Althouse: At the Skunk Cabbage Café...

April 13, 2022

At the Skunk Cabbage Café...

... you can talk all night.

(Photos taken around 2 in the afternoon today, as it was about to rain, at the Skunk Cabbage Bridge in the UW Arboretum.)

36 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Big if true: "bus from Texas drops migrants in DC"

They ought to all do the same. Let Biden take care of them.; 4/13/22, 6:30 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: Thoughts on inflation:

Milton Friedman rules.
Joe "Two Scoops" Biden drools.; 4/13/22, 6:44 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: That second picture reminds me of Trump for some reason.; 4/13/22, 6:45 PM
Narr said...: The Texas--DC Immigrant Express is for real. The Five covered it.

It's bad enough we let these people in, but it was worse watching the gummint drones -hugging- and -congratulating- them as if they had accomplished a great thing.

We no longer have a country. Not really.; 4/13/22, 6:57 PM
Beasts of England said...: We used to share tunes at my blogging alma mater (JustOneMinute) so I thought I’d make a contribution here…

https://youtu.be/cj9EMOPbOMw; 4/13/22, 6:57 PM
Jupiter said...: Hey, hey! Another great day for Ben Crump in Grand Rapids! Let the looting begin.; 4/13/22, 7:04 PM
Lurker21 said...: Hemlock Grove is putrid trash but I am watching it anyway. Pray for my soul.

Letterkenny is disgusting but was funny for four seasons. Now it's just repetitive. Every episode starts with wordplay that has gotten boring and ends with a fist fight. You may see the two hockey player dudes I am so sick of somewhere in the middle. That's probably a good time to get a snack or use the bathroom.

Tried to watch some movies by female directors for Women's History Month or whatever March was. In Promising Young Woman, an American film, every guy -- especially those who pretend to be sensitive, is an annoying asshole who tries pretty much to rape the heroine. In White as Snow, a French film, based on the enduring fairy tale, the heroine achieves liberation and self-actualization by having sex with pretty much every guy she meets. Neither seems to have much to do with what's going on in the world right now. I couldn't finish either one.

That having sex with every guy motif seems quite popular. I am trying to watch movies on my phone and the "Foreign Films" category isn't exactly the Criterion Collection. If the foreign movies aren't horror they are usually everyone in the movie having sex with everyone else in the movie. No word yet on whether anyone achieves liberation or self-actualization.

I also saw A Couch in New York, a farce from Chantal Akerman (very atypical of her work) about a New York psychoanalyst and a French dancer swapping apartments. The script and the acting were terrible, but somehow Juliette Binoche and William Hurt made it endurable and even endearing. See it soon before Hurt gets cancel cultured. RIP Bill.; 4/13/22, 7:13 PM
Kai Akker said...: Michael Snow is still alive.

Wavelength, do you remember it?

You can find it on youtube, where people write things like "Worst Movie Ever."

Michael Snow is still alive. That's wonderful news.; 4/13/22, 7:27 PM
madAsHell said...: Ya' know.......all these years, and I always thought skunk cabbage was euphemism for a Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road.; 4/13/22, 7:43 PM
Kai Akker said...: Even now, I'm not sure Michael Snow knows why Wavelength was so powerful. Its power came in part from the time, made in 1967. In a 1983 video interview, he refers to it as a series of still photos. I thought I had misunderstood something crucial about the movie! No, all he meant was that movies are still images projected at 24 frames per second. OK, but that has nothing to do with Wavelength! I watched it again tonight -- still had to leave the room once or twice to make it through. Part of the charm.

It's a little bit like how Phillip Glass evolved as a composer. He was a non-conforming "genius" first, who did it all on some other drive and some other set of ears. Later, he dropped what he had done in the '60s and early '70s, and became a more conventional romantic or post-romantic composer. But that stuff he did back then.... there is still nothing like it. It's incredibly exhilarating to listen to. His discussion of studying with Nadia Boulanger is so endearing. He thought he was just a mistake she had made. He couldn't really believe she was trying to teach him composition or thought he had a future. Then he started to wonder if any of the others in the group were feeling anything similar. But Nadia must have heard something in his music that she knew had value, remarkable value.

