Of all the misplaced outrage I encounter online, the anger at wealthy people (usually libtards) who complain about issues that effect poor people is the most perplexing. “Fuck him for expressing concerns about injustices that he never faced”, is a really shitty take.

Why do musicians put Persian rugs on stages and in studios when they play or record, I imagine they help with sound dampening of some sort, but why Persian rugs? and they are always the same style Persian rug as well.

Freedom of association is just as important as freedom of speech.

I always mention The Beach Boys when the topic of horrible, horrible music comes up, but The Grateful Dead are even worse. Luckily I so rarely hear any Dead music that I forget how bad they are.

White, Christian, Male, Rednecks whinging about being the only group that still gets made fun of and no one whinges about it, is in fact whinging about it.

Most people don’t swap tiles as often as they should when playing Scrabble.

I like it when an author has one of his characters reading another author’s book in the story. it’s similar to discovering ‘new’ music when a musician you like does a cover song of an artist you’ve never heard of.

The only problem I have with Twitter is when you reach the end of a thread and there’s a warning that the rest of the replies might be offensive so you have to click a special box to see them….and then there is nothing offensive about any of the comments.

There is no way to explain what it means to say about someone that “at least he loves America” without either begging the question or relying on circular reasoning or ‘no true-Scotsmaning-ing’, It’s the epitome of empty platitudes.

Luck is simply being on the right side of probability more often than not.

Calling an artist, musician, writer, actress or anyone else in a field where the valuation of ones work is completely subjective, either overrated or underrated is as meaningless as the “he loves America” thing.

Giardiniera vegetables ranked – 1. Cauliflower, 2. Carrots, 3. Pepperoncini, 4. Red Peppers, 5-X. Any other veggie,  X. Celery.

 

Music

About The Author

The Hyperbole

The Hyperbole

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

248 Comments

  1. UnCivilServant

    Have you ever noticed that no matter how clever your except is no one seems to read it, why is that?

    LIEZ!

    I have to do something while the article loads.

  2. R C Dean

    The only problem I have with Twitter

    If that’s your only problem with Twitter, you need . . . oh, its The Hyperbole. Never mind.

  3. Mojeaux

    vegetables ranked

    You’re wrong, except about celery. Celery can go die in a fire.

    • UnCivilServant

      So, you’re a fan of roast celery?

      • Mojeaux

        I can tolerate it in dressing, but I need lots of gravy.

    • Bobarian LMD

      I concur, that ranking was inverse order, except for celery.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Celery seed? celery tonic?

    • PieInTheSky

      Celery is very rare in Romania. Celeriac root and leaves are used most often.

    • Gender Traitor

      Now I want celery stuffed with peanut butter – or dipped in just about any dairy-based dippable substance. Extra points if cream cheese is involved.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Better idea, just eat a spoonful of peanut butter.

      • UnCivilServant

        That’s an awful idea. The textural and temperature contrast is the key to that snack.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Peanut butter cannot save celery. If you are trying to be healthy, put it on an apple. If you just want texture, use a graham cracker.

      • UnCivilServant

        Save?

        Celery doesn’t need saving, if anything it’s improving the peanut butter, which is just really heavy on its own.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Celery improves peanut butter, now that’s a take.

      • UnCivilServant

        You misspelled “the truth”.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Cream of celery soup saves it IMO, or any way that kills the stringiness.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Celery is fine in soup when it has been cooked to death.

      • Animal

        The only acceptable use of cream of celery soup is to put two grouse breasts in a big crock pot, pour the soup over them, and leave to cook all day.

      • rhywun

        kills the stringiness

        Celery is essential in tuna salad but yeah you have to chop it up

      • Mojeaux

        Crunchy.

      • UnCivilServant

        But if you can chew it, a great source of iron!

      • Bobarian LMD

        So are metal shavings.

      • UnCivilServant

        oh, look who’s got the money for pre-shredded spoons.

      • Gender Traitor

        I do that, too.

        Please don’t judge me too harshly.

      • anti pro state

        Instead peanut butter, I think it should be called nut frosting.

      • Gender Traitor

        I like the way you think.

        I’d also like to subscribe to your newsletter.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Nut frosting sounds a little gay.

        Especially if it’s dribbling down you chin.

      • Gender Traitor

        Celery is also, along with onion and green bell pepper, part of the “holy trinity” of Cajun cooking.

      • Tulip

        I like chopped celery, chopped apples, and a little blue cheese; tossed with a simple vinaigrette.

      • Gender Traitor

        That sounds yummy! ?

    • Tulip

      I thought that was just for giardinera, in which case he’s right. Celery shouldn’t be in it.

    • The Hyperbole

      I don’t dislike celery as a rule, but the pieces they use in giardiniera (at least the brands I’ve tried) are tough nasty little things. Maybe the brine shrinks them, but I suspect they just use the end bits and pieces that aren’t good enough to sell as stalks.

