Another week, another concert. Psychostick was a fun time, and they even had CDs for sale there (surprisingly rare at concerts these days). But that does leave me on a break for upcoming concerts until next month. The NFL schedule has dropped, and local news is all upset that the Browns are playing nearly every game at the appropriate 1300 Eastern Sunday slot. But let’s get into the links for you…
Or, you know, nitrogen isn’t toxic.
Springfield is back in the news.
Next, we’ll hear from people that are too attractive to date.
It shouldn’t be held here, it should be held in countries that give a damn about soccer.
I need to plan a road trip.
Imagine family dinners, “Why can’t you be more like your brother?“
I have played this game (via MAME), and have no idea why they would try to bring it back.
[This link intentionally left blank]
“I was promised a slap on the wrist.“
In case R.J. isn’t giving you enough schlock. (The video was pulled down, but there are versions out there).
For the cocktail this week, since I’m half way through a month, and just finished the last theme, I figured I’d stick with a base cocktail that can be adapted into a wide range of drinks.
Pisco Sour
- 4 parts (2 oz) pisco
- 2 parts (1 oz) lime juice
- 1 part (0.5 oz) simple syrup
- 1 egg white
- Angostura bitters (as an accent)
You’ll notice that there’s a base ration there of 1:2:4 (sweet, sour, strong). With that, you can make a vast array of drinks, in this case, with citrus juice, simple syrup, and egg white, they’ll be sours. If you take anything away from all of my blathering about cocktails, I hope I’ve at least steered you away from the mass market pre-made mixes that have been the bane of good cocktails for at least 50 years. Sure, you could just add some pisco to some sour mix, but it’s not going to be as good, and it’s not going to be dialed into your preferences. To make this drink, everything but the bitters goes into a shaker. dry shake it (no ice), add ice, and shake until chilled. If you want it straight up, it gets strained into a chilled coupe glass, if you want it on the rocks, then into a rocks glass (filled with fresh ice). You should have a nice layer of white foam on top (from the egg whites), you can now decorate that with some drips of the bitters, and swirl them and make pretty designs, or just enjoy the drink. To change this up, swap out the pisco for the liquor of your choice. Want a whiskey sour? Put in whiskey. Want an amaretto sour? Put in amaretto (and maybe some whiskey). Midori sour? You should be able to figure it out.
With that, I hope you have the weekend you want.
Its 4pm on a Friday and I have had quite a bit of bourbon. Happy Friday folks
And the regular crowd shuffles in 🎶
The Old Man sitting next to me has candy.
Ill take the Billy Joel reference any time
🐟 🍬
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHLFdptpMGA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Fish
TOKsy:
Humble brag
You are my hero and role model, sir.
Whoa…deja vu
Déjà vu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCs6Tpd5sFQ
Do you ever have deja vu?
Have we not met before monsieur?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8XQV0PYf3c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3apdXnMZpoA
deja voodoo
I had an ex-client who had a network of ATM’s that he ran.
He had the concession for the ATM at the local Deja Vu. (Mostly SFW) When there was an issue with that DJV, he said there was a mini-riot amongst the techs about who got the call.
Why has it taken this long to rep the metal heads?
You need to go on multiple road trips?
*sigh*
That’s what I get for doing this in pieces during the week.
/goes to fix it.
What so-called “libertarian” would be caught dead on a govt road?
Turn in your LibCard Neph!
Right after MSN’s parent MS did another round of layoffs… and may do more… gee, can’t think of why they might want the tech sector to think they’re overvalued and all… nope… no clue there….
*The DotComBust has entered the chat*
The same thing happened back in The Day. Anyone who could spell http was being hired as the CIO for some startup and given a crazy salary. I had a lot of buddies back then who doubled their salary.
When the crash hit, they were all screwed. The smarter ones, took their haircuts and took jobs commensurate with their abilities. A lot (way more than you would have hoped for) kept thinking they would still get another job as a CIO of a real company. Those bastards lost everything.
I’m sure many of the latter group were spending their big salaries like it would last forever.
Fuck yeah.
Mrs. Holiness and I know several couples who bought McMansions, leased 2 SUV’s and have a big boat. Both of them work with nice salaries, but are always on the edge of insolvency.*
I’m retiring in a couple weeks and they are gobsmacked that we can get out of the rat race.
