Nothing like a good Matt Taibbi screed, especially this one:
If you think the white-guy grievance movement will die after Donald Trump’s likely landslide defeat this November, think again. There will be plenty of filterless, self-pitying dunces to carry the torch in Trump’s place. (Curt) Schilling is a leading candidate.
I said this myself, but it’s hardly a blinding insight. Trump opened a Pandora’s box, from which he is only the first spirit of woe to flee. Apparently the former Red Sox pitcher is the next:
A hardcore religious conservative, Schilling can’t stop posting crazy stuff online. Like Trump, he is a meme fanatic, learning much of what he knows about the world from bite-size informational crap-dumplings shared on Facebook.
Posting one of those crap dumplings cost Schilling his latest job, a $2.5 million gig with ESPN. That’s the sort of gig that inspires mere mortal men to go dreamy-eyed with longing, to sigh deeply and think, if only. Actually, posting two of them cost him job; he was only suspended after one, but simply couldn’t restrain himself. A recent one chided “pussies looking for free shit,” which caused Taibbi to do a spit-take and observe:
This tirade against the seekers of “free shit” was posted by a man who got $75 million in taxpayer money to keep his already failing video game company afloat.
Highly recommended.
I think this is going to be the last entry for the week. I’m tired, distracted and a little under-slept. In an effort to do one unexpected thing in a pretty predictable life, Alan and I went out after dinner last night, to see a band in a steamy bar, one that wasn’t our daughter’s. This one. I went in saying, “I will have two beers,” and ended up having three, plus a shot of tequila. Shots. What a stupid idea. All because I bought a beer for the nice Polish gentleman sitting next to us, who explained in his accent that he was without a car, and was visiting all the bars within walking distance of his apartment. I bought him a beer, so he returned the favor with shots. Ugh. You can’t turn it down, and you’re expected to do it all in one go, which I hate, as I am no longer 22 years old. But every once in a blue moon, I go out on a Wednesday night to have my eardrums blown out. Can YOU say the same?
There was a guy there wearing a t-shirt that read HAMTRAMCK FUCK YEAH. Love this place.
With that, I’m calling it a week. Got a busy one coming up. Enjoy your weekend, all — I’ll be watching “Stranger Things.”
St Bitch said on August 25, 2016 at 9:21 am
You’re in for a treat with “Stranger Things”, Nancy.
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brian stouder said on August 25, 2016 at 9:28 am
it has been a full/exhausting/interesting week – and we still have a ways to go.
I ventured from the friendly cheap-seats at the FWCS board room Monday, to the altogether odd Fort Wayne City Council chambers Tuesday*, and was somewhat surprised by several things.
Suffice it to say – it made me appreciate (all over again) how good our school board actually is!
*a new city council member has proposed a property tax change that will directly and adversely affect FWCS
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adrianne said on August 25, 2016 at 9:29 am
I want one of those Hamtrack T-shirts.
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Danny said on August 25, 2016 at 9:48 am
Dexter, glad you enjoyed San Diego. A little secret I always share is that the absolute best time to come is a few weeks after Labor Day. Water’s still nice and most of tourists are gone ‘cuz kids are back in school.
Yeah, flying is much more of an ordeal these days. I had accidentally left a tiny corkscrew in my backpack a few years ago and security took it after deliberating over whether the tiny tiny embedded rotary blade for scoring the metallic seal on wine bottles was a threat. Geesh.
And a few years back, the German version of TSA disallowed my small, half-filled travel shampoo bottle after I couldn’t tell them how many milliliters were in it. I told them, fine, super-anal American TSA allowed it, but I just won’t wash my hair for the whole week of business in Turkey.
So I mentioned a few weeks ago that my wife and I are learning French together. Last week, I added a French language keyboard to my iPhone and a couple of days ago I fat-thumbed it to accidentally enable it and lo, it was a revelation. French keyboards are not QWERTY, but AZERTY. As Steve Martin used to quip, it’s like they have a different word for everything.
Also, we’ve been watching a bunch of French movies and of the selections available for streaming about 90% of them have extra-marital affairs as the de rigueur plot line. In fact, it’s almost endemic to French cinema (as is smoking passing for an “action” sequence) and I told a French coworker that my theory was that it was an enevitable consequence of their language. In English one says, “I love YOU”… clear subject I and clear object YOU, whereas in French one says, “Je t’aime” and NOT “J’aime TOI” so that the object of the love is marginalized and relegated to a “t apostrophe”. So of course having an affair on your spouse is practically expected and it would be weird if one did not. Ah, language and culture, together, explained by humble yours truly.
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adrianne said on August 25, 2016 at 9:57 am
And Curt Schilling has been an irksome POS for a long while. It makes me forget his pitching achievements. Here’s the latest in his long-running scam in Rhode Island:
By Suevon Lee (Law360): Rhode Island’s economic development agency has entered into a $25.6 million settlement with Wells Fargo Securities LLC and Barclays Capital Inc. in exchange for dropping claims against the banks over a financing deal for a now-defunct video game company started by a former Major League Baseball star.
The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation said in a press release Tuesday it reached the proposed deal with the two banks in ongoing litigation over the botched bankrolling of 38 Studios LLC, the company started by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.
