Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.
Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).
The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.
So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?
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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.
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Wow that alarm was early this morning. Eating oatmeal & drinking strong tea. Head is full of music — switching from U2’s Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses to Bowie’s Heroes to INXS’s Disappear…. just flitting from one to the other. Hoping I can stay awake & actually focus on one thing at a time for 8 hours.
Amazing — and depressing story by Ta-Nahesi Coates in the Atlantic.
30 and sunny this Tuesday in Fay., AR – almost seems warm compared to yesterday morning. Almost. Still had to scrape ice and the bird water is still frozen. Not sure what the birds and feral/free-ranging cats are doing about water. But they’re still showing up for food, so I guess they’re managing. The news is disheartening, as usual. But then, anything that isn’t disheartening doesn’t make the news. Holding the good thoughts for the world in general, but that’s all I can do over and above the little bit I’m already doing. (I remember a friend of mine telling me the witches of New Forest kept the Nazis from actually invading, but they couldn’t stop the Blitz much less the war. Do what you can and don’t beat yourself up for what you can’t.) {{{HUGS}}}
Hi, bfitz, I love that story: the Witches of England standing shoulder to shoulder on the cliffs of Dover to stop Hitler from invading! And the fact that Sir Francis Drake was a Witch himself.
Glad it’s sunny for you and hugs right back!
Morning all – it’s brrrrrr chilly here – was below 30 degrees for over 8 hours last night – I could see my breathe when I took the dog out at midnight, and it’s only getting into the 50’s here today. Nope, not complaining – I like the colder weather and we’ll be back into warmth way sooner than I’d like probably.
I haven’t looked at my financials since New Year’s Day, and I’m not going to look at them again for a few months – I can’t do anything about it at this point except live as frugally as I can, and put off taking Social Security as long as I can to get the delayed retirement credit (8% a year, will help make up for my years of government service before Federal workers were covered by Social Security in 1984.) Good thing I really don’t like to travel, and don’t care about clothes or what I look like really – as long as I have something presentable to wear once a week for class this spring, I’m good with yoga pants and big shirts the rest of the time! lol
I’m kind of afraid to watch the SOTU – I don’t think I can bear the catcalls and other demonstrations of disrespect I am sure the Teathuglicans have in store for the President. He has had much to bear, and he has done it all with grace and humor. I will really miss him when he leaves office.
Everyone have a great day and stay safe if you have to drive on snowy roads!
The only disrespect that I saw was the usual sitting-on-the-hands when the president touted his achievements and especially when he suggested that America is Already Great! “The country is going to hell in a handbasket” theme is what the Republicans are running on.
Never having worked for the federal government, I am curious about what this did to you and other retirees: “years of government service before Federal workers were covered by Social Security in 1984”. Did it mean your Social Security work-clock did not start ticking until 1984 meaning that your work years credits are not sufficient to qualify for a larger SS check? You still get a federal pension, though, right?
I am looking at the calculators and trying to make a decision about whether to take early retirement when it is available to me or wait. I don’t want to wait until full retirement for two reasons. First, I am tired; I have been working and supporting myself for 45 years and that is a really long time. Second, if a Republican is ever elected (or appointed, as was the case in Bush v Gore), their first step would be to deny retirement to as many as possible, possibly raising the early retirement age. I am assuming they can’t undo retirements that have already happened – if they do, they would have an army of old folks coming for them – but everything else would presumably be on the table. I have been working on paring down expenses since last October and I think I can do it but, gosh, is this a tough decision! I can still work to “supplement” my retirement, up to a certain dollar amount, and I have to decide if the benefits plus work will be enough AND what kind of position I will be in when I can’t work to supplement. I hate trying to figure out how long I will live and be healthy. :(
The being healthy part is the variable that changed for me. I had plans for a scaled down retirement sewing business that would have been a very nice supplement to our income, but BCH ended that. My individual social security income is small thanks to all the years of working part time and taking care of family full time. Ron worked until he could receive his full retirement, and then he worked half time for two years to finish a project he had started. It was good for our retirement income, but hard on his health and he was very tired.
