Quack Medicine

by | May 16, 2020 | Beer, Food & Drink, History, Military | 184 comments

I’ll admit I was saving this one because it was a tie in to another subject that hasn’t fully materialized, at least not yet.  There is a bit of an interesting twist on this one anyways, so we’ll get to it eventually.

This is my review of Ommegang (GoT Series) My Watch Has Ended Imperial Brown Ale.

The story goes in Valley Forge, Gen. George Washington had a decision to make.  Due to an outbreak of smallpox he could lose a third of the soldiers in garrison for the winter.  Since smallpox was common in Europe, a fair majority of the British Army was likely to be immune during the outbreak.  This lead to rumors the British were intentionally spreading the disease, possibly through blankets donated for the war effort.  Inoculation at the time was not the exactly safe, especially since groups of soldiers previously attempted to inoculate themselves caused outbreaks within their ranks.

Even today, some Corporal pulling out a knife in the barracks and asking, “which one of you pussies wants smallpox?” still sounds entirely plausible.

Washington was at first apprehensive because soldiers began doing this during the summer, and campaigns at the time were only undertaken when the weather was nice.  Eventually, he ordered the Continental Army to be inoculated against smallpox.  Some historians credit this decision for winning the war—sort of.  After all they stillI had to fight and beat the British army.  I like to think of this as more like the British after Dunkirk; by itself is not the reason for the war’s result.  The event lead to the entire army being in a position to fight another day, who may not be there had the event not occurred.

Not his idea

Inoculation was first tested in the Americas in the 1720’s by a protestant minister named Cotton Mather.  Being well-connected, he was aware the process was tested to some success in other parts of the world.  His writings to the British medical authorities of the day balked at the method used, because it was inherently dangerous.  Mather of course did not come up with the process either, he learned it from a slave whom he named Onesimus in 1706 upon purchase.  Mather previously did not think much of Onesimus until he told him of the inoculation method in 1716:

Mather didn’t trust Onesimus: He wrote about having to watch him carefully due to what he thought was “thievish” behavior, and recorded in his diary that he was “wicked” and “useless.” But in 1716, Onesimus told him something he did believe: That he knew how to prevent smallpox.

Onesimus, who “is a pretty intelligent fellow,” Mather wrote, told him he had had smallpox—and then hadn’t. Onesimus said that he “had undergone an operation, which had given him something of the smallpox and would forever preserve him from it…and whoever had the courage to use it was forever free of the fear of contagion.”

Mather then became the insufferable vaccine proponent of his day, and enlisted the assistance of a Boston area physician named, Zabdiel Boylston.  Both initiated extensive testing of the inoculation method—with the first test subject being Boylston’s son.  Their efforts did not go unnoticed by the local press:

His method was initially met by hostility and outright violence from other physicians, and many threats were made on his life, with some even threatening to hang him on the nearest tree. He was forced to hide in a private place of his house for 14 days, a secret known only by his wife. After his initial inoculations of his son and two slaves, he was arrested for a short period of time for it (he was later released with the promise not to inoculate without government permission). During this hostility, his family was also in a dangerous situation. His wife and children were sitting in their home and a lighted hand-grenade was thrown into the room, but the fuse fell off before an explosion could take place. Even after the violence had subsided, he visited his patients only at midnight and while disguised.[7] He inoculated about 248 people

What was the inoculation method?  Recall the Corporal today–It was fairly straightforward process of taking a sharp object and scratching it against an open pox sore from a patient with smallpox.  Then with the same sharp object, scratch it against a healthy patient’s arm.  A process discovered in China, that travelled essentially by word of mouth via the silk road. Today the process is not particularly different, even if it uses a more benign Cowpox virus to generate the antibodies.  It uses a multi-prong needle designed to place the virus below the epidermis, which is why it leaves behind a noticeable scar.  Which from a food for though standpoint, means if not for the Chinese discovery passed along to an African slave to a particularly curious owner, could mean the result of the war might be different.

Maybe.

