A few friends and I are doing an overnight at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in March. She's bringing along a doll that spent a week with Annabelle recently, just for funsies.
My best friend lived in what he claimed was a haunted house. One time, on my way down a long hall with a hardwood floor to the bathroom, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and no one was there. I rationalized it like a good Scully and thought I was hearing the reverb or echoes of my own footsteps. There was a basement underneath the floor also too which may have helped amplify the sound.
There was another house I used to visit as a child. My mother and brother got "creepy" feelings from the son's room and he would sometimes wake up screaming with nightmares. I was the only one who would go in that room when we visited. Didn't bother me in the least.
I'm such a killjoy when it comes to the supernatural. I'd be no fun to go to a haunted house with.
I have spent the night in a number of supposedly haunted houses. I only had creepy experiences in two. One was a house near the battlefield at the Civil War Battle of Chickamauga the had been used as a field hospital. The front room had bloodstains still visible on the hardwood floors. The other was a mansion in Florida that had been the site of a brutal murder of a woman by her husband. Odd things happened in both that I was never able to explain.
The only thing that comes close to my sheer terror of open bodies of water is a fear of the paranormal, specifically ghosts and poltergeists.
I am not a brawny man, and I despise conflict; if I can avoid it I will. However, I can at least ATTEMPT to physically defend myself against another person. But a ghost? A fucking GHOST? What the fuck am I gonna do to that? I am not a D&D Monk (I'm a Rogue/Bard, probably), I don't own any unlicensed nuclear accelerators I can strap on my back, and I am confined by the laws of physics for corporeal beings so my escape routes are probably limited and insufficient at best.
Mr Cakes was talking to someone at his work who had just purchased a derelict house thar hasn't been lived in for about 100 years. Him and his wife are planning to renovate it themselves before living there. Apparantly their completion date on the purchase is Halloween.
Mr Cakes told him "Do NOT read from any suspiciously old books, and do NOT open any locked rooms for which you do not have a key!"
The problem is too few haints, makes them stand out from the static of zillions of them, like how schizophrenia is too few voices in ones head (my theory which is mine).
Mix of a iPad vector drawing program that I use (Linearity Curve) and Resolve. I could have used Blender instead, but I like using my Apple Pencil over my mouse for drawing more complex designs.
Fooled me. It looks like a background from Jay Ward Productions (rip), the source of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Hoppity Hooper, Super Chicken and George of the Jungle.
True story: I once suggested to a columnist friend that we spend a night in an allegedly demonically-possessed house and write about it for our papers, if we lived, but it was too late. He said the house had been exorcised by the Church. Dammit.
My S. O. went to a hotel in Manassas and paid money to stay overnight in the room with an alleged ghost sighting (after arguing with the front desk that YES, he DOES want to spend the night in that room) and was sorely disappointed as there were no ghost visits that night.
TIL that there are three or maybe four different endings for it -- the theatrical one where Cusak’s character lives, the director’s cut (and original) where he dies, and a variant of possibly both of those.
I've never understood why any ghost would care what any church representative said or did in their vicinity. It suggests having power over the dead but not departed.
I think you make a good point--if I were a ghost, after a life of not being religious, do I all of a sudden have to "obey" religious beliefs I never cared about in life? Because that seems stupid, but is also what movies imply.
Maybe this is a movie idea--like My Dinner with Andre but with ghosts discussing stuff like whether or not religious beliefs apply to them.
I’m gonna vote for Sheila. The other front runner is scaring people about crime and his plan to have state troopers patrolling in Houston - which they tried in Dallas and Austin and got no crime reductions, but lots of harassment of people of color. No thanks.
People here are more upset by her being a horrible boss than by a governor putting up razor wire to drown kids in the Rio Grande. It’s gross.
