I was looking back over the archives and realized that two years ago I was doing the same thing I’m doing now, i.e. dog- and house-sitting for some friends who live nearby. They’re in the Caribbean; we had about seven inches of snow in the last 24 hours. So they’re tanning, and I’m shoveling.
I am promised a very nice bottle of rum upon their return.
As often happens in an unfamiliar house, something comes up. So I text: Please tell me why I can’t run the kitchen faucet. It’s not cold enough to be frozen.
Reply: Ok. I have to order you some double A batteries bc they need to be replaced soon
“You can’t run the kitchen-sink faucet because the batteries are dead” is some real HAL 9000 shit, but this is why I’ve lived this long, I guess. Apparently the faucet has some sort of battery-supported touch mechanism that allows you to turn it on without the archaic 20th-century gesture of “reaching for the faucet,” I gather. I was wondering how I’d make coffee until I remembered I could use the pot-filler faucet over the stove. How well I remember our shared contractor, Sergei, saying mournfully as he installed it: “People want, but they do not use.” Well here I am, using it, Sergei! Take that!
Otherwise, I’m working, eating my way through an insanely large quantity of pasta e fagiole (pasta fazool to you non-Italians) and trying to keep the new dog from climbing onto my head at night. The diabetic schnauzer crossed the bridge a few weeks back, but now I’ve got Penny to deal with:
She likes to be close. It’s going to be very very cold in about 48 hours, so maybe I’ll need a dog on my head. I’ll certainly need a faucet that can drip all night to stave off freezing, so good thing I got those batteries.
In other news at this hour, too much has happened in the last 72 or so to even keep up. I see our new HHS secretary wants to get people off of SSRIs. Says they’re harder to kick than heroin. As someone who’s taken them a time or two, I disagree. Anyway, let’s say “you first” and make Croaky kick his fondness for anabolic steroids and other muscle-juicing drugs. Maybe Cheryl Hines can also swear off injecting botulism into her face, too.
Now I’m getting personal. Time to sign off and turn to the to-do list for the week ahead. Maybe make sure I have extra batteries.
David C said on February 16, 2025 at 6:27 pm
“A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive—you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Rs have introduced to bill to ban mRNA vaccines because of course they are. I can’t wait for the hearings with that crazy quack Sherri Tenpenny and her magnetic personality sticking brass keys to her forehead. Fortunately, for now, you need 60 votes in the Senate to pass crazy unless they’re in the Cabinet.
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Sherri said on February 16, 2025 at 6:37 pm
I’ll confess, I have one of those touch activated faucets that need batteries, and I love it. You can still use it without batteries, though; the lever still works.
RFKJr has admitted to taking testosterone, but yeah, I bet he’s getting steroids for his quack anti-aging doctor, too. He’s not building that kind of physique by working out, because that takes a ton of time.
I’ve been taking an SNRI for twenty years, and expect to take it the rest of my life. Fuck Bobby.
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Deborah said on February 16, 2025 at 7:00 pm
I took Paxel (an ssri) for about 3 years about 15 years ago, it was a dickens to quit, I felt like I had the flu for about a year while I was detoxing from it. I was on it because the company I worked for had a client who operated by the Trump playbook: Wait until the last one quarter payments are due then sue so they end up not not charging you for that chunk. In the end the guy had over 220 law suits filed to as many vendors as he could, and then he dropped them after they were intimidated enough and had spent a lot on their own legal fees. He had lawyers on his staff so it wasn’t costly for him to do that. It was as stressful as you can imagine. Not fun times.
Going to a Presidents’ Day protest at the state capitol tomorrow here in Santa Fe. We made 2 signs, one says “Stop the Coup”. On that one I drew a caricature of Trump with one of those red circles with a slash through it (like on no smoking signs). It was easy to draw because he’s pretty much already a cartoon, I made his face orange but left a white edging around it like he does his make up. I made his lips extra puffed out. Then I tried to draw Musk which was harder because he doesn’t really have identifiable characteristics so I put a swastika on his forehead with the same circle/slash over his face. Then I made another sign and drew the creepiest, fattest rat possible and then wrote Musk in scrolling cursive under it which curled around mingled with the rat tail. I’m pretty proud of my hand made efforts. Can’t wait to show them off at the protest. If you don’t hear from me, I was probably shot by someone driving a cyber truck.
