731 Comments
User's avatar
Martini Glambassador's avatar

How long to Harp seal pups stay white? I’ve got that and yer hed gif source info here: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/baby-harp-seal-of-approval

Expand full comment
John Thorstensen's avatar

How is it that no one seems to have commented on Zappa's masterpiece, "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow", in which the fur trapper gets his comeuppance?

Expand full comment
Tappin Lisa's avatar

D'awwww, so cute and floofy!

Expand full comment
DDB9000's avatar

In ''Horse Feathers'' the Marx Brothers deal with a seal, and one of them is...

named Harpo! Coincidence? I think not!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asHg6w-vEPg

Expand full comment
Msgr MΩment, Neurodegenerate's avatar

Their hairs like those of other Arctic mammals, are translucent, not pigmented. Some silly scientists proposed in the late 1970s that polar bear hair at least was fiber optic (in the UV) but that doesn't stand up in the laboratory: they absorb strongly at short wavelenght (hence a golden/ivory sheen to their pelts).

Expand full comment
marxalot's avatar

Okay, but imagine fiber-optic bears.

Expand full comment
Msgr MΩment, Neurodegenerate's avatar

Gamboling with milk chocolate unicorns.

Expand full comment
Don'tBlameTheDog's avatar

IIRC, those translucent hairs are also hollow.

Expand full comment
Menotsure's avatar

If only there was a concise method for expressing approval, I would surely use it for this.

Expand full comment
Thalia Is Not Amused's avatar

I express my approval about your methods of expressing approval as well!

Expand full comment
Menotsure's avatar

That seals it.

Expand full comment
Thalia Is Not Amused's avatar

Approved! Oh, what a glorious feeling...

Expand full comment
bluePNWcats's avatar

So many early morning positive affirmations! 😁

Expand full comment
Thalia Is Not Amused's avatar

And never forget:

I'm good enough

I'm smart enough

And goshdarnit, people like me!

Expand full comment
Marty Smit's avatar

A garage band I was in had the lead guitar player suggesting ‘The Baby Seal Club’ as our band name. Uh, NO!

Expand full comment
Jamoche's avatar

Also, it's taken.

Expand full comment
You Should Ice That Burn's avatar

A fictitious night spot "Club Baby Seal" was in something...

Expand full comment
Jamoche's avatar

Google says

> Club Baby Seal is the name of a made up music venue in a series of pilot episodes for a show created by and featuring Joe Escalante from the band the vandals. Each episode had a cameo from bands like NoFX and the bouncing souls. also featuring Kyle Gass(tenacious d) as the zany fire marshal trying to shut the club down.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4220354/

Expand full comment
glenglish's avatar

Some group named the Polar Bears would have you for lunch.

Expand full comment
GH Swell's avatar

I am that seal pup this morn. 🥱

Expand full comment
Whale Chowder's avatar

Reminds me of an old joke.

So a baby seal walks into a club...

Expand full comment
Msgr MΩment, Neurodegenerate's avatar

...looks like you blew a seal...

Expand full comment
Whale Chowder's avatar

I swear I was only eating ice cream!

Expand full comment
bluePNWcats's avatar

Just fix the damn thing and leave my personal life out of it.

Expand full comment
NatalyaResists's avatar

Club sandwiches, not seals!

Expand full comment
Pope Buck I's avatar

That's my story, your honor, and I'm sticking to it.

Expand full comment
SkeptiKC's avatar

Bright eyed bundles of silky soft fluff.

That they were once almost hunted out of existence STILL pisses me off.

Expand full comment
Bobathonic's avatar

That looks so cold. Brrr.

Expand full comment
SkeptiKC's avatar

Trust me when I tell you that baby is VERY well insulated. Between his abundant blubber and key layers of that silky white fur that bebe is toasty warm and quite cozy, particularly when he snuggles up.

Mother Nature has looked after her children very well.

Expand full comment
DDB9000's avatar

Abundant blubber - hey, how did Trump get in this story?

