Well, as I write this (a couple of hours before it posts), I am opening Friday beer one. Also, finishing the last of my obligations to people who aren’t family for the weekend (but you guys are really close. Really). And then I have to hang curtains in the guest room my wife painted about six weeks ago and has sat un-finished until I offered to help today.
UPDATE: Scene from a curtain hanging
Her: Those curtains don’t touch the floor, we’ll have to rehang everything.
Me: But your sheet right here said 90″, and the curtains are supposed to be 95″. What are they? Dick inches?
Her: What?
Me: Never mind. What does the box say for curtain length?
Her: (looks at full box of curtains) These say 95″
Me: What does the box these curtains came out of say?
Her: Oh, 84″.
Me: I think I have a faster solution than rehanging the curtain rod…
I’m going to add Mojeaux to people who I love/hate doing links afterwards. I don’t think it’s Bowie’s cod that left me feeling inadequate.
CNN launches pre-emptive strike on Michael Bloomberg.
I should really get into this genre. I can make shit up, too! Oh wait, SF owns the space.
Silicon Valley discovers asceticism, thinks they invented it.
Weather (not climate) imminent.
Here’s a fun live song.
Comments
457 responses to “Friday Afternoon Links”
“The 259-page book – which was published by Twelve, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group, and goes on sale Nov. 19 – does not re-create many specific episodes in vivid detail, which the author writes was intentional to protect his or her identity.”
Wow, anonymous and purposefully vague.
Surely the new standard for objective truth.
I thought that was out of favor.
Hatchet (phonetic) Book Group?
You can’t make this stuff up.
It’s a hatchet job all right.
Thank you, blackjack, for acknowledging my bad word play. The rest of these Philistines couldn’t even give me that.
My theory, with nothing to back it up but it would be great, is that mr “MFA in Creative Writing” Ben Rhodes wrote it. I know, I know, it’s supposedly written by someone in the “Trump Administration” but c’mon, these weasels all lie, so why wouldn’t they lie about this?
And look at some of the excerpts, they just reek of someone who can’t really write but thinks he’s brilliantly poetic.
That’s my story and I will laugh over it, until and unless we learn it’s someone else.
“his or her identity”
Such shitlording assuming pronounage.
Tall Cans!
Howdy!
/hoists a Calfe towards Yusef
I’m here for a bit before heading out to Tremont for food, more drinks, and some meandering.
Is Black Cat still there? Their tapenade was superb. When I lived there. In the 02/03 timeframe they also excelled at pork loin. I miss the Tremont.
Not to my knowledge (and a quick Google search doesn’t return anything). Grumpy’s is still there, and Professor Ave. is a full on gentrified restaurant row now. We’re going to check out a new place that opened for dinner. Then abuse the drink specials for the walkabout. Probably stop in to torment my niece at her place of work as well (she’s a bartender).
Tall (Hefe) Cans!
Hallo!
第一？
Merde.
第三。
いいえ。
残念
Yes, SF is definitely ‘a person familiar with the President’s thinking.’ I’d like to think I make that cut as well.
I like to believe he’s not making it up.
*c’mon world… BURN!*
SugarFree is actually Mike Pence?
Lear’s wait and see how many they sell. If the book does well, I think a lot of glibs are headed for early retirement.
Sigh.
I’ve completely derailed all momentum. Can’t seem to muster more words.
Don’t beat yourself up, UCS. It happens. The Muse occasionally take a Friday afternoon off, too. Pour yourself a drink and fuhgeddaboutit.
Hey, at least you ran out of steam. My muse has been stingy of late.
It is called writer’s block and every writer gets it. You are tired. Take a break. Spend some time consuming what others have produced….watch a bunch of really stupid movies and have a few drinks. Get sleep. Lots of sleep. Wait a month or two and trust me….you will be on fire again.
It’ not.
I’ve had writer’s block. Writer’s block is when there’s no ideas in the head.
I’m just not getting the words on the page.
Maybe the pen’s out of ink?
Have you tried hallucinogens or hookers?
I do not know how to help.
Those times I have just made myself put words down on paper, I hate what I wrote, and then I find out that’s what people really liked.
^This. Ugh.
Agree that writers block is different than fatigue or burnout.
Writers block only affects my fiction, and I can generally crank out research, op-ed, etc during those times.
And then there is that awful place where the act of constructing sentences and typing them is repugnant.
#methree
Don’t you have a job?
Oh wait, you’re a civil servant.
Got it. ; )
I’m a civil servant… on vacation this week.
I mustered 600 words for a short article for a client this afternoon. I hate writing that kind of stuff, but I love getting paid for having written that kind of stuff.
New baby arrives in 9 months?
So, she had the right size curtains all along.
Where are the shorter curtains supposed to go?
Apparently downstairs
Brett’s a Florida Man, the solution involves raising the floor thru illicit means.
Fucking foreigners
If only we could get money out of politics.
But at least the loathsome Debra Rodman, she of the trademark cat-eye glasses, lost. Not that I have much use for Dunnavant, but at least she’s not Rodman.
Yeah, I mentioned that Wednesday – I’m not thrilled that Dunnavant kept her seat, but it beat’s the hell out of Cat Lady, the abortion crusader.
You’re ignoring the exchange rate between blue dollars and red dollars. It’s at least 1000:1. That’s how the Russians swayed the election with $100K in Facebook ads.
“We only play along because the Republicans force us to. Otherwise money is totally evil and stuff.”
my state now has two whole years of incompetent governance to suffer. coal industry, firearms, taxes. this could be a completely different state by the end. and demographics of leviathan being what they are, i’m not optimistic the conservative electorate will recover.. which is why i told my wife we are out of here. looking at Maine. i think the icy temps have retarded the spread of progressivism beyond Portland.
So why aren’t the Repubs pointing at Soros and claiming foreign election interference? Surely, they could spin this Russian election interference bs around just like #metoo turned on the Dems.
Maybe because he’s a US citizen.
Is he donating directly from his personal wealth or is funneled through his foundations? I’d imagine the foundations are international even if some have branches in the US. No idea on that level of detail though.
When the fuck is Soros going to finally, mercifully die?
I’m still hoping for James Bond to take him out.
Am I the only one who looks at that guy and is immediately reminded of Palpatine?
To speak of the instances when Trump was completely wrong…
According to Lee Smith’s new book, after Trump fired Michael Flynn he told Chris Christie that the “Russia thing is all over now.”
“CNN launches pre-emptive strike on Michael Bloomberg.”
She has to get in the race. She has no choice. She is just gonna have to make the sacrifice.
“In “A Warning” by Anonymous, obtained by The Washington Post”
Ok, they are just trolling now, right? I mean, C’mon.
“DOPAMINE FASTS: WHY SILICON VALLEY TECH WORKERS ARE AVOIDING FOOD, TV, SEX, MUSIC, EXERCISE AND EYE CONTACT”
*raises hand, bobs up and down in seat* I know this one! I know this one!……Because they are nuttier than a train load of squirrel turds? That’s it, isn’t it!?
