15 YEARS IS BIG METAL CHICKENS
Finally somebody made a list that doesn't have crappy gifts until you hit 25 years.
"This chicken will cut you" is my new favourite catchphrase.
2 points:
1) I just read the waterbed for cats story and now I can't stop laughing.
2) Ferris Mewler is an awesome cat name.
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"A new species of mushroom has been named by its discoverers after the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.
The fungus, named Spongiforma squarepantsii by the researchers at San Francisco State University (SFSU), was found during an expedition to the forests of Borneo."
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1) I was just thinkin yesterday on Marxism and Revolution justified (not?) on quality of life issues. Revolution/unions have been said to be impossible cause everyone's now middle-class. But having the great house, car, big tv, nice sneakers, healthcare, even retirement and working 16 hour days til ya die was not Marx's plan. Not that we are all well off.
So it was to go back to early Hegelian Marx. Marx never really was about ownership of MoP or political power (which were means) or human welfare health food housing (which was unquestionable in high-tech future) but about alienation, commodification, reification etc about being miserable in a land of plenty and wanting human fulfillment. And liberals/neo-liberals have, by providing to a degree the first three, made meaningful change.
2) I would so want that giant chicken. On sight flash bought. Even as thin sheet metal looking cheap would make it even better. I guess it's kitsch.
3) OT:Watching movie the other night, 20 something Japanese slacker in Tokyo was wearing t-shirt with "Tradewinds Columbus Ohio" on front. Google it, guy was hetero. This kid was lucky to get to Izu Plateau for a campout (can't afford spas) picnic never been to states. As someone who wears nothing but lettered t-shirts I was like that's so fucking neat where the fuck does one get those things. BBQ stand in Lima or Nigerian boxing gym or something else absurd, inexplicable, and unavailable.
correct 5.2:"Made meaningful change human fulfillment impossible"
I read the story in the second link about the giant metal chicken and my gut reaction was that it was a harrowing tale of an abusive relationship. Victor's yelling, threatening to strangle her, he "screamed and stormed off" and locks himself in his office and punches things... dude's dangerous. But I read the first 70 or so comments and no one mentioned anything like that, and on a second look at least some of the alarming stuff is obviously tongue in cheek. So I guess I just have very low tolerance for confrontation.
I shouldn't be surprised, really; I know I tend to be passive-aggressive. And now that I think of it I've even had some of these "what did you buy this time" incidents with my girlfriend, although much lower-key in both purchase and reaction, and we've been together for closer to 15 months than 15 years.
That's interesting. As I was reading it, I was thinking that she sounded ten times more annoying to be married to than even me, but (similarly to you) had to remind myself that it was drummed up for story-telling purposes.
7, 8: I might have had the same reaction about abusiveness if there were any indication in the story that she were even slightly worried about the consequences of pissing him off. As the story was told, all of the extreme behavior is shtick.
One of these days, pow. Right in the chicken.
The Bloggess toys mercilessly with PR reps who want her to promote their cause/product/service on her blog - archived here: http://thebloggess.com/category/marketing-gone-bad/ . I think the rest of her blog puts things like her conversations with her husband in perspective.
she sounded ten times more annoying to be married to
Yes, this.
I think I have had this discussion about towels, but not that counter-reaction. It has something to do with wanting the towels to "match" or "go with" the bathroom colors, except apparently colors that "bring out" the colors of the bathroom are good, but colors that are mostly the same are not OK, because they show that it's close but not quite right, or something.
(This decorating thing may be the most stereotypically gendered element of my relationship with my wife).
It is kind of ridiculous how much I seriously enjoy interior decorating.
We have so many goddamned pillows in our house that I have to throw a bunch on the floor just to get in bed at night and yet, sure as the sun rises in the morning, new ones keep appearing regularly.
11: I've never really understood the humor of other Blogess posts I've read but the PR section is fantastic!
If I could find the asshole who invented the pillow sham, I'd go Batman on him.
I found the thing somewhat funny, but also the whole time was thinking, a hundred dollars? For a joke?
The chicken is good. The potatoes suck.
If your potatoes suck you're not driving the right sex life.
We have so many goddamned pillows in our house that I have to throw a bunch on the floor just to get in bed at night and yet, sure as the sun rises in the morning, new ones keep appearing regularly.
There's a Coupling episode built around approximately this joke.
I don't mind the pillows so much. I mind the pillows that are especially shitty because they were never intended for anything but decoration.
What's better to have: an iPhone case or iPhone skin?
I developed a case of iPhone skin, but some non-abrasive lint-free wipes cleared it up.
19: Yep. Especially against the "Not funny" link in the OP.
Anyway, isn't the kind of sense of humor displayed by chicken lady a thing? Sometimes called kidding on the square, sometimes called teasing (to the point of danger): I will test the boundaries that I know are right there, to see whether your sense of humor can stand up to it. If you get pissed off ... well ... who knows what the conclusion is.
Until about a month ago we had gone twenty years without buying any towels, and I was complaining for no other reason but finding the old ones boring and that we had gone twenty years without buying towels.
She is an impulse shopper, but tends toward small sweepers & vacuums (we have ten) and little alligators and dragons that you wind-up to zoom over your desk. And tattoos. And small lava-lamps. Oh, and jesus, dog-toys, hampers full.
I like flashlights.
You should buy some towels, Bob. Remember! Sometimes the small things (after 20 years of increasingly ratty towels) can make such a difference! And you only have one life, and it's hard to identify where any grimness is coming from, but 20-year-old towels might contribute to it.
Also wash your pillowcases. (I remind myself.)
Towels make no difference. Sheet matter.
Jesus Fucking Christ do I hate throw pillows. Honestly one of the absolute best things about being divorced is never having to think about those goddamn things again.
The worst would be to work in a throw pillow factory and get divorced.
Assuming with the recession, you couldn't find another job.
