You say you're not from Texas
Man as if I couldn't tell
Am I wrong to infer that the bumper sticker isn't a prank but a confession? The "Stop The Drilling" sticker suggests some degree of environmental awareness. ("Support Your Revolution" could mean anything.)
It's certainly possible that there is more than one prank bumper sticker, but how likely?
How did you find a picture of mcmanus' car?
Um. I noticed something in the lower left of the "I'm Changing The Climate!" sticker thqat looked like a long URL, so I made a guess and typed in www.imchangingtheclimate.com. It appears to be a guerilla prank campaign. Could all the leftist stickers on the car also be pranks?
Also, in the first picture, doesn't it look like someone's been trying to pick off the "GREEN" sticker?
Oh crap. Let me crop out the plates.
It appears to be a guerilla prank campaign.
But still funny! No?
I think it's a prank, as I once took a picture of a Toyota Tundra sporting the same sticker. I just assumed: irony! But now I think I should have summoned my Bruce Banner rage and overturned the car. What's your excuse for having not smashed this one's windows, heebie?
guerilla prank campaign
Yeah. Without going to the linked URL (lazy, I am), I seem to remember this going around a couple of years ago, people encouraged to slap these things on SUVs in parking lots. Much ado about the legality of such a thing, and I believe they're made in such a way as to be easily removable, and you're supposed to leave a flyer on the windshield explaining that. Courtesy above all!
Apropos of bumper stickers, I found myself driving to the shop this morning behind someone with a "McCain 2008" sticker as well as "Pope Benedict says DEFEND LIFE." I was infuriated for the entire drive. What's sad is that it took me a year or two before I found the very sound of GWB's voice vomit-inducing; getting an early start this time, I guess.
I think it's a prank
I don't really get what this means, because of course the people sporting it think it's funny, right?
Hence my 4.
Imagine the sticker without any other sticker: of course it's a prank. No one would be like "Look at me, I'm the kind of asshole who's going to make your grandchildren grow fins! And I'm a Lamarckian!"
But with the other stickers, it may have been put there deliberately as a red-faced admission of guilt, or they all may have been prank stickers. Neither seems likely; 5 is the only plausible explanation.
There's a Hummer 'round these parts whose license plate says something like "GASGZLR". I confess to having hocked a loogie on it.
5 is the only plausible explanation.
No, McManus has shared that he drives a dinky 3-cylinder car at grandma speed with two-by-fours sticking out of the windows.
I mean, this is a pretty old, beat up suburban, right? I assume they came into it somehow for cheap and it's not financially practical (or hip) to upgrade.
15: I suppose there is that possibility. And there are people for whom a Suburban kind of makes sense. Still and all, the smart money was on smashing their windows. Preemption is the American way.
You all are insufficiently amused. I demand pandering.
Heebie is always wrong.
Do you young people still do the old "jam a potato into the tailpipe" trick?
This was an ingenious post marked by surpassing hilarity.
Culture-jamming is deprecated, John.
Whew, there's just no adventure in the world any more.
there are people for whom a Suburban kind of makes sense. and all six of them bought one in 1983. So why are there so fucking many on the road?
Because Americans like big cars with big engines. And gas was unreasonably inexpensive until the past few months. It's that simple.
Americans like big cars with big engines.
Pirates like to see other pirates die.
24 is exactly right. The SUV market never made sense except as a regulation dodge and then marketing game.
Isn't it about time for a carp post? It's really dreary in Wobegon, almost Oregonian in dreariness.
27 is exactly right. The story of SUVs is much more one of tax law and CAFE loopholes than consumer preference. The story of muscle cars, on the other hand, is one of consumer preference.
Driving to the Jersey shore last weekend, I saw a Hummer bedecked with Mexican flag decals and the license plate "POTENTE." Presumably, Ogged has relocated to the beach.
29 is exactly wrong. It's time for a main-page carp or Hutterite post.
I mean, this is a pretty old, beat up suburban, right? I assume they came into it somehow for cheap and it's not financially practical (or hip) to upgrade.
It happens. I drive a '95 Jimmy, which was a gift from some cousins. I kind of hate it, though. Maybe I should get one of those stickers.
|| Speaking of climate change, do you think we're seeing the beginning of the end of NorCal as a place where people really want to live? During fire season, I mean? I would be really bummed by that, because I always planned to go back there sometime. ||>
I would be really bummed by that, because I always planned to go back there sometime.
