Small Talk: Out of Genoa

[Cupid Stunt]

The most dangerous job in the world -- Aircraft Operations on a Carrier

Blue jerseys move aircraft

Purple jerseys handle fuel

Red jerseys are munitions

Brown jerseys handle catapult and wires

Brown jerseys are maintenance and inspections

White jerseys are Safety Operations

Yellow jerseys are aircraft handlers and directors, known as Shooters

Edited August 17, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[Cupid Stunt]

Peter Fonda, star of 'Easy Rider,' dies at age 79

Actor and director Peter Fonda, who stepped out of his legendary Hollywood father's shadow to become a counterculture icon with his role in "Easy Rider," has died. He was 79.

Fonda died of respiratory failure due to lung cancer at his Los Angeles home, his family said in a statement Friday.

"It is with deep sorrow that we share the news that Peter Fonda has passed away," the family said. "... In one of the saddest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our hearts."

As the son of actor Henry Fonda and the brother of actress and activist Jane Fonda, he was a member of the Hollywood powerhouse family. His children are actors Bridget Fonda and Justin Fonda.

In a statement, Jane Fonda said she spent her younger brother's final days with him. "I am very sad. He was my sweet-hearted baby brother. The talker of the family. I have had beautiful alone time with him these last days. He went out laughing," she said.

Fonda broke out as a star with his turn in the 1969 blockbuster "Easy Rider," which marked its 50th anniversary this year. The film also starred Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper.

Film critic Roger Ebert called the film "one of the rallying-points of the late '60s," saying it was a buddy picture that celebrated "sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, and the freedom of the open road."

"It did a lot of repeat business while the sweet smell of pot drifted through theaters," Ebert wrote of the film in 2004.

Fonda was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay, a nomination he shared with Hopper.

"I never stopped working, thanks to 'Easy Rider,' " Fonda told The Los Angeles Times in 2007.

His last tweet on August 9 referenced the film: "Easy Rider' at 50: How they put together that groundbreaking soundtrack."

The family asked for privacy to grieve, but said they wished for people to "celebrate his indomitable spirit and love of life"

"In honor of Peter, please raise a glass to freedom," the family said.

Freedom was a word Fonda often invoked.

"I believe that one is only truly free when one is learning, and one can only learn when one is free. Freedom is NOT just another word for 'nothing left to lose,'" Fonda said on his website.

Born Peter Henry Fonda in New York on February 23, 1940, he started his career on Broadway in 1961 in "Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole," according to Playbill.

He directed his first film, "The Hired Hand," in 1971. He also starred in the critically acclaimed western, which was restored and premiered at the 2001 Venice Film Festival.

In 1998, at age 57, Fonda was nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his turn as a beekeeper trying to hold his family together in the indie film "Ulee's Gold." The New York Times said of his performance, "It would be accurate but barely adequate to call this the finest work of Fonda's career."

He went on to star in a number of films, including "The Limey" and "Ocean' Twelve, and television shows, though he never achieved the success of his father.

But his career would forever be defined by his turn as Wyatt, with his stars-and-stripes helmet astride his motorcycle, "Captain America," in "Easy Rider," a rough-hewn character that often times reflected his personal life. Fonda's Wyatt and Hopper's Billy travel from the California-Mexico border to New Orleans in time to celebrate Mardi Gras.

Turner Classic Movies says "Easy Rider" on one level is the story of two drug dealers who become rich from a cocaine deal.

"But the film is much more than that and shows a diverse cross section of American culture that encompasses lifestyle experimentation (the hippie commune), intolerance (the hostile locals at a backwater Louisiana diner), and wanderlust (the motorcycle becomes a symbol for freedom)."

The biker image is one Fonda cultivated from an early age on, partly because of his famous father.

Fonda told the LA Times that it was his rocky relationship with his father that led him to first ride a motorcycle. "My father didn't want me to. I was like in your face," Fonda said. "As soon as I could I bought a Harley."

Like his siblings, Fonda had an at-times complex relationship with his father.

In a 1994 CNN interview, which came as he released his autobiography, "Don't Tell Dad: A Memoir," Fonda opened up about the genesis of rebellion.

"It was a desire to be heard -- a father who was not communicative at all. I became quite angry as I learned that I wasn't me -- I was Henry Fonda's son. I had no idea who he was; I didn't want to be identified that way. I was demanding to be heard on my own grounds."

The two reconciled after Fonda shared the screen with his father in the 1979 film, Wanda Nevada. Fonda told CNN he was 38 when his father told him he loved him.

"...and he put his hands on my shoulders and it was the oddest sensation of both him pushing me away and pulling me to him. Tears streaming down his face, he said in that beautiful Henry Fonda, non-blinking straight talk, 'I love you very much, son.' 'Well, I love you very much, dad.' And I got in my car and drove away,'" he said.

-- Chelsea J. Carter and Sarah Moon,

[Cupid Stunt]

• Call to go on permanent daylight saving time grows -- Changing our clocks twice a year can be confusing — and it might also kill us, studies show. Now activists and some lawmakers are trying to do away with the "antiquated practice." 

• Portland rally: Proud Boys vow to march each month after biggest protest -- Oregon city sees sporadic violence and a dozen arrests as Proud Boys chairman denounce anti-fascists

• Riotlandia: Why Portland Has Become the Epicenter of Far-Right Violence

• A concept can't be killed -- Hong Kong Frontlines

• Sometimes small things are big enough -- Washington Post article: A Virginia organization that helps poor children will now — because of you — reach even more

• 15 million children don't have money for school supplies. Here's how you can help them -- The economic rising tide has not lifted all boats.

