Paint by numbers, but not bad.

I am absolutely not a fan of Steven Spielberg’s work, although I did like “Munich,” but that was probably because Eric Bana wore pants cut ’70s-style (with those big belt buckles that only emphasize his hard flat lower abdomen and swoon…). Also Daniel Craig and also that Irish guy, Ciarán Hinds. It started with his wildly successful early work, all those children’s faces turned up in a golden-lit closeup, blah. Work out your boring childhood neglect somewhere else, dude. But even his later, “mature” work left me barely more than lukewarm; I’m thinking about “Lincoln” here. Spielberg paints in primary colors, leads his audiences along well-trod paths with a big orange RIGHT THIS WAY FOLKS flag in hand.

I further acknowledge I am in the minority here, and that’s fine. I might not have watched “The Post” if I’d known it was a Spielberg deal; for some reason I thought Ron Howard directed it. And while it had the usual problems I mentioned, along with a few more, I liked it pretty well, even though I fell asleep for a few minutes along the way.

The story of how the New York Times and Washington Post competed to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971 is established history, and is the capsule plot description, which is maybe why I avoided it – journalism movies leave me cold for the most part. It should have been called “How Katharine Graham Got Her Groove Back,” which is closer to what the story is about, just as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T.” should have been bundled as the Steven’s Parents Were Cold and Neglectful Collection.

What saves it is the cast. Which is, as it was in “Lincoln,” stellar to the last man and woman. Forget Hanks and Streep. There’s also Matthew Rhys, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Carrie Coon, Bruce Greenwood (in a hilarious Robert McNamara ‘do), Jesse Plemons, Sarah Paulson, OMG it was a delight. Some of these folks got one or two scenes, but they all held their own against the megastars at the top of the bill, and even though you knew how it would end and the script was pretty much paint-by-numbers, it was still fun to watch. I may not like Spielberg, but he knows how to wrangle a cast, evidently.

:::pause:::

I wrote all of the above thinking “The Post” came out for Oscar season in 2018, and just discovered no, it was the year previous. So forgive me. I did my taxes this weekend and some work today, so it wasn’t much of a weekend. We have to pay this year, so I’m particularly happy about that, as you can imagine. America just feels greater and greater to me these days.

Starting this week, I will not be concerned with silly movies, anyway. Rather, I will be speaking in a British accent, which is actually a Westerosi accent, with occasional lapses into High Valyrian. Yes, “Game of Thrones” kicks off next Sunday, and I will be So There. If you don’t watch and don’t care, keep your yap shut, because I’m into it. And I’ve been waiting a long time for this final season.

Some bloggage to consider:

Rick Reilly on presidential cheating at golf:

And it’s not just the cheating. It’s the way he plays the game—with all the golf etiquette of an elephant on Red Bull. Trump promised to Make America Great Again. He’s definitely Made Golf Gross Again.

He drives his golf cart on greens. He drives it on tee boxes. He never, ever walks, even on the courses he owns that have banned carts (Trump Turnberry.)

…It stinks because we were finally getting somewhere with golf. It used to be an elitist game, until the 1960s, when a public-school hunk named Arnold Palmer brought it to the mailmen and the manicurists. Then an Army vet’s kid named Tiger Woods brought it to people of color all over the world. We had ultracool golfers like Woods, Rickie Fowler, and Rory McIlroy, and pants that don’t look like somebody shot your couch, and we’d gotten the average round of golf down to $35, according to the National Golf Foundation.

We were finally making the game cool and healthy and welcoming, and along comes Trump, elbowing his way into the front of every camera and hurling my sport backwards 50 years to its snobby roots.

I’ve been indifferent to golf my whole life, having been raised in Jack Nicklaus’ hometown, and can at times be hostile to it — the overbuilding of courses near ecologically sensitive rivers in northern Michigan, to name but one burr under my saddle — so I don’t give a shit whether Trump is ruining it. But this is a good read.

