Blue Rondo à la Na’vi

I still think the Palestinian protesters are weirder.

btw
before you listen to the sound empty your mouth.

Haven’t watched it yet, but nothing that LARPers do is shocking anymore. Furries, on the other hand – *shudder*.

Soon this will be like the Star Trek conventions …

How I wish I had a fire truck. The movie was vile in most every way.

I don’t know who these people are and frankly I don’t care.

I just got traumatized by dinner. The OH, who likes to indulge me, brought home a cooked lobster from the supermarket. Now, I don’t approve of eating lobsters but have been doing it from time to time from a lack of moral fortitude. Anyway, I was dressing this one, let’s call him Phil, and when I split his head to get at the brains and tomalley I found the inside of Phil’s head had been eaten by small ant-like parasites, brain, eyes and all. I showed this to the OH and am now off the hook in future. Naturally I will not be eating him. If we didn’t have snow I’d have taken Phil outside, begged his forgiveness and buried him.

I suppose this happens in those tanks at the supermarket. There he was, eaten alive. So naturally I just had to share.

Water’s on for pasta.

@Benedick: I showed this to the OH and am now off the hook in future. Naturally I will not be eating him.

The OH?

@nojo: The Other Half, I’m sure.

@IanJ: Right.

@Benedick: Your dogs could handle it. The canine digestive system is one of nature’s miracles.

@nojo: No. Phil.

@Dodgerblue: I’m not talking about handling it. My digestive tract is pretty formidable. I’m talking about Phil being eaten from the inside so some panty-waist Limey can eat him for dinner. The agony he must have endured. I’m THIS close to swearing off all animal products again.

@Benedick: There are many things in this world that I just prefer not to think about. Kissinger being one of them.

@blogenfreude: This will be every Con ever and I will have to fight the urge to get the Atlanta Fire Department to hose them down when Dragon*Con comes.

@rptrcub: That’s why I want a fire truck. Wash all the blue crap off them.

@Benedick: You may not enjoy hearing this, but there is a saying in the fish trade, that if the worms are still moving, that means the fish is fresh.

Almost every lobster I have ever seen has these large worms that live in the body and extend down into the tail a little, no biggy, easy to remove.

US health codes say that all sushi, with the exception of tuna, has to be frozen to like minus 20 for several days, that kills all parasites. That precaution is just for raw fish, ordinary cooking kills most anything in fish. All that beautiful fish at the sushi bar, its been frozen. I think so, I suspect that this requirement is largely ignored. In similar fashion, all French raw milk cheeses (which is all the good ones) are also illegal, but this is a regulation that, thankfully, is largely ignored.

TJ, god, I just saw something, on the internets, that makes 2 girls, one cup, seem nothing. I never thought it possible. Ohmygod.

@Promnight: These weren’t worms. And I’m not squeamish about meat and fish. I know what it looks like. I always used to buy it whole and gut it myself. And I’ve done lobster but never seen anything quite like this. I can only think it a result of keeping them barely alive in a tank till they have to be cooked or thrown out.

Yet another reason I despised the Julia Child flick: the cute girly girly scene where the lobster gets loose. It made me impatient when Diane Keaton did it all those years ago. Why would they think I’m going to like it now?

However, just saw The Lady Eve again and it’s still a beauty. Swank. And very very witty.

@Promnight: PS. What a cryptic TJ.

@Benedick: So you named your lobster Phil? What could you have thought but that would wrought some disaster?

You have just ruined lobster bisque for me. Thank you. I mean, it’s not like I eat sea-farthing creatures all that often, but when I do, I like to think the shellfish were coddled all their lives and then suddenly had their necks snapped, quick, clean, and without any unnecessary pain.

The lobster boil has always left me sickened. Yet somehow I wanted to imagine that my bisque would be different, humane.

So is Eric Holder gonna get me?

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!

Also, these hippies need to get a life.

@Dodgerblue: I’m continually amazed at what doggy can digest.

Until he throws it up in the most inconvenient places.

