Labor Day Eve Open Post

by | Sep 6, 2020 | Open Post | 430 comments

In spite of it being a holiday weekend, or “the official end of summer” (pet peeve alert!), I’ve been sticking to my plant-based ways. We had the “Idea of Pizza” last night, but truthfully, they were all actually delicious. OMWC knows what he’s doing in the kitchen.

 

 

Of possible interest to food people here, I’ve recently found an app that is awesome: PizzApp+. Using the values I plugged in last night, we had a great dough ready in just two hours (lack of planning!) that came out weighing just 1 gram over the projected total weight of the recipe, which was mostly my fault because instead of using 2.92 grams of yeast, I used 3 so I didn’t have to get my microscale out (used mostly for mixing hydroponic nutrients).

 

 

The dough performed beautifully in our little Gozney Roccbox pizza oven. OMWC is My Hero for making three pizzas in front of a ridiculously hot oven when it was already 115F outside.

Anyway, tonight we are having spherified cocktails if we can get everything just right. Oh, food? Probably? Maybe?

 

Ok, that’s all I’ve got. I hope you are all having a great weekend!

Enjoy your Open Post!

About The Author

SP

SP

I've got an idea! How about we just stick to the Constitution as written and then the government can leave me the fuck alone.

430 Comments

  1. Fourscore

    I’ve been eating giant fresh from the garden salads along with my protein source and homegrown watermelon. I picked 10 melons yesterday, another 20 waiting and looks like possible frost on Wed morning.

    • SP

      Watermelon gazpacho! Mmmmmmm!

    • pistoffnick

      “…possible frost on Wed morning.”

      The nice thing about living next to a large body of water…

  2. TARDIS

    That looks… delicious.

    • SP

      The photo is just a quick, dark cell phone snap in bad lighting so the reality was much prettier and more vibrantly colored. But it WAS delicious.

      • TARDIS

        reality was much prettier

        That’s the opposite of what happens in restaurant commercials, so good job anyway.

      • Count Potato

        I have an old camera that has a “food” mode. Still no idea what it does.

      • SP

        Well, my actual food photography has been published, so I always feel weird sharing cell phone snapshots. They just don’t look nice by comparison.

  3. Grosspatzer

    That does look yummy!

    OMWC is My Hero for making three pizzas in front of a ridiculously hot oven when it was already 115F outside.

    Probably did that to cool off.

    • SP

      ?

    • blackjack

      In Pheonix, an oven is a cooling off station.

  4. Yusef drives a Kia

    Greetings from Amarillo! Flat tire at 6 this morning in AbQ, nightmare Sunday, and my jack folded from the weight, had to call a service to change to the temp, then wait tilPep Boys opened, 1 tire, 175$ yikes!
    But I got a smoking room, so I relax and drink in the AC

    • SP

      I’m so sorry. That you’re in Amarillo! I hate that town.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Just for a nap, then Okc and Springfield

      • JG43

        MO, IL or the one next to Shelbyville?

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Mo

      • Mojeaux

        Springfield’s a little out of my neighborhood. Sorry I’ll miss you. Stay safe and good luck!

      • TARDIS

        Spent the night in Abilene… once. We were just passing through, but we were too tired to drive anymore. Prettiest town my ass.

      • blackjack

        I was flying into Lubbock, I saw Jesus on the plane. Or maybe it was Elvis, they kinda look the same…

      • TARDIS

        I have not heard that one in years. I have the CD, I’m sure.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I try for 500 or so miles a day, any more wrecks me, and finish at check in time, say 10 hours a day driving?

      • Fourscore

        Just about right, Yusef. I can’t do those drives anymore, legs and knees are a problem. I’m also a little concerned in heavy traffic, that I might not see everything or react quick enough. I did Mpls traffic a month ago but on the bypass and on a Sat so wasn’t so much traffic.

        Be careful out there, maybe some old guys/gals that are over driving their skills.

    • Count Potato

      Wow, that’s a lot driving. Glad you are OK.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        1300 more miles, 3 days

    • blackjack

      Sometimes when you hit the road, the road hits back.

    • DEG

      Sorry about the flat tire.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        What blackjack said above,
        It slowed down a bit, but we are safe, thanks

    • Gender Traitor

      Don’t believe I’ve ever been in Amarillo, but mention of it reminds me of this bouncy little ditty.

      Please be careful out there.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Ii love Depeche

      • Digby's Patented Booty Sweat

        For some reason I’m not quite sure of, I don’t think I was aware that was DM.

        Strange.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        I love Texican polka! Thanks!

    • Raven Nation

      “Well, we crossed the panhandle and then we headed towards Amarillo

      We pulled up where Henry Porter used to live. He owned a wreckin’ lot outside of town about a mile

      Ruby was in the backyard hanging clothes, she had her red hair tied back. She saw us come rolling up in a trail of dust

      She said, ‘Henry ain’t here but you can come on in, he’ll be back in a little while.’”

      • C. Anacreon

        She had that
        Amarillo brillo
        Flamin’ out along her head
        I mean her Mendocino bean-o
        By where some bugs had made it red

        She ruled the Toads of the Short Forest
        And every newt in Idaho
        And every cricket who had chorused
        By the bush in Buffalo

        She said she was
        A Magic Mama
        And she could throw a mean Tarot
        And carried on without a comma
        That she was someone I should know

        She had a snake for a pet
        And an amulet
        And she was breeding a dwarf
        But she wasn’t done yet
        She had gray-green skin
        A doll with a pin

      • Pi Guy

        I mean is that a Mexican pancho or is that a Sears pancho?

        Hmmmm… No fooolin’

    • westernsloper

      Go eat that giant steak for free! Do it!

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Lol, I’ve seen that sign all my life, always laughed never been in,

      • DrOtto

        Tried it on the way back from Denver on the way to Houston once upon a time. You have to eat a 72oz steak, salad, roll, shrimp cocktail, and potato in 1 hr. The guy suggests you start with the shrimp cocktail as “it hits some people wrong later in the meal” this as he hands you a bucket to put under the table in the event you need it, which then disqualifies you. I ate everything but about 8oz of that steak. I couldn’t chew for about a week after that.

  5. DEG

    Anyway, tonight we are having spherified cocktails if we can get everything just right.

    That looks like too much work.

    • commodious spittoon

      Anything featuring an immersion blender is already too much work.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        They’re not that hard to clean: just power on in a cup of soapy water.

    • Rhywun

      My exact thought.

      But now I want a Negroni.

      • TARDIS

        Please?

        BTW, what happened to that guy?

      • UnCivilServant

        Not sure. But I’m wondering if we’ve lost people people than we’ve gained after the initial exodus.

      • Gender Traitor

        Observed phenomenon.

        But we’ve got quality people. Mostly.

      • Raven Nation

        He’s been around on occasion. I believe he said something about work commitments and/or change of career after they moved.

      • EvilSheldon

        I would take a Negroni. Or an Americano, that would be all right on a warm day…

      • Rhywun

        *googles*

        Oo, that sounds refreshing. I don’t have club soda but I have a sort of fruit soda that might work. And fresh lemons too.

      • Rhywun

        Update: delicious with a lemon wedge. I needed a little more than a splash of soda. I should try some orange soda that I have for the next one.

      • SP

        You need a Soda Stream. I adore mine.

      • Rhywun

        I’ve thought about it. But I keep hearing you get ripped off on the replacement tanks.

      • TARDIS

        There was a switchover from the larger tanks to much smaller ones that pissed me off, but I still think it’s a decent deal.

        ‘Adore’ is a bit strong, but I like it. 🙂

      • l0b0t

        Get the replacement tanks at Bed Bath Beyond and use their ubiquitous 20% off coupons. Any other retailer, at least here in the NYC area, will be more expensive than bottled seltzer, but with the coupons at BBB you come out ahead.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I’ve looked into getting one but haven’t yet. You can get an adapter that let’s you use CO2 tanks from AirGas or any industrial supplier) for a fraction of the retail cost.

