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Martini Glambassador's avatar

Enjoy some pretty birds with your Juneteenth celebrations (for looking at, not for eating!):

https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/these-parrots-are-bananas-for-bananas

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Always Be Ithacating's avatar

They can make such precise wire test-tube holders with their claws!

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Always Be Ithacating's avatar

Thanks so much for this! Resolving to practice my pinching-off-a-portion-of-banana skills in case these wonderful macaws ever make it a great deal farther to the north.

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TootsStansbury 🇺🇦's avatar

I love the polite line-up of colorful dinosaurs eating bananas.

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Lefty Wright's avatar

This makes me sad that a colorful native bird, the Carolina Parakeet, was hunted to extinction by the early 20th century. Not for meat, or even feathers, mainly just for target practice. Then loss of habitat sealed their fate.

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Sherry's avatar

That is so sad. Same for passenger pigeons. Well, probably a LOT of other birds as well.

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LuluBean12 StarGeezer's avatar

Passenger pigeons were wiped out because they were easy pickings for food what with travelling around in flocks that were so thick they blackened the skies, and could knock trees down when they all perched on them. Them also being rivals for food crops didn't help either. White colonists, who of course knew they were given dominion over the earth in the Bible by God hisself (or herself), figured they could kill things, in massive numbers. They didn't believe extinction was possible due to their actions.

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Sherry's avatar

Yeah the story is sad as are all stories if extinction that could have been prevented were is not for the hubris of man.

As a part time birder I’ve seen changes in our birds by species and count at my house in the Sierras. That big Tahoe fire drove some beautiful different birds to our place due to habitat loss. However the bird flu seems to have caught up with others such as the number of hummingbirds we see these days. They too used to be in large swarms but have become very sparse these days. The difference is profound.

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Chemical's avatar

I would love to be there. Macaws can be something else.

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Resource NW's avatar

Nothing yet about SF parrots or Chicago Monk Parrots as illegal immigrants? Ultra sketchy pigeons?

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Aquaman, Real Estate Investor.'s avatar

The SF parrots are not super social. Sadly.

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Sherry's avatar

Survival of the fittest. They made their escape and never looked back!

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weejee's avatar

Food for thouvbt Martini

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Goonemeritus's avatar

How can we be sure Macaw's are not delicious if we don't eat one or two?

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William Donnell's avatar

Scientific rigor!

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Parakeetist's avatar

Henlo!

I appreciate thees! Thank uu, person!

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Martini Glambassador's avatar

I was *hoping* you'd see this :-)

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Parakeetist's avatar

Hee hee. :)

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Sojourner Truth's avatar

Parrots really are remarkable. They are so familiar, one might begin to take them for granted.

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rmontcal's avatar

When I was little, I called them "wow rocks" because when I would see them in the pet store at the Mall (70s), they would scare the shit out of me when they went "rawwwkkk".

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PaulDietzel's avatar

30-40 years ago an old fellow was a regular at our local Elks club. His wife's name was Marvel but he always jokingly called her "Marble." He loved to remark "Marble's mad at me, says I take her for granite."

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tehbaddr's avatar

Lovely plumage!

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Martini Glambassador's avatar

Rivals a Norwegian Blue, pinin' for the fjords, 'e does!

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CambridgeKnitter's avatar

A lot more lively than that Norwegian Blue.

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Bobathonic's avatar

Interesting thing about this film is that they only used one bird. He had to play each part and then they combined it for the final product.

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LuluBean12 StarGeezer's avatar

See with AI things will be even simpler and the one digital parrot will play all the parts, in every movie. The unneeded birds can then stay lounging in their nest areas and spend their days on self expression with graphic and fine art, music, interpretive dance, poetry prose and philosophy.

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Nacho Librul's avatar

Now I have “Banana Boat Song” for my ear worm of the day.

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Nolan Mark's avatar

You can almost see Wallace and Grommet waving from a nearby window.

