You guys, I am shocked this story hasn’t gotten more attention from the prestige media. It’s based on a government report, not “sources.” The revelations – that the White House has its own pharmacy, and under Trump, it handed out prescription meds like Smarties on Halloween – are startling. And yet, it seems to have bloomed and withered in one news cycle, and what stories were written concentrated on the cost, mainly of the use of name-brand drugs when generic equivalents were available.
That the White House has its own medical unit and pharmacy isn’t surprising at all – we’re talking about the commander-in-chief and support staff. But in the Trump administration, it sounds like it operated more like your skeezy cousin who knows someone who works night shift in a hospital pharmacy, and in some cases the guy at the end of the bar with a backpack who keeps going in and out, but not to smoke and the bartender keeps his stool open.
The pharmacy freely dispensed over-the-counter meds, no big deal, every office I’ve worked in has an unsecured cache of Tylenol and so forth. But they also liberally prescribed sleep aids like Ambien (defensible, but a somewhat bigger deal). And narcotic pain medications, including oxycodone, fentanyl, morphine and so on. (Bigger deal.) Also, Provigil, and now I’m paying attention. Provigil is described as an “anti-tiredness” drug, but generally speaking you need a diagnosis of narcolepsy to score it, although I’m sure the dealer at an Ivy League dorm can hook you up during finals week. Also. Also! Ketamine, a highly abused sedative. And Versed, a serious benzo, given to people about to go into surgery, for crying out loud.
I mean, I can understand why someone working in the Trump White House might want to be high all day, every day, but this is ridiculous. Provigil for jet lag at a G20 summit? I get it. But ketamine? Who the hell you planning to date-rape, Stephen Miller?
Roy Edroso, over on his excellent Substack, has been writing very funny short scenes featuring you-know-who ever since he noticed the constant sniffing during the first debate. He (Roy) has concocted a running gag about “the Formula,” the inhalable mix of crushed tablets that none of us would be surprised Trump consumes all day every day. It’s always fun when a Formula scene arrives in my morning inbox. And now we know: It probably wasn’t much of an exaggeration at all.
Now it’s snowing, way more than I expected when I checked the forecast this morning. A good day to stay inside and watch the fat fluffy flakes, maybe read a book or three. Think I will.
alex said on January 30, 2024 at 5:05 pm
I caught that story and was looking forward to hearing more about it, including blowback from the Trump camp accusing the Biden White House of trying to smear him. Some of those drugs certainly could account for Trump’s psychotic behavior.
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Deborah said on January 30, 2024 at 5:15 pm
Seems like Reggie Jackson currently a Congressman from Texas and formerly Trumps Dr could have had a lot to do with the free flow of drugs in the Trump Whitehouse. No?
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brian stouder said on January 30, 2024 at 5:18 pm
Imagine! Imagine the news/reactions if this same set of revelations had come out about President Biden, or President Obama. Suddenly all that “deep state” bullshit sounds (and smells) even bull-shittier!
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LAMary said on January 30, 2024 at 6:37 pm
I think it’s Ronnie Jackson. Reggie was a baseball player known as Mr October. And I’ve been following this story looking forward to the BS Trump’s minions will spew. I think the Trump clan may have dipped into the provigil a few times. Donnie Jr and Kimberly sure looked cranked up
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Alan Stamm said on January 30, 2024 at 6:39 pm
Who the hell you planning to date-rape, Stephen Miller? is what I’m here for.
Snap, Derringer. snaps up. (Also well-said by Alex in that last sentence.)
Among comments under the Ars Technica post:
See, Trump did lower prescription drug costs after all. If you worked in the Trump White House wouldn’t you want lots of Ambien too? Still don’t know where the Cocaine came from.</ul<
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FDChief said on January 30, 2024 at 6:43 pm
Dunno about everyone else, but my reaction was “and this would surprise you…why?”
Anyone who had been paying attention to Tubby since his Eighties Manhattan heyday knew the guy is a moral shithouse, the reeking one-holer of ethical sewage. So assuming the WH has a dispensary, and knowing how a dispensary run by this human smegma would be run…what ELSE would you expect?
