I’ve decided we should have an open thread.
I went to Central Park on Sunday to enjoy the sun. (It was maybe forty degrees, but that’s what long underwear is for!) Clearly I wasn’t the only one who’d had this idea; the park was bustling. But that’s the benefit of being outdoors and masked: bustle isn’t too much trouble.
Still, I was surprised and delighted to find a choir of masked carolers performing at Bethesda Terrace. It’s a beautiful space with great acoustics that always has good musicians performing, so they fit right in. I took a short video, and thought you all might appreciate it. Life felt… normal. It was wonderful.
For a brief shining moment everything feels normal pic.twitter.com/mesf941nyz
— ? Tynan ? (@TynanPants) December 6, 2020
Addendum 1: The Hogfather reading club meeting will be Sunday, December 20 at 3:00pm EST.
Addendum 2: A small bleg, not for myself, pre-cleared with management.
I review submissions for a sci-fi & fantasy magazine called Metaphorosis. It’s up and coming, but it’s got some great stories. The editor would like to do more to emphasize authors from underrepresented groups, while still reading stories blind. The plan is to make special anthologies reprinting stories from said authors, one anthology per ‘group’ (e.g. LGBT, disabled). But paying for reprint rights, commissioning new art, etc. costs money!
So there’s a Kickstarter, and a $15 pledge will get you an ebook of every anthology they end up making. (Your card isn’t charged unless the goal is met.) Looks like they could definitely use a bit of a boost. If you’d like to see what sort of stories we’re talking about, you can read them all for free at the magazine website.
Tony Jay
Nice things? Oh I am so, so very sorry.
“The Groans of the Britons Redux”
Brexit Follies du Jour – Chapter Googleplex
Goldfinger slumped at the bar with the air of a man lost in doubt. The ice in his Campari and soda had long ago melted, but the drink remained untouched.
“What happened next?”
“I said, ‘No, Mister Bond, I expect you to die’.”
“Oh, that’s a good one, Auric. Damned fine line. So, you killed him?”
“That’s just it. I didn’t have to. He escaped the trap, killed my guards, and then…. he tore off his own testicles and choked himself to death with them.”
“What? That’s insane! Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know, but the worst thing, Ernst, the worst thing, the thing that still robs me of sleep. While he was doing it, he didn’t make a sound, he just grinned at me, but I swear on my gold, it was as though he thought that, somehow, he’d won.”
Excerpt from “When Bad Men Had It Good – A Private Memoir” by Ernst Blofeld (S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Archives – Moonraker Island Depository – Section 13 – Box 741)
There is a theory, and it’s pretty convincing, that the Roman Empire should never have bothered conquering most of Britain and would have been far better served restricting itself to trade in tin and the odd shipload of slaves from the misty land of damp wool and heavily moustachioed charioteers. Too far away, too islandy, too fucking ungrateful for all the things Rome had brought across the Channel (fish sauce!) the British provinces cost a lot more than they were worth and a direct result of having to garrison them so heavily in order to fend off the constant raids from Caledonian woad-warriors and the not-yet-Scottish Scotti pirates of Hibernia was the endemic problem of placing a substantial army under the command of Roman Governors who would, of course, take the very first opportunity that came their way to lead those same garrison troops back to the continent to have a crack at usurping the Imperial Purple and enjoying La Dolce Vita on the shores of warmer seas. It happened over and over again, and the cycle was only brought to a halt when Rome’s central authority simply couldn’t replace the last tranche of legionaries who’d come over on the ferry and was reduced to sending considerably cheaper cohorts of Thoughts and Prayers instead.
I imagine that their Patricians and Plebians of Rome’s modern day successor states must think poor old Flavius Aetius had the right idea. Unfortunately for the E.U. they don’t just have minor irritants like Attila’s cosmopolitan interlopers and the wholesale collapse of Imperial commerce and culture to deal with, they’ve got the barbarian hordes of Brexit pissing under the door and keeping everyone up all night with their incessant fart noises. Four and a half years after a plurality of self-harming wankers allowed themselves to be duped into voting to leave the European Union the Government they elected on a promise to “Get Brexit Done” is still devoid of a single, solitary clue regarding how to go about that without pulverising the nation’s bones in an insane frenzy of infantile rejectionism. It turns out that when the original Brexit-floggers said that leaving would be “the easiest deal in history” and there would be “no downsides, only considerable upsides” because “they need us more than we need them”, what they really meant (and it’s our fault for wilfully misunderstanding the plain meaning of their statements in pursuit of unpatriotic doomcrowing) was that everything would be shit for decades and we’d have to pay hundreds of billions of pounds for the privilege, but at least we’d have different coloured passports and Our Sovereignty!!
It really is a humiliating spectacle, watching the representatives of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland squirming around like slugs on a hotplate as they ‘negotiate’ with Europe’s intensely un-bothered professionals. Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson only achieved his lifelong ambition of leading the Conservative Party (which brought with it the office of Prime Minister) by throwing his considerable bulk into the role of Tribune of the Brexit Tribe, the only one of the candidates campaigning to replace the hollowed out peanut shell that had once been Theresa May to promise he alone could simultaneously nourish the Tory Party faithful with mouthfuls of racist ooze while also convincing the thoroughly smitten British Press to defend him to the hilt against any nasty allegations that he was nothing more than a self-centred posh boor with the morals of a lab-grown bacteria and the intellectual prowess of one, but not both, of OJ Simpson’s driving gloves. He then went on to scale the dizzying heights of electoral success by hiding in a fridge and lying shamelessly about his brilliant plan to break the Gordian Knot of Brexit utilising only the flaming sword of keen wit, the shining shield of overwhelming charm and the bulging codpiece of a super top-secret but entirely oven-ready pie of a plan that would give his voters everything they wanted out of leaving the E.U. with none of the icky sticky compromises and acknowledgements of unyielding reality the insufficiently Brextremist kept on yammering about. With the Press, the BBC and more than half of the Parliamentary Labour Party firmly behind him he achieved everything he’d ever dreamed of on those long nights tucked up in his bed at Eton, warming his feet on a fag’s buttocks and composing an ode to his own genius in bad Latin. A new national icon in the mould of Churchill, bestriding the continent like a colossal monolith carved from bullshit and cowardice.
How’s that working out for you now, you flaccid shitworm?
