Columbus was fine, if you’re wondering. Every so often I think I should swing home via Newark and check in with Jeff Gill, but I don’t. I go straight up U.S. 23 because I want to get home, and then, three hours later, I am home.
But it was a good trip, weaving family with friends in just about the right proportions. I even had time to swing past my childhood home. You might recall it from this post, which found it, in 2022, seemingly at the end of an extensive renovation. It looked like this:
I said at the time I hoped it would be mellowed with landscaping and shutters and all that. It appears to be done. And now? This:
Um. OK. They’ve added landscaping. And shutters. And whatever the hell that thing is sticking out over the front door, but what do I know? The trend today is MODERN FARMHOUSE, and if your AMERICAN COLONIAL won’t play ball, you make it so.
I drove away reflecting on this passage in Elmore Leonard’s “City Primeval,” which I’ve been carrying around in my head for a while:
Bottom line: Don’t get sentimental about cars, or real estate. It’s a house, not Tara. Your family hasn’t been there for 29 years. Let it go. Houses are for keeping the rain off your head and hosting the Thanksgiving dinner. And when you sign the papers, they’re for someone else’s Thanksgiving dinner.
I came home and told Alan about this, who happened to have spent that very day in his hometown of Defiance, Ohio, helping his recently moved-in sister with some things in her new condo. He said his family’s old house, also sold years ago, is now “easily the worst one on the street,” with all kinds of shit like trampolines and recreational garbage in the front yard, not the back. “And there’s a sign nailed — NAILED — to my father’s ash tree,” he reported, horrified. “It says ‘No Trespassing.'”
Like anyone would want to. That nail hole will have bad juju down the road, but one day we’ll all be gone from the earth, and it won’t matter.
No, I’m not depressed. Just taking the long view.
I tried to disconnect from the news, to the extent I was able to, this weekend. It was easy, in the sense that it was all about Will Biden Drop Out, and in the sense I have no control over that, it was easy to do.
What do you think? Oh, and happy week ahead.
Ann Fisher said on July 7, 2024 at 8:57 pm
What’s that thing sticking out of the roof in both photos?
My sister put me onto a group that puts on zoom calls that collect money for various get-out-the-vote and related efforts, rigorously tested to be effective. 3000 people on the call, raised $1,000,000. No one was fussing about whether Biden was or wasn’t going to drop out–it was just 100% focused on winning in November. Very refreshing.
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nancy said on July 7, 2024 at 9:18 pm
Our old house backs up to an athletic field. That’s a stadium light, and one of my Saturday-morning chores was to pick up the trash people would drop from the stands that made up the end of the back yard.
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Deborah said on July 7, 2024 at 9:55 pm
This is a good article in the guardian by Rebecca Solnit about whatever in the heck is up with the media about Biden https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/06/biden-trump-race-rebecca-solnit.
There’s also a good rant out there by Steven Colbert about why the media acts like Trump is a normal candidate. Sorry I don’t have a link for that.
I do not get what’s up with the NYT? As if Trump won’t do great damage to them if he’s elected. I’m staying away, not giving them clicks except for games, which I’m unfortunately addicted to.
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Jim G said on July 7, 2024 at 10:22 pm
I don’t mind so much the thing that’s sticking out over the front door. Sometimes you just want something to keep the rain off your head while you’re trying to find the front door key.
A few years back, I looked at the MLS listing for my grandfather’s house, where I spent every Christmas for nearly 40 years until he moved into assisted living. My reaction was a combination of, “Oh, so that’s what they did with the kitchen; I guess I can see why they’d do that,” and, “The furniture in the living room is arranged all wrong!” What surprised me was how much still looked the same. When my mom looked at the photos, though—well, I don’t believe there were any changes she approved of. Then again, she’s 86. There aren’t many changes she approves of anymore.
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Joe Kobiela said on July 7, 2024 at 10:59 pm
A house is just a house, a home is where you live.
