Well, this is what you call a weekend. I’m sitting here bathing in the news firehose, and I think I need to just do the shotgun thing, just write stuff down, whaddayacallit? Stream-of-consciousness, yeah. See what pops up.
My autocorrect keeps changing “Melania” to “Melanie,” so I think the first lady needs a new name. I choose Natasha.
Sean Spicer definitely needs a new suit. Although maybe badly fitting suits are a Thing now.
Is Barron Trump on the autism spectrum? I know speculation has been going around on that topic, and yeah — no one’s business and leave the kids alone. I’m only curious, as it would explain much, including why Andrew Wakefield attended the inaugural celebrations and the new president supposedly plans to put a vaccine questioner on a committee investigating them.
That march. Whew. I had no idea so many people I knew were going, and now I feel like I should have at least come down to take some pictures. My favorite single march? Antarctica.
I’m not the first person to observe that when people who believe the government can’t do anything right rise to power, they put in charge people who can’t do anything right. Self-fulfilling prophecy. Still, a week doesn’t go by that I’m not astonished by how much regular people distrust their government. Two quick examples drawn from that bottomless pit of stupidity, my Facebook feed:
We’ve had some sewer line problems in an adjacent county, and a lot of rain, and some raw-sewage overflows into the lake have occurred. It happens, it’s not good, all freely acknowledged. Crews are working on it. On Facebook, a movement is rising: BOIL YOUR WATER. A person with an adequate understanding of how water systems work steps in to point out that the overflow is into the water source, “raw” water, and it is all treated at the plant before it goes out as potable. So you’re fine, this person said, which only prompted a torrent of how stupid do you think we are? Do you think they’d TELL us the water was unsafe to drink? Boil your water! As though water-plant management, with absolutely zero reason to lie because the problem wasn’t theirs in the first place or to fix, would just lie to nearly 3 million people who drink it. Because GOVERNMENT.
The next day, a person inexperienced with eggs reported getting a double yolk in one. “I threw it away, just to be safe,” she wrote. Smart! replied one of her network. You never know what the government is doing with these chickens! Of course a double yolk is a perfectly natural, if unusual occurrence in laying hens, but please: Blame the government.
Of course, water and food safety in the U.S. are two triumphs of government oversight, with one notable exception.
I could be amused by this stuff if the stakes weren’t so high.
A copied cake? What’s HAPPENING???!!?
Sherri posted this Rick Perlstein piece, low in yesterday’s comments. You should read.
And with that, I gotta scoot. Happy Monday, all.
David C. said on January 22, 2017 at 8:36 pm
There are people who think the government is poisoning us with jet trails, who think the government has tiny little airplanes and helicopters to move around tornadoes (why, after all do they always hit Oklahoma and all the Republicans therein), who think they put endocrine interrupters in juice boxes to make boys gay, and probably a million others those of us who don’t frequent the AM dial have any clue about. Next to that, boil water sounds positively quaint.
464 chars
alex said on January 22, 2017 at 9:10 pm
Meanwhile the few leftists in my neighborhood think the random barrages of fireworks and gunfire the last few days are deliberate attempts to menace and intimidate.
164 chars
Andrea said on January 22, 2017 at 9:20 pm
“It’s just a styrofoam president, not intended for governing.”
62 chars
Sherri said on January 22, 2017 at 9:28 pm
I’m really having a hard time connecting the dots on the double yolk thing, from how someone could have such a lack of understanding of reproductive systems (does she think government is causing twins, too?) to just where and how she thinks the government is intervening to cause double yolks to the paranoia required to believe the government would do this for some unknown nefarious reason (Agenda 21?)
Why people seem to believe that government is out to get them but businesses aren’t is a mystery.
506 chars
basset said on January 22, 2017 at 9:32 pm
Unless it’s deer season or I’m going fishing or Mrs. B and I are camped in the woods somewhere, I usually get up first in our house on Sunday mornings and turn on the local tv news, which is followed by “CBS Sunday Morning.” Today, I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
262 chars
Rana said on January 22, 2017 at 9:47 pm
One irony on the double-yolk thing is that I’ve mostly encountered them in super-organic veggie free-range eggs. There was one brand I used to buy that would have them regularly. It was actually rather cool. But the people most likely to freak out about those sorts of things are also the same people who believe that your kid will be stunted forever if they eat anything with sugar in it, or will go berserk if their non-allergic kid eats an Eggo during a sleepover.
(I’m pretty granola crunchy myself, but there is, as Dan puts it, a considerable difference between granola crunchy and homemade muesli crunchy.)
616 chars
Deborah said on January 22, 2017 at 10:17 pm
With as many eggs as I have cracked in my lifetime I’ve never encountered a double yolk. Actually, I think that’s odd, maybe the government has something to do with that.
170 chars
BigHank53 said on January 23, 2017 at 1:31 am
Years ago I remember seeing double-yolked eggs that had been sorted out and offered for sale at a markup. Some supermarket in New England, I think. I probably see three or four of them every year here in Virginia, and we are definitely getting the fancy free-range eggs. If you happen to be a fan of egg yolks, you should definitely try some duck eggs, which have larger yolks than chicken eggs do. (The whole egg is larger, of course, but the yolk is larger compared to the white.)
The cake story is boggling. Did they imagine that nobody could remember an inaugural cake from four years ago?
597 chars
Bowditch said on January 23, 2017 at 2:26 am
As a young child, I often accompanied my mother to the chicken farm run by the Bakers, several farms down the road from ours in Vermont. On very special occasions, we would bring home a dozen “double-yolkers”, and I recall vividly the wonder of those twin treats. We also would get fresh cream, skimmed with a large, dented ladle from the top of the milk tank at another neighbor’s farm just before the milk was poured into cans and placed on the stand alongside the dirt road for pick up by the town bottler.
Over time, the Bakers died, the chicken farm was sold piecemeal, and the vast barns that had held thousands of layers slowly decayed, becoming grey hulks in a landscape of early forest succession. Laws were enacted that required refrigerated bulk milk storage tanks that few of the local small dairy farmers could afford, and their farms likewise went into disrepair, as the farmers found other occupations to eke out survival through hard winters.