The problem Johnson and his cronies have is the same problem they’ve been pancaking their smug little fizzogs against for the last year – three-word slogans might serve for the masses, and you can always fend off the Press with a quick “As I’ve already made clear (insert made up nonsense)” backed up by a menacing phone-call to their Chief Editor, but some things don’t give a miniscule gnat-twat about the crap that plops out of their mouths on a daily basis. Be it the pandemic spread of Covid-19 or the negotiating strength of the entire European Union, these are real things which will not change course or take into consideration your rhetorical nonsense no matter how many florid speeches you make or how hard you stamp your feet. Reality is cold, it is hard, and it’s coming down at supersonic speed like a chunk of space-rock the size of Johnson’s ego.
Any competent Government with a brief to leave the EU would have opened serious negotiations years ago and kept the public informed of what was and was not possible as they strove to shield the UK against the worst repercussions of its decision, then come back to said public with the option of binning the whole enterprise if they’d thought better of it. That’s not what we’ve ever had in Britain (thanks, voters!), and it’s only got worse as the Dream Crab of Brexit kept its snoozing victims insensate with comfortable delusions while liquefying what little remained of their brains after 40+ years of far-right propaganda from Murdoch and Co. The process of national junk-punching is more or less complete now. Johnson promised his voters that no Tory Government would ever countenance one part of the UK (Northern Ireland) staying in the EU Single Market as this would violate our precious, precious national sovereignty, even though that was exactly what he had agreed to when he signed the Withdrawal Act that finally ripped us out of the EU. He even had his majority in Parliament vote for an Act that violated international law by authorising the UK Government to ignore the treaty it had just entered into. Hell, they just voted for it again the day before yesterday, swearing up and down that they would never back down.
So, they’ve backed down. As of yesterday, the EU’s representatives were able to announce that they’d reached an agreement that would keep Northern Ireland in the Single Market, forcing the UK to have a customs barrier down the middle of the Irish Sea (a verbal modesty screen for the fact that this means customs checks in English and Scottish ports and airports for goods going into a constituent part of the UK – suck on that firm slab of sovereignty, losers) as an alternative to breaking the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and, y’know, risking plunging Northern Ireland back into the internecine bloodletting of The Troubles while also infuriating the US and EU. The UK Government have also had to announce that they’re dropping the clauses in the recent Act that would authorise them to break international law, and even though they’re shamelessly insistent that this in no way means they’ve caved to reality and gone back on their promises to their voters, they’ve totally caved and gone back on their promises – again.
This evening Flobalob the Cackwit is supposed to be flying to Brussels for a last minute Face-to-Face summit with EU Commission President Ursula von der Layen, a woman who looks like someone sent out a casting call for ‘confident, professional European diplomat with complete command of her brief and the services of a gifted stylist’, while Johnson looks like a well-lubricated tramp wearing the suit he stole from a recently buried competitive eater. He’s currently flobbaling away in Parliament about how no PM could ever possibly accept the trade terms the EU is offering and they need to recognise that the UK is a sovereign and independent nation that deserves, nay, demands, to be treated as a privileged member-state, only without any of the duties or responsibilities. So the overwhelming likelihood is that he’ll come out of tonight’s meeting waving a napkin and emitting booming lies about securing a “magnificent trade deal that respects the decision of the British people and ensures a bright future for a free and sovereign United Kingdom” that actually consists of a complete capitulation to whatever terms Von Der Leyen offers him with a couple of tossed in sops in terminology and language that the bulk of the British Press and the BBC can trumpet as a humungous success for “Boris, Britain and Brexit”, even while the Brextremist masses are erupting with thermonuclear fury across social media and the comment pages of the Telegraph and Mail, et al.
And then it comes back to Parliament for a confirmatory vote. Will Tory MPs vote for it? The vast majority, yeah. What choice do they have? The proper ERG Brextremists might really, really want to balk at it, but then they might have to swallow the blame for actually causing the No Deal outcome they say they prefer, and they’d never actually want to do that, but who can tell with those nutters? I’ve given up expecting anything remotely worthwhile out of the current Labour Party leadership, obsessed as it is with stoking internal divisions and staying one millimetre to the left of whatever the Tories do, but Starmer and Co have been making loud noises about whipping the Party’s MPs to support whatever Johnson slinks back into the country with in the naïve hope that they can somehow win over the anti-immigration, anti-social justice voters who abandoned them over Brexit while avoiding blame for causing a No Deal. Will they really be that stupid? Well, they’ve got more than enough form for it and haven’t had a new idea since last century, so probably.
It’s depressing, and deeply embarrassing, and absolutely infuriating, but there it is. This catastrophic shit-show is exactly what 43% of the British electorate voted for and we’re going to get it. Come January we’ll be an isolated, rapidly impoverished rathole of a country mistrusted by our ‘allies’ and despised by everyone else, badly governed by a cabal of openly corrupt spivs and wannabe authoritarians with zero respect for the rule of law and with an ‘opposition’ that believes the quickest route to power is expelling half of its membership and humping Rupert Murdoch’s spindly leg. Oh, and Covid will still be doing its thing as we slither towards Internal Vaccine Passports and our transformation into some kind of theoretical experiment in Feudal Corporatism will continue.
Still. I’m sure black-market heroin will be available for the right weight of man-meat, so there’s that to look forward to. Merry Christmas, One and All.
debbie
Wait until you run into the klezmer dancers!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Tony Jay: So what do you think, Tony? Is the UK just going to crash out?
Major Major Major Major
@debbie: can’t wait!
different-church-lady
@Tony Jay: I like you, but you have way too much free time.
Tony Jay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
As good as. They might dress it up in a tutu and call it a magnifico for the sake of PR, but nothing that can be decided at this late date will be anything more than a sticking plaster on the sucking chest wound of Tory Brexit absolutism.
Ken
@different-church-lady: Maybe he should become a front-pager.
Tony Jay
@different-church-lady:
Urgh, you sound just like my manager. Don’t you know it takes time to be this concise?
Catherine D.
Long underwear at 40F? That’s not even zippered jacket weather ?
Ken
I’m reminded that people have different standards. Forty degrees is a light jacket around here.
And in Minnesota, forty degrees is beach weather, and they don’t break out the long underwear until the birds are falling frozen from the sky.
