Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Women: They Get Shit Done

Just a few bad apples.

This blog will pay for itself.

This blog is Obama’s Katrina.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense.

We have all the best words.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Shock troops for the Unitarian Jihad.

Naturally gregarious and alpha

Reality always wins in the end.

Mission Accomplished!

Verified, but limited!

I personally stopped the public option…

Where tasty lettuce and good mustard aren’t elitist.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity.

Good luck with your asparagus.

Wetsuit optional.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

This is a big f—–g deal.

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shocking, but not surprising.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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So About That Third Party Spoilers Thing… The Libertarian Presidential Candidate And A Possibly Rabid Bat Edition

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What effect might his have on Ms. Jorgenson’s views on the US healthcare system? Well let’s just say kvetching was involved!

There is, as of 11:10 PM EDT, no word on the condition of the bat and whether it has contracted anything serious or life threatening from coming into contact with Ms. Jorgenson.

Open thread!

Obligatory:

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Recipe Exchange: Birthday Gelato with Vanilla and Hazelnuts

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I decided a few days ago that gelato would be a fun birthday treat. I decided on vanilla with hazelnut chocolate spread and chopped hazelnuts.

I have made Hazelnut Gelato before (recipe here) and it’s yummy. But I wanted guests to have the option of plain gelato, a variety of chopped nuts, chocolate sauce and the hazelnut spread. So that’s what we had today.

The key to a great vanilla ice cream or gelato is using the best vanilla extract you can find, or really splurge and use vanilla beans.

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A Saucy Diversion

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Ketchup has a long history. Its distant ancestor hailed from Fujian, China–a fermented fish sauce known as kê-tsiap. Later innovators like Mary Randolph would popularize a tomato version. By 1896 it was the “national sauce of America”. For whatever reason, I find this all fascinating.

I was very happy to learn that Science Friday had a segment on this last week: Ketchup: A Fishy History. It’s just under twenty minutes long, and–joy of joys–that link even includes a transcript. If this sort of thing is up your alley, why not treat yourself to a little bit of respite? It looks like we could use a thread for it, at any rate.

What’s your favorite Fun Fact about food?

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Wednesday Afternoon Open Thread

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Here’s a hummingbird photo from my morning vigil beside the firecracker bush:

Wednesday Afternoon Open Thread 2

After observing them closely over the past few months, I’ve learned hummingbirds spend more time perched than I thought they did. It’s just that they’re so fast it’s hard to follow them to the perch, and they’re so small that it’s tough to spot them when they aren’t in motion.

I see this young fellow a lot too.

Wednesday Afternoon Open Thread 3

I assume he’s male and of the same species as the bird pictured up top because his few sparkly ascot feathers are of the same hue when they catch the sunlight. Maybe they’re father and son. If so, that doesn’t stop them from chasing each other away from food sources.

In other news, a few minutes ago, I heard voices outside, which is very unusual out here in the middle of nowhere. I went out to investigate, and there was a deputy in his cruiser parked on the dirt road that runs past our house, talking to someone on his radio. I realized it was the first time I’ve seen the law out here, and I’ve lived here nearly two years.

He drove on, so I assume we’re not suspected of any crimes. (Knock wood.) Open thread!

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Monday Evening Respite Open Thread

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In reference to nothing in particular, except that public libraries are the best…

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Sunday Respite Open Thread: Lots of Babies

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Here’s a little escape for you. Lots more wildlife trail camera videos on their page here.

My cousin, his wife, and a group of turtle volunteers in North Carolina spent their hurricane prep time helping loggerhead baby turtles make their way to the ocean. I’m a little jealous.

Sunday Respite Open Thread: Lots of Babies

I may or may not have a recipe thread tonight. I have a lot to catch up on before the week starts again. Dad update: he’s doing really well, meeting all his rehab goals and surprising no one in his determination to get home. Including making me take everything home we had brought to make him comfortable. That’s for losers who are staying in rehab. LOL

And yes, I did get to visit him. The facility allows one visitor a day. Fully vetted and masked.

Medical care in the era of Covid-19 is just an added level of stress. But being in a medical facility, you begin to realize that when there are no active infections, masks and handwashing are enough. So I’ve become less panicked every moment of every day. Now if I could just convince people to wear masks when they visit my mom.

Respite open thread. Share some fun things that get you through the days.

And remember to be kind to yourself…and others.

 

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Respite: Look Up!

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Yeah. So this vale of tears is a vale of tears.There are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of, revealed by our natural philosophy.

This may be a dreadful time on all kinds of scales, but it remains the greatest era of exploration in human history.  We are not simply citizens of a misgoverned republic (and shut up all you jackals who live in better-run places just now). We have become, thanks to extraordinary and driven work by tens of thousands (at least), inhabitants of a cosmos–and some recent results drive that truth home.

For one–our own star is ready for its close up:

Respite. Look Up!

That’s a Solar Orbiter mission image, depicting what are called “campfires” on the surface of the sun, at a resolution never before achieved. Lots more images and details here.

And, to stretch our legs a little, how about this? The first image ever made of a planetary system around a sun-like star:

Respite. Look Up! 1

Details here.

And one more, not a new one, but to me, one of the most extraordinary cultural monuments in the history of humankind, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field:

Respite: Look Up!

Every time I look at that, my breath catches.  From the Hubblesite press release:

This tiny slice of the universe, speckled with galaxies near and far, tells the story of galaxy evolution over cosmic time. Among the 10,000 or so galaxies pictured here are newborns, adolescents, adults, and retirees. Like looking through a vast collection of family photos, astronomers are poring over this comprehensive image to see how galaxies grew up, matured, and aged.

Check out that release, btw. It’s a very brief introduction to the multiple layers of inquiry and effort it took to make that image–which takes our eyes, and hence our minds, from the almost-present back 13 billion years, to the time when the universe was, in cosmic time, a toddler.

One picture, constructed by puny, tiny, ever-so finite humans, to hold the sweep of the universe.

Respites come at all angles.  Straight up being one of them.

Open thread.

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