 

What was unusual about this beer?  It contains a spice called Fenugreek.  This is an interesting ingredient because it is one of the active ingredients to testosterone replacement supplements.  It has other supposed effects (like lactation) but like any other supplement if it actually did anything, it would probably be regulated as a drug.  It otherwise has a bitter flavor to it and is often used in Indian curries to counteract sour or sweet flavors. This makes sense for this beer given it is both a brown ale and one that uses maple syrup as an adjunct.  The beer still is quite sweet but has a nutty, toffee-like flavor.  All in a pleasant way, but also got me drunk in a pleasant way as well…  Ommegang (GoT Series) My Watch Has Ended Imperial Brown Ale 3.5/5

About The Author

mexican sharpshooter

mexican sharpshooter

WARNING: Glibertarians.com contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. https://youtu.be/qiAyX9q4GIQ?t=2m22s

184 Comments

  1. westernsloper

    but also got me drunk in a pleasant way as well…

    But did you lactate?

    • mexican sharpshooter

      …no.

  2. Ted S.

    Cotton Mather had fabulous hair (well, probably a peruke).

    • Jarflax

      I hope that fashion never returns.

  3. Gustave Lytton

    Are you doing the horoscope tomorrow, MS?

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/t-cells-found-covid-19-patients-bode-well-long-term-immunity

    The La Jolla team detected this crossreactivity in about half of stored blood samples collected between 2015 and 2018, well before the current pandemic began. The researchers think these cells were likely triggered by past infection with one of the four human coronaviruses that cause colds; proteins in these viruses resemble those of SARS-CoV-2.

    The results suggest “one reason that a large chunk of the population may be able to deal with the virus is that we may have some small residual immunity from our exposure to common cold viruses,” says viral immunologist Steven Varga of the University of Iowa. However, neither of the studies attempted to establish that people with crossreactivity don’t become as ill from COVID-19.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      …no.

  4. westernsloper

    I need an inoculation against Jehovah’s Witnesses. The long skirted hordes of do gooders that frequently blanket my neighborhood on Saturday mornings seem to have been reduced to making phone calls for, “Wellness Checks” in these trying times. I guess converting us heathens is not worth the risk of contracting the plague so now they sit at home and bother us via the phone. I just received a call from a local number which I answered thinking it was work related. It was very strange until I finally coaxed it out of the pleasant lady that she was a JW. I politely told her to fuck off. I now wish I had found out how she got my number.

    • Tres Cool

      -1 Watchtower

      • westernsloper

        I don’t have the gumption my old man has. Being a retired pastor of a non-denominational church of misfits he likes to discuss theology with the JW’s when they visit him. He is also a far kinder human being than I am and would never hang up on a church lady of any denomination. I also don’t know theology since I walked away from the church of my youth when I was 18 when I discovered alcohol and drugs and their effect on impressionable young ladies with pliable morals.

      • Fatty Bolger

        Ted Knight, underrated.

    • LCDR_Fish

      Opens phone book.

      “A Aaron Aaronson” ….dials

      “A Aaron Aronson”….dials

      • westernsloper

        My only phone is a cell phone. I haven’t had a land line for 20 years. I was under the impression cell phones were not listed.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Then they probably just bought a list from one of your banks or something.

      • Incentives Matter

        Not even that. Just start with a known cell prefix (area) code (i.e., 780-XXX-XXXX), add a known exchange code (i.e., 780-314-XXXX) and then just start dialing the four-digit station codes, starting with -0001 (i.e., 780-314-0001).

        It’s not that hard, and automated random dialers do it all the time.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        +$1 to Happy Dude

      • Nephilium

        Technically illegal in most areas as well.

      • Incentives Matter

        Random dialers, or sweet little old ladies doing it by hand?

        Hmmmm, phrasing.

      • Nephilium

        Both. FTC guidelines here in the US, most countries have similar ones. Political parties/candidates are of course exempt from the rules.

        Quick take, if you don’t have a prior relationship with the person you’re calling things get even more restrictive. Even with the prior relationship, if you don’t have permission, there’s still rules that you need to follow. Collections are a whole other set of guidelines and rules.

      • Incentives Matter

        Interesting. I wonder what the intersection is between “telemarketing” and “religious freedom” in this case?

  5. commodious spittoon

    He was forced to hide in a private place of his house for 14 days, a secret known only by his wife.

    Only two weeks? Lucky bastard.

    • Sean

      Heh.

