"I've always tried to present a positive view of the world in my work. It's so much easier to be negative and cynical and predict doom for the world than it is to try and figure out how to make things better. We have an obligation to do the latter."
– Jim Henson pic.twitter.com/wKMAlicpTL— 41 Strange (@41Strange) December 31, 2019
And yet, per the Washington Post:
In June 1992, an unusual complaint was filed with the New York City Police Department. Jane Henson, widow of Muppet master Jim Henson, had allegedly thrown a punch while attending a trademark and licensing convention.
“One of my employees was physically attacked by Mrs. Henson,” a marketing executive named John T. Brady told the New York Times. “With her fist, she knocked her across the booth.”
What had so enraged Jane Henson, whose 53-year-old husband had died of pneumonia two years earlier? Well, it all goes back to some of the couple’s earliest creations: a pair of Muppets named Wilkins and Wontkins.
The two Muppets were used in ads for Wilkins Coffee, a firm founded in 1899 by John H. Wilkins Sr., who sold coffee, tea and spices at the corner of 14th and Wallach streets NW…
… [Henson’s] Muppets made their debut as part of a WRC show called “Afternoon” that featured Willard Scott and Mac McGarry as co-hosts. But it was on an evening show called “Sam and Friends” that Henson — assisted by his future wife, then-Jane Nebel — really came into his own. Making its debut was a character fashioned from an old felt coat of Henson’s mother: Kermit.
“Sam and Friends” was produced in a studio in the Sheraton Park Hotel. The show’s success enabled Henson to buy himself a white Ford Thunderbird. The show also caught the eye of Helen Ver Standig, who handled advertising for Wilkins Coffee. In 1957, she approached Henson and persuaded him to make ads for the company. One catch: The ads would be just eight seconds.
If anything, that focused Henson’s creativity. The agreeable Wilkins will drink Wilkins coffee, but when offered a cup, the grumpy Wontkins won’t. And because he won’t, Wontkins is punished in all sorts of creatively gruesome ways: shot with a cannon, thrown from a tree, run over by a train…
WaterGirl
Obligatory. I ❤️Beaker.
West of the Rockies
What if it had been a blue coat or gray? Intriguing thought experiment…
SiubhanDuinne
The dates in that story make me crazy. It’s simply not possible that Jim Henson has been gone almost 30 years.
[*wanders off, whistling and hands in pockets, Wikipediaward*]
Damn! He died in May 1990! This entire timeline is nuts.
West of the Rockies
Oh, and I hate, no, loathe, no detest Elmo and his first-person-speaking, laughing-at-his-own-jokes red ass.
Quaker in a Basement
OK, but what’s the end of the story? Why did Mrs. Henson punch someone out? The rest of the story is behind the WaPo paywall.
Matt McIrvin
Jane’s story strikes me as such an infuriating example of opportunity cost from systemic sexism. Co-creator of the Muppets, married Jim Henson because they loved the art of puppetry so much and worked great as a team… and when they had kids, she immediately quit to raise them, as you do. And the Muppet team was overwhelmingly male from then on (does it show in the product? Oh yes it does), though Jane did keep making leadership decisions.
sab
@SiubhanDuinne: Ozark Hillbilly. Take health concerns seriously. I am so tired of good men dying while they try to trouper or trooper through illness. My sisters in law are dealing with this idiotic behavior. Suddenly I am grateful for my guy who is tough against anything except his own bad health.
Nicole
@Quaker in a Basement: The coffee company was advertising themselves in connection with the “original Muppets” and as Jane Henson was protective of her late estranged husband’s legacy, she got upset. (I have a WaPo subscription so I read the rest)
randy khan
@Quaker in a Basement:
The coffee company decided to try trademark licensing after the coffee business started doing badly, and the company decided to license the two characters that Henson had created. They marketed them at some licensing convention as the original Muppets, which is what ticked her off, so she punched someone in the company’s booth. This was a couple of year after Henson had died.
Also, there was a lawsuit over the use of the puppets by the coffee company, and the settlement gave the rights to Henson’s business.
Another Scott
Interesting. Thanks.
In other news, CalculatedRiskBlog:
(Emphasis added.)
