IFLA: The “Pulling out of a Dive” Edition of the Horoscope for the Week of February 21

by | Feb 21, 2021 | IFLA | 186 comments

The week starts out kind of ragged, but Mercury goes station direct on Monday.  This is of course “moon day” which on that day is transitioning between Gemini (The Twins, Janus, doorways, hypocrisy, vomiting, loquaciousness) and Cancer (The Crab, durability, sideways movement, hidden treasures, saltwater).  So the burst of luck that happens then will manifest in two ways — unexpected abundance or succor and the avoidance of misfortune (getting a warning instead of a ticket, a falling branch missing your car, that sort of thing.)  If you like shooting craps, Monday is a good time.

Aquarius continues to hog the planets, preventing Pisces from enjoying its time quite as much as it could.  Still, everyone benefits when Aquarius is empowered.  And Pisces will start gaining the benefits of Venus on Thursday, IYKWIMAIKTYD.

You know how “three times is enemy action?”  Well I’m going to perform a a curse breaking (within reason.  I mean, I love you guys, but I’m not burning nag champa inside my house) on the deck because this is just nonsense.  If that doesn’t work, buying a new deck is the next step.

Pisces:  3 of Coins reversed –  Mediocrity in work and otherwise, puerility, pettiness, weakness.

Aries:  2 of Swords reversed – Imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty

Taurus:  7 of Coins reversed –  Money, business, barter, altercation, quarrels, successful investment

Gemini:  Ace of Coins reversed – The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence, the enmity of someone rich.

Cancer:  King of Swords reversed – Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention

Leo:  Ace of Swords reversed – Great force with disastrous results, the destruction of a leader or leadership

Virgo:  The Tower Reversed –  Hooo boy.  Just… don’t.

Libra:  7 of Wands – Discussion, wordy strife, negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition, success.

Scorpio:  2 of Wands reversed – Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear.

Sagittarius:  10 of Wands reversed –  Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues

Capricorn:  Page of Coins – Application, study, scholarship, reflection, news, messages, rule, management

Aquarius:  10 of Coins reversed – Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard, gift, dowry, pension

About The Author

Not Adahn

Not Adahn

Despite all my rage, I am still just an impeccably dressed rat.

186 Comments

  1. KromulentKristen

    Goddammit. Again???

    Aries: 2 of Swords reversed – Imposture, falsehood, duplicity, disloyalty

    • KromulentKristen

      I’m just going to interpret this as “go ahead and have that leftover pulled pork now instead of waiting for dinner time”

    • KromulentKristen

      I’m also going to interpret it as “while you’re eating that pulled pork sandwich, go ahead and watch that art restoration video, then binge on Lt. Joe Kenda”

  2. KromulentKristen

    Curious about Virgo, tho

    • Ownbestenemy

      #metoo

      • KromulentKristen

        ooooh! No, I haven’t seen that. I’ll add it to my bingeing today

      • KromulentKristen

        (I’m often entertained on MR’s Facederp page where some busybody middle aged woman is scandalized that he’s on the more conservative side. Same with Alton Brown’s Facederp)

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Apparently he was on Watters’ World yesterday too.

      • UnCivilServant

        Someone who appreciates hard work and self-made people might not be a raging socialist? No wai.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Haven’t had one of those in like 50 years.

      • KromulentKristen

        It’s been about 30 for me…

  3. Ownbestenemy

    Making breakfast, some sausage, egg and cheese english muffin sandwiches.

    Prepping a day bag to go hike the local petroglyphs. Nice little hike of about 3 miles.

    We would go to Red Rock but we here you have to make an appointment. That could be just cause of the holiday weekend last week but I don’t want to drive out to it and get turned away. Can’t be arsed to call.

    Sagittarius: 10 of Wands reversed – Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues

    Contray to belief, all difficulties are intriguing.

    • westernsloper

      Reminds me I need to get a batch of candied jalapeños on. Japaleno cornbread is on tonights menu.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Excellent. Last night I did a chicken roulade with asparagus and mushrooms topped with swiss cheese. A honey mustard sauce and fluffy rice.

  4. Cy Esquire

    I’ve got a date with the poop chute doctor tomorrow and I can’t eat anything and when I get home there’s a substance I dare not think about having to drink and a long purge awaiting me…

    At least I’ll lose a couple of pounds.

    • Mojeaux

      The prep is why I avoid that at all costs.

