Every time I go north of the border — or, as Detroiters inevitably point out, south, at least if you’re headed to Windsor — I’m impressed by something new. Like your plastic money:
“Why can’t we have plastic money?” I mused at one point. We decided the tea party wouldn’t allow it, because Obama. They’ve also done away with pennies. If you buy something that rings up at $1.82, you pay $1.80. Is this a great country, or what?
It was Halloween weekend, and we did Halloweeny things. Besides the “Frankenstein” play, we spent a few hours on Oct. 31 at a screening of “Nosferatu,” the 1921 version, with Radiohead’s “Kid A” as the soundtrack. You could watch it here if you like, but the guy who screened it in Toronto said it was his idea and he did it first. He was a real original. He shows movies in his living room. Six people were at this screening, and we were two of them.
But it’s a cool idea, and the music fit the action very well.
In between was a lot of walking and talking and shopping and eating and just looking around. Alan and I have our own way of doing cities. It works for us.
And now we have houseguests, unexpected ones — J.C and Sammy are passing through en route to Atlanta from the U.P. Of course, we took some pictures of the supermodel in the house:
That rug really pulls the room together.
There’s more to the weekend, but I’m so whipped now, and full of tapas and wine and impending sleep. Did you read this Mark Fisher piece on Trump over the weekend? You should:
For some supporters, especially those in the second half of life, Trump’s slogan is a tribute to a simpler time. “He could have said, ‘Make America what it was before’ and I would have voted for him,” said Jane Cimbal, 69, who lives in Winchester and signed up to collect signatures to get Trump on the Virginia ballot. “The last time we had good jobs and respect for the military and law enforcement was, oh, probably during Eisenhower.”
Cimbal doesn’t view Trump as an optimist of the Reagan stripe, but she’s okay with voting for a harsh critic. “He speaks his mind,” she said. “So many of the others are wishy-washy. Mr. Trump isn’t a provocateur to annoy people but to get them thinking.”
These people.
OK, toddling off to bed. Thinking about Canada, writing more later.
Dexter said on November 3, 2015 at 1:40 am
“…and those guys peed on it.” “Shut the FUCK up, Donny!” (Walter to Donny, “The Big Lebowski”)
Big election day here…Issue 3 is all over everywhere. Issue 2 is a close second. Do we want legal government-farm grown weed and weed edibles? Are we against monopolies?
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Jolene said on November 3, 2015 at 2:50 am
My favorite passage in the Fisher piece was this one:
“Her goal is to restore a time ‘when there wasn’t as much animosity toward each other, when everything wasn’t about race and people just got along.’ “
Easy to say if you’re not the one with the boot on your neck.
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Sherri said on November 3, 2015 at 2:59 am
I had the same thought, Jolene. The other translation is, restore me to my rightful spot on top where I don’t have to notice race and difference.
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Deborah said on November 3, 2015 at 4:11 am
I just awakened from a nightmare. It was one of those kind that if I could write, could make a screenplay for a really shitty movie. Then I pick up my iPhone and head over to nn.c and click on the Marc Fisher link. Now I’m really depressed. I hate insomnia.
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David C. said on November 3, 2015 at 6:20 am
More of this from President No More Fucks to Give helps my perspective.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/258923-obama-mocks-gop-hopefuls-for-cnbc-snit
President Obama on Monday mocked Republican presidential candidates as thin-skinned for lashing out at CNBC over the network’s handling of last week’s primary debate.
“They say, ‘when I talk to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, he’s going to straighten out,'” he said at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in New York City. “And then it turns out they can’t handle a bunch of CNBC moderators.”
“If you can’t handle those guys, I don’t think the Chinese and the Russians are going to be too worried about you,” Obama added.
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ROGirl said on November 3, 2015 at 6:28 am
I was in Ontario for a few days last year and I was impressed by the hand held mobile credit card processors that used the chips on the credit cards to process sales, instead of the swipe on a stationary machine. The chips are just starting to be used here, I’ve come across it only a few times.
