Updates: Nobody got socks, hard words, or a scented candle, and everyone travelled well, so we're doing OK so far. However, my dad has received...a trumpet to resume playing. My ears.
It's occurring to me there are kind of a lot of Christmas carols I figured I knew that I do not know.
"Good King W. looked out/On the Feast of Stephen/mumble mumble mumble [-out]/mumble mumble even/Sprite makes better holidays/Limon is the reason"...and I'm really not sure about that last strophe.
What comes to my mind is "and the snow fell round about, deep and thick and even", which Google says is not quite right. The snow is "crisp", not "thick", and it "lay", not "fell". Oh well. Wacky old Bohemian kings should be glad anyone knows their name at all.
When I was a wee lad, I would cheerfully have sold my soul for a piece of 2010-quality Nerf ordnance.
The harsh lessons of Nerf War from my childhood taught me well: the single best weapon is the simplest Nerf toy, the Nerf football, nay, Nerf grenade.
I always ask for and receive socks for Christmas. I have expensive taste in socks.
I want thin dark socks that wick away sweat really well. Does such a thing exist?
I want thin dark socks that wick away sweat really well. Does such a thing exist?
Do these count (comment #8)?
The Smartwool? I've never tried them, but I'd guess those are for being outdoors in cold climates? I need socks for work but I have shamefully sweaty feet.
The Smartwool? I've never tried them
I've only tried their hiking socks, but what about these?
Regarding St. Stephen's Day, everyone steer clear of d^2 today (via the Wiki):
St. Stephen's Day in Wales is known as Gŵyl San Steffan. Ancient Welsh custom, discontinued in the 19th century, included bleeding of livestock and "holming" (beating or slashing with holly branches) of late risers and female servants.
That sounds like it was a terrible holiday.
Depends on how into beating and slashing you are.
As far as the livestock were concerned, it would depend on whether the bleeding stopped generally or enpanded into and everyday kind of thing.
And, again, on whether they were into the bleeding.
or enpanded into and everyday kind of thing.
Enpanding is the opposite of expanding?
Smartwool socks really are magic.
I've got a marshmellow heart underneath this crunchy exterior shell.
22: For daily wear? The website looks eXtreme sporty.
The Smartwool socks I have are nice for hiking but way too thick and hot for daily wear. Maybe they have more suitable ones, though.
Mmm, Christmas time. I think my parents are getting exasperated with my habit of reading their newspaper every morning and getting angry and shouty at every other page. I should stop picking it up, but it's just so hard to ignore....
We've had a nice time. Our Canadians arrived eventually on Thursday morning, only about 27 hours later than they were supposed to (Air Canada cancelled their original flight to Heathrow, and then when everyone on it had rescheduled or given up, it was reinstated). They spent a day and night in London and arrived here Christmas Eve. My cousin's wife is lovely, but extremely earnest. Obviously, I'm as keen on healthy eating as the next person (assuming the next person is Brock) but really, not even being able to chill out about your child having one small glass of fizzy drink on Christmas Day? I can't be doing with that. FFS, it's Christmas. Are a couple of days of sugar and junk is going to kill them?
By far, Hawaiian Punch's favorite present was the M&Ms in her stocking. Second was the Oreos we had for dessert.
I have a few pairs of Smartwool socks that I wear regularly. They're quite nice.
And did you call her Piggy-piggy?
No, I'm her mother.
I said, "A minute on the lips...!" in a helpful, ominous tone.
Hawaiian Punch's favorite present was the M&Ms in her stocking.
Heh, my mother trained us early: traditional stocking gifts included an annual new toothbrush and an orange. In later years some chocolate might be included, but never without the toothbrush along with.
I have a Facebook account! Friend me today.
Enpanding is the opposite of expanding?
No, that was a typo. I was trying to write about empanadas.
22: For daily wear? The website looks eXtreme sporty.
Did you look at the link in 15 (also here)?
The website looks eXtreme sporty.
Under women's socks they have performance socks and lifestyle socks. The 'Cable' or 'Best Friend' models look like they might be what you're looking for. (Too lazy to link.)
And I learned to never drink alone on Christmas. A harsh lesson to learn the hard way.
But on the other hand, Longman & Eagle is a great bar with wonderful folks and a brunch menu that's quite hangover-friendly.
I learned never to upgrade libpng, because a lot of things depend on it.
(At least gentoo has gotten smart enough not to delete the old version of a shared library in the process of installing the new one.)
I learned that there's a town named Santa Claus.
My daughters both left lists of desired items for Santa. The last of a half-dozen items on Maura's was "A Book all about Iowa".
40: Items your daughters desired for themselves or for Santa?
Desired for themselves. On Siobhán's: "You to be my grandfather sence both of my grandfathers died" and "to make me magic like you".
I spent part of Christmas Eve with internet villain Mi/ckey K/aus, who is good friends with one of my good friends, and I w/ish I w/ere k/idding. I did not invite him to our Unfogged party.
FFS, it's Christmas.