• Breakfast, and lunch now free to all students at 77 Atlanta schools

• 'Plastic recycling is a myth': what really happens to your rubbish?  -- You sort your recycling, leave it to be collected – and then what? From councils burning the lot to foreign landfill sites overflowing with British rubbish, Oliver Franklin-Wallis reports on a global waste crisis

• Mosquitoes are testing positive for West Nile across the Central Valley, here's where they're being found

• How slavery became America’s first big business -- Historian and author Edward E. Baptist explains how slavery helped the US go from a “colonial economy to the second biggest industrial power in the world.”

• The NFL's deal with Jay-Z isn't Kaepernick's vindication — it's just window dressing -- The league, like the artist, is operating a business. So it's unlikely either will take any controversial stands under the other's auspices. -- When has it ever been about anything but the money?

Spain LGBTQ Pride -- Participants walk during the annual LGBTQ pride parade in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, July 6, 2019. European cities celebrated LGBTQ pride with colorful parades that also became platforms for political demands and a push back against far-right populist parties. AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

• AP monthly staff photo contest -- August 12, 2019

• Ridgecrest earthquake damage estimate tops $5B at China Lake California Navy base

• The West Is Trading Water for Cash. The Water Is Running Out -- Desert farmers along the Colorado River are striking lucrative deals with big cities. But not everyone comes out a winner. 

• Water for Cash – A Primer on Water Markets

Edited August 18, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[Cupid Stunt]

• Funeral for lost ice: Iceland bids farewell to glacier

• Cleaning up the plastic in the ocean -- Discarded plastic is piling up around the world and pooling in the ocean.

• It's raining plastic: microscopic fibers fall from the sky in Rocky Mountains

• Cash for Trash: Indonesia village banks on waste recycling

• Thousands of veterans fear "burn pits" exposed them to lethal disease -- My father had "Burn Pit" duty as a Marine in Vietnam 

• Bangladesh gave all its rivers their own legal rights -- It’s part of a nascent “rights of nature” movement that’s inspiring many — but encountering problems when it comes to enforcement.

• Lyme Disease Is Baffling, Even to Experts -- But new insights are at last accumulating.

Entering The Sunshine State!

• Alligators caught climbing fences and swimming across roads in Florida

• Florida vacation home invaded by vomiting vultures

• Authorities: Woman pulls gator from pants during traffic stop

Backing away slowly ...

• Hong Kong protesters show no sign of backing down in the face of countless threats -- Hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets Sunday to demand governmental reforms amid military threats from Beijing, the specter of mob violence, and increasing pressure from local police.

• There could have been three more mass shootings if these men weren't stopped, authorities say

• Amid the Kale and Corn, Fears of White Supremacy at the Farmers’ Market

• Kroger is now selling vegan eggs -- The major grocery chain is already stocking Just Egg, made with mung beans, in some of its locations. Over the coming weeks, the product will be offered in about 2,100 Kroger-owned stores, including Kroger, Ralphs and Fred Meyer.

• Jeffrey Epstein's death was ruled a suicide by the medical examiner. The Epstein lawyers are dissatisfied with the autopsy results, and will have their own autopsy performed. What Jeffrey Epstein’s case says (and doesn’t say) about human trafficking in America -- Most trafficking cases don’t look like Jeffrey Epstein’s. 

• You have a better chance of achieving “the American dream” in Canada than in America -- Raj Chetty, called “the most influential economist alive,” and Ezra Klein discuss the state of social mobility in the United States today.

• Why Route 66 became America’s most famous road -- And does it matter?

• Meet the medieval Welsh poet who wrote odes to her vagina -- It's Monday, so celebrate your genitals! Be your own best freind!

• Welcome Back Holiday Creep -- Why is Halloween starting in the summer?

• Keanu Reeves is having a really great year -- and personifying what celebrity means in 2019.

Be excellent to each other! Party on dudes!

Edited August 19, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[valleycliffe]

so, apparently there is a new / old phone scam happening.

i had read about it before.  you get a phone call from a number you don't recognize, you say hello, you hear a bit of interference and then a voice says "can you hear me now?"  if you get one of these, hang up.  don't say anything cause they are recording your voice to use in other scams.

so anyway, i just hung up.

[lovemesomejoolery]

4 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

Entering The Sunshine State!

• Alligators caught climbing fences and swimming across roads in Florida

• Florida vacation home invaded by vomiting vultures

• Authorities: Woman pulls gator from pants during traffic stop

Um, how stupid are you to "stash" a 12" alligator down your pants?

Although, I did chuckle that they had all those turtle in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle backpack!

Some people are too stupid to live!

Edited August 19, 2019 by lovemesomejoolery

[Cupid Stunt]

There's something about Florida … Maybe it's the restless vacationers or the heat/humidity … My first job out of collage I worked in the news room of a radio station. My station manager collected oddity news stories. By in large, the most numerous and bizarre were out of the state of Florida.

[peacheslatour]

8 minutes ago, Cupid Stunt said:

There's something about Florida … Maybe it's the restless vacationers or the heat/humidity … My first job out of collage I worked in the news room of a radio station. My station manager collected oddity news stories. By in large, the most numerous and bizarre were out of the state of Florida.