Pilot Joe
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Mark P said on July 8, 2024 at 12:07 am
The porch is stupid. There are ways to put a porch on that actually go with the style of the house. One day someone who knows something will end up with the house, and the first thing they do will be to tear that monstrosity down. I am also not a fan of nonfunctional shutters, but they should at least look like they are functional, and that means they need to look like they will cover the windows if they close. These fail.
I have driven by the house my parents built around 1967 and my mother lived in until 2013. The new owners cut down a tall magnolia that was in the front yard, and put some lattice across the carport opening. It looks trashy now. I don’t really care, but I do consider it a shame. On the other hand, my in-laws’ old house had some big money (for here) spent on it, and the exterior looks far better. Based on some real estate agent’s photos a few years ago, someone also did a good job renovating the interior.
I would still like to move 1000 miles from here and never see any of my hometown again. Nothing against it, other than Marjorie Taylor Greene, but there is nothing here for me any more.
Which reminds me. I saw a teenager in Walmart tonight wearing a t-shirt with “Let’s go Brandon” and “FJB” on the front. I’m sure he has a confederate flag sticker somewhere, if not a swastika. I’m so sick of these dumb fucks. I almost wish their dreams would come true, and that I could see into the future to watch them work to their dying day at Walmart, getting sicker and sicker with untreated diabetes because their idol and his butt-lickers killed social security and Medicare. I’ll probably be dead by then; sorry youngsters.
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Sherri said on July 8, 2024 at 12:31 am
The more I read pundit suggestions for what the Dems should do, the more convinced I am that they’re all just playing fantasy league politics. None of them, for example, have anything to say about how to deal with campaign finance law, how to get on the ballot in all the states, or any of the myriad details of running a campaign that are predicated on the fact that conventions don’t actually choose nominees anymore, and haven’t really since the 60’s.
So much infrastructure around campaigns and elections has built up in an environment where candidates are not chosen at the conventions that it’s hard to even guess what things would break if you did, but I’m sure the GOP ratfuckers would be on top of it. Chaos is to the GOP advantage.
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Mark P said on July 8, 2024 at 1:00 am
I think part of the reason so many pundits are weighing in on what the Democrats should do is their moral certainty that they know how to do things better than the people who actually do things. They all think they are experts on politics. But they are like the global warming deniers who think they have found the big thing that all the experts missed, like clouds; they don’t know what they don’t know. But if they don’t pontificate, who will know how smart they are? What would they do to justify their salaries? How could they look down on us mortals who don’t get on TV?
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Dexter Friend said on July 8, 2024 at 1:12 am
I drove past my first boyhood house on Friday, between Garrett and Corunna, Indiana. Abandoned, weeds, barn long gone, house likely to cave in or be wrecked soon. A half mile away, my uncle’s hilltop house, always well-kept, mowed, fruit trees, where the uncles made homemade ice cream, also abandoned, even though on a hill, completely overgrown and hidden. I also was in Defiance just 6 hours ago, at Aldi’s, stocking up on stuffs. A grocery cart full, $96. It would have been $200 at Kroger, Chief, or any “regular” supermarket.
To my dismay, it’s apparent if Joe quits, and this disaster is addressed before an open convention, Kamala Harris would lead the ticket. And Trump would destroy her. Run Joe, run.
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Brandon said on July 8, 2024 at 1:41 am
Houses are for keeping the rain off your head
Hence the new portico.
—–
The big news in Hawaii: Three Former Hawaii Governors Call for Biden to Withdraw in New Letter
It is apparent to us that the debate was much more than a “bad night.” The debate was not an episodic one-off but rather the result of an ongoing condition – a condition of decline that will not be reversible. It was a graphic demonstration to millions of voters that will leave a lasting impression of disillusionment about both candidates – a situation that is devastating for President Biden with no similar electoral consequence for Trump at all. The debate did not change a single vote for or against Donald Trump. There the outcome was perhaps catastrophic for President Biden as the post-debate atmosphere was and remains rife with the question of whether he can defeat Trump or even physically make it to the end of the campaign.
