That's what Republicans do, after all.
Is it, though? A year and a half ago this was a party so enervated that Fred Thompson could pass as a presidential contender, at least for a while.
That involved putting together a presidential campaign and enough people to get elected. Not the same thing. Even in the pits, they were able to find a mob and make trouble. Terri Schiavo, the various Malkin-inspired raids on peace campaigners, etc.
If the Democrats can't withdraw from Iraq, can't close a single secret prison and can't even pass their supposedly-much-approved healthcare initiative over the objections of a few, or even relatively many, white trash peckerwoods*, no matter how loud and arm-waving, then what the hell good are they?
* As Joel McCrea called Warren Oates in Ride the High Country.
I've been wondering how our congresscritters will respond to this treatment. The whole thing could backfire. When they silence Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) with shouts of "Tranny! Tranny!", is she really going to turn around and vote the way they want?
Would it be obnoxious of me to email this article about health care to my mostly Republican extended family? Would it do any good beyond giving me a brief moment of self-satisfaction? I'm much more worried about the health care thing than I was about the election.
I think they're is going to backfire completely. Just like the nutter Palin rallies.
When they silence Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) with shouts of "Tranny! Tranny!", is she really going to turn around and vote the way they want?
Yes.
The Republicans have an institutional commitment to party discipline that IMO comes from being a minority party for a long time. That's why they are so effective at gaining power despite promoting policies most Americans don't like - they have to be smart about politics in a way the Democrats traditionally did not. The GOP is evil but efficient, while the Dems are at least sometimes good-hearted, but are always utterly chaotic. It helps that the GOP is the party of the absurdly wealthy, which means organizing an effort that takes a lot of money can be as simple as making a few phone calls.
http://thedanashow.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/meet-the-mob/
Wasn't a riot until the union thugs showed up.
5: Keep your powder dry until you get an email forward about health insurance reform from one of your relatives, then 'Reply All' with a cut and paste, maybe?
Here's Orcinus on the issue.
9: "Grandpa," "Grandma," "shed blood": I love the classics.
5:
Under any plan likely to emerge from Congress, the vast majority of Americans who are not old or poor will continue to buy health insurance from private companies, continue to get their health care from doctors in private practice and continue to be treated at privately owned hospitals.
Great. Huzzah. Woo.
I was treated at a privately pwned hospital.
13: I know. But the regulations on private insurance are promising, at least, and the public option could eventually turn into something. And if something decent doesn't pass this year, it's going to be years and years before there's another opportunity, which basically means I'll have to move to Norway.
9: Shazam! You're right. I hadn't thought of that. Grrrrrr, bad union thugs spoiling my democracy.
I thought there wasn't going to be a public option, in order to preserve the existing free market in which each person has a choice between 1, or possibly 2, for-profit insurance companies.
I would like to see the last private insurer strangled with the intestines of the last Republican. Is there anything in the proposed bill for me?
18: There's a trigger clause that says that, once the last private insurer leaves K Street, a Republican will turn out the light.
Oopsie. I think that was the wrong link in 11. here.
Semi-OT: Bernie Sanders' new web series looks awesome. Unfiltered! With cool sound effects! All it needs is Don LaFontaine intoning, "In a world..."
I would like to see the last private insurer strangled with the intestines of the last Republican.
This would be especially great if they were the same person.
Ezra Klein ...on the mobs.
This is not what the politics of health-care reform look like. This is what the grassroots strategies of various groups look like. It's important not to mistake one for the other.
Not quite. It is about the mob for the sake of the mob. Use an issue, be it birthers or healthcare, to create a tool that will be useful in other ways.
Sara Robinson ...says these mobs, and the open support of the mobs by the Republican Party establishment, is the final definitive indication that fascism has arrived. She is the expert, and I have been watching Sara & Dave at Orcinus to see when or if they would make the call. They have not made it before, irrespective of Bush policies. Fascism is sorta bottom-up, rather than top-down. Rush calling Obama Hitler is of course, projection, but that Hitler is at the front of Rush's mind should terrify us.
Hugh ...says a depression is coming. We have barely started the decline. Given where we are, what does a 2X bad economy look like politically?
Obama needed to inspire an army, not reassure Wall Street. Republicans, and the Village. We may be lost.
Glad to see an old SEIU guy bashing the wingnuts with his cane. This should shame the younger generations.
I do wish canes would come back into fashion. I want one with a sword inside.
23: I'm not even sure what ezra was trying to say with that quote. I'm really afraid if Sara is right.
that Hitler is at the front of Rush's mind should terrify us
Hitler is at the front of everybody's mind. Go ahead. Try not to think about Hitler. You can't do it.
The best you can do is think about funny Hitler, like in those Downfall youtubes or the Charlie Chaplin movie.
26: He's saying that politics of health care is what's happening on Capitol Hill and along K Street. And the rest is just faux populist dinner theater. At least I assume that's what he's saying.
Bave--You could always move to Massachusetts. Our system isn't too bad. It's flawed, but that's partly because Federal laws prevent us from doing certain things.
I might move to Canada someday, but unless I have millions (like $15 or more) I'm not planning on movign anywhere else in the U.S. until we get some reforms.
Is it hard to emigrate to Noreway? I don't think I coudl take the winters there.
19
I would like to see the last private insurer strangled with the intestines of the last Republican. Is there anything in the proposed bill for me?
All that I want is to stay in former employer's plan even though I have been laid off. Early versions of the stimulus package contained provisions (like extended COBRA given 25 years of service) which would have accomplished this but they were later removed.
Something like that might encourage me to keep voting Democratic. Instead I have no idea what if anything their plan will do for me. I suspect many people don't see a clear benefit which is why the plan is in trouble.
Charlie Chaplin movie.
That worked really well, didn't it. I have been saying for years that the Right is never funny, that you can't laugh them away.
No use permitting
some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away
My old employer plan sucked ass. The Maine Republicans are really pissing me off on this one, because the Democrats in the state (both reps and the gov) are pretty liberal about this stuff. I think that Blue Cross went for profit. Employer-based coverage isn't really tenable in the rural parts of Maine, because a lot of people combine several jobs and do independent work. Outside of a place with community rating and guaranteed issue, just try buy insurance in the individual market.
6: My first thought, too. Glad you said it first.
I suspect many people don't see a clear benefit which is why the plan is in trouble.
This is quite true. B was bitching about her plans. I think that Mr. B works for the government now, but before he was working for a contractor, i.e. a big company. The Dems plans do nothing to the large group market. Individuals would be barred from purchasing in the exchange.
33: Yes, but you probably thought it without the random "is" in the middle.
Is there actually a plan announced? Last I heard it was all bits and pieces of potential plans, which could be good, could be bad. The opposition has the advantage of hating all reform equally.
32
... Outside of a place with community rating and guaranteed issue, just try buy insurance in the individual market.
I suspect New York state has this which is why my current plan would cost over $16000 per year. This is about 4 times the cost under COBRA.