And the fall colors were spectacular.
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alex said on November 3, 2015 at 7:07 am
“Make America Great Again.” Some think it means the Reagan or Eisenhower eras. Some think it means the antebellum south. For me it’s one memorable night in 2008 when this country elected its first black president. So I am very much looking forward to making America great again by electing the first female president or the first Jewish president, take your pick, in 2016.
Romney used a similarly aspirational slogan, “Believe in America,” but it came across more like a religious exhortation. Or “Drink the Kool-Aid.”
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Suzanne said on November 3, 2015 at 7:39 am
Yep. Trump. Let’s make America great like it was when women & minorities knew their place.
Honestly, though, i don’t think I’ve met anyone in my neck of the woods who is a Trump supporter. Carson, though? Many, many who think he is grand!
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ROGirl said on November 3, 2015 at 7:49 am
And “Jeb!” has been mothballed in favor of: “Jeb Can Fix It.”
The election? His debate performance? His campaign?
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Suzanne said on November 3, 2015 at 8:17 am
I live in a very conservative rural area. Today is Election Day, but I am not voting because there are no county seats up for election. I’ve had 2 people who live down the rural road from me, in the past week or so, complain to me that they aren’t allowed to vote for mayor, or city council. “Why not? I get no say in who runs my town??” These are people who want to “take back America” but obviously don’t even understand how the process works. Sigh. I have less hope for ‘Merica than ever before.
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coozledad said on November 3, 2015 at 8:28 am
Cue the Oath Keepers and assorted other gun fondlers who would have cheered if this had been an unarmed black kid. There’ll be another big gathering of child- men to go wag their dicks in support of a dead fellow child-man.
http://gawker.com/idaho-cattle-rancher-killed-in-shootout-with-sheriffs-d-1740215011
There are a couple of things in this story that stand out, and never rise to the attention of the right wing troll half of Gawker’s commentariat.
One, just because you are on an apparently deserted road, doesn’t mean you aren’t a fucking stupid shit to floor it. The country is full of animals, wild and domestic, who will wander into the road and split that can you’re in wide open. If you’re lucky, it will only tear your idiot face off and leave your eyeballs dangling to be popped back in more congenial surroundings. These days you might even clock a meth head and buy all of yourselves a coffin or a wheelchair.
Two: I’m tired of the myth of ranchers and farmers as being anything but overgrown boys with dick issues. Cowboys especially. Rifle totin’ cowchasers barking the argot of their breeding cantonment make splendid targets for cops itching to use a gun. I don’t know why the rancher in this case even felt it necessary to arrive armed. He was stupid, and his stupid has made him dead.
They are calling this a tragedy. Looks like a big white clusterfuck to me.
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Heather said on November 3, 2015 at 9:14 am
I lol’d when I saw the “Jeb Can Fix It” slogan. As Gawker pointed out, apparently none of his advisors had heard of the truly horrifying Jimmy Savile scandal. Of course it happened in England, not in God’s Anointed Country, so–irrelevant. http://gawker.com/jeb-bush-borrowed-his-new-slogan-from-englands-most-not-1740064613
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coozledad said on November 3, 2015 at 9:40 am
The Republicans have demanded an end to “lightening rounds” in the debates. I agree. Thy’re all plenty light.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/11/republican_presidential_candidates_issue_debate_demands_to_networks_reince.html
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alex said on November 3, 2015 at 9:43 am
Jeb can suck it.
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brian stouder said on November 3, 2015 at 11:35 am
Two: I’m tired of the myth of ranchers and farmers as being anything but overgrown boys with dick issues.
Heather Cox Richardson’s book about the history of the Republican party points out that all those ‘rugged individual’ cowboys were only driving cattle because Uncle Sam had to feed the army; or in today’s vernacular, they were on the dole! No US government program, no cowboys.
