Have been wondering where (or whether) to put this, so I guess I'll just drop it here.
Haven't been around much, or at all, for awhile, after I got back home (31 May) I mostly read. Ah, Wonketariat, how I have missed thee!
Y'see, Yer Virgie had herself a heart attack on 20 May, and was Life-Flighted down to Mesa to Banner Heart Hospital at Banner Broadway in Mesa. Was scary, not gonna lie. Have a follow up appointment w/Dr G, my cardiologist, this upcoming Wednesday.
Here's the thing though: I had always said, and believed, that I was not particularly afraid of dying. However, now that I've been thru this situation where I had to actually fight pretty hard to stay here, am not so certain how true that is.
Anyway. Missed you all hardcore -- the snark, the fun, the conversation, the everything. Love y'all ! xxoo Virgie
Thank you much, my friend. 'Twas several kinds of no fund -- being on a BiPap Machine is kinda nasty! Am still on oxygen at night. Himself is still several kinds of froke-out. :/ But am determined to continue getting better. :)
How fun! I died of a heart attack in December of 2019. I got better. They flew me to Reno where they installed three stents and kept me for a couple of days before cutting me loose. My last scan in September of last year showed no evidence of disease, so I expect no less out of you!
Wow ! That's amazing! WTG, friend! OK, I'll try to live up to your expectataions! No stents here, though; there wasn't anything in the way of blockage they needed to get bustin' - through, just ye good old cardiomyopathy. Still Un-Fun
Isn't this drink just a fancier (due to the float) version of a "Jamaican mule"?
Reed's Extra is good - probably the best ginger beer you're likely to find locally. (Saranac is common on NYC shelves, but it's just a sad concoction of sugar and "flavors".)
There is more packing on my schedule today, but I'm out of tape and bubble wrap, so I'm off to Walmart soon. Every time I go there I wonder how many shoppers are carrying concealed weapons. I really don't want to be murdered just because I needed some packing tape, but it is a lot cheaper there than it is at UHaul or Staples.
Probably too late for this suggestion since you'd probably have to order it online, but for anyone who might be looking at buying bubble wrap in the future, I use "hexafil" instead of bubble wrap these days. It's perforated paper that expands as you pull it. It's cheaper and better for the environment. Also because it's less bulky it's fairly inexpensive to ship compared to bubble wrap.
Getting back to the whole white buffalo thing, I re-read the Texas Monthly article that I'd linked, earlier. Arby Little Soldier just let his calf die of black leg, because he didn't bother to vaccinate his herd. The calf's mother also died of the same thing. He didn't bother with a necropsy, either. He just buried them. He claimed that the calf was killed and skinned, and his mother suffered fatal wounds trying to protect it. When they dug up the calf, it still had hide, so that was a lie.
Also, the last thing I read about the guy was that the city of Greenville had sued him for about six thousand dollars he still owed for signage and porta potties they set up for him at his pow wow and naming ceremony, that nobody attended, because the calf was dead. There was also a scholarship fund for the local HS that never had a dime deposited. All the money went into Little Soldier's wife's bank account. They used it to buy more bison and horses.
And it appears that Little Soldier isn't even Lakota.
The whole story is messed up. Just lies on top of lies, turning the sacred into the profane. He even appears to have lied about the paternity of the calf. The guy who sold it to Little Soldier said that the bison cow was already bred when purchased. Little Soldier had a whole story about how his bull sired the calf.
Don't mention the ASVAB to me. The top 15 students in my high school graduating class were all female, and we all took the ASVAB, and even though we were all A students headed to college, every single one of us was advised to choose a career as a secretary or a nurse. Meanwhile all the top ranking guys in the class were advised to be doctors, engineers and lawyers. That was 1973. How do I know? I was so offended by the results that I took a survey of my classmates. Maybe it is less discriminatory today, but it was sexist as hell back in the 60's and 70's.
