I cannot write much today, for I fear I have been flattened by a cultural juggernaut. Kate’s birthday present from her aunt in Defiance was a ticket to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Sunday afternoon, in Toledo. Of course we went, too.
Living in a lefty NPR cultural cocoon as I do, these things tend to take me by surprise. Terry Gross keeps me up on the latest interesting lesbian singer-songwriters, but a group that’s sold more tickets than the gross national product of Tanzania? I say, “Oh, is it a Russian thing? Sure, we’ll go.”
Truth be told, I wasn’t quite that ignorant, but I didn’t know much. Christmas. Synthesizers. That’s about it.
(Alan, too. We were eating lunch before he realized this wasn’t Mannheim Steamroller we were about to see.)
Three hours later, having had my hair blown back by something that resembled Emerson, Lake and Palmer meets Disney by way of the Super Bowl halftime show, I can say: Ignorant no more! Lasers, snow, a story hokey enough to embarrass Red Skelton read from the stage, more lasers, acrobatic fiddlin’, hair-flippin’ chick singers, hair-flippin’ male guitarists, a salute to the troops and am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah: FIRE. Tons of fire. And fireworks! The house lights came up in a haze so thick the smoke alarms kept going off, and I have to think someone was keeping the sprinkler system on manual override — otherwise we’d all have been soaked.
I’m no photographer, but one crappy cellphone shot from the cheap seats:
And while I’m sure Dave Weigel would never count them among his beloved prog-rock practitioners, you can’t deny the influence.
Walking out, listening to the chatter, I gathered many in the audience come to this thing every year. Well, the Rockettes can’t go everywhere.
And it was fun.
Otherwise, it was a good weekend. Birthdays — the world an always use a little more cake.
Bloggage? Sure, some:
“What can be worse than to sell your soul and find it not valuable enough to get anything for it?” — Garry Wills on guess-who.
I have nothing to say about Hostess, except that I don’t eat that crap myself. Twinkies. Bleh.
A short week for most of us, I expect. Enjoy it, whatever its length.
Brandon said on November 19, 2012 at 1:03 am
I enjoy the occasional Twinkie. And a Mexican company is considering buying the rights to Twinkies and its kindred baked goods.
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Brandon said on November 19, 2012 at 1:13 am
(Bring back the Edit function.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/18/bimbo-twinkies-mexican-hostess-liquidation_n_2155070.html
Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican company that is the world’s largest bread baker, might hold the key to saving the Twinkie from extinction in a Hostess liquidation.
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Deborah said on November 19, 2012 at 3:16 am
Nancy your description of the TSO experience is classic.
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JWfromNJ said on November 19, 2012 at 3:24 am
No love lost for Twinkies, but if we’re talking Chocodiles….
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 19, 2012 at 6:40 am
It would figure that only a bimbo could save the ding-dongs.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 19, 2012 at 6:47 am
And for what it’s worth (yes, I miss “edit” too), while I have a philosophical and practical willingness to support decriminalization of marijuana, two cases in the last week of parents smoking weed with their 14 year old kids aren’t making me want to work too hard at supporting it. Yes, parents also can share their booze with kids, and do, but it just doesn’t come up as much in my lil’ patch of heaven, and it seems to happen as a part of the whole smoking culture at home thing, where every member of the household is puffing on something most of the time, leaving me with juveniles who say “hey, at least I’m not smoking weed like mom” as I’m trying to get them to stop (it’s a misdemeanor in Ohio for minors to smoke, making it a PV whether I liked smoking in general or not).
Celebrated 20 years of our transitional housing program on Friday, with the guy who brought us four frozen turkeys that first week and gave us hope that this crazy idea might work. 2,500 people housed later (47 units currently, 93 occupants of which 40 are kids), we’re working on a matching grant that gets us $10,000 if we can raise in direct giving $5,000 by Dec. 31. See http://www.lcchousing.org if you’re looking for a helping effort to support this time of year, and thank you!
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James said on November 19, 2012 at 7:45 am
All this Hostess talk reminds me of this homage to 60’s comics I did with a friend of mine, Don Thomas, called the Astral Crusader. We did this parody Hostess ad at the end.
http://t.co/da2do46Z
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basset said on November 19, 2012 at 7:53 am
The surgeon who did my FIL’s spinal fusion a few weeks ago won’t treat smokers. If you admit to being one during the initial visit, you have to leave and that’s it.
