Tuesday Open Thread
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We made it to Tuesday!
Mornin’ Gang -
IFR all the way in, froggy out there.
I got here a little early today, (5:45) and mama coon met me coming around the building. She saw me and turned around then came back and turned around again. I know where she wanted to go, as I was between her and the big LN2 Dewar and the transformer cage. The coons and often make their homes under the big transformers since they’re in a corner of the building, walls on three sides and they’re warm, nice in the winter. Any way, she headed off to the closest oak but bypassed it and made a big circle behind me to get home. -
BTW; That is a neat picture, so they’re cleaning the sludge from the canal?
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Can’t find it online. WoodenBoat magazine had an article about Venice gondolas and why they are shaped as they are. The hulls are asymmetrical to compensate for the oar being on only one side. The canals are too narrow for boats with oars on both sides to pass by. The tall stern post is not just ornamental, all those notches are for different rowing positions.
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I saw a PBS show about the gondolas once and it was fascinating, the way the hulls were designed, one side wider than the other. Also, the guys that drive them are kinda’ like Harbor Pilots, lots of folks want the few jobs and there’s a long waiting line, mostly awarded to friends and family of previous Gondoliers.
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Well, there goes your 100 Grand Bar. 😀
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Hey, I didn’t kill the blog all by myself, Goat helped me. 😉
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Forlorn and forgotten, this ’37 hangs on to staying above ground as long as it can. 🙁
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Americans are drinking less milk than ever, but eating more cheese than ever.
America’s cheese hoard continues to balloon to unprecedented levels, as producers fear the mountain could grow further and put even more dairy farmers out of business.
About 1.4 billion pounds of American, cheddar and other kinds of cheese is socked away at cold-storage warehouses across the country, the biggest stockpile since federal record-keeping began a century ago.
and,
Companies that built their business on American, cheddar and processed cheese are still pumping out those varieties, banking on exports growing. October cheese export figures showed better business, including with key importer Mexico.
But in the short term, the supply has pushed down cheese and milk prices. That is hurting farmers that supply big cheese makers, too.
Milk prices are down around 40% from a 2014 peak that encouraged many farmers to expand their herds. Now dairies are going out of business as prices crash. More than 600 dairy farms have closed this year in Wisconsin alone.
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Ninth!
D-Day here to decide on placement of our new house. We are on a corner lot and the previous owners layed out the property placing the old house and garage at an odd angle, not at a 45 degree to the corner but not square to the street either. Of course the driveway and walkways are set up to that angle. It’s always drove me crazy and I vowed if I ever had the chance I would square it up, but laying out string lines it looks goofy either way though it’s really hard to visualize the finished product. I decided this weekend to leave it at the angle but I know I’m going to hate it. The garage is eventually going down for a shop for me, then it could be squared up as well and I guess everything else would kind of evolve to the new set up. Wife is no help, all she sees is strings. 😀 I’m thinking now I’m going to bite the bullet and do it right. Contractor coming this morning to begin construction of the pad and concrete runners.
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Good misty moisty foggy morning, Hamsters. Everything outside is dripping, can’t see across the back pasture or the front yard. This is certainly taking care of the low-humidity weather we’ve had lately and perhaps even watering the yards and flowerbeds.
Planted the last flats of pansies in the bed in front of the living room windows. It has several permanent plants in it so the pansy patch is smaller than the bed. Also ran out of the latest pansy purchase of flats, and they were just enough to make a decently wide circle around the tree but left lots of bare dirt close to the tree. Have lost count of how many flats of 18 plants I bought and had great help planting and just decided with this last load that enough was enough for the winter.
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Artificial celebrities ? But wait, I thought celebrities were already pretty much artificial.
Nvidia researchers posted details of the method for producing completely imaginary fake faces with stunning, almost eerie, realism (here’s the paper).
The researchers, Tero Karras, Samuli Laine, and Timo Aila, came up with a new way of constructing a generative adversarial network, or GAN.
