That clip makes me want to go sledding so bad. Sledding became my overnight favorite activity one evening when we'd had one of the rare storms that left ample snow for sledding down the perfect sledding hill. a curving road that ran down through snowy woods. That evening I, a shy 9-year-old, was invited by my total crush, 11-year-old Ilana Glaubitz, to ride on her back down the sledding hill. I held on tight as we zipped down the hill under the streetlight, then swooshed around the curve and disappeared together into the darkness. Nothing before or since has given me such a feeling of pure bliss.
Today a freeway runs through the site where that little road once existed.
But my gratitude to Ilana, wherever she may be, lives on FOREVER.
Okay, I may have grown up in SC, but I DO remember the Blizzard of `77 AND `78 when my family lived in the Buffalo area. I can see GROUND under some of those sledders, and maybe a foot or two of snow elsewhere. Some of US had to goddamn TUNNEL out of our houses and yards in 1977.
"Epic" storm. I thought the Brits were supposed to be stoic or some shit. 🙄
I remember that storm.... four feet of snow to shovel off of the driveway so dad could get his car out, snow up to the top of the mailbox..... and as we hefted the last scoop off of the driveway, the snow plow came by and dumped six MORE feet on the end... UGH.
I owe the existence of one of my goddaughters to her soon-to-be parents being trapped in a car for 12 hours during a blizzard in France. They’d known one another all of three weeks.
I know, right?! I think it’s the combination of the dress norms of the era, but also because a lot of snow in a place that otherwise doesn’t get much, so the populace didn’t have appropriate garb.
Winter wonderlands are great, so long as you have a warm home to return to. When we were little we would go in from playing in the snow and be seated facing the old fashioned wood stove. It had chrome bumpers to put our sock covered feet on while we sipped hot chocolate. I can still smell the chocolate mingling with the smell of drying wool.
Yep. And we would also come trudging in from ice-skating on neighbour's pond with feet so cold we couldn't feel them, insisting we were fine. :) Mamma was not amused. lol walking on numb feet is not recommended, btw.
Right ?! And I hate cold with a passion, but somehow when engaged in skating, sledding, et al, I could ignore it past the point of sanity, at least when I was kids. :)
KINGWOOD — Parts of Preston County have seen 114.9 inches of snow this winter up until Feb. 23, according to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh. The measurement comes from an area approximately five miles northeast of Terra Alta.
In nearby Maryland, we finally got a dusting one night last week. On the other hand, the wind has been fierce for weeks- when it finally dropped early this morning it woke me up before dawn, because all the quilts I had piled on the bed were no longer needed to just barely keep out the cold.
With people getting depressed over the holidays, or during winter in general, and with a lot of heavy politics about to descend upon us in 2024, would a Wonkette hub for funny, silly, mind refreshing, positive stuff be a good idea?
Am I the only person getting tired of Jen Psaki's routine advertising that she's worked for x number of Presidents or y number of Chiefs of Staff? Does she want her current job to take her back? Or is she petitioning to be plausible?
The biggest snowstorm I can remember in Oregon fell in the early 70s. About 3.5 feet where we were. My folks had two Shetland Sheepdogs (Shelties), who had long, fine hair. They’re about knee-high: an adult female and an adolescent male.
So we dig a path so the dogs could do their business, and the female would gingerly use it as intended. This involved walking a few feet, stopping, holding up a cold foot, and looking back at us like “How could you do this to me?” Walk three feet, repeat.
Meanwhile, the younger dog is going completely bonkershitski. Burrowing into the snow and climbing to the top where a hard crust had formed, and then running and sliding around on the surface, sometimes with his nose down to create a snowplow effect, where the snow would fly over his head.
Ergo, when it was time for them to come in, we’d wipe the female’s feet (also prompting the “you’re killing me look”), and she was good. Our young lad, however, had snow all over him, especially where his long hair matted with snow, and he came in with snowballs hanging off his tail, underside, and face. If was very festive, but not great on the couch.
