Althouse: At the Last Day of Winter Café...

March 19, 2022

At the Last Day of Winter Café...

... you can write about whatever you want.

Did you realize tomorrow is the first day of spring?

46 comments:

R C Belaire said...: Yes.; 3/19/22, 6:42 PM
Original Mike said...: Appropriate that it snowed this morning.; 3/19/22, 6:44 PM
Original Mike said...: Spring is galaxy season. The Virgo cluster rides high in the evening.; 3/19/22, 6:48 PM
Curious George said...: By the calendar, sure. Means nothing.; 3/19/22, 7:17 PM
Joe Smith said...: No...a bit of rain here, but to AA's consternation, still shorts weather (I've got the legs for it).; 3/19/22, 7:25 PM
Bob Boyd said...: Aboot fuckin' toime.; 3/19/22, 7:30 PM
n said...: In my hurry to get to spring, I forget that today is the end of winter! A mild one in north suburban Chicago, although the gas and electric bills were through the roof…I’ve got echinacea and Scots pine seeds germinating. Tomorrow I’ll indoor sow Bunny Tails and Pumpkin on a Stick for the amusement of my grandkids… though they may not appreciate the thorns on the Pumpkin Bush (which is really an eggplant!). Since January, I take daily pictures from my kitchen window of the eastern horizon…sometimes sunrise but mostly sometime in the morning. Thanks for the great idea!!; 3/19/22, 8:11 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: That’s the tree from ‘Blade Runner 2049’; 3/19/22, 8:29 PM
tim in vermont said...: There is some pretty foul stuff on that now admitted to be authentic laptop that would land anybody but Biden's son in prison for a long, long time. But #MeToo doesn't count when we are talking about Democrats.

BTW, the FBI was the first place that the laptop went. A copy was only given to Rudy when nothing happened on it for almost a year.; 3/19/22, 8:36 PM
WK said...: Watching NCAA tournament. The ATT commercials are pretty funny with “celebrity” cameos:
Mike Krzyzewski
Matt Stafford
LaMelo Ball
Kumail Nanjiani
Zooey Deschanel
Rosario Dawson
Points for creativity.; 3/19/22, 8:39 PM
Humperdink said...: NCAA wrestling finals tonight. Penn State won the team national championship. There are ten weight classes in NCAA wrestling. Of the ten, Penn State sent five wrestlers to the finals, an incredible number. And won all five.; 3/19/22, 8:51 PM
MadTownGuy said...: California Governor floats $100 Million Plan for Tribes to Buy Land

...

The proposal is part of his pledge to make sure nearly one-third of California's land and coastal waters are preserved by 2030. But rather than have the government do all of that, Newsom said tribal leaders should have a say in what lands get preserved.

“We know that California Native peoples have always had an interdependent relations with land, waters, everything that makes up the state of California,” Newsom said. “Unfortunately we also know that the state has had a role in violently disrupting those relations.”

The money is one piece of Newsom's $286.4 billion budget proposal. The state Legislature would have to approve the spending before it could happen."; 3/19/22, 9:16 PM
wildswan said...: At 5 pm I read this good news on my go to Ukrainian war site:

Institute for the Study of War
By Frederick W. Kagan, George Barros, and Kateryna Stepanenko
March 19, 3 pm ET

Ukrainian forces have defeated the initial Russian campaign of this war. That campaign aimed to conduct airborne and mechanized operations to seize Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and other major Ukrainian cities to force a change of government in Ukraine. That campaign has culminated. Russian forces continue to make limited advances in some parts of the theater but are very unlikely to be able to seize their objectives in this way. The doctrinally sound Russian response to this situation would be to end this campaign, accept a possibly lengthy operational pause, develop the plan for a new campaign, build up resources for that new campaign, and launch it when the resources and other conditions are ready. The Russian military has not yet adopted this approach. It is instead continuing to feed small collections of reinforcements into an ongoing effort to keep the current campaign alive. We assess that that effort will fail."

But then at 9 pm I read further on the same page (this wasn't there at 3 or I didn't see it):
"The culmination of the initial Russian campaign is creating conditions of stalemate throughout most of Ukraine. Russian forces are digging in around the periphery of Kyiv and elsewhere, ... Stalemate will likely be very violent and bloody, especially if it protracts. Stalemate is not armistice or ceasefire. It is a condition in war in which each side conducts offensive operations that do not fundamentally alter the situation. Those operations can be very damaging and cause enormous casualties. The World War I battles of the Somme, Verdun, and Passchendaele were all fought in conditions of stalemate and did not break the stalemate."