I fucking abominate throw pillows, bolster pillows, all decorative not-for-putting-your-head-on pillows. We have a couch, which I would encourage Megan to come set on fire, that has a series of big pillows at the back bit instead of proper cushions. Hate it.
Keep her away from the matches until the couch is on the roof.
Assuming with the recession, you couldn't find another job.
A reasonable assumption.
Right. So you've got all the pain of divorce, but you still can't get away from throw pillows.
not-for-putting-your-head-on pillows
These will become anathema, along with decorative can't-wash-your-hands-with soap and can't-dry-with towels, once I am appointed pope/patriarch of the Universal Church. Which is sad, because I will have to excommunicate Fleur.
Hey now. Some throw pillows are fine: the kind you have at the corners of the couch which are designed for squishing around so that you can get comfortable. You can have these for some chairs as well. You can use use them for sitting on the floor to play a game of cards, say.
Let's not go overboard, people.
I admit I'm not big on can't-dry-your-hands-with decorative towels.
Having a few small pillows of the sort that can be use to wedge under your back so as to extend the number of ways you can comfortably sit on a chair or couch is imminently sensible, and there's nothing wrong with having some sort of decorative pattern on them so that they pretty up the place when not providing lumbar or buttular or whatever kind of support. They can also serve as useful projectiles for hurling at the TV, cat, or spouse without causing harm. What is evil of the purest sort is putting little tickly fringes on them. Or anything for that matter.
37: Ha! I have one of those couches, too!
OT: No more masturbating to Robert Kroetsch. (Well-known Canadian poet, to those who know Canadian poets anyway.) He was the sweetest guy ever, what shitty news.
Having a few small pillows of the sort that can be use to wedge under your back so as to extend the number of ways you can comfortably sit on a chair or couch is imminently sensible,
This is my working assumption. So that if, say, you lay down on the couch, you can tuck one under your head or something.
Our couch has bars every 28 inches to keep the homeless people from camping out in our living room.
It is surprisingly difficult to actually find photos of a throw pillow factory.
This link looks promising, but the links at the bottom of that page are wrong.
I seem to recall a quiz in a dudes' magazine about whether one was a particular girl's boyfriend, a pertinent question of which was "How many pillows are there on your bed?" The answers, in order of increasing boyfriendedness, were something like:
a. "Bed"?
b. "Pillows"?
c. One.
d. Two.
e. Holy crap!
It was a dudes' magazine, Flip. It engaged in stereotyping.
Stereotyping that, judging from this thread, was pretty damn accurate.
There are five pillows on my bed, except when some of them are on the floor.
in order of increasing boyfriendedness
Oh, *that* sort of dudes' magazine.
Ben is HolyCrap-level boyfriended.
We house four pillows on our bed and a couple dozen on our guest bed. This is a compromise, I suppose.
There are 5 pillows on my bed, but really: two of them are against the wall (the bed is against the wall, and you wouldn't want to bump up against a hard wall), one is for lumbar support, and two are for head use.
Quite normal.
If you didn't use two pillows for your head, you might not need one for lumbar support.
If you didn't use two pillows for your head
Parsimon's head is four and a half feet wide.
Quite normal.
How do you know?
My bed is against a hard wall, but I only actually sleep using one pillow (which is why most of the others end up on the floor). I avoid the problem of my head hitting the wall by not sleeping with my head directly against the wall.
Does anybody have a bed that isn't against a wall at least at the head of the bed?
The two pillows for head use are not placed one upon another. They are side by side.
No, it's not that my head is huge, but that I, um, often prefer to tuck the pillows along the sides of my head, rather than placing my head upon a pillow. It's a childhood comfort thing or something.
Does anybody have a bed that isn't against a wall at least at the head of the bed?
John Lennon in Help!.
I find that the best pillow is an unopened bag of circus peanuts and that the second best is an opened bag of circus peanuts carefully resealed with a bunch of binder clips.
65: Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow.
My husband and I frequently joke that we reverse gender roles in our relationship. Pillows are a great example, I bought pillow shams for the first time recently as part of an attempt to make our house go from the "just graduated college" look to "actual adults live here" look. And I was completely confused by my husband's insistence that I can't lie on the pillow shams because they're for decorative purposes only.
I have always disliked those sofas with loose cushions at the back instead of proper backs, but then whilst sofa-shopping we saw one in a shop that we really like. We want to get them, but I am a bit worried that I will decide after a couple of weeks that yes, I do hate the loose cushions after all.
65: Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow.
We have the normal two pillows on our bed, but people who are capable of hatred for pillows are capable of anything. Ernst Rohm got his start mutilating pillows as a boy.
I brought more throw pillows to the relationship than Blume did, but to be fair, the chair is horribly uncomfortable without them.
Oh actually wait! I think we're tied. But one of the ones that came with me has little mirrors on it.
69: I have a chair like that and after a few years the pillow became horribly deformed, if that helps inform your decision.
I've laughed myself into a stomachache with that post, but it also reminded me how very happy I am that the husband and I have completely separate finances (which only works, I think because we don't have and aren't going to have kids).
Speaking of money, I decided that $100 is a good price for a giant metal chicken only if it can stand on its own. For the price, she shouldn't have had to balance the chicken using rocks.
69: Don't do it! We have a sofa like that and we quickly regretted it. The pillows get out of shape and then take up too much space and then there's problems.
71 gets it exactly right. Except for the decorative pillow shams and whatnot.
My brother-in-law and I will discuss our feelings while our wives, the sisters, talk about sports.
I remember extravagant pillows in Missy Elliot's house. Also fake classical statues around the huge beautiful indoor pool. I don't like pillows, or fake classical statues.
79: Those are really small mirrors. If I hadn't have been told, I don't think I would have said they were mirrors.
I don't get the throw-pillow hate. They have some uses for head and neck support while one lolls, and if they're getting in the way, you throw them someplace. That's why they call them throw pillows. What harm do they do?
