Quarantine Cafe: De Children of De Night... Vhat Sweet Music Dey Make Edition —Ace This movie, Love at First Bite, was mentioned by commenters earlier in the week. You can watch it until someone figures out it's been uploaded. I'm not recommending it. I'm just linking it for nostalgia purposes. I'm seeing it for the first time, with no nostalgia attached to it, and it's... not good. It stinks. But maybe if you have nice memories attached to it. And speaking of vampires... Continue reading



If you notice, they've timed it so that the bat on the left seems to be singing (most of the time). Close it up Comments Posted by Ace at 07:56 PM

The View's Joy Behar Tells Kim Klacik That "The Black Community Supported" Her Blackface-Wearing, Then Kicks Her Off the Air —Ace I know this happened Friday, but a lot of things happened Friday. Continue reading

Megyn Kelly was booted off NBC for less than this. ***Imagine*** a conservative TV host defending her wearing of blackface to a black Democrat. It would be the top trend on Twitter and every race theory journalist would be calling for their firing. There would be boycotts — Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 18, 2020 On the heels (no pun intended) of her appearance, Klacik goes for another strut into the cratered wasteland known as Democrat-controlled Baltimore, and releases another ad: Tens of millions of you have shared the struggle of black people in Baltimore. You cared about our black lives more than our own leaders.



They have done nothing for us.

Now they can�t hide.

We are the change.



Please support our movement:https://t.co/8yLL5VmMSU pic.twitter.com/1sGyqXHpzt — Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) September 20, 2020

Close it up Comments Posted by Ace at 07:18 PM

Emmys Ratings Hit All-Time Low as American Public Finally Realizes That Hollywood Sucks and Is Filled with Perverts and Child-Touchers —Ace Jimmy Kimmel: 220 pounds of failure. [T]he final numbers are in for the Jimmy Kimmel-hosted show, and they remain a record low for the small screen's biggest night. With 6.1 million viewers and a 1.2 rating among adults 18-49 in time adjusted results, the 8-11:06 PM ET show managed to prove host Kimmel right and beat last year's previous low. ... Last year was the first time the Emmys ever went below 7 million viewers. Based on this year�s results, that may one day seem like a Mount Everest. America's newest craze is Not Watching Jimmy Kimmel. Viewers were also eager to Not Watch Sunday Night Football. The second Sunday night game of 2020 was also down in viewership, down from both last week's game and also down from the second Sunday night football game of 2019. Still, with numbers certain to tick upward in the final data, the 8:20 PM ET-starting SNF took a tumble, pulling in 14.09 million viewers in the early metrics and a 4.2 in the ratings. That is down 5% in audience and 11% in the demo from the early numbers of last week's official SNF season debut... Scoring 15.87 million viewers and a demo rating of 5.3 in the early numbers, last year's SNF Week 2 game on September 15, 2019 between the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles did not face the 2019 Emmys. The small screen ceremony took place the following week. Dude, the Emmys was barely any competition to anything at all. Read your own fucking article. Continue reading

This is creepy and pathetic. pic.twitter.com/S7DIxQgY7w — Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) September 21, 2020 Close it up Comments Posted by Ace at 06:31 PM

While the US and Most of Europe Locked Down and Destroyed Their Economies, Sweden Stayed Open -- and Now Has Herd-Immunity and Only Fourteen People in ICU for Covid —Ace Trust your Elites. Worship them, even. Pray to your New Gods of Incompetence and Twitter Snark. In the global battle against the pandemic, few countries drew as much scrutiny and frequent criticism as Sweden during the early days. While the United States and most of Europe shut down their economies and put everyone on lockdown, the Swedes largely went about their business with no mandates for the wearing of masks or prohibitions on public gatherings. Sweden initially experienced a surge of novel coronavirus cases as compared to its neighbors. And then it felt like we stopped hearing about them quite so much. So what's been going on? As this report from the Associated Press indicates, what�s been going on has largely been... not much, at least in terms of the virus. Sweden only made slight modifications to its policies after the initial surge, but largely stuck with the herd immunity strategy. And now, just as much of Europe is experiencing a second surge in cases, Sweden has some of the lowest numbers in all of Europe. So did their herd immunity strategy actually work? .. Among Sweden's population of ten million, they currently have a total of 14 people in ICU beds fighting COVID. In the past two weeks, they have reported 30.3 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people. By comparison, Spain is at 292.2 and France reports 172.1. That's a rather startling difference. ... This should leave us to wonder if that wasn�t the ideal solution from the beginning. If we had locked down the nursing homes and provided relief to everyone over the age of 55 so they could stay home, along with anyone with a doctor's note saying they had underlying respiratory or immune system issues, could we have just left the rest of the economy running? Meanwhile, former (attempted) humor magazine Cracked is now declaring that South Park shouldn't do an episode on covid, because there's just no place for comedy In These Trying Times. Continue reading

Cracked has moved on from attempting to be funny, now they�re just preaching about cartoon comedies being dangerous. 😐 pic.twitter.com/O1LSbqdXh1 — Sophia (Insert joke here) Narwitz (@SophNar0747) September 20, 2020 One of the most amazing accomplishment of Trump is turning all of these low-level neurotics and hysterics into absolutely insane melt-brains who effectively all announce, "We're no longer interested in doing our actual jobs, we are converting this corporation into an adjunct of Biden for President." Now This is Comedy: 18 Watching the Trump coference/gaggle in front of the spooling turbo jets. He said to a reporter, 'sorry about youre toupee ' Ahaha. Incredible. So Trump

Posted by: Redenzo I can't wait for the video of that. Close it up Comments Posted by Ace at 04:46 PM

Bitchfight! Keith Olbermann Has a Category 5 Hissyfit Over Fellow Former MSNBC Host Chris Matthews' Muted Praise of Trump —Ace Chris Matthews said that Trump had acted "presidential" in offering praise for former Supreme Court Justice, current corpse Ruth Delayer Ginsburg. Keith Olbermann had a meltdown at the idea of anyone offering begrudging praise to any Republican:

He's referring to Chris Matthews offering grudging praise of Bush's political theatrics in landing the jet on the aircraft carrier. He means that Chris Matthews has offered minor praise to theater/atmospheric effects of two Republicans, and that's two too many. It wasn't just Keith Olbermann who had a meltdown. Former Clinton spokesliar Joe Lockhart and sallow hag Joy Behar also had conniptions. If our Moral and Intellectual Betters (TM) say that it is a sin to offer any common courtesy whatsoever to their political enemies, who are we to dispute their wisdom? Comments Posted by Ace at 04:03 PM

The People's Cube Debuts the Random Media Anti-Trump Hoax Generator —Ace This will save the media 20 minutes of work per day, out of their usual daily total of 40 minutes of work. Komrades, Are you a journalist working for the mainstream media? Is your boss asking you to come up with another fake story about Trump? Inventing hoaxes can be hard work, we know! But now your troubles are gone thanks to the revolutionary new HoaxGen (TM). That's right! Thanks to ThePeoplesCube.com, you can automatically make up your next TrumpHoax without going through the effort of creative thought! You just run the program and you will get a randomised hoax. Thanks to advanced cross-referenced data-science technology, you can create an endless stream of TrumpHoaxes without the slightest effort! Instead of inventing stuff nobody believes anyway, you'll be able to spend more time protesting in the streets and burning down America.

Here are some of the results generated: Donald Trump, without evidence, robbed persecuted minorities while stuffing his mouth full of hydroxychloroquine. There were 350 anonymous witnesses. Donald Trump viciously colluded with the Russians against white collar single mothers while talking to Putin. There were 65 anonymous witnesses.

Donald Trump, without evidence, posted an insulting tweet about elderly black community while calling the KKK fine people. There were 8 anonymous witnesses.

So my criticism is this: Structurally, these are all the same. They need to have multiple structures, like maybe four or five, to slot the scripted phrases into. One simple structure would be one that starts off with the "whistleblower," like staring off with a choice of: Adam Schiff confirms: Diane Feinstein reports: Adam Vindman breaking allegation: Etc. Just to give more variety to the randomly generated hoaxes. Comments Posted by Ace at 02:24 PM

CNN "Legal Analyst" Calls for "Street Protests" -- Riots, He Means -- To Stop The Appointment of a Justice to the Open Seat —Ace Tom Elliott @tomselliott CNN's @JeffreyToobin calls Democrats "weak," "wimps,"'and "afraid" for not attacking Republicans more aggressively over SCOTUS; says party should encourage activists to engage in "street protests" Continue reading

CNN�s @JeffreyToobin calls Democrats �weak," �wimps," and "afraid� for not attacking Republicans more aggressively over SCOTUS; says party should encourage activists to engage in �street protests" pic.twitter.com/Mq6LiSsUPR — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 21, 2020 Objective "journalist" George Stephanopolous has a Helpy Helperton suggestion for Nancy Pelosi -- impeach Trump if he nominates a new Justice. Pelosi says that's on the table. Nobody was talking about this until Stephanopoulos just floated it. This is his suggestion to her. https://t.co/Oe5bqHcacg — Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 20, 2020 Fat Thumb and Totally a Former Republican Tom Nichols, who is forever championing #MuhNorms, demands Democrats shred any remaining norms.

Norms expert guy is supporting the party threatening to pack the courts, do away with Senate filibuster, abolish the electoral college, increase number of states, abolish the Senate and all while criticizing the party following the Constitution. https://t.co/KdD6eCDnCq — Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 21, 2020 Communist dullard Donkey-Chompers wants "this moment to radicalize" her already dangerously-radicalized maniac-followers. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) reacts to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death on Instagram: "Let this moment radicalize you. Let this moment really put everything into stark focus. Because this election has always been about the fight of and for our lives. If anything, tonight is making that more clear to more people than ever before. And I'm going to tell you, it�s going to get more and more and more clear up until election day." Will Twitter suspend these people for glorifying violence? No? Well then: I think anyone on the right should allow themselves to be radicalized, too, and radicalize others. Close it up Comments Posted by Ace at 12:59 PM

The Omaha Man Who Shot a BLM Attacker in a Videotaped Open-and-Shut Case of Self-Defense Was Indicted to Appease the Mob.