The three of us are the 4th, 5th and 7th Governors of the State of Hawaii. Our respective Native Hawaiian, Filipino and Caucasian ancestries are indicative of the diverse reality of Democratic Part values in electoral action. Our ages range from 78 to 84 to 86. We are linked directly generationally and politically to President Biden. We are well aware that the question of withdrawal before us is not one of age as such but aging and its implications and consequences for the overriding task of defeating Donald Trump.
Simply and directly put we believe the President needs to withdraw his candidacy and free his 3896 delegates to the Democratic Party nominating convention. This will demonstrate without equivocation his lifelong devotion and commitment to the core values of freedom and the Constitution. The nation and its survival as our democracy are at stake.
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Jeff Gill said on July 8, 2024 at 3:47 am
Well, ya missed a good parade. But we’ll probably do it again next July 4, so . . .
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David C said on July 8, 2024 at 5:47 am
MDoT did us a favor and knocked down my childhood home to build M-6, the south belt freeway around Grand Rapids. It’s hard to feel nostalgic for an overpass. On their second house, flippers did the job. My sister and niece went to an open house and said everything the pictures on Realtor didn’t show how cheap and shoddy everything they did was. I guess it worked. They sold it for $60,000 more than my parents sold it for.
I’ll be. Macron didn’t fuck up France.
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Deborah said on July 8, 2024 at 8:44 am
I looked up the house in Miami that I grew up in on Zillow and it doesn’t look that different from the front, there are no other photos. It was last purchased in 1999. I looked it up on Google earth once and it had been added onto in the back a lot, taking up most of the backyard. I last lived there 52 years ago, I’m surprised it didn’t get razed in a hurricane a long time ago.
I have dreams about that house every once in a while, that I have inherited it and have to decide if I want to keep it, in my dreams it has strange rooms and bad neighbors.
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nancy said on July 8, 2024 at 9:00 am
I have house dreams too, Deborah. In mine, I’ve recently bought a house, or it’s a house I’m familiar with. Then I open a door and find a whole undiscovered wing, room after room, always furnished. I think “I guess I got more house than I thought.” I always read it as my subconscious telling me I should be doing more with my life. My dreams are always very Psych 101. When I was pregnant I kept dreaming about koi ponds, peering into the water and trying to see the gaily colored fish below. Duh.
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Jeff Borden said on July 8, 2024 at 9:20 am
The rejection of Marine LePen by a large majority was music to my ears. Her family rivals the tRumps in its single-minded devotion to anger, resentment, hate and violence plus she openly admires Vladimir Putin. Thank dog they were spanked and sent packing. Center-left won big in the U.K. Perhaps the tide is turning on right-wing fever dreams.
We moved a lot when we were kids. Perhaps that’s why I never formed any great attachment to a house including the small frame place (built in 1905) we bought in Chicago in 1993. The county auditor has appraised it at a ludicrously high price, which leads people to congratulate us on the windfall we’ll reap when we sell. Problem is, we don’t intend to sell. For all its myriad problems, we think getting older in the city is far preferable to a smaller town because of all the transportation options, three huge teaching hospitals with some of the finest medical personnel in the nation, senior programs in every neighborhood offering everything from piano lessons to hot lunches and the stimulations of museums, music and diverse food options. That’s the plan, at least. We all know how plans work out.
I’m truly vexed by Uncle Joe. And angry. He pulled a Ruth Bader Ginsburg on us. He should’ve run as a one-termer and allowed younger Democrats to battle it out to be his replacement and we wouldn’t be in this mess. But we are and I’ll vote for a canned ham before I’ll throw a vote at a political party that has given up on democracy and embraced lawless authoritarianism.
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Suzanne said on July 8, 2024 at 9:34 am
I have that same house dream in which I discover a previously unknown wing that I never knew was there, that is large and quite nice. In the dream, it’s always clear that we have moved out but are back for a visit. It’s almost always the same house, a dump of a house that we lived in for a few years in the Chicago suburbs that I did not like much. The house no longer exists.
I always wonder what the deep meaning is since I have had the dream so often.
