Hope you all are having a lovely day today, whatever this day means to you (or doesn’t). Consider this an open thread, to discuss whatever, from presents to politics to cats to whatever holiday stress you might be feeling.
And here’s some stuff I found on the Twitter.
— David, who is hanging in there
Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄🎅 pic.twitter.com/YfyTsQ95de
— Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) December 25, 2017
At this time of year, take a few moments to remember who Christmas is truly about… pic.twitter.com/TQ9tSP5EED
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) December 24, 2017
I haven’t laughed this hard in a while. I needed this. pic.twitter.com/2aQFpugdis
— deray (@deray) December 7, 2017
Brian Eno, Paris, 1973 (with Christmas 2017 augmentation) pic.twitter.com/hRwMDTOUKv
— Brian Eno News (@dark_shark) December 25, 2017
“Fun” pic.twitter.com/tsAdsZeez8
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 24, 2017
#MerryChristmas 🎄🤶🏻 pic.twitter.com/IahMZhf5gc
— Melania Trump 45 Archived (@FLOTUS45) December 25, 2017
Same. pic.twitter.com/kcNPdrLy6R
— Adrenalin (@adrenalindenver) May 24, 2017
🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅
All of a sudden …
🐾🐾🐾🐾 pic.twitter.com/fza8NZioI0
— The Cult Cat (@Elverojaguar) December 25, 2017
Human: My cat has an easy life
Me: pic.twitter.com/e8kvlVhUdR— Curious Zelda (@CuriousZelda) December 20, 2017
https://twitter.com/awwcuteness/status/945193410662682624
On a lighter note, I’m so proud of Nathan Chen and really hope he medals at the Olympics. He’s been sick and while he didn’t skate the best he’s ever done tonight (popped his 3 axel) he just casually threw 5 quads. While sick. Meanwhile, I can’t be assed to do my laundry if I’m feeling a bit tired.
I’m also thrilled for Mirai Nagasu for landing her triple axel last night. I think she’s the only senior woman currently doing it. Dunno about the juniors. It landed her in second place in the nationals and on the Olympic team after she didn’t make it to Sochi.
Yay!
Okay. Probably nobody cares but me and maybe Buttercup. But like I said, adrenaline and wine!
Hi. I’ve been reading these comment sections for a few months now. I’ve been rather uncomfortable with how this comment thread has gone and I feel compelled to air my concerns.
I’m not going to comment directly on the general discussion about the nuances of parents encroaching on their children’s privacy. That said, the discussion has been awfully one-sided against IgnoreSandra and Tashilicious in particular. From what I’ve observed, the narrative surrounding these two who could be said to have “instigated” this argument has been warped to the point that they’re practically pariahs. It seems rather unfair for mrex and successive commenters to continue to speak increasingly ill of them, even though they haven’t responded for a while. So far, apparently they “jumped on” Mish saying unforgivable things to her (they accused her of a not-all argument and a tone argument), and are comparable to conservative Bible Belt types who love blaming mothers for everything from violent behaviour to autism.
More than being unfair, though, it strikes me as rather hypocritical. The original comment by mrex is of her calling other parents stupid for not being more aware of people like Logan Paul. It’s one thing to get defensive about others criticizing your parenting. It’s another to do that right after bashing other parents you don’t know.
After rereading that initial exchange, I can understand at least the reaction to mrex’s initial comments. A parent issues a sweeping criticism of other parents, then describes her daughter giggling and resolves to look at her phone? It came off as odd to me also. Then a rather serious accusation was made about mrex, that 6+ people have stopped commenting because of her presence. Apparently the crimes committed by IgnoreSandra and Tashilicious are so severe that we’re just going to ignore stuff like that which would otherwise inform us of where they’re coming from. That strikes me as rather backwards for a site like this.
Michael Moore is at it again. (Tweet)
Gonna start fracking offshore of Mar a Lago. With a truck. >:(
1/10, sloppy, would not troll again.
Edit to correct name. I always spell Michael wrong.
@mrex:
Video is broken.
Also, I recognize the pattern re: railroading. I don’t know why it happens. The odd thing for me is seeing someone else in the role of Designated Scapegoat…
People would rather be seen to be “right” than kind, especially in text based spaces.
In random news – today I learned you can rent cadavers.
