I know some people, maybe some of you, were able to relax at 12:01 p.m. January 20. It was a trendlet on Twitter to say you’d had the best sleep in four years, that night and thereafter. It didn’t happen that quickly for me. But I cracked my third novel in a month and realized, Holy shit, I have an attention span for this stuff again.
It’s been a minute. It’s been a lot of minutes. For a long time — four years, to be exact — it was hard to concentrate on anything other than the brewing shitshow in Washington. I had trouble sleeping. I still have trouble sleeping, but not as much. I’ve decided to go limp on my insomnia. No more melatonin, no more cannabis; I just accept that sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and don’t get back to sleep for an hour or two, and that’s OK, because the same world that gives us insomnia also gives us black coffee, which is delicious. Little by little, it’s getting better.
The great unclenching, like most transitions, didn’t happen all at once. But the world feels a little less clenchy at the moment.
Honestly, stuff like this helps:
We’re having a challenging discussion of late about our responsibility in how we cover the candidacy of Republican Josh Mandel for the U.S. Senate in 2022.
This is from the Cleveland.com (RIP, Cleveland Plain Dealer) executive editor, and Josh Mandel is the former state treasurer. He is, shall we say, cut from the Trumpian cloth. Chris Quinn goes on:
Usually with political campaigns, we cover where the candidates stand on various issues and report what they say. They lay out how they would improve the lives of constituents and attack their opponents’ failings. It’s pretty straightforward.
The issue is that Mandel has a history of not telling the truth when he campaigns – he was our PolitiFact Ohio “Pants on Fire” champion during his first run for Senate because of the whoppers he told. More recently, he is given to irresponsible and potentially dangerous statements on social media. He’s proven himself to be a candidate who will say just about anything if it means getting his name in the news. We have not dealt with a candidate like this on the state level previously.
What an excellent question for a journalist to ask. You can click through and read the whole thing — it’s not long — but here’s the tl;dr:
As we get closer to election time, what Mandel says might be news, and I don’t believe the right approach to covering dangerous statements by candidates is the traditional “he said-she said.”
A round of applause for Editor Quinn! It took four years of hell, but we’re starting to get it.
I trust everyone’s weekend was good? Mine was fine, although I spent a chunk of it working, which chaps my ass. But I got a good book from the library (“The Sympathizer,” Viet Thanh Nguyen) and, well, see above. Also, saw our pot of chives stirring to life, so even though it’s still fucking cold, it’s less fucking cold, and that’s good.
Bloggage: Like my insomnia, it’s going to take a while to rinse these tinpot con men out of the system, because there’s a sucker born every minute, and sometimes they converge in a state legislature:
In early October, Kris Kobach, Kansas’ former Secretary of State, and Daniel Drake, a Wichita-based venture capitalist-turned-CEO, made a sales pitch to Kansas legislators. The duo wheeled in what looked to lawmakers like a “refrigerator” — a shiny metal box Drake called a “revolutionary” device that would “kill COVID” and bring “several hundred jobs back to Wichita.”
“This stuff is very cutting-edge,” Kobach said. The local development of such exciting technology was why, he told lawmakers, he wanted Kansas to get the “first bite at the apple.”
During their pitch, Drake explained that his company, MoJack Distributors, had developed a line called “Scent Crusher” that uses aerosolized ozone, a tri-oxygen molecule, to sanitize hunting and sports products, “only to realize that we weren’t here today to be able to get hunters or sportsmen to be better athletes or better hunters, but to kill COVID.” He told lawmakers the sample product next to him was part of a new line called “Sarus Systems.”
See if you can guess how well this miracle device works:
There is no evidence Sarus Systems has made material steps toward rehoming hundreds of jobs to Kansas, and shipping records show products are currently being manufactured in China. There is also scant evidence their machines, or ozone in general, can safely eliminate SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. And while the pair have hyped the products’ popularity, claiming a three-month backlog and international interest, we were unable to verify any purchases — from the state of Kansas or otherwise.
