Self-propelling garden accessories, via indefatigable commentor OpieJeanne:
Freshly shorn alpacas. We finally got to talk to the owners and were told that these two are 18 years old, refugees of a small petting zoo.
The owner said their hair is difficult to work with and this year they couldn’t find a fiber artist who wanted to work with it.
They have two new companions, two lambs: one black and one white. Running away from the scary lady taking their picture.
The alpacas’ owner says they like having chickens in their pen. The buff one is ten years old and was part of the same petting zoo as the alpacas.
***********
If I can get the Spousal Unit to help rescue the mower from the depths of the shed, today should be the first (long overdue) mowing of the season. I’ve turned as much of our lot as possible into beds & raised planters (and Himself is developing a genuine obsession with vinca as ground cover) but for dog-playground purposes, grass (or at least neatly-mowed weeds) is the lazy landscaper’s choice.
What’s on the agenda in your garden(s) this week?
OzarkHillbilly
What’s on the agenda in my garden this week? Weeding and mulching, weeding and mulching. Our weather has turned cool and less humid for the beginning of the week at least: Lows in the 50s, highs in the low 80s with northerly winds. Gonna enjoy it while it lasts. Outside of that, just gonna sit back and watch every thing grow. And I mean every thing. It’s a jungle around here. A tick infested jungle at that.
Elizabelle
Good morning. Bit of insomnia, but listening to the steady rain (a favorite sound). Having a smallish manhattan cocktail; will switch to coffee in maybe an hour or two if cannot get back to sleep.
Love the petting zoo alumni. Thanks opiejeanne.
NotMax
“Alpaca if you’ll carry-a da bags.”
/things Chico Marx never said but could as well have
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: Good morning there. Central VA gonna see a break from heat this week too; rain is going to cool us down.
Your wife and son are recovering nicely from their vehicle-related mishaps?
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: Coming along. She still whines…. I mean, complains about the pain in her shoulder but is totes excited about her all but new Ford Escape. The boy is slowly but surely progressing. Got off the crutches once and for all 2-3 wks ago, is now working a sit down job as he can’t stand on his leg/walk around for extended periods of time w/o a lot of pain.
Dog Dawg Damn
Been on Twitter too much lately, but really starting to think Identity Politics *is* actually out of control.
Everything is “Asexuals aren’t CISHET!” & “White people are racists!” & “Men are Trash!”
I’m wondering if the human flaw is being incapable of understanding that group characteristics don’t translate to individual, and vice versa, on a scale of billions.
OzarkHillbilly
Had enough trump? Follow this hedgehog’s lead and chill out.
via Jessica Valenti.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: Good to hear.
Baud
@Dog Dawg Damn:
Maybe you should stop posting such comments then. ;-)
Seriously, there are probably crap comments on Twitter for all the non-identity politics too.
Plus, remember the bots try to create division. They aren’t all just anti-Dem.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
The ‘ambient channel’ of Amazon Prime includes lots of mutli-hour entries of rain sounds (among other offerings). There’s a 9 hour long one which includes soft distant thunder which will put on once in a while and helps a bit to shift the mind out of overdrive. Advertised as including a special dark screen so the glow from the TV doesn’t interfere with sleep.
I do set the sleep timer on the TV so the audio will shut off, don’t need to listen to the full 9 hours.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: Thank you. Coincidentally, I just used Amazon Prime video first time yesterday — starting in on the Bosch series. Will check out the ambient rain sounds. (And you would be a connoisseur, living in Hawaii. I remember the climate.)
Weirdly, putting on Forensic Files on youtube puts me to sleep easily. It’s the calm narration. I do not dream of serial killers, surface transfer, or hair and fibers.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle:
You are one straaaaaange lady.
Sure you don’t.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: Hey, I knew better than to start Michelle McNamara’s book on the Golden State Killer before bedtime last night. Will read it during daylight hours. She’s quite a good writer. Found book at library yesterday.
It would have been terrifying to live in the California neighborhoods he worked.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: You and my wife have very similar reading habits. Sometimes I wonder if I will wake up in the morning.
Dog Dawg Damn
@Baud:
Oh for sure. And the rights version is far more toxic. (“Muslims are terrorists.” “Blacks are monkeys.” Etc.)
I just remember when liberals were more about building bridges and inclusion and not so damn divisive. Probably just Twitter.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Happen to have the 3-part series “Hidden Killers of the Edwardian and Victorian Home” on Amazon Prime running in the background as we speak.
Definitely give “Mozart in the Jungle” a try as time permits. Fun series which zips right along (half-hour per episode), although this year’s final season – the fourth, IIRC – was noticeably weaker and and came this close to jumping the shark. Bernadette Peters certainly has no qualms about prominently displaying her, um, upfront assets. (Normally don’t care much for her but in this series she was quite good, perhaps being part of an ensemble rather than a major solo lead was less pressure laden.)
Lapassionara
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m weeding and mulching and weeding and mulching too. When we purchased our most recent house, I broke two vows. One was never buy a house built after I was born. The other was never buy a house on a corner lot. I’ve tamed most of the back yard, but the side outside the fence, that I do not see unless I make an effort, is a mess.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Mornin’ all, here’s a pic for ya. Downtown LA in infrared with snow capped Mt. San Antonio in the background augmented with visual content.
Baud
@Dog Dawg Damn: Perhaps also rose colored glasses while remembering the past. I know 2016 has caused me to reevaluate everything.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: that’s a great use of infrared
Elizabelle
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Love that picture. Iconic shot, with something extra.
@Baud: Good morning, POTUS to be. 2016 is a cautionary tale, but maybe don’t draw too much from it. Main issue is, most nations would seem to have a 2 or 3-tier economy. You cannot forget that, when braying about the job numbers. If they’re shit jobs without benefits, that’s a problem no matter how many jobs people may have.
Well, have a gentle buzz from the manhattan, and sleep will not return. Gonna take to the rain-washed streets and get a Waffle House breakfast. Catch you guys later.
Alain the site fixer
@?BillinGlendaleCA: nice! Sorry I messed up your photo day last week. As I’m now post-move-settled, shouldn’t happen again.
Murmeltier
Good morning!
Upstate NY has cooled down a little into the 70’s. Think I’ll spend some time weeding this morning before the next few days of rain.
I have a small sewing project to crank out as well. A runner to put on top of the TV cabinet, under the riser I just built.
We’ve been watching Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which I was checking out from the library. Then I discovered that it was on Netflix, which we access via Roku. BUT when the credits run, they’re minimized & I can’t see the music credits. So I might just go back to getting it at the library.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I think it worked well. I wanted to add in some of the visual color(especially for the buildings) since IR is pretty limiting as far as color.
@Elizabelle: Thanks, I made sure to get some good shots while Mt. San Antonio had snow.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@OzarkHillbilly: Glad to hear about your son’s progress especially. That was scary.
