Volcanos everywhere.

By request: A new post to replace the one about barf at the top of the page. Also by request:

It’s one of those days when I kinda want my browser to crash, if only to dispense with the three windows and 2,000 tabs I have open between them, because people, I am exhausted and it would help clear the decks. Been reading all the Trump news, periodically going to the window to see if a mob with torches and pitchforks has gathered for the long march to Washington, or even to the corner, to express howling disapproval. Zilch. This is a familiar feeling. I remember during the financial meltdown, closing my laptop in sheer panic and wondering why people weren’t out on my lawn screaming or setting their houses on fire or whatever. But life goes on in its petty-pace details of making coffee and taking showers and letting the dog out to pee. It just does.

Thursday, I went to Lansing. A lovely, lovely day. There was a crowd gathered on the Capitol lawn for some reason I would have liked to investigate, but I was headed the other way, for a lunchtime panel on workforce development. Michigan is not doing well at this, because our schools are underfunded and the population is still residually shellshocked by the reality that a high-school diploma isn’t enough anymore, unless you want to sell french fries in a paper hat. At the Q&A, my boss summed up the panelists’ big theme — that if we want more people in post-secondary education, we need to remake secondary education. Hear, hear. I’ve thought this for a while, and yet, the hold high school has on American life is strong. I’ve known many homeschoolers who stopped at 9th grade, not because they couldn’t go on but because their children wanted a high-school experience, and not the education but the rest of it — proms, football games, swim meets, all-night graduation parties, the opposite sex violating dress codes, all that stuff.

Also, with per-pupil funding the norm in most states, every kid who bails out of Everytown High a year early for early/community college takes their backpack full of cash with them, so schools have no incentive to encourage it. But the fact remains, the student body of almost every school is becoming more diverse in every sense — learning dis/abilities, income, family background, all of it. One size doesn’t fit all in anything other than caftans.

Common Core was supposed to address this. People forget CC was born in the business community, so personnel managers knew that a high-school diploma in Arkansas knew roughly the same as one in California. Alas, it was shortly revealed as a Satanic plot, so pfft on that.

And now I am tired and about to order a pizza, so have some fun with this bloggage:

Thanks to whoever posted this ultimate yanny/laurel explainer in the comments on the previous thread. I had to go almost all the way left to hear laurel. Team Yanny all the way here.

Great photos of the volcano erupting in Hawaii. It’s times like this I don’t mind Michigan at. All. Five months of winter, yes, but no wildfires (not around here, anyway) or volcanos, and the earthquakes are just li’l ol’ things.

Face it, the only thing worse than the current presidency would be the likely next presidency. Shudder.

Let’s start that damn weekend, shall we?

Posted at 7:23 pm in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

77 responses to “Volcanos everywhere.”

  1. Deborah said on May 17, 2018 at 8:45 pm

    in The Handmaid’s Tale when they show scenes from the past before Gilead, the populace was complacent and clueless as to what was actually happening. It gives me the chills to think that’s happening to us now, not as drastic of course, but still. Especially if My Pants actually becomes President, I don’t even want to think about what comes with that.

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  2. David C. said on May 17, 2018 at 8:46 pm

    Pence is in this up to his albino eyebrows. The next President is going to be Paul Ryan or Nancy Pelosi.

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  3. 4dbirds said on May 17, 2018 at 8:47 pm

    Team Yanny reporting.

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  4. Brandon said on May 17, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    Now you mention the Kilauea eruption! 🙂 That golf course, the Volcano Golf and Country Club, is roughly four miles from Halemaumau crater. So far, there’s no ashfall here, because the wind is carrying it southward. But there is a smell of sulfur in the air.

    Here’s the live webcam from the 18th hole.

    Kilauea has been erupting since January 1983, and this is the 62nd episode of the eruption.

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  5. Connie said on May 17, 2018 at 9:31 pm

    No hurricanes in Michigan either.

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  6. alex said on May 17, 2018 at 10:09 pm

    I heard equal parts Yanny and Laurel at the midpoint, but no Laurel whatsoever to the right of it.

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  7. Sherri said on May 18, 2018 at 1:10 am

    I’m Team Laurel, husband is Team Yanny. We didn’t agree on what color the dress was, either.

