Sunday Morning Celebratory Links

by | May 24, 2020 | Daily Links | 240 comments

SP reached a landmark this week. She’s been studying Italian via Duolingo and watching lots of Italian-language videos. She reached the goal of 1,000 days straight of lessons. So instead of the usual Saturday night “Hey, kid, make me a sammich,” we had a couple of our long-time Hit & Run friends over for dinner, and enjoyed several pretty fine bottles of wine. So as a consequence, I may fuck up a link or two, here and there. Please be too busy congratulating this wonderful, hard-working, and smart girl to bag on me about them.

I guess we could celebrate some birthdays today, including a rather magnetic fellow; the last real hottie to occupy the British throne; the best friend of James McReynolds; Bill Clinton’s spirit animal; a woman who showed that you don’t have to be male to achieve the heights of incompetence and corruption; my spirit animal; a musician with the distinction of recording the worst versions of his own songs; and a radar expert.

Now for the news. Be gentle.

 

Origins of LemonParty.com explained.

 

According to court documents, people at the recreation area “were able to subdue” Jacob Trey Valentino and “restrain him” until deputies got there. The appearance of “subdued” and “restrained” is evident. I love this place.

 

Another reason I love this place.

 

Memo from the British fever swamp. I read the same article, with names and parties transposed, every four years.

 

From the Department of Soviet Elections.

 

 

 

Old Guy Music is something of a puzzle- how have I not posted any of their songs before? Well, oversight corrected and this will get your blood flowing.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

240 Comments

  1. PieInTheSky

    we had a couple of our long-time Hit & Run friends over for dinner – this is no time to break social isolation. Yes I know under 10s are generally safe but you are of more advanced years

    • Ted S.

      I was expecting OMWC to say that SP only spoke Italian at the get-together.

      • Rhywun

        Anch’io.

  2. PieInTheSky

    I guess we could celebrate some birthdays today, including a rather magnetic fellow; – you have a weird thing for physicists and chemists. Socialites are the important people.

    • juris imprudent

      Spoken like a true American, Pie.

  3. PieInTheSky

    Another reason I love this place. – looking at the weather forecast it is to hot to be drinking beer in the park you need AC

    I honestly don’t get humans can live someplace where there is more than 40 celsius in May

    • Tejicano

      You can’t go out during the daytime anyway so I don’t know why it would matter to you.

      But you really have to experience AZ weather to understand. In 32C (92F) with humidity at about 15% it feels fabulous. Perfect top down weather if you drive a convertible. I used to drive a Porsche 914 and will never forget how great it felt with the temps between 30C and 35C.

    • Suthenboy

      It’s a dry heat in Az.

      *turns up AC*

      • Old Man With Candy

        It’s a dry heat in a convection oven, too.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Chicago has all that lovely humidity

    • Rhywun

      Me neither.

    • leon

      It snowed in the mountains this weekend so I don’t really know about the whole 100 F in May.

      • PieInTheSky

        well i googled chandler az weather and that is what I got for next week.

    • Old Man With Candy

      We like AZ culturally and because of the mountains, but it would not have been our first choice of places to live, specifically because of the weather. Montana suited us better. But there’s work for me here and not there.

  4. leon

    “I read the same article, with names and parties transposed, every four years”

    Look don’t hate on the journo who’s found a winning storyline, he’s gotta sell them articles to put food on the table.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      If he were as dedicated as SP, he could have learned to code by now.

  5. Ted S.

    James McReynolds’ friend is the last real hottie to occupy the British throne.

    (Unless you meant John Brown’s friend.)

    • JD is in the United Karendom

      <5' apparently. General Bring 'em Young up there apparently likes them small, too, so he can make believe. I'm pretty sure that kind of thing is "subdued" in similar fashion round his way.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Sounds like it was written by an incel

  6. The Late P Brooks

    I couldn’t get past the headline on that Independent thing. LULZ.

    “Can we seriously expect those crazy Republicans to graciously accept the results of the election?”

    • juris imprudent

      Democrats know how to model the appropriate behavior after losing a closely contested election, don’t they?

  7. The Late P Brooks

    Publicly expressing moral outrage is a means of courtship, particularly for men who want to sneak up on women.

    see, also: feigned (or not) homosexuality

  8. Fourscore

    Congrats to SP, wow, 1000 days, that’s like a year. On the other hand, a 3 year old Italian kid would have some mastery of the language, too. Anyway, good for SP.

    Radar was a pretty rounded out guy, talented and creative. (And funny). Good links, OM, thanks for getting up early on a Sunday to provide for us.

  9. Gender Traitor

    1,000 days straight of lessons

    Wow! That’s really amazing. She must speak it like a native now. Does she have experience with other language-learning systems besides Duolingo to make a comparison? Would she recommend it over, say Rosetta Stone? And just curious – why Italian? Any plans to travel there?

    Obligatory

    • JD is in the United Karendom

      DL is okay as a supplementary aid to a structured course. The upside is the gamification of it – helps motivate you to practice regularly to keep up the streak. I got to 300 days then my phone died while I was abroad so I had no way of doing the lessons. I’m currently up to 231 on the current streak and occasionally try to use the website rather than the phone app because it’s more betterer.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Buongiorno amici!