The settlement, filed in Rhode Island Superior Court, is subject to court approval. The Rhode Island Commerce Corp. said if approved, the settlement will bring the state’s total recovery in the 38 Studios litigation to more than $42 million.
Rhode Island sued Schilling, Wells Fargo and Barclays Capital in November 2012, claiming they misled the state about risks associated with $75 million in taxpayer loan financing for 38 Studios.
The Ocean State had approved the $75 million in loan financing in an effort to entice the video game company to relocate from Massachusetts, hoping it would bring high-quality jobs and create a new industry in Rhode Island.
The state lawsuit for claims of negligence, racketeering and fraud alleged Wells Fargo made misrepresentations by failing to disclose 38 Studios’ business plan and financial projections, including a shortfall, while earning hidden commissions while Barclays profited as a placement agency for the bonds.
Schilling started 38 Studios in 2006, two years after the pitcher helped the Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years. Schilling retired from Major League Baseball in 2009.
By 2012, the company had slid into Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing $21 million in assets against $150 million in debt.
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mcconk said on August 25, 2016 at 10:20 am
OMG that band. If they were as loud as I suspect they were in a bar, how could you stand it?!
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Icarus said on August 25, 2016 at 10:28 am
Nancy just wanted to say thank you for cluing me in on the Skeleton Keys. Made a batch for my Grosse Pointe relatives and they loved them. I also stocked up on the ingredients from our local Binny’s in order to have them back home.
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alex said on August 25, 2016 at 10:34 am
Too bad my after-work party yesterday couldn’t have been at that bar with that band. I had to listen to local standup comedians who were so awful I would have thrown my drinks at them if the drinks hadn’t cost $16 apiece.
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Deborah said on August 25, 2016 at 10:51 am
Day two in Chicago with Little Bird. We’re going to Eataly first and then we’ll figure out what to do with the rest of the day. My husband’s uncle’s condo where she’s staying has the most amazing view over the harbor across Millinium Park and Grant Park, the skyline along Michigan Ave. very, very nice.
Whoever linked (Jeff tmmo?) to the Mother Jones article about the Louisianna Trump supporters, that was interesting. I’ll say this for Trump, he has brought to light a deep seated problem in poor white communities. It seems pretty obvious to me how it got that way and they keep voting against their own best interests.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 25, 2016 at 11:09 am
Yep. Repost: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/trump-white-blue-collar-supporters
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 25, 2016 at 11:11 am
But also reposting and reminding everyone: today’s the 100th anniversary of the creation of the National Park Service!
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/centennial/birthday-invitation.htm
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Sherri said on August 25, 2016 at 11:27 am
Schilling fits right in with Trump’s white nationalist party: https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2015/08/25/heres-curt-schillings-nazi-memorabilia
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Jeff Borden said on August 25, 2016 at 11:37 am
Charlie Pierce wrote recently that Curt Schilling was considering challenging Elizabeth Warren for her U.S. Senate seat, which would be quite an entertaining sight to see. He’s such a worthless scumbag and she is such an accomplished figure it would be –in the parlance of my beloved pro wrestling– a “squash match.”
“Stranger Things” is so good my wife and I are doling them out. I wanted to watch two episodes yesterday evening, but she said no. She wants to stretch it out. It’s been great to see Winona Ryder acting up a storm and the guy who plays the police chief, David Harbour, is an actor I’d not seen before. Most of all, it’s the kids in the cast especially the girl playing Eleven. She says more with her eyes than all the other characters with their mouths.
On an unrelated note, for those watching “The Night Of,” what are your predictions for the Sunday finale? There are some tantalizing possibilities including the evil gigolo stepdad and the crazy hearse driver, but I’ve come to the conclusion Naz is the killer and I’m sticking with it. His metamorphosis in Rikers was awfully quick for an innocent.
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Jakash said on August 25, 2016 at 12:45 pm
“…once in a blue moon, I go out on a Wednesday night to have my eardrums blown out. Can YOU say the same?”
What an odd taunt. No, thank goodness. I didn’t really enjoy that when I was 22; I surely have NO regrets about not feeling like it’s something I have any need to do now. You’re right about shots, though. Moderating one’s drinking can be difficult, but avoiding shots is about the easiest aspect of doing so, for me. Though I agree, you probably had to, in that situation.
Happy National Park Day, Jeff, and thanks for reminding us. I love the national parks and have been to plenty, but none were in the cards for this year and I’ve paid absolutely no attention to the big anniversary. Your enthusiasm is inspiring even to a cynical bastard such as myself. Alas, being a nitpicking jerk, I’m compelled to point out that Sherri posted that Mother Jones link last night, though. ; )
We used to also love Winona Ryder and felt like we undoubtedly missed out on what would have been some dynamite performances, due to her post-incident, self-imposed exile of however many years. Very happy to see she has a strong role in a quality piece like “Stranger Things.” But this is what I really find irksome about TV these days. Indeed, it’s a golden age, but, unless you’re a TV reviewer or a maniac, you not only can’t keep up with all the shows, you can’t keep up with the freaking NETWORKS. We’ve had Netflix before, but don’t currently, or we’d be watching that show. But every damned network has a show or two that are probably worth watching. We just spent a month catching up with “The Americans” (up to this last season, that is), starting from scratch. Now we’re on to “Billions.” I find myself being grateful when I read about a show that’s all the rage that I have no interest in, because, unlike a movie, these series are commitments! So, Game of Thrones? I know the proprietress and many others here are fans, but it’s an easy one for us to skip…
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 25, 2016 at 1:38 pm
I see now she did so first; just more proof that great minds think and surf alike, eh Sherri? 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5TwT69i1lU
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Scout said on August 25, 2016 at 1:48 pm
Series TV I binge watched over the summer on Netflix, Hulu and PBS:
Happy Valley (season 2)
The Honourable Woman
Madame Secretary (season 2)
The Tunnel (thru PBS app on Apple TV)
Grace and Frankie
The Good Wife (final season)
Miranda (final season)
Summer in Phoenix is like winter in cold places. It’s when we hibernate and watch a ton of TV because it’s too freaking hot to do anything else.
