I just realized (with maximum horror!) that it’s December, so the holidays are almost upon us. I’m not ready!
Here’s a pretty Green Heron to look at:
Saw this amazing creature perched on a hazard marker right outside the channel. I don’t know about y’all, but the sight of such a lovely bird calms me down a bit.
Open thread!
Elizabelle
Advent Calendar territory. I’m just into it for the chocolate.
TenguPhule
CIA Director Gina Haspel to brief key senators behind closed doors about Khashoggi killing
Sadly, I predict this will not succeed in persuading enough Republicans to get this to the floor, let alone pass it.
Because the Republicans, for all their talk, do not care.
trollhattan
Paul Sherwin has died and far, far too soon.
He’s half of the Phil-and-Paul soundtrack for every cycling grand tour and no broadcast will ever be the same without him. I’ll still watch and hopefully Phil will find a suitable sidekick, but nobody can fill those shoes.
rattlemullet
Great photo, must be the inner ornithologist in you. Living near the wild is a good thing! Long time reader. Thank you for all you do!
dmsilev
A couple of herons have decided to move in to the campus I work at. Makes sense for them, we have ponds that are stocked with goldfish (rather fewer now than a week or so ago…), and hey, they’re classier than the normal ducks and squirrels. The pond filled with turtles is still people’s favorite though.
Major Major Major Major
Man, I am tired. Frustrating day at work to boot. At least it’s relatively warm.
Kay
I got everyone done except my problematic middle boy. He needs..everything for his big falling-down house so I thought I’d start with an electric kettle because he drinks tea. Then he just needs a table and chair to sit and drink it. And a front door that closes all the way. I was overwhelmed by his needs but I did manage to focus long enough to buy the kettle.
He needs to get wedding gifts, really, but for that he’d have to get married. See? It’s like falling down a hole.
RAVEN
I’m packed and ready to hit the Everglades. I read a fishing report and saw that snook season ended so we’ll go for the “sport” aspect. Maybe some reds will cooperate.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
Thanks for the lovely bird. I just survived a root canal, so I’m home now (after leaving work early for the dental appointment) & feeling sorry for myself. I still think you should be willing to kayak those waters.
Yarrow
@trollhattan: I saw that yesterday. So sad. He was only 62. Tour de France coverage won’t be the same. RIP.
Juju
I guess I should start my cookies.
TheOtherHank
Years ago I was rowing the lead boat on a rafting trip down the Middle Fork of the American in the Sierra foothills. I floated up on a green heron that spooked and flew down stream a couple hundred yards. I floated up to it and it spooked again. This repeated for a couple miles before it finally worked up the gumption to fly back upstream past the boats in my trip.
Yarrow
Beautiful photo, Betty. Thanks for sharing.
Yarrow
Has there been any update on the Balloon Juice fundraiser? When John asked when to have it people replied the Sunday after Thanksgiving. That has come and gone. Was there an update I missed?
delk
I saw a cardinal in a neighbor’s front yard today. As I slowed down to look closer, I saw two more.
FlyingToaster
We’re already on day 3 of the Advent Calendars (1 chocolate; 3 LEGO). And day 2 of Hanukkah.
In the annals of dumb-ass ideas, the teachers in WarriorGirl’s class want someone to come and make Latkes for them. At school. Which involves frying in hot oil. With 16 asshole children (Trust me, my daughter is one of them), at least one of whom will get burned by said hot oil. Even worse, I’m the logical candidate for this, since I’m the nominal stay-at-home parent who also knows how to make Latkes. Holy fuck this is such a bad idea…
TenguPhule
@FlyingToaster:
I wasn’t aware Latkes were fried in toasters, live and learn. //
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: I haven’t heard anything but I’m a bit out of the loop.
TenguPhule
Oh wow. Train crash meets Sharknado meets Mad Max at Thunderdome.
There is no way Trump doesn’t say anything at the funeral.
Platonaileit
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: apparently you can cook them in anything, you just can’t call them hashbrowns.
The Dangerman
@trollhattan:
Damn, way too young. I ran into him and another commentator (Bob Roll?) at a wine bar after a Tour of California event. Both completely nice guys, class acts.
OzarkHillbilly
And some people actually complain about Jonathon Franzen’s “obsession” with birds. I know I m never so excited as when I espy the flash of a warbler on our ridge top homestead. If people don’t get it, maybe they should just skip it?
After all, aren’t writers supposed to write about what they are passionate about?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
“Thousand points of light? What the hell was that about, anyway, am I right”?
RAVEN
@FlyingToaster: What about those closed fryer thingys?
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
Bummer about Paul Sherwen. One of the highlights of my summer routine was having the Tour de France on as TV wallpaper with him and Phil Liggett commenting on the proceedings. He will be missed.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Yarrow:
Does this have anything to do with the calendar?
