Man… January is a long shitty month, isn’t it? It just keeps going and going, but it’s finally at an end. Just before the end, Disney dropped a new animated Spider-Man series. I am a self-admitted Spider-Man fanboy, so I watched the two episodes that dropped, and I have some thoughts. Biggest change (in my mind), is that Uncle Ben is already dead by the time Peter gets bit by the spider. This means that he had to have died from something that wouldn’t teach Peter the important lesson that Uncle Ben serves. They also made the decision to change the race of most of the supporting cast (the Osborns and Dr. Connor are both black), and introducing non-Spidey cast members to the show (Nico Minoru from the Runaways). It is also not set in the standard MCU, but another alternate universe, which I’m already tired of.
In local news.
In other local news, is anyone looking for a temp job? I’m sure you’ve heard of the city.
How will this affect Sloopy’s fandom?
I have no idea why someone would do this, and why others would drink it.
Let’s pair it with another WTF product.
That’s it. Impeach Vance. He promised to stop this.
On the other hand, I’m very interested to try this.
You know it’s serious when people quit working for a site I’ve never heard of.
They haven’t released a good game in over 14 years.
I’m not sure how to say “It’s a mee!” in Spanish.
This is the only article about this movie that I even clicked into.
“Gamer muzzle“.
The real grift is in validating the person was correct.
For today’s last mocktail, let’s go with one that’s going to push some people out of their comfort zone. Coffee and citrus come across as a strange pairing (I know it did for me the first time I saw it on a menu), but I’ve come around after trying a Roman Twist at the local tiki bar.
Coffee Cooler
- 5 cardamom pods
- 6 parts (3 oz) brewed coffee
- 2 parts (1 oz) orange juice
- 1 part (0.5 oz) simple syrup
- 2 parts (1 oz) club soda
To start with, we’re going to want to infuse the cardamom into the coffee. The easiest way to do this is to open the pods, take out the seeds, and either add them to the grounds, or put them into the coffee, and let them steep while the coffee cools down (since we’re going to be shaking over ice). Add the coffee, OJ, and simple (the really bright ones out there would have realized that a cardamom infused simple syrup would work too) to a shaker with ice, and shake until chilled. Strain (double strain here if you want to make sure to include no bits) into a chilled and ice filled highball glass, top with club soda, and give a quick stir to combine. Go ahead and garnish it with an orange twist if you wish.
If there’s interest, I can try to stick with themes, or just go with cocktails that pop out at me, or just look bizarre and/or interesting. I know Hobbit asked for low sugar cocktails, which I can work on for a month (although quite a few will be changing out the sugar in simple syrup for the artificial sweetener of choice) Let me know in the comments if there’s any other preferences (hell, I may decide to pick a theme for myself and just keep it a secret).
Trump’s tariffs seem like the biggest news item currently.
That, the plane crash, and some recaps of yesterday’s hearings are all I’m seeing.
When have I gone for BIG NEWS on the Friday afternoon links?
There’s enough nut punches and ovary taps out there that I don’t need to add to them.
Did they go into effect? Or is that tomorrow?
I haven’t watched it — nor will I likely watch it because I don’t subscribe to streaming services and assuming Disney+, they never seem to allow crap to be sold through other digital stores after some time like sane people (legacy of their vault mentality?).
I did watch a YouTube rant on the subject recently that claimed Peter was boring because they cut every actual problem out of his life — he shows up to school… people want to be his friend. He gets an internship from Norman Osborne right off, etc. etc. You alluded to this with “doesn’t actually contribute to Uncle Ben’s death by not caring to use his powers to help”. The reviewer could have been off, ymmv, etc. etc…. but just sharing thoughts since you brought it up.
It may not seem that way to you, though — the reviewer also claimed MCU Peter (i.e. Homecoming, etc.) was much the same… which I never got the feel of. Yeah, he was luckier than some versions of Parker I’ve seen where it seems like the universe goes out of its way to torture him — but he was by no means living a charmed life.
Yeah, it’s on Disney+ (I’ve got it with the Hulu bundle way back when, and the girlfriend wants it) Peter Parker is consistently life’s chew toy. Only two episodes dropped, but they do show that the Parkers aren’t well off, living in a sketchy neighborhood, with Peter being excited about finding a DVD player on a dumpster while he’s changing back into his civvies. They’ve kept his chronic lateness, his quipping, and his lack of confidence.
