Small Talk: Out of Genoa

[Petunia13]

I started my foofy steakhouse job taking tables (only a tiny section)  tonight. I only took 5 tables this evening. It went okay from my standpoint but the kitchen and runners fucked up a lot of my stuff. One table had $55 entree deleted from a cooking bungle (rare when I rang medium and supposed be cut tableside and wasn’t)  and all my salads were missing their dressing or modifications ect.  Also a server messed up my order on a table I was one of the many computers ringing a tables order and my guest flagged me so I went over briefly and the other girl started ringing on my ticket instead of one of the free computer terminals  and I had the manager “take it off” but he didn’t remove the full amount so I printed and brought the check it was wrong and had to redo it. Another coworker went up to my table on a date and asked them if they were helped and started service but they had their bread and drinks from me like obviously they were. Those goofs and the tiny section made my tips smaller than they could be. After tip out and taxes I only got $63 and change which isn’t good for 5 tables on a Friday. 

Some of the coworkers are catty to me too. I guess that’s to be expected. I also start another 2nd job Monday selling cars at a dealership.  Both jobs are v close to home 😊 

i think when I’m in the swing of things Ill do well as a server. I like those types of roles, it makes me feel good helping people and I have zero ego doing it or selling. That actually is a secret to selling and doing well in service or menial positions. But is also a hinderance since people I work w probably sense I don’t care about ass pats and idle conversation. The guys at my restaurant job were much friendly in a sincere way. I’ll find a way to make it work. I do work hard on sidework and busing or offering to run stuff so that w me trying to fluff them may help. 

[Cupid Stunt]

This could be awkward:

• An elite D.C. girls’ school thought its founding nuns taught slaves to read. Instead, they sold them off for as much as they could.

• Email sextortion scams are on the rise and they’re scary — here’s what to do if you get one

• After steak-ing out their positions, both sides agreed to meat in the middle. -- US and EU settle their beef beef with new trade deal

• Father charged after twins die in hot car -- After a funeral for 1-year-old twins who died after their father left them in a hot car, apparently by accident. Juan Rodriguez is charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and endangering the welfare of a child. There have been 24 hot car deaths this year, after 52 in 2018. 

• Navy SEALs have a "discipline" problem -- The commander of the Navy’s special operations forces is sounding the alarm about a breakdown in discipline in the elite Navy SEALs. His call to action follows a series of disturbing incidents involving members of SEAL teams.

• Gun store billboard calling 'the squad' four horsemen of 'idiots' is coming down -- How was this approved by billboard company before it was seen as a threat to 4 public representatives?

• Speaking of Sex Work -- The movement to decriminalize sex work, explained

• Close the windows? Amsterdam mulls red light district change -- Amsterdam’s first female mayor, Femke Halsema, is attempting to implement major reforms in the city’s red light district.

• Amsterdam mayor seeks red light closures -- The controversy over reforming the red light district also points to a larger debate among feminists in Amsterdam: Is the industry degrading and exploitative, or is it giving women the freedom to whatever they want with their bodies?

• Amsterdam's first woman mayor plans to overhaul red-light district -- The response to Halsema’s proposals, however, has been lukewarm. Sex workers said these reforms end up hurting the industry when the problem lies with tourists who are unable to behave themselves.

• Amsterdam sex workers lukewarm about plans to reform Red Light District -- She’s provided four options: closing the curtains of the brothel windows, removing brothels from the district altogether, relocating some brothels, or increasing the number of windows to dilute the pressure of tourists. Debates to determine the best option will be held next week and voted on later in the summer.

• Katy Perry Took a PR Hit From ‘Dark Horse’ Trial, but May Be Off the Hook Financially

• How to politely smoke weed -- Emily Post’s great-great-granddaughter wrote a book about cannabis etiquette — a thing you never thought you’d need.

• You kids get off of my lawn! -- EBay is suing Amazon for “racketeering” and anti-competitive practices -- A lawsuit filed in California this week mentions three mid-level managers by name.

<heavy sigh>

• Couples all over Instagram are “doing life together.” -- The popular romantic hashtag has evangelical roots.

• Why it feels like everyone on Instagram is filming their workouts -- After all, what’s the point of breaking a sweat if you’re not doing it for the ’gram?

• She Invented the Gender Reveal Party. She Has Some Regrets. -- 20/20 hindsight, though it doesn't stop you from blogging clickbait.

• Claws is a love letter to the proud, strip mall–fabulous American woman -- The cult TNT show mixes race, class, high camp, and The Goddess of Foundation Garments, Niecy Nash!

• How to stroke a cat, according to science

• Freed from Swedish jail, rapper A$AP Rocky lands in US

Robert Johnson, singer/songwriter

[Cupid Stunt]

Harold Prince, Dominant Force in Broadway Musicals, Dies at 91

Legendary Broadway musical producer and director Harold Prince, whose considerable legacy includes “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cabaret,” “West Side Story,” “Company,” “Sweeney Todd” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” has died. He was 91.

Prince died Wednesday in Reykjavik, Iceland, after a brief illness, his publicist confirmed to Variety.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, who collaborated with Prince on “Evita” and “Phantom of the Opera,” paid tribute to the prolific Broadway producer. “Farewell, Hal,” he said. “Not just the prince of musicals, the crowned head who directed two of the greatest productions of my career, ‘Evita’ and ‘Phantom.’ This wonderful man taught me so much and his mastery of musical theater was without equal.”

It is impossible to speak of the American musical theater in the second half of the 20th century without invoking Prince’s name. He is associated in some crucial way with a majority of the great musicals of the period, and though he did not change the face of the musical theater alone, he collaborated with such giants as George Abbott, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim in some of their most impressive undertakings.

Starting as a wunderkind producer with “The Pajama Game” and “Damn Yankees” in the mid-’50s, Prince moved into directing as well, shaping intimate works like “Cabaret” and “Company” that deepened and transformed the scope of the musical. He was equally adept at spectacle, as he demonstrated with Webber productions such as “Evita” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

With 21 Tonys on his mantle — the most of any individual — Prince was truly his era’s paradigm for a theatrical impresario — brash, demanding, creatively rigorous. His short hair and closely cropped beard were copied by many who sought success on Broadway, almost as if the look was a talisman for success.

But few of his imitators had the wherewithal and passion Prince brought to his work, and while he had the occasional down period, the astounding success of his best- known productions all but paved over the occasional glitch — his flops were never as bad nor his successes as big.

Abbott was his first mentor; Prince developed his next significant relationship with fellow stage manager Robert E. Griffith, and the two embarked on a producing career by optioning the novel “7½ Cents,” which was the basis for their first musical, “The Pajama Game.” Directed by Abbott on a modest budget, it was a major hit of the 1954 season and won the producers a Tony. Prince later served as associate producer on the 1957 film version.

The following year, again with Griffith, Prince produced an equally big hit, “Damn Yankees,” winning a second Tony (he was associate producer on that film too in 1958). Their next musical. “New Girl in Town” (based on “Anna Christie”), was a brief comedown from the heights of their first two productions.