That Matt Taibbi piece was excellent. Schilling pitched for the AZ Diamondbacks for a few seasons. I knew his name sounded familiar. I don’t think most people knew what a dick he is when he was here, but maybe I wasn’t paying attention.
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Sherri said on August 25, 2016 at 1:56 pm
Of,course, Jeff(tmmo). You and I probably agree on most things, it’s just the details we disagree on!
The WaPo reporter who has been tracking down Trump’s charitable giving looks at Clinton’s too, and compares and contrasts: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/what-we-know-about-the-charitable-giving-by-hillary-clinton-and-donald-trump/2016/08/25/1b261400-6a30-11e6-ba32-5a4bf5aad4fa_story.html
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FDChief said on August 25, 2016 at 1:58 pm
I’ve been banging this drum for quite some time. The “GOP Problem” isn’t Trump. Trump is the “GOP Problem”; a concatenation of pig-humping-stupid ragedrunk authoritarian knuckleheads overflowing with resentment that the world no longer owes them deference or a living just for being God’s Elect White People.
Schilling is just one of these fecking oxygen-thieves writ large; an overentitled, clueless shitgibbon like his Porcine Majesty the GOP candidate, neither of whom will ever accept that they cannot be king simply by blarting whatever’s in their cavernous skulls and waving what in that classic verse The Bastard King of England calls “His Royal Bone”.
OUR problem is that there’s a pantsload of these douchenozzles running around out there, and this year’s GOP primary shenanigans have encouraged them to get out of the Shame Closet and let their Inner Bigot freak-hood-and-flag twinset fly loud and proud.
The “good news” is that this is likely to reduce the GOP to the United States’ Fronte National, as full of microcephalic racists as a nut is full of meat. The bad news is that, given that our first-past-the-post system more or less guarantees two parties and ONLY two parties that it will force everyone within pissing range of racist xenophobia to more or less either go full-Breitbart or bail on “conservatism” altogether, and I won’t bet any amount of money on the latter. Combine this with the problem that the major news conglomerates have with calling a bunch of racist, xenophobic, economically-room-temperature-IQ, conspiracy-theory-loving poop-throwing monkeys racist, xenophobic, economically-room-temperature-IQ, conspiracy-theory-loving poop-throwing monkeys and thus allowing them a place in the national dialogue from whence to fling their poop and, well…
ALL of us are going to have problems with these speshul snowflakes for a long, long time…
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 25, 2016 at 2:20 pm
Plus, now we get Nigel Farage recycling his greatest hits on this side of the pond.
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Jolene said on August 25, 2016 at 3:11 pm
Here’s a bit of uplift for these troubling times, with a side of snark thrown in. Remember the guy who launched a fundraising effort to send Trump to a conflict zone so that he could get his very own Purple Heart? Recognizing that Trump was unlikely to go along with that scheme, he decided to send the money to organizations supporting Syrian refugees. He ended up collecting $65,000. Pretty impressive, and he has started a new effort. Check it out.
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Jolene said on August 25, 2016 at 3:12 pm
Sorry about the double post. Perhaps Nancy can delete.
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brian stouder said on August 25, 2016 at 5:00 pm
FDChief – agreed. One (somewhat pointless) argument I’d make, if I was Hillary Clinton, would be that the 2016 Republican party is simply not “the party of Lincoln” anymore, at all.
The party of Lincoln would have enthusiastically gotten with LBJ and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, so as to ‘strive on to finish the work we are in’ – as opposed to enthusiastically grabbing up the white racist southerners who suddenly fell away from their formerly segregationist/separatist Democratic party inclinations.
It is inescapable (and altogether human) that we can imagine a better world than we’re willing to work for; and that we’d like to think that our hearts and our souls are larger and more forgiving than we’re actually willing to be. Or, more succinctly – if the Republicans want to think of themselves as “the party of Lincoln”, then they shouldn’t support a guy with all the patriotism of Jefferson Davis.
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Jakash said on August 25, 2016 at 5:40 pm
Well, there you have it, Scout. Out of the 7 shows you mention, we’ve only watched 2, and have not heard of 3. We like “Madam Secretary” pretty well, but weren’t really wild about “The Tunnel,” of which we have 2 episodes to go. Awful dark down there!
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susan said on August 25, 2016 at 5:41 pm
Trump visits minority neighborhoods in Cleveland.