Kris Kobach, I remind you, used to serve as Secretary of State in Kansas, and did the GOP thing of implementing strict voter ID laws, purging voters from registration rolls, etc. Presumably his post-officeholder career is as a petty grifter. As I said on Twitter, the Trump era is sort of a rancid remake of “The Music Man,” only no one can sing. And Marian the Librarian is a villain now.
Oh, well. It’s Monday, and we can all do better. So let’s.
Jenine said on March 15, 2021 at 10:41 am
Twitter thread from the journalism instructor whose class busted Kobach’s claims about his ‘product’: This story started as a class assignment, in which I gave them two hours to prove to me that his business wasn’t all it purported to be using the skills they’d learned so far in the semester.
Kansan here, and I really hate that guy.
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Deborah said on March 15, 2021 at 10:48 am
While this might be sacrilegious to say, I think we as a nation are currently or going to be experiencing PTSD because of the last 4 years. Especially from the scary, lonely pandemic and its inept handling, the bullying, the bragging, the threats and incitements of Jan 6th, all of it. We have a lot to overcome and it won’t be easy. People are living with food insecurity now, that’s got to be devastating to the body and the mind. We’re in for the long haul on recovery.
I’ve had insomnia most of my adult years. Now that I’m retired it’s not as debilitating, not because I sleep better, but because most days I don’t have to get up early for anything.
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LAMary said on March 15, 2021 at 10:52 am
Isn’t Kobach the guy who did a witch hunt for voter fraud and found next to nothing? Trump touted his skills. Of course he did.
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Mark P said on March 15, 2021 at 11:24 am
I thought “scam” as soon as I saw “aerosolized ozone”. Ozone is already a gas. It’s is a potent oxidizer, and it might have some destructive effect on the coronavirus if it were exposed long enough, but so what? The virus lives about three hours in the air anyway.
My weekend sucked. I was having some aches and pains from my rotator cuff, and I suspected that it might be susceptible to a more serious injury. Turns out I was right. I tore it good and proper while — wait for it — scooping out some ice cream. I’m almost positive it will need surgery. I already had rotator cuff surgery on my left shoulder, so at least I know what to expect.
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Sherri said on March 15, 2021 at 11:27 am
Before he was a vote supressing Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach was an anti-immigration grifting lawyer convincing cities to enact ordinances and defend them in court, hiring him, of course.
https://www.propublica.org/article/kris-kobachs-lucrative-trail-of-courtroom-defeats
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Val said on March 15, 2021 at 12:16 pm
I’m late to the party but when I read the responses here re: the royal interview and who is the racist in the family, I remembered an old incident but couldn’t find it until today. My money’s on Chuck.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prince-charles-race-row-woman-manchester-anita-sethi-a8315187.html
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LAMary said on March 15, 2021 at 12:38 pm
Mark, stick the ice cream in the microwave for 30 seconds or so before you try scooping the next time. Or have someone else scoop it. Or go out for soft serve. While not nearly as serious I once cut the palm of my hand on a crumb of baguette crust. This was at work so there were many witnesses including a food writer from the LA Times. He was nice enough to confess he had done the same thing on a crystal of Tasters Choice that was stuck to his counter. You can’t trust food. It attacks when you’re most vulnerable.
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ROGirl said on March 15, 2021 at 1:18 pm
It seems like I will never be able to stop saying to myself, “What’s wrong with these people?” Grifters gonna grift.
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Deborah said on March 15, 2021 at 1:54 pm
I shrubbed my knuckles once on spilled sugar.
It’s snowing in Chicago, normal for March, but cruel after a stretch of warmer, sunny weather.
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Heather said on March 15, 2021 at 2:22 pm
I’ve heard of bloody mouth/gum trauma thanks to a Dorito.
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Mark P said on March 15, 2021 at 3:51 pm
LAMary, until I get a shoulder repair I’ll be dishing ice cream one handed. I’ll try the microwave trick. The offending ice cream is no more. I ate all of the damned stuff. It was simply too dangerous to leave in the house.
