March 19, 2020

Spring break idiocy.

114 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

says you now. Wait until you do get it and your lungs feel like a brick and your pain between 1-10 is a 15.

good times.

eddie willers said...

And we let them vote.

pacwest said...

Immortal. Invincible.

Karen of Texas said...

I wonder if, when they kill grandma, or mom and dad prematurely, they'll care.

Karen of Texas said...
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pacwest said...
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tim in vermont said...

This is why Democrats target the young. Just killing time ’til all my free shit from Bernie shows up!

They probably never heard this song, but I guess Boomers know it.

Have you been around
Have you done your share of comin' down
On different things that people do
Have you been aware
You got brothers and sisters who care
About what's gonna happen to you in a year from now


Maybe I'll be there to shake your hand
Maybe I'll be there to share the land
That they'll be givin' away
When we all live together


Ron Winkleheimer said...

And we let them vote.

This guy doesn't belong in college. He isn't up for it cognitively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiRGRvE_Wqg

Kevin said...

There's always a bigger idiot right around the corner.

Someone's daughter is going to get drunk tonight and sleep with him.

YoungHegelian said...

Sigh.

Why can't these clowns just drink too much corn wine & then fall asleep in a tea orchard like our pachydermal betters?

gspencer said...

Once upon a time there was a tavern
Where we used to raise a glass or two
Remember how we laughed away the hours
And think of all the great things we would do

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way

La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la La la la la la la

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QptZ8tYZAkE

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Um Yeah. And these are the people that rcocean thinks should get priority.

From the rabbi thread

rcocean: Yes every life if precious. But some lives are more valuable then others. If we get in a situation that "triage" is necessary, then old people will be put behind the young. Which is as it should be. Once you get past a certain age, you're living on borrowed time. You've lived you life of 60+ years, and its absurd that you should live, while an 19 y/o dies.


/facepalm

MadisonMan said...

Youth is time for unvarnished optimism and myopia about the world around you.

Francisco D said...

Aunty Trump said: This is why Democrats target the young. Just killing time ’til all my free shit from Bernie shows up!

Sad but true.

An awful lot of my wife's HS students and my stepson's college friends think that way.

Luckily he is too smart for that bullshit.

Shouting Thomas said...

It’s definitely old fuddy duddy day on Althouse.

Give it a break, old farts. I was a dumb, reckless kid 50 years ago. Remember what it was like?

I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know back then. Toby Keith.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Their alcohol-related behavior is also dangerous but it's just kids being kids. Year in, year out, same old same old, how dare anyone suggest that getting drunk is anything but a right.

Meanwhile my cousin is still dead from a drunk driver, my husband's high school girlfriend is still dead from a drunk driver, and my friend's five year old's legs are still on their 7th or 8th reconstructive surgery after being crushed by a drunk driver. How many people do you know personally who are dead from coronavirus?

29 people every day die from drunk driving. I'm told I'm selfish because I want my kids to go to school and my husband to go to work and I want to worship at my church and go to book club and restaurants and the movies. But no one tells those who enjoy alcohol that they must curtail their enjoyment of their activities because some among them present a danger to others. No one looks at drunk driving deaths and injuries, at domestic abuse, at vomit on the streets at festivals, at date rape, at lifestyle diseases and says, hey, alcohol presents a pretty significant public health risk, including to the innocent.

Not saying they should. I'm a freedom kind of girl! It's just a curious double standard.

MadisonMan said...

All of those kids will vote Democrat. I have to say though, I'd be disappointed if my son or daughter were interviewed for something like this and they gave their real name.

I. P. Freely. Amanda Hugandkiss. Hugh G. Wreckshun. Paddy O'Furniture. Those are the names I would rather they used.

George Grady said...

Aw, mom you're just jealous it's the Beastie Boys!

rhhardin said...

Richard Epstein thinks it's an overreaction and bad predictions
https://www.hoover.org/research/libertarian-law-economics-and-coronavirus

Achilles said...

He was trying to get a reaction.

And he got it.

And Ann really likes to call other people dumb.

They both got their shot of dopamine today.

78 degrees over 60% humidity in Miami.

Miami is a good place to go if you want to avoid COVID-19.