    • Cy Esquire

      Not eating is REALLY hard for me to do. I’d like to think I’m a pretty strong willed individual but, I don’t think I’d last a week in Ethiopia.

    • Timeloose

      The people who do this kind of work possess a great sense of humor.

      The nurse at my scope clinic went to HS with me. She makes sure to whisper to me right before the drugs kick in, “we’re going to wreck that ass.”

      • KromulentKristen

        ????

      • westernsloper

        LOL

      • Sean

        O M G ?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        The nurse for my procto has a kid that went to school with my kid. We’d see each other at birthday parties, etc..

        I was a might uncomfortable the first time I got probed in her presence.

        Add to that, I’ve run into people I know from elsewhere at the procto office. Always an amusing “Hello! How are you doing?”

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Ass… wrecked…

        LOL

      • rhywun

        ??

  5. Mojeaux

    Taurus: 7 of Coins reversed … successful investment

    BTC #FTW

    • BakedPenguin

      Holy hell, woman, you’re not kidding. It’s almost doubled in a month.

      Glad I finally got some a month ago.

      • KromulentKristen

        Which wallet do you use? Do you lilke it? I haven’t been able to pinpoint the best wallet to get me some.

      • Mojeaux

        Coinbase.

        It lets me take BTC payments on my website for my books (when I’m selling directly, which I’m not right now).

      • KromulentKristen

        Looking at Coinbase now…

      • BakedPenguin

        Second.

      • Mojeaux

        Most of the BTC we have, Mr. Mojeaux actually won.

      • Mojeaux

        And I said it’d get to $60K by June. I mean, technically I was RIGHT, but way off.

    • KromulentKristen

      Just bought a few hunnert $$ of BTC

  6. Cy Esquire

    Libra: 7 of Wands – Discussion, wordy strife, negotiations, war of trade, barter, competition, success.

    I hope this isn’t in relation to my doctor visit.

    • Mojeaux

      Versed is lovely. Embrace the sweet oblivion.

      • Cy Esquire

        It does say ‘success’ but it isn’t specific as to whose it is.

  7. westernsloper

    loquaciousness…….You people making me look up words. FFS

    • Ownbestenemy

      Given your past “occupation” I would hope you are not loquacious

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Sagittarius: 10 of Wands reversed – Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues

    An improvement.

  9. Don escaped Cancun

    Scorpio: 2 of Wands reversed – Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear

    Has Kamala outlawed guns yet? JRB46

  10. EvilSheldon

    Cancer: King of Swords reversed – Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention

    Great.

    Except for the perversity, that part is fine.

    • Sean

      Seems appropriate that I’m getting my taxes done today. ?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        *glares balefully at pile of tax forms waiting to be done*

  11. Tundra

    Leo: Ace of Swords reversed – Great force with disastrous results, the destruction of a leader or leadership

    Whoa.

    • BakedPenguin

      Yeah, but unless you’re in a leadership position, it’s not necessarily bad.

  12. But Enough About [this space intentionally left blank]

    Gemini: Ace of Coins reversed – The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence, the enmity of someone rich.

    HAH! Joke’s on YOU, Universe! I don’t know anybody rich!

    But there’s definitely a lot of “bad intelligence” being force-fed to me during these COVID times . . .

  13. Ownbestenemy

    Las Vegas Metropolitan airspace is changing next week on Thursday. I give it until Thursday evening that a neighborhood will complain that the new routes are disrupting their quaint tranquility despite a year of public outreach that barely any public bothered to attend.

    Also, regardless of the airport pending name change, we still have the MCCRN route that Western’s boys and girls fly out on to Groom Lake.

    • KromulentKristen

      despite a year of public outreach that barely any public bothered to attend

      This wouldn’t happen in the UK. It’s like that country is divided into airplane lovers and airplane haters. The haters are vociferously active in trying to prevent new runways and routings. Heathrow has been fighting with the neighbors for many years.

      • Surly Knott

        The one time I flew into, and a month later out of, Heathrow, it was a nightmare. I’ll go to pretty much any lengths to fly in and out of Gatwick. The train ride into the city is both restful and a nice transition from flying to “well, I’m here.”

      • Suthenboy

        I assume all of Europe is that way. They are packed in there like sardines and constantly jostling elbows with each other. Not only that but they are mostly tribal as hell, the moral of all of my examples being the peoples of Wibbleton and Wobbleton, opposite of a river that we would call a creek, hate each other and neither can understand the other’s dialect.

