I'm still not racist against white people but I'm rapidly losing any sense of common humanity when I look towards the wealthy. Thanks for asking.

Played frisbee last night and now I feel much better. Semesters where I don't teach are terrible for my mental health, but somehow exercise and teaching help in similar ways. Also I finally felt like I was good at it again. In the fall I played for the first time in 15 years, and I was just so out of shape and terrible, and then the winter league is 5 players at a time and very competitive, so I'd improved but I was still always the worst or second-worst guy on the field. It was good to finally feel, if not good like I was at 21, at least more like how I was at 30.

Going away on holiday tomorrow to an incredibly remote place that has pies and beaches and mountains but no mobile phone signal. Much needed.

Also, I just got a completely unexpected offer of a place on a highly sought-after course at Intermediate Villainy School!

I HAVE GOOD DAYS. AND, ALSO, I HAVE BAD DAYS.

All I'm going to say here is that a whole lot of familiar names have been dropping into comments recently and they most likely could check in here, right down there in the comment box, because they're reading this comment, yes you.

Me?

A lot of stuff has not been working for me weight-wise and I'm thinking of finally ponying up for Ozempic. I was surprised, Kaiser's full cash price is not much above $700.

How about a check in thread?

How about a game of global thermonuclear war?

5: YOU TALKIN' TO ME?

My doctor mentioned Ozempic yesterday, but said that I'd have to pay out of pocket because I am teh health.

I continue to be uneasy about waiting too long to leave the U.S. Now seems like a pretty good time to go for anyone with the inclination. It's not really feasible right now for us and in many respects, I really don't want to leave. But the worst-case scenarios (bottom 33%?) are looking... dire.

It's a perennial question at our exec team's weekly open Zoom chats whether it will be added to our health benefits (for weight loss; currently covered if you have diabetes, not prediabetes). I suspect it would add a ton to our monthly insurance bill, though. Surprisingly, coverage by employers seems to be on the rise.

Anyway, I'm doing ok so far this year in a job that I guess I will need to cling to* because it's not bad, just not something I want to do. I was hoping to do some career-changing moves this year but the risk calculation is a lot worse under the current regime. Especially with me wanting to do research-oriented work and the government attacking both funding and universities. I'm now slow-walking some of the extra education I've been doing, pushing out the timeline a bit.

*Barring layoffs**, it's the kind of job where it's plausible that someone would hold on to it until retirement. But that's still a couple decades away for me and I think it would be a shame if I don't try to do other kinds of work.

**A real possibility. My employer has been sending signals that certain jobs that today rely heavily on federal funding will be protected over jobs that don't, meaning a position like mine could end up in cuts made to preserve other parts of the budget.

I drove out to Glasgow on Sunday, that's about 450 miles. Met with witnesses on Monday, hearing Tuesday, then I drove home. After meetings on Monday, I went for a drive, and at one point was only 10 miles from SK, a province I've never visited. I thought about heading up for some dinner, but who needs that kind of aggravation, so I went to Wolf Point instead. (My former paralegal lived there for a time, and the casino has some art from her uncle on the walls.) Also went to the Fort Peck dam, and got to post the only joke ever told about the place. It's where Life began! It's true, as you can see from the cover of the very first issue of Life Magazine.

I think I'm going to play hooky on Friday afternoon, and go skiing. I went last Friday and it was pretty good. Ran into some friends I hadn't seen for a while, and they made me ski more difficult terrain than I have all year. Sunday is closing day: people wear costumes, free burgers at the bar, that sort of thing.

Coming up to the second anniversary of daughter and granddaughter living with us. Taking the kiddo to school every morning (except when I'm in places like Glasgow) is a highlight of my day. Daughter's fellow has proposed, so this will come to an end, but there doesn't seem to be any kind of timeline.

My team won at pub trivia again last night. You folks would have had great fun arguing with the host over so many bullshit answers: What's the densest country on earth? What's the least dense? What Sioux tribe was Sitting Bull from?

3: In Scotland or not in Scotland?

7: around here, one of the Health Plans that is really suffering because of the cost of GLP-1 and similar diabetes/ weight drugs was only going to cover Zepbound.(tirzeptide/mounjaro) when used for weight. I thought it was somewhat more effective, but it's definitely less expensive.

