I just looked at the weather forecast for the week ahead, and it is…grim. Starting to climb tomorrow, then topping 90 at midweek. It’s our turn in the barrel, which I realize may fall on unsympathetic ears for you guys in the southwest, but trust me, it’s pretty miserable. Although it’s also…summer weather, so you can’t complain too much. That said, I will. Complain, that is. It’s my right as an American, and as a senior citizen.
But a good weekend, all things considered. Made some time for friend relationships, and got in an otter swim with Bill. A freighter went by as we were getting dressed to leave.
The St. Clair River was bracing (70 degrees), but left me feeling a little…filmed, if you know what I mean. A shower took care of it, but you gotta wonder what the hell was doing that. There have been some gully washers lately, and those tend to scour the grosser parts of an urban infrastructure. Whatever. I showered, and that was that.
Speaking of showers, I felt like I needed one after reading this thread, by a young reporter who left the biz earlier this year.
Ok here goes it: During my time as a Capitol reporter in Lansing, I faced burnout, anxiety, and depression, as well as relentless harassment. Despite this, I kept it all to myself, feeling like it would make me seem self-centered or incapable. I finally broke down in Jan. (1/x) https://t.co/ts2IveJJVe
— Allison R. Donahue (@donahual) July 23, 2023
The precipitating incident she obliquely refers to is this, when a state senator made a crude remark to a 22-year-old reporter. She wrote about it, and the usual happened: Other women, including his colleagues, had similar stories. As it turned out, it was a nothingburger, consequence-wise — he lost his committee assignments, but he was term-limited, so he played out his string and ran for Macomb County prosecutor. Which he won.
The 22-year-old, however, didn’t do so well. The usual happened to her, too: Rape threats, FaceTime calls where the caller was masturbating, and — this is particularly galling — “a woman on a livestream making a call out to get people to send me porn,” and there’s a special place in hell for that one, eh? That’s a lot for a 22-year-old to handle. God, what a hideous movement.
And with that, I’m commencing a busy week. I hope yours is cooler and less so.
Joe Kobiela said on July 23, 2023 at 10:17 pm
Only places I have swam where I didn’t feel like I needed a shower after were up here in N.E.Ind, lake Gage,Crooked,James. Spring fed, gravel bottoms. After a day of hay bailing a cold beer the song California Nights on the radio and a swim in Lake Gage with friends, I hope that’s heaven. Anyone have a song that takes them back to summer? Along comes Mary is one,Long cool women in a black dress is another and I first heard Bachmann Turner overdrive at a lake party between soph and junior year sipping a Cold Carlings Black Label.
Pilot Joe
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Dexter Friend said on July 24, 2023 at 3:53 am
I once read a story about Boston’s Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox since April , 1912. This was about a jack-of-all-trades maintenance man. He told how he had never seen an inning of baseball as he was always trying to keep a modicum of operations continuity. Toilets were backing up because not of creeps flushing newspapers or whole rolls of paper, but because every game people would flush burner phones. He was always being dispatched to bring the sawdust cart and a shovel to clean up puke, every game. Of course he had to make sure the lights never went out for long in the concourse…just all kinds of stuff. So add to the stew on the floor, men hacking up phlegm and spitting snuff and whatever people just track in on their shoes, and the puke aforementioned…just nasty, nasty…so…yesterday hard rain fell from New England to dumping 3 months worth of rain in one hour in Nova Scotia. In Boston, Fenway got a washing like never before.
Water gushed down steps into the concourse like a hard waterfall.
And drunks and crazed youth dived in and slid along like sledding down a frozen Bunker Hill in January.
Red : [narrating] “Andy Dufresne – who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side.”
And Boston Red Sox fans swimming in 111 years worth of accumulated puke and filth. Think they needed a shower?
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nancy said on July 24, 2023 at 6:52 am
After the epic rains of June ’21, which left the freeways closed and flooded, the Michigan DNR had to issue a warning not to swim there. Some idiots were so taken by the novelty of doing so that they couldn’t resist. I can’t imagine a grosser environment to expose one’s orifices and mucous membranes to.
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alex said on July 24, 2023 at 7:31 am
I don’t frequently venture into our little mucky-bottomed lake. The bluegills attack you like a swarm of bees (even though their bites are relative kisses) and you come out covered in some kind of pond scum.
