"They might as well have sent the Marx Brothers." Dr. Henry Jones Sr, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", ALSO a Paramount picture. THAT'S why he couldn't have called for The Three Stooges or Abbott and Costello.
"Hail, Hail Fredonia, Land of the Brave and the Free!"... played on every possible occasion at SUNY's premier music education institute, Fredonia State University.
There's a tiny little town in Kansas that has a tiny little airport that claims that it's an international airport. I always assumed that meant drug smugglers brought in product from Mexico.
Hi pals! Longtime lurker here. Not making this up, I know Groucho Marx's assistant - Stevie S. was mostly responsible for getting "Animal Crackers" re-released in 1974 (he was a student at UCLA at the time.) His book, "Raised Eyebrows" is an utter treat, especially for us Marxists. Ta
Hate to give the NYTimes clicks, but here is our house "leader" doing secret meetings with Kushner to find "mutual ground" between "centrist" Dems and the Nazis (screwing the Dem base along with the entire working class, of course).
Well I have seen it about....lemmee use my Texas Instruments calculator here.....carry the 3......put that in the memory......divide by 71......here we go....the answer is 20 bazillion times.
Favorite part is Groucho getting his head stuck in a giant water pitcher and Harpo draws a very good portrait of Groucho on the outside of the pitcher with the same kind of grease paint stick Groucho uses to apply his own eyebrows and mustache. A damn good portrait too and no stunt men were involved!
Why go to nite school Philosophy 211 class to learn about existentialism? Harpo can draw you a picture which 'splains everything in seconds.
Our dear Fukui loved his Formula One and also the Women's F1 Academy racers so here is today race with the girls on the Zandervoot course in the Netherlands...
Back on home rest as of last night. Got to go to the ER Thursday night over what we initially thought was pneumonia relapse. Nope. Rhinovirus my system was too compromised to handle. Got to stay overnight two nights. Bleh. Never want to do that again. Hospital could not cook chicken for shit but had very nice plain rice and cornbread.
Sorry to hear, but hope you're on the mend. I can't complain about the hospital food I had during my overnight stay in June. Dinner/Bkfst/Lunch were all pretty good. And so was the care.
Where were you? Charity Hospital in NOLA? The food in every hospital I was ever in in NY or NJ was so bad I had to contrive a way to order/smuggle pizza. The last couple of docs were Indian, but THERE WAS NO CURRY! WTF?!?!
Virginia Hospital Center. All the SIDES were fine but both the chicken tenders and chicken breast sucked. In the cooks' defense, delivery people could not figure out how to deliver Into My Room, which is standard procedure unless patient is receiving treatment at Right That Second that requires space. So both sat for like an extra 40 minutes to an hour before getting to me. Because they put them in the warming space and then...didn't tell people they did that? Like three different times? By the third time the head nurse was baffled and ready to kill someone. Because it was just MY ROOM having that problem. Over and over.
But yeah someone of the best not-at-home cornbread and best not-jasmine-or-sushi white rice I've had in a while. Well done on those.
I have screwy taste buds so plainer is usually better. In general. That was one issue with the chicken breast, it like had like a layer of herbs and spices glued on I couldn't scrape off no matter how I tried.
That's called observation. They don't want you clogging up the ER anymore, but they also don't want to send you up to a room and admit you. So they have a limbo land called "observation". I stayed in observation even after my gallbladder surgery because they just wanted to kick me out the next day. Fun times. Hope you're feeling better.
Oh well. You're a lucky duck. I only had a bed with curtains. But I was so stoned on pain meds I started talking to my nurse about how hot my GI Doc was and that he should be in Bollywood movies, he was so hot. He was standing right outside the curtain and heard the whole exchange. Too embarrassed to go see him again. lol
My mom had a friend in the same place I was a little over a year ago. She said it was similar, they run it very well. So just got lucky on the facility.
I had a fun one that pinged if my arm bent a little too much with the IV in it and I didn't straighten said arm ASP it went from "warning ping" to "unending pinging." This was the cause of multiple wake ups, as one might guess.