It’s the same way so many other articles about the orange chancre seem incredulous about his lying, or cheating, or petty viciousness, or stupidity…and my response is you’re gobsmacked by this…why?
Look. He’s a garbage human. As such he is surrounded by the sort of people who think “Yes! I WANT that!” So of course this. And the corruption. And the theft of documents and WH gifts. And the racism and sexism and plutocratic…
Look, do I have to tap the sign..?
(Taps the “The GOP must be destroyed” sign)
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LAMary said on January 30, 2024 at 7:18 pm
I lived in NYC. Everyone knew Trump was a skevy con man. He was a joke and a crook. Now evangelicals think he’s the new messiah.
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Dorothy said on January 30, 2024 at 7:31 pm
I had a quilting friend who lived in Brooklyn whose husband was a carpenter for the city of New York. They were both life long New Yorkers. I remember her telling me years and years ago that Trump was always stiffing contractors on work they did for him. Most people avoided doing any work for him because they knew if they did, they’d never get paid. I guess that information did not filter down in such a massive city.
I will go to my grave wondering what in the world some of my friends and relatives saw in that scumbag. Why is it so clear to certain people and invisible to others? I guess people see what they want to see, or they choose not to see.
Also former White House photographer Pete Souza is a perpetual thorn in the side of Dr Ronny Jackson. His replies to Jackson’s tweets are always entertaining and spot on.
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Suzanne said on January 31, 2024 at 7:25 am
I am so not surprised about the Trump White House pill mill, but I am still surprised that stories like this get so little press time. Is it because no one is surprised?
We have friends in NYC, the husband very successful in commercial real estate there, who told us in 2016 that Trump was u trustworthy and a fraud. When we told people this in Indiana, most didn’t believe us, usually stating that this was simply someone’s opinion.
I increasingly feel that we are doomed.
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ROGirl said on January 31, 2024 at 8:44 am
It probably didn’t get much coverage because it didn’t name names. Who was high on what?
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Jeff Borden said on January 31, 2024 at 9:17 am
The right-wing freakout over Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce makes P.1 in the NYT today. Damn, these people are stupid.
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Julie Robinson said on January 31, 2024 at 9:21 am
ROGirl, the poor record keeping is HUGE, so to speak. False identities, no addresses recorded, no pharmacist on site, on and on. These are controlled substances, many with legitimate uses only for surgery, which doesn’t happen at the White House. I mean, we have to have our driver’s license recorded to buy Sudafed, but these guys were passing out pills like candy at grandma’s house. If Ronnie was in charge, he should lose his prescribing license.
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alex said on January 31, 2024 at 9:47 am
Suzanne, I’ve been hearing stories about Trump since the 1980s and they’re the same as what you’ve heard.
A lot of people don’t know this about Lincoln Financial, f/k/a Lincoln Life, but a big part of the company’s business was partnering with real estate developers as an investor and lender in big-city office towers and hotels and commercial real estate. Trammel Crow from Texas (the son of whom you may recall as one of Clarence Thomas’ billionaire patrons) was one of Lincoln’s major partners in such projects, as was Melvin Simon in Indianapolis, who built shopping malls. And Lincoln was also cozy with now-Governor Pritzker of Illinois and heavily invested in the Pritzker family’s Hyatt hotel chain.
My dad worked for Lincoln’s investment division and Trump was a joke in the business community, not much more than a publicity hound and not at all the titan that he made himself out to be. To this day my dad wonders how people could not have recognized that Trump was a fraud when it was a well-established fact a long time ago.
His tireless self-promotion to the celebrity press and his star turn on “The Apprentice” evidently fooled enough people. Too bad the press didn’t pound away at this back in 2016 when facts still seemed to matter.
Speaking of Pritzker, he once came to Fort Wayne as a personal favor to my dad. He explained to city leaders, who wanted a Hyatt hotel, why it wasn’t feasible and that the company wouldn’t do business in a market this size unless the city was willing to subsidize the project, which it wasn’t.