      • commodious spittoon

        I expect the lockdown theater will in fact ease up in two weeks, but the store and restaurant capacity and mask requirements will be with us for many months. I don’t see our governor giving up any petty scrap of power until she’s censured or voted out. Boring, bush-league tyrant.

  6. LCDR_Fish

    Hate to repost my comments, but if anyone has feedback on HSAs, I’d appreciate it.

    “Quick question – saw this referenced in Nomads excellent post yesterday. I’m interested in an HSA type instrument for long term medical savings plan – but as a contractor, the only HSA/FSA options I’ve seen are all annualized with virtually no rollover. Are there any independent plans that permit long term medical planning options….or am I just better off with a high interest online savings account or something else? Thanks. “

    • Gustave Lytton

      Are you eligible? Easier to read than the IRS Pub

      https://www.optumbank.com/all-products/hsa/hsa-eligibility.html

      When would you plan to use the HSA money? If it’s retirement, then probably building up a core retirement account (401k, IRA, TSP depending on what you forecast) might be better and offer more flexibility. For a short term unexpected medical expense, probably just regular cash/cash equivalents/non-restricted investments (index funds) that you can gain access to if needed.

      If you have access to an annual FSA, by all means use it for your known level of qualified spending. For example, if I know I’m going to get glasses in the next year, I’ll put more money into that. If I don’t have anything planned, I’ll just put in enough for maintenance meds and non-covered exams. Worse case is prepaying say frames in December and then have the lens put in in January. Or buying another first aid kit.

      Not a financial advisor.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Ok, so the Tricare coverage is an instant disqualifier. I know that’s been the case as a contractor so far (no health insurance through my work since I have tricare reserve select) – but wasn’t sure if it was across the board outside of work. Guess the long term savings/investing/planning is a better route.

  7. AlmightyJB

    The only Ommegang beer I think I’ve had is Three Philosophers which I do like a lot. I’m a big fan of Brown Ales so I’ll have to give that one a shot. I’ll try and find a single since that sounds pretty weird.

  8. AlmightyJB

    Since I missed AM thread, I thought people were only using white out on their gun sights?

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I used my daughter’s red nail polish, personally.

  9. Yusef drives an Island

    Tasty looking beer MS! Have you seen Xerocole by 4 Peaks yet? they call it a Desert IPA,
    /not very good

    • Ted S.

      Desert as in dry, or dessert as in way too sweet?

      • Yusef drives an Island

        as in made in the Desert of Arizona, it’s not dry at all

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Yes, I reviewed it once. I also recall telling you San Tan Moon Juice is more to your liking.

      • Yusef drives an Island

        I’ll look for it, thanks again, you have excellent taste in Beer, IMO

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Another you might find more to your liking, and in your part of the state is from Tower Station (Flagstaff). I like their black IPA.

      Xercole was a limited run they discovered sold really well in certain barrios neighborhoods where people buy beer at gas stations.

      • Yusef drives an Island

        BhC Circle K, nailed it…….

  10. AlmightyJB

    So in Ohio, restaurants & bars were open to patio seating as of last night. So our local media is full of stories this morning about how all these young people at your normal college bar hangouts weren’t social distancing and how big the crowds were and what is law enforcement and the health department going to do about it. Studied Nazi fucks.

    • KSuellington

      How in the hell do you social distance at a bar? I mean, unless you are talking about some grungy dive bar at 10am that has three patrons in it glued to their favorite barstools, it seems an impossibility. And it kinda defeats the purpose of going to a bar. If I want to drink alone I can stay home.

      • commodious spittoon

        And they’re not drinking with their masks on!!

      • Nephilium

        I overheard some mask wearers complaining that the bar I stopped at was still serving drinks in glass instead of plastic. I felt it wasn’t worth it to point out to them that glass can be sanitized, while plastic can’t.

      • Incentives Matter

        Yeah, I’ve got a funny feeling single-use plastic won’t actually be going anywhere for a while now.

      • JaimeRoberto Delecto

        Persian aub Zam Zam on Haight might actually have to open up their tables.

      • egould310

        Good bar. Got wasted there once.

