Last weeks.

A shortish day, a longish week, and I am so ready for it to be over. How’s your Thursday/Friday/Saturday?

Oh, but what am I talking about? This is one of the fleeting final weeks of summer, and we should savor every minute of it.

That said, I still need a vacation.

I’m planning to do another version of last year’s Sunrises of Summer post, as I can’t seem to stop myself from taking a photo every day I see it. That’ll be for Labor Day. Today was the last day I’ll swim at the Shores pool, overlooking the lake. It’s such a lovely spot, and never lovelier than at sunrise, which comes later and later. In another month, it’ll be the equinox, then the slog to the solstice, and then we start our trip back into the light. This fourth-grade science lesson is brought to you by Got Nothing to Say.

So let’s skip to the bloggage.

Charlotte posted this the other day, but it took me a while to get through it and I’m here to tell you it’s worth your time — GQ’s odyssey in search of Dylann Roof. It’s, um, a powerful piece:

In Charleston, I learned about what happens when whiteness goes antic and is removed from a sense of history. It creates tragedies where black grandchildren who have done everything right have to testify in court to the goodness of the character of their slain 87-year-old grandmother because some unfettered man has taken her life. But I also saw in those families that the ability to stay imaginative, to express grace, a refusal to become like them in the face of horror, is to forever be unbroken. It reminds us that we already know the way out of bondage and into freedom. This is how I will remember those left behind, not just in their grief, their mourning so deep and so profound, but also through their refusal to be vanquished. That even when denied justice for generations, in the face of persistent violence, we insist with a quiet knowing that we will prevail. I thought I needed stories of vengeance and street justice, but I was wrong. I didn’t need them for what they told me about Roof. I needed them for what they said about us. That in our rejection of that kind of hatred, we reveal how we are not battling our own obsolescence. How we resist. How we rise.

Reporters know about outfits like the Congressional Budget Office. Most states have a local version of these wonk-nests, where apolitical number-crunchers estimate the financial implications of legislation proposed by politicians, and then attach it to bills, just so everybody knows what they’re voting for. Trump doesn’t like the CBO, says Steve Rattner:

Developing long-term projections — particularly for complex policies like health care — is exceptionally difficult. And by no means do C.B.O. analyses invariably prove correct.

But passing sweeping legislation without input from the budget office would be like planning a picnic without checking the weather forecast. Meteorologists are not always right either but imagine what life (and businesses such as agriculture) would be like without them.

Finally, my old newspaper is more or less folding — they’re dropping the paper-paper and going all-digital. I don’t even care. Shit happens.

But I hope it doesn’t happen on your weekend. Enjoy.

Posted at 9:32 pm in Current events |
 

70 responses to “Last weeks.”

  1. Jason T. said on August 24, 2017 at 10:07 pm

    I always love the unattributed corporate bullshit doublespeak when newspapers write about themselves:

    “The News-Sentinel will now sharpen its focus on more timely, topical and in-depth coverage of the region’s news without the constraints of the afternoon print cycle. The News-Sentinel remains committed to providing its readers with the type of robust coverage of topics most important to the region and providing its advertisers the ability to reach even more people within their marketing area.”

    Not even the crappiest newspaper would allow an elected official to issue an pile of garbage like that without challenging it, or at least qualifying it. But when they cover their own failings, it’s ethics-schmetics and damn the torpedoes.

    I had to write several of those kinds of horsecrap stories, including one on Nov. 9, 2000, “explaining” why our Nov. 8, 2000, paper carried a giant headline that read “BUSH WINS.” (Why? Because the publisher called the managing editor on the night of Nov. 7, 2000, and told him to run that headline, that’s why, but that particular reason did not appear in my article, which ran under a “By The Newspaper” byline.)

    Journalism is important. But most newspapers have fewer morals than a truck-stop sex worker.

    1290 chars

  2. Bitter Scribe said on August 24, 2017 at 11:06 pm

    What’s the over-under on when this “timely, topical and in-depth coverage of the region’s news” becomes one guy “aggregating content”?

    136 chars

  3. Sherri said on August 25, 2017 at 12:34 am

    What, they didn’t “pivot to video”? That’s what all the cool kids are doing.