@Benedick: For one of the Stinque bookclubs, I downloaded and actually read “Regardez l’homard” (in the original English, but all the parentheticals and footnotes made me feel like it was French) and have to say, flesh-eating worms are the least of the trauma a lobster may or may not experience. I’m sorry, but I have little sympathy for those creatures that reside below me on the food chain. They exist, I eat them, and pain and/or suffering is surely involved to make this so, but even tofurkey means that a soy bean plant somewhere died for your sins.

@Nabisco: I think the argument is that some of us, i.e., most of us who would bother to patronize the blogs, have other choices.

I have no problem with the idea of animals eating other animals, it is obviously nature’s choice.

The food chain established by industrial culture is another thing entirely.

“Utterly disgusting” comes to mind.

Reading construction documents. Fuck yeah!
/sarcasm

Why is it that fish aren’t considered meat for Lenten purposes? Is it just a Papist thing or what?

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ and others:
So, what are people giving up for Lent? I was thinking about giving up hard liquor but I’m going on vacation next week. I’m not even Catholic but I always feel an urge to give up something. Maybe I’ll give up trying to rationalize or understand teabaggers.

I had the weirdest fucking dream this morning. Drinkyclown bought stinque from nojo and was running it from a wooded hillside in a park somewhere. Then I heard the Clash coming from Mrs RML’s iPod alarm . . .

Off to workout. 45 mins stair stepping between the home office and the LR with a weighted backpack. Cool for watching tv or movies. Thinking of giving up martinis for Lent.

@SanFranLefty, @redmanlaw:

I’m officially giving up Hope™ for Lent.

Okay, you got me, I gave up Hope™ long ago, but still, it seems every day brings news that validates that decision.

I’m also sticking to my New Year’s Resolution to be optimistic at work. Since my boss (don’t get me wrong, I love that guy) is even more pessimistic than I am, I think that’s a winning game.

@SanFranLefty:

According to all those religion polls, most people are giving up Catholicism.

@Original Andrew: Are there even enough Catholics in US America to give up Catholicism?

I’d be fucking happy if a poll showed even 60% of US Americans believed the earth was more than 6000 years old.

@Pedonator:

You know the country’s double-plus fukked when the Cathoholics seem like the calm and reasonable ones.

Yes, sadly, more people are leaving relatively sane (codeword: “mainstream”) religions/denominations for deranged right-wing ones that have absolutely no intellectual foundation yet give them some kind of sadistic joy in shrieking that anyone who isn’t exactly like them–or commits the grievous sins of having ladybits or ah book learnin’–is ah-gonna fry in e-ter-nal hay-yell.

@Pedonator:

OMG, Peds, this one’s for you:

U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion

WASHINGTON—The U.S. economy ceased to function this week after unexpected existential remarks by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke shocked Americans into realizing that money is, in fact, just a meaningless and intangible social construct.

“It’s just an illusion,” a wide-eyed Bernanke added as he removed bills from his wallet and slowly spread them out before him. “Just look at it: Meaningless pieces of paper with numbers printed on them. Worthless.”

According to witnesses, Finance Committee members sat in thunderstruck silence for several moments until Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) finally shouted out, “Oh my God, he’s right. It’s all a mirage. All of it—the money, our whole economy—it’s all a lie!”

Screams then filled the Senate Chamber as lawmakers and members of the press ran for the exits, leaving in their wake aisles littered with the remains of torn currency.

@SanFranLefty: One year I actually gave up Lent itself, and my life has been golden ever since.

@redmanlaw: I watched an episode of “Californication” last night ($2 “original copy” vids for sale here, natch) that featured a woman named “Jennie Jones”. Fortunately they didn’t let Duchovny skate without name-checking the Clash.

@Original Andrew: If only that were the headline of a Paul Krugman editorial in the NYT! It’s so true it’s not even funny.

OK, it’s kinda funny.

But hey, as long as it grows, all is good, yes?

@Original Andrew: Also:

…Bernanke claimed he didn’t know he was in a casino. He didn’t even know he was in Las Vegas.