I get the vibe they think we are cheating because we lived within our means and invested wisely. Lived in our same house since ’95 and drive cars till they drop.
*More than a few have flamed out and basically lost everything because one or the other lost their job.
** These rich bastards are the most vocal supporters of the govt subsidizing child care because they want the break. Heaven forbid one of them stays home and raises their own kids.
Several others whose pay spiked told me they are confident they could equal their salaries on the open market. They don’t worry about being replaced by cheaper talent, figuring the cost of recruiting and training someone else would negate their employer’s savings.
Still, more job switchers are settling for lateral moves or pay cuts now than a few months ago. Just six in 10 people who recently changed jobs received pay increases, according to ZipRecruiter’s latest quarterly survey of new hires. That’s down from 73% in the fourth quarter of last year and a far cry from early 2022, when nearly half of job switchers pocketed raises of at least 11%.
Why am I reminded of the Dot Com Bust?
I haven’t changed jobs in 32 years.
My longest stint ever has been 4 years.
To be fair, there was a group of us who were starting businesses that got bought, getting bought out, quitting in rage and starting over. So maybe you could say, I worked with the same group for 10-15 years?
My last job change was because I was offered almost $40K more than my employer (who told everyone – during the Biden inflation wave – that %3 raises were a bit rich and they’d be cutting back).
The IT sector is totally fucked when it comes to compensation. It is so hard to keep up with offers that others are making, so what can you do?
If you wanted to do it right, you’d have to make judgements and tell some underperformers that they are not getting big raises like their superstar coworker because he is way better than they are. Obviously HR would never allow something crazy like that.
Nine or ten years if you count it as continuous employment despite the acquisition in the middle.
I was at a family gathering a long time ago. There was a fairly bright young lady sitting nearby. Something in the conversation triggered me to say “wow, deja vu”. I waited a couple of minutes and then said “wow, deja vu” again. Her head snapped around and she stared at me. I just smiled and winked at her.
lolwut
They’re serious?
The “few years ago” I remember: I got a 3 percent raise! Oh… Inflation is at 9.5 percent.
This contract we got a 3%. It marks the highest raise I’ve ever seen in this job in both terms of percentage points and real dollars.
2, 3, 10, 15, what’s the difference?
I was one of them. I left during the pandemic when companies got the green light to hire remote workers.
My company is based in NYC and they gave me a salary based on their local cost of living. Stupid of them, but as I say, “what well run sane company would hire you in the first place?”.
lol They had to make sure to cram that into the headline. Never change, The Guardian.
PS. I wonder who’s paying for this.
“For years, longtime Springfield residents have shown up at city council meetings to complain to authorities about how Haitian drivers were allegedly driving dangerously around the town. ”
Lets guess how they write this from the Haitian point of view…
‘allegedly’
For years these redneck motherfuckers claimed foreigners drive bad…jist write that. Ill at least give you honesty points
Kathy Griffin was so gossipy that she used that term often, per legal advice. Not trying to sell you on even the earlier version of her.
OFFS!!!
Does the “top human rights organization” have a name? I’m not slogging through hundreds of words of delusional propaganda to find out.
Illegals won’t be able to attend games? People have to use the correct restrooms? It’s dangerous.
But no love for citizens having to get ass-raped for not having their state approved papers
When the World Cup was in the US in ’94, I knew a couple of Irish “students” that Memphis State had brought over to study here, and possibly play soccer.
They were amazed when they called some phone number to get tickets for the games in St. Louis and they were able to buy as many tickets as they wanted! Since they had a US address, they were eligible to buy from the host country’s block of tickets. Since no one else in the US was willing to buy tickets to a soccer game in ’94, they stepped up and did what US citizens didn’t want to do.
They said that in Europe even the host country had some sort of lottery to sell tickets to the World Cup games. None here, they were just hoping that they wouldn’t end up with unsold tickets.
The Tiger soccer players made pretty good $$ buying tickets here and selling them to people back home.
I had my first one on the GlibCruise2024 (Eastern Caribbean). It has become a staple on Friday night when we try to fancy up from our usual swill.