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Deborah said on January 31, 2024 at 11:22 am
Yes of course it’s Ronny not Reggie. I think I’ve been referring to him as Reggie for years, not that I think about him very often.
Trump was legendary for treating architects who worked for him like dirt. He often didn’t pay them saying he wasn’t happy with their work. Trying to get him to pay up was impossible.
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brian stouder said on January 31, 2024 at 11:27 am
Alex – indeed. Where I worked, the retirement plans and options were operated by Lincoln Financial, and our main agent was (seemingly) straight from central casting! Slicked-back hair, pin-striped suit, extravagant watch/time piece, ridiculous car, tell-you-what-I’m-gonna-do approach (to every question), etc etc.
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Julie Robinson said on January 31, 2024 at 11:58 am
To too many in the press, the Trump of 2015 & 16 was an amusing plaything, always good for a juicy quote or video. That doesn’t excuse the voting public, but exposes how little care is taken by a lot of voters.
Back to the White House Medical Unit, I’ve done a little more reading. First, as a government entity, they were to use generics, but no, they went name brand all the way. Versed was being given through IV’s–remember, no medical procedures were being done. And though they had 60 patients, somehow 6000 got meds. Whut, whut, and whut?
Our pension plan was administered by good ol’ Fort Wayne National Bank, and if you had questions, you called a gal, who knew the answers. Then FWNB got sold, and the resultant bank sold again, etc, until they didn’t want to bother with such a little thing.
Now it’s administered by Mutual of Omaha, and though we’ve never had any interaction with them save change of address, I still picture Marlon Perkins as our agent.(I know he was never an agent.) They knew what they were doing, hiring him as spokesperson–instant respectability. I know nothing of the dealings of this company; they could be flim-flams, but they seem honest, with good midwestern values to me.
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Jeff Gill said on January 31, 2024 at 12:04 pm
This made me think of our merry crew here:
https://www.threads.net/@reboomer/post/C2xAKHTLKEQ/
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Sherri said on January 31, 2024 at 1:50 pm
Another thing that hasn’t gotten much attention is just how out there the current Speaker of the House is. Imagine if the Dems had elected Ilhan Omar as Speaker, only she really did want to implement Sharia, and you’d be approaching Mike Johnson.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-profound-influence-of-christian-extremists-on-mike-johnson
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David C said on January 31, 2024 at 2:22 pm
This is my year of the mailbox stuffed with Medicare come-ons. I get a lot from Mutual of Omaha. While I can imagine Marlon Perkins as the agent, I can also imagine Jim up in the helicopter ready to dart me if I don’t sign.
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Julie Robinson said on January 31, 2024 at 4:19 pm
Ha! Your mailbox will get fuller every damn day. Today ours had only letters from our Medicare provider, Steak Dinner! invitations, and one piece of actual mail, our new license plate tag. (BTW, Florida has ONE thing figured out. The reminder came in the mail with a QR code that took me directly to our account, no remembering passwords or anything. Two minutes later I had completed the transaction. That was Saturday, today’s Wednesday.)
All I accomplished today was getting my husband’s meds straightened out. CVS sends confusing texts and they still had an old doctor in their system. After two hours of looking at the bottles, making a spreadsheet, and checking MyChart, we took it all to the store. They didn’t understand the texts either.
Hopefully the old doctor is out of the system and they will stop sending prescription requests to him. All of this is on my shoulders, along with cajoling my mom to get out of bed and do some activity. It’s too cold. (It’s 71°) Fortunately she likes going to Target, where our CVS is. She can get a candy bar for some endorphins.