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susan said on February 16, 2025 at 7:38 pm
I’m going to the local gathering tomorrow. I just made a sign showing a guillotine with a raised blade, and the caption: Modern problems require 18th Century solutions
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Brandon said on February 16, 2025 at 8:12 pm
More like Mon Oncle.
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linda said on February 16, 2025 at 9:57 pm
Kennedy can go screw himself sideways with a pineapple. He can add the suicide deaths of people pulled off antidepressants to those of unvaccinated kids.
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Julie Robinson said on February 16, 2025 at 11:01 pm
Daughter and friends are also going, but gimpy footed me will stay home and make sure the 92 year old with severe vertigo makes it to the bathroom safely. They also serve…
The light fixture over our table has no wall switch, but had a pull cord hideousity we wanted to replace. New pull cord fixtures were not found, except the kind you’d put in top of a closet. But no problem, our kids took care of it for us and it’s very simple. We use google enabled light bulbs, and you only have to tell google to turn them on or off, or to dim or brighten, or even to turn a different shade if you’d like.
If you didn’t know that’s what you wanted in a house, or that you also wanted all your other living room bulbs the same, then you just aren’t forward thinking, you old fogies. Of course when the wifi goes down you can’t operate your lights, and yesterday they refused to come on at all, even with wifi. We replaced a couple and they just blinked, or rather, strobed. The hopeless old folk were forced to sit in the dark and wait for a young person to rescue us.
Alas, just waving our hands or speaking to google ever more forcefully did not correct the problem. The bulbs needed to be unscrewed and reinstalled, and if that sounds like a joke about how many old folks it takes to screw in a light bulb, the answer is we sit in the dark.
And if the bulbs strobe, it means they have to be programmed, and we need to import the young person who doesn’t live in the house anymore, but is the only one who understands the system.
If only it was as easy as a couple of batteries.
Before the old refrigerator went out the door, I took out the light bulbs, because appliance bulbs are expensive and we would have them at hand. Turns out the new one has LED strips behind panels, and I suppose they will need a service call for replacement.
Now, you kids take your Kendrick Lamar and get off my lawn.
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tajalli said on February 17, 2025 at 1:29 am
Oh, you people with your first world problems! Electronic faucets just like they have in public restrooms in hotels! Programming your light bulbs! You guys have got to get the tooth brush that coaches you on technique.
And I’ll take that dog any day, what a cutie. Just use a snorkel when it insists on keeps your ears warm, Nancy.
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Dexter Friend said on February 17, 2025 at 5:07 am
I was up at 4:15 AM to begin the drip, shower and upstairs sink. I have lived here for 44 years and I know the routine.
The drip will continue until early Thursday. My freeze-point is 15F. Yeah, clinging barely above 0F now for days. Time to savor a reading of “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert Service.
The SNL reunion was a blast. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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David C said on February 17, 2025 at 6:14 am
Read Neil Steinberg today. This is what Musk hates. He doesn’t want anyone telling him “No asshole, you’re going to kill people”.
https://www.everygoddamnday.com/
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alex said on February 17, 2025 at 8:27 am
I’d like to go to our protest tomorrow but I don’t know if I can take the subzero weather. If I get inspired to make a sign today I’ll definitely put in an appearance.
Last night I watched the SNL 50th anniversary special, but before it started I caught this segment on 60 Minutes: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/policing-speech-online-germany-60-minutes-transcript/
In Germany, they distinguish between “free speech” and “hate speech.” I’d hate to think that we’ll have to live through the same depredations as Germany under Hitler before this country finally comes to its senses and stops treating both as one and the same.
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alex said on February 17, 2025 at 8:51 am
In attempting to read the Steinberg article, I came up to the Sun-Times paywall. As a former subscriber and as a supporter of community journalism, I didn’t mind subscribing again and it’s only $7 a month, same as I’m paying for Substacks and such.
So I paid it but I still can’t fucking get access. The web site keeps blocking me even though I set up an account. Vexatious as hell.
