Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, January 13, 2024
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34 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Ice and snow scheduled in PDX. 20°F, random snowflakes starting. Too cold to sit outside with my glass of buffalo trace. How can a drink this tasty be under $30/liter even with Oregon’s absurd taxes? Ah, sweet mystery of life.
Forgot to mention I had chocolate mousse for dessert last night. At my request, nobody at Olive Garden sang. If they could have made chocolate moose, I would have relented.
Got down to 35F in sunny San Diego overnight.
The furnace is running nonstop because nobody insulates houses in this town.
It’s so cold I almost didn’t wear shorts this morning on my taco shop run for breakfast burritos.
It’s currently -6 here. Brrr.
It’s 54 right now in the Philly suburbs, after 3/4 inch of rain overnight. Snow is the forecast for Tuesday, though.
Forgot to mention, the high today will be 5.
Rainy, wet, windy, and warm (42 degrees=warm for NH in January). Temps are expected to plummet overnight, so tomorrow will be fun…wet + cold means ice everywhere. :-/
Just finished our run. 16 on the thermometer. -2 with the windchill. Noticeably smaller running group.
79 degrees in Deerfield Beach, FL. Got up at 7 AM, rode to the beach (5 miles each way), then walked about 2 miles on the beach watching the waves roll in. Easily makes up for the 6 months of summer with 90 degrees and 75 percent humidity. Not sure if it makes up for Desantis..
@SenyorDave:
Where I attended High School from 1976 to 1979 while living just two blocks south of DB on 53rd street in Lighthouse Point.
Watched The Holdovers last night. From the first moments, it was pretty clear that the filmmakers were saying, “Hey, remember those really good movies from the late Sixties and early Seventies? We’re making one of those!” Good on its own merits, inspired by those films rather than just showing gauzy nostalgia for them. What I love about films like The Graduate and Little Big Man was their ability to combine seriousness and humor, hope and tragedy, nobility and weakness, and other competing aspects of the human experience, while telling great stories with interesting characters. Recommend seeing it.
@SenyorDave: 70 on the lanai here in SW FL right now, but supposed to drop over the day to 64 this afternoon. I look at DeUseless and the rest of FL politics and ask if we made a big mistake. Then I look at OH and the politics we’d see had we stayed in Cincinati. Might as well accept that it’s good I no longer own snow shovels.
4 degrees here, a dusting of snow on the ground. -5 predicted for tonight. Snow starts up again tomorrow afternoon, supposed to continue thru Monday.
It’s only -10 here. No wind yet. The wind yesterday was crazy! It’s a good thing we don’t have much snow, or we’d have been blown in.
A column at The Guardian this morning says that Iran, not the U. S. with allies, is now the dominant power in the Middle East. It further notes China is supporting Iran and receiving black market oil in return while Russia is selling modern weapons to Iran as Iran sells drones to Russia. The column partially raises my question. What would circumstances be like now had Trump not killed the Iran nuclear deal and W not invaded Iraq for no credible reason that’s ever been stated?
@gVOR10: I think he overstates his case. Not that he doesn’t have any good points, he does.
@Kingdaddy:
100%. It reminds me of the movies that made me want to get into the business.
So well done. Alexander Payne usually delivers a good story. My wife prides herself it seeing through most movie plots. This one flummoxed her completely. Couldn’t figure it out.
It’s 25 degrees with wind chill factored in here in Memphis. Yesterday the wind was gusting 40-50 mph. Luckily, we only briefly lost power. Today the temperature is going to drop and snow starts tomorrow afternoon. I made pots of soup (creamy chicken and rice and lentil, sausage and kale soups) and chicken shawarma. Baking bread today and bringing in lots of firewood. The coming week is going to be dipping into single digits and I am betting the lake freezes over. Sadie has a fleece lined coat for walks. Plenty of propane for the generator. Indoor litter box set up for cats.
I am prepared!
Frost on the cars this morning (29 degrees) in San Antonio. Due to get up to 63 by afternoon. Deep freeze Sunday night. ERCOT (our power regulator) is freaking out. People stocking up like the apocalypse is about to happen. All over 2 days of freezing temperatures.