Aren’t those good? I’m a traditionalist and prefer whisky in my sours, but Pisco is a very nice change of pace. Sort of like a rum tonic…
If you have a mint plant around, toss a few leaves in the shaker with ice before chilling the drink.
You now have a smash. Works great with whiskey or Old Tom style gin. Double strain if you don’t want little green bits floating around in your cocktail.
Absolutely splendid during the warmer months.
There is something in the water in Ohio, isn’t there?
That is some serious dumbfuckery.
You know what else would improve Haitians driving record in Ohio?
Ok, a Guardian link and now NYT?
“Why cant y ou be more like your brother?”
“Cuz I am not gay or Catholic.” <— Just made that up. I have no idea if the pope is gay or his brother non-Catholic
Commies love telling people what to like. This variation of that theme has been around since before Trump the first.
"Trump supporters are leaving in droves! They hate Trump now!" *Trump shoots up in the polls*
What improve their driving is becoming a god damn American
I was thinking of moving them back to Haiti.
Im not that far behind you
I’ll have you know Ohio’s water is just FINE, thankyouverymuch!!
Except in Springfield.
I am not sure how no one caught it. The ‘nitrogen iis not a toxin’ thing is a complete red herring. At issue is the damage done because of workplace conditions no matter what they are, then if the damage is due to negligence, lastly was it deliberately done with disregard.
In this case it sounds like no negligence or disregard but there is definitely damage and the woman absolutely has a right to compensation.
I may be unaware of some details here but the red herring is retarded.
The ruling limits punitive damages. She has already won actual damages.
The linked article is bullshit. Articles linked a few days ago clearly spelled out the actual vs punitive damages issue.
You may have missed the story about how Ohio is responsible for the racism sweeping across America from the Guardian a while back. 🙂
In really local news, the AG here just announced he was dropping out of the gubernatorial race. This leaves three people who are actively looking for the nomination, two announced Republicans (Vivek Ramaswamy and Heather Hill), and one Democrat (Amy Acton – Face of public health in Ohio during the lockdowns).
Gaaah! Not “Dr. Amy”!!!! 😱
GT:
I generally don’t waste my time going to vote. If Acton is on the ballot, I’ll make it a point to go vote against her out of spite.
Well, they’re no longer allowed to burn it off, so of course it stays in the water.
“a MAGA disciple”
JFC.
TOO LOCAL NEWS: The NH Senate re-refers the bill ending car inspections to committee.
One of our gym members ended her class membership. My wife called to see if there was some financial problem, and offered to work something out. Turns out she was a social worker who helped migrant children get health care, and she got eliminated.
Oof.
A charity or state-ran program surely will fill the blanks?
I’m not sure, this is Indiana. We offered her free classes if she helps clean the gym occasionally, so we’ll see if she takes us up on it.
Uh. If money’s the problem, surely cleaning *something,* somewhere, for $$, would be more beneficial for her than ‘free’ classes.
Learn to clean.
She’s a big fatty, isn’t she?
Actually, no. She’s probably early 20’s, in good shape, kind of a hottie. She does have tattoos though, I know some of you Glibs aren’t into that.
early 20s.
Help her get a real job. It’s not too late to save her.
Doesn’t matter if we’re into tattoos.
Sounds as if you have your hands full already.
Can I be sad for you, but happy for America?
That’s where I am. I might use that line in the future.
Would Vox care to translate that to English?
Things went to shit during the Biden admin, because of Trump.
Oh, stewardess? ☝️
English is racist! Vox is against racism, so they oppose English and do everything they can to harm it.
Still can’t wrap my head around the silence about RealID and voting.
married women hardest hit
Tell me about it! Women with multiple marriages even moreso! 😒
I’m still holding out for UnrealID.
It crashes and won’t address all your graphic memory.
Since Unreal is currently on version V, you will have a long wait.
SurRealID
I thought you folks might appreciate this. The Navy posts a lot on social media, and my kid and I are always looking for her husband. He’s a Hull Technician, working below decks, so not exactly the most photogenic position. Mostly they like to show people on the flight deck and the hangar, and sometimes the cooks. Today I find this “Photo of the week”. (Spoiler alert: still not him).
https://www.longmontleader.com/local-news/photo-of-the-week-hull-maintenance-technician-2nd-class-brandon-grinley-of-longmont-routes-edges-of-plaque-in-south-china-sea-10673942
Even worse, he works with that guy but he’s currently not in the shop.