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Deborah said on February 17, 2025 at 9:05 am
I opted to watch a video about making a “donation” to the Sun Times so I could read that Steinberg link. Since when is it a donation instead of a subscription? I turned the sound off while the video played, it had captions but I wasn’t paying attention. But I got to read the piece.
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Suzanne said on February 17, 2025 at 9:20 am
Sarah Kendzior comes through again.
https://sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/the-craftsman
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Jeff Borden said on February 17, 2025 at 9:50 am
Deborah,
The Sun-Times operates as a not-for-profit, a move made a few years ago when it sort of merged with the NPR station. So, yes, subscriptions are donations. Sadly, it’s not working as envisioned and the S-T is seeking voluntary retirements.
The curse of having read many history books is the dismay felt when yet another generation fails to see it repeating. Statements made by JD Vance and Pete Hegseth were appalling in their ignorance of European history and Vance’s meeting with the leader of the AfD, a neo-Nazi political party, was flatout disgusting. Imagine being lectured by a smug, 40-year-old puke telling you to embrace fascists in your midst.
Since the election, I’ve argued we deserve every horrible thing that happens under our nihilistic leadership. We let this happen. We earned the waiting horrors. But the rest of the world had no say, yet they’ll suffer, too.
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Courtney said on February 17, 2025 at 10:53 am
I planned to go to the Squirrel Hill protest today but I’m home with two puking kids and just desperately hoping I don’t get it. This should just be beginning of the revolution, so I hope to be part of everything that comes next.
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alex said on February 17, 2025 at 11:34 am
Per the Sun-Times, my mistake was paying with Apple Pay instead of directly with a card. Apple Pay hasn’t debited my checking account yet so it may be a while before I can read anything.
What’s the fucking point of having Apple Pay and why do they offer it up as an option on their web site if it’s not going to allow immediate access?
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Sherri said on February 17, 2025 at 2:00 pm
As the Trumpists turn the US into an unreliable ally, I’m having a hard time figuring out how they think this is going to work out. So, my model is that they think the US will be a mafia don; we’ll protect you as long as you pay for it. But in that case, why should countries rely on the US, and not just turn to China? I mean, even if you pay Trump, he’s not reliable. And the whole world is getting to watch Trump just hand Ukraine over to Putin for nothing.
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Dexter Friend said on February 17, 2025 at 2:20 pm
Jeff mentions the Heg-JD meet with the new nazis. The meet was held at the former Nazi Party HQ under…yes Hitler.
Vance left the attendees at his speech with world leaders stunned and really mad.
The last time we saw such madness from 1600 spewing forth was from 1968 when LBJ ordered a massive draft call-up and ordered 51,700+ soldiers to Viet Nam to kill with extreme prejudice any Vietnamese they saw.
Some might say “Shock and Awe” in Baghdad. I would not argue.
I won’t apologize for bringing up Viet Nam frequently here…it still plays in living color in my mind.
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jcburns said on February 17, 2025 at 2:20 pm
Alex, Apple Pay is a payment delivery system. You may well have an Apple Card, which is just like a Mastercard. It IS, in fact, a Mastercard.
You can also use Apple Pay to deduct from your Apple Cash account. You can use it with any credit card you have, if you set it up in your phone’s wallet. Using it with any of those DOES give you immediate access, immediate payment.
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Jakash said on February 17, 2025 at 2:21 pm
That’s odd about the Sun-Times, Alex. Adding to what Jeff B. wrote — when they became part of Chicago Public Media with the NPR station “forming the largest nonprofit local news organization in the nation,” they took down the paywall. When one clicked on the “continue reading” link on Steinberg’s blog posts, you needed to give them your email address, but you didn’t have to pay to read his column (or anything else at the S-T website).
Then at some point, they started making you watch a 30-second ad and view the donation options before you could read something. Even as “Founding Members,” who paid so we could read the e-edition, which is not available for free, we’ve had to watch that ad at least a dozen times, for some reason. So, I guess you’ve discovered another glitch in their system. But theoretically, folks should still be able to read Steinberg’s column without subscribing, I believe.