Raoul Paste
That was a beautiful New York City moment . In other places honest election officials are being yelled at with megaphones outside of their houses at night
different-church-lady
@Ken: I think so too. Any one of his comments weighs about the same as four current front page posts. “VOLUME, VOLUME, VOLUME!!!”
Major Major Major Major
@Catherine D.: @Ken:
I only started wearing them once I discovered Uniqlo’s HeatTech series. Very light, people even wear them in San Francisco.
Major Major Major Major
@different-church-lady: gosh, thanks.
different-church-lady
@Tony Jay: That’s what I’m saying. I don’t comprehend your capacity/choice to throw these time-consuming pearls down before us almost top 10k swine. Have you considered decaf?
Soprano2
Thanks for that recording. One of the joys of this fall for me was being able to still perform in choir. Who knew you could sing in a face mask? We didn’t get to have a concert, and there was no singing Christmas music because of that, but we did get to learn several pieces, including the Faure Requiem that we were supposed to perform last spring, and we had them recorded at our last class period. The conductor said we would eventually be able to get a copy of the recording. I was crushed last spring that we didn’t get to do our spring concert, and that we didn’t get to do Grand Chorus because we were going to perform Carmina Burana, one of my all-time favorite pieces to sing. I’m hopeful that they will do it next year. I’m optimistic that by next fall classes and choir will be able to resume in a mostly normal fashion. Until then, I’m happy to sing in a face mask 6 ft apart if that’s what it takes!
different-church-lady
@Major Major Major Major: look, I’m just talkin’ raw physics here…
JPL
@Tony Jay: I hope you have stockpiled extra supplies.
Tony Jay
@different-church-lady:
It’s a slow day at Casa Gloomy Guts and sometimes I just need to vent. Gawd Bless the Open Thread and all who comment in her.
different-church-lady
@JPL: About a dozen MREs and some water purifiction tablets ought to get him through the afternoon…
Yarrow
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s a toss up.
Benw
We got the blood work back from our cat’s trip to the vet, and she’s perfectly healthy across the board, so yay!
different-church-lady
@Tony Jay: it takes me longer to get out of bed than than it takes you to create three comment-festos.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: So say we all.
piratedan
as I am still mentally digesting the morning threads regarding the Biden provisionary government teams builds, what struck me is the main characteristic that Biden appears to be going for is to refill the hollowed out departments from the 45 group… if the damage is mostly that of repair, an old hand is brought in who understands how its supposed to work… if the damage is also an attempt to rebuild and repurpose, a different caretaker is chosen to implement changes while under the guise of rebuilding.
At least that’s what it appears to be happening… I think what happened is that Joe and Kamala have done an eval of each sector/branch of government administration and done an assessment of what type of issues that sector has undergone, be they hollowed out, their purpose turned to personal graft for Trump or the GOP and their allies, sticking it to the libs, what have you (and yes, I understand that venn diagram is going to have some overlap). With that assessment in hand, they’ve tried to find someone capable of restoring functionality, be it an old hand who knows how things should be done to someone who can remake the branch into something that restores its intended purpose.
Maybe its too inside baseball, but considering the task and the approach taken by the administration in their discussions about what they want to do, it’s more than just building a racially/socially diversified cabinet, although that has all kinds of intent visible for all to see and usually satisfies the media itself to whom depth is a concept they’ve yet to actually explore with any enthusiasm. It’s about their motto of building back better based on who is getting put in charge of the real “projects”.
It’s possible that I am being somewhat naïve about this, but while Agriculture is damned important, I think the choice of someone like Vilsack is made to restore the department, not fix it. Whereas what we’re seeing in the COVID response group is to fix what is wrong there and identify what further steps need to be taken to get to functionality.
I will submit to trusting these folks and giving the benefit of the doubt… right now its all speculation and there won’t be a chance to know what actually needs to be done until people can show up to work and assess the damage.
JMG
Why do so many strings of Christmas lights decide to commit suicide between January and December? All we did to them is put them in a nice new box last winter. But every year, at least one string that worked last Christmastime is a no-go for this one.
Yarrow
Nothing feels normal this year for me. But I do have Christmas decorations up and I can report that the solar lights are working nicely. So that’s fun.
Tony Jay
@JPL:
I’ve trained myself to subsist on lint and a seething hatred of the people who voted for this.
Shortages? What shortages?
Yarrow
Also, my elderly dad had a biopsy done by his dermatologist last week. She was concerned about an area on his scalp that he couldn’t see very easily so hadn’t identified it prior to the visit. Yesterday the results came back negative. Whew. He treated himself to a beer after that. We’d all been stressed.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: I’m not seeing a whole lot in the British press advising people to stock up ahead of January. A bit but not much. Maybe coronavirus, vaccine, and holidays are taking all the space.
different-church-lady
@Tony Jay: “I admire its purity. A survivor..”
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: Woohoo!
Myself, I learned today that I still don’t have COVID.
WaterGirl
@piratedan: I see where you’re going with this generally, but not specifically.
Are you saying that all the hires appear to be merely rebuilding what was there before the Dumpster? Not building back better?
I could also make the case for restoring basic functionality in the first year and then replacing with the build back better agents.
scav
@Tony Jay:
Recipe thread!!
Ken
@JMG: Planned obsolescence?
JanieM
@JMG: I wonder the same thing….
*****
As to the OP — thanks to M^4 for the music — it’s lovely, and a reminder to get my Christmas CDs off the shelf and into my ancient boombox.
On my one-in-a-life-time-so-far visit to Central Park, I heard a Gospel group singing in that space and bought their CD. Didn’t know what it was called at the time…have to go back someday! Someday when we can travel again!
Yarrow
@WaterGirl: You gotta put out the fire before you can rebuild. Maybe some of these people are the firemen.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: It’s a massive relief. And congrats to you.
beth
A nice Disney Hanukkah video – surprising because it was done by horrorcore/rap group Clipping. But it’s got cute kids and a puppy! (Hope the phone link works)
https://www.stereogum.com/2109608/daveed-diggs-clipping-made-a-cute-hanukkah-song-for-disney/music/
Sloane Ranger
@Tony Jay: I knew Bojo would have to pull back on the Northern Ireland border and international law breaking as soon as Biden was elected. His (Biden’s) statements only confirmed it. As you know every British government since Suez has had a policy of crawling so far up the back passage of every US President that they can see daylight every time they open their mouth.