It’s the navy. You get the truth, the hull truth, and nothing but the truth.
Quit show boating your clever puns Shpip or we’ll have to keel you.
Supreme Court blocks deportations of Venezuelan gang members.
https://www.breitbart.com/news/supreme-court-blocks-for-now-new-deportations-under-18th-century-wartime-law/
From what I’m reading, this just kicks it down to a lower court to define what “due process” means, aka they should get more notice and can get a hearing.
Current law says anyone here with falsified or no documentation can be subject to “expedited removal”. Any reason why they don’t just use that across the board? Or are some of these people going to be rejected by their own country? There was some talk about them coming back over the border, but that’s pretty well locked down now.
Our immigration laws are a joke. There’s the whole “refugee” claim aspect of it. The one who the media was shedding crocodile tears for who the court said had to be returned had previous asylum claim where they ruled he couldn’t be returned back his home country because of the threat of gang violence. Shit like that.
I legit believe the 4-D chess on that one, why the Trump Admin used *him* as a high-profile test case.
It forced the Left to defend a known wife-beater, with fairly-strong ties, worth investigating, connecting him to gang- activity and human trafficking.
When telling the family about his school activities, 11yo nephew said they were learning about courts in class. (Public school, Broad Ripple neighborhood in Indianapolis.) My older bro first asked if they taught about “due process.” I wisely remained mum that time.
Him and others falling into Orwellian thought is .. well. Sad, but not unpredictable.
You can’t send my client back to El Salvador! He’s a gang member and rival gangs will kill him if we send him back there.
Later:
How dare you impugn my client’s reputation by saying he is a gang member! You incorrectly sent him back to his home country despite a court order to send him somewhere else.
Whoa you want the Supreme court to fulfil their duty?
Pisco? You’re not getting me to drink pee. *Swigs Mountain Dew
I will say thanks for introducing me to the Old Fashioned, I’m more of a straight or on the rocks drinker but that mixed drink has enough whiskey flavor to tickle my fancy.
I’m glad to hear it. Any recipe that has survived for over 100 years is generally worth trying at least once. I’ll be (likely) shifting to more gin drinks as the weather warms up, as I’m partial to gin, and think it works much better in warmer weather. Personally, I’m happy that this is out again this year.
I would love a special on easy gin drinks and recommendations.
R.J.:
The simplest and easiest gin drink I can think of, especially if you use my lazy man cheat, is the Tom Collins:
1:2:4 ratio of simple, lemon juice, and gin. Add it to a Collins glass, add ice, give it a quick stir, and then top with club soda, and give it another light stir. The lazy man cheat is looking and seeing that lemonade is lemon juice and simple syrup, adding soda water to that gets it really close to sparkling lemonade or Italian sodas. So just go the highball route with gin (strawberry gin is a real treat here) and sparkling lemonade/Italian soda.
Old Fashioneds are wonderful. I love them. As long as you don’t try to Sconnie it up by making it with brandy.
Props where they are due. I love brandy Manhattans
RJ:
gin on the rocks is great if you buy decent enough gin.
RJ:
A Negroni is pretty easy. Gin, Campari and sweet vermouth.
When I was traveling for business a lot, my buddy and I at a hotel that had a huge sign in the elevator touting their version of a Negroni.
I had dabbled with making my own Negroni’s after reading Thank you for smoking and wanted to try one. So my buddy and I headed down to the hotel saloon.
At this point, I had only read the word Negroni, but had never heard it said aloud. It seemed like it was easy to pronounce and I was ready to order one. Then our waitress showed up and she was so black she was almost purple. My buddy – who is as pasty white as I am – started to giggle. He loudly insisted that I order first.
I told the nice young lady that I wasn’t sure how to pronounce it, but I’d like a Neh-groan-ee. She started laughing and said it was actually nee-groan-ee, but don’t worry she wouldn’t take offense.
As we all laughed, she admitted I wasn’t the first cracker to blush when ordering a negroni from her.
