April 19, 2020

At the Midday Café...

0B876773-8C06-46FE-86AE-EB6DFA6984D5_1_201_a

... don't be blue.

503 comments:

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Inga said...

On Tuesday I actually craved a steak egg and cheese bagel from McDonalds, I was heartbroken to see that they no longer make it! So I had to make my own, oh my lord, that was delicious.

Inga said...

To make it as authentic as possible, you need just the right amount of coriander.

J. Farmer said...

@mandrewa:

How can China's behavior possibly be justified it if was correct to put the whole province of Hubei under quarantine?

I am not sure what you are referring to when you say "extraordinary pressure." Chinese diplomats were encouraing countries not to suspend travel or evacuate their foreign nationals. I think this was stupid, but recall that people were claiming that such restrictions weren't necessary. Consider the country that you could argue China has the most influence with, North Korea. They were among the very first country to suspend travel.

Kyjo said...

@Sebastian, I agree about adjusting for life expectancy, but it adds a layer of complexity which I can’t readily assess myself, and I don’t know if we have an equivalent analysis for seasonal flu, for which the 0.1% fatality rate is something of a guess anyway. So, I don’t think it’s clear SARS2 won’t be meaningfully more deadly.

narciso said...

A travesty, whats their excuse.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

@stevew
just the modest crew here at 1 Ingachuck'stoothlessARM Plaza !
maybe drinks in Winchester, or Gloucester/Marblehead, on us!

the ChiComs took away our pork!!

...but didnt they also blow up a paper mill in Maine?
is that how they are getting back at us?
buy our stuff, then shut it down or 'blow it opp??'

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Mark - so, being a Simpsons fan, are you the one Althousian who gets my username? 😊

Anne-I-Am said...

There's a Hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.

The usual suspects, doing their jumping jacks.

J. Farmer said...

@Anne:

Oh the pig, the wonderful pig, the delicious, nutritious, auspicious pig. He is delectable from the tip of his ears to his tail. Sadly, sadly, sadly for him.

I had the good fortune in growing up in a very food-oriented family. My paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother were all chefs/caterers and worked in the restaurant business. My father is one of nine children, and my mother one of seven. Huge get-togethers were common and always oriented around food. I remember as a kid being shocked at friends' houses that they didn't have huge mixing bowls, hotel pans, and speed racks.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Everyone’s in the mood for comfort food at my house. Lots of starch and gravy. Yes Soon it will be too hot for that kind of stuff and we’ll grill lean protein and eat juicy fruit every night.

Anne-I-Am said...

Dorothy Parker. She knew a termagant when she met one, I am sure.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

pigs are very intelligent animals

...they invented Bacon!!

but their urine is highly corrosive. Door knobs and hinges at a pig farm have to be replaced ~every 2 years

Churchy LaFemme: said...

On Wednesday I was sad because I finished binge watching Game of Thrones. Oh why oh why did it end that way?!

Because..

narciso said...

Ah you're no fun

Anne-I-Am said...

J Farmer,

Sounds lovely.

My friends loved to come to my house on the weekends, because my mom always had a bulging pantry. Including all the crap food (sugary cereal!) that teenagers love to eat.

I had a friend whose mom must have photosynthesized. I hated spending the night at her house, because there was literally no food. Her mom would serve me a dry hamburger, no bun, and some green beans. I would go home ravenous in the morning. I still dream about that house sometimes--and the kitchen is always bare.

Bay Area Guy said...

Anne-I-Am,

"Speaking of the 880, which I just did...what is YOUR least favorite Bay Area parking lot? Up until a year ago, when I had a role change, I was on the 880 several days a week. As far as I am concerned, that stretch of road could catch on fire from Castro Valley to San Jose, and it would be an improvement."

I worked in SF for decades, so Hell No, not driving the bridge. Mostly BART (germs!) or the nice commuter bus..

Now, during the lockdown, all parking meters are off, and driving the bridge is easy, so I just park on the street in SF or downtown Oakland.

Worst parking lot? I'd say driving to a Warrior game at the new arena. Only did it once - very confusing. This was in Jan - pre ChiCom Bat Flu freak out.

Anne-I-Am said...

Ingachucketal,

I did not know that! Even the doorknobs and hinges in the house? Or just the hardware in the pig-quartering area?

bagoh20 said...

"Neiman Marcus is seeking bankruptcy protection as government officials continue locking down their economies to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Reuters reported Sunday.