      I love what Archie is actually saying about la moglie. “Sono italiano in spirito. Ma ho sposato una donna che preferisce lavorare in giardino a fare l’amore appassionato. Uno sbaglio grande!”

      It’s no longer a dry heat once you start shvitzing.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        nel giardino. Copied from IMDB; take it up with them.

    • Old Man With Candy

      AFAIK, this is her first experience trying to learn another language. She’s quite happy with the Duolingo approach.

      Italian- yeah, we’d like to get there (she’s never been and I haven’t been there in about 12 or 13 years) and it’s a language I don’t speak, so we can have a broader range between us.

      • PieInTheSky

        you really only need the words for wine and cheese

      • Sensei

        I’ve heard good things about Duolingo and Romance languages.

        Their foray into Japanese left quite a lot to be desired, but seems to have gotten better.

      • Spudalicious

        LoCanda San Giorgio…sigh…

      • Incentives Matter

        I can *highly* recommend Florence, and Venice, although expensive, is a hoot.

        I rather enjoyed the area around the Vatican in Rome. Rick Steves has some free online stuff you can d/l about Rome, and I quite liked using it while I was there.

        Pompeii was magnificent, but the experience was heightened for us because a thunderstorm had rolled through the area just before we visited, which really thinned out the crowds and made it more enjoyable.

    • Incentives Matter

      I’ve worked with both Duo and Rosetta; Duo, for some reason, was far superior to Rosetta for me. That shouldn’t really be true, since the courses use a very similar learning strategy. Doesn’t hurt that Duo’s more “available,” as it’s a totally Web-based course that can be used on most any device with access to the Web. Don’t know how far Rosetta’s gone in that direction, haven’t used it in years (since I discovered Duo).

      That being said, the quality of the courses on Duo varies widely — the French course is head-and-shoulders better than the Spanish course, ferinstance.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    I’ll definitely take “dry” heat over “wet” heat, but I start to melt in the upper 80s.

    • Rhywun

      True. Where I am, once June or July rolls around, it’s all wet heat.

  11. Tejicano

    Congratulations SP! That’s the kind of dedication it takes to learn a language.

    Might I suggest trying learning a few songs? – lots of good Italian music. That can boost vocabulary and natural word usage.

    • Sensei

      +1 on the music. I do it all the time.

      I find that it helps me learn and retain new vocabulary.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Google news is showing a Guardian editorial about Hong Kong. Why do I assume, prior to reading, it boils down to “It’s for your own good”?

    • Rhywun

      +1 Trump’s disgraceful lack of respect for China

    • leon

      Well we know that freedom is icky and dangerous. We’d be better off with an authoritarian.

    • Tejicano

      Quite obvious, particularly coming from a UK publication. I can’t imagine they would have changed their minds in the last 20+ years. If the UK GAF about Hong Kong they would have done something about it before 1997.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Do not, for sanity’s sake, read anything in the Graun but Arts section. Maybe some Lifestyle.

        Don’t suppose they still publish Trevor Timm. I liked him.

    • JD is in the United Karendom

      They have some content that is ostensibly concerned with Chinese influence in Hong Kong but it’s generally weasel words that try to rationalize why Chinese boots on Hong Kong faces is a good thing. They also have a hard-on for downplaying any success of markets over central planning so they churn out apologia for the CCP and dismiss much reasoned criticism as “right wing conspiracy theories” etc, until they really can’t back that up (they never could) and then it just gets rug swept or [mental block: I cannot recall the word beginning with S that involves using obfuscatory, flowery, and evasive language in an attempt to rationalize and or deceive]. The broad editorial position is to downplay any desire for honest-to-God freedom, and instead play up the “democracy” angle, you know, to put the right people in charge. Everything just needs the right plunderers and looters in charge. Everything will be fine, then.

  13. PieInTheSky

    So what is everyone drinking? My wine tstes oddly sweet to me despite having under 3 grams per liter residual sugar. Maybe it is a symptom of wu flu?

    • Rhywun

      Water.

      • juris imprudent

        You have exceptionally good taste sir. [Yes, I have a cup of the same in front of me, why do you ask.]

      • Ted S.

        How much are you buying at a time to get it for $6 a pound?

      • juris imprudent

        I presume he gets it cheap because he invested in his own roasting gear.

      • R C Dean

        5 pounds. We usually have 10 – 20 pounds in the house at a time.

      • PieInTheSky

        I pay about 10 to 12 US for 250g of coffee

      • Incentives Matter

        First tasted Peet’s Major Dickason’s blend in Hawaii about four years ago. Great stuff, impossible to find here. And shipping from the States is punishingly expensive for some bizarre reason, even before exchange rate, duty, GST etc.

      • Chafed

        #MeToo

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Black coffee

      • Trigger Hippie

        I added Best Choice powdered creamer to mine cuz I’m classy.

    • Old Man With Candy

      We’re done for the next few hours, but before that, we had a nice Cremant de Loire, a Vouvray, St-Joseph Blanc, and a Barolo that was older than our friends.