Pope Jimbo:
I’m partial to Rob Roys myself.
Mr Ilium, under what criteria is the “Gin and Tonic” excluded as a Gin Drink, assuming you’re excluding ‘neat’ because you’re speaking about mixed drinks.
UCS:
A Gin and Tonic is a perfectly cromulent highball. But I was operating under the assumption that R.J. would have the basics of that down. 🙂
I’m chronically pedantic and the lack of room for even simpler forumlations got me going.
I did spend way too much time watching James May Gin adverts recently, including one where he ended up arguing with his ‘celebrity’* guest about the ratio of Gin to Tonic. Got any clarification there?
*it was Richard Hammond.
UCS:
The ratio for gin:tonic is argued all over the place, it really comes down to personal preference. I generally go for a 1:2 ratio myself, some prefer it boozier, others want it weaker. I also like to shift it more towards a cocktail with a dash of bitters. With any highball, it’s important to use high quality ingredients, so avoid the liter (or gods forbid… larger) bottles of tonic water for the small single serve cans/bottles. Fever Tree is my usual go to for the tonic.
R.J.: “I would love a special on easy gin drinks and recommendations.”
If ya put out, all the gin in the joint’s for free. Pursuant to your desire, I have outfit recommendations, at y̵o̵u̵r̵ my pleasure.
R.J.:
I would also be remiss if I left out what may be the simplest gin drink ever, the Pink Gin.
Pour your gin into a shaker with ice. Add in a couple dashes of Angostura bitters, shake and strain.
Turn your head and- hey, waitaminnit!
Military commanders will be told to identify troops in their units who are transgender or have gender dysphoria, then send them to get medical checks in order to force them out of the service, officials said Thursday.
A senior defense official laid out what could be a complicated and lengthy new process aimed at fulfilling President Donald Trump’s directive to remove transgender service members from the U.S. military.
The new order to commanders relies on routine annual health checks that service members are required to undergo. Another defense official said the Defense Department has scrapped — for now — plans to go through troops’ health records to identify those with gender dysphoria.
Instead, transgender troops who do not voluntarily come forward could be outed by commanders or others aware of their medical status. Gender dysphoria occurs when a person’s biological sex does not match up with their gender identity.
How on earth can these people “conceal” their fake identities?
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allege that troops with gender dysphoria don’t meet military standards. Hegseth has tied his opposition to a campaign to rid the department of “wokeness.”
“No More Trans @ DoD,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X. In a recent speech to a special operations conference, he said: “No more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that s—.”
Oh, what the hell. Let them stay. we should have a totally gender-blind military. Randomly assign all service members to barracks and other facilities: male, female, straight, gay, and undecided. They can work it out among themselves.
The confusion is about people thinking the military cares about what people do between the sheets. They dont. It is not about that.
When you are in the military you are part of a machine…a replaceable part. Who you are or think you are, your concerns, wants, needs, expressiveness, etc. dont mean shit.
Trannies have a tendency to make things all about them. They are like the Starbucks employees complaining they cant express themselves and be who they are…no one gives a fuck. This aint about you. It is about the job. Everyone measures up to the same standards, wears the same clothes, has the same haircut, follows the same orders. There is no individualism.
At least that is the way I remember the military.
Also, with current “sex change” technology, it basically makes the person into a permanent patient who requires constant medical assistance to keep the facade going. And as I understand it, their mood becomes basically uncontrollable if they don’t take the prescribed hormones in exactly the right amount.
They bar people from military service for conditions much less severe than that.
THE U of M is going to shut down a research center that has been plagued by plagiarism charges. Anyone want to guess what they were studying?
Maybe parlay that bet with “are there any plans to charge anyone or recoup the money that was fraudulently spent?”
I have not done right by my children in a lot of ways, but the most egregious is that they don’t know the city very well. We live in the northeast corner of the metro and so we’re removed from “the city.” Old folks up here talk about “going into the city.” I say, “What city?” cuz I’m confused. You know, KANSAS CITY. Um, you live in Kansas City. To be fair, the place is ginormous.
