Re 3, I've heard claims that it's just more and more visible through social media etc., and/or that the US is getting a larger proportion of the disasters so we're more aware but the total number worldwide hasn't really changed. I don't really know how to tell if these claims are true.
Related, we just booked a rental for winter break that's a couple miles from a recently active volcano.
I assume that's a working vacation and you're looking for a lair.
What are the parts of the world least susceptible to natural disasters or human-induced uninhabitability of any kind? In the US, I'm thinking Midwest, Northeast, Colorado, and maybe non-coastal South?
I guess eroding topsoil and poisoning the earth and sky affects everyone, though.
I think a bunch of survivalists settled on Couer d'Alene, Idaho. The absence of black people was totally coincidental.
Hm. That doesn't seem like it could accommodate the critical mass of population for a decently complex civilization, if cut off from national markets.
I don't think they want complexity or civilization.
Harvey Weinstein
I thought he was pretty good in "Mrs. Doubtfire," but I'm horrified by the stories coming out now.
Great, they can learn what a blast subsistence agriculture is. Unless they're all men, then they'd probably starve.
I think we can take the amount of whataboutery projection regarding Harvey Weinstein as an indication of how much unexpressed anxiety there is in the right-wing mind concerning the last year's similar revelations regarding Trump, O'Reilly, Ailes, etc, That and a good amount of trolling. I haven't seen a single lefty/liberal defend him unless you count Donna Karan. And I folllow a lot of film twitter, the condemnation has been universal and without reservation.
What a time to have read my last complimentary New Yorker article.
10 Well there's always my mobile. Read it, it's horrific.
I got your free, insightful journalism right here buddy.
I didn't want to read a bunch more horrible detailed stories in the New Yorker piece on Weinstein everyone is linking this morning, but I was skimming, and was pleasantly surprised to find that when a woman (Ambra Battilana Gutierrez) reported him to the NYPD in 2015 they not only listened to her but ended up setting up a successful sting.
But then Vance decided not to press charges, with police quoted angrily. I wonder if the Trump/Vance news was part of what precipitated this coming out.
Also, why, DiFi? Is she trying to break Strom's record?
In the meantime, we're apparently in a major diplomatic incident with (spins wheel) Turkey! Neat.
It's harder for a woman to have had secret children they never acknowledged until they died.
Like the two countries are not issuing (non-immigrant) visas to each others' nationals now.
17 - they need to get the Gulen network to hide them.
Good example of the kind of thing where Trump's policy preferences (friendship with Erdogan) are not trickling down at all because no staff.
Unless they're all men, then they'd probably starve.
It seems to be a near universal among traditional societies that the women bust their asses while the men lay around and drink to the extent possible. Occasionally they'll hunt or something.
unless you count Donna Karan.
Which we probably shouldn't, now that she's defended Weinstein.
Also, I've decided I don't need to read all of the horrible details about this creep. What with everything else that is depressing, infuriating, outrageous, absolutely crazy and crazy-making, I need to set some limits or risk losing my mind altogether.
I'll move my anxiety here! Not heard from mum or sis since late afternoon yesterday. Neither fire contained, altho one nearest them also not growing so - yay. Sis has horrendously bad lungs. I am super distressed! Did i mention they are on edge of town? Hope vineyards act as firebreaks.
It seems to be a near universal among traditional societies that the women bust their asses while the men lay around and drink to the extent possible. Occasionally they'll hunt or something.
Depends on the society. As a general rule, the closer you are to the poles, the higher the share of calories contributed by the men in the group. Inuit are at one extreme; people like the Fore in New Guinea at the other.
Most hunter-gatherers male or female, to be honest, spend most of their time lying around. The amount of work per day required for a hunter gatherer lifestyle is pretty small.
I need to set some limits or risk losing my mind altogether.
I say this nearly every day these days.
DQ, that's awful. But isn't it likely they've evacuated?
Honestly, I've been worried about the destruction of everywhere because of climate change for so long that my main feeling is about it manifesting is 'yes, we all knew this." I've thought those communities were living on borrowed time for my adult life, so seeing the time run out is only seeing the inevitable. Well, inevitable since Bush v. Gore.
the higher the share of calories contributed by the men in the group.
Is that an end-to-end reckoning including cooking and cleaning and so on? (Not that I doubt you with misandrous zeal, just curious.)
DQ, I am impressed that you're not driving around Sonoma in circles. I don't think I'd be able to sit still in your position, but I'm not the most rational person in the world. Post here all you want.