But their biggest success came in 1957 with “West Side Story,” which brought the talents of Sondheim, Bernstein, Jerome Robbins and Arthur Laurents together in an updated retelling of “Romeo and Juliet.” Prince and Griffith’s next production, “Fiorello,” a musical about the colorful former mayor of New York, won a Pulitzer Prize (as well as a Tony), though follow-up “Tenderloin” paled by comparison.

Prince’s first genuine flop was the straight play “A Call on Kuprin” in 1961. It was also his last collaboration with Griffith, who died suddenly in June of that year. Stunned at first, Prince quickly recovered with the fluffy Broadway comedy “Take Her, She’s Mine” and another major musical hit, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” which Prince helped transform during its troubled out-of-town run. It brought Prince yet another Tony.

Eager to finally direct, he replaced Word Baker on “A Family Affair” in 1962, though his doctoring of the musical didn’t quite succeed and it closed after 65 performances. Encouraged by Abbott, Prince got back on the horse with a limited run of “The Matchmaker” and then felt the first glow of directorial success with “She Loves Me,” based on the wonderful Ernst Lubitsch film “Shop Around the Corner.”

He put his producer’s hat back on for one of the major musicals of the 1960s, “Fiddler on the Roof,” which shattered every Broadway record during its prosperous run and brought Prince yet another Tony. It more than compensated for the next three musical productions, “Flora, the Red Menace,” “It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane….It’s Superman” and “Baker Street” (which Prince directed), none of which enjoyed a profitable run. “Poor Bitos,” a straight play, also failed.

The first major indication of Prince’s directorial style came with “Cabaret” in 1966. The Kander-Ebb musical based on Christopher Isherwood’s “Berlin Stories” and John Van Druten’s “I Am a Camera” was a darker, almost Brechtian tale, and the production brought home eight Tonys that year; like “West Side Story,” it would later become an Oscar-winning film musical.

With Kander and Ebb, Prince hit Tony paydirt again with “Zorba,” an adaptation of the acclaimed 1964 film “Zorba the Greek.”

But the next major turn in Prince’s career was “Company,” the first of a long line of directorial collaborations with composer-lyricist Sondheim. Though not as big a financial hit as some of his other musicals, “Company” changed the face of the musical theater, bringing psychological drama and social relevance to the form. It won Prince yet another Tony. The following year came the even darker “Follies” and a Tony for his direction of it.

In 1970 Prince directed the first of two films, “Something for Everyone,” a black comedy that became something of a cult hit.

He would later tackle a film version of one of his best collaborations with Sondheim, “A Little Night Music,” bringing little of its charm to the screen. But the 1973 Tony-winning stage production was a brilliantly nuanced realization of Ingmar Bergman’s “Smiles of a Summer Night” that had warmth and sentiment, which “Company” and “Follies” often lacked.

Prince and Sondheim would collaborate on only one more great musical, “Sweeney Todd,” another dark exercise (about a murderous barber), which was close to an opera and one of the milestones of the 1970s. Their other two works, “Pacific Overtures” and, later, “Merrily We Roll Along” had their problems, particularly the latter, a story that is told backwards. “Merrily We Roll Along” ended the Prince/Sondheim partnership, though they reportedly remained friends. Prince also directed the revue “Side by Side by Sondheim,” which made the most of Sondheim’s singular songs and themes.

Also during this period Prince brought Bernstein’s “Candide” back to vivid life on Broadway, winning another Tony. Straight play assignments included “Love for Love” and “Some of My Best Friends Are.” A musical version of “Twentieth Century” entitled “On the Twentieth Century” was also a modest hit for Prince.

Prince’s next great collaboration came with Andrew Lloyd Webber. Using some of the theatrical style of “Sweeney Todd,” Prince astutely transferred Lloyd Webber’s musical composition “Evita” to the stage. Later in the decade would come “Phantom of the Opera,” one of the most profitable musical productions ever.

There were some stones in the road like the musical version of Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” entitled “A Doll’s Life” and “Grind.” He tried to fix the musical “Rex,” but it didn’t take. Prince forayed into drama with “Play Memory,” “End of the World,” “The Visit,” “The Great God Brown” and “Diamonds,” some for the Phoenix Repertory. He even wrote and directed the Off Broadway production “Grandchild of the Kings,” based on the autobiographical writings of Sean O’Casey.

Into the 1990s Prince scored with “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (another Kander-Ebb adaptation) and a successful revival of “Show Boat.” He also brought back “Candide,” though he failed to reach Broadway with Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of “Whistle Down the Wind.”

Prince co-conceived and directed the 1998 musical “Parade,” about an anti-Semitic incident in the South, but while the tuner scored with critics and at the Tonys — Alfred Uhry won for best book and Jason Robert Brown for original score, and Prince was nominated — it closed on Broadway after only 39 previews and 84 regular performances.

In 2002 Prince directed “Hollywood Arms,” an autobiographical play by Carol Burnett and her daughter Carrie Hamilton, but its run was also brief.

The next year he helmed the Stephen Sondheim musical “Bounce” at Chicago’s Goodman Theater. It moved to the Kennedy Center under a different director and didn’t make it to New York, although it was revived later under a different name.

Prince conceived the idea for a musical based on the lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya and brought it to Uhry, who penned the work, titled “LoveMusik.” Some reviews for the limited-run Broadway production directed by Prince in 2007 were ecstatic.

Most recently, Prince co-helmed, with Susan Stroman, the new tuner “Paradise Found,” for which Jonathan Tunick adapted the music of Johann Strauss II, with lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh. Richard Nelson penned the book based on Joseph Roth novel “The Tale of the 1002nd Night.” The musical premiered at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory in May 2010 and starred Mandy Patinkin.

After cutting his teeth with the American premiere of Israeli Josef Tal’s opera “Ashmedai” at the New York City Opera, Prince alternated between the commercial musical stage and more classical pieces — “La fanciulla del west” (Chicago Lyric Opera and San Francisco), Kurt Weill’s “The Silver Sea” in New York, “La Traviata” in Santa Fe as well as productions at the Metropolitan, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas, Vienna Staatsoper and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

Born and raised in Manhattan, the son of a successful stock broker, Prince developed an interest in the theater from a young age. “Theater was always part of my life,” he once told a journalist. After graduating from the Franklin School in New York, Prince moved on to the U. of Pennsylvania, where he studied English and indulged his theatrical passions with the Penn Players.

After graduation in 1948, he sought and received employment in the office of the legendary Abbott. Prince’s first legit assignment was as assistant stage manager for the musical “Touch and Go” in 1949. He then stage managed the revue “Tickets, Please.” He was drafted into the Army in 1950, serving until 1952 and then returning to work for Abbott as assistant stage manager for “Wonderful Town.”

Prince inspired a couple of fictional counterparts. He was the basis for John Lithgow’s director character in Bob Fosse’s film “All That Jazz,” and he was the basis of a character in Richard Bissell’s novel “Say, Darling,” which recounted Bissell’s experience turning his novel “7½ Cents” into “The Pajama Game.”
In 1974 Prince collected his thoughts about the theater in the book “Contradictions.”

Prince served as president of the National Institute for Musical Theater.