    76 chars

  4. Dexter said on August 25, 2017 at 2:59 am

    A male producer of “Bennington”, a sat-radio show is 24 years old. A production assistant, a woman, is 22. And neither of them has EVER read a newspaper. These are smart young Americans living in New York City. Never. Read. A. Paper. You are so right, Sherri. But they surely do know how to use their smartphones and steal TV shows by many methods.

    355 chars

  5. Connie said on August 25, 2017 at 6:02 am

    Shit happens. Yesterday at my new library it happened 160 feet down the drain and killed every toilet in the place. You know those automatic flushers? Turns out they have to be low flow flushes. We had already ordered valve replacements to change the flushers in the kids room family restroom to standard flush, thus requiring you to flush manually. After two nasty blockages. We already had scheduled a camera tour of our sewer drain for next week. This building is eight months old. We are across the street from the sewer pump station.

    Thinking about joining the fitness center in a nearby HS because it has a lift to get one legged people into and out of the pool. It’s the out thats the problem. Getting in is easy. Wheel chair to edge of pool, stand on my one foot, fall in. Assuming they actually run it for you. Actually the out is only hard if you prefer not to crawl in public. I am working on mastering the one footed walker hop.

    A few years ago I went to a meeting at a small town library in a historic home. To get to the meeting room from the lobby there was a grand staircase with one of those lift chairs for handicapped access. None of the employees on duty could find the key.

    Happy Friday.

    1219 chars

  6. basset said on August 25, 2017 at 6:24 am

    The GQ story is indeed well told and strong. I’m wondering, though, how a regular ol’ reporter qualifies to become an “essayist.” Does it require a fancy degree? Three names? It’s a mystery.

    194 chars

  7. alex said on August 25, 2017 at 7:15 am

    Connie, I’ve heard libraries have sewer problems because of homeless people crapping their pants and then flushing their undies at the first opportunity.

    153 chars

  8. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 25, 2017 at 7:37 am

    Was at a meeting last week for a project that is directly involved with matters of poverty and homelessness, and asked early on “why don’t we have someone from the library here?” The two elected officials looked at me quizzically, but our chair and director of a transitional housing program immediately said “drat, good point, I’ll call them before our next meeting.” They’re as important a part of the community network on those issues as the Social Security office or Ohio Works First (or whatever we’re calling the jobs office this year).

    542 chars

  9. coozledad said on August 25, 2017 at 8:29 am

    Pursuant to our discussions on August 23,
    I am submitting notice of my resignation
    Some remaining loose ends may need to be addressed
    Still, it has been an eye opening experience, and
    Truly golden opportunities have opened up for me as well as my staff,
    As they are bagging this foaming urinal, too.
    Perhaps we can hammer out a mutually remunerative nondisclosure deal, because
    Even a blind squirrel will find this nut now, and we ‘ll gladly help it.

    Sincerely, former Trump staffer.

    553 chars

  10. Suzanne said on August 25, 2017 at 8:45 am

    The dossier thing is heating up. It apparently is real.
    But even if it is, it won’t matter to Trumpistas. If someone can believe that electrical outlets in an airport collects data from your phone, they will believe or disbelieve almost anything. (Did I ever mention the number of people I’ve spoken to who believe in the foot bath that pulls the toxins from your body & heals darn near anything that ails you? The proof is the discolored water after you’re done. The toxins are right there, visible)
    This has really been going on for a good year, if you count the campaign. I still don’t get the masses being so enamored of him and his followers’ blindness. I know it’s happened before in history many times, but good grief, at least Eva Peron started at the bottom and was good looking!

    But then I think Steve Bannon. He’s studied history, gotta give him that, and knows exactly what to do.

    903 chars

  11. Connie said on August 25, 2017 at 8:46 am

    I’ve never heard that Alex. Although in Elkhart I had a nice restroom in which the sinks were a favored bath tub for the homeless population.

    142 chars

  12. Dorothy said on August 25, 2017 at 8:53 am

    Why can’t they just toss them into the trash can?! Surely they can find a plastic bag somewhere to wrap it up. Yee Gods!

    120 chars

  13. basset said on August 25, 2017 at 8:56 am

    Data from your phone? Well, a real law-abidin’ Amurkin would have nothing to hide, so no problem, right?

    105 chars

  14. Julie Robinson said on August 25, 2017 at 9:24 am

    Oh man, Connie, what a huge headache for you. And you thought it was about books.

