Not that it will make you feel better, but here’s my story of my worst such time.
Around 4 pm one day, the owner comes to our department and says “Remember that huge proposal due tomorrow we said we wouldn’t present? I changed my mind. We’re presenting it.”
That gave us around 17 hours to do four days worth of work. We were so busy, we couldn’t take a half hour to get dinner. And we finished so close to the time we had to present it, we didn’t have time for breakfast. Then the presentation, during which the customer reviews several binders full of documents from every participant, took from 10 am to 3 pm. Then we had time for a very late lunch.
@Kathy: Had a boss once who had a poster on the wall behind her desk situated so that when seated in her office you were looking right into it. It said: “Bad planning on YOUR part does not constitute an emergency on MY part”.
Several delicious moments occurred during the following years in which I had the opportunity to recite that phrase back to her.
Summer Wright experienced homelessness on and off for years as a teenager and young adult. At no point would she have benefited from a $500 fine, or having police sweep away her belongings.
“It wouldn’t have urged me into a shelter. It would have urged me further away,” said Wright, a member of the Austin Youth Collective.
But – amid outcry over large, more visible encampments around Texas’s capital city – Austinites are still torn on whether they should use an election on Saturday to reinstate criminal bans on behaviors that are part and parcel of an unhomed existence.
The national homelessness crisis has become an ideological punching bag in Texas, where lawmakers are also threatening a statewide ban on encampments. And, nearly two years after the Austin city council rolled back rules affecting unsheltered residents, a new ballot measure, Proposition B, would revert to criminalizing camping, panhandling, sitting or lying down on public sidewalks and sleeping outdoors.
“If I’d had this additional trauma and these additional barriers, I won’t say it would have stopped me from being housed ever,” Wright said. “But it definitely would have made the process a lot harder.”
Prop B could subject people who already cannot afford housing to tickets of up to $500, which would probably go unpaid and lead to arrest warrants.
“The only way you go to jail is if you cannot pay the citation,” said Matt Mackowiak, co-founder of the Save Austin Now Pac, the proposition’s chief advocacy group.
“If you are going to camp, the police are going to come up to you and they’re going to say, ‘Camping has now been banned in our city. You have to move.’”
Mackowiak described Prop B as a last-ditch effort to save Austin from becoming a failed city, and he said he wants to be part of the solution for unhomed residents after his campaign wins.
Yeah. Right. Sure you do. By housing them in jail. That’s the ticket.
For months, the 29-year-old Syrian had been the last sailor still living on a cargo ship, abandoned two years earlier near the mouth of the Suez Canal and being detained by the Egyptian government. They had refused to let him disembark but couldn’t keep him on the ship if it was sinking, he reasoned.
He activated an emergency beacon and shouted “Mayday! Mayday!” into the radio. Hours crawled by before a military patrol arrived to whisk him to land.
Ten days of interrogations in military and police stations later, Mr. Mohammad was right back where he started, returned to a deserted ship whose hull had been repaired. It was Oct. 27, 2019, and he wasn’t going anywhere.
@OzarkHillbilly:
It occurred to me that, ever since elbow and fist bumps became the substitute for handshakes, I haven’t seen one actual, real person perform a bump with another real, actual person. Just politicians and, I suppose, a few showbiz-type celebs. I have seen plenty of real, actual people exchange waves and nods and a cheerful “Hello” or “Nice to see you.”
Bumping seems more performative than sincere. Again, JMO.
@OzarkHillbilly: The Republican political establishment hate the homeless in Austin, the State Capitol, because they are an in-your-face reminder of their governance failure.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sure. But the bumping is ostentatiously performative in that it’s more a form of virtue-signaling than it is a simple attempt to greet someone. If the point is to avoid contact, then nodding and saying “hello” or “how do you do” from a discreet distance of a few feet is certainly more effective.
@Sleeping Dog: From a community perspective– Its not that the mission was hard–in fact the actual mission could be done by the operators in their sleep.
Getting to and from the objective in this case brought in a few additional risks that the same operation against a lower profile target wouldn’t have had. Simply because they would have staged and launched the operations from closer to the target. Long travel times in the age of social media and smartphones presents new risks older generation of SpecOps didn’t have to deal with. Surprise is your best friend and a tweet or text can take that away.
At any rate, in the aftermath of the draw down of Afghanistan–this is similar to how our Counter Terrorism ops there will look. The threat there is not zero–and all its going to take is for a few shit heads to plan and resource an operation there to shoot up a concert and whatever party in power will be gutted in the media for not keeping up safe. No President is going to allow that to happen on his watch.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Since I wrote that comment, the headline has dropped down beneath the header “News” in the upper right-hand corner of the TPM page.
@CSK: The point isn’t to avoid contact, it’s to avoid hand-to-hand contact and the spread of virus it causes. Hands go to one’s face multiple times a day, no matter how one tries not to, but one generally cannot rub one’s face with their own elbow.
The elbow bump never caught on, but not because it’s merely performative. It’s simply a poor substitute for a handshake.
It occurred to me that, ever since elbow and fist bumps became the substitute for handshakes, I haven’t seen one actual, real person perform a bump with another real, actual person.
The Republican political establishment hate the homeless in Austin, the State Capitol, because they are an in-your-face reminder of their governance failure.
