Living her best life.
Buffy is 3 and was adopted from a poultry auction. She loves the wind in her feathers. And that’s a Barbie helmet – Denmark, Australia – Maria Arima
I don’t know why, but this photo of Pearl just quacks me up:
Like, “why am I in a box?” She is in a much bigger box now, so I get fewer of those looks.
She’s doing well. Losing her down (my poor house, it’s like someone ripped open a pillow and spread it everywhere) and getting more feathers. Still doesn’t have her wing feathers yet. We are spending time outside with the other ducks…which is going okay. Pool time seems to be where they are most comfortable. Friends are bringing me a puppy yard to give her a space to safely hang out while Maddie and Mabel check her out. More photos/update here.
I had to run errands this afternoon and about 10 minutes from the house, I realized I secured the cats and the dogs, but forgot to secure the duck. She doesn’t really jump out of her little nest box, but I usually secure her in the kitchen. I wasn’t too worried, but when I got home, I came in through the garage – no duck in the kitchen. I go looking for her (not hard, she NEVER shuts up). She was hanging with the dogs. Bixby looked exasperated. Scout, amused. There was a minimal mess and no one was bleeding. I’ll call it a win.
And representing mammals today, eclare sent this to me a while back and it made me laugh.
So Mary G submits a sweet story about a kitty who rides on the shoulder of her new bestie, and this is the catitude I get from mine. That used to be my laptop, now it is Jacy’s
Those of us with cats totally get this.
No-politics open thread
mrmoshpotato
This is supposed to be a respite thread? That’s fowl!
Thank you. I’ll be here all week.
Mohagan
Thank you for the update. Her quizzical expression in that picture is priceless. Hope everyone has a great weekend and Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!
The Lodger
After this week, it’s good to have some down time.
debbie
LOL, at about 40 seconds: “Slow Down!!!”
VeniceRiley
Pearl is a star breaking the 4th wall.
TenguPhule
New Zealand’s DIY coffin clubs take the sting out of aging and death for many
TenguPhule
@The Lodger:
I see what you did there.
TenguPhule
Two black bears brawled in this man’s yard. Naturally, he filmed it.
BC in Illinois
Liked your comment at the link:
Among the progeny — all close by — we have dogs, cats, chickens, and (used to have) rabbits. If I want to experience ducks, I’ll go visit the cats.
But the rabbits were the coolest.
Kathleen
@mrmoshpotato: I’m going to “bill” you for that comment.
Moving on, a friend of mine instituted “meatless Mondays” in her household. I’m suspecting that she included her cat Rupert in her regimen, because on Monday afternoon Rupert dragged a live snake into her living room. Hilarity ensued.
Harbison
We’ve had chicks hatch from 7 separate nests around our house, some as long ago as late March.
Then, yesterday, a mourning dove couple show up and started constructing a nest.
I hope there it’s not too late for them. I assume most of the birds hatch earlier for a reasons but who knows.
lamh36
Ok…I guess you might call this political cause it involves Kamala Harris, but it’s really about this upcoming Mother’s Day weekend.
So I hope it’s not bad to post in this open thread.
Sen. Kamala Harris on Being ‘Momala’
BY KAMALA HARRIS
MAY 10, 2019
My “daddy” is not my bio-dad, he’s my actually my step-father, but he’s been in my life since I was born, and since I can remeber calling someone “my daddy” he’s been my father. I’ve NEVER even called him anything but daddy.
I know of more than a few people who have horror stories when it comes to step-parents, so I appreciate that what I had is not what others have had. Step-parents are as important in a child’s life as biological parents esp, in cases like mine.
Anyway…in case I forget to…happy early mother’s day to any of those who like to celebrate.
ThresherK
Ahh, the time of the week I need some cute animal snaps.
Jacy looks to be a tortie or calico, which are my feline weaknesses.
Villago Delenda Est
Cat on a laptop…my cat has discovered the “sleep” button on my ergonomic keyboard and delights in plopping down on it. Also, creating screen captures on her own.
SiubhanDuinne
@TenguPhule:
How do you get down off a duck?
SiubhanDuinne
@BC in Illinois:
Fuck that.
Villago Delenda Est
@BC in Illinois: I’m reminded of a memorable scene from Babylon Five. Londo is complaining about all these annoying trivialities surrounding him, and says:
Londo Mollari: But this…this, this, this is like… being nibbled to death by, uh…Pah! What are those Earth creatures called? Feathers, long bill, webbed feet…go “quack”.
Vir Cotto: Cats.
Londo: Cats! I’m being nibbled to death by cats.
oatler.