That Man Has Now Committed Suicide. —Ace BLM will attack you, and unless you allow yourself to be murdered or to have your head bashed in and left with brain damage, the agents of the state will then act as BLM's enforcement officers and imprison you for defying the illegal demands of BLM. It's now legal to resist a police officer but it's illegal to resist a BLM rioter and street thug? Had enough yet? Jake Gardner -- awaiting arrest after a grand jury in Omaha indicted him last week -- shot himself outside a medical clinic in suburban Portland, Oregon, two law enforcement officials told The World-Herald. Police in Hillsboro, Oregon, found the 38-year-old former Marine dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound about 12:20 p.m. Gardner's attorneys, Stu Dornan and Tom Monaghan, said Gardner shot himself on the day he had said he would surrender in connection with manslaughter and three other felony charges stemming from the May 30 confrontation that led to the death of 22-year-old James Scurlock. Now, both men are dead. By the same hand.

Sunday, Dornan and Monaghan blamed Gardner's apparent suicide on a cocktail of behavioral health problems stemming from head trauma he experienced during military service; the belief that people were out to kill him; and an "incessant rush to judgment" by social media jockeys. Monaghan alleged that after Gardner shot and killed Scurlock, people sent Gardner death threats on social media and by text to Gardner's personal cellphone, though Monaghan later acknowledged that he didn't think the threats were credible enough to report to law enforcement. Dornan said Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine -- who defeated Dornan in 2006 to become county attorney -- had made the right call in ruling Gardner's actions justified. Gardner had claimed that Scurlock had him in a chokehold and wouldn't let go, despite Gardner's repeated pleas to "get off me." At the end of the 18-second struggle, Gardner switched the gun to his left hand and fired over his shoulder, killing Scurlock. Grand jurors, under the guidance of a special prosecutor, ruled out self-defense as a justification.



Bottom line, Dornan and Monaghan said, Gardner had lost his bars (a landlord ended his lease after the shooting), his home, his livelihood. And he was about to lose his freedom. Add in behavioral health concerns, Dornan said, and suicide was not a surprise, even though his attorneys fully expected him to turn himself in Sunday night. Monaghan said Gardner did not leave a suicide note. The special prosecutor must be sued for wrongful death. I retract anything I said before about sovereign immunity. This prosecutor straight-up killed someone on behalf of his BLM allies.

Continue reading

LEARNING POINT:



Note how you are dehumanized into a �white nationalist� for wanting to protect your rights and property and exercise your power within the Constitution�s framework.



They are building a moral framework to disenfranchise and oppress you.



Get woke. Get ready. https://t.co/f5P4VY1emy — Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) September 20, 2020 Close it up Comments Posted by Ace at 12:04 PM

Monday Morning Rant. —WeirdDave Since Oregon Muse is on vacation, some of us other COBS are filling in with morning rants of our own. Here's mine: I like Trump, generally, not for his cult of personality but because I think he's done a pretty good job, all things considered, especially in the face of a media that is nothing but a propaganda arm for the Dems, but this kind of weak ass shit from cu*** like Lowry who want to tut tut about decorum when the country is facing a full on communist insurrection is ludicrous. Don't like Trump? Fine. I get that. WHAT'S THE FUCKING ALTERNATIVE YOU BRAIN DEAD MUPPET? You want a calm, cool, 1990s world where we can all sip tea and bloviate about principles and interests while you rake in cash from you latest book "The Coming War With Freedonia". You claim to support "conservative principles" but YOU NEVER DID ANYTHING BEYOND WRITING ANOTHER COLUMN. And now, the wolf is at the door and you're just all so offended that it might get a little "antagonistic" on social media while cities literally burn. 100 days of riots in Portland. 100 days! Riots (which means violence and looting) Hell, the Battle of Stalingrad only lasted for 160 days, we're more than 1/2 way there! And you want to claim some kind of moral high ground? You? You the "conservative" establishment that let it all happen? You the pundits and navel gazers who care nothing for the Constitution you claim to revere but refuse to defend. Fuck you. Did you hear that? Let me spell it out for you. F-U-C-K-Y-O-U. You National Review pussies, You baseball crank Twitter gurus, you Goldberg "Hey, I like dogs" losers. You held yourselves up as the bastion of "conservative" thought and whored yourselves out for media popularity. You fleeced the rubes and congratulated yourself for your cleverness while you were doing it. And this, this utterly dysfunctional and violent country we have heading into an election is your fault. Oh, not entirely, I'll throw you that bone, the left is doing the actual rioting, but mostly. All 'cuz you wanted to sit back and "discuss things like gentlemen" while the left was ruthlessly applying the mechanics of power. You thought you were too good to get into mud and fight for principles you claimed to love. You just wanted to go along and get along and cash checks. So now, when finally, finally, there is a populist revolt against the Marxist, totalitarian, evil that you incubated with your passivity, you want to yell at us, the proles, for objecting? Jesus, you got a lot of balls. The sad part, the really sad, hit-me-in-the-face-with-a-2X4-until-I-die part of it is that it didn't have to be this way, but now that it is you're wringing your hands over the uncouth populism of it all. And you're right. I'm an historian, and I've studied many populist movements. Pol Pot was a populist movement, and we got The Killing Fields. What you fail to register is that the Trump populist movement is reactionary. It's seeking a return to the America we know and love. However, by reflexively opposing it because it is "populist", you're killing America. "Populist" isn't bad if it's pushing American values. "Nationalism" isn't bad if it's a nation based on the Constitution. Get your fucking heads out of your asses accept that the whirlwind you've sown has showed up and it's reaping time, so now the adults have to deal with it. Shut the hell up and get out of the way, and may your chains set lightly upon you. Comments Posted by WeirdDave at 11:00 AM

Mid-Morning Art Thread —CBD Seaport

Henry Wadsworth Comments Posted by CBD at 09:30 AM

Gun Thread: Gimme Ammo Edition [Weasel] —Open Blogger Howdy again, and welcome to another installment of the Gun Tread! Happy to have you here! I'm headed to the farm bright and early Sunday morning for a few days and will be posting the thread from there. As I write this on Saturday, I'm planning to take a couple of rifles and a bag of handguns and hope to spend all of at least one day shooting and recording video. The weather is forecast to be perfect with temps in the 70's, low humidity and plenty of sunshine. Perfect weather for organic tree farming! We have plenty of content for this week, so let's get to that below, shall we?

Continue reading

For a little over two years now, I have been including a weekly recommendation here in the ol' Gun Thread for you all to buy ammunition. Why? Because running out of ammo and not being able to buy more sucks. Ammunition is a commodity, and is subject to the market dynamics of supply and demand. Put too much strain on either of these factors and the market goes haywire. Welcome to today. Early in my shooting career, I lived through a number of ammunition market disruptions caused by changes in the political winds or component shortages. The end result was the same though, bare shelves in the ammo department and no shootin' for Weasel. I wanted to be able to shoot during the lean times without worrying about running out of ammo and I also didn't want to go to the poor house in the process. As with any commodity, you need to think of ammunition as an asset, and the purchase of ammunition as an investment in that asset. Buying ammunition over time allows you to dollar-cost average your purchases and remove some of the market price volatility. You can add to that strategy opportunistic purchases here and there when you find a sale or free shipping offer to further reduce your overall cost and build a reserve. So I did two things, I started reloading and found that was fun, and I made the conscious decision to get ahead of the curve in purchasing commercial ammunition in every caliber I shoot when it was readily available. Since then, I have never been short of ammunition. One big question remains, though. How much ammunition is enough, especially in these uncertain times which we're all in together? Our pal A.H. Lloyd addresses the question: Seriously, How Much Ammo is enough? For months we've been admonishing each other to "buy more ammo," but there comes a point where you hit law of diminishing returns. This is particularly true when ammo prices have spiked, the lingering lockdowns are making everything harder to get, and you have to live within a budget. Before I answer the question, we have to dig a little deeper. Enough for what? That's the real question. I think most people aren't talking about having enough ammo go to hunting next fall, or for the trap shooting competition in the spring. The people chiefly asking this question are new or inexperienced gun owners worried about personal and household safety. So to answer their question, we have to look at four areas: - Basic firearms instruction

- Weapon proficiency

- Skill maintenance

- SHTF reserves Basic firearms instruction can be with any firearm, but the two most popular are smaller-caliber revolvers or .22LR autoloaders (take a bow, Ruger Standard Mks I-IV). With things as they are, people may be getting basic instruction their primary weapon, which can make for a steeper learning curve in the short run, but does save time and ammo overall. So let's look at the numbers. Most instruction courses run through about 100 rounds or so. By the time you've gone through that, you can safely handle a firearm and operate it with reasonable accuracy. The next step is building proficiency. The goal here is to confidently with reliable shot placement even under some form of stress. Depending on the person, this can go quickly or slowly, but I'd count on at least doubling the basic training amount. The better you want to get, the more you have to practice, and that takes ammunition. If I had to hazard a number, I'd budget 200-300 rounds for most people to get comfortable with their weapon. By the way, this assumes you are doing non-live fire training, such as disassembly, dry fire practice, reloading drills, etc. You can also maximize your range time by putting less than the maximum in your magazine or cylinder. What this does is force you to reload more often, building in your comfort. It also forces you to acquire your front sights more frequently. You see, if you load 20 rounds in your Glock, you only acquire the target once. After you've found your sights, the remaining 19 shots are getting you less training because you're doing repeat movements. However, if you load only five rounds, for the same amount of ammunition, you will get four times as much experience in loading and aiming. Shooting is a perishable skill. You need to keep it current or you get rusty. You should go to the range as often as possible, but you don't have to go through mountains of ammunition. As with every other activity, there's a point where you've hit the peak for the session and your performance falls off. I find that about 50 rounds is a nice session, especially when broken up into 5-round increments. If you want to build experience, you can of course double that amount, but we're talking minimums here. Finally, there's the SHTF situation we're all worried about. Some folks will remember that I sometimes cite the Rule of Three for self-defense scenarios. This holds that the majority of self-defense shootings take place at less than 3 yards, last 3 seconds or less, and only 3 shots are fired. Interestingly, we're seeing that even in a riot scenario, this is pretty accurate. The Kenosha Kid got involved in two separate encounters, both lasting mere seconds, both at close range and it appears that he only fired four rounds in each one. So the notion that you should be prepared to go through multiple high-capacity magazines in a prolonged firefight seems unlikely. Of course, anything can happen, but having an emergency reserve of 50 rounds or so will likely get you through the vast majority of potential violent encounters. To be clear, what we're talking about is risk. Risk is not even, and you can always find that 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 chance that you failed to prepare for. The problem with risk is that stopping that extreme event may be next to impossible. That is why we speak of "mitigating" risk rather than "eliminating" it. The Bottom Line