It may be that or the fact the Florida has the most open public reporting of crime of any state in the Union. From the Miami New Times:

As a side note about the particulars of Florida Man, long before it became a meme, New Times used the headline format "Florida Man Does ..." to indicate to our mostly Miami-based audience that the story took place in Florida but not Miami, which may very well be the reason other local news outlets used the headline format well before it became a meme too. 

But missing from Times' take and so many others on the WTF Florida phenom is an important piece of the puzzle. Ironically, one of the things that may be contributing to Florida being shamed so often in the national media is something all Floridians should be proud of. 

The terms "progressive" and "model for the rest of the nation" don't often appear in sentences with "Florida," but that's exactly how people view the state's open-records laws, AKA the Government in the Sunshine Act.

Edited August 19, 2019 by peacheslatour

[pearlite]

7 minutes ago, Cupid Stunt said:

There's something about Florida … Maybe it's the restless vacationers or the heat/humidity … My first job out of collage I worked in the news room of a radio station. My station manager collected oddity news stories. By in large, the most numerous and bizarre were out of the state of Florida.

Yup, and speaking of alligators...and Florida.

As a small, maybe five-year-old child, the first time the parents and at least one older brother drove in a fleet of vintage Buicks south for the holidays, they stopped in St Augustine. There was an Alligator Park or some such tourist attraction. So, getting really sick of being in the car after 2+ days, they decide this is a must-see.

Older brother, it must be noted, had more than a slight sadistic streak--after laughing at some little boy who climbed a kumquat tree, bit into one, and peed himself at the taste, my brother none too gently picked me up and dangled me over one of the alligator pits. Good times. For him.

Alligator story # 2, many decades later, much older siblings [20+ years older] all have winter homes on the Gulf Coast at Naples and Ft Myers. I take PLL down when she's around 4, and we visit the Naples cabal. There's a pool out back of the condo. L'il PLL runs for the bathing suit, announcing it's time to swim. I look out the French doors, only to see a 7-footer emerging from the pool, and relaxedly ambling onto the golf green. Aquatics postponed.

[Cupid Stunt]

My only alligator stories involve shoes, purses and belts.

[valleycliffe]

when we went on our road trip to savannah georgia we also went to see son in laws mom in jacksonville florida.  we went to a cracker barrel restaurant and bought my eldest daughter a bottle of very hot sauce.  there was also a place to buy alligator skulls.  i bought a little one for my grandson..

[lovemesomejoolery]

1 hour ago, Cupid Stunt said:

There's something about Florida … Maybe it's the restless vacationers or the heat/humidity … My first job out of collage I worked in the news room of a radio station. My station manager collected oddity news stories. By in large, the most numerous and bizarre were out of the state of Florida.

Could be.....!

One of my closest friends moved there several years ago, outside of Orlando.  I've visited quite a few times and have to say that, particularly in that area, it is the one of the most transient of cities I've ever seen (next to Washington, DC, which, for obvious reasons, has people coming and going every four years or so).  I think people move to Florida for a "fresh start" in the sun and it doesn't always turn out to be the "land o' plenty" they think it's going to be.

And then, you have the type of doofus who decides to stick a wild animal down her pants!  I'm still shaking my head on that one!

[peacheslatour]

17 minutes ago, lovemesomejoolery said:

Could be.....!

One of my closest friends moved there several years ago, outside of Orlando.  I've visited quite a few times and have to say that, particularly in that area, it is the one of the most transient of cities I've ever seen (next to Washington, DC, which, for obvious reasons, has people coming and going every four years or so).  I think people move to Florida for a "fresh start" in the sun and it doesn't always turn out to be the "land o' plenty" they think it's going to be.

And then, you have the type of doofus who decides to stick a wild animal down her pants!  I'm still shaking my head on that one!

It turned out to be the "land of plenty" for my uncle when he discovered they have drive thru liquor stores.

[Cupid Stunt]

30 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

It turned out to be the "land of plenty" for my uncle when he discovered they have drive thru liquor stores.

We've got Hair of the Dog drive thru's in CA.

It's dinner and show when you get behind a drunk customer -- The liquor store takes the order. The driver humps over the curbs and they fall out of their car to pay at the window. The cops arrest them before the transaction is ever completed.

The cashier told me the liquor store calls the cops and never takes the order. 

Good times.

[valleycliffe]

i can't believe that when dh and i were young we also would drive after imbibing...seemed everyone did. (not just alcohol)

when we look back on it now it seems unbelievable that we actually did that.  

now, if we are going out for dinner and we plan to have a drink, we call a taxi there and back...or order in.

[jewel21]

Steve is still molting and his face is looking rough. He's currently got a crest and face with a bunch of pin feathers and I desperately want to grab him and preen him. If only he's let me. Oh why won't he let me make him beautiful. 

[peacheslatour]

22 minutes ago, jewel21 said:

Steve is still molting and his face is looking rough. He's currently got a crest and face with a bunch of pin feathers and I desperately want to grab him and preen him. If only he's let me. Oh why won't he let me make him beautiful. 

Peaches got into the attic while DH was up there yesterday and when she came down she had cod webs all up in her whiskers. She kept rubbing her face against the furniture so I picked her up to get the webs out. She glared at me like death the whole time.

Edited August 19, 2019 by peacheslatour

[Cupid Stunt]

Jack Whitaker, Emmy-Winning Sportscaster, Dies at 95

Jack Whitaker, the erudite CBS and ABC sportscaster whose half-century on the air was unfairly smudged by a seemingly innocuous remark that got him banned from the Masters, has died. He was 95.

