Good Help Is Hard to Find Saturday Evening Open Post

by | Jun 5, 2021 | Open Post | 178 comments

*sigh* Do I have to do everything around here?

 

 

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.

178 Comments

  1. Nephilium

    Hey! I finally got the frozen cocktail article submitted!

    /leaves off that he hasn’t finished the mocktail article yet

    • SP

      And I am planning on making some of those! So, thank you!

      • Nephilium

        Not a problem at all. Pretty simple concepts if you’re familiar with using an ice cream maker.

        I’m currently experimenting with spring flavors, drinking a combination of muddled strawberries, rhubarb simple syrup, gin, and topped with ginger ale. First attempt:

        2 muddled strawberries
        1 oz. rhubarb syrup
        1.5 oz gin
        shaken with ice, then strained into a glass with ice.
        Topped with ginger ale
        Gently stirred to combine (the glass is terrible for making drinks in, but I feel I have to show it off)

  2. DrOtto

    If I toil all day for free doing what I normally do Mon-Fri for $, can I still say I worked all day?

    • Sensei

      Did you work on your own auto?

      Similar to why the cobbler’s children have no shoes.

      • DrOtto

        mine and kids

  3. Mojeaux

    So my husband and son have a project, a nonworking lawnmower a neighbor gave us that they are working on. Well, it starts now.

    It does not have a muffler.

    • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

      VROOM! VROOM! VROOM!

      {XY does ‘finger guns’ to the cute teenage girls around him} ”How you doin’?”

    • OBJ FRANKELSON

      Here is a way to make it less lame.

      • Mojeaux

        LOL.

  4. trshmnstr the terrible

    Hey Neph, you’ll appreciate .the tiki bar we found down the street. It’s part of a broader complex called the truck yard that has a variety of bars and breweries.

    I didn’t get the best pic of the place, but it was pretty awesome. The rum swizzle was strong and delicious.

    • Nephilium

      The girlfriend and I are planning a fancy dinner and cocktail night to blow enjoy part of my bonus. There’s three different cocktail bars that are up for inclusion. One is Tiki (which we haven’t been to), one is high end (and fancy), the other has a great concept (but has been Branch Covidians and going to patio only).

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        We’re doing the same thing. Anniversary dinner. Top golf was booked up, so we hit the truck yard before getting some fancy bbq.

    • DEG

      Nice

  5. Plinker762

    The answer appears to be yes.

  6. Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

    Do I have to do everything around here?

    Apparently.

    Plus, you do it so well!

  7. Ozymandias

    Ahhh… out with the old and in with the new?
    The new job is wonderful, the new house becomes ours on July 1, and the Bruins and Isles are playing some “old time hockey.”
    Life is good.

    Hope all of the Glibs are doing well in spite of the retardation that is our media and government. I wonder how long before both just collapse?
    Talk about an abusive, co-dependent relationship… it seems to me there are still just enough morons watching that it enables and encourages them.
    It’s amazing how one’s quality of life goes up if you just ignore them.

    • PudPaisley

      I have not watched, listened to, or read a single mainstream news report in over three months, outside of clicking some links here to see the headlines and maybe 1st paragraph. I’ve turned the radio on for a total of less than 10 minutes during the span.

      I have the ability to listen to whatever I want at work all day while doing landscaping / landscape maintenance. I listen to a few libertarian podcasts, but mostly it’s been books. Lots of Mark Twain and biographies lately. It’s been glorious and great for the mental state. Last weekend I listened to Life on the Mississippi…while pimping out an awesome property on the Mississippi main channel a couple hundred yards upstream from this railroad bridge. Sometimes on the longer ones, they’re only about 20-30 yards from the shoreline of the customer’s property lining up to go through the bridge opening.

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

      • Ozymandias

        Good for you, PP!
        Sometimes I consider that ignoring the enemy may allow them to do things whilst I’m not looking, but then I realize they’re going to do what they do whether I’m watching or not. And the idiots who cheer them on only feed into it.
        I’m beginning to wonder what would happen if Americans just ignored the bureaucratic state en masse? What if we just ignored what happens in DC completely? The media numbers suggest that may be what’s happening, but it’s still not enough. Direct deposit and the govt stealing directly from employers is the problem. As long as they can get our money, they can afford (and continue) to fuck us over.
        I think this partly explains the lockdowns and destruction of small businesses. Most small businesses aren’t wired into the system – they’re outside of it, so the govt loses nothing in direct revenue by destroying them and their employees, most of whom are deplorables anyway.