GANs employ two dueling neural networks to train a computer to learn the nature of a data set well enough to generate convincing fakes. When applied to images, this provides a way to generate often highly realistic fakery. The same Nvidia researchers have previously used the technique to create artificial celebrities (read our profile of the inventor of GANs, Ian Goodfellow).
This is some very stunning stuff. See it to believe it.
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#10 GJT: Square it up and do it right the first time, do it now when it is easy and still possible. Here’s to you having a smooth build.
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There are innocent people in prison and guilty people walking free because of this junk science.
The first time I watched a report on TV about criminal bloodspatter analysis being introduced as evidence my reaction to it was very skeptical. It wasn’t too far away from deciding it was complete bullsh!t and I’ve always been appalled that courts keep using it.
If you have any interest in justice and competency and fairness of our judicial system, you need to read this report.
Gertner, who retired from the bench in 2011 and now teaches at Harvard Law School, said the failure of the report to take hold in courts “was an institutional failure.” Lawyers failed. Trial judges failed. Appellate judges failed.
She saved her strongest criticism for appellate judges who, she insisted, could raise the stakes of admitting bad science by shaming trial judges that do.
“If you were reversed by the court of appeals for allowing in junk science,” she said, speaking as a former trial judge, “you are bound to be more critical the next time you have this issue.” But appellate judges are loath to overturn forensic-related precedent, even in the face of advancing scientific understanding.
“Precedent is like a child’s game of telephone,” Gertner said. “You start off saying something. You whisper it down the line and you continue to whisper it even though it no longer makes sense.”
For attorneys, convincing appellate judges to break ranks has proven Sisyphean.
Last year, Geneva Williams, a defense attorney in Iowa, used the concerns raised in the National Academy of Sciences report to argue that her client’s former lawyer was ineffective for failing to challenge the admission of bloodstain evidence at his trial. Her client’s conviction, she said, should be overturned. The court rejected her argument.
“The admissibility of such evidence is determined by the Iowa Rules of Evidence,” Judge Richard Blane wrote for the Court of Appeals of Iowa, “not a research journal.”
The expert who testified at the trial was a former IABPA officer who studied with MacDonell.
and,
In 2016, the Texas Forensic Science Commission — a state panel consisting of seven scientists, one prosecutor and one defense attorney — opened an inquiry into two cases that turned on bloodstain-pattern analysis. At the center of one is Joe Bryan, a beloved high school principal who has been in prison for 31 years over the killing of his wife. The bloodstain-pattern analyst in that case, a local police officer who took a 40-hour class with one of MacDonell’s former students, recently acknowledged that his conclusions were wrong.
Ristenbatt gave an impassioned speech to the commission, calling for mandatory educational requirements for analysts, including a four-year degree in natural or forensic science. In February, the commission announced it would require accreditation for all bloodstain-pattern analysts testifying in court starting in May 2019. Commission decisions only affect Texas courts, but have influence across the country.
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I’m bringing this post forward from last night. It dropped from Texas Football sorta late yesterday, but for the coaches and players of the football team in this little town, located in a media desert, it’s a really big deal.
Wow, Texas Football magazine, which is a big deal among Texas football fans at all levels, named SS Head Coach Fikac (pronounced like peacock except with a f) as it Texas high school coach of the year. That’s among all schools, not just the dipstick 2As, but all of them. Great acknowledgment of what he has accomplished out here in no man’s land.
https://www.facebook.com/davecampbells/videos/305377430105053/?t=9
Scroll over to about the 16 minute point to hear the coach discussion. -
GJT, what he said, do it right even if you have to rework driveway.
#10 GJT: Square it up and do it right the first time, do it now when it is easy and still possible. Here’s to you having a smooth build.
If you don’t, EVERY TIME you drive up, you’ll Biotch about the layout.
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#10
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From Hammy’s #10:
In 2019 (chinese year of the earth pig dog) ,hanging pictures of water, such as the beach, lakes, rivers, helps honor this element. A running fountain or an aquarium in the front section of your home also helps Ch’i flow wonderfully. By hanging a bamboo flute over the front door on the inside, it will bring blessings to you & your guests each time you enter or leave your home.