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Does he even have a mug and tea leaves at this point? //
Platonaileit
@TenguPhule: The shrubs. The totus. They deserve each other.
Gelfling 545
Tomorrow is fruitcake day. I like the stuff – at least my recipe which includes dates, dried apricots, dried cherries and cranberries. And brandy and Grand Marnier. Also the egg whites are whipped and folded in before baking which lightens the cake a bit.
Cheryl Rofer
@OzarkHillbilly: What Franzen writes about is Jonathan Franzen’s delicate sensitivities in watching birds, and his bird count. That’s much less interesting than writing about birds, or even about birding.
danielx
C’mon Betty, you know you’re looking forward to the annual drunken aunties cookie baking debauchery.
Gelfling 545
@TenguPhule: Right. When has he ever kept his trap shut? Never, that’s when.
Humdog
@Kay: I was just reminiscing about picking up a bookcase someone left out on the street to have that sort of furniture when starting out. Church tag sales or end of semester moving sales were also helpful. And older family members having “extra” pieces I could use. I really don’t think it bothers them at that age, but I bet it would drive mothers to distraction. Maybe you could buy yourself a new table set and ask him to take your old one off your hands?
Yarrow
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: The fundraiser is for the site redo.
@TenguPhule: I wonder who if anyone will play the Meghan McCain role and throw lots of shade.
TenguPhule
@Gelfling 545:
Is that Papadopoulos or Giuliani?
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
No one should even try to fill his shoes. He brought a style to the show that was his. Someone needs to come along and try and be even half as good. That will be enough.
TenguPhule
@Yarrow: I’m not hopeful there, none of the attendees will be quick on their feet when it comes to thinking.
Kelly
We’ve had a couple green herons hanging out at our swimming hole the last few summers. Don’t know if they’re a pair. They keep their distance from one another and we’ve never seen chicks. They vanish before my eyes when they nestle into the boulders.
jeffreyw
I believe that is what we caught a couple of years ago, perched in a sycamore tree. Here it is walking about in a drainage ditch that bounds my backyard.
Platonaileit
tick tock, motherfuckers?
West of the Rockies
@TenguPhule:
Well, Papa Bush did almost get captured, and Clump prefers fly-boys who don’t get captured, mmmkay? Also, I’m sure he’d point out that GHWB was a low-energy loser, but that’s alright, he loves him anyway.
Keith P
@TenguPhule: “Get me out of here” is my guess
TenguPhule
Ex-Marine admits he lured Seth Rich conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman to a hotel parking garage, then shot him
FlyingToaster
@RAVEN: I don’t own such a device as a closed fryer. I’m not willing to buy one. The school doesn’t own one. And they’re not going to buy one.
I own a relatively deep cast-iron pan that I usually use for latkes, and I’d take it and a hot plate, but 5th graders and hot oil seem like a genuinely terrible combination.
Platonaileit
Big auto finding out what faceeating leopards party does.
Yarrow
Friday could be interesting.
Shana
@Major Major Major Major: I tried something new this year by baking them in the oven. 1/2 cup of oil in a half sheet pan heated for 10 minutes in a 425 oven. Put the latkes in the pan, bake 20 minutes, flip and bake an additional 10-15 minutes. Not any less fatty, but much easier.
TenguPhule
@Platonaileit:
Good luck getting that through Congress. //
Ruckus
@The Dangerman:
I worked the starting area of the first two Tour of California events. As I had not long before left my job in professional sports it was fun to see a different sport put on in a new location and to see what the athletes were like and what everyone had was professionalism. That included the announcers, one of which of course was Paul.
FlyingToaster
@TenguPhule: @Major Major Major Major:
?????
Gelfling 545
@TenguPhule: In the words of the Sage of the (formerly) Frozen North: All of them!
Ruckus
@Platonaileit:
Not only stupid but willing to cut off head to spite nose.
John Revolta
@FlyingToaster: Ask them some questions about insurance. That oughta shut ’em up.
Major Major Major Major
My husband won’t drink tap water from one of the sinks, because it comes out doing that weird opaque-with-tiny-bubbles thing. New York is going great.
TenguPhule
I hope for all our sakes this is just street theatre.
You folks can’t be this fucking ignorant about the branch of government you’ve just been elected to!
FlyingToaster
@Shana: I don’t think there’s an oven at school. Microwaves in the elementary school’s faculty lounge and the middle school, but I’m not aware of an oven on the premises. Alas. Because that would be infinitely safer than frying anything.
TaMara (HFG)
@TenguPhule: Damn, I want to be horrified by this, but I’m instead amused and thinking about karma, etc. This is what the orange circus peanut’s reign has done to my psyche,
FlyingToaster
@John Revolta: I can just whinge about it here and NEVER EVER REPLY to the e-mail.