80.1: This can only end in sorrow.
I suppose I could see hating throw pillows that required respect -- if you had to make sure they didn't get disarranged, or smudged, or something. But if that's not the issue, it's like hating paperweights.
I don't hate throw pillows, as long as there's only two or so of them. I hate sham pillows on beds. It's like a fuzzy cover on a toilet seat except less likely to get urine soaked when I'm drunk.
82: A couple here or there, no big deal. This is a problem.
I hate sham pillows on beds. It's like a fuzzy cover on a toilet seat except less likely to get urine soaked when I'm drunk.
Boy are we different.
It's time to redo the wallpaper, apo.
Or you could just ask your genie to do it for you.
sorrow
Nah. I know a lot more about his marriage than my wife does, and years of practice have taught me to speak in generalities rather than in particulars. He's a nice guy, doesn't have many people to talk to.
Throw pillows are fun with a pack of kids since they are soft and can actually be thrown, but they're objects to be abused, not pretty decorative elements.
82: Some of us just hate having to fuss with things. A couch is supposed to be relaxing! It's not supposed to be work! I shouldn't have to rearrange stuff just to sit down!
And yes, I did take this to its logical conclusion and get a tight-back couch with bench cushions, to minimize the number of things I have to adjust. But can you guess what came included, and too beautiful to just throw away?
Also, I *really* hate throw pillows on the bed. On other people's beds, I don't mind so much, since it's no extra work for me personally. But to get into bed, I have to throw a bunch of stuff on the floor. And then put it back onto the bed in the morning. And it doesn't look any better than the comforter unadorned.
92, 93: Hint: it is something you would put on a couch, that doesn't render it permanently unusable.
I liked the picture in 86. Maybe I'm the monster.
N.B.: do not google image search for "hot pony couch" at work with safesearch off.
99: There's a monster at the end of this book.
Although mainly I just hate the throw pillows on other people's couches that are so big that they take up a whole person's worth of space. The whole point of a sofa is a place for lots of people to hang out together. If I wanted something with room for only one person, I'd get a comfy chair instead. Though presumably when owned by a throw-pillow-user, a comfy chair sets zero people instead of one. After all, it's not complete without a humongous pillow.
Even before I was living with my girlfriend I had two pillows on my bed, because I usually prefer the additional neck support or whatever you'd call it. I guess I could have got one extra-thick pillow, but I already had two normal pillows, so I just sleep with one on top of the other most of the time. However, the dozen or so stuffed animals, including at least two that frequently wind up on the bed, are all hers.
86: The couch at my parent's place looks a little like that. Not that bad, but the thing is, the entire couch, pillows and all, is usually covered with a bedsheet to keep cats and dogs from shedding on it. Can we agree that decorative pillows are pointless when you can't see them, and pillows designed to be thrown are pointless if you can't reach them easily because there's something over them? (The sheet gets put away when guests come. But then, no humans ever sit on it when guests aren't there because of the sheet, so the only people who appreciate the pillows are the pets.)
I don't so much mind conspicuous consumption when you're spending a lot of money on the same item, but slightly better. But it offends me deeply when people spend extra money to get the same item, but worse.
I stayed in a hotel recently that put so many pillows on the bed that, in order to go to sleep, I had to basically cover the floor of the room with pillows. And it came with this handy unexpected little "guide to your pillows," about which one is the down pillow and which one is hypo-allergenic and whatnot.
105: At least there was some reason to have all those pillows. I've experienced the same thing, except without the guide, and all the pillows were of the same type.
If you don't have enough pillows in your hotel room and you travel with John Candy, well, it can be a real problem.
I dreamt I was in marshmallow land, and there were marshmallows larger than my head, and I ate three of them! And when I woke up, both my pillows and John Candy were gone.
is the scenario I assume you have in mind.
Benquo, are you ever going to tell us what came with the couch?
I just hate useless crap jamming up the house, including a bunch of useless pillows that just sit there and lame up the perfectly good furniture, plus look frilly. TBH, I also hate paperweights.
99: Walt, you are a monster, and not in the good buttsex with Grover way.
You know what I just got rid of? A fucking MILKING STOOL that my ex bought for some reason and kept in the house. Why? Why? Do we look like we have a pressing need to milk dairy cows? Is there any point in having this "charming" insanely uncomfortable object littering up a perfectly nice room?
Also, you have to milk dairy cows or the udders explode in pain.
I bet the milking stool was the perfect height to use to have buttsex with Grover. I guess you'll just have to pile up a bunch of throw pillows.
Grover doesn't have a butt. You've been having sex with someone's elbow.
116: Philistine. We have a milking stool. With a handle.
For what does Grover use the handle?
Also where does the handle go?
Actually that's the same as Eggplant's question.
Your daughter could drag the milking stool over to the sink, stand on it and wash her hands by her ownself.
If I'm guessing the height of a milking stool correctly, it would be useful for reaching upper shelves.
Or Megan's suggestion.
The throw pillow display in 86 is pretty silly.
Pillows are for reading or for just lying awake. Actually using them for sleep is insane.
Mattresses are nuts as well. Cushions of any sort, really.
"Metta World Peace" is now available as a pseud.
The milking stool could serve as an endtable, MAYBE.
If you had a very low couch or a very high cow.
The milking stool could also serve as a plant stand, for a medium-sized plant, say 2- to 4-feet high. It's hard to know how to address plants of that size without a low stand upon which to put them.
Don't try to milk stools, people. Yuck.
I don't know why men in sure or unsure possession of their man cards eschew milking stools, pillows, and possibly plants. Perhaps because they're fussy.
Meanwhile -- nasturtiums are delicious! My housemate and I seem to agree that the red ones are sweeter than the yellow ones, which are pepperier.
I kind of want the chicken. I just moved into a new place, and need to think about how to decorate it. I'm not sure Giant Metal Chicken is exactly the look I'm going for, but I'm not sure it's not, either.
