Okay, I’ll just assume it’s a conspiracy involving the United Nations, Colonel Sanders, Chelsea Clinton, The USC Marching Band and the word Residual to prevent me from putting up posts.
Something opens that takes me to WordPress.org and feedback sites but nothing that allows me to put up a new post…at least not in the way I used to do it.
Sounds like your log in info isn’t equating to the access it should have. Some months ago we had some spam robots that figured out a way to make posts without ever having had a comment approved; perhaps nevermoor’s solution had an unintended consequence that manifests when someone changes their user id or password (as I assume you must have done when you came back recently). I’m sure this will be fixed by our crack tech support staff soon.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Well, I lost my password to my old account so I’m using a new one…maybe that’s it? Like I said it’s no big deal. I’m not here all that often and I’ve always enjoyed posting in other folks lounges to be honest.
Here in my neck of the woods we judge how hot things are by saying they were on “(blank) burners”.
Ex:
Mom – “Supper’s ready. Careful, it’s been on three burners.”
Me – “great, maybe it will be cooled off enough to eat by lunch tomorrow.”
Dad -“I put an ice cube in my bowl to cool it off. It’s down to just two burners now.”
I watched that movie again just a few nights ago! Oh for those halcyon days when street gangs wore matching themed costumes and almost no one had guns.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
You probably have a whole lot more license that you think. My sense is that no one here has much inclination to start fussing over trivialities any more.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
It’s a tiny joint in a strip mall in San Jose, owned by a Japanese guy who moved to California so he could surf. I would post the link, but their website is down. It’s pork broth with pumpkin in it, pieces of kabocha pumpkin, wheat noodles, pork, hard-boiled egg, onion, and Parmesan cheese. They only do it around Halloween, and they arrange the bowl so that the egg looks like a moon peering through a cloud of grated cheese, with tiny bats cut from a sheet of seaweed flying on top.
question, does ao sen have little fishies in its side sauce, or is that just my delicious imagination? or maybe those things in it aren’t spines but tamarind pistils? whatever it is, best pho hot sauce i’ve encountered.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Time for a heel turn…I hate soup…It’s wimpy and at Summer Slam I’m gonna pin soup with the old 1-2-3 after my finishing move, The Go To Bed Sleeper Hold.
Soups I hate: obviously, the ones that involve ingredients I hate, e.g. mushroom….but the only soup I’ve ever had where things I would generally like were put together to make something gross is the Norwegian classic my mother used to make, hot fruit soup. Now I’m almost tempted to try making it, to see if it was just my juvenile palate, or the undeniable fact that my mom was not a very good cook.
Well, I had to stick with it…we’ve outlawed the Democratic party in Arkansas so it was either the GOP or the Green Party…I hate the color green when it comes to political parties or baseball uniforms so that was out.
I was leading the Bed write-in campaign. But I don’t know when is the last time that I even spoke to anyone from Arkansas, so the campaign went poorly.
I’ve considered GOP registration just because no Democrat could ever be elected in this county. The Nevada assemblyman who said he would vote to reinstate slavery if his constituents asked him to do it…yup, that’s my guy.
However, the state constitutional offices aside from governor and lieutenant governor are all held by Democrats so that rules out next year, and then in 2016 we presumably have to select Harry Reid’s successor, so I’d rather not forfeit the right to vote in those races.
I don’t remember that thread…I must have quit for the 11th or 12 time during it…on that thread was the only person I actually ever disliked on AN. Thankfully they never came to FK or if they did they’ve totally changed.
having to put your shoes back on to take out the trash in the rain sucks. especially when you have a thing about never putting sock back on your feet after you have taken them off. even if they were on your feet less than a minute.
I think I’d like to retire into a series of novels where I’m written as a clever, if a bit clumsy detective, who solves crimes with his trusty dog, Willie.
These posts all using the word sorry are brought to you by Bed’s career as a High School athlete…it was truly one of the sorriest things anyone had ever seen.
OK, I’m forced to stay up late working but can keep the TV on mute for background entertainment. It will make New Zealand’s impending 4-0 victory all the more special.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Nah, I just need something on that I can get entertainment value from while only paying sporadic attention and without sound. And there’s no good soft porn on Showtime, so soccer it is.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
And now I’d like to talk about my fantasy football team…
(This was the last sentence Bed ever posted on Free Kraut, he was shot and killed by an angry mob of Krauters before he could finish his most likely very interesting thought on the plight of his beloved fantasy football team.)
To their credit, they asked him about the A’s first, and he gave a “well, every team is an option” sort of response. Then they listed the six teams that had been rumored to have talked to him (Giants among them) and asked him to confirm, which he did. Then was the discussion about how much he’d like to pitch for the Giants.
Yes. Can’t have two South American teams or three European teams in a group though (which means France has to be grouped with Brazil, Argentina, Colombia or Uruguay).
i tried understanding the rules… i think pot one countries each get a group, but then the draw happens in waves, and the second wave has all european teams i think? so that they spread out more among the groups. so i’m not sure what the purpose of the other 3 pots is other than maybe you don’t play any other team on your own pot? (no US-mex till eighths or higher.)
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
The purpose of the pots is to prevent anyone but Europeans from playing someone from their continent in the group stage, but I don’t think they restrict Round of 16 matchups. The USA and Mexico played at that stage in 2002.
Turns out this wasn’t quite right. According to today’s announcement, France is in Pot 4, which now has 9 teams. One of those nine will be randomly drawn into Pot 2 (the African/South American pot) at the start of Friday’s draw. I’m not sure whether that makes things more or less fair overall, but it does create the small possibility of an ultra-hellish group of Brazil, Italy, Netherlands, USA.
good thing they waited till they had the tam names confirmed before staying up all night to figure out the draw. (apparently with the help of grondona no less…)
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Go to the video on YouTube, right-click in its screen as it plays, click “copy embed code,” and paste that into a comment here. Then, post the comment :)
Never suck on a Blow Pop with the microphone open.
We’re having a boy this time…even have the name…Philip…and no we’re not naming after Phil Collins…well, at least not totally. He’s named after my Grandfather.
I don’t know…I’m good at working with wood on outside type stuff but when it comes to putting stuff together inside I usually just pay someone to do it.
paradise, CA, for the 8th (9th? i’m losing count) annual dialog that goes exactly like this:
one of the inlaws: you know, they say people have been frying turkeys for thanksgiving now.
me: [sotto voce] here we go again…
the other: what will they think of next?? doesn’t seem traditional though.
me: [aside] not as traditional as sitting here having this conversation…
the one: they say it cooks much quicker.
me: [to self] so does a steak.
the other: huh. i wonder what that tastes like.
me: yes, i wonder. no really.
the first: they say it’s pretty tasty. very moist, seals in the flavor.
me: mmmmm, moist sealed turkey.
the other: we should try it next year.
me: i’d try it.
…..: well i don’t know. it sounds good but they say it’s very dangerous.
me: [mock shock face] gasp!
…..: how can cooking a turkey be dangerous?
me: [in sympathy] i don’t know! it’s such a docile beast usually…
…..: well they say last year there were XX fires reported due to fryers catching on fire.
me: wonder if that’s some juked stat including bad xmas tree lighting…
…..: we wouldn’t want that after the work we put into the kitchen.
me: you could build a turkey frying porch…
…..: they say in kentucky, people cook them right on their porch indeed! actually a lot of people fry them in the garage. they have pulleys to lower the turkey into the oil right in the middle.
…..: that seems safe.
…..: but they say if the turkey’s even a little frozen the water can splash oil everywhere and that’s what catches on fire.
…..: that really sounds like no way to spend thankgsiving. let’s stick to oven. i’ve always liked it like that. by the way, did godot say when he’d be here?
VERBATIM.
EVERY. FUCKING. YEAR.
—
and for dessert, why it’s called black friday. and can you believe how much earlier it’s starting this year than last??
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Can you believe how much earlier it’s starting this year than last??
Due to the insane-last-time-in-70,000-year-early Hanukkah, it does feel like it started early. It also will end early. Try to weave that into the conversation for variety’s sake.