It never occurred to me that eggs with multiple yolks were anything other than small treasures, or that savoring cream ladled from the top of tanks frothed by recent replenishment from shiny buckets carried from the milking stalls portended untold
pathogenic risks. Those delicious treats from our neighbors arose from the natural world, and the wonders of that world piqued my curiosity, leading to a career as a life scientist. Many decades later, knowing how yolks double and sometimes triple, and in full appreciation of the public health benefits of refrigerated bulk milk storage, I have a warm fondness for the wide-eyed wonder of those trips to the Baker’s farm, and the thought of fresh, sweet, skimmed cream makes my mouth water.
1714 chars
alex said on January 23, 2017 at 3:57 am
In puritan New England, following the birth of a one-eyed piglet, the townspeople executed a one-eyed citizen in the belief that he had copulated with the sow. So hysteria over double-yolked eggs shouldn’t surprise, although if you’ve been the father of twins you might be a prime suspect under the Trump justice system, so watch your back.
340 chars
ROGirl said on January 23, 2017 at 5:42 am
The Perlstein piece didn’t even get into another area that is probably lurking very close to the surface for someone in rural Oklahoma, if you start scratching at it — the unseen forces behind government actions, i.e. the Jews have been bankrolling and pulling the strings in the background. Wait, sounds like the Breitbart crowd.
332 chars
Jolene said on January 23, 2017 at 6:21 am
The cake story is boggling. Did they imagine that nobody could remember an inaugural cake from four years ago?
They might have gotten by with it if the original cake designer hadn’t noticed it, and, of course, he would watch to see what a new designer had done with the opportunity.
Sounds like the new designer had the right idea: Let’s change it up a bit this time around.
It’s quite funny, really. Did they think there were rules for cake design?
466 chars
Suzanne said on January 23, 2017 at 6:43 am
Remember a lot of double yolks from my childhood when my grandmother kept chickens. Hmmmm. She was a staunch Democrat, so maybe.
My well educated, very right wing, Trump supporter brother-in-law keeps posting dumb stuff on Facebook. This weekend it was, as you might guess, something about the stupidity of the Women’s March. Then a Facebook friend of his launched into this tirade about how Roe v Wade was based on a lie and that fetus parts were too expensive to import from Europe and that the woman in Roe never was pregnant and on and on. What is scary to me is that my bro-in-law never said a thing in reply. Does he believe this garbage? I can’t even think that anyone believes it.
Yes, out here in rural Indiana, dissing the government has become an art form. Diss the government, whine about government regulation which, for example, ensures your water is clean, complain about taxes being too high, and then explode in a rage when a water main breaks for lack of maintenance and you don’t have the clean water coming out of your faucet.
1052 chars
Julie Robinson said on January 23, 2017 at 8:10 am
Or complain bitterly about horrible roads while fighting any attempt to raise the funds for repairs. That’s also happening here in the Hoosier state.
149 chars
Andrea said on January 23, 2017 at 9:14 am
Other than the fact that the steps are not, actually, very easy, here is some good advice from a survivor from the Chavez regime: https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2017/01/20/culturejam/
186 chars
Jason T. said on January 23, 2017 at 10:58 am
“Sean Spicer definitely needs a new suit. Although maybe badly fitting suits are a Thing now.”
Someone on Twitter or Facebook yesterday said Spicer’s suit is just riding up over the shock collar that makes him wear.
Besides, one thing you can say about fascists is that they usually have pretty sharp looking clothes. Someone just needs to get Spicer to a Hugo Boss store, schnell!
394 chars
Suzanne said on January 23, 2017 at 11:09 am
Andrea @ 15, that is a very interesting article. Good advice but hard to put into action.
The need for an enemy is why I doubt the right will ever really stop legal abortion. They need that enemy for them to rally their troops. That became very apparent this election. I know so many people who would not vote for Hillary because of her stand on abortion rights and for no other reason.
387 chars
MichaelG said on January 23, 2017 at 11:17 am
I buy jumbo eggs at Safeway or Taylor’s Market and see about a half dozen double yolks a year.
So this is going to be the Trump presidency? Daily bickering about minutia? About who had the most folks at their shindig and other meaningless crap?
249 chars
Jeff Borden said on January 23, 2017 at 11:22 am
My wife and I accompanied by two friends marched in the Chicago rally on Saturday and had a blast. My experience with protest marches was largely limited to anti-Vietnam War gatherings, which were almost entirely made up of white, college-aged kids. Man, the Women’s March was anything but. We saw numerous examples of three generations marching along. Every race was represented and most religions. It was a rather joyous gathering. . .when someone bumped into someone else, they said, “Excuse me.” The Chicago cops were very cool –we all noticed the police along the curbs were almost entirely under 40 years old– and could not have been more professional in the face of a meandering crowd of quarter-million. It was one of the best things we’ve done in recent years and we all agreed we would have regretted not marching.
Whether all those people and all that passion can be harnessed into a true movement remains unknown, of course, and we were marching on a day with near record-setting temps — 61 degrees– not the usual January bluster. Would the crowd have been as large if it were gray and windy and 25? But man, the el trains were jammed like it was a Cubs game Saturday, even though the CTA added extra trains. Metra added extra trains from the suburbs and still there were reported of sardine-like conditions aboard.
There were a few mildly vulgar signs and many depictions of vaginas and uteri, but my favorite sign read: “I’ve seen better cabinets at IKEA.”
1480 chars
Sherri said on January 23, 2017 at 11:31 am
As polarized as everybody is, I doubt they’d have much trouble pivoting to a new outrage or resentment if Roe v Wade were overturned. Now that same sex marriage is legal, in addition to the cooties protection defence, they’ve also rallied around the save our wimmen in the bathroom cause.
There’s always a new way to save/control/protect women.
347 chars
Tim said on January 23, 2017 at 12:02 pm
Kellyanne Conway came up with the new administration’s motto: “Alternative facts”.
She was smiling when she said that.
122 chars
Suzanne said on January 23, 2017 at 12:04 pm
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-radical-crusade-of-mike-pence-w462223
Should be interesting…
115 chars
Deborah said on January 23, 2017 at 12:10 pm
“Someone on Twitter or Facebook yesterday said Spicer’s suit is just riding up over the shock collar that makes him wear.”