    One of our son’s basketball coaches was paraplegic and used a scooter chair. It could go over bumpy grass and thresholds with no problem, but one school’s gym was in the basement, and oh sorry the elevator wasn’t working. I’ll never forget four strong dads carrying him down those stairs and back up again, but it shouldn’t have been necessary.

    We really struggled getting my sister and her walker to the beach. The special wheelchair she had called about didn’t seem to exist once we were there. So two of us took her by the arms and slowly and painfully shuffled her down. Took about 10 minutes to cover a 30 second walk. Anyway, I hope your day gets better.

    751 chars

  15. Connie said on August 25, 2017 at 9:47 am

    Good for you Jeff. Numerous big city libraries are adding social workers to their staff and carrying that drug for overdoses. Actually the library in Bloomington IN has had a few overdoses and I believe have discussed carrying it. Ann Arbor PL has dealt with overdoses as well. Homeless, mentally ill, and just plain weirdos.

    328 chars

  16. brian stouder said on August 25, 2017 at 10:07 am

    Connie – indeed. I may have already commented on this, but when we moved our daughter down to Bloomington earlier this month, there was a display in the lounge area of her residence hall (Read Hall) about homelessness in Bloomington. It struck me as an odd thing to display, and upon Googling the subject later on, I learned that homeless folks tend to head for college towns, making that a larger issue than I’d have guessed. (Shelby had previously noted that she was seeing numbers of homeless people when she and her colleagues ventured around town).

    A few years back, when Grant (our other college student) and I went to San Diego, the numbers of people with no place to go immediately struck us, too; including signs in McDonald’s (et al) that specifically said paying customers had one hour to sit in the building, and then had to exit (folks might otherwise buy a coffee and take up a table all day)

    915 chars

  17. brian stouder said on August 25, 2017 at 10:12 am

    Three Cheers for Janet Yellin!! (who presumably will not be re-nominated by TrumPissed, now)

    92 chars

  18. Bitter Scribe said on August 25, 2017 at 10:19 am

    Sometimes I see obviously homeless people–layers of rumpled, worn clothes, massed belongings in a backpack–hunched over a book at my library. I try to empathize. If I ever become homeless, I’ll probably spend a lot of time in the library too.

    (Of course that’s easy for me to say. If I worked in one, I’m sure I’d be singing a different tune.)

    348 chars

  19. Little Bird said on August 25, 2017 at 10:31 am

    I’ve come across poop in books and on (low) shelves in public libraries. Apparently some people don’t necessarily even try to make it to the toilets.
    This was in Chicago, if that makes a difference.

    200 chars

  20. Heather said on August 25, 2017 at 10:48 am

    Oh jeez, Little Bird. I’m going to be grossed out the next time I go to my neighborhood library.

    96 chars

  21. brian stouder said on August 25, 2017 at 10:50 am

    We,, if we can now attack politicians based on their fathers –

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/24/nancy-pelosis-father-helped-dedicate-confederate-monument.html

    (an excerpt)

    Last week, more than a half century after Pelosi’s father honored the Lee-Jackson monument, it was removed from its post along with three other Confederate statues in Baltimore, according to the Baltimore Sun…..

    Pelosi’s office did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment on her father’s involvement with one of the Baltimore monuments.

    So by that standard, it would NOT be “fake news” to go after President Trump regarding his Klan dad, Freddie Christ Trump, right?

    686 chars

  22. Charlotte said on August 25, 2017 at 10:51 am

    Basset @ 6 — I would call myself an essayist rather than a journalist, even if I managed to pitch a big piece like that — because I’ve never worked on a newspaper or other news outlet. I’m not a trained journalist and would be really uncomfortable claiming I was — but I have written and published essays and fiction — hence essayist.

    And three names? Lots of women have 3 names — whether because they wanted to keep their maiden name or because, like me, they had parents with different names and want to carry both.

    526 chars

  23. brian stouder said on August 25, 2017 at 10:51 am

    That first word should be “well”…!

    36 chars

  24. Bruce Fields said on August 25, 2017 at 11:12 am

    “If someone can believe that electrical outlets in an airport collects data from your phone”

    They probably saw somebody talk about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juice_jacking

    No, a regular AC outlet isn’t a problem, but a USB charging station can be.

    My (not very well-informed) impression is that it’s not really something users should worry much about at this point, more something that vendors should be addressing before it becomes a widespread problem.

