Every woman scientist needs a beard » « No fair! Jon Rosenberg has the Supreme Court writing his comic scripts!

[Lounge #496]

This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.

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Every woman scientist needs a beard » « No fair! Jon Rosenberg has the Supreme Court writing his comic scripts!

Comments

  3. cicely says

    Ogvorbis, you’re right; the initial shape of the mice doesn’t make no difference anyways, nohow, since they will deform under pressure to conform to the contours of the canyon. However, I understood blf to be looking for a way to roughly estimate how many mice to order for the project; it is (of course) understood that Some Settling Of Contents May Occur During Shipping*, as well as the Serious Settling Of Contents That Will For Damned Sure Occur, once the mice have been installed, and gravity sits up and takes notice.
     
    * Which is why your package of Cubical Mice™ will arrive with a considerable air-filled space at the top of the container. Can’t be helped. It’s the only way that Freshness may be Insured.**
    ** At, of course, rates bordering—one side or the other—on the extortionate.
    –

  4. says

    Ohhhh, dinosaurs!

    Caitie
    Fingers are crossed. I hope you get justice and money. I’ve heard that poodles are non-allergic. That’s at least what my therapist claimed and indeed I never had any issues with his little pup.

    +++
    Main food today: popsicles

  5. The Mellow Monkey says

    I’m cautiously excited–if that’s possible–about the show Mr. Robot. Rami Malek is a brilliant actor and it looks like they’re letting him delve deep into the kind of weird, intense character he does so well. Plus the techie babble is actually…reasonable sounding!

    This is just such a pleasure. I’ve been following Malek’s career for years now, always a bit bummed out because it seemed like there weren’t enough parts in Hollywood for him where he’d get to play something other than a serial killer/suicide bomber/Iraqi rebel/etc. Playing the lead on a show about hacker vigilantes going after the 1%? I can live with that.

  6. opposablethumbs says

    Beatrice,

    Giliell,

    I’m holding you responsible for spreading your gems

    I agree, Giliell does indeed often utter gems :-)

  7. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    opposablethumbs,

    I love accidentally appropriate tpyos.

  8. JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness says

    We haz internets again!

    Quick catch up: began moving into new “renovated” apartment yesterday. After moving all day, we stop and start living in it around 8 pm. Queue finding all useable kitchen outlets don’t work, the oven blocks an outlet and one of three actual dawers–the biggest one, the shower leaked into the living room when I used it, the bathroom fan doesn’t work and the biggest problem: the cable plug outlet thingy wasn’t working. And yep, after all the troubleshooting, there was no doubt something went wrong with the renovation because it worked for the people before us, the service was switched to that apartment, and all our equipment worked.

    The awesome tech came today, actually left just a min. ago, and when she unscrewed the plate found they had unhooked it and didn’t hook it back up. While she was checking the line before coming inside, she asked the workers around (who are working on the apartment next door) if they knew about how the cable outlet worked. They said no.

    Yeah, well I feel bad for the new folks moving in and the old people getting shuffled around. We got the fee waved, but otherwise it’s $25 to fix the uncaring incompetence of the workers and management. Ugh.

    The most frustrating thing was that when I spoke with the manager this morning about it all, she said about the outlets “We’ve been having this problem in all the new apartments.” WTF? When I asked “So you knew this before we moved in?” She quickly changed to the internet and said we’d have to call a tech in.

    In other news, I can’t consolidate my school loans to get them off of me because I don’t have two references to put down that don’t live with me. Roomie’s motorcycle has either been wrongly towed by the management or stolen. We don’t know for sure because the office is closed (and has been closed during business hours for over an hour now) and the emergency line just says “the caller is not taking calls right now”. Brilliant.

    There’s other shit but I’m oh so tired and have more moving to do and Little One’s coming home soon and then we’ve got the library and grocery shopping in the next couple of days.

    *hugs* and *higs* to all and also, fuck cancer. And cops.

  9. says

    Huh…
    I just noticed that the notification options have been changed. No skin off my back since the Lounge and the ‘Dome are the only two I follow the comments on. I wonder why the change.

    Also, like ajb47 (I think), I receive comment updates via email and it’s shown up as ‘FreethoughtBlogs’ rather than ‘Pharyngula’.

    ::shrugs::

    ****

    Sometimes it is hard to come up with a blog post with a central theme. I’m trying to write something about the civil unrest in Baltimore, but I’m having a difficult time narrowing down *what* I want to talk about.
    Though I suppose I could write multiple blog posts…

    ****

    CaitieCat:
    It’s lovely to see you again. I’ve missed you. Now if only Portia and bluentx would make an appearance again…

    ****

    Adding my voice to the chorus of “cancer fucking sucks”. Hugs to those need/want them.

  11. says

    General *hugs*. Boo on cancer.

    JAL
    Sorry to hear about asshole landlords. I don’t know if you need [former] coworkers or something specific, but if it will help, you have my contact info, and you’re welcome to use me as a reference. Email me if you need further info.

    CaitieCat
    Best wishes and hopes. As Giliell notes, there are hypoallergenic dogs, but OTOH they are often expensive.

    &nbsp
    L was working in the living room while I ran errands, until a few minutes ago when a carpet cleaning (I think) van turned up to do one of the neighbor’s apartments. They are parked directly under our window, and that entire portion of the room reeks of solvents now. I sincerely hope, with L, that this smell does not seep into either our food or the cloth he is working with.

  12. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    I’m thinking that dino image is better suited to the ‘Dome.

    I tend to agree. Not the Sinclair brontosaurus of old.

    Things are being disrupted for construction at work. Tomorrow, they are doing some work on sump for the drains in most of the building, and apparently today, they started some roof work for replacing a number of fume hoods, including the one I normally use. I only need a hood when not working with anything other than water/ethanol, and on the FDA GRAS list. Which can include a number or projects I am working on.

  13. carlie says

    Love this.

    The link is to a tweet, showing an image that is captioned “It was never a dress”. Above it are two of the classic white “woman” symbols used for restrooms, but the one on the right is filled in to show her in pants and a top with a superhero cape that forms the wings usually interpreted as a skirt. :)

  14. carlie says

    Holy fucking shit look at what a reviewer at PLoS said to an author.

    “…find one or two male biologists to work with (or at least obtain internal peer review from, but better yet as active co-authors), in order to serve as a possible check against interpretations that may sometimes be drifting too far away from empirical evidence into ideologically based assumptions.”

    And here’s PLoS’ pathetic response:
    “PLOS regrets the tone, spirit and content of this particular review. We take peer review seriously and are diligently and expeditiously looking into this matter. The appeal is in process. PLOS allows Academic Editors autonomy in how they handle manuscripts, but we always follow up if concerns are raised at any stage of the process. Our appeals policy also means that any complaints of the review process can be fully addressed and the author given opportunity to have their paper re-reviewed.”

  15. cicely says

    *hugs* and encouragement and sympathy and All Good Things for JAL and Little One.
    –

  16. says

    JAL, what cicely said, because I can’t say it better myself. [adds extra Hobbes snuggles for you to share with Little One]

    Husband called from Ohio, he’s settled at the hotel and watching TV. So I should be able to sleep tonight. Ha ha.

    At least I’ve identified the “someone is walking around outside my window in the dark” noise as our resident backyard possum. That was rather disconcerting for a while. I think I’ll call it Pogo, to go with Squirrel Nemesis, Little Squirrel Straggletail, and the Harper Family (the mockingbirds who nest in our front jungle).

  18. says

    Oh, and also, too

    “A thunder of jets and an open sky,
    A streak of gray and a cheerful “Hi!”
    A loop, a whirl, a vertical climb
    And once again you know it’s time…”

    For Yi Qi and his friends!

  19. says

    Lounge updates are all wonky. I have yet to receive either of Anne’s comments via email. I typically get email notifications within a minute of them being posted here, but it’s 9:15 and I haven’t received either one of her comments.

  27. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    carlie, that sucks. I’m sorry.
    Is there something going around? Look out chigau, you could be next.
    I’m still in the will I or won’t I phase but drifting towards will. And I have a kinda important workshop to hold in about hour and a half.

  28. chigau (違う) says

    carlie
    nibble a soda cracker and sip some water
    srsly
    nibble and sip
    —
    and don’t lay down
    stay sorta upright
    this, too, shall pass

  29. carlie says

    Thanks, Beatrice and chigau. Sitting up, breathing shallowly, trying not to think about how much sleep I’m losing. Stupid cat is sleeping in the recliner that would be the best bet.

  30. carlie says

    …and nope, third time. But on the bright side, there can’t be much left in there.

  31. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Is it very inappropriate that the song “Let it go” came to my mind after reading your last comment? Sorry.

  32. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    On the serious side; try practice chigau’s advice some more and I hope you manage to get some sleep

  34. says

    Still alive.

    I’ve been doing adaptive swimming at the local Aquatic Center — exhausting! But they have the best. hot tub. ever. (Which is where I end up for the last ten minutes or so, the heat feels so good.)

    I’m also doing well on the dietary front — managing to (mostly) maintain high fiber intake and low/moderate carbs.

    Quick question — anybody here know much about probiotics, and good ways to get them?

  35. chigau (違う) says

    carlie
    re: cat on the recliner
    (cat will forgive you)
    move cat
    position yourself
    cat will use you as warm cushion

  36. carlie says

    Got the cat to move. :)

    Hot mint tea helped tremendously

    Sorry for blow-by-blow transcript of my woes, couldn’t resist the opening of the noise after I had just worried that I had woken the house up. ;)

    Maybe going to bed soon. Hope those on the light side of the world have a good afternoon/evening

  37. says

    Rather threadrupt, all.

    I was just watching Nova’s “Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial” and scrolling through my daily dose of commenty goodness. I realized that it’s been a while since I said that you people are inspiring, and a constant source of insight and mirth.

    That’s all.

    As you were…

  38. says

    I haz penincilin.
    Thanks Dr, Flemming for not cleaning up your petri dishes.

    beatrice & opposablethumbs
    You’re sweet!

    beatrice
    I deny responsibility for sniffles. I don’t have sniffles

    carlie
    Urgh, I’m sorry to hear
    *hands coke and pretzels*

  42. blf says

    Those sealions are getting really annoying.

    Sports fisherlongpigs eat fish. Sea lions eat fish. So its quite reasonable for a sea lion to try eating long pig (and, if you think about it, the other way around also). With cheese for starters, stuffing, toppings, and afters, of course…

  44. says

    Financial systems in the USA have found creative to scam military personnel.

    In 2006, Congress passed legislation imposing a 36 percent cap on interest rates for payday loans, auto title loans and tax refund anticipation loans to military families. Lenders responded by slightly tweaking the terms of their loans to avoid the limits. Since the law applied to payday loans with terms of 91 days or less, and amounts of $2,000 or less, credit companies were able to shirk the rules with 92-day loans, or loans of $2,001.

    Big banks were even more creative, issuing “deposit advance products” — functionally almost identical to payday loans, but with a different name and with effective annual interest rates of around 300 percent. Congress responded to these tricks in 2012 by passing another law directing the Pentagon to fix these loopholes, and new rules were finalized in September of last year.

    Problem almost solved, but then Republican legislators fought to delay implementation of the new rules.

    In welcome good news, Democrats managed to strip provisions from the annual defense authorization bill that would have delayed implementation of Military Lending Act. Yay!

    You will note that Republicans inserted that poisonous, pro-banker delay into a normal funding bill for defense. Democrats managed to remove the poison during discussions in the House Armed Services Committee — before a floor vote. Goddamn miracle.

  46. says

    Rightwing nastiness about the situation in Baltimore:

    “Barack Obama believes in the redistribution of wealth. He believes in the redistribution of power, so if he can keep these blacks angry and under his control by stroking them, they’re going to bring the chaos. And once the chaos comes, then Barack Obama, as he said in his speech, he can federalize the police departments around the country so that he can redistribute the power and wealth. That’s what this is all about. He is pulling their strings by stroking their egos and making them feel good about being wrong for his own personal gain.”

    That’s radio host Jesse Lee Peterson speaking. Peterson is African American, and is a “Reverend.”

    Link

  47. says

    Borked my block quoting in comment 48, but I’m sure you can figure it out.

    Here’s some news from the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall, where the annual “Washington: A Man of Prayer” event was held last night.

    Most of the members of Congress who participated this year prayed for God’s guidance as they carry out their duties as elected officials and for His protection over America, while some offered more pointed prayers, such as Rep. Joe Pitts, who lamented that we have become “spiritual and moral dwarfs,” Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who worried about the “seemingly godless times” in which this nation finds itself as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on marriage equality, and Rep. Bill Flores, who complained that “we are truly a troubled nation” in which Christians are being ridiculed and persecuted for defending the family and their faith.

    End Times rabbi Jonathan Cahn spoke near the end of the prayer service and specifically warned the Supreme Court that it would bring God’s judgment upon this nation if it strikes down state marriage bans. […]

    Link

  48. blf says

    A weeks ago I accidentally split some boiling water on my hand. I’m Ok, a few fingers fell off, but nothing that some Duck Tape couldn’t fix. After yelling at the kettle a bit, I took a closer look at it, and decided it was past its boil-by date: Bits of encrusted dust on the outside (essentially impossible to clean without getting the electrics wet), slightly leaky (the top didn’t attach securely anymore), and an On/Off button that was usually in the “Meh” position and took several attempts to kickstart. So I decided to replace it…

    The brand new sort-of sniny kettle features a temperature control, so now I can decide whether to spill boiling, hot, or just rather warm water on the Duck Tape. And it totally fails to remember the temperature setting after it turns itself off, so I get to make a new decision each time.

    The mildly deranged penguin is happy. It colour-clashes with her natural tuxedo, so she thinks it will make a good accessory. Or a top-hat, she hasn’t quite decided how to wear it. She’s still playing with the control panel and giggling whenever it beeeps at her, which is it doing with increasingly frequency, volume, and urgency. Think R2D2 being used to boil water.

  49. cicely says

    *barf buckets* for All Those In Need.
    With, of course, *hugs* and sympathies.
    (I’d offer *chocolate* as well, but you’d only throw it up, which would be a criminal waste of good chocolate; so I’ll save it for y’all,
    For Later.
    Except for those bits that I eat.)
    –
    WMDKitty:

    Still alive.

    Yay!

    Quick question — anybody here know much about probiotics, and good ways to get them?

    I don’t know, but I’ve been told that (Live-Culture) Yogurt Is Your (Probiotic) Friend.
    –

  50. opposablethumbs says

    But – but Lynna, I thought the Republicans just looooooved and respected everybody in the military! And that Republicans were the ones who Support Our Boys!!!! And that it was Democrats who Hate America! And stuff!
    I haz a confuesedness.

  52. says

    opposablethumbs @50

    But – but Lynna, I thought the Republicans just looooooved and respected everybody in the military! And that Republicans were the ones who Support Our Boys!!!! And that it was Democrats who Hate America! And stuff!
    I haz a confuesedness.

    Don’t be confused. You only have to remember one thing: Republicans say nice stuff and then they do bad stuff.

    Okay, sometimes they also say bad stuff, but mostly they are pretenders to the empathy throne.

    Surprisingly, a lot of military people vote for Republicans. Bastion of conservatism and all that. If more new coverage pointed out that Republicans prefer bankers over military personnel maybe a few doubts would be allowed to breach the force field.

  53. says

    A black-headed grosbeak showed up at the feeder today. It was the most gorgeous bird, black and orange and white. Word is apparently getting out about our all you can eat black oil sunseed buffet.

    I’m ridiculously proud of myself; I saw it first and was able to recognise it as a grosbeak, even if I didn’t know what sort specifically. Elder Daughter’s enthusiasm is definitely contagious.

  54. says

    Tony Tale:
    Several days ago, I overheard a conversation between another bartender (B) and two of our regular bar patrons. I didn’t catch the beginning of their conversation, but I overheard one of them mention someone transitioning. When they referred to the person as a transsexual, I chimed in to say that it’s more likely the person is a transgender individual. B expressed a large degree of confusion and compared being trans to a girl being a tomboy. I struggled for a minute with how to correct her ignorance, but I didn’t exactly have the time to give as thorough an explanation as I’d have liked, so I opted to simply say that being a tomboy is form of personal expression, whereas trans people experience gender dysphoria, which I went on to explain (as best I could). B was having a hard time understanding the difference. Given the time crunch we were under, I opted to just say that she needed to throw out everything she thought she knew about sex and gender. I told that while gender dysphoria is experienced by a relatively small segment of the global population, it is nonetheless a condition recognized by medical professionals around the world. B had to attend to drinks for the servers, which effectively ended the conversation, but not before I mentioned that discrimination against trans people is a horrible problem around the world.

    ****

    I know that we have several trans people who frequent the Lounge, and I hope I was able to convey accurate information. If I am wrong about any of the above, please let me know.

  55. jste | cogito ergo violence says

    So this popped up in my twitter feed a day or two ago. It is…. interesting. Apparently I don’t have any particular bias towards white or black people, which surprised my a little, being a white male in a fairly racist country (You know, until I started following along with sites like pharyngula, I never realised just how racist the typical Aussie is).

    The gender test, on the other hand, I’m not sure how to interpret. It’s not that I did badly (I did do badly, and sort of expected that), but that for a whole bunch of the words they threw at me, my brain just didn’t know which category to put them in. Oh well, I guess it means I just have to try harder to be aware of what I do and why.

    (I think I have some reading to do, because these tests are intriguing. Anyone have any tips of where to start, to make sense of the science behind these things? I’m way out of my depth…)

    —

    Anne, We used to live in an area with a wide variety of birds. These days all I see are pigeons and ibises. I do not like ibises. The ones in Sydney are feral.

  56. cicely says

    Reginald Selkirk:

    Mystery of the giant terror shrew

    I must stat these suckers up, forthwith! Even at their Real World size, I think a swarm of ’em could hand a PC party a nasty surprise.
    –

  57. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Reginald Selkirk, #51:
    TIM: There he is!

    ARTHUR: Where?

    TIM: There!

    ARTHUR: What, behind the shrew?

    TIM: It is the shrew.

    ARTHUR: You silly sod!

    TIM: What?

    ARTHUR: You got us all worked up!

    TIM: Well, that’s no ordinary soricid!

    ARTHUR: Ohh.

    TIM: That’s the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered insectivore you ever set eyes on!

    ROBIN: You tit! Insectivora is a dead, polyphyletic clade!

    TIM: Look, call it what you like, that shrew’s got a vicious streak a mile wide! It’s a killer!

    GALAHAD: Get stuffed!

    TIM: He’ll do you up a treat, mate.

    GALAHAD: Oh, yeah?

    ROBIN: You mangy Scots git!

    TIM: I’m warning you!

    ROBIN: What’s he do, nibble your bum?

    TIM: He’s got huge, iron-plated — eh– he can burrow about– look at the bones!

    ARTHUR: Go on, Bors. Chop his head off!

    BORS: Right! Silly little bleeder. One shrew stew comin’ right up!

    TIM: Look!

    [squeak]

    BORS: Aaaugh!

    [dramatic chord]

    [clunk]

    ARTHUR: Jesus Christ!

    TIM: I warned you!

    ROBIN: No you didn’t! You said “insectivore”, that thing eats MAMMAL!

    TIM: I warned you… but did you listen to me? Oh, no, you knew it all, didn’t you? Invalid clade, eh? Oh, it’s just a harmless little mole, innit? Well, it’s always the same. I always tell them–

    ARTHUR: Oh, shut up!

    TIM: Do they listen to me?

    ARTHUR: Right!

    TIM: Oh, no…

    KNIGHTS: Charge!

    [squeak squeak squeak]

    KNIGHTS: Aaaaugh!, Aaaugh!, etc.

    ARTHUR: Run away! Run away!

    KNIGHTS: Run away! Run away!…

    TIM: Ha ha ha ha! Ha haw haw! Ha! Ha ha!

    ARTHUR: Right. How many did we lose?

    LANCELOT: Gawain.

    GALAHAD: Ector.

    ARTHUR: And Bors. That’s five.

    GALAHAD: Three, sir.

    ARTHUR: Three. Three. And we’d better not risk another frontal assault. That shrew’s a dino-mole!

    ROBIN: Would it help to confuse it if we run away more?

  58. says

    jste, feral ibises? Wow. Do they snatch your sandwiches? No, seriously, I’ve seen seagulls and geese do that.

    Ibis sound so exotic – I live in southern California, and all we get is egrets and herons. Not that they aren’t beautiful birds. We are fortunate to live near a nice park designed around the creek, and within public transit range of several larger parks as well. We’ve really seen the native bird population increase in the twenty years I’ve lived in the OC, so somebody must be doing something right. Sometimes there are even brown pelicans.

    Pigeons, alas, are pretty much ubiquitous. Elder Daughter told me that city pigeons were originally cliff dwellers in China, and that’s why they’ve adapted so well to living on buildings.

    Sorry, bird-nerdism is apparently contagious. :-)

  59. Jackie the social justice WIZZARD!!! says

    When I picked up the teen from school today. I was stuck behind a truck with a bumper sticker that read: “The South was right” with the stars and bars on it.

    That’s it. We’re moving. I don’t know exactly how yet, but if I have to leave everything but the fam and the clothes on my back, we are leaving this hellhole asap.

  62. jste | cogito ergo violence says

    Anne,

    jste, feral ibises? Wow. Do they snatch your sandwiches? No, seriously, I’ve seen seagulls and geese do that.

    Unfortunately, yes. I’ve lost more than one lunch to the ibises at our local park. They’re actually worse than seagulls. Cities seem like bad places for birds in general. You see ibises in photos and they’ve got these beautiful white feathers. Ours are turning brown from dirt and exhaust, and I’ve lost count of how many pigeons I’ve seen with missing toes or clubbed feet.

    Huh. I actually didn’t realise how much I missed where we used to live until just now. So many different birds livening up the place. My uncle used to breed birds, and they lived beside a little creek that had a lot of birdlife around it, despite being a whole meter or two wide. Used to love watching the swamphens swim up and down.

  63. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Okay, clip-watching Daily Show from the last few days.

    I just have to call out Jon Stewart and/or the Daily Show writers for describing the overhyped phenomenon made out of the riots in response to ongoing, unaddressed economic and racial injustices that are in actuality a predictable, recurring event as:

    Alex Haley’s Comet

    Fuck yeah.

  66. chigau (違う) says

    So.
    Here I am.
    On my patio, in the dark, having a smoke.
    I can hear and smell the skunk.
    I don’t have a flashlight.
    Should I make a run for the door?

  69. says

    Dalillama @68:
    Um, to do it the true American way, doesn’t one need to have a Bible in hand as well?
    Oh, and by blaze, I’m guessing you don’t mean joint in hand…

  70. chigau (違う) says

    A crisis that never happened.
    Skunk just went away.
    Tonight it’s gin.
    We do have long guns. But they are locked in the gun cabinet and they key is … somewhere.
    The ammo is … somewhere else.
    gad
    I suck at standing my ground.

  71. says

    I thought of Lynna (and Ed Brayton) when I read this article about a play called The Originalist:

    Love him or hate him, Antonin Scalia is one of those brilliant, fascinating figures who probably finds his way onto a lot of people’s “Five Famous People to Host at a Fantasy Dinner Party” lists, even for those who can’t stomach his politics. Arena Stage’s new play, The Originalist, takes advantage of that can’t-look-away fascination, using it to give audiences their own window into the controversial Supreme Court Justice’s inevitably complicated interior life.
    The Originalist, written by Arena’s resident playwright John Strand, starts off more like a premise than a play. In the first scene, Scalia (Edward Gero) tells the audience who he is on his own terms, through the device of an address to college students. The second scene sets up his dramatic foil, Cat, a “flaming liberal” law student who is interviewing for a prestigious clerkship with the justice.
    But The Originalist soon settles into its rhythm as a work about the pair’s complicated relationship. Scalia means for Cat to challenge him, to give him a window into the other side’s point of view, while Cat clearly wants to spar with the justice and to figure out what makes him tick: “I need to learn about monsters,” she tells him. He ultimately embraces her chutzpah.
    The Originalist is a smart, thrilling trip through Supreme Court history, intertwining obscure (but significant) moments of law with familiar, pivotal cases. One scene, between Cat and her sycophantic, Rand Paul-loving conservative rival (Harlan Work), admittedly falls flat, hinging on the world’s least-convincing angry food fight. But overall, The Originalist brings a sense of drama to moments that wouldn’t typically be theatrical, including the process of crafting legal briefs and a card game of Constitutional trivia. The timing of the play’s run, as the Supreme Court hears arguments about gay marriage just down the street from Arena Stage, brings goosebumps during the play’s climactic scenes about the Defense of Marriage Act. Director Molly Smith punctuates scene changes, as well as an important moment between Scalia and Cat, with snippets of opera scores, many beloved by the Supreme Court justice.
    Gero’s resemblance to Scalia himself is startling, and he plays the justice with an engaging, twinkling-eyed sense of humor that breaks through from the judge’s staunch certainty and arrogance. It’s a pleasure to watch him recount his life’s successes (his confirmation hearing face-off with Ted Kennedy) and disappointments (being passed over for the Chief Justice seat) with wistfulness, triumph, and regret. His chemistry with Kerry Warren’s Cat comes through the most when he’s being a friend and a sounding board to her, rather than when the two are sparring politically (in those scenes, Warren can feel less like Cat and more like a generic foil to Scalia’s arguments). Harlan Work makes the most of his rather one-note character, an ambitious pseudo-villain who might be a caricature if he wasn’t such a common archetype in the world of Washington lawyers.

    For those in the D.C. area who are interested, the play runs through May 31.

  72. says

    Morning
    I’m feeling better, yay.
    Which is a big difference to well, something I periodically need to remind the family of.
    Want some ice tea?
    If you want to know how bad I was yesterday: my new laptop arrived and I haven’t even opened the box yet. But I need to do so today, because this one gives me error messages every 5 minutes, so I want to make the transfer while I can still shuffle the data around.

    chigau

    Tonight it’s gin.

    Damn. Now I has envy. And no alcohol for me for the next 9 days cause antibiotics.

    Tony
    The fundamental difference between sex and gender is that, well, not really. Sex is a so-called naturalised concept: a human made distinction that is thought to be all real, clear, meaningful and natural. The difference between sex and gender is like Bohr’s atomic model: useful on a simple level but not actually true.

  73. says

    If anyone needs a good laugh, check out this animated short of giraffes leaping off a high dive

    OK, this is ridiculous, but in the best way possible. Spending too much time describing this short film by French animator Nicolas Deveaux would ruin it, so it’s probably best to just watch it. Created over a period of 1.5 years 5 Mètres 80 is a follow-up to a shorter animation he made 10 years ago about an elephant on a trampoline. Deveaux is widely known for his realistic animation of animals for both film and commercials, many more of which he shares on Vimeo. 5 Mètres 80 has toured film festivals around the world since 2013 picking up numerous awards and nominations including the Best in Show Award at SIGGRAPH Asia. (via Vimeo Staff Picks)

    It got a vocal LOL from me.
    (I even briefly snorted like Steve Urkle from Family Matters)

  74. blf says

    For anyone else like me who cannot stand Vimeo (that site just fecking does not work), here is the 5,80 Mètres video Tony@73 refers to on Generalissimo’s Tube.

    (I have to admit I got so distracted wondering why there was no water dripping off the giraffes I did found it more odd than funny, albeit otherwise well done.)

  75. blf says

    “I did found it”? Oh for feck’s sake, I cin ret bether engrileast dan .which

  79. carlie says

    CaitieCat, I envy your hair! Mine is stick-straight. Even when I tried to perm it within an inch of its life in the 80s, within a couple of days after each perm it would settle back down into barely a wave. I love seeing pictures of people to put a visual image to all of their online awesomeness. :)

  80. carlie says

    Speaking of hair, Child 1 has amazing hair, and he knows it. Pulled straight it’s maybe 4 inches below the shoulder, but he inherited his dad’s family’s curly hair so it is fluffy above that. It is always unruly-looking and he likes it that way. (“Brush your hair!” “I already did!”)

    Until today.
    I had to drive him to school, because 10 minutes before he was supposed to leave for the bus, he decided to wash his hair, on account of it not doing what he wanted it to do.