Some more cultural enrichment, last Tuesday afternoon, on 131 just north of Grand Rapids. I turn Sirius off to try the local radio, and of course the first station the auto-search finds is blasting AC/DC. The back of the wagon is full of guns, camo clothing, and whiskey, I’m wearing a T-shirt that says “Chicks Dig Me, Deer Fear Me” and running about 80 while rusty trucks pulling pop-up campers blow past me. The pines are getting thicker and the evening darker… Pure Michigan.
Only got to hunt about a day and a half, though, saw a bunch of deer but didn’t kill any. First deer camp my FIL had missed since 1946 and all at the same location out west of Big Rapids, wasn’t the same without him.
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2012 at 8:37 am
That was a great piece from Garry Wills, and it reminded me that today is November 19, a day that world DID note, and indeed, long remember.
(Wills wrote a very fine book on the subject some years back)
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sue said on November 19, 2012 at 8:38 am
Basset your “Pure Michigan” brought back warm memories of uncles, brothers, and old boyfriends to this Yooper girl who has spent the last 28 years in San Diego.
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Suzanne said on November 19, 2012 at 8:56 am
The Willis piece was good. I think what most bothered me about Romney was that I didn’t believe there was anything in there; that he was just a shell of a man neither moral nor immoral nor amoral but someone for whom morality did not really exist. It’s hard to verbalize, but it bothered me.
I bought a Trans-Siberian Christmas CD a few years ago, thinking it was similar to Mannheim. Boy, was I wrong!
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coozledad said on November 19, 2012 at 9:13 am
That Weigel piece was well done. I hadn’t considered the importance of psychedelia in prog. It only makes sense.
I still don’t think of late Floyd as prog so much as a few fortunate communists.
This is prog. Sid and Marty Croft unhinged.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ekGp4JoBl8
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basset said on November 19, 2012 at 9:17 am
That is indeed prog… anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
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basset said on November 19, 2012 at 9:19 am
And Reddit has captioned this “The Day the Music Died,” which sounds about right:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/american-music-awards-crown-justin-bieber-artist-of-the-year-20121118
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Connie said on November 19, 2012 at 9:38 am
Bassett, best classic rock around Grand Rapids, WLAV, 96 or 97 FM. Had a button set on my car radio since college and still do. While I don’t live near there I drive through there at least once a month and always listen to it.
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Dorothy said on November 19, 2012 at 10:08 am
My favorite Mannheim Steamroller song with Christmas lights display: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KBgGG0KEUg
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Connie said on November 19, 2012 at 10:23 am
10 of the best bookstores in the country: http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/1113/10-of-America-s-best-bookstores/Carmichael-s-Bookstore-Louisville-Ky
I’ve been to two, The Strand, and Powell’s. I’m surprised to find one is in Petoskey Michigan. How many have you been to?
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Deborah said on November 19, 2012 at 10:50 am
Of those 10 bookstores I’ve only been to the Tattered Cover in Denver. St. Louis has a great little bookstore called Left Bank Books, it should be on the list.
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Sue said on November 19, 2012 at 11:04 am
MMJeff, I’ve never had an opinion on decriminalization of marijuana, but I note that for the past year or so in the Milwaukee area alone there have been more than thirty wrong-way drunks on the highways, with predictable carnage. The solution of course is to spend lots of money adding sensors etc. to the exits that will notify authorities when a vehicle enters the exit.
So adding easy access to yet another recreational mind-fogger doesn’t really make sense in this state, where lax sentencing is the norm until your third or fourth or eighth DUI.
Of course, pot in WI wouldn’t have a powerful lobbyist like the Tavern League, so if marijuana is legalized in this state there will probably be stiff penalties for driving impaired, because, you know, that’s different…
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MarkH said on November 19, 2012 at 11:04 am
I realize that article is headlined, “10 of the Best”, not the 10 best, but still, as I scrolled through I was worried the Tattered Cover would not be included. A couple of booksellers I know in the region say it is THE model for independents, but few make it. It is still huge; once you walk in, you get wonderously lost and don’t want to leave. Our own Valley Book store here in Jackson has weathered the internet on slaught, but is much downsized from 10-15 years ago. A personal favorite is Two Ocean Books in Dubois, Wyo. Both are small, but with eclectic (for lack of a better term) selections.