That thing still around? I had it, or a facsimile thereof, thirty-some years ago when my child was delivered via c-section. I remember getting so annoyed with it that I got out of bed, holding my son in one arm and pushing the IV pole with the other, so I could get to the nurses' station and get someone to do something about it.
Oh we have better tech now. I could hit a button on a remote and summon them to make it stop. Response times were decent enough.
Only one time it was a new nursing assist. who answered and his first two tries did not make it stop so he had to leave and grab someone who COULD. That one did take forever. Apparently he'd been very close to getting it right. But I was not allowed out of bed without help til Friday evening, anyway.
I did hit the Call button a time or two (I was in hospital for three days); it didn't always result in a response and I was getting super tired of that alarm going off every time I twitched my arm. Kind of needed to use it, trying to nurse a baby.
I quickly discovered that there is a button on the machine that will temporarily cancel the pings, if only for a few minutes. That at least buys you some brief sanity, as you wait for the over-worked nurse to finally show up.
Hospitals are seriously understaffed. Why pretend that you're taking good care of your patients when you aren't? (rhetorical question)
If the states try to work together to do something that makes people's lives better, the corrupt Supreme Court will rule it to be an unconstitutional interstate compact.
Two problems with that. One is the obvious number of Republican run states that have zero interest in that.
The other is the number of states that have 'balanced budgets' built into their state constitutions and so building something like that would mean taking money from something else. Which, historically, means from schools.
Motor vehicle standards as well. If memory serves, California regulators were largely responsible for uncovering that Volkswagen "clean diesel" fraud back in the mid-2010s.
We just bought a quarter of a local organically raised beef and a hydroponic indoor lettuce grow to supplement our garden food. I don't trust anything in the stores any more.
My point is it's not just about that. Because attempting to do this means cutting services that are already at a breaking point. For many states, trying to make up for federal failures in one area means making things worse elsewhere.
NYC already has a fair amount of that because the City has absolutely no confidence in either Albany or DC. And it works about as well as you think it would.
It looks like blueberries will kill ya now. I don't suppose The Brainworm Snorter of Coke off Toilet Seats and Cutter of Dicks and Whale Heads has a plan to protect our food sources or IS this the plan to kill us off before the midterms.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a Class 1 warning for specific frozen organic blueberries due to E. coli contamination.
***A Class 1 status means exposure to the product has a reasonable probability of causing severe illness or death.***
Impacted items include select 10-oz packages of GreenWise Organic frozen blueberries sold at Publix stores in eight states (AL, FL, GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, VA) with a best-by date of February 9, 2028.
We have NO ONE! And I mean ZERO from this administration that has any fucking idea what the fuck they are fucking doing. I'm outta fucks now and need to fuck off for the rest of the morning. See ya. Don't eat any frozen blueberries.
" E coli? Rub a little dirt on it and walk it off!! Once we have culled the weak, America will be stronger than ever!!!"
The fringe lunatics making policy these days actually believe this shit. That the only thing keeping us from being a country of Übermensch Spartan rugged individualists is will, the decision 𝘛𝘖 𝘚𝘈𝘊𝘙𝘐𝘍𝘐𝘊𝘌 𝘞𝘏𝘈𝘛 (who...) 𝘞𝘌 𝘏𝘈𝘝𝘌 𝘛𝘖!!!!
The people enacting such malpractice are moral cowards.
These recalls are the last bit of our food safety system still working. That we're seeing so many more of them shows just how quickly all the other parts have broken down.
Houston is no stranger to mass protests. Thousands rallied after the Moody Park Riot of 1978, while more recent demonstrations have packed streets around City Hall over George Floyd’s killing, the 2017 Women's March , and most recently for No Kings demonstrations against President Donald Trump.
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That history has made the smaller turnout at protests over Salgado’s killing more striking. In Minneapolis, neighbors responded to enforcement beyond street protests, building rapid response hotlines, monitoring ICE activity from their cars and turning local businesses into organizing hubs after the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“ I was very sad,” Adame said, recalling the first vigil held for Salgado and his family. “It was mixed feelings because I was happy to see that there were people there, but it was sad to see how there was not a lot of people just comparing it to what we've seen in other states.”