    It Has Begun.

  83. blf says

    New computer is running.

    That’s a bad sign. The silly things are supposed to stationary (as in not self-propelled), or if mobile, only mobile because they are in or otherwise part of something which is inherently mobile, such as a car, pocket p0rnstation, or wheel of cheese.

  84. says

    Republicans are taking aim at contraception … again.

    Colorado launched a health initiative a few years ago with a specific target: reducing teen-birth rates. To that end, Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) implemented a program that provided tens of thousands of contraceptive devices at low or no cost.

    The results were amazing: teen-birth rates dropped 40% in just five years. This week, the state even won an award from the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, celebrating Colorado’s success story.

    Ironically, the award came the same week Colorado Republicans chose to scrap the effective policy.

    Republicans on a Colorado Senate committee Wednesday killed an effort to set aside money for a birth-control program that provides intrauterine devices, or IUDs, to low-income, young women. […]

    The legislation would have provided $5 million to expand the Colorado Family Planning Initiative program that health officials say lowered the teen birth rate in Colorado by an impressive 40 percent.

    As one local report noted, “Opponents of the bill worried that increasing access to birth control would not have a net public health gain because it would increase promiscuity.” One GOP lawmaker accused the policy of “subsidizing sex.” Another said of the program, “Does that allow a lot of young women to go out there and look for love in all the wrong places?” […]

    So, everybody knows the program works. They have proof. It’s no longer new policy that may or may not work. It’s old policy proven to work remarkably well … for five years. What do Republicans do? They scrap it.

    Colorado is a purple state, with a Democratic-controlled House, and a Republican majority in the Senate. The House approved continuation of the program that works so well, the Senate said “nay.”

    Opposing contraception is a Republican thing that is expanding like the Blob. Often they claim that IUDs and other contraceptives are abortifacients.
    Maddow Blog link
    Durango Herald link
    Colorado Statesman link

  85. says

    Well, thank goodness. Freddie Gray’s death has been ruled a homicide:

    All six Baltimore police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray have been criminally charged, Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby said Friday at a press conference. Warrants have been issued for their arrest. Mosby’s announcement was met with cheers from those in attendance. […[

    Officials have ruled his death a homicide.

    http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/marilyn-mosby-officers-charged-death-freddie-gray

  86. says

    More on the fact that the face of Justice is making an appearance in Baltimore:

    In her remarks this morning, Mosby added that Gray’s arrest was itself illegal and that the young man had committed “no crime.” There have been reports that Gray was carrying a switchblade, but the state attorney told reporters this morning that Gray’s knife was not a switchblade and was lawful under Maryland law.

    WBAL’s report added that the officer driving the police van that transported Gray will face the stiffest criminal charge — second-degree murder — while the other officers will face charges of “involuntary manslaughter, assault and illegal arrest.”

    Maddow Blog link

  87. says

    Oh the trials and tribulations of being a Republican governor who accepts the Obamacare Medicaid expansion for one’s state:

    At a closed-door donor forum in Palm Springs hosted by the Koch brothers, Kasich was attacked by two fellow Republican governors, Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal, for, in the words of a source who attended the event, “hiding behind Jesus to expand Medicaid.” The source added, “It got heated.”

    Hiding behind Jesus to take care of poor and low income people, to provide healthcare to them. How, um, biblical?

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/john-kasich/391772/

  89. birgerjohansson says

    Fiscal responsbility requires that we do not use up too many consonants. Thus “welome” will have to be enough as far as CPAC is concerned.

  90. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    CaitieCat,

    Thanks for sharing your photos. Love the hair style changes.

  91. says

    Love the photos of CaitieCat holding children. Looks like love.

    Does not look like love: Senators and Capitol police leaving loaded firearms all over the place.

    When a member of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s security detail left his Glock and magazine stuffed in the toilet seat cover holder of a Capitol Visitor Center bathroom stall, a CVC worker found the gun, according to a source familiar with the Jan. 29 incident and two other disturbing instances when Capitol Police left loaded firearms in problematic places.

    A 7- or 8-year-old child visiting the Capitol with his parents found the next loaded Glock lost by a dignitary protection officer, according to the source. A member of the security detail for John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, allegedly left the firearm in the bathroom of the Speaker’s Suite on March 24.

    A third Glock was found the night of April 16 by a janitor cleaning the Capitol Police headquarters building on D Street NE. The weapon was left in plain sight, sparking additional concern about the department charged with protecting one of the world’s most important and frequently visited complexes.

    Unlike a gun with a traditional safety, a Glock will fire if the trigger is pulled — making the young boy’s alleged discovery of a gun in Boehner’s office particularly concerning.

    Link

  96. birgerjohansson says

    I recetly read the wikipedia e ntry for Meat Loaf . Strange. I recall a media furor of him getting in trouble over having sex with a goupie younger than 18 but there is no reference to this. Soviet-style redaction?

  97. Ray, rude-ass yankee "Bwaahahahaha!" says

    Jackie the social justice WIZZARD!!!@59,

    “The South was right”

    I’ve seen one ’round here that said “The south is gonna do it again” and I though, what, lose another war? I don’t think that’s what they meant though.

  99. says

    If you are a rightwing doofus from a southern state, it may time for you to celebrate “Confederate Memorial Day.” This is a followup to Ray (97) and Jackie (59) .

    […] the same day the nation honors Martin Luther King Jr., three states – Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi – also celebrate a statewide holiday honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s birthday. […]

    Confederate Memorial Day still exists in parts of the deep South.

    One city block and 150 years from the first White House of the Confederacy, descendants of Confederate soldiers gathered outside the Alabama Capitol on Monday to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day.

    In Montgomery, the first official capital of the Confederacy, nearly 100 convened for the commemoration.

    One of the organizers told the local Sun Herald that in the years since the Civil War, “the why and for what Confederate soldiers fell has undergone a dramatic change in this country at the feet of the new unholy trinity of political correctness, multiculturalism and diversity.”

    […] Mississippi and Georgia also recognize Confederate Memorial Day.

    In fact, all three states recognize Confederate Memorial Day as an official state holiday, in which state offices are closed. […]

    Link

  100. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Ick. My coworker told me about a previous job where the company owner and his cronies celebrated “James Earl Ray Day.”

  101. says

    Lynna @99,

    I’ve read about that quaint southern custom. All I can say is “Ew, grow up”.

    I’m just going to snitch a hug off the heap. It’s been a very long week, and my personal big black cloud is not helping. Nor is the major attack of Eat All The Things I’ve had today. At least the Husband will be home later this evening; he’s currently somewhere over Nebraska, according to the flight tracker thingy.

  102. says

    Husband’s plane has landed. That’s one worry checked off the list. Now he just needs to collect his luggage if he checked it, get to his car, and negotiate the freeways. With any luck, he’ll be home within the hour.

  106. blf says

    Husband’s plane has landed.

    So what happened to the Husband? Was he, she, it, or they in the aeroplane, on the aeroplane, or waiting at the aeroport (presumably for said aeroplane)?
    Or was this a paper aeroplane?

    (The mildly deranged penguin has just jumped off — but at first, up-and-down on — my head, and is now trying to fold a “paper” aeroplane out of cheese. She doesn’t seem to be having much luck (albeit it’s hard to tell with the penguin-pogo induced double-vision), probably because she keeps eating it. Ah, no, wait, she’s playing at being an aerocraft carrier, “swimming” across the floor to position herself under the rapidly descending bits of cheese, and letting them land in her mouth…)

  107. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Reason number mumblety num why I don’t always get my sleep. I intended to sleep in today, but realized during a 5:00 am biobreak that the Redhead didn’t make her 3:00 am call for a change. Got up at 6:00 am (weekday wake-up time), made a little noise (reindeer paws), and got the call. She goes back to sleep….Not me.

  108. vereverum says

    @ jy3, Social Justice Beguiler #60
    You’ve probably already done these things but…
    Where I live the Hospital or other provider automatically bills the insurance company. Then after a response, they bill me for any balance. So be sure your hospital has all of your insurance information and find out if they automatically bill insurance. Or if you have to deal with the insurance company. This was common many years ago but almost unheard of now.
    If they do automatically bill, and the insurance denies or reduces the claim they must tell you why on the statement from insurance. It may also be on the hospital invoice.
    If insurance is simply not responding, then you need to contact them by email and phone. If they still don’t respond, you will need a new company.
    Other than that, I just don’t know.

  109. blf says

    Other than that, I just don’t know.

    Move to a country where health care is not a crime.

  110. birgerjohansson says

    The fourth Johannes Cabal novel has werebadgers in it. Also, I learned that “rule by monsters” is called “teracracy”.
    .

    Stop sniggering! http://www.lolwot.com/15-of-the-worlds-weirdest-animals-you-might-not-know-exist/4/
    Actually, it is an amphibian.

    .
    Somebody crossed a facehugger with a Predator. http://www.lolwot.com/15-of-the-worlds-weirdest-animals-you-might-not-know-exist/6/

    .
    This also has some Predator in it http://www.lolwot.com/15-of-the-worlds-weirdest-animals-you-might-not-know-exist/8/

    .
    Squee! http://www.thelocal.se/20150429/is-this-swedens-best-2015-selfie

  112. birgerjohansson says

    The fourth Johannnes Cabal novel has a werebadger in it. Also, I learned that “rule by monsters” is called “teracracy”.
    .

    WTF? House votes to overturn DC law so employers can fire women for using birth control http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/hobby-lobby-on-steroids-house-votes-to-overturn-dc-law-so-employers-can-fire-women-for-using-birth-control/
    .

    Cool photos, no comment http://4daysin.com/pictures-around-world/?utm_source=Taboola&utm_medium=OolaMobile&utm_content=pictures&utm_campaign=114347&utm_term=internetworks-thelocalse

  113. says

    blf @111, I say that news about the DC law that will obviously restrict a woman’s right to use birth control. Frustrated Republicans are always looking for ways to control the wimmens and to save the “babies,” and most of the time the law only allows them to go so far in this effort. As a result, they take out all of their frustration on D.C. residents. It’s about damn time D.C.’s representative was allowed to vote. Congress has used it powers to mess with DC in destructive ways:

    […] Though its population is greater than that of either Vermont or Wyoming, Washington, D.C. (whose population is about 50 percent black) has limited presidential voting rights, no vote in Congress, and the inability to raise local revenues or pass local laws without Congressional permission.

    For over a decade, for example, the U.S. Congress made it a federal crime for the D.C. government to spend locally-raised tax dollars for HIV prevention programming. Today, the District has one of the highest HIV rates in the nation.

    Conservative members of Congress regularly engage in legislative hijinks to mess with D.C.’s gun laws. […]

    (Quote is from blf’s link.)

    Conservatives often name their legislation in a way that implies the opposite of what the legislation does. If there’s “family” in the name, it harms families. If there is “protect” in the name, it harms individuals. Democrats have come up with an amusing and correct name for legislation that would be a baby step toward reform of campaign financing, the KOCH Act, or Keeping Our Campaigns Honest. It would require PACS to name their donors.
    Link

  114. says

    Cross posted from the “All that needs to be said” link about Baltimore.

    The rightwing response to Marily Mosby’s announcement has been, in part, to demean her for the crime of being female.

    A sports editor at the Daily Caller, the conservative news site run by pundit Tucker Carlson, described the Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby as “sexy” and said he “wouldn’t mind being unrestrained in the back of Ms. Mosby’s paddy wagon” in an article published on Friday. […]f

    In the Daily Caller article, headlined “Let’s Be Honest: The Baltimore State’s Attorney Is Kind Of A Smokeshow,” sports editor Christian Datoc wrote:

    Throughout the presser, the 35-year-old prosecutor managed to maintain a fiery, authoritative demeanor AND flashed some serious “crazy girl” eyes, a combination which — if truth be told — I found incredibly sexy. […]

    Link

    More asinine remarks that were aired on Fox News:

    During a segment of Your World with Neil Cavuto on Fox News, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke compared the investigation of Freddie Gray’s homicide to human sacrifice and the Duke lacrosse case.

    “This neophyte prosecutor stood up there and made a political statement, Neil. And I say that because she’s chanting or voicing some of the chants from this angry mob,” he said, before diving into his experience as a veteran homicide detective and calling Mosby an inexperienced prosecutor. “I’m not going to silently stand by and watch my brother officers offered up as human sacrifices thrown like red meat to an angry mob, just to appease this angry mob.” […]
    Link

  115. says

    Here are some Moments of Mormon Madness slightly mitigated by reality, dying prophet category.

    In the past, leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has hidden the medical/mental conditions of aging so-called “prophets” until they were days away from a funeral. They pretended the old geezer was still in charge even when he couldn’t speak, didn’t recognize some family members etc.

    For awhile now, mormons have been following tradition with the current prophet, Thomas S. Monson. He’s been repeating himself, telling the same stories over and over, was unable to speak at some events, etc. Rumors that Monson has Alzheimer’s Disease have circulated for years.

    In a slight, not complete, break from tradition, the LDS Church has finally admitted that the guy is feeling the effects of his age.

    New questions arose about the health of LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson when he bypassed a meeting with a visiting President Barack Obama last month and then cut his speaking load by half at April’s General Conference.

    On Friday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released this statement — originally reported on KUER’s RadioWest — about the Mormon leader’s health.

    “President Monson is 87. It’s natural that he and others in church leadership are feeling the effects of advancing age,” the statement said. “However, he spoke publicly at General Conference [last] month and attended all the meetings. He comes to the office every day, attends all First Presidency and committee meetings, leads the discussion and makes decisions.” […]

    Salt Lake Tribune link

    Anyone familiar with mormon-speak will recognize the equivocation in the statements that mormon leaders are making. What it means is that some old guys are on their way out and other leaders are already making a transition to new leadership. The physical and mental health issues are always way worse than the leaders admit publicly.

    The aging of top LDS leaders also made headlines recently when senior apostles L. Tom Perry and Richard G. Scott were hospitalized.

    Perry — who, at 92, is the oldest Mormon apostle and second in line for the Utah-based faith’s presidency — has begun treatment for thyroid cancer, an LDS Church news release said Tuesday, and is “conducting church business” at home. [Not likely, that “conducting church business” is not likely.]

    The same release said that Scott, 86, also was at home, recuperating after a bout with gastrointestinal bleeding.

    The three members of the governing First Presidency along with the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — of which Perry is the second-ranking member behind 90-year-old Boyd K. Packer — make up the top two ruling LDS councils.

    The average age of these 15 men — seen as “prophets, seers and revelators” by the Mormon faithful — is 80, the oldest it has ever been in the faith’s 185-year history. […]

  116. blf says

    Lynna “OM”, @112 (hyperlink added): “blf @111 … (Quote is from blf’s link.)”

    NO IT IS NOT! STOP assigning comments to me I did not make (in this case, it was birgerjohansson).

  117. blf says

    WTF?!!?!??!1? People actually slaveishly follow recipes? (That may be important in cakes and breads and other things I can’t make, but with those and similar exceptions… like WTF???!!1!), Why recipe-less cooking is the next big thing:: “‘Your grandmother did it, everyone did it …’ Going off-piste in the kitchen can give confidence to ‘cave man’ cooks and also suit ingredient-conscious fitness gurus”. In other completely sane and obvious things, dog bites long pig, trebuchet ammo eats mouse. and the mildly deranged penguin hunts cheese plants and MUSHROOMS! monsters.

  120. JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness says

    God, I wish I could be right about my mother for once. She’s now looking into getting a place for her and her husband and telling me she’ll “make payment arrangements” for our rent. She’s still acting like it’s the old manager in charge. It’s not, the new manager was knocking on people’s doors handing out late notices to sign first thing this morning.

    Me and her and her husband had a big blow out too. So, we’re pretty fucking screwed. She might maybe possibly come through at the last minute but I doubt it. This feels like the end.

    *sigh*

  121. says

    Lynna “OM”, @112 (hyperlink added): “blf @111 … (Quote is from blf’s link.)”
    NO IT IS NOT! STOP assigning comments to me I did not make (in this case, it was birgerjohansson).

    Sorry.

  122. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    “Sergey Dyomin’s paintings depict primates as Russian clerics but he insists he isn’t aiming to offend.”

    “I apologize for depicting the clergy as primates. In the future, I shall depict them, accurately, as reptiles.”

  123. says

    About that rioting and burning of stores in urban areas dominated by poor people, usually dark-skinned people:

    […] Prices, a Federal Trade Commission report found in 1968, were 2.5 times higher for identical goods in the city as they were in the suburbs. If a family couldn’t, or wouldn’t, make their payments, repo men would come to their house, take their television, and then sell it to someone else […]

    Not only do appliances and other goods cost more in area like West Baltimore, but the stores often stock shoddy goods. Richer suburbanites pay less and get better goods. Richer people are more likely to have transportation options that will allow them to shop for the best deals.

  125. screechymonkey says

    Ahem. Pardon me, good sirs and madams, but could you provide any evidence of where a sea lion has harmed you?

    Assuming you are not this man, of course. Who was depriving that noble sea lion of his dinner.

  126. chigau (違う) says

    It’s trying to hail or possibly snow…
    feeble effort
    1.5/10

  127. JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness says

    Whelp, I just sold my soul to the woman who used to be my mother and her puppeteer. This month shall be fun.

  130. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    I sold accidentally gave my sanity on the silver platter to my dad. We can hang out together, JAL. If you have something against drinking we can binge on chocolate cake. In fact, let’s do that one.

  131. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Also, *hugs*
    Because there’s never enough of those

  132. says

    I assume no one here paid 100 bucks to watch the overhyped “Fight of the Century” last night. And to add some rancid icing to that questionable cake I see that some people upset with Floyd Mayweather’s performance last night have been using the hashtag “gayweather.”

  133. rq says

    *hugs* and *higs* all ’round as required, requested, or desired.

    That is all.

  135. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    Hugs to JAL.

    ——————-

    Remember: any zoo is a petting zoo. If you are brave/stupid enough.

  136. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Did someone fall into the tiger enclosure again?
    My memory may be failing, but I have a feeling that happens with surprising frequency.

  138. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    Beatrice @135:

    Did someone fall into the tiger enclosure again?

    Not that I know of. This is one of Boy’s newest sayings.

  139. blf says

    I have a feeling [falling into the tiger torture chamber] happens with surprising frequency.

    You’re being gnawed on, bitten in half, and having your clothes scratched off more often than previously?

  140. says

    Good evening.
    Today I managed to work 90 minutes straight on my final thesis. What did I do? I managed to put about half my literature into MLA format. I hate doing that. You cannot win. If everything is perfect, you gain nothing. If you put a comma where a full stop needs to be, you get roasted over the open fire.

    *hugs* all around, especially for JAL and beatrice

  141. opposablethumbs says

    ::adds anothersome of hugs to the pile:: with particular reference to JAL. Greetingsback! to rq, and ongoing argh!family-and-assorted-shit sympathies to Beatrice. General Cordial Respects to the Horde, plus antiThatcherite ::waves:: with clenchedtentaclesalute to Thumper.

  142. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Well, I’m still in one piece, but I do feel a bit like something that was chewed and spit out again after “argh!family-and-assorted-shit”.
    And I did find a hole in one of my shirts.

  143. rq says

    And speaking of Latvia and art, the catholic church is currently riled up about this exhibit in Liepāja, featuring paintings by Italo Rene Exposito, a Cuban artist.
    Something something disrespect towards religion. Blah.

  145. says

    *Hugs* for JAL and Beatrice. I’m sorry your families suck so much.
    *hugs* for Jackie too; I’m sorry your surroundings suck so much.
    Maybe it’s time to get off my ass and start working on proposals for the Commune. Maybe something like GoFundMe would help if I can’t get grants. There’s dozens of big lots going around here, and I’ve seen some very interesting stuff involving living spaces and hydroponic gardens made with shipping containers and the like, which could lower costs (plus the Powerwall is going to be a big boost for a local grid.
    Maybe pitch it as a prototype of new urban living/design? It’s a better seed crystal for a proper arcology than that Arcosanti crap in the desert, anyway. I will never understand why Soleri insisted on a greenfield project miles from anything for his pilot.
     
    Allergies are kicking my ass again, which is one reason I’ve been short on energy lately. On the upside, the day after I complained that I hadn’t heard back about health insurance, I heard back about health insurance, and have a dental appointment tomorrow. Unfortunately, there was apparently some problem with L’s paperwork, and he’s not covered, which is bloody annoying. Fuck Republicans so much.

  146. birgerjohansson says

    Erratum re. @112. Should be
    I learned that “rule by monsters” is called “teratocracy”.

    And the country would presumably be called Teratolia.

  147. cicely says

    Mass-distributing *hugs*, then collapsing in a corner to die.
    Yardwork.
    –

  148. Rowan vet-tech says

    Dear flu virus, if you would kindly fall in a well and die in a fire, I’d be quite pleased. I’d also be pleased if you stopped the extreme fatigue AND aching joints as it has been a week since the end of the ‘let me die’ headache/sore throat/nausea/lightheadedness combo. Why you decided to start the joint aches 3 days ago, instead of when I was properly sick, I don’t know. But needing to take 800mg of ibuprofen before bed just to take the *edge* off the pain in my hips and legs enough to fall asleep for even a little white is becoming aggravating. As is lurching ineffectually around my job.

    p.s. Give me back my sinuses and my lungs.

  149. says

    Rowan
    Maybe fill the well with gasoline or something, then set it on fire?
    My sympathies.

    Dalillama
    My symathies. I currently have a rash from the antibiotics that’s concentrated on my face and neck, because why use the vast amounts of belly for such a thing?

  150. blf says

    Such cruelty to flu! These cute viruses are flighting a heroic battle to save the plant by bringing the long pigs under control whilst also evolving their kids, and all you want to do is throw them into a petrol-filled well — the very sort of environmentally destructive action they are fighting so desperately to stop. Or do you really like drinking water-flavored gasoline filled with the ghosts of baby viruses screaming in agony as they burn to death?

    (Besides, it does nothing to get rid of Teh Pea.)

  151. blf says

    F.E.C. Can’t Curb 2016 Election Abuse, Commission Chief Says:

    The leader of the Federal Election Commission, the agency charged with regulating the way political money is raised and spent, says she has largely given up hope of reining in abuses in the 2016 presidential campaign, which could generate a record $10 billion in spending.

    “The likelihood of the laws being enforced is slim,” Ann M. Ravel, the chairwoman, said in an interview. “I never want to give up, but I’m not under any illusions. People think the F.E.C. is dysfunctional. It’s worse than dysfunctional.”

    Her unusually frank assessment reflects a worsening stalemate among the agency’s six commissioners. They are perpetually locked in 3-to-3 ties along party lines on key votes because of a fundamental disagreement over the mandate of the commission, which was created 40 years ago in response to the political corruption of Watergate.

    Some commissioners are barely on speaking terms, cross-aisle negotiations are infrequent, and with no consensus on which rules to enforce, the caseload against violators has plummeted.

    […]

    “The few rules that are left, people feel free to ignore,” said Ellen L. Weintraub, a Democratic commissioner.

    Republican members of the commission see no such crisis. They say they are comfortable with how things are working under the structure that gives each party three votes. No action at all, they say, is better than overly aggressive steps that could chill political speech.

    “Congress set this place up to gridlock,” Lee E. Goodman, a Republican commissioner, said in an interview. “This agency is functioning as Congress intended. The democracy isn’t collapsing around us.”

    […] Last month at an event commemorating the commission’s 40th anniversary, even the ceremony proved controversial. Democrats and Republicans skirmished over where to hold it, whom to include and even whether to serve bagels or doughnuts. In a rare compromise, they ended up serving both.

    […]

    With the commission so often deadlocked, the major fines assessed by the commission dropped precipitously last year to $135,813 from $627,408 in 2013. But like most things at the F.E.C., commissioners differ over how to interpret those numbers.

    […]

    The drop in fines “could easily be read as a signal that people are following the law,” said Ms. Hunter, the Republican commissioner.

    […]

    “What’s really going on,” [Ms Ravel] said, “is that the Republican commissioners don’t want to enforce the law, except in the most obvious cases. The rules aren’t being followed, and that’s destructive to the political process.”

    As Mr Goodman pointed out, this is almost exactly what lawyers want, a free reign to totally make things up, very probably also charging enormous fees over a long time.

  152. rq says

    In a rare compromise, they ended up serving both.

    I would have gone just for the bagels and donuts. “Don’t mind me, I’m just going to have another one of those chocolate glazed, if you don’t mind, once I finish this herb-and-garlic cream cheese on sesame.”
    As if you need a bipartisan compromise to know that both are essential.

    +++

    So, we’ve* been wondering: what happens if everyone in the, oh, say, unit that studies deoxyribonucelic acid and its pertinence to possibly criminal cases (being the only such qualified and certified unit within the territorial borders of a small country in the post-Soviet bloc) decides that Higher Management and other assorted, affiliated, supposedly-allied parties, are being, well, obnoxious, and quits all at once? We’ve been wondering. It must be the tension, because it can’t be the caffeine.
    This may or may not be a fully rhetorical question. No response is necessary.

    * Is this the royal ‘we’? Or the collective ‘we’? Or just a fanciful plural ‘we’? One may wonder as much as one wishes.

  153. rq says

    In other news, I want to throw things. Preferably against a wall.
    Please no *hugs* at this time. I’d much prefer that fine china set you have there.

  156. chigau (違う) says

    rq
    You can have my collection of cheap, defunct lap-top computers.
    I’d prefer you use an axe.

  157. rq says

    Thank you, thank you.
    *takes everything outside to a safe location, puts on safety goggles and protective clothing*
    *on second thought returns camera lens to Saad* But thanks anyway.

    chigau
    I’ll take a sledgehammer to the remnants. Will that do?

  159. opposablethumbs says

    ::sends rq a crate of assorted china, crockery and glassware::

    :-(

  160. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    birgerjohansson @146:

    I learned that “rule by monsters” is called “teratocracy”.

    So my brain is a teratocracy? Well, at least I know how I operate.

    Or, at least, why I feel the way I do.

    =====

    rq:

    I can probably come up with some ugly-ass Hummel figurines which would actually benefit from percussive therapy. Would that help?

    =====

    Dreams and lying awake at night thinking about all I have done wrong, all I have hurt, all I have failed at, is not helping the normal drowsiness from allergies. On top of that, I have injured my rotator cuff (not sure how) but I am back on pain killers and muscle relaxants. I swear those damn pills just feed the black dog.

    Hugs and support to those who need them and deserve them. You are all good people.

  161. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    shit. sorry. i didn’t mean to imply that any of you do not deserve hugs.

  162. Morgan!? the Slithy Tove says

    The dream du jour : I am preparing a very large batch of dough for doughnuts. I am using a very large front loading washing machine. The dough is supposed to be chocolate. I am adding more ingredients as the washer is working and expanding dough starts oozing out of the machine. I add laundry soap and the chocolate dough turns sparkling white. I am panicked. I open the door and dough explodes out of the machine. As I am attempting to get it back in I notice that it has removed the paint from the washing drum. I wake up laughing.

    I relayed this to my excellent therapist and she said, “Damn the dream interpretation, what do you think this means?” I replied, “Not a damn thing except for the fact that I am an obsessed cook and my brain was just using the material at hand to entertain itself.”

    Thus begins a new day. I hope everyone who needs it gets respite from the daily evil.

  163. says

    Tony!, good on that server!

    Ogvorbis, gentle hugs to you. I see that you are of one mind with the Husband as regards Hummels, heh. What are your feelings on the “art” of Thomas Kincaid?

    I’ll just leave a big pile of hugs over here. Help yourselves.

  164. says

    Ogvoribis
    *hugs*
     
    Kind of ‘rupt. Didn’t sleep last night, due principally to weather, allergies, and stress. Now get to ride ~10km to go get a tooth pulled (because poor people healthcare doesn’t cover actually fixing it. Once again, fuck conservatives), then home again.

  167. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    Sorry. I wasn’t looking for anything, just explaining why I’ve been kinda distant. Slacking off, if you will.

  169. UnknownEric the Apostate says

    What are your feelings on the “art” of Thomas Kincaid?

    While I can’t answer for Og, there is a reason my fellow art librarians and I refer to him as the “painter of shite.”

