Instead of rehashing the 2016 Democratic Party primary for the millionth goddamned time or arguing counterfactuals based on an election outcome in another country, how about looking at this lovely giant swallowtail butterfly that briefly graced a bamboo tree in my yard?
Open thread, except for the aforementioned topics, which can be engaged downstairs. C’mon, man. There’s plenty of other stuff to talk about. Weekend plans? Cooking? Pets? Irritating bosses? Read any good books lately? Anything except you-know-what. Don’t make me come down there!
clay
How about this: Who would win in a drinking contest, Hillary or Bernie?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I’m making a chicken pot pie to go with the Warriors game tonight.
Actually, because I have a horrible case of the don’ wannas, I’m sitting in front of a tennis match thinking about chicken pot pie.
zhena gogolia
@clay:
HRC hands down!
O. Felix Culpa
Um, I just watered my plants and my pollinator garden is coming along nicely. Some tomato plants are thriving and others are failing for reasons unknown. I’m avoiding unpacking and putting my shit away.
I’m also avoiding the Forbidden Topics.
That wasn’t so hard. :)
JCJ
Just checking b-j to see what is going on. Is there a shit-show in a thread I should avoid?
Camembert
John Hodgman nails it:
https://mobile.twitter.com/hodgman/status/872837698029047808
Jeffro
Am I allowed to note that the “have-it-both-ways” race has begun, with Lil’ Marco leading the pack?
(If not, that’s fine…it’s a beautiful night for a Nats game. We could talk about that =)
Mike in DC
Jordan Peele is producing a tv series set in the 1930s, with people of color as protagonists. “Lovecraft Country” is just that, set in the world of Boston brahmins and unspeakable (and unpronounceable) horrors…plus the standard horrors of the time for brown folks. Sounds like an awesome show idea.
donnah
Lovely butterfly! We seldom see the large butterflies now that I remember from my childhood. We used to see many more of them; luna moths, monarchs, tiger swallowtails…but not so much anymore. I can also remember big army-green grasshoppers that were as big as an adult’s thumb, and I never see those anymore.
Anyhoo, thanks for a bright spot in the day! I will be sweltering in my kitchen this weekend, dyeing wool for rug hooking. It’s a back-breaking, sweaty job, but it has to be done!
I hope everyone has a good weekend!
rikyrah
Did Rubio trade the integrity of U.S. for a Cuba-policy shift from Trump?
BY FABIOLA SANTIAGO
It may be hard to fathom outside of Miami, but the faraway island of Cuba and Cuban-American politics could have played a role in Thursday’s historic hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Did the influential Republican senator from Miami on the committee, Marco Rubio, trade the integrity of this country for the pledge of a U.S. policy shift on Cuba from President Donald Trump? The optics — and the timing of a yet unscheduled visit by Trump to Miami to announce a rollback advocated by Rubio of President Barack Obama’s engagement policy — certainly make it seem that way.
Before Rubio’s intervention, the testimony by former FBI director James Comey had grown impressively damning to President Trump in the same manner a steady, thoughtful, and detail-oriented prosecutor builds a case.
Comey testified that, in a series of uncomfortable conversations before Trump fired him, the president had given him high praise and demanded loyalty. Trump made it known to him that he wanted the criminal investigation into National Security Adviser Michael Flynn dropped and the “cloud” of the investigation into Trump’s campaign ties to Russian interference “lifted,” Comey said.
There’s no understating the moment — it was grave.
Obstruction of justice easily came to mind — but then, it was Rubio’s turn to ask Comey questions.
Or, more like it, to turn Comey’s testimony around and ask rhetorical questions that inserted doubt into Comey’s candid revelations. Rubio shifted the attention from Trump to leaks to the media. As for information, Rubio seemed most interested in getting Comey to publicly admit that President Trump “was not personally under investigation” than in obtaining any new evidence for the Senate investigation.
It was as if Rubio — who has become a fixture at the White House and has voted to confirm all of Trump’s controversial appointments — was acting as Trump’s defense attorney instead of as member of a bipartisan committee investigating crucial national security issues.
grillo
Is that all rancors or just the one that Jabba kept in the pit?
currants
Here’s a travel question: I just got a phone that’s calls and texts only (no data nowhere nohow) for travel. It’s an unlocked GSM Dual SIM Blu Tank II. Here’s my dumb question: I can’t figure out how to get it open to put the battery in (much less the SIM card). Any tips–is there a particular (VERY THIN) tool I need?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@O. Felix Culpa: All of my tomato plants are going crazy, and some have set fruit. I’ve never seen such lush tomato growth here in San Francisco. On the other hand, my hops, cornflowers, ranunculus, and sweet peas all came up, started to grow nicely, and then withered and shriveled away – without any blooms for the latter two. They’re all in different containers/beds. I’m flummoxed (and disappointed). What could be wrong? I’ve grown all successfully for years.
cope
Plans for the weekend? Play with my new camera targeting tonight’s Strawberry Moon, bake a strawberry/rhubarb pie for my niece, make smashburgers for dinner, run a carload of trash to the county transfer station, try out my new Bevfridge beer bottle cooler in the pool, watch some more of “Long Strange Trip” on Amazon Prime, clean the side of our house visible from the street (nasty letter from the HOA), try to stay away from any sources of “news” likely to raise my BP and just in general slide into my new-found vocation of being retired. Oh yeah, still reading Sean Carroll’s new book “The Big Picture” and a book called “How the Irish Saved CIvilization” not to mention the men’s national world cup qualifier against El Tri on Sunday.