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basset said on March 15, 2021 at 4:22 pm
Food-related procedural question: how long are standard home-grade pots and pans supposed to last? Mrs B and I are coming up on our 40th anniversary in a few weeks & still using wedding present Revere Ware… I just now wandered into a high-end cooking store while waiting for Mrs B to get her hair done and was almost embarrassed to be in there among $300 frying pans and such.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 15, 2021 at 4:50 pm
And he doesn’t know the territory!
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Julie Robinson said on March 15, 2021 at 4:57 pm
Mark, that really blows. I’ve been told that the shoulder joint is the most vulnerable of all the body, and gives almost everyone over 40 problems. That’s 100% true in our little pod of three. Can you get a shot while you’re waiting for surgery?
Our RevereWare is still going strong after almost 42 years. I don’t scrub the bottoms with copper cleaner anymore, though I’ve been told it will speed up cooking, but Lord, what a pain in the patootie.
Weather’s crappy here too, with sleet/hail/winds. Had to put on the winter coat today.
So, the latest on our house addition is that they were ready to pour the slab on Friday when the city decided it needed additional soil testing. The contractor got the test performed the same day, but now it has to go away to be read, and then submitted to the city for their approval. This will probably add another month to construction time. I feel like somebody at the city hates us.
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David C said on March 15, 2021 at 5:02 pm
Mark P, get the Häagen-Dazs little cups. Much safer for the shoulder and waist.
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LAMary said on March 15, 2021 at 5:07 pm
Basset, if the pan still works, like the handle is still attached, the bottom isn’t rusted out or crusty with burned cheese sauce, no reason to replace it. I have a couple of pans that I grew up with. I have a few of those 300+ dollar ones that were gifts, all of them enameled cast iron. All Clad is wonderful stuff but stupid expensive and you can find near dupes for much less. But if you don’t need it why buy it unless it’s a size you need but don’t have or your current pan of that size has seen better days. I recently bought an omelet pan at Target. I wanted a carbon steel pan about that size and it was pretty cheap at Target. I’m also considering buy a new wok because someone in the household who will go unnamed trashed my old one. Again, not a big investment.
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Jeff Borden said on March 15, 2021 at 5:11 pm
I’ll cop to being overly distracted by the mean Orange King. My habit during his reign of terror was to check CNN on my smartphone upon rising each morning, just to make sure the asshole hadn’t gotten us into a war with North Korea. Towards the end of his term the sound of his voice, the way he lets the volume trail off at the end of a sentence, the too long neckties and the baggy suits and that ludicrous makeup and dye job. . .I couldn’t watch or listen any more. I haven’t felt that way about a politician since Nixon, whose every mannerism sent me into a funk.
I’m uneasy about granting technology companies so much power, but gotta admit, it’s wonderful that tRump no longer has a platform on Twitter or Facebook. He has nothing to add to this nation. Nothing,
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beb said on March 15, 2021 at 5:13 pm
Aside from grifting just what does the Republican party stand for? (aside from white supremacy, theocracy, and tax cuts for the rich)
A torn rotator cuff from scooping ice cream is a new one for me but I’m not surprised considering how hard ice cream can get.
Bassett, the next time you want to browse kitchen utensils, browse at Kohls. $300 skillets are separating fools from their money. As far as I know pots and pans last until the handle falls off.
Apparently the latest Republican outrage is that President Biden hasn’t had a press conference. This despite having daily press briefings from Biden’s press secretary who has not insulted reporters are outrageously lied to them. I think the R’s just hope to Biden in front of a microphone and trick him into stuttering. It’s all they’ve got.
There’s a picture on Raw Story that made the ex-p look like a shambling senile old man. I wonder what the story is behind that.
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LAMary said on March 15, 2021 at 6:12 pm
That’s twice impeached ex-p.