Currently 40F here in Phoenix suburbs, was 33 when I got up hours ago. Will go for a walk very soon.
Currently watching Bron – Broen (Nordic detective noir) on an obscure streamer called Topic that specializes in European stuff like Nordic noirs. Really getting into it. Vastly better/different than the American remake (The Bridge) from FX/Hulu which I rewatched recently.
SE Michigan – five inches hard and fast yesterday; light snow with a hard driving wind now.
I had the A/C on in the car yesterday around noon.
@Jen:
Same here in northeastern Mass., but there are flash flood warnings and a coastal flood watch as well. It must be the same for Sleeping Dog.
@Barry: Going to be cold here in the coming days. Still tolerable today, but Im not sure if I want to trudge out to the parade for the Wolverines today.
A follow up to yesterday’s eating out talk
The best steak house in PB County, is Okeechobee. Okeechobee, on Okeechobee Blvd, has been in business over 75 years. DW and I ate there a few times in the 90’s and we have eaten there 2-3 times a year since 2021. Usually for birthdays, anniversaries, or I had a really good day book business wise*.
Why don’t we eat there more often rather going to Outback*
1 It can be an hour drive in rush hour traffic
2 I am not big on paying $200 for dinner. Fillet mingeons, lobster tails and tip all add up. Look at the online menu and you’ll see why.
3 Parking isn’t easy at this restaurant and reservations are needed. It isn’t advisable to go there without planning ahead.
Dear wife and I will probably eat there again** when our 35th church wedding anniversary comes up next June. The last time we ate there, fall of last year, was after I received payment for selling the rights to one of my books.
*- After a very big day book sale wise, which I made comment about here, DW and I ate at Outback. It was appropriate too, because it was a day I sold over 100 books in Australia on the same day. We like their Prime rib dinners.
**- Unless the wife is on vacation we eat there on weekends and arrive early around 4:30. As I said, traffic can be murder when trying to get there.
A foot of snow, followed by 4″ of rain that melted the earlier snow, add another inch and a half of rain, plus a high tide 5′ above normal and you get this…
https://photos.app.goo.gl/M3Dt1yZsqsU7YTcc9
Oh and a tree fell across the power lines and we’ll be w/o power till tonight.
@Sleeping Dog:
It’s sunny and a little breezy here now. Has your weather improved?
I hope you get your power back soon.
@CSK:
Around 2, it became bright and sunny, then about 3:15 a squall pushed through, the winds picked up and it has been showering since.
The tree is nearly gone, they’re cleaning up the debris now, with the utility company trucks staged to begin work. I’m guessing between 6 and 7.
Laura “Looney” Loomer contends that Nikki Haley is using her friends in the defense department to cause blizzards in Iowa to spoil Trump’s chances of winning the Iowa caucus.
Last night Chicago was supposed to be destroyed in a winter apocalypse. I called an audible and went and danced to Techno in a basement bar. It was raining most of the day, then it got a little foggy on the way to the club. Leaving wasn’t bad, cold, but not COLD, and a bit of icy snow. This morning was a bit of snow and COLD. We’re supposed to have another weather apocalypse sometime between now and Tuesday. The vibes don’t know. I suspect in the next 10 years winters here won’t really have any snow.
That club was great. Chicago has a ton of really awesome basement bars. And the women’s bathroom was insane. It was like an SNL “Stephan” skit come to life.
While Daejeon was 41 and sunny yesterday, Longview/Kelso has gotten Daejeon’s weather sent here by mistake. 24 degrees and a not too thick coating of snow frozen to the pavement–just enough to keep everyone off the streets. Fortunately, Monday is MLK day, a school holiday. Unfortunately, the overnight low is forecast at 16 until Tuesday morning when the temperature will reach a high of just freezing.
Trump has picked Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, a member of the Gambino crime family, as his latest character witness.
Tom Shales 79 RIP
@Bill Jempty:
As I said yesterday, no judgment or piling on about your dinner venue.* As long as you enjoyed it, this Luddite shares your joy. Congratulations on starting your next tour of the solar system.
* Personally, I prefer chocolate mousse to chocolate moose (especially with whipped cream), but different strokes, etc.