Re: Fantasy thread

1

I feel like it should be okay to go on solo road trips to isolated places - outer-ring parks, etc.

I have my Star Trek/Banks Culture crossover fanfic to keep up.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 12:49 PM
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I agree.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 12:52 PM
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I'm not staying home unless I get sick or things get worse. I need to visit at least one pokestop a day.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 12:53 PM
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I am incredibly lazy and not easily bored. I'm also knitting a cabled sweater, and I have some more yarn around when that's done. And I have some closets that need cleaning out.

Really, I could keep myself happily occupied indefinitely. Breath of the Wild is very timeconsuming.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 12:54 PM
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The third part of the Hilary Mantel Cromwell trilogy is out! But I guess that would only get me through a couple of days. I'd get to spend a lot of time on the piano I suppose, and finish a bunch of sewing projects that I have piled up.

I suppose this means tennis is out? Do I still get to go running? If I don't get some kind of outdoor exercise I think I'll lose my mind.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 12:54 PM
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I think if the tennis courts are open, it's fine to go play. 6 foot radius and all. Especially if they're public courts and it doesn't involve anyone being employed to get in.

Going running is surely fine.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 12:56 PM
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Or private courts, but still open. I know what I meant.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 12:57 PM
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Really keeping the kids from killing each other is the only fly in my ointment. Otherwise this sounds pretty pleasant.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 12:59 PM
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So no more dogging?


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 1:03 PM
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Oldest and youngest versus the middle two. Even match that keeps everyone safe because of deterrence.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 1:04 PM
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At last, time to pursue my passion:

Vengeance.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 1:07 PM
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If you use the Kondo method, you can have the kids do the physical part where they drag everything out and put it in a big pile on the floor, then sort it all into keep/donate/trash piles, and then box/bag everything up and put it in the trash, car, etc. You can sit in a comfy chair and make all the decisions and boss them around until they collapse from exhaustion.


Posted by: SR | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 1:14 PM
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Maybe if we're stuck in the house long enough, my wife and I will actually clean out the storage area that we've been saying we will do something about for at least five years. That's a scary thought.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 1:33 PM
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Maybe when I'm really well-rested, 12 will sound appealing.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 1:34 PM
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If you go outside the territorial water of the United States, you can have a monkey knife fight.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 1:38 PM
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If you have monkeys and knives.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 1:39 PM
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Or monkey knives.


Posted by: Micah | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 1:44 PM
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I'm working at home for now, but I might have my job responsibilities change and have to go do something at work.

I heard about a total jackass who was in his primary care doctor's office with respiratory infection, took off his mask part way through the visit and then the test for COVID came back positive. The Healthcare workers who saw him have to quarantine for 14 days.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 3:24 PM
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Minecraft is getting yet another outing. And the six year old is now very much into it, so we can play it together, which is great.


Posted by: Charlie W | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 3:45 PM
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The only downside is that I've noticed that video games tend to spike my cortisol, or something, with noticeable - although minor - negative effects on the immune system. Which is exactly not what is wanted.


Posted by: Charlie W | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 3:47 PM
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When not Minecraft, or god forbid work (through the new remote desktop software we are all being supplied with), it'll be Zwift, I guess.


Posted by: Charlie W | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 3:49 PM
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I've been working from home for over a year, so unless I get sick I foresee no lifestyle changes. My participation sport is bicycling, the ultimate social distancing activity, and I see no need to curtail. My main social activity is blog commenting, also excellent for social distancing. Like many others here, I have been practicing social distancing for decades now.

All fine unless school is cancelled and I have a surly high school junior in the house 24/7, which would be bad.


Posted by: unimaginative | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 4:09 PM
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Pure fantasy version?

Daycare holds out longer than the school district (he's in both now), and then I can hop into his babysitter's nanny situation when daycare closes.

I actually do things instead of sitting in front of the laptop all day hitting refresh on twitter. That's the fantasy part.
I clean out the front yard. I get the summer garden in place.
I write daily on a project I'm doing with a friend. I write posts for my blog.
Clean out the house.
Get going on securing a contractor for an ADU.
YouTube yoga videos.
River trips with the dog.
Watch Avatar, the Last Airbender with my kid.
Presumably find more materials to read and watch.