Thanks, Jason T. That made my day.
162 chars
Icarus said on January 23, 2017 at 12:11 pm
I always thought getting an egg with two yolks was a bonus.
if you really want to get depressed, check out #notmymarch on Twitter. Or just bang your head against the wall.
175 chars
Catherine said on January 23, 2017 at 12:20 pm
“FREE MELANIA.” On a banner rolled out of a loft window in downtown LA during the march. Too slow to get a picture but I’m online shopping for the tshirt.
154 chars
alex said on January 23, 2017 at 12:26 pm
I’m still waiting for the free Mumia I was promised for my donation to the SDS.
79 chars
BItter Scribe said on January 23, 2017 at 12:40 pm
Totally OT, but I just gotta: The art critic of the L.A. Times wrote a brilliant evisceration of that stupid George Lucas vanity museum that Chicago was lucky enough to avoid (thanks to Friends of the Parks, and no thanks to Rahm Emanuel). How did Star Wars mutate from an enjoyably silly space opera into a goddamned religion?
468 chars
Dorothy said on January 23, 2017 at 12:42 pm
Jeff Borden check out these signs – my daughter shared this with me on Saturday morning and I laughed out loud at so many of them! It was hard to pick a favorite but I really liked the one that mentioned her great grandmother surviving Warsaw.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliareinstein/best-womens-march-signs?bftw&utm_term=.jaq3zeyVK#.cxxWaB4Mx
350 chars
Sherri said on January 23, 2017 at 12:45 pm
Melania made her choice a long time ago. She’s a grown up. She stuck with him through the birther nonsense, so my sympathy is limited. Ditto with Sean Spicer; he put that shock collar on willingly. Not the first time he’s blatantly lied to the press.
Kellyanne Conway got a pass for far too long because she’s a blonde. She’s been selling her soul for decades.
364 chars
nancy said on January 23, 2017 at 12:55 pm
Exactamundo, Sherri. Conway was on a lot of covers with her long legs and blonde hair and little miniskirts. Her and Ann Coulter are peas in a pod.
I’ll reserve a shred of sympathy for Natasha, only because she’s so clearly frightened out of her mind. I think that woman has closet skeletons that are only going to rattle louder, and now she has a kid to protect. Honestly, if I were her, I’d think a quiet divorce and settlement that would support a more private but less opulent lifestyle would sound like heaven now. Are you seeing all the clips that show her husband essentially ignoring her? It’s shameful.
Sean Spicer? Eh.
635 chars
Jeff Borden said on January 23, 2017 at 1:23 pm
Just ignore the politics of the moment and look at the way two couples interact with each other: Barack and Michelle Obama clearly are still over the moon for each other and it shows in every image of them together. It was fascinating to me to watch the new *president barge ahead while his wife was still on the other side of the vehicle and stride into the White House. Classless, sure, but also indicative of where she stands in his universe. No wonder unrepentant sexists flocked to the man’s campaign. He’s their kind of guy.
530 chars
Jolene said on January 23, 2017 at 2:26 pm
Here’s another example of Trump’s boorishness. Following the swearing-in ceremony on Friday, they both stop to greet Bob and Elizabeth Dole. The difference in the attention they devote to him is especially noteworthy because Dole was, for a long time, one of the few “establishment” Republicans who supported Trump. He is, in fact, the only previous GOP candidate–a list that includes GHW Bush, Dole, GW Bush, McCain, and Romney–who supported him.
568 chars
Sherri said on January 23, 2017 at 2:29 pm
I remember seeing John McCain treat his wife the same way after one of the debates. Michelle and Cindy came on stage, greeted their husbands, and Barack and Michelle walked off stage to greet people together, while McCain left his wife to navigate the steps alone while he rushed off to greet supporters. Given the importance of her money to his political career, you’d think he could treat her better and at least pretend that he cares.
But it’s only the Clinton marriage that’s fake, of course.
499 chars
Sherri said on January 23, 2017 at 2:54 pm
On the Perlstein article (please, go read, it’s the best Trump voter article I’ve seen)…
I’m still being told that we (liberals, the Dems, the coastal elites, inhabitors of the bubble) need to reach out to the forgotten white man, mostly by white men. I was just told this again by a white man I was meeting with last week. I challenged him to tell me some concrete way I was supposed to reach out to this group, how exactly I was supposed to attract them without compromising my values and ideals for women and people of color. I reminded him that Dems gave them health care, and they hated us for it. He didn’t have an answer for me.
The Perlstein article highlights the fundamental problem. The young man in the article has absorbed as an article of faith that white Christian men are at the bottom of the totem pole, no matter the reality. The economic facts don’t matter, the tax burden facts don’t matter, the political facts that every level of government is controlled by white Christian men doesn’t matter. This young man from Oklahoma has been inculcated with the insidious white supremacist myths that the Civil War wasn’t necessary for ending slavery and that Reconstruction is responsible for poverty in the South.
I have empathy for the young man, because I remember being fed those same myths. I just came to realize that they were myths, because I came to see the glaring contradictions in the myths.
My opinion may not be popular and it may be wrong, but I think it’s a waste of time figuring out a way to reach out to white Christian men. What I plan on doing, what I am doing, is working to promote my values and ideals. I think that those values and ideals would be good for white Christian men, too, but I don’t expect them to agree, and even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to hear it from me, anyway, because I’m a woman. I’m not going to worry about the people who disagree with me. I’m going to work to make elected government look more like the electorate, I’m going to fight to make sure it’s easier to vote, I’m going to stand up for the marginal, the vulnerable, and the oppressed. If nobody else wants to come along, I’m still going to do it.
*For Jeff(tmmo)’s sake, I’ll make it clear that I’m using Christian in the way it’s typically used in the media, to indicate that part of the spectrum is that is conservative, complementarian, evangelical, and often inextricably tied up in ways it doesn’t want to think about with racism and authoritarianism. In other words, the part that voted for an immoral, bigoted, misogynistic, xenophobic narcissist for president.
2616 chars
Julie Robinson said on January 23, 2017 at 2:56 pm
My favorite picture, of Barack kissing Michelle’s hand: http://image.mlive.com/home/mlive-media/pgmain/img/news_impact/photo/21908879-standard.jpg. It’s just plain sweet and speaks volumes about their relationship.
