Alan spent several hours today replacing the battery in my iPad mini, and right now he’s making sure the adhesive adheres. It occurs to me you could get a pretty good sense of us from this random selection of heavy books from a nearby shelf:
Dunno if Italy will happen this fall. We have a wedding in St. Louis on September 30, and we lost our dog sitter when Kate announced she’s going on tour during October and into November, not as a musician, but as the sound tech for a Canadian band. They’ll tour western Canada and the same part of the U.S. So maybe it’ll be spring before we get there, but we’ll get there. I kinda wish I was hitting western Canada with her, frankly. I’ve never been to Vancouver.
Anyway, that leaves us in Michigan for one of the prettiest months of the year, so I can’t complain. We’ll do some weekends here and there. It’ll be fun. I hope.
Meanwhile, news is breaking here. The state attorney general just announced charges against the 16 fake Trump electors from 2020, a group that includes the former vice-chair of the state GOP, and a national GOP state committeewoman. I remember watching live video of them marching to the Capitol on December 14, when the real electors were meeting inside. A state police officer refused to let them in. Later stories would emerge that they’d discussed secretly sleeping in a sympathetic legislator’s office overnight, so they could say they met “in” the Capitol, as the law requires.
One final note: The youngest fake elector is 55, the oldest, 82. There’s your MAGA demographic, right there.
News is breaking elsewhere, too. This story, from the Israeli paper Haaretz, may be paywalled, although I was able to read it this morning, when I nearly woke Alan chuckling over it. The gist: In 2019, the Israeli government loaned some rare antiquities to the White House, lamps made from clay, as part of a Hanukkah celebration. The loan was intended to be short-term, but then the pandemic started, everything shut down, but no fear for the artifacts. After all, they were in the most secure building in the world.
Well, guess where they are now? You get one guess, and it’s located in Palm Beach.
This guy. I mean, this fucking guy.
Here’s another guy, a local billionaire building his dream house. The details are galling, but what did you expect, a log cabin?
I didn’t expect a log cabin. But I probably didn’t expect a trampoline park.
OK, outta here. Into the midweek we go.
Suzanne said on July 18, 2023 at 7:27 pm
Ha! From your pile of books I see “Home Comforts”, a book that made the cut as we downsized the past few months. It’s a great reference book!
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Deborah said on July 18, 2023 at 8:51 pm
Huh, Home Comforts, that sounds interesting.
Michigan’s Gov and AG are on fire, good for them.
I watched a clip of Rachel about AGs in 19 red states demanding info about those seeking abortions in states where it’s legal, actually both abortion info and info about those seeking trans affirming care from states where it’s legal. I remember seeing an ad shortly after Dobbs where a state trooper has stopped a car with a mother and daughter driving across a state line, the trooper shining a flashlight in the car and questioning if the young woman might be pregnant and seeking an abortion. I remember thinking that it was quite effective but a little far fetched. Well, it’s here now folks, nothing far
fetched about it. It won’t happen while Biden is pres but if the GOP wins in 2024 it will happen for sure.
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basset said on July 18, 2023 at 11:32 pm
We still have the Lester Bangs book around here somewhere… maybe. Have to check the storage unit.
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Dexter Friend said on July 19, 2023 at 2:22 am
This latest haze and smoke that makes the sun look all weird through the smoke filter is from the western Canada fires. The fires there can really rage in the fall. Maybe a Santa Ana can come and blow it all out of California and stretch up into Canada as well.
I had not read about Trump’s theft of the loaners, what with all the news yesterday about Michigan and Jack Smith’s pre-indictment of Trump news. Trump’s martyr campaign, witch hunt and lies is really getting old to me, but is fuelling his base like a fan spreads a flame.
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Jim said on July 19, 2023 at 3:17 am
Baldy – “If I do this, will I stay in the spotlight ?” .
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alex said on July 19, 2023 at 6:46 am
Sure hope Trump hasn’t monetized the Israeli antiquities already. Wondering if Roger Stone got a package deal on them when he paid for his pardon.
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ROGirl said on July 19, 2023 at 7:45 am
They’re probably still in the bathroom with all the boxes.
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Suzanne said on July 19, 2023 at 8:45 am
Trump probably sold the antiquities to the owners of Hobby Lobby since they had to give back the antiquities they stole from Iraq.
