Parentals reached home safely. The flight took longer than expected because they circumvented Pakistani airspace.
I leave Tuesday. But it’s Thrissur Pooram, which is a major festival (sample fireworks, as they call it, have been going on tonight), so lots of roads are closed...it will be fun trying to leave city limits.
The husband is attempting to cook a pork loin in the smoker. He's walked away from it to go wash his pickup.
I am fully prepared to order pizza. I forgot our rule, experimental food on Saturdays, not when we're all waiting to eat lunch on Sunday. He's got one of those pellet smokers, and so now all foods must be smoked. That's a crap shoot, around here. He did a good brisket at Easter. There's just a learning curve with these pellet smokers.
Well, the little orange Emperor is cancelling NEA grants. Existing, in progress grants. Not sure he can do that. Even Jesse Helms couldn't do that, but he has fun flexing his flabby useless muscles...
THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! Did it end with that and include a “hereby declare?” If not, the order isn’t worth the feces it was originally smeared in.
Did you read the letter that was included and how the NEA is going to "change course" and focus on things such as helping churches serve their communities, teaching children how to work with AI, something about "free enterprise," and a load of other completely "non-art" crap. :(
They always want art to "be for" other things. The things they don't really want to support themselves. And, in fact, art is mostly done by folks who don't have enough money for art supplies. I was an arts administrator for 12 years. It always galled me when someone or some group would come in for some project to support a hospital or a fire station or something that had its own well-funded means of support, and if those organizations did any fundraising, it sure wasn't to support art!...
One of the few things I remember from catlik grade school was a collage of the madonna made from stamps. It was in our first grade classroom, but made by some of the older girls. I think it looked nice... of course, my eyes were probably going even then.
"On Tyranny" is a #1 NYT bestseller again. I wish the moment were different. But I’m glad the book is useful. And grateful for all the kind words about putting the 20 lessons to work.
So, I'm a car race fan. Been to LeMans four times. Driven the Nürburgring twice. Done trackdays at Laguna Seca, Mosport (I refuse to call it Canadian Tire Motorsports Park), Oregon Raceway Park, Spokane Raceway.Run my track car at our local roadcourse for 15 years.
But I dont watch Formula 1. Why?
Exchange yesterday at a car club work weekend pulling and repairing a buddy's engine.
G : Why dont you watch F1?
V: Cause I find the racing boring, the driver soap opera tedious, and the whole enterprise a multimillion dollar reality show.
G: Oh, I was going to put on the race while we work (he has a fabulous man cave, car lifts, tvs)
V: Sure, I dont mind
Three other guys: NO! We havent watched quali yet! You cant watch the race!
It is a bit repetitious. They race around an oval, then do it over again. And I feel like I've been watching the same pit stop tire changes for 50 years.
That would be NASCAR... they to the go fast turn left thing. F1 is done on tracks and street-track courses with different turns and combinations and has been exciting to watch, but it has become so commercialized and pre packaged that I fell away from watching in the last decade as its popularity has increased.
I'm a fool for the tech and the drivers really are the best in the world. They're also childish and kind of assholes. And the teams would sooner shank you than let you know their secrets. And the FIA has become a parody of a sham.
Trenton Speedway (the weirdest of tracks because of the dogleg) was local to me when I was a kid. Admission for the time trials was a quarter, and since that's when the drivers really pushed those beautiful machines to their limits, lots of fun. IIRC, I never saw a race there, but the qualifications I watched were extremely exciting. I saw all the greats of the era -- Mario Andretti, the Unser brothers, etc. I loved the sound of those engines.
I became a NASCAR fan by proxy for a while. Of course, the person I was with always got good seats in the private suites, so it isn't so bad. My first experience with the fan population in general, though, was when I went to one of the bathrooms in the stands and there was a woman hugging a toilet with her legs and arms - not kneeling at, but clutching like a baby monkey - while another woman held her hair. That's friendship.
Duckworth on if she's open to voting to confirm Mike Waltz: "I think everybody on that Signal chain needs to be fired ... he's failing up ... I'm not open to voting for him, no, because he's already demonstrated he's incapable of doing the most basic thing, which is handling classified information."
Like most kids convefe today, I can't understand when they talk over each other, which is all of the time, so I stay away from The Goonies. And now it's morning! Mrs. Toomush doesn't like it when I try to cut the broken limbs out of the tops of the trees, which is why I do it on Sunday morning just to watch her angry face! I do love her angry face!...
