Ask not for whom the bell threads; it threads for free
March 21, 2022 9:26 AM   Subscribe

It's Monday, the site is not currently experiencing unexpected downtime, and we're just narrowly on the far side of the the equinox: what else is there for it but another Free Thread? Come on in and discuss your favorite solar calendrical phenomena or, like, probably mostly other things, whatever is fine.
posted by cortex (177 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Hello.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 9:27 AM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


Yesterday my wife and I watched the movie Thumbsucker which I had seen (and liked) once before, 15 years ago.

Happy to report that the movie is just as sweet and excellent and watchable in 2022. Highly recommend - again!
posted by splitpeasoup at 9:39 AM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


woo hoo!
posted by 20 year lurk at 9:42 AM on March 21, 2022


I just finished Solzhenitsyn's In The First Circle. I wanted to like it, and parts of it were good, but man it was a slog. In other news, the sun is out and I got a ton of yard work done yesterday. I hope everyone is well.
posted by jquinby at 9:42 AM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


Joy, send joy. I need something to counter the impotent rage caused by the news.
posted by Popular Ethics at 9:44 AM on March 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


Cortex and I were chatting about this yesterday. I didn't post it because I'm lazy, and I'm not part of the knitting community, so the details would have been quite sparse.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 9:45 AM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


I’m expecting a Qwerkywriter S today, to be delivered by FedEx.
As a typewriter geek, I’m excited! (I’m nowhere near Tom Hanks-level, though.)
posted by BostonTerrier at 9:53 AM on March 21, 2022 [6 favorites]


Somehow my department is currently winning the office March Madness bracket, and none of us actually know much about the teams. It was mostly random guessing. Apparently there's been some upsets that have surprised the super fans, but that are working in our clueless favor.
posted by paisley sheep at 9:55 AM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


$1 Guitar Rob Scallon. Also try the Glass Armonica Mozart clip.
posted by effluvia at 9:59 AM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


The American Song Contest is starting tonight. Not sure how that's going to go, tbh, but it means there's only 6 weeks til Eurovision!
posted by the primroses were over at 10:01 AM on March 21, 2022 [4 favorites]


On the good news side, I'm in three plays now, can mostly juggle them without overlap, and the play running now is going well, other than I accidentally kicked someone in the head in the dark (she's fine). My mom came and Did Not Like It, but did the old "if you can't say something nice, literally don't say anything" afterwards. The cast party was fun.

Meanwhile, my work continues to be a trainwreck, as they've had an interim manager so long that they're rotating in another one, and my remaining teammate is now having emergency surgery, so presumably I'll be the only one doing my job for...months, probably. Fuuuuuuuuck. (Also I hope she's okay, but she's had several medical leaves of absence, so I know how this goes.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:04 AM on March 21, 2022 [6 favorites]


Yesterday I finished Kara Cooney's When Women Ruled the World, and it was fantastic, both the book, and getting to read out on my porch for the first time this year. Napping in the sun may have been involved.
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:08 AM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


Warm! Seeds! Rain! What's eating my little basil on the porch?!
posted by winesong at 10:09 AM on March 21, 2022 [4 favorites]


In the old movie watching vein, the local indie theater just showed "Diva", from 1981. So happy that it holds up! the director passed away recently.
posted by Carmody'sPrize at 10:16 AM on March 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


According to my ski tracking app I've skied down more vertical feet than four times the height of Mt Everest this season. Which may explain why my legs are sore today.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 10:18 AM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


I wrested some joy from a situation I don’t like this week.

My neighbor, a lovely man who has a very different idea of what country living should look like than I do, has begun the process of building his new house. It is smack in the middle of the giant empty pasture behind me, just beyond where I cleared undergrowth during the pandemic to open up a view of said empty pasture from my brand new patio. (I learned of his plans about a week after my last patio stone was laid.)

Now that spring is here, and earth movers are belching and beeping while carving his driveway into the pasture every day, I have found joy thusly: I have a large area of good soil, freshly cleared of invasive non-native shrubs and vines, on which to plant oaks, dogwoods, witch hazels and ninebarks. In a year or two they’ll screen his new house from my view, and I’ll shift my garden view expectations from a woodland glade in which to hang a hammock and grow shade-loving ferns to a regenerative native forest that will attract birds and butterflies. Bonus joy? He’s a good neighbor and I’m glad he’s staying nearby. Bonus bonus joy? I found a pussy willow growing at the edge of my cleared area that must have seeded itself sometime in the last decade. It’s my favorite plant and now I am it’s new steward.
posted by minervous at 10:18 AM on March 21, 2022 [51 favorites]




I got wordle on two today.

In my experience, it is hard to grow basil outdoors without sharing it with other beings. And I was kind of relieved when I saw a video about pesto-making, and discovered they even grow their basil indoors in Genova.
posted by mumimor at 10:29 AM on March 21, 2022 [6 favorites]


We're going to have a working bathroom today for the first time since January 25!
posted by backseatpilot at 10:30 AM on March 21, 2022 [28 favorites]


@minervous I like your approach to gardening and planting! and well done on finding the positivity!!
posted by SaharaRose at 10:31 AM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


Watched Fantastic Planet the other day goddamn why don't they make science fiction like that anymore?
posted by aspo at 10:51 AM on March 21, 2022 [10 favorites]


I have to report for jury duty tomorrow. I don't expect I'll get put on a jury because I have OPINIONS on things but who knows. I don't think my opinions would prevent me from being an impartial juror but I'm sure an attorney would think differently.

My neighbor's little kid (1 1/2 years) is walking around and starting to notice he has neighbors and even though he hasn't yet warmed up to me I am looking forward to the day when he's old enough to come hang out with us. He's going to have a little brother in August and now that my kid is 20 years old it's kind of fun having little kids next door. When we moved in the lady on the other side of us (now passed on) was excited to have a "young couple" next door with a newborn. I wish time would stop for a little while.

I'm supposed to go see a couple of shows in New York City at the end of April but between the next surge and/or World War III I'm half expecting they won't happen.

I'm tired. Everybody is tired. Here's to the little joyful things in life.
posted by bondcliff at 10:56 AM on March 21, 2022 [19 favorites]


Old ceiling is now fully torn out on the main level of my townhome. Future ceiling is partially sitting in the garage. Called my excellent electrician for a quote, and he has availability now, so I'm nervously awaiting for him to come and run all the wires to make it no longer a cave.

Also, I'm replacing the bathroom fans, re-grouting the floor, painting the walls, removing infinite impacted back-yard river-rock from the 80's, digging up a fence, playing with the pups, and building recycled containers using scrap from the pergola I tore down, for my low water Garden-in-a-Box that's on order... And work, of course. I may have too many projects.

How do people do all of this?
posted by SunSnork at 11:01 AM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


Watched Fantastic Planet the other day

on that note, my friend hosted his St. Paddy's Day party after a 2 year hiatus due to COVID-19.. it's tradition to party hard and end up watching "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" and after a second viewing I am more confused, on different levels, than I was on my first viewing. What a bizarre film. The forced perspective techniques and so much about that film in general, just another time altogether. We moved on to "Fantasia" and it was fun to listen to the 20-something artist trying to work out the animation/artwork tricks the entire time. Years ago I put "Fantasia" on and a Russian fellow visiting at the time simply refused to believe it was released in 1940. Nothing would convince him of the fact.
posted by elkevelvet at 11:05 AM on March 21, 2022 [8 favorites]


Had both an interesting and restful weekend, very nice. On my way to work I turned on the news and the horror coming out of Ukraine was just too much. I can't even bear to listen and they have to live it...That's why the Watercolors light jazz channel and talk of spring here help.
posted by blue shadows at 11:07 AM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


I have to report for jury duty tomorrow. I don't expect I'll get put on a jury because I have OPINIONS on things but who knows. I don't think my opinions would prevent me from being an impartial juror but I'm sure an attorney would think differently.

This happened to me two weeks ago. The case involved my (infamous) local law enforcement and an unhoused person, which was enough for me to start talking about systemic disenfranchisement and the prison-industrial complex and needless to say I didn't make it past voir dire.

My partner/husband-type person and I formed a band by accident during the pandemic, and our first record comes out in a few weeks. We both have music-industry priors, but we're starting from zero and drawing a thick line between this and the work we've done previously. And the process of communicating in a different language (music) has actually improved communication within our relationship, which may be the best outcome independent of its success with other people.

Work is pulling my attention back, but that'll be my tidbit for now.
posted by mykescipark at 11:07 AM on March 21, 2022 [13 favorites]


I have to report for jury duty tomorrow. I don't expect I'll get put on a jury because I have OPINIONS on things but who knows. I don't think my opinions would prevent me from being an impartial juror but I'm sure an attorney would think differently.