My editor at Deadline Detroit was raised by Yiddish-speaking parents, so it’s safe to say that in a few months I feel I’ve picked up enough of the allegedly dead language to move into a 19th-century shtetl and at least be able to indicate that I’m a meshuggeneh shiksa from the future and would maybe enjoy a little schmaltz on a piece of rye bread, thanks so much. Anyway, I know what he’d say if he could see the photo accompanying this story: A shanda.

The animals take their revenge. In Africa.

OK, let’s get the week ahead moving, shall we?

Posted at 5:15 pm in Current events, Movies |
 

57 responses to “Paint by numbers, but not bad.”

  1. basset said on April 7, 2019 at 5:33 pm

    Keeping my yap shut here.

    Golf… started playing on a public course in Wichita back when a round was $6.50, never got good enough to consistently enjoy it so when I lost my clubs in our flood of some years ago I just didn’t replace em.

    Slow-pitch softball, now that’s a sport I miss playing. Basketball, too.

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  2. David C. said on April 7, 2019 at 6:13 pm

    Golf was dying well before tRump. Tiger kept it on life support for a few years until the Mrs. took a nine iron to the Escalade. Now they keep hoping they’ll find a new savior, but that won’t happen. The Millennials hate golf, which is one of the many reasons I hold them in high esteem. But to hell with it. Golf has been dead to me since it turned the family farm into a course.

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  3. Deggjr said on April 7, 2019 at 6:24 pm

    I’m a late in life golf enthusiast, recreational only, no gambling, no league, no handicap.

    To me the worst Trump/Golf story is when Mike Tirico hit a 235 yard shot ten feet from the hole while playing with Trump. Trump got to Tirico’s ball first and threw it 50 feet into a bunker. That is so low character but that’s our President.

    If you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying applies to football and NASCAR. Golf is the opposite.

    The excerpts don’t say if Mike Tirico was Trump’s guest. Not that it would matter to Trump.

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  4. Alan Stamm said on April 7, 2019 at 8:30 pm

    Such a mensch, this blogger is. I could plotz, yes this boychik could.

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  5. LAMary said on April 7, 2019 at 9:02 pm

    I think that yarmulke was stuck on the back of that guy’s head when he wasn’t paying attention, like a kick me sticky on some sad ninth grader.
    And sorry about your taxes. I still got a refund but significantly smaller than previous years. So much winning.

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  6. Julie Robinson said on April 7, 2019 at 9:41 pm

    We got a small refund, but only because we started having more withheld last fall. It was painful, but it looked like we’d be paying a under-withholding penalty, which they ended up waiving for this year. I didn’t have the heart to look at how much more we paid than last year. We sure didn’t earn any more. Winning!

    Dad was a golfer, whose proudest moment was a hole-in-one; not bad considering he only had one arm. I asked to caddy for him once and was bored out of my skull.

    Hubby was supposed to play for the supposedly career advancing schmoozing opportunities, but didn’t care for the game or how it robbed him of family time. So maybe he’d be a publisher now? Eh, not much glory there anymore.

    David’s right about the millenials, though. Our son took lessons one summer and never went back. Too slow-moving, too time-consuming, too expensive, too associated with all the values he rejects.

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  7. jcburns said on April 7, 2019 at 11:15 pm

    Oy vey, Nance. Hey, I liked ‘The Post’—there was some great Linotypin’ in there.

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  8. jcburns said on April 7, 2019 at 11:56 pm

    Kirstjen Nielsen is resigning to spend more time with the excess consonants in her name.

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  9. beb said on April 8, 2019 at 12:28 am

    For the money spent on sport we could solve poverty in this country.

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  10. ROGirl said on April 8, 2019 at 4:50 am

    Mr. MAGA is a putz.