In 2000, he received the National Medal of Arts. In 2006, Prince was presented with a Special Tony Award for lifetime achievement in the theater.

In 2009 Prince was the subject of a documentary called “Mr. Prince” that aired on the Ovation cable network. He had earlier appeared in the documentaries “Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There” and “Broadway: The American Musical” as well as many others.

After long delays and difficulty in raising the necessary financing, “Prince of Broadway,” a Broadway-bound musical based on Prince’s career, premiered in Japan in 2015. Prince co-directed with Stroman; Jason Robert Brown (“Parade”) wrote the vocal and dance arrangements of songs drawn from Prince’s canon. The show made its Broadway debut on Aug. 3, 2017.

Prince is survived by his wife, the former Judith Chaplin, daughter of Hollywood producer Saul Chaplin; a daughter, director Daisy Prince; and a son, conductor Charles Prince.

--  Richard Natale

Broadway director Harold Prince left an unparalleled legacy of masterworks -- Hal Prince’s Broadway legacy includes Cabaret, Phantom, and an iconic partnership with Sondheim.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[Cupid Stunt]

D.A. Pennebaker, Master Director of Documentaries, Dies at 94

D.A. Pennebaker, a director and cinematographer known for his documentaries, including the classic “Don’t Look Back” (1967), “Monterey Pop” (1968) and “The War Room” (1993) and “Elaine Stritch at Liberty” (2002), died Thursday night of natural causes, Variety has confirmed. He was 94.

Pennebaker’s many other films included the 1973 David Bowie concert film “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” 1989 Depeche Mode road movie “101” and “Down From the Mountain” (2000), about the musicians who performed the songs in the Coen Brothers’ film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Pennebaker won an honorary Oscar in 2013.

In a 1997 article the U.K.’s the Independent described Pennebaker as arguably the preeminent chronicler of ’60s counterculture.

Pennebaker did not reserve his camera exclusively for the musical arena, however.

He and his wife, Chris Hegedus, with whom he made most of his films in the past several decades, were Oscar nominated in 1994 for best documentary for “The War Room,” a witty, behind-the-scenes look at Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign.

Pennebaker Hegedus Films -- Collection

They shared a 2004 Emmy nomination for outstanding directing for a variety, music or comedy program for documentary “Elaine Stritch at Liberty.”

Most recently Pennebaker and Hegedus directed the BBC-HBO documentary “Unlocking the Cage,” following animal rights attorney Steven Wise on his quest to break through the legal wall that separates animals from humans. Other recent films include “Al Franken: God Spoke” (2006) and “Kings of Pastry” (2009).

In 1977 the pair turned out the five-hour “Energy War,” about then-President Jimmy Carter’s gas deregulation bill.

Bob Dylan documentary “Don’t Look Back,” which chronicled the musical icon’s 1966 U.K. tour, famously opens with the landmark video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” in which a young, scruffy Dylan flips cue cards along to his lyrics while poet Allen Ginsburg chats on the side; this sequence significantly influenced the later development of music videos. Pennebaker would have a place in film history if he’d made only this rock documentary classic, which was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1998 and ranked No. 6 on Time Out magazine’s list of the 50 best documentaries of all time.

“Monterey Pop” offered extraordinary live footage of Janis Joplin, Ravi Shankar and Jimi Hendrix, with the director affectionately capturing the Summer of Love.

Pennebaker was not merely a maker of fine documentaries but part of a team that helped redefine what a documentary was. In the early 1960s he and filmmakers including Richard Leacock and Albert Maysles created the handheld, easily portable camera equipment that allowed for the formation of the cinema verite movement. The revolution was, in the words of a a 1997 article in the U.K.’s the Independent, “as much an ideological as a technological one; the verite films discarded preachy narration in favour of watchful fly- on-the-wall neutrality and championed non-judgmental observation as the purest form of documentation.”

Donn Alan Pennebaker (his friends would call him Penny) was born in Evanston, Illinois; his father was a commercial photographer.

Pennebaker attended MIT in 1944-45 and studied mechanical engineering at Yale, graduating in 1947, and initially worked as an engineer, founding the company Electronics Engineering, which produced the first computerized airline reservation system. During World War II Pennebaker had served as an engineer in the Naval Air Corps.

Ultimately cultivating an interest in filmmaking, Pennebaker first directed the 1953 documentary short “Daybreak Express,” which followed a train around New York City and utilized the Duke Ellington song of the same name.

“I feel in debt to Ellington and instinctively to all musicians,” Pennebaker would later tell Stop Smiling magazine. “They taught me my art. The very nature of film is musical, because it uses time as a basis for its energy. It needs to go from here to there, whereas pictures and paintings are just there. With movies, you’re putting something together that’s not going to be totally comprehensible until the end. It’s the concept of the novel and the sonnet — you need to get to the end, to see if you like it and decide what it’s about. With stills, there’s always the same instant, frozen and beguiling, but lifeless. A single note. With film, the moment doesn’t hold — it rushes by, and you must deal with it like you do music and real life.”

In 1959, Pennebaker, Richard Leacock and former Life magazine editor and correspondent Robert Drew founded Drew Associates. In what represented a key time in the development of Direct Cinema (a documentary genre similar to cinema verite), the collective produced documentaries for clients including ABC News (“Close-up”) and Time-Life Broadcast (syndicated series “Living Camera”). Their first major film was 1960’s “Primary,” which documented the campaigns of candidates John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in the 1960 Wisconsin Democratic Primary. It was, according to the Drew Associates website, “the first film in which the sync sound camera moved freely with characters throughout a breaking story” — a substantial technical achievement that paved the way for contemporary documentary filmmaking. Drew, Leacock and Pennebaker, as well as photographers Albert Maysles, Terrence McCartney Filgate and Bill Knoll, all shot the campaigning from dawn to midnight over the course of five days. In 1990 “Primary” was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry.

Drew Associates produced nine more documentaries for “Living Camera,” including “Crisis,” which followed President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy in their conflict with Alabama Governor George Wallace over school desegregation.

Pennebaker and Leacock left the organization in 1963 to form their own production firm, Leacock-Pennebaker Inc. Pennebaker directed several short films over the next two years. One was a rare recording of jazz vocalist Dave Lambert, who died in a car accident shortly thereafter, leaving Pennebaker’s film as one of the few visual recordings of the singer. The documentary drew attention in Europe, and a few weeks later, Bob Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, approached Pennebaker about filming Dylan while he was touring in England. The subsequent film, “Don’t Look Back,” paved the way for the rest of Pennebaker’s career.

Jean-Luc Godard took an interest in Pennebaker’s work and sought to team up with him on a project, but it never quite came to fruition.

Pennebaker was a member of the media panel for the National Endowment for the Arts from 1971–76 and later taught a workshop on documentary films at Yale.

He won a career achievement award from the International Documentary Association in 2005.

Pennebaker was thrice married, the first time to Sylvia Bell from 1950-68, the second time to Kate Taylor, who did sound work on some of Pennebaker’s documentaries in the 1970s, from 1972-80. Both marriages ended in divorce.