Seriously Bave, why did you pick Norway? Are there jobs in your field there? Leaving the country is kind of hard. I don't think it would be too hard for me to get landed immigrant status in Canada, but the PHRMA industry has really left Montreal in a big way.
It gets more expensive when you get older which is okay if you keep making more money, though not if you don't--though entirely understandable from the insurer's perspective. That's kind of why everybody needs to have insurance of some sort. Young guys in their twenties shouldn't be allowed to go bare. Otherwise you have the adverse selection problem.
Family plans are hideously expensive. I think that that's fairly standard for small businesses.
Norway was chosen for illustration purposes only and isn't even my favorite Nordic country.
Norway's economy is one of the strongest anywhere, so presumably that fact could weigh in favor of mentioning Norway.
Yeah, but Norwegian guys are too tall, healthy, and good-looking, IME. Perversely, this means I could never imagine dating any of them.
From the Sara Robinson link in 23:
In the first stage [of fascism], a rural movement emerges to effect some kind of nationalist renewal (what Roger Griffin calls "palingenesis" -- a phoenix-like rebirth from the ashes).
Heh.
Make up your mind orthographywise, K-Sky.
35: That depends on what the meaning of "is" is...
Huh. Looks like the commenter at 9 is part of a creeptastic movement. "I am the mob" seems to be their little catch phrase, and that hash tag is being used on scary twitters to encourage wingnuts to bring the guns to town halls and shoot SEIU folks. See TPM.
Holy fuck. Over health care reform???
47: not paying attention? It isn't over healthcare. It is because clenishusseinobamasoeterobirthcertificatefema.
47: Dead people require very little medical care. Fact.
But I'm not dead. I feel fine. I think I'll go for a walk.
49: The FEMA stuff feels very 90s to me, very Mulder and Scully.
I agree. However, at least one popular television personality failed to get that message.
(that of course is him walking back his recent claims, indicating that he did in fact get the message--recently)
Yowza. That really is straight out of XFiles.
Is there a smoking man? (And will his lung cancer be covered by socialized medicine...)
It gets more expensive when you get older which is okay if you keep making more money, though not if you don't--though entirely understandable from the insurer's perspective. That's kind of why everybody needs to have insurance of some sort universal health care.
Neiwert showed up at Crooks & Liars but was a little more cautious than Robinson. Something like "fascist" activities.
The point is street violence, openly advocated and even committed, with corporate and institutional support.
Time for Obama & Holder to declare the Republican Party a terrorist organization, and arrest anyone giving it "material support", funding, verbal encouragement, etc.
You think I am kidding. After they openly kill a few hundred people, will liberals put their families in the gunsights, or back down? A very small faction of committed fascists can win everything with violence, because most of us think maybe it won't be so bad, certainly not as bad as a freaking civil war, you know, and anyway we don't approve of violence etc etc etc
Yes, they can put Sarah into the White House. By force. You better believe.
Yes, they can put Sarah into the White House. By force. You better believe. betcha!
A cafe I like to work at has graffiti on its restroom wall instructing patrons to google FEMA concentration camps.
A cafe I like to work at
Itinerant cook? Menu editor? Bathroom attendant?
So it's like the opposite of the K-hole, right?
A friend took Ketamine in a university study. They administered an IV drip and asked him to list as many words as he could starting with 'S'...
...he got six.
65: Was that the only word? Or just one example of the many he got?
62: Every Saturday I go to a new cafe, walk behind the counter, and start taking orders. All it takes is a few espressos to get a sense of whether I'm in a cafe I like to work at.
Anyway, everyone knows that the "google FEMA" graffiti is just a red herring. Government agents put it there to get us to waste all their time on conspiracy theory websites that they've actually set up, and thereby to distract us from what's really brewing. It's Counterintel 101, really.
67: Actually, I think neb is fairer in not intimating use/mention confusion where none actually exists. My retort works better in a verbal setting.
||
Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
Frowner's been over to Rosemary Williams' house after the sherriffs and their friends the bankers came by to try to evict her early. People are bracing for the possibility of mass arrests. All to kick a couple of poor black women out of their house on a block that already has 3 foreclosed and boarded-up houses on it.
||>
Someone I know (supposedly; I really should stop accepting people who I don't actually remember) on Facebook posted this today. You go, Republicans.
66: six works as both use and mention. "socks" and "sex" too IIRC
68.2 reminded me of an amusing bit in Parting the Waters, which I'm reading:
By the end of [1956], [U.S. Communist Party] membership was down from a postwar high of 80,000 to some 5,000. So many of this remnant were FBI informants that J. Edgar Hoover briefly entertained a proposal to take control of the party by throwing the votes of informants behind one faction at the upcoming party convention in February 1957.
66, 67: surely if he got "six" he could get "seven."
72: Well no wonder he stopped thinking of more words, if he was getting sex (and socks!).
Not to mention when he started getting sick.
Maybe he was so overwhelmed that he got suicidal.
It's Counterintel 101, really.
I asked the survivalist roommates what they thought about the FEMA camps. They asked, somewhat surprised, how I'd heard about 'em, and I explained I was reading about nutjobs protesting health-care events, and how some of the same crowd was apparently the hussein-birther-fema people. The one roommate calmly explained that I needed to understand that the birther thing was counterintel, but the FEMA camps, yeah, they're real. Remarkable.
On the other hand, they're making pickles right now. I like pickles.
And...are they still married?
Perhaps the riots are a sign that Gog and Magog are loose in the world.
and I explained I was reading about nutjobs protesting health-care events stalking a co-blogger at his job and saw it on a bathroom wall.
mcmc--I agree. I was just trying to put it in terms that Shearer might appreciate.
79: Legally, yes. But in all practical ways, they're "broken up" but friends.
73: I know I've heard multiple stories along those lines, but I can't recall the details of any right now. It have the impression that such occurrences are not uncommon in the history of intelligence/security services, especially when the cell being infiltrated is on the small side.
Erci Prince ...40 yrs old, child of two (her own money) of the richest families in the world, with his own wealth
On August 3, 2009, two anonymous former Blackwater employees swore under oath that Prince may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company.[38] In addition, they said that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life." The allegations surfaced in pre-trial motions in a Eastern District of Virginia civil lawsuit brought on behalf of Iraqi civilians by Susan Burke, a private attorney working in conjunction with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Prince's father co-founded the Family Research Council with Gary Bauer.[12] Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, a former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party and wife of former Alticor (Amway) president and Gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos[10], son of Richard DeVos, Sr. (listed by Forbes in 2007 as one of the world's richest men, with a net worth of $2.4 billion).[13]
Coincidence that the Right is getting violent at the very moment Eric Prince became a target? I don't believe in coincidences.
The gov't of the US will go down before Eric Prince, (recently ex-) CEO of Blackwater, goes down. Could happen next year, could happen this weekend.
83: Sad to hear, but glad they can get along well enough to make pickles together.
Shorter 87: The relationship soured—just enough for pickles!
More seriously, yeah, things are slowly normalizing. Weird times, man.
85 Off-topic?
The Prince/Devos families are the biggest funders of the Republican Party, and are also the funders behind the various wingnut organizations sending thugs to the health-care meetings.
