We’ve been having some drama here in Michigan. A state senator made an incredibly ill-advised comment to a 22-year-old female reporter. She wrote about it, and the story took off like a rocket – national, maybe international by now, I dunno.
Then today, a female state rep filed a complaint against him too, for an incident that happened after the 2018 elections. He made a creepy remark, she said, and let his hand linger on her lower back – standard stuff. She explained that she was moved to step forward by the first woman’s complaint. So without saying anything about the parties involved, you know what happens now, right?
The usual suspects came forward on the internet to say one of the following:
1) She’s lying.
2) She’s doing it for the attention.
3) Her claim is invalid, because she didn’t call the police immediately.
4) Her claim is invalid, because she didn’t shriek and say, “Stop that immediately, sir!”
5) Where is the evidence? Let’s see the evidence. Or is there any evidence? There’s probably no evidence.
And so on.
I’m so, so tired of this crap. I know you guys are woke on this subject (mostly), but is it really so hard to figure out how this stuff works? I have no idea who might be guilty here, but isn’t it possible to understand how these things happen? With all we’ve learned in the past two years, does the knee-jerk response from the wraparound-sunglasses crowd always have to be that she’s a lying bitch? This is why I cannot abide the alas-if-only-we-had-civility hand-wringing we’ve been subjected to these past months. These things have been happening in civil workplaces as long as I’ve been breathing, and for years before and even likely for years after I’m gone. All I want is for people to acknowledge it’s happening, and stop tolerating it.
This is so irritating.
But I guess that tracks, because it’s January, it’s cold and I usually spend this month waiting for the apocalyptic auto-insurance premium notices to arrive. The highest in the country, or the second-highest, after New Jersey. It’s insane.
So, impeachment is under way. I heard the opening statements. What a bizarre spectacle. So many lies. What did you think?
Rana said on January 21, 2020 at 9:45 pm
Oh, these dudes _know_ how stuff works. They’re not speaking out of ignorance. They are speaking out of resentment that they might have to take women’s feelings and autonomy into account the same way they have to take men’s. So they act as if all these complaints are unreasonable or imaginary.
But they know full well they are not.
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alex said on January 21, 2020 at 10:05 pm
Lucido, eh? Comes across as rather more Psychotico in the stuff I’ve seen in my facebook feed. I empathize with women because having grown up gay I was never taken seriously about harassment either. I was told by teachers and authority figures that I deserved it and had brought it upon myself. Is it any wonder that victims of abuse hesitate to confront it when chances are good they’ll face abuse from a mob instead of just one asshole?
I was optimistic that we were finally nearing our destination on that long arc of justice that I’ve been hearing about all of my life and then we have things like this and the senate trial and the march on Richmond and a whole nutso world of toxic white masculinity trying to assert its faltering dominance with bluster and lies. I want to remain optimistic but the last few years have shaken my faith badly.
I have a hard time seeing how the Senate can pretend to have a fair trial without considering witnesses or evidence and while it may count for nothing with hardcore Trump fans, I hope that it gets the blood boiling in people who’ve never felt powerless before because this is exactly what it feels like to not be taken seriously by authority figures who are complicit in your abuse.
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Dexter Friend said on January 22, 2020 at 2:42 am
McConnell and Schumer squared off a few times, and the Republicans voted down all requests for witnesses and document retrievals to be presented at this trial. I am watching this thing with Bruce’s “Waiting for a Miracle” buzzing in my head on very low volume. I was sure after the revelations about the sex worker affairs Trump would be finished, as he picked up steam. Now this “perfect call ” lie is getting old. Trump is stepping on and shredding the Constitution and may emerge a de facto king of the nation, and it’s a sad day coming. Now from Reuters word is there are contracts put out from Iranian politicians to kill Trump and get $3,000,000 for a success. This President has passed Nixon and is nearly ready to displace George W. Bush43 as the worst one ever, forget about Andrew Johnson and Warren G. Harding.
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Alan Stamm said on January 22, 2020 at 8:08 am
On L’affaires Lucido:
1) International as of last Friday, when BBC (not BBC America) posted 20 paragraphs that begin: “A US lawmaker is facing investigation for telling a reporter schoolboys ‘could have a lot of fun’ with her.” [https://bbc.in/38sw5bo]
2) Knee-jerk (or just jerk) responses are well-skewered by Free Press columnist Brian Dickerson, as I figure you’ve seen. But for others at this kaffeeklatsch:
“The trick is to let the echo of a stupid utterance fade before we revive it with one of those reflexive defenses — denial, deflection or denigration — that our reptile brains suggest when we come under fire. Reflexive defenses that tend, more often than not, to provide the public with new evidence of our stupidity.” [https://bit.ly/2RJ979n]
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Jeff Borden said on January 22, 2020 at 9:33 am
Impressions of the impeachment proceedings? Sure. It’s a fucking kangaroo court. If veteran political writers are correct, this is the first impeachment proceeding without witnesses and one being decided by a Vichy party that long ago signaled it would not hold the Orange King responsible for anything. Ever. It’s a prolonged exercise in abasement. . .an example of a party with zero sense of morality, justice or history. . .a demonstration of just how very little American citizens are represented by their elected officials.