Expand full comment
SkeptiKC's avatar

IncompeDon is not now and has NEVER been cute enough to even come close to qualifying for any mention in this story.

Expand full comment
bluePNWcats's avatar

Except to say that he should probably be clubbed in a manner similar to a baby seal 🦭. With votes, of course. I'm not a monster.

Expand full comment
ExecutorElassus's avatar

Lazy harp seal has no job: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pv8D-ydR1s

ETA also, too (g'egg): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL9iMPx9CpQ

Expand full comment
Martini Glambassador's avatar

Welfare baleine! (Ok, not a whale, but the best I could do on short notice).

Expand full comment
bluePNWcats's avatar

Don't you mean whale-fare?

Expand full comment
Mary Hall's avatar

<Insert drum sting here.>

Expand full comment
bluePNWcats's avatar

Lol...I know what I've done. I'll see myself out...

Expand full comment
Diane's Less Hostile Username's avatar

(Pinneped)

Expand full comment
Martini Glambassador's avatar

Sure, but “welfare pinneped” doesn’t quite have the same referential ring to it.

Expand full comment
Stroke1's avatar

I think that's a Neil Young song, innit?

Welfare pinnepeds

Make better in-a-beds

Weeeee alllllll knoooooow

Expand full comment
Stroke1's avatar

Long enough to get clubbed over the head and skinned for it, once upon a time.

Expand full comment
Martini Glambassador's avatar

Good morning Subshine!

Expand full comment
Martini Glambassador's avatar

Eh, typo, whatever, it stays because I like it.

Expand full comment
AIB's avatar

“I have a gub.”

Expand full comment
Menotsure's avatar

"A coinage, Watson!" Holmes ejaculated.

Expand full comment
Stroke1's avatar

Heh, I do too.

Expand full comment
The Wanderer's avatar

They're so cute. Little fluffy zeppelins.

Expand full comment
The Wanderer's avatar

If they curl up, Hostess Snowballs.

Expand full comment
Martini Glambassador's avatar

Hahahaha, great description!

Expand full comment
theCryptofishist's avatar

Did the Romans play Dungeons and Dragons? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Ycrm2FQdI

Expand full comment
BlueSpot's avatar

Not sure about the Romans, but the ancient Greeks made 20-sided dice from quartz crystals.

Expand full comment
theCryptofishist's avatar

Oooh! Did they use crystals that. naturally split like that? That's clever.

Now that I think about it, Roman "four-sided" where sheep "knucklebones" and were really six sided, but long, so the only landed on four. DMs were not pleased.

Expand full comment
BlueSpot's avatar

The die were actually cut and polished to be 20-sided. It's thought that they were used as oracles, like Magic 8 Balls. But they could have been used for gaming or gambling.

Expand full comment
theCryptofishist's avatar

I read a book on gambling once that thought that the two were originally very close, with gambling being a way to check in on if you were favored by the gods.

Expand full comment
Wookiee Monster's avatar

So republicans believe that democrats are deliberately bringing in Latino immigrants to create a permanent majority for themselves even though: it takes several years for immigrants to become eligible for citizenship and therefore, to vote. Also, it’s obvious that Latinos aren’t voting as a monolithic block and can be courted by republicans if only they’d stop being so fucking racist toward them.

Doesn’t sound like a good plan.

Expand full comment
Wookiee Monster's avatar

“ Actually two, before the whole Wonkette thing. HEYYY Paul. HIIIIIII Shy, I married you.) ”

So that’s fuck and marry. Who was your choice for “kill?”

Expand full comment
Robert Eckert's avatar

She's still shoppping

Expand full comment
Emil Muz's avatar

SER and Our Liz flaunting their Substack Independence together...Splitters! 😄

But seriously, it's a good listen.

Expand full comment
Wookiee Monster's avatar

It looks like Liz picked the right time to bail on Opening Arguments.