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Dorothy said on January 31, 2024 at 4:28 pm
I’m just getting started in the delights of dealing with WellCare Express Scripts (Medicare prescription program). After something like 8 or 9 phone calls between my doctor’s office, WellCare, chat boxes while logged into my account at WellCare, I think FINALLY my Fosamax prescription is going to arrive in a week or 10 days! I already missed last Sunday’s dose, and I’ll be missing this Sunday’s dose, too. I had refills available under my husband’s insurance SORT of, but not really. The refill wasn’t able to be done until January 5 I think, and we dropped his employer’s insurance on 12/31. So because of the five day delay I had to wait a little bit to get my doc to get the script over to WellCare. And a had to deal with a dolt of a nurse at my doctor’s office – she kept trying to tell me I had a refill available and they didn’t need to order one for me. This, despite the fact I’d already explained in MyChart that we no longer carried insurance thru my husband’s employer. Good thing I no longer have a job – well, hold on a sec – maybe THIS is my new job: straightening out stupid shit that other people don’t know how to do! I’ve decided I’m not going to get my scripts in the mail any longer – I’ll just deal with CVS and pick them up myself.
Nothing makes me madder than inefficiency and people not doing their job correctly. I’m sure I’m blacklisted at my doctor’s office to keep me from crossing paths with the nurse I lost my temper with. And this was just in typed messages in MyChart. I might have burnt her face with my fire breath if I’d had to tell her in person what she was not understanding and to please PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I ALREADY TOLD YOU!
Now I feel better. End of rant!
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David C said on January 31, 2024 at 4:28 pm
Yeah, we went through it a year ago with Mary. We could probably heat the house with them.
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Julie Robinson said on January 31, 2024 at 4:46 pm
Dorothy, we had Express Scripts through D’s job, and my mom has it now. I’ve found them very easy to deal with, and to order refills online. It sounds like the problem might have been with the doctor’s office. I think once it gets straightened out, it’ll be smooth. But, the straightening, oy veh, the straightening!
Yesterday one of our daughter’s parishioners came by the church because she didn’t understand a ream of papers she’d gotten about changing over to Medicare. The complication is she’s also on Medicaid, and they will cover her Medicare premiums, but it won’t start right away and she has to pay them for the first three months, then apply for a refund, yada yada yada. She’s dyslexic, her husband always handled finances, etc. Maybe he didn’t handle them too well if she qualifies for Medicaid and food stamps, but the point is she’s trying to figure this stuff out for the first time in her life.
She needed to fill a presciption that day and they had already cut off her old Medicaid. I told her to ask the pharmacist if she could just pay for two pills, then get the rest tomorrow when her Medicare kicks in.
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Jeff Gill said on February 1, 2024 at 9:54 am
After four years of evasive action, COVID found me and scored a direct hit. I felt off driving over Tuesday night to my father-in-law’s house in Indy, woke up definitely sick yesterday am & had a stash of test kits here. The line was unambiguous and quickly darkened. Hat tip to my doc back in Ohio who said I should take Paxlovid, and got it called over to a Walmart pharmacy near here. Went in to get it masked, but otherwise am holed up in this empty house, so ideal isolation; my wife is negative on the test kit but feels just enough ick she’s staying home and working from there this week.
We were in an airport security slow-moving snaking line weaving back and forth on Sunday night where you always had people crowded in both left and right as well as front and back, which gave all of us in that crowd plenty of time to share respiratory infections, and we’re kicking outselves for not wearing masks in the airport . . . but the facial recognition has you reluctant to risk slowing things up by masking, even when you know you’re 30 minutes away from the screener. Duh — wear a mask in tight packed crowds, kids!
I’m going back to sleep. Blehhh.
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Jenine said on February 1, 2024 at 10:01 am
@Jeff, sorry you’re feeling punk. I hope you get the good effect from paxlovid. I got covid symptoms on 1/22 and am a first timer too. Can’t recommend getting covid, felt like crap until the paxlovid kicked in.
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jcburns said on February 1, 2024 at 11:28 am
Jeff, you’re doing the right thing. Isolate yourself and take the paxlovid. We got positive tests two years ago during a visit to our Seattle family. Paxlovid really, really helped and got us safely to the point where we could fly back to Atlanta.
To this day we’re not 100% sure where we contracted Covid, but we keep thinking about a rental car van crammed with travelers…and us.
