Sampling.

We’ve been having a little problem with the water here in Michigan; maybe you’ve heard.

When the Flint story began to break big, I asked Alan to check our water service line, and he did, reporting back: Lead. OK, no need to panic. The whole country is full of lead or lead-welded infrastructure, and it’s not necessarily an E-ticket to brain damage. When the dangers of lead were first grasped, we didn’t instantly dig them all up, we started adding anti-corrosive agents to municipal water systems. Over time — this is among the 10,000 fun facts about water treatment that every state resident has learned in the last six months or so — this builds up a layer of protective coating on your pipes, so no more lead leaching into your water.

(In fact, one of the problems with Flint now is, the residents are so leery of running their water for any reason that even though the city is now buying treated, finished water from Detroit again, they aren’t running enough through their home pipes to allow them to heal, so to speak. But I digress.)

So, theoretically, because we’ve been drinking treated water from Detroit since we’ve lived here, we should be fine. I didn’t rush to have our water tested, figuring the labs would be inundated with samples from Flint, where they legitimately have reason for concern. I didn’t want to take up lab time because I feel nervous.

Then elevated lead levels were found in a few isolated spots in the local public schools, and I overheard one of the janitors talking to the lifeguard at the pool, saying, “Well, what did they expect? They took the samples at the end of Easter vacation. That water had been sitting in the pipes for days.” Personally? What I expect would be no or hardly any lead in my water. So that was worrisome. And as more emails are released from various government entities, a culture of gaming the testing samples is becoming evident; there’s a protocol that allows outlier readings to be thrown out, or averaged, or something, so that the reaction when a bad sample turns up isn’t oh no lead rush to fix it, but quick get a bunch more samples, so we can throw that one out.

Enough time has passed that the Flint samples must have eased off at the state lab; time for Nance’s peace of mind. It’ll cost $26, assuming I filled out the form properly – it seems very to-the-trade, and how do you like that tiny envelope?

watertesting

I’ll keep you posted on the extent of our brain damage.

What a weekend. Spring is here, and we set off for the local Junior League’s Decorator Show House. It was our family doctor’s father’s house, who I gather was something of an eccentric (when he got tired of keeping up the landscaping, he brought in goats, and ignored all official attempts to evict them), and a pack rat. After his death, the family spent months just clearing the place out. Late one New Year’s Eve, we got a text message inviting us there for one final, impromptu throwdown, and we went. It’s a spectacular house, and even with its ’70s shag carpet and years of neglect, it was clear the good bones were still there. Paul, our doctor, showed us the secret room where the booze was hidden during Prohibition (you could see the bottle marks on the floor), and the basement dry dock — yes, it has a canal leading to a boathouse that can be pumped out and boats hoisted for storage and repair, a feature that I’m sure got its share of action during the ’20s, too.

Every lakefront house in Grosse Pointe has some sort of Prohibition story attached to it, many of them b.s., but this is one whose stories I believe.

Anyway, the decorating was uneven, as most show houses are, but there were a lot of nice touches. The best were the ones where they let those good bones show through. Some moneybags will own it now, and it will nevermore host goats, I imagine. How often do you visit a house with its own lock, and not the kind on the doors?

So, then, a bit of bloggage?

Neil Steinberg with another Trump rant:

Have you looked at his face? The strain. The white circles around the eyes. He just doesn’t look like a well man. Yes, his keeling over dead sometime in the next six months would be a deus ex machina solution. But God looks kindly upon America. Or did.

Not to get overly personal and mean, which smacks of Trumpism. I don’t wish the man dead, just not living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The toughest challenge, facing him, is not to become like him. Because we lose that game, since he’s better at being him than we are.

“When fighting monsters,” as my favorite Nietszche quote goes, “take care not to become a monster.”

A daffy fashion piece by Robin Givhan, about Elizabeth Warren’s sleeves. Headline: Elizabeth Warren is sending you a subliminal message with her sleeves. For real.

The week ahead will be a bear, but I think I’m ready. I better be. You too?

Posted at 12:12 am in Current events, Detroit life |
 

79 responses to “Sampling.”