I was very surprised how low the bar is, when last I was called. I got put on a jury for a broken residential lease in Boston district court. My parents are (mostly inadvertently... long story) small-time landlords. I'm slightly to the left of Mao re: landlords. (Er, my parents and I have a complicated relationship) I told the judge and both sides' attorneys all of this, and still found myself empaneled. It was an interesting couple of days, and we got to smite the scumbag landlord, so good times all around.
posted by Mayor West at 11:07 AM on March 21, 2022 [11 favorites]


So far I have transported 11 African four-striped mice from my kitchen to a nearby nature reserve.
Today's mouse was a juvenile who was small enough to pop out of a gap in the trap, but silly enough to keep hopping back inside until I blocked the gap.
They are fascinating creatures. Not really afraid of me as you can see in the linked video, very pretty, and they move as if they have been animated at a low frame rate.
I took a video of releasing these two and it's "blink and you'll miss it". Watch the left side of the trap, near the end you'll see a little stripy butt hurtling into the reeds.
Apparently both the males and females look after their babies equally, and they are very territorial. I release mine all in the same spot hopefully they will find one another.
Would love to let them stay in my kitchen but they are not safe there.
posted by Zumbador at 11:07 AM on March 21, 2022 [14 favorites]


If you hear a low grinding noise in the vicinity of St. Louis, MO, that's my teeth and it's caused by intermittent back pain. I did something to it on a road trip (which was otherwise pretty great), and knowing me it was probably a sleeping-related injury.

But I managed to replace the electronic ballast in the kitchen ceiling light this weekend without falling off the stepstool, electrocuting myself, or starting a fire. I almost chickened out and spent $250 to have a professional install a $35 light, but instead I replaced the $17 part myself.
posted by Foosnark at 11:19 AM on March 21, 2022 [9 favorites]


Hung out with friends over the weekend, including one I hadn't seen since the before times. Feelings were had. She has a new tiny human who has already developed an enthusiasm for books at a year and a half old. I ordered a handful of my favorites to add to his library shelf.
posted by calamari kid at 11:19 AM on March 21, 2022 [9 favorites]


According to my Fitbit I was awake a lot last night. Trying to get some work done without using any caffeine. My daughter was in Ukraine for nine months and got home in January. She has to watch cities she lived in getting bombed.
posted by mecran01 at 11:23 AM on March 21, 2022 [6 favorites]


Starkly experiencing the change of the season this year.

Up there, it is getting to be warmer.
Down here, we are now approaching winter at a clip.

And our winter is barely a thing, all in all.
Except that the crisp in the air reminds me of the changes in the past over this period.
When warmth turned into cold in the relationships that mattered.

Anyway. Hello!.
posted by weft at 11:26 AM on March 21, 2022 [5 favorites]


Right there with the back/neck pain. The last month or so have been pretty grueling. I get an MRI tomorrow to have a look at my cervical spine and clarify what exactly is going on.

Things are starting to improve. Slowly, oh so very slowly. I got a full nights sleep last night for the first time in a while, and woke up without pain. Soon as I started moving around, things started hurting again (although only to a mild extent, nothing like the searing pain of weeks prior), but last night’s brief respite has made an incredible difference in my mood.

I’m in this mess because of a lifetime of terrible posture habits, so I’ll be fixing that. Also getting back to the exercise which I also had fallen off the wagon from back in December. The posture work is already starting (and is probably why I did well sleeping last night), and the exercise will resume as soon as the doctors clear me for it.
posted by notoriety public at 11:30 AM on March 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


This weekends revelation: I used to get drunk to party. Now I get drunk and do my laundry, clean my room, change the kitty litter.

*sigh*

I'd rather be dancing.
posted by hoodrich at 11:32 AM on March 21, 2022 [14 favorites]


My mom has her first chemo treatment tomorrow for what looks like a very treatable form of lymphoma. I think we are ready for whatever comes.
posted by Arctostaphylos at 11:33 AM on March 21, 2022 [18 favorites]


On Sunday I went to a gym for the first time in years. I have a list of knee-strengthening exercises from my physical therapist (as her parting gift), and I plan to start going every Tuesday night (my roommate has a video call with his therapist and I like to clear out for his sake), and Saturday morning (the gym is 3 blocks from my CSA pickup spot so I'll be poised to hit that up after). The plan right now is to do my therapist's exercises plus doing a circuit through all of the leg-related weight machines.

Sunday I also walked for a solid hour at Floyd Bennett field - I had to walk for an hour without stopping, and I figured the big long former runways would be the perfect track. Plus the land between the old runways is now protected grassland for wildlife, and so I got to see a couple kestrels as I walked.

And even though I'm technically supposed to be eating better I figured that two hours of exercise entitled me to splurge on a Hostess cupcake and some Pringles, so there.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:37 AM on March 21, 2022 [5 favorites]


Free thread! Funny thing is, I came here with the words "Free Slick Rick" in my head. It's because of this post about Montell Jordan, from a column which I started reading because of MetaFilter.

Currently waiting for my new passport to arrive from the UK. Also, Rune Factory 5 should be showing up tomorrow. Rune Factory is one of my favorite game series, a laid-back blend of farming and dungeon-crawling that started as a spinoff of the old Harvest Moon franchise. The odd-numbered ones tend to be my favorites, so I have high hopes for this new entry.
posted by May Kasahara at 11:39 AM on March 21, 2022


Watched Fantastic Planet the other day goddamn why don't they make science fiction like that anymore?

My goodness what an incredible film! I'd highly recommend Sans Soliel and La Jetée by Chris Marker if you need more moody, dreamy, hypnotic sci-fi in your life
posted by treepour at 11:43 AM on March 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


This weekends revelation: I used to get drunk to party. Now I get drunk and do my laundry, clean my room, change the kitty litter.

Oh jeez, this is me
posted by treepour at 11:48 AM on March 21, 2022 [4 favorites]


Late lunch is yesterdays bbq and up next is a teams meeting. I got 10 minutes, cause Monday. I'd rather not do all that, but here we are. A quick bite, and hello mefi and it's back to the teeaaams
posted by zenon at 11:48 AM on March 21, 2022


At work today I have to put together a side by side comparison of some health benefits and part of this of course involves dental plans.

This is a perfect example to illustrate why I can never go back to working in an office ever again, because every time I look at a dental plan, or look at the folder that is called "dental plans" or write "dental plans" or even think about dental plans something deep and terrible inside my brain triggers and I have to blurt DENTAL PLAN out loud in Lenny voice.

I did it reflexively on a call earlier I cannot be stopped.
posted by phunniemee at 12:07 PM on March 21, 2022 [11 favorites]


mumimor, I also got wordle in two today, much to my husband’s dismay.

I got a call for an interview today. It’s for a very basic entry-level position, but in the direction of my bachelor’s degree, so I’m tentatively happy. After two years of baby- and depression- and pandemic-fueled unemployment, everyone in my house is ready for me to get back to work.
posted by Night_owl at 12:18 PM on March 21, 2022 [6 favorites]


"Lisa needs braces..."
posted by Horkus at 12:19 PM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


I went to sign the little monster up for a toddler swim class and was asked by the Y where I am a member (I haven't actually been inside the gym since that brief period between my second Pfizer dose and whichever strain locked everything down again, but I keep paying) whether the baby is a member. No, the baby doesn't have a gym membership. He's 12 months old. We'll go to a community pool or something this summer, if I can get concurrence on it from his mother.

Other than that I just keep overthinking everything the baby does. Is he responding to his name or just to sounds? Should he be mimicking more? Was he shaking his head no or just watching the world shake back and forth? Why does he sometimes face plant and then slide on his forehead across the room? I worry and my wife thinks it's fine and we're utterly and completely alone so that's the entire range of opinions I get on the subject.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 12:19 PM on March 21, 2022 [4 favorites]


Joy, send joy. I need something to counter the impotent rage caused by the news.

I've been having stomach problems for a couple of years now. Managed mostly my modifying my diet in increasingly limited ways to avoid setting it off.

Six or seven months ago now, I had a stomach bug of some kind that lasted a few days. When the acute phase passed, I didn't get better: I was nauseated all the time, could barely eat at all; constantly exhausted.

My GI doc prescribed anti-nausea meds and did some scoping. Nothing showed up except some inflammation in my stomach—gastritis.

Meanwhile, I was diagnosed with a small tumor on my pituitary gland. A year after finding it, it had grown some, and bled a bit, so now I also have an endocrinologist and am undergoing assorted tests. Pituitary tumors are usually benign, but if they do cause symptoms, those symptoms can kind of be like what I've experiencing, so maybe I am having symptoms? We don't know. There are more tests to do.