That climate article - whoooof. I used to worry that my potential grandkids would face the Collapse of Civilization due to climate change and my kids are none of them likely to reproduce so yay? but then, damn, it's probably going to happen in my kids' lifetimes which makes me sad and, sucks for them! Now it's not looking like I'm gonna get out of here myself ahead of the shit-rain to come and sucks for MEEEE (and you. And you. Probably not you, you're 80 already.) Here's the linky https://hartmannreport.com/p/america-mysteriously-hit-a-deadly-061?utm_source=substack&publication_id=302288&post_id=138261757
In fairness, Bruen does acknowledge that cases involving “dramatic technological changes may require a more nuanced approach,” and it does include language indicating that, say, machine gun bans remain viable, even though machine guns were not invented until 1884. Bruen says that “the Second Amendment protects the possession and use of weapons that are ‘in common use at the time.’” So machine guns will remain illegal so long as they remain uncommon.
And that gets at my favorite sophomoric argument against 2a freaks: "Arms" is undefined in the 2a. Someone needs to define "arms" and that someone is the federal government (and a hearty "fuck off" to states rights freaks. We know what you really mean.) The federal government has said "machine guns aren't included in the 2a" and only the freakiest of gun freaks disagrees. Nobody even brings up artillery and missiles and bombs and nuclear weapons because, duh, obvs. Except, I think I remember reading how, in the runup to the Civil War, rich guys would buy a cannon for the local gang and become colonel. I believe (not a historian) that it was completely legal for someone to own cannons, as long as they made them available when the local gang formed up into "military". Prove to me that the framers did not intend for citizens to own cannon and I'll give up my howitzer, but not until then. (I do not own a howitzer).
There are only 2 logical conclusions: Free ALL the arms! or Duh, the federal government has an unquestioned right to limit arms, we're just arguing over the price.
Any word yet on what flavor and dosage the poison pills in the Aid to Israel and Ukraine bills will contain?
Why would the GOP not do that? Add some unacceptable amendments, have the Senate reject them, point out how Dems hate Ukraine and Israel, adjourn to go to church and pray for mass shooting victims in Maine.
A recent depressive episode leads me to conclude that I’m just NOT GOING TO READ NEWS AND ESPECIALLY COMMENTS ABOUT ISRAEL/GAZA ANYMORE. It is possible to be pro-Israeli security without cheerleading for genocide, but many commentators here and elsewhere don’t seem to recognize that. Good day.
When the shit first hit I was stunned at the magnitude of the damage. Then I was stunned at the hostages. Then the murders of the hostages. And then...well...the babies and the children...and...and... I was past the point of being stunned.
And then the Editrix brought down the banhammer.
But I had been REALLY noncommenting about it before she did so. Because I was stunned.
I continue to be stunned by every aspect of this situation, from Hamas's despicable behavior to Bibi's continued authoritarianism to random Americans' awful bigotry in both directions. I know it's a very privileged stance to say "I'm not taking sides", but what can I say? I'm very fortunate to have no stake in this fight. I can feel sympathetic and empathetic toward all the innocent people in that region and righteously indignant toward all the awful people in that region. And hopefully that stance is acceptable to our Editrix, because I really like it here.
About that house of bones thing: Museums around the world have lots of skeletons; it amazes me how cavalier they are about it. I watched a documentary about the Black Death once and the film crew were allowed into the museum's archives to see their collection of plague skeletons -- there was industrial shelving like in a warehouse covered with box after box, and a skeleton was in each one. They had got them when a subway line was put in somewhere near or in London (don't remember where exactly) and uncovered a mass burial of what turned out to be plague victims. So all the bodies were carted off to the museum. I thought back when those bodies were buried, none of their survivors could have ever imagined their loved ones would end up in a box on a museum shelf. It makes me wonder how many people today will someday end up likewise. I once surprised, and I think maybe horrified, someone when I told them, mostly in jest, that I perhaps someday I would end up spending eternity in a box on a shelf in a museum basement. For some reason, that idea more amuses me than horrifies me. It's one thing when you think of those skeletons as archeological artifacts but another when you remember they were real people who walked around and loved and had feelings and thoughts and everything. Does seem rather disrespectful. On the other hand they do learn things about how people in the past lived from their studies on such skeletons, so I don't know. It is a weird idea to think one might end up like those plague victims someday, though.
Next week on Bake-Off is "Botanicals Week". I was trying to puzzle out what the hell I'm going to bake for the Bake-Off viewing snacks that ties in with this theme and I think I've finally settled on something.