Why? If people no longer wanted to live there, it would be a hell of a lot cheaper for you.
It's a bit cheeky to use pause-play for something you want an answer to, mister g.d.
Plus I think the answer is no.
Blithe denial of likely catastrophe is a hallmark of California living. I don't even think about not thinking about earthquakes.
||
Does anyone here know anything about tax law, who could answer a fairly simple question (I think) in an abstract, "this does not constitute legal advice", manner?
|>
If people do start to want to leave NorCal, where would they go? With climate change, everywhere else is going to suck too.
Winnipeg will become very pleasant.
Interactive fire map. We're away right now, but friends say it's pretty awful back home: bad air, copper sky, ash falling like a light snow. On the other hand, nobody is talking about selling out and moving back to Oklahoma. Or wherever they came from. And it's not like this is the state's first bad fire season.
I think 42's probably wrong. Winnipeg, no matter the circumstances, is irredeemable. The smart money's on Halifax or Portland, Maine.
And here I was trying to be polite.
I always thought pause-play was a little silly, as after a dozen comments threads around don't have a topic anyway.
If people no longer wanted to live there, it would be a hell of a lot cheaper for you.
There are plenty of cheap, lousy places to live in these United States. Northern California always occupied a more exalted place in my imagination. Primarily having to do with being outdoors in magnificent nature, but now apparently everyone is huddling in their houses trying to avoid smoke inhalation.
The Big Sur thing makes me particularly sad. I hope some coast redwoods survive there.
The smart money's on Halifax or Portland, Maine.
Not if they're underwater, it's not.
There are plenty of cheap, lousy places to live in these United States. Northern California always occupied a more exalted place in my imagination. Primarily having to do with being outdoors in magnificent nature, but now apparently everyone is huddling in their houses trying to avoid smoke inhalation.
Wyoming's pretty cheap.
Ari, as a Canadian, has trouble believing that anything in Canada will ever be any good. To him its Pet Shop Boys all the way down.
The carp are, in fact, muddying up Lake Winnipeg, but plans are afoot to make them into biodiesel.
Not if they're underwater, it's not.
The Dutch aren't the only people who can hold back the sea. And how's your program? And Boston? Are you liking it?
Wyoming's pretty cheap for a reason.
38: Tax law's a broad topic, and I only know much about some odd corners of it. And nothing I say is legal advice. But if you had a question, I'd probably answer it.
I have contacts in NorCal so I could get a job there. As far as I know, the only things to do in Wyoming are retired millionaire vanity rancher or impossibly fit person climbing and skiing things. I don't qualify for either.
What's so worrying is 1000 fires by the end of June. This is like the first month of fire season. As I understand it, it lasts till at least the end of September.
Maybe we're seeing a process by which all of California desertifies and Oregon/Washington become the new Mediterranean-climate paradise.
Wyoming will never be under water.
And how's your program? And Boston? Are you liking it?
Intense, rainy, and yes.
Wyoming's pretty cheap for a reason.
True, but it's not the lack of opportunities to be outdoors in magnificent nature.
Wait, Big Sur is burning? I really need to keep up with the news.
As far as I know, the only things to do in Wyoming are retired millionaire vanity rancher or impossibly fit person climbing and skiing things. I don't qualify for either.
You could always open a saloon or something.
You could open a driveup liquor store.
50: Thanks, LB. I sent my question to you via email.
Zadfrack, the income tax is unconstitutional. Just don't pay. They can't convict you because the law is on your side.
You could open a driveup liquor store/wedding chapel/tattoo parlor
you've got to diversify in these uncertain times.
Big Sur is burning. The empty hot tubs at Esalen are slowly filling with ash.
Teo, you're going to be at Chaco Canyon for six months? That's so great. I think it's one of the most evocative sites north of the Mexican border, one of the few places where North American ruins truly feel mysterious and ancient.
What I suggest: use your time there to write a New Age novel about someone who discovers clues to the mysteries of life in the ruins of the Ancient Ones. Include both new age wisdom and a murder or two -- Paulo Coelho and the Da Vinci Code. You'll make a lot of money. You only need give a small portion of it to me for the idea.
