Weekend Open Thread
There are people out there who still believe that the mainstream media is giving them the complete facts. Many among this same group of individuals do not think that the journalists would selectively report, hold back facts, or infuse their opinions to the news reporting. Enjoy your weekend.
Category: Open thread
1st
D’oh!
You beat Hack by 3 seconds.
Dang it. *kicks rocks*….I paused….I shucked when I should have jived…wait, is that racist?? Aw who cares, this ain’t Book of Face….
Your Orb and Scepter, M’Lord…
Cong Rats you lations.
Where’s my beer and wurst?
Hack Stone now identifies as a female NCAA swimmer in order to secure the title of First Commenter for This Ain’t Hell Weekend Open Thread for Friday February 18, 2022.
Yore swimmies got holes punched in them from the successful Time on Target Fire Mission delivered by the King of Battle…THE King of FIRST, Hack Stone. Shoulda stayed in your swim lane of peddling outdated Red Hat Software at the bottom of the exit ramp, just off State Road 23…on the Frontage Road. Your chances of being FIRST sank faster than prezzy sniffy’s poll numbers and went down quicker than Kumela. A consolation trophy awaits you in the Lady’s Room.
Cat fish, cheese grits, corn soup, Indian (Feather not dot) Flat Bread, and refreshing beverages for all hands. The smoking lamp is lit.
Missing out on FIRST again, here’s some trivia:
DID YOU KNOW…?
Was a member of the original “Star Trek” cast talked out of quitting the show by a civil rights icon?
By Commissioner Wretched
didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com
A note in the e-mail bag caught my attention the other day.
My intrepid correspondent asked, “How can I find all of your older columns, the ones from the days before my newspaper carried ‘Did You Know…?’”
This is a very good question, and frankly I’m surprised it took someone this long to ask it. All of my trivia columns can be found on their very own Facebook page.
“The ‘Did You Know?’ Column” is the name of the page. While it involves a bit of scrolling work, you can go back to the very beginning more than five years ago and see how this little exercise has evolved from a space-filler in a newspaper to the vast media empire it is today.
Okay, it isn’t vast. More like half-vast.
Anyway, here is this week’s addition to the ongoing series! I hope you enjoy it.
Did you know …
… it’s not easy to enter a sweepstakes in Canada? The country’s law actually requires citizens to answer a mathematics question when entering a sweepstakes. (Well, there goes my shot.)
… New York Police had standing orders to follow a professional wrestler? Whenever he visited New York, wrestler Andre the Giant (born Andre Roussimoff, 1946-1993) would be followed by an officer from the NYPD. The reason? Andre was known to enjoy drinking, and the officer’s job was to make sure the 7-foot 4-inch, 520-pound athlete didn’t get inebriated and fall over on anyone. Additional trivia note: Andre the Giant holds a kind of record for the number of beers consumed at one sitting. By his own admission, Andre drank 119 cans of beer in a single session, and was still able to get up and stagger – er, walk out. (He was, indeed, a giant of a man, in many ways.)
… you could at one time purchase a flying bicycle? Once offered through the Hammacher-Schlemmer Catalog, it was actually a three-wheeled tricycle that had an integrated backpack which held a collapsible para-wing. With the wing deployed and the two-stroke gasoline engine engaged, a three-bladed propeller would take you up to a height of 4,000 feet at 25 miles per hour. The craft has a range of 75 miles on a full tank of gas, but on the ground it operates just like any other bicycle – er, tricycle. The latest edition of the catalog says the item is no longer available. (Would you need a driver’s license or a pilot’s license to operate it?)
… a world-famous electronics firm started out with something unlikely? Sony Corporation of Japan, formed in 1946, is one of the world’s foremost electronic manufacturers now. But their first product marketed was a rice cooker. (Insert your own joke here.)
… a popular Star Trek actress was talked out of quitting the show by a civil rights icon? During the first season of the original series, actress Nichelle Nichols (born 1932), who played the communications officer, Lt. Uhura, was dissatisfied with her role and wanted to leave the show. The weekend before she would have quit, however, she attended a function at which she met a dedicated fan of the series – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968). On hearing that Nichols wanted to quit, Dr. King said she shouldn’t because her character was an inspiration to African-American children that they could aspire to be anything, even a space traveler. Nichols stayed with the show. (Now that’s what I call “boldly going where no one has gone before.”)
… penguins have more feathers than most other birds? The average penguin has about 70 feathers per square inch of skin, but Emperor penguins have the most of any bird – around 100 feathers per square inch of skin. (Living in Antarctica, they need more feathers!)
