A follow-up to last week’s photos from ace photographer / commentor Ozark Hillbilly:
Forgot the Feng Shui character.
This, believe it or not, is stone, a piece of Potosi Dolomite I found on my land. It reminds me of a Chinese character (writing that is) and I like to think it is a blessing of Peace and Love on our 12.5 acres.
Bonus, some pics that didn’t make it into the first photo-essay:
***********
Here north of Boston, the ongoing HHH (hot, hazy, humid) weather means we’re *still* getting very few ripe tomatoes, and the cherry tomatoes are flowering madly but not setting fruit. Those few ruby / garnet / burgundy / golden jewels have been cherished, though!
New variety for us, this year: a hybrid from Burpee called Italian Ice. Even the Spousal Unit, not usually a fan of low-acid tomatoes, was pleasantly surprised that these guys have ‘real tomato flavor’… and they’ve been ripening up while my perennial heirloom favorite White Currants sulk.
What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?
arrieve
Great photos! I love the Feng Shui stone.
satby
Well, if the humidity would cease the weather would be downright pleasant around here. I’m supposed to do a fair at Notre Dame today at noon and I bailed on it yesterday, but if I decided to go anyway I know I still could. But, I have to mow the lawn, weed the raised beds, do laundry, and keep this clingy little bundle of fur company because she’s desperately lonely when she’s alone in my bedroom.
I’m hoping we can make room for her at the kitten whisperer’s house, because I don’t think just me and the toys I got for her are enough to fully socialise and amuse her. Especially since she can’t have the run of my house. She spends the entire night either jumping on or sleeping on me, kneading me with her sharp little claws, which leave hives because of my allergy. Then I have nightmares about fleas because I itch and wake up. ??
satby
Wait, what’s going on in the garden?. No idea.
@Ozark up top, beautiful flowers and the Feng Shui stone is wonderful!
NotMax
@satby
Yeah, the heat + humidity + vog has not a happy camper made. Ther’s a handful of days in the year when would really like to have A/C. This weekend is three of them.
raven
Nice OH. I drove through some agricultural areas on my way to the boat in Rhode Island last week and it looked like they were selling maters and corn! That stuff is pretty much over here.
NotMax
@raven
August used to be THE month for fresh corn back when resided in NE Pennsylvania.
satby
@NotMax: The market doesn’t have air conditioning, just ceiling fans, and most of us get our own fans too. Fans make it livable as long as you can just stay right in front of it. Hope Lane passing by blows some cleaner, dryer air your way without attending damage!
raven
@NotMax: Hell, Monday is the start of the third week of school here!
NotMax
@NotMax
Mid-August also signaled it was time for the annual fundraising carnival at the local one engine firehouse.
Most pathetic midway ever, the key reason to go was for the steamed clams. $!.50 for a mesh bag with two dozen of the succulent beauties.
ThresherK
@NotMax: On the Erie Canal Bicycle Tour one year we passed a firehouse carnival being setup.
The big attraction promised to be the Jaws of Life dismantling a small ~20-y.o. compact car. Signs promised they’d try to set a record time this year.
Wish I could have stuck around, but there were too many miles to go.
lahke
Good morning! I’m visiting in northern Vermont, and last night was almost chilly. Getting back to Boston will be a way to extend summer a little longer.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We accepted an offer on our house in Iowa yesterday. It was less than we paid for the house 20 years ago, but I want it off my mind, so I hope this goes through.
lahke
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Ouch, painful. 1998 was before the big housing bubble–was Iowa real estate hammered that badly that it hasn’t made it back to the 90s yet?
Hope it works out for you.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Still say you should have gone for the
arson for profit“terrible fire” scenario.Raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: how ya feeling?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@lahke: Our house would be at the high end of the market in our area, and the farm economy is shaky right now because of the tariffs. The big employer of engineers and executives there is John Deere and they’re not hiring at the moment because farmers are waiting to buy expensive equipment. At least, that’s my guess.