After all, I’m not trying to scare her teachers. They’re nice. They’re excellent. They e-mail me when WG doesn’t turn in her homework (unlike a certain individual from last year).
Yarrow
@FlyingToaster: Just tell them no. It’s not safe and even if no one gets hurt it’ll splash hot oil all over everything. Tell them you’re not going to be responsible for children going to the hospital because of hot oil burns.
TaMara (HFG)
Beautiful photo, Betty C. Now I must finish painting because I won’t allow the tree up until the living room painting is done.
Mai Naem mobile
I wonder if Trumpov will say something really awful about Bush 41 to distract from the Russia story or if he will use the border wall funding issue.
SiubhanDuinne
Odd, the things that pop into one’s head with no (conscious) trigger. For some reason I am remembering a book that was popular in the 1950s (I think) called Fractured French. A few of the choice entries (doing this totally from memory):
Jeanne d’Arc = the light is out in the bathroom
Hors de combat = camp followers
Honoré de Balzac = no hitting below the belt
It was so successful that the author tried to cash in with other languages (Garbled German, Incomprehensible Italian) but I don’t think they ever caught on the same way.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: This is the most “mom” comment ever — I totally relate! ? Thinking of a single gift makes one contemplate the entire kidult framework. Scary.
@jeffreyw: That’s a green heron for sure. You have a gift for attracting gorgeous birds!
TS (the original)
@TenguPhule:
He’ll tweet during the service against those past presidents (or their wives) who got the speaking parts.
dmsilev
@Platonaileit: Doing a bit of Googling, it appears that this is Larry Kudlow mouthing off about something which would require an Act of Congress to change.
catclub
@TenguPhule: most likely they will expire and not be renewed, since trump can threaten to veto the renewal.
different-church-lady
DCL: Fuck this shit!
WORLD: What shit are you talking about?
DCL: WHAT SHIT HAVE YOU GOT?
(DCL +0)
Betty Cracker
@danielx: I am. May have to live-blog that again. Trying to up my cookie game this year.
Patricia Kayden
Justin Trudeau sure knows how to get under Trump’s skin. LOL. Every protest sign should call him Donald.
Major Major Major Major
@different-church-lady:
Mmhmmm.
Gelfling 545
@FlyingToaster: I have fried doughnuts with preschoolers and crêpes, beignets and I forget what all with 8th graders who, as we know, are less reliable than preschoolers. I don’t know that I’d ever have attempted latkes. Too much work in the prep. If you do get suckered…er, that is agree to assist in this educational experience, insist that there be other parents or other adults assisting.
different-church-lady
@Major Major Major Major: THERE IS NO WRATH LIKE A SOBER WRATH!!!1!
delk
@Major Major Major Major: buy him a Brita pitcher for Xmas.
tobie
@TenguPhule: Good grief! The grandstanding introduced by AOC has now taken over the whole freshman class. Yes, the Democrats will have to walk and chew gum. Yes, Democrats will present legislation on all sorts of middle class issues that will pass in the House and languish in the Senate unless there is a popular uprising in support of some measures. McConnell, however, will only allow a vote on any of these measures if he can attach poison pills. These whiny newbies more concerned about their reelection than anything else will have to make the tough decision to stick up for their party or to submit to McConnell’s will. I have a bad feeling about all of this. A better strategy for these 46 instead of sending out a public letter would be to have a word with some senior members of the House. Ted Lieu, I’m sure, could give them advice.
Platonaileit
@Patricia Kayden:
What a fucking moron of an idiot.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Patricia Kayden: oh, that’s great, I seem to remember trump putting a bit sneer into calling Trudeau “Justin” after last year’s G20 (I think it was), you can just tell the big baby wants to whine about it right there.
Gelfling 545
@FlyingToaster: Don’tthey have a kitchen for lunches? Our school didn’t have much but we has an oven in the faculty room for kiddie culinary.
Baud
@Platonaileit: That’s like a clip from a movie about an idiot president.
Mary G
If, like me, you are sick of all the slobbering over GHWB, Paul Waldman has a great column in the WaPo Plum Line blog: How George H.W. Bush exploited racism to win the Oval Office:
He ran the CIA. He was not always an old man with a cute habit of wearing stupid socks and a labrador retriever guide dog that guarded his coffin.
FlyingToaster
Well, I’m thinking I may have a solution.
I could fry the Latkes at home, with WarriorGirl filming snippets of the various processes (grating potatoes, grating onions , straining them in cheesecloth in the sink, and mixing up with eggs and salt & pepper, then frying them in the FREAKING HOT OIL). And bring the class those latkes (and for the girl who can’t have eggs, she can have the applesauce and sour cream w/o the latkes).
