It’s the first Friday Fish Fry of the season at the bar, so I’m gonna be slammed in an hour. You got questions, put them here and I’ll answer them later tonight.
I've recently been buying random bottles to build up my bar, and I can tell already that some are going to be there for a loooong time. What's the oldest/least used bottle on your shelf, and why?
Bottle of Pastis. No recollection of buying it. Easily 20 years old - and I have no idea what it's supposed to taste like, so I couldn't tell if it's gone bad.
Maybe, but doubtful, but only as a starting point. As much as terrestrial telescopes can do, it would take a perfected instrument like the James Webb Space Telescope to confirm and further do research on an exoplanet.
And even with its resolution, it will be hard to tell. I mean, you are looking for the tiniest bits or Oxygen on things multiple lightyears away.
Light takes a year to travel a lightyear in space. So even if a planet is 10,000 lightyears away, we see the light that started 10,000 years ago. Things will have changed, but not to the reduced-to-dust stage.
I committed a mortal sin and just picked the first frozen entree from my freezer. It turned out to be a Lean Cuisine Salisbury Steak and Mac n Cheese. Sorry. Not sorry.
I have heard tales from my mom of the times when the Detroit area got special permission to eat meat on Lent Fridays......as long as it was muskrats!!! As they were aquatic (well, semi) and very plentiful if you could not afford fish, you could eat muskrat. My Granddad would trap a muskrat Thursday when he worked his overnight security guard gig and Grandma would cook it up for Friday dinner. My mom.......was happy to go hungry because she would lie and say she was babysitting or late with a school thing or something. It took her brothers a couple years to catch on and suddenly they were busy with job or sport on Fridays also.
If my mom was feeling fancy, she’d whip up salmon croquettes-canned salmon, bread crumbs, salt & pepper and some spices. She fried them in oil in a skillet. But it you could bake them too. They were pyramid shaped salmon cakes. The only fish I’d eat as a kid, and m favorite fish 🐟 now!
Given a choice between polenta and muskrat, I’ll take polenta. Actually there aren’t a lot of reasons not to like polenta - love it with marinara and cheese!
Do you have any fried fish cocktails, I mean, cocktails that use fried fish as an ingredient? I think I may have had one in Greece, or maybe that was just ambient fragrance in the air.
So every friday he'd stop at Masse's Fish Market on the way home from work, and we'd have fried haddock for dinner. My mom did a decent job with it, though today I'd say it was seriously overcooked. And dad would have a little tiny portion of it.
.
Life got much better in the early 70s when my dad, for reasons unknown, pretty much told the church to stuff it.
When I was a kid my brother and I would go to Lucky Strike with our dad if we were off doing errands in that area.. Been many times as an adult, though lately their food has gotten a bit too salty for my taste.
But more likely we'd go to Ken's Luncheonette (or sometimes Steve's) in the Falls.
My dad used to work right at the corner of East Main and Broadway in the Falls, above Lasher's Camera.. his commute was a straight shot on Rt 33 (what we used to call "nort sout highway") to our home in suburban South Hadley ;)
Haddock's what real chowder's made from. Taught by the lobstermen in my Maine village. And no goddamn flour. A haddock, cooked first in a bit of water, (chop off head & tail first and gills by god), cool & skin/bone, make broth by fryin' off diced salt pork, then melting diced onion in the fat, no browning! Add milk and roughly diced white potatoes, simmer till almost done. Return crispy salt pork, chunks of fish, let it sit a while till the fish is warmed up. You can add some butter to pool on the top. Eat this with old-fashioned crackers.
That's chowder, by god, I tell ya.
I guess it's cheating, with the pork, but it is required, sorry.
Rockfish, flounder, halibut, salmon are all wormy. Do not ever eat sushi from fresh caught never frozen fish. I am so making your chowder from Alaskan cod from my freezer!
The grocery store around the corner from my office offers a breakfast and lunch hot bar that has several things going for it, mostly the fried seafood and catfish that get served up daily. Because it's Lent, today's offerings were fried shrimp, baked catfish, fried catfish, and Shrimp Florentine (pasta). Plus you get two sides that may or may not be "vegetables" in the rest of the world (see, for instance, broccoli cheese casserole, hush puppies, and mac and cheese). Dessert was a pitiful slice of king cake likely taken from all the ones the store didn't manage to shift on Mardi Gras Day. And it's manned by a bunch of cranky old retired school cafeteria ladies who, despite being ornery, still manage to call me "darling" and "sweetie" and "honey" and genuinely mean it.
There's a good reason why Louisiana is right up there on the obesity charts, but damn, we eat good down here.
Yep, it's been two years since I was in New Orleans for a family birthday celebration, and between the walk up places to buy alcohol and the food, it's a good thing I don't live there or I'd weigh 500 pounds. I was there for a week and I did not have one meal that wasn't amazing. Including breakfasts. Could not believe it's a normal thing to have a Bloody Mary with your breakfast, but I went with the "When in Rome" thing and had the most fun I've had in years.