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basset said on July 19, 2023 at 8:46 am
So is the band splitting up, going on hiatus, or what? Looked like they were just about to take off.
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nancy said on July 19, 2023 at 11:46 am
No, she’s only going out for a month. They don’t play out that often.
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robert said on July 19, 2023 at 8:46 am
Best book title: “Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung”
Most Authentic book: the dog-chewed copy of “Home Comforts” [of course, our dog training book is well chewed as well]
re: dog sitters – over the years, all of the kids in our neighborhood have grown up and left home. Their replacements are barely past the toddler stage 😉
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Mark P said on July 19, 2023 at 9:44 am
For Trump, the Israeli antiquities were a partial payoff for moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. I imagine the Israeli government knew what kind of person Trump is, so I don’t want to hear any shit from Israelis about that. “This known criminal who has never done a decent act in his life stole the stuff we lent him!”
Yeah, what a surprise.
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LAMary said on July 19, 2023 at 9:47 am
I know there is at least one fan of the surfboard biting otter here. On the news this morning it was revealed that this otter is the daughter (an otter daughter in the water) of another surfboard biting otter. The wildlife people have taken this otter’s daughter, just a pup, to care for her while they try to catch her bitey mom. A lot of tourists are showing up in Santa Cruz to catch a glimpse of the infamous otter.
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Jenine said on July 19, 2023 at 10:43 am
@Randy in the last post, I like to think of Canada as more distant from our ignorant fury. But Ford, the trucker ‘protests’ and Poilievre (translates as ‘rabbit fur’?) show that y’all are beset by the same forces. Sōrry!
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Roy Edroso said on July 19, 2023 at 11:42 am
“The youngest fake elector is 55, the oldest, 82. There’s your MAGA demographic, right there.”
I was wondering why that ZeroHedge schnook bannered that the indictees are “elderly.” I guess one tactic will be to portray the charges as elder abuse. Maybe some of these guys will go out walking in their bathrobes like Vinny “the Chin” Gigante.
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basset said on July 19, 2023 at 11:55 am
Best line in the Lester Bangs book, working from memory here… “I thought it would be fun to get f***ed up on drugs and go see Tangerine Dream.”
And he accurately described their sound as “like sand seeping on the bottom of the ocean…”
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alex said on July 19, 2023 at 1:02 pm
Well, the roofers are back and they’re installing inflow ventilation across the back of the house. Tearing off the bottom three rows of shingling to do it.
When the supervisor contacted me on Monday, he explained that the vendor of the vent product had sent only half of what was needed. It would have been nice if the foreman had told me that was the case, not that the house didn’t need it in his professional opinion. Even if the story sounds fishy, at least it’s getting done.
The final phase will be new 6-inch seamless gutters arriving next Monday.
Now that I’ve got a schmancy new roof, I’m contemplating repainting. Everyone’s doing the white farmhouse thing, and I don’t want to be a copycat of a soon-to-be-dated style, but I thought a cream color might be nice and certainly more fade-resistant than the current deep blue-gray, which has a lot of whitish oxidation all over it and now looks flat rather than the satin that it was, and I just repainted it only three years ago.
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kath said on July 19, 2023 at 1:21 pm
Alex – last summer we had a new roof installed. When they were about half way done I went outside and thought that the color didn’t look right. I found some packaging and figured out that they had delivered the wrong color shingles. They had to redo almost the entire roof. What a waste.
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Sherri said on July 19, 2023 at 2:11 pm
Newspapers maybe dying, but school newspapers have scored a couple of high profile wins lately.
First, the Daily Northwestern uncovered a long history of hazing in the football program that the university had glossed over with a two week suspension of the head coach, and forced the firing of the head coach when it was obvious from their stories that the coach not only knew about the hazing but sanctioned it.
Second, the Stanford Daily found academic misconduct in the record of the Stanford president, forcing an investigation and today, the resignation of the Stanford president.
Neither of these two things would have happened without the campus newspapers digging into the story.
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David C said on July 19, 2023 at 2:15 pm
The biggest part of training for any contractor is telling bald-faced lies with a straight face. If you don’t have all the materials to start a job, you don’t start the fucking job. If they don’t deliver the right shit, you haul your dead ass to the distributor and get it your own damned self.