We are fortunate to have had a retirement benefit (TIA-CREF) through out his working years but our kids don’t have that security. They are all on their own for retirement planning and I worry about them.
Jan, I took retirement at age 62, partly for that very reason. People have screamed for years that Social Security is going to disappear, so I wanted to have at least a few years of pure bliss before having to go back to work.
If Thing or Deal or Wossname is elected, I’d definitely go for early retirement if I were you.
As of March 2016 I will have been retired for 10 years. Being a little overgenerous to our children and grandchildren has definitely cut into our assets, but we are still getting by on what we have in monthly income. There are things we could do if money still becomes really tight—we have a perfectly rentable space of bedroom, bathroom, and sitting room downstairs that we rarely use. I could pet-sit or something in the neighborhood. I could take care of children after school, although I would have to get a bigger car if I did that. There are ways to increase income if we absolutely had to.
As of this writing we don’t have to. The first two years of retirement I worked 30 to 40 hours a month doing freelance editing at home. The pay was $25 an hour, occasionally more. That agency is now defunct and the owner is living in France, enjoying the hell out of life. But the Great Recession of 2008 put paid to that job, and after the birth of Miss Pink Cheeks in early 2009 I became a Nanny-Granny (largely unpaid).
So I’m one of those who would argue FOR early retirement. All these financial columnists who urge you to work until age 70 are living in a dream world. If I hadn’t retired in March 2006 I’d have been offered a buyout in September 2006. Corporations get rid of the over-60s!
I am leaning “retire” because I have slowed down enough that in the current rat race, the rats are winning. I am really just looking at about a 2 year horizon for having to work to supplement then I could lock in a pretty predictable post-retirement lifestyle where any work is a bonus. When my daughter graduates from high school, we want to move out of Wisconsin to a reliably blue state (I have my eye on western Massachusetts – far enough from Boston to be economically feasible but close enough to visit if I choose to). Unless Scott Walker puts a nuclear plant next to my house, I should be able to sell my current home and have enough equity to buy a simple condo, something just big enough for me and for my daughter while she goes to college and a place for her to visit when she gets older. I have no interest in shoveling snow or mowing lawns or getting up on roofs to clean out gutters when I am 70. So assuming a Democrat is elected, I could hang on for another two years and increase my monthly payout but did I mention that I’m tired? :)
Or I could just win tonight’s lottery!!
At the moment I’m trying for full retirement December 2017, just because it will give me a small cushion. That’s going to be totally dependent on whether or not my hands hold out. (Both strength and dexterity are problematic in colder weather.) And, yes, I’m tired, too. I’ve been working since I was 15 (except 2 years for babies) at least part time – and some of that time I was working, going to school, and doing the single mom thing. I do have Cref but I’ve only been here 10.5 years. What’s in it is just under one year of my current salary so I don’t even include it in my mind – it’s my emergency stash. I’m Social Security dependent for my living expenses. Since that’s been my plan for decades (before I had any other money stashed back), I’ve been working on being ready. This is why I put almost all my JP earnings toward paying off my mortgage, “weatherizing” the house, and putting those solar panels on the roof. I’d rather have a smaller house or even a condo, but that’s not going to happen and I’ll just have to deal with it. At least we don’t get that much snow down here and I don’t have gutters. :)
bfitz, sounds as if both you and Jan are well prepared! That’s excellent.
Take it from one who knows—there is NOTHING more wonderful than retirement! I’m doing things with my granddaughter that I never had time to do when my children were growing up, because I always had to work.
Taking life more easily, not having to rush all the time, is better than any prescription from the doctor or session with a shrink.
I may have to wait for great-grandchildren (if any) as my grandsons here are all in their teens (well, almost teens for the youngest) and much more inclined to hang out with their buddies and fellow gamers than with grandma. I didn’t have time when they were young enough that going to grandma’s would have been fun. However, the idea of not dealing with all the convoluted layers of crap the Powers That Be have been adding to my job is very appealing.
