Oh, God, what will we do in this thread? Quick, Becks, give us a topic!
Pee in the mountain laurel, I expect.
Thank you. A thousand thanks, in fact.
That Chris is doing some very special woman an enormous favor by staying single.
So I learned from my mom last night that she doesn't intend to vote in her upcoming primary because she thinks that if she does she'll get on a party mailing list and she doesn't want the junk mail. She has a preferred candidate, but she is planning not to vote to avoid junk mail.
She's one of the most intelligent, best educated, ordinarily most sensible people I've ever met, but she can get stubborn about some foolish things sometimes.
Thanks. I'd appreciate your help with enforcing this norm. Ask people to "take it outside", if you will.
2 --- Maybe even several of them.
I apologize. I saw an attack on Paul Krugman's integrity, and lost my temper. You likely would not believe of me, but I am loyal to a fault sometimes.
I will try to ignore such gratuitous insertions in the future.
GOBAMA!
I'm sorry, but if we renounce threadjacking, only the crooks will jack threads.
Okay, I was going to reply in the other thread until I saw this.
So, going out to McManus: you've gone beyond the strange and into the realms of the actually idiotic with your obsessive anti-Obama shit. Citing Neiwert of all people as the reason why Bush didn't worry you on the fascist front but Obama does? Did you even notice what occasioned all those lengthy Orcinus posts about proto-fascism? And you think citing the latest Hillary supporter trying to pretend it's all about sexism is effective? This isn't provocative or interesting, it's transparent bullshitting. I'm on record as thinking of you as the crazy guy, but until now I hadn't thought of you as the stupid guy. You're wandering further and further into Jonah Goldberg territory.
(As it happens, I agree with you that a lot of Obama supporters are unfairly discounting Krugman's objections to his health plan. It's moronic to adduce from this that they're fascists, though, and you deserve to have people laugh in your face every single time you pretend otherwise. )
Errr, I guess... is this sort of a thread about the election, by virtue of being a request to keep political talk in such threads? I'm sort of hoping so.
So, is this particular thread supposed to be light-hearted/ non-election or political?
Derailed in just 11 comments! Burn Slack!
I guess... is this sort of a thread about the election, by virtue of being a request to keep political talk in such threads? I'm sort of hoping so.
See, once again the Obama campaign elevates hope over substance.
DS - three paragraphs to mcmanus? Dude, you've been trolled in the worst way.
Becks, I'd gladly ask them to take it outside but I think at the moment it's me vs. the whole damn room on that one. I think I'll take myself outside instead, at least to get lunch. Extremely unhealthy French Dip sandwich, here I come!
Also, Chantix Day 2: not crazy yet.
Can I try to turn this into a musical thread?
And however misguided, pernicious, irrational and ultimately destructive to the country the Obamania might be, I can understand that some might hesitate to even start a political thread intended as a celebration and a Clinton-bash when a sour dissenting voice might spoil the mood. I would not want to intimidate. So relax, and party hearty.
After the treatment of Krugman, I have no reason to believe that there is any possible means of reaching the Believers.
17: Yeah, and I usually know better. But however quixotic McManus may be -- and sometimes it's a virtue -- I'm pretty sure he's not aiming to come off as actually blind, stupid or hypocritical. So on this one I'm willing to let him sink the hook.
This is not an election thread, people.
Y'all I just turned in my diss to my committee!
25: Right-o. Porn it is.
(Congrats to Sibyl.)
Yay, Sybil!
And I just gave notice, trying not to grin at the various partners too hard.
Well done both. What're you going to do with the rest of your lives?
LB: Wahoo! Bet that feels good.
Oh, and LB --- you're allowed arbitrarily big grins at the one who likes to call you in on holidays and then not need you. Just saying.
I have a question I would like to throw out there to folks who are more familiar with the following cities than I:
Boston
Philadelphia
Atlanta
San Francisco
Chicago
Seattle
LA
I'm trying to figure out where would be a good place to host a gathering of between 30-50 people, average, that would be acceptable to both older folks and "young'uns". Event is for a nationwide toast for my fraternity; food would be nice to have but not completely necessary. I have a line on a tiki bar in San Francisco (Forbidden Island). It's slated to take place in June (no specific date yet).
Danke! You can also email me directly per kelly at ibiblio dot org.
Yay, LB! What a satisfying morning.
Congratulations, Sybil! Congratulations, LizardBreath!
Congratulations to all!
19 is very funny.
Congratulations Sibyl! Feels good, dunnit?
And congratulations LB! Kudos to you for not grinning too hard. Hee.
Ask people to "take it outside", if you will.
Clearly Jackmormon now needs to start hatingonbecks.blogspot.com.
And congrats, LB! Quitting is possibly the most satisfying feeling in the world.
Chantix Day 2: not crazy yet.
Congrats to RmMP, as well. You better not cheat, you drug-assisted bastard.