I'm pretty sure that's the aptitude test I took in high school . . . I was advised that a career as a radio DJ was my best option, which was hilariously far off the mark. (I settled for a Ph.D. in chemistry.)
In retrospect, I think the whole thing was a scam, with the results more or less randomly distributed - the only consistent selection criterion I could see was the assignment of stereotyped roles to women.
I realized something was off on SAT testing in the late 1960s. A Black girl I was friends with and had several classes with was dejected because her scores on the SATs were very low while mine, a white boy, were high. She was considering not even applying to college. But I told her we were both in advanced classes and both had good grades in the classes. She just had to find a college that did not rely solely on SAT scores, which was harder then because those scores were the first screening level. I wasn't sure why it was off then but I realized those tests were not always an accurate representation of knowledge and ability. She did apply and was accepted in a small out of state college, I went to another state and we lost touch. But I'm sure she did well. Probably better than I did.
I took a typing class in high school, figuring it was going to be helpful with computers and with writing technical stuff in general. I was one of only two guys in the class. That's were I discovered that in computing a student's GPA, not only did they bump up the value of a grade in an AP subject, they also *devalued* grades in the "girls' subjects" like typing and home ec. (An 'A' in an AP class was worth 4.5 grade points, while an 'A' in home ec was worth 3.5.)
You had a near-zero chance of being valedictorian if you took those classes, and of course your GPA was going to be lower than it would have been otherwise. Nobody seems to have been bothered by the fact that women were the principal victims of this system.
Oh, yes, I remember all the classes in Home Economics that only girls took, while the guys got to take shop and use power tools. I never took any Home Ec classes because my mother and sister taught me how to cook and sew, and actually my father taught me how to use tools and build things. Once a year the Home Ec class would have a fashion show in which the students modeled the dress they had made in class, and it was always something truly hideous.
Oh, yes, I remember all the classes in Home Economics that only girls took, while the guys got to take shop and use power tools. I never took any Home Ec classes because my mother and sister taught me how to cook and sew, and actually my father taught me how to use tools and build things. Once a year the Home Ec class would have a fashion show in which the students modeled the dress they had made in class, and it was always something truly hideous.
I was going to fail Home Ec, but the teacher said if I actually wore the dress I so badly put together to school, she’d pass me. I did. It was humiliating, but better than wasting any more time in that grimly useless class.
One of my sisters was the first girl to take shop. She insisted and won.
I took a geography class with Professor C after the highest recommendation from flatmate B, who had taken C's kinda intro geography 300-level course. That conflicted with my four-semester Afro-American Music course, so I took the same but 500-level more advanced geography course. I'm glad I did. I studied Peoria Illinois. BTW, 'peor' is 'worse' in Spanish, so it's right there in the name!
C's PhD thesis defined "cognitive distance," that is, you'll shop at Plaza A because you think it's closer than Plaza B. The trip to Plaza B is actually shorter by time and distance, but they never seem to have enough cashiers and the checkout time is longer. The trip to Plaza A is longer by distance or time, but they staff their checkout crew for a quick exit. The Plaza A decision is based on cognitive distance, not physical or temporal distance.
C did a pilot study to ratify the correlation between store decision and perceived checkout time. (Perception becomes reality—ain't that a drag?)He studied many parameters, but checkout time was the strongest. Indeed, C's study demonstrated robustly that perceived checkout time is a very strong predictor of consumer store choice.
C eventually became the department chair.
Fun fact: the Geography Building had a Romanesque (?) red brick tower in a corner and there was a spiral slide for emergency evacuation. If you placed your feet just so, as you exited, your feet would kick out a pair of swinging doors and you'd wind up standing upright in the parking lot after spiraling down about 4 floors.
No one ever got lit up and checked out the spiral slide. No, that never happened. {Winks.}
I majored in International Relations and I had to take two geography classes. One was just basic World Geography, but the second delved more deeply into tectonic plates, natural resources, food production, over-population and migration patterns, etc., and was really very interesting. This second class was required before I could take another required class called "Economics of Developing Nations" which was also very interesting.