“How a warmer earth could mean more snow”
*facepalm* Are these weasels still at it? Christ on a cracker, give it up already. Hint: You have zero credibility left. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. You are getting into negative numbers here.
So, a book by an anonymous author that is intentionally vague on details.
Sure. Totes credible.
#believeit
??
I wonder how many other friendly media outlets managed to “obtain” an advance copy.
All the one’s with mailing addresses?
They’re introvert nerds who live in a weird bubble and have employers who pull out all the stops trying to keep them at their desk for all waking hours?
Notice what’s missing: video games.
AVOIDING FOOD, TV, SEX, MUSIC, EXERCISE AND EYE CONTACT
Pretty much part of the gig when you work 80+ hours per week.
Let’s see a warmer world is a wetter world which means more snow except there will be less snow but perhaps more snow cover which will reflect more sunlight back into space cooling off the world which will make for a drier , colder world so there will be less snow but people will burn more fossil fuels to stay warm which means… ah forget about it. It’s apparently a complex system.
Something something feedback loop?
Curtain rods trip me up for some reason. I installed streetlights/outlets/hundreds of feet of electric cable in three underground runs, put in 1/2 mile of field fencing, installed the water heater, but there’s still a bunch of holes in the wall from the last time I tried to install a curtain rod. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.
Studfinder + laser level = only redoing it a couple times.
We have this plaster coating on our walls which appears to be 100% effective in rendering studfinders 100% ineffective.
Also in blocking wifi signals.
But it looks nice.
Wire-reinforcement?
No, just a plaster coating over drywall.
Looks great, at least after the Magic Paint Man comes and does his two-color, water dilution, dry brush thing. When he quits working, nobody will be able to do any touch up or repair on our interior walls.
^This. If your house is older it has plaster on a wire mesh backing. The backing is called lathe (rhymes with “path”).
It’s actually lath.
/Ted off
Putting lath on a lathe gets you… a dowel.
Nope. Built in 2008, drywall with a plaster coat finish.
I’ve had ye olde lath and plaster walls.* This ain’t that.
*Protip: wallpaper became a thing because they crack, and nothing hides those cracks better than wallpaper. As I learned to my sorrow after stripping a bunch of wallpaper off of lath and plaster walls.
lath
A lathe is something different.
https://writingexplained.org/lath-vs-lathe-difference
Each and every one of you people may now bite me.
No thanks, you’d probably enjoy that.
I’m a girl, so…
A mouth is a mouth, same as downtown.
Is it still called lath if it’s wire mesh? Because lath is wood slats.
I would imagine the two are not mutually exclusive methods. I’ve seen stranger things from old construction.
Should have scrolled down to see the pedant party before pedanting.
Here’s my lathe (soon…soon)
I meant if it’s only wire mesh.
Once upon a time I would have drooled over that.
Now I just see drudgery.
Yes it is.
Diamond lath.
Fancy machine.
I’d be happy with one of the solid analog monsters I learned on.
I’ve got both in my house.
Nobody needs two kinds of lath in their house.
That would be frustrating. I got a Franklin studsensor a few months back, and it cleared up any issues my prior studfinder had with the normal gypsum walls.
I bought a studfinder. I keep pushing the “Find Stud” button and it keeps coming up with error code 707.
Oh, you must have an antique studfinder. It’s pointing you to the flight attendant on the nearest 707.
Not known for being the studly type.
/sigh. I went through the trouble of signing in to make a studfinder joke. Dammit. Well, beers it is.
Sometimes they buck the trend.
There was an old adventure game that used that joke as a solution. You were a geeky type who was trying to get a bunch of girls to follow you to a party. You had to give them a studfinder while carrying a bunch of 2 x 4s.
Did you check the thermostat??
Knowing where the studs are in a house? Priceless
Curtain rods trip me up for some reason.
If you are tripping on your curtain rods, then you are definitely doing it wrong.
Damn you Sir!
Not necessarily
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
*looks at walls, heavy sigh*
Trust me brother, it aint just you. I can tell the same story. Hell, I have built several buildings, decks, ddid all of the wiring and plumbing. I built a freakin’ bridge over flowing water, but goddamned if I can hang a curtain rod. I just hear the words ‘hang curtains’ and I get a knot in my stomach.
Just do what I did next time and tape cardboard to the windows.
Foil keeps the brain-waves on the right side of the window.
If they’re tripping you, you’re probably installing them too low.
You guys keep grabbing that low hanging fruit.
Um…I’m sorry?
Ded. D-e-d ded.
Flashback Friday: WHO IS THE MASTER?
Khasoggi was a Saudi subject who voluntarily entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Regrettable, but not America’s circus and not our monkeys.
Trump . . . said he would be foolish to stand up to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Yeah, that sounds exactly like Trump.
“Oh, the mean Saudi kilt one of his own people. I so skeert of him!”
But he was a journalist, so more important than mere mortals.
IT’S HERE! LEGEND AND CLARKSON’S VERSION OF BABY IT’S COLD OUTISDE!
The lyrics literally make no sense.
And it’s utterly…..charmless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I776VyXJab4
I prefer the version sung by Buddy and Jovie better.
drop the ‘better’.
This was in the morning links and I know I saw you there
*squints at Rufus*
He’s a puppet, there was a different hand up his ass this morning.
I musta missed it.
Oh well.
/pulls pants down and moons everyone.
Must be cold in here too.
Freaky Friday: Russians
Scruffy. Buddy. I think you’ve been hanging out here to long. Maybe take a break. Somewhere nice and quiet. I hear Pungoteague is nice this time of year.
I wish I knew how to quit you guys.
There’s porn for literally EVERY fetish!
I think he is tossing her salad wrong.
‘It Wasn’t Me’: Alleged ABC Whistleblower Denies Leaking Video
The fucks running our media may have ruined the wrong person’s career. I hope she can sue the hell out of all of them.
Yeah, I saw today where all she has been accused of is “accessing” the video. And for that they ran her down at another network and got her fired.
I’m seeing a nasty tortious interference lawsuit and a phat settlement coming down the road.
JFC what a mess and pit of snakes media is.
“Bianco said she “never even heard of Project Veritas” before the video came out, and Project Veritas has come out and said that Bianco was not the person who leaked the video, Kelly reported Friday.”
You’re in media and never heard of PV?
I can’t wrap my head around people in the NEWS not knowing stuff I KNOW in another country.
They live in a bubble. Nothing outside the bubble is acceptable for consumption, it may corrupt them, so they ignore it.
I know but man I thought even in a bubble stuff filtered in. It’s just that they didn’t care. Looks like they don’t even let information through.
Media is a cult.
She’s 25 years old. There are probably a lot of things she’s never heard of.
I bet she doesn’t know anyone that voted for Nixon either.
McGovern voted for Nixon.
Well, they’re icky, see.
Maybe that’s why these stings keep happening. You’d think media outlets/progressive nonprofits/etc. would be handing out laminated photos of the Project Veritas people to their employees at this point.
