It’s been a shit week politically, and I have cycled through anger to whitehotkillthemall to GBCW to fuckthemall to imtakingsomeoneoutwithme all week, and I imagine many of you have, as well. I did a little self care today and went and got a pedicure, which I had not done in several months because all my money is going to chemo, dirt, and mulch, and then I got a nice haircut, took a cool shower to beat the heat and a nice nap, ate some tacos, and I am going to share my dessert.
Two weeks ago, I posted the story about my good friend Nikki, who had two feline overlords who needed a new home because Nikki decided she was a breeder several years ago and had a kid and then apparently decided to have another. It’s not that I have anything against kids, mind you, they can be cute and interesting, but they are needy little pricks, and then once they get interesting they grow up and become people and we all know how I feel about people. Kittens, on the other hand, become cats, so it’s like going from ubercute to awesome. At any rate, one of the little shits was diagnosed with severe allergies to cats, so Nikki, in her shortsightedness, decided to keep the kid and find a new home for the cats.
At any rate, several of you reached out and said “if no one else will,” which was super sweet, but we wanted them to go to someone who aggressively wanted them. And we found someone. A long time lurker in Virginia reached out, he and Nikki spoke, and they met last Saturday for the hand-off. I am super pleased to report that things are going amazingly:
I brought Jozy and Chelsea back last Saturday. Jozy immediately laid claim to my kitchen table while Chelsea found a nook in between the kitchen cupboards that I didn’t know existed in the 8 months I’ve lived here!
The first week has gone extremely well. While the cats only picked at their food the first day they’ve been cleaning their plates ever since! I need to brush Jozy every day to keep from drowning in fur but he loves the attention. Chelsea was still a bit cautious around me but once or twice she hopped on my lap and she loves my windows!
Yesterday and today in particular have been big for me – Chelsea decided to wake me up this morning by climbing onto my chest as I slept and nibbling on my nose! Meanwhile Jozy has forgiven me after I vacuumed yesterday and has been splitting his time between his toys and scratching posts and giving me lessons in how to relax.
It certainly looks like these two have taken quickly to the training and discipline of their new servant. So, yes, people, even though the news is a giant flaming bag of shit on our collective front porches, at least we still have some minor good here and there. As sad as it is for Nikki and her husband, any time we can introduce an adult to the joys of cat ownership, some good has been accomplished.
And don’t get used to this shit, because given the way things are going, that’s probably the last fucking good news this summer so you might as well bookmark it now for future reference.
Omnes Omnibus
I sincerely doubt that you got a good haircut.
WereBear
Yay for happily re-homed kitties!
TenguPhule
@Omnes Omnibus:
Are you stealing my shtick now? //
NotMax
(bites lip determinedly, maintains stony silence)
Omnes Omnibus
@TenguPhule: Mocking Cole? Dude, that is a free fire zone.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
I have been my own barber for the past couple of years, and I do a perfectly acceptable all-over No. 2.
TenguPhule
The Koan of Cole.
MazeDancer
How fabulous! Happy kitties look so at home. Just lovely.
schrodingers_cat
Yay kittehs! I see a baby bunny and a momma bunny in my yard. Very cute.
TenguPhule
Is it me or is the top cat photo really fucking fat?
SiubhanDuinne
This is why I love Balloon Juice. What a happy story.
HinTN
My cats were pissed that I’ve been gone al week. Got home and there was a massive caterwauling “fight” which was sound and fury signifying nothing. Now one is hunkered down with me and the other, who ignored Mrs. H is settled in with her.
Cats!!!
John Cole
@TenguPhule:
I don’t think I like your tone, buddy.
germy
There’s a great cat food commercial currently running that shows a wild lynx doing some wild moves, and then a house cat doing the same moves.
The point of the commercial is that a wild beast is in your house, and needs quality protein.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: ::Shutters::
H/t CS.
Amir Khalid
Which of course means being owned by one cat or more, and not the other way around as many still appear to believe.
NotMax
@TenguPhule
Did someone say Top Cat?
:)
HinTN
@John Cole: Misquoting Frank Zappa, “Who are the tone police?”
germy
@NotMax: He got rebooted a few years ago.
youtube.com/watch?v=u1xz-204-QU
TenguPhule
@John Cole:
I live in Hawaii. Brown is pretty much the dominant tone here.