I’m sure I’m missing some stuff but that’s a pretty full plate as it is.
rikyrah
Uh huh
Uh huh
but but but…it was gonna be CRIMINALS…remember?
The Trump administration has moved to reopen hundreds of deportation cases closed under Obama
Reuters
Mica Rosenberg and Reade Levinson, Reuters
(Reuters) – In September 2014, Gilberto Velasquez, a 38-year-old house painter from El Salvador, received life-changing news: The US government had decided to shelve its deportation action against him.
The move was part of a policy change initiated by then-President Barack Obama in 2011 to pull back from deporting immigrants who had formed deep ties in the United States and whom the government considered no threat to public safety. Instead, the administration would prioritize undocumented immigrants who had committed serious crimes.
Last month, things changed again for the painter, who has lived in the United States illegally since 2005 and has a US-born child. He received news that the government wanted to put his deportation case back on the court calendar, citing another shift in priorities, this time by President Donald Trump.
The Trump administration has moved to reopen the cases of hundreds of undocumented immigrants who, like Velasquez, had been given a reprieve from deportation, according to government data and court documents reviewed by Reuters and interviews with immigration lawyers.
Trump signaled in January that he planned to dramatically widen the net of undocumented immigrants targeted for deportation, but his administration has not publicized its efforts to reopen immigration cases.
maurinsky
I’m getting a pedicure with my daughter tonight; tomorrow I’m going to roadie for a benefit concert for the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, and Sunday I send my kiddo off to Michigan for her summer job. Then it will be just me and my husband, alone in the house. Finally, we can walk around naked again.
LAO
Any Drag Race fans, here? Any guesses on the final 3 tonight? I’m going with Sasha, Shea and Peppermint. I think Shea is going to win, but I like how weird Sasha is.
maurinsky
I also have to move some leeks around in my garden and start piling dirt around them.
Bess
“come down there” ????
You’re the one at the ass-end of the country.
There’s nothing more below you but a little bit of Texas.
Brachiator
If you haven’t seen it yet, this would be a good weekend to see “Wonder Woman,” a fun movie. Theaters won’t be as crowded as during the opening weekend, and a good turnout just might push domestic gross to $200 million.
I’m having some fun with Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari, a look at what we’ve been up to over the past 70,000 years or so.
A fair description from an Amazon reviewer:
And if you missed it, the science stories of the recent discoveries that may push the emergence of homo sapiens back another 100,000 years are really fascinating.
As always, don’t tell the creationists about any of this, because they get upset over anything that disputes the idea that the Earth is more than 6,000 years old.
LAO
Another question, this time general — how stupid would it be for me to buy a new couch (puppy is currently 14 months old)? How long must I wait, she’s very destructive but not to furniture (yet?)?
rikyrah
@JCJ:
NR’s trolling behind is back.
jl
Other than stewing about how Hillary is a corporate stooge and the devil and Bernie is a Russian spy and the devil, I am happy and the weather is beautiful here on the Left Coast.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia:
Angela Merkel in a runaway. Wilmer’s choice of bile martinis would DQ him.
SatanicPanic
Get drunk, go surfing, probably surfing first.
Waratah
My beautiful tomatoes and vegetable garden was shredded last night by hail. Will the tomatoes put out again?
Chris
@rikyrah:
You gotta love it; Trump was saying that we should be very very scared about the tons of rapists and drug dealers coming over the border and someone should really do something about it, which is exactly what Obama was doing in the first place. He comes in, and his first action is to change priorities so that we’re no longer focusing on rapists and drug dealers, just anyone who crossed.
This is what passes for “keeping us safe” on the right.
(Of course, the previous “he kept us safe!” president was the guy on whose watch the worst terrorist attack in the nation’s history got through, so no surprise there).
different-church-lady
@trollhattan: I wouldn’t bet against her in a bar fight.
O. Felix Culpa
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I’m equally flummoxed. I have container plants that I’ve grown successfully for years, that are planted under the same conditions, and some are thriving while others just up and croaked. I don’t see any obvious signs of infestation or disease, so I don’t know what’s going on either.
Johannes
I’m reading the new translation of The Red Sphinx, Alexandre Dumas’s late novel, which follows the action of The Three Musketeers by weeks, but has as its hero Cardinal Richelieu.
Even late Dumas is good Dumas. The comedy is great, a character could have been written for 1970s Oliver Reed, and Richelieu is a boss.
dexwood
My pets can sometimes be irritating bosses. What, I have to feed you again? What do you mean I must open the door for you?
Dinner with friends this evening. Special screening of The Big Lebowski tomorrow evening with Jeff Bridges and T Bone Burnett present to speak and answer questions. These tickets are a really hot item I scored two months ago.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes
You get to a dinner party where there are two tables for five, one empty chair at each.
The first table has Bernie, Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader and Bill Clinton already seated. Table two is occupied by Hillary Clinton, Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump and Mark Halperin.
Which table do you sit at?
Chris
@grillo:
An African rancor, but not a European rancor, that’s my point.
gratuitous
I’m reading Vincent LoBrutto’s biography of Stanley Kubrick. If you’re a photography buff sort of person, and particularly if you remember a time when cameras contained this substance called “film,” I recommend it to your attention. It’s also a good book for folks who enjoy Kubrick’s movies, though it was published in 1997, before Kubrick’s death and before he made the baffling “Eyes Wide Shut,” which I’m still trying to get to like.