Nah, that can’t be it — that would require Republicans to recognize that the existence of widespread homelessness is a failure of governance, rather than simply the fruits of poor personal choices by individuals.
Yes, but with a part of your hand that does not often come into contact with other parts of your body, or your eyes or nose or mouth. Also, most fist-bumps that I see these days stop about an inch short of contact.
But the bumping is ostentatiously performative in that it’s more a form of virtue-signaling than it is a simple attempt to greet someone. If the point is to avoid contact, then nodding and saying “hello” or “how do you do” from a discreet distance of a few feet is certainly more effective.
Fist bumps were round before the pandemic. And nodding from some distance doesn’t replace physical human contact, which is apparently important.
I’ve always been the crazy person who waves from three feet away, as I don’t like touching strangers because they are dirty, filthy and diseased.
@Gustopher:
Oh, I know fist bumps have been around for a while. As I said, they look a little silly to me, but if people want to do them, fine. And as I also said, they look a hell of a lot less silly than elbow-bumps.
Yes, contact is important for a lot of people, but we’ve been told over and over to avoid it. Not a problem for me, since I hate being pawed by people unless I’m very close to them.
Jaysus, let’s find something better to talk about. Read any good books lately?
Maybe I’m just too used to being in martial arts (especially MMA and boxing), where fist bumping is the normal greeting, but I’ve never seen fist bumping associated with terrorism no matter who did (plenty of non-white fist bump in MMA and boxing and terrorism is never brought up).
I get the reference to how whites can get away with things blacks and indigenous people can’t (and that’s very true), but how does fist bumping play into that? Its always been non-political.
@Mimai: I was one of “those people” who couldn’t deal with “wheelies” as Joe would call himself and other disabled folks who lived in a chair. I couldn’t look them in the eye or talk to them. If they needed a door opened I would do that but I didn’t hang around to exchange pleasantries. My prejudice started to break down when I drove the Yellow Cab in Sleepytown 50 years ago. I couldn’t turn away fares just because they were in a wheel chair so I would force myself to help them transfer from their chairs to the car. There was one couple in town, both quadriplegic in manual chairs. One night I was called to pick them up at an appartment complex. They had just gotten married and had me drive them to the local Ramada Inn. When we got there I helped them to their room and the groom asked me to assist his wife to get into the bed. “It’s OK” she said. So I lifted her out of the chair and laid her on the bed. This was before I met Joe and it was a quick lesson about helping people. You are there to do for them the things that they cannot do for themselves. Just listen to them and do it. It really isn’t all that difficult.
@mattbernius: I am stunned! I must confess that I am not much of a reader. I know that Vonnegut is a giant in literature. What I know of his work I likely picked up from Joe. He was an avid reader and talked about what he read all the time. I might have read one or two of Vonnegut’s books but I can’t remember which ones even after scanning a list of titles.
Memory has always been a problem. Even the authors that I know I have read like O. Henry or Conan Doyle or Jules Verne did not stick with me. I have even reread some of them but the images seem to escape my brain as quickly as I put them in there.
The UK has 66,000,000 people. There are 650 members of the House of Commons. MPs represent a district with roughly 97,000 people.
Canada has 37,000,000 people and 338 MPs. That makes the average per MP 96,000.
In Germany the population is 83,000,000 ranf there are 709 members in the Bundestag. This makes the ratio one member per 117,000 people.
France has a population of roughly 67,000,000. There are 577 members in the National Assembly, the equivalent of the House of Representatives. That makes for a ratio of one member per 67,000 people.
Israel has a population of roughly 8.8 million people and there are 120 members of the Knesset. That makes for one member per 73,000 people.
The 2020 Census showed the US population at 331,000,000 more or less. Its actually probably closer to 340,000,000.
In any case there are 435 Members of Congress meaning that the average district consists of 760,000 people.
My point is that 760,000 people per District is not representative. As I wrote in 2014 we need a bigger House of Representatives:
@Gustopher: but a lot of people don’t have that option.
I’m not talking about a lot of people, I was talking about me. I never let a contractor treat me like shit. If they started, I didn’t say a word, just picked up my tools and went home. The screamers really hated that.
I’ve started watching Superman and Lois, and I’m really kind of impressed by how often Superman solves a problem by handing Lois a large glass of wine.
Stressed out, have some wine. Going to a bbq where you have to listen to the Trumpy guy? Have some wine, and I need some too. End of the day? Wine. Celebrate? Wine.
The pattern was broken slightly by Lois and Lana going out for drinks and doing shots. I assume Superman was at home, drinking.
I hope this is leading to a special, teachable moment — “there are some problems that even superpowers cannot solve, and for that we have wine.”
In the Before Times, sport fencing rules required appoints to shake hands at the end of a bout. Refusing after the referee reminded you was a black card offense (at a tournament, you are immediately banned from the facility and to the extent possible, from the scoring results). One of our better local fencers was a germophobe. Even fist bumps upset him, so it was always elbow bumps. I never saw him fence at a national even to see if the referees at that level tolerated it.
The rules were changed and replaced the handshake with a repeat of the salute to opponent, referee, and audience that has always been required at the beginning of a bout.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Hand-extending seems to have originated in Greece, during the fifth century B.C., as a gesture of peace. The actual shaking of hands may have evolved during the Middle Ages in order to demonstrate that one had no weapons hidden up one’s sleeve. So it was practical as well as ceremonial in its inception.