I was sickened but I hope for something better to actually happen.

https://www.iswresearch.org/2022/03/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment_19.html; 3/19/22, 9:18 PM
The Godfather said...: In my part of NC, tomorrow's supposed to be sunny with a high of 65. Sounds like Spring to me. Even where I grew up, W. Hartford, CT, it's supposed to be 56 but cloudy. Also sounds like Spring. About the same as Madison. Welcome, Spring!; 3/19/22, 9:20 PM
LA_Bob said...: No, I overlooked that tomorrow, March 20, is the first day of spring. It's been a very warm winter here in SoCal, especially in the latter half of February and most of March. Cools off at night, sometimes to the 40's, but the days have been more spring-like than wintery.

And with the first week of spring, the trend continues. Will be high 80's in a few days for a few days. I'm concerned we're in for a hot, dry summer, fires and all.; 3/19/22, 9:38 PM
Narr said...: I knew it was spring tomorrow, but got mixed up about the date of a concert-- next Sunday, not tomorrow. I only realized it after booking and paying; no matter, just mildly embarrassing.
Haven't been to the Cannon Center for a symphonic concert since well before COVID.

Wife can't hear well enough (or sit comfortably long enough) to go with me, but that's life. Beethoven's Ninth, with all African-American/B/black vocal soloists. The friends that might have gone in the past are either dead or gaga.

We have huge red camellias blooming on the east end of the house, and the azaleas are starting to bud a little. The big gardenia on the west end I butchered after the big freeze of 20-21 is green and healthy looking but not flowering (yet?).; 3/19/22, 9:44 PM
stunned said...: https://twitter.com/derspiegel/status/1504849308809842688?s=20
“Eating less meat contributes to the fight against Putin"
- German Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir | Der Spiegel

P.S. Perhaps the Nazis are not just in Ukraine.; 3/19/22, 10:19 PM
StephenFearby said...: Christo Grozev
@christogrozev

In a free speech lock-down in Russia, the only dissenting opinions to the "we're winning" party line come from anon whistleblowers... OR from disgruntled fascists who think they would have done fascism better than Putin.

Here's a RU doom's day from Girkin (not that there's an inherent conflict of interest here - Girkin is split between wanting Ukraine & the west to fail, and wanting Putin to fail..but he does know a thing or two about military tactics, so worth paying attention to his assessments.

Wikipedia has a lot of info on Girkin, which begins with:

Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin...also known by the alias Igor Ivanovich Strelkov...is a Russian army veteran and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who played a key role in the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, and later the War in Donbas as an organizer of the Donetsk People's Republic's militant groups.

Some of the more revolting Wiki categories that Girkin falls into include:

Allegations of sabotage and terrorism, Involvement in kidnapping and murder, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

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

So, here's what the egomaniac has to say:

Igor Ivanovich Strelkov
THE 24TH DAY OF THE WAR

'...Russian troops are firmly "stuck" EVERYWHERE.

There is no mobilization. Yesterday the president [Putin] did not even hint at the possibility of it. And without mobilization, victory over the so-called "Ukraine" is impossible "from the word go".

The AF of Ukraine, in spite of constant losses, will soon receive tens of thousands of mobilized troops, and within a couple of months, their number will reach 2-3 hundred thousand. They will be given weapons by "dear Western partners" - in any quantity, including the most modern ones. They are already sending them.

The moment is not far off when the Ukrainian command, which has recovered from the first shock, will throw its troops into counterattacks in the most vulnerable (for our troops) directions. And against this background, the vile smell of "new Minsk betrayal" is increasingly felt in the air. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Kremlin is no longer planning to fight to victory.

Except that there will be no "Minsk-3". A few more weeks of "standing" - and instead of a "mutually acceptable compromise" (to which the slimy Medinsky hints) - the "respected Ukrainian partners" will once again demand unconditional surrender from the Kremlin.

That is: "withdraw troops, surrender Donbas, return Crimea, and then "pay and repent." TOTAL SILENCE. And then the war will have to go on. In much more difficult conditions and with a much stronger opponent.

But in the meantime - "drip! drip! drip!" - the days are gone, the opportunities associated with the most invaluable resource (after human lives) - time - are gone.'

https://rentry.co/2gqat; 3/19/22, 10:27 PM
Maynard said...: Last Days of Winter?

LOL!

I grew up in the Midwest for 60+ years. The last days are the worst because one expects it to be all over until an arctic blast delivers snow and below freezing temps in late March. Of course, there is always freezing rain in April.