People light candles at a memorial for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a candlelight vigil following his shooting by a federal agent during a federal immigration enforcement operation in Houston on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. The shooting occurred the previous day and is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
People light candles at a memorial for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a candlelight vigil following his shooting by a federal agent during a federal immigration enforcement operation in Houston on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. The shooting occurred the previous day and is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
That contrast has left Garcia, D-Houston, and other advocates questioning whether Salgado’s race or immigration status played a role in the shooting’s failure to spark broader outrage locally and nationally. The muted response is particularly striking in Houston, where Census data shows foreign-born residents make up about 29% of the population, more than twice the 14% share in Minneapolis."
'It's not enough:' Why Houston protests over Lorenzo Salgado’s ICE shooting lag behind other cities
Could be that they don't want to be targeted themselves, especially with face recognition technology, social media videos, etc. making it more likely for the feds to know you were there.
They had facial recognition in Minnesota too. Sorry but I honestly believe people are okay with Latinos being treated like animals. The only major outrage came when they killed white people. But they killed several Latinos before that. Houston is at least a third non white Hispanic. The turn out should have been larger if the community cared. But they really don't until it's time to tell them who to vote for.
If you have not followed Freedonia (alternate spelling, Fredonia): https://thesteadystate.org/press-2/
"They might as well have sent the Marx Brothers." Dr. Henry Jones Sr, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", ALSO a Paramount picture. THAT'S why he couldn't have called for The Three Stooges or Abbott and Costello.
"Hail, Hail Fredonia, Land of the Brave and the Free!"... played on every possible occasion at SUNY's premier music education institute, Fredonia State University.
There's a tiny little town in Kansas that has a tiny little airport that claims that it's an international airport. I always assumed that meant drug smugglers brought in product from Mexico.
Hi pals! Longtime lurker here. Not making this up, I know Groucho Marx's assistant - Stevie S. was mostly responsible for getting "Animal Crackers" re-released in 1974 (he was a student at UCLA at the time.) His book, "Raised Eyebrows" is an utter treat, especially for us Marxists. Ta
In the English language, the two greatest statements ever uttered both involve idiots.
Methinks William and Julius were keen observers of the human existence and both came to the same conclusion.
"She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing."
"Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: He really is an idiot."
Hate to give the NYTimes clicks, but here is our house "leader" doing secret meetings with Kushner to find "mutual ground" between "centrist" Dems and the Nazis (screwing the Dem base along with the entire working class, of course).
Fuck Hakeem Jeffries. Fuck Chuck Schumer.
Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/us/politics/jeffries-kushner-private-meeting.html?unlocked_article_code=1.7lA.wx3X._1O-_tc6GP3A&smid=url-share
Ugh, no thanks. Not an appetising proposition ://
I know I’d be angry reading this, then I read it, and I’m extra angry.
These status quo Democrats, are such enablers!
so... the administration wants to help the centrist Dems, because they fear the "radical" socialist Dems. As they fucking well should.
And the centrist Dems are totes cool with the fascist scum running this country, as long as they get to keep their perks. Fuck them to hell.
Duck Soup?
Well I have seen it about....lemmee use my Texas Instruments calculator here.....carry the 3......put that in the memory......divide by 71......here we go....the answer is 20 bazillion times.
Favorite part is Groucho getting his head stuck in a giant water pitcher and Harpo draws a very good portrait of Groucho on the outside of the pitcher with the same kind of grease paint stick Groucho uses to apply his own eyebrows and mustache. A damn good portrait too and no stunt men were involved!
Why go to nite school Philosophy 211 class to learn about existentialism? Harpo can draw you a picture which 'splains everything in seconds.
It will always be my favorite Marx Bros movie.
Here's my new phone background. It makes me happy.
https://substack.com/@popescipio/note/c-319267062?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=1z0omo
I'm working on my latest "haunted doll" screenplay and Stephen King is getting worried.