It’s funny how buying a house is kind of fun but selling one is a pain, even though you spend a lot when you buy and get money when you sell.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Damn, that kinda sucks.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Steeplejack (phone): Now you tell me. :-)
@Raven: I’m good. The last couple of days my head has suddenly felt clearer too.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: I tell myself we made money on the other two houses we owned, and you can’t win them all.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Glad you’re feeling better! Two out of three isn’t a bad profit record in house sales. At least it will be off your hands, so good luck!
I read somewhere a couple of years ago that economists think we have to stop thinking of owning house as a constantly increasing investment and return to thinking of it as a shelter primarily, because the exponential gains in most markets weren’t sustainable.
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
But I did! I guess I was too subtle.
Lapassionara
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Trade wars are fun and easy to win, or so someone has said.
We have moved fairly often and have gained on some houses, not on others.
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for the photos, O.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: I love the pictures!
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Even though you lost money, at least that is one property you won’t have to worry about.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
The pictures are lovely ?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: @JPL: Houses still seem to be skyrocketing in value in some areas, but they sure aren’t in Iowa. And yeah, as long as we owned that house, I felt like we hadn’t really moved completely, so it was hard to settle in.
@Steeplejack: I should have paid attention!
@Lapassionara: Every day, in every way, Trump makes all of us pay for his inadequacies.
p.a.
@raven: @NotMax: RI will get native sweet corn to Columbus Day. To me, the stuff grown by the saltwater is the best, but it’s all good.
WereBear
Great stuff, Ozark Hillbilly!
Even my hanging baskets are down to 2 and are not my usual extravagance. But it has been a great year for wildflowers, and I’ve been able to get out into the wild to see them.
OzarkHillbilly
By the way, Can anyone tell me what the 2nd flower is? That is one of my “mystery plants”. I saved all the packages of the various bulbs and roots I put in but now I can’t find them.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: looks like an allium of some kind.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: @satby: similar to this one?
https://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/329003-product.html
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Probably an allium, just not sure which.
debit
@satby: Yeah, it sounds like she needs some high energy kittens to play with. Ouch on the hives. Can you trim her little claws?
debbie
@satby:
It’s only a constantly increasing investment for banks, sadly.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m glad you’re starting to feel better. I really think that getting that house off your mind, even at a loss, will be a real help for you.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
OH, I really love that stone up top. There’s no better sculptor than Nature!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@NotMax:
Don’t you mean “steamed hams”?
Hunter
Regarding the feng-shui stone: the photo calls to mind the Sue Ling Gin Garden at Chicago’s Field Museum, which is where one exits the Cyrus Tang Hall of China exhibition: http://chinahall.fieldmuseum.org//east-garden
MomSense
I love your garden,OH.
MagdaInBlack
@Hunter:
I see I need to get back to The Field, its been awhile.
MagdaInBlack
I’m having real fun with this site loading today ?
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m wondering if it might be some kind of african lily, or maybe a cousin to it? (google african lily) I had some in 2 colors before the voles at the roots a couple of years ago. I seem to recall that sort of look before the flowers really start to open. Not an expert, just a thought since there’s a resemblance.
Hmm, then I googled white african lily and that looks nothing like your flower. If no one here figures it out, I can ask my master gardener friend.
JPL
@MagdaInBlack: careful with what you type, because the entire site could go kaput.
Another Scott
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It looks like several of the hot housing markets are slowing down. It’s good that you don’t have to worry about that any more! Enjoy the peace of mind.
Cheers,
Scott.
satby
@JPL: @MagdaInBlack: it’s been getting wonky.
I wonder how much is FYWP and how much is the hosting site.
Lapassionara
I have been outside for a while, digging up daylilies (the old fashion kind that spread like crazy), and a Monarch butterfly fluttered by. No camera nearby, unfortunately, but the sight lifted my spirits. Thank you, Mother Nature!
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: If it does, we’ll know who to blame.