The rubes tubing on the freeway looked like a scene from a Far Sides comic frame. Just need to come up with a caption for it.
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robert said on July 24, 2023 at 10:40 am
re: harassment of journalists – MAGATs only produce/collect “the best people”.
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Julie Robinson said on July 24, 2023 at 11:42 am
Lack of lakes around me as a child and poor vision now have made me a weenie about swimming anywhere except a pool. Now y’all have really squicked me out!
Nextdoor is full of Mrs. Kravitz-type people so I don’t go there too often, but I came across a woman seeking help with sewing the mats for cat cages at the local shelter. The have a constant need. It’s a perfect project for my mom, who needs to think outside herself. She loves cats and loves sewing; it’s quick and easy.
So this morning I was making arrangements to pick up supplies at a pet store on Saturday. Then I read a few entries along these lines: need to find a pest control place for $40/quarter, need someone licensed and bonded to carry two very heavy desks up two flights of stairs–businesses I’ve consulted want to charge a trip fee and truck fee. You can’t make this stuff up.
Guess what’s back? During prayer time yesterday, two people mentioned multiple extended family members with Covid. Fortunately, they had only had contact by phone.
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Icarus said on July 24, 2023 at 1:13 pm
We talked about movie theatres in the last post. Here are some from Chicago, I’ve had the pleasure of living within a few miles of The Congress, Logan, Portage and Patio. I’ve also seen movies at all but The Congress, though I did attend an event there once.
http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-130909-chicagos-old-movie-houses-pictures/
My old school self loved to see a movie in the theatre with a bucket of popcorn and a cherry Coke. My new school self loves that most places have made the seats appropriate for a 6′ 2″ dude and also offer better food and drink if one is so inclined.
Still, I prefer to watch at home with the closed captioning on so that I can read what I cannot hear.
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Alan Stamm said on July 24, 2023 at 1:44 pm
Sad, familiar saga of prominent support initially for Allison Donahue, who later felt isolated and besieged.
* “This reporter was able to document conduct that happens all too frequently at the Capitol. I think she was incredibly brave. I told her that privately.” — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Jan. 17, 2020 before Saginaw speech
* “Thankful for Michigan Advance reporter Allison Donahue for speaking out on her experience. … This behavior is a pattern. How powerful people treat others matters. … This has to end.” — State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, Jan. 15, 2020 tweets
* “I support Allison 100%.” — Her editor-in-chief, Jan. 18, 2020 tweet
* ” I felt like I couldn’t discuss what I was going through without taking away from my work or being seen as weak. I started getting really depressed. I felt like I had no identity anymore. I felt like people in Lansing only saw me as a liar, or a victim, or a hero.” — From July 23, 2023 thread embedded ^
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Suzanne said on July 24, 2023 at 2:22 pm
Julie, I have really bad eyes as well and have never liked swimming much. Even a large swimming pool bothers me because I can’t see what’s on the other side. My mother-in-law, one of the most un-empathetic people I have ever met, always kind of made fun of my reluctance to swim in the pond on their property. She wears glasses but her eyes need minimal correction so she doesn’t get that I can’t see clearly more than a few feet in front of me. I was reluctant to let our kids swim in their pond, too, because if I was in with them, I couldn’t see them. She just couldn’t grasp the concept.
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David C said on July 24, 2023 at 2:45 pm
I felt vindicated for not swimming in the local lakes when they made them put in sewers because septic tanks were leaching.
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Jeff Gill said on July 24, 2023 at 3:56 pm
This isn’t a place I expect to find many National Review readers, so this link might be of interest:
https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-quiet-collapse-of-four-key-state-republican-parties/
To be thoroughly fair, state Democratic parties aren’t doing much better.
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Julie Robinson said on July 24, 2023 at 3:58 pm
Oh Suzanne, I’m so sorry. Are you free of her now?
Our little lake is spring fed but also gets street and lawn run off, and you know how nasty those lawn chemicals are. We dream of a dock so we could launch the paddleboat or kayak without wading through 15 feet of muck. We don’t really use them as we could and should.