I don't believe in coincidences.
That seems misguided, because existence is full of them.
When we look about us towards external objects, and consider the operation of causes, we are never able, in a single instance, to discover any power or necessary connexion; any quality, which binds the effect to the cause, and renders the one an infallible consequence of the other. We only find, that the one does actually, in fact, follow the other. The impulse of one billiard-ball is attended with motion in the second. This is the whole that appears to the outward senses. The mind feels no sentiment or inward impression from this succession of objects: consequently, there is not, in any single, particular instance of cause and effect, any thing which can suggest the idea of power or necessary connexion.
90:"Only Connect" ...Forster
It is the role of the artist (or scientist, but they wrongly think the structure is outside them and evade the responsibility) to illuminate the quotidian, to reveal the interdependencies of all things great and small, to show how the butterfly's first flight deposes an emperor.
pwnd on preview, but posted anyway
Because I really like dead white male philosophers, coincidentally.
Fucking David Hume would most certainly be insalubrious at this point.
90:"Only Connect" ...Forster
Lemme guess, bob: you think both the Wilcoxes and the Schlegels should have been strung up?
Blake has the best answer to David Fucking Hume, and I was just thinking I need to get back to Northrop Frye in order to be able to articulate that answer. Which is, not that far from what I have always believed, as someone who connected 1904 Dublin to the 12th BCE Aegean before I was in long pants.
"Scientists" and "empiricist" may not respect all those connectivities.
||
Pickling has broken down. I'm not exactly sure why.
|>
Pickling has broken down. I'm not exactly sure why.
Perhaps the salt solution was too weak?
101: If the pickles were being broken down, I would the the solution would be, if anything, too strong.
Pickling has broken down. I'm not exactly sure why.
In order to better serve as a metaphor for their marriage.
Essear, curses and thanks for Veronica Mars. I have now wasted the better part of the afternoon.
103: but what happened was that pickling had broken down. Perhaps owing to an invasion of nasties.
Nasties? Are those related to cooties?
106: I was assuming that what pickling had broken down (i.e. the object of the verb), being elided as obvious in the original statement, were the pickles themselves.
Nasties? Are those related to cooties?
No. Cooties are fictitious, but demi-liches are all too real.
Watching This Is England on Netflix streaming. 2006 film about a kid who falls in with skinheads after his dad dies. Excellent. The leader of gang is yelling about "3 and a half million unemployed" and blaming the immigrants. Now they're at an NF meeting.
America in a few years?
</mcmanusblogging&rt;
I knew I was wasting my high school experience by never managing to get invited to a D&D game.
I happen to have three possible Netflix options in front of me for this evening:
-The Taking of Pelham One Two Three [the original]
-Like Water for Chocolate
-The Third Man
Leaning towards Pelham.
</mcmanusblogging>
111: Yes, you could have been the person who contributed the following to Wikipedia:
A dracolich that became a demilich would be an extremely powerful monster, even by dragon standards. Lichfiends are evil outsiders that achieve lichdom.
113: I'm not sure keeping a life list of birds is any less dorky.
114: If you are taking a poll, I agree.
I just remembered that JP is a birder. The indictment of dorkiness was actually directed at myself.
Still. DD = Train Spotting = Bird watching = Reading the classified ads on paper
Speaking of birds and conspiracies, did you guys know that the Government has a list of all the birds?!?!?! Why? Mind control? Cointel?! AHH!!!1!
I guess demi-liches aren't nasties after all.
That seems to be a list of all the kinds of birds.
I'm very disappointed.
I knew I was wasting my high school experience by never managing to get invited to a D&D game.
Absolutely; you could have experienced all the frustrated teenage boys attempting awkwardly to hit on you. Not to be missed!
Not true in all D&D circles, I'm sure, but still, man, my friend and I had to leave our group. (Apparently I'm still annoyed, which I hadn't quite realized. I'm sure they all grew up to be excellent fellows. One guy named Clint was super-smart.)
118: Thanks. Next time somebody asks me what kind of bird lives behind my house, I can say "It's a cardinal" instead of "A red one."
122: I infiltrated a D&D group in college because I had a crush on one of the players. They were very business-like, unfortunately for me.
Ooh, there are boobies? Neat! A SFW booby, who looks surprised.
116: TOO LATE!!! The permanent diminishment of my self-image is collateral damage to your thoughtlessness.
Actually, I don't have a life list*. I came late to doing birding beyond casual stuff, and spend a lot more time noting behavior and doing things like running around with my daughter gathering data on the dividing line between Carolina and Black-capped Chickadees (Literally a few miles north of us**)--not dorky one bit!
*As a kid, my birdwatching uncle made an nimpression on me when he drove up from southern Ohio to our house, specifically to see a Gray Jay which had wandered down our way. (He now lives in UP Michigan, so he can presumably see them most anytime he wants.)
**Except that they overlap, occasionally interbreed and learn each other's songs. My daughter is much better at it than I.
124: Yeah, a grad school friend participated in a group that was all business, from what I understood, and not infrequently went from dusk 'til dawn. By then I barely remembered a thing about the game, though.
112: You might want to read this recent discussion on The Third Man (well, mostly on the zither soundtrack) over at Bérubé's place.
126: Your sort of birding sounds like my sort. My entire family are of the crazy variety (step-father leads Audubon trips regularly, aunts and uncles are the sort that travel the world to see one bird, and the grandparents are the progenitors of it all). In the end, I don't think I had much of a choice about being interested in birds, but I'm much more of the pay attention to what's around and what they are doing type than the rest of my family. And, I should admit, I'm fairly bad at it and probably wouldn't have much luck identifying things on my own. I just like to watch them, and I let my friends and family do the serious work.
Once, on a bus ride in Crete, I tried to make a list of all the kinds of animal I had eaten. The fish stymied me.
130: Just because they ask you to make a list doesn't mean you have to.
131: Sometimes, you just can't escape your upbringing. I was destined to like it.
(Plus, lists! I love lists!)
112
I liked Pelham and Third Man. Never heard of the other.
134: It's like you wanted me to change the mouse-over text.
112:Having seen them all, for some reason I would go for Like Water for Chocolate
Saw Pelham very recently and was a little disappointed. Fine, but minor. I have seen TM so many many times, including parts again revently. And the themes are very old.
135: If it wasn't for the down-turn in the newspaper business, I'd still be reviewing movies.
137: If it weren't, Moby. Past subjunctive mood, yo.
Links like 128 should be careful about spoilers.
But...Berube finds the zither sndtk annoying, well, it's supposed to be. The exact same music sounds different at various points of the movie. There is cheerful zither theme, scarey zither theme, and at the end sarcastic and ironic zither theme.
Third Man really is a great great movie, and must be seen sometime.
138: To be fair, the paper did have issues with me grammar.
Reading more zither commentary from the Berube thread:
Dudes, it's a Brechtian zither.