      • KSuellington

        Yup, the old timer who used to own that place before he crossed the Jordan was a hoot. He’d toss you if you ordered an unacceptable drink. Saw it happen more than once.

      • egould310

        I used to love San Francisco and visited often. Had some really fun, drunken, culinary, sexy times in that city. Alot of fun. I was in San Leandro for business back in December and was planning on hitting some of my favorite spots in SF, but given the circumstances of poop and needles decided to pass. Goddamn shame what is happening to that city.

      • Urthona

        I can do it easily. If i just approach any group of women, for instance.

      • AlmightyJB

        You might try it wearing pants sometime.

    • hayeksplosives

      Can we Flatten the Curve of stupidity, or is that prohibited according to the Principle of Peak Derp?

  11. AlmightyJB

    Very interesting history story MS. Thanks.

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Thank you.

  12. Spudalicious

    Ahhh. Bar, beer, the noise of people having fun.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Easy there Spud…cant let people think they are too free too quick. Might give then ideas.

  13. Incentives Matter

    From the dead thread:

    Could someone with knowledge of making Damascus steel please explain to me why you need (of all things) wheelbarrows full of Wite-out to do it? (I have this odd feeling that the original forgers of Damascus steel didn’t have Wite-out; what’s it supposed to be a substitute for?)

    Anybody? Purty-please?

    • R C Dean

      Well, from watching FiF, you make a container out of mild steel (not good for a blade), Coat the inside with white out, fill it with whatever steel you are going to make the blade with hope red steel, ball bearings, little pieces of steel, etc), heat it in the forge until the good stuff is basically melted together or nearly so. Then you need to get the good stuff out of the container As a solid billet, and for some reason white out helps the container release from the good stuff.

      You wait until the whiteout dries before adding the good stuff.

      I don’t know if it substituted for anything. Just made the work easier.

      • R C Dean

        “Hope red steel” should be (powdered steel, . . . .

        Fucking mobile.

  14. Spudalicious

    Whiteout helps prevent the billet from sticking to the canister when it’s first being forged.

    • Incentives Matter

      The billet’s heavy, yes? And abrasive (metal with hard-ish edges), yes?

      I’d think that moving the canister at all would simply scrape the Wite-out off the insides. IIRC, Wite-out was never exactly robust to scraping efforts.

      • Donation Not Taxation

        OT:
        From previous thread: (I have this odd feeling that the original forgers of Damascus steel didn’t have Wite-out; what’s it supposed to be a substitute for?)

        Some Damascus forgers are passionate about NOT using correction fluid/liquid paper/white out/wite out in their forging. It is not a question of substituting a different material for the same process. To quote Fimbulvetr Knifeworks’ Kuraki: ‘It’s like taking your oil pan off to change your oil. Does it work? Yes. But why are you doing it when you could just drain it? ‘
        https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/wite-out-why.1598004/

    • LCDR_Fish

      But what was the historical equivalent?

      • Gender Traitor

        Something I came across following a link when the subject came up this morning mentioned (IIRC) that we don’t really know how Damascus was made originally. What is done now may be a best-guess approximation of the historic method. It could be that other substances may also keep the canister from sticking to the billet after being in the forge, but someone figured out that Wite-out worked. Comes up on FIF on a regular basis, and if done correctly (i.e. the smith lets the Wite-out dry in the canister before adding the steel, as RCD mentions above,) it works.

    • Timeloose

      White-out is mostly ZnO. It is non-reactive with Fe and refractory, so it prevents any physical or chemical bonding between the canister and the hardenable steels inside.

      It’s equivalent to putting parchment paper between a dough and the pan.

  15. Old Man With Candy

    Amash has bowed out.

    • Old Man With Candy

      This clears the path for Vermin Supreme.

    • egould310

      Who?

      • mexican sharpshooter

        He’s that guy.

    • CPRM

      Thread
      See new Tweets

      Tweet
      Justin Amash
      @justinamash
      ·
      35m
      Replying to
      @justinamash
      I’ve spent nearly three weeks assessing the race, appearing in media, talking to delegates and donors, watching the Libertarian Party’s convention plan unfold, and gathering feedback from family, friends, and other advisers.
      Justin Amash
      @justinamash
      ·
      35m
      After much reflection, I’ve concluded that circumstances don’t lend themselves to my success as a candidate for president this year, and therefore I will not be a candidate.