  14. Suthenboy

    I could hardly get past the headline on any of the stories. I just hate people and every word of the stories confirms that I am justified.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      All this BS I have found quite educational about governors and mayors nationwide. Didn’t know much or anything about them before.

      • Fourscore

        It starts at the lowest level. Every township supervisor pictures themselves as a county/then state/ then national pol. They have a different cool-aid from the rest of us. The lust for power is insatiable for a certain kind of personality.

      • Homple

        “In 1776 we traded one tyrant 3,000 miles away for 3,000 tyrants one mile away”.

      • Gender Traitor

        +1 HOA

    • juris imprudent

      Are we sharing one brain?

      • Atanarjuat

        I hope you guys don’t let bitterness eat away your insides.

      • juris imprudent

        Misanthropy means you are occasionally pleasantly surprised by human decency. It’s not all bad.

  15. The Late P Brooks

    Signs of the End Times

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning that rodents are becoming increasingly aggressive as they scavenge for food amid a mass closure of restaurants caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

    In an advisory posted to its website, the health agency noted that rodents rely on the food and waste generated at businesses serving food, especially in dense commercial areas. Closures and limits on service have caused rodents to search for new sources of food and to exhibit more erratic behavior.

    The CDC said that some areas have reported “an increase in rodent activity” and that environmental health and rodent control programs should be prepared for more calls about “unusual or aggressive rodent behavior.”

    Residents and business owners can prevent attracting rodents by sealing up access to their homes or buildings, removing debris and heavy vegetation, keeping garbage in tightly covered bins and removing pet food, the CDC advised.

    The agency also noted the need for following established protocols when cleaning up after rodent infestations in order to prevent exposure to rodent-borne diseases.

    Rodents have posed problems for several cities in the U.S. amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

    Stay Inside. Stay safe.

    Make more offerings to the Plague Gods.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      When the humans start to scavenge, I’ll be worried.

    • leon

      ROUSes? I don’t believe they exist.

    • Sean

      We need more feral cats.

  16. The Late P Brooks

    When the humans start to scavenge, I’ll be worried.

    They’ll be setting out box traps for the rats and trading rat foo yung recipes on Facebook, soon.

  17. Evan from Evansville

    Oh, lord. I have set up a GoFundMe for my mental struggles that I endure.

    Thank everyone so much for their lovely thoughts and well wishes. When I first wrote about this I was told that there “Was new excuse” not to set one up.

    So now. Stubborn, Evan, decided to do so. Thank you all so much for your help. I promise that I will write soon to explain in more detail the difficulties that I am going through. But, to make things more positive, there are plenty out there who have things much worse than I do. I do my best to remember that.

    Thanks in advance.

    https://www.gofundme.com/f/helping-evan-from-evansville-get-back-on-his-feet?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR0Xus4yHfv_QX6YGQXxpI39vdTPGHh2xA5HRqFXGYmN_WsTBvzo7UUSe1U

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Oh look, you got one already.

      Are you sure you want to link to Glibs?

      • Evan from Evansville

        It had the pics I was looking for and there didn’t seem to be another option.

        Was that wrong? I can edit if needed. I wasn’t really thinking. I just knew those were pics and a link to piece I’d already written.

        TPTB: Let me know if i should change that.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Just concerned that the local reputation might make it less lucrative for you.

        PS. Love a man in gingham. Where is that with an opaque turquoise lake?

      • Evan from Evansville

        That is Big Almaty Lake in Kazakhstan!

        One of the more interesting solo trips that I’ve ever taken.

        I have a part I and II here on Glibs if you’re curious.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        +1 superior potassium (sorry)

        Sure, please remind me.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        done, Good Luck Buddy!

      • Evan from Evansville

        That is not the most soothing story, but certainly fascinating. Dahl was a terrifying human being, though Neal doesn’t seem like an easy figure herself. Maybe they *were* meant for each other, despite neither having ever shown it.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Maybe not soothing: reassuring? inspiring?

        Four TBIs in the family, including him! Horrible luck.

  18. Chipping Pioneer

    You know who else liked to sniff young girls’ hair?

    • Old Man With Candy

      Me?

    • Tres Cool

      Roman Polanksi ?

  19. PieInTheSky

    Knight Rider – had quite a few requests for this one and no wonder because it’s a total banger

    https://twitter.com/samaracello/status/1264211335425990657

    I honestly have no idea how easy or difficult doing the splitting music into parts playing them separately and mashing together thing is

    • JD is in the United Karendom

      There’s a website that processes mp3s into different instruments so you can download the splits. It’s not as good as Melodyne for getting it just right. Better quality recordings/encodings = better results, naturally. If only I could recall the name.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    Unanticipated

    In the bankruptcy announcement, Hertz said “The impact of COVID-19 on travel demand was sudden and dramatic, causing an abrupt decline in the company’s revenue and future bookings.” The company went on to say they took immediate action in response to the pandemic and eliminated all non-essential spending as prioritized the health and safety of its customers and employees.

    Unfortunately, these actions have also included mass layoffs. In particular, Hertz implemented furloughs and layoffs of 20,000 employees which is nearly 50% of its global workforce.

    It remains unclear how the bankruptcy will pan out, but there have been fears the rental company could liquidate part of its fleet of roughly 570,000 vehicles. If this were to happen, it could flood the used car market and drag prices down significantly.