        Idiots like Shikha think we should have a billion immigrants. That is insanity. Americans get along better than any people in the world because we aren’t always up each others ass. We have room. I also note that the left/right divide in this country is between urban and rural people and most of the hate is coming out of the crowded urban areas.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Some time in the last few years I learned SD was soccer-mom age. I’d always assumed she was a twenty-something naïf.

  14. Annoyed Nomad

    Cy, I feel for you. When I did my prep for the “poop chute” appointment, I stayed up all night after taking the laxative. I was scared I’d shit myself in my sleep.

    • Annoyed Nomad

      Netflix and Hershey squirts

      • Cy Esquire

        Just got a call from the nurse. The facility is flooded! I’ll take the extra time to mentally prepare. With everything going on here in Texas, it very much snuck up on me.

      • Ted S.

        I assume that’s flooded with water and not liquid shit.

      • Sean

        Like STEVE SMITH?

      • Cy Esquire

        That would be an interesting police report. Your surgeon was 8 foot and really hairy? Ok… and then what happened?

      • Suthenboy

        Instead take the time to make an appt with your doctor for a request to do the poop ini the box test and stay away from colonoscopies.

        The mortality rate for colonoscopy is 1 in 1000. Not very good odds if you ask me. It is a dangerous test.

        Seriously.

      • Suthenboy

        Yikes.

    • rhywun

      I stayed up all night after taking the laxative. I was scared I’d shit myself in my sleep

      #metoo

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      If you’re more than 4 steps from the toilet, you’re too far away.

    • Suthenboy

      It would be cheaper to put a bounty on them.

  15. DEG

    Great force with disastrous results, the destruction of a leader or leadership

    A little early for a Newsom recall. Sununu isn’t going anywhere right now. Wolf is sitting pretty. Cuomo? Nah, I’ll believe he gets the boot when I see it.

    • egould310

      I once made an off-handed comment at a party that my wife and I considered bacon a vegetable. My friends thought that it was hilarious, and to this day will mention it. That was back in 2003 or so. There were alot of drugs at those parties.

    • Suthenboy

      Nice. We use half slices and wrap each sprout individually. Yum.

      • Sean

        #lazycook

        I usually do the easiest way possible.

    • BakedPenguin

      Even bacon can’t fix asparagus.

      • westernsloper

        You are an uncultured heathen.

      • Tundra

        Sure, but he’s not wrong.

      • rhywun

        I’m not a big vegetable person but even I like asparagus.

    • Aloysious

      You aren’t overcooking that asparagus, are you? Overcooked asparagus is heinous.

  16. egould310

    Marinating a chicken in white wine, chopped onion, garlic, bay leaf, sugar and black peppercorns. I’ll take it out, pat it dry and stuff the cavity with fresh rosemary and thyme. Roasted till golden on the outside. Not sure what to serve it with. I’ll have to see what the wife ordered from Amazon Fresh when it arrives. Vegetables, though. Probably brussel sprouts. Roasted in bacon fat, finished with heavy cream and grated asiago.

    • Sean

      Yum!

    • westernsloper

      bay leaf

      *Hype triggered

      Roasted in bacon fat, finished with heavy cream and grated asiago.

      You could put socks you found on the sidewalk in that and it would taste good.

    • BakedPenguin

      Probably brussel sprouts. Roasted in bacon fat, finished with heavy cream and grated asiago.

      Nothing can fix brussel sprouts. I’ll admit you’re giving it the old college try, but the damn things look like the eggs from Alien, but probably taste worse.

      I’m almost sorry for what I said to Sean. If there was an apocalypse, and nearly all food sources were lost, I could survive eating asparagus. If there were only brussel sprouts, I’d starve.

      • Sean

        Lazy horsey sauce can fix Brussel sprouts:

        Mix thick sour cream, horseradish, and some habanero salt together.

      • EvilSheldon

        The trick with Brussels Sprouts is to get them a little crispy. The frying them in bacon fat works well, plus you can add the bacon! Finishing it with heavy cream is also a winner, or try adding a little dijon mustard to the reduction for some extra kick.

      • rhywun

        Nothing can fix brussel sprouts

        This.