      Even an asshole like Amash can’t put up with the idiots running the LP these days

    • R C Dean

      He had a career as a not-terrible politician until the TDS got him.

      • DOOMco

        So close!

        It was weird when he did that. It really didn’t make sense when he just stuck to it.

    • Annoyed Nomad

      Hell, in four years maybe I’ll run for President in the Libertarian party and then pull out after a few weeks.

      Sounds like it could be a bit of fun to pull an Amash.

  16. Heroic Mulatto

    A process discovered in China, that travelled essentially by word of mouth via the silk road.

    Except it stopped at Istanbul. Europeans were aware of variolation prior to the 18th century, but because white people didn’t discover it first, it was considered un-Christian, ooga-booga savage stuff. In Boston during the epidemic, the opposition to the practice was voiced in the framework of both Hippocratic and Christian doctrine of doing no harm and doing unto others as one would do to himself:

    Several opponents of smallpox inoculation, among them Rev. John Williams, stated that there were only two laws of physick (medicine): sympathy and antipathy. In his estimation, inoculation was neither a sympathy toward a wound or a disease, or an antipathy toward one, but the creation of one. For this reason, its practice violated the natural laws of medicine, transforming health care practitioners into those who harm rather than heal.[84]

    As with most colonists, Williams’ Puritan beliefs were enmeshed in every aspect of his life, and he used the Bible to state his case. He quoted Matthew 9:12, when Jesus said: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” William Douglass proposed a more secular argument against inoculation, stressing the importance of reason over passion and urging the public to be pragmatic in their choices. In addition, he demanded that ministers leave the practice of medicine to physicians, and not meddle in areas where they lacked expertise. According to Douglass, smallpox inoculation was “a medical experiment of consequence,” one not to be undertaken lightly. He believed that not all learned individuals were qualified to doctor others, and while ministers took on several roles in the early years of the colony, including that of caring for the sick, they were now expected to stay out of state and civil affairs. Douglass felt that inoculation caused more deaths than it prevented. The only reason Mather had had success in it, he said, was because Mather had used it on children, who are naturally more resilient. Douglass vowed to always speak out against “the wickedness of spreading infection”.[85] Speak out he did: “The battle between these two prestigious adversaries [Douglass and Mather] lasted far longer than the epidemic itself, and the literature accompanying the controversy was both vast and venomous.”[86]

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, am I right?

    • Gustave Lytton

      There is nothing new underneath the sun.

      • CPRM

        What is the ‘underneath’ of a sphere in a 3 dimensional space without fixed position?

      • Q Continuum

        That is a comment worthy of Ted or Hyperbole.

      • CPRM

        Well, this was my back-up comment: Under The Sun

        You be the judge which was the better call.

      • The Hyperbole

        Technically I’m an asshole not a pedant. (especially the nerd type pedant)

      • Yusef drives an Island

        the Bottom

      • Chafed

        Underboob. I can’t believe Q missed this softball.

    • Heroic Mulatto

      Speaking of ooga-booga stuff, don’t consume a lot of fenugreek. The prevalence of that herb in Indian cuisine is a key factor as to why India smells like India.

      • hayeksplosives

        Leaves or seeds? I use the leaves a lot, and the seeds less often. The seeds go in a lot of Bengali dishes.

        The leaves I put in western and eastern dishes.

        Fenugreek seed processing caused the great Syrup Freakout of 2010 in NYC.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        The leaves are somewhat difficult to find in the US. At least from what I gathered in the 15 mins of research for that blurb.

      • Old Man With Candy

        That’s more of a northern thing, and the south smells just as bad.

        /confesses to using fenugreek and hing in all of my Bengali dishes

      • Incentives Matter

        Yeah, asafœtida’s tricky stuff. Just a pinch if it’s a powder, and my buddy from Mumbai gets it in some kinda gum-like form (instead of powder) and just sticks a small piece, ’bout the size of a green pea, to the underside of a cooking lid for when he’s making his dishes. It’s how his Mom taught him.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Yeah, I use the powder, VERY sparingly, and always add it early in the fry process to mellow out.

    • Q Continuum

      But did they FLS though?