HELL YES. AND WHY WAS THE QUEEN WEARING POODLES ON HER HEAD AND BOTH SLEEVES YESTERDAY?
44: Oh my.
45 asks an important question. (Although I think MK turned out to be entirely correct about the matter that started the goat fucking meme. Not that he knew he was correct.)
I love 42. This is exactly why I held on to Santa belief well past the point of knowing it couldn't really be true.
I think I'm having trouble with the concept of wearing wool socks in Texas. I keep thinking they'll be thick, hot, and itchy. But I can let go of that belief.
39: A name apparently chosen because "Santa Fe" was unavailable, if that Wikipedia page is to be trusted.
I keep thinking they'll be thick, hot, and itchy.
See, that's the thing about Smartwool. It's wool, and has all the associated advantages, but it doesn't have these disadvantages. There are of course thick Smartwool socks, but there are thin ones too, and neither are noticeably itchy.
Texas was going to be called Santa Fe?
I'M GOING TO BUY SOME! It's time I started living!
50: Love, love, love my Smartwool socks (mine are shortie ones for running -- both thick and thin).
Texas was going to be called Santa Fe?
The other way around, actually.
thick, hot, and itchy
Interestingly this was both the working title of Tom Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded AND his mustache of understanding.
I misread 42 to say that Siobhán wanted JMcQ to be her grandfather and to be magic like him, and I thought, "Wow, Jesus is raising some interesting young ladies."
It wouldn't be a bad idea for those of us adults who are asked for Christmas gift lists to let our hair down a little with our Santa lists: never mind socks and iPods. Bo-ring.
57: I'm letting my hair down everyday, regardless of how I cut it.
I've been experiencing terrible hat-head, if you really want to know. It's a lovely hat that I wear when it's below freezing, but in all honesty it kills the bouncy curls.
"You to be my grandfather sence both of my grandfathers died"
Saddest Christmas story since Dick Cavett's Times essay yesterday.
I am bored and snowbound and antagonizing teabaggers who are writing crazy shit on the page of my mother's congressman. How sad is that? I don't even know what I am talking about really. They are pretty obsessed with Woodrow Wilson, which I guess is Glenn Beck's doing?
61: Google turned up this explanation for the Wilson bashing:
I won't go into detail, but the thrust of it is that all the troubles of today started with the presidency of Woodrow Wilson and his "progressivism." Beck even wrote the term on his blackboard.
You know the litany: income tax, League of Nations, blah, blah blah. But what's fascinating is the way Wilson was depicted by speakers to the young people as being an elite and arrogant college professor from the Ivy League who liked to wag his finger at common Americans and tell them what they should think and how they should live even as he wildly expanded government and fleeced them of their hard earned money through taxes. He is, of course, the antithesis of the man lionized by speaker after speaker at CPAC: Ronald Reagan.
And in case any of the young people couldn't make the connection between Wilson and the former college professor who know inhabits the White House, several speakers made it for them in characterzing President Barack Obama as elite, superior, ineffectual and dedicated to expanding government so exponentially that we will all soon be dependent on it for every aspect of our livelihoods.
I wish I were better at deploying HTML. And cupcakes to my face!
Well, this thread was ostensibly about the repeal of DADT and the needed repeal of DOMA. Some loon was upset about it, and someone else said, "You would have been opposed to desegregating the armed forces" causing the loon to rant that the armed forces were segregated by Wilson, who was a "Dummycrap." (This is not true -- or at least as far as I knew, they were officially segregated shortly after the Civil War.) He also says that it was Wilson who ordered all water fountains segregated.
(Not that Wilson wasn't a giant racist, of course, but state law and all that. I suppose W. could have made such an order wrt federal buildings and DC, etc.)
It's probably a waste of time to try to make sense of the loon's ranting; the blaming of Wilson is likely coming from Glenn Beck, and the loon has extended the complaint about Wilson's economic policies to any general felt sense he/she may have that fingers are being wagged.
If you really wanted to get into what the hell the connection between progressive economic policies and the repeal of DADT might be, you might look to cosmopolitanism in general. Which may or may not lead to the bogeyman of identity politics, which may or may not lead to the notion that that rat bastard Wilson with his progressivism was engaging in a culture war. Or something.
You might want to introduce your friend to the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry Regiments.. There's even a Bob Marley song about them.
Wilson did preside over the segregation of much of the federal civil service, so.
Anyhow, the "you're the real racists because Southern Segregationists were Democrats" has got to be up there with the all time stupidest right wing arguments. I mean, that's a long list, but that's a pretty stupid argument.
I thought it was mostly hetero women who read Cosmo.
Wilson entered WW I, which lead to an allied victory, which lead to a bitter-asshole faction in Germany, which lead to WW II, which destroyed Europe, which lead to France saying "fuck this shit," which lead to the ECSC, which lead to the EEC, which lead to the EU, which lead to a stronger Europe, which let Katy Perry get married to some Euro-ass.
Saddest Christmas story since Dick Cavett's Times essay yesterday.
