ArtieShaw

He knows exactly what he’s doing.

I live within a short drive of Springfield and have lived in SW Ohio for almost 20 years. The racism was a culture shock. I expected that sort of thing from the older generations, but hearing Millennials making “furriners eat cats” jokes was jarring. I quickly learned to recalibrate my expectations.

Springfield was an unusually bad place to live 10-15 years ago. Rent and home prices were cheap because no one wanted to live there. I’ve heard it described as “Dayton’s Ugly and Dirty Little Sister” - and that’s saying something. I remember a warehouse fire on the south side that burned for days and no one could figure out who owned it. Or maybe it just collapsed into itself - either way, it was a situation. And it surprised no one.

Local employers have trouble finding people who are able to read and also not burdened with a weird sense of entitlement. The people who have been left behind are legitimately threatened by the idea of folks who can show up on time and follow basic instructions. Add into the mix the weird midwestern thin-skinnedness, and you have a mess of people who just feel like victims and who are ready to blame anyone who doesn’t “fit.” Another midwestern thing.

He knows what he’s doing. And they know what he means.

They look so healthy! My favorite has a similar fur pattern.

We trapped her accidentally when she took shelter from a rainstorm in our garage. We only realized she was there when we heard her cries. About 5 months old, but tiny and infested with fleas. Her whiskers were so short and brittle. I loved her immediately, but looking back on pictures from that time now breaks my heart a little. Her life as a stray was clearly rough.

She was definitely an accidental cat for us, but she took to housecat living standards almost immediately.

She’s still doing well in her old age.

I’ve always preferred skirts to pants, precisely because they’re less restrictive to movement. I’m not sure why, but the comment was always, “I’m not sure you’d be able to do this while wearing a skirt.” It seems like people who haven’t worn them habitually don’t know how they work.

Worst case: I fall down and you can see my knickers. Well that’s why I wear the knickers. And in nearly a half-century, I can think of maybe 2 times that’s happened. Both times I was sprinting madly to catch a bus and both times were due to my shoes and/or bad decisions.

Field hockey and lacrosse are both traditionally played in kilts.

Some other objections:

Need to don some Tyvek coveralls for work? It’s really no problem with a basic skirt. You just hike it up a bit. Those suits are baggy and everything fits. You also avoid the discomfort of two layers of leg fabric.

Cold weather? Tights are great, as are thigh high socks. And boots. All of these also look cute.

Oh, and packing for vacation? I can pack 3-4 skirts for every pair of jeans. It’s just a simple cloth tube which folds down to nothing.

Wasn’t that 10 years ago? If I remember correctly, one of those companies was partially owned by then Speaker of the House John Boehner. Yeah, that was some bullshit.

I voted against that measure simply due to the blatantly self-serving aspect. It was a fun time when reactionaries and progressives aligned to reject a terrible proposal. Everyone else was just mad that they still needed to drive to Michigan to buy weed.

But last year’s less shitty ballot initiative means that the first recreational dispensaries in Ohio opened up a few months ago. There was some discussion in the statehouse about blocking that referendum, but even the dullest knives came around eventually.

Growing for personal use is also now legal. Of course that won’t stop county sheriffs from raiding your home with an assist by DEA helicopters. It’s “an education.”

https://www.wdtn.com/as-seen-on-2-news/greene-county-sheriff-responds-after-raid-over-alleged-illegal-marijuana-plants/

Wasn’t Mitt the dude with the lady binders?

If I see gills I’m not touching it.

It’s not for everyone, but Penguin Island by Anatole France features great auks. I read it many years ago and enjoyed it (in a dorky 19th century satire sort of way). Not for everyone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Island_(novel)

I think you get it from eating turkey.

oooh - pure destruction. I can respect that.

Presumably it’s the same reason that I couldn’t find a way to close my bank account (in person, at the fucking bank) in 1998. And presumably it’s the same reason that my elderly parents can’t get their Medicare supplemental insurance agent to close out their account prior to their move to another state, where that insurance won’t be accepted.

You’re a customer. They love you. Reasons.

That’s wonderful!

My orange cat has appointed himself as house monitor, so he’ll alert us to any danger or weird situations. When the kitten escaped from the back patio, which is enclosed, he ran to my husband and alerted him. He can be a jerk, but overall he’s a good dude.

When I’m home alone I can always count on him. If I hear a weird noise? If that little guy is snoring I know that it’s just the wind.

My current oldest was a stray for about 4-5 months and she seemed to regard anything wrapped in plastic as a valid food source. We assumed that reason is that she had been scavenging garbage.

One of my favorite “new kitten” moments was coming downstairs to find that she had taken about 12 sample bites from a package of toilet paper. She stopped doing that.

I swear we fed her well, but she had some habits from life on the streets.

My best girl is really into being petted while standing in a bathtub or shower. No water. She’s done this since she was a kitten. Like Kika, she’ll lure you to the spot for petting, then meow until you and she are both standing in the tub and she’s getting pets.

Two different houses and three different tubs are involved here.

I sometimes wonder if it’s related to the time I had to give her a bath when we first took her in as a stray. She was weak and underfed, and had a bad case of fleas. I gave her a bath, which she hated and I hated - but when she hit the water you could see blood in her fur from all the flea bites. Poor kitty. It was probably the first time a human had given her much attention. And it helped with the fleas, so she probably felt much better afterwards.

Sometimes I tell myself that she’s trying to tell me she’s still grateful for that, and that she trusts me.

Or else she’s just a weirdo. I’m fine with either.

I’ve become attached to this eldritch abomination.

Easy. It’s a dried and shellacked squid that has been posed in an artful, somehow bipedal and menacing position. I call it the creeping horror and keep it in an old wooden box.

Not really my taste, but it was a gift.

Well that’s terrifying.

My old vacuum bags were meant to be tossed, but I just emptied it and put it back because $.

I didn’t really expect anyone to know that, which was sort of the joke. He was very famous in his time, but by now it’s a bit of a deep cut.

Artie Shaw was a clarinetist who ran a jazz band. In addition to that, he was also quite the weirdo. Womanizer, liked math a lot (like more than is natural), was an expert marksman who was nationally ranked in that sort of thing, and really into fly fishing. Also, currently, very dead. And that’s good because otherwise he’d be 114.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artie_Shaw

here’s a sample of his work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_v3GY3ZqdM

Shock: I’m not really Artie Shaw.

I collect ancient coins and this explanation doesn’t fly for me. There’s a certain amount of “artisanal-ness” in the production of ancient coins - which were all handmade. Like, I’m looking at a tray of coins right now and there’s no way a simple go/no-go tool would be helpful. Also, for this purpose a simple handheld counterweight balance would be more accurate and portable. The existence of these simple balances, along with reference weights for various denominations, is well documented.

Moreover - if you’re an ancient merchant, what is more important? The weight of the silver or the ability for it to pass for a denarius issued by Rome? Particularly for international trade, it seems to have been the former. Bankers’ cuts and countermarks are commonly seen on coins, and seem to have been an early form of foreign exchange. (eg - I’m travelling from Athens to Ephesus with a stock of my local currency. If I pass it to a local banker in Ephesus, they can evaluate it, determine the local exchange in terms of silver, and give it a locally recognized countermark to assure their own merchants that they’re getting the equivalent local value).

That being now off my chest, I’ve got no great answers for the dodecahedrons. I strongly suspect that it was a nifty thing that metal workers made as a master’s thesis.

Casefile. It’s not that content is boring or uninteresting. It just knocks me out.