I’m at about a 6/10 on it so far. I’m leery about the changes made, have some issues with the animation style, but they’ve got enough right (including the theme music) that I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
For those who care about my opinion, the Spectacular Spider-Man is the best animated Spider-Man, and was woefully cut short by Disney.
I still want my anti-Peter Parker Firestorm animated series. Justice League: Action was the closest I think I’m ever going to get unfortunately. (Well, there are the old Superfriends episodes… but that’s a whole other level of cheese).
And for anyone wondering what I mean by that — Gerry Conway created Firestorm when DC poached him from Marvel where he’d been writing Spider-Man. So where Peter is a geek who gets powers and his bully is athlete Flash Thompson… Ron Raymond is an athlete (and probably normal intellect though he thinks he’s dumber than he turns out to be once he matures) whose bully is an asshole geek, the villains are again mostly people from his school or that work with the other half of Firestorm, etc. Conway intentionally flipped some of the script — but wrote similar stories in the whole (barring the extremely different power set of course).
SDF-7:
The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow had Firestorm… or at least a version of him. Old genius scientist paired with young engineer (eventually changing to a young athlete). The CW DC shows were far from comics accurate (such as the Atom having an external powered suit… since it was originally supposed to be the Blue Beetle), and most dragged on too long, but Legends of Tomorrow (outside the first season) was just a bunch of B and C list DC characters who break things while trying to fix them.
I’ll also go to bat for the first couple of seasons of Superman and Lois (need to get caught up, and I’m far from a Superman fan in general) and all of Stargirl (which managed to nail the silver age vibe in a modernesque setting).
Yeah — the selected episodes of Season 1 with Ron and Martin were probably the closest we’ll ever get to a live action Firestorm.
It wasn’t bad — though they really downplayed his powers (which to be fair — they did for just about everyone except Reverse Flash in season 1. Jax was okay (it really should have been Jason Rusch… but they already used him and tossed the character away), at least they finally let him do some transmutation (which is one of his major powers usually) once or twice. And the couple times he absorbed nukes is always fun.
But like Superman / Supergirl (or a properly powered Flash) they really didn’t know what to do with him.
I actually have S1 of Stargirl and S1 of Superman and Lois and just haven’t brought myself to watch them. Around Season 4 or 5 of Flash and 3 I think of Supergirl… I just couldn’t take the WB-isms any more. (It was around the time Supergirl got really, really preachy).
Don’t get me started though, Neph… I’ll start going on about how Multiplex wasn’t written very well, they completely wasted Tokamak and no one ever seems to write Killer Frost correctly (she doesn’t produce cold per se… the whole point is she’s a heat/energy vampire [which is why she’s a balance to Firestorm — he literally gets her going and all!]). And no one wants to hear a fan of a relatively obscure comic book character ack-shually on characters from those stories.
And actually actually… what the hell was with the Suicide Squad version of The Weasel? (He was a guy in a suit after all.. not a demented weird half human half actual weasel… Gunn is an odd man…)
I know he’s pretty good on the track… I didn’t think he had an actual fandom.
Hopefully you’ll like it. Visually, it is fucking close to water.
“[I]t is fucking close to water.”
You mean like in a canoe?
I do believe that’s the Bud Light / Coors Light joke, isn’t it?
More like a “Mallrats” joke.
Tonio:
Mallrats?
Pretty sure I first saw it done by Monty Python (jump to 1:04 if you’re impatient).
Monty Python, Live at the Hollywood bowl. The Philosopher’s song.
https://youtu.be/PtgKkifJ0Pw
Okay, it’s February. Y’all can cancel your gym memberships and go back to drinking.
Can I get a Narrow Gaze over here?
[Neph – Well… I tried to add one.]
Too many eyes on that spud for all of the narrow gazes required.
/looks over at the oranges
/looks over at the gin
/starts stroking his whiskers.
Some of us weren’t quitters to begin with.
(But I am sticking with the low carb thing)
I’m happily an old fogey who has never heard of most of these people, websites, games (and the ones I do hear of look stupid quite often) and can just go back to the old standbys. Now get off my lawn, ya whippersnapper Anglicans!