    You don’t say.

    • Ted S.

      How dare people be able to get cars relatively inexpensively!

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      If this were to happen, it could flood the used car market and drag prices down significantly.

      Good! Not everything is about your property values, Karen!

    • Mojeaux

      it could flood the used car market and drag prices down significantly.

      Just in time for XX to get a decent car.

      • leon

        Just in time for me to get a decent car.

      • l0b0t

        #metoo Bring on the Hertzmobiles.

      • Mojeaux

        Fortunately for us, cars are right now not one of our problems.

    • Don Escaped Australians

      a/ I’m waiting for Congress to pass a first-time-buyers’ loan support program; it must have an acronym that is playfully similar to some name, so “Uncle Jim Jo” for Universal Leveraged Junkers or some such. Also: 20 years from now, there will be a surge of boo-hoo stories about people who borrowed too much to buy cars that didn’t really help them in real life; a commie running for president from Vermont or Delaware will urge complete absorption of the program’s debt by the public sector.

      b/ This is like toilet paper: the total person-miles (works for both commodities, but let’s not get graphic) isn’t going to change due to Hertz, just the type of commodity in play and logistics.

      c/ There are over a hundred million cars in the US: only in the shortest of runs does this matter.

  21. westernsloper

    At that point, according to investigators, another man intervened and confronted Valentino. That man said Valentino pointed the handgun at him; heard said he heard the Glock “click.” The man told investigators said Valentino threw the weapon at him after it “failed to discharge.”

    I’m thinking that dirt bag is lucky to get out of there with just a black eye.

    • Homple

      Ask not for whom the Glock clicks. It clicks for thee.

    • l0b0t

      Yeah, shoot at me and the weapon fails to discharge? You have just entered disarm him and pistol-whip him until he stops moving territory.

    • Sensei

      You can also see what cable and the internet did to single show viewership at about the 1990 point.

      Top show peaked in the high 20 millions and generally declined thereafter, but some oddballs like American Idol picked it up again.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    WHYCOME HIM NOT IN LAB?!

    Former Vice President Joe Biden released a political attack ad against President Trump Saturday, slamming his decision to play golf on Memorial Day Weekend amid an ever-rising death toll due to the coronavirus in the United States.

    The 30-second video shows Trump playing golf at his Virginia club Saturday. The footage is interspersed with what appears to be frontline healthcare workers walking into hospital rooms, administering COVID-19 tests at drive-thrus and interacting with patients on stretchers.

    There also appears to be a small red bar graph increasing in size as the number of coronavirus-related deaths hovers close to 100,000.

    “The death toll is still rising,” the ad read. “The president is playing golf.’

    Maybe Trump should wear a white lab coat everywhere he goes. That would portray his seriousness.

    • leon

      Oof. I bet that really hurt.

    • RAHeinlein

      Hitting golf balls into bunkers versus hiding in one.

    • whiz

      Trump’s morbidly obese, so he needs the exercise.

  23. The Late P Brooks

    As of Saturday afternoon, the U.S. has recorded 1.6 million confirmed cases of the virus and 96,983 deaths from the disease, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

    If I recall my high school maths correctly, that pencils out to a .06% fatality rate. And that’s using an undercount of infections.

    • Ted S.

      You don’t recall your math correctly. That’s more like 6%.

      • westernsloper

        *scratches head and looks puzzled*

      • Old Man With Candy

        (96,983/1,600,000)x100 = 6%. But that’s misleadingly high because of testing bias (not random sampling, very little testing of asymptomatic individuals).

  24. Toxteth O’Grady

    Alt-text for header pic: “Oh / I love / My pretty little flower ?”

  25. Suthenboy

    Wife has Chicago PD reruns on. Line in the show *Man is explaining to the cops why no one in the neighborhood will cooperate* – “Everyone here is an immigrant from a communist country. They don’t trust police or government. They have had their belly full of that.”

    Who do you suppose wrote that line? Who performed it? Did all of the other actors hear it? What do you wanna bet all of those shit weasels go in November and vote democrat. I wonder how many of those morons really wanted Bernie Sanders.

    • Atanarjuat

      Awesome. I just saw a tweet about people in Eastern Europe not buying all the lefty cultural crap for the same reason.

      I think the fall of the Soviet Union as our archenemy has allowed the left to make inroads here, like retaking the word “socialism”.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Maybe I don’t remember so good. Maybe I don’t know where the decimal point goes. Even if it’s 6%, that still not exactly the end of civilization.

    • Suthenboy

      my calculator says 0.06.

      As you mention that is wildly inaccurate because we have no idea how many have had the commie cooties.

  27. Rufus the Monocled

    I was told Obamagate is fake. Grasping at straws. I can’t follow them anymore.

    • leon

      Of course it’s fake, Obama was scandal free.

  28. Rufus the Monocled

    I was looking at Hawaii’s Da-Wuhan numbers and they’re small. But why such a big reaction to it? I get the ‘we don’t want that shit here’ angle but are they being a tad excessive?

    • Suthenboy

      Every response I have seen has been excessive.