    • Gadfly

      Celery can go die in a fire.

      Personally, I would amend it to celery can go drown in a soup. I find it a perfectly acceptable addition to many soups. On it’s own, I don’t much care for it.

    • Mad Scientist

      My wife concurs. She hates celery with a passion. Just mentioning celery causes her jump right past eye-rolling and into raised blood pressure, borderline anger territory. She refuses to show me on the doll where the celery touched her.

      • Mojeaux

        I’m a super-taster and textures get me more than smell or taste. However, celery also hits my awful-smells button and I have a touchy gag reflex, so…yeah.

    • slumbrew

      I’m mostly anti-celery, but there’s a spicy stir-fry with chicken and celery cut thin, on the bias, that I really like.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Celery, at its best, is good. Crunchy, juicy and slightly sweet. Celery, on average, is not good. Chewy, bitter, squishy, and dried out.

      • Gadfly

        Celery, at its best, is good. … Celery, on average, is not good.

        This is my opinion on bananas. For some foods, it seems, the average just ain’t good, even if the best representation of it can be considered great.

    • Sean

      Y’all are strange.

      I like celery.

    • I'm Here To Help

      There are two uses of celery:

      1. In dressing on Thanksgiving, but even then it has to be cut small and sautéed until you just have vaguely celery flavored butter.
      2. As a support when cooking a roast to keep it from directly contacting the pot while it is slowly cooking. It is discarded before serving.

    • robc

      Celery’s purpose is to be with hot wings for a bite or two midway.

      Or flavoring in soup.

  4. UnCivilServant

    I like it when an author has one of his characters reading another author’s book in the story.

    I don’t. I read a series where one of the characters ends up acquiring a bookstore at one point, and from that point on the number of literary references to works I don’t give a damn about just started getting in the way. It makes me think the author would rather just be reading something else instead of writing his own work.

    • EvilSheldon

      I see that in the same vein as pop culture references in TV shows – it’s usually a substitute for actual wit.

      • UnCivilServant

        It also makes the work dated very quickly.

  5. UnCivilServant

    The only problem I have with Twitter

    Is the format, the user base, the company, the administration, the news sites who make articles just quoting twits…

    • rhywun

      Who, me?

      /not-the-bee

      //gripe

  6. PieInTheSky

    what the hell is Giardiniera ? Sounds like an STD

    • UnCivilServant

      Or a medication to treat one.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Nah, disease from polluted water.

    • Bobarian LMD

      It’s the pickled vegetables you put on a hot italian beef.

      • PieInTheSky

        hot italian beef. – sounds gay

      • Bobarian LMD

        Wait until you let it dribble down your chin.

      • rhywun

        ?

        Yeah, it had me going.

  7. PieInTheSky

    Calling an artist, musician, writer, actress or anyone else in a field where the valuation of ones work is completely subjective, either overrated or underrated is as meaningless as the “he loves America” thing. – I would not call those things completely subjective, though highly subjective sure.

    • Mojeaux

      I would not call those things completely subjective, though highly subjective sure.

      I sort of agree. There is technical prowess and storytelling ability. These two are on highly variable axes, but the technically proficient who is not a good storyteller will lose to the good storyteller who might not be technically a good writer. But there’s a reader for every writer no matter what. The trick is to find that reader.

      • PieInTheSky

        These two are on highly variable axes, but the technically proficient who is not a good storyteller will lose to the good storyteller who might not be technically a good write – sure… Asimov was not necessarily a good writer imo, to take on the legends of SF. Still… And while not knowing how to play instruments can still make “music” meh…

        But anyway overrated is also subjective. I always hear it as overrated in my view. Someone once said “The four most overrated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics.” and many would not agree

      • Bobarian LMD

        champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics

        That’s only three things.

      • slumbrew

        ‘He met Mandela, a demi-god and a dildo collector’

      • Swiss Servator

        Anal Sex Picinic opened Lalapalooza in ’05, right?

      • robc

        We can map the poem on two axis, one is its structure, the other importance. the area formed by the rectangle gives you the total value of the poem.

        Not exact, paraphrasing from memory. It has been a long time

  8. Bobarian LMD

    Most people don’t swap tiles as often as they should when playing Scrabble.

    You must lose a lot at Scrabble.

    Because if you swap, you’re probably gonna lose.

    • UnCivilServant

      I got Mxyzptlk on a triple word score, but lost cause proper nouns are not allowed.

      • SDF-7

        So then you got your opponent to branch off Kltpzyxm and they disappeared back into the 5th Dimension?

      • Animal

        What, is it the Age of Aquarius again already? I’d say it’s time to be Workin’ On A Groovy Thing, but I’d rather go Up, Up and Away in my beautiful balloon.

      • kinnath

        One less bell to answer

        Never my love

      • Sensei

        +1 Bacharach & David

      • UnCivilServant

        In a story that’s actually true, I once chose to lose a game because the only word I could have played was ‘Yaoi’, and I didn’t want to have to explain to my opponant what it was and that I had learned the word as something to avoid when browsing user-generated content online.