Working title: *Natalie*
People are going to be screaming and fainting in the movie theaters.
"I'm working on my latest "haunted doll" screenplay and Stephen King is getting worried."
`
No he's not. "Duma Key" already had a haunted doll. No, I am not kidding.
Yeh, but does Stephen King’s haunted doll also act as a human printer?
No, she doesn't do anything. Not his best book.
Nice Times has arrived!
It's not on the home page.
It is.
https://wonkette.substack.com/p/nice-timesnice-things-por-que-no?r=2knfuc&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
The whole thing is great, but you can skip to 2:15 to see Richard Belzer and Robin Williams doing "every Marx Bros film."
https://youtu.be/TN3ncB_6c34
Our dear Fukui loved his Formula One and also the Women's F1 Academy racers so here is today race with the girls on the Zandervoot course in the Netherlands...
https://www.youtube.com/live/78s7r2eDBKU?is=Us-W2rduQDt8pRZ-
Back on home rest as of last night. Got to go to the ER Thursday night over what we initially thought was pneumonia relapse. Nope. Rhinovirus my system was too compromised to handle. Got to stay overnight two nights. Bleh. Never want to do that again. Hospital could not cook chicken for shit but had very nice plain rice and cornbread.
Sorry to hear, but hope you're on the mend. I can't complain about the hospital food I had during my overnight stay in June. Dinner/Bkfst/Lunch were all pretty good. And so was the care.
I'm just glad that you're home and feeling appropriately snarky.
Where were you? Charity Hospital in NOLA? The food in every hospital I was ever in in NY or NJ was so bad I had to contrive a way to order/smuggle pizza. The last couple of docs were Indian, but THERE WAS NO CURRY! WTF?!?!
Virginia Hospital Center. All the SIDES were fine but both the chicken tenders and chicken breast sucked. In the cooks' defense, delivery people could not figure out how to deliver Into My Room, which is standard procedure unless patient is receiving treatment at Right That Second that requires space. So both sat for like an extra 40 minutes to an hour before getting to me. Because they put them in the warming space and then...didn't tell people they did that? Like three different times? By the third time the head nurse was baffled and ready to kill someone. Because it was just MY ROOM having that problem. Over and over.
But yeah someone of the best not-at-home cornbread and best not-jasmine-or-sushi white rice I've had in a while. Well done on those.
Throw in some hot sauce & you're golden. Or back in the ER if it's a GI problem.
I have screwy taste buds so plainer is usually better. In general. That was one issue with the chicken breast, it like had like a layer of herbs and spices glued on I couldn't scrape off no matter how I tried.
My palate could best be described as “jaded.”
Mine is "on high alert" and overreacts. Irks me. So many nice smelling and looking foods it doesn't like!
Sorry you are sick...get better soon! Hugs if wanted....
No, it is not a fun restful place. Especially the ER with all the gear chiming up all the time.
Yup. Left the ER for the "slightly less ER" area at 4 in the morning Friday. So after ~9-10 hours. Slightly more able to sleep but wasn't great.
That's called observation. They don't want you clogging up the ER anymore, but they also don't want to send you up to a room and admit you. So they have a limbo land called "observation". I stayed in observation even after my gallbladder surgery because they just wanted to kick me out the next day. Fun times. Hope you're feeling better.
No it was a room. A room in the "slightly less ER" wing. But it was a room.
Oh well. You're a lucky duck. I only had a bed with curtains. But I was so stoned on pain meds I started talking to my nurse about how hot my GI Doc was and that he should be in Bollywood movies, he was so hot. He was standing right outside the curtain and heard the whole exchange. Too embarrassed to go see him again. lol
I love it!
My mom had a friend in the same place I was a little over a year ago. She said it was similar, they run it very well. So just got lucky on the facility.
Hah, the "the slightly less ER area" captures it perfectly!
Look, the machine that goes ping has a very important function.