On Federal employees -your Social Security benefit is calculated based on your years of earnings covered by Social Security, which means years in which you and your employer contributed to the system via FICA. My Federal employment, which ran from when I left graduate school in 1976 to 1988, wasn’t covered by Social Security until 1984, so those 8 years of earnings aren’t in the system at all. I also cashed out my Federal pension money when the systems changed in 1984 to pay for law school, so I don’t have a Federal pension at all. I have my TIAA- CREF account, which is the equivalent of a 401k for employees of nonprofits and government entities like colleges and universities (it’s basically the largest mutual fund in the world), to which my academic employers and I have contributed since I started teaching in 1993, but what I will have available over the next 20 years from that is of course dependent on the market.
On waiting or taking – first, there has never been a change to Social Security benefits that cut anything other than the future COLA adjustments for people already receiving benefits, and I don’t think even the Teathuglicans could get away with anything like that. Second, any adjustment to early retirement would have to be prospective and almost certainly would affect only people not close to 62 – I could see them pushing something for people 55 and younger, for example, although even that would cause a tremendous uproar in their base. Finally, it’s a totally individual call as to whether to take benefits early or later or at normal retirement age, which for anyone born after 1948 or so is 66 right now. Depending on your family history of longevity, your own health, and your own economic circumstances, either decision can be correct and you won’t know if it was the right thing to do until it’s kind of too late to do anything about it, i.e. when you die. For me, my family seems to live into mid-80’s, so that’s pretty much what I’m expecting, barring unforseen illness. The decision to delay until 67 or 68 is mostly because, first, I have cash saved up so that I can get by without SS for a few more years, and second, the 8%/year delayed retirement credit for years I wait after my full age of 66 will really compensate for those 8 missing years of earnings. Moreover, a guaranteed 8% return looks pretty sweet as an investment right now, and since I don’t have any other guaranteed retirement income, maximizing my Social Security makes sense to me, in my particular situation. But it’s totally a decision based on your own circumstances, and either way can be right for you.
This is so true, and why it is a momentous decision:
My family lives into their 90s so the decision I make now is one I may live with for 30 years. I don’t want to be a burden on my daughter if I can no longer live on Social Security and can’t supplement any more.
Right now it is tempting because SS would pay my base expenses and the supplemental income would be for the higher expenses I have from living in suburbia. Those expenses will drop dramatically when I can relocate and downsize so it is just for two and a half or three years. I am going to run an experiment for the first half of this year and take net pay equal to my SS benefit plus the supplement, kind of a trial run. If it won’t work, I can come up with a different plan before I leap into the frying pan.
I am not so sure that this group of Republicans wouldn’t toss grannies under the bus regardless of the fallout. They seem coated in Teflon … even people who should know better, seniors, vote for them.
Thanks for the info!
Good morning, 42 and raining in Bellingham. I have a Dr. appointment and a visit to the lab for coumadin monitoring this morning and I should spend the afternoon at my desk. My one drawer and/or one file at a time cleaning and organizing method is slow but I’m making progress. I have two moving boxes of papers to be shredded and more to come. My goal is to move to more paperless accounts but I need to be better organized. I can see a teetering pile of papers so I’m cued to deal with them. Online “piles” are easier to ignore!
Kathleen O’Toole, Seattle’s Police Chief, will be a guest at the State of the Union address tonight.
In State of the Union, Seattle held up as model for police reform
The Seattle police department has been under federal review for several years now, and as the article shows, making the necessary changes is a complex and difficult job.
Thank you for the information on O’Toole.
Brrr- it’s cold here in the mountains – even though it is 25 – must be the wind. roads are still icy as well.
Watched most of the SOTU before I fell asleep.
Looking at the news to see reactions to SOTU – not finding much of interest yet
There seems to be a lot about Gov. Haley’s response:
The pushback against her from the vile right is their usual:
Good lord!! “Trump should deport Nikki Haley.”??? If there are any sane people left in the Republican Party, they need to take a close, hard, look at that.
I saw a Tweet (from Ann Coulter) that suggested that “RINO” Paul Ryan only clapped when President Obama talked about being welcoming to people of all religions. HA!! They really have dug themselves a ginormous hole.