      • Fourscore

        Fix B.Sprouts with distance. The more the better

    • Suthenboy

      Ya’ know, when I first stumbled across y’all at TOS a little more than a decade ago…or was it more?…I expected a gaggle of young people and idiots that survived primarily on Hot Pockets and pizza rolls like I had found everywhere else. It didnt take me long to realize how wrong I was. This crowd is smart, educated and civilized with remarkably good taste in cuisine.

      That sounds delicious.

      • westernsloper

        That is overly generous. Some of the people here are vegetarians and even the random vegan. I don’t get it, but to each their own.

      • Suthenboy

        Wife and I made some of SP’s recommended black bean burgers….veega…vegah…whatever. They were fantastic.
        I cant remember if the jalapeños added were per her recipe or our addition. Ok, we added cheese also to our burgers so not completely…whatever. It is good stuff.

      • egould310

        When you first stumbled onto TOS, I thought you were a redneck with a bunch of guns and a serious dislike of governmental authority and “cultural” institutions. 😉

      • l0b0t

        I would rather a plain, russet-coated captain who knows what he fights for and loves what he knows than any ten whom you call gentlemen, who are all that and nothing else.

        – some old cat named Cromwell who also had a serious dislike of governmental authority and cultural institutions

      • Suthenboy

        So, you saw me coming a mile away.

        *Thumbs up*

      • Mad Scientist

        This crowd is smart, educated and civilized with remarkably good taste in cuisine.

        You take that back!

      • Trigger Hippie

        ‘…idiots that survived primarily on Hot Pockets and pizza rolls…’

        *cracks open the freezer, smirks, waves at Suthen*

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        This crowd is smart, educated and civilized with remarkably good taste in cuisine.

        If you were on the Zooms, you’d know this is fake news.

      • pistoffnick

        “…smart, educated and civilized with remarkably good taste in cuisine.”

        I’ll cop to “educated” and “good taste in cuisine”. I dunno about the smart and civilized. *Belches, farts, spits*

        I am an adventurous eater which is surprising since my mom was…not a good cook and most Minnesdoa food is bland. I like to eat which is why I like to cook.

    • Tundra

      Nice!

      I’m grilling prime NY strips tonight. Reverse seared in bacon grease.

      • Sean

        That’s what we had for lunch! Except just a straight sear.

    • EvilSheldon

      I’m being responsible and doing all next weeks’ meal prep today. Beef stew with sweet potatoes, carrots, and onions. Coconut lime chicken with red peppers. And, a one-skillet cauliflower risotto with bacon and mushrooms.

      I’m also cranking out more 9mm ammo (147grn. Ibejiheads coated bullets over 3.3 grains of Shooters World CleanShot, mixed brass, Winchester small pistol primers, 1.10″ OAL, Vavg of 950fps.)

      This is a lot more productive than I usually am on a Sunday…

      • KromulentKristen

        How much ammo can you make in a day?

      • Cy Esquire

        “The Dillon 1050 Pro Autodrive automates the popular Super 1050 press. Capable of speeds up to 3,500 rounds per hour*”

      • EvilSheldon

        Yup, that’s the one I have. I’ve never quite been able to get it to run at 3500 rounds/hour with live components though.

      • Mad Scientist

        Where are you getting primers?

      • UnCivilServant

        He’s making his own fulminated mercury.

      • EvilSheldon

        In late 2018, I bought out the entire supply of primers from a friend of my Dads, who was getting out of the commercial reloading business. 60,000 Winchester small pistol primers, for 2.4 cents each. I’m about halfway through my supply as of this morning.

        And yes, Dad’s buddy is by all accounts kicking himself every day and twice on Sundays…

      • EvilSheldon

        The most I’ve ever done in one day was about 3200 rounds of 9mm, in about 2.5 hours.

        My press chucks them out at a rate of 2500 cycles/hour, but I still have to lube brass, load primer tubes, keep the bullet and brass hoppers topped up, dump finished ammo into the tumbler, empty finished ammo out of the tumbler, and package and label the finished ammo. Oh, and fix the occasional stoppage on the press.

        I could probably do 5000+ rounds in a day if I did absolutely nothing else save food and bathroom breaks, but I’d be pretty fried afterwards. The amount of focus required for automated reloading is significant – it’s not something you want to do with the TV on in the background.

      • KromulentKristen

        Fuck, I wish I had one of them machines!

      • Timeloose

        If I could get primers I could make lots.

      • Suthenboy

        The trouble now is finding components.

        Good choice in bullets Sheldon.