Poll after poll shows a strong majority of Americans want the proceedings to include witnesses. A thin majority favors impeachment and removal of the Stage 4 tumor in the Oval Office. But the GOP has morphed into Pierre Laval, the French turncoat who worked hand-in-hand with the Nazis against his own nation. Laval was executed by firing squad after WWII. I doubt the loathsome Moscow Mitch McTreason will even lose his Senate seat.
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Suzanne said on January 22, 2020 at 9:47 am
I don’t get why it’s so hard for anyone, male or female, to understand that it’s not ok to rub my back, drape an arm around me, or rub up against me in any way. If you want to give a welcoming or comforting hug, fine, then back off. A long way off. I can talk to you without you touching me.
I am exhausted by this administration. I listened to some of the impeachment proceedings. Dems were mostly well thought and articulate. Republicans mostly same old crap about witch hunts, sham trial, no evidence, blah, blah, blah, SQUIRREL! Sycophants all of them.
After finishing this book about Shostakovitch that I read, I am reminded once again of the death and destruction brought about because narcissistic leaders (Stalin, Hitler) surround themselves with yes men who will not tell them the truth and so they make decisions based in their fantasy world where they are the kings of the universe. That worries me more than anything about Trump and I doubt his operating system will change until there is blood spilled.
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LAMary said on January 22, 2020 at 10:09 am
Something that came up yesterday in my office: There was a meeting of regional managers and on short notice they requested lunch be brought in. One of my colleagues called the deli we’ve used before and we were concerned they would not be able to deliver what we needed on short notice. The owner, on the phone, said he could and said to the person ordering, ” Don’t worry hon, we’ll get it there.” She was seriously offended he called her hon. I would not have been offended and I told her that in NYC waitresses have called me hon as in, “more coffee, hon?” Anyone here have an opinion on this?
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Heather said on January 22, 2020 at 11:20 am
I don’t like being called “hon,” “dear,” etc., especially from people younger than me (I look younger than I am, for which I guess I should be grateful), but I try to respond with an arch “thanks sweetie” or something like that to get the point across. I don’t really dwell on it but it does feel condescending. On the phone with the deli guy? Meh. I’d let that one pass.
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Icarus said on January 22, 2020 at 11:29 am
I told her that in NYC waitresses have called me hon as in, “more coffee, hon?” Anyone here have an opinion on this?
Obviously, you probably shouldn’t call strangers terms of endearment like honey or sweetie. That said, it probably didn’t come from a place of condescending or ill-intent. In fact, I suspect it is just the vernacular of the environment. As LAMary said, in many diners, waitresses call everyone honey and dear. So perhaps the guy on the phone just used it as a force of habit since he probably hears it all the time.
TL/dr: not everyone is uber woke and this is really not the hill anyone should need to die on currently.
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Dorothy said on January 22, 2020 at 12:22 pm
I use hon or honey a lot, mostly when I say a thank you to the student workers in my office (I work at a University). My mother used the word all the time with her kids/grands/in-law kids/etc. I don’t say “thanks hon” to the person who cuts my deli lunch meat or anything like that. But between friends? Yes I do it a lot. If it bothers anyone, no one has ever said so. It’s meant to convey a level of trust and friendship and a closeness I feel for that person and our relationship; it’s not meant to be demeaning or condescending in anyway. If a man said it to me at work or in the post office or something, YES I’d probably be offended. But in the situation you described, Mary…? It would not offend me one bit. It’s likely a generational thing.
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alex said on January 22, 2020 at 12:26 pm
I get get the honey/sweetie/sugar thing all the time from female waitstaff and it always reminds me of a South Park takeoff on Hooters that ran maybe 15 years ago where the boys were devastated to learn that their servers weren’t really romantically interested in them, just their money. What made the episode so funny was how forced and phony the terms of endearment sounded coming out of the mouths of little girls (it was a children’s version of Hooters).
Just the same, I think it’s pretty common in the restaurant biz and certainly not worth shitting a cow over.
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Dave said on January 22, 2020 at 12:57 pm
OK, I’ve got one, too. We have a three month old granddaughter and yesterday, under the influence of the other grandmother, we think, her mother took her and got her ears pierced. My wife is very upset about this, thinks that it should be the child’s choice sometime in the future (teen years) and how can they do that to an infant.
We think it’s a cultural choice, too. The grandmother is the daughter of two South American immigrants from Ecuador and Argentina, respectively. She had our daughter-in-law’s ears pierced when she was one month old. The night before, she asked my wife what she thought about getting ears pierced and the next day, we received texts with pictures of the new piercing.
Would a baby tend to pull at her ears and possibly pull it out? No idea.
As for hon, we had a caller (person who calls railroad crews to work by phoning them) who called everyone sweetie, I never heard of anyone who took offense, she was always very friendly in a good way. I believe she’s still working but I don’t know if she’s calling folks sweetie to this day, I wonder.
The remarks following the story about the Michigan legislator are another reason a person should not read the remarks. Reading remarks always leads to the conclusion that terrible people write remarks.
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Jeff Borden said on January 22, 2020 at 2:13 pm
Most of the very young Hispanic girls in my neck of the woods sport pierced ears. Apparently, it very much is a cultural thing. . .
https://mamiverse.com/baby-ear-piercing-latino-culture-33479/
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Scout said on January 22, 2020 at 2:40 pm
It’s definitely cultural, but not limited to culture. My great granddaughter (Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage on her grandfather’s side) had her ears pierced at 5 months. No problems.