Twenty years ago, Memorial Day weekend, mr. cc got up early to cut some broken limbs from the top of the tree, much as you are doing today. I had just gotten up, was having covfefe on the then-screened-in-porch, watching him. He was high on the ladder, cut through the branch unexpectedly, and it was like watching one of those cartoon characters flailing in the air before the fall. He landed on a tiki torch and broke his back. I had to call 911 and ride with him to the hospital. Thank the Goddess I had the foresight to put on a bra when I got up that morning. The kid was only eight, but his older sister was here to look after him. Another blessing.
The doc fixed him up perfectly, but it was a rough few months. We jettisoned those tiki torches after that.
You should team up with my dad for tasks. He fell out of his truck this week while checking on a tire. I don’t have the full details, just that he was leaning out the open door so that he could keep his eye on a valve stem while backing up, and ended up not getting crushed because the truck stopped when the open door caught on the tractor. No worries, though— the tractor is fine.
We're just pining for someone to see us and think,"look at that old geezer! He shouldn't be doing that! There's hope for me yet!", which almost makes the risks worth it. Plus, we haven't gotten any smarter...
My brother (68) had to change a tire in a store parking lot and was so embarrassed because some young whipper snapper came running over with a "Sir, sir I can help you with that!" He let the guy do it because he didn't want to sound like a cranky old man but grumbled that he didn't need any help for hours afterwards.
He’s fine. My mother, though, is still pissed. He waited until she was out of the house because he knew she’d make him find a more sensible way to do what he was doing, and at 87, he likes to do things his own damn way.
I did realize this morning, I can't recall the last time I bought actual pencils because there's very little call for them in my job, and also when I do need one I can always take one from the supply closet at work. I'm not sinking a bunch of cash into my hoard of 250 pencils or anything.
“In an annual ritual aligned with the sun’s path, the largely hairless bipedal mammals surround the confection, which is covered in a multi-colored sugar-fat paste inscribed with incantations and illuminated with celebratory paraffin sticks.”
What brits call paraffin we call kerosene. It always confused me reading brit mysteries from Agatha and Dorothy when someone would go light the paraffin stove. No idea what they call candlewax.
Thank you! Looking at the pictures this morning, and thinking of all the folks who are no longer with us and feeling just so happy that they were all there.
The marginal schadenfreude from these stories is rapidly diminishing as the tangible, painful consequences set in for real, nevertheless, report on the radio yesterday of Trump voter mom because "Christ", not understanding how he could kill the funding that supports her child who has a disability. You fucking people - what parts of christian - and business - and national security - and laws - did you not fucking understand?
Saw a guy with black lung disease from mining being interviewed and asked if he'll change his opinion of PAB if he doesn't restore protections for preventing black lung disease. There was a loooong pause and the guy replied "Yeah."
Note Andrew O'Hehir's last sentence here . . . and these Trump 'factotums' also have propaganda outlets ready to push their views -- it seems maybe at times pushing them without the full knowledge of their leader . . . so even when it doesn't end well for the U.S., it does provide an unintentional temporary boost to the more liberal side elsewhere . . .
'Trump's chaos is an unexpected boon for normie democracy'
'There can be no doubt that Trump’s threats or fantasies about annexing Canada as the 51st state fueled an unprecedented wave of Maple Leaf patriotism — not generally among the universe’s stronger forces — and rescued Carney and the Liberals from what seemed certain electoral doom. Trump is of course personally too ignorant to understand that Canadians have historical reasons to fear the ginormous superpower to the south, and too stupid to care. Australia is too far away to be the focus of MAGA territorial lust, but the verdict Down Under was still striking; the U.S. and Australia are broadly similar societies with related histories . . .
'Don’t get me wrong; we’ve had dumb guys in the Oval Office before. But in any previous presidential administration — including the first Trump term! — someone would have emerged from the bowels of the State Department with a briefing paper explaining why folks in the Great White North might be a little touchy about this 51st-state business. I hardly need to explain why that didn’t happen, and it isn’t just because no one in this administration is willing to challenge or contradict Trump’s cascading brain-farts. It’s worse than that: Like Stalin’s inner circle or a Bourbon king’s courtiers, Trump’s factotums seek to outdo each other in embracing absurd, impossible, offensive and dangerous ideas.'
"We had no idea it would be this bad."
https://substack.com/profile/157161709-tehbaddr/note/c-114413268
Parentals reached home safely. The flight took longer than expected because they circumvented Pakistani airspace.
I leave Tuesday. But it’s Thrissur Pooram, which is a major festival (sample fireworks, as they call it, have been going on tonight), so lots of roads are closed...it will be fun trying to leave city limits.