WereBear
@satby: Aww, she sounds like an awesome gift for some lucky person. May she find that person.
schrodingers_cat
Kerala, the southernmost Indian state on the west coast is facing unprecedented monsoon floods. Death toll 324 and rising
WereBear
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Getting things off your mind can be just as valuable.
schrodingers_cat
Here’s some video from the Guardian
Kerala monsoon floods
Another Scott
Eclectablog:
This.
Charity and “volunteering” does not and cannot make up for adequate public funding. Of course we should give when we can. But we need to stop accepting these “heartwarming” stories and instead do much more to push-back against those who are destroying the commonweal by attacking the resources needed to keep it adequately supported.
(via LOLGOP on Twitter)
78 days to go. Eyes on the prize!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WereBear: @Another Scott: @debbie: The peace of mind is totally worth it to me.
My publisher has started posting the teasers for my new book, which several jackals helped me choose. Thanks, Jackals!
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: It’s a Chinese hoax.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@WaterGirl: I tried in the plant identification app I have on my phone. It came up with Sparaxis, which it says is in the Iris family.
I’m dubious. Flower looks similar, but the rest of the plant is totally different.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
Lovely fleurs, OH, which is no surprise.
Howdy all you jackals.
satby
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: hey lady! Glad to see you!
bk
Do you want some money to hire someone to fix your website? Cause it’s getting out of hand.
MagdaInBlack
@schrodingers_cat:
I just came from my corner gas station: the family that owns it has family members visiting back home in Kerala. As of yesterday they had not heard from them, but this morning I am happy to report they are all safe. They cannot get out, of course, but they are safe.
StringOnAStick
I had a nice veggie garden going, but 15 minutes of jail turned it to much. The landscape is all xeric and natives so after vacuuming up all the tree leaves it doesn’t look too bad and a few flowers remain for the hummingbirds. I saw one yesterday and that really lifted my spirits, I was afraid they’d all been killed by the hail. Judging from the dents in the deck, we may have to replace a less than 1 year old roof, unless these impact resistant shingles are tougher than I think they are. That’s two roof killing hail storms in 14 monthS
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat: I got up this morning and was looking at the sad international news about the flooding. Thanks for the link to the video.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat: I got up this morning and was looking at the sad international news about the flooding. Thanks for the link to the video.
suzanne
I keep coming back, hoping for a thread about Rudy Giuliani shitting the bed on Press the Meat this morning. Lord, make my enemies ridiculous, indeed.
OzarkHillbilly
@StringOnAStick:
Wow, that must be some kind of record for getting bail posted.
Brachiator
OK. Some site problems this morning. Will take a little break.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@suzanne: I read about “truth isn’t truth” elsewhere. Can’t wait to see what the talent on the intertubes does with that brand new meme.
debbie
@suzanne:
I googled and got NBC News’s report. I love this bit:
What, the woman’s name was Jane Smith?
JPL
@suzanne: I saw his performance, but later I hope to find the video online, and play it on mute. His facial expressions are a tell.
debbie
@JPL:
Here’s what I found.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@suzanne: I enjoy the garden threads and like to keep politics out of them, but it drives me nuts that this political blog never has an open thread for Sunday morning news.
suzanne
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Apparently Chuck Todd even said, “That’s gonna be a bad meme!” or something immediately upon hearing that fucking nonsense.
However, I hope everyone realizes that NOTHING is going to break the hold that Trump has on his base. He could be caught on video being fucked by Vladimir Putin and the sTrumpets would still blather about Hillary’s emails. They have to be driven back to complete electoral and cultural irrelevance by any means necessary.
suzanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Concur. I am completely overwhelmed at my “new” gig these days, and I’ve really only been able to participate on threads on the weekend. I wanna talk about political news on Sunday morning!
MagdaInBlack
Somewhat topical, I suppose: i also just got groceries at my neighborhood store, and, as always, heard little english spoken. I heard various Eastern European languages, various Indian languages/dialects ( forgive my ignorance here), Spanish, and from the cashier and myself, the only English. And ya know, I do not feel in the least intimidated or economically anxious : I consider it all a feature and I love it.