  1. Dexter said on May 23, 2016 at 1:44 am

    The last thing I had to send off to a lab to be tested happened a few weeks before my latest colonoscopy, so there’s no need to recant that tale.
    WaPo hs been taking Obama to task about his escalation of a war he basicaly declared free of US involvement. He ended what war again? You must have said it into Jimmy Stewart’s “trick ear”. Taking the war back into Pakistan netted a big fish, but the locals are ready to break out the pitchforks and torches again.
    Damn, those fucking drones are scary when loaded for bear or Taliban.
    Akhtar ­Mo­hammad Mansour , DOA.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/airstrike-on-taliban-leader-escalates-us-involvement-in-afghan-war/2016/05/22/f26ced5a-2014-11e6-aa84-42391ba52c91_story.html

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  2. MaryRC said on May 23, 2016 at 2:16 am

    “The white circles around the eyes. ”

    I thought the white circles around his eyes were because of the goggles he wears to protect them when he gets a spray tan. Speaking of which, have you seen this?

    http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-beauty/news/donald-trump-without-his-tan-would-look-like-this-w201577

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  3. Crazycatlady said on May 23, 2016 at 3:00 am

    Beb is a Senior Analytical Chemist at Detroit’s water plant. At first, he was going to have to test every city school’s water. But, they didn’t want to pay for it so they got someone else to do the tests.

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  4. ROGirl said on May 23, 2016 at 5:38 am

    Trump rants are everywhere. Here’s the apocalyptic/end of the American experiment viewpoint.

    http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-dangerous-acceptance-of-donald-trump

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  5. Pam said on May 23, 2016 at 7:59 am

    If the Donald did drop dead during the campaign, what would happen? Does his veep candidate become the new presidential candidate or do they declare a Do-Over?

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  6. Julie Robinson said on May 23, 2016 at 8:26 am

    Trump looks better without the fake tan, IMHO. And we all agree he needs a decent haircut, right? Intriguing question, Pam. My guess–the party would choose a new candidate. Hmm…seems like a movie plot.

    I’ve wondered about testing for lead. Our house was built in 1963, and I’m not sure if it has any lead pipes, though I know it had some copper. We had to replace a lot of those when they developed leaks in inconvenient places. Though I guess no leak is convenient.

    We lost my hubby’s oldest sister this weekend, at 75. She had been in a nursing home for 10 years with the family scourge, Alzheimer’s. After a series of strokes she stopped eating, and the compassionate decision was made to forego a feeding tube. Hospice allowed her to die without pain and enough notice that she could be surrounded by family at the end. Angels on earth, I tell you.

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  7. Judybusy said on May 23, 2016 at 9:25 am

    I would have loved seeing the house. I haven’t been on a home tour in a long time. Speaking of old houses, I’m now reading “Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey,” all about the actual family and the woman who ran a hospital out of Highclere Castle during WWI. So far, a nice distraction from the worries of the world. You’ve got to be very interested in the lives of the English nobility to enjoy it, of course.

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  8. Dorothy said on May 23, 2016 at 9:28 am

    Did anyone else make that red potato salad that was shared here last Wednesday? I made it yesterday and paired it with some red snapper and a combo of broccoli and cauliflower. Everything was super delicious! The potato salad recipe is a keeper.

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  9. Danny said on May 23, 2016 at 10:31 am

    Ugh. This is not a good look for the San Diego Padres organization nor for San Diego:

    http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/may/22/gay-mens-chorus-padres-anthem/

    Apparently, Saturday was a Pride night celebration at the ball park and as part of the celebration, the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus had been invited to sing the national anthem. However as the crowd waited to hear the chorus, a recorded rendition was played over the Park PA system by a solo female singer (apparently from Friday night’s game). After the recorded rendition finished, the men filed off the field and at that time, there were no acknowledgements, announcements or apologies, but apparently a few fans apparently made comments like, “You sing like a girl.”

    I wasn’t there and reports are still sketchy as to how this happened and how badly this all went down, but I feel really bad for the chorus members and their friends, families and loved ones who were at the game to see them sing. The Padres are claiming a mistake and have reportedly fired the third-party contractor who they claim is to blame, but a full investigation is being launched by MLB.

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  10. adrianne said on May 23, 2016 at 10:49 am

    Dorothy, glad you found success with the potato salad recipe! It’s a keeper.

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  11. Danny said on May 23, 2016 at 10:56 am

    Btw, I suppose the above story was in keeping with today’s blog entry title of “Sampling.”

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  12. Julie Robinson said on May 23, 2016 at 11:03 am

    Dorothy, sounds great. The weekend ended up busier than expected so my red potatoes are still in the pantry.

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  13. Deborah said on May 23, 2016 at 11:19 am

    I haven’t made the potato salad yet. We’re going to Santa Fe on Thursday and I’ve asked Little Bird to make it while we’re there. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be there for 2 weeks then we go to Seattle for my brother-in law’s wedding. We came up with our summer travel schedule and I’m trying to stay in Chicago for 3 or 4 weeks then NM for 3 or 4 weeks, while my husband is doing a week in Chicago, the next week in NM and so forth. That was too many travel days for me to stomach. When we travel from Chicago to NM it takes half of a day, when we travel from NM to Chicago it takes a whole day, an exhausting day plus you lose an hour because of the time difference.