Mary keeps talking about the house we’re going to build after I retire. I keep telling her, we’re not building another house. I had my fill of contractors’ horse shit on the first two we built. I’m not doing that again.
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alex said on July 19, 2023 at 2:21 pm
Kath, roof colors are always a crapshoot anyway. My last roof looked perfect with the stonework and the siding when you held a sample right in front of it, but it took on a completely different look when it was perpendicular to the sky. This time I chose shingles that were again perfect with the stone when seen at ground level, but they don’t look anything like the stone once installed, and they don’t contain any hints of the siding color either, although they look fantastic with the trim color.
I may forego any painting yet. I’m about to get my attic vacuumed out and sealed and reinsulated. No more fuzz falling through my light fixtures and dust accumulating on everything. And better energy bills too I hope.
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brian stouder said on July 19, 2023 at 3:10 pm
At some point in the very-near future, we shall make the big move to Logansport, and meanwhile renovation continues apace there. I know just enough to know that it is a huge blessing/pleasant turn-of-events that we can have the interior of the house repainted, and the carpet removed/replaced by hard wood flooring, from 3 counties away. Pam has that ‘Waze’ thing set up on her phone and can see the progress in constantly updated real time
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Julie Robinson said on July 19, 2023 at 4:42 pm
David C., you speak the truth about contractors. We desperately need to redo our bathrooms and kitchen but I’m still experiencing PTSD from building our addition. And Brian, you speak the truth too. We were supposed to take possession on the addition five months before we did. The plan was to empty the old side and get painting and other renovations done, then move in our new things and get settled. We are just now getting to painting on the old side, two years later. The furniture will be crammed to the middle and covered, and it will be much more of a PITA than if they were empty.
Anyway, we had an interesting lunch with a young man from Hungary yesterday who was here on a Fulbright scholarship and is returning home soon. He had housing here arranged and while at language training in Oregon, it fell through, only four days before he was to arrive.
Did you know there’s a pact among pastors to help out each other’s parishioners? Zoli’s Oregon pastor started calling pastors here in Orlando, and luckily for Zoli, he reached Sarah, who moved heaven and earth and found him a place he could afford near the university. He called her his angel for the help she gave him.
Zoli finished his dissertation in computer science and is off to present another paper about AI in Toronto. He’s been offered a job and would like to take it but the Fulbright doesn’t want to contribute to brain drain so doesn’t allow a return to the US for two years.
He was impressed by how well everything functioned and was organized in this country. (I resisted the urge to tell him about our construction project.) He said we are an optimistic people; that in Hungary when people have an idea they think it will never work so don’t even try.
Downsides, according to Zoli: our materialism and crazy driving. Yep.
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LAMary said on July 19, 2023 at 5:08 pm
My father owned a lumber yard. A very old school one that built custom cabinets and matched old styles of moldings. They even milled raw logs at times. Dad died and the yard went to three of my brothers and a bit to me. One of the brothers also inherited the house at the beach. Small house, maybe 1400 square feet but well built and on a big lot. The sleaze brother who got that house helped himself to many thousands of dollars of stuff from the lumber yard. Custom made windows and cabinets, hardwood floors, lots of custom shit. He added two bedrooms, more decks, more bathrooms and a much bigger kitchen. Anything needed, like a stove or plumbing fixtures that was not usually stocked at the lumber yard was ordered through the lumber yard. His contractor always had everything he needed on time. My brother made sure those deliveries got done first. He never paid for the materials. He also didn’t pay the contractor and he got sued. We sold the lumber yard mostly to end the bleeding and to stop having to deal with him. He had plans to get houses built for his sons. He also had a vintage wooden boat restored. Teak decks of course.
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Pam H said on July 19, 2023 at 6:19 pm
I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the antique lamps were shipped full of “somethin’-somethin'” that Bibi and T were trying to sneak through customs. Why else would a crude man care about antique Jewish lamps? Makes no sense unless they were full of something.
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David C said on July 19, 2023 at 6:21 pm
In our first house, none of the windows matched. It was built by a builder for himself. I always said that he probably ordered one extra window on every other house he built, put it in his house and charged it to the other houses. It just happens that my mother-in-law baby sat his kids. I told her my premise and she just said “Yeah, he was a cheapskate, I’m sure he did”.