Humorous anecdote: After Kubrick had moved to England (where he had to brook less studio interference), he developed a troublesome tooth. He didn’t trust English dentists, and his assistant arranged to have his New York dentist flown over to Old Blighty. They had to set up a dentist office in the American embassy for the dentist to legally treat Kubrick on what would technically be American soil.
O. Felix Culpa
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes: With Hillary. Because she’s awesome and we could play drinking games together. Plus point and make fun at the rest of the guys.
Wait – is this a trick question?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes
@LAO:
Mind bogglingly stupid until the pup is at least 4.
amk
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes: you would not be invited to both tables.
raven
The guy across the street is being evicted right now. I feel so bad for his little girl.
KithKanan
@currants: This video might help?
germy
On 5 October 1888 Sir Arthur Sullivan attended a “Phonographic Dinner” given by George Gouraud at his London home, after which the guests were invited to record messages for Thomas Edison, inventor of the phonograph, furthering Edison’s idea that his new machine would become a replacement for written mail.
Sir Arthur Sullivan’s message begins at 0:13, after an introduction by Edmund Yates. This is what he said:
HeleninEire
Books I’m reading? Just finished David Sedaris’ “Theft by Finding” Very good. Just started a Stephen King short story collection. Can’t remember the name of the book (he has a number of short story collections). But the first story was titled “Autopsy Room Four” Scared the shit out of me. Which I guess was King’s point.
amk
who is more stupid, twitler or his lawyer?
Immanentize
@raven: So sorry, Raven. It must be hard to have tried but not succeeded over there. Good luck to the sweet little urchin.
Yoda Dog
@Waratah: after a bottle of malbec and some mood music, sure.. (looks around warily..) or so I’ve heard…
LAO
@amk: Don’t make me to choose. Both?
ETA: to add a word that I left out since without it, my answer made less sense than I usually do.
Miss Bianca
Aw, pretty…and in honor of your photo…The Swallowtail Jig!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZxAVUsuE4Y
With a side dish of “The Butterfly”, as played by the inimitable Kevin Burke.
NR
@rikyrah: I love that fact-based discussions are considered “trolling” around here.
eclare
@LAO: I have a nine year old dog who is still destructive…
Yoda Dog
@HeleninEire: Good luck with your interview!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes
@amk:
Kasowitz is no Bruce Cutler, that’s for sure.
germy
Reading “Fraud” by David Rakoff.
O. Felix Culpa
Troll. Don’t feed. Etc.
HeleninEire
@Yoda Dog: Thanks
LAO
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes: Bruce Cutler’s reputation never matched his actual skill level. In other words, Bruce Cutler is no Bruce Cutler.
hueyplong
@Brachiator: I am also reading Sapiens.
delk
What a difference a day makes!
Yesterday I met with a whole slew of doctors and completely changed up my drug regimen. With just one day I feel remarkably better. Hopefully with a little bit of fine tuning I’ll feel human again. The last couple of months I have felt like I have been hit by a bus.
efgoldman
BOSTON AREA JUICERS! COME DOWN TO FANEUIL HALL TOMORROW and join me for the Boston Festival of Bands.
Going to the Pride March? Come down to Faneuil Hall afterwards. We’ll be there all day with a new concert band every hour from 1100am to 500pm (event ends at 600pm)
The hall is upstairs above the shops. Stairway in the entrance directly across from Quincy Market. Elevator entrance on the left side of the building.
Come listen and say hello.
Keith P.
Ooh, President Trump will be taking TWO American questions at a press conference. Does Trump have the balls to have them come from Jeff Gannon and Jeff Guckert? I bet the questions suck.
jl
A short video in honor of the AHCA
Monty Python – Motor Insurance sketch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO2R_DDZPCM
germy
Glenne Headly, star of films like Dick Tracy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Mr. Holland’s Opus, died Thursday night at the age of 63.
R.I.P.
hovercraft
Office Of Special Counsel: Trump’s Social Media Director Violated Hatch Act
President Donald Trump’s official social media director was found to have violated the Hatch Act on Friday, for invoking his White House position while engaging in a political attack, the Office of Special Counsel wrote Friday.
In a tweet on April 1, White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino urged the constituents of Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) to vote him out of office.
…………..The Office of Special Counsel agreed: Scavino, it said, “violated the Hatch Act.”
“Specifically, you alleged on April 1, 2017, Mr. Scavino, while invoking his official position at the White House posted a tweet calling for the defeat of Representative Justin Amash in a primary election,” chief of the Hatch Act Unit, Ana Galindo-Marrone, wrote to CREW.
Galindo-Marrone added that Scavino had been warned, and that her office would consider such activity in the future “willful and knowing violation of the law.”
Can someone please explain to these assholes that the Federal Government is not their personal vengeance/ATM machine.
amk
when even pox news polls sez this …
Miss Bianca
@LAO: at least another year. Maybe five. ; )
Immanentize
@efgoldman: I think I will come! I thought after last year you vowed never to do this again? I am glad I either miss-remembered or you changed your mind.
Miss Bianca
@Johannes: Ooh! Never heard of “The Red Sphinx”, and I’m saying this as a Dumas fan for whom “The Three Musketeers” is a desert-island read! Which new translation is this?