  170. opposablethumbs says

    Seconding chigau – it is indeed always good to hear from you Ogvorbis.

  171. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    Oh. And Thomas Kincaid’s art? You have to admit it does/did fill a gaping void in the art world. Of course, the void in question would be the dumpster out back.

  172. JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness says

    Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought

    I sold accidentally gave my sanity on the silver platter to my dad. We can hang out together, JAL. If you have something against drinking we can binge on chocolate cake. In fact, let’s do that one.

    Also, *hugs*
    Because there’s never enough of those

    Yeah, let’s do both of those and pass around a shit ton of hugs.
    —————

    Ya’ll wont’ fucking believe this shit:

    Sooo…she upped the price on Sunday and didn’t get the money order. Went back to waffling about “needing to talk about it with [Husband]”.

    After being jerked around all day and submitting to her higher demands (wtf else could I do?), she drags her ass around this morning. Finally she leaves to get the money order at 7 am. (the place is open 24hrs and she wanted to leave before it got hot and everything.) Only they walk off in the wrong direction. Leaving me while saying she’d go get it now and they’d get their stuff out of teh old apartment when they get back. (We were supposed to hand in the keys on the 30th but guess who had to let their parents stay there illegally?)

    After an hour of texting her and calling her with NO response, she answers. She’s upset. They’re “talking about it”.

    I’ve reached my breaking point. I tell her to come back with the money order now or I’m handing in the keys and her shit will be tossed. Do I want that? Did I want to say that? Did I feel good about it? Nope but I finally had leverage and fuck morals when I’m trying to survive.

    She tries to manipulate me more but finally sees that it’s over. So she says she’ll get it and come right back. Half an hour goes by so I call. She says she’s walking to the apartments now with the money order.

    She gets here at 10 am. She asks to use a pen and the bathroom, which I allow. Then she says she hasn’t gotten it yet but they will go right now. I tell her it’s the last chance. She can’t jerk me around all damn day again.

    She nods and they leave. Half an hour later, she calls crying because there was an incorrect charge on her card for around $200. She’s going down to the bank to try and fix it and will get the rest of it with a money order.

    I talk to the manager and she says she’ll accept partial payment today so we don’t get late fees if we sign an agreement to pay the rest on date coming up. That’s reasonable.

    As I’m on the phone with my mother, the new owners knock. The manager actually did something about my complaints of safety issues with all the junk (including glass and sharp metal) being left around, right next to the sidewalk and in the courtyard. Yaaaay.

    Whelp, they also asked if some previous resident that was kicked out lived with me. Thankfully not my mother or her husband. But they made it very clear people previously kicked out are not allowed on property and that they’re trying to clean this place up. Which included the homeless people coming in out of other people’s apartments.

    Guess who’s parents fit that fucking bill? Now I can’t even live up to most of my end of the agreement. Which for one is good because it’s against the rules but it screws over mom. Which I still feel bad about because I’m the one who follows my word and don’t actually want to harm her and wants better for her.

    Now at the least, we’re short on rent and have no idea how to pay in the next couple weeks. Roomie’s bike was indeed stolen from the parking lot and we’ve got one thing to pawn to pay the internet bill.

    The extra “Fuck you” on top of this mess is that if she had paid in on the second when she got her money, this wouldn’t have happened. The charge wouldn’t have been able to go through on her card and she wouldn’t have been given any fees.

    My life…WTF? I’m so done but I can’t stop or do anything about..anything. And Little One will be home in a couple hours, is excited to have friends over the new place and has, unfortunately, heard some not-so-good things while I was trying to deal with all this shit yesterday.

  173. JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness says

    Shit, Beatrice, I mean to say I’m sorry about your situation too. Fucked up family fucking sucks. I thought it, thought I typed it and now as the page reloaded I saw the top of my comment. >.< Hanging out with you would def. be good company at least.

    I just fail on everything.

  174. says

    Mormons love Thomas Kincaid.

    Speaking of mormons, Mitt Romney continues to say stupid stuff:

    I was concerned that her comments smacked of politicization of the terrible tragedies that are going on there. When she said we’re not going to have mass incarcerations in the future, what is she referring to? We don’t have mass incarcerations in America. Individuals are brought before tribunals, and they have counsel. They’re given certain rights. Are we not going to lock people up who commit crimes?

    Well, you know, except for the inconvenient fact that the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. (About 716 out of every 100,000 citizens).

  175. cicely says

    *hugs* for Ogvorbis—still not a Failed Human, but only Less Than Perfect.
     
    Human, in other words.
    –
    Morgan!?, my dream-from-which-I-was-Alarmed involved a pair of Wishing Panties, covered in tiny blingies, each blingy being a charge, and a blingy vanishing as the charge in it was used up. I was trying to estimate the number of Wishes…
    :)
    –
    So many *hugs* for JAL.
    If only the Wishing Panties were real….
    –

  176. says

    Rightwing Texas politician says stupid and offensive stuff:

    Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler) put forward an amendment that would make it illegal to terminate a pregnancy after 20 weeks, even if a fetus “has a severe and irreversible abnormality,” effectively forcing families with wanted, but unsustainable pregnancies to carry to term at the behest of the state and against the advice of their doctors or their own wishes.

    Someone pointed out to Schaefer that a woman can die of sepsis caused by carrying a nonviable fetus. Schaefer had an answer for that: “Schaefer said that suffering is ‘part of the human condition, since sin entered the world.'”

    http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2015/04/24/texas-house-proposal-force-people-carry-term-non-viable-fetuses

  177. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    JAL,
    *returned hugs*

    You don’t fail at everything, others have failed you.

  178. says

    Chuck Norris confirms that he is off the rails and headed over conspiracy theory cliff:

    “The U.S. government says, ‘It’s just a training exercise.’ But I’m not sure the term ‘just’ has any reference to reality when the government uses it,” Norris wrote in his column. “Whatever Jade Helm 15 actually is, I think it is more than coincidental that the FBI director just confessed in February that the presence of ISIS can be felt in all 50 states of the U.S. and that the Pentagon is suddenly running its biggest military training exercise with every branch of the military across seven Southwestern states.”

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chuck-norris-jade-helm-15

  179. says

    Interesting article — it’s an in-depth piece. I’ll just post a teaser.

    Like many people in the criminal-justice system, John Chisholm, the District Attorney in Milwaukee County, has been concerned for a long time about the racial imbalance in American prisons. The issue is especially salient in Wisconsin, where African-Americans constitute only six per cent of the population but thirty-seven per cent of those in state prison. According to a study from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, as of 2010 thirteen per cent of the state’s African-American men of working age were behind bars—nearly double the national average, of 6.7 per cent. The figures were especially stark for Milwaukee County, where more than half of African-American men in their thirties had served time in state prison. How, Chisholm wondered, did the work of his own office contribute to these numbers? Could a D.A. do anything to change them?

    http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/11/the-milwaukee-experiment

  180. carlie says

    Good lord. Someone on twitter who says they’re a professional economist is arguing with me because he made a comment that the entire market for slave-labor cheap goods would dry up if everyone just invested in buying better stuff, and I pointed out that a large percentage of the population doesn’t have the ability to do that in the first place. Now he’s calling me dumb and misguided and saying I have no understanding of income and prices. Right.

  181. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Now he’s calling me dumb and misguided and saying I have no understanding of income and prices. Right.

    As we said in Dah Yoo Pee, yeah, sure, hey. Meaning your “economist” is blowing it out of their ass, in B-flatulence.

  182. carlie says

    Wow. His last comment was “You’re being a contentious jerk. So fuck you and your fucking face.”

  183. carlie says

    I seriously had to restrain myself just now from saying “Guess I struck a nerve.” ;)

  185. carlie says

    Right now I have the high ground of having never said a single thing that could be considered an insulting provocation. That would spoil the run.

    I think, though, what offended him SO MUCH right at the beginning was that I linked to the Sam Vimes theory of injustice in economics, when he is a PROFESSIONAL ECONOMIST and i was linking to something FROM FANTASY.

  186. chigau (違う) says

    carlie
    oooh you have a real live economist?
    Could you ask them to explain petrol-at-the-pump prices?
    Especially when it changes 3 or 4 times in one day?
    *up 8 cents, down 5 cents, up 2 cents, up 4 cents, down 1.5 cents*
    it’s kinda surreal

  187. carlie says

    I find it quite troubling that a professional economist would get mad and say I’m a contentious jerk for reminding him that poor people exist.

  188. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    I find it quite troubling that a professional economist would get mad and say I’m a contentious jerk for reminding him that poor people exist.

    My suspicion is that the “economist” was a libertarian, and the concept of poor people not making decisions based on a sufficiency of money is irrelevant to their thinking.

  189. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    The weather here in Chiwaukee is becoming “unsettled”. Two days of sun has warmed our brick house, and we are toasty as I haven’t changed out the storm windows for screens. Now, the wind is coming off the lake, so we near the lake are cooler than the more inland weather stations. Note that they can frost, while we don’t with the same wind. Tomorrow, we aren’t supposed to hit 60, but Thursday and Friday are, at the moment, predicted near 80, then back to 60 for the weekend. Guess I need to summarize the windows this weekend.

  190. chigau (違う) says

    Nerd
    Actually, carlie’s economist would just explain that you should replace all your windows with integral triple-glazed units with a simple™ screen that you add from indoors when needed.
    Can’t cost more than a few grand.
    Get on it, eh.

  191. chigau (違う) says

    also, praise Tpyos, I like the idea of summarizing the windows.
    I herewith summarize my house.
    “You suck!”

  192. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    Can’t cost more than a few grand.
    Get on it, eh.

    Hmm….New windows or the Redhead’s caregivers?????

    Sorry, the spellchecker balked at “summerize”. Didn’t realize what the change was to until I posted. Mea Culpa.

    Doing a favor for our next-door neighbors. Recorded the Bulls-Cavs game for them, and I am making a DVD so they can watch it. Not an instantaneous process (taking about 4 hours), so they will have to watch it tomorrow.

  193. says

    Huh. So I’m in the minority of folks who like some of Kincade’s stuff? Not the religious drivel, but the “cabin on the lake where I could see myself fishing” stuff.

    For those people who might be interested in hugs as a show of support (at least in the last 50 or so messages in my ‘ruptness), I have many available.

    For those people who are not interested in hugs (rq), I’ve heard that splitting firewood is a good way of expelling stress. Also see “moving rocks”, “digging holes”, and “kicking the crap out of Hydra agents”.

  194. says

    ‘morning
    No, no, no kid. You WON’T catch scarlet fever. I don’t care if half your classmates are sick already and that you had a headache yesterday. I don’t have time for a sick kid and your grandparents are on holiday.

    JAL
    *big hugs*
    I’m sorry your mother is assimilating to her jerk husband.

    +++

    Someone on twitter who says they’re a professional economist is arguing with me because he made a comment that the entire market for slave-labor cheap goods would dry up if everyone just invested in buying better stuff,

    Not to mention that a lot of the expensive stuff is made by the same people in the same factory who make the cheap stuff. Many of the big brands won’t sign binding contracts that their goods are not made using child labour (GAP Kids: by kids for kids!) and paying their workers a living wage.

  195. says

    I believe it’s been a while since we had a recipe?
    So here’s the recipe for last night’s Aspargus Soup
    Serves 4 if you add a filling side dish like biscuits or ciabatta or something like that.
    -1 lb aspargus
    peel generously and cut off the ends. Put your “waste” into a pot and add about a cup of water, maye more. Add a teaspoon of honey, a dollop of butter and a bit of lemon juice. Add way too much instant vegetable stock. Use about twice as much as you’d need for that amount of water. Don’t worry, we’re going to dillute this later.
    -Cut your aspargus into small slices and cook in a seperate dish with some butter, honey, salt and lemon juice and a bit of water. I used the microwave steamer for about 10 minutes.
    -Drain your “waste” and catch the stock. Pay attention! If you don’t you’ll end up with your soup basis going down the drain while you carefully saved the stuff that is now really waste. Don’t ask how I know.
    -Melt some butter in your pot, add about 2 tbsp flour, carefully stir in your soup stock
    -add about a cup of cream. I used some vegetable oil “cream”, which worked out nicely and was only 15% fat.
    -add about a cup of milk, maybe more
    -season to taste. I used garam masala (I always use garam masala. I try to cook one night a week without it) and some orange pepper.
    -If too runny, add a bit of instant mashed potatoes
    -add some chives
    -add the cooked aspargus with the cooking water
    -add some smoked salmon/bacon, whatever
    Enjoy!

  197. blf says

    Giliell, Thanks! I just got back from the local outdoor market with some wonderful looking aspargus — so fresh it is still snarking (and I can hear it now in the ‘fridge comparing the wild trout I also bought to a Reptilian Avocado) — but hadn’t yet made up my mind how to prepare it. Soup hadn’t occurred to me, but your recipe is giving me ideas. (The mildly deranged penguin reads that, gasps, and runs off screaming… albeit she did do a U-turn to come back and pick of the rest of the cheese she was eating before bouncing off again…)

  198. blf says

    The Raping Children Cult in action, Pregnant 10-year-old rape victim denied abortion by Paraguayan authorities (my edits are in {curly braces}):

    Paraguayan authorities have ruled out abortion for a pregnant 10-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by her stepfather, unless she develops complications that put her life in danger.

    Despite a plea from the girl’s mother and an international outcry, senior medical officials in Asunción told the Guardian that more than 22 weeks into the pregnancy, there are no health risks that would allow doctors to circumvent the Catholic country’s stringent anti-abortion laws.

    {…}

    The mother {…} reported in January 2014 that her husband was sexual abusing her daughter, but the authorities took no action. When the girl’s stomach started to swell and ache last month, the mother took her to hospital fearing she may have a tumour.

    After doctors revealed the girl was pregnant, her mother asked them to perform an abortion, but this is forbidden in Paraguay unless the pregnancy has life-threatening complications.

    The girl was taken to a shelter and her mother was imprisoned on 27 April and accused of failing in her duty of care. A judge is considering a further charge of being an accomplice in the rape. The stepfather is on the run.

    {…}

    Lilian Soto, a feminist activist at the Centro de Documentación y Estudios (Centre of Documentation and Studies), said the Paraguayan judicial system had failed the girl, unfairly punished the mother and put a minor’s life at risk because of religious dogma.

    {…}

    She {Ms Soto} called on the authorities to establish an independent medical committee to evaluate the case free from the influence of religion.

    Amnesty International said Paraguay’s abortion restrictions violated international law and risked the life of a child.

    {…}

    The World Health Organisation has identified the dangers of pregnancy to young girls whose bodies are not fully developed.

    As an opinion column at The Grauniad (To make a 10-year-old give birth isn’t just horrifying — it’s life threatening) puts it:

    Children’s bodies are not meant to give birth. Dr Dalia Brahmi, the Director of Clinical Affairs at Ipas told me: “It is cruel o force a 10-year-old girl to carry her pregnancy to term”.

    Dr Brahmi, who once worked at the World Health Organization in the Department of Reproductive Health and Research, told me: “very young adolescents [under 15 years old] have a high risk of eclampsia, infection, preterm birth and intrauterine growth restriction” compared to adult women.

    The dangers are clear — and it takes a whole lot of magical thinking or straight up denial to think otherwise. Pregnancy for a child risks not only her emotional and mental health, but her physical health and possibly even her life.

    Paraguay’s decision to remain the course has nothing to do with the actual risk to the child involved, but is all about their adherence to an antiquated, tortuous law that would rather see a child’s life at risk than admit their anti-abortion policies are too strict.

    If those who would see this young girl give birth are truly pro-life, whose life are they concerned about? Because it’s certainly not the ten-year-old at the center of this story who is being forced to carry her rapist’s baby to term.

    (The opinion piece does not mention the highly dubious criminal charges against the mother or the police’sgoon’s lack-of-action over her report of the child being sexually abused. This is understandable, as the opinion piece is focusing on the deluded magical thinking by the Raping Children Cult and the lawyers & politicians it controls.)

  199. blf says

    Unfortunately, this probably isn’t enough to blow up the FN (French nazi party), and even runs the risk of making them more popular (they currently get c.25% of the vote!), but the Le Pen’s are attacking each other even more now, Jean-Marie Le Pen suspended after Front National disciplinary hearing:

    [Jean-Marie Le Pen] responded furiously to his suspension from the FN on Monday night, which he described as a “felony”, and threatened to take legal action. He also lashed out at Marine, the youngest of his three daughters, who he said he was disowning.

    “I am ashamed that the president of the Front National has my name and I hope she loses it as soon as possible. She could either marry her concubine or Monsieur Philippot or anyone else. I’d rather the president of the FN was no longer called Le Pen.

    “She can be Marine Aliot or Marine Philippot. It would be better. She has betrayed her father and the founder of the FN in an absolutely scandalous way.”

    By “concubine”, Le Pen was referring to Marine’s partner, Louis Aliot, the vice president of the FN. Florian Philippot is another vice president of the party who has clashed publicly with Le Pen Sr.

    One problem is Marine Le Pen has managed to convince too many people she and the FN aren’t the racist kooks her father — and his granddaughter / her niece — clearly are. The granddaughter (Marion Maréchal-Le Pen) is not mentioned in the above article, but is currently (in addition to being an MP) the leader of the Le Pen Youth or whatever the FN’s youth wing is called. By all accounts the granddaughter is at least as much of a racist kook as Jean-Marie, who has endorsed her to take over Marine’s position as the FN’s führer (not sure if he’s called for a internal-FN putsch yet or not?).

  200. birgerjohansson says

    NB! The ACLU comes up with technology to meet the need: http://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2015/05/03/the-aclu-comes-up-with-technology-to-meet-the-need/#more-30501
    .

    Floods might have doomed prehistoric American city http://www.nature.com/news/floods-might-have-doomed-prehistoric-american-city-1.17470
    .

    Trying to correct political myths may only entrench them further, study says http://phys.org/news/2015-05-political-myths-entrench.html
    That is why flying saucers are hidden in Area 51 (which is paid for by the Jews). And Death Panels are waiting to turn the elderly into Soylent Green –to sell to the Chinese in payment of the US national debt.

  203. blf says

    My take on Giliell@195‘s Asparagus Soup is now simmering…
    I broadly used the outline, but tinkered with the ingredients: Instead of just butter, I used a mix of organic demi-sel butter and organic olive oil; No added salt; Added some freshly-ground black pepper; Cooked the asparagus tips in the leftovers of this morning’s breakfast (that is, a mix of butter and juices from some piquent sausages) plus some tofu and a dash of vin; Crème Fraîche instead of cream; and used Fermented milk (Lait Fermenté) and Siberian Pine Nut flour. I also added some chillies but got it a bit wrong, I diced then but then put them in the “waste” pot, I had intended to cook them with the tips…

    A taste test just now indicates we have ignition. The mildly deranged penguin is still out — dunno where, I don’t hear any screams or explosions — hence the general absence of cheese.

  204. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    Thanks for the support upthread. Doesn’t change how I feel, but thanks.

  205. birgerjohansson says

    Ogvorbis, you are OK!

    —- — — — — — — — — —
    Life now nasty, brutish and long http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/life-now-nasty-brutish-and-long-2015043097908 “Life is now, at the very least, several bitches and then you die with the number of bitches possibly reaching double figures.”
    .

    Princess named after three people Charles hates http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/princess-named-after-three-people-charles-hates-2015050598015

  206. Yellow Thursday says

    Good morning, horde. I’m going to take a few hugs off the pile. I was served the foreclosure papers this weekend. The sheriff’s sale is next month, and then I have a 6 month redemption period, during which I could (theoretically) buy my house back. Not that I want it. It’s way too big for just me, and there’s too many memories of my ex here. My only hope to not have my credit totally ruined is if I get a purchase offer in the next month. And even then, it’s likely to be a short sale.

    Also, a big “FUCK YOU” to Bank of America for not letting the next collection agent see the notes that every previous collection agents say they put on my file. Every time I tell them, “I’m trying to sell the house, but I haven’t had a purchase offer. My ex refuses to make the payments – I know he’s working and probably making double the income I am – and I can’t afford to make the payments. No, I don’t have more payments now. I have only 1/3 the income to pay effectively the same bills.”

    I could use a drink. Or some chocolate. Or beef jerky. Do they make chocolate-covered beef jerky?

  210. says

    Yellow Thursday, hugs, with extra chocolate.

    rq, hugs for you too.

    I’ll just grab a hug from the heap and add more of my own. By the way, I haven’t gotten any email notifications of comments on posts I’m following since, I think, last Saturday. Are they working for anyone?

  211. blf says

    Not sure there are any insights most readers here don’t already know (except, maybe, the part about various highly dangerous obscure bills proposed by the thugs), but interesting nonetheless, How Republican presidential candidates are getting away with denying evolution:

    [… D]espite assorted elite educations and illustrious careers, none [of the declared and probable thug candidates] can apparently make up their minds about basics of modern science — that the Earth is about 4.5bn years old, that humans evolved from earlier primates over millions of years, and that people are making the world dangerously warm.

    “I think on issues like climate change and evolution it ends up being a proxy for identity politics,” said Michael Halpern, a program manager for the nonprofit and nonpartisan Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). “You’re not actually talking about the science, you’re talking about values.”

    So far the candidates have mostly hemmed and hawed — save Carson, who outright rejected the theory of evolution when speaking to Faith & Liberty radio last year.

    “Carbon dating, all these things,” he said “really doesn’t mean anything to a God who has the ability to create anything at any point in time.

    “Dealing with the complexity of the human brain,” Carson continued, “and somebody says that came from a slime pit full of promiscuous biochemicals? I don’t think so.”

    Curiously, Carson did not reject natural selection — the engine that drives evolution — saying he “totally believe[s]” that useful genetic traits are more often passed on than less useful traits. But he could not draw the connection between that process acting over millennia and the human eye: “Give me a break. According to their scheme — boom, it had to occur overnight.”

    Instead, he suggested an “intelligent creator” gave organisms the ability to adapt “so he doesn’t have to start over every 50 years creating all over again”.

    I need a new desk. And head. Both are fractally dented.

    On climate change, the candidates fare little better — almost uniformly saying they are “skeptics” and that while global warming may be real it might not be our fault. Rubio accepts it but denies its origin; Bush, Paul and Cruz toe the skeptic line; Walker and Carson prefer to talk about regulations and resources.

    But Halpern suggested that the inch toward acceptance was progress: “Dodging questions about climate change is no longer an acceptable path forward, so Republicans and Democrats are shifting to talking about what to do about the impacts and away from the science itself.”

    More than the “values” issues of evolution and global warming, Halpern said, science might lose its say in government because of Congress, where a few candidates have shown their cards. Obscure bills such as the Secret Science Reform Act and Regulatory Accountability Act would undermine and handicap the ways federal agencies rely on science by forcing them to go through a glacial, bitter and mostly unproductive Congress.

    The secret science bill would require the EPA to release the data it uses to devise regulations — an aim seemingly inoffensive enough, except that the EPA often relies on confidential medical records whose release could land it in court. Other bills would require congressional approval for all new regulation, or give Congress the power to decide which scientists get to advise agencies.

    The Obama administration has threatened to veto these bills, which fit the mold for bills that Paul, Cruz, Rubio, Walker and Carson have suggested they would sign. Each has consistently said they would shrink federal agencies and curtail regulations as president, and impose more rules on those agencies.

    “Wherever science threatens a vested interest, whether that be on greenhouse gas emissions or ideological issues like emergency contraception, you see an attempt to politicize science,” Halpern said.

    […]

    The group Science Debate, noting that scientists weigh in on “economic, environmental, health, legal and moral implications”, plans to foist questions on the candidates in the coming months, in order to make them clarify their positions.

    […]

  215. blf says

    More French nazi antics, French mayor attacked for counting schoolchildren with ‘Muslim names’:

    Front National-backed Robert Ménard, mayor of Béziers, said his administration had used lists of pupils’ names to decide how many were Muslim

    A French mayor backed by the far-right Front National has been accused of racism after using the names of schoolchildren in his town to decide how many were Muslim.

    Under France’s strict secularism laws, the government does not keep statistics on people’s religion or ethnicity.

    That’s correct, but there is also a problem: It’s illegal to gather such data, even anonymised, for any purpose, such as scholarly research. Hence, there is no particularly “hard” data to correlate, as an example, known areas of high unemployment or low educational achievement with possible ethnic / religious / et al factors. So whilst, in many countries, you can draw a map showing that this-or-that minority lives in areas that significantly overlap some problem (unemployment, pollution, whatever…), there is not only no data in France to do that, even attempting to do so is, I think, illegal.

    But Robert Ménard, mayor of Béziers in the south of the country, said his administration had used lists of pupils’ names to decide how many were Muslim, and claimed the figure came to 64.6%.

    A suspiciously precise figure. (And, as reported, no measure of accuracy, such as an error bar or statistical test.)

    […]

    “I know I don’t have the right to do it. Sorry to say it, but the first names tell us their religion. To say otherwise is to deny the evidence,” he added.

    […]

    “[… Y]ou can be called Mohammed without being a practising Muslim,” [Abdallah Zekri, head of the National Observatory Against Islamophobia, pointed out].

    However the town hall of Béziers denied on Wednesday that there was any list of children’s names or that any effort had been made to identify which were Muslim.

    […]

    Béziers isn’t too far from Nîmes, which was (and I think still is) where the HQ of the NF is.

  216. blf says

    Greenpeace India could close within a month due to government crackdown:

    Organisation faces 340 job losses in what would be the only forced closure since it was founded in 1971 because Indian government has frozen its bank accounts

    […]

    The Indian home ministry froze seven bank accounts connected with the organisation last month, the latest in a series of moves against the NGO since Narendra Modi’s government came to power.

    “The question here is why are 340 people facing the loss of their jobs? Is it because we talked about pesticide-free tea, air pollution, and a cleaner, fairer future for all Indians?”

    The US state department has expressed concern at the measure by India’s government, which a leaked intelligence report has shown is concerned at activism and protests delaying major infrastructure projects.

    India has also put the US-headquartered Ford Foundation on a security watch list, requiring government approval for its activities.

    The head of Greenpeace International, Kumi Naidoo, said it was “shocking” that its India operation faced closure. The group is running a petition calling on the home ministry to unblock its bank accounts.

    […]

  217. Yellow Thursday says

    Thanks Anne and Ogvorbis. I’m sure I’ll be ok at the end of it, but it’s going to be a stressful time trying to find a place to rent that I can afford and that will allow pets.

  220. Okidemia says

    jste | cogito ergo violence #55

    So this popped up in my twitter feed a day or two ago. It is…. interesting.

    Oh thanks! I remember doing the test in the early days and had not been able to find it back since.

    And redoing it yielded… even more interesting results. I would not generally discuss these in the open, but I’d like to see if other people have similar experiences, if a pattern possibly emerges.

    The first time I took the test, I had Slight automatic preference for Black people. At this time I was living in a very rural and very “white” area since two years (after alternating highly diverse/highly uniform demographic areas since a tween).
    As of today, it’s been two years I’ve been living in an Afro Caribbean context (that’s a coincindence, hopefully it sort of standardizes the comparison). And I got Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for African American compared to European American.

    I would interprete the first result as my “inner” null (“early” life experience predisposition). Even then I would have thought myself as indifferent (lacking biaseither way), but wasn’t. Then I did not expect the result to have changed the slightest bit (I don’t feel it should have). But it does, and by far. So the good news is that bias is highly flexible and social context dependent (if that’s that flexible, something can be done with it). What I find interesting is that I don’t feel anything special is shaping the bias: I have as many good interactions as bad ones in everyday life. What probably makes a difference is the number of good friends and colleagues at play more than everyday interactions.

    PS: Maybe it also offers an explanation as to why I freaked out last time I took a plane intra-Europe at a time/date where demographics was mostly business class. I really felt like the urge to run away out of deep anxiety.

  221. shikko says

    So I’ve been a mostly-lurker here for a couple of years, with only the scant attempted-sarcasm/snark throwaway comment in the occasional thread (read: I have no comment history here to speak of, so I doubt I have much of a reputation here; I’m just hoping my lack of constructive commentary doesn’t bite me in this instance). I want to ask for some suggestions about how to deal with a person in the immediate aftermath of a crime.