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Martini Glambassador's avatar

The amazing things one can do with video editing software these days!

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Teen Laqueefa's avatar

Funny how people eat chickens and not Parrots, huh? Sorta like cows and horses.

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Old Man Yells at Cloud's avatar

Clearly you have never had a Trump steak: "So fresh you can still see the marks from the jockey's whip."

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Regret's avatar

Ew, don't ruin horse meat for me by associating it with Trump.

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Doug Langley's avatar

from the britcom My Hero:

"You were eating horse meat, George."

"It was delicious. You should get it more often."

"It's not fit for human consumption!"

"I'm not human!"

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Regret's avatar

Thanks for the TV tip :)

FYI horsemeat is perfectly fit for human consumption if the horses were not pumped full of medication recently.

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Doug Langley's avatar

Nobody I've met has ever heard of the show, but every time I show the videos they fall out of their chairs laughing.

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Daniel's avatar

It might be that parrots don't taste very nice.

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NH is for 🦡🍄🐍's avatar

I can guarantee that in a context where parrots were the only available protein, they’d get et. Book I read about post-WWII Italy had a whole discussion of the people eating songbirds, because it was the only thing available.

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Lund-O-Matic's avatar

A hungry man knows no politics.

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Angryoldman's avatar

we were served sparrows, head, beak, and all, in China in 2000.

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Zap's avatar

Here in NOLA there was a movement to turn nutria (giant water rat) into food. Never did work out

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NH is for 🦡🍄🐍's avatar

Mmmm…beak…crunchy!

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OneYieldRegular's avatar

Someone tried a few years ago to bring back to Paris the eating of ortolans, in a kind of revolving pop-up secret club. It did not go well.

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Stroke1's avatar

Bald eagles are right tasty, but put just ONE on the grill and the DNR gets all huffy about it.

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Nolan Mark's avatar

Have you ever grilled an eagle? They get very angry which leads to a cross, cross-examination, in court.

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Martini Glambassador's avatar

They... might? I don't know if at least before the modern era of those birds were on the menu. Some people still eat horse (I was sort of horrified to see it in a French supermarket, but then again, meat is meat so I got over myself).

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Fogrot's avatar

I've also seen horse in a market in Italy. Well, a small sign saying that it was available. I've eaten horse in France, and liked it - it's milder and sweeter than beef.

I like to visit markets in other places just to see how they're different (even big supermarkets in the US have regional differences). The most surprising thing I saw was in a fish market in Oslo - a slab of dark-colored meat that at first I thought was tuna labeled "hval" - whale.

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HulitC's avatar

I live in France and horse meat is healthier than beef. I recommend it highly. Why do people like cow meat but are upset with eating horse meat? Why are people okay with eating chicken but not rabbit?? Americans used to eat a lot of deer, squirrel, raccoon, oppossum etc.

A lot of rural people are against giving up guns because they still shoot their own food…

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BlueStateLibel's avatar

Because horses are companion animals. I've known many, and they are smart, sensitive, and even affectionate creatures. We establish a bond with them, and then break it when we do them harm.

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HulitC's avatar

Pigs are intelligent & affectionate also.

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CambridgeKnitter's avatar

You remind me of an episode of M*A*S*H that has eating horses as one of the plot lines--https://mash.fandom.com/wiki/Old_Soldiers_(TV_series_episode).

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PaulDietzel's avatar

I can remember Mom buying rabbit at the A&P in the '60s. Tasted like chicken. And despite the hyperbole of gun fetishists, the guns that rural people use to shoot their own food are not in any danger of having to be given up.

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LuluBean12 StarGeezer's avatar

There was a family that had a small business around here with a sign that they were selling rabbits for pets or meat.

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HulitC's avatar

Since most of them watch FOX they are not aware of the difference. I used to live in northwest Florida (but not the panhandle). The flea markets were full of people selling guns. They were convinced Dems wanted to confiscate them.