I like The Third Man soundtrack. It's repetitive, but whatever. I think it actually corresponds loosely to the appearance/mention of a couple of the key characters. They do a good job of knowing when not to have the soundtrack too - it could have ruled the ferris wheel scene, which works really well with just the background sound of the wheel. There's also a nice bit of non-repetitive atmospheric zithering before one of the final scenes.
I don't actually think the soundtrack is supposed to be annoying. Strangely enough, people have different tastes.
I instinctively have more respect for seemingly pointless geeky hobbies that involve the real world, like birdwatching and trainspotting, than those that involve fictional worlds, like D&D or demiliches.
Really, though, I have the most respect for pointless geeky hobbies that create things, like languages, or the large metal dinosaur we passed along the roadside the other day. If you made a large metal demilich and invented a language for it, I would love you.
105 Essear, curses and thanks for Veronica Mars. I have now wasted the better part of the afternoon.
I'm glad to have facilitated the time-wasting, though really, is time spent watching VM truly wasted?
137: If it weren't, Moby. Past subjunctive mood, yo.
Rather, present. The past would be "if it had been".
Or in this case "if it hadn't been".
Wouldn't the present subjunctive mood be, to wit, "be"? That is, "if it be". I don't know this one as well in English as I do in Spanish, so I'm willing to admit neb's right, if that's the case.
Oh, never mind. I think neb's on about the perfects. Point, neb.
Far be it from me to make purportedly definitive grammatical pronouncements! But exactly what pastness do you detect in such statements as "if I were in Chicago right now, I would go to Harold's"?
I suspect these are just different subjunctive forms, analogous to "wäre" and "sei" in German.
is time spent watching VM truly wasted?
True enough, and I did manage to write a lecture today among other things.
I think -- and Wikipedia seems to agree -- that "if it hadn't been" is the past perfect subjunctive, and "if it weren't" is the past subjunctive, which, usage being what it is, is not always used in relation to things that are temporally in the past.
I think—and this comment should bear this out—that real mdashes are awesome.
Essear spoke too soon!
The CGEL in fact discriminates between two different moods which it calls "subjunctive use of plain form" ("if this be treason") and "irrealis" ("if I were you"), saying that "one striking weakness of the traditional analysis is that it treats the verbs of I be and I were as the present and past tenses of a single mood, the subjunctive", something it calls "quite unjustified".
They go on to note (in accord, one might think, essear, with my assertion) that "if I were you" or "if it were not for the state of whatever" "is concerned with present time … and there is no synchronic reason to analyse it as a past tense form".
(All quotations p 87, Cambrdige Grammar of the English Language. Thanks, amazon!)
Er, that's the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. "Cambridge" is a word I can almost never type correctly.
Cambrdige Grammar of the English Language
This pleases me, for petty reasons.
151 True enough
At the rate I'm zipping through season 3 now, I have to tell myself so, at least.
150: I don't know if we're arguing at cross purposes here, but there are still some examples present subjunctive mood in English, clearly distinguishable from the past subjunctive mood For instance:
"It is necessary that he be alive."
On preview: Please, someone, have sex with neb. Seriously.
At the rate I'm zipping through season 3 now, I have to tell myself so, at least.
I'm too embarrassed to admit which disc I'm on.
"if I were in Chicago right now, I would go to Harold's The Violet Hour"
They go on to say that these uses of "be" and "were" are actually non-tensed, but they restrict the uses of "were" to the first and third person, which seems weird to me, but hey, I'm not a linguist.
Anyway, I endorse the message of 159. Can we arrange for that someone to be a revitalized MFK Fisher, between (let's say) 25 and 35 years of age? I just read An Alphabet for Gourmets and have been completely seduced, I think.
I would go to Harold's and then The Violet Hour!
To 159's struck-out example we can add "God shed his grace on thee". Yeah.
I just read An Alphabet for Gourmets and have been completely seduced, I think.
How can you not be? I can't choose a favorite, but top three are A, H, and W.
Jesus tetragrammatical Christ, neb. Live in the now.
"God shed his grace on thee".
Yeah, I think that some vestigial "That" got dropped off the front of that sort of expression. Maybe teo will show up and learn us a new one.
I liked W, B, P, and N a great deal. H and A are good too.
The anecdote in M, regarding the young man, occurs elsewhere in one of the books in The Art of Eating—I think it must be in the part of How to Cook a Wolf where she gives the sludge recipe. This is completely tangential but I had to settle my mind on the question. Thank you for your indulgence, in this as in every matter of the past several years.
167: no, it has a hortatory sense—if anything got dropped, it's a "may" or "let". But I don't think anything did get dropped; it is—as they say—the subjunctive use of the plain form.
Flippanter, what's happening now is that we're discussing the glorious, divine Ms. Fisher and the English language, itself a glorious if somewhat messier thing.
Is there an activity more suited to a friday night?
I'm too embarrassed to admit which disc I'm on.
Well, presumably you skipped disc two, so I would guess... four? Maybe even five? There are so few mediocre episodes in the second half of the season, it's hard to stop.
169: Be that as it may, dear neb, whatever.
Further to 171, perhaps the question is whether you've reached Logan's use of the subjunctive in reference to Mr. Daniels.
Your mom has a hortatory sense, Stanley.
The sense is that she's a whore to Tories.
BURN
168: There is some overlap between "How To Keep Alive" in How To Cook A Wolf and "M is for Monastic," if there was actually a question buried in there.
There was not, but I thank you for your attention nevertheless.
171: Yep, you got it. I'm stopping for tonight though, really. I am.
174: Scoundrel!
Be you without. Without, I tell you!
180: I don't think that link works.
Do you not think it works because you have tried it and it didn't work?
180: That cat is neither severe nor hot, you sicko.
Or are you snarkily implying that, while it goes to an image, that image is not of a severe, yet hot person?
It works for me.
You have to copy the link and paste it into your address bar to break the referrer-header-based redirection.
Oh weird. Pasting the URL in the address bar works. Clicking the link does not.
Pwned. And yeah, the description is apt.
I was wondering at what point Neb had gone furry.
186: it's not that weird; it's pretty common for systems intended to discourage hotlinking.
WHATEVER. I ENCOURAGE HOT LINKING.
Ah, she even had the audacity to age well.
Yeah, but neb is too ageist to do her past 35.
193: She could be 40 without violating the 1/2 plus seven rule, after all.
It wasn't necessarily ageism.
Then what was it?
194: In Nebanon it's known as the Future Perfect.
Or rather, an irrationally arrived-at range.
I don't have to defend this to you people! What hellish inquisition is this, anyway?
It's acceptable to be irrational in matters of the heart, I think.
OT: Quick not-dating question. Went on date with guy a couple months back. No chemistry. Told him I was not interested in dating, "let's be friends." Had pleasant lunch. Going to show and dinner tomorrow. He emails directions, etc. to the theater, but then calls to apologize for not having offered to pick me up and suggests that he'd be happy to do so. He lives 10 minutes from the theater; I'm an hour out of the way. Is the not-a-dateness of this outing unclear?
204: Unsure without knowing him further. I might suggest to do something like that even for a friend, but....the very fact that you're going to a show and a dinner may be confusing him.