Further to 54: Oh, shit.
Uh, so anyway, yeah, Maine.
There's no evidence that Hutterites and carp have much of anything to do with one another. Theoretically they could farm carp, but there's no google evidence that they do.
True, but it's not the lack of opportunities to be outdoors in magnificent nature.
Not for long. Pine beetles -- likely another byproduct of global climate change -- are quickly destroying the few remaining forests that haven't already been cut down by Dick Cheney's campaign contributors.
And 51, it was a very weird rainy season in NorCal: huge amounts of moisture in December and January. And then, February 1, clear skies and warm weather. We kept waiting for Rain: The Second Coming. But it never came. So there's a huge, dry fuel load and no prospect of moisture until October or November. In other words, yes, absent some crazy good luck, it's going to be a very, very smoky summer.
37: I'm pretty sure I prefer quakes to tornado season in the Southeast. Spending hours in the safest part of the house with the X, two kids, and two dogs while stuff howled and thunked outside was a bummer. With a quake you pretty much know in a few minutes if you're going to survive or not.
Pause-play is when you actually don't want a response, but want to share information with your beloved 'gedtarians. OT is willful derailment of a thread. There are plenty of pause-plays that are more interesting than the thread, but the pauser-player is indemnified as long as he does not explicitly further digression.
Ogged left me in charge of that one before he took off, for real.
Teo, you're going to be at Chaco Canyon for six months? That's so great. I think it's one of the most evocative sites north of the Mexican border, one of the few places where North American ruins truly feel mysterious and ancient.
I agree. It's the only site I've been to where the ruins really have that sense of majesty and mystery about them.
You only need give a small portion of it to me for the idea.
As PGD's agent, I'd like to clarify that he was only kidding, Teo. He'll expect the standard 12.5%, of which I'll be taking my standard agent's fee of 30%. These figures are non-negotiable, I'm afraid. And we'll expect you to forward payment forthwith, or our legal team (headed by LB -- working on contingency, natch) will be all up in your grill. Have a nice day. And do try to keep dry.
There is no such thing as "off topic".
Oregon/Washington become the new Mediterranean-climate paradise.
The Eastern 3/5ths or so of Oregon and the Southeastern quarter of Washington are essentially high desert. So, they'll suck even more.
The Basques who moved there in the late nineteenth century in a get-rich-quick scheme will be out of luck.
John, Uma Thurman is engaged again. Thought you might want to know.
You know, I thought that becoming self-employed post-academia would at least provide me with a form of mobility that academia seemed to preclude. Not really, as it's turned out. Mobility is key.
The Basques who moved there in the late nineteenth century in a get-rich-quick scheme will be out of luck.
Get-rich-quick schemes that revolve around herding sheep somehow never seem to work out.
No, it's Scarlett and Natalie for me now. Poor Uma is virtually forgotten.
On the contrary, the novelist Samuel Butler (Erewhon, The Way of All Flesh) got rich raising sheep in New Zealand. Or so he said. In any case, he was able to retire on his earnings. He made little money on his many cranky books.
Yeah, even as I was writing 72 I realized that it's not actually true at all.
No word about bestiality, but Butler was a "confirmed bachelor" all his life.
Any gains gotten from sheepherding are dirty. The very definition of filthy lucre.
It hasn't been all that bad for the Basques in the Intermountain West. They've got a certain influence in Idaho. Having ones hands on the levers of power seems like it could be nice, even if the levers control Idaho.
Ari, we had the fires and orange skies last year. Its your *turn*.
71: Yeah, Im surprised to find out that Im a lot less mobile now than when I had a f-t job. Go figure.
The story of muscle cars, on the other hand, is one of teh hotttt.
78-79: I'm thousands of miles away, so let it burn. And kids are the real mobility killers, I think. I used to revel in the knowledge that I could quit my job, sell my (then very little) shit, and go where I wanted to do what I wanted. Now that we have kids, though, I'm pretty much static for the rest of my days. Whereupon I'll be static for all eternity.
81: It's not kids. It's having a spouse with a job. If the spouse works at home, you can pick up and leave at the drop of a hat.
Plus academia has frequent three-day weekends and such, which tend to prompt ideas of vacation and/or travel.
