What Are We Reading 2025 March

by | Mar 3, 2025 | Big Government, Cocktails, Energy, Hat and Hair, STEVE SMITH, The Resistance | 120 comments

LCDR Fish

Working through more naval history books recently – easier to read at my new job. Just finished Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors – a book that was recommended to me years ago and for some reason I never picked it up sooner. A product of meticulous research and interviews covering dozens of participant perspectives of the finest “small boat” naval action the US Navy has ever conducted. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

The participants need more recognition but it’d be hard to do justice to the scale of the action and carnage even in this day of CGI assistance. (Side note…as an FFG sailor we did have some connection to the Destroyer Escorts of earlier periods – our ships fill a similar role, and a number of the Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates were named after individuals who participated in this one battle. Back in 2010 or so, myself and some other members of my crew were able to attend an annual meeting of the Puget Sound Destroyer Escort Sailors Association in Tacoma. There may have been a couple of WW2 vets there, but many were Korean or Vietnam war vets too).

Richard

This month’s entertainment included finishing a reread of the third volume of The Last Lion biography of Winston Churchill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Lion:_Winston_Spencer_Churchill It’s basically a history of World War II from the British standpoint. It took me a long time to finish because I repeatedly got disgusted with the vagaries of war. I learned again that there was a British election shortly after the war was over. It was a resounding win for the Labor party which then proceeded to go Full Socialist with the existing war-ravaged economy and prolonged the suffering of the British population by decades. I thought everyone knew that you never go Full Socialist unless you can start with a rich functional economy.

I also read the latest of Charles Stross’ “Laundry Files” series A Conventional Boy: https://torpublishinggroup.com/a-conventional-boy/ The first half, based in the real world, is OK. The second half, based in a role playing game, is tedious and affected. The events of the story predate “The Labyrinth Index” and some of them contradict it. I think Stross has written himself into a corner with the “Laundry Files” and I wish he’d just stop it.

My current book is John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_on_Zanzibar Which won the Hugo award in 1969. This is also a reread but my guess is that the first was 40 years ago. I dimly recall bits but I have no clue how it ends. It’s set in 2010 and as 40 years into the future predictions go it’s pretty good.

ZWAK

The Plague, Albert Camus – The story of how the city of Oran in French Algeria reacts after the city walls are closed to stop the spread of the plague. I hadn’t read this since high school, and considering the events of a couple years ago, thought it would be a good time to see if it held up. So far it seems to, but while Camus places great emphasis on the actions of the individual, and does so with great skill, he falls into the trap of thinking that the actions of the government are worthy. We shall see how the ending holds up.

The Wake, Paul Kingsnorth. The first novel by former environmentalist Kingsnorth, this is the tale of an apocalypse, the invasion of England by the French in 1066 and how it destroyed English culture at that time. Told in a made-up language, a combination of modern and Old English, familiar enough that you can, with work, understand, but, alien enough to place you in a completely different mindset, that of a small holding farmer who witness’s the compete destruction of everything he knows.

DEG

The War of The Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien – This covers the drafting of The Lord of The Rings from the fall of Saruman to the Armies of the West at the Morannon gate along with Frodo and Sam’s journey to Cirith Ungol. According to Christopher, this was a difficult installment to put together. His father was working on bringing several story lines together in a coherent fashion. There are a lot of notes on the different story chronologies his father developed in the course of bringing these story lines together.