The days, weeks, and months pass, and I am living every day like I'm an elementary student home with the flu: living on popsicles, applesauce, jello, ginger ale. It sucks. And there's no telling if anything will help. I lose 90 pounds.

I get sicker and sicker and can eat fewer and fewer things. I develop an appalling taste in my mouth. It occurs to me the appalling taste might be, oh, I don't know: from decay, or a bit of food caught under my implant and rotting there.

So, a week ago today, I see my dentist. He reminds me that we know already I needed a crown replaced, as an old one had deteriorated and there was decay underneath. Various delays mean that this tooth is now cracked, and there is no bone left between the roots. It can't be restored; it will have to be pulled.

Meanwhile, the loss of bone threatens the tooth right behind it as well. My dentist thinks it has a very poor prognosis for restoration, so he recommends pulling it as well, and gives me a referral to a periodontist I am seeing 40 minutes from now, Dr Yankatooth.

The second tooth also has a abscess, so the dentist prescribes penicillin for the infection.

I start the penicillin on Monday evening.

By Friday, my nausea is gone and I'm eating normal food in normal amounts.

I have had pasta with meat sauce and garlic bread. I have had a salad with vinaigrette. Yesterday, I ate a steak.

It's a frick-frackin' miracle.

I still have problems, big ones. But I CAN EAT FOOD. Food that requires chewing. Food that needs to be digested. I didn't have a nice dinner for my birthday in October; I didn't have Thanksgiving dinner, or Christmas dinner, or anything special for the new year. Because I have not been able to eat.

But now I can.

J-O-Y JOY JOY JOY J-O-Y JOY JOY JOY

That's the neon sign over my head that's been blinking since Friday.
posted by Well I never at 12:23 PM on March 21, 2022 [42 favorites]


So, I'm watching this video about coastal foraging, and I was reminded of that ask about hunter-gatherers. This family collects a feast from the sea, and they are picky, so they don't even take everything they can.
All 8 billion of us can't live like this, but it is very soothing to watch. It brings me a bit of joy, and inspiration.
posted by mumimor at 12:34 PM on March 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


That's amazing, Well I never!

On a similar but much lower stakes note, I am trialing contact lens that seem to be making my vision better than it's been in about five years. Everything I have is correctable, but because I have so many fucked up things (near sighted, far sighted, astigmatic, and presbyopic) there hasn't really been a solution without pretty big compromises--glasses or contacts-- until now. It is a joy to be able to read without having to constantly move my arms and lamp to stay in a very tiny sweet spot.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:34 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


Well I Never:

I am facing a similar situation down the road with one of my own teeth. Apparently the dentist who gave me a root canal about 15-20 years ago screwed up and left too much space between it and the neighboring tooth; and after 20 years of getting stuff stuck in there, there's now a cavity under the crown that we can't do anything about, which she says will eventually affect the other tooth and I'll have to get that yanked as well. Fortunately it's early enough that my dentist gave me the choice: I can do something about it now pre-emptively, or I can actually be diligent about twice-a-year cleanings and we just check in about that at each visit and wait until it actually is a problem. I've opted to wait.

Also fortunately the results of all my other "you're way overdue for some tests, kid" tests are coming back okay.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:38 PM on March 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


we planted some beans, and zucchini and pepper seeds yesterday. tiny garden!
posted by supermedusa at 12:43 PM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


Never take your health or ability to think clearly for granted. I know that now.

At least my wife started her dream job working at the city science center last week.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:53 PM on March 21, 2022 [8 favorites]


monster family: swimming is so good for babies, you are doing good. Every child develops differently and it's impossible to say which way is the right way. As long as the little monster is getting all the love, you are probably fine.
posted by mumimor at 1:01 PM on March 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


How do people do all of this?
posted by SunSnork


Are you kidding?? I bought groceries and cleaned the bathroom this weekend, and called it plenty. I have no idea how you've had the energy to do all the things you described!

I'm envious of all the folks getting pleasant spring weather. It'll be at least a month, maybe two, before that starts to happen where I live; right now we're still in the typical extended "rainy upper 40's/low 50's" season. I haven't done anything at all photography-wise for two years, and all the amazing landscape/nature photos I'm seeing on Flickr have me itching to get out and about with my camera.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:10 PM on March 21, 2022 [4 favorites]


Greg_Ace: I bought groceries and cleaned the bathroom this weekend, and called it plenty.

The whole bathroom?
Not bad!
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:16 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


Well after 2 years of successful duck-and-weave I finally tested positive for covid. Triple vaxxed, otherwise pretty healthy, not having a particularly hard time. Just a gross cough and a lot of fatigue.

What's funny is that somehow, for two years I've been hearing about covid brain fog and thinking, well how the hell would I even notice? My brain is always soup. But when I woke up today, I was clear as a bell, more rested and focused than I have been in literally years. I sat down at my work computer after calling in sick, feeling particularly able to tackle a couple of tasks that have been dragging at me for weeks! What the actual fuck!

I don't expect it to last, of course--already I'm getting a bit worn out, and I am sure I'll be cutting most of my days a bit short this week. But it was just so bizarre, to have this burst of well-feeling precisely at the time when I am, in theory, sicker than I've been since 2019.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:16 PM on March 21, 2022 [12 favorites]


I'm in the Covid 2-Timers Club. First time (fully vaxxed) was basically a light flu for 2 days and then lingering fatigue. That was back in September. Then my wife got it on a business trip to NYC around Thanksgiving. She had very minor cold symptoms, that's it. We tried social distancing and masking in our 2-flat and slept in different rooms, but I ended up getting it again right before Xmas. This time I was twice vaxxed and boosted, but it was heavier flu symptoms.

Then my appetite disappeared. I could smell and taste things, but I just had zero desire to eat. I was forcing down food for two months. I still feel lingering symptoms, low appetite and more fatigue than usual. I still have to remind myself to eat and I just have no enthusiasm for food at all. I know in the grand scheme of things, it's not a huge problem. But it's extremely annoying as I miss eating. I miss enjoying eating.

I was on seasonal work hiatus for a couple months (hooray for seasonal unemployment benefits!) and I return to work on Thursday. This fatigue is not good, as it's a physically demanding job. I'm hoping more activity will help my appetite and maybe lift my mood as I've been cooped up in cold winter for almost three months. I just hope I can keep up with the work. I'm underemployed, but love the job and the commute is super short. I can even walk to work.

Still: things are generally good. I still check Metafilter every morning as I have for around 15+ years. I wasn't here at the very, very beginning, but I've been here a long, long time. I had to change my nym... long story.
posted by SoberHighland at 1:18 PM on March 21, 2022 [8 favorites]


I got my very long hair cut very short last week, and am putting up with All The Reactions. Gaping mouths. Thunderstruck expressions. Loud exclamations. Asking me if I saved the hair (it was mostly gray, very coarse, and beat up). The final straw was yesterday when a friend said, "It looks SO MUCH BETTER." Upon which I spilled coffee all over myself and she couldn't understand why I was annoyed with everything. Meanwhile, my scalp itches because the hair is no longer pulling on it, and my hair is ferociously curly for the moment (it always is when I cut it short after having it long). The funny thing is, I only started growing it (this time) a year before the pandemic started. All the people who are acting this way have actually known me to be a person with very short hair (though I have had it long a few times in a long life).
posted by Peach at 1:23 PM on March 21, 2022 [8 favorites]


I'm still in a tree-obsessed phase, reading through the excellent Northwest Trees and just listened to the Western Red Cedar episode of the wonderful Completely Arbortrary podcast, and wishing I could go right away to Olympic National Park to see the 19.5 ft diameter WRC along with other giant trees.
posted by bread-eater at 1:36 PM on March 21, 2022 [6 favorites]


I had a high-end video/cinema shoot done in my house yesterday and I could NOT believe the amount of equipment it required. My porch, front stairs and much of my driveway were completely covered in equipment cases. The kitchen, hallway and den looked like a jungle of stands, lights and cameras. Fascinating to watch. They used RED cameras. Perhaps most interesting to me was that some of the shots were done with a very unusual handheld camera called a Ronin 4D.
posted by bz at 1:37 PM on March 21, 2022 [4 favorites]


SoberHighland: on a scale of small to big I would put the void where food used to be on the big end. In isolation, just that part of post covid would just be such an issue.
posted by zenon at 1:40 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


I just finished Harriet Beecher Stowe's Pink and White Tyranny and I will give you an Extremely Reductive Review by telling you that in it she disapproves of:

- trading on your looks
- attempting to rise above your working-class origins
- not being into reading theology
- knowing a lot about clothes
- remodeling your house
- booze
- parvenus
- French novels
- women who don't want to have children
- divorce

I'm sure none of this is personal at all.
posted by jocelmeow at 1:46 PM on March 21, 2022 [10 favorites]


Half of my backyard has turned into bare earth. My guess is mole crickets. So we did the usual thing, pouring buckets of soapy water on the area. Usually this leads to the ugly bastards burrowing up to the surface. This, strangely enough, did not happen. We had several nights of ~30F weather a while ago. So maybe that killed them. Or maybe they burrowed real deep. We shall see.
posted by Splunge at 1:54 PM on March 21, 2022


Daffodils are growing in my yard... between bouts of hail, snow, strong gusts of wind, and pouring rain.
The first day of spring was delightful as the sweet husband and I drove along the warm sunny country roads, pointing out white plum and pear trees among the bare oaks and maples. Today it's cold and rainy and we both jumped at a flash/crash of nearby lightening and thunder. Oklahoma springs be weird.
No massive tornado outbreaks yet here. I hold no hope for that lasting.