      • Mojeaux

        But would it really count anyway? It’s a Japanese word.

        “Oh, it’s a genre of Japanese comic books.”

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t know the rules on loanwords, or whether it was sufficiently in use to count.

        I probably would have lost even if I’d played the word.

      • Bobarian LMD

        How many times did you learn that, Mr. Eichenwald?

      • Sensei

        Who knew UCS swung that way. In that case does BL count as an abbreviation?

      • UnCivilServant

        *sigh* I don’t.

        I remember words. And negative reinforcement makes an impression.

      • Sensei

        Mojeaux and I had this conversation before.

        I was really surprised that most BL love readers are heterosexual women.

      • Mojeaux

        I was really surprised that most BL love readers are heterosexual women.

        And writers.

        I don’t get the attraction.

      • UnCivilServant

        It took me a while to remember who you were referencing.

      • Animal

        What would you have done if the word you could have played was “Yuri?”

      • UnCivilServant

        That would run into an argument with the identically spelled russian name that’s more commonly known.

      • Ted S.

        All sorts of valid words share their spellings with a given name, such as TED, SALLY, VERONICA, PETER, and on and on.

      • Sensei

        That originally only meant lilly – as in the flower. So you could put it under the “foreign words” rule.

        Also recommended – YuruYuri

      • Ted S.

        It’s not in the TWL (Tournament Word List), so it should have been challenged and taken off the board.

        Then again, I’ve been watching old episodes of Countdown and getting caught out by words that are in the TWL but not in whichever desktop version of the Oxford Dictionary the show uses.

      • Ted S.

        I’m assuming UCS wasn’t playing in the UK or anywhere else that uses that list.

      • Ted S.

        And I went to the Collins online verifier to check YAOI and YURI mentioned above. Neither one is valid.

        TRAVOISE and PSOATIC are both legal in TWL and CSW, but not in Coundown.

    • The Hyperbole

      1,126 wins – 208 losses – 4 ties, And I swap anytime I can’t score 20 or more points, or pay at least 5 low value tiles from my rack, or for the occasional defensive play if it’s a close game.

      Granted I’m playing idiots on a phone app but I refuse all games from anyone with a word score ranking under 20 to try and make it competitive.

      • Tulip

        Ok, you can’t call other people nerds anymore. Because you know how many wins, losses and ties you have.

        Nerd.

      • Tulip

        And because you have played more than 1000 games.

        Nerd.

      • Bobarian LMD

        I used to play with a group of extremely good players on the expanded board. When we got done it would be packed in like a crossword. 20 points is about right for a minimum, but if you had to draw letters, you were toast.

      • robc

        It should be like chess.com and only* match you against closely ranked people, so your won-loss record will always be in vicinity of 50/50.

        I am 293-265-27 on chess.com. 1129 ELO at the moment. I was at my all time high of 1146, but lost my last two matches.

  9. LCDR_Fish

    If you have internet service, you can use most modern cellphones thru the WIFI connection for voice.

    Alternatively, you can set up a directional antenna and a cell booster for phone service around your house. I’ve done it for a couple of people.

    This is more for when checking out property before buying. If I only have my Verizon Android on me, is there a fairly cheap device (or app) that I can carry with me to check if there are other services within range?

    • Ownbestenemy

      https://www.cellmapper.net/

      It is crowdsourced but tweak and play around to see what coverage different services in an area

      • LCDR_Fish

        Thanks. I’ll have to mess around with that one.

  10. PieInTheSky

    Why does Revolut want me to input my tax info? fuck that

  11. Yusef drives a Kia

    Agreed on the Beach boys, whinging?
    Sorry to whine about it,

    • R C Dean

      I think what they are whinging about is that nobody Who Matters seems to mind. Its the last acceptable overt prejudice.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        But whinging isnt a word, its whining,

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Eh, if you’re English it is.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Im American, I whine,

      • db

        I’m with Yusef; I’m sick of people using “whinging,” “whilst,” and other cutesy loan words from the British.

      • UnCivilServant

        So, you’ll be switching to a different language?

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Words can slightly differ between dialects, who knew?

      • Mojeaux

        +1 soda v pop

      • db

        It’s the affectation of the dialect by the speaker/writer that bugs me.

        Cultural appropriation, if you will.

      • db

        Oh, and don’t get me started on “Boffins.” That’s offensive even when spoken by a native British speaker.

      • Not Adahn

        The best part of the Daily Mail are the headlines about moggie boffins.

      • Mojeaux

        I’m not a fan of “whinge” and “whilst” myself.

      • UnCivilServant

        I find them innately irritating, yet I can’t figure out why.

      • The Hyperbole

        I didn’t mean to but I always forget which way is the correct American way whine or whinge , but I was In a hurry and couldn’t be arsed to check.