We had to use a hair dryer to melt them off him, a three-person job, and the entire time he had this “my dog, this is so embarrassing” look, occasionally mixed with the “why are you torturing me” expression.
You get used to it once you grasp that Shelties are fabulous actors.
That's a lovely story. When dogs first see snow I think all of them run like maniacs, then plow it. And also, German Shepards, in my experience, though so stalwart and truly having all those traits of fearlessness and stamina we know they have, squeal and whimper like new born babies when you even lift their pads to see if there's snow stuck in them.
Okay, TL,DR, but I'm going to put it here anyway. Finally went back to bed after getting up wide awake at 5, and did I have a hell of a stress dream!
My house was full of people. A party. The kid was a tweenager, and he and his friends had been there first, so the place was a mess, empty pizza boxes and party debris everywhere. But he's a tweenager, so of course he is hungry again, and I offer to make him a frozen pizza. Which I then try to go find. There are four different freezers to check (there's not, really) and it's hard to get to any of them because so many people and so much debris.
At one point, I can no longer stand the mess, and start piling up old pizza boxes and food on the kitchen counter. I go upstairs to a freezer there, still can't find a pizza, but I find my mom, enjoying the party. Go back to the kitchen and the food and boxes on the counter are diminished and actually moving around. "We have a poltergeist!" I realize, horrified. (Like the pizza scene in that movie.) On the other side of the counter is the boss who first got me a job with the state DOT 30+ years ago. He says it is not a poltergeist, just him. He's been eating that food. But I do not believe it, it can't be him.
Then my most recent boss - who I adore - comes out of the crowd to ask if I ordered the transit vehicle out front. Here to take someone back to assisted living. "That must be for my mom," I think, grateful she has a ride. Still looking for - and not finding - a frozen pizza, I see that my mom is being led to the bus, so I go out to say goodbye. But it is not a bus, it is a sleigh. And she is sitting there in such a place that I have to get on it to speak to her. And while I'm on it, the driver - a disgruntled young woman - starts the thing moving! Fine, I will just ride with my mom, and then she can bring me home again. We are driving not on roads, but through people's back yards. I have a yellow umbrella up, and it is getting caught on trees and such. Then we're sledding through a hardware store, and my umbrella is getting caught on stuff and knocking down tools and things and the bus driver is pissed at me. So I am trying desperately to corral this umbrella without much luck. Suddenly, my mom stands up and says "I don't want to go!" I'm a bit panicked, and tell her she cannot stand while the bus is moving, she must sit down. Her reasoning is that I bought her a movie for Christmas and she wants to watch it with me, because she does not have a VCR at her place. Fair enough, I think, we'll go back.
At which point I wake up. Thankfully. The party, sleigh, and Christmas gift make it an obvious holiday stress dream, with the nice edition of work stress reminders, and kid guilt. Not sure about the yellow umbrella, I'm going to have to look that one up. My first thought on waking is "fuck the cookie-baking, you've done enough." Not actually true, but a bit freeing, anyway. Next thought was that I hope my kids are not as work-stressed as I was at their age. They probably are. (Jubal Early voice from Firefly) Does that seem right to you?
I dreamed I couldn't get to LAX and had to download Uber, which then made me print it out (UBER) because Ryan Reynolds wanted his privacy in Mar Vista.
Amazon is having an internal contest to help out random workers who don't make enough to have a good christmas.
Meanwhile, profits are $9.9B and Bezos is worth about $175 B. Just with the profits and a little rounding error, he could give all the workers a $10/hour raise, for a total cost of about $25 B or so (maths on total global employees). In reality, not everyone needs that much of a raise probably, just some chunk of the low end pay scales.
How that man can sit on that much wealth knowing he relies on people who can't pay their bills or lead stress free lives is beyond my understanding.
My only conclusion is he's a simple kind of evil person. Nothing else connects the dots.
Our abusive, cruel eCONomic and political systems self-select narcissistic sociopaths as having the skills to succeed, which is why everyone at the very top is so truly fucking awful.
