Sweet -- y'all should get yourselves a FEMA trailer for the Flophouse lawn.
Some of my DC friends have been bugging me to come down for the inauguration, but there is no fucking way.
Whatever. Who'll be laughing when I'm waiting in enormous lines for eight different security checks at 8 in the morning, for the pleasure of standing around for five hours unable to see anything? That's right, you!
Wait.
Duuude I think it's going to be fun. The only problem I see now is that my friend who's coming down from New York can't ride a bike, which is going to put a cramp on the reporting we both plan to do. (By bicycle is the only way to get around the city next week.)
A friend sent out an excited Twitter this afternoon about how they scored a last minute trip to NYC for this weekend. I then sent him an email reminding him that that meant he had to travel back to DC on Sunday with all of the inaugural folks. So not worth it.
3: get them to rent a segway. As an added benefit, you can laugh at them.
5: yep. It sort of feels like I'm saying "well, really, I'm only going to ever get one chance to get shocked with this cattle prod", but I'll be there.
My four-hour drive from DC to Richmond (FOUR HOURS!) the Sunday after Christmas was enough to convince me: no way, no how. I'm there in spirit. And I'm glad it'll be huge.
Also I have two (of 5,000 total!) bleacher-stand tickets for the inaugural parade, RSVPs for a fancy party on Penn thrown by an energy lobby, and maybe an in for a party where bands whose names I swore I wouldn't repeat on the Internet will be playing. And I am not cool or in at all, it's just a bit of good fortune trickling down from the total madness.
I'm going to do a systematic study of 7 bars in the area just to see what kind of things people say off the cuff. The last bar will be an Obama-Franken victory party in Sauk Centre.
My only tickets aside from main-event tickets are to the Newseum. OH WOW! THE FUCKIN' NEWSEUM!
It might be cool. Good location, if we can somehow bully our way from the capitol to there before the parade goes by.
We went through a security checkpoint to get drinks at Off the Record tonight, only to find that John the cranky bartender was off tonight, so no free pours for us. We haven't made up our minds about Tuesday, but we're leaning towards standing in the cold on Sunday for Bruuuuuuuuuce! et al.
The Brahman has tickets to the main event, not simply the parade? Except for the cold and the security I envy you posh types.
Reminds me that today a newsradio person noted that the bridges from VA are only closed to private cars and that taxis and limos can get from VA to DC. Yeah, like we all have limos.
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce good fucking riddance.
The Brahman has tickets to the main event, not simply the parade?
Yah, me and 239,999 other lucky suckers patriotic Americans. Seriously, it was pretty random.
Actually, I quite like not attending the inauguration.
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Susan Crawford says detainee was tortured at Guantanamo. I don't understand how she thinks saying this will help her career (lifelong Republican), but that's her business.
|>
16 gets it exactly right.
Me, right after the election I decided that I was getting out of DC and going somewhere warm for the festivities. Tomorrow I head for a Caribbean beach. I'll watch the show on TV.
good fucking riddance
Listening to his press conference yesterday, I had to concede that he does have a particular political genius: his moving of the Overton Window over the last eight years has been nauseatingly masterful.
19: It's sad when countries are torn apart by simple things, like wild dogs.
2: Sifu truly is trust-fund scum.
Actually, I got a ticket too but I think I'm giving it away.
The only trust fund I have is made of burning.
You should keep the ticket, PGD, and sell it as a memorabilium latter.
24: If you'd just left the typo, everyone would've just assumed some bullshit Latin back-formation or something. Lesson learned, I hope.
There are people here who know from Latin.
Oh god, please don't let him drink and drive.
So, who is PGD giving his inauguration ticket to? I could think of some worthy candidates.
Clearly I posted this in the wrong thread.
28: You mean when I'm in San Francisco in February?
Unsurprisingly, post-inauguration flights to DC are fairly inexpensive.
32: christ, after what they're charging for inaugural flights they should be free.
Hmmm... the picture accompanying the article has UK money. Some subtle commentary on the economy?
The inauguration party in Jaén is at a tiny neighborhood bar with a red carpet laid down for the occasion, set up by two Americans & their 50-yr-old Spanish bar owner friend, who regularly feeds them paella & roasted chicken & shots of rum. Because of the time difference, the bar will be open special for the occasion, & every American in the province - and most of the Austrians, Germans, & Estonians - will be getting shitfaced well before the reasonable hour for tapas.
The name of the party? "Obamanos."
Eight years earlier I logged on to the Internet and discovered Bush had re-instituted the Global Gag Rule.
...hoping that next Tuesday I find that Obama's reversed it.
eb, can you please email me with more details of what you're looking for?
