I arrived at the bar about 9pm. I was meeting a friend who was out with some folk I only knew casually. I wouldn’t call most of them friends. I arrived dead sober. I had just gotten off work and drove straight to the bar. I lived about 2 blocks away from said bar and usually walked, but not that night. After arriving, I saw my friend and the group he had out for the night. I headed over to their table and sat next to a guy I had met a couple times, but didn’t know well. As we got to talking, Somehow it came up that I’d never puked at a bar. I’d puked after the bar many times, but I’d always refrained while I was an active patron. I guess I just knew how to pace myself and hold my liquor.
This gentleman, Dave, decided he was going to make me puke in a bar that night. I was all for it, I mean, free drinks! What wasn’t to love. Dave began buying me shots of 252. I had never heard of 252, but oh my was it right up my alley. It was Bacardi 151 and Wild Turkey 101 mixed, nothing else. 252 total. Dave kept buying me shots of 252 all night. I think it’s the only thing I drank, maybe a beer to sip on, but nothing else. They kept coming and I’m not sure how many I had, but I felt . . . . nothing. I mean, I didn’t feel drunk at all. I was chatting like normal, flirting with a couple ladies at out table. I really didn’t feel like a drop of liquor was in my blood.
I wish they still sold this.
At least until I stood up. WOW! I had to take a piss and the moment I stood up, I realized I had lost all coordination. I couldn’t walk! I was stumbling to the bathroom. I leaned on the wall at the urinal. I stumbled back to the table and nearly fell in my seat. The whole time, my head was fine. I didn’t feel drunk mentally, I had just lost control of my body, not my mind. It was one of the strangest phenomena I had ever felt.
Of course back at the table was another shot. I took it, I don’t turn down free drinks (ok, I might now, but never in college). Dave eventually got tired and headed home for the night. I still didn’t puke. I was getting tire too and decided to head home. I knew I better walk, since I clearly had no coordination and it was only a couple blocks. People who had seen my stumble asked if I was ok to walk, of course I was. I said my goodbyes and headed out the door.
On the two block walk home, I saw one thing I always dreaded. A cop car sitting on the side of the road. “Shit” I thought to myself. “I have to walk a straight line.” I only needed to walk another 100 feet and then I could turn the corner and be out of their site. I couldn’t do it to save my life. I couldn’t walk a straight line. Sure enough, as I got closer to the cop car, two officers stepped out.
“Fuck!”
They asked me how I was doing and I said alright, just walking home. They asked if I had been drinking. They had seen me leave the bar, and had seen me stumbling, so I said yes. I told them my house was one block away and I just wanted to go home for the night. That didn’t fly. They had me start doing sobriety tests. I was screwed. I couldn’t walk a straight line, and I knew it. I had been to jail once before, for a minor consumption and really didn’t want to go back. So I began to make my case. I told the truth, “I could have driven home, my car is at the bar, but I chose to be responsible and walk.” “You see that chimney right there, that is my house. If you let me go, I’ll walk up the alley and be home in less than 30 seconds.”
Nothing seemed to help and the handcuffs went on. They marched me to the back door of the car and sat me down. I was irate. I was worried. WTF?!? A public intox for walking home from the bar? That’s just not right.
Then something happened. They started to laugh. They asked me which house was mine and I pointed to it again. “We’re just fucking with ya kid. we’ll drop you off there.” I was so relieved. I wasn’t going to jail. The two took me home and I went in and went to bed. No jail that night. Thank god.
*After the incident and after the relief faded. I grew more and more irate. I’m still angry about the encounter. That’s just not right.
** I’ve still never puked at a bar
*** I’ve had nights drinking 252 a couple more times. Always the same effect, mental abilities seem unaffected, while all bodily coordination is lost. I don’t know why, but It’s actually kind of fun.
****Someone at the bar saw the encounter and the bar went on lockdown for 2 hours, thinking I had been arrested and cops were waiting for drunks to step outside.
***** They don’t sell Bacardi 151 anymore, however, there are other 151 proof rums, so a version of 252 is still possible.
It would instead average out to 126.
I’m glad I’m not the only pedant here.
For this crew, lack of pedantry would be unusual.
One of us! One of us!
(seriously, I haven’t even finished reading, that just jumped out at me – “Someone is wrong on the internet!”)
TOTAL.
You must kill it, at the bars with friends.
The numbers are the proofs of the two alcohols. You mix them, and the 151 gets diluted. Assuming equal quantities as implied by a shot of each, your drink is 126 proof. Only a drunk would sum the values.
Thanks for the explanation, UCS…
He’s on a roll.
Sorry to OT, but I’m on the run…
@Neph, which store is out of dried beans and what’s the brand?
The Giant Eagle that I usually go to has been out of all brands of dried red beans for months now. I’ve been able to find them at other stores, and there’s still a price tag up on the shelf where the beans should be (that are usually filled with other dried legumes). I’ve got a couple pounds up in the cupboard, but it’s just a strange staple for a store (that ostensible carries them) to be out of for months at a time.
Ok, thanks. I’ll forward to sales. We’re flush with inventory right now so that’s strange.
Spontaneous order!
Our warehouses are quantumly entangled with retail shelves.