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Dorothy said on March 15, 2021 at 6:14 pm
Our Revereware got pretty beat up after about 30 or so years (I’m just guessing – 1979 was when we got married). I bought several pots at IKEA and absolutely love them. I guess they’re stainless…? They’re easy to clean and nothing cost $300. I’ve also picked up a frying pan here or there, most lately at TJ Maxx or Marshall’s for about $16-$20 each. I have two – light tan with white speckles. I have no idea the brand but boy are they nice. They are non-stick without that black sparkly finish on them, and they clean up beautifully.
DST doesn’t really bother me all that much – I can adjust usually within 48 hours. Went to bed Saturday at 9:30 (10:30 in the ‘new time’). Woke at 3:45 (which was 4:45 by then, of course). That’s what time my husband’s alarm usually goes off so it felt normal. I did try to nap on Sunday but could not fall asleep. I still felt tired during the day so I took a melatonin at 8 PM. Fell to sleep around 9:15. Nestle nudged me at 1:50 AM. She really did have to go. But then I had trouble falling back asleep. Now I feel like I’m drunk, I’m so off balance from sleep disturbances. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is just life from now on. Sleep disturbances are a fact of life for our age group. Pisses me off but there’s not much I can do about it!
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alex said on March 15, 2021 at 6:18 pm
Basset, my favorite cookware came from Ikea and it was cheap. As I may have mentioned here before, I have some much more expensive stuff (Le Creuset) that I never use anymore because I know which of my pans deliver the best results and that’s what I reflexively grab every time.
The IKEA pans have an aluminum core sandwiched between layers of stainless. Food never burns or sticks and they always come clean without hard scrubbing.
I also have some really old stuff my mom unloaded on me when I went off to college, copper bottom sauce pans from the ‘50s or ‘60s, and I still use those too.
Your Revere Ware is probably fine. That stuff is well made.
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Jeff Borden said on March 15, 2021 at 6:30 pm
We were using a conglomeration of Johanna’s old Lustre Ware and my old T-Fal stuff until we stumbled over a great sale at Kohl’s on Cuisinart stainless steel gear a couple of years ago. It has worked out pretty well. We have one piece of Le Creuset. My beloved bought a casserole with lid in a heart shape and gave it to her mom, who after moving it from shelf to shelf without ever putting it into an over, returned it to her daughter. It now sits in our pantry. Still unused.
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Julie Robinson said on March 15, 2021 at 6:45 pm
My folks got married in 1952 and her RevereWare is still good. Of course, she doesn’t cook a lot…
I’m rereading Slaves in our Family by Edward Ball. He tried to trace all the ancestors of everyone who had lived on his families’ plantations. It was a large family with many plantations, incredibly wealthy at the time. After the Civil War they all became poor and lost the plantations, because, duh, the economic model didn’t work without free labor.
Ball traced his white ancestors back to England, where they were poor peasant farmers. So they started out poor, became rich when they owned other human beings, and became poor again when it was no longer allowed.
And that, beb, is what the Republicans stand for.
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Colleen said on March 15, 2021 at 6:59 pm
My parents got married in 1964 and are still using the pots and pans from that time….and they aren’t even a fancy name brand.
That being said, about five years ago I had to replace a Calphalon non stick pan we got for a wedding present. My go to is an All Clad my sister gave me as a gift.
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Sherri said on March 15, 2021 at 7:16 pm
I gave my Revere ware to my daughter because it doesn’t work well with induction, but it was all still functional.
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basset said on March 15, 2021 at 7:34 pm
Not quite sure what you mean there, JeffTMMO@13.
The Revere Ware’s lasting just fine, handles aren’t shiny any more but that makes no difference. We have supplemented it with several cast iron pieces, including a 3-notch Lodge frying pan that belonged to my grandmother, dates to the 40s or 50s as far as we can tell, and lives on top of the stove for daily use. And we have some IKEA, been happy with those… and a wedding-present Romertopf clay pot that gets used maybe once a year, it’s a lot of trouble to cook in and clean up.