Trump would have cheered on the insanity, Biden has been clear that he opposed it. For the same reason I think there will be a last minute deal with some face saving language added in so Boris can claim a win.
glc
Re the Kickstarter – is there a Twitter announcement? This looks like the sort of thing Scalzi tends to retweet if he is aware of it.
Tony Jay
@Yarrow:
And suggest that Her Majesties Government are full of hot air? Hint that the ever so important opinions of less than half of the Great British Public have led to national catastrophe? Imply that maybe that juicy posting/bonus/byline should go to someone a little less stuck on ‘facts’?
What a beautiful picture you paint. Oh, it’s dusty in here, isn’t it?
Major Major Major Major
@JanieM: Yeah I love it! One of the city’s best features.
Sloane Ranger
@Major Major Major Major: Put the Hogfather Zoom in my diary for 8pm GMT.
Currently about half way through and enjoying it immensely. I’d forgotten how good it is.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: that’s how I”m seeing the Austin appointment, as Biden wanting/needing somebody who can rally the brass against the trump trolls who have been seeded in the civilian offices.
also, being in the middle of the Obama book, one of the quietly dramatic scenes is when Obama calls Gates and Mullen on the carpet over their, and McChrystal’s, attempt to box him in on the Afghanistan surge, which Biden opposed in the face of just about Obama’s whole foreign policy team. I think Biden remembers Austin as an ally in that fight, which is interesting
Miss Bianca
@Tony Jay: Man, oh man – I love your diatribes, even as I deplore the circumstances that prompt them. But as Kabumpo of Oz so pungently noted once upon a time, “I’m too old to cry, I might as well laugh.”
Tony Jay
@Sloane Ranger:
Exactly. The grim fact that we know what’s going to happen and that the British Media are going to pretend to fall for it is cause for mucho sadness.
Major Major Major Major
@glc: cc’d him, thanks! Here’s the original announcement.
Miss Bianca
@Soprano2: So, we *can* sing in face masks? Good to know, we are about to record a radio play for Christmas, including a bunch of carols, and I was wondering about that!
Shakti
I don’t know if this is nice, but this is ridiculous and I cackled:
A Recipe for Seduction
I never realized that sponcon & Rule 34 fiction and Lifetime would cross paths, but this is 2020 and everything is possible.
WaterGirl
@Yarrow: That’s kind of what I am thinking.
Though for some reason, I am extremely hopeful about the new DNI and HHS.
I feel like some of these people can really change things up, and some are more to get the trains running on time, before we get high speed rail later on.
Tony Jay
@Miss Bianca:
This place is my mental health blankie. Better out than in.
Amir Khalid
@Tony Jay:
The situation in Midtjylland v Liverpool should lighten your mood. Mo Salah scored the RReds’ fastest ever Champions League goal in the first minute.
Major Major Major Major
@Miss Bianca: The folks in the park seemed to be doing fine!
Emma from FL
I hereby propose that Tony Jay be given a weekly column on European affairs, excluding footie (of course).
Matt McIrvin
@piratedan: Once the extent of the damage is understood, they need to make a lot of noise about how awful it all is, and even prosecute crimes where possible, so that it doesn’t happen again. And I do worry that there will be a “heal and move forward” impulse that prevents that.
JAFD
The snow is falling on New Jersey this afternoon, and has made the grassy patches outside my window a sort of greenish white.
For ye jackals who are fans of classical music, WQXR’s annual Classical Countdown is on
https://www.wqxr.org/story/2020-classical-countdown-vote-now/
Mayhaps the Ode to Joy won’t win again this year, but I wouldn’t bet on it
Also their celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday, including game to play with children
https://www.wqxr.org/story/beethoven-bingo/
They have a program of Hannukah music at 9 tomorrow (Thursday), and even we, partisans of the Selucids vs the Antigonids, wish everyone light and love, health and happiness and prosperity. Shalom and Mazel Tov!
Tony Jay
@different-church-lady:
Okay, now you sound like my Mum.
Tony Jay
@Emma from FL:
God No! That’s what the qualified people are for.
Though speaking of the footie, Liverpool FC are currently leading a team from Middle-Earth 0-1 at half time following an early strike by the relentless Mo Salah.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: Have you seen this Radio 5 interview with a conservative MP. Definitely high quality people you’ve got representing you. Rivals Gohmert over here.
SiubhanDuinne
@Benw:
Oh, good news! I know you’re relieved.
sixthdoctor
Adventures in holiday cooking:
Attempted a small batch of my mother-in-law’s mocha nut cookies with gluten and sugar free replacement ingredients, and they came out quite well! (almond flour and monkfruit sweetener)
OTOH my attempt at English toffee bombed with a lesson learned (obvious, in retrospect): when the recipe calls for lining with wax paper, plastic wrap is not an acceptable substitute. As I looked at my bowl of hot plastic goop I had a “Oh. Well, that was dumb.” moment…
Steeplejack
@piratedan:
This sounds like a good take: assessing the status of the individual departments and, where necessary, bringing in old hands “who understand how it’s supposed to work.”
I’m neutral on Vilsack, although I have vague memories of problems, or maybe just some people’s dissatisfaction, in the past. And it’s worth noting that these are not lifetime appointments. Could be a scenario where Vilsack knows the ropes and can quickly get the ship righted and towed to port for repairs, at which point someone else could step in to do all the cool, progressive stuff.
I’m willing to cut Biden/Harris a lot of slack on their decisions. As long as they don’t bring back Arne Duncan to fix Education!
ETA: Although Duncan would certainly be an improvement over Betsy DeVos.
Yarrow
@Tony Jay: But it’s weird that I’m also not seeing much of it on Twitter from people who aren’t in media. Maybe the shortages of toilet rolls, etc. during the lockdown earlier this year has blunted some of the talk of Brexit shortages? The supplies finally came back so maybe people aren’t as worried this time? It just seems weird to me. I see stories and discussion about long lines of lorries but not as much about what will be on the supermarket shelves or will the NHS have medications.
burnspbesq
@Emma from FL:
Even football will not escape the malign effects of Brexit. As I understand it, going forward EU resident players will need work permits to play in the UK, and said permits will only be granted based on some metric of “quality.” Absent grandfathering of players already under contract, PL and championship clubs will lose a large number of complementary and backup players. I don’t think, for example, that Everton will lose Lucas Digne, but they could lose his backup Neils Nkounkou (also French).
