Well, it’s finally here. The Mars-Jupiter-Saturn alignment is breaking up. We have officially* gone beyond maximum hysteria. And while the skies are otherwise not terribly informative (or has been mentioned, my brain may be working sub-optimally) there is at least a little (if transitory) good news as the Earth flits through a Sun-Mercury alignment Tuesday-ish (check your local time zone for details). Which means Tuesday would be an excellent time to have a party if you can find an excuse. Thursday will be an EXCELLENT day for homeowners as you have the “Enthroned in Perfection” (Sun-Earth-Moon) intersecting through the Earth with Jupiter and Venus (love and happiness).
There is finally a bit of normality as Taurus finally gets a planet (this time, Mercury). Good luck to those of you born under that sign, and vim et celeritas for everyone else. If you are a USPSA shooter, and if you have access to a match, this would be a good one to shoot major power factor in. Venus in Gemini has contradictory meanings (as does most things in Gemini) but if you were trying to conceive twins, this is s good a time as any to give it a shot. Jupiter in Capricorn is getting a little bit interesting. Right now as it’s slowing down, it is emphasizing the success in adaptability aspect of the sign. Also possibly being a bit less of the intellect booster that it usually is. Even more importantly, in a couple of weeks, we will see a day in which every major decision you make will be wrong. More on that as we get closer.
The skies are looking better, but the cards say this is going to be a bad week to be a man. There are five cards representing men/masculinity/phallus and they are all reversed. Just to really drive the point home The Hierophant was drawn reversed next to The High Priestess. (These are gender-flipped versions of each other, in earlier decks called “The Pope” and “The Popess.”) So avoid battles of the sexes if you’re a guy, force one if you’re a chick.
Taurus: 6 of Wands reversed – Apprehension, fear, treachery, disloyalty, indefinite delay. This one seems to be coming to the top of the deck an awful lot lately.
Gemini: 4 of Cups reversed – Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations
Cancer: 10 of Swords – Pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation
Leo: The Hierophant reversed – Society, good understanding, concord, overkindness, weakness.
Virgo: The High Priestess – Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed, silence, tenacity, mystery, wisdom, science.
Libra: The Empress – Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days, the unknown, clandestine, difficulty, doubt, ignorance.
Scorpio: Ace of Coins reversed – The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence. Physical comforts that are to your disadvantage.
Sagittarius: 3 of Swords – Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion
Capricorn: The Star reversed – Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.
Aquarius: Ace of Wands reversed – Fall, decadence, ruin, perdition, bastard child takes revenge.
Pisces: Knight of Cups reversed -Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.
Aries: Ace of Swords reversed – Pyrric victory, excess leading to disaster, conception, childbirth, augmentation, multiplicity.
Cancer: 10 of Swords – Pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation – you take that back !
?
More than usual, you mean?
Sagittarius: 3 of Swords – Removal, absence, delay, division, rupture, dispersion
Fuck that. The bars (sorta) open tomorrow.
The skies are looking better, but the cards say this is going to be a bad week to be a man.
Shit.
Society, good understanding, concord, overkindness, weakness.
More shit?
Wild west
The CDC has offered general guidelines for workplace safety — encouraging workers to stay six feet away from each other, for example, and to wash their hands frequently.
But the Trump administration, which is typically allergic to regulation, has resisted writing rules to make those recommendations enforceable.
Why won’t the government make workplaces completely risk free?
Because President Cartoon Villain won’t allow it.
Remember the Bubble Boy from Seinfeld? We must all the the Bubble Boy now.
It’s like these morons don’t even understand that at a lot of workplaces, it’s impossible for people to stay 6 ft away from everyone else.
But we’re supposed to let unelected bureaucrats write law for us all now. I mean fuck this republic stuff already, we need some good old tyranny.
Because reasons, I’ll take that one, but uncertainty certainly begets apprehension and fear. I’ll pay that price.
“Capricorn: The Star reversed – Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.”