I won’t watch Haley’s speech and won’t look at commentary for a while. I prefer to look at the optimism in President Obama’s speech and work hard to give the good people he found a country they can thrive in.
The SOTU has been posted:
I haven’t had time yet to add my bolding (I do that on a second reading, which I relish). I watched the speech live and did not look at my phone once. It was a good one.
Good morning Jan
I figgered you would be a doing major post on the SOTU – and still haven’t found much useful analysis from the usual pundits.
I’ll wait for my favorite one – you :)
I have some good Tweets and will add the positive commentary in the comments. My biggest problem with watching the speech was seeing the smirky jerky face of Paul Freaking Ryan behind the president. Thank goodness that Vice President Biden was there and I could avert my gaze when the president would make a clap-worthy comment that Ryan could not clap for. It must be difficult to live that way: I expect some day to see a small husk on the floor where Paul Ryan has shrunken into the puniness of his vision for America. It was especially obvious when the president talked about strengthening Social Security and Medicare rather than destroying them. The granny killer himself was right there … planning on killing more grannies and being angry that the man at the podium had thwarted him over the last 7 years.
Good morning, meese! Wednesday …
It is -3 in Madison, on its way up to 20. Cloudy skies are in the forecast.
I have not had time to read the news and it is probably just as well. I want to bask in the words of the president and spend at least another several hours hopeful that the country he sees truly exists and that We The People really do matter.
Here is a funny/serious Tweet:
And it would be. Let’s not let that happen.
See all y’all later!
Good morning! Yikes, it’s sunny but 19 F. right now in NoVa, going up to 31 F. later today. Traces of last night’s snow shower are still visible on the grass and on the tops of vehicles parked in the street.
We watched the SOTU last night and were impressed, as always. As Jan says, it was difficult to watch Paul Ryan’s vampirish face behind the president, however. It makes me feel sad to think that next year we won’t have President Obama delivering that speech, but I hope another Democrat will be delivering it. The thought of a State of the Union speech delivered by Thing or Deal is too gut-churning to contemplate.
Hoping for a quiet day today. Will do my best to stay away from political news. With the events in Turkey and Syria yesterday I’ve had enough bad news for a while. My Facebook and news diets are doing wonders for my word count.
Wishing a good day to everyone at the Pond and Beyond!
Okay, I’ll bite: “Thing or Deal”? Deal may be Trump but who is Thing? :)
“Thing” is the Cruz Missile.
Merci!
This Thing?
Or the Thing in here?
I loved Lurch and Thing on the Addams Family! That was one of my favorite shows before I packed my bags and left home when I turned 21.
I actually slept the night through! Like, not only did I not do my usual 11pm & 3am wake-ups, I was asleep when the alarm went off. Wow. Now eating breakfast & drinking tea. Allergies are killing me, do wonder if I’ll make it through the day — voice kept trying to leave yesterday.
Loved the President’s speech last night. And the sailors were released this morning, no sabre rattling needed. A good day.
There was no reason to doubt that Iran would release the sailors except in the fevered dreams of John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Treasonous Tom Cotton. Iran has to assert their territorial rights or lose them but they really don’t want a confrontation. President Obama was right … no nation wants to mess with us. That part of the speech was uncomfortable for me because I hate to think of us as the big kid standing in the playground. But as long as we use our bigness to make the bullies stop hurting the little kids, it works. It is an awesome power and one that we should not fall into the hands of the Republican deadenders.
Tee hee, Jan! Barbara Morrill remarked on GOS that the Rethugs were sad that World War III has been delayed another day because Iran released the U.S. troops.
I’ll bet. They’re all in favor of war as long as their big bohunkuses aren’t in it.
Fox News was sad too:
Glad you slept the night through, another! Sympathize re the allergies. Daughter-in-Austin suffers so terribly from them that she had to take to her bed the other day. She says it’s partly the cedar.
Gad, it must be one of the very few drawbacks of living in Austin, a delightful city and one of my Top 10 favorite cities in the world.