      • PudPaisley

        I still stay in the loop by reading comments here and listening to podcasters talk / bitch about current events. But, I just refuse to give TMITE any of my attention. I dumped Facebook last October, which was even better for mental health (and keeping friendships) than my current media ban.

        It’s only anecdotal, but I have heard many people talk about walking away from big media in the last year: news, sports, TV, movies, Facebook, etc. That even includes some of my left of center friends who have had enough, a couple of whom have been majorly red pilled since Covid. Hopefully that’s a good sign.

        Regarding killing small businesses, the government is doing a great job right now. It’s nearly impossible to find help due to unemployment bennies. I hear that constantly from clients and other business owners. I’m not sure if a lot of local long-established popular restaurants are going to make it until September. Many are struggling bad and have dramatically cut hours due to lack of help.

      • zwak

        What you are talking about, everyone just ignoring the gov’t, is called Irish Democracy.

      • Ozymandias

        Solid. I like it.

      • pistoffnick

        Pud,

        Just north of there is my old stomping grounds. I had a girlfriend* in Winona, MN. Went to high school in Lake City, MN. I have Mississippi water in my blood. I watched a turd float by the high diving board at the Lake City Beach!

        * Mein Gott!, this girl had the nicest boobs.

      • pistoffnick

        Thanks for the memories mammaries!

    • DEG

      The new job is wonderful, the new house becomes ours on July 1,

      Good!

    • slumbrew

      Great to hear the new job is going well!

      And, yes, this Islanders / Bruins series has been great

      • Ozymandias

        SB – I didn’t realize you were a chowd. I saw your earlier link to the Pizza-chucking incident and Remy and Orsillo nearly laughing themselves incontinent.
        Listening to games on the radio, the dulcet tones of Joe Castiglione brought me back to baseball. MLB chased me away again.

      • slumbrew

        LI born and raised but been a Bostonian since I was 19 – I went native long ago (my dad is from Gloucester, so I have local roots).

        Joe Castiglione and Gil Santos are/were the sound of sports to me.

  8. The Late P Brooks

    Well, it starts now.

    Progress!

  9. The Late P Brooks

    Top notch

    More than 465 people have been arrested across nearly all 50 states in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department announced in a statement marking Saturday as 150 days since the insurrection.

    A fact sheet released by the DOJ on Friday helps to illustrate what officials have described as likely the largest criminal investigation in DOJ’s history, which continues to sweep up more suspects.

    And investigators are continuing to search and seek tips on some of the most violent actors from that day. The department says it is still seeking tips to identify more than 250 individuals involved in assaults on officers or other acts of violence. So far, citizens around the country have provided more than 200,000 digital media tips to the FBI to assist in its investigations, according to the DOJ.

    Sacrilege. Burn the heretics.

    • Count Potato

      “So far, citizens around the country have provided more than 200,000 digital media tips to the FBI to assist in its investigations, according to the DOJ.”

      OFFS!

      • UnCivilServant

        “According to the social media tips, the ringleader was Boaty McBoatface.”

      • Ted S.

        I thought the ringleader was Brian Sicknick.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Tits McGee.

        It’s always Tits McGee.

    • creech

      Meanwhile, young black males are being gunned down by criminals in Democrat controlled big cities and hardly anyone is being arrested.

  10. The Late P Brooks

    On Jan. 6, a rally in support of President Donald Trump turned deadly after Trump encouraged his supporters to march to Capitol Hill, where Congress was meeting to certify Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.

    Deadly!

  11. Gender Traitor

    Today I had spumoni ice cream for the first time in my life.

    WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED ABOUT THIS STUFF???

    I thought Spumoni was an Italian philosopher.

    • KSuellington

      Was it Asti Spumoni ice cream?

      When you got good taste, it shows.

      • UnCivilServant

        On the other hand, she does hang around with us… so that calls that into question.

    • Ted S.

      The flavors go together?

    • blackjack

      If ice cream were a nation, that would be it’s flag.

  12. UnCivilServant

    Just got back from dinner. After the appetizer course, I was prepared to wholeheartedly endorse the place, as the Firecracker Shrimp were delicious.

    Then the main course arrived. The stuffed fish wasn’t actually stuffed, just laid atop the stuffing, which appeared to be shortchanged on quantity of the advertized protein ingredients, and the inconsistant cook on the fish made me want to ask if it was shashimi grade because of the doubts I had on the bottom being fully done.

    And for dessert, a slice of blueberry pie apparently means a quarter of a pie.

    • UnCivilServant

      PS, the pie is pretty good though.