Aleta
A raven’s nest cam in Iceland. The chicks seem pretty big already.
Video of the parents building the nest, from March 27.
Video of the parents feeding hatchlings and eventually sitting on them, from May 11.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@NotMax: I just put the Prime Ambient thunderstorm on. I didn’t know that existed. It’s lovely!
OzarkHillbilly
@Aleta: Huh. I would’ve thought Raven would set up a nest cam a little closer to where he’s fishing.
Baud
@Elizabelle: I know you’re enjoying waffles right now, but 2000 was my cautionary tale. 2016 is something else.
Steeplejack (phone)
It’s 71°, overcast and humid (92%) here in NoVA. About as warm as it’s going to get today. Supposed to gradually get down to about 60° by tonight, with rain off and on all day. That’s fine; I usually like the rain, and anything is better than extreme, blazing heat, which I’m sure we will get plenty of this summer.
I’m going to brunch at Sighthound Hall at 10:00. I’m looking forward to that, but I begrudge the break in my usual lazy Sunday routine a little bit. It will be good to see my niece (3½) and nephew (2). They grow so fast—especially their language skills—that it’s really noticeable after not seeing them for a couple of weeks. Although my nephew doesn’t really talk very much yet; he just immediately comes to me and gives me one of the toy trucks that he always has clutched in his hands.
So he and I marvel at the trucks, run them around the coffee table and hang out. Somewhere in there someone (I hope) gets me a mimosa or something. And then we’re joined by Kitty, the current eponym of Sighthound Hall, who fancies herself a lapdog, as much as a 60-pound retired racing greyhound can be—more like a “heavily leaning on you and sticking her head in your lap” dog. She doesn’t even mind having a matchbox truck run up and down her forehead a little bit.
The food will be good, the company will be good, and the likelihood of any Trumpistas in the vicinity will be nil. Not a bad way to spend the day. Might even stop on the way home and pick up some barbecue for tonight/tomorrow. Good times.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
I’m still laughing at your Melania-Ronny Jackson rumor in the thread below.
We’ve been using Amazon Prime to marvel once again at Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. What a brilliant, brilliant performance. He creates a whole character virtually by facial expression alone.
satby
Good morning all! The heat broke here yesterday, though the humidity hung on for the day before dropping later. I planned to mow my grass today and it rained overnight, with a light misty rain now. So no mowing, and no painting the porch furniture, the two outdoor chores I had planned for today. Maybe I should just enjoy the cooler weather ?, but I got a replacement maple to plant in the parkway (after I dig up the dead one). So I can do that later.
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: He’s going after arctic char now?
There’s a side bar menu for going back in time by date. The time lapse is funny as they shift all around in the nest.
satby
@Steeplejack (phone): that sounds lovely. It’s hard to dislodge ourselves from our comfy routines, but usually worth it.
How disappointing, I had gotten my nym info to stick overnight after using jefferyw’s trick, but it disappeared after my comment earlier. Back to putting it all in for every comment on mobile ?
OzarkHillbilly
@Aleta: Arctic char on the Emerald Coast? Huh, the things I learn here. ;-)
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
:)
Have to say I find Amazon Prime’s “Customers Also Watched” algorithm to be much, much better than the similar thing on Netflix. After watching something I liked, I now click on that as a matter of course. Found some hidden gems (and of course a number of zircons) that way.
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly: Blown off course.
Steeplejack (phone)
@satby:
Yes, jeffreyw and I both screwed around with that way too long yesterday. Looks like the nym persistence lasts only until you make a comment, then it’s gone again.
Now that Alain is settled, maybe he can take a look at it again. And maybe he has heard back from the coders who did the mobile module.
satby
@Steeplejack (phone): nice try guys. It’s not that bad, just a few more taps on the keys, but it’s still a surprise to me how it makes me comment less just because whatever I might say doesn’t seem “worthy” of the slight extra effort. My laziness is outta control!
Suburban Mom
Another member of the weeding and mulching club here. With the recent rain all my mulch weighs twice as much as usual. My peonies and iris are beaten up by downpours. On the bright side, the vegetable garden is thriving. And for the information of all you haters, I planted collards instead of kale this year.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@zhena gogolia:
Speaking of Darcy, Hulu is running Bollywood’s “Bride and Prejudice”, a delightful, modern, over-the-top Indian take on the tale, done as a musical. Loved it the first time I saw it 10-12 yrs ago. Was delighted to find it last night.
This morning, I’m watching “Gator” on Prime. A finer temple to the shittiness and ugliness that was America in the early 70s couldn’t be built…
This
Steeplejack (phone)
@satby:
I know, I feel the same way. “I have to (start to) type (and autofill) my nym and e-mail?! Wah!”
satby
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I loved that version of Austen too. If you ever see that it’s on, Lost in Austen is another take that’s pretty enjoyable.
Ben Cisco
Good morning everyone. Sun’s out here today after some rain yesterday; yard guy is due tomorrow.
I’m officially on a job hunt; seeing some signs that the plant is about to do some relocating either in part or in toto. Being the last guy out sucks, and I’ve done it twice in my career already. This time, I’m going to pull the cord first.
HeartlandLiberal
Sitting here with laptop on my lap, I just finished breakfast, which consisted of a bowl of collard greens cooked yesterday with ham, the first harvest from this year’s garden. With them, I had three outstanding hush puppies, from batch wife made yesterday, incredibly light and delicious. If you do not know what a hush puppy is, I am sorry for your missing out on one of the great treats to come out of deep southern culture. Re: which, you will understand that there was a puddle of ketchup in the bowl to dip the hush puppies in.
I have recovered from last year’s arm surgery and herniated disc attacks to the point I am able, while moving very carefully and avoiding bending and stooping, to work in my yard and garden, and work has been done. 24 new 8 foot landscape timbers replaced the rotting, old ones, and now all garden spots, including the wild one at edge of yard that is filled with yellow perennial flowers that bloom thru late summer, and blackberry and raspberry bushes. My son helped my pull out and rebuild a seven timber high retaining wall designed for drainage away from the house. I am even able to run the small Mantis tiller every seven days to hold the weeds at bay. I spaced everything four feet apart, for easy tilling and weeding, and it is working.
FWIW, kneepads are a must, because the safest way for me to work in the garden and on projects is crawling on my knees, to make sure I do not forget and bend forward and pop the lower discs in back back out. Not a fun prospect.
I also cleaned out the bed under the bay window portion front of the house by the front door, and planted four ferns and to other plants, coleus, or some such, one a dark red, the other a yellow leaved thing, for color. The area is mostly shaded except for a couple of hours late in the day, when the sun swings around to the house in summer.
Monday I need to order a load of good mulch, because all the flower beds and all but three of my fruit trees have been cleaned up and are read for mulching.