It really was cool. International Relations is an inter-departmental field involving history, anthropology, geography, political science, languages, international law and economics. I learned a lot, and all the faculty and students were super cool. But that was the 70's ... the Super Cool Decade.
My sister is flying to St. Louis on the 26th from Mexico, ostensibly to "help me unpack and move in", but really she just wants to visit the US so she can buy all the things she needs that she can't get in Mexico, or which cost 10x more in Mexico. Normally she visits her daughter in D.C. in the summer, but they aren't speaking to each other ever since my sister cut her daughter out of her will for reasons that I can't remember now because I wasn't really listening.
This will be interesting. I love my sister, but I can't stand to be in the same room with her for more than 24 hours because she is a Narcissist...very critical, very controlling, very negative. We get along like a house on fire if we stick to phone calls and emails, but a personal visit is always a challenge. She will immediately find 100 things to criticize about my new condo, my clothes, my hair, my unwillingness to wear makeup, my cooking, even my underwear. She can't stop herself. Thank god I have plenty of Valium on hand. For those of you who pray, please pray for me between June 26 and July 1, otherwise I might actually murder her.
Fortunately she can't stay with me in the condo because I only have 1 bed. She will be staying in an Extended Stay motel nearby. This will help stop me from murdering her.
I am so sorry for you. I mean it. My sister is the sweetest and best of my family.
When I tell my kids that their aunt is the very best I truly mean it. She's both a loving and patient person and still one that knows right from wrong and is not afraid to stand up for it.
She also manages to make me recall how much our parents loved us and did everything they could to be the best people we could. At my age and severe level of cynicism I would still prefer to spend a weekend and a lot of wine just enjoying her company.
You could be describing ME. My nephew and nieces think I am the Coolest Aunt In History. I am the only person with whom they can bitch about their mother and get good advice about how to deal with her, which sadly, they rarely take. *I* was the person they called when they had teenage angst or romantic problems, and I was always there for them. When they were babies I changed their diapers, read them stories, took them to parks and fairs, went camping with them, taught them how to fish, let them help me bake cookies, etc. I was the one who told my sister that her eldest daughter had strong musical talents and convinced my sister to get her piano lessons. She is now a gifted pianist.
I still remember the day when my niece was 6 years old and I played Beethoven's "Fur Elise" on my piano, and 5 minutes later I heard her playing it with one hand, almost perfectly, after having heard it only once. My sister didn't even notice because she was in the kitchen criticizing my choice of cutting board and the way I had organized my pantry.
You are lovely. And I mean that for reals. Sis and I are amazed at how brilliant and wonderful our kids are. My niece is just clever and snarky and sweet. Like her mum. When I get together with my mum (their Oma) she just raves about how great they all are and what incredible parents me and sister are. I can only say that we had the best example to follow.
I agree. I might suggest that to them because I'll be staying in one myself from June 21 until June 27. Perhaps they could offer a special Family Discount.
Oh, goodness - that's a long stay for a personality like that. I am glad to hear that she will not be with you 24/7, because that sounds like some sort of torture.
Everyone in the family believes she has Multiple Personality Disorder, because she has this Good Side that is loving and supportive and funny, and this Bad Side that drives everyone nuts with constant criticism. She's been that way all her life. She can never figure out why she loses friends and keeps getting asked to leave groups she has joined, or why her two daughters don't want to talk to her.
I had a spare bed for guests for 25 years. I think someone slept on it MAYBE 5 times in those 25 years, so I got rid of it when I decided to move to St. Louis.