Google the principals of this story, and you’ll see that it’s pretty much only right-wing news covering it. Weird.
There is no collusion among media. What are you, a conspiracy theorist?
Nope, I just find tin foil hats to be stylish.
And the media plays the ‘right-wing media are reporting’ angle to discredit it. It’s pretty obvious their game.
The open brazeness of this is the amazing part.
Out of curiosity, if you were the one that send Veritas the video in question, wouldn’t you deny it after being made?
OTOH, given how “amazing” the Media is at doing real investigative journalism, figure the odds that they fucked this up.
I’m just pointing out both are possible.
Are we missing any commenters?
https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/lehighvalley/naked-bloody-man-assaults-women-while-nearby-home-burns-lehigh/article_2022d64e-0241-11ea-b8c7-cbc6d109dc4b.html
That’s some mighty fine ?♀️ work.
Why was Florida Man in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania is the Florida of the north.
What’s Ohio chopped liver?
Ohio chopped liver is a version of liver and onions where they serve it minced extra fine and on top of spaghetti.
Skyline Liver.
That would be better than whatever that crap Skyline calls chili is.
Gold Star is the best chain store chili. I based my own starting with theirs. Now mine is superior to theirs, but it took years of experimentation to get there.
Ow.
*brain attempts to leap out of my ears*
Ohio is the white people of the north.
Keep the home fire burning.
He didn’t start the fire. He was just living in Allentown.
Working for Mr. Cacciatore down on Sullivan St, across from the medical center.
Electrify the moon too.
Bern, running more cable and building working technology is one thing, but your list of renewable options produce less energy than they take to make. It’s like saying we can make orbit by spinning up a flywheel using a perpetual motion machine.
Shhh, he’s on a roll.
Remember math is hard.
I’m for installing nuclear power on the moon. With a missile.
“We put people on the moon 50 years ago”
We should really go get them. They are probably hungry.
Craft services on the sound stage are taking care of them.
Capricorn 1
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capricorn_One
/no less stupid than Commie Geezer
The federal government
electrifiedseized control of private electric companies that were already electrifying America as part of the New Deal.Yeah and us city suckers paid for it with an extra fee tacked onto our bill.
Curtains are for suckers.
Roller shades or GTFO!
Says the guy in the pocket of Big Venetian Blind!!!!!!!
Put those curtains down.
Considering all the effort the corporate press has put into protecting the identity of the Ukraine whistleblower, you’d think he were a pedophile or something
Then he has the right lawyer.
Oh look, the most embarassing superlawyer whose name I recognize – only because it’s attached to the most obviously guilty defendant in a tortious interference case I’ve also heard of.
For those who have been following the anthrax series – and keeping close notes for the test at the end! – you may notice that lawyer’s name showed up a few chapters ago. He had one or two anthrax refusers out of 29 Palms.
The timing of the articles means I’ve not seen most of them.
Sorry.
Not only does he do that, but he’s a big big fan of adolescent Disney channel actresses.
… 18 subscribers?
Now that’s just sad.
Something something pizza…
The farce of protecting a name that’s out there and everyone who follows the news knows just further convinces me that they’re suffering from a mass delusion and/or they think the public are morons.
They’re not wrong.
Friday beer #5. No 5 is alive.
Just looking for houses to buy all the time.
I like this one, HOA fee… Oh, fuck off…
Look at this one, HOA fee… Oh, fuck off…
“Short Circuit” another film where if you take away the yelling, the “bad guy” is acting completely rationally for having a free-roaming killer robot not responding to commands to return or shut down.
What was her name… Alley something? I thought she was really cute at the time. I don’t remember, that was so long ago…
Ally Sheedy
Ally Sheedy. She was supposed to be the homely one in The Breakfast Club.
She was in that? Who was the redhead, wasn’t she supposed to be the hot one?
Molly Ringwald.
Oh, yeah. That’s right! Wasn’t she like the bride of Satan in The Stand?
No idea.
Moj, are you telling me you never watched The Stand? Don’t you write? That’s the greatest made for TV movie of all time.
It’s not high on my watchlist or to-be-read pile, no.
Molly Ringwald was cast as the hot one. Ally Sheedy was the one in the back, in frumpy clothes, hiding under bangs, and acting strange.
Who was the Emo dude? I should remember all this, but I’m old…
Emilio Estevez was the jock.
Anthony Michael Hall was the nerd.
Judd Nelson was the delinquent.
Johnny Five became the prototype for the Terminator series of killer robots. And now you know the rest of the story.
Johnny 5 is responsible for the Wokepocalypse? NOOOO!!!!
I do have an eye on one though that I found today. Probably best man cave I’ve ever seen, the bar and the entertainment area in the basement, it has to be, just the basement, at least 2000 sq ft and it’s all open. You could have your own football game down there. And the bar is made of stonework and there’s a stone fireplace right in the middle to match. Wife not as excited as me and she’s like ‘Are you crazy! I’m not cleaning that house, it’s too big!’, lol.
I would never even come out from the basement, except to grill stuff or go visit clients. Wife could occupy the over world, the kitchen is really nice too. Guys cannot win, why do we do this to ourselves? It really is a curse, Eve and that damn snake.
Want our house? We’d probably sell it for what we paid, and we’ll be in TX the day after it sells.
Didn’t you say that it was close to 1 mil or more than 900K anyway? If so, no way. I’m not selling my soul for a home and I can’t actually believe my co-workers are doing it. I have 2 persons in my dev group who have mortgages of over 1 million, and I’m like ‘Are you fucking crazy!?’. Nah, our budget is 400K or less. And there are some great home here for that price, you just have to drive a little more.
Where are you at? I only paid $82k for my 1300 sqft house.
I was talking to the Usurper of Supreme Overlord status, upthread.
82K? OK. 1300 sq ft., no.
Worse, it has no lawn to tell people to get off of.
Oh, I’m in Balmer, soon to exit. But only as far as outlying areas or southern, PA, York Co, to be specific, for now. NOVA has become extremely unaffordable and their residents obviously want it to become worse judging by the way they are voting lately.
The thing about PA is that the real estate prices there are less, but the taxes are 2x the time they are in the counties north of Balmer. PA, not a friendly state, tax wise, even less than MD.
Good luck getting out of Balmer.
Hyperion, leaving Baltimore.
“Good luck getting out of Balmer.”
No luck needed, bro. I’m out. Fuck this shit. Imagine you are one of only 50 non-felons living in a city of 600 thousand people, only 10K of them not on welfare. If you enjoy getting summoned every week for jury duty and having a water main break and power outage, undrivable roads, and the highest taxes anywhere around, just move there. Otherwise, never do it, ever.
“Hyperion, leaving Baltimore.”
That’s exactly how I imagine it!
In that case, congrats at getting out of Balmer.
Mortgages over $1million? That’s absolutely insane. And who approves someone for that mortgage?
Sheesh.
What’s the name of the bank that bought WeWork?
“That’s absolutely insane”
Yes, it is. That’s what I’ve told my co-workers. Things go underwater and you’ll get crushed to death by the overlying pressure. No.Fucking.Way.