    TRIGGER WARNING: INDECENT EXPOSURE

    On my commute to work this morning (I bike), I witnessed a crime. I was behind a car stopped at two-way stop intersection. I became aware of a young woman crossing in front of the car when she turned and started talking to the driver. She gave directions to a main street, pointing up the busy road from the direction she had come. She took another step towards the car, and popped an earbud out. I got a bit of a hinky feeling as she got closer to the car (why? I don’t know; something about watching a woman walk towards a car like that made me nervous since I came to the conclusion quickly she didn’t know the occupant). She said to the occupant that it would take 5-10 minutes to reach the street he asked about, and then backed up, gasped and started to panic-whisper “oh my god, oh my god, he just showed me his penis!” As the car sped away, I got a partial plate number (I don’t ride with my glasses on), a quick description of the car (color, some decals on the back, etc.) and started trying to remember them. I got off my bike, tried to get the woman out of the street and started writing an email with everything I could remember about the car, and what little I could see of the driver.

    I asked her if she wanted me to call the police. The woman was trying desperately to control her panic reaction, said she should call a family member. I offered her my phone, but she was holding one. She kept apologizing, telling me I didn’t have to wait. I told her she had nothing to apologize for, and that I was not in a hurry. She made the call, spoke to them for a couple of minutes, and then told me she was going to walk home. I told her I wanted to email her everything that I’d written down; she gave me her email address and I added my name and phone number. She checked that the address was correct (her idea), and I sent it. I asked her if she would like me wait with her or to walk her home; she said no, it was less than a block. I asked her if it was okay with her that I stand on the corner and watch her walk home. She said OK. She left, and I watched her run home.

    Back on my way to work, I saw a car that matched the description I’d written down. I stopped to look, and realized it was a fairly common (around here) car share car, but the plate didn’t match. I took a picture of the car, and emailed the woman again with the identification of the type of car (I didn’t include the picture I’d taken), where I’d seen it, and that it probably wasn’t the same car. Once I got to work, she’d written me back to say thank you and that she’d contacted the police. I told her she was welcome, that I was sorry this had happened, and to not hesitate to contact me if she needed anything from me. I added my phone number again.

    My questions are: what else could I have done to help? What should I have done differently in dealing with a woman who had just been assaulted? If she hadn’t told me she’d contacted the police, should I have done so on my own?

    Hindsight has already suggested:
    – I could have asked her for “AN email address” to send the info instead of “HER email address”, and let her decide what address to give me.
    – The way I phrased the question about me standing on the corner was leading, and invited a “yes” response.
    – I should remember to get the email address double-checked (I’m glad she thought to do this).
    – I should also give my work email address, for an added method of contact.

    I felt like I was spinning in place trying to make up my mind when she left, because the last thing I wanted to do was leave her alone, but I also know her feeling safe is more important that me feeling she feels safe. I was very conscious of the fact that she had just been assaulted, and that I was also male, so I didn’t want to do anything to exacerbate the situation, while giving her as much information as I could so she could decide how to deal with it. I needed to help her, but also needed to not make anything worse for her.

    I don’t know what else I could have done in the situation to get information/evidence (my phone was in an arm band and so not readily accessible to try to get photos; this is the first time I wished out loud I’d had a GoPro on my helmet), so I am happy to hear suggestions.

    I have no idea about my last question. The crime didn’t happen to me, and I didn’t see it happen; I heard her say it happened. I don’t know where that puts me in terms of the law (which probably changes drastically between jurisdictions), but I’m more concerned with ethics at this point. Do I have a responsibility to contact the police about a crime I heard about, if the victim of the crime has decided against contacting them? The legalities are moot at this point, so this is an ethical quesion.

    Thank you for your time, and for any suggestions anyone here cares to make.

  222. Tony! The Queer Shoop says

    Shikko @
    I think you did everything perfect. No advice to offer you but plenty of thanks for stopping and doing the right thing.

  223. blf says

    Cue nutjob freakout in 3… 2… 1… Oregon expands background checks to cover nearly all gun sales:

    Bill passes state house and would make Oregon the eighth state to require screening before the transfer of firearms between private, unrelated owners

    A bill expanding background checks to encompass nearly all gun sales in the north-western state of Oregon made it through the state legislature on Monday, overcoming obstacles that had stymied two previous attempts to pass similar laws.

    The measure now heads to the Democratic governor, Kate Brown, who has indicated her support. Her signature would make Oregon the eighth state to require screening before firearms could be transferred between private, unrelated owners. […]

  224. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    Shikko:

    You’re second guessing regarding ‘an’ email rather than ‘her’ email is right on. And even that is, to me, very minor. You did not step in and try to save her, you offered help, you offered to make a call, you made offers to which she had the opportunity to say no thanks. As for calling and reporting the crime if she does not, I would say no, or probably no?

    You did good.

  225. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Dunno: A) I’ve only ever sent them to people who requested or expressed interest directly to me (or whose email address was literally “sendmeacockpic@whatever”) and B) it’s a video. >.>

  227. blf says

    How to win any argument: pseudo-scientific neuro-gibberish:

    Research has revealed that so-called neurobabble is surprisingly convincing — here’s a quick guide to harnessing its persuasive powers

    If you’re hoping to win an argument this week, try talking neuro-gibberish. Irrelevant neuroscience information — or “neurobabble” — makes for the most convincing scientific explanations, according to researchers at Villanova University and the University of Oregon.

    […]

    When used appropriately, neuroscience is powerful. Neurobabble, however, is not. But here’s a quick guide to how to use it anyway, just to win an argument:

    Use the word ‘neuroplasticity’, ideally in a sentence
    […]
    Talk nonsense about the insular cortex lighting up
    […]
    Make grand claims about mirror neurons
    […]

    Peas increase the brian’s neuroplasticity so much it pours out of people’s ears. The warning sign of a brain about to dribble out is the mirror neurons in the insular cortex flashing on and off. Horses cause them to light up at a different frequency.

  228. blf says

    Remains of oldest known relative of modern birds discovered in China:

    Archaeornithura meemannae is at least 130 million years old and was found with its feathers preserved, allowing comparison with modern-day birds

    […]

    The age of the specimen pushes back the origins of the evolutionary branch that led to living birds by at least five million years, and suggests that different bird groups had already become established in the early Cretaceous.

    The new species, named Archaeornithura meemannae, was the size of a sparrow and sported a feathery head crest, a fan-shaped tail and overlapping feathers that were shaped to generate lift when the bird spread its wings. On the leading edge of each was a tuft of feathers called the alula, or bastard wing, which lives on in modern birds, such as kestrels.

    […]

    The birds’ legs resemble those of modern-day waders, leading the researchers to suspect that it fed along lake shores. It probably ate plants and may have swallowed grit and small stones to help grind down seeds and other tough material.

    […]

    The new species is about 10 million years younger than Archaeopteryx, an extremely primitive creature that is not thought to have any direct descendents living today. The fossilised remains of Archaeopteryx have left academics stumped over whether they are looking at a dinosaur-like bird or a bird-like dinosaur.

    […]

  230. blf says

    To boldly brew: Italian astronaut makes first espresso in space:

    The first Italian woman in space has become the world’s first orbiting barista.

    Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti fired up the first espresso machine in space over the weekend. She posted a selfie on Twitter from the International Space Station on Sunday, sipping from a cup designed for use in zero-gravity.

    For the occasion, she put on her Star Trek uniform top and tweeted: “Coffee: the finest organic suspension ever devised. Fresh espresso in the new zero-G cup! To boldly brew …”

    Uh-oh… her Star Trek uniform is red shirt.

  231. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    Uh-oh… her Star Trek uniform is red shirt.

    Oh. Shit. That can’t be good.

  232. says

    Good evening

    HUgs to Yellow Thursday
    I hope you get out of it with minimal loss.

    Anne
    Hugs to you, too

    Shikko
    Don’t overanalyze. You did good. The most important thing: you validated what happened to her, you validated that what happened was bad and that she was totally justified in being upset.

    +++
    Well, well, well. My father set my mother an ultimatum: She has three weeks to decide whether she wants to keep drinking, in which case he’ll move out, or do something and keep her family.
    Let’s see what happens now.

  233. Yellow Thursday says

    Thanks, cicely and Giliell.

    My ex is really being an asshole. He didn’t even respond when I emailed him (the only contact I still have with him) to tell him that I’d received the foreclosure papers.

  234. cicely says

    shikko, Welcome In!
    I think you did okay, especially given that this was a surprise presentation of something you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see in this context.
     
    I think.
    Though maybe I’m just naive.
     
    At any rate, the victim seems to have thought you did okay, and I’d say that that’s important.
    –
    Giliell: *tentacles crossed* for a Favorable Outcome.
    –

  235. shikko says

    @Tony!, Ogg Vorbis, Giliell, cicely:

    Thank you all for your thoughts. I hold the Horde’s sensitivity about fraught situations in high regard, so hearing that I didn’t make any major screw-ups is…comforting isn’t the right word. Heartening? I’ve been very sheltered in my life from situations like this; I’m glad I was mostly on the right track.

    I had contact with a patrol officer who interviewed me about my version of what happened. The officer’s take on “should I have called 911 even if she said she didn’t want to” was (unsurprisingly) yes, but his reasoning was something that hadn’t occurred to me: there had been about a 30 minute gap between when it happened and when they’d been able to get information from the victim; if I’d called 911 and said “this thing just happened in front of me and I’m with the victim now”, it could have shrunk the response window by many minutes. In a lot of instances, time is really of the essence, so minimizing the lag can help. He said writing down your version of events ASAP is very helpful to investigators, with as much detail as you can remember.

    He also told me that the victim was a minor, that detectives from sex crimes are now involved (who will also want to talk to me), and that they have a person of interest in custody based off the information the two of us provided. We’ll see what happens next.

    Thanks again, all. Keep being awesome.

  236. says

    Lindsay Graham, Republican head honcho and senator, said some stupid stuff:

    “Everything that starts with ‘Al’ in the Middle East is bad news,” said U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina at an AIPAC dinner in Boston on Monday. “Al-Qaida, Al-Nusra, Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula,” said the senator, who may be running for president. […]

    The problem — linguistically — with Graham’s comment is that “Al” is the definite article in Arabic (i.e. equivalent to English’s “the”), and usually appears before most Arabic proper nouns, especially place and personal names.

    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.655115

  237. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Another cocktail recipe for no one to comment on:

    Tempting Fate (the name has historical significance):
    1oz Black Spiced Rum (Kraken or similar)
    1oz American Rye Whiskey (High West Double Rye or similar)
    1oz cheap port (Christian Brothers or similar)
    1 good-sized ice cube (or two of those small hollow ice cylinders, or equivalent)

    Measure liquid ingredients into a 5oz glass of your choice. Begin sipping at the point where the ice cube is fully melted. Optional: stare down incredulous/amused look from girlfriend/PBD at you actually adding ice to a beverage.

    On that note another cocktail recipe:

    [Azzy’s Girlfriend]
    2 parts either vodka or bourbon
    2 parts either cranberry-pomegranate juice or Coke Zero
    17 parts ice

    ^.^

  238. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    Azkyroth:

    My current drink of choice:

    Two fingers of brandy in a snifter. One Chllin Moose Gordo. One new (to me) palaeontology book. An Adirondack Chair on the front porch.

    Hey, don’t knock it. It works.

  240. chigau (違う) says

    gin and tonic
    (store gin in freezer)
    open freezer
    open gin
    drink
    replace gin in freezer
    put ‘tonic’ on shopping list

  243. says

    NDP wins in Alberta.

    Let me repeat, NDP wins in Alberta. The idea is just so hard to imagine, yet it’s happened. A province where their idea of political change is to replace one right wing government with another has elected the left wing party.

  244. numerobis says

    What the happy fluttering butterflies. I can’t believe the NDP win. My father hadn’t moved to Canada yet (nor met my mother) last time the Tories weren’t in power in Alberta.

  246. numerobis says

    PS: funny coincidence with the G&T talk — I was drinking G&T while watching the election results.

  247. FossilFishy (NOBODY, and proud of it!) says

    Oh sure, I move overseas and THEN Alberta goes NDP. I never, not even once in twenty years, voted for a winning candidate in Alberta. /happysadpout

  248. chigau (違う) says

    FossilFishy
    After reaching the age of majority, the first thing I voted in was a provincial election.
    I helped dump the Social Credit and replace it with the PC.
    I have been doing penance ever since.
    .
    Now
    I’m going to bed soon, I hope I don’t awake to find it was all a dream.

  250. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Mildly expensive tequila anejo, neat. (At least, the fanciest I’ve ever sprung for >.>)

    Debating whether to drop an ice cube in here. Damn booze and its ethanol-containingness. >.>

  251. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Gin Tonic

    1 part gin. 4 parts lemonade. 15oz glass.

    Convince the MDP that Tonic Water is part of the Pea life cycle.

  254. opposablethumbs says

    Could not sleep last night for worrying about stuff, read until all hours to take mind off it, so ingesting large amounts of coffee now in order to work. (I do have some things to worry about, but I am well aware that in this case it was my brain misbehaving more than anything. So now today my brain complains about not getting enough sleep. Stupid brain. Seriously needs a little adjustment in habits).
    Hopefully temporary anyway.
    On a more useful front, we finally received a copy of the recommendations for support in uni for SonSpawn. Hey, it’s only almost the end of first year. But if the recommendations actually get implemented, he might get some damn support in years 2 to 4 (study skills sessions, mentoring etc.), so yay.

  255. blf says

    And I’m having coffee with a dash of Kracken Black Spiced Rum as I typo hisst. Er, htis. Whateeevar.

    I’m intrigued by B*Cos[F(u)]==Y@237’s “Tempting Fate” as I happen to have avvvailerable all the ingredients (except the ice), in one form or another: Kracken, some whiskey, and a recently-opened port. But I I opened some vin for lunch so maybe later…hic…

    Convince the MDP that Tonic Water is part of the Pea life cycle.

    Close. It’s actually some of the waste runoff from British Industrial Cheddar welding. Not known to be lethal in quantities of zero or less. Surprisingly, makes rather good bait (if you are building a B Ark).

  257. blf says

    This is the sort of thing that, whilst amusing (in a way), also enrages me, Kitchen gadgets review: the egg cuber — a medieval torture device to terrify hens:

    In the first of a new weekly column, our gadget guru puts a square egg-maker to the test. Does it work and, more to the point, why would you want square eggs?

    What?
    The Eddingtons Egg Cuber (£5.50 […]), a compressible, right-angled enclosure in which eggs may be compacted into cube shape.

    Why?
    So they fit better in sandwiches? I don’t know. [… T]here is no practical reason for it.

    Well?
    […] “Put a round egg in … and get a square egg out!” boasts the box. Geometrically, this is wrong on both counts because we’re talking about ovoids and cubes, but there’s no point being pedantegg.

    […]

    Perhaps the appeal is in the very unnaturalness? God does not want you to eat an equilateral egg, which makes it a forbidden fruit, and there is nothing sweeter. But the creamy, die-shaped monstrosity in my hand isn’t sweeter. It just tastes like an egg in a form that, had you eaten it a few hundred years ago, would have had you drowned as a witch.

    It is as much use as a coffee table for a puffin. Also, the portmanteau of square eggs is squeggs, and does that sound like something you should be eating? Consign Egg Cuber and its freakish progeny to hell.

    […]

    The reason puffin coffee tables like this enrage me is the utter and complete waste of resources they represent — perhaps not much in the physical item, but when you add in the manufacturing, packaging, storage, transport, disposal, et al., and the consumption associated with advertising, printing articles like the above, and so on, it can add up. Considerably.

    (The mildly deranged penguin would like to point out penguins also have no use for coffee tables: They don’t work very well as cheeseboards, don’t contain very much coffee, and make lousy skis. Also, the land used for mining them could be put to better uses, such as cheese plantations and MUSHROOMS! ranches.)

  258. blf says

    And now for the kooks in Ozland, Fred Nile outlines agenda including abortion law changes for NSW:

    MP with the balance of power wants women to be forced to view an ultrasound of their foetus before an abortion and a ban on facial coverings

    The New South Wales MP who holds the balance of power, the Rev Fred Nile, is seeking to ban facial coverings and force women wanting abortions to view an ultrasound of their foetus.

    Nile outlined his agenda on the second sitting day of the new parliament on Wednesday, seeking leave to table private member’s bills on the two policies and others […].

    He signalled he would also reintroduce his version of Zoe’s Law, a controversial measure that would grant personhood to a foetus of 20 weeks, meaning someone who injures or kills it through a criminal act can be charged with murder or manslaughter.

    There were fears among the legal fraternity that the bill, which stalled in the upper house in 2014, would have put abortion rights at risk.

    […]

    Nile will introduce several others bill restricting abortion rights even further, prohibiting an abortion where there is a “detectable heartbeat”, requiring women to be told an abortion will cause a foetus pain — in contradiction of the medical evidence — and forcing women considering an abortion “to undergo counselling and to view an ultrasound of their unborn child”.

    […]

  259. blf says

    Another Ozland kook, albeit this one happens to be the PM (Prime Meathead), Abbott accused of using Mediterranean migrant crisis to score political points:

    […]

    On Monday the prime minister said there had been discussions with European officials when asked whether Europe had sought any advice on how to respond to the migration flows across the Mediterranean.

    But on Tuesday a European Commission spokeswoman, Natasha Bertaud, denied there had been any official contact and said the “Australian model can never be a model for us”, because the policy involved the refoulement of people who could be genuine refugees.

    […]

    An Italian admiral was also reported as saying Australia’s policy of turning back boats was not a practical solution in the Mediterranean.

    I had to look up “refoulement” meant. According to UNESCO:

    Refoulement means the expulsion of persons who have the right to be recognised as refugees. The principle of non-refoulement has first been laid out in 1954 in the UN-Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which, in Article 33(1) provides that:

    “No Contracting State shall expel or return (‘refouler’) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”

    It is important to note, that the principle of non-refoulement does not only forbid the expulsion of refugees to their country of origin but to any country in which they might be subject to persecution. […]

  260. says

    UI fun. From Friday on the preschool teachers and the after school daycare teachers will be on strike. I fully support them. I just wished the strike had started a week later because right now my in-laws are on holiday.
    I’m hoping for an emergency daycare for the luttle one because
    I
    Need
    To
    Write
    You know, I’m really making progress with this thesis, but I won’t make any when the kids are home all day. Or at least one of them. I want an office.

  262. says

    Man oh man, rightwingers sure do love their latest conspiracy theory. That’s the one that has the Pentagon planning a military takeover of Texas. To do so, the Pentagon is holding a practice session (known in the real world as a training exercise) called “Jade Helm 15.”

    Pentagon officials swatted the conspiracy theory down, but it rose again. Here are some of the conspiracy’s backers, the people keeping the flames burning on conservative media:

    – Texas Governor Greg Abbott – he sent the State Guard out to monitor the training session just, you know, to make sure that the Pentagon didn’t infringe the rights of Texans.

    – Former Representative from Texas, Ron Paul

    – Kentucky Senator Rand Paul

    – Senator Ted Cruz

    Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz told Bloomberg Politics that he reached out directly to the Pentagon about “Jade Helm 15” and was assured the operation really was nothing more than a training exercise. That said, Cruz still validated conspiracy theorists’ concern.

    – Chuck Norris

    – Alex Jones

    […] since March, Jones has insisted he has “100 percent irrevocable proof that there is a global move, not just here but all over the world, to militarize police and put standing armies on the streets to suppress the population and carry out political operations.”

    – Representative Louie Gohmert –

    Tea party darling Louie Gohmert on Tuesday went the furthest of any elected official so far in addressing the concerns of people who are suspicious of “Jade Helm 15.” In a statement, Gohmert criticized the military’s labeling of Texas as “hostile” for the purposes of the training exercise as “callous and suspicious.”

    – Former Texas Governor Rick Perry

  263. says

    Ben Carson, right-winger and Presidential wannabe, said some stupid stuff:

    Yesterday on Newsmax TV, Ben Carson said that the federal government does not need to recognize a Supreme Court decision on gay marriage because the president is only obligated to recognize laws passed by Congress, not judicial rulings.

    “First of all, we have to understand how the Constitution works, the president is required to carry out the laws of the land, the laws of the land come from the legislative branch,” Carson said. “So if the legislative branch creates a law or changes a law, the executive branch has a responsibly to carry it out. It doesn’t say they have the responsibility to carry out a judicial law.” […]

    Link

  264. says

    Oh FFS. Here’s yet another way to tax poor people and to further damage the financial status of incarcerated people in the USA.

    With federal action expected this summer to regulate the cost of prison phone calls, the National Sheriffs’ Association announced they may “significantly limit or eliminate altogether” the right of prisoners to make those calls.

    Okay, that’s a threat. Sheriffs are making an obvious threat.

    Incarcerated people and their families — who are disproportionately low-income — have fought for decades against the often exorbitant rates charged for a phone call home by companies that hold exclusive contracts and provide kickbacks to the jails themselves.

    Follow the fucking goddamn money. This situation is just one level of money-grubbing rapaciousness that negatively affects our justice system.

    […] reform [in 2013] sparked a revolt from those who benefited financially from the old system: the prison phone industry that makes more than a billion a year in profits, […]

    Deborah Golden, an attorney with the DC Prisoners’ Rights Project […] views these commissions as “another tax on poor people and people of color.”

    “Our main plaintiff Martha Wright, who sadly passed away last year, was often forced to choose between medicine, food and calling the prison to talk to the grandson she raised,” said Golden. “[…] The vast majority of prisoners don’t come from rich families. They’re trying to get by every single day, and a 15 minute phone call even once a month is a real strain in their budget.” […]

    “The prisons are using the kickbacks from the phone calls to cover the costs of medical care, food, adequate shelter — things the Constitution says they must provide to inmates,” she said. “We as a society have to decide if it’s worth the cost to incarcerate 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. But you can’t make that cost up with a tax on families for the crime of having a loved one who is incarcerated. […]”

  265. UnknownEric the Apostate says

    I had the most bizarre dream last night…

    …I dreamt that, about five years ago, a company made a board game titled Ask Richard Dawkins. It came with a bunch of questions on a card and a big plastic RD head. You’d try to answer the question, then stick the card in the back of Dawkins’ head and he’d say the answer. Well, five years later, these board games were rebelling and refusing to answer the questions, getting stroppier with every attempt. So I dreamt I was taunting my plastic Dawk-head by repeatedly saying the words “Rebecca Watson” at it.

  266. rq says

    UnknownEric
    That needs to be a REAL GAME. Like, with real answers and the RD twitter quotes as the head answers. Or something. And yes, it should get stroppier over time. (With a best-before date?)
    You could make millions (25% for me, for encouraging the idea).

  267. blf says

    Pizza Hut to the rescue: Florida woman orders 911 for delivery:

    ● Cheryl Treadway used order app to say: ‘Please help. Get 911 to me’
    ● Boyfriend charged after allegedly holding Treadway and children hostage

    A Florida woman used a Pizza Hut order app to summon police on Monday, helping to diffuse a potentially dangerous hostage situation, law enforcement officials said.

    Cheryl Treadway is a frequent customer of the Pizza Hut […]. So when the Pizza Hut employees received delivery instructions that said “Please help. Get 911 to me,” they did as instructed and called the sheriff’s office.

    […]

    Treadway and her three children were allegedly held hostage by her boyfriend Ethan Earl Nickerson, who earlier that day threatened her with a knife and took away her phone. After accompanying her to pick up her children from school, Nickerson allowed Treadway to order a pizza. When placing her online order, Treadway wrote “Please help. Get 911 to me” as delivery instructions and wrote “911hostagehelp!” in the order.

    “I don’t know if I ever would have thought of it. I mean it’s just something that she did so naturally. The boyfriend never knew about it until he saw us coming around the corner,” Lieutenant Curtis Ludden told WFLA. “It’s moments like these in law enforcement that you get to help people actually that makes you feel good.”

    No shots were fired and the officers were able to talk Mr Nickerson into releasing the hostages and surrendering fairly quickly. Kudos to them for what sounds like some professional work.

    What the pizza order was and whether or not it was delivered is not sad. (The mildly deranged penguin perks up on news there may be an unclaimed pizza / cheese…)

  268. blf says

    Here’s the missing i to insert, ideally where appropriate. May contain vowels.

  269. Portia (aka Smokey the Advocate) says

    Hello, Loungers, checking in to say hello and leave hugs around.

    Life, busy, blah blah blah. But I’m doing really well.
    Hope this finds y’all well.

    *scurries back to hiding from the mountain of files on my desk*

  273. Ogvorbis: failed human says

    This is UnknownEric’s fault:

    Last night I had the strangest dream
    I never dreamed before
    I dreamed they made a game of him
    A game of Daw. . . kins.
    I dreamed I saw a mighty head
    The head was filled with men
    And the cards that I inserted said
    I’ll never answer again.

    And when the board games all were sold
    And a million copies made
    The heads all joined in strike and told:
    We’ll never answer again they said.
    And the people in the streets below
    Were dancing round and round
    And Nugent and the Skeptics wept
    And were scattered on the ground

    Last night I had the strangest dream
    I never dreamed before
    I dreamed they made a game of him
    A game of Daw. . . kins

    ==========

    Hi, Portia!

  274. carlie says

    Portia!!! *hugs*

    I have a hundred and three things to do in the next week, several dozen of them tomorrow, and I feel a depressive episode coming on*, which I cannot afford right now. Trying several tactics to stave it off, which I’m sure looks just like regular procrastination. What strategies do you all use to keep it at bay?

    *(not a big deal. I don’t get debilitating depression, more like dysthemia. I compare it to driving a motorboat. When everything’s ok I’m skimming the surface with speed, but sometimes hit a wake for no good reason and take on some water, which slows the whole boat down and makes everything wet and cold and miserable until the bilge pump gets rid of it all.)

    Also, I think I need that Richard Dawkins head game. :)

  276. thunk: prawo jazdy says

    Tornadoes today. One of them hit Norman. I’m fine.

    Aside from that, preparing to go home for the summer. The school work is done, but I have sooo much cleaning to do.

  277. carlie says

    Good luck on the cleaning, thunk! Also best wishes for the time at home to be as smooth as possible.

  278. says

    Hugs all ’round.

    think, I’m glad you’re safe. Tornadoes scare the hell out of me. Never experienced one, but the very idea terrifies me.

    Portia, good to see you!

    I saw a new bird at the feeder today – an American goldfinch. It was sitting in the sunflower head Elder Daughter stuck onto the hook that holds the feeder, munching away. Too cute.

  281. says

    Waves to Portia, our resident badass lawyer and firefighter.

    ****
    Penis worms exist and researchers just found more types of them. When I first read the headline, I imagined some sort of parasitic creature that takes up residence in penises. Turns out penis worms are nothing like my imagination conjured up:

    The penis worm, named after its penis-like shape, first emerged about 500 million years ago. Back then, they were among the most common critters around. And penis worms were vicious. Their mouths were covered with sharp hooks, teeth, and spines that they used to kill prey and as a mode of transportation. When a penis worm needed to move, it would sink its teeth into the ground and then drag itself along toward its prey.
    […]
    Now, science has figured out more about the mysterious and frightening penis worms. Today, a group at the University of Cambrige published a study in the journal Paleontology that catalogs the penis worms’s teeth. The researchers took fossils they found in Canada and used some fancy imaging techniques to analyze their chompers at super-high resolutions. The study found that, according to the varieties of teeth found in the fossil record, there were once many more types of penis worms than originally thought.

    There’s a video and illustrations at the link.

  282. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Yay, Portia!

    ========

    Totally threadrupt. Getting ready for next week…

    …I’m having eye surgery, and I’m told that despite the fact that we’re doing one eye at a time (next one won’t be scheduled until the first one heals, however long that takes) I should expect to be “helpless” for at least a couple of days and that even though I will be able to do some things for myself after the first few days that I won’t “feel like” doing anything for at least a week. The doc says it’s partly the very particular drugs that I have to take immediately before and after that are going to make me feel like a complete wreck, but it still seems weird that day-surgery should make me “miserable” (his word) for so long.