I didn’t know Al Gored had his own year.
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GTO is going all Feng Shui with the house.
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Ha! I didn’t see Hammie’s #17.
Great minds…
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You should consider the year long sun cycle to optimize it effects on both heating (and cooling) and lighting, and also consider the prevailing winds for door placement so that you don’t have a gale blowing through the house every time you open the door. And what’s with this everything has to be square and even concept – a little twist here, an unusual angle over there all combine to give the house character. Plus it pizzes off the neighbors and the HOA if there is one. Fun times with the drawing pencil.
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I say embrace the oddball angle.
I always said if I ever built a house, the orientation would be determined by the best way to take advantage of the prevailing southeast breeze on the porches.
There are two brand new spec homes in Cat Spring that have a weird orientation to the Hwy 1094. I like it.
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One of my brothers not only built his house to take advantage of prevailing winds, he also planted trees in the breeze’s path, chosen for high transpiration rates. Theoretically, to add a cooling effect.
That might work in a drought, but our normal humidity is more than enough moisture in the air for me.
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Me, I like large, outdoor covered areas and eaves. Houses nowadays are built with little or no eave, and that allows sunlight to land directly on/through the windows.
In our old house, I insisted that Hubby add larger eaves when we were redoing the roof. I was in Handsome Son’s bedroom as the plywood decking was being put down. The difference in the temperature was dramatic and immediate.
I love our big porches.
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Americans are drinking less milk than ever, but eating more cheese than ever.
Now it’s called cheese hell.
Welcome to Cheese Hell.
🧀 🧀 🧀
Probably the finest exasperated “Is Its?” I’ve ever heard in my life at the 4:07 mark. -
25 phil
One of my favorites. -
#17 Hammy
Thanks, I took a quick look at what feng shui could contribute to getting Chez Harp in better order. I think our main problem is Aggressive corners. -
unca Shanny
His family name was actually Cheese but the h was changed to a L somewhere along the way.
I believe I read somewhere his father changed it during or after WWI.
Best 5:30 minute skit of all time.
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On the matter of cheeses, we generally favor Sargento’s products from Wisconsin.
Dairy farming is a hard and demanding business; the cows come first twice a day for milking, and cow and human life revolves around milking schedules. Not surprising that some dairy farms have become beef cattle farms instead with much less demanding schedules.
‘Tis said that the dairy cow is the foster mother of the human race.
We Wisconsin natives had fun at UW convincing new out of state students especially from urban metropoli that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
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This simply amazes me. I can sit in my living room and locate an image of my great-grandparents’ marriage certificate. From 1888. Unbelievable.
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You always here about these SJWs living at home well into their 30s but this phenomenon was happening as early as the 1800s.
Look at the Cartwrights and the Barkleys.
Hoss and Little Joe on the Ponderosa. Jarrod, Nick and Heath living with Maw Barkley well into their 30s and even early 40s.But at least they were all working.
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The kind of emotional support animal we could all use.
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Well, my wife just pulled out of the Stennis exit, rest stop, had to take Lil’ Dawg out to the bushes for a bit. She left Clear Lake @ 5:30 so she’s making good time, and will make the old homeplace before dark.
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My #33 No Boiled P Nuts, Bessie wasn’t there. 🙁
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Front porch package thieves get some funny comeuppance.
Moral of the story: geeks have lots of creativity and free time on their hands.
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My analysis of the Flynn sentencing hearing which was postponed after Flynn asked for the postponement. First, the judge almost begs Flynn to withdraw his guilty plea so that he can then throw the book at Mueller. But Flynn refuses to withdraw his plea – he’s afraid of Mueller and what might be coming if he does withdraw his plea. So judge rightfully concludes that Flynn is more afraid of Mueller than he is of the judge, so judge decides to throw the book at Flynn, just to get his attention of course. Flynn figures out that judge is about to put him in the slammer, so he accepts judge’s offer to delay sentencing. Flynn is now caught in the lie trap every which way – he lied by pleadings in court to get Mueller off his back so now the judge is on his back. And any thoughts he might have had about a Trump pardon just went away as well. Flynn is done now. He has no friends on either side and no money left; his life’s work is left in shambles. Unfortunately, he only has one remaining option. Sad to see at Christmas time.
