I can’t be the only one who saw this picture of the Obamas in Old Havana, and thought of this painting in the Art Institute, can I?
Late update today, sorry. Last night was the inaugural meeting of a new movie club some friends and I are trying to get going, and I didn’t get home until late. The theme was Shot in Detroit, and we watched “Only Lovers Left Alive.” I think I was the only one who really liked it, but then, I’m a sucker for Tilda Swinton in pretty much everything, and my husband is a Jim Jarmusch fan, so I’m predisposed. In the discussion afterward, one guy made an amusing point about scenester vampires and their quest for authentic food. That was funny.
Always nice to see old friends, this being the old filmmaking crew. One of the guys is the poster boy for Michigan’s changing economy, having gone from autoworker to special-effects makeup artist. When the tax incentives were cut, he got way less movie work, but now he’s hooked up with a guy who makes prosthetic limbs, a perfect fit for a guy who used to make prosthetic zombie limbs. He said one of their clients recently tripped a metal detector and when she told the guard she was wearing an artificial leg, he couldn’t tell which one.
So now it is Tuesday, and all is better than it was on Sunday. I think I do need a vacation, but not until June.
The president went to Cuba, and Donald Trump went to Washington. Trump met with the Washington Post editorial board and talked about his hands again. He also dodged a few questions:
RYAN: You [MUFFLED] mentioned a few minutes earlier here that you would knock ISIS. You’ve mentioned it many times. You’ve also mentioned the risk of putting American troop in a danger area. If you could substantially reduce the risk of harm to ground troops, would you use a battlefield nuclear weapon to take out ISIS?
TRUMP: I don’t want to use, I don’t want to start the process of nuclear. Remember the one thing that everybody has said, I’m a counterpuncher. Rubio hit me. Bush hit me. When I said low energy, he’s a low-energy individual, he hit me first. I spent, by the way he spent 18 million dollars’ worth of negative ads on me. That’s putting [MUFFLED]…
RYAN: This is about ISIS. You would not use a tactical nuclear weapon against ISIS?
[CROSSTALK]
TRUMP: I’ll tell you one thing, this is a very good looking group of people here. Could I just go around so I know who the hell I’m talking to?
Keep your fingers crossed, America. One lump in Hillary Clinton’s breast, and this guy is your next commander in chief.
We have talked about trolls here before, but this Bloomberg reporter’s troll story is way worse than mine, or Lindy West’s: A vengeful Chinese businessman made her a target for two years, heaping vile abuse upon her head via his “news” website. Her and others, actually:
I wasn’t the first person accused of racism on TheBlot. Before me, there was Michael Emen, a Nasdaq official. In 2011, Nasdaq delisted a Wey client called CleanTech Innovations. (The decision was overturned by the SEC in July 2013 after the company appealed.) A piece labeled “opinion” appeared on TheBlot focusing on Emen’s role, alleging abuse of his powers, discrimination, and racial profiling. “Michael Emen Reveals Racism at Nasdaq” is still at the top of a Google search on his name.
Similar “investigations,” as they were tagged, began to appear regularly on TheBlot. The attacks reflected Wey’s obsession with what he saw as the unfair treatment of Chinese companies by the U.S. media and regulators. TheBlot went after Roddy Boyd, a freelance reporter who’d doggedly analyzed accounting irregularities at U.S.-listed Chinese companies; Jon Carnes, a short seller; Francine McKenna, who wrote about AgFeed on her accounting-focused blog; and a pair of Barron’s reporters who’d covered reverse-merger companies and Wey’s business. The accompanying graphics grew coarser and coarser, including photos of toilet bowls full of feces.
It’s a long piece, but this, THIS is the money quote:
Decades into the Internet Age, there’s no surefire method to get defamatory material taken down if the person responsible for it is ready to put up a fight.
So, so, so true. It’s hard to get stuff taken down even if the person doesn’t fight. Hey, Google is just the messenger, doncha know.
Finally, more bloodshed, this time in Belgium. A developing story, as they say. We’ll see how it develops.
brian stouder said on March 22, 2016 at 9:42 am
Pam tells me that the Donald did an interview this morning on the attacks at Brussels…and the breath-taking ignorance of it will probably blot-out the WaPo bit, if only because it’s on video
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jcburns said on March 22, 2016 at 9:51 am
You have, how you say, ze nice eye for art comparisons, Nancy.
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john (not mccain) said on March 22, 2016 at 10:27 am
Only Lovers Left Alive became my favorite vampire movie after my first viewing. Loved every frame.
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alex said on March 22, 2016 at 10:44 am
And people didn’t like Mitt Romney because he was so dodgy. Trump has managed to beat the meat throwers and the retail politicians at their own games. No wonder the suckers are so enamored.
RYAN: This is about ISIS…
TRUMP: No, fuckface, it’s about ME. ME! By the way, did I mention what a handsome suit you’re wearing?
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Joe K said on March 22, 2016 at 10:53 am
May I suggest the movie, the giant mechanical man, shot in Detroit
Saw it on Netflix, loved it.
Pilot Joe
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basset said on March 22, 2016 at 11:02 am
Art? Now THIS is art. And only 300-some miles on it, a rolling R. Crumb cartoon:
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2016/03/22/hemmings-find-of-the-day-1951-nash-statesman-super/
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Deborah said on March 22, 2016 at 11:26 am
I thought I had seen all of Jarmusch’s movies but that is one I haven’t yet had the pleasure of viewing. I’m not crazy about vampire movies though.