He is survived by third wife Chris Hegedus, whom he married in 1982, and eight children: Stacy Pennebaker, Frazer Pennebaker (a producer of many Pennebaker documentaries) and Linley Pennebaker, from Bell; TV director Jojo Pennebaker, Chelsea Pennebaker and Zoe Pennebaker, from Taylor; and camera operator Kit Pennebaker and Jane Pennebaker, from Hegedus.

-- Carmel Dagan 

[valleycliffe]

so, yesterday i got the bsod on my laptop.  then computer restarted but for some reason it took out my wi fi .  then i broke the router.  bob and i went to best buy to get another router and we looked at laptops too just in case i had to buy a new one.  anyway after a very long time my honey got the drivers on my laptop updated and wi fi with new router works again.

lol.  good thing i don't have to buy a new laptop cause i don't have any of my passwords for the different forums i go to written down.

[Cupid Stunt]

• "This is our lane" -- Guns and public health: Applying preventive medicine to a national epidemic

Never again?

• 20 killed, 26 wounded when gunman attacks Texas shoppers

• 9 killed in Ohio in second US mass shooting within 24 hours

• 2 mass shootings in less than 24 hours shock US

• Gunmaker asks US Supreme Court to hear Sandy Hook appeal

• Texas man gets 20 years for handicap parking space killing

• Multiple fires join, scorch brush northeast of San Francisco

• California school draws crowd to view mural some call racist -- A teaching opportunity presents itself.

• This Irish teenager may have a solution for a plastic-free ocean

• A scrappy solution to the fashion industry’s giant waste problem

• What happens to the stuff you return to the store … Typically about 8% of items purchased at a store will be returned; for ecommerce sites, that can be as much as 25% to 40%. And all the stuff that stores cannot easily resell will wind up in the secondary market, where one company's trash can become other people's treasure. Rita Braver visits liquidators who process and resell goods that are just as good as new, or even newer.

• We must transform food production to save the world, says leaked report

• What it was like to be a scientist in Jeffrey Epstein’s circle. -- The “Girls” Were Always Around -- And now you speak up?

• Redeploy Rape Culture Golden Parachute! -- Ex-Michigan State president gets $2.5M retirement payout

• California universities face class-action suits by students accused of sexual harassment

• CBS stands by ‘Bull,’ its star in wake of misconduct claim -- With or without Moonves, its all about the money

You'll miss me when I'm gone …

• With Habitat Protections Officially Lifted, What’s Next for the Greater Sage-Grouse?

• Endangered list sought for firefly with double-green flash

• Lawsuit filed to stop Washington state from killing wolves

• Greenland's ice sheet just lost 11 billion tons of ice -- in one day

• After court ruling, Confederate group won’t fly flag in Alpharetta parade

• Sides square up for Confederate flag battle in Alpharetta -- Following federal court decision, it remained to be seen if demonstrators would show up on the sides of the parade route.

• Country band Confederate Railroad says it won't change its name -- Yeah? Your music still sucks.

• Why every small-plates restaurant has the same playlist -- Eat to the programmed beat

• Where Manhattan’s grid came from -- It’s iconic. But you might not realize why it’s there.

• Woodstock 50 was shaping up to be the next Fyre Fest. Now it’s been put out of its misery -- The anniversary event is canceled after months of disastrous setbacks.

M.I.A,, singer/songwriter

Edited August 4, 2019 by Cupid Stunt
Pardon my mess.

[Cupid Stunt]

"Life is for learning …" 

Joni Mitchell on the "Failure of the Baby Boomers" on Q

Joni Mitchell on Q - Part 2

Joni Mitchell on Q - Part 3

"We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden"

Edited August 4, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[bannana]

There is so much depressing news out there.  This made me feel a bit better.

[valleycliffe]

so, there is a lady in chemainus here on vancouver island who was out jogging on one of the trails around duncan.  she was with her dog.  she then said she noticed there was a cougar stalking her and she recorded on her phone to show the cat.  anyway, she decided to play a song on her playlist to try and scare it.  she played a song by metallica called "don't tread on me" and it worked.  she said the song saved her life.  apparently her video of it went viral as well as the story being picked up on several news networks including cnn and fox news.  it reached the lead singer of metallica and a spokes person reached out to her to ask if she could give contact info to the singer and she said ok.  so , she got a phone call from the singer who  said he was happy they could save her life.

[OhioSongbird]

What is going on?  Gilroy, El Paso, now Dayton, my home town.  I know the Oregon District well.  Great clubs, cool shops and a friendly vibe.  

I am beyond sad.   

[boes]

1 hour ago, OhioSongbird said:

What is going on?  Gilroy, El Paso, now Dayton, my home town.  I know the Oregon District well.  Great clubs, cool shops and a friendly vibe.  

I am beyond sad.   

It's awful, and worse for you and yours, happening, literally, in your own backyard.  

The world is stunning these days, and not in a good way.

Stay safe.

[OhioSongbird]

Same to you my friend.

Seems nowhere is safe anymore...

😞   

[bannana]

9 hours ago, bannana said:

There is so much depressing news out there.  This made me feel a bit better.

I should have mentioned that Silken Laumann, who posted this, is an Olympian.  With a somewhat tragic story, but then she turned that around. 

She was seriously injured by another boat before the Olympics in practice.  In spite of that she went on to win a medal.  And later, more Olympic medals.

Silken Laumann

And now, she gets to see whales off her dock.  🐋

[Cupid Stunt]

17 hours ago, bannana said:

There is so much depressing news out there.  This made me feel a bit better.

Close encounters with whales is a glorious experience. Mr.Stunt and I took a fishing trip on the Sea of Cortez with friends that live in Santa Rosalia, and spent most of our time whale watching instead of fishing. It never gets old.

15 hours ago, valleycliffe said:

so, there is a lady in chemainus here on vancouver island who was out jogging on one of the trails around duncan.  she was with her dog.  she then said she noticed there was a cougar stalking her and she recorded on her phone to show the cat.  anyway, she decided to play a song on her playlist to try and scare it.  she played a song by metallica called "don't tread on me" and it worked.  she said the song saved her life.  apparently her video of it went viral as well as the story being picked up on several news networks including cnn and fox news.  it reached the lead singer of metallica and a spokes person reached out to her to ask if she could give contact info to the singer and she said ok.  so , she got a phone call from the singer who  said he was happy they could save her life.

A hiker in Canada was approached by a cougar. She blasted Metallica to scare it off

Yeah, hissing and 'bad kitty' doesn't spook house cats, much less cougars. Carry bear spray, honey.

Between James Hetfield's hollowing white angst, Lars Ulrich skin pounding and the rest of the band clashing along, it's no wonder the cougar made tracks.

14 hours ago, OhioSongbird said:

What is going on?  Gilroy, El Paso, now Dayton, my home town.  I know the Oregon District well.  Great clubs, cool shops and a friendly vibe.  

I am beyond sad. 

12 hours ago, boes said:

It's awful, and worse for you and yours, happening, literally, in your own backyard.  

The world is stunning these days, and not in a good way.

Stay safe.