But, as I say, fist-bump away to your heart’s content. (If that contents your heart.) I’ll probably start laughing if I ever have to do it, except with a little kid.
It’s these “little” (aka, massive) things that make the world better. These are wise words: “Just listen to them and do it. It really isn’t all that difficult.” My abbreviated version is: “They’re just humans.” Given your experience as a driver, you might appreciate the movie “Give Me Liberty.”
ps, You should write a book. About physical greetings.
Possible title: “Fists vs. Elbows: Performative Greetings in a Post-Pandemic World.”
Dedication: “To CSK.”
I realize that ticks are beneficial for the ecosystem. I really do. But (!), damn if I don’t wish those little buggers could be eradicated. Was hiking this morning with my dingo and have been picking ticks off her ever since. A few off me too. Ugh! Several of my backpacking friends have had Lyme disease. I’ve been lucky so far but wonder if it’s only a matter of time. Anyone have any good tick prevention tips (for me or the dingo)?
@Michael Cain: I also think you meant opponent for appoints shaking hands. As noted above, Refresh sometimes gets the edit function. I have to exit the post and then click back in and Refresh. And sometimes it just doesn’t work.
@gVOR08: Edit is a strange and fickle beast, generally seen only when you don’t need it.
I had autocorrect correct my attempt at “damn autocorrect” to “Dame Autocorrect” the other day, and I like it more than what I was trying to thumb out.
Remember that huge proposal due tomorrow we said we wouldn’t present? I changed my mind. We’re presenting it.
A) HAHAHAHAHA! Pull the other one.
B) No.
C) You’ll be paying me 6 times my normal rate, and 10 times for overtime. Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick 2.
X) And you will be here every minute we are. You will be awake and working every minute we are. If you leave, we leave. If it doesn’t get done in time, it’s your fault.
Z) No. And… we’ll be letting the corner office know that you promised something that we couldn’t deliver. And then we’ll be calling all of your clients to let them know that you promise things you can’t deliver. And then we’ll work as slowly as possible on all your projects–while giving a little extra to every other salesman.
@Mimai: Well, I can assure you of one thing in regards to ticks. You should never, ever, EVER spray your clothing down with copious amounts of mosquito spray, see a tick on your pant leg right after that, and use a lighter to light the little bastard up. Clothing becomes very flammable after being sprayed with mosquito spray. So flammable one must quickly remove said clothing if it’s on fire.
Thank goodness for lonely dirt roads and nobody watching the crazy rock hunter chick light herself on fire. 😛 😛 😛
@Mu Yixiao:
Then we have had different experiences. I’m in New England, where people aren’t as physically demonstrative as they are in other parts of the country. That may well have something to do with it.
I never thought I’d be rooting for Liz Cheney but in this fight with the Trump Cult I’m rooting for Liz Cheney.
I’m rooting for injuries.
Dick Cheney is an asshat. But he’s very good at it. I’m hoping Liz is relying on advice from Dick that Trump’s influence will fade quickly. Albeit mindful, as always, that it ain’t just Trump.
@Mimai: I got into some seed ticks yesterday. I spent most of last night and half the morning picking them off. As far as Lyme disease goes (and I’ve had a couple friends get it) I’m not too worried. I figure it’s inevitable. The trick is to pay attention and at the first sign of the bullseye, get on the appropriate antibiotic.
@Mimai: I’m a backpacker now living in FL (altho I’m waiting for my 2d hip replacement before starting any thru-hikes). And I have noticed that the meds for pets are amazingly effective in keeping my dog free of ticks and fleas. So I am planning on asking the vet what the dose of Trifexis is for a large adult human being.
(joking! don’t try this at home boys & girls)
ETA: The usual preventive for ticks is the liquid Permethrin. Soak clothes (focus on pants, of course), wash at least once before wearing.
@Joe: The occasional baby notwithstanding, the dingo is all about the social distancing. She is a dingo after all. As for masking, have you ever tried putting a mask on a dingo? Pro tip: don’t, just don’t.
@Jax: This is very timely advice, as that was my next “I wonder if this will work” experiment. 3rd degree burns averted. I owe you!
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve resigned myself to this fate too. Good reminder on the importance of early intervention.
@JohnMcC: I know FL ticks. Oh do I know them! I’ve never tried any of the meds, with the dingo or previous dogs. The 2021 forecast looks worse than average so I may have to go this route. What thru-hikes are you planning?
I was talking with my vet buddy today. He was giving me updates on all the dairies he works. I mentioned your experience with the self-sucking momma. He said that he’d never seen such a thing. Then he told me about the one time he was working a dairy in FL and a Holstein had chewed off her teat. She had pseudorabies, and the itch was localized to this teat. Yikes!
@Northerner: Until that RINO d*k* bumped fists with the socialist geezer. Then it all became political. (Also, in the little part of the world in which I live, the white people don’t fist bump, it’s only the POCs and gang kids who ever want me to fist bump with them when they see me at their schools.)
@OzarkHillbilly: Indeed! The whole point as I recall was that you can’t hold a sword (or a knife or a gun, or pull any of the above) while shaking hands with your weapon-holding hand (or both hands, as some do).