Another feature is the section of european and eastern european cookies and chocolate (!)
JPL
@suzanne: Rudy is involved in the leaks about Clinton coming from the NY FBI office, and he needs to stay buddies with the current administration. If the current administration goes down, he might follow.
scav
@OzarkHillbilly: But it’s interesting to learn that before one ets to draw a muchness, one apparently grow and briefly incarcerate it!
JPL
@debbie: nycsouthpaw twitter feed has the email stating that the meeting was about the Russian government’s aid in helping trump win. It’s unfortunate that Chuck didn’t inform Rudy.
schrodingers_cat
@MagdaInBlack: I have never understood what is so threatening about hearing Spanish or any other language besides English.
suzanne
@JPL: I do not have confidence that this administration is going to go down. I would love to be wrong. But I don’t see how it happens. If anything, I can see, after 2020 or 2024, a cultural push to forget this ever happened and a strong drive to let bygones be bygones. And we will be discouraged from holding Trump supporters accountable, even socially (I.e. “Don’t let politics divide us!” and shit like that).
Fuck that. I want Trump voters to experience the fullness of everything bad they ever rained down on everyone else. I wouldn’t be averse to preventing them from voting, just as we currently do to felons, because they have committed a serious crime against the country.
Yes, I’m bitter.
MagdaInBlack
@schrodingers_cat:
Nor do I.
I’m guessing its fear of anything different or “other.”
?
suzanne
@schrodingers_cat: People who grew up in a monoculture have a hard time.
Also, in the Joan Williams book that I have talked about here on multiple occasions, she points out that the WWC have only one high-status group membership—being American—and they seek very much to protect the advantages of that. (Even being white doesn’t confer much of a status advantage in her view, since they are lower in status than richer, urban, and more educated white people.) I should point out that if they wanted other high-status group memberships, they could go get them by going to college or moving to a city, but that doesn’t seem to occur to anyone.
JPL
@suzanne: Truthfully, I at the point where I’d rather not be at a social gathering where I know some support trump. I have been known to say whatever happened to the deficit. It seems like the media doesn’t even mention it again.
Anotherlurker
@raven: I forgot to ask, how was R.I. fishing?
BTW, sight very slow loading and it doesn’t remember my NYM and info. Mac OS 10.13.6
MagdaInBlack
@suzanne:
It is, of course, the monoculture: I grew up on a farm outside a North central Illinois town of 700. As much as I genuinely miss the rural life, The sameness and, yes, the whiteness of it all bores the life out of me.
But, for them, that sameness is security. No surprises, no questions, and no self-examination.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL: I’m listening to the Slate podcast about Clinton’s impeachment. The second episode gives background about the hyping of “scandals” like the haircut and the travel office, and they played a clip of some anonymous Republican bellowing about how Clinton’s tarmac haircut added to THE DEFICIT!
MagdaInBlack
Gah ? @ this site + my agong ipad.
MagdaInBlack
Gah ? @ this site + my aging ipad.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If the democrats take over the house, Fox news will spend hours a day talking about the deficit. imo
Trump’s tanning bed in the white house adds more to the deficit than Clinton’s haircut. I assume that tanning beds use a lot of electricity, but I have no direct knowledge of that.
Elizabelle
Happy Sunday, jackals. K-Thug is even more sick of the NY Times types, the totebaggers, than we are.
Paul Krugman, FTF NY Times: The Slippery Slope of Complicity
Actually, we’re seeing loud and clear what the press, pundits, and bothsider jackasses are all about too.
The “elite” press is as subject to careerism and complicity as the GOP of Krugman’s focus. We need to figure out a way around that, too. I wish they would be swept out too, when Trump and the GOP take their eventual fall.
L85NJGT
@suzanne:
Good points – though those that are young and capable do leave. That’s why so many of those butternut counties have negative population growth. If, say, a mine closes, the miners don’t hang around, they are on to the next work site. (Resource extraction has always been an itinerant lifestyle.) The young population goes off to college, or moves to a regional center for the jobs. This all further reinforces the isolation of the community in decline.