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Sherri said on July 24, 2023 at 5:38 pm
I’m not a swimmer, open water or pool, but I am a weirdo who reads stormwater runoff plans. At least here, most new development is required to manage runoff, and clean it before it reaches lakes and rivers. This is known as low impact development, and makes of bioswales and stormwater detention ponds, among other techniques.
However, road runoff isn’t as regulated, and tires and brakes produce a lot of pollution, both air and water. The heavier the vehicle, the worse the pollution, so EVs aren’t exempt from this problem even though they aren’t producing tailpipe pollution.
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Deborah said on July 24, 2023 at 6:10 pm
A lot of road noise is also produced by tires even though engines are more noisy. Road noise is the bane of my existence when I get back to Chicago for the first couple of weeks I’m there and then I get used to it. Our place is on LSD, in the nicer weather when we have windows open it’s quite noisy. Since we are high enough up, the light doesn’t bother us as much.
I’m not a swimmer either which is odd for someone who grew up in Miami, FL. I didn’t mind going in the ocean but I never enjoyed being in lake or pond water at all. I’ve been boating on river water but I don’t think I’ve ever had a river swim. I can say though, I don’t think I would enjoy it at all. For some reason little fish bumping into my legs in the ocean when I was a kid didn’t gross me out but in lake water I couldn’t get out of the water fast enough.
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Julie Robinson said on July 24, 2023 at 8:44 pm
Sherri, you’ve just described Orlando. We had to install a bioswale and a french drain and reroute downspouts. Yet two doors down is a storm drain, emptying runoff for blocks around into the lake. All the lawn services blow grass into the street, which is illegal, but you try to tell them that.
It’s interesting how many people dislike swimming. I am just about at my happiest in the pool. The sun gently kisses me and nothing hurts.
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Sherri said on July 24, 2023 at 9:14 pm
I’ve never enjoyed being in water. I don’t like putting my face in water; makes me feel really claustrophobic. I also don’t float very well. No matter what I do, my legs sink. As a result, I never get comfortable in water.
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Mark P said on July 24, 2023 at 10:27 pm
My father swam in the Oostanaula River in Rome, Ga, back probably in the late 1920’s. He and his buddies were almost certainly upriver of the town sewer lines that emptied directly into the river, and far enough downstream from the towns upriver that their sewage was diluted. I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing that. The water might be clean enough, but the river is so murky you can’t see but about a foot in it. No thanks.
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Sherri said on July 24, 2023 at 11:28 pm
Speaking of sewage, wastewater plans are another thing I’ve spent time reading. And that’s why I’m gobsmacked that there are places in Alabama that don’t have functioning wastewater systems.
https://wapo.st/3rHkSTe
TL;DR rural, primarily Black county, cost-prohibitive to provide centralized sewage treatment, but dense clay soil means that septic tanks don’t work, either, and since it’s poor Black people affected, who cares?
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Heather said on July 25, 2023 at 1:08 am
I went swimming at the beach on Sunday in Chicago and was too tired to take a shower that night. I felt…fine? Normal summer sweaty levels of ick.
Also on Sunday, a nonprofit group here devoted to cleaning up the Chicago River was going to hold its annual float party, in which you can float down the river on an inner tube or blow-up elephant or whatever. But it was canceled because the Coast Guard denied the group a permit for some reason, allegedly for some other reason than the river being too dirty. I kayak on the river a lot and it’s much, much cleaner than it used to be, but I’m still not sure I would want to spend a lot of time actually in it.
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Dexter Friend said on July 25, 2023 at 5:11 am
https://www.art.com/products/p53766562000-sa-i5446759/norman-rockwell-swimming-hole-august-11-1945.htm?upi=Q1HY2IE0&PODConfigID=8880743
I love this portrait as it reminds me of when I parked like this salesman did and took a swim in the San Joaquin River many years ago. As I posted here before, I have swum in many pools, oceans, lakes, rivers, and what we call “cricks”.
Another river that cooled me off right-proper was this one, also in California.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftrailandsummit.com%2Fcan-you-swim-at-yosemite%2F&psig=AOvVaw3_shfAaCwr1rhOdk10I4l8&ust=1690362611908000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBAQjRxqFwoTCPCpwMvBqYADFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE
swimming in the Merced River in Yosemite.
