
I have tried fleece lined tights, they don’t hold up well after washing twice at the most, sweater tights were too itchy next to the skin, so the search continues.
HeleninEire
Settling in for a new BBC version of Agatha Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution” starring Toby Jones as the defense attorney. Two partner that concludes tomorrow. I’ll report back for when it shows up on Masterpiece in the States.
Major Major Major Major
@Larkspur: me too! Just enough to have the heater on and see your breath at night. Sweater weather!
schrodingers_cat
@HeleninEire: I was not too impressed with the latest Poirot (with Suchet) and Jane Marple (McEwan) mysteries. They were trying too hard to make them salacious and scandalous. I prefer the original to these newer adaptations.
Felonius Monk
@delk: Hoping that Gav makes a speedy recovery. Good luck.
Miss Bianca
@Felonius Monk: Aw, tanks. I think I’m going to finish up the day here and just go ahead and tell my corporate masters that I’m not coming in tomorrow! With any hope, it’s nothing that a hot toddy and a re-watch of “Return of the King” can’t cure!
Or if not cure…at least the combo will make “being sick a whole lot more interesting”, as Grandpa Jones once famously said.
JK
@Rob: I second this motion on the Great Blue Heron
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
Dare I ask how your novel is coming along? I should be editing mine right now but, as stated above, Charlotte is demanding snuggles at the moment.
(Basically, since I’ve been writing it out of sequence, I’m going to do what movie editors call an initial assemblage to figure out how many words I have and what scenes I still need. I know I have at least two sexytime scenes to write.)
laura
Just saw a pair of Swainsons Hawks reeling overhead in the neighborhood after saying goodbye to the family and will be sailing the couch the rest of the day.
Three days of putting on Christmas and I’m feeling liked a trashed out hag.
It’s been exactly one year since the death of Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister starting a long, sad year of musicians, artists, good people like my mother, and now George Michael too.
I hate this year.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Are the bodices going to be ripped?
Another Scott
@debbie: Ayn Rand’s FBI file was released due to a FIOA request. It’s here.
(via an entertaining article in AtlasObscura – but that has no mention of IaWL.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@Miss Bianca: Do you still have office kittens (teenagers now, I guess?)
HeleninEire
@schrodingers_cat: Kim Cattrall plays the victim. She hasn’t really aged well but she’s playing a sugar mommy so maybe that’s on purpose.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
My fleece-lined leggings (footless) have held up pretty well, but I only wear them a few times a year. I only have one pair of footed fleece-lined tights and I’ve only worn and washed them a couple of times. Out here, fleece-lined legging weather is also my best opportunity to wear boots, so I can wear socks and leggings instead of needing footed tights.
Botsplainer
Houseguests can leave any moment, now. They appear to be in pajamas still (particularly middle daughter’s man). Someone bathed, though – I know this because when we came back from our afternoon hike, there was no hot water left for my shower or shave.
Oh, and instead of going out as planned, they stayed on couches – both fellas of middle and youngest included – watching TV. They did manage to eat the leftovers of the tray of kibbee I had made yesterday ($70 of ingredients) that I had been planning to include with dinner – gobbled it like monsters. And they spread dishes around again.
Aleta
@delk: Rooting for Gav, and thinking of you.
delk
@Larkspur: Thanks, that’s sweet but not necessary. We’re at the four grand mark so far and I am grateful that we have the funds. I know a lot of dog owners are not so lucky, especially at this time of the year.
Hopefully our pet insurance policy will cover a decent chunk of the bill.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: I wish I could write like that! Actually, I was wondering if you might beta-read a chunk of it and tell me what you think – whether you’d be like, “hell yeah, I’d read more of this!” or…”you know, sounds like you have such a promising career in online hardware sales – I’d hate to see you lose focus on *that*!” ; )
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes! ?
I heard a panel of romance authors speak at last year’s Festival of Books and one of the writers said that the success of Fifty Shades of Gray had at least given her a way to describe the heat level of her books to other people. Like hers, mine will probably be about 30 shades, not the full 50. ?
JPL
@debbie: After all these years, it appears that we’ll have a lunatic posing as Mr. Potter in the White House.
Mnemosyne
@Botsplainer:
You’re been a parent for how long and you still haven’t figured out how to pointedly leave the dirty dishes on the floor of your kids’ rooms?
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
I’m sorry for the putative bear or mountain lion — that must have been one mother of all tummy aches, if not worse — but am relieved to know that Luna hadn’t got into it. Scary!
(Hope you’re feeling better soon. Sounds as though you’ve worked out exactly the right therapy!)
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle: they are up at the kennels of the master of my hunt club – long story short, the boss didn’t like having cats in the store, so I spirited them away to a place where I knew I’d get to see them every once in a while. They are living the life of Reilly among the chickens, hounds, horses, and various huntable varmints on the property, and *we* at the store are being overrun by newly-emboldened mice who crap in the aisles and gnaw the bird seed and Hershey bars. Needless to say, *some* of us around here miss them terribly – but at least I still get to see them!
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: If you need more volunteers, I am game.
debbie
@Another Scott:
Thanks, bookmarked.
SiubhanDuinne
@Botsplainer:
These house guests sound frightful! Hope they depart soon. You don’t want a “Man Who Came to Dinner” scenario.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
Sure! I was finally able to get my Gmail account working again (I had to, in order to be able to join SC’s blog). It’s mnemosyne dot muse. I can’t promise I’ll get to it until late this week since I’m procrastinating on my own stuff, though.
Elizabelle
@Miss Bianca: Ah. So the kits are living large. Elsewhere. That’s good to hear.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
Wouldn’t work with a dress, but flannel-lined jeans have worked very well for me for winter walks.
schrodingers_cat
@Botsplainer: Next time, don’t invite them.
bystander
@Hungry Joe: Just saw Hubert Keller using kumquats to decorate the presentation of a roast turkey. He used somewhat less than 400, tho.
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: Oh yeah, I have a pair from LLBean. I get bored of only wearing pants, half way through winter.
debbie
@JPL:
I think even Lionel Barrymore would be upset about that.