All I can say is, I am treating these 2 to 3 hours fits of hard labor as needed exercise (yesterday held out for 4 hours before dropping), and pretty happy after a past year that consisted of sitting around with my arm in a sling for two months, and unable lift the right arm above my shoulder for over three months.
Alain the site fixer
@satby: I’m expecting help from this folks Monday. I sent our custom comments setup to them to meld with their new one.
satby
@HeartlandLiberal: Congratulations to you! Looking forward to garden pictures some Sunday in the future. Be careful out there.
OzarkHillbilly
@HeartlandLiberal: I need a nap.
satby
@Alain the site fixer: no worries ?
It’s been edifying to me to learn what I consider worth saying ?
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: INORITE?
If I was HL, the garden would be a hellscape of weeds and rotten timbers, because I wouldn’t get 1/100th of that done.
I’m so lazy I don’t even want to type extra ???
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Lack of worthiness never stopped me.
Alain the site fixer
@satby: perspective is always a good thing. Throughout my life, I’ve been know to accept inconveniences because they shed a new angle on things and change my perceptions and assumptions. Keeps you nimble, I like to think,
JPL
The dog and I decided to sit outside and enjoy the weather, but that didn’t last long. Two chipmunks decided to play chase in front of us, and the dog was having none of that. Anyway as much as I dislike the destructive nature of the chipmunks, I dislike looking at a puddle of blood in the morning. I was able to capture the dog, and now we are both inside.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’m really glad to read they’re both doing better.
You might be able to relate to this: I live in a suburban area. The closest wood area is about a mile away. Last night, while out on my walk, a fox strolled around the corner and passed by me. Unafraid but not bold, a scrawny little thing. Even as I recognized its silhouette, my mind was trying to figure out what breed of dog it was and where was its owner.
Just when you think you’ve seen it all…
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly:
I’d be more worried about waking up and finding myself in the James Caan role in Misery.
satby
So, I just unpacked my two new trees: Forest Pansy Redbud and Autumn Blaze Maple.
The maple will go in the parkway to replace a city one that died, and since this redbud will get taller than the usual ones, it’s going on the side of my house. Unless I decide to relocate something else….tbd.
Steeplejack
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Ah, Lauren Hutton. Another one who never seemed to really catch fire, for whatever reason. And who’s now 74, IMDB tells me. How time flies.
Is Gator the one with “shaky puddin’”? God, can’t believe I paid good money to see that in the theater. But, hey, 1976. We didn’t have 300 channels, streaming, the Internet, etc. Hell, I didn’t get a VCR until ’80 or ’81. I think I had cable TV in ’76, but if I did it was “local channels with no snow” (a big plus, believe me), HBO (one channel, thank you) and Channel 17 from Atlanta, which showed every Braves game at a time when they sucked bigly. It wasn’t even WTBS then; it was still WTCG. So, yeah, you ended up in a theater paying to see Burt Reynolds directing Burt Reynolds in Gator. Good times.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I usually fall asleep to the BBC on my radio. Those plummy accents are so soothing.
Steeplejack
@Ben Cisco:
Good luck on the job front.
Semi-appropriate song: “Let me tell you about my qualifications.”
debbie
@Baud:
The problem is that we never get the message the first time around, so the universe repeats and repeats until we do.
There are no “one-offs” in this world.
debbie
@Steeplejack (phone):
Lovely description of what sounds like a wonderful Sunday. Enjoy!
NotMax
Factoids for a lazy Sunday.
Among other things occurring on June 3, the U.S. army was established by act of the Congress of the Confederation, 234 years ago. 72 years ago today, the first bikini was publicly displayed, in Paris.
satby
@Ben Cisco: I think it’s wise to take heed of the signs and get out early. Good luck!
debbie
@satby:
My problem is that I always forget to fill in the fields before hitting “Post Comment.” I’m so aggravated I can’t seem to remember to do that.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Steeplejack:
I did some dishes, so if there’s something about shaky puddin’ I missed it.
I loved seeing that red Lincoln Continental Mk IV – those were some sweet damn rides.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Ah, early HBO, with no interstitial stuff whatsoever.
If a movie ended ad 7:12 and 50 seconds, the next one began at 7:12 and 51 seconds.
WereBear
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Wow, that is otherworldly in a wonderful way.
Immanentize
Hello, All. Here outside Beantown we are getting a cool snap.as well. It’s 64 now, and we may not see that temp again until Thursday! Even some nights in the forties possible. Weird.
I mowed yesterday just before it rained and there are weeds to pull and I need to make a topsoil run… But lazy day followed by a high school graduation party for Immp’s teammates this evening. With Blue Ribbon BBQ as the caterers. They are sooooo good. I think I will lay off lunch to make room.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ? ??
NotMax
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Was that one of the models with the quasi-infamous Lincoln suicide doors?
danielx
@Steeplejack:
I was in college at the time, living in a rented house known as the Cold Hotel*. Had free cable for a month and one evening a bunch of people were watching The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, with Kris Kristofferson and Sarah Miles. At one point there was a fairly steamy scene which was being watched in dead silence until somebody commented “you know, my mother would raise hell if she ever saw this on television”. A good time was had by all.
ETA: *from a Little Feat song called Cold, Cold, Cold.
rikyrah
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
That is absolutely gorgeous ?
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
On this date in 1964, I had an accident that put me in the hospital for 16 days with a fractured trachea. Really ruined my summer!
Was doing a chin-up on an empty wood rack made of 4" pipe and pulled it over on me.
satby
@debbie: oh, I do that too! At least we don’t lose the entire comment when it bounces us back.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Suburbia is a haven for a lot of wild animals. When my folks were still alive we used to see coyotes and foxes in their neighborhood on a not infrequent basis.
germy
Hollywood Reporter
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: Or Eastwood in The Beguiled.
rikyrah
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Bride and Prejudice is one of my favorite movies ?
OzarkHillbilly
@Steeplejack:
Rowr.
Immanentize
@NotMax:
Gang of Four — I Found that Essence Rare
BC in Illinois
A wonderfully encouraging sign from yesterday, from an unlikely location.
Yesterday was “Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense” “Wear Orange” day. ( This was an annual remembrance, pre-dating the Moms group, remembering a gun victim, by wearing her favorite color. ) There was a large event in St Louis, in Tower Grove Park, doing what the St Louis group does well — combining the city and the county, rappers and cake-makers, students and politicians, survivors and voter-registration tables.
But the encouraging thing came from Arnold Missouri, Jefferson County. This is outside of the liberal bubbles of the St Louis and Kansas City areas. While meetings of the St Louis Moms group gather hundreds of people, the Jefferson County group numbers in the dozens. So they scheduled a “Wear Orange” event, to hold signs over I-55 in Arnold. They were hoping for a dozen people or so. They had no idea how many people would show up.
Then on Saturday morning, the word spread that a counter-protest would be coming. And, in response, MORE people came out wearing orange. As the leader of the Jefferson County group said, “We were warned, we were told to stay home, nevertheless we persisted . . .” but there were people –including students– who came out BECAUSE of the warnings. (Including the possibility of armed protestors.)
