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Happy Thanksgiving and/or Thursday! Open Thread

Happy Thanksgiving, to everyone who celebrates it! And a very merry Thursday to everyone who doesn’t.

Because I haven’t provided a health update in a while (outside of the comments) I just wanted to reassure everyone that I am still here, and still trying to sort through a bunch of medical issues with the help of assorted doctors, some very competent and others not so much.

The issues I’m facing aren’t lifethreatening, but they are still debilitating enough to keep me from regular posting here. Sorry to be so vague; I’ll offer more details once some of these issues are sorted out a bit more. I’ll return to posting as soon as I am able but I cannot predict when that will be.

I appreciate everyone’s patience and continued support. Thanks!

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NicolaLuna
NicolaLuna
6 years ago

@WWTH and ooglyboggles
Thanks, I hope so too.

@ooglyboggles
My mum was similar about my antidepressants. She said they’re just a crutch. I asked her if she tells people with broken legs not to use crutches.

Have you explained to her that things are going better now *because* the meds are working?

Ooglyboggles
6 years ago

@Shadowplay
Currently I don’t live with her. Atm I’m with aunts and grandmother to keep college commutes short. Usually she doesn’t bring it up during our phone calls and so far I’ve been able to pretend I’m busy and kept my calls with her brief. If she starts bringing it up more and more Your suggestion for me to use the doctor is a good idea. She’s no the type to dismiss a person in their field of expertise.

@NicolaLuna
I did, but then she mumbled something about side affects and over reliance on meds. I’m just glad that she and everyone in my family almost never mentions my meds to my face, and when they do they haven’t pressed the issue. I’m certain the reason why they haven’t brought the subject up more often was because they don’t have the energy to argue with me.

Catalpa
Catalpa
6 years ago

@Oogly,

Perhaps an analogy would help? If a diabetic suddenly stops experiencing hypogycemic and hyperglycemic reactions because they started using insulin, that doesn’t mean that they no longer need insulin. It means that the insulin is working.

People with diabetes cannot regulate their insulin levels, and people with clinical depression cannot regulate (some of) their neurotransmitter levels. Having an external source of these substances is important for the continued health of people with these conditions.

Lea
Lea
6 years ago

Well put, Catalpa.

Sheila Crosby
6 years ago

@NicolaLuna Good luck with the operation.

@ooglyboggles best of luck. I get tired of explaining to people that yes, some psychiatric medicines are over-prescribed but some people really do need them and find life so much better with them. I haven’t told anyone to fuck off yet but I’ve a feeling that it’s a matter of time.

@Vicky I’d like to be Granny too, but I’m not worthy either. I’m no good at cheese-making either so I can’t be Tiffany. I think I might have to settle for being Magrat (note spelling) and making the tea, or Perdita if can learn pig boring.

Dormousing_it
Dormousing_it
6 years ago

@Oogyboggles:

Seconding Shadowplay, about your antidepressants. I’ve been on them for 12 years.

Hunting season has started, in the good ‘ol commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Which means I don’t know how safe it is to take a walk where I live. I’ve heard gunshots over the last few days. Also, I just read that a hunter shot and killed a woman in New York state. He said he mistook her for a deer. I’m stuck with walking laps around my property, which gets boring after a while. Sigh.

Hippodameia
Hippodameia
6 years ago

My mum was similar about my antidepressants. She said they’re just a crutch. I asked her if she tells people with broken legs not to use crutches.

Oh yeah. I used to get the Van Gogh question a lot: Where would Van Gogh be if he’d had antidepressants? Probably not dead at thirty-seven.

Kat, ambassador of the feminist government in exile
Kat, ambassador of the feminist government in exile
6 years ago

Trump: He’s been in office for almost a year, but he still can make me say, WTF!!!!!!!

Trump Now Says the Access Hollywood Tape May Be Fake
He privately told two White House members that he doubts the tape’s authenticity.