I had a fun one that pinged if my arm bent a little too much with the IV in it and I didn't straighten said arm ASP it went from "warning ping" to "unending pinging." This was the cause of multiple wake ups, as one might guess.
Downstream Obstruction!
I know that one.
That thing still around? I had it, or a facsimile thereof, thirty-some years ago when my child was delivered via c-section. I remember getting so annoyed with it that I got out of bed, holding my son in one arm and pushing the IV pole with the other, so I could get to the nurses' station and get someone to do something about it.
Oh we have better tech now. I could hit a button on a remote and summon them to make it stop. Response times were decent enough.
Only one time it was a new nursing assist. who answered and his first two tries did not make it stop so he had to leave and grab someone who COULD. That one did take forever. Apparently he'd been very close to getting it right. But I was not allowed out of bed without help til Friday evening, anyway.
I was canceling the IV done alarm over and over when they weren't coming to shut the thing off!
I did hit the Call button a time or two (I was in hospital for three days); it didn't always result in a response and I was getting super tired of that alarm going off every time I twitched my arm. Kind of needed to use it, trying to nurse a baby.
I had a nurse explain to me that wanting to end the existence of a machine was vandalism not murder, but they still frown on it.
Funnier to me now than then
I quickly discovered that there is a button on the machine that will temporarily cancel the pings, if only for a few minutes. That at least buys you some brief sanity, as you wait for the over-worked nurse to finally show up.
Hospitals are seriously understaffed. Why pretend that you're taking good care of your patients when you aren't? (rhetorical question)
I never got to vocalizing much more than "can you split my arm or something then so it doesn't bend when I'm not awake?"
That was a no.
I wasn't suffering with a respiratory ailment and I am told that I get a bit testy when I'm unwell...
That’s the easy way. Put a soft splint on the elbow and ace bandage wrap it above and below. Quicker than starting a new IV on the hand.
Feel better soon!
Looks like we won't need to worry about egg prices anymore, what with all the salmonella.
Another campaign promise kept!
"Salmonella mostly kills infants, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals, you know, weak takers!"
Making America Hurl Again
Promises made! Promises kept!
Project 2025 is moving forward.
How bad does it have to get before States just start forming a new government on the side to do shit like food inspections?
If the states try to work together to do something that makes people's lives better, the corrupt Supreme Court will rule it to be an unconstitutional interstate compact.
Two problems with that. One is the obvious number of Republican run states that have zero interest in that.
The other is the number of states that have 'balanced budgets' built into their state constitutions and so building something like that would mean taking money from something else. Which, historically, means from schools.
CA already has an agricultural inspection force. And applies its own standards.
Motor vehicle standards as well. If memory serves, California regulators were largely responsible for uncovering that Volkswagen "clean diesel" fraud back in the mid-2010s.
To answer the question, how bad does it have to get?
Well look at how bad smog in LA was before CARB.
And food gets high pressure really really fast.
We just bought a quarter of a local organically raised beef and a hydroponic indoor lettuce grow to supplement our garden food. I don't trust anything in the stores any more.
And has for a long time. Being a larger economy than many countries helps with that.
Most other states barely have enough money to function as is. Every increase in funding for one thing means cutting somewhere else.
And that's why the question was: How bad does it have to get?
My point is it's not just about that. Because attempting to do this means cutting services that are already at a breaking point. For many states, trying to make up for federal failures in one area means making things worse elsewhere.
NYC already has a fair amount of that because the City has absolutely no confidence in either Albany or DC. And it works about as well as you think it would.
It looks like blueberries will kill ya now. I don't suppose The Brainworm Snorter of Coke off Toilet Seats and Cutter of Dicks and Whale Heads has a plan to protect our food sources or IS this the plan to kill us off before the midterms.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a Class 1 warning for specific frozen organic blueberries due to E. coli contamination.
***A Class 1 status means exposure to the product has a reasonable probability of causing severe illness or death.***
Impacted items include select 10-oz packages of GreenWise Organic frozen blueberries sold at Publix stores in eight states (AL, FL, GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, VA) with a best-by date of February 9, 2028.