Didn’t you say that it was close to 1 mil or more than 900K anyway?
No, the houses we were looking to upgrade to were in that range, and it’s a big reason why we’re not sticking around. We paid $370k for our place. It’s 50 years old, smaller than youre looking for, and out in the rural crescent of prince william County.
Yeah, then I get it. I’m sure you can find that house in TX for the range you are looking for. I don’t even want to pay over 400K here, and not really more than 300 if we can avoid it. Everything here is over priced.
Just move to Westminster and get it over with.
We’re moving to Carrol County, or York PA, or Frederick County or Harford for sure. Probably Carrol.
Friday Fun Fact Frolic
The Christofilos Effect
In the 1960s, Nicolas Christofilos, a former Greek elevator mechanic and self taught physicist was working on a project to shield the US from enemy missiles. The method was to detonate hundreds of nuclear weapons in space to create a radioactive layer that would disable the guidance and arming mechanisms of missiles that passed through. The initial test did not produce the expected radiation and the project was cancelled.
The US and the USSR both conducted nuclear tests during the Cuban missile crisis. They had been scheduled way in advance and there was a great reluctance to cancel them.
There was a plan to build 10,000 megaton bombs named Gnomon and Sundial powerful enough to obliterate a continent.
Raising hippos for fun and profit
***
In the U.S., Representative Robert F. Broussard of Louisiana introduced the “American Hippo bill” in 1910 to authorise the importation and release of hippopotamus into the bayous of Louisiana.[59][60] Broussard argued that the hippos would eat the invasive water hyacinth that was clogging the rivers and also produce meat to help solve the American meat crisis.[60][61] The chief collaborators and proponents of Broussard’s bill were Major Frederick Russell Burnham and Captain Fritz Duquesne.[62][63] Former President Theodore Roosevelt backed the plan, as did the U.S. Department of Agriculture, The Washington Post, and The New York Times which praised the taste of hippo as “lake cow bacon”.[62] The “American Hippo Bill” fell just short of being passed.[60]
***
Mmm, lake cow bacon…
Hippos, the Cain Toad of the Bayou.
Fun fact, the Cane Toad infestation actually shows accidental selective breeding. The rate of advance of the front of the infestation increases year over year, because the toads at the foremost are the fastest and most enduring hoppers, who in turn breed with the others in their area of maturity, creating a feedback cycle where the leading edge is populated mostly by Cane Toads bred for long-range forward migration.
The Cane Toad has met its match: Crow
https://www.islandconservation.org/crafty-crows-eat-poisonous-cane-toads/
***
How do they do it? The crows have learned to avoid the most toxic part of the toad, the large parotid glands on the neck and shoulders. When the toad is threatened, milky white poison called bufotoxin oozes from these glands. Any contact with this poison results in death. According to the Global Invasive Species Database, it can kill lizards, snakes, cats, dogs, and even humans. Crows know to avoid the ooze by holding the toads by their bony brow above the eyes or by their limbs. Then they roll the toads onto their backs and eat the best pieces while avoiding contact with the lethal parts. This technique is a testament to crows’ cleverness; scientists believe that other crows watch and learn while this process is happening. This could explain why crows living 3,000 miles from Brisbane have exhibited similar behaviors.
***
Next the crows learn how to carry fire sticks and take over Australia.
Crows are awesome. Ravens form a plot point in Cods & Cuntes, so I’ve been researching corvids like crazy. I wish I could have a raven for a pet, but it would probably eat my cats. They fascinate me.
You have your cat… “Nevermore”.
*narrows gaze*
Get a bigger cat.
*pictures Raven standing on head of a panther in Mojeaux’s living room*
It wouldn’t eat my cats, but it would poke at them to annoy them. That’s what they do, annoy other beings. On purpose. Because it’s fun.
Like I said, get a bigger cat. No bird with any brains at all would fuck with a top hunter house cat. I mean unless it’s a huge owl or a hawk.
At least now I know what kind of furry I am.
If your cats have their claws, that might be game over faster than you think. And not necessarily in the Raven’s favor.
I had a large Tabby barn cat that killed so many birds I couldn’t count them. And everything else that moved that wasn’t bigger than him and he was around 15 lbs.
Name it Jimmy…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_the_raven
I wish I could have a raven for a pet,
butbecause it would probably eat my cats.That’s what you meant, right?
You know, it’s sort of funny, I remember hippos as a kid, that quirky cute animal, and they even got their own game where they were always hungry! And hen a long time after, just a few short years ago, I learned how extremely vicious they are. In fact, maybe the most dangerous animal on the planet. What a bummer, no more cute hungry hippos.
In fact, maybe the most dangerous animal on the planet.
Considering they share their environment with crocodiles, this should not be a surprise.
And everyone thinks rhinos are super vicious just because they have a horn and they’re big, and they’re actually gentle. I mean, don’t be mean to them, that’s just asking for it, but otherwise they’re placid. The keepers at San Diego Safari Park said the rhinos are some of the least aggressive of all their animals. and they let us feed them apples by hand (it was a fantastic experience, by the way. Highly recommended if you’re there)
Then people butcher them for fingernail clippings. It infuriates me. Why must you be so stupid, humans??
I have heard the ‘Lake cow bacon’ factoid three or four times in the past two days.
How does hippo taste anyway? Does it make good bacon?
Best bacon comes from omnivores. Pigs,bears… probably humans.
I guess none of the backers of the Hippo Bill had their staff look into just how prolific hippos are.
Or psycho dangerous?
They were all in the pocket of Big Hippo.
If you’re raising them for meat, prolific is good.
Many people are confident that the whistleblower’s name is Eric Ciaramella. Have you noticed that one of the new guys at reason since we left is called C.J. Ciaramella? What a coincidence?
…and CJ is one letter different than BJ…Clinton got a BJ in the Oval Office…Trump is now in the Oval Office…ILLUMINATI CONFIRMED!
I’ve never seen two Italians in the same room at the same time.
You did, but you got KOed by the gesticulating and lost the memory.
Sounds legit.
I seem to remember that Bruno and Guido were in the room at the same time breaking someone’s knees.
You remember what? I think you saw nut thin.
It’s far from the most common Italian name.
It was a joke.
I work with one Italian guy. It took me like a month to figure out how to pronounce his last name.
Gwee – doh.
Right?
No, the sur name.
They said those curtains was hung.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QEDZkj_Riw
***
If we all had periods, maybe we’d be more comfortable with them.
Thinx is underwear that absorbs your period. We’re on a mission to empower every body with innovative solutions and social change. Learn more about our campaign at https://shethinx.com/IfWeAllHadPeriods
***
[anguished Zoidberg groan]
This is different from a diaper, in what way?
Because they’ll charge more.
It depends.
He said in a poised manner.
I’ve been given every assurance that he is correct.
If men can have periods, they’ll need to have an absorbent codpiece.
it’s called a CockSock, and it’s patent pending, shitlord.
Papuan fashion for [CURRENT_YEAR]?