  29. Mojeaux

    Mornin’ Old Man, SP, and Glibbies.

    SP, congratulations on your accomplishment! Jelly.

    I have been reading The Daily Stoic in the bathroom. (Shockingly, Mr. Mojeaux has been taking peeks. He quoted Seneca on FB the other day.) Thus, I am trying to let go of anger over things I can’t do anything about.

    Oh lemonparty. Rickrolling before Rickrolling.

    • Suthenboy

      “…let go of anger over things I can’t do anything about.”

      Wise words.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    “I was only following orders,” says Andy

    New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Saturday doubled down on his state’s now-scrapped nursing home policy that critics say contributed to thousands of coronavirus deaths and instead blamed the problem on President Trump and his administration.

    “New York followed the president’s agencies’ guidance,” Cuomo said Saturday at his press conference. “…. What New York did was follow what the Republican Administration said to do. That’s not my attempt to politicize it. It’s my attempt to depoliticize it. So don’t criticize the state for following the president’s policy.”

    He did his best. Truly a great leader, whom we should follow. Presidential.

    • Suthenboy

      What the hell is he talking about?

    • Gender Traitor

      what the Republican Administration said to do.

      Citation needed.

      • Gender Traitor

        Also, “…Republican administration….not my attempt to politicize it. It’s my attempt to depoliticize it.”

        Which is why he mentioned the current president’s political party affiliation. Try harder, Andy.

      • Homple

        Andy was happy to defy the INS to shield illegal migrants, so why did he meekly follow orders to kill old people?

      • Sean

        The worst states for lockdown are the states who botched up the way the government handled the virus. Coincidence? Nope.
        ???

    • Tejicano

      I’m happy to see he got his wang caught in this one and to see him wriggle to get free. I expect that in the long run it will all be water under the bridge but at least for a few people they will remember he was the one who sent a Chincom flu patient to Grampa’s living quarters, ending Grampa’s life.

    • Rhywun

      what the Republican Administration said to do

      Even assuming that were true, the Florida governor says he specifically ordered the opposite. And it seemed to pay results. For someone who hates Trump as much as Cuomo does, it seems odd that he would “do what he was told”.

    • mrfamous

      There can’t be anyone on the planet who buys this explanation, can there?

      The hidden problem here is the Medicare system which incentivizes old people to stay at hotelspitals as Medicare foots the bill as long as they are there. Needless to say that incentivizes the MEdicare system to get them the hell out of there as quickly as possible. That standard give and take then backfires in a situation like this: a contagious but not very sick old person gets booted from the hospital to save Medicare bux and winds up infecting and then killing half of his fellow assisted living residents.

      • R C Dean

        It doesn’t cost Medicare a penny more if you stay 3days or 3 months. It’s the hospital that takes the hit.

  31. Rufus the Monocled

    That doctor friend I talk to. He’s the one who thinks Obamagate (yes, he somehow still thinks something happened with Russia) also said if it were up to him you would need to be vaccinated in order to go to events. He has quite the hate for anti-vaxxers and sees them as a threat to people.

    Civil liberties be damned. This is the sort of medical bureaucrat I’d worry about. I wonder how many who think this way are already in government?

    • Shirley Knott

      On the one hand, far too many of them. On the other hand, a very low percentage of them. Be afraid, be very afraid.

  32. Drake

    I’ve returned to the land of the unfree. Ready to celebrate Memorial Day and remember the people who died for, uh…

    Weird driving north yesterday. SC – totally opened, enjoyed breakfast at Eggs Up Grill.
    NC – just opening – tried to buy a weight bench in Fayetville but sold out.
    Only stopped for gas in VA.
    Maryland – stopped for food – mostly closed although people seemed to be ignoring it and expect to be open shortly.
    Delaware had a sign that I need to quarantine for 2 weeks if I want to visit – no thanks.
    PA and NJ still shuttered because.

    • Sean

      Local farmer’s market “Non essential” stores have opened on the down low. No one batted an eye. Good for them.

    • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

      Driving the opposite direction was nice. VA, outside of the People’s Republic of DC, was just starting to open back up. Nearly no traffic, people very cautious. In Tennessee, light traffic, fewer masks. In Arkansas, it was more or less back to normal. My wife even got heckled for wearing a mask at a rest stop. In Texas, there are just a handful of people wearing masks and traffic was to normal.

      • Apples and Knives

        Yeah, I live in Arkansas but in a blue neighborhood in its biggest city. Very Karen around here. But even in Little Rock, you might get heckled for wearing or not wearing a mask, depending on neighborhood. Outside of Little Rock, the only people I’ve seen wearing masks were store or restaurant employees.

  33. The Late P Brooks

    Speaking of the car market, there is a dipshit banker who comes into the bar sometimes. He, of course, hasn’t missed out on any paychecks. I have been meaning to ask him how the bank will be affected when a giant stack of loans for big fancy diesel pickup trucks on the books for ~ $30k get turned into $12k repo sales at the auction.

    • Don Escaped Australians

      don’t those get bundled and sold like all other loans?