As we've seen, most of the ammunition people are stockpiling is for practice purposes, not extended combat operations. In fact, if one looks at historical precedent, the "chaotic" stage of a civil war typically lasts weeks, not months or years. If there isn't an immediate winner (say through a coup), the next stage is a pause while both sides open the armories, seize military/police stocks and start creating more formal fighting forces. At that point, you won't be buying ammunition so much as having it issued to you. Another scenario is one of prolonged civil disorder, which results in higher crime, sporadic outbreaks but never really gets to full-on civil war. This will severely limit ammo supplies and keep the cost high, meaning you will get less practice. My advice is therefore not to focus on "wartime" or SHTF ammo, but building up a reserve for practice. Come up with a schedule and plan out how much you will use over time. For example, maybe you can only make it to the range once a month. With fewer sessions, you will want to get in more practice, so using 100 per trip makes sense.. A stockpile of 300 rounds would leave you with 100 for SHTF situations and two months' practice. If you can, work to extend that, either by making a bulk buy which can leave you set for six months to a year, or simply visiting stores each week or so and buying a box here or there. I'm sure lots of people will say you can never have enough ammo, but we know that's not true. If you bankrupt yourself, or can't feed your family or even store what you're buying, you have too much. That's why even the retailers are saying "look, if you've got 5,000 rounds, maybe hold off for a bit on buying more." Very nicely done, A.H. Lloyd! It's a matter of both personal preference and economics, but I generally look at the worst possible case scenario, as in the really, really, really worst case scenario, and that's one where the supply is not ever coming back. Part of that is because I'm a glass half-empty sort of guy, and in that case I feel more comfortable with something on the upper end of the six months to a year range. That being said, A.H. Lloyd gives us a very reasonable basis for deciding where we should be, reserve-wise. So how about you all? Are you all set or do you have a ways to go? Things are tough right now, but ammunition can be found and judiciously used while building a reserve. Perhaps now is a time to focus less on live fire practice until you have saved enough for a rainy day. Do you have a plan? ***** Speaking of ammunition, the question of steel case vs. brass case ammo comes up here from time to time. Is it any good? Will it harm your firearm? Well, steel cased ammunition has been around for a while and here is a video from Brownell's on the topic. I have been augmenting my brass case ammo with steel case and even aluminum case ammunition for recreational shooting and practice in a couple of calibers for some time, and they work just fine with no unusual wear that I can see. Maybe something for you to think about if the opportunity presents itself. ***** I absolutely loved the story of the Winchester Model 1873 found in Great Basin NP in 2015 when I first heard it. And now we have a nice video follow up on what the NPS is doing with the firearm. Is that cool, or what? I think I'd have wet my pants if I had found the rifle! One of the reasons I am so enamored with old firearms is wondering where they have been throughout the years and who their previous owners might have been, and my imagination sort of runs wild in this case! ***** Always a crowd pleaser, Jerry Miculek repeats his 1,000 yd shot with a Smith & Wesson Model 629. This time he nails a balloon. Holy Crap! That's some shooting, right there. Luck, talent, or a little of both? I've always said that it's not the first shot that matters, but rather the ability to put a second and third shot on top of the first. Still, a remarkable demonstration. What do you all think? ***** Next our pal Oldgeezer sends in something I've never seen before. These are 7.62x39 rounds like I have never seen before after 25 years of SKSs and AKs. They are shiny polished steel cases, lacquer sealed primers/bullets and have a pimple on the tip of a solid bullet - not hollow point. I bought an AK from a guy years ago and he had a magazine loaded with these. I have tried on and off to find out who made them and what the purpose the pimple serves. Nice find, Oldgeezer! These are certainly a mystery to me too. How about it? Anyone know what these tipped rounds might be? ***** Finally we have an anecdote from our pal and delightful 'ette, Jane D'oh. Mr. D'oh has a vendor in Atlanta who comes down regularly and he was down about three weeks ago and checked in at a local boutique hotel. It's part of a large hotel chain that he is a platinum member of. As he approached the front desk, the young, mask-wearing woman behind the desk informed him he needed to wear a mask. He politely explained that he was legally carrying and under GA law could not wear a mask while carrying. She still insisted he wear a mask. He explained again why he couldn't, and then said, "Let me just sign in and get my key." So she let him. When he got in his room, he pulled out his laptop and sat down at the desk to get some work done. There was a knock at his room door, and when he opened it there were not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but SIX of Savannah's finest in the doorway. The front desk snowflake had called them and reported a scary gun owner was in the hotel. He invited the boys in blue in and showed them his gun and permit, and they apologized all over the place for having to answer the call. However, they told him Miss Snowflake wanted him out of "her" hotel. So he packed up and moved to another hotel nearby. He said his only regret was not getting a selfie with the six police officers. Unbelievable. Have any of you had a problem with hotels while carrying, masked or otherwise? Thanks for sending this to us, Jane! ***** Our pal qdpsteve sends us a great picture of an American classic. I found these at the Walmart nearest to me in Lakewood, California. California! Reminded me a lot of A Christmas Story as well as the gun thread.

Nice find qdpsteve! Did you buy one? ****** Link-O-Rama I'm really very seriously not kidding around anymore. Buy Ammo

AmmoSeek - online ammo search tool

GunBot - online ammo search tool

SG Ammo

Palmetto State Armory

Georgia Arms

AmmoMan

Target Sports USA ***Mail Bag*** Our pal hogmartin sends us the following - and man, ain't it the truth!

Please note the new and improved gmail account morongunthread at gmail dot com. An informal Gun Thread archive can be found HERE. If you have a question you would like to ask Gun Thread Staff offline, just send us a note and we'll do our best to answer. If you care to share the story of your favorite firearm, send a picture with your nic and tell us what you sadly lost in the tragic canoe accident. If you would like to remain completely anonymous, just say so. Lurkers are always welcome! That's it for this week - have you been to the range?

Close it up Comments Posted by Open Blogger at 07:00 PM

Food Thread: Form Follows Function, And Function Follows Form...Sometimes —CBD How many of you pay attention to the appearance of your food? You bakers just sit down...we all know you are fixated on that stuff! But I am talking about everyday foods, not gorgeous desserts. Salads with multicolored ingredients and garnishes for soups and plating carefully and all the other stuff that may not matter on the fork but certainly makes a difference in visual pleasure. I was thinking about this a few days ago while I made Ina Garten's "Guacamole Salad," which is actually pretty damned good! She calls for yellow peppers, which are sometimes difficult to find, but set off the other colors of the salad rather nicely. I'm pretty slow on the uptake so it took me a few (dozen) times before I realized why she specified them. And as much as I pooh-pooh that sort of thing, it is important, because the pleasure of the dinner table is more complex than the taste and texture of the food. That being said, I have had plenty of meals that were not particularly appealing to the eye, but were magnificent in all other respects. And of course I have eaten my share of beautiful but tasteless foods. You guessed it...I have no point; just an observation. Continue reading

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Since I almost never talk about Sous Vide I thought I might mention what I made for dinner on Friday night for Rosh Hashanah dinner. That's the Jewish New Year, and it is a festive and happy holiday. And that's seven pounds of beef short ribs with about eight hours to go in a 48 hour cook. It was a really complicated recipe: salt, pepper, into the vacuum bag and forget about it for two days. Then I chilled them in several changes of cold water, took them out of the bags while saving the juices (I am giddy with anticipation of what I can do with that!), and when I was ready to finish them just popped them onto a very hot grill and crisped them for about six or eight minutes. How did they turn out? They were spectacular. One of the best dishes I have ever made. And one of the simplest. I served them with a cauliflower gratin and some Oakland-style barbecue sauce, and they didn't need the sauce. Which was too bad, because it was a really good batch, without that ridiculously unbalanced bay leaf flavor that the recipe calls for. Four bay leaves? I put one small one in and pulled it out after five minutes and it was perfect. Sous Vide lends itself to long and slow cooking. Sure, it works fine for quick stuff, but I think its real value for the home cook is to replace long and messy braises and roasts, and to render and soften fat in high-fat meats like the thick pork chops that are on the menu tonight at Chez Dildo.

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I may have posted this a few years ago, but it is loads of fun, particularly "Crazy 'Bout My Bacon." I may have posted this a few years ago, but it is loads of fun, particularly "Crazy 'Bout My Bacon." BBQ All Stars by Chris Cassone & Friends Yup...he is a Moron!

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What the hell is this? Does Big Bourbon have no shame? I sort of get the cinnamon-flavored stuff, because that is a flavor that can be found naturally in some bourbons. But chocolate?



What the hell is this? Does Big Bourbon have no shame? I sort of get the cinnamon-flavored stuff, because that is a flavor that can be found naturally in some bourbons. But chocolate? I'll bet it's syrupy-sweet and chemically and pretty damned awful. A cardboard membership without ampersands for the first Moron (and moron) to taste this stuff and report back. Oh...$30? Really? There isn't a chance in hell that I would buy this, because for that much money I can get a pretty good bourbon that stands on its own, and then toss in some cocoa powder if I am really bored. And drunk. And stupid.