Whichever way the crazy winds are blowing, they seem to have cleared the smoke from these latitudes. There was an impressively grisly sunset yesterday, though. I'm more or less waiting to hear next steps at this point.
I don't know how the "RESISTANCE!" scorecard looks for 2017 yet. I'm thinking mediocre, but I don't know what baseline to compare it to. Which of you is going to primary Feinstein again? Didn't I nominate someone?
Agreed re Feinstein.
Mum & sis not in evacuation area so that is good, just that grass-woodland fires can move *fast* & it is super anxious making that they don't have cell coverage. Sis right that ill mum would be hugely stressed by evacuating, so i just need to hang tight and trust sis.
Keeping fingers, toes, and everything else crossed for your mother and sister, DQ. Not being able to *do* anything is the worst.
We can't technically primary Feinstein because of our glorious new top-two election system. If a fantastic further-left challenger emerges, the most likely outcome is that they both advance to November and Feinstein enlists Republican support.
D'oh. Elderly white people got us coming and going.
Regarding setting limits, I've ignored the Weinstein thing because I can no longer bear to give a fuck about any celebrity, even a powerful one, even/especially Trump-as-celebrity which is a significant portion of Trump news. (When he's making policy, I do give a fuck, but I give the tweets the respect they deserve.) Really, I can count on the rest of the world to handle the celebrity and daily-outrage beat. My eyeballs will not be missed.
Right now I'm thinking about savings vs charitable giving tradeoffs, i.e. long-term sustainable generosity vs immediate needs, which do seem to be spiking as the money supply polarizes and disasters of various sorts get more costly.
30: GODDAMN IT. Okay, better set a new limit there!
Was Vance always this dubious? I think I've recently seen at least one or two other questionable calls on his part beyond Trump/Kushner and Weinstein.
And the latest beyond parody Trumpian thing is his invocation of Henry Kissinger as the poster child for the ACA. (I don't even have the will to probe beyond the tweet headline ion that one.)
34.1: I couldn't say, but I wouldn't surprised if it was another open secret, with corruption instead of sex crimes (not to rule out the latter).
34.2: Yeah, good case in support of lurid's attention conservation policy. Trump is clueless, news at 11?
I'm Brad. And not in the good sexual awakening way.
It's beyond me
Help me mommy
I'll be good you'll see
Take this dream away
I'm waiting for Trump to accidentally tweet the picture of his taint that he was trying to DM to Tillerson.
38
You're just jelly that Trump has the biggest, hugest IQ score everr. Loser.
Regarding the save vs. give quandary, I should probably try to flesh out my hovering fear that Trump will lead the country into bankruptcy. The basis for it is more or less "that's what he does" and "it's 2001 again," but maybe I can make the picture rosier if I try.
Don't look at the Case Schiller Index.
It seems to be a near universal among traditional societies that the women bust their asses while the men lay around and drink to the extent possible.
PEOPLE WONDER WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY, 'MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.' THIS IS IT!!!!
If only the man himself were capable of such brevity.
41: What's the... oh, you mean I shouldn't click that "Party like it's 2007" link? Also, the Vancouver housing tax had at least some effect.
"The new tax on sales was effective April 21 in Toronto and has been in place in Vancouver since August 2016. After imposing the nonresident foreign buyer tax in Vancouver, home-price growth slowed from a torrid 26 percent annual rise in August 2016 to 8 percent in June 2017. As a benchmark, two neighboring cities that do not have a foreign buyer tax, Victoria and Seattle, have seen home-price growth remain robust since August 2016, suggesting the tax may have had its intended effect."
That is good, but I pity Victoria. Also Toronto may be experiencing actual economic growth as a confounding factor.
Case Shiller currently includes 2007-2009 earnings (that is, no earnings or losses). In two years it won't.
45: So you're saying I should buy another house because prices can only go up.
The map is not the territory! Definitely buy the map rather than the territory.
But they aren't making anymore real estate. (Shut up volcanoes.)
And I have the perfect for sale by owner opportunity ideally suited to you before anyone else gets to it!!!
No, I'm not psychic and possibly prices are now unreasonably high-- but the Case Shiller argument for identifying a bubble is off by about 20% for that reason, I think. In principle, 07-09 was just another slowdown, so no special pleading, it's the business cycle. But a) worst recession since the depression and b) wordwide scope.