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  8. Dexter said on May 18, 2018 at 2:40 am

    “But the fact remains, the student body of almost every school is becoming more diverse in every sense — learning dis/abilities, income, family background, all of it. One size doesn’t fit all in anything other than caftans.”
    Last week NBC Nightly News or 60 Minutes ran a segment about the program Princeton University has implemented for poorer students. It’s a huge, popular success. Fuck, nobody can afford to go there the regular way, except the old-money class or fabulously wealthy professional families’ children. Ya can’t make Princeton tuition selling $3 ice creams down the shore.
    In 1965 my brother’s graduating high school class had some scholars. One kid was recruited to play basketball at Tulane (New Orleans), but he really wanted to go to Princeton. I reckon they didn’t take kindly to accepting Indiana kids, even though the family was wealthy. So he took the Tulane basketball deal, was red-shirted, quit, and transferred to I.U. Bloomington where he graduated and then took his law degree also at I.U. Law School.

    This Yanny / Laurel thing makes me wonder if perception is what drives some screaming out the room when sneakers squeak on basketball courts, or why Carla Lee goes crazy at the first sound of my Tom Waits recordings.

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  9. Brandon said on May 18, 2018 at 5:10 am

    “Why Michigan Can Feel Far-Away Earthquakes Better Than Other States.”

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  10. Brandon said on May 18, 2018 at 5:32 am

    Where is Charlie LeDuff Now?

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  11. Suzanne said on May 18, 2018 at 7:11 am

    I have never heard of Charlie LeDuff but that article was interesting. And gave me the title of another book to read.

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  12. basset said on May 18, 2018 at 8:09 am

    Charlie’s gonna get a book out of the coney job, out there among the real people. I have to agree with him on the nature of tv, though.

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  13. Icarus said on May 18, 2018 at 9:07 am

    I think Ed from Gin and Tacos is my Spirit Animail

    https://twitter.com/gin_and_tacos/status/996757022010945536

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  14. jcburns said on May 18, 2018 at 10:41 am

    I’m nauseated by volcanoes. Please replace this post with one about kittens.

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  15. Mark P said on May 18, 2018 at 10:57 am

    Sorry but I vote for puppies.

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  16. Jeff Borden said on May 18, 2018 at 10:58 am

    There’s an interesting and ultimately unnerving story out of the CDC today in our newspapers. The U.S. birth rate is at a 30-year low. The poor millennials –crushed by debt and facing uncertain professional futures– are not marrying or procreating at the levels of other generations. One of the great assets our nation has enjoyed while other Western European nations (and Japan, where adult diapers outsell baby diapers) wither from low birth rates has been our immigrants, particularly Hispanic immigrants who traditionally have larger families. So, naturally, the Orange King and his white supremacist, white nationalist, ‘Murica First followers want to choke off immigration, both legal and illegal. It’s not just that this administration is as racist as any in my memory, but that it is just so fucking stupid. Does the big blob in the Oval Office have any idea what happens to a economy when there are fewer consumers? Of course not.

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  17. Heather said on May 18, 2018 at 11:03 am

    Kittens vs. puppies–why not both?

    Jeff, I saws a comment on Twitter noting that the NYTimes article about the declining birth rate failed to mention a lack of affordable childcare and adequate parental leave policies.

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  18. Sherri said on May 18, 2018 at 11:07 am

    Mike Rosenberg of the Seattle Times is doing really good work covering the housing beat out here. This article about buying a house in the area nicely sets up the problem discussed in this article from CityLab about the new American housing crisis.

    Welcome to my world.

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  19. LindaG said on May 18, 2018 at 11:13 am

    My new favorite (Chrome) extension: Make America Kittens Again – replaces pictures of Donald Trump with kittens.

    http://tinyurl.com/j3pcq8q

    And thank you Nancy for writing a new post quickly. I read your post and comments during breakfast so I was out of here pretty quickly.

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  20. jcburns said on May 18, 2018 at 11:21 am

    Vomiting kittens and puppies on the rim of a volcano.

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  21. ROGirl said on May 18, 2018 at 11:38 am

    My kitty puked up a hairball last night, a present for me after I had been gone for 2 days. Just a coincidence, no doubt.

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  22. LAMary said on May 18, 2018 at 11:49 am

    Kittens, puppies and senior pets. Old dogs are great.

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  23. nancy said on May 18, 2018 at 12:13 pm

    You ask, I respond.