Citizen_X
@Mike in DC: Oh, that’s awesome! Good way to flip HPL’s bigotry, and still keep his fervid horror and imagination.
trollhattan
@LAO: Depends partly on breed and the individual dog but I’d say two years is the minimum and can go up from there. An active but housebound dog, maybe never.
p.s. We have a 13 MO pup and it’s definitely not time for furniture shopping.
O. Felix Culpa
@germy: Oh no. I remember seeing her, John Malkovich, and Gary Sinise at the Steppenwolf Theater, back when the world was young. A lot of talent in that troupe.
raven
@Immanentize: I hope she isn’t there right now, they have cops and a pest control truck.
Immanentize
@LAO: @Miss Bianca:
Depends on what direction she is destructive? Sometimes pets just pick a particular object of attack and leave other stuff alone. My cat is all about the rugs, but leaves every bit of furniture alone. But my friend’s dog. Pluto, chews wood even if it is a chair leg or kitchen island. But the couches are fine.
ruemara
@rikyrah: Mike Gruenwald did a series of tweets of people he met and talked to during the primaries about who they would vote for and I recall two laughing latino guys in their 20’s saying both side were the same so they were voting for Trump for lulz since it didn’t matter and he was funnier.
I sincerely hope they lose friends and family, like all the people they’ve put in danger.
grrljock
We went to see “Wonder Woman” on Wednesday, as I consider it my semi-radical lesbian duty to contribute to its box office receipts. Went with summer superhero expectations, came a way liking it, but wishing we could just stay on Themyscira and sign up to General Antiope’s training program. Grateful for Patty Jenkins’ female gaze direction, Gal Gadot’s charm, and Chris Pine’s ease at being the sidekick (this particular Chris must be doing something right with his part in this movie and Ava DuVernay’s “Wrinkle in Time”), Go see it y’all!
germy
@Citizen_X: Lovecraft Country is a great novel by Matt Ruff. I’m glad Jordan Peele is adapting it.
Immanentize
@raven: That is really sad. And evictions in Georgia are notoriously “thorough.” Is there any way to stay in tune with the kid? Not necessarily in touch — just tracking?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t know this outfit, and I think the odds are still at best even, but here’s some good cheer
LAO
@Immanentize: How’s your wife feeling? How are you doing? I hope all is progressing well with her chemo.
In professional news that you’d appreciate, my law partner convinced the 2d Circuit to reverse and remand a drug and murder conviction because the district court improperly admitted hearsay evidence. (To suggest he wasn’t stunned, would be an understatement).
To all those who maybe concerned — I’m quite confident that the defendant will be convicted again at re-trial, only this time maybe the government won’t cheat.
Elizabelle
@raven: What an awful situation for that little kid. Can you maintain any kind of relationship with her, or steer her to a good mentor.
It’s awful to see little kids with promise and have the adults in their life squander it.
What does mrs. raven think?
Chris
@ruemara:
The one time I got cussed out while canvassing for the Dems, it was by an immigrant who, based on appearance and thick accent, is most definitely on Trump’s watch list by now. (Being cussed out for being a public nuisance would be one thing, but it was specifically because, as he proudly said, “we are Republicans!”) I kind of feel the same way about him.
hovercraft
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes:
Table two, girls need to stick together, and I spent many a miserable dinner being politely obnoxious when my Dada was an ambassador and they forced me to attend the snooze fests. Hillary and I could take turns skewering Twitler and he’d never even know that he was being insulted. I’d need shots before hand of course. Rush is like Twitler, a coward and he starts stuttering when engaged by someone he can’t hang up on, Halpern would be my biggest challenge, not stabbing him with my fork would require all my self control.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If he wins, I intend to laugh my Ossoff.
Tenar Arha
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes: A decade and a half or more ago I’d probably pick Bill’s table, but now I’d sit next to Hillary, ask her if she had some good Mae West type stories to share, and ignore those other guys when they wondered what we we laughing at.
ruemara
@LAO: How To Behave So Your Dog Behaves or Perfect Puppy in 7 Days. There’s ways to redirect the destruction. Tethering, toys, especially food toys, extra playtime, crate training. You can have the sofa, it just takes a little work.
HeleninEire
@germy: When I need a really good cry I open up a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and fire up Mr. Holland’s Opus.
Stop judging me, y’all.
jl
@Keith P.:
” President Trump will be taking TWO American questions at a press conference. ”
Please tell us how total your vindication was yesterday when former FBI director Comey swore that you were, are, and will be, innocent of everything forever. Thank you in advance.
Please tell how the unconstitutional schmuck Comey is a total liar and scummy fink for ratting you out by revealing classified confidential secret society Trump conversations (c) and he is now illegal, your Excellency and my beloved Commander in Chief.of all real Americans.
hovercraft
@amk:
Twitler, because he’s the moron paying the other moron fifteen hundred dollars an hour.
Major Major Major Major
This weekend I’m going to work on my book and my comic, and try out some new Chinese recipes from the book we got. Don’t know which yet, something with meat and nuts, fish if we’re ambitious.
The character whose passage I’m working on right now in my book is just feeing the liberation of not having an irritating boss for the first time in his young life, his sushi apprenticeship having just ended. The main character in my comic will be getting an irritating boss soon.
And of course my cat is fuzzy.
Man, you really accidentally listed all my weekend plans.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hovercraft: has the retainer check has cleared?
LAO
Thanks for all the couch advice — I’m going to wait. She part beagle, part pit bull and although she is not destructive of furniture, she is a natural born destroyer of everything else. (her toys, shoes, dog beds, blankets, pillows, all things paper and hard plastic)
amk
@hovercraft: There you go.
ruemara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes: Dude. Only HRC is worth braving the company.