No redbuds in bloom yet in the neighborhood. No forsythia or quince or spirea. But it's just around the corner.
So are the mosquitoes. But we'll take it when it comes.
posted by TrishaU at 1:58 PM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


for those (like me) who don't know what a mole cricket is, I can only say: better Splunge, than me
posted by elkevelvet at 2:02 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


Yesterday we observed two years of Sparkling Sundays, a thing we accidentally started right before pandemic lockdown simply because we'd had a couple bottles of sparkling wine in the fridge and felt like making some sparkling wine cocktails one Sunday afternoon. The next Sunday we had a Zoom happy hour with friends and sparkling wine was an easy thing to get seconds of so we did that instead of cocktails. After that I said to my wife, "if we have sparkling wine again next Sunday that'll be three in a row and that makes a trend." She said, "I like that idea." It can be sparkling wine consumed on its own or a sparkling cocktail, but we've done this every Sunday but one since March 2020. (The one we missed was due to a death in the family on the opposite coast and we made it up that Monday night after getting home).
posted by fedward at 2:03 PM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


First day of spring is like walking out of work at the beginning of a weekend. It's all there, about to happen: longer days, warmer weather, all the sights and smells and sounds that spring brings are yet to happen and you promise yourself you're going to make the most of it. You've got an ambitious list of things you'll accomplish, friends you'll see, days you won't waste (or will! if you want to!) and you haven't yet lost a moment of that promise.
The next six months the days will be at least as long as today, and surely will be warmer, and you won't miss winter for a second.
I really enjoyed my first day of spring. It was windy and not too warm, and today, the second day of spring, i woke up to snow, but still, every part of me knows it's effing spring!
Happy Spring Northerners!
posted by OHenryPacey at 2:14 PM on March 21, 2022 [9 favorites]


So I'm bored and almost never watch TV, but decided to try Star Trek Discovery for some escapism. Aaaand it starts with the Good Guys saying to the Bad Guys, "we're on the edge of our territory, please don't start a war" and the Bad Guys start a war, and then attack civilian targets, and...WTF, in like 2017 they made a documentary about 2022 current events but they messed up and set it way too far in the future...

More broadly, I have previously thought DS9 was the best Trek series because it so deeply investigated the boundaries of the Federation and its so-called utopia, literally and figuratively. There are a lot of folks in the Trek universe who simply don't buy into the Federation's vision, like the Bajorans, who take their religious ideology more seriously than I think the typical Federation attitude is comfortable with. Or the Ferengi. Or the Cardassians. And DS9 took those points of view seriously. Oh, and it had a war, too...

So far, a few episodes in, Discovery seems like it might be on a similar track? You're devoted to peace, but here you have a war. What are you willing to do in that war to advance your peace ideals?
posted by dsquared at 2:15 PM on March 21, 2022


elkevelvet, Yes. Truly horrible looking creatures. Ick!
posted by Splunge at 2:23 PM on March 21, 2022


Oh my gosh, that article about the knitting.com techbros is so freaking hilariously different from all the talk I've seen about it on communities with lots of knitters or fan types. It's very sympathetic in a business-mag way, that's for sure--the poor cishet white tech dudes are being bullied by the knitters in something approaching a Salem witch trial. (Someone really should have told them that men invoking Salem witch trial comparisons where the majority of the witch hunters are women and the victims are primarily men is never a good idea.) I mean just... Dudes. If you want to win over these "bullies," maybe don't accuse them of being bullies as a first step out of the pit.

I can't help it. I love reading things that give me schadenfreude.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 2:27 PM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


dsquared: Keep going with Discovery. I think it's really worth it, and some of the episodes in the later seasons are right up there in the best of Trek - some of it really delves into what the Federation is meant to be. Some of it feels really apt for the emotions we have during the times we're living in right now.
posted by honeybee413 at 2:31 PM on March 21, 2022 [4 favorites]


I don't expect I'll get put on a jury because I have OPINIONS on things but who knows. I don't think my opinions would prevent me from being an impartial juror but I'm sure an attorney would think differently.

I've never been picked for a jury, but I have been to jury duty many times (5 or 6?), and once a lawyer (no idea if it's true) said that statistically there are certain positions that get called far more than others. So the lower the number the better. If you are higher than #20, then you really need to make yourself stand out to get called.
posted by The_Vegetables at 2:46 PM on March 21, 2022


OK, this seems like as good a place as any to admit this: I'm almost done re-reading all 14 of the blasted Wheel of Time novels. Teenaged me didn't have the perspective to realize how sexist those books are, but... well, grownup me feels like there's still something worthwhile there in the detailed world-building and sheer scope and whatnot. Kind of makes me feel like Robert Jordan should have come up with the ideas and then passed them off to a better writer.
posted by number9dream at 2:58 PM on March 21, 2022 [4 favorites]


My guess is that people who are all in on the sticking to one time setting for the entire year will very quickly be of the “you know, changing the clocks twice a year isn’t so bad” mindset.
posted by MorgansAmoebas at 3:06 PM on March 21, 2022


Re the knitting thing: it seems like very important business research to know what part of the market you’re planning to move into, yes? And the choices are (afaik) Amazon, local yarn stores, KnitPicks, Ravelry (for ‘content'), and the craft chains like JoAnns. Or creating new knitters.

I am not diligent enough to see if their open business plans specify which ones they’re going after, but I am curious.
posted by clew at 3:08 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


My pod here had an Equinox brunch and we decided to try balancing an egg exactly at the minute of the equinox.

Two people succeeded.

So I am still flummoxed by the “old wives tale” versus “there’s something to it” debate. It’s a happy mystery.
posted by Silvery Fish at 3:10 PM on March 21, 2022


The whole bathroom?
Not bad!


It was...overdue. My housekeeping standards had already been slipping from having lived alone for years, and they'd slipped even further after 2 years with zero possibility of visitors. I'm trying to claw my way back uphill to a socially acceptable level of general neatness; I've had to divide up all the chores and commit to just one item a day so I don't get overwhelmed and lose heart.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:12 PM on March 21, 2022 [5 favorites]


My new computer has shipped. I've been using a MacBook Pro from 2012 and while it was really high end when I bought it, my current work load has its fan howling for minutes at a time. I ordered a Mac Studio within minutes of the Apple Store re-opening after the announcement on March 8; the best of the M1 Max tranche. Quite excited. It might arrive Wednesday.
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:40 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


My mural is coming along. I am maybe a third done. I still need to finish the bark and branches on the foreground trees, and an absolute asston of leaves.
posted by joannemerriam at 4:01 PM on March 21, 2022 [14 favorites]


That is looking rad.
posted by cortex at 4:09 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


Struggling with a very first-world calendar/time challenge today. Hoping to buy one of these water-damaged campers and frustrated with the way they display the auction end time - instead of saying it ends next Monday at 7:15 pm, they say it is estimated to end in '06d 09h 59m' (where the '59m' part is variable for each lot). Surely it wouldn't be any harder to just give the date and time? I guess maybe it's because, the way they run the auctions, the deadline is extended if someone makes a last-minute bid. Still, surely it can't be that hard in 2022 to calculate the actual estimated end?
posted by dg at 4:10 PM on March 21, 2022


What's funny is that somehow, for two years I've been hearing about covid brain fog and thinking, well how the hell would I even notice? My brain is always soup.

I think my entire personality has been destroyed and am waiting to die so... yes, you would notice.

I am just a walking corpse.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 4:18 PM on March 21, 2022 [6 favorites]


Vacation week!! So lucky to have great weather so I have a lot of outdoor plans for the next day or so until the rain starts. Today: forest wanderings and old cemetery meanderings. (Revisited the first headstone I've ever seen that announces the occupant was murdered). Tomorrow: a search for fossils in a river!

I've been working retail since forever, and I really, really need my vacations these days.
posted by annieb at 4:19 PM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


I think my entire personality has been destroyed and am waiting to die so... yes, you would notice.