Good luck, DQ. It sounds like cell networks are up and down, so maybe put hope in that? My parents' house, the one I grew up in, burned to the ground yesterday morning. They were away and the pets were at a sitter's, so there's that at least. It's stunning, though, the whole street is chimneys and mounds of fluffy ash.
I'm sorry about your family house. That's rough.
I'm sorry, KM. I'm in the general area and happy to do anything to help -- for real, reach out.
52: Thanks, Moby. I'm not even there to see it. We've got enough friends who are willing to sneak around police barricades to get a few pictures out. It's a gut punch.
53: Thanks, Lurid. I'm not in the area, and I think my parents' network is robust and itching to step in, but I appreciate it.
30: We can't technically primary Feinstein because of our glorious new top-two election system. If a fantastic further-left challenger emerges, the most likely outcome is that they both advance to November and Feinstein enlists Republican support.
I'd argue that that's actually an advantage of the new system - it gives you a way to challenge an incumbent from within their party without risking giving the seat to the opposing party (because of the loss of the incumbency advantage). If lots of people agree that the incumbent has jumped the shark, the newcomer can still win the run-off (that's how Eric Swalwell beat Pete Stark, who was a great representative back in his day, but seemed like he was going off the rails by that last election). And (if in this case) a majority coalition of Republicans + centrist Dems still happen to prefer Feinstein to her challenger, then that's democracy for you - a majority of the general election voters got the outcome they preferred.
Point being, if there are a bunch of centrist Dems who really don't want to vote for this hypothetical farther-left candidate in the general election, I'd rather have them marking their ballots for another (D) than a (R). Also, that particular general election campaign should pull Feinstein further left should she win (to meet her main opponent's voters), rather than right to pick off marginal (R)s.
That's true. And I'd love top-two compared to our current system nationwide, all things considered. The biggest disadvantage of top-two is when you have so many candidates the advancers are near-random.
Which is how Gary Coleman became governor of California.
26: In electoral terms, there have been 40 special elections for state legislatures or federal House/Senate seats so far in 2017, all tracked by the detail-oriented folks at Daily Kos Elections. In 32 of them, the party of the new office-holder matched that of the predecessor. All 8 switches have been R to D.
I'm too lazy to calculate the average partisan swing across the 40 specials right now, but it's significant and it's in the D direction. Trump really is unpopular; Trump really is driving down the Republican share of the vote.
The resistance is doing plenty of other things, too, but it is winning elections. We'll see soon how things shape up in Virginia, where at present the Republicans have a nearly 2-1 advantage over Democrats. There are 12 districts (of 100) where the Democrats did not field a candidate; there are 28 where the Republicans did not field a candidate. (In 2013, there were 33 districts where the Democrats did not field a candidate; 23 where the Republicans did not. Go us this time!)
59.2- 538 tracks that, I haven't seen it with the most recent results but I think it was tracking somewhere around D+10 to D+13. Which still might not be enough to overcome the R districting advantage to take the House.
Are the Democrats checking to see how many of the mistresses of Republican congressmen have been asked to get an abortion? That seems to work better than elections.
Here it is- as of June, +14 swing relative to the presidential vote in each district.
I will never be calm because of what Nate Silver says again.
DNC-hating leftists are going to be very disappointed over the next 3 years as Democrats gains seats nationwide, at all levels, without the party turning radically to the left. Today I saw yet another article trying to argue that the trends that apply to every party that holds the presidency are proof of the Dems' unique haplessness.
It's 4:30 am, it's been dark for over 10 hours, and unless you recite my incantations, the sun will never return.
In line with 64, I'm not saying we should be sanguine because of inevitable pendulum effects, but I just can't take the idiocy.
It would be really nice if we could have some new candidates, though. Preferably under the age of 70.
I demand that Unfogged return all donations from Harvey Weinstein!
So sorry for your parents kymyz, but so happy they are safe. Heard v briefly from mum, they are fine for now.
That's good to know. Hope it lasts.
Fingers crossed for all affected by the fires.
Happy you heard from your folks, DQ. I don't know where they are, but if it's Santa Rosa's outskirts, there's new neighborhoods being evacuated tonight as the wind picks back up. May their luck hold.
I could use some dog re-homing advice. My best friend's father passed away (somewhat suddenly--three weeks after a heart attack and seemingly successful pacemaker implant), and I'm trying to offer help from afar. The father lived in the Detroit area, and has two fairly well-behaved, strongly bonded to each other pit bull mixes, 5 and 8 years old. Neither of his daughters can take the dogs--they both live far away, and each already has two dogs. Local pit bull rescues seem to have mostly shut down. What are the options here?