205: Okay, so long as I can plausibly assume we're clear. I'm a selfish jerk -- I'd never offer to go an hour out of my way to pick up a friend for a show...
204:
(1) So you're going out again, why?
(2) You should arrive independently.
I agree with 204.2, which I did not make clear, but I figure you were already planning on that.
Yeah, totally plan on arriving separately. I like the guy, and can never have too many friends, just no attraction.
No chemistry.
The sticks, they were not rubbed together.
He lives 10 minutes from the theater; I'm an hour out of the way.
It is a decent offer to make.
Is the not-a-dateness of this outing unclear?
Very possibly not; OTOH, he may be simply making a kind offer. Tell him you've got something to do right around the time you'd be leaving so you won't be home to be picked up (or something like that).
max
['Since it makes you uncomfortable.']
Oh, I have no problem telling him straight out that I can perfectly well drive myself and that it makes no sense for him to drive all the way out of the way -- think of the fossil fuels, for Pete's sake! I just don't want to feel guilty about giving any wrong signals, and I'm not exactly gifted about giving and picking up signals accurately.
I'm not exactly gifted about giving and picking up signals accurately.
Me either, so I don't know why I'm bothering to offer advice.
What I can do, however, is make ice cream. And tomorrow it's going to be Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Fig and Cardamom.
You should figure out the distribution of figs in the ice cream to determine the average number of wasps you consume with each bite.
I'd err on the side of the signal that signals NOPE!, di.
What I can do, however, is make ice cream. And tomorrow it's going to be Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Fig and Cardamom.
Aw damn. Maybe I should cancel the not-date, just to be safe, and fly west... Or maybe just request your recipe. I have an unopened package of figs sitting on the kitchen counter and tons of cardamom.
Di's a big-time player in the cardamom cartel.
If you flew all the way to CA to have ice cream with me, Di, I'd presume it was a date.
So, let's go the easy route: the recipe is here.
Does anyone know of a nutella-like ice cream recipe? I haven't gone looking yet, but I just thought of how much I would like that.
1 pint heavy cream, and then, skim milk?
I know someone who made her own nutella-alike, which she averred was better than nutella.
It isn't ice cream but could plausibly be incorporated into a recipe for same, I guess.
221: I know, there are some seriously strange things about that recipe. But I'm going to give it a whirl.
If 223 is addressed to 222, I'm not sure what the referent of "it" is.
The sticks, they were not rubbed together.
I can make friction fire, but that isn't the way I do it. Ladies....
Do all figs contain wasps, or just some varieties of fig?
Of course, a wasp cannot sting one's tongue, or so Ada Veen claimed.
Parenthetical's tree is, we will speculate, not commercial. And yet it is unlikely that wasps pollinate commercially-used fig trees because they are paid to do so. We may further speculate, then, that her figs are likely to contain wasps.
I knew about the information in the link, but I've seriously never noticed wasps around the fig trees that I've had over the years (non-commercial). I wonder if I am just unobservant, or if non-commercially they end up being pollinated by bees or the like.
Fig wasps are very small, after all.
Hm. Reading more, I think I'm just unobservant.
commercially-used
So here's a question (as distinct from a challenge, mind you): our adverbs can or can not become party to a compound adjective? I believe the answer is, no, as the adverb is modifying, well, the verb, and therefore can not be conjoined with something else to form an adjective.
Right? Or wrong?
Oh, Parenthetical is here. I'll take my answer off the air, 'kay?
238 is clear as mud to me. What could be wrong with a construction like "commercially-used"?
239: Not sure I understand, but I'm happy to cede the unfogged floor to you and head off.
240: Well, essear, "commercially-used", by virtue of that there dash in there, is a compound adjective, one assumes. But "commercially" is an adverb. Which is to say, it's modifying a verb. Or at least it should be, lest it be accused of aberrant behavior. So, then, the idea that the adverb can serve as part of compound adjective prompted my question.
Understand?
240: I remember, rightly or wrongly, that the Chicago Manual of Style frowns on hyphenating an adverb before an adjective. AP might be down.
241: No, no need. Indeed, please don't. The thing is, now that I know who you are, I don't think it's a great idea for me to be hanging out here when you're here. And really, I don't hang out here very much these days, so it's no big thing. I can explain more, if you'd like, but it's mostly a matter of my being hung up on my own sense of professional propriety. I really, really didn't mean to make you feel either uncomfortable or guilty. That wasn't my intent at all.
Adverbs can quite happily modify adjectives.
244: Hey, I'm really sorry about that. I rather thought you always knew who I was, and it wasn't my intention to step on your toes, or indeed, your stomping grounds. I probably shouldn't have put aside my own sense of professional propriety and should have remained a lurker. Nor did I mean to make you feel uncomfortable. So, uh, yeah.
247: You have precisely nothing to apologize for. Seriously, it's my hang-up, and a stupid one at that. And given how little time I'm here, making myself scarce when you're around isn't a big deal at all. Not to mention, this is a quasi-public space. So again, it's just not your problem.
247: And also, your sense of professional propriety shouldn't enter into the equation. Unless, that is, you sign my paychecks.
Anyway, I'm outta here. I've got work to do. And I don't much like essear's attitude. That guy's always been trouble.
249: And it comes out, what no one knew... I'm Chancellor Yudof!
At the risk of sounding intrusive, is it not common for professors and grad students to socialize in non-work-related settings where you are? I have to admit I don't see how it could be improper; awkward, at worst.
250 can apply to 252 as well, I suppose.
251: I always assumed you knew your own title, President Yudof.
254: Sigh. I've been confused lately. About many things. The pressure of this job is a lot, ok? So much so that I think I need a raise again.
If one is going to give oneself a fanciful title, go with Commodore, not Chancellor. It adds mystique.
Commodore reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean.
252: The thing is, I'm the head of our graduate program committee, which means that I have to make all kinds of decisions about the allocation of funding and what-not. So no, I don't socialize with the graduate students outside of work. In fact, I run whenever I see one of them.
Really, I'm just sorting this stuff out on the fly and trying here to err on the side of caution. There have, in the past (as in, before I took over the post) been all manner of allegations of favoritism. If people are going to accuse me of such things, I at least want some fig ice cream with extra wasps.
At the risk of sounding intrusive, is it not common for professors and grad students to socialize in non-work-related settings where you are?
ari needs a safe space to discuss his weakness for goats. I don't blame him for not wanting a grad student to witness his shame.
Ah, but I've always been witness - I've been reading here for years!
Uh. That made me sound like a scary stalker. Which I'm not.
258: Ah, I see. You have actual responsibilities. That must suck.
Note to self: write a script that figures out when I write too many comments after midnight, tells me to go to bed, and shuts down my computer. For extra utility, include a breathalyzer and decrease number of allowed comments with increased alcohol consumption.
which means that I have to make all kinds of decisions about the allocation of funding and what-not
You still have fundng to allocate? I thought it all got lent to the state.
260: Yes. but now there's evidence of that, and so he might be accused of favoring the grad student who is known to know of his fondness for goats. When you confess these things to people, bonds are formed.
