I’m thinking I might take a night off. Work is spilling into the evening, and I need to concentrate on one thing instead of six. It was a pretty good day, helped enormously by being pretty beautiful outside. I took myself out to lunch at a Middle Eastern place a pleasant walk from the office, and was rewarded with the opinions of two sidewalk bums, one of whom said I looked good in my jeans, and the other agreed: “Yeah, you still got it.” I know these things should bother me, but they don’t anymore. A couple of downtown rummies in broad daylight are about as threatening as a box of kittens, and some days they’re the only feedback I get — I left the house before Alan got up and by the time he gets home tonight, I’ll be well into dreamland. Yes, the UAW set a strike deadline tonight. If they’ve walked off when you read this, I may well not see my husband again until Thanksgiving. #autoeditorproblems
Proud to be Miss Detroit Bum America, Wednesday sidewalk edition.
A pretty day, and a beautiful morning. I took this in my back yard after the gym, maybe a half-hour before sunrise. I posted it on Instagram with a filter, but this is the no-filter version, which more clearly shows what caught my eye — the diagonal line of the moon, Venus and whatever the star at lower left is. I’m sure one of you folks know. Enlighten us:
So open thread today, and let’s hope there aren’t any school shootings or hospital bombings or anything, really, other than sunshine and puppies and friendly bums.
beb said on October 8, 2015 at 1:00 am
I feel sorry for both you and Alan. Months of reporting about nothing new for him and you not seeing him all day. I’m all for the UAW getting all they can from the car companies. but that’s just me.
Hillary has come out against the Trans-Pacific Trade pact which proves the value of someone running to the left of her.
Sorry I don’t have any puppies to offer. We have some weird cats, though.
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David C. said on October 8, 2015 at 6:07 am
Yup, that’s Venus. Further down and to the left is Mars and if you had waited a little longer you would have been able to see Jupiter rise. They are all in a pretty neat alignment right now.
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alex said on October 8, 2015 at 6:18 am
Just read that the strike was averted. Yay! You’ll have some help on the weekends when the leaves start to fall.
There’s a cross-dressing local sidewalk bum who gives me the heebies. He asked me my name once when he was hitting me up for a cigarette many years ago and I made the mistake of telling him. After that he would call out to me on the street as if he knew me and I would politely nod and give him the “Do I know you?” look and eventually he backed off. He’s the one you may recall who was discussed here a few years ago when he ran for local office and won as a Democrat in the primary. It was quite an embarrassment for the local Democratic party, which worked to get him disqualified by revealing that he had been living in a homeless shelter in another city and had registered to vote there as well. When a local reporter interviewed him in a flophouse hotel where he was staying, perhaps the most startling detail besides his casually recounted history of mental illness was the observation that a porn video was playing the whole time on the television and he didn’t even bother to turn it off.
Since that time he has run for even bigger offices and is currently planning to run as a Democrat for Congressman Marlin Stutzman’s seat. The kicker: His Republican opponents are all arguably just as crazy, albeit more articulate and hygienic.
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basset said on October 8, 2015 at 8:12 am
gotta love these caps and shirts, met the guy who makes em last night and got one of each:
http://stillpissedatyoko.com/#merchandise
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brian stouder said on October 8, 2015 at 9:09 am
Forget Yoko – it’s Perry Edwards you should be mad at!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/
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basset said on October 8, 2015 at 10:01 am
back to the compliments for a minute – is there ever a situation when they’re appropriate from a stranger? when do they cross the line from ego boost to creepy/threatening?
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basset said on October 8, 2015 at 10:04 am
Brian, i followed that link not knowing who Perry Edwards is, and I still don’t. The only Katona I recognize is Iggy.
old and out of touch, I know, I know…
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brian stouder said on October 8, 2015 at 10:35 am
I don’t know who they are, either, but I tripped across that when I googled to see why ol’ Yoko is on people’s P-O list (yeah – I don’t get out much, it’s true)
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 8, 2015 at 12:07 pm
Get up about 6:45 am tomorrow (Friday) and follow the line down to near the eastern horizon, and see Mercury, a naked-eye planet that you don’t often get a good chance to see.
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Jeff Borden said on October 8, 2015 at 12:10 pm
It’s a real good morning in Chicago after a stirring Cubs victory over the poor Pirates, who lost yet another wild card game at home. It’s a fine franchise and PNC Park is perhaps the second or third coolest MLB stadium in the land, but the way Jake Arrieta is pitching these days, Pittsburgh never had a chance. My group and I have playoff tickets in hand including World Series ducats priced at $175 apiece for my seats, which are in the second-cheapest section of Wrigley Field. I can’t imagine what field box seats are priced at by MLB, but imagine they would require a second mortgage.
Good for Fiat Chrysler and the UAW. If we’re lucky, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will swallow his tongue while reading about a union victory.
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Suzanne said on October 8, 2015 at 12:31 pm
One of the guys who tackled the terrorist on the France bound train has been stabbed in Sacramento. This, on top of the fact that one of the other heroes is from the same town in Oregon of the recent shooting has the conspiracy people in a complete meltdown. Maybe they are just really ticked that the world did not end yesterday as predicted.
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Icarus said on October 8, 2015 at 12:51 pm
@basset it’s more art than science but I would offer the following:
when it makes you feel good vs creeped out;
when it is something you might say to a casual acquaintance vs friend
when it is something that, if said to 10 people, 8 of them would have the same reaction (i.e. don’t mind versus were offended).
hope that helps.