        Even with cheap CO2, I ran the numbers and it doesn’t look I’d get ahead with the soft drink syrup. Best deal would be if you could find a local restaurant to sell you an extra Coke/Pepsi syrup bag from the distributor.

      • SP

        I do it for the convenience of always having soda water on hand. We have a water cooler, so I’m only 30 seconds away from having a cold, perfect product. Don’t have a lot of room in the fridge for it.

        I sometimes add Torani or DaVinci sugar free syrups to craft into different cocktails with vodka or rum or tequila. I especially like the peach syrup with rum, or a root beer syrup with vodka.

        Really, I don’t go through as much gas as one would think.

      • Rhywun

        I want it hoping there’s something with maybe half the sugar of commercial sodas.

      • pistoffnick

        I take the dry ice from the loading dock at work. The pellets are just larger than the diameter of the old bottle. If you let them sublimate (go from a solid to a gas) for a little while, they shrink to the right size.Weigh out 410 grams of dry ice, then slip the pellets into the bottle with chop sticks. By the time you get all of them in there you will have somewhat less than 410 grams, but that just means you won’t explode the bottle when they all become CO2 gas.

        Then I use Crystal Light liquid blackberry lemonade as as the flavoring.

      • Rhywun

        Oh thanks but nah, that’s OK. Not ready for that yet.

    • SP

      You understand we met online in a food and cooking discussion group, right? This is our shared hobby. Quality “couple” time!

      ??????

      • DEG

        I did not know that is how you two met.

      • Sean

        Did you assume a daycare?

      • DEG

        No.

        Nursing home.

  6. Count Potato

    “used mostly for mixing hydroponic nutrients”

    *giggles in libertarian*

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Those nutrient films dont just pop out of thin air ya know……..

  7. Count Potato

    This whole Summer just feels weird to me like it never happened.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Ditto. How did it get to Labor Day already?

      Pizza looks delish. I could snarf those tomatoes right off the top.

      • Rhywun

        I bought little cherry tomatoes on the vine at the produce stand today. Aiming to put them on whatever I happen to cook later.

      • pistoffnick

        My garden is producing cherry tomatoes faster than the birds and I can keep up.

  8. Old Man With Candy

    Spherification so far has been a total bust. The droplets hit the KCl solution, then flatten out and dissipate.

    The only thing I see saving us is reverse spherification.

    • westernsloper

      Droplets? I thought they were supposed to be frozen. And who else can’t read the word reverse, regardless of what follows, without thinking of cowgirls?

      • SP

        There are two main different methods. The reverse spherification and the direct. Direct results in the “caviar” and reverse results in the pods. Caviar needs to be consumed pretty quickly because it continues to gel and you lose the liquid interior. Reverse can hold with the liquid for quite a while. You can store them in the same kind of liquid you created them from.

      • westernsloper

        The “caviar” I was speaking of is the berry thing you guys mentioned the other night. How was it?

      • SP

        Total bust. Didn’t gel.

        Trying again today with an all new setup.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Just watched a video to see what this spherification thing was all about, and they showed that happening in the video. Says it can be fixed by “adding salts such as sodium citrate.”

      • Old Man With Candy

        In our case, they were wrong.

      • SP

        Tried it.

        No joy.

        We’re starting over completely with all new solutions mixed in varying concentrations.

  9. TARDIS

    Getting fungry. Smoked brisket enchiladas just went into the oven. Mrs. T has been hard at for three hours.

    • JG43

      She should see a doctor

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        1 more hour, Tulpa

      • JG43

        I wouldn’t know. I never made it that long.

      • TARDIS

        Ahem, I AM the doctor.

        Ok, not really, but it sounds good.

        Good messican food sure has a lot of prep work. ?

        At least the smoked meat is mine.

      • Sean

        “At least the smoked meat is mine.”

        Phrasing.

    • Sean

      I did a tri tip on the grill. Was good.

  10. blackjack

    I made my kid (he’s 7) listen to Three Dog Night’s ” One Is the Loneliest Number” And about two hours later, he tweaked it into his own version and made us listen. It was spectacular. The kid’s got music in him. I bought him an Epi Les Paul Special. I guess I gotta look into some lessons.

    • Rhywun

      ??

      • Chafed

        The keyboard player looks like Eric Idle.

      • Digby's Patented Booty Sweat

        I’d say…more like his mentally challenged brother.

        Or, maybe it’s chemically-challenged.

    • Count Potato

      Awesome!

    • C. Anacreon

      I made my kid (he’s 7) listen to Three Dog Night’s ” One Is the Loneliest Number” And about two hours later, he tweaked it into his own version and made us listen. It was spectacular.

      I had my own version of that song when I was a kid, too. It went:

      “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do,
      Two is the second loneliest,
      Three is the third loneliest,
      Four! Is the fourth loneliest number that you’ll ever do…..

      • zwak

        I always thought it should be

        “One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do,
        Two is the loneliest number that you ever do do…

    • Fourscore

      I am amazed that some are blessed with some much talent, I don’t understand music at all and yet your youngster can pick up a guitar and make it sound nice. Same with art. I saw a friend’s kid about 7-8 years old in front of keyboards and within a few minutes I could recognize the music he had just learned from himself. His grandfather handed him a guitar and soon he was doing the same thing. I have trouble putting gas in the lawn mower.

      Good on your son and good on you. Now where in hell is that funnel, Damn it, it was here yesterday.

  11. creech

    Here’s the effect Gauleiter Wolf and the media had on dining customers in PA. Local restaurant owner’s revenue is down 87%; he says “Most customers are scared to come out even to pick up food.” Imagine what the carnage would be if President Biden decided to scare-monger for another six months beginning in February?
    But we all know the real message: “Vote Democratic and the virus will suddenly disappear due to scientific leadership.”

    • EvilSheldon

      Yep. Talked to the owner of my favorite restaurant in Williamsburg. He’s down around $3.5mil since the beginning of the year.

      This panic will be the end of us.

      • SUPREME OVERLORD trshmnstr

        The sick thing is that it’s going to work. Biden’s quite possibly gonna win, he’ll inherit the “trump depression”, and hes gonna have 4 years to fuck up the economy with 1000 little economics killing payoffs. Student loan forgiveness? Sure! Wealth tax (framed as a 100%+ income tax thanks to Roberts) ? Why not! Obamacare? Let’s double down!

    • Rhywun

      scared to come out even to pick up food

      I hadn’t even thought of it that way.

      Shit.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Our restaurant spending is way down. We ramped up our home cooking and haven’t looked back. Put up with far too much mediocre food for convenience.

    • Sean

      Scrolled through some comments. ???

    • Chafed

      Wow! You weren’t kidding.

    • Gustave Lytton

      It started out actually not too bad ‘change your life, don’t be like me or you’ll end in a world of pain’ and then he goes on to free money for us shit.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Did he have a comment on the Hans Gruber situation?

      • blackjack

        Pigs chucked him off a roof. Nazi sympathizers. Racist bastards. They’re all bastards.

  12. Derpetologist

    suggested music: – Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, 3rd movement (Firing Line Theme)

    Peter Strzok, Notorious Ex-G-Man, Explains Himself And Takes Aim At Trump
    https://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/908016924/peter-strzok-notorious-ex-g-man-explains-himself-and-takes-aim-at-trump

    ***
    Flip to Page 400 of your copy of the IG report for this example, in which Strzok wrote to Page: “Just went to a southern Virginia Walmart. I could SMELL the Trump support….”

    This material provided critics of the FBI and the Russia inquiry with sensational ammunition in their years-long campaign to counterattack by tearing down federal law enforcement.

    Strzok acknowledges transgressions in the book but says he wants to spare his family and focus his story on the job. Moreover, he argues, FBI employees are allowed to have opinions and even use their mobile devices for personal communications.

    Can a gumshoe privately contemptuous of the Republican politician he’s investigating and who’s violating his marital vows and leaving evidence of the foregoing on a U.S. government-issued electronic device also work by the book in his capacity as a top FBI investigator?