… cougar, puma and mountain lion are all different names for the same animal? (But no matter what you call it, the kitty won’t come to you on command.)
… only one of the 88 stable elements on the Periodic Table is named after a person? Gadolinium (symbol: Gd; atomic number 64) was named after Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin (1760-1852). (He was a pretty stable person, I’m told.)
… the human eye is a very sensitive instrument? If you’re wondering just how sensitive, consider this: on a clear night, when there is no Moon, a person with 20/20 vision sitting on a mountain peak can see a match struck 50 miles away with the unaided eye. (If that’s all you’re looking for, you probably need a hobby or something.)
… the only man to ever be elected President of the United States four times did not carry the votes of his home county in any of those elections? Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) won the White House in four consecutive elections – 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944 – but in all of those contests, he did not carry his home of Dutchess County, New York. (So all that nonsense about “home cooking” in politics is just wrong, I take it.)
“on a clear night, when there is no Moon, a person with 20/20 vision sitting on a mountain peak can see a match struck 50 miles away with the unaided eye.”… and thus, verily, it is written whyest the common soldier must nary smoke the cancer stick while in the field, for fear that the act of lighting it upith shall reveal thine position, nor shall he fail to install the red lens upon his light shaped as an L.
… the shortest “tallest building” in any state is only 11 stories high? In Burlington, Vermont, the residential Decker Towers rises only 124 feet. And even though it is called Decker Towers, it is a single building. (Well, it is Vermont, after all.)
… credit scoring systems were designed to confuse people? The systems used were designed for lenders, not consumers, and were not created to be easily understood by the common person. The actual formulae and details of how they work are closely guarded trade secrets. (They work well, too. I’m totally confused.)
… a bird must fly at 11 miles per hour to be able to sustain flight? (Wow, who knew birds have speed limits too?)
Now … you know!
Another fine job on the Trivia today, CW. It is much enjoyed by many.
One thing that helped Sony get to the fore front in electronics was them being awarded the contract to manufacture the FIRST Commercial Transistors developed by Bell Labs. Plus building a quality, inexpensive product. Bet you listened to you fair share of baseball games on a pocket sized transistor radio.
Name me one (1) redblooded all male that DIDN’T have a serious crush on LT Uhura. I’ll wait. 😻
FIRST 23RD
I remember when the small transister radios came out and my parents bought me one which when I went to bed at night, I put in the earplug in with the radio under my pillow and listened to rock & roll. this was before the station/stations went over to news. Anyone remember DJ Alan Freed whom I used to listen to. Got back to practicing Spencerian script writing using a bifferent instruction book than the one Mr. Spencer wrote back in 1850 which I bought and consisted of 5 manuals. Looked at the Palmer business cursive writing book but sticking to the above instruction book. Friends of mine remember learning the Palmer method back in the late 1940’s and in Catholic school. Am practicing with a pencil but will use my twisby fountain pen when I get the lower case and upper case strokes down pat. I’m using practice pads with 52 degree lines that are printed on the paper that I follow when writing the letters.
I listened to rock n roll from WLS in Chicago on my transistor radio. Also listened to WBZ in Boston and WJR in Detroit.
“89 WLS!” great memories growing up in the cornfields…
I remember trying to convince my elementary school teacher that I wasn’t listening to the World Series on my transistor radio and that the wire she saw was for my hearing aid. I turned it off after she asked me what the score was.
I can guaran-damn-tee you I had a starship-sized crush on Lt. Uhura!!
And yes, I listened to many, many Cubs games on a transistor radio while growing up.
In the event that any of the remaining living, or nearly living, members of the DRG are out and about in Florida, know that I am cruising the area. I am not that County Short Bus that you usually ride. I am just keeping an eye on things.
“Don’t Fear the Kreaper”
Buy ammo. The prices have been stable for 2+ months with occasional sales, setting a good ceiling.
May you continue to not glow in the dark and have a GREAT weekend!
Ah yup, (not a Mainer)
But thanks for reminding me of my occasional duties…here
From today at Ammoseek.com
(My personal notes in parens for kinda standard range ammo)
You can login and make your own account, modify it and save price alerts for yourself and when the price drops, it sends you an e-mail.
Today Friday 2/18/22 at about 3 PM Current Low (Price Per Round)
And because we can now easily attach images, here’s my filtered sample 9mm screen which as you can see you can fiddle with the filters any way you like (brass/steel.new etcc.)