As for me, California is coming to Portland this year. And we’re gonna try a couple of the Hanukkah/Thanksgiving combination recipes that have been circling around the Net. I’m also trying to figure out if I can get homophobic asshole stepfather to come to the birthday party for son of gay adoptive parents on Friday afternoon. Just to be evil.
A soliloquy of fresh-sounding ideas which would probably be disastrous.
i have the corollary sometimes, try to get a overly tolerant dad and step mom from going to gay friends functions so they don’t pester them by telling them over and over how tolerant they are.
i suppose you remember to uncap your crotch deodorant every single time. well those of us in the real world spend half our day with undies at our knees while groping for the mennens.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Well, I’m thinking about getting a new car. The Mustang just isn’t practical with two kids and I want to be able to use both cars when we go out as a family not just the Explorer.
Anybody driving a good sedan that they could recommend?
I’ve had good luck with Fords so I was planning to see what they had. I haven’t seen the new Impala’s yet…I’ll give them a look too. I was planning on buying something the first week of December or so.
I had a Fusion hatchback last week while my hood was being repainted. I think I made the inadvertent oh-you-expect-me-to-drive-an-American-car-srsly? face when they brought it out, because the rental car guy said “No, no, it’s actually really nice, it has a sunroof, look, it has a tachometer”. And it was pretty nice. It felt like I was sitting on the pavement relative to my Cube, which is quite high, but the performance was good.
my sister has one and likes it. (her husband only buys fords, people in my family only don’t give a shit about god damned cars)
It seemed nice the one time i was in it. Husband has a mustang now that the kids are teens.
I would like to stress that having a sedan is perfect for a 2 kid family. No need to get a van or something. I do like the look of the mazda 5 though. (SLF likes hatchbacks for her drums, current car is our first trunk together in about 20 years of dating)
I thought about just getting another SUV to go along with the Explorer…it still might be the way I go. I’m keeping an open mind this time…last time I knew I wanted a Mustang so it was a quick process.
Not a Sedan, but when we did this last we bought a Prius and would have bought an Impreza if we didn’t spring for the hybrid. I also wanted to check out the Ford C-Max, but it wasn’t quite released yet.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"
The girl friend and I just bought a Hyaundi Accent for her which is probably a little small for you but the Elantra and Sonata Hybrid are both really nice.
In play, run(s)! Talk dirty to me gamecast, talk dirty. - Nevermoor
I am going to miss my Mustang…it’s my third favorite car ever, after my GMC Sierra, which I loved and my Ford Tempo, which was my first real car, so I’m sentimental about it.
Well, the Tempo was my first real car, and it was only a year old so it was in nice shape, but my actual first car was a 1977 Audi Fox that cost $500 and worked about once a week. It was a total piece of shit.
Because it can’t be said enough…whoever stole my GMC Sierra in Kansas…I hope they’re eaten alive by a shark or something even worse like having to go to a three day Dutch Silent Film Festival.
It’s school project night here at Casa del Upgrade. Primera’s assignment is to build a model of a cell with the various internal structures. We’re making it out of cake, jello, candy and cookies.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
I did that three years ago in anatomy/physiology class. I made clay models of everything. For a few years I had an anatomically correct clay heart in my car.
There was a period not very long ago when people were finding these really big galaxy clusters and then arguing about whether the standard cosmological model could explain the existence of even one cluster of that size. And I think that it all of those discussions ended up concluding that these large clusters could exist, even if some of them were somewhat improbable.
In this case, it doesn’t seem like they even have a mass estimate yet, or have conclusively demonstrated that the whole thing is gravitationally bound. So my guess is that this is not the observation that overturns LCDM cosmology.
I mean, it’s pretty cool. People like really big things. The headline “…Contradicts Big-Bang Theory Cosmology” is definitely premature and probably not even what they meant to say.
Probably not even what they did say. Headline writers like to take liberties …
Challenging the Cosmological Principle (that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic – the same at all locations and in all directions) would be more plausible, and there are hints of that already in the CMB data from WMAP and Planck.
Right. And while the Cosmological Principle is usually assumed in most cosmologies, you could certainly get rid of it while still keeping the Big Bang.
I got a text from Ozz(ex)wife today. Our cat, Payton, isn’t doing very well. She’s being kept at the vet’s overnight. She’s not very old, probably 8 or 9 (we got her from a shelter as an adult, so we’re not completely sure of her age). Really sweet, playful lap kitty. Anyway, she isn’t eating or drinking, and is having trouble walking and holding her head up. Sounds a lot like our previous cat, Sasha, when she went into complete renal failure. I’m very very sad today.
Hey FK book club, I just finished Dissident Gardens, the new book by Jonathan Lethem. It was good, but there are parts that I don’t fully understand. Lethem has a background of writing a lot of genre-influenced fiction, but he went for straight up litfic with this one.
Oooh, that’s next on my list as soon as I finish Telegraph Avenue. I love Lethem.
Speaking of Telegraph Avenue, did anyone catch that Chabon dropped a reference to a couple of characters watching a 2004 A’s game on TV with Korach and King on the mic? I hope someone got fired for that blunder (unless the characters had a system to sync up the audio, in which case awesome).
Think I’ve only seen one reference to someone wearing an A’s cap, so far. I’ll keep my eye out, although I admit I’ve struggled getting through the first quarter of the book so far, esp. trying to keep track of all the characters. Part of that being my own fault for only reading for about 5-10 minutes a night before I conk out.
A soliloquy of fresh-sounding ideas which would probably be disastrous.
speaking of hat appearances at night before conking out… last night i’m watching one night in turin, in part about the fan violence that followed and surrounded the english team in 1990 like a kippers and eggs fart, and during one of the hooligan scenes, i thought i saw a green/gold hat, and went, wouldn’t it be funny if… so i paused and looked closely, but that hat didn’t have the A’s logo. so i thought, yeah, it would be funny, but there’s not really a chance.
two riots later, in naples, not just a passing shot of a by stander but 2 angles of a front-liner… can you spot the A’s fan? (more impressively, do you recognize him?? i don’t. it’d just be funny if it was someone’s uncle. bob, i’m looking at you.)
hopefully open in new window to enlarge…
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
Finished now. Later there’s a game broadcast playing in the background of a scene, with am “intense Miguel Tejada at bat” happening. I guess the A’s were playing the Orioles that day.
Yeah, I was curious about how much of the neighborhood is real and how much is fabrication. But the thing that struck me as the oddest thing about the book is how there just aren’t any character outside of the extended family (I guess Stella Kim and Murphy are the two exceptions). So on one hand, we are supposed to understand Rose’s place in Sunnyside Gardens, but we never see any interactions with all the neighbors that she is supposedly terrorizing. Not even Douglas Lookins manages to show up in the book. It was a realization that sort of snuck up on me, as I was trying to understand the relationship between Rose and Miriam. Actually, thinking more about it, you could really say that the book is about this supposedly complex family relationship, but any given chapter of the book only looks at one family member in isolation.
vallejo does the mascot cleansing thing. next, they’re going to stop insulting spanish speakers by teaching the rest of y’all how to say the damn word right.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
So I’ve decided to start listening to audiobooks during my commute, to supplement my podcast diet. The problem is that I don’t really like audiobooks usually. I zone out too much and feel like I missed something, but I can’t rewind while driving, and so forth. I think this is less of a problem for non-fiction, than for fiction, and of course it depends on the topic and how good the narrator is.
Aaaanyway, I would appreciate any recommendations for books that people thought translated well to the audio format.
The Football Ramble (soccer)
The Guardian Football Weekly (soccer)
WTF with Marc Maron (comedy, sort of)
NPR: All Songs Considered
Sound Opinions
The Treatment (movies, TV)
KEXP Music That Matters
The B.S. Report (total guilty pleasure)
Fresh Air
Radiolab
How Did This Get Made? (Andre and Rafi from The League plus another woman breaking down terrible movies)
The Starters (NBA)
Warriors Huddle (NBA, colin’s brother in law?)
Basically a bunch of public radio shows plus basketball, soccer, and comedy stuff. Yours?
Awesome. Warriors Huddle is indeed my brother-in-law, along with his friend (or maybe co-worker?). I haven’t really listened to it, on account of I don’t follow basketball and I don’t listen to podcasts. Do you like it?