Yeah. It’s strange, and I’ve continued checking now just out of curiosity. Could be they stopped carrying them, which wouldn’t make much sense either.
No Bacardi 151 anymore? But it makes the best PJ, way better than the Everclear concoction.
I have a bottle in the bottom of my fridge.
I bought it because of the flammable warning label. It’s unopened.
It’s been gone for a while now. Most people guessed it was they were tired of being sued when people were being dumb, and lit themselves on fire.
Ha, I remember back in the day at a bar, the guy sitting next to me orders a flaming shot, he picks it up, gets it close to his mouth and starts to drunkenly panic, spills it all over himself and falls backwards because he leaned too far back on the barstool, lands on the floor on his back, with flaming booze all over his chest. Of course I had been drinking so instead of trying to help the poor bastard I just started laughing hysterically.
One place I was at had a party with candles all over the place. Some guy (regular enough I recognized him, not regular enough I knew his name) leaned up against a pillar that had several candles on it. His ponytail dipped into the candle, and went aflame. We notice the smell of burning hair (this was still when smoking was permitted), and see the guy with his ponytail slowly burning. We get his attention, and tell him he’s on fire. He shrugs us off, and says he’s fine.
“No. Dude, your hair is literally burning right now!”
He reaches back, feels the heat, pulls his leather jacket up over his head to put out the flames. Finishes his drink, and leaves about 20 minutes later. Next time we see him in the bar, he’s got a new short haircut.
“I was just saving money on the haircut, man.”
Fuckin’ Trump
I puked once AT a bar. That is the last time I took a shot of whisky. I knew I was going to puke before I took it, but I did it against my instinct. (not that I was too drunk, puke’n’rally, but my stomach has come to hate whisky after my early 20s.
Also, these cop stories, while entertaining, could use the radio drama treatment.
Well, whiskey tastes terrible, you should hate it.
I suspect if they didn’t ruin it with barrels, it might turn out better.
Why are you the way that you are
Because the world needs more boredom.
That’s sold as white whisk(e)y, potin, moonshine (incorrectly IMNSHO), corn liquor, or several other names depending on the region and grain bill.
Interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poit%C3%ADn
It’s now legal for sale and production (at licensed facilities) in Ireland. That’s one option for distilleries to make some return while they’re aging their product (the other is to purchase aged barrels from other distilleries and blend/age them in house).
Saw some (forgot the name) at GroceOut recently, labeled “Not for Sale in Ireland”. Was too intimidated to buy it.
That…that is intimidating.
Moonshine is just fine. I’ve not tried it under the other marketting names.
I puked on a bar one time. Pitcher Long Island night, back in college.
My asshole friends actually made me go back to the bar the next night. Getting back on the horse that threw you, etc, etc…
How did the staff treat you? same people? Did you even feel up to drinking?
I guess not technically a bar, but a bowling alley for me. My friends got me to chug a pitcher of beer and it did not stay down.
Lucky guy, the cops rolled us many years ago, closed the door on my ankle, broke it, then dumped me in my yard,
And nothing else happened …
My one night spent in the drunk tank was due to failure to maintain forward progress while walking home from a bar (four blocks in my case) My cops weren’t cool enough to just take me home but then again I was sitting on the sidewalk leaning up against a retaining wall trying to gather the ability to walk the last block and a half home.
failure to maintain forward progress while walking home from a bar
*rolls eyes really fucking hard*
Soju did the same thing to me in Korea. I could drink soju bowls all night and feel right as rain. But when I stood up… you know that one scene in The Matrix where Neo flexes and warps reality around him? It was like that.
Except I was not Neo in that situation.
I was going to snark “You were the bullet?”
Which led me to thinking about the lines from “Meet the Heavy” – “Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe… *sniff* …maybe. I have yet to meat person who can outsmart bullet.”
*Generic ham handed comment*
A bold claim to steak!
Do you have a beef with UCS or something?
Naw, he’s just roasting.
You guys are gonna get grilled by Swiss.
Yeah, Swiss is gonna have a cow.
*Positions Swiss Brown*
FEUER!
I’ve been puked on at a bar before. Once.
I don’t recall ever puking at a bar myself.
There was a famous Chinese restaurant in downtown Minneapolis called the Nankin Cafe. They made a drink called Wanderers Punch. It was ridiculously strong and served in a 33 oz glass.
I didn’t puke there, but I needed help navigating out of the restaurant. No cops were involved, thankfully.
A recipe.
I’ve heard of this from some of my Minneapolis friends, but I thought that it was Wonderous Punch. The ingredients seem about right.
Wanderers, as in “no clear destination after a couple of them”.
“One Punch Punch”
The Adios MFer, house drink – limit of 2 – at a long gone Newport Beach, CA restaurant. Insanely delicious, and potent.
Lemonhart 151 is still being made. It may be hard to find.
That doesn’t sound like it’s diabetic safe.
Carrying over the quantum entanglement:
It makes sense to think that each of the pair has a “true” state that you’re measuring, that it would be the same as if there’s a black and a whte marble in a bag — whichever one you drew out, you’d know the color of the other one and that each was always either black or white. The Bell’s inequality experiments showed that’s not the case. If it were, you’d get a particular distribution of results. What you get instead is a distribution that is consistent with the first measurement not being anything in particular and the second being the opposite of the first.