        I was lucky. I had a buddy who was a US Marshal. He gave me a five gallon bucket each of 9mm and 38spl brass years ago.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        The amount of focus required for automated reloading is significant

        I’ve never had an automated press. I have a hybrid deal with many dies on a single disc that spins in the press. Much better than having to continuously change dies and recalibrate it all.

        But I can confirm that reloading bolt gun ammo is also mentally consuming. It’s not hard, but you do have to focus on what you’re doing. The tolerances are so tight in (well made) bolt guns. .001” off and you’re fucked.

        The hardest gun I ever loaded for was my first 6.5 Grendel. At the time you had to reload for it. There was no commercial ammo. And the upper I bought was a precision upper with an ultra tight tolerance, both in the shoulders and OAL. It was a nightmare finding the tight load for that gun that both shot well and cycled properly.

        That, and the last thing you want to do is fuck up your charge. No one wants 30g of powder when your load calls for 28. Fortunately I have one of those automated powder dispensers that dumps it in a pan on a calibrated scale, but I still verify it every 10 rounds or so.

        When I’m in a groove, I can do about 75 rounds an hour of rifle (though much of that time is waiting for the powder to pour).

      • Fourscore

        Rifle stuff I weigh frequently, some every round, maybe an hour putting together 20 rds, after I’m set up. I will fuss over a 1/10 of a grain. I don’t need MOA accuracy, a deer is pretty big, usually close, my glasses are thick but it’s still fun pretending that it’s a really important project requiring close attention and tolerances.

        Pistol, just avoid double charges.

      • westernsloper

        Beef stew with sweet potatoes, carrots, and onions. Coconut lime chicken with red peppers. And, a one-skillet cauliflower risotto with bacon and mushrooms.

        I’m also cranking out more 9mm ammo (147grn. Ibejiheads coated bullets over 3.3 grains of Shooters World CleanShot, mixed brass, Winchester small pistol primers, 1.10″ OAL, Vavg of 950fps.)

        Holy shit. I am making cornbread.

      • EvilSheldon

        Trade you some 9mm for some cornbread?

      • KromulentKristen

        I have cornbread I have cornbread!

        * runs to grocery store real quick *

      • westernsloper

        Do you like candied jalapeños and cheese in your cornbread? If so you are on!

      • Suthenboy

        My best cornbread: diced jalapeño mixed in the batter and baked in one of those pans with about 24 pockets for tiny muffins. Drop a few of those tiny muffins in a bowl with field peas, heavy on the bacon, and go to town. Yum.

  17. LCDR_Fish

    L0b0t – how did you hear about TotBT before you picked it up? Glad you liked my review. Do you have the DVD or the streaming copy?

    • LCDR_Fish

      Well if I want to do an HK retrospective on the discs in my collection, it’ll involve 30+ films (as referenced on twitter last night – replaying “Sleeping Dogs” on Xbone). Might hold off on that for a while and hit a few more individual titles first.

    • l0b0t

      The video sharing forum I frequent has a running banner of recent uploads, showing just the name and poster art; I peruse it upon waking and usually end up downloading 4 or 5 films. I was immediately attracted by the color saturation in the artwork, then the plot description had me sold.

      I just finished 1993’s The Kung Fu Cult Master with Jet Li and Sammo Hung. It was the finest kung fu film I’ve seen in many years; very well done.

      • KromulentKristen

        Do you sleep?

      • LCDR_Fish

        Thanks for the update. If you have a chance to watch the director’s other titles – Citizen Dog is the 2nd one – a weird magical realism rom-com in Bangkok, The Unseeable – a ghost movie, and Red Eagle (not as good, esp since it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger) but a “remake”/re-imagining of a Thai vigilante title popular back in the 60s.

        Haven’t seen that one, but I’m guessing it has a few alternate titles.

      • LCDR_Fish

        “That one” being the HK title you listed, since I messed up my post order.

      • l0b0t

        There was dubbed VHS release from Golden Harvest titled The Evil Cult but , upon watching some of it online, the dubbing deviates significantly from (what I assume is more accurate) the subtitles on the Cantonese 4k remaster.

      • LCDR_Fish

        I avoid dubs like the plague. There have been a lot of good HD rereleases from HK recently – esp say Mr. Vampire. Waiting for a remaster of Chinese Ghost Story though. Some of the classics really deserve it.