That's...how I would have described myself quite often over the last 5 years, though.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:38 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


Well I never: could it be acid reflux? A lot of redditing convinced me that's what up with the constant, low-level nausea and bad taste in my mouth. My doctor has asked me to go see a specialist and I'm going to do that... but it was nice to hear that it might not be as terrifying as I was imagining. Anti-acids have been helping fwiw. Just a thought and hope it gets better!
posted by treepour at 4:45 PM on March 21, 2022


> Fantastic Planet

This movie is great, if we're sharing surreal animations I like Fehérlófia.

Trying to psych myself up for a mid-April motorcycle trip down the coast when I haven't left the house much the past few years. I used to do long trips like this all the time and I worry I've lost something important about myself from disuse. My parents moved out to the middle of the desert to live off grid and now that their house is finished they are growing insistent that I visit them. I could fly to Kingman and rent a truck, but it does seem like as good a reason as any to take time to replenish some vitamin D. I love Seattle, but the winters here are brutal. At least the sunny days are coming more often now.

I try not to think about my aging, recklessly stubborn parents living in an area 45 minutes one way from a hospital (15 miles of dirt road, crossing a wash). Everyone in that area has Life Flight. They hosted a Cinco de Mayo party in 2020, never stopped eating in restaurants or acted like anything is different, and refuse to be vaccinated even after catching it and feeling "the sickest I have ever been" (I guess they think they're immune now?). Refuse to wear masks. Decisions I have no control over and yet have difficulty letting go even as I repeat "everyone sets their own risk tolerance" like a mantra. I am nervous that everybody collectively seems to have just decided the pandemic is over, and plan to avoid indoor situations as much as I can, I'm fully vaccinated/boosted and try to remind myself that it probably won't be as bad as I fear even if I do catch it after years of hiding away. It will be good to see my parents but I am dreading the inevitable arguments as my dad loves to "debate". It will be nice to have the bike handy if I decide it's time to leave.

At least I can drown my frustrations in nature's beauty while I take the scenic route home. Anybody got some hot springs they'd like to recommend?
posted by Feyala at 4:46 PM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


I think my entire personality has been destroyed and am waiting to die so...

Reminds me of this bit with Peter Sellers on the Muppet Show.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:59 PM on March 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


Feyala, it might be a bit out-of-the-way but Alvord Desert Hot Springs is worth visiting.
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:06 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


Reminds me of this bit with Peter Sellers yt on the Muppet Show.

From which one inevitably gets to Ken Ewing and his Musical Mice
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 5:12 PM on March 21, 2022


I managed to get a fence builder scheduled AND a lawn care guy to not only show up but commit to the work. It's going to cost a-plenty but I'm so very excited to have a clean yard and a new fence!

P.S. Happy Spring!
posted by djseafood at 5:12 PM on March 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


Today I decided to motivate myself to do something constructive with my copious free time. I’m gonna spend less time on Facebook and more time reading Shakespeare. I picked up a paperback Complete Works, and it has the plays in composition order, so today I started reading the mega-epic Henry VI.

I remember enjoying parsing the language when we covered Shakespeare in high school, but I haven’t really read any since then, so about halfway through Act 1 I realized that reading with some kind of guide might be better than trying to free-climb this thing, especially starting with a three-part historical.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:15 PM on March 21, 2022 [7 favorites]


Greg_Ace: I've been to Soldier Meadows and Willow Creek but not Alvord yet, it looks delightful! Summer Lake is filling up the swimming pool sized tub again come May and I am sincerely tempted to hit the eastern sierras "as many hot springs as I can find" route. I don't have any deadlines.
posted by Feyala at 5:26 PM on March 21, 2022


I have posted an awful lot of rather dark art pieces concerning rather awful people here in the past.
How about something completely different?
A piece done for someone who was feeling overwhelmed by recents events.
It's small, only 5 by 7 inches, and very gentle.
posted by Phlegmco(tm) at 5:54 PM on March 21, 2022 [8 favorites]


I like free threads. That is all. Oh yeah and Putin can go fuck himself.
posted by chance at 6:00 PM on March 21, 2022 [6 favorites]


So I was driving my son to his community college concert band rehearsal tonight, and we spent a few minutes stuck in traffic behind a city bus. On the back of the bus in the area where there would usually be an advertisement for a personal injury lawyer or something, there was a quotation from Martin Luther King. (I think this was a leftover thing from Black History Month.) After a few minutes of looking at this, my son turned to me and said, "I think maybe they shouldn't have put the Martin Luther King quote on the back of the bus." I couldn't disagree.
posted by Daily Alice at 6:06 PM on March 21, 2022 [13 favorites]


I just pre-ordered the upcoming book in my favorite fantasy series, The Tales of Verania by T. J. Klune, and it's coming out in just over a month, and I'm ridiculously excited.

Let me explain why.

It's gay. Seriously, hilariously, romantically, improbably, ridiculously gay. There's a gay unicorn named Gary who emits glitter when he gets angry. There's a love interest known as Knight Delicious Face. There's magic and tragedy and drama and feelings and farce and lots and lots of often-absurd gay sex. And it's brilliant and fascinating and fun and weirdly contemporary and tongue in cheek and just plain brilliant.

When I grew up, all I could find in the way of positive portrayals of gay people in science fiction or fantasy was, what, Robert A. Heinlein? Which isn't saying much. This series is like the antidote to my residual teenage angst, it's a reminder of just how far we've come, it's a ludicrous and irreverent victory flag.

So I'm going to re-read all the previous books and short stories in the series in the next few weeks, which means my abs are going to be in pain from laughing way too hard for way too long. Which is awesome.

So much is happening in queer literature right now, so many genres are exploring beyond the boundaries of sexuality and gender and imagining worlds where queer people not only exist, but can live and love and star in stories. I've been a reader all my life, and I've never felt seen like this before. I've never felt like the stories I've read were for me. But this series, these novels, are like being found. They're really written for people like me.

I had no idea how much of a difference that would make.
posted by MrVisible at 6:36 PM on March 21, 2022 [11 favorites]


So, three years ago, my parents & I bought a house together so that they could relocate here (as, Southern CA property values being what they are, I could never go back...). And then...the plague. But now, they've sold their house and are actually coming in June!

(As I acquired my book-purchasing habits from my father, I suspect that the weight on their side of the house may even out any tilt on mine.)

Meanwhile, my left index finger, a casualty of multi-tasking while watching an online conference, has been stripped of its five stitches. I never knew panels on Victorian literature could be so dangerous.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:40 PM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]


At least I can drown my frustrations in nature's beauty while I take the scenic route home. Anybody got some hot springs they'd like to recommend?

Don't have any hot springs to recommend, but am jealous as heck of the ride. Spent a few days running around southern Utah some years back and highly recommend hwy. 12 through Grand Staircase Escalante, a blissfully twisty and scenic ride. Zion NP is otherworldly.
posted by calamari kid at 7:14 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


Hey, there used to be hot springs at Hurricane, Utah, grottos along the Virgin River. This is relatively near St.George, Utah.
posted by Oyéah at 8:03 PM on March 21, 2022


Read the Shakespeare aloud to yourself, that will help you get the rhythem. Watch one of the McBeths then read it, or Mel Gibson's Hamlet. Jumping into Henry, sounds like a slog.
posted by Oyéah at 8:07 PM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]


Sober Highland, I read that getting re-vaccinated was a help for long covid symptoms. I got the Moderna shots. Unless some small, two day events of feeling crappy, were covid, I never got it even though I had direct exposure, from a couple of sources, even taking care of my grandson while he had it. I am sorry this has gone after you as it has!
posted by Oyéah at 8:27 PM on March 21, 2022


I started a new job today, my first permanent role since June of 2014. That's ridiculously exciting enough already but the company is devoted to increasing access to birth control in the US. That's also ridiculously exciting but the company culture is so inclusive and warm that Slack messages about my joining got dozens of comments and excited emojis. There's a whole section of the company docs devoted to DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) resources including this link: 106 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice and I spent some time reading it today and taking notes.

I traveled to the east coast for a few days and saw family for the first time in almost four years. My mom has been my rock for the last few years of sadness and I got to give her a lot of hugs and we had several conversations that mended pain from my childhood and strengthened our closeness.

And I thoroughly enjoyed the best lobster roll that Legal Seafoods at the airport could muster. Mmmmm lobstah.
posted by bendy at 9:25 PM on March 21, 2022 [8 favorites]


Are lobster rolls still ridiculously expensive? I remember reports from a few months ago about how they'd skyrocketed in price.
posted by hippybear at 9:33 PM on March 21, 2022




Seven months in and sustainable starvation is proving to involve gradually decreasing amounts of suffering along with frequent and quite intense joy, which is very promising.