I was just listening in on a couple people in the lobby going on about the "Old" issue. And one thing I realized that's different about the parties. If Joe dies, Kamala will have already been briefed and kept in the loop about almost everything. So It would be tragic but functionally nothing would change. But republicans demand fealty so if TFG died in office there would be no one to actually handle the business of governing and it would be a feeding frenzy. I guess that's why the old thing doesn't really bother me as much.
If Trump was to win the election. IF. He would be there long enough to resign and hand over the Presidency to the hand-picked VP on the proviso that the new POTUS would pardon his fat worthless orange faeces-leaking flatuant ass for every crime he ever did or was planning to do.
Also, Joe knows how to surround himself with trusted and skilled advisors. He doesn’t try to do it all himself. That’s true leadership, and it also means his age/physical stamina doesn’t matter as much.
Someone (Packman?) keeps saying: *if* Biden *is* impaired, then the choice is between an impaired TFG *and the people around him*, or an impaired OHJB *and the people around him*.
Pursuant to section 4 subsection 12, paragraph 128-G of the pre-nup, she is not required to wish him a happy birthday in years where he has failed to make the annual deposit to her off short bank account by 2 weeks before his birthday to ensure the check has had time to clear.
I'm such a rebel... I make this cocktail with Mount Gay rum and Fever Tree ginger beer and I STILL call it a Dark & Stormy!
muah ha ha!!
I attended a Democratic fundraiser last weekend. The was a Dark and Stormy Daniels on the drink menu.
Have been wondering where (or whether) to put this, so I guess I'll just drop it here.
Haven't been around much, or at all, for awhile, after I got back home (31 May) I mostly read. Ah, Wonketariat, how I have missed thee!
Y'see, Yer Virgie had herself a heart attack on 20 May, and was Life-Flighted down to Mesa to Banner Heart Hospital at Banner Broadway in Mesa. Was scary, not gonna lie. Have a follow up appointment w/Dr G, my cardiologist, this upcoming Wednesday.
Here's the thing though: I had always said, and believed, that I was not particularly afraid of dying. However, now that I've been thru this situation where I had to actually fight pretty hard to stay here, am not so certain how true that is.
Anyway. Missed you all hardcore -- the snark, the fun, the conversation, the everything. Love y'all ! xxoo Virgie
Yikes! Glad you were able to hang on! Best wishes for s speedy recovery!
Thank you much, my friend. 'Twas several kinds of no fund -- being on a BiPap Machine is kinda nasty! Am still on oxygen at night. Himself is still several kinds of froke-out. :/ But am determined to continue getting better. :)
How fun! I died of a heart attack in December of 2019. I got better. They flew me to Reno where they installed three stents and kept me for a couple of days before cutting me loose. My last scan in September of last year showed no evidence of disease, so I expect no less out of you!
Wow ! That's amazing! WTG, friend! OK, I'll try to live up to your expectataions! No stents here, though; there wasn't anything in the way of blockage they needed to get bustin' - through, just ye good old cardiomyopathy. Still Un-Fun
Isn't this drink just a fancier (due to the float) version of a "Jamaican mule"?
Reed's Extra is good - probably the best ginger beer you're likely to find locally. (Saranac is common on NYC shelves, but it's just a sad concoction of sugar and "flavors".)
I beg your forgiveness. I had no idea this video was a regular Tarantino movie. Béy x Gaga "Telephone" 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U
Hooper, this looks magnificent.
There is more packing on my schedule today, but I'm out of tape and bubble wrap, so I'm off to Walmart soon. Every time I go there I wonder how many shoppers are carrying concealed weapons. I really don't want to be murdered just because I needed some packing tape, but it is a lot cheaper there than it is at UHaul or Staples.
Probably too late for this suggestion since you'd probably have to order it online, but for anyone who might be looking at buying bubble wrap in the future, I use "hexafil" instead of bubble wrap these days. It's perforated paper that expands as you pull it. It's cheaper and better for the environment. Also because it's less bulky it's fairly inexpensive to ship compared to bubble wrap.