Unless you’re Caucasian, then its lobster red.
Teddys Person
I love a story with a happy ending:-D
Mnemosyne
I got to snuggle a shy kitten at lunchtime today. It was awesome and brightened up my week. Sadly, since I already have 3 cats at home (and 2 of them have expensive medical issues), the kitten could not come home with me. 😢
JMG
John, thanks for the pictures and happy story. IF I may be forward, in the apparently unlikely (you never know) event you become a parent, you will be a great one, and frankly, anticipation of your parent raps (the terrible twos! comedy gold!!) make me root for this outcome every day.
Amir Khalid
One thing I really need to learn now is how to set up a Stratocaster with a floating trem. Can a knowledgeable jackal help me out?
HILFY
@TenguPhule: It’s you. Jozy is a normal looking very long-haired cat. You, however, are being picky in a situation that calls for joy.
Mary G
@Omnes Omnibus: Don’t you start that, too.
It is soul satisfying to know that two beloved cats got a great new home together through Balloon Juice and that there is still (I consider this more than minor) good in the world. Thanks long-term lurker in Virginia; please send in more photos as often as you can; we need them.
chris
I don’t really believe in karma but this story from the BBC made me scare the cats.
Wisconsin man! Upskirt shoe camera explodes! Sadly it did not blow his foot off.
Amir Khalid
@TenguPhule:
That’s not fat, that’s floof.
Amir Khalid
@chris:
Was it by any chance a Samsung camera?
SiubhanDuinne
@TenguPhule:
He is not fat, he is FLOOFY. Try to kee up with All Internet Traditions, will you please?
ETA: Oops, sorry Amir @#28!
A Ghost To Most
Good to hear. I asked my wife, who seems in no hurry to go from 2 imperious rulers to 4.
The cat we adopted in the wake of Tunch’s passing 5 (!) years ago has become my fierce friend, and is the only cat I’ve had that routinely uses a pillow for her head, as intended. So good things sometimes come from shit situations.
Amir Khalid
@chris:
Also too, he turned himself in to the cops, which shows contrition on his part.
🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷
Quick question: when is it actually appropriate to rule against precedent if you’re a Supreme Court justice? Plessy v. Ferguson and Dred Scott v. Sandford were once upon a time law. Were these only overturned by constitutional amendments and legislation?
Steve in the ATL
@Amir Khalid: hell yes! Let me check flights.
Mike in NC
Terrific new six part series streaming on Netflix. “Secret City” is sort of an Australian version of “House of Cards”. Cast includes Anna Torv (“Fringe”) and Jackie Weaver. We got hooked halfway through the first episode.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Rotating tag line right there.
HILFY
Blessings on the anonymous Virginian who was so good as to adopt Chelsea and Jozy. That’s such a good deed that the FSM will surely reward him. Brushing a long-haired cat can turn into a Zen experience, increasing the brush wielder’s peace and contentment. And the cat will love you for it.
eclare
Great news to read!
Omnes Omnibus
@🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷: When you chose to do it. The recency of a decision can protect it, but a justice is free to interpret as he or she chooses. BTW, the explicit overruling of Korematsu was actually good thing in a bad decision.
Steeplejack
Reposting this from this morning for the evening shift: an extremely useful tweet thread on coping with the deluge of bad news. All credit to Obdurodon, who put it up on a dead thread from last night.
Jeffro
Here’s something to add to the feel-good thread: An Explosion Is Coming. (subtitle: Dana Milbank has joined the #Resistance and I think his hair is past his collar at this point)
Dana…is that a threat?
Because frankly I am heartened if it is.
geg6
Oh yay, good news! I really needed this.
SiubhanDuinne
@John, top:
I am an Old, and when I was a kid we had spaces between words.
Was reading those as “white hot kill the mall” and “fuck the mall,” and I was picturing you hanging out at suburban shopping centers.
🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷
@Omnes Omnibus:
This reminds me of when I was a Supreme Court justice in a mock trial we had in AP Government. One of the cases we had involved gay marriage. This was 2013, I believe. Out of the 4 or 5 “judges”, I was the only one who ruled in favor for gay marriage. The guy arguing against gay marriage was a real conservative dick; on the football team, and talks in a soft monotone all the time. Every other justice was a conservative catholic kid, so it makes sense.