0.4kg over ceiling today after unexpectedly scoring two breakfast days in a row Sunday and Monday, so I won't be eating again until Friday. Ceiling and floor are now at 126 and 123kg respectively, which is 40kg below where they started and 30kg above where I intend to stop ratcheting them down on every plunge below floor.

I am now a 5XL man in a 7XL skinsuit: these bingo wings need to be seen to be believed and make me exceedingly happy every time I flap and flop them in the mirror. And two days ago I smoked a little herb, grabbed a water bottle and not my phone, and went out for a barefoot walk just before sunset. Ended up doing a three hour, 11km loop, mostly on unsurfaced bush roads through forest alive with frog calls (it's been raining quite a lot here), the last two hours of which were illuminated only by cloud-filtered twilight glow and rising moonlight. Got home just as ms flabdablet and little ms flabdablet were setting out on a search party. It was glorious.

My blood pressure is now 100% sound, I hurt a lot less often and a lot less intensely, and breakfast days are just deliriously deliciously wonderful. I love being able to eat whatever the fuck I want without feeling even a trace of guilt or worry about it and my cooking mojo is slowly growing back in. On a purely personal level, life is fucking excellent right now.
posted by flabdablet at 10:33 PM on March 21, 2022 [14 favorites]


Are lobster rolls still ridiculously expensive?

$39 SAIT
posted by bendy at 10:43 PM on March 21, 2022 [2 favorites]


I have a theory that in every country there is a cultural television program that is unique to that country, wildly and inexplicably popular in that country, shown annually, and doesn't make a great deal of sense to outsiders.

US: The Superbowl
Ireland: The Late Late Toy Show
UK: Either Sports Personality of the Year, or the Queen's Speech.
Netherlands: That odd 1940's black and white film they show every christmas (I forget the name of it).
Germany: Dinner for One

So can you think of any similar things for other countries?
posted by BigCalm at 1:47 AM on March 22, 2022


Hey hey! This morning's cycle was rather exciting. First, I narrowly missed being mown down by a car that was driving far too fast down a quiet back road. Honestly it was a very near thing.
I still have that feeling of being in an alternate reality, not quite able to believe that I'm fine, and not in the time-branch where I got seriously hurt.
A few minutes later a squirrel ran smack bang into my bicycle's front wheel, both of us going quite fast.
It turned and dashed away, then directed some impressive stink eye in my direction. It didn't curse audibly, which was surprising. Not a mark on it! Apparently squirrels are a lot tougher even than they look.
posted by Zumbador at 2:33 AM on March 22, 2022 [3 favorites]




OMG I have just successfully corrupted little ms flabdablet (17), having finally ground her down with a few months of disobediently wearing the happy pants every day and everywhere.

This evening she reluctantly agreed to try on my spare pair, and even more reluctantly took my advice to do so with no leggings underneath, and has just now spent a solid half hour wandering about all wide eyed and gobsmacked and saying things like "what the FUCK" and "I need to stop being so judgemental".

Incomparable comfort wins. It just does.

Not even having both ms flabdablet and I say that we think they look really good on her was enough to put her off them. I'm ordering her a couple of pairs of her own :-)
posted by flabdablet at 3:46 AM on March 22, 2022 [4 favorites]


It is hard being.
posted by srboisvert at 5:54 AM on March 22, 2022 [4 favorites]


After finally becoming citizens last year, Mrs. Example and I are voting in our first UK election in about six weeks. I am weirdly excited about this.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:03 AM on March 22, 2022 [3 favorites]


We put...Blast Hardcheese: Well after 2 years of successful duck-and-weave I finally tested positive for covid.

Me, too. *masked fistbump* *immediate slump back on the couch in exhaustion*

It's fucking stupid how much effort I went to, and for so long, to be undone so quickly: they cancel the state mask requirements, and my kid brings it home from school in like ten days.

It's not a huge burden: just aches and weakness for several days, and now it feels like an ordinary chest cold. But all the masking and avoidance and washing....wasted by some pimply middle schooler with a Republican dad -- or, more likely, that Bircher gym teacher lady . Grrrr....
posted by wenestvedt at 6:37 AM on March 22, 2022 [7 favorites]


Oyéah: They’re plays, and I am a talky boy, I think and write by talking, so that’s a gimme.
I have also watched so many films of Hamlet and Macbeth I have lost count.

Just in Act 1 of Hank 6, everybody talks such shit on Joan of Arc (even Charles, who crushes on her hard after she kicks his ass) that I already want her to burn them all down, even though I know it doesn’t go that way.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 8:30 AM on March 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


I am just a walking corpse.
posted by OnTheLastCastle


I read that as "I am a walking copse" and, being all too familiar with the non-typo sentiment, have decided to spend some time trying to figure what that would feel like, to be a walking copse.

In other news: my god but spring here is being an absolute floozy.
posted by From Bklyn at 9:24 AM on March 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


A long term employee here who has been (off and on) job hunting for years finally got another job. I'm flabbergasted because she and I were usually in the same boat of "nobody wants us." However, she's going into advising, i.e. "they're always hiring, and there's reasons for that," so um, good luck there.

Yes, that's three people who have left in the last few months, and one now out on medical leave, and another manager is now out because some family member is having a medical issue.... I'm so tired of being The Only One Left Here.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:24 AM on March 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


I read that as "I am a walking copse" and, being all too familiar with the non-typo sentiment, have decided to spend some time trying to figure what that would feel like, to be a walking copse.

I might not know how that feels, but Birnam would.
posted by notoriety public at 9:38 AM on March 22, 2022 [19 favorites]


I just sang an improvised song to my cat about cat puke. Like, most of a whole-ass song. With a chorus and stuff. Favorite lines from the song were things like:
It's okay to be the cat
who yarfs
when you're the kitty,
when you're the kitty.

...

You can be the cat who yarfs
on the cat couch
it's okay.
posted by majick at 9:54 AM on March 22, 2022 [8 favorites]


Jury duty update: No jury trials, they released us at 10:30 AM which was for the best (I suppose) because we had a bit of a disaster at work that I kind of needed to be available for.
posted by bondcliff at 10:24 AM on March 22, 2022 [4 favorites]


I might not know how that feels, but Birnam would.

I see what thou didst there.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:29 AM on March 22, 2022 [4 favorites]


I see what thou didst there.

A Scottish play on words, one might call it.
posted by notoriety public at 11:40 AM on March 22, 2022 [8 favorites]


We bought a new blender yesterday. I keep catching my partner gazing into the fridge with a “will it blend?” look on her face
posted by ook at 1:27 PM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]


The question is less "will it blend" and more "do I want it after it's blended"... but I'm sure she will figure that out eventually.
posted by hippybear at 1:36 PM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]


Also, "What if it doesn't blend?" and "Will we still have a working blender at that point?"
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:20 PM on March 22, 2022


Air NZ just announced they are starting a three times weekly direct flight between Auckland and New York. Just in case you needed a 17 1/2 hours there and 16 hours or so back quick break away. That’s quite a flight……
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:19 PM on March 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


I am so thankful for the good in my life and so angry about the evil that lurks in the future. But then my cat traps himself between the shower curtains and I laugh at the absurdity of life.

Be mighty, y'all. Find your joy.
posted by gwydapllew at 5:35 PM on March 22, 2022 [4 favorites]


I hide treats behind the shower curtain

My dog is not fooled a whit
posted by elkevelvet at 6:35 PM on March 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


@majick and all others who sing to their animal companions.. do you ever work from church hymns? I am a big fan of church hymns.. but who am I kidding, any popular song is so easily adapted to a pet paean
posted by elkevelvet at 6:50 PM on March 22, 2022


do you ever work from church hymns?

Both of my cats are unwilling to acknowledge any god but themselves, so no.
posted by hippybear at 6:54 PM on March 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


Of a walking copse I once did read
To Dunsinane it came copse speed the wood
Of Birnam carried forth in metalled hands
To hide the glint of armored knights who sought
Revenge by morning's light, proving those
Who spake, were right, upon that plain the Birnam
Wood had come at dawn to Dunsinane
To which the King, MacBeth exclaimed alack, "Come wind!
Come wrack! At least I'll die with armour on my back!"
posted by Oyéah at 7:03 PM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]


do you ever work from church hymns?

I have no exposure to this music, alas, so I can't share it with my cat. If I don't make something up (which I typically do) she gets a fair amount of Super Mario Bros. 1-1 and 1-2, Pac-man, and Donkey Kong melodies. Pretty much my kitty gets improvised funk-esque, improvised pop-oid, or 80's 8-bit video game music.
posted by majick at 7:24 PM on March 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


For some reason, I automatically heard majick's Yarf Kitty song in the tune of "The Little Black Bull" . It doesn't quite fit, though.
Haven't even THOUGHT about that song for decades. Amazing the tricks your brain can play.