In much happier news, adding Abilify to my med cocktail continues to have positive results. This is a huge, fucking relief, especially given all the bad news everywhere else.
I'm very sorry to hear of the loss of your family house, Kymyz, but happy your parents are safe.
Hoping for the best dq, and very happy you have heard from your parents. I hope that's a significant anxiety reliever.
Glad you're feeling better, Robot, and that dq's people are safe.
Oh hey, the police officer who handcuffed the nurse has been fired, and his supervisor who ordered it remotely has been demoted.
74.last Good news J, Robot. Hope things continue to improve.
Sympathies KM and DQ. My 4 years in Santa Rosa left me with a lot of bitterness, but I'm glad to report that my (few) FB friends there are all well. My ex reports that several of her friends have lost their homes. It is awful of me, but all of the execs from my old firm who actually made money in the IPO and subsequent acquisition live in the Fountain Grove neighborhood that is now ashes. I don't wish them physical harm, but my bitterness is such that I don't mind seeing them take a financial hit. I am sorry for all the other folks who have suffered.
Fuck 'em Chopper, I hope they were under-insured.
Some counties you can't even buy new fire insurance anymore.
Burning with an oil well fire?
Burning up the strings of a lyre?
74: Are they at Facebook posting for homes level yet? A repost is about all I can offer. The Detroit area is pretty under resourced for animal rescue, particularly pit bulls. My only suggestion is that they try inquiring in other cities in Michigan that might have more resources and offering to transport the dogs.
Maps can't find Carthage, Montana"
It wasn't me
One of my neighbors had a dog she called a Treeing Walker Coonhound. It looked like somebody took a Basset Hound and sent them to do yoga and pilates for 12 hours a day for a year.
OT: Somehow, I'm now getting Spanish-language internet ads for Allstate home owners insurance.
83 We were surprised yesterday afternoon, re-entering the US, to see smoke. We thought it might be from the Coast, but it does seem to be the apparently still smoldering Caribou Fire.
We didn't see even any high smoke til we got down here, and even then it wasn't anything but a tinge to high clouds. But we're going to need more snow to get it all out.
92 Is there a good diagram/map/table showing how much acreage has burned state by state for each year?
93: This agency seems to be the main source, but their state-by-state tables are PDFs and separate by year.
Their big 2016 report (6mb PDF), page 22, has a 10-year table of acres burned, not by state but by geographic area. Map of areas is on page 3: Montana falls under NR (Northern Rockies), and Northern California is counted as its own area, NO ("North Ops"?).
80: Yeah, lots of my old neighbors moved up over the years into posher Fountaingrove digs. It'd all make for a fine, if cruel, morality tale if my old street had survived, instead of being basically vaporized.
||
A bit of good news here. I had the scan Monday, and they must have bumped it to the top of the list as suspicious because when I put in a request for a copy of the electronic data (to send to the former Mr. Gwynn, at his request) I was given the radiologist's report as well this afternoon. It's a large, complex ovarian cyst with "no convincing evidence of extra-ovarian disease." Feeling weak with relief is not just a figure of speech. Given its size and type and my age it'll almost certainly need surgery, but the possible alternatives were so much worse, especially when considered at 3 a.m., that I'm really happy.
|>
96: That's really great, Nell.
My sister, who's 51, just had an oophorectomy because of her latest cyst. She has a history of them but this one was bigger (not sure how big) and hard to tell if it was benign without surgery. Our mom died of ovarian cancer, so my sister and her doctor decided better safe than sorry and let's just take the damn things out. (The cyst was benign.)
96: That's really great, Nell.
My sister, who's 51, just had an oophorectomy because of her latest cyst. She has a history of them but this one was bigger (not sure how big) and hard to tell if it was benign without surgery. Our mom died of ovarian cancer, so my sister and her doctor decided better safe than sorry and let's just take the damn things out. (The cyst was benign.)
Dang it! I got a weird error message that said it wouldn't post because of too many entries but obviously it did post the first time.
Keep your MDs off of my ovaries.
96: Fantastic! You'll be back to selling oranges in no time.
I have retired to my country seat and am getting quietly drunk with relief, with Chopin, white wine, and bread and sausages.
The King sets the fashion. If you don't like it go to France.
I don't like white wine much anyway.
108: And presumably a small but bright-eyed spaniel.
Glad to hear of your relief, Nell (& Charles), and good luck with the further procedures.