      I’d think there are several too-big-to-fail institutions carry bushels of such paper you get to bail out any day now

  34. Sean

    The grocery store had my favorite salsa this week. I added some hot pepper, as per normal. I did it a little different this week. I pulled two scorpion peppers (instead of the usual one) out from the freezer. One was still green and the ripened one was smallish. I figured using them both would just kick it up a little bit. I miscalculated. It is insanely hot.

    Anyway, I put some on top my scrambled eggs this morning. It was delicious.

    • Tres Cool

      Jugsy has recently become a fan of adobo on her AIGS

  35. The Late P Brooks

    Anyway, I put some on top my scrambled eggs this morning. It was delicious.

    I like a story with a happy ending.

  36. Tundra

    Good Morning Old Man!

    And to SP, complimenti, molto ben fatto! 1,000 straight days of lessons is awesome!

    Steve Morse is a helluva guitarist. I’ve not listened to Dregs (or Deep Purple) for years and years. Nice selection.

    Have a groovy day, my fellow babies!

  37. Tres Cool

    Jesus H. Koresh am I hungover.

    Yet through the fog of Milwaukee’s Beast clogging my synapses 1 thing stands out- fuck you, Hyperbole. Gov’t workers have no right unionize.

    /drinks pickle brine and heads back to bed

    • Suthenboy

      Hung over here too.

      My memory isn’t what it used to be but it seems I remember reading that when the debate over letting public sector workers unionize was raging even the Communist party USA was adamantly against it. So…guess what the govt did…

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Eat a banana for a h/o, I hear.

        I understand FDR opposed them but JFK (or his admin) greenlit them. Something like that. Me gud at history.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        *even* FDR

        me gud typits tu

      • The Hyperbole

        Suthen is siding with the Commie Shit Weasels™, I may have reached peak contrarianism.

      • westernsloper

        I am softening up some guajillo’s, a couple ancho’s, jalapeno and onion for some Al Pastor marinade. I threw in a Bay Leaf just to piss you off.

    • PieInTheSky

      really sour ciorba is good for hangovers. Although should have made it yesterday.

      • Q Continuum

        Not drinking is good for hangovers too.

        Jus’ sayin’.

      • westernsloper

        Crazy talk.

      • Tres Cool

        FUCK OFF SLAVER!

      • Sean

        Heretic!

  38. The Late P Brooks

    Drain all the swimming pools

    Several people who attended a high school swim party in Arkansas have contracted Covid-19, Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters on Saturday.

    “A high school swim party that I’m sure everybody thought was harmless. They’re young, they’re swimming, they’re just having activity and positive cases resulted from that,” Hutchinson said.
    The governor declined to provide further details on the swim party but noted the incident was “just an encouragement for us to be disciplined in our activities.”
    “During this Memorial (Day) weekend, we want to be out and we want to enjoy ourselves, we want to remember this holiday and those that have served our country and given their lives in service of our country. But let’s be safe and let’s be disciplined at the same time,” Hutchinson said.

    “Cases”

    • Sean

      Do it. For the children.

    • Mojeaux

      None of the pools are openening this summer, nor are the splash parks or water parks.

      I predict lots of hot tempers this summer as the heat gets to people.

      • Old Man With Candy

        No water parks? Then how will you decapitate kids?

      • Sean

        Look at you…always thinking about getting a little head.

      • Mojeaux

        We’re very resourceful. We’ll find a way to build a taller, more bumpy water slide!

      • Trigger Hippie

        Yep. Despite most of the metro area being on a half-assed lockdown and unseasonably cool weather the homicide rate is pretty much the same as last year’s. Keeping things restricted well into the heat of the Summer is going make things get bloodier than usual in an already violent city. Add in economic reality setting in for many working poor people by then…duck, motherfucker.

    • Rhywun

      positive cases resulted from that

      Prove it, and show your work.

      • Sean

        ⬆ science denier

      • Suthenboy

        Do we even know what the incubation time for this stuff is?
        Every day a new expert comes forward with more info that directly contradicts what all of the other experts have said.

      • Sean

        Last week, I think, I read the “average” was 5 days, but it can be longer.

      • Suthenboy

        I think they are just pulling things out of their asses. I have heard everything from 2 days to a month. In other words: They don’t know.

      • Fourscore

        Same as my corn. Too often its never.

    • Apples and Knives

      Great, I’m sure this story is about to blow-up my Facebook feed. Late last week the state got in a backlog of prison testing that boosted the shit out of the daily cases for one day and my Facebook feed was all, “Shut it down, we’re all gonna die!” Luckily, as I can attest from observing this weekend’s activities, the vast majority of Arkansans are done with this shit. In fact, that’s almost a direct quote from a maskless dude at a convenience store, “We’re done with Covid.”

  39. The Late P Brooks

    don’t those get bundled and sold like all other loans?

    You’re probably right.

  40. PieInTheSky

    Being put of the usual ingredients I think I invented a new type of pasta. I had green onions and green garlic from my mom’s garden, chopped some fine, added along some cherry tomatoes in a pan with olive oil, and a few anchovies for some umami a bit of the pasta cooking water and then the pasta. I was decent tasting.

    • egould310

      Sounds good.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      I bet you were decent-tasting indeed! 😉

    • Akira

      Awesome dude. I have garlic and green onions growing in a planter full of compost outside; can’t wait to use them.