(I also like setting pet songs to church music, elkevelvet, as well as the hideous patriotic "My Fatherland" type songs we were taught at school)
posted by Zumbador at 8:49 PM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]


All animals need Theme Songs.
posted by spinifex23 at 9:47 PM on March 22, 2022 [3 favorites]


Despite a prodigiously rainy climate here, thunder and lightning are very rare. Tonight, though, we got thundersleet, if that's a thing. Something in the neighborhood must have gotten hit, judging by the house-shaking boom that followed immediately after a bright flash, but I'm not going to find out what until the morning, at best.

After the lightning strike, the sleet turned to hail and in just a few minutes I had an inch or two of small pellets accumulated on my steps.

It has been a crazy night, and I'm just glad that my neighbor and his buddies, who were originally planning to be in outside, unsheltered waters tonight, looking for a shipwreck they hope to explore, decided to delay their expedition to wait for more clement weather.
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:12 PM on March 22, 2022 [4 favorites]


This week the twitter app on my phone has been almost entirely serving ads in a language I don't even pretend to speak. (I can say, "hello," "sorry," "thank you," and count to 10, with bad pronunciation.) They're mostly images of text that are absolutely meaningless to me. I feel like I've achieved some sort of cosmopolitan machine translation goal in the social media video game.

20% of my tweets and responses are in Spanish, which I do more or less speak, but I've never once seen a Spanish ad. I don't understand how the algorithm works. I'm guessing they don't get the most thoughtful people in the ad department.
posted by eotvos at 2:36 AM on March 23, 2022


All animals need Theme Songs.

An old roommate used the Talking Heads for my cat:

"Psycho Kitty, Q'uest-ce que c'est....."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:56 AM on March 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


do you ever work from church hymns?

Hot take: the only church hymns that are even *singable* are the ones that are really popular, like Swing Low Sweet Chariot, the ones that toddlers sing in vacation bible school, and the ones turned into popular Christmas songs.

The rest are tuneless dreck with the religious themes obviously coming far ahead of the the melody.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:51 AM on March 23, 2022


I'll leave you to your opinions about spiritual music, my point is, it's fun to sing to/at your cat and dog friends. And they respond!
posted by elkevelvet at 8:34 AM on March 23, 2022 [2 favorites]


The rest are tuneless dreck with the religious themes obviously coming far ahead of the the melody.

O God what on Earth is my hair do ....
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:50 AM on March 23, 2022 [3 favorites]


Arctostapholos

“My mom has her first chemo treatment tomorrow for what looks like a very treatable form of lymphoma. I think we are ready for whatever comes.”

I found out I had follicular lymphoma in January, it’s slow growing and treatable as well. I hope your mom does great.
posted by haikuku at 6:45 PM on March 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


Shadows
posted by y2karl at 6:55 PM on March 23, 2022




Just got suspended from Twitter for outing (using a very English term) a right-wing transphobic GB News writer. Seems like Twitter like freedom of speech but only when it comes to their own political beliefs.

I'm neuroatypical so they managed to not only uproot one support system but proved to me their policy is wrong in so many different ways. Support the bigots is their message.

I wasn't just an anti-fascist (in all its terrible variety), I was friends with a lot of people who still are, and I hope they're still safe. Many of whom I can no longer contact.

Sorry to be so grumpy.

Bah.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 8:56 PM on March 23, 2022 [2 favorites]


Today I had a 1:1 conversation with a young woman (web) developer in her first real job and got a super-excited rush thinking that I could be her mentor.
posted by bendy at 9:28 PM on March 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


> Today I had a 1:1 conversation with a young woman (web) developer in her first real job and got a super-excited rush thinking that I could be her mentor.

Nice. But don't be in a rush to be her mentor. Let her breathe, and establish some space but also let her you know you're available. You may have many things to to teach but some of that has to come out slowly.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 10:04 PM on March 23, 2022


The rest are tuneless dreck with the religious themes obviously coming far ahead of the the melody.

Well take a listen here.
posted by clavdivs at 11:36 PM on March 23, 2022 [4 favorites]


That's absolutely beautiful clavdivs.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, a song that by itself is innocent, but the context gives me severe cognitive dissonance.

The setting in the video is a Dutch Reformed church, that used preach support of Apartheid.

I sang that song in choir and found it beautiful for itself (it's asking god's protection of family and friends before going to sleep). But I can hardly watch this video.
posted by Zumbador at 2:37 AM on March 24, 2022 [4 favorites]


The new Lisa Leblanc album, Chiac Disco, is an Acadian disco-funk-throwback franglais lump of pure joy and I can't stop listening to it. Everything LeBlanc does is great, this is just the latest great thing.

Drop everything and listen to Dans l'jus ("In the juice," roughly equates to "in the soup" / "in the weeds"). You don't need to know French to enjoy it, and the fluid French-English-French fusion is part of the fun.

Wheel's turning but the hamster's dead!
posted by Shepherd at 4:42 AM on March 24, 2022 [5 favorites]


Shepherd, I see your (awesome!!) Acadian disco and raise you Income Tax
posted by elkevelvet at 9:26 AM on March 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


Drop everything and listen to Dans l'jus ("In the juice," roughly equates to "in the soup" / "in the weeds").

Oh, man - now I wanna hear a mash-up of this with Lizzo's Juice. (It would work, dammit.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:49 AM on March 24, 2022


Is this now the Acadian Bops thread? yes this is the thread for franglais bops

Radio Radio, Nine Piece Luggage Set (chuis jet set!)
posted by Shepherd at 9:56 AM on March 24, 2022 [3 favorites]


@majick and all others who sing to their animal companions.. do you ever work from church hymns?

My dog gets songs adapted from whatever the latest melody I've heard is. It's my kids that get "Arise from your Chromebooks!" to the tune of the opening of City of God when they're turning into couch potatoes.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 9:59 AM on March 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


also, Bad Leroy Brown is infinitely adaptable.. and if dog in question is a dark brown lab/shepherd mix and she's terribly indulged and she makes off with any rank carrion she finds on the trail walks, and barks murderously at other dogs (for reasons) and emits precious little farts as she settles on her haunches waiting for pieces of carrot, then you may find yourself singing Bad Boo-Boo Brown frequently

theme songs indeed

edit to add: why did it take this long to bring all this great Acadian music out in a thread
posted by elkevelvet at 10:33 AM on March 24, 2022 [5 favorites]


The rest are tuneless dreck with the religious themes obviously coming far ahead of the the melody.
I confess I find it hard to really pay attention to most. When I do, it's usually because of the singer rather than the melody. (I'll happily listen to Sister Rosetta Tharpe or Paul Robeson sing advertising copy from the yellow pages.) But, they've got nothing on Christmas songs as a genre. In the latter case, I just lean into it and try leave friends and family wondering if I'm sincere or not. I'm not entirely sure myself.
do you ever work from church hymns?
I mostly sang to my last cat with goofy versions of folk/labor songs. Which, I guess, were often based on hymns to begin with: "Now squi-gy, she was a bad cat. She wanted the whole round world to know. She tore up the couch and curtains, and then came back for more. . ." Or, even more silly, "Alla mattina sveglio il gatto. Bella meow, bella meow, bella meow, meow, meow. . . In cucina apro una lattina. . ." (Which I'm sure is full of mistakes. But, my cat spoke even less Italian than me.)
posted by eotvos at 10:51 AM on March 24, 2022 [3 favorites]


I got in trouble Yet Again for my customer service (I was actively terrified of the person) and I'm already utterly worn out and exhausted and I still have more than half the workday to go.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:42 AM on March 24, 2022 [3 favorites]


Went to several continuous hours of back to back meetings that started before I would normally begin work (although there are acceptable reasons for that last bit). I hope I will be able to knock off early today, as tomorrow is a company-wide holiday at my place of employment and my day, my week, has already been long.

Acadian music is new to me but I do enjoy French music from time to time, which at least is language-adjacent. I keep several FIP streams configured on the Sonos.
posted by majick at 12:05 PM on March 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


Serendipitously, majick, several people on the Lisa LeBlanc "Dans l'jus" video make reference to FIP as how they heard her for the first time! I've been meaning to check that out and you've just helped me considerably.
posted by Shepherd at 1:13 PM on March 24, 2022


It may be a bit of a contribution towards further derail but I can't help but plug D-Side radio as meticulously curated by excellent French DJs, though not at all with exclusively French artists. This stream has overtaken all others in my household and is often played for several hours at a time.
posted by majick at 1:18 PM on March 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


It is by definition impossible to derail a Free Thread.
posted by cortex at 1:21 PM on March 24, 2022 [7 favorites]


I have been hounded for over a week by this awful married couple to give them something super expensive for free, which I'm not supposed to do since I'm not a supervisor. By the time one of them came in person to harass the shit out of me IRL.... YOU WIN! YOU GET YOUR FUCKING FREEBIE!!!! FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YOU WIN! YOU WIN! YOU WIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really just want to scream and cry and have a meltdown right now. I can't leave work early but I just want to start sobbing at the desk, except if I do someone will come by wanting to talk to me and we already had the lecture this morning about hiding my stressed feelings at work.