    No, Trump and his supporters have fulminated, and they’ve sought to cast Strzok and Page as the faces of an ostensible conspiracy within officialdom out to get Trump.

    Strzok, though, has always maintained that the answer is, in fact, yes — and he cites subsequent investigations which he says defended his work and that of others in the FBI’s Hillary Clinton and Russia investigations.
    ***

    [head desk]

    Head Desk Symphony, Movement 2

    ***
    For those with a solid background in the Clinton email and Russia imbroglios, Strzok’s account obviously is essential. He describes how he perceived very quickly, for example, that the nature of any alleged criminal transgressions in Clinton’s email case made it very unlikely that the Justice Department would prosecute her.

    No matter who is involved, the law is too difficult to apply in all but the clearest-cut matters, and officials believe their energies are better applied chasing bigger game, he says.

    “Historically, trying to get DOJ to prosecute mishandling of confidential-level information was like trying to persuade a fraternity house that spiked seltzer is a real drink,” Strzok writes.

    It also appears never to occur to him they might become public. He hasn’t appreciated how much the political situation in Washington has shifted.

    “I was naive,” he writes.

    Strzok’s anger burns in the passages about what he considers the betrayal and sophistry that justified his firing.

    He sits with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who says, per Strzok: ” ‘Pete,’ Horowitz said, ‘we’re not saying you acted with bias. We’re saying we can’t eliminate the possibility that bias played a role in your decision-making.’ ”

    “How in the hell do I prove a mental negative? I thought,” Strzok writes.”In fact, I argued” — with respect to the Clinton email case — “all the facts they had developed pointed to the opposite conclusion: if anything, my actions hurt Clinton and helped Trump. I don’t know what more I can say, I said, shaking my head.”
    ***

    Head Desk Symphony, finale

    ***
    Strzok has sued the FBI over his termination, arguing it was politically motivated.
    ***

    [Kif sigh]

    • blackjack

      Fucking douche! You actively tried to undermine a sitting, duly elected president and then they found texts talking about how much you hated him and were willing to conspire against him. No fucking shit you got fired, why aren’t you in jail, asshole?

      • Derpetologist

        ***
        “Historically, trying to get DOJ to prosecute mishandling of confidential-level information was like trying to persuade a fraternity house that spiked seltzer is a real drink,” Strzok writes.
        ***

        Edward Snowden was unavailable for comment.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Sandy Berger declined to comment for this story.

      • Derpetologist

        Daniel Ellsberg could not be reached as of press time.

      • dbleagle

        Yeah Pete there is a BIG difference between “Confidential” information and the “Top Secret-with caveats” information passing through Clinton’s server. She was facing hard time, and every person who sent her or received that information.

        I bet Pete doesn’t discuss how the sitting president, BHO. sent her emails at her private account.

        And come on Pete, why don’t you discuss how HRC has argued in court that the FOIA and Official Records Acts don’t apply to any of her emails as SecState because they were sent and stored on a private system and not on a USG system.

      • commodious spittoon

        Does nobody else find it much more upsetting that she clearly wanted her business as SOS conducted in private, away from the prying eyes of American voters/taxpayers/her political adversaries, than that a handful of those emails were classified? She treated American citizens as more suspect than the foreign intelligence agencies obviously accessing her server, which, you know, we no doubt are. And it’s not just Clinton, our career bureaucrats and politicians have more in common with America’s geopolitical rivals than they do with the citizens they rule. Which is maybe as much a reason to rethink this whole America proposition.

      • Derpetologist

        QUIET, YOU!

      • Fourscore

        Well, I am deplorable so she was right to make sure that I and others like me didn’t have access to any of her thoughts. Totally understandable, since she was doing the people’s business minus Fourscore.

      • Tulip

        The only reason she used a private server was to evade public records laws. Like you, I think that was a huge deal. She did it to evade the law. To me, that suggests she knew she would have something to hide. Of course, she claims that it’s because the Republicans are just unreasonable and she would be subject to scrutiny unfairly. I have no sympathy for that argument.

      • Derpetologist

        from wiki

        ***
        In an August 15, 2016 text message, Strzok told Page: “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s (Andrew McCabe, Deputy Director of the FBI) office that there’s no way Trump gets elected—but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.” This message attracted scrutiny from Republicans, including Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, who stated: “Some of these texts appear to go beyond merely expressing a private political opinion, and appear to cross the line into taking some official action to create an ‘insurance policy’ against a Trump presidency.” Sources close to Strzok and Page told The Wall Street Journal that Strzok was not contemplating using the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to harm Trump’s candidacy, but rather emphasizing the need to aggressively pursue any such leads before the election “because some of Mr. Trump’s associates could land administration jobs and it was important to know if they had colluded with Russia.”
        ***

        He was worried about Russian collusion! Yeah, that’s the ticket!

  13. westernsloper

    The dough performed beautifully in our little Gozney Roccbox pizza oven.

    Are you using gas or wood? And wtf? First alcoholic caviar and now tide booze pods? You people are weird.

    • Count Potato

      “alcoholic caviar”

      You get the fish pregnant by getting her drunk first?

    • SP

      We’re using gas for now. Firewood seems to be hard to find and expensive in Phoenix. No huge forests.

      But, really, with heat as high as that thing goes, we get plenty of char and smokiness.

  14. The Hyperbole

    Question for any engineer type Glibs. Is the torque of an electric motor primarily a function of its hp? or is there some other factor that makes a difference. If it matters I’m building a turntable to spin circular wooden frames so that I can sand them easier, kind like a vertically oriented lathe but i’m not doing any cutting/gouging just sanding , I mocked it up with a cheap 1/3 hp motor from a harbor freight drill press and it works but I can’t put much force on the sanding block with out stopping the motor.

    • blackjack

      Torque is actual force, independent of time. Horsepower the same torque measured over a period of time.

    • westernsloper

      You do know they make sanders that rotate right? (I crack myself up) How wide are the items? Some custom wood shop/door builders have massively wide self fed belt sanders. In my previous life we used those guys to sand out on a first run than finished with an orbital.

      • The Hyperbole

        They are 30-32″ diameter and they have a rim. I need to sand the inner edge and “track”(for lack of a better word) so a belt sander wont work.

      • blackjack

        That’s a huge diameter. The father out you go, the more power you need. sand the innermost section and it’ll work easy.

      • blackjack

        The further out you go, the slower you need to turn it and the more power to achieve the same level of material removal. Bigger driven pulley and smaller drive pulley. That might make it work.

      • westernsloper

        I wondered what those were on your workbench during last nights Zoom. WTF are those for? And I recently bought a pocket screw jig. Genius little things. I was a biscuit jointer before that purchase.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Kreg claims another victim.

        I’ve got to pick up one of those for the next time I need to do something like that. Looks so much easier in YouTube videos.

      • The Hyperbole

        They are frames for Crokinole boards, Neph mentioned them ages ago and then I wrote an article about making a few of them. I’d find it and link to it but I’m drunk.

      • westernsloper

        I remember both of those articles. You selling a few?

      • The Hyperbole

        Yeah, I made my sister one back then and now a few of her friends want some, I figured If I’m making 2 I may as well make four, might set up an etsy thing and see if I can sell the extras.

      • blackjack

        You might get it working somewhat if you play with the gearing. Adjust the pulleys to slow it down and it’ll have more torque. Maybe. It really needs more power at those crazy diameters.

      • westernsloper

        How about multiple lamination’s? In ascending order of sanding and height. If the rim is higher glue it up after you feed the other part through a belt sander. Then you just have glue joints to deal with.

    • blackjack

      Two ways to do more work. More power or less per bite.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Another point is the hp rating is usually for the motor itself. Not familiar with that model, but could have gearing in between the motor and the bit attachment of the drill.

      • The Hyperbole

        Oh I’m just using the motor, I did make a 7″ wheel to help slow it down I may buy a 10″ one but if it’s a horsepower issue I’d rather spend the money on a bigger motor.