Important in looking at the Price Per Round is the GREEN “F” in the Shipping Cost column, you may pay a little more PPR, but you can find for a few cents (sometimes, depending on the quantity) the Shipping is Free…but sometimes, it’s not really free because you have to join the vendor’s “Club” but most of the time, that isn’t the case.
.
I think if I remember, I’ll start including this on the WoT as a courtesy for those of you interested.
Salude.
Good data about Ammoseek. It takes a bit of trickery to get acceptable results without a log-in, but it’s doable.
Also, sometimes large packs (500+ rounds) have higher PPR than 20-50 round packs. (I’m looking at you, MidwayUSA!)
I burned a box of Winchester freedom seeds in practice yesterday – but the soot residue was atrocious! Took me nearly an hour to get my EDC back to clean.
Need to invest in more stock, though
Meant to ask you how you made out teaching the grand kids sight alignment after I mentioned carboard front/rear sight alignment gizmo I used when I was working at Brink’s.
Due to a cycle of sequentially-shared head colds and bad weather the class had been postponed.
I didn’t know it until too late in the day, but I could have taken them out yesterday.
I am hoping that your teaching aide will work for them, though. Just haven’t had a chance to implement it yet.
And thanks, I need all the help I can get!
Jeff, – got the two middleuns out today.
At 15′ standing with an SR22 they were making 2.5″-3″ groups slow fire. Then they tried a game of tic-tac-toe and had fun getting really accurate.
Put them through their first timed-fire drill today to get a baseline. We’ll work on speed of delivery in the future.
When I take my oldest out to shoot, we use a Battleship! Game target. I found she can really get accurate when she knows it’ll sink her old man’s boat. 😂
God, I must be old. I remember when we used to look to the news for the TRUTH. We also used to laugh at the politicized nonsense of TASS and Pravda.
Interview from 2091, the surviving OIF/OEF veterans.
yK8XcUY6QgU
Present-ish.
Had a prostate biopsy to check on how things are really going.
For those who may be wondering, while it is not something one would do for fun, it is not really painful (unless you are a snowflake or something). The anesthesia injections are like any other needle stick – just in an unusual location. Then the biopsy needle sticks are felt but not painful.
Can’t do my hikes for a couple of days to allow things to heal.
The after-effects cannot even be called a pain in the ass. More like a discomfort.
All that to say, get yours checked, don’t be a wuss.
In other news, prepped and planted the garden this week. Lord willing we’ll have a good crop of corn later this summer. Also zucchini, blackeyes, tomatoes, and jalapenos.
Working with a couple of grandsons to teach them gardening – they have their own plot to work, so it is a pass/fail test.
God bless you all.
GB …
Your note has me remembering how my own prostate cancer was discovered. I’d had a routine physical, in which blood work was done for the first time in a loooooong time. My PSA level was something like 4 or 5, and my doctor thought it might be an infection. So for a couple of weeks I took horse-pill-sized antibiotics, and while I was cured of everything I’d had back to eighth grade, my PSA level went up to 12. So I was referred to a urologist who did the same biopsy thing you described.
It didn’t hurt. And a few days later I got the call asking me to come into the office. (We all know what that means.)
He told me I was the luckiest unlucky SOB he’d ever met, because I had prostate cancer – but we caught it at stage one. An injection of 75 or so little rice-sized titanium pellets oozing radiation, and some outside shots as well, and I’m cured.
Graybeard is right. Get yours checked. It could save your life.
I got a call from the Back/Pain clinic re: an MRI and series of X-rays I had taken for a sometimes painful hitch in my git-along. Found out that the source of the hitch is arthritis and that everything in my body from my neck to the end of my tail bone is fine, nothing bad showed up in either of the procedures.
Well, Commish, ol’ Poe shoulda got his checked sooner because his first and only prostate biopsy came back Stage Four and a subsequent bone scan showed significant bone metasteses, in other words, incurable.
So, word to the wise, especially for those of you in your late sixties to seventies (mine was diagnosed at 79), stay on top of it and get those PSA checks frequently. The chances of you having prostate cancer are very high and you need to detect it while it’s still treatable.
For the Vietnam vets still here, if you do have it, there’s good news: The VA assumes your Nam service exposed you to Agent Orange so your cancer is service connected at 100% and you are considered to be in their top tier for care. That is not insignificant–the three drugs being used to keep ol’ Poe vertical have a monthly cost of more than $12,000, far more than most of us can afford. With my Medicare replacement plan, our co-pays were several thousand a month before VA took over.