I just said that I don’t listen to podcasts, but I did listen to the first 3 or 4 episodes of Welcome to Night Vale while on some flights back in September and it was pretty fun.
I do like it. They are quite amusing. Is your brother in law the main guy? I don’t know their names, but the main host seems to have a big personality.
I think Scott (my brother-in-law) is probably not the main guy. I’m also curious because Scott grew up in DC, so I don’t know why he would be a big Warriors fan.
Oh, OK. He’s the more low key guy then. The main guy is always giving him a hard time for being a crypto-Wizards fan, and calling him on it when ever he hints that he is among the “long suffering” Warriors fans.
This American Life
Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
If I Were You (comedy from some of the College Humor guys)
Stuff You Should Know (30-60 minute overviews of various topics)
TINSTAAPP (super long pitching podcast from BP guys)
Been trying these recently, but haven’t added them into the rotation full time yet:
EconTalk
Dead Authors Podcast (Rafi from The League being interviewed as various famous authors/people from history)
TedTalks and IndieFeed (both are too short for me to use consistently on a driving commute)
I’m forgetting a few that I’ve been trying out but haven’t subscribed to yet (probably a bad sign for them). Basically, I’ve been looking at public radio, some comedy, some baseball, some history/knowledge types.
Well, TINSTAAPP is more on hold until baseball season resumes anyway. I need to check out a few on your list as well. I should involve some more pop culture types into my rotation
Hmm, I see that Simmons just dropped a two-hour podcast obsessing over the (John) Kennedy Assassination. I may need to downgrade the BS Report from “guilty pleasure” to “hate listen.”
The first hour was basically Simmons trying to indulge any conspiracy theory he could get his arms around about the assassination, while Klosterman and Chris Connolly sort of eased him back from the crazy. It also included — and I am not making this up — a segment on the “winners and losers” of the assassination. Strangely, neither Kennedy nor his family were among his losers. Abraham Zapruder was though, because apparently Simmons thinks he didn’t sufficiently cash in on his accidental snuff film.
Professionally, I know on-demand audio is where the audience is going and we have to program accordingly, but as a listener I just don’t like it. I like tuning in to a program when it’s on the air….for radio, not for TV which I’m happy to watch when it’s convenient for me.
I just don’t care enough, nor do i want to make the time to listen to someting that is not over the air. I would much rather read, or listen to music.
When I am going to listen to people talk, i prefer tp “see what’s on.” that way I will likely hear something I would have otherwise not been exposed to.
Its one of the things I miss about taking a paper, reading stories I had no previous interest in simply because they were printed in the paper.
Right there with both of you. And I don’t think we’re freak outliers either. I have to believe there’s some way for general interest Journalism to find a sustainable business model; it can’t all just be self-selected niches. Can it?
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
career-wise i shouldn’t admit it, but i’m caught in a crux with physical reading material. i much prefer it, reasons above. but i get incredibly frustrated when i’m holding a book in my hand and can’t do apple-F to go straight to the topic i want to read about real quickly. but then it’s not just about books. i also find myself hitting air apple-F at, say, the cheese counter and want the camembert to highlight itself while all the other cheeses gray out.
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
I hear you, but my drive times happen to sync up most of the times with programs I’m just not all that interested in. I do worry that I am nichifying myself too much and missing out on serendipitous listening. But if it means I never have to listen to the call-in portions of Forum again, I’ll accept the tradeoff.
I could see a streaming, general topic podcast Pandora type of situation being something I’d get/listen to. Gives you a blend of serendipitous and focused interest.
By the way, I’ve really started to notice that something you alluded to on an earlier thread is true: Podcasts where the people aren’t in the same room suck because of the terrible audio quality. Unfortunately, this includes just about every baseball podcast I’ve found.
The thing about Sedaris is that “Read by Author” is typically a red flag for me. Sarah Vowell is the exception–her voice works perfectly for her books.
I don’t do a lot of listening to book. I have listened to 3 Sedaris books a lot because for years I fell asleep to comedy records and the sedaris readings fit right in there
This may very well not be of interest in the slightest, but hands down the best translation to audiobook I’ve ever listened to are the Harry Potters. The reader is fantastic and he has special voices and accents for every character. He really knocked it out of the park. The Keith Richards auto-bio is fun because it’s read by Johnny Depp, some British dude doing what amounts to a comprehensible Keith Richards, and Keith himself which is about as garbled as you can imagine.
I listen to TONS of audiobooks while I walk the dogs and I have the same issues you have with losing attention while I’m walking and not really wanting to go back. Therefore I tend towards low brow mysteries and thrillers so I don’t have to pay too close attention and still hang with it.
Circling back to your audiobook question… I just started downloading the Serial Podcasts and am enjoying them so far. I’m the type of person who is easily hooked on those Friday night Dateline mysteries, so this is right up my alley. I love true crime and hearing the mystery unfold week by week has been interesting.
We just binged the first 8 episodes last weekend driving up to Mendo county and back. It’s still going, and still hard to know where to come down on it. There’s a comment on the site that they didn’t just release them all at once because they are recording them as they continue researching.
I can’t decide what I think. I feel like there’s a lot of important information still to come, and I’ve been avoiding all external sources of info. I’m listening to it as much as a journalism procedural as a whodunit.
I have another recommendation for you if you like The Princess Bride. I’m about halfway through As You Wish and am very much enjoying it. His writing style is a bit stiff, but he of course is doing a terrific job of the “as read by author” that I usually so detest. He includes many interspersed interviews with cast and crew which are in most cases related in their own voices in the audiobook which is a nice touch. It includes some really interesting backstory, and how can you resist the tidbit that a young Andre the Giant was driven to elementary school by Samuel Beckett?!
Music Minute: I really like the new LCD Soundsystemized Arcade Fire album! Not enough to get dressed up to see them at Oracle, but still. (Seriously, can you imagine what that crowd is going to be like?)
ha! when does baseball make the argentine press? when it’s about brian wilson’s beard and the NY shave-ees. how does baseball make the argentine press? factually incorrectly. (lanzador de los who??)
*i’m* AV. alex vause. put this loon in psych before she hurts someone.
M-U-G-G-Y
Is the new format that not everyone can put up posts anymore?
Okay, I’ll just assume it’s a conspiracy involving the United Nations, Colonel Sanders, Chelsea Clinton, The USC Marching Band and the word Residual to prevent me from putting up posts.
As far as I know any FKer can still put up a post. Are you encountering some kind of barrier?
I’m unable to post, which is fine, but I was just curious to see if it was the new format?
No, definitely not a format design. Can you describe your inability to post (um….)?
I would go to the dashboard and go to the section to put up a new post…now there is nothing there.
Is there a little grey box in the top left corner that says “Show,” and if so, when you click it does a menu bar not open up?
or go straight here?
http://freekraut.net/wp-admin/
Again there’s nothing there that allows me to put up a new post.
not talking down to you. just going step by step. on the left column of that page, do you get a menu that says:
posts
comments
profiles
etc.
and when you hover on posts it pops out an add new?
Don’t worry about talking down to me…I’m an idiot when it comes to computers…and no, I’m not getting that menu.
what does your page look like then? any menu at all?
It’s just a menu that takes me to WordPress.org…I think perhaps FSU figured out the problem.
Must be this tall to post.
Damn…I guess you folks will now figure out that I’m actually Robert Reich.
yeah right. all that golf talk. you’re dorf and you know it.
Something opens that takes me to WordPress.org and feedback sites but nothing that allows me to put up a new post…at least not in the way I used to do it.
Sounds like your log in info isn’t equating to the access it should have. Some months ago we had some spam robots that figured out a way to make posts without ever having had a comment approved; perhaps nevermoor’s solution had an unintended consequence that manifests when someone changes their user id or password (as I assume you must have done when you came back recently). I’m sure this will be fixed by our crack tech support staff soon.
Well, I lost my password to my old account so I’m using a new one…maybe that’s it? Like I said it’s no big deal. I’m not here all that often and I’ve always enjoyed posting in other folks lounges to be honest.
That’s definitely it. You’re fixed now.
Thanks, nevermoor.
Heh – that’s what the urologist told me last July.
