Unfettered
August 1, 2022 2:26 AM   Subscribe

This thread is wandering down the Champs-Élysées, going café to cabaret, thinking how it'll feel when it finds that very good friend of theirs.

This thread is free, by the way, also alive and currently in Paris, feeling a certain way.
posted by taz (99 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I am alive and well and currently in Berlin! Starting the work section of a work/personal trip. What a delight to be Somewhere Else.
posted by sixswitch at 2:34 AM on August 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


I also deal in dreamers and telephone screamers.

I live in southern Ontario; in this last two weeks I had plans to meet with a total of five different friends, all Canadians from my part of the world, all of whom have been living in Europe for years or decades, all of whom are back visiting this summer for a few weeks.

So far, only one of the five meetings has occurred (and I’m glad it did, as she flew back to Germany yesterday). The other four have all, since they arrived here, been exposed to Covid and are quarantined in their various domiciles. I’ve had a chance to speak to most but it’s annoying when I have longtime friends I have not seen a decade or so on average, still being unable to see them when there is not an ocean but just a few kilometres separating us. For their part, they’re all stuck here in various spots after an expensive flight with no visits accomplished.

You know, I’m starting to dislike this whole Covid thing.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:57 AM on August 1, 2022 [9 favorites]




I've posted Elise Trouw's fantastic live-looping videos before. She has a new live-loop video called See-through, it's a real step up in production quality. It's great to see her making progress in her career. She did a pretty good version of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams a couple of years ago when that went viral. St Vincent performed this on Colbert a few days ago. I love SV but I favor Elise here.
posted by adept256 at 4:05 AM on August 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


What do you call The Hunger Games in Paris?

Battle Royale with cheese.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:31 AM on August 1, 2022 [25 favorites]


It's been 19 years since my wife and I went to Paris to celebrate our 40th birthdays. I'm hoping we can go back next year to celebrate our 60th.
posted by briank at 4:37 AM on August 1, 2022 [6 favorites]


📬 Oh hey, fancy meeting you here! 📩

Just a reminder that the self-nominations for the inaugural Metafilter Steering Committee (SC) close on August 7th! The purpose of said committee will be to develop and implement site policy, code updates, and ensure the financial health of the site, i.e. help guide the direction of the overall site and act as the voice of the community.

Interested? Come over to Metatalk to view details and learn how to apply by August 7th!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:41 AM on August 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


I am sitting in my office at work, only one week after testing positive for Covid. My work says their policy aligns with the CDC direction that one may return to being in public with a mask if it has been a few days since last fever symptoms.

Given how contagious BA.5 is supposed to be, I don't think I should be here. I feel "ok" I guess, but I still have sinus congestion/drainage and a bit of cough.

The stupid thing is, I work from home three days a week anyway, so it wouldn't have hurt anything for me to just work from home all this week. I'm already set up for it and WFH regularly.

I hope no one gets sick because they forced me to return to the office.
posted by Fleebnork at 4:44 AM on August 1, 2022 [17 favorites]


I am back after spending a good chunk of the week at Airventure, the world's biggest fly-in. I don't even know how to start describing it, it's just... so big. There is so much going on. OSH is something like 1200 acres and every square inch of that airport is covered in airplanes for the whole week.

They reworked the arrival procedure last year, extending it all the way to Endeavor Lake to accommodate more incoming traffic. When we got there, they were backed up all the way to Portage airport, a further 10 or so miles away from the farthest arrival fix. I put the plane down right on the dot and the controllers told me I did an excellent job so that's all the validation I need in my life from now on.
posted by backseatpilot at 5:20 AM on August 1, 2022 [17 favorites]


So my kids are infatuated with The Fitness Marshall on YouTube, and I have to admit, I kind of am as well.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:28 AM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]




I don't think I see the point of travel any more if you are just going to catch covid while there and can't do anything and may have a few thousand in extra expenses paying for a hotel room and room service to do nothing but be sick for weeks. I can't afford that and it seems pointless.

On a related note, one of my castmates went to Disneyland and of course half her family has it and as the director said, the rest of them will soon too. Amd an online friend/castmate is flying to Europe to sing "with one hundred and fifty of my closest friends" and I just shudder at this. Hopefully she recovers from her next inevitable bout of covid before our online show on the 20th.

Also my mother seems to think all of my life's problems would be solved if I just change my clothes and hair. I hung up on her. She cannot and does not realize how mean she is being if she cannot stop going to the well of I Hate Her Hair Because I Am Not Styling It.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:36 AM on August 1, 2022 [7 favorites]


When visiting family in Paris, on our obligatory walk down the Champs-Elysees we discovered the Apple Store, which is in an amazing old building and truly a cool place to visit.
posted by hydropsyche at 6:23 AM on August 1, 2022


In France you have to call it the Pomme Store mes amis.
posted by k3ninho at 6:48 AM on August 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


Don't be fooled by "Pommes de Terre" store or the Australian old-english shopping experience called "The Pom Store." Accept no substitutes.
posted by k3ninho at 6:49 AM on August 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


The sudden change of ambiance in a street within the space of a few meters; the evident division of a city into zones of distinct psychic atmospheres; the path of least resistance which is automatically followed in aimless strolls (and which has no relation to the physical contour of the ground); the appealing or repelling character of certain places — these phenomena all seem to be neglected. [Guy Debord, Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography]
I am envious of the idea of strolling in Paris instead of sitting in meetings today. But, I also just got back from a trip that included a very pleasant day-long dérive in a lovely city and an opportunity to see many old friends for the first time in years, so I really can't complain.
posted by eotvos at 7:11 AM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


My all-time favourite Joni song. Takes me back to the summer of 1974, starting a sort of apprenticeship in electronics.