A more obvious visual experiment is to take two polarized lenses and rotate them at 90 degrees to each other — of course, very little light gets through. But if you put a third polarized lense between the two of them that is at 45 degrees to both of them, the amount of light INCREASES. That third lense is an additional measurement/interaction.
I’m not too sure I’m getting the point you’re trying to make in this set of analogies.
I’ve never lived anywhere that cops give two shits about public drunkenness, at least if you’re a clean-cut wypipo.
/privilege
The 1st time I did work in NYC, I was talking to a lady from the NY Department of Environmental Control. I made a comment about drunk driving in the city and her response was along the lines of “you’ll get in trouble if you kill someone, but thats about it”
Jugsy’s reports from Queens consist of “I cant wait to get home- I dont fit in here.” and “God DAMN they have some good pizza.”
Good pizza…in NYC?
*shakes head sadly*
Your chicago pizza is just a casserole with an identity crisis
/read that either here or on TOS
Deep Dish is only one of several excellent styles served round these here parts.
I live in Wisconsin, if you’re walking home in the middle of the night and NOT drunk, you’re suspicious.
A friend of mine almost got popped for public intox in NYC. He was there with a group (who was navigating him back to his hotel), who cleared it up with the cops. The friend then tried to tip the cop a $20.
Only had one interaction with the cops for my own drunkenness. They put me in cab and demanded he take me to this certain hotel, even though I already had one booked. Fortunately, once they were gone the cabbie listened to me instead of obeying the popo.
I wish they still sold this.
Wrong. Shit tastes like gasoline.
So I began to make my case. I told the truth
Don’t talk to the police. It can never help you.
Wrong. Shit tastes like gasoline.
Correct. I had a college roommate who drank the stuff almost exclusively. His vomit, and eventually our vomit vacuum, smelled like regular vomit cut with gasoline.
That is an excellent video, one that should be shown in every college classroom in the country. I think that’s the one where he has a cop come in at some point and the cop basically says, “yeah he’s right about everything.”
Yep, and the first thing the cop does is ask how many people in the audience break traffic laws, a bunch of hands go up and the first guys yells at them “Did you not listen to the last half hour?” or something along those lines.
Its such a good video i’ve even shared it with some metaspace friends.
meatspace*
Metameatspace? Meatmetaspace? Metameat.
Well that backfired…
India’s Public Health Ambassador Dies Day After Taking COVID Vaccine
“I want to put an end to all the rumors. I want to show people that there is no danger in getting vaccinated. On the contrary, it will protect us,” said Vivekh day before passing.
*blasts Alanis Morisette on the stereo*
Covaxin is an inactivated virus vaccine, like the two Chinese ones.
The chinese ones have a 50% effectiveness rate according to the data from Chile. That’s basically shit.
Not sure what Covaxin’s effectiveness is.
Given that half the population has probably had direct exposure and is already immune… It may as well be saline solution.
How do we know that 50% of it isnt, and we’re just the study?
Well I’m convinced.
OT: Well this is getting… interesting. Yesterday a mandatory team meeting got dropped on my calendar by an inline manager. Today an e-mail came out that cameras must be on for the meeting, with random words in all caps.
/goes puts on a non-beer related shirt
/contemplates getting the girlfriend’s replica pistols to mount on the wall behind him
/contemplates feigning technical difficulties
What’s on the agenda? Identifying wrongthinkers for purgation?
Is it layoffs or I&D bullshit? The new game by Hasbro!
“Sorry, I have a conflict.”
No agenda. Mandatory unless there’s an active outage we’re working on (and then there’s the comment that he’ll follow up with those people later).
Let us know how it goes.
Tell them you would need to consult with your attorney… (me).
STEVE SMITH DO E-DISCOVERY, AND BY E-DISCOVERY MEAN…
NEPHILIUM HOOMAN HAVE PROMINENT FOREST LAWYER!
Sucks that your lens has got schmutz on it.
+ Bob Guccione
Pull the “I’m here. I’m not a cat.”
Go full Belichick.
Just point the camera at the ceiling, capturing just the top of your hair. “sorry, I can’t see the screen if I move the camera down”
hairhead
Forgot it was Neph
Dick. 🙂
That would mean I would need to use the laptop, which would show a background of the girlfriend’s books, unless I moved to another room.
Out of 18 people,
65 have been strong and left their cameras off.Oh… FFS.
This is a big RCA due to an outage caused because of several misses. Dick of a manager wants the cameras on so “he can make sure that everyone is paying attention and not playing around on their phone or multitasking.”
/multitasks
“Spitetasking”
Wow. What a dick.
No puking in a bar here. Many other places though. I have my mom’s stomach, unlike the iron tummy my dad has.
I’ve had a similar situation a couple times drinking bourbon (no mixer, just rocks). I felt quite sober, but I could tell it wasn’t true. Each time I had zero hangover after drinking enough to make it a real possibility. Must be something in the metabolism in each case.
I had no idea they stopped selling Bacardi 151. Haven’t tried to get that drunk since college.