Ya never know!
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brian stouder said on February 1, 2024 at 1:20 pm
One of my admitted-prejudices is: prepare to be sick if you go on a flight. Admittedly, over the years, I’ve only flown 3 or 4 times, but, without fail, each time I ended up sick as a dawg, afterword. My guess is, the air recirculation is (or was) the problem
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Sherri said on February 1, 2024 at 4:06 pm
I recognize that I have lived on the West Coast for over 30 years, not in Real America, but I swear, so often what I read just doesn’t reflect my reality.
When same sex marriage was still not allowed, I already knew same sex couples in loving, committed relationships, and the idea that their relationship was somehow threatening to my marriage was ludicrous.
When I read scare stories about transgender people, and reflect on the transgender people I have known for years, it doesn’t match up. I’ve known people both before and after their transition; they were still my friend. Sure, I struggle to keep all the pronouns straight for all the young adults I’ve known since they were babies, but I apologize when I screw up and don’t act like it’s their fault.
Now polyamorous families seem to be drawing the ire of pundits. Again, I’ve known polyamorous families in loving, stable, committed relationships for years. In high school, my daughter dated someone from a polyamorous family. They were perfectly normal, except there were three adults, not two. I didn’t ask how they worked out who had sex with whom, any more than I asked any couple how they worked out how they had sex. None of my business.
I’ve been around far more heterosexual couples who made me uncomfortable because of how they treated each other, but nobody says we should stop heterosexual pairing because it can be problematic.
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Jeff Gill said on February 1, 2024 at 5:51 pm
Brian, I feel much the same way, except: it’s likely not the aircraft, but the airports where you end up breathing too many people’s exhalations . . . or as JC said, on those vans going to and from parking lots. In any case, air travel has always gotten me a cold at minimum in the past.
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Julie Robinson said on February 1, 2024 at 5:55 pm
Sherri, some people are only happy when they are complaining. Some people have no actual ideas about solving our national quagmire. Some people are lazy. And some are all three.
Jeff G, hope you feel better soon. Mucinex was our best friend.
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Sherri said on February 1, 2024 at 6:41 pm
People who have taken carbon dioxide monitors onto flights report that it’s the time sitting at the jetway that’s when the air is the worst. Once the engines are started and the air systems are going on board, carbon dioxide levels drop. The recirculated air is cleaned through HEPA filters.
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brian stouder said on February 1, 2024 at 8:09 pm
Total Non-Sequitor Alert! I am currently gob-smacked by the news that Lewis Hamilton is leaving his Mercedes F1 team to join the Ferrari F1 team…… As an avid F1 fan, let me just say I did not see that coming! But indeed, I Love Love Love this turn of events!!!! We now return you to our regular programming…
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David C said on February 1, 2024 at 8:14 pm
I thought my novid status was toast this past week. I had a nasty cough. The type where I would cough so hard and fast that I had to gasp for air. I took a Covid test last Wednesday which was negative and negative again on Friday. I was getting hardly any sleep so Saturday I went to urgent care and got another negative test. The doctor gave me an albuterol inhaler which really opened things up and let me get some sleep. She was also a Mucinex is your best friend doctor but since I wasn’t sleeping well, she told me to only take it in the morning and not at night so there wasn’t as much to cough up as I tried to sleep. It worked for me but now that I’m sleeping well again and I still have a bit of a cough I’m taking it at night again and it’s working fine.
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basset said on February 1, 2024 at 9:08 pm
Meanwhile, the newspaper industry’s commitment to providing maximum quality and service to its customers continues… by moving the Indianapolis Star’s printing to Peoria:
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2024/01/31/indystar-newspapers-printing-plant-in-indianapolis-to-close-in-april/72422512007/
Gannett’s been printing the Nashville Tennessean in Knoxville for awhile, no telling what they might be up to anywhere else.
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Julie Robinson said on February 1, 2024 at 10:22 pm
My first time I had the exact same symptoms as five other people in the house. They all tested positive, I kept coming up negative. So it’s definitely possible to have it without pinging the meter.