Whitaker died Sunday of natural causes in Devon, Pennsylvania, after a stay in hospice care, CBS announced.

Whitaker was part of the CBS team that worked the first Super Bowl in 1967, and he was there for Secretariat’s mind-boggling Triple Crown-sealing victory at the 1973 Belmont Stakes. As a play-by-play man, analyst, host, reporter and essayist, he did dozens of major golf tournaments; several Olympics, both winter and summer; major league baseball; the America’s Cup yacht competition; and track-and-field events.

"There will never be another Jack Whitaker in sports broadcasting," CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said in a statement. "His amazing writing ability, on-air presence and humanity are unmatched. His unique perspective on sports ranging from horse racing to golf to NFL football was extraordinary."

Known for his elegance and smarts, the Philadelphia native once described the Old Course at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf, while working the British Open for ABC in Scotland:

"Nobody designed this course,” he said. "Nobody with a pencil and $2 million and five bulldozers. This was made by nature. It comes out of the ground. It was done with wind and rain and sun and the help of a few sheep. And so, while for most Americans and other people, it’s not love at first sight at St. Andrews, St. Andrews’ Old Course is like a dry martini — an acquired taste, and, as such, it remains with you forever."

However, his choice of words at another golf tournament — the 1966 Masters — got him in trouble with Augusta National chairman Clifford Roberts.

Working alongside analyst Cary Middlecoff during coverage of a Monday playoff that Jack Nicklaus would win, Whitaker angered the club’s all-powerful chairman with his description of the chaotic scene at the final hole.

"The threesome was playing particularly slowly, and we knew we had to be off at 7 p.m. for Walter Cronkite,” Whitaker recalled in a 1979 interview. "I was doing the 18th hole, and as the players and the galleries were coming up the fairway, I said, 'Here comes the mob.'"

"It looked to me like a mob of people scurrying toward the green, but Mr. Roberts took offense. He said the gallery at the Masters was not a mob. And that was that."

Though still employed by CBS, Whitaker did not return to Augusta until 1972, when he came to the tournament as a fan. Suddenly, he was called into action to replace Henry Longhurst, the network's announcer at the 16th hole who had become ill. "I saw Cliff Roberts,” Whitaker recalled years later, "and he said, 'Young man, I’m delighted to see you here.' I’m not sure he remembered our previous encounter."

(Another CBS golf announcer, Gary McCord, was similarly banned when he used the terms "bikini wax" and "body bags" to describe the hallowed Masters course in 1994. He hasn’t been back to broadcast at Augusta since.)

Whitaker worked several more Masters before leaving CBS for ABC in 1982.

Whitaker was born on May 18, 1924, in the East Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, and he graduated from Northeast Catholic High School for Boys. He had two stints at St. Joseph’s College — in between, he was a U.S. Army soldier who landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, three days after D-Day in June 1944 — and then landed a job in radio at a 250-watt station in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.

He returned to Philadelphia when a sports job opened up at WCAU-TV and worked the 11 p.m. weeknight newscast with newscaster John Facenda, who would become the baritone voice of NFL Films, and future Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon, who did a five-minute essay at the end of each newscast.

Whitaker also hosted the local show Meet Me at the Zoo and was at WCAU for 12 years. But when CBS bought the station, cut the newscast to 15 minutes and made him a weatherman, he and McMahon took the train to New York every morning to make the rounds at the agencies in bids to find new jobs. Then they would hustle back to WCAU.

In 1958, McMahon hooked up with Carson for the game show Who Do You Trust? Whitaker found weekend work at CBS, shifted to the network full time in 1961 and hosted the CBS Sports Spectacular (an anthology series that predated ABC’s Wide World of Sports) and the short-lived game show The Face Is Familiar.

Much later, Whitaker reported for the ABC news programs World News Tonight, Nightline and 20/20 and did sports for TNT and ESPN. He wrote a book, Preferred Lies and Other Tales: Skimming the Cream of a Life in Sports, that was published in 1998.

The silver-haired Whitaker was a member of the famed Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island and in his heyday could be found at P.J. Clarke’s, the historic New York saloon on Third Avenue that attracted entertainers, athletes and journalists alike.

He received the inaugural Outstanding Sports Performer Emmy in 1979 and was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 1997. In 2012, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored him with its Sports Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sports Illustrated in 2010 ranked him No. 17 on its all-time list of sportscasters.

Whitaker was married to tennis star Nancy Chaffee — after she divorced Hall of Fame baseball star Ralph Kiner — from 1991 until her death in 2002. Whitaker is survived by his second wife, Patricia, daughters Marybeth Helgevold (Chuck), Ann Hanan (Bob); sons Gerry Whitaker, Jack Whitaker III and Kevin Whitaker (Rachelle). He was predeceaded in death by his son, Geoffrey Whitaker. He had 11 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren.

All the best on the 19th hole, Jack.

[Petunia13]

@Cupid Stunt Just Egg has been available at Whole Foods for a couple months. I haven’t tried it (I’m Vegan ). I have had tofu and turmeric scrabbles “eggs” before. Whole Foods has also had the beyond burger packs of ground “beef” (not the patties but loafs like so you can make meat loaf or Hamburger Helper or chili and shit). I love being vegan. My coworkers at the dealership find it so mysterious and ask so many questions. 