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Deborah said on August 25, 2016 at 6:02 pm
The right wingers who are whining that they are being called racists and homophobes and they beleive that they are clearly not, I call that bullshit. Take my rightwing sister and her family for example. They are scared shitless of black people, they don’t know any personally, same with LGBTs, but they’d probably be surprised about that. I’ve heard my sister say some of the most bigoted statements I have ever heard anyone say about native Americans. Sure she doesn’t use racial slurs, never the n word so in her mind that’s good enough. It is cluelessness, to the max. Can you tell that I recently got another exasperating email from my sister. Grrrrr.
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basset said on August 25, 2016 at 6:03 pm
Come on down to Nashville to get your eardrums blasted, no telling who you might see:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/music/cover-story/article/20831549/the-hottest-rock-gig-in-town-is-a-free-tuesday-night-show-full-of-hot-licks-big-names-and-ironyfree-good-times
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Scout said on August 25, 2016 at 6:14 pm
Jakash – agree totally about The Tunnel. Very dark, yet compelling. I wanted to know how it ended but wasn’t always looking forward to watching it. The other problem we had with it was the audio. We could not get close captioning to work, which was frustrating because so often the dialogue was muffled or drowned out by the music. The most understandable parts were the French bits because they subtitled those!
Probably my favorite on the list was The Honorable Woman, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal.
http://www.npr.org/2014/12/30/373999124/in-the-honorable-woman-theres-no-one-you-can-trust *
* I’m still really PISSED at NPR (listened again this morning and got spitting mad again) but this is actually a good summary. Damn you NPR, why can’t I quit you?
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Scout said on August 25, 2016 at 6:31 pm
Today in Reno, Hillary calls out the racism and hate. More of this, please!
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/hillary-clinton-alt-right-donald-trump
Predictably, Trumplethinskin’s tiny fingers Tweet furiously.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/768912241349517312
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Jakash said on August 25, 2016 at 7:03 pm
Scout,
“The most understandable parts were the French bits because they subtitled those!” So funny because it’s true… We couldn’t get the CC to work on the first episode, and that’s exactly what we thought. I don’t know nuthin’ ’bout production values, but it seemed to me that the sound mixing was poor, or something. Usually we can catch up to English English after a while. We did get the CC to work on the other episodes, but then, about twice or three times an episode, the Roku stream would slip up and then it’d be out of sync and we’d have to “resume episode” to get it back on track. First world problems, anyone? CC has completely spoiled us, though. We rely on it for any show we watch. That habit began for us with “The Wire,” I believe. (Which we watched many years after everybody with any sense had already seen it.) Ten minutes into that first episode, I had no idea what had been communicated…
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Sherri said on August 25, 2016 at 7:34 pm
I use CC a lot, too, but my husband doesn’t like it because it covers up part of the picture. So when we’re watching together I try to get by without it if I can.
In Walla Walla again, to drop the kid. Senior year!
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Scout said on August 25, 2016 at 7:42 pm
We can get by without the CC on most American productions, but the British shows, especially if they take place in the Yorkshire region, are much richer for knowing what they’re *really* saying. Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax are good examples. The dialect is so interesting that it would be a shame not to experience it in full.
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Sherri said on August 25, 2016 at 7:43 pm
I suspect this is true: https://newrepublic.com/article/136283/hillary-clintons-relationship-press-brokenand-cant-fixed
I both sort of wish she would hold a press conference and wish the press conference would be something other than what it inevitably would be. It’s hard for me to think of a press conference lately that didn’t leave me feeling dumber at the end.
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Sherri said on August 25, 2016 at 9:55 pm
If you missed the Maddow interview of Kellyanne Conway, here’s a transcript, with interesting passages highlighted by the WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/25/rachel-maddows-fascinating-duel-with-trump-campaign-manager-kellyanne-conway-annotated/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_1_na
As I said, I particularly enjoyed the discussion of the McCarren Act.
Haven’t had a chance to see Hillary’s speech today yet, but it apparently got the thin-skinned one tweeting again.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 25, 2016 at 10:45 pm
Charlotte, you didn’t miss much at Roosevelt Arch. I finally found a working feed, and they did not do a concert, it was a series of speeches, interspersed with one offs by Harris and Prine. The Teddy Roosevelt re-enactor, though, was a hoot and a half, and another reminder of how dessicated our political landscape has become.
Still — Happy 100th Birthday to the National Park Service! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0-wdrG-uC0
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basset said on August 25, 2016 at 11:01 pm
Prine… probably close to twenty years ago I was in the market for a new pickup and went to the Pontiac/GMC store in downtown Nashville. Must have been a Sunday afternoon because I don’t remember any sales people bothering me, anyway I was walking around the lot comparing stickers, looked around, and there was John Prine doing the exact same thing. We just nodded at each other and went on… don’t know if he bought one, I ended up getting a new Ford F150 which was the biggest POS I’ve ever owned. But don’t get me started.
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Dexter said on August 26, 2016 at 2:34 am
I watched “Stranger Things” a few weeks ago as soon as it was released to Netflix.I thought it was surely a one-and-done, now I hear there’s more coming, and it’s been leaked that we are not to worry about Barb. If you watched it, you know what this means. Kid drama…meh…kid drama drove me away from “Under the Dome” too.