Oh, not really. My dad died before they were born, and my father-in-law died three years ago, when they were four, so their grandfathers are less real people who used to be in their lives than they are abstract relatives they don't have. But it was sweet of her to include that as one of four things she wanted from Santa, along with "colorful gemstones" and a "love puppy toy dog".
Wait, Katy Perry got married? Did she marry Julian Assange?
Although, thinking about it, black soldiers didn't fight as combat troops in WWI, and Wilson probably had something to do with that. Anyhow, Wilson really was kind of a shithead.
But none of that should stand in the way of Stormcrow's erotic infatuation with Edith Bolling Galt Wilson.
Hey, the blizzard canceled tonight's football game?! I was gonna watch that, goddammit.
71: R-something Brand. Poor Elmo still isn't the same.
75: No worries. I'm not completely clear on who Katy Perry is anyway.
Did you know that Bristol Palin bought a 5-bedroom house outside of Phoenix? Yep. Like, whoa.
Did you know that Bristol Palin bought a 5-bedroom house outside of Phoenix? Yep. Like, whoa.
I bet that's pretty easy to do these days.
74: They had at least one game earlier today. Wasn't that enough.
72 -- to continue a conversation with myself, it turns out I was wrong; there were black combat regiments in WWI. Oh well.
What else should I tell myself about WWI?
Maybe Bristol is going to mount a primary challenge to Senator McCain. That would be hilarious.
77: So they say. She bought it for *cash* though. Or somebody did. Whatever.
I'm not looking forward to the next couple of years.
79: Yeah, and the Spanish-American War, too. I think there were separate black combat units straight from the 1860s through WWII. But like I said, I don't really know what I am talking about.
77, 82: It was a foreclosed tract home that sold for 150k, I think. Bristol gets paid for her abstinence crap, and the dancing, and most of the times she shows up in People, etc.
Bristol gets paid for her abstinence crap
If you could get paid for abstinence, most of the commenters here would be rich.
81: IT WOULD BE HILARIOUS.
Sorry. I have no idea what to make of these Palin people, and they're perfectly welcome to move wherever they like. Maybe Bristol really wants to get away from Alaska and the family. Can't blame her.
Juan Williams rather entertainingly said, flatly, today that Sarah Palin is not remotely Obama's intellectual equal, and the Fox News panel laughed in embarrassed fashion and generally said, "Whoa, whoa, there Juan. Heh, heh. Jeez. So. On that note, happy holidays and we'll see you next week."
I bet that's pretty easy to do these days.
Not as easy as it's going to be in another thirty or forty years.
I have no idea what to make of these Palin people
They seem to be in it for the money. And the fame. Which amounts to the same thing, I guess. And they're emerging out of some sort of prosperity gospel/Alaska libertarian tradition -- that's an unholy mix, right there -- that allows them work all day doing what they do and then sleep well at night. Which is to say, they're not very different from a lot of other people in this country. Except they're much prettier, much more ambitious, and they got their start swimming in a much smaller pond.
88 has it right, of course. What's odd is that they're managing to swim in the bigger pond. Prettiness goes a long way: don't underestimate that.
They seem to be in it for the money.
Yep. I have a half-cocked theory that Sarah Palin won't be running for president in 2012 or 2016, because a loss would hinder her ability to make bank, which seems like priority number one at this point.
Though I do sort of wonder how Sarah started out in politics. Was it just an extension of a student council election/beauty context for her: a kind of popularity contest/way to realize her revenge fantasies about the annoying geek from chemistry class/town librarian? And then, after she got a taste for wielding a bit more power, she just took the logical step from small-town mayor to governor? Or was there something else at play?
90: My theory is that she'll run. And then, unless she's nearly guaranteed a victory in the primaries, she'll drop out to play the part of victim/kingmaker.
78: In fact they had one in Wisconsin.
(I figure,I'm here, I might as well milk it.)
In fact they had one in Wisconsin.
Indeed. In related news: I think honor compels me to root for the Packers against the Bears next week, because: (1) the Bears already made the playoffs either way, (2) the Packers might be the better team, and (3) I just today learned that the Packers are the only NFL team that's set up as a non-profit. Just don't anyone tell my Bears-loving grandpa about this comment.
honor compels me to route for the Packers
You mean rout for them.
97: I don't know what you're talking about, old bean.
96: I have a giant soft-spot for the Pack due to the community-owned thing, too. Bears fans aren't supposed to, but there you go.
Abusing editorial functions make Baby Jesus cry.
100: Stanley changed a "makes" to a "make" there out of spite, didn't he?
If we're actually going to discuss this, here's/a> NYT piece on Bristol Palin's house.
91: I think that's just it. There's not much more to it. Once you realize that half, or more, of power is leverage in the form of marketing -- which she would have learned from the beauty pageant circuit -- that's a skill set you might not feel any reason not to cash in on. She's clearly taught it to Bristol, who's doing well enough with it to buy a 5-bedroom home at the age of 20, with no skills as we would normally define them. (Unless someone else bought the house, with cash.)