[Cupid Stunt]

11 hours ago, Petunia13 said:

@Cupid Stunt Just Egg has been available at Whole Foods for a couple months. I haven’t tried it (I’m Vegan ). I have had tofu and turmeric scrabbles “eggs” before. Whole Foods has also had the beyond burger packs of ground “beef” (not the patties but loafs like so you can make meat loaf or Hamburger Helper or chili and shit). I love being vegan. My coworkers at the dealership find it so mysterious and ask so many questions. 

I've had Just Eggs (I'm waiting for the Egg Council lawsuit calling Just Eggs plant emulsion 'Eggs') at a SXSW food demonstration for breakfast -- The texture is similar to scrambled eggs and flavor was good, but I burped mung beans for hours afterward. The demonstrators had baked goods on their table, alluding to the many uses of Just Eggs, but questions about how to use the product for baking purposes were not answered -- That was the final red card for me.

I do have qualms about purchasing factory-made, processed food that replicates a readily available organic, whole food. And there are other questions about a national retail push of a product that adds to the farming waste steam to grow mung beans (dependent on irrigation), the product processing is dependent on potable water and waste discharge into local treatment plants -- This does not cover the other ingredients development/processing/waste.

Ingredient list of Just Eggs -- Water, Mung Bean Protein Isolate, Expeller-Pressed Canola Oil, Contains less than 2% of Dehydrated Onion, Gellan Gum, Natural Carrot Extractives (color), Natural Flavors, Natural Turmeric Extractives (color), Potassium Citrate, Salt, Soy Lecithin, Sugar, Tapioca Syrup, Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate, Preservative (nicin, potassium sorbate).

A product that fulfills the requirements of a Vegan diet doesn't necessarily make it benign to the environment or as an affordable food alternative (Just Eggs $8.53 for 12 ounces). I have the same concerns about faux burger-type products (I make a chick-pea falafel fritter as an alternative beef burger that's delicious). There's an environmental impact no matter how you eat, but you can reduce your footprint and make enquiries of your local retailers -- My local bodega has been carrying organic veg/fruit from our garden exchange for five years because we made it simple and affordable for them to vend, and they sell out daily.

I don't go the Whole Paychecks route, because it's ridiculously expensive no matter who owns them. I make or grow some of our own food (avocados, lemons, oranges, dates, honey, veg garden), trade veg/fruit/scraps for fresh chicken/duck eggs from an organic neighbor or compost, involved in organic garden exchange that donates fresh vegetables and fruit to local food shelves, and have local farmer's markets that feature many organic growers. My down time is gardening. 

[Cupid Stunt]

In yesterday's Getting to Genoa You posts, DeafAngelBoy had an exchange with someone stating that Taco Therapy (aka, Taco Tuesday) was racist, which I found very amusing. Look for offence and you are sure to find it.

Our Tuesday Taco Therapy usually involves a liquor store and Mexican food truck where we eat (and public drink) away our work feelz -- No driving involved; we drunk walk the three blocks home.

Baring that sort of behavior is a racist thing ,,, in some circles … though I don't know how  …  Mr.Stunt and I are shaking up our Tuesday night by walking the opposite direction (away from delicious al Pastor tacos and posole) to the VFW for hourly drink specials, Broasted chicken and Chicken Bingo Night! The VFW has a daily taco special, but we won't discuss that here not knowing where that will lead.

You buy bingo numbers for each round, and a chicken walks around a pen with the bingo numbers scribed on the floor. The chicken poops on a number and you could be a winner, if Lady Cluck is your guide! The judge determines the winners and divies up the pot, removes the chicken, scrapes off the fresh poop, sells more bingo numbers and introduces the crowd to a new, well-fed chicken contender -- and the game starts alllllll over again for an ever more competitive and drunk crowd.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[boes]

3 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

In yesterday's Getting to Genoa You posts, DeafAngelBoy had an exchange with someone stating that Taco Therapy (aka, Taco Tuesday) was racist, which I found very amusing. Look for offence and you are sure to find it.

FYI, I think he had that exchange on another forum, maybe even FB and came here to talk about it.  

[Cupid Stunt]

Welcome to the Dark Night of the American Soul. Wear a Helmet ...

• 1619 Project -- New York Times Magazine - PDF from the Pulitzer Center

• The New York Times 1619 Project is reshaping the conversation on slavery. -- It's not a popular conversation in some quarters. Quelle surprise.

• 1619 and the cult of American innocence

• The 1619 Project: Curricular Materials from the Pulitzer Center

• 400 Years of Slavery From The Guardian

• How white women’s “investment” in slavery has shaped America today

• Is Slavery’s Legacy in the Power Dynamics of Sports?

• Toni Morrison's Truth -- She saw the madness we’re living in now years ago.

• Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates gives a thorough history lesson on reparations -- “Victims of that plunder are very much alive today,”

• There Is No Middle Ground on Reparations -- Americans who oppose reparations care more about responding to political expediency than about the emergency of inequality. 

• America is having an unprecedented debate about reparations. What comes next? -- The reparations hearing was historic. It also revealed long-standing tensions.
• Ibram X. Kendi on the difference between "antiracist" and "not racist" -- Ibram X. Kendi is on a mission to cure America of what he calls its "metastatic cancer" of racism. Kendi, the founding director of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University, told "CBS This Morning" that what we need to do first is re-examine what it means to be "not racist" and strive instead to be "antiracist." But what's the difference?

• The story behind 'The New Colossus' poem on the Statue of Liberty and how it became a symbol of immigration

• Look At Their Faces. Learn Their Names. This Is Done In Our Name.