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  14. Connie said on May 23, 2016 at 11:34 am

    So do you have well water? Or are you assuming any water contamination occurs between the city water source and your house?

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  15. nancy said on May 23, 2016 at 11:55 am

    We have Detroit Water and Sewerage System water. Theoretically, we should be fine. The contamination, if any, would come from either lead-containing fixtures or our service line, i.e., the line between the main and our house. That’s where the problem happened in Flint — corrosive water + no anticorrosion treatment + lead service lines = lead leaching. That’s why it’s also been so hard to fix, because it was widely scattered around the city. Some houses had a ton of lead, others hardly any, and the city isn’t even entirely sure which houses have lead service lines.

    As I said, I expect we’re fine. But I want to know for sure.

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  16. Suzanne said on May 23, 2016 at 12:21 pm

    I made the potato salad this weekend, too. I didn’t have any sour cream so I used yogurt. It was tasty and super simple!

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  17. Heather said on May 23, 2016 at 1:12 pm

    Everyone, can I just say how much I appreciate this community? I won’t go into too many details but I’m in another online group that over the weekend devolved into a parody of itself regarding political correctness. I am always up for spirited debate but when it turns into “you’re either with us or you’re a terrible person,” it’s not good. We’ve had our difficult moments here and can be sharp with one another, but for the most part we are respectful of different viewpoints and seek to educate instead of bully.

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  18. adrianne said on May 23, 2016 at 1:24 pm

    Blame Nancy, doggone her, for fostering a civil comments section! (and great recipe exchanges, too).

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  19. Connie said on May 23, 2016 at 2:00 pm

    We also get Detroit Water and Sewer out here in the suburban boonies, though at home I have very tasty cold well water.

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  20. Sherri said on May 23, 2016 at 2:37 pm

    Something to keep in mind when Bernie talks about how the system is rigged against him: he has spent and continues to spend his money on TV ads and rallies, rather than on field operations and training. His supporters don’t know how the primaries and caucuses work in their states because his campaign hasn’t spent the money to get the word out, and has wasted the opportunities provided by the rallies. The Sanders campaign lost 3 of the top 4 leaders in California over a dispute about how to spend money in California, with the state people wanting to spend the money on GOTV and the national people wanting to spend it on TV buys.

    So, now the Sanders campaign has filed a lawsuit against California wanting to postpone the voter registration deadline because they claim it’s been too confusing for unaffiliated voters to figure out. They probably lose, and they can once again claim that the race was rigged. Somebody forgot to tell them that if you want to take over the Democratic Party, you have to become Democrats.

    Oh, in the grifters got to grift category, Tad Devine, Sander’s chief strategist, gets a cut of the media buys, and since Sanders didn’t really expect to go this far, Devine’s commission isn’t capped as is typical in these deals. TV advertising is the least effective use of money in campaigning.

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  21. brian stouder said on May 23, 2016 at 3:18 pm

    Sherri – I betcha if Bernie was 54 instead of 74, he’d have his campaign do the hard work or organizing and registering people, and getting out the vote.

    Then when he loses this time around, he’s automatically in the game in 4 or 8 years (depending what happens in November)

    Honest to goodness – the question for the Bern is “What’s rigged? How are mass-media buys more democratically pure than spending shoe-leather and laboring to register people and GOTV not legitimate?

    And the question for the Donald is – what is “anti-establishment”? How are forces that wish to ‘establish’ different norms (such as – only billionaires are morally adequate to be president) really anti-establishment?

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  22. Suzanne said on May 23, 2016 at 3:46 pm

    Say whatever you will about Bernie, at 74 I’m sure I couldn’t be out there campaigning like he is. Heck, I worked in the yard for 4 hours on Friday and thought I was having a near death experience it wore me out so bad.

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  23. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 23, 2016 at 3:50 pm

    I’ve been reading up on how the Klan took over the city where I minister here in Ohio, back in 1919 thru 1925. It’s not encouraging, except in how the Klan Krowd Klowns were so incredibly venal and corrupt they got themselves thrown out due to incompetence in office — sadly, not because of any tidal wave of revulsion at their nativism, xenophobia, or racist lies. But out they went. The Indiana Klan crumbled (as Alex and other historically minded readers here know) in large part because D.C. Stephenson wasn’t just corrupt, he was so evil he couldn’t keep from molesting women in quasi-public places, and it turns out that even in 1924 you could only get away with that so many times before it caught up with him. (Also, the national org turned on itself in some very public splits and very inside dealing over who got a cut of the dues money.)