As it turned out, 50 people showed up on the bridge, 3 protestors/trolls came and then left, the reaction and honking horns of the truckers and the community was great, and as a result, a group that saw themselves as a small voice in an unlikely and possibly unfriendly place is even more encouraged to keep on going. It was a good day.
The “big city” event was great. But the small town event was what made the day.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! ?
(Windows 10 version 1803 now lets me use emojis. This may be the first and last time. Press Windows key + . [period] to access.)
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@germy: Something is seriously wrong with her
rikyrah
@germy:
Oh, feel bad for the repentant racist ??
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
@germy:
If she gets her show back, zero chance she doesn’t return to her old ways.
germy
@Baud: They’re talking about giving the TV daughter her own show.
germy
@rikyrah:
The pattern is: do the nasty, racist stuff and then cry when the police arrive.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: A few months ago, I had to stop my car and let two coyote pups cross in front of me. This year I’ve seen coyotes, but not foxes or deer.
Immanentize
@rikyrah:
You left out “rich, white”
debbie
@germy:
Schmuley is an asshole, period.
germy
@debbie: He is a 45-supporting bigot. Perfect person for her to call and weep to.
Immanentize
@germy: The TV daughter is the Executive Producer of the Roseanne Show, I believe. So they are basically giving her, her own show back.
Steeplejack
@germy:
Shmuley Boteach strikes me as a grifter somewhat in the Dr. Phil mode. I’m sure there’s an appropriate Yiddish word, but I don’t know what it is. (And Google Translate is not helpful, because it gives the result in Hebrew script.)
debbie
@germy:
That might be interesting, especially if the character has to deal with her mother’s racism.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Schmuley = Schmuck.
WereBear
@Alain the site fixer: That’s one way of working it. I guess it is better than running amok with an ax*… which I don’t do, but dang it tempts me sometimes.
*only on inanimate objects, like those remainder bins of conservative books that were bought in bulk to fake a demand
germy
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with her that a miracle can’t fix.” (to paraphrase what Alexander Woollcott said about Oscar Levant.)
debbie
@germy:
Yes, and with his “cover” of Rabbi, he has unearned credibility.
Baud
Maybe they can bring back the show but keep Roseanne hidden like Melania.
Immanentize
@JPL: @OzarkHillbilly:
I have friends who live in Lexington, MA (first shots fired!) Which is a near-urban suburb. And two years ago they had a fox den(?) in between their yard and their neighbors. Mama fox had taken over a small, falling down abandoned dog house. Had four pups. Very cute and supplied a month of entertainment.
Steeplejack
@debbie:
Well, that’s simple!
germy
@Steeplejack:
I was late to the dr. phil party. I was dimly aware of him as a TV psychologist and assumed he was a competent guy who maybe got criticized for attention seeking. I mean, all celebrities get criticism, right?
Then I watched a few episodes. Holy shit. On one broadcast, he had a spiritual medium as a guest. I think she was trying to solve a disappearance. Hoo boy.
On another broadcast, he had “scientific experts” explain the “science” behind physical beauty. An older gentleman with calipers actually was invited onstage to take facial measurements of various women. (Your eyes have to be a certain distance apart, you nose has to be a certain size, lips, etc.)
I noticed the caliper man had a very tight little smirk on his face while he did this. It’s the expression I recognize from various local racists I’ve encountered over the years. They get that look when they’re about to say something vile.
I don’t think dr. phil was aware of the history behind measuring people’s faces (I hope not) but I’m convinced Caliper Man knew exactly what he was doing.
Steeplejack
Okay, I’ve got to start gearing up (pants!) for my social engagement. Back later.
Baud
@germy: Possibly the worst thing Oprah has ever done.
Baud
@Steeplejack: I don’t understand.
OzarkHillbilly
@BC in Illinois:
JeffCo is a very unfriendly place for such voices. Good to hear.
Steeplejack
@germy:
Surprised Caliper Man didn’t offer to measure their breasts.
I see Dr. Phil now only in promo ads for his show, but he seems to have descended into the “confronting cheating spouses” and “Mama needs an intervention” zone. Ugh.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Baud: I repeated the plastic surgery rumors to my husband, who asked why she’d need it. If that is what she’s doing, it comes soon after his sexual encounters with other women were made public. There’s a post hoc factor there that makes me sad.
Immanentize
@Baud: But, Presidential?!
WereBear
This is part of the reason I scorn the “generations” designations because they are much too wide. There were baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s, and there were baby boomers whose formative impressions were from the 70’s.
They ain’t the same people. And did not have the same experiences.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Not all of us have fully broken free of the tyranny of the clothed world, as you have.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): I hope that’s not the case because I don’t want to feel that sorry for her.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Putz.
;)
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Baud: I hear you.
Spanky
I woke last night to
the sound of thundera familiar urgent itch behind my knee. So there I was at 4AM, groggy, in the bathroom, fishing around with a pair of tweezers for what turned out to be a really tiny tick. After I pulled him (completely!) out the itch subsided quickly.Not so with the tick I’d pulled out at bedtime from my hip. That was a fairly big Lone Star, but I knew he hadn’t been there in the morning so I’m confident he hadn’t started feeding. Still have a big itchy lump from that one. No more outdoor work this weekend while that low moves up and away from us. Radar shows it’s centered over Fredericksburg atm.
@Steeplejack: That would suck. On Memorial Day 1964 I broke my arm at the family picnic, so I did my part to add to the Spanky family lore. But that was only a long afternoon in the ER on a holiday or me.
Steeplejack
@WereBear:
Yeah, even an age gap of three or four years can make a big difference.
I was born in 1952, was just turning 12 when the Beatles hit. I went through that whole musical revolution. Went to college in 1969. My brother Bro’ Man was born in 1959, went to college in 1977. His musical experience and tastes are significantly different.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: The 60’s boomers had better music but us ’70s boomers had better drugs.
Steeplejack
@Spanky:
Nice Bob Seger bank shot.
germy
@Steeplejack:
Apparently he used to have a rule: He wouldn’t have people as guests who were on medication or experiencing severe mental illness. His show was supposed to be more about family or marriage counseling. Helping basically well people see the mistakes in their relationships.
Well that rule went out the window. Last week he had a young lady on who claimed to be suffering from multiple personalities. He has guests who are severely impaired by OCD (always amusing for the studio audience). Last year he had an interview with poor Shelley Duvall, who seems to be in serious decline.
Whenever anyone ever told me “Oprah for president” I always thought of her advocacy of Dr. Phil and Doctor Oz.
(Of course, #45 just appointed Oz to something)
JPL
@Immanentize: I have a little under an acre and my back yard is fenced. Since part of the fence is chain link, it is a deterrent to critters, but not fool proof. I back up to over 11 acres so that is where the wild things are.