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Julie Robinson said on July 8, 2024 at 9:52 am
Most of my dreams involve the search for a bathroom, and I don’t think we need any pysch training to understand their meaning. But I’ve had the house dream too, or occasionally one where the ag wing of our rural high school had a pool. As if.
We may be walking into another house nightmare as we are getting a bathroom redone, then hopefully the other bathroom and kitchen. The spongy floor is a clear indication of water damage, and when our guy came to nail down the timeline, he realized we still have copper plumbing in the old part of the house, and it needs to be replaced.
Okay…this morning the plumber comes for a quote and has complicated questions concerning locations and the addition and we have no answers. Plumber that did the work knows nothing; not even bothering to call the worthless contractor. But our architect thinks he may have pictures, so he’s going to look at his files, when he gets back from Disney. Anyone care to wager on what this will cost us?
I’m still boycotting all the Biden speculation, eating my dinner in another room away from the TV. Let me know when they start covering Trump’s misdeeds again.
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Icarus said on July 8, 2024 at 10:10 am
I think the Unknown Wing/extra rooms in your house dream is fairly common, and Uncle Google has some interesting theories.
My reoccurring ones are being back at a job I left years ago; being in a college class for an exam when I skipped all semester; and lining up for a marathon I didn’t train at all for.
My current recurring dream is living in my elderly mother’s crapshack and trying to fix it up. IRL it’s beyond repair: the money to fix it would be better spent tearing down and building a new one. But we’ll have to go through Probate first because Stubborn Pollock knows best!
[google just helped me with the difference between reoccur and recur and thus I swapped them above]
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ROGirl said on July 8, 2024 at 10:45 am
Teardowns seem to be happening more frequently in my area. The old houses are small and have usually been neglected for years by the time the old owners move (or die).
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Dorothy said on July 8, 2024 at 11:31 am
Call me crazy but I like the new front porch thing. I knew immediately why they did it – a place to keep packages delivered by Amazon, etc. dry.
I don’t have many house dreams these days but I used to have them all the time. We moved out of a tiny row house that had 12 people living in it to a big three story house with seven bedrooms, lots of sprawl room thanks to my mother doing the homework to be sure we could afford it. My dad, I think, was very worried at first but it didn’t take him long to embrace that big ol’ house at 910 Franklin Avenue. (It’s an absolute disaster now and I cannot look at pictures of it anymore, it crushes my heart so much.)
My oldest sister had gotten her own apartment by then, and the two oldest boys were off to college already so were not living in the house for more than 3 months or so of the year. Those brothers moved out or got married, Louise moved out, and Joe went to college too. And then we bottom five kids had lots of room to spread out. I dreamt about 106 South Trenton Avenue (the first house) more than any other house I’ve lived in.
I still think Biden needs to stay in the race but my confidence is wavering a little. I’m keeping the news turned off as much as possible these days and when I’m sewing much of the day, I’ve got Pandora on and shaking my booty when I’m at the ironing board or design wall.
Dexter I disagree with your theory about Trump destroying VP Harris. I think she’d absolutely slay him in a debate. She’s so much smarter than him (well that’s probably obvious but I needed to say it) and would command any stage they would share leading up to the election. My only fear is all the prejudiced people who can’t stand women of color will not step up to the plate.
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Heather said on July 8, 2024 at 11:34 am
I have the “undiscovered wing” dreams too, or sometimes in my dream I knew it was there but forgot about it. I also have had a recurring dream of being in a giant mansion that gets progressively more haunted on each floor. Not sure what that’s all about.
I grew up in an apartment building in a Chicago suburb. Just looked it up and it looks more or less the same. I’d be curious to see the inside, but not curious enough to knock on the door.
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alex said on July 8, 2024 at 11:39 am
My brother and I are inheriting our parents’ house as joint tenants. It’s a cool place but needs tons of TLC. Even so, I don’t want it falling into the hands of people who would tack on porticos and faux farmhouse foofery. We’ll either find a buyer who genuinely appreciates its good bones or we’ll restore it ourselves.