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Thanks for the input guys, I embraced the square. Gotta commit and go, dirt is flying as we speak. Played hooky long enough, have to get back to work.
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When it comes to real estate, always stick with the conventional. Eventually your homestead will be sold to someone else, who will be attracted by your adherence to convention, not your flouting of the norms. My house has only had 3 owners in 48 years. The people we bought it from were shocked to the core when they found out that our fix-up prior to moving in included stripping every room where they had put up their zany wallpaper, had the walls re-mudded for some texture, then all walls painted white. I had the impression that if they had known, they might not have sold their house to us.
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They were also freaked out when they realized I had decided which of the 3 magnolia trees had the best location and shape, and had the other 2 cut down and their stumps ground out. No one needs more than 1 magnolia tree.
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Always best to leave closing on the home you just sold and never look back lest you be disappointed by what the new owners have done with it.
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In two posts, Harper shows us why she was on the HOA.
My attitude towards adherence to convention disqualifies me from office.
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Flynn is now caught in the lie trap every which way – he lied by pleadings in court to get Mueller off his back so now the judge is on his back. And any thoughts he might have had about a Trump pardon just went away as well.
Let’s rehash some hashed browns.
And the Comey led FIB was ok with the ShillyBeast’s jack hammering of Blackberries, bleaching server drives and losing 33k emails.
You can’t lie to the FIB but the FIB can lie to you.
6 Ways to Sunday.
A new novel coming soon from phil with Private Dick Nick Y. Mayostein as the lead dick.A sample from the soon to be written greatest caper of a SpyDuckus novel.
While seeking clues to the greatest conspiracy never investigated, Nick the Dick asks possible witness Sandi P. Lagoose, “can I soft soap your stretch marks for you tonight?”
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We had to take down a post oak this morning, didn’t want to but had to. Told the wife to watch the neighborhood FB for the tree hugger outrage.
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#42 Sarge
Neither of my examples is an HOA issue. No one on an HOA cares what the inside of your home looks like. Begone wit’ yer zany wallpaper is a personal choice. And most HOAs leave your choice of trees up to you, as long as they aren’t dead and collapsing in the street. I have heard of HOAs that require an architectural review form for adding or removing trees, but don’t personally know of any that do that. If that is objectionable to the potential homeowner, read the deed restrictions before you buy. -
Yo Sha-Na-Na let’s see Max do THIS!
🙂
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Idiots enclosed one of the porches on the front of Mom’s historic home to enlarge the master bedroom. It’s too painful to look at when I drive by, now.
And they removed a gorgeous, custom, floor-to-ceiling 8’ tall bookcase in the den which Texpat had built in.
The morons, no doubt, had no use for a bookcase.
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Cohen shares insights on the state of the polar vortex on his blog and Twitter feed. Last week, he tweeted: “Confidence is growing in a significant #PolarVortex disruption in the coming weeks. This could be the single most important determinant of the weather this #winter across the Northern Hemisphere.”
Human extinction is certain!
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A winter storm in January.
Whodda thunk it? -
Human extinction is certain!
Could be a blessing in disguise.
🧛🏻♂️
🧛🏻♂️
🧛🏻♂️
Goot evening. -
Jihadi Jew-hater MN Representative Ilhan Omar Protests With Islamic Amazon Employees to Impose Islamic Prayer and Sharia on the Workplace
https://gellerreport.com/2018/12/ilhan-omar-amazon-jihad.html/
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A winter storm in January.
No! It’s TEH POLAR VORTEX!!!
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Interesting.
Billionaires at battle. May they both die from their wounds.