I would definitely recommend a stop at the Lodge plant and factory store if you’re ever within a reasonable distance of southeastern Tennessee. Disappointed, though, that their enameled Le Creuset knockoffs are made not on the premises, but in China.
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LAMary said on March 15, 2021 at 7:39 pm
Marshall’s and TJ Maxx are great places to find kitchen stuff. My brother, the source of many Le Creuset pans, gave me a saucepan from a brand called Made In and it’s an All Clad dupe but not hundreds of dollars. I think I use that more than any other pan, except the cast iron skillet.
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Deborah said on March 15, 2021 at 8:01 pm
I have all all-clad now except for the Staub Dutch oven I bought recently for bread baking. I didn’t spend anywhere near $300 for any of those, so I don’t know where you guys are shopping. In Abiquiu at the cabin I switched from Lodge cast iron stuff to French copper ware that I can’t remember the name of the brand, comes from Williams Sonoma. I got all 3 pieces I have of that used on eBay for a fraction of the cost. I love it. We started getting all-clad after we moved to Chicago, I’ll never have to buy another pot or pan in my lifetime, I don’t think. LB has LeCrueset which she got mostly from an outlet mall in Santa Fe where they had a store or Marshall’s in Chicago. All for much less than it regularly costs. And she’ll never have to buy another pot or pan for the rest of her life.
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Connie said on March 15, 2021 at 8:06 pm
My RevereWare is forty some years old. I have the ceramic flat topped stove and it works best with flat bottomed pans. Several of the RW have some bumps and bulges and just don’t do well on that surface.
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Jakash said on March 15, 2021 at 8:39 pm
I’m not expecting them to wear out anytime soon, despite their decades of service, but I’m always pleased to note that our Farberware pots and pans say on the bottom that they were made in Bronx, N.Y, U.S.A.
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Suzanne said on March 15, 2021 at 9:07 pm
I scored two Cuisinart cast iron enameled pots at Goodwill on half-price day; a 5.5 quart oval and a 2.5 quart round, both for about $35. I have one 3.5 quart Le Creuset that I bought at a Le Crueset outlet somewhere. I also have a stainless steel chicken fryer type pan with a glass lid that I picked up on clearance at Meijer for something like $15. I use it all the time. It’s great for curry and pasta sauce.
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Dexter Friend said on March 16, 2021 at 2:35 am
There is a restaurant in Fort Wayne called Takaoka of Japan. I thought it closed years ago but it is listed as still in business. Our party of four were watching the chef cook our dinner, spinning the sharp huge knife around, showing off and all, when he just sliced the living fuck out of his hand. He smiled, yelled “Ah, too much sake!”, and produced a roll of gauze immediately and wound it tightly around and around, like in an instant, and continued on, no blood visible on the grill. It was something to see.
Last year as the shutdown commenced, my daughter Vanessa sent us some ice cream from Jeni’s of Columbus. Tiny cups of good ice cream, it comes packed in dry ice and is frozen hard when it’s delivered. They ship to your door.
Columbus, OH
Customer service: 1 (614) 488-3224
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 16, 2021 at 8:29 am
Basset #26, it was my usual lame attempt at humor. The opening post’s evocation of how Trump was a “rancid remake of “The Music Man,” only no one can sing” had me humming tunes from the show . . . and the opening bit on the train car had a recurring line about Professor Hill as an interloper: “and he doesn’t know the territory!” When in fact he knows his marks better than they do, and gets off at the end of the scene to see how the pickings are in ol’ River City.
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JodiP said on March 16, 2021 at 9:37 am
This is completely irrational, but I actually kinda like DST. I tend to wake up early even on weekends, but it means I can just get out of bed instead of trying to get back to sleep which can be hard. I can’t bring myself to get out of bed at 6 a.m. but if the clock says 7, my day can begin!
I think I’ve mentioned I have begun doing 10″ wind down yoga on youtube. The breathing rhythyms help a lot. I also do it when I wake up for the bathroom break. I fall asleep much more quickly than I do when just reading. The breathing triggers your parasympathetic nervous system which is the opposite of fight or flight. I still take melatonin and Benadryl. I think I have found a routine which works for me.