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Eileen's avatar

I grew up VERY near Boston, Mass. Had my first taste of venison, rabbit, wild turkey, pheasant, etc., in Western Mass, @ 100 miles to the west. Himself and his father introduced me to a REALLY different kind of delicious!

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Daniel's avatar

Horses have a cultural significance we find it very difficult to overlook. Very few cows were ever consuls in Rome, for instance.

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OneYieldRegular's avatar

Yes, but in India...

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Daniel's avatar

Don't let that mislead you, it's a trojan cow.

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PaulDietzel's avatar

Maybe they are not considered for eating here because they have a "cultural significance" but that doesn't result in many steps being taken to prevent them dying pretty much daily at Churchill Downs and other major tracks.

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Martini Glambassador's avatar

I agree that it’s strange in many ways that we are conditioned to be ok with consuming some animals but not others. Cultural reinforcement is what it is. And of course that’s not everybody—a lot of people become vegetarians because of the ethical issues.

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Daniel's avatar

Rabbit is kind of pointless.

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PaulDietzel's avatar

In what respect?

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AIB's avatar

Rabbit is not a complete protein. It’s tasty but you need to supplement it with other amino acids.

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Daniel's avatar

There's very little meat on them and what meat there is is pretty flavourless.

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NH is for 🦡🍄🐍's avatar

I'll admit it, and take the slings and arrows: I’ve eaten horse meat, in both Japan and Italy. It was…meat. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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OneYieldRegular's avatar

In the north of France (we were in Lille) the signs out front of a lot of the butcher shops still feature neon horses' heads.

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Daniel's avatar

Neon horses are unique to that area.

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Oblio's Cap's avatar

In the Karmag...

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OneYieldRegular's avatar

And of course "Steak Tartare" is traditionally made with horse meat.

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NH is for 🦡🍄🐍's avatar

That’s what we had in Italy, me and another guy. We had both drunk some quantity of wine and were not going to let our spouses’ disapproval stop us, oh no! Helped that neither of us (or honestly the spouses) really cared one way or another about horses.

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Zyxomma's avatar

Patti Smith has entered the chat.

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Daniel's avatar

I assumed it was named after the supposed habit of Tatar horsemen to keep strips of meat (any meat) under their saddles as they rode to soften it, then to eat it raw- so the name implied both its rawness and its tenderness.

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OneYieldRegular's avatar

God I hope that's true.

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Martini Glambassador's avatar

Haha, I too have heard that said, although I've also heard that the horse thing is one of those sticky myths that is probably not true.

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OneYieldRegular's avatar

I just checked my 1929 copy of "La Bonne cuisine," and am disappointed that I found neither "Steak Tartare" nor even a mention of "cheval."

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Stroke1's avatar

There's a funny All in the Family episode where the Stiveks serve Archie horse meat for dinner without his knowing. ''Well I gotta tell ya dere, little goil, you really cooked up a winner.'' Edith is traumatized, ''I keep thinking about Mr. Ed.''

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CambridgeKnitter's avatar

My mother told me her father used to order horse meat at the Harvard Faculty Club.

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Ellie Alive In 25's avatar

We had horsemeat once, way back at the time beef prices were soaring. Had to go to a specialty butcher to get it. Didn't care for the roast at all - not enough fat on a horse, I guess, but the leftovers made stew. What got my then husband, was when he called me from work to ask what we were having for dinner and did I need anything from the store. I told him we were having spaghetti and horseballs. Then he had to explain his spit take to his coworkers.

Good times.

Didn't get horse again and never thought of Mr. Ed.

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Teen Laqueefa's avatar

I remember reading a young people's book back in the day and a kid fed his dog horse meat because it was cheap, probably back in the day before cereal based pet food.

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Bobathonic's avatar

My Dad told me how he and his cronies would go get a horse burger. That way they'd have change left for a movie.

