This made me grin…a lot:
These are wretched times to be sure. But I am amazed and so grateful to all the incredibly inventive folks who have gone to enormous lengths to share a bit of joy amidst the gloom.
What else? How about some swans (and, in an in-joke for the 02138 set, a cygnet society)*:
And finally, bonus Tikka, here preparing to give a vastly more useful update on epidemic concerns than the shitgibbon ever could:
And now, oh jackalteriat: the thread is open.
trollhattan
Baby fuzzy swans! Is Haavaard Yaard swan-infested or something?
We don’t get swans in our local park ponds, just ducks and geese. IIUC swans can be veddy nasty, if nice to gaze at.
Just One More Canuck
The furball that Tikka seems to be considering hacking up would be more intelligent than anything the orange menace could possibly say
Jerzy Russian
Great music! I wish I could sing like that.
Tikka has that “what have you done with my balls?” look about him. I hope you have a good response to that question.
Frankensteinbeck
Woo! The audiobooks for You Can Be A Cyborg When You’re Older are ready for Audible! They’ll go up for sale officially as soon as my friends download their free copies. I love this book, and I love the job Arielle DeLisle did as my reader. It’s the only one of my books I think I’ll actually listen to the audiobook. Reading or listening to my own writing feels weird.
Miss Bianca
A propos of nothing in particular, I have long contemplated using “Con Brio” as a stage name. Or would that be too obvious?
Amir Khalid
Always good to see the feline reincarnation of Lee Van Cleef.
CaseyL
Wonderful video! The singer sounded very much like Andrea Bocelli, but Andrea Bocelli would never sing those words. So I looked up Daniel Emmet and, lo!, he *is* an opera singer and a damn fine one. He must know a few other fun-loving opera singers to have put the chorus together.
Tom, you are so right about the creative people doing their best to make our time confined a bit better. Appreciative applause to them all.
And Tikka… I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a photo of him where he didn’t have that Evil Genius slitted-eye look going for him. He is one of the handsomest tuxedos ever.
Open thread? I got nothin’. Just another day WFH, watching the traffic outside slowly increase as the Governor clears more businesses to re-open. I continue to be bemused and mildly alarmed at how little I’ve minded being stuck at home for 2 months and counting: apparently “hermit” is an occupation I’d be well suited for!
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: OMG, that’s it! That’s who he reminds me of!
Haydnseek
Tikka is the master of the look that says “I have found you useful from time to time in the past. Your death shall be quick and painless.”
Miss Bianca
@Frankensteinbeck: Oh, yeah! I have to find a different way to listen to audiobooks – I used to listen on CD in my old car, then the CD player crapped out. My ‘new’ (1996 vintage) rig only has a cassette player. I guess I can download it onto my computer and listen to it that way?
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker:
@Amir Khalid: Oh, Lord, YES – and once seen, cannot be unseen!
Kelly
An ace excavator being sweet to little kids
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1262544365228081152
I may have picked this up from an earlier respite thread. If so it deserves a recycle
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Aww, Tikka is so cute! My cat loves to rub his chin on everything too
Wapiti
@CaseyL: I thought the chorus was the same guy wearing different hats/glasses, but sitting in front of the same window shade.
Raven
@Miss Bianca: https://youtu.be/Tf5XgkG0JfI ever hear this on Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever? It be germane.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Frankensteinbeck: Cool! I’ll keep an eye out.
Roger Moore
@Miss Bianca:
As long as your computer has a CD or DVD drive, ripping your audiobooks to mp3 (or equivalent) seems like a good approach. If you really want to go old-school, you could get a cassette tape adapter for your car stereo so you could still listen to them there. Or, if you’re willing to spend a little bit of money, you could upgrade your car stereo.
Betty Cracker
Polls are meaningless, but this is a happy one:
Didn’t check the cross-tabs, but my guess is white college educated women are the primary reason “college educated whites” are on Team Don’t Fucking Drink Bleach in this poll.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I just watched some of Ken Burns’s documentary on The Roosevelts – especially those about Franklin D (as opposed to Teddy) and boy howdy were the times precarious back then. FDR’s first political position was as the State Senator for Duchess County, NY. During his re-election campaign he could not campaign in person, at all – he used surrogates for the entirety of the campaign – because both he and Elanor were convalescing from Typhoid, which was often fatal back then.
Shortly after the election (which he won) he’s appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Wilson administration, a position he held when the US entered WWI. So he goes over to inspect the troops and on the way home gets double pneumonia from the Spanish Influenza. He survived that only to be crippled by polio (another of the crippling and not infrequently deadly epidemics of the time) a couple years later. Kinda put things in perspective a little.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
Yeah, a ’90s era car probably has a discrete stereo in a standard single-DIN slot that can be replaced w/o too much bother or expense. More recent cars, not so much.