Glad you got a decent night’s sleep. (I did the night before last.) It’s a pity that the occasion is noteworthy, but great that it happened. Sending healing energy re: the allergies.
this is adorable!
the White House is doing Big Block of Cheese Day
no, seriously
have I mentioned how much I love this President?
Very fun anotherdem! Thanks for sharing.
Morning all! Another cold clear morning here, which we’ll be having for a couple of weeks anyway, and that’s fine by me!
I did not watch the SOTU, but I did record it, so I’ll go look at it today sometime – I glanced at the headlines on Google News, and saw a HuffPo headline featured:”My Prediction: Bernie Sanders will win the nomination and the election in a landslide!” Don’t know who’s doing that prediction but seems a little….fantastical. I just wish self-described Democrats would stop doing Republican work in piling on Hillary.
Ok, have to prep today for my one class a week lecture tomorrow – have a great day everyone!
The New York Times sent a breaking news email yesterday that Bernie Sanders was within 7 points of Hillary Clinton in a national poll so it was probably that poll that folks were losing their minds over.
First, 7 points is a lot. Second, national polls poll nothing predictive – we do not have national elections, we elect people state by state. Few are doing state by state polls now because it is very expensive and really only for entertainment value.
The reason that people can say that Bernie will win the election in a landslide is because it is a strong possibility that whoever runs as the Democrat will win the election in a landslide. Look at this graph, built from this poll:
There are more Democrats than Republicans and we are all pretty partisan. It is why people who are literally being killed by Republican Party policies will still vote for them; it is locked into their reptilian brains.
But the “Bernie will win the nomination” is a big leap and there are no polls that suggest that he can win any state after New Hampshire regardless of the “momentum” he would get by winning the first two contests.
Good morning, 44 and cloudy in Bellingham. It’s a pool day for me and then I’ll try again with my clean the desk intentions. I’m easily distracted and yesterday the desire for some new spring shirts lead me astray. I didn’t buy one a bright and cheery as the dress Michele Obama wore last night but I’ve got some new doom and gloom countering options to wear now.
Danny Weastneat is ready to cheer up as well……
Hey, Washington state: Try to tune out that endless gloom
They shouldn’t pick on Eeyore!! He was at least a lovable grump … nothing lovable about the current batch of Republicans. :)
25 at dawn and heading for mid 50s today although it will have dropped back into the 40s by the time I leave work – still sunny, too. :) – didn’t watch the SOTU but just finished reading the transcript (thanks Jan). Like the best of our (now only Dem) politicians, he’s calls out to the best in us to create the best for us. As any gardener can tell you, just throwing seeds in the ground isn’t enough to put food and flowers on the tables. There’s a lot of work – preparing the soil, then planting, then tending – watering, weeding, composting/feeding – before the harvest even in the very best of circumstances. The same is true for nations. The ideals/seeds are wonderful and the soil in America is fertile – but there’s still a lot of work to do to reach that desired end.
Did a diary yesterday at GOS about voter registration – haven’t checked the comments this morning but mostly I got visits from pootie people yesterday. Not going to do a primary diary. Too toxic. But aside from breathing and having access to safe food/water/shelter, there is no right more important to a “free” society than voting – and registering people to vote is the first, most important step we can take at a local level.
Hope everybody’s Wednesday is great – or at least safe and productive. {{{HUGS}}}
I love my city. We have a Bowie Street, named for Jim because Texas. But for the next week, it’s David Bowie street:
https://twitter.com/TWCNewsAustin/status/687380826644819969
Good morning Meese – 20 degrees here in the mountains and windy.
Scanning the news
Charlie Hebdo is at it again
Charlie Hebdo sparks new controversy with cartoon depicting Aylan Kurdi as ‘an ass groper in Germany’
Fer Gawd’s sake.
Good morning, meese! Thursday …
It is 21 degrees in Madison, on its way up to 37. Mostly cloudy skies are in the forecast.
