September 21, 2012

At the Pumpkin Man Café...

Untitled

... you can talk about anything you want.

101 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh poor pumpkins, those two have elephant mans's disease.

Sorun said...

I've been inspired by the angry Muslim photos on Drudge. That's how I'm dressing for Halloween this year: Crazy-ass Muzzie. And I'm trying to teach myself the tongue trill.

Wouldn't it be awesome if dressing and screaming like angry Muslims became a fad for frat boys on campus?

Tyrone Slothrop said...

pumpkin (n.)
1640s, alteration of pumpion "melon, pumpkin" (1540s), from M.Fr. pompon, from L. peponem (nom. pepo) "melon," from Gk. pepon "melon," probably originally "cooked by the sun, ripe," from peptein "to cook" (see cook (n.)). Pumpkin-pie is recorded from 1650s. Pumpkin-head, American English colloquial for "person with hair cut short all around" is recorded from 1781.

God, An Original A-hole said...

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was probably my favorite thing to watch on TV as a young divine.

It's sublime.

America should translate it to Arabic and promote it to counteract that thing that the Muslims are bothered by.

Or we just keep it to ourselves because it is so very very good. Like the new Groovelectic episode...

VOTE FOR GARY JOHNSON! OBAMA AND ROMNEY ARE THE CANDIDATES OF CLASS WARFARE, AND BOTH PROBABLY HATE THE GREAT PUMPKIN AND CHARLIE BROWN AND LUCY AND LINUS TOO!

Anonymous said...

Not sure what is going on here. Every-headline in the NYT, WashPost, etc. is the same:
- Romney is finished.
- Even the GOP leaders have problems with Romney.
- Etc.

Why cannot the press just say that they want to see the end of Romney's campaign?

I wonder if the Democrats are embarrassed with the press open favoritism and lack of objectivity.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Charlie Brown, pooooor Romney.

Penny said...

Big trunks?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
God, An Original A-hole said...

@AP-

I wonder if the Democrats are embarrassed with the press open favoritism and lack of objectivity.

You seem to have a lack of objectivity. The objective, cruelly-neutral observation is that Romney is finished, not least because he is an elitist asshole. The debates don't even matter anymore; it'll be a mop-up job for Obama and Team Democrat.

Count how many self-labelled "conservatives" have criticized the Romney campaign during the last week. In fact, if they haven't been critical, they are nothing more than shills.

The campaign is won when you convince those on the other side to turn against "their" candidate. It is the ultimate, the cherry atop the sunday, or the cherry of the...

Romney = Done For. Q.E.D.!!!

Goodbye, sweet Mormon!!!

If you want to retain a shred of dignity, you can still vote for Gary Johnson.

Sydney said...

I never realized until just now that "Pepys" is pronounced "Peeps."

Penny said...

Pumpkins have "organic" warts.

bagoh20 said...

I don't know if numbers are even a real thing anymore, but we just got word that out here in California our debt, which was a debilitating and unfathomable $28 billion, may no longer be accurate. Well, more like not even in the same state as the ballpark it's not in.

An independent task force has just discovered a basket of missing debt. It is estimated it may now be between $167 - 384 billion!

" Much of it involved irrevocable promises to provide pensions to public workers, health care for retirees, the cost of delayed highway maintenance and an estimated $40 billion bill to bring drinking water up to federal standards." ~ NYT

If this is true, I don't see any way the state can avoid bankruptcy.

How does the NYT describes California voters who make liberal and creative use of a referendum system, have handed over the state to Democrats for decades, and consequently are the most taxed in the Nation?

Like this:

"...the state’s famously antitax voters"

We just don't tax ourselves enough.

It's not that we dug a hole too deep - it's that we put too much air in it.

All around the world the story is the same. Government management is completely failings the people. The only differences are in degree. The political process has totally failed at handling money, taxation and spending.

You have to be retarded to vote for any more of this.

Anonymous said...

If you kiss those pumpkins will you turn into a pie....or sumpin'?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Watched the movie The Wife (1996) the other night.

Enjoyed it..

I recommend it to Crack ;)

Penny said...

Fallow fields never notice, oola.