This is one brand but there are lots of others.
https://www.hexcelpack.com/packing-solutions/auto-manual-hexafil/
That's intriguing stuff. I will remember that the next time I pack things up. Thanks for the tip.
Some non-commentor mentioned "Edge of Tomorrow" yesterday.
It's on now. It is fun watching Tom Cruise's character dying over and over.
Maybe they can remake it with TFG as the star.
If TFG keeps coming back, like Freddy Krueger, it's a horror film.
Getting back to the whole white buffalo thing, I re-read the Texas Monthly article that I'd linked, earlier. Arby Little Soldier just let his calf die of black leg, because he didn't bother to vaccinate his herd. The calf's mother also died of the same thing. He didn't bother with a necropsy, either. He just buried them. He claimed that the calf was killed and skinned, and his mother suffered fatal wounds trying to protect it. When they dug up the calf, it still had hide, so that was a lie.
Also, the last thing I read about the guy was that the city of Greenville had sued him for about six thousand dollars he still owed for signage and porta potties they set up for him at his pow wow and naming ceremony, that nobody attended, because the calf was dead. There was also a scholarship fund for the local HS that never had a dime deposited. All the money went into Little Soldier's wife's bank account. They used it to buy more bison and horses.
And it appears that Little Soldier isn't even Lakota.
That's pretty messed up.
The whole story is messed up. Just lies on top of lies, turning the sacred into the profane. He even appears to have lied about the paternity of the calf. The guy who sold it to Little Soldier said that the bison cow was already bred when purchased. Little Soldier had a whole story about how his bull sired the calf.
𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗿𝗲𝘂𝗽𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻’𝘀 𝗯𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗯𝘂𝗸𝗲
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4723550-donald-trump-birthday-message-joe-biden-aptitude-test/
Hilarious
The Hill says there were 5,000 supporters at TFG's birthday. Does that sound right? Usually the numbers are inflated.
Local news is sticking to reporting "thousands" because they've been tricked before.
I'm guessing that there's a "PAB factor" they multiply his claims by. Like .15, .18, like that. Maybe several depending on where the event is...
Well, the convention center has a huge capacity, so I can't rule out the truth having been told. Unlikely, yes, but not impossible.
Fire marshals are usually reliable for head counts around here, but I don't know Florida
He does this from his "Club 47"...I know, I know--there's a million reasons why he's horrible, but I do get distracted by how tacky he is.
He cut SS and Medicare?
I did not know that. And I certainly wouldn't brag about doing it.
Pretty sure Joe knows what a camel is.
TFG knows camels' toes.
Aptitude tests? Trump's score on the ASVAB was just "No!"
Don't mention the ASVAB to me. The top 15 students in my high school graduating class were all female, and we all took the ASVAB, and even though we were all A students headed to college, every single one of us was advised to choose a career as a secretary or a nurse. Meanwhile all the top ranking guys in the class were advised to be doctors, engineers and lawyers. That was 1973. How do I know? I was so offended by the results that I took a survey of my classmates. Maybe it is less discriminatory today, but it was sexist as hell back in the 60's and 70's.
I'm pretty sure that's the aptitude test I took in high school . . . I was advised that a career as a radio DJ was my best option, which was hilariously far off the mark. (I settled for a Ph.D. in chemistry.)
In retrospect, I think the whole thing was a scam, with the results more or less randomly distributed - the only consistent selection criterion I could see was the assignment of stereotyped roles to women.
I realized something was off on SAT testing in the late 1960s. A Black girl I was friends with and had several classes with was dejected because her scores on the SATs were very low while mine, a white boy, were high. She was considering not even applying to college. But I told her we were both in advanced classes and both had good grades in the classes. She just had to find a college that did not rely solely on SAT scores, which was harder then because those scores were the first screening level. I wasn't sure why it was off then but I realized those tests were not always an accurate representation of knowledge and ability. She did apply and was accepted in a small out of state college, I went to another state and we lost touch. But I'm sure she did well. Probably better than I did.