Corner Stone
@daves09:
I am way past tired of them taking shots at HRC. Yeah, Obama. You would have won a third term if you could run, but guess what?
This sniping isn’t helping anyone or anything.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
I realize it’s the point of the movie but, man, I find every single person in that film to be unpleasant. And why can’t Bette Davis just tell her dimwitted beau, Hey, I don’t want you going off to a secluded location with that actress because she’s a whore?
(I have not emailed your friend yet, but I haven’t had time. Soon, I promise!)
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle: and they’ll still snuggle – well, Pancho will, he’s such a softy. Lefty’s all like, Teen Kitty: “Mooomm, this is embarrassing! OK, OK, I’ll purr, but then put me down!!”
They do love to climb up and ride around on your shoulders, tho’ – guess the ranch hands taught them that one!
Corner Stone
@Botsplainer: Man, you have some real anger issues. Personally, I don’t stock anything I am not ready for someone in my house to consume. If it’s a special to-do I make note of it or I put it in my personal space until such time as the sharing shall commence.
The dirty dishes are something else. “Hey, friend. Let’s spend a few moments together cleaning up, shall we?”
Larkspur
@delk: Thank goodness. This is why ya need pet insurance. You hope that they’ll have no serious problems and you’ll be happy to have “wasted” all that money on premiums…but when something like this happens, it makes a big difference.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: @schrodingers_cat: you bet!
Mnemosyne
@Hungry Joe:
You can make kumquat marmalade — that recipe will use up a few stray lemons as well. It looks like there are quite a few alternate recipes out there if that one doesn’t look good.
Corner Stone
Having to restore my Mac Mini and it is taking *forever* to reset all the permissions on my pr0n folders.
Geebus take the wheel!
Miss Bianca
@Corner Stone: err…wouldn’t this be sort of the definition of “TMI”?
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
I love the Jimmy Durante part, but the rest is unwatchable for me now, even though I’m a Monty Woolley fan.
Corner Stone
@Miss Bianca: It’s not like i told everyone I was going to go naked snow shoveling or anything. I, for one, have my sense of decency!
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
There’s an unthinking mean-spiritedness about it that really bothers me. I mean, they’re going to blackmail the homeowner by telling the whole world that his sister murdered their parents? WT ever-loving F?
MomSense
@delk:
Sending my best to Gav and you. Hope he improves and can come home healthy.
Miss Bianca
@Corner Stone: ha ha! Well, in Lee Harvey Oswald’s famous last words, “Ooh, Jack! You’re killin’ me!”
ETA: Yeah, I went there. Because I, for one, have *no* sense of decency.
LAC
@daves09: I have been avoiding much of the press lately. Like to keep my blood pressure at normal. But could you post a link on what they are saying about Clinton? Because that is not cool if it is true. Thanks
Major Major Major Major
@Corner Stone: I’m starting to think he doesn’t find her very likable.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: I am in complete agreement with this. As long as he sends me a jar.
Botsplainer
@Mnemosyne:
I’m toying with the idea of bringing up the private present to the missus (with various accoutrements) and saying ” your mom is opening this now, and we’re going to have fun with it. Unless you want to hear things from Mom, you’ll never unhear…”
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
And I worry that the penguin is being abused.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
or is it a seal? can’t remember
Corner Stone
@Miss Bianca: Plus, it’s…mostly…my digital music library. I had burned all my CD’s to e-format and saved to the mini. And with 2016 ruthlessly tracking down and killing every artist that had been of moment, I wanted to make sure the stuff was all still good.
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: When I was in eighth grade, we actually performed TMWCTD at my middle school. The script came with all the racy bits of the stage play left in, and a metric shit-ton of suggested cuts and substitutions. *Now*, of course, I am all amazement that we were allowed to get away with it at all!
ETA: It’s a penguin. I remember because I played the delivery man!
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major: That bullshit release press conference Obama had he spent more time potshotting HRC’s campaign than he did Trump or the fucking Russians.
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
Did you see me nagging you to go see Moana? Honestly, you’ll love it. Just make sure to stick around for the post-credits scene.
Miss Bianca
@Corner Stone: Oh “digital music library” is what the kids are calling it these days?
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
I think there were both penguins and a seal. But now I can’t remember if it was a seal or a sea lion — they seemed to call both of them “seals” in those days.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: I still have Shiny stuck in my head.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: I’m gonna have a talk with some friends after the holidays. Unfortunately until after the 1st I’m super busy and family doesn’t have day off when I do. It is in the works however!
ETA: Have a really good friend writing for the Disney TV animation division now!
Elie
Went to see the “Eagle Huntress” yesterday. Beautiful film… just the right touch… Such admiration for the young woman/girl (age 13) and her courage and spirit to follow her dream to follow along in her fathers’ and grandfathers’ footsteps. Also her father’s character and love to encourage and support her desire and her gift. I have to say, as much as I love all animals and birds, I take my hat off to her strength and skill. A Golden Eagle is a BIG bird with sharp beak and talons. She had to win its trust. She also had to physically be able to bring the bird to her fist flying in at speed where the 15 lbs of weight it represents could be quite a blow on her shoulder and elbow stretched out as a landing perch for the eagle. I recommend it to all. Great positive flick for these hard days.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s that David Bowie vibe that does it. LMM has been very gentle with the people who tweet him to say, I just saw “Moana” — have you ever heard of Flight of the Conchords?
(His kind version is to say, Freestyle Love Supreme opened for them at the 2004 Aspen Comedy Festival and let them add the pieces together.)
Corner Stone
@Miss Bianca: I honestly don’t know. Do kids even bother watching pr0n these days? It seems like every generation has moved the…ummm…yardstick, forward in sexual proclivities or just not bothering with any of it.
I keep trying to tell my kid where babies come from and how all that gear works but he never seems to want to be about that. I admit, I am puzzled.
Mnemosyne
@Yutsano:
Nice! I was trying to break in there with no luck. ? But now I’m going back to fiction and really enjoying it, so it was all for the best.
Another Scott
@Mnemosyne: Did someone say “sea lion”?
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
LAC
@LAC: nevermind. I am reading the transcript of his interview with axekrod. Under the dryer, so it will be a while. :)
Miss Bianca
@Elie: wow, that sounds really cool.