35: Certainly it's "Obámanos", no? Otherwise it's like a weird reference to hands or something.
11: I believe I saw those tickets in a free-pamphlet box on a Metrobus.
36: That one, I'm confidently expecting.
My plan is to walk my frozen ass in from Virginia and get cattle-prodded by security so that I can stand at the back of the mall and see a dot on the capital that is probably Obama, although given my eyesight, will be way too fuzzy to tell. And then to miss the parade because you can't see both the swearing in and the parade. Finally, I will spend the evening wondering what inaugural balls are like. Good times!
So, who is PGD giving his inauguration ticket to?
Probably back to the people who very kindly gifted it to me...
I still think that Obama should follow Andrew Jackson's tradtion and invite the mob in to stand on the furniture.
Isn't anybody going to suggest that Bush declaring an emergency in DC is just a prelude to declaring martial law and cancelling the transfer of power?
Where have all the paranoid crazies gone? Am I the only one?
40: Good for you. I misplaced my "confidently expecting" somewhere.
43: Where is the Big Block of Cheese?
44: I'm cautiously hopeful, not yet paranoically crazy.
45.2: Gets 23 000 hits on Google.
Jackson was a complex figure. Negative side: Trail of Tears. Positive side: Big Block of Cheese.
44: Are you kidding? Bush can't wait to get the hell out of there.
46: Also, the $20 bill is the best denomination.
It looks like we'll escape without bombing Iran, though Israel has given us something pretty damn close.
Milestone news I will share with you people because I work solo:
Kai turned six months old exactly 10 minutes ago*. He's super-awesome.
Tuesday will mark the 20th anniversary of my first kiss, which, pleasingly, was on Inauguration Day. Less pleasingly, I totally screwed up that evening and could have had much more than a kiss. Anyway, That's what Inauguration Day means to me.
* Hm. Actually not, thanks to Daylight Savings. Will figure out later.
OK, I guess an hour and ten (now 13) minutes ago. I think I was actually with him at that moment. Anyway.
15: Yah, me and 239,999 other lucky suckers patriotic Americans.
Did anybody else recently get an invitation cum advertising flyer from "The Presidential Inaugural Committee"? (I'm trying to figure out exactly where on the "rube/brown shoes with a blue suit/slipped accent" scale they have me pegged.) There is an embossed "invitation" on heavy stock paper, a page explaining what the "commemorative invitation" is and what is going on at the inauguration, and then the prestige, a flyer advertising commerative items from $20 to $500 dollars.
So all you East Coast Elitist Trust Funders can freeze your artisanally-crafted asses off watching your Magic Ivy League Negro get sworn in, but my grandkids may end up with "a truly magnificent and unique piece of inaugural history. Stunning 16" x 36" handsomely matted and framed panoramic photograph" of the swearing in. It includes a gold embossed signature of the President, Vice President and Inaugural Seal. $400—read it and weep.
... not that I'm bitter or insulted.
So.... 19.5 years between first kiss and successful procreation. Mine was about 17.75 years. I wonder what the average is?
Did anybody else recently get an invitation cum advertising flyer from "The Presidential Inaugural Committee"?
Yes. I thought it was kind of hilarious.
Hmmm...my first kiss was when I was 11, and I'll have this kid when I'm 31. About three months shy of being a 20 yr gap.
Why exactly is that genocidal thug on the $20 bill, anyway? (Yeah, yeah, Washington, Jefferson, slaves, blahblahblah. Still.)
25 year gap for me.
So.... 19.5 years between first kiss and successful procreation.
Well no, because Kai is #2. The correct span is...15.83.
It is an interesting question.
53 - I got that too. I assume it's because I gave money.
I like the "suitable for framing" invitation that's basically letting me know I can wander down to the mall to freeze my ass off in a giant crowd. I'm going to hang on to it, though. Just because.
Huh, I'm coming in as either a late bloomer or a fast procreator at about 13.25.
You mean when I'm in San Francisco in February?
No, it's ... nevermind.
60: could be a little bit of both.
Did anybody else recently get an invitation cum advertising flyer from "The Presidential Inaugural Committee"?
I got an email offerring me a lottery ticket for $5 - winners to get a free trip to the inauguration. It was from barackobama.com. I think that same organization has made a deal to open a casino on Indian land near Manhattan, to raise revenue for the bail out.
What I do for the inauguration will depend on the weather. If it's 42 degrees and sunny, I'm getting as close to the ceremony as I can even though it'll require walking three miles. I'd probably go somewhere that evening, but any party or bar I go to will probably be pretty low-key because the woman I've been dating (yay me!) isn't into crowds much. If it's 20 degrees and rainy, I'm not going further from my room than the bathroom all day. Anything in between will depend on what my housemates and I can talk ourselves into.