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  11. Deborah said on April 8, 2019 at 9:20 am

    My husband played golf as a teenager. He grew up in a small town and was really bored during the summers. He was on the golf team in his high school which he said was a nerdy thing to do. He won some statewide championships even. After high school he hardly ever played again. Once or twice he played with some guys from work, they couldn’t believe how good he played for someone who rarely did. I went out with him to a course once, he tried to teach me how to hit the ball, I was pathetic of course.

    LB is ecstatic about GoT starting up again. George R.R. Martin is a big deal around here.

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  12. Bitter Scribe said on April 8, 2019 at 11:06 am

    Regarding Spielberg, “Jaws” and before that, “Duel,” were great. But I absolutely agree with Nancy that his wide-eyed-children-bathed-in-light shtick gets old fast.

    Plus, with “Schindler’s List,” I guess it’s always good when the general public gets educated about the Holocaust through accessible popular media. And I get that it was done from Schindler’s POV, so it would focus more on the Nazis than their victims. But it still bothers me that said victims were, in the words of one critic, as indistinguishable as the cast of a traveling production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

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  13. susan said on April 8, 2019 at 12:07 pm

    resistance art

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  14. Scout said on April 8, 2019 at 12:43 pm

    One of the facets of the company I work for is golf course design. Back in the late 90’s and the early aughts we had at least one under design and construction at all times. Once W’s recession hit it was all over for new golf courses, and the ones we were involved with are in serious trouble financially now due to lack of interest. The course design category is still on our website, but it’s basically just a showcase for long finished projects.

    Kirstjen Nielsen’s “resignation” is quite the twitter topic.
    https://twitter.com/itsJeffTiedrich/status/1115279294090108931

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  15. Peter said on April 8, 2019 at 1:27 pm

    Re: Ms. Nielsen: It has to be so demoralizing that you sell yourself out and even put children in cages to impress your boss, and then you get fired because the boss thinks you’re not evil enough. Kind of makes you wonder why you even get up in the morning.

    Well Kirstjen, don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.

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  16. Icarus said on April 8, 2019 at 2:02 pm

    I don’t get golf either, neither playing it or just watching it. There is a tiny part of me that fears that I might like it if I tried so I won’t even give that timesuck a chance.

    am i just now noticing the Today in nn.c history link on the right?

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  17. Scout said on April 8, 2019 at 2:56 pm

    Icarus, if the Today in nn.c history side bar has always been there, I never noticed it either. Just took a short walk down memory lane. So many of the community are no longer with us.

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  18. Dorothy said on April 8, 2019 at 3:09 pm

    As a new high school graduate I had a job working for a guy (advertising manager for a corporation) who loved to golf. The guys at the ad agency had him out there golfing every time the weather was nice. I ran out of phony excuses of explaining where he was pretty quickly when people were looking for him in the office. I used to say I’d rather watch paint dry than watch golf on t.v., but every once in awhile I put it on and can get taken in by the drama. It helps that I’m watching it on t.v. and not actually traipsing all over a golf course in hot temps following a star with a huge crowd around me. I wonder why people who are playing with Trump don’t send someone to the next hole to keep an eye on his shenanigans? Maybe he still would not care. What a low life. How does he get people to play against him when they know how he cheats? Talk about no self respect….

    Speaking of the Post, my daughter was waiting to meet two cousins at a bar after work on Saturday night. She was holding her pager and two older couples were waiting at the same time. They fell into conversation about how long they’d been waiting to be seated – daughter said she’d made her reservation mid way through her evening at work, whereas the couples walked over as soon as the hockey game was over. “Where do you work on a Saturday night?” they asked. She told them she’s a copy editor at The Post. “OH MY GOD!! We’re so happy to meet you!! Thanks for all your great work – and your colleagues too of course!” They all wanted to shake her hand. She was kind of overwhelmed but also very proud.

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  19. Kaye said on April 8, 2019 at 3:47 pm

    Dorothy – How nice for your daughter and for journalism in general. Nearly certain I noticed Chelsea Clinton is visiting your niece’s bookstore this month. She may be past being star struck by now but I was excited for her.

