I’m beginning to think medical marijuana is a ship that’s leaving without me. I have absolutely no problem with people using it however they like as medicine, and I know there are many sick people with real illnesses who are legitimately helped by it. I also know that legalizing it for medical use is de facto legalizing it for recreational use, and why pretend otherwise. If the state’s voters approve of weed as a treatment for cancer and back pain and free-floating anxiety, then let’s stop fooling ourselves.
That won’t happen. Our attorney general is making this a jihad of sorts, and I could make a speech about this, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll direct you to a rather ingenious idea related to the issue — repurposing of an Upper Peninsula copper mine as an underground pot farm. Kind of a trippy idea, when you think about it — you could stage a killer Harold & Kumar movie down there.
It would help to be stoned to property grok this pearl-clutcher from the News today, about fear of crime in Birmingham, another wealthy suburb on the west side. Actual quote: “I don’t know what the world is coming to.” Everybody in my Facebook network is howling over it, and I can’t say I blame ’em.
In honor of J.C.’s enhancement of Deborah’s photo yesterday, let’s run this one again. The Enhance Supercut!
And because supercuts are funny, No Signal:
From Bill, the official obit for Jay Z.
And goodnight.
Dexter said on April 24, 2012 at 2:00 am
I would love to see Bill and Ted stuck underground in a marijuana growing converted mine. They would then be really Wyld Stallyns.
“Abraham Lincoln: seven minutes ago… we, your forefathers, were brought forth upon a most excellent adventure conceived by our new friends, Bill… and Ted. These two great gentlemen are dedicated to a proposition which was true in my time, just as it’s true today. Be excellent to each other. And… PARTY ON, DUDES! “
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basset said on April 24, 2012 at 7:40 am
Underground pot farm? It’s been done… about fifty miles from where I sit right now:
http://www.agreenercountry.com/marijuana-news/tennessee-pot-cave-bust-stories-and-pictures
And after the inevitable bust and police auction… looks like a cheesemaker bought the cave.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 24, 2012 at 8:16 am
Blessed are the cheesemakers.
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alex said on April 24, 2012 at 8:18 am
What next? A hot new up-do fashioned to fit under a tri-corner hat? Charter school uniforms as children’s chic? The NYT, always one step ahead of the zeitgeist.
They must be onto something. Victoria’s Secret sells a line of undergarments designed with wand access in mind.
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heydave said on April 24, 2012 at 8:20 am
Legalizing pot? Had I pearls, I would clutch them!
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coozledad said on April 24, 2012 at 9:24 am
Alex: The concealed carry morons around here will need specially adapted sweatpants. They also gonna need ’em some healthcare if that pistol goes off underneath their gunt.
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Connie said on April 24, 2012 at 9:39 am
When I lived in southern Indiana the sheriff shot himself in the thigh with a gun in his pocket.
Do check out today’s google doodle. Unzip it.
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Deborah said on April 24, 2012 at 9:54 am
I thought the zipper was invented in Chicago. We’ve used that little known fact a couple of times for things we produced for my office. After reading about the inventor it’s hard to tell where he lived then.
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Prospero said on April 24, 2012 at 10:07 am
Some reporter should take up a crusade to goad Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette into making a “nanny state” comment to expose his whited sepulcher hypocrite ass.
Bars in downtown Birmingham? Had I pearls, I’d clutch them.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 24, 2012 at 10:14 am
I’ve smoked way more than my share of that stuff in my time. That said, whenever I go to California or Oregon (I just got back from the latter), I’m amazed at how blatant the system-gaming is. “Dispensaries” are right next door to “clinics” that advertise “medical marijuana cards in 30 minutes.”
In Portland, I read about how the principal of an alternative school–this is for kids who couldn’t hack it in regular school, often due to substance abuse–was upset because a “dispensary” had opened up literally next door. He was worried that the “patients” would sell the stuff to his students, and even beyond that, what kind of message is this sending to them? And he’s right. This kind of wink-and-nod stuff promotes disrespect for the law and is fundamentally unhealthy, regardless of how you feel about pot legalization.
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Dorothy said on April 24, 2012 at 10:38 am
heydave wins the thread! (So far)
I’m late to the viewing of Deborah’s gravatar, but thanks JC for the enhancement! Deborah I’m not the first to say it, but I’ll say it again anyway – you are stunning!!!
We just fixed a slightly wonky zipper this morning on my husband’s favorite jacket with a pair of plyers. Seems like a good day to do that…
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Prospero said on April 24, 2012 at 10:41 am
Pot should be legalized for production and sale, then regulated and taxed like liquor. And hell yes, I’d buy it if it weren’t too damned expensive.
