
By David Futrelle
Irma’s path shifts westward, putting a seriously unprepared Tampa in its path.
There’s some other news, too. But we’ll start with Irma:
Irma takes aim at Americaโs most vulnerable, unprepared city: Tampa https://t.co/XvqPOuhfHZ pic.twitter.com/vzqqFY1NV9
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) September 9, 2017
The Key West Southernmost point webcam for Irma features a lot of people making poor life choices today: https://t.co/TjGtErOYvZ pic.twitter.com/UUhkLoFZlD
— Faine Greenwood (@faineg) September 9, 2017
Hurricane #Irma, the most powerful Atlantic storm in a decade, leaves behind trail of destruction in the Caribbean https://t.co/pQYxTVm1u5 pic.twitter.com/SrqTc4hWpl
— ABC News (@ABC) September 9, 2017
[hurricanes]
"Not the time to talk about climate change."[shootings]
"Not the time to talk about gun control."[Nazi rallies]
"Not the t- pic.twitter.com/ZziWZF34Eg— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) September 8, 2017
Timeline of Rush Limbaugh statements pic.twitter.com/W3Kczrc33p
— Daniel Lin (@danwlin) September 9, 2017
The guy who calls himself Junk Science has thoughts. pic.twitter.com/dBsqBIx9EY
— shauna (@goldengateblond) September 9, 2017
As we depend on @NWS's hurricane forecasts to ensure safety for Americans, Congress wants to cut their budget.
โ๏ธ: https://t.co/CK8DRHcvJe https://t.co/k8luwjTo7X— 5 Calls ๐บ๐ธ (@make5calls) September 9, 2017
In other news:
Open Enrollment for health insurance purchased via the Affordable Care Act marketplaces begins November 1st, 2017! https://t.co/wfR3GggUPB
— Assume this is America's last free election (@LOLGOP) September 9, 2017
Good News: The DeSantis amendment defunding the Mueller investigation was killed in committee!! Well done, team. ๐ชโ๏ธ๐ https://t.co/QHKWyHHUSj
— 5 Calls ๐บ๐ธ (@make5calls) September 9, 2017
Equifax is offering a free copy of my credit report. Of course, apparently it was already offering a free copy of my credit report.
— Ina Fried (@inafried) September 7, 2017
Privacy tip: Don't have a credit score, or a Social Security number or an address. Live naked and alone in the woods like a solitary bear. https://t.co/z9KMusTGoB
— Aaron Sankin (@ASankin) September 7, 2017
Seriously hackers, y'all gotta do better. I don't need leaks from HBO, I need my student loan balance reduced to $12
— L. Joy Williams (@ljoywilliams) September 8, 2017
This is how the history buffs at @FDRLST would like you to remember Charlottesville. pic.twitter.com/gDJYAILOuQ
— Christian Vanderbrouk (@UrbanAchievr) September 8, 2017
https://twitter.com/_grendan/status/905844826771476480
How to use a piano to stalk your exhttps://t.co/GPfO7BuRCA
— David Futrelle (@DavidFutrelle) September 9, 2017
It's a good thing that pedophile MRAs are getting a chance to have their say on campus rape. ๐#StopBetsy pic.twitter.com/tbdSJjbeBW
— TakedownMRAs (@TakedownMRAs) September 8, 2017
On a lighter note. Or maybe not?
Well that got unexpectedly bleak pic.twitter.com/hO9WOmqHV3
— Neil Miles (@neilsmiles) September 6, 2017
Animal time!
"What you been up to this break?" https://t.co/jgGOsoHdcY
— Baby Animals (@BBAnimals) September 9, 2017
this gotta be the best fight of 2016 https://t.co/5uC9ZpDUZk
— Dog and Kitty (@dognkitty) September 9, 2017
https://twitter.com/awwcuteness/status/906583996297031680
Also bugs!
https://twitter.com/invisibleman_17/status/906069959670947840
About five years ago, my cousins used to live in the US Virgin Islands.
I am severely glad they don’t anymore. At this point, you could not bribe me enough to live in the Caribbean.
My sister and her family only started leaving Florida the day before yesterday. She’s fucking 40, and appears to have no capacity for making good life choices. She has three small children and only started leaving at the last minute. But no, she paid for a vacation and she wasn’t going to cut it short at all. Ugh.