At some point we'll actually get sick for a couple weeks, but that's the price we pay for a couple months at home.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 4:38 PM
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The Last Airbender was so good compared to every other think you can watch with a kid.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 4:42 PM
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We got into the second book, and then he decided it was too scary and refused. But I figure that if we are trapped in the house, he can't stop me from watching it and if a screen is on...

This is my strategy to force my kid to watch tv with me. I virtually never watch anything, so I have the entire backlog of every TV show that everyone has always raved about ('cept GoT, which I did sorta see).


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 4:52 PM
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Moby: Pokey LOVED the 7 story treehouse series. He devoured it in like two weeks.


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 5:06 PM
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Was the Jack and Annie thing?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 5:09 PM
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That was way more than 7, there are like 60 books in that series.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 5:10 PM
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Right, but I don't know of any other.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 5:11 PM
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Anyway, I think whatever it is somebody else recommended it.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 5:14 PM
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This is a fun exercise. I'm exhausted - this year has been grueling so far at work, and have a lingering cold, so sitting at home sounds amazing. I have paint samples for our bedroom I haven't put on the wall and a piano I want to play. We have many bottles of wine to drink; I like cooking. I could get the garden ready to plant (assuming the plants I ordered still ship). I can't really work from home at all, and I know we won't close, but it sounds so relaxing. Our neighborhood is nice for running, and the weather is warming up.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 5:21 PM
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27: no. Not magic treehouse. 13 story/26 story/39 story etc treehouse. Must have been someone else. Anyway, it's a big hit.


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 5:24 PM
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Magic Treehouse was stupid dull. I think I recommended "The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle."


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 5:51 PM
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I'm WFH now and my kid's school is closed for the next two days (so far), so I'm starting to live this.

I am fond of the fact that I don't have to wake up before 6am this way.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 6:00 PM
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I think I recommended "The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle."

I read this to my kid based on your recommendation and it went over quite well.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 6:20 PM
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My daycare is at my university. I am going to break.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 8:23 PM
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37

I would order a wall-size mirror and practice the Melbourne shuffle.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 8:35 PM
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You say you want fantasy? Try this.

(Sarah Palin as "Masked Singer" rapping in a Pink Bear costume (this clip was after the reveal).)

Time for the octopuses to take over.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 8:51 PM
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I guess in the fantasy version I learn to play at least half of My Ladye Nevells Booke on the ol' harpsichord. This would be less of a fantasy for Bave, as I am an unskilled keyboard player and slow learner and you notably cannot plug headphones into a harpsichord.

Instead I'm gonna knit a lot and say stupid shit to the cats, if I even get to work from home which is not at all settled because my employer sucks.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 03-11-20 9:02 PM
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I should use some time to read because I've just realized how shockingly ignorant I am about, among other things, space. I didn't know until two days ago that we've landed on Venus. Repeatedly. And have photographs of the surface. Did everyone else know about this?

Actually, though, a quarantine will have remarkably little effect on my day-to-day life. I work from home already, as do the people I collaborate most with, so there's no getting out of working. I have had one work trip canceled (topically enough, a workshop on Medicare for All with the nurses union). I have 3 other trips planned, all of which are likely to be canceled as well, so it's straight up status quo.


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 1:09 AM
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Yes. We are nerds.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 1:17 AM
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I already work from home, and as I'm leaving both boys with their grandparents in Japan (Hitsuji is already at high school here, though that's closed at the moment, and Tatsu will spend a couple of months here on his gap year; he was adamant that if he has to be quarantined he'd rather it were in Japan because the food's better) I'll be on my own, which I know from experience isn't good. I work too much and snack too much and can't be arsed to cook if there isn't someone else to cook for/eat with in the house.


Posted by: Ume | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 1:22 AM
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Another fair point.


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 1:24 AM
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43 to 41.


