Various news sources that have drifted past my eyes this weekend — I apologize, I didn’t pluck each one from the raging river, note the URL, then free it to float on — have indicated that the “grassroots” protests in recent days and accompanying social-media blitzes indeed are not grassroots at all. In fact, they may in fact be organized at a higher level, and I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been so shocked since it came out that Liberace was not losing all that weight because of the Watermelon Diet.
When the Bug spreads back to the rural areas of these various states, they’ll die and claim they aren’t dying, they just had a bad reaction to the Watermelon Diet.
Hope everyone’s weekend was good. Mine was amazingly productive. Project Paint the Living Room is nearly over, enough that I had the distinct pleasure of mopping the entire floor with Murphy’s Oil Soap this morning. I was the only one up and the sun was streaming through the windows onto the clean floor. It was a Zen moment, like looking at a clean notebook page. There is still stuff to do, but the biggest part is done and we can move the furniture back in, which we’ll do as soon as I’m over the pleasure of looking in at a totally bare room with fresh paint and a clean wooden floor.
Does anyone else ever dream of houses? I hardly ever remember my dreams, and the ones I have are mainly of houses. (We’ve discussed this before, I’m fairly sure.) The other night, it was books. But mainly: Houses. Maybe that’s why I like looking at my new living room so much.
I also got Kate’s taxes done, did a deep clean of the kitchen, started Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” and got a few other things done. I also scored a 12-pack of toilet paper, so that minor anxiety is abating. We’re good for a couple months with that.
And now, it’s a little Criterion collection and bed. What a week ahead.
David C said on April 19, 2020 at 9:40 pm
Last night I dreamed that my mom was pulling up the carpet in our hallway. I guess that’s sort of a dream about houses.
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Deborah said on April 19, 2020 at 9:42 pm
I picked up “Normal People” at a bookstore in London when I was there a couple of years ago. I got it for the plane ride back to the states but I started it before that and finished it before the flight was over. I enjoyed it, obviously.
I’m reading “Ducks, Newburyport”, now it’s slow going.
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LAMary said on April 19, 2020 at 9:52 pm
I love the smell of Murphy’s oil soap.
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Suzanne said on April 19, 2020 at 10:08 pm
I read Normal People a while back. It was pretty good. Started slow, as I recall, but then I got pulled in.
I dream of houses with some regularity. It’s almost always the same; I am in a house that I lived in at some point in my life and discover that there was a large part of it that I never knew was there. No idea what that’s about.
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colleen said on April 19, 2020 at 10:21 pm
Suzanne, I have the same dream…endless rooms that I never knew about.
Our home improvement project is at a standstill. We are unable to properly cut tiles, either with a wet saw or tile cutter. They chip and shatter and come out crooked. So we have temporarily given up. Perhaps we will have to call in a pro. I refuse to be one of those people who lives with a half finished home improvement project. Either we finish it, or we find someone who can.
I think I am officially over this whole social distance/quarantine thing. I am glum, glum,glum and the sameness of every day is getting to me.
Me and a zillion other people…..
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LAMary said on April 19, 2020 at 10:44 pm
Easy Gardener Deer Block Netting and Fencing.
Deborah, you should look at this on Amazon. I swear, I found it unintentionally. I read New York Magazine online and they have articles in the Strategist section about celebrities favorite things. For some reason I looked at Suzanne Somers favorite things there was this stuff she uses on her garden.
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Heather said on April 19, 2020 at 11:09 pm
I dream about houses a lot–like Suzanne and colleen, often that there is a room I’ve rediscovered in the place where I live, like “oh, I totally forgot about this other living room, huh.” I’ve also dreamed I was in a mansion where the upper floors were creepy and haunted. Houses can apparently symbolize your self or your mind, so perhaps they mean there are parts of myself I’ve forgotten about or need to rediscover–or that I don’t want to explore.
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beb said on April 20, 2020 at 1:44 am
I don’t dream much about houses though I think about my dad’s house who he finally had to sell last year. He bought it after returning for WWII. I leaved there until I moved to Detroit to be with the SO and later wife. We’d come back to visit all the way up until he sold it. It’s hard to think about a house that’s been home/home away-from home for all my life as being someone else’s.
It’s nice to know that people know astroturfing when they see it. Now of only the mainstream media would learn to start calling it gaslighting when Trump spends two hours a day on TV denying whatever it was he said just the day before.
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Dexter Friend said on April 20, 2020 at 2:45 am
The 2-day snow covering gave me a reprieve, but Monday will see me firing up the lawn mower. Lawn care services charge too much for my little budget. Oh well. It’s 4-20. Burn one for me; I don’t indulge anymore. I guess it was at some party in the early 80s , last time for me. Later on I will install a new TV in my den/office. The old one is only a few years old but I hate it as I must be center-square in front of the screen or the picture looks like colorless cutouts. It has a name but I forgot what that condition is called. The new TV is going in.
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Connie said on April 20, 2020 at 5:14 am
I also dream of houses that have mysterious rooms. Once I moved into a house that turned out to have a river and canoe rental right at the back of the house.
There must be some dream meaning to these house dreams if they are so sort of common.
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SusanG said on April 20, 2020 at 6:03 am
In my neck of the woods, rural folks are dropping like flies. And my one “best friend” evangelical is offended. James Briggs (IndyStar) and Adren Wren (Indianapolis Monthly) are calling these people out on their bullshit. https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/columnists/james-briggs/2020/04/19/micah-beckwith-susan-brooks-seat-wants-indiana-coronavirus-shutdown-lifted/5156348002/ https://www.indianapolismonthly.com/lifestyle/health/postcards-from-the-pandemic/ignoring-science-protestors-defy-holcombs-order I dream of a house I lived in decades ago. They’re not really dreams, more like short movies. The year before I retired, I had dreams of houses I would be touring & the real estate agent would say “oh, there’s another house in this house.” I’d think “great” and then it would be endless rooms of furniture. I’m not Jung, but I think it was the equivalent of being a senior in high school and wondering what I’d like to be when I grow up.
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SusanG said on April 20, 2020 at 6:18 am
Oh, oh, I forgot. On the Ft. Wayne front, here’s an opinion column from a Mayor wanna be .
(My MAGA Idiot cousin posted it.)
https://journalgazette.net/opinion/columns/20200419/fear-is-keeping-us-from-recovery
These people make Dan Quayle look like an idiot. When Nixon resigned, my mother warned me worse was to come.
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Suzanne said on April 20, 2020 at 6:31 am
I read Crawford’s piece yesterday and was mad at the JG for printing it. There are enough people in these parts thinking all will be back to normal by May 1. I already have people wanting me to walk with them and thinking we can get together in a couple of weeks. I don’t even think the COVID has gotten going in rural parts yet and I don’t want to risk being right while trying to resume normal life.
Yep. I long for the days of Dan Quayle.
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SusanG said on April 20, 2020 at 6:42 am
Sorry, meant to call Dan Quayle a Rocket Scientist, not idiot. Too much coffee, too early in the morning.