That piano creep should get media attention alright, just not that kind.
Dude. She’s not the love of your life. Get over it. We all go through breakups. You’re not special.
Ah, good old Eivind Berge. I wonder if he still with Emma the Emo, who used to comment here?
He’s still a rape/pedophilia apologist. Ptooey.
So many telling details in that piano stalker story:
– He’s 34 years old.
– They had been dating for only 4 months.
– He calls her Rapunzel.
– He unironically uses the word “whimsical” when describing his own actions.
That puppy took a dive in round 6, and now both aminals are splitting the spoils ๐
What’s the problem? That piano tactic would work in a rom com, and those are totally true to life, right?
Dude, she’s already seen it. She left it. Take a HINT.
Ugh. I hope that piano eats his fingers.
1) If Florida was powered by wind and solar, maybe there wouldn’t be a category 5 hurricane barreling down on it right now.
2) There are these things called “batteries”.
3) All those fossil fuel-powered cars, unable to go anywhere because the gas stations ran out of fossil fuels. Yep, that’s a real reliable energy source.
“I didn’t get the outcome I wanted, so I’m going to use public shaming, movie tropes, and media pressure to FORCE her to respond to me.”
She already said no. If she were going to change her mind, she would have done it on her own, without needing to be guilted into it by a Chopsticks marathon. Now she’ll be dragged into the media spotlight and forced to justify her choice, as if “no” in and of itself isn’t sufficient. Now she has to come up with an even more ironclad no with enough weight to cancel out this guy’s media sympathy, or else she risks coming across as the bad guy. This is so manipulative and coercive.
Run, ex-girlfriend. Run and do not look back.
Lulzy Wonkette has discovered the Piano Man. Prepare!
And oh yeah, speaking of Piano Men:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxEPV4kolz0
Dude, maybe take your schtick to a bar where you can hear all the other mopes whining and belching about the women who left them.
Honestly, I’d probably edge the dude off the seat and start making up shitty compositions on the spot to fuck with him.
Help me, someone, please… I dozed off and woke up in the middle of a universe -size bad acid trip….
How bad? You ask?? This bad: two fucking HURRICANES are tearing the underbelly from this nation, and it’s the only thing that doesn’t seem completely surreal….
Good thing about Mr. Piano until she comes back… He’ll be a much better pianist after all that practice. Or he’ll get arrested for disturbing the peace maybe.
The rest of it, not show much. Damn, I’m beginning to find myself mis-typing in entire words. That was not an auto-correct fail.
@Weird Eddie
Between the hurricanes and the fires, I feel like I went to sleep and woke up in SimCity 2000 on disaster mode. Next we’ll be attacked by the robot alien.
Showing my age, but I half-expected to hear a tiny “ding!” before the caterpillar went back to the beginning of its munching arc.
The caterpillar is nightmare stuff for me. ๐
@Petal
It’s the same for me – it’s fascinating and I want to watch, but – OHMYGODISTHATITSFACELOOKAWAYLOOKAWAYLOOKAWAY
I think the best way to defeat this piano wankery would be for other musicians to make him look ridiculous. One tuba player can pretty much destroy a piano performance, for example. I’m not suggesting the guy’s ex should hire one: pro bono tuba must be a thing.
Nequam wins all internets, forever.
<3<3<3 ๐
Riding out the storm with my elderly mom, who I’m here taking care of during her cancer treatment. (I’m a Gold Coast native.) Rain in sheets. Tornadoes everywhere per my phone alerts. I needed this laugh desperately.
https://twitter.com/CSGV/status/906512170405507073
Oh…Florida.
Piano dude reminds me why the things that happen in rom-coms are not as cute when they happen in real life.
@ Buttercup;
That’s Ivanka the Cyborg… see Tricia Helfer from BSG television story arc… specifically the ending of the Blood and Chrome mini….
ETA capitalize Buttercup… proper name ya know….
So Piano Man has one redeeming characteristic: he doesn’t seem to have given out his ex’s name to the media. So there’s that at least.
He sounds like an overly-dramatic handful who is way too much work, and I wish his ex the best. She did right for herself by breaking up with this guy. It’s too bad that he’s bought the social lie that loving someone really, really hard is enough to make that person love you back, because he’s making her life unnecessarily difficult right now on that basis.