I am as elated to see 19 as LB and Sybil must be today.
Well, not quite, but it's funny, and congrats.
It actually feels sort of junky, B. I felt sort of at a loss immediately knowing i didn't have it to tinker with anymore. And the not knowing what the hell good it is going to do me for the fall is obviously the bigger drag.
But anyway. 230 pages worth of trees killed for my precious ideas.
Nice post on New Moon, btw.
You better not cheat, you drug-assisted bastard.
Better living through science, people. I did have one exceptionally vivid dream last night, a common side effect, but it was a highly amusing dream and I woke up giggling.
Thank you, Becks.
LB, to swipe from Pogo, "inward I is all aglow" about your developments. Here's hoping for more good times ahead!
Yay Sybil! Yay LB!
I'm a little skeptical about an anti-threadjacking rule, but I suppose toning down the politics a notch or two wouldn't be a bad thing.
)|
Looks like I'll be coming to D.C. for a job interview in the next month or so.
What is absolutely not to be missed for a country mouse?
48: Thank you. My suggestion, on the not-having-anything-to-do problem, is get the fuck away from the computer and go do something amusing. Damn the expense. Take the kid to an aquarium or something, or ditch the kid and go to a movie or out drinking!!
52: Good luck. Go to the Smithsonian.
53: a good idea; neither my wife nor my parents would forgive me if I didn't do that one.
48: I would also add, beyond what B has suggested, that what you're feeling is quite common. Some people have compared the anomie they've experienced after finishing a dissertation or a book to postpartum depression. Which, having no clinical training or sociobiological proclivities (and also: having never given birth) I can't speak to. But I do think that people tend to build up to the finish, exhale, and then think..."um, what now?" "I was so keyed up about...that?" Meanwhile, everyone around them is celebrating and wondering why the long face. At least that's what happened to me: after my comps, after finishing my dissertation, after getting my first job, after having my book come out, and so on. I don't have any useful hints about what you should do now; I just want to make sure that you know that feeling aimless or depressed isn't weird. All of that said, you really should celebrate and try to feel good about a huge accomplishment. Weirdo.
Hear that, Ben and Cala? Something else to look forward to.
Congrats Sybil and LB! And thank you for 19, so well played.
This isn't a blanket no-threadjacking rule. Just don't threadjack a non-politics thread to a political topic.
And the usual threadjacking politeness rules apply -- if you're going to do it, choose a thread that has run its course, not one where another interesting conversation is taking place or one where people haven't had a chance to explore the topic yet.
59: It's exactly analogous to basic orgy etiquette, people!
Are those the rules? I've generally seen it as more fluid than that.
OK, sorry about the venue request in the middle of a thread that had not run its course. (Do those exist here, really?) At least I wasn't asking on behalf of some political gathering or something!
Still, any advice/suggestions welcome and appreciated.
Congrats, Sybil and LB! Great feelings all around!
Suggestions for DC: The Lincoln Memorial and nearby Vietnam memorial are great -- totally live up to the hype.
Besides that, it really depends on what you're into. There are more museums than you'll be able to see, so pick something that interests you -- it's hard to go wrong. I don't think it's possible for normal people to get into the White House or even the Capitol anymore, so don't worry about doing those. I never made it to the National Archives when I lived in DC, but it's a thought. Also, the Library of Congress is cool; if you're up there, you can also walk past the Supreme Court building.
They now have Segway tours of the Mall that look dorky but fun. It's too big to cover on foot unless you're borderline insane.
They now have Segway tours of the Mall that look dorky but fun. It's too big to cover on foot unless you're borderline insane.
My kid says you're a wimp. Or he would, if he were here.
It really is big. I think of myself as someone who walks a lot, and going White House to Lincoln Memorial to Capitol really took it out of me -- we ended up taking a cab back to our hotel rather than walking.
I'm trying to figure out where would be a good place to host a gathering
Not to be tediously prosaic, but how important is turnout to you? And are people coming from one part of the country, or all over? Airfares to those places vary a fair bit, although most of them seem to be hubs. If you want a lot of people to show up, I'd consider how much it's going to cost them.
Also, will people care about weather? Seattle is lovely for the 6-8 weeks between July 4 and Labor Day, but June is iffy. Atlanta shouldn't be miserably hot yet, and Boston, Phila., etc. should be warm without necessarily being hot.
I liked the National Archives. It felt bite-sized to me, although arguably that's because I didn't do it all.
The Smithsonian is where I'll go the next time I'm in D.C. with time to spare, though.
What is it, maybe a couple of miles long and a quarter wide? It's a lot of walking, but if you're spending the day wandering around looking at stuff you don't do it all at once. Definitely enough that your feet will let you know that they're there by the end of the day, but I wouldn't call it borderline insane. And toodling about on a Segway is dorky enough that tired feet are a small price to pay to avoid it.