I’m just not willing to take the risk of trying to do this in a school that doesn’t have an actual kitchen.
Platonaileit
@Mary G: Exploiting that poor dog, who clearly wanted to be left alone, for a stupid photo-op is the height of sycophant hagiography. Fuck the shrubs.
Chetan Murthy
[deleted b/c superfluous]
cain
@Platonaileit:
Probably leads to more plants closing and then what would the WH retaliate with then? Perhaps they’ll raise the gas tax!
FlyingToaster
@Gelfling 545: Nope. It’s a converted [redacted*] warehouse. When there are afterschool cooking classes, they wheel in cooking stations that have electric burners.
To my knowledge, there are: one toaster oven, two fridges and three microwaves. There are no stoves or anything like that. There isn’t a cafeteria, and most kids bring lunch; hot lunches are ordered from [also redacted] down the hill.
* if I told you what it was converted from, it’d be all too readily identifiable. I use a ‘nym on purpose.
John Revolta
@Platonaileit: Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.
I’m laughing to keep from crying but it ain’t working so good.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
I particularly like this one:
Mnemosyne
@Chacal Charles Calthrop:
I have had way too many root canals (I think it’s five) and it’s super important to have a good endodontist that you trust. I have to drive all the way to Beverly Hills, but my guy is such a big believer in local anesthetic that I end up numb all the way to my eyebrow when he does a lower tooth. Plus when he wanted to have me use a bite blocker during part of the procedure, he described it as a “tooth pillow,” which shows he has good chairside manner. ??
An ice pack on your face will help with the pain, and I always buy myself a yummy treat because I deserve it after a damn root canal.
John Revolta
@FlyingToaster: I like it. I mean, the insurance angle wasn’t just to scare them off. It’s a legit concern.
Yarrow
@Platonaileit: In the coverage today someone told the story about the dog figuring out how to get treats. Apparently if GHWB would need help at night he’d say he needed help and the service dog Sully was trained to press a button that would set off a buzzer in the medical professional’s room. When that person came in to see what GHWB needed he’d give the dog a treat. Pretty quickly the dog learned to cut out the middle man and would just press the button all by himself because that way he’d get a treat. Smart doggie.
MomSense
@trollhattan:
I was so upset to hear this news. He was such a class act.
Jay
@TenguPhule:
@tobie:
The ReThugs ran away from their actual record during the Midterms, while the Insane Clown POSus, most ReThugs and their Media Enabler’s also ran on “don’t vote for Dems, they’ll Impeach Hair Twitler!!!!!!”
The letter is actually pretty good politics.
They are pointing out that they are going to get “needed stuff” passed in the House, ( only to die in the Senate), and will once again establish by the actual voting record, that Bipartizan ReThugs went extinct over two decades ago.
Meanwhile, the House Commitee’s will do all the heavy lifting of investigating and providing the “checks and ballances”.
Mary G
@Platonaileit: Jeet Heer has a Twitter thread up, also saying not so fast:
He is getting slammed in the replies.
His article at NR The Whitewashing of George H. W. Bush:
He was as bad as any other Republican, he just didn’t say the bad parts out loud the way Twitler did. Letting him get away with no consequences for Iran/Contra just emboldened them to do more.
Steeplejack
@Platonaileit:
“That poor dog.”
Per earlier stories, they’ve had it only for the last few months (since sometime after Barbara died in April), and they’re going to recycle it back to the agency from which they got it.
Yes, deep emotional bond, for sure.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G: Charlie Pierce on the Hayes show, I’m guessing there will be a bit of pushback to the sanctifyin’. Hang on to your wig and keys, Jennifer Rubin
Mnemosyne
@FlyingToaster:
If the school has such a thing as a kitchen or home ec room, you should probably make the teachers herd the kids down there for the demo rather than trying to do it in the regular classroom. Having a sturdy, fire-resistant counter between yourself and the kids will go a long way. Plus the fire marshal would probably have an issue with a hot plate and oil inside a classroom that’s not specifically meant for that.
Chetan Murthy
@Jay:
If the bolded part is just for optics, then I get it. But if they’re serious, then they’re also insane. Anybody who thinks you can work across the aisle with Yertle needs their head examined.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Wow, Rubin just claimed Bush was not involved in Iran-Contra
Martin
Pretty sure we’re closing in on the point that Trump admits that he never wanted to be President – he was just running to help grease a real-estate deal in Russia.
joel hanes
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
“Thousand points of light? What the hell was that about?
It was about providing official cover for the false idea that volunteers and church groups and family can replace government services for the most unfortunate among us, and, QED, => government services are not needed <= and => government services are moral hazards for those they help <=.