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MichaelG said on November 19, 2012 at 11:08 am
I used to shop at Green Apple in SF. It was a pretty decent store and was only a couple of blocks from my house. I always thought the owner, Richard Greenapple, was a jerk. There was a better store across the street from me called ‘Jabberwok’. It was owned by a friend of mine named Bob Halsey. He was a nephew of the Admiral. Bob only sold used, though.
I’ve never eaten Twinkies.
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Charlotte said on November 19, 2012 at 11:13 am
Brian — loved your pure Michigan memory. We’ve been plagued by crap hunters this year — rented a cabin in the “subdivision” where by Sweetheart’s cabin is, which gives them right of way to the forest service access gate. Have they used it? No, they’ve been sitting on a hill on the 20 acre parcel where their rental is, taking pot shots at deer who then run onto private property where they can’t retrieve them. One sweet little buck we’ve been watching all summer — shot through the ass (ruining the meat) and left to die in the willow swamp. Couldn’t be more angry. I have no issue with hunting, but bad hunters are a scourge and a shame. Plus they’ve completely messed up all the game activity, so even people we’ve allowed to come up haven’t gotten anything. Ugh.
So my crazy right-wing uncle in Florida is saying that since Obama won, he’s not going to be able to help support my (broke broke broke) mother anymore. Because the rich people upon whom he relies to buy his luxury product are “suffering”. My response is that if he needs money, maybe he should sell the 15 acre horse farm he owns outside of Ft. Lauderdale before the seas rise and he loses it … asshole. As I recall, he freaked out like this after the last election too …
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beb said on November 19, 2012 at 11:16 am
Wait, there’s a difference between Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra? And what does either do when it’s not Xmas season?
Bimbo sounds like an innocuous “little” Mexican company but they already own Thomas English Muffins, Sara Lee, Entermans and more. For them to buy up the rights ti Twinkies is like Disney buying up the rights to Warner Brothers. This is a massive consolidation of the market.
I question whether Mitt Romney was ever got health insurance or gay rights or any of the other things he said to get elected in Massachusetts. The pattern we’ve seen the last two years is of a man who will say anything to get elected. So why should we assume he wasn’t saying whatever it would take to get elected Governor as well? What does seem authentic are his comments “I like to fire people”and “corporations are people, my friend.” Those were unscripted moments but also seem to reflect a consist view of the world as The Romney’s vs. The Help.
When I read the headline for today I thought Nancy was writing about the current disaster in the Middle East. Israel kills a major leader in Hamas and didn’t expect blow-back from that? And it seems like Israel is depending on the US’s mighty shadow to protect them from the idiocy of their leaders. I don’y want to see another holocaust but I’m geting sick and tired of Israel.
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beb said on November 19, 2012 at 11:22 am
Charlotte, I’ve lived through Nixon, Reagan, Bush and Bush and time one of those cretins was elected was the darkest day of my life but I have never freaked out the way Republicans have been freaking out over Pres. Obama’s elections. It’s enough to make me think that there’s something basically wrong in their heads.
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2012 at 11:43 am
Charlotte – that marvelous Pure Michigan yarn, upthread (so to speak) was from good ol’ Basset.
I’m a city boy who hunts for food in the supermarket, or the freezer. Although I’ve never been on a hunting trip, I’d go along for the hike (but none of the ‘wet work’!)
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Charlotte said on November 19, 2012 at 11:52 am
Oops. That’s why when I write fiction I try to give all my characters names with different initial capitals!
I once shot an antelope — with a lot of help from a former boyfriend who is a hunting and fishing guide. The “wet work” was actually fascinating — probably in part because antelope are nice tidy little creatures (an elk might me more daunting). And I loved the butchering part a week or two later after we’d hung it … yum. Antelope.
And Beb — my uncle is totally losing it. I think part of it is that his mother is finally dying, at 101, and he hasn’t spoken to or seen her since about 1985 (and there’s all sorts of insanity about who should have inherited what, which is pretty much moot since she’s outlived all her money). But he’s always been a right-winger, and thinks he’s a member of the aristocracy, and completely identifies with the rich rich — a lifetime spent in the horse business will do that to you. But the Obama hysteria is just nuts. All I can put it down to is race …
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2012 at 11:58 am
I’d be lucky if to do a passable job with the wet work on a cantaloupe; it wouldn’t threaten my masculinity (such as it is!) to leave the antelope to you!