Aleta
If you need to turn down the volume or tone of the so-called holiday season or your toaster.
Musician made, used to be sold at concerts and festivals before Covid.
Ohio Mom
Beth @39:
I was skeptical (my default position for anything Disney) but that video was fabulous!
I am thinking of all the Jewish kids who aren’t white (yes, they exist) and how validated they will feel, and of all the white Jews who will have to readjust their assumptions about what a Jew “looks like.”
I am also chuckling because every year I make sure the gifts include socks and underwear. And my family is just as excited to open those presents as the boy in the video.
Tony Jay
@Amir Khalid:
Love Mo. He don’t have no problems, he just wants him some goals.
I’ve been following a football podcast on YouTube called The Gas Tank where six footie fans from various teams chat about last week’s games for the pleasure of it. They’re mostly Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U, but the funny thing is all of them, including the Man U fan, will always come around to the grim conclusion that there’s their games, there’s the race for European places, then there’s Liverpool.
It’s very comforting.
Steeplejack
Interesting thread on Brexit by Simon Usherwood.
sixthdoctor
(double-posted, sorry…)
Yarrow
@Steeplejack: The purpose of Brexit is to make oligarchs rich via disaster capitalism. It should be pretty clear by now.
Benw
@SiubhanDuinne: yep, she’s 14 and the vet said her bloodwork looked like a healthy 2 yo cat!
Exhale.
danielx
@Tony Jay:
And we appreciate it. Nice to know (I think) the US isn’t the only English-speaking* country wherein a substantial portion of voters prefers horseshit and lies over the truth.
*Mostly.
LuciaMia
A drawing I donated to our local animal shelter’s online auction finally got a bid. Yay!
pacem appellant
@Major Major Major Major: I read the Chris Panatier story on the front page. I liked it. I’ve backed the project. Good luck.
Steeplejack
@Shakti:
I’m still trying to figure out if that movie is “serious” (by Lifetime movie standards) or possibly the greatest spoof of all time. Maybe I’m biased toward the latter because Mario Lopez looks like a young Eugene Levy. It’s prime SCTV material.
Emma from FL
@burnspbesq: Well, crap.
Major Major Major Major
@pacem appellant: Ah yeah, that’s a good one. Thanks!
FelonyGovt
@Tony Jay: I very much enjoy your informative and entertaining posts, although I regret the circumstances they report. Sad how both our great nations have been brought low by that reptile Rupert Murdoch.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I grew up in Syracuse. When I was living in MD, one winter I was castigating myself for being cold on what would have been a fun day for outside play when I was a kid. Then I remembered how I used to dress when I lived in the frozen north, two layers top to toe: shirts, pants, socks, gloves. And probably a ski mask as it was usually windy.
I won’t pile on about long underwear in 40-degree weather, but I will shake my head sadly. My sister who has been living in FL for decades is the same way.
I miss New York City. One of the first places I want to go back to when I come out of the cave. So many great memories, and Central Park is a part of a lot of them.
Aleta
I don’t think this was posted last night.* The Galactic Federation interviews Earth for membership
* Can’t remember, though I meant to post it. It took me awhile to realize I was having a panic attack last night. I’d never had one before, at first thought it was just strong emotional pain about aging dog.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Shakti: From Lifetime? How about Every Hallmark Movie Ever?
I think I first learned about the Holderness Family here at BJ. Hilarious sketch comedy all done by one incredibly-talented family. Musical satire also, too.
Major Major Major Major
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I grew up in Colorado and would really like it if people could just acknowledge that different humans have different circulatory systems. Sounds like you get cold too.
ETA for what it’s worth I wear flip flops in the winter a lot. Maybe I just don’t like cold knees idk
Tony Jay
@Yarrow:
That’s what they are. That’s their ‘quality’. Absolutely dumb as fuck and swollen pink with all the nasty unquestioned assumptions of the racist Little Englanders they represent. What’s really irritating is that so many factual lines in the sand get washed away by the Media tide as soon as a Conservative states an opposing opinion.
Failure to replace every single legally binding trade deal from our time in the EU with new UK ones will obviously have a major effect on the concrete realities of our commerce. No one can deny that. Except that as soon as Fabian Dipshit-Wogglethorpe, Tory MP for Thrushy Under Wold and junior-minister for Bowling and Other Indoor Sports says otherwise it instantly becomes an unforgivably partisan offense for journalists to contradict them without ‘balance’.
Ownership capture is a major media problem in this country.
As to the lack of Brexit stockpiling, it’s quite possible that most of the people who – would – otherwise be doing it already have stockpiles from the first Lockdown. I’ve certainly stocked up, even bought a stand alone freezer, I just don’t make a big deal about it.
Wait until after Christmas when Jan 1st looms large, there’ll be a very sudden change of mood.
Amir Khalid
Strange. Middle Earth are awarded a penalty after Caoimhín Kelleher fouls their forward — even though the player was offside. 1-1. Still, the Liverpool kids have acquitted themselves well in defence so far.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Tony Jay:
As Slim Pickens remarked in Blazing Saddles, you move your tongue “purtier than a $20 whore”. LOL
MAGNIFICENT language use. Well done.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Major Major Major Major: Oh, I know. I consider it good-natured ribbing but only if someone takes it that way. My wife and I have very different set points, and constantly rib each other about it.
My nemesis is summer. When I was a kid, days over 85 were rare, days over 90 were like “have we gone to hell? Is this the end?” and I don’t think I really believed there were places where it went over 100. I saw plenty of those 100+ days after we moved to MD, and still see them here in PA. And I’m still that kid who thinks he’s dying when it’s over 85.
My wife usually makes references to the polar bear at the National Zoo.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major:
(very twitter Nixon voice:) My god. My god.
insert snark tag here
Soprano2
@Miss Bianca: I got one of those plastic shields that makes the mask stand out from your face. If you don’t have one of those, my advice is to wear one of the surgical masks rather than a cloth mask because they stand away from your face more and are much more “breathable” than a cloth mask that gets against your lips when you breathe in. You’d be amazed at how music has worked to accommodate COVID restrictions. Our symphony is having concerts this year too – the audience is distanced and wears masks, same for the performers, and the concerts are shorter, but it’s such a joy to do something so ordinary.