Is anyone else watching “Better Call Saul”?
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Sue said on March 22, 2016 at 11:31 am
Deborah, I am, but nervously. I couldn’t handle the violence in Breaking Bad and I’m waiting for similar to show up here. But I really like this show. Getting to know Jimmy has been fascinating.
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Connie said on March 22, 2016 at 11:39 am
Sue, I am that way about Criminal Minds. I got to where I couldn’t bear to see the horrible crimes. I kept DVR’ing, then last deleted almost two seasons worth of unwatched episodes.
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Mark P said on March 22, 2016 at 11:56 am
No one could make Donald Trump up, and if they did, no one would believe it. And furthermore, no one could make up Donald Trump leading the Republican’s race, or believe it once made up.
The Republican legacy: “Look up my works, ye mighty, and despair.”
We are watching Better Call Saul. I like it, my wife not so much.
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Suzanne said on March 22, 2016 at 12:05 pm
I used to watch Criminal Minds, but it just got too creepy. I’d sit and watch and couldn’t escape the thoughts that there really are people like that out there. That, and the fact that maybe they were watching the show and getting new ideas. I’ve never liked slasher movies and the like, either. I don’t see any point in watching blood and gore. If I want to know about it, I read the newspaper.
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Jeff Borden said on March 22, 2016 at 12:11 pm
The only thing I was sure of when I first heard the news from Brussels was that the GOP would blame Obama. Those fuckers can’t spare five minutes to offer condolences and support to our allies, but go right to the political jugular vein. And Trump, as always, used the occasion to repeat his advocacy for torture beyond waterboarding. If he is elected, we are so far beyond fucked that we’ll need to invent a new word for it.
“Better Call Saul” is a terrific show and Bob Odenkirk is simply wonderful. I had my doubts about a prequel of his life and career after “Breaking Bad” made its exit, but those concerns were banished. It’s fascinating to see a hard luck guy with a cheap law degree but an uncanny instinct for connecting with people slowly make the turn from a legit attorney to someone working the darker margins. And who can’t love the great character actor Jonathan Banks?
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MichaelG said on March 22, 2016 at 12:14 pm
My (sort of EX) wife was just in Brussels a couple of weeks ago. Phew. Her mother, who lives there, is OK as is her sister who lives in a suburb of Brussels and who had taken a day off work today. Scary stuff.
I was in Old Folsom Prison one day (I worked for CDC at the time). We were looking at some of the young jerks who were in there for some mindless violence. An old guy who had been in there forever said, “They don’t be about nuthin.” That pretty much covers ISIS and Republicans.
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Charlotte said on March 22, 2016 at 1:12 pm
An old high school friend who lives in the suburbs of Paris reported on FB yesterday that they shut down a line and pulled them all off for a while. So it seems they’ve been chasing something for the past few days — but didn’t catch all of them. Sounds like carnage …
Here’s a question for the sociologists and linguists — why does this word salad appeal to that swathe of voters? Sarah Palin does it too, and they love it. Does it reflect their own disordered thinking? Is it the old “fascism appeals to raw emotion” thing?
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Heather said on March 22, 2016 at 2:01 pm
Charlotte: Regarding the word salad, perhaps because the message is so fragmented and obscured, they can assign any meaning they want to it.
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Brandon said on March 22, 2016 at 2:06 pm
The theme was Shot in Detroit…
Collision Course is not an art film, but shows Detroit in the mid-80s It’s a mismatched-buddy-cop film with Jay Leno (in his first and only starring role) and Pat Morita as police investigators. The latter is in America to track down the thief who stole an automotive prototype.
Related to The Washington Post interview quoted above:
“Donald Trump outlined an unabashedly noninterventionist approach to world affairs Monday, telling The Washington Post’s editorial board that he questions the need for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has formed the backbone of Western security policies since the Cold War. … In spite of unrest abroad, especially in the Middle East, Trump said the United States must look inward and steer its resources toward rebuilding domestic infrastructure.”
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nancy said on March 22, 2016 at 2:48 pm
There have literally been dozens of movies shot in Detroit, in every decade of my adult life; why would I want to spend a few hours of my life watching a terrible one?
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Dorothy said on March 22, 2016 at 2:29 pm
I really enjoy Better Call Saul. Bob Odenkirk was terrific in Breaking Bad so I was glad to be able to see more of him. But gladder still to see Jonathan Banks, whom I’ve loved since his days on Wiseguy twenty years ago. I own all four seasons on DVD – maybe this summer would be a good time to re-vist that show.
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nancy said on March 22, 2016 at 3:34 pm
It’s my experience, as someone who has interviewed lots of people that word-salad is a default for lots of them. It makes me nuts, but it is what it is. My guess is, it’s this trait that leads to the she’s-just-like-us reaction.
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brian stouder said on March 22, 2016 at 3:37 pm
Well, for the record, I like nuts in my word-salad
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Dave said on March 22, 2016 at 3:43 pm
I’ve been watching Better Call Saul, even though I never watched Breaking Bad. It’s much as I watched the first two seasons of Justified and haven’t ever started on the third because I didn’t know how much violence I could take. Violent shows didn’t use to bother me so much but that started changing along about the time John Lennon was senselessly gunned down and the depiction of death as fiction and drama, never appealed to me the same ever again. Having said that, I have enjoyed The Americans, although the body count on that is high (how they can kill so many people in the DC area and not get caught) and also the second season of Bosch has been recently released on Amazon. Has anyone else read any of the Michael Connelly series?