Where's that curtain post Labs put up years ago? I think they were purple. ?
In that case, you certainly need a giant metal bird, of species to be determined.
The thing about getting the chicken is, it really depends on what kind of car you drive. A chicken deserves a proper coupe.
OT: Does anyone know anything about quarantine laws or have thoughts on this issue in the modern era?
I was recently assigned a new client at work. The apartment in his group home is infested with bed bugs which he didn't report. It turns out that they're in the common area downstairs too. Under the new model for our agency I'm supposed to be spending a lot of time there.
The person who has this client now was there with one of our document specialists who has a baby, and it turns out that the bed bugs are all over the client. One of them jumped out on to the table. I know that perfectly normal people can get them, but he's created a great home for them. He doesn't bathe, and he's been wearing the same clothes for 3 weeks. And he doesn't use soap when he does try to wash his clothes.
On the one hand, we can't really force him into a shower, but I really don't want to be told that I have to go near him (and I can't really do my job if I don't). Bed bugs aren't a disease exactly, but ugh.
I really wish that we could just steal and burn his clothes, delouse him and cut his hair. Never mind that this particular group home never got an exterminator in. He'd probably re-infect everyone, because he picks shit up off the street.
Does delousing work for bedbugs? You probably need to throw out all the fabric in his room. Good luck.
You need to put everything bags and then get a proper exterminator and heat everything on high. But we can't, force him to bathe.
I'm just wondering what would happen if I told them that I didn't feel comfortable or safe working with him--especially since they'd only give me $200 bucks if I got infested. Would they just fire me? They might want to downsize anyway. On the other hand, my boyfriend might kick me out.
Didn't gswift have a story about an arrestee who was semi-deliberately insect-infested and trying to spread them? I can't remember the outcome.
I'm almost surprised there isn't a policy allowing your agency not to serve someone who's a public health hazard of that sort. Seriously, if he's spreading bugs to the other clients, isn't that a real issue for them?
Bed bugs aren't a disease exactly, but ugh.
My understanding recently is that bedbugs migrate quite easily; it's not a question of disease, exactly, as much as spreading the infestation widely. They bite, and they spread like wildfire.
Your organization should absolutely have procedures, or at least contacts, available - the Mass. version of the CDC? -- for procedures to take. The group home should be checked out. This shouldn't be on you individually.
I would discuss this with your workplace: they should not expect you to deal with this independently, and they should absolutely be reporting it upward, pretty fast.
That woman in 68 is taking the piss, surely.
If the higher ups don't do anything about the bedbugs, just start wandering into their offices and sitting as close to them as you can at meetings. Scratch a bit.
143: On the other hand, my boyfriend might kick me out.
?
My agency is a dysfunctional disaster.
Beyond that, the guy's an illegal alien who gets free rent, has no income and avails himself of free care/uncompensated care.
We would have to evict him which takes time, and then we would be responsible for finding him other housing--and the DMH shelters wouldn't take him. If we ceased to serve everyone with atrocious hygiene we would lose a quarter of our clients. I mean I work with one client who hasn't showered for 6 years and got an infection. She's had that treated but still won't shower; it's a combination of stubbornness and delusional beliefs about menopause. I get over the smell after about 10 minutes, but the people in the building just have to love with it, and her poor apartment-mate. Luckily she has her own bedroom.
Bed bugs do travel and they bite, but you don't die from them. Still I wish that we could send him off to a special shelter for bed bug people. We can't just put him on the street.
148: Some people just aren't into fleasomes.
148: No, not really. But when I brought it up with him to talk about how to approach the issue with my boss, he totally flipped out and started saying that I should sue if we got them etc.
He might want me to quit the job over it.
The people who work in the group home have to go there no matter what, and they make a lot less than I do.
146: Can't be. She says the water is drinkable.
150 is just something. I'm not sure what.
149.2: Can't you just e-mail Lou Dobbs or something?
149 is a good lesson on how things really work. Or don't work.
If we ceased to serve everyone with atrocious hygiene we would lose a quarter of our clients.
Arby's is in the same boat, but people usually leave fairly quickly.
Didn't gswift have a story about an arrestee who was semi-deliberately insect-infested and trying to spread them? I can't remember the outcome.
Yeah, this dude. Ah, it's summer again and he's going to be fully ripe.
Beyond that, the guy's an illegal alien who gets free rent
Man what a godsend that would be if our guy was illegal. I would have had him on a one way flight ages ago.
Still I wish that we could send him off to a special shelter for bed bug people. We can't just put him on the street.
Seriously, why not? Surely there's other people in line for this type of housing who aren't literally a health hazard to everyone else in the building.
If the higher ups don't do anything about the bedbugs, just start wandering into their offices and sitting as close to them as you can at meetings.
Seriously, if they don't do anything bring that buggy fucker to the office and let him wander around.
Ugh, how dreadful. My roommates and I just had a bedbug scare ourselves--just as we were moving from our interim sublet to our new place, we discovered a dead bedbug in a towel, and realized the marks on my chest were actually bedbug bites. We immediately went into quarantine mode, making an already stressful moving process that much more awful by adding an Andromeda Strain-esque decontamination stage that every item had to pass through before entering the "clean" parts of the new place. And we still have no idea if we're clear, because eggs take a few weeks to hatch. A thoroughly miserable experience.
[/allaboutme] So, uh, my sincere sympathies, BG. There, there.
because eggs take a few weeks to hatch
Too bad giant metal chicken eggs don't hatch.
111: DING DING DING! You win!
The no-fuss, no-movable-cushions couch came with three little throw pillows that just go so perfectly with it that I can't stand to give up the stupid little things. At least they are small and don't materially reduce the seating capacity.
110: Sorry to keep you in such dreadful suspense. I was at a play.