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Dorothy said on April 20, 2020 at 6:49 am
Just last week I had a dream about a house hunting trip. We were in Murrysville, PA and we saw a For Sale sign in front of this Frank Lloyd Wright kind of place. The owner showed us around, and we loved the architecture but hated parts of the interior, but we kept murmuring to each other how we would fix this aspect or that aspect. Then the owner asked if we wanted to see the upstairs. I said something like “Oh – I thought this was a ranch! I have trouble with my knees and we’re trying to avoid homes with stairs.” This was no problem because they had this weird thing that looked like a styrofoam upright tunnel that, when you stood inside it, sucked you up and moved you to the upper level. At that point I woke up and just could not believe the weirdness of that dream. I told Mike about it a couple days later, and he said “That tube sounds just like a colon!” Of course a colon cancer survivor would have morbid humor like that.
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lisa said on April 20, 2020 at 7:18 am
I dream about the house we lived in when I was a teenager. It was where we lived during happiest part of my childhood so I assume that’s why it’s still around in my head.
Do you like to paint? I hate painting. Hate it. My husband does it perfectly but it’s not his favorite either. So glad you got the living room finished and it looks so good!
It seems to be hard to follow anything through right now (at least for me) so it’s motivating to hear you had a productive weekend.
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Peter said on April 20, 2020 at 7:21 am
I have those house dreams as well – it’s along the lines of I’m walking through our old house, when I open the door to the third bedroom and find that opens on to a wing of the house I didn’t know existed – and the dreams always have one room that’s like a warehouse with racks of stuff that I’ve thrown out years ago, all neatly organized.
Last week we finished cleaning out our parent’s condo – the closing is Wednesday, and I have a garage full of old furniture and mattresses because no one will pick those up due to the virus. I don’t know why I felt sadder about this move than the others – the only time I spent overnight in the condo was when one of my parents was very ill and needed help – maybe because it was the last move. And I really didn’t feel sad until the day after the move when it snowed, and my shovel was behind all of the furniture we moved in the day before.
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nancy said on April 20, 2020 at 7:46 am
This is pretty much exactly my dream, guys. Living in a house, open a door, find an entire wing I didn’t know about. I figure it’s about the self, and our unused productivity/creativity/something.
Although the other day it seemed to be about bookcases.
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alex said on April 20, 2020 at 7:50 am
I have frequent dreams of being in houses I’ve lived in and discovering new passageways to rooms I never knew about. Less frequent these days is the dream about discovering I have to take a final exam in a class I’d forgotten I’d signed up for and never attended.
Definitely disappointed in John Crawford. Had he not gotten clobbered in the primary by a toxic right-wing sourpuss, he stood a fair chance of becoming mayor. We should all be grateful he didn’t.
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nancy said on April 20, 2020 at 7:52 am
Also, the punchline of that Crawford column is this: He’s a doctor, and he’s no spring chicken. Probably retired by now, though, so the real punchline would be: Back to work, proles! I’ll be sheltering in my vast home until the worst blows over.
Oh, and to the people who keep asking why the governor’s order allows non-power boating but bans power boating, the answer is: Gas pumps, touching thereof. And why groceries and not seeds? Food, need of; and garden centers, still April. Just buy ’em online.
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Joe Kobiela said on April 20, 2020 at 8:52 am
Secret Rooms. To dream of a secret room represents your neglected potential or realizing an undiscovered aspects of yourself. Realizing you have more than you thought or that something is possible after first believing it wasn’t. It may be time to restart something you’ve forgotten or abandoned.
You welcome.
Pilot Joe
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Julie Robinson said on April 20, 2020 at 9:00 am
Gardeners who start from seeds inside are already planting. Some started as far back as February.
The Crawford column made me go apoplectic. He’s not only a doctor, he’s an oncologist, someone who has fought death on a daily basis all his professional life. When he sponsored the ban on smoking he gave a true gift to the city and to those of us who get ill around smoke.
Not only that, his wife was a volunteer where I used to work, and she seemed like the common sense kind of Republican I grew up around. She’s a nutritionist, and we discussed the WIC program, where my sister spent her career. She was firmly in favor of it, pointing out all the money it saved in preventative care.
Wow, just wow.
I have those house dreams too. A lot of times I discover a swimming pool. I always thought having an indoor swimming pool would be the ultimate luxury, so my sleeping dreams are fulfilling a waking dream.
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Jeff Borden said on April 20, 2020 at 9:32 am
Man, I wish my dreams were about houses. Or cool cars. Or sex. My dreams almost invariably prey on my anxieties. . .lost and late to something, on deadline and disorganized, missing tickets for a flight. Their frequency has been increasing over the past few weeks, leaving me groggy and cranky even after hours of sleep.
The growing number of dolts acting up in public is wearing on me. There’s a viral video of a couple of health care workers in pastel scrubs standing in a crosswalk in Denver while traffic is halted at a red light. A blond woman wearing a tRump shirt is leaning out of her large SUV and screaming at them. Her message? If you want Communism, go to China. Or, perhaps you’ve seen the photo of another angry lady in front of a Baskin-Robbins shop holding a sign “Give me liberty or death.” Poor thing is being denied her ice cream! Fucking commies!
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Mark P said on April 20, 2020 at 9:37 am
“Give me liberty or give me death”?
Don’t tempt me.
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Julie Robinson said on April 20, 2020 at 9:54 am
To be clear, the majority of my dreams are about searching for a bathroom. No Freud or Yung needed there!
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nancy said on April 20, 2020 at 10:00 am
Crawford also wrote a fairly damning op-ed after they lost the last mayoral race, blaming the lunatics in the right wing. Maybe he’s trying to find his way back in their good graces.
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SusanG said on April 20, 2020 at 10:32 am
Julie Robinson-in my dreams, I find the bathroom(s) but there are no toilets. Thanks for sharing that info about Dr. Crawford. I haven’t spend any time in Ft. Wayne in decades, so I assumed he was a wing nut and scumbag like my cousin. Do enjoy the music and food at Club Soda, though.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 20, 2020 at 10:39 am
I cannot believe that Trump is encouraging, even tacitly, these anti-sheltering demonstrations. He is literally risking people’s lives because he wants to show up some Democratic governors. The man is incapable of thinking of anything beyond what he believes will benefit him personally. I’ve never encountered a more psychotically selfish individual in my life.
I’d like to know what all those fools who declared Obama “the most divisive president in history” have to say now.
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Sherri said on April 20, 2020 at 11:03 am
The protests are the noisy show. Of course Trump is encouraging them. They’re like his rallies.
But look away from the noise to where he’s using the government to do much worse: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/hospitals-face-a-white-house-blockade-for-coronavirus-ppe.html
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Mark P said on April 20, 2020 at 11:11 am
It’s funny about the bathroom-searching dreams. I was going to mention those but you all beat me to it. That one has a pretty obvious, literal meaning. It also seems at least kind of obvious why we might have dreams of being back at school, not knowing where our next class is, or failing to study for a test. That’s exactly the sort of stress kids actually experience, so dreaming about it seems natural. The expanded-house dreams are not so obvious in my view. Pilot Joe’s explanation sounds like a pop-psychology analysis. Maybe it’s right, and maybe it’s not. It seems a little glib and uncheckable, like a horoscope.