I wonder what happened in the last 3 years… :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
here is Kermit sing LCD Soundsystem’s great song
New York I Love You (but you’re bringing me down)
SiubhanDuinne
@sab:
Henson was only 53. Insanely young.
sab
@Immanentize: Yes you can die if you are under seventy. Also if you are under forty. A kid in Pittsburgh ( same last name as me) died last flu season in his his early twenties. Sick men! Yes you maybe can die. Get medical attention.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Alleged Real Estate Genius Wants World To Know: Nancy Pelosi Has Long-Term, No-Rent Lease On His Bat-Infested Belfry
Roger Moore
@Another Scott:
I think the main culprit in our slowing population growth is income inequality. Young people aren’t having as many kids these days because kids are too expensive. If the family needs two incomes to make ends meet, they can’t afford to have one parent stay at home to look after the kids, and they also can’t afford childcare while they’re both at work. If we expect people to have kids, we need to make sure they’re paid enough to afford it.
prostratedragon
In Chicago late ’50s or so we got some like this for Kraml milk:
They really built an audience for the muppets.
sab
@Another Scott: So much for the ” we don’t need immigrants” argument.
prostratedragon
@sab:
And that 34-year old sports reporter who recently died of pneumonia.
dexwood
This Jim Henson exhibit is really a fun, nostagic treat.
https://www.cabq.gov/culturalservices/albuquerque-museum/exhibitions/jim-henson-imagination-unlimited
sab
@sab
@Immanentize: Somehow this got tagged to you. I am a luddite.
I am so sorry to have my comment tagged to your name. I certainly did not mean to cause you more pain today of all days.
prostratedragon
@prostratedragon:
Hmm. Editing is dangerous. Adding a link on the reporter. He recently worked the Michigan-OSU game.
Immanentize
@sab: I think that was meant for someone else? I just put up a song.
Ahh, I see you caught it. I do that a lot myself. Somehow hit the person above the one I intend to reply to.
No fretting allowed about that!
JPL
@Immanentize: Do you have any uplifting songs bookmarked? just askin
Immanentize
@JPL:
Why yes, yes I do. Perfect for a New Year’s dance:
How do you say, Deee-lite? Groove is in the Heart
JPL
Little Grand Imp loves Rainbow Connection as do I, since he’ll normally fall asleep before the song finishes. For his first birthday in February he’ll have a cake with a rainbow on it.
PST
@prostratedragon: Death from infection disease among people in their prime is becoming more common and will only get worse. There is a scary article from the Christmas New York Times, Crisis Looms in Antibiotics as Drug Makers Go Bankrupt, about how big pharma is not interested in new antibiotics and the little companies who are can’t stay in business. In my work as a malpractice defense lawyer, I have in the last five years seen more cases of multiple amputation (often all four limbs) due to sepsis than in all the decades before. That too is a consequence of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Jim Henson was ahead of his time.
joel hanes
@sab:
We should not want population growth
[dons asbestos underwear]
JPL
@Immanentize: That was good. At first I thought it was going to be the Zou Bisou song that once on Mad Men.
Happy New Year to you and little immp. I imagine that both of you want this year to be over.
joel hanes
@PST:
life expectancy in the United States
[checks notes]
is less than in the UK or Canada, and is falling
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/11/26/us-life-expectancy-downward-spiral-study/4303700002/
Ascap_scab
Corry Lewandowski quits Senate bid before officially entering.
Personally, I have decided not to play LeBron James in one-on-one basketball even though everyone knows I would humiliate him into early retirement.
It’s the same reason I chose not to obliterate Tiger Woods at The Masters.
JDM
Mid-1970s a friend’s girlfriend worked at the tennis club in Banksville, NY, near the Connecticut border. She’d let us play for free on empty courts (if I remember right, 7:00 am start times were several thou a year plus membership). One day we were sitting down behind the counter overhearing two customers talking about time-shares in Vermont as tax shelters (popular tax shelter then). Looked up and one of the two guys was Jim Henson; I hadn’t realized that in those pre-muppet movie days he was making so much money.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
I can’t believe he was working back in the 1950s.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
I remember when is was popular to advocate for zero population growth.
I think a number of industrialized countries are dealing with slowing population growth, though the dynamics in the various countries may differ somewhat. Japan used to be the most notable example often cited.
Another Scott
Wonkette does a bit of year-in-review:
It’s almost like there’s a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy or something…
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
@JPL: we want to be out of 2019 very much (but without rushing Time, y’know)
debbie
@Another Scott:
I remember watching the coverage with my mom, who had just been told she had just a couple of months left. It was very surreal.