Small Arms Identification Series No. 7: .303 Magazine Lee-Metford and Magazine Lee-Enfield by Ian Skennerton – This is a short book put together using things such as armorer’s instructions, manufacturing diagrams, and other references to give a part by part breakdown of the covered firearms. The book covers the Lee-Metford Mk I, Mk I*, Mk II, Mk II*; the Lee-Metford Carbine; the Magazine, Lee-Enfield (MLE) Mk I, and the MLE Mk I*; the Lee-Enfield Carbine (LEC) Mk I, and LEC Mk I*; the Charger-Loading Lee-Metford Mk II; the Charger-Loading Lee-Enfield (CLLE) Mk I, and the CLLE Mk I*; the New Zealand contract carbine; and the Royal Irish Constabulary carbine. The book mentions the CLLE Mk I India Pattern (IP) and CLLE Mk* IP, but does not include parts break downs for those rifles. The book does not cover conversions of covered firearms into .22 trainers or into variants of the Short, Magazine, Lee-Enfield (SMLE)

The British Sniper British & Commonwealth Sniping & Equipments 1915-1983 By Ian Skennerton – The book started out well organized and written, and then in the chapter on the Second World War it became clear this is a Skennerton book. On the other hand, since it is a Skennerton book, it includes a wealth of information. The book mainly talks about British military sniper rifles and scopes, but there is coverage of other gear and tactics. There are also chapters on Commonwealth forces’ use of snipers.

Fourscore

I was able to send last month’s reading on to a fellow Glib so that worked out for two of us.

A Cowboy of the Pecos, written by Patrick Dearen, a Western author of both nonfiction and fiction. He has 23 books to his credit, this one is Biography/History.

Dearen takes us on the Texas-New Mexico cattle drives after the Civil War. There were thousands of Texas longhorn cattle roaming freely, unclaimed and wild. We follow along the development of the trails out of West Texas, each chapter dealing with particular problems, drives, Indians and weather.

These cowboys were tough and hard working, solving problems they had never seen before. The chapters are referenced individually, at the end. It’s an interesting fast read for those of us that are into that sort of Western expansionism.

A friend at Traces of Texas.com gave it to me as a gift and I will gift it on if anyone is interested. Books are meant to be read.

The Hyperbole

Christopher Buehlman’s The Daughters’ War (2024) ***½ Fantasy, War against a goblin horde, magic, gore, giant battle crows, hot girl on girl action (not explicit but implied.) Seems like it’s the start of your classic fantasy series but it gets nicely wrapped up in the end. I’m sure there will be more stories from this author’s world, but this one doesn’t seem to me to be Part 1 of some extended saga.

Robin Blake’s Secret Mischief (2021) **** The seventh book in the Cragg and Fidelis series, Set in 1746 England, Titus Cragg coroner of Preston investigates a death in a nearby town, with his buddy Dr. Luke Fidelis they uncover a string of murders related to a tontine, not sure how accurate it is but the descriptions of mid-18th century English law is interesting and Mr. Blake spins another good who-dun-it.

Steve Hockensmith’s Hired Guns – A Double-A Western Detective Agency Adventure (2024) **** Spin-off of the “Holmes on the Range” Series, The Agency is hired to protect a Copper mine from a very hostile takeover in 1894 Arizona. Lots of gunfights, knife fights, fist fights, and blowing up people. Plenty of witty dialogue and banter, a bit whimsical/slapstick-ish at times which is Hockensmith’s M.O. Another good entry in an enjoyable series.

Housekeeping

Remember if you would like to be included with all the cool kids email your reviews , criticisms , and or synopsis to whatarewereading25@proton.me by the last Monday of next month. Also contributors may notice that I have taken their book titles out of quotations and italicized them instead per Tonio’s request, *Puts on Panama hat and southern drawl* That’s the way he wants it, well he gets it.

About The Author

The Hyperbole

The Hyperbole

The Hyperbole can beat any of you chumps at Earthshaker! the greatest pinball machine of all time.

120 Comments

  1. juris imprudent

    third volume of The Last Lion

    Manchester’s unfinished work. You get the loss of his narrative approach from the first two volumes, but it is still good.

    • R.J.

      Like Esperanto?

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      “Loc it is well cnawan there is those wolde be tellan lies and those with only them selfs in mynd,”

      If you say it out loud in your head, with a slight low-brow English accent, it is pretty easy to get by.

      • UnCivilServant

        *lights book on fire*

        No thank you.