    My particular interest is because the congregation I serve “clearly” was in thrall to the Klan during most of those years. I say “clearly” because all my evidence is second-hand — hey, the hoods were the least of how they hid what they were doing, and lying about your involvement was considered near-honorable. It was what you had to do to fight the “Jews, Catholics, and Negroes” [sic] who were making America something less than great. So many civic records, and all our church records were “disappeared” which constitutes itself a form of proof.

    But apparently in 1919 Klan contacts brought in a guy from the Bay Area, which — on the Berkeley/Oakland side — was a California Klan stronghold. He closed a church that wouldn’t go Klanwards in 1919 and then came to Newark, Ohio, where it seems pretty clear Klan kontacts got him the then-unprecedented contacts to switch jobs across the country.

    He developed a reputation for delivering “well-received speeches….on ‘Americanism'” in the region, and was tagged by the notable anti-Klan paper, the “Muncie Post-Democrat” as a Klan supporter (my one *concrete* evidence of what his ‘Americanism’ was all about); when the Klan krowd was flung out of all public offices in 1924 & ’25, he left Newark in ’26 to take up a mysterious position in San Leandro. Jim Loewen finds that the town was well known back in those days as “Klan Leandro,” and he helped launch a new church in the heart of their Klan territory, interestingly no longer with our denomination, but a “community church” which he then served for many years, retiring and later dying there in 1961.

    There are a number of features of this whole sorry chapter of US and my own church’s history that are of interest in the current unpleasantness (and you’ll probably end up hearing about it over time), but y’all have to enjoy the kicker: looking for some hints in perhaps the current San Leandro congregation’s history or files, I learned that the congregation which he helped build and develop over thirty years . . . is now an Ethiopian Orthodox church.

    Heh.

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  24. Dorothy said on May 23, 2016 at 4:04 pm

    Just read this about last night’s Peabody Awards and thought it was too good not to pass along. The first quote is from Steve Martin:

    “It’s interesting to note that since Dave left TV, he has not shaved. He’s waxed. But he has not shaved,” said Martin. “I think Dave looks like a guy who’s had to at least once drink his own urine. With that, ladies and gentleman, I’m proud to introduce this year’s winner of an award, David Letterman.”

    Letterman seemed humbled by the honor but indicated that retirement had also done that, recalling a recent experience at the White House, where he was invited to attend the dinner for the heads of Nordic states. He said he was chatting throughout dinner with the assistant chief of staff to the prime minister of Norway. Around the end of the meal, the official asked Letterman, “Why are you here?”

    “And I say, ‘I think I picked up somebody else’s mail.’ He said, ‘So you’re here by mistake?’ I said, ‘Yeah. He said, ‘Oh.’ So there you go: You get invited to a state dinner, nobody knows why. That’s the sum total of being retired,” joked Letterman.

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  25. Sherri said on May 23, 2016 at 4:21 pm

    Looking forward to hearing more, Jeff(tmmo). I’ve read about the connections between Protestant churches and the Klan with regards to Prohibition, and of course, the Southern Baptist churches I grew up in didn’t have to be in thrall to the Klan to be suspicious of “Jews, Catholics, & Negroes”. It’s been kind of weird for me watching evangelical churches make common cause with the conservative part of the Catholic church, because I remember the things said about Catholics when I was growing up.

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  26. Deborah said on May 23, 2016 at 4:33 pm

    Crossing the country back and forth, day after day, week after week, month after month, has got to be excruciating. I can’t imagine how candidates running for national office do it. They must have full time masseuses traveling with them, plus they must take medications to help them sleep and wake up refreshed. None of the current candidates are very young, Trump and Hillary aren’t that much younger than Sanders. I would want to just sleep after a year of that, not start being the next president. They have to be high energy people, something I’m surely not.

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  27. Julie Robinson said on May 23, 2016 at 6:40 pm

    Yeah, I’ll hand it to Bernie for his stamina too. Like Deborah I have a lot of travel coming up and even though part of it will be vacation with my family, I’m already weary thinking about packing and unpacking four times, plane trips, driving for long hours, sitting in the back seat for long hours, sleeping on crummy mattresses and dealing with hotel/roommate disruptions, etc, etc. Whoa, I sound cranky. Also, that was a run-on sentence and I’m too tired to edit.

    Do you think all the Hillary haters among Bernie’s supporters would vote for her if he was her running mate?

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  28. Deborah said on May 23, 2016 at 7:47 pm

    I don’t want Bernie as VP, he’s too old and too white and he’s a male on top of it. I hope to God he’s not her choice. He would be way too old in 8 years to be the next pres after Hillary wins her second term. It needs to be someone younger, browner and maybe a woman (like Warren,only we need her in the Senate). I don’t know if it would inspire the Bernie supporters to vote for Hillary if he were the VP. Everything I read is that they aren’t inclined to vote period.