They just cancelled school for my daughter tomorrow because of the smoke. No fires in our county, but air quality has been worsening. At 3 or so they evacuated Calistoga. How is everyone?
My neighbor was listening to Trump give a speech with his window open while I was in the patio cooking dinner. So I'm annoyed.
Oh, Nell, I'm so glad and relieved! I hope they're able to deal with the cyst promptly. Those are awful, but better than the alternatives here.
Mara had her stomach procedure today and is still woozy and sickly from the anaesthesia but I'm hoping so much that things will be better. If all goes well, she might go a full month without a doctor's appointment, which certainly hasn't happened this calendar year. Seeing loved ones sick seems in many ways worse than my own suffering, so my sympathies are also with Charles! (I had a new MRI for my ankle yesterday, will know more at the end of the week. Hope hope hope is the plan around here.)
Thank goodness for the benign outcome, Nell! Best to Charles as well. A kingly celebration.
That's great to hear, Nell!
Ydnew, they aren't at Facebook posting despatation just yet, but I will start contacting other Michigan, and maybe even midwestern, rescues.
Nell, that's awesome.
As for the fires, Calistoga was evacuated but also Glen Ellen, Geyserville, part of Healdsburg, part of Sonoma, new neighborhoods in Santa Rosa. My parents' street burned before dawn on Monday, and its weird following the continuing mobilization and excitement. It's like, oh, the fire? Didn't we fight that battle ages ago and thoroughly lose it?
I hear you, but they're explicitly focusing on saving people and not structures, right? I know the official death toll will rise, but still -- different kind of battle and different tactics. (This metaphor may also spread out of control quickly.) I think doom is creeping closer to the city of Napa too. It looks pretty hemmed in on the maps.
Do they seriously think the wind blew power lines down and started the fires? I find this thought more disturbing than random psychopath arsonists. Pylons have one job, in October and every other month.
|| I have decided that my next book will be a thriller in the style of Dan Brown. The hero is an archivist trying to recover a mediaeval navigator's chart of a remote island. The map has been stolen by an evil French gourmet who believes the island holds the last breeding population of a rare but delicious game bird, which he plans to eat. Working title, The Ortolan Portolan .
121 is great and right up my alley.
I've decided my next book will be a History of the Republic of Texas East India Company .
Was 123 last a thing? Just tell me what I want to hear.
121 was just an excuse to use the phrase "Ortolan portolan ". No book is actually planned. Sorry.
124 Back in those days everyone who was anyone had their own East India Company.
A Company for Carrying on an Undertaking of Great Advantage, but Nobody to Know What It Is, LLC.
120: Yes, you're right about FD priorities. I hope Napa escapes, as seeing relatives who'd volunteered to host my parents have to evacuate themselves is particularly dispiriting. And as for the pylons, PG & E is already sending out spokespeople to shrug about high winds, eh, whatchagonnado. Gr.
I had a thought that I should go buy wine before prices went up and then I remembered that all my wine comes from either the Central Valley or New York State.
Thank god. If Moby sobered up I don't know what I'd do.
It's just after 5 here and I've had two Duvels.
I never even heard of that. Must be really cheap wine.
Alcohol so cheap it's made of leftover grass.
129--As you know Bob, wine from New York is substitutable for wine from California. If there's a big hit on California, wine is going up across the board. I've been paying a bit of attention trying to see if any of my favorite wineries have been hit. There's a few that I'm worried about--last I heard Chalk Hill was in danger. If the actual vines are burned, that's 3-10 years of no production. Someone I was reading was saying that any grapes still on the vine anywhere smoky will be tainted, which will mean that this year's vintage is going to be extra small.
Going to switch to some single malt scotch after dinner. Going to get hammered.
Right, filthy Middle Eastern weekend. Whereas I, for my sins, will be attempting to make an interview on the far side of the city, at 9:30 a.m., which I failed to confirm with the recruiter this afternoon because she phoned while I was fucking working, which in all honesty she should have anticipated given she works in the industry, saw my CV, recruited me for the current job, and should have some idea what my fucking schedule looks like. And the job is less money, and very fucking remote, and the position has been open since September, all of which bodes ill, and is despite this one of only two likely looking positions I've yet spotted. Fuck.
Do you really not have Duvel in Pittsburgh, Mobes? I know your liquor control board is sadistic and arbitrary, plus I no longer have to keep a mental listing about what beers Lee likes and doesn't so I can inform her before she orders, but some things still feel standard. (I forgot to post this an hour ago and things have presumably moved on but oh well, best I can do.)