Mnemosyne
@Another Scott:
We do seem to be experiencing an infestation of sea lions, don’t we? ?
SiubhanDuinne
@Elie:
That sounds wonderful! I will keep an eye out for screenings in the ATL.
Thematically, it sounds a bit like one of my very favorite films, Whale Rider. Did you ever see it?
Elie
@SiubhanDuinne:
No but I wonder if I can rent it? I certainly read about it…
Mnemosyne
@Botsplainer:
That may drive them out of the house, but it ain’t gonna help with them leaving dirty dishes for you to clean up. Unless you want this exact same thing to happen again next year, you probably need to address the housekeeping stuff directly.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
You know what current movie is thematically a lot like Whale Rider and even features one of its actors … ?
Okay, I’ll stop now before Omnes shows up to scold me for shilling again.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
I almost went to see it today, but the exceptionally long line scared me off. I think I’ll wait until kids are back in school after New Year’s. And don’t worry, I always stay through the very last credit. Always. (I had a brother in the biz — sound effects/Foley/a little directing — and it was always a kick to see his name show up. Now it’s both force of habit, and out of respect for all the people who worked in any capacity on a film.)
ETA: And, of course, sometimes there are Easter eggs in the form of delightful surprises, outtakes, or jokes as rewards for those who stay to the very end.
BillinGlendaleCA
@delk: When you mentioned the throwing up blood the other night, I was thinking the pup might have got some rat poison. Hope things work out for the pup.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
My name is in it, but aaaaallllll the way at the end since I’m in an overhead department. I’m even billed after the guy who does Caffeination.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elie:
Pretty sure I saw a DVD of it in my local public library not so terribly long ago. It should be available.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Used DVD’s are $5 plus shipping on amazon
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Very very cool to have a credit, no matter where it lands in the sequence of names. Does this happen often with you, or is it a rare and wonderful occurrence?
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
I own it on DVD, but I expect @Elie will be glad to know that! Thanks for checking.
Are you still in Asheville? Loved the photo you posted of your bride and the two pups sitting outside the café!
J.
That heron shot is great! Good going, Betty! The spouse and I biked through Ding Darling on Christmas day and saw the most birds we’d ever seen there. But I was only able to get a handful of good bird shots — and wish I had been able to get a good shot of the group of white pelicans, roseate spoonbills, and a ginormous wood stork we saw.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: No, we drove back this afternoon. Enda’s is cool, it’s named after a pug the owners used to have. They are also involved with doggie hospice!
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
That’s so neat! It’s great when people can keep the names going of beloved pets. You do it here with your nym, Enda’s as you described, and of course the Great and Mighty TUNCH is invoked regularly around this place.
Elie
@delk:
How horrible! Yes, it does sound like the effects of rat poison (Coumadin) which is reversible if you find out in time. His water drinking was to make up the loss volume from bleeding…I’m hoping he makes it out of the woods but it would be good to investigate how he got a hold of rat poision because he might do it again. My thoughts are with you …
Elizabelle
@raven: I did not see the picture of the bride and the pets. Please repost.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
It might have been on FB, not here. I can send it to you.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Check out the cart I got for the Bohdi.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
I saw it! Awesome! He seems to like it.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Yea, not bad. He’s puzzled by this whole deal. He goes back for another laser treatment tomorrow and Lil Bt gets the big lump below her ear removed and biopsied.
hedgehog mobile
@delk: Hugs to all!
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Cool.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’ve been at this job for 10 years, so it’s ever since Bolt.
My extended family was less impressed when they found out it was only on the cartoon movies and not the real (live action) movies. ?
SiubhanDuinne
@Elie:
I don’t think I realized that Coumadin is rat poison. My late cousin was on that until about six months before she died, had to go in every week or two to have blood drawn and the Rx tweaked.
I’m on a baby aspirin a day, and even that small amount of blood thinner makes me very susceptible to bruising in the oddest places, and — as I found out last night when I sliced a finger tip on the sharp serrated edge of a roll of foil or waxed paper or plastic wrap or something — I bleed like a fucking Tsarevich. Took hours before it finally clotted enough to stop soaking through bandaids. (Clean, if deep, cut, though, so almost no pain — for which I’m enormously thankful.)
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
One of the reasons we made my mom stop living alone was that she stumbled into a cactus at her house in AZ and had to go to the ER because she’s on blood thinners.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
I stay for all the closing credits for movies and for tv. I had a friend who worked at Miramax when they first started; another friend did legal stuff for Tristar; and other was an executive producer for a couple half-seasons of Sons of Anarchy. I couldn’t stop myself; I squealed and pointed, “I know that name!”
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
My father always hated animation until I talked him into getting stoned and watching my VHS of Fantasia while completely wasted. After that, he couldn’t get enough of my little Disney collection :-)
Pogonip
@delk: Aw. I hope he gets well soon!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Corner Stone: One thing about the kid, she always does the dishes after dinner. I feel bad about it and last year told her that I’d take care of it. We don’t see her that often, and I feel bad that we’re in here yacking away and she’s doing dishes. So last night, we did them together, I did the soaping and scrubbing, and she did the rinsing and putting them into the dish dryer.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Yikes! I didn’t seriously consider going to the ER last night, but I was truly astonished at the way I just kept BLEEDING and wondering when it would stop.
debbie
@Elie:
I’ve been on Coumadin for almost 20 years. Its effect ends as soon as you stop taking it (as opposed to the new drug which takes a while to wear off).
delk
Vet just called with some more encouraging news about Gav. His blood coagulation numbers have improved: he was at 300 and is now at 144. He should be between 72 and 102. His other number was over 100 and is now 21. Should be between 11 and 17.
raven
@delk: Great, hang tough pup!
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
I once sliced into my finger with a food processor blade. When it hadn’t stopped bleeding after 48 hours, I went to the ER. There wasn’t much they could do since it didn’t need stitches. They put a silver bandage on (I don’t know much about them), but it didn’t help. It stopped eventually and because I was very careful to keep it clean, it healed just fine.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: that is, quite possibly, the best story ever.