They're just happy to shove one out of the patch.

Anonymous said...

Well, Bagoh,I'm not voting for Obama, I've turned to the middle again. The election better come soon before I change my mind again.

Sydney said...

The Amish beard cutters have been convicted:

Polster has scheduled sentencing for Jan. 24. Ring leader Sam Mullet Sr., 66, faces up to life in prison and the lowest sentencing range for those out on bond is 17 years, the government said.

Doesn't 17 years to life seem extreme for the crime of cutting hair?

MadisonMan said...

The don't wrestle with a pig story is all I can think of right now.

Apropos of nothing. And I do mean nothing.

Penny said...

:|

Madman is waving his farmer.

Anonymous said...

So Sad that the MSM/NYT, etc. have forced the GOP to accept their false views. Nate S. from NYT is a Obama plant.

Anonymous said...

He's waving his whaaaaat?!

Penny said...

Does that concern anyone else who wants some punkin'?

Unknown said...

I had thought my civility extended years.

I am/was/are/will be wrong.

"...channeling Mark Steyn." Which is true. As I wrote in National Review..."

Where did you write it?

Did you channel https://cumulus.hillsdale.edu/Buckley/ and search "socialized medicine" to find 235 hits?

What did you search, about national healthcare, amongst Buckley's writings on the greatest website (specific url) no one has ever advertised or heard of, to conclude you are more than a fine piano, playing a Bach/Buckley tune of notable reverb?

Penny said...

Ha ha

Guess not.

Penny said...

Whoa!

We got one stepping forward here!

Hola, oola!

sakredkow said...

I still haven't heard that Call Me Maybe song.

Penny said...

Come on!

Was the SOUND of that, just not worth the diss?

Penny said...

If not?

May I remind you of "Oprah Uma? Uma Oprah"?

God, An Original A-hole said...

The autumn equinox is at 10:49am EDT tomorrow morning.

Be prepared! Even if you ain't boy scouts...


Penny said...

Ha ha

Damn Letterman was sent out to pasture for that one.

Anonymous said...

So God, what you want us to do, dance naked around a bonfire or something?

Penny said...

Oola!

Lay low, woman.

What worked for Letterman is bound to work for you two.

Tim said...

It's Orange Friday for the S.F. Giants.

Tied, 1-1 with the Padres, going into the top of the 5th.

And if the Giants catcher, Buster Posey, isn't both comeback player of the year and MVP in the NL, there is no justice.

God, An Original A-hole said...

@oola-

So God, what you want us to do, dance naked around a bonfire or something?

YES! Or just fuck, and make sure you are fucking at precisely 10:49am EDT, and then mention to your fucking partner(s) that you are fucking while the earth is fucking exactly astride the fucking sun... and, if you are 1337, orgasm exactly at the specified minute... and, if are utterly 31337, ensure that your partner(s) orgasm at that precise minute!!!

!!!

!!! (added for fucking emphasis!!!)

Anonymous said...

Come on Penny, me you and Madison Man, Sydney, Bagoh, phxAnd AP of course, we can bring in Autumn with a bang and a holler!

Tim said...

"I wonder if the Democrats are embarrassed with the press open favoritism and lack of objectivity."

Not on your life.

It's all they have.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHA, BANG!

Penny said...

It's that midwesterner "awwww shucks" kinda corn you got going there.

Except for the elephant?

Anonymous said...

OK sure God, and if we do as you ask, what will we get in return?

Tim said...

"You have to be retarded to vote for any more of this."

Yes.

But people still will.

Their fantasies are more important than reality.

Anonymous said...

Come on Timmy dance naked around the bonfire with us!

God, An Original A-hole said...

@oola-

OK sure God, and if we do as you ask, what will we get in return?

The fucking elephant, of-fucking-course... duh!!!

Anonymous said...

Well, who wants a damn elephant?

Tim said...

So, I just went to the Mount Gay website...and had to do the "Country/date of birth" check.

That's a pain in the ass.

I get it, but I don't like it.

God, An Original A-hole said...

@oola-


You do, baby, and you fucking know you do!!!

Anonymous said...

Tim, Mount Gay is the father of all rums.

Penny said...