We hit Paris (and other parts of Europe) in the late spring of 2008, corresponding to our 50th birthdays. My first time and I utterly loved it. I think that I was secretly born French, but stolen and raised by others.

We are now retired, but I don't yet feel like a free man. COVID has thrown a wrench into travel plans. At present, I particularly resent family commitments that eat up a week or more in preparation and dread. Good thing my family don't read MF...
posted by Artful Codger at 7:20 AM on August 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


I have nothing to say except that I love the introduction to this thread.
posted by kristi at 7:23 AM on August 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


First day back at work in two full weeks, and friends, it is going slowly. I have made a to-do list, and ensured that all the emails I have not read are at the top of my inbox, and gone through the mail that accumulated while I was away.

Phew! Can I knock off now?

Garden report: after two weeks away things were looking shaggy. I have harvested about 30 pounds of beautiful potatoes, as well as approx. 40 onions, a row of beets, and 10 lbs carrots. The tomatoes are starting to ripen, but once again I have black spots that mean they go bad if not processed promptly. Time to cut up and roast what I can save of the first batch. My bush beans are giving me tons and tons of delicious skinny little pods to eat right off the plant.

Last night my partner and I went down and weeded the garlic patch (garlic is all out and drying at my co-gardener of last year's house). It was plenty sweaty. We tied up the tomatoes further, gleaned a bit of left-behind garlic, and watered. A lovely evening, full of swallows swooping and dogs frolicking at the adjacent dog park.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:31 AM on August 1, 2022 [8 favorites]


In France, they kiss on Main Street
Amour, mama, not cheap display
posted by Bee'sWing at 7:31 AM on August 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


One thing I think a lot about is a Parisian baguette. I spent (almost) all my baking time during lockdown trying to make a good baguette, to no avail. But it's not just me. I have visited all the great commercial bakers of this city, and they are many, fine and proud, but their baguettes are just bread. Sometimes sourdough, sometimes yeast bread, all fair and good, but not baguettes. Why is it so hard?

Once, a good friend called me, right when he arrived from New York, and said I had to come over, because he had a present for me. I knew exactly what it was, even though I pretended not to know: a real New York bagel with cream cheese and lox. And it was delicious and I was so grateful to be that person who gets a bagel fresh from New York. But to be honest, I do not love a bagel and lox as much as I love a jambon beurre, and I am not that person who gets one of those flown in.
posted by mumimor at 7:41 AM on August 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


Eight years ago I had to quit working because of my health. I had a number of medical problems going on which needed to be diagnosed and sorted out, and that turned out to be a lugubrious process involving trying out dozens of medications and going through multiple surgeries.

If you're really interested, here are the gross medical details:
I had massive gastrointestinal symptoms, including frequent diarrhea, blood, and excruciating abdominal pain. After eight years of trying to get help from the medical system, here's what it turns out to have been, and how it's being dealt with.

Crohn's disease, treated with Stelara
Microscopic colitis, treated with Lomotil
Bleeding hemorrhoids, banded
Umbilical hernia, two surgeries
Left inguinal hernia, three surgeries
Right inguinal hernia, two surgeries

Assuming last week's bilateral inguinal hernia repair which removed the portion of the mesh that had wadded up around a nerve finishes solving the hernia problems, I should be good to go for a while. But Stelara isn't forever.

A few weeks ago I started on yet another new medication, which has been enormously helpful in getting the last of one problem under control. And last week I underwent a pretty major surgical procedure, from which I'm recovering nicely (so far, knock on wood). Which means that for the first time in almost a decade, I'm about ready to work again.

Which is good, because I'm broke. But now I face a choice: while I was dealing with all of this, I developed a series of prototypes of new musical instruments that are absurdly easy to play. I think they have enormous commercial potential. I'm considering going all in and starting a business manufacturing them, but I'm truly not a business-oriented person, and it would involve an enormous amount of work. Which I'm not entirely sure my health will support.

But I have visions of an employee-owned, collaborative workplace where we build musical instruments that make it possible for people who long to play music but never could. A workshop where we could build custon instruments for people with particular needs. I want to build a world where everyone can play music together.

So... do I go out and job hunt for the first time in fifteen years and hope my health holds out long enough to build up a decent retirement? Or do I, at almost sixty years old, immunocompromised, with uncertain health and a rudimentary appreciation of the business world, try to build a business that will bring the joy of making music to millions of people?