I have heard stories like this before, and it infuriates me.
My hs was sexist.
Shop classes for boys. Cooking and accounting for girls.
My physics class had 3 girls.
For labs, we had to rotate partners 2 by 2.
The girls complained they didn't want to partner with smelly boys and their
cooties. So he let the 3 be one team all year.
Some boys complained that it would all be 3 against all 2 member teams.
Unfair. Teach said he will sort out the results and grades and they kept the 3 girl team. The girl I liked wasn't one of them, I didn't care.
Almost everyone got an A.
I took a typing class in high school, figuring it was going to be helpful with computers and with writing technical stuff in general. I was one of only two guys in the class. That's were I discovered that in computing a student's GPA, not only did they bump up the value of a grade in an AP subject, they also *devalued* grades in the "girls' subjects" like typing and home ec. (An 'A' in an AP class was worth 4.5 grade points, while an 'A' in home ec was worth 3.5.)
You had a near-zero chance of being valedictorian if you took those classes, and of course your GPA was going to be lower than it would have been otherwise. Nobody seems to have been bothered by the fact that women were the principal victims of this system.
Oh, yes, I remember all the classes in Home Economics that only girls took, while the guys got to take shop and use power tools. I never took any Home Ec classes because my mother and sister taught me how to cook and sew, and actually my father taught me how to use tools and build things. Once a year the Home Ec class would have a fashion show in which the students modeled the dress they had made in class, and it was always something truly hideous.
Oh, yes, I remember all the classes in Home Economics that only girls took, while the guys got to take shop and use power tools. I never took any Home Ec classes because my mother and sister taught me how to cook and sew, and actually my father taught me how to use tools and build things. Once a year the Home Ec class would have a fashion show in which the students modeled the dress they had made in class, and it was always something truly hideous.
I was going to fail Home Ec, but the teacher said if I actually wore the dress I so badly put together to school, she’d pass me. I did. It was humiliating, but better than wasting any more time in that grimly useless class.
One of my sisters was the first girl to take shop. She insisted and won.
Methinks he doth protest too much.
Methinks he doesn't know what aptitude means
Henlo. Beeb is watching the Rothesay Open. That's in England. It's tennis.
Is that different from the Wilburdon tennis thing, or whatever it's called, which is also in England and is also boring?
Nah, it's different.
And boring.
Yeah. Watch golf.
Only 23 hrs. ~ 30 minutes left in LeMans. Think I'll take a nap.
Siri is so nice. Says the race is on 1 French and 1 Euro tee vee channel.
I don't get either.
It's on Motortrend at the moment.
Thanks!
"It's near Nambia. People are saying that. Trust me."
𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮 — 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘇𝘂𝗲𝗹𝗮
https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-2668532121/
I demand Worldle tests on both candidates!
'Slovenians. They are coming with their strange language to take the jobs of real Americans'
"“In the end, they’re not after me," he said. "They’re after you and I just happened to be standing in their way.”
No, Donald, we are after YOU.
OMG! Thanks.
As a yung'un, I couldn't believe geography was a college level class.
Who needs that? Every teacher has maps of the world plastered all over.
Free maps at the gas station.
Giant wall map of the town at the police station. Hmmm. I digress.
All ya need is a $0.10 compass from Woolworth's and you can find your way anywhere.
When you take History ya learn Australia makes a great prison colony.
And Byzantium is always in everybody's way.
I thought Stinky knew the 3 big deals in real estate were "location, location, and location."
Gawd his is stoopid.
I took a geography class with Professor C after the highest recommendation from flatmate B, who had taken C's kinda intro geography 300-level course. That conflicted with my four-semester Afro-American Music course, so I took the same but 500-level more advanced geography course. I'm glad I did. I studied Peoria Illinois. BTW, 'peor' is 'worse' in Spanish, so it's right there in the name!