Pogonip
@delk: he’s heading in the right direction!
PsiFighter37
Phenomenal weather in Chicago today. Did not get to see Rogue One yesterday as tickets sold out(!)…ended up coming down with a severe coughing fit and basically stayed inside the rest of the day. I’ve had some kind of respiratory illness the past week – wake up, cough up and blow out of my nose some really disgusting mucus – then get a really dry/itchy throat and start dry hacking later in the day. It’s gone on a week, which bothers me a great deal – I don’t remember last time I was this sick for this long. To make it worse, I took Theraflu and am now massively constipated…was rolling around in pain last night because I ate a moderately-sized dinner.
Basically, what a shit end to a shit year. I would pay good coin to take a good shit right now.
FML
debbie
@delk:
Wow, that is great!
Shell
@delk: Excellent. Can never get enough good pet news. Hope Gav will be back home fast.
Pogonip
Does anyone but me wonder what animals think of US? For example, I wonder if Steve thinks of Cole as “that generally amiable fellow who has spells of insanity in which he attacks my rear end.” I know they talk to each other, somehow–anyone who’s had multiple pets knows about the delicate diplomatic negotiations conducted over territory. Do they also discuss us, their oblivious owners?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@delk: Thanks for the pupdate. It sounds like he’s headed in the right direction. Good wishes for speedy and full recovery from here.
J R in WV
@Hungry Joe:
I think kumquats make good pickles, and marmalades. You might try those.
Google has over 500K hits on a search for Kumquat recipes. Candied, made into a relish with japapenos, honeyed, sliced into fruit salads or green salads, quite a list. It says the peel is sweet and the pulp is sour, so peeling them and discarding the pulp might be good for salads.
The same source showed a bottle of vodka with kumquats floating in the bottom, so there’s that too. But you knew that!
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
It was the least I could do. The first time I ever smoked weed was in my dad’s company, in about 1962. My way of saying “thank you.”
Raven
@Pogonip: my wife makes me do all the stuff they don’t like and then goo-goo’s them when I’m done! Big meanie I am!
SiubhanDuinne
@delk:
That sounds very promising! All my crossables are still crossed.
Phylllis
@PsiFighter37: Coat the bottom of your feet with Vick’s & put on a pair of socks when you go to bed. Freakin’ miracle cure.
Elizabelle
@delk: You know we are going to need pictures once Gav is safely at home and no longer snacking on — whatever.
I had a beagle who ingested rat pellets — right in front of me (I was cleaning out the hall closet and she dashed in, unfortunately, before I remembered the pellets in a container on the floor). Immediate trip to the vet. She came through just fine. I never used pellets again with a pet in the house. Pets are so fast, and unpredictable.
SiubhanDuinne
@Phylllis:
Anybody here old enough to remember mustard plasters?
ETA: Or camphorated oil?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
What format did you burn your CDs to?
ThresherK
@delk: Your a good person. I couldn’t begin to coherently describe some of the pet/vet emergencies I’ve had, and they have all been less serious than this. Best hopes.
JPL
@delk: Thank you for sharing the news and I’m hoping that the pup continues to heal.
J R in WV
Birds:
When we lived in Key West it was 1971-3, and the brown pelicans were just starting to come back after the nearly complete death spiral caused by DDT. We loved to see them plunging into the water with a huge splash. I never saw or knew of white pelicans until the 1990s when I was camping on the Green River in WY with a friend. We were on a 3 week rockhounding expedition, mostly in Colorado, but winding up with a big clockwise swing up into Wyoming.
We spent a night on the bank of the river, got in late, just before dark, and the next morning, big blindingly white pelicans were floating down stream, occasionally diving down into the swift icy water for a bite of fish. We were amazed to see them, neither of us, after years of traveling all over the world, had even heard of white pelicans.
I’m not sure of the heron. I’ve seen Great Blues before, live and in action right in front of me. But they’re so awesome, you miss the details, like are there little blue stripes by their eyes, or are their nostrils horizontal or vertical? So I dunno. Maybe a variegated heron – born of a mixed marriage? ;-)
Botsplainer
@Mnemosyne:
We’re thinking of traveling next Christmas.
And every one after.
SiubhanDuinne
Is this what they mean by “toe jam”?
rikyrah
@delk:
Sending you positive thoughts and prayers
Phylllis
@SiubhanDuinne: My mother would do mustard plasters when we were wee ones. Then she discovered VapoRub and we were off to the races. I’m sure there was camphorated oil in the medicine cabinet when we were kids, along with castor oil.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (phone): I would tell you but it looks like the upgrade to mac OS Sierra has wiped all of them.
Hmmm.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Miss Bianca: @SiubhanDuinne: I agree with Miss Bianca w/r/t quite possibly the best story ever about your father watching Fantasia stoned and getting hooked, as it were.
Also, too, MB – I’m game if you’d like another reader.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
Yikes! Hope they didn’t get trashed.
Miss Bianca
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I am flattered – three of my favorite BJ jackals! : )
Elie
@delk:
Sounds like he’ll make it (always fingers crossed till he is home). Whew.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne: Saw Moana today and it was a delight. I really liked the way the characters were depicted on the land and on their boats. Loved the songs and LMM’s stylistic touches.
Didn’t know about the end credits add on, but stayed because I wanted to listen to the music playing over the end credits, and enjoyed the little end joke.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (phone): I’m too busy fighting off the okra alien slugs right now to determine what is going on. But soon. Soon.
Corner Stone
Basically, any place that is featured on the Food Network’s “Ginormous Foods” is a place I will never ever patronize. It is everything that is wrong with Trump’s Murica ™ .
daves09
Just back from a long walk around the university and up and down the hills. Pairs of red tail hawks gyring across the sky, those high, lonesome cries. Just a few degrees above freezing, clear and sunny-perfect winter day.
Kay
“The world was gloomy before I won” The World. Supreme Leader of the Universe is going off the rails again.
I don’t know why I look. The descent into madness continues.
Mnemosyne
I should be editing my book, but I am currently trapped under a cat’s butt. Turns out there’s even a hashtag for that. Who knew?