The quirky slow-burner of a show, “Rectify” is really good…Netflix. Showtime is just killing with “Ray DOnovan” followed by “Roadies”, the Cameron Crowe project. Who ever knew that Ron White was such a great actor? He’s gonna get that Emmy for Best Supporting Actor that Jon Voight won for his work in “Ray Donovan”.
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Dorothy said on August 26, 2016 at 9:53 am
Speaking of using CC, has anyone watched Sundance’s “The A Word”, about a family in the UK whose five year old son is diagnosed with autism? I am enjoying it immensely. There’s a good bit of humor mixed in with all the drama. Scout @31 is right about enjoying the dialect of the Brits. So many of their expressions appeal to me and I want to incorporate some of them into my speech. But people around here would like look at me like I’ve lost quite a few brain cells.
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Dorothy said on August 26, 2016 at 9:54 am
Ooops hit submit too soon. I binged on The Americans this summer. I have seen three of the four seasons. I got all of the CDs out of the library which is nice. I’m hoping come October or so FX will re-run season four before season five begins in January, and I’ll DVR them. It’s an excellent show. Any other fans here?
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Jolene said on August 26, 2016 at 10:04 am
Dorothy, I love the language in Brit TV shows too. And I don’t so much want to emulate it as find myself doing it involuntarily. After a few episodes of Vera, I have to guard against referring to people with terms of endearment such as “love” (as in “be a love”) and “pet.”
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Jolene said on August 26, 2016 at 10:09 am
I’m a fan, Dorothy. Have seen the whole series and think it’s very good. Very interesting to think about what it would be like to live a life that involves so many layers.
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brian stouder said on August 26, 2016 at 10:12 am
Dorothy – my lovely wife was pulled in by that show, and also by the one with the heavy Scottish accents (wherein a woman tumbles from the 20th century back to the 1700’s – or thereabouts – and meets a very handsome feller with a great accent).
Subtitles are indispensible
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Dave said on August 26, 2016 at 10:30 am
Yes, The Americans, really enjoy that show, although you would think that in reality, as many people as they’ve killed on that show, that somehow, one or another law agency would have been onto them by now.
I’ve got the last episode of the most recently concluded season on DVR now, haven’t gotten around to watching it yet.
I’ve also been watching Brain Dead but I’m getting to the point where, just end it already. I thought there were only supposed to be nine episodes but there are fourteen. It’s starting to seem very drawn out with no real point. Maybe that is the point, just like today’s DC.
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brian stouder said on August 26, 2016 at 10:54 am
So how many more baseless charges does the strange Mr Assange get to make, before the word ‘Assangeism’ enters the language, and replaces “McCarthyism”?
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Judybusy said on August 26, 2016 at 11:11 am
I’ve been pulled into Turn, an AMC show that’s now on Netflix. It’s about espionage during the Revolutionary War. Great stuff, with a particularly slimy British officer to loathe.
Meanwhile, Minnesota’s Republican Party forgot to do what’s necessary to get Trump and Pence on our ballot!
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brian stouder said on August 26, 2016 at 11:47 am
Judybusy – THAT was the best thing I read today.
See – the system is RIGGED!! RIGGED, I say!!
Because when the Donald gets elected, all these niggling DETAILS will just….take care of themselves
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Bob (Not Greene) said on August 26, 2016 at 12:17 pm
Sometimes when you claim there’s voter fraud, it’s because you have first-hand experience https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/26/steve-bannon-florida-registered-vote-donald-trump
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Jakash said on August 26, 2016 at 1:51 pm
We’re right where you are with “The Americans,” Dorothy. Figuring out what our options are for season 4, but we hope not to have to wait until right before the next season. We like it a lot, but agree with Dave that a “willing suspension of disbelief” is certainly required. You’d think Stan Beeman might have figured something out about his neighbors by now, especially given the Clark Kent-style transformations some of their many disguises involve.
Nominated for 5 Emmys this year, including Drama, Lead Actor and Lead Actress. This was really odd, though, IMHO. Margo Martindale won an Emmy for “Outstanding Guest Actress” in 2015, specifically for the second-last episode of Season 3. Nothing against her abilities, but she was in it for literally a cup of coffee with Frank Langella’s character. Meanwhile, Lois Smith, in the same episode even, gave that awesome performance as the bookkeeper lady in the warehouse. Martindale’s been nominated every year, but I couldn’t believe it when we saw that episode and realized that that was what she won for.
Judybusy,
Aren’t Rumpelthinskin’s chances in Minnesota pretty much the same, whether he’s on the ballot, or not? ; )
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Sue said on August 26, 2016 at 2:04 pm
Brit shows: I loved Scott & Bailey and wish it would come back. I am curious about Sally Wainwright because she often seems to include a character that cannot keep from screwing (usually literally) up.
Also, although I usually dislike medical shows, I’ve seen most of Doc Martin. I admire the actors and think Martin Clunes has done very good work here. But. It started out as a funny and interesting fish-out-of-water story and then they started to bend the storylines to suit the romance. When Aunt Joan sniffed that Martin’s ex-girlfriend wouldn’t marry him because she ‘wanted a career’ I realized they were writing for the audience and not for the characters – the woman who wanted a career was a medical school classmate, what the hell was she going to do after medical school? All very conventional – Martin and Luisa love each other but can’t get along, but their only option is to get married and have major relationship problems. For heaven’s sake buy a duplex, idiots. Latest episodes have devolved into heroic medical crisis of the week storylines.