Busy morning so I can just say hi and bye. Oh, and SURPRISE!! It turns out that if you take almost a billion dollars out of the K-12 educational budget and pass an onerous law that destroys the teachers union and drives away hundreds of experienced teachers, your kids get dumber:
So the answer to the question of “how long will it take for a teaparty governor to ruin your state?” is 4 years. Stupid middle income Wisconsinites, hugging their guns and chasing after that $1 a year cut in property taxes and $17 a year cut in personal taxes. How far is that going to go when your kids are living in your basement for the rest of their lives because Walker killed the schools? Meh.
See all y’alls later!
On the Iowa caucus – I admit I’ve never bothered to try to understand how they work – since I’m not in a caucus state – I decided to try to find an explanation
How Iowa Caucus Works
Found an Iowa website, read the explanation and am more confused than ever :)
Frankly – I don’t understand why Iowa and New Hampshire kick off the primary season – they seem to be singularly unrepresentative of the greater American electorate.
On another news note – am following the attack in Jakarta
We here in the US tend to forget the the majority of Muslims in the world are not in the Middle East and North Africa.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/07/worlds-muslim-population-more-widespread-than-you-might-think/
Back to news reading
The Iowa caucus is a ginormous scam to bring money into the state. Candidates move there, advertising revenue is generated for print and TV media, hotels cash in on both rooms and venues. And guess what? Not a single delegate is chosen in the caucus. The delegates are selected in conventions later in the summer. So it is a show vote in a state that is distinctly unrepresentative of the country.
Sadly, people look to Iowa as the first test of a candidate’s mojo. I wish the parties would stop allowing this because we have probably lost a lot of good candidates who have put all their eggs in the Iowa basket and had to go home scrambled.
New Hampshire is at least a real primary that assigns real delegates, although not very many. And it is maybe slightly more representative of the nation than Iowa is but is still over 90% white. Nevada and South Carolina, the next two states, will be more predictive.
I don’t get why the Democratic Party doesn’t change this. Iowa and New Hampshire Democrats aren’t going to vote for Republicans out of spite if the national party changes the schedule. But the DNC is dysfunctional and hasn’t been run well since President Obama fired Howard Dean. I will never understand that.
Thanks – never thought of the local economic impact. I have to admit — I rarely think of Iowa at all.
Good point about the DNC making changes and being dysfunctional.
I’m focused on SC and Nevada, though Nevada is another caucus state
Also the variation of open and closed primary systems is so strange – I wish we had uniform processes across the country.
I think that we should have two caucuses, Iowa and Nevada, on the same day and two primaries, NH and SC simultaneously on another day. Then the Republicans can have states that reflect their base, old white evangelicals in Iowa, people who left Massachusetts due to high taxes in NH; we can have two states that reflect our base: working class folks and people of color.
In Wisconsin, we have an open primary – you can vote in whichever primary you want since we don’t require a party designation. So you ask for a Republican ballot or a Democratic ballot. I am okay with that … I sincerely doubt that many people will cross over to pollute the other party’s nomination process. I could be wrong and I suppose it matters whether or not one party or another has an undecided contest at that point.
The bottom line is that the parties decide the nominating schedule but the states are running the elections. So there is a timing and $ aspect to the primaries. I think caucuses are completely controlled by the parties so they could have them whenever … subject to the DNC’s approval if they want their delegates seated.
Keep in mind that Iowa pre-caucus polls are pretty much garbage. You can’t easily predict who will show up on caucus night, who will stay to the end, and who might change their planned votes when they get there.
Me either, Jan! I stopped giving to the DNC because of that. Stupidest thing Obama ever did. He gave the chair of the DNC to Tim Kaine, our former governor, who had to run the state and run the DNC at the same time.
In my opinion both Virginia U.S. senators are DINOS, but at least they’re better than Rethugs.
When Donald Trump calls certain politicians “low energy”, a picture of Tim Kaine always comes to mind. He had nothing – no new ideas, no personality – nothing. I think that David Axelrod wanted him because Axelrod hates anyone with ideas (I am not an Axelrod fan). Dr. Dean is a smart guy and would probably call bull on stupid ideas. The Fifty State Strategy was brilliant and when Axelrod kicked it to the curb that set us back a generation. We may never get those states back that were lost in the 2010 election because our state party organizations were allowed to wither. :(
Crap. Seriously, cancer needs to get cancer & die. Alan Rickman. It’s just too much.