Kent
Who is neither American nor British. That’s the horror of it.
piratedan
@WaterGirl: well for specifics, I look at the dramatic overhaul in the persons appointed there compared to 45, these are all people who understand that the damage here is going to force a rethink/rebuild of how we deliver our health information and projects… same for potentially moving Ms. Fudge into HUD, I see that not so much as a repair but an overhaul, so Biden is picking a congressional worker bee who should understand what needs to change to make this more functional, not just a return to the status quo…
I want to emphasize, that’s who I see these people as being versus just a pilot, say for example Vilsack… a more “radical” choice would have been someone like Teresa Greenfield, who missed out on the Iowa Senate race… I get that Biden has a mandate to make over government, my question is also, who is he going to be able to get past Mitch and I believe that some of these choices are tempered just so…
Baud
@Aleta:
“You need to use the bathroom?” LOL
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: like I said, grew up in Colorado… lol
Tony Jay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
It sooths me. No use letting it fester inside when I can let it spew out as euphemisms for “Evil Tory Bastard” instead.
Eunicecycle
@Aleta: That was hilarious!
Uncle Cosmo
In my decades of experience I have learned that there are two types of people**:
I am one of the former. One of my supervisors was one of the latter. At one point we were assigned to write a joint article for the company magazine. Hoo boy. I’d send him a draft, it would come back as if he’d opened a vein over it, I’d stuff 90% of the redlined text back in… Eventually his boss had to referee the foofaraw lest we come to blows.****
** Actually there are 10 types of people in the world – those who understand binary and those who don’t. /engineer humor
*** NB “logorrhea” is not a venereal disease, much as it sounds like it ought to be.
****The published article satisfied neither of us, but we both kept our jobs.
laura
@Tony Jay: Please come to the customer service desk on the mezzanine level and collect your internets.
Gravenstone
@Steeplejack: I read one description of it as “spicy” (quotes in the description), so I assumed they were probably going for mockumentary material.
Denali
@Tony Jay,
That was truly glorious!
cope
@Major Major Major Major: I got called out on a student evaluation when I was a geology TA at the University of Illinois, Urbana for wearing sandals when it was snowing. Not sure how that might have impacted my teaching but there you go.
Steeplejack
@Gravenstone:
But I keep seeing stuff on Twitter where people seem to be taking it seriously. I have to believe it’s comedy.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Benw: Yay! Glad the kitty is healthy.
eddie blake
picked up ac: valhalla and am enjoying it quite a bit. definitely a good diversion as we wait and see if tang the conqueror will manage to prevent biden from ascending to the presidency.
Amir Khalid
@Benw:
Yeah! Great news for you and the new kitty. Does she have a name yet?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The Chief Magistrate of These United States, who holds the office of Washington, Lincoln and Obama, prepares his argument for the Supreme Court
different-church-lady
@scav: “Heat hatred until seething, but be careful not to scorch…”
Major Major Major Major
@cope: lol!
@eddie blake: I’m enjoying Odyssey. Is Valhalla just sorta the same idea, but vikings?
CatFacts
@Tony Jay: The metaphor of the Dream Crabs is a great one for Murdoch’s empire. Sedate people with dreams while feeding on their brains. I wasn’t always a fan of the writing in Capaldi’s era of Doctor Who, but that “Last Christmas” episode was right on.
mrmoshpotato
@Tony Jay:
Thank you sir.
Uncle Cosmo
ICYMI, the 8-mile-high test hop of SpaceX Starship SN8 yesterday was scrubbed at T minus 2 seconds when some so-far-unspecified sort of automatically-detected anomaly aborted engine firing.
They look to be going for it again today – a NASA observation plane is due over the Boca Chica test site at roughly
15:4017:40 EST (updated literally 30 seconds ago). Fueling hasn’t started but for this short a flight wouldn’t take more than ~20 minutes. A live-stream via Felix Schlang’s** “What About It” spaceflight blog can be found here – you can leave it on in a separate tab & mute the sound if you like. Launch that fricken Pengwing!**Deutschschprechendern herein, die ein Scherz von ihr Familienname machen möchten, können mir ins Arsch lechen. You have been warned! ;^D
Aleta
@Major Major Major Major: (del joke b/c makes no sense)
One think I like about the body is how it measures things on a relative scale. Like in the fall here, the first time the temp goes to 38 it’s bitter cold, piercing! You can feel the edge of survival coming closer. In Jan or Feb, a 37-degree day makes the air seems balmy, feels great to ditch the coat.
Major Major Major Major
@Aleta: for real! Although I wear a coat up until about 70, so it’s not an exact parallel…
B. Morris Allen
Thanks for the mention of our Kickstarter! It’s picking up pace, but we’ve still got quite a ways to go, so support is always welcome.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/metaphorosis/martian-authors-of-metaphorosis
Essentially, we’re looking to highlight the talented authors that are already out there in science fiction and fantasy, but aren’t always visible. If funded, we’ll produce one or more reprint anthologies of stories from underrepresented groups – with priority determined by backer votes. Currently, LGBTQIA+ is in the lead, with disabled authors a strong second. But that could change – librarians are picking up the pace too.
If you’re interested, please consider backing the Kickstarter – or just letting others know about it – getting beyond the people that know our magazine is likely key to success.
Thanks!
sab
@sixthdoctor: I must be a mean person, because your tale of woe cheered me up.
Miss Bianca
@Emma from FL:
I originally read this as “excluding footsie (of course)”, which of course I would have agreed with in principle, principally because “virtual footsie” seems like a practical impossibility.
ETA: Oh, and I agree with you, fwiw.
Just One More Canuck
@Tony Jay: Hobbits? Elves? Orcs?
schrodingers_cat
After we were talking about languages this morning I chanced upon this medley on YouTube from last year’s biopic on the multitalented P. L. Deshpande who was known for observational comedy, one of the most popular writers and playwrights in Marathi of the last century and composing music and directing movies. He was also one of the pioneers of Indian TV when it first came to India in the 50s.
He and his wife would host informal musical get togethers with the who’s who of Marathi movies, stage and classical music, like Bhimsen Joshi, Vasantrao Desphande whose music I have shared with you earlier.
Its is awesome how the artists in the medley effortlessly switch between, Urdu, dialects of Hindi and Marathi. They are not doing this to get woke points, this was India. This is the India that the BJP is currently trying to destroy.