Any chick bleeding out of her cock has bigger problems.
That’s for those other losers who aren’t spayed like me.
Before commercial menstrual products women created their own menstrual diapers using scraps of cloth; hence “on the rag.”
Nearly half of the world’s population has a period, yet we still shy away from having open conversations about them.-
Everybody shits and we don’t walk around talking about it. It’s not shaming women, it’s keeping personal things personal.
Nearly half of the world’s population has a period,
If a woman lives to age 70, she has periods for maybe half her life. So this should be more like 1/4 of the world’s population.
My fair city has a large homeless population of late. What to do? Don’t worry, resource allocation experts have a solution… Why, there are all of these luxury apartments sitting vacant!
https://www.westword.com/news/how-many-apartments-truly-sit-vacant-in-denver-11539948
““We could literally house the entire population of people experiencing homelessness in Denver alone with the vacant rate and market luxury apartments. It’s like a gut-punch every time I say it out loud,” says Cathy Alderman, director of policy and communications for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
While the numbers are jarring, they require an explanation.
“Technically, it’s true: We do not have a housing crisis; we have an allocation challenge. But that’s if you just look at the raw data,” says Elena Wilken, executive director of Housing Colorado.”
Other tidbits in the article:
“Alderman would like to see Denver adopt a registry for long-term rentals, a move Boulder has taken, so that it could better track the number of apartments that are truly vacant and available.”
“But housing experts argue that the benefits of building more new housing won’t automatically trickle down to fill the greatest need. “We can’t build our way out of this,” says Wilken.
She argues that considering the type and affordability of the housing we build is more important.
“You can’t just build willy-nilly.””
Goddammit, how’d that get here?
Fucking idiot.
You build bright shiny awesome new housing, the rich people move in there. Then the middle class moves into the vacated rich people housing. Then the lower middle move into the middle class housing. So on and so forth. Today’s affordable blue collar housing was the brand new shiny new housing of 1990.
An increase in supply of ANYTHING, with demand remaining constant, will lower the price. This is Econ 101 shit.
Now I know you don’t have kids. Because everyone that has kids talks about poop for the first few years they have them.
I’m an out and proud DINK!
^ THIS. Sure, periods are natural, just like feces and phlegm, and they’re just as gross and unsanitary. Stop trying to make every facet of life public.
I glanced at the Sessions article article. Please God say it ain’t so. I hope Alabamans are sufficiently disgusted with him to not vote him in again, that incompetent leprechaun looking authoritarian fuck.
Never been to Alabama, huh? He’ll win in a landslide.
Hopefully Trump will throw his influence behind his competitor and torpedo his chances. I get the feeling he doesn’t like the guy or some reason.
It’s like saying we can make orbit by spinning up a flywheel using a perpetual motion machine.
*P Brooks, Venture Capital Super Genius, writes ten billion dollar check.*
Where do I send this? There’s plenty more where this came from.
Thinx is underwear that absorbs your period.
*stifles gag reflex*
Ewwwwww.
Yeah, great, that’s really sexy. Are those edible?
I still remember when the Russian chick said ‘The Stayfree Maxi pad is what you Americans say is ‘real neat’. That was back when the woke crowd weren’t dead set on grossing you out at every opportunity.
Wonder it they’ve patched RDR2 yet? I should probably fire it up again tonight, barely made it through the prologue.
Nothing can save the Star Wars franchise at this point.
Friday Fun Fact Frolic 2, Etymological Boogaloo
Sharaf means honor in Arabic
Sharif means honorable and is a boy’s name, like the actor Omar Sharif.
Ashraf means more/most honorable and is also a boy’s name, like Ashraf Ghani, president of Afghanistan
The head honcho of Pakistan a while back was Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf means honored.
There’s a city in Afghanistan called Mazar-i-Sharif, which means shrine of the honorable [one]. The words are Arabic, but the grammar is Persian.
The phrase that means “nice to meet you” is tasharrafna, which means “you honor us”.
Shukran means thanks in Arabic.
Shaker means thankful and is a boy’s name.
Shakira is the female form.
The sh sound in Arabic is one letter. It looks like a cursive w with 3 dots on top.
And now you know….my hips don’t lie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlVwBDPvi6A
Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf means honored.
Lemme guess what “Pervez” means.
The series of tubes says:
***
Persia. Parvēz, Pērvaz or Parvīz (Persian: پرویز, meaning “fortunate, victorious”; Middle Persian: plwyc Parvēz, also ʾplwyc Abarvēz/Aparvēz), is a Persian male given name, mostly popular in Iran, Central Asia, South Asia and among Azeris. It is also a common surname.
***
“Guy who wanted me to fabricate reports to make his group look better”
Not Musharraf, but that guy annoyed me. His supervisor reported to my supervisor, but he acted as if he had authority to boss me around because he was the assistant manager of his unit.
I didn’t oblige him, because, as I said, I don’t report to him, and I’m not going to falsify reports.
Shakira’s hips. I’ll be in my bunk.
Double your pleasure.
https://youtu.be/o3mP3mJDL2k
sorry for so much posting should be slowed down after today
Diplomacy Update
The Game has started. This is an update to let those who joined know that the first phase has started.
Also I’m waiting for Tulpa to post on Glibs and give his 10 Hail Zardoz’s
Hail Zardoz! And I’m not Tulpa – You’re Tulpa!
Fun afternoon at range. Buddy brought his P229 cause he knows I want one. Damn that gun is accurate. Ran errands after. Finally at bar:)
I’ll be shooting my NYS CCW qualifier tomorrow. I’m hoping for a perfect score.
Day after is Kayaderosseras’ last action pistol match. I’m hoping to place in the top third.
Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/t-eJBAK9Rw6qMsJv3rYPqQ.XfGZOWUytjQKxoEQJVW8dJ
?
Shiny.
Very sharp!
The US is horrible no good place!
Then stop arriving.
Yeah, I don’t understand why liberals aren’t on the border stopping people from coming to such a horrible place.
But if they request asylum on Canadian soil at a location other than an official crossing, the process is allowed to go forward. In most cases, the refugees are released and allowed to live in Canada, taking advantage of generous social welfare benefits while their asylum applications are reviewed, a process that can take years.
Sounds like a great system for Canadians to pay for.
Afisa, who left Uganda amid government oppression and violence, said she was detained for four months after crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. She went to Canada in May through an illegal crossing in Quebec. Afisa said she has applied for asylum and is awaiting a hearing.
“The U.S. is not safe,” she said. “No help, no shelter, nothing. You can stay outside on the street because you don’t have nothing when you’re a refugee. You come from your country because of some problem, you don’t have money,” she said, wiping away tears.
Refugees are not entitled to refuge on the far side of the world from their homes.
I wonder how a U.S. citizen would fare if xe turned up in Uganda and expected welfare?
My question:
How the hell did she get here from Uganda?
And how many countries did she traverse that she did not seek refugee status in?
Shows determination and grit, the kind of go-getter America used to be happy to accept.
Oh, stop.