I'm going to try a Scotland meets the Middle East type of bake; orange blossom and rose petal shortbread with a hint of orange zest. We'll see how this goes.
Okay, that was weird. I went to restack the substack on climate that Rebecca linked to, and it told me to sign in. Okay, that part *wasn't* weird, what was weird was that when I looked to the upper right corner of the screen to sign in, substack apparently thought I was Rebecca, because her name and photo were up there. Fortunately, I wasn't actually signed in as her.
I was only asked to log in because I was restacking it. Which is pretty par for the course when I click on a link to someone’s Substack that I’m not subscribed to and try to interact with it.
That barely explains it to me - since I never joined Twitter and was only on Facebook for about two weeks sometime pre-2015 ( it's been so long I can't really remember when ).
Well, it won’t explain it any better, but if you look at the bottom of either a Note or a post (“Stack”) on here, you’ll see a pair of arrows going in a circle. That’s the restack button. Press that, and it’ll create a new Note under your account, with or without comment as you choose, with a link to whatever you were restacking.
I have a long memory, and I haven't forgotten Michael Cohen's shenanigans between 2015 and 2017. He *is* a lying liar who lies, and I will always roll my eyes when news wankers have him on their shows. So Alina Habbas did a decent job of highlighting his lies, which any wet-behind-the-ears newbie attorney should be able to do. I guess watching Perry Mason reruns paid off for her.
Riiiight but he went in cheerfully admitting he was a lying liar in the pay of Donald Trump and his lying lies were the job if you work for trump org. It didn't take perry Mason to get that out of him.
More importantly, he had very good reasons to lie in the past. He was lying to cover for PAB and their crimes. He was protecting Donald. His own reputation, etc.
But now?
He gets nothing from lying. He has no reason to perjure himself because he's not the one on trial. I mean, he's the one who brough the evidence that made this whole trial happen in the first place --after other people corroborated those facts, that is. Trump is ALREADY GUILTY in this trial, so Cohen doesn't need to lie at this point.
Lying won't give him anything, and being caught lying will give him more punishment.
Would *you* spend the night at a haunted house? Survey results here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/if-you-spend-the-night-here-you-win
A few friends and I are doing an overnight at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in March. She's bringing along a doll that spent a week with Annabelle recently, just for funsies.
My best friend lived in what he claimed was a haunted house. One time, on my way down a long hall with a hardwood floor to the bathroom, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and no one was there. I rationalized it like a good Scully and thought I was hearing the reverb or echoes of my own footsteps. There was a basement underneath the floor also too which may have helped amplify the sound.
There was another house I used to visit as a child. My mother and brother got "creepy" feelings from the son's room and he would sometimes wake up screaming with nightmares. I was the only one who would go in that room when we visited. Didn't bother me in the least.
I'm such a killjoy when it comes to the supernatural. I'd be no fun to go to a haunted house with.
Boy, do I love some good ghost stories though!
I have spent the night in a number of supposedly haunted houses. I only had creepy experiences in two. One was a house near the battlefield at the Civil War Battle of Chickamauga the had been used as a field hospital. The front room had bloodstains still visible on the hardwood floors. The other was a mansion in Florida that had been the site of a brutal murder of a woman by her husband. Odd things happened in both that I was never able to explain.
Is you g'on be here when John gets here?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3wi5PjBYQ8
Sure, why not. I don't believe so easy cheasy.
I grew up in one, sooo...
NO. *Emphatically* NO. Fucking no way in Hell no.
The only thing that comes close to my sheer terror of open bodies of water is a fear of the paranormal, specifically ghosts and poltergeists.
I am not a brawny man, and I despise conflict; if I can avoid it I will. However, I can at least ATTEMPT to physically defend myself against another person. But a ghost? A fucking GHOST? What the fuck am I gonna do to that? I am not a D&D Monk (I'm a Rogue/Bard, probably), I don't own any unlicensed nuclear accelerators I can strap on my back, and I am confined by the laws of physics for corporeal beings so my escape routes are probably limited and insufficient at best.
Only if Vincent Price is the host.
https://youtu.be/Bsa9ymSDoJ0?si=zD7IxY8wV521amxW
What about Vincent Twice, Vincent Twice?