If Nephilium’s link above is to be believed – they were sick of idiots suing them.
Yet I still see Everclear in the liquor stores.
Yep, but they don’t have deep pockets like Bicardi. Here in Ohio, we can only get watered down Everclear 151 (state law maximum cap on liquor).
In Wisconsin, you can’t buy 2 1-liter bottles* of Everclear…
…but you can buy 1 1.75-liter bottle. Yeah, even the liquor store clerk thought the law was stupid.
*What? I used to like to make apple pie.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/235346/apple-pie-moonshine/
I was hoping for a boozy pie.
I gues a pie-ey booze is all right.
As a follow up to some of this morning’s discussions, it looks like supply chain disruptions are really becoming the order of the day. I got confirmation when I called the furniture store about the status of an order I have (from January). Part of it is just coming into the warehouse. But, the transport company is having trouble getting drivers. The other part might be available in four weeks or so. Seems that manufacturer is working on a skeleton crew until the stimulus money runs out. Then I find out a local Pepsi distributor is telling retailers not to expect deliveries in glass bottles, They’re running short on raw materials.
And His Faudulency’s answer to this? Clearly we need a $6 trillion boost in demand.
It’s clusterfuck of epic proportions in the making
On the bright side, we’re going to make it into the economic history books.
There was a night where my buddies and I went to a Karaoke joint just across I-5 from Fort Lewis, consumed a great deal of beer, did some fair to middling singing, and went to walk back on post. On the way back two of my… colleagues… decided to start a fight with each other. Right in front of the effing gate onto post. These gates featured Military Police stationed there to check IDs and the like. So, predictably, we got rolled up and spent the rest of the morning in the post hoosegow until our Master Seargent Picked us up.
I wasn’t in the military, but I imagine the conversation with the Master Sergeant was lively, albeit largely one-sided.
He was not a happy camper, to be sure. I am sure that the last thing he wanted to do at 8am on a Saturday was deal with our nonsense.
He was a pretty laid-back dude though, he ended up coming down on the “stupid soldiers doing stupid soldier things” side of things and after a lecture about not being dumbasses, he did not pursue it any further.
First day on this new cooking job the kitchen manager bought me several of that same shot. Hit me like a twist of lemon wrapped around a gold brick. Get a headache thinking about it.
They kept pitchers of beer in the walk-in cooler, had a bowl out back – kill it you fill it, and every hour or so someone would show up in the kitchen with a tray full of pints.
Everyone was wasted in that place, 24/7. I couldn’t do it. Quit after three days.
Wow, that was a boring story. Seemed more interesting when it happened.
No, it’s a good story. I’m always fascinated by kitchen culture; substance abuse is rampant but I don’t understand how kitchens like that – where you’re hitting it on the job – get anything done.
If you haven’t read “Kitchen Confidential” then check it out.
I have, more than once. It was a revelation back in the day.
His point that not all kitchens were alike was a good one – Ripert’s kitchen culture was _nothing_ like that of Les Halles.
The Into The Fire episode of No Reservations is so great – Bourdain trying to work the line at Les Halles after many years away was hilarious. Ripert effortlessly working the grill station was just he cherry on top.
I’m still pissed at him for hanging himself. And that French actress as well.
Yeah, total waste. With a young daughter, no less.
The actress seems like a piece of work.
That sounds like a direct path to alcoholism if you were even slightly predisposed to it.
You becha!
“Hit me like a twist of lemon wrapped around a gold brick”
+1 Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster
OMG, “AI bias” isn’t a freaking global crisis.
That is all.
I once puked at a bar. In college we used to go to a dive bar and buy a bunch of pitchers and stack them in a pyramid on our table before Happy Hour ended, then finish them slowly until the bar closed. I was walking to the restroom, carrying my Solo cup, and felt my stomach turn over. I puked in the cup, went to the restroom, relieved myself, poured the cup out in the toilet, washed the cup, went back to the table, refilled the cup, and kept drinking.
I could never make that work nowadays.
“If you’re gonna spew, spew into this.”
I (more than) once puked in a bar?
I was in NYC bar-hopping in Greenwich and Soho..? I think we were in a place in Soho, when last call was up and the lights were turned on. I had a cold Lawn Guy Land Ice Tea that I chugged down.
It immediately chugged right back up back into the glass, still fucking cold, but now with chunks of food. I set it back on the bar.
The bar-tender was not amused.
I’ve also had cops give me a ride after seeing me stumble down the road. Though I figure it was more of an excuse to do a search. I highly doubt I would have ended up home if I’d had been carrying anything more than my wallet and a pack of smokes.
I’ve also had cops give me a ride after seeing me stumble down the road. Though I figure it was more of an excuse to do a search. I highly doubt I would have ended up home if I’d had been carrying anything more than my wallet and a pack of smokes.
Oh, Lauren.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) displayed a thermal space blanket similar to those distributed to migrants held at detention facilities at the southern border during President Biden’s address to Congress on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Boebert told The Hill that she was trying to highlight the recent surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“President Biden did not address or bring attention to the crisis at our southern border. So Rep. Boebert did,” the spokesperson said.
