The stifling heat wave hasn’t been kind to anyone, but the impossible outdoor exercise conditions have sent me back to the pool, so there’s that. Lately I’ve been rising around 6, biking to my city park, which opens for lap swimming at 6:30, doing a half-hour of back-and-forth and then riding home. It all takes a little over an hour, and when I pull into the garage around 7:45 a.m., I have the pleasure of knowing I’m done for the day. It makes sitting in a chair for the next six to eight hours more tolerable.
Today was even better. The pool was set up with 50-yard lanes, a rare treat apparently done for the benefit of the swim team, which comes in later in the morning. You have to be a regular lap swimmer to appreciate a 50-yard pool — it’s the distance where you can really establish a rhythm, stretch out and relax and not have to always be thinking of the wall coming up ahead. Fifty-yard lengths make you feel like an Olympian, even if you’re just plowing along with your usual bad form, lumpy old you.
When I got out, I overheard the lifeguard while I was drying off, talking on his phone. “A body in the river?” he said. “Huh.”
“Huh” is the new “far out.” I miss “far out.”
I forgot about it until my lunchtime news fly-by, and whaddaya know: Two bodies — in pieces — were pulled from the Detroit River this morning, along with a circular saw. The man who called it in had this to say:
“It was not a pleasant way to start the day.”
Thank you, alert citizen! What’s more, this wasn’t even the biggest news of the day. Two dismembered corpses were trumped by a major break in a decades-old series of child murders, the heat wave and a middling-to-serious scandal in the state legislature. I tell you, it’s like living in south Florida in the ’80s.
But as miserable as this heat has been, I’m enjoying summer. Last night’s dinner: Shrimp tossed in a peppery-butter sauce with cilantro, corn on the cob, the last of the weekend’s blueberry pie. Not bad, even if it was a day when I only went outside twice, and then not for long.
So, bloggage?
If you didn’t catch Jon Stewart’s return from vacation this week, you missed a particularly good one.
I can’t stand Spike Lee, but this is a pretty good interview with him.
Are women worse at parking than men? No. Ask my husband.
Good lord, I’m beat. Have a good Wednesday, all.
brian stouder said on July 18, 2012 at 12:37 am
I could lie, but really – Pam is much the better driver than me. She always knows where she’s going, for one thing, and she always knows the best way there.
The only thing she does that I will not do, and for which I give her grief, is that she will answer her phone when it rings if she’s driving.
BZZZZT!! Inexcuseable, I say. She doesn’t text, which is a good thing, but I think answering the damned thing is a fairly major distraction (you have to find it, hit the right button, and hoist it to your ear, while you should be watching out for that bicyclist up ahead, with the nifty bag on his bike)
(‘Course, my phone never rings, so there’s that)
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Jakash said on July 18, 2012 at 12:55 am
Brian,
We stayed in that same Springfield hotel that you did (mentioned at the end of the previous thread) when we went to visit the A. Lincoln Presidential Library a couple years ago. Loved the views from an upper floor. We weren’t provided with the entertainment that you were, but there was something noteworthy about our room when we checked in. Upon trying to flush the toilet, nothing happened. Eventually discovered that the little chain inside the box part that goes from the handle on the outside to the rest of the works on the inside was MISSING. Not loose, not dangling. GONE. Uh, this seemed rather odd to me — we ended up in another room. I guess a ghost could’ve taken it… (Sorry for all that technical plumbing language, folks.)
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Dexter said on July 18, 2012 at 2:02 am
My wife Carla Lee is a good driver, but she is a terror when it comes to any sort of difficult parking. While moving she’s really good, but she loses all depth perception when parking. She drives a little Ford wagon but she has no concept of just where the curb is. Last week she scraped the hell out of her wheel covers and couldn’t understand how to get away from the curb. About ten years ago she rented a Cadillac sedan and drove to South Carolina to see her sister. While backing out of a parking spot at a restaurant she clobbered another car. The car had been parked by a valet and the spots were tight, and she had to try to get out of that spot and caused that fender bender.