Elizabelle
@Kay: He doesn’t get around much, does he?
ETA: President Obama might have some elegant slam over that “no hope” business. Although maybe PEW-OTUS is riffing off Michelle’s comment.
Anyway, FALSE!
JPL
@Kay: Wait until he finds out that Obama is still President so history will record that for him until the end of his term. We’ll see what the market does, after inauguration day.
Elizabelle
Blurb at top of WaPost website right now:
Felonius Monk
@Corner Stone:
Dude, what’s with you and the OKRA. Gumbo doesn’t have the correct consistency without it, IMO, but you don’t need tons and if you do it right you don’t even know it’s there.
Is this a case of Okraphobia? I only suffer from FriedOkraphobia. :-)
Kay
@Elizabelle:
The world had no hope. Then a star rose in the East, over Trump Tower. A weary world rejoices…and markets are up 10%.
We’re ruled by an absolute lunatic.
Kay
@JPL:
Oh, who cares what the market does. For all I know they’re rewarding huge tax cuts to themselves. Apparently “uncertainty” isn’t an issue anymore. Remember when we had to coddle them because they couldn’t handle “uncertainty”? Turns out giant tax cuts and a promise of gutting all regulations cures “uncertainty” on Wall Street.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
If I were the president, I would be kinda pissed at the DNC for falling for a really obvious phishing technique. Haven’t they ever heard of Internet security, FFS?
J R in WV
@Phylllis:
“Coat the bottom of your feet with Vick’s & put on a pair of socks when you go to bed. Freakin’ miracle cure.”
Last time we both had bad colds, our Doctor recommended this, and it seemed to help. Don’t know how, but it did.
I don’t get sick often, not infectious sick. Flu shot, every year! Every vaccination that comes along, I want it. I remember getting the first polio shot, smallpox, then later the Sabin vaccine on a sugar cube. Our parents knew people who died from polio, and we had all the vaccinations, multiple times.
PsiFighter37
@Elizabelle: If that is the one thing 2016 proved, it was that the arrogance of the Clinton campaign from 2008 repeated itself in 2016. That speaks to the top of the house (namely Hillary, and almost certainly Bill) simply not paying enough attention where they needed to.
Not going to re-fight the reasons why we lost the EV, but honestly – it seems like running any kind of competent campaign at all in the Rust Belt would have resulted in a different outcome this election. The Clinton campaign relied way too heavily on data analytics and a ’90s mindset.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
If you have high blood pressure, we may need to have your kids take Twitter away from you. ?
Kay
@JPL:
Also, the white working class have no more economic insecurity. If they spent a trillion dollars on Christmas gifts they must be doing okay under Obama after all. It’s truly miraculous how they recovered from their Obama-induced crippling economic anxiety the second the racist douchebag was elected. A Christmas miracle, you might say.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SiubhanDuinne:
I do have a little jar of Mentholatum, which has been a family nostrum forever. Nice for chapped lips or irritated nostrils.
Baud
@Kay: Deficit anxiety will be lower now that higher deficits will be caused by tax cuts.
Baud
@PsiFighter37:
Good advice you should follow.
Mnemosyne
@PsiFighter37:
Take a look at the coverage before the election about voter ID laws in WI, OH, PA, and MI and then come back and say that again.
As I keep pointing out, this strategy is what made Karl Rove think the election was in the bag for Romney in 2012. When it failed then, they made a couple of extra tweaks and — voila! — the victory that was supposed to happen in 2012.
I won’t say that Hillary’s campaign was flawless, but the fact that she got 2.8 million more votes says she was doing something right. There were about a half-dozen different things that went wrong, including — but not only — mistakes by her campaign.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Kay:
Which is part of the lunacy – he thinks he will rule us, as opposed to being president of the country. It isn’t designed to be a dictatorship. Has any other PEOTUS hung signs on a podium or backdrop reading
before?
JMG
Daughter left this evening to go back to her job in France. Son left to go back to his job and shared townhouse in Boston. House awful quiet compared to the last week.
I think it would be very good for this community if there were no further discussions of the 2016 elections. It’s just pointless scab picking now. The deal for 2017 is doing better, and oddly enough, endlessly dwelling on what went wrong does not make that happen. That’s an observation from a working lifetime of sports journalism. I can’t tell you how many individuals/teams I saw obsess about a “revenge” game/match/whatever and fall to pieces when it finally arrived.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Ah, come on Baud, that’s no fun.
Mnemosyne
@JMG:
I will say that anyone who claims they totally knew ahead of time that the election would turn out this way is lying. It’s easy to look at everything in hindsight and pick apart all of the mistakes, but FFS, even the guy who won thought he was going to lose right up until the end of election night!
Corner Stone
@Felonius Monk: *whistle blowing noise* *whistle blowing noise*
“One has been spotted!!” “One has been identified!!”
Corner Stone
@Elizabelle: It’s bullshit that Obama keeps doing this.
Kay
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
It feels weird to me, like they know he’s somehow not legitimate so have to constantly remind us he is the President-elect. He could try not behaving like a circus clown and see if he grows on people. We’ll slowly lower our standards and reach “resigned acceptance” – what choice do we have?
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Is it really fun to watch Democrats bashing each other when we need to be putting all our effort into resisting Donnie Putinobitch and his fascist rabble?
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: After a year and a half experiment that proved that the country can’t have a rational discussion about Hillary Clinton, I think it’s pretty arrogant to believe we can now have a rational discussion about Hillary Clinton.
I agree with @JMG.
JMG
@Mnemosyne: You are so right. Fluke upsets happen. It only changes the fundamentals if you let it. Mark Sanchez and the Jets beat the Patriots in a 2010 playoff game in Foxboro. I was there, fair and square win, better team that night. The subsequent history of all involved indicates the Pats had no reason to change how they did business.
Mnemosyne
@Morzer:
I hate to break it to you, but you’re one of the perpetrators. And I say that knowing full well that my hands aren’t clean, either.
JPL
@Corner Stone: Brian Fallon agreed with him
Dems must not only rally but fight. I don’t know how to convince Schumer and Pelosi of this though
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
He’s a narcissist. It is literally impossible for him not to act like a circus clown if he feels he’s being disrespected or insulted, and pretty much anything less than full-blown worship will make him feel disrespected or insulted.