In Inwood, which is the northern tip of Manhattan island, my favorite intersection is Seaman Avenue and Cumming Street. Jim Carroll grew up in Inwood, and mentioned Seaman and Cumming in his writing.
Oh, man, that takes me back. I was building shrimp boats in St. Augustine, Florida with the Desco Boats Company, in 1974. Every three months, they would put on a shrimp boil for all the 60 employees, their wives, friends and significant others. The biggest shrimp you ever saw. And free beer, well into the sweet Florida evening...
Our late, great terrier/Shih Tzu Jasper had an obsession with my underwear. That little dog was forever rifling through the laundry basket to usurp clean pairs of my little panties and hiding them behind the dining room hutch or behind his preferred couch cushion.
No matter what we did to discourage him Jasper simply could NOT leave those panties be.
It was rather embarrassing when company stopped by and I had to frantically check behind THAT couch cushion to remove anything that didn't belong there.
Just made a plan to get out of the house and go to 2-3 art galleries and an antique mall this afternoon. Need to refresh my soul. Dog walk also included.
Today for me is taken up with the HOA block party this afternoon. Tomorrow, though, I will be attending the annual art show downtown. Probably have lunch while I'm there.
In the endless parade of governmental bullshit that assaults our senses daily, sometimes a moment arrives that transcends the usual cacophony of political noise. A moment so egregiously offensive, so fundamentally un-American, that it demands our collective rage. White House adviser Alina Habba just delivered exactly that when she suggested veterans affected by recent federal layoffs might not be "fit to have a job at this moment."
Let that sink in. Veterans. Not fit to work. From a White House adviser.
Speaking to reporters with the casual cruelty that has become this administration's hallmark, Habba didn't just double down on defending the DOGE-led cuts that have devastated thousands of federal workers—she decided to take a metaphorical piss on veterans' service while she was at it.
"No sympathy," she declared, regarding those who lost their jobs. No sympathy. For veterans. Let me repeat that one more goddamn time: NO SYMPATHY FOR VETERANS who just lost their livelihoods. Because apparently having "fiscal responsibility" to taxpayers means treating those who served our country like disposable trash.
Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays once made his voice heard, loud and clear, in Massachusetts about bankers, landlords and tax collectors mistreating veterans. The year was 1786; the location was Massachusetts and there was no second amendment guaranteeing that Shays Rebellion would have sufficient firepower to resist the Governor's militia.
But the specter of Daniel Shays haunted the minds of the oligarchs who realized that the Articles of Confederation might not be efficient enough to deal with future insurrections. In a way, veteran Daniel Shays is the real author of the Constitution which provided for a strong central government capable of mistreating veterans if they ever got out of line again.
And veterans have been known to get out of line ever since causing the various administrations to use force to compel obedience. For instance, this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
The state of South Carolina has conducted its first execution by firing squad. The prisoner, Brad Sigman, 67, was also the oldest person ever executed in SC. He was convicted of a brutal double murder. He chose the firing squad out of fear that the drugs used in lethal injection would not work as intended and he would linger and suffer, as has happened lately. It was described as a "bloody spectacle".
I think he made the right choice, with the bonus that maybe if it’s horrific enough it will force change. But it’s murdering a person. Why shouldn’t it look like that?
The rest of the world won’t sell it to states who are using it for executions. I say this with love as a Canadian opposed to the death penalty, but this was one of the examples where the rest of the world was kind of scared of how cruel the United States is. There were a lot of examples of the US having a cruelty is the point attitude long before the Trump era. The depth of it surprises me, but there was always a tinge of pulling the wings off flies in your elected officials. Executions and no universal health care, and incarcerating people for life for smoking weed. All of that seemed nuts long before Trump.
How is it that drug companies can get sued for lethal injection, but not gun manufacturers for school shootings? Is it the chemical composition of the material being injected?
I wish I could find the Armando Iannucci Shows bit about the death penalty, and how we used to put people to death by having them eaten by hogs but now we're more developed and enlightened so we pass electricity through their bones and boil them in their own skin while their hot piss and shit flows out of them.
Guys! It’s the death penalty. Killing someone is going to be messy. If you’re willing to execute people, you have to be willing to accept a bit of a mess.
House GOP infighting over where to stick a supplement on the CR for Defense. Some are insisting the supplement not increase the top line which would mean cuts elsewhere
Those roof mounted nerfball cannons will get the job done. Unless the the chips inside the computer malfunction and the targeting system decides to start randomly changing the Sirius radio for no reason at all.
So let's see. There are 73 million people receiving benefit payments. Let's assume each has an adult kid with a spouse they'll now have to move in with, who have one young adult kid. That's 292 million, out of a population of 347 million. So correction. Tens of millions isn't a riot. It's a revolution.
ALL hell will break loose if that fat orange fascist and his mendacious Rethug majority minions do this. I will be on the front lines of that hell raising with my black metal stick in my hand.
I started a comment about how my black metal stick needs two hands to swing because the metal stick is securely attached to a wooden stock but I stopped writing that comment and instead wrote this comment about how deplorable it would be if everyone had that kind of stick.