RedDirtGirl
@TenguPhule: Exactly!
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: I am waiting to see him defend his haircut.
RedDirtGirl
@TenguPhule: It’s just you.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
I must admit, I am not entirely in disagreement with these sentiments.
Omnes Omnibus
@🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷: I was Louis XVI in an IB history re-enactment of his trial if that helps. I was convicted.
eclare
@SiubhanDuinne: I wondered what was going on at the mall, too!
khead
Anyone else have Comcast issues today? We sure did in MD. So did a lot of other folks across America. Now, I’m usually not one to wrap my head in tinfoil and preach conspiracy theories, but I am wondering if Comcast is being subjected to a DOS attack. Story today is that someone in NC cut some cables, but Comcast had a similar problem earlier in June. A lot of the areas affected today also lost their phone service on June 6.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Improved that for you, do admit.
chris
@Amir Khalid:
He got treated for burns and I’d guess that the ER people gave him little choice. No mercy for creepers!
CliosFanBoy
meh, I prefer adults. Kids are messy,. noisy, and gross. ick.
Teddys Person
@🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷: INAL but Brown v Board of Education (seperate = unequal) replaced Plessy. The 14th amemdment took care of Dred Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@khead:
I think Alain posted in a dying thread downstairs that he was having Comcast problems, but I assumed that was just his Swiss way of telling us we were on our own for the weekend vis-à-vis unsticky nyms and related FYWP problems.
Roger Moore
@🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷:
It’s appropriate to overturn precedent when you think there’s a genuinely good legal reason for doing so and you think the problems caused by overturning it will be less than the problems of letting it stand.
The example I know of where the Court let a bad decision stand (though stripped of value as a precedent) is Federal Baseball, which gave MLB its antitrust exemption. The Court later upheld the decision in Toolson but declared it an anomaly, telegraphing that nobody else could use it as a precedent, and encouraging Congress to eliminate it legislatively. The argument the Court used to uphold it even though they thought it was bad law was that overturning it judicially would retroactively expose MLB to anti-trust suits for actions it had taken with a good faith belief it was exempt. Overturning the exemption legislatively would only affect things prospectively, so it wouldn’t have the same problem.
Skepticat
Thank goodness I didn’t see this earlier, as though I adore my three Holsteins (black-and-white Royal Bahamian potcats), I’ve wanted another Maine coon since my beloved Bigelow succumbed to a brain tumor, and Jozy looks so much like him. Congratulations on being smart enough to scarf up these fabulous felines. Enjoy enjoy enjoy.
Please, let’s pretend this is how things are going.
RedDirtGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: That is what I read as well. Thanks for setting me straight. As a related aside, I was in college in the early eighties, when most of us were still using typewriters. My dad, the professor, wanted to show off his new computer toy and had me write a paper on it. Then he got bold and decided to add pagination. When we printed it out, the 5 page paper was one long word. No punctuation, no spaces between letters, not even any capital letters, if I remember correctly. Fun times…
Pleased to report that my dad, although still in the hospital with a lung infection, has stabilized and is enjoying all the attention he is getting there. The daughter that lives near by is with him, and I will visit him soon. Thanks again for all the positive thoughts yesterday.
RedDirtGirl
@khead: I’m in Brooklyn and am having internet issues…
The above lurker
Hi – anonymous Virginia lurker slash new kitty servant checking in! Thanks for the kind words – Jozy and Chelsea are absolutely wonderful cats! John and Nikki were absolutely wonderful in getting everything set so many thanks to them!
While Jozy is a big guy it’s mainly fluff – he’s about 12lbs so big but not monstrous.
Anybody with the Fairfax Democrats? We’re planning to meet tomorrow for the DC protest.
🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷
@Omnes Omnibus:
LOL. I also got to be a Soviet judge. Can’t remember if it was for a show trial or not. The person was accused of treason of course. I got to pretty much do whatever I wanted, including cutting off testimony by the accused and their lawyer.
Does absolute power corrupt absolutely or does it only reveal the flaws underneath?
Elizabelle
Those cats are living large. Happy to hear a success story.