Whenever I dream of finding secret wings, it’s always in that house.
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Mark P said on July 8, 2024 at 12:54 pm
I looked a little closer at the portico on your old house and realized that it would take very little to make it appropriate. The first step is to paint the columns and trim white, and the door almost any color other than the color it seems to be stained. It would be easy to add a few trim pieces to make it look more appropriate. As common as the colonial style is, I can’t figure out why anyone would have trouble finding a better example to model.
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Dorothy said on July 8, 2024 at 1:20 pm
I agree about the door Mark. It should be black to mirror the fake shutters. And that orange color of the columns has to be stained wood. Again, I’m a weirdo who likes it but truthfully, I think they probably should be black as well.
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Sherri said on July 8, 2024 at 2:15 pm
Mark P, you’re right. But what I always want to do with this very clever boys (they’re still mostly boys) is pat them on the head and say, oh yes, that’s very clever, but then tell me what happens next. That’s how I felt all during the lead up to the invasion of Iraq; yes, we can topple Suddein, and then what?
If any of these pundits had done anything other than punditting, if they had actually had to implement ideas rather than just think of them, they realize that ideas are easy.
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SusanG said on July 8, 2024 at 4:27 pm
If you need a porch on a colonial, build a portico. Paint it white.
We grew up in a house in Ft. Wayne on Thompson Ave. It was an American 4-square. We thought we lived in paradise, now it’s considered a blighted area.
Wonder why we have a housing crisis in America?
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Julie Robinson said on July 8, 2024 at 6:28 pm
Susan, our first house was right around the corner to you on Zollars Avenue. It wasn’t much then, but the nice couple we sold it to fixed it up. After that it got trashed and in the most recent sale listing it had been abandoned in a foreclosure. I hope it’s in happier hands now.
Did I mention we lived there for way less than an apartment or even a trailer? It was time to get out when we realized our kid could hear the expletives being yelled almost any time of night or day.
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Brandon said on July 8, 2024 at 7:21 pm
Meanwhile…
Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota who has been dogged by controversy since recounting how she chose to shoot dead a puppy and a goat, attracted new questions when it was noted that some of her official social media accounts appeared to have been deleted.
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Dave said on July 8, 2024 at 7:49 pm
My childhood home, the home my parents bought in 1955 and lived in until my father passed away in 2013, is now owned by a company that restores and rents out homes. My brother works with a man whose in-laws live across the road from it. About six weeks ago, he told my brother that his in-laws told him federal marshals showed up at about daybreak one weekday morning and brought all the adults out in handcuffs. We’ve no idea why.
We’ve no idea about the quality of the restoration, my cousin and her husband went to an open house when it was on the market and said they’d done a lot of work, put in a second bathroom, and knocked out a couple of walls. We grew up with one tiny bathroom and a family of seven, I never knew how miserable that was until (yes, miserable) I’d had several homes of my own and then spent so much time there with my parents in my father’s last months. Tiny.
I’m another who is very unhappy with Biden right now and fear for what it means. As for Kamala Harris, I’d vote for her but oh my, I’m certain there are millions who wouldn’t because not only is she half African American, she’s a woman. I’d think she’d mop the floor with Trump in a debate but it wouldn’t matter to all the (and here I go astray with muttering). As I keep saying, I fear for the future of this country.
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SusanG said on July 8, 2024 at 7:59 pm
Julie Robinson
I remember Zollars Avenue. My sister, brother and I were like ferrets. We went everywhere. We went downtown. We took circuitous routes to Sweeney Park. We moved to the burbs the day Kennedy was assinated..