Our hospital system pays people overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. Lately my only day shift is Thursday - I get to work Thursday - and alas no one has been paid. I'm just the charge nurse - not the hospital president and everyone was on me like it was either my fault or I could do anything about it. Apparently it was a glitch between hospital and ADP - now resolved. What I learned from people's concern - is that even middle class people are living from paycheck to paycheck. A senior RN I work with had to drive to the bank and move money so her mortgage check wouldn't bounce. These are people working full time - not on SS yet. I keep a substantial cushion in the bank (probably because I had some poverty times in my life). So Skepti is right - there WILL be a collective shit fit
Girl, same. I may have only been 4 when the '60s ended, but I was born into and raised in the final years of the Black Arts Movement, and other assorted radicals. And I miss the days of direct action.
I don't know how to say this as I want to...I don't know you but I feel I do, a bit...
Please keep posting. I have no doubt that this will be a devastating problem for so many people. I get the feeling that many people care about you and I care also.
I wish I could take away the pain and hopelessness.
There are people in the area (including me) who would help you and the Crew.
We all have one job to do during this fuckshow: Live. Through. This. Get out the other side. Don't let them win.
Ultimately everyone has to decide for themselves, but I've come a long way over the last 2 years when I was arguing to my therapist that it is my right to off myself.
Word. There are a lot of people in the area who can help. Sadly, I can't help with a living space b/c we're pretty crammed already (6 of us in my mom's house, which is pretty big, but no more room unless someone wants the attic).
I was trying to find your email and I’ve lost it. Would it be possible for you to shoot it to me again let’s exchange information so we can get together. I will bake you some brownies.!
While Hammy *may* be just illustrating a point (or he may be totally serious), there are many out there - I am one of them - that would have no other option. None at all.
I don’t mean to add to any suicidal ideation here, but up here in Canada this has been one of the unintended results of assisted dying laws. People who cannot afford treatment not covered by Medicare, people who are in areas that don’t have access to treatment. People who require assistance to modify or get accessible housing is a big category. It would be a real threat. Most people cannot miss a payment.
Over the last three years, the head of a small charter school network that serves fewer than 1,000 students has taken home up to $870,000 annually, a startling amount that appears to be the highest for any public school superintendent in the state and among the top in the nation.
Valere Public Schools Superintendent Salvador Cavazos’ compensation to run three campuses in Austin, Corpus Christi and Brownsville exceeds the less than $450,000 that New York City’s chancellor makes to run the largest school system in the country.
But Cavazos’ salary looks far more modest in publicly posted records that are supposed to provide transparency to taxpayers. That’s because Valere excludes most of his bonuses from its reports to the state and on its own website, instead only sharing his base pay of about $300,000.
The fact that the superintendent of a small district could pull in a big-time salary shocked experts and previewed larger transparency and accountability challenges that could follow as Texas moves to approve a voucher-like program that would allow the use of public funds for private schools.
It’s the first Friday Fish Fry of the season at the bar, so I’m gonna be slammed in an hour. You got questions, put them here and I’ll answer them later tonight.
I've recently been buying random bottles to build up my bar, and I can tell already that some are going to be there for a loooong time. What's the oldest/least used bottle on your shelf, and why?
Bottle of Pastis. No recollection of buying it. Easily 20 years old - and I have no idea what it's supposed to taste like, so I couldn't tell if it's gone bad.
Everclear. I only use it for making limoncello and bitters. It's really more of a tool than a beverage.
My first job was a combo deli liquor store. Every Friday, like clockwork, some 90 yo lady would pick up a bottle of Everclear.
For all I know she washed her windows with it.
Other than beer or wine, which cocktail goes back with a fish fry?
Moscow mule. Or any mule, really.
Martini with a twist.
Gimlet.
Ginger beer 🍺 ?
Old fashion
I would go with scotch and soda.
Grasshopper.
ech. turn in your cocktail shaker and leave the premises immediately.
The creamy mint cuts the grease and coats the stomach! You need to drink them by THE PITCHER!
I just made my first grasshopper this week, delicious!
1/4 oz absinthe
3/4 oz Giffards Menth-Pastille
1oz Giffards Creme de Cacao
1 1/2 oz heavy cream, whipping cream, whatever your dairy calls it.
1 oz gin, not super botanical, i used beefeater. cognac, irish should work as well.
Poor people cannot afford this, but you be you.
Do you think the European Southern Observatory's Extremely Large Telescope will have enough resolution to detect signs of life from an exoplanet?
With enough alcohol imbibed by the scientists involved, yes.
...and will they ask us over for a fish fry?
They Serve Man
If the exoplaneteers are drunk out of their ever living minds, then they may well do so, no doubt to their ever living regret.
Wait! You meant the scientists, right? I am so embarrassed…
Maybe, but doubtful, but only as a starting point. As much as terrestrial telescopes can do, it would take a perfected instrument like the James Webb Space Telescope to confirm and further do research on an exoplanet.
And even with its resolution, it will be hard to tell. I mean, you are looking for the tiniest bits or Oxygen on things multiple lightyears away.
And would they have not long since been reduced to a band of dust around their dying star, given how long and far away they are? Were?