      • juris imprudent

        Sounds a bit like the Amish English. LOL

    • Sensei

      And yet this considered “English”.

      Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
      þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
      hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        That is full Old English.

        And not the kind you see on a low-rider.

      • Sensei

        The Normans introduced a ton of French into English.

        It’s no wonder I pity English as a second language learners.

      • UnCivilServant

        We need to make English even harder to learn.

      • rhywun

        The Normans introduced a ton of French into English.

        Thus, the apocolypse mentioned above.

  2. Derpetologist

    I used to think The Hyperbole’s avatar was a cyclops. Upon closer inspection, its two eyes are just very close together.

    No nose either and the hands are strangely drawn.

    • rhywun

      I used to think The Hyperbole’s avatar was a cyclops.

      Huh #metoo

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        It is a two pupiled cyclops.

        And a Rush fan.

      • Chafed

        MikeS hardest hit

    • Tres Cool

      Well, its a self-portrait. Lacking Claussen’s pickles but fairly accurate.

    • J. Frank Parnell

      No nose

      How does he smell?

  3. ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

    “… it became clear this is a Skennerton book”

    I have John Knibb’s BSA commercial production history, and it is the same. Tons of good solid information coming out of a blunderbuss. No organization other than year by year, no index, no listing of each model and production details, etc.

  4. Tres Cool

    “Hells Angels” by Hunter S. Thompson.
    If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to reading.

  5. Tonio

    JHTFC, who let you ppl post unsupervised?

    Richard: I haven’t read Stand on Zanzibar in decades. It’s probably dated as fuck by now. It was a big influence on me as a writer.

    DEG: [holds up “Nerds” sign on GlibZoom] Somewhen, I will tell the tale (or tail) of slutty young Tonio and his unobtainable gay crush who had a bell muzzle Lee-Enfield. Among other things.

    FourScore: “These cowboys were tough and hard working, solving problems they had never seen before.” Oh, my. [fans self] I haven’t read a lot of westerns, but those are now on my list because I’m revisiting mid-century men’s fiction as a thing.

    Instead of WAWR, I will tease you ppl with WAIW:

    Dick Slashballs finally smelled a brief note of the scent he was seeking. A brief note of French perfume carried on the hot, dry, Sahelian wind. Girls just had to put on that little touch of stinkum to preserve their femininity, even when they were sneaking through the vegetation, planning an ambush.

    • Aloysious

      moar plz.

    • Tonio

      “our own authoritarian Murphy”

      Talk about a blast from the past…

    • UnCivilServant

      I was hoping for a killer grandma instead.

    • rhywun

      I’ve been very tempted to mock this (more) but it’s hard because he is no shit probably the “best” of the lot that are going to pour out of that clown car. Adams is toast because he dared to complain about being swamped with illegals. The others I know of are far-left crackpots like Lander and I’m sure city council has some commies that will probably jump in.

      • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

        Heh. Twenty five years ago, Gavin Newsome was the best candidate for mayor. And he was much better than the socialist Matt Gonzales.

      • Chafed

        It’s highly mockable. If for no other reason than he probably is the best candidate.

    • juris imprudent

      Seriously NYC, you have no Brandon Johnson equivalent to turn to?

      Has anyone considering digging up Ed Koch’s corpse?

      • rhywun

        Brad Lander is probably the closest equivalent.

        Current comptroller and extrememly far left. Was probably the front runner until Cuomo launched his comeback.

  6. Evan from Evansville

    I haven’t read fiction in a long time. (I’m not *pleased* about it, and I have glaring omissions to rectify.

    Worked today, my first since Dec 8. I didn’t *do* much, just computer shit. Happily, no questions about race, sex, nothing. Me thinky-hopey this is true in other companies+. It was dreadfully dumb at both plasma centers. Yeesh. Especially for a place like that. Race *never* came up. I was the only white man on the donor floor in that whole place. No one gives a fuck. (Some do, yes. But all civil. (Helps when you’re holdin’ a needle?))