    • creech

      Agent Cooper approves.

  13. OBJ FRANKELSON

    Just for the lulz.. I now present Milton Keynes.

    Note: This person allegedly majored in economics. If there is not a bigger condemnation of American universities I do not know what it would be.

    • UnCivilServant

      Look, University isn’t about learning facts and reasoning. It’s about grooming activist nutcases.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Well, you would have thought that they would have learned the difference between correct fantasy economics and alt-right bad-think Nazis that present theories that actually describe reality.

    • Count Potato

      “If there is not a bigger condemnation of American universities I do not know what it would be.”

      Well, I don’t think intelligence can be taught.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        She has demonstrated the ability to recite mindless talking points, you would have thought that the indoctrination would have included who were the bad thinkers and good thinkers.

      • rhywun

        Fun fact: today, in a “surprise” announcement, she endorsed the craziest leftist lunatic running for NYC mayor.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        How embarrassing, here I am without my shocked face.

    • rhywun

      *snort*

      Milton Keynes is also known as the destination in one of the rare instances of an English Football League team changing cities. Wimbledon fans were so pissed off they formed their own team, which still exists in the 3rd tier of the league.

    • Fourscore

      “NOT an Econ major, although that has been the implied degree in many of the stories written about her. Many of them skate over the actual major, preferring to word the details as though she were a budding Milton Friedman (only smarter and more woke).”

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        Oh, I know, whatever alleged economic education she received is demonstrably nonsense. I just find it amusing/depressing that her ideas have an audience.

    • mikey

      If the family tax burden was now what it was in the 30’s Milton would have been about right..

  14. Not an Economist

    An online article about the group that made it okay to talk about COVID coming from a lab again.

    Doing the work the news media … and the government wouldn’t do.

      • blackjack

        It mostly matters if the lowlife that drove the suffering had stealthily funded the lab that leaked the virus and then lied through his teeth about it. Which isn’t to say that the government didn’t drastically overstep by following his dictates, just that he is a special kind of evil and it should have been apparent to everyone all along.

      • Ozymandias

        It’s only briefly mentioned in my book, but the anthrax letter attacks were from a former scientist at Ft Detrick.
        Of course our hands are all over COVID19. We’re one of the only countries on the planet with the resources to be involved in this kind of shit.
        I will never understand how people act surprised when shit like this happens… because it’s only like the tenth fucking time something like this has happened. And there are only a few players on the planet who have both the know-how and kind of economic excess to afford to be involved in fucking around with virulent diseases.

      • blackjack

        Well, this is a special case ( maybe?) because Fauchi seems to have circumvented an order to not fund it. OR…that’s just what they want us to think. There really isn’t a tin foil hat thick enough after all this bullshit. All I know for sure is that everything is a lie.

      • pistoffnick

        “All I know for sure is that everything is a lie.”
        QFTFT!

        including cake. The cake is a lie.

      • blackjack

        Yeah, I just wonder if these people are really that inept. They asserted that it came, not from the lab that actually creates and modifies these exact same viruses, but from some wet market TWO BLOCKS down the street! What changed that they are now willing to entertain what has been so obvious to anyone with half a brain? Fauchi has been a douchebag from day one. Only now are the media noticing this? WTF?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        inept

        The problem is that for all the ineptitude, they got away with it for over a year.

        It’s really great when you have TMITE on your side.

      • hayeksplosives

        “ Only now are the media noticing this? ”

        They knew it was a way they could prevent Trump’s re-election.

        1) Create the narrative that Trump isn’t doing enough and that he wants your grandma to die

        2) Use Covid fear to weaken social bonds further, including social bonds of religion

        3) Use Covid as an excuse for emergency orders that overturned election processes across the country. Mail in ballots for all!!

      • Fourscore

        Sometime in 1976 I was duty officer at 13th Support Brigade. Got a call from the duty officer at Corps HQ, Fort Hood.
        There had been an accident some 100 miles away and I should alert the Brigade Commander, etc and the support battalions. There was fear that the train contained anthrax livestock and may need Engineer and Signal support.

        I had no idea what anthrax was other than it was serious. I jumped through my ass, trying to keep those concerned informed with what little info I was getting.

        It was a long night, sometime in early morning, we got the call the it was an AMTRAK train that had derailed and the RR people were handling it with their own resources.

        I wish I’d read your book, OYZ, Too early.

        Good to hear that your job/new home are working well, good luck!

      • blackjack

        That’s great! Top notch story! I actually got jacked around because of an anthrax threat once at the local courthouse.