    472 chars

  25. Charlotte said on August 25, 2017 at 11:16 am

    Even here in tiny Livingston, our librarians are a major node in the social service network. Lots of folks using the computers, hanging out where it’s warm — especially in winter when the seasonal work is gone. Also, our mail carriers. We have a pretty robust system here, and have always had good services including elderly housing, but gentrification and AirBnB has hit the local rental market hard.

    402 chars

  26. Suzanne said on August 25, 2017 at 11:22 am

    Ah ha! Bruce, that might explain where my hairdresser got the idea but thought it was all electrical outlets. Shows how fake news spreads rapidly.

    146 chars

  27. Mark P said on August 25, 2017 at 11:26 am

    Connie, your experience reminds me of when I visited Great Basin National Park, just inside the Nevada border with Utah. My father and I had been hiking, and on the way back to the campground around dusk, we found a woman lying in the middle of the road with her motorcycle some distance away. She had hit a deer. We parked our truck to block traffic (of which there was none). I lgot out and ooked at her face inside her helmet. I thought she was dead, but it was just makeup. Eventually someone else came along, and they went to get a ranger. The rangers came and called for an ambulance, which apparently was kept in the tiny community just outside the gate. We waited, and waited, and waited. And then we waited some more. Finally someone radioed to the ranger. They couldn’t find the key to the ambulance.

    Eventually the ambulance got there, picked up the woman and took her to Ely, the nearest town. Utah and Nevada are essentially the definition of nowhere, except for the opposite edges, so Great Basin is, by definition, the middle of nowhere. Ely had probably less than 4,000 population, so they had to fly the woman to Salt Lake, where she spent weeks in the hospital before going back home to Arizona to recuperate some more. She eventually did recover.

    1268 chars

  28. basset said on August 25, 2017 at 12:20 pm

    Charlotte, I just thought three names in this context might be another contrived way to show off one’s real or imagined erudition – like hyphenated first names. wire-rim glasses, and the serious and contemplative act when in range of a camera. Not saying that’s the case with this article, not at all, but there do seem to be a lot of posers out there.

    353 chars

  29. Joe Kobiela said on August 25, 2017 at 12:21 pm

    Just finishing up a 24hr layover in New Orleans, walking the French quarter last night, lots of homeless
    Heck of a mix down here but all seemed friendly, fun to take a run this am and experience the city wakeing up.
    Pilot Joe

    228 chars

  30. brian stouder said on August 25, 2017 at 12:30 pm

    Joe – my fine young son just did a 3-day New Orleans visit as a part of his duties as a fraternity officer (college junior). I’ve not been there yet, but I shall (at some point)

    Anyway – today’s a good day to NOT be down there, and instead be in good ol’ Northern Indiana

    274 chars

  31. Jakash said on August 25, 2017 at 12:48 pm

    Well, mama always said that nn.c was like a box of chocolates, but the comments today seem to be full of shit! And, unlike usual, more piss than vinegar… ; )

    “I thought she was dead, but it was just makeup.” Hey, that would have fit right in with a couple of those photos of Melania yesterday.

    301 chars

  32. Suzanne said on August 25, 2017 at 1:10 pm

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/books/review/john-le-carre-ben-macintyre-british-spy-thrillers.html

    Interesting. John Le Carre, who I did not realize was a real live spy, thinks there is something to the infamous Trump dossier.

    233 chars

  33. Charlotte said on August 25, 2017 at 2:14 pm

    Bassett — I’m just going to assume you’re having some kind of bad day — because when one’s first response to an article of that depth, written by a young black woman, is that she must be a “poser” — well, it gives a person pause.
    And if using 3 names, having advanced degrees, and wearing glasses makes you a “poser” — then I guess I’m just Dr. Poser from now on. Really insulting. But as someone pointed out, it seems to be a very cranky day over here on NNC. So perhaps it’s just crankiness. I’ll hope so.

    515 chars

  34. brian stouder said on August 25, 2017 at 2:17 pm

    Here’s an interesting article –

    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-white-house-challenge-limiting-trumps-diet-wrong-information

    although it won’t improve the day much – it’s Friday afternoon, so that’s worth a few points in and of itself, eh?

    260 chars

  35. Bitter Scribe said on August 25, 2017 at 3:48 pm

    I had to spend some time in the Chicago public library when I was 15. The most disgusting public place I’ve ever visited. The clerks were rude and the place was filthy. Grit and grime covered every surface, the floors looked like they hadn’t been mopped in months, the bathrooms were indescribably vile. Plus some old guy came on to me.