12: MA has really generous coverage of it for weight loss if obese and it is killing our health insurance market. They are such wonderful drugs for so many things - even substance cravings. They're probably even worth it for society to pay those prices. But it's busting the budget until we can figure out a way to soak the rich.

I made my appointment with the Mexican consulate earlier this week to begin the temporary residency paperwork.

I'm still taking the Michael Bolton approach.

11: What's the thinking on why it would be much harder later? If I had to leave the logical place to,go would be Canada, since Tim still has Canadian citizenship. We've been married for long enough that it doesn't look like a landed-immigrant marriage. Are you worried about your assets having no value or not being able to take them out of the country?

14: Hey, was it pub trivia with my Brooklynites?

I just (two weeks back) had a fantastic week in Banff with Sally, Newt, and Newt's girlfriend (who I should call something silly, but that seems rude). Newt has become very good, while I remain kind of lousy, and Sally hasn't really skied since high school so they stayed on greens with the GF. The scenery was stunning: I've never skied above the treeline before. And the snow was absurdly soft and not-icy.

I will probably never be an actually good skier, but I do enjoy it.

Also, Dad is out of the hospital and mostly fine. Staying with Dr. Oops and the goats for the moment.

20: nothing entirely rational (this is all a mixture of reasoning, vibes, and stupid raw emotion in general), but I don't want to join a mass exodus/brain drain to popular destinations. Migration is tough in general, and everything is easier when you can be deliberate and intentional about decisions, make sound bargains, and so on.

Lourdes' bff is trying to sell a house not far from us; it's listed at significantly less than what they paid for it in 2019, nicely staged, desirable area, and getting no interest at the moment. The realtors think the market is completely spooked right now.

Glad to hear about your dad! Goat convalescence!

Also, Dad is out of the hospital and mostly fine. Staying with Dr. Oops and the goats for the moment.

Good news, thanks for the update.

I'm mixed these days. Most of my life is fairly stable and not affected by the general chaos of the world, but I definitely have days or weeks where either the political situation or my father's health problems* weigh on me.

* He's in his late 70s; his health has mostly been good but he's had ongoing issues with bleeding (related to cancer treatment a few years ago) which have been a real strain and unexpected -- at the time of the original cancer diagnosis everyone said it was minor and treatment should be easy, but bodies are complicated.

My house still seems to be worth about 20-30% more than what I paid in 2021.

I was wondering if I had to go if I would want to rent out the house.

Business is slow because our main project lost its funding and now we are scrambling to put together smaller contracts. Meanwhile, a huge chunk of my time is getting sucked into political organizing. Unfortunately, building resistance websites doesn't pay.

27: It would be great if there were ways to find some of this stuff.

Supporting robotics research on the dime of a South Korean conglomerate doesn't seem to be at immediate risk due to tariffs, which is nice, so I'm doing OK personally.
Planning to visit San Diego for school vacation week (after earlier considering a trip to Europe, which would have been more fraught).
The 12-year-old whose school vacation it is is developing an interest in politics but it's going to be very frustrating until they get past the stage of screaming out loud about the terribleness of it all.

My dad is on a medication that shows up on the insurance information as something like $20,000 per bottle. But his insurance is good enough that he sees very little of that cost. He's still doing well enough to get around, and my mom (also mid-80s) is doing quite well, but he's definitely declining. At least we're about as prepared as one can be and I live near enough to help out with weekly and sometimes daily needs.

Well, I was told half my program would be cut Monday, and I told the dean that wasn't acceptable, which seems to have shocked everyone so much that now we're negotiating.

15: in Scotland.

Some of you may recall that I'm on a drug for chronic myeloma leukemia that costs about $20,000 a month, but I never paid a cent for it. Last year a generic came out and now I have to pay 8$ a month for the generic.

21.1 Not this week. They usually join of for the first Wednesday of the month. Last week, for example. It's a decent drive on a winter night, so no surprise they're not here every week.

21.2 Fantastic! I've never skied up there, but guess it wouldn't be so different from here.

31: Congratulations! Keep shocking them till they learn!

Alive and personally okay; big travel is hopefully done for a while and we're getting a bit more ambitious about planning good things now that the "hop on a flight at no notice" seems to be coming to an end.