Because this area of the city is on septic, that prevents heavy development.
Steeplejack
@Spanky:
It turned out all right eventually. Time heals all wounds, as they say. I was a very active, athletic kid, and it took me a long time to get back to feeling “normal.” And it left me susceptible to respiratory problems—pneumonia, bronchitis—for quite a while.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Feel your pain. May have been ’63 or 62, possibly ’60 or ’59 (definitely not ’61, was out of the country that summer) that spent the entirety of summer abed after accidentally crashing through a glass storm door window, ending up lying across the still attached shards on the bottom frame. 105 stitches. Pieces they couldn’t or wouldn’t get to were left inside the then young bod.
Lapassionara
After doing some weeding chores, I sat down to rest on the glider on my front porch. I hear a lot of bird calls early in the morning, but this morning
I heard a strange honking sound. I looked up to see a flock of what I assume were geese, flying in a perfect V formation from the southeast toward the northwest. Made my day so far.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Trump is worse than Nixon in many ways, and it was rumored that Pat landed in the hospital a few times because of his fury. I’m still on the side of domestic abuse.
Platonailedit
This is great news aka a BFD.
Nelle
@OzarkHillbilly: Did you mention Arctic char? I spent 8 summers just off the north coast of Alaska…my husband was a summer bush pilot on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge…and that fish was phenomenal. The nearest grocery store was about three hours away by small plane, down in Fairbanks, but we ate well. Char, caribou, moose, Dall sheep. Villagers, who were still mostly in a hunting culture then, would often barter meat for flights. And , fittingly, our island was named Barter Island.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: Don’t forget that book* she was promoting, where you just wish for something hard enough and it happens. I am blanking out on what it was called.
ETA: She also used to have on her show a quack physicist, I forget his name.
*The Secret
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
How did we ever survive our childhoods?
Last time I was in Las Vegas I was talking with my mother, who grew up on a Tennessee farm in the ’30s, and she was talking about how they ran loose and unsupervised. A big thing was going down to play in the creek, even before they really knew how to swim. I asked her if her mother didn’t freak out. “No, she just told us not to get in the deep part.”
germy
@JPL:
Does she even get close enough to him to allow that to happen? They seem to live separate lives. The only time they’re together is in public, where he can’t lay a paw on her.
I think melanie made a half-hearted attempt to be FLOTUS. Copied her speech from Forever FLOTUS. Adopted some causes “Be nice online!” “Be best!”
And then after all the Stormy (and others) revelations, said to herself “fuck it” and is now living the life of a retired model.
OzarkHillbilly
@Nelle: Aleta brought them up first. ;-) I am jealous of you and your husbands Alaska experiences. Someday…
The Other Chuck
@germy:
Oprah believes pretty much every last quack and woo artist that cycles through her show. That said, at least she’s a great deal smarter and more competent than Jill Stein, another heavy trafficker in new-age bullshit. More integrity too, I imagine.
germy
@schrodingers_cat: These are people who think Uri Geller has real powers. They have no business being professional influencers in this country. But they are.
NotMax
@schodinger’s_cat
You’re probably too young to remember the Reverend Ike program.
“Want a Cadillac? Pray for a Cadillac! And send a donation to…”
Steeplejack
@Lapassionara:
Do they still make gliders? I love those. My grandmother had one on her screened porch at the farm. Whenever we visited we kids would marvel at it and give it a workout. She also had a porch swing, so really an embarrassment of riches.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steeplejack:
Some of us didn’t.
schrodingers_cat
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I remember watching it. It was okay, I have seen better Austen adaptations. I think Aishwarya Rai was miscast as the Elizabeth Bennett character as was the Darcy character.
Also not a fan of the Marigold Hotel or Slumdog. These offerings just don’t feel real to me, they are very much geared to pander to western audiences.
Meera Nair and Gurinder Chadha’s movies which cater to that same niche are usually far better because they don’t pander.
Ken
@debbie:
Somewhat apropos, Cracked today has some advice for getting rid of a character when the actor has become toxic.
chris
Cool here in Nova Scotia with frost warnings for tonight. Weird spring, must be the Chinese hoax.
My garden is doing well. Here’s a surprisingly good phone pic, slightly enhanced, of a bunchberry in flower.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Lawn darts weeded out the weak.
:)
schrodingers_cat
@NotMax: I have no idea of this particular person, but aware of the type. People can be so gullible.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: I have no idea who Uri Gellar is, probably for the best.
Immanentize
@NotMax: I loved Reverend Ike. The testimonials were fabulous! “I had no job, no money, my wife kicked me out of the house, but then I prayed with Reverend Ike and the next week, there was a Cadillac in my driveway!”. It was always a Cadillac! My friend and I actually sent a donation for a Reverend Ike Prayer Rug. We sent like 10 bucks (198?). And we got back a one inch by two inch piece of the cheapest carpet ever. But also the blessings of Reverend Ike, so totally worth it. But no Cadillac.
Immanentize
@Ken: How about Rosanne ends up with a big opiate addiction and dies of an OD because her Trump- loving mayor refuses to allow first responders to carry Narcam because it “encourages drug use?”
WereBear
@NotMax: At least you recovered more than Peter Lawford from a similar incident.
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
Any feelings (if you’ve had the misfortune of seeing it) about Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag (a/k/a Aag)? Seems to be universally reviled.
oatler.
@Steeplejack: Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine” really writes up a storm on those summers on the porch “where, sometime in the evening, something, a boy or a geranium pot, would fall off.”
schrodingers_cat
@chris: I have always wanted to take the ferry from Maine to Nova Scotia but never did that. I have been to Quebec city and St John’s, New Brunswick but never made it to Nova Scotia.
satby
@Platonailedit: Lost a friend in the UK to breast cancer just last month. A younger woman, early forties I think (work friend). I think the main predictor of survival is the age that breast cancer first occurs, sadly. Younger women seem to get the more aggressive disease.
She left behind a husband and 13 year old daughter, and passed away on her birthday.
schrodingers_cat
@NotMax: I have not seen any Ram Gopal Verma movies, his reputation precedes him. Sort of like, say Michael Bay.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Was living in the boonies, with a severely limited choice of channels on the rabbit ears (like two, on a good night). It came on following Fernwood 2night, and we’d watch and laugh our asses off.
And you’re absolutely right, it was always a Cadillac.
WereBear
@JPL: I was a fairly small child when I found myself frightened by Pat Nixon’s face. There was so much misery in it.
When they met in college she was a go-getter, independent, charming, a star. I don’t wonder what happened: HE happened.
MomSense
@Steeplejack:
I spent my summers on the family farm running wild – shoeless, tangled hair, half naked. We played in and along a river! There was a decaying dock that was basically rotted boards between posts that we loved to climb around on. My parents freaked out when they visited and saw what we were doing. I think it was the rushing water under the dock that got to them.