It’s possible I might miss this place…
Ha!
Trump goes after PBS.
Everyone wonders why.
People bring up the old Donald Grump bits.
Everyone finds it hilarious and shares it far and wide.
Now millions of new people have seen Trump being mocked by puppets because he's a sad fragile loser who has a huge inferiority complex.
Genius.
And PBS will probably rake in far more donations than normal too.
The Streis-- I mean, Trump effect!
The husband is attempting to cook a pork loin in the smoker. He's walked away from it to go wash his pickup.
I am fully prepared to order pizza. I forgot our rule, experimental food on Saturdays, not when we're all waiting to eat lunch on Sunday. He's got one of those pellet smokers, and so now all foods must be smoked. That's a crap shoot, around here. He did a good brisket at Easter. There's just a learning curve with these pellet smokers.
Yeah, I'll just order pizza.
Or, order a pellet-fired pizza maker and you won’t have to order pizza. Of course, I’ve heard they can be finicky . . .
It sounds delicious and I hope it works out!
My dad used to do brisket all the time and I really, really miss it. :(
Well, the little orange Emperor is cancelling NEA grants. Existing, in progress grants. Not sure he can do that. Even Jesse Helms couldn't do that, but he has fun flexing his flabby useless muscles...
THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! Did it end with that and include a “hereby declare?” If not, the order isn’t worth the feces it was originally smeared in.
Did you read the letter that was included and how the NEA is going to "change course" and focus on things such as helping churches serve their communities, teaching children how to work with AI, something about "free enterprise," and a load of other completely "non-art" crap. :(
They always want art to "be for" other things. The things they don't really want to support themselves. And, in fact, art is mostly done by folks who don't have enough money for art supplies. I was an arts administrator for 12 years. It always galled me when someone or some group would come in for some project to support a hospital or a fire station or something that had its own well-funded means of support, and if those organizations did any fundraising, it sure wasn't to support art!...
all those Jesus statues... that's not art?
One of the few things I remember from catlik grade school was a collage of the madonna made from stamps. It was in our first grade classroom, but made by some of the older girls. I think it looked nice... of course, my eyes were probably going even then.
No. Maybe. Some of them.
"I don't see any boobs! This isn't ART!"
Tee hee!!!!!!!
Huh. Wonder why? Could it be ... SATAN?
https://bsky.app/profile/timothysnyder.bsky.social/post/3loe4g4bmbk2o
"On Tyranny" is a #1 NYT bestseller again. I wish the moment were different. But I’m glad the book is useful. And grateful for all the kind words about putting the 20 lessons to work.
https://snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-lessons-read-by-john-lithgow
I need to buy a copy of that book.
It's a super fast, to-the-point read. You can knock it out in a couple of hours.
I have read it several times since the middle of the pandemic.
I started doing a summary of the 20 lessons on my Substack but I just can't right now. It's too depressing.
So, I'm a car race fan. Been to LeMans four times. Driven the Nürburgring twice. Done trackdays at Laguna Seca, Mosport (I refuse to call it Canadian Tire Motorsports Park), Oregon Raceway Park, Spokane Raceway.Run my track car at our local roadcourse for 15 years.
But I dont watch Formula 1. Why?
Exchange yesterday at a car club work weekend pulling and repairing a buddy's engine.
G : Why dont you watch F1?
V: Cause I find the racing boring, the driver soap opera tedious, and the whole enterprise a multimillion dollar reality show.
G: Oh, I was going to put on the race while we work (he has a fabulous man cave, car lifts, tvs)
V: Sure, I dont mind
Three other guys: NO! We havent watched quali yet! You cant watch the race!
V: (turns to G, raises eyebrows)
G: oh
It is a bit repetitious. They race around an oval, then do it over again. And I feel like I've been watching the same pit stop tire changes for 50 years.
That would be NASCAR... they to the go fast turn left thing. F1 is done on tracks and street-track courses with different turns and combinations and has been exciting to watch, but it has become so commercialized and pre packaged that I fell away from watching in the last decade as its popularity has increased.
/hipsterracefan
"I was into F1 before it was cool."
I'm a fool for the tech and the drivers really are the best in the world. They're also childish and kind of assholes. And the teams would sooner shank you than let you know their secrets. And the FIA has become a parody of a sham.
Still, I'm there whenever they're on.