With Sarah, okay, she may be a true believer in the creepy libertarian speaking-in-tongues prosperity gospel, but hey! It's all about the marketing! And she knows that.
I tend to think she's demented, but demented enough to run in 2012? I think she'll be smacked down before she really gets started.
102 messed up the html, but I believe it works.
104: I thought you were on Emerson's bandwagon?
elite and arrogant college professor from the Ivy League who liked to wag his finger at common Americans and tell them what they should think
Pretty much the invention of modern industrial strength state propaganda, from which many of advanced advertising & PR techniques were developed. Bernays learned his trade at the CPI
According to the BBC interview with Bernays' daughter Anne, Bernays felt that the public's democratic judgment was "not to be relied upon" and he feared that "they [the American public] could very easily vote for the wrong man or want the wrong thing, so that they had to be guided from above". This "guidance" was interpreted by Anne to mean that her father believed in a sort of "enlightened despotism" ideology.
There is a big difference between populists and progressives. Progressivism is described in the paragraph above, and yes, Obama carries that paternalist bullshit as much as Wilson. Wilson and Creel were progressives who killed the Left 1910-1920, killed the Left with a war. Debs in prison, Goldman, Berkman and hundreds exiled, so many American socialists compromised and co-opted...check out Bourne during the run-up to war.
Wilson was a horrible person. The racism is among the least of his faults.
105: Speaking of people with "Emerson" in their name: is their any television actor I find more annoying than Will Arnett? I submit that there is not. So, so annoying.
I think that you find Rob Schnieder more annoying, but you forgot.
Bernays, Propaganda, 1928
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.
Liberals think they actually control things, including their own minds. Glenn Beck is WJ Bryan, mad, but smarter than the people who laughed at him, like Darrow. Speaking of another progressive fool.
Bernays...y'all would probably love him
# 1920 Successfully hosted the first NAACP convention in Atlanta, Georgia. His campaign was considered successful because there was no violence at the convention. His campaign focused on the important contributions of African-Americans to Whites living in the South. He later received an award from the NAACP for his contribution.# In the 1920s, working for the American Tobacco Company, he sent a group of young models to march in the New York City parade. He then told the press that a group of women's rights marchers would light "Torches of Freedom". On his signal, the models lit Lucky Strike cigarettes in front of the eager photographers. The New York Times (1 April 1929) printed: "Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of 'Freedom'". This helped to break the taboo against women smoking in public. During this decade he also handled publicity for the NAACP.[9]
Alcoa, Dodge, Dixie Cups...
Yes, bob, we all read the Economist's year-end special issue, including the PR essay. Will you perorate next on the futile progressivism of Indian caste conflicts? Men's suits, a scourge that can be resolved only by murdering ... somebody?
Bob, a lot of people here know these things.
On preview, since I'd been about to delete the comment as snotty: Flippanter! A person doesn't have to read the Economist.
I stopped reading the Economist, because they refuse to use the period after the abbreviation for "mister". A person has to have principles.
107: What the hell is wrong with you, Hermano?
[What with the puns and now this, I'm considering sending a humor intervention to Virginia]
Well, no one has to, but it makes me feel a little less like a why-are-you-hitting-yourself? brute than Harper's, which seems to be published solely for America's vast army of disappointed adjunct lecturers.
Well, good. We're agreed that we need not read the Economist, and we're not particularly missing anything we can't understand elsewhere. I think their articles (stories, pieces) don't have bylines, either, which just creeps me the fuck out. There's something just wrong with that.
I mean, come on!
why-are-you-hitting-yourself
Also an Arrested Development reference!
117: You'll have to make a better case than that against Harper's.
And I honestly have no idea why you'd be balancing The Economist against Harper's. A war in your mind and spirit, apparently, over just which posture you're willing to adopt in public. Or in private. What's the problem?
113:I didn't read the Economist
Got Creel and CPI from Chris Hedges, who has the chops to connect Creel, Bernays, and Lippman selling WWI and bashing socialists to the likes of Yglesias and Klein selling Iraq and bashing hippies.
That is what liberals do.
118: I rather like the anonymity: No Slate writers pimping their Twitter feeds, no Krugman/Kristoff you-dare-to-mock-me?-I-speak-for-the-voiceless! self-righteousness, no famous-blogger player-piano grudge recycling.
I gave up on the Economist after I got too good at predicting what they would say about absolutely anything. It's not a hard game to play after you've read about 20 issues. Also, when I got knowledgeable enough to realize how bad their California and US and business coverage was, it made me very skeptical that I was getting any useful information about Kiribati or Botswana or wherever, i.e. the purportedly awesome "international" perspective invariably cited by Economist fans.
I don't like Harper's either, but I can't put my finger on why.
That is what liberals do.
Have you tried crating them?
119: Thinking more about Stanley's apparent pathology, I suppose I might find Arnett grating, too -- but only if I had never watched AD.
I gave up on the Economist blogs after I got too good at predicting what they would say about absolutely anything.
Fixed.
Arrested Development was awful. I made it through 0.25 episodes.