    I’m in a particularly good mood this morning because I think I finally found an orthopedist I like. My knee’s been bothering me since January, and he didn’t try to sell me on a double TKR like the last guy did, who was an asshole outside of giving pretty bad advice. He explained everything clearly, drew a syringe full of fluid out of it, gave me a cortisone shot and then heaped praise on my healthy lifestyle and exercise routine. He said if he’d looked at my X-rays without knowing anything else about me, he’d have thought I was 75. However, the fact I’m fit and working at it shows I have “a high pain and inflammation tolerance,” and that’s…good? Whatever. I like him. Anyone who tells me I look younger than my age is going to get my approval. It’s like the AARP pickup line.

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  24. Scout said on May 18, 2018 at 12:58 pm

    Another school shooting. 9 dead so far. This child breaks my heart. https://twitter.com/leahmcelrath/status/997506332939956229

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  25. LAMary said on May 18, 2018 at 1:25 pm

    dorothy.michalski712@hypnoze.dk

    Dorothy, I got an email from you at the above address just now. Is this you? I think that’s a Denmark email address.

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  26. David C. said on May 18, 2018 at 2:14 pm

    Chicken shots helped my mom avoid knee replacement for four years. Her insurance gave a her a load of shit before they would approve it though.

    https://www.webmd.com/osteoarthritis/news/20011116/chicken-shots-may-replace-knee-replacement-in-some#1

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  27. Dorothy said on May 18, 2018 at 2:17 pm

    Nancy when is Kate coming home from Cuba???

    Mary – no that is NOT me. I have no clue who that is! I have changed my password at Facebook. I suspect that might be the source of the problem.

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  28. Dorothy said on May 18, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    Never mind – I just went back a few days and see that you said she’s there most of May. Whew. Just read a scary story about a plane crash in Cuba and that worried me to distraction.

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  29. Deborah said on May 18, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    I freaked out for a half second before I realized it was Santa Fe, TX not Santa Fe, NM. Still a horrible situation, I just know people here with kids in high school. When is this going to stop?

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  30. beb said on May 18, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    The kitten sucking its paw is super cute.

    Sherri, your link to Citilab leads to a “page not found”

    The thing about college education is that up through the early 80s you could put yourself through most colleges by working during the summer. Now college has become a huge investment and the jobs out there don’t really pay all that well.

    Nancy – Congratulations on finding an orthopedist that you like. A good doctor is hard to find.

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    • jcburns said on May 18, 2018 at 3:40 pm

      Fixed Sherri’s link, beb. There was an errant ‘smart quote’ embedded in the URL. Hate when that happens.

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  31. susan said on May 18, 2018 at 3:30 pm

    davidc @26 – Those “chicken shots” are actually from rooster combs, hyaluronic acid. I tried those (two injections), after first trying cortisone, twice. The first cortisone shot worked great for about 3.5 months, so got another cortisone hit. That did nothing. “They” do not like to use cortisone more than that, especially if there is no relief. Then tried hyaluronic acid injections, which are VERY expensive, and make some difference in about 50% of people with wretched knees. The injections did not do what they were touted to do, and actually made things worse. Ugh. No way around it at that point, since I tried everything except stem cell therapy, which is not there, yet.

    I have to say, feeling NO pain with my new knees!—after a lot of hard therapy work, though, but worth it. I walk 3-5 miles most every day. And kneel in the garden (knee pads help).

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  32. susan said on May 18, 2018 at 3:32 pm

    beb, try this:
    https://projects.seattletimes.com/2018/how-to-buy-a-home/

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  33. Icarus said on May 18, 2018 at 4:36 pm

    I have “a high pain and inflammation tolerance,” and that’s…good?

    it’s really not. I endured a lacerated meniscus far longer than I should have because of that high pain tolerance.

    Actually it might be more accurate to say that my nerve endings in that area were dull because the doctor said either I was a tough guy or I had low nerve reception…I’m not a tough guy.

    After I got the knee scoped, I was felt great and was able to run for a year or so but then old age caught up with me.

    hyaluronic acid injections did nothing for me.

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  34. Peter said on May 18, 2018 at 4:48 pm

    There’s an article on the Chicago tribune website that I haven’t seen elsewhere – basically Trump has called the Postmaster General to the WH more than once demanding that she double the rates that Amazon pays, and she explains that the USPS makes money off of Amazon and they have a contract they have to honor.

    A congressman’s respond tells you all you need to know “Well, the President is a successful businessman, so he must know something about the agreement that previous administrations weren’t smart enough to know…”

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  35. LAMary said on May 18, 2018 at 5:40 pm

    I think the kitten in that picture at the top of the page is bulimic.