  18. westernsloper

    After I sliced up all the Jalapeños I realized I don’t have any sugar in the house. I stopped putting it in my coffee so I stopped buying it. This batch gets the honey treatment. We shall see.

    • Suthenboy

      I buy sugar in 50lb bags even though neither I nor Mrs. Suthenboy each a single grain of it. It is amazing how much sugar bees and hummingbirds can consume.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Heh, me too on a lesser scale.

        Not many visits recently though, despite frequent cleaning; wondering if I should be worried.

      • Ted S.

        We haven’t had recent visits from the hummingbirds either, but then it’s winter here. 😉

      • Suthenboy

        Eat, not Each. Between spellcheck and my clumsy fingers I am the king of typos

      • Ted S.

        My grandmother always called it the davenport.

    • BakedPenguin

      Okay, now you’re just trying to piss me off, Western. Jalapeños are not meant to be sweet. You cut them in half, (removing the seeds so you can plant them) slather them with cream cheese, and wrap them in bacon. You toss them diced into chili. Put them on homemade pizza.

      Also, for the record: Sean & egould – it sounds like you’re both doing some fine culinary work and I was (mostly) joking. I still wouldn’t touch any brussel sprout ever.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Even bacon can’t fix asparagus.

    I don’t know about that. I like them both, separately. I don’t really think combining them improves anything.

    Same with bacon wrapped scallops. Why? Bacon is good. Scallops are good.

    • Cy Esquire

      Asparagus and Brussel sprouts are similar like that. If you don’t like them, there’s a pretty good chance nobody has ever prepared and cooked them properly for you.

      • dbleagle

        Simple asparagus. Prep by snapping off the fibrous bottom part.
        Microwave with water covered four minutes
        drain
        Add a touch of butter then grated or shredded parmesan (to taste, I cover the middle half)
        Bake until cheese melts and turns golden.
        Enjoy

    • Trigger Hippie

      Foil wrapped asparagus grilled with a little salted butter and Dale’s all purpose seasoning is divine.

  20. The Late P Brooks

    #lazycook

    I usually do the easiest way possible.

    #METOO

    One pan meals are standard operating procedure.

  21. KromulentKristen

    All this food talk makes me realize I have to load the dishwasher. My kitchen is overrun with dishes on account of being plastered AF on Friday.

    • westernsloper

      I don’t have a dishwasher. She threw me out of the house years ago, so it takes me until at least Wednesday to catch up on weekend experimental cooking dishes.

      • KromulentKristen

        Human dishwashers ain’t worth the hassle.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Me too. Made English muffin and banana breads last night and still have a bowl and cutting boards left to wash.

      Lazy AF today. Should be finishing the garage but having another cup of coffee and watching videos. Thanks for the YT links, KK! Hadn’t gotten around to blancolirio yet but do have my tulip logo shirt on today (from the DEN Mainliner store!). Still have a soft spot in my heart for the faceless corporation. Grandpa retired from UAL and my pops was a mid level elite during the traveling portion of his career so we always flew UA with miles on the rare flying vacation.

      • KromulentKristen

        UAL has always given me great service (the whole flying 1st class helps), but they’re not a big presence at DCA. They do have a nonstop to DEN, though. On a Pocket Rocket (757).

      • Gustave Lytton

        We flew in/out of DCA on UA when we did the requisite DC trip, when it was still Washington National. In my own flying, UA has taken good care of me and given a lot of good memories. Used a very generous bump certificate to send my wife to Munich on a solo trip. Put me into first on a more direct route on Alaska from RDU when SFO construction would have forced an overnight (and I had frozen pulled pork!).

        Even my worst experience, getting airsick flying into DEN, then reboarding the same aircraft for a different flight number onward to MSY turned out ok. I started feeling nauseous again on the climbout and couldn’t wait for the seatbelt light so went to the aft lav, which was fortunately not locked (not that it’s hard to unlock, just would have slowed me down at the worst time). Flight attendant did the usual reminder that the seatbelt light was still on, but figured it out when I apologized with a not yet used bag in hand. Came by frequently to check on me for the rest of the flight and made sure I had ginger ale or whatever else I could want.

      • Gustave Lytton

        My shortest 757 hop was LAS-SFO on UA. I think there was enough time for the center aisle monitors fold down, show a single sitcom episode, and then stow for the landing.

  22. westernsloper

    To whoever linked Mike Rowe with Crowder. Mike Rowe has shitty cabinets for a rich dude. Nobody that rich should have those cabinets. Hell, nobody should have those cabinets.

