What a difference 24 hours, seven hours of sleep and a generic Zyrtec make. My world, it is transformed. Of course, the 10-degree drop in temperature helped, too.
And it was a good day for Queen Elizabeth, too — officially her country’s longest-serving monarch. Gaze upon the awesomeness of her official photo, complete with her red dispatch box, which contains the day’s work. Read the awesomeness of how she marked this special, special day:
The Queen and Prince Philip travelled by steam train from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, where she formally opened the new £294m Scottish Borders Railway.
And then there’s this through-the-years gallery, also worth a look. Diana — what a goddamn lightweight that girl was. Not worthy of such a mother-in-law, clearly.
Once again, I didn’t do much web-surfing today, but I found a thing or three. This was the weirdest:
Let’s get one thing out of the way really quickly: The ancient, giant virus recently discovered in melting Arctic ice is not going to kill you.
But here’s the bad news: It’s not the first ancient virus that scientists have found frozen — it’s the fourth found since 2003. And you can be sure it won’t be the last. And with climate change causing massive melts, it’s not totally alarmist to suggest that something deadly might one day emerge from a long, icy sleep.
As if climate change didn’t already suck enough, right?
As I recall, this was the SPOILER ALERT central mystery of “Smilla’s Sense of Snow,” a strange novel I read ages ago, a mystery story set in Denmark and Greenland. Terrible movie, but hey, that happens.
And the new iPhones rolled out Wednesday. I won’t be getting one, but Alan’s due for an upgrade — he has the super-primitive 5, for the love of God, how much can a man endure — and frankly, I’m not looking forward to it. Is it time to go back to the candy-bar Nokia? I’m wondering.
So Thursday dawns crisp and clear — fall is finally in the air. I expect I’ll start bitching about it in a few days.
Dorothy said on September 10, 2015 at 8:37 am
We went into Verizon on Labor Day intending to get new iPhones. Guy at the door asked if we had iPhones, then said “New ones are coming out in two days and the older ones will drop in price. If that’s what you were thinking about.” It’s exactly what we were thinking about. We still have 4’s and have survived fine with them for 2.5 years. But I’m dreading how much we’ll have to fork over even for a lunky old 5.
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Connie said on September 10, 2015 at 8:56 am
The new season of Longmire premieres on Netflix today. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-longmire-poetic-justice-netflix-20150909-story.html
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BigHank53 said on September 10, 2015 at 9:08 am
A couple months ago Verizon had the iPhone 5 for $99 and the plastic-shelled 5c for $1 with a contract renewal. My spouse is also nursing her geriatric iPhone 4 along, and will upgrade at some point after the new-and-supposedly-improved 6 starts shipping. Probably not to a 6. They’re big.
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Deborah said on September 10, 2015 at 9:09 am
I’m excited about a new season of Longmire. A lot of it is filmed in northern NM, many scenes in Santa Fe. For a long time on the surrounding highways we kept seeing signs that had LM and an arrow on them. Someone in the know told us they were for the production trucks at places where they were filming the show.
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Kirk said on September 10, 2015 at 9:35 am
Good to know that even the queen has work in red boxes. I irst learned of the red boxes watching “Yes, Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister,” two excellent BBC comedies, decades ago.
As for iPhones, a 5 should suit me fine when I get around to buying my first, maybe in a couple of weeks.
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Kirk said on September 10, 2015 at 9:36 am
That’s “first learned,” of course.
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Julie Robinson said on September 10, 2015 at 9:53 am
My phone’s so old they’re giving me a $25 credit every month. But it’s limping along and maps don’t work anymore, so it’s time. I dunno about the phablets though; so big, so heavy. But so much easier to see, everyone tells me. Fence, still sitting.
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Suzanne said on September 10, 2015 at 10:10 am
I still have a 4S. It works ok and it only cost me 99 cents. So there’s that. I hate to think of a new phone.
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Diane said on September 10, 2015 at 10:40 am
I have a 5 and consider it a new phone. Of course, I was still using a 2 (not even a 2s) when I got the 5. The six is too big for me and so I am hoping that by the time I am ready for a new phone, they are smaller again. Yes, the 6 screen is bigger but I’m so old school I use the phone mainly to talk and text.
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Diane said on September 10, 2015 at 10:43 am
Craig Johnson spoke at our local community college Wednesday night in a program jointly sponsored with the library and by all accounts he was a great speaker and very generous with his time for Q and A, etc.
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Connie said on September 10, 2015 at 10:57 am
As to our adulterous legislators: A Michigan panel voted Thursday to expel two lawmakers who admit to misconduct in covering up their extramarital affair.
Just three legislators have been expelled in Michigan history.