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 1:25 AM
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I should use some time to read because I've just realized how shockingly ignorant I am about, among other things, space. I didn't know until two days ago that we've landed on Venus. Repeatedly. And have photographs of the surface. Did everyone else know about this?

Oh, you have some fun reading ahead of you. The Soviets specialised in Venus and had a succession of really unfortunate missions. The first one didn't make it into Earth orbit. The next two failed en route. The next two didn't make it to the surface, neither did the two after that (though they weren't intended to). Then they had four that made it down but the lens caps wouldn't come off the camera. Then they had one where it made it down and the lens cap came off the camera OK but then when it tried to extend its soil probe it turned out that the lens cap had landed directly under the soil probe so it couldn't get any readings of the soil (though it got some great readings of the lens cap). At this point I presume everyone started drinking heavily.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 2:00 AM
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At this point I presume everyone started drinking heavily.

They're Russians so I presume they were drinking heavily all along. Which may have been the problem.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 2:08 AM
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Oh, you have some fun reading ahead of you. The Soviets specialised in Venus and had a succession of really unfortunate missions.

Disovering the man-sized Venusian dinosaur things made up for it all, though.


Posted by: One of Many | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 4:49 AM
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40. Given how utterly inhospitable the surface* of Venus is, it's impressive that they got even one set of photos. It's not surprising that no other country has tried it, concentrating on Mars and the Moon instead; hardly any atmosphere, no man-sized Venusian dinosaurs.

*People talk somewhat seriously about having floating cloud colonies in the upper reaches of the toxic atmosphere, where there is, somewhat shockingly, a fairly reasonable temperature and (IIRC) oxygen.


Posted by: DaveLMA | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 5:21 AM
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48.2 send Elon Musk there


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 5:25 AM
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No oxygen, but the temperature and pressure are both survivable and IIRC it's above the sulphuric acid clouds. It still doesn't sound all that great.

I am disappointed by the lack of a Venus-proof Kalashnikov in that clip.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 5:32 AM
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I planned to really relearn Greek this year but haven't done anything about it. I also decided to improve my sewing and last week made a pair of pants by hand, though my fancy Roman-replica thumb thimble arrived just when I've gotten to the past where all I need to sew is a million whipstitches to enclose the seams. I'm thinking of ordering more fabric to try to make a pair that fits better, but a little too big was fixable with the elastic the pattern already required. I guess too small would mean I could pass them on to Mars. Both older girls take my clothes all the time, which is annoying but I guess at some level flattering.

I have no idea how to keep three kids amused for weeks. Maybe teach them to sew? Except them they'll take and ruin all my supplies. Nia knits now, so there's a little precedent. As usual, my mood is "Hulk just wants to be left alone" and it seems incredibly unlikely that will ever happen.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 5:32 AM
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I guess too small would mean I could pass them on to Mars.

GET YOUR PANTS TO MARS.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 6:53 AM
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Also I should say that the long-delayed board game about Renaissance Italian politics will really and truly be published in the next two months! Please form an orderly queue.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 6:54 AM
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Maybe Hulk can use the extra labor for some nice spring planting in the garden?


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 6:57 AM
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|| Off topic bleg - do any of you have any experience with getting a prepaid debit card or something like that?
I want a card so that staff taking care of my stepdaughter can take her out to eat, buy her groceries etc. This seems like it should be simple, but my bank told me they don't do that anymore. Thanks in advance for any suggestions! ||


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 7:57 AM
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55: Have you checked grocery stores, pharmacies, etc.? I can usually find cards like that on the same rack as gift certificates to Amazon and chain restaurants.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 9:10 AM
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56: Thanks, Cyrus! I was under the impression that those are single-use gift cards - that you put a certain amount of money on them and after that you can't add more. Am I wrong?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 10:24 AM
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57: That matches my understanding of them, yes. Maybe there's some way to reuse them, there's a lot of the small print? I would say that if you're talking about putting more money on them, I wouldn't have called them "prepaid", so much as debit card linked to an account, so I'm a bit confused.