I guess I am getting better in this heat. I rode my bicycle four miles and then jumped off and ran in front of my air conditioner. Feeling uncomfortably hot, I broke down and went to Walmart and bought an old school box fan and turned the motherfucker right straight on me while I watched a ball game after the news, then the latest episode of HBO’s The Newsroom. Jeff Daniels and Sam Waterston and crew had a really great final scene in S1 E4. This is a fast paced show and one has to pay attention all the time.
Our old buddy “Bunk” , Wendell Pierce, who has become an unofficial New Orleans tourism promoter, is hosting President Obama when Barack comes to New Orleans soon. HBO’s “Treme” finished this season’s shooting weeks ago.
Happy birthday to Nelson Mandela. 1918. Jimmy Cagney would have been 113 yesterday.
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Connie said on July 18, 2012 at 7:25 am
We’ve had that experience too Brian. Day’s Inn, Farmer City Illinois, one of those side of the freeway places late at night. We sat and listened and laughed, hoping our ten year old didn’t wake up to hear it. Then we got to listen to the post coitus conversation between the truck driver and the woman he met in the bar. Best line of all time: “And she had the nerve to call me f**king trailer park trash.”
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alex said on July 18, 2012 at 7:52 am
Jakash, I asked my partner who’s quite the road warrior and always has delightful stories about the depraved things he finds in hotel rooms. He says it’s possible that the chain broke off completely and went down the hole. And if it’s not that, somebody was probably using it somehow to administer drugs or as some sort of sex toy.
As for parking, I don’t think it should be sexist but rather ageist. Increasingly I’m called upon to buff out the sides of my elderly parents’ vehicles because they keep smearing them on the entrance to the garage, other cars, etc. Wider spaces would be a good idea anyhow. I’m always finding dings in my vehicles where people in parking lots carelessly (deliberately?) open their doors right into the sides of adjacent vehicles.
On edit: And that shrimp and cilantro and buttery sauce sounds divoon. I’m eager to try my new non-bolting cilantro which really isn’t cilantro but another Mexican plant that tastes just like it and grows large, round leaves. Someone sold it to me at the farmer’s market earlier this summer.
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beb said on July 18, 2012 at 8:21 am
You know it’s bad when the building AC unit crashes because it’s too darn hot.
Since the house is “cooled” by two small window AC units I’ve become accustomed to placing a fan to blow directly on my face. And two at night when I’m trying to get to sleep. It’s gotten to the point where I have trouble sleeping without a fan, both for the breeze and because the noise from the fan drowns out other, distracting noises.
“It’s not a pleasant way to start the day” is a masterpiece of understatement,
The moral of Richard Nixon’s Watergate problem wasn’t “don’t commit crimes while president” and it wasn’t “don’t try to cover up the crimes you shouldn’t have authorized in the first place”, but “don’t record every last MF-ing thing you say!” And so we find out that when Mitt R. left the governor’s mansion in Massachusetts he and his minions bought up all the hard drives on their computers to take with them, thus depriving posterity (and Oppo researchers) of any record of his time in office. Now we find out that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has come up with an exciting new way to avoid public record. All commubnications to him must be sent through his Blackberry, which has an app, called their “PIN to PIN messaging system” which avoid relaying through any server which might copy and store the message. Cuomo had a good reputation as an Attorney General (following Eliot Spitzer) but any politician who makes it a policy to avoid leaving any public record is a crook in my book. It also makes me wonder whether the President’s use of a Blackberry uses this trail-erasing detail.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/gov-cuomo-blackberry-pin-to-pin-messaging-system-contact-key-staffers-t-talk-phone-article-1.1115034?localLinksEnabled=false
Yesterday Duncan Black, economist and blogger (as Atrios) wrote: “If, in January 2009, I given a rough outline of what would happen in policy, the economy, and the financial system over the next 3.5 years, people would have thought I was crazy.”