Tea party Republicans Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat have apologized and asked the wary panel for a censure letting them keep their jobs in a restricted role.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/michigan-panel-set-to-recommend-discipline-for-2-lawmakers-in-affair-coverup-scandal/35194072
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Connie said on September 10, 2015 at 11:00 am
Last year I received a letter from ATT which basically said, your phone is so old we can no longer guarantee telephone service. They gave me a free Galaxy mini 3, it works fine for me, though I don’t think I’ve really mastered the smart phone possibilities. I think Galaxy just released the 6?
So my new plan with three lines and data is a little cheaper than the old plan with 3 lines, 500 minutes and unlimited texting.
How old was my old phone? It said Cingular on it.
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Kirk said on September 10, 2015 at 11:10 am
As a non-owner of a smartphone so far, I find it interesting that they keep getting bigger. I thought that one of the appeals of such a device was its handy size. I wouldn’t want to lug around something that won’t fit in a pocket. And tablets seem really inconvenient.
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Sue said on September 10, 2015 at 11:13 am
I remember reading that Edward (talk about lightweights) used to casually leave the red box open and available for Wallis’s perusal. That was apparently one of the most frightening items on the long list of Holy Craps his advisers had to deal with.
And I disagree about Diana. She was mentally ill and toxic, but her skill set in another age and with a different prince/future king could have resulted in a hell of a dynastic partnership. She may have described herself as ‘thick as a plank’ but she could have channeled her it-factor into something very powerful if she got out of her own way and worked with her enemy-inlaws.
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coozledad said on September 10, 2015 at 11:15 am
Kirk: that’s because Yes minister and Yes Prime Minister featured one of the best actors of his generation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgZvg7SR_DE
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Kirk said on September 10, 2015 at 11:19 am
Coozledad@15: A number of great characters and actors on those shows, but he indeed was brilliant and his character as the ultimate bureaucrat was my favorite.
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basset said on September 10, 2015 at 11:50 am
5c here, works fine so far. the royal stuff is particularly interesting because my mother was English – I was born in the USA but before she became an American citizen, which I believe gives me a path to UK citizenship if Trump gets elected.
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Judybusy said on September 10, 2015 at 12:03 pm
Basset, please take us with you!!!!!
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coozledad said on September 10, 2015 at 12:03 pm
She’s already born, so what’s the problem, really?
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/pro-life-arkansas-rep-justin-harris-christian-preschool-leaves-girl-in-van-for-five-hours/
I guess it could have been worse. they could have left the kid with Josh Duggar or some of that Huckabee trash.
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alex said on September 10, 2015 at 12:18 pm
Still on my 4. Still works fine and much more compact and easy to handle than the newer ones, so not sure I want to change yet.
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Connie said on September 10, 2015 at 12:32 pm
I spent a lot college history class time on Queen Victoria, until yesterday the longest running British monarch. As an 18 year old new queen she was somewhat afraid of those red boxes and quite dependent on her Prime Ministers who taught her about their contents.
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Ann said on September 10, 2015 at 12:55 pm
You can tell I’ve been spending the summer with my mother, when my first reaction on looking at that video of the queen is to be impressed that not only is she walking, fairly briskly, without a cane, but also that she can get out of the back seat of a car so smoothly. Of course the backseat of her car may be bigger than the backseat of my Prius. My mother is not happy to be using her cane so much, even if it is purple, and would be dismayed to see the queen moving so well without one. On the other hand, I don’t recall that the queen was run over by a car, breaking both her legs, ten years back and she is a year and a half younger than my mother.
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Candlepick said on September 10, 2015 at 1:24 pm
Do you all know the novel Mrs. Queen Takes the Train? Highly recommended larky reading.
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Deborah said on September 10, 2015 at 1:28 pm
Little Bird and I are back in NM waiting for the shuttle to take us to Santa Fe. I much prefer the train but we’d have to wait hours for that. I’m nervous about seeing our plants. Hopefully LB’s friend watered like she said she would.
I’m typing this on a 5c, that I’ve had for a couple of years. I don’t like the bigger iPhones, won’t get one.
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brian stouder said on September 10, 2015 at 2:03 pm
Today is a day-off, and I just got back from the marvelous downtown main-branch of the Allen County Public Library, where Ian and Mimi Roland’s gift of a life-sized work of sculpture was formally dedicated. Got to gab a little with Lincoln historian Harold Holzer, and local treasure Sarah Gabbard, and city councilman Geoff Paddock, and others.