The gist of his piece today: “I was born in the summer of 1960, so I might have been a thalidomide baby. My mother wasn’t given thalidomide by her doctor. Dumb luck protected me. But ‘We Rely on Dumb Luck’ is not a mantra embraced by a great nation, the past three weeks notwithstanding. We don’t know what the next thalidomide will be, or how many disasters bothersome bureaucrats and annoying regulations saved us from. Or what harms will come from having our government ripped apart.
“We’re going to find out in the years to come, to our sorrow, as we tear down the wall that protects regular Americans from the tender mercies of big business. The harm is certain to be enormous.”
Here’s the link straight to the paper, but one still has to watch the video:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2025/02/16/fda-regulations-food-drug-safety-trump-musk-thalidomide-frances-kelsey
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Sherri said on February 17, 2025 at 4:13 pm
We have government by keyword search, in the dumbest possible way. Federal employees get fired because they have probationary status, regardless of why they have that status, which could be because they are newly hired, or because they are newly promoted, or newly moved to a new location. Probationary status was extended longer during Trump 1, too.
Grants get frozen or denied because they refer to certain words, like “transition”, whether that means gender transition or transition from high school to post secondary options for special ed kids. And the list of bad keywords is long and broad; Ted Cruz’s office put out a list of NSF grants that were woke, because they had words like “heterogeneous” and “homologous”. Female and woman are also woke, therefore, bad.
Perhaps we should all start writing in the style of Randall Munroe’s Up Goer 5: https://xkcd.com/1133/
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Colleen Condron said on February 17, 2025 at 4:38 pm
I will miss this place when I am in the work…er HEALTH camp to detox from the SSRIs that keep me out of the Dark Place….
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nancy said on February 17, 2025 at 4:54 pm
I gave the Sun-Times money a while back, because I read Neil’s column from time to time. (Truth be told, these are the blogs I’m least likely to follow from his own site, because they’re usually hyper-Chicago focused.) And I’ve watched that ad many times. It was worth it today, though.
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Jeff Gill said on February 17, 2025 at 5:04 pm
Dexter, no apologies necessary.
Meanwhile I start thinking on my drive across on I-70 that it may be time to talk to the doc about SSRIs, and sure enough RFK Jr. wants to limit thems, too. In the too much information dept., I started feeling very emotional at seeing a rest area just west of the Ohio/Indiana state line westbound had been leveled since I last came by, just a couple of weeks ago. That seemed a bit excessive, even by my admittedly maudlin standards.
But I’m impressed by the pineapple suggestion. Made me smile, even without meds. Yet.
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alex said on February 17, 2025 at 6:02 pm
I had a fling with Lexapro, an SSRI, about 25 years ago but had no trouble coming off of it. Same with Wellbutrin, an NDRI, which I tried in a couple of attempts to quit smoking. From what I recall, they helped lessen anxiety but overall I didn’t like the way they made me feel. I was considering trying again given the current political situation making me wake up with night terrors. At least I haven’t gone back to cigarettes.
Regarding Apple Pay, as JC was discussing above, I have the app on my iPhone and all of my devices are linked and my Apple Pay method of payment is my debit card. When I paid with Apple Pay this morning, it sent a confirmation to my phone and asked me to double-click in order to process the purchase, which I did. As of this moment, however, my online banking shows no debit from Apple Pay or the Sun-Times yet it shows the Chinese restaurant where I had lunch this afternoon. I didn’t receive any notification that the purchase failed so I’m not sure how it got lost.
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Sherri said on February 17, 2025 at 6:39 pm
How did the airplanes know to start crashing when Trump was inaugurated?
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Sherri said on February 17, 2025 at 6:54 pm
This NYTimes article about consolidation in fire truck manufacturing and private equity and the impacts on cities replacing aging fire trucks is interesting, but misses a key point.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/us/fire-engines-shortage-private-equity.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xk4.IHa5.Zpj6VpTfUaEC&smid=url-share
One of the things I learned in my time on the planning commission is that anytime you wanted to do something to make roads better for pedestrians and bicyclists and less car friendly, you were going to hear from the fire fighters, that they wouldn’t be able to get their fire trucks through. So, I wondered, what do other places do? Turns out, outside the US, fire trucks are smaller, and more standardized. It’s only in the US that fire trucks are huge and bespoke. Why? Because that’s how we roll, seems to be the answer. Europe and Asia use smaller, more nimble fire trucks.