The remarkable thing, though, whatever the “true” meaning may be, is that we seem to have a common vocabulary of dream metaphors. Don’t you find it amazing that so many of us have the same dream of finding new, unfamiliar rooms in a familiar house? Who has ever actually experienced that?
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alex said on April 20, 2020 at 11:31 am
Crawford has always been a moderate, sensible Republican so this really is a shocker. Since the early 2000s the local GOP has failed to capture the mayor’s office because their most plausible candidates always lose to nutters in the primary who go on to lose in a landslide in the general election. Part of the problem is that you can’t win a GOP primary in this town unless you receive the highest score on a right-wing litmus test administered by a local abortion fanatic. Crawford stood a far better chance of beating the incumbent Democrat and he excoriated the party and his loony, divisive opponent for sabotaging an otherwise winnable election.
As far as I’m concerned, Cathie Humbarger should remain their kingmaker and ruin all of their future elections, and it’s a good thing they’re too dumb to abandon their failed strategy.
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alex said on April 20, 2020 at 11:43 am
As a longtime analysand, I interpret the secret room dreams as a kind of Glenda-the-Good-Witch moment, where you realize that your courage, heart, brains or whatever have always been there even if you didn’t know it. I can also see it as literally “learning to think outside the box” when you’re dealing with life issues and seeing new possibilities instead of being confined by familiar old limitations.
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Julie Robinson said on April 20, 2020 at 11:44 am
Do I recall that Crawford refused to answer Humbarger’s evil little survey? He pointed out that mayors have absolutely nothing to do with abortion laws, so it was irrelevant.
Why yes, those are the bathroom dreams I have too. They are either closed, or exposed on a roof, mixed company, or the toilets completely full of excrement. I’m holding on as best I can, and then hey presto, I wake up and there’s one a few feet away.
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Dorothy said on April 20, 2020 at 12:09 pm
When I was 11 we moved out of our three bedroom house to a house one mile away that had seven bedrooms. For a family of 12 this was pretty life changing. From 1946 to 1968 my parents had to keep making room for the growing family in this little row house. Next door were my mom’s oldest brother, his wife and their six kids, who moved an hour away the year before we moved into our big house.
The first time we were in the second house, I thought my face would break from smiling so much. I could not believe how huge it seemed. I went up to the third floor where there were three rooms – two small, one about the size of the other two put together. The boys got that floor – the two oldest in the big room, Joe in the second and Jimmy in the third. My mother was calling for me to come downstairs, and I was so dazzled and excited that I yelled “I can’t find the steps!” This was nuts because they didn’t go anywhere – I guess I just got a little turned around and momentarily lost track of them.
I lived in that house until I got married, and I used to have lots of dreams about the first house. After I got married, I’d have dreams about both houses. Not a lot, but enough that I remember they were repetitive. I thought it was a sign that I felt like I had left some things undone in those houses. I needed to go back and do ‘something’. Or did I just miss them a lot and wanted to see them again? I don’t know. I just know that it felt comforting to revisit those homes in my dreams. The first one is no longer there – it was razed along with several others since they were row houses. I know they put a parking lot in that space. The second house is in deplorable shape. The neighborhood changed and went downhill – it’s unrecognizable now. I cried the last time I drove past it. Most of that community is unrecognizable now – it truly looks like an abandoned war-torn town. I have not dreamt about either of those houses in a really long time.
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jcburns said on April 20, 2020 at 12:35 pm
Mine is a strange variation where I realize I haven’t completely moved all my stuff out of this entire other house…sometimes it’s next door, sometimes elsewhere in this odd generic agglomeration of a city, and I go back and see things I’ve left behind and I say “…oh.” and start to gather them up.
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Suzanne said on April 20, 2020 at 12:44 pm
I have bathroom dreams. Usually the bathroom is in the middle of a public place with only a thin curtain or low wall around it, so I can’t go because I know everyone can see me. Generally, I wake up and yeppers! I have to go.
I also used to frequently dream that I showed up for work or church or some other public event in my pajamas, and never nice pajamas but old, shoddy ones that I had been wearing for quite a few days in a row.
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Hank Stuever said on April 20, 2020 at 12:45 pm
Cher once said that she was moving out of a house she’d lived in for years and actually had this experience, finding a room she never knew existed. I guess that’s called living the dream.
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Peter said on April 20, 2020 at 12:59 pm
I had that missing class dream – one time I dreamt I was in a large auditorium getting ready to take my licensing exam when I saw a coworker – I said “Hey Cathy, odd seeing you here, since you’re an interior designer and this is the architect’s exam”, and she replied “I was thinking the same about you, seeing as you got your license 10 years ago”.
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Deborah said on April 20, 2020 at 1:04 pm
My husband and I have discussed those House dreams we’ve both had, variations on what you all have already mentioned. My husband’s theory is they indicated how iconic “place” is to humans. Of course he’s an architect, so… But I think he has a point and he reads a lot about neuroscience.
One of my variations is finding a large warehouse type room in the back of the house, loaded with shelves full of junk, much like what Peter described.
Reading the news online this morning has been particularly depressing.
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Jakash said on April 20, 2020 at 1:04 pm
I don’t have the kind of house dreams that youse folks are talking about, though when I do dream of being in a house, it’s usually the one that I grew up in. Usually, it’s pleasant.
I’ve certainly had lots of the “I have to take a final exam in a class I’d forgotten I’d signed up for and never attended” ones that Alex referred to. Decades after I’ve had to take any exams.
But, ding-ding-ding, “the majority of my dreams are about searching for a bathroom,” as Julie said. At least the majority of ones that I remember. Those can get preposterously elaborate. Occasionally, after a convoluted search in odd places, I actually pee in the dream and am “relieved” to discover when I wake up that I still do have to pee, but didn’t in reality. (And there’s your TMI for this edition.)
“I’d like to know what all those fools who declared Obama ‘the most divisive president in history’ have to say now.” I imagine they say that Obama was the most divisive president in history. It’s not like focusing on the truth, or anything that they don’t want to hear, is that type of person’s strong suit.
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Heather said on April 20, 2020 at 1:20 pm
I’ve read that dreams about not being able to find a bathroom or where the bathroom is exposed or unusable relates to shame, or not feeling able to express vulnerability. After all, it’s a pretty intimate activity.
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Mark P said on April 20, 2020 at 1:58 pm
I used to dream pretty regularly about being back in high school, which was a pretty competitive, college-prep school. I would be my current age but for some reason I had to go back to high school. Over the years, and it was a lot of years, I got to where in the dream, I would think, “I have a PhD, I don’t have to put up with this crap any more!” The dreams tapered off after that.