214 chars
Jakash said on January 23, 2017 at 3:02 pm
Really enjoyed that selection of signs, Dorothy. Thanks. I’ve also enjoyed the “Who wore it better?” meme mocking Kellyanne Conartist’s inaugural outfit.
This isn’t really the place to have an argument about the Lucas Museum, sorry about that, but since Bitter Scribe brought it up…
I’m no Star Wars buff or shill for either Lucas or Rahm (though I suppose it’s going to appear that I am), but, having read a lot of the criticism regarding his attempt to build it in Chicago, I find myself unpersuaded that, as Neil Steinberg believes, Chicago “dodged a bullet” by rejecting it. The proposed Chicago building was not my cup of tea; I like the proposed L. A. version somewhat better. But the idea that the Chicago land currently occupied by parking lots south of Soldier Field is hallowed ground, when it’s not even ON the lakefront, it’s just east of Lake Shore Drive, never registered with me. There are already a harbor and a park between that spot and the lake. I have a much greater dislike for what’s now evidently called the Huntington Bank Pavilion, which is quite ugly and takes up a lot of the area that IS close to the lake. Putting another museum by the “Museum Campus” made sense to me. Even putting an ugly, futuristic building next to the ugly, futuristic Soldier Field renovation made sense to me.
The fact that this would have all been paid for by Lucas, but that “we” chose to send him packing back to the West Coast seems misguided. Though I concede that his “my way or the highway” attitude was off-putting and counter-productive to say the least.
But I’m also unpersuaded by the L. A. Times piece linked to by the Scribe @ 27. Of course it’s a vanity project. Isn’t any museum that bears the name of a philanthropist a vanity project, in part? Who cares whether the term “Narrative Art” is an abomination to the L. A. Times art critic, and others? If it was called “George Lucas’ Attic on Parade,” but contained enough interesting material, presented well, it would seem worthwhile to me. I’m not a follower of the Star Wars religion, myself. But lots of folks are and I don’t see why they and others should be denied a unique museum that will cost its host city nothing to build and maintain.
Okay, way too long here. One more point. The article notes that “Virtually everything reported to be in his collection would fit easily within existing L.A. art museums.” The writer lists 7 such museums and suggests there are more that would be better places to distribute Lucas’ collection among. It hardly seems surprising or nefarious to me that Lucas would want his own showcase, rather than parceling his holdings out in such a manner. We used to have the Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago. A “vanity” museum, I suppose. But a wonderful collection to enjoy. It closed and some of the artwork is now on display in the Art Institute. But not all, for sure. Maybe it makes artistic “sense” for that collection to be added to the AI’s. But I still miss the old Terra Museum.
3044 chars
Sherri said on January 23, 2017 at 3:31 pm
Vanity museums are in the eye of the beholder, I guess. By some measures, you could call the National Gallery Andrew Mellon’s vanity museum. We have Paul Allen’s vanity museum up here, the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP, formerly EMP, the Gehry building that looks like a smashed guitar from the top of the Space Needle. I’ve enjoyed going there. We also have the Chihuly Garden and Glass, which I find less interesting because Dale Chihuly works are ubiquitous in this area, I don’t need to pay to see them.
506 chars
BItter Scribe said on January 23, 2017 at 3:35 pm
Jakash: I have a hard time seeing how anything east of Lake Shore Drive can not be considered part of the lakefront. It’s called Lake Shore Drive for a reason.
Emanuel and other supporters of the Lucas “museum” made much of the fact that the proposed site is a parking lot. They were IMO missing the point badly. It’s not that the site was pristine soil, it’s that a parking lot does not obstruct the view of the lake, which is the point of the ban on building along the lakefront.
As for the content of the museum, merely putting one’s name on a museum does not make it a vanity project. What made this a vanity project was that Lucas wanted to cram a bunch of Star Wars storyboards, Chewbacca figurines and God knows whatever other detritus he has in storage from his films, mix in some random stuff he collected along the way, and call that an art museum.
If I were to somehow obtain a vast fortune tomorrow, spend years collecting a carefully curated collection of art with a coherent theme, and open up the Bitter Scribe Museum of Art, there’s no doubt that it would be a legitimate cultural institution. If on the other hand I filled the “museum” with a bunch of clips, notes, interviews and other flotsam and jetsam from my long but not particularly distinguished career as a hack writer and editor, it would be beyond question a vanity project. It would be my perfect right to do so—God bless America—but it would not be my right to demand lakefront property that was out of bounds by law, just because I had enormous amounts of money to spend on a fancy architect.
(Incidentally, if anyone cares, I’m not really as down on myself and my career as that last paragraph may indicate. As a wise man said, “‘Hack’ just means you got paid to do it.”)
1783 chars
Carter Cleland said on January 23, 2017 at 3:49 pm
Melania – blink twice if you need help!
39 chars
BItter Scribe said on January 23, 2017 at 3:56 pm
Carter: Considering how much plastic surgery she’s had, I’m not sure that’s an option.
86 chars
Jolene said on January 23, 2017 at 4:27 pm
Julie, in the video version of Barack kissing Michelle’s hand, you can also see that she squeezes the hand of the soldier who escorted her to her seat before she turns to Barack–a small gesture of connection and appreciation. They are good people.
If you have OnDemand, you might be interested in checking out a program called “The End: The Last Days of the Obama White House”. I wouldn’t say it’s great entertainment, but it’s interesting to see some of the backstage aspects of the White House. Also impressive to see them doing their best to be civil and high-minded about what is to come.
596 chars
Jolene said on January 23, 2017 at 4:37 pm
Nancy, you might appreciate this commentary on Donald Trump’s dancing skills.
210 chars
Deborah said on January 23, 2017 at 4:44 pm
Here’s my 2 cents about the Lucas museum that isn’t going to be in Chicago. First of all, I was not opposed to it. a parking lot overlooking the lake isn’t a view I necessarily appreciate, at least not the parking lot that exists there. There are certainly ways to spiff up parking lots but they haven’t done it there. That being said, it really seems more appropriate for it to be in LA, since that’s where the movie industry was founded and still pretty much lives. It seems like a better home to me. Regarding the building itself, I was never a fan, but it could have been so much worse like the one that was originally purposed when it was possibly going to be in the bay area of CA. I will ask my husband about it again, we haven’t really discussed it much lately, it was in the category he often refers to as “evaluative oblivion”.