C's PhD thesis defined "cognitive distance," that is, you'll shop at Plaza A because you think it's closer than Plaza B. The trip to Plaza B is actually shorter by time and distance, but they never seem to have enough cashiers and the checkout time is longer. The trip to Plaza A is longer by distance or time, but they staff their checkout crew for a quick exit. The Plaza A decision is based on cognitive distance, not physical or temporal distance.
C did a pilot study to ratify the correlation between store decision and perceived checkout time. (Perception becomes reality—ain't that a drag?)He studied many parameters, but checkout time was the strongest. Indeed, C's study demonstrated robustly that perceived checkout time is a very strong predictor of consumer store choice.
C eventually became the department chair.
Fun fact: the Geography Building had a Romanesque (?) red brick tower in a corner and there was a spiral slide for emergency evacuation. If you placed your feet just so, as you exited, your feet would kick out a pair of swinging doors and you'd wind up standing upright in the parking lot after spiraling down about 4 floors.
No one ever got lit up and checked out the spiral slide. No, that never happened. {Winks.}
I majored in International Relations and I had to take two geography classes. One was just basic World Geography, but the second delved more deeply into tectonic plates, natural resources, food production, over-population and migration patterns, etc., and was really very interesting. This second class was required before I could take another required class called "Economics of Developing Nations" which was also very interesting.
Sounds cool!
It really was cool. International Relations is an inter-departmental field involving history, anthropology, geography, political science, languages, international law and economics. I learned a lot, and all the faculty and students were super cool. But that was the 70's ... the Super Cool Decade.
A map and a sharpie will make quick work of it.
Make him play Worldle.
My sister is flying to St. Louis on the 26th from Mexico, ostensibly to "help me unpack and move in", but really she just wants to visit the US so she can buy all the things she needs that she can't get in Mexico, or which cost 10x more in Mexico. Normally she visits her daughter in D.C. in the summer, but they aren't speaking to each other ever since my sister cut her daughter out of her will for reasons that I can't remember now because I wasn't really listening.
This will be interesting. I love my sister, but I can't stand to be in the same room with her for more than 24 hours because she is a Narcissist...very critical, very controlling, very negative. We get along like a house on fire if we stick to phone calls and emails, but a personal visit is always a challenge. She will immediately find 100 things to criticize about my new condo, my clothes, my hair, my unwillingness to wear makeup, my cooking, even my underwear. She can't stop herself. Thank god I have plenty of Valium on hand. For those of you who pray, please pray for me between June 26 and July 1, otherwise I might actually murder her.
Fortunately she can't stay with me in the condo because I only have 1 bed. She will be staying in an Extended Stay motel nearby. This will help stop me from murdering her.
I am so sorry for you. I mean it. My sister is the sweetest and best of my family.
When I tell my kids that their aunt is the very best I truly mean it. She's both a loving and patient person and still one that knows right from wrong and is not afraid to stand up for it.
She also manages to make me recall how much our parents loved us and did everything they could to be the best people we could. At my age and severe level of cynicism I would still prefer to spend a weekend and a lot of wine just enjoying her company.
You could be describing ME. My nephew and nieces think I am the Coolest Aunt In History. I am the only person with whom they can bitch about their mother and get good advice about how to deal with her, which sadly, they rarely take. *I* was the person they called when they had teenage angst or romantic problems, and I was always there for them. When they were babies I changed their diapers, read them stories, took them to parks and fairs, went camping with them, taught them how to fish, let them help me bake cookies, etc. I was the one who told my sister that her eldest daughter had strong musical talents and convinced my sister to get her piano lessons. She is now a gifted pianist.
I still remember the day when my niece was 6 years old and I played Beethoven's "Fur Elise" on my piano, and 5 minutes later I heard her playing it with one hand, almost perfectly, after having heard it only once. My sister didn't even notice because she was in the kitchen criticizing my choice of cutting board and the way I had organized my pantry.