    • BakedPenguin

      See? You’re just trying to piss me off so I’ll be distracted from your upcoming invasion of Venezuela.

      • westernsloper

        Venezuela I have been to. But it wasn’t an invasion it was a sailboat delivery. Hah! And your culinary taste is lacking. Both asparagus and brussel sprouts are delicious.

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        A sailboat delivery full of guns and money, which was given in exchange for drugs to buy more guns.

      • Tulip

        Back when he was part of the “coast guard”.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Someone had to help the CIA import their goods for resale into the inner cities.

      • westernsloper

        That was pre-Coast Guard. You people suck. Can’t you let a guy live a normal life?

    • But Enough About Me. Why? Why not?

      Mike Rowe has shitty cabinets for a rich dude.

      Mike Rowe rents in San Francisco. ”Shitty cabinets” are the least of his domicile problems.

  23. UnCivilServant

    *sigh*

    I just ordered a padlock for my trash can because my damn neighbors won’t stop filling it up with their rancid garbage, leaving me no space for my own trash.

    Watch, they’ll either break the lid or rush out when the garbagemen pass to fill it up before I can relock the lid. Or both when they get sick of doing the latter.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Can’t you just arm it with a pound of C4 instead?

      • UnCivilServant

        I need to use the trash can… and can’t afford to lose half my house to the blast.

      • Cy Esquire

        So… 3oz?

      • Sean

        He just needs to trap an angry badger in his trash can, set up a video camera, and profit!

    • l0b0t

      Have you considered carefully positioned, finger breaking, rat traps so as to disincentivize trespass and thievery?

      • UnCivilServant

        Where would you even put them?

      • l0b0t

        IDK… Maybe a nice contact adhesive on the bin lid handles? A couple tubes of cyanoacrylate gel will make that lid rather difficult to put down.

      • UnCivilServant

        That would dry long before guaranteeing a catch. (the lid is hinged to the can body in case you were envisioning a two part can/lid combo)

    • EvilSheldon

      Remove the rancid garbage and throw it on their lawn/porch/patio.

    • Suthenboy

      Dig through their trash, figure out who they are. There may be some junk mail in there with an address. Take the bags to that address and dump the bags out on the floor in front of their door. They will get the message.

    • R C Dean

      Have you considered a couple of molotovs through their front windows?

  24. Muzzled Woodchipper

    Virgo: The Tower Reversed – Hooo boy. Just… don’t.

    Can we just skip to next Friday’s Zoom?

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Can’t you just arm it with a pound of C4 instead?

    I was thinking he could rig it as a giant jack-in-the-box. Powered by an air bag charge. Just to get their attention.

  26. westernsloper

    It is now 41of the F degrees outside and sunny so I must retire to my outdoor recliner and obtain a good dose of Vit D. It does the soul good. Sunshine is gods disinfectant for dark hearts and pessimism and I love it.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Same here. I’ll go out in a bit and tend my birds. That always makes me feel a little better about the world.

      • pistoffnick

        “…tend my birds.”

        Now THERE is a euphemism!

  27. Jerms

    Aquarius: 10 of Coins reversed – Chance, fatality, loss, robbery, games of hazard, gift, dowry, pension

    Loss-went 0-3 on my bets yesterday
    Chance-Have money on Clippers and Michigan Today
    Pension-This is all funded by a retarded NYC pension.
    Games of hazard-Knocked a lightbulb out of it socket while putting up sheetrock and caught the hot bulb between my neck and shoulder. Didnt let bulb hit the ground but burnt my neck.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Simple asparagus. Prep by snapping off the fibrous bottom part.
    Microwave with water covered four minutes
    drain
    Add a touch of butter then grated or shredded parmesan (to taste, I cover the middle half)
    Bake until cheese melts and turns golden.
    Enjoy

    Even more simpler:

    Steam asparagus (briefly- hot but definitely al dente), add butter, eat.

  29. The Late P Brooks

    Foremost authority

    Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that it’s “possible” Americans will still need to wear masks in 2022 to protect against the coronavirus, even as the US may reach “a significant degree of normality” by the end of this year.
    Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” whether he thinks Americans will still need to wear masks next year, Fauci replied: “You know, I think it is possible that that’s the case and, again, it really depends on what you mean by normality.”
    The comments from Fauci come as the US Covid-19 death toll approaches 500,000 and the country nears a full year in its fight against the virus. And though the US is now steadily rolling out vaccines to fight the pandemic, the nation’s top infectious disease expert underscored the importance of mitigation measures to fight the aggressive virus and its emerging variants as many Americans express pandemic fatigue.