We are going to LA on Thursday, my husband’s students are doing a hypothetical project (that would be in LA if it was real) this semester, same as they did last year (different students of course). I was invited to go last year but didn’t want to because LA isn’t hasn’t always been one of my favorite places, but this year I decided to go because first it’s much warmer there and second they went to a lot of cool places last year that they’re doing again. One of the places I’m really looking forward to seeing is the midcentury modern Eames house https://www.google.com/search?q=EAmes+house&espv=2&biw=1704&bih=864&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiA8tvDndnRAhVh_4MKHY_FCGQQ_AUIBigB, I have been wanting to see that in person for a long time and one of the Neutra houses too http://www.lasavvytours.com/lovellhealthhouse.htm. Also, I will be spending some of my time in LA at the compound in Pasadena where my sister-in-law and her husband live which is amazing. LA is sounding better and better to me. After LA, I fly directly to Santa Fe, where I’ll be for about six weeks rather than back in frigid Chicago.
1987 chars
Sherri said on January 23, 2017 at 4:55 pm
This explains why I block ads and cookies and trackers and everything else I can: https://medium.com/on-advertising/how-true-advertising-can-save-journalism-from-drowning-in-a-sea-of-content-241f42bd1e0a#.m390up24e
215 chars
Icarus said on January 23, 2017 at 5:03 pm
I think Lucas would have got his Museum if he and his wife had played the PR game better. They rolled in and just assumed they would get the spot they wanted with no opposition. It didn’t help that their wedding cut off access to a public restroom in the park. [Yes, I know it was more the overzealous security guard than Lucas himself but he gets the fallout.}
364 chars
Julie Robinson said on January 23, 2017 at 5:10 pm
Nope, Jolene, I couldn’t watch anything on Friday or any recaps, so I’m happy to read that.
91 chars
Charlotte said on January 23, 2017 at 5:25 pm
Double yolked eggs wouldn’t wig anyone out in Montana (well, new people maybe) — I tend to get them when the chickens start up again after molting. I do have to say, backyard hens have ruined me for store eggs.
No — our new bogeyman is bicyclists. Bike paths — boo! Our local state rep just floated a bill to tax hybrid cars, high-mileage cars and bicyclists because we pay too little in gas taxes for roads, and “tourists don’t pay anything.” Both wrong of course, but plays well with the Ag crowd who are losing their place as the top economic driver in the state to — tourists and real estate.
Hey hive mind — just found out I’m going to need a crown in the next year or so. Advice? Gold? Porcelain? is there some new space age something? This is the first tooth thing I’ve had to do since braces in my teens …
829 chars
BItter Scribe said on January 23, 2017 at 5:44 pm
Charlotte:
Crowns now are metal topped with a very thin layer of glass. I just had a root canal on a tooth that had been crowned years ago, and my dear endondontist managed to remove and repack the diseased root without breaking the crown.
(It was my second root canal in two months. God I hope there won’t be any more anytime soon.)
At least your local state rep doesn’t think bicyclists contribute to global warming by exhaling hard. I’m not kidding, some nitwit legislator in Oregon or some such place actually said that.
533 chars
Sherri said on January 23, 2017 at 5:44 pm
There’s also porcelain bonded to metal crowns. I have four crowns, and none of them are gold, but I can’t remember whether they’re porcelain or porcelain bonded to metal.
I have teeth that have kept a variety of dentists busy. Braces as a child, braces as an adult, jaw surgery, root canal (one crown), chipped tooth (another crown), a tooth that is just too short, root and all (there’s a third), and another tooth that started falling apart as soon as it erupted (4th crown, which has been replaced once). Missing a molar, no wisdom teeth. Whenever I change dentists, they spend a lot of time looking at my X-rays!
619 chars
Jakash said on January 23, 2017 at 5:53 pm
I’ll just agree to disagree, then, Bitter Scribe. I think his museum could be worthwhile, and certainly enjoyable to many, vanity project or not. You evidently don’t. I think the half-mile or so of parking lots, harbor, marina and buildings already existing east of LSD in that area do a pretty fair job of obstructing the view of the lake already, and that a museum open to the public would be an acceptable addition in that particular spot. You don’t. We agree, however, that your “Flotsam and Jetsam, Clips, Notes and Interviews Museum” would be a tough sell! ; )
572 chars
alex said on January 23, 2017 at 6:00 pm
Charlotte, I’ve got more crowns than I ever wanted and hope to avoid any more. (I think it was from grinding my teeth at night during the Bush years.) Anyway, if it’s a tooth in the back that’s not visible, gold is the best. It keeps its shape and lasts forever. It has been my experience that the porcelain-fused ones are more expensive and a waste on back molars, where the porcelain flakes off you end up essentially digesting shards of glass, and your dentist will insist that you replace it when it starts to disintegrate.
For front teeth that get chipped or worn but don’t need to be crowned, they have a composite resin product that looks and wears beautifully. I have some of that too.
I’ve been having a toothache lately that feels like a root canal coming on, but last time I had this sensation a year ago in the same tooth it turned out to be sinus problems and not the tooth. Hoping that’s the case again.
I have one post with a tooth screwed onto it. That’s the priciest solution and also the most painful and takes the longest time from start to finish, although I know people who’ve done entire rows of them at a time.
1145 chars
susan said on January 23, 2017 at 6:26 pm
What was that…?
90 chars
Deborah said on January 23, 2017 at 6:46 pm
I’m having some crabby moments. Facebook has my algorithmic number and I keep getting links to progressive sites to click on to join, but when I try to, they often don’t work which is extremely irritating. If you want to get people on-board who care and want to help do your homework and figure out how to make these things work. Or get the hell out of my face. I’ve tried to leave this message on FB but many times that doesn’t work. Sorry to vent here. Does this happen to anyone else? Or is it just me?
505 chars
Connie said on January 23, 2017 at 7:18 pm
My latest crown was 3D printed in the back room while I waited.