Oh, and apparently in Port Wenn first time mothers pop the kid out in five minutes, preferably on a hillside or on a bench in a pub. No nasty puddles or stained clothes, either.
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Heather said on August 26, 2016 at 2:48 pm
I love Scott & Bailey, Vera, Happy Valley . . . I watched several seasons of Doc Martin and it just seemed to get really dark, psychologically, although it did so in a way that if you didn’t want to think about that part, you could just focus on the wacky inhabitants of Port Wenn instead. Martin’s misanthropy and inability to love freely are presented as a result of being raised by rather selfish and cold-hearted parents–it’s really heartbreaking, I think. But the whole relationship thing did get really repetitive.
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Dorothy said on August 26, 2016 at 3:14 pm
The willing suspension of disbelief runs deep in The Americans! Some of you have mentioned a couple reasons why. I’ll add some more – firstly, how deep is that secret storage cabinet in their garage that it can hold upwards of a dozen (or more!) wigs, mustaches, eyeglasses etc.?! And how do they all that stuff at night and still sleep, and then go to their travel agency the next day?! Don’t their kids EVER get sick and need to stay home from school and interrupt some important clandestine mission?! I’m not complaining or making fun, it’s just things that run through my mind while I’m watching it. All t.v. dramas require a level of disbelief on our part because otherwise they’d be boring, mundane shows that no one would watch. Much like my life.
BTW Stan Beeman has never seen either of them in disguise as far as I know (unless that happened in the season that just ended in April or May.) I certainly hope at some point, perhaps in the last year of the show, Stan will discover who they are and then the real excitement will happen.
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brian stouder said on August 26, 2016 at 3:52 pm
Pam likes that show, too.
From what I’ve seen, one of the main threats to the bad guys would be social diseases, since they’re always ‘gettin’ busy’ with someone or the other
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brian stouder said on August 26, 2016 at 5:07 pm
So, as the day ends – I was updating the day-by-day calendar and learned that Monday, August 29 will be the 11th anniversary of Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans….and I immediately thought about NN.c. Back in those days, I was still in my ‘Rah-Rah’-Republican phase, and for the first week I was still defending President Bush, against one of the foundational NN.c personages (Ashley). The Navy had a big task force in the gulf, and they were gonna come in behind the storm, and help the people out, and….and….and
nothing.
Pictures of Americans from a major American city stranded on roofs – literally castaway people; or amassing wherever there was high ground, and feeling lucky if they even could get a bottle of clean water….that was pretty much the end of my Republican days, right there.
And now – I’m off to back-to-school night at Wayne High School!
Buh-Bye!
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Deborah said on August 26, 2016 at 5:50 pm
They’re filming a show in my Chicago neighborhood of Streeterville, called Shameless. I had not heard of it before I saw the signs up about it. They say they’re filming the 7th season. I also haven’t heard about any of the shows you all have mentioned here except the one that Winona Ryder is in. I read some stuff online about her recently, how she had turned her life around after her shoplifting and drug phase.
Nice day in Chicago, less humid and cooler than yesterday and the day before. We’ve been walking our patooties off, lots of street life going on.
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Jolene said on August 26, 2016 at 7:17 pm
Shameless is a good show. Available on Showtime. Dexter is a fan too.
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Jolene said on August 26, 2016 at 8:44 pm
If you aren’t finding quite enough TV recommendations here, you might want to subscribe to the NYT Watching newsletter. Issued occasionally, less often than the cooking newsletter so it won’t clutter up your inbox unduly.
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Dorothy said on August 26, 2016 at 10:01 pm
My hubby loves Shameless. I’ve never gotten into it. We’re watching the first ep of The Night Of from HBO and I spotted the actor who played Bodie on The Wire. Amazingly, we saw James Gandolfini listed as Exec Producer. I found an article about it online at the NYTimes.
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Sherri said on August 27, 2016 at 1:05 am
This guy is reselling campaign swag at a markup, and the campaigns will have to refund him for a big chunk of what he bought: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/how-one-donor-is-profiting-off-the-trump-and-sanders-campaigns/497501/?utm_source=feed
I’ll note that Hillary’s campaign swag is sold through the PAC, not the campaign, to avoid the refunding problem. Donation limits are higher for PACs than for campaigns.
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Dexter said on August 27, 2016 at 3:14 am
I must say…the Brit “Shameless” just kicks the American version’s ass. And I never miss the US show either.
Elitists, don’t laugh…we actually had a great meal at…ready? Applebee’s in Auburn. Gift card present for our 39th anniversary…we had to use it sometime…so we did. Caesar salad, perfectly dressed and presented. Baked potato, also perfect. Broccoli, steamed and hot, also just right. Baby back ribs, burnt on the ends like they’re supposed to be. Great waiter, timely service, packed house. So I gotsta give credit where credit is due. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W773ZPJhcVw
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 27, 2016 at 9:47 am
Basset, you have more self control than I. But I would have embarrassed myself drooling praise in babbling sentence fragments, so your way is wise.