Someone needs some new material.
#CapricornsRpeople2
The resistance shall continue
“Tuesday would be an excellent time to have a party if you can find an excuse.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo
You want people to die, trumpet!
No steak shortages yet!
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/Tm6eaBsoT9WK9uw14HePZQ.7-ulmxnGeB78WFG_EVPd7L
Protection provided per a Performance Center pistol.
Jesus wept, Sean. Is there any handgun you don’t own?
Well…I don’t have any Hi-points.
Probably should chamber one. Those steaks look like a high-value target. 😀
Steak ala Sean, 2 day dry brine. Thanks again for cluing me into this technique.
Is that wrench loaded ?
No, but it has a thing that goes up.
It’s the perfect trick for the lazy cook and the results are real.
You got a license for that wrench?
The Inspector is on the case
Hey, those are some very good looking steaks.
Wife tells me she has been dying for fried chicken from the local joint for over a week.
Now I have to drag my hung-over ass over there.
Nice.
I see some counties in PA are opening up. Overdue and they all should open up.
Virgo: The High Priestess – Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed, silence, tenacity, mystery, wisdom, science.
IFLS!
So 2-doors-down neighbor who is tearing up what he believes to be his back yard (it’s not; it’s a city park) has fired up his Cat.
Yanno, I feel bad for the guy, because when the city finds out…
But I am comforted by the sound of construction. It’s really bizarre how comforting that is.
Is he putting up an outbuilding? Squatters rights is the new normal.
Narc him out, Karen
No, and I specifically told XY not to narc him out, either.
Not my circus, not my monkeys. I’ll be surprised if the neighbors to my south don’t rat him out, though.
It might be a neighborly Gesture to ask him if he’s sure where the property line with the park is. That’s all. If he thinks he know, it’s on him.
I don’t know the guy. I’m not doing it.
I wouldn’t even do that, unless it was affecting my property.
One time, one of my neighbors was tearing down an old shed on his property and he decided the place to dump it would be over the fence in the back, onto my property. I walked over there and talked to him, had never talked to him before, but I’d only been there a few weeks. He was really nice and apologized and then cleaned it up. I don’t think he knew I owed that, but he had to know someone who is not him owned it. But I never had any problems with him after that and he even helped me with stuff I was working on a couple times.
I’m firmly in the Mind Yer Own Bidness camp re neighbors. The neighbors on both sides of our house came over yesterday to ask my advice on landscaping.
We’ve got the sound of construction in our neighborhood all day, 6 days a week. I’ll be glad when the last house in the development is done in a couple more years.
Enjoying the Sunday respite now.
so whats the deal with the murder hornets thing?
You Should All Be Murdered https://youtu.be/5AkXC5m8ueA
One of the jangliest of the ever jangly Sarah Records songs. Johnny Marr and Morissey are on the phone with their barrister, looking to sue someone.
Another Chinese import.
Although giant hornets with barbed stingers injecting neurotoxins are kind of a bad deal.
First day of shorts weather. Woohoo.
every day is shorts day, and it’s only going up to 99 today, Cooling trend!
. . . avoid battles of the sexes if you’re a guy, force one if you’re a chick.
And if you happen to live in the same household, may God have mercy on your souls.
Venus in Gemini has contradictory meanings (as does most things in Gemini)
Hey asshole, not true! I mean, thanks for the reading NA.
I’m married to one. She really loves and hates me.
Gemini: 4 of Cups reversed – Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations
New instruction is spot on. We are getting new and improved plague SOP’s tomorrow. Can’t wait.
“Society, good understanding, concord, overkindness, weakness.“
Fuck that.
Scorpio: Ace of Coins reversed – The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence. Physical comforts that are to your disadvantage.
So either the deal to sell my condo will fall through, or the house I’m about to move into will burn down around me.
Why not both?
You’re right, I should be more optimistic.