Trenton Speedway (the weirdest of tracks because of the dogleg) was local to me when I was a kid. Admission for the time trials was a quarter, and since that's when the drivers really pushed those beautiful machines to their limits, lots of fun. IIRC, I never saw a race there, but the qualifications I watched were extremely exciting. I saw all the greats of the era -- Mario Andretti, the Unser brothers, etc. I loved the sound of those engines.
We had Edmonton Speedway Park which was well before my time, a full on dragstrip and roadcourse that hosted international events.
Wish I could have gone in the 70s and watched CanAm racing... those cars were incredible. All gone now, with an ugly housing development replacing it:
https://timsykes.substack.com/p/the-1967-opening-of-edmontons-speedway?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
I became a NASCAR fan by proxy for a while. Of course, the person I was with always got good seats in the private suites, so it isn't so bad. My first experience with the fan population in general, though, was when I went to one of the bathrooms in the stands and there was a woman hugging a toilet with her legs and arms - not kneeling at, but clutching like a baby monkey - while another woman held her hair. That's friendship.
George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/georgetakei.bsky.social/post/3loceu7arec23
We hadn’t won World War II by May 8th. I know because my family and I were still in an internment camp in Tule Lake, California.
Wow. He just continues to prove that he is a walking, talking piece of human shit brought to life via some unknown, malevolent sorcery.
There is no bottom to him or his chud followers.
A gollum of poop, I think you've nailed it. I mean a golem.
Ignorant moron is ignorant.
Or is this so he doesn't have to go to Europe for VE day? They were mean to him you know. Said he was a vain wimp for not going out in the rain.
So nasty.
Also, the US was a minor player in WW1, not that ignorant moron knows that either.
https://youtu.be/mWV5FrFITcg
And not the major player we like to think in WWII, either. But we were the major recipient of the spoils of war...
Arguably, our industrial capacity won the war for the allies, but lots of countries put their bodies on the line at a far greater rate.
THIS is what we all need to hear, Democrats.
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3loe4kjkug22e
Duckworth on if she's open to voting to confirm Mike Waltz: "I think everybody on that Signal chain needs to be fired ... he's failing up ... I'm not open to voting for him, no, because he's already demonstrated he's incapable of doing the most basic thing, which is handling classified information."
Like most kids convefe today, I can't understand when they talk over each other, which is all of the time, so I stay away from The Goonies. And now it's morning! Mrs. Toomush doesn't like it when I try to cut the broken limbs out of the tops of the trees, which is why I do it on Sunday morning just to watch her angry face! I do love her angry face!...
As long as you're safety conscious...
Twenty years ago, Memorial Day weekend, mr. cc got up early to cut some broken limbs from the top of the tree, much as you are doing today. I had just gotten up, was having covfefe on the then-screened-in-porch, watching him. He was high on the ladder, cut through the branch unexpectedly, and it was like watching one of those cartoon characters flailing in the air before the fall. He landed on a tiki torch and broke his back. I had to call 911 and ride with him to the hospital. Thank the Goddess I had the foresight to put on a bra when I got up that morning. The kid was only eight, but his older sister was here to look after him. Another blessing.
The doc fixed him up perfectly, but it was a rough few months. We jettisoned those tiki torches after that.
So be safe, you!
You should team up with my dad for tasks. He fell out of his truck this week while checking on a tire. I don’t have the full details, just that he was leaning out the open door so that he could keep his eye on a valve stem while backing up, and ended up not getting crushed because the truck stopped when the open door caught on the tractor. No worries, though— the tractor is fine.
We're just pining for someone to see us and think,"look at that old geezer! He shouldn't be doing that! There's hope for me yet!", which almost makes the risks worth it. Plus, we haven't gotten any smarter...
My brother (68) had to change a tire in a store parking lot and was so embarrassed because some young whipper snapper came running over with a "Sir, sir I can help you with that!" He let the guy do it because he didn't want to sound like a cranky old man but grumbled that he didn't need any help for hours afterwards.
I love everything about this story XD Assuming he is all right
He’s fine. My mother, though, is still pissed. He waited until she was out of the house because he knew she’d make him find a more sensible way to do what he was doing, and at 87, he likes to do things his own damn way.
So who's going to tell Loser McLoserface that Pence is getting an award for certifying the loosingest loosing he ever experienced?
Pence better watch it, he'll end up in Rwanda
Where are my five pencils?
I did realize this morning, I can't recall the last time I bought actual pencils because there's very little call for them in my job, and also when I do need one I can always take one from the supply closet at work. I'm not sinking a bunch of cash into my hoard of 250 pencils or anything.
if you find them, six of those are mine!....
There are FOUR pencils!