Also, sorry to disappoint you about the pony. Maybe when next you buy a couch one will be included.
157: Still I wish that we could send him off to a special shelter for bed bug people. We can't just put him on the street.
Seriously, why not? Surely there's other people in line for this type of housing who aren't literally a health hazard to everyone else in the building.
I would have thought that the entire building has them anyway. Either from this one guy, or he got them from the building. Either way, it doesn't seem at all clear that evicting this one guy would clear the building.
I would have thought that the entire building has them anyway.
I'm not sure that's always or even usually true. From what I was reading, they don't really like moving far from their food source. But IANAEntomologist.
BG, that's horrible. No way should you have to deal with this situation on your own. Ugh.
I don't like ornamental pillows on the bed either. I blame the home decorating magazines: they're always recommending new throw pillows as a cheap and cheerful way to update one's decor.
Bringing the threads together: if someone invented bedbug-killing ornamental pillows, I would endorse them wholeheartedly.
166: Okay. I'd gotten that idea from entirely anecdotal evidence tales from bedbug sufferers.
168: I think they would cease to be ornamental if provided with a function. Right now, I would guess that ornamental pillows are just a good hiding place for the bedbugs.
But wait, I could swear I heard something about how bedbugs can subsist between the floorboards of hardwood floors and so on. Hm.
I think that is what bedbugs can do, but that they aren't likely to do it if the guy they are eating doesn't do anything to make them want to move.
Yeah, my impression was the same as Moby's. They like to stay close to their blood supply, and warm, but they *can* move and potentially spread through a whole building.
I hypothesize that they're in the entire building (of BG's guy), but who knows. Depends on how long he's been there, I suppose. Nonetheless, I will try not be alarmed on behalf of BG's guy's entire building and its inhabitants.
would have thought that the entire building has them anyway. Either from this one guy, or he got them from the building. Either way, it doesn't seem at all clear that evicting this one guy would clear the building.
My one up close and personal experience with bedbugs was when my gf had them, back in the mid nineties, before the big epidemic. I got bit whenever I slept over, but not too much. They were not present in any other apartment in the building, or even in every room in that apartment. Nor did they come over with me to my apartment. On the other hand, getting rid of them was a huge pain, including throwing out mattresses and pillows and doing some crazy cleaning procedure on a bunch of other stuff and intense extermination stuff in the room.
167: Its even cheaper to update your decor with ornamental bedbugs.
I got bit whenever I slept over, but not too much
What did the bedbugs do?
174: I'm not suggesting that the rest of the building shouldn't be alarmed. I would be. I'm suggesting that it may be contained to one guy and it seems reasonable to act where there is a known problem.
Bedbugs: cozy homebodies or intrepid adventurers?
Well I believe in the evolution of people bugs through time and we're smarter than ever these days but as a Christian well of course I believe in the biblical account but I just think we need to be culturally respective and sensitive to all points of view and everything should be taught and let the children decide?
Posted 68 to my doula friend's FB wall. Eager to see what she makes of it.
182: It's a joke, Minnie, and a satirization of people like your doula friend. Really.
Signed,
A person who gave birth without drugs, and without lotus flowers.
I put it on FB and at least two people seem to have taken it seriously. Shame she's left out the important cutting the cord FAQ.
I got bit whenever I slept over
I read this as "I got a bit whenever I slept over" and thought, isn't that more or less the point?
Shame she's left out the important cutting the cord FAQ.
"We have a trained piranha."
I guess that would deal with the disposal of the placenta too.
I guess that would deal with the disposal of the placenta too.
Not to mention the baby.
The guy came here from Japan on a student visa and has horrible trauma. The Department of Mental Health said never to turn him in, and I don't really want to send him back.
He probably wouldn't come by the office. He gets a little money from DMH but no SSI and might not want to pay the T fare. He can be hard to track down, but if I don't meet with him and try to do rehabilitation interventions, I don't get to mark down the minimum number of R days. If we don't get enough R days, then the State will not be able to bill Medicaid enough, and we'd lose our contract. (I desperately want a new job.
They did have bedbugs in other apartments, but I think that he keeps reinfestng them. Another hosue had bedbugs but was thoroughly cleaned.
155: This article">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/us/17MENTAL.html?_r=1&hpw">article from the NY Times about a murder in a local group home (not run by my company) shows how the system isn't working. Most people aren't dangerous, but the problems affect the perfectly safe ones too.
Of course, I'd be fired if I talked to the press about anything.
190. Jesus fuck, there is nothing sensible to suggest. Yes, you need a new job. Someone else's turn.
This is where you realise there was a reason for those old-fashioned fascist-sounding institutional hygiene/public health measures and it had bugger all to do with the stuff academics come out with these days. No. It was about the the bugs and the feet and the lice.
re: 192
Yes, and it turns out those big Victorian psychiatric institutes weren't entirely pointless, either.
183: Goofy, but I don't actually see why it would have to be a joke (I mean, the page clearly sees the funny side, but that doesn't mean it's not a real plan). Water birth is a thing, the sanitary issues involved in using a fishtank rather than a sterilized tub don't seem to me the sort of thing that would obviously put off anyone who didn't mind a homebirth -- it could be a joke but there's nothing in there that I see as a definite tell that it is a joke rather than an amusing plan.
My whole mental engagement with the modern world as a tangible reality existing external to my brain depends on it being an obvious joke.
Ugh. Reading up on this a bit, I think we might have bedbugs in our apartment. I can't be sure, but it doesn't look good.
/allaboutme
Wouldn't it kill the fish? My understanding is, it's much more than just baby+placenta+amniotic fluid that comes out.
I'm with LB - I am quite prepared to believe that the koibstetrics woman is for real.
Also, I think amniotic fluid, definitionally, includes baby pee, if that is what you are worried about. If the baby takes a dump, that might be something else.