There have been 255 mass shootings (four or more victims constitute a mass shooting, delineated by the FBI), with 275 people killed, 1,063 injured in the U.S. for 2019. These numbers come from the Gun Violence Archive -- 6am Eastern Time 8/5/2019.

Many people are being given permission to strike against real or imagined enemies from the powers that be, and are inspired to act on their 'plan' because of these mass shootings. Often enough these same bad actors cue peers, coworkers, and family about their violent intentions, yet no one contacts the police. 

What can the individual do?

• Donate blood in your location, because there's gun violence every day, everywhere.

• If you suspect someone is spinning out of control, act on your instincts and tell the authorities. The life you save may be your own.

• Donate to the Red Cross, they are often one of the first responders for the victims and their families.

• Many victims have little or no insurance, or there are no provisions for burial. If possible, confirm the legitimacy of donations going to the appropriate use for hospital expenses or funeral.

• Contact your state and federal representatives to vote for universal background checks for gun purchases. And don't stop.

• Work with like-minded people that have had enough of gun violence -- 

Moms Demand Action

Brady Campaign

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence

March For Our Lives Campaign -- Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida, Student Advocates

• Persevere against gun violence and call it by its name. Pray for strength with every step forward, because gun worship will do everything in its power to stop your progress.

[Cupid Stunt]

• After Sandy Hook, we said never again. And then we let 2,193 mass shootings happen.

• What no one wants to admit about gun control -- Assault weapons bans and background checks aren’t enough to get American gun violence down to acceptable levels.

• El Paso mass shooting is at least the third atrocity linked to 8chan this year

• 8chan is partially back after losing Cloudflare security in wake of El Paso massacre -- Security platform Cloudflare ditched 8chan overnight, leaving it vulnerable to attacks. The infamous forum went offline for hours, but some can access it again.

• The victims: 9 killed in Dayton, Ohio, Oregon District shooting -- El Paso emergency and coroners office are still notifying the family's of the victims.

• Looking for substance in condemning mass shootings

• "Do something!" the crowd chanted over and over.

• Man with gun stopped by security at N Carolina legislature

• America has a housing segregation problem. Seattle may just have the solution. -- Economist Raj Chetty found the program has “the largest effect I’ve ever seen in a social science intervention.”

<heavy sigh>

• Work release program suspended during Epstein investigation

• A man was sentenced to 60 weekend days in jail for poisoning his wife's coffee

• Saudi Arabia changed its guardianship laws, but activists who fought them remain imprisoned -- Saudi women can now travel without the permission of a male guardian and now have employment discrimination protections.

• Lawmaker expelled in misconduct case no longer gravely ill

• Family told dead Chinese scholar’s body may be in landfill

• Appeals Court: Officer Was “Reasonable” to Handcuff a Sobbing 7-Year-Old

• “The $300 textbook is dead,” says the CEO of textbook maker Pearson -- So explain how Thing1 spent $4,800 on books for her first semester at Caltech, and a third of them were used.

• Money Talks: one spouse had student loans, the other paid it all off

• Confederate President Jefferson Davis' name removed from arch at Virginia's Fort Monroe

• After weeks of protest, Puerto Rico has a new leader — for now -- Pedro Pierluisi is Puerto Rico’s new governor. But he faces legal challenges and protesters who want him gone.

• North Dakota ends ban on Sunday morning shopping

• French hoverboard inventor flies over the English Channel

• The internet has changed the way we talk. In Because Internet, a linguist shows us how. -- LOL

• California school draws crowd to view mural some call racist -- A teaching opportunity presents itself.

Yusuf Islam, AKA Cat Stevens, singer/songwriter 

[valleycliffe]

does anyone know if there is anyway i can see my log in password so i can write it down in case my laptop dies and i have to buy a new one/

[Cupid Stunt]

PM one of the Moderators. There's a list at the top of the page. They can help you change your login so you can record it.

[Petunia13]

Did anyone else get neighbor number texts today? 

I finally replied to mine now and we’re chatting 😂 

[OhioSongbird]

I don't text or Facebook even though I can.  Does that make me an odd Songbird?  Probably.  My problem with Facebook is I don't need to know what your cousin's daughter had for lunch.  Too much of that fluff for me.  

Now get off my lawn!  😉  

Edited August 6, 2019 by OhioSongbird

[AngelKitty]

I don't text either since I have a flip phone but I do enjoy the Facebook. Most of my friends and family live far away from me so I don't mind seeing what my cousin's daughter had for lunch. I do stay away from all political posts since most of my family are Republicans. My mom always wondered how she raised a Democrat. 😁

[OhioSongbird]

I should rephrase that Facebook comment.  My family members I have no problem with, I will open those but I don't post.  It's people I don't/barely know.  Family, I use email.  I don't want 50/11 million (my friend's phrase) people knowing my bidness.

 Call me a Luddite.

[pearlite]

29 minutes ago, OhioSongbird said:

I should rephrase that Facebook comment.  My family members I have no problem with, I will open those but I don't post.  It's people I don't/barely know.  Family, I use email.  I don't want 50/11 million (my friend's phrase) people knowing my bidness.

 Call me a Luddite.

Nope, you just have common sense. Using any form of social media smartly really does mean knowing the endless reach of anything you post. I read Twitter when I'm procrastinating from paper work--never tweet; Facebook the same, but it's too much of a time-eater and I just don't care enough about some relative's Bernese or whatever.

Texting for me is for daughter and very close friends only. Email mainly for college business, with a second one for online billing and so on.

[Cupid Stunt]

• As El Paso and Dayton grieve, here's what you can do to help

• These are the victims who have been identified in the El Paso shooting

• I’m a former Parkland student. I am sick of lawmakers’ empty tweets. -- It’s time for real action on gun reform.

• Police “neutralized” the Dayton shooter in 30 seconds. He still shot 14 people. -- The timeline is some of the strongest evidence yet that the “good guy with a gun” myth is just that.

• Guns are the problem -- America doesn’t have a monopoly on hate, angry young men, gamers or mental illness. What it has is a lot of guns.

• For many, it's clear why El Paso, the "ground zero" of the border debate, was the shooting target

• This cartoon explains why predicting a mass shooting is impossible -- Increased mental health screening couldn’t accurately predict who will commit mass violence.

• Rise of far-right violence leads some to call for realignment of post-9/11 national security priorities

• Here’s how Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and 8chan handle white supremacist content -- A reviewed how these platforms handle content that promotes violence and spreads hateful ideologies.

• Inside the UAE’s secret hacking team of American mercenaries -- Ex-NSA operatives reveal how they helped spy on targets for the Arab monarchy against dissidents, rival leaders and journalists.

• Google blocks websites certified by DarkMatter, after Reuters reports

• 8chan, a nexus of radicalization, explained -- The platform is a dark, toxic corner of the internet.

• 8chan struggling to stay online after its alleged use by El Paso shooting suspect

• A man was plotting a mass shooting. His grandmother stopped him and saved lives -- Many thanks Gramma.

Hubble colorization of the Horsehead Nebula

• How scientists colorize photos of space -- It starts with a black-and-white photo.

• Astronomers find that Milky Way is a warped and twisted galaxy -- Then we're in the right place in the universe.