We’re going to need Bed to post using protection for a while until a couple of samples come up sterile.
That seems like the prudent thing to do.
… once they’re done helping out Rob Ford.
Oh, this is going to be good. Grab the popcorn.
Ha!
It’s OK. Lots guys have trouble getting a post up.
Hey…uh…I’m tired…uh…there’s been a lot of pressure at work…um…it’s cold outside…uh…I skipped dinner…um…every time I do post someone gets pregnant…uh…
I like how the comments are called thoughts…because clearly I put a lot of thought into my posts.
My posts in this lounge make more sense if you read them in the voice of Warren Beatty.
I like soup.
it’s good food.
Mmmm… and dipping bread into soup. Yum.
dar. didn’t connect it till now. we’re making split pea and garlic bread.
I’ll be there in nine hours.
what’s the hurry? we’ll be having it for three days.
I don’t eat leftovers…I’m a Republican.
I wanted it while it was still hawt.
then come tomorrow.
tonight we serve it pipin’ hot.
tomorrow we wear g-strings and serve it hawt.
the day after, wear nothing off the rack, it’s strictly haute.
Here in my neck of the woods we judge how hot things are by saying they were on “(blank) burners”.
Ex:
Mom – “Supper’s ready. Careful, it’s been on three burners.”
Me – “great, maybe it will be cooled off enough to eat by lunch tomorrow.”
Dad -“I put an ice cube in my bowl to cool it off. It’s down to just two burners now.”
I’ve never heard of that before.
Where are the posts about William Petersen?
WHISTLING SOLO!
Ding Dongs or Twinkies?
Ding Dongs
Well answered.
My first car was a 1983 REO Speedwagon.
Did you just ride around with your lady by your side with just her there to guide you?
Did it (take it on the) run when it rained, or did you just have to ride the storm out?
Twinkies or Ding Dongs?
Twinkies
Answered well.
Huh…every once in awhile something really surprises you.
Turns out four inches is worth my time?!
I’m not sure I usually just get the foot long.
The Lounge is sponsored by Richie Incognito’s Charm School For Lads and Ladies.
I thought Richie Incognito was an alias. Nope. Turns out there is literally nothing to like about that man.
I didn’t go to the pit viper envenomation class today. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.
Hee hee!
Thanks.
Kauters, come out to pl-aay…Krauters, come out to pl-aay…Krauters, come out to pl-aay.
I watched that movie again just a few nights ago! Oh for those halcyon days when street gangs wore matching themed costumes and almost no one had guns.
I had a funny response to this but discretion got the better of me…which makes me sad.
You probably have a whole lot more license that you think. My sense is that no one here has much inclination to start fussing over trivialities any more.
inclination*energyNah…it’s just not worth it. I’ll never stay in a small box but I’ll stay in this rather large box I’ve built that seems sturdy.
I feel like I should know the name of this movie. One of my internet peeps I went to concerts with loved this movie. I haven’t seen it though.
Warriors…The Golden State Story.
Didn’t the Warriors used that as a slogan a few years back? I didn’t even know it was a reference to something.
They sdhould have gone with:
CAN…YOU….DIG IT?!
I have very little working knowledge of the Warrior or their slogan making so I’m really sure.
They did, yeah.
I had forgotten that the guy who played Ajax went on to be the bad guy in 48 Hours.
Harold Dow?
dexter’s dad.
Ahem. Step-dad.
I shot mine…shot him dead.
didn’t it turn out that it really was his dad and he pulled some kinda switcharoo? maybe not.
Dexter Part 2: This Beard Was Made For Love And Lumberjacking
Speaking of beards I wonder who Tom Cruise’s next wife will be?
Cindy Crawford.
Nah…she’s way too tall. I’ll still say in her prime Cindy Crawford was the best there ever was.
When I hear the name Carter my senses immediately think “tartar sauce”.
I think landslide electoral loss.
I think strickouts.
Also: Stroke it, Chris* Carter, but don’t stroke too fast.
*I know.
Hey, hey…this is a family lounge.
Baby clothes
Four out of five doctors recommend Free Kraut Menthols…A smooth smoke for a smooth fella.
And now a few words of wisdom…
Nobody remembers who comes in second place so shoot for third.
McKayla Maroney found a way to make everyone remember who came in 2nd, and forget who came in 1st.
I don’t know who that is
I envy your ability to avoid pop culture. I really do.
Where are the posts about Geena Davis?
Things that make me nervous…heights, spiders and Bridget the Midget buying rubber gloves.
Okay, I’ll play to the crowd.
Favorite soup?
Soup is good food
Soup is for puppies.
Primordial.
Is that place that Jesus was when he created us and the dinosaurs?
I like pho, but not if there’s tripe. Wonton’s good. Corn chowder. Back to the basics chicken noodle. But I think my #1 has to be French onion.
I love the pho…as far as boring American soup I’ll go chicken noodle.
French onion is pretty good too…well, it’s good to surrender by.
And ramen is like a whole ‘nother category from regular soup. My favorite is the seasonal pumpkin ramen at Ramen Halu.
That sounds pretty good.
It’s a tiny joint in a strip mall in San Jose, owned by a Japanese guy who moved to California so he could surf. I would post the link, but their website is down. It’s pork broth with pumpkin in it, pieces of kabocha pumpkin, wheat noodles, pork, hard-boiled egg, onion, and Parmesan cheese. They only do it around Halloween, and they arrange the bowl so that the egg looks like a moon peering through a cloud of grated cheese, with tiny bats cut from a sheet of seaweed flying on top.
Often you get the best food in little joints like that.
I like tripe in mine
Yes on pho, with pretty much any meat.
Big yes on good ramen.
Yes on udon and soba.
Also, lentil soup, especially if it is made spicy. And tomato soup, bonus if you mix in a bit of balsamic vinegar.
Soups are a pretty major part of my cooking repertoire.
perfect vehicle for hot sauce.
question, does ao sen have little fishies in its side sauce, or is that just my delicious imagination? or maybe those things in it aren’t spines but tamarind pistils? whatever it is, best pho hot sauce i’ve encountered.
Lentil, especially with sausage. French onion. Roasted red pepper. But most of all, broccoli-mascarpone.
Anytime someone says life’s too short I always wonder why they just don’t buy life some platform heels?
Time for a heel turn…I hate soup…It’s wimpy and at Summer Slam I’m gonna pin soup with the old 1-2-3 after my finishing move, The Go To Bed Sleeper Hold.
Soups I hate: obviously, the ones that involve ingredients I hate, e.g. mushroom….but the only soup I’ve ever had where things I would generally like were put together to make something gross is the Norwegian classic my mother used to make, hot fruit soup. Now I’m almost tempted to try making it, to see if it was just my juvenile palate, or the undeniable fact that my mom was not a very good cook.
I can’t say I’ve had that…my mom would cook some Swedish dishes when I was a kid but I liked most of them.
I liked the sand tart cookies made with ground almonds. Fortunately we didn’t go in for lutefisk.
Oh, some of the fish dishes are, uh…unique.
I can’t wait until we have our all vegan Thanksgiving feast…just kidding, I’m still a Republican.
STILL?!?!?
Well, I had to stick with it…we’ve outlawed the Democratic party in Arkansas so it was either the GOP or the Green Party…I hate the color green when it comes to political parties or baseball uniforms so that was out.
Booooooooooo
Actually for all I know I may have been the Green Party candidate for Governor in the last election.
I was leading the Bed write-in campaign. But I don’t know when is the last time that I even spoke to anyone from Arkansas, so the campaign went poorly.
I’ve considered GOP registration just because no Democrat could ever be elected in this county. The Nevada assemblyman who said he would vote to reinstate slavery if his constituents asked him to do it…yup, that’s my guy.
However, the state constitutional offices aside from governor and lieutenant governor are all held by Democrats so that rules out next year, and then in 2016 we presumably have to select Harry Reid’s successor, so I’d rather not forfeit the right to vote in those races.
The two places I play with myself the most?
The Lounge and my bedroom back in High School.
When I look back I think it was that Film Arts class, that I took in college, that has had the most to do with whatever success I’ve had in life.
it is the only class that I can remember from college
Fine…I have a John Denver poster up in my garage…DON”T YOU DARE JUDGE ME!