Not having procreated personally, this part of 51 seemed much more interesting to me:
Less pleasingly, I totally screwed up that evening and could have had much more than a kiss.
It depends on what you mean by "much more than a kiss," but still, that sounds like it was a very good encounter. After my first kiss, I could have had a second kiss later that night. Maybe. If I was lucky.
First kiss: 17. (I didn't figure out which gender I wanted to kiss me till I was 16.)
Procreation: never. So assuming I live to be 90, 73 years.
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Ugh. My train was stopped by police this morning and they announced that they would evacuate the train one car at a time and search everyone. Fortunately/sadly they changed that plan before they got to my car and I had to decide whether or not to go with: "Fuck, no, officer, I am not consenting to a search!" All, apparently, based on someone who may or may not have ever gotten on the train asking the ticket agent "suspicious questions relating to security."
Ugh.
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As for first kiss/birthing babies -- 11 years.
If it's 20 degrees and rainy
People in DC really have a tenuous grasp on this whole "winter" thing, don't they?
So assuming I live to be 90, 73 years.
Does skipping kids really add that many years to life expectancy?
68: What, you've never heard of freezing rain?
Fine, 31 degrees and rainy, which is entirely possible; it's not like water freezes instantly. Or 33 degrees and rainy with whatever wind chill factor is needed to make it 20 degrees.
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Dan Savage is having a contest to choose which sex act will be referred to as "saddlebacking" in honor or Rick Warren's church. Voting instructions on the second page, linked at the bottom of the page.
Via Lindsey Beyerstein.
I'm voting for #5, anal sex to preserve virginity for marriage.
|>
DC has been wicked rainy this season. I'm convinced that there will be no snow at all this year.
My mom is taking a personal day and staying home to watch the inauguration. I'm thinking I'll probably come into town to watch it with her.
9.5 years. I may win this contest.
Or 33 degrees and rainy with whatever wind chill factor is needed to make it 20 degrees.
Fiendishly clever weather.
Wait, 56 is cheating. I wasn't counting 11-year-old kisses.
I'd always like to think that I'd say "no" to a search like the one Di described, but I'm not sure what I'd do. I'm quite sure that I wouldn't give my permission to have the trunk of my car searched.
What kind of cause do they need? Could they do a terry search first? I'd almost rather have someone look in my bag than pat me down. (At least when you visit somebody in a prison or go through an airport they make sure that the person screening you is of the same gender. Maybe of no benefit to the LGBT folks, but I would rather have a woman do that than a man.)
Wait, 56 is cheating. I wasn't counting 11-year-old kisses.
Almost everyone has to have little-kid kisses. It's a flawed metric. Measure from first potentially procreative sex to first child or something, I guess.
first potentially procreative sex
This is meant to be different from "first sex" how, exactly?
This is meant to be different from "first sex" how, exactly?
More heterosexual, perhaps?
Also, on a note vaguely related to the original post: I may be coming to the Bay Area in February.
Yeah, I think the metric works just fine with 'first kiss' understood as 'first kiss engaged in as a type of adult sexual behavior'.
Maybe from first kiss to include tongue?
79: PIV, I'd guess. Still, what distinguishes little-kid kisses from kisses that qualify for this metric? Lengthy snogging with tongue should count, surely, which isn't out of the realm of possibility at 11 or 12.
Multiply pwned. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that was 12 for me.
9.5 years. I may win this contest.
6 years (13 - 19). I do not hold myself out as an example to my children. On the other hand, I showed some restraint in that I started living with my first wife when I was 15 and my eldest son was not born until I was 19.
Wait, 56 is cheating. I wasn't counting 11-year-old kisses.
Hey! It was a real kiss. I was going into 7th grade, it was the last day of summer camp, we'd been going together for over a week. And there was tongue. And it meant a whole lot.
we'd been going together for over a week.
Going where?
88: Brock is even more clueless than me, and that is saying a lot.
Y'know. We were going together. Like, we like-liked each other and he asked me to the end-of-camp formal, and we slow danced, and from then on we were going together, for three days until camp ended.
No, I've certainly heard the phrase before. But I didn't think adults used it without scare quotes.
Almost everyone has to have little-kid kisses.
Thanks for the reminder, soup. I was almost over my pre-adolescent awkwardness, too.
I was baffled by the kisses between Tom Sawyer and Becky - they were just kids, like me!
That said, I presume that we all get the distinctions, per 82.
91: Heebie laughs at your puny scare-quotes.
'first kiss engaged in as a type of adult sexual behaviorthat gave you funny feelings in your pants'
Maybe of no benefit to the LGBT folks, but I would rather have a woman do that than a man.