My home dreams were always of the house I lived in until I was 17. I suppose in my unconscious, that house was always “home.” I haven’t had those dreams in a long time. I also used to dream about running. I was a decent runner in my early 30’s and couldn’t imagine not running. Bad knees made it so I didn’t have to imagine. In my dreams I am running effortlessly down endless roads over gently rolling hills, and my knees don’t hurt.
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Jakash said on April 20, 2020 at 2:16 pm
I harbor as much shame as the next person, Heather, but when I wake up urgently needing to pee, I don’t really feel like I need to pursue alternate theories with regard to why I’d dream about looking for a bathroom. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. : )
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ROGirl said on April 20, 2020 at 2:17 pm
When I was little I had nightmares about the closet doors in my bedroom. Monsters in the closet, I suppose. Nowadays the dreams I seem to remember involve me standing on a train platform waiting for a train to come in. I haven’t taken a train in a long time, although there are a lot of trains and subways in my past. The train never arrives.
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LAMary said on April 20, 2020 at 2:33 pm
I have the inadequate, unprepared type dreams and I also have dreams of being chased by someone. I sometimes wake myself up saying, “leave me alone!” or “stop it.”
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Little Bird said on April 20, 2020 at 2:36 pm
So there have been two helicopters circling around downtown Santa Fe. And I just found out why. There’s a protest going on. Cars only, protesting the lockdown. Operation Gridlock. Hope no one needs an ambulance or fire truck for the duration.
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David C said on April 20, 2020 at 3:09 pm
I want some police department when they’re faced with an operation gridlock temper tantrum to have the local street department put a snow plow on the front of their trucks. Just plow them to the side. Let them explain to their insurance companies that they were being assholes and blocking a hospital entrance.
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Scout said on April 20, 2020 at 3:20 pm
I have the recurring house dream as well. Mine is almost always the same, involving a house I am wanting to purchase and as I’m touring it, there is room after room that seems to go deep into a maze of endless hallways. The exterior and the main living space resemble FLW’s Taliesin in Spring Green WI, which seemed so familiar when I toured it, and then I realized why.
I’ve been so aggravated by the pretend grass roots protesters who are merely trump cultists looking for an excuse to prance around with their penis extenders. What a contrast to focus on the Together at Home concert that raised money for the WHO over the weekend, reminding me that good, caring and responsible people are still in the majority as we all collectively deal with something so bizarre.
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alex said on April 20, 2020 at 3:23 pm
I used to have the back-in-high-school dream (long after I graduated) and figured out that it meant unfinished business.
In answer to Julie at 33, Crawford made quite a stink about the survey and he also refused to endorse his opponent after losing the primary. In fact, his wife started cutting ads on behalf of the Democrat, as did other prominent Republicans, and there were “Republicans for Tom Henry” yard signs and bumper stickers just like there were when Matt Kelty got the GOP nomination. It was reported that the Republican candidate got an even lower percentage of votes this time around than Kelty did.
This is a diverse enough city that when you’re running for mayor, you have to be a likeable, relatable person. Ideological warfare and animus toward minorities may give you an edge in a Republican primary but it’s ultimately a big loser in Fort Wayne.
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Deborah said on April 20, 2020 at 3:26 pm
I certainly hope the elderly couple upstairs in the Santa Fe condo aren’t part of that protest in the plaza. If any 2 people are vulnerable medically those to people are. We know he’s a Trump supporter and he’s Hispanic which is beyond me. How a Hispanic person can be pro-Trump after all of the evil things he has said about them is astounding.
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Scout said on April 20, 2020 at 4:07 pm
Is it a good thing or a bad thing these idiots are so unbelievably stupid? There are arguments for either way.
https://twitter.com/Infantry0300/status/1252033505615400960
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LAMary said on April 20, 2020 at 4:08 pm
I know some pro trump Mexicans. They came here legally and they are very Catholic so they are anti abortion and they have no problem with the border patrol and ICE busting undocumented immigrants.
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LAMary said on April 20, 2020 at 4:19 pm
I don’t know if photographers seek out the most stupid signs the protesters have, but there are some real winners out there. There was one I saw yesterday, painted on the side of a truck that said,
No you’re rights.
No lockdown.
I had to read it twice before I figured out what that guy meant.
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Jakash said on April 20, 2020 at 4:26 pm
Sure, Deborah, you’re much safer from the virus in Abiquiu, but you’re missing out on the ongoing, real-life version of “Rear Window” taking place in Chicago these days. As someone who’s written of witnessing an architect neighbor in the altogether, you may enjoy this article. : )
“But mostly, if you see the neighbors living their usual lives, and it’s getting harder to avoid this at the moment, it’s reality TV — it’s a show starring real people moving around inside a box, offering an edited view of their reality. Curtains are pulled shut, of course, but like Jimmy Stewart in ‘Rear Window,’ you’re always astonished how much mystery remains on view.”
…
“Laarni Livings lives in a South Loop high-rise with such a good view of her neighbors that her family gives nicknames: There’s ‘blue-light guy’ and ‘naked chef,’ who is not to be confused with ‘naked guy.’ But then, through social media channels, Livings learned that her own family had become known by the neighbors as ‘the big-ass TV people.'”
…
“the New Yorker magazine noted a while back that telescope sales are suspiciously robust in large cities where star watching may be difficult at best.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ent-coronavirus-watching-neighbors-20200409-myt5wsaik5d4ldxhwraxdtj7li-story.html
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LAMary said on April 20, 2020 at 4:50 pm
You know how I got free steaks and salad greens from Costco a few weeks ago? Well today I get 77 dollars worth of stuff free from Chewy because they made a mistake. I cancelled an order, got confirmation of my cancelling it, and today it got delivered. I called and they told me to keep it. Kibble, a dog bed and some cat toys. I think all these places that deliver are so overwhelmed they’re screwing up. I am watching for screw ups that don’t benefit me.
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Jeff Borden said on April 20, 2020 at 5:13 pm
While we fiddle and fuss with half measures at the behest of half wits in D.C., the international oil markets are collapsing. Oil is trading at negative value and the NYT reports oil storage areas in the U.S. are so full companies are storing oil on barges at sea. I’m starting to think we’ll be pretty fucking lucky if we “only” have a deep recession. A global depression seems terrifyingly possible.
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David C said on April 20, 2020 at 5:23 pm
There isn’t much in this that I didn’t already know, and it’s absolutely horrifying to see it all in one tweet storm.
https://twitter.com/drvox/status/1251926827708211200
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beb said on April 20, 2020 at 5:44 pm
Bitterscribe@28 — Obama was divisive because he wasn’t white. Trump is a “genius” because he hates all the same people they do.
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kayak woman said on April 20, 2020 at 5:48 pm
I dream house dreams a lot but more often I dream “shoreline dreams”. Dreams of the L. Superior beach my family has owned for almost 100 years. Islands where there aren’t usually islands, canals and rivers and lakes where they don’t exist. Fugly hotel developments that I hope NEVER exist there. And… I returned from visiting my then octogenarian parents on September 10, 2001. Early the next morning I dreamed 911. Yes I know that sounds totally crazy. Cheers!