@raven: I’m sorry, Raven. Losing your home is never easy. It’s worse for a kid. It might be nice to tell her to shoot you an email if she needs an adult to talk to.
Miss Bianca
@Immanentize: Luna the Wonder Husky was a terror about almost anything that caught her fancy if she was left alone in the house and bored (and don’t speak to me about crates – she managed to *escape* her crate and run riot, shredding her blankie-pillow and chewing the couch, the one time I was injudicious enough to leave her crated alone in the house – now the crate is a purely ceremonial hidey-hole and never shut on her), but with particular emphasis on…my shoes. I don’t have one pair of unchewed sandals left, and the dress-blacks I got from the army surplus store for my step-dancing shoes are…altered in interesting ways. She’s five now. :)
O. Felix Culpa
@hovercraft: Paying? Since when does Twitler pay the help?
Omnes Omnibus
@HeleninEire:
No.
Immanentize
@LAO:
I read that and I’m stunned — for an 803 violation? It must have been one critical piece of hearsay! I tell my evidence students that hearsay objection have to be fought out and won at trial because they almost never win on appeal. Here is the exception that proves the rule. Congrats to your partner.
On the other front — thanks for asking. She is in the middle of her cycle, so she is exhausted but not debilitated — still working mostly from home. Two more three week cycles (starting next Friday) and then another PET scan. The chemo is so brutal, but maybe working some. Oof.
LurkerNoLonger
@jl: Question one: “Your presidency has the momentum of a runaway freight train. Why are you so popular?”
Question two: “I love you.”
LAO
@Miss Bianca:
LOL — in my home, the crate (which Maggie never voluntarily entered) is the place where I put things I don’t want her to chew. Nothing, but nothing, will voluntarily get her into her crate.
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He’s his long term lawyer, apparently he actually pays him and Steve “Says Who” Cohen, the rest not so much.
The other night Rachel told the story of him hiring a lawyer to defend him against some contractors who sued him for non payment, who then had to turn around and sue him for not paying them, based on the case, you’d think they would’ve demanded payment up front.
Immanentize
@Miss Bianca: I love Huskies — especially Wonder Huskies! I went to Northeastern U. (Montessori Law School) so I am a version of a Husky myself. Shoes are just another leather chew toy to some….
jacy
I’ve had this odd and very unsettling feeling for the last week, and finally figured out what it is — I think it’s contentment. It’s lovely here — not too hot yet, and not raining. Threw out some old junk and put together a list of projects to do to improve the homestead. One kid is off on his first big adventure in Chicago, and the youngest is finishing up a week at cooking camp in New Orleans where he had a blast, and now promises to make me chocolate mousse next week. And my daughter has an interview for a teaching job at a school she’s been waiting to get into, which would make a huge difference in her life, so if anybody has any good thoughts to spare, toss them her way!
Ruckus
@JCJ:
Probably late to this:
All of them Katie.
hovercraft
@Immanentize:
Best of luck to you and your wife, sending positive thoughts your way.
Starfish
@currants: It’s usually something that looks like a guitar pick but maybe slightly more sturdy. You can usually find “how to” videos on youtube for your phone and how to tear it apart.
LAO
@Immanentize: My fingers remained crossed — hopefully these next few weeks won’t be so terrible for her.
The decision was published on the 6th on the Circuit’s website — it’s basically a 41 page decision on what is and what isn’t harmless error; because even though the evidence against the defendant was overwhelming — the hearsay was too toxic for the Court to ignore.
efgoldman
@Immanentize:
Someday we plan to move to the DC area to be near our kids. At that point I will give it up. OTOH, we’ve been associated with MetWinds (the sponsoring band) for ~40 years, so we’ll see. (in the days before they could afford fancy printed programs, I did live announcing for every concert).
Johannes
@Miss Bianca: It’s a 2016 translation by Lawrence Ellsworth that takes a little known late novel, and adds the novella that wraps its story up. More here.
I’m a fan of all of Dumas (OK, except Cinq-Mars, which I haven’t read) but especially of the Musketeer Cycle or D’Artagnan Romances as they’re sometimes called. This is a fun from-the-other-side look at the semi-baddies of the earlier novel (Richelieu, Louis XIII).
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
That sounds like a very, very good reason to tell them.
Uncle Cosmo
@currants: Looks like the link at #39 answers the call (so to speak)…but I’m curious as to why you’d want what is essentially a dumb phone with a second SIM slot. No use for a GPS or translation software or chapter-by-chapter on-demand downloads of travel guides or e-mail or browsing or games or anything else?
(FWIW I hope you have better luck with the Tank II than I’ve had with my “smart” BLU Studio X Plus, which I obtained because it had 2 SIM slots but has been a fustercluck of ipecac proportions.)
Miss Bianca
@LAO: Oh, that is funny! Luna will crate herself when she is feeling threatened – like when I want to give her blowy-outy coat a good brushing, for example! – but her latest spots for crashing are in front of the upstairs couch (the DVD-watching spot), and lately, curled up by the toilet in the upstairs bathroom. That’s her new sleeping spot – she’ll start in the crate, but now invariably by the time I get up for my first nightly pee, there’s a Husky Bagel in the bathroom.
@Immanentize: Huskies are the best. Thanks for the update on Mrs. Immanetize.
raven
@Immanentize: I can’t imagine they are going to be able to find somewhere to lie in our school district. He’s become a pariah with many of the teachers and parents because of his actions. Lots of people have tried to help but, in the end, bailed out. It’s unhappy all around.