I'm sure I've told this before, but I love telling it: in December '94 I was traveling to Russia for a couple of weeks over winter break and had a layover flight in Frankfurt. The layover was long enough that we wanted to go through customs to drink in the airport. At the customs station I was being patted down by a (rather handsome) German customs agent who did the standard pat-down and, very last, reached right down and cupped me in his manly hand. I was so surprised that I blurted out the first German word to spring to mind: "Danke!" The customs agent blushed furiously and all the other customs agents standing around laughed uproariously at us.
We then got lost, went through an unattended set of doors and were back outside of customs, forced to go through again. This happened repeatedly so that finally they were giggling and waving us through. I didn't know how to tell them that, no, I had not simply come back for another pat-down.
My first real boy kiss was right after my 17th birthday. The closest to crotch fruit I plan to get is cats, so I guess it was 11 years.
I first read the quote in the second link as "The President totally declared" which I thought was way better.
crotch fruit
Never heard this before. Made me think of the kiwi thread.
96: In a review of a biography of Lawrence Olivier, there was a hysterically funny/creepy story about his going through customs, and getting strip searched. And the strip search getting more and more inappropriate, until ultimately the customs agent ripped off a rubber mask and turned out to be Danny Kaye, who Olivier was involved with at the time.
God knows if it was true, and if it was God help anyone who was involved with Danny Kaye, who sounds like a real piece of work, but it cracked me up.
66: Fortunately/sadly they changed that plan before they got to my car
You were still working out your answer to the "How fast do you think you were going?" question?
I was rather romantically unviable in high school, but involved in theater, so there was a certain amount of non-coitally-oriented making out between backstage chums. I never know whether any of it counts as real kissing in this sense. I suppose not.
These kids today, &c.
38: That would be a weird thing to do with your hands.
I'll bet drunk Americans in Jaén say "Obámanos" instead of "vámonos" for the whole rest of spring.
non-coitally-oriented making out between backstage chums. I never know whether any of it counts as real kissing in this sense. I suppose not.
This, I find incomprehensible. Or, taking 'coitus' literally, there's nothing weird about making out with someone you know you're not going to have sex with (either because you don't want to or you're sure they don't), but I'd think it'd still clearly be 'real kissing' -- that is, why would you be making out with someone if you weren't enjoying it in a sexual kind of way?
There are bumper stickers that say "Obámanos" all over New Mexico these days.
104: AWB can answer for herself, but I assumed she meant dramatic-kissing-as-informal-acting-practice for theater students. Otherwise, yeah, incomprehensible.
why would you be making out with someone if you weren't enjoying it in a sexual kind of way?
Practice? I dunno what we were doing.
I never initiated it in high school, so I can't explain the impulse, but it seemed to be curiosity rather than desire.
My memory of high school is that drama kids (as we called them) were weird.
111: Well, in my recollection of high school, the drama kids seemed cool. But, then, I was president of the chess club, so just about everybody seemed cool to me.
No spontaneous making out in the chess club?
I myself was president of the Latin Club. There was no making out.
112: No, but on the other hand, there was a lot of mating.
My recollection of drama kids was that everyone was really neurotic and confused by social norms, and so acted out in bizarre ways in order to seem less intimidated. I guess it's just like anyone's high school experience, except that we were used to playing those improv games in which your duty is to consent to the ideas of those around you, no matter how little sense they make.
My first open-mouthed adult-type kiss was upside-down. I was waiting for an audition, sitting on the edge of the stage talking to a boy I'd had a multi-year crush on, who was sitting in the front row. Another boy I'd known since 7th grade came up behind me, bent over me, and started kissing me. I never asked him why. It was sorta hot, though.
ACH! No more masturbating to Patrick McGoohan!!!
110 - I think that drama provided an outlet for a lot of the odd kids in HS. I've always associate theater folk with oddness. It's a safe space to be a bit of a freak. I know a number of queer kids from college who would never have made it through high school without the safe haven provided by the drama club.
I'd almost rather have someone look in my bag than pat me down.
The last time I got patted down at the airport, I told the agent that the least she could do was offer to buy me dinner first. She was not amused.
This is meant to be different from "first sex" how, exactly?
It involves another person? Oral only doesn't count? I dunno. I also don't know how much sense this whole thing makes for people who plan on ever having kids anyway (gay or not)
Then again, I don't know what the point of the metric was either.
I guess it wasn't obvious, but that was just one arbitrary but easier to define than "first kiss" line. I guess you could say "sexually active --> first child too" but that's also sort of fuzzy.
Interval between first sex and first procreative sex: 16 years, not counting the one (known) sex act that was inadvertently, but in the end reversibly, procreative.