      • blackjack

        Yeah, you could very well need both to be good at it. Either/or and it’ll get better.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Think swamp cooler pulleys, small motor sheaves and large work pulley, and a 3/4hp motor

    • Mojeaux

      I’m not able to visualize what you need to happen that can’t be done with a router.

      • The Hyperbole

        I do use a router to make them initially but it doesn’t leave it clean enough, the outer part is the finished product and I don’t want router grooves and the occasional tear out and what not so I need to sand it to at least 220.

    • SP

      Here’s the original article.

      (This is for those wondering, but too drunk to search.)

    • Plinker762

      Horsepower is basically torque times RPM so for more torque at a fixed speed you need more horsepower. As said above if you use the same motor, you need to reduce the driven speed.

      Motor design does effect the amount of “extra” torque you can get out of a motor before it stalls. More torque equals more current and eventually the magic smoke will escape.

    • Chafed

      This sounds like a job for I. B. McGinty.

  15. Derpetologist

    obscure authors worth reading

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Salgari

    ***
    Emilio Salgari (Italian pronunciation: [eˈmiːljo salˈɡaːri] but often erroneously pronounced [ˈsalɡari] ; 21 August 1862 – 25 April 1911) was an Italian writer of action adventure swashbucklers and a pioneer of science fiction.[1]

    In Italy, his extensive body of work was more widely read than that of Dante. Today he is still among the 40 most translated Italian authors. Many of his most popular novels have been adapted as comics, animated series and feature films. He is considered the father of Italian adventure fiction and Italian pop culture, and the “grandfather” of the Spaghetti Western.[2]
    ***

    ***
    Salgari’s work was imitated in one form or another by many who came after him. A large part of the Italian adventure literature is a continuation of Salgari’s work. Many late 19th century writers such as Luigi Motta and Emilio Fancelli wrote further Sandokan adventures imitating Salgari’s style: fast-paced, filled with great battles, blood, violence and punctuated with humour.

    The style soon spread to movies and television. One example is the work of the director Sergio Leone, whose outlaw heroes in his Spaghetti Westerns were inspired by Salgari’s piratical adventurers. More than 50 film adaptations have been made of Salgari’s novels, and many more were inspired by his work (corsair stories, jungle adventure stories, and swashbuckling B movies, such as Morgan, the Pirate, starring Steve Reeves).

    Federico Fellini loved Salgari’s books. Pietro Mascagni had over 50 Salgari titles in his library. Umberto Eco read Salgari’s works as a child.
    ***

    ***
    Though knighted by the Queen of Italy and wildly popular, Salgari did not earn much money from his books and lived hand to mouth for most of his life.

    Salgari married Ida Peruzzi – nicknamed “Aida,” – with whom he had four children – which added to the family’s economic problems – and with whom he was very happy for years.[3] Salgari private life was clouded by several tragedies. In 1889 his father committed suicide.[3] Ida became ill after 1903 and Salgari’s struggling increased with her medical bills.

    These events led Salgari to depression, and he attempted suicide in 1910. After Ida was committed to a mental ward in 1911, Salgari was overwhelmed and took his own life soon afterwards, imitating the Japanese ritual of seppuku, and died on 25 April 1911.[3] He left three letters, addressed to his and Ida’s children, his publisher, and the editors of his newspaper in Turin. The letter to his publisher said:

    To you that have grown rich from the sweat of my brow while keeping myself and my family in misery, I ask only that from those profits you find the funds to pay for my funeral. I salute you while I break my pen. Emilio Salgari

    [3]
    ***

    Well, he certainly made a dramatic exit.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Today he is still among the 40 most translated Italian authors.

      Faint praise.

      • UnCivilServant

        Are they counting Romans in that metric?

      • Derpetologist

        ***
        In Italy, his extensive body of work was more widely read than that of Dante.
        ***

        He beat Dante. That’s gotta burn, like some kind of inferno.

      • egould310

        Dante? From the Quick Stop? That guy’s girlfriend blew me back in high school.

      • pistoffnick

        “You know, there’s a million fine looking women in the world, dude. But they don’t all bring you lasagna at work. Most of ’em just cheat on you.”

        -Silent Bob

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD4l8wpbrRI

      • egould310

        Knowledge.

  16. Derpetologist

    a real American hero

    BLM Riot Turns Into MAGA YMCA Dance Party
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnzPEyTpByU

    YouTube keeps nuking the video for some reason.

    We truly live in the best timeline.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      Fake news!

    • Tulip

      That is hilarious.

    • commodious spittoon

      I mean it’s no beating old folks or looting and arsoning stores, but we’ll see if it plays for the voter base.

    • Rhywun

      The seething hatred SMDH

    • westernsloper

      Ha!

    • blackjack

      My wife showed me that. Kinda seems over produced, but it’s great nonetheless. Too long for me. I got the jist after a short while.

    • straffinrun

      Poor Joe. They can’t do anything that is light hearted like that. If they tried, it would turn into something like The Pillage People.

      • straffinrun

        Ha. It’s funny in the original. “Stop, drop and roll!” Dude, don’t think that works when your feet are on fire.

      • mikey

        Saw a longer version where he tries that and it doesn’t work. The police finally come along to deal wth it.

      • straffinrun

        “Only you can prevent dumpster fires.”

      • mikey

        Huh?

      • commodious spittoon

        Like that sequence from Arrested Development where Michael and Gob are fighting over the frozen banana stand franchises to various tunes, and

        Shit, my sister’s right, I resort to pop culture references waaaaaaay too much.

      • Derpetologist

        Biden: These protests are mostly peaceful.

        Narrator voice-over: The riots became much worse.

      • Michael Bluth

        There’s always money in the banana stand…

  17. Threedoor

    Labor Day? Sounds commie.

    • The Hyperbole

      I listen to Tom Morello’s sirius show this week was labor day themed, he claimed that the USA is the only country that doesn’t celebrate it’s workers on May 5th because we didn’t want to be like those filthy commies. So yeah It’s commie but at least on a different day.

      • UnCivilServant

        Commie Labor Day isn’t May 5th. It’s May 1st.

        He shouldn’t slander the great american holiday of Cinco De Mayo by misassociating it with commie labor day.

      • The Hyperbole

        My bad he probably got it right as he probably wasn’t as drunk as I am.

      • Ted S.

        In New Zealand, Labo(u)r Day is the 4th Monday in October.

      • Rhywun

        He’s right. May Day is for commies. Let them have it.

  18. dbleagle

    Yesterday I went to look at a sailboat to potentially buy. On the way back I decided to go through “the country” route around the north end of Oahu. This is the poor part of the island and has lots of native Hawaiians and Polynesians and is normally deep blue even by Hawaii standards. I saw Trump flags in pickups, Trump yard signs and homemade Trump signs on power poles. Trump won’t win this state but my bet is he will do a whole lot better than last time.

    • TARDIS

      So this time he’ll lose the popular vote by just 30 million?

    • westernsloper

      What boat? And if the native Hawiians are turning Trumpy that is a big tell.

      • dbleagle

        It’s a 29 ft sailboat. The buyer isn’t that motivated so I don’t think we’ll be able to come to an agreement on a price.

    • SP

      The happiest two days of a man’s life.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Yep

  19. Tulip

    I made a salsa today, tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, jalapenos, one habanero, one green New Mexico Chile and one red New Mexico Chile. My neighbor orders new Mexico chiles every year. Like Westernsloper, he has a Chile dealer. I made it early this afternoon and put in in the fridge to meld. Just pulled it out and tried it. First three bites, nice flavor, but no heat. The fourth bite lit me up! Yes! I am pleased.

    • straffinrun

      Salsa Sunday FTW.

    • westernsloper

      ?

    • westernsloper

      Are you hosting a pre-labor day Zoom? Hype said he was drunk so we can make fun of him.

