You drag your body around behind you everywhere you go

[sovay]

And then some days you get up and discover that someone tried to assassinate two former U.S. Presidents, one former presidential candidate, one prominent Jew, and a lot of journalists [correction: one ex-CIA director c/o a lot of journalists], and that's great, that's just great. The White House blusters about despicable acts and egregious conduct. But it couldn't have anything to do with the things the man in the White House is always saying about the conspiracies of his enemies arrayed against him, his incitement of violence against the media and protesters and his political opposition—will no one rid him of these turbulent socialists—could it? No, the escalation of vocal hatred and domestic terrorism is just one of those things that happens without reason, like the derangement of the climate. Like mass shootings. Tragic and unavoidable. Not man-made at all. Thoughts and prayers.

Get out and vote.

ETA: ALL THAT SAID, HUGE FREAKING DOUBLE RAINBOW ACROSS HALF THE SKY:



STILL A QUEER PLANET. STILL A COVENANT. AUGURY WILL ALSO DO.

Comments

[cmcmck]

And he puts his wife up to take the flak (again).

What kind of arsehole is he?

[sovay]

What kind of arsehole is he?

I'm not going to say the worst because I don't believe in feeding his ego with superlatives even at a distance of sympathetic magic, but certainly he is one.

[conuly]

The stinky kind.

[cmcmck]

I appreciate that I may be being unkind to that most useful of appendages, the arsehole, but with a creature like that, what descriptor does one use?

[selkie]

I am sorry I brought the news into your orbit this morning. *passes bag of large marshmallows and a pointy stick*

[sovay]

I am sorry I brought the news into your orbit this morning.

It's just that I don't look at social media first thing when I get out of bed. I would have seen it otherwise. Do not worry.

Marshmallows and improvised weaponry always gladly accepted, though.

*hugs*

[selkie]

None of my weaponry is improvised

It just has to look innocuous on the transit

*ahem* Chocolate prune dark-rum cake for Thanksgiving, or a lemon blueberry drizzle cake for the unseasonal nod to anthropogenic climate change? (I will have to do a freeform blueberry galette in any case, as a macabre joke -- Uncle Carl's late wife keeps flinging blueberries at him even when he hasn't bought any, because they don't sleep sound in my wife's family -- and could just put a lemon glaze on that.)

What weaponry where. I help people. I bake nice cakes.

[sovay]

Chocolate prune dark-rum cake for Thanksgiving

So I am legitimately indifferent to chocolate (I don't dislike it, I just don't like it as much as I like many, many other things), but everything else in that recipe is a YES.

(If you're honor-bound to make a blueberry galette, just put a lemon glaze on it.)

What weaponry where. I help people. I bake nice cakes.

You do. And you only use your teeth for smiling. Sharply.

[selkie]

https://www.jsonline.com/story/life/food/recipes/2016/10/11/chocolate-prune-and-rum-cake/91732100/

(is cake)

(no file baked in it)

(just cake)

I agree one doesn't usually do chocolate on Thanksgiving, but cooked apples are not a friend of the in-laws.

[moon_custafer]

Uncle Carl's late wife keeps flinging blueberries at him even when he hasn't bought any, because they don't sleep sound in my wife's family

Is this like the draugars that haunted a village in one of the Icelandic sagas, terrorizing people by taking all the best spots by the fire and shaking the mud off their cloaks everywhere?

[selkie]

I would like to stipulate at the start that I don't know what can have happened: she had a lovely, peaceful, blip of a death. (We know this because she had an implanted neurostimulator and, well, we know.) She was a bit Protestant but not in an abrasive way, and she was always calm and level at family gatherings.

Well, she died in February and since then there have been scattered, fresh blueberries in the basement of their home, jumping off refrigerator shelves, committing bluicide at the supermarket in front of his feet. They're just everywhere.

My wife's brother of blessed memory once left a russet potato (raw, whole, unpeeled) in an armchair in our living room in the dead of night, some several years after his own death, so I cannot wait to see what Mother in Law throws at us. I think it will be sprouts. A sprout-draugar would be really, really apt.