We've been hiring at work and I've been settling the new hires; we had a couple of big projects that needed some very experienced hands to handle. But now that we've got those hands, I'm worried that uncertainty and the price of wood and steel (from shiny new tariffs) is going to kill the building market.

The 12-year-old whose school vacation it is is developing an interest in politics but it's going to be very frustrating until they get past the stage of screaming out loud about the terribleness of it all.

I did not expect to find it hard to introduce the kids to politics, but it requires being a steady force while they process, which is occasionally a lot to ask for in these trying times. Like, it's hard to watch the November 5th election returns come in while also explaining why you're able to interpret them so early as bad signs. Or why I have zero bandwidth for Pokey's Trump impersonation, even if kids at school find it very funny, can he please stop doing it right fucking now.

31: echoing 35!

In Prague with my dad, who§s better after a health scare. Anyone want to meet for a beer, pretty ubiquitous and good-

I do love a Scottish beach!

If I've guessed right where you're going, one of my most memorable driving experiences was driving on a one-track road out towards the beach a bit west of the pie place shortly after a local wedding had just let out.

I'm actually doing great personally and professionally lately, which is a weird feeling with the world seeming to collapse. We're in the process of rolling out a big chunk of rental assistance funding that will help a lot of people and hopefully assist with a smooth transition from the enhanced cold-weather shelter capacity we've had the past few years to a more sustainable year-round system.

until we can figure out a way to soak the rich.

Luigi Mangione, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Ah, different pie place- not Lochinver (which is also great)

Eel pie?

I'm super burnt out on this semester, but have about two weeks till the worst is behind me.

Jammies admitted that he wishes he'd waited till summer to have knee surgery, after two weeks with no weight on it and four more to go. I really, really tried to tell him so.

At least when you're outside, you can tie off on a big hot air balloon so you don't need crutches.

No shortage of fraud these days, so I think my job is pretty safe. We have to start going in to the office 4 days a week in a couple of months, which is really no skin off my ass, but will be hella inconvenient for lots of people. Next week I am going to go back out to Maine for a week of vacation on my cousin's commune. I anticipate that will be very relaxing. Our neighbor's friend, who lives around the corner, is interested in looking at our house with an eye towards buying it, so that would be great. My family is all in about the same health circumstances as they have been for the last couple years, so no huge worries there. Still grieving the cat pretty hard -- it's been 2 months since we let her go, and it's hard not to dwell on how bereft I still feel most of the time. Thinking about coming in from the cold and getting involved with the anarchist scene here again, to the extent it even exists right now. I've been shunning/being shunned by it for a dozen years now, so it is probably time to bury the various hatchets. Seriously thinking again about arming up for the inevitable conflagration. Take a few fascists with me when the shit goes down.

There's a recall on butter because of fecal contamination. I've been trying to find a way to turn that into a William Carlos Williams poem. But I'm having trouble starting because "butter" has two syllables and "plums" has only one.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pat
pat, Noun, 3. You're welcome.

Maybe try a Kenneth Koch poem instead?

I'm not going to read a whole new poem.

I have buttered
the shit
that was in
the outhouse

And which
you were probably
treating
as sewage

Forgive me
I'm being facetious

I have shit in
the cream
butter in
the icebox

one which
you were probably
hoping
was not-shit

Forgive me
they were delicious
tacos
but so old

That needs work.

52, 53: those are both horrible, but I laughed and laughed.

49: I don't think "pat" works because the shit was there in the whole stick.

I have shit
in the stick
so your snack
made you sick

Forgive me
it's my shtick

Thank you.

My son has never show much interest in politics up until about 3 months ago and he's been freaking out since then.

Welcome to the funhouse, kiddo.

We're down to one line from the department instead of half the program; and I have a live proposal for *zero* cuts that would work in any sane timelines but we need to show liberal arts tears. But I am hopeful. This has been a week.

I have eaten
the butter
tainted with
with feces

and--wait,
what's "olestra spread"?
Never mind.
I guess

I didn't.
I can't
believe it's
not butter.

Doubleplusgood!

57 surely
When there's shit in the stick
so your snack makes you sick
That's E. coli,

When you hear someone mutter
A slight on your butter
- E. coli,

I'd prefer margarine
To this produce unclean
With E. coli,

I would gladly forgo
painful rapid throughflow
From E. coli!