• Strangers come for miles to mourn El Paso shooting victim

• Art Is Not Neutral -- Annual Mural Designed By Area Teenagers Draws Criticism For The First Time

• Panel rules soap, sleep essential to migrant kids’ safety

• Downtown St. Louis Is Rising; Black St. Louis Is Being Razed -- Square co-founder Jack Dorsey is expanding the company’s presence in St. Louis and demolishing vacant buildings on the city’s north side … And Stormfront approved.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[Cupid Stunt]

• Planned Parenthood rejects Title X funding

• A federal appeals court in San Francisco is weighing a lawsuit to overturn Title X "gag" rules,

• Early Epstein accuser: Police could have stopped him in 1997

• Florida officials are investigating why panthers are seen stumbling and falling down

• Felony Charge Over Trump Ecstasy Pills -- Cops: Dealer caught with branded MDMA

• DNA leads to arrest in another Florida rape case from 1980s

• Sheriff: Florida man dumps dirt on girlfriend with tractor

• Florida doubles efforts to hunt invasive pythons

Checking my rear-view mirror ...

• At the bottom of a glacier in Greenland, climate scientists find troubling signs

• NASA program "OMG" trying to find out how fast Greenland's ice is melting … Still not For Sale.

• Microplastics discovered in 'extreme' concentrations in the North Atlantic

• The US won’t provide flu vaccines to migrant families at border detention camps

• Why cashier’s checks are part of so many online scams -- Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and other places people buy and sell online are seeing an uptick in this particular kind of scam.

• America needs more Unions and why -- I'm a proud Union member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers – Local 11

• Pentagon conducts 1st test of previously banned missile

• The Lessons of a School Shooting -- in 1853 -- How a now-forgotten classroom murder inflamed the national gun argument.

Sandy Hook Elementary School Memorial

• This Lawsuit Could Change How We Prosecute Mass Shootings -- A recent court ruling shows a new way to hold them accountable.

• Just About Everyone But the Gun Maker Gets Sued After a Mass Shooting

• Parents of Las Vegas massacre victim sue gun makers and dealers: "These are weapons of war"

• Parkland students unveil sweeping gun-control proposal

• War Criminal Regrets -- Ex-Blackwater contractor sentenced to life in Iraq shootings

• Affordable Housing Crisis Spreads Throughout the World

Edited August 21, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[Cupid Stunt]

"Happiness is a warm gun …"

• A cook planned to gun down his own coworkers and guests at a California hotel, police say. He's been arrested

• At least 28 people have been arrested over threats to commit mass attacks since the El Paso and Dayton shootings

• I Was an NRA Lobbyist. Here’s My Road Map for Gun Reform. -- There is a way to debate this issue that will actually get meaningful laws enacted that both sides can agree on.

• What is the Flores settlement that the Trump administration has moved to end?

• New regulation proposed that would allow for the detention of migrant families beyond the 20-day limit for holding children, say officials.

• Indictments of workers mount after the Mississippi immigration raids, but no employers have been charged

• Advocates: Mississippi plant fires workers left after raid

• Epstein may have gamed the system from beyond the grave

• Jeffrey Epstein Will PDF

• The murky life and death of Robert Maxwell – and how it shaped his daughter Ghislaine

• Former Yale professor sexually assaulted five students, report says

• Figure skating: Coach Richard Callaghan banned for sexual misconduct

• Microplastics in drinking water 'don't appear to pose health risk,' WHO says

• Vegan parents whose strict diet left baby 'severely malnourished' avoid jail

• Whole Foods CEO on plant-based meat boom: Good for the environment but not for your health

• NY State officials sue EPA, seeking more Hudson River cleanup

• Wildfires are burning around the world. The most alarming is in the Amazon rainforest. -- Record heat, drought, and deforestation are contributing to wildfire risk.

• There’s no conflict between human and animal rights -- New research shows that concern for suffering isn’t zero-sum.

• Mosquitoes might be humanity’s greatest foe. Should we get rid of them? -- The pesky insect is the deadliest animal in human history.

• How China used Facebook and Twitter to spread disinformation about the Hong Kong protests

• The Facebook Dilemma

• Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests -- This is rich. 

• Woodstock was a beautiful, idealistic mess. The Woodstock Generation was the letdown. -- Watching the documentary 50 years later only highlights the flaws in the festival’s mythology.

• Putin's Private Army in Africa
• How Russia moved into Central Africa

• CNN’s Ward says intimidation effort made on Russia story

Edited August 22, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[valleycliffe]

[Anna Yolei]

On 8/17/2019 at 4:36 PM, Cupid Stunt said:

The most dangerous job in the world -- Aircraft Operations on a Carrier

Blue jerseys move aircraft

Purple jerseys handle fuel

Red jerseys are munitions

Brown jerseys handle catapult and wires

Brown jerseys are maintenance and inspections

White jerseys are Safety Operations

Yellow jerseys are aircraft handlers and directors, known as Shooters

Sure is! 👍

Was never on an aircraft carrier, but I was on the Fitzgerald in the early 2010s, and it's pretty difficult to land helos on that because the ship moves a LOT  from water displacement. A help literally landed on one guy's head for one second before pulling up. I think I'd have put in my two weeks notice if I were that guy! 😮😐

Air department is one of the few  jobs in the Navy where you won't be hassled for sleeping when you can and the danger involved is exactly why. Better a guy gets extra sleep than a pilot get killed.

