Saturday Open Thread - 5/9/26: Odds and Ends
Good morning, good people!
Are any of you suffering from ceasefire-attacks-ceasefire whiplash? The treatment is to not read MSM headlines in rapid succession. A proven cure is to not read them at all.
Well, below is a photo demonstration of the way my secretary, a Totally BAD ASS Texas Woman, spends her weekends.
Now, it is not just that she caught the monster flathead catfish in the local river, it's that she caught it by noodling WITH HER HANDS. Need proof? Take a look:
I thought of posting some interesting videos, new faces, new perspectives, but decided they were more likely AI generated than not. We are there, friends.
And I was invited to an all day seminar webcast about family law. What was strange was that it was nation-wide approval for legal education credits, so nothing was tailored for any state or their statutes. It was an all-day demonstration about how to use AI to do things like how to slant your voir dire, your presentment of evidence, your final arguments to maximize their effect. Live demonstrations, a panel of judges from all over the US. One size fit all.
I am glad I am retiring. One size does not fit all, no matter what AI says.
Retirement is moving along. Whereas I thought I would stay to the end, AI is hastening my first journey's end, ushering in another.
Hubby got good news from his oncologist, which he will report about soon.
Poor guy will have to put up with me all day, every day, in a few months. As some people say to him when he tells them he is married to me, they respond with "You poor bastard."
We shall see.
Friends, this is an open thread, a platform for you to share any topics or opinions you find worth sharing with your friends here.
Let 'er rip!
Comments
Good morning, friends!
As Saturdays go, news about war, peace, economic upheavals, and celebrity divorces will be headlining the news all day.
Please pass along whatever you think is worth sharing.
Your turn, friends!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning...
The economic tsunami hasn't really hit yet, but gas is almost $4/gal and food just keeps getting more expensive. If the stupidity in the Persian gulf continues, it will be much worse by fall. We'll see if Trump will cry uncle.
We got some more rain this week and more due tomorrow. We're still in drought but it is less severe than it has been.
Well onward through the fog (of war). Have a good weekend and thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning, LO!
I am glad you are getting rain, as is your garden. I think it is gonna rain from 11 am to 6 pm today. We had no plans to go anywhere or do any outside chores, so let it pour.
Everything got pricier when Trump started his tariff project. I guess he enjoyed impoverishing middle class Americans so much, he upped the ante with this conflict with Iran. Let's never forget he said that $8 per gallon of gas is a small price to pay.
I didn't notice any stark rise in food prices this week, but I noticed at least 3 common and typically available items on my shopping list were not on the shelves yesterday. Allergy relief pills, almond milk, fajita marinade. Lots of empty shelves. Very odd.
I dread September, if this disastrous war continues, and I firmly believe winter will have us searching high and low for vegetables and fruit due to the world-wide reduction in fertilizer and a reduction in acreage of planted fields.
Well, let's enjoy our day, despite keeping an eye on wars and hantavirus, shall we, dear friend?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
This chat is from Thursday. (49 min.)
The only item that may have been outdated info is the Saudia Arabia block of airspace on the US. I have read the Saudis reversed their ban, but I can't confirm it.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning otc, thanks for the OT. Congrats to your secretary
Been out in the garden and yard doing stuff and planning stuff, sonna be seriouosly busy for a while this month and next, but have to time everything so as to allow maximum bloom time for all the blooming stuff because we get pollinators up wazoo, honeybees, orchard bees, 2 kinds of bumble bees, several kinds of butterflies, monarchs included and hummingbirds.
Haven't checked any news except the Guardian, of which I only skim the front page summary secions and seldom dive further into any region. I assume it would've mentioned all hell breaking loose somewhere, but it wprobably wouldn't say if Zelinsky had gone ahead with his threatened magnum provocation which would lead to uber-retaliation from the Rus.
I did see that the US went and stole all of Venezuela's enriched uranium. Our economic war has made it impossible for them to have rectors for nuclear power at the moment, so they don't need what we stole, except maybe for producing medical isotopes and such. Now we get free enriched uranium and they hae to buy any isotopes and such forom us. There was never a hint of a weapons program so there is zero justification for this straight up outright theft, which the US, naturally, brags about as if they really did anything except steal something from another country in violation of at least a couple of treaties.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good afternoon, el!
It is getting harder to find "news" that isn't some spy agency's talking point. I did read that Great Britain is initiating digital ids and programs to monitor everything a person says on a cell phone or type on a computer. It is becoming illegal to express any dissent against the government. A couple of European countries are enacting the same lows and protocols. At this time, I would be frightened to land in the London airport. Or France. At the same time, I would have no concern about Russia or China travel. What a world!
I was given a lb. of Hawaiian coffee to try. I didn't like it, and rather than tossing it, I did some research on how to fertilize lawns and plants with used coffee grounds. I can supply myself with free fertilizer for spring and summer without composting, as I have a daily small supply of grounds.
I did it years ago, then forgot about it.
Get your projects and chores done, dear friend. We will keep you posted on the news.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Had no idea uncle sam was still raping and
.
pillaging Venezuela just for the halibut. Making enemies
left and right with no sense of consequence. Really? steal
their oil, uranium, and anything else that happens to exist.
Apparently trumpet relishes in the role of robber/pirate/bully.
Have a feeling this is leading to a serious lethal response.
Zionism is a social disease
Another take on the Iran conflict this week. (49 min)
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Impressive
Your secretary looks like a handy person to have around. Never seen a catfish before, it’s almost as big as her. Alligators better take notice.
Anya
She got the catfish.
She did not get bitten by a gator in a lake that is full of them. And deadly water moccasins. And snapping turtles.