The number of Facebook’s enemies on the left is growing, and they’re making more and more demands including that CEO Mark Zuckerberg resign.
A coalition of 31 left-wing groups, including the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center and at least 10 groups that have received funding from liberal billionaire George Soros, wrote to Zuckerberg on Dec. 18, 2018. The letter expressed “profound disappointment regarding Facebook’s role in generating bigotry and hatred towards vulnerable communities and civil rights organizations.”
The “FINAL letter” also demanded Zuckerberg step down as chairman, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg remove herself from the board of directors, and conservative Facebook executive Joel Kaplan be removed.
because,
“You retained the services of Definers Public Affairs to investigate, undermine, and attack our allies, mimicking the tactics of the worst, disreputable political operatives and hate groups,” the coalition’s letter complained.
The letter referred to Soros as a “philanthropist,” saying, “It’s an absolute disgrace that Facebook sought to deflect criticism and discredit advocates by exploiting anti-Semitic campaigns against philanthropist George Soros.”
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Human extinction is certain!
Could be a blessing in disguise.
But as long as it happens after Sep.10, 2019.
But why you ask?==I knew you would.
Sep. 9th, 2019.
💋 💋 💋 💋 -
47 Shannon
And they removed a gorgeous, custom, floor-to-ceiling 8’ tall bookcase in the den which Texpat had built in.
You never told me that before. Damn.
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Who wants to live in a neighborhood where you can’t string your nice buck up in a tree in the front yard and skin it right there anyway. Probably can’t clean fish out there either. Dad burn city folks.
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Who wants to live in a neighborhood where you can’t string your nice buck up in a tree in the front yard and skin it right there anyway.
Loi Hoi Polloi.
💎 👔 👠 -
Seems there needs to be a lot more folk around Texas with the “Come and take it” viewpoint. 🙂
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This song often reminds me of the Deep State Psychos that control our lives and that includes buttered brain Mr Potato Head(Expired Interns Inc.) and his Newspeak Media of the Mob Spankers.
🤡 🤡 🤡 -
53 Texpat
Link doesn’t want to work. No matter, we get the gist of this battle of the so-called titans, and we hope for a draw that imparts large doses of reality to both when they snap out of their comas.
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Rephrasing the Flynn hearing. The judge knows that the charges against Flynn and the guilty plea were bullied out of Flynn, and that the offer of leniency promised by the prosecutors had a strong bearing on that “deal.” Judge wants to do something to the Mueller team for the tactics they are using, but Flynn’s insistence on sticking with his guilty plea, in accordance with the deal, messed up the judge’s plan. So, the judge is still POed at Mueller, but what can he do. Well, the judge is not bound by the Mueller deal when it comes to sentencing, so he can throw the book at Flynn, complete with jail time for a long time. Why would he do this – to point out to the other victims of Mueller’s strong arm tactics that any deal they may make with Mueller will not be binding on the court and may make their situation worse, not better. Best they try to fight their way through; rather than turn rat, plead guilty to something they may not even be guilty of, and hope to get off with a light sentence. In other words, the court needs to take the power away from Mueller and return it to the court where it belongs. When these shady characters realize that it does them more harm than good to cooperate with Mueller, then we might start back on the road to a fair justice system.
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A fair justice system would require hundreds of thousands of attorneys with ethics; a moral compass.
Good luck.
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Supper time for me. Any suggestions?
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Salisbury steak! Frozen from HEB, remember we’re camping here! 😀
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Came home to a nice groomed clay pad tonight. Concrete runners being poured Thursday, new home on wheels delivering Saturday or Sunday. Two to three weeks of set up and we are in!*
*All dependent on weather of course
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*All dependent on weather of course
Better hope they finish before TEH POLAR VORTEX hits.
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😀
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Seventy!!!
Wife rolled in @ the farm at 4:28, just shy of 11 hours, not bad since she had to stop with Dawg several times. -
#56 El Gordo, That reminds me of the time back in the early 80’s, BC (before children) when I popped a big snapper turtle I the head with my 22 Ruger, one of my neighbor’s couldn’t believe it, but we weren’t in the city limits at the time and I let him try deep fired turtle for the first time. He couldn’t believe how good it was.