82: Oh, we can go away whenever we want. But we can't decide later tonight that we're sick of having jobs and a mortgage, so we're off to the British Columbia backcountry to raise, um, wolverines. For show. I mean, I suppose we could. We just won't. So it's not really the kids' fault; it's ours. As ever.
83: Right. Oddly, PK has made me more likely to at least fantasize about doing that sort of thing. It seems so much healthier for him psychologically than spending his middle school years hanging around the mall. But I'm lazy.
PK has made me more likely to at least fantasize about doing that sort of thing.
So, raising your child makes you fantasize about... wolverines?
Oh, well. 'Cause that would be interesting.
Emerson, you need to rent The Other Boelyn Girl. It'd be a twofer for you.
My dinner partner tonight, re. the table across from us: "oh my god that is the cutest pile of stoned dykes I've ever seen."
Emerson, you need to rent The Other Boelyn Girl. It'd be a twofer for you.
Hutterites and carp?
My dinner partner tonight, re. the table across from us: "oh my god that is the cutest pile of stoned dykes I've ever seen."
"And let me tell you, I've seen a lot of 'em."
My dinner party tonight:
Person 1: I was driving down Preston Ave. this week, and I saw a guy wacking off.
Person 2: Was he charging admission?
Me: No, he was discharging emission.
Thanks. I'll be here all week.
In many disciplines academics who are respected and research-active are pretty mobile (as long as, as Ari points out, they are willing to move the kids around). Sabbaticals, visiting professorships, occasional offers at other schools, Fulbrights....
Probably the key in being mobile, though, is just valuing travel and adventure more than standard career mobility or security. And having a spouse who does the same. Most of us could pick up, move, and make enough for food and shelter.
Bonsaisue: Geez, Sir has some serious cheese going on (referring to the baby's oral emissions).
Me: Well, yeah
Bonsaisue: He's got a curd! Like a real curd! Not the nationality though.
Me: Thank god.
mobility killers
I have a fantasy of taking my kid on the amateur Budapest-Bamako road rally. I have a car and mechanic lined up. I just need to free a month or so when he's the right age.
Budapest-Bamako road rally
What do you do about the Mediterranean? Ford it?
What do you do about the Mediterranean?
Portage, of course. Just hoist the car onto your soldiers and walk it. Like the voyageurs of yore.
Jesus, you drive around the Black Sea. Have none of you people seen a map?
When my wife was a high school German teacher in Montana, we had some special attention from nearby Hutterites. I'm generally pretty tolerant and all, but I wouldn't object to a statute outlawing apricot wine.
93 - You left out the fact that I said the curd was hanging off his chin. That made it funnier.
Jesus, you drive around the Black Sea.
I believe the Bosporus route might be faster.
90: "And let me tell you, I've seen a lot of 'em."
This goes without saying; she went to Mills.
Wiki: A stone dike is called a spetchel.
Others say that spetchel is "SPETCHEL, turf used in bedding stone." Sometimes I'm not so sure about Wiki. A spetchel seems to be a dike combining turf and stone.
Small Wels Catfish.
Large Wels Catfish.
They're easy to cook. Just clean them, fillet them, and slap them in a large frying pan. Feeds 500.
The second one may be a Mekong catfish. It's confusedly labeled on the original site.
The big one looks like he could handle a small Republican operative, but probably not whole, and not a big fat one. Ralph Reed is a skinny little guy, isn't he?
Madness is in your hearts, and your lives are among the unclean. Up and at 'em, guys!
What? What? I'm up. It wasn't my car! Kitty?
92: My father's profession [Indiana Jones, minus the Ark] had the whole family travelling around the Near East and Europe when I was a kid. It would be so much easier nowadays, what with laptops, the intertubes, satellite phones and CDs of books. My Offspring was schlepped around to conventions when he was little, giving him a taste for room service and doting flight attendants. Which I think he still has.
There's a Hummer 'round these parts whose license plate says something like "GASGZLR". I confess to having hocked a loogie on it.
(sidle over, whistling softly, eyes averted)
Brake fluid.
(sidle away)
I mean everyone keeps some break fluid in the car in case the master cylinder springs a leak and you need to get to the repair shop. Right?
Jesus, you drive around the Black Sea.
Technically Jesus could walk over the Black Sea, but yeah, for the rest of us that would be a problem.