    Game of Thrones – Happy for those who enjoy it. Will try to avoid the watercooler chatter as my ability to keep a neutral facial expression under duress has lessened as I have matured.

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  20. Dorothy said on April 8, 2019 at 3:58 pm

    Yes Kaye, Chelsea Clinton is indeed going to be at Avid this month. I’m sure she’ll always get star struck for the big names! Prior to this the biggest name they had at the store was David Sedaris. My niece also participated in the Dancing with the Athens Stars on Saturday night a fund raiser in the town for victims of domestic abuse. The video is fun and my brother-in-law makes a brief appearance and wiggles his butt during a brief costume adjustment.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atJX_SrSLvU

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  21. LAMary said on April 8, 2019 at 4:22 pm

    I always considered golf a game for rich old farts who got drunk on gin and tonics at the club post game. I have to confess I used to enjoy going the driving range and burning off some stress, but I didn’t consider that golfing. It was just hitting the ball as hard as possible and when applicable aiming for the truck that scoops up balls.

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  22. Dexter Friend said on April 8, 2019 at 4:32 pm

    The biggest kick I got from “Lincoln” was Jackie Earle Haley as Alexander Stephens. Little Mooch and the mini-biker in “Bad News Bears” finally made it to grown-up roles. Daniel Day Lewis’s tenor+ voice was also worthy of a cackle or two. The one Spielberg project I did watch but just was way too depressing was his classic, “Schindler’s List”. As depressing as those Anne Frank movies.

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  23. alex said on April 8, 2019 at 7:18 pm

    Loving today in history and reading my own comments back when I still had two brain cells to rub together, but also the spirited discussions and the feeling (perhaps the illusion) that we were finally beyond the middle of the long arc of moral progress. The election of 2016 seems to have knocked the wind out of all of us.

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  24. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 8, 2019 at 9:34 pm

    Spent my afternoon being glared at and whispered about in angry tones by country club golfers, as we crush their hopes and pulverize their dreams. Or as one borderline civil opponent in the gallery said to me in a break in the proceedings: “but all these elderly men, I worry about them; what will they do with themselves without that course and our club?”

    Uttered without even a saving whiff of irony. Irony being one of the exclusionary categories still allowed to private clubs. I promise to share more when I’m able; the arguments ended today in “Ohio History Connection v. Moundbuilders Country Club Company” and is in the hands of the judge as to the necessity of eminent domain. After his ruling for or against we move to remuneration in front of a jury Sept. 10 but I doubt the country club is going to count on twelve average citizens of this county and will negotiate a buy-out of their lease in the interim . . . the current lease of Octagon Earthworks for a golf course runs to 2078 for about $30,000 per year. Eminent domain will apply to the state’s “taking” of the remaining term of the lease and a buy-out allowing the club to find themselves a new location.

    But I am, as to golf, not a fan. Today the feeling was intensely mutual. It’s probably good for me to experience a couple dozen people strongly disliking me without trying to hide it.

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  25. Colleen said on April 8, 2019 at 11:38 pm

    I quit trying to play golf the day I got so angry and frustrated that I found myself beating the fairway with one of my irons. I decided perhaps I should find a different way to spend my time.

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  26. beb said on April 9, 2019 at 12:06 am

    Colleen’s comment reminds me of a clip on “America’s Funniest Home Movies. A little boy 3 or 4 years had been given a child’s golf set and was asked how daddy plays golf. The boy threw away his club and started cursing.

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  27. Sherri said on April 9, 2019 at 1:15 am

    But who will think of those old white men!?!

    As Tim Ryan declares that he, too, must run for President, after his failed coup of Nancy Pelosi, this tweet sums up my feelings:

    https://twitter.com/hhavrilesky/status/1115436047494598656

    More of these men should take up songwriting.