I guess you could say "sexually active --> first child too" but that's also sort of fuzzy.
Right. I might have to give a negative number on that metric -- but I'm working on my repertoire, honest!
And what do we really mean by "first child" anyway?
121: You just blew your pseudonym, Madonna.
Then again, I don't know what the point of the metric was either.
It's primarily a measure of our lack of anything remotely meaningful to discuss. It's somewhat deceptive in that the true measure is not an individual's calculated number, but rather the number of comments offering and/or discussing such calculations. So far, on my reading, it's indicating that our conversation is truly running on empty.
Rumor has it my firm is letting a bunch of people go.
125: Doesn't every business on Earth have a version of that rumor right now? Perhaps it is nothing.
106: That's right, now I remember. The guy who came up with it was from Austin. He said he got it from campaign paraphernalia he'd seen near the border.
If it's your firm, Di, don't you have something better than rumors to go on? Seems like you'd know.
And yes to 126. I'm sort of in the middle of trying to relocate, including finding a new job, and I'm starting to wonder if this maybe isn't the best time to voluntarily put myself on the job market. Especially since I've got a secure job now that pays very well and at which I'm, uncustomarily, doing extremely little work.
Out of the 10 tech writers including myself who worked in this office when I got here in October, five are gone. Everyone assures me that this is normal and nothing to worry about.
Everyone assures me that this is normal and nothing to worry about.
What else are they going to say?
130: to me, the idea that such a thing is "normal" would be more worrisome than the idea that it's extremely abnormal. (Unless all these people left voluntarily for other jobs?)
Back to the inauguration, this is pretty sweet. Don't stop watching before the announcement at the end.
Seems like you'd know.
Yeah, not so much. I'm tragically far out of the loop. Heard this from someone who would be in a better position to know, though.
95 and 124. Brock's right. Twice.
If I count from "first kiss" to "first cat", that would be 17 to 23.
My sister had her first (and so far only) child at 22, but I don't know when her first kiss was.
The first time I flew overseas, was also my first time through a metal detector. I forgot to take my house keys out of my pocket, and the security gate went off like nobody's business.
I've always been a soft butch, but I must have been butchier-than-usual, because the security guard that came towards me - six-foot-four with muscles to match - evidently thought I was a guy until he got to three feet. At which point he blushed, stepped aside, and waved forward an exceedingly handsome female security guard "You'd better do this".
So my holiday began with this completely gorgeous woman patting me down, finishing with her kneeling at my feet and fondling her way down the outside leg of my jeans. While I stood holding the house keys that had caused all the trouble and wanting to thank whatever lesbian goddess had provided me with such a memorable beginning to my trip...
Your never going to stop carrying your house keys through now, are you?
Well, not when I fly from *that* airport, soup.
I wonder how often security personal realize that the person they are patting down are aroused by the experience, and how they react.
Can you get a hook up from it with the right kind of eye contact? It must be a risky move, but I bet someone out there has tried it.
I look forward eagerly to the first Modern Love column originating from an airport security interaction.
I spent a lot of college making out with straight guys who had no interest in going further but who thought making out was hella fun. For that matter, I did my share of making out with queer men with whom I/he/we simply didn't want it to go beyond that because, you know, makeouts = fun.
100 is completely creepy and awesome.
Finally, NC has a ton of Obámanos bumper stickers around as well.
I spent a lot of college making out with straight guys who had no interest in going further but who thought making out was hella fun. closeted gay men.
Fixed.
Brock, your much-loved troll powers won't work on me.
143: of course they won't work on you; I'm straight.
Wait, which troll powers are we talking about?
140: "The 'voluntary' nature of airport screening is of course a farce. Sure, you can avoid intrusive searches; just give up air travel--as if that were an option in this day and age. I found myself ruminating on this illusory choice as he forced me into yet another of his emotional body cavity searches; I could choose to protect my privacy and dignity, but only at the cost of forfeiting the nonrefundable ticket I had purchased in our relationship."
132: Actually, I was being kind of deadpan there; I don't think there is anything to worry about myself. One moved out of state, one took a different job that's definitely a step up, at least career-wise; and I don't remember about the others but I'm pretty sure they were all voluntary too. I know all five of them got going away parties. I just think it's funny, especially these days.
126: Michelle Obama's job is being eliminated by the University of Chicago Medical Center.
I think I know her equivalent at this medical center, and was going to ask for career advice.
Michelle Obama's job is being eliminated by the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Who needs outreach when you can call the Whitehouse direct!
Brock,
Were you thinking of looking for work in a different region? Why can't you do that and keep your job at the same time? Assuming that the area has a lower cost of living and all that.