And those cocksucking whores I hired to sniff the coke out of my anus, well, I was just providing fuel for the entrepreneurs who make our service economy the envy of globalized capitaljizm!”

@SanFranLefty: Lent? I’m sure we had Catholics in Eugene, but they tended to lay low.

@Pedonator: it seems every day brings news that validates that decision.

That may be as close as I get to explaining how Barry doesn’t even throw us any fucking bones. It’s not just that the major issues have been disappointments, but every offhand detail you hear also sucks.

@Original Andrew: That would be funnier if the Paultards weren’t already saying it…

@SanFranLefty: Where are you going on vacation? I hope somewhere exotic. I really wanna burn my carbon allotment, if there is such a thing, and see Madagascar.

@nojo: Yes, it’s really fucking amazing that our constitutional law professor presnident talks about jailing people indefinitely without trial; uses his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech to menace other nations that would dare challenge our supremacy; and continues to regard rendition as a tool of state. But oh shit, that’s old news.

He had to do that stuff so he could get bipartisan support for his socialist health care reform plan…oh? What? No bipartisan support, and quite a bit of trouble mustering partisan support? Well, no matter, let’s just toss the entire Bill of Rights into the garbage disposal…maybe then we can get Dick Cheney to stop going on the teevee to brag about his war crimes…? As long as He Keeps Us Safe!

@Pedonator: Yes, it’s really fucking amazing that our constitutional law professor presnident talks about jailing people indefinitely without trial…

I slept through most of a podcast* with a guy saying that the only explanation for this headscratcher is that there is Stuff They Learn About once inside the preznit’s door that we can’t even begin to fathom. Ugly stuff. Evil stuff. Teh-ruh stuff.

Not sure I buy it, but how else to explain the Death of Hope ™?

*I know, it’s a podcast, I could just replay the thing but – hey – who’s got the time, amarite?

@Nabisco: how else to explain the Death of Hope™?

Remember, he lurched right the moment he had the nomination secure.

But it’s not the note Shrub left him in the Oval Office desk — new preznits see no need to give up power hoarded by old preznits. Besides, who’s gonna complain? Whiny lefties?

We have met Sister Souljah, and She is Us.

@Nabisco: Yes, once he becomes President he gets to know all the secrets behind Area 51. And if he rebels, well, there’s supposedly the example of Saint Kennedy or something like that.

So what excuses can we come up for our congresscritters? And the Fourth Estate?

There must be so much scary information out there that only a select few (powered by the millions of dollars patriotically contributed by defense, energy, pharmaceutical and information-security corporations) can possibly be entrusted to wield their privileged knowledge to ensure the hard-working middle-class burghers of our civilization can sleep peacefully at night, content that terrorists are a special class of criminal, like drug dealers and gang members, devoid of due process and hey, if the law is bent flagrantly violated once in a while to torture some confessions out of the miscreants, well, you have to break an egg to make an omelet.

@Nabisco: Not meaning to go off on you, just to say, that is not an explanation, it is an excuse. And there are numerous explanations for the Death of Hope™, some more cynical and some more pragmatist.

@Pedonator: So what excuses can we come up for our congresscritters? And the Fourth Estate?

Power and laziness.

Natinal political journalists don’t make it to the top by being mavericks. They get there by parroting conventional wisdom better than their colleagues.

And never forget that Woodward & Bernstein made their bones on the city beat. The WaPo national hacks were completely flat-footed, and resisted Watergate as long as they could.

@nojo: I love to wallow in power and laziness. But that’s at home, not on a national political stage. And I don’t get paid for that.

I don’t know what ever happened to Bernstein (too lazy to Google at the moment), but Woodward has since proved himself a hack nonpareil.

@Pedonator: Oh no worries, my pedo friend. I was just throwing something out there.

@nojo: I can’t imagine the note from Shrub had any more substance than “Hey – good luck Slim. Stay away from the pretzels, they’ll kill ya heh heh. George.”