Here in Arizona, we dread summer with an average temp of 100 degrees from June through September. Of course, it is a dry heat. When it hits 110, it is a miserable heat nonetheless, but better than Midwest weather.

Its in the 80's now, but I am still wearing long pants. Only the tourists are wearing shorts. That is not in deference to Prof. Althouse, but because we will be wearing shorts and sandals every day from May to November. Did I mention that it is a dry heat?; 3/19/22, 10:35 PM
stephen cooper said...: I feel really bad for that swimmer guy who won the women's award. You all feel bad for the girl who got silver instead of gold, but tomorrow she is gonna wake up as the woman she is, with all that means, with a whole normal and hopeful and happy life ahead of her, maybe with a family and a beloved spouse, maybe in other ways that make women happy, and the poor guy is gonna wake up as this large person who pretends to be a female. Well, I also feel bad for all the people who are never gonna have children, for all the people who had children but the children turned out to be people who in their own right were unable to prosper in this world, and I also feel bad - more than anything ---- for people who rejoice in cruelty.; 3/19/22, 10:54 PM
effinayright said...: Neuron-depleted progs keep poking sticks into their own brain tissue, and wondering why they are getting stupider every day:

https://www.rebelnews.com/yuri_gagarin_name_censored_from_space_symposium_conference

Will these political ancephalics understand that Gagarin and WOMAN Valentina Tereshkova are now World Historical Figures, for doing things no humans had ever done before?

NO MATTER WHAT the political system of the country they were citizens in?

(and why doesn't SHE go down the Memory Hole too?); 3/19/22, 11:24 PM
tcrosse said...: So now I find myself getting up in the middle of the night to do Wordle. Now I can go back to sleep.; 3/20/22, 3:14 AM
heyboom said...: We have never been cat people, but we inherited two beautiful male cats from a lady who was dropping them at the local shelter. They were about 3 months old when we got them, and they just turned 6 months the other day. We aren't quite sure what breed they are but have narrowed it down to either the Maine Coon or the Norwegian Forest. They're already over 9 lbs. each. No papers or any other documentation.

Any tips on distinguishing features from any cat experts here would be greatly appreciated.; 3/20/22, 4:24 AM
gadfly said...: Stuff from the Free Press:

"Doctors who advocated mandated vaccines — bullet to the face," Brandon Caserta is heard saying in recordings. (All this time we have been led to believe that Brandon was a racecar driver.)

"Buildings that manufacture the vaccines, blow them up. I'm not even kidding. Any lawyer that supports a vaccine mandate, decapitate them in their own home" Caserta said.

"Free men don't (get) ranked," Caserta gave his anarchist view about answering to Fox as the leader of the pack.

Caserta's discontent over the coronavirus pandemic stretched beyond vaccines — he wanted to identify those participating in SARS-CoV-2 contact tracing, even suggesting to pose as a volunteer contact tracer to gain more information on the process and target those administering tracing efforts.

"I don't call it contact tracing, I call it constitutional trampling," Caserta said in a recording made in Aug. 2020 during a meetup in Munith. "We create a dynamic where no one wants to be a contact tracer because they might fucking die."

On trial are Adam Fox, 38, of Potterville, who is accused of being the ringleader; Daniel Harris, 24, of Lake Orion; Brandon Caserta, 33, of Canton Township, and Barry Croft, 46, of Delaware. All face kidnapping conspiracy charges in the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for imposing pandemic rules and regulations; Fox, Croft and Harris also face charges of knowingly conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. If convicted, each faces up to life in prison.

How much easier life would be for all of us had we just sit for the vaccine sticks? Instead there comes the plots to capture and kill for no reason except perhaps to encourage more death from the coronavirus. I'll have mine with a pinch of lemon, please.; 3/20/22, 4:47 AM
Tina Trent said...: When I was in college, renting a dump a block from the Sarasota dog track, a wonderful way to while the day away, I had a lesbian coven for one neighbor and a bunch of, well, it's a slur but an apparently acceptable one, Crackers on the other side, who stole construction materials and shot alligators in the state parks to support their lifestyle.

At every change of season, the lesbians would hold a ridiculously serious ritual with preaching to the goddesses and mother earth and ritual dances around a fire.

And the rednecks would roast a giant, ill-acquired alligator and laugh their asses off at the lesbian ritual dances.

My dog preferred the stuff that smelled like roasting reptile. They saved the tail for her.; 3/20/22, 5:41 AM
tcrosse said...: Maine Coon cats can have really big, snowshoe feet. They won't sit on your lap, but they'll be happy to sit at your side and purr a lot.; 3/20/22, 5:54 AM
William50 said...: Ah, spring in Wisconsin. The season of severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings.; 3/20/22, 7:25 AM
Curious George said...: "tcrosse said...
So now I find myself getting up in the middle of the night to do Wordle. Now I can go back to sleep."