The pandemic forced Neman Marcus to temporarily shutter all 43 stores of its stores, the Reuters report states before noting that the massive store chain is in the final stages of negotiating a loan with creditors. The company furloughed nearly 14,000 employees as the lockdowns took hold."

"Financial institutions are gearing up for extraordinary pain.

JP Morgan, for instance, foresees a 40% decline in the gross domestic product and a surge in April’s unemployment rate to roughly 20%. Economists previously forecasted the GDP dropping 25% in the second quarter."

The virus will be history soon, but the costs are gonna smack us in the face everyday for a long time after we have forgotten about it. Some will try to blame other things, but it took us from the best economy and outlook in our history to the worst almost overnight. It's hard to believe that there is any way to justify that to prevent a bad flu season.

JML said...

She has a keen understanding of pigs. I’m not surprised.

Jesus, inga. You are a c*nt.

Anne-I-Am said...

Bay Area Guy,

When I have to go to SF (usually for appointments at UCSF), I plan it so I hit the bridge about 10:30. Usually not too bad then.

What kills me is the entry system to the bridge from the city. It is as though they just plopped the bridge down, and then thought, "Oh, we have to have a street or two to get on this thing." What a shit show.

I am off to watch the next episode of Fauda. Are you enjoying this season?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

@Anne I A
hopefully the farmer isnt has good aim and isnt a 'pig'
It's mainly a problem in the pens. But this is just one of those 'fun facts' that, in a pinch, can be an effective ice-breaker.
Hey you never know-- the awkward silence in an elevator can become unbearable sometimes

Anne-I-Am said...

JML,

No worries. Pigs are extremely intelligent animals. And funny. And cute when they are little. And murderous, given the right circumstances. She'd do best not to mess with someone who is on good speaking terms with sus domestica.

mandrewa said...

J. Farmer, I don't get the relevance of what mistakes other people elsewhere were making. There are always people making mistakes.

This is in reference to: "...but recall that people were claiming that such restrictions weren't necessary."

This is a situation where we know what the Chinese government thought about one particular issue. We know that from what they did. A province is not shut down for no reason. They were clearly extremely fearful.

And we know that they were extremely worried even before they shut down Hubei province.

How do we know that? Because, as I recall, for one example, they were buying up medical supplies all over the world in that time period. In particular I'm thinking of Australia, where a Chinese company that had nothing to do with anything medical, had abandoned it's normal business and was buying everything that they could find in Australia relevant to the epidemic that the Chinese government had not at that point admitted to knowing about.

Anne-I-Am said...

Ingachucketal,

Elevators! I like to start talking in an elevator just to watch what people do. Often, everyone starts contributing and laughing. Though usually not if the conveyance is full of foreigners. Then they look sidelong at me and shuffle.

Bay Area Guy said...

"I am off to watch the next episode of Fauda. Are you enjoying this season?"

Yes! Just saw first 2 episodes. Still brilliant and intense. Doron, though,is getting a little soft in the middle there.......:)

Inga said...

Oh pretension!

Operam quaesitor

Anne-I-Am said...

You thought Doron looked soft? Here I was thinking he looked like he lost a little weight! Hunh. I am going to have to take a closer look.

I think one of the things I appreciate about the series is that I get a sense of what life on the knife edge of violence must be like.

Anne-I-Am said...

Ingachucketal,

I know quite a few jokes about farmers and farm animals. Interestingly, none of them involve pigs. Sheep, goats, chickens...CHICKENS????

One of my family's go-to lines is, "A good goat'll do that."

FullMoon said...

'54 C1.'57 hood 327c.i. , c4 aluminum heads 10/1 comp. Mild Competition Cam Edelbrock 2x4. Richmond five speed. 17 inch American five spokes. Viper red. Tan leather. VDO.JVC/amp.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

of course chicken jokes!! Are you kidding?!?

Here's one: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Inga said...

“On Wednesday I was sad because I finished binge watching Game of Thrones. Oh why oh why did it end that way?!”

“Because..”

I really wanted to love the ending, but it just left me cold, literally, watching him going off with the Wildings in that winter wasteland. I sure hope they got all the Night Walkers....

Anne-I-Am said...

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To prove to the possum that it could be done.

FullMoon said...

The virus will be history soon, but the costs are gonna smack us in the face everyday for a long time after we have forgotten about it. Some will try to blame other things, but it took us from the best economy and outlook in our history to the worst almost overnight. It's hard to believe that there is any way to justify that to prevent a bad flu season.