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  29. Jolene said on May 23, 2016 at 9:12 pm

    I think Hillary would find having to deal with Bernie for the next four to eight years unbearable, and I don’t blame her one bit for that. So would I. I also think she would be put off by Elizabeth Warren’s self-righteousness, rolled-up, ready-to-work sleeves or not.

    I think Deborah is right on younger and browner. Julian Castro is my pick, but there are other possibilities. I’ve heard Deval Patrick mentioned, who would also be OK.

    Here’s an up-to-date article re where Bernie voters stand on voting for Hillary. According to this analysis, things look reasonably optimistic if Bernie does what he should, but there is no guarantee of that. I am sooooooo tired of him.

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  30. Sherri said on May 23, 2016 at 9:23 pm

    I don’t know why Elizabeth Warren would want to be VP. The only reason to be VP is to gain the advantage in 8 years, and she’d be Bernie’s age in 8 years. Where she is, she can hold hearings, she can build coalitions, she can say what she wants without having to keep to the administration line.

    Keep those ready-to-work sleeves in the Senate!

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  31. Jolene said on May 23, 2016 at 9:25 pm

    Tim Kaine, currently a Democratic senator from Virginia would also be an excellent choice for veep. He is smart, affable, a fluent speaker of Spanish, and popular in a swing state. He is widely known among Democrats, as he was head of the DNC prior to Deborah Wasserman Schultz. And he has executive experience, having served as governor of Virginia.

    Also, Virginia, unlike Massachusetts and Ohio, has a Democratic governor, who would appoint a Democratic replacement in the Senate, which would not be the case if she chose Elizabeth Warren or Sherrod Brown. Both Massachusetts and Ohio are governed by Republicans.

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  32. Jolene said on May 23, 2016 at 9:35 pm

    Last night, I woke up and turned on the TV for a bit during the wee hours. I happened to catch President Obama holding a joint press conference with the president of Vietnam. They were talking about trade, arms sales, cultural exchanges, business deals (with Boeing, General Electric, and Pratt & Whitney), and, generally, U.S. relations in Southeast Asia. All I could think of as I listened to them talk was how horrible it would be to have Donald Trump be the person responsible for discussing these complex, sensitive matters.

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  33. Jolene said on May 23, 2016 at 9:59 pm

    Tim Kaine, by the way, turned 58 a couple of months ago, so he’d be young enough to run for president following Clinton. In the meantime, his combination of brains and good humor, not to mention popularity with Congressional colleagues, would make him a great ambassador for the Clinton administration. Lots of clips of him in various settings on YouTube. Check them out if you’re not familiar with him.

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  34. Julie Robinson said on May 23, 2016 at 10:25 pm

    Bernie for the first term? Then someone younger? Some poll I saw said 1/3 of his supporters won’t vote for Hillary, so I was trying to think of a way to lure them back. I’ll run this by our son who is a NeverHillary. We need these voters; not just this election, but in the future.

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  35. adrianne said on May 23, 2016 at 10:27 pm

    No love for Corey Booker, African-American senator from NJ and an all-around mensch, as we like to say in these parts? I like Julian Castro as well.

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  36. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 23, 2016 at 10:45 pm

    Re: Jolene’s comment, here’s the press conference with Pres. Obama & the president of Vietnam. Fascinating in its own right, and yes, another reminder why it simply cannot be Trump in that pilot’s chair.

    https://youtu.be/esqy0zSByZE?t=1470

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  37. Sherri said on May 24, 2016 at 12:29 am

    Anybody but Bernie, period. Especially since now that he seems to be as interested in fighting with Obama, too, as with Clinton and the DNC. First he comes out in support of Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s opponent in her Congressional race which, like her or not, Clinton didn’t name her as chair of the DNC, Obama did. Obama promptly announced his support for DWS. Then, Bernie named Cornel West as one of his appointees to the platform committee, he who called Obama a “house n-word”.

    A VP has to sublimate his ego and keep his mouth shut when his argument doesn’t win; can you really see Bernie doing that? For anybody, much less Hillary?

    Most of the Bernie supporters will vote for Hillary. Some won’t, because some were never going to vote for the Democrat anyway.

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  38. MichaelG said on May 24, 2016 at 12:32 am

    No Bernie for veep. See above. Elizabeth Warren is already 66 so she would be kind of old in eight years. Besides, as noted, she is way to valuable in the Senate.

    And, no, I won’t run for VP. I’m already retired.