Marcopolo
Just wished y’all a good NYE down below; thought I’d repeat it here. Also, everyone go see Little Women & marvel at the acting chops of Saoirse Ronan & Florence Pugh—what a great pair!
Btw, wasn’t the Schiavo case the straw that broke the camel’s back and caused our blog host’s final parting of ways from the R party?
I’m off, everyone play nice (or not). I won’t be here so I don’t care.
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
I had totally forgot how young he was when he died.
opiejeanne
@Marcopolo: I thought it had something to do with Palin, but I don’t remember. What I do remember was a little of his rant, about how he just couldn’t do this any more.
zhena gogolia
@Marcopolo:
I posted my review of Little Women twice the other day and nobody was interested. I loved the acting, music, cinematography, and costumes. I’m sick of the story but she changed it up by mixing up the time frame so I wasn’t bored.
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
All the young women are great (all doing fake American accents), but Dern and Streep kind of steal the show, IMO.
raven
@sab: I hit the weather channel for my Chicago trip tomorrow and see a giant “Flu Alert”! I had my old people shot and I’m starting to feel better after my pre-Christmas bout of URI but I have no choice but to go.
The Golux
@SiubhanDuinne:
A year older than Roy Orbison was when he died.
(A fact that flabbergasted me when I learned of it. I thought he was pushing 70, at least.)
Ruckus
@sab:
I’ve told this story here before, but in the last 3 years, 11 people I knew personally, have died. Oldest- 67. Youngest- 27. My cousin was 6 months old when he went, grandfather and his daughter both passed in their 40s. Any age, any time.
JPL
Trump is tweeting that his storming of the embassy was better than Benghazi. Why not end 2019 with trump continuing to embarrass us.
raven
@Ruckus: That’s the name of that tune. I’m headed to a funeral for a lady who was 90.
HinTN
In the absence of any calendar information, or having missed that content, I went to Cafepress and looked at the Pets of Balloon Juice 2019 calendar. The months were labeled 2020 so I bought two. They arrived today. They are indeed the months of 2020 with the pictures from 2019, allowing me to contribute more to MARC when the time is ripe AND have calendars for the New Year. Celebrate, y’all. It’s great to be associated with this joint.
Another Scott
@Marcopolo: I had remembered that it was Schiavo (and that’s one of the reasons why I posted that excerpt), but he actually said it was something else that made him change his registration. (October 31, 2007):
(Schiavo’s official date of death was March 31, 2005.)
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@JPL:
It is really very appalling just how much he is tweeting. He does nothing else!
OzarkHillbilly
My wife is currently very happily preparing the broth for tomorrow’s seafood paella for which she defrosted one of our chickens for the breasts. I had the bright idea that I might take the thighs and legs and make dinner for tonight. Yeah, right. She is spread all over the kitchen and I might be able to actually enter come 7;30/8 o’clock. If I’m lucky.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I made grilled thighs, artichokes and mushroom risotto and we ate early. I’m sorry my neighbor died but the pups won’t miss the fireworks.
debbie
@Another Scott:
My youngest brother was on the verge of giving up on the Republicans while Schiavo was playing out. He clung on long enough to vote for Trump, though. //
Dorothy A. Winsor
@debbie:
He also watches TV
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Do you have an outdoor grill? Even when we lived in IL, we cooked outdoors in the winter. you can do it.
Also if you are still hacking Thurs. call the dr. just sayin
Baud
@Another Scott:
That’s funny because
I omitted the bullshit part of poltiFact’s analysis.
ETA: link
https://www.politifact.com/colorado/statements/2016/feb/17/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-wrong-sanders-claim/
Another Scott
BBC News:
(Emphasis added.)
Good, good. Throw the book at them. This crap isn’t going to stop until there are consequences that make them stop.
Cheers,
Scott.
AliceBlue
@Another Scott: Yesterday I read an article about Motherhood Maternity and Pea in the Pod closing stores because of the falling birth rate.
debbie
@Another Scott:
Jones got off cheap. Also, his attorney should be disbarred.
Fair Economist
@Roger Moore:
All over the world, in places with low birth rates like Europe and East Asia, if you ask people why they are having few children, the answer is overwhelmingly “because it’s too expensive”. Inequality is certainly a part of that.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Kinda what I had in mind. Did not know your neighbor died. Is this the one who got naked?