I hope karma gets these awful shitheads in some other way not involving my job. Thank Christ tomorrow is a holiday here. I don't think I could make it through another day, I don't know how I'm going to manage the next 3.5 hours.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:26 PM on March 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


I prescribe you a perusal of this web site.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:31 PM on March 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


As a descendent of Beausoleil Broussard's brother, and someone who has gone dancing at honkey tonks in Breaux Bridge, I approve, endorse, and adore the proliferation of Acadian music in this thread.
posted by gwydapllew at 2:30 PM on March 24, 2022 [4 favorites]


looks like i made one more revolution around the sun
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 10:02 PM on March 25, 2022 [7 favorites]


It's about bein' in love and lovin' the love that's hatin' the love that loves and lovin' the hateless love that revolves around the loveless hate that's a hateless love and the love that's love and the love and the hate that's hate and the love that's the love and the hate.
posted by flabdablet at 2:35 AM on March 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


Happy Birthday, a non mous, a cow herd!
posted by Oyéah at 12:41 AM on March 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


I had coffee with neighbors today, and pie, and ice cream. It was nice, and I am still alive, after it. I am at the crux maybe of the boomerishness, but I fall on the feminism, Beatles, San Francisco Sound, side of that divide, where I expect equality, and one of these neighbors is on the Sinatra side of the equation, which gives him direction to be grumpy in a manly way, and probe about to find a gaslight hookup, and believe me, there is none. I threw out the bag that used to have my f*cks in it, and annealed the interfaces, so stuff passes even lighter than a butterfly, but I recognize it, and I just don't respond. The person thinks that I should care, or if I am guided in conversation to respond as he wishes me to, he doesn't get it if I don't go where he wants. Pie is not an inducement to a death in life.

So, I simply told him, it is not a matter of my not understanding you, or my basic intelligence, it is that I won't be guided, from point A, to point B in a conversation, I am a completely free agent. The thought had never occurred to him. He actually blinked a couple of times. Metafilter, I have looked over every bean, for nearly 20 years now, I get how they are looked at, to paraphrase, TS Eliot, "Those beans had a look of beans, that are looked at." Thank you. It is rare for me to offer friendship, because, I do like a plate of beans, now and again, but not a can of worms, ya know. This is an old married couple, I am not sure how old,(but old enough,) the other more soft, spouse is, but they are a gay couple, both men. I usually don't make new friends, because, for one thing, they are so old, if I stay within my age group, it is like getting kittens or puppies, I am too old for that. This couple is safe for me, because they are nice, overall, and I lost all my gay male friends early on, to HIV, because of the age cohort. So, I had coffee with them, and pie, and icecream, and watched a person struggle with their own negativity to have a normal life.

I had to remind my dad when he was in his grumpy old man phase, that this was his life, every minute of it was his life, and the lives of everyone who loved him. If he were going to be grumpy about it, as bad as it was, then everyone would still love him, but, I would be so much harder for him, and for everyone to enjoy this, the last of his long, happy iife. So he had a good, long, sunset, not so great at the end, but nevertheless.

Insular couples, especially isolated from family by one, or the other, as they age, face great aloneness, at the loss of each other, and I kind of think my isolation is better, as in when I go, I leave very few peers behind, and no spouse.

So while opening up my house to cool off this morning, my heat came on, I forgot about getting down on my now, two bad knees, to turn off the pilot, so I took care of that today, along with other duties, yes, duties. I may as well tell you, I lost one of my cats last Sunday, he had a hard time of it, but he apparently ate a poisoned mouse or two, and that death from blood thinners is unavoidable, especially I didn't recognise it until it was way too late, he may have also eaten his flea collar, I can't find it anywhere, he is the one who would find rubberbands and etc. He was an excellent cat, and passed within three days of his 15th birthday. I am still thinking of him, and how white his feet were, as I buried him. I wrapped him in excellent, African, wax died cloth, and found large, relatively, pieces of sparkly granite, from the hills to put on his grave.

Now i have participated in the free thread. Yeah. Hey, Picard, is totally great, this time around, and I am also enjoying discovery, that is all for my watching habits, since that is all there are. Best to all of you this Saturday night. We aren't truly free, until we are all free!
posted by Oyéah at 1:10 AM on March 27, 2022 [5 favorites]


As of last Wednesday, we are a plague house :-(

Little ms flabdablet (17) had got her third vax just one day before the likely exposure event on Saturday night a week ago, and has had by far the worst ride of all of us so far. She's quite a bit better today though, and given that her nose and throat seem to have copped much more of a hammering than her lungs, I'm thinking this is probably omicron. None of us feel much motivated to break quarantine in order to follow up her positive RAT with a confirming PCR test, though.

Ms flabdablet is triple vaxxed with Pfizer as of a month ago, and got head cold symptoms and a positive RAT result yesterday.

I'm vaxxed with two doses of Astra Zeneca 13 weeks apart starting last April and a Moderna booster in early February, and am currently symptom free and RAT negative; then again, I'm 60 years old and do not want a re-run of the years of chronic fatigue I got after having had pneumonia ten years ago. So I'm still feeling a bit wary.

We've all retreated to separate bedrooms, we're running little ms flabdablet's room at negative pressure with a box fan in the window, and we're all masking up any time we're outside our own room. So far, so could have been so much worse.

Our fabulous neighbours have left jigsaw puzzles and bottles of home made cordial on our doorstep. I love living here.
posted by flabdablet at 2:52 AM on March 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


In other news: ceiling and floor are now at 125kg and 122kg respectively, and this morning I weighed in at 123.3 despite having eaten for two days in a row. I am very probably going to be properly lean before Christmas and the thought of that leaves me happy every time it occurs to me.
posted by flabdablet at 2:58 AM on March 27, 2022 [3 favorites]


Tonight, I cooked Roman Style Artichokes, this time nearly without checking the recipe. I love artichokes, in every form and shape, but this recipe has eluded me for decades. Suddenly I can do it! The "tricks" are: to use very fresh artichokes, and to have very sharp knives.

I'm not religious, but sometimes there are funerals or weddings. This is my favorite hymn, that always makes me cry. We sang it at a funeral Friday. I wonder if it makes sense when you don't understand the lyrics? The title is: See, The Sun Is Rising.
posted by mumimor at 12:24 PM on March 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


Very sharp knives are highly underrated in the average home kitchen.
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:33 PM on March 27, 2022 [2 favorites]


Artichokes are one of the foods that always make me wonder, “how hungry was the guy who figured out how to make this edible?” Nixtamalized corn is another one.
posted by fedward at 12:46 PM on March 27, 2022 [4 favorites]


There are these bushes up in the hills, I mistook for mountain mahogany. It is called Bladderpod, that supposedly smells like green pepper and onions. The flowers are sweet to eat after boiling them for hours, and the peas from the pods have to be boiled to remove bitterness as well, but not for hours. They are all over the place in the hills. A lot of work to make flower tacos.
posted by Oyéah at 1:23 PM on March 27, 2022 [1 favorite]


A fresh picked leaf of lemon myrtle is a fabulous addition to a pot of green tea. Good in a meat sauce, too.
posted by flabdablet at 1:51 PM on March 27, 2022


I love myrtle, but it is hard to find here, so maybe I should grow my own.
posted by mumimor at 1:54 PM on March 27, 2022


Artichokes are one of the foods that always make me wonder, “how hungry was the guy who figured out how to make this edible?”

It isn't that hard to get to the edible part of the stalk. So discovering how much of the flower you can eat makes sense.
posted by mumimor at 2:04 PM on March 27, 2022


There is, as it happens, a new Free Thread.
posted by cortex at 8:26 AM on March 28, 2022


Myrtle is ivy. It's all over the place in SLC. I have never heard of lemon myrtle.
posted by Oyéah at 6:43 PM on March 28, 2022


Lemon myrtle is a tree, not a vine.
posted by flabdablet at 10:42 PM on March 28, 2022


Artichokes are one of the foods that always make me wonder, “how hungry was the guy who figured out how to make this edible?”

Or pokeweed which needs to be boiled three times to leach out the toxins.
posted by Mitheral at 7:26 AM on March 29, 2022 [1 favorite]


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