      • blackjack

        This was the hoax that got me in trouble.

      • commodious spittoon

        I can understand putting a paywall around breaking or hot-button content, but what’s the point of paywalling an article from over twenty years ago?

      • blackjack

        I got in. LaTiempo is an evil paper, doing evil things. They don’t want anyone to notice that they used to report the news as it actually happened, I guess.

      • blackjack

        Here.

        By ANDREW BLANKSTEIN
        DEC. 22, 1998 12 AM PT
        TIMES STAFF WRITER
        VAN NUYS — In the fourth such incident in the Los Angeles area in a week, and the second in the San Fernando Valley, state court buildings were evacuated Monday because of an anthrax terrorism threat. Federal officials said that–like the other incidents–it was a hoax.
        FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley said an unidentified caller phoned 911 shortly after 11 a.m. declaring to an operator that “anthrax has been released in the Van Nuys courthouse.”

        Anthrax disease spores, which can be fatal if inhaled, can be so easily propagated that the bacteria have frequently been studied as a possible biological warfare agent.

        Sheriff’s deputies and fire officials evacuated as many as 2,000 people from the Superior and Municipal court buildings, bringing court business to a halt and leaving many to mill around outside the buildings for hours in frigid temperatures.

        ADVERTISING

        County Health Department officials held the evacuees outside the court buildings while health officials and FBI agents searched the facilities and gathered air samples for testing.

        About 4 p.m. officials released the evacuees. But just in case the threat was genuine, officials instructed them to go home, avoid contact with relatives and pets, seal their clothes in plastic bags, take showers and watch for flu-like symptoms.

        Presiding Superior Court Judge Robert W. Parkin declared a court emergency, closing the Van Nuys courts until Wednesday to ensure the buildings were safe. Today,, he said, court clerks would be redeployed to the San Fernando and other courthouses to handle any urgent matters.

        Friday, about 100 people were quarantined for eight hours and given antibiotics when an anonymous caller told a court clerk that anthrax had been released into the air conditioning system at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court building in Woodland Hills.

        Other such threats over the past week resulted in the evacuation and decontamination of workers at a 21-story office building in Westwood Village and a school district office in Riverside County.

        A Los Angeles police spokesman last week put the cost of the Woodland Hills and Westwood scares at $500,000 apiece, saying police and fire officials planned to meet this week to discuss how to reduce the cost and disruption of such empty threats.

        An FBI official said Monday that he knew of no plans for such a meeting but that participating agencies were constantly fine-tuning their approach to such incidents in any case.

        “We are in a new era in terms of these kind of biological threats,” said FBI Special Agent John Schiman. “Rather than be sorry, we’re being safe. In each one of these threats we’ve learned from and modified the response,” reducing the expense and disruption involved, he said.

        Schiman said authorities conducted a floor-by-floor search of the courthouses Monday and tested samples collected from the buildings at a county health department laboratory, which enabled officials to determine more rapidly whether anthrax was truly present.

        Before the recent rash of threats, he said, samples in such incidents were taken to military laboratories, delaying results, sometimes for days.

        Still, many of those caught in the courthouse melee wondered why an evacuation was necessary and complained that authorities appeared disorganized.

        “The real story is, nobody knows what’s going on,” said a lawyer, who asked that her name not be used, as she waited in the cold outside the courthouse. “We’ve been going back and forth for hours and they keep changing their minds.

        “Don’t we have a protocol for anthrax? It’s not like we haven’t had anthrax scares before.”

        But county health officials countered that maximum precautions were necessary even with the low risk that the threat was genuine.

        “The likelihood [of contamination] is very, very low,” said Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, county director of public health. “But we are treating it seriously–as we have to.”

      • blackjack

        I told the story before. It involved getting jacked around by the sheriffs and later getting my prized ’66 chevelle wrecked by an asshole and then getting jacked by the insurance company.

      • commodious spittoon

        I want a coin operated internet model. A platform with no transaction fees that would let me drop a quarter to view an article like this, or like a buck or five bucks for other, more popular content. But I wouldn’t be asked to whip out my credit card to pay for something I don’t want. That’s nonsense, nobody is going to buy on those terms. Even if I had unlimited funds to pay for subscriptions, it’s a huge hassle. But yeah, I’d drop a quarter to read this one article I’ll never revisit. I mean, clicks are essentially that medium for ad revenue, and I know my page view is worth far less than a quarter. So why not monetize my actual interest in the content?

      • blackjack

        I know, right? Why would a periodical actively dissuade people from actually reading it? Throw up some ads and invite the world.

