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CynthiaW's avatar

Trip Advisor wants me to go on a train trip across Europe.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Fabulous—presuming someone else pays! 🤩

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CynthiaW's avatar

Yeah, they didn't say they wanted to pay for it.

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Jay Janney's avatar

G'morning all

I'm gonna work from home today. I have a few errands to run, but Katie is working, as are the two young 'uns still here. So the house should be quiet. I'll take the doggos for a walk, go get laps in at the Y, fill my big gulp cup. I'm gonna work on paperwork, and editing the journal. I didn't edit anything while in Hawaii, so I am of course, behind. Article #409 came in Wednesday. So we're on track for over 950 articles this year to review, we'll accept 72. So I have to upset 878 sets of authors (since most are co-authored, I'll upset over 2,000 academics this year).

I'm a 15th generation Friend on my father's side, from the Midlands. I also look like Casper the friendly ghost most of the year. My Mom has some Irish, but claimed German blood as well. IDK about Katie. We did a "23 and me" test for our daughter: almost 89% southern/eastern Europe, 4-5% American Indian, the rest central Europe. So my daughter is more of an Indian than Liz Warren!

Sunday I plan to attend a going away pitch-in (or "carry-in" or "potluck') for my children's God-parents, who are moving...to the Isle of Man! Why? IDK. The most amusing thing about them is they are horrible with directions...and they love to travel. Being with them can be an adventure! the Godmother is a WFH person, and her boss lived in London for three years (while doing WFH), so she blessed it. Her hubby has to find a job in the Isle of Man within six months, or they have to move back. The crazy part is I assumed they'd simply rent out their home, but they are selling it. How long will they be there? Who knows? I'd guess 3-5 years. But the Godmother has to do stuff in the US 3-4x a year, so we'll see her on most of those trips.

Driving home Sunday I'll visit my MIL, who was hospitalized yesterday. I am guessing she'll be back home by Sunday, but if not I'll visit her at the hospital. Both are mostly on the way home (less than a 10 mile detour). I thought of driving over today, but Katie told me to combine the two trips.

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CynthiaW's avatar

There are probably tourism-related service jobs on the Isle of Man. Maybe he can learn on the interwebs to palaver some Manx.

I hope your mother-in-law makes a quick recovery.

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CynthiaW's avatar

"So my daughter is more of an Indian than Liz Warren!"

And your daughter was adopted from Ukraine, right?

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Jay Janney's avatar

Yes, we adopted my daughter from Ukraine. She was born in Cebactopol, which is also home of a huge Russian naval base. Russia invaded it in 2014, So explaining the ancestry gets complicated.

It reminds me of one prank I did. In kindergarten, they sent us a letter requiring an original birth certificate. So I presented her Ukrainian one. "I can't read that"! "Yeah, we had it translated, but the translation technically isn't the original". 🤦‍♂️🙄 I also showed the adoption decree (in English), so they decided the translation was good enough for government work. Katie didn't find it as amusing as I did.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I find messing with bureaucrats amusing.

It's very interesting that your daughter from the Crimea is more Native than the very famous Woman of Color, Senator Warren.

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Phil H's avatar

"more of an Indian than Liz Warren!"

A low bar to clear, almost as low as "more honest than Donald trump".

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CynthiaW's avatar

Indeed.

The financial and social rewards for claiming to be "Native" are much greater than the financial and cultural rewards for being honest.

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C C Writer's avatar

With substitutions allowed for "claiming to be 'Native'," you may have just defined the basic problem.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Yes, I think so.

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Phil H's avatar

15th generation? How close does that put your ancestors to George Fox and William Penn?

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Jay Janney's avatar

Thomas Janney (5th generation) sailed to Pennsylvania with William Penn. William Penn is generally seen as a 2nd generation Friend (Fox being 1st gen).

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IncognitoG's avatar

Get well to your MIL!

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IncognitoG's avatar

SCOTUS ruled 9 to 0 in favor of the NRA, specifically its 1A rights. Opinion written by Sotomayor:

https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/05/supreme-court-rules-for-nra-in-first-amendment-dispute/

That news was drowned out by TRUMPTRUMPTRUMPTRUMPTRUMPTRUMPTRUMP, the undefeatable master of the infotainment industry.

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LucyTrice's avatar

I'm not a routine listener to AO but today's podcast starts with really interesting explanation of implied rights by Akhil Amar. There is much more underpinning what we refer to as 2nd Amendment rights than the 2nd Amendment.