    It’s a silly gig at Walmart. I legit like their six-month 1:1 “Career Interview” to see what’d work best. ‘Put your time in on the floor, and then we’ll talk.’ <– Respect. Still, $116 is $116. (Well. I'll 'round down to $100. Do I have Winston's Mom five times, but I'm thinking she should bring 'friends.' (Gotta tap that bulk dicksout. I do like thin gals. But meth'll do that to ya. I'm tellin' ya, I have a chance.)

    Eve lynx posters: *STANDING OVATION* on the punnery. Outstanding work, by all.

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m surprised that we weren’t just directly giving it to the drug cartels free of charge.

      • Ownbestenemy

        We even made a movie about it

      • Mojeaux

        We did?!?!?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Air America? Thats what I got from that movie…

    • rhywun

      I guess we’ll find out, if they do shut off the supply and the price of the final product goes up.

      • Chafed

        That would be ironic.

  7. creech

    Just read “Eagle Against the Sun” that Fourscore generously sent me. Squabbling allies, Army v. Navy rivalry, huge egos. It is a wonder we won the war. Even so, America churned out war materials in quantities that seem astounding today: 39 carriers were commissioned in 1943 alone, along with 70 submarines and countless other vessels. Reading about the carnage at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, it would be hard for any reasonable person to quibble with Truman’s decision to use the Bomb on the Japs.

    • rhywun

      I wonder what percentage of the economy war-stuff was that year, versus now.

    • pistoffnick (370HSSV)

      …it would be hard for any reasonable person to quibble with Truman’s decision to use the Bomb on the Japs.

      I haven’t read the book, but I have qualms about that.

      NOT A FAN OF WAR. THAT WAR. VIETNAM WAR. KOREAN WAR. THE UKRAINIAN WAR. THIS NEXT WAR…
      (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, Afghanistan, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and The Philippines, South Ossetia and Abkhazia (Georgia), while Armenia is occupying parts of Nagorno Karabakh (Azerbaijan), fecking et fecking cetera.

      FUCKING ETCETERA.

      • dbleagle

        If Truman had not used the bomb he would be looking at a home front revolt after the war, or worse yet during a ground campaign on the Japanese home islands. I used to know a number of WWII infantryman and to a man they fully supported the use of atomic weaponry against Japan.

        WWII was a total war so you use the weapons you have to crush your opponent. Every man, woman, and child if need be. I get what you are saying about not being a fan of war, but we were in a war. Since then we have fought conflicts, authorized use of military forces, etc. We have been lucky enough to face full scale war and I hope our luck holds. I was despairing under biden, and not despairing as much with OMB.

  8. Ownbestenemy

    *News ticker sounds*

    We are starving, but have begun identifying the weak. Planes are just doing what they want, radar is now not allowed to identify American Airlines after Trump’s EO on transgender.

    Some dude, who really just got his ID and email was fired. We are now struggling even though we have been maintaining a level of work without him for a year or so.

    I am only allowed to turn the wrench to the right. I have broken the wields off more rigid RF cables then ever before.

    I fear I may have to give up five minutes of my morning routine to answer an email. Pray for me.

    *News ticker sounds fade*

    • rhywun

      *News ticker sounds*

      Criminy I can’t find a Youtube of that.

      I remember you could hear it in most cabs as recently as the aughts.

      • rhywun

        Yeah I was looking for that teletype sound.

      • rhywun

        LOL that’s exactly what 1010 WINS (news radio in NYC) ran in the background.

    • rhywun

      Wow, that is a lot to digest.

      For now I can note that I have no idea what “chicken riggies” and “spiedies” are supposed to be, and the “garbage plate” is (or was) restricted to a single restaurant in my home town and I never touched that shit.

      • Gender Traitor

        And where’s the Beef on Weck??

      • Ownbestenemy

        No kidding. What is ‘mountain ranch’? Tex-Mex flows much further than that map states. Cali-Mexican is spot on though. Should be a smattering of Hawaiian in SoCal and So. Nevada.