Also, Capitol should be totally doable through your Congresscritter or Senator. Or at least it was when we were back there a couple of years ago, and I'd be surprised if it's changed since then.
Oh, congratulations!
It actually feels sort of junky, B. I felt sort of at a loss immediately knowing i didn't have it to tinker with anymore.
I know just just (JUST) how you feel.
The Mall is totally walkable. And yes, while it's not really possible to do the Capitol on your own anymore, talk to your congresspeople and they'll be happy to arrange a tour for you. They can also arrange White House tours, but there's really not much to see there.
For the record: My first Sunday living in the DC metro area, I took the train to the Archives stop, walked up to Capitol Hill to see the Mall from the western steps of the Capitol (which were still open to the public back then), made my way through the highlights of the Air & Space Museum (in homage to my 10-year-old former self, the airplane and rocket nut), stopped in at the Museum of American History, circled the Washington Monument, checked out the exterior of the White House grounds, followed the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial, got misty-eyed at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, and then wandered another half-mile trying to find a Metro station to take me back to College Park. A couple years later I moved into a house just south of the Mall and central DC became my home turf. I have walked all over that town, including a early-morning trek from near the Flophouse down to my house in Southwest when the Metro was shut down and I was too broke to take a cab. I will not be called a wimp when it comes to walking in DC; the essence of my wimpiness lies elsewhere.
Still: the Mall is surprisingly big, and you will probably be happier if you don't walk the whole thing in a day.
Ooh, I ought to see about a Capitol tour. That would nicely complement the place I'll be interviewing.
isn't anything natural, threads including, is good and interesting without any restrictions
75: Just hassling you. My kid did walk the whole thing and some chunks multiple times over the course of a few days without much complaint, but I've been conditioning him on the vacation=much walking thing since he was small.
I walk greater distances than the Mall all the time, but there's something about the bleak vastness of it that I find disinclines me to walking the length of it. "More panorama? Haven't I made any progress?"
-is, how i manage to put two contradictoryverbs into one sentence, it's like sooo remarkable
i've been to Washington DC twice and just took city tours, it was a yellow open trolleybus, was so cold
like today, freezing and sunny
79: Yeah, there's something dreary and monotonous about the Mall that's a much bigger problem in walking it than the length.
75: I've done very similar jaunts, many, many times. The Mall is a great, great place to walk, and the WWII monument, while imperfect, fits nicely with the overall vista.
I'm torn about who has the better engraved quotes on his monument, Lincoln or Jefferson. But as far as WWII goes, one thing is clear: Churchill got all the best lines. Roosevelt had his "day which will live in infamy" and that was pretty much it.
True story: One time, walking on the Mall, I was stopped by two teenage boys who wanted to know: Where is the National Mall?
They wanted to do some shopping.
isn't anything natural, threads including, is good and interesting without any restrictions
No.
+the
my mistakes quoted look even more silly
couldn't you rephrase it :(
Not sure where to post this comment, but has a time and/or place been set for Wednesday's meetup?
TJ -- It's traditional when visiting DC to take a lawyer to lunch. I'm sure you'll be able to find one.
If you don't have time for lunch, take a lawyer to drink whiskey in the lobby of the Willard. It was good enough for US Grant, it should be good enough for you.
I take out of town visitors to the Jeff at night. Usually walking through the FDR. Both are better in the dark.
The LOC is interesting. It's even better if you've thought up something in advance to have a look at. Same with the 'kives: they have Civil War correspondence from my grandfather's grandfather (a sgt in the Union Army) and it's as cool as it gets to hold the originals of such things in your hand.
You have to stand on the King spot at the Lincoln. This is better in daylight.
Supreme Court argument is very cool. Look it up before you come, because they're only in session a few mornings a week, and some weeks not at all. There are usually two lines -- one to sit through a whole case (they usually take an hour) the other to sit for 3 minutes or something. Depending on the case, it might be easy to go in the first one. The justices are quite entertaining, and meaner than you think they'll be.
The view from the Old Post Office tower isn't as impressive as from the Washington, but it's more comfortable.
The National Cathedral is impressive. Go in the afternoon, well before sunset.
Nápi, thanks for the very complete list. I'll be cutting and pasting (some of) these into an itinerary.
by the way, D.C.-ers, I highly recommend the Supreme Court oral arguments on Tuesday, March 25.
Hi Witt,
Not to be tediously prosaic, but how important is turnout to you?
I expect that most people who live in the general area will come. The invites are going out to geographically-specific people, though some folks (like myself) who don't live in those particular areas may go and join something close.
The date is an arbitrary one and can be subject to change, but there will be a little more mobility in the summer, in general, so I hope to catch people in town instead of on vacation &c.
I'm trying to remain practical and think that if I invite 100 people, of those maybe *maybe* 30 will show up. And maybe fewer, but that's OK.
So - got any suggestions for any of the cities listed? :)
Thanks!