Chelveston the Duck
(Ray Raynor)
Yutsano
@Villago Delenda Est: Heh. One would think the writers could have come up with an equivalent Centauri bird. Although cats does make the joke funnier.
geg6
I can’t believe you’ve managed to make me fall in love with a bird, but I love Pearl. I have never liked birds and, especially, water fowl. As a longtime boater and someone who works on a campus with a large pond, I have always considered ducks and geese destructive, dirty and bad mannered. But for some reason, Pearl has captured my heart. Damn it. I was perfectly comfortable not liking birds and now you’ve messed that all up! ?
John Revolta
“Unnecessary fluffness. Out-in-the-yard penalty, loss of down”.
zhena gogolia
Okay, I’m going to see if this summons NotMax. Last night it was Roy Orbison attempting to act. Tonight it’s Mamie van Doren at the rodeo. In buckskin fringe!
Somehow I think this ain’t her first time at the rodeo.
zhena gogolia
@geg6:
Pearl needs to have her own television show.
lamh36
Bill Gates gets advice from PBO on how to surprise his wife on the last day of her book tour!
All I was hearing was… Come back Barack LOL
mrmoshpotato
@Kathleen: “Have a potato.” -The Old Dark House
We need details about what the cat literally dragged in.
dr. bloor
@TenguPhule: Slacker. A true citizen of our age would have tried to take a selfie with the bears.
jeffreyw
Why so blue?
rikyrah
@geg6:
Like geg6,
I never thought of ducks as pets until you. I love the duck tales from you. Hope that we can get video of Pearl with Bixby and Scout ?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
My wife was working in her home office all day. Twice she came out and handed me the cat, who kept trying to take over the good swivel chair.
A little while later I peeked in and saw the cat fast asleep on the swivel chair, my wife in the lesser chair. “The cat won,” she growled.
WaterGirl
TaMara, did you really say:
Too funny!
daize
@jeffreyw: So lovely! I so enjoy your bird cam photos. We had a beautiful petite blue bird at our feeder Star Wars Day 2018. Not since, though. A finch? We’re in southeast PA. (Typing is hard with a cat plopped on one’s left hand.)
peej01
One of the problems I had when I was using the laptop regularly was that the power button was readily accessible to be pressed by cat feet tromping on the keyboard. My current cat doesn’t get up on any furniture except the bed (strange cat).
Ceci n est pas mon nym
You wanna talk cats on keyboards? How about playing with a cat on the piano keyboard?
Ohio Mom
Ohio Family is waiting for a table. The restaurant’s sound system is playing the Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations.
I just googled, that song came out in ‘66, fifty-three years ago — a half century. In 1966, we were not listening to music from 1913.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom:
Yes! I find it so weird. We went out Saturday night and they were playing “I Fooled Around and Fell in Love.”
Kathleen
@mrmoshpotato: Here’s my friend’s account (names are redacted):
Rupert doesn’t agree with Meatless Monday. Rather than complain, the kitty caught a live snake and left the slithery serpent in the dining room. It was big enough to feed the 3 of us. I screamed and screamed. XXX flew down the stairs almost stepping on the creature. Quite amazing, I didn’t know XXX (ed note, XXX is 60-70 something) could jump so high. XXX disposed of the snake. Rupert is disgusted with both of us. (Would have included pics, but the snake was between me and the camera).
schrodingers_cat
This is how I am feeling today.
schrodingers_cat
@Kathleen: That’s hilarious. I had a friend who lived in the boonies, when I lived in Maine. She had horses, dogs, kittehs on her farm. Her cat used get small snakes and leave them on the bed as gifts. Snakes in Maine are tiny and non-poisonous but still..
Sab
@Ohio Mom: I don’t much like the Beachboys. I think they were tonally challenged, so a lot of their music just makes me wince. Their “harmonies” simple weren’t . Songs were okay, but not when performed by them.
Barbara
@lamh36: “the moment I met you was my moment of lift.” That is so genuinely sweet I have tears.
Sab
My husband just called my favorite cat an “asshole”. Something about feeding standards.
Barbara
@rikyrah: My sister in law has had chickens, ducks and geese, no less, at varying times, in a very urban environment. The geese are somewhat aggressive so I like the ducks better.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
Sister won a duckling at the city carnival and it grew up to be a mallard. Beautiful guy but a bit messy to clean up after. Also our golden retriever would retrieve him up on the back porch and someone would have take the poor guy away from the dog. Worse of course was the skunks that the dog would also retrieve to up on the back porch. Now the dog didn’t hurt any of the animals that she retrieved, just annoyed them. She annoyed the skunks so much that they rewarded her with perfume. Her and the back porch that someone had to get the stink out of. Fun times.
The Lodger
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I think you and your wife are living our lives. At least our cats have similar attitudes regarding territory.