Posted by: Cyrus | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 12:01 PM
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58: Yes, maybe I'm confused.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 12:13 PM
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Yeah, maybe just open an account with very limited funds, give them the debit card, and transfer funds in as you see fit?


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 12:15 PM
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55: Yes! American Express has one.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/prepaid/view-all-cards.html

It used to be pretty affordable but is now $6.95/month.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/banking/nerdwallets-best-prepaid-debit-cards/

YOu can fund it either regularly or on an ad hoc basis from your checking account.

I used an American express one about 5 years ago.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 12:25 PM
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61: Thanks, BG!


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 12:31 PM
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You could probably leave a pile of Hamiltons on the counter and lose less than you would at $7/month.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 12:36 PM
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The other option is to get a credit card with an extremely low credit and add a second user. You would receive and pay the bill each month. They're set up (generally) for parents to allow teenagers to have a credit card but without risking some huge unexpected bill. Try looking to see if your normal card has a "student" card.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 12:53 PM
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(Or don't add a second user and just give her team permission to use it - it's fine.)


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 12:54 PM
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64, 65: Thanks, ydnew! I'm going to look into that.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 1:07 PM
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AAA* offers a similar card to members, much lower than the American Express card when I got one for my son.

*American Automobile Association, not American Arbitration Association and not a highly rated bond or a minor baseball league.


Posted by: unimaginative | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 1:25 PM
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Alcoholics Anonymous of Arizona.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 1:29 PM
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67: Thanks, unimaginative!


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 1:35 PM
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I turned down the helicopter guys - probably for the best from epidemiological point of view.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 2:25 PM
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If this made you glow, a helicopter could give a good epidemiological point of view.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 2:31 PM
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Realistically, I'd be at home doing work (I can work remotely more or less indefinitely), and looking after xelA. I'd have no more leisure time than usual.

But ... if I did, I have a bunch of new guitar pedals (including a Meris Polymoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rYWre48gGA (nerd stuff here)), and parts to make some more. I'd make an album. I've never seriously recorded music of my own, or at least not for 10 years or more. So ... I'd do that.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 03-12-20 4:05 PM
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OK. I can't hold back any longer.

How does the line of succession work for something that happens slowly?

Like, Trump goes and then Pence. But Pence isn't deathly, so does he have time to appoint a new VP, and then croaks? Does it go to new VP or Pelosi? If Pelosi gets wobbly, can she step down and they elect a new Speaker who is young and healthy? Or does she appoint a VP, and it goes there?

Basically, if it isn't a tsunami that takes them all out at once, what happens? OOooo. Does it require Senate appointment?

What if some Senate oldies die, and then the Democrats could deny them a quorum, but they don't because of decency and respect for procedure and then Susan Collins could cast the deciding vote and she does! And we have Pence and VP Kavanaugh!


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 03-13-20 9:13 AM
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The VP appointment does take Senate approval. This is how Ford became VP, after Agnew stepped down. Only a majority, though, so a solid "whatever Republicans feel like" thing right now.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 03-13-20 11:39 AM
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My town participates in an ebook lending system but there's a limit on how many copies can be checked out. A couple of others have an unlimited service, but that was too expensive for them.

Feeling stir crazy after only 2 days. Any recommendations for Netflix streaming or e-books? Hopefully they will have them. I have electronic access through a private library to the electronic Loeb library, but that's a bit dense for me right now.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 03-13-20 1:15 PM
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75: might be time to free trial audible or one of the e-book services?


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 03-13-20 1:39 PM
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Old light fiction from Project Gutenberg? Maybe The Pillars of the House, which I find interesting because it's so middle-middle-class, and also the quietly self-denying religious but practical family member is male. Not what we get in filmed costume dramas.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 03-13-20 3:04 PM
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Only a majority, though, so a solid "whatever Republicans feel like" thing right now.

Assuming they can get a quorum, with Senators dropping like flies.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 03-13-20 3:07 PM
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Mostly reading my huge pile of unread books and some work-from-home freelancing. But the Met is going to be streaming operas for free, via their website, starting with Carmen on Monday, so there will be that.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 03-13-20 10:48 PM
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