[AngelKitty]

So here I am in the hospital and doing fine. I had a stroke which was really scary. My left leg and arm wouldn't move and my face was droopy. They had gotten me to the trauma center and they gave me a special blood thinner which helped. My leg, arm and face are back to normal and the MRI showed no permanent damage.

I might get out today but my potassium is very low so I'm sure they won't let me go until that improves.

[Cupid Stunt]

(((AngelKitty)))

Heavenly Father, we ask you to visit our friend AngelKitty, and grant her strength to bear the aftermath of the stoke with patience and submit to Your will, trusting in Your love and compassion. We pray that You will bless the means used for her recovery and those who administer them. Grant that her illness will of be of spiritual benefit and she will live her life according to Your will. For You are the source of life and healing and to You we give praise and glory, now and forever. Amen.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[Capricasix]

Oh Angelkitty, how scary! Thank goodness you got to the hospital in time. Wishing you an uneventful recovery ❤️

[boes]

3 hours ago, AngelKitty said:

So here I am in the hospital and doing fine. I had a stroke which was really scary. My left leg and arm wouldn't move and my face was droopy. They had gotten me to the trauma center and they gave me a special blood thinner which helped. My leg, arm and face are back to normal and the MRI showed no permanent damage.

I might get out today but my potassium is very low so I'm sure they won't let me go until that improves.

How absolutely awful and THANK GOD you're recovering!

[Cupid Stunt]

My All-Time Favorite Nigerian Prince Scam in the Galaxy ...

"REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL -- I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home."

• 80 Indicted In ‘Sophisticated’ Nigerian Online Fraud, Money Laundering Scheme

• CBS Morning News Report -- 80 indicted in massive internet fraud case

• Facebook bans ads from The Epoch Times

• China paid Facebook and Twitter to help spread anti-Muslim propaganda -- One of the social media giants says it will no longer accept ad money from state-controlled media.

• California arms traffickers used Snapchat to market illegal weapons -- Recent investigations show that in the Bay Area, social media is playing a significant role in firearms sales

• Texas working to recover from ransomware attack on 22 government targets

• David Koch, billionaire industrialist, dies aged 79

• Jawline is an empathetic, terrifying documentary about teens who livestream their lives -- In Gen Z’s world, anyone can be a star for a little while.

The Akademik Lomonosov at the Arctic port of Murmansk to begin its 5,000km voyage to northeastern Siberia.

• Russia launches floating nuclear reactor in Arctic despite warnings

• Why the US and Iran are fighting over this tiny waterway -- It's the tactical control the geo-political/commodity trading message, Baby. The strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz. Two birds, one stone.

• This photo almost started a nuclear war

• South African court restricts displays of apartheid-era flag -- Looks like Charlottesville August 2018

• City sues to remove Confederate monument, citing free speech

• Why anti-abortion groups are backing away from abortion bans -- Though the groups National Right to Life and Tennessee Right to Life oppose abortion, they also oppose the Tennessee ban, because they believe it would never stand up in court. If such a ban were to make it to the Supreme Court, the groups worry it would fail: “There is no objective evidence that we have more than one vote to overturn Roe v. Wade,” said James Bopp, general counsel of the National Right to Life Committee, which describes itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest pro-life organization,” in testimony against the bill. His words reflect what may be a growing fear among anti-abortion groups: that recent near-total abortion bans at the state level are so extreme that they could hurt their cause.

• How about a little domestic terrorism, Scarecrow? -- A man threatened to “slaughter” abortion doctors. It’s part of a disturbing pattern. -- Advocates say rhetoric is helping fuel a spike in threats against abortion clinics nationwide.

• A Gates-funded program meant to keep low-income students pushed them out instead -- The failure of a college advising program shows why education reform is so hard — and how we can get it right.
• 5 things people still get wrong about slavery -- Historians debunk slavery’s greatest myths.
• A selling point just before the Christmas Holiday Creep -- A major toy company is phasing out plastic — but not in its toys -- Hasbro is starting by eliminating plastic packaging in new products.

• In defense of reading the same book over and over again

• Textiles evolving to meet demand for sustainable materials

• The Japanese art of tie dyeing -- J'dore Shibori

• A short cultural history of tie-dye -- Why the colorful summer camp staple is making a comeback in 2019.

• An 89-Year-Old Grandmother Is Visiting All 61 National Parks With Her Grandson

Edited August 23, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[boes]

On 8/17/2019 at 9:18 AM, OhioSongbird said:

Wow...scary!   Be interesting to hear the back story on that.  Is it usually a quiet neighborhood?

I have a Pat update.  They let him go home last night so he is making good progress.  Gonna be in bed for awhile then some PT.  Still don't know how good his mobility will be.

Ohiosongbird, how is Pat doing?

[peacheslatour]

6 hours ago, AngelKitty said:

So here I am in the hospital and doing fine. I had a stroke which was really scary. My left leg and arm wouldn't move and my face was droopy. They had gotten me to the trauma center and they gave me a special blood thinner which helped. My leg, arm and face are back to normal and the MRI showed no permanent damage.

I might get out today but my potassium is very low so I'm sure they won't let me go until that improves.

Oh AngelKitty, I am heartily sorry you went through that. Thank god, it wasn't more serious. Please take good care of yourself. I hope you are home very soon. ((((hugs))))

[pearlite]

AngelKitty, I'm so glad to hear you're doing well! And prayers and wishes for a continued and complete recovery!