This link to an all-time classic thread….
I’m afraid if I link to that Nico will want me to give him a phone call.
I don’t remember that thread…I must have quit for the 11th or 12 time during it…on that thread was the only person I actually ever disliked on AN. Thankfully they never came to FK or if they did they’ve totally changed.
No, wait it turns out Future Ed is on FK and he hasn’t changed at all.
I remember thinking about how stupid that thread was going to look when he washed out
I’m happy to see that the only comment by me on that thread was a response to this winner from elcroata.
I just remember thinking that that whole meme was stupid, and as such wisely avoided that thread.
Except they’re still funny. Sometimes it’s ok to joke about stuff.
Thanks, and go As.
Nope. never. I stand by my flip comments on that post. The Mets will trade ike davis because brandon allen will MASH!!
(did anyone actually think he was the second coming of Durazo or something?)
cust without the K’s.
I don’t even remember who he is.
he played for the A’s for about 2 months, and hit 2 gorgeous HRs in one game in NY at the start.
He more than anyone sewed my doubts about Moss’ Colorado superhomerun start
I had so much fun in that thread.
I really thought all the talk of Twinkies and Ding Dongs would drive traffic tonight.
having to put your shoes back on to take out the trash in the rain sucks. especially when you have a thing about never putting sock back on your feet after you have taken them off. even if they were on your feet less than a minute.
Future Ed : An man of many rules most of which involve socks.
Hee
Going barefoot in the rain always pleases me.
Do you like Pina Coladas?
you have been by my house. you gonna go barefoot here?
I’m at your house right now…where’s Chaka Khan?
Sure, but I have very tough feet from my youthful barefoot Hawaii days.
The drug dealer was carrying the hatchet, Ed. It wasn’t on the sidewalk.
Oh man, I have the same thing with socks. Putting them back on is gross.
And now some words of wisdom…
Always tell the truth…except for those times when lying is easier.
Apparently my TV thinks it’s 1991 because Arsenio Hall is interviewing Eddie Murphy on it right now.
Yup, I’m glad I don’t have cable.
Thanks, and go As.
It was like being in a time machine…very odd.
I think I’d like to retire into a series of novels where I’m written as a clever, if a bit clumsy detective, who solves crimes with his trusty dog, Willie.
Love means never having to play the game Sorry.
…and I’m sorry if I posted this comment six or seven times before.
Sorry is just a tackier version of Parcheesi.
I know Elton John thinks sorry seems to be the hardest word but for me it’s Massachusetts…I can never say that word right.
These posts all using the word sorry are brought to you by Bed’s career as a High School athlete…it was truly one of the sorriest things anyone had ever seen.
Anytime Dorf is mentioned in a Lounge a Bed gets it’s wings.
My best friend’s dad growing up used to watch Dorf videos all the time and just laugh his ass off. I never got the joke at all.
My dad saved his laughter for snuff videos…the family that watches people being killed together stays together.
Wings the band, or Wings the TV show?
JET!
Actually wegbet spicy Buffalo Wings with a nice side of ranch dressing.
…and I have no clue what the hell “wegbet” is supposed to mean…It’s probably Dutch which means it’s bad.
Blasphemy.
Trust him. He’s from Buffalo.
I prefer Arkansas Wings to be honest…any type of roadkill that has wings dipped in ketchup.
OK, I’m forced to stay up late working but can keep the TV on mute for background entertainment. It will make New Zealand’s impending 4-0 victory all the more special.
You are Mr. Sports…I’m to the point where I really only watch the NFL these days.
Nah, I just need something on that I can get entertainment value from while only paying sporadic attention and without sound. And there’s no good soft porn on Showtime, so soccer it is.
I’ll email you the porno I made.
Um…Jennifer, don’t hold out on me you have my email address too.
here comes the 8-goal kiwi second half.
That’s a really unusual Rugby score to be predicting.
And now I’d like to talk about my fantasy football team…
(This was the last sentence Bed ever posted on Free Kraut, he was shot and killed by an angry mob of Krauters before he could finish his most likely very interesting thought on the plight of his beloved fantasy football team.)
your Oakland Athletics flagship, folks.
Thanks, and go As.
To their credit, they asked him about the A’s first, and he gave a “well, every team is an option” sort of response. Then they listed the six teams that had been rumored to have talked to him (Giants among them) and asked him to confirm, which he did. Then was the discussion about how much he’d like to pitch for the Giants.
we got pots.
Groups are broken up into 1 country from each pot, right?
Thanks, and go As.
Yes. Can’t have two South American teams or three European teams in a group though (which means France has to be grouped with Brazil, Argentina, Colombia or Uruguay).
argentine press is nail biting itself with an argentina, US, italy, france group of death.
so’s the US press i guess. here, for you numbers guys.
USA gonna get a screwjob. Wait for it. It’s gonna be something like Brazil, USA, Ghana, Russia.
Thanks, and go As.
read my link. 4 scenarios all worse than that. :)
I’m ready to be disappointed with the draw
Thanks, and go As.
I’m holding out hope for Switzerland, Algeria, England
Brazil or Argentina + Italy or Netherlands + France is the nightmare scenario.
This is a really strong field, so any group is going to be brutal.
The ideal would be to:
1. Not be in Brazil’s or Argentina’s group
2. Not get drawn with Italy or the Netherlands
3. Draw Algeria
After that, I would like to not be in the group that gets the winner of Brazil’s or Argentina’s group in the Round of 16. I don’t ask for much.
Everyone in Pots 1,2 and 4 is going to be hoping they don’t draw us, though, so that’s nice.
i tried understanding the rules… i think pot one countries each get a group, but then the draw happens in waves, and the second wave has all european teams i think? so that they spread out more among the groups. so i’m not sure what the purpose of the other 3 pots is other than maybe you don’t play any other team on your own pot? (no US-mex till eighths or higher.)
The purpose of the pots is to prevent anyone but Europeans from playing someone from their continent in the group stage, but I don’t think they restrict Round of 16 matchups. The USA and Mexico played at that stage in 2002.
that’s what i meant to say if i didn’t.
Turns out this wasn’t quite right. According to today’s announcement, France is in Pot 4, which now has 9 teams. One of those nine will be randomly drawn into Pot 2 (the African/South American pot) at the start of Friday’s draw. I’m not sure whether that makes things more or less fair overall, but it does create the small possibility of an ultra-hellish group of Brazil, Italy, Netherlands, USA.
good thing they waited till they had the tam names confirmed before staying up all night to figure out the draw. (apparently with the help of grondona no less…)
if it’s raining in your life…
< iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/br7pHXf1wOg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>
ugg. that delroy wilson is pitched wrong.
very nice.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/YcY3FH208l8” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
Phil Collins “I Wish It Would Rain Down”
I say it’s 1 in 5 I actually posted this right.
Hmm…well, I can post the link but I still don’t post the little player so you can watch it on FK.
Go to the video on YouTube, right-click in its screen as it plays, click “copy embed code,” and paste that into a comment here. Then, post the comment :)
Thanks…Ed talked me through this a couple of days ago and gave the same advice but so far I’m just getting the link. I’ll keep working on it.
How are you doing these days?
Same old same old in some ways, whole new me in others. How about you B?
I hope the same old ways you kept were the ones you enjoyed and that the new parts of you are fitting in well.
I’m doing great…just super busy. We’re in the final few weeks until another kid joins the family so it’s an exciting time.
NICE!!! Congratulations in advance Brian. Do you know if it will be a boy or a girl yet?
We’re having a boy this time…even have the name…Philip…and no we’re not naming after Phil Collins…well, at least not totally. He’s named after my Grandfather.
Phil Collins is named after your Grandfather?!
Yep…my Grandma was named Sussudio so that’s how that song came to be titled.
I dunno how to tagline stuff but this one deserves it, no? Nice job, J.
Just paste the URL on its own line and FK will do the rest.
I hear that guy juices.
I have to say Junior Mints and Diet Coke go together better than I thought they would.
Even though I really don’t play games anymore…well, outside of certain types of one on one…I have this strong urge to buy the new XBox this weekend.