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Brandon said on November 19, 2012 at 12:05 pm
Bimbo sounds like an innocuous “little” Mexican company….
It’s not a well-known name in the United States but a very large company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Bimbo
==
Everyone’s talking about Twinkies, but I also like Ho Hos and its cinnamon streusel coffee cakes.
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Julie Robinson said on November 19, 2012 at 12:40 pm
The Wills column was an excellent summation of Romney, and beb, I couldn’t agree more with you about his unscripted moments. The I’ll-bet-you at the debate, and of course, the 47% comment showed his true colors. Buh-bye and good riddance.
Synthesizers, blech. Give me real instruments and the rich overtones they produce. Or give me the beauty of the human voice, solo or in harmony. We attended a production of Forever Plaid this weekend which is much to my preference. Just four voices, a piano, and an upright bass. Bliss!
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Sherri said on November 19, 2012 at 12:40 pm
I spent yesterday afternoon watching my daughter’s last soccer game in classic late season Seattle conditions: steady rain, 45 degrees. I don’t think any of the parents would have been there if it hadn’t been the last soccer game ever for the girls, a U18 rec team. One of the nice things about this area is that rec soccer is popular even for high school age kids (not just club and travel teams); one of the less nice things is that November soccer matches are often played in a cold rain, and by U17 they play full-length matches of 45 minute halves. At least most of the November matches are scheduled on turf fields, so mud wasn’t a factor!
It rained most of the weekend, it’s still raining today, and the forecast calls for rain all week. On the other hand, that means snow in the mountains, so ski resorts should be opening soon! I think I’m ready to take my surgically repaired knee out on the slopes again.
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Brandon said on November 19, 2012 at 12:54 pm
Synthesizers, blech. Give me real instruments and the rich overtones they produce.
Stevie Wonder uses both to wonderful effect. And where would synthpop be without synthesizers?
Nancy, if you dislike Twinkies, what do you like for snacks?
And what’s going on with the Edit function?
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jcburns said on November 19, 2012 at 12:55 pm
What edit function?
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coozledad said on November 19, 2012 at 12:58 pm
I just read one of Hank’s assignments for his class, Tom Junod’s splendid Vanity Fair piece on Fred Rogers, and it reminded me of Mitt’s threat to cut funding for public broadcasting.
It also reminded me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yXEuEUQIP3Q
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Brandon said on November 19, 2012 at 1:01 pm
What edit function?
Thre used to be an Edit function that allowed commenters thirty minutes to change their posts. I just wonder what happened to it.
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jcburns said on November 19, 2012 at 1:06 pm
I think people grumbled so much about it or its failings or its absence that it just melted away in the darkness.
Either that, or there was an issue of security raised by the plugin that enabled it so we gave it a rest.
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nancy said on November 19, 2012 at 1:08 pm
In other words, RIP edit button? We haz a sad.
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del said on November 19, 2012 at 1:11 pm
That Mr. Rogers clip was strangely moving, I felt goosebumps too.
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Jeff Borden said on November 19, 2012 at 1:11 pm
I wonder if the GOP really believes its bench strength resides in Paul Ryan, who did win reelection to his Congressional seat even as Obama kicked Romney’s ass in his district, or the lamentable Marco Rubio, who already is reaching out to the dimbulbs with his assertion that he is not a “science guy” and the earth might’ve been created in seven days. Ryan blew the racist whistle a few days ago, complaining that his ticket lost because of a huge urban turnout.
BTW, some conservative blogger for the LATimes is floating the idea of bringing back SheWho in 2016. Now that’s just what the Republican Party needs,right?
Though I strongly dislike Lindsey Graham, even he is saying the party is in a death spiral regarding demographics. This is a smart group of commenters. Do you see anyone in the GOP who might lead them out of this desert? I honestly don’t, but then I live in my nice, little liberal bubble.
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jcburns said on November 19, 2012 at 1:12 pm
No, NOT in other words RIP Edit Button. I’m saying just relax and enjoy (yes, enjoy) edit-button-free life and we maybe can bring it back. Sometime. But mentioning it passive-aggressively every time you make a typo will not speed its return.
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Hattie said on November 19, 2012 at 1:15 pm
This is our country! Big, loud, mediocre! 99 44/100 % content free!