    Of course, it’s been a long time since I was 15. Hopefully they’ve cleaned the place up since.

    434 chars

  36. Jakash said on August 25, 2017 at 3:51 pm

    “But as someone pointed out, it seems to be a very cranky day over here on NNC.”

    I hope that wasn’t a reference to my comment. I was just joking about the *subject matter* of the various pee and poop posts, not the comments nor commenters themselves…

    256 chars

  37. jcburns said on August 25, 2017 at 3:52 pm

    My sister in law told me that one part of the stereotypical career path for a young magazine writer (of any race or gender) is to use three names in your byline…but then once you reach the top of the masthead, it’s de rigueur to drop down to two, lose that middle name.

    280 chars

  38. Charlotte said on August 25, 2017 at 4:35 pm

    That any of you even think critiquing this writer’s name is appropriate, is frankly, kind of shocking.

    Way to dismiss the work of a young, black, female writer — without engaging at all.

    191 chars

  39. Judybusy said on August 25, 2017 at 4:50 pm

    Totally unrelated: an article about an artist, Claire Kahn, who is now living near Santa Fe. It’s short and shows her home full of beautiful things. Her own work is incredibly diverse. Deborah, I’m wondering if you’ve heard of her.

    325 chars

  40. Deborah said on August 25, 2017 at 4:55 pm

    Bitter Scribe, was that the Harold Washington Library built in the late 80’s or early 90’s on Dearborn, the one with the crazy gargoyles on top http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/07/technology/chicago-library/index.html? If so, I’ve been there many times and it didn’t seem dirty to me. I don’t know how old you are so maybe you were 15 then?

    336 chars

  41. Suzanne said on August 25, 2017 at 5:02 pm

    Just finished the GQ piece. Well worth it and incredibly depressing.
    This stood out: “The first public figure to link Roof to the Trump era was Nikki Haley, the then governor of South Carolina, who said that “divisive speech”—like Trump’s, she noted—“motivated Dylann Roof to gun down nine black parishioners at historic Emanuel AME Church.” But I guess she got over her dislike of Trump pretty quickly, didn’t she. Don’t they all?

    446 chars

  42. Sherri said on August 25, 2017 at 5:42 pm

    I would think the qualification to be an essayist is to write essays that people want to read. And there can be many reasons for using three names, other than trying to signal erudition. I did for a while after I married, since I chose to take my husband’s last name, so using three names was a way of transitioning and signaling that prior work under my previous name should still be associated with me.

    And I agree with Charlotte. Attacking the author as a poser without engaging with the article is pretty hostile.

    On Nikki Haley changing her colors on trump, it’s been my experience that many right-wingers subscribe to the philosophy that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, regardless of how odious he is. As I’ve said many times, trump hates all the right people, which is why his core support will hold no matter what.

    834 chars

  43. Icarus said on August 25, 2017 at 5:54 pm

    Bitter Scribe could have been describing the predecessor to the Harold Washington Library. What is today known as the Chicago Cultural Center.

    143 chars

  44. Dexter said on August 25, 2017 at 6:20 pm

    I think it was from the old cable “Sarah Silverman Show” that I learned the first rule of homeless existence: learn fast how to shit into an old coffee can. By the way, her latest NETFLIX special kills.

    At the factory we’d have plugged johns sometimes…some guy didn’t feel clean after using the industrial TP so he’d enter the stall equipped with a huge clump of wetted-down brown industrial paper toweling. They saw him, they chewed his ass out but-good. The blockages stopped. I hope in the next life I ain’t a plumber. Fuck that shit.

    548 chars

  45. Dexter said on August 25, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    Rite of passage…tomorrow, 40 years of marriage to this latest fling of mine. Second time for both of us, ups and downs, and as Jeff Lebowski says, strikes and gutters. She likes Red Lobster, we shall go to Red Lobster…I KNOW! But …oh well, what the hell! <3

    270 chars

  46. basset said on August 25, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    No need to be so damn defensive, Charlotte and Sherri. My point, since you both missed it, was this:

    That’s an unusual name.
    Some people put on such names and dress certain ways as an act, and I’ve seen some of them.

    Remember, I liked the story – you did read the rest of the original post, right?