I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Coming back from Phoenix last week we passed a wreck on the freeway in Las Cruces, New Mexico. A wrong-way driver, drunk off his ass, hit a state trooper head on. They were just spreading the tarps over the remnants of the vehicles as we passed by. Both dead. But alcohol is a right!!

YoungHegelian said...

@MM,

I'd be disappointed if my son or daughter were interviewed for something like this and they gave their real name.

Not even a Seymour Butts or Mike Hunt!

The youth of today is such a disappointment!

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Again, not saying it shouldn't be. But either we're free to make choices that might endanger others, or we're not.

Curious George said...

Not defending these bags, but there are people like this in every age group. Until they closed them down, you could walk into bars all around Milwaukee and find them.

Achilles said...

rhhardin said...
Richard Epstein thinks it's an overreaction and bad predictions
https://www.hoover.org/research/libertarian-law-economics-and-coronavirus


I don't like Richard Epstein.

It irritates me to be saying similar things.

But he is right.

FullMoon said...
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danoso said...

We were all bullet proof at that age. And impish. And kinda stoopid.

Fr. Gregory Jensen said...

I understand why colleges and universities extended spring break and told students not to return to campus. But I do think there was something to be said for cancelling spring break and keeping students on campus. :(

Francisco D said...

Give it a break, old farts. I was a dumb, reckless kid 50 years ago. Remember what it was like?

No. I worked very hard to forget what a fool I made of myself.

I don't know if it is any better, but my foolishness was mostly centered on getting laid.

Shouting Thomas said...

For God's sake, what is this in comparison to gay guys killing themselves by the tens of thousands playing in shit and piss in the bathhouses back in the 70s?

I guarantee you, the toll among these kids will be minute in comparison to the devastation in the gay male community.

And the gay guys fought like hell to keep the bathhouses in operation! Remember?

FullMoon said...
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Shane said...

"Pay for my healthcare, Bro!"

Fernandinande said...

Suddenly everyone is a socialist?

I don't fault those kids at all - I'd probably be doing the same thing if I weren't approaching 70 with 40+ years of smoking Camel straights (quit about 5 years go, w/tobacco vaping). And also if I were the kind of person who does "spring break", which I never was.

JES said...

Our future humans. Not a good look. Most of the bars and restaurants along the beaches are still open, while I can't even go into town to get a cup of coffee.

Sebastian said...

Idiocy? Well, that depends.

I'm sure the kid made a rational calculation, before getting drunk.

Preference for partying? High. Chance of partying and having good time: high. Probability x value: very high.

Preference for not dying? High. Chance of dying from Wuhan infection? Near zero. Probability x value: near zero.

Preference for not getting sick: high. Chance of catching virus: unknown, but let's say 2/3. Chance of getting very sick from virus: low. Product of probabilities x value: moderate.

Decision: go party.

What, you say, he should prefer not to become a vector of transmission to the old and sick. Hey, that's on them.

mockturtle said...

Sadly, I felt much the same at that age. It's called immaturity.

Ann Althouse said...

"Youth is time for unvarnished optimism and myopia about the world around you."

So is old age.

But the question is who, if anyone, gets the rest of the world to prioritize their interests as they go about living with optimism and myopia?

Speaking of pre-existing conditions.

Sebastian said...

We don't shut down things for the flu. We don't stop moving due to accidents. We don't clamp down on partying. In combination, the toll is big. Yet we don't go into lockdown. We make the implicit calculation that each life does not have unlimited value. We consider trade-offs. As we should.

Each QALY is worth about 100K. Even at that rate, we don't go out of our way to avoid death and dying.

Until now: that is the panic part. But resources are scarce. Scarcity will assert itself, both in the delivery of care and as the economy implodes. Something will have to give. Trade-offs will return. Stein's law rules.

DarkHelmet said...

I won't complain about the young and foolish doing young and foolish things.

It's good argument for raising the voting age, though. Most people really aren't cognitively mature until around 25 or so. I'd be willing to go back to 21. But 18 is way too low.

robother said...

In my day, I chose to wear my hats right way forward. And that has made all the difference.

Curious George said...

"Trade-offs will return"

Exactly right. If things continue as they have, the panic will change from health to economic, and all these sanctions will be lifted. The cost will be too high.

bagoh20 said...

If I had my youth to do over, I'd trade this risk for any one of a hundred that I took back then. My current existence is a complete miracle of good luck. The kid's a piker.