I've got a couple of weeks before we know how the latest surgery turned out, but so far it's looking good. I'm doing research into what it would take to start a business, and... it's intimidating. I can see why people get degrees in this sort of thing. What I'd really like is to team up with someone who shared this dream, but maybe had some experience with the whole starting a manufacturing business thing already. I have no idea where I'd go about looking for someone like that, though. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

And finally, a feral cat colony update: I had a friend taking care of them during the worst of my convaelscence, and they're doing well. One kitten from Luna's litter has survived, a little black and white scamp with one white leg, and I've been putting kitten food out whenever he appears. I'll be attempting to trap mother and kitten as soon as I can lift a few pounds, so they can be checked over and neutered. They're not enjoying the rain from monsoon season, but they're definitely not missing the heat.

Anyway, sorry for the massive autobiographical text dump. I'm about to feel better for the first time in years, I'm about to not be in pain, I'm about to be able to actually do things again, and I'm absurdly excited.
posted by MrVisible at 7:49 AM on August 1, 2022 [18 favorites]


But it's not just me. I have visited all the great commercial bakers of this city, and they are many, fine and proud, but their baguettes are just bread. Sometimes sourdough, sometimes yeast bread, all fair and good, but not baguettes. Why is it so hard?

If it's French they've probably hidden some butter somewhere.
posted by adept256 at 7:57 AM on August 1, 2022


Interestingly, the design of Tokyo Tower is based on the Eiffel Tower, but just a little bit taller.
posted by SPrintF at 8:37 AM on August 1, 2022


And, while we're on the subject of competition, the original Ferris Wheel, built for the Chicago Exposition, was intended as an American response to the Eiffel Tower, built for the earlier Paris Exposition.
posted by SPrintF at 8:41 AM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


It's been 19 years since my wife and I went to Paris to celebrate our 40th birthdays. I'm hoping we can go back next year to celebrate our 60th.

In 2016 I visited Paris for the first time and fell DEEPLY in love, and swore that "that's it, I am probably going to make annual visits for the rest of my life." That....hasn't happened; first I spent 3 years trying to get my financial house finally in order, and then Covid happened. I'm going to try sometime next year, I think.

My own garden report - in my own plot, I've started getting some Roma tomatoes, and one big beautiful beefsteak, with more of both on the way. I'm also pulling the cherry tomatoes off that little guy as they come along. The jalapeno is churning things out, and I'm starting to see things on the bell peppers. And finally the eggplant is starting to do more than just sit there.

I also started a container garden of tea herbs in one corner, rounding up some pots and sticking three different mints, lemon verbena, lavender and lemon balm in them. The mints have all been pretty prolific, and I used "I need to cut them back" as an excuse to make a fresh mint ice cream. I also raided the lemon verbena for this amazing cantaloupe sorbet; it doesn't have QUITE enough growth for me to make it again and use up the other half of the cantaloupe, but I may try subbing in half lemon balm.

The garden also has a plum tree, but its pickings were a little slim this year; those are all gone by, but the grapes along the side wall are starting to come out so I may raid those for another sorbet.

My doctor has been VERY happy to see that I've upped my vegetable intake so much, between the garden, my CSA and my membership in Rancho Gordo's bean club. About 95% of my diet for the past couple months has been various batches of salads that live in the fridge and I use them in bag lunches for work, and then finish things off for dinner. I have an Indian recipe using cucumbers, tomatoes, and radishes that I'll probably make for this week, and I'll throw in some chick peas because why not. ....Although I'm also looking at a stew this weekend that would let me try out their hominy....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:42 AM on August 1, 2022 [6 favorites]


Because this is inappropriate for Ask:

Metafilter: assume the cat is a sphere
posted by MuChao at 8:43 AM on August 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


If it's French they've probably hidden some butter somewhere

But no, no butter at all, no fat at all, part of the miracle of the baguette is that it is perfectly lean. Therefore the melting acceptance of the butter, of the pâté; therefore also the swift, the hourly descent from fresh to stale.

(Also flour is regional and I bet a good lean-dough bakery is picky about how old the flour is - it matters less with refined flour than whole-grain, but it still matters.)
posted by clew at 9:21 AM on August 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


The Tiny Monster has continued to build his skill at movement and self-destructiveness. He'll be 17 months tomorrow. He weighs nearly 30 pounds and at the moment has a black eye from swimming into the side of the pool, a gash across his nose from falling into the edge of the coffee table, and a cut on his cheek from my thumbnail because he turned his head just as I was about to dig a piece of apple out of his ear. His favorite game is diving headfirst off the sofa. Somehow I thought once he could climb on furniture on his own I would get to adopt a more laissez-faire attitude toward such things but his mother does not concur, so now we are the furniture police.

He got his second Pfizer shot with the third scheduled for next month, so his mother has mellowed out a bit about COVID and has moved on to monkeypox. I didn't realize this was going to be A Thing until she mentioned that we'd probably be unable to go back to Tennessee for Thanksgiving because we couldn't trust hotel bedding not to be infected. I suppose no return to normality is coming after all because there's always going to be something new.