Light takes a year to travel a lightyear in space. So even if a planet is 10,000 lightyears away, we see the light that started 10,000 years ago. Things will have changed, but not to the reduced-to-dust stage.
So much less work to hang out with smart people than to actually be a smart people…
Can I just get a beer? And can we still be friends?
What kind of beer?
A Belgian ale.
Not my choice, but I can respect that.
Jever Pils.
Acceptable. I'm not really a fan of German beers personally, but I respect those who like the style.
I just want my wine!
It’s Hooper time
Can’t touch this
Hold on
Drink a little bit and let 'em know it's going on
Like that, like that
Cold on a mission, so fall on back
Let 'em know that you're too much
And this is a drink, uh, they can't touch
somebody's in the zone tonight
https://youtu.be/8NNs61OgwSA?si=DuVDOfsus1RPGR6I
“Où sont les neigedens d’antan?”
What? I had a question.
How do you tell snowmen from snow women?
--Snowballs!
OUT!
Snow-dens? WTF? You mean Edouard, that asshole?
It's a Catch 22 thing.
It's from the French author Villon.
I'm havin' ya on, but I don't remember shit about the book, anyway
Villon was great. He'd speak for the working class when it was suppressed speech.
As a pre-Vatican II kind of Catholic I eat fish on non Lent Fridays too.
I’m exempt because I aged out.
I had shrimp tacos for lunch for purely secular reasons :
1). I was hungry
2). I like shrimp
I committed a mortal sin and just picked the first frozen entree from my freezer. It turned out to be a Lean Cuisine Salisbury Steak and Mac n Cheese. Sorry. Not sorry.
That actually doesn't sound bad.
Same here. Had cod today.
I have heard tales from my mom of the times when the Detroit area got special permission to eat meat on Lent Fridays......as long as it was muskrats!!! As they were aquatic (well, semi) and very plentiful if you could not afford fish, you could eat muskrat. My Granddad would trap a muskrat Thursday when he worked his overnight security guard gig and Grandma would cook it up for Friday dinner. My mom.......was happy to go hungry because she would lie and say she was babysitting or late with a school thing or something. It took her brothers a couple years to catch on and suddenly they were busy with job or sport on Fridays also.
Friday was pasta day when I was a kid. Spaghetti, mac & cheese, maybe a tuna casserole.
If my mom was feeling fancy, she’d whip up salmon croquettes-canned salmon, bread crumbs, salt & pepper and some spices. She fried them in oil in a skillet. But it you could bake them too. They were pyramid shaped salmon cakes. The only fish I’d eat as a kid, and m favorite fish 🐟 now!
Making my famous spaghetti sauce tonight. Friday is pasta day here too.
We ate baked beans because my Dad didn’t eat fish. After a few years my Mom started making fish for those of us who ate it. She loved swordfish steak.
My mom too. We probably ingested a lot of heavy metals from that swordfish as kids.
We also ate a lot of polenta
So fancy - we just called it cornmeal mush.
I didn't realize that's what polenta is until adulthood. (I can be a bit slow on the uptake).
Polenta good!!!!
Given a choice between polenta and muskrat, I’ll take polenta. Actually there aren’t a lot of reasons not to like polenta - love it with marinara and cheese!
Hey Seek! It's been a while.
I’ve been in and out as time and life allows. Hope all is well with you over there.
Do you have any fried fish cocktails, I mean, cocktails that use fried fish as an ingredient? I think I may have had one in Greece, or maybe that was just ambient fragrance in the air.
Cod liver oil is strictly medicinal.
Yeah made with the Bassomatic™
You can really taste the bass!
It's all about the bass.
*snerk*
OT story:
My dad really didn't like fish.
But Catholic.
So every friday he'd stop at Masse's Fish Market on the way home from work, and we'd have fried haddock for dinner. My mom did a decent job with it, though today I'd say it was seriously overcooked. And dad would have a little tiny portion of it.
.
Life got much better in the early 70s when my dad, for reasons unknown, pretty much told the church to stuff it.
I don't really like a lot of fish, but for some reason I like sardines in oil in a can, and love shellfish. Weirdo I suppose.
Waitaminit ... Masse's on Memorial Drive???
Indeed! Except back then it was in Willimansett..
I think there was a garden shop where Masse's is now.
Native Aldenvillian (Aldenvillain? Aldenvillager?) here.
Masse's was the usual answer when the fridge grew barren.
When I was a kid my brother and I would go to Lucky Strike with our dad if we were off doing errands in that area.. Been many times as an adult, though lately their food has gotten a bit too salty for my taste.
But more likely we'd go to Ken's Luncheonette (or sometimes Steve's) in the Falls.
My dad used to work right at the corner of East Main and Broadway in the Falls, above Lasher's Camera.. his commute was a straight shot on Rt 33 (what we used to call "nort sout highway") to our home in suburban South Hadley ;)
Holy crap. Lucky Strike! That might have been me in the kitchen, doing the dishes!
Piepul Camera was where I got my darkroom goodies; I never checked out Lasher's.