I couldn’t figure out where I knew Jonathan Banks from until I saw he was one of the doomed cops in an early scene of 48 Hours, with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. Also, who would have thought Michael McKean from Laverne and Shirley would have ever been taken seriously?
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alex said on March 22, 2016 at 4:22 pm
Michael McKean motorola usted…
That’s an inside joke and I no longer have anyone to share it with. “Motorola usted” was a joke between me and one of my besties who died of cancer earlier this year.
“Motorola usted” was a phrase that entered our vocabulary by way of the bathroom wall in the IU Student Union around 1980 or so where it was scrawled in marker and nobody washed it off for the longest time. Whatever it meant we never did figure out, so we assigned our own meaning to it.
What the message said was “?Cher Bono Motorola Usted?” It was in the form of a question with the first question mark upside down. We asked everyone we knew who spoke Spanish or Portuguese what in the hell it meant and nobody knew. So we decided, because Cher was a washed-up has-been at the time, that it meant “washed-up has-been.” And that’s been our word for “washed-up has-been” ever since.
Maybe McKean will be redeemed by his comeback in Better Call Saul just like Cher was by the movie Silkwood. Here’s wishing him many more plum roles. And wishing motorola usted on Suzanne Somers for her hackery and Roseanne Barr for her politics. Motorola usted indeed. Maybe someday soon we’ll be able to say Donald Trump motorola usted.
God I miss my friend Mark. We had a lot of arcane inside jokes between us. He was one of the few people in my entire lifetime whom I considered a truly intimate friend.
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Sherri said on March 22, 2016 at 4:23 pm
Maybe part of the appeal of the word salad is the sense that it annoys the right people, i.e. liberals and the “lamestream media.” It’s like a form of shibboleth; Trump can’t directly show he is one of them, but he can show that he shares the same enemies, and that’s close enough.
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Sue said on March 22, 2016 at 4:32 pm
I have a lot of respect for Michael McKean. I loved him in Best of Show, and I think more people remember him from Spinal Tap than Laverne and Shirley. He’s done a ton of stuff.
He’s very good and I was not surprised to see him in Saul.
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Jenine said on March 22, 2016 at 5:09 pm
The disordered speaking comes across as sincere and approachable. By contrast those that give prepared, thoughtful speeches look stilted and untrustworthy to that audience. Which just kills me because we’re talking world politics, which merits thought and caution. We’re not auditioning a national talk show host goddammit.
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Deborah said on March 22, 2016 at 5:27 pm
Alex, loved your story about arcane inside jokes. I have a friend that I worked with for about 12 years, she and I have a million phrases and sayings that only the two of us know what they mean or where they came from. I always enjoy stories about others who do that. Dorothy has shared some stories about phrases she and her family have between them. I love reading about them.
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Sherri said on March 22, 2016 at 6:28 pm
Two thoughtful views from Cuban Americans of President Obama attending a baseball game in Havana:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/15032737/historic-game-cuba-ignores-pain-many-people-endured
https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/why-major-league-baseballs-visit-to-cuba-matters
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alex said on March 22, 2016 at 6:34 pm
Thanks, Deborah. Part of the fun of that one was that it came from a bathroom wall. And come to think of it, it was a bit more expansive than just “washed-up has-been” and over time became our word for pretty much anything nostalgic. How I long for the days of motorola usted.
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James Moehrke said on March 22, 2016 at 6:48 pm
Now, I’m sort of worried about visiting Brussels next month. We won’t be at the airport, but that Metro station is the closest to the hotel we’re booked into. Ah, well, nobody lives forever, and I want to see where my Belgian great-grandparents came from.
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Sue said on March 22, 2016 at 7:32 pm
Speaking of word salad…
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/22/politics/sarah-palin-court-show-judge-judy/index.html
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MarkH said on March 22, 2016 at 7:44 pm
Basset, you would have as esoteric a car collection as I would, I’m sure, if we both had the money. A big part of the fun (for me) of going to car auctions or perusing Hemmings et.al. is seeing all outlier makes and models as nice as that Nash.
And yes, that Nash has to be the exact car Crumb used in the strip where Foont or Mr. Natural joins Teenage Ric on a road trip where they “drank wine all the way to Cincinatti(sic)”.
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Deborah said on March 22, 2016 at 8:33 pm
Great, I’m flying tomorrow and that means that security will be on high alert, so I’m expecting extra scrutiny from tsa. I noticed that I didn’t get pre-tsa on my Southwest boarding pass, not that I get it every time but my guess is nobody is eligible for awhile. I haven’t even begun to pack, I’ll probably get around to it tomorrow morning. Sigh.
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MichaelG said on March 22, 2016 at 8:51 pm
Gawker’s response to the Hogan verdict:
http://gawker.com/the-hogan-verdict-1766460791
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alex said on March 22, 2016 at 9:12 pm
Basset, Mark H, if you never got to see the R Crumb documentary, it’s equal parts creepy and fascinating. I saw it when it came out in 1994. Looks like you can see it online for free. Some twisted genius he is.