Ruckus
@Johannes:
Welcome to climate change? Even subtle changes can effect some plants, weather patterns, over all temperature changes of small amounts, pollution changes from climate change……….
JeanneT
If you ever want to change that, check out the video Crate Games by Susan Garrett (I bought mine from Dogwise.com). I used her basic techniques with some of my private dog training students and it was AMAZING how fast most dogs decided that their crates were fabulous places.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
TBH more than a Democratic House seat pickup I’d love to see the vile Handel repudiated and her political career spiked. Fingers crossed.
Johannes
@Ruckus: But surely not the novels of Dumas?
rikyrah
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes:
the table with Hillary.
Ruckus
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes:
Table 2. I’d get to ignore dumpf and useless mouths and have a nice conversation with Hillary. And if they wouldn’t take the ignore hint I could tell them to fuck off.
LAO
@JeanneT: A serious response — I was working with a trainer, it was her opinion that something very traumatic had happened to Maggie prior to her rescue and adoption because her reaction to the crate was very over the top. We did get her settle there, and I used it for 6 months when I wasn’t home. But once I grew more confident in her and was able to gate an appropriate space, I started leaving her out of the crate. She has been much better behaved (TILL YESTERDAY) and she has always preferred under the couch as her safe space.
Betty Cracker
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes:
I would sit at Hillary’s table and order Limbaugh, Trump and Halperin to swap seats with Bernie, Bill and Dennis. They would not refuse me.
AliceBlue
I’ve read a number of good books so far this year, but if I had to recommend just one, it would be “The Blood of Emmett Till” by Timothy Tyson.
HeleninEire–the collection you’re reading is “Everything’s Eventual” and you’re in for some treats, especially “The Road Virus Heads North” and “Riding the Bullet” (my favorite).
raven
@raven: live
Ruckus
@delk:
I’ve had that. The medicine may help something but the side effects can be so annoying that you’d rather have the original issue back. I had one that on the second day after stopping it, it was like someone turned the lights back on. It brightened up noticeably, everything wasn’t some shade of gray. Yeah the pain is back but life is still better.
Brachiator
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes:
Is this a trick question? First table. It would be far more fun. The only person worth talking to at the second table would be HRC.
Bruce K
@currants: I checked for the manual for that phone on Teh Intarweebs (copyright John Scalzi) and it says the cover’s just supposed to slide off. You may have to push down to undo a catch or two; I don’t know.
(My search terms were “Blu Tank II manual”; I’d post the link, but I’m afraid of the auto-moderator.)
bemused
We bought new garden hoses and I was appalled when I hosed water into a pail. The water was sudzing and smelled odd, like rubber. Even running water for a long time, it still didn’t look or smell “right”.
So I learned there are hoses made that are “drinking water safe”. I’ve just started asking friends if they are aware of this because we weren’t. We went back to our old hoses because we fill our dogs water pail with hose and grow vegetables. I don’t even want to water my flowers and shrubs with the new hoses. I have no idea what brand of hoses we should look into for safe water yet but the new hoses just freaked me out.
Ruckus
@hovercraft:
That lawyer is a moron. Working for drumpf for only $1500/hr? That hardly sounds like enough. Four or five times that, with a no return retainer of $250,000. To take the first call. Maybe And that’s pushing the lower limit. Hard.
Miss Bianca
Speaking of reading…I am in the middle of William Shatner’s new collection, “Spirit of the Horse”, which is essentially a bunch of fact and fiction pieces about horses thru’ the ages, interspersed with his own tales about horses he’s known and loved. Since my attention span for reading appears to have become distressingly limited all of a sudden (not sure whether this is a function of age or general bizzyness or both), a book full of short pieces is right up my alley right now.
Anyway, as someone obsessed with both horses and politics, I thought this observation of Shatner’s was interesting, upon the relation between horsemanship and leadership, and how the decline of the former, in his opinion, has led to a decline in the quality of the latter:
satby
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: been having the don’t wannas for the last three days. But I did manage laundry and mowing the grass today.
trollhattan
@bemused:
Learned of this when we got a camper van and needed a hose to fill the water tank. RV places sell such hoses, which have non-reactive and I suppose food-grade linings.
Gravenstone
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes: Slowly and carefully strangle anyone not Clinton, then sit wherever I damn please.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
LOL
Somehow I believe you!
satby
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes:
Neither, I commit seppuku.
cope
@bemused: I bought a “drinking safe” water hose from the auto supply department in (shudders) Walmart for the athletic training room at the high school where I used to teach and coach.
Uncle Cosmo
Two festivals here in Bawlmer this weekend: the Honfest (think Hairspray) on the Avenue in Hampden, & St. Nicholas’ Greek Orthodox Church festival in the southeastern corner of the city. The former for ambiance, the latter for vittles & dancing.
Mike in NC
Last night we watched “War Machine” on Netflix. Good black comedy about our endless nation-building effort in Afghanistan, starring Bad Pitt as a narcissistic four star general.
Ruckus
@Miss Bianca:
That’s a great thing he wrote.
As a culture we are trying to learn to blend in in all the wrong ways. Rather than open up the concept of belonging, we are closing down the width of acceptance.
Major Major Major Major
@Gravenstone: Might take a while for Limbaugh, you’d need one of them Jabba slave chains.