You haven't lived until you have had lutefisk. After having lutefisk you will wish you were dead.
Haddock is good
I usually go for the Cod
Yes. Haddock gets so chewy its almost tough, even if you cook it briefly. I prefer cod. Turbot is divine but I can't buy it anymore around here....🙁
Haddock's what real chowder's made from. Taught by the lobstermen in my Maine village. And no goddamn flour. A haddock, cooked first in a bit of water, (chop off head & tail first and gills by god), cool & skin/bone, make broth by fryin' off diced salt pork, then melting diced onion in the fat, no browning! Add milk and roughly diced white potatoes, simmer till almost done. Return crispy salt pork, chunks of fish, let it sit a while till the fish is warmed up. You can add some butter to pool on the top. Eat this with old-fashioned crackers.
That's chowder, by god, I tell ya.
I guess it's cheating, with the pork, but it is required, sorry.
p.s. Cod's full of worms. Also sorry. True.
Local fish markets here put out "scrod", which is sometimes cod but more often haddock. You only find out which when it's on your fork.
Rockfish, flounder, halibut, salmon are all wormy. Do not ever eat sushi from fresh caught never frozen fish. I am so making your chowder from Alaskan cod from my freezer!
LOL, I just give people hell for cod. I wholeheartedly support your position!!!
Dang, that's cool, passing on the righteous Maine chowder from the old fellas, I am glad to do my part!
I decided to make it for St Patrick’s Day to go with the corned beef and traditional sides.
And no fucking herbs. Herbs are wonderful but not in chowder.
Ha!! Right???
Okay, admittedly, a bay leaf doesn't hurt. BUT THAT'S IT.
What? No canned clams? <Ducks>
WHY, YOU!! ----------------------------> the sea! Get in!!
mmm. if it ain't salt pork, it ain't fish chowder. on buttered pilot crackers in the bowl.
the crispy bits are good stirred into roughly mashed potatoes.
Right? Right???
OH, also did 4 yrs in B-more; got a tub of jumbo lump and some good scallops to make chowder once; it was good, ayup.
ooo yeah. i do not begrudge the cost of picked crab! thinking oysters....
my dad was a trout fisherman, and they also chowdah-up just fine. if he didn't catch that day he'd gig a bag of frogs for dinner. piles of tiny bones.
Kroger had cod on sale here a few days ago, 8 bucks for a 2 lb package, it's been years since I've bought any.
Whitefish up here. Delicate, subtle, local...
Whitefish or GTFO From my meat eating days....
I miss fish.
Dried, frozen, or fresh cod is the fish of my youth,
finnan haddie?
I remember when Long John Silver's used it and OMIGOD it was the best fast food ever.
Long John Silver's is how my Wife blew out her gallbladder. I assume it was worth it.
“Haddock is good.”
Billions of blue blistering barnacles!
aye yai ,captain.
Isn't shrub a more involved switchel?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchel
Switchel is a cousin to shrubs, but it's far simpler than the shrubs I'm using behind the bar.
The grocery store around the corner from my office offers a breakfast and lunch hot bar that has several things going for it, mostly the fried seafood and catfish that get served up daily. Because it's Lent, today's offerings were fried shrimp, baked catfish, fried catfish, and Shrimp Florentine (pasta). Plus you get two sides that may or may not be "vegetables" in the rest of the world (see, for instance, broccoli cheese casserole, hush puppies, and mac and cheese). Dessert was a pitiful slice of king cake likely taken from all the ones the store didn't manage to shift on Mardi Gras Day. And it's manned by a bunch of cranky old retired school cafeteria ladies who, despite being ornery, still manage to call me "darling" and "sweetie" and "honey" and genuinely mean it.
There's a good reason why Louisiana is right up there on the obesity charts, but damn, we eat good down here.
Yep, it's been two years since I was in New Orleans for a family birthday celebration, and between the walk up places to buy alcohol and the food, it's a good thing I don't live there or I'd weigh 500 pounds. I was there for a week and I did not have one meal that wasn't amazing. Including breakfasts. Could not believe it's a normal thing to have a Bloody Mary with your breakfast, but I went with the "When in Rome" thing and had the most fun I've had in years.
You can have a Bloody Mary with anything. Like...air.
Bear needs to get down to your fair city soon, FOR THE NOMS. (And, also too, for my pun-based photo-op at the intersection of Ursulines and Gayoso.)
In Inwood, which is the northern tip of Manhattan island, my favorite intersection is Seaman Avenue and Cumming Street. Jim Carroll grew up in Inwood, and mentioned Seaman and Cumming in his writing.
Pittsburgh has an intersection of Elizabeth and Taylor...
Boston has an intersection of Electric Avenue and Goodenough Street.
My city has an intersection of Clinton and Gore.
HA! I do love the street names down here. There's Peters and Rampart and Desire and, for those Matt Gaetzes in your life, "Goodchildren."
omg
Crab boil also for the Win! With some boudin and hush puppies...Krystal and remoulade on the side and an ice cold PBR 40...