      • rhywun

        And where’s the Beef on Weck??

        If I’m reading this correctly, Buffalo is actually in a different region labeled “German” which makes some sense if we’re talking Kümmelweck.

      • rhywun

        All the hippie fresh crap on the west coast is a big indicator of why I hated it there lol

      • rhywun

        To be fair, I think the “German” region should be labeled something like “German/Polish”.

      • UnCivilServant

        “chicken riggies” is a stupid infantile name for chicken rigatoni. It is as boring a dish as that sounds and noth worth being included in a list of culinary anything.

    • rhywun

      Jell-O lol

      I wonder if they got that from Le Roy, which is not far from Palmyra. (My folks retired there.)

      • Mojeaux

        Dude, no, Jell-O is a thing. It’s even the monster in a Monsters & Mormons story. A blob of Jell-O with carrots and cottage cheese goes after the women during a meeting.

      • rhywun

        Just wondering because Jell-O originated there, though I guess the Mormons were gone by then.

      • Homple

        Green Jell-O with cottage cheese is pretty good. I also like the version with mandarin orange sections–in orange Jell-O of course. I grew up with that stuff, a sort of aspic for the poors.

        Reminds me, I’d like some head cheese with mustard again.

      • rhywun

        Jell-O fruit salad (with Cool Whip) was big in my family.

        I brought it to a JHS talent show/pot luck once.

      • Mojeaux

        I was going to say, a stable, long shelf-life, but it has absolutely no nutritional or energy value whatsoever. It’s not even like honey, where it bricks up, but never goes bad, so you just plop it in a vat of boiling water if you want sweet or medicine, or preserves that you can boil down into sugar if you need it. So its stable shelf-life makes no sense.

        Saw an anti-Mormon thread that said the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company had something to do with it, but that happened before Jell-O was invented.

        In short, I have no idea. Cheap, easy, fun, zeitgeist in the 50s? Dunno.

    • Homple

      Scandinavians are better known for sweet baked goods than lutefisk, which only old ladies at the Sons of Norway know how to cook anymore. I can do it myself, but it turns into a viscous fish slime if I’m not careful. We make lefse at family get togethers. But I think buttery, sugary pastries are the most common eats.

      • Pope Jimbo

        If the knowledge of lutefisk dies out completely, I will not be sad.

        Lutefisk isn’t the worst food I’ve ever eaten (sea urchin – looks like orange snot, but doesn’t taste as good – wins that prize), you can slather it with butter and salt and get through it. What makes lutefisk so bad is the smell. The house where it is boiled up in stinks to high heaven.

    • ZWAK, doktor of BRAIN SCIENCE!

      It is nice to see my regional cuisine is listed: Santa Maria style.

      The king of all BBQ.

      And what, pray tell, is Mormon food? Chicken breast boiled in milk? IE white on white?

      • Mojeaux

        Casseroles
        —all kinds, great for taking to a new mother to stock her freezer

        Potatoes (cheap)
        —potato salad
        —funeral potatoes (see casseroles, above)
        —potatoes au gratin
        —potato soup
        —mashed
        —baked

        Cheese
        —see potatoes, above

        Anything you can put in a Crockpot/InstantPot (I don’t do this, as I can’t stand boiled meat.)

        Fresh-baked bread.

        Pies.

    • Gustave Lytton

      The map is completely inaccurate for the PNW. Poke was never a thing until recently.

    • Pope Jimbo

      It is nice to see that the Red River Valley cuisine correctly lists our favorite food as hotdish.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Mo, I hope you noticed that I took the high road and didn’t make any derisive comments about your mental abilities based on your comments regarding Memphis BBQ.

    • Ownbestenemy

      That…is absolutely brilliant

    • rhywun

      *thunderous applause*

  9. Mojeaux

    I love Twitter so much.