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  39. Dexter said on May 24, 2016 at 4:45 am

    I don’t mean to be glib, but I do not give two shits who Hillary picks for veep.
    Jolene touched a hot button however, at #32. At 2:30 AM I sat mesmerized to see our president in a very friendly Hanoi, detailing business trade agreements and cheerleading for more and better alliances with Vietnam. Damn, that was great.
    I have a Facebook friend, who only posts in her native language and the translations are brutal, so I have no idea what she and her “Public” posting friends are discussing, but with a certain photo as a topic,
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2016/05/23/13167357_950689088362321_1484287664_n-large_trans++baEW0cQlc45KirwyUsvH-Oflq_ebcHdqnkqQaGwkeqg.jpg
    these Vietnamese were elated, overjoyed to have Obama there with their President. Easy translations…”Great!” in various forms about sums it up. Good old Facebook, like…I know a guy who ventured to Vietnam 15 years ago and brought back a bride, we’re Facebook friends, his wife’s friend is now my friend, posting daily beautiful photos of her country. The photos reflect nothing of the misery I witnessed 46 years ago. Things have improved , to say the least.

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  40. Dexter said on May 24, 2016 at 4:59 am

    I wonder what made Cosby just kinda-sorta give up and make admission statements like these? Yeah, I assume we’re all sick of Cosby, but the show must go on.
    Buckle up and hold on if you haven’t read this yet…holy crap, Bill Cosby…five or six a week?
    http://pagesix.com/2016/05/23/cosby-admits-to-drug-filled-romps-with-teens-in-depositions/?_ga=1.166489273.622768273.1449987691

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  41. alex said on May 24, 2016 at 7:03 am

    I second Adrianne about Corey Booker. Besides, he’s hawt!

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  42. Connie said on May 24, 2016 at 8:39 am

    I watched about 45 minutes of Preacher last night, the new AMC series. Mad Men it is not. Gruesome and bloody it is. Part of the first episode is enough for me.

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  43. Connie said on May 24, 2016 at 8:41 am

    Salon article lauding The Preacher. http://www.salon.com/2016/05/23/preachers_gleeful_gore_amcs_new_comic_adaptation_is_handsome_funny_and_really_really_violent/

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  44. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 24, 2016 at 8:56 am

    I have to start some kind of rumor about what that book really has in it. Ideas?

    http://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/news/crime/2016/05/23/police-man-scaled-courthouse-steal-flag-book/84799978/

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  45. alex said on May 24, 2016 at 9:53 am

    I have to start some kind of rumor about what that book really has in it. Ideas?

    Roster of klansmen?

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  46. alex said on May 24, 2016 at 10:09 am

    Those following the school voucher scam in Indiana will enjoy the brutal frankness of the Fort Wayne School Board.

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    • nancy said on May 24, 2016 at 10:40 am

      That’s fantastic. Go Mark.

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  47. Danny said on May 24, 2016 at 10:15 am

    The DJ responsible for the national anthem mix up is quite a stand up person. Good for him!

    http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/may/23/san-diego-padres-dj-artform-anthem-mixup/

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  48. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 24, 2016 at 12:41 pm

    Alex, if I thought they had that up there, I would have climbed that scaffolding myself!

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  49. Sherri said on May 24, 2016 at 1:13 pm

    I’m just going to put this here for all of our journalist friends here, except to note that Seth Abramson knows nothing about physics, the universal wave function (not universal wavelength function, as he keeps referring to it, does not mean what he thinks it mean, and just because you don’t understand quantum physics does not mean that quantum physics explains something else you don’t understand.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-abramson/on-bernie-sanders-and-exp_b_10077684.html

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  50. Mark P said on May 24, 2016 at 1:26 pm

    From a purely scientific, analytical standpoint, one would look suspiciously at a sample measurement that was way out of line with others from the same source. Instead of throwing it out, though, one might, if one had time, try to figure out why it was so out of line if it actually was accurate. When it’s from something that impacts public safety, time might well be of the essence. I think the appropriate action is to immediately take more samples. I suspect that in this kind of situation, triage is called for; high measurements known to be reliable would take precedence over a single high measurement among low measurements from another source. A single high measurement, even a suspect one, would take precedence over a case without dangerously high measurements. A purely scientific, analytical stance might not fly in this situation, however, since there seems to be good reason to doubt the honesty of those who have been in charge of the water system’s safety.

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  51. Mark P said on May 24, 2016 at 1:32 pm

    Sherri, I had a hard time wading through the “metamodernist creative writer” stuff to get to the point you were talking about. Of course he doesn’t understand what he’s talking about when he talks about modern physics. Not many people do. Most of those who don’t know, know that they don’t and therefore refrain from saying or writing things that show that they don’t. But I suppose that common-sense approach doesn’t apply to metamodernists. And, by the way, I am not absolutely certain that he knows what he’s talking about in the rest of the article. If I had the stomach for it, I suppose I could read through. But I don’t.