My very uninformed impression is that your firm is a safer place to be than a lot of places---much less likely to lay people off than its big rival. I also heard that you are short on office space since every summer associate who was offered a position took it, and they don't rescind offers.
Really, nothing at all to talk about? What about this? "Isolated negligence attenuated from the search" sounds like a pretty mushy standard to me.
Were you thinking of looking for work in a different region? Why can't you do that and keep your job at the same time?
Well yes, I would, definitely. I just meant that I'm not sure now is really the best time to be looking for a new job, period.
And I do feel like my current job is fairly safe, probably safer than any place to which I could move in Desired Relocation Region. Which is part of what I meant by "not the best time".
I'll probably move anyway, against my better judgment.
ACH! No more masturbating to Patrick McGoohan!!!
Suck. Everyone is dead.
max
['"And now I take it, that you are prepared to meet No. 1."']
Thesis: it's dead around here because the economy is dead, and the main reason most people are here much of the time is procrastination. That's why I'm here today, certainly. But other people have better things to do now, since they don't have work they're trying to avoid.
I've only read the summary from that link (BTW Cornell's website with links to supreme court opinions doesn't produce pdfs), but that ruling sucks.
I spent a lot of college making out with straight guys who had no interest in going further but who thought making out was hella fun.
Belle Waring has a post on the possible utility of straight-boy makeouts as a tactic for picking up women. Consensus? Viable!
Cornell's website with links to supreme court opinions doesn't produce pdfs
Someone should have a word with them.
While my employer's budget situation is so grim that my should-be-safe position has been worrying me a little bit, it looks like furloughs rather than layoffs will be on the table if it comes to actual warm-body-affecting reductions in personnel costs. And since what's apparently on the table would be little worse than a rollback of the raises we got six months ago, that ain't so bad. But it would be nice if there were some plausible account of how things are supposed to get better over the next year or two.
Cornell's website with links to supreme court opinions doesn't produce pdfs
I'm feeling very fortunate that my current pseudo-employer likes me enough to be hiring me on for the summer after my internship ends (assuming all goes well with the process, that is...). It would suck to be seriously looking for a job right now.
Okay, 159 is patently stupid. Being as Brock already linked the pdf. If I'd bothered to pay any attention.
It would suck to be seriously looking for a job right now.
Yes, yes it does.
I am giving serious consideration to getting back in the fruit business. Meeting with the guy next week. Food is sort of recession proof. I say sort of because the organic guys are getting their asses kicked right now.
Food is sort of recession proof.
My dad's family used to always say that as long as you sold things people needed, you'd be okay. It doesn't work if someone else is selling them cheaper, though, as we eventually discovered to our dismay.
163: I haven't paid any attention to food as an industry since the summer, but at the time, organic was the only part of the industry that was growing. (For small businesses in Vermont, at least.) That was because no one could make a profit selling food at commodity prices, so the organic markup was needed to stay in the black. Now that no consumers can afford organic, though, maybe regular agriculture is doing better. Who knows.
162: Sorry, sb. Good luck.
if someone else is selling them cheaper
Deflation is the unnamed problem currently. Real contraction won't be affected by any "stimulus".
While my employer's budget situation is so grim that my should-be-safe position has been worrying me a little bit,
I'm feeling this. There's no concrete reason to actually fear, but we've been getting austerity memos.
163: Freddie Bauer: "So, Allen, I'm thinking of playing a bigger role in the business, but there's one thing I was wondering about -- do we sell fruits and vegetables, or just fruits?"
The best Italian grocery in Portland OR seems to have disappeared down the nose of one of the heirs, as if Freddie had taken over.
It doesn't work if someone else is selling them cheaper
Particularly if they are selling the thing retail cheaper than you can get it wholesale.
cf big-box stores.
169: Right. There's just no way to compete with that.
171: yeah. I don't absolutely have to leave this year, which looks like a good thing.
Right. There's just no way to compete with that.
It leads to some weird edge cases. Independent booksellers have been so decimated that many of the ones who are left have good community and can sell a bit above going rates elsewhere because of it. I've heard of booksellers when faced with "must-have" items like harry potter box sets or whatever, will end up just buying them at the big box and remarking as it's cheaper than their channels.
The best Italian grocery in Portland OR
I'm assuming you mean Corno's, which non-PDXers might recognize from Bill Forsyth's Breaking In (It's the place with the big fruit cutouts, which Burt Reymolds and Casey Siemaszko hide behind before breaking in to the store. Finally demolished, sadly.
174: It was a landmark for decades, back to the time when Portland was an otherwise strictly white bread small town. I don't have any inside info, but it didn't survive the passage to the next generation.
I am giving serious consideration to getting back in the fruit business.
For a moment there I thought you were thinking about becoming a gay prostitute.