Car stereos, like CD players and VHS decks, are a waning market and I doubt there are all that many to choose from.
raven
@trollhattan: I run an audio out from my phone to a cassette player adapter in my old truck. I see on this page that they have a bluetooth as well.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: We need more news stories about how the Biden campaign is flailing and uninspiring.
trollhattan
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Yup, doubt I’d have had FDR’s fortitude to clear all those hurdles.
Am coincidentally on Vol 2 of Chernow’s TR bio, at the point where the Panama treaty has been ratified and we are introduced to the new Secretary of War, William Howard Taft. Kids and badgers have overrun the White House.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Cautiously hopeful, while mindful that November is about seven lifetimes away.
Ninedragonspot
@Miss Bianca: The second movement of Ives’ Violin Sonata “Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting” is titled Allegro (con slugarocko).
pamelabrown53
r@Amir Khalid:
Re: the feline reincarnation of Lee Van Cleef = genius!
BTW, I loved reading the last post/thread. I’m spending more time than usual at my computer as I had minor “surgery” (that’s what they call it) for an ingrown toenail. The toenail is cut all the way down the sides and chemically treated so the nail can’t grow in anymore. Not fun and am supposed to stay off my feet today.
Chaps my hide that one of the few times I’ve left the house since early March and for such an odious necessity. Good Covid safeguards though.
WaterGirl
@pamelabrown53: Ouch!
Hope this resolves your issue once and for all!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: I saw a beaver on my drive up to the Owens Valley last Friday.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Miss Bianca: Got a couple of Bluetooth audio systems(CD player included) here from my old Jetta, I don’t deliver though.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Betty Cracker:
50-39
but, but…. Obamagate?
Tom Levenson
@Haydnseek: Precisely.
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Nice. Don’t often see them and am sometimes surprised how BIG they can be!
Tom Levenson
@trollhattan: It’s la Rive Chuck, just past the Waltham gateway to the so-called Lakes District (not that one!). (About half a mile from the western end of the Waltham Watch Factory, to be precise, at the little boat landing.)
LuciaMia
@Just One More Canuck: Love Tikka’s VERY pink nose.
ziggy
I looked into getting a pair of swans (we live near a lake) and the cost is outrageous! Like $500 for a cygnet (baby) and $3,000 for a mated pair. You have to have a mated pair or they are miserable, and they live around 25 years. It’s a huge commitment, like getting a parrot!
CaseyL
@Wapiti: I’d have to listen to it again, but I thought some of the voices were women.
Frankensteinbeck
@Miss Bianca:
You’ll have to get this one specifically from Audible, then figure out which of the ways they let you listen to it works for you. They do have a lot of options, but it took a little poking for me to get it onto my iPhone. That vexes me because I am a great believer in making it as easy as possible for people to give me their money.
pamelabrown53
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
I love “Obamagate”. Like Seinfeld’s show about nothing, tRump with seethe, slander and hyperbolically lie, while Obama largely ignores him until at the time of his choosing he stilletoes him!
Clean, effective and deadly.
donnah
The stay home orders gave me a lot of time to finish the Helen Keller rug. I’m very pleased with it. It contains a quote of hers, written out as well as translated into Braille, which I included across the bottom and embellished with round beads so they have a texture you can feel.
https://imgur.com/gallery/CN7kb69
Next project, a portrait of my youngest son.
LuciaMia
@donnah: Gorgeous!
Reboot
@Frankensteinbeck: Delurking to say how much I enjoy your titles. Best wishes for great sales and your new publisher being a dream (a good dream) to work with.
Betty Cracker
@ziggy: Wow, I had no idea! I suppose you couldn’t just get an unrelated male and female cygnet for $1,000 and assume they’d become a mated pair — what if they weren’t suited for each other? Then you’d have TWO miserable swans who would probably take it out on your shins!
NotMax
How’s about some kultcha?
@top
Q: What’s found in the tub after bathing a baby swan?
A: A cygnet ring.
Betty Cracker
@donnah: Truly amazing!
pamelabrown53
@donnah:
Absolutely amazing, donnah, that you can create such detail in your medium.
You have serious skillz/artistic ability.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@donnah:
Every time you’ve showed us this design in progress, I’ve been impressed. It’s a work of art.
jeffreyw
@Miss Bianca: How do you buy audio books now? What format do they come in?
ziggy
@Betty Cracker: I think if they were the only male and female around, they would iron things out, but if the right swan came along….Plus you have to keep the wings clipped to keep them around. Maybe I’ll try for some good plastic ones.