@JPL: I grill all year round. Unfortunately I can’t even get into the kitchen to cut, clean, and rub the meat. Never mind the Brussel’s Sprouts or potatoes. We actually have a fair sized kitchen (12’x10′) but one person really fill’s it up.
It’s OK, that chicken will be waiting come Thursday.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
Zero population growth is a good long-term global goal. Actually, we should probably be targeting a population that’s somewhat lower than ours today, since we’re already overpopulated. The problem is transitioning from a growing population to a shrinking one without creating a nasty demographic gap.
We obviously don’t want to move to a shrinking population by raising the death rate, so the only way of doing it is by reducing the birth rate. But shrinking the birth rate has a long-term effect of changing the age distribution so the population skews older. If you shrink the birth rate too much, you can wind up with an inverted population distribution, where there are way more old people than young ones. Japan is very worried about this right now, and so is China. I’d really rather we not create that kind of problem for ourselves, which means we should try to rein in population growth more gradually.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
This is a family blog.
Another Scott
@debbie: If the BBC story is accurate, the trial trial hasn’t started yet. These are just fines for pissing off the judge. The jury verdict is yet to come…
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@Fair Economist: Historically, the poorer a population is, the more children they have. The more disposable income available, the less children they have. Not to say you are wrong, but there is a very muddy middle.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Yep, heart attack at 51. We’re doing what we can to help his widow, she’s worked at the university library for years and I know she doesn’t make much dough. The house is really in bad shape with holes in the roof and soffits, rotted window sills and generally neglected all over. He had a weird mix of a membrane on the flat part, metal on the front porch and regular shingles on the back of the roof. I didn’t realize the shingles on the back were new until I was up on my roof with my gutter dudes yesterday. Somehow he wad patch work done but left the front totally trashed.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
Two words: Soylent Green.
danielx
@Another Scott:
Dude – ain’t no conspiracy any more, it’s right out in the open.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I knew somebody would pick up on that. You never disappoint. ;-)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Well, it was either me or Baud since Omnes is at the gym.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s true. I’ve been disappointed in myself more than I’ve been disappointed in Billin.
mrmoshpotato
@raven: Can we interest you in freezing temperatures?
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Pretty girl in Pilates class?
WaterGirl
@Baud: Do guys take pilates? Serious question. I only know women who do pilates.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Time gets us all. Hopefully you and others can help his widow thru the transition.
My neighbor, who’s husband died 3 years ago, has lately been emphasizing how much she enjoys our weekly visits. Makes me think I need to visit more. Maybe invite her over for dinner once every week or 2. I think it’s because our only other “neighbor” (Ray is actually an absentee landowner but he was visiting her at least once a week and helping her with stuff as I do) had triple bypass and is recovering.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @Baud: Heh.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: Disbarred into the sun?
sab
@joel hanes: Immigrants are all alive. The question is do they live here, where they chose to live, or there, where they left?
I want them here. They want to be here.They worked hard to get here.
If you are recommending that immigrants die to alleviate overpopulation, then I think you are despicable.I don’t think you recommended that.
But what to do with them? We have room, and the need for them.
Why is this even under discussion? Kill your dying community because you are too racist to accept these new people who want to live amongst you.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: If there is a pretty girl there, you damn betcha.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You beat me to it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Could be, I’ve seen a few at the gym near me when I’m walking the girls.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I haven’t done it recently but I used to do a Pilates tape because it’s good for my core. I’ve never done a class.
ETA: Guys will do anything if there’s a girl involved.
ETA 2: what OH said.
Roger Moore
@Another Scott:
Not just pissing off the judge: refusing to cooperate in the judicial process. Ignoring a court order to make witnesses and documents available during discovery is a very serious matter. If he continues to ignore the orders, he could wind up in jail, or the judge could just tell the jury they can assume his failure to produce the documents is a sign they are bad for the case. Judges hate to do the latter, but it seems as if Jones is intent on forcing the issue.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Here’s how they’re going to ring in the new year here in LA.
My patrons got the full set this afternoon at my Patreon site.
debbie
Trump and his damn farm baillouts.
The American Farmer: Twenty-First Century Welfare Queen.
Elizabelle
Happy New Year’s Eve, jackals.
Eat your 12 grapes, if that is your thing. (Gastro Obscura link.)