It's a little strange to find that people are looking back to those 1960s and early '70s years in downtown Manhattan as something unique. I guess they were. But any time could be. For some reason, that time did have a power. In Wavelength, you hear a bit of Strawberry Fields Forever that is on a radio one "character" carries into the room. There was a great feeling of possibilities then. It's different now, but maybe these times have their own virtue. You have to be strong to think, speak and act separately from the insane conformity being enforced everywhere. If a young -- or not necessarily young -- artist can do that, in the first place, then maybe he or she will have a soul big enough to say or write or play something that will overarch these boring enforcers of today's limits. (Like AA's NYT.... don't tell her that, though!); 4/13/22, 8:08 PM
farmgirl said...: They look like horns- awesome colored, low hooked horns from cattle in the 1800s.
I’ve never seen skunk cabbage like that before. I like it!; 4/13/22, 8:26 PM
Humperdink said...: I watched the Ben Crump payday video of the shooting. Earth to bad guys: obey the police and live to fight another day. Oh, and don't reach for any of their weapons.; 4/13/22, 8:27 PM
William said...: I try to stay ill informed, but I do watch The Five and later the Evening News with David Muir. One day recently, The Five reported on one of the Sacramento shooters. He was a low life with a repeat history of beating the woman in his life half to death. The second time he was sentenced to ten years and was let out in four. Not for good time or anything. Just because or maybe covid or mass incarceration of some such bullshit....On the Evening News, they did not mention the Sacrament shooter. As far as I know, he hasn't had quite the coverage of other killers. David Muir did report on a screwed up no-knock raid. One of the officers involved shot an innocent resident who was holding a legally obtained handgun when the police burst in. The officer involved was not charged with any kind of crime. Crump and Sharpton were on the scene and proclaimed it an injustice....My judgement or, if you will, bias leads me to believe that the Sacramento shooter was the bigger story, but don't both stories deserve coverage. It just seems so blatant.; 4/13/22, 8:45 PM
Rt41Rebel said...: An old Boy Scout camping trip prank consisted of stuffing you buddy's sleeping bag with skunk cabbage.; 4/13/22, 8:45 PM
William said...: There's a puff piece in the current The New Yorker about the BBC. I've seen and enjoyed some of their shows. If you spend a billion plus every year or so, you're bound to connect some of the time....The writer maintains that the BBC is for everyone, but, of course, fish think water is ideal for breathing and the writer is very much in the BBC demographic....I don't have any big argument with the BBC, but I do wish the writer had mentioned some of their more egregious failures. When you talk about the Penn State football program, you're bound to mention Jerry Sandusky. When you talk about BBC's popular programming, you should mention Top O The Pops and Jimmy Saville....I saw the Netflix documentary on him. Thar show prominently mentioned the support Saville received from Margaret Thatcher and Saville's friendly relations with Prince Charles. There wasn't much mention of Saville superiors at the BBC or how and why they avoided that for decades he abused the minors he encountered while making BBC programs for the young. And the New Yorker article didn't mention it all.; 4/13/22, 8:58 PM
William50 said...: So does the COVID vaccine really work like past vaccines? No. It doesn't keep you from getting infected. It doesn't prevent you from spreading the virus and it doesn't always prevent death. In fact it may actually cause you to become infected with the new variant.

The more you vax, the weaker your immune system becomes?

Government data from the UK, implies that the more you vaccinate, the more likely you are to become infected.

UK Government COVID-19 vaccine surveillance reports:
Table 14 entitled: ”Unadjusted rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalisation and death in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.” For Weeks 4 and beyond, you’ll see that the numbers get worse over time. There is no way to explain this effect other than the vaccine is making people more and more susceptible to infection over time, likely by destroying our natural immunity. Here is the most recent table (from Week 13):

Table 14. Unadjusted rates of COVID19 infection, hospitalisation and death in vaccinated and unvaccinated poopulations

Cases reported by by specimen date between week 9 2022 (w/e March 6 2022)
And week 12 2022 (w/e March 27 2022)