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
Trievers gotta trieve.
You. Can. Not. Stop. This.
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: I’m terrified of snakes (motto: “If it slithers I get the jitters”) so I can totally relate to her freak out. When I was a kid in St. Paul our cat sneaked a bloodied bird into the house while we were eating dinner and I’ve never forgotten it, though it happened back in (check notes) 1961.
Raven
@Sab: stuff a pike
Sab
@Raven: What do you mean?
TenguPhule
Delta told workers to spend on video games and beer instead of union dues. It didn’t go well.
Tazj
@daize: That sounds like one of my cats. I understand why he likes the laptop keyboard, it’s warm and it buzzes, but why he wants to sleep on my left hand, I don’t know.
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: That’s funny.
Pearl is beautiful.
geg6
@Kathleen:
I laugh, but my ex and I once got bar stools for our family room bar that were shipped from Malaysia. Unbeknownst to us, one of the boxescame with a snake. Hilarity ensued once I found it. By what I could find later on the internet, it was a very venomous snake that could have killed us both in about ten minutes (venom attacked the autonomic nervous system) had we gotten bitten. As it was, I jumped on top of the dining room table and screamed while the ex swept it into a bag with a broom. He let it go into a ravine near our local Ohio River tributary. I’m guessing the climate of Western PA was not conducive to its survival.
jl
There’s a demand for ‘ful’ news too. Har har har…
Sab
@TenguPhule: I like to fly Delta but management assholes.
I applied for a job with them in the seventies. They sent back an extremely rude letter about why I hadn’t turned up for the interview. I had turned up for the interview, and they were extremely rude.
Persuaded me not to fly them for a generation, but they were epically rude and racist. What is a nitwit in Ohio supposed to do?
Baud
@geg6:
“I have had it with these motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking bar stool box.”
geg6
@Baud:
LOL, it was before that movie but my sentiment was identical.
SiubhanDuinne
@Tazj:
She is, I agree, but the name grates me wrong. Pearl was the name of my stepmother. She loved my dad, I guess, and no doubt she was a brilliant commercial artist (I know I’ve posted before that she painted the ubiquitous “Little Debbie” image which appears on baked goods and snack foods everywhere), but as a person she had no use for me or my siblings, and the distaste was pretty much reciprocated. I know that makes me shallow, but rant pis.
schrodingers_cat
@geg6: OMG that’s scary!
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
Really? Your evil stepmother was the Little Debbie lady? That’s cray cray!
Ohio Mom
@Sab: I can take or leave The Beach Boys myself — I was just struck, for the umpteenth time, that unlike other generations’ music, ours never stops being played. For whatever reason.
On the way out, the sound system was playing a newer song: Linda Ronstadt telling us It’s so easy to fall in love. From 1977. Forty-two years ago.
geg6
@schrodingers_cat:
You have no idea. I had been traumatized by a copperhead as a small child (about 3 or 4 yo). I am freaked by black snakes and garter snakes. Imagine my reaction to what I think was a common krait.
Kathleen
@geg6: What a close call. I’d still be shaking over that!
Raven
Unbeknownst to me my bride took a pic of me cleaning the big fish for the young man last night. The Bohdi was on the lookout! https://flic.kr/p/2fMeU7f
Jay
@geg6:
@schrodingers_cat:
It often takes a lot of energy for a venomous snake to make it’s poison.
As a result, they prefer not to use it for “defence”, but instead prey.
Other than all of the Ozzie ones, Africa’s Black Mamba and a few other ones.
Ohio Mom
@SiubhanDuinne: There is a reason fairy tales are full of bad stepmothers. Under the best of circumstances, it’s a very fraught relationship. And the circumstances are often not the best.
Now for me, the name Pearl brings back memories of my rather empty-headed aunt. My uncle, her brother, once remarked “there’s no there there in Pearl,” which crystallized things for me. That uncle crystallized a lot of things for me. I’ll always miss him.
Amir Khalid
@Ohio Mom:
It’s So Easy is a Buddy Holly song. Per his discography in Wikipedia, it’s from 1958.
Kathleen
@Sab: Then you’ll appreciate Senator Sherrod Brown’s take down of Delta on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/1126570889133395969
He starts out with this:
Raven
The Beach Boys were awesome and ya’ll can kiss my ass. https://youtu.be/7w7ZeSIC6K0
Jay
@Raven:
Pet Sounds,……
Ohio Mom
@Amir Khalid: Of course you are right, I’d forgotten. Buddy Holly is just before the rock era that gets played incessantly.
Raven
And the Wrecking Crew and Swampers played on everything, so what?