Holzer discussed his book about Lincoln and the penny press (a wonderful book, indeed), and the event was pleasing, altogether
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brian stouder said on September 10, 2015 at 2:07 pm
….and I forgot to say, I will never ever ever have one of those super-duper phones, until either
a. that’s all there is (I like my $10 trac phone that you put minutes onto and forget about; and which if you lose or bust – you simply spend another $10)
b. Pam finally dumps me, and I need Siri around, to tell me where to turn/where a restaurant is/what the new email says (etc)
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Sue said on September 10, 2015 at 2:08 pm
So, the Gamrat/Courser thing…
If they do end up getting expelled, will it be because payback’s a bitch and they’ve made so many enemies in the legislature, or because Republicans know if they get them out now they’ll have a better chance of retaining the seat in the next election? Because I assume politicians in Michigan are no different than anywhere else and not a single one of them needed a fainting couch when this story came out.
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Scout said on September 10, 2015 at 2:13 pm
I thought the 6 would seem big, but it really isn’t. The screen is larger, but it is slimmer. It still fits in my pocket and easily in my hand, and I’m a small person. The camera is amazing and all my apps work so much better than they did on my old 4, which never could seem to adequately handle the upgrades. I’ve had it for almost a year now and have no regrets.
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Sherri said on September 10, 2015 at 2:40 pm
I didn’t think I’d like the bigger 6, but then my husband got one to replace his very old smartphone, and I changed my mind. I had an upgrade and I took it, and I’ve been happy with it. The larger size hasn’t been a problem; I stick it in a pocket all the time (I use a case, so I don’t worry about the bendy problem.)
My daughter is still using a 4s, and is happy with it.
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Jolene said on September 10, 2015 at 2:45 pm
There are two versions of the iPhone–the 6 and the 6 Plus. Only the 6 Plus is substantially larger than those of the previous generations. The new ones introduced yesterday are the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus.
You all are more virtuous than I am. Though I don’t always get it, I always yearn for the latest thing. Also, apparently, more careful. I seem to drop my phone or damage it in some other way every couple of years, which generally means that, if I replace it with whatever is current, I’m not too far away from the latest thing.
I want to avoid having to recruit teenagers to teach me how to do things, which means not allowing myself to get too out of date.
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nancy said on September 10, 2015 at 2:49 pm
The iPhone 6 has a feature where you can enlarge the icons somewhat, and let me tell you, it makes ALL the difference. And the camera is awesome.
As for Cindy and Todd, they’re being recommended for expulsion because they managed to burn every bridge in Lansing in less than a year of service. No one liked them except for a few outliers. Just terrible politicians who squandered every opportunity — they’re in the majority party, after all. As one guy said in my story, “You can be principled or effective. Hardly anyone can be both.” They chose principle, and not even coherent principle at that.
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Brandon said on September 10, 2015 at 3:15 pm
Snark all you like, Nancy. The Queen works harder than most politicians. As for Diana, who said she wasn’t “worthy”? Not that Diana had a warm relationship with the royal family, especially in the nineties, but she accomplished some things. I think Charles found Diana too glitzy, and is far more comfortable with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
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Deborah said on September 10, 2015 at 5:46 pm
Well not all but some of my plants are toast. The geraniums were hit the worst. I always thought geraniums were indestructible. Our Aloe plant is beyond dead. Another plant I thought would be hard to kill. Oh well, what’s done is done. I’m watering like mad when the sun goes down.
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beb said on September 10, 2015 at 5:52 pm
I have a flipphone, no dataplan. no apps, not even the 7-11 slurppie. I could use a keyboard but I like the phone’s small size.
Diane was screwed from the first. Chuckie was told to get a wife and have heirs. The breeder he picked was actually pretty good, I thought. A decent first lady as it were. But since Chuckie never supported her she was hung out to lunch.
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LAMary said on September 10, 2015 at 6:51 pm
Was someone here asking about where to buy a copy of Thug Kitchen?
http://www.tastebook.com/cookbooks/9781623363581-thug-kitchen-eat-like-you-give-a-f-ck?&ref=Email_B2C_2015-9-10
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LAMary said on September 10, 2015 at 6:57 pm
I’ve got a three year old LG that was a cheap but not free upgrade from ATT and it’s hanging in there. I have to use it for work emails and personal emails as well as all the other stuff, and it’s fine. I’m not into having the newest or coolest. I’ll use this one until it dies or until my son Pete trashes another one of his phones and I decide to give him this one and buy myself a new one.
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Deborah said on September 10, 2015 at 8:09 pm
What? http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kim-davis-oath-keepers
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Julie Robinson said on September 10, 2015 at 8:52 pm
Well, after bragging on my mostly-still-functioning phone, it seems to be bricked. Will no longer wake from sleeping or turn off, just stays on the lock screen. Guess I’m off to the phone store tomorrow. It was very considerate of it to wait until I was home from vacation, right?
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