Which may or may not have been inspired by reports from Democratic focus groups that when group leaders try to explain the details of the Ryan plan (and especially how it plans to “solve” the medicare problem by essentially phasing it out) members simply refuse to believe that any politician would be that crazy.
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Julie Robinson said on July 18, 2012 at 8:23 am
In our house things even out. I’ve never caused an accident or even had a speeding ticket, and I’m definitely more focused when on the road (and I don’t talk or text), but there is that garage to get in and out of. It’s on the side of the house with the neighbors’ fence close on the other side, and I have dinged every vehicle we’ve owned. I’m fine when the garage is empty, but when the other car is in I struggle with the spatial orientation. It’s pretty embarrassing to admit, but there have been a few times when I came home really stressed and tired, and went straight inside to tell my husband he needed to come out and pull the stupid thing in himself. I’m not saying it’s a male/female thing in general, but he is definitely better at visualizing those angles.
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coozledad said on July 18, 2012 at 8:46 am
Romney can’t even wipe his ass. Here’s your Olympic savior, discussing how best to suck the tits in Washington:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yR_Mn4Skt4
That’s some straight up vacuum cleaner salesman shit, there.
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Lex said on July 18, 2012 at 9:05 am
Speaking of South Florida, just last night, my wife, reading news on her phone, said, “A swamp full of alligators just minutes away, and you leave a body on an OVERPASS? Good God, Miami, you are stupid.”
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Peter said on July 18, 2012 at 9:39 am
No Lex, not stupid, but lazy.
My lovely spouse can park a car like it’s nobody’s business. She can easily fit the Subaru in a tight parking space on the first try. Learning how to park in Rogers Park and Lakeview will do that for you.
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Bitter Scribe said on July 18, 2012 at 9:58 am
In this heat, I’m forced to use my gym instead of running outside, which wouldn’t be so bad except that the men’s showers are shut down for repair or renovation or whatever. You can shower downstairs, but the lockers down there are accessible to the public (it’s a city-owned gym) and not very secure, and they have big signs warning you not to leave any “valuables” down there. So you have to leave your pants with your wallet in an upstairs locker, then, when you’re done, take your pants down with you but leave your wallet upstairs, shower, then go back up and get your wallet and finish dressing and…it all got too complicated and I ended up showering at home. What a pain.
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brian stouder said on July 18, 2012 at 10:24 am
the men’s showers are shut down for repair or renovation or whatever.
A semi-non sequitur, but this gave me a malevolent chuckle.
I heard that Penn State’s one concrete (so to speak) action amidst their ongoing scandal/debacle, going forward, is to renovate their football facility’s shower room.
Woo Hoo!
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Deborah said on July 18, 2012 at 10:31 am
I used to be an ace parallel parker. I don’t do it much anymore because I hardly ever drive. Last time I parallel parked was a little more than a month ago and I did fine. I think it’s like riding a bike, you never lose how to do it. But I could be wrong. We’ve always had smallish cars so that helps. Previously I had teeny cars (MGs and Miatas) so I never had a problem then. For New Mexico we are getting a Jeep, but I doubt that I’ll be doing much parallel parking there.
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Charlotte said on July 18, 2012 at 10:33 am
Oh parking. This week’s task is to teach my borrowed child Sophia to parallel park. We’re going to set up my sweetheart’s 1972 pickup and the free Daiwoo that’s already hit a deer. That way, she can bump to her heart’s content. Kid isn’t doing too badly, but she tends to hug the right shoulder, which, out here, with steep shoulders, terrifies us all.
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Lex said on July 18, 2012 at 10:40 am
Weird but true: The easiest car I’ve ever had to parallel park was my ’93 Volvo 240. Turning circle on that thing was tighter than a Motown rhythm section.