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Dorothy said on March 22, 2016 at 9:44 pm
Deborah you’re right – my family does have a lot of inside jokes. But for the life of me, sitting here, I can’t think of a single one! Which is kind of hilarious because sometimes I feel like we have a secret language between us, we have so many. I guess I’m tired and not in a situation where one comes to mind. Anyway, thanks for saying you enjoy them. That made my evening to read that! Safe travels flying tomorrow. Or… every day of course.
Alex forgive me, but I assume you do know that usted means you in Spanish. I Googled that expression just for the hell of it (not the Cher Bono part). Here’s the page I found:
http://es.aliexpress.com/promotion/promotion_a-new-you-motorola-promotion.html
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alex said on March 22, 2016 at 10:29 pm
“A new you Motorola” is how that translates. Guess it makes sense in Spanish in the age of cell phones.
?Cher Bono motorola usted? elicited some strange responses from the Spanish speakers I knew. They said it might mean “Does she move you?” in some slangy way or maybe “Does she turn you on?” I think there was a suggestion that it might mean “Does she make you masturbate?” The Spanish language has all kinds of peculiar idioms depending on the country or region so maybe it makes sense someplace like Venezuela and means nothing to someone who’s Mexican. In 1980, Cher Bono didn’t move us or make us masturbate. She made us chuckle about a forgotten hippy-dippy celebrity with a string of forgotten hits in a single-octave range, along with some notoriety in Rolling Stone Magazine for doing a lot of coke and having a three-day marriage to Greg Allman in between her two marriages to Sonny Bono. Yeah, she was a washed-up hot mess in 1980.
I remember sitting in a theater through the opening credits of the movie Silkwood in the early ’80s and when her name came up on the screen everyone busted out laughing. But that was her real star turn and she has been a superstar ever since. And she’s even bigger now as a singer than she ever was as a Hollywood movie actress. She’s fabulously rich from having last-ever tours every couple of years. Motorola usted already!
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Joe K said on March 22, 2016 at 11:48 pm
There was a story that Cher was beind driven past Mt Rushmore and commeted how neat it was that the wind could erode the mountains into the president’s faces.
Probably just a story, but a good one.
Pilot Joe
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Dexter said on March 23, 2016 at 12:02 am
I was watching the old Imus in the Morning show maye five, six years ago and Cher called in and donated a huge amount of money to some program to help wounded Iraq war veterans. I was surprised….
I like Odenkirk but not a big Vince Gilligan fan. Last night Jimmy spent five minutes of precious show time curing a bad case of insomnia by simply just dicking around. This was just filler and had nothing to do with getting the show in motion. Every week has scenes like this; last week it was Chuck and his wife preparing dinner, laboriously, for Jimmy. Nothing to do with anything, show-wise.
Mike Ehrmantraut, played by Jonathan Banks, is really great, as noted. His appearance last night, however, was passive…no drama, no action, except for a couple busted heads he inflicted on a couple bad guys.
HBO’s “Vinyl” is sinking quickly…most everyone I know has already dropped it from their Sunday night queue. I am one episode behind, also. It is getting tiresome. I am sick of watching star “Richie” take out his little vial and snort cocaine constantly. I never even once tried coke, but others have said people did not keep coke in tiny vials, those were for heroin. (I also witnessed the use of tiny vials for liquid brown opium when I was in the army). This show is set in the late 1970s. I do remember tiny coke spoons people wore on gold chains around their necks, but what did folks keep daily quantities of coke in?
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alex said on March 23, 2016 at 6:47 am
Joe, that reminds me of a true story.
A friend who drove a limo for the Chicago International Film Festival picked up Carlo Ponti, the late husband of Sophia Loren, at the airport early in the morning just before sunrise. Ponti was accompanied by a young floozie. As he was driving them down Lake Shore Drive, the girl asked “What ocean is this?”
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Connie said on March 23, 2016 at 6:55 am
Alex my Cajun ex sister in law took her first ever trip to northern Michigan and while there amused us all by asking the waiter if the shrimp were fresh. She was shocked to be told there were no shrimp in Lake Michigan. As well as not much fresh shrimp in Michigan.
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alex said on March 23, 2016 at 7:09 am
Connie, I wonder if shrimp are fresh anywhere anymore. One time in Florida I went to a seafood restaurant adjacent to a harbor where shrimp boats brought in their hauls. I was told that the shrimp, in fact, were flown to Kansas City or someplace to be processed before they could be served in any restaurant.
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basset said on March 23, 2016 at 7:19 am
Mrs. B and I have gone to the docks in Port Aransas, Texas, and bought shrimp right off the boats… just a few hours out of the water and sometimes still alive. And at Joe Patti’s waterfront restaurant/fish market in Pensacola, Florida, the boats tie up at the back of the building and the shrimp and fish go out the front, most efficient.
MarkH, the Crumb link has been removed but thanks… been aware of the movie, never gotten around to seeing it. If you’re not getting the Hemmings daily email I recommend signing up for it, lots of wonderfully strange vehicles on there. If I had the space for it I’d find an old first-series International Scout and make that my deer-hunting vehicle… believe those were made in the Fort, right? IIRC Scouts, Travelalls, and pickups were manufactured there and the heavier trucks in Springfield, Ohio, but I could well be wrong, maybe someone with first-hand knowledge of that is on here.
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Julie Robinson said on March 23, 2016 at 8:29 am
A certain local upscale seafood joint buys theirs at Costco.
Did anyone else catch MichaelG’s comment at #13 re his sort of ex-wife? Yay for reconciliation!