Our weekend involved trying to hang our new TV. 4 trips to the hardware store is all it took. A friend is coming over tonight to help my wife do the lift–the sucker weighs 70 pounds and I am not tall or strong enough to comfortably lift it.
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Jeff Borden said on March 16, 2021 at 10:10 am
I found this interesting.
Rightwing billionaires Peter Thiel and Rebecca Mercer are funding an Ohio Senate run by J.D. Vance of “Hillbilly Elegy” fame. What would lead these ultra-conservative assholes to get behind our boy J.D.? What’s the quid pro quo?
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/peter-thiel-jd-vance-ohio-senate-pac-10-million
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 16, 2021 at 10:41 am
They got their fingers burned with a wealthy populist with a narcissistic streak, and are fishing for a mellower populist with a more business friendly tone, not so much paranoia and more pragmatism. Just a guess.
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LAMary said on March 16, 2021 at 11:37 am
Jeni’s ice cream is good. There’s a cookbook, or freezbook, of recipes from Jeni’s. If you’ve got an ice cream maker it’s not a bad investment. I own an ice cream maker but it’s been residing with my son at his girlfriend’s home for about three years. This is probably for the better
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Jeff Borden said on March 16, 2021 at 12:09 pm
Old J.D. is already learning the rightwing ropes. He’s blasting the U.S. military for being “woke” because the Pentagon pushed back against chickenhawk Tucker Carlson, who smeared military women as feminizing the armed forces while China embraces masculinity. He joins another famous non-combatant, Rafael Cruz, in standing behind a weenie like Carlson.
I really loathe these people.
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Jakash said on March 16, 2021 at 12:25 pm
In the possible good news department, “the New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital may have to fend off a new suitor for Tribune Publishing…”
“On Feb. 16, Alden, the largest shareholder in Tribune Publishing, with a 32 percent stake, reached an agreement to buy the rest of the chain in a deal that valued the company at $630 million. In the deal, Alden would take ownership of all the Tribune Publishing papers — and then spin off The Sun and two smaller Maryland papers at a price of $65 million to a nonprofit organization controlled by the Maryland hotel magnate Stewart W. Bainum Jr.
“In recent days, Mr. Bainum and Alden have found themselves at loggerheads over details of the operating agreements that would be in effect as the Maryland papers transitioned from one owner to another, the people said. In response, Mr. Bainum has taken a preliminary step toward making a bid for all of Tribune Publishing, the people said.”
I don’t know anything about Mr. Bainum, but practically anything that would stop Alden from taking over the Chicago Tribune and the rest of the papers in the chain would be a step in the right direction, at a minimum. As his original interest was in buying The Baltimore Sun, this article says “he would be likely to seek local owners for its other newspapers,” which is what folks at the affected dailies have all been hoping for, I believe.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/business/media/tribune-hedge-fund-alden-newspapers-sale.html
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Deborah said on March 16, 2021 at 12:26 pm
I don’t get this criticism of the military by the right wing. Doesn’t Israel have one of the most fierce militaries in the world? And women are required to enlist (aren’t they?). Seems to me the military needs women, they need good people to enlist, period. Where is their strategy coming from? Oh yeah, it’s to appease white, conservative he-men. Weird.
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LAMary said on March 16, 2021 at 12:42 pm
On a totally shallow note, I have a fashion recommendation. Costco, 32 degree joggers. 11.99 a pair, nice fabric, pretty well made, long enough for me at 5’10” but with the elasticized cuff they would work on pretty much anybody. I was very pleasantly surpised when I bought them. Far better quality than I expected for 11.99. End of shallow rant. Oh, and free shipping.