Anyway, I’ve taken them all over, but I never really pointed out where we were, where it was in relation to everything else. I thought they were paying attention, but apparently not, and now they’re driving to places I’ve taken them hundreds of times. They don’t know how to get there, they don’t know what it’s called, and they call everything south of the river “downtown.” My husband does this, but he’s from SoCal, so he doesn’t know any better.
XY calls me from a very busy QuikTrip on the Plaza, which is our well-heeled outdoor shopping center way south of actual downtown and looks like a replica of Sevilla, Spain, and wants to know where he is. WTF. You got Bossy Lady (Google Maps). “No, I need YOU to tell me where I am and where I need to go.” Hm. Okay, that makes me feel good. ❤️
Oh, and also, I forgot. One time some of the ladies from church wanted to take the young women (teenage girls) to the art gallery. Oh HEY! That’s my jam. I’ll come along with you. Well, me “coming along” meant leading the caravan. So one of the younger “ladies” (not to be confused with the teenage girls) was born and reared in Blue Springs. Blue Springs is a suburb due east of downtown, quite a way, but you can still SEE downtown from the interstate as you’re headed west because it’s kinda flat. Okay.
I ask her if she’s ever been here (the art gallery). No. THEN she tells me she’s never ever been to Kansas City. Like, wtf. It’s RIGHT THERE. You’re in a bedroom community. It’s not that far. No school field trips? Plays? Kaleidoscope? Lego? Museum? Art galleries? Nothing? Nope. Never been west of Arrowhead/Royals stadia.
I just didn’t know what to do with that.
The Altar Kids would wander in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights if it wasn’t for GPS and Google/Waze.
The Middle Altar Kid lives in my hometown now. Out in the Boonies. I was trying to explain to him how to get somewhere and he kept asking me for an address. Fuck, I have no idea what the address was. It was down County 34 out near Little Floyd Lake. There is a dirt road you take.
Kept asking for an address.
I finally solved it by going to Google Maps finding it and sending those directions to him.
The kid has been living there for a couple years now, he should know the basic landmarks.
Pope Jimbo giving directions.
Neph:
This is the way we used to handle tourists when I was a kid
It was a common sport amongst us punks to send any tourista dumb enough to ask us for directions in the wrong direction. The goal was to make them go a long way in the wrong direction. “It is going to seem like a long way, but just keep on Old Hiway 59”.
I still won’t ask for directions – much to Mrs. Holiness’ dismay – because I feel like I have a lot of negative karma to atone for.
Why would you do something like that?
As in “Why would you give patently wrong directions”.
The proper way to give directions is to base them on where no-longer-extant landmarks used to be.
GT, yeah, that’s how you know it’s coming from a local.
I do not know how to navigate the city I grew up in outside of the handful of zones near bus stops where I frequented gersonally growing up.
I Only learned the actual routing of anything in places where I drove. I can navigate much of Rochester, Rome, and the greater Albany area without GPS because I drove them. Drop me in Syracuse where I was born and raised, it’s “Garmin, tell me what to do…”
I wish I’d been given much more locally specific drivers’ ed advice.
I could easily navigate where I grew up (Rochester) because I paid studious attention everywhere we went. Also I am a map nerd so I probably knew the city better than my mom did.
“No, I need YOU to tell me where I am and where I need to go.”
People seemed never to have a problem telling me where to go.
Getting a few pallets of vinyl siding delivered tomorrow to finally nail to my garage, which I have worked hard at repairing this past month: Replacing the rotten wood, nailing on fresh sheeting, and attempting to apply Tyvek wrap all by myself (awkward job, but done at long last). Once the siding is on – plus all the J-channels, mounting blocks, drip caps, and other extra stuff – it will actually be a pretty decent structure.
Time to see if my Home Improvement degree from YouTube University will prove itself worthy. I did get things done that I never would have thought possible a few years ago, and it really has me interested in improving/building more stuff. I’m reasonably confident I could build a garden shed or small workshop at this point, having learned all this stuff about foundations, frames, studs, rafters, sheeting, roofs, and exteriors.
The crazy dream is to build a timber-frame house on my own land someday (see “Mr. Chickadee” on YouTube for what I’m talking about) and that seems a small bit closer to “possible” after doing all this stuff on my garage.
Everyone is late.