And Scribe, that sounds more like a zoning and usage problem than a medical marijuana problem, regarding the alternative school.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 24, 2012 at 10:48 am
Prospero: Oregon apparently has a law in place prohibiting pot dispensaries from opening up too close to schools, but according to the article I read, the principal can’t get anyone to listen to him. I think the real problem is that no one takes the needs and concerns of kids like that (and the adults who are responsible for them) seriously.
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Connie said on April 24, 2012 at 11:02 am
This New Yorker article covers many of the word issues we have discussed in the past. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/04/questioningly-words-marked-for-death.html
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Prospero said on April 24, 2012 at 11:43 am
Scribe:
I’ve taken long-term sub teaching assignment in alternative school classrooms. Nobody wants to deal with those kids. It’s unpleasant to think about this, but most alternative school kids are there because they managed to scare the shit out of entire faculties and administrations in a regular public school setting. I kind of enjoyed the challenge; not the occasional death threats. And I’m not trying to be sarcastic, but I wouldn’t buy pot in a dispensary next door to an alt-school and expect to make it home with my medicine and not because I sold it.
Re Connie’s link: Not a big fan of “Not a big fan of…” Furthermore, I will abruptly end conversations with people that preface sentences frequently with “Frankly,”, on the basis that I will assume that sentences that don’t begin “Frankly,” are like John Kyl statements, that is, not intended as statements of fact, in other words, “I’m about to lie my ass off.” And the world would be a better place without the gratuitous “ate” people put at the end of the excellent word “orient”, with no sense or meaning lost whatsoever.
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Minnie said on April 24, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Ha. Orient(ate). One of my late father’s least favorite words.
I often hear people speaking in run-on sentences verbally punctuated with “a-a-a-n-d”. Don’t know where this dragged out pronunciation came from, but it makes me want to utter a sharp “Quit it”.
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Deborah said on April 24, 2012 at 12:06 pm
Thanks Dorothy and others for the compliments about my photo. The snaps that the casting director’s assistant took turned out OK, for as quickly as she took them and all. I was pleasantly surprised, they made me look better than I do in person. The real photo shoot with the famous photographer is still on for Thursday afternoon. I’m getting really nervous about it. Luckily I will be holding a prop and my face will be somewhat obscured so I don’t have to worry about what to do with my (big) hands.
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Prospero said on April 24, 2012 at 12:26 pm
What I’m doing Saturday next:Hike Congaree National Park. Applying waterproofing to my Bean duck boots.
This is a sobering consideration of RMoney as President. So much for that Etch-a-Sketch, reset bullcrap. The court is bad as it is. Making it worse would be a nightmare.
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Judybusy said on April 24, 2012 at 12:59 pm
The only word I care about today is Nancy’s use of “grok.” It’s from Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and I wish it would gain wider use.
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DellaDash said on April 24, 2012 at 2:08 pm
Sooner or later, when I’m around it, corporate-speak fads work my last nerve. A few years ago, everthing…the least little thing…had to get ‘leveraged’. Last year, if you wanted or needed to ‘contact/communicate with/talk to’ a supervisor, colleague, or your next-door neighbor on the cubicle farm; you had to visualize yourself in a commercial and ‘reach out’.
Besides Heinlein’s ‘grok’, I’ve always liked Vonnegut’s ‘duprass’ (from Cat’s Cradle) – The two members of a duprass live lives that revolve around each other, and are therefore often married. “A true duprass can’t be invaded, not even by children born of such a union.” The two members of a duprass always die within a week of each other.
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Connie said on April 24, 2012 at 2:33 pm
We are about to undertake a marketing campaign: geekthelibrary.org/ We’ll be doing lots of what do you geek posters and geek yard signs. As I work on the marketing plan I am growing to really like that word. In the sense of liking something as opposed to the carnival guy who bites heads off chickens. And more Heinlein, according to Wikipedia: The word appears in the modern sense of a science, math, or technology enthusiast in Robert Heinlein’s 1952 short story “The Year of the Jackpot”.
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Minnie said on April 24, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Haven’t had time to read the NYT article yet, so this might be mentioned there: GIFT as a verb. What’s wrong with GIVE?
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Prospero said on April 24, 2012 at 2:44 pm
Concealed carry chic. (NYT)
Della, There’s nothing worse than the feelings involved in a failed duprass, which sad truth proves Vonnegut was really onto something. Of course we’re discussing this in a karass. And there are granfalloons and gonfalons. Cat’s Cradle is, in this language, a wampeter. Nice, nice, very nice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfoLDtn4XKM (the 53rd Calypso)
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Judybusy said on April 24, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Connie,great find about geek. So now I know what I am! The library initiative sounds great, too.
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adrianne said on April 24, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Connie, our library did the “Geek” campaign last year, and it was great fun to see our friends and neighbors in full geek mode (including my youngest son). Geek on!