      • Mojeaux

        What you did there, it was seen by me.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        I like “can’t be arsed” or CBA. No vulgar Yank equivalent that I know of.

      • db

        That’s a load of bollocks.

      • Sensei

        Calm down and have a fag!

      • Gadfly

        I didn’t mean to but I always forget which way is the correct American way whine or whinge

        You must either watch a lot of British TV or read a lot of British writing without watching any TV. Unlike a lot of British vs American spellings, these two words, while they mean the same, are pronounced differently. I never hear any Americans in daily life or on TV say “whinge”.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’m not seeing why complaining about judging a group of people based on immutable characteristics is something we shouldn’t be doing.

      • Sean

        Wait, we can’t hate on the Dutch anymore?

  12. PieInTheSky

    Freedom of association is just as important as freedom of speech. – NO IRISH

    • UnCivilServant

      *breaks empty booze bottle over pie’s head*

      WhaddahaveagainsIrishmen?

  13. PieInTheSky

    Of all the misplaced outrage I encounter online, the anger at wealthy people (usually libtards) who complain about issues that effect poor people – affect surely. What is the deal with Americans and affect/effect

    “Fuck him for expressing concerns about injustices that he never faced” – To Be Faaaaaair… it is mostly empty virtue signaling.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      I don’t know how to effect change in them, Pie, what with their sluggish affects.

  14. Sensei

    Of all the misplaced outrage I encounter online, the anger at wealthy people (usually libtards) who complain about issues that effect poor people is the most perplexing. “Fuck him for expressing concerns about injustices that he never faced”, is a really shitty take.

    I’ve no issues with such people claiming to have identified an issue affecting low income people. My issue is that after that they offer solutions that usually involve removing money from my pocket.

    • Mojeaux

      I’ve no issues with such people claiming to have identified an issue affecting low income people.

      It’s their solutions and absolute tone-deafness about what it means to be low-income that is offensive. Poverty is expensive.

      • Sensei

        Also all the rules that require to prevent anarchy usually trip up low income people.

        For lower income folk those rules have a much higher percentage chance of putting them behind bars for non-violent offences.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It’s their solutions and absolute tone-deafness about what it means to be low-income that is offensive. Poverty is expensive.

        ^^ this. I’d add that grouping all poverty into one bucket (not pointing this finger at you, Mo) is an instant clue that the person is clueless about poverty. Somebody bankrupted by cancer has almost nothing financially in common with a meth head who spends all the child support on more meth.

    • rhywun

      My issue is that after that they offer solutions that usually involve removing money from my pocket.

      And which do nothing to address the issue they are claiming to care about, and in fact usually make it worse.

      See also: crime, and I’m sure there are others.

      • Gadfly

        And which do nothing to address the issue they are claiming to care about, and in fact usually make it worse.

        This. So many “solutions” either create inflation, make it harder to hire people, or encourage bad behavior.

    • PutridMeat

      Exactly. It’s not anger at wealthy people complaining about issues that affect poor people, it’s that the wealthy, or libtards if you prefer, always seem to propose the same solution to the legitimate issues they may have identified. Most often said solutions make the problem worse, if in fact they are not a major cause of the identified problem. Almost as if an excuse to enact the solutions is the true motivation of the complaint/concern (see e.g. ‘climate change’, ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’), rather than truly being concerned. And if it’s true concern and a desire to improve the world, if you’re going to berate everyone else for not being as enlightened and virtuous, you have an obligation to have something more than a 0th level understanding of the problem before you rush off to enforce your vision on everyone else.

      • PutridMeat

        PS – I like this approach to an article. There’s often 1 or 2 sentence observations that can’t really be expanded into a full article (or at least without more effort than I’m able to invest at a given time!); Any objections (from THE Hyperbole or TPTB) to stealing this schtick in the future?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Hype wasn’t the first to do it and won’t be the last.

      • The Hyperbole

        None from me, the first Random Thought™ in the first one of these was telling people to do just that.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s performative.

        If they actually gave a shit, they would volunteer at a soup kitchen.

      • Mad Scientist

        Almost as if an excuse to enact the solutions is the true motivation of the complaint/concern

        There’s nothing almost about it. Control is their primary objective. If some problem happens to get solved, well, it’s time to move the goalposts.

  15. Bobarian LMD

    but The Grateful Dead are even worse.

    Get the fuck out of my cab!

    • Pope Jimbo

      I like the Grateful Dead, but I dislike the Deadheads.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Me too. Bunch of smelly granola eating hippies.

      • pistoffnick

        I have a thing for hippy chicks with loose morals, but I can’t stand the smell of patchouli.

      • slumbrew

        I’m going to guess you could drop “hippy” from that sentence.

      • DEG

        I like the Dead’s Americana.

    • Old Man With Candy

      I’m one of Jerry’s Kids.