This sham trial has got my gut in knots. “Without hyperbole, the governing philosophy of contemporary Republican leaders is to destroy the Republic in order to gain indefinite partisan advantage.” -Evan McMullen on Twitter. He’s not wrong.
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ROGirl said on January 22, 2020 at 3:04 pm
And when Trump decides he wants to launch a nuke, there will be more than one person willing to follow his order.
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A. Riley said on January 22, 2020 at 4:21 pm
Years back, I had the pleasure of working with a bunch of phone-company electricians who were wiring up a phone room for election-night coverage. When I say pleasure, I really mean it — smart, competent, pleasant, unflappable men all. And it was delightful to hear them talking on the phone to each other (using those orange butt sets that hung on their tool belts): They called each other dear, honey, sweetheart, sugar, as easily as they called each other by name. And they used the endearments a lot more often than the names! (It was adorable.)
But talking with me, the customer (and a young blonde woman), they called me by my name. Never ever dear, honey, sugar. They always used my name: Ms. Lastname at introduction, and then, after I told them they could use my first name, Firstname.
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Deborah said on January 22, 2020 at 4:23 pm
My husband has a habit of calling people “Baby Cakes”, not strangers but people he knows and he does it to both males and females. I always cringe when he says it to women because I think they’ll be offended, they wouldn’t know he does it to men too. It seems condescending to me, to say it to anyone. My husband doesn’t agree. He doesn’t say it all the time but when he says it to people when I’m around it irks me.
My husband is concerned that the republicans are angling to turn Trump into a supreme leader like Putin or Xi who will be in power indefinitely. The Republicans will say it’s the only way the US can overcome the alliance of Russia and China. I’m surprised my husband actually said that, he’s not one to jump to wild conclusions like that.
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Dave said on January 22, 2020 at 4:26 pm
If McConnell ran the Super Bowl: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/if-mitch-mcconnell-ran-super-bowl/605233/?utm_term=2020-01-21T12:30:19&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=the-atlantic
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Dexter Friend said on January 22, 2020 at 5:11 pm
The last time this theme surfaced I related the time after a recovery meeting, the prayer was said and the ritual was to hold hands with people on either side of you. I had done it a thousand times, maybe 2,000. The middle age woman to my left , whom I had never seen before, extended her hand robotically, as did we all. She then glared at me and jerked her hand away and growled about how I was squeezing her hand too hard, truly offended. I don’t like holding hands with addicts and Hep C people, and would gladly abandon the process and adopt light fist bumps, but I do not make the rules. That was a strange day, there at the conclusion of that meeting. I get called those meaningless terms of endearment daily: hon, sweetie, darling, and one young lady says sweetie five or six times within a two-sentence structured sentence. As we said during the war, it don’t mean nuthin’.
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Dorothy said on January 22, 2020 at 6:07 pm
Dave @ 12. I understand that your wife is upset, but honestly as a grandmother of almost 3 years now, I would never get upset about something like that because it’s the parents’ decision, not mine. (Getting the ears pierced.) You said the baby’s mother made the decision. So the baby’s father must be your son…? If HE is upset then he’s allowed to be. But as grandparents, I think it’s important to keep our mouths shut unless our opinion is sought out. Peace in the family is important. I had my chance to raise my kids, now my son and his wife have their chance. So far they’re doing a bang-up job.
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Diane said on January 22, 2020 at 7:10 pm
It is practically a law in Baltimore that waitresses call customers Hon. There is even a festival to celebrate the practice: http://honfest.net/
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LAMary said on January 22, 2020 at 8:57 pm
There was a deli here in Glendale and one waitress, Cathy, was originally from Brooklyn. She called everyone at the table hon. Even the kids. I thought it was sort of sweet.
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alex said on January 22, 2020 at 9:21 pm
Great day today, today in history. I haven’t laughed out loud so heartily in a long time. We were all so giddy.
And Nancy was so prescient. From 2007:
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Deborah said on January 22, 2020 at 10:16 pm
So who the heck was the most loathsome person in 2006, the page is no longer available?
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susan said on January 22, 2020 at 10:47 pm
I live in the first state to legalize marijuana, which was in 2012. Three days after the first pot shop opened in town —and it was the only one in the area for more than a year; now there are many—I decided to go pay it a visit, figuring the initial rush into the doors would have subsided. There were three sales-people in the shop, one behind the pipe-papers-and bongs counter. They all looked happy. At that moment, I was the only customer. A smiling fellow, in his mid-twenties, came up to me. We chatted for a bit. Turns out his parents run the grow, and he runs the shop. “So, sweetheart, what can I do for you?” I cringed. Sweetheart?
“Oh, I am interested in the least potent stuff you have.”
“Well, that’s all we have left on the shelves. Would you like to smell it?”
“Sure. That would be cool.”
We stepped down into the main display area, that had walls with, sure enough, many bare shelves. He grabbed a jar filled with “Blueberry Grape Ape,” which was all the product he had left.
“Here ya go, sweetheart,” he said as he took off the cap. “Have a sniff.”
But…“sweetheart”??