Also, since it’s an inflammatory disease, take Nsaids if your body can tolerate them. And water, gallons of it.
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Sherri said on February 2, 2024 at 12:45 am
Oregon Republican state senators have reached the find out portion,of “fuck around and find out.” They are the minority in the Oregon legislature, but the Oregon legislature requires a two-thirds majority for quorum. So these guys got the bright idea of decamping to Idaho whenever they wanted to block something.
The citizens of the state decided this was silly, and passed an initiative that said if a legislator had too many unexcused absences, they couldn’t run for re-election.
After an Oregon state Supreme Court ruling, 9 of the 12 Republican state senators are not eligible for reelection.
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Dexter Friend said on February 2, 2024 at 2:30 am
Catching up, I am still re-playing the Lions’ loss over and over in my head. Dan Campbell’s aggressive reaches for 4th down conversions worked like 65% of the time against the schedule, just not against the San Francisco goal line stance. I have been a big fan of the Lions since 1970 and I know this is the closest I will see them get to the last game in my lifetime. It’s still been fun. I saw Billy Sims, I saw Barry Sanders, I loved Wayne-O’s run and shoot offense directed by Mouse Davis with QB Scott Mitchell and the Greyhound receivers. Oh well.
Yesterday’s Quinnipiac poll had Joe ahead 50–44. It flips around weekly.
One poll said 17% of Trumpers would not vote for Trump if a felony is finally hung on Trump. I doubt that. Dearborn’s citizenry have turned on Trump for supporting Netanyahu’s genocide v. Gaza’s civilians. One woman said she and her friends are going to write in “cease fire” on the Presidential ballot. I understand, I have thrown away my vote twice on minor candidates. 2024 is no time for this goddam nonsense. Trump is a train wreck demented evil bastard and we must rally around Joe Biden to save the experiment called United States democracy. It sickens me that Biden approves of the arming of Israel to carry out full-on genocide, but I am thinking of the state of the nation. Trump must be retired to prison.
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basset said on February 2, 2024 at 7:10 am
I stay pretty busy in retirement, mostly with doctor visits and a little freelance work, but today there’s just one thing on the schedule: take a lab sample to our veterinarian to completed our cat’s annual checkup.
When your only responsibility for the day is delivering a turd… you know you’re really retired.
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Jeff Gill said on February 2, 2024 at 7:48 am
That made me laugh out loud, and I needed it. Thank you, intrepid turd deliverer!
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LAMary said on February 2, 2024 at 9:09 am
Drinking lots of water is a good idea for every kind of crud. My diverticulitis is now being called ulcerative colitis. It is less awful if I drink lots of water. It’s still a pain in the ass.
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FDChief said on February 2, 2024 at 9:34 am
Reflecting on Dexter’s observations re: the Biden Administration Israel policy just reminds me that the lunacy of the GOP is not just a problem in itself. It is a problem because it removes an alternative to the status quo positions of the mainstream corporaDems like Biden.
When your bar only gives you the “choice” between a pint of cold piss and a pint of hot poison? Duh. That’s not a “choice”.
But you still end up staring at someone’s kidney trouble. That’s not really workable even in the short term. It’s small wonder so many Americans can’t be bothered to do politics. When those are your “choices”..?
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candlepick said on February 2, 2024 at 12:04 pm
Always useful to remember David Sedaris on the Undecided:
“I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention? To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it? To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.”
― David Sedaris
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LAMary said on February 2, 2024 at 12:13 pm
Coincidentally ulcerative colitis involves transporting turds to a lab occasionally.
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alex said on February 2, 2024 at 12:35 pm
I have a FIT test on my to-do list so I’ll be sending turds via USPS.
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ROGirl said on February 2, 2024 at 1:07 pm
I had to take a plastic jug full of urine to a lab because a doctor prescribed a 24 hour urine test.
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LAMary said on February 2, 2024 at 1:42 pm
Who knew there were so many traveling turds? I had to freeze one once. Another time I had to put one in a little bottle of what looked like red Kool-aid.