61 - yay Cala!!!!

It fucks you up, your buttered toast
It may not mean to, but it does
It gives you what you crave the most
But adds e coli, for the lulz

Away is something else. Catch the re-release if you can.

62 is great.

Nice work, Cala! I'm about to start breaking in a new dean as part of my faculty governance duties, and am hoping and praying he's up to meeting this moment (and is as non-horrible as he seemed when he interviewed here).

Meanwhile, my dad has completed, as of this evening, roughly 130 miles of his attempt to through-hike the AT.

So, he's in North Carolina?

All I'm going to say here is that a whole lot of familiar names have been dropping into comments recently and they most likely could check in here, right down there in the comment box, because they're reading this comment, yes you.

I mean, hello. I'm fine, all things considered. I'm fine, keinahora and the crick don't rise. I worry some and I shrug and say "what can I really do?" some. I have good people. I'm not eyeing the borders and if that turns out to have been short-sighed, someone can write rueful or Schadenfreudian things about me later on. It's warm here in a way that's alarming in April but also quite pleasant. I'm watching the cat watch the robot cat feeder. Does that need specifying hyphens? I maintain my habit of only commenting once in a while and, then, after everyone is done with a thread.

What do robot cats eat?

Electric mutton.

Well played.

We're getting wet goopy snow right now. Not supposed to happen mid April.

Like snow should be over? Or it should be colder dry snow?

76: snow should be over.

We got a cat two weeks ago. She's very cute and friendly and we're still figuring stuff out. Our last cat died over 2 years ago and was semiferal, whereas this one isn't, so it's a new experience.

Right now we're driving to Georgia for a week-long vacation. (Yes, this is bad pet ownership, but we're sparing no expense for cat-sitters!)

I'm overdue for looking for a new, better job, but my current one is predictable and so much else in life isn't, so it's hard to contemplate.

I just got asked to be head of the messaging committee for the county Dems.

I'll have to learn about messaging. Its a purple county so we have to be tactful in our outreach.

Anyone know any good messages? So far I've got "Trump is for Chumps"

"Just please make it stop"?

The super progressive mayoral candidate who lost went with "more is possible". I liked the reminder that governmental ambitions can be better than status quo. An acquaintance said he was interviewing people who could not fathom that the government could help them, so the best they would ever ask of a government is that it leave them alone.

Something along those lines? Reclaim that fucking Reagan quote? "We're here to help."

81: Huh, that's very much the message of the Klein/Thompson book Abundance. I was underwhelmed by the book, but if it really is a powerful political message, I'd be happy.

It's probably not a coincidence that the arsonist tried to burn out Governor Shapiro on Passover, is it?

The arsonist was named "Cody."

That seems fitting.

The name means "person whose dad is way too into Kevin Costner."

If people are trying to kill Jewish people in Pennsylvania, how will they know I'm gentile? Good thing I'm drunk and have a concealed carry permit.

I don't have a concealed gun though. Maybe the bartender will lend me one.

Decided not to ask about guns, even hypothetically.

I can't feel my nose.

We went with the theme "Liberty and Justice for All" for the rally this Saturday. Trying to push the "yes we are patriots, motherfuckers" narrative in conjunction with the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. I see others are going with "No Kings" as a theme, which I guess is good too.

91: I'm kind of bummed that they are trying to do a protest this weekend, because it is patriots day, and I want to go to events in Concord. Plus Easter.

Anyway, I think I need to bring a sign.

What I want to say is "Dems should fight like the Republic depends on it, because it does." Any sign suggestions? I'd love to do something tariff related that tied it to the Boston Tea party even though the situation is not completely analogous. (Analogies are banned for a reason.)

I have liked the message of Rs being "freeloaders", turning the table on their evergreen Welfare Queen trope. And it expanding to not just free rising on money, but all the other things they reply on like science, business regularity, etc. However, in the current incarnation I am finding that less appealing as they are explicitly going after many of those things. But the money=specific freeloading is maybe more relevant than ever--but all may be too abstract.

But here's my real message is a completely unhelpful vituperative screed.

I'm kind of bummed that they are trying to do a protest this weekend, because it is patriots day, and I want to go to events in Concord.