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Yves Smith ...tells us about Ezra Klein and the world he serves
A recent post by Ezra Klein, "What 'Inside Job' got wrong," manages the impressive feat of being spectacularly off base, rhetorically dishonest, and embarrassingly revealing of the lack of a moral compass all at once.I'm going to shred this piece in some detail, first, because it will be entertaining, and second, I hope that it will encourage readers to take a cold, bloodyminded look at the excuses made for malfeasance in our elites.
The only objection Klein raises to Inside Job is that it punctures the favorite defense of economists, regulators, and their mouthpieces in the media "whocoulddanode?" Klein rejects the notion that corruption played a role; there no effort to rebut the evidence proffered in Inside Job and numerous other accounts (including on this blog and in ECONNED). He simply sidesteps the issue of corruption via straw-manning: "corrupt fools".
The most corrupt were decidedly not fools, they knew better and still took the destructive, profitable course.
'Bout time we started calling corrupt and evil...evil. Not stupid, not blind, not lazy...but the ones who fly to Barcelona for dinner are profiting from perfidy. Evil.
Then we can reach for pitchforks.
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Like I said, Yves Smith is getting really fucking pissed off.
She xposts Michael Hudson on Greece (and coming to us all). Hudson says Greece should just form a shadow-counter gov't to default. Fuck the system, the politicians, and the law.
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Then we can reach for pitchforks.
The technology has been improving.
Pitchfork would probably just say Ezra's no Stephen Malkmus.
I don't even own a pitchfork. Just regular forks. Will that do?
183: I read it as a joke, esp. given the way the fish are anthropomorphized. My doula friend is (as most doula friends are, I suspect) pretty into the woo-woo stuff, but also not into taking shit from anyone. I don't usually wind her up, but this was too hard to resist.
we have a cool chinese elmwood pitchfork for sale in my store in ainraN (as ogged once suggested it be known). it's been re-painted a light-blue and then hand-distressed. it'd be tough work killing a banker with it, but probably worth it.
I have to say when I see MY going on about how we can make the debt ceiling fiasco look OK a little longer by paying off bondholders first, I go all mcmanus. if the republicans want to wreck the US economy out of pique because they are cocksucking bastards, we're going to soften the blow for them, so they don't look so responsible for it/while we hope they come to their senses/lie there holding our ass cheeks open with both hands? the fuck? they want to blow shit up, the tell everybody "they are about to destroy the economy," and then when they do, say, "oh fuck, the republicans destroyed the economy just like we told you. maybe we should do something else."
realize this is a bit on the blood in the streets side, and not mine, but for fuck's sake. the democrats could propose eliminating the EPA, personally putting their own aged parents on ice floes, and making the children who get free school lunches lick boehner's balls clean every morning before their gruel and the republican caucus would still say no. fuck those bastards. the republicans had a chance to pass a clean raise the debt ceiling bill, they all said no. the dems should propose one again and say "if the republicans don't vote for it they'll precipitate an even more crippling worldwide economic crisis and re-pitch the US into depression. let those fuckers blink first. let's put mcmanus at the wheel of our team's car and play chicken. this is the part where mcmanus points out we don't have a team.
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Speaking of calling evil evil, there is a new development in my neighbors' feud with me. Came out to my dining room this morning; they have hung an evil eye on the window facing mine.
OK, that's a funny and subtle insult. I like them better now. But I didn't dislike them before, and my listening behavior isn't changed. I give them points for the joke, though.
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if the republicans don't vote for it they'll precipitate an even more crippling worldwide economic crisis and re-pitch the US into depression.
I don't like that argument as it is basically what various bankers have used to get six fucktons of money transferred to themselves since they fucked the economy.
I agree with much of 209, but if implemented I can't see how it gives us anything other than President-for-life Bachmann (or something similar).
I agree with the rioting part of 209, but I have no intention of rioting to see that bond holders get paid.
My understanding is, it's much more than just baby+placenta+amniotic fluid that comes out
Like what? Blood? Probably not poisonous to fish?
Chris, they'd be *trained* piranhas, they wouldn't eat the baby!
I thought it was a joke because of describing how the koi will bring the baby up to the surface and if not, Shane will catch it in a net! I wondered if maybe she was planning to take the fish out and use the tank to give birth in, because then you'd have all the heating and cleanliness stuff all set up, and then the koi-midwife thing took off from there.
Honestly, I've spent enough time in the internet fringes of the world of birth (like the women who popped up in the comments to say, hey, unassisted birth is perfectly safe!) and I've never seen anyone else before say that fish would enjoy being involved. Definitely pisstake in my mind, but perhaps she will continue to update the blog!
I thought it was a joke because of describing how the koi will bring the baby up to the surface and if not, Shane will catch it in a net! I wondered if maybe she was planning to take the fish out and use the tank to give birth in, because then you'd have all the heating and cleanliness stuff all set up, and then the koi-midwife thing took off from there.
Oh, all the stuff about the fish being involved and the partner netting the baby was clearly a joke, but it sounded to me like the kind of joke that could include "Yes, we are planning to do this, and yes, we're going to leave the fish in the tank because we think it's cool."
Also, from court on a very big case this morning: Sighted big-firm partner, sank same. Nothing big, a discovery conference, but I got what I wanted and he didn't.
Wonder if this means he'll get my name right next time we interact. Probably not, but as long as the judge is getting it right, which she is, that makes him look bad, not me.
217: that sounds nicer than waiting for divine intervention to say from a life as a ditch-digger, in any case.
217: What did he call you? GizzardBreath?
"say" should be "save you". The hey?
My real last name is hyphenated -- I'm Lizard Buck-Breath. My card says "Buck-Breath", the judge calls me "Ms. Buck-Breath", but to opposing counsel, I'm "Ms. Breath." I don't particularly give a damn -- I was unhyphenated "Breath" for most of my life, still, but a grownup attorney should be able to successfully call someone by the name they sign on documents.
