My Aunt and Uncle lived in Roslyn, WA where Northern Exposure was filmed (I actually got to see a fight between Joel and Maggie being filmed outside on the sidewalk one time when visiting, which was interesting when I caught the scene later when the episode aired). One of my Aunt's repeated stories was about the day they let the moose in the opening credits wander all over town so they could get footage of it. I don't know that she ever watched the show, but she sure remembered that moose.
We also had lunch at the Roslyn Cafe a few times (also in the credits, and some of the episodes) which was pretty damn good, kind of mix between hippie and redneck.
I scared a teen moose on my honeymoon, deep in the Maine woods near the very end of the Appalachian Trail. What a big BABY. He galloped away clumsily, from our lakeside cabin, and tried to hide behind a little barn at the edge of the woods, and then peeked his big, silly head out to see if I was gone. Apparently. And then got scared afresh and jumped into the forest where he belonged. They are very silly animals and FUCKING ENORMOUS. Just saying. Also: we got married on the 4th of July; Mom suggested it. Two seasons in Maine: Winter, and the 4th of July. And every year you get a free anniversary party. It was extremely charming and I wish the actual married part turned out as nicely, but whatever.
I am always amazed at moose - those huge bodies, and what look like very spindly legs. Amazing animals. In Rockwood, Maine, there's a life-sized statue of a moose with wings. It's what I thought of, watching that young one play in the water.
With all this talk about birthright citizenship, I got the idea to look into some old family records. I never gave it a thought before so imagine my surprise to learn that my grandparents weren’t citizens at the time when my dad was born. She came here in 1905 at the age of 5 and he arrived in 1911 when he was 16. He served in WWI with the US Army 53rd Pioneers at the battle of the Meuse and was wounded in the Ardennes. She died in 1924 when my dad was 2 so she never had a chance to be naturalized. He didn’t get around to applying for citizenship until 1938.
All this info resulted in a brief fantasy of being deported “back” to Italy and spending my dotage on the Amalfi Coast. But then I remembered that my mother’s side has been here since before the Revolution so now I have no idea where I would stand with this new world order.
Remember waaaaay back when the time one of the Carolinas get nicked for racial redistricting 'cause all the emails talking racist redistricting meant they really were racially redistricting and ot just rethug redistricting, and the quisling six laid out a plan for them to JUST NOT SAY THE N WORD when you make your plans and all good? Keggers' opinion tries to do that for anti birthers ummm... anti birth right .... OK, not that either ... anti 14th Amendmenteers. Just get rid of that pesky law saying the 14th amendment says what is says and then the Q crew can say it doesn't say what it says, see?
That Mark Twain piece is great. I am completely blanking on the name of the Black football journalist who wrote a draft film script of Huck Finn as viewed from Jim's perspective (long before Percival Everett's novel), but I have read excerpts from it, and in that scene where Huck pulls a prank on Jim, he has Jim fully aware of what Huck's doing and playing along in a way that turns the tables on who's pranking whom.
Gawd, these assholes love to make dubious assertions that they think they can take credit for. Fucking Kegsbreath has the nerve to assert that the deployment of National Guard troops in DC has led to lowered crime. Of course, there is no evidence of this happening.
"The presence of more than 2,000 National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., since Aug. 2025 has had “no measurable effect on violent crime,” according to a new report by the Niskanen Center.
The researchers described the deployment as “an expensive tool” used in “the wrong places for the wrong types of crime.” They cited the $607 average daily cost per Guard member in the nation’s capital, compared with $384 in pay for Metropolitan Police Department officers...."
A nuanced analysis. The Niskanen Center is "nominally" a libertarian think-tank, but they're rated ( by the Media Bias/Fact Check site as pretty centrist, altho' a bit on the left of center. They have been deemed to have "High" credibitilty when it comes to fact reporting.
Thank you for the Keli Dailey piece on Mark Twain, it was a cathartic read.
I grew up in rural Minnesota and didn’t have any minorities as classmates until the 9th grade!
But even I remember reading both To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn and understanding that the South doesn’t look rosy through either lens, and that the humanity and dignity of the black people in the books was the point.
The real danger of Twain is questioning our biases & assumptions.
But in the same way some people don’t “get the point” of narratives from The Lord of the Rings to Starship Troopers, there are always going to be people who can’t identify satire, and instead think the tongue in cheek mockery is celebration.
In reaction (partially) to Starhip Troopers, the SF author Norman Spinrad did a book called *The Iron Dream*, a really really bad action potboiler "written" by an alternate world Hitler, who went into SF writing in the 1930s instead of politics. Full of severely over the top descriptions of fascist-type "heroics", and an in-universe afterword discussing the insanity of the story and how nobody could possibly take such tripe seriously. AND THE CHUDS STILL GODDAMN MISSED THE POINT.
The Twain article was wonderful. I read Huckleberry Finn at various points in my life (and a large portion of his output. I think it was a private project of my 20s). The moment when Huck says “I will go to hell” is such an important point in the book. That is the moment when you realize that Jim, thru his humanity and ability to keep love in his heart and give love to Huck, has healed a huge wound in Huck’s heart. I knew someone like Jim when I was a small child (it was a woman) and bc of her humanity and love I survived neglect and cruelty.