NotMax
@donnah
Bringing new meaning to the term “hooker with a heart of gold.”
;)
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@trollhattan: Do you mean Edmund Morris? I did read Chernow’s Grant biography and that was excellent…it boggles my mind that he was considered one of the very worst Presidents for many decades – even up until my youth in the 1970s. He was a good and decent man and a pretty effective President and post-President.
He really tried to enforce reconstruction (and was the last POTUS to do so) and enable African Americans civil rights in the South. Then we let the lost causers redefine him as a failure for decades. Thankfully the historical record has been mostly corrected. Yeah, he failed at some stuff. They all do. But by and large he tried to do the right thing and often succeeded.
pamelabrown53
@NotMax:
Heh.
donnah
@NotMax: That’s me!
Thanks for the kind comments, everyone. I love this medium and don’t usually get this much time to hook because I travel the country to teach it. A double-edged sword, though, as without the workshops, I’m not making money. On the other hand, lots of time to hook! I love it.
Doc Sardonic
Never mind
Another Scott
Speaking of swans, I recall someone posting this picture (or one very much like it) and saying you can really see the dinosaur resemblance…
Cheers,
Scott.
cckids
@donnah: That is just lovely, and so thoughtful to make it tactile as well. Congratulations!
Dorothy A. Winsor
The ice cream cart just came down the hall, handing out goodies. Yay!
JPL
@donnah: You are so talented and thank you for sharing your works with us.
Sure Lurkalot
@donnah: I love your art and Helen Keller was a childhood hero, along with Florence Nightingale.
Central Planning
I started thinking about this the other day: Why doesn’t there seem to be any good viruses?
I know there are some responsible for the evolution of humans (viruses could be responsible for up to 30% of all protein adaptations). So that’s long term, but generally the ones that get you sick last a short amount of time (I’m thinking colds and flu). They always do bad things to people.
Where are the good viruses that will let me burn off my body fat and get me to a BMI of 12, or give me infrared vision or extra strength, fix my tinnitus, or get the hair on my head to be more luxurious? To be clear, I’m not talking about genetically modified viruses for gene therapy.
Why do viruses hate humans?
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
My very first social encounter with anyone besides my husband: “Why is Biden just sitting in his basement doing nothing?”
Same person who was very concerned about Hillary’s e-mails four years ago. Sigh.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL:
They were. I assumed he had the chorus recorded and just didn’t show their faces.
Central Planning
@pamelabrown53: My son had that surgery done about 8 months ago. He wore open-toed sandals for a few weeks while they healed. He was happy he got it done.
Roger Moore
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
The one area where Grant really deserves his bad reputation is in regards to corruption. He had a gigantic moral blind spot around public figures accepting gifts. He doesn’t appear to have given any favors in exchange for stuff, but his own willingness to accept gifts left the door open for less moral people to engage in all kinds of corruption. You can draw a direct line from Grant Administration corruption to the gilded age excess that we didn’t really get a handle on until the New Deal.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Have you tried going back in and then out again?
/IT department
Steeplejack
@donnah:
Your work is fantastic!
Kay
I got another homemade mask at the court today. Rachel, who is an extremely competent clerk, made a bunch. Gingham! So cheery. These carefully crafted and ironed masks people are handing out are restoring my faith in humanity. Well, “people” are handing out. I mean “women” :)
trollhattan
@Tom Levenson:
Nice! “Love that dirty water.”
Fair Economist
@donnah: That’s an amazing piece donnah, both in conception and execution.
CaseyL
@Central Planning: I see an NIH grant in your future :)
trollhattan
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Yeah, Morris. I get his and Chernow’s works mixed up.
J R in WV
Tikka sure has a great looking microphone to pick up the purring sounds!!
Emma from FL
@donnah: WOW!!!E
susanna
@donnah: Wow – this is fabulous, Donnah.
NotMax
Took me nearly six months but think I’ve finally doped out the optimal amount of ground coffee to put in the tippy top of the line Rolls Royce of coffee makers I treated myself to for the holidays last year (succumbed to Black Friday sale temptation).
Was reluctant for too long to use more for the 10 cups it makes than did for the old, replaced 12 cupper, which was mistaken mulishness on my part.
Not that have ever gotten a bad cup of coffee from it, rather that now each one is consistently superior.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
That looks dangerous, a bird that size is probably not afraid of a human, or their dog. And is pretty strong!