    305 chars

  47. Heather said on August 25, 2017 at 8:51 pm

    Trump pardoned Arpaio. I know it’s not a surprise, but I don’t think I can even be in the same room with my (fortunately very few) family members who STILL support this transparently racist, immoral POS.

    203 chars

  48. Heather said on August 25, 2017 at 8:54 pm

    My nephew has three names (hyphenated last name). He’s four.

    60 chars

  49. basset said on August 25, 2017 at 9:00 pm

    Arpaio. Shit.

    Everyone OK with me saying that?

    BTW, my middle name is Lee and my dad was from South Carolina. I don’t care even a little tiny bit what assumptions and stereotypes anyone here might attach to that, mainly because they’re more than likely wrong.

    269 chars

  50. Peter said on August 25, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    Bitter might have been at the temporary Library when the old library was being renovated into the Cultural Center and the new one hadn’t started yet – it was east of the Equitable Building in a large brick multi-story warehouse (was it the Gambel Building?) and it was really dreary.

    When I was a toddler I hung out at the Hild Library – now the Old Town School of Folk Music. On the second floor, in the children’s section, there were WPA murals of children dressed up as adults in various occupations – the child doctor, teacher, etc. When they had to put a connecting door in they knocked out the child architect, which I thought was ironic.

    649 chars

  51. Deborah said on August 25, 2017 at 9:43 pm

    Scout, what is going on in Arizona tonight? Trump just never ceases to be as big a POS as possible.

    99 chars

  52. Suzanne said on August 25, 2017 at 9:45 pm

    Give Trump another few months and the rule of law & any norm of government will be gone.
    But hey, he told the people of Texas “Good luck!” What a guy!

    155 chars

  53. alex said on August 25, 2017 at 10:11 pm

    I remember the temporary library at the cultural center. It was there that I met Mary Frances Veeck, wife of the late Bill, of the Friends of the Library. Some sort of fartsy event there where I was six sheets to the wind with a bunch of people gallery-hopping after work on a Friday. She gave me an earful about the grift and corruption that would be coming out of the construction of the new Harold Washington Library and she was not a fan. I must admit that I never became one. Most of the time anything I wanted wasn’t anywhere to be found on the shelves and had to be ordered.

    581 chars

  54. Deborah said on August 25, 2017 at 10:54 pm

    The Harold Washington library was controversial among architects because of its post-modern design. “Post-modernism” is a term that probably doesn’t compute much beyond architectural circles but it came into being in the 80’s and 90’s, didn’t last long as a trend but helped bring architecture out of the dreadful “form follows finance” of the 70s. The work of Michael Graves is probably most expressive of post-modernism, for many people. You Indiana folks may recognize that name, he was from the Fort Wayne area (I think) he died a few years back. The Harold Washington Library was designed by a guy (Thomas Beeby) who was the brother of a woman who was married to a guy my husband knew and they were at our wedding in Abiquiu back in 2000. Shirt-tail connection.

    766 chars

  55. Bill said on August 25, 2017 at 11:02 pm

    Can Trump pardon himself?

    25 chars

  56. Jakash said on August 26, 2017 at 1:12 am

    Peter @ 50,

    I believe that was the Mandel Building that was by the Equitable Building and which housed the CPL for a while after it moved from the current Cultural Center. After that, the main library moved over for a while longer to some warehouse on Franklin St., behind the Merchandise Mart, before finally moving into the HWLC, IIRC…

    343 chars

  57. David C. said on August 26, 2017 at 6:02 am

    Seb Gorka, the mail-order Ph.D. fake counter-terrorism expert is gone from the Whites-only House. http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/25/politics/gorka/index.html

    153 chars

  58. coozledad said on August 26, 2017 at 7:37 am

    Irredeemable bitchy old white dudes. They’ll be a minority soon enough.
    http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/prisoners-hang-themselves-in-sheriff-joe-arpaios-jails-at-a-rate-that-dwarfs-other-county-lockups-7845679

    Blowback’s going to be rough. Mayonnaise shortages. Guitar sales down. Hardly a shitkicker shootemup bar to be found outside of Honkeyhoma. And posterity will say, ‘What in the fuck WAS that white shit?”