@Gustopher: The part of Superman and Lois that I marvel at is that the costume designer thought it would be good to make a body suit where Superman has a 56 inch chest (and even bigger shoulders) and 30 or so inch waist. Not even the Fleishman brothers of the early Superman Cartoons thought that was a good idea–and their Superman was even more Charles Atlas-ey than the comics.
@Mimai: I give up. What do ticks do that’s valuable to the ecosystem? (As far as that goes, what do humans do that is valuable to the ecosystem?) As I understood the biology class I took in high school (which was only rudimentarily) parasites were basically non-contributors. (I suggested “humans as parasitic in the ecosystem” as a topic for a biology major in one of my research classes more than once over the years. Never got to read the paper. So sad… 🙁 )
@Mu Yixiao: The last one never worked for me at the big company I worked for. My boss WAS the corner office. I usually went with “WHEN (and note I didn’t say ‘if’) I’m called to testify…”
Yeah. Looking at comments and commentary from Republicans elsewhere online, they are against any kind of reform whatsoever. They swear it’s not because of the electoral advantage they currently hold. Indeed, some even deny that such an advantage exists.
They tend to make the same few arguments:
-this is how the founders invisioned it. (they all seem to be fond of the argument that the Senate was designed this way as if direct election of Senators was a thing since the founding.)
-relatedly, they also seem fond of arguing that the Senate gives small states a voice that they would otherwise not have. Regardless of whether that’s actually true.
-some federalism argument that no longer has any relevance given the resistance of actual human activity to artificial political borders. Nor has the idea of states as ‘separate countryish thingies’ been the case for more than a century.
-these are the rules, deal with it. (as if, ya know, their party’s wholesale rejection of the rules in the last six months never happened.)
-We’re a Republic, not a democracy.
They routinely conflate modern arguments for the current system with the arguments of the founders. They ignore the system as a result of compromise rather than a design mutually agreed upon by all.
It’s almost as if they really are just reluctant to give up their electoral advantage and are willing to throw shit at the wall and hope enough of it sticks to make the whole space for debate uninhabitable.
Or maybe they just aren’t that smart. Someone like Joyner couldn’t be a prominent commentator in that world because he’s too fair and too smart for it. And both of those things are positive proof of cuckness.
@Mimai:..You should write a book.
You must be thinking of Ozark or Mikey or one of the others who have been debating the various greetings brought on by the disease. They have covered the subject such that I am not sure I could add much to it.
Apparently, they’re a food source for other important creatures (e.g., reptiles). And they help with population control, though not the animals that I imagine you think need more culling. Integrated ecosystems, don’t mess with the equilibrium, and all that. On this, I might be willing to play in the anti-science sandbox. “Eradicate, baby, eradicate!”
ps, Too bad that no one took you up on the paper topic. Did they think you were joking? Or did they know you were serious?
Talk to your vet and go with whatever works in your area. (it varies) Our newest (a rescue Lab/mix) is on a tick/flea/hookworm/heartworm preventative, and the few ticks we’ve picked off her were already dead.
I’m not sure what that says about how it effects our dogs, but like it or not I gotta kinda trust them.
@Mister Bluster: If I wrote it, it would be the shortest book ever: “All greetings are performative art full of virtue signalling. In fact, all human interactions are performative art full of virtue signalling.”
Methinks you will struggle on the obligatory book tour. Though I suspect you might be more than willing to perform – and virtuously so – for $5 million.
@Mimai: Yeah, my Dad’s never seen such a thing, either, in all his 72 years and probably 20,000 cows.
I have to wonder if it’s because not many people spend as much time watching/understanding what’s going on as we do. We were watching the calf and pairing the two of them back up for 3 or 4 days before we realized what she was doing. When she first kicked him off and laid down we thought she had a terrible itch to scratch…and then….3 sets of human eyes got very large as we realized what was going on.
Everyone in boxing and MMA (of all races and genders) fist-bumps, and have for as long as I can remember. Odd that whites don’t where you live, wonder what’s driving that?
Leave it to Fox to try to turn a traditional sign of respect into a political statement. Par for the course for them of course, hope everyone ignores them.
Another Fraturday Night and I ain’t got nobody….
Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene will be holding an America First rally at The Villages in Florida on May 7.
I am so there!!!!
@CSK: A match made in hell.
@EddieInCA:
Not that it will make you feel better, but here’s my story of my worst such time.
Around 4 pm one day, the owner comes to our department and says “Remember that huge proposal due tomorrow we said we wouldn’t present? I changed my mind. We’re presenting it.”
That gave us around 17 hours to do four days worth of work. We were so busy, we couldn’t take a half hour to get dinner. And we finished so close to the time we had to present it, we didn’t have time for breakfast. Then the presentation, during which the customer reviews several binders full of documents from every participant, took from 10 am to 3 pm. Then we had time for a very late lunch.
‘We’re not sworn enemies’: Liz Cheney defends herself for fist-bumping Biden
It’s a good thing they’re white. If they weren’t it would be the “terrorist fist bump” heard ’round the world.
“Than you better get cracking.”
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, that doesn’t play well.
@Kathy: Had a boss once who had a poster on the wall behind her desk situated so that when seated in her office you were looking right into it. It said: “Bad planning on YOUR part does not constitute an emergency on MY part”.
Several delicious moments occurred during the following years in which I had the opportunity to recite that phrase back to her.