I wish they hadn’t panicked because I think that is when my fear of heights started.
satby
@Immanentize: Congratulations to young Immp!
@rikyrah: belated good morning ?!
I keep wandering off and coming back.
Immanentize
@satby: Ugh. I’m so sorry, Satby. For you, for her, her husband, her kid.
What is it about dying on ones birthday? At one level it’s just another day…. But it seems somehow so consequential.
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
Was curious as it’s a remake of what seems to be regarded as one of the most beloved Bollywood productions, Sholay.
WereBear
@satby: My sympathies. My husband lost a close work friend a while back the same way.
schrodingers_cat
@NotMax: Sholay is awesome, great ensemble cast. It made the careers of many. It still stands the test of time. It is a good yarn and fairly progressive for its time. It is Ramesh Sippy’s ode to the Western.
ETA: I still remember some of the most famous lines from that movie.
Immanentize
@satby:
Not the Immp himself. He’s a Junior — well now a rising senior. He took the SAT yesterday. Torture!
The party is for four of his graduating teammates. The team is dissolving as he is the only original Brainstormer left in highschool.
germy
rikyrah
Dolt45 is not your President?
https://twitter.com/ErikWemple/status/1002609469258334209?s=20
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Awe, Little Imma. He needs to recruit a New team?
satby
And I don’t think any of us actually commented on the cool pictures of the animals. Thanks opiejeanne, we all enjoyed them even if we forgot to say so!
@Steeplejack: my friends and I grew up that way, only in a city. We were hopping trains downtown at age 11 to go to the Art Institute and wander around, when LaSalle Street station was Skid Row. Before we were old enough to do that, we free-ranged in our neighborhood, checking in only at lunch and dinner. Our parents often had no idea where we were for hours. Odd how much has changed in child rearing, and not necessarily for the better.
JPL
@Immanentize: Why not have her in jail for selling meth?
Is Trump going to shove Manafort under the bus?
Nelle
I know I don’t comment much but I have to share my morning. I’m just a month past my 67th birthday. My husband is 74. This is the first morning of a week of babysitting our first ..and only..grandchild, who is 10 months old. We brought her into bed with us for her morning bottle, she fell asleep again, and I’ve been watching her rise and fall breathing. Now she wakes and softly says, “da da da”into the cool Iowa morning. Sigh.
rikyrah
@satby:
Sorry for your loss. ?
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
Working my way through Drovers’ Gold a British Western (kind of, sort of), mostly about a cattle drive from someplace I can’t remember the name of and it’s not all that important anyway in Wales to London. Interesting how they manage to work women into being a part of the cattle drive. And also that the herd are rarely referred to as cattle, almost always as “beasts.”
scav
Finally going to get actual drippy stuff out of the sky today so can maybe sneak out and plant some more cosmos, poppies, etc. without dragging out the hoses! And finally indulged in my first personal horihori, so normally would be looking for scarey weeds to stab at — except for the threat / promise of said drippy stuff. So, inagural stabby day postponed a bit so I can loll in indulence and anticipation. (There’s a potential Austen adaptation.)
satby
@Immanentize: it seemed when I worked in hospitals that terminally ill people often held out until some milestone date had passed… it was kind of a truism but I have no idea if it’s a documented effect.
Well, I will hold graduation congrats for exactly one year then. Same time, next year!
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Nelle: Lovely. I am so jealous.
WereBear
@Nelle: How lovely :)
And thanks for the alpacas! If I was able to rescue herd animals, I would specialize in them :)
WereBear
@satby: Many nurses have told me the same.
satby
@Nelle: wonderful way to start the day!
Nelle
@satby: My mother, a very innocent and believing Mennonite, once said she would like to die on Christmas, as her friend had, because she would like “to go see Jesus on his birthday.” She lost consciousness on December 15, had no sustenance, not even water, for the next ten days and died on Christmas morning. Even though I don’t subscribe to the same beliefs, I sort of have fun imagining her strolling into heaven, arm in arm, with someone else who died tgat day…James Brown.
debbie
@Nelle:
Lovely!
Gretchen
Anne, I wish you’d show some pictures of your beds. And I love hearing news of Himself. That’s how my mom spoke of my dad. I find myself thinking of my little grandson as Himself.
NotMax
@Nelle
Heartwarming indeed.
debbie
I wish some pollster would conduct a national poll to find out how many Americans disagree with Trump’s sanctions against Canada. I’d bet supporters are well below his approval rating of (currently) 41.6%.
Gretchen
Nelle – what a lovely image.
chris
@schrodingers_cat: Hit me up if you’re coming to Nova Scotia, would be delighted to meet another jackal.
I’ll be on the ferry in a couple of weeks. Hoping they let me in now that Canada is deemed a security threat to the US.//
NotMax
@debbie
“Qanada? Sounds Mooslim.”
;)
rikyrah
@Nelle:
Awe ??
rikyrah
Pull those receipts ?
https://twitter.com/Kennymack1971/status/1003268159326081025?s=20
chris
@NotMax: I used to live in rural southwestern Ontario. Cattle were called “cattle beasts” by the descendants of the mostly German settlers.
rikyrah
Is Paulie about to flip?
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1003268646070874113?s=20
chris
@debbie: Not a poll but there is this missive from the G6. Boom!
schrodingers_cat
@chris: I will take you up on that offer. Thanks.
NotMax
@chris
Learn something every day on BJ.
JPL
@rikyrah: That one surprised me, because he spoke with Manafort several times a day.
I hope he flips.
rikyrah
Iowa, he’s just MAGA??
https://twitter.com/JayCaruso/status/1003248358851563520?s=20
debbie
@chris:
I was glad to hear about this last night. From your link:
Be specific, Stevie M.: What is it that is important to them and us?
debbie
For all you Melania conspiracy theorists.
germy
@debbie:
germy
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
Dogs who went astray, one for two years, being reunited with their people.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@schrodingers_cat: Guy who made a big success by “bending spoons with his mind”. Got famous as a psychic, made lots of money on this scam. Israeli by birth I think.
JPL
@debbie: Love it!
debbie
@germy:
I still don’t buy that theory. There are too many people around at all times of the day. I can’t imagine they’d have let an argument/fight/whatever go that far.
raven
Family time down at the water, they come at 10 and leave at 5 so it’s perfect for fishing! Yesterday a young couple came up and said they had no clue about surf fishing so I spent a little time going over it and lent them my sand flea rake so they could catch bait. They were down there a 6am and after abut 10 minutes the guy walked up the beach with a 27 inch redfish! he said “you were so nice to help us, we want you to take it’! I tried to convince him to keep it and even offered to clean it so I gave in and took it. That gives us meals of pompano, red snapper, whiting and redfish! The only bummers are that I ran over a $600 pair of glasses and I forgot the extra one of eye meds for Lil Bit and have to either pay $150 for an emergency vet visit or wait until tomorrow.
oldgold
Hunkered down amid fuss, feathers and guano in the Capon Zone of this free range chicken war being waged by my sulphuric neighbor from the nether world, DeeDee Plorable, and the Tall Clan, led heroically by their throw-back uni-browed matriarch, Generlissima Nandra Tall, I have been successfully avoiding any mulching and/or weeding. And, with last week’s silencing of DeeDee’s prized rooster, Phil Anders, I am have been able to resume my habit of sleeping until the crack of noon.