I actually typically agree. I find the reactions here funny, because these people aren’t trying to get in to the US. They are trying to escape. They are trying to get to Canada and Canada won’t let them.
Devils advocate:
They’re seeking asylum status. That’s a “cut to the beginning of the line” play. They don’t feel like going through the immigration process, so they do what ever they can to get to the front of the line.
One could say they sound very entitled. The kind of hand-out seekers that America has never been happy to accept.
the widespread detention of asylum seekers who are turned back from Canada
What are we supposed to do with them? Canada won’t take them, they won’t go home, presumably they don’t qualify for asylum here. I mean, lining up between a ditch and a machine gun seems a little harsh, so I guess detention it is?
the separation of parents and children
I swear I thought we had stopped doing that.
I did get a chance to yank some chain here yesterday.
Manager: Blah blah Border Patrol blah blah Guatemalan man and his son blah
R C: Hold on a second. Do we know that was his son?
Manager: *blank stare*
R C: You realize DNA testing shows that a fair percentage of the children brought across the border by illegals aren’t actually their children.
Manager: Well, I guess we have to just assume its his son.
R C: Have you asked the Border Patrol if they have confirmed it? Because if its not actually his son, he can’t consent to medical care, so it kind of matters.
Canada won’t take them, they won’t go home,
Well Canada won’t take them because an agreement between the US and Canada that says Refugees must apply for assylum where they first entered. That is why they are suing Canada, so that they exit the agreement and allow refugees who came through the US to apply for assylum in Canada.
I propose a solution for our homeless problem. Free bus tickets to Canada. I mean, they’re just economic refugees fleeing America.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/11/08/777187543/math-looks-the-same-in-the-brains-of-boys-and-girls-study-finds
***
There’s new evidence that girls start out with the same math abilities as boys.
A study of 104 children from ages 3 to 10 found similar patterns of brain activity in boys and girls as they engaged in basic math tasks, researchers reported Friday in the journal Science of Learning.
…
But there is evidence of sex differences in some exceptional older students, Geary says.
For example, boys outnumber girls by about 3 to 1 when researchers identify adolescents who achieve “very, very high-end performance in mathematics,” Geary says, adding that scientists are still trying to understand why that gap exists.
***
Almost there…
***
So why are fields like mathematics and computer science so dominated by men?
Cantlon suspects the answer involves the societal messages girls and young women get, and the difficulty of entering a field that includes very few women. “You can look at ratios of women and men participating in different activities and you can get the hint,” she says.
…
Yet paradoxically, females in wealthier countries with more gender equality, including the U.S., were less likely than females in other countries to get degrees in fields such as math and computer science.
…
But when the researchers focused on more affluent school districts, “boys tended to do better than girls in math,” Fahle says.
That research, along with the new study, makes a compelling case that factors other than biological differences explain why girls are less likely to pursue degrees and jobs in math and science, she says.
***
Negative, impacted on the surface.
[head desk]
Seriously though, men dominate mathematics because it’s a young man’s game. Women in their 20s and 30s are usually concerned about marriage and children, not focused like a laser on an abstract problem.
It is about biology in the sense that women give birth and men don’t.
You know, there’s this thing called Puberty which makes a lot of changes to the brain. Maybe you should check to see if that has anything to do with it.
Maybe Disney could figure out a way to make the Frozen princesses, Belle, Moana, unicorns, etc. etc. be math wizards instead of whatever crap they do now to inspire little girls to think they’ll all end up like Megan Markle with Prince Charming.
I think you need to let it go.
You suck.
*searches for music to get that damn song out of head*
Try Billy Joel, he’s a surprisingly good earworm killer, throw on 52 street, put the first three songs on repeat.
Billy Joel? Ugh.
relevant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohBQ59OXnYM
It’s also about interest. In undergraduate math programs, the ratio is about 50-50 men and women, but goes to about 80-20 for graduate programs because all the female math majors go on to become teachers instead of going for PhDs.
Yeah, I don’t see any researchers breaking their back to find out why nursing isn’t a 50-50 spread. It’s only a problem when it’s a male dominated field.
If it weren’t for double standards they wouldn’t have any.
Veterinarians have basically the same starting salary as computer scientists and the opposite gender ratio, but you never hear about the problem of how to get men to go to vet school.
It’s such a non-issue. Is anyone stopping men from being vets/nurses? Is anyone stopping women from being IT/mathematicians? No? Then it doesn’t matter.
Oh sorry, I wasn’t saying that it’s actually a problem that men are only 20% of veterinarians, I was contrasting with how people are constantly wringing their hands over the ratio of women in computer science (which is also not a problem, but people act like it is)
No, I was agreeing with you. It’s my tone. I come across confrontational even when I’m on your side. I blame my redneck roots.
I for one will mercilessly mock any man that becomes a nurse or a veternarian, or barista, or a teacher other than high school AP math or science.
As well you should. I mean, what’s the point of being a radical individualist if you can’t mock people for making their own choices and not following social norms?
*massive eye roll*
Sheesh, Florida Man, I thought social pressure was the approved of method for enforcing social norms instead of outside force.
Exactly.
How about shop?
How about shop?
The phrase ‘Those who cant do, teach’ was made for those losers. Take on an apprentice or three don’t babysit the stoners at PS 212
Matt Carricker is a vet. And had one of the more enviable lives around.
@UCS
1. I don’t believe in group wisdom
2. I get tired of the endless mocking of personal choices that don’t effect anyone else. I know it’s mostly in jest but it gets old With the constant your choice in drink/food/music/movies/state/career/whatever sucks.
Relevant
Love when the bars playing late 70’s rock and I don’t have to play the jukebox! Winning.
I think I’m becoming an expert beer stasher. Checked beer fridge, low… but wife and I are having dinner, watching film, I’m good. OK, I have plenty. Then… she’s not feeling well, tired, now she’s asleep. Oh well, I have games to play, but need more beer… oh shit, I’m out. But then! I just discovered secret beet stash! I’m good to roll!
Pickled or roasted?
secret beet stash
That’s just sad.
I can’t help laughing at the thought of Hyp opening a fridge to find beetroots and going “Sweet!”
But its his secret stash. So, more like he tip-toes out to the garage, moves a box full of dirty rags out of the way, pulls down a piece of loose drywall, and . . . sweet beet victory!
You guys are such fuckheads, that’s why I love you guys!
Something is wrong with my keyboard, I swear I’m not drunk!
Enjoy your secret beet stash beets.
I’m mixing Foster’s and Negra Modelo. It’s sort of a reddish color. No beets were killed in this experiment.
Enjoying
Sure you are.
I mainline my beets.
He’s Dwight Schrute?
Beets are gross. You’re weird.
Yeah, I know, I hate them. And I’ll eat almost anything. Unless it’s a beet, sweet potato, or pear.
Pears are OK. I used to think I liked sweet potatoes until sweet potato fries became a thing. Turns out I don’t like them.
I do like candied yams paired with turkey. Soon…soon.
“Pears are OK.”
Sand Apples.