Old Sesame Street reference.
I'd take Karloff in a pinch as well
Mr Cakes was talking to someone at his work who had just purchased a derelict house thar hasn't been lived in for about 100 years. Him and his wife are planning to renovate it themselves before living there. Apparantly their completion date on the purchase is Halloween.
Mr Cakes told him "Do NOT read from any suspiciously old books, and do NOT open any locked rooms for which you do not have a key!"
Mr Cakes is a wise man.
Haunted by what? It all depends! If it's the ghost of Dean Martin, I'll even bring the drinks.
I wouldn't mind staying in a haunted brothel.....
I'd be worried the noises would keep me up at night.
I already spend every night in a haunted house. They stay in their lane, I stay in mine, it works.
The problem is too few haints, makes them stand out from the static of zillions of them, like how schizophrenia is too few voices in ones head (my theory which is mine).
Well, as the song says, ain’t no haint gonna run me off
Was that clip done with Blender?
Mix of a iPad vector drawing program that I use (Linearity Curve) and Resolve. I could have used Blender instead, but I like using my Apple Pencil over my mouse for drawing more complex designs.
Fooled me. It looks like a background from Jay Ward Productions (rip), the source of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Hoppity Hooper, Super Chicken and George of the Jungle.
None of those designations are euphemistic? Just checking.
There’s a program called Procreate that I sometimes use…
Is there pizza? With anchovies? Yeah, no problem, I dismiss the supernatural.
as for movies in that genre, I have to go with Web of the Spider (1971) with Anthony Franciosa and Klaus Kinski as Edgar Allan Poe
MONSTER!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63yyMxlBhZs
https://youtu.be/QPSbH3x1Ox8
Slayer? I hardly know her.
Sure, as long as the basement has a pit filled with acid.
In reality, who the heck does that?
Just one? Pfft!
Each acid should really have its own pits. Careful with pit materials for the hydrofluoric acid pit.
I see you've designed sloughs of unimaginable despair before...
Nah! Just watched Breaking Bad.
Ha! I'm still laughing over that scene!
Steve, is that you?
True story: I once suggested to a columnist friend that we spend a night in an allegedly demonically-possessed house and write about it for our papers, if we lived, but it was too late. He said the house had been exorcised by the Church. Dammit.
This house here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon_of_Brownsville_Road
My S. O. went to a hotel in Manassas and paid money to stay overnight in the room with an alleged ghost sighting (after arguing with the front desk that YES, he DOES want to spend the night in that room) and was sorely disappointed as there were no ghost visits that night.
It wasn't room 1408 was it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIASqPZqnhs
That was a pretty good scary movie - and, of course, it was adapted from a Stephen King story.
TIL that there are three or maybe four different endings for it -- the theatrical one where Cusak’s character lives, the director’s cut (and original) where he dies, and a variant of possibly both of those.
I'm pretty sure that the one I saw was NOT the theatrical release - but to tell the truth, I don't remember whether Cusak lived or died
I've never understood why any ghost would care what any church representative said or did in their vicinity. It suggests having power over the dead but not departed.
I think you make a good point--if I were a ghost, after a life of not being religious, do I all of a sudden have to "obey" religious beliefs I never cared about in life? Because that seems stupid, but is also what movies imply.
Maybe this is a movie idea--like My Dinner with Andre but with ghosts discussing stuff like whether or not religious beliefs apply to them.
"The power of Christ compels you!"
"The FUCK you say."
Haunted waxworks or GTFO.
I’m gonna vote for Sheila. The other front runner is scaring people about crime and his plan to have state troopers patrolling in Houston - which they tried in Dallas and Austin and got no crime reductions, but lots of harassment of people of color. No thanks.
People here are more upset by her being a horrible boss than by a governor putting up razor wire to drown kids in the Rio Grande. It’s gross.