Corner Stone
@JPL:
I have an idea for a new diet plan that simply can’t fail. Anytime one feels the need to binge on goodies, simply understand that one of the videos Omarosa has is of Trump getting into and out of his tanning bed.
JPL
@Corner Stone: ick
debbie
@suzanne:
If I knew it wouldn’t get me punched in the face, I’d point out to the person complaining about someone not speaking English that they really weren’t either, what with their hick accens and (so-called) street lingo.
FlipYrWhig
@schrodingers_cat:
Even though this is going to sound incredibly stupid, I seriously think that a huge amount of the feeling of threat these people have derives from the concern that people speaking another language are talking *about them*, and probably disparagingly. In English they can always hear an insult. In another language there may be covert resistance.
debbie
@JPL:
That’s a tanning bed tan? I was sure it was sprayed on. The things I learn here!
Amir Khalid
@schrodingers_cat:
Remember, these are easily frightened people.
Amir Khalid
@FlipYrWhig:
It’s not just insults that these people think they’re going to hear, but terrorist plans being discussed in public. Yes, at the local grocery.
No One You Know
Gorgeous feng shui stone; exudes peace and balance.
The tomatoes are growing vigorously but not blooming very much, even now. The sunflowers, on the other hand, look like organ pipes crowned by spiky green globes. The squirrels appear to have eaten/moved/dug up the bulbs.
Ceci n est mon nym
@debbie: My grad school was in a town which hosted the annual State Fair in early September with all its rural types showing their farm animals and products. I remember some newly arrived Indian students telling me they’d gone to the Fair. “I thought I was fluent in English (which of course they were) but I couldn’t understand a word those people were saying to me!”
Ceci n est mon nym
Why am I in moderation?
MagdaInBlack
@debbie:
My response, which Ive not yet had to use, is “Why are you even listening to other peoples conversations?”
Gin & Tonic
@FlipYrWhig: I’ve actually found knowing another, less-popular, language in the US to be useful precisely for that reason. My wife and I have a couple, and when we want to bad-mouth somebody in a store or restaurant, voila. Also useful when buying a house or car.
Suzanne
@debbie: When I was in high school, Arizona was having a large debate about a law that required “English-only” education, which confined speaking of another language to foreign language classrooms and to special education settings in which the child didn’t speak English at all. It was of course bullshit, and it of course passed. Whatever.
There was also a push to go further, to make speaking English a requirement for voting, citizenship, etc. So I used to respond, “GREAT IDEA! In fact, let’s limit public participation to those who got higher than 700 on their SAT verbal. Or at least a B in AP English. How’d you do?”.
I got lots of stinkeyes.
Suzanne
@debbie: I’m a big supporter of reminding low-class stupid hicks that they are low-class stupid hicks. That’s because being a low-class stupid hick is a choice.
Gin & Tonic
@MagdaInBlack: I love listening to other people’s conversations, especially if I don’t know the language, to try to figure out what it is. If the conditions are right, I’ve even been known to ask them, if I haven’t been able to figure it out. I doubt I’d do that now, though – it’s far too likely to be taken the wrong way.
Corner Stone
@Gin & Tonic:
Just a few short years ago it was the rule at poke her tables that it be “English Only”. Ostensibly to curb outright cheating/collusion. How much did you and the wife take off unsuspecting monolanguage suckers?!
Yutsano
@Gin & Tonic: I was just in a hospital in Seattle for a doctor’s appointment. When I was walking through the lobby, I heard ALL KINDS of languages. And in all of them people were just communicating with their comrades and not giving mind to the slight chaos around them. I found to wonderful. I still haven’t figured out if one of them was Samoan, but odds are yes since there’s a large community in the area.