Patricia Kayden
Let’s focus on resisting Trump. No rehashing of the Democratic primaries is necessary to do that.
I have a feeling that Trump will bring himself down with his stupid antics. He has zero self control and I am looking forward to his self-imposed train wreck.
Morzer
@Mnemosyne:
Thank you for that constructive response.
JMG
@JPL: I think you’re being a bit unfair. Let’s see what happens when Congress comes back. Any Democrat of prominence over 65 is going to freak if its leader suggests Israel is less than perfect in any way. It’s a reflex action, like a Phillies fan booing something.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: Please get your snark meter serviced.
Morzer
@Patricia Kayden:
The problem is that Trump might well behave in self-destructive ways, but unless the GOP think they are going down with him, there’s no way that he actually loses power. The only way to get there is through smart, unified Democratic opposition that makes a case to the country that we are all better off without Trump and the GOP wrecking the joint.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: Did Republicans ever accept President Obama? Or even pretend to do so? Naw. Then we should do the same. No resigned acceptance of the Bigot. No respect either.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
It sounded like your usual line in helpless cynicism.
Elie
None of us is completely clean on bashing each other. But we had better GET clean and get READY for the times ahead. I am sick of it and know its like drilling holes in our life boat.
Mary G
@JMG: @Patricia Kayden: Yes. Much as I hate to admit it, Trump will be our president. Oh, that is sooo painful to type. I’ve realized I was hoping Santa would bring a fluke disclosure that would invalidate the election, but that’s not going to happen.
Let’s focus on winning elections instead of the circular firing squad.
ETA: @Baud: Lol. You are so valuable. I hope you will stick around as much as you can.
Kay
@Mnemosyne:
I’m starting to get the “never enough” feeling you get with people like that, like they’ll suck you dry. It’s the incessant attention seeking, the “me, me, me”. My God, the Presidency isn’t enough. We all have to adore him and tell him he’s the best over and over. I shut down with those people, become a contrarian, won’t give them anything because I resent the demands. They just suck the life outta you.
Mnemosyne
@Morzer:
I’m trying to stop, which is why I did not join the shitshow in the other thread.
I think JMG and JPL are both right — this was a fluke win by Comrade Trump, who managed to have the right assists at the right time by the right people. Hillary’s campaign made mistakes that hurt her. So did Sanders’ campaign. So did voter suppression. So did Wikileaks. So did Comey. So did Snowden. So did Putin. Absent just one of those factors, she probably would have won, so why choose to focus on the factor(s) that most damage the Democratic Party as a whole?
Morzer
@Patricia Kayden:
Right. And we shouldn’t let the GOP pretend, as they will when things go wrong, that Trump is somehow unique and not really one of them. He won their primary, he’s their leader and we need to make them own that fact every lifelong day.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: My cynicism is usually snark.
Patricia Kayden
@Morzer: True and our only hope is for Democrats to get off their butts and flip the Senate in 2018. That way we can get Trump out by 2020 since he cannot stand opposition and will collapse in the face of a Senate controlled by the opposition.
Morzer
@Mary G:
He’ll always be the EVP of the American division of Putincorp to me.
JMG
A few basics: By all known standards, Trump is the most unpopular President-elect since they started measuring the topic. The vicious changes proposed in the Ryan budgets are not popular. Trump said he didn’t support them — it’s on video. Lies eventually catch liars. In this case, it could happen before Washington’s Birthday. Stop worrying about your brainwashed relatives and remember the voters who chose Trump because although they didn’t like him, somehow Hillary was worse. They still won’t like him, and she’s not in the picture.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
And the Bills are going to the playoffs.
Felonius Monk
@Corner Stone: Man, I almost choked on my RumBall. I was laughing so hard.
My wife (who does not drink) makes rumballs as part of her Christmas cookie assortment. This year she makes them the size of meatballs and (“This rum smells like it’s losing its punch”) doubles the amount of rum that the recipe calls for. Eat a couple of these babies (and they are delicious, so you can’t but eat multples) and for sure you will be blowing above the legal limit on the old breathalyzer.
OTOH, she does not put okra in them. :-)
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne:
@Morzer: Agreed.
(Not Snark.)
Elie
@Morzer:
He will make chaos and his minions will sow discord among us using a variety of probably successful techniques including false news as well as so called “for real” interviews etc where one of our folks will diss the other and set up the ongoing firing squad. There will be even worse, depending on what they need to keep us disorganized and at each others throats. Think about that each fuckiing time you start a comment in response to some shit you read somewhere. Think of all the bridges you are not building and the ill will for just one more day.
Baud
@JMG: You are on point today.
Elizabelle
I don’t think I am going to have interest in following politics in 2017.
mai naem mobile
@delk: good luck with Gav.
Elie
@Felonius Monk:
LOL on the okra.. You mean you haven’t had an okra cordial? !00 proof white lightning from okra, dipped in okra slime then the rim crusted with bread crumbs. Yummm!
Morzer
@JMG:
Right. The GOP don’t have any more bright shiny distractions to hide behind. They’ve got complete control and no-one to run against. Democrats shouldn’t give them a scrap of cover when it comes to their crazy, hateful agenda. Make them own who they really are and keep making them own it.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
My daughter in law was making me laugh over Christmas because she’s an unapologetic elitist. She’s not lowering her standards. Sorry. No go on that. This person is just not within her concept of “US President”. She’s treating this like a freak accident, a one-off, an unfortunate turn of events that no one has to grow accustomed to.
Baud
@Elizabelle: I know what you mean.
Elizabelle
@Kay: That’s the right thing to do, too.
He’s vulgar, unaccomplished, and the nightmare hire, mainly here due to the fake news world. No reason we have to get accustomed to him, welcome him, or even wish him well.
That is not a sign of patriotism. We fucking expect better.
Morzer
@Elie:
Fewer comment responses, more executions! Alinsky Freedom Brigades, represent!
Baud
@Elizabelle: Agree.