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Icarus said on July 25, 2023 at 10:42 am
We were in Chicago last week and pretty much spent every day at Montrose Beach. My kids love swimming and water. We stay at a hotel in Mt Vernon (it’s halfway to EVERYTHING) and they have an indoor/outdoor pool and a hot tub.
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FDChief said on July 25, 2023 at 10:45 am
Here in the Wild Portland West we have “combined sewers”; stormwater and septic flow into the same mains.
During normal flow regimes the mains empty into the treatment facility collector and get treated prior to release to the river.
But…high rainfall events overtop the “threshold” installed in the mains and the overflow is released directly to the river, which is why back in the day the Willamette would be full of schools of brown trout after a big rainstorm.
Seeing the downside of this the City is slowly separating storm and sanitary sewer lines.
But there’s a reason lots of us here don’t swim in the rivers…
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ROGirl said on July 25, 2023 at 10:59 am
I was on jury duty yesterday. It was a crazy case and we found the defendant guilty of malicious destruction of property (put a dent in the hood of someone’s car by striking it with her hand, which was holding a cellphone).
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Jeff Borden said on July 25, 2023 at 11:18 am
Watching what’s happening in Israel gives me the willies. Extreme, right-wing, religious fanatics in the government –who Netanyahu needed to regain his post– have successfully castrated Israel’s high court. This, of course, greatly benefits Netanyahu, who could give tRump a run for his money as a corrupt piece of shit, but it’s ripping the country apart. Did you see the crowds in the street being swept away from police water cannons? Did you hear military reservists saying they will refuse service when called up? It didn’t matter. It could happen here, too.
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FDChief said on July 25, 2023 at 11:57 am
Nope.
The current US is the living embodiment of that line about the worst being full of fierce energy while the best are bogged in doubt. And that’s without including the useless “middle” that knows nothing and acts like it.
There’s no chance that this country will rise up when the MAGAts pull off their Foxhall Putsch. There’ll be a handful of futile marches in places like here in Portland, a couple of police cars will burn, the lumpen mass will stare at their teevees and tut…and we’ll be on our merry way to being Pinochet’s Chile or Orban’s Hungary.
Even the rage in Israel won’t work; the Tzahal and police are too terrified of what a non-Likud government might do, and they hold the whip hand.
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Icarus said on July 25, 2023 at 12:21 pm
I meant to post this last week but it’s easier to do from a desktop than an iPad. paywall but I think most of you can reach it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/16/fondomonte-arizona-drought-saudi-farm-water
one of the things that caught my attention was the idea that water is property versus a resource.
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Jeff Borden said on July 25, 2023 at 1:15 pm
Icarus,
Not too many years ago the ceo of Nestlé declared people had no “right” to water. It was just another commodity to monetize.
FDChief,
You’re probably correct. I was among the estimated 700,000 marchers in Chicago the Sunday after tRump’s inaugural. It was quite a sight to see men, women and children of all races and ages marching for women’s rights. But would we have congregated under the threat of water cannons, tear gas and Bbilly clubs? Would we have risked injury, arrest and prosecution? Not bloody likely. We talk big –land of the free, home of the brave, yada, yada, yada– but our hearts aren’t in it.
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Sherri said on July 25, 2023 at 2:05 pm
Texas is concerned that Florida is ahead in the race to destroy higher education: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/25/texas-a-m-professor-opioids-dan-patrick/
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LAMary said on July 25, 2023 at 2:40 pm
From Memorial day to Labor day I swam every day in Peconic Bay, the body of water between the two forks of Long Island. I always had my bathing suit on under my shorts and tee shirt. Killies and blowfish bumped against my feet and ankles. It never bothered me or the two other kids in the neighborhood. For fun we’d row out in the ancient wooden dinghy and try to flip it. One kid’s older sister got a Sunfish. We’d flip that too.
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Jeff Borden said on July 25, 2023 at 2:59 pm
I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about the meathead moron in Floriduh. His campaign is going up like the Hindenburg. . .and it couldn’t happen to a nicer fucking fascist asshole. I do feel for the citizens of Floriduh, though they’re the fools who voted for this hemorrhoid. Can you imagine how nasty he’ll be when his dreams of the Oval Office collapse? Katie, bar the door!
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/25/desantis-lets-go-of-more-than-1-3-of-campaign-staff-as-reset-continues-00108046
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