Oh, man, that takes me back. I was building shrimp boats in St. Augustine, Florida with the Desco Boats Company, in 1974. Every three months, they would put on a shrimp boil for all the 60 employees, their wives, friends and significant others. The biggest shrimp you ever saw. And free beer, well into the sweet Florida evening...
We always called it Fish Party back in my day.
May you arrive safely on the other side.
Mmmmm....fish fry....
Take care!
It's International Women's Day today and the Women's March people are sponsoring rallies around the country. Hit this link to find a rally near you:
https://www.womensmarch.com/
I’m off to do my errands like everything is normal and stuff. Tomorrow is Spring forward? Bleghhhh, up at the wee hours for my run.
I'm lucky, I schedule my morning outing so I finish just as my coffee shop opens. That's 6:30 most days but 8:00 on Sunday.
Where they went wrong.
𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝗰𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰
𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦: 𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘮.
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/reporting-on-trump-fascism-in-2024
Ok, I am out for the rest of the day. Everyone take care! Peace out.
Take care, and peace to you.
Have fun storming the castle!
Take care!
Caturday Counter Point.
https://substack.com/profile/157161709-tehbaddr/note/c-98949077
Kittehs gonna kitteh...
https://substack.com/profile/155980809-pliny-the-younger/note/c-98948086
Behold my mighty hunting progress, human! Look what I have hunted and killed.
Awwwwwww. I love that, my kitty steals socks and talks to them.
Our late, great terrier/Shih Tzu Jasper had an obsession with my underwear. That little dog was forever rifling through the laundry basket to usurp clean pairs of my little panties and hiding them behind the dining room hutch or behind his preferred couch cushion.
No matter what we did to discourage him Jasper simply could NOT leave those panties be.
"Great, my dog is a fetishist."
It was rather embarrassing when company stopped by and I had to frantically check behind THAT couch cushion to remove anything that didn't belong there.
Kinky.
"Hah! I got one! Now I shall hug it and squeeze it and I shall call it George!"
Just made a plan to get out of the house and go to 2-3 art galleries and an antique mall this afternoon. Need to refresh my soul. Dog walk also included.
Guess I should have said, Dog walk also included afterwards.
I really do need to socialize my little minion
And other great chatup lines.
At the art gallery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imxb8IShtoc
Pro tip: do not take doggos into the art galleries. They can't appreciate the artists' use of colour.
Today for me is taken up with the HOA block party this afternoon. Tomorrow, though, I will be attending the annual art show downtown. Probably have lunch while I'm there.
Man, sometimes I miss civilisation .
𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐇𝐚𝐛𝐛𝐚 & 𝐃𝐎𝐆𝐄 𝐓𝐨 𝐔𝐒 𝐕𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬: "𝐈𝐟 𝐃𝐎𝐆𝐄 𝐋𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐎𝐟𝐟, 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐏𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐭"
In the endless parade of governmental bullshit that assaults our senses daily, sometimes a moment arrives that transcends the usual cacophony of political noise. A moment so egregiously offensive, so fundamentally un-American, that it demands our collective rage. White House adviser Alina Habba just delivered exactly that when she suggested veterans affected by recent federal layoffs might not be "fit to have a job at this moment."
Let that sink in. Veterans. Not fit to work. From a White House adviser.
Speaking to reporters with the casual cruelty that has become this administration's hallmark, Habba didn't just double down on defending the DOGE-led cuts that have devastated thousands of federal workers—she decided to take a metaphorical piss on veterans' service while she was at it.
"No sympathy," she declared, regarding those who lost their jobs. No sympathy. For veterans. Let me repeat that one more goddamn time: NO SYMPATHY FOR VETERANS who just lost their livelihoods. Because apparently having "fiscal responsibility" to taxpayers means treating those who served our country like disposable trash.
https://thistleandmoss.com/p/alina-habba-and-doge-to-us-veterans
Lots of them voted for him.
We tried to warn them, but Biden is OLD, (right, NYT?), and a black woman just wouldn't do.
Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays once made his voice heard, loud and clear, in Massachusetts about bankers, landlords and tax collectors mistreating veterans. The year was 1786; the location was Massachusetts and there was no second amendment guaranteeing that Shays Rebellion would have sufficient firepower to resist the Governor's militia.
But the specter of Daniel Shays haunted the minds of the oligarchs who realized that the Articles of Confederation might not be efficient enough to deal with future insurrections. In a way, veteran Daniel Shays is the real author of the Constitution which provided for a strong central government capable of mistreating veterans if they ever got out of line again.
And veterans have been known to get out of line ever since causing the various administrations to use force to compel obedience. For instance, this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
If I’m not “fit to have a job at this moment,” how do I satisfy the work requirement for Medicaid?
You don't. See? Problem solves itself!
I know several so-called members on the federal gravy train who should lose their jobs, and more.
The state of South Carolina has conducted its first execution by firing squad. The prisoner, Brad Sigman, 67, was also the oldest person ever executed in SC. He was convicted of a brutal double murder. He chose the firing squad out of fear that the drugs used in lethal injection would not work as intended and he would linger and suffer, as has happened lately. It was described as a "bloody spectacle".
I don't feel any safer today.