Apparently everyone in the office is getting new desks. The new shelving kit they gave me which I will never open matches them. They're those fancy motorized sit/stand desks, so if I had installed the shelves it would certainly have been at the wrong height, so score one for procrastination.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 9:22 AM on August 1, 2022 [7 favorites]


My favourite Reddit Autism sub gave me this little gem of a curse:

"Every time he puts on socks, may he step in water with just one foot."
posted by Zumbador at 9:22 AM on August 1, 2022 [6 favorites]


if i could just have this T-shirt, i would neber wear anything else

That would likely get you arrested, unless it's quite a long (or lomg) shirt.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:33 AM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


I put the plane down right on the dot and the controllers told me I did an excellent job so that's all the validation I need in my life from now on

Congrats, backseatpilot! I went to OSH on Thursday with my son and, as usual, it's complete overload. We try to see what we can in one day but I totally understand why people need the whole week.

Did you see they completed the One Week Wonder? This group had a tent at AirVenture and built a complete Sonex kit plane from scratch and got it to taxi past the crowd at the end of the 7th day. Amazing work.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:47 AM on August 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


(Also professional baguettes are made in ovens tuned to them for shape and steam. One can approximate these in a home oven, but the geometry of the loaf clearly matters and I bet the geometry of the oven does too.

I am talking myself down from making home baguette-ish bread during a heat wave. No! )
posted by clew at 9:48 AM on August 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


Anova sells a countertop steam/convection oven that can put a better crust on a baguette and I'm reallllllyyy tempted to get one.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:53 AM on August 1, 2022


Someone mentioned baguette? Then this is obligatory

Baking Bread in Lyon
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 9:56 AM on August 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


Gotta love the passive-aggressiveness of federal bureaucrats; the agency HR folks just sent out a very blandly-worded statement about how to use sick leave for travel to get medical care out of state.

You know: medical care. That you might need to leave the state for. As one does.

Bravo Zulu, you unnamed HR professionals.
posted by suelac at 9:58 AM on August 1, 2022 [12 favorites]


On another travel note, my boss just canceled her trip to see her family (her brother's moving away) because guess what they all came down with. It sounds like they will have to drive cross country with covid if they have to be there by mid-August. GOOD TIMES.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:59 AM on August 1, 2022


Apparently solar cookers have to be much fancier than mine to make any kind of flatbread well, but zucchini bread should be fine, and I haven’t had my statutory annual loaf and I have a lovely "Cube of Butter" zucchini.
posted by clew at 10:47 AM on August 1, 2022


Listening to the third track of Court and Spark mentioned at top of thread is like watching your home team start a baseball game with three home runs in a row. (And people would look at me funny if I talked too much about how Help Me and Starship Trooper are musical siblings)
posted by kurumi at 10:58 AM on August 1, 2022


The Puget Sound’s recent record-breaking stretch of 90+ degree days has finally broken. When I got up this morning, there was a breeze stirring the branches for the first time in days. I stood by the open window and listened to the crinkle and rustle of a few early dried leaves dancing down the road. Fall is still coming.
posted by skycrashesdown at 11:11 AM on August 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


I was hoping that the Puget Sound heat wave would break more … dramatically. Although it did sprinkle this morning at about 5am, it didn't cool much overnight and my house is still too dang warm. I am sure ready for the return to the low-to-mid 70s.
posted by bz at 11:30 AM on August 1, 2022


A Bravo Zulu and a bz in the same thread. What are the odds? Or is my Baader-Meinhof showing?
posted by mpark at 11:48 AM on August 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


I had a long text message conversation this morning that, looking back over it to find a link, looks a lot like Mad Libs. Every fourth word was complete nonsense. We were both distracted by other things and very probably both had thumb keyboards set to the wrong languages. Neither of us noticed. It's really amazing how well human brain error-correction works when you're interacting with someone you know well. (Swapping out "your day" with "your worth" is something I'm very glad I didn't accidentally say to a stranger.) I'm also struck by just how badly it works when using a big keyboard and a preview screen when talking with people that I don't know well. It's a reminder to myself to assume the best here and elsewhere.
posted by eotvos at 11:54 AM on August 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


I appreciate the joni reference so much — here she is with Jaco and Pat Metheny doing In France from the Shadows and Light tour. One of her stompiest songs, done so so well!
posted by wemayfreeze at 12:04 PM on August 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


In Paris? Then pop down and see les Nounours des Gobelins :)
posted by fallingbadgers at 12:56 PM on August 1, 2022


Fun fact: they're no longer licensing prodictions of Jacques Brel is Alive And Well and Living in Paris. This makes me sad, as it was on my list of shows to try to do.

I am also sad that the Stratford (CAN) production a decade or so back didn't produce a cast recording. It was brilliant.

I am in my N95 for a 1-hour flight to go see a concert tonight (also in N95) even though it's tech week because it was the one conflict I put on my audition form.