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  36. Deborah said on May 18, 2018 at 7:25 pm

    I’m back in Santa Fe for a night (groceries, showers, laundry, etc) and when I clicked on nn.c and saw the puppy and kitty photos I thought they just didn’t show up yesterday because I was in Abiquiu where access can be poor then I read the comments. Cute. Back to Abiquiu tomorrow, it’s lovely but we could sure use some rain.

    LB is going to California via train later in the week to visit a friend who’s been having some commotion in her life and now she has a friend here who’s going through some shit. Life can be hard and it’s important to support your friends when they need it.

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  37. basset said on May 18, 2018 at 8:45 pm

    Finding an orthopod who’s a good match is indeed something to be pleased about. Same experience for me, drained the knee and we’ll see what happens going forward.

    Finally broke contact with my eye dr. this week… the last few years the drill was show up on time, sit for awhile in a dark and cramped waiting room with no outside windows, get taken into the back, wait some more and finally she would blow through all distracted and running late to be somewhere else. If her phone rang she’d disappear, if someone needed to talk to her in the hallway she would, you’ve been to doctors like that.

    So… went for my checkup this week and found when I got there that I had been “bumped” to an unspecified future date. she’s part of a larger practice and her staff blamed them, confusion over moving to a new office and you didn’t get a bump letter? are you sure?

    I said, calmly and politely, that’s enough, will go somewhere else in future. The next day she calls me and says she thought we had worked this distraction issue out last visit, I remind her that all she did was offer to help me find another doctor so I did. Suppose that’s what I get for going to a Boilermaker.

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  38. Suzanne said on May 18, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    Basset, I had a similar incident years ago with our eye doc. Our son, young at the time, had glasses. I’ve worn glasses & contacts since I was a kid. We went to this eye doc together and were in and out in about 15 minutes. For both of us. He never even looked at my eyes without the contacts in (and these are hard lenses) which I have never had another eye doc do. So, we found another eye doc in short order and have been with him ever since.

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  39. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 18, 2018 at 11:45 pm

    Deborah, heading up your way around July 7th; my wife & I are part of a 90th birthday celebration of the fellow who first brought us and many others to Ghost Ranch. He doesn’t want us saying nice things about him at his funeral (or other things, either) when he can invite us all to come and celebrate his life while he’s there to either refute or agree with us. And I’ll finally get to see the O’Keefe house on the ranch proper, with the backyard view I’ve had in my living room for years.

    https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/484833

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  40. Deborah said on May 19, 2018 at 12:13 am

    Jeff, when you come to NM we’d love it if you’d stop by our cabin.

    I’ve not been to the O’Keefe Ghost Ranch house, only seen it from a distance. We have been to her house in the village a couple of times which is pretty fascinating. Tomorrow is the opening of the new O’Keefe welcome center next to the Abiquiu Inn. It’s where you go to get tours etc they take you on shuttle buses up to her house in the village and a few other places. there are some of her original paintings at the center on loan from the O’Keefe museum in Santa Fe.

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  41. basset said on May 19, 2018 at 7:27 am

    Watching the royal wedding right now. The American preacher is probably more visibly excited than anyone else has ever been at that pulpit, I didn’t know Episcopals got that emotional in services.

    He’s going kinda long too, don’t know how many minutes they had him scripted for. Right now he;’s talking about fire and the Industrial Revolution and Camilla looks seriously bored.

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  42. Suzanne said on May 19, 2018 at 8:29 am

    Basset, during that sermon, most of the royal family looked kind of stunned, like they weren’t sure how to react. I kept waiting for someone to shout “Amen!”
    I’m glad I got up early to watch. Loved the melding of cultures for the ceremony. That young man’s cello playing had me in tears.

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  43. Deborah said on May 19, 2018 at 9:47 am

    Missed the wedding but I’m enjoying the photos online, especially the hats.

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  44. basset said on May 19, 2018 at 9:49 am

    I’m usually up around five on weekends anyway, so I woke Mrs. B and we watched the royal event… the BBC is still on, doing live person on the street interviews.

    The ride around the town was a nice touch, I’m just relieved nobody took a shot at them. And you have to love the BBC comparing the crowd to Trump’s inauguration:

    https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/royal-wedding-prince-harry-meghan-markle/h_0a2700f4ff8ff975f569ef0c4004121a

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  45. Deborah said on May 19, 2018 at 9:50 am

    One of my FB friends said that Meghan Markle is the same age now as Diana was when she died. Doesn’t seem possible.