63 chars
Charlotte said on January 23, 2017 at 7:24 pm
Thanks all — I’m leaning toward gold as it seems the longest-lasting and I’m a tiny bit phobic about teeth. Plus, the old dentist who is trying to retire has taught crown building at various dental schools for years — so need to save my $$ and get in before he manages to leave us all behind. The downside of having had good teeth — I need a lot of gas for teeth things … ugh.
And now, off to peruse seed catalogs because it’s just all too much!
454 chars
Sherri said on January 23, 2017 at 9:42 pm
Remember when I talked about Don Benton, the head of trump’s campaign in Washington, the guy who pretty much single-handedly stopped a project to replace the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon? trump does like to reward loyalty; Benton is now part of the transition team at the EPA: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/trump-administration-taps-two-washington-state-legislators-to-help-reshape-epa/
442 chars
Heather said on January 23, 2017 at 10:14 pm
I don’t feel that sorry for Melania most of the time either, but I’m in a Facebook support group for survivors of narcissist abuse (these women have some horrible stories; my own experience was a honeymoon compared to most of theirs), and they are all horrified by what they see, to the point that they can barely watch any of the clips because her reactions (or non-reactions) remind them of their own struggle to survive. Of course Trump is the Narcissist in Chief so it’s going to be a very long four years for anyone who’s enjoyed gaslighting, belittling, controlling, etc.
577 chars
susan said on January 23, 2017 at 10:58 pm
I don’t think the Big Orange Dick will last more than six months. He’ll stroke out, flatten out from coronary thrombosis, be popped off, or be pushed out by the back-stage Pence/Bannon cabal because he had served their purposes. Maybe he’ll strangle when his stupid long tie tangles in the wheel of a bullet proof black SUV, a la Isadora Duncan. On the first day in the Oval Office he reinstated the Global Gag Rule that bans recipients of U.S. foreign aid from offering abortion-related services. Look at what he did during the first 72 hours of his tenure.
I can’t bear to see that fucker sitting at that desk.
719 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 23, 2017 at 11:13 pm
Regarding my own sense of enjoyment at imagining a visit to the Bitter Scribe Museum of Art, I’m sure you could give Henry Darger a run for his money! You describe the kind of place I’d pay something to visit at least once.
223 chars
alex said on January 24, 2017 at 3:30 am
Heather, I have a friend who was married to one and I had to testify against him in court one time. It wasn’t pretty. Here’s a guy who could beat his wife and then convince the police to arrest her for domestic abuse because she had dared to defend herself. When I think of Trump, I think of him because they have exactly the same disorder. He served as his own lawyer in court, by the way, and it was just like the shit shows Trump put on during the debates.
Needless to say, I’m awake once again at 3:00 A.M. riven with terror.
533 chars
David C. said on January 24, 2017 at 6:25 am
So Pence is one of those creeps who calls his wife mother. I don’t know what strange psycho-sexual stuff they have going on in their brains, but it gives me the willies.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-radical-crusade-of-mike-pence-w462223
260 chars
alex said on January 24, 2017 at 7:13 am
Pence is even more stone cold than Trump. Not mentioned in the article was another Pence pratfall. He tried to establish his own state-run news outlet, ministry of propaganda, whatever you want to call it, and the media backlash was so swift and strong that he was forced to drop the whole thing and pretend it never happened.
Alternative facts are nothing new in Indiana politics. I don’t have any advice as to how you get used to it because you just don’t. It just adds a layer of despair and disgust and hopelessness to one’s daily experience.
550 chars
basset said on January 24, 2017 at 7:35 am
John Lennon, possibly the most PW’d man in the English-speaking world, used to call Yoko “mother.” Make of that what you will.
127 chars
Andrea said on January 24, 2017 at 7:45 am
A little late to the conversation, but regarding the Lucas Museum in Chicago, part of the issue is giving away for free public land to a private, for profit enterprise. The Friends of the Park lawyer is also my lawyer. We filed our lawsuit against Gov Rauner at the same time as the FOTP lawsuit was heating up. It is a tiny firm… Just 3 guys. Those were some crazy days…
378 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 24, 2017 at 8:03 am
David C., it’s not how I roll, but it’s pretty common in the parts of the Midwest where I’ve lived.
99 chars
Suzanne said on January 24, 2017 at 8:41 am
Pence is Nurse Ratched in a suit. “Now, Billy. Your mother would be so disappointed, wouldn’t she?”
99 chars
nancy said on January 24, 2017 at 8:45 am
Ditto on the mother thing. It starts when the kids are little, and “ask your mother” becomes “ask mother” becomes “mother” when the kids are around becomes “mother” when they’re not around. Very common in much of the Midwest.
225 chars
john (not mccain) said on January 24, 2017 at 8:51 am
“Maybe he’ll strangle when his stupid long tie tangles in the wheel of a bullet proof black SUV, a la Isadora Duncan.”
Please god let it get caught on camera. I want a gif.
178 chars
LAMary said on January 24, 2017 at 8:56 am
I may have been halfway dreaming, but when my clock radio went on this morning I could swear I heard Spicer say that having the media say that Trump’s inaugural crowds were small was demoralizing to the president.
213 chars
brian stouder said on January 24, 2017 at 9:16 am
I’d be creeped out if Pam called me “daddy” – and she’d evict me if I intimately referred to her as “mother”.
That said – President Lincoln was a “mother” referrer, with regard to Mary….so there’s that
206 chars
Joe K said on January 24, 2017 at 9:35 am
Well the academy award nominations are out, I think the Russians hacked into the count. These nominations are illegitimate, so as a protest I will not be attending the awards.
Pilot Joe
186 chars
brian stouder said on January 24, 2017 at 10:00 am
I rise to second Joe’s motion; and I move that we approve it by acclamation – as none of our people here have had anything particularly Award Winning to say about La La, thus far
178 chars
A. Riley said on January 24, 2017 at 10:25 am
And then of course Ronald Reagan called Nancy Mommy, which always creeped me out.
Okay, pet people, when you’re talking for your pets (as one does), do they call your co-servant Mom or Dad? “Daddy, Daddy, you’re home, you’re home! Oh boy, it’s time for our treat! Thanks, Dad!”