If any of us get COVID the show cannot go on (It's Nunsense. There are 5 of us). I don't even think I'm the riskiest of the cast. Never trust actors.

(Edited 3x for typos because I have an antagonistic relationship with my phone keyboard)
posted by DebetEsse at 12:58 PM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


We recently got two new kitties, Kiki and Bao. We decided to keep them inside the house so we put childproof netting on the windows. My older cat, Asami, got really angry with us and spent a few days outside, refusing to come inside during the day.
Anyway, my wife was talking with one of our neighbors, who has a bunch of cats and looks after ours she we go out if town, and he said, unasked, "Wow Asami is really angry with you."
Apparently she'd gone over and complained about us with them.
She's forgiven us now. I just left all three sleeping on our bed.
posted by signal at 1:05 PM on August 1, 2022 [10 favorites]


i have been sick as hell for the last 4 days with some sort of ghost cold/flu. i home-tested Friday and Sunday for COVID and both negative so i guess it's just something else. but honestly this is like the worst "cold" i can remember having. incredibly feverish, constant headache. not just "oh i'm sick" but like existential "what if i never get better". idk if it's cuz i haven't had a cold for 3 years or because of COVID mitigations that we've all been exposed to lesser low-level germs that kept our immunes tuned up or something else but it's note-worthily sucked.

what really sucked though was, a relative was out of town and i was obligated to run by the house and feed and water the cats. there was no one else to do it. on my way home i ran over something that immediately punctured and deflated one of my car tires. lemme tell ya, changing a flat tire, in 95F/35C weather, whist enduring a raging fever was a real experience. i had to stop and rest several times lest the hallucinations take over but at least that was something i had trained on for years.

my fever broke sometime in the night so i'm on the downhill of it now but be careful out there, folks. there's a lot of nasty shit going around that ain't COVID.
posted by glonous keming at 1:06 PM on August 1, 2022 [6 favorites]


Bao and Kiki sleeping.
posted by signal at 1:07 PM on August 1, 2022 [13 favorites]


I hate to say it, glonous keming, but keep testing for covid, it can take days with BA5 to test positive even with symptoms up the wazoo now :( Or get a PCR. It sounds absolutely like covid, unfortunately.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:12 PM on August 1, 2022 [7 favorites]


glonus keming: I have a story to share in solidarity about when I had chicken pox at age 10.

I got it off my brother; for him, he was a little itchy for a couple days, but then was up and running around, and was even out playing with the neighbors after 5 days. However, my case was a doozy - I was itchy, but also feverish, groggy, and had to miss the whole last week of 4th grade.

....And one of the neighbor kids was also that sick. They lived across the street from us. Our moms were friends, our dads were friends, I was friends with their daughter, my brother friends with their son...we were like mutually-connected alternate families.

But it still kinda chapped my ass when, on one day when I was still on the couch sick as hell, the neighbor mom came over and asked for a huge favor. She had an emergency thing she had to go do, and it would only be 20 minutes...but there was no one else at home to look after her kid who was sick. He was asleep, but in case he woke up....so, since I was also sick, could I maybe just go sit in their house for 20 minutes until she got back?

I honestly have no idea how she got my mom to agree to this, and I understand she was in a tight spot. But as a ten-year-old, I felt utterly fucking miserable having to get dressed, walk across the street, and lie down on their couch for 20 minutes all fatigued and feverish and itchy before going back home and getting into my nightgown again.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:13 PM on August 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


My brother visited Paris with some college buddies in the 90s... and the group ate exclusively at KFC.
posted by Foosnark at 1:23 PM on August 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


... and the group ate exclusively at KFC.

SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:24 PM on August 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


... and the group ate exclusively at KFC


I hope you still make fun of him about this, Foosnark.
posted by sharp pointy objects at 1:52 PM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


My brother visited Paris with some college buddies in the 90s... and the group ate exclusively at KFC.

My daughter was on a study trip to Rome with school and was extremely embarrassed when she came home to tell me they had mainly eaten at McD's. I forgave her though, since she was very, very shy back then, and the task of both tutoring her friends and ordering food at real trattorias would have been overwhelming for her.
posted by mumimor at 2:08 PM on August 1, 2022


I finished RAGBRAI under my own power! I was a bit worried about whether I'd be able to do it, at least over the entire week, which had a mandatory century on Wednesday, but weather was mostly cooperative, as was my post-COVID cardiovascular fitness. We didn't ride down the Champs-Élysées, as with the last stage of the Tour de France, but we did finish in the Driftless Area, Iowa's answer to the Alps, and much pie was had, wee wee monsewer.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:44 PM on August 1, 2022 [10 favorites]


EmpressCallipygos: However, my case was a doozy...

I feel your pain!!! The family doctor in my hometown was past retirement age. I had the WORST case of childhood chicken pox he'd ever seen. I'll be talking to my doctor about the shingles vaccine very soon.

(side-note: I'd like to thank everyone for the support here. I took your advice, and I think I'm going to be comfortable with my new clinic.)
posted by MuChao at 3:28 PM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


My neighbor mentioned that, in the Midwest, it's now the time of year that you can't leave your car doors unlocked. Someone might sneak a zucchini in when you're not around.