Elie
@Patricia Kayden:
Seriously, an equally important and strategic long term importance is to flip some of these governorships and state legislatures to undo the damage of the gerrymandering and voter suppression. The voter suppression must be aggressively litigated and everything else we can think of… This is a multifront war..
Felonius Monk
@Elie:
Would that make a body an Okraholic?
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
NOTE: Possible trigger warning for child abuse and narcissism
I follow blogger Gin & Tacos (not commenter Gin & Tonic) on Facebook. He was talked into giving his narcissistic mother “one more chance because it’s Christmas.” She proceeded to publicly tell the whole extended family the sad, sad story of the day that she broke her hand while beating the then 4-year-old G&T, but the real problem was that her husband refused to take her to the ER. Doesn’t everyone agree how mean it was to make her go without medical care just because she had injured herself while beating a child?
That’s a narcissist for you. They will tell you horrifying stories about themselves with no awareness that they’re not things that normal people do. And we are now in for four long years of our MSM normalizing those stories from Trump and his cadre.
Elie
@Morzer:
You can joke about it, but the Beast is loose in the land and you better take THAT seriously, my friend. This aint no joke.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Unless you find a nice cave to live in, I’m not sure you’re going to have a lot of choice :-(
Morzer
@Elie:
Gotta win locally, get back control from the domestic terrorists and make the Democratic party fit for purpose. We sat around feeling righteous for too long and we are all going to pay for it. I’d rather not pay more than four years of tuition to Trump University. If possible, I’d like to cut it down to two years and win bigly in the midterms.
mai naem mobile
@Patricia Kayden: I won’t accept him even if theres another 9/11. He’s just illegitimate in my eyes period. I want the Demo to burn the place down because apparently that’s how American voters reward you. I don’t think the Dems should cooperate period. The social services cuts affect the red states more anyway. Let them feel the damage they wrought .
Elie
@Felonius Monk:
Yes. For sure. Treatment is difficult requiring aversion therapy with lots of okra slime (I hear about 200 bushels of okra are necessary for the right amount of slime for the aversion therapy)
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s actually not that hard to tune out.
Morzer
@Elie:
I argued the case for not fighting each other weeks ago and everyone promptly went back to bashing Bernie/Hillary/God/the weather/Belichick/Michael Moore/ANOther.
As for the Beast being loose, well, what did you expect after Cole forcibly bathtubbed him and hosed down his imperial ass with cold water?
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Cave. Hmmmmmmmm….
Gotta say, it’s delightful not watching any broadcast or cable news. I think I gain a day of life for every day I don’t see Kellyanne Conway’s lying shit-ass face, or any of the Republicans so beloved to the broadcast news galaxy. It’s not my job to watch those fuckers.
There’s still this sea of sad, though, behind going around with day to day life.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Crikey. I also follow Gin & Tacos, but I don’t remember ever seeing that story. Ed must have shared it a long time ago (either that, or I’ve completely repressed the awfulness of it). What a horror.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elie: I’m wondering which states have referendums where we can replicate what we did in CA by changing how redistricting is done. We moved that from the legislature to a retired panel of judges. We also moved to the “jungle primary”, while I’m not a fan of that aspect, it did lead to two Dems contesting for our US Senate seat. The alternative problem has also come up where you have too many Dems running in the primary and end up diluting the vote among them, then you need some party discipline to limit the folk running for a particular seat.
Elie
@Morzer:
That IS true. Actually, cats don’t mind water as much as people think — but COLD water will make hate that lasts and lasts.
Seriouly, people have pent up anger and no way to release or use it. We have to come up with the plan/s and the thinking to motivate and re-enthuse us. We are beating each other up cause we don’t have a leader or leaders and a plan— We have to be patient also cause the most important objectives will be hard won (those state legislatures and governorships) We have to get our equivalent churches and other organizations ready to boogey. This will take time and building the infrastructure cause its there but silent right now. In my neck of the woods, the progressive churches are starting to meet and plan and we need to do this across the board with many social organizations…
Elizabelle
@Morzer:
Morzer, really, please stop.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
I’m more tuned out than many. I don’t own a TV, so rarely see MSNBC or CNN (although I do occasionally hear their audio on SiriusXM when I’m in the car). And for a full month after the election, I stayed away from Facebook. In truth, a lot of what I hear/read is here at BJ, and if it’s an interesting story I’ll google and read more about it.
All that said, I do think it’s important to know what’s going on and what’s being said (or even rumoured) if we are going to be well-armed for the resistance.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Elizabelle: NC will be having a special election in 2017 because of the court ruling on our gerrymandered districts.
A number of other states will be having off-year elections for state offices.
Ignore the ambulatory Cheeto. Pay attention to the state and local levels. Get involved in the state and local levels. Find your local Pantsuit Nation chapter.
We can’t afford to drop out of all engagement. But we don’t have to chase every bit of insanity that drops from that Twitter account. We don’t have to let the trolls pull us into yet another circular firing squad.
Elie
@BillinGlendaleCA:
That is why our state organizations have got to get a lot better. We have our state and local democratic leadership selections/elections coming up. We have to get some good leadership with that kind of vision of what needs to be done but quick…
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
I know. That’s the only reason I haven’t sailed off into political oblivion yet.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
He put it on Facebook today to explain why he’s cutting off contact with his family.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Completely with you there. The only time I see any of that is when I’m on the road and staying in motels. Last time I saw, e.g., Joe and Mika was last August. Nothing about that experience prompted me to come home and buy a TV/subscribe to cable.
mai naem mobile
@Elie: I do think about bridges but you have to feel that they’re even reachable in the first place. There was a twitter thread last week about the Obamas buying an 8000 Sq ft house with RWNJS making snide comments about how Obama could afford that on a government /community organizer salary. There are liberal replies about the $$$ earned from his books and Michelle being a high priced lawyer. RWNJ reply is ‘Nahhh she’s not anlawyer’ You can’t build a bridge with a lot of these people. Everything except for Brwitbart,FOX and Alex Jones are unreliable news sources for them.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Ah, Facebook, not his normal blog. I’ll have a look, thanks.