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nancy said on March 23, 2016 at 9:03 am
I think MichaelG and his ex have had a cordial relationship for years. They’re permanently separated, but still married, because she’s on his first-class, state-employee health plan and he wants her to stay there. This isn’t gossip because he’s talked about it here many times.
Oh, and again, sorry for no update today. I’m just tired as hell, but tonight should be better.
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Deborah said on March 23, 2016 at 9:16 am
Dexter, the first and only time I ever tried cocaine was from a vial that a friend had, she’d dip her pinky tip in the vial and then snort it off.
I have a long travel day ahead of me. I’ll be glad when it’s over.
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alex said on March 23, 2016 at 9:21 am
I had to snort out of a long spoonish fingernail that a woman stuck up my nose, her nose and everybody else’s. Pretty icky, but in those days I didn’t complain if the buzz was free.
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brian stouder said on March 23, 2016 at 9:46 am
Well first – I think we’re all agreed that Nancy’s posts are all bonuses; she never owes us anything.
Regarding intoxicants – I’ve a glass jaw when it comes to alcohol – and that steered me away from that stuff (and anything else) for….I think the last 20-plus years
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Dorothy said on March 23, 2016 at 9:51 am
Dexter scenes that look like there is nothing going on are not necessarily to move the story along, but to tell you something about the character(s). You have to read between the lines (or the silence, as the case may be.) In Jimmy’s case he tried everything he could to get to sleep in that fancy apartment the law firm has rented for him. But eventually what lulled him to sleep was going back to the nail salon where he has a glorified closet as an office, and a bed in there, and THAT is when he finally found the way to get back to sleep. It speaks volumes about him and tells you where he’s most comfortable. Same thing between Chuck and his wife. The nuance of the scene was how they worked together to make that meal, the comfort level between them and how they’re a team. Then Jimmy shows up and she meets him for the first time, and he starts telling his jokes and the wife is happily amused by them. To the point that later when Chuck tells a joke she let’s it go in one ear and out the other. It’s the subtleties of the situation that Gilligan is going for. It’s one of the things I love about his writing.
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nancy said on March 23, 2016 at 10:10 am
Dexter, those brown vials were absolutely for cocaine. I never heard of a junkie using one to carry heroin around, as the rules of that game are generally: 1) You get some; and 2) You shoot some. No need for storage.
Besides the fingernail trick, there’s also the key bump, done by inserting a key into the vial to scoop a little out, and some came with a folding spoon built into the cap. The coke-spoon necklace, beloved by hairy-chested disco douchebags for a while, is of course a pop-culture icon. My favorite story connected to that was related by an old boyfriend, who had lived in Florida when they were as common as cross necklaces in Texas. He was on a scuba outing, and as everyone was stripping off shirts, putting on fins and preparing to go overboard, the skipper said to a guy wearing one, “Nice barracuda lure you got there. You know the big ones really hit hard when they strike.” He sheepishly took it off and stored it in the pocket of his shorts. That’s a great idea for a scene in a novel or movie, I think; a shiny long coke spoon probably does look just like a baitfish, to a ‘cuda.
Alas, I share your opinion of “Vinyl,” at least the Richie-is-a-cokehead part. Previews suggest he sobers up next week. I’ll let you know.
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Sue said on March 23, 2016 at 10:47 am
Dorothy, I keep wondering (hoping) if the occasional Cinnabon-in-Omaha scenes are shading for a parallel story of how he lands on his feet – skating on the edge of the law of course – post/Breaking Bad.
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brian stouder said on March 23, 2016 at 11:32 am
The latest terror attack in Brussels is quite vexing, and I think Hillary elucidated the problem quite well when she asked –
how do you build a wall tall enough to keep the internet out?
Terrorism has been out-sourced into an Uber-like model, and our (society’s) response has to be measured and rational
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David C. said on March 23, 2016 at 11:51 am
The delusionati will say the wall is the first step. Step two is to throw “those people” who are already here out.
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brian stouder said on March 23, 2016 at 11:57 am
Well, on a lighter note, I’m looking forward to this:
http://wane.com/2016/03/22/tickets-have-become-available-for-ipfw-omnibus-with-james-carville-and-mary-matalin/
Thursday’s Omnibus featuring James Carville and Mary Matalin. The debate style event is titled “All’s Fair: Love, War and Politics” and will be moderated by WANE-TV/NewsChannel 15 Anchor, Brett Thomas. It begins at 7p.m. on Thursday, March 24.
We have 4 tickets, and we’ll see if I can get Grant and Shelby (our first-time voters) to go.
(if successful, that means it will be Pam and the young folks, as I don’t want to leave Chloe – the 11 year old – out!)
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Dorothy said on March 23, 2016 at 12:00 pm
YES! Sue – me too! Wasn’t that a great scene when he accidentally got locked inside the trash room in Omaha?! I’m also wondering what happened to Kim. We never saw her during Breaking Bad. I feel like something truly awful is her destiny since she’s playing dangerous games with Jimmy with those restaurant meetings with strangers. How soon before one of them crosses paths with her and she’s outed?
And I tried one episode of Vinyl and could not make it past about a half hour so it’s a no-go for me.