      • Tulip

        No, not today. Yesterday’s was really fun. I’ve been looking for occasions to break out the Shakespearean insults.

      • westernsloper

        Yesterday’s was really fun.</em is what thy mother said.

      • westernsloper

        Fer fucks sake.

      • Tulip

        Thou roguish knotty-pated vassal!

      • C. Anacreon

        Do you have the book to create the Shakespearean insults? My mom gave me that for Xmas last year.

      • EvilSheldon

        🙂

    • Hyperion

      Please tell me that you did not use heat or cooking in any way with that, then we can talk.

      • Tulip

        Of course not. Just chopped, stirred, and put in the fridge.

      • Hyperion

        Yay, you’ve got it!

    • Hyperion

      “tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, jalapenos, one habanero, one green New Mexico Chile and one red New Mexico Chile.”

      Tomatoes: yes

      Onion: Yes, white only or red for sub

      Garlic: No

      Jalapeno: Yes

      Habenero: No

      Other hot peppers: No

      Green Bell Pepper

      Cilantro

      Lime Juice

      Salt

      Anything heated or cooked = ruined

      • Tulip

        Yours sounds boring. Pump up the heat – habanero and new Mexico chiles

      • SP

        This is why we’re friends.

      • Sean

        That ain’t heat. ?

      • Count Potato

        “Cilantro”

        No.

        I don’t put garlic or basil, but I do add cumin.

    • blackjack

      I was gonna say she probably didn’t use ENOUGH garlic. I’m a quarter wop, though.

  20. Old Man With Candy

    I’m thinking about a vegetable socca for dinner. Talk me out of it.

    • westernsloper

      I’m having tequila for dinner. Not sure what the pre sleep snack will be yet.

      • commodious spittoon

        Stale tostada shell fragments, or that half of a half-bag of fries in the deep freeze, or French’s crispy fried onions (which is also stale).

        I kid, I kid. The French’s was eaten ages ago.

        Tequila for dinner, tequila for night cap, tequila forever.

    • straffinrun

      Soccajewea.

    • Chafed

      First I need to know what vegetable socca is.

      • Old Man With Candy

        A socca with vegetables in it.

      • SP

        Duh.

      • SP

        They can be adapted to whatever you have in the fridge. Naturally vegan!

        Socca Recipe

        We generally make them thicker because we have more added ingredients. Tonight’s was mostly pepper and onions. Rosemary for the herb. So good!

  21. straffinrun

    No, no, no. What I’m going to say is really funny.

    • Ted S.

      That would be a first.

      • straffinrun

        Inorite?

    • westernsloper

      You should have said, really fuckin funny.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      This is Trump’s America and his divisiveness and racism is what caused it. That is the counter narrative the DNC is going with.

      • creech

        Reminds me of the bumper sticker I saw the other day on the back of a Prius: “Trump’s America is Germany 1933.” The woman driving would be shocked to learn she’s virtually a volunteer for the Trump campaign!

      • C. Anacreon

        I have a friend who descended from holocaust survivors who has been claiming that for four years now. “All the signs are identical,” he claims. I suggested that he might be right, only he’s looking in the wrong direction, that BLM and Antifa are the ones acting like it is kristallnacht, and Dem governors are acting like rights-denying dictators, but he just shakes his head like I’m blind. He has a homemade t-shirt that he constantly wears that says Trump equals swastika. He lives in Berkeley, so a lot of passersby tell him they like his shirt, so he almost never takes it off.

      • blackjack

        It’s blatant. A= whatever makes my team right. Facts are to refuted with whatever is the opposite of them, in service to political party. Never thought it’d get this bad, but here we are.

      • Chafed

        I’m glad you said something CA. Trump has authoritarian tendencies. I get why my fellow Jews call him out. The utter blindness to what the left is doing leaves me shaking my head.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        I have a friend who descended from holocaust survivors who has been claiming that for four years now.

        Meh, the left was claiming the same thing when Bush had a big popularity boost after 9/11.

  22. Neabsco

    Wonderful looking pizza. I love cherry/grape tomatoes and fresh basil.

    This is the first year in a long time where I haven’t had a garden (due to moving and a new employer who doesn’t provide space for community gardens). I used to grow several varieties of small tomatoes, in addition to basil and other herbs, squash, zucchini, edible flowers, cucumbers, lettuce, beets, etc. . . at this time of year I’d almost become vegetarian if I wasn’t careful!

    • Rhywun

      I just mixed in halved cherry tomatoes with my lazy soupy chicken alfredo and egg noodles and it kicked the whole thing up a notch – bam!

      • Neabsco

        Almost like how bacon makes things better!

      • Rhywun

        Oh shit, yeah. That needs to go in next time.

      • Brochettaward

        Almost like how bacon makes things better!

        Not gay. Hm…

      • egould310

        Soupy chicken Alfredo? Throw some parmesan in there. That’ll fix it.

      • Rhywun

        I like it soupy, so it was on purpose.

      • egould310

        How do you make your sauce?

      • Rhywun

        Half chicken stock, half heavy cream. Slowly add parmesan and a bunch of spices. Stir stir stir while it reduces.

      • Chafed

        Thank you for not sharing this during GlibFit. ?

      • egould310

        The sauce is keto. The egg noodles… not so much. But goddamn is it delicious.

    • The Hyperbole

      Why would your employer have anything to do with providing space for community gardens?

      • Neabsco

        My previous employer had over a thousand acres and set aside part of it to be vegetable garden plots for employees – pretty cool benefit, especially since most of us lived in apartments.

      • blackjack

        Yeah, I was picturing his boss like ” Here’s your five bucks a day, better grow some veggies if you want to eat too!”

    • Brochettaward

      at this time of year I’d almost become vegetarian if I wasn’t careful!

      Gay.

    • SP

      I’m having a hell of a time trying to garden here in Phoenix. So I’ve brought all my herbs and lettuce and arugula and cherry tomatoes inside and am growing everything hydroponically with great success. Highly recommend.

  23. blackjack

    Fucking streets look like the purge. I’m all in favor of him using what they gave him. They certainly are going to use what “anonymous sources” give them. I know which I believe more.

    • straffinrun

      Cryptic. Who’s he?

      • blackjack

        Meant to be a reply to Derp above. Thread fail. I blame the Stellas.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      AbQ was a shithole of danger, and scum, so far, every city I have gone through is turning to shit

      • commodious spittoon

        Albuquerque is lovely and if you’d asked I’d have put you up for free and only barely molested you, maybe just tapped on your door to see if you’re into it, but only for a couple hours.

        It’s not all interstate. There’s also lots of land roads with McDonald’s and Castle pornography superstores, and there’s an Intel plant on the west side but technically that’s Rio Rancho. And there’s lots of suburbs and also I-40 to look at.

      • Chafed

        How do I make a reservation?

      • Digby's Patented Booty Sweat

        There’s also lots of land roads with McDonald’s and Castle pornography superstores

        Go on…

        /get your note pad ready, Chafed

  24. Fourscore

    RIP, Lou Brock

    • blackjack

      Black dude, did all the stealing? Checks out.

    • straffinrun

      Lube Rock will never die.

      • Chipping Pioneer

        At least we still have Lure Eid.

    • creech

      Free Agency at Last.

    • robc

      Is Ernie Broglio still alive?

      • robc

        Answering my own question, he died in 2019.

    • JG43

      Now I’ll never get a a Brockabrella

    • Spudalicious

      That was a hell of a run on sentence.

      • Rhywun

        MayorOfLA

        It’s almost 3 p.m. Time to turn off major appliances, set the thermostat to 78 degrees (or use a fan instead), turn off excess lights and unplug any appliances you’re not using.

        Seriously?

        Maybe Gavin can close another nuke plant or two.

        ?‍♂️

      • blackjack

        That’s my boss. He’s arranging for me to “contribute” 10% of my income to repairing the results of his genius policies.

      • TARDIS

        Could be worse. My CEO has arranged for me to contribute 25% of mine, and he gets to be the “good” guy.