Sort of tying the post and the subthread together, in a way: two different headhunters I've been talking with recently have recommended not sending resumes out until after we see if everything goes "smoothly" with the inauguration next week, because people will be "distracted" if there is a major security disturbance (terrorist attack or assassination attempt), and then my resume could end up neglected and then be at the bottom of the pile. Umm... okay, I guess.
Is vice recession-proof? I would guess, from a position of total ignorance, that the answer is yes. Combine that with LB's fabulous 156 and there's a real business plan in there somewhere.
My company just did a round of secret layoffs they refused to call layoffs. It has me seriously considering returning to the Death Star. (Somewhere in there, it turns out, is a half-assed joke along the lines of 'the place can only blow up once, anyway, right?')
175: The disappeared-up-the-nose story is true, from what I've heard.
Grocery is a rough business around here. Another landmark store was torched a few years ago by the owner, who'd gotten into financial trouble. Note to potential arsonists: don't show up at the scene of the crime wearing the same clothing your own surveillance camera caught you wearing.
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No more masturbating to Ricardo Montalban
Khaaaaaaaan!!!
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My company just did a round of secret layoffs they refused to call layoffs.
What does this even mean? Do they think that people won't notice? Bizarre.
Gambling does well during depressions. I bet moonshining does too. It seems to me that it would be easier to moonshine in your basement without getting caught than to grow weed with gro-lights.
the customs agent ripped off a rubber mask and turned out to be Danny Kaye, who Olivier was involved with at the time.
Wait, Danny Kaye and Laurence Olivier were gay?
Both of them? Full time?
What I want to know is, how do you not realize you're talking to someone in a rubber mask?
Broke alcoholics. 100 proof alcohol w/o tax would cost about $1 / fifth.
Ruh-roh, someone's never seen Scooby-Doo.
Weekends off, 5 holidays a year, and a 2 week vacation.
|| Arg. I really hate it when Wordpress says things like "Your blavatar is your favicon!" OH THX. |>
When I pass through security, I ask myself, "What would Scooby-Doo?"
What does this even mean? Do they think that people won't notice? Bizarre.
It means that we hear through the grapevine, "So and so has been... terminated." Then they hold a big company meeting and tell us that "all expected terminations have already been carried out," which had the bizarre air of being told about a pre-dawn coup only the same people are all in charge so I guess more of a purge than a coup; the rest of the meeting is devoted to dancing around telling us that the pay raises we haven't gotten yet aren't happening so our annual reviews were kind of meaningless and they're going to start publishing rankings of employees compared to their colleagues as though we were race horses or baseball teams.
Two of our major investors got bailout money. When I think about it for very long it makes steam shoot out my tear ducts.
Who buys moonshine?
I once rode shotgun on a road trip on which a friend fixed someone's computer in return for moonshine.
It seems to me that it would be easier to moonshine in your basement without getting caught than to grow weed with gro-lights.
Especially given that the former takes hours and the latter takes months.
I ask myself, "What would Scooby-Doo?"
Ask for sandwiches.
max
['Ossifer, could I eat everything in that tray of confiscated items?']
Moonshine is entirely for barter. The stuff I drink every Thanksgiving is given to my friend's wife's uncle, the only hairdresser in a small hill-town of 300 people, in exchange for haircuts. He gives it to my friends every year for gifts.
My FIL always used to travel to his family in Austria with an empty apple juice jug to fill with moonshine Schnapps for the return. Of course, you can't get even marginally tolerable Schnapps over here, so....
It seems to me that it would be easier to moonshine in your basement without getting caught than to grow weed with gro-lights.
This is true, but weed hardly ever explodes, and bad weed won't kill you.
Moonshine is entirely for barter.
Also true.
One of my grandmother's older cousins weathered their family's catastrophic Depression-era losses of land and farm equipment by setting up stills and selling for profit. His son continued it mostly for fun and barter but reportedly would sell at what was considered an outrageous markup.
As a child I was taught what the smoke from a still looks like so I would know to avoid one.
Moonshine isn't hard to make right if you use copper pipe, etc.
You'd have to figure out a way to dispose of excess CO2 fumes and H2O fumes invisibly in the summertime. In the winter you could just shoot it up the chimney.
Of course, you can't get even marginally tolerable Schnapps over here, so....
Yes, you can, it's just expensive.
I'm sure Obama will legalize home distillation within his first hundred days, though.
(off-topic thingie)
Got an installation scheduled. Anybody here able to give me a reason not to switch my zillion channels and zoom webness from Time-Warner to AT & T Uverse?