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Sherri said on July 8, 2024 at 8:48 pm
Here’s one of the few articles I’ve seen that actually looks at the campaign finance law issues involved in changing candidates (tl;dr only Harris could use the Biden-Harris war chest): https://prospect.org/power/2024-07-02-campaign-finance-laws-harris-big-boost-biden-dropout-scenario/
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brian stouder said on July 8, 2024 at 9:26 pm
I think Vice President Harris will make a very fine president
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Deborah said on July 8, 2024 at 9:39 pm
Why in the world do people think that pundits are the end all be all of what should be done anywhere, anyplace politically. I get that they’re probably somewhat smart people but they are not experts in every exact field. Yes they question experts and non experts as journalists (sometimes?). But they give their opinions based on what? I respect a lot of them and give a lot of credence to what they say most of the time but sometimes they are just completely full of shit and should just shut the fuck up. I need to take what they say with a grain of salt a lot more than I usually do. No, I’m not pissed off at all, what makes you think that?
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Little Bird said on July 8, 2024 at 10:08 pm
Just looked up my childhood home. It appears the red bud tree I planted in either kindergarten or first grade is actually still there. Which makes it a VERY old red bud tree since they don’t typically live this long. According to Zillow a half bath has been added. The neighborhood used to be terrible, but gentrification happened and now it’s at least safe, I guess?
I often have dreams that I’m there, or trying to get there and the roads are wrong and the house (once I’m in it) has too many rooms. Most of those rooms are furnished in an unfamiliar way or PACKED with all kinds of things. I always feel uncomfortable to be there.
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alex said on July 8, 2024 at 10:16 pm
I take heart in the fact that the much-anticipated right-wing victories in Europe not only fizzled but backfired spectacularly. Maybe nobody knows how big the resistance really is until it’s put to the test.
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Colleen said on July 8, 2024 at 10:21 pm
Oh lordy. I just took a look at my childhood home on Zillow. There is a huge camper attached to a pickup in the driveway. It looks, as my mother used to say, “like hillbilly heaven”. (Apologies to hill people) I have driven by a few times since my parents moved out, and each time it looks jankier than the last. This is Aboite township, in what is otherwise a lovely neighborhood. I can never understand people who move into a neighborhood with a certain standard of general upkeep and proceed to drag everyone else’s property value down. People in my Florida neighborhood are always bitching about the HOA. (Which they knew about when they bought their house) The HOA is what assures me that my neighbor isn’t going to put his car up on blocks in the driveway, paint his house some weird color, or park a giant camper in front of the house. So overall, I’m ok with it. (Ask me again when we get a letter warning us that our driveway is dirty and needs a power wash.)
I have the same extra rooms dream. No idea what it means.
And finally, Biden. I would vote for Biden if he was a head in a jar. The pundits and the media need to STFU and take a look at the felon, who has somehow been made into a normal candidate. Also. The NY Times is a joke…
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Brandon said on July 9, 2024 at 3:49 am
I can never understand people who move into a neighborhood with a certain standard of general upkeep and proceed to drag everyone else’s property value down. … The HOA is what assures me that my neighbor isn’t going to put his car up on blocks in the driveway, paint his house some weird color, or park a giant camper in front of the house.
That reminds me of this video. Ugly Kid Joe, “Neighbor”
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Mssr. Coffee said on July 9, 2024 at 8:03 am
Sounds like the memo’s gone out, but not everyone’s read it yet. “The King is dead; long live the Kween.”
Never change, folks, never change. Delicious.
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Jeff Gill said on July 9, 2024 at 8:11 am
Hat tip to Dorothy for “a place to keep packages delivered by Amazon, etc. dry” — makes sense, and it had not occurred to me.
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Julie Robinson said on July 9, 2024 at 9:59 am
Susan, you were gone from Thompson by the time I got to Zollars. Even in the early 80’s, Thompson was a definite step up from Zollars.
Had the house dream again last night, only it was my sister’s house and I found yet another room filled with junk and trash. I attribute this not just to our discussion here, but to spending the evening clearing out a bathroom prior to demolition in a day or two.
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alex said on July 9, 2024 at 11:18 am
I was an analysand for many years and discussed the recurring house dream several times with my shrink. At its most basic level, the dream represents self-discovery. You’re seeing something old and familiar but seeing it in a new way and that’s how you’re also seeing yourself. It represents progress and growth. It represents openness to thinking outside of the box. They’re sweet dreams, if you’re having them.