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And speaking of adulterated booze... And speaking of adulterated booze... A local steakhouse that we frequent has a big container of vodka with chunks of pineapple. They make a shaken drink with it that my BIL orders every time we go. On a lark, I ordered one, and it is pleasant. So...I made a batch using one pineapple and about 1.50 liters of vodka. I let it extract for about four days before tasting it. Well, I let my BIL taste it first. And when he didn't collapse I tried one. Not bad, although I put a few drops of spicy Thai bitters in for some extra complexity. I also asked one of our resident bartenders (bitter clinger) about the extraction process, and he said: I'd go a minimum of a week. I personally rebottle fruit infusions at two weeks with fruit, if I'm infusing at room temperature. I strain them through fine mesh or cheesecloth and then store them in the freezer. If you infuse at cold temps you probably want to go a bit longer, maybe up to a month. If you are using peppers to make pepper vodka, keep a closer eye on it. If you go too long you can wind up with some chalky notes to it that are unpleasant. As for cocktails, one of my favorites at the bar was a French 76. Basically an 1.5 oz of Pineapple infusion, .5 oz of lemon juice and a sugar cube. Put that cube and the lemon juice in a Collins glass or flute and let it saturate a few seconds, then add your vodka give it a quick twirl and top it off with sparkling wine. Pineapple plays well with heat too, something I'm sure you recognize from cooking. I made a nice little cocktail a few months back for a class I was teaching to some wine moms with pineapple infused vodka, Ancho Reyes Chile liqueur and some mango syrup and a super thin slice of jalapeño on it. A pineapple upside down martini style drink with some Butterscotch schnapps, a little pineapple purée (maybe from blending your fruit?) and a drip or two of grenadine are the end. Perhaps mix it with sparkling coconut water, though I'm not a fan of the stuff. I'd think one of the flavored ones might be okay for a fizzy highball. But ultimately, I think if you really want the pure essence of it, yeah your instincts are pretty much spot on. Keep it simple. Maybe use a big cube in your tin to help beat up that pineapple. And run it through a fine mesh strainer when you are done. Smoke goes well with pineapple too. Make you one of those fun smoke-filled ice spheres and crack it in the glass, or alternatively, the tiniest possible drop of liquid smoke or even a drop or five of an Islay scotch like LaPhroaig. I better shut up now or I'll just keep rattling off ideas! Wow.

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A few (hopefully) interesting links. Wow.A few (hopefully) interesting links. Your "Expired" Milk Still Has So Much More to Give A close look at my sourdough starter Chard and Sausage with Crispy Spiced Chickpeas When I buy in bulk I buy from Herbco.com , and the savings is just ridiculous. When I make big batches of spice rubs they are lifesavers, and they don't seem to be political, in spite of the location (central California).

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Here's the salad I mentioned, although I suspect I have posted it before. Here's the salad I mentioned, although I suspect I have posted it before. Ina Garten's Guacamole Salad One modification is to back off just a bit on the salt and lime. And that's weird to me, because those are two flavors I rarely get too much of!

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Food and cooking tips, Large-breasted Muscovy ducks, young wild pigs, bartenders who use vermouth in Martinis (but not too much), pork belly that doesn't have 5-spice, low-temperature-roast chicken, and good tomatoes that aren't square, pale pink and covered with Mestizo E.coli: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com. Any advocacy of French Toast with syrup will result in disciplinary action up to and including being Food and cooking tips, Large-breasted Muscovy ducks, young wild pigs, bartenders who use vermouth in Martinis (but not too much), pork belly that doesn't have 5-spice, low-temperature-roast chicken, and good tomatoes that aren't square, pale pink and covered with Mestizo E.coli:. Any advocacy of French Toast with syrup will result in disciplinary action up to and including being nuked from orbit. And yes, shaking a Manhattan is blasphemy...it's in the Bible! Close it up Comments Posted by CBD at 04:00 PM

First-World Problems...Part Setenta E Oito —CBD Recently I had the pleasure of drinking a few of these beers, accompanied by a dozen excellent Rhode Island oysters. Of course the problem was that I had to be in Rhode Island, because that beer is impossible to find in more civilized parts of the country. Well, it can be found in Massachusetts too, but that may be even worse than Rhode Island! And to make matters even more miserable, the next day I had another local (to Rhode Island) beer with more local oysters that were quite good, and once again; it is nowhere to be found outside of that thinnest and smallest of states that straddles I-95. At least the company was good (you can guess who was there). The cruel and heartless alcohol production, distribution, and retail sale laws in this country are chaotic and frankly corrupt. They conspire to keep the fruits of the golden age of American beer from most of the people who enjoy them. Sure, I can get local stuff, but I can't count the number of times I have sat at some pleasant bar or restaurant, far from my home, drinking an excellent local beer and realizing that I will probably never drink it again! It's a constant struggle to arise every morning with the knowledge that I have been horribly isolated from most of the best beer in the country, and that I can do nothing about it. The horror...the horror. Comments Posted by CBD at 02:00 PM

"Unconscious Bias" And "White Privilege:" Two Sides Of The Same Anti-Freedom Coin —CBD Most people who work for large American corporations have been dragged (sometimes kicking and screaming) into some sort of seminar or class or program explaining how all of us {well, middle class White people mostly) are irredeemably racist or sexist or classist or religionist(?), and only by admitting that we have a problem can we begin to atone for our evil. It was suggested to me recently that I have unconscious biases, and I refuted that by pointing out that like most sentient beings, I am aware of my biases, and that the idea of an unconscious bias is a political one rather than philosophical or emotional. It is, along with "White Privilege" a tool of the Left to subjugate those who have built Western culture. It is nothing more than a thought crime, and Stalin and Mao and Pol Pot would be proud of the way their minions have hidden their ideas within a post-modern structure of verbal obfuscation and liberal guilt. But don't take my word for it...just read "Psychology Today," and their absolutely moronic and illogical takes on those two concepts. Continue reading

What Is Unconscious Bias (And How You Can Defeat It) Speaking of illogic, here is a paragraph describing some of their evidence. it is factually incorrect, and it also assumes motives that simply do not exist. Black Americans suffer from police harassment and violence at a much higher rate than white people, people do try to defend the police by claiming that black people are more violent and likely to break the law than whites. They thus attribute police harassment to the internal characteristics of black people (implying that it is deserved), not to the external context of police behavior. Weapons-grade nonsense, yet that is the default position of the left, the media, and a far-too-large slice of America. Weapons-grade nonsense, yet that is the default position of the left, the media, and a far-too-large slice of America. But wait! Here is a discourse on "White Privilege" that is even more ridiculous and silly. You might have a hard time understanding what the fvck this idiot is trying to say, but as an example of circular reasoning and flaccid thinking it's a solid entry in the Idiot Sweepstakes. Ten Things Everyone Should Know About White Privilege Today Racial-minority privilege exists and serves an important function.

I'm not saying that it is equivalent to white privilege — the power differential alone makes that impossible — but there is such a thing as racial-minority privilege. In marginalized spaces (also called counter spaces), this means that people of color generally have the privilege of speaking about race without having their point of view challenged solely on the basis of their racial identity or racial appearance. I'm not complaining about this or wishing for something different, though I've certainly been challenged in just this way. To the contrary, it makes sense to me that marginalized spaces have barriers to entry for the non-marginalized, as well as the fact that those barriers have to be negotiated over and over again by those not part of the racial minority in-group. These barriers allow the counter spaces to, at least occasionally, serve as safe havens for marginalized groups — a place where members of those groups can express themselves more freely and with a higher likelihood of receiving acceptance and validation of their experience and point of view. Not that such acceptance and validation are guaranteed (safer havens, is probably more accurate). Like white privilege, racial-minority privilege is also relative. The presence of colorism and internalized racism within many racial minority groups also sometimes contributes to the devaluing of certain voices, as does the intersection of racial-minority privilege with gender, class, sexual orientation, and other forms of privilege and oppression. Huh? So "White Privilege" is bad but Non-White Privilege" is good? Huh? So "White Privilege" is bad but Non-White Privilege" is good? This is nothing more than the careful destruction of Western culture and philosophy, and it is masterfully constructed by the descendants of the original Frankfurt School. It is the most powerful tool in the communist arsenal, and they wield it with surprising success. Thought crimes are all they can accuse us of, because the data show a starkly different America than what they want. And the sad part is that many Americans are all too willing to convict themselves of these imaginary crimes...the left doesn't even have to work that hard. Close it up Comments Posted by CBD at 12:00 PM

Sunday Morning Book Thread [naturalfake] —Open Blogger Welcome to the AOSHQ Book Thread! OM will be galavanting about the country with his Missus this week. So, today the Book Thread is coming straight to you from the great state of Texas. And since I don’t convey the same austere authority as does OregonMuse, today’s AOSHQ Book Thread Terms and Conditions will be delivered the Only Law West of the Zombie Pecos: Zombie Judge Roy Bean. Judge, please.

Thank you, son. Continue reading

Now, this here is the Book Thread is nearly World Famous and decorum will be maintained while y’all are jawin’ about books and such. Though I have never seen a more sorry collection of galoots, hornswogglers, idjits, claim jumpers, dudes, dandies, cattle rustlers, horse thieves, and New York fancy boys. Nor have I seen a more beautiful collection of Ladies anywhere, ceptin’ for the heavenly Miss Lily Langtry. And thus pants are required. Not wearing pants is a hanging offense. Even if it’s these here pants:



Which hurt the eyes of Justice and are twenty dollar fine. Nor will there be any chawin’, spittin’, or cussin’. Chawin’, spittin’, and cussin’ are a ten dollar fine. First offense. Second offense is a hangin’. That should do’er. I hereby by declare by the power vested in me that the bar is open and beer is five cents a glass. I’ll be inside should y’all need any hangin’. Drink This Book Alcohol is a lot like the dog. Always there willing and waiting to make your life better, if you don’t abuse it. Only it’s been mankind’s loyal companion through a much longer time span. When the first starving ape gobbled down some rotting, fermented mangoes, and discovered, “Ooh, I like this. It gets me drunk.”, it was a true 2001 Monolith moment only with fewer tapir femurs smashing heads and turning into rocket ships. Our ape-ish ancestors had taken finally their first step in the long journey toward that pinnacle of evolution, Pabst Blue Ribbon Stronger Seltzer Wild Berry. Booze in one form or another has been a significant part of almost every culture throughout history. So, where is the great novel about beer? Where is the timeless prose steeped in malty goodness? For that matter, where’s the great novel about wine? Or gin? Or ouzo? Hooch shows up in undeniably good novels like “Under the Volcano” or “The Lost Weekend”, but it’s more in the guise of demon alcohol tempting weak men to their doom. It’s damn rare to find an author who’s prose and plot sing with the fun and conviviality that sharing a drink can bring you; as well as convey the pure loopiness of an alcohol fueled adventure: along with the downside of abuse. Here are two that I think fit the bill: “Moscow to the End of the Line” by Venedikt Erofeev The story is very simple. The main character has been fired from his job and is traveling by train to meet his sweetie and child. He’s an alcoholic intellectual and along with his fellow passengers proceeds to drink heavily every inch of the way as he holds forth on life, love, angels, alcohol, history. The effect is like being trapped next to a very chatty but highly amusing drunk in the seat beside you on a train. Some of the monologues are fairly erudite and some just plain loopy like the “cocktail” recipes for when you’re out of vodka. An example would be, “The Spirit of Geneva”, which consists of White Lilac cologne, Athlete’s Foot Remedy, Zhiguli beer, and Alcohol Varnish. As you can tell, this is a character centric book and very light on plot. However, if you can go with the flow, you’ll have a great time. “The Palm Wine Drinkard” by Amos Tutola This is a novel from Africa. The main character spends his days drinking palm wine, until his favorite tapster is taken to the Land of the Dead. As background, Palm Wine is brewed from palm sap, so a good tapster is important. Our hero takes off to rescue the tapster from the Land of the Dead and along the way meets up with various creatures and beings from African folklore. He suffers hardships and challenges. All the while he’s drinking palm wine. The story is told in a kind of patois that gives the prose an odd rhythm. So the reading of it feels a lot like listening to a guy drunk on palm wine recounting his imaginary(?) adventures some of which proceed logically and some which leave logic far far behind. It’s a lot of fun and probably unlike anything you’ve ever read before. Oh, and here’s G. K. Chesterton with an appropriate quote: “The dipsomaniac and the abstainer are not only both mistaken, but they both make the same mistake. They both regard wine as a drug and not as a drink.”