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  28. Dexter Friend said on April 9, 2019 at 1:53 am

    I am a sports nut and sort of a lifelong baseball nerd, but track and field, weightlifting, and golf and strongman competitions have me punching the clicker immediately. Now The Masters commences , but not for me. I watch 2 car races a year, Daytona and Indianapolis, but Le Tour de France has me glued to the TV for 2 weeks straight. Last night just before midnight Virginia beat Texas Tech for the college men’s title in basketball. The winners were calling themselves “the ‘hoos”. It’s short for Wahoos, which are fish found in the Atlantic Ocean. I thought they were the Virginia Cavaliers. Maybe Wahoos is a nickname?

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  29. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 9, 2019 at 7:53 am

    Dr. Wikipedia sayeth: Official University of Virginia sports documents explain that Washington and Lee baseball fans first called University of Virginia players “a bunch of rowdy Wahoos,” and used the “Wahoowa” yell as a form of derision during the in-state baseball rivalry in the 1890s, presumably after hearing them yell or sing “wa-hoo-wa.” The term “Wahoos” spread around the University and was commonly in use by the 1940s. “‘Hoos” emerged as an equally commonly accepted nickname . . . in recent years, the Hoos nickname has become a nickname used by students and recent alumni of the University, and it is also commonly used in the media in reference to U.Va. sports teams.

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  30. Suzanne said on April 9, 2019 at 8:58 am

    So Trump is having a little purge.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-removes-secret-service-director-as-purge-of-dhs-leadership-widens/2019/04/08/8bde9912-5a36-11e9-842d-7d3ed7eb3957_story.html

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  31. Scout said on April 9, 2019 at 2:05 pm

    Disneyland. This is officially Stable Genius America. Some days I don’t know whether to open a vein or jump off a roof.
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-laments-end-of-family-separations-migrants-are-coming-like-its-a-picnic

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  32. LAMary said on April 9, 2019 at 3:29 pm

    Scout, that Trump Disneyland got the silent rage thing going again. There must be something bordering on an epidemic of helpless rage feelings in this country.

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  33. Dexter Friend said on April 9, 2019 at 4:43 pm

    Thanks, JmmO. In my travels I have been to Virginia many times since I was a little boy seeing Monticello for the first time in 1954, later playing baseball all over that Commonwealth, and later still, vacationing there many times. And I never once caught on about the Wahoo and hoos story. I even saw them in the NCAA basketball tourney when Ralph Sampson played years ago and never heard it. Now I know.

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  34. Sherri said on April 9, 2019 at 6:04 pm

    trump does not inspire my silent rage anymore. I expect him to be terrible. It’s the Republican Party that inspires my rage.

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paulmcleod/republicans-warn-drug-companies-oversight-investigation

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  35. Dexter Friend said on April 10, 2019 at 12:48 am

    The world’s leaders in general are looking at the USA with outstretched palms and shrugging and asking what the hell are you Americans going to do about your demented dangerous President? This new revelation about how Trump wants to increasingly expand the family separation cages should be the last vestige of a failed administration. Instead, tonight Trump lied and said Obama instigated family separations, and said he never said he wants to get people “in there” who will follow his orders and cage those fucking goddam alien children. People immediately began chirping about what a lie this was. At least some Republicans are a little worried. Still, Trump is definitely running in 2020. He thinks he will win easily, as “the best President in history” as a platform. One by one, every single Democratic challenger is a better choice. Right now the darling is Mayor Pete Buttigieg. I must say he’d be OK with me to sit in the White House. I loved his dissing of Pence, that goddam dinosaur homophobe. https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/08/politics/pete-buttigieg-mike-pence/index.html

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  36. Dave said on April 10, 2019 at 6:52 am

    Just last night, we were in a restaurant and there sat a older man with a Trump 2020 hat on his head. At least, he looked older than me (to me) and I just turned 69 yesterday. I knew it would be pointless to tell him I thought only uneducated morons would wear a hat like that. I cannot grasp why anyone supports him, oh, maybe he’s also an evangelical, one of my old supervisors, who is, is constantly posting Trump support-type comments on Facebook.