• Ex-cardinal’s letters to victims show signs of grooming

• They’re Mad as Hell -- Among older women, anger is trending. In the time of #MeToo, their indignation is long overdue. -- I don't know who they've been talking to, but I've been pissed off since I was told "Girl's aren't allowed in Shop class."

• Sharks bite 3 people in 24 hours at the same Florida beach -- Get out of the water and stop feeding them!

• E-girls and e-boys, explained -- The irony-laced aesthetic that exists mostly in the privacy of one’s own bedroom is the future of subculture. -- Welcome To My TV Show!

• Anne Hathaway's Taking on Film-Industry Pollution with Zero Waste Founder Lauren Singer -- Does that mean you'll be wearing the same outfit multiple times for your red carpet movie appearances? That sort of thing isn't done? … Try hard much?

• Once a retail shrine , flagship stores lose their shine

• Testing no-wash socks, one sweaty day at a time -- This brand claims you can wear the same socks for six days straight. Should you? -- NO!

• Impossible Burgers just cleared a big regulatory hurdle. They might be sold in stores as soon as next month. -- With a nod from the FDA, the plant-based burgers move forward.

• The last place you want Facebook fulltime -- Facebook is building tech to read your mind. The ethical implications are staggering. -- Our brains are perhaps the final privacy frontier.

• San Francisco curbs waste with public toilets, ‘poop patrol’

• Los Angeles restores limits on homeless living in vehicles

Frank Zappa, singer/songwriter

[Cupid Stunt]

47 minutes ago, OhioSongbird said:

I should rephrase that Facebook comment.  My family members I have no problem with, I will open those but I don't post.  It's people I don't/barely know.  Family, I use email.  I don't want 50/11 million (my friend's phrase) people knowing my bidness.

 Call me a Luddite.

13 minutes ago, pearlite said:

Nope, you just have common sense. Using any form of social media smartly really does mean knowing the endless reach of anything you post. I read Twitter when I'm procrastinating from paper work--never tweet; Facebook the same, but it's too much of a time-eater and I just don't care enough about some relative's Bernese or whatever.

Texting for me is for daughter and very close friends only. Email mainly for college business, with a second one for online billing and so on.

You're being smart and proactive.

I had all the FREE social media aps removed from my new phone before startup; don't need them, don't use them, don't want to be distracted by them, don't want them tracking and compiling information on me and mine. The only aps that consume my phone battery time is CALFire, National Weather Service, CALTraffic, Earthquake.usgs.gov, home/work email.

[valleycliffe]

i don't have to worry about that cause i don't have a smart phone i have an old flip one and i can barely work that one.

[AngelKitty]

2 hours ago, valleycliffe said:

i have an old flip one and i can barely work that one.

Heh, heh, you should have seen Mr. A and me trying to figure out how to change his ringtone on my phone.

[jpagan05]

Timely gift Devon gave to Elena.....https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/books/toni-morrison-dead.html

[valleycliffe]

giggle giggle snort snort

[Cupid Stunt]

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

• The US is under attack from within. Is this ever going to end?

• Did El Paso show us that white supremacists are a serious threat? 

• A Reformed White Nationalist Says the Worst Is Yet to Come

• From El Paso to Christchurch, a Racist Lie Is Fueling Terrorist Attacks -- By leaving manifestos, white supremacists are trying to add to a long and growing library of terror, and get others to follow their examples.

• El Paso shooter targeted Latinx people, letting white and black shoppers leave, says victim’s relative -- “They were praying, ‘Please! Please! Don’t shoot me.’”

• The El Paso shooting isn’t an anomaly. It’s American history repeating itself. -- Why white supremacist violence is rising today — and how it echoes some of the darkest moments of our past.

• A new approach to guns in America -- German Lopez breaks down the two mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton.

• “This is 2019 and not 1819”: mounted police leading a black man by a rope sparks outrage -- The Galveston Police Department says that backlash to a viral photo of a recent arrest will change how mounted officers transport people. -- Because waiting for a Black and White to pick up the suspect didn't extend enough degradation?

• Toni Morrison’s transcendent Nobel Prize speech is key to understanding what made Morrison so great -- Toni Morrison understood how powerful language was and the human privilege to wield it. May no one sully her tremendous legacy to literature.

• The Perseid meteor shower is the best of the year.  -- Here's how to watch it.

• Tardigrades, the toughest animals on Earth, have crash-landed on the moon -- The tardigrade conquest of the solar system has begun.

• When celebrities mess up, “disgrace insurance” steps in -- Companies want it for inevitable scandals, but providing it can be tricky.

• For 30 years, we’ve trusted human-resources departments to prevent and address workplace sexual harassment. How’s that working out?

• Dust storms in the Sahara are killing kids half a continent away -- A new study looks at the effects of air pollution from desert dust.

• California has the most homeless people of any state. But L.A. is still a national model for helping them

• Chemo-free drug combo shows 'dramatic' improvement against common leukemia in adults

• Doctors find 526 teeth in boy's mouth in India -- O_o

• The rise of babies in bars, explained -- The rise of craft brewing and taprooms has made family-friendly drinking establishments more and more common.

• 22 percent of millennials say they have “no friends” -- Rent a kid and take them to the bierstube? I hear it's a happening place.

• All student debt in the US, visualized  -- Who exactly would benefit if we canceled all this debt?

• What to know about Apple’s new credit card for iPhone owners -- Backed by Goldman Sachs, the card is an obvious extension of Apple Pay. It’s available Tuesday for a test group, and will be widely available by the end of the month. "First I look at the purse."

• Feral hogs are a serious problem for agriculture and human morality.

• A teacher revealed she spends $1k of her $35k salary on supplies. Then a stranger stepped in.

Joe Strummer and Mick Jones, Singer/ Songwriters of The Clash 

[bannana]

1 hour ago, Cupid Stunt said:

•  

• The rise of babies in bars, explained -- The rise of craft brewing and taprooms has made family-friendly drinking establishments more and more common.

• 22 percent of millennials say they have “no friends” -- Rent a kid and take them to the bierstube? I hear it's a happening place.

This is so timely for me.  My niece and nephew own a brewery in another province.  They were visiting with their kids and they wanted to check out  some of the many breweries we have here.  I had to investigate whether kids were allowed.  What I learned is that they are allowed up until a certain time.  Or if the brewery has a proper restaurant then I believe they are just welcome as long as the kitchen is open.

So we did visit a number of breweries mostly in the late afternoon or early evening.  I observed that the breweries had toys and games for  kids!  Some of the more popular ones also welcome dogs so you have adults, kids and dogs which creates a lot of chaos.  A number of them had outdoor patio and play areas for kids, and these were very popular with young families.  

I don't mind that kids are allowed but I am not sure I would choose to go to a brewery that had a ton of kids running around.

[Cupid Stunt]

2 hours ago, bannana said:

I don't mind that kids are allowed but I am not sure I would choose to go to a brewery that had a ton of kids running around.

Exactly. That's what the hungover Sunday Brunch Food Fight is for.