MomSense
@LAO:
Do you supervise puppy every minute and crate puppy when you are not there? If yes and yes then yes.
If no and no then definitely no.
I speak from experience.
Karen
Yesterday, I finally potted up all my tomato seedlings and set them out in yard; we had frost the other morning and am hoping that was the end of it. I lost the first batch to freeze, am not sure if some of berry bushes will come back or if they have been killed. Renting so doing garden in pots, the only two things doing good are bearded iris and wild strawberries.
Mnemosyne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes:
I sit with Hillary so the assholes get pissed that they have to talk to two women at the same table.
And then I proceed to fling food at them throughout the entire meal while Hillary high-fives me.
MomSense
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes:
Do I have throwing knives?
SgrAstar
I just finished the Liu Cixin’s riveting trilogy about alien contact, The Three Body Problem. Thought provoking and unnerving. Also too, Hugo Award winner. Dark Forest hypothesis…brrrrrr.
LAO
@MomSense: I have been talked out of a new couch for now.
trollhattan
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes:
Is Mrs. Kucinich there? ’cause I’m sitting next to her.
LAO
@Mnemosyne:
To date, this is my favorite response.
Karen
@Brachiator: I still like the theory that this is/was a prison planet that undesirables were banished to; since every that supports humans appears to be about same age.
someone suggested that “Seven Daughters of Eve” actually supports that theory; I don’t remember where I heard or read that, have continued to learn since college back in early 70’s and my first hard drive, filing cabinets are all in storage shed the one in back of mind
efgoldman
@hovercraft:
He’s strictly civil litigation the Hair Furor way, right? He might find criminal defense against the federal government another thing altogether.
Quinerly
Still pissed with Poco. Still repairing basement damage. Now that has evolved in cleaning out the basement. Took a break from the dust to spray black wrought iron chairs. Listening to Mark Knopfler (very wise man!❤) and trying to stay away from all things politics. Kicked my broken two year old pressure washer. That helped…me not it.
Karen
@gratuitous: I still hate “Eyes Wide Shut” but that might be biased by my opinion of Cruise
Quinerly
@efgoldman:
I think he has also handled all of Trump’s divorces.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
The fact that they found them with evidence of tools and fire use shouldn’t necessarily change where humans first emerged since that’s decent evidence that they were already pretty advanced and could well have migrated there.
There have apparently been some anomalous human fossils found in California that put the original dates of the land-bridge theory in doubt because they’re older than when scientists were estimating humans first came across the land-bridge from Asia.
Karen
@HeleninEire: did you read the interview with King? he said that the horror in Oval Office is worse than anything he could have imagine, because this is real life and not fiction
Miss Bianca
@Johannes: thanks for the info, I will add it to my list!
@Ruckus: the other great quote by Shatner I’m digging right now, because it just so sums up the “Why We Do This” for the non-horse-mad:
MomSense
@Quinerly:
Sorry about Poco. Do you crate him when you are gone?
Karen
@LAO: I have my pit bull trained to only attack her rope, when I got my first dog at age of 12 my dad sent both of us to training. I have never had any problems with puppies, rehomed, rescued dogs, or just new; but it takes work housebreaking puppy is easy compared to getting through the chewing stage. I can say one thing, dogs are so much easier than children.
bemused
@trollhattan:
@cope:
Thx for the info. My husband bought 2 sets of hoses from Home Depot and 2 from Menards. Two for house front tap and other two for back of house. (We have a big yard.) One pair did say drinking water safe on label but it didn’t look much different coming out of the not safe for drinking hoses. I think I need to do some research to find out what brands are actually as safe as the companies claim.
PaulWartenberg
An old friend from high school has an extra U2 ticket for Tampa because her family’s unable to go. She is letting me buy it for face value (plus fees).
I’ve taken care of a few things writing-wise that is clearing up my cluttered mind, I hope this means I can move forward on more writing.
If you’re playing Pokemon Go, starting June 13th they will host a special event that will spawn more Fire/Ice Pokemon… which may mean an uptick in Charmanders!
MomSense
@PaulWartenberg:
Cha cha charmander!
gratuitous
@Karen: One of the things I liked about Eyes Wide Shut is that Kubrick got Cruise to play someone who isn’t 100% sure about everything he says, thinks, and does. But LoBrutto’s biography definitely has me wanting to watch my 2001 and Paths of Glory DVDs again.
rikyrah
@gratuitous:
not a Kubrick fan.
hovercraft
@efgoldman:
Yup, he was the superstar that won that case in front of that biased Mexican Judge Curiel, he did great with that one, his client only had to pay out 25 million. He’s a superstar, as his error ridden statement yesterday shows.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Well, these finds, along with discoveries in South Africa, certainly complicates the idea that early modern humans “originated” in East Africa. It also complicates ideas about how long it might have taken early modern humans to radiate all over Africa. These discoveries also make it easy to imagine that a group of humans might have moved from North Africa into Europe earlier than scientists currently think.
But this stuff is exciting because it suggests that more and more sites need to be considered for the search of human fossils. I love it that my original books on human evolution have more and more chapters that are totally out of date and need to be re-written.
Very true. Of course the dates of these migrations are hundreds of thousands of years later than the finds now being evaluated.
DougJ
Corbyn proves Bernie would have won
Mnemosyne
@gratuitous:
I am not a Cruise fan, but he was able to take those lessons and be a better actor in films like Minority Report and Edge of Tomorrow.