Okay, more like 1.25. Still: terrible.
Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?
123: But nobody like that writes for Harper's.
I don't like Harper's either, but I can't put my finger on why.
I just let my subscription lapse, I think because I began to find the hectoring tone tedious (see, also: my reaction ot the front of the book in The Nation). I wonder, though, if I would have a different view if I read the fiction and poetry. Anyway, it's also the same problem as with blogs: the editorial slant is incredibly predictable, rendering most of the stories contained therein little more than journalistic madlibs.
But nobody like that writes for Harper's.
Do you buy your Harper's from a newsstand in the parallel universe where Lewis Lapham and Thomas Frank became professional jai-alai players?
129: You're either fucking insane or auditioning for a spot writing for Slate. Either way, your spiritual life has been impoverished by your poor decisions and your apparent bad taste. In this holiday season, I'm terribly sorry for you.
I've only watched about half an episode of Arrested Development, but I thought it was funny.
133: I would pay more than the annual Harper's subscription price to watch Lapham (America's most tedious scold) play jai-alai.
Funny in a way that didn't make me want to watch it again, but funny.
I really did find AD overwritten. Maybe I owe it to you all to re-watch and explain myself, as I'm apparently WRONG ON THE INTERNET.
Of course it's overwritten, you weirdo, and badly stilted and just plain weird and sometimes even creepy. That's the point!
Wilson helped create the Federal Reserve Board, the socialization of risk, the Bank Bailout, protection and tight money agency. Obama surrounds himself with behavioral economists to sell neo-liberal restructuring.
So Glenn Beck looks at policies and programs, attitudes and governing styles, philosophies and backgrounds, and sees much in common between Obama and Woodrow Wilson.
Stanley and the Unfoggedtariat looks at Woodrow Wilson and Obama, sees a racist and a black man, and knows they can't have anything in common.
133: Never mind Lapham (who's gone now) and Frank: they write the opening essays. There's damn good stuff in the rest of the magazine. I happen to enjoy the opening essays -- where "enjoy" means that I find them engaging, whether or not the tone is always and in every case welcome -- but I do tend to read the rest of the magazine as a series of distinct pieces, and if you really insist on casting the entire thing as a work of bleeding heart self-righteous loser-ism, you're not paying attention.
bob, you're arguing with the voices in your head again. Nobody here likes Wilson, I don't think. And nobody here is defending Obama. At least not tonight. We're talking about Will Arnett and Lewis Lapham. Mashup!
Stanley and the Unfoggedtariat looks at Woodrow Wilson and Obama, sees a racist and a black man, and knows they can't have anything in common.
"It ain't easy being white. It ain't easy being brown . . . ."
143: George Bush doesn't care about black puppets.
We're talking about Will Arnett and Lewis Lapham. Mashup!
"Who are you going to believe: Ronald Reagan's former bootblack-dogsbody or the guy in the $7000 suit? Come on!"
Of course it's overwritten, you weirdo, and badly stilted and just plain weird and sometimes even creepy. That's the point!
Oh, so it's just awful like Curb Your Enthusiasm is awful? Comity.
I think Curb Your Enthusiasm is awful too, but you really can't claim that one of its flaws is "it's overwritten".
140.3: I think of Wilson as being born in Hawaii and Obama as having ordered raids on Poncho Villa.
Now you're just being antisemitic. Look, it's your life, man. Spend your time watching Third Rock from the Sun or whatever. See if I care.
150 to all of you (or, in a pinch, 146). And actually, I hate Curb Your Enthusiasm. So there!
Now you're just being antisemitic.
And now I feel guilty about not liking Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Or Seinfeld.
Uh-oh.
The two shows aren't really similar at all, but I like Curb a lot as well and have never gotten the hate around these parts. Jeff Garlin and Susie Essman and Cheryl Hines are particularly good. Anyhow, lord knows what Stanley finds funny.
We just spent the last couple hours rewatching some of season 1 AD on hulu, as a matter of fact. It's still great.
Tricks are for whores, Michael. I'm an illusionist!
Poncho Villas for the common man. Neither Obama nor Wilson would deign to sleep in one. Not in Hawaii, not in Wisconsin.
73: Some day I'm going to find that "uncunting" reference and I'm going to be insufferable about it.
Fuck it. As an expression of Solidarity or sumpin, I'm gonna go watch me some Noh. Really.
We just had a productive family discussion in the car on the merits of AD. In deference to the one deluded family member, we agreed that other than almost all of the characters and the dialogue, some aspects of the show were not all the good.
Or Seinfeld.
No, I'm with you on that one. Fuck a bunch of Seinfeld.
When you've lost mcmanus and Hedges you've lost two votes.
160: The cinematography and staging didn't really compare to most of what one saw in Bergman.
Fanny and Alexander is, indeed, a different knind of family drama to watch at Christmas time.
164: so, so true. Self-hatred, man, I'm trying to kick. Maybe as a New Year's resolution?
Or, wait, was the psychic deformed brother in Arrested Development?