Before the government decided in house concoctions were unsafe, every bar in sconnie had a jar of something on the shelf. Pickled pigs feet, pickled eggs, Rocky Mountain oysters, etc.
One formulation that was pretty popular was cherries soaked in 151. Remove cherry juice, replace with booze let sit for at least a week. A bar at a campground we frequented for years did this. The first year our group showed up we ate them all the first night. The regulars were not amused. The owner had extra batches for the next year.
cherry bombs!
Our hearts were really thumpin’
Say yeah, yeah, yeah
Say yeah, yeah, yeah
Yes!
I miss the pickled eggs.
I’ve been unimpressed with The Babylon Bee’s youtube content. I could make it so much better if they’d pay me. But I was impressed that someone on staff had a GI Joe X-19 Phantom intact on hand to use for that video, mine is missing pieces.
(Hyperbole holds up his ‘Nerd’ sign)
Send them your resume and portfolio. Make sure to scrub it of SF content first…
Hyperion is the Babylon Bee Spy. Confirmed!
You seen any STEVE SMITH article there yet?
…yet.
I’ve been listening to Dan Bongino recently. Pretty sure reading Glibs is part of his show prep.
I see why Dems/leftists are having a meltdown about Tim Scott. He destroyed them.
But, not one mention of systemic racism? Uncle Tom, right there.
With FACTS and LOGIC?
“FACTS and LOGIC”
And all of that more symptoms of systemic racism and white privilege. Like I said, Uncle Tom. I rest my case.
Hes actually got a really good voice for a politician. Compared to people like Trump, Biden, Herself who’s voices are all grating.
He’s even clean, articulate, and doesn’t speak with a negro accent. Can we get Biden’s take?
Makes me laugh every time – Ron Bennington’s Joe Biden’s impression.
That family is going places…
*NSFW Chapelle Show clip
MSNBC took it a step farther.
Hey, you can’t show that on the internet today!
I mean, you got the first African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.
It was an excellent speech. He was able to hit on conservative views without coming across as “red meat”. And the speech was good at casting the GOP as “just normal folks” and not the batshit crazy ones in the room. Also, an excellent delivery – it comes across as just a regular guy talking to you and not a political speech or robo-speaker. Body language was decent. I think he was a little too subtle with a couple of the face gestures (see 6:34).
As I said last night, rebuttal speeches are probably an audition for politicians for the big time. And I’ve seen a number of promising ones trip and stumble. Scott passed it.
So you are saying Tim Scott 2024. But I wonder who his running-mate should be…
No, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he winds up in the Veep position (Paul/Scott?). And I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him show up on the Sunday morning news shows a lot more regularly.
I don’t really know enough about the guy’s positions to know if I support him or not. I’m just assessing the performance.
Whoever does the worst in the primaries.
“But I wonder who his running-mate should be”
A token white boy?
John McAffee, duh.
“We’ll have a whale of a time!”
You see, what we have here, is a case of white privilege. We all know how this would have turned out without the author’s white privilege card.
An anecdote (and another reason I’m optimistic)…
My mom recently moved to my town after 25 years of our living far apart. We walk together several times a week now, and afterward share a beer and watch the news. Her go-to was CBS, and had been since my earliest memories. An anchor asserted “Russian election interference” in some report. Mom asked me, “What was the actual interference?” Despite her being a daily watcher of news and having heard the phrase for years now, she had no idea what it actually was.
I told her it was a lie. She said that she’d thought so. I asked why she would watch a news outlet that lied to her. She didn’t know. So I asked her to switch to NewsMax. Within minutes, she switched back to CBS.
Days later, I show up for dinner and NewsMax is on. I motioned to the TV with an expression of surprise. She said, “They’re telling me things I’ve never heard before.”
My mom already has and does consider herself a conservative but only now does she know that the 1/6 “insurrectionists” are not the same group of people that were rioting/looting in the big blue cities. While her voting won’t change, TMITE has one less person in their tractor beam.
The White supremacist trutherism is something i find astounding. How can you see the riots and then go “Those rioters are all white supremacists who hate BLM”.
Good job.
I’ve been told I puked on a bar. Pretty sure I puked inside a few times too. But my brain was a lot under the witness protection program in my college years (still does every now and then) so I’ll just put it on hearsay.
I never have puked in a bar. But in my younger days, in a car after leaving and at home after arriving. I stopped that puking stuff a couple of decades ago, it’s no fun.
Government incompetence?
Is it just that they have no idea what they are doing?
This started about a month ago. I get this letter from the IRS. *shudder*. So it’s bad news. They say I made a mistake on my 2109 taxes and now I owe them $$$. WTF? I looked it over and verified that indeed a had made a mistake on a line. So I looked it over and concluded that I still did did not owe them any money, it was just a mistake. So I called them and the person was completely clueless. Yes, you owe us $$$. Well, it wasn’t a LOT of money, but it was quite a bit. I had 30 days to pay this shit. So I just went ahead and did it. Fuck it, I didn’t want to deal with it.
Fast Forward. About 5 days ago, I got a check from the IRS in the exact same amount I had just paid? No explanation included. WTF? Did they realize I didn’t actually owe them anything and now they are giving it back? That’s odd.