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Martini Glambassador's avatar

I don't know if you recall my post on Louis Wain, but I mentioned the Victorian street vendors of pet food. Most of the time, they sold horse meat, if it wasn't low-quality or slightly-too-old beef. I didn't put the part about the horse meat in because I didn't want to bum people out in a post on cute kitties. But hey, since we are now talking about it, for sure it was a thing.

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HulitC's avatar

There used to be a lot of horses before cars…

Now cows and pigs get a higher return for the cost of raising them.

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Rags's avatar

The meat from Victorian street vendors could be extremely sketchy. Yes, what you're thinking.

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OneYieldRegular's avatar

Well no wonder his cats look like that.

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Martini Glambassador's avatar

LOL!

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avidlurker's avatar

I was a fan of Dr. Dolittle as a kid, and I remember there was a character in his neighborhood called the Cat’s-Meat Man. I just took that as his name, never thought much about the meaning of the words.

Much later I realized he was probably selling meat scraps as pet food and I thought I probably didn’t want to know details.

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OneYieldRegular's avatar

Obligatory - that line from "The Killer Bees" (riffed famously by MST3K): "Have you seen the dog's meat?"

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Teen Laqueefa's avatar

I'd eat horse meat, it probably won't win any applause but I've never liked horses at all.

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Daniel's avatar

I have eaten horse jerky. It was very chewy.

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Crip Dyke's avatar

Argh! I lost my bet! Caracas!

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Nolan Mark's avatar

I was hoping for made up macaws in Macao.

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dental floss tycoon's avatar

we are not enjoying even the appearance of fairness from our current supreme court … the bump stock decision illustrates the tortured logic employed to justify their leaning into the right wing agenda, expecting worse …

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elledanselajavanaise's avatar

just wanna say i am loving buying cheap food on martie, always with the wonkette link.

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3FingerPete's avatar

Laura Loomer is the Squeaky to Donald Trump's Charlie.

https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1803416468916175302

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Always Be Ithacating's avatar

Sure Loomer is the Sadie Mae Glutz (Susan Atkins)?

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Cakes We Like's avatar

Continuing with my adoption related research, I watched Little White Lie today. Part of the whole adoption process is making sure the child doesn't lose their identity in the middle of the huge changes their lives will be going through, identity was the main theme of that documentary, hence the recommendation that it form part of our research.

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Stranger Than Friction's avatar

Today is my birthday. I am probably now officially older than the hills? Or however you say old AF. I love Juneteenth. (Bless you Opal Lee!) Even if today's is very humid and at least 97 degrees F.

I miss my dad (RIP) and my sister (RIP) and my mom (RIP) but I do not miss my Trump-supporting MAGA brother (very much alive). I am sad they are not here to celebrate with me, but my partner and kid are doing their best to brighten my day, and I am glad they are here with me. May you be blessed with loving friends and family and may we all be blessed with a big, big political win this November. Hug your pets and tell them you love them, for time goes by so, so quickly, never to return. Raise a glass to freedom, Wonkette!

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Biff52, Safe from TX floods's avatar

Molotov to you!

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Wookiee Monster's avatar

Quite a collection of deplorables in today’s tabs.

Clarence Thomas: the most corrupt SCOTUS justice in American history, who isn’t even bothering to hide his contempt for the masses and his desire for corporate oligarchy in his opinions these days.

Elon Musk: A man who had somehow convinced the media he was a real life Tony Stark and who turned Twitter in a pro-Nazi imitation of its many pro-Nazi imitation. But hey, he scored $48 billion from Tesla’s bored despite the fact that the Cybertruck is a bomb, its cars are getting shittier, and its stock is in free fall.

Gaddis the Tradwife wannabe who thought dropping the N-word on TikTok was her key to fame and fortune in the rightwing gravy train. Instead, she lost her day job and the Incels she had hoped would send her bigot bucks attacked her for being a single mom.

And finally, Trump himself, the man who started it all and who can’t die soon enough.