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susan said on March 23, 2016 at 12:09 pm
The only time I ever tried cocaine was years ago at a funky country dance in a Grange Hall out in the boonies. I played guitar and autoharp in a little string band that was providing the music. Earlier in the day, while whacking big leaves off rhubarb stems, leading up to making a pie, I had cut the pad of a finger on my left hand, the hand that presses down on the strings. I stemmed the blood flow, cleaned the wound, used peroxide and anti-biotic ointment, tightly wrapped on a bandaid, and figured, OK, I can deal with this.
Our bass-player said he could bring his electric guitar along (horrors!) for me to play, since the finger pressure on the strings is not so great as when playing an acoustic. I tried it out while we tuned up before the dance. Thing is, I’d never played an electric guitar before and it seemed just too strange, and decided to just grin and bear it on my own acoustic Guild. Someone who was helping us set up said he had some cocaine with him and I could use that on the cut finger. Well, OK! I’d give that a try. And damned if it didn’t do the trick!
There was blood all over my fret board and strings by the end of the evening. And the next day, that finger was swollen and hurt like hell, but the show went on.
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brian stouder said on March 23, 2016 at 12:20 pm
I’ve heard of people that have music in their blood, but wow!
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MichaelG said on March 23, 2016 at 12:31 pm
Thanks for the sentiment, Julie. Nance has it right. T and I are close, legally separated but not divorced. She lives in Auburn and I live in Sacramento. We have lunch every week and we do Thanksgiving with our daughter and the grandkids, she’s on my health plan and her accountant does our taxes. We’re on for this Friday and I need to bring her a check because I’m going to owe on taxes.
We also talk on the phone. I called her first thing yesterday when I heard about the business in Brussels. Her mother and sister live there. She spoke with both of them. Sis was OK. She lives out in Charleroi and had taken the day off anyway. The old lady was kind of freaked out as she lives not far from NATO and was hearing Hoo Ha-ing all day long. She has a corner apartment on the 14th floor with fab views. She can even see the Atomium.
Basset, I worked for IH many years ago. Many, many. I even got a trip to Fort Wayne out of the deal and a tour of the factory. They made scouts and large trucks there at the time. This was after they had dropped pickups and Travelalls. I don’t know what they made in Ohio. Maybe Ohio just duplicated FW efforts. There’s a really nice Scout for sale just a couple of blocks away from here. Don’t know what they are asking.
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Deborah said on March 23, 2016 at 12:51 pm
When Little Bird was a baby, her Dr prescribed Paragoric for colic. I didn’t know at the time that basically it’s tincture of opium. I kept the bottle of it for years afterward because if you rubbed a tiny bit of it on your eyebrows you could pluck them with no pain. It numbed the area perfectly.
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LAMary said on March 23, 2016 at 1:50 pm
I am a non-believer working for a faith based non profit hospital. It works because I admire the values they apply to how we work, how we spend money and the care we give to people who can’t pay. The spiritual care director sent out this prayer today and I like it a lot so I’m sharing it.
PRAYER FOR PEACE AND COMFORT
WE PAUSE TO PRAY FOR…
THOSE AFFECTED BY TERRORIST ATTACKS AROUND THE WORLD, AND ESPECIALLY IN BRUSSELS…
ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INJURED OR WHO HAVE DIED…
THE FAMILIES WHO HAVE LOST LOVED ONES …
THE FAMILIES OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INJURED…
THE POLICE, FIRE AND AMBULANCE STAFF ON THE SCENES…
THE DOCTORS, NURSES AND ALL CAREGIVERS ATTENDING THE SUFFERING…
FOR THE LEADERS OF ALL COUNTRIES WHO SO DESPERATELY NEED WISDOM FROM BEYOND
THEMSELVES…
FOR ALL INVOLVED IN PASTORAL SERVICES WHO CARE FIRST-HAND FOR THE SPIRITUAL NEEDS
OF THOSE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS GREAT TRAGEDY…
FOR ALL THOSE WHO MIGHT BE TEMPTED TO THINK THAT VIOLENCE ACCOMPLISHES
ANYTHING OF LASTING VALUE…
FOR EVERY PEACE LOVER IN THIS WORLD…
AMEN
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Joe K said on March 23, 2016 at 1:54 pm
Basset,
Next time your passing thru Auburn stop in at the acd museum, they have a scout prototype, it would have come out just as the ford bronco and Chevy Tahoe suv came on line, much better looking I thought and possibly would have kept I H in the Fort, that is if they could have got the quality where it needed to be. Springfield built semi tractors same as Fort Wayne, how many people remember G.M announced there fwa truck plant at the same Time International announced there closing?
Pilot Joe
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Danny said on March 23, 2016 at 2:00 pm
Brian,
how do you build a wall tall enough to keep the internet out?
Put it on a private server!
Sorry, that response wrote itself.
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brian stouder said on March 23, 2016 at 2:05 pm
Danny – score!
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Dexter said on March 23, 2016 at 2:34 pm
I bought a beat Travelall in early spring, 1977. It had been standing in a Garrett, Indiana alley for many years…I wanted it and bought it for $500. Immediately I began pouring cash into it. The exhaust system fell off after five miles on the road, the engine had issues, the tires were rotten…you get the picture. I fixed what I could and let master mechanic, the great late Jack Hannes fix enough to get it rolling for a while. This vehicle, this particular one anyway, got eight mpg. 8. Yes. After a month I had had enough. The functioning 8-track player was not enough to persuade me to keep it. I swapped it even-steven for a 1968 VW Karmann Ghia which I adored and drove until it simply rusted apart.