@Still Fiqah,
Why am I not surprised that a warning like that really needed to be issued? >.<
On the other hand, it did answer the question of whether it is possible to shoot straight at a target in hurricane-force winds. (Short answer: no.)
OT: is there going to be a regular open thread anytime soon? I'm feeling a need right now to vent about a customer at my workplace, his pet dog, a health inspector, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. But I'm not sure which current thread would be best for it outside of an official open thread.
Stay safe my Floridians!
The Washington Post has had hurricanes rather than Trump on its front page for several days now. I’m wondering how long it will be until he gets tired of being pushed out of the spotlight by a force of nature and does something stupid/ridiculous again just to regain it. This is a prime thing to throw at one of the Alex Jones cultists– if the government really did have a weather control machine, Trump would have commandeered it by now (and also bragged about it).
Still Fiqah, stay safe!
Hope the rest of you in Florida are staying safe as well!
Dear Pianoman,
It is only amazingly romantic when it is reciprocated;
right now your ‘Rapunzel’ will be reflecting on how she made the right decision, but also probably a bit worried;
you are 34 ffs, if you were HALF that age this would still be a bit off, but a man of 34 doing this is more than embarrassing and creepy;
life isn’t a rom com.
Ok, I get the guy, he thinks this is a totally romantic expression of how enduring his love and conviction is.
Can HE understand, that doing things that the lady, he is “wooing”, doesn’t really enjoy is just a massive ego-masturbation with no regard for her feelings.
Maybe that last part is EXACTLY WHY SHE BROKE UP WITH YOU!
Also: Stay save everyone.
Talking about the piano guy has blown up my Twitter in a way where I’m having trouble following the conversation now. And all because a friend asked me why I thought it was a creepy move on his part.
Piano Stalker reminds me of a bit from a Cracked video on pop culture.
(Paraphrased for brevity)
“They’re going to make a Harley/Joker prequel as a rom-com.”
“What? Doesn’t the Joker torture Harley into insanity so she’ll fall in love with him?”
“So it IS a rom-com!”
As we know, the only difference between psychological horror and romantic comedy is camera angles and background music.
Nequam – that was exactly what I was thinking, too.
Sinkable John – my reaction as well. Some Earthly creatures look like eldritch abominations in extreme close up. Sometimes I look at trees until I can see them as living entities (as distinct from inanimate objects), which is unsettling, but they’re nothing compared to tiny arthropods.
If I wasn’t already so negligent about updating my current blog, I always thought I’d like to start one that reviews romance and rom-coms as if they were horror movies. Almost all of them seem to involve stalking and/or deceit and manipulation.
So far, the piano thing looks like public whining rather than stalking. I suspect there might also be actual stalking going on, and he might be covertly seeking feedback that will generally validate his ex-girlfriend obsession.
QFT
@Redsilkphoenix: There’s a South Floridian tradition of hurricane parties. We cook up a bunch of food while we have power, and sit around eating and drinking a LOT of alcohol. It takes the edge off. HOWEVER – this is never done with Category 3 and up storms. Because you need a clear head. Otherwise you start doing reckless things, like taking pictures of yourself in front of the churning, furious ocean, or playing in flood waters, or SHOOTING AT HURRICANES.
@David: Thank you, we will!
EVERYBODY ELSE IN AMERICA’S MOST PENIS-SHAPED STATE: Take care, stay vigilant, stay safe and stay INSIDE because it’s real out here. #FloridaStrong
Unless your solar setup was damaged (i.e. solar panels and storage batteries), you would be up & running as soon as the storm passed.
If your power comes in by power lines and they get damaged, you would be shit out of luck until they are repaired. (I was in Atlanta during Hurricane Opal. A tree branch snapped a power line feeding our subdivision – no other damage – and we were without power for 3 days.)
@Robert
It may be boringly euclidian, but it’s still nightmare fuel. Lovecraft’s got nothing on our tiny neighbors.
Did I ever mention how you sometimes hear the spiders in this house before you see them ? They’re that big. I’m gonna crawl under something now and hope to fuck it’s not already occupied.
Update: Piano Man quit after realizing he was making himself “the largest fool in the West Country” and embarrassing his ex, but apparently not before some rando punched him in the face.
https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/uk/bristol-piano-player-got-punched-head-thats-not-stopped-playing/