Central Planning
@CaseyL: LOL, biology/chemistry weren’t my favorites in high school and I haven’t done anything with that. My 11th grader might want to be a chemist, so maybe I can pique his interest.
Central Planning
@NotMax: What is the Rolls Royce of coffee makers? Or does Rolls Royce make a coffee maker and you have their highest-end one?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Central Planning:
Bacteriophages could be considered good viruses in that they hunt and kill bacteria that can make us sick. In fact, I believe bacteriophages live inside our intestines alongside gut bacteria and keep them in check
Scientists are revisiting phage therapies with the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria
JPL
@Central Planning: I assume he’s not talking about my Mr. Coffee pot.
trollhattan
@Central Planning:
I have a nomination.
HumboldtBlue
@Kelly:
Yeah, that’s an awesome one and to be fair, Rex is a great follow on Twitter. Very funny very insightful.
donnah
@Sure Lurkalot: She was a hero to me, too. I remember seeing The Miracle Worker and being enthralled by the story. I have always been in awe of her and her teacher Anne Sullivan, and am concerned that their story is being forgotten. I hope my rug will remind people and maybe spark new interest in Helen Keller’s amazing life and her many contributions to society.
Mary G
@donnah: That is spectacular.
rekoob
@trollhattan: @JPL: @Central Planning: @NotMax:
If memory serves, it’s this:
https://us.moccamaster.com
raven
@JPL: One of the Mr Coffee trust funders lived here for years, wild lady.
Aleta
@donnah: gorgeous spirit
JPL
@raven: Interesting. For me it’s the beans that count, since I like a dark roast
It’ a tad chilly here. Just now warmed up to 60.
raven
@JPL: I just turned the heat on for a bit. I don’t know what’s going on with me and coffee. I was almost thinking it was the virus lack of taste since doubling up in the grinder didn’t do much.
NotMax
@Central Planning
Here ya go.
And I see that rekoob got there first.
NotMax
@NotMax
Bad linky.
Fix.
J R in WV
@donnah:
Your art is really wonderful. Beautifully conceived, planned and just as well executed in every way. One of my uncles became fascinated by hooking, and was really good after a while. He copied great art, and some of them took a couple of years to complete. Not as original as your work by any means!
Years ago Wife got a woven tapestry in France, it was a little expensive, but was from a guild member, and was the last one for sale at the museum we were visiting. It has animals from the famous cave paintings, which was the main purpose of the tour we were on.
Your work is very much like that but for the variation in the medium, hooked rather than woven. Ours is about 6 feet long and 18 inches high, and hangs over the head of our bed.
SWANS…
Regarding swans, my dad was a big convertible man, and he and mom took many road trips in one of the other of the roadsters he had over the years. On one trip in Delaware, they were visiting a duPont estate now become a museum, and the long winding road up to the actual building passed by a big pond, with beautiful swans in abundance.
One of them, the biggest male, decided the little white car was threatening his bevy (one of many words for a group) of swans, and ran towards them. Just as Mom said “Look out, he looks mean!” Dad pushed the roll up button for his window, just as the swan rammed into the window, leaving a big smear of swan spittle dripping down the window. I hope no swan was injured in the episode, but very glad Dad closed that window when he did!
Miss Bianca
@donnah: Wow, amazing.
Miss Bianca
@jeffreyw: I haven’t listened to any in a long time. I always got them on CD to listen to in the car, because in the Before Times I used to drive around the area *a lot*. We are talking 25,000 miles or more per year.
Now, not so much. So while I suppose I could still get CDs out and listen to them while I am doing other things, it hasn’t really occurred to me to do so.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Could I request you add the linky at #43 to the virtual museum Cabin Fever post?
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Roger Moore: Kind of feel like the corruption was rampant in just about equal measure in every administration of that era…but they applied a different standard to him. Or maybe that’s when public opinion started to finally frown on the political spoils system and he was just the first guy who came in for that kind of criticism. Though Chernow does make that same “blind spot” point in his book. I’m not condoning the corruption but if it was just the way it was in that era it seems less egregious.
Then, we for a while seemed to stamp out corruption during the New Deal era and the couple decades that followed it, and now it’s back in a major way and seems worse because we know it doesn’t have to be this way.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Added.
Central Planning
@trollhattan: that’s impressive. I wonder if a bank would let me take a loan out for that
donnah
@J R in WV: Thanks, and thanks to all who were so kind. It’s good to get feedback!
Now I’m on to my son’s rug!
The Lodger
@ziggy: We had plastic swans in our climate control pool at Bell Labs in Holmdel to discourage migratory geese. At the holidays some folks would feed them styrofoam peanuts. Ah, tradition…