She also has a beekeeper's certificate, and a handgun license. She is a five ft. tall badass.
I hope you are enjoying your day, chica. Our forecast for rain switched to not a drop, so I did spent some time outside watching birds hog bird seed.
Ok. Catfish is a thing. It is cut up into pieces, battered with either a flour base or cornbread base, then deep fried. It is the most popular fish and the most likely fish on a restaurant menu. It is considered to have a buttery taste. I never developed a taste for fish, or any other seafood, other than crab. Crab is risky for me, since I have a pretty severe iodine allergy. I might nibble on it, but wouldn't try it again for at least a year.
If grocery prices go up, if we enter a depression, I will stop holding my nose at catfish, and deer meat, and squirrel, and rabbit, and raccoon. One does what one must to survive.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
My grandfather, that
now-unveiled non-Cherokee Irishman ( I vacillate between calling him Chirish and Irokee) taught me how to noodle for fish, along with how to witch water wells and various other folkisms. I got to be pretty damned good at it, if I do say so myself… You have to let them nibble at you for a while before you pet ‘ em.
For channel catfish, it is also helpful if you bathe your hand in well-spoiled whatever (your imagination just filled in the blanks), prior to plunging it into their lair. They are carrion-eaters, or perhaps better stated, drowneon-eaters.
I’m glad that I learned how to do it, though. It may prove useful one day. And, truth be told, if the Great Wheel turns the tables: should they get a chance to chow down on me one fine day as I disintegrate, I wouldn’t hold it against ‘em. Catfish are nice folks, as long as you respect the dorsal spines…
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
My grandparents sort of
hid certain facts about their ancestry, like a big chunk of African American bloodlines...Hell, let's just call it African Negro, since they were slaves and not "Americans" in the 1860s.
I digress.
In that event you are with no fishing gear, no nothing, noodling is life saving. And, you go first, ok?
Great to hear your adventure with noodling, my friend!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It is actually fun,
or it was in ‘60-62 when I learned it. And, were we to find ourselves in the same place and needs must, I’d be happy to do it again, for all of us, and according to Hoyle.
Just mind the copperheads. They like to hang out near the very grassy, shaded banks that overhang catfish hidey-holes. Try as I might, I have never developed any affection for them. At least diamondbacks exhibit the common courtesy to coil up and rattle at you. Copperheads, not so much- and they swim just fine. Pain in the butt, those guys…
Thinking about it now- I listened to the Cuban Missile Crisis in real time, sitting in my grandfather’s ham shack, late into the night. His genetic history and our family spoken history may not bear much resemblance to one another: but he was a Marine through and through, and as a ham radio operator and a charter member of the Navy-Marine Corps MARS (Military Affiliate Radio Service), he provided telephone patches via shortwave to the troops in Vietnam throughout that conflict. He was a good man.
And he could noodle for fish better than me. So there’s that. Clearly, l’m still working through the cognitive dissonance here…
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Noodle for fish and tipping cows
.
not sure how I missed those sports growing up.
I do have a pet woodchuck tho. We play
stare down games. Plus interesting discussions
with a catbird named George. To each their own.
Zionism is a social disease
It was a fucking
copperhead that got me on my foot about 7 years ago.
Your grand dad sounds like my Dad. We were lucky to know them and have their example.
I will skip noodling unless there is no other way to survive, just sayin'.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I truly harbor ill will
towards copperheads. Can’t get past it.
And, now that I think about it, I feel very much the same way about politicians. Funny, that.
My grandfather enlisted in the Marine Corps on December 8th, at age 38, and his career as an active Marine ended during the taking of Guam. The truth of those minor details I have confirmed through public records. The rest, not so much.
The stories about the man write themselves: and my current struggles with my memories and understanding of him run very deep indeed. I struggle with these things. But perhaps most of all, I struggle with the understanding of how deeply gaslit I was- by all sides. Families are funny, I guess.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Learned at a very young age
.
the differences between projected reality and
the actual truth of matters. Glad for those lessons.
The understanding has served me well thru-out life.
Mainly in the interpersonal realm.
Zionism is a social disease
I am still
incredibly naive… Part of my vegetable charm, I suppose. (;-)
Be well!
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Now that's an interesting juxtaposition
.
of concepts - 'veggie charm'
like hypnotic eggplant or
philosophic potato
lots to play with there
Zionism is a social disease
Never learned to noodle, lakes and rivers were scarce and
plunging your hands into other shoreline waters was advised agains because or Moray eels and the like.
be weell and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Mirandi gives Iran's version of the latest
Strait of Hormuz battle. (59 minutes)
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Hola, girlfriend-across-the-GOM.
All this talk about noodling, catfish, and various poisonous snakes prompted me to comment. That is one big catfish your secretary hooked. She is most definitely not one to mess with. Her tats alone speak for that.
Catfish is the only "fin" fish I like fried. They're bottom feeders hence the strong taste. The fillets have to be done correctly, and fresh. Same goes for the breading and the oil used to fry them. Cracker Barrel does the best job here, believe it or not. I'm a huge fish lover, and was taught at a very young age how to cook them. Now, here in the Sandbar Peninsula State, we have to be on the alert for Water Moccasins, Copperheads, and the deadliest one, a Coral Snake. The first two hang in or around water. Corals don't, though you'll see them in the bushes. They're actually pretty snakes, somewhat small, but absolutely lethal. I saw one crossing a path in a wooded area I was walking in years ago. I gave it an extremely wide berth. Hoping for more rain today. I see you are getting more and more into retirement mode. 
Glad to see/read JtC. He is really doing very well. Well, my runny mouth runneth over. Take care! Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.