If I ever call my husband Dad with no cats in the vicinity it’ll be time to cart me off to the bin.
385 chars
Dorothy said on January 24, 2017 at 10:47 am
My hubby has never called me “Mother” or any variation thereof. However he did used to walk in the door, when the kids were still living at home, and if he didn’t see me right away, he’d say “Where’s your mother?” I always thought that was dumb because where would I be?! I lived there – I was likely making dinner – but why he asked them that without just hollering “Hey Ace where are you?” struck me as goofy. Nowadays since he knows I made fun of him for that question, he’ll come in and see Husky or Lucy and say “Where’s your MOTHER?!” just to get my goat.
565 chars
Deborah said on January 24, 2017 at 11:13 am
A friend of mine calls his wife Mommy and they don’t have kids, they have two dogs. but he calls her that when they’re out and their dogs aren’t around at all. I think that’s weird.
Actually, I think it’s weird when people call their spouse Honey. It seems so phony to me. That and giant diamond engagement rings always seem so contrived, so ridiculous.
356 chars
Julie Robinson said on January 24, 2017 at 11:16 am
I call my husband honey all the time because he is one. But daddy? Or him calling me mommy? Ewww.
97 chars
Dorothy said on January 24, 2017 at 11:18 am
I call almost everyone Honey, or just Hon I get it from my mother, who is the epitome of kindness to everyone. I am not cloying about it. But I like the endearment. And it’s especially relevant in our house since Mike is a beekeeper!
236 chars
Heather said on January 24, 2017 at 11:32 am
On the mystery series “Endeavour,” which is about Inspector Morse as he’s just starting his police career in the 60s, the wife of his (older) partner calls her husband “Dad,” but it actually comes off as sweet rather than creepy. “Daddy” would be disturbing.
258 chars
Jenine said on January 24, 2017 at 11:33 am
I like endearments: honey, darlin, and even sillier ones. And I like bees!
74 chars
Danny said on January 24, 2017 at 11:58 am
Just so everyone can have a crappy song they can’t get out of their head all day long:
I love little baby ducks, old pickup trucks
Slow-movin’ trains and rain
I love little country streams, sleep without dreams
Sunday school in May and hay
And I love you, too
I love leaves in the wind, pictures of my friends
Birds of the world and squirrels
I love coffee in a cup, little fuzzy pups
Bourbon in a glass and grass
And I love you, too
I love honest, open smiles, kisses from a child
Tomatoes on the vine and onions
I love winners when they cry, losers when they cry
Music when it’s good and life
And I love you, too.
636 chars
Deborah said on January 24, 2017 at 12:15 pm
More weirdness in the twilight zone that is the current administration http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/no-white-house-leaks-like-this-until-now
147 chars
Jeff Borden said on January 24, 2017 at 12:52 pm
Has anyone in the NN.C community seen a German film on Netflix that translates to “Look Who’s Back?” We watched it on Netflix yesterday. It’s a ridiculous premise –Adolf Hitler awakens in modern Berlin still in his tattered, dirty uniform– but it packs a real punch and definitely mirrors our current political situation. Hitler is “discovered” by a schlubby TV producer barely hanging onto his job, who then tries to translate his discovery into a television star. What begins as an absurd comedy takes a dark turn when more and more people start remarking that, ‘You know, maybe this guy is right.’ There is no mention of our own populist xenophobe, but there are images of Marine LePen and Geert Wilders toward the end. It’s difficult to watch and not see echoes of Der Kommissar’s rise from reality TV performer to political movement leader.
847 chars
Deborah said on January 24, 2017 at 1:05 pm
I think the reason “honey” bothers me is that with the multitude of endearments there are, so many people choose the same one for their spouse, like it’s a prerequisite or something. The same thing goes for the ga ga diamond engagement ring. I mean why does it have to be a diamond or even a ring?
297 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 24, 2017 at 1:20 pm
I loved “La La Land.” I loved that Ryan Gosling can’t sing any better than I can, and doesn’t dance all that much better either. I loved Emma Stone, who convinced me she was the character, but since I never heard of her before, can’t say if she’s one note or not. I loved the piano playing and freeway ramp opening and the not-really-very unexpected closing, which did just enough homage to “American in Paris” (a terrible movie with perhaps the world’s greatest dance number at the end, and I lean Fred Astaire-wards as greatest male dancer ever, but it’s just incredible) and some nods to “Broadway Melody” and the other iconic Gene Kelly dance from “Singin’ in the Rain” . . . I loved the music, from John Legend to Stone humming “City of Stars” at the end. I loved that I left humming a phrase of a melody all the way across the parking lot, which I don’t recall having done since “Les Mis.” I loved that it’s far from perfect, and put those imperfections right out there in front of the audience without insisting that the imperfections were themselves perfect. I loved that my son, starting a path into music as his vocation and his occupation, walked away with me talking about how, as Obama had on his desk in the Oval Office, “Hard things are hard.” But doing a hard thing, and not quite succeeding, can still be beautiful.
I loved “La La Land.” Let’s do better, but I loved the sheer exhilaration of watching it and “Hidden Figures” on successive nights. They gave me hope that we CAN do better.
1508 chars
Jakash said on January 24, 2017 at 1:28 pm
Good point about the private use of public land, @ 64, Andrea. If Lucas weren’t so high and mighty about it, one imagines that something could have been worked out with regard to that. And your mention of the tiny law firm reminds me that normally, I’d be on the side of the underdog Parks people against the tycoon and the mayor, but the way the museum was dismissed by many as not worth having and that particular parcel of land was portrayed as sacrosanct because it’s east of Lake Shore Drive irked me.
508 chars
Julie Robinson said on January 24, 2017 at 1:37 pm
Jeff, if your son is going to be a music professional, isn’t he distressed that two such marginal and unprofessional singers were cast instead of professional musicians? Maybe I’ll feel differently after I see the movie, but having listened to the soundtrack, I was quite unimpressed. I think they’re both great actors, but as musicians they fall very flat.
357 chars
alex said on January 24, 2017 at 1:47 pm
Thank heavens I don’t recognize that song, Danny. My earworm for today is a Brazilian jazz cover that’s been done a bazillion times, forget the name or who wrote it originally. The current iteration is infectious.