Expand full comment
Emil Muz's avatar

I didn't know a lot about all the dirty laundry stuff that led to her getting the gig in the first place, and she definitely is more than capable of doing her own thing without playing second fiddle.

Expand full comment
Wookiee Monster's avatar

Absolutely.

Expand full comment
Mojopo's avatar

I am exactly like your hub, about Taylor Swift. The Swifties are so positive and it looks like fun. I want that in my life.

Expand full comment
Jamoche's avatar

> The Messenger spent $8 million just on rent.

And for all that, this is the first I'm hearing about them.

Expand full comment
subterrene's avatar

The picture from the convoyyyyyy (apologies to Kris Kristoferson) of Palin and the banner that says "FEB 3TH" is still making me laugh

Expand full comment
carovee's avatar

Republicans remind me a little bit of my spouse (who is in now way that bad). BUT he sees every compromise as I won and he lost. It gets super annoying.

Expand full comment
Disgruntled Witch's avatar

I, also an old, talked a fellow old out of disliking Tay Tay for spurious reasons and dared them to actually learn something about her. In following-up after their searching on Beyonce's internet, a new Swiftie is born. (They said it was her $20 million or so committed donation toward animal causes.)

Expand full comment
John Thorstensen's avatar

I'd never read "The Messenger" and didn't know what it was. Here's the first sentence of the article linked by Our Es-Steamed Editrix, which looks to be quite good:

"The Messenger, the ostentatiously both-sides-y online publication launched just eight months ago with an impressive wad of startup capital and ambitions of rescuing media, kerploded very suddenly and rather spectacularly Wednesday afternoon."

Expand full comment
Mary Hall's avatar

"... kerploded"... I shall endeavor to use that in a sentence today.

Expand full comment
Randy Bender's avatar

It offered CONVENTIONAL WISDOM and BOTH SIDES and HORSE RACE?

If they truly want to save the failed institution of US "journalism," then they should consider their product.

Expand full comment
Mark Linimon's avatar

I was laughing about the "convoy" that drove through a little town 20 miles due south of me.

Until I realized that if Cheetoh gets back in, these will be the people running the "citizen's committees" or whatever they will call them.

Expand full comment
Mark Linimon's avatar

OK, 23 mi SSW, now that I check. But whatever.

Expand full comment
OneYieldRegular's avatar

I appreciated Kevin Kruse's dissection of Elno's adjacent-from-within Nazism, but I don't think we've made *nearly* enough of Elno's having used Auschwitz as a goddamned *prop* for self-aggrandizement. The world seemed to let that go with barely a whimper. Yet there he was saying he understood so much more about the Holocaust by holding an event there in the same way Jeff Bezos blabbed about being "changed" by visiting space when he just got arced up to the top of the sky.

No wonder a fascist dictator with nearly eight dozen felony charges and a trail of bodies is on deck to take over the country.

Expand full comment
Tappin Lisa's avatar

Sigh...a Monday morning with inches of rain and WITHOUT a gazillion posts by SER.

Expand full comment
defpac's avatar

Repeating myself, in a sane democracy, the fascists are afraid of the law ... in this world, the good people are afraid of the traitors taking full control next week.

https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1754535122949362002 ---

News: Fireworks at Senate GOP comms directors meeting this a.m. over border bill. After Sen Lankford’s team gave presentation on the bill & opened up for Q’s, Sen Lee’s staff was “yelling” at Lankford staff per multiple ppl in room. Lee aide eventually left room saying “betrayal”

Expand full comment
Mr Canoehead/M Tête-Canoë's avatar

Someone downthread mentioned the Danish movie Another Round, which features Mads Mikkelsen as a teacher who, with his friends, explores the advantages of keeping a little buzz on at work.

Anyway, funny how in American movies Mads is always a terrifying villain and in Danish movies he's just some guy.

https://satwcomic.com/superhero-movies-got-nothing-on-danish-cinema

Expand full comment
Teen Laqueefa's avatar

I saw him in Valhalla Rising and he was an uber violent dude in that flick.

Expand full comment