For those interested, David Attenborough turns 99 on Thursday.
I’m just gonna go ahead and imagine him narrating his own birthday party
“In an annual ritual aligned with the sun’s path, the largely hairless bipedal mammals surround the confection, which is covered in a multi-colored sugar-fat paste inscribed with incantations and illuminated with celebratory paraffin sticks.”
Oh wait. That was my Werner Herzog.
What brits call paraffin we call kerosene. It always confused me reading brit mysteries from Agatha and Dorothy when someone would go light the paraffin stove. No idea what they call candlewax.
I utterly and absolutely ADORE that wonderful man. I hope so much that his centennial birthday is a glorious celebration of his remarkable life!
I expect BBC will show nothing but Sir David stuff for a full week
I intend to enjoy every minute of it.
13 years ago today was a beautiful day, and perfect in every way, and all our friends were there.
It's our anniversary! 13 years of wondering how I got so lucky.
Molotov!
Happy Anniversary!
Congrats!
Lucky is as lucky does! Congrats!...
Thanks--I know 13 years ain't much, but you got to start somewhere!
13 years is TOO much! Most divorces happen after 7 or 8 if I recollect. 13 therefore is beating the odds with the ugly stick ^.^
Happy Anniversary!
We're going up into the mountains to this beautiful Japanese restaurant for dinner as a treat!
Fancy!
I hope you have a hella time :hugs:
Thanks and hugs back!
Congratulations and happy, HAPPY anniversary!
Thank you! Looking at the pictures this morning, and thinking of all the folks who are no longer with us and feeling just so happy that they were all there.
The marginal schadenfreude from these stories is rapidly diminishing as the tangible, painful consequences set in for real, nevertheless, report on the radio yesterday of Trump voter mom because "Christ", not understanding how he could kill the funding that supports her child who has a disability. You fucking people - what parts of christian - and business - and national security - and laws - did you not fucking understand?
Saw a guy with black lung disease from mining being interviewed and asked if he'll change his opinion of PAB if he doesn't restore protections for preventing black lung disease. There was a loooong pause and the guy replied "Yeah."
Harms her own child to pwn the libs.
That sounds about reich
Unfair! We're White!
He’s hurting the wrong people!
That's it right there.
Note Andrew O'Hehir's last sentence here . . . and these Trump 'factotums' also have propaganda outlets ready to push their views -- it seems maybe at times pushing them without the full knowledge of their leader . . . so even when it doesn't end well for the U.S., it does provide an unintentional temporary boost to the more liberal side elsewhere . . .
'Trump's chaos is an unexpected boon for normie democracy'
'There can be no doubt that Trump’s threats or fantasies about annexing Canada as the 51st state fueled an unprecedented wave of Maple Leaf patriotism — not generally among the universe’s stronger forces — and rescued Carney and the Liberals from what seemed certain electoral doom. Trump is of course personally too ignorant to understand that Canadians have historical reasons to fear the ginormous superpower to the south, and too stupid to care. Australia is too far away to be the focus of MAGA territorial lust, but the verdict Down Under was still striking; the U.S. and Australia are broadly similar societies with related histories . . .
'Don’t get me wrong; we’ve had dumb guys in the Oval Office before. But in any previous presidential administration — including the first Trump term! — someone would have emerged from the bowels of the State Department with a briefing paper explaining why folks in the Great White North might be a little touchy about this 51st-state business. I hardly need to explain why that didn’t happen, and it isn’t just because no one in this administration is willing to challenge or contradict Trump’s cascading brain-farts. It’s worse than that: Like Stalin’s inner circle or a Bourbon king’s courtiers, Trump’s factotums seek to outdo each other in embracing absurd, impossible, offensive and dangerous ideas.'
https://www.salon.com/2025/05/04/maga-foreign-policy-so-much-losing/
No American kings! No American Empires!...
Normie democracy
We should probably stop adopting their phrasing. It is not Normie Democracy. It is actual versus not at all democracy
Urdemocracy. Nondemocrazy. Shitassocracy. I could do this all day. Feel free to join in...
I like not at all democracy. It is wordier, but, very very clear
It is weird, eh? . . . at times 'normie' seems to be used almost as a slur . . .
Cause normie IS a slur. It is meant to imply low thought, going along with the status quo, boring, etc.
The right glommed on to it (think it was a punk thing? Might have been a goth thing, I forget) and applied it to everyone not them.
And boring. Normies are boring.
Think I mentioned that XD
I read too quickly. 😞
Sanity vs Oligarchy.