      • Heroic Mulatto

        I’m pretty sure that’s what “stressing the importance of reason over passion and urging the public to be pragmatic in their choices. In addition, he demanded that ministers leave the practice of medicine to physicians, and not meddle in areas where they lacked expertise” means.

      • Q Continuum

        Sounds like some gay lib shit to me.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Which is ironic in a sense, since it was often ministers pursuing new ideas from the simple fact they could read.

      • Winston

        Those new ideas including classical liberalism. And Puritanism. The connection between classical liberalism, modern liberalism and puritanism is often lost especially in the US thanks to the influence of the Religious Right.

    • kbolino

      That’s a pretty ancient fight, though. The Greek physicians thought lowly of surgery, and it wasn’t until the modern age (with disinfectant, antibiotics, anesthesia, transfusions, etc.) that surgeons weren’t considered butchers. Variolation was not far removed from surgery and it carried some risk of death (a lot less than smallpox, of course).

  17. Q Continuum

    SMALLPOCKZ BLANKETZ

  18. Q Continuum

    Fenugreek will turn your ejaculations into artillery volleys.

    • Incentives Matter

      The things I “learn” on this site . . .

  19. egould310

    Smirnoff, Emergen-C, Perrier. Listening to Rex spread the greasy old-time rocknroll, hillbilly stompers, surf freakouts, rhythm n blues on WFMU. Hi, I heard something great on WFMU that I thought you might like:
    “Close Up The Back Door” by Cookie & His Cupcakes

    I heard it on Fool’s Paradise.

    You can listen to WFMU here:

    • egould310

      Stupid non link. Here try this. https://wfmu.org/

    • Tres Cool

      Gould, you glorious bastard!

      You’re the one that turned me on to WFMU, and they’re frequent background music here in the palatial 2X-wide on the weekends.
      Specially with baseball on the radio.

      • Timeloose

        Brian Turner is still my favorite DJ at WFMU. His show are still available.

      • egould310

        Thanks.

      • egould310

        Just perused the archive and saw a live set with Milk Music from 2011. I’ve got my afternoon planned out.

        The WFMU archive is a thing of beauty. Also, the Give The Drummer Some stream, and Rock n’ Soul Ichiban, and Sheena streams.

        I need to up my monthly pledge.

    • Q Continuum

      Suicide prevention lady looks a little beefy but I get the feeling she knows what to do with the D.

      • Heroic Mulatto

        That’s the cocoon form of a Karen.

      • Tres Cool

        Small for my tastes, but I concur.

    • tarran

      A high school classmate of mine died at the hands of a 25 year old girl trying to commit suicide.

      She drove into the back of the car he was riding in at 80 mph. Being in the ultra expensive sports car her parents had bought her, she survived with some bad bruises and two sprained ankles.

      The shitbox she crashed into was thrown in the air and landed on its roof. John was sitting in the back seat sans seatbelt and was partially ejected through the rear window then crushed.

      She was sentenced to 8 years in jail after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, and paroled after 2.5 years.

      Her decision to commit suicide was the result of an argument with her mother where she was told to get a real job instead of mooching off her parents while waiting for her modeling ‘career’ to take off.

      It puts me in mind of Heinlein’s speech on juvenile delinquency in Starship Troopers.

      John had only been married 9 months when he was murdered.

      • R C Dean

        Wrongful death civil suit?

      • Q Continuum

        I once read that a not-insignificant number of young women, specifically young women, commit, or attempt to commit, suicide by crashing their car into other cars. The level of selfishness to do that is beyond comprehension.

      • Winston

        commit, or attempt to commit, suicide by crashing their car into other cars.

        Well when people claim that suicide is selfish I can’t think of a better example. Yikes.

      • Plinker762

        That is what you get for making bridge piers safer.

    • hayeksplosives

      Page 21D no doubt.

    • CPRM

      How Dare You not Fucking Love Science!?

    • peachy rex

      ICL also fought an FOIA request for the model code, “alleging that the public interest is not sufficiently compelling.” (To quote an article about the matter in City Journal.)

      The resemblance to CAGW “science” becomes more pronounced by the day.