I think he made the right choice, with the bonus that maybe if it’s horrific enough it will force change. But it’s murdering a person. Why shouldn’t it look like that?
If they can find drugs that work for assisted suicide, why can't they use those same drugs for lethal injection?
The cruelty is the point.
The rest of the world won’t sell it to states who are using it for executions. I say this with love as a Canadian opposed to the death penalty, but this was one of the examples where the rest of the world was kind of scared of how cruel the United States is. There were a lot of examples of the US having a cruelty is the point attitude long before the Trump era. The depth of it surprises me, but there was always a tinge of pulling the wings off flies in your elected officials. Executions and no universal health care, and incarcerating people for life for smoking weed. All of that seemed nuts long before Trump.
Because the Dept of Corrections people and lawmakers making these decisions have zero medical knowledge.
Drug companies, for liability reasons, have cut states off from those drugs forcing the states to "improvise".
How is it that drug companies can get sued for lethal injection, but not gun manufacturers for school shootings? Is it the chemical composition of the material being injected?
Exempted from lawsuits, since Reagan's time. Courtesy of the NRA.
I wish I could find the Armando Iannucci Shows bit about the death penalty, and how we used to put people to death by having them eaten by hogs but now we're more developed and enlightened so we pass electricity through their bones and boil them in their own skin while their hot piss and shit flows out of them.
Hannibal Lector nods approvingly.
And THAT is supposed to pass as "civilized".
[deep despairing exhalation]
Guys! It’s the death penalty. Killing someone is going to be messy. If you’re willing to execute people, you have to be willing to accept a bit of a mess.
The last time I checked, the cost of keeping a prisoner in a cell for the rest of their life averaged less than $100,000.00.
The average cost of an execution when legal costs, attorneys, and multiple appeals are considered was $4,000,000.00.
Conservative, pro -life economics 101.
Conservatives want us afraid and/or dead
Yes, but that $4 million buys a lot of satisfaction?
On Bluesky there are lots of people calling this "medieval" and "dark ages".
It bothers me that they don't seem to recognise why that's not correct.
No arquebus?
Blowing several holes in a human being at close range tends to do that.
Does anyone besided me feel tremendous empathy for the poor SOB who has to hose down the site of execution after the body has been removed?
What about the poor slob who has to hose down the public school after the latest outbreak of watering the flag of liberty?
Violence, in this country, is not exceptional. That’s supposed to make you feel patriotic.
I used to have to help stabilize the victims after they rolled into the ER.
All it has ever made me is angry.
Yes. Meanwhile the people who would engage in such behavior are at large in their communities.
It makes your skin crawl, doesn't it?
It’s pretty gross.
House GOP infighting over where to stick a supplement on the CR for Defense. Some are insisting the supplement not increase the top line which would mean cuts elsewhere
What's the 'supplement?' A donation of Abrams tanks to Russia as a token of The Homunculus' esteem?
Probably Tesla armored Wankpanzers.
Those roof mounted nerfball cannons will get the job done. Unless the the chips inside the computer malfunction and the targeting system decides to start randomly changing the Sirius radio for no reason at all.
Unclear. Text allegedly dropping some time tomorrow
Tweelon and his vandals haven’t chainsawed enough from the federal government already?
I have ideas where they can stick that "supplement".....
They'll have to jam them in beside my boot.
There would be riots.
"‘A disruptive effect’: How slashing staff at the Social Security Administration is sparking fears the system could collapse"
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/08/politics/social-security-administration-staff-cuts/index.html
So let's see. There are 73 million people receiving benefit payments. Let's assume each has an adult kid with a spouse they'll now have to move in with, who have one young adult kid. That's 292 million, out of a population of 347 million. So correction. Tens of millions isn't a riot. It's a revolution.
Slashing staff means “don’t call” when your social security check is “lost.”
And the housing vacuum to be created will be spectacular!
ALL hell will break loose if that fat orange fascist and his mendacious Rethug majority minions do this. I will be on the front lines of that hell raising with my black metal stick in my hand.
I started a comment about how my black metal stick needs two hands to swing because the metal stick is securely attached to a wooden stock but I stopped writing that comment and instead wrote this comment about how deplorable it would be if everyone had that kind of stick.
Hell has not broken loose thus far.
When enough people don't recieve their monthy SS payments there will be a collective shit fit.
Frankly I'm already pissed off, but I was pretty much born that way so I don't suppose it counts.
Our hospital system pays people overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. Lately my only day shift is Thursday - I get to work Thursday - and alas no one has been paid. I'm just the charge nurse - not the hospital president and everyone was on me like it was either my fault or I could do anything about it. Apparently it was a glitch between hospital and ADP - now resolved. What I learned from people's concern - is that even middle class people are living from paycheck to paycheck. A senior RN I work with had to drive to the bank and move money so her mortgage check wouldn't bounce. These are people working full time - not on SS yet. I keep a substantial cushion in the bank (probably because I had some poverty times in my life). So Skepti is right - there WILL be a collective shit fit
Girl, same. I may have only been 4 when the '60s ended, but I was born into and raised in the final years of the Black Arts Movement, and other assorted radicals. And I miss the days of direct action.