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  52. Brandon said on May 24, 2016 at 1:34 pm

    @MarkP: Is that a parody of the guy’s writing style?

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  53. Sherri said on May 24, 2016 at 2:00 pm

    Kentucky taxpayers get to pay for the Sanders campaign to look under the sofa cushions for a delegate: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/sanders-campaign-requests-kentucky-vote-recanvass-39338324

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  54. Brandon said on May 24, 2016 at 3:10 pm

    Kenneth Starr reportedly fired as Baylor president. #justdesserts? #letthecrowingcommence

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/kenneth-starr-reportedly-fired-as-baylor-president-amid-football-team-sex-scandal/ar-BBtq21X?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=HPCDHP

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  55. brian stouder said on May 24, 2016 at 3:18 pm

    Alex/Nance – GQ (and Ms Hollingsworth, too) were in rare form last night, and rhetorically knocked the stuffing out of the fraudulent voucher-shuffle.

    What caught my ear was that GQ also growled a little at Nikki Kelly, who (while she was chasing this story) upbraided Mark a bit, on the phone (as he recounted the story) for the tone his email response took with the Voucher-mill advocates; and he went right back at Ms Kelly – giving up not a single inch of ground.

    As an older guy now, and with kiddos in our (currently) wonderful schools, I don’t take Mr GiaQuinta’s intelligence and passion for granted; nor the superb leadership that Dr Wendy Robinson provides our district.

    It wasn’t that many years ago that our school board was mostly a clown-car, and we had grifters for superintendents

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  56. alex said on May 24, 2016 at 4:00 pm

    Amen, Brian. I remember not that long ago when teabangers like Evert Moll and Jon Olinger ran for the board because they believed the schools were leftist indoctrination camps or something. Olinger, who is semi-literate and a raving nutjob, somehow managed to get elected for one term; I think he must have been trying to live out a revenge fantasy or something, but gave up when he found himself so hopelessly out of his depth.

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  57. brian stouder said on May 24, 2016 at 4:15 pm

    They were horrible; and Thomas Fowler Finn and that other guy – whose name escapes me (Brown?) ran the ship into the rocks.

    I must say, trustee Glenna Jehl concerned me early on, but she seems to have grown into the job (unlike her husband, on City Council)

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  58. Deborah said on May 24, 2016 at 4:49 pm

    It is 88 frickin degrees in Chicago right now. Eighty eight. We had three days of spring and now it’s summer. I’m looking forward to being in Santa Fe now more than I was even a few days ago. I took a walk and I was dragging ass on the way back. It’s supposed to thunderstorm tonight but then back up in the 80s tomorrow.

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  59. brian stouder said on May 24, 2016 at 4:52 pm

    Deborah – wanting to go back to the Desert Southwest because it’s 88 in Chicago sounds suspiciously like “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity

    which is true enough, but still funny!

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  60. Dexter said on May 24, 2016 at 5:02 pm

    This thread started with sample-sending, so one more…this is a life-saver for people over 50 (40 if you’re African-American)and maybe have postponed a colonoscopy because of out-of-pocket costs or just plain disdain for the prep.
    If it’s positive, you’ll have to have a colonoscopy anyway, but negative, and your doc may get off your back a little bit It’s a life-saver.
    m/nightly-news/video/at-home-test-could-help-in-colon-cancer-battle-691329091777

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  61. Dexter said on May 24, 2016 at 5:03 pm

    try this:
    http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/at-home-test-could-help-in-colon-cancer-battle-691329091777

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  62. alex said on May 24, 2016 at 5:04 pm

    Brian, that sounds suspiciously like William Safire: “It’s not the teat, it’s the tumidity.”

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  63. brian stouder said on May 24, 2016 at 5:07 pm

    I nominate Alex for Thread win! – and indeed, I go for tumid teats!

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  64. MichaelG said on May 24, 2016 at 5:22 pm

    Off topic, but. I just read the report on the CT scan of my lungs I had this AM. It’s better than the one I had a month ago and that one was better than the one I had in January. I don’t know what’s going on but I’m not complaining.

    I had an MRI last week and read the report which didn’t seem too awful to me except that there is stuff growing on my thigh. I have an appointment with the surgeon on Friday. I guess I’ll find out what’s going on then.

    So the lungs seem to be improving (!) and the thigh is – we’ll see.

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  65. Deborah said on May 24, 2016 at 5:24 pm

    Brian, the temps in Northern NM are much more moderate because of the altitude. It’s in the 70s during the days now and it gets down into the 50s at night, maybe even lower. Plus there’s little humidity (tumidity, ha ha). It doesn’t start getting hot during the day there until July, and then it still gets down into the 60s at night. I’ll take that over Midwestern humidity.