  16. The Other Kevin

    I agree with you on the Grateful Dead. There were a group of deadheads in high school. And when I was in college, I knew some, and when “Jerry died” their world was torn asunder. Their music was just so damn boring. I know you had to be high to appreciate it, but if you were that high, you’d probably find birds chirping to be entertaining.

    I wasn’t at their last concert, but it was in Chicago, and Pearl Jam played the same venue and used their stage, and I was at that concert. So that should count for something.

    • I'm Here To Help

      I went to my one Grateful Dead show in April 1995. Friend of mine asked if I wanted to go (his wife worked for a record company in Nashville, and got free tickets), and I decided that I should see them before the were the Actual Dead. Indoor concert too.

      When I went for my first security clearance, they asked me if I ever smoked pot. I joked that I did go to an indoor Dead concert and I did breathe at least once or twice during the show. Turns out that the investigators really don’t have much of a sense of humor.

  17. Tulip

    Interesting choice of tags. Vegan School?

  18. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Prager U went to self-hosting their videos a couple of years ago because Youtube was censoring them.

    Now it appears the company that they license their video player from has decided they’re unacceptable too and is pulling their contract.

    Pretty soon conservatives will have to build their own motherboards and operating systems in order to distribute digital media.

    Just as our contract was coming up for renewal, JW Player informed us they had updated their “community guidelines.” They announced they won’t be renewing our contract as they claim that “PragerU’s content is misleading.” 

     
    PragerU pressed for more information. Which videos did they feel were misleading? What kind of methods were they using to fact-check information? Is this decision final? In their words:

    “…the primary basis for our decision was related to the prohibition of misleading content…based on the nature of the violations, I don’t see a viable path forward…”

    In cowardly fashion, they refused to give specifics and hid behind third party “fact-checkers” to purge PragerU as a client. 

    Meanwhile, JW Player’s current clients include left-wing media outlets like The Young Turks and Vice! These companies produce thousands of videos using politically-charged narratives that divide our country and teach young folks to resent America. 

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Last episode aggregated seems to be from May 11.

    • rhywun

      content is misleading

      OFFS.

      I would almost respect these types if they just openly admitted they will only support lefty propaganda.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        But that would be fair play.

    • nw

      Why is this even a thing? Modern browers will play most
      newish video codecs and containers just fine. I have
      several hundred videos on my server that I don’t have
      a “player” for, I just ship it to the browser via a video
      tag and let the browser worry about it. Javascript
      and CSS work fine with it. I’m not even a web guy, and
      it was easy to set up.

      If anyone from Prager is listening, I am available
      for consulting deals. First order of business will be terminating
      the IT staff that put you in this position in the first place.

      • rhywun

        Lots of website uses those – probably for DRM or tracking or some other “features”.

      • Unreconstructed

        Some of it probably has to do with bandwidth and distribution. Just “put a video on a server” and enough people start to watch, and your bandwidth gets saturated, or people from farther away topologically have crappy performance. If you can’t get a commercial CDN to host…that makes it a lot more work to set up and manage.

      • DEG

        This.

        Bandwidth also costs money, which has hurt some websites. Going through a commercial CDN spreads that cost out a bit.

      • DEG

        Also, server side scaling (storage, serving up the videos, probably some other stuff) is a concern, not just performance through the network. Commercial CDNs take care of that for you.

  19. Sean

    https://www.rt.com/usa/524092-pentagon-secret-undercover-army/

    The US military operates a vast network of soldiers, civilians, and contractors that it uses for clandestine missions both at home and abroad, Newsweek has claimed, adding that the force also manipulates social media.

    After a two-year investigation, the outlet reported that the undercover army consists of around 60,000 people, many of whom use fake identities to carry out their assignments. The Pentagon’s agents operate in real life and online, with some even embedded in private businesses and well-known companies.

    *Eyes everyone suspiciously*

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Nothing to see here, move along.

      • Sean

        ?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      From Newsweek

      The military doesn’t conduct covert operations, the senior former official says, and military personnel don’t fight undercover. That is, except when they do, either because individuals are assigned—”sheep dipped”—to the CIA, or because certain military organizations, particularly those of the Joint Special Operations Command, operate like the CIA, often alongside them in covert status, where people who depend on each other for their lives don’t know each other’s real names. Then there are an increasing number of government investigators—military, FBI, homeland security and even state officials—who are not undercover per se but who avail themselves of signature reduction status like fake IDs and fake license plates when they work domestically, particularly when they are engaged in extreme vetting of American citizens of Arab, South Asian, and increasingly African background, who have applied for security clearances.

      While I’m not surprised, I’m becoming more and more motivated to GTFO of this country. The government is gearing up more and more for war on its citizens and this program is ideally suited for doing just that.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Sounds like the notes for Saturday’s Scott Horton with Jim Bovard (haven’t listened yet).