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  46. Deborah said on May 19, 2018 at 10:02 am

    I saw this on Twitter: (edit I can’t get this link to work)

    Will someone bring me up to speed on the convictions? I know of one guy, the lawyer from the Netherlands, as to the other three if you plead guilty are you then automatically convicted? I’m ignorant when it comes to much of the law.

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  47. Deborah said on May 19, 2018 at 10:08 am

    Try this one https://mobile.twitter.com/stealthygeek/status/997121907467137026

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  48. Deborah said on May 19, 2018 at 10:21 am

    So here’s an answer to my question in #46 https://www.quora.com/Plea-Bargaining-Is-pleading-guilty-considered-being-convicted

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  49. Julie Robinson said on May 19, 2018 at 12:44 pm

    Camilla’s default emotion is seriously bored.

    People keep commenting on the length of the sermon. It was between 12 and 13 minutes, short for a church sermon, and for a black preacher, tidbit-length.

    The music was outstanding. The cello player is only 19, both choirs were great, and they sang my favorite anthem by John Rutter, The Lord Bless You and Keep You. It was sublime.

    Like everyone else (I hope!), I just want them to be happy.

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  50. Brian stouder said on May 19, 2018 at 1:03 pm

    For the start of this weekend, Grant and I returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for qualifying, and got a bit of rain….but also a good show (and jet driers!)

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  51. Jolene said on May 19, 2018 at 1:29 pm

    I’m with you, Julie. I saw the Twitter comments re Rev. Curry’s sermon before I saw the sermon and was expecting something much more dramatic. Seemed fairly ordinary to me.

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  52. Brandon said on May 19, 2018 at 2:59 pm

    If you’re from Chicago, you might find this interesting.

    https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/chicago-native-now-documentary-filmmaker-fled-home-as-hawaii-volcano-erupted/

    I’ve known of Mick Kalber for a while, but not that he was the son of a longtime news anchor.

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  53. Suzanne said on May 19, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    I am trying to imagine this mess in Hawaii. A hurricane or a tornado passes through and is done. This, who knows where it will go and how long it will last? And how do you clean that up?

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  54. Sherri said on May 19, 2018 at 7:28 pm

    I know there are fans of Catherine Coulson, aka The Log Lady, on here. You might be interested in this: http://www.iknowcatherine.com

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  55. Deborah said on May 19, 2018 at 9:38 pm

    Hey Hamilton fans https://thebaffler.com/salvos/hamilton-hustle-stoller I got this off of David Simon’s Twitter.

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  56. Dexter said on May 20, 2018 at 2:34 am

    Thank you sherri. I only knew her as The Log Lady, and I was sad when her death was reported. I am glad we got see her in the comeback of Twin Peaks, which I loved.

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  57. Dexter Friend said on May 20, 2018 at 2:44 am

    I know I write about the great V.A. care I received from day one, but not much about my eye care. It is thorough and excellent. My doc is a young woman, Dr. Mayer. I have been getting glasses and exams for years by many different docs, and Doc Mayer is the best. They have all the modern testing equipment, they never were more than ten minutes late seeing me. The only bad thing is the limited frame selection…the glasses are pretty clunky-lookin’, but I qualify for free exams and glasses so fuck ’em if they think I look like a dork!

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  58. Suzanne said on May 20, 2018 at 8:19 am

    I skimmed the Hamilton link and hope to read it more carefully later. I have read the Chernow book and I am not sure I agree with his assessment entirely. Yes, Hamilton was a lover of Wall Street and I got the feeling that he pretty well embraced what we call trickle down economics. But I also think the author of this article misses that Hamilton was against Jefferson & other Southerners arguments against his financial plans because they were doing just fine economically. Of course they were; they had free labor and they wanted to keep the federal government weak so that it would stay that way.
    I do need to read more about Jefferson. My impression now is that he was a brilliant man but also naive about who he was, his privilege, and how the world worked for the average person. He and Madison seemed to have the idea of a wonderful bucolic agriculturally based country where people lived in the beauty and joy of nature. But they, of course, weren’t the ones out in the fields, under the hot sun, dealing with the realities of planting and harvest.