Yeah, it was called by the national groups and all the local organizers here were like "what, we just did this, its too soon, people are spent" but in the end decided to just go with it. Meanwhile, the national groups have gotten wishy-washy and are doing a shitty job with publicity.

When you run out of completely unhelpful vituperative screed, I can sub in. I like to bring the cursing and insulting.

I went to the Bernie/AOC rally here in LA on Saturday. The previous Saturday I went to a big anti-Trump march downtown, which was well-attended but mostly by old people, which worried me a little. But the young people showed up for Bernie/AOC.

The rallies made me feel somewhat less depressed. I bought a Bernie-as-the-Misfits-logo pinback from some guy. Confusing message, but maybe that's the charm.

Well, my longtime and close colleague just passed away. This will be the 7th memorial of the year, but of them, this is the person that I was currently closest to. He was the chair of our department from the late 80s until 2021, and I came here in 2006. Very vibrant guy, kind of an ass, but he and I got along like gangbusters. This definitely sucks.

I'm sorry for your loss, heebie.

Yes, my condolences.

Sorry for your loss

He was this Iranian guy, and he thought the funniest joke in the world was the following: if you're seated around a table at a lunch with people you've just met, he'd say, "Come, let us pray" before eating, and they'd all do it, and he'd crack up and say "No, no, just kidding." I did think it was funny but also sometimes unbelievably awkward, this being Texas and all. Lots of people just blank-faced, clearly thinking "I do not get the joke here."

One time a different colleague said, "I was in Europe, and there was a guy in the airport who looked just like you!" My chair, a confirmed bachelor, leaned over to me and whispered, "There is a kid out there somewhere." (Actually, he married his girlfriend in January, right after his diagnosis.)

I like both of those jokes too.

Another time, I was on Rank and Tenure, and his post-tenure review came up. So I read all of his self-evaluations as chair from that time period. There was this one where he went through each person in the department and ripped them to shreds, (but without naming them) like, "Here's what I have to deal with in this department:
- one guy who can't check his emails and his students all hate him
- one guy who is good at his job but pretty boring
- two who are okay but can't take a joke"
etc.

Mine was something like "highly opinionated and sometimes difficult but at least can take a joke and doesn't take it personally."

I did illegally save these somewhere, they were too golden to let slip away.

In fact I took the whole list over to his office and read it outloud to him and we both laughed and laughed over it. He'd kind of forgotten he'd done it.

102.1: An Iranian doing that in Texas could be the funniest joke in the world.

I think you should tell that story at his memorial.

107 -> 104/105

That's amazing, heebie. I'm sorry for your loss--it's really hard to lose a long-time colleague and friend like that.

Oh man, here's another story: last fall, faculty workshops. He was zooming in. (I was in person, so I didn't see any of this.) He was shirtless during the zoom, which is already, um, a thing.

You know how, on a zoom, if you have your mike on and you make a noise, you're going to be put on spotlight for everyone? Well, he dropped his laptop and it made a big clatter, and everyone else on the zoom got a big eyeful of 70-year-old naked genitals.

It's such an insane and hilarious combination of "I'm invincible!" and "fuck authority!" and "I'm old and haven't thought through muting myself or how spotlight works or hell, I could have just kept my camera off altogether!"

I know he had some meetings with HR in the fall, he may have been en route to being shown the door over that one.

107 not to 110.

I like him already. Sorry for your loss and thanks for the entertaining remembrances.

Condolences, heebie!

I'm okay. I'm annoyed because I've been trying to do an extra job and just something like 10 hours of cataloging boxes of books is enough to trigger long covid symptoms. So even telling myself that I could always get a job at Aldi or something if I had to is false because I don't have the strength/health/endurance but I'm also not disabled enough to be legally disabled. In fact, I took over editing an online team trivia league a year ago and have managed that even more successfully than I'd hoped. The new owner, who's British, asked what I thought I should be paid and I explained that by British minimum wage standards (much better than ours) it should be about 3x what I was initially being paid. He countered with 4x, which will mean I have no excuse not to try harder but will also mean I can get our shower fixed and fun stuff like that.