      • rhywun

        +1 Capital Hill security zone

  20. LCDR_Fish

    Nuts HVAC dude just told me that the unit under the house has a freon leak and is a lot lower pressure than it should be – but main outside unit is still solid. Might still be under manufacturer’s warranty…but at least I did sign up for the AHS.

    We saw a rust spot underneath it last year before I bought it, but inspection didn’t turn up anything (or the diagnostics check that the seller paid for based on our inspection).

    Guy recommends probably letting it run until it dies (I’ll wait for report from company) – haven’t been using it much the last few weeks since I set it to cool (75 deg), but we’ll see over the next few weeks.

    • LCDR_Fish

      going into the office now to make up 4 hours, so I can’t reply to any more posts until I get home.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Ugh, having to Do Stuff. Hate when that happens. Stuff sucks.

    • Bobarian LMD

      If it has the old type of freon, it could likely cost more to refill than it would to replace.

      I had this happen recently.

      I pulled the trigger on a geo-thermal set-up, since I have enough property to make it work.

      I got 30% back as a tax credit to ease some of the pain.

      • UnCivilServant

        Are any of the modern refrigerants as good as the banned ones?

      • Gustave Lytton

        If they weren’t used before, the answer is usually no on some metric. Otherwise they would in use already.

  21. Q Continuum

    “Most people don’t swap tiles as often as they should when playing Scrabble.”

    Kinky.

    • db

      Right foot to Q on the Triple Word Score

  22. Pope Jimbo

    Scrabble is the celery of board games. Right down there with Monopoly.

    Besides all right thinking people play cards instead of board games.

    Sorry and Aggrevation are acceptable board games.

    • The Other Kevin

      Ugh, Monopoly. I know two people who have got angry enough to throw the game board across the room. I’ll bet every one of you has seen that happen at least once.

      • Gender Traitor

        I’ve never seen the board hurled, but when I was a kid, my two older sisters, a neighborhood friend, and I would play marathon Monopoly games during summer vacation. On at least one occasion, we left the board out overnight midgame and awoke to find that a feline Godzilla had wrought havoc upon Atlantic City as we slept.

        Good times.

      • Pope Jimbo

        My family is a bunch of card sharks who have been known to throw cards in anger.

        I like playing cards, but learned to have a take/leave it approach. My father’s family is especially bad about cards. After every round, play is critiqued and gone over.

        My kids are just as bad. Not uncommon to see the winner of a round gloating from a face that is still tear stained from the previous round’s loss.

    • The Hyperbole

      I prefer Backgammon IRL. Scrabble’s just my time killing go to phone app.

    • CatchTheCarp

      The best 2 handed card game yet invented is cribbage. Unfortunately I seldom run across people that know how to play it.

      • Fourscore

        We’re old, CTC. I learned at bout 6-7, so my folks always had a 4th if necessary. Was sitting in adult games by about 9. I credit cribbage to my early math skills.

  23. slumbrew

    I will forevermore picture & hear The Hype as Andy Rooney.

  24. Gadfly

    The only problem I have with Twitter is when you reach the end of a thread and there’s a warning that the rest of the replies might be offensive so you have to click a special box to see them….and then there is nothing offensive about any of the comments.

    AFAIK, these tags are not generally tweet specific but rather author specific. You’re getting to do extra work to read inoffensive tweets from someone twitter has tagged (or sometimes the author themselves has tagged) as a frequently offensive person.

    • db

      Does Twitter have an upvoting functionality to counteract the “offensive” tag?

      • Gadfly

        I’m not sure how the Twitter tagging a user as offensive works. I just suspect that this is what is happening, because in the Twitter user options the user has the option to set their own tweets to be “offensive”, so I figured Twitter sets this for people who get reported but who they don’t ban. Or it is possible that all these users with inoffensive tweets marked as offensive are just jokers who thought it would be funny to self-tag themselves as offensive.

  25. wdalasio

    On the “I’m an idiot” front, I climbed on a chair to get something in my office last night and the chair fell out from under me. It hurt a lot and knocked the wind out of me. But, the real pain came after I went to sleep. It was bad enough that the wife called an ambulance. They basically told us there was no point in going to the emergency room and I should go to urgent care in the morning.

    Fortunately nothing is broken. Just a lot of pain that I’m going to have to muddle through. And sleeping in a chair in my living room with a CPAP. I hate getting old. But, the alternatives suck a lot more.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Aw, which part of yourself did you land on?

      Mo, sorry to hear about your friend’s ex. Terrible.

      • Mojeaux

        Thanks, but…actually not terrible. He was a terror to her and their kids, so they have been relieved of that abusive prick.

      • Mojeaux

        The only reason she called for a wellness check was because she knew he had animals that were chained up and needed care.

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Well, sorry for the wee beasties then.

      • wdalasio

        I think the back and side. Just shy of the shoulder blade. I was worried about broken ribs.

      • Mojeaux

        Hey, that’s rough. You’re going to be sore for a long time, but you did not break anything. That’s the most important thing.