Oh man, that first whiff truly was a flashback. It smelled just like hash, smelled so good! What a rush of memories! Remember, this was the least potent stuff in the place.
“So what do you think?”
“Oh man, that first whiff was a rush to 35 years ago!” I exclaimed.
“We can sure fix you up with some of that, if you’d like, sweetheart.”
I cringed one last time. “STOP calling me that!” I blurted out.
He looked startled. “Calling you what??”
“Sweetheart! Stop calling me that!” I wanted to tell him he sounded like a used-car salesman. Or a loan shark. Maybe the same thing. Wonder where he learned that expression, such a young guy, and that it was a cool thing to call a grey-haired old fart? I could be his grandparent.
Somewhat timidly he asked, “What should I call you, then, ma’am?”
“And I am not a ma’am, either! How about my name?”
Oh dear, he must have thought I needed some of that Blueberry Grape Ape, stat.
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beb said on January 23, 2020 at 12:45 am
I imagine that LAMary’s colleague was offended by the familiarity from what she considered a servant. In the sense of “I out-rank you, show we me some respect.”
As for piercing a baby’s ears, we were of the group who felt it should be done later and only if the child wanted it done. Some people do get upset about piercing an infants ears both because they might pull on the earrings but also because they view earrings and other jewelry as grown-up things and not to be worn before the child is nearly an adult. But also it’s a realm of control. One grandmother by pressuring the mother into piercing is demonstrating control over the mother. Just like when the two mothers in law may fight over who gets the couple for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
I feel like there is a different between “Hon” and “Sweetheart.” “Hon” seems non-denominational perhaps because it is so much a part of the language of short-order diners. ‘Sweetheart’ also seemed ingratiation and overly familiar. I well understand a woman not wanting to be called sweetheart. But objecting to being called “Ma’am” by a salesclerk seems too touchy. But that’s just me.
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jerry said on January 23, 2020 at 2:32 am
It used to be common at one time to be called dear, luv, duck – possibly preceded by my or m’. This tended to be more working class than middle class. The habit seems less common now.
Although at one time I had a lot of telephone dealings with a manager in the company who was an ex Cornish wrestler. He habitually would address me as “my darling”, even though we’d never met. It came as a surprise the first time.
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Connie said on January 23, 2020 at 5:26 am
At the age of fourteen I had to argue my parents into letting me get my ears pierced. So I always said my daughter could get her ears pierced when she wanted to. I was surprised when she asked for pierced ears at age four, and I went ahead and did it. She has lots more piercings as an adult, ears and otherwise.
Growing up the only pierced ears I saw were the daughters of one of the two Cuban refugee families in my little town. As grade schoolers we envied their earrings.
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BigHank53 said on January 23, 2020 at 5:58 am
One of the reasons to pierce an infant’s ears is to give everyone a clear marker for the kid’s sex. That way you get everyone’s help in enforcing gender roles as soon as possible. So it’s not surprising that it’s much more popular in cultures that are more patriarchal than the US.
All I want is for people to acknowledge it’s happening, and stop tolerating it. In 2017 I told a therapist that I had always known that this country was racist…but that prior to the election I had seriously underestimated just how racist it was. And this country is even more misogynistic than it is racist. It is perfectly possible to “love women” while hating their rights and freedom and independence. People who have inherited privilege don’t want to give up even a sliver of it because they’re afraid they’d never be able to earn it back in a fair competition.
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Dave said on January 23, 2020 at 8:32 am
Dorothy, you’re right about stepping back, we’re not going to say anything, we bite our tongues occasionally (they’re the anti-vaccers I’ve spoken of) but my wife wondered why our daughter-in-law even asked for her opinion the day before.
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LAMary said on January 23, 2020 at 10:12 am
In my home town it was Italian girls whose ears were pierced. In high school lots of girls got their ears pierced but not the Dutch Reformed girls.
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basset said on January 23, 2020 at 10:31 am
Just saw some cheap flights to Seattle, which sounds like an interesting city… Sherri, any thoughts on what to see and do there? Anyone else? Whale watching is pretty much a given, looking for some local perspective. thanks…
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Julie Robinson said on January 23, 2020 at 10:33 am
Jerry, there’s a lady at the airport with a British accent who finishes every sentence with honey or sweetie. She’s quite charming and it definitely takes the edge off any bad news she’s about to tell you. But I think she does it unconsciously. Anyone who wants to call me hon, honey, or even sweetie in such good faith is welcome to. Unwanted touches are a whole ‘nother thing. Our pastor always asks if he can give someone a hug, male or female, and I’ve picked up on the habit.
For years I begged to get my ears pierced, and finally when I was a senior my folks said yes, and proceeded to make me a doctor’s appointment. I may be the only person alive who had their ears pierced by a doctor. I took our daughter to Claire’s.
Edit: basset, the tulip festivals just north of the city are phenomenal. Field after field after field of tulips, and you just drink in the beauty. In March, I think?
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Connie said on January 23, 2020 at 10:43 am
I had my ears pierced by a doctor. My daughter had hers pierced by a JC Penney hairdresser wielding a tool referred to as a gun.