ADD: @Pedonator: My kids loved the “Bernstein Bears”. Oh wait. what?

@Pedonator: If there is a god she will never forgive us for the incomprehensible savagery with which we treat animals. There, I said it.

What’s their favorite disco song? In the Na’vi.

But these people, it’s a joke, right? Tell me it’s a joke.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: I understand it has to do with blood. Red blood. Yes, fish have some, shellfish, none. “Flesh” for purposes of the categorization of foods for catholic purposes is somehow related to blood.

@Benedick: If there is a god I will never forgive her for the incomprehensible savagery with which she treats humans, there, I said it.

For the uninitiated, I think it’s worthwhile to note that there’s a difference between cosplay and LARPing. They’re both pretty geeky, but cosplay is less about trying to be the person you’re dressed up as and more about trying to make a decent costume… usually. I’d liken one to dressing up for Halloween and the other to running a civil war reenactment in your back yard. It’s also worth it to note that most cosplay is fucking terrible, but every once in a while, you’ll come across something amazing.

For reference’s sake:
Zero
Chell
Master Chief
The Death Note crew

@Benedick:
I THINK the ones in this video are goofing on the stupid. but it happens. trust me.
they are truly the new trekies.

@Capt Howdy: This is a send-up. The guy in glasses is adorable. I think this is pretty funny.

@Benedick: If there is a god she The gods will never forgive us for the incomprehensible savagery with which we treat animals, except for ceremonial use, fair chase non-trophy hunting, and keeping of well-loved companion animals.

Fixed.

@JNOVjr: What’s really screwed up is WW2 reenactors who dress like the Germans. I saw also that they have WW2 Dutch reenactors. I guess they get rolled in the blitzkreig early on, then blow shit up behind the lines in civie clothes.

@redmanlaw:

bacon will have its revenge

TJ/We’re staying in downtown Philly until our apt is demoldified (read: until the air quality people come out and tell us we’re not going to die). We’re staying one block away from yesterday’s flash mob. Ugh.

Anyway, I just went to Dunkin’ Donuts (woot) for some coffee (woot woot), and there’s a huge police presence here, obvs. While I was sipping my coffee and smoking a cigarette, I just saw some dude full-on moon the po po. (Please no Pants on the Ground jokes — hate that.)

Anyway, the police didn’t do shit, which is mighty white of them, because back in the days of Frank Rizzo, that dude would have received a very public and very brutal beat down.

@redmanlaw: I meant factory farming. Should have made that clear.

We have re-enactments of the burning of Kingston by the redcoats. I’m told only one of the houses was spared. The lady who owned it was having an affair with the officer in charge. Some things never change.

@JNOVjr: Jr sez:

I don’t know why anyone would want to reenact a war, let alone one where they dress like Nazis.

@JNOV:
obviously you have never seen The Night Porter

@Benedick:
I was being an ass as usual but I agree. I am fortunate enough to live next door to my sister in AR. they humanely raise all kinds of animals. pigs, cows, chickens etc.

factory farms are the shame of the 20th century.

@Capt Howdy: Um. Please to let me know about NSFW links. Even if I’m not a work. That was truly horrific.

@JNOV:

that is one of the best movies ever made. Liliana Cavani shows the men how directing is done in 1974.

@Capt Howdy: When I clicked on the link, I briefly saw multiple pictures of a naked woman dressed like a Nazi, not some description of a movie. Movie review –> interesting. Surprise naked Nazi women pictures –> disturbing/distressing/grounds for termination. Just asking for a heads up next time, please.

@JNOV:
netflix it tonight

Twelve years after World War II, an ex-Nazi concentration camp guard (Dirk Bogarde) is reunited with one of his victims (Charlotte Rampling), and contrary to expectations, they resume a twisted and doomed relationship. Liliana Cavini’s controversial erotic drama drew comparisons to Last Tango in Paris when it was released.

it has some of the best reasons ever to dress up like a Nazi.