No one informed us of the “simultaneous rumination” obligation, and the coming year turned out pretty well, all things considered.
Elizabelle
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Have fun, Bill. Love neon and California nights.
Roger Moore
@debbie:
Sounds more like payoffs. If there’s one thing Trump knows how to do, it’s pay people off with other people’s money.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Pretty colors.
@debbie: False. Unlike welfare queens, Patriot farmers are real people.
Another Scott
More from Wonkette – 2019 – The Year the Gun Lobby Shot Itself in the D*ck.
Excellent.
tl;dr – Follow the money. Always, always, follow the money.
But you really should read it. It’s delicious.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Sounds kinky.
raven
@mrmoshpotato: Doesn’t look that bad to me. We get that here but it just doesn’t last.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Straight guys, maybe? Not all guys swing that way.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: I’m not going, we have a tradition of staying home.
sab
@debbie: I remember Kermit the Frog on the Today Show back when I was a tiny child.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
That’s perfect.
Steeplejack
Just getting hooked up to the media fire hose after a pleasant afternoon away. Kind of amazing that our vaunted “24-hour news” channels are almost completely silent on the situation in Baghdad. The only coverage I can find is on PBS NewsHour. The big three—CNN, MSNBC, Fox—are running canned specials. (Fox’s is on Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meeting during World War II. WTF.)
And apparently that was just one segment on PBS. They’ve moved on to other stuff.
P.S. Do not look at Trump’s Twitter feed. He is currently blatting out a string of retweets from someone named Heather Jones.
ETA: Heather Jones with a “moderate” 42% troll rating from BotSentinel.
Baud
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
I didn’t know gay men didn’t do Pilates. I apologize.
Dorothy A. Winsor
KOS has pics of the year in Pelosi owning Trump. Made me feel better.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Baud: My error, I’m sure. :)
sab
@Baud: Or many very normal cows chewying together. Happens all the time all across the Midwest.
Baud
@sab:
The phrase “kinky as a cow” makes so much sense now.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: Trump Trash Welfare Queens (you know damn well they enthusiastically voted for Dump)
sab
@Baud: Jeez. I can’t even. Cow defiler.
Another Scott
GovExec:
Good, good. But more is needed. And continuing Teabagger attempts to block funding and effective implementation needs to be loudly called out.
Cheers,
Scott.
JPL
And so the fireworks have begun in the neighborhood.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL:
A dog’s anti-holiday.
BigJimSlade
@Immanentize: I did an internship in a recording studio and this one band recording a demo did a wonderful version of Eagles’ Desperado in Kermit’s voice. I was enthralled.
raven
@JPL: Yea goddamit, I guess my neighbor dying doesn’t matter. I’m going to launch at dawn but traffic shouldn’t be bad in the morning.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Another Scott: We still need the Senate to pass HR1.
raven
@BigJimSlade: I’d like to hear “I Can’t Tell You Why” like that.
Baud
@sab: https://youtu.be/3gimLgy3Cek
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott: That was excellent. Also, the NRA – fuck ‘ em.
Patricia Kayden
mrmoshpotato
@raven: You’ve jinxed yourself and brought terrible weather upon all of us! ?
sab
@raven: Just heading into my last tax season without my shingles shot. My 50 year old boss got shingles (not the shot) last year, and it messed up his year and our year a lot.
Fair Economist
@Roger Moore:
Conservatives trying to invent excuses to cut Social Security have put an enormous amount of work into convincing people an inverted population distribution is bad, but it’s (almost) complete bunkum. The reality is that if a population’s birth rate drops, there is a tremendous *improvement* in the dependency ratio (the proportion of population that’s adult and healthy) which lasts for about 40 years. This is followed by a slight worsening, but far less of a loss than the preceding gain, and the eventually a stabilization around the stable point for the new population growth rate, which for any change we’re going to see is scarcely different from the current one. The best long term rate is basically zero population growth, but anything from 2% growth to 2% shrinkage is almost indistinguishable from the ZPG optimum.
The reason is that 20 years after the birth rate drops, there are many fewer children – so much lower expenses for child care, child health care, and education – but just as many adults, because they were already born. The economic benefit at that point is *huge*. After that the number of adults starts to decline from what it would have been, but the net is still an economic benefit for about another 20 years. At that point the relatively large elderly population brings costs similar to those saved by the relatively small child population. For the next 40 years or so the relative costs of the elderly population outweighs the benefit of the smaller child population; but it’s never nearly as much of a loss as was gained in the first 40 years because in that period there’s very little cost to outweigh the savings of raising fewer children.