Today I got a call that M (Marx as a pseudo change doesn't work; Tyger is more accurate when compared to what we call them but maybe isn't necessary if I'm never here) who's 17, won't qualify for a medical breast reduction surgery because the hospital won't do anything on anyone nonbinary even if it's not identity-related. So we just come back when they're 18 in the fall, which is fine logistically but still felt hugely grief-inducing. On the other hand, 12-year-old Selah had her IUD follow up video call (because I had wanted to make sure she was covered on that front however the election went) and she was so cheerful about it and said she's telling her classmates and bio family how great they are that the gyn said she'd be the perfect speaker for an IUD rally but she hopes we won't need one too soon.

We've been spending more time taking care of four kids in a family Odile knew from her teaching job last year, now in second and first grade with twins in kindergarten. They spent the night last week while their mom claimed to be on the ER and our kids were wonderful with helping. Then Odile and I took them to the children's/local history/natural history museums this weekend. I used to worry we'd end up with them as a foster placement but their mom has somehow moved them out of state and managed to keep doing just enough to keep custody. They're great, but even at our small level of involvement it's a lot.

The best thing I do for myself is the monthly meetings of the parental advisory board at the children's psychiatric hospital. We had a chance to relax and do crafts and say nice things about one another last week and it was so wonderful to be with people who actually get it, which also meant I could accept some of their praise. And I've gotten to use my skills from that sort of role supporting my adult brother, who had another bipolar psychosis hospitalization recently. I'll take him to see his psychiatrist tomorrow and I like her a lot. A little more downtime would be nice, though.

Go British People!

We moved flat about 2 weeks ago, after a very long drawn out and very fraught legal process to get our mortgage over the line. No issues with us as buyers, but lots of issues with the original leasehold and with the sellers' solicitors, who were gigantic arseholes. It feels very old (50ish) to be buying our first place, but it's good to get it done. That's more challenging in London than it would have been if we'd moved back to Scotland.

The new place is fine, it's in the same building we were already living, but the previous owners--who we know as their kid is a friend of our son--were clearly not DIY people. Just so many totally botched and bodged repairs on what is a relatively new apartment. I felt pretty good about my own DIY skills as I repaired almost everything they'd messed up and decorated the entire place in about 4 days. We are still living surrounded by boxes like hoarders (even though our previous apartment was the same size and wasn't that cluttered), so I am going to have to ruthlessly chuck a load of things.

My son has been playing rugby since October, for quite a good team, so that's been interesting. A couple of really intensive one day tournaments recently with a lot of matches close together, including one tournament where a couple of kids didn't turn up and a couple were sick, so they had to play the entire tournament with between 2 and 3 players less on the pitch for every game and no subs. One team "generously" offered to take one player off so they played 11 against our 10, and then when my son's team went 4 tries up in the first five minutes of the game, subbed back on their 12th player.

xelA sllik! Do they have rugby in CZ?

The Polish African thing? It's gone.

Heebie is a dangerous tackler.

Boiling Point is good. Stephen Graham is always good.* Emotional labor, hustling, work ethic, fame economics, kyriarchy, food safety regulations. So much going on. You missed it in the pandemic, but now they're giving it a miniseries, so you get another bite at the crab.
*But not good enough that I'm going gird myself for Adolescence. Not until the weekend, at least.

In which 'now' means apparently 2023. Time is a flat circle, etc.

Ok, one more story: I knew he constantly sketched this dude in a cowboy hat, like from the chest up. Like his desk would have various versions all over. And I knew he was arrested by the Shah back in Iran for being an agitator as a student, and spent a month in jail.

What I didn't know is that they raided his desk after arresting him, found all these cowboy doodles, and used it as evidence of some sort of plot, in which to hold him. From this distance, this detail is now hilarious.

To be clear, this is a spaghetti western doodle of a cowboy with a gun, and not a ptsd memory of Iran.

A former student just reminded me about this one: When I had one of the babies, he brought fancy chocolates as a gift. But it was not clear at all whether he intended the chocolates for me or for the baby. He was so pleased though! Also I remember him holding Pokey as a baby at a conference, and for years he'd reference Pokey's little baby feet. Sigh.

You should have probably not given the chocolates to a baby.

Maybe that's dogs?

I didn't. I saved them for Hawaii's 16th birthday this Saturday.

Happy birthday.