How the heck do you hide a friggin' elephant?

Anonymous said...

God, I don't need any old elephant, I have a pet dino.

Anonymous said...

Penny, in a tall haystack?

Unknown said...

Being "notquiteunBuckley" is more than most of you will know.

Penny said...

And please don't suggest that the donkey's just put in a good day's work, and "we're nearly there".

God, An Original A-hole said...

@oola-

You know that your "pet dino" doesn't satisfy you. You need a fucking War Elephant... direct from Hannibal's army to you, baby!

Anonymous said...

War elephant.....hmmmmm....Hannibals Army huh?

Howard said...

oola

you seem much more popular lately. Did you change your hairstyle? Even God is getting hot and bothered: gettin his geek freak dialed.

Anonymous said...

God probably rides an ass.

God, An Original A-hole said...

@oola -

Like Cannae on your fucking private parts, babe!

Anonymous said...

I always do that to God, heh.

Penny said...

Penelope Trunk says she knows all those donkeys.

Elephants?

Not so much.

YET!

Anonymous said...

God, take a lesson from Howard, he's a gentleman.

God, An Original A-hole said...

@oola -

Don't "heh" to the crowd, babe... you want it???... or do you refuse your God?

Anonymous said...

Penny, God needs a woman.

God, An Original A-hole said...

@oola-

And still you try to avoid what you really want.

Eventually you will relax. And enjoy the fucking equinox.

God knows such things.

Freeman Hunt said...

Sydney, yikes! That does seem harsh.

Freeman Hunt said...

MadisonMan, good advice. Think I'll reflect on that story myself.

Anonymous said...

Time for bed, come Dino.

God, An Original A-hole said...

Oh lookie, it's Freeman Hunt!

I sincerely admire your independence, your resolution, and your conviction, Ms. Freeman Hunt!

Don't forget, though, that the equinox is at 10:49 EDT tomorrow, and you ought to make maximum advantage of it!

God, An Original A-hole said...

@oola -

Time for bed, come Dino.

Oh how sad!!! ;-(

You deserve much better, you scrumptious muffin....

Penny said...

"Blogger oola said...

Penny, in a tall haystack?"

Have no needle in that haystack, so hard to be 'lost'.

bagoh20 said...

So the Endeavor Space Shuttle finally stop flying around. It flew all over L.A. today on the back of that 747 with two little fighter jets along side, very slow and very low (usually at just a few hundred feet). There were people everywhere just hanging out on streets with cameras waiting as if a parade was coming. It was like the whole city had the day off. I went to work, and the damned thing flew right over my office shaking the windows. Now it's parked right behind my house at LAX where it will stay for 3 weeks until it drives up the street behind me, which they have been trimming the tree along all week.

This event occupied the local news all day and has really made people here act strange. It's as if most are just desperate for something to celebrate that has no partisan stench to it. They seemed to get that today. It was kinda cool.

Tim said...

oola said...

"Tim, Mount Gay is the father of all rums."

That seems to be true.

But barley will always be a superior base for distilled spirits than sugar cane.

Giants 5 - Padres 1, top of the 7th.

Tim said...

"It's as if most are just desperate for something to celebrate that has no partisan stench to it. They seemed to get that today. It was kinda cool."

I want to live in an America again in which politics did not envelope *everything*.

That time is passed, I fear.

Penny said...

And I'm pretty soft, oola.

Like you!

Penny said...

But you knew that.

bagoh20 said...

So did you hear the story today about the guy who convinced two people that he could double their money by spraying it with some chemical. He took their money sprayed it, wrapped it in paper and told them to wait 2 hours before opening it. Amazingly it worked in reverse and made their money disappear.

OK, so it was stupid to fall for that, but then to tell people that you did? Did both of these people have on shirts that said "I'm with stupid"? How else would you find such people?

Chip Ahoy said...

The labels on these three well shaped rice vinegar bottles would not come off. The paper did but not the glue.

I discovered oil gets off that really difficult kind of glue. But then leaves an oil residue.

I put regular soap in the dishwasher because that's what I would have used to get it off by hand, and just to see, less than I would have used by hand, and it overflowed the whole kitchen with bubbles. That happened at the critical moment of my potatoes finished frying, so those were wrecked.