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Joe K said on July 18, 2012 at 10:46 am
Bitter Scribe,
Got up and ran at 5:15 this morning and it was still hot. Currently in Akins S.C. and it’s hot here also. Itry and stay in Hampton type hotels. We usually get a discount from the fbo. Saturday night I stayed in a crown plaza in Louisville for $80.00. If you stay where the airline crews stay, check under your mattress, crews leave porn for one another.
Pilot Joe
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JWfromNJ said on July 18, 2012 at 11:00 am
@Dex –
I’m also enjoying the newsroom but it wavers from “hell yes” TV to zzzz. I assume you are talking about (spoiler) the scene involving Gabby Giffords “death”.
Sam Waterston is worth the price of admission alone. He’s great as the bourbon imbibing boss, and the scenes with Jane fonda were good. I liked the (spoiler) scene where they figure out what Fonda and son are up to based on the tux.
I like Neal, Dev Patel’s character. I like the two black staffers who bicker over Obama and anything else. And sad to say I am a sucker for the Jim and Maggie shipper drama. Don’s going to get punched in the face in the near future.
I suggest anyone at least watch this scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4r7hIWln7Q&feature=player_embedded
Is America the greatest country in the world…
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Carolyn said on July 18, 2012 at 11:34 am
Hello from South Florida, where it’s still like it was in the 80s – without the novelty. (And Welcome back from vacation, Nancy.)
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Dorothy said on July 18, 2012 at 11:35 am
I’m a pro parallel parker, and not bad at backing our 2007 Chevy truck in between parked cars at my office when I have to drive it, which I did yesterday. But at Kroger? Forget about it. Idiots blithely walk to and fro in that parking lot, never paying attention to the white back up lights when you’re trying to get into or out of a space there. One of these days I just know I’m going to hit someone who was too wrapped up in their own little universe to pay attention to the moving car right in front of them. It takes what, 5 seconds? to wait for someone to back out of a space? Parking so I can pull straight out is much preferred and I do it every chance I get in that lot.
We are plowing through Breaking Bad episodes instead of keeping up with The Newsroom, but it’s on the DVR waiting for one quiet evening soon…in the meantime I’m absolutely loving BB. Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston are just phenomenal actors. Nine more to go and I am done with the first 4 seasons.
Oh and Dex – the Jimmy Cagney birthday thing? He was 13 days younger than my grandmother Josephine McCarthy!
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brian stouder said on July 18, 2012 at 11:40 am
“hell yes” TV
I think this would make a better tagline for MSNBC than their current “Lean Forward”.
Lawrence O’Donnell’s “rewrite” segment is almost always “hell yes TV”; especially last night when he took Rush Limbaugh apart, piece by piece, over his latest racist blasts…which wouldn’t matter, really, except that then John Sanunu* and other surrogates of the Romney campaign parroted the Limbaugh loogies (which was the Head Flying Monkey’s goal, afterall), and warranted a serious response.
*John Sanunu, after mouthing a wheelbarrow-load of bullshit, topped it off by saying Obama should ‘learn how to be an American’. And I learned where John Sanunu was born – Havanna, Cuba – and O’Donnell’s relentlessly fair (and therefore merciless) riff on these guys just made me exclaim “Hell Yes”
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John (not McCain) said on July 18, 2012 at 11:50 am
With regard to cilantro, I tried it for the first time about a month ago, and have a question. Is it supposed to taste like soap, or was it just sloppiness on the part of the restaurant I was at? The whole burrito didn’t taste that way, just part, and the only new (to me) thing on it was the cilantro, so I’m wondering.
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Connie said on July 18, 2012 at 12:08 pm
John (not McCain), the thing with cilantro tasting like soap is supposedly genetic.
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 12:25 pm
For me, fresh cilantro tastes like soap, but once it cooks into salsa or chile or whatever, the soap flavor is gone.
appy 71st birthday to Lonnie Mack
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/health_stew/2012/03/anatomy_of_an_aca_lie.html
and, to the great lady, Martha Reeves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ZPwRrWxGA&feature=fvst (this is a great video, with an interview and a tour of Hitsville, guided by Miss Martha.)