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Deborah said on April 24, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Connie, that’s a great ad campaign. Did you have something to do with dreaming it up?
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DellaDash said on April 24, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Since you’ve indulged in a bit of hair-splitting lately, Prospero, I’ll counter your comment @23 with – there’s nothing worse than the feelings of failure involved in finding out that what you thought you had with someone wasn’t a duprass. Except…hmmm…upon reflection…what might be worse is finding yourself in an actual duprass (extreme, obsessive mating to the bitter end) rather than the fantasy of one (day-to-day companionship with benefits, and a wider range of nuanced relationships).
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Connie said on April 24, 2012 at 3:32 pm
No, the campaign is sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and OCLC. We are provided art work, templates, give away goodies, and lots of assistance, training and ideas. Many Indiana libraries did it en masse last year. We’re doing it as part of our network in the Detroit Metro area. I enjoyed watching on Facebook the southern Indiana library I used to direct do it. I just edited that sentence several times and still don’t feel the phrasing is right.
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Jolene said on April 24, 2012 at 4:08 pm
I’m with you, Minnie. Gift as a verb should be outlawed.
Any reactions in your part of the world to this Ann Romney speech?
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Deborah said on April 24, 2012 at 4:36 pm
Jolene, my take on Ann Romney’s speech is that it won’t win the election for her husband. It may help him some, but not THAT much. I just hope the Democrats don’t blow it and say something stupid about it. They need to carefully, carefully craft their response. But they aren’t good at doing that, unfortunately.
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Sue said on April 24, 2012 at 5:29 pm
Ann Romney:
Yes, she’s out there but she isn’t Romney’s attack dog and she should be treated by the opposition and the media with the respect a candidate’s spouse who is probably a nice lady deserves. It’s a fight the Dems can’t win and they are smart to just let the words hang in the air. So we can all think it over and talk it over.
Because her words say a whole lot about Mitt. A ‘supportive’ spouse who didn’t understand enough about his wife’s situation that he himself didn’t make sure she had the help she needed. Huge houses (plural), five sons in a household where most likely there is a strict understanding of division of duties by gender, and coming from a social class where most women in her situation would have help without question, yet she has to do this all herself? She didn’t consider the idea of help until she was bedridden and Mitt didn’t notice there was a problem?
And – take your own house, ladies, quadruple the size at minimum, probably throw extra kids in, include the requirement that you be a corporate spouse to some extent, also the requirement that you keep yourself up to a standard that befits a wealthy man, and tell me if you believe that Ann was able to accomplish this by herself, apparently for years.
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Deborah said on April 24, 2012 at 5:44 pm
I find it really hard to believe, but I hope to god the dems don’t jump on that message. They need to let it go until it eventually gets found out by some reporters. She had to have help, it may be a nannygate issue someday.
edit: Either that or their houses were really, really messy all the time. But I doubt that sincerely.
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paddyo' said on April 24, 2012 at 6:33 pm
Jeff (TMMO) @ 3:
. . . for they shall be called the children of Gouda
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Catherine said on April 24, 2012 at 6:35 pm
After John Edwards, I will never, never again judge a candidate by his or her spouse (I do think Michelle Obama is terrific. If I ever get a chance to vote for her, I probably will. Has nothing to do with whether I will vote for her husband). Ann Romney is no more relevant to Mitt’s character or conduct that Elizabeth Edwards was to John’s. He was married to someone who seems to have been pretty wonderful, and he was still a complete and total ass. Spotlighting spouses is just packaging, whether it’s Tahd or ShellyO. It’s a way to move the focus off of past record, policies and plans, which is where it should be. And that’s my reaction, Jolene!
PS re “Frankly,” after it became a certain senior exec’s favorite word, I have always assumed that anything that followed it was utter horseshit.
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Scout said on April 24, 2012 at 6:51 pm
After the Hilary Rosen gaffe, the Dems are likely to be quite cautious in response to anything Ann related. If they’re smart.
That said, I don’t think trotting Ann out to tell these stories helps RMoney as much as his supporters would like to fantasize it does. In this economy, I can’t believe the 99% will be able to conjure up any tears for this woman who went through all of the “hardship” of taking care of those 5 kids in a seven bedroom, six-and-a-half-bathroom mock-Colonial mansion in Belmont, Massachusetts, while spending summers at their five-thousand-square-foot vacation home, which sits on eleven lakefront acres in New Hampshire.
Honestly, who even gives a shit if she had “help” under those circumstances? The bigger question might be why she didn’t. Because her dog abusing, vulture capitalist husband who wants to be President was too busy and/or absent to notice she could have used the help? Yeah, I think the Dems need to just keep quiet and let this latest “ordinary folks” gambit percolate through the public conscious. Because once again, the RMoneys are trying so hard to swallow their silver spoons they don’t even realize that these tiny violin performances only further spotlight what a complete self-absorbed robot doof Willard is.