Austin voters to decide on restoring rules criminalizing homeless activities
Yeah. Right. Sure you do. By housing them in jail. That’s the ticket.
@Kathy: I don’t play.
“I was looking for a job when I found this one.”
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sorry, Liz. All the fist bump did was prove you’re a RINO cuck traitor.
Seriously, though. These fist bumps are silly, and elbow bumps are even sillier. Why not just a friendly nod? JMO.
@CSK: My opinion is… Hmmm, now that I think about it I don’t have one. I guess that means, whatever floats your boat.
The next time some American complains about bureaucracy mention this.
Trapped Aboard an Abandoned Cargo Ship: One Sailor’s Four-Year Ordeal
The MV Aman was seized near the Suez Canal in 2017. Years later, its chief mate was still on board, all alone
‘I’d Never Been Involved in Anything as Secret as This’
@Sleeping Dog: I read that yesterday, it’s pretty good!
@OzarkHillbilly:
It occurred to me that, ever since elbow and fist bumps became the substitute for handshakes, I haven’t seen one actual, real person perform a bump with another real, actual person. Just politicians and, I suppose, a few showbiz-type celebs. I have seen plenty of real, actual people exchange waves and nods and a cheerful “Hello” or “Nice to see you.”
Bumping seems more performative than sincere. Again, JMO.
@OzarkHillbilly: The Republican political establishment hate the homeless in Austin, the State Capitol, because they are an in-your-face reminder of their governance failure.
@CSK: All greetings are performative, even the sincere ones.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sure. But the bumping is ostentatiously performative in that it’s more a form of virtue-signaling than it is a simple attempt to greet someone. If the point is to avoid contact, then nodding and saying “hello” or “how do you do” from a discreet distance of a few feet is certainly more effective.
TPM has a great headline:
“GAETZ TO YELL HIS WAY THROUGH SCANDAL BY KICKING UP DIRT WITHIN GOP AMID SEX TRAFFICKING PROBE”
Read it and weep:
http://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/health/covid-vaccine-hesitancy-white-republican.html
@Sleeping Dog: From a community perspective– Its not that the mission was hard–in fact the actual mission could be done by the operators in their sleep.
Getting to and from the objective in this case brought in a few additional risks that the same operation against a lower profile target wouldn’t have had. Simply because they would have staged and launched the operations from closer to the target. Long travel times in the age of social media and smartphones presents new risks older generation of SpecOps didn’t have to deal with. Surprise is your best friend and a tweet or text can take that away.
At any rate, in the aftermath of the draw down of Afghanistan–this is similar to how our Counter Terrorism ops there will look. The threat there is not zero–and all its going to take is for a few shit heads to plan and resource an operation there to shoot up a concert and whatever party in power will be gutted in the media for not keeping up safe. No President is going to allow that to happen on his watch.
@CSK: That was from TPM? I saw it on the crawl panel at the top of MSN this morning and didn’t notice the source was listed.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Since I wrote that comment, the headline has dropped down beneath the header “News” in the upper right-hand corner of the TPM page.
It was up on TPM last night.
There are no words.
By all reason and logic, Modi ought to end his days strung up from a lamppost by his own entrails.
@CSK: The point isn’t to avoid contact, it’s to avoid hand-to-hand contact and the spread of virus it causes. Hands go to one’s face multiple times a day, no matter how one tries not to, but one generally cannot rub one’s face with their own elbow.
The elbow bump never caught on, but not because it’s merely performative. It’s simply a poor substitute for a handshake.
@EddieInCA:
On the other hand, you’ve got some money ’cause you just got paid.
I sympathize with your hours, but we’re the lucky ones this past year.
@CSK:
I see them on the golf course all the time.
@Mikey:
A fist bump is hand-to-hand contact, if brief. And of course the point is to avoid contact. That’s why we have social distancing.
I hope all this becomes moot fairly soon, although I’m not that wildly enamored of handshaking at the best of times.
If people really want to fist-bump, have at it. At least it looks a little less silly than elbowing one another.
@Scott:
Nah, that can’t be it — that would require Republicans to recognize that the existence of widespread homelessness is a failure of governance, rather than simply the fruits of poor personal choices by individuals.
@CSK:
Yes, but with a part of your hand that does not often come into contact with other parts of your body, or your eyes or nose or mouth. Also, most fist-bumps that I see these days stop about an inch short of contact.
@CSK:
Fist bumps were round before the pandemic. And nodding from some distance doesn’t replace physical human contact, which is apparently important.
I’ve always been the crazy person who waves from three feet away, as I don’t like touching strangers because they are dirty, filthy and diseased.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, that’s something only a few people can pull off. Mostly white men in fields with low unemployment.
I mean, I’m totally that way, but a lot of people don’t have that option.
@Gustopher:
Oh, I know fist bumps have been around for a while. As I said, they look a little silly to me, but if people want to do them, fine. And as I also said, they look a hell of a lot less silly than elbow-bumps.
Yes, contact is important for a lot of people, but we’ve been told over and over to avoid it. Not a problem for me, since I hate being pawed by people unless I’m very close to them.
Jaysus, let’s find something better to talk about. Read any good books lately?