218: This is actually a different case from the situation that was giving me hives. A much more important one, but without the same sort of issues.
215, 216: Is it possible to have a fish tank that is "clean" for birthing and still livable for the fish? In my experience, fish die very easily in the presence of anything disinfecting.
Admittedly, my experience with living, captive fish is limited to the kinds that are too small to assist in a delivery.
Is it possible to have a fish tank that is "clean" for birthing and still livable for the fish? In my experience, fish die very easily in the presence of anything disinfecting.
This is what I was wondering about. Koi are pretty delicate, and she's talking about sterilising them with potassium permanganate!
Still, you can drink permanganate-sterilised water, so maybe it's OK for the fish too.
Sighted big-firm partner, sank same.
I'm having trouble figuring this line out.
226: "target sighted, captain. Launch torpedos?" "on my mark, and... FIRE!" "torpedo is away. HIT! Target is sinking, ma'am"
"target sighted, captain. Launch torpedos?" "on my mark, and... FIRE!" "torpedo is away. HIT! Target is sinking, ma'am"
Then why "same"?
re: 226
It helps if you imaging LB underwater at the time. Maybe with someone screaming 'Feuer!'.
229: From back when they did this stuff my morse code?
Also, I've never quite been able to hang here, intelligence-wise, but I swear over the last month or so it's gotten way worse.
PWNYPWNYPWNY.
re: 229
Sighted X. Killed same (i.e. X).
"same" is lawyer-speak for "that thing I just mentioned".
235: I get that one single style of thought pretty easily, but I have a suspicion that many people here are better mathematicians than me anyway. Plus the rest of topics we talk about.
I've never heard of a concise idiom being referred to as "lawyer-speak" before.
238: You're just fishing for me to find more 3D geometry YouTube videos, aren't you?
You seem to aquit yourself well, heebie. Some of what you perceive is likely due to the group-intelligence effect, where at any given moment someone in the community is going to have something to smart to say. And, of course, there are also just some damn brilliant people here.
I never even got close to figuring out what the hell people were talking about with the embedding the one thing in the other thing in your head thing.
That last sentence in 241 should have ended with "so it's easy to focus on them."
This is why I should stick to comments consisting only of a single short sentence or phrase.
242: Me neither!
243: Have you considered Twitter? I hear that it's for winners!
I think we should all post our IQs.
re: 245
Are you trying to make Tweety angry?
Some of what you perceive is likely due to the group-intelligence effect, where at any given moment someone in the community is going to have something to smart to say.
Probably some of it is seeing the tallest trees in any given conversation. I don't want to harp on it, because I quite like being here anyway, but I still suspect there's a level that most of you are firing on that I'm missing - ie, Neb's post yesterday.
You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
First we're supposed to post about our non-white relatives, and now it's IQs? This place is taking a sinister turn, isn't it?
Reasoning without real work attached lends itself to interpersonal competition rather than collaboration, I think.
The style here of quick, short responses encourages shooting from the hip, which works only sometimes.
I'm 6'1".
248, re Neb's post: Are you insane?
252: You didn't get it, either?
"Sighted sub; sank same" is a famously terse report from a ship's captain in WW II, but I'd have to google to remember who, or when, or if it was an actual incident rather than something apocryphal.
I missed Neb's post too -- that is, he's riffing on titles from something, and they're very vaguely familiar to me, but not enough to identify without googling. I thought Kafka for a bit, but I don't think that's it.
Oh, duh, it is Kafka. Metaorifice->Metamorphosis went right past me.
I thought Kafka for a bit, but I don't think that's it.
I thought Kafka too, and then I googled it, and it was Kafka, so then I looked up his bibliography on wikipedia and made dick jokes based on that for a while. My level of intellectual sophistication is mind-blowing.
They're dirty puns based on the titles of Kafka stories. It's pure trivia. There's nothing to get.
When in doubt about his writing, I just assume erudite cock joke.
254.1: I think it's apocryphal. But I can't google right now, so I'm probably wrong.
I let some red potatoes putrify on top of the fridge. I can't believe how quickly they turned vile. The only other time I can remember something that nauseating was when we were in Galveston a few years ago, and there was a pelican rotting outside, and the dog went and rolled around in it.
We've still got a half-dozen flies in the house. I've got an itchy trigger finger with the fly-swatter, though.
In lieu of talking about what idiots we all are.
259: I just did, and it was an enlisted pilot named Mason, first US action against a U-Boat after the declaration of war. Probably not apocryphal about the message being sent in those words, but he was probably wrong about having sunk the sub, because German records don't show a sub sunk on that day.
Rotting potatoes are curiously horrible compared to most rotting vegetables. They smell like death itself.
When you've all finished discussing whether Koi can thrive in a solution of potassium permanganate and human bodily fluids, why don't you head over to Landover Baptist for some religious instruction?
I think we should all post our screeds about why IQs don't make sense, and then pick the best one. But we all know Cosma would win.
My level of intellectual sophistication is mind-blowing.
Heh, you said "blowing".
heebie, if it helps, I was using Wikipedia to learn more Kafka titles. All I added were lame dick jokes.
I was using Wikipedia to learn more Kafka titles
Almost a 100% certainty that everybody else was as well.
Also, from court on a very big case this morning: Sighted big-firm partner, sank same.
Oh sure, you sink the sighted partners, but what about the blind ones? Racist.
267: I wasn't. But then I only had one. It's a great story, by the way. A bit like The Forever War, but in ancient China and much shorter.
Bedbugs among the homeless in Vancouver have been spreading MRSA.
I bet the milking stool was the perfect height to use to have buttsex with Grover.
Or so the mullahs would have you believe.
I know I'm one of the thicker people here, but with about six exceptions I'm pretty sure this place couldn't function at full throttle in a google-free world.
Bedbugs among the homeless in Vancouver have been spreading MRSA.
Are you serious? Do you have a link? I want to e-mail my boss.