FullMoon said...

Bernie says two thousand dollars a month for every American as long as virus lasts. Bernie bros on reddit saying it should be three or four or more..

Kinda interesting. Makes 15.00 minimum wage proposal pale in comparison..

Fernandinande said...

Richard Epstein thinks it's an overreaction and bad predictions

The cure, which isn't really a cure, is already a lot worse than the disease.

BarrySanders20 said...

Shouting Thomas said...
"It’s definitely old fuddy duddy day on Althouse.

Give it a break, old farts"

Considering the source, this is hilarious. Because it's true, in a takes-one-to-know-one way, and I mean that in the kindest way. Old farts are underrated.

Ann said: "But the question is who, if anyone, gets the rest of the world to prioritize their interests as they go about living with optimism and myopia?"

Could be said about that rabbi or the beer drinking bro.

Fernandinande said...

I don't fault those kids at all

Now I do fault them after watching a few seconds of the video.

Curious George said...

"Ann Althouse said...
"Youth is time for unvarnished optimism and myopia about the world around you."

So is old age."

Maybe for the myopia part. But unvarnished optimism? I don't think so. I think as I get older you often can have less worry, because years of living and making it tend to allow a confidence that you will make it through again. It's more acceptance than optimism.

Achilles said...

DarkHelmet said...
I won't complain about the young and foolish doing young and foolish things.

It's good argument for raising the voting age, though. Most people really aren't cognitively mature until around 25 or so. I'd be willing to go back to 21. But 18 is way too low.


I have a better idea.

Make it so that only people who served in the military or currently pay net positive amounts of taxes get to vote.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I won't complain about the young and foolish doing young and foolish things.

I have no place from which to speak on being young and stupid. I cringe to think of the dumb and very dangerous things I did. And still lived. We think we are invincible at that age.

However, none of those things were a threat to the health or welfare of many others, like passing on what can be a lethal disease.

Ok. I admit that time we took a raft trip over the North Fork of the Feather River Falls, which we had no idea were there, while drunk could have hurt the other people in the raft. We all could have been killed. But...only us, IN the raft. Not everyone downstream.

D.D. Driver said...

We can call them idiots. And maybe you are right. But remember these are the people who will be immune in a month or so while everyone else is trying not to touch their faces. Even idiocy has is advantages.

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

which is why this shut-down of the entire country is ridiculous... instead, high-risk people should be encouraged to stay home and avoid contact with anyone for 2-3 weeks and let everyone else go about their normal business... the CDC has already said that everyone is going to get it anyways, and since we now have a viable treatment, as well as the majority of healthy people have nothing to fear even if they catch it,

AllenS said...

As long as these youths are not driving, I'm not worried about them. In fact, I'm damned glad that they are out and about.

bagoh20 said...

"The expectation that a “majority” of a population will become infected reflects a worst-case scenario about who encounters whom, something modelers call “homogeneous mixing.” But even the more realistic assumption that not everyone mixes with everyone else means that “at least a quarter to a half of the population will very likely become infected” absent social distancing measures or a vaccine, conclude Joseph Wu and Kathy Leung of the University of Hong Kong, leaders in the modeling of infectious diseases, and their colleagues.... The chance of serious illness from coronavirus infection in younger people was so low, the scientists estimate a fatality rate of zero.""

https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/16/lower-coronavirus-death-rate-estimates/

tim in vermont said...

I am actually a little jealous of them.

"But remember these are the people who will be immune in a month or so “

If we had a decent way to protect the oldsters, I think that modeling shows that it would result in the fewest deaths. If they are bringing it home to the older people in their lives, then it’s just a recipe for a disaster.

bagoh20 said...

But the question is who, if anyone, gets the rest of the world to prioritize their interests as they go about living with pessimism and myopia?

eddie willers said...

In my day, I chose to wear my hats right way forward. And that has made all the difference.

You should only wear your baseball cap backwards if you are a catcher or performing oral sex.

tim in vermont said...

At some point we are going to have to crawl out of our foxholes. Better it should have gone through the young people with minimal casualties.

rcocean said...

Let 'em go on Spring Break, and raise the voting age to 22. And yes, in a triage situation, an obnoxious 20 year old should get priority over a lovely 80 year old.