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  59. beb said on May 20, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    Suzanne @53: I think the molten rock pretty takes care of any clean up.

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  60. beb said on May 20, 2018 at 3:19 pm

    Assault weapons manufacturer is upset that school shootings are costing it money
    A disturbing focus on the bottom line.

    https://thinkprogress.org/assault-weapons-manufacturer-complains-school-shootings-are-hurting-profits-7595ebc53ccb/

    I’d like to think “Duh!” but actually they’re worried that their manufacture of assault weapons will hurt their sales of other, non-gun, products.

    In related news, the girl who paraded around Kent State University with a gun on her back (an AR-20?) is complaining that people are being mean to her. Again “Duh!” Perhaps she forgot that Kent State is where the National Guard killed four students during a anti-war rally. People might be a little sensitive about gun violence there.

    Finally, Oliver North, the most treasonous man not yet hung, has declared that the cause of so many school shootings is Ritalin. Also a culture of violence. I can believe the Culture of violence though the chief promoter of said culture who have to be the gun-in-every-household NRA. But Ritalin, the drug that calms overactive kids?

    There are so many good suggestions how to reduce gun violence, and most end up wrecking on the reefs of the Second amendment. I like the idea of requiring every gun owner to carry at least $50,000 worth of liability insurance. Well, I think it ought to be $100,000 in insurance but people might object that this was a way to obstruct the sale of guns (Duh!) but I think most car insurance requires $50,000 in liability coverage so lets go with that. It’s hard to argue that liability for a gun should be less than for a car.

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  61. beb said on May 20, 2018 at 3:21 pm

    JC,
    I’ve noticed the name and email boxes are automatically repopulating for me. What gives? I’m running Firefox on Windows 10 and just had the latest update pushed on me.

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  62. Rana said on May 20, 2018 at 5:29 pm

    “There are so many good suggestions how to reduce gun violence, and most end up wrecking on the reefs of the Second amendment.”

    And this is the heart of the matter, isn’t it? Something the gun nuts (who I distinguish from gun owners who are actually reasonable people) seem to have lost sight of is that sensible gun laws and regulations are meant to not only restrict irresponsible gun behaviors, but also to fend off outright bans.

    If they keep insisting that no gun laws are at all possible, and that the only “answers” are to create walled fortresses to keep out shooters, well… people are going to follow that logic and decide that the solution is a total gun ban. If it works for keeping schools safe, why not the whole country? If it’s all or nothing, how about nothing, then?

    The national culture on gun ownership is shifting, and I don’t think they’ve fully realized the magnitude of that shift yet.

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  63. Brandon said on May 20, 2018 at 5:41 pm

    @beb, 59:

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/17/it-will-be-months-before-lava-from-hawaii-volcano-can-be-removed-from-neighborhoods.html

    Just how many roads will be cleared and repaired remains uncertain. In 1990, a similar lava flow engulfed the nearby town of Kalapana, destroying nearly 200 homes and covering the roads leading to them.

    Today, some residents of the area have scratched bumpy tracks across the lava flow to reach their homes but most never rebuilt. Instead, it’s become a tourist destination where visitors can hike out to watch small lava outbreaks ooze across older flows.

    In the heart of the Leilani Estates, the lava has flowed over streets at depths up to 20 feet. In other areas, huge gullies and chasms have split roads painstakingly cut through the thick jungle. Contractors with experience removing lava flows said it can take months for the lava to harden and cool enough to remove safely.

    —–
    Parts of Kalapana were buried under fifty feet of lava in 1990. See https://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-80/album(dot)html

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  64. Dorothy said on May 20, 2018 at 6:20 pm

    I read that someone standing on a third floor balcony in Hawaii was hit with some lava that was spewing, and it shattered his leg from knee to foot. Can you IMAGINE?!

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  65. Deborah said on May 20, 2018 at 9:30 pm

    I’m certainly not a geologist but I have picked up a bit from living in and around Abiquiu. Much of the landforms around where are cabin is were formed when a volcano erupted many many (many) moons ago around 40 miles from here. We have large boulders and smaller ones that are filled with holes that look sort of bubbly that were projectiles spewed forth during the eruption(s). I can’t imagine what it would be like to be hit by one of those, death for sure. They’re all over our land. I need to read more about it.

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  66. Mark P said on May 20, 2018 at 11:59 pm

    I actually remember the names of two types of lava, learned in a geology class many years ago: pahoehoe and a’a. Pahoehoe is smooth lava, and a’a is rough lava, supposedly named for the sounds a person makes when walking (barefoot) over that type of lava. As you might guess, both names are Hawaiian.

