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CynthiaW's avatar

Day One of State Envirothon is complete. Now dinner time and then bed.

dj l's avatar

Sweet dreams!

dj l's avatar

More sorting books, some grocery shopping, fix your own pizza night - mine was a thin layer of goat cheese, mozzarella & finely chopped artichokes- yummo.

Will continue watching whatever it is I’m watching on my iPad while hubs sits next to me & watches something like channel surfing…

LucyTrice's avatar

We had a brush fire down the street yesterday. A neighbor was mowing and his mower caught fire, igniting the tall grass he was cutting.

At least 5 official fire vehicles showed up, three of which were big trucks and two Dodge Rams with offroad equipment. The burnt patch was about 12 × 20. But there was a lot of fuel and a breeze.

CynthiaW's avatar

It's important to stop fires quickly.

LucyTrice's avatar

I love the word "passerine".

Phil H's avatar

Refers to birds that perch -- on tree branches (or sometimes, on utility/power lines).

Jay Janney's avatar

That would explain why passerines are so fond of that old tv show "The wire".

Phil H's avatar

Misfire.

CynthiaW's avatar

It makes me think of adventures.

LucyTrice's avatar

Yes!

CynthiaW's avatar

Like, "bird of passage," even though it means "perching bird."

dj l's avatar

From Mike Woodruff's email today:

There are 20 quadrillion ants on the planet – i.e., 2.5 million for every person.

Unfortunately, some of those ants get into our house. The itty bitty ones. They were often seen around the bathroom sink. I suspected they like toothpaste so after each brushing I pour a bit of bleach down the drain. I haven't seen any since I began doing that.

Still see some occasionally in various parts of the kitchen. When pest control folks were here yesterday they gave us 2 baits to set out.

Phil H's avatar

Good morning. 55 degrees here, which. High in the 80s and sunny.

The mothership is covering a fight in Congress over reauthorizing Section 702, a 9/11 era surveillance law allowing the “incidental” collection and use of electronic communications on US citizens without a warrant for national security purposes.

Jay Janney's avatar

Interesting that at the same time FISA is up for renewal that Carter page was awarded $1.25 million for FISA abuses engineered by Kevin Klinesmith. What was his punishment for lying to a FISA court, literally altering documents to change their meaning 180 degrees? probation. Judge Boasberg said the reputational damage was a sufficient punishment.

Mend it or end it.

dj l's avatar

Meta told its employees: 🎶 “Every click you make, every stroke you take, we’ll be watching you.” The company announced it’s installing software on employees’ computers to track mouse movements and keystrokes and grab the occasional screenshot to train AI. Tracking is only approved for work-related apps and doesn’t have an opt-out option. Employees are calling the initiative a surveillance overreach.

Phil H's avatar

Workplace surveillance is a different matter, legally, than government surveillance.

Brian's avatar

Right before they announced that a bunch of you will be laid off so we can use your salaries to keep chasing AI.

CynthiaW's avatar

I assume that employees' choices are to accept it or quit.

Phil H's avatar

As long as they are given notice.

Jay Janney's avatar

Have they learned to love Big Zuck yet?

Dsfelty's avatar

"... and in the sky

The larks still bravely singing fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below."

Adding a little more darkness, TSAF made me immediately think of this line from the famous poem.

BikerChick's avatar

I thought of the Buick Skylark.

Brian's avatar

Me too but couldn’t think of a witty line to use it in.

CynthiaW's avatar

It's a dark time for the world. Every time is, but sometimes, we're not thinking about it.

dj l's avatar

Every time I'm outside, I still hear the doves cooing

CynthiaW's avatar

We don't even have to go outside, just open a window: James and his other brother James, the mourning doves.

dj l's avatar

that's absolutely true, but the pollen is everywhere, no matter what season, so windows are closed.

dj l's avatar

The first video in today's section for the bird made me think of TX. Same animals, anyway.

Then in the other videos, hearing the 'songs' definitely made me think the birds are talking to each other rather than just tweeting along. Love the head feathers.

CynthiaW's avatar

But not skylarks in Texas.

dj l's avatar

yep, all the other animals but the skylarks.

I just asked AI for the most similar TX bird:

Horned Larks occupy a very similar ecological niche. They are small, brownish, streaked ground birds found in open fields—much like skylarks. They also perform fluttering display flights, though not as dramatically as skylarks.

dj l's avatar

today is National Pigs-in-a-Blanket Day. Today I say yucko. In times past, when kids were little, I made those & kiddos loved 'em. I'd either make fresh biscuits or use those Pillsbury biscuits in a tube that you wack on the side of the counter to open, twist & ta-da = biscuits ready for the oven, or wrap around those piggies.