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Suzanne said on January 23, 2020 at 11:01 am
I think I was a freshman in high school when I got my ears pierced. The only choice back then was to go to a doctor and my parents wouldn’t allow it. I tried these things called “self piercers” which didn’t work, so my sister and I pierced each others’ ears using a needle and some ice for numbing. Mine are not really the right spot but it’s too late now.
Our daughter got hers pierced in something like 4th grade at a place in the mall. Much easier by far.
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Julie Robinson said on January 23, 2020 at 11:15 am
My doc didn’t really know what he was doing, and the holes ended up unsymmetrical. I also got an infection afterwards. The lady at Claire’s put in a new needle, started talking about all the fun earrings available, and hey presto, it was over.
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Sherri said on January 23, 2020 at 12:49 pm
Basset, Seattle is an interesting city, though if you’re coming this time of year, be prepared for gray days. Like, no sun at all for days kind of gray. There are gorgeous mountains nearby, but we haven’t seen much of them lately.
I think you’d love the Museum of Flight, and I think you’d also like the tour at the Boeing plant in Everett (futureofflight.org). I do like the Space Needle, though it’s better in the summer when you can see the mountains. Near the base of the Space Needle is Chihuly Garden and Glass, which showcases Chihuly’s glass sculptures. Also near there is the Museum of Pop Culture, which has exhibits on popular music and science fiction, among other things.
Pike Place Market is fun to stroll through. The Ballard Locks, which connect Lake Washington to Puget Sound, are pretty cool. Like most big cities, Seattle has a decent art museum, aquarium, zoo, which are all fine but nothing particularly unique.
There’s a Seattle Underground Tour which is kind of cheesy but interesting nonetheless, because you do learn a lot about how Seattle was built.
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Icarus said on January 23, 2020 at 1:25 pm
I googled “is it better to get ears pierced as a baby” and it seems like it doesn’t do much harm, especially since it’s reversible if you stop wearing the earrings (unlike getting a tattoo or circumcision).
In college, a buddy and I split the cost of getting our ears pierced at Wal-Mart. Since we each only needed one ear. Years later I would see signs at piercing places saying you couldn’t split between two people and I like to believe we inspired that!
Haven’t worn an earring since 2000 and you’d never know I did looking at my ear.
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Jakash said on January 23, 2020 at 2:15 pm
If you’d like to watch something that’s amazing, that has nothing to do with anything important, well, there’s this. 35 seconds.
https://twitter.com/canaldeportv/status/1220063005012058117
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Deborah said on January 23, 2020 at 3:00 pm
Sherri, you listed many of the Seattle area places to see that I would recommend. I haven’t been there that often but have managed to experience those things. Basset, It’s a great place to visit.
I took LB to get her ears pierced at a mall when she was around 4. All of the little girls she knew had them. She remembers the experience vividly. I don’t recall that she had any problems. I got mine pierced in college in my dorm. Someone did it with a sterilized needle and ice for numbing. They were off kilter. I had them redone at a mall years later.
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Julie Robinson said on January 23, 2020 at 4:42 pm
Except for The Space Needle, I think we did everything on Sherri’s list and I’d recommend them all. I’m not sure about the locks–I remember taking a ferry around the sound and also seeing salmon locks for spawning season, so maybe not the same. We also took a car ferry up to Vancouver for a couple of days, which was also fun. And we drove up the mountain one afternoon, and the fog came up so we didn’t have a view, but we hung around a place where people were skiing in shorts and shirt sleeves.
We also enjoyed wandering the shops downtown where you could watch them blowing glass. We drove to Tacoma for the glass museum where they have multiple artists working on a stage in an auditorium, one person miked and explaining it all. I had to be yanked out of there.
We weren’t there at the right time of year for the whale watching, so I think you can’t do that and see the tulips on the same trip. We really had a marvelous time, all four of us together which is a rare thing anymore.
Oh, and our niece took us on her own version of the underground tour with the troll, cupcake places, and Pho restaurants. This is more than ten years ago, I’d never heard of Pho before that, and embarrassed the whole party by mispronouncing it.
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Deborah said on January 23, 2020 at 5:54 pm
I finally had a chance to watch the Kate video, and wow! First I watched it on my iPhone and I had to keep the volume down because I was in public, so I didn’t understand the lyrics very well. Then later, I watched it again on my iPad at home where I could crank up the volume. Loved it. The visuals of the video were also compelling and fun. The bright colors, the retro fashion and the herky jerky camera work were very much in keeping with the sound. Cool.
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alex said on January 23, 2020 at 6:58 pm
Just watched the PBS tribute to Jim Lehrer. Makes me sad for the state of journalism today as well as the state of our nutty nation. I think I’m going to go out and drown my sorrows, get a good night’s rest and face another thankless day on the treadmill of contemporary life.
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Sherri said on January 23, 2020 at 6:59 pm
The Tulip Festival is in April, up in Skagit Valley about an hour or so north of Seattle, depending on weather and when the tulips actually bloom. Whales can be spotted year round, though they peak in summer when the salmon are running.
The Glass Museum in Tacoma is indeed quite good, just don’t try to drive to Tacoma on a Friday afternoon because the traffic is terrible. Taking the ferry over to Bainbridge Island is also fun; you can walk on, it’s about a 30 minute ride, and Bainbridge is a cute little town. Orcas Island and the San Juans are also amazing, but a bigger deal to get to.