Posting this photo after another Mammotheer posted it because I think the wider frame makes it even more compelling. And because I didn’t realize until I saw this version of the photo that Carson Jones was actually staring down the vice president of the United States.
Doug Jones’s Gay Son Stares Down Mike Pence
By
Gabriella Paiella
@GMPaiella
//www.thecut.com/2018/01/doug-jones-gay-son-carson-jones-stares-down-mike-pence.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1
Kat, I had seen the colour version of that photo, but black and white adds impact somehow.
In lighter news: there’s a new series of Cardcaptor Sakura! Why wasn’t I informed?? I only found out about it today. I’ve just watched the first episode, and it made me feel such nostalgia!
Hello Pink Darth Vader, welcome from out of moderation!
I can only assume that this dogpile of which you speak started with me expressing sympathy to Mish (please tell me how I should have phrased it), and continued with that mutually gracious exchange between Sandra and Shadow play.
Where the hell is the rest of the orgy of vilification of them??? Is there a WHTM comments page 9 & 1/2 that I haven’t been told about?
Not even mrex has said anything remotely like what you describe, and as many people have commented agreeing with T and IS as have agreed with mrex.
What an interesting way to make your first comment. Its almost as if you would like to see more, and more virulent, argument.
(Apologies everyone, that should of course have been WHTM comments page 9 & 3/4)
Original flavor 9 & 3/4 or MoR 9 & 3/4?
This whole argument is the forum equivalent of cabin fever. Y’all need to take a few days’ break from eachother.
The obvious cause of the cabin fever is that the surface of the Earth has become uninhabitable, forcing us all to huddle indoors near fireplaces and radiators. Unfortunately it’s not obvious what we can do about this.
Either that, or we’re seeing worsening symptoms of David’s absence …
The RNC Asked For Birthday Wishes For Eric Trump, And It Didn’t Go As Planned
You know my comment about twitter a couple pages back? Nix it. Twitter good. 😛
Edit to add:
The NYT, on the other hand, is still bad: Publicly, We Say #MeToo. Privately, We Have Misgivings.
It’s a boneheaded column, even by weekend columnist standards.
Dammit. Link to the NYT column, not the Slate piece on the NYT column.
I’m hyperventilating right now about the Super Sekrit Club Fascist Meeting taking place at Camp David this weekend, in which Orange Mussolini and the GOP leadership are combing through the Christmas stocking of documents related to the Russia imvestigation which Ryan bullied out of the DOJ. All the big players are there, except for Sessions, which is an ominous sign that they’re about to fire Sessions. His successor will fire Mueller, shut down the investigation, and destroy the evidence that’s been collected so far. Meanwhile, criminal referrals have been made against Steele and Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation is once again under investigation, and Trump is quietly stacking AG vacancies in southern NY (the jurisdictions that would be trying him for money laundering and RICO) with his cronies. Forget about the state charges – they won’t stick once he’s got his people installed. If this coup succeeds, I think we can forget about the quaint notion of fixing this at the ballot box. Fair elections will be long gone by November 2018. Democracy simply isn’t compatible with late-stage predator capitalism.
I honestly don’t know what we can do at this point. Calling, faxing, and emailing our representatives doesn’t work when they refuse to listen. Democratic senators and representatives should be all over the media, giving press conferences denouncing these moves and educating the population about what the Republicans are up to, but with a couple of exceptions they’ve been silent. The VA-94 election was just blatantly stolen by a corrupt Republican panel in order to preserve the GOP majority in the House of Delegates, and no one is raising hell about it. We should be in the streets protesting by the millions, occupying offices, and demanding fair elections – but it’s hard for people to do that when they’re busy working, taking care of family, and generally trying to stay afloat. There are so many daily outrages that overwhelm and depress us, it’s hard to pick just one thing to focus on.
I feel like we’re morphing into a sadocracy – a form of government that doesn’t just oppress its own citizens, but delights in traumatizing and harming them.
Re: cabin fever, what we need is a good old-fashioned troll chew toy. I assume David isn’t letting them out of moderation, but maybe someone can dig up something for us to focus our collective snark on.
@WWTH – I am very excited to see what Nathan Chen will do at the Olympics! He’s amazing. I’m not able to watch much live figure skating these days because the TV is usually occupied by Paw Patrol, but I’m going to make my kids watch the Winter Olympics (assuming South Korea still exists by then). The twins just started figure skating lessons and it’s amazing how synchronized they are. They fall in tandem.