Sorry about your vehicle purchase! I got a Ford Focus a year ago, and can’t be happier — people can’t believe I fit well into it, but it’s fine. And I have to carry less crud around in my back seat and trunk, which certainly is a good thing for me.
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basset said on August 27, 2016 at 10:57 am
JeffTMMO, I unloaded that F150 after a warranty engine replacement at 17k and got a Dodge Dakota, which was fine.
Very uncool to hang all over music people here in Nashville, it’s called “gherming” and is generally left to thr tourists.
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Sherri said on August 27, 2016 at 2:11 pm
I wish the media would spend a tenth the energy that it has spent on the Clinton Foundation on the very direct impact the Gates Foundation has had on the Obama Dept of Education: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/08/25/new-book-obamas-education-department-and-gates-foundation-were-closer-than-you-thought/
Drones, the surveillance state, and education are the major sources of disappointment with the Obama administration for me.
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Dexter said on August 27, 2016 at 3:01 pm
John Prine is a star, but not like Mellencamp is a star, and I have never understood why. John Hiatt, Steve Earle, Mellencamp, and Prine are equals in my book.
Living in small towns most of my life, I never saw any celebs car-shopping , but I saw football’s John Madden boarding an Amtrak in Chicago, and had a short conversation with him in the club car later on . Pre-bus days for him, pre-abstinence for me…he was hawking and pitching Miller Lite then and he was pissed off when the bar car had no Miller Lite and he was left to drink booze mixed with soda pop, as he must have had a deal where he was not allowed to be seen with any other brew in his hand. Still later he sat across from me in the diner car having dinner…everybody else was forced to sit with strangers in the dining car, Madden was special…he and his lady had a four-set table to themselves. Nice guy…I felt like a heel but yeah…I got him to sign my Sports Illustrated after he had eaten and returned for more booze to the club car.
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Deborah said on August 27, 2016 at 3:20 pm
I’ve never spoken to ant celebs I’ve sighted. But my husband told Gene Hackmann that he liked his work, I was mortified. We saw Hackmann at an art supply store in Santa Fe.
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Sherri said on August 27, 2016 at 3:28 pm
I was once waiting at baggage claim at SFO for a friend coming in on a flight that ha been delayed. There was an older black gentleman standing near me wearing a Giants polo shirt, and we started talking. Finally, I said that I felt like I should recognize him, and he told me he was Vida Blue. I apologized for not recognizing him and told him how much I had enjoyed,watching him pitch. I did ask him for an autograph, which he happily signed, adding “1971 Cy Young Winner” to his signature.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 27, 2016 at 3:31 pm
I would have mortified you, too. Wow, he and Garner and Newman in “Twilight” — what a set of star turns that was. Can’t imagine what the between-shoots conversation was like . . . and might have asked him!
Ditto the cast in “Wag the Dog.” My wife had never seen it, and I got her to watch it last night, and when she turned and asked the inevitable “wait, when did this come out?” I was ready with the answer “yes, before the Lewinsky scandal broke, 1997.” She’s now petrified that every last bit of this campaign is a set-up for who knows what (Connie Breen knows, but…), and I may have erred in encouraging the viewing. But I think you can tell DeNiro and Hoffman had a good time, and I just wish there was more William H. Macy in it (plus additional Susie Plekson and Denis Leary). Let’s just say the story holds up well in 2016.
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Suzanne said on August 27, 2016 at 4:48 pm
I passed by John Mellencamp standing on the sidewalk in Bloomington when we took one of our kids there for a college tour. He is very short. We did not say anything to him which was good because the kid that ended up going to IU told us later that he apparently hates that and is known to be nasty to people.
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Deborah said on August 27, 2016 at 5:30 pm
We saw Mellencamp too, he was rehearsing for something held in Daley Plaza (I think) they had it cordoned off so you couldn’t get close, there were hardly any other people around. We couldn’t beleive how lucky we were to have happened upon that.
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Deborah said on August 27, 2016 at 5:43 pm
I love Chicago, but I’m happy to be heading back to Santa Fe even if I will only be there for Labor Day weekend after the road trip back. It’s so hot and humid in Chicago, yesterday was great but that was the only day like that. I really don’t like summer and winter here. Blah.
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Dexter said on August 27, 2016 at 9:55 pm
Trying to breathe 111F, 3% humidity Las Vegas air while a smoke-dome covered the valley was hell on my breathing, but I admit my joints felt better and I was walking pain-free for the first time in years. Back home…the aches and pains are back.
And me, bragging up wonderful Southwest Airlines…and now today an engine cowling disintegrates at 37,000 feet and the plane luckily makes a safe emergency landing. Damn planes!
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Jolene said on August 27, 2016 at 10:40 pm
Dexter, where do you see the British version of Shameless? Is it streaming somewhere?
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Dexter said on August 27, 2016 at 11:38 pm
Jolene…I’ve watched them all, ten seasons of the British Shameless on Netflix. The Brit Frank Gallagher, David Threlfall, is a great actor, playing the Frank character totally different, even more degenerate than Wm. H. Macy’s Frank Gallagher. The last episode aired in GB on Channel 4 three and a half years ago; Netflix picked up the entire production series a while back. It’s gritty as hell.
