@QMS And who is to blame? I am on hungry Mollie's side! Lol!
Sounds like you had a fun gathering and good food, to which Mollie can attest.
Yeah, the concert was good, the ambiance unbeatable. The last Dale Watson concert we saw was different. He had a big back up band, a woman singer, and he mostly sang his songs. At this concert, he had 4 back up players, and performed true standards, throwing in his biggest hits occasionally. It was dance night. Every song drew a full floor. People who didn't know how to dance got out there and tried. We shared a table with a couple who make this concert every year. They were from Dallas, stayed in an RV park, hang around for the concert, then go to T-Dinner with the wife's Mom. I mentioned all we country folks went to the dance halls every weekend, and kept it to ourselves when around the Baptist preacher. She said her Mom was a minister, but they have had "that talk", so they do not argue about the sin of drinking and dancing anymore. We agreed we would get together at that same table next year.
Years ago, I made a cake. I set it on the kitchen counter, intended to serve it with coffee. I stepped away, returned minutes later, and the cake looked mauled. Wtf? And then, I saw my coon hound, Willie, sitting on the kitchen floor with his loveliest innocent face, cake crumbs all over his chin. I made another cake, gave him the mauled one. sigh...

Stuff your spirit with good music
and pour pizza gravy over your heart

had a fun gathering yesterday
Molly the springer spaniel licked-off
my cheese and crackers plate - oops
so I took her outside for a release run

enjoy your holiday and thanks for the
foggy Friday OT!

@Lookout A large family came to the concert. G'parents, parents, their 2 little girls maybe 2 to 4 years old. They were in beautiful identical dresses and gold western boots. A parent or grandpa had one or both out there on the dance floor every single tune. Everything suggested this is their family tradition. It was beautiful to watch.
If you were driving on the busy freeway returning home, it would be damn dicey after dark. Lots of traffic!
We only had a 20 minute drive back to the cabin after the concert, but we had to be very careful of running deer.
This part of Texas is alive with deer. I saw a dozen yesterday. The country roads to both Albert Hall and Luckenbach are cut throughs, with cattle ranches on both sides, deer feeders everywhere.
Knowing you, you will work off those extra calories in no time!
Take care, friend!

Glad to hear your holiday is going well. We visited with both families yesterday.
One family has a 1 YO and a 3YO. They were the center of attention. I'm glad we could spend some time with them and build a relationship as they age. It was nice to see my 92YO Mom at the same time.
The other family has young adults as kids. I've been helping one of them with their chemistry class. The other great nephew is in his first post college job and doing well.
We rarely get down to the Ham. The 2 hour drive home in the dark is challenging. Don't know how many more years we will do it. Probable as long as my Mom hangs in there.
Of course we ate too much going to two large meals. Going easy today.

We can celebrate a break in the genocide for a few days at least. Something to be positive about. Y'all enjoy the rest of the holiday!

@enhydra lutris Pizza made that chore pretty damn easy. Confession time: I can make a pizza crust and sauce, from scratch. We have latched on to a pre-baked ultra thin crust that is delicious, containing non-GMO wheat. The brand is Golden Home. The sauce is Rao Marguerite Pizza Sauce. The tomatoes are Italian, and it has no additives. From start to finish, the meal was on the table in 20 minutes. It did not interrupt the episode of Gunsmoke.
Next confession: Mom expected me to grow up and hire a cook. She refused to teach me anything. I took one year of home economics as a high school freshman. I sort of learned how to bake a cake, brownies, cornbread, pie crust, and pancake batter. I never was taught anything about kneading, yeast rising, starters, etc... I still am unsure what texture kneaded dough should feel like or look like. Thank goodness for bread machines!
Have a great weekend, friend!

and I'm definitely ready for some pizza, but not leaving the house today to get more mushrooms and such.

Didn't overeat or get brain fog, but have all day cleanup ahead. Ah well. Bread Making weekend anyway, so enough to do without pizza making. The grazing begins. Already had leftover Turkey on leftover dinner roll with morning coffee.

be well and have a great one.

@Cassiodorus who lashes out at any break in the party's cohesion. In her opinion, Rs stick together and that is how they win. She seemed to have missed the split Trump caused, but I digress.
The silent routine should quickly backfire. What we do not need is silence as we fill up our cars with expensive gas, try to feed our family with exorbitant food prices, the constant struggle to pay for health care. Not to mention, utilities have doubled in cost. It is perfectly fine and normal for mass layoffs to occur in the tech and financial industries. And competing for lowering wages with immigrants if fine for capitalism.
No, let's not discuss that at all. Let's keep paying for healthcare and pensions for the Ukies, and support the genocide of the Gazans. Shhhh....
Have a good weekend, Cass!

‘Pipe down’: Biden allies step up calls for Dems to rally around president

Because nothing says "vote for Biden" like "shut up." Of course, the reality is even more hilarious than the author of this piece, Alex Gangitano, suspects. Here's the thesis:

But some Democrats say comments like Axelrod’s aren’t helping especially as Biden continues to face poor polling numbers, encouraging the party to instead coalesce around the president to give him a boost.

Winning over reluctant voters? The strategy appears to be "let's not talk about that."

“We gotta pipe down the moaning and groaning and all the whining. There’s too much of that,” said former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), a former House Democratic Caucus chair. “I think that leaches into the psyche of the voters as well. That’s got to stop and I think at that point, you’ll start to see Biden’s numbers improve, certainly amongst Democrats, but I think voter-wide they’ll start to improve.”

Yes, let's wait for the numbers to improve. Certainly they'll improve someday, like when drought-stricken farmers think: "certainly it will rain someday."

It's the same kind of hope, no?

Senate Democrats are also now pushing back hard on criticism from within their own party, dismissing concerns about Biden’s electability as counterproductive.

Translation: "We can't improve the product, so criticizing it won't help."

Biden aides lean into attacks on Trump, ramping up the offensive by rolling out daily memos that outline what a second term would mean for issues from the economy, abortion, and immigration.

We know what a second Trump term would bring from the first one. Not a whole lot.

Trump Could Be Our Laziest President Ever, According to Leaked Schedules

Also abortion, a matter for the states now, and immigration.

Joe Biden’s Rightward Pivot Isn’t Increasing His Popularity

Biden also faces some primary challengers, including Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips (D) and Marianne Williamson.

Having the DNC crush them will doubtless only increase Biden's popularity /snark. Such fun!

@Cassiodorus Mearsheimer has been knocked off his perch here of late.
Good.
Example: our presence in Syria is to enrich Big Oil. At present, only our troops there are dying. It could easily spread to our shores though the daily illegal penetration of our borders. But, immigrants have caused lower wages, so it is all good for corporate profit margin. So, a little terrorist bomb goes off somewhere in the US. We will be just fine.

Is a piece called "On Sub-Imperial Power," quoted from someone named Arnaud Bertrand, about a book by someone named Clinton Fernandes.

Of course, when you try to do International Relations theory without thinking carefully about capitalism, you come to conclusions like "all states do X all the time." The interesting comparison would be between states that had been granted "core" roles in the neoliberal capitalist world order and those that had "periphery" roles within that same order. If you want to start with International Relations theory which incorporates a theory of capitalism, I would recommend Global Rivalries from the Cold War to Iraq.