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  67. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 21, 2018 at 6:55 am

    Re: Deborah’s comment about volcanos and northern NM —
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Caldera

    And I promise to be in touch: this 90th birthday party is scheduled up tighter than a wedding weekend, but that’s how he’s gotten this far; a Presbyterian minister who does everything decently and in good order . . .

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  68. Sherri said on May 21, 2018 at 10:21 am

    Glacier Peak is a volcano about 55 miles from Redmond.

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/washingtons-hidden-glacier-peak-volcano-is-among-the-most-dangerous/

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  69. Sherri said on May 21, 2018 at 10:42 am

    Why do the TV shows keep having Kellyanne Conway on? To preserve in their own minds the illusion of objectivity.

    http://pressthink.org/2018/05/why-does-cnn-continue-to-have-kellyanne-conway-on/

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  70. Bitter Scribe said on May 21, 2018 at 12:42 pm

    Mark P: I remember “a’a” because it is literally the first entry in the Scrabble dictionary, which is loaded with words that no one ever uses but that come in handy during a game. Another is “cwm,” which is supposedly a Welsh word that means “mountain hollow.”

    (And no, I’m not a Scrabble geek; I’m a mediocre player at best. I just have a mind stuffed with useless information.)

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  71. Deborah said on May 21, 2018 at 1:01 pm

    Sherri, here’s my conspiracy theory about why CNN lets Kellyanne constantly be on their shows. It’s because she has a clandestine life as a leaker and in exchange they let ber go on TV and make her stupid statements and then they can ridicule her for them. It’s a win-win. Sort of. Obviously I haven’t thought this theory through.

    Mark P, I thought you couldn’t use foreign words in Scrabble?

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  72. beb said on May 21, 2018 at 2:19 pm

    Deborah, it’s easy to forget that when we’re talking about volanos erupting we’re talking about molten rock, the energy making it explode is, you might say military-grade. So, yeah, what’s called a “splatter” is bomb fragment of molten rock thrown hundreds of feet into the air. The man’s lucky he only (poosibly) lost a leg, and not been killed.

    Someone wondered how soon people could start rebuilding. When you have ten or twenty feet of molten rock on top of your house rebuilding doesn’t seem like an option.

    I’m sure a lot of people wonder why TV keeps putting Kellyanne Conway on. She’s not just a liar but a champion liar whose falsehoods come so fast and furious no host can keep up. (There’s a term for that but I don’t recall it now, something trot I think). While Deborah’s suggestion is attractive I think it’s because news organizations don’t like their anchors to go around saying thinks like “Trump lied again in a series of early morning tweets” even if that was the obvious fact of the matter. They have to pose it as a question and have someone from the administration answer it.

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  73. Suzanne said on May 21, 2018 at 2:22 pm

    I have read other people speculating that Ms Conway is the leaker. Could be!

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  74. Dorothy said on May 21, 2018 at 3:14 pm

    Deborah dictionary.com lists the word as “aa” and then an alternative spelling is “a’a”. It’s not listed as being foreign, but Hawaiian in origin. I’m guessing since Hawaii is a state it’s not considered ‘foreign.’

    My daughter had a blast at the Peabody Awards on Saturday but she almost didn’t make it. There was a train derailment (30 out of 167 cars off the rails) south of the station where she gets on, so she scrambled over to the Greyhound station and got a ticket on a ‘bolt’ bus, non-stop DC to NYC. She said Neil Patrick Harris was MUCH shorter than she expected. Although to be fair, a lot of people are much shorter than she is. She is 5’11”. (Neil is about 5’9″ she thinks. But Uncle Google lists him as 6′)

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  75. Sherri said on May 21, 2018 at 5:17 pm

    The only good thing about Jay Inslee wanting to run for President in 2020 is that maybe he won’t run for governor then, clearing out of the way. Inslee isn’t bad, he’s just mediocre.

    https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/fueling-2020-speculation-jay-inslee-to-headline-democratic-party-event-next-month-in-iowa/

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  76. Jakash said on May 21, 2018 at 6:37 pm

    “Breaking: President Trump issues a statement that he plans to withdraw from the deal that the Obamas just signed with Netflix”

    Well, he would if he could, anyway…

    https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/998615652838596608

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