[PatsyandEddie]

Oh AK! Scary times. Please feel stronger soon  🙏🏻

[lovemesomejoolery]

8 hours ago, AngelKitty said:

So here I am in the hospital and doing fine. I had a stroke which was really scary. My left leg and arm wouldn't move and my face was droopy. They had gotten me to the trauma center and they gave me a special blood thinner which helped. My leg, arm and face are back to normal and the MRI showed no permanent damage.

I might get out today but my potassium is very low so I'm sure they won't let me go until that improves.

I wish you a quick recovery and hope that you are home soon!

[valleycliffe]

wishing you a speedy recovery angel kitty.

[AngelKitty]

They got the potassium up but now my sodium is low. Not going home today.☹️

[Cupid Stunt]

Poor Kitty. Chemistry is hard to balance once you're off -- Been there.

Try to rest.

[jewel21]

Oh, AngelKitty! I just want to hug you so tight. 

Take care of yourself and here's to going home soon and a speedy recovery. 

[Cupid Stunt]

• Who 'dat? Mr. B, an adorable 'jumbo-sized' cat up for adoption, wins over the internet -- Love that poker face. Hungry? Tired? Bemused? Bored? Completed plans for world domination? Intoxicated? Not tellin' ...

• $10,000 reward offered for arrest of wild burro killers

• Here's what we know about the fires in the Amazon rainforest

• Coffee growers help reforest Mozambique’s Mount Gorongosa

• 75 years later, US World War II veterans say: Never forget

• The robots are coming for your job, too -- The robots don't want my job.

• Russian capsule carrying robot fails space station docking --"The Terminator" never looked so distant.

• Lowe's spent billions on share buybacks, zero on severance for laid-off workers

• Where Everyone’s an Influencer -- Inside Instagram’s annual beach party, where Hollywood and social media collide

• The Real Difference Between Creators and Influencers -- It's not a gender thing.

• The People Who Love to Watch Other People Clean -- The world is a mess. “Cleanfluencers” are here to help.

• The Instagram Aesthetic Is Over -- The look made famous by the platform just doesn’t resonate anymore.

• Why Does Everyone Suddenly Have Fancy Fake Teeth? -- Instagram has closed the beauty gap between celebrities and regular people.

• Rising Instagram Stars Are Posting Fake Sponsored Content -- “It’s street cred -- the more sponsors you have, the more credibility you have.”

• How Parents of Child Influencers Package Their Kids’ Lives for Instagram -- The platform’s youngest stars owe their fame to their parents’ intense work behind the scenes.

• Old Bay Seasoning Tracked Down This Woman Because of Her Wi-Fi Network's Name -- A Brooklyn woman set up her Wi-Fi network, named it "oldbayseasoning," and never thought of it again. Five years later, the company started looking for her.

• Welcome to the Magic Kingdom -- Disney Legends honor prompts Robert Downey Jr. pot story

• Tourist may have brought measles to Southern California -- Yay!

• Could the world see a resurgence of polio? Experts fear a cautionary tale in measles

• Is it time to regulate biohacking? California thinks so. -- A new law warns biohackers not to edit their genes at home.

• America's cocaine habit fueled its migrant crisis

• Florida man convicted in parking lot shooting of black man -- A white Florida man who told detectives he had a “pet peeve” about illegal parking in handicapped spots was convicted late Friday of manslaughter for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man outside a convenience store.

• NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

• Inequality Hurts the Rich and Poor Alike

• Why so many suburbs look the same -- It's all part of the plan.

• “Christian girl autumn” was about mocking white women. Then they stole the joke. -- “Christian girl autumn,” explained.

Edited August 24, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[Capricasix]

That cat is a Megachonker!

Edited August 24, 2019 by Capricasix

[AngelKitty]

They finally got all my numbers up and let me go home! Man, that was the best shower I think I've ever had! I am no longer a stinky girl.

[peacheslatour]

32 minutes ago, AngelKitty said:

They finally got all my numbers up and let me go home! Man, that was the best shower I think I've ever had! I am no longer a stinky girl.

Yay! What did they give you for your sodium deficiency?

[valleycliffe]

37 minutes ago, AngelKitty said:

They finally got all my numbers up and let me go home! Man, that was the best shower I think I've ever had! I am no longer a stinky girl.

showers after you get out of the hospital are the best..you just feel so much better, at least for a little bit.

[peacheslatour]

8 minutes ago, valleycliffe said:

showers after you get out of the hospital are the best..you just feel so much better, at least for a little bit.

Makes you feel human again.

[Petunia13]

On 8/23/2019 at 6:09 AM, AngelKitty said:

So here I am in the hospital and doing fine. I had a stroke which was really scary. My left leg and arm wouldn't move and my face was droopy. They had gotten me to the trauma center and they gave me a special blood thinner which helped. My leg, arm and face are back to normal and the MRI showed no permanent damage.

I might get out today but my potassium is very low so I'm sure they won't let me go until that improves.

Oh My Lord please heal AngelKitty and help her during her recovery. Please guide and provide assistance so that she is a hundred percent recovered and comfortable❤️

[PatsyandEddie]

Amen!

[Cupid Stunt]

19 hours ago, AngelKitty said:

They finally got all my numbers up and let me go home! Man, that was the best shower I think I've ever had! I am no longer a stinky girl.

Congratulations, AK! 

There's nothing better than putting hospital bird baths far behind you and sleeping in your own bed. 

Have a great day!