  41. Suthenboy

    Update: After the initial rush on toilet paper our local stores restocked and the inventory stayed for a month or so. Yesterday it was wiped out again. The clerk said “There is a resurgence in toilet paper hoarding”

    I gave a puzzled look and he shook his head and said “I don’t get it either”.

    • PieInTheSky

      The fine people of Grant parish need some sort of occupation, hoarding is as good as any

      • Suthenboy

        *Zombie Apocalypse Arrives*

        “Oh no! Do I have enough toilet paper?”

        Seriously, what the hell is that?

  42. The Late P Brooks

    Chuckie Todd is beating the living shit out of his little tin drum.

    Go, wind-up monkey, go!

    • Rhywun

      I don’t know how you can watch that shit.

  43. The Late P Brooks

    Why do we allow for-profit pharmaceutical companies to do research and develop drugs and vaccines?

  44. The Late P Brooks

    Mister President, we cannot allow a vaccine gap!

  45. The Late P Brooks

    “Jeepers, Governor Dewine, how did wearing masks get politicized?”

    It couldn’t be people from Party A calling everybody from Party B a murderer.

    • Rhywun

      +1

      The current season is on hold until July (?) I think.

    • egould310

      Thanks for the heads up.

  46. The Late P Brooks

    RESIST!

    Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) hammered President Trump Friday evening, saying she will not stand by as he takes action that she says endangers Michiganders.

    “He has risked the health, safety and welfare of everyone who lives in this state, and I will not remain silent and just twiddle my thumbs as I see him do that,” Nessel said on NPR’s All Things Considered.

    Nessel added that Trump’s choice not to wear a mask in public “sends the worst possible message at the worst possible time.”

    Okay, Karen.

    • Don Escaped Australians

      I wonder how the MI and OH experience will drive voters in November. Marginally, what does such excitation do to participation and perspective? Who gets off the fence or returns from the 2016 sidelines based on their reaction to the reaction to The Reaction.

      • Q Continuum

        Dunno man, but there are some indicators that the so-called “silent majority” is pretty pissed off. Granted, special elections are… well… special, but the Pachyderm won Katie “Throuple” Hill’s seat by almost 10 points; a seat that’s been Team Blue for almost 25 years. Also, Staunton, VA city council, a town with a liberal arts college with hard left representation back to the beginning of time flipped GOP in spite of Dem voter turnout actually being higher than last cycle.

        Interesting times.

      • Tres Cool

        As MI goes, I really hope that Reichsführer Whitmer doubles-down and closes parks, boat launches, and outdoor recreation all summer. That will supremely piss off her constituents.

      • Ted S.

        No; it’s only been Democrat since 2018.

        I believe it was the first time in 25 years the Republicans picked up a seat in CA.

      • blackjack

        Katie Hill’s seat was solid red for 30 years until she got there. That’s one of the gains made by cheating vote harvesting and all the other methods the Dems have discovered lately.

        See here.

      • Gender Traitor

        The only OH polling for prez this month on RCP shows Trump up by 3, a flip from previous Biden leads. Standard disclaimer for trusting polls, of course, and November’s still a long ways away.

    • Tejicano

      “Nessel added that Trump’s choice not to wear a mask in public…”

      Can you honestly say that any president in the last, what, 90 years has ever gone out in public?

      And since anybody should know that these masks are to (supposedly) protect those around the wearer – and Trump is probably tested more rigorously than most people to ensure he is not carrying – then what’s the point?

      • blackjack

        There’s no point to wearing a mask, especially if you wait until the virus has already spread everywhere before mandating them.

  47. The Late P Brooks

    Maybe AG Nessel should send a no-knock SWAT team to the White House.

  48. The Late P Brooks

    Not drinking is good for hangovers too.

    Jus’ sayin’.

    Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let’s not throw the baby out with the firewater.

  49. The Late P Brooks

    The cadaverous Andrea Mitchell is HORRIFIED by President Cartoon Villain’s refusal to accept SCIENCE as his true Lord and Saviour.

  50. The Late P Brooks

    Hong Kong will never be what it was. Wow. Much insightful.

  51. Yusef drives a Kia

    I am attempting to post a link, and WP is calling it spam, the link goes to a controversial video that is quite interesting, also banned on FB, YT and the twitters,

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Does tinyurl work?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        don’t know how it works,

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Official site https://plandemicmovie.com is not loading for me. Or try American Conservative University podcast from May 8. Dunno if part 2 was ever uploaded to web.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        it’s on Bitchute, and Toxteth got the name past the censors, scary if true, and sounds quite plausible,

      • Count Potato

        Site not loading.

        Is it “plandemic” or “pandemic”

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Plandemic (sic).

        Try ACU podcast.

  52. Q Continuum

    I am happy to report an exciting new finding in Q’s Better Living Through Chemistry Hack Your Life series:

    Oxytocin!

    Called the “love hormone” it’s typically associated with agape-type bonding between mother and child during breastfeeding and between lovers when engaging in casual touch (hugging etc.). Medically it’s used to induce labor. However, off-label use has proven that it’s effects can be very focused on eros-type love as well as there are OXT receptors all over the genitals of both sexes. It has a super-short halflife and stomach acid destroys it, so the only delivery methods are a nasal spray (wears off in ~6 minutes) or sublingual dissolving tablets (wears off in ~30 minutes).