If there is almost any expected growth over time, the growth from the resources saved raising fewer children will outweigh any later costs forever and the reduced birth rate is an unalloyed eternal boost to the economy.
The only caveat is that for really fast population shrinkage rates you can end up somewhat worse off than on the ZPG optimum. But that needs something like only 1 child per woman. Currently only South Korea is there. Even Japan and Italy are well above that. Even South Korea’s rate wouldn’t be that bad – it would be a burden similar to what the US has shouldered for its growing population since the baby boom ended.
tldr: Ignore conservative lies; fewer children is good for the environment *and* the economy, short term *and* long term.
raven
@mrmoshpotato: Well I changed my flight to early morning Friday so we’ll see. The hour difference trashes me and I wake up @ 4 here so I should be able to make good time from Shaumburg to Midway!
raven
@sab: I got the new one and it kicked my ass. On the other hand I had shingles in my eye 20 years ago and I’d do about anything to avoid that again.
sab
@Baud: You are a very bad person.
Another Scott
@Fair Economist: Interesting. And it makes sense.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@sab: I try to try people but they don’t believe me.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thank you Dorothy. That collection of Speaker Pelosi owning Dump was excellent.
I look forward to her making him look like a fool more in the new year.
MomSense
We’re watching the Harry Potter movies, starting with Prisoner of Azkaban.
sab
@raven: That is why I have been dithering about it. My husband got the new elder flu shot and the shingles shot the same day, and spent the next 48 hours shivering and barfing. He was really really sick. I was worried. He recovered, and is theoretically now immune. I am trying to schedule when my family can have me bedridden for a couple of days. Hubris that. If I get sick they will cope, like families always have. Thart is why we have families.
mrmoshpotato
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Which bill is that of the hundreds on McPutin’s Bitch’s desk?
raven
@sab: I’m surprised they gave them both to him the same day.
mrmoshpotato
@raven: Good luck finding this “Shaumburg.”
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Beth is still working on the calendar. So the 2020 calendar will be coming, but we obviously didn’t make it in time for Christmas.
I talked with Beth yesterday and she was in the process of arranging the photos and the quotes. (Quotes from some of our beloved BJ folks who are no longer with us.)
So don’t spend all your Christmas cash just yet!
raven
@mrmoshpotato: whatves, I used to go to the Cellar in Arlington Heights and see the Shadows!
mad citizen
My wife and me saw Little Women yesterday–it was good. My wife really liked it, said afterwards, “move over Steven Spielberg, Greta Gerwig is here.” I thought the acting was generally top notch. At times, though, I thought the dialogue sounded too modern, etc. and the young guy playing Laurie especially seemed like he was in 2020 and not the mid-19th century. In a scene towards the end, low light upstairs in the house, I saw a dangling white earphone/wire hanging down the middle of Saoirse Ronan, but only momentarily, like a second from that take but it wasn’t there for all the other takes. Can’t confirm on the web, though.
My favorite part was watching Bob Odenkirk play the dad, and then thinking back to the time he told the story at the dinner party on Curb Your Enthusiasm (he covered his finger with tobasco sauce and…”). He’s come a long way.
Last night I watched an interesting you tube video comparing all four of the Little Women movies through the years.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: I have been there. It’s real. :-)
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Schaumburg
Schaumburg Township, IL
https://maps.app.goo.gl/g78hfoQC64VQNBey5
raven
@WaterGirl: I spelled it wrong.
sab
Me too. Husband’s doctor got promoted to head of the whole hospital. Emergencyly installed practical nurse recommended it.
My 95 year old dad had a practical nurse at a competing hospital that was head and shoulders above the residents rotating through.
This one not so much. I didn’t like her either for my last appoinrment. Obsessed with diabetes, which no one in my family has ever had. Utterly ignored all sorts of health isssues we have actually died of routinely.
raven
The story of my life, weed will become legal while I’m in Illinois. I got busted for drinking a week after I came home from the Army. When I turned 21 the lowered the age to 18!
Steeplejack
@debbie:
Crony capitalism or socialism? ? We report; you decide.
mrmoshpotato
@raven: :) *looks that up* Interesting – got any songs to recommend?