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Deborah said on August 28, 2016 at 9:04 am
Any of you Chicagoans know why there are bikes on LSD this morning. Two lanes in each direction are cordoned off for bikes and I can’t find anything about it on Google. All the bikers seem to be guys, at least that’s what it looks like from my perspective.
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Deborah said on August 28, 2016 at 9:12 am
Ok I found it, seems to be a triathlon.
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Deborah said on August 28, 2016 at 9:25 am
While I’m in a commenting mode… There was a horrible crime in NM recently a 10 year old girl was raped, murdered and dismembered by her mother, the mother’s boyfriend and the boyfriend’s female cousin. Pure evil, granted, but Gov Martinez is using it as an opportunity to reconstitute the death penalty in NM. The murderers were hopped up on drugs when the crime was committed and there’s a horrible drug problem there. So they’ve gutted mental health and drug rehab funding and they want to solve the problem now by executing people. They outsourced some of those programs to the private sector, where they had no improvement, actually things got worse. I don’t know what the solution is but something must be done.
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Deborah said on August 28, 2016 at 9:33 am
Reinstate not reconstitute
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Heather said on August 28, 2016 at 1:24 pm
John Mellencamp was at a wedding I attended (in Bloomington, IN) years ago. I didn’t talk to him, but the wedding band sure was going all-out to impress him.
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basset said on August 28, 2016 at 1:52 pm
Mama Basset’s funeral procession encountered him coming the other way on Third St. in Bloomington some years ago… he was appropriately respectful, stopped his G-Wagen and waited rather than cutting in front of us.
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Jakash said on August 28, 2016 at 1:57 pm
Apparently on “Meet the Press” today, Reince, bandleader on the Trumptanic, said “…Trump understands that…as you get closer to the White House, a degree of humanity & decency is part of every decision” In reply to which David Frum, of all people, tweeted:
“You don’t want to peak too early on the humanity and decency: save ‘em up for after Labor Day.”
To which somebody else replied: “And remember: After Labor Day no white shoes w/ your decency.”
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Sherri said on August 28, 2016 at 2:32 pm
If you remove the vowels from Reince Priebus, you get RNC PR BS.
Citizens United has decided to get in on the fun with Judicial Watch in trying to gin up a scandal over the Clinton Foundation, and ABC and the WSJ are happily going along. Horrors, the Foundation suggested some names for a state dinner!
Can’t any of these reporters consider some basic context in the stories? Like, how are guests to state dinners usually determined? Does it make sense for the people suggested to be guests at this state dinner, regardless of their donor status? Is there any other reason or relationship, other than their donor status, why they might get a meeting or a favor from the Secretary? Is there really any evidence of pay to play, or just the coincidence that there is an overlap among people likely to have business with the SoS and likely to be involved in the causes espoused by the Clinton Foundation?
We actually do have an example of another foundation run by a former President while a family member was in an influential position; the first President Bush had his Points of Light Foundation going through the second President Bush’s term. Was that handled differently? What do the Clintons do differently that makes their work so suspect?
If the Clintons have done something wrong or questionable, I want to know about it.
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Jakash said on August 28, 2016 at 2:45 pm
“RNC PR BS” Excellent!
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Deborah said on August 28, 2016 at 2:55 pm
It’s all they’ve got, this trumped up so called scandal about the Clinton Foundation. They are desparate to try to pull a rabbit out of a hat to keep Clinton out of the White House. They will lie, steal, cheat, anything they can think of now to play out the clock. It is all so obviously desparate to me. And sad, so, so sad. The republicans have done this to themselves, they really have. Their candidate is a joke, it’s all so pathetic. I would be so ashamed to be a republican right about now.
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Sherri said on August 28, 2016 at 7:02 pm
They’re not paranoid and they’re not racist. It’s just a coincidence that they’re all white and think the world is coming to an end and wanted to get away from immigrants and the crime-ridden urban hellscapes of places like San Francisco.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/wp/2016/08/27/2016/08/27/a-fortress-against-fear/?tid=pm_national_pop_b
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Suzanne said on August 28, 2016 at 8:59 pm
Drove south of Fort Wayne on HWY 27 today through Adams, Jay, and Randolph Co. Saw lots of Trump signs.
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Basset said on August 28, 2016 at 9:38 pm
Just got back from Bloomington. Had my “Still Pissed at Yoko” shirt on and some kid, I would guess a student, stopped me just off campus (Grant at Kirkwood) and asked “Who’s Yoko?”
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brian stouder said on August 28, 2016 at 9:49 pm
Suzanne – indeed.
It looks like Trump will win in Indiana, which I find somewhat amazing, even accounting for Pence’s presence on the ticket.
But our household will will cast several votes for HRC, so there’s that.
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Sherri said on August 28, 2016 at 10:28 pm
Trump is holding a rally in Everett, Washington on Tuesday. I wouldn’t think that the home of the Boeing assembly plant, which is both a union shop and heavily dependent on foreign trade, would be the most likely place to find Trump voters, but what do I know?
When Boeing jobs have left Washington, they haven’t gone to Mexico, they’ve gone to South Carolina, where Boeing can avoid unions. When the Tea Partiers wanted to shut down the Export-Import Bank, that was a big deal here because many of Boeing’s deals depend on it. Just saying, not all parts of the country are as open to anti-free trade messages as others.
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