    • kbolino

      Having seen first-hand the quality of code produced by academics and researchers focused on the outcome rather than the process, I am utterly unsurprised.

    • commodious spittoon

      Does it involve transplanting yourself with your wife’s boyfriend?

      • Q Continuum

        Then who would run the camera?

  20. Nephilium

    I have returned from a bike ride and a meal sitting down on a patio in an actual restaurant. Where I got seated, another couple got seated at the same place, across the table from me. I got to talk to random people like in the before times. There was a wait for tables, and all of the places with patios open seemed to be busy (I rode by quite a few). While on my way home, I saw the truest way to show that people are bad at risk assessment. A man riding his motorcycle, in a short sleeve shirt, no leathers, no helmet, but he had on a fabric mask to protect him from the COVID.

    • Timeloose

      That is a common thing I chuckle about on my motorcycle. The 16-20 something with shorts, tennys, and tank top on with a full faced helmet. Or the HD man with leathers, boots and gloves with either no helmet or a skullcap.

      • Tres Cool

        Better yet, the kid on a GSXR, dressed like that with a $700 Shoei helmet
        Ive seen them riding in sandals before.

      • Timeloose

        That’s when mom and dad won’t let him get a bike unless he gets a helmet. “Well how much are helmets son? “ “I’ll get the cheapest one I can find dad.” “I want you to be safe like on your bicycle.” “Mom and I will get you a helmet, how much is the safest helmet?” $600 later….

    • mexican sharpshooter

      I saw the same guy in my neighborhood, except he has a Roadking and a MAGA flag at his house,

      • Tres Cool

        My cousin, the career fireman-paramedic (actually an assistant chief for one of our larger suburbs) is good for getting on his HD Ulta with maybe boots and jeans (all HD brand, mind you), no gloves or anything on his head cept maybe HD branded sunglasses.

        You’d think he’s had to clean up enough smeared riders off the street, he’d have a clue.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Thats kills me. I dumped a Honda Rebel while trying to learn to ride at the Skydome parking lot and got road rash on my forearm. I couldn’t have been going more than 10 mph, I can’t imagine dumping on the freeway. *shudders*

      • Winston

        It was spelled SkyDome you Yankee. Now we call it the Rogers Centre

      • Winston

        Huh. Learn something new everyday.

        the un-American asshole whom it was named

        Care to elaborate? Or are you saying that because he hated baseball?

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Every collegiate and Olympic (due to the altitude) sport is played at NAU Except for baseball. He simply did not like baseball.

      • Tres Cool

        I still have a scar on my knee from dumping my 1st bike in my mom’s driveway. I was turning in, and hit 2 pieces of gravel with the front wheel, and down she went.

        It was a 1973 HD Sprint 350. Oh, how I still wish I had that bike.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Have a picture of a bike with the license plate ICU RN.

      • Ted S.

        I curn? You sure it wasn’t a font designer?

  21. westernsloper

    Holy fuck, 23/32 tng sub floor is heavy when you are hungover. Luckily it is only a mild 82 or I might have had a coronary.

    • Q Continuum

      Fuck it dude. Go bowling.

      • Winston

        Is that you Roman?

  22. Drake

    That rascally rebel Ethan Allen got in trouble for inoculating himself against smallpox without permission.

    That vaccination scene in John Adams was tough.

    • Winston

      Needs more digital fur replacement

    • RAHeinlein

      I thought of that scene when I read this – the breast removal was equally disturbing.

      • Winston

        Which was the most disturbing Tom Hooper movie? John Adams or Cats?

      • RAHeinlein

        I haven’t seen Cats, but I thought Sidney Poitier was planning to make the movie version?

      • RAHeinlein

        That was a joke – see Six Degrees of Separation.

      • Winston

        Oof. Should have realized that reference…

      • hayeksplosives

        A few public parks and lakes are open today in San Diego county, but everything seems to be way backed up in traffic because they have cops enforcing social distancing. 1 car in, 1 car out.

        Screw this. So if they want to shut down a political meeting or a rally, all the state has to do is declare a contagion risk and break up the peaceable assembly?

      • Winston

        So if they want to shut down a political meeting or a rally, all the state has to do is declare a contagion risk and break up the peaceable assembly?