AllenS said...

When I was his age, I was jumping out of airplanes.

rcocean said...

BTW, if you get the virus, when do you become NOT contagious?

BarrySanders20 said...

Full disclosure: I am right in the middle on all of this. Still working in my office today since there is nobody else here and I may be the only one in the entire 6 story building. Need good bandwidth and, as explained below, home is spotty right now. My parents are locked into their assisted living community, no visitors allowed. 83 and 78, they are independent, in good health, but vulnerable. Many more vulnerable people around them. We maintain a daily communication of what happening, and they are doing well.
I also have two college kids, each on the beach today in different states. One, who attends UW-Madison, is in a condo with 11 other guys in the Florida panhandle. He says they are taking it easy and being smart about mingling. Looks like there are lots of people on the beach. The other is in a relatively isolated condo on the SC coast that is owned by the parents of one of the three other girls. The outdoor scenes there look relatively isolated -- not many people on the beach at all.
And then there are the high schoolers. Home but still doing on-line lessons. One or two friends each. I put up a HOUSE RULES sign that commends immediate hand-washing upon entry, maintenance of social distancing, first and basement level only, and no touching faces or nose-picking, especially other people's noses. I got the eye roll from both, but them's the rules.
Wash hands, use sanitizer, be smart and aware, and carry on. The generations will abide.

rcocean said...

Give people in the military the vote at 18. Everyone else? You wait till 22.

wild chicken said...

"I can't even go into town to get a cup of coffee."

Gee, I make mine here at the house.

Maillard Reactionary said...

DBQ's point above (4:26 PM) is precisely the issue: The youngsters probably won't get sick, but when they go home or back to school, and on the way, they'll spread it around.

I sincerely hope that when this latest crisis is over, DBQ doesn't need to have her palm surgically removed from her forehead.

Just a thought: I can't imagine this kind of behavior in Japan. There, people wear masks in public when they have a common head cold, so as not to expose others, as a local explained to me once when I inquired about it. So the behavior is only partly developmentally related, it is also cultural. (Make of the implied comment on our culture what you will.)

Separately, Karen of Texas said: "I wonder if, when they kill grandma, or mom and dad prematurely, they'll care."

Nah. That would involve personal responsibility, and that's like a big buzzkill, you know?

cubanbob said...

I live in Miami. If I were 19 I would be down there on South Beach. The chances of getting the virus are very low and chances of scoring are pretty good. There is a reason the military doesn't want 40 and over. Even if us oldsters could get our bodies aged reversed to 19 year old bodies ( like Old Man' War) the military still wouldn't want us. Still I was sensible enough at 19 to have avoided my parents and especially my grandparents in such a situation.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I'm unclear about the actual origins of the Spanish flu. Some say it started in Northern China. Some say Kansas. It hit Spain hard.

At one point, a wave of illness hit a US barracks in Kansas, killing many fine young men. Then it stopped. Then other men went off to war in Europe and they brought the strain of flu with them... Not knowing they were carrying it.

TrespassersW said...

Spring break idiocy.

That's never happened before. /sarc

gspencer said...

What made Milwaukee famous has made a fool outta me,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PLmC7MX_OY&list=PLiC2clPXVp4gKkcw9OSFVG2nRjFZEGcTu&index=22

Robert Cook said...

"Give people in the military the vote at 18. Everyone else? You wait till 22."

What makes you think 18 year olds in the military have any better sense than 19-21 years old not in the military?

robother said...

Someone's gotta do the hard work of acquiring herd immunity! I mean, if Wu tang Flu is the invisible enemy, who better to form our first line of defense than these foolhardy youths? We oldsters ensconced in our bunkers?

"The old love to give good advice to the young. It consoles them for no longer being able to set a bad example." La Rochefoucauld.

FullMoon said...

t's good argument for raising the voting age, though. Most people really aren't cognitively mature until around 25 or so. I'd be willing to go back to 21. But 18 is way too low.

Pelosi says she backs lowering voting age to 16 | TheHill

bagoh20 said...

"The youngsters probably won't get sick, but when they go home or back to school, and on the way, they'll spread it around."

Tell them your will sends all the money to disease research if you die from Corona.

FullMoon said...

What makes you think 18 year olds in the military have any better sense than 19-21 years old not in the military?