Because Republican.
Major Major Major Major
@Chetan Murthy: I think they still believe there are voters who actually want to see common-sense elbow grease bipartisan problem-solving unicorns.
tobie
@Jay: @Chetan Murthy: The line about “work[ing] across the aisle” struck me, too, as either craven or naive. Craven–if it signaled a willingness to stab the Democratic coalition in the back if it looked like the move could earn them a few brownie points at home, and naive if they think this could work.
I don’t agree that this letter was virtue-signaling for the folks at home. If that’s what they meant to do, they should have posted pictures of themselves sitting down with healthcare experts to figure out how to lower prescription drug prices. This letter was meant to put the House leadership on notice. Spanberger, Slotkin and others are resorting to extortionist tactics. It’s already tiresome and they haven’t even been sworn in yet.
B.B.A.
I prefer to remember GHWB as a sexual predator (“David Cop-A-Feel”) and for being the only president to vomit on a foreign head of government. Now watch Il Douche outdo him on the latter, as he has many times over on the former.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
Yes, even at a relatively tender age I found that one particularly clever.
Peale
Greetings from Bangalore. Although my luggage would like to send it’s greetings from Delhi, which is where it decided to stay. Apparently it liked it there. I’m none too pleased with it’s wanton harlotry, where it apparently will attach itself to any security officer who winks at it.
Thoughtful David
@Elizabelle:
Lucky you! If you use Zeno’s Advent calendar you can have an infinite amount of chocolate before Christmas!
Zeno’s Advent calendar
piratedan
@Chetan Murthy: tbh, I wouldn’t be shocked if Nancy P didn’t suggest the letter herself… observing all of the proprieties mind you… offer the branch and if its refused, well then you move on with a clear conscious and start putting motherfuckers in jail. It allows some of the newbies to be seen as people working for the benefit of the people they represent, which is something that we all want, but I gotta believe with Nancy riding herd on folks, she’s got school in session showing people how its done. Playing all the old media favorites, Democrats being the adults in the room, working for bipartisanship when needed, doing the boring shit that the media blithely ignores at every opportunity. She’s lulling the media to sleep, situation normal, the Dems are in charge, we’re boring boring boring…. until the charges are dropped.
catclub
@Thoughtful David: I would think that each chocolate is smaller by half, so the sum of chocolate is finite.
Mandalay
Just when you think things are slowly getting better, some knuckledragging moron shows you the sordid reality of sexism in Western society:
To be clear, Hegerberg had just won an award for being the best female soccer player in the world. And on receiving the award she was asked to twerk.
RAVEN
@joel hanes:
We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder, gentler,
Machine gun hand
We got department stores
and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes
for the ozone layer
Got a man of the people,
says keep hope alive
Got fuel to burn,
got roads to drive.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
hahahaha
How glad I am that we only turn on our TV for TCM. But tonight I’m too tired even to watch Warren William as Philo Vance.
Sab
@Major Major Major Major: “NY tapwater with tiny bubbles thing”. I am in my sixties now, having lived in the South, Midwest and West. I still remember being shocked by the bubbles in the tapwater when we visited my aunt’s parents in Queens when I was six. Her Queens relatives all lived to ripe old age, so probably it’s safe. Glad to hear it still does that.
Florida water often smells of sulphur. Ohio summer water smells like algae or intense chlorine. Bottled water will not floridate your teeth.
Las Vegas tapwater leaves mineral rings on your car if you wash with it. I would never drink that.
Is NY tapwater still free?
Thoughtful David
@catclub:
Why would you do it that way? Each entry on the calendar should be a whole chocolate. It’s only fair.
The catch is that you don’t get your second chocolate until Wednesday of next week, but Christmas Eve is great!
Shana
@FlyingToaster: Great solution!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@tobie:
A lot of new Congresscritters out here ran on “working across the aisle”, so I’d say it’s what that ran on. They will learn that it takes two to tango.
Mnemosyne
@tobie:
Honestly, I think piratedan is right at #107 above. It’s a PR move to make the Democrats look like the adults in the room who want to get things done. They already know that the Senate won’t pass anything, so they’re going to lay down a bunch of markers spelling out what they want to do. “Working across the aisle” is just one of those shibboleths they have to bow to so the MSM doesn’t freak out.
I will worry more if those folks try to block the House bill that Nancy Pelosi already announced.
Major Major Major Major
@Sab:
Was it ever…?
(‘Fun’ find while googling: rate schedules back through 1980 http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwaterboard/html/rate_schedule/index.shtml)
delk
@RAVEN: heh-that song has been ear-worming me the last couple of days.
Ohio Mon
@FlyingToaster: You could bring jelly donuts instead. The My Jewish Learning site has an interesting history of jelly donuts for Hanukkah — a custom that took off in Europe when sugar prices dropped as a result of increased production from slaves working in the Caribbean fields.