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brian stouder said on July 9, 2024 at 2:03 pm
Alex for thread-win! I’ve always loved reading history (mostly US history) for exactly that reason – ‘seeing something old and familiar but seeing it in a new way’
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Dorothy said on July 9, 2024 at 2:19 pm
Thank you for that, alex! I’ve always wondered what having dreams about my old house or houses meant, and I love that explanation.
For anyone going to the Ohio State Fair this year, please know that I’m putting two of my quilts in for display in the Modern category. So if you happen to be in that building, slide past the quilt exhibits and look for my quilts! A neighbor of mine is entering the baking competition again – she won two first place blue ribbons last year. She was a first time entrant! I’m a first time entrant this year myself. My granddaughter is dying to see it – she doesn’t remember being at the fair when she was a smaller girl. She’ll be dazzled this year. She doesn’t believe me that there will be a life size cow made out of butter.
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Dexter Friend said on July 9, 2024 at 3:36 pm
I never had house envy or dreams of great houses. I have a blogging acquaintance who is living in a tent outside Roseville, California in a tent, in terrible heat, 110F recently. He hops trains whenever he feels like it and lives off the generosity of friends and internet pals. Occasionally he checks himself into a mental hospital “when the demons come after me”.
So if I have a house with electricity, A/C, heat,, and a roof that does not leak ( just had one nailed up last week), I am happy. Too boot, the asshole son-of-a-bitch neighbor who once threatened to kick my teeth in moved. Fortuna’s wheel has spun upward. All is well and good today. Can you imagine living in a tent in impossible heat with demons in your head? I can live with what I have. I do wish I could overcome my inhibitions and lease or buy a new car; I could do it financially, but the modern car pricing makes me realize I am out of touch as far as accepting paying so many tens of thousands of dollars for a fucking damn car.
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Sherri said on July 9, 2024 at 3:57 pm
The smartest politician in the Democratic Party is full on backing Biden. AOC says the case is closed, Biden is the nominee, let’s beat Trump. The Congressional Black Caucus is also backing him, so maybe we can move on.
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Colleen said on July 9, 2024 at 4:55 pm
Amen Sherri. Dems get all in a tizzy too easily. We need to circle the wagons and get Biden re elected. We don’t have time to play fantasy football with the election.
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David C said on July 9, 2024 at 5:37 pm
Any pundit calling for Joe to pull who hasn’t previously called for Trump to pull out needs a baseball bat knee massage (or the Democratic equivalent, a strongly worded letter). Any Democrat who echoes that needs the same. It’s over. Millions voted in primaries for Joe to be the candidate and the Democratic party is the party that respects the will of the voters.
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Jeff Borden said on July 9, 2024 at 5:48 pm
Two thoughts:
The platform the RNC is unveiling is absolutely hideous, though nowhere near as terrifying as Project 2025. Every democrat from sea-to-shining-sea needs to start pounding this platform, which does include “the largest mass deportation in American history.” Start talking about what these “undesirables” deliver to us starting with the stark fact that 44 percent of agricultural workers are undocumented immigrants. And, of course, pound the abortion and reproductive health care issues. A sizable majority wants abortion legal.
And our media need to start focusing much more on tRump’s increasing number of gaffes, his lies about involvement in Project 2025 and the economic impact of his policies not only deporting hard working people, but his insistence on tariffs, his vow to destroy the move to electric vehicles, his promise of more tax cuts for the filthy rich, etc. A start is the recent NYT story about the “left behind counties” and how much better they’ve done under Biden than they fared under bloated orange tumor.
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Mark P said on July 9, 2024 at 6:11 pm
On The View today, they were talking about whether Biden should withdraw. They led with a clip of Jon Stewart on the Daily Show talking about how we need to talk about this issue, and how wrong people were to say to just shut up and vote for Biden. Some of the people on The View agreed. I thought, no, we all had the opportunity to talk about this, and to vote for someone else if we thought Biden was too old. That time has passed, and now it really is time to shut up and work to get Biden elected. If Biden loses, I think we should all write letters to Jon Stewart and tell him, “Thanks, it wouldn’t have happened without people like you.” I used to like Stewart. Now I think he’s a fucking idiot.