Aleta
Since ’tis the hat season (all from Diane Doniol-Valcroze‘s twitter account @ddoniolvalcroze)
Godzilla as Santa, Japan
If an alien wore a hat
Octopus running along the ocean floor
ed to fix link
Just One More Canuck
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: How about “A Recipe For Seduction” – the story of Col. Sanders. Finger lickin’ good
(7) A RECIPE FOR SEDUCTION Trailer (2020) KFC, Colonel Sanders Movie HD – YouTube
Dammit – read the comments first
Gin & Tonic
In odd political news, the long-serving mayor of Kharkiv (Ukraine’s second-largest city) Gennady Kernes, came down with COVID in September, whereupon he was flown to Berlin for treatment. He hasn’t been seen since.
On October 25, in the last round of municipal/regional elections, he was re-elected. Today, he was inaugurated, in absentia.
If you know anything about the Slavic soul, you can begin to imagine the conspiracy theories that are circulating.
Benw
@Dorothy A. Winsor: thanks!
@Amir Khalid: it’s Shelby and she’s been ours 14 years since we found her as a tiny kitten! Her eating pattern changed considerably last month so we took her in for bloodwork – everything came back clean! She’s just hongrier these days, I guess
Miss Bianca
@Soprano2: Oh, good tips, thank you! I just got a KN95 mask, and I am amazed at how much easier it is to talk intelligibly in than my cloth masks.
Joy in FL
I loved seeing the music video and hearing the live (well, recorded now) voices.
Also I just became a happy backer for the Metamorphosis Kickstarter. I retweeted their announcement in support.
Aleta
@Benw: That’s wonderful she checked out OK.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think he should sign an affidavit saying that and attach it to one of his lawsuits. Judges love things like that.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Gin & Tonic:
I’m reminded of the horrible year that my folks gave me season tickets for the theater. That season was a cycle of nothing but Chekhov plays, all melancholia, all the death.
We declined any new seasons….
schrodingers_cat
I am in love with Rahul Deshpande’s voice. It is divine. He has been putting up videos of the music I grew up listening to, sung by him without many accompaniments that he records at his home studio because there have been no concerts etc due to COVID.
This is a prayer to Ganesha
ETA: Added bonus is his daughter who photobombs some of the videos.
Major Major Major Major
Thanks to everyone who donated!!
Another Scott
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
It’s not the
heatcold, it’s the humidity..I remember walking to class in -20F temperatures in Chicago, but I think I came closest to freezing to death when it was around 34F in Georgia and I was waiting for the bus…
YMMV!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
40 and long underwear? Oh my, young man, how things will change for you. You want to save the heavy insulation for when it’s near zero. Get that system used to the cold.
schrodingers_cat
@Martin: Exactly, long underwear does not come out well below freezing temps.
Major Major Major Major
@Martin: @schrodingers_cat:
I’ve spent decades living in cold places! You two enjoy your high functioning thermoregulatory systems.
To be clear I’m talking about very light clothes, yoga pants consistency. Made for higher temps. The real long underwear I’ve used maybe ten times in two years.
Major Major Major Major
@B. Morris Allen: thanks for stopping by! Looks like Metaphorosis has a few new fans already.
Ksmiami
@Yarrow: Then they haven’t thought it through- although it might be ironic when Ireland becomes a wealthier nation than England…
raven
A mile and a half south of the Imjin river.
mrmoshpotato
For my fellow Illinoisans – and really everyone else too – a reminder that Blago can go fuck himself.
eddie blake
@Major Major Major Major:
oh, i loooved odyssey. yeah. valhalla has a very similar construction, same gender choice option and the addition of shields, dual wielding, parrying and a slightly more complicated combat system.
you start in norway (where i am now) and eventually make your way to and through saxon england.
Tony Jay
@CatFacts:
We’re currently up to early season 2 of Capaldi’s run as The Doctor and we’d forgotten just how acridly funny he was. Plus Michelle Gomez’s Missy is a scene stealing hoot. I loved the ‘young Doctor’ period, but I think grumpy grey Time Lord is more my groove.
laura
My local news website SF Gate says the feds and the states are going after the Book of the Face via antitrust suit/s. That “should” qualify as a nice thing.
pamelabrown53
@Tony Jay:
I don’t know what it is about old British white guy actors that fangirls me. Peter Capaldi and Bill Nighy always rate a look-see…and there are others!
Re: Doctor Whos, I have a special place for David Tennant. It’s probably based on his looks: burning big eyes and pointy features.
Patricia Kayden
Citizen Alan
So, I’m in Twitter timeout at the moment. And its due solely to telling a right wing Christian that Jesus would condemn them to hell for their pride and hypocrisy. Never mind that RW Christians say that to the rest of us at the drop of a hat.
eclare
@Patricia Kayden: Great tweet, thank you for sharing. I’ve passed it on.
Major Major Major Major
@laura: Depends on what it’s for. There’s definitely a wrong way to do antitrust and I have zero faith that Barr is doing it the right way. Don’t have too much faith in Dem partisan AGs either; this is just a really easy issue to demagogue.
Sister Golden Bear
Nice things? Today is the fourth anniversary of when I started living as a woman full-time. It was actually earlier than I’d planned.* But my co-workers we so supportive when I had come out at work a three days before, that encouraged me to transition ahead of schedule.
Some thoughts from that morning that I wrote as my heart was racing, not knowing what was going to happen next with the rest of my life.
*At the time, the general advice was to give co-workers 2-3 weeks to adjust to the idea before coming to work as your true gender.
danielx
@raven:
Glosters forever!
J R in WV
@Tony Jay:
Tony, you need to stop being so repressed and stiff upper lip and tell us what you really think of the Tory partei and Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. I note that of his whole name, the only really British part is the “Johnson” while the rest is Russian or European. How about that?
Otherwise, a good piece about the coming tragedy of British “home rule” …
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: Happy Anniversary!
Old School
@Sister Golden Bear: Happy Anniversary!
Kent
@mrmoshpotato: Didn’t Trump pardon Blagojevich? I guess it’s part of the universal convergence theory of corruption.
NotMax
It’s almost wintertime. You’re supposed to pack some meat on those bones as insulation, not fabric.
;)
SiubhanDuinne
@Sister Golden Bear:
That’s beautiful and moving writing. Congratulations on the anniversary, and thank you for sharing so much of your journey with your Juicer Jackal friends.