Today in history, imo: April 24: “I cannot live without books.” — Thomas Jefferson, writing to John Adams in 1815 after selling his personal library of 6,487 volumes to Congress to rebuild the collection the British had burned the year before. The statement "I cannot live without books." is what is better than today's National Pigs-in-a-Blanket Day.

LucyTrice's avatar

I have always thought whacking biscuit tubes was cool.

Jay Janney's avatar

My favorite Pillsbury story involved a woman who pulled her car to the side of the road, sobbing because she had been shot in the head, and could feel her brains oozing out. She knew she would die alone in her car. If she got out, she'd collapse.

A police officer checked on her, telling her a can of Pillsbury exploded, and the brains she thought oozing out of her skull was just parts of a biscuit, which look a lot like brain matter.

LucyTrice's avatar

That is hilarious!

CynthiaW's avatar

Also, today's TGIF from Nellie Bowles includes a subscriber note:

"John writes: TGIF from the Two Step Inn music festival in Georgetown, TX."

Phil H's avatar

I had just suspended my FP subscription.

dj l's avatar

not directed at Phil, but anyone interested in unbiased news coverage. It's a paid-for subscription; GlobalPost; by the name it's obvious it covers the world. Among other things I like about it, it shows at the top of each article the bit of the world where the country is located, then a smaller view showing more specifically where it's located, all the countries near-by. Today covered Zimbabwe’s Gold Boom Masks a Tarnished Core; China Dismisses Accusations That It Bullied African Countries to Block Taiwanese President’s Trip; Spain Unveils Plan to Address Housing Crisis Ahead of Next Year’s Elections; ICC Confirms Crimes Against Humanity Charges for Former Philippine President; & then it includes a human interest story or an unusual animal fact.

I've paid for this for a # of yrs, it's $46 annually.

Brian's avatar

I gave up on The Dispatch, NYT and WSJ due mostly to news overload and made TFP my main sub. So far I’m still ok with the decision but lately I’ve been wondering if I should cancel them all. Some days the hermit life sounds very appealing from a sanity standpoint.

Paul Britton's avatar

Any particular reason?

Phil H's avatar

I haven't consulted them as much lately, and there seems to be some coverage overpal between the FP and the Dispatch. Also, Bari Weiss's apparent lean toward Trump.

Jay Janney's avatar

UD still provides a free subscription to the WSJ, which I often use in class. The writing is still good, but they have some issues. I expect UD will cancel within a year or two due to the cost.

BikerChick's avatar

I am keeping it because I do enjoy the non political articles.

Paul Britton's avatar

I confess to reading Nellie before today's SAF.

BikerChick's avatar

I had no idea about the shooting in MX until I read TGIF.

CynthiaW's avatar

I respect that decision.

dj l's avatar

& I read Global Post first

& the newsletter from the Methodist church

& another Friday only religious one from Mike Woodruff

dj l's avatar

didn't see me at the Two Step Inn music festival. Like I previously mentioned, too crowded. I hope the subscriber of TGIF had a good time. Maybe sitting in one of the collapsible chairs bought at the volunteer thrift store.

CynthiaW's avatar

I like to think that other fans of Nellie Bowles are also thrifty!

CynthiaW's avatar

Public Service Announcement: Full-fat Greek yogurt not only smells like vomit, but, if you leave the bowl in the sink instead of washing it immediately, that stuff sets up like Gorilla brand spackling compound, and you have to chisel it off with a big flathead screwdriver.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

IncognitoG's avatar

I would expect a warm-water soak would loosen it. That method usually works in my experience for set-up wheat-based pastes and doughs.

Toni in Texas's avatar

Vomitus is the one smell that will gag a maggot and me!

CynthiaW's avatar

With all the children I've raised, I don't have much tolerance left for the smell of enzyme-processed organic matter.

LucyTrice's avatar

When I was a little girl, I didn't want to be a mommy because they have to clean up the mess when their children throw up.

dj l's avatar

& I have the song "When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, what will I be" going in my head" 🎶

I also didn't think I could ever wipe snot off kids' faces

BikerChick's avatar

I'm not sure which is worse, vomitus or loose dog poopitus.

LucyTrice's avatar

Good point. The smell of vomit was what got me.

dj l's avatar

and I remember in grade school/elementary school, whatever ya want to call it, back in the day, it was a chain-reaction; one kid would puke, then others would, either 'cause of the smell or sight.

CynthiaW's avatar

Once the child is mobile, he/she has a chance to make it to the bathroom before spewing. Dogs, not so much.

BikerChick's avatar

I have many a photo of young daughter #2 laying on the floor with a puke bucket next to her. She was sick quite often as a little.