On top of Shrub raising his pointy little head, RMoneyites and Danites awoke today to Cheney reprising his “Deficits doan mean shit” mantra. Nothing goes right when your magic u-trou is tight.
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Minnie said on July 18, 2012 at 12:31 pm
Here’s Harold McGee on the mysteries of cilantro: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14curious.html
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jcburns said on July 18, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Huh? Ya think!?
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Judybusy said on July 18, 2012 at 1:11 pm
John at 21–when I first had it years ago, I also thought the restaurant did a poor rinse job! I had to try it a few times before liking it. Now when I buy it, I bury my nose and inhale deeply. Acceptable behavior at the food co-op or farmer’s market.
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Best from Martha and the Vandellas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFZEStjTSoY&feature=related
I think Diana Ross’s voice sounds kinda paltry compared.
I guess the RMoneyites have basically admitted now that Rush is the official Minister of Disinformation. Lying is second nature to GOPer bastards:
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/health_stew/2012/03/anatomy_of_an_aca_lie.html?comments=all#readerComm
Check the comments. Some Teabanger apologist tries to rebut the thrust of the piece’s argument by positing a Hypothetical in which a couple bought a house for $75grand and now finds it worth $750grand. In what fracking universe, you lying sack o’ shit?
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Dorothy said on July 18, 2012 at 1:18 pm
We have discussed our collective love/hate relationships with cilantro before at nn.c, John. I think we came to the conclusion there is no middle ground with cilantro – you either love it or hate it. I’m in the love it category. The plants in our garden have wilted and died, though, due to the drought. I’m pointing the hose at perennial flowers now when I do water, which is down to once a week.
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MarkH said on July 18, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Why would you want to eat anything that tastes like soap?
Go, jc!
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 1:30 pm
I taught this guy when he was in high school. He wasn’t much of a student, but he was happy-go-lucky, friendly and respectful, and we always got along very well. I always knew he’d have my back if I had to break up an altercation. I can’t imagine the kid I knew in this situation, and it makes me heartsick to read about this.
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Dexter said on July 18, 2012 at 1:51 pm
detroitblogger john’s latest:
http://metrotimes.com/culture/sign-of-the-times-1.1344652
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Little Bird said on July 18, 2012 at 1:56 pm
Both Deborah and I LOVE cilantro, it smells so good when we would get it at the farmer’s markets. If you cook with it though, it can get bitter if it cooks too long. One trick is to bundle some stems together and toss those into whatever you’re making, just pull them out before serving, those stems will add a bit of cilantro essence to the dish.
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 2:28 pm
Every Intelligent Voter’s Guide to Electioneering Bunk. Rapid responses to patent fracking bullshit.
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Deborah said on July 18, 2012 at 3:16 pm
That link to the guy in Detroit who’s been in the trenches reminded me in a much less desperate way of my early days in St. Louis. We lived in a blighted neighborhood, on purpose, because we felt compelled to help. It slowly became gentrified, not that that was our intent but it happened anyway. I am here to tell you that living in a battle zone is wearing in every way you can imagine. There was violence all around us. I couldn’t stick with it and left before it got completely better. It is really, really hard to sweat it out. You constantly ask yourself why you are doing it, and the final answer for me was that there was no reason to stay.
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 3:57 pm
Democrats can call this bill whatever they want, but they can’t conceal its true intent, which is to encourage their allies and discourage their critics from exercising their First Amendment right to speak their minds.