    421 chars

  59. alex said on August 26, 2017 at 7:44 am

    Deborah, Michael Graves was commissioned to design a couple of unlivable houses in Fort Wayne, one of which self-destructed; the other is perpetually on the market for a pittance because it’s high maintenance and people seem to get disenchanted with it quickly: https://www.curbed.com/2017/7/6/15928224/michael-graves-hanselmann-house-fort-wayne-indiana

    Nancy wrote about the other one that the owners abandoned: http://nancynall.com/2011/08/15/the-snyderman-house/

    468 chars

  60. Suzanne said on August 26, 2017 at 7:46 am

    Personally, I don’t feel better that Bannon & Gorka have been banished from the White’s-only House Throne room. I fear they have been sent out to be his hands and feet on the ground among the masses.

    203 chars

  61. coozledad said on August 26, 2017 at 7:57 am

    Paul Ryan on Trump’s pardon of Josef Mengele: “Hey, I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know about Medicine. I’ll leave those judgments to the experts.”

    On Operation Reinhard: “I’m not opposed to different outcomes. Let the free market work its magic.”

    On the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: “It’s a credit to management’s foresight those young women had widows to jump out of.”

    On the moneylenders in the temple: “These are the innovative financial instruments that will help Judea grow.”

    491 chars

  62. Deborah said on August 26, 2017 at 8:18 am

    Alex, that is an amazing price for the Hanselmann house. I remember that post that Nancy did about the Snyderman house, but it was interesting to read again. I see that I was wrong about Graves being from the FW area, it was Indianapolis. Those items that Graves designed for Target now seem so dated.

    Both of those houses are modern not post-modern, although you can see some of post-modernism beginning to show up in the Snyderman house, full postmodernism seems to have come later in Graves’s career. One of the more controversial post-modern designs of his was this one in Portland, OR https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Building. Beeby’s Harold Washington library building got about the same amount of flak in the architectural press, but I always liked it.

    771 chars

  63. Deborah said on August 26, 2017 at 8:20 am

    Coozledad at #61, Thread win!

    29 chars

  64. Jakash said on August 26, 2017 at 3:50 pm

    Apropos of nothing, the eclipse wasn’t the only interesting thing happening in the sky last week. Just a cool photo (you need to click on the photo to get the payoff):

    https://twitter.com/barrybutler9/status/899601755545141248

    230 chars

  65. Deborah said on August 26, 2017 at 4:04 pm

    Wow, spectacular photo Jakash. I miss Chicago, I’m returning Sept 13th.

    71 chars

  66. coozledad said on August 26, 2017 at 9:21 pm

    I think it’s time we reconsider the influence of groups like the SPLC and ACLU. Right Jeff TMMO?
    https://twitter.com/FrancesRobles/status/901485418599919616

    You’ve got to stand behind your shit. Otherwise, Jakash will have to reach up his ass to defend you again.

    267 chars

  67. Deborah said on August 27, 2017 at 7:53 am

    Judy Busy, somehow I missed your comment with the link to the New Mexico woman artist. I hadn’t heard of her before, but now I’ll look for her work. It was interesting that she started as a graphic designer for an architecture firm which is what I did for over 30 years. Her bead work is beautiful but extremely meticulous. Her house is gorgeous, although they say it’s in Santa Fe, it’s somewhere very far out, the article mentions Truchas being nearby, which is about maybe 40 miles away from Santa Fe (I think). Truchas peaks are mountains we can see from our land in Abiquiu. Truchas is also where they filmed the movie, The Milagros Beanfield Wars.

    653 chars

  68. alex said on August 27, 2017 at 9:13 am

    More freaky facebook feed coincidences…

    Deborah, check this out: https://www.facebook.com/dwellgroup/?hc_ref=ART3Um17HXh17aGBzCbm2VcVnUy7EZM61yAxhGH2pJnT_F60xEMzu0kdvvkC3Ma8A_M&fref=nf

    I swear, I can’t talk about shit without getting advertisements for toilets.

    273 chars

  69. Deborah said on August 27, 2017 at 10:55 am

    Alex, for the price they were asking, I’m not surprised the house sold.

    71 chars

  70. Snarkworth said on August 27, 2017 at 11:12 am

    Returning to the topic of bylines: They reveal quite a bit of biographical information, even if the writer uses just first and last name. They convey gender, ethnicity, and sometimes, age. (Tiffany Smith, for example, appears younger than Edith Smith.)

    When Tiffany marries and uses Tiffany Smith Garcia, she is indicating not only marital status, but her choice to include her maiden name. Hyphenating provides another layer of meaning. This is a lot of information to share with readers before they even read the first word.

    529 chars