Amir Khalid
I peruse the English Premier League scores today, and I am dismayed. Manchester City have thrashed newly promoted Huddersfield Town 6-1. giving them six points from two matches and a +7 goal difference. Liverpool will need a second 4-0 win tomorrow, at Crystal Palace, to get a +8 goal difference and keep the lead. Meanwhile Manchester United’s 3-2 loss at Brighton suggests that its players have just about had it with manager Jose Mourinho.
Ceci n est mon nym
Help! I am in moderation purgatory!
Shell
I was a little agog, (tho why should I) when I saw that “truth isnt truth” quote. Is that the main reason why they have Guiliani on week after week? Hoping to see more of his floundering buffoonery? Why hasnt Trump told him to cheese it?
debbie
@Suzanne:
I remember when that was going on in Arizona, and I’m surprised you didn’t get more than looks. Though I suppose it was a politer time back then. //
Another Scott
A topical retweet:
Click through to see the .jpeg. Good, especially the comment “We believe that in the 21st Century nobody should be hungry!”
Bosna Market and Deli in Richmond, VA.
(via https://twitter.com/teampelosi )
Cheers,
Scott.
Corner Stone
@Shell:
Why would he do that? At one of his recent hate rallies Trump stood on stage and told the world that what they were hearing and what they were seeing is not true.
Amir Khalid
@Suzanne:
I speak fairly good English, but to American ears my accent is unmistakably foreign. Also too, I have brown skin. Would such people be scared of me?
debbie
@Another Scott:
Wish someone would post that, and all the others (like that dancing truck driver from yesterday), on Trump’s feed.
Suzanne
@Amir Khalid: Brown people who speak English with a Mexican accent are feared around here. Brown people with Asian accents are not. It would just be assumed that you work in the tech industry. :)
Aleta
A dog story by John Muir about Stickeen, who accompanied one of his guided trips (1880) to explore the glacial terrain of southern Alaska.
(No exact connection to the story, but here’s a photo of a terminus of (what’s now called) Muir glacier from around 1890 or so. Those were hot times for glaciology because from around 1860(?) on, some radical western scientists had begun to propose that the movement of glaciers rather than the biblical flood explained Scottish/northern US, etc. landscapes. Heretics!)
https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/repeat-photography-of-alaskan-glaciers/4/
From Muir’s beginning :
“Such a little helpless creature will only be in the way,” I said; “you had better pass him up to the Indian boys on the wharf, to be taken home to play with the children. This trip is not likely to be good for toy-dogs. The poor silly thing will be in rain and snow for weeks or months, and will require care like a baby.” But his master assured me that he would be no trouble at all; that he was a perfect wonder of a dog, could endure cold and hunger like a bear, swim like a seal, and was wondrous wise and cunning, etc., making out a list of virtues to show he might be the most interesting member of the party.
Nobody could hope to unravel the lines of his ancestry. In all the wonderfully mixed and varied dog-tribe I never saw any creature very much like him, though in some of his sly, soft, gliding motions and gestures he brought the fox to mind. He was short-legged and bunch-bodied, and his hair, though smooth, was long and silky and slightly waved, so that when the wind was at his back it ruffled, making him look shaggy. At first sight his only noticeable feature was his fine tail, which was about as airy and shady as a squirrel’s , and was carried curling forward almost to his nose. On closer inspection you might notice his thin sensitive ears, and sharp eyes with cunning tan-spots above them. Mr. Young told me that when the little fellow was a pup about the size of a woodrat he was presented to his wife by an Irish prospector at Sitka, and that on his arrival at Fort Wrangell he was adopted with enthusiasm by the Stickeen Indians as a sort of new good-luck totem, was named “Stickeen” for the tribe, and became a universal favorite; petted, protected, and admired wherever he went, and regarded as a mysterious fountain of wisdom.