Re 272
Plus I'd guess most people havr a few areas of genuine expertise; many more areas where they have some general knowledge which they can supplement with a bit of reasonably targetted sesrching, and a load of areas they know nothing about so never speak of. Because the latter are occluded it's easy to form the false impression everyone except yourself is a know it all.
Because the latter are occluded it's easy to form the false impression everyone except yourself is a know it all.
Yes, this.
I don't make as many jokes as I used to, but there are lots of jokes I wouldn't have made if it weren't for google and if this weren't a sort-of-asynchronous environment. A lot of that is because I've looked things up first, but also it can be uncomfortable to make jokes in casual conversation that - leaving aside whether they're funny in the first place - either no one gets, or only some people get, leaving others left out. I prefer humor to be inclusive, if it can be.
(Probably the most conventional response to the most conventional response to this comment would be "Great, start 'em young.")
272: chris y, that sounds like unintentionally false modesty to me.
273: The study is summarized at Wired here. I guess it would be more accurate to say that the bedbugs CONTAIN these infections. Bedbugs aren't expected to transmit disease normally, since they don't inject anything into the blood. But it's not good news. And as the Brandon Sun points out, HIV-infected homeless people may be vulnerable if anyone is.
Incidentally, about a week ago there was a thing going on on twitter where people were posting joke-y philosophy film titles. Some were pretty clever, most of the ones I saw were not. Most seemed to be along the lines of
philosophy = name of philosopher --> pun using philosopher's name inserted into actual film title
I don't remember the #-tag, but you might still be able to find them on twitter's horrible search.
Google is for weaklings. The superior mind disdains such crutches.
A few weeks ago, my boss introduced me to someone as a genius, meaning that I was the relevant expert on the topic at hand. She replied, "Oh yeah? What's your IQ?"
I'm still not sure how i should have responded.
"You need to buy me a drink first. It's tattooed on my upper thigh."
I'm still not sure how i should have responded.
"I'm not sure that's relevant to the task at hand."
Belch as loudly as you can. Wipe mouth on back of hand. Extend hand to shake hers.
Not to be confused with Ah Q, or any true stories about same.
"Let's just say that on the veldt, everyone would want a piece of this."
Maybe emdash will tell us how he did respond.
The web and its searchability growing just as I was reaching a certain age was a good combination. I have a lot of dangling pointers for which I can now retrieve the contents. Also much new stuff as well. In fact, Unfogged-program-related-searching activities have led to some interesting shit.
What's that line from Airplane?
"But that's not important right now."
Oh, and 280 goes without saying, of course.
280, 292: As are books.
209
... the republicans had a chance to pass a clean raise the debt ceiling bill, they all said no. ...
As did 82 Democrats. See here .
"I intend to vote against raising the debt limit today because this legislation fails to make the real and immediate spending cuts needed to get our fiscal house in order," Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA), a conservative Democrat, said in a statement before voting.
Good thing nobody we know is from Altmire's district.
293: Not the same. There are obviously uses of Google (or Wikipedia) that are the online equivalent of consulting a reference book, but there are any number of other uses that amount to a mental crutch.
How much do I care about this these days? Not much.
Not talking about reference books. Talking about books.
Google is not the same as books. Though I suppose if you read entire books you find via Google, okay.
And speaking of Bjartur, this short 1946 review of IP in Time is very matter-of-fact but still somewhat interesting to read. Also *SPOILER ALERT*.
When looking up old threads, I consult Poole's printed index to the archives.
298: Surely you agree that two things can share a common property (for instance, that of being a crutch for weaklings) and not be the same. Perhaps this confusion arises from too much reading of books and too little recitation of the sagas.
On the internet nobody knows you are a bear.
I'll make no further attempt to talk you over; it is a mark of weakness to try to talk anyone over. An independent man thinks only of himself and lets others do and think as they please.
Made quite an impression, I see, JP.
DO NOT ASK WHY MY AXE IS BLOODY I HAVE JUST CURED JP'S BACKACHE
305: A bit. The infuriating obstinacy certainly did. Got to give Laxness credit for sticking it out with the character. The part where he threw out the housekeeper who tried to help with food had me grinding my teeth in frustration. Well done!
Also fresh in my mind. Later I will need to Google it up.
305: And am pleased to be on a run of decent fiction after a pretty long dry spell. Riddley, this one, and rather than poking the bear I should go upstairs right now and start on Black Swan Green, which I trust will not disappoint.
210: that's awesome. I want to see a picture of this evil eye! Put one in the flickr pool!
I second 309. Also, someone with knitting chops should make an "Evil iPod" sleeve.
308: BSG being pretty good so far (2/3 of the way through). I did like the tangential connection to one of the Cloud Atlas plot lines. It is going to induce me to go back and read that section again; and I was already going to re-read the middle Hawaiian section after finally getting to Riddley Walker.
And as long as I'm gassing on about relatively recent English fiction in a dead thread, Mark Haddon's (Curious Dog Incident guy) A Spot of Bother had its moments--although not sure it really holds up overall.
Let me know how it turns out (quality-wise, not plot-wise). Funnily enough, I recently read Ghostwritten just before Riddley Walker and to be honest I found it kind of a chore, a handful of chapters apart. Nowhere near as gripping as Cloud Atlas (or Riddley Walker).
312: Liked it well enough and I'd recommend reading it, but it did not vault into my top tier (I believe someone or maybe multiple folks have been more positive on it here in this forum). In particular I found some of it rather heavy-handed in its depictions of early adolescent confusion (and the messaging in one subplot was about as subtle as fake vomit). At times it tended towards both Adrian Mole and Jean Sheperd's "Ralphie" stories (Christmas Story)--nothing wrong with that, but it was a bit of an uneasy mix.
More gratifyingly, sorted out that Black Swan Green was Hadley Swan (near Malvern) and able to generally track the action.