I'm actually not that good around here without a housekeeper. The place is a mess all the time except the kitchen floor is clean.

The things I learned from this experience are, oil gets off glue from labels, and don't put regular dishwasher soap in the dishwasher.

Hummingbird migration patterns were established during the last Ice Age.

A page said that and it made sense to me.

They do not have Colorado on their Ruby Throated migration map, as if Ruby Throated hummingbirds do not even exist here, and those are the mean little territorial guys flying all over the place uphill from here. And if they're uphill from here then they migrate through here. Twice. Back and forth. And they have baby birds here. Twice. Twice a year sometimes. Their map is based on tagging.

I'm starting to not worry so much about birds because now I learned both the house finches and hummingbirds use the same nest twice in one mating season.

But I'm against tagging because if I was a bird I'd go goddamnit now I've got to have that thing on my leg for the rest of my life. It's rude. And intrusive. But I'm for tagging because it does produce useful information. But in this case Colorado is left out of their migration map probably due to lack of birds tagged here and not lack of birds.

The conclusion that is made about the ice age was interesting to me because everyone is trying to make sense of and to deal with climate shifts, Dean the wheat farmer, and the hummingbird migration watchers have similar concerns, the migration page said there are always early and late starters, and always laggers so best to keep out the feeders until freezing becomes a problem, and that is not what I intended to do.

bagoh20 said...

Don't you think that the whole uprising in the Middle East right now could have happened even if the alleged movie never existed. I mean if the same instigators told people it did, even though there actually was no movie, wouldn't the same events have happened anyway. Then we would expose the truth that the movie was just a big lie, and they would not care one shit, and just keep rioting anyway.

They are actually rioting against other Muslims anyway. We are just an excuse to get their riot on. I hate those assholes. No offence, God.

Howard said...

Bag-O

Missed the shuttle, was on the phone this morning during the flyby.

The riots are an effect from the Arab spring using the film as an excuse. Since the dictators left, the conservative Islamists have more freedom to do their thing, which is riot and blame the great Satan. It's like taking the cover off a pressure cooker too quick.

Romney was right about the Middle East. The Pali's and many others don't want peace and the best we can hope for is to kick the can down the road. It's probably Obama's *private* opinion as well.

We had to stop backing the dictators at some point. Facebook, google and youtube helped speed up that eventuality. Now, they are screaming about youtube.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Whatever happened to the theory that if Obamacare survived, Obama would loose the election?

bagoh20 said...

My only point about the M.E. riots is that the truth seems irrelevant. Can you imagine a person in a riot mood finding out their reason for rioting is invalid, and then just saying: "Oh really? OK, I'm just going home then."

Steven said...

Bagoh, pension liabilities are very hard to value. Pensions like to value their liabilities at interest rates like 7 or 8%, which means if you expect to have to pay a retiree a dollar in 30 years, you have to set aside something like 12 cents now in order to pay for it. So if you currently have a dime, you aren't fully prepared, but you have plenty of time to make it up. That's about where most state pension funds are right now, though Illinois and California are worse off than that.

But where are you going to get 7 to 8% annual returns? The argument is that that's what the stock market has averaged over the last several decades. If a pension fund invests its money in the stock market and the stock market returns the same in the next three decades as it has averaged in the last six or seven, you're in good shape. In other words, the stock market only has to do as well in the next thirty years as it did in the most successful post-war nation in one of its more successful stretches. If it doesn't, well, you might be hosed.

The problem is that you are using average risky returns to back up payments that are supposed to be guaranteed. If you think the risk will automatically work itself out over the long run, this isn't a problem. The latest financial research suggests that long-run returns are a little bit negatively serially correlated (which means long-run returns are less risky than if returns were independent from one year to the next) but not by a lot. So if you want the high returns, even over a long period of time, it comes with a lot of risk.

So it's probably more reasonable to use risk-free rates, or at least something closer to them. The long-term treasury rates right now are around 3%. If you owe a future retiree a dollar in 30 years and expect to get a 3% return over that period, you need to set aside 42 cents today. If you only have a dime set aside, you're 32 cents short. Fortunately, I have more than 32 cents in my change bowl, and I won't miss it.