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Snarkworth said on November 3, 2015 at 11:43 am
I’m tired of the myth of ranchers and farmers as being anything but overgrown boys with dick issues. Cowboys especially.
As the descendant of cattlemen and cowboys, I may have to ask you to step outside.
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James said on November 3, 2015 at 12:13 pm
My money’s on Snarkworth.
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Snarkworth said on November 3, 2015 at 12:30 pm
*jingles spurs; pauses to brush teensy piece of lint from shoulder*
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coozledad said on November 3, 2015 at 12:43 pm
Dick swinging ain’t much of a livin’, boy.
https://rurritable.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/look-away-2/
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coozledad said on November 3, 2015 at 12:51 pm
And I’m just posting that to say, at no point in that little drama did I feel compelled to go get the goddamn gun. It would have gotten in the way, it would have cost me precious time to look for it, and I would have had to keep it open while I was running through the greenbriar and grapevine in the windrows at dusk to avoid tripping over it and blowing my fucking head off.
People who show up for stress situations with a gun are one of this country’s oldest, gravest problems.
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Sherri said on November 3, 2015 at 1:17 pm
Suzanne @10, I’ll bet if those same people were given annexation into the city as a choice so that they could vote for the mayor, etc., they’d be outraged about that, because with annexation comes more regulation.
Out here, in our mayoral race, I’d have to deal with the people who don’t understand why he hasn’t fixed the school overcrowding problem. The school district is completely separate from city government, and you’d think it wouldn’t be hard for people to get that, since our school district covers two and a half cities, plus some unincorporated areas, but that doesn’t seem to occur to them.
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Dexter said on November 3, 2015 at 1:52 pm
alex…nice. I too share a distrust and disgust for Jeb Bush.
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Deborah said on November 3, 2015 at 3:17 pm
Speaking of bulls and guns http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/jack-yantis-police-shootout-injured-bull
I meant to say this earlier but I was too bummed by my nightmare to think straight: Nancy, your hair looks terrific in that Canadian currency photo.
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Jolene said on November 3, 2015 at 3:25 pm
At various points, we’ve looked at news stories about declining communities, declining industries, and people who, generally, aren’t finding a place for themselves in the world. Now there is a study getting a lot of press indicating that the middle-aged men in this group are dying at an increasing rate. That is, in other segments of the population, death rates per 100K people are decreasing, but, for middle-aged white men, they are rising. And, in particular, they are dying of suicide and substance abuse. Not a pretty picture at all.
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Jolene said on November 3, 2015 at 3:26 pm
“Nancy, your hair looks terrific . . . ”
I noticed that too.
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LAMary said on November 3, 2015 at 6:54 pm
I’m listening to a one hour conference call that seems to consist entirely of acronyms.
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Charlotte said on November 3, 2015 at 8:06 pm
As my Himself said this morning when I told him about the Idaho rancher with the gun — “he didn’t need a gun, he needed a pair of fencing pliers.”
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basset said on November 3, 2015 at 11:03 pm
Continuing my extended string of non sequiturs… this page has both a Columbus and a Ft. Wayne connection:
http://theoldmotor.com/?p=151236
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Dave said on November 4, 2015 at 6:21 am
Simeon Edsel was located at 225 E. Broad Street in Columbus, so a Google search says. I remember Edsels but I don’t remember Simeon. I can’t think of the big Ford Dealer that was in Columbus then but he supposedly had his hands in a lot of dealers, behind the scenes, so to speak. I wonder if he had an interest in this short-lived Ford Motor Company business. It’ll come to me.
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alex said on November 4, 2015 at 6:42 am
Great vintage car blog, basset! Reminds me of when I was a kid and I’d go to the back lots of dealerships on my bicycle about September of every year to scope out the new models. In those days every year brought major redesigns to every car. Now they remain essentially the same for several years and just aren’t as interesting to look at. No wonder the millennials don’t give a flying frick about cars.
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