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Deborah said on February 2, 2024 at 3:05 pm
LOL what a thread.
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basset said on February 2, 2024 at 3:22 pm
I remember reading something about the training of the original Mercury astronauts which described how one of em, forget which, got tired of being asked for urine samples… filled a big glass jug, several gallons, with warm water, poured some iodine in for color and left it on the sample requester’s desk.
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Sherri said on February 2, 2024 at 4:34 pm
I had to do a 24 hour urine test, but I drink a lot of water, so the jug they gave me was not big enough. So, I googled what to do, found a clean jug at home, and took two jugs of urine into the lab. They were surprised by the volume, but happy with the solution. Next time, if there is one, I’ll know to ask for two jugs.
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Bob (not Greene) said on February 2, 2024 at 5:44 pm
I can’t believe what I’m reading, but I can’t look away.
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Mark P said on February 2, 2024 at 6:17 pm
Not to break the excretory thread, but I always say that there is no such thing as an undecided voter in the US today. Sane people say they are voting Democratic. Wackadoodles say they are voting Republican and don’t care that sane people see them as f’ing idiots. People who do care about being seen as f’ing idiots are Republican voters who say they are independents.
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Suzanne said on February 3, 2024 at 8:32 am
When I was pregnant back in the mid-80s, the doctor wanted me to bring a first thing in the morning urine sample with me to my monthly appointments. I always worried that I would get in a car accident and that my purse would fly open and that I would have to explain to some cop why I was hauling around a container of urine.
By the time I had baby #2 a few years later, this was no longer a thing.
I did have to take a cat turd to the vet a few years ago and had the same worry. How do I explain to some cop why I am driving around with a cat turd?
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basset said on February 3, 2024 at 9:00 am
We were on a Beatles tour in Liverpool a few years ago and I felt the need just as we got to Strawberry Fields, where the gates, btw, are copies of the originals because visitors kept sawing pieces off em for souvenirs. Our van driver told me to go pee in the bushes, which I refused to do because it was Strawberry Fields, y’know, and there weren’t enough bushes to hide behind anyway.
Finally found relief in a park restroom nearby, inconvenient but we managed to avoid an Ozzy at the Alamo scene… that could have been ugly,
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brian stouder said on February 3, 2024 at 10:51 am
Well, I’d say in the race for Thread-Win, Basset just shot to #1! (So to speak)
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basset said on February 3, 2024 at 11:11 am
Well, the story goes on a little but I thought better of saying anything more.
Making soap out of deer tallow this morning, have about a kilo and a half of it after boiling down a bunch of deer trimmings. Works pretty well, actually.
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Icarus said on February 3, 2024 at 11:40 am
off the current topic but iPad users: what do you recommend? between my cracked screen, broken home button and a battery that drains in mere minutes it’s time to upgrade.
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Julie Robinson said on February 3, 2024 at 11:59 am
A Samsung.
Thank you, I’ll be here all night.
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tajalli said on February 3, 2024 at 12:44 pm
Icarus, I’ve had pretty good success with getting a refurbished iPhone for a very good price from a company that does vet their repair associates. You can ask either Nancy or JC to give you my email if you’d like details and how I determined the price point.
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Little Bird said on February 3, 2024 at 3:21 pm
Basset, I very much want to learn how to make soap from scratch, please keep us posted! I currently buy soap base from either Amazon or Michael’s.
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LAMary said on February 3, 2024 at 5:54 pm
I second Julie’s suggestion. LGs are good too.
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basset said on February 4, 2024 at 1:35 pm
LB, I’m no expert but this recipe works for me: https://www.themeateater.com/wild-and-whole/homesteading/how-to-make-deer-tallow-soap
if Nancy will share my address I’ll send you some pics and specific amounts of each ingredient. And… according to another online recipe, beef tallow will work in place of deer.