121.1:Something like this? https://www.artsy.net/artwork/martin-ramirez-untitled-caballero

Oh, here's another good one: he used to order around this extremely nice math instructor who was probably a cheerleader in the 1960s - like, she's very upbeat and always friendly and bubbly, and didn't know who the Greatful Dead was when it came up in conversation the other day. But they were also friends. It was both tense and friendly.

Anyway, he called her up and said, "I need a ride to the airport! I don't want to pay for parking."
She said, "But I have church!"
He said something like, "God won't mind. Leave a note for him."
So she agreed to do it. Then he said he'd need a ride home on the way back. She says okay. But again, tension mixed with friendliness. She's a very specific type of older generation care-giver woman who will always always say yes.

So she picks him up. (Airport is an hour away, btw.) On the way home he says, "Pull over."
She goes, "What?!"
He says, "I need to pick up groceries."
So they went into the grocery store. He was like, "You push the cart." So he made her accompany him while he wandered through and bought himself groceries. And she pushed the cart. And then she took him home.

She tells the story like, "Well, he never did that again!" so somehow she communicated her discontent. But it's also very hard to tell with her.

128: More like a head shot of Clint Eastwood, looking straight at the viewer.

129: That sounds like a jerk.

Yes.

But the past is a different country.

Thanks for sharing your co-worker stories, heebie. I'm sorry for your loss, and I'm impressed that they actually made me smile amidst what is a pretty challenging time for all of us.

131: Yes indeed! That was a big part of him. Totally a scoundrel.

131: Yes indeed! That was a big part of him. Totally a scoundrel.

Sympathies, Heebie; from your description he doesn't sound like the sort of charming jerk who was charming to some people, and a jerk to others. He sounds like someone who was both a bit charming and a bit of a jerk to everyone, and that seems better somewhow.

A little more downtime would be nice, though.

Sympathies, Thorn, that does sound like a lot. Congratulations on your success editing the trivia league; that sounds like something you could be quite good at.

And a propos to absolutely nothing, the two progressive council members finally got "Ceasefire resolution!" on the agenda, which is such a bizarre time warp of a fight to pick at this moment in time. Not that the situation in Gaza isn't critical! They still have the moral center, of course, it's just that the wheels have come off the fucking bus altogether. I have no idea how to explain all this to a semi-layperson.

Seems simple, your city council should just agree to a ceasefire with Gaza. Not sure why your city council was firing in the first place, but they should stop. Problem solved!

Agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza will position your city to get in on the ground floor of the coming resort development.

omg. Apparently a local lawyer posted a FB thing calling the activists terrorists and threatening to call ICE to the meeting. And the local state rep D/onna C/ambell threatened to cut off state funding if we pass this ceasefire. The lunatics on the right are going to force me to embrace the ceasefire activists more forcefully than I could have if everyone just rolled their eyes.

You could suggest an alternative genocide Israel could do. See if that helps.

This is going to be such a mess. "See, the young activists are right. In every sense, they're right. But they're also young idiots because they say endlessly ignorant things implying this is the one grand issue of the moment and we have to do something/this is something.

I admit that I refused to sign our local activists petition to have city council take up the issue.

"The activists care deeply about a meaningless gesture. The rightwingers taking the activists super seriously are much more dangerous. And dumb."

(I'm quoting my hypothetical self, trying to explain this.)

Surprising that any of this is an issue, after Trump was elected and immediately put in a very sincere ceasefire.

Omg. I'm trying to write a very brief Israel-Palestine primer, and SHOCKER OF ALL SHOCKERS, I am unable to make it brief. I keep stating blithe overgeneralizations and then getting bogged down in qualifiers. This is not going well.

136: I've also really enjoyed the reminiscences; he sounds like a total character.

115: Moving is always lots of boxes, forever - even if it's more space. Glad that you tackled the repairs before unpacking everything -- it sounds like a much more organized and pleasant way to handle it.

113.2: I have an acquaintance in a similar position. After a Covid bout, he can no longer range around and perform pest control (which it turned out that he loved for the self-directed pace and independent work) - so he's headed back to call center work, which he loathes (but is good at).

147: They guy who tried to burn down the PA governor's mansion might have a manifesto you could use as a start.