Not to worry. Dems have a plan to give everybody earning less than 130,000 a year 2k a month for a year. 4k for married, 500 for each kid.
That is how stupid they are. Naturally, got another bill, free rent or mortgage for a year.

Kyjo said...

Does anyone know when “Why did the chicken cross the road?” was last a funny joke?

Anne-I-Am said...

Kyjo,

Objection. Assuming facts not in evidence.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

To prove to the possum that it could be done.

..."a good chicken'll do that!" is what we used to say!

Kyjo said...

@Anne, I’ll grant your punchline is funny.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

in Wuhan they tell pangolin jokes

Q:"why did the pangolin cross the road?
A: To get away from the level 4 bioweapons lab, silly!!!

Anne-I-Am said...

Ingachucketal,

No, silly. It was a Level 2. The pangolin was searching for some serious scientists--scientists who appreciate that pangolins deserve Level 4.

J. Farmer said...

@mandrewa:

J. Farmer, I don't get the relevance of what mistakes other people elsewhere were making. There are always people making mistakes.

Let me repost what I wrote earlier: "Ironically, given my long criticism of the US-China relationship, as I have thought about this issue more, I have backed away somewhat from the "blame China" narrative. Based on the information we have and granting we may learn more later, it's hard to make a realistic case for how China could have contained this. To do so, they would had to have taken the most aggressive actions with the leas amount of risk-aversion. I am not sure how we can reasonably have expected them to do this given how every other country has responded with more time and more information to make decisions."

Had a new virus emerged in New York City or Los Angeles or London or Tokyo, it's hard to imagine that within three weeks of such a discovery, the cities would be completely shut down and quarantined. I am not excusing any of the systemic problems in China, particularly their obsession with controlling information.

J. Farmer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Pangolins-- they're not just for breakfast anymore!

Pangolins-- the other orange meat!

Pangolins-- it's what's for dinner!

n.n said...

Why did the chicken cross the road?

If it's libertarian, because it could.
If it's conservative, because it was productive.
If it's progressive, because it would be first.
If it's liberal, because it was rebelling, diverging.

J. Farmer said...

A moth goes into a podiatrist's office...

Kyjo said...

Do you want kung pao chicken?

As long as it doesn’t come with lung pao sicken.

Racist!

That’s what Xi said.

Anne-I-Am said...

Well not sure i want to hit the new open mike night. ARM, the harpy, and the Canuck have their tongues down each others' throats. Not a pretty picture. On the bright side, I think it means the Canuck and the harpy are off this thread.

Anne-I-Am said...

I had no idea Norm McDonald was that good looking. Whoowee. That puts a whole new light on the Janice routine.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

One answer (though the URL itself raises other questions)

Anne-I-Am said...

Kyjo,

Nice one.

But it's, "Raaaaacissst."

FullMoon said...

North Korea orders nonessential military personnel to starve from home

Anne-I-Am said...

FullMoon,

Heh. No pangolins for you!

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

@J Farmer
Norm!!

...but that would have been better done by Christopher.
Walken i, ...think.

Kyjo said...

@Anne, in this case, it might actually be closer to “lacist.”

Please don’t tell Bay Area people about this.

FullMoon said...

Videos of instant pot pangolin recipe

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

the Pangolin Nazi !! Luv it!!

...please, Sir...could I have some moh'??

Kick yer feet! How can you have any Pangolins if ye dont KICK YER FEET!?!?

Ken B said...

Farmer
I am not so sure we wouldn’t have done something quickly. Didn’t we have a quick quarantine with anthrax? And Ebola Reston? At least in Canada we had a quick and strict response to SARS, which admittedly did not originate here.
I'd bet we would at least tell other countries and let them decide if they want to cut off travel.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

anyone up for some KFP??

J. Farmer said...

Norm Macdonald is my favorite comedian. I've been a huge fan since first discovering him as the Weekend Update host on SNL in the mid-90s. The clip of him on Conan with Courtney Thorne-Smith, having recently departed Melrose Place and promoting an upcoming film with Carrot Top, is epically hilarious.

FullMoon said...

Sometimes when I am bored, I call the 800 numbers in commercials and pretend to be a normal person.

Ken B said...

That was a good joke Farmer.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Norm is great.
He did sort of pack on the pounds-- does he have that Ted Kennedy disease that makes you get voluminous?
Jerry Lewis too-- and not talking about merely getting fat

Kyjo said...