I feel sad for you. Pears are better than apples.
This is demonstrably false.
A sufficiently ripe pear is one of the best things on God’s earth or anyone else’s.
This is demonstrably true.
Only fruit better is pineapple.
Perfectly ripe pineapple is the incarnation of heaven.
D’Anjou or GTFO.
Since I moved to Hawaii I have given up on finding properly ripe pineapples on the mainland. A ripe pineapple is a joy, before that moment it is a severe disappointment,
Candied yams? You sick fuck.
The juice is delicious soaked into turkey breast meat. You’re missing out.
Yeah, they were a standard at the family Thanksgiving table. Haven’t touched them in decades.
Mom’s recipe is great…no marshmallows.
A new Polish restraunt opened up in town and I’ve become borscht fan.
I’ve never had it, but I’m willing to give it a chance.
My grandma made pickled beets and I thought they were disgusting. Of course, I dislike most pickled things, so there’s that.
Ask first.
OMG…why is even this about race?! Fuck these people with a free ash sapling.
Oh, no, I totally get it. Elite white people decide to do something in someone else’s neighborhood without asking how they feel about it. White liberal savior complex on brilliant display.
I’d be pissed too.
*reads furhter than one sentence in*
Oh, OK then. Yeah, that is bullshit.
Fair point. I still get to roll my eyes severely at things like:
If you’re paid by the word, why would you use “folklore”?
Which people?
Oh, stop.
Didn’t yet read the article. But, here’s my thing with trees. I love trees, as long as they are not to close to my house. I mean small trees, like Japanese Maples, or other ornamental trees are OK close to your house, but otherwise, they are nothing but trouble.
Anyway, come to MD and tell me where you can find a space to plant another tree? We have old growth forests that predate the arrival of the original colonists, all over the state.
A bunch of environmentalists decided to plant a bunch of trees in the hood and the residents were saying no. The environmentalists couldn’t figure out why they didn’t want them, and it was because they don’t trust the city and they didn’t ask first.
We just had something like that happen here. After some pressure by some obscure activist group, the KC city council decided unilaterally to name a very significant boulevard Martin Luther King Jr. They didn’t ask, didn’t take a vote, just spent the money. Nobody was happy not just because a significant piece of KC history got erased, but more that there was no community input or voting.
They put it on Tuesday’s ballot. 69% said to change it back.
But… but, if you can get a Martin Luther King Blvd, then you can get free window washes that you don’t want, from homeless people who will squirt you in the eyes with Windex containing ammonia when you roll down the window to politely tell them to fuck off. Don’t roll down your window.
My street is lined with oak trees. Oak trees that are a huge risk of blowing over in hurricanes. But they look nice and that’s all that matters.
We have a White Oak in front of our house that is at least 5-6 ft in diameter and 80-100 ft tall. If that thing falls on this building, it will be completely destroyed.
They planted laurel oaks because they grow fast, but they don’t sink strong roots. Not ideal, but at least we’re far enough inland to mitigate most winds.
I am trying to get 25 Leyland Cypress trees cut down on my property. They were planted 30ish years ago, grew fast, but are now too tall and dying. One already fell over during a storm last fall.
I got a decent price ($5k) to cut them down and grind the stumps, but this guy still hasn’t set up a time to do it. Might be too good to be true ?
Raze Baltimore to the ground and replace it with a forest?
It sounds like a sound plan to me. I mean, you might want to save the parts of the city (15-20%) worth saving, if you can get rid of the current city government as well. Otherwise, nuke it from space.
Oh, and I’ll say this, too. If someone came through wanting to plant sweet gum trees anywhere near my property, I’d take after them with buckshot.
But they so pretty in the fall. We have a couple right across the street. I’ll raise you one Cottonwood and a few Chestnut trees, right against your house. I mean I get the reason that people used to plant trees like that right against their house. Because of the shade, because there was no AC. But unless Greta and the Luddites get their way, cut that shit for firewood!
We have a willow tree that has a trunk that’s about 5′ in diameter. Fortunately, it’s 100′ from the house.
That’s sort of my rule. 100′ from the house, OK. Otherwise, you a dwarf ornamental tree.
We’ve got some maples out front that could hit the house, but they tend to break off, as opposed to fall down.
My neighbor has three catalpa trees right up against the property line. They’re a goddamned mess.
I had 3 of them right on my property line on the house I just sold recently. Those were Northern Catalpa though, I think the southern ones are a lot smaller.
Sweet gum seed pods (AKA mini-maces) are not biodegradable. They will survive the SMOD.
Wait until you get some Chestnut spiked seed balls on your deck when you walk out there in the morning barefoot. The only thing I can think of worse, is Honey Locust thorns.
You step outside your house without proper foot protection?
On my deck? Yeah, I’m supposed to be able to do that, this is 2019!
It’s Friday, a big pt of chili just went into the oven to braise, and there’s a Moscow Mule at my left hand. Let the weekend begin.
Starting so late in the day?
He’s on Hawaii time
It was 4:30 in Manly Time when I posted that. I try and keep my day drinking to the weekends.
Like you have time to get chili finished when you start at 4:30 in the afternoon.
No, the chili went in the oven at 4. Braise for two hours at 300* and it will be perfect. And even better tomorrow.
Slamming mules again I see.
He’s such an ass
At least I don’t eat candied yams.
*sigh*
So Dug is standing in the garden courtyard of the imperial palace for the ‘informal’ stage of the courtly day. His local fling has walked off in annoyance at a mistake he made a few chapters back. His main contact at court is occupied with other business. And I have half a scene left before I can just go jump to a new one. What trouble should Dug get it?
He gets caught playing pocket pool, because his love interest walked off and left him with unfulfilled needs.
Pick a flower from the Imperial Garden and piss off the Imperial Gardener…and maybe the King, depending on how far you want to go with it?
He should be forced to commit ritual suicide. His loyal followers embark on 20-year process of revenge. They kill the one who wronged their master and then commit mass suicide to protest the insult and demonstrate loyalty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty-seven_r%C5%8Dnin
That doesn’t work, he has to make it home to print the first book.
OK, have him win a huge sum at a local gambling house, and as he is running off with the money away from enraged townsfolk, he runs into the fling by accident and she helps him.
Well, most of his gambling has been at the amphitheater. Which reminds me, I have to have at least one exciting fight there, otherwise I wasted a lot of set-up.
That’s it! Have him bet it all on a despised underdog, and then when the underdog wins, he has to run for his life.
Better yet – have the despised underdog be his fling in disguise.
Local Fling’s brothers show up in bad moods?
Local fling only has one surviving brother, who’s a teenage twerp Dug could beat up.
And he’s already shown up in a bad mood… okay, an emo mood.
Have him try and buy a bespoke codpiece…or piece of cod.
An anarchist climbs over the wall and tries to sneak close to the palace to set it on fire.
The assassination attempt is later in the plot. I need to maintain variety.
A man kicks down the garden gate and shoots a crossbow at him.
He’s found wearing a MAGA hat by an Antifa mob.