On our trip he soon proved himself a queer character–odd, concealed, independent, keeping invincibly quiet, and doing many little puzzling things that piqued my curiosity. As we sailed week after week through the long intricate channels and inlets among the innumerable islands and mountains of the coast, he spent most of the dull days in sluggish ease, motionless, and apparently as unobserving as if in deep sleep. But I discovered that somehow he always knew what was going on.”
http://reprints.longform.org/stickeen-the-story-of-a-dog
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
I greatly enjoyed watching Brighton’s upset of United. It took away a bit of the sting of my team, Newcastle, snatching a draw from the jaws of victory yesterday by missing a PK in the final minute. W.T.F.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Testing, testing
A Ghost To Most
@Corner Stone:
Anybody know how to juice a tanning bed? Asking for a friend.
frosty fred
@OzarkHillbilly: No one seems to have suggested Ornithogallum yet, but that’s what the black central “bead” says to me. There are a number of species and cultivars, a few of them in shades of yellow and orange but green and white is more usual.
Suzanne
@debbie: I was a teenage girl at the time. Mouthy, yes, but I had the it’s-not-socially-acceptable-to-kick-her-ass privilege, so I used it.
I should note that Spawn the Younger goes to bilingual school and Spawn the Elder is currently taking Spanish and Mr. Suzanne is a bilingual SLP in our school district because FUCK ENGLISH ONLY.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I had three comments in moderation for no discernible reason. They are now out of moderation… BECAUSE THEY’VE BEEN DELETED ENTIRELY!
debbie
@Suzanne:
I’ve always loved your attitude. I had the same (stomping around in 1968 with a red armband and a “Fuck Nixon” sign on my notebook), but I spent many hours in detention because of it.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: Love the Bosna market people. They’re wonderful. Good food, too.
Amir Khalid
@Steeplejack:
Newcastle is suffering from an arsehole owner who won’t let the club bring in badly-needed new players, forcing Rafa Benitez to hold things together with spit and baling wire. Maybe he resents Rafa’s popularity with the fans, and is trying to provoke a resignation.
Suzanne
@debbie: I’m not a very nice person. I don’t like stupid people and I’m not good at indulging them. Oh well.
Aleta
@debbie: I’d love to hear those stories.
schrodingers_cat
@Amir Khalid: You are right they inhabit the land of the perpetually frightened.
schrodingers_cat
@FlipYrWhig: That’s what TenguPhule said when this topic came up earlier. I don’t think that’s always true. When my husband and I speak, we are usually conversing in more than one language at a time, sometimes three.
schrodingers_cat
@suzanne: Not everything is about them and their delicate fee fees.
CapnMubbers
@OzarkHillbilly: Ornithogalum arabicum seems to match from images suggested by frosty fred.
gene108
@schrodingers_cat:
Last update I saw was that over 700k people have been displaced and are in camps.
Suzanne
@schrodingers_cat: They’re scared because their status differential is eroding. As much as racism is still very much alive and well, I honestly think that white privilege is less of a privilege than it used to be. There are plenty of aspirational figures of different races in every area of society now. And there is growing evidence suggesting that the black middle class is making solid gains due to increasing education levels and more $$$.
And one thing that the election of Trump has brought to greater cultural salience is the social position of Cletus (you know, of the safaris). I think most higher-status whites never really gave them much thought as a specific cohort before. Now it is increasingly clear that those people are a unified subculture and more and more white people want to differentiate themselves from them, which dilutes the status marker. I see a lot more white people snarking on white people these days.
debbie
@Aleta:
Those stories would be titled “A Youth of Stupitude.” ;)
Aleta
@debbie: I have a 12 volume set of those.
MagdaInBlack
@schrodingers_cat:
…and that is exactly the problem. They’re not the default setting anymore.
Gelfling 545
@NotMax: I did without air conditioning for years until sbout 6 years ago when my elderly pug needed it. Surprisinely, I found that a relatively small window unit in the upstairs back and another in the downstairs front with all inside doors left open keeps the entire house wuite comfortable with our feeling refrigerated. This is definitely not how they tell you to do it but it works well for me and I discovered it quite by accident. It adds about $30 a month to my electric bill in July and August which I consider money well spent.
sukabi
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: without seeing the leaves it makes it difficult…flowers being on that type of stalk, in that configuration makes me think it’s an allium, possibly this one. https://goo.gl/images/DEPgEy
Gelfling 545
@Lapassionara: We have been fortunate to have a profusion of butterflies this year. Birds too. I remember years when crows and wasps were the only visitors. It’s so lovely to see them swooping about the place.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
OK, either I’m losing my mind or FYWP is. Both are equally probable.