I think we’ve found the dumbest story of the day.
Amusing of the Anglicans to make up more “Nazi” bullshit and then tell the guy what and how he is allowed to believe; you know, like some sort of totalitarians.
“Gamer muzzle“.
“Divorce Court”
The coffee cooler does look bizarre, but I think I would try it.
If there’s interest, I can try to stick with themes, or just go with cocktails that pop out at me, or just look bizarre and/or interesting.
I’ve enjoyed the theme concept a lot. Thanks again for doing these every week!
Hey. In the girl’s defense in the gamer muzzle article, she did wear one as well.
The theme structure helps me to avoid repeating the same two dozen cocktails (or variants thereof) as well. Glad you’re enjoying them, hope some of the drinks have met your tastes as well.
“Dear Arstechnica…. I never thought it would happen to me….”
It’s the weekend and I have no plans, so…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgyeshD8RJY
Let’s pair it with another WTF product.
Pair it with k-cups.
EA does have a really solid track record of turning every acquired studio into complete shit. I can’t say I’m all that surprised — and yeah… ME3 bugged me in parts. Inquisition annoyed me since it played like a single player MMO. I don’t think I’ve bothered since — and with Veilguard I’m really really glad.
I noped out after my review of Andromeda. They lost whatever goodwill I once had towards the studio label.
DA2 annoyed me with the reused maps, few ties to the first game, changing the models for the Qunari, inventory system, and more.
On the EA side… off the top of my head: Origin (which they used as their storefront name FFS, which is going offline soon), Westwood, Bullfrog, and Maxis.
Yeah — DA2 annoyed me in that aspects… but the story was actually decent. In hindsight, it has some of my favorite moments of the series (the serial killer storyline is good). I wish you could tell Merrill how big of an idiot she is and make it stick and just off Anders in the first act… but they really needed to railroad through the plot when they cut development time and you can tell.
I got my new passport today. I applied on the 22nd. That’s 9 days.
Since that means your voice isn’t your passport, we can’t verify you on this.
???
You lost me
COOTYS RAT SEMEN
Ok, dude… Time to turn in that geek card.
(and nice ref, Tonio…. love the “Naaah…” after that one in that scene. Good bit of humor before the “Oh holy shit!” the reveal turns into…)
You know, I could have been in the NSA, but they found out my parents were married…
Sorry, SDF, but basing a geek card on a movie from when I was 10 fails the validation checks. Your judgement privileges have been suspended for six weeks.
Now you can prove you are a citizen when ICE hits your neighborhood.
Obviously.
I mean, New York doesn’t do proper verification for driver’s licenses.
That’s quick.
In unrelated passport news, a couple of weeks ago I could enter Kazakhstan with any of the three different passports that I have.
They want to make sure that everyone can have their pronouns on their passport before OMB’s executive order takes effect.
I just know who had a real problem talking about himself in Spanish class…
Bo Diddly?
Soup drops sound like the food you would get in a progressive gulag in between rounds of breaking rocks and digging ditches.
“Line up losers, it’s soup drop dinner time!”
You just took my cringe at some of those products and threw it into overdrive. Good work.
The snozberries taste like snozberries!
Dispatch from the Fedgov: we continue to archive DEI stuff. Today was all about ridding our website of gender identity BS (cc: Moj)
Part of an email we received today from our acting management (obscured some text to foil search engines):
“1n recent years, gender ide0l0gy has overshadowed and diluted our ability to advocate clearly and effectively for women and girls, 0bscuring bio1ogical realities and undermining the pr0tections w0men and girls need. This has increasing1y b1urred the distinctions necessary for safeguarding their rights, weakening the p0licies and protections designed to address vulnerabilities specific to them.”
Hallefuckinglujah.
Hey thanks Pres. Trump. As of tomorrow, the company in which I’m the third largest stockholder will see our profits go to zero. For 90 years our product has been sole sourced from Canada. All U.S. producers are captives of our competitors so we can’t get product from them.
I like the theme cocktails.
Sadly, I’m off the sauce until this blood pressure thing gets stabilized, so I won’t be able to do any field testing for a while…
Well, you can go back through this months recipes.
January 2025 can go fuck itself.