@SanFranLefty: I honestly don’t know. I feel like I’ve given up a lot of stuff I like already due to the unemployment thing and so what little vices I have left seem necessary to prevent a complete fucking breakdown. Maybe I’ll just give up being angry at Poindexter for screwing me over.

@Capt Howdy: Ever see “Zone Troopers”? American GIs in WW2 Italy find crashed alien craft, fight Germans who are trying to capture the ship.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Nah.

@redmanlaw:
I have actually. thanks to my godless coworkers. we have a monitor and a dvd player in the room for “reference”.

unfortunately even we could not get away with using the Night Porter for reference.

the Night Porter IS the best Nazi movie ever made except for possibly Seven Beauties. which stars my good friend Shirley Stoller as the Commandant.
(might not want to click that link)

you would almost think I have a thing for Nazi women.
god I love netflix

In World War II Italy, a second-rate pimp (and gangster wanna-be) with seven sisters lands in a German concentration camp. He encounters the ultimate test of his way with the ladies: a brutal female commandant he must seduce in order to live. At once hilarious and horrifying, this study of survival received Oscar nominations for Best Actor, Foreign Film and Director (Lina Wertmueller, the first woman ever nominated for directing a feature).

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ:
you realize as long as you are angry at him he is controlling your life?
just sayin.
learned a long time ago that anger and guilt are just like a fucking bag of bricks. all you have to do is set it down.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Speaking of vices, can you hook me up with some Thin Mints, or should I just drive to the suburbs and find some Girl Scouts outside a grocery store? Since I live in a city with more dogs than kids, they’re not usually at the Castro Safeway and it’s just the tamale lady outside the Trader Joe’s.

@redmanlaw: Talibunny has a new rifle and $100K courtesy of the Arkansas GOP.

@SanFranLefty:
being from arkansas I thank god for mississippi and alabama every day.

and oklahoma.

@SanFranLefty: I haz a sad:

Due to the historic snow fall in Washington DC and the surrounding region, Cookie deliveries to Troops have been delayed which will affect booth sales.

@SanFranLefty: Probably a Henry Arms lever action. Mrs. RML said my next rifle should come from them since they still produce their product in US America, but I already have three lever action rifles and don’t need any more. With only about 20-25 hunting seasons max left in the tank, I’m not sure any new hunting rifles are worth the investment when I already have . . . let’s see . . . five others.

@JNOVjr:

I dunno. I kinda like the Pikachu.

@SanFranLefty: Sorry. The troop I work with already send in their order forms and adults aren’t allowed to sell cookies.

@SanFranLefty: Oh, so that’s what’s up with all the people roaming around looking like Bert.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: We totally need to talk off site.

Just went and read the comments — this video is a spoof. A well-done spoof.

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Your avatar is awesome. Just thought I should mention that.

@SanFranLefty: I wish my Trader Joe’s had a tamale lady. I guess I should just be grateful to have a Trader Joe’s.

The Girl Scout parents in the office always over-order to have a few spare boxes available, so I’m not safe yet even though I resisted the order form. At the very least I need to hold out until next week, after this too decadant dinner HF and I are attending. It’s a seven-course deal featuring some great Chicago chefs, and each course is paired with a local craft brewery. Should be a-maz-ing!

@flippin eck: You can’t get tamales in Chicago? I thought that place had more Mexicans living there than any other place north of the border. (Actual Fact told to me by a knowledgeable person.)

@JNOVjr: thanks!

@redmanlaw: Oh, there are plenty of tamales to be found, and there are even roving tamale vendors who specialize in delicious treats for drunk people stumbling out of the bars at 2 am. They just don’t happen to be available in the immediate vicinity of my Trader Joe’s, like with SFL’s.

@flippin eck: Worst tamale ever: one filled with ground beef and canned corn that I bought outside a general store in Pecos NM one afternoon while fishing. Yuck. I tossed it out the truck window.

Best tamales ever: those my mother in law got from her neighbor at Christmas. That mean, nasty, snoopy ol’ lady across the street can make a thing of beauty with red chili pork, masa and a corn husk.