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Brandon said on November 19, 2012 at 1:22 pm
@jcburns: Thank you. Though I miss the Edit function, I can accept its absence.
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Dorothy said on November 19, 2012 at 2:02 pm
I think the lack of the edit button makes things livelier around here.
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2012 at 2:11 pm
If we get a vote on the matter – and I know that we denizens of the cheap seats do not! – I would vote against the edit button. Premature expostulation becomes a bad habit, really. (It can blind one, really)
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2012 at 2:12 pm
(ignore either one of those last two “really”s)
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Sue said on November 19, 2012 at 2:48 pm
Oh ho, I think I have the edit thing figured out. Nancy knows this group’s tendency to be all grammatical and such, and she’s involved in some secret internet contest to see who can get the most comments posted on a blog. jc removes the edit function, we all end up posting corrections as often as we post comments because we -just-can’t-stand- typos, and viola, Nancy ends up winning Amazon dollars or something.
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Sue said on November 19, 2012 at 2:49 pm
That’s voila, of course.
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Bitter Scribe said on November 19, 2012 at 2:53 pm
FWIW, I found the edit button a temptation to endless tweaking. Maybe I’m better off without it.
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Basset said on November 19, 2012 at 3:02 pm
Dorothy@15, it was indeed WLAV… remember it from my time in Cadillac , 1977-79. Radio around there seems to come in four flavors now as far as I can tell – fairly hard through headbanging rock, big snare drum commercial country, Christian, and right-wing hatefulness.
In a tree stand right now near Chapel Hill, Tennessee waiting for Bambi to come by. I have an aerosol can of doe in estrus urine as a last resort.
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Connie said on November 19, 2012 at 3:12 pm
Really Brian?
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Judybusy said on November 19, 2012 at 3:16 pm
I want a like button.
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jcburns said on November 19, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Okay.
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brian stouder said on November 19, 2012 at 3:17 pm
Really!
(but not ‘Really, really’)
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Danny said on November 19, 2012 at 3:29 pm
Late Floyd was not prog in my book, but neither would I count early Floyd as such. Sure there was the length of songs like “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” and the orchestral movement sections of”Atom Heart Mother” (two of my absolute fav live bootlegs), but I’ve always associated prog with more complexity and willingness to go acoustic than Floyd has ever shown. Yes is the answer, but I draw the line at King Crimson, Allan Holdsworth and that lot. Allan is one of the best guitarists in the world, who will easily make you cry with his continuous quest for dissonance and shunning of melodic and rhythmic center.
This ends the chit-chatty, building-friends-portiion of the broadcast today. Stay tuned for possible introduction of new and disagreeable topics in the near future. It’s how I roll (eye-roll)….
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MarkH said on November 19, 2012 at 3:30 pm
I’m with Scribe. I find the lack of an edit button more of a motivation to be careful overall from the get-go, and not just with correct grammar and spelling. Sometimes better than just dashing off a misspelled knee-jerk mish-mash to Prospero. Sometimes I bail on sending the post at all, which I’m sure would satisfy the troll patrol here.
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Danny said on November 19, 2012 at 3:33 pm
The EDIT button has great potential for evil.
I want a pony, but not just any pony… it has to be a unicorn pony with wings.
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MichaelG said on November 19, 2012 at 3:41 pm
You have a can of what, Basset? It makes you sound like some kind of perv.
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Catherine said on November 19, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Liking Judybusy @50
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Peter said on November 19, 2012 at 3:43 pm
Nancy, Gary Wills’ piece is right on the mark. I’m betting historians will think of Mitt as Wendell Willke 2.0.
If my memory serves me right, Gary Wills wrote a great essay on Nixon’s Checkers speech.
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Peter said on November 19, 2012 at 3:45 pm
“doe in estrus urine”? That almost sounds like something off a family coat of arms. Or a response you’d say in a Latin Mass.
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Dorothy said on November 19, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Basset means CONNIE @ 15. See – we can edit for each other, kinda sorta! Be careful in that tree stand, Basset. I read a story yesterday about a guy who fell from one and broke his femur. Had left his cell in his truck; took him four hours to crawl to the truck, and another two to get into the truck. Not that that’s going to happen to you but be careful nonetheless.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 19, 2012 at 4:32 pm
I need some cake.