Dream This Book Everyone dreams. But, where is the great dream novel? Oh, okay. Fine. “Finnegan’s Wake”. There, we mentioned Jimbo Joyce’s vast hairball of a novel and you can go place it unread on your Impress the Guests shelf next to Obama’s never read tomes. Recently I read a book by Natsume Soseki ( author of “I am a Cat” and “Botchan”)

titled, “Ten Nights’ Dreams” The book is a short collection of ten short dreams. It can easily be read in an afternoon. Some of the dream are funny, some nice, some creepy and edging into horror, some beautiful. Several begin with the phrase, “This is the dream I dreamed.” The prose has the kind of lapidary precision and description that marks a well-remembered dream. Logic need not apply. It’s very well done. But, “Ten Nights’ Dreams” pointed out to me just how hard it is to write an entire novel set in a dream world. A 3 or 4 page dream, fine. However, do we really want to read a 900 page opus about your dream where you’re a donut and Pee Wee Herman is a hot dog that keeps leaping through your hole? I think not. Ideally, a Dream Novel should contain a clear plot or story told in the manner of a dream. The two following are pretty good examples of that.

“Sweet Dreams” by Michael Frayn This is an odd novel. It’s not dystopian or utopian. Maybe call it a “Topian” novel. “Sweet Dreams” is the sort of novel that one of “Our Betters” might write about “Our Betters” creating their perfect world. But, also one of “Our Betters” who understands how and why they would fail. The novel begins with a reverie by the main character driving to a new job. His new job is set in the capitol city of Heaven, which resembles a perfectly clean, well-run, and efficient London full of nice, wonderful people. The main character gets a job helping God construct our world. Our World is to be a reflection of Heaven. Not a perfect reflection but one similar enough that people can get an idea of the true nature of Heaven and the way things should be. All of the people working on this project are highly educated, polite, hard-working, filled with good intentions and wonderful ideas, and yet….and yet… “Sweet Dreams” doesn’t take the harsh path of a “1984” or “Brave New World” and could be read as a light British comedy. Yet, it contains deep philosophical and religious waters. It’s time may have come, especially for the Left to quietly reflect on, as we seem to be heading into an new age of howling utopian violence.

“The Unlimited Dream Company” by J. G. Ballard The main character steals an airplane and crashes into the Thames. From that point on we don’t know if what we’re seeing is the afterlife, a dying dream, a coma, or the dream of an unconscious man.

The main character is rescued and taken to the English town of Shepperton. He’s never fit in anywhere before, but he seems to fit in now. He gains influence and control of aspects of the town, nature itself, and the people. Using these powers he begins to change everything around in an extravagant and ecstatic manner. The people hail him as a messiah. Is he there to end everything as we know it, end himself, or both? The main character’s name is Blake, which gives you the key to the novel. Ballard wants to create a story influenced by and told through the ecstatic and apocalyptic vision of William Blake’s poetry and paintings. “The Unlimited Dream Company” contains some astounding and truly beautiful imagery. If it sounds like the kind of thing you’d like, you probably will.

Book Drinks You Fall begins this week on September 22, and thus the start of the season for reading about ghosts, monsters, and assorted unnatural critters. Everyone has a favorite ghost and/or monster story. I tell you mine and perhaps you can chime in with yours. The best ghost story of all time, as far as I’m concerned is “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” by M.R. James. It’s the only ghost story I’ve ever read that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. Rating: 5 Neck Hairs up. Good luck finding this one without a picture that spoils the story by revealing the nature of the ghost. But, if you can, you’re in for a great read. Maybe not the best monster story ever written as it’s rather dry, but one that I’ve never forgotten one little bit is “Mimic” by Donald A. Wollheim. It was used as the basis for the eh, okay monster movie, “Mimic”. The ending of this story is what really sells it. An aspect of which was completely ignored by del Toro, but which would’ve made a much better movie as it hints at a much wider world. Rating: 5 Reality-Overturning Hmmms.

That’s it. Discuss the above or ignore it completely. As the Judge said, the bar is open and the beer is 5 cents a glass. OM will return next week. By the way, if you like novels which contain drinking, drunkenness, dreams, a healthy splash of the eerie, sex, and much, much more, check out my picaresque novel “Wearing the Cat” by H.D. Woodard at Amazon on dead tree or the Kindle. Close it up Comments Posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

Saturday Overnight Open Thread (9/19/20) —Misanthropic Humanitarian

The Saturday Night Joke

A man walked out to the street and caught a taxi just going by. He got into the taxi, and the cabbie said, “Perfect timing. You're just like Frank.” Passenger: “Who?” Cabbie: “Frank Feldman. He was a guy who did everything right all the time. Like my coming along when you needed a cab. Things happened like that to Frank Feldman every single time.” Passenger: “There are always a few clouds over everybody.” Cabbie: “Not Frank Feldman. He was a terrific athlete. He could have won the Grand-Slam at tennis. He could golf with the pros. He sang like an opera baritone and danced like a Broadway star and you should have heard him play the piano. He was an amazing guy.” Passenger: “Sounds like he was something really special.” Cabbie: “There's more. He had a memory like a computer. He remembered everybody's birthday. He knew all about wine, which foods to order and which fork to eat them with. He could fix anything. And, he never, ever forgot to put the seat down. He wasn't like me,” he continued. “I change a fuse, and the whole street blacks out. But Frank Feldman could do everything right.” Passenger: “Wow, some guy, then.” Cabbie: “He always knew the quickest way to go in traffic and avoid traffic jams. Not like me, I always seem to get stuck in them. But Frank, he never made a mistake, and he really knew how to treat a woman and make her feel good. He would never answer her back even if she was in the wrong; and his clothing was always immaculate, shoes highly polished too. He was the perfect man! He never made a mistake. No one could ever measure up to Frank Feldman.” Passenger: “An amazing fellow. How did you meet him?” Cabbie: “Well, I never actually met Frank. He died and I made the mistake of marrying his widow.” Continue reading

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A great project for DIY Smart Military Blog................... ***

Opinion or fact? 30 beers that changed the USA. Every beer has the potential to have a huge impact. But the beers on this list go further than just helping you get the courage to hit on somebody out of your league. These American beers have had a huge impact on beer itself, and in turn, our pot-bellied nation. From trend-setters to game-changers, micro to macro, here are 30 beers that changed America. Each sip is a little bit of beer history.

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I want to know when CBD will have these yahoos on his cooking show.........

Next time you make 'Smores try Reese's Peanut Butter Cups instead of the Hersey Bars. ***

If looks could kill.....

*** Hey buddy, would you spare some change?

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This was a toss up between The Ace of Spades Pet Thread and The ONT. The ‘2 Beers and a Puppy’ Test Is My Greatest Contribution to the World

If I’m remembered for anything, it’ll probably be a piece of advice that occasionally and randomly goes viral called “two beers and a puppy.” It’s a thought exercise that I included in my 2015 book Works Well With Others. Pick a person in your life — a friend, a coworker, your cousin Kyle, whoever — and ask yourself two questions:

Would I want to have two beers with this person?

Would I trust them to look after my puppy over a weekend?

You might have thought someone was “two beers and a puppy” and it turns out they’re “no beers and a puppy.” (You don’t really enjoy spending time with this person, but you think they’re trustworthy.) Or maybe they’re “two beers and no puppy.” Sometimes people are “one beer and a puppy but only for, like, two hours on a Saturday.” Some people are “limitless beers and an ocean of puppies.” Some people are no on both counts.

Your answers are guaranteed to be revealing. It might even lead you to seeing a relationship in a different way.

*** The ONT Musical Interlude

Uncle Ted two-fer this evening...............

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Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by DIY Videos.

Notice: Posted with permission by the Ace Media Empire and AceCorp, LLC? Maybe. Who knows? Whatever. It's Saturday night, after all. Close it up Comments Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:00 PM

Saturday Evening Movie Thread 09-19-2020 [TheJamesMadison] —Open Blogger David Lean



David Lean's career can easily break down between two major periods. The first is made up of small, relationship based films usually based in Britain and in black and white with a couple of Charles Dickens adaptations thrown in. The second is a series of five epic films set in more exotic locales with big, broad visual scopes. He's mostly known for his second period with films such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia , and Doctor Zhivago , but his first period has jewels like Brief Encounter (my personal favorite of his films), Great Expectations , and Hobson's Choice .



One of the things I've learned first hand wading through several directors work in order is the prevalence of reoccurring themes and motifs. The most obvious example was Terry Gilliam who puts the idea of the balance between fantasy and reality into literally every film, and Lean is really no different. Through almost every film (the main exceptions being the Charles Dickens adaptations which would probably require major twisting to get into this vein), Lean uses the idea of temporary high emotional states attempting to replace more subdued permanent ones. This happens most frequently when dealing with affairs of married people where the affair provides the protagonists a high emotional escape, but they end up turning their backs on that to return to the marriage which is steady.