Suffering

tcrosse said...

What makes you think 18 year olds in the military have any better sense than 19-21 years old not in the military?

The whole point of having 18-year-olds in the military is that they don't have the sense to refuse to do the crazy stuff that's required of them. Older soldiers tend to be mutinous.

Bay Area Guy said...

I wouldn't peg the kid as a Mensa society scholar, but aren't you supposed be stupid & reckless when you're young?

One Saturday night in Westwood, after drinking at the local bars, 5 of us thought it would be fun to drive 2 hours to Tijuana in a VW van to continue the festivities until morning.

At the time, it seemed like a good idea:)

Spiros said...

What's truly idiotic is that the American doctors are not using drugs proven effective in the treatment of Covid 19. The South Koreans have slashed the fatality rate. How can any "reasonable" person forecast 5 or 10 million deaths and then, in the next breath, demand that potential treatments go through the gauntlet of FDA requirements? We need these drugs now, not two years from now. Care needs to evolve past IV fluids and respirators. Get it done. We only have a week or two before the entire country is plunged into a depression.

BarrySanders20 said...

Colleges are now canceling the remainder of classes and, of course, graduation ceremonies for seniors. Thanks for the four years and all that money. We'll mail you the diploma. Don't y'all come back now, y'hear?

tim in vermont said...

Spiros missed the press conference today.

narciso said...

viral stupidity runs rampant

Michael said...

Shouting T

Believe that quote is from a Bob Segar song. Against the Wind

Unknown said...


> Give it a break, old farts.

The Young Invulnerables

are not blogging grannies

hstad said...

Aunty Trump said: This is why Democrats target the young. Just killing time ’til all my free shit from Bernie shows up!

Ann Althouse said...
"Youth is time for unvarnished optimism and myopia about the world around you."

Well you both could be right! When I was 18 - 22 I did some stupid things and the two of you better not deny that you did also. But when I was drafted during Vietnam I could care less about anything other than what this kid was about - party till the end of the world. These lyrics addressed my feelings back then:

Have sex (yeah!)
With every female of the species he say
The end is near (yeah!)
So don't you worry about the hiv
Get drunk (yeah!)
Till you puke all over the floor
We're gonna die tomorrow
So let's get hammered like never before

To be honest us adults haven't exactly shown ourselves to be stand up grown-ups during this made up panic ginned up by the MSM and the Politicos.

The Godfather said...

Many of us, when young, did foolish things. (When asked about a rumor regarding his behavior in his youth, GWBush said, When I was young and foolish, I was young and foolish. When he grew up, he stopped drinking.) So I don't blame these foolish (and btw mostly very unattractive) youngsters for their stupid statements about their stupid behavior. I do blame a society that encourages such behavior.

Age of majority should be no lower than 25.

Browndog said...

Just listened to a doctor on ESPN saying that because we are all in quarantine to "flatten the curve" the population will not have immunity to the virus, so it will be with us for a long time-

Meaning football season probably won't happen.

Oh, and keeping the virus around as long as possible has no political implications whatsoever.

tim in vermont said...

"So don't you worry about the hiv”

During Viet Nam?

bagoh20 said...

The kid might be doing us all a favor by expanding the immunity wall among him and his age group now rather than later.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
hstad said...

Aunty Trump said...
"So don't you worry about the hiv”

During Viet Nam?

3/19/20, 5:39 PM

Did not feel comfortable changing the lyrics to meet the PC thought of today. But if it makes you feel comfortable STIs during Vietnam.

Achilles said...

Robert Cook said...
"Give people in the military the vote at 18. Everyone else? You wait till 22."

What makes you think 18 year olds in the military have any better sense than 19-21 years old not in the military?


Shared misery.

Understanding of fascist systems.

Experience visiting places in the world that are not the US and do not live under US military protection.

Achilles said...

Browndog said...
Just listened to a doctor on ESPN saying that because we are all in quarantine to "flatten the curve" the population will not have immunity to the virus, so it will be with us for a long time-

Meaning football season probably won't happen.

Oh, and keeping the virus around as long as possible has no political implications whatsoever.



Football season will not be impacted much.

The national reaction and the natural "coming together during crisis" effect is helping Trump in the polls.

This will be dumpstered and memory holed faster than you all think possible.