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LAMary said on April 20, 2020 at 5:50 pm
I have a grand nephew who is a merchant marine captain. His ship has been stuck in Singapore for a month waiting for parts for a repair. He’s on the ship with the crew just waiting it out, unable to sail until the repair is made. His wife is home with a two year old, getting a little crazy.
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kayak woman said on April 20, 2020 at 6:04 pm
Re-reading my original comment (edit button – hahahaha) I meant to say I had a *shoreline* 911 dream. I won’t try to describe…
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Deborah said on April 20, 2020 at 6:25 pm
Since my whole social life is online these days I forget which people I’ve told what, in emails, texts, comments etc, so I feel like I’m repeating myself ad nauseum because I can’t remember who I’ve already told that particular thought to. I’ve done that more and more since I’ve aged but now I’m completely bamfoozled (spelling?) about what I’ve already said to various people. now I find I compose thoughts in my head for communicating on my devices and then I can’t remember if I’ve already communicated it or not. Am I the only one? It’s disturbing.
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Mark P said on April 20, 2020 at 6:43 pm
Well, Georgia and some other states are going to do the big experiment and start reopening. Here, barber shops, beauticians and bowling alleys will open Friday. Restaurants will open Monday. But they must be really, really safe when they do it.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 20, 2020 at 7:41 pm
Watch those Georgia numbers May 8th…
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Little Bird said on April 20, 2020 at 8:15 pm
When I dream I’m usually in one of three cities. Real cities, but the geography is turned 90°. And some landmarks are off. And distancing is weird. Sometimes within one of those cities is “my house”. It’s always got more rooms than the original I lived in. I’m really only beginning to dream of Santa Fe, I haven’t lived here long enough I guess.
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Sherri said on April 20, 2020 at 8:23 pm
Can we stop Georgians from traveling and spreading the virus into states that aren’t governed by idiots? Ditto for Tennesseans, Floridians, and South Carolinians. Or most states with Republican governors, DeWine of Ohio being a notable exception.
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LAMary said on April 20, 2020 at 9:03 pm
Georgia has opened up, among other things, tattoo parlors. That pent up demand for tattoos was so compelling the gov had to take action before things got ugly.
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colleen said on April 20, 2020 at 9:30 pm
I got a notice today from Amazon that said ” your package must have been lost. Click here for a refund”. I was bummed because it was stitch counters for a crochet project I want to start. So I got my refund and ordered again….
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diane said on April 20, 2020 at 9:34 pm
Sherri@66, Maryland and Hogan is another exception. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/politics/mike-pence-governors-call-coronavirus-testing-supplies/index.html
So of course Trump had to take a shot at him.
But I’m wondering if having even just a couple Republican governors not bow to Trump (because people are dying in their states) will give the rest of the formerly moderate Republicans food for thought. If these governors don’t immediately implode (or suffer whatever fate Republican politicians are afraid of), maybe there will be a domino effect? Maybe the orange emperor wannabe will finally be shown to have no clothes after all.
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Sherri said on April 20, 2020 at 11:06 pm
Georgia has more cases per capita than Washington. Sure, it makes perfect sense to open up gyms, hair salons, restaurants, and tattoo parlors.
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Sherri said on April 20, 2020 at 11:21 pm
This explanation makes sense, considering Republicans: https://twitter.com/aishacs/status/1252407674559332359
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beb said on April 21, 2020 at 12:21 am
The idea that opening states will help the state avoid paying crushing amount of unemployment insurance is very credible. But what states like Florida which already make it difficult to apply for Unemployment Insurance? I lean towards the idea that the people demanding states open up are undead zombies listening to Trumps voice. They don;t have brains enough to think about saving unemployment insurance.
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Beobachter said on April 21, 2020 at 6:23 am
This morning at (ever more frequent) 3/pee time I headed for the head, and recalled this dream I had just had.
I was adding two devices to a computer network. The first was a router box thingy, and the second..
a Corelle® Winter Frost White bowl of strawberries.
Most likely inspired by Friday’s grocery delivery. The Bringer, Franz, brought/bought an unusually sweet (for this time of year) carton of fresh strawberries from Spain.
Why I wanted them on the Internet of Things? No idea!
I did learn yesterday that Franz is a fellow member of our neighborhood Volunteer group – I’m currently suspended due to my age.
Is anyone else doing bursts of rearranging/organization during these times?
I find I’m doing it even when I’m not putting off returning to some project.
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Mark P said on April 21, 2020 at 9:20 am
Sherri, that explanation for Kemp’s action makes sense.
There is one more thing, though. He is opening things like barber shops, beauticians, tattoo parlors, bowling alleys, and then restaurants. In his announcement, he encourages those involved to be careful, and to telecommute if possible. Telecommute. To a barber shop. He really is that stupid. I knew that he was channeling Trump, but now I realize that his stupidity is about on a par with Trump’s. It makes me want to tear out my hair, but I just don’t have enough hair left to do that.
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Dorothy said on April 21, 2020 at 9:25 am
I wear my hair very short so I get it cut every 5-6 weeks. But I can live with it getting shaggy for as long as necessary. I’m trying to figure out how it will work if I want to do the courtesy of wearing a mask while getting it cut eventually. I guess I could just hold it in place while my hairdresser does the ear cutouts. Then when that section is trimmed I could put the loops over my ears.
New topic: anyone see Better Call Saul last night? Thoughts? But no spoilers in case anyone who hangs out here hasn’t seen it yet.
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Julie Robinson said on April 21, 2020 at 9:45 am
Beo, thank you for my first belly laugh of the day. And so specific; color and type of bowl and the fruit itself. What a hoot.
And now I’m craving strawberries.
My last haircut was before Christmas, and I should be thankful that she cut it so short. I was planning on getting one the week we returned from Florida, but instead I went on lock down the very next day, March 11. There was an ill-advised bangs trim in there, and with my curls, now the whole thing is just a shaggy mess. It looks slightly feral. No, just plain feral.
Then there’s the roots. I’ve toyed with the idea of going gray, but could never figure out the awkward time in between. Who knows, I may have time to grow them completely out!
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ROGirl said on April 21, 2020 at 11:13 am
Got my hair cut shortly before the shutdown. I color my own hair. If you can get some root cover up products, there are some good options. I got color wow on Amazon, it’s a powder you brush on. It stays on between shampooings.
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Sherri said on April 21, 2020 at 11:36 am
Mark P, the eternal question, stupid or malicious? With Republicans, the best answer is usually both.
A deep dive into who’s setting up those reopen web sites: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/04/whos-behind-the-reopen-domain-surge/
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Deborah said on April 21, 2020 at 11:41 am
The protest the idiots had in Santa Fe yesterday consisted of 15 cars with a total of about 20 people in the cars, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper, and that was the headline.
I was awake from 3:30 to about 5 this morning with terrible allergies, then when I finally went back to sleep I dreamed that rutabagas had been determined to be a cure for Covid 19.