There are variations on that, of course. This Happy Breed is about the state of Britain in between the World Wars with changes coming left and right only for Britain to return to its normal steady self at the outbreak of conflict with the Nazis (nobody tell Lean what happened to Britain after WWII). The Sound Barrier is about the permanence of exploration and scientific knowledge prevailing over the tragic concerns of everyday humanity. In The Passionate Friends a woman who had a relationship with a man other than her husband before her marriage is crushed to find that he had moved on more than her, making her memories and her fantasies the temporary state.



I want to highlight two movies of his that exemplify these motifs in his work. One is probably the most straight forward presentation, and the other is actually a complete inversion. Looking at them side by side is interesting.

Continue reading

A Brief Encounter ... Straight Up



David Lean started as an editor in the British film industry and got his first directing job alongside Noel Coward when Coward wanted to direct his own first feature film, In Which We Serve . Lean largely took over the directing duties as filming progressed and Lean's feature film directing career was born. Lean and Coward worked together through three more features. The last of their professional collaborations was Brief Encounter which Coward produced and co-wrote based on a play of his.



In it, a happily married housewife, Laura, meets a handsome general practitioner, Alec, on her Thursday excursions into Milford. He works there once a week, and she goes grocery shopping and occasionally catches a movie on the same day. They often end up in the little cafe in the train station waiting for their ride back to their homes, in opposite directions. Through a series of innocent meetings, they end up falling in love, but the relationship isn't to last forever. Alec can't be a GP forever. He needs to specialize and he's presented with an opportunity to move to South Africa. Laura can't dissolve her marriage since her husband is such a good man and her children don't deserve such a mess if she left. And yet, they can't deny the feelings that they share for one another.



The entire story is actually told in flashback immediately after Alec and Laura say goodbye for the last time. There are echoes of Anna Karenina as Laura looks out over the train tracks where Alec's train just departed, but she goes home and sits with her good, welcoming, and completely ignorant of the affair husband and confesses to him. She doesn't confess out loud, but in her head as her husband completes the daily crossword in their sitting room. This internal monologue ends up being how she cleanses herself of the affair, to a certain degree. When she finishes her tale, wracked by guilt and sadness, she breaks down in front of her husband, weeping. Her husband, being the good man that he is, embraces her, ready to try and fix whatever ails her, and that devotion brings her back.



When her affair is over, all she has left is what she had before, her husband and family who love her. While she may have gotten real happiness in her torrid little affair with Alec, her previous life is still, thankfully, there. None of this really absolves her of her cuckolding of her husband, but she does find that what she ended up running away from was far better than what she ever thought.



This sort of return to the mean, finding that the permanent state left in favor of the temporary emotional one is common, and typically presented in this same basic structural fashion. However, there is one particular example that turns it all on its head.



Doctor Zhivago ... With a Twist





Out of every film Lean made with this core motif, Doctor Zhivago is the only one where the permanent state never returns. It happens on a couple of different levels in the film, but in neither case, either with the Russian Revolution or the main character's marriage, does the original state return.

The film starts out on the eve of the First World War, and we get a good sense of life in Tsarist Russia. There's poverty and unrest, but there is also a certain amount of wealth for the characters involved. Yuri Zhivago is a young doctor and poet who is climbing both professionally and socially. Lara is the daughter of a poor shop owner and preyed upon by her mother's lover. Unrest from previous conditions, Tsarist overreaction, and the war tip the country into revolution, and the country never comes back from it.



The high emotional changes from the revolt become permanent. There's no going back to the comfortable upward mobility Yuri was experiencing. He shuttles from one place to another, always seemingly on the verge of starvation. Even years later, in the movie's coda, when a certain normalcy has returned to Russia, it's an empty existence, bland and tasteless that Bernardo Bertolucci echoed wonderfully in The Last Emperor about China's own transition to communism. There's no returning to the pre-revolution, not in Russia.



The other inversion of the motif is when it comes to Yuri's relationships with his wife, Tonya, and his lover, Lara. Yuri's marriage with Tonya mirrors the happy humdrum reality of the marriage in Brief Encounter . It's a happy marriage, but unexciting. The relationship Yuri develops with Lara, though, is exciting, and he ends up leaving Tanya entirely (not completely of his own accord considering the events of the film that pulls Yuri into the partisan conflict for an extended period of time). He finds Lara, and they have some happy time together in the iced over house that Yuri used to call home in the Russian countryside. He has to send Lara away in order to save her life, and he ends up alone in his house. Years later, he sees Lara on the street and dies of a heart attack chasing after her without her ever knowing that he was there.



Yuri ends up with nothing in the end. Everything about his old life is gone. His wife, his home, his children, it's all been taken away either with his consent or without it.



David Lean, The Man and The Artist





Lean didn't talk much about his personal life, but one this is blindingly clear: he couldn't stay married. He wed five times, and there were rumors that he simply couldn't keep his wandering eye in check. He loved women probably in much the same way that Ingmar Bergman loved them. They were his muses, but they were also conquests to a certain degree.



Placing that in context with the main thrust of his films, that affairs and high emotional states were inherently unstable and the less exciting ones were more reliable, is an interesting contrast. He may have believed it, it's hard to imagine an artist returning to the same idea repeatedly over decades and not believing it, and yet he refused to live it himself.



It's a disconnect between the artist and the art. Is it better to take Lean's artistic output independent of the man, or must we include his personal failings at the same time?



A Final Note



David Lean is the eighth director whose work I've gone through from beginning to end without skipping anything that's possible to find, and I love the exercise.



Going in order, in a concentrated period of time, and allowing the text of their work to speak for itself has allowed a much deeper appreciation for their work than just occasionally picking up a movie here or there would ever do. The focus on repeating themes helps focus my viewings on what the director is trying to say over a career, providing newer wrinkles to interpretation that I wouldn't have picked up on before.



But, at the same time, the idea of jumping into someone like John Ford's filmography in the same way is daunting since he has over a hundred directing credits (many of the early ones are lost or short films). It's a practice I want to continue, but I also don't want to do nothing but watch John Ford movies for the next six months or so. I'm always on the lookout for the next director to go through.



Movies of Today



Opening in Theaters:



The Nest



Yeah, I ain't heard of it either.



Movies I Saw This Fortnight:



The Matrix (Rating 3/4)



The Matrix Revolutions (Rating 3/4)



Great Expectations (Rating 4/4)



Oliver Twist (Rating 3/4)



The Sound Barrier (Rating 3.5/4)



The Bridge on the River Kwai (Rating 4/4)



Lawrence of Arabia (Rating 4/4)



Doctor Zhivago (Rating 2/4) Doctor Zhivago was a largely ornate construction with little actual emotion, but I couldn't do it." [HBO Max]



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Close it up Out of every film Lean made with this core motif,is the only one where the permanent state never returns. It happens on a couple of different levels in the film, but in neither case, either with the Russian Revolution or the main character's marriage, does the original state return.The film starts out on the eve of the First World War, and we get a good sense of life in Tsarist Russia. There's poverty and unrest, but there is also a certain amount of wealth for the characters involved. Yuri Zhivago is a young doctor and poet who is climbing both professionally and socially. Lara is the daughter of a poor shop owner and preyed upon by her mother's lover. Unrest from previous conditions, Tsarist overreaction, and the war tip the country into revolution, and the country never comes back from it.The high emotional changes from the revolt become permanent. There's no going back to the comfortable upward mobility Yuri was experiencing. He shuttles from one place to another, always seemingly on the verge of starvation. Even years later, in the movie's coda, when a certain normalcy has returned to Russia, it's an empty existence, bland and tasteless that Bernardo Bertolucci echoed wonderfully inabout China's own transition to communism. There's no returning to the pre-revolution, not in Russia.The other inversion of the motif is when it comes to Yuri's relationships with his wife, Tonya, and his lover, Lara. Yuri's marriage with Tonya mirrors the happy humdrum reality of the marriage in. It's a happy marriage, but unexciting. The relationship Yuri develops with Lara, though,exciting, and he ends up leaving Tanya entirely (not completely of his own accord considering the events of the film that pulls Yuri into the partisan conflict for an extended period of time). He finds Lara, and they have some happy time together in the iced over house that Yuri used to call home in the Russian countryside. He has to send Lara away in order to save her life, and he ends up alone in his house. Years later, he sees Lara on the street and dies of a heart attack chasing after her without her ever knowing that he was there.Yuri ends up with nothing in the end. Everything about his old life is gone. His wife, his home, his children, it's all been taken away either with his consent or without it.Lean didn't talk much about his personal life, but one this is blindingly clear: he couldn't stay married. He wed five times, and there were rumors that he simply couldn't keep his wandering eye in check. He loved women probably in much the same way that Ingmar Bergman loved them. They were his muses, but they were also conquests to a certain degree.Placing that in context with the main thrust of his films, that affairs and high emotional states were inherently unstable and the less exciting ones were more reliable, is an interesting contrast. He may have believed it, it's hard to imagine an artist returning to the same idea repeatedly over decades and not believing it, and yet he refused to live it himself.It's a disconnect between the artist and the art. Is it better to take Lean's artistic output independent of the man, or must we include his personal failings at the same time?David Lean is the eighth director whose work I've gone through from beginning to end without skipping anything that's possible to find, and I love the exercise.Going in order, in a concentrated period of time, and allowing the text of their work to speak for itself has allowed a much deeper appreciation for their work than just occasionally picking up a movie here or there would ever do. The focus on repeating themes helps focus my viewings on what the director is trying to say over a career, providing newer wrinkles to interpretation that I wouldn't have picked up on before.But, at the same time, the idea of jumping into someone like John Ford's filmography in the same way is daunting since he has over a hundred directing credits (many of the early ones are lost or short films). It's a practice I want to continue, but I also don't want to do nothing but watch John Ford movies for the next six months or so. I'm always on the lookout for the next director to go through.Opening in Theaters:Yeah, I ain't heard of it either.Movies I Saw This Fortnight:(Rating 3/4) Full Review "It's a solidly good action film with one of the great first acts in popular film over the last few decades, a surprisingly slowly ponderous second act, and then an entertaining third act that feels like it could have been more. I kind of get the love, but I definitely don't share it." [Personal Collection](Rating 3/4) Full Review "The beginning is frustrating and the ending as well in different form, but the film is really dominated by the middle where it works really well. Like all of them, this could have been better, but on the whole, I think The Matrix Revolutions ends up being a pretty good action spectacle." [Personal Collection](Rating 4/4) Full Review "It is an exceptional adaptation and story told with the practiced hand of David Lean, and is one of the best cinematic versions of a Charles Dickens novel put to film." [HBO Max](Rating 3/4) Full Review "It's a triumph of production that I just wish the script were able to match. It's not a bad script, but I do wish it had been more ironed out to make the action flow better and provide a better focus on Oliver late." [HBO Max](Rating 3.5/4) Full Review "It's a solid entertainment with an almost tricky focus that ends up working out quite well. Probably one of Lean's most underrated films." [DailyMotion](Rating 4/4) Full Review "It's just a great movie all around and one of David Lean's best." [Personal Collection](Rating 4/4) Full Review "It's a production of the highest order with an intelligently told study of a man at its center. This is more than just a critics' delight, this is grand entertainment." [Personal Collection](Rating 2/4) Full Review "I was ready for my second viewing in about fifteen years to reverse my initial opinion thatwas a largely ornate construction with little actual emotion, but I couldn't do it." [HBO Max]Email any suggestions or questions to thejamesmadison.aos at symbol gmail dot com.Follow me on Twitter I've also archived all the old posts here , by request. I'll add new posts a week after they originally post at the HQ. Comments Posted by Open Blogger at 07:35 PM