That’s Yertle McConnell on the Disclose Act. Simultaneous translation: Democratic Party deep pockets have nothing to hide. GOPer deep pockets like the Kochs and Adelson fear knowledge of their “quid pro quo” political largesse getting out so much that Disclose would impinge on their rights of free speech in the form of wads of cash. Mitch is great at blurting the embarrassing truth every once in a while:
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Mark P said on July 18, 2012 at 3:59 pm
Beb, I don’t think Obama’s use of a Blackberry has any sinister motivations. It’s the current standard-issue government cell phone. It’s the only kind you can use to get your official government email forwarded.
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MarkH said on July 18, 2012 at 4:33 pm
With all due respect, Mark P, how do you know (how do any of us know)Obama’s device doesn’t have some secure application for, as beb said, the purposes of directing certain communications elsewhere, if not into oblivion? He’s not just president, he’s also a politician, so a fair question.
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Because Mark H, if you’re the President, you just have your living dead VP claim all the email just disappeared–POOF!!!— into thin air, the way Shrub and Dickless did.
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beb said on July 18, 2012 at 5:00 pm
I posted this in reply to comments on Detroitblogger John’s site which argues that Detroiter’s are “resentful and lazy”
“Lazy?” What bs, what racist bs! When Ventura says he can find someone who will steal anything one might ask for, that’s not laziness. That ambition. Detroit is filled with lots of hard working people. Unfortunately since there are so few jobs in Detroit most of those hard working Detroiters have had to get by through crime. Lazy is thinking that because someone is black they automatically lazy as well
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MarkH said on July 18, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Like I said, Prospero…..
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Sherri said on July 18, 2012 at 5:44 pm
How private equity works: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2012/01/30/120130ta_talk_surowiecki#ixzz20tcX7tZv?currentPage=all
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 6:54 pm
Birfers still scuttling around looking for the rock they crawled out from under:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/joe-arpaio-birther-probe-_n_1681428.html?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%20Brief&utm_campaign=daily_brief
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coozledad said on July 18, 2012 at 7:00 pm
Sherri: My wife read a few excerpts from that article aloud to me. Those people need to be flushed out of the gene pool.
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 7:05 pm
I sent cash for Amnesty to bring a case of bananas to Times Square. Amazing vocal by Joss Stone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi1y2B8BbK0&feature=autoplay&list=UUl4q3BS54_vUZWdj9PMqC5w&playnext=1
Turn it off quick when the song is over, or Russell Brand will come on.
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 7:17 pm
Speaking of Private Equiteers, RMoney is such a greedy shit, he could parbly be talked into letting his obscenely rich brethren twist in the tax break wind so long as “carried interest is preserved”.
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 7:21 pm
Charles Pierce slices and dices colossal idiot SE Cupp, the GOPer bimbo that doesn’t have a prominent Adam’s Apple:
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/charles-pierce-se-cupp-colossal-idiot
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 18, 2012 at 7:56 pm
Prospero, you get to use that “she’s not a woman” riff on Coulter, she’s earned the ire, but when it becomes a stick to beat all right-leaning females, it just sounds sad. How about we agree that “collectivist” is a lumpenshtumpen dumb way to critique marginal tax rate adjustments, and leave the inferences about her gender alone?
Of course, I could live with a general reduction of the overall use of fecal references, but you know what Milan Kundera said about kitsch. And I’ll admit to having a weak spot for kitsch of all sorts. It’s the proletarian revisionist in me.
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Sherri said on July 18, 2012 at 8:11 pm
What’s even worse about private equity: nothing that Surowiecki describes is illegal. That private equity works this way is a demonstration of how completely captured our government is by financial interests. Private equity is about financial engineering, not real engineering. The carried interest loophole is the worst offense, but really, there’s little reason for capital gains to be taxed so low compared to regular income. That just encourages financial gamesmanship, rather than investment.