You are lovely. And I mean that for reals. Sis and I are amazed at how brilliant and wonderful our kids are. My niece is just clever and snarky and sweet. Like her mum. When I get together with my mum (their Oma) she just raves about how great they all are and what incredible parents me and sister are. I can only say that we had the best example to follow.
That is just lovely. I wish I heard that from more people.
Sorry that you don't. And yeah, it is corrosive to never get positive stuff from inside your family.
Those Extended Stay joints should incorporate that into their advertising...
Preventing murders is a feature!
I agree. I might suggest that to them because I'll be staying in one myself from June 21 until June 27. Perhaps they could offer a special Family Discount.
Sounds like you want the Dysfunctional Family Discount.
Would that be on top of or instead of the Senior Discount?
"Cannot be combined with any other offer."
That seems to be an unbreakable law of nature.
Oh, goodness - that's a long stay for a personality like that. I am glad to hear that she will not be with you 24/7, because that sounds like some sort of torture.
Everyone in the family believes she has Multiple Personality Disorder, because she has this Good Side that is loving and supportive and funny, and this Bad Side that drives everyone nuts with constant criticism. She's been that way all her life. She can never figure out why she loses friends and keeps getting asked to leave groups she has joined, or why her two daughters don't want to talk to her.
One bedroom for the win!
I had a spare bed for guests for 25 years. I think someone slept on it MAYBE 5 times in those 25 years, so I got rid of it when I decided to move to St. Louis.
I was just listening in on a couple people in the lobby going on about the "Old" issue. And one thing I realized that's different about the parties. If Joe dies, Kamala will have already been briefed and kept in the loop about almost everything. So It would be tragic but functionally nothing would change. But republicans demand fealty so if TFG died in office there would be no one to actually handle the business of governing and it would be a feeding frenzy. I guess that's why the old thing doesn't really bother me as much.
In theory, there would be a VP. In practice, TFG wouldn't entrust his VP with needed information.
Have no fear, Al Haig woudl show up to be in charge.
Peter Navarro will probably be out of prison by then.
If Trump was to win the election. IF. He would be there long enough to resign and hand over the Presidency to the hand-picked VP on the proviso that the new POTUS would pardon his fat worthless orange faeces-leaking flatuant ass for every crime he ever did or was planning to do.
Stephen Miller will make a play for power. I see a night of long knives...
Stephen Miller vs. MTG Vs. DJTJR.
Three enter. None leave.
I'd watch that.
The choice is Democracy vs. Dictatorship. It's as clear as that.
Also, Joe knows how to surround himself with trusted and skilled advisors. He doesn’t try to do it all himself. That’s true leadership, and it also means his age/physical stamina doesn’t matter as much.
Someone (Packman?) keeps saying: *if* Biden *is* impaired, then the choice is between an impaired TFG *and the people around him*, or an impaired OHJB *and the people around him*.
It's still not a hard choice.
Exactly. His focus is on the country, not his own ego.
So if Trump wins and dies in office we won't see anything change. Just more of the same chaos.
𝗠𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗯𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗱𝗮𝘆
https://www.alternet.org/melania-trump-birthday/
That's all right. He forgets hers every year.
Trouble in paradise.
Maybe I imagined it, but I swear I heard quoted saying something about 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 one...
Pursuant to section 4 subsection 12, paragraph 128-G of the pre-nup, she is not required to wish him a happy birthday in years where he has failed to make the annual deposit to her off short bank account by 2 weeks before his birthday to ensure the check has had time to clear.
Melanoma has learned the hard way to only accept a cashier's check from an American bank or a wire transfer.
Operation is overs yet Mr. Vlad?
Melania: “Die already”
That's the only popular plank on $hitler's revengda.
I'm with her on that.
She ought to make a point of not showing up at his funeral.
From her pumped up lips to dog's ear.