So today, I receive another letter from the IRS. *shudder*. I open it. Dated April 22, 2021. I should be receiving a stimulus check in the amount of $$$. If I don’t receive it within 7 days, go check the site. WTF? I received that back in March.
WTF? Does our government have any idea what they are doing? Or are they completely leaderless?
No, the government does not have a clue.
It’s not that they don’t have a leader, they have too many. Every petty manager has its own fiefdom and they don’t care what your interaction with the other fiefdom might be unless it can benefit them.
The ‘stimulus’ is a high profile project worth prestige to get it done on schedule. Back taxes are humdrum everyday prestigeless items.
There are too many leaders, and none of them is really responsible for anything (except insofar as they can be thrown under a bus). Responsibility is supposed to aggregate up the chain, such that somebody in charge of X reports to somebody responsible for X, Y, and Z, who reports to …, all the way up to the guy at the top of the organization who is responsible for everything. But it advances nobody’s career to take that responsibility seriously. Plus, for the mid/upper management set, getting too knowledgeable in one place pins you down.
The mandatory changing of the people at the very top (the President, the Department heads) every 4-8 years doesn’t really help either. Term limits serve their purpose, of course, but no one since FDR has actually been in charge of the Federal government. The figurehead gets to take credit for some accomplishments (most of which are paper tigers) and the blame for some screw ups (most of which are due to politicking from below) but no one could possibly sincerely be expected to exert some real influence or gain some deep insight over such a massive and mostly self-perpetuating machine in such a short amount of time.
And this is exactly how every bureaucracy ends up, with some details changing from time to time and place to place. Any student of history would know of court eunuchs and mandarins and viziers etc.
” Every petty manager has its own fiefdom and they don’t care what your interaction with the other fiefdom might be unless it can benefit them”
Once again, Yes, Minister portrayed this so well.
The IRS is a total shitshow at the moment.
Imagine for a moment the work ethic of your typical federal worker, now downgrade it to the work ethic of the IRS, and then amplify that total lack of ethic with a year of COVID restrictions and working from home.
Well, bright side, you have 88 years to correct the problem.
LOL. Pedant Animal! Bad animal!
I have yet to file for 2020. I’m about to file for an extension. Mr. Mojeaux hates that, but sees the necessity this time.
I’m getting ready to. It’s so simple now, just the short form and I still don’t want to do it…
Oh, I have home & business (1040 + schedule C) and right now I’ve got two home offices (mine and Mr. Mojeaux’s). I depend on TurboTax to keep all the laws straight.
My moms 2019 return got “held” . Did they tell her why? No. They only told her it was “in process”. She finally had to complain to some kind of internal audit dept to even find out that much and then it still took another 6 mos to get her refund, a month ago for last years filing.
Shitshow of incompetence
We just got a survey from my client. How many days would you like to work from home? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0.
5 is wining so far with 60+%. 2 and 1 are almost tied at about 20% each. 0 has zero votes.
Guess no one loves the office anymore.
The only people I know who hate WFH (and who don’t have jobs requiring an office) have a really bad setup at home.
My home office is in a quiet corner of the house and is a dedicated room just for me to use for work. I have a corner office that I would have to give up for a “hotelling” desk in the middle of a cube farm without the actual cubicles.
WFH isn’t perfect, but it’s so much better than the office on the whole.
I have insufficient self-discipline to productive WFH, exacerbated by the fact that my home is optimized for my own entertainment.
Deporting the Indian girl wasn’t an aberration. Land O Lake has decided to go into broadband. No, not really. They’re just bankrolling, along with the Walton family, an astroturf camping to beg federal tax dollars for boondoggles.
https://tcbmag.com/land-olakes-broadens-its-rural-broadband-efforts/
No one is getting any internet worth having for free. You can get Starlink for about $100 a month .Spotty so far, needz moar satellites, fuck off astronomers! . Or else you get Comcast or some other shit equally as bad for more money.
I haven’t bought any land-o-lakes butter since the girl went away, not one stick. I pay more for Kerry Gold, or just buy the vegan stuff.
I pay more for Kerry Gold, or just buy the vegan stuff.
Kerry Gold really is different. But, beyond that, butter is pretty much a commodity product. Store brand or local dairy is fine.
That’s not really true – you can get all sorts of hipster, artisan butters, many of which are great.
We buy Kate’s a lot: https://kateshomemadebutter.com/
And you can really go crazy:
https://www.myrecipes.com/extracrispy/animal-farm-butter
Okay, okay, yes, I’m sure you can get hipster, artisan butter that really is excellent. It’s an extension of my point about Kerrygold.
That said, Land O Lakes versus store brand or local dairy? No.
That said, Land O Lakes versus store brand or local dairy? No.
That I can agree with.
Vermont Creamery cultured butter.
We’ve got both the salted & unsalted versions of that on hand. It’s good stuff.
I first had it in Austin of all places. I was a godawful foodie hipster and my cheesemonger gave it to me.
https://www.vermontcreamery.com/products/cultured-butter-82-butter-fat/
Tillamook butter hereabouts.
Broadband is a “fundamental right”??
Dammit! We switched to Lo’L’s light butter & olive oil spread last year when our old brand was not to be found, and we really like it. I don’t want to subsidize crap ideas like that! ?