@OzarkHillbilly:
Maybe I’m just too used to being in martial arts (especially MMA and boxing), where fist bumping is the normal greeting, but I’ve never seen fist bumping associated with terrorism no matter who did (plenty of non-white fist bump in MMA and boxing and terrorism is never brought up).
I get the reference to how whites can get away with things blacks and indigenous people can’t (and that’s very true), but how does fist bumping play into that? Its always been non-political.
Joe Manchin has come out against statehood for the District of Columbia;
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/30/manchin-does-not-support-dc-statehood-bill-485125
I can say the exact same thing about shaking hands. The shaking of hands was always an ostentatiously performative act signaling virtue.
From Yesterday: Growing Up Too Slowly
@Mimai:..
@mattbernius:..
I am deeply humbled by your kind words.
@Mimai: I was one of “those people” who couldn’t deal with “wheelies” as Joe would call himself and other disabled folks who lived in a chair. I couldn’t look them in the eye or talk to them. If they needed a door opened I would do that but I didn’t hang around to exchange pleasantries. My prejudice started to break down when I drove the Yellow Cab in Sleepytown 50 years ago. I couldn’t turn away fares just because they were in a wheel chair so I would force myself to help them transfer from their chairs to the car. There was one couple in town, both quadriplegic in manual chairs. One night I was called to pick them up at an appartment complex. They had just gotten married and had me drive them to the local Ramada Inn. When we got there I helped them to their room and the groom asked me to assist his wife to get into the bed. “It’s OK” she said. So I lifted her out of the chair and laid her on the bed. This was before I met Joe and it was a quick lesson about helping people. You are there to do for them the things that they cannot do for themselves. Just listen to them and do it. It really isn’t all that difficult.
@mattbernius: I am stunned! I must confess that I am not much of a reader. I know that Vonnegut is a giant in literature. What I know of his work I likely picked up from Joe. He was an avid reader and talked about what he read all the time. I might have read one or two of Vonnegut’s books but I can’t remember which ones even after scanning a list of titles.
Memory has always been a problem. Even the authors that I know I have read like O. Henry or Conan Doyle or Jules Verne did not stick with me. I have even reread some of them but the images seem to escape my brain as quickly as I put them in there.
A longish comment but I promise there’s a point;
The UK has 66,000,000 people. There are 650 members of the House of Commons. MPs represent a district with roughly 97,000 people.
Canada has 37,000,000 people and 338 MPs. That makes the average per MP 96,000.
In Germany the population is 83,000,000 ranf there are 709 members in the Bundestag. This makes the ratio one member per 117,000 people.
France has a population of roughly 67,000,000. There are 577 members in the National Assembly, the equivalent of the House of Representatives. That makes for a ratio of one member per 67,000 people.
Israel has a population of roughly 8.8 million people and there are 120 members of the Knesset. That makes for one member per 73,000 people.
The 2020 Census showed the US population at 331,000,000 more or less. Its actually probably closer to 340,000,000.
In any case there are 435 Members of Congress meaning that the average district consists of 760,000 people.
My point is that 760,000 people per District is not representative. As I wrote in 2014 we need a bigger House of Representatives:
https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/do-we-need-a-bigger-house-of-representatives/
I’m not talking about a lot of people, I was talking about me. I never let a contractor treat me like shit. If they started, I didn’t say a word, just picked up my tools and went home. The screamers really hated that.
@Northerner: All it took was a black man in the White House: Fox Anchor Calls Obama Fist Pound A “Terrorist Fist Jab”
I’ve started watching Superman and Lois, and I’m really kind of impressed by how often Superman solves a problem by handing Lois a large glass of wine.
Stressed out, have some wine. Going to a bbq where you have to listen to the Trumpy guy? Have some wine, and I need some too. End of the day? Wine. Celebrate? Wine.
The pattern was broken slightly by Lois and Lana going out for drinks and doing shots. I assume Superman was at home, drinking.
I hope this is leading to a special, teachable moment — “there are some problems that even superpowers cannot solve, and for that we have wine.”
@Northerner:
In the Before Times, sport fencing rules required appoints to shake hands at the end of a bout. Refusing after the referee reminded you was a black card offense (at a tournament, you are immediately banned from the facility and to the extent possible, from the scoring results). One of our better local fencers was a germophobe. Even fist bumps upset him, so it was always elbow bumps. I never saw him fence at a national even to see if the referees at that level tolerated it.
The rules were changed and replaced the handshake with a repeat of the salute to opponent, referee, and audience that has always been required at the beginning of a bout.
@Michael Cain: “Even” should be “event”. No edit privilege for Mike today.
The removal of American troops from Afganistan that President Biden promises will be complete by September 11th has begun.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/05/01/final-phase-of-us-nato-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/4904677001/
@OzarkHillbilly:
Hand-extending seems to have originated in Greece, during the fifth century B.C., as a gesture of peace. The actual shaking of hands may have evolved during the Middle Ages in order to demonstrate that one had no weapons hidden up one’s sleeve. So it was practical as well as ceremonial in its inception.
But, as I say, fist-bump away to your heart’s content. (If that contents your heart.) I’ll probably start laughing if I ever have to do it, except with a little kid.
@Michael Cain:
Try refreshing the page after you post. That often works for me.