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Sherri said on April 21, 2020 at 12:13 pm
i don’t know if the experience here will translate or not, but just because the governor allows businesses and restaurants to open doesn’t mean people will actually go, once the deaths start registering. It didn’t take the governor’s order here for business at restaurants to drop significantly, for people to start cancelling appointments, and start staying home. The governor’s order accelerated the process, but the restaurants couldn’t have stayed open long on the amount of in person business they were doing.
Maybe it’s different here because Microsoft and Amazon and the other major tech employers had gone to work from home a couple of weeks before the order, and that certainly impacts what I see in Redmond.
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LAMary said on April 21, 2020 at 12:33 pm
Deborah those are my awake hours too.
I wear my hair long so the lack of a haircut doesn’t make much difference. It’s usually in a bun. I’ve never colored my hair. Back when I was a zygote I decided to take after the grandmother who had very little grey hair. I have zero and I’m 67. Hah.
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Dave said on April 21, 2020 at 12:50 pm
I haven’t watched the last two “Better Call Saul” episodes, so thanks for not giving it away. I hope we don’t have to wait as long for the final season to find out why Kim and Nacho aren’t a part of “Breaking Bad”. With all that is happening now, I would suspect that entertainment filming in general has been curtailed.
My wife has said for a long time that she’s not willing or ready to go gray yet. I’m waiting to see if this decides it for her but I suspect not. She had a hair appointment about a week before the shutdown, so no idea when the next one will be.
I got a haircut about the same time. I haven’t had long hair in a long time, perhaps this will change that. I’m not about to try to cut it myself. Did anyone else see Anderson Cooper’s results after he decided to self-trim?
In all that discussion about dreams, lately I’ve dreamed that I have to go to work but have no way to get there, or that I’ve taken an assignment to report to and decide that I’ve more important things to do, then worry about the repercussions. One in particular was very real to the point of when I woke up, I had to take a minute to realize I am retired and I wasn’t in trouble. I’ve had the house dream before, too, finding rooms that I didn’t know, mostly in the house I grew up in.
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Julie Robinson said on April 21, 2020 at 1:00 pm
My little zygote said early gray. Found the first one at 13, as I leaned in to check out a zit on my forehead. Sad trombones.
Just got in a FB spat with an uber Evangelical who supports opening back up. She said people can stay home if they wanted to, I said it puts more medical personnel at risk, and they can’t stay home.
Her answer was that all her children were essential and were working. I refrained from pointing out that they couldn’t stay home. Instead I gave her Bible verses from Matthew, that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.
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Jakash said on April 21, 2020 at 1:25 pm
A few things from Gene Weingarten’s weekly online chat at WaPo.
A commenter’s term for our Maximum Leader that I hadn’t seen: MAGAlomaniac.
Another commenter posted “… having some states in lock down while others are not in lock down is like having a pee area in a pool.”
A cartoon about the social-distancing protestors. Guy says: “The curve is flattening. We can stop social distancing!”
Next panel: Same guy, in the sky, in a parachute: “The parachute has slowed my fall. I can take it off now!”
https://crankyuncle.com/critical-thinking-about-covid-19-social-distancing-denial/
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Heather said on April 21, 2020 at 1:50 pm
I’m 50 and I have a few gray hairs, not really enough to be noticeable. The last time I saw my brother, who is about three years younger, he was the same. When the time comes I might just let it go. I think I might look good with it and my haircuts alone are already so expensive. Fortunately, I got it cut right before I started isolating. It’s going to start looking pretty shaggy at the beginning of May though, and it’s medium-length and layered, so not easy to put up. Oh well.
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LAMary said on April 21, 2020 at 2:05 pm
Heather you can get these things that look like heavy duty hairpins that have been twisted into a screw shape and do a messy bun ala’ Megan Markle. I’ve got very thick hair with some shorter areas left over from a bad bangs experiment months ago. The messy low bun look is semi acceptable (like who am I trying to impress here in the house) and those screw pin things hold the bun in place all day.
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Deborah said on April 21, 2020 at 2:34 pm
I had decided about in the fall to ditch my asymmetrical haircut, so I’ve been letting the short side grow out. I wasn’t ready to have both sides super short so I kept the longer side still be longer, but now the longer side is way too long. And the back above my collar is shaggy as hell. Mostly it doesn’t matter these days, I can plop a hat on etc. I don’t color my hair either so not a problem there. My hair started turning white when I was in my early thirties. LB has quite a bit of gray in her hair but the way it’s happening it looks like an expensive professional streak job. I cut her hair a few weeks ago and my husband has asked me to trim his hair a bit too.
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Jakash said on April 21, 2020 at 2:46 pm
I don’t really even know what TikTok is, but these 2 are pretty funny:
https://twitter.com/MommaUnfiltered/status/1252338851315683329
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Julie Robinson said on April 21, 2020 at 4:00 pm
To continue on a completely shallow theme, we just had a video meeting with our architect, and I put on makeup and earrings. Guys, it felt so good. I’ve been getting dressed everyday, if you count yoga pants, and even wearing a bra, but this seemed like a true occasion for me!
Hubby had to run down to his office to pick up a computer for a coworker and came home saying it was the most fun he’d had in weeks.
I’m reading the news but I can’t immerse myself without depression. Looking for laughter instead.
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LAMary said on April 21, 2020 at 4:24 pm
Here’s this, Julie. I hope the url works.
https://tinyurl.com/yd7zqtgg
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Sherri said on April 21, 2020 at 4:32 pm
I just turned 58 and have to search to find gray hair. My mom is 81 and only has a little gray hair, still mostly not gray. I do color my hair because it give my very straight some dimension. I had my hair cut and colored before everything shut down, but I usually get my hair cut every five weeks, and so it’s getting pretty shaggy now. My next appointment was already scheduled for May 15, but I’m not optimistic about the lockdown being over by then. Our stay at home order is currently through May 4, but we don’t have an idiot Republican running our state.
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Julie Robinson said on April 21, 2020 at 4:33 pm
Good one, Mary, and thank you. Although I sure hope she gave those patient babies a good meal after that.
Here’s another one, a Letter to the Editor about our local Congressional Idiot:
Banks’ brainstorm could clear national debt
It has been well documented that Rep. Jim Banks is suggesting (shall we say, demanding) that China pay for the damage coronavirus has caused our nation. While many people say this notion is preposterous, I believe we should examine this in greater detail. It could be that the honorable Mr. Banks is really on to something here.
And perhaps we should carry this brainstorm a step further.
After an exhaustive 93-minute study, I have discovered other diseases and places of origin we could sue the socks off as well. I suggest the following list could provide enough money to pay off the national debt. God knows we have enough attorneys to tackle the list. After all, since the quarantine, ambulance chasers have nothing to chase.
Although this is not a complete list, it is a great place to start: Malaria originated in Africa. Diphtheria was discovered in France. Gout? Paris and London are both to blame. Smallpox was first found in Egypt. Hoof and mouth disease: Rush Limbaugh?
Go get ’em, litigators!