Given the number of people Dug has bested in melee combat, those fascists wouldn’t last long.
It’s been a long week at work and I’m easing myself into a deep glass of rye. I’m out of helpful suggestions.
That’s okay. just talking with people about a situation gets my brain working, even if all I get is snark.
For the record, I was being serious.
I know. But there have been other times when no one was.
I didn’t have a response yet to your suggestion.
So says the gay dromedary turkey…
I know…it was quite good.
Is it the feathers or the hat that makes him gay?
The feathers. The hat is quite jaunty.
My fair city has a large homeless population of late. What to do? Don’t worry, resource allocation experts have a solution… Why, there are all of these luxury apartments sitting vacant!
https://www.westword.com/news/how-many-apartments-truly-sit-vacant-in-denver-11539948
““We could literally house the entire population of people experiencing homelessness in Denver alone with the vacant rate and market luxury apartments. It’s like a gut-punch every time I say it out loud,” says Cathy Alderman, director of policy and communications for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
While the numbers are jarring, they require an explanation.
“Technically, it’s true: We do not have a housing crisis; we have an allocation challenge. But that’s if you just look at the raw data,” says Elena Wilken, executive director of Housing Colorado.”
Other tidbits in the article:
“Alderman would like to see Denver adopt a registry for long-term rentals, a move Boulder has taken, so that it could better track the number of apartments that are truly vacant and available.”
“But housing experts argue that the benefits of building more new housing won’t automatically trickle down to fill the greatest need. “We can’t build our way out of this,” says Wilken.
She argues that considering the type and affordability of the housing we build is more important.
“You can’t just build willy-nilly.””
Nothing can possibly go wrong. As soon as we can tax you at 70% of your income, utopia will arrive.
JFC the stupidity hurts.
We can’t build our way out of a housing crisis, but we CAN build our way out of global warming.
/dummies
““We can’t build our way out of this,” says Wilken.”
He asserted without evidence.
To be fair, any group that includes Wilken will be prevented from building their way out of this. Get rid of Wilken’s ilk and the path is clear again.
They say this because they look around them and see that only super-duper luxe housing gets built any more and are too stupid to connect the dots to see why that is.
Looks like ABC went after the wrong person and the leaker is still working there, if you take this at face value that is:
https://www.projectveritas.com/2019/11/08/abc-insider-why-i-alone-released-the-amy-robach-epstein-tape/
Friday Fun Fact Folic 3: The Fact and the Furious
Before he was famous, Johnny Cash was a USAF Morse code interceptor in Germany.
***
Cash enlisted in the United States Air Force on July 7, 1950.[34] After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and technical training at Brooks Air Force Base, both in San Antonio, Texas, Cash was assigned to the 12th Radio Squadron Mobile of the U.S. Air Force Security Service at Landsberg, Germany. He worked as a Morse code operator intercepting Soviet Army transmissions.[35] While at Landsberg he created his first band, “The Landsberg Barbarians”.[36] On July 3, 1954, he was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant, and he returned to Texas.[37] During his military service, he acquired a distinctive scar on the right side of his jaw as a result of surgery to remove a cyst.[38][39]
***
Tom Lehrer (of “National Brotherhood Week”) was a mathematician in the Army.
***
He was drafted into the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957, working at the NSA. (Lehrer has stated that he invented the Jell-O shot during this time, as a means of circumventing the base’s ban on alcoholic beverages.)[13] These experiences became fodder for songs, e.g., “The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be” and “It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier”.[14] It was many years before Lehrer publicly revealed that he had been assigned to the NSA, since the mere fact of its existence was classified at the time; this left him in the interesting position of implicitly using nuclear weapons work as a cover story for something more sensitive.
Despite holding a master’s degree in an era when American conscripts often lacked a high school diploma, Lehrer served as an enlisted soldier, achieving the rank of Specialist Third Class (later retitled “Specialist-4” and currently “Specialist”), which he described as being a “corporal without portfolio”.
***
Wiping out last weekend’s cheap Aussie Chardonnay, something called Fish Eye – “a turgid little concoction particularly suited to those keen on regurgitation.”
They labelled them that way, and you still drank it?
The price was right and I didn’t have to bother with that pesky corkscrew. Fine motor skills are the first to go.
That doesn’t sound good. My advice, drink beer.
To paraphrase animal, life is too short to drink bad wine.
It’s tolerable. The description is my best recollection of something from a Monty Python sketch about Australian tables wines that I can’t find on the Intarwebz. I just grabbed this wine while I was at Creauxjais last Friday. Tomorrow I’ll get something better – ideally, something local – from the wine store on the way back from the BMV, where I have to renew my plates AND renew my driver’s license.
It’s tolerable.-
My life in a nutshell…
Tolerable but cramped?
Empty
No, no, no. Those keen on regurgitation should drink Camo Black. Beer Advocate says:
***
Smells like artificial grape flavoring, energy drink, and Flintstones vitamins.
***
The day after drinking Camo Black, artist’s depiction:
https://content.ngv.vic.gov.au/col-images/api/Fd101810/1280
Well, that’s not beer, obviously, that’s wine.
Hey GT, did you have any luck finishing the acrostic? In hindsight I think I should have made three or four more clues absolute gimmes to give solvers a starting point. I didn’t figure it would get as much action as the crosswords so I didn’t put as much thought into solvability as I should have.
Yes! Yes, I did!!! I announced it in last night’s evening post. Got my printer up & running, printed it out, and got it done without cheating! Thanks so much for doing this! Printing it out on letter size paper/portrait orientation, I had a bit of trouble making out the number & letter codes without magnification – next time I’ll resize it to print on two pages, landscape orientation so the grid – and the codes – are a bit larger. Had a blast solving it.
BTW – serious about the offer to beta test future acrostics. If you do another and would like to use me as a guinea pig, e me at linniered[at]woh.rr.com.
Also BTW, loved the Kurosawa clue!
Thanks for the response, I may do another, as I said they are easier in a way than the crosswords, glad you liked the Kurosawa clue I was kind proud of that one to be honest.
Did the crossword that I beta tested post yet?
All of the ones I’ve completed have been posted, I think the one you beta’d was the second or so. you ‘member the theme?
Super Troll
Thanks, but seriously do you remember the theme of the puzzle you beta’d?
Kidding aside Here it is, not a Rick Roll swear to god.
RICK-RICK-RICKETY ROLLED
Jeebus. I even commented on it. My memory is so shit. Especially when soaked in alcohol.
HOT AND BOTHERED COUGAR SHARES BED WITH TATTED MAN, WANTS HEAVY PETTING
Nice kitteh!
tfr*
*these fucking russians…
Was watching some Simpson’s tonight. This was the opening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZu5iDTtNg0
Awesome.
How long ya reckon ’til Bart’s chalkboard punishment is “Epstein didn’t kill himself”?
I don’t think they have the testicular fortitude for that.
Groenig is among those accused of flying the Lolita Express. I don’t think they’ll bring it up.
Who hasn’t been accused of that?
me.