There’s also the Great Wheel down on the waterfront, but I haven’t done it, so I can’t say whether it’s worth it.
Oh, and not worth it: the original Starbucks. There’s always a long line, and it’s really just another Starbucks.
The rainy season usually ends July 5, and starts up again Labor Day. August is usually the best month weather-wise, and why there is much resistance to the idea of school starting before Labor Day.
Oh, another thing I haven’t done yet is tour the Amazon Spheres, so I don’t know if that’s worth it.
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susan said on January 23, 2020 at 8:31 pm
The Ballard (Chittenden) Locks are one of my favorite places in Seattle. It’s fun to watch boats of so many styles go through—commercial fishing boats, pleasure boats, beautiful old wooden boats, kayaks… and the fish ladder is just across the way. Nice botanical gardens, too. AND, it’s all free!
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Joe Kobiela said on January 23, 2020 at 10:00 pm
Bassett,
I second all these suggestions for Seattle. Boeings main factory is a must see just incredible to see how they put one of those planes together. The museum downtown is cool, they have the first 747 and a Concord,I think they also have a exhibition on the old hydroplanes race boats. I was there 2 years ago in February and it was 70 degrees. The locks are cool also.
Pilot Joe
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Sherri said on January 23, 2020 at 11:08 pm
A year ago in February we were getting 20 inches of snow…
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Kim said on January 24, 2020 at 9:02 am
Always so much discussion on NN.C!
On “hon”: The deli context would seem to be gentle and reassuring, as in “Don’t worry, familiar customer. We’ve got this short-notice order and won’t disappoint.” I would save my outrage for the many others whose intentions are meant to demean. But that’s me.
On girl bands: Go, Shadow Show, go!
On stuff to do in Seattle/nearby: As Sherri said, the San Juan Islands (Orcas Isl. particularly) are just spectacular and laid back. Whale watching, small-batch brewery, friendly “locals” from the island and all over the U.S., not a single stoplight, most food is grown/caught there. Weather usually fair because of being in the shadow of the mountains. Anacortes, WA is a cute town and your ferry location. Olympic Nat’l Park is a gem that features three (at least) ecosystems and would take weeks to explore.
Life is short; go if it fits the budget and your interests.
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basset said on January 24, 2020 at 10:21 am
Thanks, everyone, for the guidance on Seattle… Mrs B is particularly interested in the flowers and the glass. She went on the “Fruit Loop” self-guided tour of flower & fruit growers outside Portland a few years ago while Jr and I went fishing in the Columbia River… caught my lifetime biggest fish, good day all around.
Probably will go to Seattle in the spring… taking her to the “Carter Fold” Carter Family homeplace before then, another offshoot of her watching the Ken Burns country music series.
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Bitter Scribe said on January 24, 2020 at 4:41 pm
When I was a newspaper reporter, I saw crap like that happen to my female colleagues all the time. Cops were especially notorious for it.
In a way, this kind of sexual harassment is especially infuriating, because the victim has even less recourse than usual. The power imbalance is there, just like inside a company: A guy has information the reporter needs and he uses that to creep on her, betting that she won’t dare to piss him off by retaliating. But even if she’s willing to file a complaint, or even bring a lawsuit, she can’t because there’s nowhere to file it. I imagine the same thing must happen to women in sales.
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candlepick said on January 24, 2020 at 4:53 pm
I’ve been to Seattle 1-3 times. Theo Chocolate Factory tour. Just sayin’.
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Deborah said on January 24, 2020 at 5:34 pm
They must be having bad weather in Chicago, my husband’s original non-stop flight this morning was canceled, he got another one later with a stop in Dallas, now he’s stuck in Dallas for the night. It doesn’t seem promising for tomorrow from what I can tell. He’s bummed.
I’ve been having a frustrating day going through our Santa Fe condo association files going back to 1997. I volunteered to be the secretary. I had no idea it was this disorganized.
I have no idea what’s going on with the impeachment trial today because I’ve been so preoccupied. Have they allowed witnesses and documents yet? Of course not.
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Dexter Friend said on January 25, 2020 at 2:14 am
Dexter Gordon (my adopted namesake) , the late great tenor sax man, always called folks their name preceded by “Lady”. If he hadn’t met you and didn’t know your name, you were “Lady Ace”. Men or women, same.
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Jeff Borden said on January 25, 2020 at 11:33 am
The weather in Chicago has been and will continue to be pretty miserable. The temperatures are hovering just a bit above freezing, which yesterday created fog impressive enough for use in a Sherlock Holmes novel. Visibility was pretty much nil at one point. It’s snowing today, but it feels more like rain. My parka is soaked through after a half-hour walk with Cosmo.
The weather matches my mood. Reading about the GOP senators response to three days of fact-based testimony –they are unimpressed with the case against the corrupt Stage 4 cancer in the White House but livid that Adam Schiff mentioned tRump’s typically crude threat to put the heads of anyone who votes against him on a pike– has induced a mild depression. I didn’t expect much in the way of a show of courage among the lotion boys and girls of the tRump Party, but I also didn’t expect to see them playing with fidget devices, reading novels or leaving critical testimony to chat with Fucks News airheads in the cloakrooms. They didn’t even try to look interested or engaged.