I’ve decided to build a small home theater PC instead of buying a PS4 or Xbox One.
Thanks, and go As.
Well, you’re a clever enough guy to do that…I couldn’t build something like that if my life depending on it.
Sure you could. They’re essentially electronic lego at this point.
Thanks, and go As.
I don’t know…I’m good at working with wood on outside type stuff but when it comes to putting stuff together inside I usually just pay someone to do it.
TWSS
I like to grab the wood…then grip it firmly and work the wood…up and down.
Weirdest golf tip ever.
This advice also works on shafts.
I’d be interested in learning more about what you choose at the appropriate time.
Where are the posts about DeForest Kelly?
Anybody doing anything fun for Thanksgiving?
Tolerating my loved ones.
YOUR MOM!
Good choice on your part…I hear that chick knows how to party.
paradise, CA, for the 8th (9th? i’m losing count) annual dialog that goes exactly like this:
one of the inlaws: you know, they say people have been frying turkeys for thanksgiving now.
me: [sotto voce] here we go again…
the other: what will they think of next?? doesn’t seem traditional though.
me: [aside] not as traditional as sitting here having this conversation…
the one: they say it cooks much quicker.
me: [to self] so does a steak.
the other: huh. i wonder what that tastes like.
me: yes, i wonder. no really.
the first: they say it’s pretty tasty. very moist, seals in the flavor.
me: mmmmm, moist sealed turkey.
the other: we should try it next year.
me: i’d try it.
…..: well i don’t know. it sounds good but they say it’s very dangerous.
me: [mock shock face] gasp!
…..: how can cooking a turkey be dangerous?
me: [in sympathy] i don’t know! it’s such a docile beast usually…
…..: well they say last year there were XX fires reported due to fryers catching on fire.
me: wonder if that’s some juked stat including bad xmas tree lighting…
…..: we wouldn’t want that after the work we put into the kitchen.
me: you could build a turkey frying porch…
…..: they say in kentucky, people cook them right on their porch indeed! actually a lot of people fry them in the garage. they have pulleys to lower the turkey into the oil right in the middle.
…..: that seems safe.
…..: but they say if the turkey’s even a little frozen the water can splash oil everywhere and that’s what catches on fire.
…..: that really sounds like no way to spend thankgsiving. let’s stick to oven. i’ve always liked it like that. by the way, did godot say when he’d be here?
VERBATIM.
EVERY. FUCKING. YEAR.
—
and for dessert, why it’s called black friday. and can you believe how much earlier it’s starting this year than last??
Are you aware that turkey includes a chemical that makes you sleepy.
wait. do we share inlaws??
I saw a turkey standing around on Mass Ave yesterday, about a block from Harvard Square. There were tourists taking pictures, naturally.
Due to the insane-last-time-in-70,000-year-early Hanukkah, it does feel like it started early. It also will end early. Try to weave that into the conversation for variety’s sake.
As for me, California is coming to Portland this year. And we’re gonna try a couple of the Hanukkah/Thanksgiving combination recipes that have been circling around the Net. I’m also trying to figure out if I can get homophobic asshole stepfather to come to the birthday party for son of gay adoptive parents on Friday afternoon. Just to be evil.
i have the corollary sometimes, try to get a overly tolerant dad and step mom from going to gay friends functions so they don’t pester them by telling them over and over how tolerant they are.
(in laws I should say)
You should invite this guy:
Gorging myself and watching the Raiders. It’s a dangerous combination.
John Jaso playing Canadian football in the offseason?
Moon River…
someone need satan?
Why would you get your undies up to your knees and then decide you needed to bend over and look for something in your locker?
He was looking for his dignity.
I’ve been looking for mine for about 40 years now.
The guy sitting in the adjacent locker appears to be wondering that as well.
Thought bubble over that guy’s head: “FKing Canadians.”
i suppose you remember to uncap your crotch deodorant every single time. well those of us in the real world spend half our day with undies at our knees while groping for the mennens.
In honor of Bed’s return, all A’s players change their name to Brian?
Brian is the new Brandon.
Well, I’m thinking about getting a new car. The Mustang just isn’t practical with two kids and I want to be able to use both cars when we go out as a family not just the Explorer.
Anybody driving a good sedan that they could recommend?
Price range?
Thanks, and go As.
40K or under.
Gold-plated Honda Civic.
Hmm…sounds classy.
Honda Accord Touring. About 30K loaded. Send me 5K as a finders fee.
Thanks, and go As.
Heh…you have it all worked out for me.
I’ll go on the Honda website and take a look.
The Ford Fusion is nice, too, and IMO the 2014 Impala is pretty slick.
Thanks, and go As.
I’ve had good luck with Fords so I was planning to see what they had. I haven’t seen the new Impala’s yet…I’ll give them a look too. I was planning on buying something the first week of December or so.
Good friend of mine just leased a Fusion. They’re really nice.
Thanks, and go As.
My boss just got a new Audi, which I really liked, but I think it’s out of my price range.
I had a Fusion hatchback last week while my hood was being repainted. I think I made the inadvertent oh-you-expect-me-to-drive-an-American-car-srsly? face when they brought it out, because the rental car guy said “No, no, it’s actually really nice, it has a sunroof, look, it has a tachometer”. And it was pretty nice. It felt like I was sitting on the pavement relative to my Cube, which is quite high, but the performance was good.
I love the idea that having a tachometer is an achievement for American cars.
It’s not. The rental car guy was a moron.
Thanks, and go As.
Whenever I drive my wife’s SUV I feel like I’m 12 feet tall compared to being in my Mustang.
I’ve never had a Japanese car but I’m open to it…I just want something safe and reliable.
my sister has one and likes it. (her husband only buys fords, people in my family only don’t give a shit about god damned cars)
It seemed nice the one time i was in it. Husband has a mustang now that the kids are teens.
I would like to stress that having a sedan is perfect for a 2 kid family. No need to get a van or something. I do like the look of the mazda 5 though. (SLF likes hatchbacks for her drums, current car is our first trunk together in about 20 years of dating)
You can’t go wrong with a Honda Accord. Plenty of room, I like the way they drive, and they never break.
I know people who drive a Honda are often very loyal to the brand.
my ex has a Honda Pilot. They’re decent vehicles but it’s 7-8 years old now and little interior parts are breaking down, etc.
Runs fine, whatever, but some of the quality isn’t that wonderful. Granted some of that is probably due to 2 kids beating the hell out of it.
Thanks, and go As.
I thought about just getting another SUV to go along with the Explorer…it still might be the way I go. I’m keeping an open mind this time…last time I knew I wanted a Mustang so it was a quick process.
Chevy Citation
me too!
Actually, I was suggesting this to Bed as a purchase. I’ve never owned one, driven one, or even sat in one. My loss, I know.
Not a Sedan, but when we did this last we bought a Prius and would have bought an Impreza if we didn’t spring for the hybrid. I also wanted to check out the Ford C-Max, but it wasn’t quite released yet.
The ford cmax is great.
The girl friend and I just bought a Hyaundi Accent for her which is probably a little small for you but the Elantra and Sonata Hybrid are both really nice.
Anyone have opinions on the Mercedes CLA class?
I don’t but if youre looking, can I have five dollars?
I’m not, but they’re within the $40k price range Bed specified. And can I just buy you a beer instead?
I am going to miss my Mustang…it’s my third favorite car ever, after my GMC Sierra, which I loved and my Ford Tempo, which was my first real car, so I’m sentimental about it.
I miss all 9 of my Mustangs.
Thanks, and go As.
I still want to get a 1965 Mustang one of these years…obviously not for my everyday car but for something fun to drive…we’ll see if it ever happens.
My first car was a 67, my second car was a 65, and I’ve had a bunch since then.
One day when I’m old and can afford it, I’ll have a 65 fastback all done up with a new motor and EFI and all that jazz.
Thanks, and go As.
That sounds like a good way to go. All I know is your first car was a hell of a lot cooler than mine.
Eh. It was a 6cyl with the 3 speed manual, yellow with the (rust bubbled underneath) black vinyl top.
The 65 was the car I really, really loved. Basically rebuilt it part by part all through high school.
Thanks, and go As.