(end thingy)
Got an installation scheduled. Anybody here able to give me a reason not to switch my zillion channels and zoom webness from Time-Warner to AT & T Uverse?
bob, I don't know what the situation is like in Texas, so I can't advise. In MA, we have only comcast and RCN, and soem apartment buildings are only wired for one, so you can't switch. I had AT&T cable in the past in California, but I'm pretty sure that it was an entirely different entity from the current AT&T.
Texans, speak up.
You'd have to figure out a way to dispose of excess CO2 fumes and H2O fumes invisibly in the summertime.
It's actually the alcohol fumes (from running the still too hot) that are dangerous, but there aren't any visible fumes if you're using gas for heat.
206: I'm not sure which is weirder, that Nancy Pelosi has a real youtube feed, or that she just rickrolled us.
206: ZOMG.
Holy fuck! Is that for real? Kitty!!! I am not well equipped to handle this!
I assure you my bewildered reaction is entirely candid.
I'm not sure which is weirder, that Nancy Pelosi has a real youtube feed, or that she just rickrolled us.
...or that she tagged the video with an explanation asking us to Google "rick roll."
The whole internet has jumped the shark. Whatever the kool kidz are doing now, it's not the internet.
People would see heat coming out of your chimney in the summer.
And breweries have tall chimneys because CO2 is toxic.
The whole internet has jumped the shark
THIS.
Got an installation scheduled. Anybody here able to give me a reason not to switch my zillion channels and zoom webness from Time-Warner to AT & T Uverse?
From the AT&T website, it looks U-verse is similar to Verizon's FIOS, which I have and prefer (but not by a large margin) to the television, Internet and phone service I got from the cable company. So, not exactly the same products, but similar enough from what I can tell that I would say no reason not to switch.
Neither is a problem with adequate ventilation. We have a ton and a half of grapes fermenting at a time indoors without CO2 coming anywhere close to toxic levels. And for the heat, you could just open windows and doors. I'm speaking hypothetically, of course.
Do you make hypothetical brandy too?
Got an installation scheduled.
That's like a "happening", right, except more statonary?
Is vice recession-proof?
No- Casinos reporting less revenue
http://community.investopedia.com/news/IA/2008/Sector-Wrap-Up---Casino-Stocks-LVS-BYD-WYNN
No reason to switch that I know of, bob, particularly since AT&T = SBC. So if you've been using SBC for anything, you'll get the same good or bad service.
And breweries have tall chimneys because CO2 is toxic.
CO2 isn't toxic. CO is toxic. But usually when you're generating CO2 you're also generating CO... like in car exhausts.
max
['CO: great for suicide.']
The brandy I make in my mind is not only legal but also delicious beyond the capacity of any language to express. Are you still using your gmail address, by the way?
Co2 is toxic beyond a very low concentration.
See, I knew about the cat blogging trope, but I wasn't familiar with rick rolling, so Pelosi is clearly hipper than I, which is to say that I am the furthest thing from hip imaginable.
Trope was not the right word to use in that context. I'm not sure why it came into my head.
I found some forums
That's like a "happening", right, except more statonary?
He promised 3 hours! Forums say could be 5 people three days. There are people with six widescreens.
Brand new to the neighbourhood, and I & the dogs have been watching them build it for months. Why have they been at the big box all day every day? Could be a little glitchy for a while.
No, not much reason to switch. The Lady actually watches TV, and would like the ability to record four channels at once. I am going to have to find out how much free on demand they give us for my nightly movie fix. TW was worse when they bought Dallas from Comcast.
Much faster internet at the same price (1200/500 vs 6000+/980). Now usually I can't click as fast as sites can send, and most sites are throttled anyway, but video on the net has been dicey. But I hate video on the net.
Work-from-home can drain the system, but has been manageable. VPN + Excel + Access with files up to a gig up & down, usually no higher. Lousy fucking mainframe at distant metropolis the biggest fault.
I don't know, maybe just a change and something to bitch about for a while.
229: It took me a second to realize that only the first and last lines should be un-italicized (right?), and I was mighty confused.
The word "trope" has been replaced by "meme", BG. Maybe you can get away with "motif".
230: the only italic line should from 221. Everything else was mine.
The "I found some forums" before the quoted line was a deliberate stylistic choice that made sense to me at the time..
Okay, the Pelosi thing? Unsettling.
The internet once thrilled me and now it simply scares me.
203: Yes, you can, it's just expensive.
Sorry, by "over here" I really meant in PA, with its repressive liquor system. I don't believe that true Schnapps is sold anywhere in the state.
It is true that I would have a hard time paying big coin for something my wife's cousin distills.
The Pelosi video is now removed for "terms of use violation"? Wow.
237: They're going for the Full Monty. Next I want Joe Lieberman as Light Saber kid.