Yeah, it’s bagpipe music. No, it’s not like most bagpipe music you’ve ever heard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wXKrrCaapI
Rawlins Cross, O’Neil’s March / Haughs of Cromdale, ladies and gentlemen.
What sorcery is this? Bagpipes playing actual music? Downloading as we speak.
Amazingly, Youtube didn’t bring up a bagpipe arrangement of Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs.
This came up in my sidebar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPfO97EpLRk
(I’ve found arrangements for bassoon, tuba, accordion, and harmonica, however.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-RdHtsYWBY
?? ???????
Some joy in these trying times. Me likee.
The wife and I may take a road trip to Couer d’Alene or Moscow, ID to ride out the shutdown. This shit being extended through the end of May is frustrating and awful.
Couer d’Alene should be gorgeous right now.
Is Couer d’Alene ever not gorgeous?
Oh good, you’re here. Is Idaho open for business? Specifically, are bars/restaurants open for dine-in and drinking service?
Friends of ours have a restaurant in Seattle. Not a pleasant time for them.
Oh, and this is for you.
Well that was triggering. Time to strap on the ol’ Les Paul and start blazing some GBV. Thanks!
Crusty linked a terrific article about that album in the am lynx. Long, but a good red.
Read, even.
https://uproxx.com/indie/guided-by-voices-alien-lanes-oral-history-25th-anniversary/
Hanx!
Speaking of “Hanx!”, I just went over to Spotify to maybe give Hanx! (Stiff Little Fingers live album) a download. And glory be, “Inflammable Material” and “Nobody’s Heroes” are finally available. They must have finally sorted out digital rights for those albums. Turning out to be a pretty decent day.
What next; the Homestead/Giant/Dutch East Records catalog finally becomes available via digital distribution? A boy’s gotta’ dream.
For Mojeaux:
The Creator of the Male Scent Catalogue on the Difficulty of Describing “Essence of Man”
The archivist behind @RomanceSmells reveals which novelists best capture men’s odors and the secret of the Rule of Threes.
https://slate.com/culture/2020/05/romance-novel-smells-male-scent-catalogue-twitter-account.html
OMG yes a thousand time yes yes yes.
The only one I’ve come across that amuses me (which didn’t until someone giggled about it) (I didn’t write it) is “honest sweat.”
“Honest sweat” is the kind a guy gets from chopping wood instead of lifting weights. Lifting weights is so de trop. It’s cheating, dammit! (I specifically wrote that a heroine noticed the hero’s gym and she thought “A body like that didn’t come out of nowhere, I guess” just to mess with the trope.)
But yeah, smells are important.
My husband used to use Irish Spring. He gave our son a bar of it and I put the nix on that real quick. “I don’t want my son smelling like the guy I’m fucking.”
I use Axe, still, Wendy loved the way I smell,
/Hate me, I still smell good
The way a guy smells is important to a woman.
“Smells manly, yes, but I like it too.”
/woman on old Irish Spring soap commercial
“Honest sweat” is the kind a guy gets from chopping wood…….
So swamp ass and wood chips. Got it. *works that into tinder profile*
Joel McCrea, not Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Honest sweat….I do that occasionally.
I dont do the cologne thing. The soap I use to shave is scented like sandalwood, does that count?
Oh my heavens yes it does.
https://smile.amazon.com/Taylor-Old-Bond-Street-Sandalwood/dp/B0007MW2ZW
This stuff?
I use that when I shave with a blade. It’s great.
My wife is a fanatic soap maker. She is remarkable, really. To hear the soap making crowd talk about the chemistry of it they sound like alchemists but by God you cant argue with the results. She really has made an art out of it.
The shaving soap she made for me is heavy on clay and that makes a big difference. Cleanest, closest shave without any nicks.
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Leather-Soap-Ingredients-Comfortable-Semi-Soft/dp/B072C11W8P/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1
*cusses under breath*
“Libra: The Empress – Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days, the unknown, clandestine, difficulty, doubt, ignorance.”