    But I take him at his word. Of course, if I’m not able to do work, other issues crop up: I do almost all the cooking, so there was a distinct possibility that there wouldn’t be much of anything good to eat. And since we’re dirt poor right now, there won’t be runs to favorite restaurants to get comfort food.

    So I have taken it upon myself to make some sauces from scratch in preparation. I’ve been doing a lot of South Asian cooking lately – especially from west India (Gujarat, a bit of Rajasthan), north central India (Delhi/Uttar Pradesh), and Pakistan (I really don’t know anything about the regional differences in Pakistani cooking). But when I do, it’s not from sauces, really. I use fresh ground spices and some whole spices/seeds (black mustard seed should never be ground – in part because you use the popping of the mustard seed to know when your oil is at just the right temp).

    But I don’t wanna talk Ms Crip Dyke through adding a teaspoon of this and a tablespoon of that, or waiting patiently for those first black mustard seeds to burst so you can give them a quick stir through the oil and add the asafetida, then circle your spoon around the fry pan 3 times before you add the whatever. (Usually the first veggie is either onion or potato, but some eggplant dishes don’t have onion in them, so the eggplant goes first in those).

    So I’ve gone nuts today making a southeast Asian lemongrass-peanut-ginger-garlic yellow curry sauce. It’s too astringent before cooking, so the sauce as it sits in the fridge isn’t great, but I knew that the raw garlic and raw lemongrass would be like that. I cooked with it tonight for Ms Crip Dyke (with chicken, so I didn’t have any) and she absolutely raved! I was so happy.

    And while she was eating? I made a Jamaican jerk sauce that would have been quite traditional save for the fact that
    1) I had to use ground allspice instead of whole allspice berries – I just didn’t have them in the house, though I plan to get some.

    and
    2) I added dried, sweetened cranberries.

    Now jerk sauce is supposed to be somewhat sweet. Some add brown sugar, others prefer molasses. I went the blackstrap molasses route. But many jerk sauces do use local fruit – and even when there isn’t local fruit in the jerk sauce, when Jamaicans cook with jerk, fruit is sometimes added whether or not it’s considered part of the jerk sauce.

    I was thinking about that, and that many of the foods that taste excellent with jerk also are cooked with juniper and cranberry to similar effect in European recipes. Not having any jackfruit or passionfruit or Caribbean cherry or even guava (all of which would be excellent with a jerk sauce) to hand, I grabbed my dried cranberries and threw some in.

    Damn! It has turned out fine, fine, fine.

    Some awesome curry (enough for about 4 meals-for-two) and some near-perfect jerk sauce (enough for at least 4 meals, as it’s used in smaller quantities) is, I think, going to be enough to help me make it through.

    But I’m not done. Some fresh bread from the bread maker on Sunday afternoon, a mild-savory batch of scratch rice-bulghar-mushroom-carrot pilaf and a smooth-as-silk tomato dal on Sunday night, with a boringly-familiar but still good tex-mex chili slow cooked in our crockpot overnight on Sunday and even with a partner who hates to cook from scratch, I should be eating like a monarch the whole week long.

    And my doctor said I would be miserable after surgery! Hah!

    …No, I’m just miserable BEFORE surgery, because now I have to clean my disaster of a kitchen!

    Sigh.

    But awesome jerk sauce! Lemongrass-peanut-ginger-garlic curry!

    Let’s focus on that, shall we?

  283. says

    Giliell 260

    You can drop your kids off here every day for the next week.

    (See, it’s funny ’cause I live outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US of A and Giliell is in Germany.)

    Portia 269

    Good to see you!

    carlie 274

    Trying several tactics to stave it off, which I’m sure looks just like regular procrastination. What strategies do you all use to keep it at bay?

    I usually nibble at the edges, then get some decent sleep and hit it hard in the morning. Other times, I get cranky and just snap at everyone around me until I realize what an ass I’m being, then get some work done.

    Anne, Cranky Cat Lady 278

    Tornadoes scare the hell out of me. Never experienced one, but the very idea terrifies me.

    This. Tornadoes terrify me more than strange noises in the night, and strange noises in the night terrify me plenty. (Also, heights and spiders, but they have an immediacy that sort of contains them.)

    ***

    I am reading N.K. Jemison’s Inheritance Trilogy — well, I’m in the first book. Her writing style drew me in such that I was pretty much hooked by page 9 (a rarity, usually it’s page 60 or so), and her setting is fantastic. I’m a bit of a sucker for world-building, mostly because I like to add pieces to my own worlds for when I run RPGs.

    I have added two more planting beds this year (don’t know if I mentioned it before) for our vegetables — the beds are all 4′ by 8′. One of the beds contains onions only — half red, half yellow. One has herbs at one end (parsely, basil, rosemary, thyme, cilantro), some string beans, an eggplant, and a few rows of carrots from seeds. The third bed has some spaghetti squash, radishes from seeds, orange bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, cayenne peppers, poblano peppers, and habanero peppers. And the last bed has beefsteak, golden jubilee, husky, and roma tomatoes.

    The way my tomatoes had just exploded into each other the last couple of years is the reason I added the two planting beds — they needed room to themselves. I couldn’t even get to most of the tomatoes I had grown because they all grew into each other.

    Sorry if this seems all over the place. Camping plus lack of email updates to this subscribed thread has me behind a bit.

  284. says

    carlie

    Trying several tactics to stave it off, which I’m sure looks just like regular procrastination. What strategies do you all use to keep it at bay?

    Endless distractions. And intoxicants.

    CD
    *hugs* Hope your recovery is swift.

  285. says

    Crip Dyke @282:
    I hope the eye surgery goes smoothly and that you have a swift recovery.
    Oh, and my eyes, ears, and taste buds perked up when I saw the words Jamaican Jerk in your comment. I *love* that seasoning. I was first introduced to it back in the late 90s at a restaurant I once worked at. The place served wings and one of the sauces was Jamaican Jerk (though it wasn’t sweet at all). I fell in love with the stuff and have enjoyed it ever since (although I haven’t found a restaurant with a recipe similar to the one used at the wings place). I recently visited a Caribbean restaurant which offered jerk chicken, and as soon as I saw that on the menu, I knew that I had to have it. Overall, I enjoyed the dish (though again, the jerk sauce wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for), though there were a few too many bones throughout the chicken, which made it a laborious task to eat the dish (I had to take care not to swallow bones with every bite I took).
    ****
    I came across this photo at 500px of two Eastern Blue Birds, which made me think of Anne (IIRC, you’re fond of birds).

  286. says

    Crip Dyke 282

    Sounds delicious, and I hope you feel better soonest.

    Question, though, doesn’t Jerk seasoning have like 12 habaneros in it? Or did I just stumble over one of the better recipes?

  287. Saad says

    Crip Dyke, #282

    So I have taken it upon myself to make some sauces from scratch in preparation. I’ve been doing a lot of South Asian cooking lately – especially from west India (Gujarat, a bit of Rajasthan), north central India (Delhi/Uttar Pradesh), and Pakistan (I really don’t know anything about the regional differences in Pakistani cooking).

    Pakistani cuisine is for the most part a subset of Indian cuisine (since Pakistan as a country of its own is only about 70 years old). Where it does differ from Indian cuisine is in areas which have Afghan/Persian/Turkic influences (such as the northern and some western areas). For example, because of Afghan influence lamb is eaten much more commonly in in the north-west than the southern parts. And I’ve heard that food there is milder because of the Persian/Afghan influence and it’s spicier in the south because of stronger Indian influence. But really overall, because of the history of the area, Pakistani cuisine is a mixture of Indian and Persian/Afghan with a little bit of Arabic and Turkish influence as well.

    Which Pakistani foods have you been making?

  288. chigau (違う) says

    Hi, thunk.
    ‘prawo jazdy’
    google translate sez ‘driving licence’
    ?

  292. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Saad, #287:
    As for Pakistani cooking, I’m doing personal variations of things I got out of a pretty wonderful cookbook that is “pan-Asian” in the best sense: it covers lots of different Asian cuisines, but it doesn’t blend them. It presents them exactly as they are served in their original context. It’s only pan-Asian in the sense that on the next page the recipe might belong to a cuisine home to a people two thousand km away. (Oh, and one recipe that I got from a Pakistani friend I met in law school.)

    I originally went paging through that book because I was looking for a good Aloo Bhaigan (sometimes Aloo Bhaingan – I can’t figure out if this is legit variation or if Bhaigan is an English misspelling/corruption of Bhaingan), and what I found in the book was different…but not too different…from this example.

    Of course, I also love Bhaigan Bharta, and the Pakistani/ Gujarati versions are quite similar. (I’m under the impression that the Punjabi versions are also similar, but I could easily be wrong). Hard to tell them apart. There’s a yogurt-infused version which I avoid b/c allergy to dairy, but as far as I can tell the yogurt-free version is every bit as Pakistani as the yogurt version. (Though if I have interpreted my readings correctly the yogurt version seems to be **less** authentically Gujarati than the yogurt-free version, or at least less common in Gujarat. Am I right in thinking that yogurt is used more commonly as you move west from India to Pakistan to Iran to Arab to Mediterranean cuisines?)

    Lentils are of course ubiquitous throughout the subcontinent, and it can be hard to determine whether you’re eating your lentils Pakistani-style or not, given that the wide range of preparations that nonetheless draw from the same general spices and cooking traditions mean that there’s quite a bit of overlap.

    nonetheless, I find it’s fair to say that Pakistani lentil recipes (heck, Pakistani recipes generally, but we’re talking beans here) I’ve found have been more generous with garlic than the cuisine of, say, Uttar Pradesh, or Andhra Pradesh, or Tamil Nadu or Bengal or Bangladesh. (This is, of course, a matter of tendency and degree, not presence/absence of garlic altogether…and, again, my knowledge of Indian food is patchy at best, so I’m giving you my understanding, not “the truth” which might be far from what I’ve concluded based on non-random sampling). I pretty sure that the Urad dal/ matpe recipe I use is Pakistani in origin.

    I’ve made aloo paratha once (I really want to do that some more, but haven’t had the chance yet), but I have no idea if this was an Indian or Pakistani recipe, or from where in either country it might have come.

    But, yeah, mostly eggplant, potato, various dal recipes (though my masoor dal that I have planned for Sunday is a Tamil recipe …which of course doesn’t mean that other regions of the Indian subcontinent don’t make it almost identically at times, but I got it from a Tamil blogger) are the things I focus on from the subcontinent and thus from Pakistan.

    I’m willing to try just about anything vegan from anywhere in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, or Bangladesh (or Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, or Indonesia), but the recipes that emphasize eggplant, garlic, and/or black mustard seed tend to get special love from me. Though I may be wrong about tendencies, that means when I’m looking for dishes emphasizing garlic, I tend to look for the Pakistani versions of dishes that are made in one way or another across the subcontinent. When I’m looking for dishes that emphasize black mustard seed, it’s the other side of the subcontinent and the cuisine of Bengal or Bangladesh that I look to first.

  293. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @ajb47:

    Question, though, doesn’t Jerk seasoning have like 12 habaneros in it? Or did I just stumble over one of the better recipes?

    Yeah, jerk is big on the habaneros.

    One of the very, very weird things that I found out by accident tonight, however, is that Jamaicans cheat like an Atlanta public school teacher!

    I forgot to put in the thyme. The jerk was totally done otherwise. It was hot, but not too too hot as I’d left out about 10 of the 20 habaneros for which the recipe called. (Some of those jerk recipes are too hot for me, and my partner likes things 80-90% as hot as I do, so I edge off even a bit more when I’m cooking for both of us.) Then, realizing I hadn’t put in the thyme, I added it in and remixed the sauce.

    Tasting it again, it was half as hot as before. Seriously. Half as hot.

    I don’t know what thyme does to the capsaicin, but it clearly does something – chemically reacts to it, or adsorbs it, or something. I had to add back in some of the peppers I’d left out because it became too mild.

    Looking at the recipe, I start to quiver sometimes thinking of whole habanero/scotch bonnet peppers being thrown in to the sauce in twos and threes. Now I know that the thyme is the way you can impress the hell out of people without facing the full wrath of the habanero. Just throw 4 or 5 habaneros into something in full view of a friend. Watch that friend (wisely!) decline to join you in eating whatever it is you’re making. Then layer on the thyme, cook briefly, and shovel it in with a smile on your face while your friend looks on agog.

    Cheating…but cheating in absolutely the best way.

  294. says

    Reading Crip Dyke’s #293 made me realize that the Jamaican Jerk dishes I’ve tried may not be authentic, as I don’t recall any of them containing habanero peppers.

  295. says

    I’m hoping someone can offer me some assistance here. I just read this article from Indian Country Today Media about comments made by former AK Governor Mike Huckabee during a speech he recently made.

    During his speech in Hope, Arkansas, Huckabee, who is formerly a Southern Baptist pastor, excoriated Obama for comments he made during the annual National Prayer Breakfast in February when, in reference to Islamic terrorism, he reminded his fellow Christians that they, too, have committed horrendous acts in the name of Christianity throughout the annals of human history.

    “And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ,” Obama said.

    On Tuesday, Huckabee told a raucous crowd of supporters that he wonders who Obama cheers for when watching 1950s western cinema.

    “When I hear our current president say he wants Christians to get off their high horse so we can make nice with radical jihadists, I wonder if he can watch a Western from the ‘50s and be able to figure out who the good guys and the bad guys really are,” Huckabee said.

    In a statement sent to ICTMN, Eric Walker, spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, called Huckabee’s comment a “cheap joke” and said Native Americans deserve not to be compared to jihadists.

    “Mike Huckabee has spent his entire career offending Americans of all stripes – African Americans, Jews, Mormons, LGBT Americans to name a few – and now with these recent comments, he can add Native Americans to this growing list,” he said. “Native Americans have a proud heritage, and deserve better than to be compared to jihadists as part of a GOP candidate’s cheap joke. Sadly, this is what people have come to expect from GOP candidates who constantly push policies and views that are harmful to Americans. Mike Huckabee’s offensive, outdated, and divisive social views have no place in the 21st century.”

    Huckabee is the latest in a growing chorus of Republican candidates vying for the presidency, but not the first to fall into disrepute with Native Americans.

    Senator Rand Paul, who announced his bid in April, called for the abolishment of the Bureau of Indian Affairs [BIA] when he first took office in 2011 and has not commented whether he would eliminate the BIA should he become the 44th president in 2016.

    The full speech is available at the above link. Huckabees makes the comparison @14:45.

    I read the article and listened to roughly a minute of the video (starting @14:28), but I still don’t understand what reference Huckabee made to American Indians. I initially thought it was the high horse comment, but I’ve been searching the history of the phrase and thus far haven’t seen any indication that it’s a reference to Indians. Is it that phrase or something else? What am I missing?

  296. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Well the cranberries in mine would destroy what was otherwise a pretty authentic recipe … but damn, it made it good.

    I don’t see anything wrong with making a sauce/dish that’s **almost** a particular (and famous) sauce dish and still calling it that even though your local food availability doesn’t allow you to reproduce it perfectly.

    I mean, there are how many Jamaicans? 8 million at least, right? There have to be quite a few opinions on the best recipe, the best additives, the best variations, even among Jamaicans themselves.

  297. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Oh, also?

    Scotch bonnets and habaneros are about equivalent in heat, and have a virtually identical shape and range of colors. Thus many people think that they are the same pepper…but they aren’t. Apparently scotch bonnet is the original jerk-sauce variety, but now it is frequently displaced by habaneros **even in Jamaica** because of availability and other factors (what those factors are, I can’t say…I just know it’s true).

    So, yeah, jerk sauce is big on habaneros…but it was originally big on scotch bonnets, which come from Africa and are grown in the Caribbean, not habaneros which come from Amazonas and are grown primarily on the mainland, with Yucatan being the biggest habanero-producer among different habanero growing regions.

    =========
    and for population?

    Jamaica stands at a bit under 3 million, according to Wikipedia. So I unknowingly tripled it. Bad me. Still, 3 million is a fairly large number of people to have legitimate opinions on “best authentic” jerk sauce/spice/seasoning. You know, statistically, there’s going to be a wide variety of tastes, so that point stands regardless of how ignorant I was of the actual population.

    Turns out I was thinking of Haiti when I said that…and realized it before I could look up Jamaica online, but after I’d posted the comment. Well, to my credit, Haiti does have a bit over 10 million, so I was remembering the population correctly…just not which country had that pop.

    Ah, me. That’s EnlightenmentLiberal-level wrong, there.

  298. opposablethumbs says

    Crip Dyke, you must be such an awesome cook – those dishes sound soooooo goood (that distant whimpering sound you can just hear is me wishing I could taste them – unfortunately at this considerable distance whimpering doesn’t get results in the shape of amazing food).

    Wishing you good and happy eyes in short order, hope the surgery and recovery go impeccably well (is it cataract, by any chance? )

    Tony! I thought the comparison of Native Americans with islamist terrorists was because he’s first pretending Obama’s comment means he actually favours jihadists and Hates Merkins (TM), then pretending gosh golly that must mean he’s also rooting for those other famous enemies of Real Merkins, the incredibly historically accurate Injuns of those incredibly historically accurate ’50s westerns. Yup goshdarnit they’re both Enemies of Merkins ergo they’re sort of the same.
    Or something like that.
    What an incisive mind this well-informed chap Huckabee must have.

  299. rq says

    ajb47

    (See, it’s funny ’cause I live outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US of A and Giliell is in Germany.)

    It’s this part that made me laugh. :)
    And yay for the planting beds, we finally put in a vegetable garden this year (a very small one) and things seem to be alive and sprouting. It always seems like a such a surprise when seeds actually do that whole waking-up-in-the-ground thing.

    Crip Dyke
    Good luck with the surgery, and hopefully at the end of it all, you can say your foresight is better than your hindsight!
    The sauces sound yummy. VERY YUMMY.

    +++

    I’m a bad commenter since I have been meaning to deliver these *hugs* for bassmike for something like over a week now. :( Here you go!!!

  300. says

    MOrning

    Boundaries. I haz them.
    My father: Well, could you do this and this, please?
    Me: No, sorry, I really don’t have time at the moment.
    He: But couldn’t you at least….
    Me: NO! I just told you I don’t have time at the moment. I need to write this thesis and the daycare workers are on strike.
    He: Why ae you being so aggressive? I was just asking!
    Me: ???!!!!

    +++
    carlie
    What helps me is to consciously think about all the things I did manage and that went well and also what was nice. Because I often get into a negative backfeed loop: focus on what I didn’t manage, feel bad, get even less done, focus on that…

    +++
    re: cooking
    When going out, I aim for authentic. When cooking at home I aim for “everybody is going to eat this”. I will often cook “in the spirit of XXX cuisine”
    Tonight it’s this week’s big meat meal: DIY hamburgers. I have patties, I have buns, I have bacon, I have cheese, I have half a dozen sauces, cucumbers, tomatoes. Everybody will find something they like. With a side dish of more cucumbers and tomatoes. I suck at making salads.

    CD
    I know that cooking problem. When I have to go away for a few days I usually make sure the freezer is filled. When I broke my foot and Mr. had to cook for a few days it gave us all a lasting impression.

    Portia!
    pouncehugs

    ajb47
    I love N K Jemsin, but I haven’T read the inheritance trilogy yet.

  303. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @opposablethumbs, #298:

    Crip Dyke, you must be such an awesome cook

    Sometimes I surprise myself. The rest of the time I’m too lazy to do truly inspired cooking. Running short of money has been the best thing that has happened to my cooking in a long time. Being forced to cook from scratch for the money savings has taken away my ability to be completely lazy, and if I’m going to have to do real work to get food, for damn sure (I decided) I’m going to get good food at the end of it.

    When I cook the lazy way, I still come up with decent food. For instance, grocery-store naan isn’t real naan, but it turns out that it makes a cheap substitute for prepared pizza crust in just the right size…whacking a few veggies and throwing the resulting pile-o-food in a hot oven on a pizza stone hardly counts as cooking in my book. But it’s a whole different level when you’re playing with different flours to come up with just the right mix for making your own focaccia.

    is it cataract, by any chance?

    No such luck. With cataract surgery, you have the confidence that comes from knowing they’ve been doing it for over 2000 years.

    I have keratoconus. One eye is decidedly worse, but both are bad. We’re doing the exceptionally bad eye first, since the corneal distortion in the other eye is a regular distortion and thus subject to better partial correction via corrective lenses than the irregular corneal distortion of the exceptionally bad eye allows. The thinking is that if I have to rely on only one eye for a while, it might as well be the best eye I’ve got. With luck, when the time comes to fix my bad-but-not-horrific eye, my irregularly distorted cornea will be much more regularly distorted…and much less distorted, regular or not, overall. This gives me a chance that when the time comes for the second surgery, I’ll be able to function with only my “bad” eye.

  304. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Tony, #295:

    I read the article and listened to roughly a minute of the video (starting @14:28), but I still don’t understand what reference Huckabee made to American Indians.

    It’s here:

    I wonder if he can watch a Western from the ‘50s and be able to figure out who the good guys and the bad guys really are,

    though it’s a small stretch.

    Not all the “bad guys” from ’50s Westerns in the US were indigenous/first nations folk. And in some cases indigenous/first nations folk were abused locals – neither “good guys” nor “bad guys”.

    But there’s a reason people talked about playing “cowboys and indians” and there’s a reason we stopped that shit. It’s not like when it came down to “cowboys” or “indians” there was much doubt in mainstream culture about who the “good guys” were. Given that the “indians” of ’50s Westerns were also quite visually distinguishable from the white-guy heroes, Huckabee’s comment does seem very much a comment about being unable to tell “the cowboys from the indians”…but with “good guys” and “bad guys” standing in for “cowboys” and “indians” respectively.

    It’s a small reach because many “bad guys” were played by white men, and in many of those they used the “white hat”/”black hat” trope, so it should **still** have been relatively easy to tell “good guys” from “bad guys” and you could **still** have made the allusion to ’50s movies that were “indian free” in a way that coherently mocked Obama as unable to tell good from bad.

    But given that Huckabee didn’t exclude the many, many “good white settler vs. unreasonable/irrational/primitive/bad indian” movies he has to be talking about those movies **at least in part**.

    To the extent that he’s talking about those movies, he sure as hell ain’t talking about first nations folk as “good guys”. Nope, in the metaphor, to the extent that he’s talking about those movies (and I don’t know what percentage of Westerns had indigenous ‘villains’ but it was a significant percentage) he’s comparing radical jihadis to the first nations folk that were nearly obliterated by white land-greed and racism.

  306. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @rq:

    First, I love you. And not just for your unstoppable documentation of racism and police violence in the series of threads currently on its “Reagan” incarnation. That link in #305 was a thing of…well, we shan’t say beauty, I suppose.

    For those wondering just how close might be the link between M. opercularis and Donald Trump, however …?

    If Wiki be the tormentor of Trump, say on:

    Many species have modified the operculum in specialized zooids (avicularia) to form a range of mandibles (probably for defense) or hair-like setae (probably for cleaning, or in some unattached species, such as Selenaria, for locomotion[1]).

    And I never thought his hair-piece might be anything more exotic than a live beaver.

  307. birgerjohansson says

    Buy yourselves a piece of cake this afternoon, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of peace in Europe.
    .
    If it looks like Cameron lost the election, buy yourselves and your friends a whole sh*tload of cake!
    .
    Good Zeus! I realised I am now as old as Adolph was when he died!
    And there are still no flying cars…

  308. birgerjohansson says

    BTW, if you know any surviving USAF aircrew who had to land in Sweden during WWII, say “Hi” from us all over here.

  309. Saad says

    rq, #305

    Campaign mascot right there.

    That is simply amazing though (not at the Trump thing, but at the fact that there’s a caterpillar out there that looks like that). Nature never ceases to amaze.

  310. birgerjohansson says

    Infodump ahead:
    .
    SpaceX capsule soars with dummy in first test of crew escape (Update) http://phys.org/news/2015-05-humans-dummy-aboard-spacex-capsule.html
    .
    Missing link in the evolution of complex cells discovered.
    Go, Uppsala University! http://phys.org/news/2015-05-link-evolution-complex-cells.html
    .
    An alternative state of pluripotency: New stem cell may overcome hurdles for regenerative medicine http://phys.org/news/2015-05-alternative-state-pluripotency-stem-cell.html
    .
    Molecular homing beacon redirects human antibodies to fight pathogenic bacteria http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-molecular-homing-beacon-redirects-human.html
    .
    Fresh evidence for how water reached Earth found in asteroid debris http://phys.org/news/2015-05-fresh-evidence-earth-asteroid-debris.html

  311. birgerjohansson says

    DNA is fucking cool, man!

    Researchers report possible discovery of sixth DNA base, methyl-adenine http://phys.org/news/2015-05-discovery-sixth-dna-base-methyl-adenine.html
    .
    A hot start to the origin of life? Researchers map the first chemical bonds that eventually give rise to DNA Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-hot-life-chemical-bonds-eventually.html
    .
    The next step in DNA computing: GPS mapping? http://phys.org/news/2015-05-dna-gps.html
    .
    A better way to build DNA scaffolds http://phys.org/news/2015-05-dna-scaffolds.html

  312. says

    OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD
    I have turned all my notes into a “bullet point” outline, so now the next thing I have to do is to actually WRITE.

    +++
    Also, how come you’re all talking about that Jameican jerk and haven’t posted a recipe?

  313. rq says

    Crip Dyke @306
    My horror pretty much overcame me when I read that Donald Trump’s hair is venomous.
    I wonder if it’s been eating his brain, too?

    Saad
    So photogenic, plus the colour is so vibrant, makes him look years younger!
    I wonder if those caterpillars get TV out there? And one of them was like, ‘I dunno, folks, I’m not sure about this combover thing’ and then saw Donald Trump being all… well, whatever he is… and understood that it was, indeed, a powerful symbol. And accepted itself.

  316. Saad says

    rq,

    Saad
    So photogenic, plus the colour is so vibrant, makes him look years younger!
    I wonder if those caterpillars get TV out there? And one of them was like, ‘I dunno, folks, I’m not sure about this combover thing’ and then saw Donald Trump being all… well, whatever he is… and understood that it was, indeed, a powerful symbol. And accepted itself.

    I wonder if they get offended every time someone calls Trump an asshat. :(

  317. bassmike says

    Thank you and *hugs* to you too rq .

    Crip Dyke your cooking sounds awesome. Good luck with your eye surgery. I hope it all goes well.

    I’ve been busy for a while, so I’ve been following the lounge but not taking part.

    We took my daughter to the National Space Centre and she seemed to enjoy it. It’s difficult to tel sometimes. Hopefully it will spark an interest in science. You never know.

    She’s been pretty good company over the last week or so, which is an improvement on the tantrums we had on an off for a while. It means that everyone is happier and she gets more treats. Win win!

    After work I’m off to vote. I must exercise my democratic right.

  320. rq says

    Saad
    Well, Trump’s the asshat, the caterpillar is the decoration on the asshat. Makes the asshat more… appealing?
    Never mind, it’s insulting anyway.

    ajb47
    </b> <- This one?

    bassmike
    Yay for improvements in moods for everyone, might be the spring! Hope things are turning green over at your end.
    And go democracy.

  322. Saad says

    Crip Dyke, #292

    As for Pakistani cooking, I’m doing personal variations of things I got out of a pretty wonderful cookbook that is “pan-Asian” in the best sense: it covers lots of different Asian cuisines, but it doesn’t blend them. It presents them exactly as they are served in their original context. It’s only pan-Asian in the sense that on the next page the recipe might belong to a cuisine home to a people two thousand km away. (Oh, and one recipe that I got from a Pakistani friend I met in law school.)

    I originally went paging through that book because I was looking for a good Aloo Bhaigan (sometimes Aloo Bhaingan – I can’t figure out if this is legit variation or if Bhaigan is an English misspelling/corruption of Bhaingan), and what I found in the book was different…but not too different…from this example.

    Of course, I also love Bhaigan Bharta, and the Pakistani/ Gujarati versions are quite similar. (I’m under the impression that the Punjabi versions are also similar, but I could easily be wrong). Hard to tell them apart. There’s a yogurt-infused version which I avoid b/c allergy to dairy, but as far as I can tell the yogurt-free version is every bit as Pakistani as the yogurt version. (Though if I have interpreted my readings correctly the yogurt version seems to be **less** authentically Gujarati than the yogurt-free version, or at least less common in Gujarat. Am I right in thinking that yogurt is used more commonly as you move west from India to Pakistan to Iran to Arab to Mediterranean cuisines?)