@Amir Khalid: Three guitars! Wow.
schrodingers_cat
Mr Jowls of Concern and Mr Humble Brooks were discussing politics on the Snooze Hour, their hot take was that the Supreme court nomination will energize the R base. At the beginning of the program R whisperer Judy Woodruff had a WH spokesbot come and lie through his teeth about immigration. Snooze Hour has gone from bad to worse.
Elizabelle
@RedDirtGirl: Good to hear your dad is stabilized. I hope he is out and about before too long, but healthy when that happens.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: Yeah, I loved seeing Milbank’s column today. And he is right.
A Ghost To Most
@Jeffro: Who are you, and what have you done with Dana Milbank? Maybe the chinchilla is wearing off.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Many here speculate about the worst Rs can do. We know what they want to do and they are terrible. But I take issue with the assumption that they will be able to get away with everything they want inflict on us. I agree with Dana M.
rikyrah
The cats are so cute 😍😍
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: Perfectly said.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: I stayed off the news today for just that reason. Cannot listen to The Conventional Wisdom about the Supreme Court, when we live in such unconventional times. Did catch a few newsbreaks. NPR seemed to always lead with the Capital Gazette murders. Occasionally they’d have El Trump saying something in response, but couldn’t tell you what since fingers in ears immediately.
Osmosis and scanning newspaper sites is enough news without Bobo breaking it all down for us.
They really. really. don’t get it.
🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷
@schrodingers_cat:
I seriously doubt the Supreme Court is going to energize the R base if it couldn’t energize us when it mattered.
A Ghost To Most
@schrodingers_cat: I hope you are right, but I grew up with the worst of these people. I am not as sanguine.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Yes. And participating in public protests is energizing. People will catch on to that.
schrodingers_cat
@A Ghost To Most: I am not sanguine. I don’t think that they are ten feet tall and super smart and never make any mistakes. They are overreaching and it will backfire.
Omnes Omnibus
@A Ghost To Most: So fight them.
Elizabelle
@A Ghost To Most: My condolences. But what can the worst of these people do? They have one vote each, or so it’s supposed to go. They can donate money, a lot, but grassroots work and fervor go a lot further.
I guess they can shoot. But what else can they do? Are they getting younger by the day?
Jeffro
@A Ghost To Most: I know, right? He is seriously sorta kinda pi$$ed!
Let’s welcome him with mostly open arms
🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷
@schrodingers_cat:
-Joseph Stalin
As much a piece of shit he was, he was right about this.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Samsung cameras are just fine, if you can find one(they got out of the camera bidness).
Faction
My cat Dusty and I have been trying to get to the bottom of how this terrible thing happened to my wife’s mousepad and mouse, but so far it’s a complete and utter fucking mystery.
(John Cole, this can go in the calendar, right?)
Amir Khalid
@Elizabelle:
I’m a little surprised too. I wasn’t intending to get a Strat so soon after Sister. But I saw it online at an irresistibly low price — US$73, less half the retail price of Fender’s cheapest Strat. I know stocks had to be very limited for a discontinued series, so I made my move. She’s the colour I wanted, she plays good, she sounds like a proper Strat. I’m very happy with Lady.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: Get help.
B.B.A.
The few thinking right-wingers I interact with are convinced Roberts will flake out on abortion just like he did on the ACA. If the Supreme Court bans abortion, they say, what reason would Evangelicals have to vote Republican?
Glad to see doom-and-gloom is a human universal.
Amir Khalid
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
You mean they don’t explode like a certain Samsung phone was infamous for? The original story should have mentioned the camera brand as a matter of pubic safety.*
I know it should be “public safety”, but the typo seemed so apt.
CaseyL
Excellent news! Kitties get a good home = joy.
As some of you know, I volunteer at PAWS. Every week I meet kitties I want to bring home. Last week, we had five or six unbelievably sweet, affectionate adult kitties (who got little to no attention because this is Kitten Season) and I’ve been seriously thinking about adopting one of them. The only thing giving me pause (heh) is that the boy I’ve got my eye on has been declawed (NOT by PAWS, but by his previous human) and I have two kitties already, who will hate him on sight, and cats with no claws bite more in compensation when they fight. In short, if I bring Max home, I predict an ongoing feline war, punctuated by regular vet visits.