And sitting above it all with that fucking bland look on his face. . .Chief Justice John Roberts, whose SCOTUS has done so much long-lasting damage to our republic including the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, which will go a long way in ensuring a party with a minority of followers maintains its majority through voter suppression, gerrymandering and poll taxes.
Man, I can’t wait ’til the end of dry January, LOL.
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LAMary said on January 25, 2020 at 11:51 am
Beb, I think you’re right about the social rank issue with my colleague.
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Deborah said on January 25, 2020 at 2:04 pm
My husband did manage to get back to Chicago today, despite the weather. I’m so glad to be in sunny NM right now instead. I’ll be here through most of February.
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LAMary said on January 26, 2020 at 12:21 am
My younger son’s girlfriend is Chinese, like living in China Chinese. They met when she was an au pair here, four years ago and he’s been spending all his merch roadie money on flights to China every few months. He went there a week ago just when the coronavirus news was getting a little scary. He thought everything would be fine because she lives 600 miles from Wuhan. Everything isn’t fine. He’s flying home right now and I pick him up tomorrow morning. He said they can’t really go anywhere, the town looks empty, the stores are out of drinking water. There was one case of the virus confirmed in the town he’s in and one in the province. He says it’s a crisis situation. I facetimed with him and he was clearly very upset. He feels bad leaving his girlfriend and her family but he’s worried that if he doesn’t leave now it might be a lot harder to get out pretty soon. He got the last seat on a flight to LA. I’m glad he’s coming home but he’s devastated. He’s a pretty sturdy guy and this is really hard for him to take.
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David C said on January 26, 2020 at 6:28 am
I read in a couple of articles yesterday that this coronavirus is less deadly than influenza and that the response of the Chinese government is a huge overreaction to something new. So it’s already been implanted in people that this is something really scary. I have read that tRump’s CDC head is actually good at the job, but I can’t imagine anything but a really stupid overreaction if/when the scary snake virus comes here.
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Dorothy said on January 26, 2020 at 7:14 am
Mary I hope your son’s girlfriend and her family will be okay. I’ve been wondering if the Chinese government has been overreacting, but then I heard there have been more than 40 deaths attributed to the virus. I have no idea if that is a high number, statistically speaking, and hence causing all of the restrictions in China. A young lady who was the title character in a play I directed last summer just got home from China a week ago. She’s a college student and did her semester abroad there – left last September I think. Anything I know about it was from Facebook – her mom friended me while I was directing the play. So far I’ve not seen any posts from her about her daughter.
Piercing Pagoda, Monroeville Mall, approximately 1975 or ‘76 is where and when I got my ears pierced. Eventually I had second holes punched but I don’t remember when. I rarely wear two earrings in each ear anymore. If you leave the holes alone for too long they start to close up. Ouchie wowow that’s not fun to re-open a previously open ear hole. But this week, before these comments were posted, I wore double earrings twice! Weird…!
I’m choosing to not watch any of the Republican parts of the Senate trial and only read online comments or articles at the WP because my blood pressure can’t take watching those lying liars go to work. Have any of you bought/read A Very Stable Genius yet? My daughter is getting me an autographed copy since she works with the authors. But she’s not coming to Ohio until March and I don’t want to wait that long to read it. I bought a copy yesterday and will gift it to my youngest sister when I’ve finished it. The only negative issue that has dawned on me is that it’s going to make me go back in time and re-read all of the issues from this dumpster fire of an administration that started three years ago. I appreciate the details, though, about all of the Flynn issues even before Slimey Don was sworn into office. I’m only on page 38 but it’s riveting as hell already.
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Dorothy said on January 26, 2020 at 7:19 am
Just stopped by the WaPo and read this:
The pneumonia-like disease caused by a new coronavirus has killed at least 56 people and infected more than 1,900 in China, though conditions in Wuhan — where overcrowded hospitals are short of basic supplies — have led to speculation the outbreak may be far worse.
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David C said on January 26, 2020 at 8:21 am
For comparison, this flu season in the U.S. about 6,600 people have died due to influenza. So far, this is looking like a mild year. In a bad year, the total will be something like 60,000+. Out of a population of almost 1.4 billion, those numbers aren’t startling. Their horrific pollution probably kills more.
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LAMary said on January 26, 2020 at 9:59 am
The panic mode in China is what’s sending my son home. India and Japan are arranging flights for nationals to get out. The US State Department is flying most employees out of Wuhan and making seats on those planes available to any Americans who want out. So even if this virus is not as serious as the Chinese are portraying it, the reaction is zombie apocalypse level.
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Connie said on January 26, 2020 at 10:11 am
I wasn’t wearing earrings and my holes closed up, I thought possibly due to all the IV antibiotics a few years ago. I could see the remains of the holes but couldn’t get earrings through. It cost me $80 to get all four reopened at a tattoo shop. She used the tools used for gauges which surprised me. I found the tattoo shop to be quite creepy.
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Sherri said on January 26, 2020 at 11:18 am
Yet on social media, we keep get told that BernieBros don’t exist, that the swarms of attacks from Bernie supporters are not real but are just Russian bots. Never mind that I’ve certainly encountered BernieBros in real life.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/24/facebook-is-inflaming-divides-tearing-democratic-party/
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Julie Robinson said on January 26, 2020 at 11:39 am
Mary, that’s terrifying. In France one of the three patients had no signs of illness upon disembarking the plane. Are we going to quarantine everyone?