[Petunia13]

I feel like the conversation at some breweries and bars are bit rated r and they are too noisy. The steakhouse I serve at seldom has kids or babies but I think the high price point drives it a lot away. It’s not unusual for a table of 2 to spend $160 and if they’re on a date or discussing some asshole they’re suing in Victor Newman tones and verbage they don’t want to be around children.  That said the kids meals are a steal (burgers w cheese or not /ribs/chicken plus a huge serving of fries, ice cream sundae, and beverage) and the kids I’ve served were delights. 

Im actually liking serving I think the only hindrance to me now is when it’s a group the giant oval trays to bring all beverages or entrees at once. Also our host doesn’t follow sections or rotate so it’s not unusual to have 3 tables and one in a dining room one on the patio and one in another room, it’s more intelligent to have one section and for host to pace them. Another thing is since it’s mostly CC tips mine are on paycheck not walking away each night w money. 

[AngelKitty]

6 hours ago, Petunia13 said:

CC tips mine are on paycheck not walking away each night w money. 

Aww, I always try to leave a tip in cash but I think most people nowadays don't even carry much cash at all.

[Cupid Stunt]

• Ohio Does Something -- Gov. DeWine calls for lawmakers to pass red-flag law, stronger background checks to fight gun violence

• El Paso suspect's mother called police concerned about gun

• The Difference Between a Killer and a Terrorist -- Two mass murders (from 2018) reveal how difficult—and important—it is to correctly identify terrorism when it occurs.

• The Strategy of Violent White Supremacy Is Evolving -- The failed approach of “leaderless resistance” gets a second chance in the information age.

• How Many Attacks Will It Take Until the White-Supremacist Threat Is Taken Seriously? -- FBI Director Christopher Wray said recently that the bureau doesn’t “investigate the ideology, no matter how repugnant. We investigate violence.”

• Tucker Carlson goes on vacation as criticism mounts over false claim about white supremacy 'hoax' -- Don't forget to use sunscreen.

• Former SS guard of Nazi camp, 92, to go on trial in Germany -- Germany hasn't forgotten.

• With every new tragedy, another ‘strong’ campaign

• 5 years after Ferguson, racial tension might be more intense -- All that is necessary is a lighted match.

• An armed society is a polite society

• Probe: No bias by TSA supervisor, but profiling concerns -- We have concerns, too.

• Change food production and stop abusing land, major climate report warns

• Scientists say farmers could grow their way out of the climate crisis

• A Detroit diabetic was deported to Iraq, where he’d never lived. He died from lack of insulin, family says. -- That's an awkward situation, but not surprising.

• With 680 undocumented immigrants arrested across Mississippi, one mayor asks 'What happens to the children?'

• Tennessee inmate escapes from prison where a top official was found dead

• The Manson Family murders, and their complicated legacy, explained -- The Manson Family murders weren’t a countercultural revolt. They were mainstream America.

Machete!

• Security Video Shows Actor Danny Trejo Running To Help After Rollover Accident Traps Woman, Child In SUV

Rape Culture gets a little smaller, weirder, sadder:

• An Epidemic of Disbelief -- What new research reveals about sexual predators, and why police fail to catch them

• R. Kelly accused of soliciting 17-year-old girl in Minnesota -- How hard is it to follow the tour dates?

• Ex-dean with oversight of Larry Nassar gets 1 year in jail -- Terrific. You'll have that Golden Parachute to keep you warm when you get out early for good behavior.

• Biles on USA Gymnastics’ failures: ‘You couldn’t protect us’ -- USAG didn't protect you in order to protect themselves.

• Man gets life for impregnating 10-year-old in South Carolina 

• Dartmouth settles sexual misconduct lawsuit for $14 million

• More than 220 people sue on Guam alleging clergy sex abuse

• Leslie Wexner Says Jeffrey Epstein Misappropriated 'Vast Sums' From Him  -- All at once, or just a little bit at a time?

• Millionaire charged with wife’s death arrested in Mexico

• Sex trafficking victim Cyntoia Brown released from Tennessee prison after 15 years -- In January, Brown was given clemency for a life sentence handed down after she killed a man who solicited her for sex when she was 16 years old.

• 32 busted in federal drug crackdown in San Francisco

• Using electricity at different times of day could save us billions of dollars -- “Load flexibility” could shave 15 percent off our peak electricity needs by 2030.

• Is Big Tech addictive? A debate with Nir Eyal. over the role of technology in hijacking our attention.

• Can toys teach coding to kids? -- Why does everyone need to know how to code, and how does it help science and mathematics education?

• The great escape for adults.

• Woodstock photos are displayed for 1st time, 50 years later

• The dirty politics behind an American tall tale -- Was Davy Crockett a sellout? And does it matter?

• This nonprofit just took a big step to make kidney donation in the US easier -- Donating a kidney saves a life -- and now it doesn’t have to cost you money.

J.J. Cale, singer/songwriter

[Cupid Stunt]

14 hours ago, Petunia13 said:

I feel like the conversation at some breweries and bars are bit rated r and they are too noisy. 

It may not be much different than what's happening at home for some kids.

Mr.Stunt and I took the Things to restaurants that had bars, but no baby carrier at the bar, as described by the article. It's less work to take care of young children when you're sober, and you're more present for them when they reach the end of their patience dealing with the world.

Quote

The steakhouse I serve at seldom has kids or babies but I think the high price point drives it a lot away. It’s not unusual for a table of 2 to spend $160 and if they’re on a date or discussing some asshole they’re suing in Victor Newman tones and verbage they don’t want to be around children.  That said the kids meals are a steal (burgers w cheese or not /ribs/chicken plus a huge serving of fries, ice cream sundae, and beverage) and the kids I’ve served were delights. 

It sounds like a very nice place. How's the food? I know the service is excellent.

; )

Quote

Im actually liking serving I think the only hindrance to me now is when it’s a group the giant oval trays to bring all beverages or entrees at once. Also our host doesn’t follow sections or rotate so it’s not unusual to have 3 tables and one in a dining room one on the patio and one in another room, it’s more intelligent to have one section and for host to pace them. Another thing is since it’s mostly CC tips mine are on paycheck not walking away each night w money. 

That seems to be a very inefficient way to distribute tables in the dining room, but perhaps there's a method to the madness of the host … Perhaps not.

Like AngelKitty, I personally tip the server cash and write a tip on the check. There's no way for me to know if tips are being stolen or over-taxes, but I can make sure the server pockets some cash, just in case. I did my time waiting tables and bartending. It's about managing chaos, the tips, and time to put up your feet.

[Cupid Stunt]

It's International Cat Day!

Cat Videos 

Cat Hair

Cat Food

Cat Beds

Cat Zen

[lovemesomejoolery]

9 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

Former SS guard of Nazi camp, 92, to go on trial in Germany -- Germany hasn't forgotten.

And no one should forget.  Ever.

I've been busy with work and have been too tired and not able to come here for awhile.  I finally had a chance to catch up and just want to tell you that as I'm reading these news posts of yours, I thoroughly enjoy them and didn't realize until now how much I missed them!  Thank you for taking time to do this.