  10. Homple

    I’m reading “War With the Newts” by Karel Capek. It takes a swipe at just about everyone: entrepreneurs, explorers, capitalists, scientists, the military and ordinary citizens hanging around waiting for their doom. I wish I could read Czech, because I suspect there’s a lot of good stuff that doesn’t make it across the translation barrier.

    • Chafed

      My senior year of college I shared a house with 4 other students. One of them left pots, pans, and dishes stacked in sink and kitchen counter. All of us spoke with him, begged him to clean, and finally threatened him. Nothing worked.

      One day I snapped. I took everything he left in the sink, including the water in the pots, pans, and glasses, and set it down in his bedroom.

      He came home that night and started screaming. He stormed around the house asking who did it. I told him I did. He so furious I thought he was going to take a swing at me. He threatened me if I ever did it again. I told him if it happens again everything goes in his bed. He never spoke to me again. He also never left anything in the sink. It was worth it.

      • rhywun

        My mom once took all of my belongings plus dirty dishes and assorted crap and piled them into the middle of my bedroom and made me clean it up.

        Of course I was like eleven years old, not a college student.

      • Chafed

        Is your mom single?

  11. tripacer

    I read Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors some time last year on a recommendation from someone here. The author of that book, in the book, mentioned Japan navy Captain Hara, who wrote Japanese Destroyer Captain. I read it too and found it even more interesting than Tin Can Sailors, though both were good.

  12. Pope Jimbo

    I’ve learned some rudimentary hangul and can sort of read stuff here in Korea now. I have no idea what it means, but at least I can sort of read things which is better than before.

    The Japanese have a ton of English letters everywhere. Even if you can’t read their kanji, hiragana or katakana there is some alternative English sign nearby. Not the Koreans. Those stiffnecked bastards have decided that it is their country or something and they don’t need to post shit in English for big noses like me.

    I was stoked yesterday because I was able to read ㅏ스 룸 (Ice Room). It helped I was looking at the hotel’s ice room where I was getting some ice. But still being able to puzzle it out was a minor victory.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Crap, it should have been ㅏㅣ스 룸. Hope this gets posted before everyone piles on that glaring typo.

      • Chafed

        Yeah, that was really upsetting me. 🙄

        I think I missed it when you moved. What prompted your relocation?

      • Pope Jimbo

        We never bothered to get a long term visa to stay in Japan. We can go for 90 days at a time on a tourist visa, so when it was running out, we’d pop over to Korea to see our Korean relatives there. Then go do another 90 days in Japan.

        This time, however we will be heading back to Sunny Minnesoda on the 30th of this month. We thought about one more trip to Japan but decided to head back.

        Hopefully the Altar Kids didn’t completely destroy our house.

    • rhywun

      Reading is great but if it’s anything like China they will just stare at you like you have three heads when you give them what should be perfectly understandable sentences even if you have trained for a couple years.

      That annoyed the shit out of me when I was there.

      • Pope Jimbo

        My wife did that to me just the other day.

        We were walking down the street and there were some kids behind us singing a song with the refrain “chingu, chingu, chingu”. I remembered seeing that word pop up in a Duolingo lesson just the day before, but I couldn’t remember what it meant.

        So I asked Mrs. Holiness, “Hey, what does chingu mean?” She gave me a blank stare and said there was no such work in Korean. Of course, the kids stopped singing at exactly that second, so I couldn’t point it out to her.

        After some back and forth she finally said “Oh, ‘chingu’, that means friend. You were saying ‘jingu’ which isn’t a word”.

        Uffda. I know my pronunciation isn’t that bad. Also, the fact that she didn’t hear the kids singing it is suspect. I think she just wants to keep me from upping my Korean to the point where I can trade her in for some of the newer models I see wandering around.

        * The crazy thing here is that cosmetic surgery has become cheap and super popular. According to my Korean relatives almost all the young ladies have had work done. Even a lot of the young men too.