Nowadays, jelly donuts are a more popular Hanukkah treat in Israel than here but I think that makes the story more interesting because it shows that food preferences change and evolve, and that there is no single, unchanging Jewish tradition.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Cheryl Rofer: Nothing Jonathan Franzen writes about is interesting, and he can manage to write about bird watching in such a fashion that it’s unpleasant to read. Which, granted, takes talent.
His great talent is being a Class A asshole.
gwangung
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, I think too many activists have lost touch with the majority of the voters…the voters don’t KNOW it’s kabuki, they aren’t jaded cynical bastards like us…they LIKE to see politicians at least TRY to be leaders and live up to their principles.
?BillinGlendaleCA
We went to the Chinese Lantern Festival last night at Fairplex in Pomona. It was nice, but too expensive.
sukabi
@Mai Naem mobile: he won’t say anything about Poppy, but he’ll make a snide remark about “Low energy” Jeb being a loser with an insult about his latina wife…think W has mellowed enough that he won’t take a swing.
Sab
@tobie: Nancy Pelosi raised five of her own energetic children. She is certainly capable of managing a freshman class of congresscritters who want to succeed.
Sab
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah. It used to be in the sixties.
Quinerly
@Steeplejack: here’s a piece from Slate about Sully. Bush had him less than 6 months.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/sully-hw-bush-service-dog-george-hw-bush-funeral.html
LuciaMia
That heron looks like an elegant carving
debbie
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
Emphatically seconded. Great American Novel, my ass.
LuciaMia
Phew!
As for Burkman…damn, wish I could run that fast with two bullets in my ass.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sounds like George Conway’s tweet about witness tampering hit home
and twitter has replied appropriately to a trump talking about the respect men owe their wives
Quiltingfool
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: I hate hate hate root canals; I’ve had three done. And I have no fear of dentists, either. I once fell asleep in the dentist chair as the dentist was filling one of my teeth (I was a little kid). He was a pretty good dentist! Anyway, you have the worst part out of the way, getting a crown will be easy, but expensive.
Major Major Major Major
@Sab: interesting.
Also apparently it was illegal for waiters in NYC to serve you tap water unless you asked, until 2014.
Amir Khalid
@Peale:
As much as as I dislike travelling by air, I never had that happen to me: I only ever flew with one piece of carry-on luggage.
Ohio Mon
@Major Major Major Major: We never got a water bill, must have been included in the rent.
For as long as I can remember, I was told that the secret to New York’s incomparable bagels was that they boiled in New York’s tap water which was the best water, from the Catskills.
@Kay: I remember the just-starting-out-no-furniture stage, but back then, there was no Ikea or Craig’s list, and no hourly pick-up truck rentals from Lowes. I don’t know about the front door though, that is a bigger challenge. Unlike a drafty window, you can’t tape up a sheet of plastic.
debbie
@RAVEN:
Hope they’re running for you (or whatever the expression is)!
Kay
@Humdog:
I have a ton. I have a big, empty-of-people, furniture filled-house but he won;t even take a table off my hands. He’s prickly – hard to give things to.
I got him the kettle and tea- I’ll also get a teapot. I don’t drink a lot of tea but there are so many lovely teapots and it’s an excuse to buy one.
SiubhanDuinne
@RAVEN:
Hey, Raven, you have only four more shopping days!
tobie
@Mnemosyne: Sorry but I just don’t see everything as being a perfectly stage-managed display for the Post to pick up and broadcast to constituents at home. I know this theory was presented regarding AOC and the Sunshine Movement’s protest against Pelosi. I actually did quite a bit of follow-up on that action and everything I read indicated pretty convincingly that the protest wasn’t planned with the leadership. It was meant to pressure (if not embarrass) the leadership. Pelosi managed to make lemon out of lemonades, and I’m sure she’ll do so again. My sense about the latest letter is that it’s s too small to be part of some devilishly clever plot to show folks at home how serious the new members of Congress are about policy. You would choose a bigger venue for that. But the letter is large enough to show how restive the coalition is and how worried new members are about their reelection prospects.
RAVEN
@debbie: That’ll work.
RAVEN
@SiubhanDuinne: He’ll have to get cookies from the boss lady, I’m outa here. (And she’s having a women’s party)
JWL
I scattered so much bird seed in my yard today that one hour later it rained sparrows. And it was calming, and very cool for being so…
A Ghost To Most
@RAVEN:
I’ve been hoping this period of upheaval will spark a revival of rock n roll.
All CAPS? Trying to stir up JC?