Here in Colorado, our zucchini are growing at an insane pace, but they're still new enough that people are willing to take them from the overflow box out front. The rest are thin sliced, salted and roasted to chips. Best preparation I've had for them. I'd imagine zucchini bread is in the future.
posted by SunSnork at 3:39 PM on August 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


(googlin googlin)

Zucchini chips can be made in a dehydrator, and that can be run outdoors! Probably slightly less energy demand outside on a hot dry day, even.
posted by clew at 3:49 PM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


I got the shingles vaccine the year before Covid. Be prepared to run some fever, but otherwise A+. Would vaccinate again.
posted by wittgenstein at 3:54 PM on August 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


We're finally coming to the end of a near nine month ongoing kitchen renovation and I did not expect how much mental bandwidth this undertaking has sucked up. Like, I am going to bed just wiped out and brain dead after spending 8+ hours a day just trying to have a nice kitchen.
posted by Kitteh at 3:58 PM on August 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


I hope you still make fun of him about this, Foosnark.

I sure do!
posted by Foosnark at 4:06 PM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


My brother visited Paris with some college buddies in the 90s... and the group ate exclusively at KFC.

If it were a chain other than KFC, I would say GOOD FOR THEM because food in Paris is seriously overrated. Two of the five worst meals I've ever eaten were in Paris, and even though it has been years, I still think of that first meal in Paris, the slightly cold yet slightly burnt omelette, as the opposite of all that is good and true in this world.

However, I got food poisoning from a KFC in 2002, and obviously I am not the sort who forgives or forgets, so even if it happens to be a Japanese Christmas and everyone is gleefully destroying chickens, KFC is dead to me.

They should have gone to McDonalds.
posted by betweenthebars at 5:50 PM on August 1, 2022


I took my dream down by the sea

In the past week, I earned my open water diving certification, at age 62, and swam with whale sharks off the coast of Isla Holbox north of Cancun. Life is good.
posted by carmicha at 7:11 PM on August 1, 2022 [6 favorites]


I got the shingles vaccine the year before Covid. Be prepared to run some fever, but otherwise A+. Would vaccinate again.

Wait, isn't this a 2 or 3 course vaccine? Shouldn't you have already vaccinated again by now???
posted by hippybear at 7:19 PM on August 1, 2022


Wait, isn't this a 2 or 3 course vaccine? Shouldn't you have already vaccinated again by now???

Oh geez, you just reminded me I never got my second one. Dangit.
posted by Glinn at 7:35 PM on August 1, 2022


Lobster pots and Javex bottles on the tide, seagulls come down and they squawk at me, out there the water skiers gliiiiiide...
Oh my squirrel acquaintance got to taste his first blueberry, I dropped it on the porch at breakfast and rolled it his way. He rattles the watering can if he finds it empty. I have to buy more nuts tomorrow. Oh the peaches! Oh the TJ's organic baguette and goat gouda, with red pepper spread, and now it is August, hooray.

I guess Nancy must have been in that loud- A**ed F35 that came seemingly just over the treetops. At least she'll be safe dropping in on Taiwan. Why we bought such a loud, expensive, damned technology, then painted it up with stealth paint...WTF?

Anyway carry on. We are all healthy here, at least on the surface.
posted by Oyéah at 7:55 PM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


In my cookie I read, some get the gravy, some get the gristle, some get the marrow bone, and some get nothing, though there's plenty to spare.

And, the minus is loveless, it talks to the stars, and the leaves fall, and the pond over ices...

posted by Oyéah at 8:14 PM on August 1, 2022


I’m due for my second shingrex shot sometime this month and while I am very excited never to have shingles, because it sounds truly awful, I am fully dreading my second shot. I haven’t had a fever in years and years till I had the first one and good lord why are people acting so cavalier about an illness that includes many days of a fever? That shit is awful. May I not catch Covid getting my shingrex series finished. I wouldn’t know for days.
posted by Bottlecap at 10:46 PM on August 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


Just so no one is kept up nights worrying, I did receive both shots in the shingles sequence. I just didn't mention it in the comment as I expect we are all used to two shot vaccination sequences after Covid.
posted by wittgenstein at 5:38 AM on August 2, 2022 [3 favorites]


I just read Bottlecap's comment. For me, I had fever one night after the first dose. The fever wasn't as bad after the second dose, so maybe you will have the same experience, Bottlecap.
posted by wittgenstein at 5:40 AM on August 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


Did you see they completed the One Week Wonder?

I walked by their tent a couple of times but ended up not checking it out. I spent most of the three days we were there in forums talking about this and that. And the NWS Aviation Weather Center brought one of their developers to the show so I ended up talking with him about CFD modeling for a while, poor guy.
posted by backseatpilot at 9:36 AM on August 2, 2022


I had a dream that the MeFi Steering Committee was implementing a special fund-raising measure: For $50 you could ask an incredibly stupid or offensive question on a special AskMe board and everybody would take you seriously and not get angry at you. This would keep stupid questions off the main board. Everybody was in support of this. I was dubious. How will people asking normally know if their questions are stupid before they get an answer? Plus the price seemed quite high.
posted by solarion at 5:50 PM on August 2, 2022 [1 favorite]




Throughout the summer I've been having a consistent ratio of about three bears to every human that happens to get captured by the game camera that is mounted on my downstairs porch, pointed at the end of the public boardwalk on which I live.