    Ooh, I have a complicated relationship with eggplant. In some dishes, it is wonderful. Bhangaray baingan is my favorite eggplant dish. Give that a try if you get the chance. It’s quite a tangy dish (heavy on tamarind). As for the baingan/bhaigan thing, that completely depends on which regional accent you’re dealing with. I’ve never heard it with a “bh” sound though, but won’t be surprised if plenty of people in India say it that way. I grew up saying baingan – she pronounces it here. I just noticed she uses peas in her version (never seen that before but seems intriguing). And bharta we pronounce bhurta. I think baingan bharta (eggplant mash) would be the common Indian way to say it. They tend to shorten dish names by leaving out words. In Urdu, they say baingan ka bhurta (mash of eggplant). Hindi/Urdu are full of minor differences like that.

    Speaking of pronunciation, one very common thing you might encounter is the how the letter z and j are often used in the two languages. For example, if you’ve come across cumin in some recipes (I’m sure you have), in Urdu it’s zeera, but in Hindi they call it jeera.

    I can’t really say how common yogurt is in the eastern subcontinent, since I’m more familiar with Pakistani food, but it’s extremely common in Pakistan. Any dish that has a curry/gravy will almost always have yogurt. I think it would still have a role to play in many curry-type dishes all over India too.

    Lentils are of course ubiquitous throughout the subcontinent, and it can be hard to determine whether you’re eating your lentils Pakistani-style or not, given that the wide range of preparations that nonetheless draw from the same general spices and cooking traditions mean that there’s quite a bit of overlap.

    nonetheless, I find it’s fair to say that Pakistani lentil recipes (heck, Pakistani recipes generally, but we’re talking beans here) I’ve found have been more generous with garlic than the cuisine of, say, Uttar Pradesh, or Andhra Pradesh, or Tamil Nadu or Bengal or Bangladesh. (This is, of course, a matter of tendency and degree, not presence/absence of garlic altogether…and, again, my knowledge of Indian food is patchy at best, so I’m giving you my understanding, not “the truth” which might be far from what I’ve concluded based on non-random sampling). I pretty sure that the Urad dal/ matpe recipe I use is Pakistani in origin.

    Yeah, there are so many types of lentils. And each has its own texture and flavor. My favorite probably is chanaa daal. A lot of them go very well with rice (chawal) too – daal chawal is a very common meal. And in Pakistan, it’s common to see them being used in meat dishes as well (like in a stew or incorporated in kababs – shaami kabab for instance).

    Garlic and ginger are incredibly common in Pakistani cuisine too. Actually, I can’t think of many dishes that don’t start out with a generous amount of both. Since a lot of Pakistani dishes have a curry/gravy (shorba in Urdu) of some sort, you’ll find garlic and ginger paste almost everywhere since every shorba has garlic and ginger in its base.

    I love aloo paratha. The Urdu version of that is aloo bhara paratha, meaning potato stuffed paratha. Another example of shortening of names in Hindi. My guess would be that paratha would be of Indian origin since the “th” sound in paratha is from Indian languages. No such sound exists in Arabic, Persian or Turkish. Same with the bread called roti, the hard “t” sound comes from India. Now naan, on the other hand, would be of Persian origin. A lot of people use naan and roti interchangeably but naan is supposed to be a tandoor-cooked leavened bread, whereas roti is a flat unleavened bread cooked on a flat or convex surface like a tawa. Speaking of aloo, have you tried aloo ka bhurta? Think baingan ka bhurta but with potatoes instead of eggplant. One of my favorites. I like it spicy with lots of tomatoes.

    But, yeah, mostly eggplant, potato, various dal recipes (though my masoor dal that I have planned for Sunday is a Tamil recipe …which of course doesn’t mean that other regions of the Indian subcontinent don’t make it almost identically at times, but I got it from a Tamil blogger) are the things I focus on from the subcontinent and thus from Pakistan.

    I think almost all daal would be from India. There could be some exceptions, but going by the names of the different types of daal and how many uses Indian cuisine has for them, my guess is that the various Muslim peoples who conquered and settled in parts of India incorporated them into their cuisine. Do you like chick peas? Chick peas can play a very versatile role in desi cooking too. You can find them in so many forms – salads, snacks, street food, entrees and even ground into flour (besan or gram flour) to make bread and desserts.

    Have you tried Indian desserts? The vast majority of them can be classified as mithai. A lot of them are dairy based, but I’m sure you could find some that aren’t. For someone with a sweet tooth, walking into a halwai’s (Urdu for a sweet shop) is just heaven.

    Now there are some dishes which are still exclusively Indian. Back in Pakistan, I had never even heard of things like dosa, idli, sambhar or uppam. It sounds strange, but it wasn’t until we moved to the U.S. that I found out some of the common things our next door neighbors were eating.

    If you’re interested in vegetarian and/or vegan dishes, you might find this YouTube channel useful. They seem to have started focusing more on quick snacks rather than full dishes though, but there’s still some good stuff to be found. There are a couple of other really good Indian cooking channels, but they are in Hindi (they do list the ingredients and steps in English at the end though, if you’re interested I’ll find you the links).

    I love talking about food and its origins/history. I discuss our cuisine a lot with my mom, who learned cooking from her mom’s side of the family. She is considered a cooking guru in her very large family. Then when she married my dad (whose father was of Afghani background), she picked up some influences from Afghani-inspired cuisine too. Now I just gotta learn how to cook like 95% of the dishes I love talking about.

  323. rq says

    Cait
    Rather pointy for a raisin, no?

    +++

    I must befriend an owl, because owls are awesome, esp. this one. I wouldn’t even mind getting mouse and bat presents in bed. “BREAKFAST!”

  325. rq says

    Have you been vaccuuming again, Caitie? That bowl looks full of some… strange… raisins.

  327. bassmike says

    I used have a rabbit that lived in the house, there was no way I was going to eat a ‘raisin’ off the floor!

  329. Okidemia says

    Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden #296

    Well the cranberries in mine would destroy what was otherwise a pretty authentic recipe … but damn, it made it good.

    Mmm. But how came the authentic recipes to be, if not with ingredients appearing and disappearing with circumstances?
    .
    You certainly have access to fresh hot peppers. You therefore already know that they are easy to grow, even indoor. If you wish, I can send you with local seeds. (I’ll go through the alcohol sanitisation step, risks of disease import are actually quite reduced).
    .
    .
    It’s only morning, and I’m already hungry ’cause of this thread. I’m also envious of you cooks! I’ve never been able to follow recipes, it’s beyond my ability to comply. I’m always adding and altering the ruly recipes and I have to tell people to enjoy, because I won’t be able to make something again.
    I’m fortunate enough that cooking is tolerant toward drifting, as much as molecular benchwork is.

  330. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Saad, #322:

    Thank you! You’ve given me so much to chew on!

    chanaa daal

    Of course I’m familiar with chana dal! On the other hand, I find it easier to cook masoor dal and I have a huge weakness for matpe/urad dal … and good Jewish (green) lentils are still in my cooking rotation, so it ends up being 4th on my own dal priority list.

    That’s a bit sad, because I love chana dal when I go out to eat, but I just haven’t had the success in home cooking it that I’ve had with urad or masoor or even the many mediterranean variations on green lentil dishes (from France to Israel – staying to the north coast – is where all the recipes I know how to cook come from). If you want to come over to my house and tell me what I’m doing wrong, I’d very much appreciate it!

    Have you tried Indian desserts?

    A few. But here’s the thing: I am stodgy and conservative about my deserts. While the nutritious/not heavily sweetened food that’s part of the main meal might be anything, when I’m going to eat something sweet, I really crave the old reliables from childhood – to the point of eating cakes from boxed mixes!

    My chocolate chip cookies are rather unique as I’ve developed a really great mix of flours I use as my “standard” in a lot of recipes. Trying to get good nutrition means using whole flours. Deserts and breakfast breads/pastries usually use white flours rather exclusively. Typically going whole grain creates something too heavy to hold the texture intended for the dish/bread/pastry.

    What do I do about that?

    10 parts whole wheat flour
    5-6 parts (I tend to go with 6, but when I first did this I used 5) whole-grain buckwheat flour
    4-5 parts rice flour (white or brown).

    If you’ve ever had mochi, you know that rice flours can create and hold a structure on their own. It’s not just their gluten-y stickiness, it’s how they harden into a rigid crust. Well, that rigid crust, when dispersed through other flours as a minority ingredient creates a light-but-strong skeleton inside the dish/bread/pastry.

    Now, with whole grains, usually the item **looks** right at some point during the baking…but then collapses later in a dense mass, possibly even after removing from the oven. I’m sure you’ve had a fallen cake before, but whole grains pretty much guarantee that outcome unless you do something specifically to prevent it. The fall completely ruins the texture and leads to something that cannot remotely be compared to the intended item. But the amount of rice flour in my mix provides just enough extra strength in that skeleton to prevent the cake/cookie/pancake/whatever from falling. And yet, mixed through it can’t provide a single “crust”. It just adds a bit of crispness to the item.

    For pancakes, it’s a bit different from some of the ridiculously soft, fluffy versions, but so long as the pancake doesn’t fall (and it won’t with this mix) it can still be quite good, and it is at least similar enough to be comparable – a recognizable version – in a way that a collapse whole-grain mass could never be.

    For cookies the bit of crispness is typically a welcome and intended part of the original recipe, so you’re golden there.

    For breads it depends, but I’ve had great luck varying things only a bit when making focaccia or sourdough or even my own special herb bread (for instance the buckwheat is delicious in cookies, but isn’t quite right in focaccia or sourdough).

    I’d be more than happy to discuss whole grain flours and their uses at length!

    Now I just gotta learn how to cook like 95% of the dishes I love talking about.

    Or date someone who knows how to cook them and is willing to do a lot for the chance to get in a snuggle or two…

  331. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Okidemia, #329:

    You certainly have access to fresh hot peppers. You therefore already know that they are easy to grow, even indoor. If you wish, I can send you with local seeds.

    What, really? Sounds great!

    I’m also envious of you cooks! I’ve never been able to follow recipes, it’s beyond my ability to comply. I’m always adding and altering the ruly recipes and I have to tell people to enjoy, because I won’t be able to make something again.
    I’m fortunate enough that cooking is tolerant toward drifting, as much as molecular benchwork is.

    Read more: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2015/04/29/lounge-496/#ixzz3ZSWSESsp

    Yep. That’s me…except I have a fairly good memory for what I’ve done and can taste my way through adjusting things “[Taste.] What’s it lacking? Yeah, a bit more X,” is a strategy that works fine for me for recreating dishes…but I don’t worry about recreating them too exactly anyway. The weather will be different making more or less spice appropriate, or I’ll decide to open a bottle of wine (which really changes things compared to non-alcoholic beverages accompanying a dish), or I’ll have guests over who prefer slightly different flavors and for whom I want to tweak the final outcome, etc. Any/all of that calls for tweaking the recipe, so my refusal to conform is quite justified.

    …or so I tell myself.

  332. numerobis says

    With fresh hot peppers from the store, scoop out the seeds and plant them! You can also plant dried whole lentils and chick peas (split peas not so much) — chick pea greens are delicious by the way.

  333. Okidemia says

    Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden #297

    Still, 3 million is a fairly large number of people to have legitimate opinions on “best authentic” jerk sauce/spice/seasoning. You know, statistically, there’s going to be a wide variety of tastes, so that point stands (…)

    The point would stand whatever the demography numbers you had in mind or otherwise, but not only because of individual variation in opinion. That’s because Scotch bonnets are traditional population based varieties throughout the Caribbean, and they also recurrently open breed with the piment végétarien (which are also population varieties), since both ‘variety’ types are allogamous and are usually cultivated side by side in family créole gardens. As a result, there’s natural variation for hotness (presumably there is or will be selection for desired characteristics by producers). (Kids always frown when I inadvertantly cook with ‘veggie’ peppers that have a recent Scotch bonnet ancestor).
    .
    Oh! That can make it for the next research project, there are plenty current incentives to go for family gardens as ways to warrant food security in small island states in the Caribbean currently. I should tell my colleagues…
    I can’t wait to see what the boss will say when I’ll tell him that reading pharyngula comments is actually work… :) (that would be a funny situation).

  334. Okidemia says

    Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden #331

    What, really? Sounds great!

    You have access to moderator privilege here (I guess)? Then send me a message to my email with a snail mail address. (Only make sure I can identify the request as yours, please avoid the words that could elicit a fail spam triage :).

    This will only take the time I can make it to have the seeds dried and disinfected, plus the time I can find myself going to the postal office (because I don’t have any idea as to what the stamp rates to the snail mail are), plus the time needed for a snail mail to get over there. Anyway, seeds remain viable a time long enough to warrant cultivation success.

    I can reach for Carribean Scotch bonnets and piments végétariens (zero hotness level basically, but very tasty) easily. Tell me if you have preferences for colour of SB (orange, red or dark purple), or if you only go for hotness (moderate/strong).

    Please note that the ‘offer’ is not limited to CD, I’ll do it gladly for any cook-gardener provided I get snail mails. You can arrange with CD to make a single request (I’d prefer, rather than going to the postal office multiple times).

  336. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @giliell, #312:

    OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD

    I have turned all my notes into a “bullet point” outline, so now the next thing I have to do is to actually WRITE.

    Oh, is that all?

    Also, how come you’re all talking about that Jameican jerk and haven’t posted a recipe?

    I can’t in good conscience give a recipe, because people will add the specific amounts I list and then conclude it’s “just good” or “just bad”.

    For me, cooking is a process. I refuse to get too specific about what your final jerk sauce “should” be, but I can give you the ingredients, amounts to give you a roughly good ratio, and some guidelines on how to go about creating the sauce you really want.

    Start here:

    Take:
    A generous handful of allspice berries (or, if you must, one generous tablespoon of ground allspice);
    1 to 2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses;
    1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce OR 1 tablespoon warm water + 1 teaspoon salt + just a tiny bit of vanilla; [NOTE: for liquid consistency and just generally, you’ll want about 3 tablespoons soy sauce + molasses to get things to come out right, some people will like it sweeter, some people will like it saltier. Either way is fine, just learn which you prefer and split the 3 tablespoons up accordingly]
    at least 4 cloves of garlic, and
    one bunch of scallion/green onion.

    …put all these ingredients in a blender – not a food processor unless it’s one that’s really made for processing liquids, but a blender.

    Blend the fuck out of it.

    Now you have the paste that is going to form the bulk of your jerk sauce. But you’re far from done. Now you need to spice it.

    Add to the blended mixture:

    1 stick cinnamon
    2 teaspoons whole black pepper corn
    0.5 teaspoons nutmeg
    2 teaspoons dry thyme (I don’t have fresh thyme in my herb garden, substituting fresh thyme for dry, I’m told, is a scant-tablespoon-for-full-teaspoon substitution, in other words 2 to 3 times the amount of fresh that you would have used dry)

    Blend again.

    Now add the heat, one pepper at a time:
    Scotch bonnet peppers to taste – usually 2 to 6. Substitute habanero in equal amounts if it’s easier for you to get.

    Again with the blending.

    Now start tasting with enthusiasm. It should taste good and reasonably complete at this point…but EVERYONE has different tastes.

    TRICKY BIT: some kind of fruit usually is needed to take jerk from excellent to sublime. I like the cranberries that I used, but there are a couple of Caribbean cherries that are quite good in jerk sauce. Look for “Barbados cherry” or “West Indian cherry”. Neither of them are, in fact, true cherries if I understand correctly. The amount of fruit differs based on whether you’re using dry or fresh and which fruit.

    For my jerk sauce from yesterday, it was about a generous tablespoon of dried, sweetened cranberry.

    Blend every time you add anything, from here on out. Taste every time you add any little thing.

    It’s possible that you might end up – now or later in the development of the final sauce – with something just a bit too thick. That’s fine. Adding water to it will cure this consistency problem easily. Don’t stress, but don’t add much water at a time – the consistency can change quite rapidly at critical threshold values of liquid. Never add more than 1 full tablespoon of water at a time. Blend between each bit of water added until it’s just right again. If you add dry spices later, you might also need to add water again, but do it THEN. Don’t make it extra fluid now, you might not add as much viscosity as you think later.

    The sauce could be done after you add the fruit to it, or you might need to adjust amounts of various ingredients to your own taste. Since you were already careful to adjust the heat to your tastes by adding peppers a bit at a time, it’s unlikely you need to adjust that. If going the “one whole pepper at a time” route led you to just a bit too much heat, add a pinch of thyme. [My new discovery for heat-cutting.]

    It’s not found in most recipes, but if you want to add a bit of a sweeter pepper, especially if you’re just a bit shy of the heat you want, but far too close to throw in a whole Scotch bonnet, try adding dry paprika or a bit of a sweet-hot pepper, whichever one happens to be your favorite. Mixing in sweeter peppers that still have some kick to them IS traditional, even if few recipes actually state “and add some of this other pepper” alongside the Scotch bonnets or habaneros the recipe uses for its main heat. Scotch bonnets are just as hot as habaneros, but they actually have more “fruity” flavor than habaneros do to go with that heat. So if you’re using habaneros, adding a sweeter pepper into the mix can actually make the final product more traditional in flavor, not less. Of course, the cranberries I added serve the same purpose.

    Also? Super-secret trick? If you’re trying to make this in a hurry or if you don’t want to work with peppers that require gloves, you can replace habaneros entirely with Sri Racha…so long as you add a bit of fruity flavor from somewhere else.

    Most common adjustments other than that?

    Well, all the spices above are in lower-threshold amounts.

    For me I pay particular attention to the allspice, the garlic and the nutmeg. There should be some astringency to the sauce before it is cooked from the raw garlic. The garlic will end up being less prominent after cooking than it is now. You can plan for that and remember to make sure you taste at least a little astringency, or you can simply add garlic to taste to the dish you cook in jerk at the time of cooking. For me, I found about 7-8 cloves of garlic gave me just what I wanted in the above recipe, but it is frankly easier to adjust the garlic in a cooked/cooking dish than it is here, so using 4 and planning for adding garlic separately as you cook is a fine plan.

    DO NOT adjust the scallions – they are background, adjust AROUND the scallions.

    You shouldn’t have any problem knowing your own palate well enough to know if you want a bit more salt or sweet – adjust only ONE, whichever seems low to you, if either. If what you want to add is sweet, think about whether you want to add molasses or more of your chosen fruit. Most of the fruits that taste best with jerk aren’t very sweet, but adding a fruity flavor, even if it’s not a sweet fruity flavor, can make up for that sweet surprisingly quickly. I’d even try adding a bit of fruit first, but since fruit is an optional ingredient anyway, I leave it up to you if you do want to add molasses.

    If you end up adding a bit too much of either salt or sweet, DON’T add the other. If you’ve added too much sweet, counter with allspice and -if necessary- just a tiny pinch of concentrated lemon juice. If you’ve added too much salt, counter with garlic, the fruit you selected, a tiny bit of cinnamon, and/or up to 0.5 teaspoons nutmeg…and if necessary, just a bit of whole black peppercorn. Thyme can counter excess salt quite well, but you need to be extremely careful how you use it because it cuts the effective heat of the sauce, and then you might be back to adding allspice and Scotch bonnets. So if you add thyme as a counter to salt (rather than as a counter to excess heat) for the love of bobsledding, do it carefully!

  337. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @okidemia:

    I have to get kids ready for school, but I’ll touch back in later – I’d love to take you up on your offer.

  339. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Oops! forgot –

    lemongrass makes an acceptable – even good! – substitute for scallions/green onions. But it’s one of those where the sub is less common to have on hand than the primary, so it’s really more of an intentional variation of the sauce than something you’re likely to swap in when you find you have no green onion.

  340. blf says

    [S]cotch bonnets, which come from Africa and are grown in the Caribbean, not habaneros which come from Amazonas and are grown primarily on the mainland, with Yucatan being the biggest habanero-producer among different habanero growing regions.

    Scotch bonnets may have been first bred / grown in Africa — I’ve been unable to find any trustworthy source on that — but, like habaneros and all other chillies, their origins are in the Americas, and were completely unknown outside the Americas until the time of the Columbus raids. Scotch bonnets and habaneros are known to be related, and my own suspicion is one (probably scotch bonnets) are a derivative of the other (probably habaneros), albeit whether intentionally, or even where either was first found / grown, I’ve no idea (the African connection for scotch bonnets is fairly new to me).

  341. Okidemia says

    Oops, I forgot:
    The plants are small shrubs (ca half a meter after a year), are tolerant to reasonnably high planting densities, resistant to soft drought (don’t water too much), flower every two months (under tropical settings), and self compatible (no worry about pollinators: fruit set is almost 100%). I typically get about 20/30 peppers every flowering stance on each individual. They are nevertheless quite appealing to Solanaceae hawkmoth, and the latter has quite a wide natural range. If plants are outdoor, you can lose them all in a single night due to caterpillars.

  342. blf says

    For me, cooking is a process.

    Ditto. I don’t provide recipes (in the modern sense), and don’t slavishly follow them. (This is perhaps why I cannot bake much of anything, baking seems to require far more precision than is my norm.) To the extent I use recipes at all, it is for ideas, guidelines, tips, and warnings.

    (Plus, of course, with the mildly deranged penguin around, most recipes are “cheese, cheese, moar cheese, cheese to taste, cheese, and cheese, followed by cheese. Also, MUSHROOMS!“)

  343. Okidemia says

    Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden #337

    I have to get kids ready for school, but I’ll touch back in later – I’d love to take you up on your offer.

    Don’t worry, it can’t be done too fast: the next farmers’ market is on friday 15th and I can’t say for sure if I can find the specific strains so the first step can take up to two weeks. The final snail mail step might take even longer, for the local postal office sometimes proceeds really slow, especially with highly exotic destinations such as the USA (that’s life on an island, cultural time is much slower –tourists usually take it as a pain and are grumpy about it, but I think we are right not to live in a perpetual hurry).

  344. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Ditto. I don’t provide recipes (in the modern sense), and don’t slavishly follow them.

    Is it necessary to be quite so contemptuous of people who don’t have the time and money to produce every dish completely by trial and error without any starting point?

  345. says

    CD
    Hmmm, sounds delicious. I think that’s probably a recipe for a Thursday night: Cook for me and my friends and have some hot dogs in stock for the kids.

    Oh, is that all?

    Actually, I consider that the easier part. Working myself into the theories, getting my literature sorted, getting my ideas sorted, deciding when to STOP, that was the hard part.

    +++
    Azkyroth

    Is it necessary to be quite so contemptuous of people who don’t have the time and money to produce every dish completely by trial and error without any starting point?

    Nobody did that. All people did was talk about themselves. Nobody implied any superiority or contempt.

  346. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Oh, Azkyroth, I’m sorry if we came across contemptuous.

    I really did mean “for me”, and blf did say:

    This is perhaps why I cannot bake much of anything, baking seems to require far more precision than is my norm

    There are serious disadvantages to “cooking as process”. There are serious advantages to recipes.

    I was motivated to develope my strategy based on my inadequacies, (primarily organization: I’ll write down a recipe and then be completely unable to find it when I need it – thus I **have to know** how to fiddle with things to get a good flavor). If you have ingredients with predictable qualities and quantities (“a bunch of green onion” **isn’t** always a predictable quantity) and are better at organizing than me, your recipe results might be a good deal better than mine.

    The reason I don’t provide recipes is because I want people to get a good result for them, not just a good result for me. I hope that I give folks pretty good starting points that make it so that they **don’t** need to do things completely by trial and error…and then give pointers on what trials they might make if they notice a given error.

    No, recipes are absolutely crucial for baking, and thus I DO follow recipes (at least fairly closely) when baking…but I have to keep them on computer or I’ll lose them. And recipes in general are very helpful. The fact that I play with them isn’t meant to imply that a good recipe is worth less than my long-winded instructions.

  347. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @blf:

    Thanks for the info on peppers’ original range. Apparently my source on an African origin for the Scotch bonnet is of quite dubious reliability.

    @Giliell:

    I consider [doing the writing] the easier part.

    Fair enough. That actually describes me as well. It’s just a bit funny to think of the easy part producing your academic product as actually producing the academic product. It strikes me as humorous even as it strikes me as very familiar.

    deciding when to STOP,

    Yeah, this is my big one as well. How much research is enough? When did I cross the line from educating myself to masturbation-by-knowledge-acquisition? Has my consideration of multiple perspectives devolved into a mere chance to talk dirty to myself? [Ooooh, baby, slide another sociological model in there. That’s sooooooo good.]

  348. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    “Mere”. As if that could possibly be “mere”.

  349. cicely says

    Tornadoes infest my fondest nightmares.
    I’m glad you’re safe, thunk.
    –
    Wishing for the best possible outcome on your eye surgery, Crip Dyke.
    –
    Nice bluebird pic, Tony!.
    –
    rq:

    Donald Trump’s hair discovered crawling in Amazon.

    Aiyeee!!!
    Kill it! Kill it with *napalm!*!
     
    (Later)

    My horror pretty much overcame me when I read that Donald Trump’s hair is venomous.
    I wonder if it’s been eating his brain, too?

    Zombie hair!
    ‘Course, first it’d have to find his brain….
    *cue voice of Famous Narrator*
    “Tonight, we go to the Amazon Basin in…The Search for Trump’s Brain!”
    –
    I want follow-instructions-preciseliness in my recipes! I want to be able to treat my cookery as if it were a chemistry experiment, dammit!
    It tends to limit the FAIL.
    So. Much. FAIL.
    Cooking is one of the many talents that I Do Not Has.
    –

  350. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Is there anyone in British Columbia or in the Willamette Valley that also wants to take advantage of Okidemia’s generous offer? I could get the seeds from Okidemia and then spread ’em around any area of the Northwest I happen to visit.

    I’d be a regular Dyke-y Pepperseed!

    You know, I always used to get that guy confused with Paul Bunyon as a child. I would end up with images of a tiny, smiley person riding a big blue ox and tossing apple cores left and right of the bovine’s very wide path. Now, of course, riding a babe has a very different connotation.

  351. says

    Hah. I win. This morning as part of the big list of errands, I went to Home Despot and shopped their nursery section for Aged Mum’s gardening supplies, the stuff we said we’d buy her for Mother’s Day.

    I got Aged Mum 32 qts of potting mix, two six-packs each of two different kinds of small succulent groundcover plants (because she wasn’t clear exactly what she wanted, and I couldn’t lift a flat anyway), zucchini seeds, two sorts of tomato seeds (again, not clear what she wanted), and a goddamn passionflower vine in a pot, to replace the one that the evil neighbor slayed. I’m sure she’ll find something to tell me I did wrong, but I’ll just offer to take the wrong plants home and let her go buy her own. THBPBPTHPT on her. And I got to walk around a nursery and enjoy the pretty sights and nice smells into the bargain.

    I am enjoying the brief spell of improved mood while it lasts. Like all good things, blink, and it’ll be gone.

    Tea, chocolate and hugs offered.

  353. Funny Diva says

    Anne, Cranky Cat Lady:

    Hey! I thought *I* was the only one who called that place the Home Despot!

    Glad you had a fun shopping trip!

    FunnyDiva
    who is also a…lady with a cranky cat.

  355. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @rq, 352:

    ZOMG I laughed so hard at your link. But what really got me in your link wasn’t so much the Hamburglar jokes (though “I just found my new tinder picture” was really good).

    What got me rolling on the floor was the new Grimace.

  357. Okidemia says

    Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden #350

    Is there anyone in British Columbia or in the Willamette Valley that also wants to take advantage of Okidemia’s generous offer? I could get the seeds from Okidemia and then spread ’em around any area of the Northwest I happen to visit.

    Note that if CD doesn’t mind and if it’s easy to them to collect the info, they can send me a bunch of snail mail adresses where to send the seeds (I don’t mind as long as these are not too many and if it’s not too complex to dispatch the different varieties in the different wishes), if anyone outside their range would still like to grow magical peppers.