So I don't read the comments at EotAW that often, but are there not grad student commenters from your department there? That would surprise me a bit, given that Edge is not exactly a below-the-radar (no adverbs being joined there) blog. But I guess I probably have a distorted view of what "famous in blogland" means in terms of outside world fame.
255: Sigh. I've been confused lately. About many things. The pressure of this job is a lot, ok? So much so that I think I need a raise again.
I actually do find myself making this mistake often (relative to the number of times I consider the structure of UC leadership); it seems wrong, somehow, that the chancellors are below the president, as "Chancellor" is a much fancier-sounding title than boring old "President".
Grad students, if they comment at EotAW, do so using pseuds. And I don't bother trying to track down who's who. I didn't here either, by the way; neb let the cat out of the bag.
I wonder what would have happened had teo taken ari up on his offer.
267: Well, if we can say that it's all neb's fault, then we've effectively reached that glorious state known as...comity!
EotAW also has a different sort of comments section. NTTAWWT, IYKWIM, AITYD.
And while I'm serial commenting, it appears that WIE went the way of SCMT.
What we might now call a Nosflow Indiscretion Error.
Correct link, if you couldn't guess from that one.
Ooh, indiscretion error! Somebody clue me in publicly in great detail!
Parenthetical is a scary stalker who likes long road trips? Uh-oh.
Technically, I didn't tell ari which of his fine school's many graduate students paren is.
246: And so you see that it's positively, very, very, necessary.
256: Charles Wilkes did on the ExEx.
||
I don't know how many of you have been following the soap opera of Erich Kofmel, the grad student/con artist on the run from the law in Europe, but his response to is a priceless example of self-important loserdom:
"I shall wear it as a badge of honour to have been pro forma 'expelled' from that cesspool of mediocrity and the society of non-entities such as yourselves."
|>
You may return to what you were doing.
281: A veritable confederacy of dunces even!
From the link in 281:
"I have a problem defending myself against fraud charges because I do not believe in the 'sanctity' of private property, which is, after all, the basis of liberalism and capitalism, which I oppose," he said.
How could I steal money?! I don't believe in money!
As is well known, one needn't endorse all of one's deuteragonist's presuppositions to reason with them, or to reason about his argument.
The ordinality of the agonist is a matter of indifference.
Those who struggle with letters are on their own.
"Ordinality, cardinality, they're all the same to me."
Well, yes, democracy is so very inconvenient.
292:"Inconvenient" Yes it is.
In the way? Out of the way? A "wrong path?"
It is insane to make a political system the end in for and of itself, the point and purpose of human activity. It goes way beyond even anything that called an ideology to allow your enemies to destroy you in a desire to preserve a useless anachronism.
Let's move Republicans "out of the way."
Oh, was 292 to the OP? That's pretty rich.
It is just agonizing that seven years into the Rape of Iraq to watch those same people who said back then that exposing the lies and condemning the thuggery would really work devote themselves to that ineffectual whinging and cringing once again. It is not merely all that liberals can or want to do, it is apparently all that they can even conceive of doing.
Palin says Obama wants to kill her baby. Digby proves that's a lie. I guess the good guys can declare victory at that point.
And they call me insane.
294: At first I thought it was some inscrutable neb response to 290 given his earlier discovery that "The Hunger Artist" was a shaggy dog story, but I think it is in fact a wryly ironic observation on the OP. We've been schooled!
We've been schooled!
Indeed. The town-hall disruptors look about as bad to us as the puppeteers at demonstrations, shouting, "This is what democracy looks like! This is what freedom looks like!" looked to conservatives.
I was struck by this listening to a longish presentation to, I believe, a Young Americans gathering (young republicans/conservatives/libertarians) replayed on CSPAN radio this morning, by one Herm/an C/ain, former CEO of G/odf/ather's Pizza. He's a radio talk show host now.
His talking points included the assertions that liberals (a) will always change the subject; (b) will always ignore the facts; (c) will always revert to ideological messages, etc. etc. etc.
It sounded familiar. The substance of his remarks (on the actual facts) was garbage, but again, I was struck by the extent to which, if you're a liberal, you'll have the same complaints about the opposition as those he voiced.
Unintelligent criticism of the opposition (and, sorry, but digby's "That's what Republicans do, after all" bugs me a little for this) doesn't get us anywhere.
298: I think that particular criticism can be true of both sides, in general, while not applying to a more pensive and restrained subset. The other explanations seem harder to swallow.
pdf*, I don't think the (a)-(c) criticisms are necessarily valid as leveled against either side -- they may be, at times, I suppose -- but the point is that, as leveled, they sound exactly the same. It's a complete shutdown of communication.
Well. No doubt this is why people are stymied.
* Okay if I use that nickname? I still think of you with that name.
300.3: It's fine. I still link to that name, after all.
300: I think my point might be that it's not the criticism itself that shuts down communication, it's the attitudes held by the people, and the criticism is just an accurate observation. In other words, the criticism isn't the root of the problem. But you're right that such criticism doesn't get us much of anywhere, unless it's used as a starting point for trying to bridge the gap. But trying to bridge the gap is really, from our point of view, trying to win converts to our ideology, which is a fundamentally hostile act in either direction.
I personally think the situation is basically hopeless, so maybe I don't need to say too much about it. Reading too much Robin Hanson has got me feeling misanthropic. My allegiance is truly divided between the liberalism prevailing around here and the economic-pseudo-libertarian style of thought found over there.
This all seems to add up to a consistent expert consensus that humans quite often, perhaps even usually, just don't know why they do what they do. And this is extremely disturbing, as it calls into question our own opinions about why we do what we do.
And a bit of bob-style political pessimism.
Btw, nosflow, Anders Loves Maria really does rule. I don't imagine you'll disagree about his analysis of any of the other webcomics he mentions.
But trying to bridge the gap is really, from our point of view, trying to win converts to our ideology, which is a fundamentally hostile act in either direction.
Jesus christ, that's depressing.
Wooooo, Unfogged! Not Becks style. Apo style. Nice.
Jeez. This place is dead. Or I'm a complete ass and no one wants to talk with me. Or there is the fact that the preceding two statements are not mutually exclusive. Note to all, 304 was written with a certain exaggerate of affect. So, also, was 305. Shit. It's assholes all the way down. (Help! I can't stop!). Well, fuck this.
Maybe everyone suddenly has amazingly full social lives? Or maybe everyone has gone on strike? Or everyone got so depressed at the thought that all political beliefs are rooted in nothing more than tribalism that they are sitting silently in the dark, rocking back and forth—no longer able to pretend that there is a clear chain of reasoning behind all their political positions?
Do you really think that would bother this crowd? I'd imagine they did all their dark rocking Freshman year. Abyss-staring, however, is 300-level class.
Or maybe everyone left in disgust upon realizing I will apparently never be able to remember that "everyone" is a singular noun, and in general, fucking write properly?