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Phil H's avatar

Pretty straightforward freedom of speech case, with the outcome predicted on the Advisory Opionions podcast when SCOTUS heard it.

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Jay Janney's avatar

That partisan SCOTUS! 😡 How can Dick Durbin spin this as anything but as evidence of a need for ninety eleven new SCOTUS judges?

I read her intro and it reads kinda obvious (which is why it both is an early decision and unanimous).

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IncognitoG's avatar

Don’t know about you, but I’m very troubled to learn that the biggest critics of partisanship on SCOTUS so often are the worst offenders.

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Jay Janney's avatar

Being an academic nerd, about ten years ago I went to a website listing all the SCOTUS decisions over a two year period. I recorded them (but since I said I'm an academic nerd, I'm repeating myself). 9-0 was the single largest category of decisions, roughly a majority both years, followed by 8-1. Fun fact; for those two years, who was the single most "1" juror? Not Clarence Thomas, but RGB. Chief justice Roberts was in the majority more than anyone else.

So when people scream the court is partisan, I hear "I don't read"!

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Phil H's avatar

Good morning. Cool overnight, flirting with the high 40s, getting up to the 70s today.

The mothership is reporting on the verdict of a criminal trial in New York City which you may have heard about.

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Brian's avatar

Lots of people: “Guilty!! Let’s celebrate!!” Me: we still have horrible choices in November.

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Phil H's avatar

An insurrectionist and convicted felon versus an old guy teetering on the edge of senility.

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Jay Janney's avatar

Don't forget the brain worm guy!

Do I worry about brain worms eating the brains of our other two contenders? I'd worry more they'd starve to death if they tried!

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Phil H's avatar

Just saw the Front Page headline this morning: The Trial of the Century of the Week.

Appropriate.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Yes. It seems to have confirmed for everyone the beliefs they already firmly held about, well, everything.

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Phil H's avatar

Indeed. A Trump campaign website crashed after the verdict, supposedly from people trying to donate to the Trump campaign. Go figure.

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LucyTrice's avatar

Amusing. But I was taught about the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes. What happened to the Jutes? Impatience? Word count limits? "I don't need to list it every time, you know what I mean. Duh." ?

Chilly here this morning, too. I put on long pants and a jacket. But it is delightful to have the windows open.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I read something - or listened to a lecture - to the effect that the Jutes weren't really a thing. I mean, Jutland is an existing geographical feature, but there was not actually a distinct body of people who emigrated to Britain from Jutland. Iirc, the contemporaneous mentions of Jutes are, like, two?

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LucyTrice's avatar

Interesting. I have read that the Jutes were a small, distinct group in southern England but no one knows where they actually came from.

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CynthiaW's avatar

It sounds like specialists disagree on the subject. Not unexpected.

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IncognitoG's avatar

So it’s more accurately the Angles, Saxons, Bjørn, and Ingve.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Well played.

One point is that pre-Norman England included kingdoms with -Anglia and -sex, but nothing Jute-lish.

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Jay Janney's avatar

I was taught about angles too; it was one of the few subjects in geometry that came easily to me! 🤦‍♂️

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Phil H's avatar

You don't know much about history, don't know much about geometry -- 🚪

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IncognitoG's avatar

Well, they did get Jutland back in merry old Denmark, I guess.

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LucyTrice's avatar

True.

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The original Optimum.net's avatar

Yeah, pretty crisp morning here as well. Only a few of those left.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Good morning. I, too, am one of that group that is so Same that if I joined a Fijian dance troupe, the troupe would become less diverse.

I had my jacket for the Bird Time walk this morning. It helped.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Morning. We had 41 when I decided it was too early and I wasn’t done sleeping yet.

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CynthiaW's avatar

After five days with a 4:20 alarm, I'm feeling good about it. It should work through July and into August, at least.

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LucyTrice's avatar

I have been waking up earlier and earlier, before six this morning. It's nice. Maybe its because I have thrown in the towel and succumbed to The Afternoon Nap Temptation. Just for now.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Afternoon nap is one of my key survival adaptations. What with my husband's sleep disorder that he figures doesn't matter since he doesn't remember anything, and all the decades of being up with babies, I'd have fallen asleep behind the wheel or simply left if I couldn't catch up during the day.

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