    Also, there’s no invasiveness risk for these species in this direction (tropics >> temperate or even sub-tropical), in case you’re wondering.

  359. rq says

    Crip Dyke @355
    But the fedora. (Though I prefer the zorro hat.)
    The fedora.
    It makes him creepy.

  360. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @okidemia, #357:

    If it’s just a few seeds (say 20) per person, it’s FAR cheaper for you to post one envelope by international mail and have me pass them on (even by mail) once they get here than it is for you to post separate envelopes to each person.

    I’m just trying to help make sure we’re not taking advantage of your generosity.

  361. Okidemia says

    Crip Dyke #360:
    That’s true for North America, maybe it isn’t if there are also European reader that are interested, to which I bet I have the cheapest rates… :-)

  362. says

    Anybody want some freshly toasted textbooks?
    Guess who put her open teabottle into her backpack upside down AGAIN.
    It’s the same person who will not be happy about getting used textbooks for her birthday. They are rented, so I will have to pay for the loss because you can’t give those to another kid and I won’t foot the bill.
    If this were a one time fuck-up I wouldn’t say much, but I don’t know how much stuff she has already drowned. I need to get some different bottles…

    +++
    CD
    Has my consideration of multiple perspectives devolved into a mere chance to talk dirty to myself? [Ooooh, baby, slide another sociological model in there. That’s sooooooo good.]
    *snorfle*
    Source hopping! You read a text, the author mentions another text, you think that’ll be helpful, so you get it, and THEY mention somebody else again, and since there’s always so much more, you always feel underprepared.
    I have culled entire aspects from the outline because those notes are 8 pages in cryptic short forms. I guess just writing the full name of the authors would drive it to 12 pages and the whole thing is supposed to be 60-80 pages (but MLA format, so that’s just 30-40 real pages)

    Okidemia

    maybe it isn’t if there are also European reader that are interested…

    Well, if you’re asking…..
    *puppyeyes*

    recipes
    For cooking I treat them more like inspirations unless making stuff with a huge potential for disaster. For baking I follow them more strictly (though by now I spot when something just can’t work. Sometimes cooking books are copy and paste things without anybody really trying)
    I have a write-in recipe book where I have my most beloved baking recipes like gran’s cinamon waffers.

    +++

  364. says

    363 Giliell, my Dad did get me into a bit of trouble when he defined “toxic” as “not edible” the first time I encountered it. I reasoned that something “nontoxic” must be therefore edible, and therein lies a tale of choking hazards galore.

    But no, it was that tasty little “b” that got me, not a jawbreaker like “blockquote”. Maybe it slithered under the sofa?

  365. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @CaitieCat:

    This asteroid is non-toxic.

    This politician is non-toxic.

    This web-page is non-toxic.

    Hmm. I can see how that might cause a fair bit of confusion.

  366. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Nobody did that. All people did was talk about themselves. Nobody implied any superiority or contempt.

    Reread the line I quoted. Note that blf apparently-habitually concatenates “slavishly” to any reference to use of recipes at all. Do you really not see why this is, at best, both grating and privileged?

    Oh, Azkyroth, I’m sorry if we came across contemptuous.

    You didn’t.

  367. says

    Azkyroth

    Reread the line I quoted. Note that blf apparently-habitually concatenates “slavishly” to any reference to use of recipes at all. Do you really not see why this is, at best, both grating and privileged?

    1. No. “Slavishly” is the adverb to “follow”. Would you have preferred “religiously” or “meticiously”? It still does not refer to any use of recipe but to the degree of using them. As in “I treat recipes as loose suggestions.”
    2. Yes, food and cooking and eating have a lot to do with privilege. Whether you had somebody who could teach you the basics is really important and it sure correlates with privilege, but it’s not just that. It’s also a skill and luck. Unless you want to call my grandma privileged, whose cooking skills were mainly a result of having to make do after WWII and during the 60s when money was too short to buy cooking oil. Many people who are well off can’t cook an egg to save their lives, many poor people are resourceful cooks.
    The one thing you can surely interfere from somebody talking about how they do all their cooking from scratch is that they have enough time to do so.
    3. I still have no clue why people talking about their not-recipe cooking upsets you that much. Some people can cook from scratch and enjoy doing so, other’s can’t and that’s just one of the many varieties people come in. Some people can make up their own knitting patterns, so what?

  368. carlie says

    Giliell – I don’t know how common they are there, but around here there are water bottles that come with a carabiner hook attached so they can latch onto the outside of book bags. It’s a little more clunky, but avoids that particular problem.

  369. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Oh. My. Fictious. God.

    I have made it EXTREMELY clear that my objection is not to the general topic of recipe-less cooking, but to the specific dismissive reference to using recipes as “slavish.”

    Am I being trolled?

  370. Okidemia says

    Sorry, I lost my internet connection for a few hours. Maybe this is because of saharian dust of today, I should investigate if this can break access.

    CD, I am taking a few days off, so I might answer with some delay. With some luck I might even discover a new marketplace before the 15th, who knows…

  371. says

    Azkyroth:
    You’re not being trolled and I don’t think it’s at all fair for you to even ask that.
    Like others, I fail to understand what you’re upset about. While you’ve stated your objection to the use of slavish, I don’t get why you think it is dismissive.

  372. Okidemia says

    Gilliel #362
    Please arrange to give Crip Dyke a snail mail address. I’ll post everything the same day, and I think you’ll be first to receive something (I guess the fastest might take only two to three days, thanks to France/Germany close collaborations).

  373. says

    Azkyroth, I think get where you’re coming from – “slavishly” implies, to me anyway, that something is lacking in my cooking, that it isn’t creative enough or good enough because I am too chicken to color outside the lines of the recipe. It felt like a putdown.

    It’s a lot easier to be a creative cook when (a) you aren’t the one expected to produce reliable meals acceptable to all members of the family on schedule and (b) you can afford to waste a little food and/or time on the process.

    Anyway, that’s my feeling, for whatever it’s worth.

  374. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @ajb47, #283:

    Giliell 260
    You can drop your kids off here every day for the next week.
    (See, it’s funny ’cause I live outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US of A and Giliell is in Germany.)

    Trying to get un’rupt and came across this.

    That was t o t a l l y funny. Obviously she’s going to drop her kids off with rq!

  375. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Oh, Giliell –

    Did you end up making the jerk sauce? (If so:) How’d you like it?

  376. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    |𝄢 C C C CC | F Ex CF Ex B:||

    Yeah, I’ve got the bass line from Uptown Funk running through my head, what’s it to ya?

  377. rq says

    PSA: rq is currently not accepting any extra kids, repeat, not accepting any extra kids!

  379. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Azkyroth:
    You’re not being trolled and I don’t think it’s at all fair for you to even ask that.
    Like others, I fail to understand what you’re upset about. While you’ve stated your objection to the use of slavish, I don’t get why you think it is dismissive.

    See, it’s entirely possible I’m being oversensitive about the “slavish” thing, in and of itself – I have…pretty much the same interpretation as Anne and/or the cranky cats, above. But you’re at least acknowledging my explicitly tailoring my objection to that, both by blockquoting the (latest reiteration of – this is a note the person quoted has hit several times before ) statement I actualy objected to, and making specific reference to the contents of that blockquoted statement, rather than “dare I really insult this person as egregiously as inferring it to be other than willful”ly misrepresesenting my objection, even after clarifying, as being a generic anti-“I personally don’t use a recipe when cooking” sentiment. Were that to be universally observed, I would indeed be out of line wondering if I were being trolled.

  380. says

    Dropped the little one off at the emergency daycare. Her regular daycare’s intern is there (her internship being part of her training, so she’s not employed and therefore cannot be on strike), so that smoothed things over.

    Okidemia
    Thank you very much! I’ll be so excited to get snail mail from France (which is silly because a letter from, say, Paris, travels a much shorter way to me than one from Berlin)

    Carlie
    The problem isn’t with the bottles, but with the kid. Her backpack has an extra bottles compartment at the side where, even if she put it in open and upside down, nothing would happen. But that would mean taking the bottle, putting it in there and closing the zipper. Way too much work if you can just grab the bottle and throw it into the main compartment.
    Nevertheless, I switched bottles to my regular thermos bottles where she has to unscrew the top. Her bottles are more like those sports water bottles, which have the advantage that if you knock them over they don’t spill much. Let’s see how this works out.

    CD
    No, not yet. I had already shopped for yesterday’s meal and as I mentioned, it’s a meal for when my friends come, because Mr. doesn’t like his food spicy. But the hamburgers were nice and totally not burgled. ATM I’m very big on woodflavour smoke stuff, probably because I want to have a barbecue but am lacking the space to have one.

    Azkyroth

    I have made it EXTREMELY clear that my objection is not to the general topic of recipe-less cooking, but to the specific dismissive reference to using recipes as “slavish.”

    Only that nobody did that. Read. The. Phrase. It is “I don’t slavishly follow recipes”. Adverb plus verb. Not gerund plus adjective. I get that you object to “slavishly”, that’s why I supplied alternatives and asked you if you would have been fine with “religiously follow recipes” or “meticiously follow recipes”.
    You object to things nobody said.

    Anne

    It’s a lot easier to be a creative cook when (a) you aren’t the one expected to produce reliable meals acceptable to all members of the family on schedule and (b) you can afford to waste a little food and/or time on the process.

    What makes you think I can?
    Again, not everybody is a creative cook and that’s ok. Not everybody is a good painter and that’s ok. Not everybody is a knitter and that’s ok. Only that cooking is something that somehow needs to be done even if nobody in the family is really good at it.

    +++
    Linguistic pet peeve:
    Does anybody here speak a language that has an original word for the taste/sensation “hot”? In English, you’re obviously in danger of burning yourself. In German it’s “scharf” (sharp), so you’re in danger to cut yourself. Sanish “picante”, so you’re in danger to pierce yourself…

    +++
    I thing the UK elections show what happens when people read too much 50 Shades of Grey. They take violent abuse as loving care…

  381. rq says

    Giliell
    Karsts. Doesn’t really mean anything else. Also, of course, variations of the word burn/burning.
    Karsts, as an added bonus, cannot be used under the popular definition of ‘obviously in danger of being extremely goodlooking and attractive’.

  382. rq says

    * … the popular definition ‘[…]’ as applied to the English ‘hot’. :P

  383. bassmike says

    As Giliell alluded to: the UK election result was…disappointing. But at least we don’t have to rely on a coalition with UKIP *shudder*.

    With regard to cooking: I have seen the following is a recipe:

    1. Pre-heat oven to 200C

    2. Prepare ingredients and marinate over night.

    As Giliell mentioned above, a lot of cook books are cut and paste without anyone doing a run through test.

    I’m sure the oven would be heated enough by then!

  384. says

    Bassmike
    Hey, it’s better than the one I have for Azerbaijanian rum balls (note the very regional ingredient of rum. They’re delicious anyway): You dissolve the saffron in the rum. And when you’re done with everything, you have some delicious cookies and can drink you saffron flavoured rum that’S been sitting on the counter all this time ;)

  387. opposablethumbs says

    UK election result :-((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( fuckfuckfuckfuck. Only consolation is UKIP’s Farage is out. But they got 12-13% of the vote nationally – fuck!!!!

  389. Saad says

    Giliell, #380

    Does anybody here speak a language that has an original word for the taste/sensation “hot”? In English, you’re obviously in danger of burning yourself. In German it’s “scharf” (sharp), so you’re in danger to cut yourself. Sanish “picante”, so you’re in danger to pierce yourself…

    Yes, Hindi and Urdu have the word garam, which means hot.

    On a related note, there is popular spice mixture called garam masala, which would lead people to think the word garam is being used to mean spicy, but it actually still means hot (in the sense of the ancient idea of the humors – hot/cold temperament). The notion of some foods being hot and some being cold in temperament is still a very popular idea in the subcontinent to this day.

    So do you mean in German if you just say to someone, “Careful, it’s [scharf]!”, that alone wouldn’t tell the person whether you’re saying something is hot or sharp?

  390. birgerjohansson says

    It would be interesting to know the absolute numbers of votes for each party.
    The old UK system cold lead to the tories* getting 51% of the MPs while having only something like 45% of the total votes.
    * The same of course applies to the other parties.

  391. katybe says

    Well at the moment, the Tories don’t even have 45% of the vote – with only 8 seats still to declare, they’ve got 325 (needing 326 for a majority) but 36.8% of the total population.

  393. says

    saad

    On a related note, there is popular spice mixture called garam masala,

    I’m addicted to that stuff. I always try to cook at least one meal a week which I don’t drown in garam masala.

    So do you mean in German if you just say to someone, “Careful, it’s [scharf]!”, that alone wouldn’t tell the person whether you’re saying something is hot or sharp?

    Yes, but you must not confuse our scharf with your “sharp” when talking about food/smell.
    If you have a sharp smell in English, you have a strict/stern* (streng) smell. Therefore the potential for confusion is actually lower than in English where I once had to ask for clarification what they meant by a “hot roastbeef sandwich”. The risk of cutting you fingers on the chili because it’s “sharp” is small ;)

    *German “streng” is a word with 2 dozen English translations used in different contexts

  394. opposablethumbs says

    Blogger by the nym of elodie_under_glass (one of the voices on CA, among other things), who is USAnian and has been living in the UK for many years, drew some interesting parallels – in a nutshell, that the great success of the right over the last few decades (I would say since Thatcher and then Blair) has been that many people tend to feel less sense of belonging or solidarity and have moved more towards blaming down rather than up: i.e. that if you lost your job it’s the fault of immigrants rather than of those actually in charge, and if there are fewer resources – whether NHS care or benefits money – it’s the fault of those below you who are using up what should be yours, rather than of those who are cutting the resources.

  396. opposablethumbs says

    … I mean, of course, that the success of the right has been in encouraging people generally to feel that it’s all about the individual, that everyone is a “temporarily embarrassed [wealthier person]”; “no such thing as society, only individuals and families” as Thatcher put it. That everyone below you in the pecking order is out to climb over your dead body so you’d better stamp harder on them first …
    It’s a hard perception to shift, as a sense of belonging (or not) is something one internalises deeply so it’s hard to examine or even see, let alone question.

  397. numerobis says

    Azkyroth, I have a recipe for you:
    http://www.indianasapplepie.com/blogs/indian-as-apple-pie/8791397-navratan-korma-nine-jewels-in-a-creamy-robust-north-indian-curry

    It is delicious! That blogger has a cookbook also, which I should maybe buy.

    Paneer is stupidly expensive around me, but easy to make: bring 2L of milk nearly to a boil on medium heat, then add 1/4 cup of lemon juice and some salt to make it curdle. Pour the results through cheesecloth (reserve the liquid for soups later — don’t waste it!). If you have time, hang the cheesecloth up overnight, then squish it under a heavy pot during the day — the cheese gets harder when you do that, but you can skip either or both these steps and it’s still tasty. Makes enough for one recipe of korma.

    I tend to cook like Crip Dyke, but it takes a bit of experience in the style before I can start experimenting intelligently. One good recipe can get me started.

  398. Morgan!? the Slithy Tove says

    This is astonishing. It snowed last night! Everyone kept telling me not to plant anything outside until after Mother’s Day (May 10) because it might snow. Welllllllll, I planted a few things and sure enough, we got snow. Not many inches, but might take a day or two to melt.

  401. Nick Gotts says

    katybe@391,

    Not 36.8% of the total population, but of those who voted! Turnout was 66.1% so that means 24.3% of the electorate. In terms of share of the vote, the Tories hardly gained at all – their gains were almost all from their former coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, who got a thoroughly deserved thrashing for propping up the Tories for the past 5 years: if you want a Tory government, why not vote Tory; if not, why vote for their stooges?

    Giliell@388,
    Well I certainly blame the Tory voters! Selfish, racist, stupid, or in many cases all three. Bizarrely, a lot of media commentators are saying Labour’s failure shows they went too far left – when in fact, all they were offering was austerity (and racism) lite. If you’re going to vote to be abused, it makes sense to go for the bully who will abuse you with most conviction. As I noted before the polls closed on the Bernie Sanders thread, I feared the “undecideds” would lean Tory – but being right doesn’t make it any less depressing. There are some consolations:
    1) The SNP, while a very mixed bag, are certainly left of Labour.
    2) The Greens did better than I feared, although not as well as most polls suggested they would – but they quadrupled their vote to 3.8% and held their only seat.
    3) The grossly unfair nature of the UK electoral system was perhaps more evident than ever – although part of this was the fact that UKIP only got 1 seat for 12.8% of the vote, prompting a degree of ambivalence!
    4) The Tories are going to have a very difficult time dealing with the referendum on leaving the EU they have promised for 2017. Their big business backers will be overwhelmingly opposed to leaving, while many of their MPS and activists want out.
    5) Prospects of Scottish independence are greatly increased – both because the UK as a whole may well vote to leave the EU while Scotland votes to stay in, and because both campaign and result make clear that the Scots are politically at odds with the UK population as a whole.

    All that said, 5 more years of these shitbags – and very likely more, given the lack of a viable UK-wide opposition – is profoundly depressing. Plenty of time for them to destroy most of the welfare state, and universal health care, and place further obstacles in the way of real opposition. And the climate change deniers among them will be emboldened, while even those who pay lip-service to the science will make sure no effective action is taken.

  402. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    rq,

    Thanks for that link in #395.
    I wanted to quote parts, but then I almost ended up quoting the whole thing.

  403. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Giliell:

    What about “spicy”?

  404. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Croatian:
    ljuto as in ljuta paprika=hot peppers, but also ljuta majka=angry mother
    papreno is often used interchangeably with ljuto, but the word literally means that there is a lot of pepper in something not just any hot/spicy stuff. Of course, you can also metaphorically zapapriti something for someone as in make it difficult, cause trouble
    vruć = hot is rarely used for food to mean anything but not cold

    Sensation where oštro (sharp) is used is interesting because it’s the opposite from Giliell’s example in German. I could say oštra zima = very cold winter or “sharp” winter. A smell can also be sharp as in strong.

  405. leerudolph says

    Morgan!? the Slithy Tove@398, I have a poem on that subject. (It is in a form I picked up from Paul Goodman’s “little prayers”, hence the title; as far as I know, Goodman was an atheist, and I certainly am, but like him I acknowledge the occasional feeling that one’s [conscious] self is not entirely in charge, or aware, of one’s creative experience—hence his occasional poetic invocation of a “Creator Spirit”, which I sometimes copy and sometimes simply allude to, as here.)

    ===begin===
    SNOW PRAYER
    I had taken the word of the calendar
    and slept, thinking winter was over.
    Morning came: the sky was gray,
    it had nothing to say;

    the garden was hidden beneath a new drift,
    still dead. I have lost something I loved,
    but what, and when,
    I have forgotten.

    If I could remember, I could make an end:
    let me remember.
    By afternoon
    the snow was gone, in wind,
    in untrustworthy sun.
    ===end===

  406. rq says

    Oh, the perks of spending the night at work: wandering all over the abandoned building in search of printer paper only to realize that it’s been locked away so well, not even the CSG has a key for it.
    (And then I found some in a hidden drawer, so no, no going home after all.)

  408. rq says

    Tony
    More excited for Agent Carter, but that’s only because I haven’t seen Agents of SHIELD yet. Either way, good news all ’round!

  409. says

    Hmmm, Tony @407, I’m not sure how I feel about that.

    I’m still watching SHIELD, but I must admit that it’s more for Agents May and Coulson than any semblance of plot. I only saw the first Avengers movie on TV last week, and since I don’t generally go to theatres, I won’t be seeing Ultron for a long time, if at all. I don’t read the comics, either. So I’m hopelessly confused all the time.

    More Agent Carter, though – that’s really good news.

  410. rq says

    Oh, and was it Beatrice raving positively about The Fall a short while ago?
    I recently… acquired… the first season, and it is one of the few times where I have binge-watched an entire season of anything in a single day. It was that good (for me).
    I ♥ Gillian Anderson. For realz.

  411. cicely says

    Azkyroth:

    I have made it EXTREMELY clear that my objection is not to the general topic of recipe-less cooking, but to the specific dismissive reference to using recipes as “slavish.”
    Am I being trolled?

    Certainly not by me.
    I only offered my extreme preference for recipes (followable to the letter with predictable—and at least acceptible!—results) as a contrast.
    I greatly envy those of you who can cook creatively. I, unfortunately, cannot.
    It gives me a Sad.
    –
    Tony!:

    ABC renews ‘Agent Carter’ and ‘Agents of SHIELD’.

    Hurrah!
    –
    Gillian Anderson is Awesome.
    –

  412. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    I’m happy for more agent carter.

    I don’t know why I stopped watching Agents of SHIELD, but I did. Maybe it was unrelated to the show, maybe it was my depression, I’m not sure. But I watched for a while and then stopped and then … never came back to it. (I did like the show. I didn’t super-love it, but I don’t like TV very much, and the fact that it interested me and I came back to it 13 or 14 times puts it in the top 1%-5% of TV shows.)

    My biggest problem was the cocky white dude action-agent character. Well, it was generally pretty damn white and that got to me a little in a background sort of way, but the main action-agent (not Coulson, not Fitz, the other white guy) just grated on me in a way that had nothing to do with disliking a race or gender and not even anything to do with seeing a “stock” white-guy action hero who isn’t bad per se, just shows little imagination in its creation. The character simply had no there there to compel my interest but DID have negative qualities that made me wish the person off the screen. Seriously people, trans* characters are often just as rote, just as thoughtlessly written as any non-trans* white guy character. I don’t demand inclusion of left-handed synesthetic albino Hmong survivors of the Killing Fields. That’s ridiculous and short sighted. I’ve been able to connect with character not of my gender, not of my background, not of my ability, FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE.

    I just ask that if you give a character unlikable traits, even simple ones like gruffness or taciturnity, you take the time to write the character as a complex whole with believable motivations. I don’t have to be taciturn to root for a taciturn character. But if you’re taciturn, that’s a major feature of your characterization, and I don’t care why then you’re phoning it in. Not interested.

    Phil Coulson? Interested. May? Fairly interested. Skye? Kind of interested. Fitz? I pay attention for the amusement value he provides, even if I’m not invested in where the character’s going. Simmons? Interested.

    That other guy? So not interested I wish he’d never been included. So not interested, he’s the one character whose name I can’t remember at all. And he’s on screen as much as anyone and far more than Dr Simmons.

    Just…blah.

  413. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Crip Dyke,

    I hated that guy too, but… well, I’d spoil it for you but let’s just say that I’m all the way into second season and I’ve done a 165° about him.

  414. JAL: Snark, Sarcasm & Bitterness says

    Huh. I am both relieved and stressed.

    Mom left. Yesterday morning she stormed in, threw shit around as she was going through her stuff, was mumbling shit-talk, and talked shit about us (mostly me) to Husband as if I wasn’t standing right there. In my home.

    She takes her shit, fights with Husband outsides, says “throw the rest away” and as she’s storming away she says “kill [her] dog.” What? WHAT? I seriously took there in shock after that.

    I don’t know what happened or what changed. She called this morning saying she found someone to adopt her dog and to get him/his stuff ready.

    Wow. At least she walked that back. (Not that would actually kill him but she used to love and baby that dog so much. He’s so heartbroken without her and acts like a pup when he sees her.)

    No good-byes or I love yous or any information. Just…through a fucking shit-fit and left.

    I’m…free! Let’s hope it stays that way.

    And totally fucking screwed about the rest of rent (thanks for fucking us over there, mother), internet and you know, the household shit you go through every month including cat food and litter. Let’s hope that changes asap.

    So…now what?…

    Fuck.

  416. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Cross-posting with ThunderDome:

    Anyone here competent with layout/design and want to donate their work?

    I’m just so flat busted and need cash super-bad, any way I can get it. law school and depression and eye-surgery and visa problems in a country where I don’t have citizenship have all combined to make it ridiculously difficult to earn an actual living (occasional internships don’t really pay the bills).

    My partner has been out of work for over a year. That was okay for a while because she had been in one place for ever, was well placed (just barely-below executive level, any promotion would have involved her becoming a university Associate Vice President or Assistant Vice President, I can’t remember which), and thus covered by a union contract (not being an exec) that valued her (being highly placed otherwise) and so gave her the option of salary continuance as severance, and it lasted a good long time.

    But it’s over, and neither of us have full time, pay-the-bills jobs.

    I’ve been trying to work with publishers to put out physical copies of my work, some of which is actually fairly valuable, in my experience, but it’s taking too long and is just too damn difficult without an agent. Blogging for pay is difficult, and school and kids don’t allow for the kind of regularity in output that really drives traffic. So I want to turn some of my writing into e-books.

    …and I have no talent for design.

    This is no panacea, of course, and is unlikely to make any serious cash. But having the work out there will substantially benefit some academic, will hopefully contribute to a progressive/anti-oppression information ecosystem, and if I make $5 out of the deal, it’s still one more meal for my kids, y’know? But if I PAID someone to design the book/s, I would likely lose money on the deal …at least for a while, and I can’t have that right now.

    If you want to read some foundational trans* feminism for free (or if you’re a really, really serious masochist) and you have some design skills, think about e-mailing me, would you?

    My e-mail, as always, is my nym, minus the honorifics, at google’s mail service – with a dot com TLD, don’cha know.

  417. Saad says

    rq, #410

    Oh, and was it Beatrice raving positively about The Fall a short while ago?
    I recently… acquired… the first season, and it is one of the few times where I have binge-watched an entire season of anything in a single day. It was that good (for me).
    I ♥ Gillian Anderson. For realz.

    Beatrice and I both. Such a great show. Looking forward to series 3.

    Stella Gibson is even more awesome in the second season.

  418. rq says

    Saad
    Whoa, season 2 is out already? Have to look into it.
    (Also, sorry for forgetting that you raved positively about it as well.)

    JAL
    *hugs* and *hugs*

    Crip Dyke
    Good luck in your quest for good design, and in e-book publishing!

  419. Saad says

    rq, #418

    Saad
    Whoa, season 2 is out already? Have to look into it.
    (Also, sorry for forgetting that you raved positively about it as well.)

    Yup, and season 3 was just announced.

    You’ll love her in season 2. There are moments where she dismantles very specific misogynist / MRA tropes. I couldn’t help applauding.

    I think Jaime Dornan’s acting is awesome in it. Shame he had to then go and do 50 Shades. =/

  420. rq says

    Saad
    Actually, I find his 50 Shades crossover rather fitting, considering that main character’s… character in those books. As it is, yes, he does a fine job. Suitably creepy. Frightening. And even when he’s being a family person, I could never quite feel sympathetic towards him, even though he did those parts very well – which, in my opinion, is actually very well done.

  421. says

    Hi hi!
    Rather ‘rupt, but wanted to add my thanks to those who recommended The Fall. I too binge-watched, and it is awesome. Even if it didn’t deliberately blast the very tropes that so many other shows rely on, it could stand on its own with exceptional writing and character development.
    Five stars!

  422. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    Only that nobody did that. Read. The. Phrase. It is “I don’t slavishly follow recipes”. Adverb plus verb. Not gerund plus adjective.

    Distinction without difference.

    I get that you object to “slavishly”, that’s why I supplied alternatives and asked you if you would have been fine with “religiously follow recipes” or “meticiously follow recipes”.

    Connotations. They’re a thing.

    You object to things nobody said.

    This is veering close to “intent is magic.”

    You know what, fuck it. I guess I’ll just keep my mouth shut the next time someone does something thoughtless and hurtful.

  423. Crudely Wrott, lurching towards recrudescence says

    Im here on a borrowed laptop at a neighbor’s house . No more wwws at home
    Seems we might have to move when June second gets here.
    Surviving Daughter and SIL not being smart

    This ckonnection is stulpid slow so

    waves, grins; and excellant beveraged all around
    /lurks/

  427. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Seconding everything Saad said about second season of The Fall.

    I’d never heard of Dornan before hearing about 50 Shades. I was expecting a mediocre to bad actor. I was mistaken. Verily.

  430. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    So. Victory against fascism celebration today, or yesterday, depending on where you are and when and if you celebrate.
    I wish fascism really were completely defeated.