BikerChick's avatar

Do not leave bits of sourdough to dry in your kitchen sink when making your bread. A chisel will be required for removal. Use a mesh liner over your kitchen strainer to catch the bits when you rinse your bowls/utensils because they will stick to your pipes.

IncognitoG's avatar

It’s closely related to wallpaper paste, iirc.

Brian's avatar

My wife has been using sourdough a lot recently and guess who gets to benefit from her trials and experimentation? Now you’ve made me feel a little guilty for never having thought of the cleanup necessary.

Jay Janney's avatar

Once a month I pour boiling water down the sink to clear about debris. It seems to work! 😀

BikerChick's avatar

It's not difficult but just do not let those loose bits of dough go down the drain. I never knew until a friend informed me recently.

CynthiaW's avatar

"Gluten" has the same root as "glue."

LucyTrice's avatar

Yikes

Paul Britton's avatar

One of my favorite cases dealt with the issue of whether it's an unfair trade practice to call your product "Greek" yogurt if it isn't made a certain way.

Personally, I don't care for yogurt, period.

DougAz's avatar

Moose brand yogurt is not greek. with delicious flavor and real cherries, raspberry etc. totally worth a try. a treat for the pallette.

Trust me on this.

DougAz's avatar

N.o.o.s.a brand yogurt

BikerChick's avatar

I don’t think oat milk or almond milk or any other fake milk should be able to use the term “milk.” How about water?

Paul Britton's avatar

I am against all of those fake milks. I myself drink lots of real milk -- I have it several times a day.

BikerChick's avatar

I've been consuming nonfat Fairlife milk to try to get more protein without the fat. It's quite tasty especially when mixed in with a little bit of chocolate milk.

dj l's avatar

I used almond milk. But I agree, it shouldn't use the word 'milk'. And it is processed using water. Almond water isn't appealing to the public is my guess.

BikerChick's avatar

I understand but it’s also not milk. One of my many pet peeves.

dj l's avatar

what was the final verdict?

Paul Britton's avatar

The upshot of it all was that it's "Greek" yogurt if you want to call it that, regardless of how it's made.

CynthiaW's avatar

Speaking of "dark," Nellie Bowles on how the cool kids will kill the Jews and everyone else and then eat one another, like the Donner Party:

"I think people assume Hasan Piker speaking about property owners is joking when he says: “Kill them. Kill those *****. Murder those ***** in the streets. Let the streets—let the streets soak in their ***** red capitalist blood.” I think they think it’s like goofy kid talk. But a lot of times, historically, groups of people have done just that. You think you’re exempt from history? You think the Hasan we face this cycle is any different from the Hasans of yesterday, just because he’s wearing a button-down this time and is handsome?

"I hate to tell you this, but they’ve always been hotties. That’s part of how you know they’re going to burn your house down! And they want to soak the streets in your blood. I guess they thought life would be better as a hot person and it’s not, so now they’re upset? And if enough ugly flesh sacks agree—love you guys! You keep me young!—then they will go wild and kill each other and starve. And after all the property owners and class enemies and healthcare executives have been beheaded, no one will have considered how Miss Nancy will continue to get her four lemons from Whole Foods."

**

I recommend prayer and fasting.

IncognitoG's avatar

Here’s a related description, if you just switch “left” for “right “:

> Photos of empty chairs at the NatCon conference, at CPAC after it went "New Right," and at similar events in the Postliberal ecosystem are not coincidental.

They reflect an underacknowledged reality that none of these "populist" movements are actually popular with the American public.

The Postliberal ecosystem is a tiny, hyper-online movement consisting of overlapping circles of the same people. They appear on each others' podcasts, write for each others' blogs, and occasionally host conferences together that almost nobody attends. But beyond that, they have almost no popular following.

Instead, Postliberalism thrives on an astroturfed op of fake engagements and clicks. They obsess with their follower counts on X, and count their "victories" by the number of threads they can "ratio" by flooding them with internet sewage. But those clicks are almost entirely sockpuppets, bots, and troll farms located in Eastern Europe and Asia.

Look at the engagements on almost any New Right "influencer" account. It's all Randomword Bunchofnumbers garbage accounts with anime profile pics, 12 followers, and a join date of 5 minutes ago.

Also look at where the New Right publishes is dreck - it's all an in-house echochamber of their own substacks, blogs, and publications that almost nobody else reads.

They do have one advantage though, and it's grossly inflated their reach in the White House. And that is JD Vance, who comes from the same ecosystem of fringe New Right intellectuals and their fanbase of internet sewage. And Vance, in turn, owes his elevation to the Vice Presidency to Trump's coattails. <

https://x.com/PhilWMagness/status/2037908327447838961

Brian's avatar

I just read TGIF and now think of Piker as a new, young, hip Bernie Sanders on steroids. Endless bad ideas that somehow appeal to low information folks. I also have to edit another comment on here this morning: too many articles like that one in NYT was the reason why I gave up my sub, not news overload. Their staff has some seriously twisted employees.