@Mister Bluster:
It’s these “little” (aka, massive) things that make the world better. These are wise words: “Just listen to them and do it. It really isn’t all that difficult.” My abbreviated version is: “They’re just humans.” Given your experience as a driver, you might appreciate the movie “Give Me Liberty.”
ps, You should write a book. About physical greetings.
Possible title: “Fists vs. Elbows: Performative Greetings in a Post-Pandemic World.”
Dedication: “To CSK.”
This is…something. The Authors Guild is in an uproar about Norton canceling Blake Bailey’s biography of Philip Roth.
http://www.thecut.com/2021/04/philip-roth-biographer-blake-bailey.htmil
@CSK:
Link doesn’t work. The article is at http://www.nymag.com on the home page, titled “Life As a Man.”
I realize that ticks are beneficial for the ecosystem. I really do. But (!), damn if I don’t wish those little buggers could be eradicated. Was hiking this morning with my dingo and have been picking ticks off her ever since. A few off me too. Ugh! Several of my backpacking friends have had Lyme disease. I’ve been lucky so far but wonder if it’s only a matter of time. Anyone have any good tick prevention tips (for me or the dingo)?
@Mimai:
Trust me: Someone, somewhere, is churning out a doctoral dissertation with that very title as we speak.
@Michael Cain: I also think you meant opponent for appoints shaking hands. As noted above, Refresh sometimes gets the edit function. I have to exit the post and then click back in and Refresh. And sometimes it just doesn’t work.
@gVOR08: Edit is a strange and fickle beast, generally seen only when you don’t need it.
I had autocorrect correct my attempt at “damn autocorrect” to “Dame Autocorrect” the other day, and I like it more than what I was trying to thumb out.
Dame Autocorrect often has a sense of whimsy.
I never thought I’d be rooting for Liz Cheney but in this fight with the Trump Cult I’m rooting for Liz Cheney.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/551261-gop-frustration-with-liz-cheney-at-a-boiling-point
@Kathy:
A) HAHAHAHAHA! Pull the other one.
B) No.
C) You’ll be paying me 6 times my normal rate, and 10 times for overtime. Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick 2.
X) And you will be here every minute we are. You will be awake and working every minute we are. If you leave, we leave. If it doesn’t get done in time, it’s your fault.
Z) No. And… we’ll be letting the corner office know that you promised something that we couldn’t deliver. And then we’ll be calling all of your clients to let them know that you promise things you can’t deliver. And then we’ll work as slowly as possible on all your projects–while giving a little extra to every other salesman.
@Mimai:
Dingo should social distance from ticks and wear a mask.
@CSK:
I have witnessed and participated in fist-bumps and elbow bumps.
I am not–to the best of my knowledge–either a politician or a celebrity.
@Mimai: Well, I can assure you of one thing in regards to ticks. You should never, ever, EVER spray your clothing down with copious amounts of mosquito spray, see a tick on your pant leg right after that, and use a lighter to light the little bastard up. Clothing becomes very flammable after being sprayed with mosquito spray. So flammable one must quickly remove said clothing if it’s on fire.
Thank goodness for lonely dirt roads and nobody watching the crazy rock hunter chick light herself on fire. 😛 😛 😛
@Mu Yixiao:
Then we have had different experiences. I’m in New England, where people aren’t as physically demonstrative as they are in other parts of the country. That may well have something to do with it.
@Doug Mataconis:
Let’s go for it. To get to the level of representation you list (70k:1), we would need 4,729 members in the House of Representatives.
I expect, given that population, that not a single law would be passed. I think I’d rather that than the bullshit we have to deal with now.
@Doug Mataconis:
I’m rooting for injuries.
Dick Cheney is an asshat. But he’s very good at it. I’m hoping Liz is relying on advice from Dick that Trump’s influence will fade quickly. Albeit mindful, as always, that it ain’t just Trump.
@CSK: Translation: “The shaking of hands was always an ostentatiously performative act signaling virtue.”
As to fist bumping or elbow bumping or hugging or whatever other form of greeting one chooses, whatever floats their boat.
@Mimai: I got into some seed ticks yesterday. I spent most of last night and half the morning picking them off. As far as Lyme disease goes (and I’ve had a couple friends get it) I’m not too worried. I figure it’s inevitable. The trick is to pay attention and at the first sign of the bullseye, get on the appropriate antibiotic.
We may have a Supreme Court nomination this summer
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/551196-court-watchers-buzz-about-breyers-possible-retirement
@Mimai: I’m a backpacker now living in FL (altho I’m waiting for my 2d hip replacement before starting any thru-hikes). And I have noticed that the meds for pets are amazingly effective in keeping my dog free of ticks and fleas. So I am planning on asking the vet what the dose of Trifexis is for a large adult human being.
(joking! don’t try this at home boys & girls)
ETA: The usual preventive for ticks is the liquid Permethrin. Soak clothes (focus on pants, of course), wash at least once before wearing.
Olympia Dukakis, 89, has died. Fine actress. RIP.
@Joe: The occasional baby notwithstanding, the dingo is all about the social distancing. She is a dingo after all. As for masking, have you ever tried putting a mask on a dingo? Pro tip: don’t, just don’t.
@Jax: This is very timely advice, as that was my next “I wonder if this will work” experiment. 3rd degree burns averted. I owe you!
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve resigned myself to this fate too. Good reminder on the importance of early intervention.