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  37. alex said on April 10, 2019 at 7:43 am

    People seem to mistake Trump’s diarrhea of the mouth for the candor or authenticity that’s so often lacking in the mannerisms of politicians. It’s a big part of his appeal to simple people, aside from his validation of their prejudices.

    I’m looking forward to Best President Ever getting dragged screaming and kicking from the White House when the country elects a gay man or a black woman in 2020.

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  38. Suzanne said on April 10, 2019 at 9:09 am

    Alex, that is a large part of it. “He tells it like it is!” which really means that he says all the crap about everybody from their bosses to their brother-in-law that they wish they had the guts to say but don’t.
    But it’s more than that. He hates the right people, he represents an era when white, straight men were at the top, unquestioned and unchallenged. It was easier that way, for them but not for everybody, of course. I hear it reflected at church frequently, the fear of liberals and government taking away their religious freedom which really means they want their religious beliefs to be the norm and the majority because it’s so much easier that way. You don’t really have to think about what you believe or why because no one will challenge you. It’s scary to be challenged about your view of the world and have to face the reality that you have no idea what your view of the world really is or why you see it that way. They fear that, I think, more than being wrong.
    In short, there are a lot of people who are ignorant about themselves and others and prefer it that way. Trump embodies that.

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  39. Jakash said on April 10, 2019 at 11:02 am

    The “he tells it like it is” bullshit is so transparently false that it makes one fear for the fate of the country. Nobody, and I mean nobody, has been as clearly demonstrated to be such an inveterate liar and a shameless con artist as Dolt 45. He settled a lawsuit for $25 million for fraud as a handy way to celebrate his election, for crying out loud.

    The fact that somebody as crooked as he is, and as ham-handed at being so as he is, has paid such a small price for his avarice and remains president while benefiting from a dozen different scams really gives one a bit of an insight into why so many white-collar criminals are never prosecuted for anything.

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  40. ROGirl said on April 10, 2019 at 11:58 am

    As Mary McCarthy said about Lillian Hellman, every word he says is a lie, including and and the.

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  41. Deborah said on April 10, 2019 at 12:48 pm

    It’s super, super windy in Abiquiu, a full blown dust storm, you can hardly see outside. Dust is coming in through every tiny sliver around the doors and windows. Also the rocking chair on the perch (inside) is rocking by itself without any open doors or windows. I don’t like this at all. I think this is the southern end of bomb cyclone. Yesterday it was 78° Dropping fast and tonight it’s going to be 30°.

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  42. alex said on April 10, 2019 at 1:39 pm

    President Trump was not impressed with a tour of the first commander in chief’s home last year, Politico reported Wednesday, describing his visit to Mount Vernon with French President Emmanuel Macron and their wives as “truly bizarre.”

    “If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” Trump reportedly said. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.”

    If he was smart he’d put a fucking cork in it.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/04/10/trump-wondered-why-mount-vernon-isnt-named-after-george-washington-heres-why/

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  43. Icarus said on April 10, 2019 at 2:07 pm

    I have to say, I’m really digging the “walk down memory lane.” Although in my case it’s more a walk through nnc history as I don’t think I became a regular here until a few short years ago.

    stuff like where print media was heading, blogging (Bossy Lady), and even mp3s before the advent of streaming music.

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  44. Little Bird said on April 10, 2019 at 2:47 pm

    http://hint.fm/wind/

    If anyone is interested in seeing what is going on with the wind right now, this will show you.
    I’m very glad that I’m not in south east Colorado right now.

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  45. Dorothy said on April 10, 2019 at 3:00 pm

    LB that is one scary map. I know in Colorado they’re getting a blizzard now, aren’t they? I know it was on the news this morning but I’ve been swamped at work.