Jay
@Chetan Murthy:
@tobie:
I remember a long long time ago when AOC was a witless Bernie Bro Lefty Prima Donna out to stab Nancy Smash in the back with “plots”
November 2018, right?
Funny, ReThug framing sold to MSM Junkies and then directly injected into some Democrat’s eyeballs and between the toes, so that the track marks for shooting up ReThug framing wouldn’t show as well.
@tobie:
@Major Major Major Major:
There is a bunch of low information voters who believe in bipartisanship, that was a big chunk of the New Member’s Election Campaign.
Personally, I think it was/is just messaging on their part,
After all, if they really believed in bipartisanship, they would have joined the 5 White Guy’s alliance with the ReThugs, you know the so called “Problem Solvers Caucus”.
A lot of Democratic Party Members and voters still havn’t reached the conclusion that the ReThugs under Hair Twitler arn’t any different policy wise than they were under President Obama, and the only solution is the death of the ReThug Party.
Eg. 5 White Guys.
Sab
@Major Major Major Major: I am not a New Yorker. It might be that water was free to tenants but that landlords paid.Something to investigate if you are bored, which may be a few years off.
I ‘d like to send my regards to your cat, who looks a lot like my cat Shadow. Your guy seems much pleasanter than our girl, who is having a hard time leting go of her inner and outer formerly feral persona. Still, our dogs love her, as do three of our four other cats.
Chetan Murthy
@Major Major Major Major: Say what? Oh c’mon, I lived there 1995-2000, and it was never like that. Now, it -is- true that that was the case in Paris, France in 1991, and heck, it still might be.
John Revolta
@LuciaMia: I dunno but I been told that being shot in the ass can actually make you run pretty damn fast.
Major Major Major Major
@Chetan Murthy: “illegal” doesn’t always mean “enforced.” As I’m sure we all know. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/nyregion/little-known-regulation-on-tap-water-in-restaurants-is-set-to-fade-away.html
tobie
@Jay: I have no idea what this means:
I’ve been consistent in my criticisms of AOC, and nothing that I’ve seen since she won her primary till now has changed my view of her positions and tactics.
I agree with you here and I’m glad to see you endorsing my point, which was that the newbies are trying to make themselves look good to people at home by very publicly pressuring the leadership and distancing themselves from the caucus. I don’t like the tactic given the political circumstances right now in the US.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chetan Murthy: I was in Paris last month, and in several restaurants they brought a carafe d’eau before I even asked
raven
@A Ghost To Most: autofill
Steeplejack
@Quinerly:
Yes, another sploosh in the giant wave of maudlin bullshit surrounding Bush’s death. He was a mediocre president, he dodged a bullet on Iran-Contra, and he laid the groundwork for a lot of the Republican malfeasance that we are contending with now. RIP.
Chetan Murthy
@Major Major Major Major: Quickly scanning, I see that the people interviewed are all running fancy restos. I might have eaten in a fancy resto 2-3 times in 5yr there. Mostly in diners, cuban/dominican places, etc, etc. Always got water served automatically.
Major Major Major Major
@Chetan Murthy: the people interviewed have also all never heard of it except like one.
Shana
@Quinerly: It doesn’t matter how long he had the service dog. They’re trained to work with and bond with their people. Staying with and helping their people is what they’re trained for.
God knows I have enough reasons to dislike GHW Bush, but he seems to have been a kind person aside from his politics. That he would have bonded with and been kind to his service dog doesn’t surprise me.
rikyrah
@Kay:
LMAO about..him needing wedding gifts ???
You’re not slick, Kay.?
Chetan Murthy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wow, that’s interesting. It was a big thing in Paris in 1991 when I arrived there for my job. To the point that one of the first things we learned in French class was how to ask for “un carafe d’eau” or “l’eau du robinet”, rather than “de l’eau” (I think that’s the right way to say those things — been 25yr since I spoke it daily, so sue me *grin*) B/c if you asked for “de l’eau”, you’d get bottled water and charged for it. Mme. Cisay was quite clear on all of this, for us near-penniless students.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Chetan Murthy:
Considering the number of lawyers that comment at this here blog, that could be dangerous.
tobie
@Peale: Your bag will reach you in a day or two. Whenever I’ve checked luggage to India, it’s always arrived late. Mr. tobie and I have a running feud about this. He only travels with carry-on but I find that three weeks of travel requires something larger than a small wheelie. Invariably I end up carrying most of my family’s stuff in checked luggage on the way home.
lurker dean
@trollhattan: Oh no, that sucks. And so young. He and Phil were so great on tdf coverage.
Sab
@rikyrah:Real life horror story. My actual godmother had a son living in Manhatten with his girlfriend. His mother decided that they had been living in sin long enough, so she took out an actual fancy engagement announcement in the New York Times, announcing an engagement that did in fact not exist.