  25. Derpetologist

    https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909599762/trump-faces-fallout-from-report-he-calls-military-losers-and-suckers

    ***
    Reaction to The Atlantic article on social media was swift and harsh. Hours after it published, Democratic-leaning political action committee VoteVets.org released an attack ad featuring the response of gold star families.
    ***

    I don’t know how long it takes to make an attack ad, but I’m pretty sure it’s more than a few hours. And yet no one at NPR found this the slightest bit suspicious. Hell, the attack ads contain the same allegations as the article, which probably hadn’t even been written yet.

    NPR – the worst journalism you are forced to pay for

  26. straffinrun

    Inside of Winston’s mom’s panties has lower humidity than Tokyo today

    • Gustave Lytton

      Getting much moisture from TY 2010?

      • Tejicano

        On my side of town it’s been raining intermittently with strong sun in between to turn it all into a sidewalk sauna.

      • Gustave Lytton

        So September? I will never go back to Japan in the humid season. I almost had to take my wife to the hospital as a heat casualty. And I thought Georgia and Louisiana were bad in the summer.

      • Tejicano

        Yeah, you can count on it to stay like this until October. Some years it cuts out before that but generally I don’t expect to be outside much until then.

  27. Chipping Pioneer

    Wuhan Flu deaths in Canada today: 2

    Wuhan Flu deaths in Canada yesterday: 2

    Wuhan Flu deaths in Canada Friday: 1

    I think we’re done here.

    • egould310

      You’re Canadadaian?

      • Chipping Pioneer

        Well, the CBC tells me that all Americans are dead from the Covid. Since I am not dead, I must be Canadian.

  28. Derpetologist

    One more link before my walk.

    https://www.npr.org/2020/09/06/910320018/fascism-scholar-says-u-s-is-losing-its-democratic-status

    ***
    [The U.S.] is the home of anti-fascist resistance — not just our soldiers in World War II but our intellectuals and journalists and nonviolent protest movements and revolutionaries here who have confronted our own racial history that so influenced Hitler. So we have the seeds in this country of the evils that were the foundation of many anti-democratic regimes, but we also have the flowers that stopped them.
    ***

    [anguished Zoidberg groan]

    I might post some more later tonight. Have a good one, y’all.

    • commodious spittoon

      Wo walken du Christopher?

    • Brochettaward

      He defines fascism as “a cult of the leader who promises national restoration in the face of humiliation brought on by supposed communists, Marxists and minorities and immigrants who are supposedly posing a threat to the character and the history of a nation.”

      Yea…this is a bullshit definition of fascism. It’s the reason cries of fascism are so pervasive in politics to begin with. Ambiguous/vague definitions of what fascism actually is which allow just about anyone to be branded.

      And in the clear cut cases of no-shit real fascism that we have, Italy and Germany, they sure as fuck weren’t “supposed” Marxists and communists.

      • Tejicano

        They will always be “supposed” Marxists and communists until they start doing it “correctly”. According to them nobody has ever done it “correctly”.

  29. Gender Traitor

    Tonight was the third night in a row that our usual Porch Cat (AKA “Gracie” – assumed female due to the interest she showed in our tom) failed to show up to be fed. We’re worried, but a little while ago, a different cat showed up. Gorgeous – longish fur, tabby-striped head but unique gray cloud-like markings on its body, and white feet. Much friendlier and less skittish than Gracie – it let Tom T pet it, and he said he could feel its ribs. It ate that food right up. Less interest in Official Cat than Gracie showed, but no hostilities on either side. We’ll see if it comes around again – or if Gracie reappears.

    Also gave Official Cat (“Snot.” I didn’t pick the name) his (belated) monthly dose of anti-critter medicine, since he’s coming in contact with outdoor cats.

    • Chipping Pioneer

      The neighbours have a new Golden Retriever puppy. The wife and I were discussing that, while Golden Retrievers aren’t very smart, they are very interested in pleasing their people. This then led us to a discussion about our own English Bulldog. While smarter than a Golden Retriever, they don’t GAF about pleasing their humans. They are the cats of the dog world.

      • Tres Cool

        Point of Order- Great Pyrenees are the cats of the dog world. Just really big.

      • SP

        This.

      • westernsloper

        My last dog and best friend I have ever had in my life was a golden/black lab mix. He was dumb as dog shit at the same time he was super smart, he wanted nothing other than to be around people and you could not keep him out of water. If he saw water he was going swimming and there was not a damn thing anybody was going to do about that until he was finished.

      • Tulip

        Aww, cute story.

      • westernsloper

        The first time I moved back to CO mid 90’s I rigged my sailboard and took off from shore on this lake.. I looked back and the dumb ass was following me. We were a couple hundred yards off shore when I tacked back and got him to shore. He could barely walk he was so tired and those were his young days. He made it to 13 which is a good run for a 90+ pound dog. He is the reason I have never gotten another dog.

      • pistoffnick

        My golden retriever, “Daisy”, loved to roll in smelly things. One outing, she found a very ripe, dead fish. We drove home at 3 miles per hour with her walking beside the Landcruiser (luckily it had a granny gear). There was NO WAY she was getting in the truck. She still smelled like dead fish after washing her 3 times.

      • Tulip

        Never run for office. That’s a Mitt Romney dog on top of the car moment.

      • westernsloper

        Oh ya, Pete would find the nastiest pile of anything rotting/shit and roll in it and be happy as if he just had a party thrown for him. He would then joyfully come and see any person around to share his new found scent. Damn dog thought he was Gwyneth Paltrow or something.

    • blackjack

      Cats kinda do what they want. Never seen one not come back, except one that got “adopted” by some kids a few blocks over. They said they hadn’t seen a cat named “Sophie” After more questioning they did see a cat named “Yoda” that matched the description exactly. That was our only close call.

    • pistoffnick

      Heh, the first cat we got as a married couple was named “Booger” because she had a small patch of orange fur beside her nostril.

      Current cats are named “Layla”, after an Eric Clapton song, and “ChulaLongkorn”*, after the king of Siam who introduced Siamese cats to America.

      * affectionately known as “Shithead”

      • pistoffnick

        Mrs. pistoffnick was embarrassed about the name “Booger”, so at the vet, she was “Peaches”*

        *which I think is hilarious because any time I hear “Peaches”, my brain goes to:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgYSM91vJko

      • Gender Traitor

        Yeah, Snot’s official name, as far as the Humane Society and the vet are concerned, is “Sterling,” bestowed upon him by the Humane Society before we got him.

      • Gender Traitor

        Snot got his name for a similar reason – in his case, bare patches (now long gone) on either side of his nose.

        My oldest sister is fond of Siamese. Her first was named Tofu, her second was Ming Chow. We’d tease her by calling him “Cat Chow” or “Bok Choy.”

      • pistoffnick

        I had a Siamese cat named “Simon” in college. Best cat ever, but when he got randy, he got mean. I mean normal cats sex is not pleasant to watch, but Simon took it to another level. I still have scars on my thumb from where he sunk his fangs when I tried to break them up.

        I used to do my college homework on the floor. Simon would sleep between my shoulder blades – purring contentedly.

    • Tulip

      I hope Gracie comes back.

      • Gender Traitor

        Thank you. My prediction is that whichever outdoor cat is consistently coming around to be fed when the weather turns cold is going to get an invitation to become Official.

    • Tres Cool

      N. Main must be some kind of demarcation line for strays. Over here in the ‘hood we dont see any.

      • westernsloper

        Do your neighbors grill often?

      • Gender Traitor

        And which Chinese restaurant is closest to you?

    • commodious spittoon

      Our porch cat has continued being a regular at the food dish, and given that we misidentified our little female scrapper who turns out to be a male, I suspect porch cat is also a male. So I imagine one disembowels the others. It’s gonna be awful, and it’s gonna be ugly, and I’m selling tickets for fifty pence apiece.

    • westernsloper

      #Idontdoslasherfilms

      Not my thing.