    YES YES YES to Alex @ 37. I have to keep my mouth shut to keep from offending anyone within hearing distance anywhere I am when it comes to talking about Trump. But I’ve concluded to be a true supporter of his, one has to be a litle (or a lot) brain damaged, heartless, have no soul, and mean tempered. In other words, a twin of him. And it’s frightening how many supporters he has and if my assumptions are correct, this country is in a HUGE amount of trouble.

    I’m on a search committee for a new admin assistant in a department in my building and I’m reading through 18 cover letters/resumes/grade transcripts and my mind is turning to mush. Eyes stinging, etc. There will be lots more applicants I’m sure – this is just my first day looking over the paperwork. I had to step away for a few minutes to clear my head so I like to visit here when that’s happening. Back to the grind…

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  46. Dave said on April 10, 2019 at 3:39 pm

    Isn’t that what Trump’s wall is really all about, something really big that he might be able to put his name on. I’m sure that’s not an original thought.

    Looking through NNC history, I start wondering where some of those folks disappeared to. Where is Sue, where is Kirk? Some are posting in the great beyond, we know, looking through them made me realize how much I miss comments from Moe, to name one.

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  47. FDChief said on April 10, 2019 at 5:59 pm

    It’s worth taking a moment to recall that all these Trumpendross didn’t spring full-grown from the forehead of Rush Limbaugh. They’re the inevitable end product of taking a fairly typically racist white-majority industrial nation and subjecting it to 40 years of nonstop lying, bullshit, hysterical nonsense, and FOX News. Unsurprisingly, you end up with an indigestible mass of gullible, malleable, credulous morons who are convinced that they are – at the same time – the pinnacle of Creation and desperately besieged by ravening hordes of dusky liberal untermenschen.

    In other words; Nazis.

    So that sweet old grampy with the “Trump 2020” hat? Nazi. The douce grandma who daintily mentions how “they” are predisposed to rape? Nazi.

    You don’t have to run around with a swastika and a brown shirt to be a damn Nazi; just believe that you are the natural heir to God’s dominion and that nothing is too excessive to prevent your displacement from that imaginary throne.

    I’d loveto keep pretending that these are “Americans”, but, given the ideals of the nation? No. They’re just more damn Nazis.

    And, as with the Nazis, the only hope for anything other than the Gotterdammerung is that the GOP, like the Nazis, must be destroyed.

    And don’t forget the plow and the salt.

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  48. Deborah said on April 10, 2019 at 8:46 pm

    Now we’re getting a good dusting of dry snow, called grapple in Abiquiu. This has been a crazy weather day. Weather gone wild.

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  49. jcburns said on April 11, 2019 at 9:16 am

    I’m sure the graupel is something you can grapple with…

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  50. JodiP said on April 11, 2019 at 9:50 am

    I listen to the Post Reports Podcast and found out about this story of a rapper called Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus collaborating….and the back story is fascinating.

    I listened to the song. I usually despise country, but this…is cool.

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  51. Little Bird said on April 11, 2019 at 12:26 pm

    That wind map link is pretty much real time, so you can check it any time and see how this thing is progressing. My geography is not so great, but I think that’s Iowa experiencing the eye.

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  52. Dorothy said on April 11, 2019 at 1:47 pm

    Happy birthday JC Burns!

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    • jcburns said on April 11, 2019 at 4:48 pm

      Why thank you! It’s been a nice one so far.

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  53. Sherri said on April 11, 2019 at 4:05 pm

    The Seattle Times is soliciting donations for an investigative reporting fund: https://company.seattletimes.com/investigativefund/

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  54. Sherri said on April 11, 2019 at 4:40 pm

    This is depressingly accurate: https://theconcourse.deadspin.com/power-is-never-being-asked-to-leave-1833558318

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  55. Deborah said on April 11, 2019 at 6:28 pm

    JC, how cool that you can respond like Nancy. Happy birthday!

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  56. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 11, 2019 at 9:40 pm

    Hurrah for jcburns! Many happy returns.

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