I'm thinking about hanging our flag out upside down this year. Mr. cc even said he was okay with that. And I live in a liberal bubble, although I do have new neighbors across the street and I don't know their politics yet.
More Trump ego inflating - New Social Security cards will have the logo of his "Freedom 250" for-profit replacing the Congressional created "America 250" group.
I sure hope that there won't be some kind of "royalty" payments required - but I wouldn't put it past the crook and his henchmen.
"Perhaps you too have been wondering on what grounds Trump has requested E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers let him delay paying her judgment after the Supreme Court declined to rescue him from it."
He made $1.4 billion since inauguration just from his crypto shenanigans. He can certainly afford to PAY THE FUCK UP.
"f you’re worried about the quote of her questioning the purported antisemitism of a person who attacked a pro-Israel vigil, it really wasn’t a bad quote, honest." It really was, honest.
Moose calf making his own fun: https://martiniambassador.substack.com/p/splish-splash-moose-calf
And your meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/20febd05-1ece-4da7-a609-a912aa4fd84c
Wishing you a good 4th. It belongs to us, the people.
I like the calf's feet, the mooseltoes.
Today I learned mooses can get the zoomies.
Joy.
Mookse zoomies! So many young animals doing them!
This needs the Northern Exposure theme music played at double speed.
My Aunt and Uncle lived in Roslyn, WA where Northern Exposure was filmed (I actually got to see a fight between Joel and Maggie being filmed outside on the sidewalk one time when visiting, which was interesting when I caught the scene later when the episode aired). One of my Aunt's repeated stories was about the day they let the moose in the opening credits wander all over town so they could get footage of it. I don't know that she ever watched the show, but she sure remembered that moose.
We also had lunch at the Roslyn Cafe a few times (also in the credits, and some of the episodes) which was pretty damn good, kind of mix between hippie and redneck.
Moose zoomies!
Moosies!
Baby moose is loose!
Those animals seem designed by committee, built like a gravestone sitting on a card table.
All shits and giggles until one decides to hump your Honda Fit.
There's a reason why "moosey" is a slang term for "large". Mooses are really, really big.
More likely to attack you than a bear. Grumpy lil' bastards, they can be.
Baby mooses are not that small
But even so they get more tall
Towering over one and all
With hearts a large as cannon balls
Long legs!
"Moose Calf" sounds like a town in Alaska.
And why not? There's the town of Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan and Moose Factory in Manitoba.
Babby zoomie moose has his own swimming hole! Look mommy, I can make the splish-splash!!
Baby moose! Baby moose!
I scared a teen moose on my honeymoon, deep in the Maine woods near the very end of the Appalachian Trail. What a big BABY. He galloped away clumsily, from our lakeside cabin, and tried to hide behind a little barn at the edge of the woods, and then peeked his big, silly head out to see if I was gone. Apparently. And then got scared afresh and jumped into the forest where he belonged. They are very silly animals and FUCKING ENORMOUS. Just saying. Also: we got married on the 4th of July; Mom suggested it. Two seasons in Maine: Winter, and the 4th of July. And every year you get a free anniversary party. It was extremely charming and I wish the actual married part turned out as nicely, but whatever.
My birthday is the 4th. I was 4 when I figured out it was not about me.
Congratulations! You are officially much smarter than the Chief Executive of the U.S.A., who believes everything is always all about him.
🙌🏾
We were married on the third, and we always appreciate all the celebration!
God knows there's never a restaurant open, so fireworks are just fine!
I think getting married on the 4th would be a great idea! The fireworks cliche alone would be worth it.
Mooselet!
I am always amazed at moose - those huge bodies, and what look like very spindly legs. Amazing animals. In Rockwood, Maine, there's a life-sized statue of a moose with wings. It's what I thought of, watching that young one play in the water.
So if Rocky and Bullwinkle had a love child .....
We need Neil the Seal.
Sure, but where's the squirrel?
Moose seem like a deer designed by a committee
With all this talk about birthright citizenship, I got the idea to look into some old family records. I never gave it a thought before so imagine my surprise to learn that my grandparents weren’t citizens at the time when my dad was born. She came here in 1905 at the age of 5 and he arrived in 1911 when he was 16. He served in WWI with the US Army 53rd Pioneers at the battle of the Meuse and was wounded in the Ardennes. She died in 1924 when my dad was 2 so she never had a chance to be naturalized. He didn’t get around to applying for citizenship until 1938.
All this info resulted in a brief fantasy of being deported “back” to Italy and spending my dotage on the Amalfi Coast. But then I remembered that my mother’s side has been here since before the Revolution so now I have no idea where I would stand with this new world order.