    • Brochettaward

      I’m a slasher movie fan, but I typically just end up let down. Sell me on this movie. Sell me. Sell me.

      • egould310

        My new life goal is to build a time machine, travel back to the year 1980, and murder the actor that played the character “Radish”.

      • Brochettaward

        I find him more enjoyable than anything else I’ve seen yet.*

        *10 minutes in

        *The women are all ugly.

  30. egould310

    Bowie’s “Space Oddity” live on the tv show Midnight Special. Pretty nice and the band ain’t lip-synching. Plus a Les Paul and Bowie’s 12-string acoustic. https://youtu.be/pXSGocWifAg

    • pistoffnick

      Where are his eyebrows?

      • egould310

        He got suuuuuper high on cocaine and plucked them out. One. By. One

    • westernsloper

      Forgot Bowie was so much into makeup back then. NTTIAWWT

    • Gustave Lytton

      I saw Bowie on what turned out to be his last tour. He’s my favorite live act of my limited experience. Just fantastic and made a basketball arena feel like coffee shop intimacy.

      Worst, hands down, was Clapton’s pilgrim tour.

      • egould310

        I saw Clapton in Indianapolis at the clay courts in… June 1985??

        Phil Collins was playing drums. Donald “Duck” Dunn and Steve Cropper were bass and guitar. Not too shabby.

      • Gustave Lytton

        That sounds lovely.

        My feeling is that it was a large venue, lots/probably most just wanted to hear greatest hits so didn’t care about his new stuff, plus tour fatigue. Crowd finally started buzzing during Cocaine.

  31. salted earth

    As a girl, I had a dream, a dream that I would find a box along the roadside. The box would be filled with abandoned puppies. I would take the puppies home. I would care for them and love them, and they would love me.
    Today I found a box along the roadside. Never, never did I dream that the box would be filled with dead raccoons.

    • LJW

      Well… I guess that’s better than dead puppies.

      • Plinker762

        Dead puppies aren’t much fun.

    • Brochettaward

      So, wait…I have to add you to the list of supposed female Glibertarians?

      • salted earth

        no, you do not

      • Brochettaward

        It’s too late. You are on the list.

        And it’s like you have never even read Where the Red Fern Grows.

      • salted earth

        If I’m female how would I know how to read?

      • Brochettaward

        We all know females possess the ability to learn how to read. It’s math, logic, and reason that they struggle with.

        Your emotional response to this subject makes me think that you are, in fact, a female identifying individual.

      • salted earth

        If wearing a dress once makes a person female then there are very few men.

      • Brochettaward

        I’ve used that line from As Good As It Gets about 50 times. Sadly, this was not one of them.

      • Old Man With Candy

        If wearing a dress once makes a person female then there are very few men.

        And no true Scotsmen.

      • pistoffnick

        This is 2020. you can’t just go around assuming genders…

    • Gender Traitor

      The blood and the guts, they gonna make you swoon.

      • salted earth

        Still in their original packaging, but starting to smell. Did not get too close.

    • Plinker762

      And once again someone’s dream has turned into a nightmare.

      • salted earth

        This place gets into your head, my thought was my life had just been SugarFree-ed.

    • Chafed

      Yuck. What happened?

      • salted earth

        The raccoons weren’t talking so I’m not sure. My guess is poisoned or shot. The road is frequently traveled so either purposely dumped (not sure why you wouldn’t just bury them) or fell out on the way to dump them someplace else.

      • Derpetologist

        Ah, raccoons. Trash pandas is what I call ’em.

  32. egould310

    He got suuuuuper high on cocaine and plucked them out. One. By. One.

    • dontreadonme

      Are we still talking about puppies?

    • westernsloper

      No need to finish salted earths story and she is a she.

      • salted earth

        who have you been talking to?

      • Plinker762

        It wasn’t me.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Is that you, Shaggy?

      • Plinker762

        Nope, I don’t hear talking dogs.

      • egould310

        My neighbor’s dog keeps telling me to kill. Kill people. Society is sick. People are sick. Those people make me sick. Kill. Kill. Kill.

      • salted earth

        $^&#ing Zoom

  33. Gustave Lytton

    Made mu shu chicken tonight. Pretty good but the flavor was slightly lacking. Scoured the Asian grocery, and couldn’t find msg anywhere. Gonna try the one catering to international college students and if not there, then the low rent Asian grocery.

    https://youtu.be/KPDxdk7HP3Q

    • Rhywun

      Goya sells a bottle of MSG too but they call it something else, I forget what. Should be at any supermarket.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Goya products just finally started showing up a few years ago and don’t seem to have their full line available around here.I thought it was a Latin American company initially, based on how they were only in the Hispanic foods section.

    • But Enough About My Weird Culinary Fantasies

      You can also use “Accent.” Same stuff.

  34. J. Frank Parnell

    *sigh* so I’m on a weekly Zoom call with my family, who are a bunch of hardcore liberal Democrats.

    Apparently it was super hot today because Trump doesn’t believe in science.

    Also we need to stay shut down until there’s a vaccine, and while they totally love vaccines and think anti-vaxxers are dumb, they’re not going to take Trump’s vaccine.

    • straffinrun

      Zoom sounds better than in person.

      • J. Frank Parnell

        I just tune out and focus on my drink, so same think I would be doing in person.

      • straffinrun

        They don’t say that shit to me anymore. “You’re wrong. Want me to tell you why?” Just keep doing that until they say “Yes” or STFU. No reason I have to hold my tongue is they won’t hold theirs.

  35. Mostly Peaceful JaimeRoberto

    Power is out again. Who would have guessed that wind and solar don’t work so well when the sun goes down and the wind isn’t blowing on a stinking hot day? I should have stayed in the mountains even though it was raining ash.

    • Chafed

      We were cut off for 3 hours. My oldest daughter explained/complained it’s because of global warming. I explained our power grid has been politically mismanaged for decades. I should have talked to a wall.

      • Gustave Lytton

        And afterwards, you can hit your head against that same wall in frustration.

    • Plinker762

      The dysfunctional shall inherit the earth.

    • Gustave Lytton

      CWAA.

      19 years old is way too young to hold elective office. And he took out a 13 term incumbent? Someone is pulling his puppet strings.

    • Rhywun

      Wow. What’s the matter with Kansas?

    • westernsloper

      JFC I am almost convinced you should not be able to vote much less run for office until you are 45.

    • Plinker762

      Maybe he is just an excitable boy. (No linking because I’m using my phone)

    • straffinrun

      Pretty so the idea of flyover country is going to flip.

    • pistoffnick

      “Mostly everyone complies,” an NYPD cop at the scene allegedly said. “And then you get a few knuckleheads who don’t.”

      Blessed are the knuckleheads.*

      *99% survival rate

      • Brochettaward

        1. This is why cops aren’t sympathetic no matter how much dumb shit is currently going on.
        2. This couple is doing what they’re doing intentionally, would be my guess. I’m going to bet they have one lawsuit already and they’re about to try a second. And they’ll probably get something out of it.

      • Rhywun

        Right? “Prove your infirmity.” Yeah, go fuck yourself.

    • westernsloper

      It has been happening in the UK, Australia and it was just a matter of time before it hit here.

    • Rhywun

      Ah yes, the ferry system that Oberbürgermeister Deblasio conjured up a few years ago at great public expense and then laughably claimed was a boon to the poors until it was inconveniently pointed out that it’s used almost exclusively by rich people and tourists.

      Love how “allegedly” racist they are, too – nice touch.

    • Francisco d'Anconia

      Is the ferry public or private?

      • Rhywun

        This one is public. See my comment above. The fare is the same as a subway ride, around 3 bucks. The private ferries charge double that just to cross the Hudson – I know this because I had to use it for six months after Superduperstorm Sandy.

      • Francisco d'Anconia

        Then, by all means, prosecute me for the “law” I broke.

        Fuck off, slavers!

    • Brochettaward

      We take the safety of all our students and staff very seriously. Safety is always our number one priority.