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Basset said on November 19, 2012 at 4:37 pm
I am tied in with rock-climber-grade safety line and carabiner, and a cable lock and extra ratchet strap holding the stand to the tree. I am also way out of shape, inherently clumsy, and uncomfortable with heights, so I have everything fastened down as much as I can. Just sent Nancy a pic of the spray can, maybe she’ll post it.
The idea is that the male deer will smell this stuff and think there’s a female nearby lookin’ for love… you can also buy a “dominant male” spray which creates the illusion of a competitor nearby.
Meanwhile, this from the Evansville paper on I-69… having grown up in that very town I can assure you it is indeed quite rural around there.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 19, 2012 at 4:46 pm
Doe in estrus urine, dona eis requiem.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 19, 2012 at 4:46 pm
[whack]
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 19, 2012 at 4:50 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgYEuJ5u1K0
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Basset said on November 19, 2012 at 5:05 pm
Damn, I said “nearby” twice… Where is that edit button…
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MichaelG said on November 19, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Or maybe the dominent male stuff will attract . . .
Does Mrs. Basset know what you’re up to?
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Sue said on November 19, 2012 at 5:17 pm
MichaelG – Mrs. Basset is either waving dollar bills in front of a Chippendales dancer with ten of her besties, or having a quiet house, several bottles of wine and the tv all to herself. Either way, if she is a seasoned deer hunters widow, she doesn’t give a rat’s ass what hubby’s up to.
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Jenine said on November 19, 2012 at 5:18 pm
I made 40 some odd cupcakes this weekend for my daughter’s 11th bday party. Wish I could send you one Jefftmmo. It was an all-the-neighborhood-kids party and I feel happy to have survived. We sugared them up and they ran in and out for the next 90 minutes. If there is a next time there will be structured activities scheduled for every minute.
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MarkH said on November 19, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Uh-oh. Looks like I may have been wrong last week on the Hostess closing.
http://www.money.cnn.com/2012/11/19/news/companies/hostess-bankruptcy-bonuses/index.html?iid=Lead
What if the company is saved? What are all those Twinkie hoarders from last week going to do, end up on a new Learning Channel show? Good thing Hostess products have a significant half-life. Hey, the company that may take it over if the mediation fails has the name “Capital” in it. What if Mitt Romney’s in charge; how much fun could be had here at nn.c with that?
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Connie said on November 19, 2012 at 6:05 pm
My brother in law took a bad fall in the northern Michigan woods while deer hunting some years ago. He said he could hear his leg break in the fall. He also said that he shot his gun into the air twice, which he told me was a hunter’s emergency signal. Someone got to him in about 20 minutes and hiked out to call for help. The rest of the story involved an ambulance crew hiking in with a litter who carried him out to where they could meet the helicopter.
Point being if two shots is really an emergency signal why did the guy in the story above crawl out with his broken legs.
Am I the only one having trouble wrapping my head around the idea of Rutgers and U Maryland joining the Big Ten? Twelve? Fourteen?
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MarkH said on November 19, 2012 at 6:17 pm
No, you are not, Connie.
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Deborah said on November 19, 2012 at 6:22 pm
I dont need no edit buton.
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Danny said on November 19, 2012 at 6:39 pm
Deborah, not to be a stickler for grammar, the best way to phrase that is with the rarely seen triple negative…
“I don’t need no edit button no way.”
Jut out the bottom lip, ‘cuz three wrongs do make a right.
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MichaelG said on November 19, 2012 at 7:24 pm
I don’t never need no edit button.
Connie, that’s appalling.
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Deborah said on November 19, 2012 at 7:33 pm
I read Hank’s link to the Mister Roger’s link this morning too, it brought tears to my eyes. Little Bird watched his show religiously as a tot and I did not get it. I thought that when he told kids he liked them just the way they are seemed so phony to me because he was obviously on the other side of the screen and had no idea who the individual kid was. But reading Junot’s piece made it clear that if he had the opportunity to meet each individual kid who watched he would have loved each one just as they were. Sniff.
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LAMary said on November 19, 2012 at 8:08 pm
I think it’s, “I don’t need no stinkin edit button.” Or “We don’t need no steenkin’ edit buttons,” to be true to the original.
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LAMary said on November 19, 2012 at 8:09 pm
Rutgers? Really?