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Rachael's avatar

Re: Tabs gif. My baby Persephone was a Blue and Gold Macaw. She died about ten years ago at the relatively young age of 38. I still find myself saving little pieces of whatever I'm eating to share with her.

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Rachael's avatar

Re: Tabs gif. My baby Persephone was a Blue and Gold Macaw. She died about ten years ago at the relatively young age of 38. I still find myself saving little pieces of whatever I'm eating to share with her.

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Enter Ranting's avatar

Paramount's ex-CEO Bob Bakish was making $31 million a year while he was fucking up the company. Paramount fired him, but is paying him $225,000 – A MONTH – as a consultant! The guy they fired for terrible performance! But there's not enough money to pay the writers and actors fairly.

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Always Be Ithacating's avatar

Somewhat related, I'd like to say that Fast Color (2018) is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Due to extreme Hollywood nonsense, it was barely distributed and grossed $77K in theaters. A television series version has been stuck in development for many years.

Give it a look if anyone is inclined, it's on Max at the moment.

https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/fast-color-jordan-horowitz-interview-1202164428

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Always Be Ithacating's avatar

Grr. Just look at him, what can the expertise he's offering in consultation be? Choosing which expensive Scotch to swill?

https://variety.com/2024/biz/news/paramount-global-bob-bakish-ousted-ceo-1235984730/

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Enter Ranting's avatar

So many people, including me, are out of work because of the greed and incompetence of these people.

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Khavrinen's avatar

"[E]xponentially pretendily worse" is my new favorite phrase for today.

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rawrtigerlily's avatar

Happy Juneteenth Wonkettes.

I was gob smacked by this very timely series (by Reveal, Mother Jones, and CPI) on how we *almost* had proper reparations after the Civil War, but then Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson reneged and gave crybaby traitorous plantation owners pardons and returned their property.

Property rights over human rights and justice is such a shitty American tradition.

Hard not to daydream about a present America where we had done the right thing to make proper amends at the time.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/06/40-acres-and-a-lie/

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Nemo's avatar

We've had quite a few shitty preznits. But the one I especially detest is Tyler. The asshole engineered the acquisition of Texas which precipitated the Mexican War. Which led to the Civil War that has been bedeviling us for 165 years. Ulysses Grant knew the Mexican War was a truly evil war.

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Tecolote's avatar

One thing I love about the Wonk is you never know what you're going to find. Tyler-smak. I love it!

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jte's avatar

After Trump, I have to say Andrew Johnson was probably the worst president of the US. Huge lapse in judgment on Lincoln's part picking him for VP. Understand why it may have seemed like a good idea to have a working-class, border-state guy on the ticket, but damn was he ever horrible on Reconstruction. Grant was a million times better, and then we got Hayes who was basically like "Civil War? Civil Schmore! Let's all be (white) friends again!"

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V4Virginia's avatar

Maybe next time we don't let the losers decide how closely they care to follow their terms of surrender and federal law.

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Trux Mint In Box's avatar

Lily Gaddis may be pretending to be a trad wife but I ain’t buying it. She’s about six months from having an only fans page. No shame in that (except shame on the racism part) she’s just trying to earn a living but anyone thinks that she would be some good Christian wife is a complete idiot. She’s probably doing a line of coke as I type this.

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Thesaurus Wrecks's avatar

What I find ironic is that she was fired from her tradwife tik tok job.

I thought the whole point of a tradwife was to be anti-feminist and NOT have a job. The point is to stay at home and be a homemaker while your husband works.

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Thesaurus Wrecks's avatar

Her Only Klans page will be a hit on Fox News.

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carovee's avatar

Only Fans creators are at least honest about what they are doing.

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Bagels of Doom's avatar

"Trump as Robespierre"

does he know what happened to Robespierre?

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Mike_Cramer's avatar

“Trump as Robespierre, encouraging The Terror.“

HEY! Jacobian libelz! Maxie would have happily set the entire GOP and their upper class backers up with a hot date with Madame Guillotine.

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