Friday Ephemera (815)
“They can strip a man to the bone in 30 seconds.” || She just wants to get in her room and eat and put this behind her. || Big fellah. || Facilities. || The word holding caught my eye. || Igor Sikorsky, 1945. || Captures something, I think. || A night at the opera. || Wrenches and ratchets. || New racism detected. || The cow-like reflexes kicked in. || Waardenburg syndrome – striking eyes but often accompanied by deafness. || Death Valley in bloom. || From above and below. || Bitesize. || Someone’s knocking at the door. || Discourse was attempted. || The alternative press, 1971. || Apocalypse early warning system. || For enthusiasts of quadraphonic vinyl. || Immortality, £1000. || The thrill of, er, moon clams. || Unladylike driving. || And it turns out ants make more noise than you’d imagine.
To enable extra commenting options – including @username mentions, comment editing, upvotes, custom avatars, and live notifications – scroll down to the black ‘Meta’ box at the very bottom of the page and click register. It’s free and quite painless.
For additional rumblings, follow me on X.
The meat ration has been increased from 60 grams per day to 80 grams per week!
Citizens rejoice! All hail Big Brother!
And Muhammad is touted as “the perfect man”: Nothing he did or said was in any way less than perfect. That encompasses a lot of horrible things.
No, using the AI model Seedream 4 with a reference piece done by another photographer using Maud Earl’s style as their inspiration and a rather complicated prompt, then additional work in Photoshop with adjustment layers.
Ah, a Canadian.
And he thinks that he, as a politically aggressive perv, is humble.
How about Joan Collins as a nun?
Don’t forget Sally Field.
Hey, I like her. Can’t deny the fact.
Or Stella Stevens.
Micky Mouse has really let himself go.
A good use of 999.
Bonus video at the above of Debbie discussing trousers.
In the olden days siblings would sort squabbles between themselves, and I’m pretty sure this guy wouldn’t come out on top.
Well, this was a lovely morning encounter.
Walking the Bronx in a beautiful local preserve. Cool temps, lush forest, birds chirping, dog happily running about. An older man – maybe late 60s, maybe early 70s – approaches me along the path. White guy. Ponytail. Raggedy jeans. And a flannel shirt over a t-shirt that reads “I Am Waiting For the Big Beautiful Obituary.”
I remark, “That’s an interesting t-shirt. Are you planning to write your own?” “Oh no,” he said. “I’m waiting on the one for the fat slob in the White House.” And walks off.
As the path is a loop I knew I would run into him again. So, as we met now on the other side of the park, I said, “You chose to turn a random encounter on a beautiful morning into something political. Fuck you.” He started ranting about how I would be sorry because “We’re gonna take over the system!” I told him it was a good thing old Boomers like him were dying off and so as I walked on, he just kept yelling at me, “You’re a racist! You’re a racist!”
And then Bronx and I went to Buckin’ Good Donuts and got a plain cake donut each, because it’s Saturday . . .
Have you posted a photo of Bronx? Can’t remember.
A variation of The Blurting?
@pst314 – big dark grey Weimaraner? I believe I have.
Looks familiar.
Hearing a ‘trans’ person talking about generations does give one a pause.
♪ Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow ♫
Google Maps is very serious about privacy.
I’m never leaving this hellsite.
[ Slides ancient VHS of Steel Magnolias to WTP. A sticker with the words Property of Blockbuster, please return is visible. ]
Five lanes, a cop car with reds & blues on in front of a wreck slaunchwise across two, debris on the next to the right, and another wreck on the far right.
It is night, in Chicago.
“Shut up Myrtle, the trooper is busy, floor it.“
The word hoarding is doing an awful lot of lifting there:
As if the wealth were somehow subtracted from the economy, from investment, and were pushed through a shimmering portal into some other universe, not being used by countless others every damn day.
Also, while there is nothing wrong…
There are a lot of drivers out there who need a beating.
That is a leftist pretending to something he does not truly believe.
Coming from someone whose very existence appears on the balance a loss.
Where do they think billionaires put their money? Under the bed?
They think of Scrooge McDuck, swimming through vaults of money. It’s a very puerile conception of the world.
[ Walks into living room, sees Other Half watching The Poseidon Adventure. ]
I think he’s watching it ironically, but I can’t be entirely sure.
[ Starts watching The Poseidon Adventure. ]
Shelley Winters has just rescued Gene Hackman.
You go, girl.
Oh.
Bugger.
Dumpster fires are lit too.
But that is how they think. They don’t understand these things partly because it is quite natural, from a primitive knowledge perspective, to believe that they do hoard their wealth in gold buried somewhere like Scrooge McDuck because…Scrooge McDuck. And damn near every other popular fairy tale and Bible story and Hans Christian Anderson type story where there are poor people and rich people and no one knows exactly why but it all just seems so unfair.
Fundamental economics simply isn’t taught outside of college and even most places these days not in college either. I only understood it myself after taking economics in college and even that was loaded with Keynesian BS. Which was then that I realized even my AP history teacher in high school, a college educated woman, did not understand the fundamentals either.
Sooooo much of the economic back-and-forth in politics and society could be avoided by just some simple PSA-style commercials, adverts, whatever. No it wouldn’t solve the problem. People would still be willfully ignorant, but it is very clear that many people only believe the zero-sum economic game because they have never been challenged to really think about it.
“the rich”: there is a belief that the rich got rich by stealing their wealth….somehow. They never clarify HOW the rich force you to buy their products. IRL, you get rich by providing a product or service that is better and/or cheaper than the alternatives. That is, by making people’s lives better.
Such people love to hate on the oil companies, for example. But even after the cost of drilling (including dry wells), transporting the oil, refining it, transporting the gasoline, gas is STILL about the same price as milk. No one forces you to use Amazon or even Google. There are alternatives.
Because, basically, those who believe it don’t consider “the rich” as fellow humans. If you have a miserable day at work, the faceless CEO/owner/bossguy is at fault …and if he has more than you, it’s because he’s an evil SoB.
These people aren’t grateful for even having a job, they resent working. And the minute you point out someone they LIKE as a billionaire (such as Bruce Springsteen or Michael Jordan) well, That’s Different(tm). Then you get all the “the owner didn’t really make anything, he just lives off the work of his exploited employees” schtick, refusing to acknowledge even Springsteen has employees.
For “facilities” David, I attend the Indianapolis 500 every year (since 1990) and have been at IMS since 1982 for qualifying for the 500.
While “open holer” bathrooms are gone, in the men’s rooms underneath the grandstands in the four turns of the speedway there are still “communal troughs” in the bathrooms. It’s a quick way to ensure 350k+ people can “hit the pits” and get back to enjoying the race.
When a yellow flag is thrown for an incident on the track, it’s also the signal for “potty break”. 🚽
BTW, you know it’s a hot 🥵 day when you drink multiple beers and bottles of water during the race and only use the bathroom once.
Also, say what you will about Igor Sikorsky, he put his money where his mouth was and flew those weird eggbeaters 🚁 he invented.
As a fixed wing pilot I am leery of any aircraft where the wings spin faster than the fuselage flies. 😒
Speaking of how leftists understand the free market, here’s a thread off that moronic AOC interview.
My interlocutor seems to believe in the “you didn’t build that” philosophy that Obama articulated, that people can make money only by the dispensation of the gubmint, and only when gubmint gets its cut.
Or something. I guess it doesn’t have to make that much sense, because it’s just an excuse to “eat the rich,” seize their assets, and divide the spoils.
Effing Bolsheviks.
You may fascinate a woman with a piece of cheese, or perhaps with your artistic skills.