So, astrological schizophrenia?
It’s the best kind of schizophrenia. It’s science.
Although giant hornets with barbed stingers injecting neurotoxins are kind of a bad deal.
Is there no limit to the dastardly depredations of President Cartoon Villain? Even as he was in his lab brewing up the coronaplague, he was genetically engineering giant deadly hornets! What next, ravenous man-eating hippos with the speed of a gazelle?
Flying spiders.
Attack dogs that release killer bees from their mouths when they bark.
I don’t care for the tone of the Aries one. Trying to catch a break, here!
Leo: The Hierophant reversed – Society, good understanding, concord, overkindness, weakness.
Wasn’t the Reverse Heirophant what got the Catholic Church in trouble?
Let’s see…. how about this for those sunny Sunday morning coffee and bagel runs?
I particularly enjoyed this: “The car changed hands several times between 1944 and 1968, when it was purchased by an owner who reportedly drove it regularly for two decades.”
I hate it when cars like this never get driven.
450 miles in 10 years is a travesty.
Cool car, though.
And, naturlich, the prissy douchebag brigade is out in force in the comment section for that Aston. Oh, horror! A 90 year old car with a not-stock motor.
*withdraws offer*
Speaking of not-stock engine bays…
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1985-audi-ur-quattro-12/
Schwing!
I found mine.
I’m tard of these parties! People aren’t supposed to have fun, this is an emergency!
Send in the tanks. Tanks is always the answer.
Bloody Puritans. I hope someday this country is run by people who are open minded and accepting. Maybe someone who is gay.
If Buttgig would have just changed his name like I suggested…
“You are literally putting everyone else in danger!11!1!!”
Sure, toots.
Another Thunderbolt from Lightfoot.
At least her hair looks nice.
GAH!
send in the tankies as well
Schwing!
Schwing, indeed. Those first-generation Quattros are awesome.
Remember- its about health & safety
Beverly Hills City Council votes to allow plastic surgeries amid coronavirus concerns
All surgeries are equal, but some…
I don’t know if this was posted before, but…
<here it is.
The best line: Presidential elections are when the American public chooses between a Republican and a Democrat for president. If they choose the wrong one, it could cause the complete destruction of all they hold dear. Luckily, they’ve always chosen the right one each election, and the country has continued to exist.
Lol. Too true.
I wish Amash had some wiser advisors; he could have broad appeal as a candidate before he showed his thin skin.
One of the things that struck me about this book on presidential insults I’m reading is how often there was a third party candidate or at least truly contested major party conventions.
Strict 2 party system has only been the norm for 100 years.
Strict 2 party system has only been the norm for 100 years. – well 100 years was quite enough to fuck so many things up
Libertarians were never taken very seriously. Then when the libertarian moment was finally about to happen, we got Gayjay/Weld and dancing naked fat guys.
Now Amash has decided to finally finish off our decline into complete irrelevance.
A bunch of bikers at the park, and what just showed up? The Vagos, I think I’ll be leaving shortly
The tenth cranial nerve does sound scary.
Nerd.
I figured you knew, 310
There is ZERO rigor with Ioannidis. ZERO probabilistic reasoning & risk management rigor. He doesn’t even known what an exponential means.
ZERO.
https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1256970494336737281
Yet another sworn enemy for mr N.N.T
To serve & protect.
AP: DEA agent accused of stealing PPE from agency warehouse
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/whats-reopening-in-san-diego-county-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/2317204/%3famp
The most important part was buried as bullet three but Is very telling:
.
This is in response to county and cities ignoring the stay-at-home “orders.” Newsom couldn’t take it, so he rolled out bullet 3 there as a naked, and permanent, power grab against smaller units of government.
Newsom couldn’t take it, so he rolled out bullet 3 there as a naked, and permanent, power grab against smaller units of government.
I’m sure the Atlantic has an article in the pipeline protesting Trump’s latest authoritarian power grab, whatever it might be.