Chess And Dress Thread [NaCly Dog} —Open Blogger Oregon Muse always mentions that his posts are open to other games besides chess. I will touch on the Golden Age of Board Wargames, which I define as 1965-1982. For more details and depth, various Wikipedia articles are good resources, as is an article on the business of wargaming from Greg Costikyan: SPI Died for Your Sins. These pictures are from a variety of different Comic Conventions, which have many participants in costume. Our own Anna Puma provided one picture, but she is probably not in any of the pictures. Probably.

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Unlike the abstract game chess, wargames try to simulate conflict with varying degrees of realism. War games had existed for military use since Prussian times. The US Navy at the Naval War College made extensive use of games to examine a future conflict with Japan in the 1920s-1930s. It was an investment in the intellectual growth of naval officers. But wargames were not available to the general public. The game Gettysburg, published in 1958, was the first modern commercial game about a historical battle. More games were published in subsequent years, and a hobby was born. The land game titles ranged from Waterloo, D-Day, Stalingrad, Africa Corps, to Blitzkrieg. Naval games included Bismarck, Midway, and Jutland. Richthofen’s War covered WWI air battles. These games, with simple mechanics and easy to learn rules, may not have been realistic or historically accurate, but they were easy to play and a lot of fun. That was the Avalon Hill trademark. The best selling wargame of all time was PanzerBlitz. It was a completely different game from those before. It involved small units fighting over a small area in Russia, in a short time. Each game turn was 6 minutes. The technical detail was amazing and it was history you could see and change. Tanks, infantry, cavalry, crew-serviced weapons, and artillery of all types were represented. There were many scenarios available, and with the counters present in the game, you could read a history book, get an order of battle, pick the right counters, and come up with a new scenario. Another publisher, SPI, went for more realism, with more complex games on an amazing number of conflicts from Ancient Egypt all the way to battles in space. They became the center of the wargaming hobby, with 30K subscribers and an inner core of 1K lifetime subscribers. These individuals bought 100s of games each, and started conventions to play others. The company was a technical innovator, spreading the hobby. Playing wargames taught history, planning, and analysis. They act as time machines. What ifs were at the heart of the gaming experience. The past could be changed in a game. Future war possibilities could be examined. For example, the possibility of war between NATO and the USSR in the 1980s-1990s spawned many games. The end of the hobby as a common pastime was when SPI went under in 1982. Their business execution was poor. They were sold for pennies on the dollar to another company that was a minority creditor. That company did not honor existing subscriptions. Just like that, sales collapsed. Wargames continued to evolve, up to the mega games of GDW and GRD, with large playing maps covering all of Europe in WWII at 16 miles per hex, thousands of counters, and rule books over 100 pages long. An Eastern Front game would cover an entire back room and take years to play. But the numbers of games sold were small. Board wargames never recovered from pissing off the core of the hobby, the dedicated players. Close it up Comments Posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

Ace of Spades Pet Thread —Misanthropic Humanitarian

(H/T ALH)

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Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Take a break from your chores and enjoy the world of animals. Continue reading

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A Little of This. A Little of That.

Pet lover and all around great 'ette Shibumi submitted the following stories. Cute stories. A prairie dog and a cat are very close friends.

Cats with attitudes, or dogs are just more considerate.

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Is this the answer to one of man's oldest questions?

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Meet The PetMorons

Hi, I comment on the book thread as CarolinaGirl but usually lurk on the Pet thread. This is Podrick, my sweet dog who is now about 4 1/2. I got him from the local Animal Protection League in 2017. The shelter said he was an Australian cattle dog mix, but whatever he is, he’s the best boy ever. He has never climbed on furniture or chewed up a shoe, and gnawed just one book cover. He only barks when a stranger comes to door. Since mid-March he’s enjoyed being my coworker at home and has a gentle way of nudging me when it’s time for his mid-morning break. He’s been a super quarantine buddy! (The name is from Game of Thrones ... the loyal squire. Perfect for such a good boy.)

CarolinaGirl Thank you for stepping out of the world of books into the world of pets. Quite the cubicle mate you have there. Well behaved and cute.

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The young Chesapeake Bay Retreiver doing what he was born to do. - Paul So what is the name of your pup? So you guys enjoy hunting for rockets with wings Ruffed Grouse. Good way to burn off puppy energy. Thanks for sharing.

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fFIIGMO here, frequent visitor, occasional commenter: Attached is a photo of our sweet Maylie (named after Mrs. Maylie in Oliver Twist), a Labradoodle unlike any other. She had issues (knee surgery, digestive stuff) but was absolutely a wonderful, loving soul. Just lost her 8/3/20 after almost 12 years. RIP sweet Maylie. So sorry to hear of Maylie's passing. She certainly was a cute sweetie. Thank you for your contribution.

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This is my boyfriend's cat Rascal. We recently spent a week at the beach and stayed at a pet-friendly 100 year old beach house rental. I had my two little chihuahuas Flynn and Cori with me, and my boyfriend brought along his pet cat Rascal, who's a lot bigger than the two dogs combined. Cori is 5 months old, and she and Rascal played chase and shared toys while Flynn watched complacently. Rascal is a talker and an indoor-outdoor kitty, and while he didn't really like the beach, he tolerated his confinement admirably. This was his spot when he wanted to get away from the dogs and look out the window at the beach. As you can see, he's very photogenic! Thanks, Bird from Georgia.

My goodness, traveling with 2 dogs and a cat? Brave souls you are. It sounds like a fun adventure was had by all. Thanks for sharing.

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This is sweet River. She was living in a junk yard as a puppy when a rescue group picked her up. My son adopted her and she stayed at our house until he could move. My husband kept asking when he was going to come get his dog. Now we say to my son “you will never get this dog.” We love her so much! She’s smart, funny and just so adorable. Living in that junk yard made her clever and crafty, both traits that are irresistible.

Thanks for sharing her with the world! - Tracy Tracy submitted her dog's photo and story a couple of weeks ago. Somehow my dogs goofed up the computer and River didn't get in. So let's try again. A wonderful ending to what could have been a sad story for River.

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Don't see too many birds on the pet thread, so I would like for you to consider Peanut. He is a White Bellied Caique (type of parrot). He is about 9 years old and should live into his 40's. Peanut is similar a Marine in that he is fearless and loyal. I also have 3 cats in the house and they DO NOT MESS with the bird (they learned the hard way). Hope this makes the cut. Regards David Of course a beautifully colored pet such as Peanut would make the cut. Sounds as if he is a badass. Cool. Thanks for your contribution today.

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I've been threatening to send pix of our cats for so long! Finally got

around to it, but only after picking up two new cats!!

Photos credit: Milady Webworker. Pic #1:

Charlie, Ony, and Spirit are our three long-time housecats, about whom

I've often told stories on the Pet Thread. I've told their "how we got

them" stories in the past, but I will spare you today. They enjoy the

comforts of a big rural yard and lots of cushy inside places. Working

cats, as I often say, keeping the vermin down, and alerting us when

some critter gets in the house that they won't eat. Pic #2:

On Saturday before Labor Day, Milady and I made a rare trip to our

in-town "office," to pick up some things. As "fortuitous coincidence"

would have it, we found a family, heading through town, stopped for a

minute in our parking lot; their two young boys were trying to catch

the two tiny kittens who had come up to them. We joined in the ensuing

comic chase scene (worthy of the great Duck artist Don Rosa). Guess who ended up with the kits. Hint: not that traveling family. Not sure what will become of them. Today (day after Labor Day) we have

to decide. Our three cats were very rude to them, and we aren't really

in a position to take on two new kittens. Daughter and Son-in-Law took

them for a night while we were out of town, which became two nights

(heh! so far). Their dog really took to them. As did Daughter & SiL. To be continued. - mindful webworker So a few days have lapsed since your submission came across our desk. Has your household increased to 5 cats? All beautiful creatures. Thanks for sharing.

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Meet Macie and Charlie Brown. This pair is inseparable and extremely adorable. Macie (light brown on face) is Miss Grace's daughter and a little more feisty. Charlie is a prince and follows Macie's lead. Both enjoy dressing up for the holidays, tummy and back rubs and lots of treats. It was really hard to narrow down which pictures to attach. Good luck picking your favorite! - MW in Texas It was difficult to select one photo out of the 6 you attached. Those critters sure do act as if they are best buds. Thanks for sharing your unusual pets with us today. ***

This is the kitten who appeared in Publius' garage 3 weeks ago. He wasn't more than 6 weeks old then, and we have no idea what happened to his mother or siblings. We've named him Cato after Clouseau's sidekick, because he's an ambusher and an ankle-biter. He's already grown by more than 50% since then. Harli isn't happy about him, but he's fascinated by her and wants her to be his mommy. Today we couldn't find him anywhere, but he turned up napping in Publius' cap. Also, I have a question for the cat folks here: Harli needs a special diet for kidney function, and she doesn't like the Purina recipe. Does anyone have any tips regarding this? -Miley It certainly appears that this little critter has moved into your hearts - big time. I hope there are people who can help out with your cat chow question. Does your vet have any ideas?