I also had a really crappy night’s sleep. Eating my oatmeal & beet breakfast. Drinking tea that cannot possibly be strong enough.
So sad – thanks for the link – I didn’t know anything about him.
When I saw Sense & Sensibility, it was so weird. I was so used to him being the bad guy & in that he’s not just a good guy, but he’s…. the really great guy. Serious cognitive dissonance every time I thought “that’s Alan Rickman” & he was doing something nice onscreen. He was in a lot of movies, and had a great, distinctive voice.
My husband just broke the news to me before I saw your post, anotherdemocrat. This is too bad!
I have watched “Love, Actually” more times than I can count. It’s one of my favorite movies, especially the scene where Rowan Atkinson is wrapping the gold necklace that the Rickman character has just bought.
May he rest in peace. Of course, he also played Snape in the Harry Potter movies.
Another favorite of mine – Galaxy Quest. Really funny science fiction movie. Deeper than you’d think.
I LOVE Galaxy Quest – what a great movie, and yet another great performance from Alan Rickman.
This makes me so sad – first this week David Bowie and now Alan Rickman, one of my absolute favorite actors. I first saw him, like everyone else, in Die Hard, and he MADE that movie, would not have been the hit it was without him. I’ve loved every bit of his work I’ve seen – I don’t know if it’s available on Netflix or elsewhere, but you should try to see Truly, Madly, Deeply if you haven’t already, a lovely film and he is wonderful in it.
Ugh, I pulled my back out this morning and have put off my lecture taping schedule for today, so I’m feeling crappy to start with and now this. I just watched “A Little Chaos” a couple of weeks ago – an interesting if uneven film, but he is riveting in it, as always, as Louis XIVth, and it’s wonderful to see him with Kate Winslet again all these years after Sense and Sensibility, also one of my all time favorite movies. I think I’ll go watch S&S again today, and think about Rickman’s wonderful legacy of performances that he left us.
Good freezing Thor’s Day, Meese! It’s 19 F. on this frosty but sunny morning, going up to 49 F. today. It is never going to snow again. Of this I am sure.
Are you going to watch the Rethug debate tonight? I might skip it and do something worthwhile, like sorting income tax papers. I won’t get everything I need to file until the end of the month. That is SO annoying!
Feel pleased that I now have only two more chapters to write for the novella, Long, Long Way to Run. Today I’d better work on the February short story. I also need to do some work on the short story for the anthology. I have a subject in mind, but need to figure out where the magick comes in.
After breakfast I must iron three patches onto Miss Pink Cheeks’ Daisy vest. We have a meeting tonight from 5:30 to 6:30. Have a good day, everyone!
I think I’ll pass on the R debate – it will be in the news tomorrow.
No Republican debate for me. I tried watching one of them and I couldn’t stand looking at their faces! I might follow it on Twitter for a while but, really, there won’t be any “news” that can’t wait until tomorrow. The big story line will be Trump v Cruz. Trump is poking at Cruz to get him to engage at his level and Cruz is (so far) resisting. Trump knows he has to get past Cruz in Iowa to be credible because it is likely that an establishment candidate will win in New Hampshire.
Started the day above freezing – totally wrong for January, but feels better anyway. ‘Spozed to hit 60 today. In January. In the Ozarks. OK. Not sure where this day is going. Still have a bunch of stuff on my desk I’ve been trying to get to since last week but either get interrupted for something more urgent – at least in the mind of the person standing over me waiting – or still waiting on information to process it. Sigh. Hope everyone has a good Thursday. {{{HUGS}}}
Morning all – I’ve commented above on Social Security and Alan Rickman, and my back is really hurting so that will be it for this morning. Thanks for all the news and links – and I too will take a pass on the Republican debate for sure. Everyone have a good day!
sorry about your back :(
hope it isn’t stopping you from Wow’ing
Sending healing energy – back things are so bad because your back connects everything to everything. Try alternating ice with warm compresses.