I had secret hopes that Twin #2 might want to try pairs skating, because he likes to lift things and put them back down, but he’s making noises about hockey.
Surplus,
After you hit it the vid link, when the message comes up, hit the “play it on youtube” sentence. At least that worked for me.
And a message to the guy who filmed it: ’tis only a scratch.
Buttercup: I share you alarm re: Camp David.
Or maybe they have a different opinion on this than you do and those of us who agree with them are now afraid to comment on it because of attitudes like this. Please stop being so nasty. It’s uncalled for.
Welcome, Pink Darth Vader! I hope you can bear with us.
@Buttercup Don’t give up hope yet. Mueller must have seen this coming months ago. Trump holds most of the cards, but Mueller has most of the brains.
For anyone interested in figure skating, the painting ‘The Skating Minister’ and its history might reward a look.
Only “most”?
OK…entirely new topic. I’m thinking about getting LASIK surgery. That’s the eye surgery, using lasers, that’s supposed to “fix” nearsightedness. If anyone reading this has had it, I’d really appreciate anything you can tell me about it.
For years, I’ve been encouraging my spouse to have the surgery, since he’s constantly misplacing his glasses. However, he’s been dragging his feet. It is kind of scary surgery…don’t you have to be conscious when it’s being performed?
It’s becoming more and more attractive to me as I age. I have to juggle contact lenses, glasses, and reading glasses now, and it’s a real pain.
I’m very nearsighted – something like 20/450. I understand that, the more nearsighted a person is, the greater the chance that LASIK surgery won’t be able to give you 20/20 vision, and you’ll be stuck wearing glasses anyway.
I’ll be damned if I’ll fork over several thousand dollars, and still be stuck wearing glasses, all the same.
@Surplus “Most of the brains” in comparison to Trump and his allies, not just Trump alone. Sessions, Ryan & Co are all manner of things, but not stupid.
Do you remember some time back he requested that Team Trump hand over emails from the transition period? He didn’t mention that he already had all the emails from the people who ran the server. Comparing list of emails A with list B immediately gave him a manageable list of emails that Team Trump didn’t want him to read.
Mueller is what Sam Vimes would admiringly call “a right bastard.” I believe his loyalty is to the constitution and he has a lifetime’s practice in finding wriggle room in the rules. I wouldn’t be 100% sure that Nunes haul is exactly what they all think it is. I’m quite sure that Mueller has a contingency plan for being fired. I don’t know if it’s good enough to survive contact with the enemy, but he’s clever and devious and he’s thought about this long and hard.
Don’t lose hope yet.
@Dormousing_it THIS IS THIRD HAND AND REQUIRES CHECKING!
I believe the laser surgery means you get “normal” close vision, as opposed to the excellent close vision most of us myoptics have. I suspect you’d need reading glasses after surgery, even if you don’t now.
I think they could anaesthetise you for the surgery at an extra cost. I’d have thought they could also dope you up with Valium or similar.
Personally, I have varifocals. They cost a bomb, but the same pair of glasses usually stays on my nose from climbing out of the shower until bedtime. I have a different pair which are more comfortable if I’m going to work on the computer for hours. If I’m doing something very close (like 8″) I use no glasses at all.
How many pairs of varifocals could you buy for the cost of surgery?
I don’t know if this would help your spouse, but I find it’s not so much a question of remembering where you put your glasses/keys/mobile so much as training yourself to always put them in the same place. If you take them off in the bedroom they go THERE. If you take them off in the bathroom they got THERE. And so on. Then you have a much shorter list of places to look.
This fails completely with parking the car because you can¡t always park in the same place.
Dormousing_it,
My daughter has especially bad eyes, and was told that she would still have to wear contacts/glasses after Lasik. But hey, get it anyway, because her eyes wouldn’t be *as bad*. (It’s not as if her ‘script would be any less costly, based on her improved, but still bad, eyes.)
So, yeah. She didn’t get the surgery.
@Dormousing_it
UK here, so bear in mind:
Looked into getting it three years ago. It was a no for me – undergoing Lasik surgery would have lost me my flight certification due to vision fluctuations after the surgery and glare sensitivity – it’s an automatic pull, no appeal. I’d rather put up with anything than not be able to fly, so that were a touch of a dealbreaker, to say the least.