      When I hear the word ‘safety’, that’s when I reach for my revolver.

    • straffinrun

      “ “We follow all school board policies whether we are in-person learning or distance learning. ”

      Guess we finally found out the short bus is for that principal.

      • salted earth

        Every school a gun-free zone, every home a school, every home a gun-free zone.

      • salted earth

        Every school a gun-free zone, every home a school, every home a gun-free zone.

      • straffinrun

        Good comment. Worth the double.

      • salted earth

        We must, for the children.

      • Digby's Patented Booty Sweat

        I am wondering how this may also play out in the future with places like restaurants that are making claims that your home is now their restaurant, what with all the deliveries going on for the Super Flu.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Next, CPS called because teacher spots a bunk bed in the background and the child possibly shares the bedroom with a sibling.

      • Brochettaward

        Nah. Progs like bunk beds. It’s like trains. They love the idea of trains and the idea of people confined to a limited space while traveling.

    • Rhywun

      Dammit. I dunno what they did but that website crashes my browser every time now.

  36. straffinrun

    The most generous interpretation you can give these team blue leaders: The best way to handle people that go around picking fights is to pretend they aren’t doing that.

    • Brochettaward

      So, let’s see what this boils down to:

      and the opportunity to be placed with relatives already in the U.S. The ruling also gives immigration lawyers access to children the government is trying to deport under an emergency declaration put in place during the pandemic, and it applies to children with parents who crossed the border with no authorization.

      SO, yea, it’s about creating scenarios where it’s more likely immigration laws can be flouted.

  37. Tejicano

    The original Mad Max movie, which I saw in Japan in 1980 (years before it was released in the US), depicts a future, dystopian Australia with thugs gaining control over society at large. What caused this societal breakdown was never explained (until the sequel) and I often wondered just what that cause was. Yesterday somebody reminded me that this movie was set in the year 2021 – and now the cause of that breakdown is clear to me. Life imitating art and filling in the gaps.

    • Plinker762

      Global warming?

    • Chafed

      But in our version the thugs wear uniforms.

      • Tejicano

        In the movie they used bikers as the thugs because nobody would have believed black-clad, vegan stick-men/boys

      • Rhywun

        Just saw it the other day. I like pre-nutty Mel.

  38. Derpetologist

    Well, I just ate some shredded cheese and sriracha like it was a bowl of cereal. At least I didn’t stay up all night eating 64 slices of American cheese.

    tonight’s fun fact

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_for_Beany

    ***
    Time For Beany is an American children’s television series, with puppets for characters, which was broadcast locally in Los Angeles starting on February 28, 1949 and nationally (by kinescope) by the improvised Paramount Television Network from 1950 to 1955. It was created by animator Bob Clampett, who later reused its main characters for the animated series Beany and Cecil. The show won three Primetime Emmy Awards for best children’s show.
    ***

    ***
    Albert Einstein was a fan of the show. On one occasion, the physicist interrupted a high-level conference by announcing, “You will have to excuse me, gentlemen. It’s Time for Beany.”
    ***

    Einstein was about 70 when the show began.

    • salted earth

      Do you often stay up late eating cheese?

  39. SP

    Tonight we watched a hilariously bad and prescient movie.

    And also made triple sec and strawberry caviar.

    Little bursts of alcoholic fruitiness in every bite. Delicious.

    • Digby's Patented Booty Sweat

      That title leaves lots of questions–

      * There’s a “time barrier”?
      * Who/what created the barrier?
      * Can you be “in” the time barrier? If you can be “beyond”, seems you could be “in” it
      * What–is it a barrier OF time, or, a barrier TO time?

    • Tres Cool

      Caviar?
      Seems fishy.

      • Tejicano

        You’re not going to bait me with that line again!

      • Derpetologist

        ***
        From French caviar, from Italian caviaro or Ottoman Turkish خاویار‎ (havyar) (Turkish havyar), from Persian خاویار‎ (xâvyâr), from خایه‎ (xâye, “egg”) (cognate with English egg). Doublet of ajvar.
        ***

        I can see Eier (egg in German) being a linguistic cousin of caviar.

    • Derpetologist

      I was expecting Death Race 2000.

      ***
      Harold: As the cars roar into Pennsylvania, the cradle of liberty, it seems apparent that our citizens are staying off the streets, which may make scoring particularly difficult, even with this year’s rule changes. To recap those revisions: women are still worth 10 points more than men in all age brackets, but teenagers now rack up 40 points, and toddlers under 12 now rate a big 70 points. The big score: anyone, any sex, over 75 years old has been upped to 100 points.
      ***

      ***
      Cleopatra: It isn’t my fault everyone scored before us. You should have gone after that boy scout camp like I told you!

      Nero the Hero: I tried the goddamn boy scout camp. You know how fast those boy scouts move?

      Cleopatra: Now here’s something more your speed.

      Nero the Hero: That’ll be at least 200 points!

      Cleopatra: If they scatter, go for the baby and the mother.
      ***

      It takes place in a dystopian US where there is an annual race whose goal is to run over as many people as possible.

      I like to bring this up any time some complains about violence in video games.

      My parents sure let me watch some messed up stuff. And I love them for it.

      The Nazi themed car shaped like a V1 was my favorite.

      “Mach schnell, meine kleine Buzzbomb!”

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6LahtrxVhg

    • egould310

      I can’t even wrap my head around that. Triple sec and caviar? I’m gonna have to Google this.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Nope, caviar made from triple sec rather than from fish cloacae.

      • PieInTheSky

        Is actual caviar kosher for (((nonvegetarians)))

      • Old Man With Candy

        Google “spherification.”

      • Derpetologist

        Is the process anything like a shot tower?

        ***
        In a shot tower, lead is heated until molten, then dropped through a copper sieve high in the tower. The liquid lead forms tiny spherical balls by surface tension, and solidifies as it falls. The partially cooled balls are caught at the floor of the tower in a water-filled basin.[1] The now fully cooled balls are checked for roundness and sorted by size; those that are “out of round” are remelted. A slightly inclined table is used for checking roundness.[2] To make larger shot sizes, a copper sieve with larger holes is used.
        ***

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qybStWdYcs

      • SP

        Direct spherification. Molecular gastronomy stuff we’ve never played around with. It was a lot of fun. Tomorrow we’re doing cocktails in pod form.

        You can do this with practically any liquid, sweet or savory. It would be a super fun science project for homeschooled kids.

      • egould310

        Aaaaahhh. Yeah. Now I get it. Forgot you folks were vegetarian/vegan. Ok cool.

        Still gonna Google spherification.

      • Francisco d'Anconia

        Direct spherification

        We don’t want to hear about your kinky sex games!

      • SP

        Don’t lie. You do, too.

    • salted earth

      Very pretty.

    • SP

      To give an idea of scale, those are 2-inch diameter dishes and those are the tiny spoons one uses for shot glass desserts.

    • Gustave Lytton

      Whoa. Just watched that movie last weekend.

  40. PieInTheSky

    good morning glibbies. Anyone still able to type?

    • egould310

      Good evening, Pie. 10:44 here in Seattle. Watching shitty horror movies, as usual.

    • salted earth

      Good morning Pie.

    • SP

      Good morning, Pie.

      I can type as well as usual. Which is to say, not at all.

    • C. Anacreon

      After tomorrow, no more white shoes allowed until next Memorial Day. Not that I own any white shoes, but still, summer is over.

      • SP

        Phoenix says, “Hold my beer!”

      • hayeksplosives

        I feel your pain. It’s unusually toasty in north SanDiego county, 105 more or less, depending on the station.

        I don’t know how you AZ folk deal with this for so much of the year!

      • PieInTheSky

        My lifting shoes are white

    • Rhywun

      lol well done – I love that song

      • straffinrun

        Me too. The kid womping did all the work. Any song seems to work. Any ideas?

      • Rhywun

        Nah, I’ll leave that to the influencers.