Clyde Markley
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David C said on April 21, 2020 at 5:58 pm
I think Clyde Markley would fit in here perfectly.
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Deborah said on April 21, 2020 at 8:00 pm
It seems so obvious that Trump’s re-election hinges on his ability to get testing up to speed and yet he doesn’t seem to have the will (or competence) to make it happen. What’s up with that? The last nails in his coffin are going to be his inability or reluctance to do it. Again, it seems so obvious. Why doesn’t he do it?
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LAMary said on April 21, 2020 at 9:01 pm
Deborah…shh…don’t tell him.
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alex said on April 21, 2020 at 9:47 pm
I’m 58 and have scarcely any gray. And my A1C is 9.6. Mixed blessings I guess.
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colleen said on April 21, 2020 at 10:20 pm
So the latest study on hydrochlorquin (or however it’s spelled) shows it is not effective against covid. Saw the article posted on WOWO’s FB page. 71 comments and almost TO A PERSON they said the study was wrong, it was fake news, the liberals just want it to fail because Trump suggested it, it does too work, and it’s all just a giant conspiracy. Are there really that many of the brainwashed masses? They scare me almost more than Trump because they walk among us. How can you look at the world as one big conspiracy? Gah.
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Dexter Friend said on April 22, 2020 at 1:40 am
I like “Better Call Saul” because of the actors but OMG the pace is so slow I keep dozing off and have to back up. I am not a fan of Vince Gilligan’s style…camera shots from the ground and lizard’s eye views and shooting between images and holding the shot way too long. His turtle-slow pacing drives me nuts. Long pauses work in live stand-up comedy but not in drama shows. Kim is so robotic, too. Her sex act with Jimmy was like a blocked-off still camera shot. But tired old Mike Ehrmantraut is great, and seeing Barry Corbin earlier in the cast made my day .
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Beobachter said on April 22, 2020 at 2:49 am
Julie, glad you got a chuckle from my dream.
I knew the specific brand/color from ordering a bunch of big bowls the last (whoops, let’s say ‘most recent’) time I was in the States.
Please permit me to also suggest (okay, I can’t resist the quip):
It’s forever Jung.
(The C. G. Jung Institute is in Küsnacht, down the lake from here.)
And to the sound of groans, I exit into the Shadow..
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 22, 2020 at 8:16 am
The last six weeks my hair has been coming out grey all over, and the funny thing is — I didn’t color my hair before. Something in my follicles just decided it was time.
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Suzanne said on April 22, 2020 at 9:10 am
At 60+, I have few gray hairs, so have never colored the hair. I inherited hair from my dad’s side. It’s bad hair, straight, fine, and without body or wave, but they go gray very, very late. My mom’s side has thick hair with body and curl, but by 35, the men are bald and the women, snow white. So, I guess I get the last laugh.
Colleen @ 97, that doesn’t surprise me. The right wing media created a Frankenstein monster that is going to eventually destroy them. And us. I have a cousin who lives in a very safe neighborhood in NE Fort Wayne and yet, her husband has an enormous gun safe that takes up half their bedroom, they have a video doorbell that they apparently monitor religiously, and she posts all kinds of weird crap on Facebook. They get so sucked in to the world of Rush & Fox that when reality pushes it’s ugly head in, they move to an even nuttier media to reinforce what they think.
It is scary. These are otherwise decent people but I have no doubt that if called on to “liberate” something by the right people, they’d do so without qualms. How many Pro-life adherents are already out there saying that exposing some to a killer virus isn’t wrong because, heck, we are all gonna die someday!
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Jenine said on April 22, 2020 at 10:01 am
@LA Mary: thank you for the invisible food video link!
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Jeff Borden said on April 22, 2020 at 10:07 am
Shout out to J.C. Burns!
What’s the feeling on the ground in Georgia over Brian Kemp’s plan to reopen pretty much everything. . .even tattoo parlors. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank today suggests the new Georgia nickname should be the Petri State. Kemp’s actions seem unconscionable to me.
We’ve been on serious lockdown for five or six weeks and Illinois isn’t expected to hit its peak until mid-May! Almost everyone is taking this seriously around my neighborhood in Chicago with about 60 percent of those out with dogs, pushing strollers, running or biking all wearing masks. Monday, Chicago cops came into our park and rousted people who were just sitting around, telling them they needed to keep moving or return home. Next time, they said, they will write tickets.
Kemp says businesses will be expected to enforce “social distancing,” but how do you get a tattoo from six feet away? Or a manicure?
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Sherri said on April 22, 2020 at 11:02 am
As I was picking up takeout last night, I tried to think through how opening up restaurants in a socially distant manner could possibly work. The easy part is, just put the tables further apart. But that’s not enough. What about the kitchen? Can then workers in the kitchen prepare the food and remain six feet apart? How do you serve the tables from six feet apart?
And who is sitting at those tables, and are they six feet apart?
And probably most importantly, what does opening restaurants signal to the community about their risk and their need to take precautions in support of public health?
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LAMary said on April 22, 2020 at 11:08 am
Trump wants gun boats shot down. I’ll give him credit for knowing boats don’t fly, but I will not give him credit for knowing that “shoot down” does not make any sense in this case. From his reading and writing skills I can’t believe he made it past eighth grade at most. He would have been in the slow group in the eighth grade. He’s bragging about his ratings compared to Morning Joe too? Does he realize that people watch those daily briefings hoping for some useful info about Covid 19, not because he’s there? Even I can’t take watching him anymore and have a strong tolerance for bullshit.
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jcburns said on April 22, 2020 at 2:04 pm
Hi from Atlanta. Well, our mayor, a much more together leader than our governor, just asked us politely not to go out and bowl and get tattoos, and I think that’s our plan.
Any discussions of how you get or give a haircut (say) from a socially distant safe distance descends pretty quickly into the art of Rube Goldberg.
I’ve been blogging about this and other things every day since the beginning of the year, and although I don’t have that proprietoress-je-ne-sais-I-don’t-know-what nor do I have a place to process comments, I commend it to you if you’re starved for reading material.
I guess what bothers me the most is that it means that the idea of, a month or two or three from now, getting in the car and going anywhere (Michigan, say) is just irresponsible if we’re living in a right wing science experiment. So…damn.
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Mark P said on April 22, 2020 at 2:17 pm
I’m in Georgia, too. My wife and I have sorely missed our regular Wednesday huevos rancheros lunch with some of my relatives, but I doubt we’ll be going back to the restaurant until the numbers say it’s safe, and despite what our Georgia Trump-lite says, the numbers are definitely not there yet. One Georgia mayor called the decision stupid, which the Atlanta mayor was too discrete to say. But you could tell she was not happy. Not happy at all.
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LAMary said on April 22, 2020 at 2:31 pm
JC you triggered an old memory. Back in my stay at home mom days I used to go to an online quiz based in UK. The regulars were a very witty and smart bunch. One time the question was, ” What is the Venus de Milo lacking?” and one of regulars answered, “that certain je ne sais quoi.”