That climate article - whoooof. I used to worry that my potential grandkids would face the Collapse of Civilization due to climate change and my kids are none of them likely to reproduce so yay? but then, damn, it's probably going to happen in my kids' lifetimes which makes me sad and, sucks for them! Now it's not looking like I'm gonna get out of here myself ahead of the shit-rain to come and sucks for MEEEE (and you. And you. Probably not you, you're 80 already.) Here's the linky https://hartmannreport.com/p/america-mysteriously-hit-a-deadly-061?utm_source=substack&publication_id=302288&post_id=138261757
In the Ian Milhiser linkie, he says
In fairness, Bruen does acknowledge that cases involving “dramatic technological changes may require a more nuanced approach,” and it does include language indicating that, say, machine gun bans remain viable, even though machine guns were not invented until 1884. Bruen says that “the Second Amendment protects the possession and use of weapons that are ‘in common use at the time.’” So machine guns will remain illegal so long as they remain uncommon.
And that gets at my favorite sophomoric argument against 2a freaks: "Arms" is undefined in the 2a. Someone needs to define "arms" and that someone is the federal government (and a hearty "fuck off" to states rights freaks. We know what you really mean.) The federal government has said "machine guns aren't included in the 2a" and only the freakiest of gun freaks disagrees. Nobody even brings up artillery and missiles and bombs and nuclear weapons because, duh, obvs. Except, I think I remember reading how, in the runup to the Civil War, rich guys would buy a cannon for the local gang and become colonel. I believe (not a historian) that it was completely legal for someone to own cannons, as long as they made them available when the local gang formed up into "military". Prove to me that the framers did not intend for citizens to own cannon and I'll give up my howitzer, but not until then. (I do not own a howitzer).
There are only 2 logical conclusions: Free ALL the arms! or Duh, the federal government has an unquestioned right to limit arms, we're just arguing over the price.
The House of Representatives has been haunted for some time now. Let's hope the exorcism of 2024 takes hold with votes (no priests and holy water).
Any word yet on what flavor and dosage the poison pills in the Aid to Israel and Ukraine bills will contain?
Why would the GOP not do that? Add some unacceptable amendments, have the Senate reject them, point out how Dems hate Ukraine and Israel, adjourn to go to church and pray for mass shooting victims in Maine.
You really know our politics way too well.
A recent depressive episode leads me to conclude that I’m just NOT GOING TO READ NEWS AND ESPECIALLY COMMENTS ABOUT ISRAEL/GAZA ANYMORE. It is possible to be pro-Israeli security without cheerleading for genocide, but many commentators here and elsewhere don’t seem to recognize that. Good day.
When the shit first hit I was stunned at the magnitude of the damage. Then I was stunned at the hostages. Then the murders of the hostages. And then...well...the babies and the children...and...and... I was past the point of being stunned.
And then the Editrix brought down the banhammer.
But I had been REALLY noncommenting about it before she did so. Because I was stunned.
I continue to be stunned by every aspect of this situation, from Hamas's despicable behavior to Bibi's continued authoritarianism to random Americans' awful bigotry in both directions. I know it's a very privileged stance to say "I'm not taking sides", but what can I say? I'm very fortunate to have no stake in this fight. I can feel sympathetic and empathetic toward all the innocent people in that region and righteously indignant toward all the awful people in that region. And hopefully that stance is acceptable to our Editrix, because I really like it here.
About that house of bones thing: Museums around the world have lots of skeletons; it amazes me how cavalier they are about it. I watched a documentary about the Black Death once and the film crew were allowed into the museum's archives to see their collection of plague skeletons -- there was industrial shelving like in a warehouse covered with box after box, and a skeleton was in each one. They had got them when a subway line was put in somewhere near or in London (don't remember where exactly) and uncovered a mass burial of what turned out to be plague victims. So all the bodies were carted off to the museum. I thought back when those bodies were buried, none of their survivors could have ever imagined their loved ones would end up in a box on a museum shelf. It makes me wonder how many people today will someday end up likewise. I once surprised, and I think maybe horrified, someone when I told them, mostly in jest, that I perhaps someday I would end up spending eternity in a box on a shelf in a museum basement. For some reason, that idea more amuses me than horrifies me. It's one thing when you think of those skeletons as archeological artifacts but another when you remember they were real people who walked around and loved and had feelings and thoughts and everything. Does seem rather disrespectful. On the other hand they do learn things about how people in the past lived from their studies on such skeletons, so I don't know. It is a weird idea to think one might end up like those plague victims someday, though.