    ——-

    Mask-wearing is critical to slowing the spread of the virus, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says they can help protect both the people wearing them and those around them from transmitting the virus.
    The Biden administration has been pushing mask-wearing more aggressively than the Trump administration did, with the President signing an executive order last month mandating interstate travelers wear a mask and requiring masks on federal property. Biden also challenged Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency to reduce the spread of the virus.

    “they can help protect both the people wearing them and those around them from transmitting the virus.” And the story changes again.

    I dream of an America freed from the yoke of authoritarian hypochondria. An America festooned from sea to shining sea with public health experts dangling from lampposts in every town square.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      I dream of an America freed from the yoke of authoritarian hypochondria. An America festooned from sea to shining sea with public health experts dangling from lampposts in every town square.

      #METOO

    • Suthenboy

      “Mask-wearing is critical to slowing the spread of the virus, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”

      Horse fuckin’ shit.

    • rhywun

      Biden also challenged Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency to reduce the spread of the virus.

      And at the end of those 100 days, there will still be “cases” and Joe will be signing more “executive orders”.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    A small outpost of sanity remains

    This past year has given rise to some strange and novel methods of disease containment, including lockdowns and mask mandates. It is unsurprising that the natural next step in this progression has been the development of a movement known as “ZeroCovid.” Its growing influence is, perhaps, predictable given that for nearly a year we have been inundated by the views of so-called experts seeking to legitimize their myopic worldview that public health is determined solely by prevention of Covid-19.

    Rather than acknowledge to a weary public that their approach has been a failure, they are doubling down and attempting to save their reputations by claiming that the problem is not that lockdowns do not work, but that they have not gone far enough.

    There is, apparently, some diversity of opinion among the ZeroCovid crowd as to whether the term is to be interpreted literally, as some of its most impassioned and vocal proponents argue, or whether it simply means a more extreme version of the ideology that has dominated societies around the globe for the past year: the belief that suppressing the coronavirus is a singularly important goal, to replace all others and to be pursued with no or only minimal consideration of the effects of doing so.

    ——-

    While marketing themselves as theoretically opposed to lockdowns, ZeroCovid adherents actually aspire to implement a totalitarian-style state, which we are supposed to believe will exist only temporarily. For example, Devi Sridhar, one of the movement’s most public faces in the United Kingdom, has claimed that the only way out of endless lockdown is a “crude, harsh, catastrophic lockdown” now, the first phase. Given that the third phase of Sridhar’s plan entails an “East Asian and Pacific model of elimination” that prohibits travel abroad, I can only imagine precisely what sort of totalitarian nightmare Sridhar envisions during phase one.

    Do medical schools now claim death is a social construct, and that we can wish it out of existence?

    • Gustave Lytton

      I can think of something for Sridhar that’s crude, harsh, and involves a DeWalt hammer drill with a masonry bit.

    • Suthenboy

      Ushering in a totalitarian state is what the whole thing is about. It hasn’t got a goddamned thing to do with public health.

  31. The Late P Brooks

    “…tend my birds.”

    Now THERE is a euphemism!

    Something something pimp’s love.

  32. KromulentKristen

    Now that the dishes are a-warshin’, it’s time to make lemon bars.

  33. Muzzled Woodchipper

    I wonder who get the shaft? Greens or unions?

    President Joe Biden’s green energy agenda is in danger of being engulfed in a fight between organized labor and industry over unionization, wages and other workplace issues.
    As the renewable energy industry expands, unions and their allies in Congress are determined to unionize more of the jobs or, at the very least, require the payment of union-equivalent wages. But the industry says such moves would cripple some of their operations.

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/21/biden-green-jobs-labor-unions-470311?cid=apn

  34. Old Man With Candy

    We’re doing Chef John’s chile relleno pancakes for dinner tonight. Mexican blasphemy. Last night, we had hot and sour soup and vegetable fried rice, which shows our disdain for Chinese history.

    Cultural appropriators we are. I may even rope in Northern Europe and have a beer with this.

    BTW, my stir fried shredded Brussels sprouts with pecans and hoisin will convince the skeptics.