So. I don’t know what to do.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
I have sought help (#24), and Steve in the ATL has very kindly offered it.
A Ghost To Most
@Elizabelle:
I’m not resigned, defeated, or afraid. Mostly, I am pissed beyond discussion, and ready to go.
I have no business attempting to persuade others; I leave that to you folks.
I am looking into a back room tech position for Jared Polis. Much more in my wheelhouse, and away from impressionable voters.
Omnes Omnibus
@B.B.A.:
I see that you have chosen to go troll again. You admitted it before. Say you aren’t doing it now.
maya
Fortunately I have been litterally swarmed by another interest that helps keep my BP under control…. Typically I feed a few Annas and Alan hummingbirds at the two feeders I have. Done this for over thirty years. Those two species are native to my part of NorCal but, almost every year now, since about 10 years ago, at the end of June the Rufous Luftwaffe arrives, disrupts the feeding habits of the former two species and provides quite the display in raw animal power in flared tails and chittering that never stops. I have no idea of the numbers but there’s about 30-50 HBs all together.
The Rufies stay for around two weeks and then leave as quickly as they arrived.
These smallest of HBs range from Alaska to as far south as Baja, a distance of over 2000 miles, which they cover in a normal migratory year. AB SO LUTE LEE IN CRED A BULL!
Here’s a few pics of the action. The Rufies are the brown ones. imgur.com/a/IHnKUbq
Enjoy.
Omnes Omnibus
@A Ghost To Most: Good, do what you can do..
Jim Parish
@🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷: Plessy v. Ferguson, according to what I’ve read, was never actually overruled. There was a series of decisions, culminating in Brown v. Board of Education, which constricted the meaning of “separate but equal”; the Brown ruling simply declared that “separate but equal” was impossible. (Ref: Andrew Kull, The Color Blind Constitution.)
CarolDuhart2
twitter.com/CindyOtis_/status/1012488916178436096
Aleta
@maya: WOW thank you. Beautiful motion.
B.B.A.
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, go fuck yourself. I can’t enjoy the fact that my enemies are just as despondent as I am?
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid: Lady sounds wonderful. A Strat. You have to admit, Fender knows how to name their guitars. Stratocaster. Telecaster. They sound dangerous.
CapnMubbers
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s how I read it too, didn’t read as “them” until your comment. Very puzzled by mall-killing!
Jager
Friday is trash day up in the canyon. I have to roll the cans about 500 yards to the pickup spot. I always take Anze the Dog with me. He always shits on the way down and on the way back. The 2nd movement always comes when we’re halfway back, I pick up and I’m faced with walking a bag of German Shepherd shit back to the trash cans or putting it aside for later deposit. Today I walked it back and he shit again! No bags. I used a stick and created a shit-ka-bob. At least it wasn’t in the yard. Oh, I forgot, I thought it was recycle Friday and it was Green day, had to pull the recycle bin back up the hill full. All of that and he lost his ball, I can’t see worth a shit without my contacts, he has a better nose than I do and somehow I’m the one who finds the ball. Is Anze fucking with me or what? .
🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) 🗳 🌷
@B.B.A.:
He probably thought the “doom and gloom” comment was trolling
CarolPW
@CaseyL: Feliway MultiCat. It worked a miracle for mine when I was distraught about them fighting much of the night. The instigator was the male Iraq cat beating up on the female sweetheart cat (who was twice his size and 10 times more furred so he actually wasn’t able to do her any damage). I got it and the next day peace descended on the household. It was astonishing and I highly recommend it.
He was found as a kitten in Baghdad during a bombing so he had reason to be such a shithead. He has, alas, passed on and I miss him (as does the sweetheart cat and the dog). He was a great cuddle when he wasn’t being a shithead.
A Ghost To Most
@maya: That sounds amazing. The Roufus’ can be bullies here in CO.
My crazed scrub Jay is back at it again. Got to go chase it off.
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
It’s just you, that cat is normal.
PS: My nym and email is posted here in this thread, also. Linux Ubuntu 14.04, Firefox 60.0.2… everything seems to be working OK.
Hurray!!! three cheers for Alain!!!
Ruckus
Someone made a comment yesterday or this morning, I have no idea, that they have been getting a lot of emails.