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Deborah said on March 16, 2021 at 12:48 pm
These women are tough https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Israel_Defense_Forces
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LAMary said on March 16, 2021 at 1:02 pm
Some of the best ER nurses I’ve hired were veterans. They had been in combat areas. They could handle a busy ER. I hired a surgical RN who had been head nurse at a field hospital in Afghanistan and a nurse manager who had been an Air Force RN during Desert Storm. That one was a guy. Clearly women should not be limited to being nurses in the military. I just wanted to give a shout out to that group. Lots of them got their education paid for by serving, but that wasn’t their only motivation. Women who want to serve in the military should be allowed to fill any position, any location. It’s stupid to exclude half the population from the opportunity.
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Julie Robinson said on March 16, 2021 at 1:08 pm
32 Degrees stuff is good. I found one of their shirts at a thrift store and Dennis loves it. It’s some magical knit that is soft and comfy yet very breathable for super hot weather. He liked the shirt so much he asked for more, and I ended up going to their website and ordering four or five, whatever it took to get free shipping. He could use that many because he went from XL to M, and all his old shirts were baggy.
Wasn’t that fascinating? Anyway, I’ll go look on the Costco site.
I get to learn how to give shots. Mom’s LDL has gotten too high, so they’re putting my mom on a drug given by injection. I’ve never given shots, and I’ll admit to a slight queasiness, but I figure if they can teach kids with diabetes, I can learn too.
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LAMary said on March 16, 2021 at 2:16 pm
I think that they used to train nurses to give injections by having them stick syringes into oranges.
And agreed on the fabric, Julie. And New York Magazine’s Strategist column has recommended the sweats made by 32 Degrees. Usually the leggings/joggers/sweats recommended on that page are waaaay out of my range.
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Julie Robinson said on March 16, 2021 at 2:38 pm
Interesting. I paid less than $10 each for the ones I bought. They’re perfect for Florida heat because they wick so well.
The doctor has to get insurance approval first, then they said they would train me. It’ll be fine. They’re good people at that office.
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David C said on March 16, 2021 at 2:45 pm
I had to give one of the cats jabs for about a week. It was that or try to pill him and if you’ve ever tried to pill a cat you know why I chose to give him injections. I was nervous the first one but it seemed to bother me more than it did BC. So after a couple of days it was fine.
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Suzanne said on March 16, 2021 at 3:06 pm
We had a male tabby cat who, when we tried to give him a pill, would apparently hold it in his mouth. After shoving it in, holding his mouth shut, and massaging his throat like the vet said we would let him go, certain that he had swallowed it and then we’d find it somewhere on the floor where he had spit it out.
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LAMary said on March 16, 2021 at 3:09 pm
I don’t remember who shared this trick with me, but take a pencil with a clean rubber erases attached. Wet the eraser a little and stick the pill on the eraser, hold the cats mouth open by holding the sides of the muzzle, and stick the eraser pill thing as far into their mouth as possible. When the cat closes its mouth pull out the pencil.The pill will, with luck,stay far enough back to not get spit out. This is all done very quickly, of course. I haven’t had to pill a cat for any extended time. I bet the cat gets wise to the process and runs when it sees a pencil if you do this enough.
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susan said on March 16, 2021 at 3:23 pm
When I had to give antibiotics to one of my cats—who was as most cats, pill-averse—I’d coat the pills with chicken fat from a roasted chicken. He’d lick his chops for minutes afterward, probably unaware that he’d swallowed a pill.
I ate a lot of chicken for those few weeks.
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alex said on March 16, 2021 at 3:38 pm
Sort of strangely serendipitous we’d be talking about J.D. Vance today. Exactly ten years ago this date we were all having quite the spirited discussion of the impoverishment and hopelessness of Appalachian southern Ohio. Well lookee who’s coming to the rescue, a couple of real billionaires this time and they’re looking to buy a Senate seat.
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Deborah said on March 16, 2021 at 4:01 pm
Billionaires buying a senate seat indeed. That’s not unusual, but using a “hillbilly” from southern Ohio as the candidate, now that’s different. That the hillbilly is a Yale graduate that has written a best selling memoir that’s more like it for them. He’ll be a lot easier to control than the former guy.