I know without a doubt that BernieBros exist, because I birthed one. It’s just as obnoxious as the MAGAs.
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Deborah said on January 26, 2020 at 11:45 am
Sherri, that’s so depressing, about the Bernie Bros. Have they learned nothing since 2016. What is wrong with people?
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alex said on January 26, 2020 at 11:46 am
Sherri, I don’t know any Bernie Bros personally but I do happen to know a Bernie Sis, and we had one ugly argument before the 2016 election which she announced she would sit out because she believed that the party gave Bernie the shaft and that he should have been the nominee. She’s in Illinois so she didn’t cost Hillary anything except her margin of the popular vote, but my old friend is back at it again. Her beef with the Democrats is that they’re just as beholden to Wall Street as the GOP and if she can’t have her ideologically pure candidate then the party can’t have her vote.
It sucks when discussing politics with liberals becomes as infuriating and pointless as doing the same with conservatives. At this point, I see this race as something akin to getting out of a house fire alive while the rest of the inhabitants are too busy bickering to save themselves.
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Sherri said on January 26, 2020 at 1:14 pm
A reminder not to believe anything the Border Patrol says: https://twitter.com/HMAesq/status/1221312550224134145
Border Patrol still says that Iranian-Americans weren’t being detained at the border. That is simply a lie. The ACLU-WA and the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project both had lawyers at Blaine and the Peace Arch crossings, and people who normally cross regularly with no problem were suddenly pulled for extensive questioning. The Seattle Times even reported on someone with Nexus status being detained, which tells you it’s not about security, it’s about racism.
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Sherri said on January 26, 2020 at 1:21 pm
I’ve spent a lot of time the last few years thinking about power: who has it, how we use it, the differences in power and and how that impacts how we should treat each other, and what all that should mean in terms of policy. These two articles both resonated with me this week.
https://ryanavent.substack.com/p/explaining-warren
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-hobbyists-are-ruining-politics/605212/
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Deborah said on January 26, 2020 at 1:32 pm
https://mobile.twitter.com/axios/status/845622430806790144 Mnuchin has his head so far up Trump’s ass it’s pathetic, what a sycophant. His criticism of Greta Thunberg was awful too, then his creepy trophy wife tweeted her support for Thunberg which she then promptly deleted. Phonies all.
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Sherri said on January 26, 2020 at 1:35 pm
I’ve spent a lot of time the last couple of year thinking about power and power imbalances: who has power, how power imbalances play out, and how policy is impacted and should be impacted. These two articles resonated with me this week.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/political-hobbyists-are-ruining-politics/605212/
https://ryanavent.substack.com/p/explaining-warren
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Sherri said on January 26, 2020 at 1:36 pm
But what I really want to know is, did any of you miscarry any Satanic pregnancies this week?
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Dave said on January 26, 2020 at 3:20 pm
I’m not very much of a sports fan but Kobe Bryant is one of those names everyone knows and now he’s gone, lost in a helicopter crash. You just never know.
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Diane said on January 26, 2020 at 3:24 pm
Sherri@71
I’m confused about satanic pregnancies. Isn’t an intentional miscarriage a, oh what is the word? I think it starts with “a.” I thought we were supposed to want them banned but now we are supposed to pray for them?? Keeping up with the religious right is so difficult.
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alex said on January 26, 2020 at 3:40 pm
Sorry this was on way past my bedtime, but it’s good:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/entertainment/snl-depicts-the-devils-star-struck-encounter-with-alan-dershowitz/2020/01/26/ebb127e5-29d7-4e86-adf2-99726b72bd06_video.html
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Jakash said on January 26, 2020 at 3:50 pm
“Nothing says ‘Christian’ like a man who cages refugee babies speaking at an anti-choice march while married to his 3rd wife who he cheated on after divorcing his 2nd wife who he cheated on and told to have an abortion after divorcing his first wife who he cheated on and raped.”
https://twitter.com/OhNoSheTwitnt/status/1220791063830335488
Yet, “trump could shoot someone in the senate and still get acquitted 53-47. unless he shot a republican, then it would be 52-47.”
https://twitter.com/ManlnTheHoody/status/1220190924291969024
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Heather said on January 26, 2020 at 3:56 pm
I don’t get it–I thought all life was precious to those people? At least while still in utero? “It’s not the baby’s fault its father is Satan!”
Multiple outlets reporting that Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash this morning. I don’t follow sports at all but such accidents are always horrifying. He was only 41 and had children.
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David C. said on January 26, 2020 at 4:22 pm
Our niece teaches at a missionary school in Thailand. We get letters begging for money from her about once a year. They’re in English (she speaks very little Thai) but the way she uses the language is just off and she did this somewhat before she took the job. It’s like words don’t mean the same to her that they do to us. It looks like miscarrying satanic pregnancies is like that. It’s still plenty strange.
https://twitter.com/profagagne/status/1221452229804208134?s=21
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Sherri said on January 26, 2020 at 4:44 pm
Kobe Bryant was one of the best ever. Apparently, one of his daughters died in the crash with him; they were on their way to one of her basketball games. He was very supportive of women’s basketball.
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