Footage of the British Christmas blizzard of 1927. An epic storm.
https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/the-british-christmas-blizzard-of
That clip makes me want to go sledding so bad. Sledding became my overnight favorite activity one evening when we'd had one of the rare storms that left ample snow for sledding down the perfect sledding hill. a curving road that ran down through snowy woods. That evening I, a shy 9-year-old, was invited by my total crush, 11-year-old Ilana Glaubitz, to ride on her back down the sledding hill. I held on tight as we zipped down the hill under the streetlight, then swooshed around the curve and disappeared together into the darkness. Nothing before or since has given me such a feeling of pure bliss.
Today a freeway runs through the site where that little road once existed.
But my gratitude to Ilana, wherever she may be, lives on FOREVER.
Was Cantore there?
Slightly before his time, I think. But I do remember him being in London at one point.
Snow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G47k6qSKgPw&pp=ygUec25vdyBzbm93IHNub3cgd2hpdGUgY2hyaXN0bWFz
It's George Clooney's aunt! And some other people.
His stories about traveling with her are hilarious!
Love that movie. 😀
Okay, I may have grown up in SC, but I DO remember the Blizzard of `77 AND `78 when my family lived in the Buffalo area. I can see GROUND under some of those sledders, and maybe a foot or two of snow elsewhere. Some of US had to goddamn TUNNEL out of our houses and yards in 1977.
"Epic" storm. I thought the Brits were supposed to be stoic or some shit. 🙄
Those storms drove me out of California because of the Western migration of disaffected NY'ers and Minnesotans...ruined my locals beach town!
Oh yes. I remember that storm-but in Chicago. It piled up so much that we took turns jumping off the roof into the snow.
They are "stoic and shit".
How else can we 'splain the devotion to a certain royal family?
I remember that storm.... four feet of snow to shovel off of the driveway so dad could get his car out, snow up to the top of the mailbox..... and as we hefted the last scoop off of the driveway, the snow plow came by and dumped six MORE feet on the end... UGH.
Connecticut.
In London it was not too deep. In the south, yes, people had to climb out windows. There are more details in my write-up.
I have a naughty story about one of those blizzards here in VA.
I owe the existence of one of my goddaughters to her soon-to-be parents being trapped in a car for 12 hours during a blizzard in France. They’d known one another all of three weeks.
Well, Virginia IS for lovers, so I'm told. 😉
at first I thought these were clips from Chaplin's "The Gold Rush", but then I noticed the ladies.
I fInd the number of men sledding in coats, ties and fedora hats to be kind of quaint.
Down-filled ski parkas weren't yet a thing.
Yes, those aren’t kids, they’re grown-ass adults playing in the snow!
I know, right?! I think it’s the combination of the dress norms of the era, but also because a lot of snow in a place that otherwise doesn’t get much, so the populace didn’t have appropriate garb.
Winter wonderlands are great, so long as you have a warm home to return to. When we were little we would go in from playing in the snow and be seated facing the old fashioned wood stove. It had chrome bumpers to put our sock covered feet on while we sipped hot chocolate. I can still smell the chocolate mingling with the smell of drying wool.
That’s my childhood too (the hot chocolate, not the stove). We would also get into that state from helping with the shoveling.
To this day I can’t enjoy a hot cocoa on a snowy day till I’ve earned it by shoveling, playing (snow sculpture) or both.
Yep. And we would also come trudging in from ice-skating on neighbour's pond with feet so cold we couldn't feel them, insisting we were fine. :) Mamma was not amused. lol walking on numb feet is not recommended, btw.
"I'm not cold!'
Right ?! And I hate cold with a passion, but somehow when engaged in skating, sledding, et al, I could ignore it past the point of sanity, at least when I was kids. :)
Thank you for that. You spurred good fireside memories of my childhood with this post. 🙂
Ah, that makes me smile! Cheers to you and I and our good times!