@Toothless, is the K for Kungchangtan? I don’t think they have fried chicken in Kentucky.

Birkel said...

Things I have learned today:

J Farmer is a Smug Eeyore.
Everybody else misinterprets what J Farmer writes and it is in no way Smug Eeyore's problem.

Kyjo said...

*fried pangolin that is

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

oh, and use M-80's in the firecracker shrimp

...if you want to "kick it up a notch".

Pepper spray works for jalepeno dip too

J. Farmer said...

@Ken B:

Farmer
I am not so sure we wouldn’t have done something quickly.


"Something" perhaps, but I doubt very much that it would have been closing off a city of 11 million and preventing travel inside and outside of it. Again, look how leaders of other countries have had difficulty in making decisions even with more time and more data. And now we are saying it's China's fault for not successfully containing a brand new virus within a three-week time frame. I am no fan of China or of the trade policy we have pursued for decades, but nonetheless the "blame China" narrative for the outbreak seems hard to justify on the basis of current knowledge. I happily concede that we may not have all the relevant information.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

I don’t think they have fried chicken in Kentucky.

did u mean 'pangolins'?

and who U callin' "toothleth"?? eh??

Anne-I-Am said...

Kyjo,

Ah, I have the funniest story about a Korean neighbor who appeared at my door one evening to complain that our cat had been "clapping" in his "Frowel bed." He said, "I call teh-minatoh- kill cat."

I laughed and said, "You can probably walk into a dive bar somewhere around here and pay someome $500 to kill your wife. But kill a family pet? Not gonna happen."

Anne-I-Am said...

Ingachucketal,

You can't have yer puddin' if you don't eat yer pangolin!

Anne-I-Am said...

Sorry. It was better than that. I forgot. It wasn't, "Kill cat." It was, "Exteh-minate cat."

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

You can't have yer puddin' if you don't eat yer pangolin!

we got it at 9:26

But hey-- you know about drugs,etc-- what is that condition that makes you get voluminous-- like Lewis, Gore, Kennedy...
isnt it a reaction to some meds??

Kyjo said...

@Anne, that is a funny story! Honestly in my experience, it’s Koreans and Japanese who have the most trouble with the English L/R distinction. Chinese—Mandarin speakers, anyway—don’t have quite as much trouble.

J. Farmer said...

@Birkel:

J Farmer is a Smug Eeyore.

Aww. Thanks. That's one of the sweetest things anyone's ever said about me. I'm flattered that you want to learn about me. It's a shame I don't reciprocate.

Sebastian said...

"Here's one: Why did the chicken cross the road?"

Trump said he had the power to make him do it.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

we're naming our twin daughters
Covidia Lynn, and Pangolina Marie

gestation will resume once our governor allows it

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Trump said he had the power to make him do it.

THEN he said he would leave it up to the governors!!

Anne-I-Am said...

Ingachucketal,

One of the most common drugs that can cause weight gain and that bloated, puffy look is prednisone. All corticosteroids do, but prednisone is the one most likely to be taken for a long time. I am no expert in endocrinology, but prednisone can be taken for a variety of conditions. Addison's I think, which is adrenal insufficiency. People who have had transplants--anyone, really who needs to have their immune system dampened chronically. I believe it can be used in some chronic hematologic malignancies like CLL and multiple myeloma, but I think docs try to avoid it, becuase long-term steroid use is horrible for the body.

Anne-I-Am said...

Sebastien,

But see, Trump knew that if he said he had the power, the chicken wouldn't do it...But the chicken did it anyway...was the chicken by any chance a deplorable?

J Farmer,

The problem with being diagnosed as a smug Eeyore is that Eeyore was never really smug. The only smug character in the 1000-acre wood was Rabbit. You are no rabbit.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

@Anne I A

ok thank you-- but you know that 'look' no? It doesnt seem like typical weight gain.

Anne-I-Am said...

Ingachucketal,

Yeah. But some men do get big and puffy and jowly like that. I think there are non-pharmaceutical causes...heavy drinking? Chronic liver disease? Maybe some forms of heart disease?

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

there are some areas in the country
where the chickens no longer give a shit, and they are
going to cross the road even before May 1.

...they're coming home to roost

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

oh, booze!!
in Al Gore and Kennedy's case, mais oui!

...but not our dear Norm!

Anne-I-Am said...

The chickens say, "Don't let the turkeys get you down."

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Illegitimi Turkey-um non carborundum!"