*** Once again the PetMorons are a wonderful and beautiful collection of creatures. Thank you for all of your submissions. The in-box is rather full. So please be patient while we get your submission. Hope you all have a great week!!! Close it up Comments Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 03:00 PM

Saturday Gardening and Puttering Thread, September 19, 2020 [KT] —Open Blogger Hello to all gardeners, putterers and refugees from current outdoor conditions. Dream with us of better days ahead, and in the past. Weather We could have used some of the rain from Hurricane Sally here in the West. Is everybody okay? Birding Birding is a special kind of puttering. Here are some more interesting photos from F2000, in addition to the one at the top of the post: Started birding a couple years ago (Augusta, GA area) and have had a lot of fun playing with cheap photography hacks. 10x binos, a Google pixel 2 and some rubber bands make for a manageable setup for some moderately ok pictures. Including a few of my better ones from this year. In no particular order, should have a male and female 'murican gold Finch, red bellied and downy woodpeckers, barred owl, eastern bluebird, great crested flycatcher, and blue jay. Plus a picture of my home built feeder tower (I saw what wild birds unlimited was selling and said forget it, I'll make my own) and a raccoon shamelessly visiting my deck feeders late at night. He wasn't bothered by me, but took off when he spotted my 70 lb hound. Continue reading

Interesting set-up. Love those. The racoon cracks me up. Not sure I see any owls. Anybody else have birding or racooning experiences to share? The Edible Garden MarkY sent in some photos and information on pawpaws: Interesting little tree. If you read the descriptions, some will insist there are male trees, or even hermaphroditic trees, as well as female. But, when hand pollinated, ALL pawpaws will bear fruit, so I vote diecious.

They just tend to be self sterile, and are pollinated not by bees, but by flies and "disinterested beetles". Heh. I know in the City, every tree I know bears heavily annually. I put this down to the number of dogs and other critters that poop everywhere, plus people having trash out... many more flies than in the country. Here, no flies. I've always threatened to kill a coon just before the flowers open just to attract flies. Never seem to get it done, and so just hand pollinate. Flower; unripe fruit; turning tree No flies in the country? Must not be near any dairy farms. I think those flowers have sort of a primitive look. Looks like it should be growing in the tropics. As I noted last week in the comments, if you want to lessen the possibility of fruits that taste of turpentine, you may want to go for named varieties. I had never heard of freestone pawpaws before. MarkY set us off on a segment about pawpaws a few years ago, too. It's more detailed. Flowers are intended to resemble rotting meat? Bears eat the fruit. The lovely Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly depends on this tree and its relatives to live. This is the last instar of its caterpillar: Last week, Tom Servo correctly identified our mystery butterfly as a Fritillary. Not sure it's a Gulf Fritillary. Wings look a little short to me. Gardens of The Horde jsg sent in the following photos of Sweet Autumn Clematis. They started blooming a couple of weeks ago. Do you dare grow it? Here are a couple of clematis which are blooming now. The first is my wife's. It pulled down an arbor last year so I built a super trellis for it. It is humming with bees. The second is at my mothers. It also pulled over the structure it was attached to so I made her a trellis also and tied it into the arbor Dad built years ago. We'll be filling in the gaps next year with little ones we dig up out of the garden. If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is: ktinthegarden

at that g mail dot com place Include your nic unless you want to remain a lurker. Bonus: Flavor Delight Aprium. Almost like an apricot.

Close it up Comments Posted by Open Blogger at 01:21 PM

Saturday Morning Coffee Break —Misanthropic Humanitarian

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Good morning 'rons & 'ettes. Hope your week was a good one. Open thread, enjoy, opine and bloviate to your hearts content. Just a couple of rules, be nice to one another, no running with sharp objects and no pissing on the beach, that's what that large body of water is for. Close it up Comments Posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:00 AM

Overnight Open Thread (09/18/2020) —CBD Unemployment as a mass phenomenon is the outcome of allegedly "pro-labor" policies of the government and of labor union pressure and compulsion. This explanation is by no means peculiar to those economists whom the "progressives call "reactionaries." -- Ludwig von Mises Nothing can be of value without being an object of utility. If it be useless, the labor contained in it is useless, cannot be reckoned as labor, and cannot therefore create value. -- Karl Marx The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy. -- Milton Friedman The so-called consumer society and the politics of corporate capitalism have created a second nature of man which ties him libidinally and aggressively to the commodity form. The need for possessing, consuming, handling and constantly renewing the gadgets, devices, instruments, engines, offered to and imposed upon the people, for using these wares even at the danger of one's own destruction, has become a "biological" need. -- Herbert Marcuse Prices are important not because money is considered paramount but because prices are a fast and effective conveyor of information through a vast society in which fragmented knowledge must be coordinated. -- Thomas Sowell -- Ludwig von Mises-- Karl Marx-- Milton Friedman-- Herbert Marcuse-- Thomas Sowell

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The photograph up above was taken from the top of Mt. Tom, just west of Woodstock Vermont. It was a beautiful late summer day, and the few people we passed on the trail were friendly and happy. As much as I criticize the Northeast, and there is much to be critical about, it is a beautiful part of the country, and there are large swaths of it populated by the bedrock of America...people who love America and embrace American Exceptionalism. Some of our country's roots are in those mountains, and it is my most fervent hope that they will be rediscovered by a new generation of Green Mountain Boys and Graniteheads and Nutmeggers and even Massholes (Yuck! Red Sox land!) and the rest. The photograph up above was taken from the top of Mt. Tom, just west of Woodstock Vermont. It was a beautiful late summer day, and the few people we passed on the trail were friendly and happy. As much as I criticize the Northeast, and there is much to be critical about, it is a beautiful part of the country, and there are large swaths of it populated by the bedrock of America...people who love America and embrace American Exceptionalism. Some of our country's roots are in those mountains, and it is my most fervent hope that they will be rediscovered by a new generation of Green Mountain Boys and Graniteheads and Nutmeggers and even Massholes (Yuck! Red Sox land!) and the rest. Well, Maine is just weird, and Rhode Island is too small to notice, although their oysters are superb! Even New York and New Jersey have a solid minority of people who represent the best of America. To paraphrase Nurse Ratched; "Leave? Hell no, this is my state!"

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I know that some of you miss the good old days of pre-computer cars, and aesthetically you have a point. No American car company has come close to the elegance and beauty of some of those old cars. Come on...the early Mustangs? They simply cannot be beaten by anything modern. And who knew that they also designed with a sense of humor! I know that some of you miss the good old days of pre-computer cars, and aesthetically you have a point. No American car company has come close to the elegance and beauty of some of those old cars. Come on...the early Mustangs? They simply cannot be beaten by anything modern. And who knew that they also designed with a sense of humor! American Cars Party Tricks But modern cars are amazing. They are faster, handle better, get better mileage, and are far more reliable. So what I want is the body of one of those glorious cars on modern guts. That can't be too hard!

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Obviously it's a speed bump (in a pedestrian crossing), but what does a pelican have to do with anything? Obviously it's a speed bump (in a pedestrian crossing), but what does a pelican have to do with anything? The Brits are weird.

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The Far Side

You folks were recently discussing exactly how good Far Side really was, and even got into a bit of a "Just the punch line" competition. I don't know how Gary Larson did it for so long, or even for a few years. His imagination and quirkiness and humor and understanding of the human condition, all in one drawn panel is without peer.

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Hat Tip: DJLadysmith I actually like some of their other songs a lot better...like "A-Punk," and "Unbelievers. But singing about the Oxford comma? They get credit for trying!

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Shana Tova! Happy New Year everyone!

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©2023 by AceCorp LLC. All Rights Reserved. Do not taunt proprietor with Makita, DeWalt or Milwaukee products. Shelves are non-weight-bearing and are for decoration only. Dehydrating room is closed. Body under flat-screen TV is an art installation; do not disturb. Platinum members to the right, all others please use rear entrance. All members wearing fur-lined Crocs will be asked to leave. Trolls, please check in with the front desk for language skills testing. Send all unwanted Browning Hi Powers to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com ©2023 by AceCorp LLC. All Rights Reserved. Do not taunt proprietor with Makita, DeWalt or Milwaukee products. Shelves are non-weight-bearing and are for decoration only. Dehydrating room is closed. Body under flat-screen TV is an art installation; do not disturb. Platinum members to the right, all others please use rear entrance. All members wearing fur-lined Crocs will be asked to leave. Trolls, please check in with the front desk for language skills testing. Send all unwanted Browning Hi Powers to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com Close it up Comments Posted by CBD at 10:00 PM

Quarantine Cafe/RGB RIP, Cont'd —Ace By the way: Murkowski, Romney, and Collins all coordinate their Democrat votes/statements. McCain used to do it when he wasn't in Hell yet. All the liberal "Republicans" play this game, working out who is "safe" to stab the party in the back this time. Murkowski made this announcement because Collins doesn't want to vote on a new nominee -- but she can't afford to say that with an election coming up, and in a tough race. Republicans would abandon her and she would lose. So instead: Lisa Murkowski tries to kill the vote. She's not running for reelection this year. But they're all in it together. Great Point: @johnfund 30m

The Court must be at a full compliment should any election disputes such as Bush v Gore occur.

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I do not understand why people make those statements on their death bed. That seat�any seat�belongs to the people, not to her. — Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) September 18, 2020 Close it up Comments Posted by Ace at 09:20 PM

RUTH BADER GINSBURG HAS DIED —Ace Kaitlin Collins of CNN says that on Twitter. 118 Anyone who says the next president will appoint three Supreme Court Justices is a Trumpian Liar. We're smart.

Posted by: All the Twitter-Addict NeverTrumpers in 2016 Continue reading

The Supreme Court says she was surrounded by her family at her home in D.C. She died due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer. She was 87 years old and served more than 27 years on the Court. — Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) September 18, 2020 Lol: Justice Ginsburg dictated a statement before her death: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed." https://t.co/XLzhPiLSng — Justin Miller (@justinjm1) September 18, 2020 This leftist hack stayed on the court despite being in a dying state, just to run out the clock, and now she demands that her corpse also be counted as living for purposes of running out the clock still further? There are now reports that she's been dying for w