        Yes

  23. hayeksplosives

    Screw it. Gonna sit outside at home sipping a pineapple-7up thing and let the rest of the “reopening” chaos pass before I brave a park.

    • Ted S.

      Fuck Andrew Cuomo.

      • Rhywun

        Dr. Cuomo.

        CWAA

  24. hayeksplosives

    Wash Governor is crazy.

    “When it comes to contact tracing, how are you guys going to handle people or families who want to refuse to test or to self isolate? If they want to leave their home to get groceries I know you’ve said they can’t do that; how will you make sure they don’t?” a reporter asked him.

    Advertisement

    “We will have attached to the families a family support person who will check in with them to see what they need on a daily basis,” he responded. “If they can’t get a friend to do their grocery shopping, we will help get them groceries in some fashion. If they need pharmaceuticals to be picked up, we will make sure they get their pharmaceuticals… We are going to be there on a daily basis for them – now that’s going to help encourage them to maintain their isolation too.”

    Oh my. So much for due process.

    • Winston

      Due process is useless when counterrevolutionaries threaten freedom itself!

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_22_Prairial

      political crimes were far worse than common crimes because in the latter ‘only individuals are wounded’ where as in the former ‘the existence of free society is threatened’. Under these circumstances, ‘indulgence is an atrocity… clemency is parricide

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Couthon

      Couthon also famously justified the deprivation of the right to a counsel by declaring that the guilty have no right for a counsel and the innocents do not need any.[20]

    • Gustave Lytton

      Insist that the health department provide a yellow jack to fly out front.

    • CPRM

      Rub Pour one out for homey.

    • The Hyperbole

      Little known fact – he was the first Ronald McDonald.

      • CPRM

        That was Willard Scott.

      • Ted S.

        Damn your nimble fingers!

      • The Hyperbole

        Jesus Christ people, work with me here.

      • Ted S.

        That was Willard Scott, not Fred Willard.

      • straffinrun

        ^this

    • l0b0t

      OH… that gets me right in the feels. He was always fantastic.

    • egould310

      I saw Fred Willard as he was walking out of the Pussycat Theater in Santa Monica circa October 1993.

    • Drake

      I assume PA has a similar terrible “Emergency” law as NJ. The Governor here can just keep renewing the state of emergency every 30 days until the end of his term and there would be little the Legislature could do short of impeaching him. It’s insane to give an executive that much unrestrained power.

      WI had it right – 30 days, then only with legislative approval going forward.

  25. 61North

    The grocery store here was packed, probably 65% of the people had on masks. Target had more people wearing a mask, but more good looking women. Lots of people out on the trails without a mask, but it’s nice out here so that’s likely why the big crowds everywhere.

  26. straffinrun
    • Tres Cool

      Jarts ?

    • CPRM

      A magic circle is a circle of space marked out by practitioners of some branches of ritual magic, which they generally believe will contain energy and form a sacred space, or will provide them a form of magical protection, or both. It may be marked physically, drawn in salt or chalk, for example, or merely visualised.

    • Plinker762

      Your own personal ground zero

    • Gustave Lytton

      This latest avatar change is a little disappointing. The new normal, i suppose.

      • straffinrun

        Sorry. It’s so stupid I couldn’t resist.

    • Rhywun

      “Can you spot the death-dealer not in a circle?”

  27. l0b0t

    NEW YORK STORIES

    Parking is nonexistent here on the beach streets. Beaches, while technically closed by Mayoral fiat, are packed, absolutely packed with people of all ages. Many are masking but many remove their masks as soon as they step off the boardwalk. Drove to Brooklyn (Bed-Stuy, do or die!); pretty much everything that is not a national chain is open. Went down Hotlantic Ave. and had falafel at Sahadi’s, then next door to the Damascus Bakery for pastries. Both places were doing a brisk trade. Lots of sidewalk dining at places that had never done so before.

  28. Not an Economist

    The real President has spoken

    /sarc

  29. DenverJ

    I’m wearing my mask everywhere, I swear. I even wear it in my own gown, even while I sleep. But my rotator cuff still hurts. Pretty sure I’ve got the Whuflu and am dying. Sigh.
    Next up is the Cuervo virus, and everybody gets sick from too much Cuervo.