WaterGirl
@Benw: New pets (and other pets) can be featured in Furry Friends, so when you get a collection of photos, let me know.
edit: I see now the your kitty is not a new pet. But the reminder still stands, for everyone.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Is that for real?
Tony Jay
@pamelabrown53:
They’ve hit the nail on the head every time they’ve recast The Doctor. Tennant owned his cheeky, sexy version, Smith was a great barking mad geriatric in a 20-something body, Capaldi’s hung-over Scottish wisecracker with NFLTG is just right for me now.
The rewatch is for the benefit of my 7 year old who is loving the nightly Time Travel. It’s nice watching it with someone on my level.
WaterGirl
@sab: I had missed his comment first time around, but i had to go look after what you wrote. I laughed, too. We can be bad together.
Major Major Major Major
@Sister Golden Bear: Happy anniversary!! Let me know if you’d like to do a guest post.
Major Major Major Major
@Tony Jay: Also too, John Hurt.
Tony Jay
@Sister Golden Bear:
Big smile from me. Happy Day.
SiubhanDuinne
@pamelabrown53:
I don’t know either, but I’m right there next to you (well, six feet apart at the moment), and have been since I was quite a little girl.
eclare
@Sister Golden Bear: Happy Anniversary!
SiubhanDuinne
@Aleta:
That octopus is amazing! Who knew they hopped?
Almost looks more like a small dog (octopuppy?)
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
A guest post from SGB! That is a swell idea, and I heartily second it!
NotMax
@sixthdoctor
Whoopsie. :)
Was once on the receiving end of a novice cook’s turkey dinner. So novice she was unaware there were plasticky packages of parts inside the cavity which had to be removed before sliding bird into oven.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
So Terry MacAuliffe is taking another run at his old job? I have a pretty favorable opinion of his first term, as I recall he was a neo-liberal corporate Clintonite (is that better or worse than being an Obama Democrat? I’ve lost my scorecard) who pleasantly surprised most of the left. I don’t know enough about the D bench in VA to know if this is a good move or a desperate one by a guy who’s got the bug and who can’t get his calls returned from Biden HQ
CatFacts
@Tony Jay: Michelle Gomez was sheer insane perfection. You’re right, the casting really is good in Doctor Who. I’m doing a re-watch from the 2005 season and forgot how much I liked Chris Eccleston as the Doctor. His WTF face when he gets teleported into the reality tv show was just perfect.
Sister Golden Bear
@Major Major Major Major: Sure. Would love to. I’ll message you directly.
Major Major Major Major
@Sister Golden Bear: Great!
Tony Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
Yes. A couple of brief cameos and one triple-header episode but you understood exactly who Hurt’s Doctor was and why he was willing to do what he ‘did’. You could tell that Tennant and Smith were just giddy to be acting alongside him.
You got the same short burst of intense ‘Doctorness’ with Paul McGann’s short Eighth Doctor webisode leading into the birth of the War Doctor. I’d pay good money to see a full series of his Doctor in action.
Really have to catch up with the Big Finish DW audiobooks, I hear they’re top notch.
SiubhanDuinne
@Another Scott:
I agree. I grew up in Chicagoland, so I think I can claim to know cold — but the coldest I’ve ever felt in my life was during my first winter in Atlanta (1962-63). Simply brutal. I’ve never forgotten it, and never want to experience it again.
raven
@danielx: It was not far from there
Battle of Solma-Ri – April 21 to 25, 1951
This memorial on Gloster Hill commemorates
The heroic stand of the 1st Battalion the
Gloucestershire Regiment and ‘C’ Troop, 170
Light Mortar Battery, Royal Artillery.
Surrounded and greatly outnumbered they
Fought valiantly for four days in the
Defence of freedom
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
Ganesha the god fascinates me. Years ago, I worked with a woman named Rajalakshmi Ganesh (known as Raji). Her husband’s name was Ganesh Ganesh. I love the — I don’t know what you’d call it, the mouth-feel — of words like Ganesh and Lakshmi. They are just a pleasure to say.
Tony Jay
@CatFacts:
I really liked Eccleston’s Doctor’s almost manic enthusiasm, which makes perfect sense given the Last Day of the Time War backstory.
Love Strax too. The ‘memory worm’ scene from ‘The Snowmen’ is comedy gold. Really hope Madam Vastra and Jenny make a reappearance some day.
Geminid
@Sister Golden Bear: Happy Anniversary! I hope you have many more happy ones.
laura
@Sister Golden Bear: Happy Anniversary!
Your true colors,
Your true colors
Are beautiful – like a rainbow
J R in WV
@Sister Golden Bear:
Congratulations on your success!!!
So glad you are happier now!
And thanks for sharing some of your trip with us, it was fascinating to me to see you overcome everything!
Steeplejack
@Sister Golden Bear:
Happy anniversary! ?
Sister Golden Bear
@Major Major Major Major: Check your email for the post.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Can the current Gov in VA not run again? Term limited? Or is this a challenge?
cope
@Uncle Cosmo: That was amazing…
StringOnAStick
@Aleta: Everyone should watch the documentary “My Octopus Teacher” ; absolutely stunning story and visuals. A wildlife filmmaker conditioned a wild octopus to his presence and it became a friendship; one of the most moving films I’ve seen.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Not a Virginian, but my recollection is that VA Govs are limited to one term/cannot immediately succeed themselves, but can run again after a 4+ year period out of office. I’d have to look it up but I think there was one guy who did that successfully back in the ‘60s or ‘70s, but nobody since.
SiubhanDuinne
@StringOnAStick:
Where might one find this film? Is it streaming on one of the major platforms?
StringOnAStick
@SiubhanDuinne: Amazon prime is where we watched it. Do it, you’ll love it.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Virginia limits Governors to one term at a time, but allows someone to serve two non-consecutive terms. Republican Mills Godwin did this in the 1970’s. I think this rule was intended to help the entrenched Virginia establishment keep a pesky governor from a acquiring enough power to rock the boat. Virginia’s odd-year elections also tend to dampen progressive forces, although in recent years Democrats are matching Republican turnout in off-year elections.
cope
@StringOnAStick: Watched it, loved it, second your recommendation.
SiubhanDuinne
@StringOnAStick:
Thanks, it sounds wonderful!
Sister Golden Bear
Thank you all for your kind words!