[sovay]

Well, she died in February and since then there have been scattered, fresh blueberries in the basement of their home, jumping off refrigerator shelves, committing bluicide at the supermarket in front of his feet. They're just everywhere.

Maybe she thinks he'd like them. Depending on the climate, I would honestly wait and see if they just start growing in the yard.

[selkie]

Mostly, I coined bluicide in a lucid moment between lots of pain and I can never use it at a family gathering because the goyim's sense of humor around these things is not the same.

(I couldn't even tell them about Mabel the Nice Old Lady Who Does the Tahara Demonstrations. Mabel is 90, loves going to the conferences, gets a nice kosher lunch, and is tiny and easy to shroud. Did I tell you about Mabel? I just couldn't help thinking one day the Malach-ha-Maves is going to tap on her elbow at a demo and be like, Don't get up, Mabel, you're already dressed. )

[sovay]

Did I tell you about Mabel? I just couldn't help thinking one day the Malach-ha-Maves is going to tap on her elbow at a demo and be like, Don't get up, Mabel, you're already dressed.

You did! From a standpoint of sympathetic magic, it seems . . . provocative.

[gwynnega]

It was not a great way to start the day.

[sovay]

It was not a great way to start the day.

A successful assassination would have been worse, but I'm not saying we need to test it.

The rainbow (added to post) makes me feel better.

[gwynnega]

That double rainbow is lovely.

[bluecatartist]

Quite a morning to wake up to, indeed. I took a nap this afternoon and did the sign of the cross and genuflected before turning laptop back on. Each day is a new level of surreal and fear and WTF now? I'm past exhausted. James Woods calling it a publicity stunt (by the dems), I didn't read more after the headline. But yes, confronting someone in a restaurant is worse than pipe bombs <sarcasm The rest of the shit storm of arguing I'm not reading now, I know it is there but don't need to wade in. Awesome photo, rainbows do make life better. We had a double rainbow a few wks ago, the same day the plumber was here to put in a new hot water heater. It was a pleasant distraction from the impending gut punch of the bill (even knowing the amount before hand, writing that check is physical). I took photos - of the rainbow from many angles - apparently all still on my phone though.

[sovay]

The rest of the shit storm of arguing I'm not reading now, I know it is there but don't need to wade in.

That sounds very sensible. I agree that it just seems to get worse and I want it to stop. I want to stop it. I remember not having to worry on a daily basis about the safety of everyone I love.

I took photos - of the rainbow from many angles - apparently all still on my phone though.

Let me know if you post any of them! I hadn't seen a double rainbow in years.

[julian]

It seems, though I haven't paid attention to the news in a few hours, that it was less directly aimed at CNN, and instead was mis-delivered and was actually sent specifically to ex-CIA Director John Brennan, c/o MSNBC.

(Edit: Per the FBI, actually, c/o CNN. I guess he used to be on CNN and the perp isn't up to date on details, which, OK.)

Which, you know, not any better, but at least different.

Also: Go your rainbow.

[sovay]

Which, you know, not any better, but at least different.

It matters because it's true. Thanks for the clarification. I was seeing "mailed to CNN" at the time when I made the post.

Also: Go your rainbow.

I still feel good about seeing it.

[conuly]

Double rainbows are like stars. They're always there*, we just can't always see them. Throughout my life I've seen some vague meaning in these facts.

* Okay, unlike stars they're only always there when atmospheric conditions are right, but don't ruin the analogy.

[sovay]

Okay, unlike stars they're only always there when atmospheric conditions are right, but don't ruin the analogy.

The potential for the right atmospheric conditions is always there.

[conuly]

And atmospheric conditions bend towards justice!

[choco_frosh]

Like!

[alexxkay]

Rainbows are very nearly always present, just rarely large/strong enough to be naked-eye visible.

[conuly]

Oh, so it does still work!

[asakiyume]

Double rainbow all the way.

[sovay]

Double rainbow all the way.

It looked even better in person. There were fine bands of violet and green below the regular curve. I couldn't even get all of it into my camera.

[nineweaving]

That is a heart-lifting rainbow.

Thank you.

Nine

[sovay]

Thank you.

You're welcome. I turned my head to look out my window as usual and shouted for spatch to come and see.