      • commodious spittoon

        In fairness, I do run with adblocker… I can see being annoyed with the likes of me.

        All it makes me want to do is find more invidious ways to get around their paywalling.

      • Count Potato

        Glenn Greenwald recent brought up the anthrax thing.

      • Not an Economist

        It’s only briefly mentioned in my book, but the anthrax letter attacks were from a former scientist at Ft Detrick.

        Apparently, the evidence on that is less than conclusive.

      • Ozymandias

        I have insider info. I was convinced.

  15. Ownbestenemy

    Greetings from a bar in Vegas. Hockey, booze and bare faces

    • Nephilium

      /waves

      Glad to hear about the bare faces.

    • commodious spittoon

      I’m tired of drinking my life away.

      • Aloysious

        Lookin’ for a better way. Lookin’ for a sunny way.

        wait. Wrong song.

      • blackjack

        Oh, me! Oh my!

    • DEG

      Booze and bare faces. Excellent.

    • Ownbestenemy

      And the bartender has thrown on 80s music. Can this get any better?

      • DEG

        Nice

      • Nephilium

        Yes. One (somewhat) local brewery does ska-punk music constantly. First time I walked in, I felt like I was at home.

  16. Gender Traitor

    In other culinary adventures this weekend, besides the spumoni ice cream, I also had strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

    And deep-fried mac & cheese bites.

    Twice.

    In my own defense, I DID also have a couple of nice salads.

    But I don’t think I’m going to say anything during the GlibFit post tomorrow.

    • commodious spittoon

      I’ve been experimenting with coconut flour recipes… wuff. Too much fiber.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Coconut flour, Bolivian Marching Powder,…both loosen your bowels.

      • DrOtto

        BMP cut with baby laxative

    • Gender Traitor

      I also had a Mello Yello for the first time in years. I haven’t finished the 20 oz. bottle yet – just took a few more sips, and I’m contemplating whether I should finish the last few ounces at the bottom.

      I may never sleep again.

      • blackjack

        Quite rightly!

      • Ask your doctor if BEAM is right for you

        Meta.

    • Chafed

      *taps side of nose*

  17. Ownbestenemy

    If I get home in time a funny story for the zoom. Hope you all are having a great Saturday.

  18. Ownbestenemy

    I’ve got the beat??

    • Count Potato

      I have that album. I think it still has the shrink wrap because I never opened it.

  19. zwak

    I fucking hate musical comedy.

    The lowest form of the art.

    • Gender Traitor

      What specific show inspired that little outburst of vitriol?

      I admit, I’m a fan, but of older, “classic” musical theater, no doubt in large part because I was raised on it (that and generous doses of Spike Jones) and I’m woefully ignorant of most productions that debuted from the ’90s onward.

      • zwak

        Right now it’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

        See, the wife is a TV watcher, and I am not. So she will tend to have a program on in the background, and the insipid singing on that show. But, such is the price we pay for a good marriage. But if I am watching a comedian, you can tell they are going to suck as soon as a guitar comes out.

        As far as growing up, Dr. Demento was a constant among my friends, and I did go to the same college as Weird Al. I am a bit younger though.

      • Gender Traitor

        Ah – a TV series. The only musical comedy TV series I can think of that I rather enjoyed was Galavant. (There may be other examples I’ve forgotten.) I tend to think it’s a lot to ask to keep up the quality in that genre over multiple episodes.

      • OBJ FRANKELSON

        No love for ‘Cop Rock’?

        As TV goes, the musical episode of ‘Scrubs’ is pretty money. Just saying.

      • Nephilium

        Oi! I’ve been out drinking with the fine Doctor!

    • blackjack

      Hey! I loved Spinal Tap.

    • commodious spittoon

      Spamalot was awful. Just awful. I have my review on these very message boards from years ago, and I think my main complaint was that it’s awful.

      • commodious spittoon

        No, that’s not quite it.

        The problem was it’s faintly derivative of the work (duh) and then tacks on a bunch of boring, nonsensical shit that adds nothing. If you’re going in with no experience, you’re treated to a gauzy, mostly unfunny glimpse of the source material. If you’re familiar with the movie, as I expect most of its audience is, you get a watery snow cone hint of what you remember.

        Mostly I remember being two rows back from the front and the actors doing that lineup kick dance denouement, and hoping the house lights were too dim to see our faces, because I couldn’t even crack a sympathetic smile.