Fortunately the relationship survived it and they have actually been married for more than twenty years.
Jay
@tobie:
So, two day’s after the Reveal by the MSM of the AOC/Sunshine Kid’s “plot” framing came out,
It came out that the “reporter” immediately went to Ryan’s office for their “hot take” about how it was a set up plot/protest against Nancy Smash by AOC, and the Dem’s were in disarray.
And then the entire MSM ran with it.
And a bunch of Dem’s mainlined the ReThug framing like it was Afghani black tar, some are still addicted to it.
If the 46’s letter was a sign that they were “revolting” against Nancy, of morons who believe ReThug’s can be bipartisan, they would have joined with the 5 White Guy’s and the “Problem Maker’s Caucus”.
It’s like the panic over Nancy Smash dismissing Impeachment. Nancy can count, and the quiet work of the Commitee’s will bit by bit, move the count, by putting all the dirt out in public.
Sab
@Jay: Which Ryan? Paul or Tim?
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
NYC tap water is superior in every way, it comes from protected reservoirs in the Catskill and Adirondack mountains north of the urban area, through tunnels cut in bedrock running downhill to the city.
Unless the plumbing in your building is inferior, your drinking water in NY is among the best in the nation. So tell husband to chill, those bubbles will float to the top and then the water will be as crystal clear as it was in the mountains.
Ohio Mom
@Major Major Major Major: I vaguely remember when the “no water unless you ask” rule was put into place. Must not have been raining much in the Catskills back then.
People got used to it pretty quickly. To this day I’m annoyed when servers put down glasses of water I didn’t ask for and am not going to drink from. But now it’s on behalf of the bussers and dishwashers, don’t want to make extra unnecessary work for them.
Ohio Mom
@J R in WV: Someone ought to declare you an honorary New Yorker for that impassioned and informed defense of New York water. You sound exactly like every adult from my childhood, including my fourth grade teacher who taught us the city’s history.
tobie
@Jay: Sorry, Jay, but others including Ryan Grimm, who is a big fan of AOC, have reported that the protest by the Sunshine Movement and AOC was not coordinated with Pelosi. The Sunshine Movement also made it very clear on their website and in their twitter feed that the point of the sit-in was to tell Pelosi to “step up or step aside.” I looked into the group since I follow climate news and was surprised I hadn’t heard of them before. It turns out they were formed only a year and a half ago and associate themselves with Sanders and other “True Progressives.” Give this theory of an orchestrated display a rest. I don’t care what Paul Ryan had to say about the action. The Sunshine Movement’s website was evidence enough. It’s a good thing that Pelosi is a skilled politician and turned a potentially embarrassing situation for everyone into a win for the environment.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh, man, I just spent an inappropriate length of time reading that thread. I need a cigarette. And I don’t even smoke.
donnah
@Kay:
Kay, my oldest son, age 31, just split with his girlfriend. They’d been living together for a year in her house. It’s terribly painful and he today moved into a teeny apartment downtown. I took him to Target so he could get some basics like kitchen towels, a coffee maker, cleaning supplies, sheets, and so on. I bought him the coffee maker and he got the rest, but I know it strained his budget.
We will have a rough time over the holidays, but we’ll focus on keeping his spirits up as he adjusts to a different way of life. Yes, he’s a grown man, but he’s my kid and I want to be here for him.
Dan B
@Major Major Major Major: NYC tap water used to be some of the best in the country. They secured reservoirs in the Catskills with pristine watersheds and an excellent water main. Street to home sink would be the issue. Aerated taps is often a water conserving method since it looks like more water. I think it’s mandatory in Seattle. All our faucets have narrators. We’ve got pristine watersheds but population growth and drier summers plus less snowfall strain the capacity every October.
And that bottled water is just filtered tap water, even the “imported”. Scam artists. Ask me for the story. Grrrr!
Ken
@Mandalay:
Did she instead kick a soccer ball into Solveig’s crotch? Preferably without giving him time to adopt that cross-wrist posture used by the defenders for free kicks.
Jay
@Sab:
Paul.
Dan B
@Dan B: aerators… not narrators….
autocorrect on new tablet – sneaky!
I see my Catskills reservoirs and excellent water mains – bedrock tunnels – memories are correct. I won’t drink tap water in CA, especially LA. Duck!
Good luck with getting hubby over his bubbles = ick!
Ruckus
@Dan B:
And yet in blind taste tests LA water scores very high. And it’s far, far better than the water in central OH when I lived there. And a lot of bottled water is as you say tap water, a lot of it LA tap water. I used to build the tools that made the bottles that the water was sold in and most of my customers just bottled what came out of the tap. Talk about your scams. The bottles and the delivery are the biggest cost factors, they easily cost more than the water inside.