Well, the Tempo was my first real car, and it was only a year old so it was in nice shape, but my actual first car was a 1977 Audi Fox that cost $500 and worked about once a week. It was a total piece of shit.
Wait…somebody other than the rental car companies ever bought a Tempo?
Darn tooting…I loved that little car.
my brother owned a festiva in the 90s
Because it can’t be said enough…whoever stole my GMC Sierra in Kansas…I hope they’re eaten alive by a shark or something even worse like having to go to a three day Dutch Silent Film Festival.
Like most people when I meet someone for the first time I tell them to “let go my Eggo.” just to set some ground rules up front.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. You’re a wonderful group of folks, I’ll see you in 2014.
Nooooooooooo
He shows up once every three months then makes 5000 posts in two days.
It’s school project night here at Casa del Upgrade. Primera’s assignment is to build a model of a cell with the various internal structures. We’re making it out of cake, jello, candy and cookies.
I did that three years ago in anatomy/physiology class. I made clay models of everything. For a few years I had an anatomically correct clay heart in my car.
of…everything?
Most everything. We took various foods to measure the cervix. Pinapple rings and doughnuts. A hula hoop vagina we crawled through.
cosmological ruh-roh. penny, leonard, and sheldon might not be real. i’ll leave it there for our sciency-things-knowing mob to confirm or deny.
But are ptbnl and colin real?
There was a period not very long ago when people were finding these really big galaxy clusters and then arguing about whether the standard cosmological model could explain the existence of even one cluster of that size. And I think that it all of those discussions ended up concluding that these large clusters could exist, even if some of them were somewhat improbable.
In this case, it doesn’t seem like they even have a mass estimate yet, or have conclusively demonstrated that the whole thing is gravitationally bound. So my guess is that this is not the observation that overturns LCDM cosmology.
not very long ago in a big galaxy cluster…
so this article is a little bit sensationalist, is what you’re telling me?
I mean, it’s pretty cool. People like really big things. The headline “…Contradicts Big-Bang Theory Cosmology” is definitely premature and probably not even what they meant to say.
Probably not even what they did say. Headline writers like to take liberties …
Challenging the Cosmological Principle (that the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic – the same at all locations and in all directions) would be more plausible, and there are hints of that already in the CMB data from WMAP and Planck.
Right. And while the Cosmological Principle is usually assumed in most cosmologies, you could certainly get rid of it while still keeping the Big Bang.
I got a text from Ozz(ex)wife today. Our cat, Payton, isn’t doing very well. She’s being kept at the vet’s overnight. She’s not very old, probably 8 or 9 (we got her from a shelter as an adult, so we’re not completely sure of her age). Really sweet, playful lap kitty. Anyway, she isn’t eating or drinking, and is having trouble walking and holding her head up. Sounds a lot like our previous cat, Sasha, when she went into complete renal failure. I’m very very sad today.
poor kitty
:( Hugs to you. That is rough. Paws crossed for Payton.
Thanks. I’m waiting to hear back from the ex on Payton’s blood work.
136 years ago today, Edison premiered the Wheels of Steel.
and yesterday dylan released this novelty interactive video to promo some new tune of his.
Hey FK book club, I just finished Dissident Gardens, the new book by Jonathan Lethem. It was good, but there are parts that I don’t fully understand. Lethem has a background of writing a lot of genre-influenced fiction, but he went for straight up litfic with this one.
Oooh, that’s next on my list as soon as I finish Telegraph Avenue. I love Lethem.
Speaking of Telegraph Avenue, did anyone catch that Chabon dropped a reference to a couple of characters watching a 2004 A’s game on TV with Korach and King on the mic? I hope someone got fired for that blunder (unless the characters had a system to sync up the audio, in which case awesome).
Huh. I don’t remember that, but I’ve also been out of the Bay Area for so long that I don’t spend much time thinking about A’s broadcasters.
It’s slipped into the epic “flying parrot” sentence/chapter.
I remember a couple mentions of King/Korach (in fact I think I commented on it here) but must have missed the TV part.
There are a bunch of A’s references in there, including one to Rich Harden as I recall.
Think I’ve only seen one reference to someone wearing an A’s cap, so far. I’ll keep my eye out, although I admit I’ve struggled getting through the first quarter of the book so far, esp. trying to keep track of all the characters. Part of that being my own fault for only reading for about 5-10 minutes a night before I conk out.
speaking of hat appearances at night before conking out… last night i’m watching one night in turin, in part about the fan violence that followed and surrounded the english team in 1990 like a kippers and eggs fart, and during one of the hooligan scenes, i thought i saw a green/gold hat, and went, wouldn’t it be funny if… so i paused and looked closely, but that hat didn’t have the A’s logo. so i thought, yeah, it would be funny, but there’s not really a chance.
two riots later, in naples, not just a passing shot of a by stander but 2 angles of a front-liner… can you spot the A’s fan? (more impressively, do you recognize him?? i don’t. it’d just be funny if it was someone’s uncle. bob, i’m looking at you.)
hopefully open in new window to enlarge…
i mean, it makes perfect sense. the A’s are defending world champs at this point.
It starts out pretty slow, but the pace really picks up in the last third or so.
Finished now. Later there’s a game broadcast playing in the background of a scene, with am “intense Miguel Tejada at bat” happening. I guess the A’s were playing the Orioles that day.
I’m reading it now, a good choice while I’m in NYC. I might have to journey out to Queens to find Sunnyside Gardens.
Yeah, I was curious about how much of the neighborhood is real and how much is fabrication. But the thing that struck me as the oddest thing about the book is how there just aren’t any character outside of the extended family (I guess Stella Kim and Murphy are the two exceptions). So on one hand, we are supposed to understand Rose’s place in Sunnyside Gardens, but we never see any interactions with all the neighbors that she is supposedly terrorizing. Not even Douglas Lookins manages to show up in the book. It was a realization that sort of snuck up on me, as I was trying to understand the relationship between Rose and Miriam. Actually, thinking more about it, you could really say that the book is about this supposedly complex family relationship, but any given chapter of the book only looks at one family member in isolation.
I’m not that far along yet to respond, but I’ll think about this dynamic as I read it.
vallejo does the mascot cleansing thing. next, they’re going to stop insulting spanish speakers by teaching the rest of y’all how to say the damn word right.
of course the embedded javascript didn’t work.
http://www.forvo.com/word/vallejo/
chez does alright. carolinam nails it.
I remember back in high school when my Mexican co-worker pronounced Vallejo correctly and I had no idea what he was talking about.
So I’ve decided to start listening to audiobooks during my commute, to supplement my podcast diet. The problem is that I don’t really like audiobooks usually. I zone out too much and feel like I missed something, but I can’t rewind while driving, and so forth. I think this is less of a problem for non-fiction, than for fiction, and of course it depends on the topic and how good the narrator is.
Aaaanyway, I would appreciate any recommendations for books that people thought translated well to the audio format.
I did enders game on the way up to SF and back last weekend.
I usually like doing the ted talks, since its pretty easy to stick with them and they are short
I liked A Confederacy of Dunces a lot in audiobook.
What podcasts do you listen to? I’m trying to expand my library.
i’ve heard great things about 99% and you just reminded me to listen to one.
did a few today. enjoyed them. good topics. i like that he’s from the east bay.
Roman is my friend Leigh’s brother and an all-round good guy.
They also have a fabulously successful kickstarter going for the next 25 hours.
My current list:
The Football Ramble (soccer)
The Guardian Football Weekly (soccer)
WTF with Marc Maron (comedy, sort of)
NPR: All Songs Considered
Sound Opinions
The Treatment (movies, TV)
KEXP Music That Matters
The B.S. Report (total guilty pleasure)
Fresh Air
Radiolab
How Did This Get Made? (Andre and Rafi from The League plus another woman breaking down terrible movies)
The Starters (NBA)
Warriors Huddle (NBA, colin’s brother in law?)
Basically a bunch of public radio shows plus basketball, soccer, and comedy stuff. Yours?
Awesome. Warriors Huddle is indeed my brother-in-law, along with his friend (or maybe co-worker?). I haven’t really listened to it, on account of I don’t follow basketball and I don’t listen to podcasts. Do you like it?