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: No Pilates at this gym.
Baud
@raven:
Get some weed, go up to a cop, blow some smoke in their face, and say, “whatcha gonna do, pig.”
You’ve earned it.
The Lodger
@raven: Pardon me for not reading through, but were there any particular old people you wanted to be shot?
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Medieval Times! (though there’s probably a water park or something we went to in Schaumburg during summer camp)
mrmoshpotato
@The Lodger: LOL
Omnes Omnibus
@sab: You are just discovering this? When people tell you who they are, believe them.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Chicken sashimi. Minimal prep.
:)
@WaterGirl
Noticed that the copyright date at the blog bottom has advanced slightly prematurely.
;)
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/12/30/where-to-buy-legal-weed-in-chicago-on-january-1/
raven
@mrmoshpotato: The keyboard player Dave “Hawk” Wolinski was in the band before he was in Bangor Flying Circus, Madura and then Rufus. He wrote “Ain’t Nobody” and Quincy wanted it for Thriller but he’d promised it to Chaka and there it stayed. The Shadows of Knight’s biggest hit was a cover of Gloria. Them (Van Morrison” released it but the Pope, or whoever in Chicago, pitched a bitch because it said “she came up to my room” so the Shadows changed it and released it in the Midwest.
MomSense
Some New Years tunes.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=duRp_avXtMM my babe
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: We’re a forward looking blog.
raven
@The Lodger: There are two flu shots, one for old people. That would be me.
JPL
@NotMax: sweet. .
Happy New Year and to all a good night.
Baud
@NotMax:
Y2KXX issues.
?BillinGlendaleCA
My neighbors are having a party, so I’ve got Mexican music right outside my window.
Baud
@JPL: You too.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Des-pa-cito.
Baud
karensky
@WaterGirl:
Ditto
NotMax
Based on the annoying nocturnal previews over the past week or so, NOT looking forward to a quiet night in the neighborhood, boom-wise.
TomatoQueen
@WaterGirl: Tom Cruise is a Pilates practitioner, the better to do his own stunts. Also, those who sail small sailboats, which frequently require strange-looking poses while hanging in what looks like mid air over the side of the boat, do Pilates and anything else that will strengthen the core.
Ken
I’m getting ready to go to a New Year’s party. We’re all getting to the age where half the entertainment is seeing who makes it to midnight.
By the way, thanks to whoever it was that recommended “Dinner for One” last year. IIRC, over half of Germany watches this skit every New Year’s Eve, and I’ve decided to add myself to their ranks.
raven
@mrmoshpotato: One right by Midway!
japa21
@raven: Being the nice person I am, I was not going to point that out. Since I live two blocks from Schaumburg I do know the correct spelling. According to my son, back when he was a student at Hoffman Estates HS, the correct spelling is Scumburg.
raven
@japa21: I’m a slave to autocorrect. I’m from Villa Park so I know what time it is!
MomSense
@TomatoQueen:
I’ve been doing Pilates for 35 years. Unfortunately I had to sell my machine when I moved, so I’ve had to modify my practice.
Omnes Omnibus
@MomSense: Are you a dude?
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Yes. It started as a system for providing physical therapy to WWI veterans.
MomSense
@Omnes Omnibus:
Life would be much easier if I were.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: and a belly full of tacos?
Patricia Kayden
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TomatoQueen:
A guy comes to the exercise classes in the gym here and begs for pilates because he’s hoping it will help his aching back.
japa21
@raven: BTW, what are you going to be in Schaumburg for? I must have missed that.
mrmoshpotato
@raven: Apparently there is! Haha
Baud
@MomSense:
But DadSense wouldn’t have the same je ne sais quoi.
raven
@japa21: Funeral
MomSense
@Baud:
Also wouldn’t have sense.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I was just gonna say I don’t personally know any guys who do pilates, then I remembered my neighbor and his wife, in their 60s and in ridiculously good shape, have a spare bedroom set up as a pilates studio. The name comes from Joseph Pilates who developed it for, IIRC, ballet dancers?
This whole discussion reminds me of the time I was telling a cousin of mine about a great sushi place I had been to, and she looked at me kind of quizzically and said, “Isn’t sushi kind of a… woman thing?” She is, as my uncle used to say, a good-hearted, simple soul
ETA:
@MomSense:
So… I was way off.
japa21
@raven: Damn. Now I remember something about.