@JohnMcC: I know FL ticks. Oh do I know them! I’ve never tried any of the meds, with the dingo or previous dogs. The 2021 forecast looks worse than average so I may have to go this route. What thru-hikes are you planning?
@Jax:
I was talking with my vet buddy today. He was giving me updates on all the dairies he works. I mentioned your experience with the self-sucking momma. He said that he’d never seen such a thing. Then he told me about the one time he was working a dairy in FL and a Holstein had chewed off her teat. She had pseudorabies, and the itch was localized to this teat. Yikes!
@Northerner: Until that RINO d*k* bumped fists with the socialist geezer. Then it all became political. (Also, in the little part of the world in which I live, the white people don’t fist bump, it’s only the POCs and gang kids who ever want me to fist bump with them when they see me at their schools.)
@OzarkHillbilly: Indeed! The whole point as I recall was that you can’t hold a sword (or a knife or a gun, or pull any of the above) while shaking hands with your weapon-holding hand (or both hands, as some do).
@Gustopher: The part of Superman and Lois that I marvel at is that the costume designer thought it would be good to make a body suit where Superman has a 56 inch chest (and even bigger shoulders) and 30 or so inch waist. Not even the Fleishman brothers of the early Superman Cartoons thought that was a good idea–and their Superman was even more Charles Atlas-ey than the comics.
@Mimai: I give up. What do ticks do that’s valuable to the ecosystem? (As far as that goes, what do humans do that is valuable to the ecosystem?) As I understood the biology class I took in high school (which was only rudimentarily) parasites were basically non-contributors. (I suggested “humans as parasitic in the ecosystem” as a topic for a biology major in one of my research classes more than once over the years. Never got to read the paper. So sad… 🙁 )
@Mu Yixiao: The last one never worked for me at the big company I worked for. My boss WAS the corner office. I usually went with “WHEN (and note I didn’t say ‘if’) I’m called to testify…”
@Doug Mataconis:
Yeah. Looking at comments and commentary from Republicans elsewhere online, they are against any kind of reform whatsoever. They swear it’s not because of the electoral advantage they currently hold. Indeed, some even deny that such an advantage exists.
They tend to make the same few arguments:
-this is how the founders invisioned it. (they all seem to be fond of the argument that the Senate was designed this way as if direct election of Senators was a thing since the founding.)
-relatedly, they also seem fond of arguing that the Senate gives small states a voice that they would otherwise not have. Regardless of whether that’s actually true.
-some federalism argument that no longer has any relevance given the resistance of actual human activity to artificial political borders. Nor has the idea of states as ‘separate countryish thingies’ been the case for more than a century.
-these are the rules, deal with it. (as if, ya know, their party’s wholesale rejection of the rules in the last six months never happened.)
-We’re a Republic, not a democracy.
They routinely conflate modern arguments for the current system with the arguments of the founders. They ignore the system as a result of compromise rather than a design mutually agreed upon by all.
It’s almost as if they really are just reluctant to give up their electoral advantage and are willing to throw shit at the wall and hope enough of it sticks to make the whole space for debate uninhabitable.
Or maybe they just aren’t that smart. Someone like Joyner couldn’t be a prominent commentator in that world because he’s too fair and too smart for it. And both of those things are positive proof of cuckness.
@Mimai:..You should write a book.
You must be thinking of Ozark or Mikey or one of the others who have been debating the various greetings brought on by the disease. They have covered the subject such that I am not sure I could add much to it.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Apparently, they’re a food source for other important creatures (e.g., reptiles). And they help with population control, though not the animals that I imagine you think need more culling. Integrated ecosystems, don’t mess with the equilibrium, and all that. On this, I might be willing to play in the anti-science sandbox. “Eradicate, baby, eradicate!”
ps, Too bad that no one took you up on the paper topic. Did they think you were joking? Or did they know you were serious?
@Mister Bluster:
I was riffing off Matt’s comment about you being like Vonnegut in order to troll CSK who was very much over the discussion on fists vs. elbows.
Talk to your vet and go with whatever works in your area. (it varies) Our newest (a rescue Lab/mix) is on a tick/flea/hookworm/heartworm preventative, and the few ticks we’ve picked off her were already dead.
I’m not sure what that says about how it effects our dogs, but like it or not I gotta kinda trust them.
@Mister Bluster: If I wrote it, it would be the shortest book ever: “All greetings are performative art full of virtue signalling. In fact, all human interactions are performative art full of virtue signalling.”
Give me my $5 million advance please.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Methinks you will struggle on the obligatory book tour. Though I suspect you might be more than willing to perform – and virtuously so – for $5 million.
@Mimai: Yeah, my Dad’s never seen such a thing, either, in all his 72 years and probably 20,000 cows.
I have to wonder if it’s because not many people spend as much time watching/understanding what’s going on as we do. We were watching the calf and pairing the two of them back up for 3 or 4 days before we realized what she was doing. When she first kicked him off and laid down we thought she had a terrible itch to scratch…and then….3 sets of human eyes got very large as we realized what was going on.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Everyone in boxing and MMA (of all races and genders) fist-bumps, and have for as long as I can remember. Odd that whites don’t where you live, wonder what’s driving that?
@OzarkHillbilly:
Leave it to Fox to try to turn a traditional sign of respect into a political statement. Par for the course for them of course, hope everyone ignores them.