      • commodious spittoon

        Also, the few songs I’ve heard from Hamilton? make it seem like it’s a novelty act with the added benefit of being racially tRAnSgrEssSiVe, and therefore bait for the sort of people insisting it’s as excellent as they insist it is.

      • Chafed

        I’d say that’s about right.

    • Ozymandias

      The very model of a modern major general haz a sad.

      • Gender Traitor

        G&S = favorite (semi-?)guilty pleasure.

    • KSuellington

      Musicals in general are frigging weird. I don’t really get the appeal.

      • slumbrew

        Amen. I was always a bit skeptical, then wife dragged me to one (“Three Pianos” – they serve (some) wine, so I agreed) and I hated it.

        However… I _loved_ the Don Giovani production we won tickets to, so maybe I’m just a snob.

        I’ve watched a few videos of scenes from “The Book Of Mormon” – I’m a fan of Matt & Trey but there’s no chance I’d want to sit through 90 minutes (or whatever) of that.

      • blackjack

        I saw Le Mis at a classic theater in London. Supposedly one of the best performances of it you could find. I fucking hated it. It cost one tenth of the budget for the whole trip and it sucked balls. I’ve seen plays that I enjoyed, but never a musical.

      • pistoffnick

        I’m not gay, but I can sing most of the songs word for word to Le Misérables. And I took my daughter to Phantom of the Opera “on Broadway”, because it was her favorite.

      • KSuellington

        It’s all that breaking into song at odd moments. Plus there is just a certain way that musicals seems to compose tunes that just grate on me. I love music of all sorts, I am not a musical snob in any way shape or form as that love of music includes cheesy ass pop. I’m a huge fan of cinematic music as well (especially Italian 60’s and 70’s stuff), but the musical utterly escapes me.

    • commodious spittoon

      Also, the whole Wicked movie craze… I thought they were adapting the Gregory Maguire book! I was excited. It’s an interesting bit of fable fantasy annnnnnnnnnd no it’s some bullshit cinematic adaptation of a musical. PASS.

    • KSuellington

      Thinking about musicals reminded me of a time years ago when one of my best friends got us tickets at a local music conservatory. He was studying classical guitar at the time and thought he would want to get into a program there and his guitar teacher would always offer him free tickets to see events there.
      We treated it as we were accustomed to at the time and got very stoned in his VDub Bug before the show. I drank a Sammy Smiths Oatmeal Stout to wash it down. When we walked into the small, very nice acoustically sound hall we looked at our programs. We thought we were about to see some Andres Segovia like classical guitar performance but the program didn’t look anything like that. There were all sorts of weird instruments and objects on the stage. The crowd was very refined and serious. Then a huge black guy in flowing robes came out flanked by a group of middle aged whites people in leotards. “No way this is classical dude” I whispered to my friend. Then the robed fellow belted out in a booming baritone, “Back in the days of slavery they cut off my balls” or something close to that. I completely lost it, as did my buddy. Uncontrollable laugher. The white people in tights started running around the stage and dropping bits of chain and banging pieces of sheet metal and whatnot. I was doubled over in stomach hurting pain from trying to stop peals of giggles. When the Carol King lady started banging on a toy piano I almost peed in my pants trying to stop the laughs. Everyone in the theatre could hear us. They finally settled down and played some more normal instruments, but the strange slave narrative continued and up until intermission we were stifling laughs every couple minutes. We had a beer at intermission and got the cold shoulder from the crowd. We ended up going back and watching the rest. By that point we could control our laughs and it was just lame self indulgent oddness. It wasn’t really a musical, more a performance of sorts. My friend never was asked again if he wanted free tickets.

      • slumbrew

        That’s fantastic 😀

      • KSuellington

        Thanks, almost 30 years later we are still friends. We were kids then and this was pre internet of course, so even though we weren’t sheltered to weirdness, this was just so unexpected. And once you try and stop yourself from laughing really hard it becomes very difficult to do so.

        Hey, even though qualifying today was kinda messy, it should be a good race tomorrow in Baku. Such a cool street track in an unexpected place. This has been one of the more exciting races of the season the few times it has been raced there. Enjoy with your workout tomorrow.

      • slumbrew

        I _just_ finished watching qualifying moments ago – I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s race.

        What’s the over/under on crashes on turn 15? That absolutely killed people today.

  20. Gustave Lytton

    Back from the grocery store. Walked past two mask signs. No one said anything until I got to the self checkout where the dragon did a double take and said something about masks are still required. “Ok”, went to the station to purchase and nothing else happened.

    • zwak

      I went to the post office yesterday and no one said anything.