Mnemosyne
@DougJ:
Do you have it in music video form?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@PaulWartenberg: Does that mean you get to see The Lumineers open? I would love to see them!
Origuy
A friend of mine reviewed a new book on American history. Autumn of the Black Snake by William Hoagland is about a war you’ve probably never heard of. George Washington sent General “Mad” Anthony Wayne to fight a combined force of Native Americans over the Ohio Territory.
I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my list.
Karen
@gratuitous: haven’t been in mood for biographies, with all the shit in news (no tv, wasn’t worth the cost of satellite or cable when have internet) have been rereading paranormal romances. I have Noah Chomsky’s latest and a couple on wish list with B&N but there is only so much a person can handle.
Will put book suggested on wish list; live in middle of nowhere when it comes to books.
Karen
@Brachiator: when I was still living in WI there was small story about well digging company that found “primitive” toys 125 feet down. It was considered a hoax, since that would have put the toys in area before the last ice age in midwest.
Karen
@gratuitous: my first camera came with light meter and book on F stop settings
Karen
@Brachiator: oh, did you see the piece the other day; they found Roman sword and other tools in north america that “prove” that Roman’s explored new world at same time they were conquering British Isle?
germy
@DougJ: Corbyn proves Bernie would have won
Karen
For anyone have gardening problems this year, I remembered something my great grandmother told me that weather, soil and water help nourish plants they are also sensitive to emotions of people. She firmly and strongly believed that, and if the past 60 years of growing plants have taught me anything it is that she was correct.
what makes it even better? scientists have now “proven” that trees talk to each other, that plants are all connected in some way
Brachiator
@Karen:
No, I didn’t know about this. Doesn’t sound like much in the way of organized colonization, but I would not surprise me.
germy
@Brachiator: The roman sword theory has some folks skeptical.
http://www.andywhiteanthropology.com/blog/blade-anomalies-99-bust-the-myth-of-the-roman-sword-from-nova-scotia
Karen
@Waratah: tomatoes put out? okay, done laughing and rolling on floor; you have enough time to start over; plants want to finish life cycle. You can either try trimming back all the damaged or starting over. If you start over I suggest heirlooms, they are more forgiving and seem to recover when others won’t
Karen
@germy: http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/roman-sword-discovered-oak-island-radically-suggests-ancient-mariners-020663
Karen
@Brachiator: have you read “1421, the year China Discovered American”
Brachiator
@Karen:
Read reviews, but not the book itself. I should probably throw it on my “to read” list.
Origuy
@Karen: OMG, the amount of bogus archaeology on that site! Did Wozizname Discover the Ark of the Covenant in Ohio?
And here’s a collection of responses to Gavin Mezies and 1421: http://www.1421exposed.com/
Camembert
@Brachiator: It’s been fairly well established that a few folks made it back and forth reasonably regularly. Basque fishing grounds outside Newfoundland, Roman and Chinese coins in South America, some linguistic clues here and there. The big issue is that it was just a little too far and a little too not worth trading regularly until the combination of specific Euro navigation tech and Spanish rapaciousness lead to long-term conquest and settlement.
Karen
@Origuy: @Origuy: it is like anything else, you have got to pay attention to the gems and throw away the garbage. I have found a few good things, but I totally remember what I was taught that everyone who publishes does so in their own best interests. dogs, alive; some publish shit and some actually have a clue. I didn’t believe the theory of pyramids in North America, then I saw the findings of lake fished in. The local fish “club” sprang for money to have lake bottom mapped after claims of “Atlantis In American” we knew based on fishing there was something in middle of lake. So Rock Lake WIsconsin has a pyramid, but that has been a lake since the end of last ice age.
So I have always tried to have an open mind about anything doing with archeology. There are too many questions and not enough answers, my problem is knowing there should be answers. We know only so much, every time a place is conquered the victors rewrite history. I have doubted since I was a child and was told that the ark landed in Turkey and the highest mountain was in Himalayas
BruceFromOhio
Drinking beer the brew crew crafted five weeks ago and bottled last week. Burping from mondo awesome ribs from the corner rib shop. Surfing for happenings in St. Louis on Sunday, and I think I scored: a Mississippi River cruise on Sunday afternoon sponsored by a local craft brewery, featuring local pickers. I do believe I have found my diversion. And probably more ribs and beer from the local instance of the Flying Saucer. Our way of governing may be vertically fornicated, but Gaia-dammit, I’m going down drinking and eating.
BruceFromOhio
@DougJ: Cats in a handbag, you are such a dick sometimes.
BruceFromOhio
@Mnemosyne: Edge of Tomorrow is like a sci-fi version of Groundhog Day. And Cruise played it with humility, which could not have been easy. Also had a great Bill Paxton role as the drill sergeant, Gaia rest his bones.
Nancy
@maurinsky: One of the great parts of empty nesthood. Sad friends facing college and summer camp for the first time are always a bit shocked when I tell them.
rmthunter
Nice butterfly. Haven’t seen many here in Chicago — yet. They’ll show up.
As for the rest, we’re promised a Florida-style heat wave over the next week or so — highs in the lower 90s through Wednesday, then “moderating” to the upper 80s. I’ll be spending a lot of time in the park — along with most of the rest of the city. We still have things blooming — peonies and roses, mostly, but the Siberian and Japanese irises are going strong, and of course, the wildflowers around the wildlife sanctuaries.
And it’s cooler near the lake.
J R in WV
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo fka Edmund Dantes:
Leave, Now!!!