    However, if used appropriately within the right time frame, the orgasms that result are nearly fatal. No comparison to anything else. And taking another dose completely and instantly eliminates the refractory period. This is an unparalleled breakthrough.

    • Suthenboy

      I don’t have oxytocin receptors. My receptors are for gun oil.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Where does one get it? *

      Similarly, anyone interested in that might like DHEA.

      *hypothetical Q, really and truly

      • Mojeaux

        DHEA didn’t do anything for me despite megadoses and a decent trial period.

      • Tres Cool

        Still had that pesky refractory period ?

      • Mojeaux

        In seriousness, I wasn’t taking it for sexual enhancement. I wanted some more general feel-good and pep. It did not do ANYTHING that I could ascertain.

        It is also possible that my astronomical stress levels and other toxic emotions negated anything it could do.

      • Q Continuum

        DHEA rox. I’d recommend getting OXT by prescription; there are some less than reputable places online, but I’d be very leery of that. Some sexual health places are doing online consultations in which you can get a legit script, or you can just talk to your doctor about it.

        A bit of searching found this:

        https://telewellnessmd.com/lifestyle-therapies/oxytocin-50iu/

        $200 is really spendy, you should be able to find it cheaper, but you get the idea.

      • Mojeaux

        I’d rather spend those $$$ on modafinil. Even with my ECA stack I’m starting to fall asleep at my desk in the afternoons.

        There is a place here that advertises to women of a certain age (mine) about hormone treatments and “getting my life back” and “my husband and I are closer than ever.” I suspect it involves testosterone.

      • Toxteth O’Grady

        Mo, until then you can try adrafinil from nootropic sites, no Rx. In fact you can have my leftovers. And anyone who wants my leftover DHEA can have it, although I don’t recall either of them being expensive.

      • Mojeaux

        I’ll take your leftover adrafinil since you’re offering, with much gratitude. moriah at moriahjovan dot com.

    • Don Escaped Australians

      agape-type bonding between mother and child

      storge?

      admittedly, mi Greek es nicht mas bien

      • Q Continuum

        I stand corrected: storge would be much more appropriate in this context.

  53. The Late P Brooks

    Even before the plague, the economy was crumbling!

    Take that, President Cartoon Villain.

    • Viking1865

      Yeah I don’t think that’s gonna really fly with the voters, in general. Plus the idea that Joe Biden, the VP of “managed decline” Obamaeconomy is the guy to lead us back to prosperity doesn’t really pass the hair smelling test to me.

      If the Dems had nominated some young, dynamic governor whos state has been succesful, maybe they could play that card. But I don’t see how you can simultaneously be all SCIENCE SAYS THIS IS THE WORST PLAGUE EVER!!!! and at the same time argue that Black Death 2.0 shouldn’t affect the economy at all.

    • blackjack

      I get that assertion quite often in arguments.

      “If the economy was so strong, then why are people going bankrupt after just a couple of months?”

      Retards. They’ve never owned a business or had to work hard for a living, obviously.

      • creech

        Of course they don’t. They think every business owner has a McDuck Money Bin where the money is readily accessible for midnight swims or phonycorona events.

  54. Incentives Matter

    One thousand days straight?

    Wow. You’re a better person than I am, SP. HUUUUGE congratulations! I can’t even go a week without stopping for a few days (my brain starts hurting). Duolingo keeps hassling me to re-start. I’ve realized that I’ll never truly learn the French of my ancestors, I’m too old and the brain’s too full of other crud.

    • Toxteth O’Grady

      Je pratique mon français par écouter les podcasts. Have resigned myself to never becoming fluent but les nouvelles are only a few painless minutes a day.

    • blackjack

      After 1000 days of speaking Italian, wouldn’t your hands get really tired?

      • mrfamous

        Well done

  55. The Late P Brooks

    There is a place here that advertises to women of a certain age (mine) about hormone treatments and “getting my life back” and “my husband and I are closer than ever.” I suspect it involves testosterone.

    For you, or your husband?

    • Mojeaux

      The woman, post/menopausal.

  56. Tulip

    Congrats SP

  57. KSuellington

    Congratulazioni SP! If I may make a recommendation, try reading a book in Italian, it is often good to start on one you have already reads. Start with a kids book or young adult if you’re not yet up to adult level. It really helped me get to the next level in Spanish and Portuguese.

    • Old Man With Candy

      f you’re not yet up to adult level

      I thought this was widely known.

    • Akira

      I’ve found that when you’re trying to learn a new language, it’s helpful to listen to as much music in that language as you can. Even if you can’t understand much at first, I think it trains your brain to listen for those words, and you’ll find yourself understanding phrases here and there and eventually the whole song.

    • peachy rex

      History is often an easier read – third person, mostly just a couple of past tenses.

  58. DEG

    SP reached a landmark this week. She’s been studying Italian via Duolingo and watching lots of Italian-language videos. She reached the goal of 1,000 days straight of lessons.

    Congratulations!