@Evan: If you can do the work of a vet assistant, you might be able to work fast food. XY started there at $18/hour when he was 17, promoted to a lower-level manager the second he turned 18 (with pay bump), and then headed on up the ladder.
Hell, come to California — I think Panda Express is starting at $25/hr. They’ll be making more than my salary soon, it feels like.
If he can figure out a way to telecommute to Panda Express, he can make California money on an Indiana budget.
Thank you! I ‘can’ assist vets, though some training I’m sure would be needed. The issue with the vet idea is I was ignoring my legs. I can walk around just fine, no pain, but I really shouldn’t be bending over, especially to pick dogs up. Their squirming is to be avoided. I started out at McDonald’s when I was 14 and I was a Jimmy John’s driver. The receptionist idea there is kinda-likely the best route, if I ‘do’ start next week. A sorta dream gig would be me working on ‘projects’ away from people, sitting down and no lifting.
Big wonder now is if I just get *A* Job right now to make do, or if there’s any realistic chance of finding something that’s entry-level with training upsides, or if I got *really* lucky and actually found a job that I wanna do, like the Records Clerk in Indianapolis I was rejected for. The biggest saving grace, which I can’t be more thankful for, is I’m rent-free and am being lovingly supported. Without that and I’d be, uh. Likely or maybe not dead, but incredibly fucked, probably homeless.
I really hope I can have a damn good chat with the voca rehab folk on Monday. Vocational. Damn, sounds like rehabbing vocabulary.
It says “Show us your tits” where’s my million?
I’m going with a side bet $0.02 it’s an Indo-european language, probably related to Sanskrit, as opposed to Dravidian.
Osterholm is back. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/wind-blowing-feces-may-be-route-of-transmission-for-bird-flu/
So the answer was blowing in the wind?
*sigh
Ok.
Pull my finger…
Some bitches are going to get paid because Justin Tucker jizzed on their massage tables.
Mister Fix-it to the rescue
Chuck Todd on Friday announced his last day at NBC News, his professional home of nearly two decades.
The big picture: Todd’s exit comes as NBC News and its sister network MSNBC cover a second Trump administration while facing major business and leadership changes.
Zoom in: In a note to staff obtained by Axios, Todd alluded to pursuing several new projects for the next step in his career.
Todd is retaining the rights to his podcast and said in his departure note that it will have a new home soon.
In the note, Todd said, “At my core, I’m an entrepreneur — I spent my first 15 years professionally working for the company that started the political newsletter craze that dominates today.”
“And this is a ripe moment,” Todd added. “The only way to fix this information eco system is to stop whining about the various ways the social media companies are manipulating things and instead roll up our collective sleeves and start with local.”
Listen up, America. Chuck Todd will show us the evilness of Trump and MAGA extremism.
You aren’t an entrepreneur because you worked for one, you prick.
I hope his plan involves shooting himself into the sun.
Nothing says “entrepreneur” like working for a megacorp for 20 years.
Chilling effect
Hospitals in Colorado, Virginia and the nation’s capital said Thursday they have paused gender-affirming care for young people as they evaluate President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at cutting federal support for such care.
Denver Health in Colorado has stopped providing gender-affirming surgeries for people under age 19, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday, in order to comply with the executive order and continue receiving federal funding. It is unclear whether the hospital will continue providing other gender-affirming care for youth, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers.
In Virginia, VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond said they have suspended gender-affirming medication and gender-affirming surgical procedures for those under 19 years old.
What if they do it for free? If it’s so essential to the health and well-being of the patients…
The drug companies should donate hormone treatments. It is a human right, after all.
I thought surgeries weren’t happening.
Trump should issue an EO to ban the phrase “gender affirming care” in official documents.
Already done – see above.
gender-affirming medication and gender-affirming surgical procedures
is Newspeak for poison and mutilation.
#winning
You have no idea how happy this makes me, particularly CHR. Of course, I remain suspicious that they will try to continue transitioning children and adolescents by calling things by new names even more deceptive and dishonest than “gender-affirming care.”
Remember whey they swore on a stack of Bibles they didn’t do surgery on minors?
And tried to railroad the whistleblower who pointed out otherwise?