      I think we are at a point of just needing to go for it.

      • Gustave Lytton

        That’s my thinking.

        The postmaster at the two employee P.O. near me was reluctantly wearing a mask several months ago and wasn’t wearing one at all when I was in month or so ago.

      • Gustave Lytton

        That was at a city Safeway

        So far

        No issues and 25% maskless at a ruralish Safeway this morning, Walgreens (mask recommends signs instead of required), Jerry’s, MoC (kinda surprised at that one). Let the city liquor store restock my basket when they said I had to come back with a mask to purchase. I’m not pushing it with small stores or restaurants if they have a sign since those are the sort of small fry OrOSHA and Gov Kunt will go after while leaving connected businesses alone.

        My company went to no masks if vaccinated. No one I know is either inputting their status if they are or caring if the unmasked are vaccinated or not. They certainly don’t care about OrOSHA’s rules. Even the guy who ratted out a coworker tossed his mask as soon as the policy changed (In fairness, I think he was sick and tired of being the only one who had to wear one all of the time because of his location AND was tasked with being the mask nag).

      • zwak

        MoC is surprising. I haven’t been to the local one in a year. Good meat counter, good veg, and a nice beer selection, but a lot of it is crap. Western Family? WTF?

      • Gustave Lytton

        WF is leftover from the days when they’d supply unbranded/private label items to independent grocers and MoC was a discount grocery before they moved upmarket twenty years ago.

        There was a girl walking in when I was walking out who waited until just before entering to put on her mask. I smiled at her and hope that maybe the seeds of doubt will be planted in her mind too.

    • KSuellington

      I was at a bar for the first time in almost 15 months the other nite (aside from a couple bar and grills we hit in Montana, but even then they had the bar portions partially closed and you could only drink at tables or outside). Aside from the bartender wearing a mask it was entirely normal. No partition bullshit, sat at the bar, didn’t wear a mask from entry to exit and it was a fairly busy crowd. My friend and I chatted with the bartender on his smoke break outside and he said the first couple weeks they tried to enforce some of the state bullshit rules about capacity and distancing and then just said fuck it, let the people drink and socialize as they see fit.

    • Threedoor

      I went to my favorite antique store in Bingin WA yesterday and the tattooed anorexic gal behind the counter jumped on my case two steps in the door.
      “Do you have a mask?”
      “No”
      “We have some of you need one”
      “Washington isn’t doing that anymore are they?”
      “We still are.”

      She was so high it took her ten minutes to write a receipt.

      I hate empowered retail staff as much as I hate petty elected tyrants.

  21. Ozymandias

    Blackjack/Not an Economist – re: the article about anthrax upthread and how we knew it was someone from Ft. Detrick.
    The reason a number of folks knew that the anthrax letter attacks had to be by someone at Ft. Detrick was because the article is 100% wrong about this:

    Anthrax disease spores, which can be fatal if inhaled, can be so easily propagated that the bacteria have frequently been studied as a possible biological warfare agent.

    Anthrax is a rather large and ‘clumpy’ molecule. It is extraordinarily hard to make it in aerosolized form (a fine powder) because it will clump in the nozzles of any attempted sprayers or other dispersal mechanism. At the time I was litigating the anthrax refusal cases, there were only two labs in the world known to possess the capability to get anthrax down into an aerosol: US and USSR. That’s it.
    As usual, the govt lied and hyped it up as part of an intentional campaign and the media carried the water for them. So you’ll have to excuse me if I completely ignored the COVID hype because, just like MUH TERRORRISM!!11! and anthrax, and WMD, and – well, pretty much everything the govt says to hype people up for war or some new deprivation of our rights, it’s complete and utter bullshit. And the media goes all in every. single. time.
    So, I’ll repeat what I said up above – I can’t believe how the American public plays Charlie Brown to the media and govt’s bullshit no matter how many times it eventually proves to be horseshit.

    Something money something overestimating the ignorance, etc.

    • KSuellington

      From the beginning of the Vid scare I figured that not only the fact that it started in the same city as a major Chinese virology lab, but the panicked reaction of governments was attributable to the fact that they knew exactly where it originated. Maybe some years from now that info will be declassified or disseminated. I certainly don’t expect the bullshit investigation that just got ordered is going to give us any real information that hasn’t already been out there. There are too many powerful interests that don’t like the story, so it will be as buried as is possible to bury such a thing.