      • Fourscore

        You have all the compassion I can muster. Getting hurt doing the same thing you have done dozens of times before.

        Rest and start stretching, be glad nothing was broken.

        When I really feel story for myself one of the ads for vets or the kids in the Shriner’s Hospital comes on TV and makes me feel guilty.

        Get well quickly, and don’t use a chair when the 6 ft aluminum ladder is in the garage.

      • Tundra

        The good news, if there is any, is that ribs are incredibly painful but heal faster than almost anything.

        Feel better, dude.

    • DEG

      Sorry, I hope you heal up quickly.

  26. Not Adahn

    Of all the misplaced outrage I encounter online, the anger at wealthy people (usually libtards) who complain about issues that effect poor people is the most perplexing. “Fuck him for expressing concerns about injustices that he never faced”, is a really shitty take.

    Dishonest strawman? Must be the Hyperbole.

  27. Gadfly

    Luck is simply being on the right side of probability more often than not.

    I’m confused by this one. Isn’t this just stating the definition of luck? I guess it fits in the category of random thoughts, because every thought fits said category, but all the other thoughts had some sort of point to them or made some sort of statement. You may be making the statement that there are no other forces besides probability involved in luck, but if there were other forces involved it would still manifest the same as you have defined it (i.e. if you were blessed by the gods or your charm worked you would find yourself “simply being on the right side of probability more often than not”). If you did want to make that statement, I would suggest refining your definition to something like “Good luck is simply the probability outcome of being on the right side of probability more often than not”.

    • Mojeaux

      It’s a callback to a conversation a few days ago about luck, what it means, what it really might be, and if it even exists.

      • Gadfly

        That makes sense. Thanks for the info.

    • The Hyperbole

      I didn’t put that much thought into it. Or any of the others to be honest.

  28. Master JaimeRoberto (royal we/us)

    “The only problem I have with Twitter is when you reach the end of a thread and there’s a warning that the rest of the replies might be offensive so you have to click a special box to see them….and then there is nothing offensive about any of the comments.”

    I’m usually relegated to that section probably. According to shadowban.eu it’s because Twitter thinks I could be harmful. I don’t issue threats. I don’t curse. I don’t engage in name calling. But I’ve criticized certain protected people (cough, Hillary, cough, Biden, cough) and stated that the vaccines are a new technology so we don’t really know the long term effects on people. I wear it as a badge of honor.

  29. wdalasio

    White, Christian, Male, Rednecks whinging about being the only group that still gets made fun of and no one whinges about it, is in fact whinging about it.

    I think “and no one whinges about it” is supposed to be a way of saying its considered socially acceptable in this case. And that much is actually true. Although I’d suggest that there are a lot of other groups of white males (Italians, Polish, etc.) its considered socially acceptable to make fun of. I think the issue is raised to point out the moral vacuousness of the perpetually offended. If you’re saying it’s wrong to engage in slurs, except for those guys and those guys over there, you’re really not saying it’s wrong to engage in slurs. You’re just rooting for a particular team.

    • Fourscore

      Slurs and insults (the old Sticks and Stones from our childhood) are often used in humorous attempts. I’m glad we learned to fend those off as youngsters. Just had to get a bigger and more offensive vocabulary in our repertoire and move on.

      Every ethnic/dirty joke always has the fall guy, we just laughed at ourselves and never took it on a personal level.

      • Pope Jimbo

        The most inveterate tellers of Norwegian jokes are Norwegians. They love telling jokes on themselves. Of course when they want to tell a really mean and nasty joke, it is about the Swedes.

  30. Mad Scientist

    I always mention The Beach Boys when the topic of horrible, horrible music comes up, but The Grateful Dead are even worse. Luckily I so rarely hear any Dead music that I forget how bad they are.

    Q: You know what a hippie says when he runs out of pot?

    A: “Dude, this band sucks!”

  31. Scruffy Nerfherder

    I don’t get the Beach Boys hate.

    Grateful Dead… yeah, I get that.

    • Tundra

      Same.

      Wendy.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Because their music is frothy, light, and ultimately devoid of any insight or surprise.

  32. Tundra

    …but why Persian rugs?

    Persian rugs are comfortable and incredibly durable. I have one that is more than 20 years old, a veteran of many kids, dogs and people. Still looks new. Were I a musician wanting to perform barefoot, it would be my first choice as well.

    Most people don’t swap tiles as often as they should when playing Scrabble.

    Yes.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      I love ’em. Quite popular in the South too.

  33. Fourscore

    Biden is on TV. He really is either stupid or his speech writers are right out of the squad. Economics apparently isn’t taught or learned these days.

    Also, a lot of what he is saying is just plain untrue.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Either?

      Will wait for a transcript.

    • RAHeinlein

      There is a piece in the WSJ – Yellen wants businesses to support higher taxes, stronger unions, increased foreign competition, and a global minimum business tax to stop companies from moving to lower tax countries. Other than that…

      • Fourscore

        I saw that, Yellen is in the same group. Why she was recycled I’ll never know.