For sure. 😁
Aw, sweet memory! 🧦
That's not epic snow. From 2021:
KINGWOOD — Parts of Preston County have seen 114.9 inches of snow this winter up until Feb. 23, according to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh. The measurement comes from an area approximately five miles northeast of Terra Alta.
https://www.wvnews.com/prestoncountynews/news/preston-county-doh-has-used-nearly-half-of-winter-budget/article_9e9401b9-8cd3-5e2d-b4bd-8226d08af793.html
It's when you get it all at once that it really impresses. https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2023/03/1336/752/See-the-massive-snowpack-at-Skyline-Bear-Valley-resort-in-California.jpg?ve=1&tl=1
In nearby Maryland, we finally got a dusting one night last week. On the other hand, the wind has been fierce for weeks- when it finally dropped early this morning it woke me up before dawn, because all the quilts I had piled on the bed were no longer needed to just barely keep out the cold.
Wow, epic.
It was a mild one afa Terra Alta winters go, or used to. Think they got 200 inches one year.
Preston County is in West Virginia. Terra Alta is where, California?
Terra Alta is, indeed, in Preston County, West Virginia.
Thank you for your reply- Preston County is not a part of W.VA. that I know.
With people getting depressed over the holidays, or during winter in general, and with a lot of heavy politics about to descend upon us in 2024, would a Wonkette hub for funny, silly, mind refreshing, positive stuff be a good idea?
Am I the only person getting tired of Jen Psaki's routine advertising that she's worked for x number of Presidents or y number of Chiefs of Staff? Does she want her current job to take her back? Or is she petitioning to be plausible?
I love Trading Places, but Dan Akroyd's Rasta blackface is pretty rough.
I do not see the four years thing anywhere?
I do not see the four years thing anywhere?
The biggest snowstorm I can remember in Oregon fell in the early 70s. About 3.5 feet where we were. My folks had two Shetland Sheepdogs (Shelties), who had long, fine hair. They’re about knee-high: an adult female and an adolescent male.
So we dig a path so the dogs could do their business, and the female would gingerly use it as intended. This involved walking a few feet, stopping, holding up a cold foot, and looking back at us like “How could you do this to me?” Walk three feet, repeat.
Meanwhile, the younger dog is going completely bonkershitski. Burrowing into the snow and climbing to the top where a hard crust had formed, and then running and sliding around on the surface, sometimes with his nose down to create a snowplow effect, where the snow would fly over his head.
Ergo, when it was time for them to come in, we’d wipe the female’s feet (also prompting the “you’re killing me look”), and she was good. Our young lad, however, had snow all over him, especially where his long hair matted with snow, and he came in with snowballs hanging off his tail, underside, and face. If was very festive, but not great on the couch.
We had to use a hair dryer to melt them off him, a three-person job, and the entire time he had this “my dog, this is so embarrassing” look, occasionally mixed with the “why are you torturing me” expression.
You get used to it once you grasp that Shelties are fabulous actors.
That's a lovely story. When dogs first see snow I think all of them run like maniacs, then plow it. And also, German Shepards, in my experience, though so stalwart and truly having all those traits of fearlessness and stamina we know they have, squeal and whimper like new born babies when you even lift their pads to see if there's snow stuck in them.
Naval Federal Credit Union, mixing racism with bad business practices.
Surprise! We are doing a Christmas Day movie. Die Hard of course! 4pm PT/7pm ET. Spread the word!
https://open.substack.com/pub/ziggywiggy/p/wonkette-movie-night-dec-25th-special?r=2knfuc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Dear Editrix, Please email my Bloody Mary to me...Thank you!
From the FCC vs Musk column and how he has embraced and been embraced by the “… the growing right wing propaganda echoplex.”
Nailed it.
Yeah that "conversation" with the whales seemed pretty sketchy. Of course I am not fluent in whale.
Okay, TL,DR, but I'm going to put it here anyway. Finally went back to bed after getting up wide awake at 5, and did I have a hell of a stress dream!