(that's Turkey bastards, not "turkey basters!)

Birkel said...

Ken B continues to lie about me.

I have not hoped for economic collapse and even referenced "A Modest Proposal" to help the stupidity impaired.
I fully expect economic collapse in ROW while America suffers an incredibly deep recession.

And I have been writing repeatedly that the loss of life because of destitution will outstrip the loss of life from the virus.

J. Farmer said...

@Anne:

The problem with being diagnosed as a smug Eeyore is that Eeyore was never really smug. The only smug character in the 1000-acre wood was Rabbit. You are no rabbit.

Ha. I was just starting as a psych undergrad in 2000 when Sara Shea published her tongue-in-cheek paper "Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A.A. Milne" in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. It's since led people to mistakenly claim that Milne purposefully wrote the characters to embody various psychiatric disorders.

Sebastian said...

"But the chicken did it anyway"

Well, if I have to explain the joke . . . :).

Anyway, I was thinking of governors.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

well gang, it's ebben fun! (not to sound like Porky Pig...)

so off to sing this beautiful aria

...to little Covidia Lynn and Pangolina Marie in utero

good nite to all

Kyjo said...

@Ingachuck: "Illegitimi Turkey-um non carborundum!"

The Handhen’s Tail: Oftom, one of the few fertile chickens known as Handhens on the repressive farm of Gobblerad, struggles to survive as a reproductive surrogate for a powerful Turkey and his resentful hen.

Known Unknown said...

I stopped watching Downton Abbey when the Brit David Caruso got out of the wheelchair.

So maudlin and cliche.

narciso said...

Now youre just making that last part upm

Mark said...

I confess Pants that I did not. But it has been 24 years. Having looked it up, though, I do remember the song and dance.

Marge: What about the sleaze and the depravity?
Helen Lovejoy: It was a very convincing song.
Marge: Well I also have a song to sing. Don't make up your mind until you've heard both songs.

Mark said...

Yeah, I became disenchanted with The Simpsons when they changed writers and then did things like name Comic Book Guy.

Worst. Move. Ever.

Birkel said...

What China could have done differently:

How about we start with not letting a genetically engineered bug out of their bioweapons lab?
Can we fucking start there?

Anne-I-Am said...

Mark, Pants, Kyjo, Sebastien, et al,

What a fun group. Nice to find some AA commenters with a sense of humor. Sheesh. Some of the people around here need a humor implant.

Catch you on the flip-flop, though I may head over to the evening thread and see what utter bilge the usual suspects are vomiting. But I shall try to remain a lurker. I am trying to see how long the harpy will continue to malign me despite the fact that I have only ever responded to her once. I should be better than that, but I just have a morbid curiousity.

Mark said...

Do you want kung pao chicken?

I haven't been able to find any good kung pao chicken in ages, ever since Chinese restaurants became less of a specialty with a real chef, instead of now where every guy with a Chinese name has decided to open some take-out only place with someone the equivalent of a hamburger flipper making the food.

Kyjo said...

Cheers, Anne!

@Mark, the best kung pao chicken I ever ate was in Beijing. I didn’t even know it had been ordered by our Chinese guides, but I immediately recognized it. Never in China saw anything like General Tso’s chicken, one of my favorite takeout classics.

narayanan said...

I don't get what is so complicated about modeling.

(worst of all is claims of proprietary model and secrecy and IP)

Maybe we should bring back the ad-agency who did this in 70's

You Tell 2 Friends & They Tell 2 Friends & So On & So On…

is it not merely how long they take to tell their friends?

Churchy LaFemme: said...

well, I can't let this stand at 499.

So 500.

brylun said...

Sounds like Farmer is positioning himself to get a $1.5 billion consulting contract from China...

brylun said...

And it sounds like I'm angling to "get disappeared" like those physicians and scientists in China who tried to sound an early warning about the disease...

Nichevo said...

Drago said...
In other late breaking news, it now appears the "nazi" flag supposedly flown by Trump supporters at the protest rally in Michigan on April 15, 2020 which was actually displayed by a Bernie bro on Feb 29, 2020 in Boise Idaho for a Bernie rally



Not that you'll see this after 500 posts nor that I'll see your reply, but, link?

Gahrie said...

I haven't been able to find any good kung pao chicken in ages, ever since Chinese restaurants became less of a specialty with a real chef

The local Chinese restaurants all have Chinese wait staff, but the cooks are all Black and Hispanic.

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