Well Rebecca, your not-raised-right butt can come sit next to mine, because the Sheila Jackson Lee tape was amazing.
Are we sure Sheila Jackson Lee isn't related to Samuel L. Jackson?
OT movies, watched a little over half of Graveyard Shift on ride to work. Yeah, it's awful. Still don't hate it as much as Sleepwalkers.
Next week on Bake-Off is "Botanicals Week". I was trying to puzzle out what the hell I'm going to bake for the Bake-Off viewing snacks that ties in with this theme and I think I've finally settled on something.
I'm going to try a Scotland meets the Middle East type of bake; orange blossom and rose petal shortbread with a hint of orange zest. We'll see how this goes.
NOW. DO IT NOW. RIGHT NOW.
Okay, that was weird. I went to restack the substack on climate that Rebecca linked to, and it told me to sign in. Okay, that part *wasn't* weird, what was weird was that when I looked to the upper right corner of the screen to sign in, substack apparently thought I was Rebecca, because her name and photo were up there. Fortunately, I wasn't actually signed in as her.
you ARE coming to murder me. I KNEW IT.
Curses! I’ve been discovered! (vanishes in a puff of smoke)
Did you take her $4 million wealth whilst you were there?
Missed opportunity! Well, except that her bank account *probably* isn’t linked to her Substack ID. It could be, I suppose...
Now that you bring it up I've never seen both of you in the same room at the same time....
I was only asked to log in because I was restacking it. Which is pretty par for the course when I click on a link to someone’s Substack that I’m not subscribed to and try to interact with it.
Please enlighten me - what is "restacking"? I really haven't bothered to learn much about our new home.
It’s the equivalent of retweeting on The Site Formerly Known as Twitter. Or “sharing” on Facebook.
That barely explains it to me - since I never joined Twitter and was only on Facebook for about two weeks sometime pre-2015 ( it's been so long I can't really remember when ).
But I do think I get what you mean.
Well, it won’t explain it any better, but if you look at the bottom of either a Note or a post (“Stack”) on here, you’ll see a pair of arrows going in a circle. That’s the restack button. Press that, and it’ll create a new Note under your account, with or without comment as you choose, with a link to whatever you were restacking.
Life sure is cheap these days.
Right?
I have a long memory, and I haven't forgotten Michael Cohen's shenanigans between 2015 and 2017. He *is* a lying liar who lies, and I will always roll my eyes when news wankers have him on their shows. So Alina Habbas did a decent job of highlighting his lies, which any wet-behind-the-ears newbie attorney should be able to do. I guess watching Perry Mason reruns paid off for her.
he makes me laugh.
Riiiight but he went in cheerfully admitting he was a lying liar in the pay of Donald Trump and his lying lies were the job if you work for trump org. It didn't take perry Mason to get that out of him.
More importantly, he had very good reasons to lie in the past. He was lying to cover for PAB and their crimes. He was protecting Donald. His own reputation, etc.
But now?
He gets nothing from lying. He has no reason to perjure himself because he's not the one on trial. I mean, he's the one who brough the evidence that made this whole trial happen in the first place --after other people corroborated those facts, that is. Trump is ALREADY GUILTY in this trial, so Cohen doesn't need to lie at this point.
Lying won't give him anything, and being caught lying will give him more punishment.
Speaking of houses...
https://open.substack.com/pub/tek01/p/they-should-seriously-consider-velcro?r=2lkddo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Keith
𝐼𝑆 𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸 𝐴𝐿𝑅𝐸𝐴𝐷𝑌 𝑅𝑈𝑁𝑁𝐼𝑁𝐺 𝑂𝑈𝑇 𝐹𝑂𝑅 𝑆𝑃𝐸𝐴𝐾𝐸𝑅 𝐽𝑂𝐻𝑁𝑆𝑂𝑁?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q2RgT3Yihw
." Johnson is a staunch foe of abortion, LGBTQ rights, and democratic elections. "
From the BoingBoing article. That, there, is some world class shade.