In a couple months it will be verboten to bring up COVID-19 in polite company.

Dude1394 said...

Good for him. Spit in its eye.

Darkisland said...

ST,

Wasn't it Bob Seger, Against the Wind?

It seems like yesterday
But it was long ago
Janey was lovely she was the queen of my nights
There in the darkness with the radio playing low
And the secrets that we shared
The mountains that we moved
Caught like a wildfire out of control
'Til there was nothing left to burn and nothing left to prove
And I remember what she said to me
How she swore that it never would end
I remember how she held me oh so tight
Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then

Against the wind
We were runnin' against the wind
We were young and strong, we were runnin'
Against the wind


I'd not thought of that song for 20-30 years but as soon I I heard that sentence, the whole first stanza came (mostly) flooding back. Just listened on YouTube and loved it all over again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBJRD1VkxmI

I love me some Toby Kieth but never associated him with this song.

John Henry

Darkisland said...


Blogger rhhardin said...

Richard Epstein thinks it's an overreaction and bad predictions

I don't think he is wrong. We will know one way or 'tother in a couple of months.

Perhaps as early as April 7. When the 30 day pile of money expires.

Or maybe not.

I lost a very lucrative week of work next week. It may occur some time in the future. I hope. Or it may not.

When the governor threatened to close SJ airport, I had to leave a client in the lurch and fly home Wednesday. Luckily I got most of what I actually need to be on site for done but it will still be a pain in the ass to finish remotely.

And these kids are complaining because they can't get drunk and make fools of themselves. Been there, done that but still. I am very happy with my 1984 teetotal decision. Even happier about setting a good example for my kids.

NOTE: Flew back on a 767, capacity several hundred "customers". 25 people on the whole plane. I got upgraded to 1st class without asking or paying. Nice layflat seat. One of the few times Ive slept on a plane.

John Henry

Darkisland said...

Don't forget Heywood.

Or Mr Jablome to the younger set.

John Henry

Heatshield said...

Blogger rcocean said...
Give people in the military the vote at 18. Everyone else? You wait till 22.

Exactly right!

Darkisland said...

no touching faces or nose-picking, especially other people's noses.

"You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose but you can't pick your friend's nose." Kinky Friedman

John Henry

Darkisland said...

In Starship Troopers Heinlein proposed that only those who completed military service got a vote.

In "In the Wet" Nevil Shute proposed up to 7 votes for each citizen

Everybody got one vote. Additional votes for

Completing high school
Completing college
Completing military service
Holding a job
and a few other things to get up to 6 votes.

The queen had the prerogative to award a 7th vote for meritorious service to the empire.

I don't agree with all of Uncle Nevil's criteria but would have no problem giving multiple votes to people based on some objective criteria. Maybe federal taxes paid? 1 vote for each $1,000 paid or fraction thereof.

Some other criteria.

I am not a big fan of democracy.

John Henry

phantommut said...

The kid might be doing us all a favor by expanding the immunity wall among him and his age group now rather than later.

That's one way of looking at it. Another is that most kids in that age range have four elderly grandparents and two aging parents, and each of those little sh*ts stands a good chance of seeing one or more of those relatives die because hey "I'm not gonna let it stop me from partying.”

rhhardin said...

Stewardesses upgrade you to first class on empty planes so they don't have to walk very far.

Darkisland said...

I remember "Spring Break" 1969. I was 19 and immortal.

Now this ain't no shit.

We were in Rota Spain, coming back off liberty. A bunch of us knee walking, snot licking drunk. A Spanish aircraft carrier was tied up and the pier and someone told me I had no balls if I didn't climb aboard by the mooring line.

Well, of course I had balls. Not much brains but I took them up on the challenge. I got maybe 10-15 feet up the line and had a bunch of Spanish sailors yelling at me in Spanish. No idea what they were saying but I could tell they were pissed. In case I missed how pissed they were, they were pointing guns at me.

I tried to go back, lost my grip and fell in the drink. My buddies fished me out. When I went aboard my ship, the OOD asked me how I got wet. "Fell off the pier, sir". "Well, try not to do it again"

When it comes to immaturity and stupidity, these kids have got nothing at all on the younger me.

Or perhaps even the present day me, though I do think I have toned it down somewhat.

John Henry

rhhardin said...