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brian stouder said on July 9, 2024 at 6:26 pm
I like ol’ Joe, and indeed – Vice President Harris is a tremendously reassuring insurance policy!
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susan said on July 9, 2024 at 8:10 pm
I wear this tee when out and about.
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Mark P said on July 9, 2024 at 8:15 pm
Susan, wearing that Tee could be dangerous around here. This is MTG country.
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brian stouder said on July 9, 2024 at 8:22 pm
I love that tee!
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Deborah said on July 9, 2024 at 9:54 pm
Anyone and I mean anyone who has any kind of a platform online, looking at you Nancy (not that you aren’t already doing it), needs to promote Biden from here on out. Even if your platform has nothing to do with politics. Just keep plugging away at it, it’s so important for our future. It’s not casual, it’s not easy going, it’s serious. Get on it. Do it. Right now. Couldn’t be more important.
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Jeff Gill said on July 10, 2024 at 10:41 am
Small signs of hope:
https://www.thereportingproject.org/trp-earns-six-awards-including-best-of-show-for-digital-news-outlet-in-statewide-contest/
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Jeff Borden said on July 10, 2024 at 11:55 am
Interesting column in The Atlantic about what France can teach the American left as it confronts tRump. It notes how leftists and centrists saw Marine LePen’s far-right political party as an existential threat and did what was needed to fend them off. The quote below gives the gist of the argument.
“One of the major differences between France and America, it seems, is that the French have not been beaten into a state of learned helplessness by the possibility of right-wing extremism. America’s left and center have been performing outrage for years now, through scandal after scandal, as Trump refused to concede defeat in 2020, peddled outrageous conspiracies that resulted in a deadly riot at the Capitol, and became the first convicted felon ever to seek office. And yet, as he plots his comeback, he has met only a toothless and disorganized opposition, complacently following a calcified leader. The majority of French voters saw the National Rally as an existential threat to their values, and were alarmed and motivated enough to react. If Trump is in fact on the cusp of destroying American democracy, as so many have continually warned us, then Americans should respond to this crisis with a similar sense of pragmatism and urgency.”
Or, we could wring our hands and tremble at the thought of a toxic ignoramus and his drooling hordes seizing the levers of power. I prefer the French approach. Fight like motherfuckers.
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Scout said on July 10, 2024 at 1:02 pm
If it isn’t already obvious, the media is a wholly owned subsidiary of the 1% who find it in their own best interests to promote a horse race and to trash democrats because they love their juicy, sweet, delectable tax cuts. Any 99%er, and that is ALL OF US, who absorbs then parrots their ‘I’m worried because Biden is old’ crap is only adding to this dangerous problem. Biden KILLED it at the NATO conference but you won’t hear about it from the msm because they have one job and it’s to promote the 2024 version of ‘but her emails’. Boycott cable news. Cancel the NY Times. Read Heather Cox Richardson. And like Deborah said, use whatever platform you have, no matter how small to promote democracy and sound the alarm about what the orange pos has in store if he cheats his way back in.
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Scout said on July 10, 2024 at 1:17 pm
And PS: A reminder that WE decide. The media only leads us by the nose if we let them.
“Led by David Lazer, university distinguished professor of political science and computer science at Northeastern, the report indicates that the debate had little if any impact on people’s voting preference. Lazer hopes the report helps illustrate the dangers of making a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to the media interpreting data.”
https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/07/09/biden-debate-performance-voter-preferences/
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justsomeguy05 said on July 12, 2024 at 11:56 am
“whatever the hell that thing is sticking out over the front door”
Yes, rather ugly. Could have been done in a much more aesthetically pleasing way.
At first I thought “smoking area”, but then decided “it keeps the Amazon packages dry”.
I assume the mailbox was relocated to be nearer the street ?
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