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alex said on July 19, 2023 at 10:17 pm
Well, I got my attic ventilation finished today. Had to turn off my A/C because suddenly the house was freezing. It works.
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Deborah said on July 19, 2023 at 10:41 pm
One of the perks of having an architect for a husband is that he watches contractors like a hawk and surprisingly they respect him (so far). Finding people who will do smallish jobs is hard in Chicago, they seem to be super busy and if it’s not a huge, full renovation they’re not interested and who can blame them. Even for things like house cleaning, if I could find someone who would just clean the bathtub, that’s really all I need but of course, who would do that?
The worst of the heat has broken, it’s still bad in Abiquiu, but slightly better and getting even better every day out. Thank god, maybe my mood will improve now.
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Mark P said on July 20, 2023 at 1:10 am
Since we’re talking contractor horror stories, I’ll tell (or possibly retell) mine. I contracted the house we’re in about six years ago. The plumber with a license had lung cancer so he didn’t do any of the actual work. I think it was his son who cut a structural member. He died soon after and his son went *back* to prison. I had to find a structural engineer to write a remediation plan, which caused a two-month delay. The flooring sub face-nailed our oak flooring on every board up to about three feet from the walls. The framers didn’t know how to frame an arched window, so they just didn’t. They also didn’t know how to install handrails on stairs to meet code. They framed a window opening too narrow, so the window binds. The guys who put our siding on didn’t read the manufacturer’s installation instructions, so they did not properly flash the joints. The roofer didn’t install a drip edge. The electrician didn’t know where to put light switches. (That was partially my fault for not drawing out an exact and specific wiring plan — I relied to much on his experience.) The painter sprayed primer all over the finished floor and windows, and left trash and globs of paint on all the walls, plus he didn’t use the gloss paint I bought specifically for the bathrooms. I had to pick trash off the walls, spackle the resulting craters and repaint both bathrooms. The crew that installed our kitchen cabinets made the refrigerator opening too narrow so the refrigerator is a press fit, and I’m going to have to reglue some trim. The joints in the quartz countertops are amateurish.
It’s funny how different it was in the early 2000’s. I found good subs for our first house quite easily. I had to really search for subs for this house, and the ones I found were crap. The only reason I can think of is that general contractors were keeping all the good subs busy, leaving only the dregs. Except the tile guy and the HVAC guy, who did creditable work. At least I know the insulation was done correctly; I did all that work myself.
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Dexter Friend said on July 20, 2023 at 2:46 am
Margorie Taylor Greene propped up big blow-ups in Congress showing Hunter Biden engaged in sex with who she said was a prostitute brought in from California, which violated the Mann Act. Everyone was shocked, stunned, and disgusted and…waiting for the punch line? Sorry, all true. Click your favorite news link to read all about it. The LOOK on those Congresspeople’s faces, my gawd!
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alex said on July 20, 2023 at 7:13 am
Julie, I didn’t know your guests were Fulbright scholars. I have a cousin who’s a muckety-muck in the Fulbright program in Hungary and your Hungarian guest probably knows him. He and his siblings (my dad’s brother’s kids) grew up in the U.S. but were in a tight-knit Hungarian community that shielded them from American culture and discouraged their assimilation. They moved to Hungary after the Soviets pulled out. We were never close because their parents considered their mongrel cousins a bad influence and my dad was a traitor for having married an American woman and having made American friends and having made his own way in the world without their permission. I’m sure your visitor enjoyed his brief respite from their iron grip and I’d bet he bails on Hungary when his two years are up.
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Julie Robinson said on July 20, 2023 at 8:47 am
On Sunday we had a group of four from a State Department program; on Tuesday we saw Zoli the Fulbright scholar from Hungary. Sorry to confuse you. I hardly know if I’m coming or going myself these days, what with my volunteer gig, these special get-togethers, and four birthday celebrations in a two week period. It’s all lovely, and what a thing to complain about, but I’m looking forward to a few down days of reading.
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JodiP said on July 20, 2023 at 10:15 am
Wow, those are some horror remodeling/building stories!
We have done many major projects in our 108-year old house, and had all good experiences.