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Kirk said on November 19, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Rutgers sounds so much classier than University of New Jersey.
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Deborah said on November 19, 2012 at 8:28 pm
And to elaborate on my comment at #75 about Rogers, not only did he love each kid as they are/were somehow the kids knew that was true. What a guy. Read the piece if you haven’t already, it’s a gem.
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Sherri said on November 19, 2012 at 9:12 pm
When we lived in Pittsburgh, we literally lived in Mister Rogers Neighborhood, as in, we lived in the same neighborhood that Fred Rogers lived in, broadly. My husband once encountered him on a walk; Mister Rogers said hello very pleasantly. We had a friend who used to work at WQED and said that yes, he was really like that.
Maryland leaving the ACC feels more wrong than all the other conference moves, and I can remember a lot of them. The Big Ten insists that it’s not changing its name, no matter how many schools in the conference. There haven’t been ten schools in the conference for 20 years, after all. I did like the symmetry this year, though, of the Big Ten having 12 members and the Big 12 having 10.
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LAMary said on November 19, 2012 at 10:15 pm
For a long time Rutgers was the only state university in NJ Now they call what was Montclair State College a university, which it should be. I’m sure a few other former state colleges are now universities as well.
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basset said on November 19, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Well, this ain’t Michigan so we don’t have deer widows’ weekends at the malls and strip clubs. All indications seem to be that while I was gone she was getting off work, picking up Basset Jr. at one of his two places of underemployment, and coming home to feed the animals and fix dinner.
About the dominant male urine… deer use it as a territory marker, they will scrape up bare spots on the ground, pee in ’em, and fight other breeding males who disturb them – much like tagging, but with scent. Human urine either does or doesn’t bother male deer, I know guys who will deliberately anoint those “scrapes” when they run across them, with their own urine or bottled doe in estrus drops, and others who carry pee bottles to hide their scent.
I can’t claim to have any evidence one way or another, but I did shoot the biggest deer of my life so far literally a few minutes after making the golden arches out of a tree stand – he showed up huffing and stomping and ready to rumble, didn’t go well for him after that.
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MichaelG said on November 19, 2012 at 11:59 pm
I always thought of Rutgers as Jersey State.
All this conference shuffling shit is really bad. It fucks up tradition and traditional rivalries. It’s about nothing more than short term greed. Haven’t heard a word from that great bastion of college integrity called the NCAA. With all this realignment I expect to see thirty teams in the Big 10, thirty in the Big 12 and thirty in the SEC and the BCS, whoever they are, collecting dues from all of them while taking another dump on the NCAA who, meanwhile, will be scragging some poor third string defensive tackle from South West Dakota State Teachers’ College for selling tee shirts.
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MichaelG said on November 20, 2012 at 12:01 am
Make that the Pac 12. See? I don’t need no edit nohow.
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Rana said on November 20, 2012 at 12:02 am
Forget the edit button; I’ll just be happy if my comments stop being eaten.
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Rana said on November 20, 2012 at 12:03 am
Hey! One made it through!
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MichaelG said on November 20, 2012 at 12:03 am
And I don’t like ‘LIKE’.
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MichaelG said on November 20, 2012 at 12:10 am
11:59 and 12:01. Not a bad bracket.
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Sherri said on November 20, 2012 at 12:20 am
No, you won’t see any thirty team conferences, because of diminishing returns: the money brought in by a new team is less than the amount the other teams have to give up in dividing the pie further. The new thing about this realignment is this that it’s not even about football, which was the driving force behind the earlier conference moves. This is about the Big Ten network, and cable TV markets. The Big Ten hopes to penetrate the New York and DC/Baltimore markets by adding Rutgers and Maryland. Rutgers and Maryland are jumping because the per school payout in the Big Ten is around $25 million, and both of their athletic departments are bleeding money. The ACC doesn’t have its own network, nor does it have big TV deals, so its per school payout is much less. The Big East is simply falling apart. With Rutgers leaving and the changes to the BCS, the western schools that were coming to the Big East for football are reconsidering (Boise State), and the ACC will probably pick over the carcass to find some choice bits to replace Maryland.
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Deborah said on November 20, 2012 at 4:01 am
When I was a working girl we went after a project for the headquarters of the Big Ten network. They were the cheapest organization ever. We didn’t ultimately get the job and it was a good thing, it would have been a nightmare budget-wise.
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