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  66. Deborah said on May 24, 2016 at 5:25 pm

    Good news MichaelG. Hoping for the best on the thigh.

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  67. Sherri said on May 24, 2016 at 5:31 pm

    Dexter, there is already an at home test for colon cancer, called the FIT. You have to perform it yearly. Early indications are that Cologuard is more sensitive than FIT, which is both good and bad; it detected more abnormalities, but it was also more likely to detect an abnormality when none existed.

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  68. MichaelG said on May 24, 2016 at 5:32 pm

    Thanks, Deborah. Dexter, Kaiser has been doing the mail the poop sample test for years. With Kaiser, you use a supplied stick to scoop up a small sample and mail it back to them. They don’t need the whole load. Sheesh. I don’t bother when they send them to me. I’ve had enough MRIs and CT and PET scans over the last couple of years so that any colon stuff would have been seen and enough chemo so that it would have been treated.

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  69. Julie Robinson said on May 24, 2016 at 5:34 pm

    We’ll take all the good news we can get, Michael.

    Brian, I think tha Councilman Russ is either Glenna Jehl’s son or nephew. He was in my daughter’s high school class, and seemed quite reasonable at the time. As did fellow classmate Martin Carbaugh. She and they have diverged greatly since graduation.

    And, to toot her horn, her little hipster neighborhood just won some kind of national award, and she’s in Milwaukee celebrating. If you’ve got 4.5 minutes to waste, the Spanish looking building with the garden and compost site is her church. I have been to every place in this video because she loves them so much she drags everyone around to see them. All overpriced. https://vimeo.com/noticepictures/review/165938682/48ac40f4e8

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  70. Sherri said on May 24, 2016 at 5:35 pm

    On Kenneth Starr? About time. The way Baylor has dealt (or rather, not dealt) with sexual assault during his tenure has been awful. It seems like they’re throwing him under the bus to protect their successful football coach, though.

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  71. Brandon said on May 24, 2016 at 5:56 pm

    It seems like they’re throwing him under the bus to protect their successful football coach, though.

    If you remember Revenge of the Nerds, Coach Harris (John Goodman) was the one running things until Dean Ulich (David Wohl), a figurehead for most of the movie, finally asserts his power.

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  72. Jolene said on May 24, 2016 at 7:06 pm

    A very touching piece by the father of a transgender child. MSNBC watchers will recognize the writer as the journalist who comes on to tell us what is going on in Nevada politics.

    https://www.ralstonreports.com/blog/child-i-love

    A follow-up interview with both the kid and the father.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/05/24/on-the-day-his-daughter-became-his-son-a-father-published-this-powerful-message/

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  73. Deborah said on May 24, 2016 at 7:15 pm

    Julie, good for your daughter and her community. It does my heart good to see a typical strip mall area turned into a place where people congregate and get their needs met. I hope it’s pedestrian (and bike) friendly, hard to tell from the video.

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  74. Julie Robinson said on May 24, 2016 at 7:27 pm

    Mostly, except the main drag, and they’ve been working for a couple of years on a plan to “calm” it. They have to get buy in from some politicians but I think they will.

    Our favorite place didn’t even make the video. They make their own ice cream and it’s to die for. We need to make multiple trips there every visit.

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  75. Joe kobiela said on May 24, 2016 at 8:29 pm

    Want to see someplace that has been repurposed? I spent Sunday night in Homestead Pennsylvania a burgh just east of Pittsburgh at a place called the waterfront. 450 acres of former steel mill. Shops, hotels, green space,townhouses, running paths all along the Mongahela river. The before photos of the place looks like Dantes inferno, bad that 20,000 jobs were lost but the air is breathable and the river has fish, quite the transformation.
    Pilot Joe

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  76. basset said on May 24, 2016 at 9:16 pm

    “Dexter, there is already an at home test for colon cancer, called the FIT. You have to perform it yearly…”

    Yes, we are all getting older.

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  77. MarkH said on May 24, 2016 at 10:08 pm

    Not me, basset. Now, get off my lawn!

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  78. Sherri said on May 24, 2016 at 11:37 pm

    Another reason I hate caucuses: Washington’s Presidential primary is today (well, today is the deadline for getting your ballot postmarked.) The primary is meaningless: both races are settled, and the Dems aren’t even using the results of the primary for any purpose at all. Despite that, over a million ballots were turned in, 655K of them for Democrats, compared to the 230K who turned out for the caucuses. Sanders overwhelmingly won the caucuses, Clinton is winning the primary. Given the difference in time, the results aren’t directly comparable, but it’s also not surprising that a vote-by-mail primary produced different results than an event where you have to show up at a particular time on a particular date and spend a couple of hours.

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