I have recently gotten into Substack, and found this article on how all the remodeling shows are impacting people when they remodel their homes:
https://annehelen.substack.com/p/how-your-house-makes-you-miserable
I think about resale only in terms of if we do this project, it will increase the value of our home. I know you never re-coup the investment, so of course the main reason was to increase the joy in our home. We’ve used what we want for colors and whatnot. Whatever new owners want to change, they can do it.
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FDChief said on July 20, 2023 at 10:27 am
Meanwhile, in the UnWoke People’s Republic of Florida new elementary and secondary school curriculum standards require that future Florida Men (and Women) be taught that slavery taught the people being forced to work for their slavers “valuable skills” that could be “applied to their personal benefit”.
And that the infamous 1920 Ocoee Massacre (just another “white mob butchers Black people” day in the Land of the Free…) was Both Sides – the uppity rascals did violence, too, rather than die peacefully like the Good Ones do.
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Suzanne said on July 20, 2023 at 10:47 am
Y’all are giving me anxiety about home improvements. We just moved and need stuff done but DIY is not gonna happen as we are clueless about home improvements. We had the whole house painted before we moved in and I am still picking paint drops off the woodwork & floors & finding spots that were missed. We had a cleaning crew come in pre-move and they did a lousy job leaving windowsills very dusty, cabinets greasy, and windows dirty. I gave them a bad review & a supervisor reached out to me, wondering what she could do. Too late, honey! The point was to have things spotless BEFORE the move. We have some lights to put up but the electrician, who we know well and does excellent work, hasn’t shown up after several months. He will eventually, I know, but I want it done now.
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Jeff Gill said on July 20, 2023 at 1:40 pm
Julie — I’m not working formal hospice; there’s an explanation at the end of the last thread.
But I just got to pull a tooth at home from a 94 year old, which is a skill I pray never to use again . . .
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ROGirl said on July 20, 2023 at 3:37 pm
We just had an intense storm pass through, teeming rain and big chunks of hail were plunking down on the roof. The rain is starting up again, I have to drive home soon.
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Julie Robinson said on July 20, 2023 at 4:51 pm
Hoo boy, JeffG, that is some fun. Mom has been to the ER twice and both times all they did was keep her for hours, run tests and run up bills, and not help her one whit. She has refused to go again; I guess we’ll see when push comes to shove. She also desires to die in her sleep, and so do I if I think about it. Still seeing primary care doc twice a year and taking meds, mostly because I do all that work. Has had new glasses twice since we moved here but they don’t help much, had a bad dentist experience and refuses to go back. She has lost much of her autonomy and I’m hesitant to push and take more away.
On a happier note, today we celebrated the birthday of our neighbor, who is also Hungarian! We recorded Zoli wishing her happy birthday in Hungarian, and she complained that he pronounced one of the words wrong. She’s a bit prickly, but then she lived through WWII, had to leave the country as a child, married an abuser and divorced him, married a better man and was widowed. Maybe she’s entitled.
D made a special cake because she and her son are vegan. It’s called Chocolate Depression cake and has no shortening, egg, or other dairy. It’s mostly cocoa powder, sugar, and flour. He served fresh raspberries on top and it was marvelous. I’m just sad he sent the rest of home with her!
Back to contractors: our church needs a new HVAC system and has been trying to get bids for half a year. Most companies aren’t interested, even though it’s a good-sized job, way more than a home. Several said they can’t come until next year, one said they are closing down because they can’t hire new technicians. Etc, etc, etc.
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David C said on July 20, 2023 at 6:10 pm
I guess Florida is where woke, service, insurance companies, etc. go to die.
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Julie Robinson said on July 20, 2023 at 6:22 pm
And as FDChief says, real history. Now a legislator wants to revoke the state constitution, and he probably will.
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FDChief said on July 20, 2023 at 8:22 pm
It’s not Florida. It’s Republicans. Don’t think the GQP scumbags in Ohio, Texas, or North Carolina won’t do the same or worse if they can.
These people want to repeal the 20th Century, right down to the return of infectious disease and contaminated food and water…excuse me, “freedom from government regulations”.
If you aren’t treating them like armed lunatics you’re kidding yourself.