127 I gave up on the Economist blogs myself after I got too good at predicting what they I would say about absolutely anything.
I've shown the "Survivor" episode of CYE in my comedy class a few times.
Stanley hates Arrested Development?!?!
You bring shame to our schools.
166: Sure, September's already the month you roll out new car models and wars.
How my parents feel about Seinfeld is how I feel about Curb Your Enthusiasm. I have only seen a few episodes but it just seemed to be a bunch of unpleasant people being unpleasant. Granted, this is somewhat true of Seinfeld but Seinfeld has jokes, too, and some of them are funny.
AD you have to watch for a while before it's funny. I generally hate stuff like that. In college everyone was always like "oh The Brothers Karamazov is so wonderful, but you have to get through the first 300 pages" and I was like "ok well I'll be reading books that don't have that feature." And Buffy fans always give some advice along the lines of "watch these three episodes from season one, then the second half of season two, then the rest, and only then will you love it" or whatever.
I took an ambien. I think this is going to be one of those things where I wake up in the morning and am all I Wrote What? I may as well pick someone and declare my undying love and have something interesting to apologize for.
NOSFLOW IT WAS ALWAYS YOU.
I have only seen a few episodes but it just seemed to be a bunch of unpleasant people being unpleasant.
I guess you'd want to steer clear of It's Always Sunny, then.
175: I had a strong negative reaction to it, in fact.
oh p.s. am I the only one who wanted to make out with Gob Bluth?
I'm now imagining someone saying "I tried reading a few Unfogged threads but it just seemed to be a bunch of unpleasant people being unpleasant" and my response would be "well, but first you need to read this thread and this thread and..."
177: Yeah, after the first 300 comments some of them get pretty good.
176: Did you see him in Wristcutters: A Love Story? He played an, um, interesting interpretation of the charismatic Jesus figure from the comic.
177, 178: "Unfogged as Seinfeld" has a long history here. (I'm sure there are more examples, but you get the point.) "Unfogged as CYE/AD/IASiP/etc." may be an idea worth exploring.
174: I have only seen a few episodes but it just seemed to be a bunch of unpleasant people being unpleasant.
Of course it was. And you get to laugh at them as it happens! That's the genius of CYE. When stuff like that happens in real life, it's not funny until several years later.
Molly and I came to the agreement that Seinfeld was great and Curb your Enthusiasm was unwatchable because you could successfully look down on the unpleasant people in Seinfeld but you had to resent the fact that the characters in Curb your Enthusiasm were successful Hollywood types.
I mean, George Costanza is an unemployed loser, but "Larry David" is some sort of mogul, right?
We actually never watched much Curb your Enthusiasm.
our post Christmas tradition (actually it is always some time around Christmas, whenever it is appropriate) is a dim-sum feast at a local, Very Good chinese Restaurant. The group has met through the local science fiction club, though some of us have scattered to the winds because of jobs.
The guy who calls for the meeting now lives somewhere far east (PA, NJ, ????? not sure).
the restaurant, Bo-Ling's, offers a dim-sum menu every Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. So the 'meeting' gets called on the free weekend day that isn't Christmas day.
I was still full of Christmas dinner today... but the dim sum was really really nommy. And then we had a young friend's 21st birthday dinner at her parents home tonight. I ate a very small amount though her mom makes the best spaghetti sauce.
Going to bed soon. I still feel like a snake that has a bulge in it....
I think 183 gets it right.
The point when my unmatched love for Seinfeld turned to annoyance must have been the point [mid-season 7?] when Elaine got a job where she was able to fire people. Suddenly, whoa, this is not fun to watch. At the time I thought it was because of her hairdo. Also at this point the Jerry character went from "30ish guy dating somewhat unconventionally hot actresses" to "40ish guy dating what look like Miss Universe contestants".
George Costanza works for the Yankees.
Wrong. The great thing about Curbed is precisely that it is unflinching in showing Larry to be a rich asshole. This both makes the show more realistic, in that it is somewhat plausible that LD can (because of his status) treat people in the way that he does without immediately ruining his life, and also more biting, because the show's morality is even more ambiguous (and quite consciously so). The most annoying, thing about Seinfeld was that Jerry seemed to assume that the audience really did view him as an admirable, sympathetic, relatable lead character, a kind of a hero -- that smirk was the worst -- and LD doesn't have that problem on his own show. For me, I think LD comes across as more human precisely because he comes across as more flawed, and the show is certainly more interesting than Seinfeld as a result.
And, DS in 182 gets it right. Being able to laugh at unpleasant people in real time is great!
Also, as I mentioned above, the supporting cast on Curbed is great, in a way that (I think) Kramer and billionaire heiress Elaine were not.
Wrong. The great thing about Curbed is precisely that it is unflinching in showing Larry to be a rich asshole. This both makes the show more realistic, in that it is somewhat plausible that LD can (because of his status) treat people in the way that he does without immediately ruining his life, and also more biting, because the show's morality is even more ambiguous (and quite consciously so).