Edited August 9, 2019 by lovemesomejoolery

[Petunia13]

I was car jacked a few hours ago. I’m fine. George is fine (he was in the car) and I still have my car I’m still w the police the guy got away. I am waiting for them to bring him for a “show up” to identify him. 

[AngelKitty]

Oh, Petunia, what a terrible thing to have to go through. I'm so sorry. I hope they get the guy.

[Petunia13]

1 minute ago, AngelKitty said:

Oh, Petunia, what a terrible thing to have to go through. I'm so sorry. I hope they get the guy.

It took hours but they caught him and I just ID him for police. 

[Cupid Stunt]

(((Petunia and George)))

Cosign what AngelKitty said.

Take care of yourself. If the police offer counseling, please consider contacting them.

[PatsyandEddie]

Oh Petunia! How frightening! Glad you and George are okay. 

Huuuuuuuge hugs to you both 😘😘

[Cupid Stunt]

GRLSWIRL!

• 11-year-old skateboarding prodigy Sky Brown sets her sights on the 2020 Olympics

• Female skaters swirl together: "Girl power is real" -- Site: GRLSWIRL

And the rest:

• Why the AR-15 Is So Lethal -- “The little bullet pays off in wound ballistics.”

• What I Saw Treating the Victims From Parkland Should Change the Debate on Guns -- They weren’t the first mass-shooting victims the Florida radiologist saw, but their wounds were radically different. -- Readers respond to a Florida radiologist’s account of treating the victims from Parkland.

• In Dayton shooting, 32 seconds changed everything

• A Lynch Mob of One -- The assault rifle has enabled racists to act alone.

• What Pastors Didn’t Say After El Paso -- Church leaders around the country largely deny any link between white-supremacist violence -- “Have We No Decency?”

• Parents of a 2012 Aurora, Colorado, shooting victim travel the country to help others impacted by mass shootings -- Sandy and Lonnie Phillips have gone to the site of nearly every mass shooting since their daughter's death to support people affected by the tragedies, drawing from their own personal experiences. -- Pilgrims in the mission field.

• Armed man was briefly detained in front of an El Paso migrant community center, putting an already grieving city further on edge.

• A heavily armed man was arrested at a Missouri Walmart after causing panic inside, police say

• Global Human Rights Movement Issues Travel Warning for the U.S. Due to Rampant Gun Violence -- That's going to leave a mark on the bottom line.

• Some white people don’t want to hear about slavery at plantations built by slaves -- Don't you belong at Disneyland where history has been carefully edited to make you comfortable?

Neo-Nazis burning a swastika following a white supremacist rally in the city of Newnan, Georgia, April 2018 -- Getty Image.

• Don’t Give White Nationalists the Post-9/11 Treatment -- Pundits are now endorsing a massive counterterrorism response to white nationalism. That’s not a good idea.

• Racial slurs and swastika found at scene of house explosion in Ohio, sheriff says

• Montana judge orders neo-Nazi website publisher to pay $14M -- Cut them off at the bank account.

• Man suffering psychotic breakdown left alone near highway by South Carolina first responders

• 'Erosion of public trust': The real reasons why Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to prison -- The former Illinois governor, who infamously tried to sell a Senate seat is back in the news.

• California’s only known wolf pack adds 3 pups

• EPA reauthorizes use of "cyanide bombs" to kill wild animals -- These are very dangerous traps to be used on public lands. They are unmonitored, kill indiscriminately, and the efficacy has not been proved against invasive species.

• Making ideas into reality at MIT's "Future Factory" -- For more than 30 years, MIT has been recruiting people with crazy ideas to work in their Media Lab, where life-changing inventions are created

***Food Safety Notice and Other Health-Related Stuff***

• National epidemic of hepatitis A outbreaks puts restaurant customers at risk

• What is hepatitis A? Health emergencies declared as liver infection cases spike

• Is pot safe when pregnant? Study seeks answer, draws critics

• Medicare to cover breakthrough gene therapy for some cancers

Joan Armatrading, singer/songwriter

"I'm not in love, but I'm open to persuasion … " -- Exquisite 

[jewel21]

Oh Petunia, that's awful! I'm glad you and George are okay and they caught the asshole. *Hugs*

[boes]

Petunia13, echoing everyone else in being very glad that you're both physically okay.  Let us know how you are, things like this are terrifying in so many ways.

[valleycliffe]

petunia13, how awful for you...and scary...

happy you are ok.

[Anna Yolei]

On 7/19/2019 at 8:12 AM, pearlite said:

Oh, who could miss snow?

I can see your point about people who don't have to live with it. Whenever I see those shots of actors at Sundance wearing the cute little booties and amusing winter jackets, I find it risible.

Snow is the enemy. I do not play in, or with it. We the North, my ass.

Part of the thing with Toronto and Winnipeg is how much Winnipegers [sp?] loathe Toronto. Several times, coming back east with a planeload of folks from the prairies, they've boo'd when the pilot announced that we were landing in TO.

I'm late to this party, but I'm suddenly reminded of how my nephew (one of the two native San Diegans in this county lol) was confused about why his mother (a New Yorker) could hate snow so much that she put her foot down on taking a ski trip to Big Bear. I suppose I'd hate it too if I had to walk a half hour to and from school in the winter for 13 years in Brooklyn too 🤣

And being a native CA girl, I can tell you my people (at least those outside of the woodlands and Lake Tahoe) are absolute morons. I met a few Navy SoCal folks who refused to purchase jackets for a ship commissioning take took place back during that insanely cold winter of 2013-14 in Philadelphia. Boy, they all looked stupid when we pulled up in port and had to later up both sweatshirts they owned under the wool peacoat 😅

I can't laugh too hard, because I touched the fresh snow with no glove like a moron. That....was a bad idea. 👀

[lovemesomejoolery]

7 hours ago, Petunia13 said:

It took hours but they caught him and I just ID him for police. 

So sorry this happened to you but am glad you and George are safe!

[peacheslatour]

Oh, Petunia! That's awful and how terrifying for you. Give George big Prevert hugs.

[Petunia13]

I have no idea what he planned for me if I had drove to where he wanted. I stopped off at an all night gas station where there’s usually other people. And said I needed to pee. I got out of the car w him and mouthed “I need help call 911” to a man near and he said he wouldn’t help me and didn’t care. Another man in a night security guard uniform pulled up and I told him I was being car jacked and the guy told him I’m lying and his girlfriend. The ladies inside the station were already on the phone w 911. The security guard was separating me from the man and he ran off.

When he got into the car he was restraining my arms and hands and I have 2 cuts and when I was driving he was stroking my face.  The whole time George was in my lap and thank god he wasn’t harmed and didn’t panic. I worked today but when I think about it I’m sick and shaky. Apparently car jackings aren’t uncommon in Chicago and the burbs. I’m not sure what this guys intention was though cuz he really wanted me to drive him somewhere and never said the address. I wanted to humanize myself to him so told him I work a lot 2 jobs struggling and I have heart aneurysm which is true. He said he’s never known anyone who’s died. 

I had to wait hours doing the reports and while the witnesses wrote reports. They had camera footage of him and caught him in a long chase on foot and I had to identify him. Then I changed and walked George and went to work. It really is that easy and random for someone to grab you.