Today threw that ratio off, but only because the city sent a work crew around to do maintenance on the "street" (the stairs and boardwalk that provide access to the houses near where are live are actually an official City of Ketchikan street. Ketchikan, which has very steep terrain, has more than two dozen stairway streets, each with its own character.)

I've posted pics from the game cam in the last few free threads so there's nothing especially new here if you've clicked through the previous links, but because one of the workmen on the street repair crew noticed the game cam (which I know because he was on camera at the time :-) I collected a batch of the better recent captures while clearing the work crew's images from the camera's storage and sent them to the streets department to let them know that even though the end of the street doesn't get a lot of humans (mostly the occasional confused tourist, but I always give the ones that make it up here credit for being willing to wander off the beaten path even if their map-reading skills could use some work..) it still gets traffic.

Anyway, since I had grabbed a small set of recent pics to send to the streets department and have them ready at hand, here's a new batch.
posted by Nerd of the North at 7:53 PM on August 2, 2022 [6 favorites]


Huge victory for abortion rights in Kansas as voters reject amending Kansas constitution to allow the legislature to overturn the state level constitutional guarantees to the right to abortion. This is a potential political earthquake. Single issue anti-abortion voters are outvoted by pro-choice voters when the issue is actually on the line and there isn’t a Supreme Court precedent protecting the pro-choice position. People don’t want their politicians to actually mess with their personal lives.
posted by interogative mood at 9:29 PM on August 2, 2022 [6 favorites]


Wow.. So that's what good news feels like. I think I had forgotten.
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:04 PM on August 2, 2022 [2 favorites]


I switched my prescription to [Mark Cuban's] Cost Plus Drugs. It took me a whole 15 minutes of filling out forms and sending a message to my doctor, and I'm paying a third of the cost from the "preferred" pharmacy recommended by my health insurance.

I also discovered today (in this short satirical Dr. Glaucomflecken video) that my insurance company owns the "preferred" pharmacy. They also own the (middleman) pharmacy benefit manager who is supposed to negotiate prices. Which they obviously won't do.
posted by meowzilla at 10:38 PM on August 2, 2022 [1 favorite]


Huge victory for abortion rights in Kansas
Yes! Congratulations Kansas. It was the first thing I looked for when I woke up.
But I'm not certain of the implications, a lot of people all over the country vote Republican in spite of being pro-choice, (and in spite of generally being fucked over by the Republicans again and again).
posted by mumimor at 11:59 PM on August 2, 2022


Those are great, Nerd of the North! I always forget that SE has deer. I have a game camera for my backyard that I need to set up- I want to see all the moose and bear that are here when we’re not there to see them- and that’s a good reminder.

Yay, Kansas! I was so anxious that it was going to be yet another round of bad news. This was 100% set up to undermine Democratic voters and be confusing and I’m so relieved it wasn’t even close.
posted by charmedimsure at 1:20 AM on August 3, 2022


I rescued a skunk that had a McDonald's McFlurry® cup stuck on its head this morning. I often see critters when I'm out on my bike just after dawn, but this poor wee thing was hobbling around in circles at a local park bumping into things. It started to walk pretty close to me, and I could tell it couldn't see, hear or smell me. When it got within a couple of paces, I grabbed the cup and pulled upwards. The skunk's head was so wedged into the plastic ring that I lifted it clear off the ground.

Its ears popped out of the cup and it fell back to ground. Its tail was a huge ball of floof and it looked aggrieved as all hell, but it didn't try to spray me or anything nearby. I was backing away and it had a clear path to scamper off into the shrubbery.

If you don't deal with your trash, you're the trash.
posted by scruss at 7:14 AM on August 3, 2022 [9 favorites]


Since we have other gardeners in here, I have an interesting question - I have a couple Roma tomato plants in my community garden plot, and they're producing. But....the tomatoes themselves are about HALF the size of the Romas I see in the supermarket or the farmer's market. Those ones are about the size of a tennis ball, say; but the ones I'm growing are more the size of a ping-pong ball.

Which is fine! I'll eat them either way. I'm just curious whether this might be because of the specific kind of Roma plant I might have (I got it for free from a community-garden free plant giveaway thing and I didn't check too closely), or whether it's a sign I'm neglecting the poor things.

The jalapenos from that one plant are huge, ironically.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:44 AM on August 3, 2022


Yay! Kansas is a bit of a sweet spot. I was in Topeka for a couple of years after university and those couple of years are a damn plethora of long ass stories. A year or so after I left I was on a road trip driving from New Mexico back to hometown in Virginia and stopped by Topeka. I got snagged up by a bunch of high school girls (long story) to be the second driver of a vanpool going to The Young Democrats of America National Convention in New Orleans. Yay! side quest. Spent three days wandering around the french quarter drinking hand grenades and browsing voodoo shops, then drove them back and continued on my journey.