We have NO ONE! And I mean ZERO from this administration that has any fucking idea what the fuck they are fucking doing. I'm outta fucks now and need to fuck off for the rest of the morning. See ya. Don't eat any frozen blueberries.
We're going back to the gilded age, when the Rich dominated and everyone else's foods were contaminated, a la Jurgis Rudkus.
" E coli? Rub a little dirt on it and walk it off!! Once we have culled the weak, America will be stronger than ever!!!"
The fringe lunatics making policy these days actually believe this shit. That the only thing keeping us from being a country of Übermensch Spartan rugged individualists is will, the decision 𝘛𝘖 𝘚𝘈𝘊𝘙𝘐𝘍𝘐𝘊𝘌 𝘞𝘏𝘈𝘛 (who...) 𝘞𝘌 𝘏𝘈𝘝𝘌 𝘛𝘖!!!!
The people enacting such malpractice are moral cowards.
Serial killers.
Dammit
I still trust my favorite Wyman's Maine wild blueberries. https://www.themainewire.com/2026/02/if-they-had-bought-maine-blueberries-in-the-first-place-they-wouldnt-be-in-this-mess
Also, they're not the size of grapes.
Neither are wild strawberries. Teeny tiny little things. Heaven in a dot. Worth the mosquitoes and horseflies.
That's all we use. Blueberries shouldn't look like they do, sometimes. I know what you mean.
Don't get me started on those modern blackberries that you have to use a knife and fork on.
saw some of those at Kroger yesterday; they were so big, they were scary! good thing my granddaughter wanted strawberries and bananas.
These recalls are the last bit of our food safety system still working. That we're seeing so many more of them shows just how quickly all the other parts have broken down.
OT! Latinos!
From the Houston Chronicle
"Houston has rallied before. Why not now?
Houston is no stranger to mass protests. Thousands rallied after the Moody Park Riot of 1978, while more recent demonstrations have packed streets around City Hall over George Floyd’s killing, the 2017 Women's March , and most recently for No Kings demonstrations against President Donald Trump.
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Article continues below this ad
That history has made the smaller turnout at protests over Salgado’s killing more striking. In Minneapolis, neighbors responded to enforcement beyond street protests, building rapid response hotlines, monitoring ICE activity from their cars and turning local businesses into organizing hubs after the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“ I was very sad,” Adame said, recalling the first vigil held for Salgado and his family. “It was mixed feelings because I was happy to see that there were people there, but it was sad to see how there was not a lot of people just comparing it to what we've seen in other states.”
People light candles at a memorial for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a candlelight vigil following his shooting by a federal agent during a federal immigration enforcement operation in Houston on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. The shooting occurred the previous day and is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
People light candles at a memorial for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a candlelight vigil following his shooting by a federal agent during a federal immigration enforcement operation in Houston on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. The shooting occurred the previous day and is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle
That contrast has left Garcia, D-Houston, and other advocates questioning whether Salgado’s race or immigration status played a role in the shooting’s failure to spark broader outrage locally and nationally. The muted response is particularly striking in Houston, where Census data shows foreign-born residents make up about 29% of the population, more than twice the 14% share in Minneapolis."
'It's not enough:' Why Houston protests over Lorenzo Salgado’s ICE shooting lag behind other cities
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/immigration/article/ice-salgado-shooting-protests-22395099.php
"The shooting occurred the previous day and is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
I feel better already.
Could be that they don't want to be targeted themselves, especially with face recognition technology, social media videos, etc. making it more likely for the feds to know you were there.
They had facial recognition in Minnesota too. Sorry but I honestly believe people are okay with Latinos being treated like animals. The only major outrage came when they killed white people. But they killed several Latinos before that. Houston is at least a third non white Hispanic. The turn out should have been larger if the community cared. But they really don't until it's time to tell them who to vote for.
Its Texas, the state government thinks its fine and normal to put razor wire in the river to kill pregnant women.
I wouldn't protest there.
That's your excuse?