OK, it's more "realistic", "biting", "plausible", and even "interesting", but not in any way funny.
I mean, if humor about rich assholes is off limits, you've got to rule out many of the greats, from Wodehouse to Preston Sturges. The wealth provides a plausible explanation for great irresponsibility, which is funny.
I've never watched much Seinfeld but as I said here the other day, I've watched the first 3 or 4 series of CYE and find it extremely funny. But perhaps I just like watching unpleasant people being unpleasant - C and I watched the whole of The Office (the original) whilst present-wrapping and that certainly is mostly UPBP and quite brilliant. But I know plenty of people (with no sense of humour) who can't watch The Office because it just makes them cringe.
On the other hand, we watched about half of the first series of Arrested Development and gave up.
The Canadians have gone to London for the day today. My kids can play xbox and wii for hours and lounge in front of the tv eating crap without us being made to feel like slack parents. And I got a rack for my bike and I'm going to put it on the bike, and possibly go shopping using my new-for-Christmas pannier.
(Huh, I remember writing all of that. How disappointing.)
The thing is the characters on Seinfeld are just kind of self-absorbed, and generally not truly contemptible. From 2-3 episodes it seemed like Larry David was pretty loathsome. It felt like Lars van Trier's take on a sitcom.
When you've lost mcmanus and Hedges you've lost two votes.
Nah, Bob doesn't vote anyways--proceduralism is for Nazis. And I think Hedges probably is too busy basking in righteousness to vote.
It felt like Lars van Trier's take on a sitcom.
Yes, this exactly.
It's all about aesthetic distancing. You have to feel a safe distance from the characters. I don't feel a safe distance from realistically portrayed rich assholes. I also can't watch Gervais in The Office because deep in my heart I know I am capable of that level of cluelessness.
Liked Seinfeld, didn't like CYE.
Generally, small kids with Nerf guns (as small kids without Nerf guns but with unpleasant comments) are way funnier than old obnoxious people (& that is not primarily because kids are funny).
||
I probably need the keen sociological stylings of el Experto Dr Gonerill to explain why Park Ave. is perfectly plowed up to 96th St., but north of 96th is just masses of undisturbed snow.
I wonder!
|>
I'm sure I'll get around to digging the other half of our car out at some point, but for now half is plenty.
How much of your car is north of 96th street?
Well, all of it. The question is, what does Park St. north of 96th have in common with half of my car, sociologically-speaking?
Park Street North drives like this; your car drives...not at all right now?
Oops. My shameful childhood in a Monopoly game comes to light.
The Canadians have gone to London for the day today. My kids can play xbox and wii for hours and lounge in front of the tv eating crap without us being made to feel like slack parents.
The stereotype in the States (to stereotype) is that Canadians are unfailingly polite and easy to get along with. These sound like outliers...
It's so typically imperialist to assume that Park Ave is in all Monopoly games. Snow is melting North of de Meir and cars are driving and planes are flying.
206: Oh the memories. What was your house rule when someone landed on Free Parking Place?
207: Never underestimate the power of quiet but perceptible judging.
Monopoly in the States is Atlantic City. There is no Park Ave. -- just Park Place.
Oh sure, that's what someone from New Jersey would say.
207, 210: I was gonna say -- that is definitely part of my own stereotyping of Canadians.
Geez. I think I'm snow simple today.
Dammit, oudemia beat me to the punch. I play a lot of Monopoly on my iPad.
And I beat oudemia, but I guess I was too subtle for you rural clodhoppers.
212: No, no. We more northerly types don't really identify with anything south of exit 98 on the Parkway.
How many UC Davis professors does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Oh, 210 gets it. My cousin is fine, even though he's a Toronto cop (though I don't think they're real cops, are they?), perhaps partly because he has an English mother and an Irish father and spent several months of his childhood in London being beaten up by my brother and me. But his wife - obviously being Canadian she is highly polite and superficially easy to get along with, but this is a woman who made a speech at her wedding which included thanking her parents for instilling in her a good work ethic. When my youngest was eating a chocolate Santa and drinking Irn Bru (made in Scotland from girders and a fuckload of sugar) at 8.30 this morning and she came into the kitchen and gave her two (who were sitting waiting for her to turn up to tell them what they could have for breakfast) vitamins, I think there may have been a teeny weeny bit of judging going on.
Do UC Davis professors actually screw in hot tubs?
I haven't played Monopoly since watching Boardwalk Empire, but it's fun to think that the game is basically all about becoming Nucky Thompson, including stops in Jail, raiding the Community Chest, and constructing "houses" aka speakeasies and old time bordellos everywhere. Also, it finally makes sense why a hotel on Boardwalk might be so valuable.
(Still doesn't explain why owning a hotel on Boardwalk would be more valuable than owning a major utility or a fucking railroad).
220: Only when they're loose.
Studies have shown that serial killers love the original of The Office, but are pretty indifferent to the charms of Arrested Development.