Just now I cleared out the new arrivals. 41 emails in 12 hrs. 38 of them asking for money. I know it’s a help but it seems like the only thing that dems are doing is asking for money. And who does this triple and quadruple matching shit? Some rich guy, or is it just bullshit?
CapnMubbers
@maya: Thanks for the pics! I miss the hummingbirds this year; one of the wretched ruminants that infest the yard learned to tilt the hummer feeders with its nose and lick the sugar water off until they’re empty.
And they drink the bird baths dry. Birdwatching enticements fail.
Amir Khalid
@Elizabelle:
Maybe you know the story about the Telecaster name. Fender launched it in 1951 and called it the Broadcaster. Fred Gretsch threatened to sue for copyright violation because his company made (and still makes) an instrument called a Broadkaster — a drum kit. You can imagine the potential for confusion there. So for a few months Fender sold the world’s first good solid-body electric guitar without a model name. It was nicknamed the Nocaster. Until they slightly altered the name, to Telecaster. Incidentally, Gretsch’s own guitars are nowadays distributed by Fender.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Add another voice saying you were not alone in that.
joel hanes
@NotMax:
kittens
_Spacetime_For_Springers_ by Fritz Lieber
baen.com/Chapters/9781625791207/9781625791207___2.htm
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Remember when Thatcher kicked the bucket and people freaked out because they thought the hashtag #thatcherisdead referred to Cher?
Shades of the Pen Island URLs.
A Ghost To Most
@A Ghost To Most: Well, that’s new. Crazy scrub Jay knocked an apple from the tree I was standing under. Ha, he missed!
NotMax
@A Ghost To Most
Are there little feathered judges standing off to the side, holding up placards with scores on them?
;)
maya
@CapnMubbers: I suspend the feeders from the eaves along the deck by a foot or so. That way no animals can get at them and they are easy to fill and refill, like I have to now. There was a local HB feeder who took a good photo of a bear tilting and drinking the sweet stuff – called it a hummingbear.
efgoldman
@Ruckus:
Having done on air begging for public broadcasting (radio and TV) as well as major and minor arts organizations, the money is real, the mysterious benefactors are not. The money is already in the bank.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: All of my pics are shot on Samsung Camreras(NX500, NX300, and the Note 8).
Barbara
@Amir Khalid: You might enjoy reading this. Trying to decide whether to go. washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/music/guitar-royalty-bring-their-masters-of-the-telecaster-concert-…
Steeplejack
I would love to know where Alain got his information that “very few” people used the Recent Comments module. I found it invaluable to get a read on where people were commenting or if the whole place was dead—important info in the silent reaches of Balloon Juice After Dark.
I’m sure that the module was dreadfully written and was taking up a lot of resources, but I hope when the current crisis is resolved that a workable substitute can be found.
That said, things seem to be pretty slow here, so I guess it’s German cop show Tatort with a side of Perry Mason for me. Back in a bit.
SiubhanDuinne
Okay, this is funny (according to a commenter at Wonkette, so WOAH IF TRUE!)
It seems Variety are stupid and ignorant. One of their writers wrote a piece that properly and accurately used the word “Dickensian,” but because Variety are stupid and ignorant, the copy editors changed it to “D***ensian.”
LOL, Li’l Marco would be so proud!
SiubhanDuinne
@CapnMubbers:
Quick O/T note to let you know that the Asimov G&S arrived in very good shape, and I am thrilled to have it! Will email/write soon.
Keith P.
My ubercute kittens are currently crashed out intertwined on the loveseat next to me in my office. I’ve never had cats that were this eager of lap cats or eager to get belly rubs nor that are just this damn cute. And they have the added benefit of being gorgeous (one looks like a tiny white tiger, and the other one is a manx)
Steeplejack
@Keith P.:
What happened with your adult cat? You seemed remarkably casual about its disappearance earlier.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
I knew an eminent Malaysian, the CEO of the country’s first ISP, who habitually pronounced “country” as “count tree”, I presume to avoid uttering a profanity.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
No go on Tatort. Have to actively watch it (for the subtitles), which doesn’t suit my mood, plus it’s one I have seen already.
Colbert’s off on vacation, so I guess it will be vintage Perry Mason and then the DVR backlog later.
MomSense
@NotMax:
My kids used to tell bullies about this cool website called pen island dot com and then they would get in trouble for visiting that site when they turned their school laptops in for regular checks.