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Jim said on April 22, 2020 at 3:31 pm
Just watched Anderson Cooper do a long interview with the Mayor of Las Vegas. Short version: she wants to completely open it for business. People will be responsible, and if casinos or hotels aren’t the free market will shut them down. She also thinks (apparently) that West Nile is a contagious disease, that Las Vegas had no problem with Covid, and actually said that Anderson is an alarmist.
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LAMary said on April 22, 2020 at 3:35 pm
I’m watching Governor Newsom’s daily briefing. The comments are depressing. Two people have mentioned opening the Indian Casinos. Two have said Newsom’s related to Pelosi. He has an aunt who is married to Pelosi’s brother in law. Not sure if that means he’s related. It’s still pretty bad here but the lockdown is working so it would be a shame to stop now.
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Sherri said on April 22, 2020 at 4:04 pm
The sheriff of Snohomish County, just north of here, says Inslee’s stay at home order is Un- Kons-Ti-Tu-Shun-Al, and he won’t be enforcing any such thing. Of course, he also doesn’t think he should have to enforce the gun control measures we passed by initiative last year, and he’s right put out by the notion of releasing any prisoners because of a global pandemic.
Snohomish County has the second highest number of deaths in the state, behind King County.
Elected sheriffs are a relic of a bygone time, and should go away. They’re far more Joe Arpaio than Andy Taylor.
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beb said on April 22, 2020 at 4:35 pm
I loved the Venus de Milo joke. That was a lol joke.
Earlier today I ran past a headline about Trump’s Immigration Ban that seemed to say there was a cut-out for au pairs for ‘middle class’ families. I haven’t been able to find that exact headline again but it as apparently responding to this:
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-friends-host-ainsley-earhardt-worries-what-trumps-immigration-ban-means-for-her-daughters-au-pair/
As I see it if you can afford an au pair you are definitely not in the ‘middle class.’ You’re a rich bastard and F U.
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Jeff Borden said on April 22, 2020 at 4:38 pm
J.C.,
I will check out your blog. My final online class is tomorrow, then several days of grading videotaped speeches and then, done. I’ll have plenty of time on my hands.
The early schedule of Chicago music festivals has already been canceled: Gospel, House and Blues. Many suburban communities already have canceled Memorial Day parades and Fourth of July fireworks displays. (Chicago halted its massive 4th fireworks years ago to save money.) The chairman of the School of Communications told me if I teach at Loyola this fall, it will be only one class because they are expecting a steep decline in enrollment.
All of which point to the fact that there is not going to be a return to “normal” in the way the preznit and his cultists believe. His sycophants in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, etc. are not going to be able to wish this away. Recovery is going to be long, slow and painful. And the director of the CDC is quoted in the Washington Post today saying the coronavirus outbreak next winter could dwarf this one. These would be awful times under the best leadership, but with our fiddling, diddling, dopey dumbshit in the Oval Office, they are even worse.
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jcburns said on April 22, 2020 at 4:39 pm
I think there’s some super-sloppy reporting happening here. The city limits of Las Vegas DO NOT INCLUDE the Las Vegas Strip (and those casinos) and the airport. Clark county and its commissioners govern that area. So why are they talking to her?
And I agree about the sheriffs. I think refusal to enforce a law handed down by the state legislature should mean auto-ejection from office.
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David C said on April 22, 2020 at 5:09 pm
The Wisconsin Rs has filed a lawsuit against Governor Evers’ safer at home order. It’ll end up with the same Supreme Court that made us go out and vote. WASF.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-wisconsin/wisconsin-republicans-file-lawsuit-challenging-coronavirus-shutdown-order-idUSKCN223366
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Sherri said on April 22, 2020 at 5:14 pm
Sloppy reporting or no, there’s truth in this tweet:
https://twitter.com/ronmarz/status/1253043302879936512
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LAMary said on April 22, 2020 at 5:15 pm
Beb, when that answer was given in the online quiz all the typing stopped. Usually people were furiously entering answers but that answer got everyone laughing. I still laugh out loud when I think of it. Credit goes to Adrian Thomas, who gave that answer. He’s Welsh guy with a great sense of humor and very quick mind.
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Jeff Borden said on April 22, 2020 at 5:15 pm
I’m not a vengeful person, but it would be lovely to see the sanctimonious prick Robin Vos get the coronavirus. He’s the weasel who dressed in a hazmat suit and told voters it was perfectly safe to go to the polls in Wisconsin. He’s a repulsive man. So is the defeated Supreme Court conservative judge, who insists he will still participate in the arguments regarding a massive purge of voter rolls. The Wisconsin GOP is fucked up, brother.
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Jim said on April 22, 2020 at 5:43 pm
@jc114: no reporting at all. I’m simply repeating things she said in the interview, including your comment about the Strip. She actually pointed that out. What she was talking about was her DESIRE for Las Vegas to be completely open.
Just watch it and judge for yourself if what I posted is inaccurate.
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jcburns said on April 22, 2020 at 6:06 pm
My comments about sloppy reporting were directed at CNN and MSNBC, NOT you, Jim.
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David C said on April 22, 2020 at 5:51 pm
It is indeed, Jeff. I was so happy when I moved here twelve years ago. I left Michigan which was Republican addled since Engler became Gov. Moving to progressive Wisconsin. Oh boy. It lasted about three years until the POS Walker came along. Now Michigan, because it has citizen initiatives, is working it’s way out. We’re saddled with a god awful SC and a legislature that’s nearly a R supermajority on 46% of the vote and no way to change anything because voting is nearly irrelevant as far as the Assembly and Senate are concerned.
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Deborah said on April 22, 2020 at 6:00 pm
Michelle Lujan Grisham, the guv of NM (MLG as she’s called here) is speaking right now about the future in NM. She’s very impressive, very articulate, soooooo different from Trump,
I tried commenting here a number of times the last few days when I was in Abiquiu but they didn’t seem to get through, or maybe they did? I’m back in Santa Fe, made a run to CVS for more allergy meds and then Whole Foods. Both places were nearly empty, everyone wearing masks and gloves and keeping their distance.
When I read some of the things the selfish bastards are saying about opening up too soon it makes me furious. It’s so stupid and will do way more harm to the economy and to society.
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Jim said on April 22, 2020 at 6:12 pm
Sorry jc! I watched it on CNN, and haven’t looked at any of the subsequent reporting. She was truly scary live!
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Jeff Borden said on April 22, 2020 at 6:20 pm
Folks,
Even though Illinois has been on lockdown since March 15, today was the worst day yet with 2,049 new cases. And this with social distancing, no restaurants or bars or health clubs or tattoo parlors or nail salons. I really wonder what the hell is going to happen as these yahoos open stuff back up.
Illinois is a corrupt as hell and broker than broke –our bonds are literally one step above junk status thanks to gutted pension funds looted by our Democratic politicians over decades– but our current governor has been great in this crisis. (J.B. Pritzker is a legit billionaire from the family that owns Hyatt Hotels and a whole buncha other stuff.) I’d rather be here than Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina. . .or Wisconsin, LOL.
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