Might be simpler to write a primer about your city's involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Non-sarcastically, I do think if you're finding yourself writing a "short primer" on the Israel-Palestine conflict, something has already gone horribly wrong. There's just no value to anyone in a "short primer" on the Israel-Palestine conflict, it's something that requires a long version to have any value. If you're going to oversimplify, just oversimplify all the way, and say war is bad. Anything longer than "War is bad, and Hamas and Israel should stop fighting one" and shorter than a semester is just going to cause more problems than it solves.

Didn't stop Vox from trying though, if you really need something, you could just steal what they did.

Your best bet is to write about the German region of Palatine and pretend to be confused.

A couple of really intensive one day tournaments recently with a lot of matches close together, including one tournament where a couple of kids didn't turn up and a couple were sick, so they had to play the entire tournament with between 2 and 3 players less on the pitch for every game and no subs. One team "generously" offered to take one player off so they played 11 against our 10, and then when my son's team went 4 tries up in the first five minutes of the game, subbed back on their 12th player

Perfect "dickhead youth sports dad" move. Reminds me of the Fast Show's Competitive Dad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2x_DI7tzNQ&pp=ygUZY29tcGV0aXRpdmUgZGFkIGZhc3Qgc2hvdw%3D%3D

151: I think this is right.

What I was kinda trying to do is say "This is why the older generation and younger generation don't see eye-to-eye. The older generation is like 'hey, you're missing lots of history' and the younger generation is like 'hey, you're missing lots of killing'. Plus rightwingers who are like, 'hey, you're missing Rapture.' " Maybe I'll limit it to that and let Vox do the rest.

I feel like I still need to give some sort of timeline from October 7th onward? Maybe not.

re: 153

Yeah. The general parent/team culture around rugby is less toxic than around football (quite noticeably so) but there are still a percentage of what my friend calls "DryRobe wankers" who are classic competitive Dad types. I'm certain at the last two tournaments they've played--bearing in all the kids in my son's team are in the same school year (7) so none are older than 12 or younger than 11--that a couple of teams* played ringers from the under 13s or even under 14s teams because there were a couple of strapping 6ft kids with facial hair and really deep voices. They still lost, but it was a bit ill-tempered.

* all leafy towns in Buckinghamshire

You won't even be able to get through recapping October 7th the day itself without everyone being mad at you, let alone everything after that. Heck, even choosing Oct. 7 as the relevant starting point is going to make the good activists mad at you. (The bad activists will just say Hamas was right to do Oct. 7.)

War is bad. Intentionally killing civilians is worse. Peace is good. Hamas should stop doing war and definitely stop intentionally killing civilians. Israel should stop doing war and definitely stop intentionally killing civilians. Israel should withdraw from the illegally occupied territories and pursue long-term peace. Hamas should recognize pre-67 Israel and pursue long-term peace. Your city should support the principle of peace, and not directly support either party in pursuing war. The End.

Good grief. It looks like Council punted and is dragging this out further? I haven't made it through the full meeting but that's my impression from jumping around the recording.

158: Maybe your town should send a team to Gaza to investigate.

Or an ambulance crew with shirts reading "Don't shoot, We're Texans and can get shot back home easily enough."

Heebietown TX should at least attack a few Houthi bases before diving headlong into Gaza. Walk before you run.

OT: I just learned that either Duolingo is fucking with me or Spanish for "extra" is "extra."

162: Spanish Wiktionary claims it's from Latin "extra", which is true in an ultimate sense. But in modern Spanish both masculine and feminine of the word end in -a which makes me think its immediate antecedent is English.

I hope there's a group of elderly professors in Spain that complain about it.

152: Ausgezeichnet.

163: Someone will suggest "extrx" so as to be non-gendered and it will become a big thing and everyone will be butthurt and then elect some reincarnation of Franco next chance they get.

Let's play a game.

Jammies told me to look for a "tall skinny box". Then he said to look for "a rectangular prism". Give me your reasonable speculation about what kind of dimensions of a box you'd think I should look for.

83" in length 28" inches in width, and 23" in height.

Prisms have to be at least partially triangular, don't they?

I thought it would mean 6" square on each end, and maybe 2-3' long. Like a rectangular tube.

It actually turned out to be roughly 3 feet square on two faces, separated by a length of about 6". Like a giant pizza box.

Thanks for playing!!

What did Jammies mean?

You can't describe shapes properly with a broken bone. That's just biology.

Who won?

I think we all won the joy of a job well done.