Internet has been spotty all day but then we lost power earlier with a big thunderstorm. The power came back on but not cable/internet. It’s been a weird day.
Amir Khalid
@Barbara:
I can no longer read The Washington Post. The Post demands I pause Adblocker to read an article, and when I have done that it still refuses to let me read it. So fuck the fucking Washington Post.
Keith P.
@Steeplejack: She hasn’t shown up yet. I’m assuming one of my neighbors took her in, since she was outside for a couple of days and usually sleeps inside for a full day after that. I’ve posted to Nextdoor but got no hits, so I’m putting up signs tomorrow. I’ve lost a couple of other cats this way, but the others were dog-friendly, so I always suspected they got killed. But this latest one was way too cautious and too good of a climber for that (plus she never went beyond an adjacent house). This is the longest she’s been gone, though (48 hours)
@Amir Khalid: You should be able to read the WaPo in Privacy Mode
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne:
The rooster crows at dusk.
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack:
I too was surprised to read that. Recent Comments was very useful, even if it was hard on database resources.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: I miss recent posts too.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Same thing happens to me (Firefox, Win10). The only way I can see WaPo stories is if I open them in an incognito tab on my phone or tablet (both Chrome, Android). No problems there. Go figure.
Amir Khalid
@Keith P.:
That’s precisely where I get caught in the “Suspend Adblocker” thing.
efgoldman
@Amir Khalid: @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: JUST FIX THE FUCKING NYMS, ALREADY!!!
maeve
@Amir Khalid:
Yep – I subscribe but I had to add washingtonpost to my white list – it only seemed to affect me when I viewed series of photos when it would stall and not proceed if there was an ad. I only have adblocker because of sites that download tons of ads with videos that slow down the whole site, so it didn’t seem a big deal to add wapo to my whitelist.
Keith P.
@Amir Khalid: Ah, interesting..I run Adblocker and MS Edge but always read WaPo in privacy mode with no issues.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
I hope I’m never near him in a restaurant when he orders shiitake mushrooms.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: That too.
efgoldman
@efgoldman: Killed another thread, I did. Also got a time out error
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Did a hard refresh(CTL-refresh button) and the nyms stuck. Maybe there’s hope.
Yarrow
Cute kitties! Glad they’ve found a great home.
@Steeplejack: I liked recent comments as well. As you said, it was a good way to see where comments were happening.
Yarrow
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: I think the nyms time out after X amount of time. Seems to be somewhere between 15-30 minutes. I find I can open several tabs and my nym will still be there even on a new post that I haven’t commented on previously, but if I don’t stay on Balloon-Juice for whatever the magic amount of time is, then when I return my nym and email will be gone.
Yarrow
@Amir Khalid: On Chrome I have deleted WaPo cookies and found I can read it fine even with an adblocker. Not privacy/incognito mode, though.
Platonailedit
maga is going great.
cwmoss
@SiubhanDuinne: Seems like forever since the Alabama senate election.
Platonailedit
wtf? you have to do now captcha crap on top of every other fubar just to post?
Keith P.
I take it the auto-play ads on this site are a permanent addition? While I do appreciate the 5 minute or so delay before they start playing, I keep enough tabs open and watch enough *actual* video content that I’m about ready to start reading this site in Reading mode just for sanity (the web has gotten damn near unusable for me, and I’m a damn UI programmer!)
NotMax
Boy, the production company opening credits on movies are getting longer and more CGI-intricate than ever (sometimes they’re more entertaining than the movie turns out to be). Here’s one have recently seen which is overflowing with cute.
Steeplejack
@Keith P.:
As a programmer, you should be able to harness the power of Adblock (or similar) to nuke the autoplay ads. If you are using a phone or tablet for which an ad blocker is not available, it doesn’t take five minutes to stop the playing of the ads, more like 30 seconds. And on the mobile version of the site, the one autoplay ad doesn’t appear on every page.
Yes, the autoplay ads are a fucking nuisance, and they have been “permanent” for months now. But it is reported that Cole is looking into alternatives and/or remedies.
NotMax
@Keith P.
Multiple ways to block them.