Donald Trump has resolutely refused to withdraw his support from Senate candidate Roy Moore, even in the wake of the sexual harassment and assault accusations leveled against Moore—and the unflattering comparisons many have drawn between descriptions of Moore’s behavior and the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which Trump himself bragged that, because he was famous, he could “grab” women “by the pussy.” Though Trump confirmed the leaked tape’s authenticity in the fall of 2016, new reports indicate that the president is now claiming that the clip is fake as well.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/trump-access-hollywood-tape-fake

Robert Walker-Smith
Robert Walker-Smith
6 years ago

My twenty year old son has decided to stop taking his antipsychotics. My husband and I are being as supportive as we can, but neither of us really expect a positive outcome.

I’ll stop taking my antidepressants when they pry them from my cold, dead hands. I can remember what it was like without them. Fortunately for me, I don’t have any disapproving family members to contend with.

My husband is part of a three-man coven. They work very much as Crone, Mother and Maiden except translated into male equivalents. I thought it was funny that he was the Mother even before he became a father. When they’re in the same room you can see them sharing a brain.

PaganReader - Misandrist Spinster

@dormousing_it
Do you have anything in blaze orange? When we lived in the country, my mother always had us wear blaze orange during hunting season.
I heard about that poor woman too. She was just trying to walk her dog(s?) and some dude taking an illegal shot killed her (accidentally, but still).

Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
6 years ago

Discworld coven for the win! I’ve posted this pic before but I love it so much:

comment image

@Fabe,

The Cuphead furore is a fascinating study in manufacturing a conspiracy out of literally, actually nothing. Shaun’s vid does a great job tracing all of the links back and showing the creation of “games journalists hate Cuphead” and “SJWs want to take over our games” narratives. The proposed easy mode is apparently b/c the game is “ableist”; discussion of the animation style & its problematic origins means that the game is racist according to lefties, and so on.
People have gotten worked up into frothing fury over this. It’d be great for a sociology class 🙂

Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
Mish of the Catlady Ascendancy
6 years ago

Apologies for yet another post – I want to respond to just about everyone here, but that would drive you all mad 🙂

Re anti-depressants: Catalpa’s analogy is excellent. You don’t stop taking something because it’s working, ffs. In fact it can be dangerous to stop anti-depressants suddenly. It’s not like the whole world knows, anyway – if anyone’s worried about stigma (I know some people are).

@NicolaLuna
You are incredibly brave and amazing. All the best for the surgery <3

OT re above – is anyone following the backlash at NYT over that "here's a perfectly ordinary, cat-loving chap who happens to be a Nazi" article?

Mooncustafer
Mooncustafer
6 years ago

I just saw Wonkette’s review of the article.

Victorious Parasol
Victorious Parasol
6 years ago

I’ve seen a variety of backlash, ranging from people who knew/were related to Holocaust victims to people who dissect the article pointing out missed opportunities for followup questions or greater context.

Dormousing_it
Dormousing_it
6 years ago

@Pagan Reader – Misandrist Spinster:

Yes, I have a knit hat in blaze orange. I’m still afraid that won’t be enough. I should probably get a vest in blaze orange, too.

Where I live, some people own acres of land. They don’t build anything, they just go hunting on it. This land abuts to people with houses. I’ve seen hunters walk across my property. I’ve also seen them, twice, walking down the street with their rifles.

sunnysombrera
6 years ago

Mish: Hah, I love it when alt-righters burst their own blood vessels in a rage of their own making. It’s so entertaining.

Bleh, just got into a Reddit argument with a dude who used to sub to fatpeoplehate and now I feel gross. ? Guy is still a dumb asshole who thinks that shaming overweight people is the key to slimming them down.

Buttercup Q. Skullpants
Buttercup Q. Skullpants
6 years ago

Happy post-Thanksgiving/regular November weekend to all Mammotheers. Hugs and sympathy for everyone dealing with crappy relatives, or missing dear ones who aren’t present. I wish holidays didn’t throw family shortcomings into such sharp relief.