I'm sure I've seen it at our local Belgian bar chain, and probably at six-pack shops. Don't think I've had it, though, as I tend not to like Belgians.
138: Job hunting is the worst. Good luck.
139: We probably have it. I see that it is a fancy Belgian beer. I don't really like those so I forget about them.
Can get some surprisingly good Belgian beer here, also have a fridge full of Leffe Blond, Stella, and Hoegaarden.
Break a leg Mossy.
After I biked to work, I saw that the local air was deemed "unhealthy" due to smoke.
140: Eh, I was going for a "this is obviously jokey exposition" TV announcer shtick that didn't really work but included it on the off chance that someone reading this thread didn't realize that wine prices would be impacted by a shrinking supply no matter the source. Then I left my handle off. Total win on my part.
Belgian air is pretty good for breathing while exerting oneself.
145: I still think the two types of wine are very imperfect substitutes for each other.
Imperfect substitutes for beer. Or bourbon.
Thanks everyone. In fairness recruiter mailed me right back to say she'll confirm before I get there. So now all responsibility is on me again. Huff.
I'm just guessing very few people will ask for Mogen David on finding out that the cost of their Stags Leap cabernet is up by $5.
149 Hope you get it but also that it leads to better things and better paying jobs.
Pouring some scotch and playing some Halo 3. This is my life now.
Goddamit I fucked up and lost my flamethrower.
Thanks, all. Charles is a pillar of loving support. I'm just sorry for the stress it's been putting him under.
Thorn, I hope Mara's procedure is entirely successful, and that the doctors come up with a new and effective plan for your ankle too. Here's to hoping!
Sir Kraab, it's good to hear things went well with your sister. There is a higher chance of malignancy if you're older and the cyst is bigger, so it's definitely better to get the thing out.
Lurid, I want to download a Rhiannon Giddens album or two in celebration. Which ones do you suggest?
Good luck, Mossy. Would you consider relocating to my old haunts? You might find better pay and conditions there, too.
154.2: She didn't vomit upon waking up today, which I think was the first time since July. She and I would be understandably thrilled if this trend continued!
145: Ah. I associate "New York wine" with nice whites from the Finger Lakes region. You're probably right.
Ankles are supposed to have a low-level throbbing pain when you sit down, right?
Chopper, we just got our most recent wine shipment from the area, and AJ is getting e-mail updates about whether the winery continues to be unburnt (so far, so good). And we both feel kind of assholish for our vague worry about it, because why the fuck are we worried about wineries when Puerto Rico is sinking into the worst public health tragedy in the US probably in my lifetime.
159: Only one at a time.
Oh, maybe not. I suppose the rise of AIDS is still the winner for US public health tragedies in my lifetime. Puerto Rico probably can't be worse than that. Still, though.
I can't tell how much the wineries are bluffing about their relatively low losses. There was one account of how there was a huge push to harvest early because of the labor day heat wave, which at the time seemed like inhuman misery and now must seem pretty worth it. I laughed at "most of it is harvested already and the rest is cabernet", because I have never been in the income bracket where you learn to appreciate high-end Cabernet and so I just picture bottles of the subtlest and smokiest Smoking Loon in history. Cabernet sauvignon is a thick-skinned grape, so theoretically more smoke resistant; the flavor of cabernet sauvignon seems uniquely susceptible to being ruined by smoke.
There are only the two Rhiannon Giddens albums, right? Get them both.
I have now seen Nelly's scan, and it is frankly terrifying to see a thing that size like a balloon out of control inside her abdomen. ALso, though she doesn't know this yet, I am going to have to make a royal progress to her hovel where both my macbook chargers seem to be.
Nell, if you read this before you pick up the phone message, you have been warned. If not, you haven't been.
Oh and to 156 (I can't do this multiple-subthreads thing very well): I hadn't really kept track of the evolution of symptoms here, but that sounds unbelievably miserable and I'm glad she's doing even a tiny bit better. Poor kid.
Update: Kevin de Leon is challenging Feinstein this year!
I like it. He's been president pro-tem of the state senate, so he's still reasonably representative of the party as a whole and has a better understanding of the whole state's interests, while still being a progressive warrior.
Let me be the first to make a "Fountain of the Youth Vote" joke.
So the progress of civilisation runs from "Ponce" to "Kevin"?
I suppose we settle for what we can get