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Julie Robinson said on March 16, 2021 at 4:24 pm
Speaking of shots, I got my first Pfizer this afternoon! I’m delirious with joy!!! After my second + waiting time, we’re going to Orlando. Mama needs to hug her babies.
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Sherri said on March 16, 2021 at 5:45 pm
With infertility treatments, I had to learn to give myself shots and my husband had to learn to give me shots. It was much easier giving myself shots! To be fair, I was giving myself subcutaneous shots in a saline suspension, and he was giving me IM shots that were in a oil suspension, so the needle was bigger and they went in much slower.
And yes, they taught us with an orange.
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Dorothy said on March 16, 2021 at 7:21 pm
Jeff @ 13 & 33 – I knew what you were referring to- and it made me laugh! I’m a big Music Man fan. HUGE. If it’s on and I stumble across it, I have to watch the whole thing. The Marion the Librarian number is tied with the Wells Fargo Wagon as my top fave numbers. Who can resist a little Ronnie Howard?
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Julie Robinson said on March 16, 2021 at 7:32 pm
Dorothy, did you know that the ever charming Hugh Jackman is set to star in a Broadway revival of Music Man? Sutton Foster is to play Marian, Madam Librarian. It was supposed to open last fall. I would love to go see it but I kinda broke the bank with our last NYC trip.
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Jim said on March 16, 2021 at 7:40 pm
Julie: we saw Sutton Foster in Anything Goes. She was wonderful!
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Julie Robinson said on March 16, 2021 at 7:55 pm
Jim, she is, and I kind of love that she crochets backstage. Would love to see what she brings to Marion. Alas, between early retirement and our building project, I don’t think it’s in the works for me.
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LAMary said on March 16, 2021 at 10:53 pm
Another NY Magazine reference: They have a feature that lists things some famous person can’t live without. Sutton Foster was the subject of one of those a year or so ago. There were ear plugs and a white noise machine the next nine items were things I use all the time. Exactly the same brands. Bates crochet hooks, Lactaid whole milk, Lindor Balls, Hershey dark chocolate pieces with almonds, Copic markers, Grapefruit Burt’s bees lip balm, Aquaphor, Wool-ease yarn, Mario Badescu serum. I was amazed. Usually the famous person will like something that’s common and inexpensive. Like Kelly Ripa likes Dove soap, then the next thing on the list is a pair of 700 dollar sneakers. But Sutton and I are on not into that sort of stuff. She’s a down to earth girl. We do both use Mario Badescu serum, which is 34 dollars, but one bottle lasts me at least six months. I think five bucks and change per month isn’t bad.
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Dorothy said on March 17, 2021 at 4:25 am
I don’t understand why famous people don’t just bring a bag with that kind of stuff packed inside. Lip balm? It could be tucked inside my bra! I have several brands in my purse all the time, and a small tube of Aquaphor (I have eczema) and a small tube of Ultimate Gold Bond cream. I knit and crochet, but to have that waiting for me where I’m going to be performing is just kind of dumb. You’d start a new project while sitting backstage waiting to go on? Uhm, no, if you’re a stitcher you bring with you whatever work you have in progress (right now for me it’s the second sock for a new pair I started three weeks ago). I get the chocolate, maybe the soap requests – those would be messy to drag around with you (chocolate melts!). But if someone is that comfortable financially, he or she should be able to afford a little kit bag with whatever they need to make them feel at home while traveling.
And yes I’ve been awake for two hours now and I’m actively seeking things to bitch about while wishing I was still asleep!
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beb said on March 17, 2021 at 4:46 am
I think the women in the military thing was triggered when someone posted to twitter a picture of a military maternity dress uniform. And Tucker Failson got all up in his patooie about how we will force pregnant woman to fight the next war for us snowflaky men. I think. Like any Republican social media complaints it’s hard to know they’re complaining about.
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LAMary said on March 17, 2021 at 11:22 am
I suspect Sutton Foster schleps her own stuff around, especially her crochet equipment. Broadway actors don’t make Hollywood money.
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