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6:
Yes. She was a very successful and sought-after illustrator during the ‘40s and ‘50s and even into the early ‘60s, until demand for that whole area of talent and expertise dried up. Pearl* painted lots of pinups and calendar girls. Barbara Hale (“Della Street” on the Perry Mason TV show) was one of Pearl’s most reliable nude models, long before she got famous.
When I was s little girl, I was crazy in love with a paper doll book called “Seven and Seventeen” — two sets of big- and little-sister pairs, with matching outfits for every occasion. Pearl painted the sisters.
And yes, she is the artist behind Little Debbie. She was paid, IIRC, a flat fee of $1,000 for unlimited use of the image (although, in fairness, the company sent her a very nice thank-you letter). If she had negotiated for a fraction of a fraction of a cent per reproduction, I suppose I’d be a brazillionaire by now. Alas.
* If you have any interest in seeing her work, or learning more about her, you should be able to Google either PEARL FRUSH or PEARL FRUSH MANN for bios and some images of her paintings.
geg6
@Raven:
I’d say Brian Wilson was awesome. Mike Love is fucking no talent, thieving douchebag. And “God Only Knows” may be the greatest pop song of all time.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
OMG, you are blowing my mind.
Major Major Major Major
That’s weird, I seem to have lost the keys to the place.
geg6
@SiubhanDuinne:
That is fascinating. I will check her out. I love pinup art.
Raven
@geg6: I stand by my statement.
I guess I should’ve kept my mouth shut
When I started to brag about my car
But I can’t back down now because
I pushed the other guys too far
She makes me come alive
And makes me wanna drive
When she says “Don’t worry baby”
Don’t worry baby
Don’t worry baby
Everything will turn out alright
zhena gogolia
@Raven:
That’s a nice one.
Aleta
@Raven: No better song. Ferron’s cover of it was equally great.
geg6
@Raven:
That’s all Brian Wilson. All the rest of them could have been any reasonably talented studio musicians and you’d never know the difference. Plus, Mike Love is a giant douchebag MAGAt. And has been ripping off Brian Wilson for decades. I despise him.
Jay
@Ohio Mom:
Last Saturday, CBC Radio One’s Vinyl Tap, hosted by Randy Bachmann, had a The Day the Music Died Tribute. Randy and some high school friends had played hooky from school and were on a road trip from Winterpeg to North Dakota to catch Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper concert,
And the plane went down,
Raven
Warmth of the sun is killer.
Raven
@geg6: you don’t get it, I don’t care what you think.
Raven
@Jay: Waylon gave up his seat.
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6:
She was, I believe, considered one of the best female pinup artists of her time. A very gifted and skilled artist, for sure.
Personally, well….
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Good story here —
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/female-artists-who-shaped-the-american-dream-girl/
geg6
@Raven:
I may not always love you
But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I’ll make you so sure about it
God only knows what I’d be without you
If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on, believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me
God only knows what I’d be without you
God only knows what I’d be without you
If you should ever leave me
Though life would still go on, believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me
God only knows what I’d be without you
patrick II
Last week someone here called our Secretary of Energy Rick Perry “governor D in Meats” after a class he didn’t do well with in college. A commentator said that the class was a bigger deal than we thought, and that a Meats college course was important in the restaurant business, and that there was actually significant competition in the best meat analysts. So, perhaps someone from Sports Illustrated reads Balloon Juice? Because today the cover story on the internet version of Sports Illustrated was Welcome to the World of Competitive College Meat Judging
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Nice, thank you! I see Pearl Frush (my stepmom) is listed first of the three female superstars of pinup illustration.
Many thanks for the link. We may not have cared much for each other in real day-to-day life, but I will admit to taking a bit of vicarious pride in Pearl’s enormous and well-deserved success as a painter and commercial illustrator.
mrmoshpotato
@Kathleen: Livens up the day for sure.
Jay
@Raven:
Yup,
Back in the day, I was playing “Love in Vain”, from “Get your ya ya’s out”, for my Mom.
She recognized the song, went down into the basement, came back up with a quarter inch thick ‘78, and played me the Robert Johnson version.
trollhattan
@Jay:
Whoa, mom!
Jay
@trollhattan:
Yup, Mom was cool.
mrmoshpotato
Looks like music has taken over the comments.
Surfin’ Bird by The Trashmen for the win.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes, those are great images.
TaMara (HFG)
@SiubhanDuinne: If it makes it any better, I think of Pearl as more Minnie Pearl, complete with price tag/hat.
Thad Phetteplace
It’s long been known that cats read with their butts (which is why they will always sit on whatever book or paper you are reading)… but it is now also clear that they type with their butts as well.
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Right?
seaboogie
Ruv. ?
Just One More Canuck
@Raven: got your best side