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Dexter Friend said on July 21, 2023 at 9:47 am
Old folks remember how The Columbia Record Club got their hooks into you and sent you unwanted LP vinyls monthly. I once received a Tony Bennett record and became a lifelong fan in 1962. About 24 years ago he played a concert here in the local gymnasium. I charged the platform and shook his hand post- encore. I loved that man’s voice and demeanor. At age 96, remembering only his famous sung lyrics these past few years, he slipped away from us. That’s that, as they say….
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LAMary said on July 21, 2023 at 12:53 pm
Liked Tony Bennett but found that special with Lady Gaga annoying and sad. I think I still have a couple of Columbia Record club records: Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, The Byrds.
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Jeff Borden said on July 21, 2023 at 1:45 pm
FDChief,
The efforts to warp the education of students because they offend right-wing scum will have the usual unintended consequences. Those kids will be crushed by students educated in real schools where facts still reign supreme. Degrees from state universities in Floriduh will be devalued. You see what happened at the school Pudd’n Boots took over by installing a board of conservative mouth breathers? More than one-third of teachers have left rather than be party to the little fascist’s efforts to create a Hillsdale College in Floriduh. Fucking idiots.
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LAMary said on July 21, 2023 at 2:02 pm
More aquatic mammal news: Orcas have been attacking boat rudders. A marine biologist who specializes in orcas said that orcas tend to have “fads” within their pods. So all the orcas hanging out together attacking rudders mean no harm. It’s just a thing in their group. The marine biologist mentioned an earlier orca fad she observed. All the cool orcas in that pod were wearing dead salmon on their heads.
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Julie Robinson said on July 21, 2023 at 2:21 pm
New College is bleeding profs, students and future students. A neighbor who is neurodivergent was planning on going there; now he’s looking at NYU. That may be unrealistic, especially since he’d have to pay out of state tuition. But in 18 months New College has gone from a safe and welcoming place for kids like him to his worst nightmare. (And for his mom, too.)
One more birthday celebration tomorrow and one more in a week, then we’re done until September. My clothes are getting too tight!
We’re going to suck at Florida’s tit for once, with a hurricane hardening program that was just expanded to the whole state. The inspection showed that our roof and doors were good but the old windows were not, and we’re getting 10K towards new ones. The paperwork is complicated and probably stopping some from accessing the program.
It will save us some dough on insurance, which goes up exponentially every year. What we’ve already done gives us a good-sized discount.
Windows are another construction project that have gone up exponentially and even with help we can’t afford them all. The ones opening onto the lanai from the living room would be 15-20K by themselves. They are oversized sliding glass, and there’s three. They’re fairly well protected by the lanai and the pool enclosure so even though they’re awful, they’ll stay.
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LAMary said on July 21, 2023 at 3:26 pm
NYU doesn’t have different tuition for out of state. It’s a private university. It’s not cheap.
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Deborah said on July 21, 2023 at 4:02 pm
Here’s a gift article from the NYT about neuclear NM, in case anyone is interested https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/travel/new-mexico-atomic.html?unlocked_article_code=5tipHfaqfAMDdf0Py8V8CPwH0SI74-rhBkuMfQ-QGuN78VnQI368W9Llaj97kb2ur6iPBXL2e9E_SaqOAj0pxlyKhFfDyO0hP11h8cOjodZxewdEQLjF3LW6wkLHRrj1kxLBE2e_6Rv90-eDBTJBnJnTc6CVBYF3sMyGJDf-V1_UsYBOBmHWGtlgCeYBoxR_dvFxYhbe8JCIjIqhwffPNZozhulDcUh-nNAeMNHmdQCHdDQt6KIZTwzZL1NFI8XIJq714o57zB8M8Msruhi7xLWJ1Cb34xVwRhS6MMsnfo7rD5iy3A0jOcalSEpzJJYfpw2KumiThKL0uQ&smid=url-share Sorry about the loooonnnngggg url, I don’t know how to make it shorter.
The dog at the pet/house sit is becoming a pain, barking non-stop and we can’t figure out what he wants, he’s got food, water, toys, beds, we keep taking him out where he just wants to lay down in the dirt in the fricking, hot direct sun, until it gets too much for him (he’s mostly black too). It’s a mystery, he is old and has arthritis, perhaps the sun on his bones feels good? Wish we knew.