What's that you say? Future state employee pension liabilities will be more than a dollar? They'll be more like tens of trillions of dollars?

Hmm. We're going to need a bigger change bowl.

Penny said...

The best thing about having a headache?

You go to bed.

Penny said...

Except in the midwest...

All about "my grain" out there.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I was hesitating to make this comment because our desire to live in post racial society is so strong, we blind ourselves to the ways that desire can be manipulated and exploited... Ironically, by calling on it so much we have trivialised it beyond recognition.

I was thinking why did Obama send his people out to keep this video behind the mayhem story alive?
The reason why, it occurs to me is because he wants himself, his own minority status (Why is Obama on Univision when the polls say he is way ahead among Hispanics?) his skin color behind the reason why people might vote for him a second time. Recall how Woodward described Obama in his book?… Woodward portrays a president who remained a supreme believer in his own powers of persuasion, even as he faltered in efforts to coax congressional leaders in both parties toward compromise.

The only thing Obama is selling is himself... It’s as if the Islamist are doing for Obama what the base in this country cant on account that Obama is in power... the Islamists remind people Obama is black.

What makes this kind of triangulation work is Obama has effectively gagged Romney... put him in a lock-box where he can’t even say for example... "If Obama wins the Islamist win"... (which of course the democrats would say if the show were in the other foot)

Obama on the other hand, can say practically anything... like the attack was motivated by a video, Romney is a felon, the Bush tax cuts created the deficit and favorite of theirs... millionaresandbillionares.

If Romney loses, it will be because he could not find a way to punch through Obamas advantage.

tolkein said...

Don't you need a permit to sell pumpkins in the Land of the Free, these days? Or is it just for kids lemonade stands?

tolkein said...

Don't you need a permit to sell pumpkins in the Land of the Free, these days? Or is it just for kids lemonade stands?

edutcher said...

God endorsing something is probably the best reason not to use or do it.

Simon Kenton said...

Chip Ahoy - "They do not have Colorado on their Ruby Throated migration map, as if Ruby Throated hummingbirds do not even exist here, and those are the mean little territorial guys flying all over the place uphill from here. "

I'm in Colorado. I understand that the Broadtails are our analog to the Ruby Throated Hummingbird; we really don't have the RTs. The mean little territorial guys here are Rufous Hummingbirds. A Rufous male will try to run everybody off the feeder if you get the water too sugary - if it's 1:4 or thicker they'll defend it. I too was planning to take the feeder down at the end of August, to avoid inducing the Procrastinator Hummingbirds to stay until caught and killed by weather. But apparently the migration is triggered by photoperiod, so you might as well leave it up to help out the very last birds.

Did you ever stand motionless by your feeder with a hand up and still beside it? It takes a while but eventually one of them will alight on your finger. I always liked this: the tiny almost imperceptible prickle of their toes, the amazing lightness of such a bundle of beauty and vitality. There's a separate apprehension floor beneath each of our senses; a hummingbird landing on you is within range of eyes, ears, touch, but at least for me, not smell. A Western Tiger Swallowtail that settles upon you is just below the threshold for touch, except perhaps if it lands on fingertips or nose; and below the threshold for my damaged ears. Mostly science has brought us information from beneath the visual threshold; photomicrographs of weirdly luminous cells and scales the unaided eye has never seen. You rarely encounter recordings of the micro-sounds and of infra- and ultra-sounds. Some whales are said to communicate in the 16KHz range, below what a contrabass can produce. What I'd like to live long enough to experience is an enhancement of the sense of smell - say, to catch just the faintest trace of a pheromone that can attract another insect from 5 miles away. Enhanced scent would have to overcome our physical limitations, but also our moral equipage. Raising our kids we spend very little time on visual and aural equivalents, but a lot of time teaching them what scents are "disgusting." A survival mechanism, its inception long pre-Ice Ages, when you had to distinguish merely unwholesome food from deadly, more useful now as we surround ourselves with better living through chemistry. Dogs and babies up past the toddling stage live in a world of unjudged odors. Rose and rot, ambrosia and gasoline, are equally interesting, and all go in the mouth. If we are ever gifted with the ability to go beneath the threshold of scent, we'll probably have to shunt aside some strictures.