Like to think they are still there in Kansas and were a part of this.

So so many Topeka Kansas stories for somewhere that I only lived for a couple of years.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:01 AM on August 3, 2022 [2 favorites]


While I absolutely didn't know there was a Batgirl movie in progress and honestly don't really care, I am flabbergasted that the movie studio could be all "we're utterly canceling and deep-sixing this even though we spent 90 mill" AND YET STILL ARE CARRYING ON WITH THE FLASH MOVIE.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:33 AM on August 3, 2022 [2 favorites]


follow up to my earlier comment: i had a lab COVID test Tuesday, while still sick as hell, just got the results at the local stroke of midnight: negative. i'm still sick even now somewhat, but not feverish, mostly just coughing up grossness and clearing sinus grossness. i'm glad it wasn't COVID but i was almost certain it was. what the hell, virus?
posted by glonous keming at 9:09 PM on August 3, 2022


I heard a song in the supermarket yesterday. A exceptionally funky motown song that reminded me a lot of "I heard it on the grapevine".
I couldn't quite make out the lyrics, but I thought the chorus was something like "release me".
I still have the damn thing playing in my head but I can't find online.
posted by Zumbador at 9:48 PM on August 3, 2022


Was it Rescue Me? Awesome song.
posted by Daily Alice at 6:21 AM on August 4, 2022 [2 favorites]


IT WAS RESCUE ME!!!

Ahhhhh.

Now I am happy.
posted by Zumbador at 6:27 AM on August 4, 2022


Shall we also take a moment to savor the complete p0wnage of Alex Jones in Court yesterday when it turned out his lawyers had accidentally turned over several gigabytes of damming data and then failed to protect it in a proper fashion.
posted by interogative mood at 3:02 PM on August 4, 2022 [3 favorites]


interogative mood, we shall. also just want you to know for your own enjoyment cuz i don't see you in it, there's a whole thread for that glee 😁
posted by glonous keming at 3:20 PM on August 4, 2022


Even better about the Alex Jones stuff... the Jan6 Committee immediately subpoenaed the data, and his ex-wife (who has been working against him for years) also did.

This one leak of stuff is going to have major implications.

Also, AJ needs to go down in flames in a very very public way. Set the example.
posted by hippybear at 4:15 PM on August 4, 2022 [4 favorites]


I have an interview in the morning. Send good vibes?
posted by Night_owl at 10:34 PM on August 4, 2022 [7 favorites]


All the good vibes from me to you, Night-owl
Good luck!
posted by mumimor at 11:42 PM on August 4, 2022


Sending now!
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 6:15 AM on August 5, 2022


I am worried I came across as desperate :/
posted by Night_owl at 8:13 AM on August 5, 2022


I just woke up, lifted my sleeping mask and looked at the clock which read 5:00. So I pressed the button that sets the alarm for 9:00 because I want to hit the grocery store across the street, then back to sleep. Woke up at 6:50 and decided "meh, might as well get up". Disabled the alarm, came out and sat down and went through the bit of routine of bringing up the news on the dvr. It's not there. It takes me a hot minute or so to figure out.

lol, not actually that uncommon though it happens less often nowadays... It's 6:50 AM not 6:50 PM... My "nope, not really a 24 hour a day" person has hit the cycle point where I wake up and mistake AM for PM.
posted by zengargoyle at 8:17 AM on August 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


WaPo: A mayor in England is fighting for his office. He’s also a pony.

Patrick has only been mayor of Cockington, a small English village, for less than two weeks. But he’s already had his office taken away.
That is, his small pen filled with hay. Because Patrick is a pony.
“It was a one-horse race for him to be mayor, but apparently someone was jealous,” said Kirk Petrakis, who, along with his wife, Hannah, owns the mayor of the town in Devon, England.
But since he became the mayor — at an official ceremony on July 23, in which Patrick donned a traditional British mayoral red gown complete with a white trim — there was a complaint to local authorities from an unnamed person.
Petrakis says he and his wife, Hannah, were forced to dismantle the pen as onlookers cried. Patrick’s pen “meant a lot to so many people — it was to support those most vulnerable in our community,” he said, especially after lockdowns enforced by the British government during the coronavirus pandemic.
Foster said that Patrick’s “small therapy area in a large beer garden” was a space for residents to share their comments and concerns — and was of “no inconvenience to anyone.” He implored the council to rethink the decision and instead “help facilitate the serious therapy work being done.”

posted by jenfullmoon at 8:28 AM on August 5, 2022


I felt about seven raindrops last evening. I know there are more. I am beginning to daydream about free range water.
posted by Oyéah at 5:30 PM on August 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


45.2 millions dollars in punitive damages from Alex Jones to two Sandy Hook parents. That is just the first of the trials coming his way.
posted by hippybear at 6:46 PM on August 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


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