Stay alert…
Damn, Poe, I am really sorry to hear that. My doctor wanted to stop doing the PSA test when my blood is tested every six months. But I insisted otherwise, especially since they don’t do digital prostate exams anymore. About half of the guys I know in my age group have had prostate cancer. Fortunately, most caught it early.
My only consequence from my exposure to Agent Orange in defoliated jungle for about a week is the peripheral neuropathy I have in my feet.
Hey, Counselor, it is what it is. I should have been more vigilant myself.
If you’re having problems dealing with that foot neuropathy, I have an essential oil rub-on that has allowed me to titrate down from 3000mg of gabapentin daily to 600mg and rarely get any nighttime breakthrough jabs.
If you want to try it, have Ed or Mason send me your email and I’ll send you the formula.
I only take a single 300 mg capsule a few hours before I go to bed. It stops the annoying tingling in my feet when I retire. During the day I don’t have any symptoms.
Poe … I am keeping you in my prayers, my friend.
Thanks, Commish, as I said to rgr769, it is what it is. I’ve outlived all of my immediate family and most of my friends.
And a helluva lot longer than anyone who knew the hellraising young Poe thought I would… 😜
Ditto here.
Hate to hear that Poe. Hope the cancer docs can get a boost from some divine intervention to kick that.
Real young (40s-50s) friend of mine had a bad case of renal cancer surprise him, and he’s beat the odds so far.
We will certainly be praying for you.
Thanks, Beard, they’re keeping me alive with all these ridiculously expensive drugs for how long, who knows.
What I’m finding, as a former long-standing participant in the Big Pharma picture, is that these super expensive cancer drugs are a total rip-off because they know they have you by the balls, in my case, literally.
The whole damned medical industry is corrupt and the government is complicit. This damned phony Covid pandemic has proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Dang Poetrooper, I am just a little older, and have been getting by so far. There is a disturbance in my bladder that the VA Urologist noted had grown quite a bit in a year, so I need to have that handled, but as of right now no one will see a patient that is not vaccinated for the C0V1D. I hope that this madness will end and I can get it handled. And, I don’t have Vietnam Service, (I was out before then).
And don’t think “I’m too young to worry about that”. I was diagnosed at 54. Surgery first, all clear for 2 years. PSA started creeping up, had a few months of radiation (no real side effects from it, but the Lupron sucked), and we’re clear again. It’s a sneaky disease.
Praying it stays clear brother.
TRUMP / CAMACHO 2024
Uv9gi7dwTmU
Had a Drill Sergeant Camacho in BCT! B-2-3, Ft. Leonard Wood
Hey David,
What month/year? I did BCT at Ft. Leonard Wood too. 9/76.
Started 1/77. He was 4th PLT, I was in 3rd.
I did BCT at Leonard Wood, Sept. 76, don’t remember my class number.
Wishing a speedy recovery for or great nations quota hire Surgen General and his entire family for the CuFF.
Fully vaccinated?
“There are people out there who still believe that the mainstream media is giving them the complete facts.”
That would be the faithful, The Bobbing Heads sitting patiently on their sofas absorbing the indoctrination of the Talking Heads. The evening indoctrination sessions give them their talking points for the days ahead, and lets them know what they are outraged about.
The shall be known as “The Obedient Ones”.
IF you are going to plant a veggie garden, and want to save a small amount of money, let some things like bell peppers go to seed. Also, some herbs that you take for granted like parsley are biennials and will set seed the second year, so you can harvest that after the honey-seekers get their job done. When the seed heads set, take old nylons (if you have any, and cover the flower heads You can also use the 2nd year parsley root in cooking, so harvest that, clean it up and freeze it for later use.
Don’t throw away melon seeds (ALL melon types) but dry them on a newspaper after you cut up the melons.
If we’re going into Strange Times (again), get those books on the subjects of harvesting garden seeds. The Old Farmers Almanac makes its weather projections based on the Milankovitch cycles (not sure which side of the wobble we’re on right now), so keep that handy in your kitchen. They predicted cold and dry where I am, and they were right: all that fluffy snow went southeast of my AO.
And while I’m at it: those masks we all detest WILL keep you from getting other peoples’ bugs, so don’t ignore that factor.
Ask yourselves this: What if BiteMe fell asleep at the podium in the middle of saying something? Would anyone really give a flying frak in space about it?
More importantly, would anyone notice?
At least in my AO it helps to dry the seed, then put it in the freezer for a while. Helps kill any pests that invaded the seeds.