I've noticed there's a spectrum, or perhaps a diapason, of each of the human senses. Takes a while to learn it as people on the far sigmas don't necessarily talk about it. But I knew a first-rate hunter who could jog past the lower end of a valley a couple miles long and know immediately if elk were in it, from the scent drifting down on the diurnal winds; and another (one of the best shots in the United States) who could resolve .223 bullet holes at 200 yards with the naked eye (but only his left eye). Presumably there's also a span of capability for touch but it's not easy for me to imagine it. Is there someone who can tell when 2, rather than 1, grains of pine pollen has settled on his fingertip?

rcommal said...

Pumpkins, already!

rcommal said...

Settled on a house back in Delaware on Thursday. Looking at those pumpkins, it occurs to me that while we will certainly still own the house in Iowa, which needs to be put on the market, I have no clue which place we'll be for Halloween. Eh, kid's really too old to trick-or-treat anyway, IMO. But double pumpkins, or no pumpkins??

I know for sure that we'll be in Iowa, a supposed swing state, on election day, though... . It might be the last time for a long while that our vote counts, on a presidential level (not that I really think Romney is going to prevail in Iowa, but at least it's possible).

Bob Ellison said...

Obama has spiked to an all-time high of 71% on Intrade.

There is one share available at that price.

MadisonMan said...

Dear God -- how does one take maximum advantage of the Equinox?

kentuckyliz said...

Re the shuttle tour, newsradio interviewed a woman who was at the first space launch and saw the shuttle arrive. She was filled with awe at our accomplishments in space, and sad that the space program had ended. Our greatness is behind us.

Thanks Obama.

Apparently it worked...the Moozlims are feeling better now...enough to riot.

kentuckyliz said...

(Depression saps all energy...not possible to get up, get out, get geared up, grab the RPG launcher, and go protest a movie trailer)

MadisonMan said...

rcommal, I hope you have a smooth move and a quick sale. I envy your new proximity to the Ocean.

Paddy O said...

Chip Ahoy and Simon, your hummer comments gave a wonderful turn to what was, for the most part, one of the worst comment threads ever. Thanks. And I mean that.

Well, thanks to the rest of you at the end. Bagoh, your comments on the shuttle in LA is so true. I think you're right--people like to share experiences and are tired of politics--and it's fun when we get those kinds of opportunities.

Althouse got flooded yesterday with a lot of... no need for a description. Enough so that I thought it all was coming to an end.

Ah, but then the thread finds life again in thoughtful celebration.

MadisonMan said...

How much does it cost to fly the shuttle around like that. You can't buy publicity like that (well, I guess you can!) NASA loves it -- what a photo-op!! -- but it seems like a waste of money. (When it flew around DC, I was on a plane circling, circling, circling on approach into Dulles)

Just like the waste of money that will occur if Ryan becomes VP -- yet another special election in WI to fill his seat! Maybe the Federal Govt should pay for it.

ricpic said...

Every year I put pumpkins out at the end of my driveway and every year they're stolen.

Every year!

MadisonMan said...

Those pumpkins might be growing legs and walking away in the middle of the night and you just don't know it!

Pumpkins Evolving, right in your driveway!

Rusty said...

MadisonMan said...
How much does it cost to fly the shuttle around like that. You can't buy publicity like that (well, I guess you can!) NASA loves it -- what a photo-op!! -- but it seems like a waste of money. (When it flew around DC, I was on a plane circling, circling, circling on approach into Dulles)

Just like the waste of money that will occur if Ryan becomes VP -- yet another special election in WI to fill his seat! Maybe the Federal Govt should pay for it.


The money spent to exercise your franchise as a citizen of the republic is never wasted.

Hagar said...

This year the hummingbirds picked up and left - or started leaving - at least two weeks early. They should normally be leaving this coming week, but are already all gone, except for the occasional single traveler.
And this year it seems like they left a few at a time, day by day, rather than a most of them all at once like they usually do.

rcommal said...

MadisonMan: Thank you.