  431. rq says

    Beatrice
    Victory against fascism day here = celebration of the victorious soviet occupation. So I have a bit of an issue with that, though those who choose to celebrate it are currently having at it downtown. In Victory Park.

  432. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    First, thanks to everyone that wished me well on eye surgery and everyone that contacted me via e-mail to give me help or encouragement in trying to make enough money to buy some broccoli with which I can feed my desperate and starving children. (Okay, just desperate: mostly for a mom with a sense of humor.)

    Secondly…

    @everyone:

    Being cross-posted to the lounge again, I hope this doesn’t get to the point where people think I’m spamming.

    Numerobis has suggested (among other useful things which I am more prepared to attempt on my own) that I have a truly catchy, enchanting, pithy, accurate, funny, profound, sound-bite-friendly, captivating NAME (ideally, apparently, the name should be equally catchy, enchanting, pithy, accurate, funny, profound, sound-bite-friendly, and captivating in any language currently in use on the internet) for my educational/publishing endeavor. “I whack you on the head with a hundred pages at a time until you get some clue about oppression” apparently fails to meet several of these important criteria.

    I can, like the most reliable clocks in the world, be accurate up to twice a day. The rest of it is a little more difficult for me to achieve. So I’m asking for ideas in creating such a name.

    Please.

    Reward for creating an awesome name? You will have a small e-book publishing venture named after your catchy, enchanting, pithy, accurate, funny, profound, sound-bite-friendly, and captivating contest entry.

    What, you expected some sort of awesome, futuristic, electric three-wheeler? That’s for the next contest: Who can deliver USD$500 million in tax-free cash to your friendly neighborhood Crip Dyke the fastest. Each of the first 3 to deliver gets an awesome, futuristic electric three-wheeler, with first to deliver the money getting first pick.

    For now, though, I’m expecting name suggestions to come in a little faster than the half-billions.

  433. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Ah, I’m sorry for bringing that up, rq.

  434. UnknownEric the Apostate says

    You all keep talking about The Fall, but you’re not talking about THIS Fall and I get all confuzzled and stuff.

    Excuse me, confuzzled-uh and stuff-uh.

  435. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @rq, #431:

    That was a well-attended rally!

    Larry Klayman knew that there were going to be a lot of people there.

    Unfortunately he believes that initial hopes for tens of millions were optimistic. However, he can now confirm there were at least 100,000 people in that rally photographed in your link.

    Based on this photo of Latvia’s victory park Michelle Malkin thought it was probably two million … but later retracted that claim as “credible but unverifiable”.

  436. Morgan!? the Slithy Tove says

    CD @ 432

    Numerobis has suggested (among other useful things which I am more prepared to attempt on my own) that I have a truly catchy, enchanting, pithy, accurate, funny, profound, sound-bite-friendly, captivating NAME (ideally, apparently, the name should be equally catchy, enchanting, pithy, accurate, funny, profound, sound-bite-friendly, and captivating in any language currently in use on the internet) for my educational/publishing endeavor.

    I herewith offer “Full Court Press” as a name for said publishing company. I didn’t check to see if someone else is using it.

  437. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    I was trying to stay out of your argument in this thread, but right now you’re just being an asshole.

    I asked someone to stop doing something I found hurtful and not only did someone jump down my throat for no reason – not for remotely the first time, either – but they repeatedly misrepresented my objections after my repeated clarification and then gaslighted me about whether they were doing that. In an environment that people keep insisting is a “safe space.” And I keep starting to believe it.

    I think I’m entitled to be a little bit hurt and confused. Grow some fucking empathy.

    If.

    Anyone but me.

    Were being treated like this.

    The horde would come down on them like a ton of bricks.

    I’ve seen it happen.

    Anyone but me.

  438. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Azkyroth,

    You’ll just accuse me of gaslighting you, but you’re not getting some sort of different treatment than others.

    And I have plenty of empathy, thank you.

  439. says

    Tony @428, thank you for keeping us updated on views of Chris Hemsworth in his undies.

    In other news, some woman in Nebraska has a filed a lawsuit against all homosexuals.

    In the suit … Sylvia Ann Driskell, 66, of Auburn, Nebraska, asks in a seven-page, neatly handwritten petition that U.S. District Judge John M. Gerrard decide once and for all whether homosexuality is or isn’t a sin.

    The suit doesn’t cite any case law under which a judge could make such a determination. In fact, it cites no court cases at all, quoting Webster’s Dictionary and numerous Bible verses, instead, to bolster Driskell’s central contention, which is: “That homosexuality is a sin and that they the homosexuals know it is a sin to live a life of homosexuality. Why else would they have been hiding in the closet.”

    The litigation was entered into the docket as Driskell v. Homosexuals.
    Link

  440. opposablethumbs says

    fwiw

    I personally perceived the “slavishly” as very mildly disparaging towards those who don’t improvise, and I was surprised that Azy found it as hurtful as they did – which is just my perception, obviously –

    but

    I was surprised by the response to Azy’s objection, which I expected to get a reaction more along the lines of “eh, it wasn’t meant to be a put-down to those who don’t improvise, sorry mate, now what was I saying about that ingredient …” … and that’s it. The hurt came as a surprise; maybe one might think it was no big deal, but isn’t our usual thing to say OK, sorry ’bout that, and go back to the recipe?

    Um, Azy, I do think your comment over in the Ashamed of Atheism thread was out of line though. I know you were hurt, and I also think that the reaction to your “slavishly” objection was harsher than it should have been, but that specific comment was a bad idea.

  441. Saad says

    I’m surprised this has gone on so long in the Lounge. Shouldn’t this be Thunderdome material?

  442. rq says

    CD
    Actually, that picture was to be a representation of the park as such.
    They’re expecting about 100 000 visitors today, all to glorify the totalitarian shithole that was the soviet union.
    Yeah, it’s awesome, thanks.

  443. rq says

    Sorry, wow, that wasn’t meant to sound so harsh, but there’s always way too many people at the May 9 events than one would expect in celebration of a rather horror-filled portion of history. For some people, at least.
    And yeah, I get celebrating the end of WWII (as much ‘celebration’ as any war and its repercussions warrants), but Latvia officially does that on May 8, like the rest of Europe. May 9 is ostensibly the same, but the hammer and sickle all over everything and the little St George ribbons… Eh.
    Ånyway.

  444. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @rq:

    It’s okay. I knew that you were depicting only the park itself, but the history of right-wing assholes losing all connection to reality in regards to their rallies and protests just jumped out at me seeing picture empty of people in connection with a demo/gathering/whatever.

    I didn’t mean to rip off your scabs and am sorry for the ill-placed humor.

    @Azkyroth:

    May things get better, and quickly.

  445. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @Morgan:

    Full Court Press

    That appears to be taken.

    However, if you know any pithy galliformes or anseriformes, Curt Fowl Press appears to be available. I’ve even taken the trouble of identifying the font they should use as their standard to give themselves some product identity.

  446. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Someone was going to self-publish under the name “Foul, Curt Press” but they got writer’s block and in the end could only muster

    Fuckit.

  447. says

    Education “reform’s” big lie: The real reason the right has declared war on our public schools

    Excerpted from “Sixteen for ’16: A Progressive Agenda for a Better America”
    Reform (noun): a policy that is designed to undermine the effectiveness of a public institution in a way that generates private gains.

    Reform (verb): to make something worse.

    […] the current age of education reform can be traced to the landmark 1983 report A Nation at Risk, subtitled “The Imperative for Educational Reform.” […] The commission included 12 administrators, 1 businessperson, 1 chemist, 1 physicist, 1 politician, 1 conservative activist, and 1 teacher. No students or recent graduates. No everyday parents. No representatives of parents’ organizations. No social workers, school psychologists, or guidance counselors. No representatives of teacher’s unions (God forbid). Just one practicing teacher and not a single academic expert on education.

    […] a commission dominated by administrators found that the problems of U.S. schools were mainly caused by lazy students and unaccountable teachers. Administrative incompetence was not on the agenda. Nor were poverty, inequality, and racial discrimination. […]

    This time the issue is not the quality of our public schools. This time the issue is the survival of our public schools as public schools. Public schools today face relentless attacks from pro-business conservatives who see U.S. public education budgets as pots of gold to be mined for private gain. In the 2011-12 school year no fewer than 35 states supported for-profit “education management organizations” (EMOs) with taxpayer money; these for-profit EMOs collectively “managed” the education of 462,926 students. […]

    First, our children’s education should be in the hands of professionals whose first and only priority is education. Do we really want our children’s futures to be in the hands of for-profit corporations? […] Clearly, for-profit schools are dangerous because as for-profit companies they are obliged to care more about their profits than about our children. Ditto companies that provide pre-packaged educational products like standardized tests, test preparation software, pre-packaged lesson plans, and even school lunches. […

    Union protections reduce the incentives teachers face to give high grades just to keep everyone happy, to push “difficult” children out of their classes, and to teach to the test. […]

  448. opposablethumbs says

    Sorry, I meant to say something generally supportive to Asy (with the exception of that comment they made on the other thread) but I didn’t do a very good job of it.

  449. numerobis says

    I’m guided by this strange splotch on my floor
    I’m guided by the beauty of our brushes
    First I mop the kitchen, then I mop the rooms!

    For the nth time, I’ve gone to the store only to discover that the mop refills for my mop are no longer sold, so I need to buy a brand-new mop. Argh. This time I thought of asking which mops they had had in stock for the past at least ten years, and got one of those.

  450. Pteryxx says

    JAL, I’m sorry about all the fresh hell your ostensible “family” is putting you through. I sent you an email and I’ll help as best I can.

  451. says

    numerobis @449, that one gets me every time. This time, I bought a mop refill along with the new mop. Now if I can just remember where I put the refill when I need it, I’ll be in great shape.

  452. cicely says

    JAL:
    *hugs*
    I wish I had something more monetarily useful to send you.
    :(
    –
    Crip Dyke:
    “Cultural Cluefulness on the Easy Installment Plan”? Or, possibly, “Cultural Cluefulness for Only Minutes a Day”?
     
    (After further scrolling)
    Wait…this is for a name for a publishing company? Or for the 100-page clue-bats?
    –
    Azkyroth:
    *confusion*
    If I am offending, I truly am failing to see how/where, and offer my apologies.
    –

  453. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @cicely, #452:

    The publishing company.

  456. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    @CaitieCat:

    Ooops. I meant to respond to your e-mail.

    Yes, I got it. I will respond soon. Several options presented themselves, and I need to explore them. E-mailing you about your generous offer to help out is one of those, but it wasn’t the one I got first and then I got distracted by other things and just forgot to e-mail you.

    Thank you for your generosity & let’s talk soon!
    =======

    I love the Seedy Lounge Press…but probably not for this. If I ever write music worth the time of other people, that would be a great name for my music publishing enterprise. Consider it stolen…but not yet used!

  457. rq says

    Important: Remember to remove cake and flowers from work blood sample and reagent refrigerators when leaving to visit Mum. (a) Mums needs them more than my co-workers and (b) yeah, the blood sample refrigerator (but I put the flowers there, the cake is with the sterile reagents).

  458. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Why do progressive women change their surnames when they get married?

    My friend is getting married and she was bemoaning all the trouble she’s going to have with changing all the documents and cards, both in financial and bloody time waste sense. We don’t see each other that often and I know she’s very traditional so I didn’t ask her why she’s doing it then, but maybe I will. I do expect a blank look because not doing it probably never even crossed her mind, but maybe I’ll be surprised.
    But you folks here are all progressive and feminist, and I’m pretty sure some of you have taken your husband’s surname. Why? It’s not judgement, I just wonder why.

    Sure, just going with the flow makes it easier in regard to all kinds of people looking at you askance because you and your husband have different surnames, maybe even challenging whether you are family, in emergencies.
    But still, on the other hand there’s completely erasing one’s identity for those who don’t know who you married, the problems with documents (besides all the baggage that taking man’s surname has). Is it family pressure?

  459. rq says

    Beatrice
    Nope, I just didn’t care enough anymore. My name isn’t all of my identity – I’m not an author or scientist or anyone else whose professional work depends on easy last-name identification due to previous publication or whatever other reason. My family classifies me as a [maiden name] member of the family, and, oddly enough, so are my kids – they’re often noted for looking like [maiden name family], or as doing [maiden name things]. All I’ve lost is the written part of the name, nothing else. So I haven’t lost that aspect, either.
    At one point before getting married I was dead set on not changing my name, mostly due to relationship uncertainties (because). When things settled down, though, the name-change was about the least important aspect, and Husband had a preference for it (due to Tradition!!!) and it just didn’t seem to matter as much anymore (we also had a traditional catholic wedding in a church complete with forced confession beforehand, so sue me, I’m still progressive and you cain’t take my membership card from me – that one says ‘rq’ anyway).
    Changing cards was a really, really minor hassle (for me – don’t know how it is elsewhere), mostly because it was just one bank card, my driver’s license, and then my passport and work ID, both of which had to be updated anyway.
    Do I feel like I’ve lost something? Not really, even though I may consider [maiden name] a prettier name and one with an awesomer meaning. But I’m still a [maiden name] at heart. And anyway, if anything happens and I want to change my last name again, I’m changing it to my mother’s maiden name, for historical/ancestry reasons.
    Does that help?

  460. rq says

    That all being said, not taking one’s husband’s last name here seems to be a commonplace thing (note: sampling may be biased). About half the couples we know have different last names (either by hyphenation (less common) or simply no changed last name), so nobody really looks askance at that here. Which is neat.

  461. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    rq,

    Thank you for explaining.
    I probably should have just kept wondering though ,I imagine this question can’t really be asked without being a bit judgemental.

  462. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    It’s also a biased sample of people whose surnames I’ve taken note of in some random databases, but my assessment is that women born in the 80s are using hyphenation more often than older generations here. Before, I think it was more of a class thing – bourgeois if you will.

    —
    I like my mother’s maiden name. She has expressed regret that she hadn’t kept it, and I imagine that if I ever decided to change my surname it would be to that.

  463. rq says

    Beatrice
    Meh, some of the things you asked did come across that way, but I thought about how else to ask about it, and… I think it’s hard not to sound judgemental, esp. with all the negative historically-patriarchal aspects that are the baggage of changing one’s name upon marriage. So it’s okay. :)

  464. opposablethumbs says

    Yes I agree, it’s hard to talk about without sounding judgemental even if you don’t want to because it’s just such a laden issue due to all the complicated history. I didn’t change my name (in the mid-1980s). I felt very strongly about it; my surname was certainly nothing special, I didn’t feel it was any special link to a special family (I didn’t even know my dad’s family well, as they were in other countries) and I had zero recognition to consider, it just felt like my name because I’d always had it (I didn’t want to get legally married at all, but they wouldn’t let spouse into the country otherwise (well, except as a tourist, I mean … and he eventually after years and bureaucracy got handy double nationality out of the deal as well (handy because the other one is non-European (and he didn’t even have that one at the time; he was stateless))). But it was easy, because no-one batted an eye (at least not that I was aware of).
    The only annoying bother I got about it was bureaucratic: having to explain several times to the Inland Revenue about tax, that yes I was married, and yes these were the two different names of the two parties in question. I think the IR are used to it now, and were maybe a bit less used to it then?

  465. rq says

    I suppose I had the added benefit of having a unique first name both for Canada and for Latvia, so I still mostly identify only with that, and the last name was sort of incidental (plus, as rare as it [the maiden one] may be in Canada, it’s certainly not rare in Latvia). I always thought that, should I ever try to become published as an author, I’d do so only under my first name.

    Anyhow.
    Flowers [x]
    Cake [x]
    Work done [x]
    Cheerio!

  466. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    rq,
    Which cake did you make?
    I made tiramisu. It’s still chilling in the fridge, since we just finished lunch (and wow I’m getting really good with quiche, this one was quite brilliant).

    Unfortunately, I lack that [x] next to Work done.

  467. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Quiche filling:

    onions
    chicken, cut into thin ribbons
    zucchini, cut into thin(ish) slices
    salt, pepper
    basil (dried)
    thyme (fresh)
    cheddar
    milk
    egg
    cooking cream
    sour cream/yoghurt
    parsley (fresh)

    Fry onions, add chicken. After a couple of minutes, when chicken has some color, add zucchini. Salt and pepper, cook until zucchini get tender and translucent.
    Cool a bit.
    Grate some cheddar (may MDP never read this, but not too much, just maybe a small handful (how do I measure something I just grated straight into the bowl?!))
    I only had dried basil, so I used that, and come fresh thyme.
    Mix an egg, a bit of milk and cooking cream in a bowl. I usually also use sour cream, but I accidentally bought yoghurt instead so this time it was some greek yoghurt and some regular yoghurt.
    Stir into the zucchini mix.
    Poor onto the dough (I prebake the dough, so that the bottom is nice and crispy), and add some shredded parsley on top.

    It looked divine.
    Thyme really kicked in, even though I didn’t use much. I think yoghurt might even be better choice than sour cream, but maybe that was just because of the particular choice of spices.

  468. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    For vegetarians:

    I think the recipe would work quite well without chicken. Maybe with added potatoes to make it more filling.

  469. says

    Waffles
    At least so far I made the dough.
    Today is Mother’s Day in Germany, which I really dislike. Which is good, because #1 decided to completely freak out and then they decided both that their parents are horrible people for making them clean up their stuff. So the planned trip to the zoo was cancelled.

    Azkyroth
    Bless your heart.
    That’s all I’m ever going to say to you. You hide in the Lounge so nobodycan tell you what they think of your behaviour and do little passive aggressive snipes at people.
    Poor you.
    Have a nice life.

  470. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    This tiramisu is in no way whatsoever connected to Mother’s day. *shifty eyes*
    Get yourself a slice, Giliell.
    (I’m sorry, I was afraid the biscuits would be too soggy, so I didn’t use enough coffee)

  471. opposablethumbs says

    … it’s mother’s day? Wot?

    I did not kno this.

    Fortunately this date does not apply in the Southern Hemisphere, as far as I can tell (it’s always in the Spring, yes?)

    No cake. But there may be mushrooms for supper. yum.
    Come to think of it, this could be pretty dangerous. Because the dish involves mushrooms, more mushrooms, some mushrooms and copious amounts of cheese. If I also pick up a bottle of wine at any point (unlikely but not impossible) we could be in serious trouble …

  472. opposablethumbs says

    (ne pas en parler devant les pingouins … surtout si légèrement dérangés)

  473. Nick Gotts says

    Beatrice@462,

    Amusingly, some of my wife’s relatives send/have sent stuff to her with her surname hyphenated with mine (actually, hyphenated with “Gott”, which is the almost universal error made in my name), although the idea of her changing/hyphenating never even came up. Our son also has her surname (he was born before we married). This all has the advantage that I’m less inhibited about using my (fairly uncommon) name online, since only those who know me very well know what my wife and son are called. I never liked my name, and did think of changing it to hers, but the potential hassle was too much.

  474. says

    Thanks, beatrice
    I’ll just sip the espresso with it then.

    Re: surnames
    I kept mine. Mostly because why the fuck not it’s 2007, also because I do have a bit of a reputation in my job and people come because either they already took classes with Ms. MyName or because somebody recommended Ms. MyName. So changing my last name would have destroyed all the credibility I worked on over the years.
    It’s a fucking hassle sometimes because people either simply keep calling me Ms. MrName or assume that we are not actually married (and therefore not entitled to certain things).

  475. Nick Gotts says

    Giliell@474,

    My wife does get addressed as Mrs. Gott(s); and conversely, I’m used to replying to Mr. WifesName!

  476. says

    Husband and I talked about my changing my name. I wanted to keep my born-with (not maiden, I hadn’t been a maiden for some years by then) last name, but it really mattered to him that I take his. So we made a deal – I took his last name and changed all my records, and he agreed to wear a wedding ring. He only has to wear his ring when we go out together, though, because it’d be a hassle and sometimes a hazard in his job. He keeps it on his keyring most of the time.

  478. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    All it took to (maybe?) kill the car was one drive with a bad spot of parking. I noticed that the motor was overheating right as we were turning back into our street, and then I did some really shitty parking and tried to correct it so the motor really overheated to the point of smoking.

    I might be a genius at fucking things up, but somehow I think the problem may not be only with me. Like, how badly do I need to drive to break a car in half an hour?

  482. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Giliell,

    I’ll have to have a “it’s not me, it’s you” talk with it :)

    Only to convince dad of my relative innocence in this failure…

  483. Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says

    Let ECDsubm/ y = Number of explosive car deaths expected for your make/model per year.

    Let [ECDsubm/ y] * t = expected car deaths, total.

    Let BD = Bad driving = Your capacity to really increase the damage to a car per unit time

    Since this is relative to average car deaths caused, a BD of 1 == the expression of mean driving skill.

    for BD*[ECDsubm/ y] * 30 min = 1,

    BD * 30min/y == 1/ECDsubm

    Let’s see, five-hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes… how do you measure a year?

    Right. 30 / 525,600 …well, actually more like 30/525,929^FuckBroadway’sAcalculia …that would be…

    …does anyone else think the pencils taste worse than normal this week?

    um…

    right. 0.00005703975. Soooo… Ow! Fuck! Why aren’t tongues impervious to teeth? That seems bad design, no? Grrr. let’s 1/ans to get 17531.6333333 then flip it back, y’know, just to express the decimal as a fraction. so 1/17,531.633

    So…

    BD = 17,531.633/ECDsubm

    That means, if each vehicle of your car’s make and model is expected to explosively die one time per year, your BD is about 17,532 times worse than the average driver.

    If your car is likely to explosively die less than one time per year, your BD is somewhat higher (i.e. worse). On the other hand, if your car is likely to explode more than once a year under average driving, your BD is somewhat lower (i.e. better).

    If, on average, you car would be expected to explode and die 17 or 18 thousand times per year, your driving isn’t bad at all!

    Feel better? Math always makes me feel better.

  485. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Crip Dyke,

    Your kind of math work certainly does make me feel better.

    Here’s some ice cream for your tongue. Is chocolate with little bits of orange peel ok?

  486. opposablethumbs says

    Took me a second to think about FIFA ….. Oh, if only :-)))))

    Maybe we played the Netherlands?

  487. opposablethumbs says

    PS Crip Dyke,
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QrT-suhA6o

    Matt Fishel – Football Song (I read somewhere that the extras in the scene on the pitch are all from a London gay team)

    If you like that track, he’s got a whole lot more which are comparably melodic, funny and sharp. (eh, what am I saying – you probably know his stuff from way back already)

  488. rq says

    Beatrice
    Since I had to be at work, I bought a cake at the local conditory because it makes excellent cakes. But it had strawberry mousse in it.
    Your quiche sounds delectable. I haven’t made quiche in ages, but I had an awesome combination with salmon, red bell peppers and onion. And chunks of goat cheese. Mm mMM! I’ll have to try your version sometime, too.
    Also, hope your talk with the car goes well. If it makes excuses, I have a nice sledgehammer that would love to be introduced. ;) (And yeah, it’s the car, not your driving. Unless you have an untrained superpower that is only activated while you’re in the driver’s seat, in which case, you need an awesomer car.)

  489. Pteryxx says

    CaitieCat, if you read this far down the page <_< would you email me please? My nym at the gee service, w/ thanks.

  491. chigau (違う) says

    Giliell #490
    “Spot your 2015 biases projected onto prehistoric humanoids here”
    I spotted at least one per sentence.
    What do I win?

  492. cicely says

    Crip Dyke:

    The publishing company.

    Go meta? Punnyname Press?
     
    (Later)

    Why aren’t tongues impervious to teeth? That seems bad design, no? Grrr.

    How often have I thought this very thing?
    Lots.
    Manymanymanylots.
    –
    Beatrice, I took The Husband’s surname because that was simply How Things Were Done, in not-exactly-sophisticatedly-urban western Oklahoma, Back In The Day.
    I understand that options were starting to be available in the Big Cities, but still Occasion For Eyerolling.
     
    (Later)
    Your quiche recipe looks tasty, except for the part about the zucchininini.
    :)
    I’ll bet subbing potatoes would work there, too.
    –

  494. Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought says

    Watched The Age of Adaline. This rant may contain SPOILERS so be warned.
    .
    .
    .
    Meh. She is very pretty and wears pretty clothes. Her love interest is smoking hot. Unfortunately, she seems to have much more chemistry with Harrison Ford’s character than the one she’s supposedly head over heels for.
    Oh, and the hottie is also a creep whose “endearing” features are:
    – admitting he’s following her to her cab to hear her address
    – blackmailing her by withholding a donation to her library unless she’ll go out with him
    – despite her refusing to give him her address, finding it and visiting her
    But of course, stalking is totes romantic.
    Look, dude, those abs and the beard are nice and all, but you’re an entitled ass and I’d totally choose your dad over you so there.

    Oh yeah, about that dad thing… through some hand waving electricity thing, she hasn’t aged past 29 for decades. She seems really weary and her 10th dog dies, her daughter is looking at retirement homes for herself, she is dating the son of a guy she stood up years before…. but I’m just not feeling it. She does wear really pretty dresses, though.
    Meh. I laughed a couple of times and the actors are nice to look at. That’s about it.

    Could have been one hell of a movie with a woman living through women’s liberation and feeling disconnected from others… and why the hell is she dating these kids? She’s 107 even if she doesn’t look like it, some 30-year-old should seem like an inexperienced kid to her.

  496. says

    Crip Dyke 412 re Agent Carter and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

    From what I’ve read, Whedon, when he signed to do the first Avengers movie, he was also given leave to get a TV show on air. His team came up with came up with the Agents of SHIELD angle, and was then told, “Great, but we’re imploding SHIELD in the second Captain America movie.” So a lot of the first season of SHIELD is Vamping, place-holding until Winter Soldier came out. It picked up considerably at that point.

    If you feel up to it, I suggest giving it a go for the rest of the season.

    Beatrice 458

    Why do progressive women change their surnames when they get married?

    As the man in that equation — yeah, I have no real input. I can just relate what happened with my wife and I. She had a name professionally (an attorney) and on top of that, it would cost real money to change it in every jurisdiction she was admitted to, so she didn’t change that. Personally, she changed her name on our bank accounts. And that’s about it. I think our (USAn) system is screwed up enough that she has to carry her passport around for those times where personal and professional intersect and it’s a pain in the ass.

    I’ll admit that I am traditionally minded enough that I wanted our kids to have my name. That’s mostly because my dad had traced our family back to when they arrived in the colonies and I am kind of proud of that lineage I guess. My kids are the 10th generation born in North America. I think it’s the “10” that gets to me.

    ***

    Also, I think the email notifications were fixed over the weekend, because when I got home from camping, I ended up with 364+ Lounge email messages.

  497. says

    For anyone who loves to argue and knows climate science WELL, please consider joining me in the Facebook group “Energy Discussion Forum”. It’s filled with libertarians who deny AGW is real (or is serious). I seem to be the lone voice of reason and I’m WAY out of my league, as some of them seem to understand climate science WAY more than I do.

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/726811230751474/

    Basic Rules
    1: no spamming – stick to the topic
    2: no name calling, harassing, or stalking of other members.
    3: no blocking of moderators. Individual member blocking is allowed and encouraged if you dislike someone else’s ideology.
    4; be polite to each other and find humor in what you’re discussing
    5: we will be working towards identifying websites that meet our standards for quality science and disqualifying those that publish mostly junk science.
    6: If and when the trolls show up, don’t feed them or dignify them with a response.
    This forum was created to examine and discuss the science, economics, and politics behind choices we make in energy, both individually, and collectively, as a society. Through improved understanding and communication, we can work together towards improving choices of energy around the world and reduce the incidence of energy poverty in the world.

  499. rq says

    Here, have some bullshit with your coffee this morning. Very enlightened/-ing bullshit. Okay, not enlightening, except to show how much more bullshit is out there.

    No Latvian strawberries yet. Greek ones have been around for a while, though.
    Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust ooooooooonnnne, Giliell, ppurrrreeeeeeeez?

  500. says

    OK, rq
    You get one.
    The Spanish ones weren’t very god this year. I swear they’ve modified them to smell good even if they taste like water because then the nose overrides the brain and you still buy them.

    +++
    I have a writer’s blockage. On sentence one. Once I get that out of the system I should be fine, but how do you start without sounding like a complete idiot?