JPL
@debbie: In the privacy of their own quarters, it’s possible. We don’t know when she checked into Walter Reed. The reason I don’t by the plastic surgery is I think she’d want to have it done in NYC, where she would be more comfortable.
Google Pat Nixon and domestic violence.
HeleninEire
@debbie: I used to say that about Bill and Monica. “Really, isn’t the President scheduled to the minute with people around him all day?” Apparently not.
MagdaInBlack
@germy:
I simply cannot wrap my head around why “They” don’t care.
I know…money and power….but I am continually stunned at the complete indifference.
Something is seriously lacking here, and I don’t think its MY value system.
debbie
@raven:
That’s some haul, fish-wise! Do you take any home or eat it all while you’re there?
sdhays
@germy: That thread is just enraging.
Schlemazel
@chris:
In German Beef is called “cow meat” – Rindfleisch
and pork is “pig meat” – Schweinefleisch
The language is very extensible and I think that makes it more literal. Obviously the pattern stuck with the immigrants.
Immanentize
@raven: Sounds like Paradise. (With balancing set backs.)
It sounds like the way the fish are taking the hook you could sell enough to make your losses and still eat like a King (and Queen)
debbie
@JPL:
Except that in D.C., any procedure would be taxpayer-financed.
@HeleninEire:
I thought the “interaction” took place inside the Oval Office, where there is actual privacy. Absent loud moaning, no one would have known. In theory at least.
germy
@sdhays:
It raised my blood pressure. So much evil.
Just One More Canuck
@JPL: We see deer quite regularly on the path behind our fence here in suburban Toronto – a few days ago, four or five came charging down the path and scared the crap out of our cat who was just sunning herself. We also hear coyotes on occasion, but I had never seen any in fifteen years until this April – we now keep a very close eye on the cat
Immanentize
@Schlemazel: When I was in Austria in the 90’s there was a BIG problem regarding re-packaging of meat in grocery stores to avoid sell-by date regulations. It almost brought down the Austrian government. Of course it was called “Fleischscandal”
ETA clarity
Fair Economist
@satby:
I saw one study that documented it for something – Christmas or birthdays, I forget which. I’m sure it applies to graduations, weddings, births, etc., but that’s harder to document.
Immanentize
@Fair Economist: My wife waited until her 50th birthday to shed her mortal coil. At one point during chemo she said, “I’ll be damned if I die in my 40’s!” And she didn’t.
JPL
@Immanentize: That is such a bittersweet story, but f..k cancer.
chris
PSA for PA people! Cat bleg.
My work is done here. Pants on and I’m off to the city for dinner with siblings and crowded dog park for Bert. Adieu, comrades.
raven
@debbie: I froze three of the big snapper filets and I’m going out again Tuesday so I’ll have 4 more. We eat what we can and freeze the rest for later. This redfish and the three whiting will be good for a couple of days!
Jeffro
@rikyrah: maybe, maybe not…but “Manafort was dirty? Why didn’t anyone tell me?!?” Is gonna be just one more scoop of horseshit Trumpov throws out there for his base.
Suzanne
On my agenda in my garden? Well, my garden consists of keeping my indoor succulents alive, which is more difficult than I anticipated, because my damn cats keep chewing on them. I thought they would leave succulents alone, but alas.
It is already hot as balls outside, so my annual hibernation is underway. I will once again start doing things outdoors during daylight hours around the end of September.
I actually went to Costco around 1:30 PM yesterday and wondered WTF is wrong with me.
Patrick King
@chris: Also used in a predominantly Scots/Irish community in southwestern Ontario. Although not far from a ‘German’ (Alsatian/Bavarian) community, so it could be a cultural transfer.
JPL
@Jeffro: Trump forgot about that pesky meeting where the FBI informed him that the Russians were trying to infiltrate his campaign.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Steeplejack: @satby: Thanks!
Leto
@JPL: Waiting for the “lyin'” title to be applied to the FBI.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Bookstore cat in San Diego needs a home.
HAL
In today’s learn something new, damn I feel old lesson; I just found out I can search text on a webpage from my android by going to the chrome menu, the three dots, and clicking find in page. I don’t know how I’ve missed that all these years.
sdhays
@JPL: Similar to how W missed that PDB “Osama bin Laden determined to strike in the United States”.
Origuy
My mom had COPD. She looked forward to her 50th wedding anniversary, when my sisters and I held an open house for her and Dad. All her friends and family came. She quickly went downhill after that and died two months later.
I went to Nova Scotia a few years ago. Halifax is a nice city, very walkable. I went up to Cape Breton Island, which is beautiful. I love Celtic music and it seems like every other person is a musician there. I went to a concert in a little town called Christmas Island, which was the first day of their Scottish Gaelic language festival. It was held in the fire station and the performers were mostly locals playing for their friends and neighbors.
WereBear
@chris: shared, thanks.
ruemara
@Dog Dawg Damn: Maybe you shouldn’t be on the internet..
J R in WV
@germy:
Barr was crying because she blew her chance to be a big TV star again. No pity for that… person.
Bernadette Peters is still alive at 70. I imagine she’s still pretty good looking, I always thought she was very attractive.. Not my type, I run more to brunettes, but still..
?BillinGlendaleCA
@HeleninEire: Normally, yes, there are folk around the President all the time; the Monica thing happened during a government shutdown, so most of those people weren’t around.
ruemara
@Platonailedit: That is amazing news! But costs.
TerryC
@Nelle: I’m 70 and my only granddaughter, Lilly, who is 2 1/2 years old, spent Friday night with us. It was so wonderful to see the smile on her face when she woke up in the morning.
sdhays
@J R in WV: I just want to stop hearing about Roseanne Barr. She’s a nasty, talentless, unstable person with more money than she deserves and she should just go back to her pot farm in Hawaii and never be heard from again. And ABC should try some creativity instead of trying to hang on to an already tarnished show (but I don’t expect that to happen).
Original Lee
I really want to fertilize the rosebush I planted this year and the mountain laurel I planted this year, but we’ve had a foot of rain since Thursday afternoon, and I know the fertilizer will just float away. I really want to plant the sunflower seeds I was given for Mother’s Day, but see above. I have a bunch of really wanta stuff for the garden, but at this point it looks as if I will still be yearning a week from today.
J R in WV
@chris:
Bunchberry, huh, that bloom looks very much like a dogwood bloom here in WV, way, way south of you. And dogwoods have little clusters of berries that turn red in the fall, which migrating birds love. The leaves are quite different though.