        Makes me wonder what happens when two natural uggos hook up. Are they surprised when their kids are very ugly? What if only one of them had work done? Do they get blamed if the kid turns out ugly.

      • Gustave Lytton

        That why you need to transition your kids at birth.

      • Sensei

        Jimbo, according to my Japanese friend native Korean speakers struggle with “tsu” in Japanese.

        So tsunami becomes chunami.

        Must be something with that particular sound in Korean.

  13. hayeksplosives

    I’ve been reading “Purple Secret” about poryphria in the European royal families.

    And now reading Gad Saad “parasitic mind”‘because my sweetie is reading it too. Kind of a long distance book club for romantic nerds.

  14. Sean

    Happy Fat Tuesday!

    😎🍩🎉

  15. Common Tater

    Good Morning 🙂

    Thanks for the t/p/ww. Mom had a procedure yesterday, and the doctor said it went very well.

    (Unfortunately, no one ordered pain meds beforehand. She was OK when she got back to to her room, but around 20 minutes later she was in horrible pain, and she has a very high pain tolerance — not one to complain at all. She was shaking, hyperventilating, bp through the roof. It was so bad I was worried she was going to have stroke. It took over 30 minutes to get her a pill (not even IV) because they now have this stupid system where nurses can only text doctors, they can’t call them on the phone. Then I got a doctor on the phone, and got her a standing order for IV dilaudid. She was very out of it when I finally left, but at least comfortable and breathing normally.)

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, Tater, U, Teh Hype, Roat, and Sean!

      I’m so sorry your mother had to suffer because of the facility’s ridiculous procedures, but I’m glad her procedure went well and she FINALLY got some relief.

      • Gender Traitor

        How are you today?

      • UnCivilServant

        Sluggish, miffed at myself, and fighting the urge to call out from work since several of my own meetings are scheduled for today and rescheduling is a pain

      • Gender Traitor

        🙁 I’d be inclined to just slog through somehow and save that time off.

    • Ted S.

      Fuck the War on Drugs.

      • Common Tater

        Agreed, but this would apply to any drug, like if she had an allergic reaction and needed benadryl.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      My very old parents were both recently in the hospital, floored by flu that progressed to pneumonia, and I’ve become convinced that if you have some form of diminished capacity, even simple old age, you’re screwed without an advocate going to bat for you. Everything from getting them the right meds to getting them up and sitting in a chair to getting them boxes of freaking tissues was a damn struggle.

      • Brochettaward

        Look, fats, those tissues aint free. You’re cutting into their profitz.

        If we had more government in healthcare, everything would be fine.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        I realize you’re joking and the govt getting more involved is obviously not the answer but there’s definitely a lot of room for improvement.

      • Brochettaward

        Wouldn’t argue that. Healthcare is a toxic mess. There’s too many fucked up incentives and the people providing the care are detached from their patients/customers. There’s too many layers of bureaucracy and it’s largely created by a highly regulated environment.

        Just my two cents as some asshole on the internet.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Less stringent licensure requirements would go a long way in my view. The less training the various personnel needed, meaning they were easier to replace if they were shirking, the more responsive they were. The nurse’s aides were better than the nurses with a few notable exceptions.

  16. Tres Cool

    My shower has no normal setting. The temp is either “norwegian fjord” or “lets make soup!”

    suh’ fam
    whats goody

    • Ted S.

      Have you checked the thermostat?

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, homey. No more apartment fires in local news this morning – just a bunch of traffic accidents. 🙄

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Try rebooting it. That’s how hot water heaters work, right?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Ridiculous. What ever happened to just adjusting the hot water heater?

      • Rat on a train

        My shower faucet has a scald guard. I set it to maximum. I will select how hot I want my water.

      • The Artist Formerly Known as Lackadaisical

        WTF?

        This is why I kept as many old fixtures on my homes as possible.

        I use all the water I want at whatever temperature I deem useful.

    • Sensei

      Does the FAA have choir that it can deploy as well?