Directing grandsons on how to plant a garden today (part of their homeschooling classes) when I gave some zucchini seeds to one to plant a couple of hills – and he found a good sized grub in ’em. I just bought those seeds a month ago – but didn’t freeze them when I did.
I lived in Southern MO for a few years and during that time it was VERY easy to tell just who had no friends during Harvest Season. How you say? WELL, during that time in a small town, those who had to buy zucchini from the grocery store were friendless, if you left your car unlocked and/ or left your windows down during daylight on a weekday while downtown you’d find someone’s surplus garden zucchini sitting in the seat of your car!
Thirtysomething and I claim Honorary First once again.
((((OVER))))
Have a short mask story to tell.
Went to the “up-nort” (not a misspelling, that’s how we talk up here in CheeseHead land) to the GB VA Clinic for a hearing test.
Now , you are required to wear a mask at all of the VA clinics around here, so I was ready with mine that I normally wear all over including hospitals.
The young guy at the door took my wrist temp, asked me some questions and then handed me a light blue paper mask to replace the mask I was wearing. Didn’t have time to talk to him, so I replaced mine with theirs.
On the way out, I asked him why my mask didn’t meet approval.
He said nothing was wrong with it, but they got orders that everyone coming into the clinic has to wear one of the paper ones issued by them.
When I asked him why, he said they were never told why, just to hand the masks out.
?????I’m totally confused.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR2x1j7m4f1J1uypmYqnrVS8tgpJi-sudPV7w&usqp=CAU
Just following instructions for job security, comrade! No thinking allowed!
Wonder what he would have said if you had walked in wearing full MOPP gear… 😜
Just in… Police horses trample evil Freedom Convoy protestors in Ottawa– shoulda been “mostly peaceful” BLM, proggies whould’ve knelt with ’em instead.
One of the horse trampling victims of these brave Canuk Cossack assholes was a woman using a walker.
Saw this early this morning. RCMP should be kicked squarely where the Good Lord split them.
And don’t think the tyrants in DC aren’t cheering them on and hoping to follow suit here.
Think Jan6 hoopla
I’m sure the bastards currently in charge wanted it to continue because they had plans for further hampering our Freedom.
CHILI FEED UPDATE –
Today, Saturday, February 19, 2022,
is Chili Feed day in Elko, Nevada
with the Elko POW*MIA Awareness Asses.
(Seinfeld) – “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
CHILI FEED UPDATE – Happening now.
Deployed the Fu of Google, and found NO advertising
by newspaper, radio, or any other groups or orgs.
On the Book of the Fake, only 1 plug… by a reefer (pot) page.
And, on the page for the Elko POW*MIA Awareness Ass,
this… with 0 clicks.
Trouble in phony paradise.
CHILI FEED LIVE VIDEO –
Streamed by another page’s public Book of the Fake.
Visible to everyone, no FB necessary.
It’s 4 hours long.
https://www.facebook.com/bbmn20/videos/318056887041501/
Screenshot 1 of 2022 Elko POW*MIA Awareness Ass
Chili Feed Live video.
Cdr. Ken Adams cut off his ponytail, but still sports E-7 (??).
Screenshot 2 of 2022 Elko POW*MIA Awareness Ass
Chili Feed Live video.
“Newly appointed Sr. Vice Commander” Rich Dyer.
Known to them (and us) as “Fingers.”
Dyer’s black leather vest sports shiny bars of CAPTAIN (??).
Screenshot 3 of 2022 Elko POW*MIA Awareness Ass
Chili Feed Live video.
Live Auction.
The Brown & Brown custom glass art
(Pride Integrity Courage etc. etc.)
+ dog tags…… went for $325.
BINGO.
Screenshot 4 of 2022 Elko POW*MIA Awareness Ass
Chili Feed Live video.
Hive Commander of Elko’s VFW Post,
long time Les Brown Phony Enablers,
showed up, wearing his
VFW ALL AMERICAN TEAM DISTRICT COMMANDER
cap.
Here he is, picking up his raffle wine basket.
UGH.
$50.23 to top of Subaru in Vermont.
LGB/FJB
My mother, who has dementia and stepfather who received an OTH from the 82d …who 30 yrs later wants to beat his chest about the eighty deuce and play black lies matter at the same time….told him it wasn’t compatible lol….anyways they believe everything the communist news network tells them
Usually as I head out to begin my range exercise, I “hope that I do well”. Today, as I walked the target to the target board I just knew that I would do well. 25 out of 26 rounds in a 3 inch circle is “doing well”. One shot got away from me, and I knew as I shot that it was off, but the others were well grouped. I love my Henry lever gun.