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Julie Robinson said on July 21, 2023 at 4:58 pm
Mary, I didn’t know that. I think he may be saying it because when you’re a rising senior everyone asks about your college plans.
Deborah, our daughter’s dog has been especially barky the last couple of weeks and we can’t figure out why. All three of our animals spend the hottest hours out on the lanai, which is concrete so very hot. Sometimes they move into the shade or sit on the small carpeted area, but they can come and go through the pet doors, and that’s where they prefer.
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LAMary said on July 21, 2023 at 5:22 pm
Georgia the dog likes an early morning meditation period on the southwest side of the house and an early evening doing the same on the east side of the house. The cats are strictly indoors, usually positioning themselves under a ceiling fan. The heat isn’t too bad here. High eighties now and low nineties next week. My hot weather night time shower routine is in effect. A cool shower with Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint or Eucalyptus soap. Combining the two is nice too.
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Julie Robinson said on July 21, 2023 at 6:00 pm
Low to mid 90’s here with 5000% humidity. The pool was 96° this afternoon. I’m still heated up a couple of hours later.
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Scout said on July 21, 2023 at 6:07 pm
Ha. Don’t even talk to me about heat.
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LAMary said on July 21, 2023 at 7:06 pm
Sorry, Scout. Weather horrors are the worst. There’s nowhere to hide.
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Deborah said on July 21, 2023 at 7:10 pm
Yeah what will it matter 10 years from now when it’s well over 100º all of the time in the summer, if a loaf of bread will cost $100.
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Sherri said on July 21, 2023 at 7:29 pm
We haven’t been having really hot weather, but we’re still warmer than usual. Historically, since 1945, Seattle averages 27 days above 80 degrees. The last ten years, we’ve typically had over 40, and this year is on path to reach that at least. We’ve already had 25 with August and September still to come.
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Mark P said on July 21, 2023 at 8:55 pm
Sometimes people talk about the new normal, but this isn’t it. We are just passing through this warmer climate on the way to an even warmer climate, which may or may not prove to be “normal.” It’s possible we might not even recognize what turns out to be normal.
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Jeff Borden said on July 21, 2023 at 9:29 pm
I’m almost embarrassed to note the weather in Chicago today was just about perfect. Lovely breeze. Sunny. Temps in low ’70s. Low humidity. We’re supposed to hit the 90s next week, which is standard for summer here, but for the last couple weeks, it’s just been unbelievably comfortable.
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Dexter Friend said on July 22, 2023 at 1:43 am
Since Michael G passed a few years ago there isn’t much discussion of military veterans affairs, but on the chance any vets here have given up on PACT act claims, I was told in writing the VA is now off Covid19 slowdown mode and is moving faster on claims. I have had a week of phone calls and have finally gotten my 2 necessary physical exams scheduled for the near future. I contributed to the Vietnam Veterans Registry on Thursday, an 80 minute comprehensive statement of what I have done with my life from toddler to yesterday.
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FDChief said on July 22, 2023 at 7:48 pm
Just finally got my first Army retirement check (eligible at 60? Remind me to RTFM sometimes…) but no help on VA issues. My Bride’s insurance is so good I haven’t had to see an Army doc since my exit physical in 1987.
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Deborah said on July 22, 2023 at 8:37 pm
Well the Oppenheimer movie turned out to be a bust. Not because of the movie, but because the only 2 seats My husband could get together a couple of weeks ago were A6 & 7 that he then reserved and for some reason He thought those were the last row, but of course A is the first row next to the screen. Duh. So when we arrived He didn’t want to sit there and get cricks in our necks looking up, so just wanted to leave. On our way out I mentioned to the folks taking tickets what we were doing to see if we could give our seats away and they were nice enough to give us free tickets for the future as long as we use them within 3 months. To be honest I’m kinda glad I won’t be sitting through a 3 hour movie tonight.
And Barbie is playing at the same theater, lots of women dressed up for it. I want to see that too, will go with LB at a later date.