213 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 24, 2017 at 2:00 pm
Julie, my son has spent way too much thinking that he has to be awesome to do anything, that if you aren’t epic and beautiful and perfect, there’s no place for you in the arts. Frankly, it was bracing for him to get to hear and see something that hasn’t had the flaws all CGI’d out of it, Auto-Tuned to death, edited to a perfection not found in nature or narrative.
Make your art, share it with passion and persistence, and look for your audience without making them the sole arbiter of what you should be doing. That’s what I’ve been saying to him, and what “La La Land” affirmed. IMHO!
591 chars
Sherri said on January 24, 2017 at 2:01 pm
Reading this about the shadow cabinet raises the question as to who the real president is. We all know it’s not trump, who’s too busy obsessing over the sixpze of his, er, crowds, but does the neo-Nazi Bannon have the throne or is the man trump seems to regard as more of a son than his sons, Kushner, in charge? I tend to lean towards Bannon, because I don’t think Kushner has yet taken on Bannon in a fight and won.
Either way, if Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnel think they’re going to control,the situation and have a compliant White House to sign their destruction of the New Deal, they’d better have those Articles of Impeachment already drawn up and be ready to move soon and quickly. Right now they’re happy to let the White House gut all the agencies they hate, and they want to get that Cabinet of Evil approved, but don’t underestimate what Bannon’ is willing to do. He’s a nihilist leading an army of nihilists. Do you really think he wouldn’t be willing to stage a terrorist attack on US soil (say, at a trump property) to create an opportunity to stop Congress in its tracks?
Maybe I’m paranoid, but ask yourself, what would have happened in the Nixon White House if Nixon had been stupid and Gordon Liddy had been his closest advisor?
1349 chars
Jakash said on January 24, 2017 at 2:03 pm
Emma Stone is a fine actress, Jeff(tmmo). We’ve seen her in several things in which she’s been solid. I thought “La La Land” was swell, and your description is on point. 14 nominations seem quite over the top, as it is not a “great” movie by the standards of the past, IMHO, but it fits in a lot of categories, so what’re you gonna do? Coincidentally, it and “Hidden Figures,” which you also mention, are the only 2 BP nominees we’ve seen so far, though we hope to ramp things up now that the nominations are out. I’m sure there is much worthy competition, Pilot Joe’s opinion notwithstanding.
I gotta say, though, I kinda have the opposite take on the amateurism of the singing and dancing. Fun to watch, yes. But given that this country’s embrace of reality TV and the American Idolization of our culture has unbelievably resulted in the election of about the worst President imaginable, it makes me somewhat queasy to see people so elated about the idea of these non-singers and dancers carrying a singing and dancing movie.
In fact, I can’t seem to watch ANY movies or TV shows these days without cringing as they remind me of the current reign of Il Douche. The plot-line of “Madam Secretary” and the episode of “Victoria” on PBS that we watched are at opposite poles, e.g. — Madam Secretary demonstrates the value of professionalism and temperament, while the beginning of Victoria is about a neophyte becoming a powerful leader, though she also has a much different temperament and appreciation for the value of education than the Current Occupant seems to — but they both just make me rue the predicament that 25% of the electorate has placed the country in.
Oh, we also saw “Jackie”, not BP nominated, but Natalie Portman’s performance was stunning. Of course, that one REALLY made me reflect on the present situation and the difference in taste and temperament between Camelot, the sort of reprise we’ve enjoyed for the past 8 years, and the real-life version of C. Montgomery Burns that just moved into the White House.
2052 chars
Joe K said on January 24, 2017 at 2:12 pm
La,la, land was a good movie, hated the ending.
Jeff, you know how to get a professional musician off your front porch?
Pay for the pizza.
But good luck if that’s what he wants.
67 and sunny in Charleston SC.Just delivered a kidney, someone is going to be happy.
Pilot Joe
277 chars
Scout said on January 24, 2017 at 2:38 pm
Emma Stone is one my favorite young actresses. I loved her in The Help and in Crazy Stupid Love. I haven’t seen La La Land yet but hope to this weekend. The 2nd runner up in the Oscar nominations is Moonlight, which I highly recommend.
I just read this piece. If true, it’s only a matter of time before he blows. Not that I expected anything more of his arrested development temperament.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/01/trump-aides-cant-stop-blabbing-about-how-hes-a-madman.html
495 chars
Deborah said on January 24, 2017 at 2:59 pm
I knew the next 4 years were going to be bad, but judging by the first few days, I honestly didn’t think it was going to be this bad. Wow. The guy is certifiable, and you know who I mean.
Maybe it’s because my foot is bothering me again and I’m sitting around surfing the net trying to stay off of my foot because we will be walking a lot in LA. I’m reading unbelievable stuff leaking from staffers in the White House. I need to get back to the book I was reading (My Name is Red by Pamuk) or something else because this is too bizarre.
I read on Facebook (Jolene?) that only 19% of the eligible population voted for the guy and we are all now stuck with him.
666 chars
Scout said on January 24, 2017 at 3:45 pm
I’m fascinated by this. What could it portend?
“We are three days into the administration and the Trump White House leaks not so much like a sieve as a bucket with no bottom.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/no-white-house-leaks-like-this-until-now
256 chars
Sherri said on January 24, 2017 at 3:50 pm
Lots of infighting and backstabbing, as people use leaks to undermine others closer to trump and move up the greasy pole. Better make sure to see a tailor and ensure your suit fits well, though, because trump likes his minions to look the part.
244 chars
Sherri said on January 24, 2017 at 4:22 pm
The other group as paranoid as rural America: the rich white men of Silicon Valley and Wall Street who have gotten rich destroying society and now spend some of that wealth prepping to survive the downfall: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich
285 chars
Sherri said on January 24, 2017 at 4:35 pm
Don’t say anything until we get your KGB officer in place to vet everything.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/legacy_mobile/dinograndoni/trump-usda
142 chars
Suzanne said on January 24, 2017 at 5:19 pm
It’ll be interesting to see the rural ag people’s reaction to putting dampers on the USDA & pulling out of the TPP. I know several farmers who were hoping to expand their market, which would expand grain prices, to Asia. Oh, well!
234 chars