Original Lee
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): After I saw that story about Hirsch not reporting on Nixon’s wifebeating, I am now wondering if there’s something similar going on in today’s White House.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
Uri Gellar was an Israeli psychic who had a bit of slight of hand prestidigitation going for him, could use his “mental powers” to bend a spoon, if the spoon was quite weak pot-metal.
The Amazing Randi, a stage magician who knew all the tricks pretty much showed him up for a loon. Amazing Randi spent much of his career debunking psychics in public, and amazingly, never ran out of frauds who were sure they were the one eh couldn’t expose.
He (Randi) was a scholar of the history of stage magic, slight of hand, etc, and delighted in exposing frauds. Uri Geller seems to expect everyone has forgotton his exposure as a fraud all those many years ago, but I haven’t forgotten. Even if show bookers have.
germy
?BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: I wonder what color the sky is in Jane’s world.
Yutsano
@rikyrah: Greg Sargent is shrill.
Origuy
Uri Gellar on Johnny Carson with James Randi. It didn’t go well for Uri.
germy
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Green.
germy
@J R in WV: The Amazing Randi could do every one of Gellar’s “miracles”
Real magicians don’t like it when someone claims to have real powers. It’s dishonest.
I seem to recall the hapless Michael Jackson being taken in by Gellar. Jackson was an unfortunate magnet for every huckster out there, up to and including his private physician.
germy
@Origuy: I remember seeing Uri on the Mike Douglas Show. Mike fell for it completely.
opiejeanne
@NotMax: Lawn darts killed a little girl in Riverside CA when we lived there. Her older brother pitched one over a gate not knowing she was there.
Yutsano
@J R in WV: Last I heard Bernadette was still working on Broadway and still belting them out. Pretty sure they don’t have her do the elaborate dance routines anymore although one never knows…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: These fucking people. And I see St Wilmer is in SoCal days before an important and potentially difficult primary– given the top-two primary thing– telling everyone the problem in Washington is the FAYL-yuhs of the Democratic Pawh-ty
ETA: I just walked by the tinfoil hat I keep in the hall closet and it sent me a brainwave wondering if Jane doesn’t know more about Russian interference in our elections than other people, including her husband.
Aleta
@germy: you gotta be kidding me. groaoaoaonnn
Mandalay
@germy: The simple question to ask Bernie at every opportunity:
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@germy:
Citation please?
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@germy:
Citation please?
Brachiator
@Origuy:
Carson had a magic act as a teen, could still do some hand magic as an adult, and so knew what to look for.
Gellar claimed that a “negative mood” somehow dampened his powers.
The Amazing Randi continued on the trail blazed by the Great Houdini, who exposed frauds in his later years. Ironically, there were some people who insisted that Houdini had really had magical powers.
ETA. Magicians are typically better than scientists in detecting frauds like Geller.
Aleta
@Steeplejack: Idle speculation… Having been through their own childhood when kids were lost to scarlet fever, flu, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, farm accidents… they expected that losing one out of a large family was beyond their control?
Or the opposite: maybe they were more relaxed because in the 50s there were antibiotics and vaccines? Compared to infectious disease and farm work, maybe the risks of playing seemed minimal?
Anotherlurker
@raven: It sounds like you are having a great trip.
Keep it up!
Aleta
@JPL: They say that foxes hate or fear coyotes and move out of an area as they move in. Also that when fox leave an area because of coyotes, there’s an increase in rodents and perhaps in the spread of Lyme. Coyotes eat mice too, but they roam over a wider territory. So they’re not as efficient at keeping the population down. Foxes will live within one smaller area and hunt within it. So they say.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Plastic surgery isn’t permanent. At best, it will last for 10 years, and a “tune-up” will be necessary.
Ruckus
@Aleta:
I think a lot of people had big families because they expected bad things to happen, because they did all the time. Things that no one had any way to stop, at the time. This was the early 1950s. A huge amount of change happened in medicine about then. I remember standing in line with the entire family getting the first polio vaccine. I went to school for 12 yrs with a girl with polio and had 2 friends moms with it. If it didn’t kill you it made your life a living hell. Everyone I knew had measles, all the childhood diseases. We called them that because all the kids had them. Highly contagious, nasty things they were. I had a nasty side effect from measles I got at 7. It’s possible to be the cause of things I suffer from today, over 60 yrs later, connections have been shown.
Had aunt and uncle, gone now but they had a child of 6 months die on them. They had another child and then a year later my aunt passed away in her early 40s. A total of 5 kids, 4 still living. It wasn’t all that unusual or unheard of. It wasn’t just farmers, it was everyone.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Immanentize: for what it’s worth, in some indigenous American traditions, leaving the world on the same day one entered is considered a characteristic of great and powerful spirits who choose to become human for a time.
Citizen Alan
@germy:
I cannot wait for the truth to come out about how much money Saint Bernie was getting from the Russians under the table. I want to rub it in the faces of every Bernie Humper I know that they helped shitgibbon get elected through their support of a bunch of traitors and fake progressives. And I hope Crooked Jane dies in prison.
Steeplejack
@MomSense:
It’s strange how some random thing that probably seems ordinary to an adult, if it is even remembered, can have a profound effect on a kid.
Steeplejack
Okay, I’m back in my modest rooms in Threadkill Lane after the very nice brunch at Sighthound Hall. Good people, good food, and the mimosas were flowing like water. About 15 people, plus a handful of shrieking three-year-olds running up and down the stairs to the basement (an impregnable kid-safe zone) and drawing prison tats on one another’s arms with colored markers (washable, allegedly).
Soft but steady rain all day. Quite pleasant, really. This is the most sustained rain we have had here in NoVA in months. On the way to Sighthound Hall it was coming down very hard, so I had to put the doughty Kia’s windshield wipers on high for only about the fourth time in the 6½ years I have owned it.
It’s already down to 61°, still raining softly, with that bottle-green overcast that says, “You know, a bit of a snooze wouldn’t go amiss right about now.” Might do that in a bit. Opened the windows for the breeze and the rain smell; will close them when the interior humidity passes 100%.
Had to feed the housecat and let her sniff my forearms for latent dog-whiff. She gave me a bit of side-eye—which didn’t interfere with eating, let’s get that straight—and she has already settled down at her workstation to resume her afternoon nap.
opiejeanne
@Steeplejack: Threadkill Lane is a jolt to my memory, although you may have made that up and the memory is of a slightly differently named farm: Thrailkill Farm. My grandfather rented the farm and house for a few years when my mother was very young. The house is gone now but I have a photo of it after it was abandoned sometime in the early 70s. Not a prepossessing place.
chris
@J R in WV: Bunchberry is related to dogwood. In the fall there will be little red berries.
It’s after midnight and one degree Celsius here in Halifax. Good night all