Elie
@Morzer:
Rather than thinking we took it for granted, I like to think that politics like football is about adjustments. We had them in the woods from 2006 through early Obama and then they adjusted. This win is a fluke but they will capitalize on it and hopefully over-reach. In this election we had a foreign actor which must not be allowed for the future so must be punished severely (somehow), not just on Trump but the entire party. They know it stinks and is just fraught but will ride it for as long as it can). Hopefully what is left of the Obama administration, any remaining true patriots in our government are thinking of the payback that will sting not only Putin, but hurt Trump. I would argue it should be weighed towards hurting Trump more than Putin. Somebody has the dope on his finances and encumbrances to the Russians and someone has to use it without Vaseline …. at just the right time.
Elie
@mai naem mobile:
What are you trying to say? Get to the point…
Mary Ellen Sandahl
@delk: Delk, best sympathetic wishes for you and your dog. Here’s hoping he’ll come thru this and recover well.
Elie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Seriously. You are not in tune with the culture and while in safe times that is fine — even desirable — you are blind to some things. Again, it is understandable and even desirable but we are in times where you have to dial in the enemy from time to time. I hate it, but its necessary.
LAC
@Elie: lol! Now that would be something that the comedian beating the joke to death would love. Glug glug.
Elie
@LAC:
Yeah I am done with it (at last, huh?)
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
He must have taken it down. I went to his FB page and was unable to find it (except for a couple of oblique references by commenters).
Miss Bianca
@Morzer: you know what? After you.
Why don’t *you* give up first.
Why don’t *you* give up with the “oh, the Democrats have been so complacent and Hillary sucks and REVOLUTION!!11!! is gonna happen if we all just admit that those of us who have been working for the Democratic Party for years, busting our asses in red districts, getting yelled at, getting death threats, getting steamrolled on our issues and still coming up punching – those of us who have come, bitterly, regretfully, to the realization that people may say they like liberal ideas but all they have to hear from the other side is, “oh, your taxes are going to go up” and they just lose it – those of us who have come bitterly, regretfully, to the conclusion that for most white people, Whitenuss trumps Liberty and Justice For All when push comes to shove, and that white “radicals” are going to be only too ready to make excuses for it- are just a bunch of big ol’ neoliberal LOOOSERS.”
Just fucking stop. Who’s this “we” who’s been going around feeling righteous? “We” and “you and I” are not the same.
Honestly, take *your* righteousness and just…cram it. As the old song says, “before you ‘cuse me, take a look at yourself”.
Then, maybe I’ll listen to you. But certanly not till then.
Elie
@mai naem mobile:
I have no idea what you were trying to say but I think it has to do with perceptions of the Obamas as truly being elitists. As I have said in previous comments, we have to be very wary of how our people are being characterized —especially for the purposes of demoralizing us and sowing conflict. Truth gets mixed with untruth and we can become unaware carriers of a disease that will destroy us. The next thing you will hear is that Obama has gold plated toilets and Michele has slaves who paint her toe nails all day. We have to be much more critical and strategic about the information and disinformation we hear about. They will probably try to destroy Obama’s reputation right along with his legacy…
Elie
@Miss Bianca:
Preach it, sister. Preach
SiubhanDuinne
@Elie:
Well, that’s why (one reason) I follow Balloon Juice (also Digby, BooMan, etc.) pretty closely, click on just about all the newsworthy links, and track down any other news or comments of interest. Before long, I’ll be led to the NYT or WaPo or CNN or Guardian or more disreputable sites, and one way or another I end up feeling pretty well informed. But there’s no compelling reason for me to watch either the morning newsertainment shows or the broadcast evening news shows or much of anything on cable. Can always stream the internet if there’s something really crucial breaking. (And I do still listen to NPR, although with a more jaundiced ear than previously.)
tybee
@Phylllis: the wife swears by that “cure”.
Elie
@SiubhanDuinne:
I understand… I frankly haven’t listened to CNN since the election and never took in Fox news for anything. MSNBC either and very jaundiced and limited NPR listening. I do still read both WAPO and NYT — carefully. Then there is BJ and other sites. I expect those to be under attack at some point — but subtly (I know I am starting to sound crazy but I am past alarmed at what has been shaping up)
EBT
@Pogonip: Most animals don’t actually directly address specific members or beings. Only dolphins, and a few other species including Egyptian fruit bats do more than make broad communications.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elie:
Right. I am nervous about cradling myself in an epistemic bubble, for fear of ending up totally un- or mis-informed, but I see no advantage to watching any Fox at all, or much of CNN or MSNBC.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
Seconded.
Mnemosyne
@Elie:
Here’s the problem, though — the same people who complain about the Obamas being “elitists” just voted for a guy who actually has a gold-plated toilet.
The complaint isn’t really that the Obamas are “elitists.” It’s that they’re uppity. We can’t lose sight of that and start criticizing our folks for not living in poverty when the new head Republican is the ultimate elitist.
mai naem mobile
@Elie: you’re talking about building bridges before pressing the reply button (tbh I reread your comment after I wrote mine and I’m not sure you’re talking about bridges with BernieBros or RWNJs) and I don’t think you can build bridges wit RWNJs when they live in a totally different reality.I go on twitter with good intentions but after the election I just have no patience for these people.
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
Well, let’s see. I will listen to CBS radio news for headlines, BBC news radio and podcasts, the Guardian, then LA Times, NY Times, WaPo and other newspapers, depending on the story. But I look at the byline, and whether the source is AP, Reuters or Bloomberg. I also listen to local radio station KPCC, which is public radio, but I exclude any NPR feed. I rarely read Huffington Post or network TV news.
I treat Balloon Juice as a good opinion site, not a primary news site. I don’t do Facebook at all, and rarely use Twitter for anything. On YouTube, I will look at The Young Turks stories.
There are a number of satirical news programs I will follow, including BBC programs the News Quiz and Dead Ringers, Colbert, etc.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Mnemosyne:
Ironically of course, that “ultimate elitist” is shunned by the actually elite people because he’s a crass conman.
Rob
@Betty Cracker: It has a yellower and shorter/thicker bill than Tricolors, as well as the white cap, black through the eye, and white on the chin that adult Great Blues have.