I commented on this thread from the laptop. No problem. Later commented from my phone. Comment got moderated. Tried again. Moderated again. Deleted and re-entered my nym info (the “Testing, testing” message). It posted.
Then the moderated messages disappeared. At least I thought so. Scanned up and down the thread several times and didn’t see them.
Came back a little later to the laptop and there they are! I am confused. Or FYWP is gaslighting me to make me think I’m confused.
Anybody else see any symptoms like this?
Gelfling 545
@Another Scott: When these stories become common currency they then become expected. Other teachers are doing this so you should too. Bah.
(Though I and most others contributed to the union sick leave bank for those whose illness maxed out their time. I should add that our sick leave allotment was reasonably good.
J R in WV
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
But that comment about the state fair isn’t deleted at all… don’t know what all happened, but it is there for me to read. Don’t see anything like a ED drug embedded in a type of economic policy that would cause it to be intercepted by FYWP either…
MagdaInBlack
@Gelfling 545:
I was delighted the other night, while sitting on the balcony ( at 1 am ) to be fluttered by bats ! here at our little suburban condo complex .
sukabi
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: site was acting that stupid yesterday for me on mobile…sent me into moderation for no reason…
Steeplejack
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
It’s not you. I’m looking at your exact problem.
I was reading on my phone (mobile site, Android, Chrome), refreshed this page and see your long comment at 2:32 p.m. (#140) responding to debbie about the state fair, etc.
I moved over to the notebook computer (desktop site, Win10, Firefox) to check e-mail and make it easier to type comments, but when I refreshed this page your comment does not show up. There’s a gap between sukabi at 2:30 and Gelfling 545 at 2:35 (which now occupies #140). WTF.
This is more serious than any problem I have seen recently. If different variants of the Balloon Juice “program” are refreshing the pages differently from the comment database, that’s a big problem.
Steeplejack
@Ceci n est pas mon nym, @Steeplejack:
And now the “state fair” #140 comment has disappeared from my phone as well.
Just checked on my tablet (desktop site, Android, Chrome). That message doesn’t show up there either.
ETA: Also find it hard to believe that my two comments (#146 and #147 for me) are the only ones in 13 minutes.
Gelfling 545
@FlipYrWhig: One year, against all odds, I ended up with 2 students who were fluent in French. That is only slightly less unlikely that getting students fluent in Martian in that school. When we would speak together there were always some students who were sure we were talking about them., sometimes ludicrously so. I once asked a student what there was about the word “toilette” that made her think we were discussing her. I would generally give my “ the workd is not all that interested in you” speech and hope that they would mature out of that phase. These were 12-14 year olds. In adults it’s pathetic.
Steeplejack
@J R in WV:
Try refreshing the page and see if that comment goes away. Also would be helpful to know:
Gelfling 545
I though I should add that I have been unable to use the mobile site on my iPad since the beginning of this current round of issues. A wide white left hand margin obscures about 1/3 of the screen. I’ve been using the desktop setting in the iPad and that seems fine but checking the mobile every so often. Still no go.
Steeplejack
@Gelfling 545:
How do you get to the mobile version? I’m using the desktop version on my Android tablet, and I can’t find the toggle anywhere.
Dan B
@OzarkHillbilly: Your flower looks like an Ornithogalum (sp.? allium related)
OzarkHillbilly
@frosty fred: DING DING DING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have a winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you thank you thankyou!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OzarkHillbilly
@Dan B: AND DAN B!!!!!!!
Hunter
@MagdaInBlack: It’s worth the trip (I’m on the far North Side). A lot has changed from the days my dad used to take me.