Normally I wait for things to get cooking to start drinking, but there will be pre-gaming tonight. Oh yes, there will be pre-gaming.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87821224358?pwd=eW55MTRDbDNtQkh2aHd3M1Nmenlzdz09
I am newly returned from my rural redoubt and am solo and salty. I’ll be on after I get home from the Foxtrot Golf.
Interesting chart, if true
🤔
The wife made a serious effort to pay it down, although it definitely took a back seat to any other debt until we reached zero. Her paydown looked like the men’s paydown.
My 3 grand daughters have paid off their college loans. All worked while going to school, saved when they could to keep the debt as small as possible.
Maybe a little ‘assistance’ was involved, IYKWIM
Income based repayment is immoral, and the government should be ashamed to offer it.
The forgiveness if you work for government is even more immoral.
Her loans were paid off long before Biden offered forgiveness. Not sure she would have qualified anyway. She got a useful degree and earns actual money.
The language in Trump’s executive order — using words such as “maiming,” “sterilizing” and “mutilation” — contradicts what is typical for gender-affirming care in the United States. It also labels guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health as “junk science.”
WPATH said in a statement that restrictions and bans on “access to necessary medical care for transgender youth are harmful to patients and their families.”
“Necessary care.” Necessary to your income statement.
Patients, guinea pigs, victims… it’s all just semantics.
Mutilating mentally unstable kids is way up the list of greatest evils committed in the name of good intentions. I am sure many of these people ‘mean well;’ I just don’t give a damn. Burn them at the stake.
Yeah at some point evil is just evil. Most of these “mean well” types refuse to educate themselves in the matter or even entertain the slightest pushback.
Do you know who else meant well?
Good intentions? I have yet to see evidence of that.
We examined our procedures and our policies and we found that we’re awesome.
The language in Trump’s executive order contradicts what is typical for gender-affirming care in the United States.
I don’t really care, Margaret.
Mayor of East Cleveland? I’ll take it! I’m sure Councilman Shabazz will be open to common sense libertarian economic solutions and sometimes you need an outsider to fix things. As a white boy from the South who likes racially tinged humor I think that I fit that bill.
I am most-decidedly looking for work. I most-decidedly do not want to be the Mayor of Cleveland. (I liked Sandusky. Ohio is just a ball of boring.)
“Wednesday morning, Law Director Willa Hemmons told city department heads that she was acting mayor.
–
But City Council President Lateek Shabazz disagreed. Shabazz said King’s suspension following indictment on corruption charges is not a temporary absence. “I heard that Willa said she’s the mayor,” said Shabazz. “That’s ludicrous. Either she can’t read, or she’s the worst attorney the country has ever seen.”
Seems like a well-run town. I also forgot! I really *do* like Cleveland! In 2016, the Indians(!) lost one of the best World Series of all. That’s gotta burn. The Guardians manage to be the SECOND dumbest major sports name. The Utah Hockey Club stands alone in abject despair. (The players have impressed me. I wonder what they call the team when they’re out of the town. No way they say they play for “The Hockey Club.”)
You should run for office. I would support you, but I don’t live there.
Not that residency has stopped anyone from voting before…
And here comes the snow.
And I say, it’s all right.
We get it tomorrow, forecast for 5 inches
LOL
The resemblance is stunning.
Plane down in Philly.
I blame Trump.
The videos on x are wild.
Any links ?
https://pjmedia.com/paula-bolyard/2025/01/31/breaking-massive-explosion-possible-plane-crash-in-philly-n4936569
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/watch-dramatic-footage-show-private-jet-crashing-northeast-philadelphia
Saw an old NCO from the Army bitch and moan because a Republican congress critter dared to ask whether DEI played any role in the other crash recently.
I swear, I feel like I’m in a house of mirrors with my family.
Different aunt (dad’s side) whom I love dearly and who loves me dearly, was giving me (unsolicited) advice (I just wanted to vent) on Cunty Aunt Susie, then went on a rant about Trump and Republicans and how they … I don’t know what because this otherwise brilliant woman has TDS. 🙄
How all the mixed-political marriages on Glibs actually work, I can’t imagine. My flabbers are gasted.
PJ says air ambulance 🙁
https://x.com/flightradar24/status/1885484878268923978
-11,000 feet per minute
You can’t extrapolate data from such a short trend (the average computer algorithm will) .. but it did dart in (from the ring camera).. so loss of control for some reason.