My house was full of people. A party. The kid was a tweenager, and he and his friends had been there first, so the place was a mess, empty pizza boxes and party debris everywhere. But he's a tweenager, so of course he is hungry again, and I offer to make him a frozen pizza. Which I then try to go find. There are four different freezers to check (there's not, really) and it's hard to get to any of them because so many people and so much debris.
At one point, I can no longer stand the mess, and start piling up old pizza boxes and food on the kitchen counter. I go upstairs to a freezer there, still can't find a pizza, but I find my mom, enjoying the party. Go back to the kitchen and the food and boxes on the counter are diminished and actually moving around. "We have a poltergeist!" I realize, horrified. (Like the pizza scene in that movie.) On the other side of the counter is the boss who first got me a job with the state DOT 30+ years ago. He says it is not a poltergeist, just him. He's been eating that food. But I do not believe it, it can't be him.
Then my most recent boss - who I adore - comes out of the crowd to ask if I ordered the transit vehicle out front. Here to take someone back to assisted living. "That must be for my mom," I think, grateful she has a ride. Still looking for - and not finding - a frozen pizza, I see that my mom is being led to the bus, so I go out to say goodbye. But it is not a bus, it is a sleigh. And she is sitting there in such a place that I have to get on it to speak to her. And while I'm on it, the driver - a disgruntled young woman - starts the thing moving! Fine, I will just ride with my mom, and then she can bring me home again. We are driving not on roads, but through people's back yards. I have a yellow umbrella up, and it is getting caught on trees and such. Then we're sledding through a hardware store, and my umbrella is getting caught on stuff and knocking down tools and things and the bus driver is pissed at me. So I am trying desperately to corral this umbrella without much luck. Suddenly, my mom stands up and says "I don't want to go!" I'm a bit panicked, and tell her she cannot stand while the bus is moving, she must sit down. Her reasoning is that I bought her a movie for Christmas and she wants to watch it with me, because she does not have a VCR at her place. Fair enough, I think, we'll go back.
At which point I wake up. Thankfully. The party, sleigh, and Christmas gift make it an obvious holiday stress dream, with the nice edition of work stress reminders, and kid guilt. Not sure about the yellow umbrella, I'm going to have to look that one up. My first thought on waking is "fuck the cookie-baking, you've done enough." Not actually true, but a bit freeing, anyway. Next thought was that I hope my kids are not as work-stressed as I was at their age. They probably are. (Jubal Early voice from Firefly) Does that seem right to you?
Thank you for listening.
I dreamed I couldn't get to LAX and had to download Uber, which then made me print it out (UBER) because Ryan Reynolds wanted his privacy in Mar Vista.
LOL.
Ryan Reynolds wanted his privacy in Mar Vista because he is Shy.
LOL :D
Whoa. I feel like the FBI agent working for the Russian oligarch should be bigger news. Four years in prison seems too few.
Today's Tom Tomorrow!
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/18/2212232/-Christmas-wishes?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_3&pm_medium=web
Elon musk go to Mars and stay there, yes please. Ensure he brings Schlump (trump) with him.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/18/amazon-workers-holiday-wishes-peccy
Amazon is having an internal contest to help out random workers who don't make enough to have a good christmas.
Meanwhile, profits are $9.9B and Bezos is worth about $175 B. Just with the profits and a little rounding error, he could give all the workers a $10/hour raise, for a total cost of about $25 B or so (maths on total global employees). In reality, not everyone needs that much of a raise probably, just some chunk of the low end pay scales.
How that man can sit on that much wealth knowing he relies on people who can't pay their bills or lead stress free lives is beyond my understanding.
My only conclusion is he's a simple kind of evil person. Nothing else connects the dots.
Our abusive, cruel eCONomic and political systems self-select narcissistic sociopaths as having the skills to succeed, which is why everyone at the very top is so truly fucking awful.
That's what I hold to be 100% true. Good people seldom make it, it's beat or be beat!