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Prospero said on April 24, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Damn. I thought Andy Warhol invented zippers.
Porgy RMoney said that his wife is his chief advisers on economic issues as they relate to women. In the real world, sans manufactured umbrage, that should put her in the campaign, not out of bounds, But hell, there is no productive way to do anything but ignore her unless she says or does something outrageous. She’s clearly prevaricating about their garret existence student days but the hell with that. Everyone knows about Mitt;s 96,ooo shares of AMC when it was worth a lot of cash. Those that don’t get that are never going to see these two carpetbaggers for the products of mindless assumed privilege that they truly are.
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Deborah said on April 24, 2012 at 7:11 pm
“Because once again, the RMoneys are trying so hard to swallow their silver spoons they don’t even realize that these tiny violin performances only further spotlight what a complete self-absorbed robot doof Willard is.”
BINGO!
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Jolene said on April 24, 2012 at 7:15 pm
On PBS tonight, an American Experience show about the 1929 crash and a two-hour Frontline re the decisions made to recover from our own financial crisis.
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Jolene said on April 24, 2012 at 7:18 pm
I second Deborah’s motion in favor of Scout’s statement.
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alex said on April 24, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Frontline will no doubt tell us that austerity’s all wrong at this juncture and that you don’t stimulate the economy by starving it.
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Prospero said on April 24, 2012 at 8:24 pm
Alex: Even a broken clock is right twice a day, as blind pigs still find truffles. Treating Keynesian as some sort of foul derogatory epithet is so fracking ignorant of economic reality it takes GOPers to embrace such abject stupidity. What makes this really painful to deal with is that the buffoons have the immediate evidence of Athens and Barcelona to prove a priori what a dumbass idea austerity is in reality.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 24, 2012 at 9:36 pm
Paddyo’ — #fistbump
For anyone who wants to polish their sense of wonder:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120424.html
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alex said on April 24, 2012 at 11:27 pm
The Frontline episode was quite informative. Too bad all of these yayhoos who say the economy is Obama’s fault won’t be watching. McCain was clueless about the extent of the financial crisis when he and others including Obama were called to the White House to be briefed by Hank Paulson and Dubya. McCain tried to hijack the meeting by pretending before the press that he was calling for it and inviting Obama to a duel. At the meeting, he was upstaged by Mr. Obama, who was well aware of the situation and actually had a plan, which he delivered with a presence that had everyone spellbound. Obama then cleverly turned the floor over to McCain, who was unprepared and sputtering and fiddling with some crib notes and was at an embarrassing loss for words.
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Minnie said on April 24, 2012 at 11:27 pm
Jolene, you asked what the take down here in Tidewater VA might be on Ann Romney’s speech. Though I’ve had no chance to discuss it with anyone, I imagine most of my friends (generally middle aged to elderly, middle class to varying degree, and liberal Democrats) would opine along the lines of the discussion here.
As for our bountiful supply of Republicans, I haven’t heard any of their thoughts on the speech yet.
I can tell you that this afternoon in the grocery store I had to skirt the dairy section manager as he listened with a noncommittal face to another late-60s white male expound on the the campaign. What this customer said was that while Mitt Romney isn’t all he could wish for he would vote for anyone but that guy now in the White House.
I headed straight for the ice cream section, came home and polished off a large serving of vanilla bean espresso. This election year is not good for my waistline nor my arteries.
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Prospero said on April 26, 2012 at 1:57 am
della, which hairs have I split? My name is Jeff Borden. Oops, ssorry, I meant Spartacus. But I’d be proud to be. And I wouldn’t sully such a proud name. My name is Rosanne and I live in Royal Oak, hence ROGirl. Unlike the Lindas and Deborahs, there weren’t any other Rosannes (or Roseannes) around when I was growing up. I used to get called Roseanne Roseannadanna quite a bit, but nobody under 45 knows who she was. Poseanne, I hope you have seen the exquisite Steve Martin movie. Your name comes from an unquestionably great novel. I used to live in the Royal Oak draft board and so I migrated from IA TO 2H. I wasn’t afraid to go, but I sure as shit figured it was wrong. Roya Oak had the greatest number of volunteers, and never reached my lottery number., so I stayed 2H after vacating my student deferment for less than a month. Sorry Dexter. I didn’t believe that was a war to fight. And I still don’t believe my friends and classmates died in any honorable cause. I do believe everybody like you were fighting to ensure more people didn’t die. I mean, whose hairs did I split? I’ll pwn up to being an asshole, in general. No big deal. fter that, I’m outa here. Whatever and I’m actually a decent guy. However y’all might think. Whatever,
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