Remember waaaaay back when the time one of the Carolinas get nicked for racial redistricting 'cause all the emails talking racist redistricting meant they really were racially redistricting and ot just rethug redistricting, and the quisling six laid out a plan for them to JUST NOT SAY THE N WORD when you make your plans and all good? Keggers' opinion tries to do that for anti birthers ummm... anti birth right .... OK, not that either ... anti 14th Amendmenteers. Just get rid of that pesky law saying the 14th amendment says what is says and then the Q crew can say it doesn't say what it says, see?
That Mark Twain piece is great. I am completely blanking on the name of the Black football journalist who wrote a draft film script of Huck Finn as viewed from Jim's perspective (long before Percival Everett's novel), but I have read excerpts from it, and in that scene where Huck pulls a prank on Jim, he has Jim fully aware of what Huck's doing and playing along in a way that turns the tables on who's pranking whom.
What comes before Part B? Part-ay! (I stole this from an episode of Scrubs).
Gawd, these assholes love to make dubious assertions that they think they can take credit for. Fucking Kegsbreath has the nerve to assert that the deployment of National Guard troops in DC has led to lowered crime. Of course, there is no evidence of this happening.
Link: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/06/02/national-guards-dc-deployment-has-had-no-measurable-effect-on-violent-crime-report/
"The presence of more than 2,000 National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., since Aug. 2025 has had “no measurable effect on violent crime,” according to a new report by the Niskanen Center.
The researchers described the deployment as “an expensive tool” used in “the wrong places for the wrong types of crime.” They cited the $607 average daily cost per Guard member in the nation’s capital, compared with $384 in pay for Metropolitan Police Department officers...."
Here's a link to the actual report: https://www.niskanencenter.org/washington-dc-crime-decline-and-its-lessons-for-american-policing/
A nuanced analysis. The Niskanen Center is "nominally" a libertarian think-tank, but they're rated ( by the Media Bias/Fact Check site as pretty centrist, altho' a bit on the left of center. They have been deemed to have "High" credibitilty when it comes to fact reporting.
Thank you for the Keli Dailey piece on Mark Twain, it was a cathartic read.
I grew up in rural Minnesota and didn’t have any minorities as classmates until the 9th grade!
But even I remember reading both To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn and understanding that the South doesn’t look rosy through either lens, and that the humanity and dignity of the black people in the books was the point.
The real danger of Twain is questioning our biases & assumptions.
But in the same way some people don’t “get the point” of narratives from The Lord of the Rings to Starship Troopers, there are always going to be people who can’t identify satire, and instead think the tongue in cheek mockery is celebration.
In reaction (partially) to Starhip Troopers, the SF author Norman Spinrad did a book called *The Iron Dream*, a really really bad action potboiler "written" by an alternate world Hitler, who went into SF writing in the 1930s instead of politics. Full of severely over the top descriptions of fascist-type "heroics", and an in-universe afterword discussing the insanity of the story and how nobody could possibly take such tripe seriously. AND THE CHUDS STILL GODDAMN MISSED THE POINT.
The Twain article was wonderful. I read Huckleberry Finn at various points in my life (and a large portion of his output. I think it was a private project of my 20s). The moment when Huck says “I will go to hell” is such an important point in the book. That is the moment when you realize that Jim, thru his humanity and ability to keep love in his heart and give love to Huck, has healed a huge wound in Huck’s heart. I knew someone like Jim when I was a small child (it was a woman) and bc of her humanity and love I survived neglect and cruelty.
"Robyn’s BEEN explaining how they’re trying to increase teen pregnancy"
They want teen girls to be baby factories so badly that they'll murder them if they try to abort.
I'm thinking about hanging our flag out upside down this year. Mr. cc even said he was okay with that. And I live in a liberal bubble, although I do have new neighbors across the street and I don't know their politics yet.
Should I do it?
Yep. And thanks.
Go for it.
More Trump ego inflating - New Social Security cards will have the logo of his "Freedom 250" for-profit replacing the Congressional created "America 250" group.
I sure hope that there won't be some kind of "royalty" payments required - but I wouldn't put it past the crook and his henchmen.
"Perhaps you too have been wondering on what grounds Trump has requested E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers let him delay paying her judgment after the Supreme Court declined to rescue him from it."
He made $1.4 billion since inauguration just from his crypto shenanigans. He can certainly afford to PAY THE FUCK UP.
How about something funny this morning? The comments are hilarious.
https://bsky.app/profile/realseafox.bsky.social/post/3mppme6dnlc2m
I liked this one:
https://bsky.app/profile/bbcrankyb4covfefe.bsky.social/post/3mpqoggqxuc27
The "HELOC- Home Egg Line of Credit" comment just about made me wet myself laughing!
That is sad and funny at the same time.
I guess now we know why they wanted states voters rolls. To stir confusion and eventually deem those ballots null and void. Or fraud.
"f you’re worried about the quote of her questioning the purported antisemitism of a person who attacked a pro-Israel vigil, it really wasn’t a bad quote, honest." It really was, honest.
Happy 4th weekend! Let's laugh at this timely skit from the 90s for being hilarious and prescient.
https://youtu.be/GTJ3LIA5LmA?si=-W8J5ncP-R4zlwip
"He'll do the job."
The Trump Cabinet.
Awesome!