OK…I wanted to see a picture of the little cocaine vials but all Google images had were countless photos of coke in little envelopes. http://myvoicemychoice.hlthss.gov.nt.ca/sites/default/files/u2/cocaine.jpg
I hear addicts and reformed addicts talking of bindles of H…guessing these are bindles? https://d9hblenkye35w.cloudfront.net/media/thumbnail/ext/xl/http%253A%252F%252Fstatic01.nyt.com%252Fimages%252F2014%252F05%252F20%252Fnyregion%252Fy-jpHEROIN2%252Fy-jpHEROIN2-videoSixteenByNine1050.jpg
Thanks for the education, anyway. I have a close friend who has 44 years in AA and is now disgusted because all the regional AA meetings are run by junkies and the discussion topics are always about heroin problems. My friend has been ranting on a certain recovery blog about this because instead of forming NA meetings the druggies have taken over the AA meetings. This is a result of the treatment center policies of “a drug is a drug is a drug and alcohol and drugs are one and the same…” which is fucking ridiculous especially since marijuana and marijuana extracts are being used to treat all sorts of ailments including actually being used in attempts to stop cancer cell growth. Ain’t THAT the damndest thing?
One last shot at Vince Gilligan…these stretched-out vignettes , Jarmusch-like, would be better suited for short movies instead of a TV show that utilizes as much as 17 minutes of an hour for long commercials. There just isn’t enough time for any action or plot-line to progress. He was better in Breaking Bad but still used to drive me nuts sometimes. I really wish his shows were on a damn station without long commercial interruptions.
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brian stouder said on March 23, 2016 at 2:50 pm
One other wild guess:
Betcha that Donald-small-hands’ own campaign placed the photos of his beautiful wife with no clothes on, and then blamed the Cruzer.
It’s a double-win (smears Ted and boasts about Mrs Trump), and guarantees lots more free media.
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Deborah said on March 23, 2016 at 3:17 pm
I’m on the train to Albuquerque, then a bus to the airport.
So last Saturday we went to an artist’s house for dinner and the place was absolutely filthy. They joked about “the land of the flea and the home of the plague”. But I seriously think I got some kind of bug there, either from the food or the cats. I haven’t had much to eat since and am feeling weak. My husband says he’s feeling fine and he ate the same food so I don’t know. What can you get from cats?
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Dexter said on March 23, 2016 at 3:26 pm
IH closing the giant Fort Wayne Truck Plant was one of the worst damn things to happen, ever. I had many friends and acquaintances who were affected. My friend Steve was just one. Steve had enough time to transfer to Springfield to finish his career…six years of living in a crammed and cramped rented trailer and driving back to NW Indiana on weekends. Five married men getting by because they had to, and getting along as best they could. Some men could not move for many reasons and they devised a plan. As I recall, they went in financially and bought a de-commissioned Greyhound bus and commuted every work day. The furthest distance away was for one man who lived in Hamilton, Indiana. The fellas drove individually to Fort Wayne every day and climbed aboard the bus and slept on the way to Springfield. Jesus, what dedication to work. All who were able alternated driving the bus, too…long day for those guys. The stories you may have heard of open hostilities towards the Fort Wayne high-seniority people who were soon able to bump into the better jobs was very real. Slashed tires and smashed windows and windshields were common for a while and then people calmed down and things became peaceful, as Steve related to me, anyway.
The day after I began at Dana the phone rang…IH wanted me to report for a pre-work physical and if I passed, I was to start immediately working at “The Harvester”. A man the K-brothers may remember, Ambrose Thrush from Garrett, was working at Dana and he talked me out of reporting to IH, saying “the pay is about the same and the layoff risk is the same and you’re here already, and it’s a long drive every day to Harvester…” . I stayed at Dana (later Eaton) for 30 years. Ambrose really saved me a lot of grief.
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alex said on March 23, 2016 at 4:15 pm
Joe mentioned the IH Scout prototype in the ACD Museum and I’ve gotta put in my two cents’ worth. I’m familiar with it because my former neighbor Larry Nicklin designed it, and I got to see the drawings way back in the day. And it’s true, the new IH Scout would have launched the luxury SUV segment years before the Big Three came up with such vehicles. I recall that the idea drew a lot of praise in Motor Trend and Car & Driver before the company decided to drop its passenger vehicles and focus on commercial stuff, as well as pull out of Fort Wayne.
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alex said on March 23, 2016 at 4:19 pm
Pix:
http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?63908-Orphan-Protoype-of-the-Day-7-30-12-1981-IH-Scout-III
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brian stouder said on March 23, 2016 at 4:27 pm
Chloe and I visited the ACPL this past Sunday (always a pleasant stop) – and one thing I always check is the exhibit area near the security desk and the youth area.
Right now they have (what I found to be) an arresting display of Auburn-Cord memorabilia and artifacts, most especially including concept line-drawings of various cars, and photos of the women who did upholstery, and the like.
Definitely worth a look
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Jolene said on March 23, 2016 at 4:27 pm
Deborah, you can get toxoplasmosis From cats. Not too serious in an otherwise healthy adult.
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St Bitch said on March 23, 2016 at 4:37 pm
My thoughts exactly, Brian @63.
The trouble with Vinyl for me is that I don’t care for most of the music…at least in the first 2 episodes.