Unadjusted rates Unadjusted rates
among persons among persons not
vaccinated with at vaccinated (per 100,000)
least 3 doses (per
100,000)

Under 18 1,454.0 1,711.7
18 to 29 3,118.8 941.6
30 to 39 4,324.7 1,085.6
40 to 49 3,957.8 955.3
50 to 59 3,303.4 779.8
60 to 69 2,814.9 572.8
70 to 79 2,161.5 532.1
80 or over 2,023.7 775.6; 4/13/22, 9:04 PM
wildswan said...: Continuing the theme of the second picture, I see Rachel Maddow is cutting back on her show and starting to help with programming on NBC. This is good because I'm pretty sure she can't save the channel and meanwhile her show will sink without her. You wonder why people do this - stop doing what they're good at and start on some doomed project - CNN+, saving NBC. Watching Chris Cuomo and others you think to yourself that leading the Donner party would be safer than a top media job right now.; 4/13/22, 9:07 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Lurker21 said...

I also saw A Couch in New York, a farce from Chantal Akerman (very atypical of her work) about a New York psychoanalyst and a French dancer swapping apartments. The script and the acting were terrible, but somehow Juliette Binoche and William Hurt made it endurable and even endearing.

I remember being stuck on an airplane once when that was the in-flight movie. It was an overnight flight to Europe and I assume the crew figured we'd all sleep through it, but I can never sleep on planes. I've dreaded the possibility of running into it again for years as I couldn't remember the title. Now, I know what film to avoid, thank you!; 4/13/22, 9:20 PM
Howard said...: We saw some skunk cabbage on the edge of a bog a couple weeks ago here in Center Mass.; 4/13/22, 9:54 PM
madAsHell said...: The Russians have lost a significant piece of Navy hardware. Abandon ship bad.

I'm not sure what WW3 will look like, but so far everyone is trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.; 4/13/22, 10:05 PM
David Begley said...: Riots in Grand Rapids, MI this weekend. The Governor is already amping this killing up.; 4/13/22, 10:06 PM
gadfly said...: Somehow there is something desperately wrong with the "Major" story in the New York Post wherein White House Secret Service Agents are bitching about being bitten by the Biden's dog, now long gone from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Somehow, I am not convinced that these agents are ready to stand up to protect the President.

The story of the fake Homeland Security Agents befriending and giving gifts to Secret Service Agents assigned to the President and Vice President is a serious one worthy of concern but handling aggressive dogs like Major might be painful but there is no danger of loss of life as there might be if an agent has to take one for the President.

The advice that I gave my kids was - if you don't like your job - resign.; 4/13/22, 11:17 PM
jrapdx said...: Questions about the Covid19 vaccines are rampant. It's hard to find reliable information, after all, who is trustworthy when it comes to facts? Personally I (mostly) trust science when I can see the actual published studies, but not at all anything spewed by political hacks or random snippets splattered all over the internet.

Recent studies I have seen are reporting that mRNA vaccines (2 doses + booster) provide protection against invasive treatment (on ventilator) or death to the tune of 90%. Also per CDC data, at peak of Omicron (Jan '22), of people having COVID, unvaxed hospitalized at rate 12 times greater than 3-dose vax, and 4 times more than 2-dose vax.

Science seems to be saying that covid vax is far from perfect but does protect against severe disease/death. Is half a loaf better than none? Can't say for sure, we'll see what happens...; 4/14/22, 1:53 AM
StephenFearby said...: NY Post April 14

NJ women’s prison inmates pregnant after sex with [stud] transgender prisoner

Two inmates serving time in New Jersey’s only state prison for women became pregnant after they had sex with a transgender inmate, according to a report Wednesday.

The unidentified jailbirds became pregnant at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility after engaging in “consensual sexual relationships with another incarcerated person,” the state Department of Corrections told NJ.com.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/14/edna-mahan-womens-prisoners-pregnant-after-sex-with-transgender-inmate/

As SNL's Church Lady (Dana Carvey) was wont to say: "Well, isn't that special".; 4/14/22, 2:21 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/04/13/secret-service-agents-claim-white-house-lied-about-dog-attack-story/
No truth is too small to distort for the Bidens.; 4/14/22, 4:37 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Neanderfucks... https://andmagazine.substack.com/p/staggering-incompetence-or-something?s=r
Embrace the decline.; 4/14/22, 4:53 AM
wendybar said...: Narr said...
The Texas--DC Immigrant Express is for real. The Five covered it.