I just said that I don’t listen to podcasts, but I did listen to the first 3 or 4 episodes of Welcome to Night Vale while on some flights back in September and it was pretty fun.
That looks cool! I’m subscribing.
This thing is pretty crazy, like a macabre News From Lake Wobegon. Not sure it’s my thing, but it’s definitely interesting.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the musical interludes in each episode.
I can’t say I love them yet, though I’m only two episodes in. They don’t have any thematic connection to the story, do they?
I don’t think so.
I do like it. They are quite amusing. Is your brother in law the main guy? I don’t know their names, but the main host seems to have a big personality.
I think Scott (my brother-in-law) is probably not the main guy. I’m also curious because Scott grew up in DC, so I don’t know why he would be a big Warriors fan.
Oh, OK. He’s the more low key guy then. The main guy is always giving him a hard time for being a crypto-Wizards fan, and calling him on it when ever he hints that he is among the “long suffering” Warriors fans.
That makes sense.
Right now I listen to these consistently:
This American Life
Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
If I Were You (comedy from some of the College Humor guys)
Stuff You Should Know (30-60 minute overviews of various topics)
TINSTAAPP (super long pitching podcast from BP guys)
Been trying these recently, but haven’t added them into the rotation full time yet:
EconTalk
Dead Authors Podcast (Rafi from The League being interviewed as various famous authors/people from history)
TedTalks and IndieFeed (both are too short for me to use consistently on a driving commute)
I’m forgetting a few that I’ve been trying out but haven’t subscribed to yet (probably a bad sign for them). Basically, I’ve been looking at public radio, some comedy, some baseball, some history/knowledge types.
Thanks! Going to check out some of those.
(I rage-dropped all of my baseball podcasts after Game 5, though, and I’m not ready to go back, so no TINSTAPP.)
Well, TINSTAAPP is more on hold until baseball season resumes anyway. I need to check out a few on your list as well. I should involve some more pop culture types into my rotation
Hmm, I see that Simmons just dropped a two-hour podcast obsessing over the (John) Kennedy Assassination. I may need to downgrade the BS Report from “guilty pleasure” to “hate listen.”
The first hour was basically Simmons trying to indulge any conspiracy theory he could get his arms around about the assassination, while Klosterman and Chris Connolly sort of eased him back from the crazy. It also included — and I am not making this up — a segment on the “winners and losers” of the assassination. Strangely, neither Kennedy nor his family were among his losers. Abraham Zapruder was though, because apparently Simmons thinks he didn’t sufficiently cash in on his accidental snuff film.
goes hand in hand with the zapruder’s anguish story on the w post.
this is genius.
i should name drop my friends and clients at http://radioambulante.org/en/ and how when they were starting they mentioned an affinity to http://themoth.org .
Professionally, I know on-demand audio is where the audience is going and we have to program accordingly, but as a listener I just don’t like it. I like tuning in to a program when it’s on the air….for radio, not for TV which I’m happy to watch when it’s convenient for me.
I can’t make it work for me either.
I just don’t care enough, nor do i want to make the time to listen to someting that is not over the air. I would much rather read, or listen to music.
When I am going to listen to people talk, i prefer tp “see what’s on.” that way I will likely hear something I would have otherwise not been exposed to.
Its one of the things I miss about taking a paper, reading stories I had no previous interest in simply because they were printed in the paper.
Right there with both of you. And I don’t think we’re freak outliers either. I have to believe there’s some way for general interest Journalism to find a sustainable business model; it can’t all just be self-selected niches. Can it?
Same.
career-wise i shouldn’t admit it, but i’m caught in a crux with physical reading material. i much prefer it, reasons above. but i get incredibly frustrated when i’m holding a book in my hand and can’t do apple-F to go straight to the topic i want to read about real quickly. but then it’s not just about books. i also find myself hitting air apple-F at, say, the cheese counter and want the camembert to highlight itself while all the other cheeses gray out.
I hear you, but my drive times happen to sync up most of the times with programs I’m just not all that interested in. I do worry that I am nichifying myself too much and missing out on serendipitous listening. But if it means I never have to listen to the call-in portions of Forum again, I’ll accept the tradeoff.
I could see a streaming, general topic podcast Pandora type of situation being something I’d get/listen to. Gives you a blend of serendipitous and focused interest.
I hear you on that.
By the way, I’ve really started to notice that something you alluded to on an earlier thread is true: Podcasts where the people aren’t in the same room suck because of the terrible audio quality. Unfortunately, this includes just about every baseball podcast I’ve found.
Short stories work well for me, and there are plenty of collections out there.
David Sedaris is a staple on long flights (though the trailer for the movie looks horrible).
has that finally been made?
Made, released and bombed.
ha! never even knew.
They made the DS character an ambiguous/straight preppie!
What.
but…isn’t one of the main plot points of his essays, that he is gay?
And from a decidedly non-preppie background.
The thing about Sedaris is that “Read by Author” is typically a red flag for me. Sarah Vowell is the exception–her voice works perfectly for her books.
It is often a problem, but since Sedaris’ writing first came to note via his own readings, I think he gets a pass too.
Agreed in general, but I think Sedaris is another who reads his own work very well.
I don’t do a lot of listening to book. I have listened to 3 Sedaris books a lot because for years I fell asleep to comedy records and the sedaris readings fit right in there
This may very well not be of interest in the slightest, but hands down the best translation to audiobook I’ve ever listened to are the Harry Potters. The reader is fantastic and he has special voices and accents for every character. He really knocked it out of the park. The Keith Richards auto-bio is fun because it’s read by Johnny Depp, some British dude doing what amounts to a comprehensible Keith Richards, and Keith himself which is about as garbled as you can imagine.
I listen to TONS of audiobooks while I walk the dogs and I have the same issues you have with losing attention while I’m walking and not really wanting to go back. Therefore I tend towards low brow mysteries and thrillers so I don’t have to pay too close attention and still hang with it.
Oooh, nice call on Keith Richards. I wanted to read that anyway, but what you are describing sounds incredible. Will definitely download.
You mean the English HP’s, read by Stephen Fry? The US version is read pretty straight by Jim Dale.
No the Jim Dale one–I loved it.
I liked the abridged version of Undaunted Courage. Also Steve Martin reading his own fiction.
Circling back to your audiobook question… I just started downloading the Serial Podcasts and am enjoying them so far. I’m the type of person who is easily hooked on those Friday night Dateline mysteries, so this is right up my alley. I love true crime and hearing the mystery unfold week by week has been interesting.
Oh I’ve been listening. It’s amazing.
Along those same lines, Radiotopia seems to be cleaning up with their Kickstarter today.
I’ve just caught up on this podcast. I think it’s the first podcast I actually have started to listen to regularly.
Did Adnan kill Hae?
We just binged the first 8 episodes last weekend driving up to Mendo county and back. It’s still going, and still hard to know where to come down on it. There’s a comment on the site that they didn’t just release them all at once because they are recording them as they continue researching.
I can’t decide what I think. I feel like there’s a lot of important information still to come, and I’ve been avoiding all external sources of info. I’m listening to it as much as a journalism procedural as a whodunit.
It’s probably best as a crime journalism deep dive because somehow I doubt the finale is really gonna tell much more than a maybe.
That might depend if the team from the Innocence Project continue to pursue it, which they made sound likely.
I have another recommendation for you if you like The Princess Bride. I’m about halfway through As You Wish and am very much enjoying it. His writing style is a bit stiff, but he of course is doing a terrific job of the “as read by author” that I usually so detest. He includes many interspersed interviews with cast and crew which are in most cases related in their own voices in the audiobook which is a nice touch. It includes some really interesting backstory, and how can you resist the tidbit that a young Andre the Giant was driven to elementary school by Samuel Beckett?!
The book also includes in its index
I just finished listening to an epic Andre fart story!
Music Minute: I really like the new LCD Soundsystemized Arcade Fire album! Not enough to get dressed up to see them at Oracle, but still. (Seriously, can you imagine what that crowd is going to be like?)
Super annoying?
ha! when does baseball make the argentine press? when it’s about brian wilson’s beard and the NY shave-ees. how does baseball make the argentine press? factually incorrectly. (lanzador de los who??)