59 Comments

"All life’s horrors"

in ONE easy-opening package!

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Pandora to the courtesy phone! Pandora to the white courtesy phone, please!

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Pandora was soooo easy...

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" Pandora's Box" was a euphemism , I bet.

https://substack.com/profile/870651-worriedman/note/c-82772116?r=insr

Ebert was often right -

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-pandoras-box-1928

Read " Lulu in Hollywood" .

Indispensable.

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Pandora - the original Tamperer In (the) Gods' Domain

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yes, she peppered in God's lo mein!

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Oof.

Not to say I wouldn't have posted it if I'd thought of it.

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"Senator John Fetterman assures us he is confident that Chief Wallet Inspector Kash Patel will return every wallet he inspects intact, in the exact same condition in which it was handed to him."

BTW, Peoni's ensemble this week hits the bullseye. Well done.

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Never doubt that an average-sized group of thoughtless, uncommitted citizens can mange the world; indeed, it's the only sort of humanity that ever was.

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I think Luigi's trial is going to be some kind of peak 21st century event. I look forward to the Very Rich crawling further and further into their gated communities and bodyguarded media bubbles commiserate with how far up into their abdomens their testicles crawl as a popular culture overwhelmingly agrees with the idea they should be shot like sewer rats or rabid dogs.

Stephen Miller with Captain kangaroo hair made my Christmas holiday!

Thanks!

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"malevolent Lovecraftian squid-gods"

Oh, the Heritage Foundation.

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One squid-god's 'malevolence' is another's 'just a fine old time'!

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"Malevolent Lovecraftian squid-gods" are a whole lot less malevolent when served with garlic butter

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Aren't we all?

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Gentle reminder that, in a better life, there would be a border guard at the exit from every gated community, charging alla them overlords&ladies for the privilege of entering the real world.

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Looks like Peoni got the last pink Akris dress, as going to the site as I always do, I see the pink one is no longer available. Well I guess I'll just have to go elsewhere for that last Christmas present for Ms. Lawguy.

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Chinese* lunch Wednesday!

*or, in our case, Turkish**

**your comestible ethnicity may vary

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My kids are getting us vegan Indian takeout. Another samosa please!

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Thats what I wanted too but one of the group has extreme low tolerance for spice. Sad.

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Fetterman is the Sinema of Manchins. Apparently there is a locus of liberalism in the left hemicortex that his stroke destroyed. Can’t wait for him to French kiss Oz during that quack’s confirmation hearing.

Meanwhile, it seems Trump’s pr team has created a LLM AI that produces coherent, if ill-informed, long tweets that include the Donz signature random capitalization. The Panama tweet and the “stop saying President Musk” tweet are apparently the first in this new form of communication, which probably gives Trump more time to play golf.

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While Sinema's descent from Green Party firebrand to "I don't give a shit, let them eat cake" is maybe the most cynically blatant metamorphosis I've seen in modern politics, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Fetterman is on the same trajectory. He wants to be President, and he sees which way the wind is blowing. He thinks a big bald guy in a hoodie who looks uncomfortable in his ill-fitting suits may be the winning centrist candidate in 2028.

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Years ago I'd have said that Fetterman's odyssey included too many disqualifying elements. Even heart problems and hospitalization for major depression coulda sunk him electorally, at least at the presidential level. I'm not saying he could get nominated, let alone win, only that— well, you get it.

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Yeah, after Biden's decline in office and Trump's obvious mental health issues, the bar has been lowered to the ground. Simply being upright and compos mentis is likely sufficient these days.

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Finally, a bar I can clear!

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You mean, "compost mentis"

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This one's for Worriedman (apologies to Roberts & Barrand):

When I die, bury me low

Make sure that I compost really slow

I'll mulch the bulbs so that they will grow

Up on the hills of New Joisey!

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He, with a baseball bat, chased around a black guy when he was a Mayor in Pennsylvania, so the Repubs might like him

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Indeed.

I'll admit that I had not heard of that incident before consulting the Web this morning.

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Remember the Wingers telling us Obama was our Messiah? Close enough to the Every Accusation Is A Confession...

I don't think Karma is much more than cause and effect in this sad old world: I want to see some blowback on tRump and Elon..

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And that song: that annoying tune about a drum solo: a song only Grace Jones should be allowed to sing, that I have dodged this Solstice time, is now an earworm that goes "pah-Trump-pum-pum-pum...

The power of words indeed.

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I always wonder how much a woman who just went through unassisted childbirth in a barn really wants some juvenile dipshit banging on a snare drum next to her.

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"Little Drummer Boy" is my least-favorite canonical Christmas song. Coincidentally, it wasn't written by a Jew.

The magi should have dealt harshly with him. Seen and not heard, kid.

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... It's a bargain-basement Boléro. An arrangement of it should get steadily bigger in order to offset its lack of melodic development. Add a few upward modulations and you've got an LDB in the can.

(I thought Ravel stayed in the same key the whole time, but Wikipedia says there's more; in any case, he doesn't rely on the hackneyed upward modulations used in pop and jazz to add interest to repeated sections.)

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No LDB for me thanks -- this household strictly rolls ODB

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It’s just objectively an atrocious song. There are so many good non-theological Christmas songs already, but someone decided we needed this rat-a-tat-tat dreck vaguely straddling the line between secular and theological. Man, you could’ve just stuck to Jingle Bells, Holly Jolly Christmas, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Sleigh Ride, et al. Or if you wanted a religious one, In the Bleak Midwinter (hard to beat the songwriting team of Rossetti & Holst) or scads of others. But no: someone decided we needed sentimental, pretentious twaddle with snare drum. Pass!

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Vince. I repeat. Vince.

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I'd still rather hear it than "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" for the forty millionth time. 😖

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Yeah, the Brenda Lee one is good, but they need to give it a rest once in a while.

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I'm sorry, but so is Brenda Lee

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All right, all right.

2 marks.

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And not a decent drum, like a Rogers or a Ludwig. Can you imagine?

"JESUS CHRIST! What IS that?"

"Uh...Bethlehem Drum Works."

"UGH."

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Isn't there a clay tablet with a letter from a Hittite kings bandleader complaining the last shipment of drums and timbrels were "complete camel crap"?

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I'm trying to come up with something beginning with "Good Führer Trump looked out" and not achieving much.

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God Head Führer Trump looked out

For the trolls upheavin'

Wielded he his tariff clout

C'mmenced the proles a'cleavin'

Ho-o-o-o-o-o-oh-o-o-o-o-o-oh-o-o-o-o-o-orrible

Annex Mar a Lago

Ho-o-o-o-o-o-oh-o-o-o-o-o-oh-o-o-o-o-o-orrible

Annex Mar a Lago-oh

Ah, maybe not...

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After all this time, I still get a kick out of Roy's characters' names.

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Not a comment, but how DO you find the outfits for the Received Opinion guests? How long does it take? Are you secretly Derek Guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social? Inquiring minds want to know!

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Chafe Dramaturgy is wearing what I call the "Jordan Peterson Special".

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Though why stop at only one season per Peterson suit?

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It's a hobby!

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Hundetochter!

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Do you think Miller has actually put in the time and effort to learn how to pronounce German, or is he just mangling the words the way any MAGA of the soil would?

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yes, to both

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2017: "Good people. The best people."

2025: "Bad people. The worst people."

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When satire fails, there's always ultra-violence

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Lady Windermere’s Fan directed by Sam Peckinpah

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"his approval rating among people who matter — billionaires, police officers, people who like to dress up as police offices, and billionaires!" And "All life's horrors..." -- Great stuff, Roy!

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