It's bad enough we let these people in, but it was worse watching the gummint drones -hugging- and -congratulating- them as if they had accomplished a great thing.

We no longer have a country. Not really.

4/13/22, 6:57 PM
Jen Psaki says illegal immigrants are “FREE TO TRAVEL” throughout the U.S. once they cross the border. Still think this wasn't planned?? Just wait until Joe suspends title 42, and millions more invade....

https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1514333903468781568?; 4/14/22, 5:12 AM
iowan2 said...: The story of the fake Homeland Security Agents befriending and giving gifts to Secret Service Agents assigned to the President and Vice President is a serious one worthy of concern

That's a sanitized version, of Highly trained Secret Service Agents, assigned to protect the Family of the President, being bribed. The bribers, are US citizens, but of Iranian origin.
The media is silent on anything surrounding the case. Discovered by the US postal service, not SS investigation.
This follows up the Jan 6 show. Two bombs (duds) found Jan 6. One at DNC headquarters, one at RNC headquarters. 15 months later and no suspect. Important to the Secret Service story how?
Vice President Harris was at the DNC headquarters Jan 6. The SS swept the building, as they would do before any protectee would arrive. The SS missed a bomb laying next to a park bench, next to the DNC Office. Raw incompetence? Or are they operating like the FBI in Michigan, and part of the false flag operation?
The media are dutiful lap dogs, performing for kibble, but not doing any work. Finding any facts may ruin a carefully crafted narrative, and the media is not going to mess with the regime narrative.; 4/14/22, 5:12 AM
Narayanan said...: Musk offers to buy 100 percent of Twitter; 4/14/22, 5:48 AM
Humperdink said...: Recently released emails show Biden's dog Major bit Secret Service agents 8 days in a row. Back in the day, it was said dogs were allowed one free bite. Not true anymore. These agents were subject to an aggressive canine repeatedly. Why am I not surprised with this idiot in charge.

As the owner of the same breed, I can tell you a mouthy dog has not been adequately trained.

https://nypost.com/2021/08/26/joe-bidens-dog-bit-more-people-than-disclosed-emails-show/; 4/14/22, 5:58 AM
farmgirl said...: “The advice that I gave my kids was - if you don't like your job - resign.”

… &very good advice it is, gadfly.; 4/14/22, 6:05 AM
Birches said...: Jrapdx is being paid by pharma. Haha

What a press release of a comment.; 4/14/22, 6:32 AM
wendybar said...: Tony Dungy (the first black coach ever to win a Super Bowl!!!!) stood with Ron DeSantis this past week for a "Responsible Fatherhood Initiative" and the woke Progressives ATTACKED him for it (as usual) He replied with Saint Obamas OWN words and said "14 yrs ago Pres Obama said the same things almost verbatim. I’m assuming people were outraged at him too.”

"This is what Obama wrought. Dungy peeled back the first layer of the onion. Someone needs to keep peeling." -https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/unapologetic_tony_dungy_smokes_out_obamas_betrayal_of_black_america.html; 4/14/22, 7:11 AM
Iman said...: Caged Heat in NJ.; 4/14/22, 7:49 AM
Jupiter said...: "Science seems to be saying that covid vax is far from perfect but does protect against severe disease/death. Is half a loaf better than none? Can't say for sure, we'll see what happens."

"Science"?

Go jab yourself.; 4/14/22, 10:52 AM
Susan in Seattle said...: My parents were fond of day trips around Mt. Rainier. Their sightings of skunk cabbage heralded Spring, despite the vernal equinox. In mid-April, we'd get a phone call and they'd say, 'We saw skunk cabbage today, Spring is here!' My siblings and I continue to report the first sighting of skunk cabbage to one another. A couple of years ago, my 'first sign of Spring' was in a city park close to the University of Washington.; 4/14/22, 9:56 PM