I will apparently never be able to remember that "everyone" is a singular noun
There are no such thing as grammar errors. If someone lectures you for committing (so-called) one, just point out that it isn't your fault if they're ignorant of your idiolect.
Yeah, I'm sick of it all, man. Sick of subject-verb agreement, sick of using nominative case after "to be", sick of sticking my prepositions up from, and including that extra "which". It's all just too much sometimes. Especially after a long hard day.
I think split infinitives are sexy.
310: Yeah, and fuck articles, definite and indefinite. The Russians and the Chinese get by just fine without them, right? It's all about the rise of China these days, isn't it? Maybe America wouldn't be in decline if we hadn't wasted all that time on articles. Yet Russia, apart from Gazprom, isn't doing so hot these days, is it? Hmm, n=2 and the data are inconclusive.
No, the reason it's gotten quiet is that people are boycotting in protest of the latest mouseover change. I blame Stanley.
I think split infinitives are sexy.
Spoken like a true Trekkie.
314: Articles adjectives can be hilarious.
I think split infinitives are sexy.
How about when they're eight miles wide? Sailorz.
Fuck, Everybody gots pot except me.
I'd give a movie review but everyone has seen Room with a View. The only new insights from this 20th viewing is that HBC (in this, and Lady Jane) hunches in befuddled muddlement with browfurrow the same way I have complained that Kristen Stewart is too reliant on. A character in the movie has never heard of I mean, really, who hasn't read ASL. Ridiculous plotpoint. Costumes are to die for. Boaters!
I bet RwaV is really great watching when you're high. But noooo, I had to quit three years before the movie was made. Such are the sorrows of and sacrifices we make for for damn if I can remember why I quit.
If I start hanging outside dorms I know I'll get arrested.
never heard of I mean
fucking html. heard of A Shropshire Lad but now the joke is just ruined
Fuck, Everybody gots pot except me.
If it helps, I'd been dry for like 4 years. Then some random neighbor lady drops a dime in my lap.
I used to share an office with a postdoc whose mother tongue was Mandarin. He had come over to the US for grad school, and so had been living here for about 10 years. His English was pretty good, and I considered him a friend. It interested me that the one grammatical error of his that I had trouble not cringing at was his difficulty remembering that English has gendered third-person singular pronouns (Mandarin has just one all-purpose third person singular pronoun). All his other errors just started to slide right over me after awhile, but it never stopped being a bit jarring when he'd refer to a man as "she" or a woman as "he". I had a hard time not reacting to this error as if he was questioning the third person-in-question's gender, despite my knowledge that that was not what he was doing. I guess the idea that such an "insult" is quite grave must be pretty firmly entrenched in my mind.
And that was me up there in 322.
By which I mean, "that was I".
What, still alive at twenty-two,
A clean upstanding chap like you?
Why, if your throat is hard to slit,
Slit your girl's and swing for it!
Like enough you won't be glad
When they come to hang you, lad,
But bacon's not the only thing
That's cured by hanging from a string.
When the blotting pad of night
Sucks the latest drop of light,
Lads whose job is still to do
Shall whet their knives and think of you.
Now that's poetry.
||
Marillenknödel update: they were a success, though the recipe drastically underestimated the amount of flour necessary to render the quark-based dough not sticky. Also, as predicted, the cooked fruits were a bit sour. Nectarine-rose jam filling was a good idea.
However, better than either of those were the sour cherry liqueur and the wild plum jam (which was also somewhat tart).
If you are going to have a dinner party/cookoff based around a theme ingredient in midsummer, you could do a lot worse than stone fruits.
|>
324: No, I don't think you do. You know, I think that particular grammatical affectation might have been the most annoying thing about Atlas Shrugged.
326: Sounds yummy. I wimped out of ice cream after a flatbread fiasco. Tomorrow!
I just got back from hanging with a bunch of doctors. The bullshit's running thick, and there's not even a bill to talk about. Fucking. Hell.
118 ... conspiracies, did you guys know that the Government has a list of all the birds?!?!?!
No new birds invented in the past 12 years. Aviary innovation disappoints again.
I didn't see anything like inaccessible plantation rail on that page, either.
Mirrors recent horror movie from a Japanese original, just fucking rocked my world. Good stuff if you like te Ringu Dark Water subgenre. I was wondering why Keifer Sutherland, with all his 24 money, was making a horror picture. Cause it's good, that's why.
FWIW, I liked what Yggles pere and Connolly did in the American DW.
Do not watch that movie of 331 like ever. Not really, just maybe not as good as I first felt. Whatever.
Most boring blog ever! No posts, no comments but Russian spam! I could use a new wife, though. Somebody translate, please.
i made pancakes and skyping with my sisters
the pancakes are with air bubbles in them, it's b/c of the salt which i didn't stir well i guess
and yes, i was upset about the mouseover text change and also attended a delightful bbq party my friends, polish doctors invited me to, they were republicans, i tried to defend Obama at first, but couldn't contradict my hosts long, so the health care reform Obama proposing they said was to destroy the system etc and i was like but it's more humane with the coverage for all and and that's why they said it would go bankrupt as it happened in Hawaii and elsewhere
small world and syncronization
the movie i tried to watch seemed depressing with a lot of suicides and the dvd was scratched so it was not a movie, bit a series of the stills so i quit
2 hrs 44 min skyping
the movie was Magnolia which i didn't watch for two weeks now, should send it back
i'm afraid the laundered items would smell some pancakes smoke now, shouldn't have cooked in the apartment as i always think after the fact, but i started it like compulsively
with tall he windows open hope it's okay, looks another great not hot cloudy day
Yup, tap dance on the edge of the world.
Everyone else went and got themselves a life?
I'm just waking up. AWB and I watched The American Astronaut last night during the early stages of drinking too much beer.
Too-much-beer-drinking is an acceptable excuse.
I had not-quite-too-much wine at a secret restaurant.
I ate way too much at a cookoff. Merely to recount the dishes prepared would make one's belly full. As punishment I am going to walk to the sutro baths.
Damn, check out this rocky barrenness!
looks like a pretty crowded square
the party was specifically dedicated to me so i liked it anyway, with the lighting bugs watching
i always wondered what happened to FL guy, now i've listened to his voice, sometimes i couldn't follow his comics posts and remember was thinking like the things people find interesting
and yes, i was upset about the mouseover text change
Wait, really? Why?
just was kidding, why why
maa, so i have to go offline till the evening
cheers, the catacombs
340: and I watched The American Astronaut last night
The kids finally* went out and rented it last night, so will probably watch it today. Yay!
*When I saw your comment I was all ready to post a screed about how fucking useless they were after I had done all the hard work of getting them interested by playing them the "Hertz Donut" clip, but they have temporarily redeemed themselves.
347: I wondered the same. I don't recall what it was previously -- the thing about "you are always hostile"? Or was that prior still?
I can report that blackberries in combination with peaches are excellent.
I see that now that k-sky has adopted a new-yet-linking pseud, he goes to secret restaurants. Those can be fun(ny); I've been to a couple over the years. Ooh, secret door! Is there a password?
I don't recall what it was previously
"Never read the comments".