    • db

      Also, a lot of what he is saying is just plain untrue.

      Is it intelligible enough to determine its veracity?

      • Fourscore

        A lot of the phoniness is the delivery. The inflection at the wrong times, etc

        “Look, ”

        It’ll be interesting to see the major network s’ interpretations .

      • The Other Kevin

        At least the ones who haven’t closed up their fact checking departments due to Joe’s honesty.

    • Animal

      He really is either stupid or his speech writers are right out of the squad.

      “Or?”

    • Pope Jimbo

      When I was in boot camp we put our rifles in a rack in the squad bay and secured them with a cable lock. But other than sleeping and cleaning the squad bay, you pretty much carried your weapon everywhere with you as a boot.

      The only time we got close to ammo though was when we were at the range and I pretty much remember them being super tight about accounting for every round.

      I’m interested to know if the recruit who hijacked the bus had a magazine in his rifle or not. I doubt it. Which means that our youth are horribly ignorant of firearms. If someone had tried to hijack a bus with my buddies and I with a rifle missing a magazine I think we would have realized it was a bluff.

      • Animal

        I think we would have realized it was a bluff

        and proceeded to beat the living shit out of the guy.

      • Gustave Lytton

        No, no magazine but this isn’t a HiPower as many a ND into the clearing barrel have discovered.

    • The Other Kevin

      The only climate causing people to move is a political climate.

    • Gadfly

      Climate change is forcing Americans to relocate from states that want to stop climate change to states that don’t. Because Gaia wants the climate to change, so rewards those who contribute to the effort.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      I feel sorry for all of those rich liberals moving out of their beach front properties.

    • R C Dean

      I believe most of the relocation is from cooler to warmer climates.

      Which is exactly what you would expect from global warming, right?

  34. DEG

    Have you ever noticed that no matter how clever your except is no one seems to read it, why is that?

    Why is it that I thought of this Beavis and Butthead clip when I read this?

    • Tundra

      LOL! Funk dat!

  35. Raven Nation

    Re: “at least he loves America.”

    “My shoes are gone; my clothes are almost gone. I’m weary, I’m sick, I’m hungry. My family have all been killed or scattered… And I have suffered all this for my country. I love my country. But if this war is ever over I’ll be damned if I ever love another country.”

    Unknown confederate soldier during the retreat to Appomattox.

    • db

      Ha hah hah ha ha, this is fine.

    • Ted S.

      Now you’ve gone and pissed of JI.

      • Sean

        You’ve got no proof of that!

    • DEG

      Uh-oh.

      I’m still hopeful I will have joy tomorrow as Wolf loses.

      Yes, I am not very smart.

      • Sean

        Yes, I am not very smart.

        Shit, I’m the dummy who went and voted this morning, expecting it to matter.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        You may have attempted to vote. It’s still unclear whether you will be successful or not.

    • DEG

      Oh, I’ve been to Fayette County.

      I’m not surprised it’s just Republican ballots.

      A friend of mine grew up outside Uniontown. His parents used to say, “I think we’re the only two Republicans in the county.”

    • rhywun

      OFFS.

      • Sean

        Now they start splitting hairs.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Not all of those 223 cases who had covid actually died of covid.

      ???

      • slumbrew

        Now do the last 14 months.

      • Sean

        “The only permanent rule in Calvinball is that you can never play it the same way twice!”

  36. ignoreLander

    Love you The Hyperbole, I really do. But with all due respect these are probably the worst Moar Random Thoughts I’ve ever come across frim anyone.

    I always mention The Beach Boys when the topic of horrible, horrible music comes up, but The Grateful Dead are even worse.

    Uhh, OK, nice attempt at being a shock jock. One of the top 5 most influential, innovative and talented bands of the past 70 years is “horrible, horrible music”. Sorry everything can’t be U2 and Sum 41 for you.

    The only problem I have with Twitter is when you reach the end of a thread

    If that’s the ONLY problem you have with Twitter, you’re Libertarianing wrong.

    Calling an artist, musician, writer, actress or anyone else in a field where the valuation of ones work is completely subjective, either overrated or underrated is as meaningless as the “he loves America” thing.

    See: one of the greatest bands in history, Beach Boys, above.

    Giardiniera vegetables ranked – 1. Cauliflower, 2. Carrots, 3. Pepperoncini, 4. Red Peppers, 5-X. Any other veggie, X. Celery.

    Holy shit I won’t even throw out an insult here, just correct your wrongthink:

    Giardiniera vegetables ranked – 1. Pepperoncini, 2. Red Peppers, 3. Celery, 4. Red Peppers, 5-X. Any other vegetable (“veggie” isn’t a word that exists in the English language), -48,212 or whatever the lowest ranking it can get is: Carrots.

    • ignoreLander

      And yes, red pepper appears twice. I like red pepper.