We used to say “It’s always snowing in LA” when I lived there. Luckily, I’m not that fond of having my metabolism revved up, because ‘the white lady’ was on offer a lot in the circles I ran with. After initial experimentation, I almost always turned it down, unless it was a special occasion and I could be confidant the nose candy was primo…pure enough…not stepped on with angel dust or heroin or worse. Even then, a sparkling high was inevitably followed by the cocaine blues…and they were a bitch. One clever paraphernalia item for users on the go was a small (usually metal) cylinder, like an asthma inhaler, with a lever to portion out a snort of powder when you shoved it up a nostril. No muss, no fuss.
I recently watched the first season of Better Call Saul…looking forward to the current season. I’ve noticed Aaron Paul is going to be in something coming soon.
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Suzanne said on March 23, 2016 at 4:51 pm
Deborah (@57), my mother often gave us Paregoric when we were sick. When one of my kids had bad diarrhea probably 20 years ago or more, the doctor had me pick up something called parepectolin which was non-prescription but I had to sign for it. Was I ever surprised when I read the ingredients and yes, it too had a bit of the opium in it. It might have been the more modern variety of Paregoric, but I don’t know. It did make me wonder exactly why my mom seemed happy to dole that stuff out to her kids!
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Deborah said on March 23, 2016 at 4:53 pm
Yes Jolene, after I commented I looked at Dr Google about what you can get from cats. Never look up stuff like that on Google. It’ll scare the living daylights out of you. How we happened to be at this artist’s house was that we commissioned her to do a piece for an architect friend of ours who helped us get our permit for our. Abiquiu project. She wouldn’t let us pay her, so we decided to get her a piece of art made specifically for her. The artist we picked lived in NYC for 30 years before moving to NM. Her work is pretty cool but she clearly spends her time doing art, not house cleaning.
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Sherri said on March 23, 2016 at 5:03 pm
Terror attacks used to be a regular occurrence in Europe, but I don’t remember us freaking out over them. I suppose we never worried that Baader-Meinhoff or the IRA would bring terror attacks over here, especially not the IRA, since they had supporters on this side of the Atlantic (like Peter King, the Republican Representative from New York, who is all over increasing surveillance on Muslims but was pretty tight with his IRA buddies back in the day.)
Meanwhile, more people continue to die from gun violence here at home than from terrorism, but we’re more afraid of terrorists in Belgium and France than our neighbor with the arsenal.
http://qz.com/558597/charted-terror-attacks-in-western-europe-from-the-1970s-to-now/
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Deborah said on March 23, 2016 at 5:30 pm
Very interesting Sherri, that link puts it into perspective.
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Dorothy said on March 23, 2016 at 5:32 pm
The only time I remember one of my siblings had to have Paregoric was for severe vomiting. I know it wasn’t me.
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Scout said on March 23, 2016 at 5:57 pm
COMPLETELY off-topic. Deborah, I posted a picture of myself and two other people on Facebook the other day and the face ID thing kept INSISTING that I was you and kept asking me if I wanted to tag Deborah (your last name)!
In other news, Arizona continues to make the news as a backasswards hillbilly haven of fools and cheats. http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/watch-az-recorder-refuses-to-take-blame-for-5-hour-waits-after-cutting-polling-places-from-200-to-60/
A friend of mine, a teacher and a mother of an eight month old infant, got off work, picked up her baby and stood in line for 4 hours (with said baby strapped to her) to vote. When she finally got to the front of the line, the pollworkers said she wasn’t registered. So she had to fill out a provisional ballot, which, of course will not be counted. Think she’s a little pissed? Fcking Arizona.
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Deborah said on March 23, 2016 at 6:39 pm
Scout, I’ve had that happen before where Facebook asks me to tag so and so and it’s someone completely different.
I’m at the airport, my flight is on time so far, thank goodness. And as I suspected security has been elevated, tsa was extra busy patting down what seemed like every other person. But it’s mostly theater to keep people feeling like something is actually working.
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Jolene said on March 23, 2016 at 7:57 pm
Every day–that’s every single day–about three times more Americans die from gun violence than died in the Brussels attack. Two-thirds suicide, one-third homicide.
And, of course, there are lots of bombings in the Middle East and Africa, but they’re not like us, so we don’t have to worry about them or provide wall-to-wall TV coverage of everything remotely related to the event.
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MichaelG said on March 23, 2016 at 9:08 pm
Mary, when I think of faith based hospitals I can only think of the Catholics and those horrible nuns who are performing as catspaws of the right wing radicals. What do they care if the Feds are willing to pay for their employees’ birth control? This isn’t religious freedom, it’s a bunch of arrogant, self-entitled assholes trying to impose their small minded antiquated beliefs on the rest of society. That’s not religious freedom, that’s religious tyranny. Remember and remember clearly: freedom of religion includes freedom FROM religion. I don’t give two shits about their-self-serving Brussels tripe.
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MichaelG said on March 23, 2016 at 9:13 pm
Sorry for the strong post, Mary. As you well know, I’m with you 99.9% of the time but I’ve had it with the hypocritical asshole Catholics who run these huge health conglomerates. That from a guy who had the Sisters of “Mercy” for grade school and who was an altar boy.
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Sue said on March 23, 2016 at 9:53 pm
Well, I don’t see the point if it doesn’t actually include, y’know, Mr. Darcy:
http://pictorial.jezebel.com/this-summer-you-can-visit-mr-darcys-translucent-shirt-1763528751
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