Isn't that one on rotation? It's a tough nut to crack, in any case.
I never read the comments, myself.
Bave fell quite asleep at the bar. It was cute.
OT: The death of local newspapers is a bane, I'm telling you. I'm trying to determine a fair rental price for a year-round-home on Lake Sunapee, NH -- best rented, year-round, not to tourists but to a local. Googling, I discover that the two principal newpapers of the area shut down in the last 6 months - 1 year. Further googling, I find next to nothing for online classifieds offering non-vacation rentals. It's all: vacation rentals, woo yeah! Bah, to borrow a phrase.
My google skills must be limited, for I cannot figure out how else to access online information about this. What do locals pay for such places? My uncle up there in NH will not say what he thinks is fair; he says we must come up with a price, which he will forward to those he knows who are interested.
I can certainly throw out a number, but I know this will involve negotiation, and I don't need to be firm about it.
parsimon, there used to be something in Maine called Uncle Henry's. I think itt might have covered NH too.
355
I'm trying to determine a fair rental price for a year-round-home on Lake Sunapee, NH -- best rented, year-round, not to tourists but to a local. ...
Why do you think it is best rented year-round? In any case the summer rental value is a starting point. As is the property value.
BG, I'll check. As far as I've ever heard, Uncle Henry's is unknown in the NH area in question.
There's something called the Weekly Flea -- a great conglomeration of ads for everything. Kind of like a Craigslist, in print, without the smut. Charming in the extreme. Its website repeatedly comes up not found. Pisser!
On checking, no, Uncle Henry's is not appropriate for information. I'm going to have to go at this from another direction, e.g. direct questioning of my relations up there, who for some reason are reluctant to say. I don't really know what's going on with that: maybe my brother and I come across as city folk.
357: This was broached in an earlier thread, and there's some explanation there. It starts here.
That thread is lengthy, and darts about, but by the end I've explained that the place is, for infrastructural reasons, best suited for a year-round renter who's invested in the community and the place, who understands the place and its needs.
But you know, aside from all that, I'd pick the brain of any lawyer-cum-financial assistant who would do it basically for free.
Shearer--This is parsimon's late mother's place. I think she might just want to have tenants there year-round and not need teh hassle of renting by the week or month.
Phone a real estate agent, either straightforwardly or purporting to be a prospective tenant, and ask about comparable rentals.
362: Yes. I've made notes already about the agencies I've seen referred to in the ads I've found.
What gets my goat is that I really don't want to be a wheeler and dealer about this. I want a tenant who can deal with the fact that the basement has a dirt floor (and occasional chipmunk issues), there's still a section of exposed insulation upstairs, and they need to be careful about the water and septic system usage. It is not that hard to find people like that, but they don't usually go to real estate agents to find places.
Meh. I'm fussing because this is entirely new to me; I want to do it all under the table. It'll work out.
361
Shearer--This is parsimon's late mother's place. I think she might just want to have tenants there year-round and not need teh hassle of renting by the week or month.
Typically vacation rentals are handled by an agency which specializes in them and takes care of everything. Of course they take a big cut.
The real minimum hassle path of course is to just sell the place and this is probably best financially as well. Is there a lot of sentimental value involved?
I just saw this. Yes, there's a lot of sentimental value attached. I (we) can't let go of this place unless and until we've put in a very good shot at making it work. Many people I talk to don't understand that part. I need to hang on to it, make it work financially until such time as somebody or other in the family can take it over. It's my responsibility to see to that.
There's no reason, ultimately, that I can't make this happen; it's just difficult to do from 400 miles away.
Parsimon, have you looked at zilpy.com or rentometer.com? They might not have enough data for that area, but it's worth plugging in the address and seeing.
You could also try doing a google search for rental agencies in the area and seeing if they have online listings. Or, and this is perhaps a little dubious, call them up, tell them where your property is, and ask what they generally charge for such things. You could be a bit cagey and say you're weighing your options; you don't actually need to then list with them to have them be of help.
366: Okay, will try. This is exhausting me, I must say. Many people I talk to about it have an urban perspective that's not right.
I'll reheat some black bean chili from last night and take a look. It's been in the upper 90s here. A quick check of the house in question up at the lake says it was 64 there today!
Alas, ziply is useless. Rentometer is sort of fascinating. But honestly, I don't think it knows what to make of things. Zip code 03255 is too much of a mix. There are a bunch of area codes in that small vicinity.
We're looking at a lakeside property that's very, very pretty, and the house itself supports year-round living (most shanties in that area don't, they are without insulation and heating and so on), so plugging in a zip code or even a full address is a little too much for any algorithm to deal with.
I have a going figure in my head of $800/mo for the place, which is technically 2 bedrooms, except the bedrooms upstairs aren't exactly segregated (there's no door between them), and 1 bathroom.
I figure that's a bargain.
365
... I need to hang on to it, make it work financially until such time as somebody or other in the family can take it over. It's my responsibility to see to that.
Ok, hopefully the people you are expecting to eventually take over feel the same way.
369
I have a going figure in my head of $800/mo for the place, which is technically 2 bedrooms, except the bedrooms upstairs aren't exactly segregated (there's no door between them), and 1 bathroom.
I think LB is right in 362, at some point you should consult a professional. Perhaps $800/month is fair but it could also be way off.
Hey neb, in 326 you mention a sour cherry liqueur. What's its name?
373: Well, you could give it a name.
But regardless, how did you make it? Did you work from a recipe?
I believe there is a maraschino liqueur called Luxardo. Or perhaps made by Luxardo.
It is called Maraschino, and Luxardo makes (the most highly regarded version of) it. It doesn't taste very much like sour cherries, though.
But regardless, how did you make it?
Not exactly methodically. I pitted a bunch of cherries (how many? I can't remember!) and put them in a quart jar, along with some of their pits and some sugar, and filled it with brandy. Two weeks later I added a few apricots and a few apricot kernels, and, since they weren't completely submerged, took the opportunity to kill some bottles of eaux de vie that only had a little bit left (plum and apricot). I shook the jar occasionally, and four to six weeks later filtered it, squeezing the fruit, then let it settle and racked it the next day.
375: Made by Luxardo. I find it too sweet to be of much use to me, and it has no sourness to it.
Heering is pretty good, but also not sour (it's not meant to be).
Clear Creek makes a cherry liqueur. Haven't tried it, though I'm sure it's good, but it uses sweet cherries.
I had some great home-made wild sour cherry liqueur in Greece. It had a brandy base and some spices added. But anyway I love sour cherries and would love to find or learn how to make a liqueur that captured that flavor.
377: Sounds similar to the method used in the Greek stuff I had. How was it?
This did taste very much of sour cherries (if I may say so). Clear Creek's liqueurs are, I think, made by sweetening and watering down their eaux de vie? I'm not certain about that, but I did think that kirsch is generally made with sour cherries.
380: Kirsch is usually made with sour cherries, and is lovely, but doesn't have a sour cherry taste.
Clear Creek macerates sweet cherries in its kirsch to make its cherry liqueur.