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Dexter Friend said on July 23, 2023 at 3:54 am
Deborah, My first marriage honeymoon was in Chicago. This was in April, 1972, and “Fiddler On The Roof” had opened in a close-by theater, so we went to see it. It was a massive hit and had been released to movie houses the past November, and was still packing them in. I was dressed casually, as was my wife as we entered just before the film played. The film was shown with an intermission and entr’acte music. At intermission, we milled around a bit and were amazed, as everyone but us were all dressed up, all men in suits, ties, and the women in finery and I remember many fine furs being wrapped around shoulders on this freezing night. This movie is, of course, the very definition of “A Jewish Movie”. I think we may have been the only goyim in attendance. My point is, yes, the theater was packed and an usher led us to the only remaining seats, Row A, last seats right. Long movie, and we stayed it out.
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alex said on July 23, 2023 at 7:46 am
Can’t remember the last time I was in a movie theater to see Hollywood product, but it had to be 15-20 years ago. What I do remember was the place was filthy and had few customers except for some loud obnoxious assholes who ruined the experience by jabbering on their cell phones and with each other. I wanted to tell them to shut up but feared it might provoke retaliatory violence so I suffered in silence. Since then a lot of the local movie houses have gone under, including a rather new-ish and quite enormous one near my home. I never got to patronize the place, not that I had any particular intention of doing so. It bit the dust during the pandemic. It never looked busy during the short time it was in business.
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David C said on July 23, 2023 at 8:16 am
Same here, Alex. For the past couple of decades, my answer to “Have you seen…?”, is “No, I’ll wait for the video.”. I never got the it’s better to see it with a crowd thing. It never is.
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Mark P said on July 23, 2023 at 10:24 am
When I was growing up in Rome, Ga, there were two traditional movie theaters downtown and three drive-ins. Both theaters closed years ago, although the fancier still exists as a special-events venue. There were a couple of smallish, multi-screen theaters, which closed, and then the drive-ins closed, and two new theatres opened. One of them didn’t survive the pandemic and is now a U-Haul facility. The other is at the struggling mall, leaving the town with one theater. I have no idea how it’s doing, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it close.
The last time I went to a theater was about four years ago in Denver. The theater had plush reclining seats, and you could order a full meal (mostly pizza and the like) and beer. It was an OK experience, but I prefer to see movies at home, where I can turn on subtitles when the actors whisper.
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David C said on July 23, 2023 at 12:53 pm
where I can turn on subtitles when the actors whisper, or are Scots.
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Julie Robinson said on July 23, 2023 at 1:31 pm
Subtitles are a permanent fixture on our embarrassingly ginormous TV. We could have used them when we went to the new Indiana Jones movie. My guy loves seeing movies in a theater and I don’t see the need. I’ve encouraged him to find others to go with, and flat out refuse to watch any more comic book movies.
The theater Alex refers to was new in 2016 and built on the growth side of town, but went through three or four owners, none of whom seemed committed to the place. Snow removal was hit or miss, on an entrance that was a couple hundred feet away from the street. One time in the winter we froze through a movie and when we complained they said the heat was out in that screening room. They told us it was being repaired and comped us tickets. However, I mentioned it on Facebook and heard from several friends of the same thing over a period of months. I think that was the last time we went there.
The theater we’ve been to a few times here has low water pressure so the toilets are never all the way flushed. I’m not going back there either.
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LAMary said on July 23, 2023 at 5:18 pm
The movie theaters here are stupid expensive. Not just the tickets. The parking. Luckily I haven’t been very interested in seeing a movie in a long time. The comic book movies aren’t worth it. I don’t like Tom Cruise movies. Zero interest in animated movies. I’m an old cheapskate.
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Deborah said on July 23, 2023 at 6:47 pm
The mall theaters here in Santa Fe are long gone. Really only two movie theaters are left (that I know of), one is a former art movie place with super uncomfortable (folding chair) seating and the other is relatively new, a chain with lazy-boy type seating, originating in Austin, TX, called Violet Crown which I always think of as Violent Crown. They serve food, beer and wine, really do any theaters not do this now?. When we tried to go see Oppenheimer yesterday evening with our mistaken location pre-ticketed seating we went a little earlier to get a beer to take in with us. The cafe part of the compound had no AC, there were fans and it wasn’t horrible, but then when we walked into the harshly cooled auditorium theater area we would’ve frozen if we had stayed after realizing the seating mistake, and it’s just as well we didn’t stay because we would have ended up with crick neck frostbite after 3 hours of watching.
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