As their esteemed elders it's up to us too show these kids how to fight BACK like you mean it.
I don't have anybody to move in with. That's why I'm building a suicide kit. Finding a new home for The Crew is on my todo list.
I don't know how to say this as I want to...I don't know you but I feel I do, a bit...
Please keep posting. I have no doubt that this will be a devastating problem for so many people. I get the feeling that many people care about you and I care also.
I wish I could take away the pain and hopelessness.
Please tell us what we can do to help.
No, Hammy. Please don't.
There are people in the area (including me) who would help you and the Crew.
We all have one job to do during this fuckshow: Live. Through. This. Get out the other side. Don't let them win.
Ultimately everyone has to decide for themselves, but I've come a long way over the last 2 years when I was arguing to my therapist that it is my right to off myself.
I no longer really believe that.
Please don't make those plans.
Fuck that noise, Hammy
You and the kitties come stay with me. I’m just 15 minutes down the road.
Will ride this out staying high 24 seven
I MEAN IT
Word. There are a lot of people in the area who can help. Sadly, I can't help with a living space b/c we're pretty crammed already (6 of us in my mom's house, which is pretty big, but no more room unless someone wants the attic).
I got a tiny house, but during the pandemic, we were pretty stacked up here.
I’m all alone now except for the kitties so I do have space it would be cramped, but who cares! We’ll have a bounty of kittens!
* also we need to get together. I need to find your email so we can do that. I have something for you.❤️
OMG, thank you so much for thinking of me. :) :) I appreciate it.
And yes, if it comes down it to it, we can pack people in like sardines, LOL!
I was trying to find your email and I’ve lost it. Would it be possible for you to shoot it to me again let’s exchange information so we can get together. I will bake you some brownies.!
Please don't do that...even though I understand the feeling.
While Hammy *may* be just illustrating a point (or he may be totally serious), there are many out there - I am one of them - that would have no other option. None at all.
I don’t mean to add to any suicidal ideation here, but up here in Canada this has been one of the unintended results of assisted dying laws. People who cannot afford treatment not covered by Medicare, people who are in areas that don’t have access to treatment. People who require assistance to modify or get accessible housing is a big category. It would be a real threat. Most people cannot miss a payment.
I'm so sorry. :( :(
There are probably people here that would help you, though.
I have no doubt about that part. I'm gonna hold out hope that stopping SS payments will finally be the bridge too far. (Yeah, yeah, I know).
But it would be fuckin bleak, that's for sure.
I think it would be a bridge too far and may be what finally gets us out on the streets in massive protests.
I get it, I really do.
There should be riots already
Yep. This country is weak fucking sauce.
Ya think?
𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘋𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜.𝘚. 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘹 𝘪𝘵.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/growing-fear-of-trump-recession-amid-tariff-whiplash-and-doge-chaos_n_67cc4596e4b0a43e4425f1b9
That would be an aggressive affirmative.
Captain Mr. obvious has things to say.
I'm beginning to think he's not doing a very good job at fixing the U.S. government either.
What gave you the first clue, genius?
If you are just starting to be concerned now, I have something to say to you: Fuck you, you fucking dullard.
Wasn't aware it NEEDED 'fixing.'
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 $𝟖𝟕𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎. 𝐇𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐚 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐭 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝟏,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬.
𝑂𝑛 𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟, 𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑣𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑟 𝐶𝑎𝑣𝑎𝑧𝑜𝑠 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑠 𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 $300,000 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑢𝑛 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑃𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑆𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠, 𝑎 𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑇𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘. 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑎𝑥𝑝𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛’𝑡 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦, ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑦 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦’𝑠 ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑡-𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠.
Over the last three years, the head of a small charter school network that serves fewer than 1,000 students has taken home up to $870,000 annually, a startling amount that appears to be the highest for any public school superintendent in the state and among the top in the nation.
Valere Public Schools Superintendent Salvador Cavazos’ compensation to run three campuses in Austin, Corpus Christi and Brownsville exceeds the less than $450,000 that New York City’s chancellor makes to run the largest school system in the country.
But Cavazos’ salary looks far more modest in publicly posted records that are supposed to provide transparency to taxpayers. That’s because Valere excludes most of his bonuses from its reports to the state and on its own website, instead only sharing his base pay of about $300,000.
The fact that the superintendent of a small district could pull in a big-time salary shocked experts and previewed larger transparency and accountability challenges that could follow as Texas moves to approve a voucher-like program that would allow the use of public funds for private schools.
https://www.propublica.org/article/valere-public-schools-superintendent-salary-texas
Hey, Skum, I found a TON of fraud and waste!
Womp. Womp.
Nottingham Forest 1-0 Manchester City, final.
Well, yeah, it's hard to score when your forwards keep taking an arrow to the knee.
LOL
https://substack.com/@vaselinehabits833809/note/c-98942657?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2m7akn
I remember seeing this year's ago and it always stuck with me. Feels apt now with an oligarchy actively destroying our agencies and institutions
I've been thinking A LOT lately about that cartoon.