Give Privacy Badger a try if you don’t care to go whole hog with AdBlocker and/or NoScript or the like. Compact and extremely user friendly (and free), from our friends at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Good opening credits here: Deadpool.
Ruckus
Now this is strange.
On the home page the number of comments for this post is 141 and it will not refresh and show the number of comments, which I can see as 146.
I’ve done a forced refresh for the BJ tab and still show 141 comments on the home page.
Weirder still, now the home page shows 148 but when I click to open the post it only shows 146 until I refreshed it.
This is the worst I’ve seen it in the last few days.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: I think it comes down to a cache and cookie problem. I guess they’ll remain unresolved until next month.
NotMax
@Ruckus
At least for me, the number of comments shown with any given post on the front page after a refresh performed there has been one less than the actual number on its comment page for well over a week now.
Keith P.
@Steeplejack: The last thing I want to spend my leisure time doing is installing a bunch of fucking nuisance-handling software on my personal machine; just because I troubleshoot software for a living doesn’t mean I want to troubleshoot software in my evenings. And by the way, I do actually run AdBlock, but it does not stop the autoplaying ads on this site. And this goes to the concept of my leisure time – it’s real easy to say “Oh, just install this or that to solve *that* issue” but without knowing my machine setup, but given that there is no shortage of internet know-it-alls, my leisure time could very easily be taken up by installing and troubleshooting half a dozen little add-ons rather than just reading a fucking blog post.
Matt McIrvin
@Steeplejack: There’s a state of mind it’s easy to get into in which the “self-care” stuff we do to not completely destroy ourselves seems morally obscene or offensive. One of the most consistently depressive commenters on Slacktivist recently said he was starting to be offended by the cute-animal relief posts, as if people were trying to normalize the situation. Anything other than the total destruction of joy seems wrong. But staying in the “dark hole” isn’t particularly useful either.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I use Waterfox with AdBlock Plus and No Script, no problems. Since I rarely comment, my nym and email are usually gone but I just click in the box, press the first letter and select my nym/email. The number of posts and the number at the top match so no issue there.
No complaints here…
ruemara
Those are some happy cats. Another spectacular BJ pet and person story! I’m headed to Oakland with the housemate so he can do his audition and then he’s taking me to minigolf but I will wear white in solidarity with the marches. I can’t wait hear the rabble-rousing stories to come.
Mel
@ruemara: Have a safe drive tomorrow (today?)!
For what is your housemate auditioning? Fingers crossed for a great audition!
Steeplejack
@Keith P.:
Okay, one last comment from this Internet know-it-all and then you’ll hear no more.
In Adblock Plus, Options | Advanced | Edit Filters:
Add this line to your filter list:
That will nuke the Connatix ad that is causing pages to load interminably. You could even perform this quick edit while the Connatix ad is loading interminably. LO fucking L.
Adblock Plus should already be taking care of the Taboola and Ora.tv ads, if you’re using a relatively recent version.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Keith P.: Forget Adblock. uMatrix will allow you to block just the JavaScript that’s running the video ad.
Steeplejack
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Another Internet know-it-all heard from!
chopper
@SiubhanDuinne:
i hope they never have to write an obituary when dick van dyke dies.
“The D*** Van D*** Show, which ran for…”
BruceFromOhio
Such splendid creatures. The cats, that is.
This is why I read this blog every single day.
MagdaInBlack
I keep getting this message:
“godaddy server does not support secure connections”
??
Aleta
Great pictures–I like how they show the cats’ moods. The one of Chelsea being a shadow in the cupboard nook is priceless. Jozy showing off how well brushed and happy he is. He’s gorgeous. Thanks for the pictures.
Chelsea resembles my little gray-blue-tortie cat. She’s both nervous and outgoing in her own way. The nose thing is her pinnacle appreciative greeting.
Something I love about newcomer animals who’re already grownup is watching the layers come off over time, like flowering as they relax more and more. Even after years I’ll suddenly notice they’ve reached a deeper bloom.
I imagine these two being loved and cared for in their former life while making surprised adjustments to their space as the babies grew; and now they have a constant quiet place to expand into. Nikki seems like a person whose love is the huge selfless kind, rare, finding them a good place where they aren’t inhibited and allergens, so to speak.
Anyway they look very happy. Glad they are together.
Thanks again for this good story.