Author: SP

 

So, another quiet Christmas at our place. I’m about to put together a lasagna that’s way too big for two people (and a Wonder Dog), but hey,  it’s silly to go to the trouble and then not have leftover lasagna for the freezer.

OMWC gave me an 8 qt multicooker for Christmas. We have a tradition of giving each other cooking-related gifts for all gift-giving occasions. Then we BOTH get the benefit of the present.

I have to say, I’ve resisted the multicooker mania, but it’s just exactly like the way I resisted a rice cooker.

ALL my Asian friends: SP you NEED a rice cooker!

SP: Eh, how hard is it to make a pot of rice on the stove?

SP gives OMWC a rice cooker when out of gift ideas one birthday.

Fast forward.

SP: OMG! How did we live without this thing??

Same deal with the multicooker. Tamales done in 45 minutes? Check! Flan in 15 minutes? Check! (#notvegan)

Along with all the more regular uses for it, I expect to use the hell out of the thing for small batch canning. Great gift, all around. Thanks, OMWC!

Anyway! Let’s see what’s happening in the world today.

 

Who hasn’t fantasized about doing this?

No, OMWC, we cannot do this.

How would this go over for the holiday decorations at your workplace?

I imagine they must have gotten the parents’ permission for this.

And, of course the legislator wants to legislate even more in response to this.

 

Time for me to open some cooking wine…you know, wine I will drink while cooking.

 

Merry Christmas, etc etc, Glibs!

It’s going to be a brief narrative, because I’m desperately attempting to catch up on everything that fell by the wayside for the last six months. I’m also now trying to get into the holiday spirit, or at least out of major depression, so I am actually going to put up some Christmas lights today. Not going to go as far as a tree, but I have my grandmother’s little ceramic tree, and that will go in my office. As soon as I find it in whatever box in which it resides, in whatever still-not-unpacked stack of boxes and bins, in whatever still-not-decorated room that box might be in. Or maybe it’s in the garage.

Anyway, you don’t care about the mundane details of my existence. You just come here for links you can ignore. So, here we go!

 

This is hilarious and a public art project all at the same time.

This should surprise exactly nobody.

This makes many good points. Also, has anyone else noticed that nearly every TV ad now sports a girl who looks earnestly like Greta? Or at least the ads we see during football, which is the only TV we ever see.

This is something that WebDom and I talk about ALL.THE.TIME. Always buy the domain name(s) before you do ANYTHING else with an idea or business.

This is something about which I don’t think he will have to worry.

This just pisses me off.

This was amusing, since I’m a former social media manager for a brand. (A week old thread, but too bad!)

This proves that the Trumps are antisemites!

 

Have a great rest of the day, kids! If you live in my neighborhood, you can come over and help me untangle the lights. There will be cocktails.

 

 

So get this. OMWC thinks that dealing with a dementia patient in a wheel chair, who happens to be his Mom, while simultaneously dealing with the TSA security theater, in a crowded airport packed with clueless snowbirds, then flying across the country to move Mom into a memory care facility at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night, earns him the right to skip out on Sunday morning links duty on his way back to the airport to fly home in time to get to work tomorrow at 6 a.m.

He’s correct. You’re stuck with me.

 

Here’s a Super Secret TPTB Chat Room exchange from last night, while OMWC was trying to eat a takeout dinner at the memory care place.

OMWC: A guy wandered in, assured me that the business was doing well, they were going to bring me into it, then he took my garlic bread and walked away eating it.  They’re going to give me a drawing, he assured me. He’s quite jolly and affable.

TPTB, always supportive: Must be nice not to be the oldest man in the room for a change!

 

Birthdays:

A woman who probably wished one could choose one’s relatives; a guy whose wife needed some serious time in a salon; the guy with allegedly the most-visited grave in Paris; a man who got the hell out of Des Moines, Iowa (a town I actually like); and a woman about whom my best friend once said, “If she’s stable, I’m a toaster.”

 

In other news, at least Sloopy will be a happy drunk today. Sorry Wisconsin.

I’m happy for this Montana family. And happy there are nice people who will help reunite them.

I find this hard to believe. Aren’t all elections conducted in a fair, legal, and ethical manner worldwide?

This was most certainly covered by someone here yesterday. It has science and facts! As HM remarked in chat: A moral panic – with statistics.

Yes, it does snow in parts of Arizona.

Exactly what I expect from dentists. Well, you know, not exactly exactly, but I’m not surprised.

 

 

And a topical Old Guy Music selection to continue the uplifting tone of OMWC’s weekend!

Have a better one than he is, kids.

Go Pack!

 

On This Day in History

1901: 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She survived. But didn’t become rich and famous as she hoped. So, no point in trying this, kids. Also, it’s illegal on both sides of the border.

1945: The United Nations Charter is now effective and ready to be enforced. And look how THAT turned out!

1969: Richard Burton purchased a $1.5 million diamond for Liz Taylor. Moral: don’t waste your money on bullshit expensive gifts; she’ll divorce you anyway.

 

Links

This is an amazing story.

This makes as much sense as any other wall.

This annoys me. Get the US out of the Middle East.

This just doesn’t matter. She doesn’t stand a chance.

This guy. (Who?)

 

Music

 

Have a great rest of your day, or you can do whatever the hell you want.

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SugarFree’s Dem Deathwatch

Tim Ryan is out, leaving us only a mere 17 remaining Democratic primary candidates.

Row 1: Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar
Row 2: Beto O’Rourke, Tulsi Gabbard, John Delaney, Eric Swalwell, Tim Ryan
Row 3: Pete Buttigieg, John Hickenlooper, Jay Inslee, Andrew Yang, Marianne Williamson
Row 4: Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet, Mike Gravel, Julian Castro, Joe Biden
Row 5: Seth Moulton, Wayne Messam, Tom Steyer, Steve Bullock, Bill de Blasio

Delaney, Williamson, Bennett, Messam and Bullock didn’t qualify for the last debate and are probably just going to hold out until after the off-year elections. Or these crazy kids might be waiting to roll the dice in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Sanders should have dropped out by now, but his ego is still fighting against all reason.

Booker, Harris, Klobucher, Gabbard, O’Rourke and Castro are effectively waiting for some sort of Hail Mary, Warren blowing an underage mule or Biden stroking-out. Or they skulking as VP fodder.

At this point, outsiders Yang and Williamson are probably just duking it out to be the Green Party candidate, but they should learn the lesson of Jill Stein: Don’t offer yourself as a scapegoat for the DNC’s failures.

And, waiting in the wings and popping pills, is Hillary, ready to make a meal of what remains after the debates. Will she announce before Iowa? Or wait until it settles down to just Warren and Biden? There have been at least three trial balloons in the press this week. And the kooky Gabbard-is-a-Russian-asset wasn’t an accident. She’s appealing directly to the TDS shocktroops to sway them to her cause. Hillary as the firebrand… OK. At least it will be funny to watch…