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nancy said on February 18, 2025 at 8:13 am
This is true! When we go to Europe we marvel at the half-size, or three-quarter-size garbage trucks and fire trucks that roll around. They’re like pony-size versions of the ones we see here.
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Jeff Gill said on February 17, 2025 at 7:00 pm
Sherri, are you saying we should NOT buy the biggest, shiniest, most powerful (hoot-hoot-hoot) fire truck?
Everybody: MORE POWER!
(Meanwhile, no one asks the waste hauler their opinion, and their trucks come through every blessed week…)
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Sherri said on February 17, 2025 at 7:12 pm
The waste hauler is usually a big contractor like Waste Management, and they don’t really care whether the trucks can come through or not as long as the money comes in.
(An aside: you know what is a much more dangerous job than police officer? Sanitation worker. By a lot.)
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Deborah said on February 17, 2025 at 7:21 pm
I’m very happy right now and had a lot of fun today. The protest in Santa Fe was quite successful. Honest I sort of expected only 40 people to show up but there seemed to be maybe a couple of thousand, maybe not quite that many but for Santa Fe that was amazing considering the organizing was dismal. All of the info seemed to be transmitted by word of mouth, no official sponsors that I know of. Many of the signs were quite creative and the group was fairly diverse, many white/gray hairs but then it’s a city with a lot of retirees. The fact that it was a holiday and presidents day when we have this horrendous president helped I think. I had a lot of people take photos and compliment me on my Musk Rat sign that I carried, made me proud. All in all it was a fun day seeing all of the hilarious signs. It feels so good to be standing amidst a crowd of likeminded people when it often feels isolated and depressing sitting in your own home doom scrolling hour after hour.
We met first at the state house, the Roundhouse capitol building and after about an hour we all paraded to the plaza which is the center of the city, it’s about a quarter of a mile walk, maybe a bit less. I only saw about 3 to 5 police and everyone was thanking them for their service. It was great way to spend a couple of hours on a warmish afternoon in northern NM.
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David C said on February 17, 2025 at 8:06 pm
I saw a sign from one of the protests today that said “Billionaires are interested in outer space because guillotines need gravity”. I saw photos of a couple of Luigi themed signs too.
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Dexter Friend said on February 18, 2025 at 1:12 am
Musk is in the Social Security Administration now. There is no guarantee whatsoever our deposits will post anymore.
Roosevelt promised no politician will ever destroy S.S. Musk is not a politician. He’s an agent for his class of billionaires.
Ike said anybody trying to gut S.S. would fail and look “stupid”. Yep.
This information is from Lawrence O’Donnell’s show.
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Icarus said on February 18, 2025 at 9:53 am
My wife works at the VA and every year they have to do their routine compliance testing. Two items that disappeared from the list:
sexual harassment
whistle blowing
Nancy, we had to buy a new dishwasher and decided to get a new fridge too, because our garage fridge died. I like the LED because if you need to open the fridge for something in the middle of the night, the lights come on softly.
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Dorothy said on February 18, 2025 at 2:08 pm
Icarus your last sentence made me smile. When our kids were 6 and 4 we had a beach front rental in a tall building in Ocean City MD. It was our turn to have the biggest room (our friends won the toss the previous year). Our daughter was almost breathless checking out the rooms and the space as we walked inside. Inside the big bedroom (the kids were to sleep in sleeping bags on our floor) she saw a sink in the bedroom. On the other side of the wall was the bathroom – so the plumbing for the sinks was shared. But what she said reminded me of your last sentence. “Mummy if I wake up in the middle of the night and need to wash my hands, I don’t have to go in the bathroom! I can just do it right here in the bedroom!” I could not imagine why she’d have to wash her hands around 3 AM but if she thought that was a possible situation to use the bedroom sink, far be it from me to correct her!
Re faucets and toilets with sensors: we had those in my office building in Dayton. I figured they were supposed to be water saving and that’s why they installed them. But the toilet sensor flushed almost as fast as you got your ass off the seat, barely giving you time to wipe, so of course a second flush was always necessary. I could not understand why it was set to come on that fast. It wasn’t water saving at all!
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