    • Ozymandias

      Or, for another more recent example, how about the Jan. 6th INSURRECTION!1!1!! Complete fucking lie.
      How about Charlottesville and what Trump actually said?
      Mostly peaceful protests? Kyle Rittenhouse? The kid at the DC monument and the native american knucklehead?
      Even with video proving it’s all bullshit, the media just moves along, screams loudly, and the public reacts as if we should believe a fucking word they say.

    • commodious spittoon

      Sometimes I worry that our government is so overrun by woke ideology as to be completely incompetent and sometimes I worry it’s not.

    • blackjack

      Every time anyone sees a media report, a movie, a government statement or any depiction of something they are intimately aware about, they, to a man, decry it as total bullshit. Yet, for some reason, they buy all the rest of it. Boggles the mind.

      • slumbrew

        “Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

        In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

        – Michael Crichton (1942-2008)

      • Ozymandias

        Not me! Not anymore, at least.
        I may be dumb, but I make up for it by being slow.
        I start from the default position they’re lying. It’s amazing how often you’re right about almost anything in the world if you start from the assumption that what you’re being told is horseshit. I had a friend who was a complete curmudgeon and he said that to me years and years ago and I laughed at him, thinking he was a crank.
        Holy shit, was I wrong and was he right.
        Assuming bullshit from the start has better than a 95% predictive value in my experience.

      • Suthenboy

        ^This^

  22. Tulip

    Where are all the zoomers? Did they drink too much? Come join us?

    • commodious spittoon

      Nothing but millennials around here.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Still around?

    • Tulip

      We’re still going, come visit

    • westernsloper

      Having to go to work at 6 AM is my reason for skipping the happy hour.

  23. Festus

    Judi’s evil Twin and her awful best friend have been on the phone for hours. This is my soundtrack – https://youtu.be/0lVdMbUx1_k

  24. hayeksplosives

    1 o’clock and all is well.

    Finally in bed, probably going to listen to an ebook til I fall asleep.

    I’m beginning to think my cat might be younger than the 1.5 year estimate the humane society gave us. He just seems so thin but long limbed. He plays like a kitten and loves to be held, frequently kneads his paws on soft blankets and sometimes suckles the blanket. His teeth are perfectly white; no apparent plaque build up,

    I don’t mind if he’s over or under a year. I won’t be surprised if he keeps growing though. Cute little dude is happy to have a home again.

    • UnCivilServant

      Glad to hear the cat is doing well.

  25. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh ?

    TALL SABBATH CANS !

      • Tres Cool

        Can a Bass play bass ?

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, homey & U! How are both of you this fine day?

      • UnCivilServant

        Grumpy. I kept waking up, convinced I’d slept through my alarm. I had to turn on the light to check the first time – 3:21am. The second time there was enough daylight to see it was ~5am. Then I repeatly felt like I’d overslept by hours and hours when it was ~5:34am. Then the alarm went off at 6am, and I slept another 37 minutes.

      • Gender Traitor

        Awwww! I’m sorry! 🙁 You shouldn’t have to deal with that on your vacation. I’d take that as a sign that you need a nice LONG break from work!

      • UnCivilServant

        Next one is scheduled for the end of june.

        I should have just gotten up at 5 or 530 because now I feel like I’ve wasted the morning. Even though nothing on my list of places to see is open yet.

      • Tres Cool

        I worked all night, so to me every morning is wasted.

        Im about to take out a brisket that’s been cooking all night for breakfast/supper tho’.

      • westernsloper

        I made Brisket Benedict once. I highly recommend. Poached egg on a hollandaise smothered slab of brisket. Keto friendly!

      • westernsloper

        You are on vacation and set an alarm? Unless you are going fishing that seems unnecessary.

      • UnCivilServant

        I can sleep in at home.

        It’s hard to see new places while asleep.

      • westernsloper

        Aaaah, where are you visiting?

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m in Maine, Biddeford (between Portland and Kinnebunk) to be precise. I’m going to be visiting the wildlife preserve and a trolley museum this morning, possibly stop by a beach to see if it’s too crowded to take pictures of.

        Then I’ll look around and see what else catches the eye.

      • l0b0t

        Be sure to bring lots of patent medicines, the savage snow peoples will take them as trade items

      • UnCivilServant

        The snow people do no appear to be around. Maybe something to do with it being the melt season.

      • UnCivilServant

        Anyway, I’ going to hit the road, get some morning pictures of nature.

        Check back in later.

      • l0b0t

        Take care, be wary… melt season is when they turn to slavin’.

  26. westernsloper

    Throw some money at the well connected. It is the American way!

  27. Cy Esquire

    Gooooood morning!!