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Deborah said on February 4, 2024 at 2:08 pm
My husband and I are waiting at the Albuquerque airport for our delayed flight to Chicago with the fine looking young men and women of the University of Iowa track team. A very fit looking group I must say. Our flight is delayed because the plane is coming from California where they’re having an atmospheric river.
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Jim said on February 4, 2024 at 3:51 pm
Icarus: sometimes Lucifer speaks as people we normally trust (ahem, Julie and LaMary). I’d get an iPad Air in a heartbeat.
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susan said on February 4, 2024 at 4:09 pm
Jim @63 – Yes, that’s right. And Lucifer invented the chihuahua dog, too.
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brian stouder said on February 4, 2024 at 5:12 pm
…and the “Reality TV personality” lane to the United States Presidency (but we digress!)
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Julie Robinson said on February 4, 2024 at 5:49 pm
Deborah, I came THIS close to going to University of Iowa, had been accepted but wasn’t excited. Then I visited Indiana University, and if Cupid had an arrow for colleges, he struck me with several of them. I was smitten with the beauty of the campus, pulled the lever to change the train tracks, and in Indiana I stayed for (mumblemumble) years.
Off-topic, did you know you can spend 15K on a refrigerator? Ours isn’t keeping cold enough and I’ve a feeling we’ll be in the market. Took a gander at a so-called discount place that “everyone” says is the cheapest place in town. Ouch. It’s been 20-ish years since we had to buy one and the sticker shock was severe. And of course, we just had the darn ice maker repaired, again.
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LAMary said on February 4, 2024 at 8:12 pm
For a few years I had an IPhone as my business phone and an LG as my personal phone. There wasn’t anything at all about the IPhone that made it better than the LG. Nada. It probably was a lot more expensive but the company paid for it, not I.
And holy shit it’s raining like the end the world here and it’s windy. Flood and falling tree weather here in southern CA.
We did sandbag all the routes the water took last year when my bedroom flooded. Fingers crossed we’ve done it right. In other news, Sophie Flay, daughter if chef Bobby Flay, is in a hooded slicker reporting the news on the local ABC station.
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Suzanne said on February 4, 2024 at 9:24 pm
I am watching the Grammys and feel like an old fart. I haven’t heard of most of the singers and to be honest, I don’t think most of them sing very well. The women all sound the same; out of breath panting more than singing, and I cannot understand a word of most of the songs.
But we did see the sun today, so that’s a big plus!
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brian stouder said on February 4, 2024 at 10:46 pm
Suzanne, not to sound like an old fuddy-duddy myself, but I’m taken by how much blippin’ CBS apparently feels obliged to do. $&@?!!/“@&.
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alex said on February 4, 2024 at 11:09 pm
I managed to sit through the Grammys to Joni Mitchell, but ready to call it a night. Couldn’t give a wet rip what Billy Joel is gonna do even though they’ve been teasing it all night. Trevor Noah is a fun host and some of the music was good even though I’ve never heard any of it, old fart that I’ve become.
I had no idea that Miley Cyrus owned such serious pipes. Never heard of Olivia Rodrigo or her music but she was interesting. Familiar with Billie Eilish only because her Ooo Ooo song is on the rotation of music at my massage therapist’s office.
The current style, if there is one, seems to be where the female singer starts out whispery and maybe with some vocal fry, like Eilish, or sort of mush-mouthed like Rodrigo, and then in mid-song bursts into a bravura performance with incredible control and range. It’s as if they are setting low expectations so they can then blow you away.
The weather people have been promising sun since Thursday. It finally arrived today, just in time for me to be caged up indoors cooking Sunday dinner for the family. Today did Wiener schnitzel and smoked the place up bad, ran out of bread crumbs and improvised with crushed Ritz crackers. It wasn’t my best.
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susan said on February 5, 2024 at 12:04 am
This seems appropriate, given the above discussion.
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alex said on February 5, 2024 at 12:09 am
Spot-on Susan!
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LAMary said on February 5, 2024 at 4:27 pm
Alex, check out Miley Cyrus singing Jolene. I think it was included in a post here a few years ago. If not it’s easy to find online. Worth the search.
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