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61 Adee
Here is the straight url address. The link works for me here and on my phone. Cut and paste this into your address bar.
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Phil winning the showdown.
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Interesting take from a married priest.
Yes, there are a few in the Catholic Church. Depends on where they came from, usually.
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I win the showdown again.
P.S. In my o-pine-yen, Joe Pesci owes his entire career to Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez aka “The Rat” aka Eli Wallach.
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possible novel titles starring Super Private Dick, Nick Y. Mayostein.
6 Ways to Sunday
6 &1/2 Ways to Sundae
7 Ways to Monday, not my Fun day
7 Curds but No Whey to TuesdayA Night at the Slopera
Deep State Perks and Deep State Circle Jerks
10 Ways to Strike Ten
9 Ways to Fin Yen
8 Ways To Play and Splay
4 Boars on a Pickled Floor with a Horde -
The latest videos of shuffle dancing got me interested in trying it out. Wondering how well my back can tolerate it, but want to give it a try. I love to dance.
Turned on YouTube and found my first training video. Was working on the basic running man step, got it down but it does jerk the body a little. Side step shuffle was more difficult, especially since my floor is not a smooth surface, but has an imprinted pattern in it. I caught the side of my shoe in one of the cracks and went down. Took off the shoes and did better.
Let’s just say it was a workout, just those few steps. Worked up my sweat and I realize what a workout my legs are going to get. It’s gonna take me a lot of practice, but I’m looking forward to shuffling without hurting myself. Or looking goofy.
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A favorite opening..,
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Just heard a great line, from “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. Mature, matronly type to the young girl on the hunt, proudly displaying her wares:
“If you’re going to be that available, you should consider putting a doorbell on your blouse.”
Love that.
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1st place – phil
2nd and 3rd place – tie – Shannon and Tedtam.No way to even enter the movie sweepstakes with competition this stiff. May try again later.
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So no funding for the Wall, no government shutdown, McTurtleDove is sucking on Schumer’s mayo pipe again,–gone is the We’re gonna get tough GooPs of the Kavanaugh hearings and we’ll give 10 Billion to Mexico and Central America to shore up their security and borders?
Might as well throw that dough in the Pacific cause those corrupt government dictators will pocket it all.
The Hell?
Losing?
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#73 Texpat
Link worked. 🙂
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81
I knew it.
It’s fixed. -
#82 – Elections are over. It’s back to business as usual. Of that $10 billion, how much will return to the politicians into their coffers? I’m convinced that the drug dealers control most of our politicians in the first place.
Then Ariz governator appoints Loser McSally to fill the McCain seat that Kyl was filling until the end of the year. Why not just go ahead and appoint another Democrat. She’s a vet, but she’s a Trump hating vet. Her only saving grace is that the McCain family seems to think it still owns that seat and is being critical of her appointment. Terrible choice.
Judge is going to let Flynn skate, but he insists that he is guilty. So judge was going to put him in the slammer, and he asked for a sentencing delay. Let’s Mueller completely off the hook and pizzez the judge off at the same time. His only out is hari-kari I think.
Time for The Legend of Buster Scruggs on Netflix. It’s so weird that it’s intriguing, even though overall it can’t get 2 stars. It should be on the western version of MST3K.
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I feel like I got voted off the island — er, Couch — tonight. Got some chores done, then came to get caught up on the blog posts before I sack out. I couldn’t figure out a single thing that happened here since I asked this question at 6:54:
Supper time for me. Any suggestions?
BTW, I had a chicken/jalapeno Lean Pocket.
Nightall.
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Agent # 86
you missed #66 post.
Something about Salisbury Steak.Yours truly,
The not so hoi polloi
phil.P.S. we thought you went to find the Professor on their other side of the island.
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Wednesday?
Mornin’ Gang
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