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Prospero said on July 18, 2012 at 8:30 pm
My problem with Coultergeist’s apparent manliness results from the “she’s so hot” meme from the same moronic galoots that claim $Palin is so attractive. Both are as hideous and harpy-like as their minds and what’s left of their souls. SE Cupp fits well with those two sisters of hers. I think Kundera’s observation on kitsch with regard to children running on grass is elitist and misogynistic. Kitsch is in the eye of the beholder, and my feelings on the subject are similar to Potter Stewart’s on porn and obscenity. And perhaps RMoney is more a dick than a shit. He does have the morals and social consciousness of a rat turd, one way or another, but for Mormons, that may just be akin to observing that French people look down on everyone, it’s just part of being French.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 18, 2012 at 8:46 pm
Well, when you’re going to be a god, why wouldn’t you look down on others? By which I mean the L’Académie française apotheosis, not Mormons . . .
Hideous is in the eye of the appraiser, and heck, I think Rachel Maddow is pretty attractive, not that it matters to her or to me. My lack of appeal to her would be because of our divergent views, and her opinion of my choice of spectacle frames would be neither here or there.
More bluntly, let’s just lay off commenting on people’s appearance as an index of their intellect, let alone ideology.
(Seriously, are there people who find Coulter “hot”? There’s got to be a BDSM theme going on in that person’s cranium, or gonads, and that has nothing to do with politics.)
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alex said on July 18, 2012 at 10:16 pm
I’m getting pissed off at weather.com. Or maybe frontier.com, I’m not sure which, but the goddamn weather.com interactive radar map doesn’t do its thing on my state-of-the-art new computer and I find it vexatious as all friggin’ hell, especially when I can read local tweets from people about the weather at the same site and get a better picture of what’s about to blow my damn house down.
I wonder if DSL was a mistake. When I had cable, it was unreliable in that it had spates of being completely out, but when it worked and was lightning fast about it. This shit never blacks out but it’s barely a shade better than dial-up at times. You can hardly watch a You-Tube video because it pauses and seizes every few seconds. Or maybe this is payback for putting in the adblock app. Anyone know?
And on edit: Sometimes a con artist is the best artist. I’d rather have any of his originals than a thousand of Kinkaid’s reproductions.
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Joe Kobiela said on July 18, 2012 at 10:31 pm
Alex,
Put adds weather in you search. That’s the sight I use. Good radar.
Pilot Joe
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Suzanne said on July 18, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Heck yes birthers are still around, Prospero! I run into one on what seems like a bi-weekly basis. Shocks me every time, but there it is. Some are supposedly well educated, some redneck hicks, but here in middle America, they are alive, well, and still refusing to believe facts.
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Bitter Scribe said on July 18, 2012 at 10:36 pm
Alex: I’ve never used adblock and I have exactly the same problem with YouTube, on my new iMac. I’ve learned to either run everything at the lowest resolution (when that’s an option) or give it a few minutes to buffer before I try to play it.
DSL sucks. The problem is, cable is way more expensive, and I can’t bundle it with TV. The only way I can bundle is if I also buy a landline that I don’t want.
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alex said on July 18, 2012 at 10:41 pm
Suzanne, I encounter the same vacuous wackos, but then we live in the same backwater and nothing surprises me anymore. I don’t have much patience with them either. The hicks being duped I can understand. It’s the middle-class ones, who evidently get their news briefings from the former because they’re too busy watching ticker tapes or Entertainment Tonight to check in on the state of the world every now and then. They’re the biggest pains in the ass and windbags who don’t know jack.
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Dave said on July 18, 2012 at 11:03 pm
Alex, it might not quite be what you’re looking for but I’ve had some success with wunderground.com Too bad Frontier FIOS never made it to you, regardless of anything I think of Frontier, FIOS works very well.
Joe, thanks for the site.
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Dorothy said on July 19, 2012 at 11:19 am
Alex I had trouble at weather.com yesterday myself – I got a new computer at the office this week (H/P) and noticed similar problems with the radar map. I had better luck at the local television stations to see the radar there. I think the weather.com website has gotten awfully messy. I don’t care for it.
And thanks from me, too, Joe K for the tip on that website. I’ve bookmarked it.
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