Take heart, for like a plague of locusts, these activists are practically everywhere so there’s not much point in being picky absent some prior knowledge (e.g. Red Bull, Goya).
The fundamental problem with “rural broadband” (i.e. high-speed Internet to the sticks) is that it is by necessity more expensive and less viable than suburban and urban solutions. There are fewer customers, the distances you have to run cables are much longer, and the ability or willingness to pay is generally lower. People in higher density areas already bitch about their cost for Internet, now imagine doubling or tripling it to subsidize longer runs to lower density areas. Of course, if you could turn on the magic money fountain from Fed-daddy then anything is possible monetarily, but it still doesn’t necessarily make it worth it nor does it account for maintenance costs (which can exceed initial outlays in a remarkably short period of time). Plus, there are alternatives. They’re all “not as good as” the suburban/urban solutions, but they’re also not as expensive either.
Just read this yesterday:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/01/jared-mauch-didnt-have-good-broadband-so-he-built-his-own-fiber-isp/
That’s pretty cool. Though by the time I got to the 3rd promoted comment I realized why I don’t read Ars anymore. Everything has to be Marxist nowadays and “capitalism is the problem” gets lots of seal claps.
My eyes rolled almost out of my skull when I saw that comment.
Nothing says deregulated capitalism like a legally enforceable franchise agreement negotiated behind closed doors between a government-granted monopoly and government employees getting kickbacks.
That started a while back on Ars. I forgot which article turned me off that whole site. I maybe go to Ars once a year now.
Yeah, it’s been several years for me. I used to read Ars, Hacker News, and Slashdot regularly. Now I can’t be bothered with any of them. There’s definitely been occasions when I’ve been caught unaware of some trend though.
I thought Musk had this solved with his array of tiny satellites.
I don’t know exactly what Starlink is capable of in practice, and it could be a good solution for low-density areas, all else being equal. I just wouldn’t bet on it being profitable anytime soon.
I think they are going into closed beta pretty soon.
Dr. Mossy Lawn is on Starlink already, I believe.
We’re on DSL out here, and we’re pretty well out in the sticks. But we have good solid reliable connection, no issues streaming or gaming. Only down side is that the wireless connection doesn’t quite reach from the house to the office, despite use of an extender, so we now have two connections, one for each lot.
If you want to fix that issue, you should spin up a thread in the forum. You may be able to get a network design and the requisite hardware for steep discount ?
Somehow I never puked in a bar, but I have outside the bar, on the way home, and after.
Tomorrow the wife and I will be finishing off the Limoncello batches we started 2 weeks ago. A group of four couples worked together to generate several batches. We (the women) zested a huge bag of lemons and the men added the grain.
Tomorrow will be strain the peels, then add the sugar and water.
“Limoncello”
My wife had a couple of bottles of that. What do they call liquors like that , which are about 20% alcohol or so? I can’t remember the name…
Cordial?
Thanks.
For a second I thought you were going for “chick Drink”
Nah, I can always remember that, and hipster juice.
Just when you think the country can’t get any stupider- there is apparently a petition out there in the petitionverse calling for Doktor Jill to “undo” everything Evil Queen Melania did to the White House Rose Garden.
Not gonna link (or actually RTFA).
https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/41265646-f6ca-4dee-9abc-3dbe470f482b_1.c39e422bbe9eaac42561a5988e3b7c53.jpeg?odnWidth=612&odnHeight=612&odnBg=ffffff
(at Walmart, of all places!)
The line ‘Get a Life’ comes to mind here.
#uncletim
“Twitter said: ‘we are blocking the phrase you referenced from appearing in Trends. This is in line with our policies on Trends, specifically: We want Trends to promote healthy conversations on Twitter.'”
Not sure what to make of this. Do they not want proggies to show their ass, or are they being principled?
https://www.wbap.com/news/twitter-yanks-uncle-tim-trending-topic-following-sen-scott-remarks/
It’d be nice if it’s the latter, but I’d bet on the former.
I think they just want to have a case where they can say, “look it doesn’t always go one way!”
Health conversations? On Twitter? Do they not use their own product?
I think it’s even more “it’s a bad look, don’t want to give them any ammunition”.
True. And it doesn’t sound like anyone’s getting banned over it, the trend is just delisted.
Why should anyone be banned? You can’t be racist towards Republicans, that’s “punching up.”
I think you’re right about it not going one way. This was low hanging fruit, it didn’t push against anyone important and can be used as evidence of “fairness”.
It’s low hanging fruit yes, serves that purpose of “fairness” and it allows them to squash a trend that highlights the racisim on the left. Win, Win, Win.
“Most popular president of all time”
34 Million Fewer People Watched Biden Speech Compared To Trump’s First SOTU
Related.
How many pollsters are literal fraud these days? Were they ever trustworthy?
All of them. Dunno, it’s been years since it was even a “maybe”.
An engineer, a salesman, and an accountant were once asked what 2+2 equals…
“4 point 0,” said the engineer.
“Eh, it’s somewhere between 3 and 5,” worried the salesman.
And the accountant asked, “What do you want the number to be?”