CynthiaW's avatar

I agree. There are people who just have different opinions, and then there are horrible people.

Brian's avatar

For all those who endorse the concept of hate speech and the need for safe spaces, why doesn’t this apply and get him banned, canceled, prosecuted etc in their minds? It’s really hard to understand how that guy has an audience.

Jay Janney's avatar

There's a book called "camp of the saints". It's a best seller, has won some awards, but is a dystopian view of mass immigration. Amazon no longer sells it, due to complaints from others. In reading tweets about that, the vast majority felt censoring it was acceptable because its ideas were wrong. But asking soft porn not be carried in an elementary school library; now that's a problem! 😡

Jonah wrote about it last night, complaining about the ALA's "banned books" announcements (which all are for sale on Amazon). Not surprisingly, "it's a free market" decision for some of those books, but a ban on others.....

CynthiaW's avatar

Yes, the inconsistency is what destroys respect for institutions like the American Library Association.

CynthiaW's avatar

Because "It's good when we do it."

IncognitoG's avatar

This is our collective chronic condition…

CynthiaW's avatar

Yes, our whole society needs to recommit to the principle that wrong is always wrong.

Jay Janney's avatar

Isn't Hasan the one who abused his dog during his show?

He doesn't strike me as one who ever kill a single Jew; too cowardly. He'll steal grapes from the Jew's grocery store, and think it makes him a rebel, but in reality he's all hat and no cattle.

CynthiaW's avatar

Yes, he's the dog abuser.

"He doesn't strike me as one who ever kill a single Jew; too cowardly."

Individual cowards in large groups can commit mass murder.

Jay Janney's avatar

Only when the Jew is elderly, frail, or beaten down. Piker will never attack a Jew that serves in their military and isn't wounded. He isn't brave enough to act on his own statements.

CynthiaW's avatar

I think he would be part of a mob attack. But hopefully we won't find out.

R.Rice's avatar

Yet.. Ezra Klein / NYT tells us Hassan is “not the enemy “.

Charlie Cooke has an opinion.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2026/04/hasan-piker-is-the-enemy/

Phil H's avatar

The non-paywalled portion of that article indicates that Piker aproved of the murder of the United Healthcare CEO.

Jay Janney's avatar

One of these days someone will shoot one of Piker's heroes and we'll never hear the end of how bad murder has become.

CynthiaW's avatar

John Podhoretz has the same opinion as Charlie Cooke.

Dsfelty's avatar

Oh my lord! I'm going to go hug my wife and pet my dog.

CynthiaW's avatar

Excellent plan.

Phil H's avatar

I have heard nothing good about Hasan Piker.

CynthiaW's avatar

I agree with Nellie that he is good-looking.

Brian's avatar

I disagree, as that opinion would upset my wife.

Wilhelm's avatar

EAR WORM: I saw the Brudi Brothers perform as an opener for the band 49 Winchester last winter. They were promoting material for their new album Dark And Stormy. The folk-ish trio released “Donner Party Favors” just last week (audio, 4:01): https://youtu.be/nc685YGb0xY

BikerChick's avatar

Did Cynthia’s comment regarding the Donner Party remind you of this song or are there two completely unrelated comments today that reference the Donner Party?

Brian's avatar

The first thought that came to my mind was “Did she mean the Dahmer party?”

Wilhelm's avatar

Similarities, but different menu.

CynthiaW's avatar

Wilhelm posted the song first, and I picked it up in my comment.

dj l's avatar

I see they're scheduled at the Exit In, Nashville, Ap 29.

Many yrs ago, as I mentioned before, I worked at a restaurant/bar called Top of the Block, located above the Exit In. It was owned/operated by 2 brothers who had gone bankrupt at least once before. After I quit, when I went back to school for my graduate degree, I later heard they closed down due to bankruptcy.

CynthiaW's avatar

Definitely dark.

Wilhelm's avatar

And yet, I like it.

CynthiaW's avatar

It's sweetly melodic, yet cannibalism.

It reminds me of "Hey There, Cthulhu":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxScTbIUvoA&list=RDXxScTbIUvoA&start_radio=1

Wilhelm's avatar

Sounds like a T-shirt that will soon be available at the band's merch table.

CynthiaW's avatar

Drama Queen designs band t-shirts. Have the Brudi Brothers email me!

Wilhelm's avatar

I don't know them. But she should send them a sample of her work toot sweet.