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MarkH said on October 8, 2015 at 12:53 pm
Kevin McCarthy takes himself out of the house speaker race, just after claiming had the votes. Disarray in full bloom for a party supposedly in power in the house. Sheesh.
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coozledad said on October 8, 2015 at 12:55 pm
Time to dig up Reagan’s rotten ass and prop him up in the speaker’s chair. Doesn’t matter that he’s just a loose jelly of muck infused polyester. That’s as good as he ever was, anyway.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2015/10/08/isnt-that-special/
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Julie Robinson said on October 8, 2015 at 12:58 pm
The election for Speaker of the House has been postponed as Kevin McCarthy has withdrawn his name. To quote another comment I read, clown bus gets flat tire.
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coozledad said on October 8, 2015 at 1:10 pm
Narcoleptic hemispherectomy tech ZZ Carson says “Don’t shoot me, I’m not the cashier”.
http://gawker.com/heres-how-ben-carson-would-avoid-getting-shot-offer-th-1735416597
That’s why he wants to be preznit: Free human shields!
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brian stouder said on October 8, 2015 at 2:07 pm
Best analogy I heard on the news of the GOP congressional crack-up* at lunch was from Republican strategist Steve Schmidt.
He said some churches concentrate on hunting heretics, while others evangelize and hunt for converts…and (I would add) the R’s are in full Jihad-mode
*R Emmett Tyrell had a book titled “The Liberal Crack-Up”, which I thought was hugely entertaining about a thousand years ago**, and it seems we are truly witnessing the Conservative Crack-Up, right now.
**I recall arguing (via US Mail!) with Nancy about that book, and Tyrell. She (exasperatedly) pointed out that the guy was against curb-cuts at cross-walks, for handicapped people.
I may be a dumb guy nowadays, but I was really stupid back in the day
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MichaelG said on October 8, 2015 at 2:07 pm
I watched Rachel last night. She played a bunch of clips of McCarthy’s amusing manner of speaking. No wonder he backed out.
There always seemed to me to be something off kilter about Carson. Roy solved it for me a week or so ago. He always seems to be in a daze.
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coozledad said on October 8, 2015 at 2:17 pm
Haw haw. McCarthy was wetting his old dick in Renee Ellmers.
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basset said on October 8, 2015 at 2:27 pm
opposed to curb cuts? cite that for me, someone – i work with some transportation planners who need to see that.
Icarus@12, I never was any good at that “art.”
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Brandon said on October 8, 2015 at 2:36 pm
7. basset said on October 8, 2015 at 10:04 am
Brian, i followed that link not knowing who Perry Edwards is, and I still don’t. The only Katona I recognize is Iggy.
old and out of touch, I know, I know…
You might know of Iggy Azalea, however.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-zpOMYRi0w
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brian stouder said on October 8, 2015 at 4:01 pm
basset –
Uncle Google let me down specifically, but generally – this was an interesting find:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/11/the-life-and-death-of-the-american-spectator/302343/
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ROGirl said on October 8, 2015 at 5:13 pm
Rachel showed some clips of McCarthy a week or so ago, reading a speech and getting words and meanings wrong. He appeared to be dumb as a stump.
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basset said on October 8, 2015 at 5:13 pm
Tried googling it myself and didn’t get anything either. Never heard of Iggy Azalea, just Iggy Katona and, now that I think of it, Iggy Pop.
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Suzanne said on October 8, 2015 at 5:34 pm
Re: McCarthy and his inability to speak. I was at an event a few years ago at which Marlin Stutzman was to speak, but he backed out & sent his chief of staff. The man had trouble reading the letter the Congressman had sent, stumbling over common words like congratulations. I was, and still am, amazed.
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MichaelG said on October 8, 2015 at 5:58 pm
Yeah, ROGirl, McCarthy did come off as pretty dumb. Maybe he’s been inhaling all those oilfield vapors in Bakersfield for too long. That place is kinda fragrant. I’m not surprised, Cooz. I guess you could at least say he’s having it off with a consenting adult rather than some 12 year old.
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Sherri said on October 8, 2015 at 6:38 pm
Mother Jones wins lawsuit against the magazine: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/10/mother-jones-vandersloot-melaleuca-lawsuit
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MarkH said on October 8, 2015 at 6:47 pm
coozledad @19 – srsly?
Oh, yes, from wikipedia, that unimpeachable source for anonymous sources. It appears someone with an IP address at homeland security edited both congresspersons’ wikipedia pages today alleging the hanky-panky. Then it came out that a certain rep. Walter Jones had written a letter demanding anyone running for speaker with any ‘misdeeds’ in their background drop put of the race. Fox’s Shep Smith tore him apart on the air when he couldn’t document any evidence against McCarthy and Ellmers, or why he would even concoct such a letter. Even you should back off of this one until actual facts come out.
Not defending any of the republicans here, involved or not. They’ll just continue to eat their young.
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coozledad said on October 8, 2015 at 7:57 pm
Back off? I’d rather the hosers were fucking each other than using institutional power to ratfuck an election. But everybody knows hillbillies who find themselves in DC with the seegars and whores and bars and fancy clothing outlets is gonna fuck till it’s useless. And Republicans got no reason to be in DC but to hillbilly.
It’s the motherfucking platform.
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coozledad said on October 8, 2015 at 8:12 pm
Oh, and Walter Jones’ district is one of those hero military districts you guys keep a hardon for, so watch what you say and say what you see, because freedom ain’t nearly as free as some old Republican snatch.
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coozledad said on October 8, 2015 at 8:24 pm
It took a long time for the results of the 2014 midterms to come in, and I have to make peace with the victory of THE ARISTOCRATS!
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