This was the first Thanksgiving without my mom. It was hard not having her here. She loved this holiday. Her house used to be the place we’d all gather, but now we don’t have that central hub anymore. The boys and I ended up having a microwaved potluck dinner in the lobby of a Super 8 motel with my brother and his wife, in a state halfway between us. I guess the change of scenery was good, but it felt like it was one step removed from feasting out of bus station vending machines.

Did anyone else see the recent tidbit about 4channers eating raw onions to boost their testosterone? From the OP:

Time and again, science has confirmed that onion and its juice boost testosterone levels—sometimes threefold. So, I just attempted to drink a cup—a single cup—of onion juice. Needless to say, consuming onion juice was a trying, though masculine experience, and my entire house smells as if an uncleaned NFL locker room and Mexican kitchen converged upon a single point. I can feel the onion juice flowing through my body, coming into contact with every organ, every cell, and every bodily fluid.

I love that….”a trying, though masculine experience”

It then devolved, predictably, into a discussion about which onions are the least “degenerate”.

Mooncustafer
Mooncustafer
6 years ago

who thinks that shaming overweight people is the key to slimming them down.

Well, we’ve only been trying it for, what a couple of hundred years? /sarcasm

weirwoodtreehugger: chief manatee

It then devolved, predictably, into a discussion about which onions are the least “degenerate”.

comment image

How does an onion become degenerate? I don’t even get it. Does “vidalia” sound too gay for them or something?

Surplus to Requirements, Observer of the Vast Blight-Wing Enstupidation
Surplus to Requirements, Observer of the Vast Blight-Wing Enstupidation
6 years ago
PeeVee the (Tired of the Militant Plasticfaced) Sarcastic
PeeVee the (Tired of the Militant Plasticfaced) Sarcastic
6 years ago

Seriously, guys. Buy some onion capsules, if you really believe in this onion will raise T levels. Eyeroll.

Dormousing_it
Dormousing_it
6 years ago

RE: This business of eating raw onion because it supposedly raises testosterone levels – I suspect this is mega-trolling. Though, I’m sure there are some dumbasses who’ll give it a try. How can an onion be degenerate? Are white onions somehow the best, while other colored onions are degenerate? These are rhetorical questions.

My cat Sassy is, right now, rather painfully kneading my neck. She’s another cat who’s fascinated with my eyeglasses – when I take them off, she prods them with her paw.

dreemr
dreemr
6 years ago

I have been taking an antidepressent for nearly 20 years, and you’ll never get me to give them up and go back to the incredible depression and anxiety I suffered for years prior to that.

Although I don’t keep it a secret, I don’t think it’s anyone’s business, either. I am very sorry some of you are facing such unhelpful and poor judgement from family members. Why on earth they feel entitled to comment on it is beyond me.

Re: walking in the country during hunting season – here in North Dakota, out at the farm we always kept the kids indoors during deer hunting season. Not so much that people would purposely shoot at children in the mistaken belief that they are deer – although that does happen (buck fever) – but because bullets can travel a long ways even when aiming at a legitimate target if missed. Best to just stay inside for the 2 weeks, or maybe try going to a town or high school with a track for the duration.

PeeVee the (Tired of the Militant Plasticfaced) Sarcastic
PeeVee the (Tired of the Militant Plasticfaced) Sarcastic
6 years ago

Re: the woman who was shot after being mistaken for a deer: it was after sundown, and she was shot with a pistol.

Not being very familiar with deer hunting, I have to ask: is it common to hunt deer with a pistol? I truly don’t know.

dreemr
dreemr
6 years ago

@PeeVee I wouldn’t say it’s common, but I know a few (jackasses) who have done it. It is kind of silly because a pistol generally isn’t very accurate at any range other than “right on top of the target”.

More importantly, though, deer hunting ends at sundown.

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