The thing about the original of The Office is that it would only appeal to you if you're objectively a bad person. The entire show it built around laughing at a stupid loser who is a failure at life. Now, I'm objectively a bad person, which is why I like the movie Happiness (a comedy about child molestation), but at least I have the decency to know not to proclaim that this demonstrates my superior discernment.
Lower Manhattan is a ghost town. The only sounds to be heard on the street are my screams of rage and frustration that I didn't get to stay home under the covers singing Schubert microtonally to the cat.
223: I like the movie Happiness (a comedy about child molestation),
Well, now, that's a bit like calling Empire Strikes Back "a love story about chopping people's hands off. Todd Solondz is a golden god!
219: When my youngest was eating a chocolate Santa and drinking Irn Bru (made in Scotland from girders and a fuckload of sugar) at 8.30 this morning
Clearly we are distant cousins.
225: Good point. A comedy about child molestation, a woman who wants to be raped, and a doorman who gets chopped up and stuck in a refrigerator. Todd Solondz is actually Quentin Tarantino.
re: 219
She disapproves now, but come the apocalypse the children raised on Irn Bru will be roasting the children who grew up on hand-pressed fruit juice and trail-mix on spits, I tell you.
Who puts trail mix on spits? That seems excessive.
Relating vaguely to fruit juice, I heard someone delighting yesterday that several of the local communes (including perhaps the one where Rivers Cuomo lived for awhile?) are currently under quarantine thanks to a scabies outbreak. What an odd thing to delight at, I thought.
229.2: We have naught left to us but schadenfreude in these thin spiritual times.
Err. The Canadians here are going on about the evils of unions and have firm ideas about what's right and wrong. Also the BF's Dad is totally sure of peole's intentions. Always.
I got in an argument with him about the unions holding the public for ransom. I had already listened to him say that China was good about being able to control their population unlike the Africans. And then saying that not only Jamaica but all of the Caribbean is terribly unsafe.
So, I lost it and started asking them to back up all of their assertions. I know that this is totally unreasonable. I really have to work on this crucial life skill.
231: Take him to a Tim Hortons. That sort of thing calms Canadians down and makes them more docile.
||
Legal Question. Do you think that a company could write into a contract that a contractor would not hire illegal aliens. And would that have any extra force? I didn't think so, though I agreed that you could fire a company that knowingly employed illegals or was negligent in its screening. BF's Dad asserted that the damage to a drug company would be to its reputation, but he switches the subject every time I asked about how you could quantify the damage in money terms. The entire discussion was about a company operating in the US for what it's worth.
He's given up on Tim Horton's. He now prefers the Newman's Own at McDonald's, because it's cheap. They used to have Tim Horton's at home, but now it's Costco's Kirkland brand which is a dark roast attempt to copy Starbucks that I don't particularly care for.
Putting a dollar amount to reputation damage is fairly standard. I have no idea about the illegal alien issue or why Tim Horton makes such dry sandwiches.
The thing about the original of The Office is that it would only appeal to you if you're objectively a bad person. The entire show it built around laughing at a stupid loser who is a failure at life.
The show is built around laughing at a stupid loser who is a failure at life and yet was promoted and put in charge of other people. The show is popular because of how ridiculously common the following thought is. "How in the fuck is it that I have to report to this moron. And he makes how much more than me? Jesus, I need a drink."
233
Legal Question. Do you think that a company could write into a contract that a contractor would not hire illegal aliens. And would that have any extra force? ...
I don't see why not. I think you can basically put anything in a contract and the courts will enforce it unless it is against public policy. And it is hard to see why a requirement not to hire illegals would be against public policy (unless it went beyond what the law permits in verifying legal status).
233: It seemed to me that requiring certain verification procedures would be fine, but that those terms should be assumed. A contract requiring illegals would be against public policy, so why would there be extra force to a provision requiring someone to follow the law?
why would there be extra force to a provision requiring someone to follow the law?
Talking way beyond my pay grade here, but is a contract still valid if one of the parties breaks the law in fulfilling the contract? For instance, if I hire an electrician to wire my new house, and she uses stolen wire (without my knowledge), did doing so violate the contract, even if the contract didn't explicitly state that the wire had to be unstolen?
239
It seemed to me that requiring certain verification procedures would be fine, but that those terms should be assumed. A contract requiring illegals would be against public policy, so why would there be extra force to a provision requiring someone to follow the law?
Well the contract could provide for means to verify that the law was being obeyed. For example that you could examine the I9 forms. Book contracts sometimes allow the author to examine the publisher's books in order to verify that royalties are being correctly computed.
And in the case of illegals I believe there is some space between what the law requires and what the law allows in terms of status verification. For example use of the E-Verify system. In fact according to wikipedia:
As of September 8, 2009, employers with federal contracts or subcontracts that contain the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify clause are required to use E-Verify to determine the employment eligibility of 1) Employees performing direct, substantial work under those federal contracts and 2) New hires organization wide-regardless of whether they are working on a federal contract. A federal contractor or subcontractor who has a contract with the FAR E-Verify clause also has the option to verify the company's entire workforce.[11]