Baud
@MomSense:
Dadiocy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If I remember my history correctly, a lot of doughboys went into ballet after the war.
zhena gogolia
Thank you all for introducing me to Neil Innes (RIP). This guy is hilarious!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfTlGMCeuDE
raven
@japa21: Mom of a good friend. If there is such a thing as a celebration of life this qualifies.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: We’re having Korean food here.
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A lot of dancers did Pilates and then it was incorporated into the dance training. That’s how I started. Martha Graham and George Balanchine were devotees.
@Baud:
?
Amir Khalid
@MomSense:
I’ve always been a little disappointed that they left Hermione’s misguided pro-elf activism out of Goblet of Fire, and the tragic story of Voldemort’s mother out of Half-Blood Prince. I understand why — the movies would have been too long with those subplots in — but they said a lot about Hermione and Voldemort, and I missed them.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: I was introduced to him via the second and third hand cassette tapes of the various Secret Policeman’s Balls that were in circulation when I was in undergrad.
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
I agree. The movies are fine but they are a poor substitute for the books.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
My inner 13-year-old is delighted that the second of those concerts was called The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: So is mine.
The Pale Scot
@Immanentize: I love me some Lady Miss Kir
Mary G
Omnes Omnibus
@Mary G: Backatcha, Carl. Backatcha.
chopper
@Quaker in a Basement:
the rest of the story isn’t a whole lot clearer. not the best written.
NotMax
@The Pale Scot
Mmmm, kir.
The Pale Scot
@PST:
Blame goes to Big Pharma. They suck at R&D and have been buying up start ups instead like those mentioned in the article.
The way it worked was that venture capital put up the development and Stage One and Two trials. If the trials went well Merck etc would buy the co., the investors cashed out and Merck would fund the really expensive Stage Three & Four trials. The BP financial types realized that if they waited a bit the startup would run out cash and could be bought for a song. Result? Venture capital is no longer getting involved so there is no funding by anyone for any drug that isn’t a reformulation of an existing drug. All the new drugs coming out now are the result of decisions made at least five years ago. Five years from now? It will be interesting to see.
Trump’s office requiring research funded by the government to be accessed without charge is one tiny step toward the government requiring payment for new tech development payed for by it. So much of the world’s talent is directed toward apps and tax avoidance it’s sick
WaterGirl
@NotMax:
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.It’s midnight somewhere. (The developers are already out celebrating the New Year; I’d call that good thinking ahead.)
WaterGirl
@karensky: :-)
WaterGirl
@TomatoQueen: Interesting!
WaterGirl
@japa21: i knew, too, but what kind of asshole points stuff like that out? (rhetorical question)
I knew what he meant; that’s what counts.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Really?!?!? That’s interesting.
WaterGirl
I was apparently going for a personal best – 5 comments by me at the end of a dead thread. I didn’t quite make it, since my personal best was 6, so I’ll make this one a tie.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Goblet of Fire may be my favorite of the books.
Unfortunately, it is a garbage fire of a movie, since they decided that the main plot in the book was too complicated. So they just kinda hand-waved the plot away in favor of filming all the exciting set pieces and loosely stringing them together. Excellent cast as always, but a terrible adaptation of the book. ?
StringOnAStick
@Another Scott: I know a couple that were trying to decide when to become parents, then tRump got elected and they both agreed to skip having kids. As for their choice, they said “TRump definitely helped make our decision.”
Daddio7
@Fair Economist: So how is that Africans, Arabs, and Mexicans can afford to have them by the hundreds of millions? Of course they do have to migrate to Western Europe and the US to find jobs that amazingly are very easy to find and pay enough to support them. And they have no trouble having children while making minimum wage.
WaterGirl
@Daddio7: Is it just me, or does this seem like an incredibly racist comment?
joel hanes
@sab:
I think we should welcome immigrants.
My comment was a reaction to the assumption that population growth is inherently a good thing, which is an axiom that I think that the world will eventually be forced to abandon.
2liberal
My dad had shingles about 5 years ago when he turned 90 and it damn near killed him. He was in so much pain he had to have medication but the meds made him sick and he lost a lot of weight. He finally shook it off but lost sight in one eye. He had taken the shot. Nasty disease to have.
2liberal
that’s because the server is in Russia ///