Ha I do too.; 3/20/22, 7:32 AM
Meade said...: I do too. Wordle and widdle.; 3/20/22, 7:42 AM
Iman said...: I ate some ‘gator tail while in Orlando for a biz conference. A fried “appetizer”

It tasted like pencil eraser. As a kid, I’d chewed enough of those off of pencils to recognize that taste.; 3/20/22, 7:54 AM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Has Twitter apologize to the NY Post for calling them purveyors of fake news?; 3/20/22, 7:55 AM
Gerda Sprinchorn said...: Love the personal updates by everyone: pumpkin plants, blooming camellias, Wordle in the middle of the night, late-season snowstorms, ....

Especially notable today: "The friends that might have gone in the past are either dead or gaga." A perfect haiku (except for not having 17 syllables).; 3/20/22, 7:56 AM
Howard said...: Spring is Sprung
The grass is riz
I wonder where da boydies is
The boyds is on the wing
Now isn't dat obsurd, the wing is on the boyd; 3/20/22, 8:06 AM
Breezy said...: Ha! I save Wordle to do with my first sips of coffee. If I wake to widdle, I wait to Wordle.; 3/20/22, 8:07 AM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: No...a bit of rain here, but to AA's consternation, still shorts weather (I've got the legs for it).

Lots of rain here. Definitely not shorts weather. Our building site is a sea of mud.

My shed was delivered yesterday. It was on top of a flat bed trailer that extends, tilts up and has a tail gate that can move sideways as well as up and down. The truck could only get about a 1/3 of the way to the shed's site before it hit deep mud and a log. The driver dropped the shed there and then it will need to be dragged by a heavy-duty excavator to its final site.; 3/20/22, 8:26 AM
Meade said...: “ Spring is Sprung The grass is riz I wonder where da boydies is The boyds is on the wing Now isn't dat obsurd, the wing is on the boyd”

The Great Speckled [Boyd] - Mac Wiseman; 3/20/22, 8:41 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Ha! I save Wordle to do with my first sips of coffee. If I wake to widdle, I wait to Wordle."

I look at my iPhone before I get out of bed. I check to see the temperature and whether anything drastic happened in the world overnight. Then I do Wordle.; 3/20/22, 9:46 AM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: The Democrats are getting the gas prices they asked for when they voted for Joe "Two Scoops" Biden. He campaigned on shutting down petroleum production and he has delivered. Don't try to blame Putin; this is all Two-Scoops doing.; 3/20/22, 9:52 AM
Bob Boyd said...: I'd like to see the Venn diagram of people whose death was falsely attributed to Covid and people who voted for Joe Biden.; 3/20/22, 10:03 AM
Jersey Fled said...: Whoa! Didn't know it was Spring already.

I feel much better now.; 3/20/22, 11:38 AM
Narayanan said...: Any tips on distinguishing features from any cat experts here would be greatly appreciated.
=========
how about asking their 'concierge veterinarian'; 3/20/22, 12:05 PM
Narayanan said...: wildswan said...
... I read this good news on my go to Ukrainian war site:

Institute for the Study of War
By Frederick W. Kagan, George Barros, and Kateryna Stepanenko
March 19, 3 pm ET
==========
look up Victoria Nuland and Kagan family >>> this is their baby
they would love for baby to grow big and strong; 3/20/22, 12:12 PM
Jupiter said...: "Meet the bidders aiming to buy Chelsea from Roman Abramovich."

I thought they were talking about Web Hubbel's daughter.; 3/20/22, 3:24 PM
tim in vermont said...: Remember the email on the laptop where Burisma directed Hunter to "shut down" any investigations of its owner, Zlochevsky, and "son of a bitch," Joe Biden did it? Not a problem because Psaki the gaslighter explained that Hunter is a private citizen, so not corruption.

Joe Biden is right now like Wyle E. Coyote floating in the air off the edge of the cliff before he looks down. Or would be if we weren't governed by a cabal of liars who own the press. As it is, he will serve out his term and nobody important will ever bring it up. Certainly not the "Just Us" Department.; 3/20/22, 4:05 PM
tim in vermont said...: "Spring has sprung
The grass has riz
I wonder where the birdies is" - Marjorie Stoneham Douglas; 3/20/22, 4:11 PM
Old and slow said...: First day of spring in northern AZ is chilly and wet. Perfect!; 3/20/22, 5:17 PM