I was one of two passengers on an Eastern Airlines L-1011 (jumbo) from NYC to Miami, and we were both first class upgrades. Two steak dinners.

That was a cancelled flight making its way to Miami for positioning and I happened to be in the right place at the right time to board, an hour ahead of my scheduled flight.

Darkisland said...

Actually, RH, there were only a few of us got upgraded. Everyone else was seated in the tail of the plane. Their might have been 5 people up front.

I am premier on United and they upgrade me on a space available basis. If they have empty seats, Premier passengers get them. I also got upgraded Chicago to Phoenix which was a pretty full flight.

American does that but charges for the upgrade and one has to ask. Never had enough miles on any other airline to find out what their policies are.

Automatic and free on United.

Also, they didn't charge me a fee for changing from Raleigh Durham next week to Newark this week. Not only that, I just got a $153 credit on my Amex card. Not sure why but I'll take it.

John Henry

phantommut said...

I wish everyone would stop the "we were all young and stupid once" BS. There have always been the kids who got behind the wheel drunk and killed others and/or themselves. Wasn't me. Isn't a lot of kids out there right now who are doing the right thing, because they're not stupid. Everyone who let's stupid get away with stupid is doing a massive disservice to those who aren't stupid.

(Not saying I wasn't ignorant, self-centered, and sometimes cruel, but I knew the lines between what was my personal risk and what could mess other people up.)

phantommut said...

"Flattening the curve" isn't so much about limiting the total number of cases that ever happen as it's about not pushing our medical infrastructure past breaking. Because if that happens lots of people who could have been saved from any type of critical condition (ahem, drunk driving casualties) will die because the system just ran out of capacity to save them. Period. The End.

None of the things people are pooh-poohing COVID-19 against are increasing at an exponential rate. A very scary exponential rate.

Car wrecks, drownings from being young and stupid, shootings by looters, good-old-fashioned flu cases, heart attacks, whatever. Lots of these people who might have been saved will die if the hospitals are beyond maxed-out. Think of "flattening the curve" as "limiting the collateral damage" instead; maybe that will make more sense to the glib amongst us.

Bay Area Guy said...

Hall monitor alert!

phantommut said...

The kid might be doing us all a favor by expanding the immunity wall among him and his age group now rather than later.

Another idea: "What parties in Florida stays in Florida." No flights out. Roadblocks stopping anybody under the age of 25 from leaving for the duration. Free room and board at Disney World Resorts. (But the rides won't be re-opened.) Let it burn out under the watchful eye of Mickey.

Jupiter said...

They all av thim talks o' me thrinkin'

But they none av thim talks o' me thirst.

Jupiter said...

'I wish everyone would stop the "we were all young and stupid once" BS.'

What, some of us were never young?

Bunkypotatohead said...

It's OK, he's immortal.

Ralph L said...

It hit Spain hard.

Spain wasn't fighting in WWI, so their government didn't censor the stats to save public morale, unlike the belligerents.

loudogblog said...

We've just had our first "confirmed" case of Coronavirus in Corona, CA.

Nichevo said...


rhhardin said...
I was one of two passengers on an Eastern Airlines L-1011 (jumbo) from NYC to Miami, and we were both first class upgrades. Two steak dinners.

That was a cancelled flight making its way to Miami for positioning and I happened to be in the right place at the right time to board, an hour ahead of my scheduled flight.

3/19/20, 7:39 PM



Horseshit. You're an autistic shut-in who eats dog food. What are you doing in first class eating steak and putting down the waitresses?

stlcdr said...

If all these youths simply associate with each other and don’t go anywhere near any ‘intellectual travelers of the world’, how will they get the virus?

I understand the ‘it just takes one person’, but I’ve really yet to see the trail of contagion, and how people actually caught the virus. We’re they in a hotel with someone who was sick? At what point does one become contagious after being exposed, and exhibiting zero symptoms? It’s a voracious virus, but it doesn’t just drop out of thin air.

While the isolation from everyone is a good, blunt force, method for containment, the trouble is you end up with maroons like this. People are going to do people stuff, and you can’t stop them.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

The whole point of having 18-year-olds in the military is that they don't have the sense to refuse to do the crazy stuff that's required of them.

Actually, its because the need physically fit young people who haven't destroyed their knees and hips yet.