As usual, Yes, Minister can explain this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GSKwf4AIlI
The pizza wars have begun.
Heh, just walked out of the office just now to find my wife and three kids all fast asleep on the couch. The 4th kid is out cold in my recliner. What a life they lead.
Anyone have a sharpie?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGSKrC7dGcY
*hands over large point black sharpie*
Adam Carolla has a line about wanting to make enough money so he could enjoy the sort of lifestyle his wife and kids have.
That’s a good one.
I think he came up with that when he had crammed onto a Southwest flight to do 2 shows Friday, 3 shows Saturday at some some random comedy club, while his wife and kids were taking a helicopter to Catalina for the weekend.
Then something happened. They started to laugh. They asked me which house was mine and I pointed to it again. “We’re just fucking with ya kid. we’ll drop you off there.” I was so relieved. I wasn’t going to jail. The two took me home and I went in and went to bed. No jail that night. Thank god.
What assholes.
Given the fact that a lot of cops are assholes, I’ll take this sort of assholery over the beatings.
(TW: author has a forthcoming book. TW number 2: It’s Sohrab Ahmari)
“Do we enshrine the orthodoxy of the latest theories on race, sex and gender? Do we empower the woke clerisy, the army of blue-check Twitterati and HR managers who can destroy careers and lives in a matter of minutes over the smallest of ideological infractions, and whose judgments are subject to no reasoned appeal and no code of canon law? Do we live under their new blasphemy laws, ostensibly designed to prohibit ‘hate speech’?
“Or do we choose the more forgiving, perhaps old-fashioned orthodoxy that sustained western culture for the better part of two millennia? The Judeo-Christian values and institutions that venerated natural reason, that by their discipline tamed the big and small would-be tyrants of Europe, reminding them that there exists a higher power than theirs? You don’t need to be religious to think that, on balance, this world view has put us in pretty good stead so far — and is worth keeping now.”
https://spectator.us/topic/tyranny-inevitable-consequence-liberalism/
I feel inferior to you people. I have only been drunk-drunk twice in my life. Puked once.
Jesus fucking christ, I’m dull.
YOU’RE dull?!
We should hang out more. I have some ideas on how to fix that.
I mean, I didn’t feel drunk at all.
I quit drinking 151 because it worked like that. I wouldn’t feel drunk, until I suddenly went into black-out drunk. At that point, Bob’s head would go to sleep and Bob’s body would go out and do… things.
Like things that made frats cheer and sororities close and natives in the hills tell legends.
Things that I would have no clue about, but I’d have people come up to me like they were old friends and tell stories and offer to buy me a drink.
I had a night like that once – some guy names Jack Daniels was involved.
Not sure what to make of this. Do they not want proggies to show their ass, or are they being principled?
I suspect “Uncle Tim” is so blatantly racist Twitter feels the need to step in and save the progressive lynch mob from themselves.
I wouldn’t even bother to put money on “principled” as a hedge.
Never puked in a bar, but the wife and I lost track of time while on vacation in Myrtle Beach and came damn close. We had been drinking and shooting pool in some bar near the hotel since 2 pm. Drink after drink plus shots on the house by the bored bartender. Well into the night we had just ordered another bucket of beers, looked at each other, and realized it was time go. Handed the whole bucket of capped beer to the group next to us and somehow walked back to the hotel.
I don’t think I puked but did fall into the toilet while trying to get into the shower.
Heh reminds me of when our hockey team was up in Montreal. Think this was 97/98 and they had good snow that year. Large walls of ‘snow’ on the sidewalk between it and the street and us being from California it was cool. Except for our 2nd line center who was so drunk he just wanted to ‘lay down’ and put his arms out in all faith and fell into the ‘snow’. About 1 inch below was just dirty ice and he broke his nose.
Fun telling your coach “at least it wasn’t a bar fight!”
Almost this exact story happened to me in college. I was walking back to campus after a house party. I was so drunk my friends were holding me up. I was so drunk I lit my mustache on fire instead of a cigarette. LOL. A cop pulls up asks what we’re doing. My friend says we’re just going home. The officer told him your friend looks pretty drunk and it’s illegal to be so drunk in public.
I launch into a drunken tirade at that point.
I said something like how am I supposed to get home? In America a free country I am allowed to drink. But I can’t drive home, I can’t ride a bike home and now you are telling me that I can’t even walk home? Is this a free country or not? How in the hell am I supposed to legally get from point A to point B?
The office looked at my friends and said just get him home.
I had another encounter in college where I was at a house party/rave. I thought it was strange that there was almost no furniture. The house was packed. Then someone brought out cocaine. I may or may not have partook I’ll leave that up to the imagination. But then someone yelled that the building was surrounded by cops. Everyone told the guy whose house it supposedly was that he needed to go talk to them and not let them in. He at that point admitted that this was his parents old home that had been sold already so we were all trespassing.
People were flipping out and panicking girls were crying.
I got my friends and told them that we should leave the house first. The cops did not want to arrest 100 people and if we just left they would probably only arrest the people that tried to stay in the house. So we did, the cops briefly stopped us and we just said we were going home. At that point 30-40 people were also behind us trying to leave as well so they just let us go.